Paraphrenitis Blog

Hair loss in males affects just about 10 million in the UK, the most common sort of hair loss is genetic male pattern baldness. The hair loss could develop as very early as 18 and develop emotional distress.

Male pattern baldness is frequently hereditary and might often affect lads as well as ladies. The loss of hair appears due to the hair follicles on the scalp getting smaller and the hair falling out and not returning. Baldness ordinarily follows a hair loss pattern around the hair line and additionally at the middle of your head. For the best hair growth techiniques visit Advanced Hair Studio and get back your confidence.

Losing hair is not a virus and does not affect your actual health, although your emotional health may become affected through depression.

There are three sensational primary treatment methods for hair loss, Minoxidil, Finasteride and Strand by Strand from Advanced Hair Studio, aka AHS. The very first prime male pattern baldness treatment is a topical lotion that goes on the head and can be bought from online pharmacies. Minoxidil works by reducing the speed of baldness, simply astonishing. Finasteride works through blocking the conversion of the hair loss hormone. The astonishing Strand by Strand hair regrowth method from Advanced Hair Studio uses the most current baldness technology and involves new hair regrowth appearing on the scalp strand by strand over time. With both the Minoxidil and Finasteride treatments they need to be regularly used for the hair growth effects to continue working.

Link up two of men’s predominant pursuits and you’ve got is something normally named a web based sportsbook. Really now – what could possibly be more ingenious… Envision a mix of sports maniacs clapping in support of any given home players, and always stakes will be established to complement the noise. Enthusiastic to catch more of the action, bystanders recurrently strive to estimate who is the likeliest to win in the impending fight. All this evolves into a chummy little fight termed web based sportsbook.

Admittedly it may easily sound overwhelming, however, sportsbook wagering is really merely entertaining and to tie up with fellow sports fanatics. You can wager a any minute amount of chips and nonetheless enjoy a ultra cool time. Furthermore, here are a small number of basics to get started sportsbook wagering.

If you want to place any bet, we would advise you check out a web based sportsbook, that’s to say a place which accepts web based sportsbook. In the U.S.A., you have no less than four states to do sportsbook wagering absolutely legally, but inofficially you may attempt it everywhere provided that you can find a bookie and if you’re legally an adult. Included in the sports events you’ll be able to wager on are pro including, additionally, college basketball and football, professional baseball and hockey, including, additionally, bets on both horse and dog racing. Customers may choose to risk money on the global score of a competition, at which point a given party will be defeated, and even whether a coin toss in a competition will come down heads or tails.

The betting outfit place their trust pure statistics to assist you judge which players you suppose is the likeliest to win. To start with, we have the spread, which is a points leverage pertaining to a weaker club assumed to be defeated by X number points. Evidently, this comprises the sportsbook company’s method of making objective bets possible for a Sportsbook. As an example, you could bet money on a contestor assumed to be defeated and and nonetheless profit from the wager provided that the club is defeated by X number of points.

We can opt for numerous genres of antes, the straight bets, where you merely choose the team which you feel will prevail or fail being the best known in sportsbook wagering.

Well, why not have a crack at it, and enjoy the recreation at one fell swoop… But take pains to ensure that you won’t get unduly carried away and deplete your entire pension plan on a vagary. If not, could be you will be caught contrite for the rest of your life.

Become the player you dream of! Practice your online sport betting site skills here.

Our apartment is located in the historical center of Florence very close to the Dome, 5 minutes walking from the Ponte Vecchio e adjacent to the Santa Croce Church.

Stay in our apartment means to be in the center of one of the best cities in the world. All what you need is close to you: a very close parking, a big and cheap supermarket, internet point, post office, banks, a lot of restaurants and pizzerie, pub and fun.
The city is in your hands !

Restored on 2007, it’s a 45 square meters apartment; everything was set for a perfect stay: there is a kitchen with microwave, dish washer and fridge.

There is a large and comfortable living room with a king size bed and it’s provided with an electronic safe and independent heat.

The apartment was restored only in a typical Florentine style .

