Boon's Basement

“How maths killed Lehman Brothers” – Horatio Boedihardjo

// June 30th, 2009 // No Comments » // News, Thoughts

Suffering from jet lag, I was browsing digg.com at 4.30am in the morning when I stumbled upon this interesting article written by Horatio Boediharjo, who is currently 19 and is studying for his Doctorate in probability at Oxford University. Horatio’s article, which highlighted the events and factors, with subtle sarcasm and wit, that drove the nails to the coffin for Lehman Brothers, is published at + Plus Magazine (http://plus.math.org).  Horatio was awarded the Plus new writers award 2009 under University Category for this piece .

Below is an excerpt from Horatio’s article and you can read the award winning piece here.

“Whether you can make money from selling the CDO insurance for the bank depends on whether the borrowers return the money, which in turns depends on the economy. So if the economy goes down, you are a lot more likely to lose money. If you are an active investor, then you probably have invested in the stock market as well. Now if the market crashes you lose both the money invested in the stock market and in the CDO. Suppose, on the other hand, that instead of spending the money on CDO, you bet on whether Manchester United will win the European Champion League. This time in order to lose all your money you need both the market to go down and Manchester United to lose their match — this is less likely than just having the market go down. Therefore, investing on CDO is a riskier choice than betting for Manchester United. The error in our model is that we have not taken into account this extra risk due to its dependence of CDO on the market.”

-Boon

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Tie Ring: A new fashion Statement, brought to you by the Japanese

// June 29th, 2009 // No Comments » // Fashion

The tie ring, in my honest opinion, is the latest fashion statement brought to you by the country that gave us the Walkman, Wii and Fuel Efficient cars, Japan. I was in a mall in Shibuya, Tokyo when I spotted this lovely fashion style. The idea of wearing a tie with a ring is absolutely fabulous and it makes such a wonderful fashion statement. But I wonder how would employers feel about their employees wearing the tie ring?

-Boon

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R.I.P Michael Jackson 8.29.1958 – 6.25.2009

// June 29th, 2009 // No Comments » // Thoughts

This post may be a little late but I still want to make a tribute to the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson. He is definitely one of a kind and his contribution to the music world is tremendous. Michael Jackson is truly a Phenomenon!

Here is a video of Janet Jackson’s tribute to his late Brother at 2009 BET Awards:

Below are some of my favorite songs by the King of Pop:

Jackson 5 – I’ll be there

Michael Jackson – You are not alone
watch?v=o8rYl6K2STc

Michael Jackson – Heal the world
watch?v=W61Q-EZ8R7M

Michael Jackson – Will you be there

Michael Jackson – Thriller
watch?v=z-TZnNXXQrI

Michael Jackson – Bad
watch?v=ACPsfcsg4ZE

Michael Jackson – Earth Song
watch?v=tfnkq4pQ2vE

Michael Jackson – Billie Jean
watch?v=En-cHBv7UpA

Michael Jackson – Beat It
watch?v=Uqxo1SKB0z8

Michael Jackson – You Rock My World
watch?v=e3wShd_bX8A

RIP Michael Jackson!

-Boon

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Mispelling Local Edition: Flushing, NY

// June 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // Thoughts

I was browsing around my local Korean Supermarket, in Flushing, when I saw some pretty funny signs. Nothing too extraordinary, just some misspelled signs which I thought were pretty amusing.

Here they are:

I wonder if the extra ‘n’ makes Organic more Organnic?

The person who printed this sign must be having “Yallow” Fever =P

Extinct and Sour Plum?

-Boon

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Being paid to be the mediator?

// June 20th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Thoughts

The idea of service for hire was thought by me to only exist in movies and novels until my landlord told me that there is such a service available in New York City. People would hire someone to run errands for them. He or she will be paid at an hourly rate to buy groceries, walk the dog, pick up the laundry or even clean up the house. The idea here  is that you’re pretty much the butler but without the long term commitment or the obligatory benefits that the employer has to pay.

