Why can't they just enter the country illegally? Don't care to shell out for the fake documents?
Many entrepreneurs from all parts of the globe want to come to Silicon Valley to create their tech startups. In the past, this hasn't been possible because the US visa system was not designed for it. Blueseed is going to change that. We're creating a visa-free incubator for tech startups. A thousand of the world's best entrepreneurs will get the chance to develop their ideas in an ecosystem designed for their success. And it'll be just half an hour from the coastline by daily ferry access. I wonder if there will be an application fee? Transparent selection process?
Paypal's founder Peter Thiel is coming in to the 500K USD "seed funding" round that we're currently raising to do the R&D work needed. The project's total up front cost will be around 15-35millon USD. Maybe they can get some left-over Stimulus Boodle.
There are three options. Leasing an existing vessel, purchasing an existing vessel, and building a new one. The first two options would of course require some retrofitting to suit our needs. Each option has its pros and cons, but I'd say the first two options are far more likely than designing our own vessel. The more existing structures and technologies we can use the better. After all, this is a Green Project! Several fascinating concepts for the Ship of Fools at link.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/23/2012 07:42 ||
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#1
...or they can hire Americans. Oh, that's right after over twenty years of H1Bs by the hundreds of thousands, why even bother spending years in tech school or advanced training only to see your potential employment go to a foreigner because HR rigged the program from the start with contrived boilplate job descriptions to get those indentured workers.
#2
As if close proximity to the US helps somehow. Why not set up shop on a caribean island. Find one that the US Government has easy visa regulations for and buy the government of that island to allow for "rapid naturalization". You then go to that island, become a quick citizen and visa on over to the US.
Similar to the game everyone plays when they flag their ships under Panema or Liberia, as if either of those countries will do anything to help in a crisis.
#8
Try hiring an older IT worker. I got a buddy in his 50's whose job got sent to China, software engineer. And he is telling me its bleak because of the huge bias against older software people (anyone over 40 is suspect, and over 50, forget it unless you're a manager apparently), and the fact that the H1B are getting desperate and are screwing up wages for everyone.
In the Intel biz (at least once you get behind a desk), and most DoD contractors, older = better because you are experienced and will avoid a ton of mistakes, and know the proven solutions enough to see outside of them. I guess the problem is out in the regular economy, the bias towards stupid college kids that work 60 hours without a peep is pretty strong, despite the fact (based on my limited experience) they seldom get as much done in that 60 hours as one of the more experienced guys gets done in 30, and the younger guy's stuff requires a lot more time and effort to maintain. Older engineers realize that a long lived system will have most of its cost in maintenance and design accordingly.
Pretty sad actually, we are driving away our most experienced people, leaning on imported foreigners, and discouraging an entire generation, scaring them away from engineering and software.
It actually gives me a bit of comfort being old, in that I'll be dead by the time this bitter harvest comes in.
#9
In the Intel biz (at least once you get behind a desk), and most DoD contractors, older = better because you are experienced and will avoid a ton of mistakes, and know the proven solutions enough to see outside of them. Old Spook
Older US Gov't intel analysts (contractor or DoD Civ) are no longer much in demand. Older generally means they were not brought up with a computer as the young kids are today, they did not use the current family of applications while on active duty, and are probably slower to learn the apps and system tools. Old also means they require higher salaries, require a heavier medical benefit load, and may not fit the affirmative action profiles of the government client.
Welcome to one of the many downsides of US Gov't contracting.
#10
Funny thing is, before they told us to get out of the igloo and on the pack ice to join the circle of life, a lot of us thrived on the computers. We were on the bleeding edge and stayed there. Perhaps you heard of a little place off the B-W parkway at Fort Meade that may use computers. Slow? Sorry. No. We helped invent and debug that stuff that finally filtered down to the kids.
#11
I pulled my last all-nighter at 51 and I can't remember how long it took to recover. I suppose some can do them till they're 65, but not me. Youngsters get hired to code because they can do 80 hours a week. It takes a lot of money to get a 50 y.o. to do that, if they can at all. What I tell my kids is you've got from 25 to 45 to really do things and if you plan right, from 45-65 to rest on your laurels if you can find a place to sit or create your own. It's a young person's world when it comes to employment, and it's only going to get worse.
