If you are feeling depressed or anxious, go see someone - a counselor; a psychiatrist; a pastor; a good friend that you trust, etc. Another thing you can do is avail yourself of one of the better self-help books out there; it's called "Feeling Good" by David Burns. I highly recommend reading the first 50 pages, minimum, and doing the exercises (about 10 minutes per day) to start; the book is based on years of solid research and is very accessible. The techniques described have been proven in labs all over the world.
The reason I like this book is because the techniques employed are lab tested; it is not a "feel good" book; it's a book that describes how to deal with the thoughts that cause depression - i.e. cognitive distortions, and how to "talk back" to those distortions in ways that effectively disarm them. Feeling Good is available for about $10 from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-...; it is used by therapists all over the world and is probably the most effective book of its kind. btw, this book is also helpful for people who are just going through a rough patch, but are not depressed.
In addition, what we have seen is the wholesale undermining of one facet of production - i.e. labor. When labor becomes a unit of focus for reduction, it reduces the size of the consuming public...."That is the nature of a system. Unintended consequences result from too narrow a focus on a single subsystem. In this case wages, taken in isolation. Context in systems matter. Reducing wages has local and systemic impacts. Balance matters. Don’t undermine the social safety net at the same time you lower wages unless you want to create a larger underclass. Many people today never thought that they would fall into that underclass. Maybe, eventually, even you." (this quote taken from a comment in a forum on the impact of robots, from the website Naked Capitalism - it's apropos, because importing more H1-Bs is just one more step to eliminating labor as an equation, in production. http://www.nakedcapitalism.com...
What's galling is that Mark Zuckerberg continues to be a focus of accolades, but his FWD.us PAC represents Zuckerberg, yet again, as the sleaze that he shamelessly continues to prove he has always been. I know it's untoward to attribute unflattering adjectives to someone whom one disagrees with, but Zuckerberg continues to show how two-faced, lying, and hypocritical he really is. I wonder where he sits on a sociopathy scale. How is it that this guy and the groups that support his FWD.us shenanigans (re: the H1-B issue) are considered honorable, given their blatant distortions around the issue of (i.e. their outright lies about) the non-existant shortage of STEM workers in America.
Sure, this may have helped some H1-Bs improve their lot, but it has also helped to decimate the lives of many individuals that get aced out of work by H1-B workers who are not as qualified to do the work. Go ask anyone who has worked with H1-Bs in quantity. By and large, the quality isn't there; the curiosity isn't there; the talent isn't there; and, oddly, the so-called "education" isn't there, because H1-Bs regularly distort their qualifications.
In fact, the Indian government helps in this distortion game because it's too corrupt to find genuine ways to expand opportunity in India. The whole thing stinks, from corrupt Indian politicians, the Zuckerberg's lying, smiling persona, to the corrupt corporate executives and American legislators that continue to game the American worker, and American middle class.
What needs to happen is that a VERY bright red light needs to be activated when Google Glass is recording. The light needs to be visible across a room.
Every ounce of copper infrastructure was paid for with YOUR tax dollars via tax breaks. That is what gace the Bell system a monopoly; that's why they got broken up - and that's why corrupt legislators paid off by the Bell subsidiaries reformed ATT.
The telcos have been charging excise taxes for years that are supposed to guarantee fiber infrastructure. They haven't - not nearly as they promised they would do.
I say nationalize telecommunications infrastructure, or force out the incumbents.
As for POTS: why give it up? It's there; like trolley lines in cities used to be there until we tore them up (and now we regret having done that). Leave the infrastructure in place.
The ONLY thing the telcos care about is their profit; they care about nothing else. If they want to eliminate a service, it is for their current senior management's benefit only. Remember that.
San Francisco is a nice place to live if you are making a good wage, but it's been stripped of personality. The thing that made San Francisco an interesting city to live in left, years ago. For instance, middle class persons can no longer afford to live or raise a family here. If you are a teacher, nurse, social worker, restaurant manager, small cafe owner, policeman, fireman, librarian, hotel worker, truck driver, car salesperson, etc,. etc. - you cannot buy in.
Add to that the sense of snobby entitlement that has begun to sink in here. The place is filling up with upper-middle-class types who are nice enough, but there is a "sameness" about them that kills the heady diversity San Francisco was known for.
