China opens ‘world’s largest building’ complete with indoor beach, fake sun

China’s fourth largest city may have problems with smog, but you’d never know it sitting at the urban centre’s beachside resort. Of course, Chengdu, doesn’t have a beach, and the resort is indoors.

The city has just opened the New Century Global Centre, a structure that China touts as the “World’s Largest Building.” The giant structure has 1.76 million square metres of floor space and is half a kilometre long, 400 metres wide and more than 100 metres tall.

Contained inside is a 14-screen IMAX theatre, two five-star hotels, a shopping village and a long stretch of offices. The developers claim that you could fit more than 20 Sydney Opera Houses inside the Global Centre.

“We have borrowed a Japanese technique,” guide Liu Xun told the Sydney Morning Herald. “There is an artificial sun that shines 24 hours a day and allows for a comfortable temperature.”

The sun shines down on a manufactured beach-side resort built to hold over 6,000 people.

When people first enter into the massive structure, they are met with an 18-storey concourse, with giant escalators highlighting the building’s huge glass ceiling.

The entranceway alone is shocking in its opulence, the Guardian reports:

“Lined with a stratified cream cake of hotel balconies and zig-zagging escalators, visitors are blasted with artificial sea breeze, designed to ‘make one intoxicated, as if he were enjoying himself in the fabulous heaven.’ Moving past aquarium walls and through a strange hybrid townscape of Polynesian huts crossed with a middle eastern kasbah, tourists arrive at the 400 m-long coastline, where the largest artificial waves in the world break in front of the longest LED screen in the world – on which ‘the alternating morning cloud and twilight afterglow extend the horizon limitlessly in the temporal and spatial directions.’”

“It is Manhattan, not Chengdu,” Zhau Yun, who heads the British Chamber of Commerce, told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Zhau said that the city is building new superbuildings faster than Shanghai and that she hopes the city knows what it’s doing.

Russia to Get New Su-35, MiG-35 Jets Within 3 Years

LIPETSK, July 10 (RIA Novosti) - New MiG-35 and Su-35 fighter jets will be delivered to the Russian Air Force in large numbers within the next three years, after resolution of some problems found during their final tests, Deputy Defense Minister Yury Borisov said on Wednesday.

"There are problems with completion of the state order for these models," he said. "They will start to enter service en masse in the next three years, I think," he added, but did not elaborate.

Delivery of the Mikoyan MiG-35 Fulcrum and Sukhoi Su-35 Flanker multirole fighters, both touted as "4++ generation" aircraft, is part of the state armament program through 2020, he said.

The Su-35, powered by two 117S turbofans with thrust-vectoring, features high maneuverability and the capability to engage several air targets simultaneously. The Russian Air Force ordered 48 Su-35s in 2009, Sukhoi said when the deal was signed. It is due to receive them by 2015.

The MiG-35, an advanced derivative of the MiG-29, can be armed with air-to-air and air-to-surface guided missiles and is fitted with the Zhuk-A advanced multimode radar, according to MiG. In April, MiG's CEO Sergei Korotkov said he expected the company would sign a deal by the middle of this year to sell the aircraft to the Russian Air Force.

RIA Novosti

The Lawless sheep of America

Tragically a great majority of Americans love Barack H. Obama and are oblivious to where he is leading them, for in their hearts they are just like him in one way or another (Rom. 1:18-32, Jude 1:10). They have become godless, immoral, moral relativistic sheep of Satan's secularism and oh how they love it so (Jer. 5:30-31, Rom.1:18-32)! As our nation implodes right before our very eyes - morally and socially - so will the adherence to moral absolutes and common sense with it. Our nation has become so dumbed down and lawless that the inhabitants have zero discernment to comprehend who is before them and where it is all leading (2 Thess. 2:3-12, Rev. 13). 

 Our nation has become so dumbed down that the inhabitants have zero discernment to comprehend who is before them and where it is all leading.