#12
Sounds like someone's dream who has never actually spent a winter off the coast of San Francisco. The storms can be absolutely ferocious and the weather is horrible nearly year round. It is damp and foggy in summer and stormy in winter. Seas in excess of 20 feet are not uncommon. Good luck keeping any production up in winter and you can forget about solar power. Wind power might be right out, too, if the wind destroys your turbines.
#2
It's another country. From wiki: In the Channel Islands, the only part of the former Duchy of Normandy still held by the British Crown, Queen Elizabeth II is traditionally ascribed the title of Duke of Normandy (never Duchess), and there she is loyally toasted as "The Queen our Duke".
A Kuwaiti government official was tasered by police officers after he was discovered urinating outside the home of Tony Blair.
Diplomatic protection officers encountered the Arabic man as they patroled outside Blair's townhouse in London during the early hours. When they asked the man, who seemed to be drunk, to stop urinating he allegedly wouldn't cooperate and a scuffle broke out.
Officers eventually used the taser in order to place the suspect, who spoke little English, under arrest. However the man collapsed and was taken to hospital, where it emerged he was a Kuwaiti government official, Ayedh Alrashidi.
Described by associates as a "wealthy and peaceful man", he had been staying with friends in an apartment close to Blair's townhouse.
Following the incident, which happened last September, he was at first charged with being drunk and disorderly and assaulting a police officer, but was eventually bound over to keep the peace for 12 months following an agreement between his lawyers and the Crown Prosecution Service.
According to his lawyers, Alrashidi, was very concerned about his treatment by the police and considered taking the matter further. However he later returned to Kuwait having decided not to pursue the matter.
A wise decision. The police prob'ly have photos and video...and he clearly wasn't sober enough to know what else they show.
#1
Have you ever tried to shut off the flow when you really, really had to pee? They should have let him finish as he could do no more harm than he had already.
The Mexican political week started with a huge win for Partido Accion National (PAN) president Gustavo Madero Munoz. The Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE) determined that ads PAN ran against Partido Revolucionario Institutional (PRI) presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto were not a threat to democracy and the electoral system, and could continue.
Gustavo Madero Munoz
Less than 10 days after the start of her campaign, PAN presidential candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota partially shook up her team, reassigning a female member of her press staff for a minor gaffe, and bringing two of PAN's heaviest hitters, former finance minister Ernesto Cordero and PAN president Madero on as advisers.
Attacks on Pena Nieto's record while governor began in earnest the same week, with PRI president Pedro Coldwell filing a complaint with the IFE.
Madero held a minor campaign event in Mexico state called the Mesa de Verdad or table of truth where he and Vazquez Mota campaign manager Roberto Gil Zuarth debated PRI militants on the latest charges against Pena Nieto.
Present were PRI spokesmen Eduardo Sanchez and Jorge Carlos Ramirez Marin and deputy Pablo Escudero, who is the son of Senator Manlio Fabio Beltrones. PRI president Pedro Coldwell was not at the Mesa de Verdad.
Even though the new negative campaign was in its beginning stages, PAN is in the dumps along with the leftist alliance headed by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, with less than 5 percentage points separating them.
Mid week however, a GEA/ISA flash poll put Lopez Obrador and Vazquez Mota neck and neck with Pena Nieto showing little trend downward.
Lopez Obrador has been trying to move his campaign past Vazquez Mota's this week, coming out with a new tax proposal certain to gain the attention of businesses benefiting from it and individuals bound to pay it as well.
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
Lopez Obrador proposes to eliminate the job-creating flat tax known as the Impuesto Especial a Tasa Unico (IETU), the elimination of which Lopez Obrador claims would help small and medium sized enterprises. He also promises cheaper credit and to lower the price of energy.
In response to Lopez Obrador's preparation to file a complaint about transportation costs, the IFE said Tuesday that such costs are being audited. Difference exist among the three main candidates because of how they chose transport. PRI uses a fleet of contracted aircraft, while PAN contracts flight hours on a pair of jets. Partido Revolucion Democratica (PRD) uses commercial flights.
