Steven Levitt (of Freakonomics) co-authored a paper on the economics of prostitution.

From the summary: “Street prostitutes earn roughly $25-$30 per hour. [...] Given the relatively limited hours that active prostitutes work, this generates less than $20,000 annually for a women working year round in prostitution. [...] According to our estimates, a woman working as a prostitute would expect an annual average of a dozen incidents of violence and 300 instances of unprotected sex. [...] Where pimps are active, prostitutes appear to do better, with pimps both providing protection and paying efficiency wages. Condoms are used only one-fourth of the time and the price premium for unprotected sex is small. The supply of prostitutes is relatively elastic, as evidenced by the supply response to a 4th of July demand shock. Although technically illegal, punishments are minimal for prostitutes and johns. A prostitute is more likely to have sex with a police officer than to get officially arrested by one.”

Bobby Fisher died

The Miracle fruit, a slightly tart West African berry with a strange property:

For about an hour after you eat it, everything sour tastes sweet. Within minutes of consuming the berries, guests were devouring lime wedges as if they were candy. Straight lemon juice went down like lemonade, and goat cheese tasted as if it was “covered in powdered sugar,” said one astonished partygoer. A rich stout beer seemed “like a milkshake,” said another.

Library of Confress put about 1500 pics on flickr.

The always very good Good Magazine has a great article called “A call for Yuppies commune“. I featured an article not so long ago about how the twenty something had a new phase in their sociological development. This is kinda an echo to it …

“If it sounds as if I’m calling for a return of the commune, that’s because I am—or at least for some alternative to the arid emotional deserts that are our oversized, empty homes. Imagine friends and families living around a courtyard, occasionally sharing meals and keeping an eye on the kids. Cohousing—a movement that’s taken off among boomer retirees—aims to do just that. It should go without saying that this way of life has massive environmental benefits. But the case is strong enough if we stick to the question of our cultural and emotional environment.”

Artist of the day: Svinkels

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