South China Morning Post, a beacon of balanced pro and anti-China reporting
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) was purchased by Alibaba owner in 2016. Alibaba is a very large Chinese internet company. The ongoing question after the acquisition is if the SCMP is still unbiased, or will it bend to the views of China. This NY Times article highlights the concerns about the paper.
I am here, not to comment on the article, but to comment on the bias nature of the SCMP. Yes, there have been some very pro-China articles from SCMP, but they are more the minority and are equally balanced with anti-China articles. SCMP does find the right balance between the two. But for how long, is a question.
TD Canada Trust ATM Usability error, makes my withdrawal much longer
Cash withdrawals from the ATM should be fast and easy. At TD Canada Trust they had set up a “Most Frequent” transaction button, which I like. I hit the button, receive my cash, take my card and slip, and I’m done. A couple of months ago things changed, which now makes the transaction longer and more complex. I am not amused.
When I withdraw cash from the ATM I usually take out $200CAD, programmed as my “Most Frequent” transaction, which is given to me as 10 $20CAD bills. Recently TD Canada Trust started giving me 2 $50CAD and 5 $20CAD bills. The $50CAD bills are disliked in the stores.
Fruit d’Or cranberries: packaging does not state Made in Canada, or Product of Canada. I almost did not buy it due to an unknown country of origin. Photo 1 by Don Tai
We are particular with the country of origin of our food. If I don’t see it clearly on the package I hesitate, which usually means I put it back on the shelf. Fruit d’Or Cranberries almost did not make it to our home, even though these cranberries are grown and packaged in Canada, it does not explicitly state this on the package. Not only did I miss this, but my wife also missed it. Please, follow the industry standards and Government of Canada guidelines and state “Made in Canada” or “Product of Canada”.
Imperial sewing machine, model 535: I have the owner’s manual for free non-commercial use download. Do you have an Imperial user manual you could share?
Readers have been kind and have donated Imperial Sewing Machine user manuals to me, so I can share them for free non-commercial use. The list is growing, though I would like more. If you have one, please consider donating an electronic copy to me. I will clean it up and host it for free non-commercial download.
It had to happen. It was predictable, and everyone saw it coming. Therefore it should not be a surprise that there is an impending trade war with China. Let’s discuss and document some of the issues.
China has grown stronger, and this is good. What is not good is their increasingly aggressive trade and military stances in the world. Their military buildup in the disputed South China Sea islands has antagonized all their neighbours and has destabilized the region. Using Chinese Coast Guard vessels to hassle indigenous Philippine fishermen, in their own waters, is not friendly. There are kidnappings of Chinese businessmen from Thailand, which is completely out of China’s jurisdiction. There are also Chinese influence and incursions into foreign politics that many countries such as Australia, find distasteful.
Our electricity must come from somewhere. Not too many places are blessed with a gynormous waterfall that we harness for clean hydro-electric power, such as Niagara Falls, Ontario. Still, electric cars are heavily subsidized by governments, as without these they simply would be too expensive. This is true in Canada, China and Norway.
Malaysian Garam Masala Restaurant, Toronto, Canada, menu
Malaysian Garam Masala is located in Scarborough, Toronto, Canada at 1001 Sandhurst Circle 416-332-1922. It is in a small mall just East of McCowan and Finch.
They open from 16:00-01:00, so pretty late eating and only for dinner. There is an active KTV right beside them. We ordered the mee goreng and nasi goreng, both were very tasty. They take cash or debit, no credit cards. The feel of the restaurant is very laid back. Customers would help themselves to plastic glasses and water. Many would go to the back and talk to the cook while he was cooking. Most of the customers I saw were Indian, or at least browns.
As Xi Jinping has now removed his term limits within the Chinese constitution, this solidifies his hold on power until he dies or choses to leave. Even before this historic change in China’s constitution it was clear that Xi has a stronghold on China. This directly affects how government officials implement directives and the effect on the Chinese people themselves. An interesting observation, to say the least.
Interesting is how the Chinese government has changed in its implementation of general directives. It seems like government officials react faster and harder, and even overreact to policy implementations. These implementations are understandable, in a way, because government officials do not question or tweak directives, but carry out their orders, possibly overdoing it.
I recently had a maintenance call for my furnace from Enbridge/Enercare in Toronto, Canada. In the end they sent me an online survey of a couple of questions, which I dutifully answered. This resulted in this error message. It looks like a database insertion error.
An unexpected error has occurred!
Error Message: Invalid index (parameter 2) passed to Row function. Index must be less than or equal to the row count. Index Value: 1 Row Count: 0 Function: row(@rows,1)
Description: An unexpected error occurred during the execution of the page.
