The great minds at Slate tackle the brainteaser that is how the fuck Nicole Richie, whose body mass index is apparently a "prepubescent" 16, got knocked up. According to the story, the very lowest a woman's body mass index can fall without losing all the gross bodily functions that make us women is 17, and it should really be more like 24 if you're trying to have kids.

Women need fat to signal the pituitary gland to ovulate—without it, their bodies go into a kind of famine mode and won't use up energy to maintain reproductive processes.
Okay, guys, but speaking of famines, "explainer" us this: why is it that North Korea, a country stricken by decades of actual famine has a birth rate higher than that of the United States? Is it just because they're so good at keeping the paparazzi at bay over there?

According to Wikipedia, which we trust when we're being lazy:

The North Korean government seems to perceive its population as too small in relation to that of South Korea. In its public pronouncements...The state provides t'agaso (nurseries) in order to lessen the burden of childrearing for parents and offers a seventy-seven-day paid leave after childbirth.
Hah. So it's easier to have babies in a socialist country, because like in Hollywood, new mothers get lots of help? That sounds like something Michael Moore would make up! In fact, we can see him rounding up a bunch of exploited, underpaid x17 paparazzi and sneaking across the Chinese border into Pyongyang and making a really good movie we would actually go see while losing weight in the process. You can thank me after the first weekend box office receipts come in, Mike!

Nicole Richie Can Get Pregnant? [Slate]
North Korea [CIA World Factbook]