All Critics (177) | Top Critics (43) | Fresh (165) | Rotten (12)
Trintignant perfectly captures the resolve that eventually borders on obsession, as the woman he loves gradually, maddeningly, disappears before his eyes, and he does whatever he can to prevent it, though he knows it's impossible.
Many viewers will find echoes of their grandparents, parents, or even themselves in these characters.
A movie that is utterly worthy of its all-encompassing title.
The resulting interplay of ruthless restraint and unavoidable passion, plus the film's refusal to shrink from depicting the inevitable horrors of physical deterioration, is devastating.
In many ways it's the best horror film I've ever seen. At the same time, it's hard to recommend; I believe I will be struggling to forget this film as long as I live. I doubt I'll succeed.
As remarkable as Haneke's films are, not a one has been as transcendently generous as Amour, which is nominated for five Academy Awards, including best picture, best director and best foreign-language film.
Rarely has this subject matter been depicted so realistically, so honestly. You always know where the story is heading but it's still tough to watch.
The scenario is upsetting, but the execution is genuine and pure, making Amour a film of heartbreaking beauty and Haneke's masterpiece.
Amour will now rate highly on a list of my favorite horror movies. It's certainly upsetting. But that is its strength.
This is a profound look at love about a couple who have lived with each other for so many years, know each other so well and this terrible thing that is facing them and there's a serenity there which makes it even more moving, I think.
It's Haneke's searing honesty and lack of sentimentality, and his talent as a writer-filmmaker that lifts this film to the heights of achievement. I know that the storyline may sound gloomy, the film is not. It is beyond wonderful.
Ultimately, the title of the film demands to be taken as a question: is this truly what love looks like? A little smugly, Haneke refuses to answer.
A multiple award winner at film festivals around the globe, and it is easy to see why. Highly recommended.
Michael Haneke's most intimate and painfully truthful film - an exploration of what love means at the far end of life.
This is a movie almost too painful to watch at times, yet so masterfully composed and acted - Riva absolutely deserves her Oscar nomination, while Trintignant was robbed - that it's impossible to turn away.
Georges' irreversible decision may be courageous, but it requires no sacrifice on the part of his creator: for Haneke, it's business as usual.
Trintignant and Riva are unforgettably brilliant as the aging couple we can all identify with.
Haneke's startling film stands in stark contrast with other recent, comedic fare that seemingly addresses similar issues.
My review is categorized as 'favourable' not because I enjoyed the film (that's not Michael Haneke's intent) but because I recognise what he is trying to say and that he says it with a unique cinematic voice
Debilitation and loss of control is a harsh topic, yet Haneke's film is surprisingly gentle, exploring the constraints and options faced, as old age delivers its ultimate blow - the loss of self and ability to function with dignity
Amour is a pure depiction of love, in all its many forms.
The furthest thing from sweet sorrow imaginable, Amour gets real about the pain of parting in every sense of the word.
This subject matter is ripe for sentimentalization, but Haneke resists it at every turn, opting instead for unflinching honesty. It is the economy of theme paired with the subtle richness of character that make Amour so powerful.
Clearly, Amour, Michael Haneke and Emmanuelle Riva don't really need me to additionally sing their praises (although praise is indeed all I have), so let's discuss Jean-Louis Trintignant for a moment.
All is presented in Haneke's exacting style, one that I find controlling and a bit, well, smothering.
Whether you?re curious about alternative medicine, or looking for ways to lessen your dependence on prescriptions and conventional medical interventions, the following five books will provide ample food for thought. Is there a rational middle ground between a completely ?natural? approach to health and the techno-medical model of care? How can we improve communication with our doctors and become partners in our care, rather than passive recipients? What kind of medicinal cures are growing right in our own backyards, or available literally at our fingertips? These are just some of the questions explored and answered by the thought-provoking books that follow.
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Why, even as technological medicine advances, are we becoming less healthy? Why are more American women dying in childbirth? Why do we grow fatter the more we diet? Why have so many attempts to save the environment backfired? How can humans be a functional, helpful part of nature rather than destroying it? These are some of the riddles that journalist Nathanael Johnson strives to solve in ?All Natural.? Raised by parents dedicated to a "natural" lifestyle, and now grappling with the best way to raise his baby daughter, he lovingly and rigorously scrutinizes his parents? all-natural mindset, a quest that brings him into the worlds of an outlaw midwife, radical doctors, renegade farmers and one hermit forester. In ?All Natural,? Johnson teases apart the complicated tangle of feelings and assumptions surrounding nature, technology and control. With an open-minded, nonideological approach, he explores various perspectives on movements both for organic practices and technological advancement in diet, childbirth, healing and the environment. Readers grappling with the flood of conflicting information about how to live a healthy, nondestructive life will appreciate this book?s nuanced attitude and its often-surprising conclusions. Thought-provoking and timely, ?All Natural? is a blend of reportage and memoir that offers a rousing and original vision for a rational middle ground between the natural and the technological. A great read for those alienated by the extreme, polarizing views on both sides and seeking a research-led middle ground.
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Benjamin Franklin?s famous saying ?An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure? was actually firefighting advice, but the maxim rings true for health too. With health problems such as obesity, diabetes?and heart disease continuing to plague America, looking for alternatives to mainstream diet and healthcare options makes good sense. Integrative wellness is an approach to health that acknowledges and utilizes the natural healing capacity of human beings and emphasizes prevention above treatment. Dr. Jim Nicolai, author of ?Integrative Wellness Rules: A Simple Guide to Healthy Living,? is the medical director of the Andrew Weil, M.D. Integrative Wellness Program at Miraval. A board-certified family practitioner and a graduate of the Integrative Medicine Fellowship at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Nicolai has a special interest in whole-person medicine. He works with both conventional medicine and complementary and alternative therapies, including herbs and other botanicals, vitamins and supplements, lifestyle management and stress reduction when treating his patients, whom he regards holistically. With ?Integrative Wellness Rules,? Nicolai offers simple, useful keys to healthier living that will guide readers in eating better, choosing the vitamins and supplements that are best for them, managing stress more effectively, and getting in touch with their spiritual sides. His quick and easy health tips are presented in a relatable, conversational style, perfect for those looking for healthy, natural, balanced strategies to better manage their fast-paced lives. Easy to follow, practical to implement, and effective when put into practice, the tips in ?Integrative Wellness? can help readers begin to select a set of strategies and action steps that will take them toward their ideal selves, the health they seek, and the lives they truly want to live. In learning and implementing these integrative wellness rules, readers can take charge of their well-being and enjoy increases in energy, motivation, life resilience and, ultimately, longevity.
