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Flames need to spend big money on 3 restricted free agents this summer

Feb 12 2019, 3:16 pm

It’s a changing of the guard in the National Hockey League, with elite-level restricted free agents earning salaries of over $10 million after their rookie deals are up.

Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel both secured monster contracts as RFAs, while Patrik Laine will likely receive a big payout in the summer, but one name has dominated headlines over the past week.

Toronto’s Auston Matthews put pen to paper on a five-year, $58.17 million deal, meaning the Maple Leafs star will earn $11.6 million per season, the second highest in the NHL to McDavid.

Matthews’ deal is a game-changer across the league landscape as he’s the first young superstar not to sign the eight-year max contract that’s become commonplace over the last few seasons.

Three big RFA contracts loom for the Calgary Flames ahead of next season and while they won’t reach Matthews-level payouts, the price tag continues to rise with the team’s overall success.

Comparable numbers courtesy of CapFriendly.

1. Matthew Tkachuk

The man known as ‘Chucky’ is in for a sizeable payday, likely the largest since the Gaudreau and Monahan contracts that Calgary signed in 2016.

Matthew Tkachuk has been a force over his first three NHL seasons, netting 61 goals and 154 points in just 199 games for an average of 0.77 points per game.

While the 21-year-old has been on a tear to begin his career, he likely won’t command a dealer higher than his two young counterparts in Gaudreau and Monahan who have been faces of the team.

Calgary will likely lock up Tkachuk to a long-term deal to eat as many unrestricted free agency years as possible, likely within the ballpark of between $5.75 and $6.25 million per season.

The closest comparable contract likely comes with Filip Forsberg’s six-year deal signed in 2016 that pays him an even $6 million per season, averaging just under Tkachuk’s pace at 0.73 points per game when he signed the contract.

  • Filip Forsberg (NSH) – 6 years, $6 million cap hit
  • Nikolaj Ehlers (WPG) – 7 years, $6 million cap hit
  • Mark Scheifele (WPG) – 8 years, $6.125 million cap hit

2. David Rittich

Calgary likely expected a quiet negotiation period with David Rittich when the season began, but the 26-year-old late bloomer has taken the team by storm this year.

After an average rookie campaign in 2017-18 that saw him play 21 games, Rittich has become the number one starter in Calgary this year with a 20-4-5 record, a 2.55 goals against average, and a 0.915 save percentage.

Due up at the end of the season after signing back-to-back one year deals, the 26-year-old Czech will likely command more term and a higher salary than his current $800,000.

Calgary looks keen to lock up Rittich for the foreseeable future as well, with Elliotte Friedman telling Sportnet 960 this week that the Flames view the breakout star as their long-term option in net.

So, the begs the question… what do you pay a starting goalie with only 55 games of NHL experience.

Guessing Rittich plays 20 more games before the end of the regular season, that would put him in the same conversation as when the Vancouver Canucks inked Jacob Markstrom in 2016.

Markstrom was the same age as Rittich currently is now, only had 83 NHL games under his belt when he signed, and was locked up for three years at $3.66 million per season.

Rittich likely won’t get more than a two or three year deal as his resume is still pretty small, but somewhere in the range of $3 and $4 million would likely keep ‘Big Save Dave’ sticking around.

  • Jacob Markstrom (VAN) – 3 years, $3.66 million cap hit
  • Petr Mrazek (DET) – 2 years, $4 million cap hit

3. Sam Bennett

Sam Bennett’s is a curious case, as the Flames already gave him a bridge deal of two years and $1.95 million per season after his rookie deal expired in 2017.

Flames fans have waited over four seasons for the former fourth overall draft pick to break out offensively, but he still hasn’t found a home in Calgary’s top six forwards.

Bennett is making the most out of his contract year however, posting his best offensive totals since his rookie season with 10 goals and 21 points in 53 games.

A slight raise is probably expected for the 22-year-old Bennett, who will likely earn between $2 and $3 million per year when he eventually puts pen to paper.

If comparable contracts are to be believed, then Bennett would be primed to ink around a new deal in the neighbourhood of three years with Dallas’ Radek Faksa, Anaheim’s Ondrej Kase, and Columbus’ Oliver Bjorkstrand all signing for those terms.

Though he’s more of a defensive player than Bennett, Faksa has almost the same point per game average as Bennett over the last two seasons and was locked up for just over two million dollars.

It’s possible the Flames could pay Bennett slightly more than expected due to his projected ceiling, but with four years under his belt it’s becoming less likely that he’ll live up to those lofty expectations.

  • Radek Faksa (DAL) – 3 years, $2.2 million cap hit
  • Ondrej Kase (ANA) – 3 years, $2.6 million cap hit
  • Oliver Bjorkstrand (CBJ) – 3 years, $2.5 million cap hit
Scott RoblinScott Roblin

+ Offside
+ Hockey


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Director, Data Engineering - Telecommute

Apply for this position Please mention DailyRemote when applying
Posted 10 days ago United States $110k - 211k (US Dollars)
Before you apply - make sure the job is legit.

Attempting to apply for jobs might take you off this site to a different website not owned by us. Any consequence as a result for attempting to apply for jobs is strictly at your own risk and we assume no liability.

Job Description

Combine two of the fastest-growing fields on the planet with a culture of performance, collaboration and opportunity and this is what you get. Leading edge technology in an industry that's improving the lives of millions. Here, innovation isn't about another gadget, it's about making health care data available wherever and whenever people need it, safely and reliably. There's no room for error. Join us and start doing your life's best work.(sm)

For this role functions may include database architecture, engineering, design, optimization, security, and administration; as well as data modeling, big data development, Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) development, storage engineering, data warehousing, data provisioning and other similar roles. Responsibilities may include Platform-as-a-Service and Cloud solution with a focus on data stores and associated eco systems. Duties may include management of design services, providing sizing and configuration assistance, ensuring strict data quality, and performing needs assessments. Analyzes current business practices, processes and procedures as well as identifying future business opportunities for leveraging data storage and retrieval system capabilities. Manages relationships with software and hardware vendors to understand the potential architectural impact of different vendor strategies and data acquisition. May design schemas, write SQL or other data markup scripting and helps to support development of Analytics and Applications that build on top of data. Selects, develops and evaluates personnel to ensure the efficient operation of the function.

You'll enjoy the flexibility to telecommute* from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges.

Primary Responsibilities:

  • Provides leadership to and is accountable for the performance and direction through multiple layers of management and senior level professional staff
  • Work most often impacts a large business unit, or multiple markets/sites

You'll be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear direction on what it takes to succeed in your role as well as provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

  • BS/BA or equivalent experience
  • 7+ years of experience working within the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
  • 6+ years of designing, coding and supporting distributed, data intensive systems at scale
  • 6+ years of relational database delivery
  • 4+ years of experience in Agile Delivery
  • 3+ years of non-relational (NoSQL, Big Data) delivery
  • 3+ years in Dev Ops Automation tools (Oozie, Python etc.)
  • 2+ years of experience with Snowflake
  • Experience in delivering Data Platforms
  • Experience with healthcare data
  • Knowledge and understanding of health care privacy and security practices

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Experience on programming languages - Go, python, scala, java
  • Experience in full automated testing framework (unit & integration) - cucumber, spock, Go unit test, Junit
  • Experience of big data and streaming frameworks - kafka , Hadoop, Hive, spark, HDFS
  • Experience on using PAAS like - Kubernete, Openshift
  • Experience on working on CICD platform and monitoring - namely Github, Jenkins, Grafana, Prometheus
  • Experience and working exposure in cloud environment, preferably Azure
  • Excellent communication skills with ability to describe data/capability stories'' (and not defects) and explain value (and not resolution) to customers

Technology Careers with Optum. Information and technology have amazing power to transform the health care industry and improve people's lives. This is where it's happening. This is where you'll help solve the problems that have never been solved. We're freeing information so it can be used safely and securely wherever it's needed. We're creating the very best ideas that can most easily be put into action to help our clients improve the quality of care and lower costs for millions. This is where the best and the brightest work together to make positive change a reality. This is the place to do your life's best work.(sm)

Colorado Residents Only: The salary range for Colorado residents is $110,200 to $211,700. Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to education, work experience, certifications, etc. As of the date of this posting, In addition to your salary, UHG offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements: Health, dental, and vision plans; wellness program; flexible spending accounts; paid parking or public transportation costs; 401(k) retirement plan; employee stock purchase plan; life insurance, short-term disability insurance, and long-term disability insurance; business travel accident insurance; Employee Assistance Program; PTO; and employee-paid critical illness and accident insurance.

