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First they came for the Iranians

scottaaronson.com

311–320 of 460 posts

Re: First they came for the Iranians

#311

I am an Iranian CS student. I had a fully funded PhD admission at one of the US universities. I was admitted for the Fall 2016 semester. I am currently in Iran due to my visa not being issued despite the 7 months I have waited for it. I was able to defer my admission to Spring 2017 semester, but then _this_ happened. I am quite sure that I will never be able to attend this program. I had very high hopes for my future…

I can personally recommend the University of Waterloo, here in Canada. I did my Master's degree there in electrical engineering. The school has an excellent, and well recognized, CS program, and a significant percentage of both the graduate student body and the faculty (at least when I was there 8 years ago or so) were from Iran. Waterloo itself isn't a particularly large city, but with two universities it has a sign…

yeah Waterloo has a great program. I've known a few Iranian students who were disappointed by University of Victoria and then went to Waterloo.

Re: First they came for the Iranians

#312

Holy shit: > U.S. permanent residents (green card holders) who are outside of the United States may be barred from reentry. That's huge. I don't mean to diminish the importance of banning new immigrants and visitors on a religious basis, that's bad too. But banning people who have already legally immigrated from re-entering the country is completely nuts. There are no doubt people who have lived in this country for d…

But this is not new. If you leave the US for more than 6 months, you can potentially lose your green card at the discretion of CBP regardless of where you're from.

Re: First they came for the Iranians

#313

I am an Iranian CS student. I had a fully funded PhD admission at one of the US universities. I was admitted for the Fall 2016 semester. I am currently in Iran due to my visa not being issued despite the 7 months I have waited for it. I was able to defer my admission to Spring 2017 semester, but then _this_ happened. I am quite sure that I will never be able to attend this program. I had very high hopes for my future…

Sallam throwaway jaan :)

Don't let this hold you back or defer your plans. As a former PhD student in the U.S, I can tell you that you have plenty of options in Canada and Europe. Some of my best professors studied in these areas.

Moafagh baash!

Re: First they came for the Iranians

#314
post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe still has some of the best universities and allowance programs :)

Well, Europe has Oxford and Cambridge and?

The UK alone also has places like Imperial College, UCL, Warwick and Manchester, with top-notch CS departments. In Scotland alone there's Glasgow (birthplace of the Glasgow Haskell Compiler) and Edinburgh (birthplace of Prolog).

As another commenter noted, mainland Europe tends to spread their academic resources rather than focusing on a few prestige sites like Oxford and Cambridge, but there are many fantastic CS departments. I don't know the current hot areas, but when I was a researcher in the early 2000s, there was lots of Haskell activity in Chalmers and TU Berlin.

Re: First they came for the Iranians

#315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not without danger, I believe. Having Israeli stamps in your Iranien passport...

Wrong. Israel will stamp a separate piece of paper to leave in your passport during your visit for exactly this reason.

Iranian government has spies everywhere and keeps pretty comprehensive lists of citizens they don't like and will harass them and throw them in prison, or executive them, on a whim when they try to re-enter.

Re: First they came for the Iranians

#316

Holy shit: > U.S. permanent residents (green card holders) who are outside of the United States may be barred from reentry. That's huge. I don't mean to diminish the importance of banning new immigrants and visitors on a religious basis, that's bad too. But banning people who have already legally immigrated from re-entering the country is completely nuts. There are no doubt people who have lived in this country for d…

But this is not new. If you leave the US for more than 6 months, you can potentially lose your green card at the discretion of CBP regardless of where you're from.

But to be barred re-entry for less than 6 months is new.

Re: First they came for the Iranians

#317
post #230

Trump is ostensibly using the 9/11 play card to justify banning few muslim countries [0]. This is obviously a lie, since most of 911 hijackers were Saudis and his executive order is not banning the Saudis. I'm guessing on the strength of the Saudi lobby in DC [1] AND/OR Trump's potential business conflict in Saudi Arabia [2]. [0] https://www.scribd.com/document/337545704/Draft-Executive-Or... [1] https://en.wikipedia…

So he is banning, among others, Syrians and Somalians? Need a passport? Just pick up a Somali passport on the street for a few bucks. They are not biometric: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3704127.stm Syrian passports, real and fake, are for Sale in Syria. The ISIS has its hands on real documents in occupied countries. Sounds like a very reasonable decision for me. Should have banned Saudi Arabia, the cradle of Wa…

Neither of those passports makes you exempt from the visa requirement to travel to the US.

Re: First they came for the Iranians

#318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with most of what you said, but I don't see why you had to bring sexuality and ethnic background into it. I myself don't fit into the group that you specified, but I can still see that it is a stupid classification. Our opinions and beliefs are not reliant on what group we are categorised into. Edit: I'm not a trump supporter.

He didn't just say "straight, white males." He said "He represents those straight white males who don't want to adapt to the future, who don't want to give up their power, and who don't recognize that America can only be successful when we help the world be successful." In short, read the entire statement, not just three words.

(Also very much not a Trump supporter)

I too think this language is a little divisive, even if it's mostly accurate. Plenty of straight white women voted for Trump too, and more than enough non-whites, sadly. Maybe a better way to phrase it would be:

"He represents those people who don't want straight white males to give up their power"

Re: First they came for the Iranians

#319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not particularly in favor of either side, but are you seriously implying that responding to a claim that you apparently think is obviously wrong would be harder than doing what you just did? That doesn't inspire much confidence.

Who said I thought he was obviously wrong? The point I was trying to make is that the likelihood of him getting the response that he was looking for from this audience is unlikely. Which is why I pointed him towards an audience/speaker that he might not know about that would be more in his line. Fredrik deBoer is a liberal writer who is also deeply dissatisfied with the current status of liberal thought. I thought th…

For the record, I didn't expect a serious reply here. But I also refuse to shut up because my views are unpopular (in some crowds) or they'll take away my internet points. People live and die because of these topics -- they're serious.

That said, I appreciate the referral. I'm going to give some of his stuff a read.

Re: First they came for the Iranians

#320

Holy shit: > U.S. permanent residents (green card holders) who are outside of the United States may be barred from reentry. That's huge. I don't mean to diminish the importance of banning new immigrants and visitors on a religious basis, that's bad too. But banning people who have already legally immigrated from re-entering the country is completely nuts. There are no doubt people who have lived in this country for d…

But this is not new. If you leave the US for more than 6 months, you can potentially lose your green card at the discretion of CBP regardless of where you're from.

OP is not talking about people away for 6 months. These are American residents who might be traveling for a week and suddenly find themselves homeless. If you think that can't happen to you, I have a bridge to sell you.
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