If these have no problem receivingsuch a man as Obama, what is ever to stop them under greater squeezings (Rev. 6-9) from receiving the Man of Lawlessnesswho is to come (2 Thess. 2:8-12, Rev. 13). We have seen just in the first few months of Obama's second term that he is NOT slowing down his lawless agenda at all... and conservative leadership and even the moderate GOP are finally waking up to the reality that there is no stopping him and the Left. My dear friends that reality ought to scare one to death. Is it not funny that every generation that has found its self at this pre-war or pre-collapse state always denies that such evil will fall upon them, but it always does... does it not (Jer. 6:14, 8:11-12, Ezek. 13:10, 1 Thess. 5:3, Rev. 6-9)? With the fall of America will finally come the fall of this world and global tribulation which cannot be comprehended (Dan, 12:1, Joel 2:2, Matt. 24:21, Rev. 6-19).

 With the fall of America will finally come the fall of this world and global tribulation which cannot be comprehended.

Beloved, Do not let your hearts be troubled, believe in Him and place ALL your trust in Him, for it is in Jesus Christ ALONE that there is EVERLASTING HOPE and FULL ASSURANCE (Acts 4:12, Rom. 1:16, Col. 2:2, 2 Tim. 1:12). Do your part to the fullest as an America in these last days all the while knowing that NOTHING will stop the Day of Lawlessness, the Lord Jesus’ glorious second coming and the establishment of His 1000 year reign in TRUTH and RIGHTEOUSNESS! Be sure to see the BIG PICTURE first then all will fall into place! ETERNITY with our Savior is our future, NOT this fallen demonic wasteland called planet earth. The TRUTH will indeed set you free from the bondage and tyranny of Satan and his many faceted straw men, which are set up out there to distract you from the Savior and what is at hand (John 8:32, 36, 2 Cor. 4:3-4, Col 3:1-4)! Beloved use all of these things to draw you EVER closer to the Savior and never let your heart be troubled, for you safe as can be in His hands FOREVERMORE (Matt. 28:20, Luke 12:7, John 10:28, 14:18, Rom. 8:28-39, Rev. 1:17-18).

The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!

DJP I.F.

The NSA Has Inserted Its Code Into Android OS, Or Three Quarters Of All Smartphones

Over a decade ago, it was discovered that the NSA embedded backdoor access into Windows 95, and likely into virtually all other subsequent internet connected, desktop-based operating systems. However, with the passage of time, more and more people went "mobile", and as a result the NSA had to adapt. And adapt they have: as Bloomberg reports, "The NSA is quietly writing code for Google’s Android OS."

Is it ironic that the same "don't be evil" Google which went to such great lengths in the aftermath of the Snowden scandal to wash its hands of snooping on its customers and even filed a request with the secretive FISA court asking permission to disclose more information about the government’s data requests, is embedding NSA code into its mobile operating system, which according to IDC runs on three-quarters of all smartphones shipped in the first quarter? Yes, yes it is.

Google spokeswoman Gina Scigliano confirms that the company has already inserted some of the NSA’s programming in Android OS. "All Android code and contributors are publicly available for review at source.android.com." Scigliano says, declining to comment further.

From Bloomberg:

Through its open-source Android project, Google has agreed to incorporate code, first developed by the agency in 2011, into future versions of its mobile operating system, which according to market researcher IDC runs on three-quarters of the smartphones shipped globally in the first quarter. NSA officials say their code, known as Security Enhancements for Android, isolates apps to prevent hackers and marketers from gaining access to personal or corporate data stored on a device. Eventually all new phones, tablets, televisions, cars, and other devices that rely on Android will include NSA code, agency spokeswoman Vanee’ Vines said in an e-mailed statement. NSA researcher Stephen Smalley, who works on the program, says, “Our goal is to raise the bar in the security of commodity mobile devices.”

See, there's no need to worry: the reason the NSA is generously providing the source code for every Google-based smartphone is for your own security. Oh but it's open-sourced, so someone else will intercept any and all attempts at malice. We forgot.

The story continues:

In a 2011 presentation obtained by Bloomberg Businessweek, Smalley listed among the benefits of the program that it’s “normally invisible to users.” The program’s top goal, according to that presentation: “Improve our understanding of Android security.”

Well one wouldn't want their bug to be visible to users now, would one...

