Book of Daniel

I thought the controversy would keep it alive...ruining television.

Thank GOD I was wrong.

"The Book of Daniel" drew an audience of 6.9 million on its first night. By its fourth airing, the number had dipped to 5.8 million viewers.

and sadly here is the biggest warm squishy feel from it

The show's creator and executive producer, Jack Kenny, has said his goal was to depict how "humor and grace" help a flawed man struggle with his faith and family. He said the writers never meant to mock religion or Jesus.

They did intend to mock religous people. and you could see that from the show.

but it got canceled and the friends reunion talk was a horrible rumor.

So I won't be getting my death ray out of mothballs.

Some adult thoughts on Google......

Lots of folks in the world of the online are all hot to trot about google and their capitulation ( the latest company to do so) to the PRC. Some folks put a value judgement on their fighting the US government here, and kissing up to the PRC goons there.

Let me first lay out my opinions. I think Google like a whole lot of the US companies are making a huge mistake in the way they expand into china. And I think aiding repressive governments in the way they do would if a more purely marxist revolt ever happens leads to much more serious long term problems. (Dean over on Dean's world outlines some of why i think people are being foolish for investing in china.)

I am also against the Federal government taking the info from google. Not so much for issues of privacy (which I'll be getting into in a moment) but because I think they way the federal government did it was utterly retarded. I think they should have pulled something like Clinton did when he pushed the TV industry into the television raitings system. But i increasingly do-not- believe the Bush administration wants to be successful but that they want to look like they are fighting to "protect our children" from "Immoral content."

Oh yes... and Gmail is my primary email service, google my default search engine, and google owns blogger.

But if you care about privacy google should scare the pants off you. Your home, your searches (especially if you have an ident with google)...basically any data about you on the internet is avalible with a little work for the finding. Google is the death of your privacy, which is why they have to -act- like they care about your privacy rights against the government. Their buisness model is to take any flowing electronic data relating to you and putting it at the fingertips of anyone with an internet connection.

And rapidly I am begining to think that simply put nothing is going to put a stop to that. So what is important in a world where our modern (or pre-modern... because I refuse to say we are living in the post modern world because that doesn't make sense *#)&(# ) Concept of privacy is essentially no more?.... And I think some issues like financial data and health care data will be much more restricted but will still be out there....

Transperency. And by that I mean people will soon have a right to know who is looking at their information. ( something i'd say akin to the once a year free credit check service) and who has paid for their information. The right to protest untrue information and have it flagged accordingly (thank you wikipedia). It is this sense o f transperency which people are sensing they have a right to in a world of much greater informational access (Look at hipaa and the new rules to protect financial data). This is why Google's support of the government of China is so offensive to our sensibilities even if we have not the capacity to frame it as such yet.

Google is the major gatemaster of information. and if Google-Tv (or Google-Vision) comes to fruition this will become an even greater problem.

Do no evil matters more then just a way to mock google for their hypocricy and false airs of moral superiority. If they don't see the evil their actions are creating to the world not yet born ( that they are largely responsible for giving birth to) then that means they will likely not understand it when the evil fruit becomes manifest.

However on Fark.com some one did put a logical spin on what google did. So I can still be irritated but see something important in their choices.

I don't know how accurate it is...but it does point to the chess like nature of what google is doing....

2006-01-25 02:29:38 AM Donald Hogan Mark II

this is all about data gathering from google's standpoint. google was ready to stand firm and do no evil and not comply with china and be the hero of the internet, freedom and the american way. then the chinese goverment showed google that their hackers can utterly block google's crawlers. it would be one thing for there to be no google in china, another thing for no one in the world to be able to search chinese pages with google. also, since statistical techniques are proving to be the best way to do translation with computers, google needs the chinese web data for development of translation programs. in the not too distant future we will be able to view pages from all over the world and have them automatically translated into our native language. (and translated well, not that babelfish crap, which is not statistical translation btw) having access to massive amounts of chinese language data will be very important between now and then. that's why google made this deal, not because they need chinese ad money.

If this is true its a really complex world google is in. So we have to be adult and pragmatic about it. We need to hold google accountable and show we aren't happy. But we need to keep it reasonable and respectable at this point in time.

I'm all about saying bring down the walls...but here the complexities don't seem to lend themselves to it.

WoooHooo

I'm a Lamborghini Murcielago!

