Attention baseball fans, the date that is no doubt etched in your brain — the start of the 2010 Major League Baseball Season — is fast approaching. To get you ready for April 4 (when the Boston Red Sox will take on the reigning World Series champion New York Yankees at Fenway Park) we’re pitching you five handpicked iPhone apps that will hit a home run with baseball fans.

If you are partial to America’s national sport — and let’s face it, it’s almost unpatriotic not to be — then these apps are an absolute must for your iPhone or iPod touch. However, in case we’ve struck out and missed any of your faves, then do let us know in the comments below.

Although criticized for its $15 price tag, MLB’s official iPhone app is a great all-rounder for fans, and an even better option for fans that have a paid-up for MLB.TV because, with portable access to your MLB.TV account, you can watch live streaming games on the go. As with last season’s offering, anyone can use the app to listen live to games, as well as get a virtual idea of what’s happening at the park with MLB’s blow-by-blow Gameday updates.

The app also offers scores and stats, as well as some in-game highlights and a video library that’s searchable by both player and team. If you really can’t stretch to that $15, then a free “lite” version (MLB.com At Bat Lite) offers real-time MLB scores, schedules, news and standings — but no audio or video — that will keep you informed through to the end of 2010 World Series.

Cost: $14.99

If you’re the type of fan that can rattle off ground ball to fly ball ratios and stolen base percentages like Rain Man reciting phone numbers, then quite simply you will love this app. Claiming to offer the most detailed player statistics available on an iPhone app, FanGraphs will let you look back and analyze every major player in baseball history, as well as look forward with live win probability graphs based on game data for the 2010 season.

Favorite players can be tracked with full, live box scores that link through to past stats, every play can be analyzed to see how it impacts the game, and there’s even up-to-date advanced fielding metrics via FanGraph’s “Ultimate Zone Ratings.”

Cost: $2.99

It could be argued that the stadium is as much a character in baseball as the opposing teams or the crowd. A celebration of the nation’s ballparks is offered in one neat little app — Ballpark Envi — spanning baseball’s geography as well as its history from Shibe Park to the new Yankee Stadium. Browsable by team, or by American and National League, every current Major League baseball stadium is detailed with stadium pics and slide shows, seating charts (super useful for booking tickets) as well as the ability to see the park’s location on a map.

Whether you want to glimpse Dodger Stadium’s wavy roofs on the outfield pavilions or the orange foul poles of the Mets’ new Citi Field this app will give you an insider glimpse of America’s amazing ballparks with all their quirks and characteristics.

Cost: $0.99

If you consider a baseball scorebook will set you back $5 at the absolute minimum (and more if you buy it at the park) then the $10 price tag for this app does not seem quite so steep. There are a dearth of 99 cent alternatives available in the App Store, but for looks and an intuitive interface (the app works on an “interview” premise asking you for all the data it needs to build a complete picture of the game) the iScore Baseball Scorekeeper is the champ.

As well as appealing to those hardcore fans that like to sit and score every game, this is also a good option for those new to baseball scorekeeping – you don’t have to learn all the abbreviations and symbols and iScore offers a full set of tutorial videos to get you using the app like a pro.

Cost: $9.99

If you want to keep your favorite Major League Baseball team in your pocket then FanMisery.com offers an Index App for each and every MLB team. Working on the basis that being a fan is in fact misery (the agony of defeat and all that jazz) the apps make sure you are kept as absolutely up-to-date as possible with a comprehensive set of stats, opinions and news drawn from national and local papers, broadcast media and blogs.

One nice touch is that if a blog or news source you follow isn’t currently included in the indexing, the developer (Discover Motion) will add it in for you on request — just the kind of helpful option that warms the cockles of an iPhone owner’s heart.

Cost: $2.99 each

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Image courtesy of iStockphoto, spxChrome

Tags: Baseball, iphone, iphone apps, Lists, sports

Transmute Portable is a bookmark manager that allow to convert, synchronize and organize bookmarks and more. It supports all major web browsers including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Apple Safari, Chromium, Flock and Konqueror.

Do you like Bravo? Sure you do. Well Bravo sure likes you and they want to give you a standard Kindle (Kindle 2, not the DX) to one lucky commenter. How do you win? Well heck, I’m glad you asked.

All you have to do is comment or retweet this post to the world. Either/or. It’s a random thing, baby.

Why are they giving you a kindle? Here:

Bravo achieved major success in the digital sphere last year, and they broke new ground in social media by creating the first ever virtual viewing party, a multiplatform, live viewing experience. It allowed viewers to interact on social media outlets during their favorite show like “Real Housewives of New York City” and “Top Chef.” The success of these viewing parties attracted over 1 million page views, saw double-digit growth in audience engagement, and created sponsorship opportunities for the network.