*All Telecommuters will be required to adhere to UnitedHealth Group's Telecommuter Policy.

Diversity creates a healthier atmosphere: UnitedHealth Group is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.

UnitedHealth Group is a drug-free workplace. Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment.

Job Keywords: Director, Data Engineering, Telecommute, Telecommuter, Telecommuting, Work at Home, Work from Home, Remote

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News Technology

Employment Agencies Market Quality & Quantity Analysis | CareerBuilder LLC, Robert Half International, LinkedIn Corp, College Recruiter

A new business intelligence report released by JCMR with Global Employment Agencies Market Report has abilities to raise as the most significant market worldwide as it has remained playing a remarkable role in establishing progressive impacts on the universal economy. The research is derived through primary and secondary statistics sources and it comprises both qualitative and quantitative detailing. Some of the key players profiled in the study are CareerBuilder LLC, Robert Half International, LinkedIn Corp, College Recruiter, Recruit Holdings, DHI Group, TopUSAJobs, OPTnation, Monster Worldwide, The Select Group, 51JOB, Zhaopin Limited, GoGoVan,

During the forecast period, the report also mentions the expected CAGR of the global market  Employment Agencies. The report provides readers with accurate historical statistics and predictions of the future. In order to get a deeper view of  “Global Employment Agencies Market” is valued at USD XX million in 2020 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2029, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2020 and 2029.

Free Sample PDF Copy Here

Geographical Analysis:

•             North America: United States, Canada, and Mexico.

•             South & Central America: Argentina, Chile, and Brazil.

•             Middle East & Africa: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, Egypt and South Africa.

•             Europe: UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Russia.

•             Asia-Pacific: India, China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, and Australia.

Market Analysis by Types: Comprehensive Platform, Industry Platform, Local Platform, Service Platform, Other,

Market Analysis by Applications: Job Seeker, SME, Large Enterprises,

Click here and Get Up to 50 % Discount on Enterprise Copy  & Customization Available for Following Regions & Country: North America, South & Central America, Middle East & Africa, Europe, Asia-Pacific

Section Analysis:

Business category action covers the two main types of goods and services, as well as end customers. Such segmentation allows for a granular view of the industry which is important to appreciate the finer complexities.

Key manufacturers in the Employment Agencies MarketCareerBuilder LLC, Robert Half International, LinkedIn Corp, College Recruiter, Recruit Holdings, DHI Group, TopUSAJobs, OPTnation, Monster Worldwide, The Select Group, 51JOB, Zhaopin Limited, GoGoVan,

Note: Please Share Your Budget on Call/Mail We will try to Reach your Requirement @ Phone: +1 (925) 478-7203 / Email: [email protected]

Competitive Landscape:

Economic environment explores emerging tactics which are used by different firms to improve competition and sustain their market share. The research study covers techniques such as product growth, emerging technology, mergers and acquisitions, and joint partnerships. This will help the reader understand the fast-growing patterns. It’ll also tell the reader about the new pr

** The market is valuated based on the weighted average selling price (WASP) and includes the taxes applicable to the manufacturer. All currency conversions used in the creation of this report were calculated using a certain annual average rate of 2020 currency conversion.

** The Values marked with XX is confidential data. To know more about CAGR figures fill in your information so that our business development executive can get in touch with you.

Some of the Points cover in Global Employment Agencies Market Research Report is:

Chapter 1: Overview of Global Employment Agencies Market (2013-2029)

Chapter 2: Market Competition by Players/Suppliers 2013 and 2020

Chapter 3: Sales (Volume) and Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2020)

Chapter 4, 5 and 6: Global Employment Agencies Market by Type, Application & Players/Suppliers Profiles (2013-2020)

Purchase & Get Instant copy of Full Report from [email protected]

Note: Regional Breakdown & Sectional purchase Available We provides Pie charts Best Customize Reports As per Requirements.

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Mark Baxter (Head of Business Development)

Phone: +1 (925) 478-7203

Email: [email protected]

Connect with us at – LinkedIn


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Smithfield Foods CEO Larry Pope

House Splits Nutrition Program from Farm Bill — The House passed a version of the farm bill today, one that does not include the nutrition program known as SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

President Obama has vowed to veto any farm bill that doesn’t include the nutrition program.

The House passed its new version of the bill by a narrow margin, 216 to 208. No Democrats voted for the bill. Thirteen Republicans voted against it. Last month Republican defection from a different version of the farm bill doomed it to failure.

The bill’s future is uncertain. Apart from the veto threat, the House bill must be reconciled with a Senate version, passed last month. The Senate’s version includes funding for SNAP.

The House bill keeps changes in farm policy that were in its June version, including trimming about $20 billion in subsidies. The New York Times reports:

The money saved …  would be directed into the $9 billion crop insurance program, and new subsidies would be created for peanut, cotton and rice farmers. The bill adds money to support fruit and vegetable growers, and it restores insurance programs for livestock producers, which expired in 2011, leaving thousands of operations without disaster coverage during last year’s drought. The bill also made changes to a dairy program that sets limits to the amount of milk produced and sold in the United States.

[imgcontainer right][img:pope.jpg][source]Steve Helber/AP[/source]Smithfield Foods CEO Larry Pope[/imgcontainer]

Senate Hearing on Smithfield Purchase — U.S. senators grilled the CEO of Smithfield Foods yesterday about the company’s proposed sale to Chinese-owned Shuanghui International Holdings.

told the Senate Agriculture Committee that Smithfield would produce safe, plentiful food if the deal is approved. He said the sale would be good for pork producers and U.S. food exports.

USA Today reports on the Senate Ag hearing:

Lawmakers expressed concern the takeover would squeeze the U.S. pork supply by shipping more of the meat to China and leave the U.S. susceptible to food safety concerns that have plagued Chinese companies, including Shuanghui.

They also raised a host of other concerns, including what would happen to Smithfield’s intellectual property and the impact of the deal on U.S. agriculture producers.

“In the short term, I know this deal looks good for our producers. This also needs to be a good deal in the long-term,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., chairwoman of the Agriculture Committee. “One pork company alone might not be enough to affect our national security, but it’s our job to be thinking about the big picture and the long-term for American food security and economic security.”

U.S. Oil Production Rises – U.S. oil production reached its highest level since 1992 last week, thanks to new drilling techniques such as hydraulic fracturing or fracking.

Crude output rose to 7.401 million barrels a day in the week that ended July 5, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Bloomberg reports: “Rising crude supplies from oilfields including North Dakota’s Bakken shale and the Eagle Ford in Texas have helped the U.S. become the world’s largest exporter of refined fuels including gasoline and diesel. The shale boom has also helped cut world reliance on OPEC oil even as global demand gains.”

The United States met 89% of its own energy needs in March. That’s the highest rate since April 1986.

Video Contest – Imperial, Nebraska, wants some help spreading the good word about the town. The city is sponsoring a video contest to highlight things to do in and around Imperial, a town of about 2,100 located in the southwest part of the state.

All the video in the productions must be shot within 15 miles of the town. And half the footage has to be from within the city limits.

The winner receives 1,000 “chamber bucks,” which can be traded at local businesses. If the video goes viral (more than 1 million views on YouTube), the prize doubles.

Aspiring filmmakers who want to enter the contest need to keep it clean, however. No cussing in the videos. As the organizers say, “If you have to ask if something is appropriate [to include in the video], the answer will probably be, ‘NO.’ ” Now that sounds like practical advice.

More information here.

Secret of a Good Life. Catching up on developments over the July 4 holiday week … NPR’s “On Point” with Tom Ashbrook interviewed Rod Dreher, author of  “The Little Way of Ruthie Leming: A Southern Girl, a Small Town, and the Secret of a Good Life” and Kenneth Johnson, senior demographer at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey Institute. Dreher talks about growing up in a small Louisiana community of about 700 folks and his decision to return home later in life.


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Waiting Game

Not sure why I chose that title. This is not a game. I am just waiting. Tuesday Oscar drove me to Beverly Hills for my knee operation. It went well. We were done by about noon as I recall. We stopped for a sandwich on the way home. Crutches were not needed to get into and out of the Subway restaurant. I got home and marveled at how little I hurt. Until around 7 pm. At first I could feel that it was starting to ache. Within an hour I was in full discomfort. I tried the couch. I tried my recliner. I tried the floor. There was no place to go and escape.

Knowing that sleep was not going to happen much I sent my wife to bed and stayed up very late on the computer. I tried sleeping on the recliner, but I kept snoring myself awake. I moved to the floor with pillows all around and found just the right position to catch a few z’s.

