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I recently bought some fun cookie stamps. Why, I'm not really sure. I don't love baking the way I love cooking, but these were so much fun and so easy that I may change my mind.
Piloncillo isn't as sweet as refined sugar, which may be a problem for some but I found these sandy discs to be perfectly sweetened. Next I think I would sub some of the flour for ground nuts or our pinole. Maybe. But these really were perfect as they were and the staff here at Rancho Gordo (and let's face it, they can be picky) gobbled them up.
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 3/4 cup Rancho Gordo Piloncillo
- 1 teaspoon Rancho Gordo Pure Mexican Vanilla Extract
- 2 1/4 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Cream the piloncillo with the butter until well mixed. Add the vanilla and then the flour. Beat at a low speed until very well mixed.
- Form the dough into 1-inch balls. Place the balls on an ungreased cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Smash with the bottom of a juice glass or use a cookie stamp. Bake for about 10 minutes. They should be cooked but not brown as they'll continue cooking for a while after you take them out of the oven.
- Allow to cool thoroughly.
Adapted from a recipe by Rycraft Cookie Stamps.


text:
My Nonprofit Reviews
Review for Good Samaritan Health Center, Inc., Atlanta, GA, USA
I found Good Sam through a friend of the family and began volunteering here in August. I am fortunate enough to be able to volunteer three days a week, and it has truly been an amazing experience so far. Everyone here is very nice to patients and volunteers alike. The clinic runs very smoothly and the nurses and PCPs are extremely knowledgeable. There is always something for me to do, and I feel like my time is well spent and that I am making a difference to the clinic as a whole. Great clinic with great staff and patients too!
More Feedback
Would you volunteer for this group again?
For the time you spent, how much of an impact did you feel your work or activity had?
A lot
Did the organization use your time wisely?
Very Well
Would you recommend this group to a friend?
When was your last experience with this nonprofit?

subset: commoncrawl


text: G. Turner Wilson, 83, of Wilmette, passed away June 2, 2005. Beloved husband of Lois, nee Shay; loving father of Roger (Giovinella Gonthier), Richard (Robin), Randall and Mary Wilson and Katherine (Michael) Strobel; cherished grandfather of Alexandra, Andrew, Margaret, Elizabeth and Samuel; dear brother of the late Robert (Joanne) Wilson and the late Joan (Robert) Flannery. Visitation Sunday, June 5, 4 to 9 p.m., at Wm. H. Scott Funeral Home, 1100 Greenleaf Ave., Wilmette. Funeral Monday, June 6, 11 a.m., at Church of the Holy Comforter, 222 Kenilworth Ave., Kenilworth. Interment private. Memorial contributions may be made to the Kidney Foundation of Illinois, 215 W. Illinois, Suite 1C, Chicago, IL 60610. Info., 847-251-8200.


text:
LYNDON, Kan. (AP) - A Kansas man was sentenced Monday to four years and two months in prison for beheading another man with a guitar string after a plea deal that prosecutors said they accepted because of problems with the case.
4TH TEEN ARRESTED IN DEATH OF MAN WITH PLASTIC BAG OVER HEAD: ALLENDALE, S.C. (AP) - A 16-year-old boy is the last of four teenagers charged with robbing and beating an 86-year-old man before killing him by tying a plastic bag around his head, authorities said.
WASHINGTON (AP) - As the April 15 tax deadline nears, people who got help paying for health insurance under President Barack Obama's law are seeing the direct effect on their refunds - hundreds of dollars, for better or worse.
DENVER (AP) - Drought-weary Californians can't expect much encouragement from mountains elsewhere in the West: Snow that fills the Colorado River is lagging, too, officials said Friday.
HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) - A Maaco body shop worker will be suspended for leaving a profane, threatening message telling a customer's husband to "get her in check" after her she posted a scathing review on Facebook, the company said Friday.
NEW YORK (AP) - An apartment house where only high-paying tenants can use the gym may be illegally discriminating, city officials said this week amid debate over luxury buildings that provide fewer amenities - or even separate doors - for residents of affordable apartments.
PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) - Adrift on the ocean, the mast of his 35-foot sailboat torn away, Louis Jordan says he was able to survive more than two months at sea by catching rainwater in a bucket, scooping up fish that were attracted to the laundry he hung over the side, and fervently praying to God for help.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A Philadelphia woman was arrested Friday on charges she tried to join and martyr herself for the Islamic State group, a day after two women in New York were charged with plotting to wage jihad by building a bomb and using it for a Boston Marathon-type attack.
SAN DIEGO (AP) - A San Diego man who operated a "revenge porn" website and then charged victims to remove nude images and personal information was sentenced Friday to 18 years in state prison, the attorney general's office said.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) - Three Ku Klux Klan members who worked at a Florida prison have been charged with plotting to kill a black inmate after his release because they believed the man is infected with HIV and hepatitis and he bit one of them during a fight, officials said Thursday.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A Utah man got a surprise when he stopped to pull a large orange bag off the highway, fearing that it would become a traffic hazard.
NEW YORK (AP) - Two women were arrested Thursday on charges they plotted to wage violent jihad by building a homemade bomb and using it for a Boston Marathon-type attack.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - A man whose family reported him missing at sea more than two months ago was found sitting on the overturned hull of his 35-foot sailboat far off the North Carolina coast, the U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - An Alabama inmate who spent nearly 30 years on death row will go free Friday after prosecutors told a judge there is not enough evidence to link him to the 1985 murders he was convicted of committing.
CHICAGO (AP) - The Chicago Cubs don't have to halt construction on a Wrigley Field video board that will block game views of adjacent rooftop clubs, a federal judge ruled on Thursday, dismissing claims from the one-of-a-kind businesses that they're doomed if it goes up.
Page 222 of 748
SEATTLE (AP) - The mass of warm water known as "the blob" that heated up the North Pacific Ocean has dissipated, but scientists are still seeing ...
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Intel's "Sandybridge" chips put graphics right on the CPU silicon.
Intel has officially launched its "Sandybridge" series of CPUs today with single-chip integrated CPU and graphics.
The current range of Core chips have graphics and CPU within the same package but they are still two separate chips. Sandybridge has them both on a single piece of silicon.
The whole range of chips is built on a 32nm manufacturing process and Intel's patented high-k metal gate transistors (which Intel says provides 10x lower energy leakage from the processors than the silicon technologies all the competitors are using.)
Sandybridge processors allow the integrated graphics to share ultra high-speed cache memory with the CPU for increased performance without requiring expensive GDDR3 graphics memory as required by dedicated chips from NVIDIA and AMD.
Intel CEO Paul Ottelini said Intel's new graphics engine was 25 times faster than the Intel graphics performance in 2006 when Intel first started seriously looking at high performance graphics.
The new chips also have a second-gen version of Intel Turbo Boost tech which is the thing that allows a quad-core Core i7 with an official speed of 1.6GHz per core to boost up to 2.8GHz in one core if the computer isn't making use of the multiple cores.
The new version automatically reallocates resources between the CPU and GPU to boost overall performance.
Intel says it expects notebooks and PCs with Sandybridge chips to be on sale early next year.
Dan Warne is attending Intel Developer Forum 2010 as a guest of Intel.


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text:
Justice Department Hits IBM Over H-1B Hiring Practices
- September 27, 2013
- Looking in Tech
- 150
IBM reached a settlement with Department of Justice over allegations it discriminated against U.S. software and apps developers by favoring job applicants who held H-1B visas or foreign student visas, according to a statement by the Department of Justice on Friday.
The Justice Department hit IBM for allegedly violating the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, when it posted online job openings for software and apps developers.
In the job postings, IBM allegedly stated a preference for F-1 and H-1B visa holders. F-1 visas are issued to foreign students and H-1B visas to foreign nationals with technical experience in a specialized field.
"Although IBM's job postings were for positions that would ultimately require the successful candidate to relocate overseas, the anti-discrimination provision of the INA does not permit employers to express or imply a preference for temporary visa holders over U.S. workers, such as U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, for any employment opportunity in the United States," the Justice Department stated.
Under the terms of the settlement with the Justice Department, IBM agreed to:
- Pay $44,400 in civil penalties to the United States
- Revise its hiring and recruiting procedures
- Train its human resources personnel to ensure compliance with the Immigration and Nationality Act
- Undergo reporting requirements for compliance for two years
"Employers must give all eligible candidates the equal opportunity to compete for employment," Jocelyn Samuels, acting assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. "The department is committed to ensuring employers do not unlawfully discriminate against U.S. citizens and other work-authorized individuals based on their citizenship status."
IBM was not immediately available to comment.
IBM Case Doesn't Help H-1B Reform Efforts
The IBM settlement comes at a time when the nation is locked in political debate over immigration reform, which has also drawn in legislative efforts to increase the statutory cap for H-1B visa petitions beyond their current 65,000 visas a year.
Tech leaders fromFacebook to Google to Intel have called on Congress to raise the cap and streamline the green card process for foreign tech workers, as a way to address the shortage of finding qualified U.S. tech professionals to do the work and innovation that they say is needed. On the other side of the coin, organizations that support IT workers and some university professors question whether there is really a shortage of IT workers and whether raising the cap is warranted. To be sure, the debate on this topic can be intense.
See our Special Report on H-1Bs
Currently, the comprehensive immigration reform bill that is languishing in the House of Representatives has the H-1B-related legislation hogtied, since it has been added to the broader reform bill, notes a recent post in TechCrunch. Whether and when movement will happen with the broader bill, and H-1B reform, has yet to be seen.