You're not subtle, but you don't want to be. Fast, loud, and dramatic, you want people to notice you, and then get out of the way. In a world full of sheep, you're a raging bull.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

More Bad news for the Hildabeast

Matt Drudge is on the case

CNNGALLUP found that 51 percent say they definitely won't vote for Clinton (D-N.Y.) in 2008, another 32 percent might consider it, and only 16 percent vow to back her. That means committed anti-Hillary voters outnumber pro-Hillary voters by 3-1. The poll suggests she can forget about crossover votes - 90 percent of Republicans and 75 percent of conservatives say there's no way they'd back her.

both the first and last half are telling

Republican registrations have been rasing while the potential electorate seems to shift her way.I don't see 2008 as feasible for her and while she might shift the 51% "no way" down to a 45% that still means that anyone running against her has a 45%-51% cushion built in.

Thats going to make it impossible for the Democrats to win, or to even reach out because anything which alienates a decent sized sector of their base will lead to a huge loss.

while the republicans if she is the nominee will have a much easier time reaching out because of her very strong and very hard negatives

Well now this isn't strange at all

Michael Jackson is a strange man. First Michael's use of crossdressing as a way to hide his identity in Bahrain is pretty weird....even for him. He however is also getting close now the longer his kids live in Bahrain to making -them- really screwed up in how they view their gender roles.

He was wearing an abaya, a robe with long sleeves, under which his pants, white shirt and men's shoes could be seen, and his head and face were wrapped in a black veil. He had black gloves on his hands.

The veil, abaya and gloves were of a style typically worn by conservative Bahraini women, though Jackson appeared to be wearing them to hide his identity.

Can he GET weirder?

L.A.Slimes on supporting the troops

I think its time for an olde school blog snarky response.

L.A Times and Joel Stein kick this off.

Joel Stein:
Warriors and wusses
I DON'T SUPPORT our troops. This is a particularly difficult opinion to have, especially if you are the kind of person who likes to put bumper stickers on his car. Supporting the troops is a position that even Calvin is unwilling to urinate on.

Right here is great. He starts right off with the offensive statement. And then implies the people who have the "I support our troops" bumper stickers on are shallow. I mean this is so professional journalism.

I'm sure I'd like the troops. They seem gutsy, young and up for anything. If you're wandering into a recruiter's office and signing up for eight years of unknown danger, I want to hang with you in Vegas.

again what is great is the fact most recruits don't go onto the combat line. but lets not stop there.

And I've got no problem with other people — the ones who were for the Iraq war — supporting the troops. If you think invading Iraq was a good idea, then by all means, support away. Load up on those patriotic magnets and bracelets and other trinkets the Chinese are making money off of.

Whats great about this again people who buy those things are shallow. And of course doesn't focus on the fact most of those items give out money to CHARITIES which support the troops and their families.

Again what a wonderful way to position yourself there Joel.

But I'm not for the war. And being against the war and saying you support the troops is one of the wussiest positions the pacifists have ever taken — and they're wussy by definition. It's as if the one lesson they took away from Vietnam wasn't to avoid foreign conflicts with no pressing national interest but to remember to throw a parade afterward.

again here its great implying people who don't support the war but are shallow and say "I support the troops" are even more shallow.

Blindly lending support to our soldiers, I fear, will keep them overseas longer by giving soft acquiescence to the hawks who sent them there — and who might one day want to send them somewhere else. Trust me, a guy who thought 50.7% was a mandate isn't going to pick up on the subtleties of a parade for just service in an unjust war. He's going to be looking for funnel cake.

we have the 50.7% isn't a mandate, but a lower percentage and less overall votes for Bill Clinton was

good times there. We also have another insult of people who support the troops. And oh yeah Bush is stupid. Here we have all the anti Bush derangment sentiments you can one here in a single package.

Besides, those little yellow ribbons aren't really for the troops. They need body armor, shorter stays and a USO show by the cast of "Laguna Beach."

again "people who buy ribbons are shallow" and of course the body armor canard which gets chucked out with the More Body Armor=more likely to be dead

good good times there.

The real purpose of those ribbons is to ease some of the guilt we feel for voting to send them to war and then making absolutely no sacrifices other than enduring two Wolf Blitzer shows a day. Though there should be a ribbon for that.

