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MiGs, Stars & Magic Books: A Brief History of Trespassing in Moscow
An illustrated guide to urban exploration in the Russian capital.
18 February 2014
Built for a population in excess of a million – yet largely uninhabited to this day – it's little surprise that Ordos has earned itself the nickname of China's Ghost City.
In this report I'll be looking up-close at the Kangbashi New Area, the most recent addition to the city of Ordos; and by far its least populous district. Rather than photograph these buildings from afar though, when I visited Ordos in 2013 my plan was to get under the skin of this bizarre metropolis, examining it from inside, above and below.
In my recent post titled "Welcome to Ordos", I gave something of an introduction to the Ghost City – the region and its culture, China's swelling property market and the stillborn future metropolis of Ordos. I documented the old centre of Ordos (a run-down mess of unfinished apartments, office blocks, casinos, car parks and brothels), the most densely populated district of the city. I also introduced the Kangbashi New Area: taking a walk around the stylish, modern and utterly deserted Genghis Khan Square, right in the heart of Kangbashi.
By this point though, the walking tour was over, and it was time to see the real Ordos – to see what the BBC, Al Jazeera, the New York Times et al., had, in my opinion, failed to show. It was time to get off the approved footpaths, to start opening some doors and ignoring no entry signs, as we attempted to infiltrate the world's largest ghost town.
From Genghis Khan Square we turned east, crossing a patch of scrubland that I can only guess had been intended to some day burst into green grass. Soon a long, square building rose up to our right, decorated with complex ridges and textured beams along its hull. We figured it for a supermarket – though from the outside there were few clues as to what the building might contain… if it even contained anything.
Along this main road, a steady trickle of vehicles passed us on their way towards Dongsheng and its airport in the east. We needed to get away from the cars though, get out into the forest of unfinished towers, the shells of apartment buildings that rose out of the sand like dead trees in a drought.
Turning away from the road, weaving this way and that onto the smaller, narrower backstreets, we found our way into a residential estate. The buildings were linked here by a series of winding footpaths, the roads diverted around the block to leave a pedestrianised space at its heart. Paving stones formed a track through the shifting sand, looping from one building to the next amidst towering stacks of plastic-wrapped outdoor furniture; unassembled amenities piled in every corner, as if freshly tipped from the back of a lorry.
Turning the corner into a courtyard between tall, concrete towers, we passed a capsized statue: a modern, stylised figure of a mother and child, lain forgotten behind a stack of building materials.
It was clear how the small square had been envisaged, as comfortable, high-rise apartments facing in towards a communal garden area. Perhaps it would have featured flowers, fountains and benches when complete – perhaps it still will, some day. Impossible to tell.
Here and there between the buildings, the occasional glass-panelled box rose up out of the ground; each one of them featuring an elevator shaft or a flight of stairs heading downwards. Soon enough we found a lift shaft with a broken glass panel at the rear, and, squeezing through the gap we made our way swiftly down into the bowels of Kangbashi.
Beneath the street plan, a whole lower level of the city seemed to have been set aside for parking. It made sense, keeping the cars away from these residential zones by redirecting traffic underground instead. More and more we'd see just how much thought and planning had gone into the Kangbashi New Area.
The lights came on as we entered, and the long, wide tunnel ahead shone in shades of silver and green. There were two, maybe three parked cars in sight – and expensive looking ones at that. Despite these few lonely residents however, the whole place still had that freshly varnished look about it: not a footprint nor a tyre mark in sight.
Here and there along the tunnels, between the series of subterranean parking halls that fed one into another through a network of identical bulkhead doors, we'd see elevators leading back up towards the surface. I tried one – the lights fired up immediately, and we rode a lift right up into the building above.
If you're imagining a carpeted, stainless steel elevator, perhaps even fitted with a mirror, then you'd be wrong. This lift was little more than a plywood cage, a terrifying, creaking box that seemed to wobble as it rose… as if hoisted up by a rope slung over the branch of a tree.
First we had a look around the ground floor of the building; bare concrete for the most part, though all the lights came on at a touch. In the corner of a corridor, a massive fuse box was set into one raw, unplastered wall. I popped it open, the creaking cover unlocked, to reveal a vast array of crude solder joins and trailing, loose wires. I quickly snapped the lid closed again with the back of my hand.
Then, plucking up the courage, I knocked on the door of an apartment. No answer. I waited a while, knocked again, then slowly turned the handle. The door opened freely, and we took a look inside – at the dusty unfinished floors, the bare gypsum walls that formed the basic foundations of what had the potential to be a spacious family flat. In the largest room, beneath the window, a children's table and chairs had been arranged, set with plastic cups and bowls and chopsticks.
We tried a couple more homes – all of them the same – before making our way up to the highest level. Stepping out of the lift onto the 12th floor corridor, I found myself instinctively tiptoeing… as if sneaking past the occupants of a normal, busy building. Of course, the chances of anyone being home were next to zero; but then, the cars parked down below had presumably belonged to someone.
At the end of the corridor, around the corner, a flight of steps went upwards to a simple wooden door. It seemed too large to fit its frame, and so rather than being locked the exit was fastened tight with wire; a long tangle of stiff cable had been twisted around the door handle, looped about a stair rail and then tied up into a sharp and prickly mess. It took a few minutes of bending, twisting and bloody fingers before we were finally stepping out onto the roof of the apartment building.
Up until this point we'd been sheltered; contemplating only one empty street after another. From this height though, we finally started to get a sense of scale. Row after row after row of towers spread out around us, many of them no more than skeletons attended by rusty cranes. I began to realise for the first time quite how large this city was supposed to have been.
As good as the view was though, we were still shielded on all sides by taller builders. What we saw of the cityscape – the desert beyond – came to us in glimpses between the looming concrete shapes pressed in on all sides. I wanted to get higher still, to escape above the horizon and look down on the ghost city as a whole.
But for that, we were going to need a bigger building.
Heading back down to street level, we wandered for a while through the estates. Residential towers rose up around a series of consecutive dirt bowls, each one of them sown with the seeds of utopia, each one of them a doomed and withered crop. Reaching the end of the zone we hopped a fence and crossed the road; I guess by now we were heading northeast.
We walked along a main street, hemmed in on all sides by shops, apartment blocks, colourful school buildings and the vast bulk of Kangbashi Hospital. The occasional car or bike hummed past, but the pavements around us were empty save for the occasional crew of street sweepers. Even now, it was hard to get one's head around the idea that all of this was uninhabited.
On our right, we passed a police station. It met the typical Chinese design: a square, officious building set back behind a courtyard, a sentry box watching over the folding fence out front. It seemed hard to believe that even this station was unoccupied.
I didn't know which way to turn next, so consumed as I was with a desire to explore everything. Marching headlong into the police station seemed a leap too far, however… so we tried the hospital instead.
It was impossible to tell whether the building had seen use, or whether, like so much of the city, it had so far only welcomed the boots of construction crews. We decided to put it to the test.
Approaching the side of the hospital building we tried a small door, found it open, and ducked beneath the curtain that hung across within. Before us a narrow, grotty staircase led down several levels under the ground. We strolled on in, beneath electric lights that burned for no one, onwards and downwards to who knew what.
We never did find out. A babble of shouted words tumbled down the staircase behind us, hot from the mouth of an angry security guard. We tried reasoning with him – "just a few photos, yeah?" – but it clearly wasn't going to happen.
After being frogmarched back to the street by a man who could have passed as a Triad tough-guy in any Hollywood thriller, we crossed over the road, and made a beeline for our next target.
One of the signs on the building opposite said something about solicitors, though this concrete shell fell a long way short of a functioning office. The ground level was boarded up, but there was a small hole punched through the thin wooden veneer – so I ducked on through and slipped inside the building.
It was silent inside, a still, dusty space that could well have grown into a shopping centre in time. This first room fed through a doorway into a larger space beyond, and I swung around the corner almost headlong into a work crew. In true Chinese style, two men operated heavy tools while another five smoked and watched them. One of them looked up, caught my eye: I smiled back warmly, then backed out fast the way I had come.
By now we'd walked a fair distance from our last rooftop, and the towers now surrounding us rose significantly higher than the last batch – a good 20-or-so storeys. We decided to give it another go and so we nipped across the forecourt of a bare, plastic-fronted kindergarten, and into another residential estate.
There were roads between the buildings this time, a couple of cars parked on corners and even one in motion; its occupants eyeing us warily as they cruised on by. We made for one of the closest towers before trying the door, finding it open, and letting ourselves in.
This building was in a much better state than the last apartment block. The walls were finished, and several doors were decorated with the Chinese symbols for luck and fortune. We made straight for the lift and rode it to the top.
Upstairs, an open door led into a lavish apartment hung with chandeliers and textured wallpaper; an opulent penthouse suite. There were sounds of activity inside and so we crept past quickly, before taking the last flight of steps up to the roof. The door opened at a push, and we stepped out into the sky.
This rooftop was smaller than the last – just a square, open space, and a second door that opened onto the whirring, rusted mechanism that powered the lift. If the view from the top of the other block had been impressive though, this one was spectacular.
Ordos fell away beneath us: a wide, sweeping wasteland of empty towers and silent, disused streets. I tried looking out for signs of motion, clues to life in the metropolis. The odd car moved slowly along the main road, where it looped around the centre of Kangbashi to cross the Ordos bridge, and out towards Dongsheng – but for the most part, from this height, Kangbashi looked like a model city; its radical architecture reduced to novelty ornaments, its unfinished towers scattered like broken bricks across a sandpit.
Perhaps the biggest problem that presented itself now, was deciding on our next destination. We looked about us, turning in 360 degrees to take in the bridge, the high-rises, the city centre at Genghis Khan Square, the futuristic exhibition centre, the would-be residential estates fading off row after row into the desert… and then our eyes fell across the newly-built Kangbashi sports centre.
The green pitch seemed to glow through the heat haze, the brightly coloured seating unfolding around it like the petals of a strange desert orchid. We made a mental note of the direction, of the landmarks that would lead us – street by street – to the city's sports ground; and then we made our way back down to the street.
Coming out of the estate and back onto the main road, at first we retraced our footsteps; back past the hospital, the building sites and the police station, back in the direction of the colourful sports grounds.
When we'd passed the police station earlier, we had still been courting disbelief – trying in vain to process the desolation, the utter emptiness of Kangbashi. It simply hadn't seemed possible. Besides, a lifetime's worth of social programming had told me not to attempt to trespass on what might turn out to be a live police station.
By now though, we'd passed through the stage of tentative disbelief, and into one of absolute freedom – the slow-dawning realisation that virtually everything in Kangbashi was open to be explored. So, crossing the road to the open gates, we checked the empty street around us before stepping over the threshold into the police station's forecourt. It was just as empty as we'd expected, not a car nor an officer in sight.
We were just ambling across to the main building, when a voice behind us called out something in Chinese. At first, we instinctively guessed we'd been caught… but as it turned out the voice belonged to a caretaker. More than anything else, the man was simply surprised to see foreign faces here in Ordos.
My companion spoke reasonable Chinese, and so we were able to have a conversation with the man. He told us he was part of the maintenance crew, and offered to give us a tour of the place. It seemed like the novelty of showing visitors around his little corner of the Ghost City was just too exciting an experience to pass up. We walked, and our new friend took great pleasure in pointing out the elaborate features around us – while explaining how much each one had cost to install.
"Four thousand Quai!" he said, laughing at a large ceramic pot inlaid with traditional Mongolian figures. That's about £400.
It was clear that this man saw Kangbashi as one colossal folly. He would quote prices, then wave his arms about at the empty streets, his gestures doing much to communicate the madness of such grandiose investment in a ghost town. We followed him through the station compound, past glass panes that opened onto empty offices; between the virgin buildings and through to the rear, where the police station backed onto a school.
A series of colourful sculptures had been placed in one corner of the yard, apparently united by the theme of apples. Isaac Newton's face appeared engraved on one giant, metal fruit – another installation bore the familiar profile of Steve Jobs.
"Ten thousand Quai!" laughed our guide. He seemed to find the concept of Kangbashi hilarious; although judging from his clean-cut appearance, his smart and comfortable clothes, the ghost town nevertheless kept its workers in decent money.
The man led us through a courtyard, around the back of the school buildings, and suddenly there it was: the yard opened up into a wide, grassy playing field, flanked on one side by raised seating.
On the edge of the grass pitch – regularly mowed, yet never used – we were pointed towards a series of bronze statues. The figures showed children in traditional Chinese dress, frozen in play as the pink silk scarves tied about their necks flapped noisily in the wind.
"Fifty thousand Quai!" the man giggled, ecstatic, before explaining to us that the silk scarves were washed and replaced on a weekly basis.
At this point our guide suddenly bid us farewell, explaining that he had other duties to attend to. He told us to feel welcome though, and invited us to explore the rest of the facilities. We assured him we would, before making our way towards the raised seating and the building underneath.
It was a strange feeling to walk past those rows of plastic seats and know that none of them had ever been sat on; past the green grass so neatly marked with white boundary lines and penalty zones, a well-kept pitch which had never yet known a ball.
A passage opened beneath and between the rows, to lead deep within the seating block. We followed it through to a pair of glass doors, marked with a sign reading, 'Young Pioneers Activity Room'. My friend Gareth, the owner of Young Pioneer Tours, burst into a childish grin as he posed for a photo beneath. Naturally the door was open (we were yet to find a single locked door in Ordos), and so we headed on inside.
The first room we entered, bizarrely, appeared to be a ballet studio. Light filtered in through pink, silken drapes, to cast the mirrored walls and polished floors in an almost supernatural aura of opulence. Next door, a trophy room – shelves lined one wall in miniature cast figurines, their bases left blank and ready for inscription.
We wandered from room to room, admiring the facilities. This was a fully fledged sports centre, ready to open its doors at any moment. One room held a case of basketballs, all brand new and with the smell of freshly formed rubber still clinging to them.
The next was a music studio – a computer sat in one corner was hooked up to a small indoor PA system, complete with microphones and an eight-track mixing desk. Scattered about the various tables lay an assortment of trumpets, drums and guitars.
As we explored, I tried to estimate the total value of the items that lay scattered about the centre: I got into the thousands before I gave up trying. It was simply baffling to think that anyone could have walked in from the street, tried any one of the unlocked doors, and wandered straight inside; exactly as we had done, in fact. The lack of security around the sports centre – around Kangbashi as a whole – was like nothing I had ever seen.
But then, there simply wasn't anybody on the streets to wander straight inside. Kangbashi is so remote, so isolated, that there seemed to be an general assumption that nobody could be here without a very good reason. After all, why would thieves and vandals travel to an empty city in the Ordos Desert?
After the sports ground we headed north, past unfinished statues, their scaffold still attached, into a hidden courtyard where a vast monument reared up above us: a silver globe, adorned by a suspiciously Soviet-esque star. Eventually we emerged onto a main road, reaching the space-age silver domes of the Kangbashi Exhibition Centre.
Taking a quick look inside, we stumbled across locals engaged in fierce pingpong tournaments. I picked up a brochure which touted Ordos as the 'Brave City of The Future'.
Our last stop was a restaurant: we'd been walking for a full day, and it was time to refuel. A sign near the exhibition centre pointed towards a fast food restaurant and we followed it to a seemingly unfinished building, whose automatic doors nevertheless sprung open at our approach.
We walked inside to be met by silence. The place was set up ready for service, tables laid and lights burning bright… but there was nobody to be seen. Gareth inspected the menu as I ducked behind the bar, checking out the wide range of beverages on offer. Amusing as it was to entertain the notion of a free bar, we were both painfully hungry – and so we resolved to try another floor.
