The Colorado Index

Wrong and Right Reasons for Death Penalty Abolition

Recently, the Colorado House passed HB 09-1274 to abolish the death penalty in Colorado.  It now heads to the Senate for debate.  Ostensibly, the "savings" from not having inmates on death row will help research "cold-cases".  The Post reports:

House Majority Leader Paul Weissmann, a Louisville Democrat who is the bill's sponsor, said more than 1,000 homicides have gone unsolved in Colorado over the past 40 years, during which Colorado has executed only one convict. He said more than $800,000 in saved money would be left over every year after the state funds the cold-case unit.

"We ought to fund the unit we created two years ago to try to solve some of those unsolved crimes," [ Paul ] Weissmann said.

The "savings" numbers that Paul Weissmann quotes seem dubious.  Can we really fund the cold case unit and save $800,000 per year from moving the two prisoners on Colorado's death row to the general prison population?     A true present-worth comparison would compare the costs of someone living an entire life in prison versus the twenty years of prison and appeals prior to execution.  It does not appear that Weissmann's bill does that.

David K. Williams at BlueCarp points to this Denver Post story as a better rationale for death penalty abolition.

An El Paso County judge has ordered a new trial for a man convicted of double homicide, saying that DNA and other newly discovered evidence could acquit him.

Tim Kennedy, 52, was convicted in 1997 and sentenced to 50 years for the murders of Jennifer Carpenter, 15, and her boyfriend, Steve Staskiewicz, 37.

"The case starts over now, so we will be preparing for trial if the DA wants to proceed. That remains to be seen," said Kennedy's attorney, John Dicke.

David K. Williams makes a much better case for death penalty abolition than Weissmann's.

Pro-death penalty advocates possess a mind boggling amount of faith in the government's ability to determine life and death. I don't possess that faith. 

Neither does Tim Kennedy.

And it is not just that the government can be wrong. Far worse, it can be, and all too often is, malevolent.

In this case, the judge found that prosecutors failed to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense.

This is a blatant, immoral breach of the public trust.  For some reason, prosecutors get caught up in the "game" to win a case at any cost instead of providing "potentially exculpatory evidence" to the defense.  Our legal system is set up on the presumption of innocence.  Prosecutors who violate this maxim just to score a conviction should be penalized and disbarred for their unethical, unprofessional behavior.

With the vast improvement of DNA and other technologies that help provide evidence of innocence, courts are overturning many old convictions.  While "beyond a reasonable doubt" may be okay for a jury to convict someone of a crime, for death penalty cases, the standard must be higher as the State chooses to deprive the accused of not only liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but his life!

There is always some give-and-take as society balances civil liberties and law-and-order.  However, one must error on the side of civil liberties in most instances.  Therefore, I support the principle of abolition of the death penalty, if not the flawed fiscal rationale behind it.

by Civil Sense

Oil Company Funds Alternative Energy Research In Colorado

ConocoPhillips is one of the oil companies that the left frequently demonizes. However, with the recent purchase of the Broomfield Sun Microsystems campus (just over the hill from Boulder County Liberal Congressman Mark Udall’s residence), ConocoPhillips will partner with several Colorado universities for alternative fuel research. From the Camera:

ConocoPhillips announced Tuesday it signed a $5 million, multiyear, sponsored-research agreement with a Colorado biofuels center, which includes CU, to find new ways to convert biomass into low-carbon transportation fuels.

Among the first projects will be one that involves converting algae into renewable fuel, researchers say.

The Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels, or C2B2 — a research hub of the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory — launched in March 2007. It’s charged with conducting research at four institutions: The University of Colorado’s Boulder campus, the Colorado School of Mines, Colorado State University and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Amazing: an “evil” oil company actually researching alternative fuels.  Governor Bill Ritter is excited about the research efforts.

Gov. Bill Ritter, in a news release, praised the partnership.

“Even without climate change as an issue, fossil fuels are nonrenewable,” [ Bill ] Ritter said. “For ConocoPhillips to partner with us to convert biomass to transportation fuels fits nicely with how we think about the new energy economy in the state.”

The technological research ideas are interesting.

Alan Weimer, executive director of C2B2, said CU researchers specialize in the separation and purification of lipids that are taken from algae, and can then be sent to oil refineries to be processed into gasoline.

“It’s a way for the oil companies to basically grow oil,” Weimer said.

Weimer said that not only does algae have a rapid growth rate, but it doesn’t take food away from people or livestock — like when farmers sell their corn crops to produce ethanol. The algae, he said, could be grown in the Mojave Desert where little else grows.

Unlike the oversubsidized corn ethanol boondoggle (with Mark Udall’s support) that helped increase food costs without deriving any net environmental benefit, this technology could be a partial panacea for future fuel needs. Kudos to ConocoPhillips for sponsoring technological research in new energy sources.

One of the reasons America is so free is the nearly limitless personal mobility that the automobile allows. Tomorrow’s technology will solve the energy problems of tomorrow. Today, we need to develop our own domestic oil resources to keep energy prices lower until these new technologies are ready to compete at a larger scale on the energy markets.

by Civil Sense

How Far We Have Come

One of the fun things about writing a blog is that the blogger gets to pick the subject.  Sometimes it can be serious, and sometimes it can be fun.  Today, we are doing fun.

A couple of weeks ago, I began looking into Yahoo Pipes which caused me to think and write about all of the dead programming languages I once knew.  A few folks enjoyed that essay enough that I thought I might write a few more, not about the software, but about the hardware.

I first began learning about computers in the 1965-66 time frame.  My college had an IBM 360.  Data and source code input was by punch card.  It was pretty spiffy at the time. 

This isn't a story about college computing, this is a story about military computing.  15 years later I found myself managing a mobile, war fighting, IBM 360.  Fortunately, there was no war.