HOW DARE YOU. I have enough friends I can count on both hands, good friends who I have no desire to see put in the ground. I have a couple of friends I might have to carry into the cold cold ground if they die over there and you say thats not a sacrifice? how dare you. What about the women who send off their husbands and sons.

this shallow and sorry statement is the only thing in here i find really offensive, much of the rest I just find sad.

I understand the guilt. We know we're sending recruits to do our dirty work, and we want to seem grateful.

After we've decided that we made a mistake, we don't want to blame the soldiers who were ordered to fight. Or even our representatives, who were deceived by false intelligence. And certainly not ourselves, who failed to object to a war we barely understood.

"You are stupid if you supported the war so it isn't your fault."

He would however have had a perfect ten if he worked into this paragraph "BushitlerMchimpyburton lied because he WANTED your sons to die."

But blaming the president is a little too easy. The truth is that people who pull triggers are ultimately responsible, whether they're following orders or not. An army of people making individual moral choices may be inefficient, but an army of people ignoring their morality is horrifying. An army of people ignoring their morality, by the way, is also Jack Abramoff's pet name for the House of Representatives.

Soldiers: Since you don't mutiny it's your fault.

also he didn't get the Memo Jack Abramoff is not relevant to anyone

I am sure I sent it with a TPS cover sheet.

I do sympathize with people who joined up to protect our country, especially after 9/11, and were tricked into fighting in Iraq. I get mad when I'm tricked into clicking on a pop-up ad, so I can only imagine how they feel.

You are fighting in Iraq well your stupid and got tricked.

you aren't sacrificing enough for our moral system ergo your war values are wrong

such smarminess

But when you volunteer for the U.S. military, you pretty much know you're not going to be fending off invasions from Mexico and Canada. So you're willingly signing up to be a fighting tool of American imperialism, for better or worse. Sometimes you get lucky and get to fight ethnic genocide in Kosovo, but other times it's Vietnam.

Again: Its your fault if your in the military

And sometimes, for reasons I don't understand, you get to just hang out in Germany.

I am with ya there though.

I know this is all easy to say for a guy who grew up with money, did well in school and hasn't so much as served on jury duty for his country. But it's really not that easy to say because anyone remotely affiliated with the military could easily beat me up, and I'm listed in the phone book.

"Only stupid non rich people go into the military...but they could beat me up."

a tad bit of self depricating humor to deflect the hatred of troops in this bit.

I'm not advocating that we spit on returning veterans like they did after the Vietnam War, but we shouldn't be celebrating people for doing something we don't think was a good idea. All I'm asking is that we give our returning soldiers what they need: hospitals, pensions, mental health and a safe, immediate return. But, please, no parades.

You are evil for fighting in CHimpy Mchitlerburton's war. But you'll be crazy for doing it so we'll pay for it

so smarmy

Seriously, the traffic is insufferable.

Much like reading your article

Love;
Obnoxious guy blogging

We reckon it was pirates

hmmmmm No CSI: Paris in out future

The skeleton of a woman in her 30s was found during an exceptionally low tide in December 2003 near the seaside Brittany town of Plouezoc'h. A long gash in the skull convinced investigators she was killed with a hatchet or other sharp implement.

Police ploughed through missing persons' files to no avail. A theory that the woman was the wife of a Normandy doctor who disappeared with his family in a famous 1999 case was dismissed after DNA tests.

Hey maybe some one might have asked a forensic anthropologist there

the title is a quote from the French police officer which sounds incredibly funny to me

Hmmm whats this now?

Democrats and Andrew Sullivan seem to say the US is torturing people.... Well turns out Not so much. Now the Us is giving them over to countries who do torture (something we've been doing since the 20th century i might add)

But Swiss senator Dick Marty said there was no formal evidence so far of the existence of clandestine detention centers in Romania or Poland as alleged by the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

"There is a great deal of coherent, convergent evidence pointing to the existence of a system of 'relocation' or 'outsourcing' of torture," Marty said in a report presented to the Council of Europe, the human rights watchdog investigating the alleged secret prisons.

The report said more than 100 terror suspects may have been transferred to countries where they faced torture or ill treatment in recent years.

So the big "scandal du jour" was a farce

wonder if anyone is going to dial that back?

CBS news surprises me

They sum up the Democrats problem in 2006 pretty clearly here

The Republican soundbite hasn't changed since September, 2001; the Democrats have a new mantra with every news cycle. The Republicans have more dollars than the Democrats. Those are facts. My advice to Democrats is simple: face the facts.

