text:
Bellagio V1 21" Carry-On Spinner Trunk - Cream/Black - Final Sale
Bellagio V1 21" Carry-On Spinner Trunk - Cream/Black - Final Sale
or 4 installments of $89.25 by More info
In stock
sku: BBG28301.914
Final Sale items are not returnable
The Bellagio 21″ Carry-On Spinner features a classic iconic silhouette redesigned using new lightweight, durable, materials to make it the perfect combination of form and function. It is a perfect example of our philosophy. "Create elegant, functional travel bags that are good looking, and include all the practical function and modern amenities demanded by today's traveler."
This spinner comes in black/black, cream/black and navy/black
Water repellent Zipper
TSA Approved Locks
Adjustable Handle
Interior Organizational Pockets
21" (H) x 14" (W) x 8" (D)
Polycarbonate with Leather Trim
7 lbs
Color Wheels
Double Rubber Hinomoto Wheels
Product Care
For all the collections with leather trimmings. Clean delicately the stained area with a soft and dry cloth. In case of greasy or persistent stain, use a small quantity of neutral wax or a leather cleaning product on a soft cloth and rub delicately. Then polish with a clean and dry cloth.
WARNING: since the leather may fade, first try the cleaning the trimming on a hidden part of the it before trying to remove the stain.
WARNING: the trimmings are made of tanned leather to enhance color and sensation to the touch. Exposition to rain or humidity may cause colors to fade or splotches to appear. If the part is in contact with water, remove the liquid by dabbing the part with a dry cloth. Then let it dry completely away from sources of heat before putting it away. Do not brush. Do not immerse the product in water. Do not dry clean. Do not use benzene or alcohol based products.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Saturday, October 3, 2009
TSS - Tales from the Classroom
18 comments:
Sigh. I so love To Kill a Mockingbird. A Midsummer Night's Dream is a real treat too. I envy those students.ReplyDelete
You sure are a busy lady. Hang in there.
Its a wonderful mix! So nice to be able to read different genres....ReplyDelete
I was feeling like your students were all kind of lucky to have a teacher that gives them such great books to read. Except those poor British Lit students!ReplyDelete
I love how you talk about the books and your teaching with a passion. And those are all truly wonderful books!:)ReplyDelete
I really liked this post. Thanks for sharing what you are doing in your classroom. I really find it interesting to read about what kids in high school are doing since I am at the other end with first graders. I also wrote about my kids in my class this week for my Sunday Salon.ReplyDelete
Have a good week and good luck grading all those papers!
What a great selection of books! Your students are lucky to have you!ReplyDelete
I'd love to in one your classes; such great books. The students are lucky to have you Molly.ReplyDelete
No need to apologize for "having a life" :)
Molly, I could sit now and writing a comment about every point in your post. Why don't you live just round the corner so that we could get together at the end of each day over a pot of tea and just talk ourselves hoarse? If ever there was a kindred spirit? But, I will have to confine myself to a few questions.ReplyDelete
I'm interested in which translation of Beowulf you use. If it's the one in the picture then I don't know it. Earlier in the year I read the Seamus Heaney version aloud to The Bears (it has to be read aloud) and we loved it, but I think that might be hard for younger students. I had a translation that a friend of mine made for my eleven year olds and they turned it into a tape-slide sequence for him. We had a wonderful time with it; it formed the basis for a whole half-term's work in every subject you could think of.
Then there's the Harper Lee. I am horrified to think of 1960 as history - I was there!!!! I really do have to read this book at some point. It just isn't part of the British conscious in the way it is in the US.
I've written about AMSND in my response to your comment on my blog so no more here.
But the thing that I would want to talk about most is the 7th graders writing their own fairy stories. This is my research specialism, the way in which children structure their stories and how much is innate and how much developmental.
We could be at it for hours. A second pot of tea at the very least!
I'd love to hear the discussions of these books in your classroom!ReplyDelete
I love hearing about what's happening in your classroom! You've got a lot on your plate, Molly. Don't fret about the blogging....this is supposed to be fun!ReplyDelete
Ditto on Table Talk's recommendation of the Heaney translation of Beowulf, if only for you to check out:ReplyDelete
I loved the dual translation format and Heaney just rocks:)
What I wouldn't have given to have someone like you as a middle or high school teacher. I was ripped off! I didn't get to read any of these classics, and I feel totally inept. So even though you have been busy and haven't been able to dedicate your time to the blog as much, these reading projects more than make up for it! Brava to you!ReplyDelete
Wow--so many different things going on in your classes! Reading through your course summaries really makes me want to be in school again (even though I hated English in high school!). I love that you're also teaching the history in conjunction with the books--I think sometimes as readers we fail to understand the circumstances in which books were written.ReplyDelete
And yay for the read-a-thon! So glad you'll be able to participate again.
You sound really busy, Molly! I hope you are enjoying your extra duties. :-)ReplyDelete
I really appreciate you sharing your class experiences with us. Your post is bringing back memories. I remember reading Beowulf in high school. And To Kill A Mockingbird is one of my favorites.
I hope you have a great week, Molly!
As a retired teacher of reading this past June after 37 years, I SO appreciate your post. ...and I would love to be in any of your classes but mostly your 9th grade to see once again the young minds take in Harper Lee....have a great year and thanks for the lovely post.ReplyDelete
I'm so glad you find yourself "reaching" some of your blank starers! That must be so rewarding. I'm amazed you have any time to read or blog ... you've got a lot going on!ReplyDelete
Molly, a friend told me about this today, it's a link to a fairytale generator based on Propp. I haven't had time to play with it much but I wondered if it would be fun to use with your 7th graders. Let me know if they enjoy it.ReplyDelete
Your students are very lucky to have you for a teacher, Molly!ReplyDelete


text:
For coaches, as it is for players apparently, the eye in the sky does not lie.
Mike Tomlin often has made the point that the football team is defined by what it puts on videotape, that he allows the tape to talk to him in the course of making decisions. What the videotape showed him was that Sean Kugler was the right man for the job as the Steelers offensive line coach.
Kugler, who will enter his ninth season as an NFL coach, signed a contract with the Steelers on Thursday, and he will replace Larry Zierlein.
"We have to be world championship caliber, and I felt we needed an upgrade in the production at the position," said Tomlin about his decision to make a change there. "A lot of times those changes include players and coaches, and it's a necessary part of this business."
The ugly part of the business is something with which Kugler became familiar during this past season. As the offensive line coach of the Buffalo Bills, Kugler went through a season that redefined the word "unsettled" when it came to the offensive line, and the team still produced a 1,000-yard rusher in Fred Jackson.
"It starts first and foremost with his tape," said Tomlin about what impressed him about Kugler. "He coached in the midst of some adversity up there in Buffalo this year, and I was really impressed with his tape. He started two rookie guards – Andy Levitre and Eric Wood – and both of those guys played well, you saw their personality on tape. They were finishers, they appeared to be technically sound, they knew what to do. Then there was a revolving door of injuries and so forth."
To detail the revolutions of that door, here's a start:
Bills coach Dick Jauron decided to trade starting left tackle Jason Peters, and then he cut veteran Langston Walker, who was supposed to start at right tackle, a week before the season started.
Kugler had to replace those two veterans with a left tackle in Demetrius Bell who was a seventh-round pick two years ago without an NFL start in his career, and with a right tackle in Brad Butler who hadn't played the position regularly since his college days at the University of Virginia.
Butler tore his ACL in Week 2. Bell was injured in Week 3 and then again in Week 10 whereupon he landed on the injured reserve list.
