VIS/ITS: Bytes, v.2007.08.08.g

VIS/ITS' VirtuAll Info Coms & Edu (VICE)
Information, Communications & EduTainment
VICE Info-Systems/Tech Services (VIS/ITS)
Bytes

Foci: VietNam (VN); North America (NAm); Plants, Animals, including people (PAp); Internetworking (iWork); Free / Libre | Linux / Open-source (FLO) Information & Events; Environment's Critical Here (ECH); Info Technology (IT); Info Systems (InFormation, IT & Us[ers]); et cetera, et al, et tu , ...?

Here: Go Vap, Saigon, Vietnam
Now:  AD.2007.Aug.08.Wed .XXhXX.ICT
ICT = IndoChina Time = UTC/GMT + 7 hours
.XXhXX. = Byte's Time Stamp; See BeLow

Begun .19h18.

.19h21. Formated and systematized for Firefox, Gmail, Blogger, Google Reader.

Done .19h23.ICT

VIS/ITS: Bytes, v.2007.08.08.f

VIS/ITS' VirtuAll Info Coms & Edu (VICE)
Information, Communications & Edutainment
VICE Info-Systems/Tech Services (VIS/ITS)
Bytes

Foci: VietNam (VN); North America (NAm); Plants, Animals, including people (PAp); Internetworking (iWork); Free / Libre | Linux / Open-source (FLO) Information & Events; Environment's Critical Here (ECH); Info Technology (IT); Info Systems (InFormation, IT & Us[ers]); et cetera, et al, et tu , ...?

Here: Go Vap, Saigon, Vietnam
Now:  AD.2007.Aug.08.Wed .XXhXX.ICT
ICT = IndoChina Time = UTC/GMT + 7 hours
.XXhXX. = Byte's Time Stamp; See BeLow

Begun .19h11.

.19h07. Formated for Gmail!

Done .19h15.ICT

VIS/ITS: Bytes, v.2007.08.08.d

VirtuAll Info Comms & Edu (VICE)
VICE Info-System/Tech Services (VIS/ITS) - Bytes
Foci: VietNam (VN); North America (NAm); Plants, Animals, including people (PAp); Internetworking (iWork); Free / Libre | Linux / Open-source (FLO) Information & Events; Environment's Critical Here (ECH); Info Technology (IT); Info Systems (InFormation, IT & Us[ers]); et cetera, et al, et tu , ...?

Here: Go Vap, Saigon, Vietnam
Now:  AD.2007.Aug.08.Wed.XXhXX.ICT
ICT = IndoChina Time = UTC/GMT + 7 hours
XXhXX = Byte's Time Stamp; See BeLow

Begun .18h41.

.18h45. Shapin' up.

Done.18h46.ICT

VIS/ITS: Bytes, v.2007.08.08.c

VirtuAll Info Comms & Edu (VICE)
VICE Info-System/Tech Services (VIS/ITS) - Bytes
Foci: Southeast Asia (SEA); Canada (Cda); Plants, Animals, including people (PAp); Internetworking (iWork); Free / Libre | Linux / Open-source (FLO) Information & Events; Environment's Critical Here (ECH); Info Technology (IT); Info Systems (Information, IT & Us[ers]); et cetera, et al, et tu...

Here: Go Vap, Saigon, Vietnam
Now:  AD.2007.Aug.08.Wed.XXhXX.ICT
ICT = IndoChina Time = UTC/GMT + 7 hours
XXhXX = Byte's Time Stamp; See BeLow

.18h10. Template (what's up, eh)

Done...ICT

VIS/IT Services News Bytes, v.2007.08.08-00

Verity Information Communications|Commerce|Collaboration & Education (VICE)
VICE Info-System/Info-Tech' Services (VIS/ITS) - News Bytes
Foci: Southeast Asia (SEA); Canada (Cda); Plants, Animals, including People (PAP); Internet (Net); Free/Libre|Linux/Open-source (FLO) Information & Events; Environmental Crisis' Here (ECH); Information Technology (IT); Information Systems (Information, IT & Us[ers]), et cetera

Here: Go Vap, Saigon, Vietnam -- Now: AD.2007.Aug.08.Wed.XXhXX.ICT
(XXhXX = Time Stamp; See BeLow; ICT = IndoChina Time = UTC/GMT + 7 hours)

.06h32. Novell, Wyse Team for Thin Client Linux

iTWire: "Wyse [the original thin-client company] and Novell [original networking co. and, now, OpenSuSE Linux & SEL] are working in partnership to deliver Suse Enterprise Linux [SEL] on thin clients."