Last, comparing San Francisco or the Bay Area to Florence is ridiculous. Seriously, stop with the fawning praise. The one thing that does separate San Francisco from a lot of other cities is its physical beauty. It's a stunning place. People want to live here because of that. If you look in the SOMA district where all the techies are living and working, it's become a stultifying, boring, architectually uninteresting place. Comparisons to Florence are self serving and reflect the degree of disconnectedness and lack of historical perspective shared by the tech industry. Everything is "now". San Francisco doesn't hold a candle to Florence, even today!
"On average, over-65s earned 26-39% less than all other age groups, including adolescents — a finding that could partially explain their susceptibility to problem gambling and scams."
Might this have something to do with the fact that age discrimination is ripe in the workplace. Try landing a well-paying corporate gig if you are over 60, no matter your skill set. It's nigh impossible. And, with decreasing job opportunities for workers over 60, one can imagine that some significant minority of them become more desperate to the point where they begin to consider irrational alternatives to making ends meet. Of course, this doesn't eliminate the fact that very senior individuals - some with excess money to burn, use that money to fill the ever-increasing, yawning gap of boredom and disconnection in their lives brought on by the social isolation of the elderly in our culture. So, I think this is more of a structural problem.
I have been watching this happen in Silicon Valley and other tech regions for years. It's an abomination and it's about time that it stop! I have seen L-1 visa holders from India who are here for "university studies", go to a place like Heald College for six months, come on board as *full-time* employees, with benefits (while professional non-Asian-Indian American IT professionals *with experience* were hired on as contractors). THen, I watched as the full time Americans with rock-solid skills got riffed after training the L-1 visa holder who didn't know jack, and *still* didn't know jack after a long training period.
I have seen these H1-B, L-1 and several other visa holders come to work on the first day and start hugging and chumming around with senior Asian-Indian supervisors who were their *relatives or friends* from back home.
I have watched as Asian Indian supervisors treat their American (and Indian) subordinates like chattel, not to mention looking right through female employees.
I have seen Asian Indian "consulting" groups establish domestic US connections so that their workers can claim "experience with a US company for 1 year", thus enabling the visa holder to emigrate to America.
I have listened to the likes of Bill Gates, John Chambers, Mark Zuckerberg, and many others LIE about the shortage of qualified American IT workers.
I have talked to DOZENS of IT peers who have been out of work for more than a year because every time they aplpy for a position thety are talking to guess who? - an East-Asian-Indian recruiter who can't speak clear English, does not have a clue about what the requirements are for the position, and spouts nonsense from the their doctored RPF's that list skills like "must know C++ and Ruby" for a BASIC QA position. Are you kidding me?
Now, our corporate overlords and these corrupt Indian companies (including the Indian government, whose corrupt officials are on the take from American corporations) want an increase in the H1-B quotas that would double those quotas AND let the spouses of these mostly UNQUALIFIED H1-Bs get an immediate right to work in America (which has not been possible by current rules). Are you kidding me.
The entire Hi-B whine is a SCAM, and a LIE, and a TRAITOROUS double-cross of the American IT worker, and other workers who would LOVE to have the same opportunity as an L-1 worker who doesn't know crap, and still won't know crap after s/he's trained.
Last, outside of IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) why don't we hear about the PATHETIC level of instruction and talent that comes out of most of India's other universities, where professors don't even show up, and make their real $$$ arranging private tutorials with students that can afford to pay for private lessons. Why? Because the immoral, corrupt leaches that run the Indian government don't give a rat's ass about their own people, just like the corrupt, immoral leaches in the American government.
Once you get outside the realm of graduates from the IIT schools, the quality is not very good. Don't believe me? Go ask almost anyone who has worked with an H1-B software engineer when they first arrived? Add to that the incredible inefficiencies and top-down authoritarian environment of most Indian software shops - independent thinking is not even considered.
Some of the information presented in the following links will shock most Americans, because American corporate leaders don't want us to know the truth, and they are paying off policy makers with contributions to keep the truth from us. Bill Gates, John Chambers, Eric Schmidt, and many, many others - including the principals of the most prominent immigration law firms, who profit from this outrage, are lying through their teeth. There is NO shortage of STEM workers in the US!!
