Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2010 January 27

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January 27

Slightly subjective question

I'm a UK student looking to spend this summer working/living in the USA under a J-1 visa. Can you recommend any suitable cities to look at living in/near? Ideally with relatively low crime, workable public transit (I doubt anywhere will rent me a car - I'm 18, albeit with a year's uneventful driving since I passed my test). Bonus points for a university and/or the possibility of skilled summer jobs. For example, I've been looking at Boston. 131.111.248.99 (talk) 15:02, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

When you say "skilled", it'd help if you told us what kind of skill area (media? film? technology? art?) as there are centres of these in different cities. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 15:11, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Computing/technology. I'm a competent programmer, with a few substantial hobby projects completed. On the other hand, I'm only a first year university student, so I'm not holding my breath and I'll take other work if necessary. 131.111.248.99 (talk) 15:35, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Boston/Cambridge, NYC, Research Triangle, Miami (porn websites and spam), Las Vegas (gambling websites), Seattle, LA/Orange, SF/Oakland/SanJose (that's greater Silicon Valley). Urban Boston,NYC,SF have public transport (but much business is done in suburbs and research parks which don't); LV,LA,Orange,Oakland,SJ have pretty poor public transport; I don't know about Miami. If the exchange program can get you setup somewhere sensible then these are all nice places, but if you have to do the finding job and accomodation yourself, NYC and Boston/Cambridge. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 15:53, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Unemployment continues to be high in the United States, so finding a summer job may be difficult. Your best bet may be seasonal resort work. These jobs, however, tend not to be in large cities, but instead to be areas like Cape Cod, many hotels and motels at which traditionally have used labor from foreign students. John M Baker (talk) 15:59, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

You haven't specified under which of the J-1 categories you're receiving your visa, and how that may limit your eligibility for particular kinds of work. Ditto the above remarks on the U.S. unemployment picture in which you'll be competing with age peers (and the unemployed overall) who have the advantage of being longterm residents/citizens and likely to be preferred by employers (particularly those moved by patriotic considerations). I'd suggest you tout your skills as a successful student with a science/math background, with the cachet of coming from overseas, and if you have interpersonal skills and motivation — you might do well to obtain a position with a tutorial project for disadvantaged schoolchildren. This may offer a modest wage (possibly with room/board plus a stipend for pocket money), and then you can spend your free time getting to know the natives and your surroundings. A similar possibility would be work as an au pair. Otherwise: is there a clearing house for J-1 jobseekers that will streamline your access to prospective employers? Are there "graduates" of the J-1 program who can advise you? Also consider your availability dates: East Coast colleges tend to let out by the end of May, and their students will be available to work in early June. -- Deborahjay (talk) 16:32, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

If your heart is not set on the US, and you don't already have your visa, how about some Canadian cities? Unemployment is lower than the US, crime is low, health insurance will be cheaper. Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Calgary all satisfy your criteria (Montreal if you want to sample a little French Canadian culture). I would recommend Waterloo, Ontario for university and tech jobs, but it doesn't really have good transit system.

Incidentally, you won't be able to turn up and walk into a programming job. You'll need to apply before you get here. Write to a few companies. On the other hand an 'unskilled' job might be more fun for a summer. DJ Clayworth (talk) 16:41, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

As I understand it, J-1 visas are for people on exchange programs. You need to join one of those programs that is offering the kind of work you are interested it and they will tell you what your options are. You may not get much choice about where you go. --Tango (talk) 17:25, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Burlington, Vermont has low crime, a university and several local colleges, an excellent public transportation system, getting around by bike is also fairly easy and it's a fairly well educated city. Dismas|^(talk) 17:34, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Skilled summer jobs are in very short supply in this economy, and you will have to compete against U.S. students for them. There will likely be many more applicants than skilled summer jobs in any U.S. city in this economy. If you want a skilled job, you would do better to look in a country other than the United States. If DJ Clayworth is right about the Canadian economy, Canada might be a better bet. I hear that Australia's economy is holding up relatively well. If it is more important to you to work in the United States, you will have to accept the possibility of a less skilled job. Even less skilled summer jobs are in very short supply. Your best chance of getting one would be to try a resort area with a demand for temporary summer workers that is not too close to any concentration of students. Many major U.S. national parks could fit this description, as could resort areas such as the Jersey Shore. (Someone else has mentioned Cape Cod, which might be a possibility, but New England has a high student population, and jobs may be tighter there.) In a resort area, you could get around the town where you work by bicycle, and daily bus service would connect you to larger cities. I live in Boston, and it is probably the worst place to look for a summer job, due to the high density of students who attend university and are well-connected here, who are likely to outcompete you for the few available jobs. Marco polo (talk) 02:54, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