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Trying to navigate, stay healthy, or heal within the contemporary mainstream, Western model of medical care can be frustrating. For some it?s so frustrating that they opt out of the system altogether, choosing to work with naturopaths and other alternative practitioners. But for those who choose to use the techno-medical model of care, taking an active role is essential. ?Most of us have spent so long thinking of medical care as a passive process that it takes time to change our mindset to put ourselves in the driver?s seat,? write Drs. Leana Wen and Josh Kosowsky in their new book, ?When Doctor?s Don?t Listen.? The two emergency physicians examine the doctor-patient relationship, arguing that diagnosis, once the cornerstone of medicine, is fast becoming a lost art, with grave consequences. Together, they provide a raft of anecdotal stories that double as scenarios many patients encounter: being rushed, doctors downplaying concerns, having close-ended "cookbook medicine" questions determine the course of the interaction, and other situations leading to reductive diagnoses. The doctors offer actionable steps readers can take toward being "better patients" as well as working to pressure doctors into providing better care ? steering the conversation away from close-ended questions, insisting on both explanations for recommended tests and exploring alternatives, and making yourself an active partner in reaching a differential diagnosis. In addition to detailed guidance on how to avoid misdiagnosis, the doctors condense their suggestions into what they call the ?8 Pillars to Better Diagnosis,? a list that they recommend patients study and practice working from before they visit the doctor?s office, emergency room or hospital. Finally, the appendices include exercises, worksheets and a glossary of key terms to further empower patients. By encouraging patients to engage with their doctors as partners in their diagnosis and giving them the tools to do so, this essential guide enables patients to speak up and regain control of their health care.
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Since ancient times, people have used plants to heal themselves, and using plants to treat disease continues to be widespread in most cultures to this day. Many herbal remedies can be found growing near your home ? maybe even in your own garden. "Backyard medicines" are not only cheap, they are free, and using local plants for herbal remedies saves on imports and air miles. Learning to make your own herbal remedies can be both pleasurable and practical ? especially if you have the right guide. Originally published under the title ?Hedgerow Medicine? in Great Britain, this popular book has been rewritten for North Americans and updated to reflect the North American distribution of the featured plants. "Hedgerows" in Britain are an integral part of the landscape, and the word conveys a sense of countryside and the often-forgotten traditional harvesting and use of plants ? there are miles of public footpaths with rights of access. For the North American version, wife-and-husband authors Julie Bruton-Seal and Matthew Seal wanted to suggest the same sense of self-sufficiency in using the plants that grow "on your doorstep." All of the plants featured are found on both sides of the Atlantic, some being native in the New World and others brought over from Europe by settlers. Trained in herbal medicine, iridology and energy medicine, Bruton-Seal runs a natural health practice in Norfolk, England, where she grows and collects many of her own herbs and makes her own essences. Together with her husband, she also teaches workshops on herbal medicine making, and leads herb walks. This book provides the couple?s clear instructions about which plants to harvest to make over 120 recipes for teas, vinegars, oils, creams, pillows, poultices and alcohol-based tinctures. An excellent and beautiful guide for the budding herbalist.
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By Nick Ortner
Nick Ortner, creator and executive producer of the documentary ?The Tapping Solution,? has written a practical reference for harnessing the healing benefits of EFT (emotional freedom technique). Slated to be published by Hay House in April, ?The Tapping Solution: A Revolutionary System for Stress-Free Living? describes not only the history and science of tapping but also its hands-on applications. Ortner lays out easy-to-use practices, diagrams and worksheets that will teach readers, step-by-step, how to tap on a variety of issues. With chapters covering everything from the alleviation of pain to the encouragement of weight loss to fostering better relationships, Ortner opens readers? eyes to just how powerful this practice can be. Throughout the book, readers will see real-life stories of healing ranging from easing the pain of fibromyalgia to overcoming a fear of flying. Tapping has been shown to provide relief from chronic pain, emotional problems, disorders, addictions, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, and physical diseases. While tapping is still a new technique, the healing concepts that it's based upon have been in practice in Eastern medicine for over 5,000 years. Like acupuncture and acupressure, Tapping utilizes the body's energy meridian points. You can stimulate these meridian points by tapping on them with your fingertips ? literally tapping into your body's own energy and healing power. The simple strategies Ortner outlines in this book will help readers release their fears and clear the limiting beliefs that hold them back from creating the life they want.
LINCOLN, Neb. --(Ammoland.com)- For the first time in its 50-year history, Swanson Russell has surpassed $100 million in capitalized billings.
Capitalized billings are an industry standard used by agencies as a uniform means of comparing agencies that offer a variety of services.
?In our industry, becoming a $100 million agency is a significant milestone,? said Dave Hansen, partner and chief executive officer of Swanson Russell.? ?It has been a stated goal of ours and we are very excited to announce this achievement. One hundred million is certainly a milestone that elevates our status on a national level.?
Ten years ago, Swanson Russell?s capitalized billings stood at around $50 million.? In 2011, capitalized billings reached $90 million.? In 2012, the agency not only exceeded the $100 million mark, but also celebrated its 50th anniversary and grew to employ more than 150 people.
?2012 was a pretty special year for us,? said Brian Boesche, partner and chief creative officer.? ?The biggest key to our success is great people.? The agency business is a people business and we?ve been able to hire and retain people who are excellent strategists, creative thinkers, and who are committed to making things happen for our clients.?
Swanson Russell was founded in 1962 by the late Warren M. ?Gus? Swanson.? Steve Russell served as president for 25 years and oversaw much of the growth that has occurred. He currently serves as chairman of the board.? Boesche and Hansen purchased the agency from Russell in 2007 and now own and operate the agency.
Swanson Russell has offices in Lincoln and Omaha and offers full service advertising/marketing communications, including branding, media, public relations, database and interactive and social media services. In addition to working with local and regional clients, the agency is nationally recognized for expertise in agriculture, healthcare, outdoor recreation, construction and the green industry.
For more information about Swanson Russell?s Real Connection? visit www.swansonrussell.com.
DUBLIN (AP) ? An Algerian man wanted by American authorities over the abortive "Jihad Jane" plot to assassinate a Swedish artist was arrested while leaving an Irish courthouse Wednesday and could face U.S. extradition demands within hours.
