Fox News' Special Report suggested that a "deal" in the health care bill was sought by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) for a proposed hospital in Connecticut and discussed other purported "deals" for Tennessee and Louisiana. In fact, Connecticut would potentially have to compete for funding against other states, and Republicans and Democrats have said that provisions for Tennessee and Louisiana are crucial to fixing an imbalance in Medicaid funding in those states.

Special Report, Sean Hannity make claims of "special deals" in health bill

From the March 19 broadcast of Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier:

BRIAN WILSON (correspondent): Deals still alive for the moment? Well, Republicans claim that Democrat Bart Gordon changed his vote from "yes" -- from "no" to "yes" after he got $100 million for Tennessee hospitals that treat the poor. Other deals still in play? Yes, the Louisiana Purchase: $300 million in Medicaid money is still alive; Connecticut hospital handout -- $100 million sought by Senator Dodd.

From the March 19 edition of Fox News' Hannity:

HANNITY: Retiring Congressman Bart Gordon is doing a 180 as well. Now he voted "no" in November, but after securing millions of dollars in Medicaid funding for low-income patients in his home state, well, he's now in the "yes" column.

CT not the only state eligible for hospital funding; also sought by GOP Gov. Rell

Connecticut would reportedly have to compete for the hospital funds. The Hartford Courant reported that Connecticut would have to compete for the funds. Also, Dodd reportedly said that at least 14 other states could apply for the grant.

Funding for health care facilities would be decided by Health and Human Services secretary. The text of the Senate health care bill as passed states that the $100 million grant for "infrastructure to expand access to health care" "may only be made available by the Secretary of Health and Human Services upon the receipt of an application from the Governor of a State" that meets certain requirements:

(b) REQUIREMENT.-Amount appropriated under subsection (a) may only be made available by the Secretary of Health and Human Services upon the receipt of an application from the Governor of a State that certifies that-

(1) the new health care facility is critical for the provision of greater access to health care within the State;

(2) such facility is essential for the continued financial viability of the State's sole public medical and dental school and its academic health center;

(3) the request for Federal support represents not more than 40 percent of the total cost of the proposed new facility; and

(4) the State has established a dedicated funding mechanism to provide all remaining funds necessary to complete the construction or renovation of the proposed facility.

Proposed UConn hospital part of Republican Gov. Rell's health care proposal. Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell, a Republican, has reportedly proposed a $352 million University of Connecticut Health Center that would rely on $100 million in federal funds available as a grant in the health care bill under the provision inserted by Dodd.

Funding for TN hospitals sought by Dems, Republicans to fix Medicaid imbalance

Under health care bill reconciliation "fix," $100 million in Medicaid would go to "disproportionate share hospital" payments. Changes proposed to the Senate health care bill included a section that, in part, gives disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments to states that otherwise would receive no payments after FY2011. The House Rules Committee summary of the changes describes Sec. 1203:

Sec. 1203. Disproportionate share hospital payments. Lowers the reduction in federal Medicaid DSH payments from $18.1 billion to $14.1 billion and advances the reductions to begin in fiscal year 2014. Directs the Secretary to develop a methodology for reducing federal DSH allotments to all states in order to achieve the mandated reductions. Extends through FY 2013 the federal DSH allotment for a state that has a $0 allotment after FY 2011.

Entire TN delegation asked Energy and Commerce Committee to deal with the fact that the state is scheduled to get no DSH money. As reported by the Nashville Business Journal, a May 2009 letter from Tennessee's entire House delegation -- consisting of both Democrats and Republicans -- to the House Energy and Commerce Committee requested DSH funding. According to the letter, Tennessee had given up DSH funding in 1993 when it created a special state insurance program, TennCare, in lieu of traditional Medicaid. The letter added that, since March 2006, Tennessee hospitals have "returned to a traditional Medicaid population," but are not getting DSH payments, unlike almost every other state. From the letter:

