Jun. 3rd, 2012

monk222: (Noir Detective)
An interesting discussion on the economics of sex, or of getting sex. Is it better for a man to be a night club casanova, or is it better to have a steady partner? Of course, this is for men who can get partners.

_ _ _

On the one hand having a girlfriend can be expensive for a man, especially if he is the type of man who likes to take care of the woman he is dating – buying her meals, gifts, taking her on trips, et cetera. Those expenses could potentially add up quickly over several months of a relationship.

But being single, or more to the point being a single man who is hoping to have sex, can also be very expensive. Not only is hanging out at nightclubs and bars or going on many first dates pricey, but men who hope to attract female attention also have to shell out for expensive clothes, shoes, grooming services and products and more.


In regard to this last point, modern men are finally starting to understand how expensive it is for women to attract a mate in a world in which many people make these decisions based on personal appearance alone.

I don’t have the answer to this question about which is cheaper, but I think that what it comes down to is frequency of sex. All the data I have seen suggests that the men who have sex the least frequently, after men who have no sex at all, are those who report having more than one sexual partner in the previous three months. The men who have sex the most frequently, for example more than 20 times a month, are almost exclusively men who have only one sexual partner.

So even though it may appear to costs less to head out to the clubs on the weekend than it does to wine and dine a girlfriend, given that the outcome of that outing is uncertain it is probably still the most expensive option.

There are helpful websites that will calculate for men how much they are paying for sex with their girlfriend. Some will even go so far as to compare that cost to having sex with prostitutes over the same period to see if there has been any net savings from having a girlfriend. But that is a seriously flawed methodology.

From the perspective of an economist, the opportunity cost of having a girlfriend has to take into consideration the cost of that man’s activities had he remained single and, for the vast majority of men, that is not prowling the streets looking for a sex worker.

The “buy the cow” expression is offensive for obvious reasons, but any good economist would tell you that you are never really getting the milk for free. And besides, marriage/cohabitation is economically efficient when it comes to the provision of sexual services and that is one of the reasons so many people think it is worth the initial investment.

-- Marina Adshade, "Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?" at BigThink.com

_ _ _

Of course, the best answer is probably darker: it's best to have a steady partner and to cheat on the side. Since you already have a partner, you do not have to be desperate in scoring with other chicks. You can just throw out a casual line here and there, and if you get a bite, then great! If not, you are still not reduced to Internet porn.

monk222: (Noir Detective)
An interesting discussion on the economics of sex, or of getting sex. Is it better for a man to be a night club casanova, or is it better to have a steady partner? Of course, this is for men who can get partners.

_ _ _

On the one hand having a girlfriend can be expensive for a man, especially if he is the type of man who likes to take care of the woman he is dating – buying her meals, gifts, taking her on trips, et cetera. Those expenses could potentially add up quickly over several months of a relationship.

But being single, or more to the point being a single man who is hoping to have sex, can also be very expensive. Not only is hanging out at nightclubs and bars or going on many first dates pricey, but men who hope to attract female attention also have to shell out for expensive clothes, shoes, grooming services and products and more.


In regard to this last point, modern men are finally starting to understand how expensive it is for women to attract a mate in a world in which many people make these decisions based on personal appearance alone.

I don’t have the answer to this question about which is cheaper, but I think that what it comes down to is frequency of sex. All the data I have seen suggests that the men who have sex the least frequently, after men who have no sex at all, are those who report having more than one sexual partner in the previous three months. The men who have sex the most frequently, for example more than 20 times a month, are almost exclusively men who have only one sexual partner.

So even though it may appear to costs less to head out to the clubs on the weekend than it does to wine and dine a girlfriend, given that the outcome of that outing is uncertain it is probably still the most expensive option.

There are helpful websites that will calculate for men how much they are paying for sex with their girlfriend. Some will even go so far as to compare that cost to having sex with prostitutes over the same period to see if there has been any net savings from having a girlfriend. But that is a seriously flawed methodology.

From the perspective of an economist, the opportunity cost of having a girlfriend has to take into consideration the cost of that man’s activities had he remained single and, for the vast majority of men, that is not prowling the streets looking for a sex worker.

The “buy the cow” expression is offensive for obvious reasons, but any good economist would tell you that you are never really getting the milk for free. And besides, marriage/cohabitation is economically efficient when it comes to the provision of sexual services and that is one of the reasons so many people think it is worth the initial investment.

-- Marina Adshade, "Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?" at BigThink.com

_ _ _

Of course, the best answer is probably darker: it's best to have a steady partner and to cheat on the side. Since you already have a partner, you do not have to be desperate in scoring with other chicks. You can just throw out a casual line here and there, and if you get a bite, then great! If not, you are still not reduced to Internet porn.

3-D Movies

Jun. 3rd, 2012 10:00 am
monk222: (Default)
I finally hear a voice speaking for me on the threat of the movie world turning exclusively 3-D. As it is pointed out, 6 out of 10 of the top-grossing films of 2011 were 3-D.

_ _ _

I am probably America’s only monocular film critic – meaning 3-D films (along with binoculars and View-Masters) have never worked for me. I was born 90-percent cross-eyed and now have – thanks to a series of eye operations beginning when I was 18-months-old – perfect vision in one eye and negligible vision in the other. The two eyes do not synch up to produce a single 3-D image. So I am coming out of the closet to take a stand for the roughly 700 million humans like me – one out of every 10 people, it’s estimated – who cannot physically process 3-D cinema. That’s many more times the percentage of people who need wheelchair ramps to access a movie theater, which all theaters are legally bound to provide.

-- Michael Atkinson

_ _ _

I'm not a big movie person anyway and could probably live well enough without them, but I do appreciate the luxury of checking them out and coming across a few movies than I do enjoy.

