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BySethBorenstein The Associated Press WASHINGTON Astron- omers say they've heard the echoes of two more crashing black holes — a discovery that hints that the unseen violence of the universe may be pretty common. They detected a second gravitational wave. That's the warp in the fabric in the cosmos that Albert Einstein predicted a cen- tury ago in his theory of general relativity, some- thing that results only from the most massive space crashes. It's some- thing that can't be seen and Einstein thought would never be detected, but scientists have found a way to hear it — first one note, in September 2015, and now two. "This is what we call gravity's music," Louisiana State University physicist Gabriela Gonzalez, scien- tific spokeswoman for the discovery team said at a Wednesday press confer- ence where the sounds from the two gravitational waves were played. With that second, higher pitch chirp, de- tected Christmas night in the United States, an in- ternational team of scien- tists have switched from reveling in the "aha" of first discovery to the more detailed and telling re- cording of the historical soundtrack of a chaotic universe. Astronomers an- nouncing the sounds lik- ened that soundtrack to jazz, maybe with a mix of classical music. "These events — espe- cially the first one — are the most powerful ones we have detected since the Big Bang," said Barnard College physicist Janna Levin, author of "Black Hole Blues And Other Songs From Outer Space." Scientists first heard the cosmic crash after turning on their $1.1 billion set of twin instruments known as the Laser Interferom- eter Gravitational-wave Observatory, or LIGO. But physicists weren't quite certain if they lucked into a once-in-a-lifetime chirp from a rare event or if these gravitational waves are out there waiting to be listened to on a regu- lar basis. "This event really does establish that there are quite a few merging black holes in the nearby uni- verse," said Penn State University physicist Chad Hanna, one of the more than 1,000 scientists who wrote the study released Wednesday at an astron- omy conference and pub- lished in the journal Phys- ical Review Letters . "The universe is full of these tremendous collisions that are depositing tremendous energy." It's the type of crash that may happen in our own Milky Way once every few hundred millions of years or so, but by looking at so many other galaxies, we can hear more, said Levin, who wasn't part of the study but praised it as sound and significant, as did several other outside experts. Columbia University astrophysicist Szabolcs Marka, a member of the discovery team, said de- tecting the first wave was much like going outside and finding a $100 bill. It could be lucky day like winning the lottery or a new source of income. Finding as second one so soon tells scientists that this is more likely to be a regular windfall. He said he wouldn't be surprised if they will hear a gravitational wave about once a week, once scien- tists upgrade their equip- ment. "I think they're not rare anymore; they were never rare" but were hard to hear until Earth scien- tists got the right hearing aid, Gonzalez said. The latest sound was from a cosmic crash 1.4 billion light-years away. A light-year is 5.9 trillion miles. The first black hole crash that scientists heard in September was from two massive objects that were unusually huge even for black holes. De- cember's black holes were more normal sized — 14 and eight times the mass of our sun. Those merg- ers produce faint invisi- ble ripples in the fabric of the cosmos that bunch up like a kink in a net. None of that can be seen. The wave is only no- ticed on Earth in incred- ibly tiny misalignments of split laser beams in de- tectors both in Hanford, Washington, and Livings- ton, Louisiana. That mis- match is a vibration that scientists can actually hear as sound. The Christmas Day wave was fainter, but lasted longer, Gonzalez said. Marka called it a cre- scendo. Levin likened it to a drum beat or whale's song. A third possible grav- itational wave was de- tected in October but the scientists aren't confident enough to proclaim it real. They said there's a 15 per- cent chance that the third note isn't a wave, com- pared to a 1 in 3.5 million chance that the Christmas discovery isn't a true grav- itational wave. "We can now think se- riously about gravitational waves as a new way to learn about the universe," University of Florida phys- icist Clifford Will, who wasn't part of the team, said in an email. "To me, this latest detection says there is a 'big band' out there and we are only be- ginning to dance to the music of cosmic DJ." ASTRONOMY A crucial second note heard in soundtrack of the chaotic cosmos PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE CHUCKBURTON—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Tuesday. By Julie Pace and Jill Colvin The Associated Press WASHINGTON Donald Trump's latest accusation against President Barack Obama — that he's put- ting U.S. enemies ahead of America's own people — is thrusting him into un- charted territory for the presidential candidate of any major political party. Trump spent the first days following the Orlando nightclub massacre hint- ing Obama was sympa- thizing with or even sup- porting terrorists. Some of those times he said he was repeating what "many peo- ple" believe — one of the presumptive Republican nominee's favorite ways to sprinkle conspiracy theo- ries into the presidential campaign. By Wednesday, Trump abandoned the innuendo and embraced a more pointed accusation against Obama. "Media fell all over them- selves criticizing what Don- ald Trump 'may have in- sinuated about @POTUS.' But he's right," Trump posted on Twitter. The message included a link to a story by Breitbart News, a Trump-friendly website, that claimed to have proof the Obama administration backed a terror group in Iraq. It was unclear whether Trump wrote the message himself or was retweeting someone else's words. But in either case, it was an effort by the GOP's White House pick to explicitly link the sitting Democratic pres- ident with those seeking to harm Americans, just days after 49 people were killed and dozens more wounded in Florida. "Trump's comments re- garding the president crossed every line," said John Weaver, who man- aged Ohio Gov. John Ka- sich's failed Republican presidential campaign. He cast Trump as a "peddler of lies, fantasies and half- baked conspiracy theories." For years, Trump has been the most high-profile proponent of the "birther" movement that falsely claims Obama is a Muslim who was born outside the United States, when in fact he is a Christian