The Bills started seven different tackle tandems through the course of the season and nine different offensive line combinations over 16 games. Their starting tackles during the season included Kirk Chambers, who originally was cut by the Bills when the roster was reduced to 53 in early September, journeyman Jonathan Scott and rookie Jamon Meredith, who was signed off Green Bay's practice squad. Buffalo also had another rookie practice squad tackle who was supposed to start the Week 16 game at Atlanta – Andre Ramsey – but he injured his calf in practice that week and could not play.
By season's end, the Bills had five offensive linemen on the injured reserve list – two tackles and three guards – along with their two starting tight ends (Derek Schouman and Derek Fine) who were considered the team's best blockers. One of the guys who ended up filling in for the Bills was former Steelers No. 1 pick Kendall Simmons, and he vouched for Kugler's abilities as a coach without being asked.
"Also, the offensive coordinator (Turk Schonert) got fired before the first week of the season," said Tomlin. "In the midst of a lot of things, the videotape was very good. They got after people, they put hats on hats, they finished. The things Sean and I talked about when he came in here showed up on tape."
There is a mentality required to play the different positions on an NFL team, and that personality often stems from the assistant coach with whom the players work on a daily basis.
"That could be said for any position. I believe that," said Tomlin. "The great position coaches I have been around, the core beliefs they have in regards to football and coaching football show up on tape and are displayed by the men they coach."
As for Sean Kugler's coaching personality?
"He's a fundamentalist. He's rock solid schematically. He coaches (his players to) finish. He believes in some of the core things I believe in in terms of winning by attrition in the trenches. Again, it all showed up on the tape."


text:
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Days Like This
22 comments:
Wonderful. I love the retro look. I think these sets will make lovely Christmas gifts. Lee-Ann :)ReplyDelete
These are darling! I had never seen these stamps definitely a must have! Sorry to hear about your Lola, I'm sure she'll be fine ♥ReplyDelete
Those are awesome! What a great set!ReplyDelete
AWESOME set...I love the papers!ReplyDelete
Great set!!!ReplyDelete
Great set of cards. Great papers.ReplyDelete
Lola is going to be fine and you will be her hero in the morning when you pick her up.ReplyDelete
Love your card set!! Those stamps are fabulous!! Love the box, too!! :)
These are awesome!!!ReplyDelete
I LOVE this set! What a great box too! Those stamps are adorable! I love the idea of this as a gift set... :o)ReplyDelete
- AnonymousMay 17, 2012 at 6:34 AM
Love the retro. Makes me think of Father Knows Best and Leave it to Beaver. What great moms. These are great sets. A little TLC from you and Lola will be fine.ReplyDelete
I love these cards and the paper choices are great! I will have to get my hands on this stamp set.ReplyDelete
Fabulous set of cards,great gift idea.ReplyDelete
Lola will be just great,I worried all day at work whilst my little Pan went in to be spayed,was amazed how quickly she bounced back!
Jayne x
Great little set of cards Tonya!! The stamps are really cute.ReplyDelete
Poor little Lola, she will be home soon, and then you can shower her with love and attention!!
Very cool. I want to make a set too, but I just have not had the time. I hope next school year I can resist taking on too much.ReplyDelete
You did a great job. I love these, great stamps!!! Your bows look "awesome"!
Take care - have a good weekend, hope your baby is doing well!
What a cute set.ReplyDelete
What a fabulous idea! I'd love to be that organized that I could create a complete set of something LOL. What great paper and colors. I love this fun stamp set. Just wonderful, my friend.ReplyDelete
All the projects are perfection Tanya! Absolute perfection! I have never seen that stamp set before and I am going to have to order it. It's wonderful!!! It's going to be a long night for you, but Lola will do fine. We had Ozzy's surgery about a month ago and he is just fine. He's calmed down some and really loving now compared to before. It doesn't make it easier, but it does get better.ReplyDelete
What a GREAT gift set:) I love it and the sentiments are way cute!! Awesome job and your bow looks perfect!ReplyDelete
I hope your cute little poochie-Lola is okay. I am sure the vet will take good care of her and I am sure you are dying to get that cute bundle home:) She is so stinken cute! Have a great week Tanya!
Sherrie K
These are so fun, Tanya!! I just love the retro look! The papers are so bright and cheerful too!ReplyDelete
I do hope that Lola is recovering well - and that you are too! It's so hard to leave pets at the vet knowing that they don't understand what's going on.
Oh I LOVE this set!! I have it but haven't had the chance to use it yet!!ReplyDelete


text:
The minutes of the October 16, 2012 meeting explained the delay. "Due to a faulty internet connection, there was difficulty recording and broadcasting the Board meetings. Information Technology Supervisor Bob Treppa has reported that the earliest this problem could be resolved is February 2013."
Instead they decided to record the meeting and make the video available for downloading. Again from minutes for October 16th, "Staff will review the recording tonight for sound quality and determine if this new method is a good alternate way to record meetings. If this system is satisfactory, the next meeting of the Board of Directors should be recorded and then loaded to the internet."
The websites shows links to videos of the November 6, 20, and December 3, 2012 meetings, but when I tried them they all went to the video of the November 20, 2012 meeting.
The camera was placed at the back of the room to take in the whole dais, but the Directors were so tiny in the picture that it was hard to tell who they are if you didn't already know.
The audio was quite clear, so the meeting was understandable, particularly to fans (like me) of DRDSD meetings. The video runs under 20 minutes.
Ed Duarte, who had just won election to the District, two new employees, and three boy scouts were in the audience at that meeting. That's a crowd for a DSRSD meeting.
The next DSRSD meeting is scheduled for December 18, 2012 at 6 pm. The Directors will select the Board President and Vice President for next year.
There isn't much suspense in this, since the Vice President, Dawn Benson, will be moved up to President, and according to District Policy, "The elected member who has served the longest on the Board without ever serving as President," and was elected 12 months prior, would be appointed Vice President.
The only Director fitting those criteria now is Georgean Vonheeder-Leopold. This means that Georgean will be District President when she runs for reelection in 2014 and Dawn Benson would be past President, just like Rich Halket and Pat Howard were this year. I expect Ed Duarte to be President in 2016 when he's up for reelection.


text:
We finally got a peek at the Goosebumps movie. Jack Black came to Comic-Con to talk about playing Goosebumps author R.L. Stine, and we saw his Stine battle his own monstrous creations after they had escaped from his books.
Black and Goosebumps director Rob Letterman came to the Sony panel at San Diego Comic-Con to discuss the plot of the movie and show the first footage. Black said that he will be playing a highly fictionalized version of Stine: "I need him to be a little more sinister. I need him to be creepy and crawly."
Letterman explained that instead of adapting a single book, the Goosebumps movie will take advantage of the anthology nature of the series, throwing all of Stine's monsters at him at once. "The idea behind the movie is what if all of R.L. Stine's creatures got loose and [the characters] have to go on an adventure to put them back in?" He says that, taking a cue from the books, the movie will be both scary and funny.
We saw a sizzle reel from the film, but without the final visual effects. Our teen boy protagonist moves in next door to Stine and his daughter, and soon learns that the monsters from Stine's books are locked within his manuscripts. Fortunately, this boy's friend has read all the Goosebumps books and calls out the who's who of monsters they have to fight, including werewolves, zombies, and the abominable snowman of Pasadena. It has a distinct kid's movie feel with piles upon piles of monsters, likely more for kids who are reading Goosebumps books now than adults and older teens who read them when they were younger. Black as Stine is at once goofy and grandiose.
Slappy the Dummy from Night of the Living Dummy is the ringleader of all these creatures. "He's R.L. Stine's dark side," Black explained. Letterman added, "He's your alter ego."


text:
President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, ordered the National Security Adviser to set up an investigative committee on the procurement of hardware and munitions in the Armed Forces from 2007 till now.