.06H36. The Birth of the U.S. Torture Program

There are two ways to think about the Bush administration's willingness to torture prisoners in the wake of 9/11. One is the story we were sold after Abu Ghraib and the second is the systematic and rigorous program of highly abusive interrogation approved by the highest levels of government, at so-called "black sites" around the world.

.06h50. Number of US troops in Iraq reaches new high - Xinhua

from Google News

Philadelphia Inquirer

Number of US troops in Iraq reaches new high
Xinhua - 3 hours ago
WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The number of US troops in Iraq has rose to nearly 162000, a new high in the war of more than four years, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
Troop level in Iraq reaches highest mark MSNBC
US troop level in Iraq reaches record high Reuters

End.12h30.ICT
--
AD (Andi) Marshall
V'IS/IT Services, Analyst
eMail: admarshall@gmail.com
Zone: ICT (IndoChina Time, GMT/UTC+7)
Web: http://admarshall.googlepages.com/
Post: HoChiMinh City (ex/or SaiGon), VietNam
Quote: "Love all, trust a few. Do wrong to none..."
Source: Shakespeare, 1623, "All's Well That Ends Well"
Get it at Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2246
GPG/PGP Public Keys online: http://cryptonomicon.mit.edu/

VTV1's Talk Vietnam (English) Tonight: Chuck Searcy, Project RENEW, Vietnam UXO Clearance & Victims

VTV1's English-language "Talk Vietnam" program just aired an illuminating episode featuring interviews with the VNBiz mailing list's own Chuck Searcy. 

The episode focused on Chuck's work as Vietnam representative of Project RENEW, a effort to clear UXO (UneXploded Ordinance - bombs!) left in the country and educate Vietnamese about the dangers of UXO.  But there were also several illuminating, even inspiring moments in which the interviewer delved more into Chuck's personal life in Vietnam. 

At one point, Chuck listed some of the "lessons" he'd learned from living here for the last dozen years, including one that could well have benefited the desirable leadership qualities Chuck listed in an earlier post to this list: ie, tolerance.

Overall, the impression of Chuck generated is of a man who's been there and back, learned too much along the way, the hard way, but come out of it all as huge human being, wizened and working well past the point most folks would be packing it in, all to rectify some horrendous mistakes, if not crimes, of his former "superiors", mistakes most others would have let slide as simply not their personal responsibilities.

Spliced into the interview segments were commentary on ongoing tragedies still plaguing Vietnam from the staggering quantities of American War Era (AWE) UXO littered across the country, especially in Quang Tri Province, along with documentary footage of US AWE bombing runs and recent news clips covering the deadly work of today's Vietnamese sappers and the heart-rending injuries and disabilities of ongoing victims of UXO detonations, especially children.

A couple eye-opening bytes Chuck provided (which may or may not have be remembered accurately):

• likely well over 100,000 Vietnamese have been blown to bits or brutally maimed by US AWE UXO since 1975
• the US dropped more bombs than on Quang Tri province alone, an area of just some 100 by 150 kilometers, than were dropped on all of Europe in World War II

Project RENEW is managed by the US Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF).  An overview of the project, fact sheets and newsletters can be obtain from RENEW's project page at the VVMF web site [ http://www.vvmf.org/index.cfm?SectionID=21 ]. 

Excerpted from that page:

For more information about Project RENEW ^TM, please visit www.landmines.org.vn or contact the Memorial Fund at (202) 393-0090 or via email at ProjectRENEW@vvmf.org. To support Project RENEW^TM, visit our Donate page.

While neither the new or old VTV web sites appear to provide schedules or other information about "Talk Vietnam", VTV1 programming schedules listed at http://www.itv.vn/Television/Schedule/ state the next episode of the program is to be aired at 2007.Aug.09.Thu.07h45.ICT.  There's a good chance the interview with Chuck may be re-run at that time.

--
AD (Andi) Marshall
Mobile: +84 (0) 903871313
eMail: admarshall@gmail.com
Zone: ICT (IndoChina Time, GMT/UTC+7)
Web: http://admarshall.googlepages.com/
Post: HoChiMinh City (ex/or SaiGon), VietNam
Quote: "Love all, trust a few. Do wrong to none..."
Source: Shakespeare, 1623, "All's Well That Ends Well"
Get it at Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2246
GPG/PGP Public Keys online: http://cryptonomicon.mit.edu/

Pocket filling. Credible? - 99.4% of Vietnam's population suffer dental diseases

No wonder there are almost as many dental clinics as Internet shops, over a dozen, even in this one square kilometre of the boondocks around Market Go Vap!