Now, Bravo plans on expanding on its success by creating weekly live viewing parties called the Bravo Talk Bubble. The site, BravoTalkBubble.com, launched on 3/18, and they will start the first viewing party on March 25 during a new episode of “The Real Housewives of New York City”. They will also deploy an innovative, new Twitter integration.

To help promote this Talk Bubble, we’re giving away ONE Kindle to your readers.

Fair enough, right? Who doesn’t want a Kindle? We’ll pick a winner on Monday at noon New York Time.

On Sunday March 14th, all French citizens including those in the four French overseas departments (Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana and Reunion) were asked to vote for the regional elections and the regional assembly in charge of devolved powers such as planning adult professional training, building and funding public high schools, financing and promoting cultural projects.

The vote took place in a very busy electoral period: Martinicans were asked to decide for more autonomy in their department, only in January.

Two major elections in a three-month period may have been too much for the 55.55% of Martinican voters who decided to stay home and not vote, as shown by Bondamanjak's post [Fr].

Blogger Evolution Martinique comments on [Fr] this high abstention figure:

Le grand vainqueur de ce 1er tour, est à l’évidence le taux record d’abstention (plus de 55%) […].

In the same post, the blogger also gives possible reasons to explain why people resorted to abstention:

1. La répétition soutenue des consultations et des scrutins sur une période très dense entre le 10 janvier et le 14 mars.

2. La question du statut institutionnel aura été un enjeu majeur aux yeux des électeurs, reléguant les régionales dans la sphère de la politique politicienne.

3. La qualité bien terne du débat et des propositions politiques de même que le climat délétère dans lequel se déroula cette campagne.

4. Le choix incongru du vote au 2ième tour.

2. The issue of the institutional status must have been more important in the eyes of the citizens, whereas the regional elections are considered as politicking.

3. The low quality of the debate and of the political programs as well as the noxious atmosphere of the campaign.

4. The incongruous choice of voting for the 2nd round.

Martinican blogger [moi]'s playground shares her opinion about the first round of the elections, in a post which details the results for each list, along with her personal comments. Incidentally, she sums up the central stake of this election in Martinique [Fr]:

Trois listes se maintiennent donc pour un second tour ou le duel Marie-Jeanne/Letchimy annoncé va connaître son épilogue.

The same duel is acknowledged by Bondamanjak in a post entitled “André Lesueur, la troisième voix” (André Lesueur, the third voice).

Both [moi] and Bondamanjak comment on the significant decrease of right-wing voters in Martinique. She wonders [Fr]:

Depuis combien de temps la droite ne s’était pas retrouvée à un second tour d’élections régionales ?

A comment to Bondamanjak's post says [Fr]:

Juan […] j'ajouterai
pour terminer que la droite pour moi est menacée d'inutilité politique.

The remarks made by Martinican bloggers concerning the poor quality of the campaigns, the tiredness of the population with elections and the difficult position of the right-wing parties is not an exclusive feature of the overseas departments, since mainland French elections followed the very same pattern, as this post by French blogger Ma Liberté, explains.

In the world of technology, drama is a valuable commodity. Disruptive change may happen in the minutiae of software code or the gradual execution of a business plan, but we see its effects in the dramatic narratives of companies rising and falling, or getting locked in combat with each other. Which is why the rivalry between Google and Apple is such a compelling story.

It’s so tempting to get drawn into the ego battles between Steve Jobs and the Google triumvirate while placing bets on who will win that it’s easy to forget a deeper truth about this rivalry: Google and Apple need each other.

They both have a deep desire to stake out claims on the mobile web, but the mobile web is in a nascent stage. In order to develop, it needs to have both rigid structure and a sometimes reckless creativity. Structure is necessary to provide a strong foundation and a set of standards everyone can understand. And creativity is essential to bringing the innovative potential of the mobile web into full bloom.

This dichotomy was present when the Internet began to develop in the early 90s. Many people who came online then did so through America Online’s walled gardens, a safe little enclave where consumers and content providers alike could create the rules of a new medium. Then the web itself took off and sites like Yahoo and GeoCities offered a much more creative environment to explore what else could be done.

Now it’s happening again, only with Apple and Google. Apple’s stern and unforgiving approach to the iPhone offers the structure this new medium needs to succeed. Cupertino’s control-freak tendencies stretch from enforcing adherence to ever-changing app guidelines to banishing plastic screen protectors from its retail stores.

Google’s approach is nearly the opposite, much more open and free-wheeling. Its Android OS, based on the Linux kernel, has so many versions available the company is struggling to consolidate them. The Android Market is such an unregulated affair that it’s hard for anyone to count the number of apps on sale.

