Terrible Tommy's 27 Years of Solitude

'Terrible' Tommy Silverstein has been put in solitary confinement for the past 27 years. After being sentenced to 15 years in prison for stealing with his father, he committed in-prison murders. The first one came in 1980, two years after he was sent to prison, when he was convicted of killing a fellow inmate. He was moved to a maximum security prison, where his conviction was actually overturned. Then he was convicted of killing two other inmates at about that time. However, it was the highly publicized, 1983 murder of prison guard Merle Clutts that led to Silverstein's unusual solitary confinement. Silverstein fatally stabbed the 51-year-old. He is now in the high-security prison known as Supermax in Florence, Colorado. His only means of seeing the outside world is through a black and white TV. He writes letters and spends most of his time doing so. He wrote in one letter, "It's almost more humane to kill someone immediately than it is to intentionally bury a man alive." He uses art therapy and writing to express his feelings to the world.

It is unfortunate that Terrible Tommy has to suffer this for some in-prison murders. He has had no contact with any human for 27 years. When I thought of this, I realized that I cannot understand how he would feel. Imagine the frustration and the desperate need and want of talking to someone. Just because he made some mistakes doesn’t mean he has to experience what he says is worse than death. I am sure there are other people who have killed guards, but they were probably not put in this situation. I am not fond of solitary confinement because it hurts the person inside and doesn’t allow them to express anything. They are shut in their own world. It also seems as if Tommy is behaving well under the art therapy and I feel that they need to see if his solitary confinement should end.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/25/colorado.supermax.silverstein.solitary/index.html?iref=allsearch

Security Flaws for Passports

Hackers Adam Laurie and Jeroen Van Beek tested the security by creating a fake passport of Elvis Presley and using it in the Schiphol airport at Amsterdam. It was cleared for travel. By scanning it in an automated passport scanning system, Elvis’s photo showed up on the display. To create the passport, they created content for Elvis Presley and then put it on a chip signed by their own key for a non-existent country, according to Van Beek. The device that read the chip wasn’t able to check the country’s signature. "I think fraud is 100 percent possible," said Laurie. "The passport bit is the more difficult. You would have to buy one from a professional forger or some means, but adding the chip is something we could do ourselves using off the shelf equipment using $100 investment." To make the security safer, all countries need to have an international system where they can check all the countries’ signatures.

I think that this is a sign to us that security will never be perfect. The better the system gets, the better the hacking will get. It seems as if you should never trust the security that is promised, but rather stay aware that anyone could hack the system if they make up their mind. This is also definitely a sign to the governments that our airport security is not good enough. We should not have to wait for another chaos like 9/11 to start making the security better again. We need to take precautions against hacking and try to correct the flaws and do the best we can in making a perfect system.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/19/passport.security/index.html?iref=allsearch

Medical Dramas Get it Wrong

Medical dramas like Grey's Anatomy or House seem professional and realistic, but it isn't quite so, apparently. In medical procedures like treating a person with a seizure, they have been showing incorrect and harmful ways to help these patients. For example, the proper way to care a seizing patient is to remove harmful objects, put something soft under their head, and rotating them to the side. However, the characters in these shows have not done these things and instead put things in their mouth, which could actually make the patient choke. In fact, 46% of the seizure procedures in these programs have been deemed inappropriate. Researchers aren't happy because of the thought of viewers being influenced by and remembering the actions of the characters in the shows. Dr. Lisa Sanders, who is the techinical adviser of House, found these errors in the show and told them to the director. However, there were still times when the show broadcasted with the mistakes. Dr. Sanders is not happy right now about how these shows are far from the truth of medical procedures and wants to fix it.

I am disappointed in the accuracy of these shows since they hold large influence over their viewers and should try to do everything correctly. With researchers like Dr. Lisa Sanders nearby helping them with the medical procedures, they cannot make mistakes like these and perhaps cause the death of someone who could have been saved if the show provided correct procedures. They should in fact go over the scenes with treatments and check to make sure every detail is correct. As much as the story is important for the success of the drama, they should not lessen the importance of the reality of the medical procedures. There should be more people who can give advice to the directors of these TV shows so that no problem is in the broadcasted show. I hope that the amount of incorrect information decreases from now on.

Check this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/15/tv.medical.dramas.seizures/index.html

Man Gets $4.1 Million for Being Wrongly Convicted

Tim Masters was investigated for murder from the age of 15 after Peggy Hettrick died near his home in 1987. In 1999, he was put behind bars for a murder charge. Then, in 2008, after new evidence has been provided showing how Masters was not the murderer, he was freed. His attorneys managed to get him $4.1 million from the county for the wrong sentence. However, they say that it is only a start to pay back for the ten years of his life that he will never be able to get back. Wymore, who represents Tim Masters, says that someone should apologize because this isn't just a simple accident. Masters says he would pay $10 million to get his ten years back, but unfortunately that is impossible. The evidence provided by the prosecutors in 1999 was not enough to make sure that Masters was guilty beyond doubt, but he was still sentenced to jail. First of all, there was no physical evidence and they relied only on a psychologist who never talked to Masters and just doodles and sketches by Masters. Tim is now living in his aunt's basement attending school to become an aircraft mechanic. He wants to live a normal life now.