Wednesday transitioned from fairly bad to better. I spent most of the time on my computer making vacation plans. I reached a point where I could get around with just one crutch.

Thursday I awoke and headed over to Palmdale’s city hall area. There is a park just outside where they held the mayor’s prayer breakfast. One of our church Pastor’s has an organization called the King’s Table which was hosting the event. He heard that I was off of work and wondered if I would be able to hobble enough to lead a couple of songs. I did. I ended up on TV…. and in the paper. prayer breakfast singingLater in the day I got ambitious enough to take Cheryl to Sears. I wandered around on one crutch. After, not too long I felt like I needed to head home. I was not in real pain, but I was exhausted. The knee was still swollen so I got home and put it up.   Today, Friday, I have been real good. I am able to wander about the house without a crutch, but I have not gone anywhere and I am keeping it up most of the time….

I did get an email from the Elliptigo people. I wrote them regarding their PR Initiative. In this program a number of Elliptigo users (current and new) would be selected to receive a custom training program from Greg McMillan. New owners would actually get a chance to return the Elliptigo if they did not get a PR. I wrote to ask for the training plan without the guarantee, seeing as how I just had surgery. They replied that all of their participants will be working through their training plans at the same time starting in May so it would not work for me. They did let me know that McMillan was going to be putting some information up on training with an Elliptigo. And that perhaps there would be a second PR Intitiative that I could go for.  They did take a look at this blog and the fact that whatever I do with the Elliptigo will be done publicly…. We are both interested to see how this goes.

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See Andy's other stuff:

Contact Me >>

Volunteer Proofreaders Wanted

WOMM-front - Small

I’m looking for 12 people to proofread the new edition of my book — Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking. I’ll send you an advance review copy to proof and send back to me, a copy to keep, and I’ll give you all sorts of public thanks. I’ll also give you the inside scoop on future projects.

Just fill out the contact form here and tell me if you have any special related experience.

For everyone else: You can pre-order the book here — and get all sorts of free bonuses, including webinars, private classes, and conference passes.

Update: We’ve found our proofreaders. Thanks so much to everyone who volunteered — it’s thrilling to know such talented people read this blog.

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Alibaba’s speech recognition algorithm can isolate voices in noisy crowds

Source: VentureBeat

Chinese conglomerate Alibaba is one of the world’s largest ecommerce companies, but it’s increasingly turning its attention to artificial intelligence (AI). In March 2017, it launched an AI services division for health care and manufacturing, and in September its public cloud division — Alibaba Cloud — unveiled plans to set up a dedicated subsidiary and produce a self-developed AI inference chip that could be used for logistics and autonomous driving.

Alibaba has its fingers in plenty of AI pies, needless to say. And during a presentation at NeurIPS 2018 in Montreal this morning, it delivered an update on those cross-company efforts.

 “We’re solving … scenarios [with] unseen difficulties,” said Rong Jin, dean of the Alibaba Institute of Data Science. “AI together with innovation [is helping] to solve some interesting challenges.”

One of those challenges is speech recognition in noisy environments, like a crowded subway system or congested convention center. Alibaba’s solution is part hardware, part software: a far-field microphone array and sophisticated deep learning algorithms that isolate voices in a crowd, drastically reducing error rate.

Compared to the 84 percent accuracy the “best” speech recognition technologies are able to achieve with a mic array alone, Alibaba claims its model is between 94 and 95 percent accurate, even with heavily accented speakers. It has already been deployed as part of a voice-based subway ticketing system in Shanghai, and Alibaba is in talks to bring it to “a number of [additional] cities.”

“Nothing can save you if you don’t get enough signal to be recognized in the first place,” Jin said.

The spoken word isn’t the only domain Alibaba is tackling with AI. Using natural language processing, it’s performing automatic translation in real time, in the cloud, so that Alibaba retail customers in countries such as Russia and the Malay region can converse with human agents in their native tongues. And it’s tapping algorithms to field a portion of the tens of thousands of calls its support centers receive each day with AliMe, Alibaba’s intelligent customer service engine.

AliMe, much like Google’s Duplex, can carry on a phone conversation and answer basic questions without involving a human agent. Perhaps more impressively, in a chatbot context, it’s able to automatically extract text and images from a supplied document with “better than human” performance.

In an onstage demo, a customer asked Dian Xiaomi — Alibaba’s answering bot — about sales promotions for a particular Bluetooth speaker, like what sort of free gifts they’d receive with their purchase and how the gifts would be delivered to their residence. (A version rolling out later this year will add sentiment analysis and automated alerts for priority cases.) Another demo showed a humanoid embodiment of the chatbot — a prototype, Jin told the audience — with coordinated eye, lip, and head movements.

It’s a boon for bustling Alibaba divisions like AliExpress, which has over 150 million users and millions of merchants, and Cainiao, whose human workers and robots fulfill more than a billion orders each year. On Singles’ Day — the November 11 Chinese shopping holiday that this year generated $30.8 billion — Alibaba’s agents receive 5 times the typical number of calls in a 24-hour period, which would have been nearly impossible to juggle without a helping hand from AI.

Dian Xiaomi currently serves almost 3.5 million users a day, Alibaba says.

But natural language processing is just the tip of Alibaba’s AI iceberg. On Xian Yu, the retailer’s used goods marketplace, the company deployed a negotiation bot that talks to buyers to settle on a price.

The bot’s development wasn’t a cakewalk — it needed to learn negotiating strategies and efficient ways to generate text that’d incentivize back-and-forth negotiation — but the end result is impressive. When published to 10 million users on the same platform, the bot had a 20 percent higher chance of making a deal than a typical human being.

“Most of the [users] are not professional sellers,” Jin said. “They don’t know how to set a price or talk to buyers.”

On the inventory management and image search front, Alibaba is leveraging a scalable computer vision architecture to sift through hundreds of millions of entities. Its Cloud Image Search algorithm can recognize objects and find images containing similar or identical ones, and one of its store management apps — which picks out multiple items on a shelf to generate a summary that includes a distribution of different brands — can detect more than 100,000 SKUs with “high accuracy.” (Alibaba’s working toward a goal of 10 million SKUs.)

Both complement Alibaba’s Ali Smart Supply Chain (ASSC), a suite of AI tools that help Alibaba merchants forecast product demand, allocate inventory, and select pricing strategies.

Alibaba’s machine vision work extends to satellite images. Using data gathered from AutoNavi, the largest map and navigation provider in China, with over 70 million users, its systems are able to identify recently constructed buildings, for example, and gather information related to road work and points of interest.

Alibaba is also using computer vision to prevent shoplifting. At its more than 66 Hema brick-and-mortar stores, offline algorithms at its self-checkout kiosks prevent ne’er-do-well customers from scanning only the first item in a basket, or concealing items from the overhead camera’s view.

“The goal is to … have a computer vision system figure out if a customer is intentionally or unintentionally scanning items,” Jin said. “The machine sees that things aren’t scanned.”

It’s powered by a deep learning algorithm — AliFPGA-X100 — that runs on a field-programmable gate array, a reconfigurable integrated circuit within the kiosks. Alibaba says it’s able to process images up to 170 times faster compared than a comparable GPU-based system.

Alibaba is also applying AI to Youku, its video hosting service. Machine learning algorithms automatically generate thumbnails for the roughly 200,000 videos its tens of millions of active users upload each day. And it can target certain audience segments with said thumbnails. Female users might see a different preview image for a given video than male users, for example. This has led to a 15 percent improvement in click-through rates and a 12 percent uptick in dwell time.

Today’s survey comes just over a year after the debut of Alibaba’s new research organization — the Academy for Discovery, Momentum, and Outlook (or DAMO) — aimed at tackling emerging technologies, like machine learning and network security, and the opening of labs in San Mateo, Seattle, Moscow, Tel Aviv, and Singapore. It also closely follows the launch of Alibaba’s Tmall Genie, an AI-powered voice assistant that’s sold over 5 million units since it hit store shelves in July 2017.

And the company is arguably just getting started. Alibaba plans to spend more than $15 billion on research and development by 2020, it told Quartz in October 2017.

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Forum Thread: Throw up your tips on pick pocketing

A great way is the real hustle video on the corkboard but another great way is to only use your index and middle finger when bumping into a person because  this is much less noticeable than a finger and thumb

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boy hearing for the first time (w hearing aid)

With the help of a hearing aid, boy hears for the first time.

This is for those who are thinking about seeking help. Maybe you are wondering, unsure of who to go to and what to look out for. Or maybe you just need a reason to give a shot at therapy/counselling before you take a psychotropic drug for your emotional problems.