The floor is in original Florentine ‘Cotto Montecchi’ from Impruneta and it gives to the apartment an antique and warm touch .
It ‘s very well furnished and it can accommodate up to 4 people. The apartment has a living room with a sofa bed with a king size bed, kitchen with fridge, microwave and dishwasher, bedroom with a king size bed or twin beds and closet. The bathroom has a bathtub or shower and hairdryer.

The apartment is very quite and lightly with independent heat , television (no cable), electronic safe, electric adapter to 110 V and iron.

BATHTUB /SHOWER
TELEVISION
DOUBLE ROOM
SOFA BED
PARMORED DOOR AND SAFE
EQUIPPED KIICHEN

No Pets and No smoking

We are very close to the Duomo of Florence, 5 minutes walking from the Ponte Vecchio and the Uffizi Gallery.

Close to the apartment you’ll have :

Supermarket open on Sunday
Private parking (around 30 Euro/day)
Internet point
Pub, disco, restaurant and pizzeria
Bank and change
Post office at 50 metersi
Sight seeing bus stop at 50 meters

Planning a trip to Italy? The top 3 destinations in Italy are Rome, Venice and Florence; for example, in order to make it easy to find an hotel in Rome, you can have a look at our advanced search. Simple as 1-2-3, the same method can be applied to find an Hotel in Florence, or to compare price for different accommodations in Venice, from bed and breakfast to Hotels.

Society today seminally has become a sea of homogenous beings. Individualism has given way to mass-produced cookie-cutter thinking in almost every aspect of creative expression. Clothing is probably the best example of this assertion. Almost every culture around the world has given into subscribing to a stringent westernized dress code. Why is their so-much monkey-see, monkey-do when it comes to dressing? – Especially men!

A couple hundred years ago, before the industrial revolution, people dressed with flair and expression. Sure, societal dress codes existed, but they were very localized and seemed to offer much more diversity than today. For instance, why don’t men still wear skirted garments like kilts? – Especially in the summer where it’s hot. It makes more sense than heavy denim jeans or wool slacks. Think of the energy that could be save in air conditioning costs if men were not compelled to wear a long sleeve shirt, wool jacket and tie when it’s 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

My point is, that there is less actual laws (mostly to do with decency) that prevent you from dressing how you want than voluntary societal rules. Most people worry excessively about what others might think without giving much thought to the consequences. Fist of all, most of the time you just are not going to know what others think when you break out from the pack. Second, why should you really care? – Actually, I say this because it isn’t really about what others think, it is all about your personal confidence that influences more than anything about what others think.

Clothing is but many forms of expression. – But it is an easy area to shed the chains of oppression. Just imagine if you (men or women) could wear what you felt like wearing without consequence. Wouldn’t life be a lot more fun? It’s fun to be different. It’s fun to be recognized and complimented for something unique. And it’s even better to be comfortable. Maybe for you it’s just going to work with a purple striped tie instead of a navy blue or red one. Or maybe you (men) are just tired of wearing pants or slacks all the time and decide to buy a kilt. – Why not? If your boss cares, then maybe that is a real consequence you need to consider. – But, on the other hand, you are not on the job all of the time. – So why are you compelled to wear a “uniform” off duty?

Even though mass retailers have homogenized so much of what people wear, you can still find different and unusual clothing through small specialty retailers and Internet sources. For instance, log onto Google.com and search “sarongs for men”, “men’s kilts”, or even “men’s skirts” and you will find links to a variety of companies selling anything from rugged workman’s kilts to comfortable beach sarongs. – Oh, you will find a bunch of weird sub-culture stuff too, but if that’s not you, just skip over those links. Even if you do not desire something really different, at least you can see that you don’t have to follow the same fashion rules as everyone else. Everyone has a right to develop his or her own personal style.

The most important thing is to learn to be you. Don’t let others dictate how you are. Develop the confidence to do what you want. Expressing your freedom of choice through what you wear is a great step in the right direction. You can use the same process to change other aspects of your life as well. Soon you will be telling yourself that you could do anything. – And then you will.