Ali Charaf Damache, 47, had just walked free from a court in Waterford, southeast Ireland, after three years in an Irish prison when detectives acting on an American extradition warrant rearrested and escorted him, handcuffed, to an unmarked police car. Court officials said his extradition proceedings could begin Thursday in Dublin High Court.
The FBI and U.S. Justice Department accuse Damache of being the ringleader behind an unrealized 2009 conspiracy to target artist Lars Vilks in Sweden over his series of drawings depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad as a dog. Muslim extremists in Iraq had offered a $100,000 reward for anyone who killed Vilks, who was never attacked.
U.S. prosecutors say Damache, who has lived in Ireland since 2000, recruited two U.S. women via jihadist web sites to help him target Vilks. One of the women who billed herself as "Jihad Jane," Colleen LaRose, was arrested by the FBI soon after she returned from Ireland in September 2009. Damache married the other woman, Jamie Paulin Ramirez, in a Muslim ceremony on the day she arrived in Ireland from Colorado that same month. Ramirez and Damache were arrested in their Waterford home in March 2010; she voluntarily returned to the United States to face charges there.
Both LaRose, now 49, and Ramirez, now 34, have pleaded guilty ? LaRose to conspiring to kill Vilks, Ramirez to lesser charges of aiding terrorists ? and are imprisoned in the United States pending their sentencing, which has been repeatedly delayed. LaRose faces up to life in prison, Ramirez a maximum 15 years.
Irish detectives investigating Damache's links to both women trawled his telephone records and discovered he had telephoned a Michigan attorney, Majed Moughni, the lead organizer of an Arab-American protest in Detroit called to denounce Islamic extremists. Moughni told police he received a telephoned death threat the day after that January 2010 demonstration ? and taped it.
Damache had pleaded not guilty to Irish charges of making death threats until Tuesday, when prosecutors played the audiotape. A voice identified as Damache's could be heard telling Moughni: "If you were in front of me, I would shoot you. I would put a bullet in your head."
On Wednesday, Damache's lawyers said their client was changing his plea to guilty and wanted to say sorry to Moughni. The presiding judge in Waterford Circuit Court, Donagh McDonagh, described the threat as premeditated and frightening. He gave Damache a four-year sentence but suspended the final year, which meant he was eligible for immediate release given his jail time already served.
He was rearrested within minutes of leaving the courtroom.
Vilks is one of two Scandinavian artists to infuriate Muslims with illustrations denigrating Muhammad, the central figure of Islam, who isn't supposed to be depicted visually at all according to Muslim tradition. The other artist, Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, was threatened in 2010 by an ax-wielding Somali who broke into his home, but police shot and wounded the attacker while the artist hid in a specially barricaded panic room. Westergaard's 2005 newspaper cartoons depicting Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban sparked street protests and violence against Scandinavian embassies in several predominantly Muslim countries.
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Feb. 27, 2013 ? Higher humidity levels indoors can significantly reduce the infectivity of influenza virus particles released by coughing, according to research published February 27 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by John Noti and colleagues from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The researchers tested the effect of relative humidity on the capacity of flu virus released in a simulated 'cough' to re-infect cells.
They found that an hour after being released in a room at a relative humidity of 23% or less, 70-77% of viral particles retained their infectious capacity, but when humidity was increased to about 43%, only 14% of the virus particles were capable of infecting cells.
Most of this inactivation occurred within the first fifteen minutes of the viral particles being released in the high-humidity condition. The study concludes that maintaining indoor relative humidity at levels greater than 40% can significantly reduce the infectious capacity of aerosolized flu virus.
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Journal Reference:
John D. Noti, Francoise M. Blachere, Cynthia M. McMillen, William G. Lindsley, Michael L. Kashon, Denzil R. Slaughter, Donald H. Beezhold. High Humidity Leads to Loss of Infectious Influenza Virus from Simulated Coughs. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (2): e57485 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0057485
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
A patient sits on her hospital bed as she talks with her doctor at St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor hospital in Ypsilanti, Mich., Dec. 21, 2012.
Photo by Rebecca Cook/Reuters
Steven Brill?s 24,000-word magnum opus in Time on health care billing practices in the United States is remarkably easy to summarize: American health care costs a lot because the prices Americans pay for health care services are very high. And hospitals charge those high prices for the same reason any other business would?because they can.
It?s easy to see why a health care provider is almost uniquely well-positioned to bilk you. If you don?t get treatment, you or someone you love might die. It?s a high-pressure emotional situation that makes it extremely difficult to bargain, comparison shop, or just decide to cut back. Most of us, fortunately, get to outsource most of that bargaining to our insurance companies. Cold-blooded executives, not stressed-out patients, cut the deals that determine how much actually gets paid. This means that the real price of health care services is driven largely by the purchasing clout of the buyer. An uninsured individual gets totally screwed. A big insurance company can drive a harder bargain and get a better deal. But as Brill shows, the best deal of all goes to the biggest insurer around: the federal government, whose Medicare program for senior citizens is such a large purchaser that it and it alone can drive a truly hard bargain and squeeze provider profit margins to the bone.
The policy upshot of this seems clear enough. Rather than cutting Medicare as is currently all the rage in deficit-hawk circles, we ought to be expanding it and enlarging the cheapest and most cost-effective part of the American health care system.
But of course only left-wing crazies think that, so though Brill concedes that this is precisely the reason that more-statist foreign health care systems have much lower costs than ours, he rejects the idea out of hand.
But Brill?s reason for rejecting the idea is interesting. He doesn?t care a fig for the hospitals, which are the villains of his story. Rather he rejects Medicare expansion because if Medicare expanded, ?no doctor could hope for anything approaching the income he or she deserves (and that will make future doctors want to practice) if 100% of their patients yielded anything close to the low rates Medicare pays.? It?s true that many American doctors do believe that they would be crushed if they were paid only Medicare rates. They insist they?re hard-pressed as it is, barely getting by, and practically treat these Medicare cases as acts of charity. There?s no way they could swallow those reimbursement rates without the whole system collapsing.
But that?s not remotely true. The last time the OECD looked at this (PDF), they found that, adjusted for local purchasing power, America has the highest-paid general practitioners in the world. And our specialists make more than specialists in every other country except the Netherlands. What?s even more striking, as the Washington Post?s Sarah Kliff observed last week, these highly paid doctors don?t buy us more doctors? visits. Canada has about 25 percent more doctors? consultations per capita than we do, and the average rich country has 50 percent more. This doctor compensation gap is hardly the only issue in overpriced American health care?overpriced medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, prescription drugs, and administrative overhead are all problems?but it?s a huge deal.