The lift took us up one level, to an open-plan office: desks and computers, water coolers and potted plants, but not a sign of life. We had almost given up by the time we reached the third floor. The lift doors opened in silence, and then suddenly we were being welcomed in by a team of uniformed staff. I found myself wondering how long they had stood on ceremony, waiting like automatons for a customer to arrive.
As we waited for our noodles – and after that, the flight back to Beijing – we reflected on our time in the Ghost City.
Over the course of our 24 hours in Ordos, we had tried every door within reach – and not one of them had been locked. We'd seen virtually no one out of uniform, and no sign whatsoever of the authorities. Even the few security guards we'd met had been so surprised at the appearance of foreigners, as to have more or less forgotten their duties. The homes and facilities, meanwhile, ranged from concrete shells to sheer luxury; and yet, in all that time we saw nothing with the appearance of having been lived in.
The thing that really got me thinking though, was the sheer size of the city. If the freedom we'd experienced was anything to go by, it would take weeks – months, even – to explore the whole metropolis. Our day had been spent on rooftops, in office buildings and sports halls… but had we simply picked another direction, it could just as easily have been factories, colleges or law courts; churches, mosques, prisons, pools, shopping centres or train depots.
I've been to ghost towns before, and large ones at that – just last September I took a tour of Pripyat, for example, in Ukraine's Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Kangbashi is like nothing else, however. While perhaps this unfinished city is less elegant, less historical, less tragic, less decayed or moreover less photogenic than sites such as Pripyat, the sense of freedom it offers is unique.
While I'm interested in every aspect of urban exploration, for me, the emphasis has always been on the exploration part… and not only is Ordos 200 times larger than the infamous city of Pripyat, but it is virtually unknown to foreigners. For an urban explorer then, Ordos is a vast, alien playground that offers nothing but discovery.
Suffice to say, I can see myself visiting Ordos again.
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Now it is 2021. What do you thing has changed? Will you go again?
Mate, you should go back with a drone… Excellent stuff.
Very impressive. Thanks and best regards, Manostaxx
Why have ppl left the place? I dont read any ghost stories or reasons why they would leave such a quiet place.
When was this article made?
Informative and beautifully mystical at the same time..
Utterly fascinating. Glad I googled and found your real post rather than settling for the clickbait that caught my eye.
I love your work. This post was most fascinating. Loved it! Thank you for sharing your travels with the world. Pam.
I think you gave me the most off-beat reason to head to China. It's overwhelming looking at your photos and calculating the manpower/materials/management used to construct this place; as a matter of fact it started to make my head hurt when I realized how much detail work was done.
I agree. This has made me want to travel there also.
My heart was in my stomach reading entry after entry explaining the hard work left abandon.
This article will forever be on my mind.
Amazing article! Just want to thank you for writing this up!
Very fascinating article! This would be a very cool place to visit for a while. It would be interesting to go by the really tall buildings (I believe you mentioned 40-50 stories tall? Or I read elsewhere) and take some pictures. Get an even better idea (picture wise) how big the city is. Anyway, great job!
I see the city and its surroundings and consider its location and I cannot help but wonder if China is secretly (or not so) expecting to be the last habitable place on earth …… Far fetched I know… It just looks like they are building lifeboats for the human race…. Perhaps I am being too influenced by science fiction…. think Zardoz meets Logans Run meets The Matrix and Blade Runner
Really interesting story and photos!! Exactly when were you there?
Excellent photos and commentary. Too bad you couldn't have spent a week or two exploring Ordos more completely, it would have been fun to see more of this ghost city. Thanks for the considerable effort and expense you invested in producing this great photojournalistic tour.
You should definitely come visit Ordos Kangbashi again. You wouldn't believe the change. We have lived here for just over a year and will be here a while longer. It is now busy and bustling and many of the empty and unfinished buildings are being completed and filling up and new construction is starting. The difference between June 2014 and June 2015 is incredible. Many new people moving here to get away from the busy, polluted big cities. The Ghosts are pretty much gone and we have thoroughly enjoyed our time in this beautiful city.
Excellent writing and observation! I spent six weeks in Ordos in 2012, helping stage the TV coverage of Miss World, which the Ordos local government had 'bought' to the region. The stadium was vast, unfinished and without running water: just the thing for 116 beautiful women. The strangest thing is that no one believes you when you speak of the empty skyscrapers, empty shopping malls and empty restaurants! I, too, would love to go back in 10 years to see what has become of Ordos. Ian Hamilton
They are just repeating our (American) mistakes. Hopefully we will a learn. Hopefully.
By total coincidence I'm going there on Wednesday! I'm visiting a factory on Thursday that I do business with that happens to be a few hours from the city. I will definitely be spending an afternoon exploring. I'm buying an electric long board day before so I'm going to skate the empty streets of Ordos! Seems like a good place to get to know my new board.
Thanks for the info. I hope the fact I don't speak Mandarin isn't too much of an issue.
Because of your report sir, I am moving to kangbashi as soon as the money fits the trip. Your review of the city made me feel like it was a place where anything was possible. I cant wait to go.
thanks for the post it really good and liked it, well post,,
Hi, I really enjoyed this article! My girlfriend has a government job in Ordos (yes there is a functioning government there).
She never said what her job is, but all she does is sit in a room with a computer all day. Mind-numbingly dull!
She tells me the city is the size of half a province! I find that hard to believe but she has offered to act as my guide if I want to explore it.
Thank you for sharing. Like you, I am also somewhat drawn to the dark and fascinating aspects of travel and tourism, but a lone female photojournalist like me in an alien location is more fraught with risks. So keep safe in your travels and share more. 🙂
this has been a great story to read and the first one was as well, i envy the freedom you had in such a large place, iv always wondered what a city would be without people, and now i feel i have a better understanding, i said i would never go to a city for vacation, but ordos has made my list. thanks for documenting such a wild place, but i do wish the money spent there could have gone to alot better cause's kinda sad but you cant win them all
Being involved in civil engineering and construction, I still can't even omprehend the amount of money that was spend to plan, design, and build this amazing city. We are talking about billion and billions of dollars that were spent. Then to think that it is, by most means, being wasted by simply standing there, lifeless. It is hard to grasp this reality, especially when one visits other places where people would give anything to simply have a place to live and/or give them shelter. If those billions and billions of dollars were spent in some other way, say research, important infrastructure projects, schools, etc, it could have had the opportunity to change the world. But for now it is all an area were exploring junkies like us can go and get their fix of weird adventures and awesome sites.
Excellent article! You get into so many places and cover so much. You describe the area perfectly. It's exactly how you tell. I just visited Ordos last week. You definitely need a few days to explore this area. A bike would have been nice. We only spent the day there and were pooped by the end of the day.
My recommendation to people who visit independently is to stay in Dongsheng and catch the local bus in. Between Ordos and Dongsheng are some interesting places, like a half finished stadium and an industrial parks. Dongsheng's a strange place too with some classic duplicated apartment blocks and lots of unfinished projects.
Thanks for the article! Inspired my trip!
Very good piece here Darmon. It reminds of a story from the Martian Chronicles except for public servants instead of robots in place to take care of an empty city. So ironic considering that cities like Shanghai and Beijing are ridiculously overcrowded but yet here stands a ghost city that likely may never be filled.
Having traveled to China a number of times I can understand 'why' the urban developers would consider starting a city like this from scratch. So many of the cities in China are desperately trying to build new infrastructure on top of centuries old urban areas. I can see them figuring it would be better to just start fresh and not have to rebuild. I guess the planners simply thought 'if we build it, they will come.' Shame too from the photos the city itself looks nice.
I've never gotten around to reading The Martian Chronicles! Might have to go dig out some Bradbury now… love your metaphor.It's not like this plan hasn't worked in other places, of course. China is always popping new cities up out of the ground, then there are successful new-build cities like Astana, in neighbouring Kazakhstan.I guess this time it was an oversight. The prices were too high, it's too far away from anything. And yeah, real shame – the place is beautiful, really great example of 21st century urban planning.
I'm always fascinated to see photos of Ordos, top job mate. Have you seen that video a couple of skaters made there? Absolutely fantastic!
The Red Bull one? Yeah, that was amazing!
Thanks so much for this. I seriously want to move there. Do you know if foreigners can buy a condo there?
As far as I know, they can. There are brochures in some of the hotels and the exhibition centre, advertising the potential for property investment in Kangbashi. I'd imagine it's no harder than it would be to buy an apartment anywhere else in China. I'm sort of considering it myself…
You still didn't uncover the face of Kangbashi which you had wanted to initially. Your report is largely a descriptive one of the physical features of Kangbashi, you didn't really dig deeper as to how such a big city could have been so abandoned.
Hi Emily, thanks for the comment… I feel you're inserting your own meaning into my words, though. I said I wanted to "dig deeper," and I feel I did exactly that; given that my goal was always to investigate the physicality of the place. It's far from an exhaustive report, of course, in no small part due to the vast size of the place in question.
You seem to interpret "digging deeper" differently though, as offering more of a socio-economic explanation for the state of this city. If you do find an account that satisfies your definition, I'd be grateful if you could post a link here. While that really isn't my field (remember I'm a travel writer, not an economist), I'd still be fascinated to read it.
I traveled to Kangbashi on a research grant through my university, and these photos truly capture the feeling of many areas of the district. They're beautiful, and they make me wish I'd spent more time chancing arrest just to see more. However, my experience of the emptiness of Kangbashi was slightly different. I spent a week exploring in early August last summer and was actually surprised by the amount of company I had. This led me to question several of the student workers in the museum and library about traffic, and they reported that they see several hundred people a day–over tourist season. Kangbashi is certainly selling itself as a destination spot amongst the growing Chinese tourism industry, and I believe that this is where the future of the city is really headed (having spent enough time in Beijing, I'd certainly make the trip for a few days of peace, quiet and clean air in Ordos).
Did you have a chance to pick up a palace-shaped brochure, filled with upcoming attractions? It's really fascinating. If you do choose to visit again I'd recommend that you stay in Dongsheng and commute to Kangbashi if only to compare the atmosphere and see the number of full buses going back and forth every twenty minutes.
Thank you Bailey, I'm really flattered by your kind words! Particularly coming from someone who has seen Kangbashi with their own eyes.
As for "chancing arrest," I really don't know – I mean, I didn't see police in all the time I was there, and mostly I just got the impression that nobody cared what we were doing.
Whereabouts in the city were you? I saw there were some busy restaurants and cafes in old Ordos, as well as some in the centre of Kangbashi. The museum also, seemed to have a fairly constant stream of people coming in and out.
Personally, I was interested in finding the empty parts. It wasn't hard, either – just a short walk into the unfinished suburbs of Kangbashi, and we were soon completely alone.
I did pick up the brochure, yes… and I mentioned in the first part of this report the plaque that described Ordos as the "Outstanding tourism city of China", or something like that. Just weird.
I would be very interested in returning sometime in the future, and perhaps doing what you did – instead of focussing on the empty districts, spending more time talking to the people who are there, and finding out more about the small yet fascinating culture of the city.
Thanks again for an interesting comment! Always good to hear an alternate perspective.
I've been trying to get a clear picture on Kangbashi and now I have! This article conveys a lot of the atmosphere, I think.
Good – that was my main goal here. Thanks for the comment!
Hey! Fantastic article – thanks!
Was thinking if you know about any academic literature on this phenomenon – either case studies like yours or anything general on "ghost cities" as such.
If you come up with something, it'll be well appreciated 😉
Fantastic article. I read this with awe in the sense of investment lost in building such a large city on speculation alone. It would be interesting to see aerial photography of the area to get a good idea of the overall size. I can only imagine the look of surprise you faced with inhabitants when you ran into them. Just amazing! Thanks for your efforts!
Thanks for the kind words, Chris – and yes, it looks crazy from above. Go and check Ordos out on Google Maps, and you'll see just how vast these unfinished regions of the city really are.
Your excellent visual tour reminds me of Percy Shelley's poem "Ozymandias": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias
Nicely done, I feel like I have been there and share in the sense of wonder you experienced.
…Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Yes, I think I can see where you're going with that comparison. Thanks for the insightful comment, and I'm glad you enjoyed the tour.
Fascinating. Makes me wonder how fun it would be to bring a motorcycle or bicycle there to be more mobile, you could ride it anywhere…
You're absolutely right, that would be the way to do it. Next time…!
So strange! Where do the workers live? There must be a whole underground society that feeds, shelters and entertains the working class. Reminds me of that Will Smith movie "I am Legend"! Let's hope there are no strange genetically mutated monsters waiting in the underground parking garages.
I'm happy to say that I certainly didn't run into any genetically mutated monsters during my visit.
I believe most of the workers live in Old Ordos, along with the vast crew of people who provide them with entertainment, food, accommodation, and so on.
Fascinating read! Pulling Ordus up on Google Maps reveals the totally massive scale that you eluded to – it's staggering. For example there appear to be multiple completed sports stadiums – all appear to have similar very well manicured pitches…. The interesting thing is that there does appear to be small pockets of habitation with a few buildings appearing to have at least a decent # of cars parked next to them. Areas to explore during your next visit!…
Thank you, David. There were quite a few sports grounds and stadiums around the city, the one we visited was simply the easiest to reach. I'm amazed by the level of maintenance that must go into keeping the place in this condition, with so much of the city ready to burst into life at any moment.
As I mentioned, the old centre of Ordos is quite well populated. So as you say, having written this report, it would be very interesting to go back again and focus instead on the life and culture of those inhabited areas.
Perfect post apocalyptic movie setting – the film industry should be interested…
I know… if they fail to recoup their investments any other way, the developers should be seriously thinking about talks with Hollywood.
I read about this ghost city before, but nowhere in such depth, up close and personal.
Great Job!
Thank you for both articles (This one and part 1)!
Thanks Abe! There have been quite a few articles written about this place in the past, but like you say, none of them in much depth… hence my inspiration for visiting. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Great photos! Wish we had read it before writing about it recently. Could have used some of this info.
Well, if you decide to write anything about it again in future, let me know! Glad you enjoyed the photos.
Truly incredible report. Thanks so much!
You're very welcome Andy, thanks for the kind words.
What a truly bizarre, place. You've nicely captured the eerie atmosphere of the deserted city. Another top post.
Thank you, Dale. Like I said in the post, what I saw was just one tiny fraction of the city – and I navigated the whole thing more or less at random. It's amazing to think how differently the report could have turned out, if I'd walked in the opposite direction… definitely a place to revisit sometime!
Great Blog. Thoroughly enjoyed reading your eloquent descriptions and looking at your wonderful photos. Keep up the good work!
Thanks a lot for the kind words! Really appreciate the feedback.
wow thoroughly enjoyed reading that, Fascinating yet bizarre, would be awesome to check out.
Thanks Craig, it really is a weird place. If you ever fancy it, I do highly recommend a visit to Kangbashi.
Funnily enough, while a lot of the places I write about are trying to keep people out, this one will be positively glad to see you!
Oh how I would love to explore there also. But age and distance say no. I really appreciate your work.
Thank you. One of the reasons I prefer to write long-form pieces like this, is to give as full a sense of the experience as possible – I appreciate not everyone has the time to get to these places for themselves. Glad to hear you're enjoying the results!
See all 93 comments on "Getting Under the Skin of Kangbashi: China's Ghost City"
An illustrated guide to urban exploration in the Russian capital.
Poltergeists, ritual murder & a live-in succubus – the 1000-year-old pub with a ghostly reputation
A month-long monument hunt, and what I learned along the way.


