Merged Arday life and death

[SpuriusMaximus]

That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about what he studied and what he wrote. It was largely about race.

Well, as we were saying, there were two black women who were more qualified, if that were the only checkbox to tick. In fact, they'd tick an extra box. I suspect that the rest of the sensationalist Cinderella PR story of a non-verbal autistic kid who grew up to be the youngest professor, and achieved so many other incredible things, might have also played a role in it.

But, of course, attracting all the press attention to a turd, no matter how polished for the press, still means people will eventually notice it's a turd. So I'd still want to know WTH were they smoking, and what's their dealer's number.

 

[Nessie]

You don't contradict anything I've said: if you want to complain about harassment, then do just that. Complain about harassment. Going on and on about some "right to silence" that the press already CAN'T violate in the first place, is just nonsense.

You do not need to speak to the press, answer their questions or provide quotes. The press should not and at least in the UK, cannot harass you into doing any of those things. That is the right to silence, with regards to the press.

 

[Darat]

I dare say Cambridge et al saw Arday as an under-represented demographic so allowed for his lack of a conventional CV. That doesn't mean he didn't get in on (perceived) merit. You'll find it is your 'glowing' references that get you in. In the UK it really is a case of not what you know but who you know.

Not according to the latest information, they apparently had a short list of the male Arday and two female black candidates.

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

You do not need to speak to the press, answer their questions or provide quotes.

Thanks, because that was exactly my point: you already don't need to do that. Your "right to silence" is already guaranteed. No need to keep going on and on like Celine Dion's heart.

 

[Rolfe]

The issue, which you clearly did not know about, is how often he was being contacted and the hounding he experienced. The media have hounded numerous people over they years, who have gone on to take their own lives. You, like so many here, think that Ardey was the subject of maybe a couple of polite e-mails and that was about it. But there was a pile on and journalists and others kept on contacting him, despite, from the very start, he had made it very clear, via the police and a law firm, he did not want to speak to anyone.

I have made a very simple point that remarkably, may here just do not get and so, like you they create huge straw men.

At the point he went to the police, it WAS just a couple of polite emails. And don't forget that when he got wind that the Times Higher Educational Supplement was about to publish an article about him, he got them to pull the article by setting the (very expensive) pit-bull reputational-management law firm Carter Ruck on them, and also reported the journalist to the police.

This was all BEFORE the blog post that set off the media storm was published.

 

[smartcooky]

For goodness sake, Arday's specialised interest was Physical Education. He came from an impoverished part of London, of Ghanaian heritage and only became academically interested at age 18. He DID do enormous amounts of running and lots of running for charity. He WAS an amateur footballer who DID play in a recognised league. So the claims are he exaggerated his mileage. Who knows whether that was just rounding up to the nearest hundred, an intent to impress or a deliberate intent to deceive. I very much doubt it was the latter as he didn't pocket any financial proceeds, unlike Captain Tom's daughter and her husband, and all they got was a rap on the knuckles by the Charity Commission and a ban.

All irrelevant.

You moved the goalposts on @d4m10n's post, and you got caught. Own it!

 

[Nessie]

At the point he went to the police, it WAS just a couple of polite emails. And don't forget that when he got wind that the Times Higher Educational Supplement was about to publish an article about him, he got them to pull the article by setting the (very expensive) pit-bull reputational-management law firm Carter Ruck on them, and also reported the journalist to the police.

This was all BEFORE the blog post that set off the media storm was published.

I know and previously responded that yes he overreacted at the start, when his likely motivation was to deter enquiry that would lead to the uncovering of his lying. But, he still has the right, from the start, to request people stop contacting him and for that to be respected.

The subsequent enquiries with colleagues, friends etc will still have uncovered his lies, but, without the pressure of the harassment that followed, he may still be alive.

 

[Elaedith]

I know and previously responded that yes he overreacted at the start, when his likely motivation was to deter enquiry that would lead to the uncovering of his lying. But, he still has the right, from the start, to request people stop contacting him and for that to be respected.

The subsequent enquiries with colleagues, friends etc will still have uncovered his lies, but, without the pressure of the harassment that followed, he may still be alive.

If a fellow academic contacts him to ask about mistakes in his work, he should welcome the critical evaluation of his work. Of course, many academics don't respond as they should, but that's beside the point.

 

[Rolfe]

The more I see of the nonsense that's going on at the moment, the more I suspect that engineering that was at least part of his reason for killing himself.

 

[d4m10n]

I dare say Cambridge et al saw Arday as an under-represented demographic so allowed for his lack of a conventional CV. That doesn't mean he didn't get in on (perceived) merit.

That parenthetical is doing some seriously heavy lifting. Let's be clear, Arday built his academic career by borrowing other people's ideas and words without attribution.

