Burmese artist U Ba Kyi who illustrated the Buddha's life story

http://www.thisismyanmar.com/nibbana/ubakyi.htm

Manga (Japanese comic book) series on Life of Buddha --

http://www.amazon.com/Kapilavastu-Buddha-Vol-Osamu-Tezuka/dp/1932234438

Sarnath -- Migadayone Woods in Burmese -- where Buddha preached first sermon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarnath

Irrawaddy Magazine -- important issue on Burma and India in bed together -

http://www.irrawaddy.org/

Burma's 2010 "elections" -- fine way to campaign --

burn the ethnic villages -- to make a smokescreen --

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/Burmese-Ethnic-Group-Says-Villages-Facing-Violence-Ahead-of-Elections-99312704.html

Report by Ron Corben, VOA.

Burmese exiles in India burn Gen. Than Shwe in effigy --

http://www.dvb.no/news/than-shwe-to-visit-the-sight-of-gandhis-cremation-as-protesters-take-to-the-streets/10903

Orchid aerides species from Burma

http://www.orchids-flowers.com/orchids/seidenfadenia-mitrata-rchb-f-garay-1972-aerides-mitrata/

My mother used to have many species of these in her garden.

In Burmese we call them kyaung mee pan or kyauk mee pan.

First means "cat's tail flower."

Second "stone fire flower" is probably a verbal corruption or mispronunciation.

Kyi May Kaung

Truman Capote - In Cold Blood - etc

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/truman-capote/introduction/58/


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truman_Capote

Capote on writing:

It needs to be perfect, like an orange. No one can make an orange better.

He certainly achieved that in In Cold Blood, which he took 6 years to research and write.

It says something for current writers who don't work to be perfect but just publish.

Kyi May Kaung

Burma Avenue going to be low speed route -- ha ha

http://www.gillettenewsrecord.com/articles/2010/07/26/news/today/news01.txt

Natural gas, China, India, Burma -

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=19065

Fungus and yeast infections -- general health

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/yeast-infection-symptoms_b_657354.html

u-tube memorial for Chao Tzang Yawngwe (Eugene Thaike)

son of Burma's first president (elected) Saw Shwe Thaike and scholar and activist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwtqOchzYwY

Nobel Prize winning playwright, Nigerian born Wole Soyinka -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wole_Soyinka

Happy Birthday Franz Kline --

http://pollocksthebollocks.com/2008/05/22/franz-kline-23-may-1910/

Erikson Beamon jewelry and chandeliers --

http://beautycrucible.com/2008/08/27/erickson-beamon-if-its-good-enough-for-michelle-obama/

Satellite images of Burmese nuclear facilities -

http://www.defence.pk/forums/world-affairs/66860-satellite-images-possible-myanmar-n-site.html

Quoting from Janes Intelligence Review.

Ken Kesey - author of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Kesey

Down on the Peacock Farm -- an article about Ken Kesey -

http://www.salon.com/people/feature/2001/11/16/kesey99/index1.html

Yozo Yakota - Challenge Impunity in Burma.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/07/06/challenge-impunity-myanmar.html

Mario Puzo -- father of The Godfather --

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Puzo

Saying goodbye to Mario Puzo, by Jules Seigal -

http://www.cafecancun.com/bookarts/mario.shtml

Comment on Ko Ko Thett's The Cost of Privatization and Crony Capitalism in Burma -

The Run Down System with totalitarianism and centralization that I described, theorized about so long ago in my doctoral dissertation 1994. See University of Pennsylvania dissertations on line at Penn Commons.

Now the -- has risen to the top due to natural gas and other export earnings.

This "privatization" is as much a sham as the "elections."

REAL political reform has to go in tandem with real economic reform, which has to be system wide, not just raising fuel prices as in 2007. We know what happened then.

A French style revolution? -- Here is quote from my political science professor at Penn who chaired my thesis committee.

"You think the masses will rise? People are so poor and malnourished they can't even stand, let alone march."

Many have walked out.

This said in 90s.

Ko Ko Thett has given us a sense of how it is in Burma/Rangoon.

Thank you.

Kyi May Kaung (Ph.D.)