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jackstilgoe.wordpress.com. He is on twitter @jackstilgoe
this press release from the Royal Society. The Royal Society is the UK's national academy of sciences. It is the world's longest-running national academy and remains one of our most esteemed scientific institutions. There is much that is amazing about the place and much that is utterly bizarre.
Following recent pronouncements on policy issues ranging from climate change, human population, geoengineering, food security and the value of science, the Society has seen fit to pronounce that the refrigeration is the best innovation in the history of food.
The list that the committee of fellows ("including a Nobel Prize Winner"!) came up with seems rather odd. It mixes innovations and inventions in a rather slapdash way. One can argue about the relative positioning of, say, the microwave and plough, or the absence of the Spork. But that's not the point.
When I was working in the Royal Society's policy outfit, we were acutely aware of the attention (some of it deserved) that the institution's pronouncements would attract. We would occasionally smirk at the efforts of learned societies of one sort or another to draw attention to themselves. The Royal Society of Chemistry in particular was fond of stunts such as honouring dead, fictional detectives, identifying the nation's cheapest lunch or inventing topically-convenient molecules. Those last two stories come from the Daily Mail, a mid-market right-wing British tabloid that would conventionally be uninterested in the musings of our scientific elite. And the Mail have swallowed the Royal Society's latest offering as well. The press department will today be congratulating themselves on having spread the word to a normally disengaged audience.
So why does this sort of thing matter? Surely it's fair game for any institution to draw attention to itself from time to time, even if the reason is to nakedly market its own events facilities? My argument, and the reason I agreed to write in public about this, is that it matters a very great deal when organisations that make claims to some sort of authority use that authority in opaque ways for shady purposes. When people or institutions speak in the name of science when there is no scientific foundation, we should be wary. PR companies are well aware that a scientific-looking conclusion or equation can grab the attention of lazy journalists in the less-discerning news organs.
The Royal Society does not have a democratic mandate. Its legitimacy (threatened as it is by these sorts of stunts) derives from claiming to represent the best that science has to offer. So when the Society states that a committee of its fellows ("including a Nobel Prize Winner"!) has decreed something, it expects the world's attention. This sort of press release gives the impression that, like the Wizard of Oz, while there is a big booming voice, there may not be much going on behind the curtain.