Google’s culture has built into it a tolerance for the failures that come with creative experiments. Its 70-20-10 rule seems rooted on that spirit of tolerance — how many companies require employees to spend time on something that may never fly? — and Google has floated so many failed ideas it’s hard to keep track of them all. Apple, by contrast, starts with an instinctive idea of how consumers will experience its products and fits everything, even the ecosystem of apps that extends beyond its corporate walls, into making it work.

It’s in the tension between these two companies and their respective cultures that the mobile web is being forged. But as America Online found out, the walls eventually come down as consumers grow more comfortable with the new medium and desert the walled garden. That would suggest the balance will tip in favor of Google.

But I would be surprised if Apple isn’t anticipating this evolution. Right now, iPhone owners are experiencing the mobile web through the 150,000 or so apps it offers through the App Store. But Apple has also backed HTML5, which allows a smartphone browser to have rich app-like features without requiring any new software to be downloaded. Just as people stopped downloading AOL’s software and switched to browsers, we may well abandon most of the apps on our phones today.

Both companies will continue to play a major role on the mobile web, but I doubt either will ever gain the upper hand. This dramatic tension between Apple and Google may be around for a long time. So executives at both might as well get used to it.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

With The iPad, Apple Takes Google To the Mat

Google this week took another step toward getting its own Android-based handset, the Nexus One, on as many U.S. carriers as possible. Originally released on the T-Mobile network, the device was added to AT&T next, and then Verizon. Sprint said this week that it will become the fourth major carrier to support the Nexus One — which should help boost the lower-than-expected sales numbers of what many feel is the best Android phone on the market.

Google Buzz is one of those services that folks either love or hate. Those in the pro-Buzz camp will love the new Google Buzz widget, which can be placed on the home screen of any Android phone, where users can post text and photos to it with a single tap. The widget also supports geolocation. Posts submitted through it are uploaded in the background, and as such do not impact performance nor usage of the phone.

• The 3 Best Things I Saw at SXSW Tech Insider
• Lessons in Phone Marketing, or Why the Nexus One Is Sucking Wind Tech Insider
• Why Microsoft Should Allow Third Parties to Sell WinPhone Apps Tech Insider
• The Nexus One Needs More Hype Tech Insider

And the Android OS may be coming to a TV near you! Google, Intel and Sony have entered into a partnership to create Google TV, a venture aimed at bringing social networking into the set-top TV box space. Google TV will be based on the Chrome web browser, which doesn’t currently work with Android. Launch is slated for this summer.

Our top story this week was about bad news for the big guys: Google, Facebook, Digg's top users. As you catch up on the news, be sure to watch the conversation about China, tech and democracy that took place between activist/artist Ai Weiwei, Twitter's Jack Dorsey and ReadWriteWeb's Richard MacManus. We also continued our exploration of the significant Internet trends of 2010, including Real-Time Web, Mobile Web and Internet of Things.

Note: We've refreshed the format for our longest running feature, the Weekly Wrapup. It now focuses more explicitly on the key trends that ReadWriteWeb is tracking in 2010, as well as giving you the highlights from the leading story of the week. Let us know your thoughts on the new format.

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Story of the Week: Nexus One's woes, spies love Facebook, top Diggers lose power

• Oops: Google Denied Trademark on Android Nexus One
• Big Changes Are Coming to Digg: More Power to Publishers, Less Power to Top Diggers
• How US Government Spies Use Facebook (Updated)
• Cartoon: Can't Go to SXSW? We Feel Your Pain
• Nexus One Flopped, but Android Didn't

More coverage and analysis from ReadWriteWeb

Join us for the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit on May 7 in Mountain View, California as we explore the latest mobile development trends, both the technology and the emerging business applications. Be a part of the discussion on geo-location services, augmented reality, native app vs. browser-based, commerce and marketing, mobile social networking and the Internet of Things. Sponsorship enquiries: sales@readwriteweb.com,

Register now for the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit and get early bird rates - only $295.

Mobile Web

• Microsoft Updates Bing iPhone App and Removes It from All International iTunes Stores
• Blockbuster Brings New Releases to Android, Windows Mobile Phones
• Mobile App Marketplace: $17.5 Billion by 2012

More Mobile Web coverage

Internet of Things

• 
• Internet of Things Explained (Video)
• 6 Ways to Better Living: Inside an Internet of Things Home
• 8 Ways to Better Understand the Internet of Things

More Internet of Things coverage

Check Out The ReadWriteWeb iPhone App

We recently launched the official ReadWriteWeb iPhone app. As well as enabling you to read ReadWriteWeb while on the go or lying on the couch, we've made it easy to share ReadWriteWeb posts directly from your iPhone, on Twitter and Facebook. You can also follow the RWW team on Twitter, directly from the app. We invite you to download it now from iTunes.