Charles Jensen steps down as Bethesda Writers Center Director -

http://www.writer.org/Page.aspx?pid=618

http://www.postnoills.com/main/?p=91#more-91

This is an interview from 2 years ago.

http://convention.artsusa.org/presenters/profile/jensen

BWC owns and publishes Poet Lore, the oldest poetry journal in America.

http://www.drunkenboat.com/?p=214

Fomer UN Rapporteur Sergio Pinhiero on how to deal with Burmese junta --

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/22/AR2010072204866.html

Failure of Obama's Policy on Engagement in Burma.

Note: Pinhiero was UN Human Rights Rapporteur to Burma from 2001 to 2008.

His visit to Insein Prison where junta tried to hoodwink him is described in NLD U Win Tin recently published prison memoir. On one occasion he found a bug (listening device) under the table and left in protest.

Kyi May Kaung

Former IAEA, Robert Kelly's report on Burmese nuclear ambitions

http://www.dvb.no/burmas-nuclear-ambitions/burmas-nuclear-ambitions-nuclear/expert-analysis/9297

Small quantities loophole gives Burma room to go nuclear

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=19026

Burma's nuke ambitions come under scrutiny at ASEAN -

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52199

Burmese American helping in Burma -

http://www.gazettes.com/articles/2010/07/21/community_news/doc4c3f85194f2b8700557493.txt

How not to pay for cable TV

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/110122/you-dont-have-to-pay-for-cable-tv?mod=series-a-article

Burmese marble workers risking their lives for China --

http://www.irrawaddy.org/multimedia2.php?art_id=810

Even the quarry is named Guan Yin (Chinese Goddess of Mercy) -

Most of the images go overland to China.

kg

Rescue story from Auschwitz --

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100720/ap_on_re_eu/eu_poland_escape_from_auschwitz_1

More "I Write Like"

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2010/07/who-do-you-write-like.html

I am sure the site designer can fine tune the classifier further and add more sample famous authors.

This is not a scam.

This is how text is compared for instance in cases of plagiarism, some of which have been caught already. (lifting whole passages or whole book without proper acknowledgment or royalty payments).

The classifier as it is now is a "naive reader." But it will get more sophisticated as it is tweaked further.

Be fair to the brilliant geek who designed it.

Kyi May Kaung

Creater of I Write Like - site --

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2010-07-17-i-write-like_N.htm?csp=obnetwork

Hurray for everyone on the Fringe.

I thoroughly enjoyed this site. It does show a lot of love for literature.

Kyi May Kaung

How "I Write Like" works -- Bayesian Classifiers -

http://blog.iwl.me/

Results from 3 separate tests I made with openings of 3 different book manuscripts,

I write like --
Stephen King
Mario Puzo and
James Joyce.

That makes me feel pretty good.

Actually the third was a book length poem.

I tested the same text twice for #1, and it gave me the same result.

Kyi May Kaung.

I Write Like site --

http://iwl.me/

I just tested with opening paragraph of novel I am currently querying and analysis is saying I write like Stephen King.

So there, agents who rejected me -- you know who you are!

I have only read one Stephen King novel -- but have read a lot of interviews of King or profiles.

Will test with other manuscripts and report.

Copyright Kyi May Kaung.

"I write like" site -- about tests -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/jul/15/i-write-like-margaret-atwood

Sean Penn on Haiti, non-profit culture on Charlie Rose --

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11127

He said many insightful things which could also apply to Burma scene.

Notes: unofficial transcript.

There are organizations there with the attitude, if we can’t do it first, we don’t need to be there.
It’s a celebrity culture. They are in big mansions with a chef while the earthquake victims are in tents.
I didn’t go to New Orleans after Katrina for the first 4 days because I thought I would be in the way. When I went I saw that government was not there – 2 men in one boat, we saved 40 persons that day.
Non-profits, it’s a celebrity culture. When you go there, to a non-profit party and someone comes in, it’s always so and so etc.
It’s you pull back the curtain on government., and there’s nothing there.
There’s war in Afghanistan, there’s Surge, there’s this island (close to us).
It’s like making a movie – we’re not interpreting scripts but giving the appearance of doing so.
We’re building sets, but then there’s no infrastructure.
I consider myself a facilitator, a functionary.
Ironically, the non-profits are called “actors” those who are acting there.
What’s missing is the press, as they provide the oversight. (free press)
Rene Preval’s government believes in delegating, decentralizing.
Non-profit culture is self-perpetuating.
One of my friends says I am having a fringe experience.
CR: I don’t understand fringe experience.
SP: In the sense that it’s not the norm (most frequent occurrence, statistically)
But in fact (we in USA) are the fringe.
We are missing something, and there will be more drugs, more trips to the psychologist etc.
It's all one thing (the world).
All these organizations, when they have something (like morphine for instance) they just have it, they don’t go to the field to the field managers and say “we have this, do you need this?” All the organizations. They say, “Well it’s on our website.”
Well, someone running a help station/clinic etc. has no time to look on the web.
(NGO execs) just sitting in bar and drinking beer and having a cigarette.
Well, (get your butt off) and leave the bar and distribute the items.