This was disclosed in a statement issued on Monday by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina.
According to the statement, "the investigative committee's mandate is to identify irregularities and make recommendations for streamlining the procurement process in the Armed Forces."
Accordingly, the National Security Adviser has constituted the Investigative Committee as follows:
· AVM J.O.N. Ode (rtd.) – President
· R/Adm J.A. Aikhomu (rtd.) – Member
· R/Adm E. Ogbor (rtd.) – Member
· Brig Gen L. Adekagun (rtd.) – Member
· Brig Gen M. Aminun-Kano (rtd.) – Member
· Brig Gen N. Rimtip (rtd.) – Member
· Cdre T.D. Ikoli – Member
· Air Cdre U. Mohammed (rtd.) – Member
· Air Cdre I. Shafi'i – Member
· Gp· Col A.A. Ariyibi – Member
Capt C.A. Oriaku (rtd.) – Member
· Mr. I. Magu (EFCC) – Member
· Brig Gen Y.I. Shalangwa – Secretary
Adesina further disclosed that, "the establishment of the investigative committee is in keeping with President Buhari's determination to stamp out corruption and irregularities in Nigeria's public service.
"It comes against the background of the myriad of challenges that the Nigerian Armed Forces have faced in the course of ongoing counter-insurgency operations in the Northeast, including the apparent deficit in military platforms with its attendant negative effects of troops' morale.
Adesina said that the committee will specifically investigate allegations of non-adherence to correct equipment procurement procedures and the exclusion of relevant logistics branches from arms procurement under past administrations, which, very often resulted in the acquisition of sub-standard and unserviceable equipment.


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August 9th, 2007, 08:53 AM
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Scallywag Demo Now Available!
Press Release Teaser:
Fun With Pointy Sticks And Special 'Shrooms!
News Release For Immediate Release
Fun With Pointy Sticks And Special 'Shrooms!
Scallywag: In the Lair of the Medusa Demo For Windows Now Available!
Hampstead, NC, 09 August 2007
Monty Haulers, hack and slashers, and Deadheads of the world, rejoice! The official
demo for Scallywag: In the Lair of the Medusa, the computer game that promotes eating
strange fungi and killing everything you see (remember kids, don't try this at home!), is
now available for download from Shrapnel Games. The demo features fifteen levels of
monster whacking goodness, and even provides players with a sneak peak at the
possibilities for mod making offered in the full game by allowing some basic modding
experimentation to occur (the full game will allow much, much more).
Developed by UK-based Chronic Reality and published by Shrapnel Games, Scallywag:
In the Lair of the Medusa is the upcoming fantasy game of dungeon exploration,
mushroom eating, and lantern lighting for Windows based PCs. From now until August
26th it may be pre-ordered at the reduced price of $24.95 directly from the Gamers Front,
the Shrapnel Games e-store. After August 26th it reverts to its normal retail price of
$29.95. Pre-ordering will not only allow you to keep five dollars for yourself, but
guarantees that you will be one of the first to own the game when it ships.
Scallywag: In the Lair of the Medusa is a single-player adventure pitting the player, as
humble farm worker Rapius, against the forces of darkness that threaten his once quaint
valley. Choose from four levels of difficulty, and battle your way through eighty levels of
action amongst eight different worlds, growing in heroic power along the way. Each
descent into the catacombs is randomly generated, so you'll never know if the next cavern
contains a healing potion, or twelve feet and six hundred pounds of pure evil ready to
suck the marrow from your bones.
Like any good dungeoncrawl Rapius can collect oodles of equipment to help him on his
quest, many of which that can be combined to make even better items. Not only that, but
dining on the local flora is strongly encouraged. Putting the "magic" in magic
mushrooms, many 'shrooms mutate Rapius in beneficial ways. All told there are twenty
different mutators in Scallywag: In the Lair of the Medusa that can affect the player, with
a great number that stack for some truly wild effects. Drunk invisible werewolf, anyone?
If the scores of randomly generated levels populated with numerous monsters to kill, and
all the cool lewt to snag isn't enough, Scallywag: In the Lair of the Medusa also ships
with its own +5 modding utility, RAGe. RAGe (Random Adventure Game engine)
allows anyone-you, your dog, someone's grandmother, the blind paraplegic flamenco
dancer down the street-to mod the game. Modding can be as simple or complex as you
want it to be. Spend a few minutes and drop in a new mystical weapon, or spend a few
days and do a total conversion. In the demo you'll get a chance to experience a little of
what RAGe has to offer. The full game allows much more complex mod-making, along
with the ability to easily download and run user created content.
Enough talk, there are monsters to hack! Treasure to liberate! And the joy of mycology
to discover! Download the demo from the following link:
To pre-order Scallywag: In the Lair of the Medusa head on over to:
Remember, through August 26th you can snag it for only $24.95. After the 26th it will sell
for its normal retail price of $29.95.
Please visit us at
for more information on Scallywag: In the
Lair of the Medusa, and drop by the forum to share your thoughts on the game. Shrapnel
Games specializes in the genres often neglected by the corporate publishers, so if you
enjoy fantasy gaming, be sure to also check out the award-winning titles of Dominions 3:
The Awakening and Land of Legends. We even have a turn-based epic fantasy strategy
title, Conquest of Elysium II, available as a free, fully enabled download.
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text:
Enough is enough.
We don't need more of most things.
IN FACT: More has the power to work against you.
And if you're not careful, the results could be disastrous for you, your business, your people, your brand and your life.
For example:
1. The more you plan, the less you ship. People are obsessed with planning for three reasons: First, it preserves their sense of control. Second, it underwrites the illusion that they know what they're doing. And third, it gives them a chance to make something perfect.
Here's the reality: You're rarely in control, you don't need to know what you're doing and finished is the new perfect. Planning is nothing but procrastination in disguise. A distraction in a miniskirt. Failure doesn't come from poor planning – it comes from the timidity to proceed. What are you waiting for?
2. The more you script, the less you engage. I once had a client ask me if I would be giving my speech from a script or a teleprompter. I told her neither. She asked what I would be using instead, and I said my head. Apparently none of their speakers had ever done that before. But I insisted.
Three weeks later, I earned a standing ovation. Interesting. That's the reality about human interaction: People engage when you communicate from a place of honesty, respect and in-the-moment awareness. When was the last time you went off script?
3. The more you bitch, the less you inspire. Complaining is not a leadership style. It's the opposite of ownership and the enemy of execution. If you want to breathe life into people, you've got to infect them with something that matters.
For example, the vision of what they can contribute. For example, the mirror that reflects their brilliance right back to them. For example, the belief that they possess the resources to do something great. That's inspiration. Sucking people into a vortex of negativity because you're insecure about your own life situation isn't. Do you complain about the wind, hope the wind will stop or adjust your sails?
4. The more you settle, the less you become. There are three kinds of people: Those who make you less than you are, those who keep you where you are and those who push you to what you might become. If your personal and professional lives are populated with anything but the latter, you're finished.
Settling is a silent epidemic. Surround yourself with people who challenge and inspire you, and delete the rest. You'll have fewer friends, but they'll be better ones. How many of your friends shouldn't be your friends?
5. The more you fix, the less you help. Walt Whitman once said, "Not I, not anyone else, can travel that road for you. You must travel it for yourself." Next time someone you love comes to you, remember: They don't need advice. They don't want suggestions. They don't like answering questions. And they can't stand when you try to solve their problems in two minutes or less.
Just give them a hug, say you love them and stop trying to explain the meaning of the universe. A little restraint goes a long way. Otherwise your desire to fix becomes a barrier to being helpful. Are you responding like a screwdriver or puppy dog?