Real-Time Web

• 
• OneRiot Brings Its Real-Time Ads to the Web
• Why Wikipedia Should Be Trusted As A Breaking News Source

More Real-Time Web coverage. Don't miss the next wave of opportunity on the Web supported by real-time technology! Get ReadWriteWeb's report, The Real-Time Web and its Future.

ReadWriteStart

Our channel ReadWriteStart, sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark, is dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs.

• The Death of the Pageview
• Micropayments and Subscriptions: How Business Models for Startups are Shifting
• 6 ReadWriteStart Lists: Our Best Startup Advice

ReadWriteEnterprise

Our channel ReadWriteEnterprise is devoted to 'enterprise 2.0' and using social software inside organizations.

• Provider Fail: Vodafone Sells HTC Smartphone Loaded With Malware
• Google Apps Offers Migration for Microsoft Exchange

ReadWriteCloud

Our channel ReadWriteCloud, sponsored by VMware and Intel, is dedicated to Virtualization and Cloud Computing.

• IBM Makes A Major Move Into The Cloud; Amazon Is In Its Sights
• Rulers of the Cloud: Will Amazon's Computing Fabric Become a New Economy?
• The Oracle Effect: Sun's Best and Brightest Move On to New Places

That's a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone.

Dual Electronics iPod touch GPS dock ships at long last originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 20 Mar 2010 06:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Conservative party would impose unilateral tax on banks to recover taxpayers' billions if elected, party leader says

The Conservative party would impose a unilateral tax on banks to claw back the billions of pounds of taxpayers' money used to prop up major financial institutions during the economic crisis, David Cameron said today.

His pledge came as the Financial Times reported that the chancellor, Alistair Darling, is to use next week's budget to signal government support for a global bank tax, although only as part of an international agreement.

Darling will set out detailed options in his budget statement but will insist that the money raised should go to national governments and not be used for an insurance fund against future collapse, the paper said.

There are fears that the existence of an insurance fund could encourage risk-taking and that any unilateral action could prompt an exodus of banks from the City to less punitive regimes abroad.

But Cameron said the Conservatives' proposed levy, similar to unilateral measures announced by the US president, Barack Obama, was needed to protect British taxpayers from future bank collapses.

He said the banking industry was one of the vested interests he would confront if elected and accused Gordon Brown of failing to stand up to the financial sector.

"We had the biggest bank bailout in the world. We can't just carry on as if nothing happened," he said.

"In America, President Obama has said he will get taxpayers back every cent they put in. Why should it be any different here?

"So I can announce today that a Conservative government will introduce a new bank levy to pay back taxpayers for the support they gave and to protect them in the future.

"No, it won't be popular in every part of the City. But I believe it's fair and it's necessary."

The prime minister has been a leading advocate of a globally co-ordinated levy on banks, which could bring in tens of billions of pounds a year from the financial services sector worldwide.

He was forced to abandon his preferred option – a "Tobin" tax on financial transactions – but hopes the International Monetary Fund will back the measure at its April meeting in Washington ahead of a G20 meeting in June.

The FT said Labour's manifesto could commit to diverting some of the proceeds of the levy into aid for poorer countries – in line with a campaign for a "Robin Hood tax" on the banks.

• Conservatives
• Banking
• Tax and spending
• Recession
• Global recession

Stardock CEO going on modding sabbatical after Elemental ships originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 20 Mar 2010 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Stardock CEO going on modding sabbatical after Elemental ships originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 20 Mar 2010 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Amidst talk of an aging society and a depleting demographic dividend, appeals for a reconsideration of China’s One-Child Policy were voiced during the annual meetings of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference held Mar. 3 to 14.

Zhang Yin, China’s wealthiest woman and member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, called for a “gradual release” from the 30 year-old policy, with a three to five year trial period allowing some the right to have a second child before the nation as a whole.

In an interview with Southern Weekend Zhang said she was one among many who voiced concern over China’s low birth rate and the consequences of an aging society.

(photo/Don Weinland)

In an open letter issued by the Communist Party’s central committee in September of 1980, the One-Child Policy was suggested in order to relieve the demographic tensions of runaway birth rates.  The letter states that after 30 years of state controlled family planning, “different demographic policies can be adopted.”

As the policy completes its 30 year course, the future of family planning has become a topic for debate.  Despite a long tradition of large families in China, online opinion concerning a possible “Two-Child Policy” is mixed.

Blogger You Xin sees the One-Child Policy as inseparable from China’s long-term growth and conservation of resources.