That is some good insight right there

More amusing moments of Irony

Newsmax is there

Now, in what must be a painful irony for Stern, Sirius executives are developing an internal document that will set boundaries for his show.

Stern’s new show is also being broadcast with a time-delay that facilitates censoring, the New York Post reports.

It’s not clear if Stern knew he would be subject to guidelines regarding indecency when he signed on with Sirius, according to the Post.

gee Howard... ya didn't think they'd come after you on Satelite huh

Xm+Sirus is a waste of money and soon will no longer be the land of "free" Radio because people like stern made that their Raison D'etre

good job their

Dear Ford Motor Company

I see here you guys are going to cut some more jobs.

If cutting Job's was the key to getting the American auto industry humming then the Big Three would be unstoppable juggernauts.

The Problem is you haven't for a while made cars people want to buy.

Maybe you should spend more time fixing -that- problem

A good point on Palestinian Terror

Out of Canada? First Harper becoming a new PM, now this.... the mind boggles.

Yet in this ritualized reporting, journalists once again missed the real story, which is much messier, confusing, harder to photograph and difficult to report. The real headlines should inform readers that the Palestinian Authority is disintegrating, Palestinian political culture is imploding, Palestinians are turning on one another. While the struggle among suicide bombers, Israeli soldiers, and the civilians caught in the crossfire has a clear script, the multi-dimensional civil war among rival Palestinian factions has no clear story line.

Imagine the reaction had Israeli mobs murdered two Egyptian soldiers on the Gaza border, murdered Yasser Arafat's cousin in his own home, or trashed the house of the Palestinian interior minister. Try to envision what would happen if there existed a group of Israeli terrorists with a long track record of bloody attacks, ideologically committed to negating Palestinian rights and addicted to anti-Islamic rhetoric, running for the Israeli parliament, let alone poised to win a serious share of the vote.

Headlines would blare. CNN, BBC, and CBC would file special reports with fancy graphics. The United Nations, the European Union, and most of the nations around the world would condemn Israel for its anti-Palestinian brutality. Jews themselves would wring their hands, pound their hearts, and slap their foreheads worrying about what their people had wrought.

Instead, the power of Hamas, despite its lethal ideology, is growing in the Palestinian territories. People barely remember that Palestinian gunmen in Gaza shot and killed 65-year-old Moussa Arafat after storming his home in September, and a sustained internet search did not uncover the names of the two Egyptian soldiers killed and the 30 others wounded when hundreds of Palestinians mobbed the Rafah crossing, egged on by about 30 armed men from the supposedly mainstream al-Aksa Brigade.

According to Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly On Line, some Egyptians did mutter about the double standard. Abbas El-Tarabily, editor-in-chief of the opposition daily Al-Wafd wrote that, "if the two Egyptian victims had been killed by the Israelis, strikes would have taken place across Egypt and the whole issue might have been taken up with the UN Security Council."

Is Canada becoming cool?

Phin has RINO sightings up

Take a look kids

T.V Networks are evil

I hated friends.... i HATED friends. I never watched it in originals but the reruns of friends on Channel 44 down here have made tv just before the "prime time" almost unwatchable.....

but they were over or so I thought

In a secret meeting before Christmas, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Matthew Perry reportedly agreed a $5 million apiece deal with NBC bosses in Los Angeles.

Scriptwriters have already started penning lines for the four double episodes, which are due to air next year.

But who is to blame? Jennifer Aniston. She was the loan hold out which makes me wonder after losing Brad if this isn't some attempt at self destruction

......sigh......

stuff from 101 zen stories yet again

If You Love, Love Openly

Twenty monks and one nun, who was named Eshun, were practicing meditation with a certain Zen master.

Eshun was very pretty even though her head was shaved and her dress plain. Several monks secretly fell in love with her. One of them wrote her a love letter, insisting upon a private meeting.

Eshun did not reply. The following day the master gave a lecture to the group, and when it was over, Eshun arose. Addressing the one who had written her, she said: "If you really love me so much, come and embrace me now."

Michael Moore with the unintentional Irony Moment

In the end of the Canadian election cycle Michael Moore jumps in. First of all Michael with your run-in during the 2004 and 2000 elections as past history MAYBE this isn't a good thing for you to do. But here is where it get un-intentionally Ironic.