The penalty is miniscule, but it's a start! A good additional punishment would be for IBM to list employees and hires/fires by country.
I have been commenting in regard the H1-B visas for a very long time and addressed the situation to Senators but my words got lost in limbo. However, this is an example of what companies have been doing since the early 80s. I do agree that the fine imposed to IBM is microscopy but the most important ting is to prompt the government to investigate all companies regarding H1-B visas and see that companies such as HP do the lay-off equitably in he US and abroad. HP laid-off 29,000 employees in the US last year and zero in India meaning discrimination against US employees.
Also the lack of professionals, if any, is due to companies preference for foreigners since the early 80s an now they are seeing the results. I foresee the lack of technical people here in the US in massive amounts in the future an the US lagging behind countries such as China, Russia, India and many others an that we see it now.
THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF TECHNICAL PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES. The fact is, there are plenty of U.S. citizens who have training in the tech industry. The problem is not one of not enough qualified people, but of the qualifications required in relation to the salaries offered. I have worked on projects where the staff was cherry-picked in favor of H1-B holders instead of U.S. citizens. Why? Simply put, H1-B holders are more willing to work ungodly hours for no money (try something like 120 hours a week while being paid for 40) without complaining, put up with managers whose attitudes border on those of the pre-Civil War era plantation owners, and if they do complain, they are terminated and their visa status is soon revoked. Now, on the other hand, I have seen some minimally qualified H1-B candidates favored over US applicants simply because the H1-B holder does not know he is doing a $100,000 per year job for $65,000. I did test IBM in December with this practice and I caught them at it, so I do not doubt they are doing it at all levels.
I sent my resume for a mid-level job. I sent a cover letter, applied on IBM's website, and got an email stating "Thank you, but we are considering other applicants who more closely match our requirements." I then changed the name of my resume to 'Khan Noonyen Singh' – any Trekkies out there? Apparently not at IBM. Now, I gave ol' Khan a new email address, but kept my address and cell phone number on the resume, and except for changing his service from the U.S. military to the Indian one, made no other changes in either my academic or work histories including keeping the dates the same. Over a three month period, Khan got six calls on my phone, and twelve emails from IBM. They wanted HIM, and not ME. Like I said, I changed only the ethnicity of the applicant, and the skills were the same. So, when it comes to me applying for IBM again, I just have to say "Beam me up Scotty, there's no intelligent life at IBM"
You guys seem to think that this is some sort of start to properly addressing this issue. You couldn't be farther from the truth. For a company as big and in the position as IBM — the fine should have been more like 3 or 4 M USD. Any thing less is like baby spanking a thief for getting caught stealing jewels.
A $44K fine was probably saved with 2 or 3 salary's. Tell the programmer — who had to foreclose on his house and couldn't feed his children — that a $44K fine is justified.
What should have happened is that every US applicant that was turned down — as a result — be allowed to enter an Equal Opportunity class action lawsuit against IBM. Now that will get companies thinking twice about abusing H1-B1 programs.
This fine is less than a person's salary. How about 1% of their income, like a person would get for not signing up for Obamacare.
Well I know now why with so many years of experience I have, I have never gotten even 1 call in regards to the many applications i have filled out.
Lot of wasted hours
Call your congressman – HR2131 – the SKILLS act is fixing to raise the H1b cap to 168k per year and will be voted on this fall.
The IEEE site says the US has "created" an average of 58k STEM jobs per year from 2000-2010.
foreign born US workers were under 10% in 1990, in the 2010 census they are over 16%.
How high is too high? This has to STOP.
IBM needs to be severly punished with not only penality to pay the society and also needs to forced to hire more domestically in quota for the following 10 years as its social responsibitlity to its country.
IBM needs to to hell for what it did and the act is not foregiveable one!
If corporations are people, give IBM the corporate death penalty. No H1-B visas ever again!
1 – Make them get rid of all their current H1Bs.
2 – Loss of all federal contracts
3 – Public hanging of their executives that made this policy.
Amedriucan first. I am aUS coitizen and I have been out of work for 4 years. I am not alone. The unemployed number is 90 million and many are going on to disability. This is now being investigated. 3 years ago, the ICE arrested 300 software enginaeers from India trying to enter through Mexico. This year the number rose to 3000. Then what about those who escaped the border patrol.Whast is the solution?
Implement E-verify (Bartak Obama will fail this)
prosecute employers hiring illegals
Balance the budget
Grow the economy.
Recreate good jopbs,
This will solve al;;l our problems
Why is my comment moderated and then not showing up 2 hours later? Is this site programmed by Entry-level H1-B Visa recruits? Could this trend explain why 85% of corporate IT projects end in failure? I joined Programmer's Guld today!
I understand your concerns, but you don't need to blame website for not showing your post.
IBM is just doing what everybody else is, they just got caught. How about no H1b visa's for 10 years, or at least no H1b visa's for IBM.
Better yet, no specific visa's for *anyone* until U6 unemployment is below 4%. Leave general immigration quotas alone.
That's nothing. You should see what Qualcomm does. They tell non Indians that the job (which they applied for locally) is actually now in some remote location. It the applicant agrees to that, they then change the job description (test interview for a completely different position). My favorite is when they post a slightly different version of the job in multiple places, and if you make the mistake of applying in more than one place you're automatically "Disqualified"! Intel is even worse!!!
For IT job, company posted as, Need GC holder and Citizens only. Candidate apply for the position.Company's HR called for many candidate those holding GC and Citizen one by one for interview. They pay for everything on Air fare, lunch, limo etc etc. They told Dept of Labor , none of the candidate qualified and finally they hire H1 Cap, which is already been selected before the interview.
IBM consulting is the biggest cheater. They bring in consultants for two weeks (of course without telling them) and let them go t the end of two weeks. They do lot of shady practices through their preferred vendors such as RES.
IBM should be punished like hell.
A more meaningful penalty would have barred IBM from federal contracts for a year. As it is, this is not even a slap on the wrist.
This penalty is less than pocket fuzz. You realize of course that if IBM is doing this then the implication is that every big company with an army of lawyers is doing the very same thing. Of course those of us out in the field trying to eek out a living already knew this was happening because we feel the effects of it every day, especially in our billing rates. The fine for this crime should have been big enough to take their stock price down by 50%. As it is their stock price will probably go up on Monday morning as traders infer that IBM has the justice department in their back pocket. More corruption from the Chicago mob.
IBM has morphed into a shell company for punishing customers who think they can save money by off-shoring and outsourcing. The sad part is they now make more form failed contracts that follow the letter of specifications than by solving customer problems.
I think of it as a kiss on the wrist, or maybe on some other part of their anatomy. Abandon hope, all ye American citizens. Honeywell is as bad if not worse.
$44,000 is a drop in the bucket and not even a slap on the wrist to IBM ! The Justice Department is blind to the many faults of IBM. This is a perfect example of big business in bed with the Federal government. A $4 million dollar fine would have been more appropriate and a warning to IBM and other companies like Hp and Microsoft who flagrantly flaunt the law, outsource US jobs, discriminate against US residents and act as though they are a law unto themselves. Mind you, most of this happened in IBM on Sam Palmisano's and Ginny Rometty's watch (as VP of GBS), so this is where the blame lies.
The Last Ten + Years – there has been "Major Fouling of OUR Track" (American IT Jobs!)
American STEM/IT Jobs – for Americans First!!!
Our Track!
Our InterLocking!
Our Right-of-Way!
Our Locomotive!
I understand why IBM writes their employment ads the way they do. They want to save money by reducing the number or applicants. IBM will have to pay more HR people to sift through all the non H1B's to identify the applicants they are interested in if they don't write them this way. Short of the government actually being an internal part of IBM's hiring procedure, there is nothing the government can do to stop IBM preferring and hiring foreign nationals over American citizens.
Oh please. Do you work for IBM? Are you attempting to manage the political fall-out which is minimal.
Absolutely unfair.. IBM is getting away really cheap at expense of American families hunger… shame…
The penalty was laughable. How much was the contribution to the DNC? The Democrats have always been the enemy of the people. I found this out when Daniel Patrick Moynihan then senator from NY virtually made it illegal for programmers, architects and engineers to go into business for themselves as independent consultants, He did this via the tax code section 1706 which is still on the books. I wrote to Moynihan and swore to him that I would never vote for a Democrat again and that I considered him my enemy. I have never voted for a Democrat ever since then, not even for rat catcher.
It is the Republican and Top 1% who prefer to bring foreigners (i.e., Indian graduate students and NCGs from San Jose State University who get internships and jobs left and right, but undergraduates there don't.) over U.S. citizens.
To them, $$$ speaks.
Republicans don't mind immigration as long as they are not from Mexico, and benefits the Top 1%'s pockets.
Oh please. Both parties are equally at fault here because it's all about the money. The Republicans favor anything that helps businesses make money (which isn't necessarily a bad thing if it helps US businesses compete, but they do go too far sometimes). The Democrats are pandering to their union pals who are making it harder and more expensive for companies to hire US workers. Who do you think pushed the "20 questions" IRS rules that make it so hard to be an independent contractor? Unions hate that because they can't get their fingers in that pie.
What needs to happen is tax breaks and funding for the STEM fields to encourage more US students to go into those instead of getting easy "bunny" degrees from which they expect 6-figure incomes.
Yep, the globalists love it when we fight with each other over Dems and Repubs. Meanwhile they run this country into the ground.
Zuckerburg, Schmidt, Gates, Buffet and Soros (among others) support Democrats. Get educated.
Joseph – Come on man. This is not about Dems or Repubs. Both are our enemies in this regard.
