text:
Oral History Interview
Morris Chang
Morris Chang has been the chairman of TSMC since the company was established in 1987 and served as CEO from its founding until June 2005. From 1985 to 1994, he was president and then chairman of ITRI, the Industrial Technology Research Institute in Taiwan. Earlier in his career, Chang served as president and chief operating officer of General Instrument, and prior to that he was corporate group and senior vice president for Texas Instruments. Chang holds a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He has been active in the semiconductor industry for 51 years.
Q: Talk about growing up in China, your family, and how events in China shaped your early life.
MC: I was born in 1931 into a middle-class family in China. And I lived in China until I was 18 years old, when I moved to the United States. So the early part of my life between birth and 18, the background was war, poverty, injustice. So those three things—war, poverty and injustice—they dominated the backdrop, the environment in which I grew up. War, first the Sino-Japanese War, then of course the Second World War, and then the [Chinese] Civil War. And I lived through all of them. China was so poor, most of the people were so poor, even middle class for me that I was born in. We didn't starve, we were not hungry ever, but our life style was very, very modest compared to a middleclass family lifestyle now. Injustice. Even back in those chaotic days of my youth, I could see and also read about people that were very rich and very powerful and indeed. I even saw, I even met some of them as a young person. But those were just in the very small minority and most of the people that I saw were also middleclass. They also lived very, very modestly and then there were a large number of people that simply didn't know where their next meal would come from. And people that didn't have adequate housing, I saw a lot of those people too. And so how did that background influence me? Well, first of all, I knew that war was just a terrible thing. I knew that abject poverty was also a terrible thing and injustice, social injustice. I saw something that lots of people ground their teeth at…myself included. So much resentment, so much hatred in a socially unjust environment. Now the personal lesson to me was, well, I needed to study hard and later on, work hard. And hope that there will be peace. That was the personal lesson to me.
Q: It seems like that part of your life was a very unstable time for you yet, in spite of all that, you've obviously overcome a lot of the adversity experienced during your early years.
MC: Well, the United States was paradise when I first arrived at the age of 18. Politically, economically and socially. And yes, certainly I shook off all those shadows in my mind. I quickly shook them off anyway after I arrived in the United States. But you talk about war, you talk about going, having to move from one place to another, yes…our family had to flee from the air raids in Guangzhou. We were living in Guangzhou when the Sino-Japanese War started and immediately there started to be air raids. So my mother and I moved to Hong Kong and really [had] a few years of peace in Hong Kong. Hong Kong was beautiful and certainly it was not invaded or anything until the Pearl Harbor day. Everybody knows what happened at Pearl Harbor… but Hong Kong was attacked the same day by the Japanese and we lived through gunfire for two weeks and then we lived through Japanese occupation of Hong Kong for another year. Then we went to Chungking and we again had very serious air raids in Chungking. And then finally "VJ Day" came and we moved back to Shanghai hoping for a period of peace and development. But then civil war, which of course was happening all the time anyway, except that Shanghai was not touched by the civil war until about 1948—when the Communist armies actually came pretty close and we had to flee from that again. So we did move from place to place every few years.
Q: How did you end up working the U.S. for Texas Instruments (TI), and what sort of work did you do initially?
MC: Well, I went to the U.S., and I went to Harvard, entering the freshman class in 1949. After a year, I knew that in order to get a good job after I graduate, I should go to a school with more specialized training, so I transferred to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). After I got my Bachelors and Masters Degree at MIT, I wanted to go on for my Ph.D. But I failed the qualifying exam so I sought a job in industry. I had four job offers and just by a very lucky break I chose Sylvania Semiconductor—without really knowing the implications, the ramifications. And I worked for Sylvania Semiconductor for three years when I decided, and I was right as later events proved, that Sylvania wasn't going anywhere in semiconductors. And I knew already that Texas Instruments was rising very fast in Texas. And so I joined Texas Instruments after three years at Sylvania. I was first just an engineering supervisor at Texas Instruments. By that, I mean, I had two or three engineers reporting to me. And I was in charge of a production line. I was on the fast track at TI. I rose very fast. By 1961, which was three years after I joined Texas Instruments, I had already become a manager of a sizable engineering section. It was at that time that my boss told me that TI wanted to develop me by offering me an opportunity to go for my Ph.D. The opportunity was golden because TI would pay full salary while I was a student and they would pay tuition [and] other school expenses. And I could even go to two or three technical conferences in other cities in the United States while I was a Ph.D. student. And that was an offer that is hard to refuse, so I took up the offer and went to Stanford for two-and-a-half years and got my Ph.D. This time I passed my qualifying exam with flying colors—I had learned to study hard and study efficiently too. And so after two-and-a-half years, that took us to 1964, Spring of 1964, I finished my Ph.D. thesis and I went back to Texas Instruments to work fully expecting that I would still stay in the engineering area.
But a few months after I got back to TI, the vice president of the semiconductor business asked me to head up a very important product department in Texas Instruments and of course that was what I had always wanted to do, general management. I then became the manager of more than 2,000 people. Remember, back then production was all onshore, was all in the United States, in Texas. So the 2,000 people of course included a large number of production people, but still there were maybe about 200 professional people. It was a big promotion for me from just an engineering manager to a general manager. And after that, I was still on the fast track. I [was] promoted from less important departments to more important departments and in 1967, early '67, I became the general manager of the most important semiconductor department in TI which was integrated circuits. And then a few years later, I again was promoted to be the group vice president of all TI's semiconductor business and I stayed in that job for six years until TI's consumer business…it was new to TI and it was not in good shape, and they transferred me over to head up the consumer group. I was in that job for another two-and-a-half years. And the consumer business did not improve. I think that was due to many factors…then I was transferred to a staff job. I was still a senior vice president but effectively I felt that I had been put out to the pasture. Still, I agonized for at least two years as to whether to leave or to stay at Texas Instruments. But finally after more than two years of agonizing, I decided to leave.
Q: What were some of the highlights during your 25 years at TI? How did you end up as the head of IC operations?
MC: Many highlights during my 25 years, a few low lights at the tail end also but many highlights at least in the first 20 years. How did I get on the fast track and get promoted successfully pretty fast? Well, I think that I did something in each of my jobs. I accomplished something significant in each of my jobs. In fact, my first big accomplishment happened three months after I joined TI and I wrote about it in my book…my autobiography. In the production line that I was in charge of, I increased the yield. The yield was practically zero in the first three months I was there. And then one day…I kept changing the recipe. Back then, the process, you know, essentially was a recipe, I kept changing the recipe but I changed the recipe very rationally because at Sylvania I had—by self study and by experience—became pretty good in transistor technology. And after various numerous changes of the process recipe, suddenly one day three months after I joined TI, the yield was up to 25-30 percent from zero. Suddenly we were in business, whereas before, we were just cranking out rejects. It was a very important production line for Texas Instruments at that time. And I remember that night, I mean I couldn't sleep I was so excited. I knew that I had accomplished something big because I knew the impact of the high yield. The profit that resulted from that was significant to Texas Instruments.
Q: How did you bring up the yield so dramatically?
MC: Back then, this was 1958, the industry was still in its infancy and the equipment that we used was primitive. So it was basically a matter of just having the right temperature, having the right pressure at the various process points and in order to even guess at what the right temperature, what the right pressure and what the right dopant and all those things. In order to even guess at what the right things you should do, you certainly needed a pretty good grounding of device physics. And that was the thing, device physics was what I became pretty good at, at Sylvania. I mean, you know that you have to know the basic physics. It was alloyed transistor and diffused transistor at that time. My line was a diffused transistor so you have to calculate how fast something diffuses into… it was germanium also by the way… how fast something diffuses into germanium and what the base width is going to be. The base width cannot be too wide. If it's too wide, then you don't get a very strong transistor action. And you don't get very high frequency either. But if the base width is very short or very narrow then you run into shorts. So I knew device physics pretty well by then and so I tried various recipes… and temperature of course was not the only variable. There were other variables as well, such as the impurity of the dopant etc. etc. And the germanium wafer thickness, I mean, heck all these things, they were ancient by today's standards. But back in those days, those skills of how to achieve good yields in transistors those skills were very valuable skills.
You asked me what highlights and I just talked about the first one. It happened in the first few months after I arrived at TI and then… when I became a bigger manager, still an engineering manager… I developed a number of new germanium transistors. In fact one of them, another one now, turned out to be extremely profitable to Texas Instruments again and that was already after I came back from Stanford, from my Ph.D. And so I was promoted to the general manager job that I spoke of earlier, and in that general manager job, I finished the development of this second important germanium transistor that I had started to develop. I finished the development and put it into production. I also had to negotiate a deal with then the most important customer of Texas Instruments, IBM, and then we put this newly developed transistor into production just to sell to IBM and that turned out to be very profitable for Texas Instruments again. So I quickly got promoted to become the general manager of a more important department, which was silicon transistors. Now in my year as the general manager of silicon transistors, I think I did maybe one important thing. I set up a factory in Canada because there was a Canadian market. The new factory in Canada would allow us to exploit it. That was probably the first time that TI set up something like that.
And then I went to integrated circuits, became the general manager of integrated circuits and there we started a learning curve, a methodical use of the learning curve… as a control, as an influence on pricing and as it influences our cost reduction efforts. This was a pioneer effort in the semiconductor industry. We did it together with the Boston Consulting Group, in fact, they talked about it quite a bit. This was in the late 60s. The Boston Consulting Group was a very small outfit when we did this, and I was the key contact guy that worked with them…they were, of course, our consultant. And we used what we worked out with them…loads of data, a lot of theory and a lot of effort put into the practice of the theory and use of the data we had already taken. The result was so-called learning curve pricing. And we would automatically reduce the price every quarter—even when the market did not demand lower price. And this was a very successful effort even though it was somewhat controversial. A lot of people thought that we were being foolish. Why do you reduce price when you didn't have to? But we did that because I believed in it and indeed our market share just kept expanding. That wasn't our only strategy… price reduction, learning-curve pricing was not our only strategy. We had other strategies too which were just as important, such as developing new products, developing medium scale integration at that time. And any way, all those strategies combined to make our integrated circuits business, the TI integrated circuits business, the biggest integrated circuit business in the world and the most profitable also. And that was when I became promoted to the semiconductor business job. During that time when I went from integrated circuits to the semiconductor job, the IC world was changing. It was changing from bipolar to MOS. And TI was nowhere in the MOS game. I, as the integrated circuits general manager was not responsible for MOS development at all. I was just in charge of the business, of the integrated circuits business, which was almost 100% bipolar. The development of MOS was in another group, but when I took over the TI semiconductor business entirely of course, MOS became increasingly more important. It pretty quickly took over the bipolar integrated circuit world. So I would say the highlight in the time, at least the early highlight during the days of my semiconductor general manager job, was to catch up and in fact even surpass our competitors in MOS technology and MOS sales. We did that mainly through calculator chips and through the DRAMs, the memories. And not just DRAMs, but also PROMs and EPROMs. Those kept me busy for quite a few years. The highlight in my consumer days, I have to say, was probably one product, the educational product, "Speak & Spell." That was developed and marketed during the time I was in charge of consumer. It happened to be, I think, the best product that the TI consumer division ever did.
Q: TI produced most of its device manufacturing equipment in house for a long time. Can you talk about how and when that turned around and you started buying from outside vendors?
MC: It didn't turn around during my days as the semiconductor group head. In fact it was one thing that I felt we should not have done, that we should not do and I personally was not in favor of it [of building equipment in-house]. I was not the CEO remember, I was manager of the semiconductor business. But the company at that time decided that that was what we should do and we continued for a long time to pull a lot of resources into that, when we could have put the resources in more semiconductor product development.
Q: What opportunities made you leave TI for General Instrument?
MC: I left TI without any job offer, and I left because I felt that essentially I had been put out in the pasture at TI. I felt sure that I would still continue to have a job, in fact even a job with a good title, but my hope of further advancement at TI was gone. Actually there was only one step further, it was the CEO, you know, and I decided that there was no hope of that, and besides I wasn't doing anything that interested me very much any more. So that was why I left TI. But immediately after I left, and my resignation was published in the Dallas papers, in the electronics trade papers, and in the Wall Street Journal also. Immediately after I resigned, I started to get a lot of phone calls, and I pursued three or four of those opportunities, and one of them happened to be General Instrument. It was to be the president and the COO of General Instrument in New York. And at that time, General Instrument was a sizeable company—not as big as TI—but it was a sizeable company. It was very definitely in the Fortune 500. I decided that this would be an opportunity for me to manage a sizeable company and accepted that offer.
Unfortunately after a year or so at General Instrument, I found out it was so different a company from Texas Instruments. Texas Instruments focused on organic growth. Even the branching out to consumer business and to computer business was organic. They just took good people from other businesses, principally semiconductor business, to staff and manage the new business, so even that was organic. Whereas General Instrument was mainly about acquisitions, mergers, and then after a business became successful, sale of that business, so that General Instrument could acquire new businesses, and remake them, or improve them and sell them again. When I was being interviewed, I did not know that it had become that kind of a company. I mean there's nothing wrong with it being that kind of company, but it was just very different from what I was used at Texas Instruments. So after a year of General Instrument, a little more than a year, I decided to leave again. Again, without another job prospect, but then Taiwan beckoned, and the offer was to be the president of the Industrial Technology Research Institute, ITRI, in Taiwan. And at that time ITRI was a very important institution in Taiwan. It was the largest and the only significant industrial technology research in Taiwan. The Premier [of Taiwan] who appoints the president of ITRI told me that he particularly wanted to use my ability to transfer technology from just research results to economic benefits for Taiwan industry.
K.T. Li was a Minister without portfolio. And K.T. Li turned out to be a very important man in my career in Taiwan, but he was not the Premier. It was that part of the Premier's appeal—that he wanted me to use my abilities to transfer research results into economic gains for Taiwan industry—that really appealed to me because I had not been a purely research or technical person for a long time when I took the job in ITRI. But I had always, at Texas Instruments and later for a short while in General Instrument, I always thought of my job as one of transferring R&D results to economic gains for the company. So I felt as if I could do this ITRI job also.
Q: Perhaps you could just explain in a bit more detail, what was it that clenched the decision to move from General Instrument in the U.S. to Taiwan and ITRI?
MC: I think it was because it would be a new kind of a career. Rather than being a corporate executive, the ITRI job, the presidency of ITRI would mean serving the whole industry, serving the whole Taiwan industry. Using the research results of the institute of ITRI to serve the whole Taiwan industry, and try to make money for the whole Taiwan industry with the results of the research in ITRI. This was a completely new kind of a job for me, and also the environment would be completely different. A Taiwanese environment as opposed to the U.S. environment. The kind of people that I would work with would also be very different. So it was the newness that appealed to me, the difference from what I had been doing for several decades, first in Texas Instruments then in General Instrument. And, I mean, everything seemed to me so different. By then I was financially pretty secure. I was not rich, but you also have to realize that the standards of wealth were much lower back in 1985. But still in absolute standards, I was financially secure which meant that I could live according to the way I desired, which was actually pretty modest… for the rest of my life without having to earn a living or a salary. So I came to Taiwan at a much reduced level of compensation, but because it was so new, and appeared to be so challenging… that I came. And this was why I said that you need to follow your interests, not where you think the big money is. Because, obviously, back in 1985, the big money was thought to be in financial venture capital, or maybe even continuing to manage a company in the U.S., but I felt that the Taiwan opportunity appealed to me from the interest point of view.
But as it turned out, when you don't chase money, money comes to you. Now, not in the ITRI job, the ITRI job itself is just a salaried job. It was at that time, it is now. But I got a chance of starting up TSMC after I came to Taiwan, and TSMC, obviously, was an opportunity to make some money personally.
Q: How much of a gamble was it for Taiwan to enter the semiconductor industry through the RCA technology transfer program, and how much credit do you think the political leaders in Taiwan deserve for that decision?
MC: Well, the political leaders deserved all the credit for getting the RCA license, but that didn't mean that Taiwan entered the semiconductor industry just by licensing the technology from RCA. All it meant, this license of RCA…was that Taiwan got the then RCA current technology which was probably a generation behind the leading technology in the U.S. then. Now, after Taiwan got it…a group of people were sent [to RCA] by ITRI and were there for several months…they brought it back to Taiwan, and they continued to work on it in the laboratory, you know, small scale. It was not business. It was not production. Then they licensed the technology from RCA in 1975, and in 1980, which was five years later, they spun off a company. That company, of course, used the technology to some extent. And then seven years later, in 1987, TSMC was started. By 1987, the ITRI technology, which was first obtained from RCA, and then worked upon for 12 years between '75 and '87…in the 12 years, they managed to get another generation and a half behind. So by 1987, the ITRI technology was already two-and-a-half generations behind the leading technology. And, I mean, that's understandable because first of all RCA was not a first tier semiconductor company when it licensed its technology to Taiwan, to ITRI. And secondly, without a real commercial base, ITRI was limited in improving the technology, in keeping up with the pace of other companies that are commercial companies, like Intel and TI and so on. They set the pace, and ITRI couldn't keep up with the pace. So when they got the technology, it was a generation behind, and when TSMC got the technology in '87, it was already two-and-a-half generations behind the leading level.
Q: How did Philips come into the picture…what sort of a role did Philips play?
MC: Philips played the role as the only willing investor in TSMC, or the only willing significant investor, I should say. Now, I have to go back to the weeks after I arrived and took the presidency of ITRI now. A few weeks after I arrived in Taiwan, and became the president of ITRI, I was called in by Mr. K.T. Li. He said, "Well, we want to promote a semiconductor industry in Taiwan." Of course, they wanted to do that in 1975 also when they licensed the technology. Mr. Li told me, "You have a lot of experience managing large semiconductor businesses, so you seem to be ideal to start a new company in Taiwan in semiconductors. And you come back, tell me and tell the Premier how much money you need" etc., etc. In other words, give us a business plan, you know, in a week or so. So I went back to my office in ITRI and started thinking. And it was during those few days—actually I didn't have to wait a week…a day or so later he wanted me to go back and make a presentation in four days, I think, not in week. It was during that time when the idea of the pure-play foundry gelled. Now, how did the pure-play foundry come about? I think that was going to be your next question. It was really two or three things combined together. First of all, or course, I had read some of Carver Mead's writings. Carver Mead is a prominent researcher who wrote several important papers. In fact, he published a book back in the late '70s on IC design and architecture, and he made a point that the design part could be separated from the technology. He didn't advocate the advent of pure-play foundries, but he did make the point which would lead to the conclusion that you could start up a pure-play foundry. But the market really didn't appear to be there for a pure-play foundry. So I had read Carver Mead…[his] writings were known to me even when I was at Texas Instruments. But the only trouble is, of course, that there didn't appear to be a stable market for that kind of pure-play foundry. So that was one thread of thought as I paused and thought about the task that Mr. K.T. Li gave to me…he wanted me to present a business plan, he wanted me to start a semiconductor company.
And another thread was what I had already observed, closely observed, for three decades. I had been in the semiconductor business for three decades before I came to Taiwan. And I learned at close quarters how competitive the industry was, and how good some of the players were—companies like Intel, Texas Instruments. Even then the Japanese companies were very fierce also. I knew how competitive it was, and how difficult it would be to carve out a niche for a new Taiwan company. So that was the second thread of thought. The third thread of thought was I paused to try to examine what we have got in Taiwan. And my conclusion was that [we had] very little. What strengths have we got? he conclusion was very little. We had no strength in research and development, or very little anyway. We had no strength in circuit design, IC product design. We had little strength in sales and marketing, and we had almost no strength in intellectual property. The only possible strength that Taiwan had, and even that was a potential one, not an obvious one, was semiconductor manufacturing, wafer manufacturing. And so what kind of company would you create to fit that strength and avoid all the other weaknesses? The answer was pure-play foundry. So maybe you could call it the least evil choice. The least evil because we've got no strength in all of these and I knew how difficult it was to compete even when you have strengths. It would be impossible to compete when you really had very little strength. But if we chose a pure-play foundry business model then we at least have the potential manufacturing strength that we can lean on. And we also manage to avoid the other weaknesses. We have no strength in design. We have a weakness in design. Well, we don't need design as a pure-play foundry. We've got no strength in sales and marketing. Well, sales and marketing for foundries is relatively simpler than sales and marketing for a conventional IDM company. At that time, the IDM model was the conventional model. In fact, it was the universal model. We got no strength in IP. Well, it turns out, at that time, that process was the part that was least vulnerable to IP attacks from other companies. Most of the IP disputes were about circuit designs. So in choosing the pure-play foundry mode, I managed to exploit, perhaps, the only strength that Taiwan had, and managed to avoid a lot of the other weaknesses. Now, however, there was one problem with the pure-play foundry model and it was a fatal problem, it could be a fatal problem which was, "Where's the market?"
Q: The idea really wasn't very well received in the industry at that time.
MC: No. It was very poorly received. Well, people just dismissed it, you know, "What the hell is Taiwan doing? What the hell is Morris Chang doing?" They really didn't think that it was going to go anywhere. There was no market because there was very little fabless industry, almost none. No fabless industry. So who are you going to sell these wafers to? Who are you going to manufacture the wafers for? Of course, the obvious answer was the companies that already existed at that time, the Intels, and TIs, Motorolas, and so on. Now, those companies knew that they would let you manufacture their wafers only when they didn't have the capacity, or when they didn't want to manufacture the stuff themselves anymore. Now, when they didn't have the capacity, and asked you to do the manufacturing, then as soon as they got the capacity, they would stop orders to you, so it couldn't be a stable market. And when they didn't want to make the wafers anymore, well, the chance was that it was losing money for them. The product was losing money for them. And so what do you want to do? Do you want to take over the loss, you know? And so that wouldn't be a very good market either. So the conclusion at that time, the conventional conclusion was that there was no market. Maybe this idea, this pure-play foundry idea, exploited the only strength you have, which is manufacturing, but there's no market for it. That's why it was so poorly thought of. What very few people saw, and I can't tell you that I saw the rise of the fabless industry, I only hoped for it. But I probably had better reasons to hope for it than people at Intel, and TI, and Motorola, etc because I was now standing outside. When I was at TI and General Instrument, I saw a lot of IC designers wanting to leave and set up their own business, but the only thing, or the biggest thing that stopped them from leaving those companies was that they couldn't raise enough money to form their own company. Because at that time, it was thought that every company needed manufacturing, needed wafer manufacturing, and that was the most capital intensive part of a semiconductor company, of an IC company. And I saw all those people wanting to leave, but being stopped by the lack of ability to raise a lot of money to build a wafer fab. So I thought that maybe TSMC, a pure-play foundry, could remedy that. And as a result of us being able to remedy that then those designers would successfully form their own companies, and they will become our customers, and they will constitute a stable and growing market for us.
Q: What were some of the fabless companies that gave TSMC its first big start in the business?
MC: Well, actually the first ones were in Taiwan. They were pretty small though. But excuse me. I think we're getting ahead of the game here. Our first customers were still the big companies, the IDMs, except their business was not stable, you know, and it was pretty much leftovers from them. So the first few years of our start, we didn't grow very fast at all. We started to grow fast when the fabless industry really started, and that was about '91, '92. We actually planned our business model in '85. I made my presentation, we start to raise money and so on, and we raised our money in '86, and we did not physically start operation until '87. Between '87 and '91, we depended mainly on the big companies giving us leftovers, and a few small companies, first in Taiwan, and a little later in the United States. And then from '91 on, the number of fabless companies just started to mushroom. And you have the history of the Fabless Industry Association that we can look at. I mean, now there are hundreds of, maybe close to a thousand fabless companies in the world. Most of them, of course, are still in the United States, in Taiwan…well, in China alone there are maybe four or five hundred, so my thousand number doesn't even count all of the four or five hundred. And there are a few in Europe, and there's a couple, maybe, in Japan. So now there are about a thousand. But back before '91, the number was in, at most, two digits, less than a hundred, and most of them were struggling. And we, frankly, TSMC, had to mature a little bit before we could serve those fabless customers. So in the first few years after we started, the few fabless that were in business were still going to the Japanese companies for their foundry work.
Q: Mainly because of the technology or capacity?
MC: Technology and trust. You know, that sort of thing. And we had to develop the trust of our customers too, but technology too, well, technology and trust. I mean foundry is very important to them. It's the source of their products, and they can't just go on and just trust you immediately. We had to prove it.
Q: Was there ever a time when it looked like TSMC, or the dedicated foundry idea would not work?
MC: Oh, yeah, I mean the first few years were not easy, but look, the investors had already put in so much money, and we never had any thought of failing. And in fact, we only had two loss years in all our history. We had a loss year in 1987, the first year that we started, and we again had a loss year in 1990. I mean the first few years were pretty tough, but from '91 on, we just grew without looking back. The year 2000, that was a tough year for a lot of people. Yes, it was a tough year for us too, but we were profitable, 2000, 2001. We have not lost any money, and we don't intend to lose any money from 1991 on.
Q: In your view, why has the Taiwan foundry industry been successful?
MC: Well, when you say, "Why has our foundry industry been so successful?," I have to change that. Actually as of two years ago, some analyst made a calculation…TSMC, up to that point, accumulatory, had made 110 percent of the total pure-play foundry industries' profit. That means our profit exceeded all other people's losses by 10 percent. Yes, I guess that's what it meant. So when you say, "Why is the foundry industry so successful...," maybe you should change your question to, "Why has TSMC been so successful?"
Q: On a rather different subject, do you think the Taiwan government should allow its semiconductor technology to be transferred to China?
MC: I think the Taiwan government should certainly watch what the U.S. government is doing. The U.S. is a signatory of the Wassenaar arrangement, and the Wassenaar agreement does…"prohibit" is probably the wrong word, but it does highly discourage products and technologies that are used for military purposes. And the U.S. government, I think, has been the strictest among all the signatories in prohibiting, preventing the sale of, transfer of any technology that could be used for military purposes. The U.S. is the strictest. It's stricter than either the European Union or Japan. The other countries, of course, don't count very much because they don't have nearly as much technology as those three countries. So I think that the Taiwan government should observe standards, perhaps, as strict as the U.S. government observes.
Q: One final rather big picture question here; how would you contrast American and Asian engineering styles?
MC: I think the Asian engineers tend to be more methodical, they tend to be more studious, more orderly engineers; whereas, the U.S. engineers tend to be more innovative, but they tend not to be as methodical and orderly as the Asian engineers. I mean, there are obviously many exceptions to the norm. In the U.S., you also find the Asian type of engineers, you know, methodical, orderly but not very innovative. And, by the same token, in Asia you find many innovative engineers too. But the norm is as I described it for Asia and for the U.S. But certainly those two categories of abilities are not exclusive to each other. You can have the same two; you can have them at the same time in one person. On the other hand, I also think that one group can complement another group. You can have an innovative group but not so methodical, and then you can have a methodical group maybe not very innovative complement each other.
Morris Chang was interviewed August 24, 2007, for SEMI and the Computer History Museum. Copyright 2007 Computer History Museum, used with permission.


