On July 7, something unusual happened near the Xiaoshan Airport in Hangzhou, China. An oddly shaped bright light appeared, forcing the airport to close down and delay 18 flights. Things are now back to normal, but people are wondering, what was that “thing”?

An ABC News article on the mysterious sighting explains that some who witnessed the light are calling it a UFO. But, keep in mind, a UFO doesn’t necessarily mean little, green men.

There is plenty of speculation on whether or not the object was some sort of military aircraft or missile. The ABC article explains that a day following the sighting, “an anonymous source told China Daily that authorities already discovered the identity of the UFO after an investigation but could not publically disclose the information because ‘there was a military connection.’”

Authorities are continuing to look into the incident, but no public conclusions have yet been made. Despite, or perhaps because of the mystery, Web searches on “china ufo” quickly soared 576%. Related queries on “china ufo video 2010,” “china ufo sightings,” and “hangzou china ufo” also posted triple digit gains. Even now, a week after the sighting, online lookups remain high.

Truth be told, there’s not much left to be said. Something weird happened. Nobody knows what it was. And if they do, they aren’t saying. Check out the video below and judge for yourself.

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Credits to Buzz.Yahoo.com

Container trucks and fork lifts rumble nonstop across the sprawling compound, serving a grid of factories that churn out electronics goods for top global brands around the clock.

Inside the walled city — one of several compounds run by Foxconn International, a major supplier for Apple Inc — employees are provided with most of their daily needs. There are dormitories, canteens, recreation facilities, even banks, post offices and bakeries.

The rank-and-file within the compound have little reason to venture outside. That reduces the likelihood of leaks, which in turn lessens the risk of incurring the wrath of Apple and its chief executive, Steve Jobs, whose product launches have turned into long-running, tightly controlled media spectacles.

Many of Apple’s finished gadgets, from iPods to iPads, are assembled at industrial compounds like the one in Longhua. And when it comes to guarding Apple’s secrets, Foxconn, a unit of Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry, and other suppliers throughout the region leave little to chance.

“Security is tight everywhere inside the factories,” said a uniformed worker outside the Foxconn factory in Longhua, about an hour from Hong Kong. “They use metal detectors and search us. If you have any metal objects on you when you leave, they just call the police,” he said.

Hon Hai spokesman Edmund Ding declined to comment for this article, as did Apple.

But industry sources in China and elsewhere in Southeast Asia say that Apple goes to what one person in the business termed “extreme lengths” to protect even the smallest details of its new products under development.

Many of the Cupertino, California-based company’s tactics read like something from a spy novel: information is assiduously guarded and handed out only on a need-to-know basis; employees suspected of leaks may be investigated by the contractor; and the company makes it clear that it will not hesitate to sue if secrets are spilled.

On occasion, Apple will give contract manufacturers different products, just to try them out. That way, the source of any leaks becomes immediately obvious, people familiar with the supply chain said.

And unlike other electronics makers, some of whom prefer the convenience of one-stop shopping, Apple doesn’t rely on a single firm to supply everything for a product. The industry sources say the company will often minutely divvy up projects.

“This ensures that the only people who have all the secrets to any Apple product is Apple itself,” said a senior official at a subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry. “Other tech companies will also look for their own sources of components to compare, but none of them do as many things in-house as Apple does.”

The upshot is that even the people who man the assembly lines have no idea what the finished product will look like.

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Credits to source: http://www.reuters.com

China today announced it had begun construction of the world’s longest sea bridge – barely 18 months after opening the current record-holder.

The Y-shaped link between Hong Kong, Macau and China will be around 50km (31 miles) long in total, 35km of which will span the sea, said the state news agency Xinhua. Due to be completed by 2015, the 73bn yuan (£6.75bn) cost of the bridge will be shared by the authorities in the three territories.

The structure also includes a 5.5km underwater tunnel with artificial islands to join it to bridges on each side. According to the engineerin group Arup – which has helped with the design – it is the first major marine bridge-and-tunnel project in China. But the engineering firm described the structure as 38km in length; the reason for the disparity was unclear.

Work is expected to begin with land reclamation to create an artificial island of around 216 hectares (540 acres) off Zhuhai. This will become the customs point for those making the crossing.

But much of the structure will be prefabricated offsite, so, for example, the concrete deck sections can be produced at the same time as the foundations are laid. The tunnel will be made of precast sections – each 100 metres long.

“It is designed with a service life of 120 years. It can withstand the impact of a strong wind with a speed of 51 metres a second, or equal to a maximum Beaufort scale 16 (184 to 201km/h),” said Zhu Yongling, an official in charge of the project construction. “It can also resist the impact of a magnitude-8 earthquake and a 300,000-tonne vessel.”

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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/