Mitt Romney was the poster boy for outsourcing and he was running for the POTUS position. We referred to the guys from Mitt's firm as the Bain Boys when they came on IT projects.
By the way the title should be "Justice Department Condones IBM's H1B Hiring Practices".
Joseph – The Justice Department is consistent. They appear to be pro-immigration.
IBM always "settles". They never get penalized like a smaller business would. If you trace their research and their connections to the federal government back you will understand why that is and why it will always be.
DoS says that they issued 135,991 H-1B visas in fiscal year 2012, not 65K, not 85K.
The less than $45K penalty is less, in many cases, what an employer gains by hiring someone on an H-1B over hiring a US citizen at local market compensation.
It's funny how Americans seem to think that H1-Bs are cheap labor. I'm on H1-B and my pay is well over 6 digits and comparable to (if not more than) that of my american colleagues. I have a lot of friends on h1-b and no one is paid less than market rate.
There is a huge overhead to companies for hiring on h1-b. The fees alone for filing h1-b is over 5 grand. The green card process costs over 10 grand. If the company wants to just save money and doesn't care about talent, it's a lot easier to just open a branch in India and increase their headcount over there.
kk good for you, you say you are paid at MARKET rate.
Do you realize if the IBM's and Intel's did NOT cheat by favoring H1B's ( which by accepting the penalty they are implicitly admitting to) then the MARKET rate itself would be higher.
Yes, it's possible that market rate is slightly lower due to the increased supply. But asking to stop H1-Bs is the worst option there is. Companies will just shift more jobs overseas rather than hiring every remaining unemployed american programmer. And it's not going to make much of a difference in the market rate in US. That's the cost of globalization. If you are born in a first world country and are under the bottom 10 percentile, skills wise, tough luck!
if you got even half decent skills, as a citizen, you should have no problem finding a job.
Yes, that's exactly what Honeywell did — open a branch in India, and in the Czech Republic, and in Mexico … etc, etc. Anything to avoid hiring an American citizen.
I have no objections to a company opening a branch in a foreign company, as long as the revenue from that country exceeds the amount of money spent there, and products and services created there are not marketed elsewhere at a rate that is significantly less than what a firm that is only located on American soil is capable of producing.
They open branches in other countries so they can avoid hiring in this country. We are 'high cost center' here in the USofA.
H1-B's are just a form of modern day indentured servitude. Companies can get away with paying h1-b employees less. Immigration reform should take precedent over H1-B foreign workers. Greater taxes should be imposed upon companies that ship work overseas. The benefits of being an American citizen should reflect the taxes we "voluntarily" pay to the IRS. Foreign intelligence is a desirable trait to the US and as such should be sought after as a national asset – along with the poor and tired – not just the poor and tired and huddled masses. I reject policies of the past which allow indentured servitude and slavery. I reject the idea that an individuals assets are such that they should trade outside of our borders without taxation via a fair method to satisfy the loss of opportunity created by that American Company. Should your Company want to do business overseas and then do business with the US – so be it but there should be an import/excise tax on doing said business. When you are born – there are unspoken rules which place you under control of that society, that country, and that ruling governmental entity – you have no choice in the matter. Being that this is the case, it should follow that you would want to remain loyal to your country by providing your best human potential to the growth of your own country in a positive manner without the disruption and harm of others thus elevating your status within your own borders and within your world community.
Well, it would work. Kind of. Pretty much all world used to live according to the rules during a Medieval period. So if you want to live like in Medieval times, go ahead.
Tech workers of America unite!!
Cognizant has over 9,000 H1B workers and makes no secret of the fact that they bring workers from India to fill openings. The Cognizant business model is built on bringing H1B workers from Inida to the U.S.. Why has Cognizant not been sued by the U.S. government?
I am going to take my case directly to the Department of Justice, as the business practices of a company like Cognizant, in fact the very business model, is illegal, under the definition the Department of Justice used with IBM.
This is going to get ugly.
This kind of Indian firm actively hire only Indian descent people, and they need to be sued based on racial and ethnic discrimination grounds.
Many opponents of 1964 Civil Rights Act saw the legislation as taking away political power from white people, but now American white people do need to rely on the Civil Rights Act reduce discrimination against white people and other non-Indian descent people.
I am no white supremacist (I don't like those white trash idiots.), but I never dreamed of a day when American white people will be actively discriminated in this country.
How can you not dream of a day when American consumers will be actively discriminated against in this country??? No one participates in their local democracies, and no one takes any type of protesting seriously (and then think women to work and vote "magically"). We had forfeit our sovereignty by CHOOSING traffic and a cubicle (which where most of our adult lives are spent) over keeping track of and being involved in our democracy. Go watch TV and complain in blogs while the WTO tells you what to do. You never dreamt of this day, because you were too busy taking advantage of 'a good thing'/our democracy. … NO wait! Im just kidding -it must be everyone else's fault but your own. Happy now?
I bet most of those 9000 h1-bs are hired from within US as opposed to brought from India. It would be really dumb for a company to bring people from India on h1-b because the minute they land in US they find another job where they are paid market wages. If my company is bringing people from India, I would bring them on L-1 so they can't change employers easily.
KK – That is not true. They have to be sponsored.
if you google for "Molina healthcare lawsuit" you will see that the company plus Cognizant were sued after firing almost all IT then replacing all of them with H1B workers
The company claims it has done nothing wrong
The truth is that companies hire almost only Indians which are in the management of the company
If you ask what those Indians work is LOL I think it is hard to justify how many lines of code they write in one day LOL
It's Indian not European noe American etc
Pure politics
actually "molina healthcare outsourcing lawsuit" seems like old search keywords does not bring the article anymore
Molina Healthcare and Cognizant were sued for firing their American IT workforce then shortly hired H1B from India
Management there is of Indian origin and almost all employees are from India
While the owners know the poor job that the H1B does as they had IT meetings and complained it seems that their stock value depends on working with India H1Bs
There are a lot of them and you can see them taking long breaks, surfing internet etc.
I reached the conclusion that it is not their wages (based on what they told me it is comparable to American wages) that counts but the political clout they have with our political system and stock market
I just sent this to my rep and both senators. Please feel free to copy and paste to yours!
Dear Senator,
The justice department's handling of the IBM settlement is an affront to every American software engineer. As your constituent, I urge you to abolish the H1-B Visa and speak out about the Justice Department handling of the IBM case. American workers in your district like myself are being discriminated against in employment by unscrupulous multi nationals who set the playing field for the whole industry. It is simply another form of slave labor. We can all be aghast at the reality of what goes on in other countries, but aren't we better than that in America? Why do we allow corporations to exploit desperate foreigners who will work for pittance and drive down overall wages for Americans? We are talking about our best and brightest American software engineers! The masters. The inventors. H1-B must be completely abolished and restitution paid by companies who have exploited it – which should be in the form of scholarships for American students. Let me be clear – there is no shortage of qualified IT workers in America. That is one of the most ghastly lies ever foisted on the American people. The truth is that we are quietly being sold out.
"We can all be aghast at the reality of what goes on in other countries, but aren't we better than that in America? Why do we allow corporations to exploit desperate foreigners who will work for pittance and drive down overall wages for Americans? " -We are a bunch of consumers in denial about not being 'Americans'. No matter which way you choose to look at this 'country' you still always get homes made to be flipped instead of lived in, lobbyists ruling over voting, a bunk electoral system that is hacked by data mining, predictive analytics with gerrymandering, carcinogens in our air/water/food, people saying things like "the economy is good/bad" instead of "OUR democracy is good/bad", products and services are made to break down and take money instead of work and last while the value of the dollar diminishes each year and we tell our selves to just "Think Positive" in response to things like the rising price of gasoline, as well as a bunch of consumers considering themselves 'American' all with no idea who their congressman is, which congressional district they live in, who makes up their local legislature and no clue what the WTO has to do with out-sourced labor and manufacturing, in addition to things like fast food, TV, and GRUELING traffic as the norms for defining 'American' culture -there is no way all of that can bring any type of longevity, stability, or cohesion w/in the USA. The World Trade Organization is our new master. Quit your bitching, and take it like a consumer 😀 Do you think women in the USA vote and work w/out the suffrage movement? Don't you love it when you hear a woman cut down people who protest? Hilarious. Get back to work!!!! -Oh, I mean: get back to looking for work, consumer!!!!
I've never seen a sentence that long. I tried to grasp it but I can't. What are you suggesting?
I am suggesting to get involved in your local democracies, and be involved in peaceful forms of protests, instead of blogging b.s comments like ours.
Thanks for nothing, Holder.
INFOSYS, HCL America and Cognizant are other companies who would ON PURPOSE not select Non-Indian candidates for 2nd round of interviews.
Better than that, I openly state the fact that INFOSYS has its employees from its Indian Headquarters in India brought up here in the US on VISIT VISAS and these workers are working with DC Government. I ask, where is Department of Homeland Security & Custom & Immigration??
Everyone has turned a blind eye. Here is an open challenge
Please go to the Health & Human Services office in North east block of DC and check if all Indians working over there have actually got ANY WORK PERMITS. There are several in there who are on VISIT VISAS.
AT&T also hires Indians by the boat load…I worked for one division and they all were Indians with degrees that were not even IT related. One Indian worker had a masters in horticulture…plus another worker hired a female Indian so she could have a buddy to hang out with instead of 2 highly skilled American IT workers who I recommended. In the end the Indian female worker was fired because she knew crap.