text:
I have a GPS system on my phone that not only knows exactly how to get me anywhere I need to go, it also knows where I am at any given time even when I don't have the slightest idea. Her soothing British voice is always there to guide me when I'm lost and it […]
Tonight is Halloween. For those of you unfamiliar with the holiday it's a beautiful time of year where small children are encouraged to pretend to be someone else and come to the homes of strangers and ask for candy.
Ironically the other 364 days of the year we spend telling children NOT to take candy from strangers, especially ones that have a corpse or bloody appendages on their front porch.
Hey it's never too early to prepare kids for the phenomenon of mixed messages and confusion to all things adult as we usher them into their puberty. It will be a bitter sweet night for the wife and I as for the first time in 16 years we had neither our son or 12 yr old daughter to walk the blocks with as they collected enough goodies to keep dentists in business for years to come.
Our kids are with friends this time and so we will sit on the porch and wait for the kids to come up and seek to reap their reward. As much as the missus and I don't have in a lot in common generally in this one thing we were united; No one got even one tootsie roll without uttering the magic phrase, "Trick or Treat".
Last year many kids would come up to us not saying a word and simply open their bags as though we were obligated to give them their desires. It's like the holiday version of teaching kids that entitlements are part of being American.
It's bad enough that the holiday implied that if you don't give us candy there will be hell to pay, but now these narcissists believe even following through with the ritual of saying 3 words is too much to ask.
As they stood there we would ask "what do you have to say" and normally the response was …"uhhh, please?..no thank you?…even a couple "happy Halloween!"
It took them a few moments to get it and normally I would start it with a " tri..tri…trick…?" like I was trying to coax something legible from someone who had suffered a brain trauma and was only now realizing they weren't Scandinavian.
Eventually they would say "Trick or treat" and we would feel like we had actually contributed something beautiful to society by keeping not only tradition alive, but also common courtesy. My next assignment is to try to get their parents to use their turn signals. A much more difficult task and one where perhaps a rotting corpse or a dancing skeleton may actually come in handy!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
(Vatican Radio) The Pope on Sunday celebrated Holy Mass at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Bonaria, in Cagliari on the island of Sardinia.
Below, please find the Vatican Radio's translation of the Holy Father's homily at the Mass:
The grace of our Lord be with you always.
Today is realised that desire that I announced in St. Peter's Square, before the summer, to be able to visit the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Bonaria.
1. I come here to share with you the joys and hopes, efforts and commitments, ideals and aspirations of your island, and to confirm you in the Faith. Even here in Cagliari, as in the whole of Sardinia, there are difficulties — there are so many! — problems and concerns: I think, in particular, of the lack of work and its precariousness, and therefore the uncertainty for the future. Sardinia, your beautiful region, suffers many situations of poverty, exacerbated by its condition as an island. The loyal cooperation of everyone is necessary, with the commitment of institutional leaders — even in the Church — to ensure the fundamental rights of persons and families, and to grow more fraternal and united. To ensure the right to work, to bring home bread, bread earned by work! I am close to you, I remember you in prayer, and I encourage you to persevere in your witness of the human and Christian values so deeply rooted in the faith and history of this land and the people. Always keep alight the light of hope!
2. I come among you to place myself, with you, at the feet of the Madonna, who gives us his Son. I know that Mary, our Mother, is in your heart, as evidenced by the Shrine, where many generations of Sardinians have come - and continue to come! - To invoke the protection of Our Lady of Bonaria, the Great Patroness of the Island. Here you bring the joys and sufferings of this land, of its families, and even of those children who live far away, many of whom went away with great sorrow and nostalgia to find a job and a future for themselves and their loved ones. Today, all of us gathered here want to thank Mary because she is always close to us; we want to renew our trust in her, and our love for her.
The first reading which we heard shows us Mary in prayer in the Upper Room together with the Apostles. Mary prays, prays together with the community of disciples, and teaches us to have full confidence in God, in His mercy. This is the power of prayer! We must not tire of knocking on the God's door. Let us bring our whole life, every day, to the heart of God through Mary! Knock at the door of the heart of God.
In the Gospel we grasp especially the last look of Jesus upon His Mother (cf. Jn 19:25-27). From the Cross Jesus looks at His Mother and entrusted the apostle John to her, saying, "This is your son." In John we're all here, too, and Jesus' look of love entrusts us to the maternal guardianship of the mother. Mary will have remembered another look of love, when she was a young girl: the gaze of God the Father, who had looked upon her humility, her littleness. Mary teaches us that God does not abandon us, [that God] can do great things even with our weakness. Let us have faith in Him! Let us knock at the door of His heart!
3. And the third thought: today I have come among you, indeed we have all come together, to meet the gaze of Mary, because there, there is something like a reflection of the gaze of the Father, which made her the Mother of God, and the look of the Son on the Cross, which made her our Mother. And with that gaze Mary is looking upon us today. We need her tender look, her maternal gaze that knows us better than anyone else, her gaze full of compassion and care. Mary, today we want to say to you: Mother, look upon us! Your gaze leads us to God, your look is a good gift from the Father, who awaits us at every turn of our journey; it is a gift from Jesus Christ on the Cross, who takes upon Himself our suffering, our struggles, our sin. And in order to meet this loving Father, today we say: Mother, look upon us! Let us all say it together: Mother, look upon us! Mother, look upon us!
On the journey, which is often difficult, we are not alone, we are so many, we are one people, and the gaze of Our Lady helps us to look around us in a brotherly manner. Let's look at ourselves in a more fraternal way! Mary teaches us to have that look that seeks to welcome, to guide, to protect. We learn to look at each other under the maternal gaze of Mary! There are people who we instinctively give less attention to, people who instead have most need of it: the most abandoned, the sick, those who have nothing to live on, those who do not know Jesus, young people who are in trouble, the young who can't find work. We should not be afraid to go out and look at our brothers and sisters through the eyes of Our Lady, She invites us to be true brothers. And we do not allow anything or anyone to come between us and the gaze of the Madonna. Mother, look upon us! No one hide from it! Our childlike heart knows to defend it from so many windbags who promise illusions; from those who have a greedy look for easy life, from the promises of those who can't fulfil them. They can't steal Mary's gaze from us, which is full of tenderness, which gives us strength, makes us united in solidarity among ourselves. Let us all say, "Mother, look upon us! Mother, look upon us! Mother, look upon us!"
May Our Lady of Bonaria accompany you always in your life.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Pope Francis: "Mary, look upon us"
Posted by Padre Steve at 10:30 AM
Labels: Blessed Mother, Pope Francis
No comments:
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Election leads to run on gun stocksNovember 7, 2012: 12:12 PM ET
The election is finally over. It's not a huge surprise that so-called Obama stocks in health care (particularly hospitals) are rallying, while stocks that might have fared better under Mitt Romney, such as coal companies and banks, are tanking.
But there is a rally in one small sector Wednesday that may seem counterintuitive at first: guns and ammo. Firearms manufacturers Smith & Wesson (SWHC) and Sturm, Ruger (RGR) both popped Wednesday. Shares of hunting goods retailers Cabela's (CAB) and Big 5 Sporting Goods (BGFV) were also higher.
The reasoning? Traders on StockTwits are citing continued fears that President Obama may eventually want to push for stronger laws on gun control. And that apparently has investors thinking that nervous fans of the 2nd Amendment will rush out to buy guns before it gets tougher to do so.
miningalmanac: Gun stocks $RGR $SWHC up big in pre-open. $GOLD & $SILVER too. So much for efficient markets - Obama was a lock, but this wasn't priced in.
Well, I'm not sure Obama was necessarily a lock. But it is interesting that Smith & Wesson, Ruger, Cabela's and Big 5 all rallied Tuesday as well and kept climbing Wednesday even as the broader market was in free fall mode.
WALJR: $RGR just like when people think they cant buy something they stock up on it like never before!
PAAResearch: It's amazing that $SWHC might be the biggest gainer today from the Obama victory. The "Obama fear" trade in this name continues $RGR
It is a bit curious that these stocks have rallied so hard for such a long time on this premise. Just look at how well SWHC and RGR have done since Election Day 2008.
Correct me if I'm wrong. But it's not as if the alarmist concerns about how an Obama victory four years ago would lead to tough gun control have come to fruition.
I'm not sure that there will be stricter federal gun regulations given that Obama did not win a clear mandate and Congress is still split. Let's be honest. If the tragedies in Aurora, Colorado and Oak Creek, Wisconsin earlier this year -- not to mention the shooting of former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in 2011 -- haven't brought the issue of gun control to the forefront, it's not really clear what will.
With that in mind, some traders were also skeptical about how long the gun rally could last.
RaveD: $CABwon't hold these Obama gains for long
RobertWeinstein: shorting $SWHC love the company, just overbought from panic buying
datagoodies: $SWHC Don't waste your money on election day paranoia.
Yes, the fundamentals for gun companies look strong. Analysts are predicting healthy increases in sales and earnings. Valuations are reasonable too, with SWHC trading at less than 11 times earnings estimates for next year and RGR at a forward P/E of about 15.
But anytime emotions get in the way of logic, a long-term investor should take notice. The gun stocks may be getting ahead of themselves based on fears of a scenario that may never unfold.