6. The more you spam, the less you love. Flooding people's lives with interruptions they didn't ask for isn't marketing – it's insulting. Instead of bothering people into buying from you, learn to lead with respect, and ask for permission. You'll earn the right to speak to people with a voice that's anticipated, personal and relevant.
And the best part is, they'll actually listen to you. But it all begins with your daily gift to the world, the accumulation of which builds a huge surplus of goodwill. That's not marketing – that's love. How will you create a trail of breadcrumbs that leads people back to the paid work?
7. The more you wait, the less you matter. The only people who count are the ones who choose to. Mattering is the incidental consequence of the intentional commitment to fulfill your whole capacity for living. And it's something that can start happening today.
All you need to do is decide. That you're going to matter. That you're going to make meaning. And that you're going to take responsibility for doing something significant. Otherwise the curse of being inconsequential will feel like an earthquake to the heart. Are you still waiting to matter?
REMEMBER: Enough is enough.
More isn't always the answer.
What are you still convinced you need more of?
Scott Ginsberg is an Author, Speaker, Publisher, Artist and Mentor. This was originally published on his own blog.
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Trump Participates in Commissioning of USS Gerald R. Ford [video and transcript]
President Donald Trump delivered remarks while taking part in the commissioning of the Navy's newest and most-advanced aircraft carrier – the USS Gerald R. Ford.
"Wherever this vessel cuts through the horizon, our allies will rest easy and our enemies will shake with fear because everyone will know that America is coming and America is coming strong," the president said to rousing applause.
"I hereby place United States Ship Gerald R. Ford in commission," Trump said. "May God bless and guide this warship and all who shall sail in her. God bless you."
The carrier features electromagnetic catapults instead of the WWII-era steam catapults on all other carriers. The new catapults can launch aircraft faster, require much less maintenance, and take up far less space below decks.
The Ford's Island superstructure is located further aft allowing for more efficient re-arming and refueling of aircraft.
The ship has upgraded electronics and more automation allowing it to operate with 600 fewer sailors than comparable carriers. The reduced manpower costs will save the Navy more than $4 billion over the ships lifetime.
The Ford will undergo additional systems test and is expected to have cost a total of $13 billion by the time it goes into service in 2020.
The carrier was originally scheduled to be completed in 2015 but the advanced systems experienced numerous technical issues causing substantial delay.
Full Transcript of President Trump's remarks at commissioning of USS Gerald R. Ford
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Secretary Mattis, for that wonderful introduction and for your devoted service to our nation. Nobody has done it like you. I'm thrilled to be back on this magnificent ship for this historic moment with the amazing men and women of the United States Navy. (Applause.)
I was with you four months ago, and I knew that I had to be here today, and I told you I'd be back to congratulate you and the crew and everybody involved on commissioning the newest, largest, and most advanced aircraft carrier in the history of this world. That's a big achievement.
After today, wherever this ship sails, you will all carry a proud title: plankowner of the USS Gerald R. Ford. (Applause.) For the rest of your lives, you'll be able to tell your friends and family that you served on the greatest ship in the United States Navy and, in my opinion, on the greatest ship anywhere in the world. Everyone should take a moment to celebrate this incredible achievement.
I want to thank the many public servants who have joined us here today: Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, Governor Snyder, Governor McAuliffe, Senator Wicker, and members of Congress, Secretary Stackley, Admiral Richardson, senior military leaders, and, of course, the great Captain McCormack. (Applause.)
Captain, I know you will exemplify integrity at the helm. And have a good time doing it, Captain. Proud of you.
Thanks to the entire Ford family — Susan, Jack, Steve, and Mike — for all that you've done to support this ship on its voyage. Thank you, Susan. (Applause.) Thank you.
I also want to recognize two other people who were very special to President Ford. Thank you, Vice President Cheney and former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. Thank you. (Applause.) They look great. They look great.
As we put this stunning ship into the service of our nation, we must also pay tribute to the thousands of citizens, military and civilian, who helped design and build her. Their love of country has been poured into every rivet and bulkhead on this vessel. You hammered, chiseled, and sculpted this mighty hull.
You were there when the first steel was cut, when the turbines first roared to life, and when those beautiful bronze propellers first began to spin — and spin they did. And now you are here to witness the moment when your incredible work of art becomes the pride of the United States Navy and a symbol of American power and prestige, no matter where in the world you go.
American steel and American hands have constructed a 100,000-ton message to the world: American might is second to none, and we're getting bigger, and better, and stronger every day of my administration. That I can tell you. (Applause.)
Wherever this vessel cuts through the horizon, our allies will rest easy and our enemies will shake with fear because everyone will know that America is coming and America is coming strong. (Applause.)
To every worker from Newport News Shipbuilding and every craftsman and engineer who helped build this incredible fortress on the sea, today we salute you. Thank you. (Applause.)
Your skill and your grit build the instruments of war that preserve peace. This ship is the deterrent that keeps us from having to fight in the first place. But this ship also ensures that if a fight does come, it will always end the same way; we will win, win, win. We will never lose. We will win. (Applause.)
When it comes to battle, we don't want a fair fight. We want just the opposite. We demand victory, and we will have total victory, believe me. (Applause.)
Having the best technology and equipment is only one part of the American military dominance. Our true strength is our people. Our greatest weapon is all of you. Our nation endures because we have citizens who love America and who are willing to fight for America. (Applause.) We are so very blessed with warriors who are willing to serve America in the greatest fighting force in the history — the United States military.
Today this ship officially begins its role in the noble military history of our great nation. In a few moments, I will commission this wonderful, beautiful, but very, very powerful warship. Captain McCormack will assume command. He will set the first watch, and then the crew of the Gerald R. Ford will man the ship and bring her to life. (Applause.)
A ship is only as good as the people who serve on it, and the American sailor is the best anywhere in the world. Among you are great welders, radar technicians, machine operators, and pilots. You take pride in your work and America takes pride in you. We love you. We are proud of you. Thank you. (Applause.)
But that is why it is so fitting that this ship is named after a sailor of tremendous character, integrity, and wisdom. You know that, Susan. Gerald Ford was raised in American heartland. He grew up in Grand Rapids and became an Eagle Scout. He played football at the University of Michigan on a team that won two national championships. And listen to this: On that great team, he was named MVP. Not bad.
He then went to Yale Law School, and after Pearl Harbor, he volunteered to serve. President Ford joined the Navy and asked to be sent to sea. He wanted to do that very badly. He never really knew why; he felt it was a calling. He was assigned to a new carrier — the Monterey — becoming a plankowner himself on its commissioning in 1943.
From there, he sailed to the Pacific and saw action — and a lot of action — in the Pacific War. Like so many others of his generation, Gerald Ford returned home and started a family. He ran for Congress, where he served the people of Michigan with honor for many years. From there, he became Vice President and then President of the United States of America.
With this ship, we honor him for his lifetime of selfless and distinguished service. We also remember his wife, Betty — I remember her well — and we honor the bravery she showed in living her life so that her experiences could help others. Susan, she was a great woman — a great woman. (Applause.)
Gerald Ford said that his time in the Navy convinced him that our lack of military preparation before World War II has only encouraged our enemies to fight harder and harder and harder. He learned a lot. In the future, Ford said, I felt the United States had to be strong. Never again could we allow our military to be anything but the absolute best. If he could see this ship today, President Gerald Ford would see his vision brought to life, and he would see his legacy of service being carried on by each and every one of you. (Applause.)
Gerald Ford embodied American values like few others: love of family, love of freedom, and, most of all, love of country. He knew that patriotism is the heartbeat of a nation. He knew that we must love our country in order to protect it. And he knew that we must have pride in our history if we are going to have confidence in our future.