As you may know, with the onset of the TennCare waiver in 1993, the state agreed to eliminate the DSH payment for Tennessee, using the rationale that the majority of the uninsured and uninsurable would have the opportunity to enter the new TennCare program and, consequently, hospitals would be getting TennCare reimbursement for the majority of the patients that would have been charity care patients. Although there was an initial 25 percent-decline in charity care under the program, the cost of charity care in Tennessee hospitals returned to pre-TennCare levels by 2000 and has continued to grow at a pace consistent with hospitals across the country. As of March 2006, the state Medicaid program began to disenroll adults who were eligible for TennCare as uninsured or uninsurable previously. This leaves Tennessee hospitals in the dilemma of having returned to a traditional Medicaid population covered by a Medicaid program with no DSH payment. Tennessee is one of only two states with no DSH payment. The other state is Hawaii.

Tennessee reportedly got temporary fixes in the past. The Nashville Business Journal article also reported:

The imbalance has existed since Tennessee gave up its payments when it created TennCare in the 1990s -- and it has been similarly addressed by lawmakers in the past. Early last year, a $32.8 billion bill to insure poor children included a provision extending DSH payments to Tennessee hospitals by $30 million a year for two years.

TennCare spokeswoman Kelly Gunderson said the majority of Tennessee hospitals receive some level of DSH payments.

Provision affecting Louisiana fixes Medicaid gap caused by Katrina, Rita

Funding would fix FMAP rates for "certain states recovering from a major disaster." The Senate bill as passed includes a provision -- often referred to as the "Louisiana Purchase" by conservative media -- that would adjust the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) rate for "certain states recovering from a major disaster." The bill requires that it only apply to states "for which, at any time during the preceding 7 fiscal years, the President has declared a major disaster" and "determined as a result of such disaster that every county or parish in the State warrant individual and public assistance or public assistance from the Federal Government."

The Department of Health and Human Services states that FMAP is "used in determining the amount of Federal matching funds for State expenditures for assistance payments for certain social services, and State medical and medical insurance expenditures. The Social Security Act requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to calculate and publish the FMAPs each year."

Times-Picayune: Temporary post-Katrina spending "spiked" per capita income "long enough" to skew Medicaid funding formula, causing state Medicaid funding shortfall. The Times-Picayune reported on January 22 that "FMAP refers to the percentage of a state's payments under Medicaid that are covered by the federal government. Louisiana usually gets a higher match because of how poor the state is, but because of all the recovery and rebuilding money that poured in after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, state per capita income spiked long enough to throw the formula out of kilter and threaten to blow a hole [in] the state budget. [Sen. Mary] Landrieu's fix was, according to state officials, only the beginning of a solution for a huge Medicaid shortfall the state is facing." The article stated that Landrieu said "attaching the Medicaid provision to a health-care bill made sense, and there is no obvious and feasible legislative alternative."

Jindal: "If not corrected in Washington, D.C.," FMAP problem will cost $500 million a year. Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal's fiscal year 2010-2011 budget proposal states that the "Louisiana state government faces significant, multi-year budget challenges, compounded by a faulty federal FMAP formula that, if not corrected in Washington, D.C., will cost the state approximately $500 million a year in Medicaid funding, impacting services for the poorest in our state, and often those who need care the most." The proposal also says that "[w]hile there is discussion in Washington about extending the enhanced federal Medicaid match rate for six months for all states, without a permanent fix to Louisiana's faulty FMAP calculation, combined with the loss of federal stimulus funding, Louisiana will still face a projected $1.7 billion shortfall for FY 12."

By David Lambert - Several weeks ago [adult swim]/Cartoon Network and distributor Warner Home Video formally announced the DVD release of Aqua Teen Hunger Force - Volume 7. The release date given for... (more)

Cartoon Network Latin America ran this cute Aqua Teen Hunger Force promo years ago, but I hadn't seen the commercial until today! The 8-bit spot throws the Adult Swim cartoon's goateed star Frylock into Data East's classic (but terrifying) arcade game BurgerTime. Things seem to be going well for Peter Pepper, right until he runs into pepper-immune Frylock.