There isn't a shortage of IT workers in the US…..just a shortage of the willingness of companies to pay fair wages in the US…cheap labor is what its about. In the end its about the MAXIMIZING the shareholder price if stock..NOTHING else
I agree, there isn't a shortage. I worked in I/T for 25 years. Got downsized In 2002 and couldn't get a Job in I/t. Got told by several that they couldn't match my previous salAry. Even though I told them they wouldn't know unless they made me an offer. Still no offer. I finally took jobs doing something entirely different. Too mAny companies overlook good dedicated workers to save a few pennies where in reality they lose.
After reading all comments up to this, I have an impression that there is a shortage of IT workers who bother to read "the [skipped] manual" in the US.
The discussed article is about a very specific case: IBM hired people who soon will be posted in a foreign country. So it advertised a preference for people who have roots there.
This is still against the law – but the situation is far from typical. And very unlikely that US citizen were actually hurt.
Serious BS! I worked with many and they bragged that working here for 5 years would mean they could retire as KINGS in their home country. They obviously were not here to work and be brainwashed in IBM ideals to run a branch in their country. No US citizen hurt? Does unemployment hurt a US worker? Does ending up evicted from their homes because a job was given to a foreign worker, hurt? Are the taxpayers in the US that have to support those not given a job they were qualified for, hurt? Shall I go on? I have millions
Do you just love the RACKET. The government and the lobbyists conspire together to bring in 100,000 H1Bs and layoff American IT workers. The media tells the country that US IT workers aren't nearly as skilled (complete lie, every major technological advancement has come out of the USA). Later after millions of dollars are put in the pockets of the top brass at the corps and in the pockets of the politicians the justice department sues for a few bucks to make it look all good to the ignorant masses.
Isn't Obama's job czar Jeffery Imhelt of GE? Pioneer and father of agile and extreme outsourcing.
Most policies of outsourcing have come from conservative politicians and Top 1%ers.
Democratic politicians are fairly recent converts because they need $$$ from Silicon Valley to compete with Republicans funded by the Top 1%ers and fossil fuel industry.
Whichever way, American high-tech professionals lose.
Does viewing the world through such a simplistic, black & white filter make life easier to understand for you?
Dude, at least the fossil fuel industry hires American workers. I have to laugh at people who lambaste US companies, while they run out to buy the latest doodad from Apple, who makes a far greater % profit than Exxon-Mobil and hires far fewer US workers. It's a problem with out entire corrupt government, not just one party.
We have the best congress that money can buy … on both sides of the aisle. You think these traitors could have brought about these tax policies that favor outsourcing, the the detriment of US workers, without the full participation of both parties?
The penalty phase is very small. Results will be continued high long term unemployment. Long term unemployed will be branded "damaged goods". There's to many companies cheating, lying and stealing. Here's some scripture to clarify.
Rom 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
Luk 18:27 And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.
See you on the other side when the smoke clears.
Spot on Joseph.
Yeah it's about time our government started looking out for us!!!
Yeah, last time I checked the thing that was supposed to make the USA great was the "our" in "our government". Its OUR fault "our" government does not look our for us, because living in a a democracy means taking an ACTIVE, CONSISTENT, COOPERATIVE role in OUR DEMOCRACY; OUR GOVERNEMNT. It is like you have a car, for example, and you are waiting for someone else to drive you where you want to go. Good luck living as a "consumer", and thinking you are an "American". Do you think women have the ability to work and vote because they sat around thinking things like what you just wrote? -Have fun sitting in traffic, updating your facebook site, eating fast food, and telling your self "Think positive" and "Im special", consumer.
What was supposed to make the USA unique and special was the "our" in our government. We are a bunch of 'consumers' while we are not at work, and we are economic units that comprise a 'person' while at work, and that is it. No one take an active, consistent, cooperative role in their local democracies, and then sit in traffic, watch the news instead of real journalism, and obsess on who they think is 'liberal' or 'conservative' then act subversive and abusive towards others different. Good luck, consumer, sitting around talking about "our government" -how can we not have a "1%" when things like fast food, GRUELING traffic, TV, and ignorance are the norms for defining 'American' culture. Yeah, it IS about time "us" started looking our for "our government", instead of waiting for some foreign entity like a multi-national corporation to make an 'investment' in our country. Did women start to work and vote by just sitting around entering useless sad blog comments like ours???? People, get a clue, and get off your LAZY AMERICAN CONSUMER A$$ES. Working hard for a multi-national company and sitting in traffic (which is where most of our adult lives are spent) does not guarantee longevity, stability, and cohesion in the USA.
My Suggestion would be to boycott IBM and it's products. They can have the people they protect and support buy their products. 🙂 Capitalism at its best!!
They will figure out who this will actually benefit in the end.
the US government will never look out for you. There should a major overhaul in the system, and it does not happen unless there is a revolt.
There is no shortage.. ever count how many people have been laid off this last year from IBM, Cisco and others? A shortage? seriously? May of these workers are in their 40s and 50s.. Its also age discrimination.. lets not bs each other.. the fine IBM was hit with is NOTHING.. they needed to add 3 zeros to the end.
It is also racial discrimination by result since many of the older people being let go tend to be white and east Asian.
Of course, the new hires are Indians.
Who cares! What ??? You guys are bixtn because you all are unemployed and do not have a common cubicle-slave area obsess on who you all think is 'liberal', and who you all think is 'conservative', and then how to act subversive and abusive toward others different from your selves! ->That is what the American corporate environment enables and perpetuates: hate, bigotry, and subversive / abusive behaviors while out-sourced labor can do things totally unheard of before in 21st Century 'American' culture: cooperate, tolerate, and train/learn from each other!!! WHOAH -new concepts for y'all. So what? You guys cant work??? Oh well, it's not like you are unemployed and actually know how democracy works. None of the people posting here know what congressional district they live in, who their congressman is, who makes up their local legislature, what the WTO is and what it has to do with out-sourcing labor and the success of Wal-Mart and Target, what all the amendments are, or what social networking and predictive analytics has to do with gerrymandering. You all sit around and take no part of what is supposed to make the USA special and unique -and then you BLAME a foreign entity like IBM for taking over and 'taking advantage' of us -yeah, how can there not be a "1%" when all of us sit around, take no part in keeping track of local legislature, and keep perpetuating EVERY DAY the car culture hell of fast food, traffic, strip malls, homes made to be flipped instead of lived in, more traffic, products and services made to break down and take money (instead of work and last), carcinogens in our food/air/water, no accountability for multinational corporations, and of course -MORE GRUELING TRAFFIC (and who said the USSR was the only place that had bread lines -just get in a car in the USA). We did this to ourselves, and you cant expect a 'government' to fulfill your expectations while you all perpetuate no consistent involvement in your democracy, you all perpetuate bigotry in the workplace, no accountability for multi-national corps, and you all perpetuate archaic 20th Century car culture life styles. Women did not get the right to vote and work by sitting around entering blog comments…
to start, I have not been unemployed for over 25 years. I am actually benefiting from CORP America stupidity, and have consistently repaired broken projects done by low priced employees.
This is all about greed, nothing but. the american worker is was degraded to the level of garbage, IBM is not at fault, someone hires them… and yes, at one point foreign consultants were a hit, just check the consulting boiler rooms in India and China. check what happened to some huge Aerospace company hiring cheap labor. Check your facts bitter boy.
Adam F: do you actually think everyone's comments are directed towards you specifically??? Entering blog comments is a sad joke of a way to think any thing will arise from them (see "suffrage movement"). In any case, I do not understand your bull$h!+ examples, and your other previous comment about a "revolt" is stupid. Yeah, you go do that, fool -the USA is crumbling all by itself. No matter which way you choose to look at this 'country' you still always get homes made to be flipped instead of lived in, lobbyists ruling over voting, a bunk electoral system that is hacked by data mining, predictive analytics with gerrymandering, carcinogens in our air/water/food, people saying things like "the economy is good/bad" instead of "OUR democracy is good/bad", products and services are made to break down and take money instead of work and last while the value of the dollar diminishes each year and we tell our selves to just "Think Positive" in response to things like the rising price of gasoline, as well as a bunch of consumers considering themselves 'American' all with no idea who their congressman is, which congressional district they live in, who makes up their local legislature and no clue what the WTO has to do with out-sourced labor and manufacturing, in addition to things like fast food, TV, and GRUELING traffic as the norms for defining 'American' culture -there is no way all of that can bring any type of longevity, stability, or cohesion w/in the USA -no f*(<ing way. So, good luck with all your bixtn about "all about greed" -the brain is an automatic emulating machine -the momentum with all those factors I just listed will bring closed gated communities, more bigotry and hate and tribal mentalities, and places like Phoenix/Tempe, AZ that cater to people like that bigot Sheriff Joe who creates an environment that caters more to Saudi Arabian and Chinese police-state money, than it does to anything livable or community oriented that would perpetuate and enable a community that resembles anything 'American', or *livable*. I do not need to check my facts, I live in them. You need to check our cryptic ridiculous examples and your English…. -Naaaw, you don't need to check anything, riiiight??? You go ahead with your "revolt", while people from India are able to cooperate, tolerate and train/learn from each other, and so-called 'Americans' obsess on which co-worker is 'liberal' or 'conservative' and then how to act subversive and abusive towards others different and ignore being involved in improving and enabling their own democracy, and then blame IBM for their lack of employment. We do this to ourselves.
dude aaron stop ranting all over this blog. you are showing your idiocy.
on the other hand, the blog is pointing out some very good points, as are many of these posts. thanks for the insight all…(well, most).