I'm a fellow Brit (and I'm also a programmer). I would recommend Austin, Texas (which happens to be where I live & work). Firstly, it's a technology hot-bed with lots of companies fleeing high taxes and high property prices in Silicon Valley coming here. There is a concentration of over 40 computer games companies and many movie graphics companies here who are often keen on bringing in people for internships - lots of big name tech companies have large offices here (Intel, IBM, Sony, nVidia are all here - and the headquarters and manufacturing centers of Dell are here too). This is a big university town (See: University of Texas at Austin) so there is plenty of public transport (busses) in the city center and student-style accommodation within reasonable travel time. During the summer when the students are on vacation, there should be plenty of empty accommodation to be had for cheap. Austin has been rated one of the top cities in the US for job satisfaction. Austin is the fifth safest city in the USA. It's fairly cheap to live in Texas compared to California, New York and other high tech areas. We have lots of entertainment - Austin calls itself "The Live Music Capital of the World" - and I could actually believe that's true. There is a crazy amount of that stuff going on here. We have a couple of large film festivals each year. A world-class opera. I guess the biggest negative issue is that the weather gets pretty hot here in the summer and you could easily stay here all summer and never see a texan raindrop - but you get used to it. There are even a few bars that sell recognizably British beer!

According to our article: "Austin was selected as the No. 2 Best Big City in "Best Places to Live" by Money magazine in 2006, and No. 3 in 2009, also the "Greenest City in America" by MSN. According to CNN Headline News and Travel & Leisure magazine, Austin ranks No. 2 on the list of cities with the best people, referring to the personalities and attributes of the citizens. Austin was also voted America's #1 College Town by the Travel Channel. Austin was ranked the fifth-safest city in part because there are fewer than five murders per 100,000 people annually. Furthermore, in 2009, Austin was determined to be the least stressful large metro area by Forbes magazine.

As for driving...you might seriously consider needing a car. I agree that you might have trouble renting one because of your age - but if you're planning to be here for a few months, you could consider buying an old clunker and selling it again when you leave. Cars are incredibly cheap in Texas - it might even be cheaper than renting...and because the climate is so dry, old cars are never rusty. Petrol is still under $3 a gallon...and I honestly think that no matter where you go in the US, not having a car would put a serious kink in your ability to get out and really see the place. Sure, there is public transport - but only within the city - and waiting for a bus in 100 degree heat is not amusing! If you want to go and "See Texas" you need a car (better still - do it properly and get a pickup truck!). You'd surely want to go to San Antonio (100 miles away), Galveston (a classic American seaside town), etc. "Hill country" out to the west of Austin is really beautiful - lots of lakes plenty of places to go boating, camp, hike & jog...although that might not be so much fun in the heat of summer.

And if you get homesick for a British accent, you could drop me an email and I'll buy you a decent beer!

SteveBaker (talk) 05:18, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Steve, I know we do not like to give legal advice here, but I do believe that it is illegal to purchase alcoholic beverages for those under the age 21 in this country (USA). Googlemeister (talk) 17:55, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Cities in the southwest probably the country's least pedestrian-friendly cities. Down there they think "Mass transit" means they own a couple of buses! If you live there it's understandable that you'd recommend getting a car. However, if the questioner landed in Boston or New York City, he would find that most people do not drive cars on a regular basis, and very large portion of city dwellers don't own a car and don't want one.

If you live in Boston you can use The T to get anywhere worth going in the Boston metro area, and they can also use Amtrak to go all over the east coast, if they desire that. The situation is similar in New York City. In fact, you can catch an Amtrak train in Boston and be in New York three to four hours later. (American trains are pretty slow, sorry.) If you're going to be here any length of time, both are worth seeing. They're major historic, cultural and academic centers. (And hey, New York's got that big statue.)

(By the way, if you're looking up stuff in Boston, make sure you're also including Cambridge in that, it's right across the river and quite nice.)

If you're planning on spending time outside, then also consider the weather, most of Texas is pretty brutal in the summer whereas Boston and New York are nice in the summer and only occasionally brutal in the winter. APL (talk) 08:42, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

United Nations Related Attack Incidents RE: Terrorism

I would like to request a specific list of all incidents of terrorism attacks related to the United Nations. In addition, is it possible to have this list sent in MS Excel or PDF format? Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Shawncole71 (talk • contribs) 16:14, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, we don't answer Reference desk questions via E-mail (assuming this is what you meant) for your protection from spam etc. All answer are posted on the Reference desk page. --220.101.28.25 (talk) 18:05, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia has List of terrorist incidents. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 14:03, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

I've just heard that the people convicted of the Assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975 have finally been executed, after various appeals. Is this some sort of record - a gap of 34.5 years between the assassination and the execution of those responsible? -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 20:11, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

It is similar the case of Jack Alderman, who was executed after 33 years on death row in Georgia [1] - this was 34 and a half years after the crime took place. Amnesty International highlights the case of Hakamada Iwao, who has been on death row in Japan since 1968 as the longest time any current prisoner has spent awaiting execution. Warofdreams talk 20:33, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. I should have made it clear: I'm interested in assassinations of public figures, not just common-or-garden murders. -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 20:54, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Seems to be a record, apparently. -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 06:47, 30 January 2010 (UTC)