Front Sight assets seized

May 15, 2009

BUSINESS AS USUAL?

Front Sight assets seized

By GINA B. GOOD
PVT

At 11 a.m. Monday, Front Sight Firearms Training Institute and its president, Ignatius Piazza, went into receivership.

All financial transactions involving the firearms training facility -- from accepting payment for classes to paying staff and vendors -- must take place through a court-appointed administrator.

The facility and all assets have been seized by the court, down to the hundreds of firearms included as part of new members' benefits.

However, despite the ruling, this weekend at Front Sight everything was "business as usual," according to Operations Manager Rick Morello.

He said he knew nothing about the legal proceedings. "We have a big weekend coming up with a full schedule of classes," Morello said. "Business is booming."

The ruling, handed down by U.S. District Judge James Ware in San Jose, Calif., had its beginning in November 2005 when Stacy James, Bill Haag and Michael Schriber filed a class action suit against Piazza on behalf of themselves and other qualified Front Sight members.

The suit mentions "violations of RICO, unfair advertising and competition, Nevada Sale of Subdivided Land Act, fraudulent conveyances, Consumer Legal Remedies Act, Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act, breach of contract and fraud," all based on Piazza's sale of lifetime memberships.

RICO is the acronym for the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, originally used to target the Mafia and similar organizations.

The three men allege the price of the memberships they and the members of the class purchased were artificially inflated as a result of misrepresentations and non-disclosures.

On October 15, 2007, a settlement was reached and Ware dismissed the suit with the stipulation Front Sight live up to the negotiated terms. A settlement fund of $8,050,000 secured by a lien on Front Sight's assets would let the class foreclose if the fund was not fully funded by October 15, 2008.

Piazza was ordered to put 10 percent of Front Sight's monthly gross revenues into the settlement fund and provide financial documentation showing he was meeting his obligation. He complied, although according to the plaintiff's court filings, the payments were not timely, which comes as no surprise to former employees and suppliers in Pahrump.

The settlement also said Piazza had to allow members who were part of the suit to use their Front Sight memberships until the settlement fund was fully paid. Further, he was ordered by the court not to retaliate or make derogatory remarks against James, Haag and Schriber.

According to C. Keith Greer, attorney for the class, Piazza violated all the agreed upon terms.

At the end of the prescribed year, the fund was short by more than $5.4 million.

The day after the fund came up short, Piazza send a letter to everyone involved in the suit, saying Front Sight was no longer obligated to make additional monthly payments because the class action had forced the first mortgage holder on the property to foreclose.

"This is a lie as no one foreclosed on the property on that day or any day since," said Greer.

Piazza's letter also said Front Sight offered to increase its monthly contribution to the settlement fund from 10 to 20 percent.

Greer said bluntly, "That was also a lie."

But Piazza didn't stop there. He told class members they were "forever banned from Front Sight," which was another violation of the terms.

The same day Piazza sent a letter to non-class members, declaring:

"After they attended over 200 Front Sight Courses and pocketed $830,000 out of the first million dollars I paid timely into the Class Action Settlement Fund, the three malcontents and their ambulance-chasing attorney tried to kill Front Sight and terminate your membership by forcing us into foreclosure. So I cut them (and their followers) off at the knees!

"In this letter I reveal all the gory details and show you how the new Front Sight turned the tables on these back-stabbing saboteurs."

According to Greer, "Defendant Piazza also boasts that, in violation of the court order against encumbering the property, he created Front Sight Management II and signed a 99-year lease with the old Front Sight entity, leasing the land, water rights, entitlements, equipment, weapons, licenses, trademarks, copyrights, intellectual property, Internet sites, accounts, etc. Every asset the old Front Sight had is now leased by the new Front Sight entity."

Greer said it is clear Front Sight "violated every aspect of the court order and settlement agreement."

He added that Piazza did so "notoriously" and "in a manner that flaunts disrespect for the law and the judicial system."

Piazza's gorilla marketing technique of sending frequent e-mails with special price offers to prospective members give Greer and his clients easy access to information. They used Piazza's own words as evidence to show the court Piazza and Front Sight have the money to satisfy the settlement obligation.

On December 30, 2008, Piazza e-mailed members saying Front Sight had doubled in students, members and net worth each year for 12 years. He said, "While others are laying off people, we are hiring." He also said Front Sight had been offered a $25 million letter of credit.

Taking Piazza at his printed word, in March, the class asked to have Piazza appear in court with financial documentation Piazza agreed to supply in the settlement agreement.

