Taiwan Gets US Visa-Waiver Nomination

choi

(1) Shih Hsiu-chuan, Taiwan Gets US Visa-Waiver Nomination. Taipei Times, Dec 23, 2011 (available now)
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/ ... 11/12/23/2003521411
("At present, the VWP allows nationals from 36 participating countries to travel to the US for tourism or business ('B' visa purposes only) for stays of 90 days or less without obtaining a visa, the AIT said. * * * If Taiwan is admitted to the VWP, it will become the fifth Asian county to enjoy the privilege, following Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Brunei, [Minister of Foreign Affairs 楊進添 Timothy] Yang said")

(2) 台陆军就金门营区攻击事件致歉. BBC Chinese, Dec 22, 2011.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/si ... 111222_taiwan.shtml

Quote:

"据金门警方调查说，这几波攻击事件的鼓动者是金东守备队的一名金门本地志愿役士兵，他因遭一名士官指责心生不满，而由其兄长与友人出面替他'讨公道。'

"这起军队营区遭少数滋事民众攻击并无力自卫事件，引起了“作战失败”营区遭攻陷的批评，且攻击事件发生在长期作为台湾军队前线的金门，格外引起瞩目。军方此前对营区遭攻陷提出的解释说，这是因为金东守备的本部连二级厂执勤时是非武装卫哨，卫兵仅配挂警棍不带枪械。

(3) Yang Shu-min and Deborah Kuo, Taiwan Sourcing Pear Scions From Areas Other Than Fukushima. CNA, Dec 22, 2011.
http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/W ... amp;ID=201112220039

My comment:
(a) Grafting  嫁接
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafting
(In most cases, one plant is selected for its roots and this is called the stock or rootstock. The other plant is selected for its stems, leaves, flowers, or fruits and is called the scion)
(b) It turns out that many temperate 溫帶 fruits in Taiwan actually come from Japan.

(4) 范正祥, 台列美免簽候選 AIT：無關大選. Liberty Times, Dec 23, 2011 (available now).
http://libertytimes.com.tw/2011/new/dec/23/today-p2.htm

(4) 李欣芳, 宇昌文件 綠：經建會、國民黨團兩度變造. Liberty Times, Dec 22, 2011.
http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2011/new/dec/22/today-fo1.htm

(5) 未來事件交易所目前對2012年總統選舉預測 蔡英文的得票率過半、領先14縣市 _20111221. 政治大學預測市場研究中心, Dec 21, 2011
http://nccupm.wordpress.com/2011 ... %e6%96%87%e7%9a%84/

(6) Robin Kwong, Taiwan: Chip Makers Feel the Heat. Financial Times, Dec 22, 2011 (blog).
http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics ... akers-feel-the-heat

Quote:

"The [DRAM] industry has been further squeezed by consumers shifting from PCs, which use a lot of standardised D-Ram, to tablets and smartphones, which either use Nand Flash memory, or speciality mobile D-Ram.

"Micron, the only US D-Ram maker and a partner of Nanya, on Wednesday posted a worse-than-expected $187m loss for the quarter ended in November as a result of that weaker demand [of DRAM, resulting from Thai flood that shuttered hard disk manufacturers which in turn shut down computer assembly].

(7) Don Clark, AMD Claims Major Gains in Graphics Chips. Wall Street Journal, Dec 22, 2011
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011 ... od=google_news_blog

Quote:

"The new [AMD] chip to be sold starting Jan. 9 on a graphics card for desktop PCs [is] called the Radeon HD 7970

"But the how of AMD’s announcement, in some ways, is more notable than the what. The company traces much of the gains to being the first to exploit a new production process from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. that creates circuitry measured at just 28 nanometers

"AMD’s introduction of 28-nanometer technology marks one of few times the company can boast it is delivering tinier circuitry to end users than Intel * * * Not that AMD will be able to gloat about that point for long. Intel in the first half of 2012 is slated to deliver 22-nanometer chips. And TSMC, a foundry that sells production services to many chip designers, is likely to offer similar technology to Nvidia and other chip makers soon.

"A spokesman for Nvidia said AMD claimed to be first to use TSMC’s earlier 40-nanometer process but his company shipped a third more chips using that technology.

My comment:
(a) The "jazz" in "one part of the company is downright jazzed" is a transitive verb (First Known Use 1915) that is defined as
"ENLIVEN —usually used with up"
www.m-w.com
(b) 32 nanometer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/32_nanometer
(Intel and AMD both produced commercial microchips using the 32 nanometer process in the early 2010s; Intel began selling its 32 nm processors on January 7, 2010, as Core i3, Core i5, and the dual-core mobile Core i7[ The 32nm process is expected to be superseded by commercial 22 nm technology in 2012)

Of course, we now know that Globalfoundries, divested by AMD, has a hard time with 32nm.
(c) The last quotation suggests that Nvidia was not seriously harmed, if ever, by the rumored problems TSMC had with 40-nm process.