Born in the USA

I recently did a research project and presentation about pregnancy and infant mortality in the USA. Here are some of the key findings:

- The USA has some of the worst infant mortality rates when compared with most other industrialized, first world countries. The USA is currently in 30th place in international rankings, with 6.9 deaths per thousand live births.

- If you are African American, you are about 50% more likely than a white person to have a premature birth.

- According to the last census, 12.4% of all children born in the US are born prematurely. On average, more than 900 late preterm babies are born every day in the USA.

- The USA does not utilize midwives; there is a lack professionals trained to assist normal, natural births in our health care system.

- There are approximately one million children born each year to mothers who receive little or no prenatal care. (Approx. 23% of all births in a year.)

- Approximately 13% of pregnant women have no health insurance when they become pregnant. 

- Maternal death rates int eh US are abominable! Times article here. 

What an embarrassment to our country!

It's coming! It's Coming to America!!

After years of being a success in Europe, the Fiat 500 is finally coming to America. This car has replaced my dream of owning the mazda miata MX-5 hardtop convertible. A) Because it is projected to be a cheaper car than the MX-5, which means I might actually be able to afford it one day. B) Because it gets better fuel economy. C) Because it is Italian and sassy. The Fiat 500 is going to be a cute, small, well designed, fun car to drive. It has even inspired me to learn how to drive a stick shift.  The first Fiat 500 model is projected to be available in the US by the end of this year.

For the last couple of days I have been following this guy's blog, called Fiat 500 USA. The blog has all sorts of cool information about my future car.

Cupcake vs. Cake

Vanilla-cinnamon cupcakes with chocolate ganache frosting.

I know people who are really huge cupcake fans. They will go out of their way to obtain a cupcake. They will pay lots of money for designer cupcakes at expensive fufu-cupcake stores. I can appreciate their enthusiasm for I too believe that a good cupcake can be glorious. I also enjoy making cupcakes. However, I prefer cake. I will always choose having a cake over a cupcake. I prefer the visual impact of a large, full-fledged, layered cake, and the lack of portion control. When it comes to a good cake, bigger IS better.

Great News!

I don't like talking about major life events while said events are still in process and are not yet a done deal. Call me crazy, but I don't want my plans to be jinxed. And, I don't want to have to give long explanations to everybody if my awesome plans do not work out quite as well as I want them to, which is often the case. That is why I have not mentioned my new, awesome, amazing, super cool job until now. I started working recently and it is time you knew, blog folk, that I have a new job and I am super happy. I am especially happy about my commute, which is a grand total of 13 minutes. 13 MINUTES! It doesn't get much better than that in the bay area, especially if you consider peak traffic times. According to Payscale, people in the bay area usually commute around 25 minutes to get to work.

I really do believe there is an inverse relationship between time spent in the car commuting and quality of life, where your quality of life increases as  your commute-time (and thus time spent in traffic jams) decreases. My old work commute was well over half an hour; my new job is a major improvement in that area. Yay!

Jeopardy

Category: Crazy Culture

For 1000 points: "Dude, don't put your beef on my chicken!"

Answer: What is, things overheard at a Korean B.B.Q. restaurant, in California.