In fact, Greer asked Piazza to live up to all the stipulations in the settlement, including paying the claims administrator and stopping interference with the membership rights of class members.

Greer also asked the court to order Piazza to stop publishing disparaging remarks about class members.

Ware granted the request, setting the hearing date for date for March 23.

Piazza did not appear, nor did he send any representative to appear on Front Sight's behalf. He did, however, fire his attorney at the last minute, which the judge called an "eleventh-hour dismissal" when he issued an order for Piazza to show cause why he should not be held in contempt of court and subject to sanctions for failing to appear.

That hearing to show cause was held Monday, resulting in Ware's decision that Front Sight had defaulted on its agreement with the class. All assets belonging to Front Sight and Piazza were seized by the court.

An administrator was appointed to run the organization.

Eruditio et institutio in bonas artes,homines humani vs homines barbari, conflict returns in new intense forms,the left must rethink rights.
Sheephogan™

LIFE WITH BIG BROTHER

'Electronic Police State' report cites U.S.
Ultimate Big Brother 'basics are in place'

---

Posted: May 10, 2009
9:05 pm Eastern

By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

In what may be the first assessment of its kind, a private company that offers a range of privacy products for computers and other technology is ranking the United States No. 6 in the world for having the most aggressive procedures for monitoring residents electronically.

The report, called The Electronic Police State, assesses the status of governmental surveillance in 52 nations around the globe for 2008.

The document was released Cryptohippie, Inc., which was set up in 2007 through the acquisition of several little-known but highly regarded providers of privacy technologies.

Not surprisingly, China and North Korea ranked No. 1 and No. 2, with Belarus and Russia following up. But the United Kingdom (England and Wales) ranked fifth followed by the United States.

"Most of us are aware that our governments monitor nearly every form of electronic communication. We are also aware of private companies doing the same. This strikes most of us as slightly troubling, but very few of us say or do much about it. There are two primary reasons for this," the report said.

"We really don't see how it is going to hurt us. Mass surveillance is certainly a new, odd, and perhaps an ominous thing, but we just don't see a complete picture or a smoking gun," the report continued. Also, "We are constantly surrounded with messages that say, 'Only crazy people complain about the government.'"

The report mapped the world, showing the most advanced electronic police states in red, orange reflecting strongly developing electronic police states and yellow showing nations that are developing, but lagging:

Red nations have the most advanced electronic police state capabilites

Company spokesman Paul Rosenberg told WND the biggest obstacle, however, is that the image of a "police state" dredges up visions of Nazi Germany's thugs breaking down doors in the middle of the night and hauling people off to blacked-out trains or Stalin's USSR rounding up "offenders" for imprisonment.

"That's how things worked during your grandfather's war – that is not how things work now," the report said. "An electronic police state is quiet, even unseen. All of its legal actions are supported by abundant evidence. It looks pristine," the report said.

To create the rankings, which also included Singapore, Israel, France and Germany in the top 10, his organization searched its worldwide sources for information, checked against a number of other published reports, and assigned a value of 1 to 5 to 17 different factors:

1. Daily documents: How much is required day-to-day for residents to present state-issued identity documents or registration.
   
   
2. Border issues: What is demanded for a border entry.
   
   
3. Financial tracking: The state's ability to search and record financial transactions.
   
   
4. Gag orders: The penalties for revealing to someone else the state is searching their records.
   
   
5. Anti-crypto laws: Bans on cryptography.
   
   
6. Constitutional protections: Either a lack of protections or someone overriding them.
   
   
7. Data storage: The state's ability to record and keep what it uncovers.
   
   
8. Data search: The processes to search through data.
   
   
9. ISP data retention: The demand for ISPs to save customers' records.
   
   
10. Telephone data retention: States' requirements for communications companies to record and save records.
    
    
11. Cell phone records: The saving and using of cell phone users' records.
    
    
12. Medical records: Demands from states that medical records retain information.
    
    
13. Enforcement: The state's ability to use force (SWAT teams) to seize someone.
    
    
14. Habeus corpus: Either an absence of such rights or someone overriding them.
    
    
15. Police-Intel barrier: the absence of a barrier between police and intelligence organizations.
    
    
16. Covert hacking: State operatives meddling in data on private computers covertly.
    
    
17. Loose warrants: Warrants that are being issued without careful review of police claims by a truly independent judge.

The listings of China, North Korea, Belarus and Russia, all known for their repression of freedom, weren't surprising. Nor was the listing of the United Kingdom with its recent programs to copy and store virtually every telephone call, e-mail and text message within its borders.