The H-1B fiasco has cost Americans **$10TRILLION** dollars, since 1975. For anyone who wants to know the truth, read on.
Also, little known is the tactic of creating many different kinds of sub-visa categories to "fool the system". There are almost TWENTY different kinds of work visas. The whole thing is a sham and a lie, designed to drag down wages and keep from having to re-train Americans. Never thought I would see this day!
@stenvar, who says:
"So, Matloff is right to the degree that H-1B visas are about keeping wages down. He's wrong in believing that that's a bad thing, since the alternative to hiring the H-1Bs is not higher-paid IT jobs for Americans, it is losing IT jobs from the US altogether."
_____________________________________
Is that all you can bring? Really? Maybe you should walk into some of the software development situations that I've been in, where HR *on purpose* will overstate the qualifications for a job, simply to disqualify qualified domestic applicants. Where out of 500-600 workers in Austin, TX, or Silicon Valley, 97% are South Asian H-1Bs. Who are you trying to fool?
Did you even take the time to look at the video I posted, where an attorney is advising corporations on how to do this? This happens *all the time*, with immigration attorneys ginning up the game.
Also, in many places, ex-H-1Bs are doing the recruiting!! They "hire their own". Try looking for a gig in Silicon Valley and then note what the ethnicty of most recruiters are.
Plainly, you didn't read the research, and you are biased.
Oh, and trying to drive down the cost of IT with UNQUALIFIED H-1B's is almost traitorous. I have seen too many of these types come in with their puffed up resumes from some unknown school in India, or China, and they don't know *anything*. The whole thing is a ruse. They end up getting trained by QUALIFIED Americans, and then either replace them here, in America, or go back to take over the position as an outsourcer. It's a well-known pattern. In addition, many of these H-1B incompetents are put on mission critical (medical, transportation, etc.) development projects. I have seen H-1B managed groups AVOID SQAssurance on mission critical items, just to get the product out the door.
In addition, they bring their own cultural preferences re: workplace ethics and treatment of women. I have seen the most staggering, and awful treatment of females, and others who are not of the same ethnicity of the H-1B boss - or watched as an H-1B boss treats his/her workers like lackeys, as if they were never learned how to spell the term "workplace harassment.
True, but bringing 100's of thousands of unqualified tech workers into this country to replace those who are already here is a bit much, don't you think? In fact, it's a direct attack on the American tech worker, no matter his/her ethnic origin. There is NO shortage of qualified tech workers in America; there is also no shortage of greed as professed by those in Zuckerberg's cabal of moneyed lobbyists.
Don't believe me? Here's some unbiased research and FACTS for you to peruse.
What's little known is that American corporations are using large-scale outright deception and manipulation in an attempt to displace American Workers.
Some of the information presented in the following links will shock most Americans, because American corporate leaders don't want us to know the truth, and they are paying off policy makers with contributions to keep the truth from us. The H-1B fiasco has cost Americans $10TRILLION dollars, since 1975. For anyone who wants to know the truth, read on.
Zuckerberg, Melissa Mayer, Bill Gates, John Chambers and the rest of that crowd PROFIT by encouraging this race to the bottom. It's disgusting, and a blatant betrayal of the American worker. These people made billions off the backs of American high tech workers, and they are using blatant deception and outright lies to support their cause to bring in more H-1B workers.
Here are some references that *accurately* put the lie to the claims made by these lying SOBs. Does that sound harsh? It's meant to. These so-called "American leaders" are betraying the very workers who helped them make their unreal wealth. They need to be called out.
What's little known is that American corporations are using large-scale outright deception and manipulation in an attempt to displace American Workers.
Some of the information presented in the following links will shock most Americans, because American corporate leaders don't want us to know the truth, and they are paying off policy makers with contributions to keep the truth from us. The H-1B fiasco has cost Americans $10TRILLION dollars, since 1975. For anyone who wants to know the truth, read on.