Unfortunately, this is just an advert and not an actual Taco Time game. Maybe someone will like this joke enough to turn into a playable thing, similar to what happened with Invaders! Possibly From Space! and Vinnie Vole's Existential Nightmare? In the meantime, you can settle for this Aqua Teen Hunger Force-themed BurgerTime Level created in LittleBigPlanet.

Publication Date: 2010 Mar 17 PMID: 20237279Authors: Moult, P. R. - Cross, A. - Santos, S. D. - Carvalho, A. L. - Lindsay, Y. - Connolly, C. N. - Irving, A. J. - Leslie, N. R. - Harvey, J.Journal: J NeurosciThe hormone leptin can cross the blood-brain barrier and influences numerous brain functions (Harvey, 2007). Indeed, recent studies have demonstrated that leptin regulates activity-dependent synaptic plasticity in the CA1 region of the hippocampus (Shanley et al., 2001; Li et al., 2002; Durakoglugil et al., 2005; Moult et al., 2009). It is well documented that trafficking of AMPA receptors is pivotal for hippocampal synaptic plasticity (Collingridge et al., 2004), but there is limited knowledge of how hormonal systems like leptin influence this process. In this study we have examined how leptin influences AMPA receptor trafficking and in turn how this impacts on excitatory synaptic function. Here we show that leptin preferentially increases the cell surface expression of GluR1 and the synaptic density of GluR2-lacking AMPA receptors in adult hippocampal slices. The leptin-induced increase in surface GluR1 required NMDA receptor activation and was associated with an increase in cytoplasmic PtdIns(3,4,5)P(3) levels. In addition, leptin enhanced phosphorylation of the lipid phosphatase PTEN which inhibits PTEN function and elevates PtdIns(3,4,5)P(3) levels. Moreover, inhibition of PTEN mimicked and occluded the effects of leptin on GluR1 trafficking and excitatory synaptic strength. These data indicate that leptin, via a novel pathway involving PTEN inhibition, promotes GluR1 trafficking to hippocampal synapses. This process has important implications for the role of leptin in hippocampal synaptic function in health and disease.post to: CiteULike

Researching topics such as health, diet, and (especially) the effectiveness of dietary supplements can be hard and time-consuming. Obscured by thousands of marketing tricks, finding the truth takes days, if not weeks of research.

So, when someone puts in the time to do the research and create an infographic that makes certain aspects of these topics easy to understand, it can be a huge time saver. Read on for some of the best health-related infographics we’ve found online.

As always, consider the figures in these infographics with a grain of salt. No one guarantees that the numbers are correct, and some of them are definitely open to interpretation.

1. Dietary Supplements

This is, without exaggeration, the most amazing and useful infographic I’ve ever encountered. It looks fairly simple, but it took many hours of research to create it, and it is, to my knowledge, the best resource about the actual efficiency of various dietary supplements out there. From the author:

“This image is a “balloon race”. The higher a bubble, the greater the evidence for its effectiveness. But the supplements are only effective for the conditions listed inside the bubble.”

The graphic shows the effectiveness of health supplements on the Y-axis (higher is better), and uses the size of the bubbles to illustrate the popularity of that particular supplement among US adults. Anything below the “worth it line,” doesn’t have enough evidence of medicinal benefit and is probably not worth your time, according to the graphic’s creators, who looked at data from over 1500 studies on both PubMed (US National Library Of Medicine) and Cochrane.org. The infographic effectively combines data on both popularity and medical benefits to create a resource that points out the best health supplements, as well as which ones American consumers believe in the most.

Check out the interactive version, which lets you filter the supplements by function, here.

2. Should You Drink Tap Water?

This is a look at five most and least polluted water systems in America (in larger cities), showing that not all tap water has been created equal.

If you’ve been struggling with the issue of drinking tap or bottled water, this info might help you make a decision. Of course, the data in this infographic, created by GOOD, covers only 10 cities, but it highlights an important point – not all chemicals that can appear in tap water are regulated. The graphic illustrates how many pollutants are found in each water system, how often they’re found, and what type of bacteria exists.