Yo, Bored To Tears -who cares!!! Idiocy is thinking these blog comments have any impact to begin with… 😉 Peace.
Bored To Tears: Word to yer mutha! 😉
No surprise anymore.
I used to wait in line at San Jose State University job fair waiting to talk to corporation representative.
Of course, they were looking out for foreign graduate students (read: Indian graduate students), not a U.S. citizen white undergraduate student like myself.
SJSU will have a job fair in a few days, and I am sure I will see the same if I took a look at the job fair.
Its clear that you are not Indian and you hate India. No Indian would talk or do things like you are doing and say it to the world. Get a better life.
My husband is an unemployed engineer and has been unemployment for 11 months now. He has applied for hundreds of jobs, received very few interviews and no one ever gets back to him. Recruiters are useless! I say no more H1-B's until every engineer in the US has a job if they want one. Enough if enough!
IBM is STUFFED with Managers Who like to CONTROL decisions in a manner that benefits them personally rather than in the interest of the project.
They CREATE work out of nowhere and push themselves onto pretty much any client. E.g. they would contract operations support fix bid contract with Wellpoint or EDI for $1 million. When this happens , full time personnel in that place will be laid off. This happens in total connivance with managers at the Client site with IBM managers. Sometimes IBM pushes their own 'consultants' to work as full time staff
with the end client. The managers so hired at e.g. Well point will then be instrumental in
Getting "IBM inside" .
Once IBM "is in". Next step – is to "push their product" as a cheaper replacement
for an existing product. At least that is what is apparently said – but of course their
'inside pull' with the "client" gets the product inside. None of this has a telephone or email trail – its done almost Exclusively over lunch meeting around client site. So initially IBM came there to reduce operational costs for the next 5 years on a fixed bid of $1million and they got another contract for $2 million for their product. This will be at the cost of further layoffs at the client site. Finally there will be a stage – where ENTIRE I.T operations of a client are totally in hands of IBM. I have seen such clients – I.T. totally outsourced to IBM .
Its does not end there – IBM's hiring practices US for consultants are some of the most
debauched . A lot of IBM staff is on visas and the rest of the consultants from US are 'hand picked' by the manager's "toucher magique" . These visa people know their work well ( for the most , but exceptions are easy to spot ) but are at the mercy of managers who control them like dogs on a leash. They'd tell them where to stay , what to eat , how much to spend and what'd be the color of their underpants. I PERSONALLY know of an IBM employee who hadn't a strong background for the kind of work she was doing and I wondered what the connection was with her being there. I worked for another company at that time and they booked us into the same Holiday Inn. I would see her van ride pull up every other night and she 'd be back at 3, sometimes in the manager's Lexus .
A recruiter for a prominent IBM vendor ( these are partner companies that hire consultants for IBM for IBM's end client projects ) told me that IBM managers will collect resumes for formality's sake- they get tossed into shredders 'even before they 'd be received' – if one would say . In reality they dictate the choice of candidate via "pass through recommendations" . These "pass throughs" are based on a personal relationship to the candidate of course , but often times , there is a kickback from the vendor to IBM. Typically for the latter situations the consultants is one who is willing to get horribly low balled on his rate
E.g. market rate for a Filenet / JSP / Struts Java Architect is $90 / hr. The IBM manager will 'choose' a willing candidate who can work at $30 / hr. He'd tell the vendor to collect resumes for this IBM position and ALL THE EXPERIENCE from those resumes is now transferred (== copy pasted ) to that of the novice who's willing to do $30. $40 from billing goes to the IBM manager. IBM charges $120 for him at the client site. Of Course this novice does not know squat about hibernate or Filenet . Since he knows he's zero – his existence on that job depends on shining the managers shoes and the manager likes to take his dog out for walk every morning. It's a nice master pet relationship till it can go on.
At this point most folks will be cussing IBM , ah ..look its those Indian Managers.
But I can tell ya from my personal exp . That is NOT the case . These folks belong to a LOT of other nationalities Chinese , Pakistani's and Bangladeshi's to name a few. So its not just endemic to Indians , though there maybe some Indians.
I am a Java Architect and have been chasing Java and related technologies since Sun came out with their 1st JDK. I worked for 5 years with SUN on their openoffice project and totally I have 13+ yrs as freelance I.T consultant.
If I get requirements for my work related stuff in VA NJ or some similar East Coast place – I first ask – is this an IBM project. " Not interested" . I am very selective about whom I give my resume – making sure that my experience does not get copied at the behest of some IBM manager to another novice.
Anonymity is a wonderful thing – its perhaps the only tool that helps you to defend the 1st Amendment. And I will invoke it one last time again in this write up by naming some names.
Where opportunity is precious , cartelling will be laid law. These guys from pak can't do anything but join the army ,play that Brittie game – Cricket or sit in some madarassa with a year long unshaven beard in their country -thinking where to throw their next rockets – Israel , Afghanistan or India . I don't think it's the exact .same case with places like maybe Philippines or India. Just to clarify – I am not against an specific ethnicity of people. My point lies in asking this question " If they did'nt secure their jobs without such predatory , aggressive and outright scumbag fraudulent methods they used , where would they be ?" If the answer is "In Hell" ,then you see how much more valuable the opportunity is for them. And why should you be surprised if they've found ways to pay the cost of keeping that job, because there aren't too many options around.
( does that mean you have to create opportunities for them in their country so they don't do this ? Well then Ted Bundy too shouldn't be executed. He should have received full psychological counseling, supportive treatment, better parental care and rehab so he does not kill the next girl on the street )
65000??? There are 65000 right here in Hartford.
It is about time but to little to late. They have lied for years about the US not having the skilled IT workers it needed. 44K is not a penalty to IBM they will just lay off another employee to pay the 'fine'.
Correct, and it will be an AMERICAN worker!
The whole intent of H1B visa quotas is being misused by 'big' Indian IT consulting firms like Tata, Infosys, Wipros and other big firms like the sorts of IBM. The fine is minuscule and it does not do anything. For example, these people can do the same wrong thing for 1000 times and still doesn't matter.
The sad thing is since these companies suck up the quota of 65K, it makes it impossible for US innovative companies to get good qualified candidates. Moreover, the candidates who consume the H1s by Indian IT and IBM's of the world is of mediocre quality.
These things are not in the limelight of our law makers since it does not affect millions. But if the US wants to lead innovation, it is better to look into – give priorities to people who study in US(foreign nationals), then to small to mid companies, scrutinize the big ones for booking large amounts of H1s. In addition, the secondary effect of these bookings also supported by big banks, and other big big companies.
Who cares about US Citizens? I would fire all US citizens and I would replace them with my homies.
It doesn't matter if my homies are clueless. I get something from Tata or Cognizant whenever I take out a US Citizen!!!
You think you can stop us? Ha! Losers!!!
That's pretty much the amount I will owe by the time I graduate from college.
No H1 B visa to any country unless we have less than 2% unemployment in USA, our US citizen are Unemployed and they keep hiring foreigners, why not train the US citizen and legal immigrants and give them US jobs. why all these bastard company need to hire foreigners when US citizen are available.
Too little too late. A lot of companies do this and it's not because they get better IT workers or there is a shortage, but to save money. I think we need to rethink H1B visas and lobbying in general. It seems to me that management a American based companies need to reassess their priorities.
It is not just IBM. It is entire corporate America. They are just way too greedy.
The sad part is that Federal and State govt. are outsourcing most jobs indirectly. They award contracts worth billions to likes of IBM. Who then hire ONLY non US citizens.
You forgot to add and get huge tax breaks from the states.
I've been commenting on this trend for years. I am a Fed contractor working in IT. I am dumbfounded at the number of 1st generation foreigners we have working in our Federal IT space these days. I've seen the influx over the past 18 years, ever since Clinton. We're talking national security systems, systems that process our government finances, IRS systems loaded with Personally Identifiably Information (PII), control systems, etc., etc. All of these are being designed, operated, and maintained by H1-B visa holders.
Anyone who claims there is a shortage of IT professionals of US descent is lying, outright lying, to us. It's all about the money. Experienced American IT folks expect to earn between $60K – $90K for most positions; H1-B visa holders will do the same jobs for about $35K – $55K. Companies know this, then lobby the pols to loosen the restrictions so that they can save even more in payroll expenses. This is treason in my opinion.
I am going to play the devil's advocate here. Did anyone notice the comment that most of these jobs were slated to be sent overseas, probably back to their own country? These individuals are already bilingual unlike most Americans. To me, it sounds like a smart business move and maybe not nefariously intended to discriminate against US citizens due to wages. I am a firm believer in capitalism that is controlled by ethics and the welfare of its citizens. That does not mean making bad business decisions and policies because an American will be out of a job. Before we condemn IBM, may need to look at the motivation for their actions.
Their motivation is 'Greed'. Those overseas are not held to the same high standard that US workers have been. Meaning if a US worker screws up they are fired. If an overseas worker screws up it is overlooked and the US worker whose job is to handle them, is fired instead. You would be hard pressed to find an overseas worker that would even come close to the work ethic of the US workers. They have no concept of a deadline.
The fine of $44K is absurd! To a company like IBM this is not even worth talking about.
The DOJ is worthless if this is what they consider enforcement of our laws on anti-discrimination.
There are plenty of qualified tech workers in the U.S.
These corporations are stealing jobs and money from the American people and Congress is letting them.
This 'fine' is a joke. $44,400 is about the difference in annual pay rate for one H1b contractor vs. one American citizen contractor. So IBM saved roughly this much on every immigrant contractor they hired. Not only is this not even a slap on the wrist (more like a wagging finger that says "shame on you") but it's a fraction of the money they saved, given how many contractors they hire.