Doctors aren?t as politically attractive a target as insurance companies, hospital administrators, or big pharma, but there?s no rational basis for leaving their interests unscathed when tackling unduly expensive medicine.
If doctors earned less money, fewer people would want to be doctors. We could offset some of that impact by helping doctors out with medical malpractice reform and more government funding for medical school tuition. But a shortage of people wanting to enter the medical pipeline is the last thing we should be worrying about. As it stands, medical school is getting harder to get into (continuing a longtime trend) even as it gets harder for medical school graduates to find residency slots. What?s more, in the 18 states where lesser-paid nurse practitioners are allowed to do primary care without a doctor?s supervision, their treatment is just as good in terms of health outcomes and better in terms of patient satisfaction. Any shortage of primary caregivers, in other words, is about bad rules limiting the number of people who can practice, not a lack of monetary incentives. We need more residencies and more scope for nurses to work unsupervised, not higher-paid doctors.
When it comes to the federal budget, Medicare is a problem. An uncapped commitment to finance the health care needs of elderly Americans is a big challenge for an aging country. But when it comes to the question of health care costs overall, Medicare is the solution. Its vast bargaining clout lets it get much better prices than any private insurer, and we should be relying on it more to pay our bills, not less.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) ? The United Nations has finally removed Osama bin Laden from the list of al-Qaida members subject to U.N. sanctions, nearly two years after he was killed by U.S. commandos in Pakistan.
The U.N. Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against the terrorist group approved the deletion on Feb. 21, according to their website.
The al-Qaida leader was accused of masterminding the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, and on a crashed plane in Pennsylvania, that killed nearly 3,000 people.
"Bin Laden's removal from the list is a purely technical matter, and was conducted under the provisions related to deceased persons," Kurtis Cooper, deputy spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, said Tuesday. "This action in no way signals a change in the international or U.S. position on al-Qaida or Osama bin Laden's role in the tragic events of 9/11 and other terrorist acts and support."
The sanctions committee said the asset freeze, travel ban and arms embargo no longer apply to bin Laden.
But it said member states requesting to unfreeze his assets must provide assurances to the committee that the funds will not be transferred to any other individual or group on the U.N. sanctions list.
The list currently includes 233 individuals and 63 organizations, foundations and companies.
Cooper said that the United States successfully pressed the Security Council to include a provision in a resolution last December updating the listing and delisting procedures for sanctions against al-Qaida that will prevent the unfreezing of funds that belonged to bin Laden if the United States or any other council member objects.
The Security Council first imposed sanctions against the Taliban in November 1999 for refusing to send bin Laden to the United States or a third country for trial on terrorism charges in connection with the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
The sanctions were later extended to al-Qaida and in July 2005, they were extended again to cover affiliates and splinter groups of al-Qaida and the Taliban.
In June 2011, the Security Council voted unanimously to treat al-Qaida and the Taliban separately when it comes to U.N. sanctions, a move aimed at supporting the Afghan government's reconciliation efforts and more effectively fighting global terrorism.
Bin Laden's designation on the sanctions list gave his name as Usama Muhammed Awad bin Laden with 13 "good quality" aliases and two "low quality" aliases. It gave four specific dates and two years, 1956 and 1957, for his birth date and noted that his Saudi citizenship was withdrawn and that the Taliban gave him Afghan nationality.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama and his officials are doing their best to drum up public concern over the shock wave of spending cuts that could strike the government in just days. So it's a good time to be alert for sky-is-falling hype.
Over the last week or so, administration officials have come forward with a grim compendium of jobs to be lost, services to be denied or delayed, military defenses to be let down and important operations to be disrupted. Obama's new chief of staff, Denis McDonough, spoke of a "devastating list of horribles."
For most Americans, though, it's far from certain they will have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day if the budget-shredder known as the sequester comes to pass. Maybe they will, if the impasse drags on for months.
For now, there's a whiff of the familiar in all the foreboding, harking back to the mid-1990s partial government shutdown, when officials said old people would go hungry, illegal immigrants would have the run of the of the land and veterans would go without drugs. It didn't happen.
For this episode, provisions are in place to preserve the most crucial services ? and benefit checks. Furloughs of federal workers are at least a month away, breathing room for a political settlement if the will to achieve one is found. Many government contractors would continue to be paid with money previously approved.
Warnings of thousands of teacher layoffs, for example, are made with the presumption that local communities would not step in with their own dollars ? perhaps from higher taxes ? to keep teachers in the classrooms if federal money is not soon restored. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says teacher layoffs have already begun, but he has not backed up that claim and school administrators say no pink slips are expected before May, for the next school year.
To be sure, the cuts are big and will have consequences. Knowing what they will be, though, is far from a precise exercise.
And there is a lot of improbable precision in administration statements about what could happen: more than 373,000 seriously ill people losing mental health services, 600,000 low-income pregnant women and new mothers losing food aid and nutrition education, 1,200 fewer inspections of dangerous work sites, 125,000 poor households going without vouchers, and much more.
"These numbers are just numbers thrown out into the thin air with no anchor, and I think they don't provoke the outrage or concern that the Obama administration seeks," said Paul Light, a New York University professor who specializes in the federal bureaucracy and budget. For all the dire warnings, he said, "It's not clear who gets hurt by this."
The estimates in many cases come from a simple calculation: Divide the proscribed spending cut by a program's per-person spending to see how many beneficiaries may lose services or benefits under the sequester.
But in practice, through all the layers of bureaucracy and the everyday smoke and mirrors of the federal budget, there is rarely a direct and measurable correlation between a federal dollar and its effect on the ground.
That has meant a lot of tenuous "could happen" warnings by the administration, not so much "will happen" evidence.
So it was in Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' letter to Congress laying out likely consequences of the spending cuts for her agency's operations. She said the sequester "could" compromise the well-being of more than 373,000 people who "potentially" would not get needed mental health services, which in turn "could result" in more hospitalizations and homelessness.
Duncan left himself less wiggle room. "This stuff is real," he said last week. "Schools are already starting to give teachers notices."
Asked to provide backup for Duncan's assertion, spokesman Daren Briscoe said it was based on "an unspecified call he was on with unnamed persons," and the secretary might not be comfortable sharing details.
Briscoe referred queries about layoffs to the American Association of School Administrators. Noelle M. Ellerson, an assistant director of the organization, said Monday that in her many discussions with superintendents at the group's just-completed annual meeting, she heard of no layoffs of teachers. While everyone is bracing for that possibility down the road, she said, "not a single one I spoke with had already issued pink slips."