è@¡åˆ’生育是我国的基本国策，人å£æ•°é‡æŽ§åˆ¶åœ¨ä»ŠåŽå¾ˆé•¿ä¸€æ@µæ—¶é—´å†…还是è¦æœ‰åŠ›æ‰§è¡Œçš„。åªæœ‰å°†äººå£æ€»é‡æŽ§åˆ¶åœ¨ä¸€ä¸ªé€‚度范围，é¢ä¸´æ—¥ç›ŠåŒ@ä¹çš„资æºçŸ­ç¼ºï¼Œæˆ‘国人å‡èµ„æºé‡æ‰ä¸ä¼šåŠå…¶åŒ@ä¹ï¼Œäººæ°‘生活水平æ‰ä¼šæœ‰è´¨çš„æ高。

Family planning is a fundamental policy in my country.  Population control for a long period of time in the future must be carried out with force.  In the face of daily increasing shortages of resources, only population control on a suitable scale will prevent extreme per capita resource shortages.  Only then can the people’s quality of living be raised.

You Xin says China’s demographic dividend, the world’s largest group of labor-aged workers largely responsible for powering the country’s manufacturing engine, has not helped develop a white-collared job market suitable for university graduates.

为什么大学生就业难？并ä¸è¦æ‰¾ä¸åˆ°å·¥ä½œï¼Œè€Œæ˜¯æ‰¾ä¸åˆ°åˆé€‚的工作。大学生作为知识分å­ï¼Œå½“然ä¸æ„¿èžå…¥åˆ¶é€ ä¸šå½“中了。对于”人å£çº¢åˆ©“时代的æ‹ç‚¹ï¼ŒåŠ³åŠ¨åŠ›ä¸‹é™ï¼Œæˆ‘们å¯ä»¥é‡‡å–其他措施，而ä¸æ˜¯æ”¾å¼€äºŒèƒŽæ”¿ç­– ... éšç€ä»¥åŽç»æµŽå‘展，我国也å¯ä»¿æ•ˆå‘达国å@¶ï¼Œå°†åˆ¶é€ ä¸šå¤§æ‰¹è½¬å…¥å…¶ä»–更贫穷的国å@¶ã€‚

Why can’t university students find a job?  It’s certainly not because we can’t find work, but because we can’t find suitable work.  Students, as intellectuals, of course aren’t willing to go into manufacturing ... As the economy develops further, [China] can follow the example of developed countries and transfer manufacturing on a large scale to other poorer countries.

Blogger ‘Grassroots Public Servant’ disagrees, saying growth in the manufacturing work force is essential to China’s future and may influence the passing of a “Two-Child Policy” sooner than later.

如果中国ç»æµŽèƒ½å¤Ÿè¾ƒå¿«å¤è‹ï¼Œåˆ™æ°‘å·¥è’会加剧，且远比å‰å‡ å¹´åŽ‰å@³ï¼Œæœ‰å¯èƒ½ä¿ƒä½¿å…¨é¢æ”¾å¼€äºŒèƒŽæ”¿ç­–çš„æå‰å‡ºå°ã€‚未æ¥ä¸­å›½ç»æµŽå‘展的一大制约因素，必然是劳动力，特别是低端劳动力的供给ä¸è¶³ã€‚

If China’s economy recovers relatively quickly, dramatically increasing the  laborer shortage even more than the last few years, this may expedite the passing of the Two-Child Policy nationally.  A major limitation to China’s future growth will certainly be labor power, especially shortages in the supply of low-level labor.

Blogger Wan Yu, who calls herself a basic level family planning officer, says the One-Child Policy was adopted to meet the economic challenges caused by the Cultural Revolution, which ended in 1976 and resulted in widespread unemployment.  She says the policy was directed toward one generation of citizens and should be reviewed.

A deterioration of tradition family relationships is one of many problems Wan Yu cites with the continuation of the One-Child Policy.

…曾å¬è§éŸ³åƒåº—播放一ç§å„¿æ­Œï¼Œå†…å@¹æ˜¯“爸爸的哥哥是伯伯，妈妈的妹妹是姨妈......”，åˆå¬é¢‡è§‰åŒªå¤·æ‰€æ€ï¼Œç»†æƒ³ä¸èƒœæ„Ÿæ…¨ï¼Œå‡ ä»£ç‹¬ç”Ÿå­å¥³çŠ¶æ€å¦‚果延缓下去，这些å@¶åº­ä¼¦å¸¸å…³ç³»å°†æˆä¸ºåŽ†å²é—迹，孩å­ä»¬åªæœ‰åœ¨å„¿æ­Œé‡Œæ‰èƒ½å¬æ˜Žç™½ï¼Œä»–们的社会关系会与现在出现æžå¤§å·@别。

I once heard a music store playing a children’s song that went like this: “My dad’s brother is my uncle.  My mom’s sister is my aunt...” When I first heard it I thought it was unbelievable and couldn’t help but sigh.  If generations of single children continue, the traditional family relationships of these families will become a historical artifact.  Children will know [these names] from children’s songs only.  Their social relationships will be extremely different from ours.

Blogger Shui Lian disagrees with the idea that a “Two-Child Policy” will permanently solve China’s demographic problems and argues that higher birth rates will continue the cycle of China’s once-endemic overpopulation problems.