text:
DISCREET BILLING & PACKAGING, WORLDWIDE SHIPPING - 100% Satisfaction
Deep in the shadows lives pure seduction. Do you dare?
Instruments of Pleasure kits include elements of extreme sensuality with which to carry out some of the most intense games. Use the feather tickler to punish with the sweetest, tormenting caresses. Unleash the desire to become a prisoner of pure pleasure with smooth, silky satin ties. Mask and heighten the intensity of your encounter with soothing, silicone massage gel. Bijoux sensual massage candle burns smooth and soft to allow your fantasies to emerge. Leave your partner breathless with a flexible vibrating ring that can be used for a man or woman.
Purple Label Kit Contains: Satin Ties, Satin Mask, Silicone gel and vibrating bullet.
For even greater enjoyment, combine this product with Aphrodisiac Bed Linen Spray and Scented Rose Petals .Bijoux Passion Cosmetics and Accessories now available across all cities India, Free International Shipping + Discreet White Bubble wrap Packaging + Pay in Rupees via 5 Payment Options = 1000's of happy & satisfied customers in India
Need help with size/fitting? We have a beautiful size guide specially designed for you to identify your size and place the most accurate order. For Bra sizing (click here) For Lingerie fitting & style (click here) For all legwear (click here). We are also able to advise if you have questions about size and fitting.
If you are not completely satisfied with this product, simply let us know within 15days of receipt of the product by submitting a return request Request Return. We will issue an RMA# and arrange for our delivery team to get it picked up. Depending on the reason for return (color/size changes or defective product etc) and your instructions, we will process the exchange/return/refund within 48hrs of receipts of the authorized returns. Note: Some products cannot be returned for hygienic reasons, pls (click here) for detailed return policy.
We ship your order from our distribution center in US. It generaly takes about 10-14days for them to arrive after clearing customs. (click here) to see how it works. We take care of customs & duty and all taxes as the price is all inclusive. You just have to pay a very low charge for express air shipping, which is charged by FEDEX/UPS at a heavily discounted rate. Shipping is FREE on orders over Rs10,000.
Click our Pin Code Checker to see if your Pin Code is servicable.
Buy Bijoux Indiscrets sexy lingerie accessories in India Online at low prices. Choose from a wide range of sexy Gifts Bijoux Indiscrets online in adult store including massage oil, candles, nipple balm, jewelry, pasties & more. Enjoy 100% Discreet Packaging and Secure Shopping.
The Bijoux product line mixes style and eroticism to give you the enjoyment you desire. Bijoux Indiscrets features a wide range of adult sensual accessories, erotic cosmetics, and adult toys for women designed by women with the purpose of empowering women, lighting up the passion and creating unforgettable moments of pleasure.
Bijoux Indiscrets is a trailblazing company in the market of erotica and sensual products. From the time it was founded in 2006, in Barcelona, the brand has achieved position as a european and worldwide referent in the sector; and it's currently present in over 40 countries all over the world.
We offer Free Shipping, COD in India to all major metro areas and the best prices. Available in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and several metros and non metros in India.