Here’s what you need to know.

Effectiveness of Psychotherapy

Based on more than 50 years of psychotherapy outcomes research, the average treated person better off than 80% of those who did not receive treatment (Miller, Hubble, Chow, & Seidel, 2013; Wampold & Imel, 2015). This is equivalent to an effect size (i.e., magnitude of change) of 0.8, which is considered as a large effect.

Conventionally used in evidence based medicine, the number need treat refers to the number of patients needed to receive treatment in order to experience a positive outcome relative to untreated patients. To put into context, here are the following NNTs for various treatments (Note: smaller numbers indicate more effective a treatment):

Surprising Fact #1: Psychotherapy is more effective than most medical treatments and has lesser side-effects.

Psychotherapy has been shown to reduce the use of medications, consultations with primary-care physicians, length of inpatient stays, and general health care expenditures by 60% to 90% (Chiles, Lambert, & Hatch, 1999; Kraft, Puschner, Lambert, & Kordy, 2006).

More recently, based on a real-world study of over 22,000 clients in a five-year period, the data suggests outpatient psychotherapy has a large reduction of work disability days (41.8%), hospitalisation days (27.4%), and inpatient costs (21.5%). In terms of long-term effects, the researchers found that the year after therapy, the number of work disability days was lower (23.8%) (Altman et al., 2016).

From an investment standpoint, for every dollar spent in terms of care, $2 to $3 are returned! And for every dollar spent in terms of care, it resulted in 3 to 5 times of benefit for health returns (Chisholm et al., 2016). It’s hard to find any other area in healthcare for such returns, with few side-effects.

Are you spinning  by now?

Here’s the gist:  Psychological treatment is an effective treatment, when delivered in a manner that is cogent with the person, by someone with expertise in a given domain (e.g., depression, anxiety, trauma related, relational issues, psychosomatic complaints). Continue reading


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2 datasets found

Formats: FGDB Tags: address

Filter Results
  • Property Detail Listing

    This table include a listing of every property in the City for the current year 2021. Details include address, PID, Folio, Plan number and description, zoning information and...
  • Addresses

    This dataset contains address points and conforms to the ICIS standard. For file geodatabase format, placed annotation is provided in addition to the address points. View in...


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Pacemakers and Cardio Resynchronization Therapy Devices Market: A Huge Opportunity Amidst Pandemic

Currently, there are two CRT devices namely CRT with a pacemaker (CRT-P) also known as biventricular pacemaker and CRT which includes pacemaker and built-in implantable defibrillator (ICD) also called CRT-D. Basically, the CRT device consists of a pulse generator and thin insulated wires (lead) that provide electrical impulses to restore the normal functioning of the heart. There are standard pacemakers in the market; however, doctors are preferring CRT devices as it provides better heartbeats synchronization.

CRT-P devices are a usual pacemaker that delivers electrical impulses to the left and right ventricles of the heart. It helps in treating in the slow heart rhythm which eventually makes the heart pumps efficient. Whereas CRT-D has the same functioning as CRT-P but it is installed in the patients with a higher risk of cardiac failure. This device not only treats the slow heart rhythm but controls fast heart palpitation too. Well, both these devices come with the battery as it has a certain amount of energy which is generally replaced after 5 to 7 years. However, the technological advancements have prolonged the life up to 10-15 years.

Pacemakers and CRT Devices Market Statistics

According to the data published in the Journal of Geriatric Cardiology, around one million pacemakers are implanted every year. The growing incidence of heart failure owing to the rising sedentary lifestyle and the increasing number of geriatric population is expected to steadily increase the demand for pacemakers in the coming years.

Apart from heart failure, heart conditions such as arrhythmias and atrial fibrillation have forced the patients to implant cardio resynchronization therapy (CRT) devices. As per the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were about 10.5 Million suffering from AFib in 2010 which is anticipated to grow at a robust rate in the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, the number is expected to surpass 12.1 million by 2030 alone in the United States.

People with coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and lung disease, among others, are more susceptible to heart failure and irregular heartbeat conditions. According to American Heart Association, the number of people diagnosed with heart failure is expected to rise by 46% by 2030 while the prevalence of obesity has risen by 7.7% in the period of 4 years. These statistics have encouraged the behemoth and the new entrants to heavily invest in the pacemakers and cardio resynchronization therapy devices market.

The North America and Europe region is anticipated to provide a considerable amount of revenue to the industry players. According to the research, these two regions are expected to expand at a CAGR of 7% in the foreseeable future. Furthermore, the Asia Pacific is anticipated to offer lucrative opportunities, particularly in emerging economies such as India and China owing to the rising population and improved healthcare plans which have instilled the implantation of pacers.

The COVID-19 Impact on the Market

The coronavirus virus outbreak has slumped a burden on the healthcare system of every other country. Even though it has overhauled the healthcare infrastructure, it has presented a few lucrative opportunities to industry players and has enticed companies to expand their product portfolio in this healthcare market.

From hand sanitizers, ventilators, and face masks it has witnessed an increase in the demand for Pacemakers and Cardio Resynchronization Therapy Devices across the globe. As per the data published on Heart Rhythm Journal, the early studies suggest that patients with COVID-19 are associated with cardiac arrhythmias. This virus causes severe injury to cardiac myocytes and ultimately increases the risk of the aforementioned heart condition. Moreover, it has increased the prevalence of cardiac arrest which has increased the demand for CRT-P and CRT-D devices

As per the detailed report published by DataIntelo, the Global Pacemakers and Cardio Resynchronization Therapy Devices Market is anticipated to expand at a spectacular CAGR during the forecast period 2020-2026. The growth of the market is speculated to compliment by improvement in the reimbursement policies in the emerging economies. Moreover, the rising investment in R&D activities is positively influencing the market growth. For instance, Medtronic, a prominent player in medical technology, whose prime focus is on cardiovascular devices, has invested around USD 2.2 Billion in FY2017.

Latest Development and Launches in Pacemakers and CRT Devices Market

Currently, industry players are focusing on the development of leadless CRT pacemakers and focusing on integrating the latest technology to collaborate the devices with telehealth services. Medtronic is the only company that has launched a leadless pacemaker until now. The company’s Micra TPS was approved by FDA in 2016 which reduces the hospital visits and which seems to be crucial during the pandemic.

  • Medtronic

In January 2020, Medtronic announced that it has received CE Mark for its Cobalt™ and Crome™ portfolio of ICD and CRT-D. The company also stated that with the launch of its devices, it is working on the commercialization of TriageHF™ technology. This technology will monitor the patient’s heart condition and will have the capability to transmit the patient’s data on tablets or smartphones.

The new devices launched are claimed to have Intrinsic ATP™ (iATP) which adapts to the patients’ irregular rhythm and effortlessly resets them without any shocks. Moreover, these devices will also include EffectiveCRT™ and AdaptiveCRT™ algorithm that evaluates the heart beats every minute.

  • Liva Nova PLC

Liva Nova PLC, an England-based medical technology company, announced the launch of the PLATINUM series of ICD and CRT-D devices. According to the press release, the device is expected to last over 14 years for a single-chamber, 13 years for dual-chamber ICD, and at least 10 years for CRT-D devices. Its devices use PARAD+™, a prominent discrimination algorithm, and SafeR™, that aids in preserving natural heart conduction.

  • Boston Scientific

Boston Scientific, a United States-based medical devices manufacturer, introduced Resonate CRT-D systems in Europe. Its new device used SmartCRT technology that has received the CE mark. The technology is equipped with MultiSite packaging, that offers three left ventricular multipoint pacing options. The company has its own EnduraLife battery technology that can offer up to 14 years’ battery life.

Industry players are striving hard to keep up with market innovations and are deploying applications & technologies to enhance patient care. Moreover, they’re improving their market value by hiring professionals and getting industry experts on the board to boost product innovation.


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Star Light Star Bright - Creative Embellishments + More Than Words

Star Light Star Bright Stamped Stenciled and Embellished Star Mixed Media Scrapbook Layout

Hi! Creative Embellishments is a sponsor at More Than Words this month and I am thrilled to be a Guest Designer for the Main Challenge Future and Stars. The Main Challenge is based on a word inspiration (Future) and a creative challenge (Stars). I think about the future every day. I'm especially excited to see what the future holds for my daughters, who are a bright light in my life.