Still any statistic anywhere near 99 percent of anything optional about people always sounds a bit sus'. Normal distributions are just too danged, well, normal.

Date: 2007-08-06 12:43:34
Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-08/06/content_6481567.htm

HANOI, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Up to 99.4 percent of Vietnam's population suffer dental diseases, local newspaper Pioneer reported Monday.

Specifically, 87.5 percent of people aged under 18 have decayed teeth, while the rates of those in the age brackets of 33-44 and over 45 are 83.2 percent and 89.7 percent, respectively, the paper quoted the country's National Ophthalmology Institute as reporting.

Dental diseases are mainly caused by lack of fluoride in drinking water, poor dental care, eating too much food with high sugar and starch content, and shortage of orthodontic doctors, especially in remote and mountainous areas. An estimated 50 percent of Vietnam's population and over 80 percent of those having decayed teeth have never undergone dental checkups.

Now, there is one orthodontic doctor for every 25,000-30,000 Vietnamese people, only one-tenth of the world's average level, according to the Health Ministry.

Editor: An Lu

Um. What do orthodontists have to do with tooth decay?

Of Giác Ngộ English Club -- Parenting Mindfully 4 -- An ADdendum

Last week, participants at the Giác Ngộ English Club started discussing the lesson Parenting Mindfully 4 (PM4), which is available on the web at http://giacngoenglishclub.blogspot.com/ or at http://govap-sighgone.blogspot.com/, where it is updated by its author.

Many at the GNEC last week said they did not understand parts of the PM4 lesson, especially the last paragraph. This is that last paragraph:

Finally, Engaged Buddhist parents must also always remember that children raised by people who enjoy what Christians call "sinning" have almost always ended up as teenagers who are on sight noticed more for their flaws than for their either knowing or being able to offer acceptance of others, for what each of us is, from a positive perspective. These are flaws that, themselves, almost always lead to more suffering than even that that one must expect from being an almost limitless being caged within a limited body that will forever want or need more than food, clothing or shelter until it dies and releases the being it houses.

So, at the end of last week's GNEC session, it was agreed that the both the participants and PM4's author, yours truly, would write their interpretations of this last paragraph. Of course, the author's interpretation would be that paragraph's real intended meaning. Two weeks later, the author and the GNEC participants would compare their interpretations.

The purpose of this exercise is to:

1. Further exercise the vocabulary presented in PM1-4,
2. Clarify the intended meaning of that final paragraph in PM4,
3. Explore the differences between what participants understood of that paragraph and what its author intended, and
4. Expand the participants English knowledge via tasks 1, 2 and 3, above.

But, first, let's repeat the original purpose of Parenting Mindfully 4 (PM4):

PM4 was written to provide a single, short text using all the vocabulary presented in Parenting Mindfully 1-3, plus some new vocabulary, in the order that the vocabulary of PM1-3 was presented. This was done to give participants more exercise in using all that vocabulary – and because the author thought it would be fun to try make a single text, as briefly as possible, that way.

[Now, he thinks, "Wrong, again..." It made much more work than expected. But the original write-up was indeed fun.]

PM4's purpose was never to provide any real lesson in Buddhism for parents. PM4 could have been written as pure nonsense, about anything. It simply turned out that PM4 appears to discuss some Buddhist ideas accurately. Very little was done to make PM4 an accurate representation of Buddhist thought. No effort was made to check whether it is accurate or not. Only Thich Minh Thanh or some other Buddhist master can judge the accuracy of the ideas PM4 contains about Buddhism.

That said, here's how the author would further explain what he wrote in the last paragraph of PM4:

Engaged Buddhist parents should always remember that if you behave badly your children will probably learn your bad behavior. Then, when your children get older and become teenagers, other people will likely see their bad behavior, first (“on sight”), and they remember it more than anything good your teens do.

What Christians call “sin” is generally just what Christians think is bad behavior, like killing, stealing, harmful sex, lying, using drugs like alcohol too much, cheating, laziness, lust, greed, etc, etc. Christians label many behaviors as “sins”.

But, according to some texts Thich Minh Thanh provided for GNEC earlier, Buddhists don't call bad behaviors “sins”. Instead, Buddhists simply say bad behaviors like these are “unwise” behaviors because they cause us to experience more suffering than we must already accept as human beings, as human minds in physical human bodies.

But back to the teenagers. As teens, your children's bad behavior will probably make it difficult for others to see your teens' better behaviors. They will probably also simply think your teenagers are just not good people, generally.