text:
The Last Detour: Forgiving My Dying Mother
By Maria Flook, More Magazine
Veronica's jealousy drove one daughter to run away at 14, and the other to write a darkly accusing memoir. Then Maria Flook and her sister gave their dying mother one more chance.
The Last Chance for Peace
The day of our mother's death, my sister and I went to see her at a retirement community outside Wilmington, Delaware. My older sister had been estranged from our mother for some time and had only recently started to chisel through the ice shelf that separated them. Often, she would throw up her hands and say it was impossible. But our mother was failing fast, and at the last minute, Karen agreed to visit. I had always been the go-between, and this final reunion would be an important bridge for all of us. "It's easier to burn them than to build them," my sister said. I told her that maybe it wasn't too late to make peace.
I met Karen at the entrance of the Stonegates luxury condominiums, a lavish bunker for the aging well-to-do. I noticed my sister's beat-up car, as did the security officer at the front kiosk, who looked her over for longer than he'd interrogated me when I had arrived in a late-model airport-rental car. Her clunker was an eyesore in their parking lot. The ceiling fabric had come loose to reveal the yellow foam insulation underneath. It was another reminder of how her life was a little more shabby than most people's. Because our mother had favored me, I sometimes thought I must be responsible for each cash deficit that befell Karen.
When Karen got out of her car, her streaky blonde hair made her look sort of like Meg Ryan, but her face was more haggard than ever. She told me she'd been having some thyroid trouble, but I wondered if it could be something more serious. She never complained about her problems, and I didn't ask. We embraced and I said, "How can you see out your rearview mirror with that fabric hanging down?"
"I taped it, but it keeps coming loose," Karen said.
"We should just tear it off completely, don't you think?"
So our first item of business that day was to strip the interior ceiling from her old Mercury Marquis. We yanked and tugged until it peeled away. I remembered when we had shared a room and Karen had taught me how to make my bed, careful to fold the sheet down so its hem was even. My sister had few safe havens in life, and her car was where she would escape after our ordeal with our mother was over. Now, without the ceiling fabric, it seemed even seedier.
I waited while she stamped out her cigarette, in no hurry to go inside the building. We were nervous at this milestone — the impending death of our matriarch, the femme fatale and dangerous axis of our lives. So much harm can happen in a lifetime, how would we ameliorate all our wrongdoing in a mere teatime? After decades of our mother's indifference toward her, it was amazing that Karen had even showed up.
When she was 14, my sister vanished.
A Tense Reunion
Now struggling with end-stage liver disease, our mother had been moved from her pocket-of-posh apartment to the "Life Care" unit. We found Veronica propped up in a hospital bed. I thought, this is the sterile gateway most people are forced to depart from, and I'd rather die on a busy street corner. I was surprised to see that her lovely shoulder-length hair had been clipped by nurses, who thought a military hairstyle more appropriate for someone waiting on the tarmac of The Beyond. Seeing her with shorn hair instead of her Lauren Bacall coiffure, I remembered the first time she was hospitalized, for heart surgery. She insisted that I go home to get a negligee from her armoire. She hated to wear a hospital johnnie. She had been a coquette through and through, even in the O.R.
Veronica was happy to see me, but when Karen entered she blinked as if a pepper-ball deterrent had exploded in her face. Recovering her composure, she said, "Oh. It's you. What a nice surprise."
Karen said, "I'm missing work to be here."
"I didn't expect the casino would let you off," Veronica said.
"They'll dock my paycheck, but I guess I'm here now."