subset: commoncrawl


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We are a congregation of baptized believers. We unashamedly believe that the historical person called, Jesus of Nazareth, was the Son of God. We further believe that Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity and that forgiveness, reconciliation with God, and eternal life are only gained by believing in Jesus Christ and his sacrificial death on the cross.
We strive to be a church that cares. We care about our members and about people outside of our church. We care about people because we want to introduce them to God. Our church is far more than four walls, because our love for Crescent and God motivates us to connect them to one another. Living out these principles results in our church having several ministries.


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About Crosswalk.com Money
- Scott Fehrenbacher Crosswalk.com CEO & President
- 1998 9 Oct
Proverbs 24:27
Building a house, whether it is a spiritual house or the bricks & mortar kind, requires a great deal of planning. Creating a sound financial base takes patience and planning as well. Before you build your financial house, invest some time to become comfortable with the financial and scriptural principles of saving and investing.
I invite you to visit all of the areas here at the Money Channel. I think you will find that there is something for everyone.
Our Education and Planning resources offer simple-to-sophisticated planning tools and information at no cost or commission. In fact, you don't even have to sign up for an evening class or visit someone's office to take advantage of these insights. At crosswalk.com, the information is here when you need it and at your convenience.
You will find access to exclusive insights and information from a select group of Christian financial experts that is unavailable anywhere else. Together, they represent over two centuries of experience dealing with individual investors at their point of need. These are not articles reprinted from books or speeches. These are not columns from Wall Street "experts" who have never sat across the desk from individuals who feel vulnerable in seeking a stranger's advice for investing their own personal nest egg.
No. You will find our group, known as the crosswalk.com "Web Faculty" to be investment professionals, seasoned in scripture, and easy to learn from. In fact, you can talk back to them and ask questions as often as you want in our Money Channel forums.
In addition to our traditional financial planning and investment experts, we will soon be providing access to one of the most advanced educational curriculums for kids on the understanding of money.
Invite your children to participate. In fact, you might enjoy playing the virtual stock market game as well. See how you do while you get a feel for real market results. Invest some "virtual" dollars and your pretend portfolio will be updated with live market prices to see how you would have done in the real world.
Go and prepare your financial fields.
Scott Fehrenbacher
Manager of the Money Channel