"A man running the nation to the south of you is hoping you can lend him a hand by picking Stephen Harper, because he's a man who shares his world view. Do you want to help George Bush by turning Canada into his latest conquest?" Moore asked.

"Far be it from me, as an American, to suggest what you should do," he added. "I hope you don't feel this appeal of mine is too intrusive, but I just couldn't sit by, as your friend, and say nothing."

Ok the Liberal Party has been running adds saying that Stephen Harper is to much like.....AMERICANS...... and its not been working. In fact its been utterly well failing.

so you a foriegner come in and make this comments after Canadian politicians have done so... doesn't that seem like something and Ignorant American will do?

You are now unintentionally a punchline in one of your own jokes

My Buddy Ken Kerns is predicting the Canuk Election

Over here on his blog. I pretty much agree with him 100% here. Where i disagree..

3) The majority/minority status of a Harper government will hinge on the scale of the Conservative breakthrough in rural Quebec and Toronto.

I think this election is about how awful-incompetent the Liberal party Is and... I'd be surprised if Harper pulls off a majority government.

Weird things that happened when I was driving to Sarasota

On my way down I-75 a car was passing me. And in the words of Jerry Seinfeld they were driving "Low and Slow". Guy got just far enough for me to be in his blind spot and started to merge. I then applied my hand judicously to Mr. Horn. Some F-Bombs and possibly some C-S words may have been dropped. I was hazy as I thought some old timer was going to knock me dead into a ditch on the side of the road.

Who watched this whole scene? a Florida Highway Patrol Officer...Isn't improper passing like that a ticketable offense?

I like Barry over at enrevanche

Though we disagree on outsourcing some one ( I think Barry's perspective is skewed a bit due to his job and all that... but heck I could be wrong.) However I really like it when his knowledge on an issue and what I always suspected but could never sink my teeth into come to a crossroads. Here he shows a selection from a buisness week article. Seems Outsources are now taking the Scrouge McDuck principle "Work Smarter, not Harder."

Many executives are discovering offshoring is really about corporate growth, making better use of skilled U.S. staff, and even job creation in the U.S., not just cheap wages abroad. True, the labor savings from global sourcing can still be substantial. But it's peanuts compared to the enormous gains in efficiency, productivity, quality, and revenues that can be achieved by fully leveraging offshore talent.

The labor savings are peanuts in the big picture and always have been. But making companies do buisness -better- thats the key.

What the Deuce?

Ummmm...What?

What this unlicensed, underground restaurant does have is a pit bull named Shinobi, a cramped kitchen with appliances in various states of disrepair and a gregarious host named Jeremy Townsend who, in his untucked shirt and jeans, will dance with his guests, jam on his harmonica and invite patrons for a post-dessert nightcap at a nearby bar.

Townsend is not alone in looking for new ways to captivate a public who, having made Zagat a household name, are finding its food savvy turn into ennui.

Culinary speakeasies like Ghetto Gourmet are popping up in cities in the Bay Area and beyond, across the country and around the world.

So people who go to trendy restaurants are now...Going to underground restaurants ran by many of the same people....

can some one explain this to me?

Heading back to the realm of Tampa

Got some stuff to blog about when I hit my homestead north of here.

Watching 20/20 on Self Made man

Watching her talking about Male and Female sexuality. Its very intresting having her talk about datying women. They show this woman in a pick up situation with the very clear "god get this loser away from me" face on. and how the woman does a complete 180 when she gets let in on the secret and apologises for the Brush off and trying to trick him out of hitting on her.

Its intresting that she would respect Nora and not Ned.

Her talk about how the dates were rarely fun as she had to spend so much time proving herself for women.

I do think she is off base with strip clubs but this wasn't an uber focused study and didn't talk about how a lot of men don't like strippers.
Also intrestingly her saying women really didn't want a "Woman in a man's body".

definately would like to get my paws on this book.

When federal studies go wrong

Prison Rape a myth? Some one got the federal government to run a study which makes that claim.

He said inmates who cry rape are usually lying and looking for a transfer, money or publicity.

``Inmates say it may happen, but the conditions under which it happens are rare,'' Fleisher said. ``It is unlikely all the stars are going to align properly for this to happen, particularly in prisons today. You're going to get caught.''

The two-year study, commissioned by the U.S. Justice Department for $939,233, has come under withering attack from other experts. The department has not endorsed the study, saying Fleisher has yet to turn over his data for closer examination.