text:
The second single by Golden Veins is now streamable on their website: www.goldenveins.com. The official release date is 10/12/10.
A Kafkaesque fever dream, "Frantic Prayer" races via sinewy guitars and spacey electronics toward an inevitably tragic ending. The b-side, "Kicking The Tires," is a rude awakening set to a pulsing beat. It's disillusionment you can dance to.
This single also comes with two killer remixes, one by Purify, and one by Matt Bad (both of which are streaming on the website), as well as fantastic artwork by Jon Pearson.
And here's a little something by the band about the A and B sides:
"Frantic Prayer" began life as a bare-bones demo Scott recorded ages ago. He had a cache with a fair amount of riffs and guitar lines that he presented to us, and I think this was the first of that group we worked on. I think the demo just went up to the part right before the ominous middle section, necessitating the writing of the ominous middle section. When we first played this live, we only played the rockin' parts, so it was only about two minutes.
The melody took a while to write, as it's a bit of a tricky song. The lyrics are about guilt.
This is an anarchistic protest song which demonizes those in power while at the same time questioning society as a whole. It's about dishonesty and control – the struggle to see through the former and regain the latter.
This song was first conceived about 6 years ago when I was living in Davis, California. The original demo was just a guitar and vocal, inspired by the large quantities of Billy Bragg that I had been consuming. That mess of an ending was actually rather simple and pretty at one point.


text:
CREW TV brings you closer to the industry's
most influential leaders and thinkers. Click on the videos below to watch the interviews:
This look inside an investment renovation opens CREW's series "Show us Your Investment Property." As Jemima Codrington reports, finding the right location and picking the right upgrades to match can expand your ROI. We have the numbers to prove it.
Give us a tour of your investment property. Click here
Video transcript below:
Jemima Codrington: This week's episode of Investor Insight takes us to the affluent neighbourhood of High Park. We take a look inside an investment property that's all character on the outside and modern city living on the inside. Welcome to this week's episode of "Show us your Investment Property" on Crew TV.
J.B. Partners, Nam Phung and Paul Hecht bought the property for $700,000 back in September. The legal duplex consists of 3 units which have all undergone significant renovations that combine modern living with a property of distinctive character.
Paul Hecht: So High Park's a great location in Toronto because it has High Park, obviously which is a huge park which people love. It's got [Worres] Village for all the streets and coffee and shopping. It's very convenient to downtown because it is also on subway line and you know chances of Toronto removing the subway line are very rare. So we like that, it brings those tenants in and it attracts the professional kind of tenant which is the kind of tenants we are after.
Unit # 1
So right now the guys have just finishing up the bathroom. We have extended it up, made it a little bigger. We have a kitchen behind us, this will be a one bedroom unit and we have bamboo flooring down, once we are all done. We will rent for about $1050 a month plus utilities.
Unit # 2
Nam Phung: Basically what we did, we knocked out the old kitchen and we put in the brand new kitchen with the new appliances. They look expensive but it only cost us a small fraction of what it looks and we hope to rent this place for $1550.
Unit # 3
Nam Phung: Okay so, basically what we did here when we bought this place and this was basically closed up. It had a room here and a room behind me. So what we did, we make it open, we knocked out the two walls and choose only a window and keep a fireplace and make an open concept. This is more attractive to a young professional or a couple because there is an openness in spaces and we hope to rent this unit for $2150 plus [hydro].
Perkins Coie is pleased to announce that Devin P. McComb has joined the firm's Seattle office as a partner in the Real Estate & Land Use practice
Grimsby skyline to be reshaped by tallest buildings in city: two-tower residential complex
Connect Asset Management Challenges the Financial Community to Invest in Downtown Toronto Real Estate for a Good Cause


text:
Ryan to make 1st N.H. trip since 2012 campaign
BOSTON — Rep. Paul Ryan, the former Republican vice presidential nominee, is headed to New Hampshire.
Two Republicans with knowledge of the trip say the Wisconsin congressman is set to visit the state in October to help former House colleague, Frank Guinta. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to share Ryan's travel plans.
Guinta, who was defeated last fall, is expected to launch a re-election campaign in the coming weeks.
The visit marks Ryan's first to New Hampshire since he campaigned across the state for Mitt Romney's unsuccessful presidential bid last fall. New Hampshire traditionally hosts the nation's first presidential primary, and Ryan is thought to be weighing a presidential bid of his own.
A handful of prospective 2016 presidential candidates have already visited the state.


