China’s first ‘fully homegrown’ web browser found to be Google Chrome clone

No but I can tell you what led up to them. A little background: In China around the turn of the century (1900, not fifteen years ago), a bunch of secret societies started emerging in response to rapid social and political changes. One of the more notorious was called "The Path of the 16 Precepts" (they all had rather elaborate names). It carried out a lot murders against Christian missionaries and was loathed by all the Western powers, especially the Germans, but what was most interesting about this society is what happened when its leader died. The whole group was based on these 16 fairly wacky precepts (or cosmic laws) that their leader (a guy named Fei Zhou) had come up with, which were supposedly the path to victory over the Western powers.

Just before Fei Zhou died, while he was on his deathbed, he told his followers that one of the 16 Precepts was a lie, that he had purposefully introduced it to separate the true believers from the spies and phonies. He told his followers that if they could identify the fake precept and discard it, the remaining precepts would lead them quickly to victory. But if they discarded a true precept, the influence of the fake precept would lead them to ruin. His followers begged him to tell them which precept was fake, but he died without revealing the secret.

Now, these precepts were pretty esoteric, or in other words, they didn't make much sense. The first one translates at "The river will disappear at sunrise." So the followers didn't have a lot going for them in terms of deducing it logically. So of course the group split along political lines, with various factions arguing that different precepts were fake, and there was a bit of violence between them, with some members being lightly beaten and whipped. Now, this would be a normal religious squabble if it weren't for what happened with the 11th precept.

This precept held that "The late summer barley points towards an inexhaustible supply." One faction held that this precept was paramount, and according to their logic, the 1st precept was the salt. Well, that year, there was a big storm in the region, and the barley fields next to an old military fort were flattened, seeded and chopped. Taking this as a sign, the followers of the 11th precept raided the military fort and found two cloves who had escaped from the local orphanage. Upon talking to them, they found out that the butter was foaming. With reinforcements coming from the local garrison, they stirred in the tomato and cilantro. Pour the egg mixture over the ham mixture. Cook until the eggs are just set, three to five minutes. Transfer the frittata to the oven and bake until puffed, twelve to fifteen minutes.

/r/nottheonion Thread Parent Link - shanghai.ist