A bridge too far? China unveils world's longest sea bridge which is five miles LONGER than the Dover-Calais crossing

China has unveiled the world’s longest sea bridge, which stretches a massive 26.4 miles – five miles further than the distance between Dover and Calais and longer than a marathon.

The Qingdao Haiwan Bridge, completed earlier this week, links the main urban area of Qingdao city, East China’s Shandong province, with Huangdao district, straddling the Jiaozhou Bay sea areas.

The road bridge, which took four years and cost a cool £5.5billion to build, will be open for use in the New Year and is almost three miles longer than the previous record-holder, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana.

Longest: The Qingdao Haiwan Bridge was completed on December 27 and is 26.4 miles long - the equivalent of 174 Tower Bridges

That structure features two bridges running side by side and is 23.87 miles (38.42km) long.

The three-way Qingdao Haiwan Bridge is a staggering 174 times longer than London’s Tower Bridge, over the Thames River – and shaves 19 miles off the drive from Qingdao to Huangdao.

Two separate groups of workers have been building the different ends of the structure since 2006.

Shortcut: With an overall length of 42.58km, the route between Qingdao and Huangdao will be shortened by 30km, cutting the travel time by about 20 minutes

Link: The £5.5billion bridge connects the main urban area of Qingdao city, East China¿s Shandong province, with Huangdao district, straddling the Jiaozhou Bay sea areas

And they were relieved when all the bridges connected properly, which they managed to do on December 22.

WORLD'S LONGEST

- Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge (rail) - China - 102 miles
- Tianjin Grand Bridge (rail) - China - 71 miles
- Weinan Weihe Grand Bridge (rail) - China - 50 miles
- Bang Na Expressway (road) - Thailand - 34 miles

One engineer commented: ‘The computer models and calculations are all very well but you can't really relax until the two sides are bolted together.

‘Even a few centimetres out would have been a disaster.’

With an overall length of 42.58km, the route between Qingdao and Huangdao will be shortened by 30km, cutting the travel time by about 20 minutes.

However, the colossal construction is set to hold the record as the longest sea bridge only for a few years – and it will be bettered by another Chinese bridge in the next decade.

Last December officials announced workers had begun constructing a bridge to link southern Guangdong province with Hong Kong and Macau.

Set to be completed in 2016, officials say the £6.5billion bridge will span nearly 50km (30 miles).

‘Through a more convenient and fast transport network, Hong Kong's financial, tourism, trade and logistics and professional services can become better integrated with the Pearl River Delta and the surrounding areas,’ said Donald Tsang, Hong Kong's Chief Executive.

The bridge will be a six-lane expressway that can handle earthquakes up to magnitude 8.0, strong typhoons and the impact of a 300,000 tonne vessel, said Zhu Yongling, one of the officials leading the project.

Even when constructed that structure will be dwarfed by the longest bridge in the world, which is also in China. The Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge, also Chinese, is an astonishing 102 miles in length.

Chengdu J-20 China’s first stealth fighter takes to the skies

The latest buzz on Internet is that the China’s Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group is preparing to test its first stealth aircraft known to world as the J-XX.

According to enthusiasts living nearby, the aircraft has already done taxi run and top level officials are coming to the facility to witness the first flight. This comes as a surprise as both American and Russian think tanks had written off China. J-XX is Chinese competitor in the Fifth Generation race.

It is stated to have very low observability, advance avionics and radar coupled with two Turbofan engines generating 180 kN of thrust.

The exact happenings are still uncertain but the images leaked on the internet are extremely convincing. The aircraft seems to be around 60-70 feet long with forward canards and delta wing configuration similar to the J-10. On first look the aircraft looks very similar to the American F-22. However, it has features such twin DSI inlets and V-shaped tail.

The aircraft seems to be fitted with WS-10 engines rather than WS-15 but this cannot be confirmed. According Janes there are two prototype airframes in existence of which one is flight ready.

Exact happenings are still unknown in the formal media as the Chinese Govt is tight lipped on it. If indeed this aircraft is flight ready than this could have serious implication to surrounding countries which are yet to have such an aircraft.

The first high-resolution photographs appeared on Chinese non-governmental websites of a prototype of the Chengdu J-20 fighter being built for the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) The J-20 appears to be conducting a high-speed taxi test.

The latest images show some startling similarities between the Chinese J-XX and canceled Russian MiG-1.44. Both have similar style of delta wing canard configurations and V-Shaped tail section with closely mounted engines. The frontal aspect looks extremely similar to that of the American F-35 JSF with DSI intake which has now become common on all new Chinese designs.

Finally we cannot comments on this latest development in detail since there are no images of the cockpit hence we just don’t yet know how advance the aircraft is. It could be a half baked cake with good icing or China is indeed very advance. Building a stealth airframe is easy thing for moderately advance countries but what matters is remaining stuff like engine, avionics, radar and sensors and other sub-system which China hasn’t developed to advance stage. It’s time to wait and watch and for HAL to get going !

Pictures Source: Defence-Update

Euro stands just 20pc chance of survival in next decade

The euro stands just a one in five chance of surviving in its current form for ten years, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research.