Everything in the military has to be able to move on short notice, including computers.   My IBM 360 was no exception.  By today's standard, the IBM 360 was not much of a computer.  It had 256K of RAM, nine 20 MB disk drives, a card reader, several tape drives, and most impressive of all, an 1100 line per minute printer.

All of this was packed into two 35 foot air conditioned trailers that, when the computer was operational, had to be parked side by side.  While the computer only used about 20 KW of energy, it required that the power be precise.  The Army only had one generator that could produce precise power, and it came in a 100 KW version.

Of course, we had other things that we had to air condition.  That 1100 line per minute printer could only use boxes of paper that had been acclimated, so I had both an air conditioned truck and an air conditioned 30 foot van for paper.

We were supposed to have three 5 ton trucks to pull the trailers, but we "lent" them to the transportation company which could use them all of the time.  They got the maintenance headaches and we got on call trucking.  What a deal.

Specialized military units often do all echelons of their own maintenance.  We were no exception.  I had a computer maintenance warrant officer and several senior NCOs.  IBM had a backup crew on call when the military guys couldn't solve the problem.

I've saved the best part for last.  I was a Major with 35 soldiers working for me.  Our only job was to run this one computer.   We did no data entry.  There were probably 10 soldiers doing punch card data entry elsewhere.  I had computer operators, programmers, generator operators, and a maintenance section.  I had two warrant officers, an E-8, 6 E-7s and too many E-6s and E-5s to count.

The budget for spare parts and paper was $250,000 a year.  The military payroll was probably a half million in 1982 dollars.  I have no idea what the costs for power were while we were in garrison, but it couldn't have been cheap.

All of this to run one computer that was significantly less capable than the computer you are using to read this.

Not-So-Ducky Day in Washington Park

Certain mothers held a rally in Denver to instruct their children on how to stage a photo-op in support of the nanny state. From the Rocky Mountain News:

Mothers and their children told Congress how to vote on "toxic toys" Tuesday by dumping tainted rubber ducks in the trash at the Washington Park playground.

The protesters are urging a 15-member congressional conference committee, including Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Denver, to ban toxic chemicals in toys and other child-care products.

"Toys don't come with a list of ingredients," said Nancy Wilhelm, an Evergreen mother of three. "As a mom, I should be able to depend on the government to ensure that the toys I buy aren't toxic." [Emphasis added.]

At issue are phthalates (pronounced THA-lates), a class of toxic chemicals used to make plastic in baby teethers and bath books soft and flexible. Along with other consumer products such as hand lotion, cosmetics and shampoo, phthalates are used in industrial solvents, insecticides and paints. (snip)

The Senate banned the chemicals in children's products in its version of the Consumer Product Safety Commission Reform Act. But, because the House bill didn't address phthalates, the pressure is on [ Congresswoman Diana ] DeGette and two other House Democrats on the conference panel to back a national ban.

"Congresswoman [Diana ] DeGette supports banning phthalates in children's products," said her spokesman, Kristofer Eisenla.

Apparently, it is the government’s job to protect the mothers from making poor decisions. This is a prime example of nanny state thinking. What happened to caveat emptor?

Also, the science of phthalates shows mixed results. Laboratory animals have health risks when exposed to large amounts of the substances, but the health risks to humans are unproven at best. The typical exposure of kids from phthalates is not enough to cause lasting health problems. As multiple formulas of phthalates exist, a blanket ban without further testing may be premature.

One day, the science may prove that banning phthalates from children’s toys is a good idea. However, staging a photo-op to promote the government nanny state mentality likely will be more dangerous to the long-term well-being of the children than phthalates ever were.

by Civil Sense

Screen Saver Silliness

Someone with an animation program appears to be trying to sell a screen saver on the Denver Post.

At first glance, the screen saver looks slick.  It is a planet, not in our solar system, with two moons and a ring.

It would be useful if the animator knew something about orbital mechanics:

The big moon in the foreground doesn't move.  It should move.   Its gravity would probably break up the rings over time and send the material spiraling into the planet.

The smaller moon is in retrograde orbit.  That is, it orbits in the opposite direction that the planet spins.  That is possible if the planet captured it.  What isn't possible is that something is bending the orbit as the small moon makes one trip across the screen.  Hold a piece of paper along the initial orbital plane.  You will see a major orbit shift starting when the moon is half way across the planet.

If you bought that screen saver, don't show it to anyone you think might know anything about orbital mechanics. 

Those of you who know about animation may guess that the animators wanted to keep the shadow going in a straight line.  They needed to play with their light source to make the shadow fly in a straight line.  Animation programs can mimic reality except in this kind of space scene.  There is a limitation on the ability to create a distant, bright light source like the sun that ruins the effect. 

There is a work around, but the animator appears not to have known it.

The company's other products might be more realistic.  We didn't look.

Pandemic Triage

Those who have served in the military or in disaster preparedness know what triage is.

Essentially, it is an attempt by medical personnel to save more of those who can be saved while allowing those with a poor chance to survive to die.  The expectation is that by concentrating limited resources on just those who have a better chance to live, more will live.

Today, the Denver Post is reporting that Doctors from well known organizations and universities have constructed a disaster/pandemic triage list.  The following categories of people would either receive no treatment or be the last on the list to receive treatment:

—People older than 85.

—Those with severe trauma, which could include critical injuries from car crashes and shootings.

—Severely burned patients older than 60.

—Those with severe mental impairment, which could include advanced Alzheimer's disease.

—Those with a severe chronic disease, such as advanced heart failure, lung disease or poorly controlled diabetes.

This list is similar to a military triage list, if one exists.  Patients who require excessive amounts of care are ignored.