Most people think generally, not specifically. They find it easier to use one set of similar ideas about the things they experience instead of many different sets of ideas. Often different set of ideas will contradict each other and make thinking more difficult, even confusing. So people usually only think generally. Most people are lazy thinkers.

This applies to what people think about other people. So, even if your teens also behave well -- for example, positively accepting other people for what they are and still being kind to them – other people who have seen your teens' bad behavior will remember your children's bad behavior more and expect even more bad behavior from them. They might even imagine that your teens' good behaviors are just tricky performances to hide their bad behaviors.

Just as one example, when others think your teens are not good people, they will often make it more difficult for your teens to make true friends or find good lovers. Finding true friends or good lovers is already difficult for most people. So your teens will suffer more than they would normally.

But worse, as most Buddhists say, life as a physical human being almost always involves suffering. Our physical bodies forever want or need food, clothing or shelter. But we cannot get food, clothing and shelter for free. There is only a limited amount of food, clothing or shelter, anywhere. And other people or animals will want or need that food, clothing or shelter, too. So we must compete with others to get what our bodies want and keep it. This is the basis of economics: unlimited wants competing for limited supplies. And that, alone, causes suffering, for everyone.

But our bodies also drive us to want even more than just simple food, clothing and shelter. Our bodies' feelings and senses make us also want luxuries, like better food, better clothing or bigger, more beautiful shelter, or even sex and drugs and racing and many lovers, etc, etc. Our bodies are never satisfied with what we have. Our bodies always want more.

And our bodies break down. Like machines used over and over again, our bodies force us to spend our time and energy taking care of our bodies. And our bodies always break down completely after some time and die.

But, many say, our minds are different. They say our dreams and imagination and reason are almost limitless. Some even say our minds can be satisfied even while our bodies are dissatisfied. And some even say that, if our minds are trained well enough, our minds can live past the deaths of our bodies.

As the author understands these ideas, those people say that to succeed at keeping your mind satisfied while your body is dissatisfied, or, to allow our minds to survive the death of our bodies, we must train our minds to be independent of our bodies, or, to control our bodies' desires and apparent needs. This kind of training is said to involve teaching our minds to ignore our bodies' desires or view those desires like they come from something outside our true selves, our minds, or, to see those desires or needs as simply not being “real”.

At the same time, it is said that students of these techniques must learn that their minds can be more stable and powerful than their bodies and that, in reality, they live their true lives in their minds. What their bodies seem to need or want are simply illusions.

Learning these lessons completely is said to let people gain more stable, happier lives, even as their bodies' break down or their bodies' do not get what their bodies want.

When the author wrote that last paragraph of PM4, he thought that these lessons are the basic lessons of Buddhism that teach us how to minimize our suffering in this life. Then he simply applied these lessons to parenting, while using all the vocabulary GNEC participants had been taught in PM1-3 in the order it was presented. Then he edited it to make it as short as he could. Then he called it “Parenting Mindfully 4”. That's all.

Again, again, again, PM4 was not intended to teach about Buddhist philosophy or techniques. It was only intended to exercise GNEC participants' English vocabulary. That's all.

PM4's author is not a Buddhist monk nor a Buddhist scholar nor a Buddhist master of anything. If he got lucky and re-presented some Buddhist lessons accurately and GNEC participants learned something from that, then that is nothing more than luck. That's all.

Giác Ngộ English Club - Parenting Mindfully 4

Research & Production: 2007.Jul.14.Sun.11h45-18h40
Presentation: 2007.Jul.21.Sun.15h00-15h45
Originally at: http://giacngoenglishclub.blogspot.com/

The purposes of this session of Parenting Mindfully are to review the vocabulary covered in earlier sessions in a new context of mindful parenting and add some more to your vocabulary.

To this end, the Giác Ngộ E-Club's Assistant Andi Marshall has written the discussion below using all of the vocabulary you previously learned, in the order that you learned it. The vocabulary presented in the earlier sessions is listed below the new vocabulary provided with this handout. See BeLow.

Note: Andi wants to point out, before you read, that he is not a Buddhist scholar or teacher and you should decide for yourself whether the opinions expressed below are reasonable or not. The primary purpose of the following discussion is to exercise your vocabulary, not to provide a well-researched, scholarly text.

To parent mindfully one should carefully use childcare to anticipate children's need to notice that welcoming hugs can come from those besides their parents and immediate family -- even from cats, dogs, cockroaches, full-grown tigers and various viruses they are sure to meet -- thus helping each child learn to positively engage all the new things and changes they will forever meet, both within and outside themselves, over every moment of their lives.