Jay Dezelic is a fashion designer for http://www.jdez.com – a manufacturer of unique and comfortable informal wear for men and women. Jay is also fashion writer for http://www.justchange.net – an ezine focused on helping people make positive changes in their lives. Additionally, Jay is a freelance fashion model who’s unique portfolio could be seen at http://www.jdez.com/models/jaydezelic

“When you begin to act on your creativity, what you find inside may be more valuable than what you produce for the external world.”

That quote from the book “Claiming Your Creative Self: True Stories from the Everyday Lives of Women” by Eileen M. Clegg is a reminder that creativity is an exploration of our psyche, our inner selves – that it isn’t just about being identified as an “artist” producing a “work of art.”

In “The Woman’s Book of Creativity” author C Diane Ealy, Ph.D. [pictured] notes she’s been listening to women talk about their creative process for years. “I am always amazed by how many of them describe wonderfully rich experiences with their creativity and then tell me they don’t see themselves as being creative!,” she writes.

“These women dismiss, discount, and rob themselves of their most powerful aspect, the characteristic which defines who they uniquely are as individuals – their creativity. So if it does nothing else I want this book to help you validate your creative process.”

Creativity can show up in many of the ways we live life. Riane Eisler noted in “Sacred Pleasure” that while this capacity for creativity varies from person to person, “it can be developed – or hindered… The creativity we invest in our day-to-day lives is often the most extraordinary since… it can give far more meaning, and even sanctity, to our lives.”

One of the keys to more fully accessing and using creativity is attitude. “We lock ourselves into paradigms and box ourselves in,” notes Roko Sherry Chayat, abbot of the Syracuse Zen Center in New York. “Creativity comes when we view our situations in a fresh way.”

Jodie Foster (in an interview we did about her film “Contact”) said she appreciated the story’s interest in scientific creativity: “The greatest scientific discoveries were all made by young people, who were able to say ‘Well you know, damn it, two plus two equals five because why not?’ They are at that time in their lives where they want to risk.”

According to a number of researchers and writers, girls often have had their creativity dismissed and those “free impulses” discouraged.

Dr. Ealy notes in her book that repressing creativity can lead a girl to “become very conforming, to lack confidence in her thinking, and to be overly dependent on others for decision-making… The adult who isn’t expressing her creativity is falling short of her potential. Inwardly she feels this, experiencing a vague sense of dissatisfaction intruding into everything she does.”

Creativity can flourish more when it is part of your whole being as a person, in the flow of life, and not just a “segment” you do when you “get the time.”

A list by Moondance magazine (“The Ten Commandments of Creative Women”) includes some advice to help encourage creativity: “You will honor your creativity by nurturing it… You will allow yourself to take creative risks… You will allow yourself and your art to be a work in progress.”

——

Douglas Eby writes about psychological and social aspects of creative expression and achievement. His site has a wide range of articles, interviews, quotes and other material to inform and inspire: Talent Development Resources
http://talentdevelop.com/

Managing cash flow is every small business owner’s most important function. Avoid these seven deadly mistakes to make sure you aren’t creating cash flow problems in your coaching practice.

1. Using the “Fly By The Seat of Your Pants” Accounting Method.

When tax time rolls around do you find yourself pawing through piles of paper on your desk looking for credit card receipts from your business trip? Or are you upside down digging under the seat of your car trying to figure out where all your gas receipts are? Are you wondering if that coffee stained piece of paper is an invoice from a supplier? Do you have a vague feeling that someone, somewhere owes you money but, you just can’t remember who it is? If so, you’re probably guilty of operating with the “Fly By the Seat of Your Pants” accounting method.

Using this accounting method has a tremendous impact on your business’s cash flow. Unless you have a system to track your business finances, you’ll always be operating in the dark and in danger of imitating George of the Jungle as he slams into a tree.

2. Not Knowing What the Numbers Are All About.

Once you have a real honest to goodness useful accounting system, that’s where the real fun starts. You’ve got a bunch of numbers but what in the world do you do with them?

Understanding what the numbers mean is crucial to your cash flow. Are sales trending up or down? Are expenses rising faster than sales? Is one coaching package more profitable or better selling than another? How many clients do you need to meet expenses each month? Can you take a paycheck this month? The answers all lie in the numbers.