But Rosenberg said there's more going on in the United States than many believe want to believe.

The nation's "basic system of gathering evidence and sorting it later is really dangerous," he said. "It's permanent. It's not going to go away."

It goes so far that a person's alcohol consumption actually could be tracked by government agents, if they chose, through credit card documentation, he told WND.

"In an Electronic Police State, every surveillance camera recording, every e-mail you send, every Internet site you surf, every post you make, every check you write, every credit card swipe, every cell phone ping… are all criminal evidence, and they are held in searchable databases, for a long, long time," the report said.

"Whoever holds this evidence can make you look very, very bad whenever they care enough to do so. You can be prosecuted whenever they feel like it – the evidence is already in their database," the report continued. "Perhaps you trust that your ruler will only use his evidence archives to hurt bad people. Will you also trust his successor? Do you also trust all of his subordinates, every government worker and every policeman?

"If some leader behaves badly, will you really stand up to oppose him or her? Would you still do it if he had all the e-mails you sent when you were depressed? Or if she has records of every porn site you've ever surfed? Or if he knows every phone call you've ever made? Or if she knows everyone you've ever sent money to?" the report asks.

"This system hasn't yet reached its full shape, but all of the basics are in place and it is not far from complete in some places," the report said.

Rosenberg told WND the organization also sought input on the status of electronic surveillance around the world from organizations including the the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Reporters Without Borders, Freedom House, the Ludwig von Mises Institute and The Heritage Foundation.

Following the top 10 were: 11. Malaysia, 12. Ireland, 13. United Kingdom, Scotland, 14. Netherlands, 15. South Korea, 16. Ukraine, 17. Belgium, 18. Australia, 19. Japan, 20. New Zealand, 21. Austria, 22. Norway, 23. India, 24. Italy, 25. Taiwan, 26. Denmark, 27. Hungary, 28. Greece, 29. Canada, 30. Switzerland, 31. Slovenia, 32. Poland, 33. Finland, 34. Sweden, 35. Latvia, 36. Lithuania, 37. Cyprus, 38. Malta, 39. Estonia, 40. Czech Republic, 41. Iceland, 42. South Africa, 43. Spain, 44. Portugal, 45. Luxembourg, 46. Argentina, 47. Romania, 48. Thailand, 49. Bulgaria, 50. Brazil, 51. Mexico, 52. Philippines.

Ten Billion Times Stronger Than Steel

Star Crust is Ten Billion Times Stronger Than Steel

Ker Than
for National Geographic News

May 13, 2009

Move over, Superman.

The Man of Steel has nothing on the collapsed cores of massive snuffed-out stars, scientists say.

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A new computer model suggests that the outer crusts of so-called neutron stars are the strongest known material in the universe.

To determine the breaking point of a neutron star's crust, the team modeled magnetic field stresses and crust deformation for a small region of the star's surface.

The results showed that the crust of a neutron star can withstand a breaking strain up to ten billion times the pressure it would take to snap steel.

"It sounds dramatic, but it's true," said study team member Charles Horowitz of Indiana University.

Breakable

Neutron stars are the second densest objects in the universe after black holes. A teaspoonful of neutron star matter would weigh about a hundred million tons.

Unlike normal stars, neutron stars have solid outer shells that hold a soup of superdense subatomic particles, astronomers believe.

Even though a neutron star's crust is incredibly strong, it can crack due to stress from the star's powerful magnetic field, experts say.

Astronomers think that crust cracks can create "magnetar flares," extremely energetic gamma-ray bursts from strongly magnetized neutron stars.

(Related picture: "Pulsar Creates Cosmic 'Hand.'")

Stellar Goose Bumps

The model also has implications for the height of neutron star "mountains," irregularities on the surfaces of the stars that are thought to help create gravitational waves.

The waves are theoretical ripples in the fabric of space-time that race outward at light speed from massive spinning objects.

The new calculations suggest the mountains are more like stellar goose bumps than giant peaks.

For instance, the mountains can be a few kilometers wide but only about a centimeter (0.39 inch) high, Horowitz said.

The research will be detailed in an upcoming issue of Physical Review Letters.

Sunday's Prize Capture!!

Look Out, Spock!

Pentagon Works on Real-Life Phasers

• By David Hambling
• May 7, 2009  | 
• 9:44 am  | 
• Categories: Bizarro, Lasers and Ray Guns, Less-lethal

As J.J. Abrams' reboot of the Star Trek franchise boldly goes into cinemas, it's time for us to go looking for real-life phasers. While warp drive and transporters clearly belong to the far future, the American military has been working hard to turn sci-fi's favorite ray gun into a reality.