From the perspective of a friend who lives in Silicon Valley, what is especially upsetting to her about the requested increase in H-1B and other visas (whose blatant goal it is to import more "high-tech" workers) is the support it receives from high profile high-tech leaders like Bill Gates, John Chambers, Eric Schmidt, and other. Those men made billions off the backs of American high tech workers, and they are using deception and outright lies to support their cause to bring in more H-1B workers. This is a pure race to the bottom, for salary, and skill. There is *some* need for H-1B's, but it's a mere fraction of the current 85,000 cap. This is an agregious attempt to displace qualified American workers, period. Read on if you want accurate information about this outrage.
Some of the information presented in the following links would shock most Americans, because American corporate leaders don't want us to know the truth, and they are paying off policy makers with contributions to keep the truth from us. The H-1B fiasco has cost Americans $10TRILLION dollars, since 1975 (fromProfessor Norm Matloff's study (UC Davis).. For anyone who wants to know the truth, read on.
Sounds like you're making the same mistake that the well-meaning philosophers of language who followed Wittgenstein's early work (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractatus_Logico-Philosophicus ) made. Either that, or you are trying to reintroduce the failed project proposed by whitehead and Russell in their Principia Mathematica http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principia_Mathematica. There is something about trying to put everything to a number that seems to be wired into our brains, even though it never seems to pan out.
And all too often those brilliant jerks end up in management positions, where they wreak even more havoc. The sheer lack of real management smarts and enlightened sensitivities in the tech sector, is stunning. Other sectors have this problem as well, but in the tech sector it's more alarming because most techies are fairly well educated. You'd think that would make a difference, but it doesn't.
Try "instand" http://www.instand.com/ . I am using one of their stands right now; I've had it for almost 10 years - very durable and stable, and portable!
Another solution is to simply place an office file box on your regular desk (put some weight in it, to keep it stable); then add phone books on top of that to achieve an ideal height for your use. Any "regular" desk can be converted this way, in literally minutes.
Khan Academy is a great resource, but it's far from a perfect substitute if one want to accomplish deep learning. The fact is that there is a LOT of free and very helpful tutorial learning material on the Internet. Khan has caught a lot of interest because of the sheer scale that Sal Khan accomplished on his own. I think it's a great tool, but is becoming quite overrated in terms of what we know from those who teach face-to-face, and learning science.
Diversity within a culture allows for more, and usually better, ADAPTATION. That's what societal, enterprise, and individual sustainability is really all about - i.e. it's about adaptation.
That said, this is a complex topic. We are not generating enough indigenous intellectual diversity because our education system needs a rehaul, or a completely new re-start. This probably won't happen, so we import the necessary diversity. This is one of America's strengths.
All that aside, I think it's abominable that way corporate leaders and our policy makers abuse the H1-B and other student and work visa programs. Too many highly skilled and innovative American workers are washed out of their careers, replaced by lower-priced, imported labor. There should be much more Congressional oversight about this, but that won't happen as long as private money (in the way of political donations) pollutes policy makers, and the policies they put forward.
Slashdot Mirror
go your ears!
The reason I like this book is because the techniques employed are lab tested; it is not a "feel good" book; it's a book that describes how to deal with the thoughts that cause depression - i.e. cognitive distortions, and how to "talk back" to those distortions in ways that effectively disarm them. Feeling Good is available for about $10 from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-...; it is used by therapists all over the world and is probably the most effective book of its kind. btw, this book is also helpful for people who are just going through a rough patch, but are not depressed.
In addition, what we have seen is the wholesale undermining of one facet of production - i.e. labor. When labor becomes a unit of focus for reduction, it reduces the size of the consuming public. ..."That is the nature of a system. Unintended consequences result from too narrow a focus on a single subsystem. In this case wages, taken in isolation. Context in systems matter. Reducing wages has local and systemic impacts. Balance matters. Don’t undermine the social safety net at the same time you lower wages unless you want to create a larger underclass. Many people today never thought that they would fall into that underclass. Maybe, eventually, even you." (this quote taken from a comment in a forum on the impact of robots, from the website Naked Capitalism - it's apropos, because importing more H1-Bs is just one more step to eliminating labor as an equation, in production. http://www.nakedcapitalism.com...
