Merged Arday life and death

[Vixen]

In case somebody doesn't remember who Charles Murray is:
Charles Murray: Research (Wikipedia)

'Academic freedom?'
No, not really. It's just Murray defending one of his fans.

Charles "Bell Curve" Murray, who thinks single mothers are to blame for society's ills. Yes, I read it, keeping up with what's new in Psychology; it really was more to do with political formulation rather than science. Awful tripe masquerading as fact.

 

[Vixen]

This tweeter here shows that Arday DID run 30-day marathons, did raise money for charities, such as Shelter. His records show he did it at the time. In addition, on Day 19, something did happen that stopped his participation that day, although he doesn't explicitly state he had a seizure or hairline fracture

https://twitter.com/x/status/2091123932678213664

Further to this, whilst Arday lectured at Durham Uni - top red brick - Arday helped secure funding via his Sociology Department of £2.5m for community sports programmes.

In addition, with his verified up to £100K raised personally; together with the 100-person syndicate he was in, the '$5m' he boasted at a uni conference in the USA might not have been so 'fabulist', after all. At today's f/x rates, that converts to US$4m.

 

[angrysoba]

This tweeter here shows that Arday DID run 30-day marathons, did raise money for charities, such as Shelter. His records show he did it at the time. In addition, on Day 19, something did happen that stopped his participation that day, although he doesn't explicitly state he had a seizure or hairline fracture

https://twitter.com/x/status/2091123932678213664

Further to this, whilst Arday lectured at Durham Uni - top red brick - Arday helped secure funding via his Sociology Department of £2.5m for community sports programmes.

In addition, with his verified up to £100K raised personally; together with the 100-person syndicate he was in, the '$5m' he boasted at a uni conference in the USA might not have been so 'fabulist', after all. At today's f/x rates, that converts to US$4m.

I mentioned before that I was open-minded about him running those marathons.

I also dug up some of those blog posts in the thread and posted about them here which I consider to be much better evidence than the articles in the paper. She seems to have found more than I had, particularly with pictures.

I’m more dubious about the hairline fracture from marathon 20 onwards. I can’t say what that would be like because I have never had an injury like that, but most independent sources that I have seen are skeptical to say the least and claim he would be in a lot of pain.

That’s the problem, as I mentioned before. Claims that seem reasonable and believable often seem to come with an extra unlikely twist.

But sure, on balance I think he ran the marathons. I am a bit surprised we haven’t seen more people posting “I ran with Jason, here are my pictures.” Etc…

 

[Rolfe]

"Ran a marathon" and "jogged for 27 miles" have a slightly different ring to them. But it's true, much of what he said seems to have had a basis in fact and then have been subjected to layers of embroidering. I'm much more interested in the medical claims, from the alleged autism to the alleged locked-in syndrome.

 

[Vixen]

I mentioned before that I was open-minded about him running those marathons.

I also dug up some of those blog posts in the thread and posted about them here which I consider to be much better evidence than the articles in the paper. She seems to have found more than I had, particularly with pictures.

I’m more dubious about the hairline fracture from marathon 20 onwards. I can’t say what that would be like because I have never had an injury like that, but most independent sources that I have seen are skeptical to say the least and claim he would be in a lot of pain.

That’s the problem, as I mentioned before. Claims that seem reasonable and believable often seem to come with an extra unlikely twist.

But sure, on balance I think he ran the marathons. I am a bit surprised we haven’t seen more people posting “I ran with Jason, here are my pictures.” Etc…

I used to go jogging around Regent's Park with a seasoned runner, who said she got shin splints all the time. It's very common in runners. You can see that a friend of his who came to Arday's defence 4 Aug when the TIMES TES ran the first story, that she was there when Arday had a seizure in her office.

Anyway why would anyone care, other than to undermine him as trustworthy or 'real'.

 

[Vixen]

"Ran a marathon" and "jogged for 27 miles" have a slightly different ring to them. But it's true, much of what he said seems to have had a basis in fact and then have been subjected to layers of embroidering. I'm much more interested in the medical claims, from the alleged autism to the alleged locked-in syndrome.

I worked for a registered charity and I can assure you fundraising was a central preoccupation. In order to encourage more or continued fundraising you literally have to brag - without lying - of how much you've raised in your annual financial statements (plus of course, charity financial reporting is regulated as needing to spell out what happened to donations).

Every fundraiser knows that bragging about how much you've raised causes a wave of impetuous enthusiasm amongst your supporters to raise even more.