The men and women of America's Armed Services are part of a living history. You uphold timeless customs and traditions, and you protect our nation and our freedom for the next generation to come. You are fulfilling your duty to this nation, and now it is the job of our government to fulfill its duty to you. (Applause.)
For years, our government has subjected the military to unpredictable funding and a devastating defense sequester. You remember that? Sequester — not good. This has led to deferred maintenance, a lack of investment in new equipment and technology, and a shortfall in military readiness. In other words, it's been a very, very bad period of time for our military. That is why we reached a deal to secure an additional $20 billion for defense this year — and it's going up — and why I asked Congress for another $54 billion for next year.
Now we need Congress to do its job and pass the budget that provides for higher, stable, and predictable funding levels for our military needs that our fighting men and women deserve — and you will get, believe me. President Trump, I will tell you — you will get it. Don't worry about it. But I don't mind getting a little hand, so call that congressman and call that senator and make sure you get it. (Applause.)
And by the way, you can also call those senators to make sure you get healthcare. (Applause.)
We must end the defense sequester once and for all. We must also reform defense acquisitions to ensure that we are getting the best equipment at the best prices so that our dollars are used only for the best interests of our country and those who serve. We do not want cost overruns. We want the best equipment, but we want it built ahead of schedule and we want it build under budget. (Applause.)
This is the very least we can do for the patriots who have volunteered to give their sweat, their blood, and, if they must, their very lives for our great nation. The commissioning of this new American carrier marks the renewal of our commitment to a future of American greatness. Greater than ever before, remember that — greater than ever before.
Just moments from now, the Captain will set the first watch on the USS Gerald R. Ford and, with God's grace, a watch will stand until the day she is decommissioned 50 years or more from now.
Most of you who will man this ship today are just about 20 years old. Together, you are embarking on a truly great adventure. The journey will require all of your talents, all of your efforts, and all of your heart. As you know, the sea holds many challenges and threats. But starting today, you will face, together as a team aboard this ship, which is your responsibility and your home.
Three generations of Americans will eventually man these decks. Perhaps even some of your own children and grandchildren someday. You will inspire many more American patriots to follow your lead and to serve. And one day, when you are old and have lived a long and hopefully happy and successful life, you may find yourselves back aboard this ship surrounded by your family to mark its decommissioning. And on that day, our entire nation will honor not just this carrier, it will honor you and the role you will have played in keeping America safe, strong, and free.
To every patriot who will serve on this ship today and throughout history, I say this: Keep the watch, protect her, defend her, and love her. Good luck and Godspeed. Thank you to the Ford family, and thank you to every sailor in the greatest navy on Earth. God bless you, God bless the Gerald R. Ford, and God bless the United States of America. Thank you very much. God bless you all. (Applause.)
CAPTAIN MCCORMACK: Thank you, Mr. President. And I would be honored if you would place Gerald R. Ford in commission.
Will the guests please rise. Ship's company, attention.
THE PRESIDENT: I hereby place United States Ship Gerald R. Ford in commission. May God bless and guide this warship and all who shall sail in her. God bless you. Thank you. (Applause.)


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Cassini sheds light on cosmic particle accelerators
(Phys.org)—During a chance encounter with what appears to be an unusually strong blast of solar wind at Saturn, NASA's Cassini spacecraft detected particles being accelerated to ultra-high energies. This is similar to the acceleration that takes place around distant supernovas.
Since we can't travel out to the far-off stellar explosions right now, the shockwave that forms from the flow of solar wind around Saturn's magnetic field provides a rare laboratory for scientists with the Cassini mission—a partnership involving NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency—to observe this phenomenon up-close. The findings, published this week in the journal Nature Physics, confirm that certain kinds of shocks can become considerably more effective electron accelerators than previously thought.
Shock waves are commonplace in the universe, for example in the aftermath of a stellar explosion as debris accelerate outward in a supernova remnant, or when the flow of particles from the sun - the solar wind - impinges on the magnetic field of a planet to form a bow shock. Under certain magnetic field orientations and depending on the strength of the shock, particles can be accelerated to close to the speed of light at these boundaries. These may be the dominant source of cosmic rays, high-energy particles that pervade our galaxy.
Scientists are particularly interested in "quasi-parallel" shocks, where the magnetic field and the "forward"-facing direction of the shock are almost aligned, as may be found in supernova remnants. The new study, led by Adam Masters of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Sagamihara, Japan, describes the first detection of significant acceleration of electrons in a quasi-parallel shock at Saturn, coinciding with what may be the strongest shock ever encountered at the ringed planet.
"Cassini has essentially given us the capability of studying the nature of a supernova shock in situ in our own solar system, bridging the gap to distant high-energy astrophysical phenomena that are usually only studied remotely," said Masters.
Journal information: Nature Physics
Provided by JPL/NASA


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In the wake of protests over police violence against black men, many civil rights activists are calling for a high-tech solution: strapping wearable body cameras to cops. The idea is to hold police accountable for unnecessary violence. But the history of police body cams reveals that the devices have often had the opposite effect.
On the afternoon of March 1st, a band of Los Angeles Police shot a homeless man. Video of the incident was captured by both a witness armed with a cell phone, and by body cameras strapped to the officers. Despite the evidence, what actually happened on Skid Row before police shot Charly Keunang remains a matter of dispute. How it went down depends on who you ask — and, more importantly, on whose video you're watching.
The civilian shot video from a short distance away, and the footage shows officers circling Keunang before a physical struggle erupts. Keunang is thrown to the ground. Officers struggle to contain him. He's resisting but subdued. He's not going anywhere, but he hasn't been cuffed. Then after some yelling, three officers open fire.
From this perspective, the story doesn't look too good for the LAPD. Sure, Keunang was resisting, but was he such a grave threat that he needed to die?
The answer to that question hinges on what the officers saw. The LAPD hasn't released police body camera footage captured at the scene because it's evidence in an ongoing investigation. That's consistent with policies nationwide, and the footage will almost certainly be released eventually—but could take up to a year or possibly even longer.
The LAPD has kept a tight gag on the investigation, but in a news conference the day after the shooting, LAPD police chief Charlie Beck said, "It appears officers acted compassionately up until the time when force was required." According to the official LAPD line, Keunang attempted to grab a gun from an officer during the altercation.
So we have two pieces of footage, and two stories. A civilian saw a gang of cops killing a poor black man on the street. But police saw a suspect trying to grab their guns.
This is going to be a crucial test case for body camera footage. It's also the first to crop up following the widespread social unrest over murders of Mike Brown and Eric Garner. Perhaps the most concrete demand of the protesters came straight from the family of Michael Brown. On the evening a grand jury failed to indict the officer who shot him, Brown's family implored supporters, "Join with us in our campaign to ensure that every police officer working the streets in this country wears a body camera."
At the time, there was a prevailing feeling that the witness testimony in the Mike Brown case had not uncovered the truth of what happened the afternoon Brown was shot. If only we'd had a record of the event, we would know for sure whether Brown had really attacked Officer Darren Wilson before the shooting. Or, if as Brown's supporters claimed, he had been executed after throwing up his arms in surrender. (In a pair of investigations, the Justice Department both cleared the killer cop of the shooting and found that the Fergusson Police Department was rotten with racism.)
On December 1st, President Obama proposed $75 million in matching funds to help police departments buy the technology. Two weeks later, On December 16th, Los Angeles announced a test program to put 800 cameras on cops throughout the city, with a wider rollout to the entire force planned for the future. It's the largest municipality in the United States to deploy a widespread police body camera program.
