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CNN and a a lot of other outlets are reporting that JPL engineer Sidd Bikkannavar, an American-born citizen, was detained at the border when returning from racing solar powered cars overseas.
The border guards demanded he turn over his government-issued NASA phone and its PIN and held him in their detention area.
Bikkannavar also was interviewed by The Verge:
"It was not that they were concerned with me bringing something dangerous in, because they didn't even touch the bags. They had no way of knowing I could have had something in there," he says. "You can say, 'Okay well maybe it's about making sure I'm not a dangerous person,' but they have all the information to verify that."
Bikkannavar says he's still unsure why he was singled out for the electronic search. He says he understands that his name is foreign — its roots go back to southern India. He didn't think it would be a trigger for extra scrutiny, he says. "Sometimes I get stopped and searched, but never anything like this. Maybe you could say it was one huge coincidence that this thing happens right at the travel ban."
Land of the free? Home of the brave?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday February 15 2017, @02:21PM
Well that is true. But does long history = advancement/better? Let's see. China brags often about its 5,000 year history. But they have yet to grasp the basics of public sanitation or invent any kind of breakfast beyond rice gruel (zhou). India? Kinda the same on the first score. Then we have the United States, which came from nowhere and in 250 years became the world's sole superpower. So, putter along for 5,000 years, get some things right, fail to master basic toddler skills (societally speaking), mewl about how nobody respects you enough, or shoot straight to the top in 250 years. Nah, you're right. Americans suck and are stupid.
I do understand that so many are revelling in America bashing now. There are so many things to criticize America for. I do a lot of it myself. But amid the tide of media-generated froth let's not overlook remarkable things America has done, and still does. Give credit where credit is due, otherwise your approbation and your praise ring hollow.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by ewk on Wednesday February 15 2017, @05:38PM
Glad you agree. (That takes care of the first four words)
Not sure where I possibly implied where a long history means advancement/better. So, I'll leave that for what it is.
I don't always react, but when I do, I do it on SoylentNews
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 16 2017, @02:30PM
Lets see, China is bringing hundreds of millions out of poverty and into a middle class. The young upstart Americans (who skipped the thousands of years of hard bits and just coasted along on their lucky geography of being far away from anyone else, and then the last power standing in a world ware they tried desperately to sit out.) Are going the other way, with the rich poor gap ever widening and sending untold millions into poverty.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday February 16 2017, @03:27PM
That might be a fair point. But, we really ought to define what you mean by poverty.
The poorest American is a rich sumbitch compared to huge swaths of Africa's population. Very poor Americans are wealthy enough to grow obese subsisting off of welfare. Most poor Americans have a telephone in the home, and I don't mean just a landline. Very poor American families possess an automobile. The poorest of American children attend school.
We may be headed downhill (personally, I think we are) but we can coast a long, long, LONG way before we can be compared to the world's poor nations. Precious few Americans understand what real hunger is. The kind of hunger that just gnaws at you, day after day. I wonder if you have ever experienced such a thing? Oh, silly me - you're on the internet. You don't know what real hunger is. If you miss two meals in a row, you think you're suffering.
How about you just run along, Junior, and get back to us when you have some real life experience with poverty.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday February 16 2017, @06:50PM
Got it. America got all it got through pure luck. They woke up one morning, and wow! What luck! A trans-continental railroad. They woke up a different morning, and wow! What luck! The Panama Canal. On another morning, wow! Some of our guys wound up on the Moon. Through pure luck! Yup, every single thing, every single time, no planning or effort involved, just dumb luck.
Sure.
China...goodness. Big subject with lots of ups and downs. Thousands of years as a hegemon, lots of tributary states, still didn't give a shit about doing anything meaningful for the regular guy on the street, just more, "Eat bitter, peasants!" Communists killed the opium trade and the practice of foot-binding, and instituted basic literacy and education for citizens, but god help you if you piss off your danwei or fail to give the local party boss his little somethin' somethin'. So, mixed record. But they still haven't mastered public sanitation, breakfast, the most important meal of the day, or how to wait in line until it's your turn, goddammit.
So I stand by my original assertion, that long history does not necessarily mean better, nor does what America has achieved come down to happenstance.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday February 16 2017, @03:20PM
Well, TBH, most of us do suck. It's just a question of what we suck, when, and where. Mostly, you don't want to be caught sucking - it's kinda like picking your nose.