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Western Electric 16A Horn

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A former transit cop fired following the shooting dead of an unarmed black passenger four years ago in Oakland, California has been charged with unemployment fraud.

Anthony Pirone was relieved of his job with the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Police Department in June 2010 for his role in the death of Oscar Grant III on New Year’s Day 2009. He enlisted with the US Army in May 2011, but authorities say he collected and cashed unemployment checks for around seven months after his full time employment began.

Pirone is currently serving a tour in Afghanistan and is not scheduled to return to the US until 2014. When he does, however, he will have to fight accusations of unemployment fraud that were recently filed, the Oakland Tribune reported Friday.

On the morning of January 1, 2009, Pirone responded to reports of a fight on a BART train in Oakland. He was the first officer to arrive on the scene and was later accused of escalating an altercation between passengers on an adjacent transit platform that pinnacled with fellow BART cop Johannes Mehserle killing Grant, one of the passengers suspected of brawling onboard the train.

During the subsequent murder trial, it was revealed that Pirone apprehended Grant and others suspected of fighting and then ordered them to stand against a wall while he awaited assistance. When Mehserle arrived, Pirone instructed him to place Grant under arrest. According to witness testimonies, Grant resisted attempts to be brought into custody and was eventually wrestled to the floor. Grant was face down on the subway platform being detained by BART officers when Mehserle, apparently mistaking his pistol for his non-lethal Taser, fired a shot and killed him.

Pirone testified that he punched Grant in the face while trying to apprehend him and admitted to using a racial epithet during the ordeal.

“Why are you fucking with me? You aren't even real cops,” he said Grant barked at him. Pirone testified in court that Grant called him a “bitch ass nigger,” prompting the officer — who is white — to respond with identical language. He then kneeled on Grants neck and attempted to restrain him seconds before the fatal shot was fired by Mehserle.

"Of course he instigated it, he carried an attitude and he pumped up the other officers up in the way he was acting," Grant's uncle Cephus Johnson later told Los Angeles’ KGO News of Pirone.

Mehserle resigned just days after Grant’s death, but Pirone’s termination didn’t come until April of the following year, despite pleas from community members and activists to remove him from the force. When Pirone was relieved of his job, Grant family attorney John Burris told the San Francisco Gate, “It’s about time.”

"But for Pirone's misconduct, Oscar Grant would not be dead,” Burris said. “When you combine all of the facts, what you have is an out-of-control officer who escalated the event into a situation where a young man was killed."

One month later Mehserle pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter, and was subsequently convicted of involuntary manslaughter by a jury. He served only 11 months, and less than a year after his release he unsuccessfully requested he be readmitted to the force.

Pirone distanced himself from the case after losing his job in April 2011 and relocated to North Carolina to join the Army two years ago this month. Once he returns from deployment, however, legal woes will likely once again return.

According to the Tribune, Pirone cashed unemployment checks from May 2011 through December of that year, even though he had already enlisted and begun work at Fort Bragg Army Base nearly 3,000 miles from the nearest BART train.

No details have been released yet as to when Pirone was deployed to his current tour in Afghanistan, but investigators tell the Tribune that he lied at least 10 times on sworn affidavits that he was unemployed while actually earning a paycheck from Uncle Sam.

The Tribune has not learned the amount that Pirone is accused of stealing, but prior to his termination from the BART Police Department he was earning a reported $100,000 annual salary. Before joining the force, he spent more than a decade as military officer with the Marine Corps.

Charges against Pirone were filed on April 15, although information was not publicized until this Friday.

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A Mississippi man has been allowed back to the United States mainland after being stranded in Hawaii last week when his name popped-up on a no-fly list mid-flight. Even still, Wade E. Hicks, Jr. says he wants some answers.

Hicks, 34, says he’s yet to receive either an explanation or an apology from the US government as to why he was barred from flying from Hawaii to Japan to visit his wife earlier this month amid a trip that first took him from California to the island of Oahu with no complications whatsoever. Once he landed for his layover, however, Hicks was informed that his name raised a red flag on a federal no-fly list and he’d been unable to board an aircraft back to America.

"They told me I had been placed on the no-fly list even though the Transportation Security Administration had cleared me to board the plane in San Francisco," Hicks told the Sun-Herald after being first left to fend for himself in Hawaii.

