http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-maternal-mortality-20110426,0,3749537.story

The title is sensationalist:

Caesarean sections are a major factor in pregnancy-related deaths, report finds

The title makes it sound like C-Sections are the culprit-but reading the article closely, the real culprits are increasing obesity, and poverty (poor women typically have more health problems).

The article’s data is based 90 extra deaths in 2002-2003 due to pregnancy complications. While each death is sad, it is a tiny, tiny fraction of the total. There were 551,000 births in California in 2008, so 2002 can’t be lower than 500,000. Of those 500,000, 90 extra deaths represents a .001% increase, which is statistically insignificant.

A live birth can only happen in two ways: traditional and C-section. Anyone with complications has to go C-section, therefore it is inherently more dangerous.

The report would have been much better if it had compared whether the mortality rate of the C-sections had increased for C-section procedures that had the same risk.

I would wager that C-sections were SAFER in 2002 than in 2001 if you take into the account the increased risk.

The link to the article says about 30 people participated in this review. They are all highly credentialed individuals. I wonder how many of them are going to put out a clarification.

Experts Panel for Maternity Mortality Study

http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/vol11/iss1/art20/?sending=11376

At the other end of the usability spectrum is this survey from surveys.com. They ask trivial, ridiculous questions, and have horrid user design. Do they really expect someone to go through a ton of screens?

As a final insult, in the example below, they have checkboxes-as if someone could work in “Oil or Petrol” AND “Journalism”.

Badly designed Nokia survey

No, it doesn’t.

Foreclosures are a natural way of the system healing itself. If you drink too much, a hangover is the body’s way of trying to return to normal.

The best thing for foreclosures is not to try to stop them, but to instead speed them up, and humanely help those being foreclosed upon into housing that better fits their needs, to prevent them from being homeless. That means taking the dummies who are in a McMansion and moving them into an apartment, not letting them stay in their McMansion for another three years.

What a ditz. Geithner was underwhelming, this guy doesn’t seem much better.

The NYTimes has a noxious statement from the recipient-in-chief at Chrysler, Robert Nardelli.

“Chrysler will be viable,” said the company’s chairman,Robert L. Nardelli. “An orderly restructuring outside of bankruptcy, together with the completion of our stand-alone viability plan and enhanced by a strategic alliance with Fiat, is the best option for Chrysler employees, our unions, dealers, suppliers, customers, and certainly the taxpayers.” The company is exploring a deal with Fiat to share products.

So he mentioned the employees, the unions, the dealers, the suppliers, all of whom have political clout.

What about the shareholders? Oh, right. Chrysler is a private company owned by some very rich guys on Wall Street. 

This brings to mind an old story:

“”Once in the dear dead days beyond recall, an out-of-town visitor was being shown the wonders of the New York financial district. When the party arrived at the Battery, one of his guides indicated some handsome ships riding at anchor. “Look, those are the bankers’ and brokers’ yachts. ‘Where are all the customers’ yachts?’ asked the naïve visitor.”

Katie Ittner, a hairstylist at Awilda Salon on Robertson Boulevard, said she had a client who called in tears because she could no longer afford to spend $95 to $250 to get her hair colored and had no idea how to do the job herself.

On a recent weekday at Gallery Michael, where the Picasso prints run from about $2,000 to $700,000, fine art consultant Robert Avellano said he opened at 10 a.m. and did not see a customer until 2 p.m.

The unexplored story here is who else has joined CSPI in suing Coke. Suing large companies like Coke is a lawyer’s dream come true. Coke has so many billions that even the most jaded lawyer starts to get excited.

If you read the article carefully you see that “The other law firms involved in the case are Reese Richman LLP and Whatley Drake & Kallas, LLC.”. These guys are professional litigators, and they are going to squeeze a few hundred million out of Coke. In exchange, Coke will get a “settlement” that prevents anyone else from suing them, and the consumers will get a fifty-cent coupon.

Coke wouldn’t care about CSPI suing them, but when these law firms join the game, then Coke starts to take the suit seriously.

Here is a great post from NY Observer on how to watch the 2009 Presidential Inauguration Online

But instead it has degenerated into trying to find pictures of giant bunnies on the big bad web.

It all started when I saw this photograph of a monster rabbit.

Huge rabbit

Some old guy in Germany had sent a bunch of ‘Giant Gray’ rabbits over to North Korea. The North Koreans apparently thought a rabbit breeding program would provide a cheap, abundant source of protein.
The North Koreans are desperate enough to try anything, I think. But my curiosity is what the greater Internet thought about this. So I turned up a myspace page about a giant rabbit, and a website that debunks hoaxes. I also found a really funny video of some roosters putting the smackdown on a pair of brawling bunnies.

I think a better solution for the North Koreans would be to try to grow lentils since they are high in protein. Rabbit meat has 21% protein by weight, while chana dal, a lentil whose Latin name is Cicer arietinum is high in protein, is 22% protein, higher than rabbit.

I am quite distressed by now, so I think the best solution for a protein and food starved nation is to throw itself at the mercies of the USDA. This US agency will be glad to provide tons upon tons of Government cheese, enough for the North Koreans to turn themselves obese, like their South Korean brothers.