3. Mismanaging Credit: I Owe You, You Owe Me.

There are two ways to mismanage credit in small business:

1. Granting credit without wise credit policies

2. Using credit with no plan of how to pay the bill.

Both have a huge impact on your cash flow and are often closely related. Here’s a scenario to demonstrate that point. You have two opportunities: you can work on a big project for a corporate client or you can take on several small clients. You might think the big client is the way to go but how long will it take you to get paid? Often, large companies take their time payingsometimes 60 or 90 days, sometimes longer. You may find that you’ve tied up a tremendous amount of your time with no cash flow to pay your bills. The smaller clients could provide you with more immediate cash flow without tying up all your time.

And it’s easy when times get tough to pull out your credit card to cover your current expenses. But doing this with no plan of how you’ll pay the bill gets many small business owners in hot water fast.

4. Ignoring the relationship between Receivables and Payables.

Do your Receivables and Payables “play nice” with each other? In a perfect world your receivables (what customers owe you) would be paid just in time for you to pay your payables (what you owe your vendors). But, if you’re a small business owner you know Rule #1 is “Stuff Happens”. The customer you thought would pay his bill this week, doesn’t. So the bills you thought you could pay this week, don’t get paid.

Are your Payables in balance with you Receivables? If what you owe to others is far more than what is owed to you, then, Houston, you have a problem.

And it’s not just the balance that’s important, it’s the quality as well. If your receivables are as old as your Aunt Tilly, chances are good you’ll never see the cash.

5. Focusing on profit instead of cash flow.

Ahh, Profit. The ultimate goal of every business. Or is it? Did you know that many businesses that fail are operating at a profit? How can that be? For the small business, cash flow is the ultimate goal. No cash flow. No business. Period.

What’s the difference? Mostly the difference is in the decision making process. “If I take on this big job, it will earn me a huge profit, but if I take on five smaller jobs, I’ll have cash to pay my bills.” Yes, you want to be profitable but every decision has to be measured against the effect it will have on cash flow.

6. Forgetting your debt to society.

Some bills are easy to forget. Bills like insurance, payroll taxes, estimated taxes. They sort of sit out there, almost off the radar screen. They don’t have to be paid right away. It’s easy to forget them until BAM! they’re due and they’re due right now. And you better have the money to pay them or you’re in hot water. Then, cash flow problems result as you rob Peter to pay Paul. It can take months or even years to recover.

7. Spending your company’s future on a speed boat.

Haven’t you always wanted a speed boat? Or a fancy car? Or an all expense paid trip to the Bahamas? It might be tempting to try to pass your personal purchases off as tax deductible business expenses. But, it’s a bad idea for two reasons.

The folks who work at the IRS are over-worked but they’re not stupid. The last thing you need is an audit. An audit that could reveal your transgressions and could result in an unexpected tax bill plus penalties and interest. Again, huge cash flow headache!

Here’s the other reason it’s a bad idea. Are you spending your company’s future on frivolous or unnecessary expenses? Small businesses operate close to the edge. Unless you have a reserve to see you through the tough times, you’re always in danger of being on the wrong side of that edge. You’ve got to take care of the goose that lays the golden eggs first. Then, you can pay yourself a properly taxed bonus and buy all the toys you want.

Caroline Jordan, MBA is a small business consultant and creator of Cash Flow Master , a Fast Track, No Holds Barred, Crash Course in Small Business Cash Flow. For more Cash Flow tips and techniques visit http://www.TheJordanResult.com/mastering.html . To get in touch, call Caroline at (207) 583-2630 or send an email to TheJordanResult@adelphia.net.

“Tell me what company thou keepst, and I’ll tell thee what thou art.” – Miguel de Cervantes (1547 – 1616) Spanish novelist.

Growing up I often heard my best friend’s father Nick say, “Show me who your friends are and I’ll tell you what you are!”

Well, that was usually followed by a long speech about why his son Frank should not have hung out with certain people.