3-D Movies

Jun. 3rd, 2012 10:00 am
monk222: (Default)
I finally hear a voice speaking for me on the threat of the movie world turning exclusively 3-D. As it is pointed out, 6 out of 10 of the top-grossing films of 2011 were 3-D.

_ _ _

I am probably America’s only monocular film critic – meaning 3-D films (along with binoculars and View-Masters) have never worked for me. I was born 90-percent cross-eyed and now have – thanks to a series of eye operations beginning when I was 18-months-old – perfect vision in one eye and negligible vision in the other. The two eyes do not synch up to produce a single 3-D image. So I am coming out of the closet to take a stand for the roughly 700 million humans like me – one out of every 10 people, it’s estimated – who cannot physically process 3-D cinema. That’s many more times the percentage of people who need wheelchair ramps to access a movie theater, which all theaters are legally bound to provide.

-- Michael Atkinson

_ _ _

I'm not a big movie person anyway and could probably live well enough without them, but I do appreciate the luxury of checking them out and coming across a few movies than I do enjoy.
monk222: (Flight)
Dagny Taggart has been listening to what seemed to her a symphony, until she realized that it is actually only a lad whistling. Before we get to the dialogue between Dagny and the brakeman, I want to cover this additional paragraph on her musing over the music. She recognizes it as the music of Richard Halley, and when I first read this novel, I was firmly convinced that she was echoing a Nietzschean theme, so that Richard Halley stood for Richard Wagner, the nineteenth-century German composer known to be very pro-Aryan. However, I have found no support for this idea, and I must accept that I was barking up the wrong tree, being too eager to catch all the racist roots behind Ms. Rand’s philosophy.

She thought dimly that there had been premonitory echoes of this theme in all of Richard Halley’s work, through all the years of his long struggle, to the day, in his middle-age, when fame struck him suddenly and knocked him out. This - she thought, listening to the symphony - had been the goal of his struggle. She remembered half-hinted attempts in his music, phrases that promised it, broken bits of melody that started but never quite reached it; when Richard Halley wrote this, he... She sat up straight. when did Richard Halley write this?

She cannot recall Halley having actually written this piece, and it is at this point that she realizes that she had only been listening to a lad whistling the tune, and she probes him, trying to get a handle on this music, what is it, where it came from.


_ _ _

“Tell me, please, what are you whistling?” The boy turned to her. She met a direct glance and saw an open, eager smile, as if he were sharing a confidence with a friend. She liked his face - its lines were tight and firm, it did not have that look of loose muscles evading the responsibility of a shape, which she had learned to expect in people’s faces.

“It’s the Halley Concerto,” he answered, smiling.

“Which one?”

“The Fifth.”

She let a moment pass, before she said slowly and very carefully, “Richard Halley wrote only four concertos.”

The boy’s smile vanished. It was as if he were jolted back to reality, just as she had been a few moments ago. It was as if a shutter were slammed down, and what remained was a face without expression, impersonal, indifferent and empty.

-- “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand

_ _ _

So, we are presented with a mystery. We may take it that this is Halley’s music, but Halley had been struck down and is vanished, without ever publishing this concerto. Where did this music come from?

We may think of this as the second mystery. We did not spell it out, but our first mystery, if you recall, was ‘who is John Galt?’ What does that expression mean? Where did that meme come from? Does the name John Galt refer to an actual person?

monk222: (Flight)
Dagny Taggart has been listening to what seemed to her a symphony, until she realized that it is actually only a lad whistling. Before we get to the dialogue between Dagny and the brakeman, I want to cover this additional paragraph on her musing over the music. She recognizes it as the music of Richard Halley, and when I first read this novel, I was firmly convinced that she was echoing a Nietzschean theme, so that Richard Halley stood for Richard Wagner, the nineteenth-century German composer known to be very pro-Aryan. However, I have found no support for this idea, and I must accept that I was barking up the wrong tree, being too eager to catch all the racist roots behind Ms. Rand’s philosophy.

She thought dimly that there had been premonitory echoes of this theme in all of Richard Halley’s work, through all the years of his long struggle, to the day, in his middle-age, when fame struck him suddenly and knocked him out. This - she thought, listening to the symphony - had been the goal of his struggle. She remembered half-hinted attempts in his music, phrases that promised it, broken bits of melody that started but never quite reached it; when Richard Halley wrote this, he... She sat up straight. when did Richard Halley write this?

She cannot recall Halley having actually written this piece, and it is at this point that she realizes that she had only been listening to a lad whistling the tune, and she probes him, trying to get a handle on this music, what is it, where it came from.


_ _ _

“Tell me, please, what are you whistling?” The boy turned to her. She met a direct glance and saw an open, eager smile, as if he were sharing a confidence with a friend. She liked his face - its lines were tight and firm, it did not have that look of loose muscles evading the responsibility of a shape, which she had learned to expect in people’s faces.

“It’s the Halley Concerto,” he answered, smiling.

“Which one?”

“The Fifth.”

She let a moment pass, before she said slowly and very carefully, “Richard Halley wrote only four concertos.”

The boy’s smile vanished. It was as if he were jolted back to reality, just as she had been a few moments ago. It was as if a shutter were slammed down, and what remained was a face without expression, impersonal, indifferent and empty.

-- “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand

_ _ _

So, we are presented with a mystery. We may take it that this is Halley’s music, but Halley had been struck down and is vanished, without ever publishing this concerto. Where did this music come from?

We may think of this as the second mystery. We did not spell it out, but our first mystery, if you recall, was ‘who is John Galt?’ What does that expression mean? Where did that meme come from? Does the name John Galt refer to an actual person?

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