Web Monitor
16:41 UK time, Wednesday, 17 June 2009
A celebration of the riches of the web.
What do Afghan love letters, Japanese grass-eating boys and communist era fashionistas have in common? Well they're all in Web Monitor. If you come across an interesting view on your travels through the web, however random, send the link by commenting in the box to the right of this.
• Why is there so much unemployment in a depression? that his question isn't stupid, after all why don't prices and wages just fall and, as a result, the original demand be restored? His answer is that 100% of a company's savings are rarely passed on to the customer, companies have costs they can't change but most of all, even when people can afford to buy again, they're just too scared.
• Some demand is created by more than just the fluctuating markets. This is where the . It looks at how high end prostitutes can charge $1000 an hour - a wage comparable to a top lawyer. A recent study shows that earnings of high end prostitutes peaks at mid to late twenties and says by choosing to work as a prostitute during their prime years of fertility escorts forgo the economic benefits of marriage, hence a pay peak.
• on a new type of metrosexual males in Japan who not everybody is happy about. Soushoku danshi, which literally translated means "grass-eating boys" are named for their lack of interest in sex and their preference for quieter, less competitive lives. They're provoking a national debate about how the country's economic stagnation since the early 1990s has altered men's behaviour. Companies, Harney says, are worried grass-eating boys are less status driven and women worry they are commitment-phobes.
• how haute couture survived in communist East Germany. Among the inventiveness was adapting durable plastic that farmers use to cover strawberries as a fashion garment. It was a material that served the underground designers well, as they had little in the way of quality fabric, most having been reserved for export. Winter says that East Germany was far from a fashion dead-end:
"In fact, creativity and individual style flourished in the context of East Germany's tight economy. A handful of independent designers profited from selling one-off items to a population with mostly hand-me-downs and ill-fitting, mass-produced government garb at its disposal. Improvisation was also common."
• of her time in Afghanistan and shock at a chance encounter which a man who wanted to share with her more than 600 love letters. A photographic essay ensued, but it was risky:
"To disclose their love would mean the end and perhaps worse. That day I realised that love existed in Afghanistan--in a single glance, a certain tone, the shadow of a school yard--but not without grave risk or consequence."
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