…如果放开二胎政策的构想æˆä¸ºçŽ°å@žçš„è¯ï¼Œä¸ºäº†å…»è€å°±å¯ä»¥å¤šç”Ÿå­å¥³ï¼Œé‚£ä¹ˆï¼Œå½“这些å­å¥³è€åŽ»çš„时候，他们åˆè¦ä¾é è°æ¥å…»è€å‘¢ï¼Ÿè¿™ä¸ä»…会人为增加社会养è€çš„æˆæœ¬ï¼Œè€Œä¸”势必加大æ¯ä¸€ä¸ªå@¶åº­çš„å…»è€è´Ÿæ‹…，是一ç§ä¸æŠ˜ä¸æ‰£çš„逻辑悖è@ºã€‚

If two-child policy thinking becomes a reality, and we can have more children in order to take care of the elderly, then who will they rely on to take care of them when they grow old?  This will not only artificially increase the costs of care for the elderly but will increase every household’s burden for caring for them.  It is purely a contradiction in logic.

Results from China’s sixth national census point to the possibility of an easing in family planning policy.  Southern Weekend reports that conditions that were once described as “population pressures” are now being called “advantages in human resources”.  What was once called “population control” has now been dubbed “population development”, the article says.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

Continue reading Spike Jonze's free web film features robot love, vodka, long wait times

Spike Jonze's free web film features robot love, vodka, long wait times originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

We spend a day flogging the WRX and STI around an ice course and come away with a new appreciation for our left foot.

A study in Psychological Science contends that eco-conscious consumers have a penchant for overt righteousness and a general feeling of superiority. You don't say?

With both GM and Ford providing all-new police-specific vehicles next year, we take a look at the old stalwarts and their black-and-white successors.

• Mazda considers offering diesel CX-7 in the States
• Akio Toyoda sitting out this year's Nurburgring 24
• Rolls-Royce Phantom to undergo major overhaul in 2016
• Next generation Volkswagen Beetle coming next year
• McLaren could develop racing version of MP4-12C for privateers

Browse our archive of Daily U-Turn posts or subscribe to the RSS feed

Daily U-Turn: What you missed on 3.19.10 originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The FCC is working on a plan that would sell a chunk of spectrum in the first half of 2011 that failed to be sold in 2008 because of the strict conditions of use.

The spectrum, which was earmarked for public-safety use, may now have different terms and conditions, if any are to be attached. Jamie Barnett, chief of the FCC Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau, told Reuters that the FCC could issue a notice of inquiry “early summer” but a final decision has not been made.

An auction would help T-Mobile USA, which doesn’t have the capacity on its current networks to roll out 4G services, like its major rivals AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless.

The FCC is working on a plan that would sell a chunk of spectrum in the first half of 2011 that failed to be sold in 2008 because of the strict conditions of use.

The spectrum, which was earmarked for public-safety use, may now have different terms and conditions, if any are to be attached. Jamie Barnett, chief of the FCC Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau, told Reuters that the FCC could issue a notice of inquiry “early summer” but a final decision has not been made.

An auction would help T-Mobile USA, which doesn’t have the capacity on its current networks to roll out 4G services, like its major rivals AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless.

The Telx Group, a New York City-based data center operator, has filed for an initial public offering that could see it raise as much as $100 million from the public markets. The last major data center operator to go public was RackSpace, and that was back in 2009. With the demand for data centers and Internet services on an upswing, Telx’s attempt to go public is very timely.

The company is well known for owning 60 Hudson Street, an iconic wired carrier hotel in Manhattan where more than 250 networks converge. Owned by private equity firm GI Partners, its other assets include The Planet and EV1 Servers.

Telx has 15 data centers with about half a million square feet of data center space. The company had revenues of $98.3 million in 2009 and net losses of $9.9 million. Telx, which also provides global interconnection and co-location services, has about $130 million in debt. The IPO is being underwritten by Goldman Sachs & Co. and Deutsche Bank Securities. Telx has applied to trade on the Nasdaq market under the ticker TELX.

You know those special amps used by Spinal Tap that go to 11, in order to provide "that extra push over the cliff"? It appears Fox News has gotten a hold of some and hooked them up to its coverage of health care reform.

As the reform bill moved closer to a vote in the House, the Fox News noise machine went into overdrive, hurling every false and misleading claim it could muster.

The week in Fox News health care hysteria began with an oldie-but-goodie -- Steve Doocy, Bill Hemmer, and Bill O'Reilly all claimed or suggested that the bill will, in O'Reilly's words, "require American taxpayers to fund abortion." But it doesn't, at least not beyond what is currently permitted under current law. Fox News, unfortunately, is not alone in repeating this falsehood.