I'd pay that fine every week for the ability to save that amount annually over each of 1000 contractors (even 100), and I'd write it off as a business 'recruiting' expense, and grin as I did it too.
Only $44,400 in fines?!?!? WTF? These are AMERICAN jobs we are talking about.
IBM (who I've worked for before) is strictly trying to increase profits by hiring Indians at
a cheaper rate. THUS…increasing the amount of profits, and THEREFORE generating larger
bonueses for the top brass. That's br ASS! The small amout of the fine further seems to support
that there are Congressmen involved in kickbacks. As Gomer would say: "surprise, surprise, surprise"!!
How does a fine paid by IBM to the US Government begin to compensate Americans who should have been hired by IBM but were not?
People spell check, please! I'm trying to follow the posts here and get what seems to be valuable information. Please read over what you write before you hit that Post button.
Over twenty years ago Sun was doing this when working there. Have seen it with all the big companies over the years.
Enterprising programmers might develop a website putting a little sunlight on the numbers of H-1B being "slaved" by the corporates and how many Americans have been displaced. Not that shame would change our corrupt Congress or Corporations, but at least a bookmark could be placed at this sad chapter in the history of our Country.
A home for the stats and stories could be a good backdrop showing how corporate priorities have destroyed the hard working trained American engineer.
How about the L visas that IBM has used for a while?
Infosys, HCL, Tata, and Cognizant need to be investigated by the USA. The US must close the service that delivered visas in India.
The fine is laughable. IBM got that money back by placing one unqualified Offshore candidate in a job that required the skills of an American. I used to take pride in owning IBM stock. When I was a Cub Programmer, they were the Gold Standard with their wingtips, white shirts and dark suits. Now they supply the cheapest talent in the world maybe but certainly no longer the best.
you don't cheat on your wife, you rape your wife and any other women you and your buddies have the chance to, it's the Indian way!
This is one of the worst part here in America. First is first, American should be able to get a job first than any other one in America. Look at the Europe, they take their citizen first, this is how it should work.
(slap on the wrist)
now, you're not going to do this again, right? (wink-wink)
of course not that would be wrong (wink-wink)
and we're a 'Responsible Corporate Citizen'
Come ON! They are telling us the US doesn't have enough tekkies?? It's all about profit, and nobody cares if Americans have jobs, and they won't until their neighbors are all homeless, their kids schools have no books! IBM paying a whopping 44K You have got to be kidding! That is not a fine, or even a slap on the wrist! They saved more than that in salaries ! The question is , what idiot wrote the ad? Was he from India on an H1B?
This is just a slap on the hand for a big bully who puts itself above any laws. There might be a shortage of skilled IT people in this country but if that's true(which I doubt) it was created because the jobs left the country. Why would a kid want to get a CS degree when he/she knows they would have to go to India to get a job? It's too late to rectify the situation these fat cats(facebook,google,ms,ibm etc) have persuaded(with lots of money) their crooked brothers in congress that all Americans are morons or that designing good systems can't be done without Indians.
I talked to a guy from the Middle East about his salary. He only made minimum wage as a IT tech for United Airlines. If this what companies like IBM are up to. They need to be put on front street and expose for not hiring domestically. You have to spend money to make money.
The practices that being followed by large corporations are bleeding this country with a thousand cuts. Are economy can be strengthened by first eliminating these one sided trade agreements. Putting tarrifs on incoming goods and services would encourage businesses to move there operations back to the United States. Contact your representatives and encourage them to put America first.
Duh. Those of us working in the software field have been aware of this for a long time. I've been told flat out that I have to lower my contract rate to compete with H1Bs. One place I worked recently actually purposely kept their code dumbed-down so they could keep hire H1Bs to maintain it. I was told this by a manager when I offered to refactor some truly horrible code.
Back in 2009, I saw a posting for a job that was completely perfect for me. I had everything in the job description and it was even located right in my town. I sent my resume and never even got a response. The job posting had that little notice about how it was a mandatory posting because of having an H1B they wanted to hire. By law, they should have at least brought me in for an interview. This goes on all the time.
I always find it strange that the only contract agencies I ever hear from with regards to IBM are Indian agencies. It's kind of funny, because I get a lot of calls from these guys because my first name is actually quite similar to Indian names. It's kind of funny how those guys always have that weird pause when they first speak to me and realize I'm not Indian.
The H1B program needs to be severely restricted. We have high unemployment here – granted, not as high in the IT fields as in others – but we still don't need to be bringing in foreign workers when US citizens are unemployed. The fine for IBM here is laughable. Nothing will change the practices at these companies until the penalties for doing so are substantial enough. I guess all we can do is keep reporting incidents and pushing our politicians to actually help us citizens for a change.
It is time to get rid of the HI-B program completely. It is a bad idea and does not serve any useful purpose. Companies will keep pushing the envelope to see how many parts of the law they can circumvent. When American citizens graduating from college and military veterans can get hired then it deserves to be reconsidered.
IBM should be punished more severely. Like penalties to every person whose job was shipped over seas and 44k per H1B lie. H1-B program is corporate terrorism endorsed by congress. Wipro and the Indian firms, all telecoms, Big IT and Accounting are all sending our jobs overseas or brining our replacements here.
End the Democrat/Republican Lie. End H1-Bs and offshoring.
That's good, maybe they will hire me now 🙂
Even if they did I hire me I don't think I would take it. I've never heard anything good about working for them.
Companies that consistently import 'cheap' engineers despite availability of U.S born engineers should not be allowed to continue killing American jobs. Shame on IBM!
Case in point. I was in Costco last week and I thought I was in Bombay or Calcutta! How does companies explain why there is such a concentration of foreign engineers in one place? There are plenty of qualified Americans needing jobs in Silicon Valley.
What should happen is that the CEO, president, all the way down, should be tried for treason. Upon conviction they would be sentenced to 100 years at hard labor. Then take them to the gravel pit where they will dig holes for the rest of their lives. These are parasites on the American body. They need to be eliminated like a bad skin lesion.
Wow a little over $44,000 and jumping through a few minor hoops, such a penalty. At least ding them for $1million per incident if you want them to feel the pea they are sitting on. Government, good at penalizing Joe blow but corporations get joke fines.
There are hundreds of companies bringing people to pay less salaries. Many of these companies have offshore development centers abroad and bring resources to fill US jobs. HR have been specifically told to recruit from offshore because of less salaries. Excuse given – these resources are already in the project and there is no training cost. I pity the US citizens who have high student loans and cannot make ends meet. All the money saved is paid to CEOs as BONUS!
The penalty is a slap on the wrist. Maybe IBM didn't funnel enough money to the Democrats. Now when are they going to go after other abusers, such as…
Price Waterhouse Coopers
Tata Consultancy
Computer Sciences Corp
I'm sure I've missed many other worthy organizations. Feel free to add your favorites.
A former co-worker who is now at Cognizant tells me that they use US green card sponsorship as a recruitment / retention tool. They say they are one of the top green card sponsors.
When was the last time you spoke with an American Recruiter? Been years for me.
Of course IBM is cheating. They're just the tip of the iceberg. I can guarantee ALL of the big IT consulting firms are doing the same thing. I know people who, as employee, were let go, only to be replaced by an H1B visa holder contractor doing the same job. Deloitte and Accenture and on and on. Don't even get me started with the mid-tier contracting companies.
Nothing new here, this has been going on for years. The Indian companies train them well, pay them nothing, then let them come over here, where they roost 3 and 4 to an apt (to save up their money) and get american work experience. American companies don't train, haven't in years, then complain (falsely) that they can't fine qualified personnel. Truth is they can't find qualified personnel who will work cheap, so they raise this cry to keep the doors open to H1-B programmers. If we ever shut the doorsto H1-B there will be screaming in the executive suites and cheers from the programming and other low level sections.
This is ludicrous. IBM can come up with this fine by checking the cushions of the boardroom couch.
H1-B needs to get a lot more stringent. Before being allowed to even apply for an H1-B, the company should have to prove, to someone with the technical skill and field knowledge to know, that they widely advertised a position with skillset requirements reasonably related to the job, and a salary commensurate with the skills needed. They also should have to show that they made a diligent search for qualified American applicants.
H1-B is for times when there genuinely is no American worker available with the required skillset. Not because you don't want to pay American wages or you want someone you can drive harder because they risk losing their visa if they leave the position.
i am a us citizen indian and very well qualified one at that, yet indian agencies that hire h1b visa will take my resume but they will modify it to show there is no talent and hire their buddies and get kick backs.. they get longer kick backs on fees due to moving ppl thru project and they handle their visas.. so those one visa have no choice but to hang in there for 3-5 yrs until they get their visa processed. mean while these consulting agencies extort their talent and livelihood.
its all americans of every race getting shafted by these fs..
There are plenty of skilled American engineers out of job. The truth is that Indians hire Indians and that is how all Silicon Valley major corporation have turned into Indian shops. They discriminate on hiring and on promotion and that is a known fact shared by many non-Indians.
What about nearly all the companies posting a job opening "NO H1B ONLY US CITIZENS". Is this not discrimination? Which US court is going to take action on this. There should be no preference when it comes to H1B or US citizen company should recruit based on the talent.
Given the size of the penalty, it looks like the Department of Justice if giving IBM the OK to continue – in fact they could probably pay $44.4K monthly and still come out ahead..
Now that I think about it, probably could pay $44.4 daily.