What's galling is that Mark Zuckerberg continues to be a focus of accolades, but his FWD.us PAC represents Zuckerberg, yet again, as the sleaze that he shamelessly continues to prove he has always been. I know it's untoward to attribute unflattering adjectives to someone whom one disagrees with, but Zuckerberg continues to show how two-faced, lying, and hypocritical he really is. I wonder where he sits on a sociopathy scale. How is it that this guy and the groups that support his FWD.us shenanigans (re: the H1-B issue) are considered honorable, given their blatant distortions around the issue of (i.e. their outright lies about) the non-existant shortage of STEM workers in America.
Sure, this may have helped some H1-Bs improve their lot, but it has also helped to decimate the lives of many individuals that get aced out of work by H1-B workers who are not as qualified to do the work. Go ask anyone who has worked with H1-Bs in quantity. By and large, the quality isn't there; the curiosity isn't there; the talent isn't there; and, oddly, the so-called "education" isn't there, because H1-Bs regularly distort their qualifications.
In fact, the Indian government helps in this distortion game because it's too corrupt to find genuine ways to expand opportunity in India. The whole thing stinks, from corrupt Indian politicians, the Zuckerberg's lying, smiling persona, to the corrupt corporate executives and American legislators that continue to game the American worker, and American middle class.
What needs to happen is that a VERY bright red light needs to be activated when Google Glass is recording. The light needs to be visible across a room.
Every ounce of copper infrastructure was paid for with YOUR tax dollars via tax breaks. That is what gace the Bell system a monopoly; that's why they got broken up - and that's why corrupt legislators paid off by the Bell subsidiaries reformed ATT. The telcos have been charging excise taxes for years that are supposed to guarantee fiber infrastructure. They haven't - not nearly as they promised they would do. I say nationalize telecommunications infrastructure, or force out the incumbents. As for POTS: why give it up? It's there; like trolley lines in cities used to be there until we tore them up (and now we regret having done that). Leave the infrastructure in place. The ONLY thing the telcos care about is their profit; they care about nothing else. If they want to eliminate a service, it is for their current senior management's benefit only. Remember that.
San Francisco is a nice place to live if you are making a good wage, but it's been stripped of personality. The thing that made San Francisco an interesting city to live in left, years ago. For instance, middle class persons can no longer afford to live or raise a family here. If you are a teacher, nurse, social worker, restaurant manager, small cafe owner, policeman, fireman, librarian, hotel worker, truck driver, car salesperson, etc,. etc. - you cannot buy in. Add to that the sense of snobby entitlement that has begun to sink in here. The place is filling up with upper-middle-class types who are nice enough, but there is a "sameness" about them that kills the heady diversity San Francisco was known for. Last, comparing San Francisco or the Bay Area to Florence is ridiculous. Seriously, stop with the fawning praise. The one thing that does separate San Francisco from a lot of other cities is its physical beauty. It's a stunning place. People want to live here because of that. If you look in the SOMA district where all the techies are living and working, it's become a stultifying, boring, architectually uninteresting place. Comparisons to Florence are self serving and reflect the degree of disconnectedness and lack of historical perspective shared by the tech industry. Everything is "now". San Francisco doesn't hold a candle to Florence, even today!
They did the same thing to Zimmerman a few years ago; he's one of the leading concert pianists on earth. Customs took his piano and destroyed it! Clueless! http://www.omg-facts.com/Interesting/A-Famous-Concert-Pianist-Had-His-Piano-D/53381 and http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=46850
Agreed. A Moog synthesizer is a musical instrument. For instance, Don Buchla insists that his synthesizers be called musical instruments.
"On average, over-65s earned 26-39% less than all other age groups, including adolescents — a finding that could partially explain their susceptibility to problem gambling and scams."
Might this have something to do with the fact that age discrimination is ripe in the workplace. Try landing a well-paying corporate gig if you are over 60, no matter your skill set. It's nigh impossible. And, with decreasing job opportunities for workers over 60, one can imagine that some significant minority of them become more desperate to the point where they begin to consider irrational alternatives to making ends meet. Of course, this doesn't eliminate the fact that very senior individuals - some with excess money to burn, use that money to fill the ever-increasing, yawning gap of boredom and disconnection in their lives brought on by the social isolation of the elderly in our culture. So, I think this is more of a structural problem.