I also worked for a City accountancy firm that was Top 50 in Charity Accounting and all us staff had to spend a day doing hands-on charity work every year. It was fun and it looked good in their brochure; a bunch of largely hurray Henry's and Henrietta's (not me!) getting down and dirty in deprived areas of the East End tidying up graveyards or helping renovate crumbling schools.

 

[Rolfe]

The Maoist lunacy of the Jason Arday cult

Journalists are being forced to engage in struggle sessions for the sin of criticising Arday. It’s obscene.

www.spiked-online.com

 

[theprestige]

Anyway why would anyone care, other than to undermine him as trustworthy or 'real'.

Your causality is reversed.

First it is discovered that he is untrustworthy in some things. This prompts a review of the other sensational claims he's made over time. This then reveals that he's untrustworthy about everything, and always has been. And when someone is being celebrated by a prestigious university as a paragon of academic virtue, caring about how untrustworthy he is about everything is a reasonable reaction.

Nobody cares about his alleged casual marathon hobby in vacuo. Nobody would have batted an eye if that was the only claim he ever made. Nobody besides his friends and fellow runners would have even noticed the claim (I don't know, maybe some of them would have batted an eye). It's only after Oxbridge put him on a pedestal, shone a spotlight on him, and invited the world to examine his life and times, did anyone notice the marathon claim and all the other sensational claims in his bio and CV.

It's the pedestal and the spotlight, conferred by a supposedly trustworthy and conscientious institution, on a patently unqualified and undeserving individual, that people care about. The details of his fabulism are just that - details.

 

[Elaedith]

I worked for a registered charity and I can assure you fundraising was a central preoccupation. In order to encourage more or continued fundraising you literally have to brag - without lying - of how much you've raised in your annual financial statements (plus of course, charity financial reporting is regulated as needing to spell out what happened to donations).

Every fundraiser knows that bragging about how much you've raised causes a wave of impetuous enthusiasm amongst your supporters to raise even more.

I also worked for a City accountancy firm that was Top 50 in Charity Accounting and all us staff had to spend a day doing hands-on charity work every year. It was fun and it looked good in their brochure; a bunch of largely hurray Henry's and Henrietta's (not me!) getting down and dirty in deprived areas of the East End tidying up graveyards or helping renovate crumbling schools.

How extraordinary then that all the other members of the syndicate that were alleged to have collaborated to raise these millions of pounds signed non-disclosure agreements.

 

[Vixen]

The Maoist lunacy of the Jason Arday cult

Journalists are being forced to engage in struggle sessions for the sin of criticising Arday. It’s obscene.

www.spiked-online.com

Quote from the article:

It won’t be long before we see Guardian scribes and Dalston’s ironic communists sporting cardboard placards saying: ‘I once spoke ill of St Jason.’ Bastani’s heresy, committed before Arday’s tragic death, was to say he watched one of Arday’s lectures and thought it was ◊◊◊◊. The guy’s a ‘conman’, he said. Most normal people will think this a perfectly reasonable critique. But to the post-normal left it was sacrilege of murderous proportions.

I am not sure why Bastani's remorse after hearing of Arday's death is anything to mock. It shows how easy it is to tear someone's reputation to pieces forgetting that that person might be humanly vulnerable and deeply hurt.

I learnt that lesson (sorry to keep providing analogies) when at a football match, we once had a new player, who replaced a player who had been very popular with the fans. So we were all singing a 'witty' song in the fashion of football fans about how useless this new guy was, when I noticed a stricken look cross his face. He left the club next day. I was dumbstruck with remorse as I knew I had been part of his departure as our eyes fleetingly locked and I saw his expression. Even now I go hot with regret that I could have been so unwittingly cruel, when at the time it seemed like 'just a bit' of crowd-following fun.

So yes, I think a lot of the journalists who joined in with tearing down Arday as a rubbish professor will now be reflecting on what they did. The first guy was told by police to desist and he even turned that into a grievance article.

 

[W.D.Clinger]

I’m more dubious about the hairline fracture from marathon 20 onwards. I can’t say what that would be like because I have never had an injury like that, but most independent sources that I have seen are skeptical to say the least and claim he would be in a lot of pain.

That, I think, is the least plausible part of his marathon claims. (Which is saying something.)

I ran my first marathon in less than three hours. Six weeks before what was to have been my second marathon, I went out for a 22-mile run. My foot didn't feel right, and I knew something was wrong within the first quarter mile, but I pushed on and completed the run. The next day, I could hardly walk. It was two weeks before I could resume training, but could run only short distances, much slower than before. That's what a hairline fracture is like.