Hicks was eventually able to make contact with lawmakers from his home state of Mississippi and urgently reached out to the press in an effort to go public with the obstacles he was experiencing with absolutely no response from the federal government.He was eventually informed after six days of being stuck in Oahu that he could return to the continental US last week, but now he says the state is staying mum as to why he ever ended up on a no-fly list to begin with.

"They have not apologized nor given me any reason," Hicks tells the Associated Press.

As RT reported last week while Hicks was still stranded, he suggested to talk show host Doug Hagmann a few reasons as to why the feds may have become worried. In a nutshell, Hicks has been open about his political philosophies for some time, particularly his criticisms of the government’s handling of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and, recently, his opposition with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the Obama-signed legislation that allows for the indefinite detention of any American without charge or trial.

"I was very, very vocal about the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and I did contact my representative” about it, Hicks told Hagmann. "I do believe that this is tied in some way to my free speech and my political view."

In his own report, Hagmann also identified Hicks as a commentator with a radio program with a known “patriotic bias” and also a member of a preparedness group that encourages self-sustainability.

“He is openly vocal about the erosion of our rights – and it certainly looks like he has been proven correct. Is that now a crime worthy of being denied the ability to travel freely within the United States?” Hagmann wrote.

But although Hicks has reason to believe his person ideologies left him stranded in Hawaii, he might never find out the facts behind the case. The government has clarified that he is indeed the correct Wade E. Hicks that raised a flag on their system of suspected terrorists, but as with all similar cases they cannot explicitly explain what criteria exactly could have added his name to that roster, only for it to be taken off days later.

"For all I know, they want to shut me up because I'm known for exercising my First Amendment right to free speech. I have never made a direct or indirect threat against any individual,” Hicks tells the Sun-Herald. When the paper attempted to follow up with the TSA, they were directed to the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center, who in turn only told the Sun-Herald that freedom-of-speech issues aren’t enough to earn someone a place on the coveted no-fly list, currently reserved for only around 500 US residents.

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oil pipeline explodes



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http://rt.com/files/galleryitem/62/41/00/00/ssss-5.jpg

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assitance in finding technical manuals


Replies: 380
Views: 13,002

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https://www.google.com/search?q=Hush-A-Phone&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a&channel=rcs

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20 Seconds
Into the Future...
If You are on the Side of Justice & Truth
New York City is not
the Place To Be.
The Gap Between
Rich & poor
is only Widened
by the Oppressive
Conditions that Attack
the Values & Rights
of the People.


But now
Out of the Despair
Rises a Phoenix
A Defender of the Poor
the Oppressed
& the Children.
A Bright Light. A Vision.
A Robyn Hood.
No Rest for the Wicked
Tonight in New York City.
Many Call Her
Robyn Hood
Her Enemies Call Her
Bubblehead.

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Screenshot by Lightshot

Screenshot by Lightshot

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[tomt]

http://i.imgur.com/S6937mf.png

[tomt]

But the next time somebody describes a blind A/B listening test, ask yourself if their procedure would detect such detectable problems as dynamic compression, or a loss of the top or bottom octave -- problems that won't show up in every music sample used.



but blind listening tests lead to the wrong conclusions even when the experimenters motives are pure.
A good example is the listening tests conducted by Swedish Radio (analogous to the BBC),
to decide whether one of the low-bit-rate codecs under consideration by the European Broadcast Union was good enough to replace FM broadcasting in Europe.
Swedish Radio developed an elaborate listening methodology called double-blind,
triple-stimulus, hidden-reference. A subject (listener) would hear three objects (musical presentations); presentation A was always the unprocessed signal,
with the listener required to identify if presentation B or C had been processed through the codec.
The test involved 60 expert listeners spanning 20,000 evaluations over a period of two years.
Swedish Radio announced in 1991 that it had narrowed the field to two codecs,
and that both codecs have now reached a level of performance where they fulfill the EBU requirements for a distribution codec.
In other words, Swedish Radio said the codec was good enough to replace analog FM broadcasts in Europe.
This decision was based on data gathered during the 20,000 double-blind, triple-stimulus, hidden-reference listening trials.
(The listening-test methodology and statistical analysis are documented in detail in Subjective Assessments on Low Bit-Rate Audio Codecs, by C. Grewin and T. Rydn, published in the proceedings of the 10th International Audio Engineering Society Conference, Images of Audio.