For instance, Arday’s line on page 17 of his 2015 dissertation—“Student teachers are unique individuals and differ in their personal biographies and prior experiences, disposition to enquiry, cognitive and perceptive abilities, communication, interpersonal skills, adaptability, values, and belief systems”—is a perfect match to page 1 of Zwozdiak-Myers’ 2009 dissertation.​

Surely Liberals Can Agree That Plagiarism Is Bad

Institutions need to uphold standards. No exceptions.

www.persuasion.community

 

[Rolfe]

I know and previously responded that yes he overreacted at the start, when his likely motivation was to deter enquiry that would lead to the uncovering of his lying. But, he still has the right, from the start, to request people stop contacting him and for that to be respected.

The subsequent enquiries with colleagues, friends etc will still have uncovered his lies, but, without the pressure of the harassment that followed, he may still be alive.

So, don't report anything negative about anyone, any time, in case they kill themselves? This was a legitimate public-interest story, and these should not be buried just because the guilty party doesn't like the heat in the kitchen.

 

[Vixen]

That parenthetical is doing some seriously heavy lifting. Let's be clear, Arday built his career by borrowing other people's ideas and words without attribution.

For instance, Arday’s line on page 17 of his 2015 dissertation—“Student teachers are unique individuals and differ in their personal biographies and prior experiences, disposition to enquiry, cognitive and perceptive abilities, communication, interpersonal skills, adaptability, values, and belief systems”—is a perfect match to page 1 of Zwozdiak-Myers’ 2009 dissertation.​

Surely Liberals Can Agree That Plagiarism Is Bad

Institutions need to uphold standards. No exceptions.

www.persuasion.community

That's just an obvious list of words that describes obvious differences between student teachers. A fact is not copyright to any one person. Listing differences between students is hardly stealing someone else's ideas. You can tell it's unintentional because a cognisant cheat would at least change the word order and perhaps slip one in of their own. For example, 'ages'.

 

[Nessie]

So, don't report anything negative about anyone, any time, in case they kill themselves? This was a legitimate public-interest story, and these should not be buried just because the guilty party doesn't like the heat in the kitchen.

No. I have constantly commented on how the enquiry into his claims could be made, without contacting him. If, say, all contact had stopped as per his request and the stories then came out about his lies and deceptions and then he had killed himself, then the cause of death would be his inability to cope with being found out and it would not be on those reporting what he had done.

 

[Elaedith]

No. I have constantly commented on how the enquiry into his claims could be made, without contacting him. If, say, all contact had stopped as per his request and the stories then came out about his lies and deceptions and then he had killed himself, then the cause of death would be his inability to cope with being found out and it would not be on those reporting what he had done.

I don't think you have established that unwanted contact was a factor. The only evidence you have given is that he aggressively tried to shut down questions about his work before the media attention started (which just made things worse in the long run).

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

All irrelevant.

You moved the goalposts on @d4m10n's post, and you got caught. Own it!

Kinda, but also kinda more of an an own goal. His speciality BEING in education actually moves most of those claims from spurious to actually relevant. It's basically the difference between some random clown claiming to have cured 30 cases of cancer with aromatic oils in a month, and a professor of medicine making the same claims. The latter SHOULD raise questions from the university employing him, and even the public at large.

 

[d4m10n]

That's just an obvious list of words that describes obvious differences between student teachers.

Yes, that particular sentence is vacuous in addition to being wholly unoriginal.

A fact is not copyright to any one person.

The fact that individuals each have their own unique experiences, abilities, beliefs, etc. can safely be assumed as background knowledge by anyone who reads university theses; this sentence is just padding the word count.

Listing differences between students is hardly stealing someone else's ideas.

For ◊◊◊◊◊ sake, it's straight up copypasta. I've seen prep school students disciplined for this sort of thing.

You can tell it's unintentional because a cognisant cheat would at least change the word order and perhaps slip one in of their own.

Did you even glance at the Turnitin report? That's what Arday did throughout.

You should just admit that Liverpool John Moores University dropped the ball on this one.

 

[Vixen]

So, don't report anything negative about anyone, any time, in case they kill themselves? This was a legitimate public-interest story, and these should not be buried just because the guilty party doesn't like the heat in the kitchen.

Surely you get that some individuals are in a very vulnerable place. For example, accused of serious crime or misdemeanour...not everyone can stay calm and composed under intense situations, exacerbated by headline news in the mass media and especially opinion pieces by vicious 'Glenda Slagg'-types who can get away with near libel by calling it 'honest opinion' (ha ha). You saw how Caroline Flack and Dr. David Kelly reacted, and the Fire Chief Officer who was exposed as never having completed his claimed MBA. These should be matters for the courts or the HR departments, not a tearing down the character of private individuals. In many European countries they'd all be protected by strict personal privacy laws.