This is an excellent 30 minute documentary about texting and driving - very moving.
I have been watching this happen in Silicon Valley and other tech regions for years. It's an abomination and it's about time that it stop! I have seen L-1 visa holders from India who are here for "university studies", go to a place like Heald College for six months, come on board as *full-time* employees, with benefits (while professional non-Asian-Indian American IT professionals *with experience* were hired on as contractors). THen, I watched as the full time Americans with rock-solid skills got riffed after training the L-1 visa holder who didn't know jack, and *still* didn't know jack after a long training period.
I have seen these H1-B, L-1 and several other visa holders come to work on the first day and start hugging and chumming around with senior Asian-Indian supervisors who were their *relatives or friends* from back home.
I have watched as Asian Indian supervisors treat their American (and Indian) subordinates like chattel, not to mention looking right through female employees.
I have seen Asian Indian "consulting" groups establish domestic US connections so that their workers can claim "experience with a US company for 1 year", thus enabling the visa holder to emigrate to America.
I have listened to the likes of Bill Gates, John Chambers, Mark Zuckerberg, and many others LIE about the shortage of qualified American IT workers.
I have talked to DOZENS of IT peers who have been out of work for more than a year because every time they aplpy for a position thety are talking to guess who? - an East-Asian-Indian recruiter who can't speak clear English, does not have a clue about what the requirements are for the position, and spouts nonsense from the their doctored RPF's that list skills like "must know C++ and Ruby" for a BASIC QA position. Are you kidding me?
Now, our corporate overlords and these corrupt Indian companies (including the Indian government, whose corrupt officials are on the take from American corporations) want an increase in the H1-B quotas that would double those quotas AND let the spouses of these mostly UNQUALIFIED H1-Bs get an immediate right to work in America (which has not been possible by current rules). Are you kidding me.
The entire Hi-B whine is a SCAM, and a LIE, and a TRAITOROUS double-cross of the American IT worker, and other workers who would LOVE to have the same opportunity as an L-1 worker who doesn't know crap, and still won't know crap after s/he's trained.
Last, outside of IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) why don't we hear about the PATHETIC level of instruction and talent that comes out of most of India's other universities, where professors don't even show up, and make their real $$$ arranging private tutorials with students that can afford to pay for private lessons. Why? Because the immoral, corrupt leaches that run the Indian government don't give a rat's ass about their own people, just like the corrupt, immoral leaches in the American government.
And still no senior bankers in jail.
Once you get outside the realm of graduates from the IIT schools, the quality is not very good. Don't believe me? Go ask almost anyone who has worked with an H1-B software engineer when they first arrived? Add to that the incredible inefficiencies and top-down authoritarian environment of most Indian software shops - independent thinking is not even considered.
Some of the information presented in the following links will shock most Americans, because American corporate leaders don't want us to know the truth, and they are paying off policy makers with contributions to keep the truth from us. Bill Gates, John Chambers, Eric Schmidt, and many, many others - including the principals of the most prominent immigration law firms, who profit from this outrage, are lying through their teeth. There is NO shortage of STEM workers in the US!!
The H-1B fiasco has cost Americans **$10TRILLION** dollars, since 1975. For anyone who wants to know the truth, read on.
One of the most respected technology pundits in Silicon Valley: http://www.cringely.com/2012/10/23/what-americans-dont-know-about-h-1b-visas-could-hurt-us-all/
Watch this attorney and his consultants teach corporations how to manipulate the law to replace qualified American workers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU
Here's more abuse of the L-1 Visa (H1-B's are only the tip of the iceberg http://economyincrisis.org/content/l-visa-programs-brimming-abuses
Professor Norman Matloff's extremely well documented studies: http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/h1b.html
Also, little known is the tactic of creating many different kinds of sub-visa categories to "fool the system". There are almost TWENTY different kinds of work visas. The whole thing is a sham and a lie, designed to drag down wages and keep from having to re-train Americans. Never thought I would see this day!
Add John Chambers (Cisco) and Bill Gates to that list if traitors to the American worker, and Americans in general.
Spoken like someone who is probably either an H-1B visa holder, or someone who has hired H-1B's to drive down wages at her company.