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Wolfgang Beringer
Marketing and Communication
- Telefone+49 7391 502-0
- Fax+49 7391 502-3403
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Crane contractor Helling based in Schwäbisch Gmünd in southern Germany provided an object lesson in the perfect use of crane equipment and synergies in large wind farms. A Liebherr LTR 1220 telescopic crawler crane which was at the site anyway for set-up work, was used by Helling as a counterweight for lowering and erecting the large LR 1600/2 crane rather than the usual ballast blocks. If the topography and farmers allow, the smaller crane can also be used to move the large crane to the next turbine.
Markus Helling, Managing Director of Helling GmbH, is not only a graduate engineer, but also a bit of a tinkerer. Because, like many of his fellow contractors, the erection of wind turbines is one of the main parts of his crane service business, he constantly strives to improve procedures in wind farms. Together with the experts from Liebherr, Helling helped to develop the concept for using the 200 tons heavy LTR 1220 as ballast for the main crane. The benefits of this are quite obvious. Firstly it means a massive reduction in set-up times because there is no need to add and remove the suspended ballast. Secondly, "I can save on eight transport units for the ballast, which is only required for the set-up process but not for the hoisting work in between – in other words for erecting and lowering the LR 1600/2 and each time it is moved", says Helling.
His crane is generally used to hoist the top steel tower sections on to the prefabricated concrete towers and then to hoist the actual turbine sections. That was the cases for this job near to the Rhine-Hesse town of Alzey for the erection of a Senvion wind turbine with a hub height of 128 metres. A site report:
After assembling the rotor and completing the system on the previous day, the team from Helling started work at around midday. They started preparations to lower the crawler crane's lattice boom, which, including the 12-metre fixed jib, has an overall length of 150 metres.
Noon: After dismantling the central ballast on the LR 1600/2, the telescopic crawler crane was moved behind the large crane and positioned for use as counter-ballast.
12:30 pm: The LTR 1220 is suspended on the derrick boom and is docked to the pulley head using an adapter on the rear of the 600-tonne crane. The lowering of the enormous lattice boom can begin.
13:45: The main boom is on the ground, the LTR 1220 is detached again.
16:00: The suspended ballast pallet is on the LR 1600/2 and contains some ballast.
16:30: The LTR 1220 has been attached to the lattice boom on the large crane and is holding a load of around 34 tonnes. The large crawler crane manoeuvres out of the site.
17:20: The journey begins. The two cranes drive over the fields. The LTR 1220 follows the large crawler crane with the boom on its hook.
19:10: The cranes have travelled around 1200 metres and arrive at the next site.
22:00: Towering high into the air, the LR 1600/2 is in position for the next day's work.
It normally takes three and a half to four days to move the LR 1600/2 to the next site if the crawler crane has to be dismantled, transported and then erected again. The smart use of the LTR 1220 as a "relocation aid" saves Helling an enormous amount of time.
Marketing and Communication
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I've rambled about this before and still feel strongly about the importance of apps in Ubuntu. We all need to put some work into this to make apps in Ubuntu truly rock. The good news is: you can help and you're not alone!
The App Review Board has been hard at work, but they need help. So how does this work? If you have packaging experience and would like to help, you can join
- #ubuntu-arb on irc.freenode.net
- the app-review-board mailing list
- the ~ubuntu-app-review-contributors team
The ARB have documented their guidelines and responsibilities. These docs you might want to review before joining to truly see if this is for you.
So what has been happening lately? The ARB team and helpers have been busy reviewing their queue, helping app authors to get their packages ready and perfecting the documentation and tools.
I have put together the apps-brancher, a tool which downloads apps and pushes branches to Launchpad. If you check out the status update I sent to the mailing list earlier, you can see where things currently stand. The wiki page explains how to use it. The great thing about this tool is that it makes use of pkgme, so even if a submitted app does not contain any packaging, we might have a good chance that pkgme can do the job for us.
As you can see, these are very exciting times. We not only review apps and make Ubuntu shine with new gems, but also work on infrastructure and tools which will make the tasks easier for future generations.
We hope to see you on the IRC channel and mailing list and help making apps in Ubuntu truly rock!


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Doing Goods
Betty Bunny Gift Hanger
Somebunny loves you
Material Sheep wool, backside made of cotton
Origin India
Size 27 x 17,5 x 2 cm
All our products are handmade with love.
Due to the handcrafted nature of this item, expect slight variation in the appearance of each piece.
The Tapis Amis collection is our very own collection of rugs, a quirky range of lovable loonies from the animal kingdom that will make you smile every time.
These cute whimsical gift hangers will adorn any wall or door. Bringing some cheer to your bedroom, nursery, or living.
All our Tapis Amis rugs are exclusive Doing Goods design. Copyright © Doing Goods.
All rights reserved.
A little shedding is a normal process that occurs with natural fiber rugs; it should subside after a few vacuum cleanings.
With small stains, clean immediately with an absorbent white cloth or you can use luke warm water and carefully try to clean the stain.
Professionally dry-clean for best results.


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Happy Birthday
Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. hasn't had the easiest year: the paper's revenues are declining, hedge funds have taken hold of two seats on the Times Co. board, and he moved out of his Central Park West apartment when he split up with his wife of more than 20 years. Hopefully he'll be in a better mood today when Bill Keller wheels in a giant birthday cake to celebrate Sulzberger's 57th birthday. Others celebrating today: Art work fixture (and Studio Museum chief curator) Thelma Golden is 43. NBA commissioner David Stern is 66. Shubert Organization chairman Gerald Schoenfeld is 84. Bonnie Hunt is 44. Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli is 50. Retired Rangers star Mike Richter is turning 42. And Scott Baio is 47 years old.


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Big Daddy
Senior Member
- Messages
- 10,446
- Likes
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- PNW (Left) Coast
In case the word didn't get out, it's convertible day at BMW. First they throw down with the new BMW M3 Convertible, and then they show their ace card the new 2009 BMW 1-Series Convertible. The littlest BMW is sporting a hot new powered drop-top and the teeming masses are all over it like gooey French cheese. Seriously, It took 15 minutes to hack away at the crowd to get decent pictures. Anyway, as expected, the top drops away silently and smoothly into the trunk leaving about as much space as you need for a day bag.
The models were kind enough to run it up and down for us a couple of times and it seems to work well. The interior is same as on the current car, but the headliner is a strange stretchy cloth that does the job of covering up the top's inner workings. The little trim detail which runs along the edge of the top is a nice brushed piece of stainless steel, adding to the overall precise look nicely. Now if only they can down what is sure to be a ridiculously high price tag.


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The patient, dying of metastatic cancer, had arrived at the hospital several weeks earlier in agony. But doctors at Brigham and Women's Hospital fashioned a medication regimen that at last eased her suffering, and on the day she was transferred to a rehabilitation hospital, they recalled seeing her smile.
Hours later, the patient was back in the Brigham emergency department, and once again in excruciating pain. Delays in transferring her, a language barrier, and a communications breakdown between doctors meant she did not get her medications on time.
Hospitals typically keep missteps like this quiet. But the Brigham openly recounted this mistake, and the improvements it led to, in a monthly online newsletter for its 16,000 employees. Brigham leaders started the publication to encourage staff to talk openly about their mistakes and propose solutions, and help make sure errors are not repeated.
While many hospitals post information on their websites about patient infections and falls, they rarely provide details of medical errors or candidly discuss with their entire staff how medical mistakes harmed patients. Executives fear the public will find out, sparking lawsuits and scaring off patients.
This reluctance, patient safety advocates warn, may be hampering the push to reduce medical errors because there is not wide discussion of how mistakes happen and can be prevented.
"Open-faced transparency is really valuable to staff at an institution because it causes them to know themselves better," said Paul O'Neill, a member of the Lucian Leape Institute at the National Patient Safety Foundation, a nonprofit research organization based in Boston. But few, if any, other hospitals are doing anything like what the Brigham does, he said: "Unfortunately, I would say it's highly unusual."
The Brigham doesn't make the newsletters readily available to the public — but it doesn't hide them either; it gave the Globe all issues. The Brigham began publishing "Safety Matters" online in January 2011 on its employee intranet and will start distributing paper copies in staff lounges, conference rooms, and other gathering spots later this spring — a move that some hospital administrators initially opposed because they worried about scaring patients.
Most issues tell a story of medical care gone awry through interviews with caregivers and often with patients, and describe the hospital's response, such as adopting a better transfer process following the case of the cancer patient. Patients are not named, to protect their privacy. Caregivers also are anonymous because hospital leaders do not want to discourage them from reporting problems.
"Other institutions are putting data out there but we are pushing the envelope with our story-telling,'' said Dr. Allen Kachalia, associate chief quality officer. "Many patients have just been surprised that we've been asking them their side of the story.''
Linda Kenney, who was the subject of a medical error at the Brigham in the late 1990s and is a board member of the National Patient Safety Foundation, said the most common complaint she hears from caregivers when speaking at hospitals is that when they report an error, they never hear back about fixes. "I like the idea the Brigham is encouraging people to speak up,'' she said.
Still, while openness about medical errors benefits patients who are harmed, by making it easier to provide them support and compensation, it is unclear whether transparency has lessened errors at the Brigham or nationally.
O'Neill, a former US treasury secretary, has urged President Obama to require Veterans Affairs hospitals to post online daily all infections, falls, and medication errors, and when caregivers are injured, during the previous 24 hours — a step he believes the Brigham and other hospitals should take, too. "If it's in real time, it causes people inside to pay the highest level of attention to what is going on,'' he said.
Dr. Joshua Kosowsky, vice chairman for clinical affairs in the Brigham emergency department, said the Safety Matters newsletter grabs staff attention in a way other approaches to transparency do not. One issue featured a woman who waited in the emergency room for several hours with abdominal pain, and then left for another hospital, where she got an appendectomy.
"For a lot of staff throughout the hospital, a number is just a statistic,'' he said. But discussing "a pretty dramatic experience'' has helped change the culture in the emergency department, where "it has long been considered okay for patients to wait."
The emergency department now gets most patients to a bed within 20 minutes and calls in extra doctors and nurses if patients are waiting too long, he said.
In another issue, employees who write the newsletter interviewed the wife of a patient who had muscle and kidney damage when a doctor overrode computer warnings about dangerous medication interactions. "It pretty much devastated my entire family,'' the wife said in the newsletter. The hospital now requires the pharmacist and doctor to discuss side effects before prescribing these particular drugs.
The idea for Safety Matters came from Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, Brigham chief executive, and several other hospital leaders. She has said that one of her goals is to create a more open culture around medical errors, in which staff can report them and seek help without shame.
Last October, she led by example when she described to a hushed auditorium of doctors and nurses an error she made years ago at the University of Michigan.
She was repairing a patient's aortic valve and punctured the left ventricle of the heart with a wire, causing significant bleeding and requiring the patient to undergo surgery, she told the audience.
"I felt very insecure and my confidence was shaken,'' she said, noting that she was the only woman in the cardiac catheterization lab. "I can assure you there were a lot of men who didn't want me to be there. This would only give fuel to their fire.''
Nabel could talk only to her husband about the case. "Think about how much easier it would have been if I could have talked to my colleagues rather than living in fear I would get stabbed in the back because I made this mistake," she said. She said she disclosed the error to her patient, who eventually recovered.
Kachalia said caregivers involved in the errors are allowed to review the newsletter before it is published. Only one has objected to having a case included, and the hospital agreed.
Janet Barnes, executive director of compliance, said she initially was hesitant about the project, in part because she worried it would give lawyers ammunition for lawsuits. Staff in her office review the language in each issue to make sure it is factual and does not editorialize; for example; calling an event "horrible'' or "terrible.''
"There's definitely a balance,'' she said. "We want people to know we are working to improve. But you want them to come here and feel safe and not come in the door and worry.''
Dr. Kathy Selvaggi, director of the Intensive Palliative Care Unit, was the doctor of the cancer patient whose transfer to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital went awry.
"When she had to come back, my heart sank,'' Selvaggi said in an interview, describing her pain as "unbelievable."
"We felt we let our patient down.''
Selvaggi said doctors and nurses from the Brigham and Spaulding immediately met to analyze what went wrong and devise improvements.
One problem was that the patient's transfer was delayed. A translator needed to provide the patient discharge instructions was late, so the patient did not arrive at Spaulding until 5 p.m.
By that time, key Brigham doctors had left work and could not be reached by the Spaulding caregivers, who were confused by the Brigham's medication instructions. When they finally figured out the correct drugs, they realized the doses were so high they were outside Spaulding's policy. So the patient was sent back.
The Brigham made several changes, described in last April's newsletter. They included not sending patients with complex pain regimens to Spaulding after 4 p.m., and requiring doctors, not just nurses, to speak by phone to review instructions in complicated cases.
Erin McDonough, the Brigham's senior vice president of communication and public affairs, said stories like this one have more impact than statistics. "That was really our goal," said McDonough, who helped develop Safety Matters, "to make it memorable so that it would stick.''
Liz Kowalczyk can be reached at email@example.com. Follow her on twitter @GlobeLizK.