There are many websites that offer service for hire and my landlord told me about one particular company that his friend works for. I thought I would submit my resume to them and see if they would hire me, a hardworking and able lad, to work part time running errands for people in NYC. I did submit my resume, I did get a call back from Alison (name has been changed to protect the original person) this morning about a position with the company but it was not what I expected. They are looking to hire a person that will be a mediator between a company and its employees. Company X is consolidating their office spaces by moving staffs from different locations to one central location  and because of the drastic change, many employees are disgruntled, although no one should be unhappy while they are still employed in this economy, and therefore the employer wants to hire someone who can remediate the situation by making the employees adjust to the move and by ensuring that their demands are met.

Some of the responsibilities of this mediator include organizing get – together among the employees from different locations who will not be working in the same office, encouraging the employees by telling them how great the new office is and organizing happy hour events after work. Although the work sounds interesting because of the heavy interaction with employees but the pay wasn’t too enticing. So, I didn’t take up the offer eventhough she did try to sell me the perks of employee benefits and health care.

I declined the job offer and we bid our farewells. I guess my job hunt continues!

-Boon

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Who wants to marry a millionaire?

// June 18th, 2009 // No Comments » // News

Source: Asiaonenews

What will you do if you are a lonely 49 yr old woman whose networth is roughly 18 million dollar and is trying to search for your soulmate but has no time to do so? In the land that gave us Winter Sonata, Rain, Hyundai and Bibimbap  – South Korea,  a 49 year old lady, who’s also a millionaire, decided to put up an online advertisement to look for her perfect man. Using an online ad firm,  the lady specified that her candidate be between 26-49 year old and that they should be “average but decent persons to high flying professionals”. So far, 400 men, who have a dream like that of the characters in Slumdog Millionaire, have applied for the position but only 8 “serious minded” candidate have been selected for the final interview.
Most of her candidates included doctors, lawyers, accountants, soldiers and government employees.

I wish her well.

-Boon

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$2000 Less in my pocket and all I got were…

// June 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // Thoughts

Spent 5 Hours and contributed $2000 to the American economy at the premium outlet and I got were these bags? Drove for about an hour from my place to the outlet located in Woodbury, NY.At the outlet, we went to Coach, Gucci, Kate Spade, Longchamp stores and we bought some bags. I never knew shopping can be so tiring until I was the one participating in it. All the women in the world who have endured those many hours walking, standing and trying on the countless clothes, shoes and bags have earned my utmost respect. SALUTE!
There’s a lot of work to be done and I better be getting some sleep for tomorrow is going to be long day!

www.myippoinc.com

-Boon

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Four more days to go and we can’t wait for Tokyo!

// June 16th, 2009 // No Comments » // Thoughts

Blissful Tuesday. Another day of a cool summer day, unemployed and sleepy, I am flipping through the channels on Cable TV. National Geographic, Travel, Discovery and Cartoon Network are among the channels I frequently watch but today it seems that nothing interesting is on, well, not at 10.00 am anyway.

I am exciting about Saturday because my girlfriend and I will be leaving New York City for Tokyo. We have always wanted to go somewhere far for vacation and Tokyo seems like a good choice. The other choices were either Seoul, Bangkok or Bali. We will keep those destinations for some other time. We have been diligently packing our suitcases, making sure that we don’t forget anything although my girlfriend took a different approach to the situation. She assured me that if we do forget anything, we can always buy it in Japan. Her response did wash away the worry of missing anything but it just makes me worry about my wallet! =P

Well, 4 more days to go and we can’t for Tokyo!

-Boon

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Before They Were Stars: Blue Man Group

// June 15th, 2009 // No Comments » // Thoughts

Source: Funnyordie

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Touching Wild Boars for Good Luck!

// June 15th, 2009 // No Comments » // News

Source: Reuters

Visitors at a Hindu Temple in Malaysia would flock the place of worship in hopes of touching wild boars which are believed to bring good fortune. Many Malaysians would offer prayers to the Gods in the temple while taking the opportunity to offer food to the wild boars. They will also seize the chance to touch the animal. One man said he has won RM 600 (US$ 170) in the lottery after touching the wild boars.

-Boon

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