Haiti, it's very resilient. A Haitian friend told me when the world ends, there will be cockroaches, and -- and Haitians. There's the warmth (of the children's smiles) and this is what we are missing in America.

 This was written from memory. Any one who wants exact words should check the url above and watch the actual interview.

Sean Penn’s organisation JP Human Rights Organization works with RSF, Save the Children etc. He said during the interview that they work under the auspices of IOM (International Organization for Migration) even though refugees technically are those who crossed borders, (whereas Haitians are in Haiti and earthquake just happened.)

Posted and transcribed by Kyi May Kaung.








Kyi May Kaung

Book review - Emma Larkin -- Everything is Broken --

on post Cyclone Nargis Burma.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2010/0716/Everything-Is-Broken

Houses - downsized to 89 square feet -

http://vitality.yahoo.com/video-second-act-jay-shafer-20910192

Keepers of the Flame -- Literary Estates -- by Ian Hamilton

http://www.amazon.com/Keepers-Flame-Literary-Estates-Biography/dp/0571198430

Orwell Prize -- Dickens vs Orwell

http://www.youtube.com/theorwellprize#p/u/7/-8dAYnmj0VI

Tolstoy --

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy

See The Last Station -- superb acting.

Steig Larrson legacy -- case --

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jul/26/stieg-larsson-thriller-novels-sweden

Fourth Steig Larrson book?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/books/14arts-FRIENDOFFERS_BRF.html

2008 interview of Salman Rushdie --

http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Interview/Salman-Rushdie-Spins-a-Yarn/ba-p/425;jsessionid=79747701DB66AAA256CD207D97662413

From 2009 but excellent -- Burma: What should Outsiders do?

http://fsi.stanford.edu/events/burmas_crisis_what_should_outsiders_do/

Uncertain future of Thai-Burma cross border aid --

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/334382,uncertain-future-feature.html

Irrawaddy Magazine: Harn Lay cartoon on Burmese 2010 "elections."

http://www.irrawaddy.org/cartoon.php?art_id=18926

Total solar eclipse passes S. Pacific, Easter Island

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/latin_america/10592671.stm

Rush Limbaugh sells his NYC digs -

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100712/bs_yblog_upshot/limbaugh-sells-nyc-digs-for-11-5-million

As one blogger wrote, "terrible taste in furnishings."

Burmese-Shan artist Sawan Yawngwe -

http://www.chiangmainews.com/ecmn/viewfa.php?id=2880

James Frey -

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1897924,00.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Frey

Alxander McQueen's last collection -

presented posthumously --

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/09/alexander-mcqueens-final_n_491773.html

Alexander McQueen's fashions at Neiman Marcus -

http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/catalog/prod.jhtml?itemId=prod106540024&parentId=cat10230739&masterId=cat000019&index=5&cmCat=cat000000cat000001cat000009cat000019cat10230739

Car rides in the junta's Burma -

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18941

Challenge regime impunity in Burma - by Yozo Yokota -

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/07/06/challenge-impunity-myanmar.html

John Ebenezer Marks -- Forty Years in Burma, 1917. Canterbury Project -

http://anglicanhistory.org/asia/burma/forty/pictures.html

Rev. Marks on King Thibaw --

http://anglicanhistory.org/asia/burma/forty/18.html

Last Burmese king Thibaw's house in Ratnagiri -

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/79027/remains-lost-kingdom.html

