text:
Why Does Louisville Have Better Restaurants Than Indianapolis?
July 21, 2014 By Aaron M. Renn
I was briefly back on the homefront earlier this month to check out the now fully opened Big Four Bridge pedestrian path across the Ohio River in Louisville. While there I spent some time in NuLu, a retail and restaurant district centered on Market St. just east of downtown, and had dinner at a French bistro type place called La Coop. This place focuses on what I'd call the basics – it's not trying to be a super high end kind of place. But I'm not going to lie, the undistinguished frites aside, the meal was spectacular front to back, and my date agreed.
Louisville is known for its many high quality restaurants. I doubt La Coop is tops on many people's list, nor does it aspire to be. Yet preparing to drive back to Indy I was struck that La Coop is better than any restaurant in Indianapolis. My meal at La Coop was probably better than any one I'd had in Indy since L'Explorateur closed in 2009. And that's a not uncommon occurrence when dining in Louisville. What's more, La Coop was bustling by 8pm on a Tuesday night. While tables were certainly available, you can't assume you can just walk in to a top restaurant there without a reservation, even on a weeknight.
Louisville clearly values fine dining in a way that Indianapolis doesn't. Metro Indy is larger, better educated, richer, and much less provincial. Given that amenities generally fall along a size-wealth slope, by default you'd think Indy would do better on the restaurant front. But it doesn't. Why is this?
Louisville clearly punches above its weight on restaurants. Part of this is due to the presence of a major culinary school. But that doesn't explain the demand side of the equation. What does?
I see this as resulting at least in part from a cultural divide between the Midwest and the South, which seems to fall somewhere between these two cities. I argue the stronger aristocratic heritage of the South creates the conditions in which excellence is encouraged (or at least respected), versus the leveling democratic social state of the Midwest that anathematizes any distinctions between high and low and thus creates a climate in which excellence is disparaged (or distrusted at best).
Tocqueville is of course the best writer on the differences between aristocracy and democracy. Of aristocratic heritage himself, he recognized the overall superiority of the democratic state in uplifting the common man. The average condition in a democratic social state he would note, is higher than that of an aristocracy. He also saw clearly the many flaws of the aristocratic state. Yet he also realized that with the passing of aristocracy, things would be lost, especially in the realm of fine arts and refinement more broadly construed.
Tocqueville (among others) noted that the South was the most aristocratic region of the United States. That doesn't mean he approved. In fact, he was not a fan of the US South, and wrote of its many manifest flaws, including the injustice of slavery and the many pernicious effects it had on the character of whites as well.
One of traits of aristocracy that seems to remain present in the South is the existence and embrace of an aristocratic class or caste. In many cases this is family based, such that, for example, you could never become fully part of the elite of Charleston as an outsider no matter how much money, talent, or class you have. But carpetbaggers and the nouveau riche are able to assimilate to some degree.
As with a feudal landholding, this aristocratic class exists as part of an integrated system with the lower classes. Thus the lower classes not only recognize the rights of aristocratic class to homage and such, the elites can even be a source of pride to ordinary residents of the community.
In this system, the upper class can cultivate high end tastes without incurring the opprobrium of the community. They are literally a class apart and are expected to depart from the average resident in terms of tastes and manners.
We see this clearly in the case of the so-called "Millionaire's Row" at the Kentucky Derby. Actually, many Louisville locals never even attend the Kentucky Derby, instead attending the Kentucky Oaks, which is held the day before and is known as the race for the locals. (The Oaks itself attracts over 100,000 attendees). Most of them will certainly never visit the Derby's more elite precincts. Yet, seeing the presence of celebrities and local elites in their finery on TV doesn't produce resentment, but rather pride. The conspicuous consumption and lavish traditions of elite Louisville are something the average resident sees as reflecting well on their community as a whole, and hence to some extent even on themselves.
In terms of how this affects restaurants, Louisville's elite can patronize high quality, high status establishments without shame. There is nothing seen as wrong in the community with them pursuing aristocratic tastes. Again, the high quality of Louisville's restaurants can be a source of pride even to those who don't patronize them. There are, of course, class tensions in Louisville such as the East End-South End divide. But class conflict itself implies multiple classes of people.
The situation is totally different in Indianapolis. In Indiana, the idea of an aristocratic type class would be viewed with hostility. There's a democratic social state norm in which anyone who is viewed as too uppity is seen as having a moral defect. There's only supposed to be one class of people. This has its virtues, but has debilitating effects as well. Take for example the classic line "He might have book learning but he doesn't have any common sense." You literally hear this in Indiana. But the moral system underpinning it clearly explains why education is held in such low regard in the Midwest. It's not just that education as such is viewed as not worth it; the pursuit of education indicates a type of moral deficiency.
So take a look at the traditions of the Indianapolis 500. Obviously US auto racing has a different culture than horse racing. But it still aligns with the social state. The 500 is a classic everyman's type event, with a blue collar ethos, in which actual attendance by locals plays a major role. There are some celebrities of course, but celebrity/elite culture plays a very limited role there in contrast to the Kentucky Derby and certainly than international auto racing such as Formula 1. (The biggest personalities at the 500 are those with a particularly local traditional appeal – like Jim Nabors and Florence Henderson – versus contemporary celebrity star power).
This bleeds through into nearly every aspect of the civic culture in the state. I've long noted that there's no culture of connoisseurship in Indianapolis. This is true for pretty much everything. Restaurants are but one example. While much better on average than they used to be, and certainly not bad by any means, Indy's restaurants don't measure up to Louisville's with the notable exception of breakfast places. As the case with the aforementioned L'Exporateur shows, when Indy chefs do decide to put out a world class product, it isn't patronized because it isn't valued. It's not about culinary talent, it's about the customer base or lack thereof. The chef behind L'Ex opened a pizza place next. It should be no surprise that Indianapolis Monthly once had a cover story dubbing the city "Chain City, USA."
My understanding is that there is a group of hardcore food and wine folks in Indy, but they do most of their consumption at private dinners and out of their private cellars. Public displays of refinement or luxurious consumption in Indianapolis are simply not acceptable.
This is but one example of how the pursuit of excellence in all varieties is disparaged and subject to active suppression in the state. This is hardly limited to Indiana and is a near universal Midwestern trait from what I've seen. Chicago offers the major exception, and I'll exclude Minnesota as well for now since I don't fully grok the culture there.
It's been said pejoratively that "Indiana is the 'middle finger of the South' sticking into the Midwest." And while it's true that parts of Southern Indiana such as my hometown, being in Louisville's orbit, have a heavy Southern influence, the state is not Southern in my view. It's very different culturally and here we have one example. I easily see the same dynamic that exists in Indiana to various degrees in Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
That this is a cultural value is most clearly seen in the exceptions that prove the rule, like Columbus, Indiana. Columbus is by far the most successful small industrial city in the state, and home to a world-renowned collection of modern architecture among other distinctives. In a major essay on that city, I noted that "in Columbus, excellence is not a byword." This was perhaps imposed externally by local business magnate J. Irwin Miller, but appears to have been stamped to some degree on the character of the community. As local business owner Tony Moravec put it, "We do things first class here." Whether the value will be retained or dissipate now that Miller is dead remains to be seen, but it's still there for now.
But in a state replete with struggling communities, has anyplace ever looked to imitate Columbus? Has it been held up as a model? No. Why not? It's because Indiana as a whole rejects the values that made Columbus successful. J. Irwin Miller famously said that "a mediocrity is expensive." True, but that misses the point re:Indiana. Mediocrity isn't an economic value in the state. It's a moral value. People aren't choosing mediocrity in the mistaken belief that it's cheap. They think aspiring to better is a character defect. That sacralization of average is why many of its communities are willing to martyr themselves in its honor. And if a place tries to aspire to better, don't worry. The General Assembly will soon be introducing legislation to make sure that doesn't spread.
This produces an enormous cultural headwind that is an impediment to even the cultural elite in their attempts to create high quality things, from good architecture to good restaurants. The attempts are compromised both via the internalization of this value, and external forces expressing it. As Paul Graham put it:
How much does it matter what message a city sends? Empirically, the answer seems to be: a lot. You might think that if you had enough strength of mind to do great things, you'd be able to transcend your environment. Where you live should make at most a couple percent difference. But if you look at the historical evidence, it seems to matter more than that.
The restaurants of Indianapolis are well beyond mediocre, but they have clearly been affected by this characteristic of the social state in which they are operating.
One exception to this rule about the pursuit of excellence is in sports, and it's a telling one. Hoosiers and Midwesterners want to see their teams win, but they want to see them win the right way and with the right kind of people that reflect the character of the state's residents. In the South they just want wins and they don't care how they get them.
Do you think anybody in Kentucky cares about the Calipari Way as long as UK is racking up wins and championships? Is it any surprise that it's North Carolina where athletes get A's in fake classes? Nobody cares in the South as long the wins come and behavior doesn't get so bad it brings national publicity.
By contrast, Big Ten schools by and large expect their players to get an education and graduate, to demonstrate good character, and there's a lifelong commitment and bond between coaches, fans, and players. When IU tried to import a UK style into its program with the Kelvin Sampson hire, the fanbase rejected it almost immediately. (By the way, I'll never consider Penn State a Big Ten school, and Pennsylvania is not the Midwest). It's similar in the way that the brawl era Pacers saw their fan support vaporize.
In Indiana particularly, from Milan High School to Steve Alford's Indiana Hoosiers, the self-effacing, fundamentally sound, clean cut, small town type of player and team had big success. (Oscar Robertson was a player in the same mold. Though he never got his due at the time thanks to racism, he shows that even black Indiana players exhibited the same character traits). This perhaps convinced Hoosiers that their preferred style of doing things would bring success as well.
Unfortunately that hasn't played out much recently, either in sports or economically. This produces cognitive dissonance and a sense of bitterness about a world that seems to have gone wrong. As I wrote re:Columbus and about how that city's embrace of excellence paid economic rewards in a world where cheap places to do business are a dime a dozen:
It isn't just something that affects architecture….This is a place with high standards for itself. This pays huge dividends in the economic development sphere. In a competitive world, only firms that deliver excellence can survive the brutal global competition. Which workers are more likely to produce excellent products, ones that demand excellence in their own communities, or ones who disparage it? How can any investor believe that residents who tolerate a run down, mediocre community for their own family to live in will suddenly start taking pride in the products coming off their employers' production lines? It makes no sense at all.
I'm not sure the Midwest understands this lesson, or would take heed of it if it did. Rather there is, I detect, a martyrdom complex. People in the Midwest believe they are entitled to success the way they used to enjoy it because they live the right way. But if they don't get it, at least their communities can die with their values intact. If this is in fact the case, it's impossible to gainsay the decision. It's even admirable in a sense. I myself would never adopt the values of UK basketball no matter how many championships it would bring. But then again I'm a Hoosier so of course I feel that way.
In any case, as Richard Longworth put it in his book about the failures of the Midwest in the age of globalization, "The first task is to tell the truth." Simply stating the obvious truth that Louisville has better restaurants than Indy may generate blowback. But the larger and more painful truth is that Indiana and the Midwest have embraced mediocrity as a value in a way that hobbles the pursuit of excellence there, and has terrible economic and other consequences that go far beyond restaurants. Unless and until that truth is faced and things change, which may require something like an influx of outsiders not wedded to the status quo, the enormous potential of this region and its people will continue to be squandered.
Filed Under: Indianapolis, Louisville, Urban Culture
John Morris says
Louisville's hideous waterfront highway isn't exactly setting a high standard either.
In both cities/ states we have governments working to impose low quality projects that subtract value. Indiana is paying for a Kentucky highway project to spread the mediocrity.
PeterW says
I *generally* agree with Aaron's points about dining in Louisville vs. Indy, but I think the differences between the cities are more nuanced than in his description.
95% of the restaurants in Louisville and Indy are interchangeable, consisting of chains or independent places serving uninteresting breakfasts, brunches, or pub food.
The difference lies in the good, interesting, independent restaurants. Compared to Indy, a disproportionate number of of good independent restaurants in Louisville are of the fine dining, white tablecloth, $50 per person (or more) restaurants. Traditional somewhat formal sit down restaurants where you may not where a suit, but you might wonder if you should have.
L'Ex was like this, but most of the restaurants in this space in Indy are chains or steakhouses. Good, high-end chains (Oceanaire, Seasons 52, etc.), but still chains.
Indy does have a good, strong, independent restaurant scene, but it is much more gastropub than formal restaurant. Think Recess, Black Market, Napolese, Pizzology (yes), Brugge, Oakley's bistro, etc. These aren't mediocre by any means, and they tend to use fresh, interesting, and often local ingredients. They are as good as or better than any *comparable* restaurants in any other city in the US.
But they are not "fine dining" restaurants of the white tablecloth French-influenced variety that is much more common in Louisville. At Black Market (as an example), you can get a solid half chicken or roasted lamb, both from local producers. But you won't get duck liver pate or the kind of complex meals you can get at, say, Lilly's in Louisville.
And I think Aaron is right about the reasons for the dichotomy. Although, I will point out again that I don't think "mediocre" is the right word to describe restaurants in Indy; I don't think you can get a better pizza than Napolese in Louisville, and I'm not sure that anyplace in Louisville would prepare the dishes at Black Market any better than Black Market does.
But the category of independent fine-dining restaurants in Indy is almost empty.
Eric F says
Cincinnati's Gateway Quarter, go ahead and count the restaurants along Vine from 12th to 14th- http://otrmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Over-the-Rhine-Wayfinding-Map.png
I was very impressed with that area.
@Eric F
I was reading about how many of New Orleans's very high end white table restaurants are closing. There seems to be an overall shift towards casual but quality food- gastro-pubs, experimental food, ethnic influence.
If anything, Louisville seems old aristocratic culture seems like a throw back.
The problem I have with Indy, is the city & state seem to push policies that subsidize mediocrity and probably undercut organic culture. (influenced from what I have seen in Cleveland)
An article from 2013 talks about raising entertainment taxes & imposing a 17% tax on car rentals. Most of this money flows towards Lucas Oil stadium, the convention center & downtown garage maintenance.
http://www.ibj.com/city-set-to-hike-entertainment-visitor-taxes/PARAMS/article/38885
I don't know if they passed an increase or how these taxes break down. Are music venue tickets & cover charges taxed at a high rate like they are in Cleveland? Is there a special restaurant or liquor tax?
Cleveland's taxes have worked to shift money away from grass roots venues like The Beachland Ballroom & Happy Dog frequented by locals towards approved mega venues. The recent Sin Tax debate exposed an emerging fault line.
My guess is a culture war may emerge between residents living near the downtown, small business owners and the moocher crony capitalist, hotel and stadium interests.
These restaurant tax rate charts from 2012 are probably relevant.
Overall there seems to be no major link between rates and healthy food scenes. NYC, DC & LA all have pretty high rates. Chicago diners are hit with a close to 11% rate.
However, when compared to smaller regional cities considered to have stronger food scene's Indy's 9% rate seems pretty high.
Columbus, Ohio has a ……..6.75% combined meal tax
Louisville, Kentucky ……..6 %
Cleveland, Ohio ………….7.5 %
Milwaukee, Wisconsin……… 5.75 %
This money is coming from somewhere – including the quality of food and service available.
I don't have the liquor tax figures which are an even more important factor in the average bottom line.
Here is the chart link.
http://taxfoundation.org/article/meals-taxes-major-us-cities-0
One meal at a French-ish restaurant in Louisville proves the inarguable superiority of the Louisville restaurant scene? And "fancy" restaurants are the standard for the argument here? And a city not embarrassed by the excesses of its proud elite class makes it better? Give me a break. How about we celebrate the fact that Indianapolis has MUCH better restaurants than it probably has ever had in its history. If you can't enjoy the food at Plow and Anchor, Black Market, Bluebeard, The Local, 10-01 Food & Drink, Peterson's, Recess, Taste, the Libertine, and about two dozen other high quality eateries without pining for some other better city where they're eating fancier food, then you're a sad, sad person. What is the point of stating unequivocally that one small-city scene is better than another? Let's be glad that food in almost all places except the cities with the most entrenched scenes has improved dramatically over the last few years and call it a f***ing day!