Then, Doocy and Hemmer, joined by Neil Cavuto and several other hosts, jumped on the idea that a legislative procedure the House is reportedly considering to pass the Senate's version of health care reform would allow them to do so without a vote. Wrong again -- the House would need to vote to implement that procedure.

Carl Cameron, however, broke through the noise on this issue, pointing out that the process would simply pass the bill "in one vote instead of two" and that the process "has been used, literally, for centuries" -- indeed, Republicans made copious use of the "self-executing rule" when they controlled Congress. Even Charles Krauthammer conceded that it's constitutional. Still, that didn't keep Alisyn Camerota from scoffing that the rule "might as well be a self-immolating rule."

Fox News then pounced on a survey claiming to have found that 46 percent of primary care physicians would consider leaving their profession if health care reform passes. O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and contributor Dr. Marc Siegel all portrayed the survey as having been published by the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.

Except it wasn't. The article was written by the physician-recruiting firm that conducted the survey, and it actually appeared in an employment newsletter produced by the publisher of the New England Journal of Medicine, not the Journal itself. Further, the survey itself was not all that scientific -- done via email contacts taken from the recruiting firm's database -- so any claim that the survey's results accurately reflect the view of the American medical community is dubious at best.

Fox News' Megyn Kelly did eventually note that the survey was "not a scientific poll." But that didn't keep Glenn Beck from insisting -- hours after Kelly corrected the record -- that "The New England Journal of Medicine says that if this bill is passed nearly one-third of doctors will quit practice medicine."

(Beck, meanwhile, is keeping up the long tradition of Fox News hosts pushing partisan political agendas by joining with Republican Rep. Steve King to promote an anti-reform rally in Washington.)

Fox News contributor and serial misleader Dana Perino made her own non-contribution to the health care debate, asserting that the reform bill's Medicare investment tax on those making over $200,000 a year is "so disturbing ... because the people who make that money are the small business owners." In fact, fewer than 1.3 percent of small business owners would be affected by the tax.

When the Congressional Budget Office released new numbers detailing how the reform bill would reduce the deficit by $130 billion over 10 years, Fox News didn't want to talk about that -- it spent far more time highlighting how much the bill would cost instead of how much it would save. And when that didn't seem to work, it tried to discredit the CBO as untrustworthy and unreliable. Never mind that when the CBO issued "favorable" numbers last fall on a Republican health care reform plan, Fox News praised the CBO as "nonpartisan."

The Fox News spin is even confusing its own hosts. Brian Kilmeade can't quite comprehend how a bill can cost money yet reduce the deficit, and Kelly admitted, "I don't understand anything they're talking about when it comes to this potential law."

Fox News' inept war against health care reform, while in keeping with its function as the communications arm of the Republican Party in exile, is making itself look like the Spinal Tap of news. It doesn't really need that "extra push over the cliff" -- after all, that's what it's been speeding toward for years.

At this rate, it probably won't be too long before a Fox anchor spontaneously combusts.

A whole lot of shaky earthquake claims goin' on at Fox

How much does Fox News oppose health care reform? It's pretending natural disasters didn't happen if they're inconvenient to the anti-reform agenda.

On March 18, Doocy took exception to President Obama's statement that a provision in the health care reform that would help Louisiana cope with Medicaid shortfalls resulting from Hurricane Katrina might also help Hawaii because it "went through an earthquake. "Hold it. What Hawaiian earthquake?" Doocy asked. "There was an earthquake in 1868 that killed 77. There was an earthquake in 1975 that killed two." After noting that the provision applies to states that have suffered a natural disaster "within the last seven fiscal years," Doocy added: "Essentially it boils down to just one state, and that is Louisiana."

Doocy seems to have forgotten that there was an earthquake in Hawaii in 2006. Not only did it cause tens of millions of dollars in damage, the Bush administration "declared a major disaster exists in the State of Hawaii and ordered Federal aid to supplement State and local recovery efforts" as a result of the quake.

But Doocy didn't need to rely on federal agencies for information on the quake -- Fox News reported on it at the time. (Investor's Business Daily similarly ignored its own reporting to suggest there was no recent Hawaii quake.)

It seems that rather than trust the federal government or his own news organization, Doocy chose instead to trust right-wing bloggers, who were spreading the misinformation. That runs counter to a 2007 memo -- issued after Doocy and other Fox hosts falsely claimed that Obama was educated in a madrassa -- in which Fox News vice president John Moody reportedly wrote, "For the record: seeing an item on a website does not mean it is right. Nor does it mean it is ready for air on FNC."

Media Matters has written Fox News requesting that Doocy correct the record. We shouldn't have to, since Fox News is supposed to have a "zero tolerance" policy toward on-air mistakes, but then, these are the same folks that ludicrously insisted that a Fox & Friends graphic in which poll numbers added up to 120 percent contained no errors.