As a test case for the supposed social benefits of the technology, there couldn't be a more symbolically-loaded city than Los Angeles. Nearly 25 years ago, four LAPD officers were acquitted for the savage beating of Rodney King, despite a damning camcorder video that captured the assault. Since then, civilian video has proven largely ineffective in convicting police of brutality—or even indicting them for possible crimes. And yet many people believe that civilian footage shows police violating the civil rights of people on the ground. Eric Garner's death is the perfect example of this problem. Garner's friend got video of the police choking him to death, but the officers were never indicted, as if video didn't exist at all.
Body cameras, we're told, will change the game. But if you look back at how this tech has been used in America so far, we already know what's going to happen to the officers who shot Charly Keunang in Los Angeles: Nothing.
The First Body Cam Evidence
Police body cameras are a national issue today, but they've been in use in departments across the country for over five years. The technology's evolution from an untested product to mainstream staple got its first real-world test on November 11th, 2009, in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Officer Brandon Davis and his partner arrived at the home of Eric and Connie Berry to investigate a domestic disturbance. Connie opened the door for the officers and invited them in. When they entered, the officers found Eric sitting at the dining room table holding a Taurus 45 caliber semi-automatic handgun. The officers demanded repeatedly that Berry drop the weapon. When Berry didn't comply, Officer Davis shot him twice, killing him.
The whole encounter was captured by a camera mounted to the side of Officer Davis's head. The footage is hazy and disorienting; you hear the real urgency and fear in the voices of Officer Davis, Connie Berry, and Eric Berry. There's definitely something wrong. But it's also not the kind of solid evidence you might expect. You can sort of see Berry with his gun, but it's frankly too dark to make much of anything out.
Sixteen days after the shooting, local prosecutor Daniel Shue declined to press charges in the killing, citing the footage as abundant evidence that the use of deadly force was justified.
The case is remarkable because footage from a camera was used to exonerate an officer. But what most people don't realize is that the death of Eric Berry also helped to launch a new technology. Taser, the manufacturer of camera that got Officer Davis off the hook, lit up its publicity machine immediately after the incident. The very next day, Taser pushed out a release about the case, paying special attention to the exoneration. What could have been a complex investigation full of contradictory statements was simplified by the company's new wearable cameras.
Shue, the prosecutor, is prominently featured in press release, which quotes his report on the shooting.
"I must also mention my review of the AXON recording of the above detailed event," said Prosecuting Attorney, Daniel Shue. "This new technological tool recorded the entire incident by both audio and video. Though there are several third-party witnesses, as well as the officers' own recollections of some of the events leading up to the weapons discharge, this technology enabled this office to observe what happened with complete objectivity."
Of course, not everyone believed the case was so clearcut: Connie Berry would later go on to file a wrongful death suit against the police department. She lost, and her appeal in the case was denied last fall, just weeks before the Mike Brown and Eric Garner juries released their findings.
Officer Brandon Davis, however, became a poster boy for the technology. He's prominently featured in a short marketing video about the Berry shooting, which emphasizes how fast Davis was exonerated. He was back on the job just 72 hours after the shooting! In another sell sheet, he's pictured wearing the camera on his head next to a quote: "I loved the multiple mounting options of AXON Flex. The integration with Oakley makes it cool and comfortable. This is a system officers will want to wear."
Taser's Marketing Strategy
Taser first showed its AXON body camera at its annual Taser Conference in June 2008, a little over a year before the Berry shooting; the company later showcased it at the Chiefs of Police Conference in November that year. The original design called for a head-mounted camera attached to a body-worn pack. The idea was that when an officer had an interaction with a civilian, they would switch the camera on. The recorded data would then be uploaded to Taser's cloud-based video storage platform Evidence.com, where it would be retained for a duration of time, depending on what local records laws demand.
The technology has gone through several iterations since the first camera, mostly to make it more comfortable for officers to wear. In addition to a second-generation head-mounted camera with less body-pack baggage, Taser also offers a body worn model, which is the one that's used by the LAPD.
You probably recognize Taser as the company that makes the high-voltage shock weapon that's ubiquitous among police these days. According to Taser rep Steve Tuttle, body cams actually grew directly from the company's high voltage weapons. Taser had begun putting cameras in the shockers that would be activated automatically when the weapon was used. The footage could then be used after the fact to protect officers and police departments—not to mention Taser itself—from lawsuits.
From the beginning, Taser has marketed its tech to law enforcement customers with the promise that body cams are a quick way get out of lawsuits. And the AXON body cameras were the next stage in that campaign. "The AXON is the next great innovative step in law enforcement technology," CEO Rick Smith said in a release in the fall of 2008. "It will help provide revolutionary digital evidence collection, storage and retrieval for law enforcement."
On an investor call the following summer, just as the company was getting ready to put the Axon cameras into production and start cautiously pushing them out into the world, Smith detailed just how the cameras fit into the broader Taser mission. On the street you tase people, but afterwards, you need to be able to show why you did it:
Well with the AXON's ability to record exactly what happened, we improve the legal performance of the agency and the court system. So now they're able to show an audio/video account of exactly what happened, recorded from the officer's point of view. So this allows the agency to better defend its officers actions, to rapidly dispose of false complaints, and to better prosecute criminal activity recorded into digital record.
A few sentences later, Smith also claimed that the cameras could be used for police reform. It could legitimately be used to bust police in the act of doing something wrong. Bad police are the exception, and departments are better off without them:
Well with AXON if the officers are doing something wrong, we're going to know that too. So it's actually going to help agencies better perform their jobs by not only improving the performance of their officers, but if their officers just aren't hitting the performance levels required, it's going to make it easier to make the change that I think everybody wants, which is get bad cops off the street, and let's make the good ones better.
To date, Taser has sold some 30,000 cameras to roughly 2500 agencies under the logic that cameras make the job of policing safer—for the police.
The Pilot Project in Rialto, California
Just a week before the Fort Smith shooting established the exculpatory powers of body cameras, the San Jose Police Department became the first to publicly announce it would getting cameras on a trial basis. San Jose did a pilot program, but the city still hasn't fully invested in the technology. In fact, it would be years before big cities with huge police departments would get started. In the first year after announcing AXON, Taser pitched the cameras at trade shows and at departments across the country. Taser rolled out pilot programs in towns where police chiefs expressed interest. The early adopters make Fort Smith look huge: Aberdeen, South Dakota; Lake Havasu, Arizona; Burnsville, Minnesota, and other small towns and cities.
Over time, these pilot programs produced many of the lightly-reported local success stories that helped Taser make its case for police body cameras. "The system proved to be very beneficial in the prosecution of crimes and the resolution of conflict," Captain Daniel McNeil told the Aberdeen News in South Dakota. After a brief test with the cameras, Burnsville, Minnesota decided to place a full order, citing the speed in evaluating and processing citizen complaints: "The AXONs are going to save us money," Police Chief Bob Hawkins told the StarTribune.
In short, police officials who'd splurged on the unproven tech claimed that cameras provided departments with the technology to efficiently dispense with spurious complaints that would have otherwise cost a fortune to settle. For that reason alone, it was worth the investment.
The city of Rialto, California, a 100,000-person community about an hour east of Los Angeles, finally gave Taser the critical evidence it needed to move the technology forward. Rialto's police chief William Farrar has a long history of experimental police work, and a graduate degree in criminology from the University of Cambridge in the UK. He got interested in body cams while he was working on his degree—and he wound up using his own police force to study the effect of using police body cameras.
Under controlled conditions, Farrar studied how the presence of police cameras affected the nature of encounters between police and civilians. After outfitting the department with cameras, violent encounters dropped by 59 percent, while complaints dropped by 88 percent. Even police not wearing cameras saw a reduction in violent encounters in complaints.
Illustration by Sam Woolley
It's hard to overstate the impact of this study on the progress of body camera technology. The case was widely reported, including several glowing profiles of Farrar in the New York Times. Police networks circulated the findings uncritically, as a kind of tacit endorsement of the cameras.