See a much larger version of the image here.

3. Obesity in the USA

Obesity is a known problem in the USA, but which states are affected the most? This is the most recent infographic on the subject we could find, listing obesity rates in all US states, as well as obese and overweight children rates in the USA.

Besides these numbers, this attractive infographic highlights several important points; such as overall high rates of obesity among high school students, as well as the direct and indirect costs of obesity to the US budget.

The full version can be found here.

4. The Cost of Health Care

Right now, one of the most debated topics in the USA is health care reform, and how much the proposed health bill will cost individuals and business. But how much are people paying for health care in other countries around the world?

This infographic, created in a collaboration between GOOD and Way Shape Form, shows the average life expectancy in various countries (indicated by the fullness of the IV bags), as well as several other health-related stats, such as infant mortality rates, and the cost of health care.

See the zoomable version here, or a very big image here.

5. Fatality Rates for Different Diseases

This visualization was created by David McCandless, the creator of the Snake Oil infographic mentioned above. It’s a slightly morbid chart, showing the average fatality rates for known diseases — the size of the bubble indicates how likely you are to die from a given disease (larger is more fatal).

It comes, however, with an optimistic second chart. The X-axis shows the fatality rate, but the Y-axis shows how long the cause of the illness can survive outside of the body in ideal conditions. Lesson: wash your hands!

Know of any other great health-related visualizations or infographics? Let us know in the comments!

Tags: health, infographic, visualization

Hollywood (the movie studios, the record labels, etc.) sure does have a knack for causing its own problems. You’ll recall that it’s en vogue to call copyright infringers “pirates,” which is an insult to legitimate pirates like William Kidd and Henry Morgan. Just because you can fire up uTorrent doesn’t mean you can take on a Spanish Armada. But, whatever, it’s simply easier for Hollywood and its acolytes to call you kids “pirates” than it is to have an adult discussion about the subject.

The word is nothing but trouble. Using it is akin to calling someone “Hitler” or a “Nazi” in a debate: it’s basically an intellectual shortcut to a ready-made conclusion. Those guys? Bad. Us? We’re good.

Or in fancier verbiage:

To say that X is a pirate is a metaphoric heuristic, intended to persuade a policymaker that the in-depth analysis can be skipped and the desired result immediately attained… Claims of piracy are rhetorical nonsense.

Said by “noted copyright scholar” William Patry.

Now, had Hollywood, when the likes of Napster and Kazaa first came out, taken the time to explain the difference between wholesale theft and copyright infringement, rather than rushing to sue everybody, throwing around meaningless terms like “piracy” and “stealing,” well, this is the consequence.

Show me one 16-year-old who has a problem with downloading Lady Whatshername and I’ll finish this stupid sentence.

German firm Hipp says one in four consumers now grown-ups who find baby food easier to swallow and digest

Can't be bothered to chew your food? Too tired to cook and looking for a quick meal? You might consider opening a jar of baby food.

The world's largest baby food manufacturer has said an increasing number of adults are turning to its pureed meals because they find them easier to swallow and digest.

About one in four consumers of the more than 100 varieties of pulped food – from apple and cranberry breakfast, to vegetable and beef hotpot – made by the Bavarian-based firm Hipp are adults, according to its owner.

Claus Hipp said that, in recent years, the products had grown in popularity, particularly among elderly people, with stewed apple said to be their favourite dish.

He said the company – established by his father, Georg, 50 years ago and now producing 1.5m jars a day – was increasingly turning its attention to the adult market rather than babies as Europe's population ages.

"Not so long ago, we had twice as many births than now, and that, of course, has a knock-on effect. As our society gets ever older, baby food is showing that it has a future in the adult market," Hipp said at a company birthday celebration.

Despite the fact that birth rates have dropped in most European countries, most notably Germany, the company's profits rose by €90m last year to €500m (£450m).

Hipp said calorie-conscious new mothers who saw the meals – which are low in fat, sugar and salt – as a good way to help them lose weight after giving birth were also among the new customers it had won in recent years.