Meanwhile, PRI politicans continued to ignore the negative campaigning by pointing out video spots, mostly on youtube.com, are "acts of desperation". Those are the words of Pena Nieto as well as Senator Fabio Beltrones, PRI's coordinator for Chamber of Deputy candidates. Nuevo Leon governor Rodrigo Medina de la Cruz also chimed in with the same charge in a campaign event Sunday in Monterrey attended by Pena Nieto.
Enrique Pena Nieto
Pena Nieto himself has charged the ads were part of a "dirty war", as he put it. He vowed not to divide Mexico by using such tactics.
The youtube spot in which Pena Nieto deals with the negative ads can be found here.
Pena Nieto received some good news while in Sonora state. Isaiah Gonzalez Cuevas, national leader of the Confederacion Revolucionaria de Obreros y Campesinos (CROC) endorsed PRI, saying the last 12 years of PAN rule has increased the unemployment rate from 2.3 to 5.1 percent, plus it increased from 20.6 to 28.5 million the number of Mexicans who do not have enough income to buy basic food items due to constantly rising energy prices.
CROC boasts 4.5 million members.
Speaking of the 2006 campaign, Lopez Obrador charged Sunday in Quintana Roo state that Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educacion (SNTE) union president Elba Ester Godillo has entered into a secret accord with the PRI to throw support of her union towards PRI.
Ester endorsed PAN in the latter stages of the 2006 campaign. Leftists such as Lopez Orbador think that Ester is the one individual most responsible for Calderon's election that year. SNTE members number about 1.2 million, the largest labor union in Mexico.
However, an alliance with PRI and Partido Nueva Alianza (PANAL) was split apart mere days before the deadline for electoral coalitions after protests by PRI militants in southern states that PRI had given up too much for such a small part of the promised vote. But SNTE and PRI may not be as close as Lopez Obrador has charged, because many PRI militants agree with Lopez Obrador that Ester Gordillo had a hand in Calderon's win. The split could be payback for 2006.
Vazquez Mota ended her week in Sonora promising "to restore pride in what we do, it's time to strengthen brand Mexico" and "to grow our talent and entrepreneurial spirit."
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
North Korea broke into television programming on Monday with a special announcement threatening nationwide total war in retaliation for South Korean development of missiles which can reach any part of North Korea.
The special announcement used the word "rat" a lot and promised to reduce South Korean "rat" bases to ashes in three or four minutes by "unprecedented peculiar means". This announcement did seem to be unprecedentedly peculiar to me. Could be the announcer was hungry and was promised rat loaf for lunch...
#1
After 60 years of bluster, even the most nuanced and liberal-thinking leaders in the world aren't falling for the same old tripe. So 3rd genertion Kimmie figures to amp it up a notch, since what other tool is in his toolbox? He's no dummy, make enough noise and Champ will throw him something to tone it down.
#2
"Unprecedented peculiar means" > D *** NG IT, IFF THE NORKIES START PLAYING DON'T-THEY-KNOW-IT-KILLED-MTV RAP MUSIC ACROSS THE DMZ, BOTH THE CHINESE + RUSSIANS THEMSELVES WILL WANNA NUKE 'EM!
The death in China of Neil Heywood, the British businessman, took on a series of dramatic twists yesterday as it was disclosed that President Barack Obama was taking personal interest in the alleged murder. Mr Obama was informed of suspicions over Mr Heywoods death within hours of a Chinese police chief walking into an American consulate and telling officials that the Briton was murdered.
Mr Obama was briefed immediately on the suspected poisoning of the 41 year-old, which Chinese officials are linking to Mr Heywoods powerful political allies, when American diplomats were told of the murder allegation.
Gu Kailai, Mr Heywoods former business partner and the wife of Bo Xilai, a senior politician who had been tipped for the highest political office, is suspected of ordering the Britons murder in a case at the centre of a political storm in China. The couple have disappeared from sight as the Communist Party attempts to regain stability.