born in Hawaii. The businessman has also floated debunked conspiracy theories about former rival Ted Cruz's fa- ther being involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and Hill- ary Clinton playing a role in the death of former White House aide Vince Foster. For Republican officials already struggling with whether to fully embrace him, Trump's willingness to engage in stories usually limited to supermarket tab- loids is only making their options more complicated. "I don't go for these con- spiracy theories and the "birtherism" nonsense," said Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa. The congressman, who has not endorsed Trump, said that while it's fair to criticize aspects of Obama's approach to com- batting terrorism, "I part company with those then who want to get into these conspiracy theories." In a statement to The As- sociated Press on Tuesday, Trump said Obama "con- tinues to prioritize our en- emy over our allies, and for that matter, the American people." Clinton, who will face Trump in the Novem- ber election, quickly chal- lenged Republicans to ei- ther "stand up to their presumptive nominee" or "stand by his accusation about our president." Trump's suggestions about Obama come as the president takes a more ac- tive role in the White House race. In a blistering speech Tuesday, Obama said Trump was a "dangerous" threat to national security and was putting America's religious freedoms at risk by calling for a temporary ban on foreign-born Mus- lims entering the U.S. But the White House has avoided commenting on Trump's attempts to link Obama to terrorism, call- ing the matter "small." Trump has offered no verifiable information to back up his assertions. His theory was not supported by the document cited in the report he linked to Wednesday — a secret 2012 Defense Intelligence Agency analysis. The Breit- bart story, citing that doc- ument, suggested that the United States was in league with al-Qaida in Iraq, the precursor to the Islamic State. Instead, the document states generally what was widely known at the time — that "the West, Gulf coun- tries, and Turkey support the opposition" to the gov- ernment of Syrian leader Bashar Assad. The U.S. backs several anti-Assad rebel groups but does not include al-Qaida in any negotiations or ma- terial or financial support, even as it fights Assad's gov- ernment. Whether the U.S. cooperated with figures from that group is not ad- dressed in the document. Trump did not mention the report or his broader accusations during a rally Wednesday in Atlanta. But some of those in the crowd said they were on board with the candidate's asser- tions. "I think he's dead on the money," said Brad Butler, a 45-year-old Trump sup- porter from Dallas, Geor- gia. "So this is Islamic ter- ror and this is his religion. Why would he (Obama) be mad at it?" Diane Gurganus, 70, from Jefferson, Georgia, said she, too, believed Obama was a Muslim whose religious be- liefs were affecting the way he has responded to Islamic State militants and the Or- lando attacks. "It's like his agenda is to destroy America in every- thing he's done," she said. Trump's new Obama claims thrust him into uncharted territory By Brian Melley The Associated Press LOS ANGELES A former member of the band Spirit testified Wednesday that guitar riffs used by his group and on Led Zeppe- lin's "Stairway to Heaven" sounded the same. Mark Andes testified in a copyright infringement lawsuit that claims Led Zeppelin lifted the famous "Stairway" intro from Spir- it's instrumental, "Taurus." Andes was shown a video of an acoustic gui- tarist playing bits of both compositions and said they sounded the same. "Stairway" was recorded in 1971. Andes testified that Spirit played "Taurus" in 1968 at a Denver show where Zeppelin was the opening act, and that in 1970 he and Zeppelin singer Robert Plant drank beer and played the bil- liards-like game snooker after a Spirit show in Bir- mingham, England. "Yeah, we hung out. We had a blast," Andes said. A lawyer for the estate of the late Randy Wolfe, also known as Randy Cali- fornia, claimed in opening statements Tuesday that the British megastars lifted the passage. "This was a song that Randy California had writ- ten for the love of his life, Robin. That was her sign, Taurus," Francis Malofiy said. Wolfe drowned in 1997 saving his son in Hawaii. A lawyer for Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page said Tuesday that they didn't hear "Taurus" until de- cades after it was recorded. "Forty five years ago, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant wrote some of the best songs in rock 'n' roll history," said Peter Ander- son, who claimed Wolfe's estate doesn't even own the copyright to "Taurus." "'Stairway to Heaven' was written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, and them alone." A judge and eight ju- rors will decide whether the opening two min- utes played on guitar is substantially similar to Wolfe's work — a lesser- known song from a band that had several albums on Billboard's Top 200 record chart in the 1960s and '70s. U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner ruled in April that evidence pre- sented in hearings made a credible case that Led Zep- pelin may have heard "Tau- rus" performed before their song was created. Page, Plant and band- mate John Paul Jones are all expected to testify at the trial, though Jones has been dismissed as a defen- dant in the case. Both pieces are based on a descending chromatic chord sequence in A minor that was used in other well- known pieces, such as "My Funny Valentine," said Joe Bennett, a forensic musicol- ogist at the Boston Conser- vatory at Berklee. He is not involved in the trial. "It's a well-used musical device. We can say with certainty that that chord sequence is not original," he said. "It wasn't written originally in 1968" when "Taurus" was released. The chord progression dates back as far as the 1600s and other similar- ities also exist, Anderson said. 'STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN' Testimony begins in Led Ze pp el in c op yr ig ht l aw su it t ri al CELEBRATING THE HAPPINESS, THE CURIOSITY, THE ENERGY, THE IDENTITY, THE EMOTIONS AND THE ADVENTURE OF GROWING UP Single copies of Kids 2016 Special edition available for $4.95 each at the front counter of The Daily News at 728 Main St., Red Bluff starting Tuesday, June 21 ...whiletheylast! 76-page Bay-Area 2016 Kids To Subscribe to Carrier Home Delivery call the Daily News at (530) 737-5048 ... TODAY! Full color supplement valued at $4.95 will come with Carrier-Delivered copies of The Daily News on Tuesday, June 21 Kids | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 2016 4 B