@stenvar, who says: "So, Matloff is right to the degree that H-1B visas are about keeping wages down. He's wrong in believing that that's a bad thing, since the alternative to hiring the H-1Bs is not higher-paid IT jobs for Americans, it is losing IT jobs from the US altogether." _____________________________________
Is that all you can bring? Really? Maybe you should walk into some of the software development situations that I've been in, where HR *on purpose* will overstate the qualifications for a job, simply to disqualify qualified domestic applicants. Where out of 500-600 workers in Austin, TX, or Silicon Valley, 97% are South Asian H-1Bs. Who are you trying to fool?
Did you even take the time to look at the video I posted, where an attorney is advising corporations on how to do this? This happens *all the time*, with immigration attorneys ginning up the game.
Also, in many places, ex-H-1Bs are doing the recruiting!! They "hire their own". Try looking for a gig in Silicon Valley and then note what the ethnicty of most recruiters are.
Plainly, you didn't read the research, and you are biased.
Oh, and trying to drive down the cost of IT with UNQUALIFIED H-1B's is almost traitorous. I have seen too many of these types come in with their puffed up resumes from some unknown school in India, or China, and they don't know *anything*. The whole thing is a ruse. They end up getting trained by QUALIFIED Americans, and then either replace them here, in America, or go back to take over the position as an outsourcer. It's a well-known pattern. In addition, many of these H-1B incompetents are put on mission critical (medical, transportation, etc.) development projects. I have seen H-1B managed groups AVOID SQAssurance on mission critical items, just to get the product out the door.
In addition, they bring their own cultural preferences re: workplace ethics and treatment of women. I have seen the most staggering, and awful treatment of females, and others who are not of the same ethnicity of the H-1B boss - or watched as an H-1B boss treats his/her workers like lackeys, as if they were never learned how to spell the term "workplace harassment.
True, but bringing 100's of thousands of unqualified tech workers into this country to replace those who are already here is a bit much, don't you think? In fact, it's a direct attack on the American tech worker, no matter his/her ethnic origin. There is NO shortage of qualified tech workers in America; there is also no shortage of greed as professed by those in Zuckerberg's cabal of moneyed lobbyists.
Don't believe me? Here's some unbiased research and FACTS for you to peruse.
What's little known is that American corporations are using large-scale outright deception and manipulation in an attempt to displace American Workers.
Some of the information presented in the following links will shock most Americans, because American corporate leaders don't want us to know the truth, and they are paying off policy makers with contributions to keep the truth from us. The H-1B fiasco has cost Americans $10TRILLION dollars, since 1975. For anyone who wants to know the truth, read on.
One of the most respected technology pundits in Silicon Valley: http://www.cringely.com/2012/10/23/what-americans-dont-know-about-h-1b-visas-could-hurt-us-all/
Watch this attorney and his consultants teach corporations how to manipulate the law to replace qualified American workers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU
Here's more abuse of the L-1 Visa (H1-B's are only the tip of the iceberg http://economyincrisis.org/content/l-visa-programs-brimming-abuses
Professor Norman Matloff's extremely well documented studies: http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/h1b.html
Zuckerberg, Melissa Mayer, Bill Gates, John Chambers and the rest of that crowd PROFIT by encouraging this race to the bottom. It's disgusting, and a blatant betrayal of the American worker. These people made billions off the backs of American high tech workers, and they are using blatant deception and outright lies to support their cause to bring in more H-1B workers.
Here are some references that *accurately* put the lie to the claims made by these lying SOBs. Does that sound harsh? It's meant to. These so-called "American leaders" are betraying the very workers who helped them make their unreal wealth. They need to be called out.
http://www.epi.org/publication/bp356-foreign-students-best-brightest-immigration-policy/
http://www.thesocialcontract.com/artman2/publish/tsc_23_2/tsc_23_2_nelson_printer.shtml
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/silicon-valley-h1b-visas-hurt-tech-workers
What's little known is that American corporations are using large-scale outright deception and manipulation in an attempt to displace American Workers.
Some of the information presented in the following links will shock most Americans, because American corporate leaders don't want us to know the truth, and they are paying off policy makers with contributions to keep the truth from us. The H-1B fiasco has cost Americans $10TRILLION dollars, since 1975. For anyone who wants to know the truth, read on.