The study even entered courtroom decisions. In August 2013, US District Judge Shira Scheindlin ordered NYPD precincts to test the technology. The order was part of a ruling where she found the New York Police Department's stop-and-frisk procedure discriminatory and unconstitutional. She cited Rialto as evidence that cameras could be helpful in reducing community tensions and fostering police reform.
By the time Obama proposed $75 million in federal funding for police cameras this past December, Rialto was cited in basically every news story on the topic. Taser rep Steve Tuttle says that the Rialto study marked a major turning point for Taser's sales as well. The technology really began to take off in the wake of Rialto's success.
Will We Ever Get a Body Cam Conviction?
Despite the Rialto study and several others, there's still not a broad body of data on how police body cams affect police behavior and community responses. The state of rigorous study of police body cameras is neatly summarized in a recently released working paper on the subject from the Data and Society Research Institute:
Little is known about the potential long-term impact of body -worn cameras. There has been no large-scale, systematic empirical research on their usage or implementation, and the evidence available today is based on small, local studies with limited generalizability.
The paper takes a close look at Rialto as well as a few other that have been performed so far. According to one of its authors Alex Rosenblat, the only really generalizable point is that cameras lead to a drop in complaints, partially because after people look at the footage, they see themselves and decide pursuing the complaint isn't worth it. Still, it's hard to make broad claims from the data because the contexts of all of the studies are so different. What's more, it hasn't been shown that cameras have a lasting effect after their initial rollout. Will the findings about reduced violence hold after people get used to seeing cameras everywhere?
Another problem is that the studies touted by Taser and law enforcement overlook many examples of how the technology doesn't really benefit citizens and how it might be abused.
Though many people are advocating body cameras in the service of police reform, it's worth remembering that these devices are still overwhelmingly used as a way of exonerating police. Police are very quick to release footage in shootings in Syracuse, Daytona Beach, and Salt Lake City because all of these cases were unquestionably justified. There are dozens of such videos.
In fact, until recently, body camera footage has never been used to indict an officer.
On January 12th, 2015, officers Keith Sandy and Dominique Perez were indicted for the 2014 shooting of James Boyd. The whole shooting was captured on body camera. Boyd, a homeless, mentally ill man, was camping in the Sandia Mountains outside Albuquerque, New Mexico. The officers arrived and told Boyd to pack it up and move it along. When Boyd refused, the officers called in scores of reinforcements. After being temporarily concussed by a light and sound grenade called a flashbang, Boyd made some threatening movements with some knives from his pockets. Officers repeatedly demanded he drop the knives. Then, in the heat of the moment, Sandy pulled the trigger.
Watching the video, it's clear that Boyd didn't need to die and that the officers weren't in any kind of imminent danger. In fact some contend that Boyd was in the process of surrendering when he was killed. There was absolutely a potential threat—there almost always is—but there were many options beyond killing Boyd.
Ultimately, the officers were indicted, indicative of how body cameras could help hold police accountable. But as Rachel Aviv's excellent New Yorker investigation on police shootings in Albuquerque illustrates, the indictments only came after the problem of shootings in the city got so bad that the Justice Department swooped in and investigated the department for far-reaching abuses of power and use of excessive force.
Laura Ives, the Albuquerque civil rights attorney representing the Boyd family says, "Without the lapel camera, there is no case." Without the cameras, the police would have come back from the foothills and spun whatever story got them off.
The Future of Law Enforcement
The James Boyd case provides one example of police accountability that civil rights activists hope to see more of in coming years. It allowed the justice system to pursue punishment for officers that did things that are unquestionably wrong. But despite the Boyd case, there's very little evidence that cameras are going to provide the kind of case-by-case accountability that angry people in the streets crave.
Still, there's almost no opposition to the technology from people on all sides of the law enforcement spectrum. Cops, lawyers, activists, and vendors all support the tech. "Why not have the footage?," argues Taser's Steve Tuttle. Tuttle's trying to sell cameras so his enthusiasm for the technology is understandable, but his sentiment is echoed by activists as well. Even the ACLU, an organization that is usually skeptical about the surveillance implications of widespread camera use, has supported the technology from the beginning. The group published a white paper in 2013 outlining policy priorities on the subject. "People expect there to be video," ACLU policy analyst Jay Stanley told me. That's the age we live in. People are surprised when events aren't recorded.
These perspectives feel right. Why not? Transparency and evidence are indisputably good things. With the right policies in place to ensure that the cameras are used properly and fairly, the social benefits could be tremendous.
The most optimistic reading of the technology I've heard came from Alex Rosenblat from the Data & Society center. "It's not useful to look at it as a way to punish specific officers," she said. "We should be asking how can we use the experiences recorded on camera to improve training."
I've viewed the technology with critical distance so far in this story because it doesn't ever lead to convictions of police officers. Surely some officers deserve conviction? It's unreasonable to suggest that the police never do anything wrong. But if punishment is unlikely, simply for reasons of systemic bias, maybe the tech can still lead to a slow march of reform, even if that's not quite as cathartic.
Laura Ives, the Boyd family lawyer in New Mexico, concedes that while seeking accountability on the individual level is important, "Not every mistake by an officer is unconstitutional and not every case is criminal, but you can certainly improve it."
Admittedly, police reform from body camera footage is an idyllic scenario, especially given our experience with the technology so far. It's very hard to manage these programs in such a way that the video is systematically collected, and readily available.
The New Orleans police department, to name a prominent example, has deployed them, with mixed success. Data reviewed last year by the Justice Department found that in of 145 incidents in which New Orleans officers equipped with body cameras used force, just 49 of those incidents had footage available. That should be seen as a colossal failure of transparency. Either officers weren't turning cameras on, or the footage was magically disappearing after the fact.
Even when footage does exist, it's not necessarily easy for a citizen to get their hands on it. Last year, CityLab tried to get a hold of San Diego police department footage, and the department flatly refused to hand it over. Part of this is a result of legitimate privacy concerns, and part is the sheer number of hours required to censor footage.
The fact is that police are more than happy to make the footage available when it makes them look good. But when police behavior might be controversial, as in the case of the recent LAPD shooting, we aren't getting the transparency that the technology promises.
There is no denying that police body cams are already the future of law enforcement. If you live in the U.S., they are likely to be coming to your city or town. Will they prevent the next Michael Brown shooting, or at least get the officers involved indicted? Can close study of the footage lead to reform? History suggests otherwise. But we can always hope.
This post has been updated since publication to fix typos and clarify language. The content is unchanged.
Top image by Jim Cooke
You can contact Mario Aguilar by email here. Follow him on Twitter.


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The Wall Street Journal's Joel Schectman reported last week that Apple has asked environmental organization EPEAT to remove from its product registry all of the company's 39 certified desktop computers, monitors, and laptops.
If the previous paragraph has left you scratching your head, don't worry: You're not alone. For just such a reason, we've put together a quick rundown of the move's significance; while it may not make you an expert on all things environmental and technological, it might at least give you something to talk about at your next dinner party.
What is EPEAT?
The Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) is a nonprofit organization that helps promote "environmentally preferable products." It's also backed by the federal government—in the form of the Environmental Protection Agency—and industry partners. Until recently, that latter list included Apple, who helped develop the standard.
The group gives out three levels of certification—gold, silver, and bronze—based on a mix of required and optional criteria. While all EPEAT-certified products must at least meet the required criteria, higher rankings are given to those which meet more of the optional criteria.
EPEAT focuses on the overall lifecycle of a product, using details such as the materials used in the products, how long the product will last, energy conservation, packaging, and more. The group also takes into account whether the manufacturers offer takeback and recycling of old products and support services like warranties, which extend the life of products.
