Brave Tech World

November 27, 2006

MON 27 NOV 2006

Is it Hitwise or is it me that is wrong? By Marcelo

 

    I read this Hitwise blog that contains sometimes very interesting search charts and sometimes very dumb ones.

 

    Today's post is about the correlation between "Thanksgiving Recipes" and "Online Dieting". This is the chart for a 18-month period:

 

 

 

    Now, I'm not a statistician, economist or data-trend expert, but I see *no* correlation between "Thanksgiving Recipes" and "Online Dieting". Despite the fact that Hitwise says...

"...The negative correlation between the two subjects appears to be very clear ..."

    Really? I don't see it? Did you notice there is at least a 1-week lag between the peek of "Thanksgiving Recipes" and the valley of "Online Dieting"? I mean, one week is an eternity when you talk about search queries.

 

    For me, there is a clear drop on "online recipes" before Christmas, and a huge spike starting just before New Year's Eve that peeks at the first week of the new year. That is the correlation for me.

 

    Stop making up "facts". And don't even get me started on the "Cyber Monday".

 

 

MON 27 NOV 2006

Premera Blue Cross, acting like an Insurance Company. By Marcelo

 

Background:

 

    My wife works at Microsoft and they offer an amazing health plan provided by Premera Blue Cross. We have a 10 month old son and we are going to travel to Brazil. As a prepared couple as we are (cough, cough), we decided to check which hospitals in Sao Paulo we could use in case of an emergency with our son.

 

    Most Health insurers have international agreements either with local insurers or with multi-national ones. This is not necessary because emergency coverage is usually 100% no matter where in the world you are, except that if you use a "network" hospital you don't have to do any of the paperwork.

 

 

The Story:

 

    My wife called Premera and here is what the conversation was like:

 

She: Hi, I'm travelling to Brazil and I'd like to know which hospital can I use there and what is the coverage.

Premera: If it is the same network the coverage is 100%.

She: And which hospitals are on the same network?

Premera: Just a second... (after a minute)... We don't have any.

She: You mean, you don't have any in Brazil or you don't have any at all?

Premera: We don't have any at all.

 

Summary:

 

    Premera guarantees 100% coverage for in-network hospitals, but they don't have any. Cool!