Freedom Now -- you may suggest a case if you know a prisoner of conscience who needs help -

http://www.freedom-now.org/camp.php

Elephant haven in Thailand -

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18869&page=2

Indonesia's last glacier melting --

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18859

Benedict Roger's new book - Unmasking Than Shwe (the Burmese dictator -- third worst in world.)

http://www.irrawaddy.org/interview_show.php?art_id=18849&page=1

Elian Gonzalez 10 years later --

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100701/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_cuba_elian10_years_later

Cynthia Boaz: The Burmese Elections - Prolonging the Misery -

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cynthia-boaz/the-burmese-elections-pro_b_628705.html

Rare "white" (albino) elephant captured in Burma -

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/29/rare-white-elephant-photo_n_630042.html

Russ Wellen - Burma's junta built to last -

http://www.fpif.org/blog/burmas_junta_built_to_last

Burmese general's daughter forced to leave Australia

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18840

Angelina Jolie in Burmese refugee camp -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1NkJyxX5cY&feature=player_embedded

New Statesman- Light won't go out in Burma - on Aung San Suu Kyi

http://www.newstatesman.com/human-rights/2010/06/aung-san-suu-kyi-burma-regime

She has suffered enough and the world should be working to free her, instead of criticizing her.

Al Jazeera English's interview of Irrawaddy's Aung Zaw from last year on sham trial of Aung San Suu Kyi --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQG1NO1yxjM

Poem by Sherman Alexie - Native American in Best American Poetry -

http://blog.bestamericanpoetry.com/the_best_american_poetry/2010/03/robert-hershon-presents-a-poem-by-sherman-alexie.html

Mark Thatcher and Simon Mann scandal

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n22/rw-johnson/her-boy

Alzheimers, lit agents and Enid Blyton, the JK Rawling's of her day --

Memoir of legendary literary agent George Greenfield.

http://books.google.com/books?id=-yRfaQDASdkC&pg=PA107&lpg=PA107&dq=literary+agent+george+greenfield&source=bl&ots=bC75Drp7fj&sig=rFDZsfrmUHlYRhtNGJBO5jfQPqo&hl=en&ei=C8EnTMbJA8K88gbi8qTtDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false

also plays rock music -

Parents who Rock -

http://www.parentswhorock.com/2008/01/george-greenfield_6251.html

Katy Road pink rose -- antique rose

Renovation for $3000, no heat or plumbing

but lot's of romance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/24/garden/24cottage.html?no_interstitial

Sean Turnell "The US is Angry" -- Francis Wade for DVB

http://www.dvb.no/interview/sean-turnell-the-us-is-angry/8550

Granny D -- Walking Across America at Age 90

http://www.amazon.com/Granny-Walking-Across-America-Ninetieth/dp/0375505393/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268251684&sr=8-1#reader_0375505393

http://www.grannyd.com/about-grannyd.html

Gardens in NJ -

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/garden/25garden.html?pagewanted=2

Also Chanticleer Gardens where I was a long time ago.

Savage Undermining -- Democrats won't be part of sham election in Burma, by U Win Tin

South China Morning Post: 25 June, 2010, Fri
Voices: Burma
Democrats won’t be part of sham election

U Win Tin

Many pro-democracy advocates inside and outside Burma paused recently to commemorate the 65th birthday of our leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Many, too, will have been pondering the savage undermining of the democratic process that has occurred since she led the National League for Democracy to win the elections in 1990. Now, Burma’s main political opposition has decided to disband rather than be co-opted into a sham election.

Some of our supporters do not understand our decision. The first point of departure for people analysing the planned elections this year is the constitution under which it will be held. The 2008 basic law seeks to establish a range of encumbrances to the democratic process which make it impossible to see it as anything other than a clumsy attempt to dress rotten wood with the veneer of democracy.

Picture a fine piece of Burmese teak, smooth and presentable to the eye, but eaten away inside. The constitution ensures a 25 per cent quota for members of the military in any parliament. Further, it is seeking a way around this quota by fielding a disguised military political party in the election. So, at best, the military is offering three quarters of a democracy, or less, to the people of Burma. Also under the basic law, this election will not choose a government. It will select those who will fill the legislature and who will then select the government leaders.