Star Light Star Bright Embellished Chipboard Star and Stamped and Stenciled Star Mixed Media Background

I incorporated stars into my design in several ways; with a stencil, a stamp, and with chipboard and other star-shaped embellishments. I applied pearl paste over the Star Bokeh Stencil to decorate the top left and bottom right corners of the base paper. Next, I created my own patterned paper with black ink and the Grunge Stars Stamp. I backed several nested chipboard stars with patterned paper. To help define the edges of the stars, I painted them black and then added a topcoat of glitter glue. I painted chipboard words, covered them with glitter and crackle paste, and secured them to the center of two of the larger nesting stars to create the title for this layout.

Future Sticker and Script Journaling Spot

I used letter stickers to include the word future in my journaling, which reads: No matter what the future holds, I know you both are going to shine.

More Than Words November 2018 Future and Stars Main Challenge

Creative Embellishments Supplies:
Star Bokeh Stencil
Grunge Stars Stamp
Nested Stars Chipboard
Star Light, Star Bright Chipboard Words

Other Supplies: Patterned Paper: Heidi Swapp, Lemoncraft; Die-Cuts: American Crafts, Bo Bunny; Tab: Basic Grey; Sequin Star: Heidi Swapp; Paper Clip: Heidi Swapp; Plastic Star: Tim Holtz; Letter Stickers: Tim Holtz; Acrylic Paint: DecoArt; Crackle Paste: Ranger; Glitter Glue: Ranger; Glitter: American Crafts; Pearl Texture Paste: Faber-Castell; Marker: American Crafts; Archival Ink: Ranger; Silver Star Sequins; Adhesive: Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L

Pin It!

Star Light Star Bright Mixed Media Scrapbook Layout Using Star Stencil Stamp and Chipboard Embellishments

  1. This is GORGEOUS! LOVING the colors, the stars and that journaling!!!!!!

  2. Preciosa labor y emotiva.
    Felicidades por ello.
    Besos y feliz semana!!!

Post a Comment


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Smash Burger in Folsom

The NorCal Burger with fries

Last year a Northern California burger joint opened in Folsom on E. Bidwell Blvd.  Smash Burger was highly anticipated as a restaurant that makes burgers really well and has some unique combinations of ingredients.  I was also told they also have very good shakes made with Dryer’s ice cream.

I had to go see what it was all about so I made plans to stop by there for lunch.
Smash Burger is located in Folsom at 703 E. Bidwell near Wales St.

I decided to try the signature NorCal Smash Burger which consisted of Brie Cheese, Apple wood smoked Bacon, sliced balsamic-marinated tomatoes, grilled onions, lettuce and mayo on a sourdough bun.

It was a good burger, had a very good presentation, service was nice and the burger and fries were tasty.  The combo of flavors was good, but I must admit, it was not my favorite, I think I will try a regular Smash burger next time. I don’t think the brie mix worked for me.

All in all it was a good experience, next time I’m going to try something else on their menu to see what else they have.

As of today 8-29-11 Smash Burger has a 50% off deal on Groupon – $6 for $12 worth of food.
This 50% off Groupon coupon deal can be found at

Check out Smash Burger sometime and let me know what you think of their food – feel free to add your comments below.

One Comment Add yours

  1. Mitchel Harwel says:

    I think every one is getting a lot of information from this website,
    and your format and photos are nicely designed.

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Silent Sunday…… Two Churches in one small Location

Saint Peters Church, Heysham Head, Morecambe Bay, Lancashire

Heysham is a rather quaint old village, on a headland, that juts out into Morecambe Bay.  On the top of that headland is this 11th century Church of Saint Peters.  A distinctive Bellcote tower with two bells, an equally distinctive Anglo Saxon Doorway and the solid Stone Slate roof create a solid character. The origins are indeed 11th century, but study the building outline you can soon detect the additions and extensions added over the following centuries.

Saint Peters is still  Hesham’s  Village Church….. but only a few yards behind the Church, and even more prominently locate on this exposed headland, are further signs of  even earlier religious occupancy.

The most dramatic are the tombs (or graves) that have been carved out of a sold rock.  Known at times as the Martyrs Graves and by others as the Pilgrims Graves, they lie on the highest point of Heysham Head.  Exposed to all the wind and weather that Morecambe Bay can deliver from across the Irish Sea…..possibly the same winds the assisted Saint Patrick on his journey from Ireland.

Dating these stone hewn graves is problematic.  Let me try to explain.  These graves rest beneath the shadows of Saint Patricks Chapel.  Possibly built in either the 6th or 7th century and attributed to Saint Patrick.  However,  historical records still find it hard to be definitive on the exact date of Saint Patricks death, a time arround 490ad is very likely. Whatever that date is, it is still 100 or more years before the Chapel was built.

Saint Patricks Chapel has not worn as well as Saint Peters.  The chapel is now a ruin… all be it, ruin with a great outlook.

As with most religious locations across the UK, they are usually on the sites of much earlier places of worship or spiritual importance.  Various archaeological digs have taken place to try and discover the heritage of this Heysham location. Excavations arround the Stone Tombs did discover artifacts and tools, these would indicate that this site was occupied over 12,000 years ago.

One thing is for sure, no matter the legends and mysteries, these twin Religious ‘settlements’ capture the imagination of any visitor, and with a bonus view over Morecambe Bay, that must lift the spirits,

Please Remember to ….

Stay Safe …. Be Kind…. Look After Each Other

21st February

(C) David Oakes 2021

One thought on “Silent Sunday…… Two Churches in one small Location

Comments are closed.


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Increase Your Likelihood of Winning With Online Roulette

online roulette

Increase Your Likelihood of Winning With Online Roulette

The planet is abuzz with online roulette gambling. Gambling can be quite a great fun and exciting way to spend your free time. Online roulette in addition has gained in popularity recently. With the different roulette gambling websites, it is very important know which ones are reliable and offer the best bonuses. Most online casinos offer various promotions and bonuses to be able to lure one to play roulette on their site. This form of gambling can be played for real money or for free aswell.

With a lot of online roulette websites out there, you should compare services and play at online casinos to learn which one provides you the most benefits. If you anticipate playing online roulette for real money, then you want to look for a website that gives a high welcome bonus for new players and will be offering other incentives such as for example reduced deposit bonuses and free VIP memberships. These bonuses could be offered to new players that have been playing for a while and use a number of bonus codes.

Some online casinos will require you to verify your account information before you are able to play online roulette for real money. This verification process is normally very simple and an easy task to complete. You’ll simply answer a few simple questions about your identity and where you would want to place your money. When you have successfully completed a verification process, you will be all set to start out playing. If you choose to play online roulette free of charge, then the verification process will never be as lengthy or as involved. This implies you will be able to determine where you stand in the world of roulette before you place any bets.

The main concern that players have about online casinos is they claim to have no house edge. They say that their system is indeed perfect that there is no chance a casino can ever get yourself a loss off of its customers. The reality of this statement is that roulette games are not completely random. The cards are printed with certain numbers that are randomly selected every time the ball rolls. Whether or not the game is rigged is around chance.

However, you can find ways to ensure that randomness is not compromised. Roulette games can still be rigged, however the way that it can be achieved is by cleverly manipulating the laws of probability. For instance, if a dealer knows that the ball lands on the headsy board at certain odds, they might do something up for grabs before it occurs. They could raise the hand size to create it much more likely that the ball lands on the top board. By doing this, the casino can manipulate the odds within their favor.

Another way that some online casinos rig the overall game is to apply biased wheels. A biased wheel is really a wheel that gives less edge to the house compared to the amount of individual balls rolled. It is because the chances of one ball landing on a headsy board are lower than the odds that any two balls will land on a 메리트 카지노 tailsy board. Due to this, an uneven distribution of bets occurs and casino owners can increase the number of bets wanted to their customers.

It’s possible for you to beat the home edge by placing your bets close together. However, this strategy is only useful if you find a big edge to the home. In other words, you wish to make sure that the amount you bet is larger than the total amount you have bet so as to cover your betting bank. To create this strategy work, you should place your bets with your strongest hands. In case you have no idea how much your very best hand is, you should use the zero-pocket bets, which let you place your bets with practically no money in your pocket.

Online casinos will try their best to fool players into convinced that their games are random. While randomness is a part of casino games, the randomness of a roulette wheel can’t be completely copied by software. You may still find some factors that can affect the results of a spin, such as for example whether or not the spin has been initiated by the house or by way of a random number generator. While no computer can truly imitate the randomness of a human wheel, certain techniques can help you increase your likelihood of winning.