Aaron M. Renn says
I almost have to laugh. Terry sums up the Hoosier/Midwest mentality perfectly. Don't dare compare yourself against elsewhere, and if you say you want better for your city, you're the problem and should shut up and celebrate what we have. It's the active disparagement of the pursuit of excellence.
And L'Explorateur had white tablecloths, but it was very low key and not that "fancy." The service, while generally good, certainly didn't have the formality of old-guard French restaurants. I didn't men in suits and ladies with hates there. Plenty of jeans and polos. Plow and Anchor is at least as fancy now. But it's such a small and irrelevant point. Frankly, I like Neal's decor and concept better at the Libertine. And the food is so much more consistently good there. Maybe the high points were better at L'Ex, but it's more playful and hearty and approachable at the Libertine. I think people in other cities would be laughing at us for being so stuck on "fancy" as the standard for good food.
Go to every restaurant in Louisville–instead of one–over a period of several months with lots of specific evidence (you offer NONE about your meal) and then get back with me! Comparisons are fine and good, and we should definitely strive for excellence. But your argument is seriously lacking in specific evidence that would actually make it credible.
Turns out they did pass the 2013 tax increase. Hotel, car rental and entertainment taxes are close to the highest in the nation.
http://www.wthr.com/story/20547390/car-rental-ticket-tax-rates-jump-in-indianapolis
If this works the way it often does, the smaller venues get slammed by these taxes. The large ones are mostly taxing their own revenue streams to pay for subsidies to themselves.
I think the combined tax on restaurant meals in Indy is now 10% which is in the top 2 or 3 in the country.
By the way John & Co., did I not say "bistro type place"? The implication being that this restaurant is not a stuff haute cuisine type of place.
The web site is here and you'll note the lack of white tablecloths, if that matters to you: http://www.coopbistro.com/
Parsifal says
I didn't think Terry was disparaging the pursuit of excellence — he was merely defending the food scene in the city by citing nine restaurants that do pursue excellence in response to your measly one little restaurant as proof of Louisville's superiority. I don't think anyone said that they didn't want better for their city, whatever that city is.
Parsifal, I've seen that same basic comment many times before on places like the IBJ message boards. Dare to suggest that a taxpayer subsidized stinkbomb should have better architecture and you'll hear same basic line of "Who are you to judge? / It's better than what was there before / You should be thankful for what you're getting." The entire point is to denigrate calling out average (or worse) as well as to somehow cut down the person who says things could or should be better. NB the follow-up demand: "Go to every restaurant in Louisville—instead of one—over a period of several months with lots of specific evidence (you offer NONE about your meal) and then get back with me!"
"Better than its ever been." might be one of the world's dumbest expressions.
The human lifespan is far too short to allow a full perspective on things.
Hence, the starting point for Indy are comparisons to memories of the downtown 1965-1970.
This short memory, lack of perspective plays a big role in urban history. How many people alive in Indy can remember its Jazz scene? How many people in Pittsburgh personally remember a vibrant Hill District? (Luckily we have over 80,000 Teenie Harris photos to show what was there.) Look how shocked people are by the video of downtown Dallas in 1939.
If anyone believes that the evidence given about the quality of restaurants in Louisville in the original post was anything close to comprehensive, please raise your hand.
I'm not saying Indy is the best city on the planet. I'm not saying it's even better than Louisville. I'm not saying Indy always strives for excellence or that we should put up with the crap we've got and be happy with it. The suggestion that I am is utterly patronizing.
What I'm saying is that restaurants are more than white tablecloths. And that Urbanophile could do much better than this post at showing that. And I'd welcome that post.
@Terry
I am closer to agreeing with you, Aaron doesn't provide enough info to back such a sweeping conclusion about Indy and certainly not the broad Midwest.
But I do think public policy in Indy seems to push towards mediocrity. A 10% restaurant tax which funnels large amounts of money to a few government approved mass attractions has to be undermining the food scene. Surely all of Indy's restaurants don't benefit from these attractions equally- many don't benefit at all.
Cincinnati also has a pretty high sales tax that partly subsidizes stadiums. It probably should have a much stronger food scene.
Underlying these policies is a very negative view of these cities and their organic potential.
John, the restaurant tax in Indianapolis is only 2% extra above the regular 7% state sales tax. Several of the suburban counties have a 1% tax.
If they haven't changed.
Only Cincinnati & Chicago are regional cities in the same territory.
What effect do these taxes have? My guess is Indy they tend to shift money away from organic neighborhood restaurants towards sports bars & chain restaurants near downtown.
Louisville seems to still have a 6% sales ta on restaurant meals compared to Indianapolis's 9%.
Even though they didn't push it to 10%, Indy is 3% higher. That $ either is passed along to customers or reflected in lower quality. Still looming out there are proposals to further increase rates.
Interestingly, Portland, Oregon has no sales tax at all.
This supports the general theory that Indy's entertainment spending is not growing as much as being shifted towards certain sectors like mega sports.
1. Sales tax is added to the bill in Indiana, just as it is everywhere else. When I am out for a $50/person dinner, the difference between $3.50 and $4.50 in tax doesn't really figure in. In this instance a dining out tax isn't regressive to the extent that a general sales tax is.
2. When deciding where to eat out in Indiana, restaurants in Columbus, Cincinnati, and Louisville are not part of the equation so the relative tax rates are irrelevant.
3. Columbus, Cincinnati, and Louisville all have taxpayer financed stadia too; in Columbus' case it's one of the largest in the world. Neither taxes nor stadia are "the reason" Aaron perceived a difference in the Indy vs. Louisville dining scenes. Please give it a rest.
Ultimately the taxes are part of what the customer has to pay. If the owner doesn't think they can increase prices too high they have to cut quality or service to compensate.
Indy also has among the highest hotel and car rental taxes in the nation.
A large part of this money has been shifted into one area- the public face of Indy is a landscape of gigantic stadiums, garages and generic, large hotels.
All of this is based on the self fulfilling myth that the city never had -or could have anything that would attract people- that Indy restaurants or entertainment venues couldn't be great on their own.
John, Indy residents don't typically pay hotel or car rental taxes. We live in homes here and drive our own cars. Again, this is irrelevant to restaurant quality.
Both Louisville and Indianapolis have taxpayer-financed stadia, so that's not a difference-maker in restaurant quality or food culture either.
As Aaron points out, Louisville is home to more fast-food chains than Indy. Indy has Steak 'n' Shake. Louisville has the Kentucky Fried/Taco Bell/Pizza Hut conglomerate plus Papa John's. Does this say something about restaurant quality or food culture?
Non of these policies in any of these cities is wise, but Indy is the poster child of mega a city core oriented/ distorted/ controled by anti-urban mega facilities.
This is the public face of Indianapolis people will see.
http://www.urbanindy.com/2014/07/15/oneamerica-parking-garage-the-story/
You can't have it both ways, only praising the alleged benefits of this without looking at the possible downside. Shifting that many resources into one area has effects.
Your version of Indy history is highly distorted. The original city plan was not designed around highways. No it wasn't designed as Manhattan – more like Paris or Berlin.
Moreover, the plan has not payed off- meaning that Indy restaurant & small business owners should expect another big wave of hotel, restaurant, liquor or entertainment taxes.
http://www.chron.com/news/article/Indianapolis-mayor-backs-tax-to-hire-more-officers-5656950.php
"Mayor Greg Ballard said the plan wouldn't be an overnight fix for the capital city, which with 80 homicides so far this year could be on track to rival 1998, when the city saw a record 162 killings. But the mayor said his plan would help address some of the root causes of crime in the city, in part by expanding preschool access and fighting the high school drop-out rate.
Ballard is asking for a .15 percent increase in the city's public safety income tax, which would boost the tax to .50 percent. That amounts to about $5.32 a month for the average household in Indianapolis, where the median annual income is $42,063, and will enable the city to increase its police staffing to 1,677 officers by 2018, the mayor's office said."
Originally, they planned to raise the restaurant sales tax to 10%. Who knows what else is coming?
Jon says
@Chris… What publicly-financed stadia does Columbus have?
Crew Stadium was privately built and privately owned.
Nationwide Arena is funded, in part, by taxes on casino revenue, not a general public tax.
Huntington Park was built with a mix of public-private funding, but does not require any public subsidy.
The only places left are part of OSU, and it's sporting revenues, especially from football, are in the black.
I find it hard to believe OSU's football stadium pays for itself. Could you offer some proof?
Even so, OSU seems to be seeing a pretty huge surge in apartment construction near the field, increasing the % of people who walk to games or take transit. I assume there are game day shuttles.
Few cities in America have distorted their urban structure around mega attractions like Indy. Baltimore might be the closest comparison.
In terms of history, I think Atlanta makes a pretty good comparison to Indy.
Both cities started to grow in the 1870-1900 period. The "golden age of Indianapolis" is considered the 1900-1930 period which fits Atlanta's history. Both had extensive street car networks.
Both cities were known for racial division & both cities had an industrial belt near the downtown.
But, Atlanta is doing much better at filling that former industrial belt with pedestrian oriented infill.
"AMLI Ponce Park
AMLI's newest complex, featuring 305 one-and-two bedroom units, is at 641 North Ave. just steps from the BeltLine. It's expected to open in July.
"Bohemian House
Dubbed BoHoO4W, the 276-unit one-and-two bedroom apartment building at 477 Wilmer St. (off Glenn Iris Drive) held its grand opening in May.
The Flats at PCM
The exclusive 259 residential units at Ponce City Market building in the Old Fourth Ward include original details such as steel sash windows, exposed ceilings, architectural columns and European-style kitchens. Leasing is underway and move-ins are expected to begin in the fall.
The latest development from Perennial Properties is being built on a hillside above The Masquerade and adjacent to the BeltLine at the corner of North Avenue and Somersett Terrace. Move-ins are expected to begin at the 228-unit building in August.
Atlanta Daily World Building
Gene Kansas Commercial Real Estate has announced it will renovate the historic Atlanta Daily World newspaper building on Auburn Avenue into apartments and street-level retail. The apartments could be ready by fall.
Alexan at Krog Street
Trammel Crow Residential is building this 222-unit apartment building on the Eastside Trail of the BeltLine adjacent to the Stove Works. The apartments will be completed in summer 2015, and you'll be able to walk across the street to Krog Street Market."
See the entire huge list.
http://www.atlantaintownpaper.com/2014/06/renters-market-apartment-boom-continues-intown/
Living in Minnesota and from Indy originally. I wish the arguement about restaraunts would cease. Aaron is so right about mediocraty in Central Indiana especially. People in Indy never had an identity and still don't. As for groking Minnesota Aaron. It's like this. People embrace outdoor activities. Fishing and hunting are popular. Hiking, boating, biking, running, camping. And winter sports too! Cross country ski, downhill, snowboard.,ice fishing. By taking advantage of the natural resources Minnesota has the people living here are really living. But then again it goes beyond just the outdoors. We take care of our own. And we have problems too. All the urban problems Aaron notes are here in the Twin Cities and small cities. Luckily I'm a resident now of Duluth. There are no fine dinning or good middle of the road places to eat. But we do have a few diners and roadhouses up the shore and in the county. Best we can offer is to eat well at home and play alot outside.
"People in Indy never had an identity and still don't."
If you are under 150 years old, you probably can't support that statement.
The basic design of the old city has glimpses of real quality and care.
The underlying idea behind the centrally controlled development strategy is that Indy has no identity (cow town) of value- and one needs to be imposed on it.
Was it ever true, or has this policy of ripping apart neighborhoods and funneling resources into one area undermined cultural growth?
David Holmes says
This is a little off topic, but some of John's comments regarding the urban development focused on sports stadiums and mage-structures remind me of what I thought was a stunning quote by Mayor Ballard in a July 21, 2009 expression of interest that ultimately resulted in the privatization of the Indy water and sewerage treatment systems:
"Indianapolis, like many large cities today, faces massive funding challenges related to maintaining its basic infrastructure. The estimated cost to bring our City's infrastructure to a fair condition exceeds $5 billion. It is estimated that over $4 billion is needed for improvements to the City's waterworks utility system ("Waterworks") and wastewater utility system ("Wastewater") and $1.5 billion for other basic infrastructure projects (roads, bridges, sidewalks and parks)."
"With unparalleled public and private sector support, the City has made significant investments recently in important, high-profile facilities. Our field house for basketball, new international airport, new football stadium, and expanding convention center are the result of investments in excess of $3 billion by our community. These noteworthy facilities are important investments that must be maintained, but the high-profile nature of such facilities must not distract us from the need to invest in our basic infrastructure: our roads, bridges, sidewalks, parks, and Waterworks and Wastewater systems."
Wow. Bold words. No doubt the Mayor is correct that it may be important for a city to invest in basic infrastructure, and not just other "important investments" like sports facilities.
I like Indy, and think the city exudes a positive energy. But my impression has long been that the City sold its soul to both the mega-sprawl and mega-structure "urban success" models, and that there would be hell to pay at some point. The bill for some of the neglected infrastructure is already coming due, with residents facing water and sewer rates that will double or triple from 2009-2025, and go from some of the lowest to among the highest in the US.
Rod Stevens says
Portland has had the same doubling or tripling of rates, largely as a result of annexation. Fifty year ago, people wanting to avoid paying the higher hook-up rates of the City of Portland went outside the city limits, where they could build with septic fields. When the City annexed those areas ten or 15 years ago, existing customers in the sewer and water utilities subsidized those new connections. The City thought it was doing a good thing annexing those first ring suburbs to become larger, since it had seen new investment go there in the past. Those older suburbs have become poor, dilapitated, and needed of basic upgrades like paved roads, and the most recent generation of young people don't want to live there, preferring instead the center city, where they are reinvesting in old houses and sparking a rebirth in commercial development. The center city thought it needed to be big to survive. Financially, it might have been better to go it alone. The question is whether it needed to rescue those neighbors to keep them from pulling it down. In terms of fairness, the state should have either mandated the upgrades, taking the cost out of the value of the homes, or provided a region-wide subsidy, not one just from the center city.
There is a very interesting and very short book on this subject, written by the former mayor of Albuquerque, called "Cities Without Suburbs". The basic thesis is that the creation of numerous municipalities and special service districts has created inefficient and inequitable financing metro-wide.
Indy is seeing a range of tax hikes from property to sales. The state also has had to chip in money from a big liquor tax increase.
Manhattan is the opposite- 22.9 square miles of land pretty much subsidize the rest of the city.
I think it was Hammond Indiana that chose handouts to Cabela's over flood control.
Sorry, I was wrong. Looks like the plan to double state liquor taxes to funnel money into Indy's sports stadiums was killed.
Most articles bring up the same theme. The city has used $$ from basic services and infrastructure for stadiums & now needs to hike taxes. The ROI from these "investments" is so great they always need more money to be kept afloat.
The Guardian has a long article about the UK's recent discovery of midwestern food.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/aug/05/haute-dogs-fried-pickles-savoury-doughnuts-how-britain-fell-love-midwestern-food?CMP=twt_gu
Gyrid says
The argument that the restaurants of Indianapolis are inferior to those of Louisville because the democratic social state of the midwest compels its residents to eschew excellence in favor of contently wallowing in mediocrity strikes me as laughably culturally tone deaf. While it would be difficult to deny that the culture of Louisville is more influenced by aristocracy than the culture of Indianapolis, claiming that this is the reason that Indianapolis trails Louisville in culinary excellence, and that Indianapolis would have it no other way (!), is inept at best. I would challenge you to find a single potential patron of L'Ex who never dined there because the ensuing "opprobrium of the community" would have been too much to bear.
It might be a bit extreme to imply the Big Ten is all about academic excellence at the expense of Southern colleges. Duke is in the South and has academic standards as high (or much higher) than most Big 10 schools and had a longer track record of excellence than any Big 10 school in basketball (save possibly for Indiana). Ohio State and Penn State have had their share of scandal lately. What's the difference anyway? Most major college football players are in school for the game, an education is secondary by evidence of all the early withdrawals to the NFL.