Most school district budgets for the next school year won't be completed for two months, she said, meaning any layoff notices would come in early to mid-May. "No one had yet acted."
School districts in areas set aside for tribal lands or military bases count on Washington for a significant share of their budgets, and are to lose $60 million, or 5 percent of their federal payments, when the sequester starts. Nearly all money to run most of the nation's public schools comes from local sources such as property taxes that are not affected by the federal cuts.
As for the assertion that 600,000 women could be dropped from the Women, Infants and Children Program, that's not to say the rolls would be cut by that number. The actual number is likely to include women who are not enrolled in the program now and could be denied when seeking to join it. Federal officials say the true number will depend on how states can manage their caseloads.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has warned of impending furloughs of air traffic controllers, who may need to take one day off every two weeks, and said air-travel delays are likely across the country. Asked Friday why the airline lobby predicted no major impact on air travel from the sequester, he said, "I don't think they have the information we're presenting to them today."
"The idea that we're just doing this to create some kind of a horrific scare tactic is nonsense," LaHood said. But it's a pressure tactic nonetheless: "What I'm trying to do is to wake up members of the Congress on the Republican side to the idea that they need to come to the table."
However the cuts fall, Light at NYU says the Washington Monument ploy, also known as the Firemen First principle, is at work.
It goes like this: Put someone's budget at risk and the first thing you'll hear is a threat to close a cherished national symbol or lay off firefighters and police, when in fact there are other ways to cut spending.
It so happens the Washington Monument is already closed, for earthquake repair. But Obama indulged in the Firemen First principle quite literally.
He appeared at the White House in front of officers in blue uniforms to warn of the consequences of the sequester. "Emergency responders like the ones who are here today ? their ability to help communities respond to and recover from disasters will be degraded."
The law gives little flexibility to agencies to protect favored programs, except for big ones specifically exempted from the automatic cuts, such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and veterans benefits. FBI and Border Patrol furloughs are expected. Still, the White House has directed agencies to avoid cuts presenting "risks to life, safety or health" and to minimize harm to crucial services.
In the partial government shutdown during his presidency, Bill Clinton and his officials told some tall tales and sketched dark scenarios that didn't come to pass, though some might have if the crisis had lasted weeks or months longer. The shutdown played out over two installments totaling 26 days from mid-November 1995 to early January 1996.
National park properties closed (yes, even the Washington Monument), passport and federal mortgage insurance processing were disrupted and toxic waste cleanup stalled as hundreds of thousands of federal workers went idle, paid retroactively later. But states, communities and private groups stepped up to tide over the neediest, keeping Meals on Wheels rolling with their own resources, for example, until Clinton found emergency money to cover the costs. Warnings that Medicare treatment would be withheld proved unfounded, and veterans got their care.
Contractors, who perform many key services for government, kept working for IOUs. A claim by the government that deportations "have virtually ended" was not so.
The Justice Department told the story of a Florida gas station rejecting the government-issued credit card of a drug-enforcement agent to illustrate the indignity of it all.
But the reality was humdrum: The card had merely expired.
___
Associated Press writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Mary Clare Jalonick, Joan Lowy and Philip Elliott contributed to this report.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? Nearly three years after a deadly rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico triggered the nation's worst offshore oil spill, a federal judge in New Orleans is set to preside over a high-stakes trial for the raft of litigation spawned by the disaster.
Barring an 11th-hour settlement, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier will hear several hours of opening statements Monday by lawyers for the companies involved in the 2010 spill and the plaintiffs who sued them. And the judge, not a jury, ultimately could decide how much more money BP PLC and its partners on the ill-fated drilling project owe for their roles in the environmental catastrophe.
BP has said it already has racked up more than $24 billion in spill-related expenses and has estimated it will pay a total of $42 billion to fully resolve its liability for the disaster that killed 11 workers and spewed millions of gallons of oil.
But the trial attorneys for the federal government and Gulf states and private plaintiffs hope to convince the judge that the company is liable for much more.
With billions of dollars on the line, the companies and their courtroom adversaries have spared no expense in preparing for a trial that could last several months. Hundreds of attorneys have worked on the case, generating roughly 90 million pages of documents, logging nearly 9,000 docket entries and taking more than 300 depositions of witnesses who could testify at trial.
"In terms of sheer dollar amounts and public attention, this is one of the most complex and massive disputes ever faced by the courts," said Fordham University law professor Howard Erichson, an expert in complex litigation.
Barbier has promised he won't let the case drag on for years as has the litigation over the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, which still hasn't been completely resolved. He encouraged settlement talks that already have resolved billions of dollars in spill-related claims.
"Judge Barbier has managed the case actively and moved it along toward trial pretty quickly," Erichson said.
In December, Barbier gave final approval to a settlement between BP and Plaintiffs' Steering Committee lawyers representing Gulf Coast businesses and residents who claim the spill cost them money. BP estimates it will pay roughly $7.8 billion to resolve tens of thousands of these claims, but the deal doesn't have a cap.
BP resolved a Justice Department criminal probe by agreeing to plead guilty to manslaughter and other charges and pay $4 billion in criminal penalties. Deepwater Horizon rig owner Transocean Ltd. reached a separate settlement with the federal government, pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge and agreeing to pay $1.4 billion in criminal and civil penalties.
But there's plenty left for the lawyers to argue about at trial, given that the federal government and Gulf states haven't resolved civil claims against the company that could be worth more than $20 billion.
The Justice Department and private plaintiffs' attorneys have said they would prove BP acted with gross negligence before the blowout of its Macondo well on April 20, 2010.
BP's civil penalties would soar if Barbier agrees with that claim.
BP, meanwhile, argues the federal government's estimate of how much oil spewed from the well ? more than 200 million gallons ? is inflated by at least 20 percent. Clean Water Act penalties are based on how many barrels of oil spilled.
Barbier plans to hold the trial in at least two phases and may issue partial rulings at the end of each. The first phase, which could last three months, is designed to determine what caused the blowout and assign percentages of blame to the companies involved. The second phase will address efforts to stop the flow of oil from the well and aims to determine how much crude spilled into the Gulf.
The trial originally was scheduled to start a year ago, but Barbier postponed it to allow BP to wrap up its settlement with the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee.