Of course, Engaged Buddhist parents should also not forget to tell and show their children that welcoming hugs can be also be hurtful, like that of the spider embracing a fly and that sometimes one must also embrace those who are irritable or lethargic, including one's self, instead of only welcoming those things they feel are exquisite, hilarious or comforting.

The Engaged Buddhist parent should know or learn themselves the sheer, extraordinary miracle of affording a welcoming embrace to every moment, mood and thing they meet in their lives. If they do not, their children will notice and follow their actions, not their lessons or words.

Practicing Buddhism is to mentally strive on a spiritual journey. It is constantly, rigorously fantacizing and engaging whatever is exciting and stimulating in everything one meets, instead of submitting to the pressures from one's society or economy apparently requiring one to become a repetitive zombie. It is yanking one's self consciously back into an awareness of the exquisite or hilarious aspects of every thing, even things that at first seem bad, until that awareness becomes almost always automatic.

In every society, ripening children will be mercilessly expected to meet the standards and expectations of whoever happens to be in power. Mindful parents will support their children with compassion for their struggles and fears about meeting such expectations and not berate or recriminate them when they cannot. Mindful parents strive to never be unhelpful and instead encourage their children to forge ahead, even unnoticed -- maybe even better unnoticed -- approaching everything they meet as a positive engagement. They are gentle, patient and persistent in teaching their children to memorize this approach to life, not only with their minds but with their bodies as well, for this is the ultimate lesson of self-sufficiency.

Finally, Engaged Buddhist parents must also always remember that children raised by people who enjoy what Christians call "sinning" have almost always ended up as teenagers who are on sight noticed more for their flaws than for their either knowing or being able to offer acceptance of others, for what each of us is, from a positive perspective. These are flaws that, themselves, almost always lead to more suffering than even that that one must expect from being an almost limitless being caged within a limited body that will forever want or need more than food, clothing or shelter until it dies and releases the being it houses.

English-Vietnamese Glossary

New

• carefully: phó từ, cẩn thận, chu đáo
• cockroaches: danh từ, (động vật học) con gián
• various: tính từ, khác nhau; nhiều thứ khác nhau
• virus: danh từ, (y học) virut
• positively: phó từ, xác thực, rõ ràng; quả quyết, khẳng định, chắc chắn; tích cực; tuyệt đối
• moment: danh từ, chốc, lúc, lát
• hurtful: tính từ, có hại, gây tổn hại, gây tổn thương
• embrace: danh từ, sự ôm, cái ôm, (nói trại) sự ăn nằm với nhau; ngoại động từ, ôm, ôm chặt, ghì chặt, nắm lấy (thời cơ...); đi theo (đường lối, đảng phái, sự nghiệp...); gồm, bao gồm; bao quát (nhìn, nắm)
• self: danh từ, bản thân mình, cái tôi
• mood: danh từ, tâm trạng; tính khí, tâm tính, tính tình
• submit: nội động từ, chịu, cam chịu, quy phục
• pressure: danh từ, sức ép, áp lực ((nghĩa đen) & (nghĩa bóng)), áp suất
• society: danh từ, xã hội
• economy: danh từ, sự quản lý kinh tế; nền kinh tế; tổ chức kinh tế
• apparently: phó từ, nhìn bên ngoài, hình như
• aspect: danh từ, khía cạnh; mặt
• struggle: danh từ, sự đấu tranh; cuộc đấu tranh, cuộc chiến đấu
• encourage: ngoại động từ, làm can đảm, làm mạnh dạn; khuyến khích, cổ vũ, động viên; giúp đỡ, ủng hộ
• ultimate: tính từ, cuối cùng, sau cùng, chót
• perspective: danh từ, luật xa gần; phối cảnh; tranh vẽ luật xa gần; hình phối cảnh; cảnh trông xa; (nghĩa bóng) viễn cảnh, triển vọng; tương lai, tiến độ
• suffering: danh từ, sự đau đớn, sự đau khổ
• limitless: tính từ, vô hạn
• limited: tính từ , có hạn, hạn chế, hạn định
• being: danh từ, sinh vật; con người; sự tồn tại; sự sống; bản chất; thể chất
• shelter: danh từ, chỗ che, chỗ nương tựa, chỗ ẩn, chỗ núp, hầm; lầu, chòi; phòng, cabin (người lái)
• houses: ngoại động từ, đón tiếp (ai) ở nhà; cho ở, cho trọ, chưa (ai...) trong nhà; cất vào kho; lùa (súc vật) vào chuồng