I was like a second son to Nick so I would get to listen in on Frank getting yelled at. By that time, I had already been homeless and off the streets and working my way through High School, so I never thought of hanging out with the types that Frank did. Of course I was no angel but, I chose my friends as carefully as I could.

Frank never got the point back then, but Nick knew very well about the power of association.

You see Nick, grew up the only son of an entrepreneur and brother to six sisters. Since he was the baby boy, he got a lot of attention and love from his father. Although all of the children did, Nick got just a little more.

Nick’s father the owner of a motel and a construction company could rival the strength and attitude of the strongest of the strongmen of his day and even ours. He grew up with the same mentality of his father AND the strength to boot!

The problem with Nick was that he associated with the street gangs of his day and didn’t listen to his father when he gave him the same speech, “Show me who your friends are and I’ll tell you what you are!”

Associating with the wrong people didn’t end there though, later in life he ended up associating himself with the some of the most ruthless mobsters around and as time went on, Nick gained both the wealth and the bad habits these guys had.

Finally the days came when his acquired gambling addiction took all of the wealth away. Although he could have lost his life many times, it took the loss of his money to finally stop associating himself with these people.

“Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for ’tis better to be alone than in bad company.” – George Washington (1732 – 1799) US Statesman

Although Nick didn’t follow the above advice, he is still a good man and still does great things.

After all he took me off the streets, gave me a home and taught me lessons from his past.

Like Nick, many people don’t realize that wealth by association works the same as guilt.

When asked how he intends on being America’s first black billionaire, Don King said, “By hanging around other billionaires!”

The truth of the matter is that whether you want to learn something significant or learn to be more successful, the people you associate with are the probably going to be one of the major keys to your success. I’m sure you’ve heard countless stories about those “lucky” people who gained wealth and success through others who were more successful at the time. I’ve personally heard and learned about many such stories.

Association is one of the reasons that many people pay big bucks to me mentored by very successful people.

The “Key” reason peope do this is: In order to get what you want or learn what you want you must go to the source.

Find a personal or business mentor or coach and learn everything you can from them then apply it.

The other part of success by association is that you will generally attain the average success and/or wealth of your 10 closest friends. The reason for this is that by associating with people who are more successful or wealthier, you are then able to tap into their intellectual, spiritual or financial resources.

That my friend, is an enormously critical success factor. To see an example of this, look at marketing online or offline. You will see that people and businesses often associate themselves with each other (one being more successful than the other) to build both credibility and wealth.

Apply the Success By Association Principle to your business and life, then buckle up for the ride!

*** Rasheed Ali was once a homeless runaway on the streets of NY and is now changing the lives of thousands of people from all walks of life…Helping them reach their ultimate potential by conquering any and all obstacles through his Conquer Your Adversity Newsletter. He is also co-founder of http://www.SleepYourWayToRiches.com You can subscribe to his newsletter at http://www.RasheedAli.com ***

Part of the United States Military’s roadmap called the; “Future Fighting Force” calls for exo-skeleton type systems to help infantry carry large loads to prevent fatigue. Often troops on foot are expected to carry very heavy and large loads, this slows them down, which can threaten their lives when under fire. Exo-skeleton systems will help the soldiers carry large loads without having to take the entire weight. Here is an example of the types of systems that the military researchers are considering.

http://rayonic.home.comcast.net/bleex2.jpg

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/exoskeleton-4.jpg

http://www.cyberdyne.jp/Image/system_conf_2005.jpg

The future war fighter will have such technologies to assist them, one Science Fiction concept using this type of exo-skeleton, would sense thru sonar an incoming mortar round and then turn and take off running faster than a normal human could run. This takes out the reaction time and gets the soldier out of dodge or harms way immediately if not sooner.

We know that military spends money on such advanced type technology and that usually within a few years those new inventions thru technology transfer to the public sector allows for many other civilian applications. I propose an exo-skelton system to help train marathon runners to stay on pace and get them use to the visual feel of that pace and speed. During training your body is not performing at race pace, but during the event your adrenaline, excitement and energy is at maximum. In marathon running proper pace protects performance and potential probabilities in passing. Marathon athletes must maintain a pace to conserve energy to the stay at the most efficient and humanly possible cadence to win.