I used to go jogging around Regent's Park with a seasoned runner, who said she got shin splints all the time. It's very common in runners.

Shin splints are inflammation. They can lead to stress fractures, but they are not stress fractures. Stress fractures are far worse than shin splints.

 

[Vixen]

How extraordinary then that all the other members of the syndicate that were alleged to have collaborated to raise these millions of pounds all signed non-disclosure agreements.

Not really. Many people who give to charity prefer anonymity. Why should Arday have been expected to name them by hostile hacks?

BTW £2.5m refers to funds secured at Durham uni by his department and £100,000 definitely verified by hacks, which brings it to at least $4m on Arday's own account. The other members of the 100-person syndicate might well make up the remaining million or so. It is a reasonable estimate based on his own fundraising via running.

 

[Darat]

"Ran a marathon" and "jogged for 27 miles" have a slightly different ring to them. But it's true, much of what he said seems to have had a basis in fact and then have been subjected to layers of embroidering. I'm much more interested in the medical claims, from the alleged autism to the alleged locked-in syndrome.

Spencer Matthews ran 30 marathons in 30 days across the Jordanian desert for charity. I am sure those weren't 30 organised mass marathons arranged across the Jordanian desert! Eddie Izzard ran 43 marathons in 51 days across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales and ran 27 marathons in 27 days in South Africa

It seems quite common to call what he did "marathons".

 

[smartcooky]

This tweeter here shows that Arday DID run 30-day marathons, did raise money for charities, such as Shelter. His records show he did it at the time. In addition, on Day 19, something did happen that stopped his participation that day, although he doesn't explicitly state he had a seizure or hairline fracture

Yeah, nah

A marathon is "a long-distance foot race over a distance of 26 miles, 385 yards". The emphasis here being that it is a RACE, an organized event open to competitors, with with race numbers, a start and finish line and timing.

What its not is a get-together with a few mates and going for a casual jog, any more than my daily 5km dog walk around the local beach circuit is a 5,000m race.

Further to this, whilst Arday lectured at Durham Uni - top red brick - Arday helped secure funding via his Sociology Department of £2.5m for community sports programmes.

In addition, with his verified up to £100K raised personally; together with the 100-person syndicate he was in, the '$5m' he boasted at a uni conference in the USA might not have been so 'fabulist', after all. At today's f/x rates, that converts to US$4m.

Again -Yeah, nah

His claim was that he personally raised £5.5. That claim was FALSE.

When that claim came under media scrutiny, he walked it back, telling The Guardian that he raised this money collectively over two decades with a "syndicate" of about 100 people. Of course, he could not name any of the 100 other members due to non-disclosure agreements. Yeah, right. .. and surprise, surprise, none of these alleged 100 sydicate membrs have come forward to back up his claim. I'm shocked it tell you, shocked!!

But hey, I will be manning a desk in a local mall this coming Friday for the Daffodil Day Appeal (Cancer Society of New Zealand). I did it last year too, and NZ$3.3 million was raised. Maybe I should "pull an Arday" and claim that I personally raised that.

Arday also claimed to have done volunteer and relief work in Brazil—specifically installing water pumps, with the international charity WaterAid. This was yet another lie... the problem being that WaterAid has publicly disputed this claim, stating that they never send volunteers abroad. Oops!

Meanwhile, Simon & Schuster the publisher of his memoir, Great and Unfortunate Things, removed the specific "£5.5 million" and marathon figures from his online biography almost a year ago, before the scandal even broke. They understood he was a cheat, a liar and a fraud long before anyone else seemed to notice.

 

[smartcooky]

Spencer Matthews ran 30 marathons in 30 days across the Jordanian desert for charity. I am sure those weren't 30 organised mass marathons arranged across the Jordanian desert! Eddie Izzard ran 43 marathons in 51 days across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales and ran 27 marathons in 27 days in South Africa

It seems quite common to call what he did "marathons".

Well, this WAS in fact an organized event. It was called The Global Desert Challenge - organised by a charity called Global's Make Some Noise, which supports small UK charities providing vital community services

Matthews also has a record of running marathons and long distance endurance events such as triathlobns

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

I’m more dubious about the hairline fracture from marathon 20 onwards. I can’t say what that would be like because I have never had an injury like that, but most independent sources that I have seen are skeptical to say the least and claim he would be in a lot of pain.

