http://abcnews.go.com/International...team-denied-us-visas-attend/story?id=48449690
What the above says!!!!!!!!! ******** clearly involved!!!!!
What the above says!!!!!!!!! ******** clearly involved!!!!!
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Robotics Team denied Visas to Competition in D>C>Afghan
- Thread starter fuelair
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fagin
Philosopher
I think the only words for that are FFS.
Ziggurat
Penultimate Amazing
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Update:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/pres...rls-us-participate-robotics/story?id=48604415
"President Donald Trump has intervened to allow a group of Afghan girls entry into the U.S. to participate in an international robotics competition next week in Washington, D.C., a senior administration official confirms to ABC News."
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/pres...rls-us-participate-robotics/story?id=48604415
"President Donald Trump has intervened to allow a group of Afghan girls entry into the U.S. to participate in an international robotics competition next week in Washington, D.C., a senior administration official confirms to ABC News."
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jrhowell
Muse
It seems that this is politics, not science.
Wow!!! the ******* actually did something good and right!!!!! Doesn't change my opinion of him, but it was a good thing. A heavy load more of stuff like that and he could make a passable president . In all honesty I cannot expect it, but would be nice!!
smartcooky
Penultimate Amazing
All that is needed now is for Asshat to intervene on behalf of all those pesky "potential terrorist" science undergraduates from Muslim countries som that they can continue their studies and carry on contributing hugely to the USA's scientific, medical and technological achievements.
How would we measure the loss of the contributions of a scientist like Farouk El Baz if he had been denied entry to the USA in 1959 at the beginning of the Manned Space Flight programme?
How would we measure the loss of the contributions of a scientist like Farouk El Baz if he had been denied entry to the USA in 1959 at the beginning of the Manned Space Flight programme?
Ziggurat
Penultimate Amazing
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Farouk El Baz was Egyptian. Egypt is not covered by Trump's controversial executive order regarding travel. Neither is Afghanistan, for that matter.
Meadmaker
Unregistered
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Afghanistan was the last team to be admitted. Gambia had initially been declined, but they were admitted last week. Afghanistan and Gambia had already shipped their robots, with the plan being to have nationals who were in the US drive at the competition. Teams from countries covered by the travel ban were admitted as well.
So, there's a really cool thing about a FIRST Robotics competition that will be going on here. In FIRST, each team, in this case a team represents a nation, fields a robot. A team of students then operate the robots remotely over a wireless network as they compete in a game. In this case, it's a "themed" game of delivering clean water, but what that means is that robots have to pick up different colored balls and move them to goals.
Now, the cool part. No robot/team ever competes by itself. Every match consists of an alliance of three teams, competing against another alliance of three teams. In the first rounds, those alliances are selected at random.
So, we could have an alliance consisting of Iran, Israel, and Afghanistan versus an alliance from Sudan, South Sudan, and the United States.
There are several preliminary rounds, with teams on new random alliances every round. All points scored during those rounds are given equally to every team on the alliance, so in the example above, if Israel wants to win, they have to help Iran.
Ok. So maybe it isn't world peace delivered instantly, but it's a step.
In a regular FIRST competition, at the end of the tournament, there's a playoff round. In those rounds, the highest scoring teams in the preliminaries pick their alliance partners. I don't know if that's part of this competition, but it will be interesting to see if national politics influences alliance selection.
ETA: I looked it up. In the global challenge, there will be no picking of teams. Teams are assigned randomly through a series of rounds, and can earn points for their alliance every round. Their alliance partners will be different every round. At the end, one team will have accumulated the most total points, and that team will be the winner.
So, there's a really cool thing about a FIRST Robotics competition that will be going on here. In FIRST, each team, in this case a team represents a nation, fields a robot. A team of students then operate the robots remotely over a wireless network as they compete in a game. In this case, it's a "themed" game of delivering clean water, but what that means is that robots have to pick up different colored balls and move them to goals.
Now, the cool part. No robot/team ever competes by itself. Every match consists of an alliance of three teams, competing against another alliance of three teams. In the first rounds, those alliances are selected at random.
So, we could have an alliance consisting of Iran, Israel, and Afghanistan versus an alliance from Sudan, South Sudan, and the United States.
There are several preliminary rounds, with teams on new random alliances every round. All points scored during those rounds are given equally to every team on the alliance, so in the example above, if Israel wants to win, they have to help Iran.
Ok. So maybe it isn't world peace delivered instantly, but it's a step.
In a regular FIRST competition, at the end of the tournament, there's a playoff round. In those rounds, the highest scoring teams in the preliminaries pick their alliance partners. I don't know if that's part of this competition, but it will be interesting to see if national politics influences alliance selection.
ETA: I looked it up. In the global challenge, there will be no picking of teams. Teams are assigned randomly through a series of rounds, and can earn points for their alliance every round. Their alliance partners will be different every round. At the end, one team will have accumulated the most total points, and that team will be the winner.
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smartcooky
Penultimate Amazing
I guess you missed the word "like" in my post.
I'm speaking in general terms about Asshat's senseless idea to ban people purely because they have the misfortune to have been born in a country that has terrorists.
https://www.wired.com/2017/03/trumps-new-travel-ban-still-sabotages-science-tech/
"The US tech sector relies heavily on foreign workers who enter the country on so-called H-1B visas for highly skilled workers, as do the health care industry and universities."
https://www.wired.com/2017/01/trumps-muslim-ban-isnt-just-inhumane-itll-make-america-dumber/
Ziggurat
Penultimate Amazing
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If you want to turn this into a politics thread, request the moderators to move it. Otherwise, let's stick to the straight facts.
One of my problems with some forum positions/actions is like this thread: it is clearly both about science (the competition) and politics (the potential preventing of persons from some countries from attending). This is why I am not a big fan of moving/breaking off pieces of threads that may technically stray from what is assumed to be the topic, but actually are not as there are really two (and occasionally more) topics involved. And it could be argued 3 but the third was mostly avoided here anyway...
theprestige
Penultimate Amazing
I don't really see science or politics in this story. I see themes of STEM advocacy, international cooperation, and bureaucratic friction. All of which I see as social issues, suitable for SI&CE.
This is an interesting story. It would be a shame to stuff it up with yet another US politics slapfight.
This signature is intended to irradiate people.
This is an interesting story. It would be a shame to stuff it up with yet another US politics slapfight.
This signature is intended to irradiate people.