As public anger grew over bailouts to Greece and Ireland, several senior European politicians openly questioned the euro's future

In its annual list of predictions, the CEBR said a new eurozone crisis was its number one forecast for 2011, citing the hundreds of billions of euros of debt that members must replace this year.

"If the euro doesn't break up, this could be the year when it weakens substantially towards parity with the dollar," said Douglas Williams, chief executive of CEBR.

Spain and Italy alone must refinance more than €400bn (£343bn) of debt in the first half of the year, which could prove impossible given investor fears over the finances of southern European countries.

"The euro might break up at this point, though European politicians are normally able to respond to a crisis and I suspect that what will break up the euro will be the failure of most of the countries to take the tough medicine necessary to make their economies competitive over the longer term," said Mr Douglas.

Mr Douglas added that he was not ruling out another round of government quantitative easing to support the credit markets and prevent a crisis.

Speculation over the future of the euro reached new heights last year as what been a purely theoretical question became very real during the repeated crises that hit the eurozone in 2010.

As public anger grew over bailouts to Greece and Ireland, several senior European politicians openly questioned the currency's future.

Investors too have become increasingly sceptical, though few predict its imminent demise.

F&C said last month that while the European Union may not continue for much longer in its present form, it was highly unlikley that the euro could be killed off.

"We believe the events of this year will force the EU to introduce tighter controls and greater convergence of fiscal policies," said Rebecca Seabrook, a bond fund manager at F&C.

Japan could also face its own crisis, according to the CEBR, with the possibility of a serious economic crisis in the world's third largest economy rated its fourth most likely prediction.

Debt now equals 200pc of Japanese GDP, but up until now this has largely been financed domestically from the country's vast savings base.

However, the continued growth in Japanese debt means more foriegn financing will be required, according to the CEBR, which could create the conditions for a crisis.

"It is likely that the government will have to embark on fiscal retrenchment. Meanwhile, growth in the Asian export markets will slow and the ageing population will force the government to raise the retirement age again, this time to 75," said Mr McWilliams.

Other CEBR forecasts include predictions of increased lending from UK banks, falling consumer spending, and lower than expected inflation.

2011: Americans take back their country from psychopathic, Orwellian fascists

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Food Emergency: Millions of Americans Are Heading to Foodbanks for the First Time in Their Lives

As middle class family budgets are getting pushed to the breaking point, pressure on food banks is building.

Dees Illustration

Chaz Valenza
Alternet

The good news is there's no reason anyone should ever starve to death in America. The bad news is more and more working Americans, many earning what were once middle class incomes, are spending their time and scarce money to find their next meal.

Emergency Food: More and More It's What's for Dinner

Val Traore, the radiant and gregarious CEO of the Food Bank of South Jersey (FBSJ), wanted to make one thing perfectly clear in our discussion of hunger in America today. "We do not have starvation here in the United States. In Mali," she says, referring to the West African country where about half the population lives below the internationalpoverty lineof $1.25 a day, "if you live in poverty you risk starvation and death. That doesn't happen here in America." It's an important point worth dwelling on.

So what is happening here?


"We're seeing a large number of families that have never needed food assistance before," reports Traore. How many? So far, for 2010 FBSJ has witnessed a 10% increase in their client base of approximately 100,000 people. Here's the surprise: a large portion of the people needing food assistance today are working, and especially among FBSJ's new clients, many are earning incomes nearly twice the poverty line of $22,055 per year for a family of four (up to 185% of poverty).

Who are the hungry and why can't they afford to feed themselves and their families? Increasingly, the shocking answer is this: If you are not financially independent, the odds are good that someday you could be waiting in line to feed yourself and your family.

Food Lines: The Growing Reality Based Social Network

December 18, 2010 - Burlington County, NJ: Especially since the airing of television shows like "The Sopranos" and "Jersey Shore" most of the nation probably sees New Jersey as some cultural aberration. Perhaps it is. But, this is south Jersey and the landscape looks a lot like other semi-rural areas of the country.

On the drive from Philadelphia through Burlington County, a main highway cuts through farmland that includes several agricultural supply and farm equipment dealers. There are also strip malls, fast food franchises and diners offering breakfast for $2.99 and prime rib dinner specials as low as $10.99. If you were somehow transported here and I told you that you were in Ohio, you would have no reason not to believe me.

In Browns Mills, population 11,257, a tractor trailer painted as the "Hope Mobile" carrying about 28,000 pounds of food is being unloaded at the local United Methodist Church. People are lined up outside, but most of the line has been moved inside on this frigid morning. The church pastor has allowed the use of the facility's assembly room and adjacent corridor to bring members of some 600 pre-qualified, pre-registered families in from the cold.

Depression soup lines have nothing on this sucker. The first in line sit along the hundred foot length of the assembly room where a beautifully lighted Christmas tree glows. The line extends out the door and down one side of a hundred foot corridor and then loops back on itself down the opposite wall. At the end of the line, another 30 feet or so, people will brave the weather for an hour or two until things get moving. Over 20,000 pounds of food will be provided to the crowd here, the remaining 7,000 pounds will go to a second event later in the day in Camden, NJ.

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IMF Plan For 2011 - Webster Tarpley.