Barbier, 68, was nominated by President Bill Clinton and has served on the court since 1998. He had a private law practice, primarily representing small businesses and other plaintiffs in civil cases, and served as president of the New Orleans Bar Association before he joined the bench.
Dane Ciolino, a Loyola University law professor who has represented criminal defendants in Barbier's court, described him as a "no-nonsense" but even-tempered judge.
"He's very good at getting down to the pertinent issues," Ciolino said. "Some judges could be described as impatient, short or gruff. He is none of that."
Despite the bitter disputes at the root of the case, Barbier has maintained a collegial atmosphere at his monthly status conferences with the lawyers, cracking an occasional joke or good-naturedly ribbing attorneys over their college football allegiances.
Cordial with each other in the courtroom, the competing attorneys have saved their harshest rhetoric for court filings or news releases. Despite its settlement with BP last year, the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee attorneys won't be allies at trial with the London-based oil giant. And they still haven't resolved civil claims against Transocean or cement contractor Halliburton.
"These three companies' reckless, greed-driven conduct killed 11 good men, polluted the Gulf for years and left the region's economy in shambles. Any statement to the contrary is self-serving nonsense," Steve Herman, a lead plaintiffs' attorney, said in a recent statement.
A series of government investigations has exhaustively documented the mistakes that led to the blowout, spreading the blame among the companies. Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange said witnesses scheduled to testify at trial will reveal new information about the cause of the disaster.
"I think you're going to learn a lot, particularly about the culture that existed at BP and their priorities," Strange said.
Protestors from the National Audubon Institute, the Gulf Restoration Network and other organizations stand outside Federal Court on the first day of the Gulf oil spill settlement trial in New Orleans, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier is scheduled to hear several hours of opening statements Monday by lawyers for the companies, federal and state governments and others who sued over the disaster. Barbier is hearing the case without a jury. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Protestors from the National Audubon Institute, the Gulf Restoration Network and other organizations stand outside Federal Court on the first day of the Gulf oil spill settlement trial in New Orleans, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier is scheduled to hear several hours of opening statements Monday by lawyers for the companies, federal and state governments and others who sued over the disaster. Barbier is hearing the case without a jury. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
FILE - In this aerial file photo madeWednesday, April 21, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, more than 50 miles southeast of Venice on Louisiana's tip, an oil slick is seen as the Deepwater Horizon oil rig burns. Nearly three years after the deadly rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico triggered the nation's worst offshore oil spill, a federal judge in New Orleans is set to preside over a high-stakes trial for the raft of litigation spawned by the disaster on Monday Feb. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, file)
Protestors from the National Audubon Institute, the Gulf Restoration Network and other organizations stand outside Federal Court on the first day of the Gulf oil spill settlement trial in New Orleans, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier is scheduled to hear several hours of opening statements Monday by lawyers for the companies, federal and state governments and others who sued over the disaster. Barbier is hearing the case without a jury. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Protestors from the National Audubon Institute, the Gulf Restoration Network and other organizations stand outside Federal court on the first day of the Gulf oil spill settlement trial in New Orleans, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier is scheduled to hear several hours of opening statements Monday by lawyers for the companies, federal and state governments and others who sued over the disaster. Barbier is hearing the case without a jury. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? BP put profits ahead of safety and bears most of the blame for the disastrous 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a U.S. Justice Department attorney charged Monday at the opening of a trial that could result in the oil company and its partners being forced to pay tens of billions of dollars more in damages.
The London-based oil giant acknowledged it made "errors in judgment" before the deadly blowout, but it also cast blame on the owner of the drilling rig and the contractor involved in cementing the well. It denied it was grossly negligent, as the government contended.
The high-stakes civil case went to trial after attempts to reach an 11th-hour settlement failed.
Eleven workers were killed when the Deepwater Horizon rig leased by the BP exploded on April 20, 2010. An estimated 172 millions of gallons of crude gushed into the Gulf over the three months that followed in the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
Justice Department attorney Mike Underhill said the catastrophe resulted from BP's "culture of corporate recklessness."
"The evidence will show that BP put profits before people, profits before safety and profits before the environment," Underhill said in opening statements. He added: "Despite BP's attempts to shift the blame to other parties, by far the primary fault for this disaster belongs to BP."
BP attorney Mike Brock acknowledged that the oil company made mistakes. But he accused rig owner Transocean Ltd. of failing to properly maintain the rig's blowout preventer, which had a dead battery, and he claimed cement contractor Halliburton used a "bad slurry" that failed to prevent oil and gas from traveling up the well.
BP has already pleaded guilty to manslaughter and other criminal charges and has racked up more than $24 billion in spill-related expenses, including cleanup costs, compensation for businesses and individuals, and $4 billion in criminal penalties.
But the federal government, Gulf Coast states and individuals and businesses hope to convince a federal judge that the company and its partners in the ill-fated drilling project are liable for much more in civil damages under the Clean Water Act and other environmental regulations.
One of the biggest questions facing U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, who is hearing the case without a jury, is whether BP acted with gross negligence.
Under the Clean Water Act, a polluter can be forced to pay a minimum of $1,100 per barrel of spilled oil; the fines nearly quadruple to about $4,300 a barrel for companies found grossly negligent, meaning BP could be on the hook for nearly $18 billion.
The judge plans to hold the trial in at least two phases. The first phase, which could last three months, is designed to determine what caused the blowout and assign percentages of blame to the companies involved. The second phase will determine how much crude spilled into the Gulf.
During opening arguments, BP and its partners pointed the finger at each other in a tangle of accusations and counter-accusations. But BP got the worst of it, from its partners and the plaintiffs in the case.
Jim Roy, who represents individuals and businesses hurt by the spill, said BP executives applied "huge financial pressure" to "cut costs and rush the job." The project was more than $50 million over budget and behind schedule at the time of the blowout, Roy said.
"BP repeatedly chose speed over safety," Roy said, quoting from a report by an expert who may testify.
Roy said the spill also resulted from Transocean's "woeful" safety culture and failure to properly train its crew. And Roy said Halliburton provided BP with a product that was "poorly designed, not properly tested and was unstable."
Brad Brian, a lawyer for Transocean, said the company had an experienced, well-trained crew on the rig. He said the Transocean workers' worst mistake may have been placing too much trust in the BP supervisors on the rig.
"And they paid for that trust with their lives," Brian said. "They died not because they weren't trained properly. They died because critical information was withheld from them."
A lawyer for Halliburton defended the company's work and tried to pin the blame on BP and Transocean.