From previous lessons at http://giacngoenglishclub.blogspot.com/

:

• to parent: làm cha mẹ
• mindfully: (thuật ngữ) một cách tỉnh giác
• childcare: nhà trẻ
• anticipation: thấy chắc điều sẽ xảy ra
• to notice: nhận thấy
• welcoming hug: mừng đón bằng cách ôm nhau ở phương Tây
• to engage: nhập vào.
• Engaged Buddhism: (thuật ngữ) Phật giáo nhập thế
• irritable: bực bội
• lethargic: lừ đừ
• exquisite: tuyệt vời
• hilarious: bông đùa
• sheer: thuần
• miracle: điều mầu nhiệm
• extraordinary: độc đáo
• to afford: làm cho có được

• practising Buddhism: (thuật ngữ) tu tập theo Phật giáo
• mentally: (thuật ngữ) về phương diện tâm thức.
• strive: nổ lực
• spiritual journey: (thuật ngữ) con đường tâm linh
• rigorous: tinh tấn.
• fantacizing: mộng tưởng, (thuật ngữ) vọng tưởng.
• exciting: kích thích.
• stimulating: làm cho bị khích động.
• constantly: một cách thường xuyên.
• require: yêu cầu.
• repeating: lập lại một hành vi hay một lời nói.
• zombie: 'người vô hồn', somebody unresponsive or unthinking: somebody who lacks energy, enthusiasm, or the ability to think independently (informal)
• yank: giật phắt lại/đi.
• consciously: tỉnh giác, (thuật ngữ) chú tâm cảnh giác.
• awareness: ý thức, (thuật ngữ) chánh niệm tỉnh giác.
• automatic: tự động, (thuật ngữ) thất niệm.

• ripe: đến lúc, hợp thời.
• mercilessly: không thương tiếc.
• standards: chuẩn mực.
• expectations: kỳ vọng.
• support: ủng hộ, nâng đở.
• compassion: đồng cảm, (thuật ngữ) lòng từ.
• berate: nhiếc mắng.
• recrimination: đổ lỗi.
• unhelpful: vô dụng.
• forge ahead: diễn tiến, đi đến.
• unnoticed: không bị để ý.
• approach: tiếp cận, ứng đối.
• gentle: nhẹ nhàng.
• patient: nhẫn nại.
• persistent: kiên trì.
• memorize: ghi nhớ.
• self-sufficiency: tự đầy đủ, (thuật ngữ) tự tại.
• Raised: được nuôi dưỡng.
• sinning: phạm tội.
• ended up: kết thúc.
• teenager: thiếu thời.
• on sight: ngay khi thấy.
• flaws: khuyết điểm.
• acceptance: chấp nhận.

--
Mặc AD (Andi) Marshall
Zone: ICT (IndoChina Time, GMT+7)
Web: http://admarshall.googlepages.com/
Post: HoChiMinh City (ex/or SaiGon), VietNam
Quote: "Love all, trust a few. Do wrong to none..."
Source: Shakespeare, 1623, "All's Well That Ends Well"
Get it at Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2246
GPG/PGP Public Keys online: http://cryptonomicon.mit.edu/

Vietnam mulls expat house purchases and sales

Note first this extract and consider what it might mean for the 80 percent of Vietnamese citizens whose incomes average less than US$500 per year:

Since India eased rules on investment in the construction sector, foreign property funds have flocked in, helping to double property prices in major cities since 2005.

Extracts only (click on headline for full report):

Vietnam plans to allow expatriates to buy and sell houses
Published: July 16, 2007
International Herald Tribune [Reuters]

HANOI: Vietnam plans to allow expatriates to buy and sell houses to attract foreign investment to the sector, real estate dealers said Monday.

The Ministry of Construction plan applies to foreigners who will stay in Vietnam for a year. They will be allowed to buy and own one house per person over 50 years.

"The new rule," said Nguyen Xuan Dao, chief executive at the Hanoi-based developer Vietnam Property, "will not only attract more investment in quality property projects but also boost demand from foreigners and create more opportunities for locals to trade in real estate." The proposal allows foreign owners to sell without restrictions and use the property as collateral for bank loans in Vietnam but forbids them from renting the home.

Last year, the consulting firm Mercer ranked Hanoi the world's 32nd most expensive city for expatriates, mainly for high rents that could go up to $3,000 per month for a three-bedroom serviced apartment. Real estate prices, especially condominiums in big cities like Ho Chi Minh City, have gone up about 50 percent in the past year due to limited supply, with most new projects sold before they are built.