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What To Say To Girls | A Structure for a Daygame Stack

I don’t usually write “how to” posts on this blog. There are a lot of “how to” articles out there, and most of those posts are generic, impersonal and dry… repetition at that level is not what I want to do in this space. But I get a lot of questions about “what to say” from beginner daygamers (and sometimes from my friends). It’s coming up a lot, so I’m ready to try to put down my thoughts about the “words” I focus on when I talk to girls on the street. I’m ready to talk about “my stack.”

Below I’ll lay out my notes about “What to say to girls.” I’ll say WHY I use the structure I do. And I’ll give some examples from my own pickups to illustrate why I would recommend something like this structure for guys starting out.

If you’ve been in and around the Community for a while, “what do I say to girls?” is a question that might make you laugh… it’s a classic. Or it might irritate you… as you know that “the pickup lines” are actually such a small part of this game (which is very true). But for new guys, it’s their starting point and a fair inquiry.

I have been talking about this structure with my wings for a while, and I am taking the time now to lay it out in full detail. To get that process started, here is a preview of the structure I like, taken from a conversation I had with Runner on this topic last year:

NASH: Your stack = logistics
NASH: This is efficient and smart… Logistics are everything, so make them the primary stack… And riff from there
NASH: “Why are you here?”
NASH: “Where do you live?”
NASH: “Are you a student or do you have a job?”
NASH: ^ This takes a while, fills space, gives you material, and… helps you know how to game her
NASH: ^^ This + “color” (=teasing) and some DHV = 5 mins is up, take the number

Okay, there is a very quick version of my stack. That is the outline, and I’ll go through other examples of that basic structure several times in this post.

First, some general comments on a “stack.”

I don’t personally think that much about “my stack.” When I see a girl I want to open, I don’t walk in with a plan about what to say. It’s good if I have some comment about what I noticed about her, but beyond that, not really. In many ways, anything pre-planned will hurt your game.

If you walk up to a girl with a canned version of what you want to say, it will take you out of the moment, make you less authentic, limit your responsiveness… and none of that is good for your game. Later this summer I will quote Swingcat (“GOAT”) on this topic extensively. For now, keep in mind that pre-planned conversations are not ideal at all, and are in many ways the very opposite of good seduction.

But for new guys, the idea of a stack is a way to limp into the game. It’s a temporary tool to help you break the ice (“the ice” of your own social progress). You’ll use some pre-planned stuff at first…most guys do. And then you’ll get past some of your initial fears and self-doubt, you’ll rack up personal reference experiences, and you’ll be ready to move forward with a more creative, “alive” version of you.

This ^ is all a normal stage for most “non-naturals” to work though (I went through this stage). Don’t worry about it. But before we dive deeper into this structure, take a mental note about how overly-rigid stacks are something you want to avoid in general and certainly aim to outgrow.

Now let’s make a distinction between a “script” and a “structure.”

The exact terms for those concepts aren’t important, but it’s the distinction that matters to me here. Let’s say that a script is LINEAR (each line, written out, all in a row, trying to anticipate how she’ll respond) and a structure is more like a “framework” and is more FLEXIBLE than a script could ever be.

I’m not interested in helping anyone script a conversation out… that’s a tool that won’t serve the job. Don’t do that.

But a STRUCTURE… maybe something like “goals” for the approach… could serve the pickup in a larger sense on one hand, AND help with “what to say” on the other.

There are an infinite number of things to say and directions to take the conversation. If I had to advise a new guy about “what to say to girls”… and we could theoretically pick any place we want to start… I vote for LOGISTICS as the backbone of any specific structure in that guy’s stack.

When I approach girls on the street, I typically don’t know what I’m going to talk about. But there are PATTERNS that show up in my approaches. And one pattern is that I often probe the girls LOGISTICS for the meat of that first chat on the sidewalk.

My “stack,” if I have one… is based on LOGISTICS.

Choosing logistics is not arbitrary. Logistics give us important information about the “when” and “where” of how we might seduce the girl.

“Amateurs talk about tactics, but professionals study logistics.”
– Gen. Robert H. Barrow, USMC

For game, when we say “logistics” we’re talking mostly about the “when” and “where” of sex. This may sound non-intuitive, but for experienced guys, “who” is often less crucial to sex than “when” and “where.” In much the same way that a “perfect line” on an uninterested girl is useless, an “interested” girl that is unavailable is also useless.

We screen for logistics to help assess topline probabilities that we can get this girl in bed. Of course we are deeply interested in her looks and her personality, but we can address that at the same time while we map out when and where we might be able to fuck a given girl.

Here is an example:

NASH: Hey…
NASH: I saw you walking by and I love your walk
NASH: My name is Nash
HER: Hi…
NASH: What’s your name?
HER: Hot Girl
NASH: Okay Hot Girl, nice to meet you
NASH: What are you doing in my city today?

Brilliant, right? That stack is sure-fire mPUA material, right?

No. Of course not.

This is super basic stuff, but this is exactly how I start out much of the time. We’ll do some examples with more flavor below, but that dialog above is close to a basic stack for me. And what I am saying is not arbitrary — particularly that last line.

Right away, I am digging into the probability of fucking her when I ask “what are you doing in my city.” You can customize this concept anyway you want (it’s a structure, not a script), but I’ll use examples like this to talk about why I think choosing logistics as a point of focus is a very smart move.

Let’s keep going:

HER: I am here on business

This ^ is a great example of the utility of a logistics-based stack.

I asked “why are you here” and she has told me she’s here on business. Right away I know she’s likely not here for long and that I’ll have to move fast if I want to make something happen with her. That’s good to know. I can now ask where she’s from (which I might), or better yet… keep it on logistics (where she is from is less relevant than other questions), and I can move onto:

NASH: Okay, cool.
NASH: You’re here for a conference or something?
HER: No. My boss and I flew in for a meeting with a client.
NASH: Oh, hit and run on my city, huh? [flirty smile]
NASH: How long will you be here?
HER: I leave on Saturday

I’m not trying to show too much style here (we’ll get to that in other examples later). I am focused on “when” and “where” in this example. I am showing you a flavor of “what to say,” but we are also screening her and looking for “openings” (credit: Swingcat) to make the seduction happen.

With those lines above, I have a good start on knowing how feasible this girl is for a date (and potentially for some profane nakedness). I know she’s with her boss, and that there is a decent chance she will have “business dinners” and possibly early meetings. All of this helps me decide how I might go about trying to get her out… or, if I want to bother at all. That is very good information, and because of my choice of structure I am getting that intel right away.

I am talking about the kinds of things I say to girls, and the structure of WHY I steer conversation in this direction… and I’m also showing you how I use what she is saying to help me take action post-set:

EX: The girl in this scenario told me she is here for business and leaves Saturday. If I open this girl on a Wednesday afternoon, and I have plans with friends on Thursday night, and a date on Friday, it’s going to be tough to date her. I can try a daytime date, perhaps. Or try to get her out that night (maybe after her dinner with her boss). Or I might end the set and let her go (which I do all the time), as I don’t have much time for a girl like this (this is screening, more on that below).

You can see how getting after these questions early helps me make good use of the time and helps plan how to game the girl.

I do a lot more than this, but this is the foundation. This is my basic structure.

I will anticipate a bit of debate here, and I want to address what guys like Krauser call “hairdresser questions:”

SOME GUY: But, I thought we weren’t supposed to ask the girl a bunch of questions?

True. We do tell beginners not to hammer the girl with retarded questions. Doing that is a way to “take value,” and that’s not charming.

Here is a reference to that concept:

— What are you doing today?
— Where are you from?
— What’s your name?
— Where do you come from?
— What are you doing now?
— What are you doing later?

From ^ Krauser’s book Beginner Daygame (no longer for sale, as far as I know).

Krauser is saying those kinds of questions suck, and yet here I am advising guys to consider exactly those lines for their stack. More than that, I am telling you I use exactly those kinds of questions in almost every set.

Yes, it’s true that peppering her with questions (particularly ones that lead to short answers) is not good game. But that doesn’t mean questions are off limits.

The way we can use questions and not bore ourselves to death, is to use them sparingly and to space them out.

We can also use ASSUMPTIONS, which are questions disguised as statements. The daygame.com guys used to teach “assumptive stacking” and that is good material.

QUESTION: Are you from America?
ASSUMPTION: You’re from America.

Framing that question as an assumption will likely get a similar answer, but doing that work in the form of an assumption can offer variety to your phrasing, and that might help keep things interesting for you and the girl.

So, yes… a few questions are fine, they’re natural. And you can toss in a couple of assumptions to mix it up. And you can add some “color” to anything you do to make it more fun/sexy.