Watch this attorney and his consultants teach corporations how to manipulate the law to replace qualified American workers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU
Here's more abuse of the L-1 Visa (H1-B's are only the tip of the iceberg http://economyincrisis.org/content/l-visa-programs-brimming-abuses
Professor Norman Matloff's extremely well documented studies: http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/h1b.html
From the perspective of a friend who lives in Silicon Valley, what is especially upsetting to her about the requested increase in H-1B and other visas (whose blatant goal it is to import more "high-tech" workers) is the support it receives from high profile high-tech leaders like Bill Gates, John Chambers, Eric Schmidt, and other. Those men made billions off the backs of American high tech workers, and they are using deception and outright lies to support their cause to bring in more H-1B workers. This is a pure race to the bottom, for salary, and skill. There is *some* need for H-1B's, but it's a mere fraction of the current 85,000 cap. This is an agregious attempt to displace qualified American workers, period. Read on if you want accurate information about this outrage.
Some of the information presented in the following links would shock most Americans, because American corporate leaders don't want us to know the truth, and they are paying off policy makers with contributions to keep the truth from us. The H-1B fiasco has cost Americans $10TRILLION dollars, since 1975 (fromProfessor Norm Matloff's study (UC Davis).. For anyone who wants to know the truth, read on.
One of the most respected technology pundits in Silicon Valley: http://www.cringely.com/2012/10/23/what-americans-dont-know-about-h-1b-visas-could-hurt-us-all/
Watch this attorney and his consultants teach corporations how to manipulate the law to replace qualified American workers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU
Here's more abuse of the L-1 Visa (H1-B's are only the tip of the iceberg http://economyincrisis.org/content/l-visa-programs-brimming-abuses
Professor Norman Matloff's extremely well documented studies: http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/h1b.html
Sounds like you're making the same mistake that the well-meaning philosophers of language who followed Wittgenstein's early work (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractatus_Logico-Philosophicus ) made. Either that, or you are trying to reintroduce the failed project proposed by whitehead and Russell in their Principia Mathematica http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principia_Mathematica. There is something about trying to put everything to a number that seems to be wired into our brains, even though it never seems to pan out.
And all too often those brilliant jerks end up in management positions, where they wreak even more havoc. The sheer lack of real management smarts and enlightened sensitivities in the tech sector, is stunning. Other sectors have this problem as well, but in the tech sector it's more alarming because most techies are fairly well educated. You'd think that would make a difference, but it doesn't.
Try "instand" http://www.instand.com/ . I am using one of their stands right now; I've had it for almost 10 years - very durable and stable, and portable!
Another solution is to simply place an office file box on your regular desk (put some weight in it, to keep it stable); then add phone books on top of that to achieve an ideal height for your use. Any "regular" desk can be converted this way, in literally minutes.
Khan Academy is a great resource, but it's far from a perfect substitute if one want to accomplish deep learning. The fact is that there is a LOT of free and very helpful tutorial learning material on the Internet. Khan has caught a lot of interest because of the sheer scale that Sal Khan accomplished on his own. I think it's a great tool, but is becoming quite overrated in terms of what we know from those who teach face-to-face, and learning science.
Here are some valid criticisms of Khan Academy. http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines/2012/07/03/the-trouble-with-khan-academy/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
http://fnoschese.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/khan-academy-and-the-effectiveness-of-science-videos/
In sum, Khan Academy is NOT a revolution in learning; it's a tool that many will use to help revolutionize education.
Diversity within a culture allows for more, and usually better, ADAPTATION. That's what societal, enterprise, and individual sustainability is really all about - i.e. it's about adaptation.
That said, this is a complex topic. We are not generating enough indigenous intellectual diversity because our education system needs a rehaul, or a completely new re-start. This probably won't happen, so we import the necessary diversity. This is one of America's strengths.
All that aside, I think it's abominable that way corporate leaders and our policy makers abuse the H1-B and other student and work visa programs. Too many highly skilled and innovative American workers are washed out of their careers, replaced by lower-priced, imported labor. There should be much more Congressional oversight about this, but that won't happen as long as private money (in the way of political donations) pollutes policy makers, and the policies they put forward.