The science writer at the Plain Dealer, John Mangels, had a dramatic piece of forensic audiology to report last Sunday. He is first to admit this may not be the last word in settling questions on a tragedy that erupted during war protests at Kent State University in 1970. But the evidence does seem powerful in illuminating why, as he writes, “28 Guardsmen pivoted in unison atop Blanket Hill, raised their rifles and pistols and fired 67 times, killing four students. and wounding nine others…”
It even has a peculiar and discomfiting revelation. A lot of people back then took the protesting students as some sort of communists. That’s not the revelation. It is that the decoding algorithm recently used to analyze an old audio tape, made by a kid who stuck a microphone out of his dorm window, was developed for the KGB.
– Charlie Petit
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