Vines wouldn’t say whether the agency’s work on Android and other software is part of or helps with Prism. “The source code is publicly available for anyone to use, and that includes the ability to review the code line by line,” she said in her statement. Most of the NSA’s suggested additions to the operating system can already be found buried in Google’s latest release—on newer devices including Sony’s Xperia Z, HTC’s One, and Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S4. Although the features are not turned on by default, according to agency documentation, future versions will be. In May the Pentagon approved the use of smartphones and tablets that run Samsung’s mobile enterprise software, Knox, which also includes NSA programming, the company wrote in a June white paper. Sony, HTC, and Samsung declined to comment.

Apple appears to be immune from this unprecedented breach of customer loyalty, if only for now, although open-sourced Linux may not be as lucky:

“Apple (AAPL) does not accept source code from any government agencies for any of our operating systems or other products,” says Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman for the company. It’s not known if any other proprietary operating systems are using NSA code. SE for Android is an offshoot of a long-running NSA project called Security-Enhanced Linux. That code was integrated a decade ago into the main version of the open-source operating system, the server platform of choice for Internet leaders including Google, Facebook (FB), and Yahoo! (YHOO). Jeff Zemlin, the executive director of the Linux Foundation, says the NSA didn’t add any obvious means of eavesdropping. “This code was peer-reviewed by a lot of people,” he says.

But that's not all:

The NSA developed a separate Android project because Google’s mobile OS required markedly different programming, according to Smalley’s 2011 presentation. Brian Honan, an information technology consultant in Dublin, says his clients in European governments and multinational corporations are worried about how vulnerable their data are when dealing with U.S. companies. The information security world had been preoccupied with Chinese hacking until recently, Honan says. “With Prism, the same accusations can be laid against the U.S. government.”

In short: the (big brother supervised) fun never stops in Stasi 2.0 world. Just buy your 100 P/E stocks, eat your burgers, watch your Dancing With The Stars, pay your taxes, and engage in as much internet contact with other internet-addicted organisms as possible and all shall be well.

Oh, and from this...

To this (courtesy of @paradism_)

Zero Hedge

American Evangelist Arrested in London for Preaching Homosexuality is a Sin

Tony Miano, a retired deputy sheriff from Los Angeles County, Calif., was arrested in London, England, earlier this week for preaching on abstaining from sexual immorality, both heterosexual and homosexual, in downtown Wimbledon. He was found to be in violation of Public Order Act Section 5, for "using homophobic speech that could cause people anxiety, distress, alarm or insult," Miano said in a YouTube video posted on Wednesday.

Preaching from 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12, Miano spoke about sexual sins for 25 minutes before being cut off by Metropolitan Police officers who said that although preaching in itself is not an offense, the specific part of the Bible he was preaching from was interpreted as homophobic by the woman who called to complain.

Miano told police officers that he doesn't hate homosexuals, and then reiterated that he was preaching about all forms of sexual immorality - lust, fornication and addiction to pornography. He said that he "loves homosexuals enough to bring them the truth of the Gospel."

Subsequently, Miano was arrested and escorted uncuffed to the police station, where he was booked, photographed and fingerprinted. Police also took a DNA sample to ensure that he was not a wanted criminal.

During the seven hours he spent in jail, Miano said he was interrogated about his faith in Jesus Christ, and was asked a series of questions.

"I was asked if I believe homosexuality is a sin. I was asked what portion of the Bible I was reading. I was asked that if a homosexual was hungry and walked up to me, would I give them something to eat."

Miano said Wednesday that he was hoping to get a copy of the interrogation, "because the world really needs to hear it."

On Thursday, he posted a transcript from the interrogation on his website, Cross Encounters.

Sports Fan International, the mission team that organized the evangelistic effort outside the Wimbledon tennis tournament, quickly retained attorney Michael Phillips of Christian Concern, an organization Miano described as being similar to the American Center for Law and Justice and Alliance Defending Freedom in the United States. Phillips relayed the bad news to Miano that he was facing 24 hours in jail, followed by prosecution, in which he could possibly be ordered to stay in England until the completion of his trial, which could last four to five months.