The famous "set phasers to stun" command sums up the weapon's two key advantages: It has several different modes, and it can be used to knock out a target without harming them. Both of these are capabilities that the military has been seeking ever since they got serious about non-lethal arms in the 1990's. The fictional phaser has always been a benchmark for nonlethal weapons, and it has inspired numerous directed energy projects.

"It's the closest thing we have right now to the phasers on the television series 'Star Trek,'" Marine Colonel George Fenton told National Defense magazine in 2002, talking about the Pulsed Energy Projectile (PEP). Colonel he said. "Remember how Capt. Kirk was always saying 'set your phasers on stun?' The projectile works like that."

Well, not exactly. The PEP fires a short, intense laser pulse. This vaporizes the surface of the target, creating plasma which absorbs the rest of the laser energy — and detonates with a flash, bang and electromagnetic pulse. The idea was that the PEP could be used on low power to warn or stun, or on high power to kill. Things got more interesting when it turned out that stunning effects were caused by the effect of the electromagnetic pulse on the nervous system, making it possible to tune it to cause excruciating pain, or 'Taser-like' effects.

In 2002, Fenton was convinced the PEP would be on battlefields within the decade. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. The PEP was shelved after six years and $14.2 million. The program was criticized in a recent Government Accountability Office report as one of six programs where the military "did not make timely decisions about when to discontinue its research efforts when several years have passed without substantive progress." The PEP hasn't quite disappeared, though, as Danger Room recently revealed. Although considered unsuitable as a non-lethal weapon, PEP-like technology has been taken on by U.S. Special Operations Command; they're developing it to shoot down small unmanned aircraft.

Other nonlethal weapons taking their cue from Star Trek include the chunky laser rifle known as "Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response," or PHaSR. This incorporates two different lasers: one is a distracting "dazzler," the other an infra-red device which heats up the skin causing a "repel effect." (More pain, in other words.) It's an interesting idea, although laser dazzlers are not new, and the repel effect only works on exposed skin. It might be useful for stopping someone from advancing, or forcing them to drop a knife, but has obvious limitations. At any rate, it's the one you're most likely to face, as the NIJ are developing the technology for police forces.

An altogether more ambitious weapon is a device for projecting ball lightning at high speed, which goes by the name "Phased Hyper-Acceleration for Shock, EMP, and Radiation." (Yup, PHASER. )

Inventor Paul Koloc says that the device "can be used for a range of purposes from stunning personnel to destroying the functionality of electronically operated devices, smaller rockets and vehicles… this dial-able PHASER weapon can be set on 'Stun' or dialed down, selecting a non-lethal level for persons needed for later interrogation."

However, a key aspect of the technology — generating a stable ball lightning that can then be compressed and fired — is still under development and funding is being sought.

Almost any non-lethal directed energy weapon invites comparisons with the Phaser, but sometimes this isn't too convincing. The Pentagon's Active Denial System or "pain beam" currently weights nine tons and has a warm-up time of sixteen hours; plus it only has one setting, "painful heating."

But in one sense, the Active Denial System really is the closest thing to a Phaser. According to the production notes for the original Star Trek series, the name "phaser" was a contraction of "Photon Maser." The Maser (a name formed from the acronym Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of radiation) was invented before the laser; lasers were originally known as "optical masers." Masers were initially more powerful than lasers and the makers of Star Trek at least thought they had more weapons potential. At the heart of the Active Denial System is a Gyrotron – a free electron Maser. So, while it can't stun or disintegrate, the Active Denial System is at least a maser and it does fire photons making it a Phaser in one sense.

But there are more sophisticated weapons on the horizon. Take the Multimode Directed Energy Armament System (MDEAS) research project. If it works, it really will be phaser-esque — with both lethal and non-lethal settings. MDEAS relies on an ultrashort laser pulse (one measured in million millionth of a seconds) to create an ionized channel through the air. This channel can then be used to conduct a powerful electric shock to the target to stun or kill. The channel can also act as a waveguide for an intense pulse of microwave energy which can burn out electronics — useful for stopping vehicles and defeating roadside bombs. Even better, at least one version of the device will be portable enough for Kirk and company to carry around with them.

The Multimode Directed Energy Armament System is still at the laboratory stage, but by the end of 2011 there should be a rugged prototype which works in a realistic environment.

Then they need to start work on those starships …

[Photo: Artasylum.com]