text:
A US-brokered deal to win freedom for Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng appeared to be unraveling in the early hours of Thursday morning, as Mr. Chen, who is blind, indicated he feared for his safety and had changed his mind about wanting to stay in China.
In late night telephone conversations from the hospital where he was under observation, Chen told news outlets that no US diplomats had stayed to protect him, that he was scared and that he wanted to go abroad with his family.
His lawyer Teng Biao confirmed Chen's change of heart in a Twitter post. "Guangcheng wanted to stay in China at the beginning but now it is very possible he has changed his mind," he wrote. "I clearly felt his thoughts changing" over the course of six phone calls on Wednesday evening, Mr. Teng said. "Whether he left the embassy because he was threatened or for other reasons, now he obviously feels unsafe."
Chen, a figurehead of the Chinese human rights movement, sought refuge at the US Embassy in Beijing last week after escaping from guards who he said had kept him and his family under illegal house arrest for 19 months, beating them repeatedly.
In a US-backed deal with the Chinese government, Chen left the embassy Wednesday with US Ambassador Gary Locke to meet his wife and two children at a hospital, where he was treated for a foot injury he sustained during his daring escape from his heavily guarded home in Linyi, Shandong province.
A senior US official said at the time that Beijing had acceded to Chen's request to stay and live unmolested in China, and that Washington would "look to confirm at regular intervals that the commitments he has received are carried out."
Police waiting at the hospital
Within hours, however, Chen found himself apparently without US protection in a hospital where activists said security officials from Shandong and plainclothes police had been waiting for him.
A close friend and well known human rights activist Zeng Jinyan told the Monitor that Chen wanted to leave China with his family, following threats by Chinese foreign ministry officials of physical violence against his wife and children.
"My biggest wish is to leave the country with my family and rest for a while," Chen told Channel 4.
The blind lawyer told AP that a US diplomat at the hospital had relayed to him Chinese threats that his wife would have been beaten to death had he not left the embassy. US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland denied that, telling reporters that no US official spoke to Chen "about physical and legal threats to his wife and children."
She acknowledged, however, that "Chinese officials did indicate Chen's family would be returned to Shandong if Chen elected to stay in the embassy."
In a video released on YouTube after his escape from Shandong, Chen recounted repeated beatings that he and his wife had suffered at the hands of his guards during his detention. Fears for his wife's safety apparently began to prey on his mind while he was in the hospital reflecting on the deal he had reached with the Chinese government.
US officials said that while he was in the embassy Chen had insisted that he wanted to stay in China, and Ms. Zeng, wife of noted HIV/Aids activist Hu Jia, said that Chen's wife had told her that it was she who had persuaded her husband to leave the embassy in order to reunite with his family.
"On the phone tonight Chen Guangcheng told me for the first time that his whole family wanted to leave," Zeng wrote in a Twitter post.
'Nobody from the embassy is here'
In his conversation with Channel 4, Chen seemed alarmed to find himself and his family alone in the hospital. "Nobody from the [US] embassy is here," the station quoted him as saying. "I don't understand why. They promised to be here."
Mr. Teng released a transcript of his calls to Chen on Wednesday evening during which he urged the activist to reconsider his decision to stay in China, warning him that it would be "very dangerous" and suggesting that he should call the US Embassy. A little after 10:00 p.m., according to the transcript, Chen said he had tried to ring the embassy "but nobody picked up the phone."
Foreign human rights activists had expressed surprise at the deal under which Chen was expected to be moved to a safe location in China to take up law studies, rather than go into exile.
"There was always a possibility that he would stay, but I am not sure why anyone would take Chinese assurances at face value," says Joshua Rosenzweig, a human rights expert in Hong Kong. "There is not much reason to do that."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in Beijing for a long planned round of the US-Chinese Strategic and Economic Dialog, said after Chen's emergence from the embassy that he had "a number of understandings with the Chinese government about his future" and that "making these commitments a reality is the next crucial task.
"The United States government and the American people are committed to remaining engaged with Mr. Chen and his family in the days, weeks, and years ahead," Ms. Clinton said


text:
Do you love horror films? Do you enjoy spooky ghost stories? Are you a cult movie fan? Then you will LOVE the FRIGHTEN BRIGHTON event this Saturday from 12 noon at The Rock Inn, Brighton, East Sussex!!
FREE ENTRY to the Macabre Market!
FREE ENTRY to a special screening of FRANKENSTEIN & THE MONSTER FROM HELL (1974)!
CHILL! To our spooky ghost story reading in THE HAUNTED BASEMENT!
SCREAM! At our exploitation HORROR DOUBLE BILL!
DROOL! When you taste the Rock Inn's delicious food!
FAINT! At the fangtastic books, magazines and gothic horror merchandise stalls!
BOUNCE! Up and down with excitement when you see the awesome free horror giveaways!
HURRY! To book your tickets at WeGotTickets!
SHOUT! From the rooftops that YOU are attending the South Coast's premiere horror event!
TWEET! About us using the #hashtag #FRIGHTENBRIGHTON leading up to the event!
READ! Diabolique Magazine available from Hemlock Books and discounted at Frighten Brighton for one day only!


text:
Summary and Keywords
The Basin of Mexico is a key world region for understanding agricultural intensification and the development of ancient and historic cities and states. Archaeologists working in the region have had a long-standing interest in understanding the dynamics of interactions between society and environment and their research has been at the forefront of advances in both method and theory. The Basin of Mexico was the geopolitical core of the Aztec empire, the largest state in the history of Mesoamerica. Its growth was sustained by a complex economy that has been the subject of much research.
Two themes underlie a broad interest in the pre-Hispanic agriculture of the Basin of Mexico. First, how with a Neolithic technology did the Aztecs and their predecessors sustain the growth of large cites, dense rural populations, and the largest state system in the history of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica? Second, what is the relationship of agricultural intensification and urbanization and state formation? Mesoamerica is the only world region where primary civilizations developed that lacked domestic herbivores for either food or transportation. Their farming depended entirely on human labor and hand tools but sustained large cities, dense populations, and complex social institutions. Intensive agriculture began early and was promoted by risk, ecological diversity, and social differentiation, and included irrigation, terracing, and drained fields (chinampas). Most farming was managed by smallholder households and local communities, which encouraged corporate forms of governance and collective action. Environmental impacts included erosion and deposition, but were limited compared with the degradation that took place in the colonial period.
Keywords: Mesoamerica, Aztec, agriculture, agricultural intensification, irrigation, chinampas, Basin of Mexico, terracing
Access to the complete content on Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science requires a subscription or purchase. Public users are able to search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter without a subscription. If you are a student or academic complete our librarian recommendation form to recommend the Oxford Research Encyclopedias to your librarians for an institutional free trial.
Please subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you have purchased a print title that contains an access token, please see the token for information about how to register your code.
For questions on access or troubleshooting, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.


text:
As Chicago cops, Officer David Hickey and his brother-in-law, Sgt. Christopher Kapa, are no strangers to facing critical split-second decisions.
Hickey was shot in the leg last year as he and three other officers from his gang investigation team chased down and arrested several suspects wanted in about a dozen drug-related slayings across the city.
Kapa made the risky decision in March to drive Officer Del Pearson to a hospital without waiting for an ambulance when the veteran tactical officer was shot and bleeding profusely from a chest wound.
On Monday, Superintendent Garry McCarthy honored Hickey, Kapa and about 70 other officers for bravery at the department's annual awards ceremony.
Hickey and his other team members happened to be on surveillance when a suspect in multiple drug-related homicides ran out of an building in the Edgewater neighborhood with two others in February 2011. When a wounded robbery victim came stumbling out of one of the building's apartments moments later, police discovered two homicide victims inside.
The team forced the getaway vehicle to a stop, but the suspects opened fire, wounding Hickey. A high-speed chase ended in a crash and the death of one suspect when he aimed a gun at police, authorities said at the time. The others were arrested.
Hickey returned to work three months later and even ran in the Chicago marathon in October 2011.
Hickey and his team – Officers Juan Perez, Joseph Biggane and Jeffrey Pacocha – were awarded the Police Medal, the department's highest honor, as well as the Superintendent's Award of Valor.
Hickey also received the Police Blue Star Award given to officers hurt in the line of duty.
"Everything's gone OK. I mean, there was a little pain. But nothing that's stopping me from being on full duty," Hickey said after the two-hour ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Chicago downtown. "Stuff like that doesn't happen every day."
Kapa, whose wife is one of Hickey's sisters, was honored with Officer Kirsten Lund for helping save Pearson's life by driving him to Advocate Trinity Hospital after he was shot just above his bulletproof vest on March 19 in the South Chicago neighborhood.
The Tribune wrote a front-page story recounting the efforts by the officers, doctors and others to save Pearson's life after he lost much of his blood in the harrowing minutes following the shooting.
Pearson was also given the Superintendent's Award of Valor in addition to Kapa and Lund. It marked the second time Pearson received the honor in his nine-year career. He was also given the Police Blue Star Award.
Latest Breaking News
Pearson has been unable to return to work since the shooting. His arm is no longer in a sling, but he said he still feels nagging pain in his left hand due to nerve damage from the shooting.
Pearson said he hopes to return to work next year but indicated on Monday that he will likely not work on the streets again.
"I know what we all went through that night and other officers who helped save my life. But I can't imagine (what it's like for) the wife or the spouses or the children who have to receive that knock at the door," Pearson said outside the hotel flanked by Kapa and Lund. "So it's nice to have recognition ceremonies like this. It's for them. It's to see that the department's a family and in these times we all come together. That's what's most important."