"If BP had shut in the well, we would not be here today," Halliburton's Donald Godwin said.
Underhill, the Justice Department attorney, heaped blame on BP for cost-cutting decisions made in the months and weeks leading up the disaster. He said two BP rig supervisors, Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine, disregarded abnormally high pressure readings that should have been glaring indications of trouble.
Kaluza and Vidrine have been indicted on federal manslaughter charges.
Brock, the BP lawyer, said Transocean employees on the rig also played roles in misinterpreting the "negative pressure test."
"It was a mistake made by several men from two different companies," Brock said. "They were trying to get it right. They were trying to do the right thing."
Hundreds of attorneys have worked on the case, generating roughly 90 million pages of documents, logging nearly 9,000 docket entries and taking more than 300 depositions from witnesses who could testify at trial.
"In terms of sheer dollar amounts and public attention, this is one of the most complex and massive disputes ever faced by the courts," said Fordham University law professor Howard Erichson, an expert in complex litigation.
The spill fouled marshes, killed wildlife and closed fishing grounds. Scientists warn that the disaster's full effect may not be known for years. But they have reported dying coral reefs and fish afflicted with lesions and illnesses that might be oil-related.
A new look at high-temperature superconductorsPublic release date: 25-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Sarah McDonnell s_mcd@mit.ed 617-253-8923 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- While the phenomenon of superconductivity in which some materials lose all resistance to electric currents at extremely low temperatures has been known for more than a century, the temperature at which it occurs has remained too low for any practical applications. The discovery of "high-temperature" superconductors in the 1980s materials that could lose resistance at temperatures of up to negative 140 degrees Celsius led to speculation that a surge of new discoveries might quickly lead to room-temperature superconductors. Despite intense research, these materials have remained poorly understood.
There is still no agreement on a single theory to account for high-temperature superconductivity. Recently, however, researchers at MIT and elsewhere have found a new way to study fluctuating charge-density waves, which are the basis for one of the leading theories. The researchers say this could open the door to a better understanding of high-temperature superconductivity, and perhaps prompt new discoveries of higher-temperature superconductors.
The findings were published this week in the journal Nature Materials by assistant professor of physics Nuh Gedik; graduate student Fahad Mahmood; Darius Torchinsky, a former MIT postdoc who is now at the California Institute of Technology; and two researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Explaining the basis for high-temperature superconductivity remains "the hardest problem in condensed-matter physics," Gedik says. But one way of getting a handle on this exotic state of matter is to study what happens to these materials near their "transition temperature," the point below which they become superconductors.
Previous experiments have shown that above the transition temperature, there is a peculiar state where, Gedik says, "the material starts to behave very weirdly": Its electrons act in unusual ways, which some physicists believe is caused by a phenomenon called charge-density waves. While the electron density in most conductors is uniform, Gedik explains, in materials with charge-density waves the density is distributed in a sinusoidal pattern, somewhat like ripples on a pond. But so far, such charge-density waves have only been detected in high-temperature superconductors under special circumstances, such as a particular level of doping (the introduction of atoms of another element onto its surface).
Some researchers have proposed that these waves are elusive in high-temperature superconductors because they fluctuate very rapidly, at speeds measured in picoseconds (trillionths of a second). "You can't see it with conventional techniques," Gedik says.
That's where Gedik's new approach comes in: His team has spent years perfecting methods for studying the movement of electrons by zapping them with laser pulses lasting just a few femtoseconds (or quadrillionths of a second), and then detecting the results with a separate laser beam.
Using that method, the researchers have now detected these fluctuating waves. To do this, they have selectively generated and observed two different collective motions of electrons in these waves: variation in amplitude (the magnitude of modulation of the waves) and in phase (the position of the troughs and peaks of the waves). These measurements show that charge density waves are fluctuating at an interval of only about 2 picoseconds.
"It's not surprising that static techniques didn't see them," Gedik says, but "this settles the question: The fluctuating charge-density waves do exist" at least in one of the cuprate compounds, the first high-temperature superconducting materials discovered in the 1980s.
Another question: What role, if any, do these charge-density waves play in superconductivity? "Are they helping, or are they interfering?" Gedik asks. To answer this question, the researchers studied the same material, with optimal doping, in which the superconducting transition temperature is maximized. "We see no evidence of charge-density waves in this sample," Gedik says. This suggests that charge-density waves are probably competing with superconductivity.
In addition, it remains to be seen whether the same phenomenon will be observed in other high-temperature superconducting materials. The new technique should make it possible to find out.
In any case, detecting these fluctuations could help in understanding high-temperature superconductors, Gedik says which, in turn, could "help in finding other [superconducting materials] that actually work at room temperature." That elusive goal could enable significant new applications, such as electric transmission lines that eliminate the losses that now waste as much as 30 percent of all electricity produced.
###
The work, which also included researchers Anthony Bollinger and Ivan Bozovic of Brookhaven National Laboratory, was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Written by David Chandler, MIT News Office
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
A new look at high-temperature superconductorsPublic release date: 25-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Sarah McDonnell s_mcd@mit.ed 617-253-8923 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- While the phenomenon of superconductivity in which some materials lose all resistance to electric currents at extremely low temperatures has been known for more than a century, the temperature at which it occurs has remained too low for any practical applications. The discovery of "high-temperature" superconductors in the 1980s materials that could lose resistance at temperatures of up to negative 140 degrees Celsius led to speculation that a surge of new discoveries might quickly lead to room-temperature superconductors. Despite intense research, these materials have remained poorly understood.
There is still no agreement on a single theory to account for high-temperature superconductivity. Recently, however, researchers at MIT and elsewhere have found a new way to study fluctuating charge-density waves, which are the basis for one of the leading theories. The researchers say this could open the door to a better understanding of high-temperature superconductivity, and perhaps prompt new discoveries of higher-temperature superconductors.
The findings were published this week in the journal Nature Materials by assistant professor of physics Nuh Gedik; graduate student Fahad Mahmood; Darius Torchinsky, a former MIT postdoc who is now at the California Institute of Technology; and two researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Explaining the basis for high-temperature superconductivity remains "the hardest problem in condensed-matter physics," Gedik says. But one way of getting a handle on this exotic state of matter is to study what happens to these materials near their "transition temperature," the point below which they become superconductors.
