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Merged Arday life and death

Well, the US is weird in lots of ways. But people are saying that there are British degrees where it's not usual. That astonishes me.
 
Rolfe said:
His entire life story appears to be his own invention, and this wasn't just the telling of tall tales,
as that article about the 30 marathons demonstrates. He staged a finish then fed the paper with a pack of lies to induce them to print his story. What did he really do in the month leading up to that stage-managed finish? We don't know, but there is no evidence to back up his claims. (It is indeed possible to walk a marathon distance every day for a month, and he was only 25 at the time and a gym teacher, so maybe, but where are even the photos?)
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Not sure which article you are talking about, but looking into it there does seem to be some evidence that he really did the 30 marathons.

This seems to be a WordPress blog that recorded it at the time. The actual page seems to be behind a log-in screen, but this seems to be an archive. It suggests there were pictures and a blog with comments on it...

Link
One curious bit is that he claimed to have been at an event with Bobby Davro "the other day" for the Shooting Star Children's Hospice, and says... "No action pix today because I had no-one to take them but here’s one from the Shooting Star 5th party the other day with me and Bobby Davro!"

Does this photograph exist somewhere, and has someone asked Bobby Davro about it?

There is an article about it in a local paper.... link

And there is some video about it here (link).

I guess all of these have been seen and I am not adding anything, but not seen any of this myself.
 
Rolfe said:
Well, the US is weird in lots of ways. But people are saying that there are British degrees where it's not usual. That astonishes me.
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Yeah, I think it is rare for viva in a BA in a British university. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up more common in the AI-era. You want to know that the person who is about to earn a degree has actually learnt what they have studied and have not just slapped together some AI slop for coursework. Obviously, in-person seated exams should also be much more widely used than they have been in recent years, for the same reason, but there are some pieces of work that have to be composed over a large period of time and for those I think it is reasonable to have them defended orally.
 
His suicide is s tragedy, and I do feel for his family and friends, I'd never say the following if I thought they might read it.

This was absolutely newsworthy story of his and Oxfords some elite English university. own making. Probably wouldn't be if he'd just plagiarized a little but he seems to have invented his whole life story and on one occasion, copy and pasted an entire interview conducted by someone else. If there is some equivalent story about a white guy, there probably would have less interest but there still would have been a bit of a circus just because of the scale of his fabrications. It also has the benefit of taking a piss at the elites, Oxfords some elite English university was easily duped, how funny.

Nessie said:
I think smartcooky needs to also work on his reading skills. I have specifically stated that the enquiry into Ardey was not dependent on contacting him and evidence could easily be gathered by contacting friends, work colleagues or students. Plenty of people refuse to speak to investigators, be that the police or journalists and that does not mean they cannot be held accountable.
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Its also generally considered poor journalism to not give the subject of a story a chance to respond. I also understand that Arday contacted the police after a single email, I could easily be wrong about that, correct me if there is evidence of something that could be characterized as harassment prior to getting the police involved. Also, given his resume, there was absolutely no reason to believe him. The only evidence a mental health concern was pathological lying.

On the running stuff, sure it was possible, but he would have been among the world's elite ultra-marathon runners and would have been famous in those circles. That's aside from the question of whether his claims were even possible from a scheduling standpoint. Unless the marathons were all on his own at home, can you even get to 30+ marathons in 35ish days.

On degree progams,

A US BS usually takes a minimum of 4 years, engineering often takes 5, I took 6 and I did a research project and mini-dissertation. My understanding is in the UK its typically 3, maybe that's why they have orals and we don't?

On the volume of degrees, I bet I have you beat. BS, MS, and 4 associates for a total of 6 degrees.

ETA, I think Angrysoba is probably right about orals becoming more common with AI.

ETA, sorry, Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, basically all the same.
 
