Monday, August 31, 2009

Chocolate Rain

The first time I saw this I was singing it everywhere I went for 3 weeks.

Michael Jackson Medley

You'll find yourself smiling about half way through this :)

Calculating the value of prostitution

U is your satisfaction. It's what you, as a prostitute, care about - the satisfaction you gain from selling your services.
L is the amount of leisure you have.
C is the amount of goods and services you, as a consumer, consume.
S is the amount of prostitution you, as a prostitute, sell to your customers.
W is the going price for prostitutes.
R is a measure of your reputation.

The whole situation, seemingly so complicated, boils down to a nice partial differential equation. Here it is - a Della Giusta, Di Tommaso and Strom's rule of thumb for prostitutes. You, a prostitute, find it worthwhile to sell your services when:
[(δU/δL) / (δU/δC) Sp=0] ≤ w - [(δU/δr) / (δU/δC) S = 0]
That's the poetic, simple way of putting it. But prostitution is by tradition considered vulgar, so the team also gives a vulgar, all-words description: "An individual will start to sell prostitution if the price for selling the first amount of prostitution, minus the costs of a worsened reputation for doing so, exceeds the shadow price of leisure evaluated at zero prostitution sold."
That, in theory, is the story of prostitution.

Sunday, August 30, 2009