Author: mgthantzin

Myanmar powers up

electrification photo Photo by Timitrius

This is one tough question to answer.

The government heavily subsidises electricity prices, providing power to consumers at around 3 US cents a megawatt, compared with 16 cents in Cambodia. This is much less than the cost of production, which is around 8 or 9 cents. It costs the government around $350 million a year to subsidise the national grid.

The government seems to have deferred any move to raise electricity prices for fear of sparking protests and unrest, say some industry analysts. This has also raised fears that the government will continue to drag its feet on approving generation projects, as new plants would swell the subsidy bill further, increasing the budget deficit and straining public finances

Source: Myanmar powers up | Bangkok Post

Chronicler of Islamic State ‘killing machine’ goes public

His friend the ex-taxi driver told him about an airstrike that had just killed multiple high-level Islamic State commanders, destroying a giant weapons cache. Elated, Mosul Eye dashed home to post it online. He hit “publish” and then, minutes later, realized his mistake. The information could have come from only one person. He trashed the post and spent a sleepless night.

This could be turned into a movie, especially the scene where Omar Mohammed had decided to die and sipped a cuppa on the bank of the Tigris. An inspiring story indeed.

via Chronicler of Islamic State ‘killing machine’ goes public

ပြောင်းလဲလာသော မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ လက်ဘက်ရည် ယဉ်ကျေးမှု

Classic Burmese laphet yay tea is a mix of evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk and black tea. Classic Burmese laphet yay tea is a mix of evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk and black tea.
VICTORIA MILKO / FOR NPR

“Tea shops are not just where people go to get good, cheap food,” says artist Kaung Kyaw Khine, 35, who earlier this year was featured in an art show in Yangon focusing on tea shops. “It’s a part of our culture, history, and where people go for all matters in life.”

via The Politics Of Myanmar’s Changing Tea Culture | KCLU

Trump to call Jerusalem Israel’s capital, move embassy

jerusalem photo Photo by Walkerssk (Pixabay)

Israel claims the city as its capital, following the occupation of East Jerusalem in the 1967 war with Syria, Egypt and Jordan, and considers Jerusalem to be a “united” city. Palestinians have long seen East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

Dirty politics is dirty.

via Trump to call Jerusalem Israel’s capital, move embassy | Al Jazeera

Voyager 1 Fires Up Thrusters After 37 Years

An artist concept depicting one of the twin Voyager spacecraft.The Voyager team is able to use a set of four backup thrusters, dormant since 1980. They are located on the back side of the spacecraft in this orientation. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

On Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2017, Voyager engineers fired up the four TCM thrusters for the first time in 37 years and tested their ability to orient the spacecraft using 10-millisecond pulses. The team waited eagerly as the test results traveled through space, taking 19 hours and 35 minutes to reach an antenna in Goldstone, California, that is part of NASA’s Deep Space Network.

via Voyager 1 Fires Up Thrusters After 37 Years

ရန်ကုန်တက္ကသိုလ်များ နယ်မြေ (လှိုင်) အား ဒီဇင်ဘာလ (၄) ရက်နေ့ ပြန်ဖွင့်မည်

Renovation work inside the auditorium at Yangon University’s Hlaing campus (Photo- Kyi Naing)

The campus, officially named Regional College 2, was previously known as RC 2 among students before the name was changed to “Yangon University (Hlaing campus)” in 1981.

via Yangon University’s Hlaing campus to reopen on December 4 | Eleven Myanmar

Interbank cash transfers available with single ATM card next year

Interbank ATM Transfer Interbank cash remittance services will be available by early next year. Photo: Aungmyin Yezaw

To link up all the banks on the MPU network, the necessary infrastructure needed was software, which MPU purchased from China. The software is now being replaced by a one developed in the US and this caused delays. The installation of the new software will now be completed in December 2017 before launching in early 2018, U Mya Than said.

via Interbank cash transfers available with single ATM card next year | The Myanmar Times