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Carrot Flower King said:
A quick gurgle reveals that it is rare for a viva to be used for anything other than a PhD, making it more astonishing that such a method was used for a first degree at a handful of institutions, rather than the other way around.
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Absolutely standard at the universities I've attended/worked at. Sometimes only people who were considered borderline pass/fail or being considered for a distinction would have an oral for non-finals exams, but for finals, always.
 
ahhell said:
On degree progams,

A US BS usually takes a minimum of 4 years, engineering often takes 5, I took 6 and I did a research project and mini-dissertation.
My understanding is in the UK its typically 3, maybe that's why they have orals and we don't?
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The UK is typically 3, yes, except in Scotland where it is 4. The UK does NOT have orals, typically, though.
 
Carrot Flower King said:
A quick gurgle reveals that it is rare for a viva to be used for anything other than a PhD, making it more astonishing that such a method was used for a first degree at a handful of institutions, rather than the other way around.
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I was borderline 2(i) / 2(ii) and had a viva for my BSc
 
ahhell said:
....Its also generally considered poor journalism to not give the subject of a story a chance to respond. I also understand that Arday contacted the police after a single email, I could easily be wrong about that, correct me if there is evidence of something that could be characterized as harassment prior to getting the police involved. ...
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There is a right to reply, which would give journalists a legitimate reason to contact him. But, once he had contacted the police and a lawyer to ask people to stop contacting him, I say that should be respected, as we all have the right to silence, not just with regard to policing, but also not speaking to journalists.
 
angrysoba said:
The UK is typically 3, yes, except in Scotland where it is 4. The UK does NOT have orals, typically, though.
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Yup, 3 as standard, with some 4, having a year out, such as languages to go abroad and some engineering degrees for industry placement.

Dissertation as standard; several other big research write ups (work from field trips, term long field work projects, term long lab projects); tutorial essays, which would be discussed/defended, hence what I have called The Year Long Argument with my final year tutor; seminar presentations...

And then I was very, very, very drunk and went to see loads of bands - I think I was actually awarded a degree in punk and post-punk studies, with subsidiary incipient alcoholism, but they covered it over as environmental sciences...
 
Nessie said:
There is a right to reply, which would give journalists a legitimate reason to contact him. But, once he had contacted the police and a lawyer to ask people to stop contacting him, I say that should be respected, as we all have the right to silence, not just with regard to policing, but also not speaking to journalists.
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You are still not understanding that these were specific incidents in relation to individual inquiries, that happened before the supposed pile-on. It wasn't a general exhortation aimed at "people", these were very deliberate and heavy-handed attempts to stop polite and respectful inquiries from fellow academics and education correspondents.
 
ahhell said:
If there is some equivalent story about a white guy, there probably would have less interest but there still would have been a bit of a circus just because of the scale of his fabrications.
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There have been white guys exposed as serial fabulists. And the amount of interest in the exposure seems to scale with how much the lies fooled people. Two examples I remember are Stephen Glass (a journalist who fabricated a bunch of stories) and James Frey (who published an "memoir" that was fictional). I don't remember any white academics exposed for lying about their own lives, but I do recall some exposed for research fraud. There are also cases like Lance Armstrong, who only really lied about one thing, but it was a rather important thing. Not a fabulist, but still a fraud.
ahhell said:
ETA, I think Angrysoba is probably right about orals becoming more common with AI.
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We can only hope.
 
angrysoba said:
The UK is typically 3, yes, except in Scotland where it is 4. The UK does NOT have orals, typically, though.
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I don't know what "typically" means, given that I did two bachelor degrees and then taught at a different university, and oral exams were absolutely standard everywhere I went. I had no idea there were some courses where they weren't.

I seem to be unusual in having done dozens of viva voce exams throughout my undergraduate career, then not having one for my PhD.
 
Rolfe said:
You are still not understanding that these were specific incidents in relation to individual inquiries, that happened before the supposed pile-on. It wasn't a general exhortation aimed at "people", these were very deliberate and heavy-handed attempts to stop polite and respectful inquiries from fellow academics and education correspondents.
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People have the right to not speak to journalists, or anyone else, whether that is after one approach, or after a pile on. Like the right to silence with the police, it may be exercised so as not to incriminate oneself and that is likely why he did not want to even respond to polite approaches from fellow academics. He probably knew his time as an academic at university was nearing an end.
 
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