Previously, much of Apple's Mac line was rated EPEAT Gold, meaning that not only did the products meet EPEAT's required standards, they also met at least 75 percent of the organization's optional standards.
What's the big deal?
Well, EPEAT isn't simply a nonprofit environmental organization. Due to Executive Order 13423, 95 percent of products purchased by federal agencies have to be EPEAT certified. So, despite Apple touting its products as highly environmentally friendly, federal agencies will be restricted from buying the vast majority of their computers from Apple.
The same is true for some state, city, and municipal offices. The city of San Francisco's Department of Environment, for example, has already said that Apple products "will no longer qualify" for purchase by city agencies, a move backed by the city's chief information officer.
In addition, some companies and higher education institutions also use EPEAT as a guideline for purchasing electronic equipment, though they are not required to do so by law.
Granted, while Apple has recently made inroads in corporations and government, those sources make up only a small part of the company's market. Education takes a slightly larger slice, but it's still a fairly small percentage when compared to the company's sales to the consumer market at large.
Why did Apple pull its products?
Good question. Apple's been fairly tight-lipped about the decision, but company spokesperson Kristin Huguet did tell The Loop that the company "takes a comprehensive approach to measuring our environmental impact and all of our products meet the strictest energy efficiency standards backed by the US government, Energy Star 5.2." In addition, Huguet added, Apple reports additional environmental information on its website, including areas not covered by EPEAT's guidelines.
It's worth noting, however, that Energy Star only covers the energy-efficiency of a product, not other factors taken into account by EPEAT, such as recyclability or materials.
Some speculation about the EPEAT withdrawal suggests that the root cause might lie with Apple's latest products. The company's newest devices have often become more difficult to disassemble, making it harder to remove components—such as the toxic materials in the battery or the glass glued to the aluminum case—for recycling.
In particular, the recently released Retina display MacBook Pro did not apparently meet EPEAT's criteria for disassembly. That's not especially shocking, as a teardown by iFixit led its CEO to conclude that the new Mac was "the least repairable laptop [iFixt has] ever taken apart."
Given that the Retina MacBook Pro represents Apple's design vision going forward, it's understandable that the company might find itself at odds with EPEAT, especially when it comes to the marketing of the company's most prominent new product. It's not hard to imagine that Apple would rather remove all of its products than deal with why its flagship Mac was not certified.
Indeed, EPEAT spokesperson Sarah O'Brien said that Apple had told the organization that it plans on going in a different direction with its products.
You've mentioned Macs. What about iOS devices?
Now that's paying attention. EPEAT actually doesn't cover smartphones and tablets at all, meaning none of Apple's iOS devices were ever in the product registry in the first place. And a loophole in that above mentioned Executive Order says that government agencies are not required to use EPEAT if there is no EPEAT standard for a particular product.
That means federal agencies have no restrictions on purchasing iOS devices, and given that Apple has been selling more and more iOS devices than Macs, that's another reason why the company may not be as concerned about dropping its products from EPEAT's registry. That said, there still could be some blowback from Apple's decision to eschew the standard, which could affect the purchase of any of its products.
Does this mean Apple isn't making environmentally-friendly products?
Not really. After all, the products that Apple pulled from the registry haven't themselves changed—they're just as environmentally friendly as they were before. Despite intense scrutiny from organizations like Greenpeace, Apple has remained fairly transparent about its environmental information, listing information on its website about its carbon footprint, use of toxic substances, and recycling initiatives.
Going forward, freedom from EPEAT's constraints may mean that Apple can make decisions about its product design that would have been otherwise unfeasible—but it also means that there may not be an easy, objective way to judge the environmental factors of its future products.


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It's getting harder and harder for the CIA to cover its tracks.
Paul Watson connects the dots. No word yet from the ETs.
Times Square Bomber Linked With CIA-Controlled Terror Group
Jaish-e-Muhammad founded by CIA-MI6 asset who bankrolled 9/11 hijackers
By Paul Joseph Watson
Global Research, May 6, 2010
Prison Planet
A man arrested in Pakistan in connection with the Times Square car bombing attempt who had traveled with accused bomber Faisal Shahzad is a member of a terrorist organization that is controlled by British MI6 and the CIA.
Sheik Mohammed Rehan, who was arrested on Tuesday in Karachi, "Allegedly drove with Shahzad from Karachi to Peshawar on July 7, 2009, in a pickup truck, authorities said. They returned to Karachi July 22. It is not known why they went to Peshawar and whether they met with anyone there," reports the L.A. Times.
Rehan is a member of the militant group Jaish-e-Muhammad, a terrorist organization that came to prominence in the mid-1990's and has been involved in attacks in the disputed Kashmir border region between India and Pakistan. The group also helped carry out the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament which brought India and Pakistan to the brink of nuclear war, tensions that proved very lucrative for British and American arms manufacturers who sold weapons to both sides.
"The December 2001 terrorist attacks on the Indian parliament — which contributed to pushing India and Pakistan to the brink of war — were conducted by two Pakistan-based rebel groups, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, both of which are covertly supported by Pakistan's ISI," writes Michel Chossudovsky. "Needless to say, these ISI-supported terrorist attacks serve the geopolitical interests of the US. They not only contribute to weakening and fracturing the Indian Union, they also create conditions which favor the outbreak of a regional war between Pakistan and India."
Jaish-e-Muhammad, the group now emerging in connection with the Times Square incident, was founded by Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the 9/11 bagman who delivered $100,000 from the United Arab Emirates to Mohammed Atta at the behest of General Mahmud Ahmed, then head of the ISI. Mahmud Ahmed, the man who ordered Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh to bankroll the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, was meeting with Republican Congressman Porter Goss and Democratic Senator Bob Graham in Washington DC on the morning of 9/11. In the days before and after the attack, Ahmed also met with CIA Head George Tenet as well as current Vice-President Joe Biden, then Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
In a report on Jaish-e-Muhammad's involvement in the murder of Daniel Pearl, who was investigating the ISI, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that the Pakistani government, "Believe that Saeed Sheikh's power comes not from the ISI, but from his connections with our own CIA."
Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf also alleged that Sheikh was recruited by MI6 while studying in London for the effort to destabilize Bosnia. During the 1992-1995 Bosnia conflict, the CIA helped Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda to train and arm Bosnian Muslims.
In 2002, the London Times reported that Sheikh "is no ordinary terrorist but a man who has connections that reach high into Pakistan's military and intelligence elite and into the innermost circles of Osama Bin Laden and the al-Qaeda organization."
Despite Sheikh's intimate involvement in numerous acts of terror as well as political kidnappings, including the 2008 Mumbai massacre, he was protected by both the CIA and British intelligence at every turn.
To recap, this is the man who founded the group now emerging in connection with the botched Times Square bombing – a CIA and MI6 asset.
"Experts believe Jaish-e-Muhammad still benefits from links with Pakistan's powerful government intelligence community. Some experts believe Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency facilitated the group's formation," states yesterday's L.A. Times article.
As the vast majority of geopolitical analysts concur, the Pakistani ISI is virtually nothing more than a CIA outpost. The ISI does nothing without the Agency giving its approval. The CIA has paid millions of dollars to the ISI since 9/11, accounting for no less than a third of the ISI's entire budget, despite the foreign spy agency's notorious history of funding and arming terrorist groups like Jaish-e-Muhammad and despite the fact that it bankrolled the 9/11 hijackers.
Since the CIA has its fingerprints all over almost every Middle Eastern terror group, it's unsurprising that an Agency connection to the Times Square bomber has come to light. We've never come across a terrorist who wasn't trained, equipped, radicalized, entrapped, or provocateured by a western intelligence agency or a terror group controlled by a western intelligence agency.