Boon's Basement

The ugly truth about US Media

// July 13th, 2009 // No Comments » // News, Politics

I got the image above from the web and it does reflect the ugly truth that most American media tries to cover from the American people. Many of the truth are hidden from us because most American media are very selective in what they report or print and if they print such an unpleasant headline, it will affect the ratings, which eventually will affect sales.

Most Americans want to hear or read only pleasant things and by reading a headline such as “Losing In Afghanistan”, Americans will feel as if they have been slapped with the biggest FUCK YOU in their faces. For the past 8 years many have suffered enough because Americans were duped into electing a past president that have sold us the idea that the War on Terror that can be won in a “short and swift manner”.

We will always have fools living in their own world thinking that the everything in this world is based on a book that is 2000 years old. Nothing wrong with being religious, but there’s definitely something wrong when someone is on the extreme end.

-Boon

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Michael Jackson’s Last rehearsal for London Concert, 48 hours before death.

// July 2nd, 2009 // No Comments » // News

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“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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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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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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100 Best Place to Work in IT 2009

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

Computer World published a list on the top 100 best workplace for IT in 2009.

An excerpt from the full list:

-Boon

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The Palm Wine or better known as Toddy.

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

Naturally, fementation breaks down sugar into water, carbon dioxide and alcohol. Mankind has used this process to create alcoholic drink since the beginning of time. Palm Wine or Palm toddy is a popular drink that is consumed in countries where the Palm Tree proliferates. Below is the list of countries that consume palm wine and the local names given to the drink:

Source: Wikipedia

The palm wine is produced from fermenting the sap of the palm tree. A tapper would collect the sap from the cut flower of the palm tree. A container is fastened to the flower stump to collect the sap which tends to be very sweet and non-alcoholic before it is fermented. An alternate method is to let the entire tree fall to the ground. This practice is common in many African Nations and a fire is sometimes lit at the cut end to facilitate the collection of sap. This method was mentioned in Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservation episode where he was in Ghana.

“Palm sap begins fermenting immediately after collection, due to natural yeasts in the air (often spurred by residual yeast left in the collecting container). Within two hours, fermentation yields an aromatic wine of up to 4% alcohol content, mildly intoxicating and sweet. The wine may be allowed to ferment longer, up to a day, to yield a stronger, more sour and acidic taste, which some people prefer. Longer fermentation produces vinegar instead of stronger wine.” – Wikipedia

-A man enjoying Toddy

Palm wine plays a special role in traditional ceremonies in many cultures but it also has been a controversial drink as it has been associated with violence and alcoholism among the rural Tamil community in Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

-Boon

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You don’t get self esteem from the Scalpel.

// June 12th, 2009 // No Comments » // News

source: NYTimes

In tandem with the rise of cultural obsession of celebrity look or a Hollywood makeover, many teens are feeling the pressure to fit in based on the narrow view that has developed throughout the years. Adolescences are more self-conscious about their physical appearance, largely due to the teasing of friends and false image portrayed by mainstream media of what beauty is: body with curves, big breasts, sharp nose, large and round nose etc.

Faced with self esteem issue,many teenagers are having their body altered under the scalpel. Receiving breast augmentations, liposuctions, or even nose alterations as birthday or graduation gifts from parents are common among the American teenagers.

According to the latest figures from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery show that the number of cosmetic surgical procedures performed on teenagers 18 or younger more than tripled over a 10-year period, to 205,119 in 2007 from 59,890 in 1997. Controversial procedures such as: liposuctions rose to 9,295 from 2,504, and breast augmentations increased nearly sixfold, to 7,882 from 1,326. [Amy Fledderman (18) of Pennsylvania, who died in 2001 of fat embolism syndrome after undergoing liposuction, and Stephanie Kuleba (18) of Florida, who died last spring from complications because of anesthesia used during a breast augmentation and inverted nipple surgery.]

The society and the media are not the sole force behind the compelling interest in plastic surgery. Parents’ understanding and apathy towards a kid’s dissatisfaction on a less ideal physical appearance such as a crooked nose can also be attributed to the increases in youths getting plastic surgery.

Plastic surgery may not be all that bad as according to Michael Laudisio, now 22, of Massapequa, N.Y. Not knowing the implication of having his ear pinned 10 years ago, he sure glad his parents did it for him. Michael recalled, “I had really big ears like no one else and was teased about it all the time.” “That surgery made me free,” said Michael.

But it can be a very fine line between corrective surgery and cosmetic, and even within a family there can be vastly differing opinions. “I’ve had mothers dragging their daughters in to have something done, and of course, if the teen is not on board, I’ll suggest another appropriate course of action,” said Dr. D’Amico,plastic surgeon in Englewood, N.J who then added, “You don’t get self-esteem from a scalpel.”

-Boon

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What can you buy with $300,000 in Boston these days?

// June 11th, 2009 // No Comments » // News

source:Huffingtonpost

If you have $300,000 in your wallet, how would you spend it? Apparently a man whose name was undisclosed, purchased a parking spot in a building on Commonwealth Ave, close to the Boston Public Garden, which according to Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage agent, Debra Sordillo, is known for the lack of parking spots.

The $300,000 parking spot was a result from an auction by not just one but several bidders in an attempt to purchase the spot.

This could well be the priciest parking spot in Boston’s history. The price tag is pale, compared to price of the house the winner is trying to sell, a whopping $2.5 Million. The price of the parking spot is about 12% of the price of the house.

What’s next America? Selling your car company to the government? Oh wait….we already did that.
-Boon

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