For the longest time my site has been tracked and spammed by 163data.com.cn. I, and others, have wondered about the story behind the number 163. Was it a Chinese Army unit number similar to 解放军 61398部隊? Alas, there seems to be nothing so exciting. There are only a few links about the history of 163.
It looks like in the ’90s when you had to dial a telephone number to a modem and reach the internet, 163 was appended to a local number. Thus 163 was commonly used and therefore memorable. After this time NetEase started 163.com and used 163 to start China’s largest free email service, the Chinese equivalent to gmail. 163.com remains very popular in China today.
China has a lot of people. Baoluan, 暴乱, is the Chinese fear of chaos, of the Government or Emperor losing control of their mandate to rule. The people, having little to lose, rise up and kick their overlords out. Today China’s overlords are the Chinese Communist Party. This recurring issue heavily colours what China does.
From China: They provide employment for their people
The solution in China is to give everyone work. With work they will not revolt and not upset the Communist Party, thus preserving the status quo: The Communist Party stays in power.
I bought a bag of Naturally Imperfect potatoes from NoFrills, and out popped potato animals of all sorts! They are so cute that I had to share them with you.
Hippopotamus potato. This creature came out of a bag of naturally imperfect potatoes, bought at NoFrills. Toronto, Canada. Photo by Don Tai
Hippopotamus potato. This creature came out of a bag of naturally imperfect potatoes, bought at NoFrills. Toronto, Canada. Photo by Don Tai
This Bell Canada IP address is unusual and came up when I did a host command. It hosts 12 sites. I did not find anything else suspicious about it on X-Force Exchange.
Globe and Mail censures me for a review on someone else’s comment on an article I did not read. They used the word ~psychotic~ in jest, and this constitutes harassment or a personal attack. G&M your automated censure system screwed up. Toronto, Canada. Image by Don Tai
I am an online Globe and Mail reader, and occasionally comment on various news articles. The Globe and Mail has recently changed over to a new peer comment review system, where posters rate other people’s comments. As I would never comment anything that I would not say to a person’s face, I have never had a warning from my own postings. Today I was warned by the Globe and Mail, twice, that my review of some other person’s comment, violated community standards, and I have 2 remaining warnings before my account is restricted. This is ridiculous.
Falafel made from lima beans. One cup of dry lima beans yielded 14 falafel. Toronto, Canada. Photo, and falafel by Don Tai
We are a Chinese family, so delving into Middle Eastern food is done with baby steps. I really did not know much about falafel so had to do research. While some experimentation is required it turned out to be not that hard. Instead of the traditional fava beans or chickpeas I used lima beans, which I bought by mistake. It worked out very well anyway.
City of Toronto internet scraper bot scrapes my site a couple of times per month. Why? Toronto, Canada
I live in the City of Toronto, and write about Toronto-related subjects. What is surprising is that the City of Toronto has an internet bot that randomly scrapes content from my site a couple of times each month. The bot started scraping me near the end of January 2017.
What is interesting was that I, concerned citizen, actually emailed them because I thought they had a Zombie PC taken over by a bot, or some other security issue. I sent the City a log of the relevant entries related to their IP address. Was I naive. Here is their reply (isg@toronto.ca):
Potato Moai, Naturally imperfect potatoes, NoFrills, Toronto, Canada. Photo by Don Tai
I bought a bag of naturally imperfect potatoes from my local NoFrills in Toronto, Canada, and many interesting shapes emerged. This is a great reason for me to buy more of these potatoes. These potatoes are not a perfect potato shape, so they were cheaper at 15lb for $2.50CAD. I saw a TV show about how farmers cannot sell imperfect potatoes because store chains reject them, and vowed to try them. I am glad I did. Unfortunately they are not readily available like other potatoes. I would buy more.
A country wants to split in half, but unsurprisingly the Leader decided he does not like it, and starts to kill half the people in his country. Of course the people he selects happen to live in the rebel occupied area. The rebels do not support the Leader. Herein start the tale of woe for the people of the rebel area, who do not want to but are forced to move, or die.