text:
» Home »
hot wheels garage 70 chevy monte carlo champagne
Description: this is the hot wheels garage series car shown in this listing. it is mint in a mint pack. mostly personal 1 owner cars. USA shipping is 6, canada is 15 & international is 25. shipping for each extra car to USA is 1.00 & 2.00 for Canada or international .
im starting sales on TTP from the bay cause of lower costs, i was seller mamaa34 on the bay.
Seller Accepts: PayPal
Payment/Shipping Policy: payment is due upon purchase. 1st class priorty shipping for international. parcel post with delivery confirmation for within the usa.
Seller: jhhotwheel1
Price: $9.99
Shipping: $6.00
Location: maiden, NC
Date Listed: 02/13/2019
Will Ship:


text:
I was sorry to have to disappoint her. The client was retired with Social Security, a small taxable pension and a W-2 for part-time work as a school crossing guard. She rented (no real estate or mortgage interest deductions) and had only average medical expenses and cash contributions, so even with the car donation she did not have enough total deductions to be able to itemize. Each year she got most of the little over a hundred in federal income tax withholding back – and that year was no different.
The most important lesson to be learned from this situation is that a tax deduction is of no value if you cannot use it. While donating her car to charity was a noble thing which provided a value to the charity it put absolutely nothing in her pocket.
If her deductions were such that she could itemize and claim all or part of the value of the car, the deduction would only help to the extent of her taxable income. If a Schedule A had brought her taxable income to below "0", which it would have in her case, the "in pocket" benefit from donating the car is a reduced one.
And even if she had been able to itemize, and her income was substantial enough to absorb the full deduction, the most she would gain is pennies on the dollar. A $3,000 deduction which is fully utilized would result in putting $300, $450, $600 or $840 in a taxpayer's pocket – much less than if the car had been sold or traded in.
The moral of the story – if someone tells you, or you read somewhere, that doing something will result in a tax deduction check with your tax professional to be sure that you can actually use the deduction before taking any action.
And now a review of the rules for deducting the contribution of a car to charity:
In order to claim a deduction of more than $500 for donating a motor vehicle (car, motorcycle, boat, or airplane) to charity, you must attach Copy B of the IRS Form 1098-C, which has been provided by the charity, to the Form 8283 that is included in your 1040.
The Form 1098-C will include the name and Taxpayer Identification Number of the charity to whom the car has been donated, the vehicle identification number of the auto, and the date of contribution. Form 1098-C must be issued within 30 days of either the date of the contribution or the date of the disposition of the vehicle by the charity.
If you donate a car to charity that is worth more than $500 make sure to get Copy B of Form 1098-C from the charity before the end of the year. If you have not received it by the middle of December you should call the charity and ask for it. The charity can give you a statement in lieu of Form 1098-C as long as it contains all the necessary information discussed below.
It is possible that you donate a car to charity late in the year and the car is not sold by the charity at auction until the next calendar year. Just note that if you want to claim a deduction of more than $500.00 for the car you must have a Form 1098-C to include with the mailing of your 2009 Form 1040.
Besides the items listed above, additional information will be included on the Form 1098-C depending on what the charity does with the donated car.
(1) If the charity sells the car without significant interim use or material improvement, the Form 1098-C will include the date the vehicle was sold by the charity, certification that the sale was an "arm's length" transaction among unrelated parties, and the gross proceeds from the sale. Your tax deduction is limited to the gross proceeds from the sale.
(2) If the charity intends to temporarily or permanently use the car in its operations, or intends to make "material" improvements to the vehicle before selling it, the Form 1098-C will include a certification and description of either the significant interim use and intended duration of such use or the intended material improvement and a certification that the vehicle will not be sold before such use or improvement is completed.
(3) If the charity intends to sell the car to a "needy" individual at a price that is significantly below "fair market value", or give the car to such an individual, the Form 1098-C will include a certification that the charity will make such a sale or transfer of the vehicle, and that the sale or transfer will be in direct furtherance of the organization's charitable purpose of relieving the poor and distressed or the underprivileged who are in need of a means of transportation.
In situations (2) and (3) you can deduct the "fair market value" of the vehicle. You can use the "private party value" for the vehicle, adjusted for mileage and condition, as listed in the Kelly Blue Book or a similar established used vehicle pricing guide. If the fair market value is more than $5,000 you must obtain a formal appraisal, a copy of which must also be attached to your Form 8283. In these situations the charity will not provide a value - the taxpayer making the contribution must provide and substantiate the fair market value of the car donated.
To recap - in situation (1) the donee charity will tell you what you can deduct. In situations (2) and (3) the donor taxpayer must determine the amount of the deduction, subject to audit by the IRS.


text:
IRVING - Jerry Jones flubbed the initial explanation of a first-round draft move that puzzled analysts and angered fans.
The Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager made it sound better a day later, when the team's draft performance got stronger reviews.
Now the question is whether Wisconsin center Travis Frederick will play a big part in giving quarterback Tony Romo an "extra half second" - part of Jones' rationale for trading down and grabbing a lineman not really considered a first-rounder.
If Frederick fails, Jones will add to an already substantial list of bad drafts that help explain why the Cowboys have a .500 record and one playoff win since 1996.
"We needed and were going to get us a foundation for our offensive line," Jones said. "We were concerned with going with another pick at another position there and still staying in play to get the 'last of the Mohicans' that can do this for us, and that was Frederick."
Pundits didn't have a huge problem with the pick. They questioned why the Cowboys felt like they had to take him at No. 31 - even Frederick said he considered himself a second-rounder - and why San Francisco didn't have to give up something more than a third-round pick to jump 13 spots.
Draft value charts that the Cowboys helped invent were suddenly being used against them, with executive vice president Stephen Jones flatly rejecting as "not accurate" assertions that Dallas got fleeced by an old rival in the 49ers, who were coming off a Super Bowl trip, no less.
"It's never going to be popular when you move down," Stephen Jones said. "To me, you don't play for the hoopla. You've got to manage your draft, and we felt like the best decision for us when certain players were off the board was to go down and do the right thing and pick up a pick, which we needed, and take a player that fits for what we need in the first round."
The key to the Dallas argument could end up being the player they got with San Francisco's third-round pick - Baylor receiver Terrance Williams at No. 74. Williams was a first-team All-American who led the nation with 1,832 receiving yards and had 12 touchdowns.
When he was a junior, Williams was the No. 2 target for Robert Griffin III and finished with 957 yards and 11 scores.
The Dallas coaching staff knows him well because he played for Baylor coach Art Briles, whose daughter is a member of the Cowboys' public relations staff.
"It is a real debate as to what is more valuable, two players or one player," Stephen Jones said. "When you make the trade, is the guy we pick at 31 and the player we pick at 74 when it is all said and done, is it a better deal than what we would have picked at 18."
Jerry Jones would argue "yes" after the Williams pick, which was the first time Dallas got generally positive reviews after raising a few more eyebrows by taking a tight end in the second round at No. 47 overall - San Diego State's Gavin Escobar.
It was the third time since Jason Witten, the third most prolific tight end in NFL history, joined the Cowboys a decade ago that they've taken a tight end in the second round, and Anthony Fasano and Martellus Bennett didn't last long in Dallas.
Dallas wrapped up Friday night and started Saturday by selecting defensive backs. Georgia Southern safety J.J. Wilcox was the 80th overall pick in the third round, and the Cowboys' first choice on Saturday was William & Mary cornerback B.W. Webb with the 114th pick in the fourth round.
Webb had eight interceptions as a freshman but just three his final three seasons, including none as a senior.
"I made a big splash my first two years and I guess (opponents) really didn't want those problems later on," said Webb, who started a school-record 48 games.
Dallas got a potential backup to DeMarco Murray by taking running back Joseph Randle from Oklahoma State in the fifth round, 151st overall.
The Cowboys wrapped up the draft with their first choice in the defensive front seven as they prepare for a switch to the 4-3. South Carolina linebacker DeVonte Holloman, who also has experience at safety, went 185th overall in the sixth round.
Dallas traded its seventh-round pick to Miami for center Ryan Cook last year.