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Actress Elizabeth Hurley and former cricketer Shane Warne have reportedly called off their engagement for the second time after an initial split in September.
The 48-year-old brunette beauty and the 44-year-old retired cricketer got back together last month, but if a source is to be believed the couple has now called it quits for good.
"It is very sad and they tried to make it work but there were just too many issues in the way. Elizabeth is taking it one day at a time. She will always be extremely fond of Shane," HELLO! magazine quoted a source as saying.
Rumours of their split were fuelled after Warne tweeted: "The past should be the past and stay there. It destroys the future. Live life for what tomorrow has to offer, not for what happened yesterday."
The duo parted ways in September after Hurley reportedly found intimate text messages from someone else on Warne's mobile phone while packing for a trip to his native Australia.


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Universal Cube Ottoman
Modify your Pottery Barn Universal Cube Ottoman with our handmade ottoman covers. They are made from stretchy Italian fabric and will prolong the lifespan of your furniture. It's an easy way to give a fresh and stylish look to an old or even a new footstool.
Universal Cube Ottoman Dimensions:
Width: 18'', Depth: 18'', Height: 18.5''
Our Slipcovers are not specifically designed for Pottery Barn Universal Cube Ottoman. If you have any other furniture please check our Collections here:


text: 23_Semper.jpg CAMP PENDLETON, CA - FEBRUARY 7: Gunnery Sgt. Kenneth Sargent, his wife Tonia Sargent, and their daughter Alishia at their home on February 7, 2007 at Camp Pendleton, California. Sgt. Sargent suffered gunshot wounds to the head, August 5, 2004 in Najaf, Iraq. The bullet entered under his right eye and exited on the left side of his head. He is suffering from a loss of hearing, vision. He has lost two inches of his brain, has damage to his corroded artery and his jaw was shattered. Currently he is being treated for PTSD, neurological and urological issues. His days are a constant struggle and only aided by his constant caregiver, his wife Tonia. Kenneth often suffers from anxiety and Tonia has to reassure him that everything is going to be ok. (Photo by Charles Ommanney/Getty Images)


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Arizona School Choice Trust, Tax Credit Gives Students Hope
The mission of Arizona School Choice Trust is to provide hope and opportunity to Arizona's neediest children. We need your help to continue to provide educational options to these desperate families. Corporations can be a part of our amazing success stories by participating in Arizona's Corporate Tax Credit Program. Corporations with an Arizona corporate income tax or insurance premium tax liability can redirect up to 100 percent of their tax liability to Arizona School Choice Trust and receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for their contribution. The process to enroll is very simple, and it costs nothing to participate — but it makes all the difference to families across Arizona.
One grateful scholarship recipient, Jorge, recently spoke at the Arizona capitol about his experience in the program. He called the opportunities he has received "life transforming." His mother Lydia added, "the education provided with generous tax credit contributions has allowed Jorge to reach his true potential."
Another story of a life touched by School Choice is told by foster parent Carol. Anthony spent the first years of his life in poverty, even experiencing homelessness. Carol says, "Thank you to the many donors who have found it in their hearts to give children like Anthony an opportunity for a better life."
Our success stories are the reason we are so dedicated to School Choice. We believe that every child deserves the chance to reach their potential. Arizona School Choice Trust scholarships make that possible.
Arizona School Choice Trust is leading the way with new and innovative outreach to the community. In addition to working closely with school choice leaders statewide, we were proud to participate in one of the largest school choice celebrations in the nation.
One highlight of School Choice Week 2012 was a Congressional Town Hall held on January 24th. It was a great opportunity for supporters, educators and children alike to hear directly from their representatives in Washington DC. Participating in the event were Congressman Trent Franks, Congressman Ben Quayle, Congressman David Schweikert and Congressman Jeff Flake. The Congressmen answered questions posed by moderator Jonathan Butcher, Goldwater Institute's education director, and Lisa Graham Keegan, former Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction. Attendees voiced strong support for expanded school choice options and encouraged their representatives to continue fighting on behalf of Arizona's children.


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How Low-Fat Foods Get Their Texture
Pull any packaged food item off the shelf and chances are it has a long list of mysterious ingredients with highly scientific names like "methylcellulose." If you're like us, you may puzzle and even worry a little over these unappetizing words.
Why do we have so much weird stuff like methylcellulose and xanthum gum that's produced in a laboratory in our food? Texture, baby, texture. It's nearly impossible to understate the importance of texture and "mouth feel" to food companies, especially in an age when people fear the fat content in their food.
As the American Chemical Society reports in the most recent issue of its magazine, Chemical & Engineering News, replacements for animal and vegetable fats were a $5.8 billion industry last year. That's just one small part of the "better for you" products that drove more than 70 percent of food company sales growth in the last five years, according to a recent analysis.
But while chemists do create these creamy simulations in a lab, a lot of them are actually derived from plants — like trees and seaweed. That so-called natural aspect may appeal to high-end chefs who, as we reported recently, are trying to innovate with texture and lower the fat in their own gastronomic masterpieces.
If you'd like to know more about those things that are thickening and gelling your processed food, check out this useful list that Chemical & Engineering News put together:
- Alginates are derived from brown seaweeds. They are used for thickening, stabilizing, gelling, and film forming in foods such as cream and fruit fillings, salad dressings, ice cream, low-fat spreads, restructured meats, and yogurt.
- Carrageenans are carbohydrates extracted from red seaweeds. Used for gelling, thickening, and stabilizing, they are often found in ice cream, coffee whiteners, cottage cheese, and low- or no-fat salad dressings. They are also used to suspend cocoa in chocolate milk.
- Microcrystalline cellulose comes from tree pulp. It forms a stable gel that provides creaminess and cling to salad dressings, sauces, batters, fillings, icings, and low-fat sour cream. It prevents fried foods from becoming soggy and helps stabilize whipped toppings and chocolate drinks.
- Methylcellulose also comes from tree pulp. It has gelling properties that reduce oil uptake in fried foods and improve the texture of meat alternatives. It can also be used to improve the "mouth feel" of sugar-free beverages and reduce milk fat in whipped toppings and desserts. A new use is to help trap air in gluten-free foods.
- Cellulose gum is made from tree pulp and cotton fibers. It helps retain moisture in frozen dough, tortillas, and cakes and reduces fat uptake in doughnuts. It stabilizes proteins in protein drinks and replaces texture lost when reducing sugar in beverages. Cellulose gum adds viscosity, flow, and glossy appearance to low-fat sauces.
- Gelatin is derived from the collagen in pig and cattle skins and bones. It is used as a gelling agent, stabilizer, thickener, and texturizer in desserts, yogurt, and low-fat foods.
- Guar gum, a polysaccharide, comes from the seeds of the guar gum bush, Cyamopsis tetragonolobus, which is an annual leguminous plant that originated in India. As a thickener, it is eight times more powerful than cornstarch. It controls moisture and adds texture to baked goods. It also controls viscosity in dairy drinks, salad dressings, and condiments.
- Pectin is extracted from the peels of citrus fruits and from sugar beets. It is used for gelling, thickening, and stabilizing food. Pectin derived from sugar beets does not form a gel but is used for stabilizing and emulsifying. Pectin is used in jams, jellies, fillings, and confectioneries. It can also be used to thicken and stabilize fruit- and milk-based beverages.
- Starch is generally derived from corn, potatoes, or tapioca. Food makers use both native and modified versions. Starch can be hydrolyzed into dextrins such as maltodextrin. Starches are used as thickeners, stabilizers, and fat replacers in puddings, sauces, and salad dressings. They are often added to grain-based foods such as breads, cereals, tortillas, and pasta.
- Xanthan gum is made by industrial fermentation of sugar by the bacteria Xanthomonas campestris. Used in small amounts, it adds viscosity and cling to salad dressings and sauces. It is also used in egg substitutes and in gluten-free baking.