The Upper Great Plains (UGP) region manages transmission facilities in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa, and markets power from the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program-Eastern Division. UGP transmission facilities are integrated with the transmission facilities of Basin Electric Power Cooperative and Heartland Consumers Power District. UGP manages a balancing authority center in Watertown, S.D.
The City of East Grand Forks, Minn., the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the North Dakota School for the Deaf are just some of the customers that rely on the Upper Great Plains Region for reliable hydropower in the Midwest. Whether the need is for lighting city streets or providing power to local businesses, our goal is to keep our cost-based rates and our customers' rates competitive in the markets we serve.
The UGP region is one of four regions within Western Area Power Administration, a Federal power marketing agency. Western sells and delivers wholesale power and bulk wholesale transmission to local utilities. Your electric company gets the power it delivers to consumers from a variety of sources, including wholesale power providers such as Western, purchases from neighboring utilities and its own generation. Upper Great Plains employees work around the clock to keep bulk power moving through the interconnected transmission system so that electricity ultimately reaches your home or business.
The UGP region carries out Western's mission in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota. Annually we sell almost 10 billion kilowatt hours of firm power generated from eight dams and power plants of the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program-Eastern Division. This power can serve more than 2 million households. We deliver this hydropower through nearly 90 substations and across more than 8,000 miles of Federal power lines, which are connected with other regional transmission systems and groups.
To keep power moving through the system, we rely on our Operations office in Watertown, S.D., in which dispatchers determine where to deliver power based on demand in our six-state area. We also rely on maintenance crews to keep the power lines and equipment working properly.
In the UGP region, we sell and deliver firm hydropower to rural electric cooperatives, cities and towns, public utility districts, irrigation districts, state agencies and Native Americans. Although our Region covers Western's largest geographic service territory-378,000 square miles of sweeping prairie and fertile farmland-we are committed to personally visiting customers at every opportunity. We recognize the importance of understanding our customer's individual circumstances and valuing their business.
In addition to selling generation and maintaining the power system, we offer services tailored to specific customer needs. These include providing technical expertise on such topics as efficient lighting, residential heating and equipment loans to help customers plan for future power needs. Other services include ensuring customers meet national standards when building power lines and switchyards that interconnect with Western facilities.
To serve these customer needs, we work from 22 duty stations throughout the Region. We keep the power flowing while ensuring environmental protection, employee safety and system security; managing day-to-day administrative tasks; operating and maintaining the transmission system; and administering contracts and setting rates.
As the electric utility industry continues to experience restructuring and increased competition, we will keep building upon our products and services to respond to customers' changing needs.
We continually look for ways to increase customer involvement while eliminating unnecessary requirements. Our customer service representatives go the extra mile to visit face-to-face with new customers. These customer service representatives, unique to our Region, inform customers about the services Western offers.
We also seek ways to more closely team with customers and the generating agencies to improve reliability and decrease costs. One example is partnerships with Basin Electric, East River power cooperatives and Northwest Iowa Power Cooperative, which allows each of us to share the use of communication facilities for system control.
Enhancing relationships with our customers and improving service will shape our future in the Upper Great Plains region. We look forward to building upon our existing relationships and creating new ones.


