: Re: Network research seminar announcement: JUNE 24 ]

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My apologies to all readers for having to deal with such an irrelevant
issue. "Manavendra K. Thakur" writes:

>>NOTE FOR VISITORS TO SRI:

>>Please arrive at least 10 minutes early in order to sign in and be shown to
>>the conference room.  SRI is located at 333 Ravenswood Avenue in Menlo Park.
>>Visitors may park in the visitors lot in front of Building A or E, and should
>>sign in at the lobby of Building E and wait to be escorted to the meeting
>>room. Please ask for Vlad Rutenburg at extension 2683 or Richard Ogier at
>>extension 4216.

>> IMPORTANT: Attendance is open, but visitors from certain countries
>> designated by the US government must make arrangements in advance.
>>If you have not already made such arrangements before your arrival,
>>admission to the seminar will be denied. If you believe you may be
>>from one of these countries and if you wish to make arrangements to
>>attend, please call Vlad Rutenburg at [phone].

>Excuse me, but just what kind of crap is this??  The talk is open, but
>somebody is going to check your citizenship papers at the door?  And
>just how do you propose to identify citizens of these "certain
>countries"?  By skin color (which makes you racist) or by voice accent
>or their dress, or some other equally discriminatory criteria?

It is up to the visitor and the person who escorts him to identify the
visitor's citizenship. No papers need to be shown to the guards. Moreover,
I think that the US government, in restricting the access to SRI by East  
European citizens, would never do that on the basis of their skin color.
(which in the case of East Europeans happens to be "white")

>I do realize that this stupidity is imposed on you by our wonderful US
>government, 

Yes, this is a standard "disclaimer" put on ALL SRI announcements. In fact,
I copied it word for word from the well-known SRI CSL seminars. These have
been around for decades, attracting many researchers from all over the
world. I suspect that they have had no complaints about this warning.
The only reason why included the rather rude above "discaimer" is that it
is required of all our public notices.

>but I very strongly feel that if you have any integrity,
>you should move the talk to a building that is freely and openly
accessible by all 

Sounds great! Please give me the name of that building, its distance to
SRI, its address and the reason why they will let us have the seminar there.

>and doesn't have any Gestapo agents at the door.

I am sorry but all visitors to SRI are required to identify themselves to a
guard and to be accompanied inside by an SRI employee. This is a standard
practice at almost all high tech companies in the USA, Russia, and other
countries. 

Thus, your calling SRI guards or US government guards "Gestapo agents" is
equvalent to comparing all civilized countries on this planet to Nazi
Germany. If this is indeed your view of the World, then I pity you. If not
- please do not issue insults that you don't mean. Especially in public.

Some of my close relatives died at the hands of Gestapo. So, please
do not imply that Gestapo was like SRI. This insults the memory of millions
of Gestapo victims. 

Moreover, given the fact that you are at Harvard, I suspect you will not be
able to attend our seminar, which is 5 thousand miles away. If so, why are
you so concerned about its location?