84 karma · joined April 26, 2012
> doesn't browse Reddit, or HackerNews, or TechCrunch, even though he's into tech and startups
> he doesn't know most of the popular memes on western social sites
> doesn't use Facebook, at all
Is this what "American" means?
You have KAUST there, which is a decent place.
Why should citizens be treated differently when H1Bs pay the same income and other taxes as citizens? H1Bs even pay into social security, even though they are on a temporary visa.
Anyone who pays the same tax as citizens should be treated the same as citizens.
It's perfectly OK for a rich billionaire to do it...but NASA's focus should be science and not pleasure, I feel.
> Primarily, the reason to send humans is because we have to in order to ensure the continued survival of (known) life in the universe.
Sure, but why not send multiple robots and a bunch of sensors? Humans need food and water to live (don't know how much of the payload will be a year's worth of food/water), and are generally inefficient at converting food sources to energy.
> Humans have collectively agreed that it's worth 10,000+ annual deaths in the USA in exchange for the convenience of cars.
Wrong. This is why we need autonomous cars. Driving is best done by computers, and humans will agree that it is NOT worth 10k+ annual deaths a year just to give humans "the pleasure of driving".
H1B visas increases the supply of programmers. You don't exactly need a CS degree to be a programmer, so there are a lot of programmers.
If people are complaining that H1B visas depress wages, then the correct solution is unionization/collective bargaining.
I'm sorry, but programmers are a dime a dozen nowadays. Talent ALWAYS commands a higher pay - H1B or not. Everything seems completely fair to me.
Really interested in this...do you have a link to/name of/keywords in said article?
In these cases, the sectors each have their own lobby, and they are able to fight back with publicity and ads.
But scientists are defenseless. Where is the pro-scientist lobby? Should universities just get together and throw some dollars at hiring a lobbying firm?
EDIT: the scientist lobby could release an ad that said this: "politicians are spending millions on armament that was never used and rusted away...do YOU want bacteria in your seafood? do YOU want cheap shrimp buffets? If so, say YES to NSF!" The "say yes to nsf" actually rhymes haha.
I guess it's a very bad idea that also was poorly planned and managed.
The indirect costs from grants can cover the salaries of the admin staff - and very few staff are needed because the authors themselves can give the staff a good head start by using latex to prepare the manuscript.
Why can't this be done?