I've never had an actual bone fracture myself (outside of a broken toe, which hurt like hell to even walk,) but I did have a broken menisc... twice. It hurt like the seventh circle of HELL to even just hobble along, much less run. My brother had some cracked hand bones. That was him down for the count. He couldn't even use that hand for the next month or two, according to himself. Keep putting more force on it for 5 hours a day? HA HA HA. No, didn't happen.

 

[Vixen]

Yeah, nah

A marathon is "a long-distance foot race over a distance of 26 miles, 385 yards". The emphasis here being that it is a RACE, an organized event open to competitors, with with race numbers, a start and finish line and timing.

What its not is a get-together with a few mates and going for a casual jog, any more than my daily 5km dog walk around the local beach circuit is a 5,000m race.


Again -Yeah, nah

His claim was that he personally raised £5.5. That claim was FALSE.

When that claim came under media scrutiny, he walked it back, telling The Guardian that he raised this money collectively over two decades with a "syndicate" of about 100 people. Of course, he could not name any of the 100 other members due to non-disclosure agreements. Yeah, right. .. and surprise, surprise, none of these alleged 100 sydicate membrs have come forward to back up his claim. I'm shocked it tell you, shocked!!

But hey, I will be manning a desk in a local mall this coming Friday for the Daffodil Day Appeal (Cancer Society of New Zealand). I did it last year too, and NZ$3.3 million was raised. Maybe I should "pull an Arday" and claim that I personally raised that.

Arday also claimed to have done volunteer and relief work in Brazil—specifically installing water pumps, with the international charity WaterAid. This was yet another lie... the problem being that WaterAid has publicly disputed this claim, stating that they never send volunteers abroad. Oops!

Meanwhile, Simon & Schuster the publisher of his memoir, Great and Unfortunate Things, removed the specific "£5.5 million" and marathon figures from his online biography almost a year ago, before the scandal even broke. They understood he was a cheat, a liar and a fraud long before anyone else seemed to notice.

The following is factual:

At Durham, Arday conceived and developed Pro:NE, a project to run events, training and workshops that would encourage people of colour to enter academia across North East England. Operating in collaboration with five other universities in the region, it secured £2.5 million of funding

Jason Arday - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[theprestige]

Five colleges worked together to get grants of half a million pounds each, on a race based services scheme?

Of course Arday was involved.

 

[Emily's Cat]

Then the distinction doesn't hold!

No idea! It's something of a meaningless question anyway.

Okay, I don't see a difference between what you wrote here and "We don't know exactly how many hairs constitute a beard, therefore it's meaningless to talk about beards at all".

I believe there's a name for that.

Again, I have no idea. I have not heard anyone say that. The closest is you.

Yes, pretty trivially true. Few dispute that if you look at things from different angles they look different. But if that is the point you are making it is not really that interesting, is it?

Exactly as I have said. Then you said some things are not demonstrable. Which is not that interesting either. We don't know what Louis XVI's thought was and have no way of knowing that. But that is not really what is meant when we do history.

Exactly.

?

I know.

I know.

*Sigh* If we're in agreement... why does it feel like you're giving me grief and arguing with me?

Are we in passionate agreement?

 

[Emily's Cat]

Oh, he'll be having a snarky swipe at me (as usual).

I said that Sociology is a Mickey Mouse degree - he just exaggerated what I said beyond all reason.

I mean, I think sociology is a relatively easy degree to get, and that it isn't as stringent and rigorous as math, physics, chemistry, engineering, etc. Which is what I've always understood the term "Mickey Mouse" to mean.

At best, it lacks veneration for a field, I guess? I would speculate that they think it implies contempt or a lack of value for the study itself? That would be silly, but I do kind of think that's what's going on. I mean, I can kind of see where someone would take that as insulting if their field of study is the most dominant aspect of their identity.

I mean, seriously. Becoming a plumber is a relatively easy thing to do compared to becoming a physicist. But I'm a massive advocate for the skilled trades - they're lucrative and they're unlikely to be replaced by AI or robotics in the near future. They've got the best future, there's always a need, and they're needed everywhere. You're not tied to any particular geographic area - it's not like only cities need plumbers - anywhere people live is someplace they're needed. And to have a solid income that's damned near recession and technology proof, you don't even to be a Master Tradesman - you can be an apprentice along with an array of related trade knowledge, and be a general handyman for a little town in the mountains, or on a reservation, or in a remote research station if you really like solitude.