Design & branding for print and screen.
Graphic design / Identity design / Branding / Web design / Marketing / Logo Design / Brochures + Publications / Business Stationery + Collateral / Outdoor + Signage / Illustration / Icon Design / Infographics / User Interface Design.
130+ projects for more than 50 clients in 20 cities worldwide.


text:
MMO MMORPG News·Editorial·2016 MMO Predictions – China, The Rising King of Gaming
2016 MMO Predictions – China, The Rising King of Gaming
By Mike Tang, Guest Writer
When people say "mainstream gaming" most would presume that it's based in South Korea or Japan. Both nations have had a significant influence on videogame culture and have brought competitive gaming to the world stage; however, there is one dark horse (or in this case, red) that has quickly solidified its status as the king of the gaming market – China.
In a 2015 report by the research firm Newzoo, China has the largest gaming market in the world. At the end of 2016, it pulled in a whopping $22.2 billion with a year-to-year growth of +23% since 2014. That tops the USA's $22 billion with only a +3% year-to-year growth. China can still be considered the "new kid on the block," however; it's hard to deny the depth of its coffers and the significant influence on the market (in recent years and in the near future). With this newfound clout, what are China's intentions and how will it affect the global gaming economy?
Firstly, and quite obviously, China has a population of over 1.3 billion. Gamers account for an estimated 1 out of every 3 Chinese citizens. This gives China the ability to cater to local and international gaming markets, making it easy to acquire new audiences with existing contents from abroad and scale up quickly. The large pool would also mean that there will be millions of consumers and producers, making a boom in tech, art and design in the industry.
In 2000, the Chinese government lifted the ban on personal ownership of gaming consoles. The major console manufacturers (i.e. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo) wasted no time in making substantial investments in console production for the legion of Chinese consumers.
Over 100,000 Xbox One units were sold on the first day of its release in China, making its debut better received than in Japan. Microsoft will use this momentum to capture the recently "opened" console market with an extensive marketing campaign, localization of their gaming libraries and big PR ploys using local celebrities (from Hong Kong and the mainland) to brand the Xbox One as the definitive console to have. Since the release of the new generation of consoles, Microsoft has not yet been able to close the major gap between the numbers of Xbox One units sold to the number of Sony's PlayStation 4 units sold. Not daunted by its limited initial success, Microsoft has set its sights on the promising and budding Chinese market, so as to gain as much ground as possible before its competitors can intervene.
In spite of the console ban, Sony and Nintendo already had a strong brand presence in China. To compete, Microsoft will have to step up their marketing efforts and be more aggressive in a space where the Chinese are accustomed to playing computer games in internet cafes. On the other hand, it will be an uphill battle for the Japanese companies, since past and recent disputes have led to bad blood between the Japanese and Chinese governments. It will be interesting to see which new laws and regulations are placed on imported consoles and business in the coming months and how the console manufacturers adapt to them.
Home console systems are reported to have generated over $400 million and it will continue to increase in the near future. Curiously, the Chinese consoles are slightly marked up in comparison to their North American counterparts, which are also manufactured and assembled in China. Sony's PS4 is priced at 2,899 yuan or about $468 USD, while it costs only $350 in the USA. The pricing difference is the same with the Nintendo and Microsoft consoles. On that note, it would be wiser for the console owners to lower their price points, since China is already obsessed with PC gaming, which is mostly free to play.
With the influx of console games, it is expected for the government to start regulating which content enters the country and ultimately what the public has access to. Restrictions in China have been lessened, but only to a certain extent. Government-related issues, sex, and violence are still at the top of the list of heavily censored content; however, there are opportunities for game developers to add new features, gameplay, and plot content to better suit the sensibilities of the target audience.
PC gaming is the dominating force in China. It had the greatest revenue generation at around $4.3 billion in the first half of 2015 with a 4.5% growth, according to Tech In Asia. Major players in this space are Riot's own behemoth, "League of Legends," South Korea's "Dungeon & Fighter" and "Crossfire" and the long running MMORPG, "World of Warcraft." Other "top 10" titles from abroad are: "Guild Wars 2," "Blade & Soul," "World of Tanks" and even the 2014 released "Hearthstone." Domestic games like "Demigods and Semi Devils" and "Fantasy Journey to the West 2" are among the hottest PC games in China. While the domestic titles aren't ranked higher compared to some of their imported counterparts, it does show growing interest in more local and regional products.
When one has a large sum of money, it is only natural to feel the need to spend it. That is what Tencent, the Chinese Internet Company, did. They own over 90% stake in Riot, the major investor for Blizzard Activision and Epic Games. This investment is in foreign gaming companies and it has paid off handsomely, thus far. The Chinese exclusive edition of Call of Duty Online shows the results of the partnership, and there will be more to come. Expect more cross pollination among the different companies where they will share of best business and game practice. Look forward to hearing news of more acquisitions of companies.
With China securing the biggest market in the world, there will be greater domestic development, as well as greater influence on gaming systems made abroad. International companies will continue to invest and establish themselves within the country. China will continue to shift its one-time "manufacturer of the world" image into a consumer powerhouse and immensely successful producer with the aid of the fastest growing middle class. In time, it won't be a surprise that some of consumers' favorite products will be Chinese sourced and made, including successful Chinese based games and gaming systems.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Home Showbiz Bollywood Ranveer Singh: "I'm lucky to have Deepika"
Ranveer Singh: "I'm lucky to have Deepika"
Amrita Tanna
amrita@bizasialive.com
Amr1ta
In a recent interview with a leading magazine, Ranveer Singh ha spoken about his new wife Deepika Padukone and how he always knew that he'd end up marrying her.
"I'm lucky to have her. I knew all too well that this is the woman I'm going to marry. This is the woman who would become the mother of my children. I've been thinking about marriage seriously for almost three years now. I was just waiting, I told her the minute you say so, we'll do it," said the actor, according to Filmfare.
Singh also said he knew she was the one for him early on during their six-year courtship. "Six months into the relationship. I knew she was the one. I nurtured the relationship accordingly. It's been six years now. She's too good, too lovely. She's a force of nature. I understood that almost immediately".
The couple wed in Lake Como on 14th-15th November and Singh also said that the wedding was Padukone's dream.
Stay with BizAsiaLive.com for more.
Ranveer Deepika wedding
Previous articleSpotify to launch in India after tie-up with T-Series
Next articleZEE Media calls off Rs 1592 crore deal for Reliance's radio business
Latest From Related Articles