After announcing its decision, Swedish Radio sent a tape of music processed by the selected codec to Bart Locanthi, an acknowledged expert in digital audio and chairman of an ad hoc committee formed to independently evaluate low-bit rate codecs. Using the same non-blind observational-listening techniques that audiophiles routinely use to evaluate sound quality, Locanthi instantly identified an artifact of the codec. After Locanthi informed Swedish Radio of the artifact (an idle tone at 1.5kHz), listeners at Swedish Radio also instantly heard the distortion. (Locanthis account of the episode is documented in an audio recording played at workshop on low-bit-rate codecs at the 91st AES convention.) How is it possible that a single listener, using non-blind observational listening techniques, was able to discoverin less than ten minutesa distortion that escaped the scrutiny of 60 expert listeners, 20,000 trials conducted over a two-year period, and elaborate double-blind, triple-stimulus, hidden-reference methodology, and sophisticated statistical analysis?



A related factor is the low-quality playback systems used in such tests, which tend to obscure differences and contribute to the phenomenon you cite. The experimenters often come from a position that all CD players, amplifiers, and cables sound the same, so why not use the cheapest possible equipment? During a visit to a very famous acoustic testing laboratory and blind-listening evaluation room I saw their playback system: mass-market integrated amplifier and $99 CD player, all connected with the "patch cords" that came in the box.

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But how do you know how it should sound in the first place? Statistically if something sounds bright on N systems and dark on an N+1th system it does not reveal any information about the "true" tonality of the sound, only differences between system reproduction.

In theory, of course, you are correct. We don't know how a record or CD "should" sound in the first place. But in practice, as I'm sure you already know, if a given record sounds "dark" in overall balance on N systems and then sounds "bright" or markedly less dark on N+1, I would conclude that N+1 is adding a brightish coloration to the disc. Of course, this brightness will (or should) be apparent on all discs played back through N+1. And in practice it always is. I can't think of an instance where a given componentselectively darkened or brightened previously bright or dark sounding discs, although I can think of components that have a kind of two-tone balance (i.e., they sound dark and bright simultaneously), and I can think of plenty of components that sound marginally less dark or marginally less bright than other components on basically dark or bright source material (i.e., that seem to bring them closer to neutral in balance without changing their fundamental character).
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In any case it makes no sense to talk about a system sounding "transparent to the source" (which one by the way?). What I read in every article is comparisons to the "ideal" sound but what is ideal for you is not necessarily ideal for me.

You're mixing apples and oranges?again. (And maybe we are too).

?Transparency to the source? (as I use the term) means that a component is playing back an LP or CD without adding much opacity or coloration of its own. You will say?in fact, you already have?how do you know how that source sounds (or is supposed to sound); ergo, how do you know what's being added or subtracted precisely. And I concede that I don't knowprecisely, but I know approximately (after scores or hundred of listens to the same discs on scores or hundreds of pieces of gear and systems). I know, for instance, that the intervals of the ostinatos played by the cellos and basses on the Mercury recording of The Firebird are clearly audible on certain systems (and not audible or as audible on others); I know that Joni Mitchell sings the words "a dark cocoon" in the penultimate lines of "The Last Time I Saw Richard" from Blue and that this very-difficult-to-decipher line is clear on a very few systems and components and not clear or inaudible on many others; I know that the bassist counts time sotto voce at the very start of Sunny (Mapleshade) and that very few components or systems reproduce this without making you strain to hear it (even if you know it's there). I know literally thousands of things about the pitches, timbres, intensities, and durations of the music on given recordings (and so, in spite of your skepticism, do you). And these things?pitches, timbres, intensities, durations?aren?t approximate; you can find them clearly written in scores and you can compare scores to recordings (which I do). This doesn?t mean that a performer or conductor doesn?t take liberties with the ?text? and that the instrument, the manner in which it is being played, how cold or warmed up it is, what hall it is being played in, which mike it is being recorded by, etc. don?t affect timbre, but it does mean that the harp pizzicatos that are adding just the slightest gorgeous bit of color and vibrato to the doublebasses at the start of the Passacaglia of Lutoslawski?s great Concerto for Orchestra ought to be audible (and they aren?t always?or often). Taken together, these little things?heard, not heard, changed, and (very rarely) revealed for the first time?added to the big things like tonal balance and dynamic range and transient response add up to a pretty reliable idea of whether a given component or a given system is "transparent to sources."