Much more at the link, including a basic primer on the events surrounding the murder and a lot of information about the Gu family, one of the 'princes' running China today. This was no ordinary murder, and the disclosure that Champ is being briefed suggests strongly that there's something to all the rumors about very high level political unrest -- and perhaps a coup attempt -- in Beijing. Definitely worth watching.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/23/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
"President Obama was taking a personal interest in the case" > YYYEEEEUUUUPPP, I'm pretty sure he very well is.
[Dawn] A complaint by relatives of some of the air crash victims that they had to make payment to the airline which brought the bodies from Islamabad has prompted an inquiry.
It was brought to the notice of Sharmila Farooqi, Adviser to the Sindh Chief Minister, at he Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... airport, which she visited on Saturday to condole with relatives waiting for bodies, that some employees of the airline responsible for handling and bringing back the victims' remains to Bloody Karachi had charged them up to Rs12,000.
However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... an official of the Civil Aviation Authority attempted damage limitation, saying that the office order for allowing free transportation was received a bit late. "The order to transport the bodies free of charge came at 10am on Saturday. By that time some people had already made payment. They will be refunded, of course."
The body of a former technical adviser to President Zardari, Raza Ali Khan Feroz, was also being brought back on PK 301 on Saturday afternoon. Showing the receipt as proof to media gathered at the airport, his nephew Syed Ali Khan said: "I paid Rs4,545 to transport my uncle's body to Bloody Karachi from Islamabad. They charged me Rs35 per kilogram."
Mohammad Saleem, the uncle of another victim, Mohammad Irfan Rao, said he paid Rs12,000 to bring his nephew's body to Bloody Karachi.
Sharmila Farooqi apologised all those who paid money for bringing the bodies to Bloody Karachi and promised to see to it that the sum was refunded.
By evening the facilitation desk at the Jinnah Terminal here sounded apologetic about any problems caused to the victims' families.
Mohammad Khan Rind, assistant commissioner Scheme 33, and an employee of the Board of Revenue stationed at the facilitation desk during the day, informed Dawn that an inquiry had already been ordered to look into the matter. "I believe it was just one person asking everyone for money. But as far as I know the Federal Minister for Defense Ahmed Mukhtar has been brought into the entire affair now. He has been asked by the Presidency to start an inquiry in order to look into the matter," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/23/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
They charged me Rs35 per kilogram."
Dear Skymiles Member:
Unfortunately, Delta does not offer frequent flier mileage points for former Diamond, Platinum, Gold Medallion members flown as freight.
Aung San Suu Kyi's party confirmed that it will postpone its parliamentary debut next week in the first sign of discord between Burma's newly-elected opposition and reformist government.
The democracy leader and other members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) will not travel to the capital Naypyidaw to enter parliament on Monday, party spokesman Ohn Kyaing said, following a dispute over the swearing-in oath.
"We are not boycotting, but we are just waiting for the right time to go," said Ms Suu Kyi, who won her first-ever seat in parliament in landmark April 1 by-elections, after a meeting on the issue in Yangon.
The NLD has baulked at the wording of the oath, which requires them to protect a constitution that was drawn up by the country's former junta. Authorities have rejected the party's appeal to change the wording of the oath from "safeguard" to "respect" the constitution and a letter to the office of Burma's reformist President Thein Sein on the issue was sent too late for the row to be resolved before the next session of parliament begins on Monday.
The NLD, which boycotted a controversial 2010 election, agreed to rejoin the political mainstream last year after authorities changed a similar phrase in party registration documents.
Ms Suu Kyi has said one of her priorities as a politician is to push for an amendment of the 2008 constitution, under which one quarter of the seats in parliament are reserved for unelected military officials.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/23/2012 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Gustavo Madero Munoz
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
Enrique Pena Nieto
North Korea broke into television programming on Monday with a special announcement threatening nationwide total war in retaliation for South Korean development of missiles which can reach any part of North Korea.
Aung San Suu Kyi's party confirmed that it will postpone its parliamentary debut next week in the first sign of discord between Burma's newly-elected opposition and reformist government.