I originally made this back in January. We received a lot of smoked salmon for X-mas and I used it in different ways. I made a Salmon Salad with some of it and have been tinkering with the recipe since. I finally have it perfected! If you can not find crack pepper smoked salmon just use a little extra crack pepper but the smoked crack pepper salmon really is better (in my opinion) to use. I have not tired it but I think this Salmon Salad with a little spinach would be great in a wrap! Enjoy!
Remove skin from salmon meat and break meat into flakes. Gently mix all ingredients together in a small bowl until evenly mixed, cover and chill (at least 10 minutes) until ready to serve. Serve on potato bread with a deli slice of pepper jack for even more flavor!


Inner Health, Inc. is the only comprehensive homeopathic phone treatment service in the United States, as well as one of the largest United States homeopathic education institutions. Inner Health (IH) provides Distance Learning as well as On-Site education including live clinic experience for beginners to advance homeopaths. IH has trained hundreds of Homeopaths to improve their success rate, develop their case management skills and maintain clear records for auditing purposes. IH's team of homeopaths have seen a vast range of conditions and know how to get great results. Inner Health aims to make homeopathy a household word and to have expert homeopaths prepared to care for the public.


text:
HOWZAT?: Councillors agree to make cricketing duo freemen of Bradford
Adil Rashid and Jonny Bairstow to be made freemen of Bradford
By Chris Young @ChrisY_TandA Local Democracy Reporter
TWO local cricket legends will have one of Bradford's top civic honours bestowed on them after councillors voted to admit them to the "The Roll of Honorary Freemen of Bradford."
At an extraordinary meeting of Bradford Council this afternoon, members voted to award the honour to Adil Rashid and Jonny Bairstow - who were both key to England's cricket team winning the World Cup last summer.
Now the vote has been approved, the Council will prepare a civic ceremony where the sportsmen will be officially given the honour.
The title is one of the top honours the Bradford district can offer its citizens, and it will mean the cricketers will join the likes of David Hockney, Barbara Castle and J.B. Priestley, who have previously been made Freemen of the City.
The pair etched their names into cricketing legend in July when England beat New Zealand to lift the World Cup.
Rashid was born in Bradford in 1988, and honed his skills playing in the Bradford Cricket League for Bradford and Bingley.
Since then he has become an all rounder playing at the highest level particularly known for his outstanding performance in one-day internationals.
He is an ambassador for the overseas Plastic Surgery Appeal, a Yorkshire-based charity which carries out much of its work in the Punjab region of Pakistan.
And he has remained routed to his home city - the Adil Rashid Cricket Academy in Bradford provides coaching and opportunities for the next generation of talent.
Bairstow who was born in Bradford in 1989 and first picked up a bat whilst toddling around Undercliffe Cricket Club where his father David Bairstow was a member.
In recent years he has supported the redevelopment of Park Avenue as a major cricket venue and acted as an ambassador for inward investment to Bradford and the Leeds City Region. The nominations were made by Council leader Susan Hinchcliffe.
At today's meeting, she said: "I'm delighted to move this recommendation. They are cricketing heroes - not just England heroes but Bradford heroes, and they were seen on a world stage. We're immensely proud of their contribution to cricket.
"We don't give this honour lightly. We haven't given it for 10 years. It is given to people who make a significant contribution not just to Bradford, but to the country on Bradford's behalf."
The Lord Mayor of Bradford, Cllr Doreen Lee said the pair's skills had been witnessed by people across the world during last year's World Cup, adding: "Bradford is immensely proud of them both."
Cllr John Pennington, Conservative group leader, said he had recently seen Rashid playing cricket on Allerton Road. He added: "That's how grounded he is."
He described Bairstow as a "Right good Bradford lad."
Councillor Brendan Stubbs (Lib Dem) said: "It is rare to see world champions come from our city. It is not just how they played that day (the World Cup), it recognises their whole career and what they do off the pitch."
Now it has been agreed to bestow the honour, the Council will organise what Cllr Lee described as a "proper bash" that will see the District celebrate the pair. This is likely to take place in September.


before and after of kitchen table makeover painted white base and stained driftwood top. Used Rustoleum Driftwood stain with Annie Sloan dark wax is creative inspiration for us.
Full size is 577X1600 (Link to full-size image) pixels.


text:
This jQuery plugin generates dungeons like retro RPG from text data.
And this does not require WebGL, uses only Canvas API.

## SAMPLES

* [Sample1: Simple](https://yuichietsu.github.io/jquery.dungeon/sample/sample1.html)
* [Sample2: Large](https://yuichietsu.github.io/jquery.dungeon/sample/sample2.html)
* [Sample3: Wireframe](https://yuichietsu.github.io/jquery.dungeon/sample/sample3.html)
* [Sample4: Two maps and snap move](https://yuichietsu.github.io/jquery.dungeon/sample/sample4.html)
* [Sample5: Loading maps by AJAX](https://yuichietsu.github.io/jquery.dungeon/sample/sample5.html)
* [Sample6: Color](https://yuichietsu.github.io/jquery.dungeon/sample/sample6.html)

## USAGE

See samples.

## CHANGELOG

### 2017/08

* Added wireframe rendering
* Added snap move mode
* Added AJAX load for map data
* Improved 2D rendering performance
* Added color settings

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


For more than a decade, we have served our clients to the best of our abilities. What we say is not as important as what our client's say. Please take a moment to read what our clients say about our products and their satisfaction working with the DWD staff.change.
The Baptist Foundation of Alabama chose Dynamic Website Development to design, development, and implement a revolutionary new scholarship management application. With a focus on reliable control, time saving automation and accuracy of information. DWD built an online application that saves TBFA more than 600 man-hours annually and provides measurable efficiencies to donors and students alike. Automatically matching applicants to the criterias of more than 100 donor created funds then numerically ranking each student within each fund according to their "need" for financial assistance and delivering results in real-time exceeded the expectations of The Baptist Foundation of Alabama.
""Working with the team at DWD was a pleasure, they exceeded our expectations on every level from the way they communicated with us to the finished project." John Ashworth Chief Administrative Officer The Baptist Foundation of Alabama.
When customer service and user experience must be second to none the custom cabinet door distributors came to DWD to build a full custom website that will meet their goals of providing the best in class user experience.
"We have had a long and satisfactory relationship with Dynamic Website Development. They built our LegacyLinc content feed application that enables us to provide hundreds of custom content pages to our clients and it can be managed by a non-technical person. The LegacyLinc application was revolutionary in our industry 14 years ago and leading edge still today. Dynamic Website Development has also built our websites and our client service application, the Estate Plan Organizer. We would recommend them on any complicated project." Mark DeBiase, President/CEO PhilanthroCorp, Inc 111 Tejon Street Colorado Springs, CO.
"We have enjoyed the four beautiful websites Dynamic Website Development has built us in the last 14 years. Their backend with all the forms and documents for our case managers and the training section for new volunteers has simplified our running multiple locations. I will always recommend them for any business." Kaye McCarthy, President, Arizonans for Children.
"We couldn't visualize how software could fit into the way we worked, but Dynamic Website Development created an online application that revolutionized our tracking, record keeping and provided the accountability the inspector wanted and the separate logins for each department simplified the process and made training a volunteer staff of more than 50 individuals much easier than we had imagined. We distribute more than 76 tons of food to over 10,000 individuals annually. We kept everything on paper before DWD. They analyzed every step of our process and built the prefect application that fit into our way of working but replacing all that paper we went "green" and now referencing something is so easy and fast. It even captures the digitize signature of recipients to satisfy the inspectors. We highly recommend Dynamic Website Development." Judy Nash, Administrator, The Care Center, Montgomery AL.