QUESTION: You’re staying in London for the whole weekend?
FUN QUESTION: Are you here only for the weekend… or will you marry a local guy, have 15 kids and stay here forever?

That second “fun” version is still a question, it allows us to get after her logistics… but it’s not a boring “interview” or an interrogation.

We can ask our questions, keep them flirty and fun, mix in assumptions… and also use our eye contact and our body language to add a sexual vibe that can supplement the words.

This post is mostly about the WORDS, but the NONVERBALS are crucial to our value as players. The stack I’m offering is a framework, and we can “hang” the exact words, the funny stories, the crackling sexual energy on the framework as we probe her for details.

So… yeah questions can be fine. And if you’re boring the girl, it’s probably because you’re missing some of these other elements.

My game is a little different when I am travelling versus when I am here at home. In part, as I’m only abroad temporarily (so I don’t have as much time), but also because I tend to game harder when I am on a daygame trip. It was in Japan in 2017, and again this year, that I really felt my use of LOGISTICS.

And it also seems true that at the end of each trip (as I was super warmed up), I ran better game and used logistics even more. This is something I don’t have my head completely wrapped around yet, but it’s true… when I am running better, more aggressive, tighter game… I used logistics even more. It’s not intentional, but it’s a clear pattern I can see in my own game. When I have more abundance… I run logistics as a higher percentage of my stack.

Here is an example of the structure I used extensively in Japan:

NASH: Hey… do you speak English?

That ^ is my opening line, and is ALSO basic logistics. “Can we communicate?” That question is not (as) relevant here at home, but terribly relevant in a foreign land. Just that opening line is a great example of how using logistics can BOTH give you “something to say” (I never had to think about my opening line in Japan) AND begin to sort out the feasibility of the pickup (if her English is really terrible, it’s time to move on).

I dropped that line hundreds of times in Tokyo this winter (it was actually hard to stop saying it in my sets when I got home).

Let’s start over…

NASH: Hey… do you speak English?
HER: [she shakes her head ‘no’ and giggles]
NASH: Yes you do… [cocky, accusatory vibe]
HER: [huge grin]

Here ^ I start with the “logistical” question of “do we speak the same language,” and I am adding a little bit of “color” by arguing with her about her command of my language.

This is a good example of how I can start with a “hairdresser question” and still manage to have fun and tease her at the same time. When I say “yes you do,” that is playful dominance. And when done with a big grin, I am doing dead-simple logistics with my WORDS… and something closer to seduction with my NONVERBALS.

I am pointing to how a lot of players accomplish their objectives. This is “what they say to girls,” but it’s also how they combine words and nonverbals to show a lot of value and to lead the girl toward a situation where her clothes end up on the bedroom floor.

Here is more, and this shows how I might start to work a little bit of “STORY” into my stack.

NASH: I noticed you walking by…
NASH: And I thought to myself, “Yeah… really great walk”
NASH: [big, expressive body language]
NASH: I wanted to meet you
NASH: My name is Nash

What I’ve show you in this section of the post is almost exactly, word for word, my basic opening sequence for Japan (and not that different from what I say here at home). It’s the same outline as earlier in the post, but specific to Japan and with more color.

I haven’t gotten that deep into logistics yet, but I will. What I have done is stopped her, created a bit of a sexual vibe, explained why I stopped her, and told her who I am. That is addressing a lot of unknowns for her, very quickly. Notice it’s not all questions. I’ve started the charm… and… I’ve filled the first 30 seconds or so of my five minute “set.”

A lot of guys “run out of stuff to say,” which is to say, they can open… but can’t “fill the time” while they try to vibe with the girl. The art of vibing is beyond this post, but we’re setting up this structure as a way to “fill the time” with enough words to give us space to vibe. And we’re getting all that intel about her logistics along to the way.

Here is how I go on:

NASH: What’s your name?
NASH: [take her hand]

This is the first bit of compliance. It’s what the Mystery boys would call a “small hoop.” The first “small hoop” was getting her to stop. Now I’m asking her for something (her name) and it’s a small start towards compliance if she gives it to me. It begins the pattern of her giving me what I want. If she gives me her hand, that’s another hoop she’s jumped through… and we’re on our way.

Nothing too deep and mysterious… but we are answering the question “what do I say” and we’re doing it in a smart way.

Now we dive deeper into logistics:

NASH: Why are you in Tokyo today?

This is a great question ^, IMAO.

This might be my favorite question (in a practical sense) that I ask girls on the street. And it’s one I use almost every time I approach a girl. It’s very close to one of Krauser’s “hairdresser questions,” but I’ll make a case for why I use it so often.

Most of us run our game in big cities. Girls come into cities like Tokyo (for instance) for work, to shop, to get their hair cut, to see friends, etc. Her response to this question very quickly tells me a LOT about how easy/hard it will be to get her into my bedroom… which informs what I might say next.

HER: I just finished class…

HER: My boyfriend and I are going to dinner…

HER: I’m here for my friend’s wedding…

You see how that question helps guide my next response? I am standing in front of a cute girl, we’re chatting, I am filling time, but I am taking a lot of notes on her potential as a lead. And I’m using what she’s saying to help me move the conversation based on her responses and the overall vibe.

Let’s go with that last sample response from the girl for now:

HER: I’m here for my friend’s wedding…
NASH: Hmmm, cool…
NASH: You’re going to get to dress up, aren’t you?
NASH: All girls love to get dressed up
NASH: Will you wear a pretty dress?

This ^ is all color. It can’t all be logistics… and the “color” part is often the fun part of the pickup or where you’ll find the sexual sparkle in the set.

If you can imagine the look I give her when I ask if she’ll “wear a pretty dress,” that kind of nonverbal flair is also a part of a successful “stack.” I obviously didn’t plan to talk about weddings or girls in dresses when I approached, but when she answers “what are you doing in this city today,” that often gives me clear direction about where to take the conversation.

We’re showing an overall structure of “get after her logistics,” but also showing how that is a basic framework, and we can hang other bits of conversation off that framework relatively easily. Of course I didn’t know i would use that “all girls love to get dressed up” line in advance. It bubbled up in conversation… conversation that I was driving via questions about her logistics.

HER: Yeah… blah blah blah
NASH: Yeah… I can see you now…
NASH: You, pretty dress, fancy party, lots of flowers…
NASH: [flirty grin]

More color ^ here… it’s not a “job interview” and I want this to be fun (for me, as much as for the girl). But with some of that sprinkled in, I can now get back into logistics:

NASH: Cool… so the wedding is this weekend? You’ll be here for a few days?
HER: Yeah, it’s Sunday
NASH: Hmm. Cool.

Okay, we have more information here ^. Sunday… probably impossible to date her that day. Does that change how interested I am in her? It might. And that likely means Saturday night is also out. So, if I want to date this girl… it’s got to be Friday night, maybe Saturday day (unlikely), or after the wedding… if she’s still around.

Wondering if she’s going to be in town past the wedding sets up another “what to say” moment… we’ll come back to that.

Something I also do quite commonly is give her a little backstory about me. I am a shiny, amazing, seducer, but it helps to be a bit “grounded” as well. At home, but especially in Japan (where I am obviously gaijin), explaining a bit about my life helps make me more of a “real person.” This is comfort material.

NASH: Yeah… I’m visiting too
NASH: I am from California
NASH: I have been here for six weeks, and I have two weeks left in Tokyo
NASH: I love this place…

Here ^ is more good material for “what to say.” I’m “filling time”, yes. I am also letting her into my life a little. I am showing a bit of my backstory. I have given her a break from the “questions.” And I’ve set her up with a lot of “conversational hooks” she can ask about… if she’s interested in me.

HER: California?! Oh! I want to go to California!
HER: You are here on vacation?
NASH: Not really… I’m on a long stay, not really doing “tourist” things
NASH: I’m just “living” in Tokyo
NASH: My apartment is right over there a few blocks

We have some back/forth now. Nothing magical, but you don’t need that much “magic” to close a girl and set up a date. Sinn once said, “Daygame is a test of how normal you are.” This is an example of me being “normal” in the set.

Back to logistics:

NASH: You’re not from Tokyo…
HER: No, I’m from Osaka
NASH: Osaka, huh? I’ve never been.
NASH: So I’m guessing the wedding is this weekend, you’ll be here until Sunday, and maybe go back to Osaka next week?
HER: Yes… I will leave Wednesday morning

Okay, cool. I’ve opened. We’re chatting. I have successfully “filled the time,” showed a little bit of personality, and grounded the set. But with that last line, I have a key piece of information… I now know my window for the seduction (I have until Wednesday to get her out). Brilliant.