Although I'm sympathetic, I have to play Devil's Advocate. I'm in IT and spent over 3 years unemployed, so I feel your pain. But – switching to my economist's hat! – the markets in all kinds of goods and services continue to evolve into global markets.
As a consumer, I didn't shed too many tears for relatively overpaid U.S. steelworkers in the 70's with the emergence of workers in other parts of the world willing to offer steelmakers (and consumers) a better deal on steel-producing services. Same for the auto market, where worldwide competition has given us the best cars (and arguably the best values) ever. Competitive markets benefit consumers. Calls to limit work visas are equivalent to calls to impose import quotas.
This is not to say that IBM (and others) might not be "penny-wise and pound-foolish," but, like it or not, we in the IT field are facing competition from people on other parts of this planet, living on the other sides of arbitrarily-drawn political boundaries. We have competition to face, just like other industries do. Each of us is a "one-person firm" marketing our services to a pool of IT-service-buying customers, and we may have to reduce our margins to meet competition.
It was fun while it lasted. 😉 America has a good work ethic, and I think most of us can meet the competition. (Others may be gently nudged by the Invisible Hand into an occupation more suitable for their talents.) But crying out for protectionism will hurt everyone in the long run.
"As a consumer, I didn't shed too many tears for relatively overpaid U.S. steelworkers in the 70′s with the emergence of workers in other parts of the world willing to offer steelmakers (and consumers) a better deal on steel-producing services."
Good for you.
I've never understood this hyper-libertarian mode of thinking. The "market" isn't some type of god we must unquestioningly serve. It is a tool. Like any tool, we should use it where it works and find some other tool where it does not. Quality of life, not "the market at all costs", should be the ultimate goal.
If the "invisible hand" is slapping us, we have every right to make it stop.
"Good for you."
The point of my observation is that if you as a consumer have enjoyed the benefits of global trade, you can't consistently criticize global trade when it comes to your own industry. Need I rephrase? "Consumers didn't shed too many tears for steelworkers over the better deals they found on products made from steel."
"… we should use [the market] where it works and find some other tool where it does not".
And who decides where it works or does not — or what "works" means? I suspect IBM and other IT-service consumers might answer that question differently than you.
"Quality of life, not "the market at all costs", should be the ultimate goal"
You're presupposing that these are different things … as well as imposing a value judgment.
"I've never understood this hyper-libertarian mode of thinking."
It's not complex; it's simple: Using force or fraud against others to achieve your goals is unacceptable in a nation with the U.S.'s founding principles. Using the force of law to restrict or compel others' actions is aggression.
All this does is give IBM a dollar amount to include in their budget for each project – and if that project doesn't get caught out they can award the $44k to the projects' executive sponsor. This "penalty" is an insult.
Another company Teradata did the same! All the US company did the same to their global resource.
The india people is now all around the Western countries.
I am US citizen and working with IBM as contracter from last 6 months and they extend my contract month on basis and when I asked my manager what is going on here then he told me that they are planning to bring guy from India who works with me in team. He does not have any technical skills. So, I would say they should stop H1b.
IBM and all others IT companies has been doing from so many years. I do not thinks so any body will stop them to favour h1b.
Bring all h1 cap to US without their spouse with no renewal of the H1 visa. How about that?
Many H1 cap go to India and get married, bring their wife to US on H4 visa and convert it into H1 visa. That fucked up one more American Job.
I know one of the guy whose wife on H4 visa, went to for interview, she got selected and then converted h4 to h1 visa , and started job as java developer, i fell strange….
Shortage of qualified techs? Seriously, who believes that amist the high employment rate we're seeing…really? They bring in foreigners so they can underpay them, saving themselves money and usually getting less than stellar quality (not always the case but it is more times than not), due to language barriers and lack of understanding. Try hiring Americans and start showing more pride in your country and your fellow countrymen!!! Stop the corporate greed and hogwash.
The H1B program is abused by all corporations. The program is supposed to bring in highly skilled people. Developers, analysts, programmers are not rocket scientists. There are thousands of unemployed IT workers whose jobs were outsourced who can do this type of work. The H1B program is used to bring in cheap labor. When the company I worked for was outsourcing us, there were H1Bs all over the place. One guy that I had to work with had just graduated from college six months before. You can imagine how highly skilled he was but he came in on the H1B program.
Make IBM and other similar policy abusers pay the H1B Visa holders the $100K+ salaries that the jobs are really worth. I'll bet suddenly, they will start finding a lot more qualified staff who are already here.
IBM has called 10-12 consultants in past and asked employes including girls to work more than 16-17 hrs a day with weekends on Business Visa continuously for more than 2 months.
Its highly frustrating and there is no HR in this company to whom employee can reach . If employee says no they give bad rating saying there is business loss. I have seen those employees frustration so thought of posting it.
Its fortunate now due to immigration reform now these company can not exploit employees.
But a question in such condition what are guidelines for employee.
IBM has been pulling this crap for decades! Hello! to states that gave them incentives, it was a bunch of BS. Just a game as they quietly ship jobs over seas in the smallest amounts so they do not have to report it and lay off Americans after training their overseas replacements and still get state subsidies, with their smoke and mirrors. Guidelines for employees are train your replacement and get the hell out!


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|Dec. 7, 2011
Fort Wayne Philharmonic to Perform Annual Holiday Concert
The Fort Wayne Philharmonic will bring Holiday Pops to Wabash Wed., Dec. 21 at 7:30 p.m. The show is sponsored by First Farmers Bank & Trust.
The Fort Wayne Philharmonic annual Holiday Pops program brings the joy of the holiday season to every generation by performing traditional holiday standards along with newer musical traditions. The whimsical side of the holiday season is wonderfully showcased as they bring to life holiday favorites such as "Deck the Halls," "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," and favorites from The Nutcracker. The entire family will enjoy these holiday favorites along with an audience sing-a-long.
All tickets are $15, and may be purchased at the Honeywell Center box office from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, by calling (260) 563-1102 or visiting www.honeywellcenter.org.


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TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Florida A&M University has canceled summer band camp and plans to suspend other student clubs while it comes up with an anti-hazing plan.
Breyon Love, head of the Student Government Association, said he supports the decision by James Ammons, president of the Tallahassee university, CNN reported.
"Our top priority is the health, safety and well being of students," Ammons said. "We are convening a panel of experts and outstanding thinkers to provide advice and recommendations on the operation of student organizations. Before we enter into a new student intake process, we should have the benefit of the work coming from the committees and the investigations."
Police are investigating the death of Robert Champion, a drum major who collapsed while the band was in Orlando. Some students have said he was subjected to a hazing ritual that involved running a gauntlet of other students while getting from the front to the back of a bus.
Four band members have been charged with another alleged hazing incident.


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New York Giants: My Favorite To Win 2009 NFCJune 3, 2009
There is no reason why the Giants can't run the show in the NFC, with a new and improved defense resembling the Super Bowl 42 squad, and a well run offense that can be very productive and score in the red zone.
This offense will be stellar for several reasons, their offensive line is going to have another great year. They were great for pass blocking and helping their running backs to reach 1,000 yards each.
The Giants receiver core has great depth this year. They are boasting Steve Smith, who has the most experience and reps in the group. He can be a standout receiver if he can stay healthy. Next, you have Domenik Hixon who had some spectacular plays against the Cleveland Browns in the pre-season last year, and had a couple of good games this past season.
Then they have the sensational rookie Hakeem Nicks. He will be a huge factor this year, he looks like a kid that can really play. Everybody raves about his catching skills. To be a success and contribute to his team, Nicks needs to have a good year.
Finally, you have Ramses Barden, who is the closest thing to a Plaxico type of player. Sinorice Moss and Mario Manningham have been taken out by injuries, so we are going to have to wait and see if they can contribute. Also, Kevin Boss will be boosting the receiver position for the Giants with his size, helping the offensive line and creating confusion regarding match ups.
Eli Manning is getting better each year by being a quarterback who doesn't throw tons of interceptions or have a bad completion percentage. This past year, Eli jumped from 56.1 pct to 60.3 pct. As for interceptions, he cut his number in half from 20 to 10. That's exactly what Eli needs to do to become a top quarterback in the NFL.
When they say defense wins championships, you should look to the 2007 New York Giants' defense to see if it's true. I believe this year's defense can be as good or even better than the '07 defense.
If you take one look at our defensive line this year and their line from two years ago, they have one thing in common, depth. The new guys in the rotation like Chris Canty and Rocky Bernard should have a huge impact on the defensive line. They will join Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora, Barry Cofield, Fred Robbins, Dave Tollefson, and Jay Alford. In my mind, the Giants will be "ballin" a lot this year.
Next, the linebackers are going to be lead by veteran Antonio Pierce. He had some distractions last year, but should bounce back this year, because he is the heart beat of the defense. With Steve Spagnuolo gone, Pierce has to be the man and step up.
Along side of him will be newly acquired Michael Boley, who will help the outside linebackers with the experience he brings with him. Also, we have Clint Sintim, who the Giants just drafted. He will join the competition for the starting spot with Danny Clark. Clint looks like a hard nose player who would hit his own mother if she had the ball. Mathias Kiwanuka will be in the mix for OLB/DE. It seems this poor guy can't stay in one position for more than a year.
Finally, we have the secondary which should improve from last year. At the corner back position, with his experience and skills, Aaron Ross is becoming a shutdown player. He is a good player because he has a great football IQ. Across the field his partner is Corey Webster, who came off a good season with the Giants. He could have another good one this year. Also, Kevin Dockery will be filtering into the team.
As we see the 2009 New York Giants on paper, there should be no question why they can't be the best team in the NFC.