Company also says you "should not expect any level of privacy" in voice chat.
The statement reiterates what Microsoft Director of Product Albert Penello told us in September regarding the Xbox One's use of facial recognition to automatically log in users. This data "does not leave the console" and can be deleted from the local console at any time. In addition, Microsoft says that the string of numbers used internally to represent your recognition model can't be deciphered and tied back to you in any way.
Any skeletal models generated by Kinect are destroyed after a given gameplay session, Microsoft says, including any models sent over the Internet during an online gameplay session. These skeletons are also not personally identifiable from the raw data, Microsoft says, nor is any facial expression data collected by Kinect.
In contrast, Microsoft says users "should not expect any level of privacy concerning your use of the live communication features such as voice chat, video, and communications in live-hosted gameplay sessions offered through the Services." The company may monitor these channels "to the extent permitted by law," though it says it "cannot monitor the entire Service and make[s] no attempt to do so" and does not listen in on Skype calls at all. Online voice chat can be recorded or broadcast by others as well, Microsoft notes.
Microsoft also says it collects sample voice control commands from the Kinect periodically "for product improvement," but it only does so with user consent. The company also stores exercise information collected during the play of Xbox Fitness, but it says it won't share that data on its own.
For the Xbox One's internal GameDVR, users can set the system to share recorded clips with no one, only with friends, or allow them to be viewable by everyone. Microsoft warns that your character in online matches can be easily recorded by others using the Xbox One's GameDVR feature but that any online voice chat won't be captured by the built-in features.
Elsewhere, the privacy statement also links to an opt-out page where users can disable targeted advertising and tracking by a number of third-party ad services. The company warns that third-party publishers may also collect personal information through the Xbox. Electronic Arts, Xseed Games, and Disney Interactive are named explicitly as companies that might do just that.


text:
ART, RESEARCH, THEORY
January 25, 2017 / Deirdre Donoghue
During The International Film Festival Rotterdam: IFFR 2017, m/other voices holds a Field Trip with Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, to talk and share creative insights brought forth by her practices as a mother and a film maker. As part of the Field Trip we will be screening her work Mothertime. (For more information scroll below.)
Kristy Guevara-Flanagan teaches courses on documentary filmmaking at the School of Theater, Film and Television. Her first feature-length film was an acclaimed documentary covering four years in the lives of four adolescent girls. Going on 13 was an official selection of Tribeca, Silverdocs, and many other film festivals worldwide. It received funding from ITVS and was broadcast on public television in 2009. Guevara-Flanagan has also produced and directed several short films, including El Corrido de Cecilia Rios, winner of the Golden Gate Award for Best Bay Area Short Documentary at the San Francisco International Film Festival, a chronicle of the violent death of 15-year-old Cecilia Rios. It was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival and subsequently broadcast on the Sundance Channel. Her most recent feature, Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines, traces the evolution and legacy of the comic book hero Wonder Woman as a way to reflect on society's anxieties about women's liberation. The film garnered numerous awards, premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in 2012 and was broadcast on the PBS series Independent Lens in 2013. Guevara-Flanagan received her M.F.A. in cinema from San Francisco State University.
Mothertime
Embracing the innovative technology of the Go-Pro camera, Mothertime is an essayistic portrait sweeping us into a corporeal experience in parenting. By using a very small, portable camera worn by mother and child, or left on any surface and turned on and off remotely, this video is a real-time, sensorial journey spanning the frenetic to mundane. Set primarily amidst scenes of domestic life in their first home, the camera captures the whimsical, ordinary, sometimes claustrophobic repeating loops of work and play in daily life. The audience is drawn into the raw and messy reality of the mother-daughter relationship as the markers of toddlerhood become the turning points of the film itself. Early mobility, language acquisition, and increasing independence play out as preparation for the move from one house to another. Like a feminist Leviathan, the video aims to disrupt expectations as the audience itself embodies the mother-child. Ultimately,Mothertime breaks down the distinction between artist and corporeal mother and invites the viewer to do the same. To see the labor of motherhood as neither romanticized nor banal.
Upominki /// non-profit project space
Sint-Mariastraat 132B
3014SR Rotterdam
From Rotterdam Central Station
PLEASE RESERVE: info@mothervoices.org
Spaces are limited.
See here for more information on the Field Trips and their related inquiry.
ART, THEORY, RESEARCH


text:
On the Incidence of Poisonous Snakebites in Florida: Analysis of 241 Cases Occurring During 1954 and 1955
Henry M. Parrish
Affiliations: 1 Division of Epidemiology, Bureau of Preventable Disease, Florida State Board of Health, Jacksonville, Florida
Source: The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Volume 6, Issue 4, 1 Jul 1957, p. 761 - 765
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.1957.6.761
A questionnaire was sent to the practicing physicians and hospitals in Florida requesting them to report all the poisonous snakebites they treated during the calendar years 1954 and 1955. They reported 106 bites treated during 1954 and 135 during 1955—an average of 120 bites per year. There were three deaths from snake venom poisoning during 1954 and three during 1955. There was an average fatality rate of 2.5 per cent for this group of treated snakebites.
Snakebites occurred more frequently during the spring and summer months. Rattlesnakes were responsible for about 50 per cent of the 241 bites. More than 90 per cent of the bites were inflicted on the extremities. Forty-nine per cent of the bites occurred in young people less than 20 years of age.
It was estimated that 41 per cent of these patients had minimal venenation, 39 per cent had moderate venenation, and 20 per cent had severe venenation. Apparently the patients with severe venenation did not receive the recommended amount of antivenin.
/content/journals/10.4269/ajtmh.1957.6.761
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.4269/ajtmh.1957.6.761
10.4269/ajtmh.1957.6.761


En pleine ascension grâce à son intégration à la tournée "Berlin Calling" et à la sortie des très bons Ponytails et Mukluks (cf Myspace), Simina Grigoriu est une personne ouverte qui sait nous pointer du doigt le chemin de la danse à l'épuisement.
Elle accepte de répondre à nos questions avec un engouement qui la rend toujours plus jolie!
Before being a DJ, did you learn to play an instrument?
Yes.. I played violin and piano when i was a kid.. but i don't remember how to play either.. it's been so long..
Ever wanted to play an another instrument?
Drums.. I've learned a little bit.. at least i can keep a beat… My brother is an amazing musician so somestimes I just watch him in awe. He's really talented and was playing drums each day.. It's how i got into it.
Does anyone push you to make techno?
There are lots of artist that have influenced me.. too many to name.. but it was a personal decision to start producing.. I did not try to follow anybody's sound. Guys like Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Jeff Mills andAdam Beyer have always been at the top of my list.
What are your hardwares and softwares?
I don't use hardware. I use only Ableton Live. Mostly samples and some vsts… I can do what I need with the software.. There are ways of creating sounds with virtual instruments that sound identical to their hardware counterparts. But this is a controversial subject, I guess.
When and where did you play for the first time and how was it?
I played somme small venues in Toronto and Miami but the big shows i played were here in Germany. The first one was an open air festival somewhere in East Germany. It was cool to play in front of such a different crowd than I had seen back home. The sound was great and it was when I realized how serious these guys were about their music. It was nice.
Can you explain us the name of your two pieces "Ponytails" and "Mukluks"?
These pieces are so dear to me not only because I put my heart and soul into them… but because they are my first two released tracks, Mukluks & Ponytails.
Sonat Records is an upcoming label from Berlin spearheaded byLudovic Vendi from France. It's a great label with a great sound.. and small enough to be able to do something new. It's why I aligned myself with them.
What is the worst experience you've lived as a DJ?
It was probably when my equipment started messing up on stage in front of 8000 people. My heart dropped into my stomach.. luckily I troubleshooted the problem and was back up and running in a few moments.. but it was terrifying.
Oh boy.. this is a hard one.. I'm going to stay faithful and sayFOOTWORK in Toronto.. This is the greatest little place and all of our friends know it.
What do you do when you don't play music?
Sometimes too much.. and sometimes nothing at all.. it really depends… to be honest I spend most of my time at home.. with my guy and my books and movies. I also like to walk around and look at architecture.. it fascinates me.
Why have you chosen to live in Berlin?
Berlin is the best place for me to be. My family and my music are here..
Who is Paul Kalkbrenner for you?
Paul Kalkbrenner is one of my favorite artists.. He is also the love of my life… (smiling now).
What are your favorite artists from the beginning of 2010?
Lately I've been playing a lot from Format:B, Luca Bacchetti,Coyu, SIS, Nicone and Pablo Cahn & Hector.. just to name a few..
What do you think about downloading illegally on the Internet?
I don't agree with it and I don't do it.. having said that.. f some kid in India downloads my music and burns it on a CD and gives it to all his friends.. It's the best promotion that could happen in a country where we have no distribution. There are always two sides to a story.. This has been a difficult challenge for the music industry. It's why I appreciate when labels release on vinyl before they release digital.. It gives the artist a chance to fight the downloaders.
On top of which monument you'd like to play?
That's easy. I would love to play on top of Corcovado in Brazil.
What is your remedy to get out of bed the morning after a big party?
H20.. the fountain of youth.
How do you imagine your life in 10 years?
Wow.. That's a big one… Feels like a job interview.. I see myself still surrounded by music.. as well as a couple of kids. Aside from this.. I'm not sure what life will look like..
Any advice for someone who wants to become a DJ?
Practice. Practice. Practice until you're sick. Then practice more.


text:
News That Matters
Watch: New York Mets' Pete Alonso wins 2019 MLB Home Run Derby
July 9, 2019 July 9, 2019 by admin
July 8 (UPI) — New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso blasted 23 homers in the final round to win the 2019 MLB Home Run Derby on Monday night at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
Alonso outlasted Toronto Blue Jays slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to claim the Derby trophy and $ 1 million prize. He became the third rookie ever to win the Home Run Derby, joining co-champ Wally Joyner (1986) and Aaron Judge (2017).
Alonso, who has a base salary of $ 555,000 this season, said he would donate 10 percent of his winnings between two charities.
"That was a blast. I'm going to remember that for the rest of my life," Alonso said. "I have the utmost respect for the people that put their lives on the line every single day. I just want to show my gratitude because a bad day for me is a lot different than a bad day for the servicemen and women that serve this country."
Guerrero blasted a record 91 homers in the competition but slowed down in the last round due to fatigue. The rookie slugger had 22 home runs in the final round but posted a single-round record 40 homers to beat Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Joc Pederson in a marathon semifinal matchup.
Guerrero edged Pederson 40-39 in the semis after three tiebreakers. The Blue Jays third baseman had set the single-round record in the first round with 29 long balls before breaking that mark later in the night.
Alonso defeated Atlanta Braves star Ronald Acuna Jr., who beat Pittsburgh Pirates slugger Josh Bell during the first round, in the semifinals. Alonso launched his 20th homer of the round over the trees in center field to edge Acuna's 19.
Guerrero had the longest home run of the night with a 488-foot blast in the second round.
Sports News – UPI.com
Tagged 2019, Alonso, derby, home, Mets, Pete, WATCH, wins, York
PrevHong Kong extradition bill 'is dead' says Carrie Lam
NextLove Island's Amy takes brutal swipe at Curtis' masculinity before explosive villa exit
Mars missions and rockets: Cornwall in deep-space revolution
July 19, 2019 July 19, 2019 by admin
Painted lady butterfly influx needs people to count them
BritBox: ITV and BBC set out plans for new streaming service
Ben Stokes: England cricketer nominated for New Zealander of the Year Award
Boeing takes $5bn compensation hit over 737 MAX crashes


text:
Q: Usando 'groupby' em um dataframe Tenho um dataframe com 60 colunas, mas para o caso preciso de somente 3
    ID          DT_DATE     NR_PRICE
0   22828949    2019-02-26  453.00
1   22828949    2019-02-22  453.00
2   22828949    2019-02-18  453.00
3   22828949    2019-02-05  453.00
4   22828950    2019-02-26  189.00
5   22828950    2019-02-24  189.00
6   22828950    2019-02-19  189.00
7   22828950    2019-02-14  189.00
8   22828950    2019-02-01  411.05