Now think about the vulnerable. An autistic person can go into an immense 'melt down' in stressful situations. We can all think of a workplace situation that caused immense stress or a shopping encounter that ended in a row or your kid goes missing, albeit momentarily. Multiply that feeling a hundred times: a hack from TES is writing an article about how two of your lines in an essay were 'lifted'. For an autistic person this intense criticism can be like an earthquake to the very core of their self. Their fight-or-flight response is way way over the top. They feel they are in great danger and look for escape (=law suit letter). Arday's close acquaintance saw the state Arday was in; literally having a nervous breakdown (like Flack or Kelly) at the intense negative press focus. Yet the hack believed HE was the one being wronged. Zero insight into WHY the police asked him to back off. That's not a threat to the hack, it's a polite but stern request.

 

[Rolfe]

No. I have constantly commented on how the enquiry into his claims could be made, without contacting him. If, say, all contact had stopped as per his request and the stories then came out about his lies and deceptions and then he had killed himself, then the cause of death would be his inability to cope with being found out and it would not be on those reporting what he had done.

The cause of his death WAS his inability to cope with being found out. It absolutely is not on those reporting on what he did.

Well, that, plus I strongly suspect, an element of "you'll all be sorry when I'm dead", and he was savvy enough to realise that his suicide might well accomplish exactly what it seems to have accomplished in many people's eyes - turn him into a martyr who was driven to his death by a hostile world.

 

[Rolfe]

Surely you get that some individuals are in a very vulnerable place. For example, accused of serious crime or misdemeanour...not everyone can stay calm and composed under intense situations, exacerbated by headline news in the mass media and especially opinion pieces by vicious 'Glenda Slagg'-types who can get away with near libel by calling it 'honest opinion' (ha ha). You saw how Caroline Flack and Dr. David Kelly reacted, and the Fire Chief Officer who was exposed as never having completed his claimed MBA. These should be matters for the courts or the HR departments, not a tearing down the character of private individuals. In many European countries they'd all be protected by strict personal privacy laws.

Now think about the vulnerable. An autistic person can go into an immense 'melt down' in stressful situations. We can all think of a workplace situation that cause immense stress or a shopping encounter that ended in a row or your kid goes missing, albeit momentarily. Multiply that feeling a hundred times: a hack from TES is writing an article about how two of your lines in an essay were 'lifted'. For an autistic person this intense criticism can be like an earthquake to the very core of their self. Their fight-or-flight response is way way over the top. They feel they are in great danger and look for escape (=law suit letter). Arday's close acquaintance saw the state Arday was in; literally having a nervous breakdown (like Flack or Kelly) at the intense negative press focus. Yet the hack believed HE was the one being wronged. Zero insight into WHY the police asked him to back off. That's not a threat to the hack, it's a polite but stern request.

Again you entirely fail to understand the timeline. There was no public scrutiny on him when he reported the retired academic to the police for a couple of polite emails. When the THE was preparing its article about him there was no public scrutiny on him. He set Carter Ruck on them, got the story pulled, and reported the journalist to the police. He was not having a nervous breakdown then. He was a fraudster using every heavy-handed means at his disposal to prevent the story of his fraudulent activities becoming a matter of public scrutiny.

And he wasn't autistic either.

Nor was he a private individual. He positively basked in the extensive, adulatory coverage he got as the black Wunderkind professor, editing the Today programme and so on. The revisionism surrounding all this is ridiculous.

 

[Vixen]

The cause of his death WAS his inability to cope with being found out. It absolutely is not on those reporting on what he did.

Well, that, plus I strongly suspect, an element of "you'll all be sorry when I'm dead", and he was savvy enough to realise that his suicide might well accomplish exactly what it seems to have accomplished in many people's eyes - turn him into a martyr who was driven to his death by a hostile world.

It can be true that a person with a psychopathic personality disorder might commit suicide as a defiant reckless act. I am not seeing that Arday has done anything that could be classed as socially transgressive. OK so not properly ascribing credit in a research paper could be seen as immoral but hardly uncommon or a crime (in any case Arday was cleared and his PhD stands). So he may have exaggerated how many marathons he ran in X months. Again hardly a criminal offence or even proven.

IMV his apparent suicide followed an intense pile on of over 230 articles in mainstream newspapers including the TIMES EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT and stiff 'desist' letters from him. He has two young children, I believe separated from his partner, with hints of his being gay (so what?). It does sound like he was in a very dark place, with his career ruined, and his academic reputation in shreds.

Let's be clear: this is no alleged murderer, rapist or paedophile, just someone considered as kind and gentle by his colleagues.