The latest right-wing witch-hunt target: Jim Wallis

Fox News has long been a leader in witch hunts against Obama and his administration (or, really, anyone who can be remotely tagged as liberal). Now Glenn Beck, as an extension of his repeated challenged Beck to a debate over social justice, Beck demurred, his vaguely threatening statements making it clear his witch hunt was more important than reasoned debate: "In my time, I will respond. ... Just know the hammer's coming. ... And when the hammer comes, it's going to be hammering hard and all through the night, over and over."

Right-wing website WorldNetDaily, meanwhile, blundered into the breach with a poorly written article that attempted to put words in Wallis' mouth. WND claimed that Wallis was a "champion of communism," even though Wallis has declared communism to be a "failed" system; asserted that Sojourners has published "a slew of radicals" while ignoring that it has also published a slew of conservatives; and alleged that "Sojourners' official 'statement of faith' urges readers to 'refuse to accept [capitalist] structures and assumptions that normalize poverty and segregate the world by class,' " even though the word "capitalist" -- inserted by WND -- actually appears nowhere in the statement. WND even falsely claimed that Wallis "labeled the U.S. 'the great captor and destroyer of human life.' "

Somehow, we suspect that Beck's upcoming assault on Wallis will be just as divorced from reality as WorldNetDaily's.

Erick Erickson joins the "scumbags" at CNN

Should a blogger who once called a retiring Supreme Court justice a "goat f---ing child molester" be rewarded with a regular commentary gig on CNN? Doesn't matter -- the deal's been done.

CNN announced this week that RedState editor Erick Erickson has joined the network as a political contributor, mainly appearing on John King's new show. The network claimed that Erickson is "a perfect fit" for King's show, adding that "Erick is in touch with the very people John hopes to reach."

Media Matters has detailed Erickson's history of outrageous statements, of which the aforementioned is but one.

Predictably, conservatives defended Erickson's new job, his fellow RedStaters among them. One of Erickson's RedState defenders, however, went a tad off-message: "From Non-Conservatives, to Academics and Liberal Elitists, to self-soiling and unprincipled Professional Politicians and firmly-entrenched good ole boys inside the M(ostly) S(cumbags) M(edia), each of these clowns has a tale of doom about the hell we're headed for compliments of CNN's hand basket."

We have to wonder: Does Erickson consider his new CNN colleagues to be "scumbags"?

This week's media columns

This week's media columns from the Media Matters senior fellows: Eric Boehlert examines the media myth of Obama's "falling poll numbers," and Karl Frisch tells you how to annoy Glenn Beck in five minutes or less.

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Media Matters maintains active online communities on the nation's leading social networking sites. Be sure to join us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, and Digg and join in on the discussion.

Media Matters Minute now on YouTube

For some time now, radio shows and stations throughout the country have been carrying the Media Matters Minute, a daily, minute-long recap of our work topped off with the "most outrageous comment" of the day. We encourage you to subscribe (YouTube / iTunes /RSS) to the Minute's daily podcast, hosted by Media Matters' Ben Fishel.

This weekly wrap-up was compiled and edited by Terry Krepel, a senior web editor at Media Matters for America.

• Slam Bolt Scrappers - Fire Hose Games
• AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - Dejobaan Games
• Dearth - MIT Gambit Game Lab
• Waker - MIT Gambit Game Lab
• Turba - Keith Morgado
• Miegakure - Marc ten Bosch

Boston Indie Showcase participants selected for PAX East originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• Slam Bolt Scrappers - Fire Hose Games
• AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - Dejobaan Games
• Dearth - MIT Gambit Game Lab
• Waker - MIT Gambit Game Lab
• Turba - Keith Morgado
• Miegakure - Marc ten Bosch

Boston Indie Showcase participants selected for PAX East originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Mosquitos are one of the major ways that malaria is spread, causing an estimated two million deaths per year. Wouldn’t it be cool if those mosquitos could be genetically modified to spread a malaria vaccination instead of the disease itself? Scientists have theorized about just such a solution for years, but recent work from Jichi Medical University in Japan proves that it’s actually possible, not just theoretically possible.

Associate Professor Shigeto Yoshida and his research team “successfully generated a transgenic mosquito expressing the Leishmania vaccine within its saliva. Bites from the insect succeeded in raising antibodies, indicating successful immunization with the Leishmania vaccine through blood feeding.” Of course, this vaccination idea isn’t perfect, since you’ll still have one or more mosquito bites to scratch at, but at least you won’t have malaria.

Maybe I’m alarmist, but I can’t help but think that this kind of approach throws the natural order of things seriously out of whack. As I read the story, I kept hearing Jeff Goldblum from Jurassic Park in my mind, saying “life, uh … finds a way.”