text:
In the top picture, Administrative Director of Research Emily Guarino demonstrates how we asked the dolphins to choose which container held the alligator. In the second photo, she shows Tanner that he got the answer correct!
Grassy Key… When you watch someone put chocolate into a cabinet, you know where to find the treat, even when you can't see it. If a person shows you a gold coin in their hand, reaches into their pocket, and then, when they remove their hand, they are no longer holding the coin, you'll have no problem figuring out where that gold must be. This ability to reason about things that have disappeared from view is known as object permanence. It has been studied in many land animals, and now Dolphin Research Center (DRC), located in Grassy Key, FL, is the first to explore this ability with marine mammals. Dolphin Research Center's research paper on What Do Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) Understand About Hidden Objects was recently published by the prestigious scientific journal Animal Cognition.
"When you show an object to a human infant who's only a few months old and then hide it, as far as the baby is concerned, it's as though the object ceases to exist. They won't look for it," explains Research Director Dr. Kelly Jaakkola. "By the time humans are around 12 months old, they seem to realize that the object still exists and search for it even if they can't see it."
For this study, DRC's researchers hid an object -- a plush toy alligator -- in one of three containers while the dolphins watched. They then asked the animals to choose the container holding the alligator. The dolphins chose correctly with a high rate of accuracy.
Several other non-human species have demonstrated this ability -- which scientists call "visible displacement" -- including gorillas, chimpanzees, parrots and dogs. DRC next explored a harder condition called "invisible displacement". This time, they showed dolphins the plush alligator being hidden in a cylinder. They then placed the cylinder in one of three containers and emptied the alligator into the container where the dolphin could not see this action take place. They showed the dolphin the empty cylinder, and again asked it to choose the container holding the alligator.
Chief Operating Officer/Co-Founder Mandy Rodriguez places the alligator in a cylinder while Pax watches.
Apes are the only animals besides humans that demonstrate they can solve these kinds of trials. Since apes, humans and dolphins share other specific cognitive skills – including mirror self-recognition, ability to imitate and to understand symbols– DRC's scientists fully expected that dolphins would also succeed with invisible displacement. Surprisingly, they didn't.
"The reasons why remain unknown," Jaakkola said. "There are many possibilities. They might lack an understanding of containment, since containers as we understand them do not exist in the sea. Also, in their underwater world, dolphins use echolocation, which is their natural sonar. If a fish disappears beneath the sand, for example, dolphins can echolocate and still perceive exactly where the fish is located. Perhaps they just don't need this ability in the first place. Further research could address this puzzle."
Even though the dolphins did not demonstrate the ability they expected, DRC's research team is anything but disappointed. "Our studies are helping to build a more complete picture of dolphin cognition," Jaakkola adds. "To do that, it's just as important and fascinating to figure out what they can't do as well as what they can, so that we can really begin to understand how they think and learn."


text:
Focusing on just one part of your credit report won't really help you improve your credit, because there are so many different things that determine your credit standing.
You may not want to pore over your lengthy credit report, but failing to do so could mean you overlook something significant. (If you want a guide to reading your credit reports, check out this cheat sheet.) That's because there isn't a single most important thing on your credit report, but you can prioritize looking over certain aspects of it.
Payment History
Credit.com's Director of Consumer Education Gerri Detweiler said it's hard to label one part of credit reports as the most important, but checking your payment history should be at the top of your priority list.
"That category of information contributes the largest percentage of your score, and it is very easy for a single slip-up to change it dramatically," Detweiler said. "It can also be difficult to change."
When looking at a credit report, you'll see a payment history legend, which helps you see if your accounts are past due, went to collections, were charged off and so on. There are several codes, but the one you want to see is "OK." If you check your credit scores regularly using a tool like the free Credit.com Credit Report Card, you'll have an idea of how your payment history is affecting your credit scores, because the Report Card will give you a letter grade on how this factor is impacting your credit.
If you're looking at your credit report and see a lot of payment history codes other than "OK," you need to make sure the information is accurate. If it is, consider this a wake-up call to prioritize making your bill payments on time. If it's wrong, you'll need to dispute it.
Detweiler said looking at your debt is almost as important as reviewing your payment history, because it also plays a large part in determining your credit scores, which are in turn used by lenders to make loan decisions.
If you have a few credit cards with different issuers, you may not always think of your debt's bigger picture — your credit report puts it together for you. If you're not looking at how much debt you have overall, it can be easier to let it get out of control.
"If you have racked up a lot of debt, you can feel trapped for years while you pay it down," Detweiler said. "On the other hand, there may be things you can do sooner such as consolidate high-balance, high-rate credit card debt with a low-rate personal loan, and possibly see some quick improvement in your scores."
You want to pay attention to your debt levels to make sure you're maintaining a low, manageable amount. You'll see a credit limit listed for most accounts on your credit reports, as well as your most recent balance, and on revolving lines of credit (like credit cards), you don't want those numbers to be too close. You want your overall revolving debt to be less than 30% of your overall available credit. The best credit utilization rates are lower than 10%.
If you're looking at your payment history and see some codes you didn't expect to, you may need to dispute them. Because payment history is crucial to your ability to access credit and get good interest rates, errors in this department can be very problematic. Each of the three major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) gives instructions on its website on how to dispute information on credit reports.
You don't have to drive yourself crazy trying to make sure everything is perfect: Sometimes your employment information may not be up to date, or perhaps you see some "ND" or No Data codes in your payment history.
But for the most part, make sure the information on your report is correct. If you see a name, address or payment history code that is absolutely not correct, dispute it. Incorrect information could cause serious problems when you want to apply for a loan, and because it may take a while to resolve the issue, you don't want to discover there's a problem when you have no time to fix it.
More on Credit Reports and Credit Scores:
- The Credit.com Credit Score Learning Center
- What's a Good Credit Score?
- How to Get Your Free Annual Credit Report
- How Do I Dispute an Error on My Credit Report?
- What's a Bad Credit Score?
- How Credit Impacts Your Day-to-Day Life
Image: Ingram Publishing


text:
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The state Veterans Reintegration Task Force on Wednesday discussed how to help military veterans involved in criminal proceedings and reduce suicide among their ranks.
Veterans who commit crimes can suffer untreated mental health problems and post traumatic stress disorder, self-medicate with drugs and alcohol and feel anxious and angry, said U.S. District Court Magistrate Paul Warner.
He presides over a federal veterans court that involves misdemeanor and some felony cases that normally are heard in state courts. Defendants can stay out of jail or get lesser sentences if they get treatment, usually at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salt Lake City.
"Why treat vets any differently from others?" Warner asked. "They are different. In most instances, they were sent into harm's way in an insane environment, often with multiple deployments, and they come back damaged. When they get help, everything changes."
The court can send such defendants to the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Salt Lake City, where "one-stop shopping" can help patients with serious physical and mental issues as well as "things as common as dentures or hearing aids," he said.
As for suicide, vets face a shortage of primary care physicians and psychiatrists, particularly in rural areas.
"Primary care is central. For rural vets, the average distance to get to a VA hospital is 60 miles," said Jeremy Vogt, project director for a program developed by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE). "There's a higher risk for military services members who are going back to homes where there's not a lot of care available."
Steve Allen, a psychologist at the VA Medical Center, recommended that practitioners ask patients if they are veterans, whether they experienced combat and if anyone in their family is deployed.
Also, he added, "ask about suicide. If you don't ask, you don't know. If you do ask, people are relieved they can talk about it."
WICHE has developed a suicide-prevention "tool kit" that can help medical providers and others intervene if they suspect someone is suicidal.


text:
Intoxicated town
Just 17 km northwest of Larisa lies Týrnavos, the second most populated town of the district. It is built along the left banks of River Titarísios (Xirias) and connects Larissa's flatland with Elassóna.
Boasting a deeply rooted tradition and history, the town reached its peak in the 18th century thanks to a booming manufacture of red dye for textiles as well as making silk fabrics and "alatzádes" (textiles used for making naval outfits). Týrnavos' lovely "stampotá" i.e. stamped patterns on cloth as in couch coverings, curtains, bolsters, quilts, tablecloths, "pántes" (woven or embroidered wall decorative bands of cloth) - all of them pieces of fine craftsmanship – used to adorn every house, considering that until the '60s (included) they were functional in everyday life.
Týrnavos is today a dynamic, agrarian town, known throughout the country for its top quality wines and its very tasty "tsípouro" (an alcoholic drink). In early autumn, grape harvesting begins with all residents participating in the traditional process. During the subsequent fermentation period, an intoxicating, perfumed "cloud" hovers above the town as the must is fermented, "maturing" in the tanks. Everyone patiently awaits the distillation process to be completed. Locals and visitors alike blend in this particular ritual which also involves the offering of lots of "mezé" (variety of delicacies) and naturally, wine drinking!
There's a lot to be said also for Týrnavos' lovely sights to be visited all year round. Feast your eyes on the old traditional houses as well as the marvellous murals and relics to be found in the town's historic churches. Visit the famous bridge on River Titarísios and the stone-built turkish hamam (bath-house), being the only remaining muslim building in the area. Go on a trip to the nearby lake "Máti Tyrnávou" (Eye of Tyrnavos), Thessaly's single natural lake that is the centre of a habitat highly diverse in flora and fauna. Get your legs rested by "Vrýsi Tyrnávou" (Tyrnavos' fountain), an artificial pond –a place of recreation for residents in the greater area– being also a significant marine habitat and a stopover area for migratory birds. Complete your tour by strolling through the lush coppice of Profítis Elias, where you will find a picturesque country chapel dedicated to Prophet Elias, as well as a small zoo.
It is on this spot that the famous "Bouraní" custom is revived every Clean Monday (Ash Monday) and lots of people watch – without inhibitions – this special fertility celebration.
Visitgreece.gr is the official tourism web site for Greece, run by the Greek National Tourism Organisation, where you'll find information on the main tourist destinations, such as cities, beaches, as well as activities, events and much more!
All content included on this site consists intellectual property of GNTO and you are not allowed to reproduce the whole or part of this work in any way.
For information please contact: firstname.lastname@example.com. All Rights Reserved. GNTO © 2020.