Preciso listar a 1ª data, penúltima e última data com seus respectivos valores
Tentei fazer da seguinte forma:
def custom(series):
    min_date = list(series)[0]
    pen_date = list(series)[-2]
    max_date = list(series)[-1]

    return min_date,pen_date,max_date

def get_price(series):
    price_a = list(series)[0]
    price_c = list(series)[-2]
    price_b = list(series)[-1]

    return price_a,price_c,price_b

dfb=df.groupby(["ID"],as_index=False).agg({"DT_DATE":custom,"NR_PRICE":get_price})

Qdo eu executo o mesmo, aparece a seguinte msg de erro
"IndexError: list index out of range"

Alguém ja passou por isso?

A: Para esse problema eu não usaria o groupby, veja minha solução:
Criei um exemplo em que a partir dos dados que vc colocou na questão (peguei apenas 6 linhas deles) crio um DataFrame(df0) fazendo sort na coluna de datas, copio o conteúdo para um segundo, eliminando as linhas com datas repetidas (df1) e, finalmente crio um terceiro (df2) somente com o que vc pede (primeira, penultima e ultima data).
import pandas as pd

dados = [['22828949', '2019-02-26', '453.00'],
 ['22828949', '2019-02-22', '453.00'],
 ['22828949', '2019-02-18', '453.00'],
 ['22828949', '2019-02-05', '453.00'],
 ['22828950', '2019-02-26', '189.00'],
 ['22828950', '2019-02-24', '189.00']]

# Construindo o dataframe (Note o sort na colua de datas)
df0 = pd.DataFrame(dados, columns=['ID', 'DT_DATE', 'NR_PRICE']).sort_values(by=['DT_DATE'])

# Removendo as datas duplicatas
df1 = df0.drop_duplicates(subset='DT_DATE', keep='last')

# Extraindo o primeiro, o último e o penultimo registros
df2 = df1.head(1).append(df1.tail(2))

# Apresentando o resultado
print(df2)

Saída:
         ID     DT_DATE NR_PRICE
3  22828949  2019-02-05   453.00
5  22828950  2019-02-24   189.00
4  22828950  2019-02-26   189.00

Veja funcionando no repl.it.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Prospects - Devils & Otherwise
New Jersey Devils Prospect Update: Breaking Down Reid Boucher's OHL Scoring & Other News & Notes
By GilmourGuy93 Apr 23, 2012, 1:30pm EDT
Share All sharing options for: New Jersey Devils Prospect Update: Breaking Down Reid Boucher's OHL Scoring & Other News & Notes
Reid Boucher, the New Jersey Devils 4th round pick in the 2011 NHL entry draft, was a member of the OHL's Sarnia Sting in 2011-12. (You can take a look at the prospect write-up I did on Boucher before last year's draft here.) It's important to mention that because it wasn't his original plan. Boucher, who had already committed to play college hockey at Michigan State University, passed up his last season in the USHL and his eligibility to Michigan State by signing in the OHL.
The OHL path of development for NHL prospects has advantages and disadvantages. The varying levels of competition and the rigorous schedule are two strong areas of the OHL. With that in mind I wanted to focus on how Boucher performed point wise against certain levels of competition and how he did in the first half of the season vs. the second half.
I looked at this not so much for what I could find out about his performance, but for what I was hoping I didn't find out. I didn't want to look at Boucher's performance and see that he averaged 3 points per game against the worst teams in the league and barely scored against tougher competition.
In addition to information about Reid Boucher, after the jump you will find statistical updates for the reamining Devils prospects playing in the ECHL & CHL.There are also other news and notes after the jump.
To look at Boucher's performance I looked at the OHL standings and allocated teams into tiers based on their performance. Full OHL standings are available at the OHL website.
The OHL has an interesting lower tier this year especially with the Erie Otters performance. Erie aside, you have your typical mix of strong and weak teams. This is how Boucher performed against each tier of competition.
Luckily Boucher's point production was spread out through the level of competition he faced. He was relatively consistent in his scoring across all tiers, didn't feast on the bottom feeders (although he had limited opportunities) and played well against teams that were equals of Sarnia (Tier 3 teams). Again, I was hoping to not see a lot of points built up against the bottom of the OHL, and with the breakdown above we can see that Boucher was consistent in his point production against most teams.
I also wanted to see how Boucher's scoring broke down from the first half of the year to the second half. Considering his size (5'9" and 190 lbs) and the fact that he had never played a grinding schedule like the OHL has, led me to guess that he would have interesting first half/second half splits, as he might fatigue in the second half of the year.
As evidenced above Boucher was a much more effective playe in the first half of the season if judged solely on point production, averaging nearly a point per game, than he was in the second half of the year when he averaged barely half a point.
What struck me is that his point production dropped, but his +/- wasn't a disaster like it was in the first half of the year. Adjusting for power play goals, Boucher scored 24 even strength points in the first half of the year and 16 in the second half.
In regards to point production aside from fatigure there are a number of other factors that could contribute to the drop in point production for Boucher. Teams learned his habits and were able to plan against him a bit better and Nail Yakupov's injuries in the second half of the year could have let other teams focus on Boucher more than they normally would.
Boucher should bounce back with a solid campaign next season now that he will be fully adjusted to the rigors of a full season schedule and the level of play in the OHL. Thinking about it a few weeks ago I was of the opinion that Boucher might be better served playing in the AHL next year, but I'm coming around to the idea of him staying where he is.
It would seem to benefit him best to head back to the OHL for another season. (Since he was drafted as a USHL player, he is eligible to play in the AHL next year. In other words the CHL/AHL agreement doesn't apply to him.) Boucher should see plenty of ice time as it's likely Sarnia Sting star Yaupon will jump to the NHL.
Statistical Update:
Once Scott Wedgewood's Plymouth Whalers were eliminated last week in the OHL playoffs Devils fans lost their last 'top' prospect to follow for this season. We'll talk more about Wedgewood in the off-season but he finished the year strong and had a good playoff performance. He should join the Albany Devils next year for his first season in professional hockey.
The Kalamazoo Wings advanced to the ECHL Eastern Conference Finals. They play the Florida Everblades in the next round. Currently Harry Young is the only player playing on a consistent basis as Maxime Clermont and Brian Haczyk have struggled to get into the lineup.
Zajac Signed to One-Year Deal in Albany: Per Tom Gulitti, forward Kelly Zajac has signed a one-year deal with Albany of the AHL.
Draft Pick Thoughts: I've been of the opinion that based on where the Devils were projected to pick in the first round of the draft that they should give up this year's pick because of the Ilya Kovalchuk Contract Penalty. Right now, not so sure about that.
Remember that the conference finalists from each conference will make up the last four picks of the draft order. Next come the remaining division winners who were ousted in the first two rounds of the playoffs. Then the remainder of those teams are ranked based on record.
With the upsets in the first round of this year's playoffs you will likely have conference finals with some lower seeds. That combined with division winners losing in the first/second round may push the Devils up to the #18/19 pick range. I know it's not that big of a jump, but the decision on whether or not to give up a first round pick becomes much harder.
That's it for this week; please leave any prospect related questions or comments below. Thanks for reading and sound off below!