God's Death: Kurt Vonnegut Has Left the Planet

God has really died this time. And, as his Mother Night so gently urged us to know, "When you're dead, you're dead." That's all.

We can console ourselves in the Hocus Pocus and other tricks or treats he left us. Then move along, re-minding one's self to try never forget to always, "Just be kind."

-- Comment originally left at http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/post!post.jspa, ICT.06h21.Fri.13.Apr.2007.AD

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk

Writer Kurt Vonnegut dies at 84

Vonnegut was a cult figure with students in the 1960s and 1970s Vonnegut interview One of the outstanding figures of modern US literature, Kurt Vonnegut, has died aged 84 in New York.

WWBD: Believe Nothing

Yet another classic find at CaliGypsyGurl's StumbleUpon pages.

WWBD: What Would Buddha Do?


That's an upload of a download of the original find, which is/was here or at CaliGypsyGurl's pages.

Couldn't risk it disappearing.

---

No Responses to “Buddhist Geeks 13: Genpo Roshi on Big Mind”

Feed for this Entry Trackback Address

1 Mặc AD Marshall on Apr 3rd, 2007 said:

Kind of interesting (4me, at least — as most multiple coincidences have been since the Celestine Prophesy arrived at my room in Saigon from Canadada exactly on my birthday, just over a decade ago):

I was just “Clipmarking” your “Meet the Geeks” ipodcast and sending it to a friend-cum-teacher of mine at the Central Monastery in Saigon, one Master Minh Thanh. Just FYI: Su Minh Thanh provided Vietnamese interpretation for the Dalai Lama in New York some years back and solely wrote and edited some related rag that’s soon to be reborn in Yankland, supposedly with a contribution from yours (hopefully) truly. [Ref: Clipmarks, http://clipmarks.com/ — just some more WebToo toys.]

Then i noticed this upcoming ‘cast, “Buddhist Geeks 13: Genpo Roshi on Big Mind”, and, click, click, click, all of these contrasting and complementary memories of recent events suddenly popped into Mind.

[cut]

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

I blathered on for another half dozen para's i at least had fun hammering out. But i'll leave it to the BGeeks to determine their Fates. (Though i also ScrapBooked the whole page just in case the BGeeks suddenly suffer simultaneous fits of delusion and decide not to approve my post.)

21st Century Buddhism

While claiming a history spanning back to days of the Persian Empire's establishment by Cyrus the Great, Confucius and Zarathustra (500s BC), Buddhism's emphasis on truth and skepticism, even about its own teachings, provides it with a vital relevance now attracting even twenty-somethings today.

Meet the BGeeks, three Gen Y Buddhist bloggers.

See Generation Y @ Wikipedia

Note the Keywords, too.

See BeLow.

clipped from www.buddhistgeeks.com Buddhist Geeks 1: Meet the Geeks The BGeeks In our 1st podcast, “Meet the Geeks” you’ll hear the three founding members of BuddhistGeeks.com discussing the vision behind this project. By weaving together snippets of a larger conversation this podcast should give you a sense of what this project is about and how you can contribute to it. Keywords: buddhoblogosphere, Western Buddhism, traditional Buddhism, twenty somethings, Gen Y, Boomer Generation, Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, Japan, Fleet Maull, Stuart Davis, Alan Wallace, Daniel Ingram, shamatha, Theravada, Phil Stanley, Jeffrey Hopkins, Reggie Ray, Diane Hamilton, feminine

Quality Quotes 01

clipped from justingarbett.com Cat Quotes: No amount of time can erase the memory of a good cat, and no amount of masking tape can ever totally remove his fur from your couch. - Leo Dworken You can't own a cat. The best you can do is be partners. - Sir Harry Swanson Who can believe that there is no soul behind those luminous eyes! - Theophile Gautier There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats. - Albert Schweitzer Of all domestic animals the cat is the most expressive. His face is capable of showing a wide range of expressions. His tail is a mirror of his mind. His gracefulness is surpassed only by his agility. And, along with all these, he has a sense of humor. - Walter Chandoha

The Power of Punctuation

clipped from funny.com

Being Poor

Don't miss all the additions in the comments either. -- Morgaine Le Faye.