These logistical questions were a much better choice than prattling on about “weddings” for five minutes. By focusing on logistics… I have information I can use.

In my experience, logistical topics are much more useful to us than many other topics. We can get deeper into her personality if we have time, but these questions are setting up the dating scenario where that “get to know her” will take place. We’re showing leadership with all this and we’re being efficient with the time we have.

All this gives me a lot of detail I can use to help plan a chance to get her out. And notice… look how much time we have used up.

My questions have not only given me “something to say,” but I have learned a lot about her. If she’s here for a wedding, that is typically a less-than-on scenario for hooking up with random guys (at least guys that aren’t also in the wedding). She has “official plans” the day of the wedding, and probably unofficial plans with friends before/after. She might be staying at a friend’s house, or sharing a hotel (which means she’s less anonymous, as the people in her life might notice if she’s “out all night”). I’d obviously prefer she was “traveling alone,” but the realities of her logistics are good to know.

I built this interaction around a logistical framework, but it has been customized to the girl as well. And because I know a lot about her via those logistical questions, I also have a LOT to talk with her about via text message (I could talk about Osaka, for instance)… if it goes that far.

It is also very possible that the set has gone well… and there is some hope of getting together, even if she doesn’t have a lot of time. I know her logistics, so I can make effective offers. And she’s had a chance to see me being smooth, she has gotten a feel for how I flirt… and she might know what I’m doing (realizing I’m screening for hookup possibilities), and that might be a signal to her that I’m an “experienced man.”

My stack has allowed me to spend my time very well.

Now I’ll compare my recommendations to some notes Krauser suggests for guys in the beginner to intermediate stage:

“The big challenge on the opener, moving from beginner to intermediate, is to use the structure, but have your own creativity, so that your vibe is better (because every set is fresh…), that the girl very subtly realizes you’re being more authentic (you’re not just telling her what you tell every girl), and that because it’s specific to her she can connect… which makes her feel more invested in the interaction.”
— Krauser, Black Book

So based on Krauser’s notes, how is my logistical stack structure looking?

We are using a logistical stack as a framework, and haven’t tried to use a rote “script” (scripts won’t work). As it’s only a loose framework, we ARE able to customize the set to her. Maybe we know our opening line (in my Japan examples), and my tease about her speaking English is a bit scripted, but I quickly jump off into a normal conversational flow customized to her, why she is in that city, and what her logistics are. I’ve done even BETTER than that, as I add some comments about myself, sexualize things with my eye contact and body language, and mix in some “color” with some teases, etc.

Not bad. Not bad.

Here is a more “advanced” comment on why LOGISTICS can be a great way to structure your time on a the street with a girl:

A SIDE-EFFECT of this kind of structure is that you can position yourself as the “chooser,” if it’s clear through the vibe that you actually are using these questions to screen her.

If you need a girl that is available “tonight,” that means you’ll have to reject some YHT that doesn’t fit your timeline. If you spend an afternoon sorting through girls, with real logistical criteria that actually matter to you, you will end up rejecting a lot of girls… and rejecting girls that might have otherwise been somewhat interested in you. Actively screening and “rejecting” girls all afternoon will create a very different vibe than when you can “take it all” and run after every lead.

I could particularly feel myself doing this LOGISTICS-BASED STACK when I was running high volume game in Japan. The beauty of this kind of logistical SCREENING was very apparent to me as I was running out of time toward the end of my trip… I had a lot of dates booked (so I wasn’t too available), and I had less interest or patience in weaker leads or difficult logistics. All that “focus” from me is a form of me having specific standards each girl had to meet. Having standards you actually care about, and having that come out through your game on the street, can be a signal to the girl of you being genuinely “high value.”

The screening was not a “technique” in this case. It wasn’t being employed to get a reaction out of the girl… it was real, genuine screening, so it was congruent. And that behavior from me changed the power dynamic quite a bit. I was aggressively screening , girls had to meet my standards or they’d get rejected. I didn’t have to tell them that… everything about my conversational flow was hinting at that reality in those moments.

I was hyper choosey in those last few days in Japan (maybe the most choosey I have been in my whole life)… and it made my game much better. I am convinced the girls could tell.

If goal #1 is “what to say.” And goal #2 is “say things that help establish workable logistics.” Then goal #3 (which is more of a “side effect”) is “effectively screen the girl” for logistical compatibility. By focusing on logistics… I could accomplish all three of those goals at once. The logistics structure helped me find girls that could date on my timeline. But it ALSO made me the “chooser” as I screened.

Now we’ll go through it one last time…

This is based on a set I did in Tokyo this year that ended up as an “insta-pull” SDL, where I took the girl right off the street for an idate, and then walked her home. I haven’t written about this girl yet, but here is a roughly accurate version of what I said as an example of a stack with some logistics in it:

NASH: Hey… [big smile]
HER: [smiling]
NASH: Do you speak English??
HER: Little… [smiling]
NASH: See?!! Your English is great. [more flirty looks]
HER: No, no, no!!!! [smiling]
NASH: Okay, okay…
NASH: I saw you walking by and you caught my eye…
NASH: You have great eye contact
HER: [lol]
NASH: I wanted to meet you…
NASH: I’m Nash
HER: Hi…
NASH: What is your name? [taking her hand]
HER: I’m HR Girl
NASH: Okay
NASH: Yeah, so I am from California…
NASH: Omotesando ni todomatte imasu [“I am staying in Omotesando”]
HER: Ouuu… good! You speak a little Japanese!!
NASH: No, no, no!!!! Only a little.
NASH: Although I have been practicing every day…
NASH: … and I have been here for several weeks
NASH: I love Omoteosando
NASH: In fact, my apartment is over that way, a few blocks
HER: Oh, yeah… I love this neighborhood too
NASH: Do you live in Tokyo?
HER: Yeah, I live in XYZ area
NASH: Cool
NASH: Why are you in Omotesando today?
HER: I came to get my nails done… [she shows me]
NASH: Ahhhh, lovely [I took her hand, examining her nails]
NASH: It’s a Saturday night in Tokyo, the biggest city in Japan…
NASH: You have your nails done, they look very girly…
NASH: And now?
NASH: You have big plans tonight? Drinks with friends?
HER: Uhh… not really [popping her big eyes at me, a little shy all of a sudden]
NASH: Oh. Me neither. [big smile… it’s on]
NASH: I met a friend this afternoon for a lunch date… but I don’t have plans tonight
NASH: I was thinking about going for a drink at a great place I know over there…
NASH: Come with me.
HER: Okay…

That’s basically what I said. We talked more on the way to the bar, but that was all I said to get her on the date… and after one drink I walked her to my apartment and fucked her.

She was definitely a “yes” girl, but very often seductions are “cooperative,” and we just need something basic to get the man-woman vibe going.

What is important in that stack was that: 1.) I approached, 2.) I had an opening line that was comfortable and relevant, 3.) I gave her some context for who I am, why I was in her city, 4.) I found out why she was in my neighborhood in Tokyo, and used that to stack further into the set, and then… the most important part… an innocuous but strategically logistical question:

NASH: It’s a Saturday night in Tokyo, the biggest city in Japan…
NASH: You have big plans tonight? Drinks with friends?

You can see I set it up with some pacing about “it’s Saturday night,” but it was asking about her logistics for “right now” that gave me a perfect opening. It was Saturday night, she had freshly done nails, but no plans… and here I was, a dangerous man ready to take her on an impromptu adventure. That’s a great “score” for a girl with nothing to do. And it was a pretty solid score for me too.

I could read into this a little more, and say that a relatively young girl with no plans on Saturday night is probably a certain “type.” She’s not a party girl. She’s not overly popular. She probably doesn’t have 1000 cool guys trying to get after her… all of that is more information that tells me she is ripe for an invitation from a capable and experienced man like me… and +1 daygame.

Okay, so there you have it.

You need to say SOMETHING to a girl. There are endless possibilities, but I’ve made my case for why LOGISTICS can offer a better than average structure for you to work around.

Logistics can provide a framework that will help you come up with something to keep the conversation flowing. And from there you can add “color” and body language and sexuality to spice up the interaction. Focusing on logistics is better than other more random topics, as it will feed you applicable information to help you close the girl.

And as a bonus… as you get better at this, your focus on her logistics can be a type of screening that will not only make you more efficient, but can put you in the position of “the chooser” (in your own head, if not also with the girl), and that can give you an edge in terms of the power dynamic with the girl.

Okay, that’s it. Now… go talk to girls.

Viva daygame.