text:
Apr 6, 2019 riffraph86
Words: The Inventor (11a)
Prologue / 1a / 1b / 2a / 2b / 3a / 3b / 4a / 4b / 5a / 5b / 6a / 6b / 7a / 7b / 8a / 8b / 9 / 10a / 10b / 10c
Chapter 11, in which Stephen and the Daimyo get reacquainted.
Winter 3.04 HC, 2210 (Day 64 of the Year of Winter)
Stephen.
I had managed to acquire a pair of jeans and a shirt with buttons in the trading house below the Daimyo's residence. They were old and the man selling them wasn't confident of their quality, but that made them easier to buy. Sellers like that don't survive long; those who aren't willing to lie in a place like this were krill for the whales.
A young man with light caramel skin and a long, soft black hair that played about his face opened the door. My eyes bulged in their sockets – I know you. I knew the kindness in his eyes, the softness of his expression, the tenderness in his gestures and the welcome in his gait. I knew these things of his from before, like from a dream, or a romance novel – he was like a fantasy. I knew him deep down, too – seeing him again filled a gap, like his face had been missing from my thoughts. I also acknowledged feeling a subservience towards this man, in a way that I never got from Gabriel or anybody else. I knew that I had done things for this man – I knew that there was a danger in him, a danger I had lived for, in another place, not here.
He stepped aside by way of encouraging me in through the door. Wordlessly, I knew to remove my shoes. This was, in more ways than one, an elevated space. In the entryway, framed pictures of old designs, architectural plans, and technological designs. A floor plan of a U-shaped building – this one? It looked like my design. Had he kept it in pride of place this whole time, in honour of me, or was it a deliberate gesture on finding out I wanted to meet with him?
Photo by Marcos Araujo on Pexels.com
A step up to the main building. We walked on old wood, varnished and polished but uneven, each board not perfectly straight, creating small gaps to reveal the stone below. The curious sound of birdsong as I trod each step, modelled on an ancient Japanese palace. My eyes followed the Daimyo, treading ahead of me and yet his footsteps caused no such sound. I was an intruder in this castle on an ironic glass ceiling, above a rowdy trading den, in a desolate Outpost, at what was supposed to be the end of winter.
Getting a meeting with the Daimyo had been easier than I was expecting. He was more than eager to accept – so much so that his response gave the impression that such an event was always his idea. Like this was always slated to happen. Part of the Master Plan.
We turned a corner, left, following the smell of coffee now. Once detected it pulled at my nostrils, bidding I speed my pace to drink it, fresh, sour-bitter, intense, demystifying. I pushed on with my stick, reminding me of the relative freedom I had felt in the water. There was no seating in the room ahead, which was only separated from the corridor by walls made from mahogany wood and white paper, framing our approach in front and the comfort behind.
"Please, help yourself," the Daimyo smiled, his eyes fixing on me. He would never pour for me; despite his self-proclaimed affinity for old Japan and its customs, this was a line he drew for himself and I – and more alarm bells went off in my head. Stay alert.
The coffee pot, a ceramic affair with a long, thin spout, sat on a low wooden table at the centre of the room with four espresso-sized cups. I moved to pour the coffee, and found myself pouring for him, too.
It felt like a betrayal. He'd charmed me, taken me in at some point. Almost like an addiction. I couldn't get enough of him. The coffee tasted like the first after a week of abstinence, or the first fuck after two weeks without masturbation.
He knew it, too. He knew my weaknesses, from my love of coffee to my crushed ambitions. He had orchestrated all this, the coffee, his soft welcome. He knew I had come with nothing. Nothing except for what he had left me. He had disarmed me by being a part of my past.
Fucker.
I couldn't help replaying clips from our time together in my head. Our meeting – he had come in as a representative of the Government at the time, visiting our facility under the guise of engagement with industry. I remembered thinking here was another ideologue, another PR stunt.
He had heard of me. He knew I was the same Mr Black who had developed the technology behind SkyHome. Gabriel was there, too – he'd heard of both of us – our dreams, our ambitions. Wanted a private meeting. The private meeting became… intense, and more private.
Coffee the next morning. He wanted to fund our research. Things went quickly. The technology progressed – the feeling of success went to our heads. We were happy-sick. He kept visiting, and we kept meeting. At first the three of us, then Gabriel started voicing his concerns. It became tangled. The meetings changed, and he started seeing me separately. The happiness was all but a nauseating memory. Gabriel left soon after. The Daimyo – I forget his real name now, I'd been calling him Daimyo for so long – suddenly stopped visiting. The work carried on progressing, but it was heavier now. A burden I had subscribed to of my own volition.
Then he came back. The Daimyo. He came back to give me the news: Gabriel had gone.
"How did Gabriel die?" I asked. The Daimyo had expected this initial silence and allowed it to stir my thoughts, my questions. There was air to clear.
"Ah yes," he replied, inhaling deeply into his coffee cup. A crack in the rim had been repaired with gold. Wabi-sabi. "You'll remember the disagreement."
Remember it? "I relive it," I exhaled. I tried to hold on to what I was doing here, and hoped my appalling conversation starter had put him on the back foot as much as I was.
"That was a terrible time. A really difficult, terrible time for all of us," he replied.
"Don't give me a practiced line," I said, putting my cup down. "Your answer is 'c'est la vie'?"
"Of course not. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for your loss."
There wasn't much to say to that, but I was no clearer on what happened now than when I came in. What happened to Gabriel? And did the Daimyo have a hand in it, like I had always thought?
"We did it for your father." He added in the silence.
We? The air felt static, and I felt the hairs stand up on the back of my hands, like the temperature had instantly dropped.
"Let's return to this," the Daimyo said softly. "I want to talk about the vision you and I had. The future. That's why you're here, isn't it? You remember our vision, don't you?"
A subject adjacent to the one we had just been circling. 'Our vision' lay at the root of it.
"We need to keep going," he continued. "And indeed, we're almost there. The Book of Mars – your father – it's for the good of everyone. The Earth must heal."
"I no longer agree," I said, though I found myself unable to look him in the eye when I said it. I wasn't here to share my feelings and opinions. I was here to help my sister.
"I think you still do. We've done so much damage, Stephen. I know you care about that. You might have forgotten for a while. Hiding in your little hole, away from everybody else. Away from the ignorance and the stupidity of them," he gestured to below us. "The world is nearly broken beyond all repair. Full of impossible conflicts; fat, stupid over-consumers and starving wretches."
We made this, I thought. We at least made it worse. Dividing people up as if there were those worth our time, and those that weren't. We somehow thought we were gods, that we had the right to determine who deserved a good life, or a fucking awful one.
He paused. "I know you got my message," he said.
The message. Not even her. Katie.
I forgot that the place I had been living had been – still was – his all along. He probably knew more secret entrances than I did. He'd probably – certainly – been watching me all this time.
"She's on her way here right now, isn't she? I have no idea what she thinks she's doing. Was it her idea for you to come here? It can't have been yours."
The barrage of questions wasn't intended for me to answer, but if I didn't come back with something, he'd win. He always won – except for once.
The thing about damage is that it lasts a lot longer in our minds than it feels it should. Sometimes it feels insane to be holding onto glimpses of childhood memories, like when I knocked my mother's plate of food over, breaking her wedding set; or later on when I spilled bleach on the newly carpeted bathroom floor. It makes sense from an evolutionary perspective: I will try to never do that again. My brain says, 'you remember what happened the last time'.
And it's not like I can press a button and completely delete these things. Would anybody truly want that technology? It makes me who I am. I'm a product of my mistakes.
But there was so much damage here. Damage I did to myself, to Gabriel, to my hometown, and to the nation. Probably the world. Damage I'd rather not remember, but damage that was supposed to keep me from making the wrong decisions again.
"Follow me," the Daimyo was standing over me, so close I could smell him. "I want to remind you of a few things."
Previous Reasons: The Q1 Book Club
Next Shorts: Expectations


text:
A ranger shows a visitor how to connect to the National Park Service app near the Robert Gould Shaw/54th Massachusetts Regiment Memorial in Boston.
White House Wants to See Improvements in Citizen Satisfaction
Data shows that satisfaction with the federal government trails behind that of private industries.
Natalie Gross
Natalie Gross is a freelance journalist and podcast producer based in the Washington, D.C., area. She has a master's degree in journalism from Georgetown University.
How American citizens interact with government programs and services has a direct impact on their level of trust in the government itself, according to the latest iteration of the President's Management Agenda, which presents President Joe Biden's vision for the future of the federal government.
That's why the administration is focusing on improving citizen satisfaction as one of the key tenets of the PMA, which has an overall goal to move toward an "equitable, effective and accountable government that delivers results for all."
"Our current service delivery is not always designed with the public's needs and priorities in mind," the document states. "Whether during a pivotal life experience or a routine service interaction, we must deliver excellent customer experience, reduce barriers and improve understanding of an individual's situation to best help those in need of government assistance."
As FedTech has reported, this is imperative for the Biden administration. A 2022 Pew Research Center study shows only 24 percent of the American public have trust in the federal government, a slight uptick from 21 percent in 2020 but still a near-historic low.
Click on the banner and become an Insider.
Government Lags Behind Private Sector in Satisfaction Rank
Data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index shows the federal government trailing behind other industries. According to an ACSI survey, citizen satisfaction dipped in 2020 by 4.4 percent over the previous year for a score of 65.1 out of 100, the lowest since 2015.
Respondents who identified as Republicans, Democrats and independents all reported their lowest satisfaction rates since 2018.
Of all federal departments evaluated by ACSI, the Department of the Treasury — home of the Internal Revenue Service — received the lowest marks.
On a scale of 100, citizen satisfaction with the Interior Department, the highest-ranked government agency in the American Customer Satisfaction Index
Source: American Customer Satisfaction Index
The PMA includes information on the administration's plans to strengthen and empower the federal workforce and better manage the business of government. One key focus of the citizen satisfaction portion is on developing shared products, services and standards that provide more customer-friendly experiences across high-impact service providers.
In a December executive order, Biden said the paperwork burden imposed on the public by executive departments and agencies in recent years has represented more than 9 billion hours annually.
"Every interaction between the federal government and the public, whether it involves renewing a passport or calling for a status update on a farm loan application, should be seen as an opportunity for the government to save an individual's time … and to deliver the level of service that the public expects and deserves," the executive order states.
"We must use technology to modernize government and implement services that are simple to use, accessible, equitable, protective, transparent and responsive for all people of the United States."
DIVE DEEPER: Learn about early attempts to improve citizen satisfaction with government.
Government Visions Depend on New Technology
In a blog post accompanying the executive order, Federal CIO Clare Martorana and U.S. Digital Service Administrator Mina Hsiang write that technology "is the connective tissue and a key ingredient in making this vision a reality."
Their goals include modernizing governmentwide enterprise cyber technology and IT to bolster cybersecurity; securely connecting systems across agencies to work faster and more smoothly; and delivering a more modern, secure customer experience by updating design and technology.
The blog does not detail the technology that will be used to make this happen, but the writers note, "When we demonstrate that we can deliver modern services to our citizens, we will build greater trust in government's capacity to deliver results."
The PMA maintains that the federal government will collaborate across agencies to emphasize shared data, secure systems and seamless interactions on the back end, improving customers' experiences on the front end.
"Where we are sharing data among agencies, we will do so responsibly, in consultation with civil rights groups and other stakeholders, securely and in a manner that protects privacy," it states.
"We also will integrate customer experience measures and indicators of responsible data sharing into the government's accountability and performance system to regularly track progress."
Pollock/National Park Service
Q&A: U.S. Space Force CTIO Lisa Costa Is Leading Technical Advances Within the Branch
How to Update the FITARA Scorecard Now That Agencies Are Scoring Well
'Customers First' Concept Becomes a Key Element in Government IT Modernization