The exo-skeleton systems when manufactured with ultra-light weight materials can help in these types of sports for high-tech training. If you will recall Lance Armstrong made a comment after his seventh historic win in the Tour de France, that Team Discovery Channel brought something new to the Tour, referring to the fact that they ushered in the new age of high-tech training and computers to compliment the superior athletics, I am suggesting we do the same thing for our Marathon Runners in training now to win the next Olympic Games. The robotics of tomorrow are not available today. Think on this.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

There truly is no end to the possibilities of outsourcing. Management guru Tom Peters recently picked up on a reference to a New York Times article “Ogre To Slay? Outsource it to the Chinese”, about how affluent western children are paying their Chinese counterparts to complete the first levels of video games that they find monotonous. Peters comments: “The ‘factory’ is in Fuzhou, China. The workers are youngsters logging 12-hour shifts. Their clientelle? Fellow youngsters from ‘Seoul to San Francisco … who want to avoid the pain and time associated with those first few levels … Yup! I thought I’d seen it all! Goes to show you …”

What is most eye-catching about this startling trend however is author Dan Ward’s observation that “this (is) an opportunity to provide commentary on the video game developers who clearly aren’t satisfying their customers. If the games were really well designed (Design is everything in an experience economy, no?), they would be compelling from start to finish. No need to outsource level 1-3 to China … these kids aren’t outsourcing their entertainment – they are outsourcing the boring / easy / introductory parts they don’t care about… and they are sending the video game industry a message. I wonder if anyone is listening.”

There is a lot of talk about how services are outsourced because they are more cost-effective, but the points raise an interesting question about how firms might consider using outsourcing as a measure of their product and service effectiveness too. Specifically, they reveal a serious potential danger in management thinking: that business leaders begin to accept the process as a natural extension of globalisation rather than see it as a specific comment on their own business.

An article on bizhelp24 makes the point pretty precisely under the heading “What do Businesses Outsource?” suggesting; “Basically, anything that you may consider a business ‘process’ can be outsourced,” from Marketing to Accounting down to Editing. And in light of the above, down to entertainment now, too.

There has been a lot of whining about outsourcing by, in particular customer service firms over the past few years. Giving the bog standard reply “Margins are being squeezed due to outsourcing” every time profits are suffering may not be acceptable soon as the flattening of the global playing field becomes a standardization itself: sometimes Chief Executives have to look honestly at the service they are providing their customers and just plain admit that what they provide, their customers don’t want. After all, value, as the expression goes, is not just the bucks you pay for something, but that bang you get for them.

go to http://danielmarkharrison.blogs.com for more great articles

General Motors Corp. announced in late November 2005 that it will close 9 of its United States auto manufacturing plants as well as three assembly-related plants which includes one location in Canada. Ford Motor Co. followed suit in early December 2005 announcing it is considering the shutdown of up to 8 of its U.S. manufacturing plants, including engine and assembly operations, with one in Mexico. Americans are well familiar with the downsizing, outsourcing and offshoring of the U.S. manufacturing base which has seen 2/3 of its jobs lost in the past 20 years, having been traded in for third world cheap labor. And while white-collar workers have hardly been immune from offshoring practices infiltrating boardrooms, indication this week is that the tide has changed.

Both the Intel Corp., the world’s largest computer chip manufacturer, as well as J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., one of the world’s largest financial institutions and 2nd largest in the U.S., are investing in creating new jobs in India over the next few years rather than in the U.S. Different in prior offshoring scenarios, however, is that back-office jobs such as investment banking, software engineering and research and development, previously occupied by American workers, will now originate from India as well.

J.P. Morgan plans to locate 1/3 of its investment banking and support staff in Bangalore, India by the end of 2007. It will double the amount of its employees by hiring 4,500 graduates over the next two years. 3,000 of the new hires will work in investment banking with 1,500 providing support in its retail and commercial banking operations. There are presently 4,500 employees in front-office staff positions in Mumbai, India.