Miano said he then asked for his Bible and received a copy of the Gideon's Bible, and began reading from Acts 1-5, and explained that he found particular comfort in chapters 3-5. He also said he sang hymns inside his jail cell.

In time, Miano said a peace came over him. He later found out that although he was expecting the worst, the inspector had decided to release him "without further action." He was released just after midnight on Tuesday.

Virtueonline.org

BBC Says Christians Who Oppose Gay Marriage Are 'Damaging the Church'

How about "what GOD says..." 


The BBC thinks Christians who disagree with gay marriage are “throwbacks who are damaging the church,” according to one of its presenters.

Roger Bolton also said if the BBC interviews a Christian who objects to abortion on religious grounds, “they are treated as though they are just a bit barmy.”

Bolton was taking part in an official BBC Trust review of the breadth of opinion in the broadcaster’s output on various issues, including religion.

In an official report published by the Trust, Bolton said BBC journalists tend to see the gay marriage debate “in the context of equal rights.”

Bolton and others interviewed for the report “felt that conservatives on these subjects tend to be treated by interviewers as throwbacks who are damaging the Church and dragging it back into the past.”

The report stated, “The corporation seems to some to be self-evidently sympathetic to the idea of gay marriage.”

It noted that Christians frequently complain the BBC tiptoes around the sensitivities of Islam but happily mocks Christianity.

During Holy Week, the BBC broadcast a show about Christianity and comedy, promoting it with a press release that asked, “Is Christianity a Joke?”

The BBC Trust report asked, “Would a programme entitled ‘Is Islam a Joke?’ find its way into the schedules?”

And members of all religions complained that BBC journalists had “a disappointingly low level of basic knowledge about their faiths.”

The report said, “There is no excuse for this; it seems reasonable that any journalist employed by the BBC should be expected to have a basic knowledge of the main and larger minority religions, their beliefs and hierarchies.”

Audience research conducted for the report found that evangelicals think “the BBC is not just neutral but actively non-religious or secular in its attitude.”

They think the broadcaster should “treat religious views with respect, and occasionally with more patience.”
Charisma News

Arab countries take aim at Israel's alleged nuclear arsenal

VIENNA - Arab diplomats signaled on Tuesday they would seek to step up pressure on Israel over its assumed nuclear arsenal but the Jewish state said any attempt to "bash" it would be counterproductive.

Arab countries, angry at the lack of movement in efforts to move towards a Middle East free of nuclear weapons, have served notice they plan to target Israel for criticism at the UN atomic agency's annual member state gathering in September.

"We need to raise our frustration, we need to raise our concern about this issue," one Arab envoy in Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is based, said.

Israel's ambassador to the IAEA, Ehud Azoulay, told Reuters that Arab states "are taking a counterproductive route by raising this issue ... and trying to bash Israel".

In a letter to IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano, posted on the UN agency's web site, 18 Arab member states asked for "Israeli nuclear capabilities" to be included as an agenda item of the Sept. 16-20 gathering in the Austrian capital.

The IAEA meeting "must take appropriate measures to ensure that Israel places all its nuclear installations under agency safeguards and accedes to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons," the letter, dated in June, said.

Arab countries are considering putting forward a non-binding but symbolically important resolution on the issue after refraining from doing so at the previous two annual gatherings of the IAEA's 159 member countries, Arab diplomats said.

Such a move would likely draw a rebuke from the United States and its Western allies, which argue that singling out Israel for blame could undermine broader steps aimed at banning weapons of mass destruction in the volatile region.

Israel is widely believed to possess the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, drawing Arab and Iranian condemnation. It is the only regional country outside the global Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to prevent the spread of atomic arms.

Israel and the United States regard Iran as the world's main proliferation threat, accusing Tehran of covertly seeking a nuclear arms capability, something the Islamic state denies.

An Egyptian plan for an international meeting to lay the groundwork for creating a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction was agreed at an NPT review conference in 2010.

But the United States said late last year that the conference would not occur as planned in December 2012 and did not make clear when, or whether, it would take place. The United States, Britain and Russia are co-sponsors of the meeting.

"We are disappointed but we are still eager to convene the conference," the Arab envoy said.