He said women who cry rape are usually lying and looking for a transfer, money or publicity.

Yeah that claim would be pretty bogus... but when homosexuality comes into play for some reason not only does the ludicrousness of that staement not come into play nor does some of the following basic questions:

Are they lying? Which is better to know you got some prison man-lovin willingly or you got some prison man-loving cause it was forced on you. Because in prison when matters are set up around dominance and respect Rape would be a death sentance in prison. Also is it better to be a willing partner or an unwilling one?

Cindy Struckman-Johnson, professor of psychology at the University of South Dakota and one of nine commission members, said Fleisher's 155-page study is not in scientific form. She said there is no literature review, no raw data, and no in-depth explanation of his subjects or research methods.

Fleisher said he spent more than 700 hours interviewing 564 randomly chosen inmates at dozens of institutions across the country. He said he never met anyone who claimed to be a victim of sexual violence.

He said his findings were no surprise to him, though he admitted his conclusion ``flies in the face of what everyone believes.''

Not in scientific form, not reviewed, and didn't meet with anyone who claimed to be victimized. and it cost the Federal government nearly a million dollars.

But here folks comes the money shot....

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Justice Department official familiar with the findings said that the department is trying to determine whether the conclusions are supported by the data, but that Fleisher has not shown his evidence to anyone.

I am hoping he gets strung up for federal fraud charges.

Dear Hildabeast;

Dear Mdme. Clinton;

Some of us might have noticed you were making some rather disparaging comments about the President's policies towards the nation of Iran. When you do that you want to make sure little embarassing things like this aren't in your campaign finance file. This is especially more embarassing as the gov'ment thanks to the pressure of folks like yourself cares again about who sends money and where it goes.

Wealthy businessmen Hassan Nemazee and Faraj Aalaei are associated with the American Iranian Council, a pro-regime anti-sanctions group. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Namazee has contributed $4,000 to Clinton's reelection while Aalaei has given $1,000.

The press describes their lobby this way "the American-Iranian Council [AIC], a pro-regime lobbying group trying to get Congress and the Bush administration to lift the trade embargo on Iran." (Insight, 3/25/04)

Hillary Clinton is also raising money from Gati Kashani, another figure linked with the Mullahs.

But a Republican challenger is indeed using this for the political hay its worth.

John Spencer, the former Yonkers Mayor and Vietnam combat veteran who will challenge Senator Clinton in November, made the following statement. "Senator Clinton voted against the very munitions necessary to avoid a nuclear confrontation with Iran while at the same time accepting money from supporters of the Iranian Mullahs. Senator Clinton lacks the credibility to keep New York safe and she should return this tainted money."

More reasons why the woman won't be running for President

For those folks who fear the Red Dragon

You should look at this. Much like Japan having the prime minister declaring Americans "Fat and Lazy" while their labor ministry spoke of the American worker as handily more efficent then the Japanese workers their is an issue on "face" in oriental culture.

Wen's warning underscored rising concerns over lagging economic growth in rural China, home to at least two of every three Chinese. Stagnating rural incomes have created an underclass of impoverished farmers lacking affordable access to basic public services such as health care and education.

One of the greatest threats to stability stems from seizures of farmland for property development and other construction projects, Wen said the text of a speech carried in major state-run newspapers.

Disputes over compensation for land seizures have provoked thousands of protests among farmers outraged over the loss of what they view as their most fundamental asset. Incomes in rural areas average about $300 a year, compared with urban incomes of $1,000.

So 2/3rds of the Chinese people are having their land seized and an inability to get any basic goods and services.....

This wouldn'tbe anything like oooooh the revolution Mao started to overthrow the government in China.

But the most serious aspect of this is it may impact China's ability to feed its people.

Wen warned that such problems threaten China's ability to feed its 1.3 billion people, despite bumper harvests that raised grain production to an estimated record 484 million tons last year.

Production this year could suffer from unstable grain prices, unpredictable climate and shrinking arable land, Wen warned. He called for keeping grain prices steady, while curbing "excessive" increases in the prices of farming materials, such as fuel, fertilizer and seeds.

A Nation that loses its ability to feed its people reasonably is a nation one should worry about. When it consumes resources rapidly beyond their ability to control it... this is problematic.

China has a potential time bomb of their own in the near future.