With only 200 on staff in India just two years ago, in order to achieve their latest goal, J.P. Morgan will hire between 300-400 graduates a month in order to have 9,000 total positions in front and back-office positions by 2008, which includes complex derivatives settlements and structured finance transactions. The remaining approximately 4,000 – 4,500 employees J.P. Morgan employs will be divided between Bournemouth, England and New York, NY, although the ratio between both countries was not disclosed.

Similarly, Intel will invest $1.1 billion in India over the next 5 years, with $800 million dedicated specifically for research and development operations and other projects including chip design, also in Bangalore, according to Chairman Craig Barrett. Although Intel will also explore expanding its manufacturing prospects in India, its present investment will largely be for more complex high-value work as opposed to just technical support and call-center jobs, which most IT firms offshore today.

Other firms following this latest trend are Cisco Systems, the world’s largest maker of internet equipment, which announced in October 2005 that it would invest $1.1 billion in India, tripling its work force to more than 4,000 from 1,400 in the next three years. It too will have research and development located in Bangalore. And it is likely that more of the banking industry will soon follow J.P. Morgan’s lead such as Goldman Sachs & Co. which may double its staff to 1,500 in Bangalore.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is expected to invest $400 million in Hyderabad, India where he plans to hire several hundred workers. Gates has been outspoken, with his statement in April 2005, citing that there were not enough U.S. college students majoring in computer science, and thus wants to expand the H1B Visa program, allowing more foreign workers to come to the U.S. But critics believe that Gates and other industry executives are not being honest in their assessments, to wit, the banking industry’s India strategy which is hiring finance graduates and not computer science graduates in expanse of their industry.

In fact, consultants such as Stefan Spohr of AT Kearney estimate that investment banks could raise their staff levels in India to as much as 20% in the next few years. Since salaries in India are 70-80% lower than in the U.S., with total costs about 40% lower than in the U.S., the trend of offshoring will no longer exist. Rather, jobs will now originate from India and totally bypass the U.S.

Disputing the fact that there are not enough quality candidates, for example, in the computing engineering field, is the change in the way in which U.S. engineers are hired. Candidates are not only competing with their peers but also with the fear that they will be replaced by either imported foreign workers or offshore workers, even after they are hired.

Companies are directly contributing to the supposed engineering shortage themselves by requiring that an applicant meet every item on a detailed list of qualifications. Transfer of like-skills is a long lost concept. With approximately 200 responses for every job listing, companies have the luxury to hold out until they get the perfect candidate, as job cuts in technology positions are up 20% in the past year, according to Challenger, Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The unemployment rate for computer programmers and engineers is higher than the national average which does not reflect those who remain unemployed in Silicon Valley as they no longer register for unemployment benefits, nor those who were forced to move on to other careers.

According to Veronique Weill, head of operations at J.P. Morgan’s investment banking division, “The quality of the people we hire is extraordinary and their level of loyalty to the company unbeatable,” when referring to the hiring of employees in India. Funny, but that’s what used to be said about American workers. Perhaps the American worker’s biggest error was requiring a decent wage for quality work done. And others would argue that maybe it was their expecting U.S. companies would prefer them over foreign labor. Tragically, greed, under the guise of a global economy was the error, committed not by U.S. workers but by U.S. CEO’s, and condoned by the U.S. government.

Copyright (c) 2005 Diane M. Grassi

Diane M. Grassi is a freelance columnist, reporting and writing commentary on current events of the day providing honest and often politically incorrect assessments.

From U.S. public policy to Major League Baseball, she is an eclectic thinker, and demanding of her readers to reflect on their own thinking patterns from an alternative perspective. Whether you agree with her or not, Diane M. Grassi will have you coming back to note her opinions, and if at best she wakes you up, then her goal will have been accomplished.

Ms. Grassi is featured with the online publications: The New Media Journal; American Chronicle; the Federal Observer; Opinions Editorials; the Conservative Voice; the Las Vegas Penny Press; Mich News; the Sierra Times as well as several others. She also writes regular columns on Major League Baseball where she is a featured online columnist with The Diamond Angle Baseball Ezine and Sports-Central.org. She can be reached at dgrassi@cox.net.