US and Israeli officials have said a nuclear arms-free zone in the Middle East could not be a reality until there was broad Arab-Israeli peace and Iran curbed its nuclear program.

Israel's Azoulay said "the atmosphere in the Middle East" was not conducive to such a conference now. "You see what is happening in Syria, in Libya, in Iran, now in Egypt as well," he said, alluding to instability and bloodshed around the region.




Jerusalem Post

New Russian Air Defense System to Detect Missiles at Blastoff

MOSCOW, July 9 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s new aerospace defense system will ensure guaranteed detection of enemy ballistic and long-range cruise missiles at blastoff, a top military official said Tuesday.

General Staff chief Valery Gerasimov said the system would feature advanced information-gathering, data-processing and attack capabilities with an early-warning radar system to be deployed along the entire Russian border.

Other measures will include the modernization of existing surface-to-air missile systems and the provision of advanced S-400 and S-500 air defense systems, “capable of reliably protecting critical installations against air and missile attacks,” he said.

That will significantly enhance the survivability of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces, he added.

Priority in the organizational development of Russia’s armed forces through 2020 will be given to the strategic nuclear forces and the aerospace defense system, Gerasimov said.

Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces will continue to be equipped with advanced Yars ballistic missile systems featuring higher capabilities in overriding enemy missile defense systems, he said.

In mid-June, Russia’s prototype medium-range air defense system that should replace the S-300 was demonstrated to President Vladimir Putin. The Vityaz system, manufactured by the Almaz-Antei corporation, which will have a more advanced radar and a launcher with 16 missiles, compared with only four on the S-300, should enter service next year, Almaz-Antei chief designer Igor Ashurbeili previously told RIA Novosti.

The Vityaz will complement the Morfey, S-400 and S-500 air defense systems in Russia’s future aerospace defense network to engage targets at ranges from five to 400 kilometers, and at altitudes from five meters to near outer space.

In late May, Russia’s Aerospace Defense Forces conducted a series of snap drills that checked the combat readiness of aerospace defense units, air force units and air defenses in the Western Military District, as well as military transport and long-range aviation command. The exercises involved 8,700 people, 185 aircraft and 240 military vehicles.

RIA Novosti

Harry Reid: Insufficient Government Spending Hurts U.S. Economy

(CNSNews.com) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a press release Friday that insufficient government spending, caused by Republican "austerity policies" is hurting the U.S. economy and preventing a quicker recovery.

“We need to continue advancing policies that spur growth and create jobs," Reid said. "It's time for Republicans to let go of their failed austerity policies that weigh down our economy and prevent a speedier recovery. We simply can't cut our way to prosperity."

During President Barack Obama's first three years in office (2009, 2010, and 2011), according to the White House Office of Management and Budget, the federal government spent 25.2 percent, 24.1 percent, and 24.1 percent of GDP. That level of federal spending was unprecedented during a period when the nation was not in a World War.

During the eight years that George W. Bush was president for example (2001-2008), the federal government spent 18.2 percent, 19.1 percent, 19.7 percent, 19.6 percent, 19.9 percent, 20.1 percent, 19.7 percent, and 20.8 percent of GDP. At no time, during the Bush years, did federal spending hit even as high as 21 percent of GDP.

In 2012, under President Obama, federal spending was 22.8 percent, down from the 24.1 percent the federal government spent in 2011, but still at a very high level. Since World War II, there have been only two years--other than when Obama was president--that the federal government spent more than 22.8 percent of GDP. Those years were 1982 and 1983, when the government spent 23.1 percent and 23.5 percent.

Despite the high level of federal spending during the Obama administration, the U.S. has also experienced an unprecedented stretch of high unemployment. As CNSNews.com recently reported, May was the 54th straight month that the national unemployment rate, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, was 7.5 percent or higher. Those 54 months began in January 2009, the month Obama was first inaugurated. That is the longest stretch of unemployment at 7.5 percent or higher since BLS started reporting the monthly national unemployment rate in 1948.


See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/harry-reid-insufficient-government-spending-hurts-us-economy#sthash.53TSOJdI.dpuf