Also, a quick stat for Giants fans, the final four playoff teams we beat in regular season were: Arizona Cardinals(37-29), Philadelphia Eagles(36-31), Baltimore Ravens(30-10), and finally the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers(21-14).


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DEFINITION of 'Private Conduit'
A governmental or private entity that pools mortgages and other loans. The entity will then issue pass- or pay-through securities in its own name, as a private conduit to investors. Many private conduits are now backed by mortgages, credit card receivables and other loans.
BREAKING DOWN 'Private Conduit'
These conduits enable banks and thrifts to more easily sell their loans to investors in the secondary market. This is because smaller lenders are not restricted by the size of the pool or limitations on eligibility. GNMA and FHLMC offered the first private conduits.


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Bill Fwrote a review of Patagonia Fitz Roy Hooded Down Jacket - Men's on February 7, 2012
Not The Right Jacket For Me
As a Patagonia loyalist, I ordered the Fitz Roy in a medium as I was told the fit was going to be similar to Das Parka which Med fit great. The medium ran a bit smaller than Das Parka and was way too small on me (I am 5'9" 195lbs / Barrel chested). I found a Large which fit like a damn sleeping bag. I ended up returning for a Large Rab Neutrino Endurance which I love.
I'm giving three stars because the fit was poor and for the same money I'm much happier with the Rab.
Fitz Roy
Pros: SUPER light, Very Warm, great hand warmer pockets
Cons: Bad fit for my body type, Outer material easily subjected to rips and tears, Not water resistant in case I get caught in a light rain / snow
For the same money the Rab had a slightly tougher exterior that repels water, taped zippers, better fit, better colors. Beware, the Rab is a little heavier and bulkier if you're pinching grams.


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Don't forget, you can send your confidential questions, feedback about the show, and requests for girly cards to firstname.lastname@example.com. (Episode 345, June 20, 2008)
Explicit Language Warning: You must be 18 years or older to purchase this program.
Add your two cents! Visit Susie's blog and talk about this episode and much, much more!
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Connie Danielson #487!!
Spring is here, well for the most part! I am so happy that the sun will soon be shining more and more around here. We certainly NEED it! With spring comes Easter, yay 🙂 What better way to celebrate Easter and spring, then with Jelly Belly! YUM 🙂
Jelly Belly is the world's leading gourmet jelly bean, and they're amazing line of products and gifts are pretty awesome too! You see, Jelly Belly not only makes delicious jelly beans they also make some pretty cool products.
I received some cool products from Jelly Belly. We got a box of Jelly Bellys, Pencils, Notepad, pencil purse case and the ever-so-awesome Manuel Ice Shaver machine! Mmmmmmmm!
The Ice Shaver is really cool and my kids loved eating up the delicious ice treats! It is best to use with whole pieces of ice, as it shaves better. You simply put a little cup (or just use the blue cups it comes with like we did) under the machine and turn the handle until it is completely twisted down or until you have enough ice in your cup. Then you simply pour some of the syrup over the ice and there ya go! I used ice that was already crushed so when it shaved the ice, it did not do it as well. But, the kids enjoyed these! Also wanted to say, it would be nice if there was a little handle on the machine somewhere, so when you are twisted the handle, you have a comfy place to hold onto so the machine does not go everywhere. It also does not feel that strong to me, like it could break easily. Other than that, it is a fun little machine. This will definitely be used during the hot summer months!
Jelly Belly also has bubbles, stationary, ear buds, scented rubber iphone case, giant bubble wand and MORE!! Great well-known brand and love the products.
Jelly Belly products are available at retailers nationwide as well as on Amazon.com and are available in a multitude of your favorite flavors and scents
One person is going to win Jelly Belly bubbles and stationary!!
Easy! Just use Rafflecopter below! There are no mandatory entries, you can do one or all. Good luck!
I was sent products to review, these are my own, honest opinions, thanks 🙂
a Rafflecopter giveaway


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Thorough study of our partners business processes allows us to optimize them prior to designing the systems. This way our solutions are highly efficient and perfectly match all requirements.
Imagine a world, where everyone has access
to unlimited creativity,
where everyone contributes, develops and builds it's benefits.
We deeply believe in that vision.
Thorough study of our partners business processes allows us to optimize them prior to designing the systems. This way our solutions are highly efficient and perfectly match all requirements.
Appealing visuals in conjunction with highest level of functionality and on-the-go verification with our partners result in products that are intuitive and easy to use.
We practise tested and efficient solutions. This makes the duration of development cycle shorter and also reduces costs of product's maintenance.
HolonGlobe™ is owned by Training Games. Find out more.
+48 509 236 625
Aleja Niepodległości 809A
81-810 Sopot
HolonGlobe™ is owned by Traning Games Sp.z o.o.
We believe that the most effective way of learning is learning by having fun. We have created an array of modern business games that educate, inspire and entertain.
Based on a project by the Highlight/Inaczej Foundation, we created a tool for managing social campaigns for Tesco. Our solution allows pupils to play games which promote a healthy diet and lifestyle.
A Swedish consulting firm approached us with the task of creating a HR management platform for mid-size companies. It enables efficient flow of information and automation of selected processes. The system is distributed in Scandinavia as an e-commerce service.
Created for one of Poland's leading companies in the business of real estate valuation, Stima is an advanced system which facilitates highly complex tasks of real estate appraisers. Automation of processes along with integrated mobile application saves up to 60% of time devoted to the completion of each assignment.
Grywalizeo is the first Polish platform supporting gamification in education. It provides an easy way for teachers and academics to execute thier lectures as well as allowing students to keep track of their grades and view educational content.
Complimentii is a social network designed especially for exchanging compliments, either with friends or strangers. The development of this project involved creating a web-based service, as well as mobile applications for Android and iOS.
Like Stima, Novus is an advanced system for managing property valuation and vehicle insurance claims orders. Novus works with Stima via real time automated data exchange functions as well as with all major banks in Poland.
Managment system
eSołtys is an application dedicated for communities wanting to improve communication between the commune office and it's village leaders. The platform enables both office workers and village leaders to share documents with eachother and manage the local budget.
Flatinfo is a group of companies that manages luxury serviced apartment rentals in prime locations, real estate trading, interior design and construction. The project required integration with an online reservation engine and an intuitive layout for each company's website.


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My Nonprofit Reviews
Viola May
Review for Comfort For America's Uniformed Services, Fairfax, VA, USA
I have been a member of the CAUSE team for over three years. It is through this incredible organization that we are able to provide massage and reiki therapy sessions to our soldiers-in-transition (STs) at the Fort Hood Warrior Transition Brigade. The STs love their sessions and are always grateful that these services are provided. Providing comfort to these men and women who have served Our Great Nation means the world to me.
I am grateful that CAUSE provides these wonderful services.
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Very Well
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Pirate Adventure Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle
Help these pirates continue on their journey by putting together the Pirate Adventure Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle from Melissa & Doug! They will thank you when you put the 48 pieces together in the included, solid wood frame. A friendly green parrot hovers above this high-color, high-energy scene of crashing waves, busy pirates, as well as a sea monster that spans the length of the entire ship! Enjoy a high seas expedition anytime with this jigsaw puzzle.
From Melissa & Doug |
Item # 3800 MD
- Price:
- $9.95
- Customer Reviews:
- Currently 0/5 Stars.
- Recommended Age:
- 3 years and up
- Availability:
- In stock (guaranteed)
- Available for pre-order
- Temporarily out of stock
- Usually Ships:
- within 24 hours
- Features 48 inter-locking wooden pieces and puzzle tray
- Constructed of solid wood in a pirate theme
- Measures 15.75"Lx11.75"H
Developmental BenefitsLearn more
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Average Rating
- Currently 0/5 Stars.


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SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA – (Oct. 31, 2003) – Video Action Sports, the largest distributor of action sports videos and DVDs, has changed their name and moved to a new address. The 14-year-old company will now be called VAS Entertainment and has moved into a brand new, custom built 23,000 square foot facility just down the road from their previous location in San Luis Obispo.
"Our enormous growth over the past two years demanded change. Our need for a larger and improved facility was not only necessary to house more product and employees, but to facilitate our growing number of services we offer producers and retailers. At the same time, we saw the chance to graduate to a more appropriate and less limiting name that more accurately reflected our business plans" said Scot Burns, marketing director of VAS Entertainment. Additionally, we wanted to get away from the word "video" since it is becoming somewhat antiquated and we pride ourselves on being a company that embraces cutting edge technology."
The new 23,000 square foot facility will allow for VAS' entire inventory to be warehoused and staged under one roof. "Our previous location had three separate warehouses that made it difficult to work efficiently. Everyday we were having to stage product in the most awkward locations just to accommodate the next delivery," said Burns. The energy efficient office portion features an indoor 30-foot climbing wall, a full-service kitchen facility and 6 DVD authoring bays.
Accompanying the new name comes a new look. The new VAS Entertainment logo is reflective of the classic Hollywood image the major studios portray. "If you've ever met our President and founder, you know he is a classic guy that appreciates the 'old school'. We feel that our new logo communicates these principles along with making a strong, bold statement," said Burns.
VAS Entertainment is the leading distributor of action sports DVDs and videos in the world. VAS works with over 800 producers, carries over 3,000 different titles that cover 43 different sports and activities. In addition to distribution, VAS offers producers DVD authoring, creative and production services. VAS sells to both the US and abroad to sports retailers and sporting goods stores across the country and to a network of distributors who make the videos available in Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South America.
211 Tank Farm Road
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401