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The Perfect Server - CentOS 5.10 x86_64 [ISPConfig 3] - Page 4
4 Adjust /etc/hosts
Next we edit /etc/hosts. Make it look like this:
vi /etc/hosts
# Do not remove the following line, or various programs # that require network functionality will fail. 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost 192.168.2.249 example.domain.com example ::1 localhost6.localdomain6 localhost6
5 Configure Additional IP Addresses
(This section is totally optional. It just shows how to add additional IP addresses to your network interface eth0 if you need more than one IP address. If you're fine with one IP address, you can skip this section.)
Let's assume our network interface is eth0. Then there is a file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 which contains the settings for eth0. We can use this as a sample for our new virtual network interface eth0:0:
cp /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0:0
Now we want to use the IP address 192.168.2.251 on the virtual interface eth0:0. Therefore we open the file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0:0 and modify it as follows (we can leave out the HWADDR line as it is the same physical network card):
vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0:0
# Intel Corporation 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper) DEVICE=eth0:0 BOOTPROTO=static BROADCAST=192.168.2.255 IPADDR=192.168.2.251 NETMASK=255.255.255.0 NETWORK=192.168.2.0 ONBOOT=yes
Afterwards we have to restart the network:
/etc/init.d/network restart
You might also want to adjust /etc/hosts after you have added new IP addresses, although this is not necessary.
Now run
You should now see your new IP address in the output:
[root@server1 ~]# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0C:29:89:71:35
inet addr:192.168.2.249 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:307 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:251 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:29217 (28.5 KiB) TX bytes:45961 (44.8 KiB)
eth0:0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0C:29:89:71:35
inet addr:192.168.2.251 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:560 (560.0 b) TX bytes:560 (560.0 b)
[root@server1 ~]#
6 Disable The Firewall And SELinux
(You can skip this chapter if you have already disabled the firewall and SELinux at the end of the basic system installation (in the Setup Agent).)
I want to install ISPConfig at the end of this tutorial which comes with its own firewall. That's why I disable the default CentOS firewall now. Of course, you are free to leave it on and configure it to your needs (but then you shouldn't use any other firewall later on as it will most probably interfere with the CentOS firewall).
SELinux is a security extension of CentOS that should provide extended security. In my opinion you don't need it to configure a secure system, and it usually causes more problems than advantages (think of it after you have done a week of trouble-shooting because some service wasn't working as expected, and then you find out that everything was ok, only SELinux was causing the problem). Therefore I disable it, too (this is a must if you want to install ISPConfig later on).
Set both Security Level and SELinux to Disabled and hit OK:
Afterwards we must reboot the system:
7 Install Some Software
First we import the GPG keys for software packages:
rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY*
Enable the contrib and centosplus repositories:
vi /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo
Edit the lines below:
[base] [...] exclude=postfix [...] [updates] [...] exclude=postfix [...] [centosplus] [...] enabled=1 includepkgs=postfix [...] [contrib] [...] enabled=1 [...]
Then we update our existing packages on the system:
yum update
Now we install some software packages that are needed later on:
yum -y groupinstall 'Development Tools'
yum -y groupinstall 'Development Libraries'
8 Quota
(If you have chosen a different partitioning scheme than I did, you must adjust this chapter so that quota applies to the partitions where you need it.)
To install quota, we run this command:
yum -y install quota
Edit /etc/fstab and add ,usrquota,grpquota to the / partition (/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00):
vi /etc/fstab
/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 / ext3 defaults,usrquota,grpquota 1 1 LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2 tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0 devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0 sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0 proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 swap swap defaults 0 0
Then run
touch /aquota.user /aquota.group
chmod 600 /aquota.*
mount -o remount /
quotacheck -avugm
quotaon -avug
to enable quota.
9 Install Apache, MySQL
First we enable the RPMforge repository on our CentOS system as lots of the packages that we are going to install in the course of this tutorial are not available in the official CentOS 5.10 repositories:
yum -y install wget
wget http://apt.sw.be/RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txt
rpm --import RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txt
cd /tmp
wget wget http://packages.sw.be/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el5.rf.x86_64.rpm
rpm -ivh rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el5.rf.x86_64.rpm
(If the above link doesn't work anymore, you can find the current version of rpmforge-release here: http://packages.sw.be/rpmforge-release/)
Afterwards we can install the needed packages with one single command:
yum -y install ntp httpd mysql-server php php-mysql php-mbstring php-mcrypt phpmyadmin


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Fresh - Novice - Highball glass
Whisky highball drinks are the perfect place to start for cocktail newbies. Simple, quick and refreshing, they're the easy cocktail recipe. While the classic has remained a firm favourite over the years, whisky highball variations are a great opportunity to experiment with flavours.
Using different syrups is one way to create variety within a scotch and soda drink, but did you know you can also use flavoured teas? This Spiced Orange Highball uses orange and cinnamon tea to add a touch of spice and citrus – perfect when drunk with Chivas 18, which has notes of sticky orange marmalade.


text:
6 Jul 2014
14:00 - 17:00
Symposium: Art and Political Conflict
A public debate at Framer Framed, Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam,
Sunday July 6, 2014.
The relationship between art and political conflict has been significantly reshaped by the proliferation of digital media and the internet as a means of instant dissemination of images, texts, and audiovisual expressions. Artistic / activist actions intervene via these digital means into an expanded symbolical space that is no longer the sole sanctuary of artists and art audiences, but instead has become the 'neural fibre' of everyday life.
At first sight this seems to have simplified the task enormously of art that wants to intervene in daily life, not least in urgent political affairs. However, the intervention of art in political conflict has turned out anything but uncomplicated in recent years. The idea that art can address pressing social, ecological and material issues in a wider public domain to some extent presupposes a democratic context that is willing to absorb and respond to this criticism. When this context is absent, in the face of authoritarian rule, amidst tightening ideological domination, the efficacy of artistic!activist intervention is called into question, while unpredictable detrimental results of actions further complicate the situation.
Recent outpourings of artistic!activist protest for instance in Turkey and Russia seem to have amplified the tightening of authoritarian rule. The hopeful beginnings of the uprising in Syria (once dubbed the "Syrian Cyber-Revolution, suggesting the image of a bloodless revolution) have descended into a nightmare. The rise of violent sectarian religious fundamentalist movements in the wake of the various crises in the Middle East have rendered the arts all but speechless. How can artists respond to such extreme deployments of brutal political force, and what responsibilities do they face in staging political dissent+ How can art, as a predominantly secular ideology, produce a counter'weight to the ideological closures of fundamentalist religious (mass-) movements?
This public debate is organised at the occasion of the Tactical Media Connections research meeting at Framer Framed in the Tolhuistuin, which marks the start of a public research trajectory tracing the legacies of Tactical Media and its connections to current forms of artistic / activist media practices. Tactical Media had been identified in the 1990's as an emerging practice at the intersection of art, media, political activism and technological experimentation. Tactical Media are media of crisis and opposition. Tactical Media crack open the media, cultural, and political landscape. Completely without innocence their operations are never uncontroversial or straightforward. The debate will be staged inside the exhibition Crisis of History curated by Robert Kluijver, which presents the works of young artists from the Middle East that investigate the Modernist dream and what is left of it. The exhibition includes, inter alia, the provocative Jihadi Gangster series by Aman Mojadidi (Afghanistan), the video Children of the Left by Urok Shirhan (Iraq / the Netherlands), and the demolition of Mecca in the installation Ground Zero by Ahmed Mater (Saudi Arabia).
Brian Holmes, writer, art critic, translator, activist,
Robert Kluijver, curator of the Crisis of History exhibition,
Paolo Gerbaudo, researcher, writer, lecturer King's College London,
Simona Lodi, director Share Festival Torino,
Ozge Celikaslan, Video Fortex Istanbul.
David Garcia, artist, researcher, co-founder Next 5 Minutes,
Eric Kluitenberg, writer, theorist, editor in chief Tactical Media Files.
- Tactical Media Files
Art and Activism / Politics and technology /