Sportsmen and women in need of nutritious meals that do not sit heavily on the stomach were also among its customers.

The company, which recommends its organic meals to babies "at the start of weaning to three years of age", and makes no mention on its packaging of anyone above that age, said it had no intention of relaunching the products for a separate market.

"Older people can often cope with the mashed baby food better than regular meals, but we're not planning to change our advertising to target them ... we want to keep our baby image," Hipp said.

Eileen Steinbock, of the British Dietetic Association, said pureed food could benefit people whose ability to swallow had been greatly reduced through old age, dementia or a stroke, and was already in widespread use in care homes.

But people who could still chew and swallow should continue to do so for as long as possible, she added.

"I wouldn't like to see people being given pureed food just because it's easier for a carer to give it to them that way. It should only be given when it's appropriate or essential," she said.

• Germany
• Food & drink industry
• Food & drink
• Older people

Kate Connollyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Surgeons from the UK and Italy have for the first time enlisted a child’s own stem cells to grow a replacement organ inside his body; two years after conducting a similar procedure on an adult, they said it had much improved – making it potentially useful for a far wider range of transplants

Surgeons from the UK and Italy have for the first time enlisted a child's own stem cells to grow a replacement organ inside his body; two years after conducting a similar procedure on an adult, they said it had much improved – making it potentially useful for a far wider range of transplants

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/9581676[/vimeo] Vous avez déjà vu certaines des Å“uvres d'art produites par la communauté des AFOL (Adult Fans of Lego), mais savez-vous à quel point ces adultes fans de Lego peuvent être charmants? Ce documentaire vous le fait découvrir. Préparez-vous une grande cafetière ou une grande théière et affichez un panneau "en réunion, ...

Vous avez déjà vu certaines des œuvres d’art produites par la communauté des AFOL (Adult Fans of Lego), mais savez-vous à quel point ces adultes fans de Lego peuvent être charmants? Ce documentaire vous le fait découvrir. Préparez-vous une grande cafetière ou une grande théière et affichez un panneau “en réunion, [...]

Publication Date: 2010 Mar 17 PMID: 20237258Authors: Sowell, E. R. - Leow, A. D. - Bookheimer, S. Y. - Smith, L. M. - O'Connor, M. J. - Kan, E. - Rosso, C. - Houston, S. - Dinov, I. D. - Thompson, P. M.Journal: J NeurosciHere we investigate the effects of prenatal exposure to methamphetamine (MA) on local brain volume using magnetic resonance imaging. Because many who use MA during pregnancy also use alcohol, a known teratogen, we examined whether local brain volumes differed among 61 children (ages 5-15 years), 21 with prenatal MA exposure, 18 with concomitant prenatal alcohol exposure (the MAA group), 13 with heavy prenatal alcohol but not MA exposure (ALC group), and 27 unexposed controls. Volume reductions were observed in both exposure groups relative to controls in striatal and thalamic regions bilaterally and in right prefrontal and left occipitoparietal cortices. Striatal volume reductions were more severe in the MAA group than in the ALC group, and, within the MAA group, a negative correlation between full-scale intelligence quotient (FSIQ) scores and caudate volume was observed. Limbic structures, including the anterior and posterior cingulate, the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and ventral and lateral temporal lobes bilaterally, were increased in volume in both exposure groups. Furthermore, cingulate and right IFG volume increases were more pronounced in the MAA than ALC group. Discriminant function analyses using local volume measurements and FSIQ were used to predict group membership, yielding factor scores that correctly classified 72% of participants in jackknife analyses. These findings suggest that striatal and limbic structures, known to be sites of neurotoxicity in adult MA abusers, may be more vulnerable to prenatal MA exposure than alcohol exposure and that more severe striatal damage is associated with more severe cognitive deficit.post to: CiteULike

In a country that claims to be the land of the free, the number of people under the control of the U.S. corrections system has exploded over the last 25 years to more than 7.3 million, or 1 in every 31 U.S. adults, according to a report released by the Pew Center on the States. [...]