The constitution is unclear how this process will work in detail, only that the envisaged presidential electoral college – the parliament
including the military – will decide on the new president. Assuming that a basic majority of the parliament would be required, then the 25 per
cent military representation ensures that much fewer than a majority of the elected members is required to name the leader, who will in turn fill
ministerial and other governmental posts by fiat. It is, in effect, a recipe for a rump parliament.

This sets the tone for the whole electoral process and ensures that participation by pro-democracy parties and individuals will lead nowhere in democratic terms. Other constitutional issues abound. Among them is the difficulty and unwieldy expense of registering and running a campaign.
As a party of democrats, founded on the highest principles of freedom and equality, the NLD cannot participate in a system that not only denies us our due rights – as the winners of the 1990 elections, for instance – but denies fellow Burmese political forces appropriate input to the political process.
Ultimately, the NLD is a social movement as much as a political party. Our goal is to maintain our political party and our social role despite the many overtures from the ruling military to be a party to its ruinous dictatorial regime.

Our participation in any election process remains conditional upon four principles: the release of all political prisoners, open dialogue with Suu Kyi, recognising the 1990 results and a review of the 2008 constitution. Only with these conditions can democracy find room to flourish in Burma.
............ ......... ......... ......... ......... ......

U Win Tin is co-founder of the National League for Democracy and was imprisoned by the military for 19 years.

US mortgage and interest rates lowest since 1971

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Mortgage-rates-sink-to-lowest-apf-2118457054.html?x=0

Sebastian Junger's War --

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/37369/

Dr. Zarni, Zarni or Maung Zarni --

http://www.freeburmacoalition.org/images/zarni%20for%20web.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maung_Zarni

Rather sad how the brave and brilliant get crucified.

Kyi May Kaung

Demonstration near el (Elevated railway) in Chicago for Aung San Suu Kyi's 65th birthday -

by Buddhist Peace Fellowship

Remains of pilots who flew the Hump in World War II found in Myitkyina, will be reburied at Arlington National Cemetery

July 15

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/20100621_Remains_of_WWII_aircrew_lost_in_Burma_to_be_buried_in_Arlington_National_Cemetery.html

Amazing --
Kyi May Kaung

Aung Lin Htut - defector- Burma-N.Korea Axis

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/19/opinion/19iht-edaung.html?pagewanted=print

Wendy Law Yone reviews 4 novels/memoirs set in Burma --

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/18/AR2010061802799_2.html?referrer=emailarticle

Happy Father's Day --

http://open.salon.com/blog/fusuna/2010/06/08/why_doesnt_buick_rhyme_with_quickremembering_my_father

T.S.Eliot --

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot

In honor of Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday -- Enigma with Flower by Pablo Neruda

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/enigma-with-flower/

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop -

One Art

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/one-art/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD81XbOG_nQ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Bishop

The Fish

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-fish/

Myanmar (Burma's) Military (Nuclear) Ambitions -- part 1

http://internationalcampaignforfreedom.blogspot.com/2010/06/myanmars-military-ambitions-part-1.html

DC bookstore Politics and Prose up for sale --

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/09/AR2010060903413.html?wprss=rss_metro

IAEA assessing Burma's nuclear claims --

http://www.dvb.no/news/iaea-%E2%80%98assessing%E2%80%99-burma-nuclear-claims/10119

Al Jazeera -- Burma's nuclear plans exposed --

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/06/2010642542469132.html

High and Dry in Burma -- interview of Burmese philanthropist - actor Kyaw Thu

during Burmese on-going drought.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18677&page=2

Myanmar trying for nuke -- Ashish Kumar Sen -- Washington Times --

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/7/report-myanmar-trying-for-nuke/

My poem Loss in Napalm Health Spa.

https://www.poetspath.com/napalm/nhs10/index.html

Art work in honor of Aung San Suu Kyi's 65th birthday --

http://internationalcampaignforfreedom.blogspot.com/

Burma's nuclear ambition -- by Kavi Chongkittavorn -

http://www.irrawaddy.org/opinion_story.php?art_id=18583

US Sen. Jim Webb cancels Burma trip, citing Burmese junta's nuclear ambitions with N. Korea --

according to AP, Webb's visit would have coincided with that of Chinese premier.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gtK-SdwRWf4Gw5Om2FeG2vaMYKRwD9G3UOEG0

Third Indian-American in a row wins US national spelling bee --

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_spelling_bee