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China's search for oil to power its fast-growing economy has led it to various parts of the world where there are large oil reserves. Although it is geographically far away from China's shores, the Chinese have been actively pursuing deals in Latin America. Venezuela holds the most interest for Beijing.
For the past several years, Chinese diplomats and trade representatives have been looking far and wide in Latin America, seeking joint partnerships and stakes in oil and mining operations.
Last year, Sinochem, a Chinese oil trading company, signed a $100 million deal with Ecuador for a 14 percent stake in an oil field there. China has also explored oil deals in neighboring Peru. The Chinese have gone to Brazil to invest in infrastructure projects in exchange for soybeans, cotton and sugarcane-based ethanol fuel. Brazil is a leader in the development of this renewable source of energy.
But oil remains China's primary need and the Latin American country that offers China the greatest potential is Venezuela. China started making deals for oil in Caracas even before President Hugo Chavez came to power in 1998 and began a policy of diversifying his nation's oil export market. The United States is Venezuela's current top customer, but Mr. Chavez has had rocky relations with Washington. A former director of Venezuela's state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, and a Chavez critic, Jose Toro Hardy, says China is unlikely to replace the United States as the nation's prime customer.
"Venezuela has very large oil reserves, but our oil reserves are not good quality reserves," he explained. "Our oil has lots of sulfur. It has lots of metals. It requires very special refineries to be able to transform that bad quality oil into high quality products. There are no such refineries in China. On top of that, there is no way to transport that oil from Venezuela to China in economical terms."
China has become a major importer of Venezuela's Orimulsion, a tar-based fuel developed and branded by Petroleos de Venezuela that can be used in boilers. Chinese companies in partnership with Petroleos de Venezuela are investing $330 million to produce 6.5 million metric tons of Orimulsion annually by the end of this year. China has constructed at least one major electrical power plant designed to burn this fuel in Guandong province.
As for oil, international security expert Gal Luft, director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security in Washington, says China's need for oil will outweigh any logistical problems in obtaining it.
"It makes sense for the Chinese to look for oil anywhere they can. They went into the Sudan. They have gone to other African countries. They go to the Caspian and they also go to Venezuela," he said. "Of course, the crude is shipped by very large crude carriers and they have to go through unstable waters sometimes, but so is the oil the United States is importing from the Middle East and Africa and other places around the world."
The Chinese are expected to invest around $500 million over the next few years in Venezuela. China could also work deals for oil through swaps, buying Venezuelan oil for export to the United States, say, in exchange for oil closer to home.
Some strategic planners worry that China may soon clash with the United States over oil reserves in the Middle East and, perhaps, even in the Americas. The moves by Venezuela to diversify its customer base and its deals with China have, so far, had little effect on deliveries to the United States. Venezuela is the fourth largest supplier of oil to the United States.
One constraint on Venezuela is the fact that a large part of the oil it sends to the United States goes through Citgo, a U.S.-based refining and distribution company that is a subsidiary of the Venezuelan state-owned oil company. For this reason, Toro Hardy, the former oil company director, questions President Chavez's policy of quarreling with the United States.
"If we do not sell oil to the United States, as President Chavez keeps repeating, that he will stop selling oil to the United States, well, we will simply be killing Citgo, which belongs to us," he said.
But many political analysts doubt that the Chavez rhetoric will ever lead to a halt in exports to the United States. His defenders note that much of his anger toward the United States comes from April, 2002, when he was briefly overthrown in a coup and the Bush administration was slow to condemn the assault against his democratically elected government.
President Chavez has also caused friction with Washington by selling oil to communist Cuba at cut-rate prices. The Venezuelan leader would probably like to expand his deals with China as well, but there has been no cut in exports to the United States. Many U.S. oil industry representatives say their relations with the Chavez government have been smooth and that the oil has kept flowing except for a period in late 2002 when much of the sector was shut down by a strike instigated by Chavez opponents.


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Springer VS
Springer VS
Corporate Cover Design
Together with the design agency deblik, we created a concept to integrate the previously independent publishing houses Springer VS, Springer Vieweg, Springer Gabler and Springer Spektrum under the brand Springer Science+Business Media. Springer's characteristic cover design was adapted for these four publishers to visually unify the different publications, with a colour design representing their historical independence. The main focus of our design concept was optimal readability of the covers on the internet and a comprehensive integration into Springer's existing book workflow, including the automated, computer-guided creation of book designs.


text:
By BARBARA ORTUTAY
AP Technology Writer
NEW YORK (AP) – When Stephen Dennis was raising his two sons in the 1980s, he never heard the phrase "screen time," nor did he worry much about the hours his kids spent with technology. When he bought an Apple II Plus computer, he considered it an investment in their future and encouraged them to use it as much as possible.
Boy, have things changed with his grandkids and their phones and their Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter.
"It almost seems like an addiction," said Dennis, a retired homebuilder who lives in Bellevue, Washington. "In the old days you had a computer and you had a TV and you had a phone but none of them were linked to the outside world but the phone. You didn't have this omnipresence of technology."
Today's grandparents may have fond memories of the "good old days," but history tells us that adults have worried about their kids' fascination with new-fangled entertainment and technology since the days of dime novels, radio, the first comic books and rock n' roll.
"This whole idea that we even worry about what kids are doing is pretty much a 20th century thing," said Katie Foss, a media studies professor at Middle Tennessee State University. But when it comes to screen time, she added, "all we are doing is reinventing the same concern we were having back in the '50s."
True, the anxieties these days seem particularly acute – as, of course, they always have. Smartphones have a highly customized, 24/7 presence in our lives that feeds parental fears of antisocial behavior and stranger danger.
What hasn't changed, though, is a general parental dread of what their kids are doing out of sight. In previous generations, this this often meant kids wandering around on their own or sneaking out at night to drink. These days, it might mean hiding in their bedroom, chatting with strangers online.
Less than a century ago, the radio sparked similar fears.
"The radio seems to find parents more helpless than did the funnies, the automobile, the movies and other earlier invaders of the home, because it can not be locked out or the children locked in," Sidonie Matsner Gruenberg, director of the Child Study Association of America, told The Washington Post in 1931. She added that the biggest worry radio gave parents was how it interfered with other interests – conversation, music practice, group games and reading.
In the early 1930s a group of mothers from Scarsdale, Arizona, pushed radio broadcasters to change programs they thought were too "overstimulating, frightening and emotionally overwhelming" for kids, said Margaret Cassidy, a media researcher at Adelphi University in New York who authored a history of American kids and media.
Called the Scarsdale Moms, their activism led the National Association of Broadcasters to come up with a code of ethics around children's programming in which they pledged not to portray criminals as heroes and to refrain from glorifying greed, selfishness and disrespect for authority.
Then television burst into the public consciousness with unrivaled speed. By 1955, more than half of all U.S. homes had a black and white set, according to Mitchell Stephens, a media historian at New York University.
The hand-wringing started almost as quickly. A 1961 Stanford University study on 6,000 children, 2,000 parents and 100 teachers found that more than half of the kids studied watched "adult" programs such as Westerns, crime shows and shows that featured "emotional problems." Researchers were aghast at the TV violence present even in children's programming.
By the end of that decade, Congress had authorized $1 million (about $7 million today) to study the effects of TV violence, prompting "literally thousands of projects" in subsequent years, Cassidy said.
That eventually led the American Academy of Pediatrics to adopt, in 1984, its first recommendation that parents limit their kids' exposure to technology. The medical association argued that television sent unrealistic messages around drugs and alcohol, could lead to obesity and might fuel violence. Fifteen years later, in 1999, it issued its now-infamous edict that kids under 2 should not watch any television at all.
The spark for that decision was the British kids' show "Teletubbies," which featured cavorting humanoids with TVs embedded in their abdomens. But the odd TV-within-the-TV-beings conceit of the show wasn't the problem – it was the "gibberish" the Teletubbies directed at preverbal kids whom doctors thought should be learning to speak from their parents, said Donald Shifrin, a University of Washington pediatrician and former chair of the AAP committee that pushed for the recommendation.
Video games presented a different challenge. Decades of study have failed to validate the most prevalent fear, that violent games encourage violent behavior. But from the moment the games emerged as a cultural force in the early 1980s, parents fretted about the way kids could lose themselves in games as simple and repetitive as "Pac-Man," "Asteroids" and "Space Invaders."
Some cities sought to restrict the spread of arcades; Mesquite, Texas, for instance, insisted that the under-17 set required parental supervision . Many parents imagined the arcades where many teenagers played video games "as dens of vice, of illicit trade in drugs and sex," Michael Z. Newman, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee media historian, wrote recently in Smithsonian .
This time, some experts were more sympathetic to kids. Games could relieve anxiety and fed the age-old desire of kids to "be totally absorbed in an activity where they are out on an edge and can't think of anything else," Robert Millman, a psychiatrist at the New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center, told the New York Times in 1981. He cast them as benign alternatives to gambling and "glue sniffing."
Initially, the internet – touted as an "information superhighway" that could connect kids to the world's knowledge – got a similar pass for helping with homework and research. Yet as the internet began linking people together, often in ways that connected previously isolated people, familiar concerns soon resurfaced.
Sheila Azzara, a grandmother of 12 in Fallbrook, California, remembers learning about AOL chatrooms in the early 1990s and finding them "kind of a hostile place." Teens with more permissive parents who came of age in the '90s might remember these chatrooms as places a 17-year-old girl could pretend to be a 40-year-old man (and vice versa), and talk about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll (or more mundane topics such as current events).
Azzara still didn't worry too much about technology's effects on her children. Cellphones weren't in common use, and computers – if families had them – were usually set up in the living room. But she, too, worries about her grandkids.
"They don't interact with you," she said. "They either have their head in a screen or in a game."
Associated Press news researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed to this story.
(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)