Sadly, too many of these sound all to familiar. -- ADM

clipped from www.scalzi.com Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs. Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away. Being poor is knowing your kid goes to friends' houses but never has friends over to yours. Being poor is a heater in only one room of the house. Being poor is hoping your kids don't have a growth spurt. Being poor is thinking $8 an hour is a really good deal. Being poor is relying on people who don't give a damn about you. Being poor is finding the letter your mom wrote to your dad, begging him for the child support. Being poor is not taking the job because you can't find someone you trust to watch your kids. Being poor is hoping you'll be invited for dinner. Being poor is needing that 35-cent raise. Being poor is crying when you drop the mac and cheese on the floor. Being poor is knowing you work as hard as anyone, anywhere. Being poor is picking the 10 cent ramen instead of the 12 cent ramen because that's two extra packages for every dollar. Being poor is knowing you're being judged.

Top Ten Dating Mistakes from Cognitive Therapy Assoc's

Each mistake is explained in more detail at the CTA site.

clipped from www.cognitive-therapy-associates.com 1. Game playing: 2. Talking too much about your ex: 3. Fantasizing about the future: 4. Obsessing over details: 5. Ignoring red flags: 6. Interrogating your date: 7. Avoidance of intimacy: 8. Rush in, rush out: 9. Not being honest about your needs: 10. Sacrificing too much to get the relationship:

Quality Quotes 00

The first of some quality quotes i'm replicating here. Notably, these ones are from my new ClipMarks account (See link BeLow) and not from the bsd-games fortune proggie. (Note: they originated from mac.com.)

Speaking of fortune, Penguin Pete's Blog has an interesting-looking howto post on some potentially cool mods for fortune, The Fortunes of Linux.

clipped from www.mac.com

"A ship is safe in harbor... But that's not what ships were built for"

-- William Shed

"There is nothing either good or bad... But thinking makes it so"

-- William Shakespeare

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become"

--Buddha

"Life is not measured by its length... But by it's depth"

-- Anonymous

--
Posted By Karl to Karl Blog

Kurt Vonnegut Jr's "Eight Rules for Writing Fiction"

clipped from www.americanstate.org

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

4. Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.

5. Start as close to the end as possible.

6. Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

New Word, from the Go Vap! Dictionary, Unabridged (v 1.1): gree

11 Definitions Found

Go Vap! - SighGone Dictionary, Unabridged (v 1.1)
1. gree /gri/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[gree]
–noun neologism, specifically defined for MAD'M Meditation Method

1. graceful, gracious glee; grace and brilliant happiness combined, with connotations of mastery, superiority, satisfactory compensation, agreement, goodwill and/or victory or success; not to be confused with Clone Commander Gree (CC-1004) of the Star Wars film series.

Other Definitions (Most of which contributed to the new one above):

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source

2. gree

[gree] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun Chiefly Scot.

1.	superiority, mastery, or victory.

2.	the prize for victory.

3.	Obsolete. a step.

[Origin: 1275–1325; ME gre <>gradus step, grade; cf. degree]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source

3. gree

[gree] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun Archaic.

1.	favor; goodwill.

2.	satisfaction, as for an injury.

[Origin: 1250–1300; ME gre <>gre (F gré) <>gratum what is agreeable]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source

4. gree

/gri/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[gree] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–verb (used with object), verb (used without object), greed, gree·ing. British Dialect.

agree.

[Origin: 1375–1425; late ME; see gree²]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source

5. gree (gre) Pronunciation Key n. Scots Superiority; mastery. [Middle English gre, from Old French, step, from Latin gradus; see grade.]

(Download Now or Buy the Book)

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Acronym Finder - Cite This Source

6. GREE

GREE: in Acronym Finder

<sub>What does GREE stand for?

Greenbelt Park (US National Park Service)</sub>

Information
This definition appears somewhat frequently and is found in the following Acronym Finder categories:

• Military & government

Acronym Finder, © 1988-2007 Mountain Data Systems

urbandictionary.com

7. gree

7.1.	gree
	lame ass person by anonymous Jul 25, 2003 email it
7.2.	gree
	A tiny rock wedged in between two toes that refuses to be expelled. Most commonly occurs when wearing sandals with complex strap mechanisms. "Aw, man, I got a wicked gree right about now." tags rock stone pebble toes sandals greee by A. Robert Dowson Ohio Aug 10, 2006 email it
7.3.	gree
	a sound made when angry. It's Christina Aguilera! Gree!! by Barn Owl Jan 11, 2005 email it
7.4.	gree
	Someone who beats up little redheaded boys and steals their lunch money Mike got his ass whipped by Gree by dont worry about it Nov 18, 2004 email it
7.5.	gree
	A San Francisco based gay slang term which is short for "Girl", "Mary" or, "Miss Thing". "Get it gree!", "You go gree!" tags girl mary miss thing grah girlfriend by Deena Davenport san Francisco Feb 7, 2007 email it