This is ridiculous how Tim Masters was sentenced to jail without any solid proof that he committed murder. If the jury and the judge viewed the case more clearly, it would have been obvious that the prosecutors didn't provide enough evidence to make sure that Masters was guilty beyond doubt. Tim Masters was sent to jail for ten years (and could have been more if his attorneys didn't find new evidence) that he can never get back. No matter how much money he is given now, it would not be enough to make up for the fact that he doesn't have a family or job. Therefore, I feel that to avoid any more cases like this, the judge should make sure that it is absolutely clear that a person is guilty before they are charged. Tim Masters's life was ruined because of a mistake by others. There should be no more victims like him.

Check this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/16/tim.masters.settlement/index.html

Captions on Online Videos?

Google engineer Ken Harrenstien (above) has been deaf since he was five. He enjoyed the Internet because he had no need of a sign language translation, but has had troubles because of online videos that had no caption. Almost all videos on the Internet have no captions and that makes it impossible for deaf people to enjoy them. Harrenstien is working to create captions on videos right now, and the product is great. On Youtube, Google's video search engine, there is auto-caption technology which automatically puts in captions if the user posts the text correctly. However, there aren't a lot of people posting these captions and in the few videos that do have captions, there are many errors due to the program's misunderstanding of words. Dianne Stark of the Described and Captioned Media Program says that Google's program is a start, but there is a 10% error rate and thinks that the government should require captions on online videos to increase the number of captioned videos.

I have never thought about the fact that there are no captions on online videos and this article opened me up to the idea that we should have captions on online videos as the Internet is such a huge and useful network now and should be available to deaf people as well. Although I don't agree with a law to have captions for videos, I feel that promoting this idea and supporting it with better technology and programs to allow the uploaders to conveniently post captions without being put down by difficult and annoying programs. Simply promoting and advertising will increase the number of captioned videos as I am sure that there are many people like me who have never even thought of captioned online videos.

Check this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/09/deaf.internet.captions/index.html?iref=allsearch

Michael Jackson's Doctor Surrenders

Michael Jackson's death has been investigated and the cause of his death has been concluded as acute propofol intoxication. Dr. Murray, his doctor, has admitted that he has given the pop star drugs to help him sleep which created the benzodiazepine effect That is now said to be part of the cause of his death as well. Dr. Murray gave him some sleeping aids and left the room and on his arrival, noticed that Jackson was no longer breathing. He has admitted to be at fault for Michael Jackson'
s death and has surrendered. However, he canceled his surrender to authorities for now, but the truth is still out of how he did give him pills that killed Michael Jackson. Some people say that it is not right to arrest Dr. Murray and it is simply a waste of time and money, like Dr. Murray's lawyer Chernoff.

I feel that although Michael Jackson does seem like he died beacuse of Dr. Murray, it is not appropriate to arrest him for it as it does not seem like Murray did it on purpose at all. It was right for Dr. Murray to finally admit that he gave him sleeping aids that were the cause of Jackson's death. However, I feel that it is not necessary to arrest him as he cannot be called a "criminal". Also, Michael Jackson died because he took too many pills and it is not Dr. Murray's responsibility as he gave Michael Jackson instructions that he did not follow.

Check this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/04/michael.jackson.charges/index.html?iref=allsearch

Trial Happening for Home Invasion

On July 23, 2007, two men broke into a house and killed a mother and two daughters. The murderers were Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes. At around 3a.m., they broke into the Petit families house. They sexually harassed Michaela, an eleven year old girl, and Jeniffer Hawke-Petit,the forty eight year old mother before killing the two as well as Hayley, the oldest daughter(17). They also set the house on fire. They are charged with felony murder, kidnapping, sexual assault and arson. Dr. William Petit, the father, wants these two murderers to be sent to death penalty and is fighting for it. He is saying that his family died and it is not justice to allow these men to live. The case was listed as Class A felony which is able to sentence up to 10 years. However, Dr. William Petit will not be satisfied unless they are sent to death penalty. The problem is that the death penalty's existence itself is also being argued. Right now 61% of people are for the death penalty and 34% are not.
Now the place where the Petit family's home was is now a garden.

These two men should be sent to death penalty for sure because of the justice to the the Petit family as well as to make sure these two cruel men will never get a chance to take advantage of other weaker people as well. I feel that it is not right to even give them a second chance for what they have done to this family. Death penalty must remain for cases like this. Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes must sent to death penalty.

Check this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/01/connecticut.petit.slayings/index.html?iref=allsearch