Now, this comparison to the "ideal" (to the absolute sound, which is to say to the sound of live music as you or I hear it) is not the same thing as "transparency to sources," although transparency to sources definitely plays a key part in it. The first is a matter of fidelity to what was recorded; the second is a judgment that reviewers and listeners make about the relative realism of what was recorded and played back, and that depends on the quality of the source, the transparency and, for lack of a better word, personality of the hi-fi system, and your own idea of what constitutes the absolute sound. ?Realism? is both relative and absolute?relative in the sense that we blind men all have slightly different perspectives on that elephant, the absolute sound, but absolute in the sense that we instantly know ?real? (as opposed to ersatz) when we hear it?we know that ?that? is a real piano and not a recorded one playing in our living room, regardless of inevitable differences in the instrument?s timbre and the performer?s touch. Even animals catch on to when something is fake. I fondly remember, years ago, my wife making a recording of her voice on a little tape deck in which she called out our dogs? names (we had three of them) and told them to ?Come.? The very first time she did this, the dogs (who had never heard such a thing before) ran over to the table where the tape recorder was playing. They were ?fooled? by their first experience of hi-fi. However, they were never fooled again; no matter how many times she played the tape, they ignored it. Of course, they didn?t know it was a tape, but, after their initial astonishment, they knew it wasn?t ?really? Kathy calling to them.
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I see here a paradox. A digital recording is technically closer to the source (master media) than equalized and compressed vinyl. And yet vinyl sound is considered more real and no one actually cares about the same source it came from.

Itis a paradox (although not all LPs are ?equalized and compressed??consider direct-to-disc LPs, for example?and in any event they aren?t all equalized or compressed to the same degree). I would conclude that perceived sonic ?realism? is, to some undefined (as yet) extent, an attribute of recording and playback media. I would also conclude from experience that perceived realism is also relative to the listener.

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-t2e2UXVxg

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This is the stuff of international symposia, of heated debates at science meetings,
or brown bag chats among eager PhD candidates and fellows given to creative extrapolations.
And these are also the thoughts of older scientists nearing the ends of their careers hoping to finally bring fruition to their long held dreams – beliefs about the trajectory of 'their' science.

[tomt]

Matched Pair cts 15" Alnico Bass Speaker 1965 Ampeg Fender Hammond | eBay

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http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-CTS-15-Speaker-Pair-GOOD-4-ohm-Audio-Stereo-Hi-Fi-/271201205946?_trksid=p2054897.l4276

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Gerson LoboPosted at 5:26 AM on December 4, 2013
TO TMZ AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC. Don’t discredit a professional driver over and accident. You should know that US Salvadorian People LOVE speed and we don’t care who’s car it is. Rodas was a professional driver and it could have happened to anybody out there. No body wants to die especially if you have two children at home who are waiting for their daddy. You guys underestimate our race we are capable of anything if you touch us. We are worst than Mexicans you guys still just don’t know, come touch me and see how many important people might die (of a heart attack) LMBO find out. I LOVE ALL OF HOLLYWOOD!!!!!! THE WHOOOOOOOOOOOOLE NAME AND COMPANY!!! Think about all the Latino Marines, US Army, Latino CIA, AND NAVY SEALS. Don’t talk about people you don’t know.
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Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 7a
BCP1: FFFFF6FC50025340
BCP2: FFFFFFFFC0000185
BCP3: 0000000017531880
BCP4: FFFFF8A004A685CC
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 256_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\120613-20872-01.dmp
C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-83522-0.sysdata.xml

Read our privacy statement online:
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If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
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Conspiracy - an evil, unlawful, treacherous, or surreptitious plan formulated in secret by two or more persons; plot


Theory - a coherent group of tested general propositions, commonly regarded as correct, that can be used as principles of explanation and prediction for a class of phenomena:


Shall conspiracy theory carry much weight for consideration?

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