Previous experiments have shown that above the transition temperature, there is a peculiar state where, Gedik says, "the material starts to behave very weirdly": Its electrons act in unusual ways, which some physicists believe is caused by a phenomenon called charge-density waves. While the electron density in most conductors is uniform, Gedik explains, in materials with charge-density waves the density is distributed in a sinusoidal pattern, somewhat like ripples on a pond. But so far, such charge-density waves have only been detected in high-temperature superconductors under special circumstances, such as a particular level of doping (the introduction of atoms of another element onto its surface).
Some researchers have proposed that these waves are elusive in high-temperature superconductors because they fluctuate very rapidly, at speeds measured in picoseconds (trillionths of a second). "You can't see it with conventional techniques," Gedik says.
That's where Gedik's new approach comes in: His team has spent years perfecting methods for studying the movement of electrons by zapping them with laser pulses lasting just a few femtoseconds (or quadrillionths of a second), and then detecting the results with a separate laser beam.
Using that method, the researchers have now detected these fluctuating waves. To do this, they have selectively generated and observed two different collective motions of electrons in these waves: variation in amplitude (the magnitude of modulation of the waves) and in phase (the position of the troughs and peaks of the waves). These measurements show that charge density waves are fluctuating at an interval of only about 2 picoseconds.
"It's not surprising that static techniques didn't see them," Gedik says, but "this settles the question: The fluctuating charge-density waves do exist" at least in one of the cuprate compounds, the first high-temperature superconducting materials discovered in the 1980s.
Another question: What role, if any, do these charge-density waves play in superconductivity? "Are they helping, or are they interfering?" Gedik asks. To answer this question, the researchers studied the same material, with optimal doping, in which the superconducting transition temperature is maximized. "We see no evidence of charge-density waves in this sample," Gedik says. This suggests that charge-density waves are probably competing with superconductivity.
In addition, it remains to be seen whether the same phenomenon will be observed in other high-temperature superconducting materials. The new technique should make it possible to find out.
In any case, detecting these fluctuations could help in understanding high-temperature superconductors, Gedik says which, in turn, could "help in finding other [superconducting materials] that actually work at room temperature." That elusive goal could enable significant new applications, such as electric transmission lines that eliminate the losses that now waste as much as 30 percent of all electricity produced.
###
The work, which also included researchers Anthony Bollinger and Ivan Bozovic of Brookhaven National Laboratory, was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Written by David Chandler, MIT News Office
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
SAN QUENTIN, California (Reuters) - One by one, the entrepreneurs, clad in crisp blue jeans and armed with PowerPoint presentations, stood before a roomful of investors and tech bloggers to explain their dreams of changing the world.
For these exuberant times in Silicon Valley, the scene was familiar; the setting, less so.
With the young and ambitious flocking again to northern California to launch Internet companies, there were signs one recent morning that startup mania has taken hold even behind the faded granite walls of California's most notorious prison.
"Live stream has gone mainstream. Mobile video usage went up and is expected to increase by 28 percent over the next five years," said Eddie Griffin, who was pitching a music streaming concept called "At the Club" and happens to be finishing a third stint for drug possession at San Quentin State Prison, near San Francisco, after spending the last 15 years behind bars.
Griffin was one of seven San Quentin inmates who presented startup proposals on "Demo Day" as part of the Last Mile program, an entrepreneurship course modeled on startup incubators that take in batches of young companies and provide them courses, informal advice and the seed investments to grow.
According to business news website Xconomy, incubator programs - which it tracks - have tripled in number for each of the past three years, proliferating from Sao Paulo to Stockholm at a pace that has fueled talk in tech circles of an "incubator bubble".
Last Mile founder Chris Redlitz, a local venture capitalist, says his goal was never to seek out a genuine investment opportunity inside a prison but to educate inmates about tech entrepreneurship and bridge the knowledge gap between Silicon Valley's wired elite and the rest of the region's population.
Inmates, after all, are not allowed to run businesses. They do not have access to cellphones ? much less Apple Inc's latest iPhone developer toolkits ? and they use computers only under close supervision.
A LOT TO LEARN
After his presentation in San Quentin's chapel, which received a rousing reception from an audience that included prison warden Kevin R. Chappell, Griffin told a reporter it was unlikely he would launch his startup idea immediately after being released this summer.
"I still have a lot to learn," said the soft-spoken Detroit native. "I've never used a cellphone. Technology is kind of foreign in this environment."
But to hear the inmates use jargon such as "lean startup" and "minimum viable product" speaks to an unmistakable truth about the Bay Area zeitgeist, where startups, for better or worse, have come to embody upward mobility, ambition, and hustle.
"If they were doing this in the '80s there may have been a different theme or model," said Wade Roush, Xconomy's chief correspondent. "But in this day and age, becoming an entrepreneur or starting a business is a form of self-actuation."
Situated on prime waterfront land, San Quentin is perhaps California's most storied prison and home to the state's only death row. But it has also kept a longstanding progressive reputation, boasting a rare college degree-granting program and vibrant arts courses.
The Last Mile accepted 10 inmates out of 50 applicants for its latest batch. The program, which graduated its first class of inmates last year, meets twice a week to discuss startups and lasts six months, although the most recent class took seven months due to a prison lockdown last year.
Some Last Mile participants, under official supervision, have also joined the online question-and-answer site Quora to respond to questions about prison life or describe what it felt like to commit murder.
The latest batch of startup ideas included a fitness app that would motivate drug addicts to exercise, a cardiovascular health organization, a social network for sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder, a food waste recycling program, and an e-commerce site for artists in prison.
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
Because the likelihood is not great that these companies will become funded and succeed, Redlitz said he was also working to place the inmates in jobs at tech companies after their release.
Rocketspace, a startup co-working space in downtown San Francisco, has agreed to host an internship. Rally.org, a crowd-funding site that counts Redlitz among its investors, said it hoped to begin a program to seek micro-investments from the public for the inmates' ideas.
Sitting in the Demo Day audience was John Collison, the 22-year-old co-founder of online payments startup Stripe, who noted some stark differences between the inmates' proposals and the fashionable startups du jour in Silicon Valley.
"What's frustrating is that all these companies in the Valley, they're ideas for the 1 or 10 percent," Collison said. "You have startups like Uber or Taskrabbit, that's like, ?Oh, here's something to help you find a driver or find someone to clean your house.' Are they solving real problems?"
The San Quentin inmates "were talking about urban obesity, or PTSD", Collison said. "It's a completely different perspective. We actually really need that."
A patient sits on her hospital bed as she talks with her doctor at St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor hospital in Ypsilanti, Mich., Dec. 21, 2012. 
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Public release date: 25-Feb-2013
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