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Merged Arday life and death

theprestige said:
Given what we now know, this makes the body that awarded it look bad, rather than making him look good.

Here's a thread from r/professors where everyone agrees that Arday's awarding body is a crap school that gives its student crap outcomes:

https://www.reddit.com/r/UniUK/comments/1veinaa/can_anyone_comment_on_jason_ardays_teaching

I think their opinions are at least as authoritative as yours.
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The one disgruntled guy on Reddit, who only jumped on the bandwagon because of the pile-on, is bitter he got 70% instead of the 75% he claims he should have got. Sample size n = 1.

Cue Suella Braverman to tweet she had written to Cambridge to demand they refund all Arday's students.

Braverman's parents were thrown out of Uganda by Idi Amin for not being African but South Asian. Braverman revels in culture wars so one could question her political motivation. She's now in far right Reform.
 
W.D.Clinger said:
Rather than break this into separate misstatements, my responses are color-coded to the highlighting.



The "levels of running" claimed by Arday are certainly unusual, and I have seen no evidence that any experienced runners would consider 30 marathons in 35 days to be remotely usual. Such a thing is possible, but extremely unusual.

The modern standard for a marathon distance is 42.195 kilometers, approximately 26.22 miles. That standard was set in 1921, based upon a precedent established by the 1908 Olympics. The very first marathon race was held in 1896, as a qualifying race for the first Olympic marathon (also in 1896), covering 40 kilometers (24.85 miles). That race (and by extension all subsequent marathon races) was inspired by the legend of a Greek messenger who was said to have run from Marathon to Athens to warn the Athenians or to announce the Greek victory at Marathon (accounts vary); by some accounts, the messenger collapsed and died immediately after delivering his message. Note that his grueling run from Marathon to Athens was not a race; it was in the mode of military communications at the time.

It seems very likely that Arday suffered one or more minor injuries, such as severe cramps or shin splints, and those minor injuries somehow got exaggerated into a hairline fracture or stress fracture. The alleged swelling of his leg to twice its normal size must have been a similar gross exaggeration (inasmuch as the claim is contradicted by photographs). As to whether those exaggerations were "likely simple confusion," I think that's going to have to remain a matter of opinion.
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The GUARDIAN itself stated they checked with runners who said it was perfectly doable.
 
steenkh said:
That is exactly what I was saying. Over a hundred unattributed direct quotes were accepted as an honest error. Apparently, it could have happened to anyone.
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Arday was dyslexic and 12 were repetitions of the same source. It made up about 4% of a 400-page thesis. Cofnas just had it in for him.

If the examination board who investigated it cleared him then that is the official situation and the doctorate stands.
 
Interesting story in ILTA-SANOMAT of 36-year-old Rauli, whose epileptic seizure turned out to be caused by a brain tumour (-glioma) which was treated by removal. (It's in Finnish but you can click 'translate to English'.)

Rauli, 36, luuli tapelleensa yöllä – Totuus oli paljon pahempi https://share.google/xDn4xeHLzsq2jBM5K

The cause of the astonishing symptom was revealed to be an epileptic seizure. The seizure was caused by a tumor in the cortex of the brain. The doctors decided that the tumor would be removed soon.
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So it's not such a tall story that Arday's brain tumour was similar.

The hacks have no access to his medical records. It would be illegal. It is utterly irresponsible of them to claim he faked his medical symptoms.
 
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smartcooky said:
Someone earlier put up Spencer Matthews for comparison with Arday's claimed efforts. but there is no comparison.

Matthews completed his 30 marathons in 30 days which were organized BY a charity (and officially timed because he was going for a Guinness record) across the Jordanian desert (in 40°C heat) in roughly 4 to 5 hours each day with his final 30th marathon taking 4 hours and 17 minutes. He also has a sub 3 hour recorded time for the Toyko marathon. Matthews is an accomplished endurance athlete and long-distance runner. He holds multiple Guinness World Records for extreme long-distance running and endurance feats.
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He was put up by me as an example of the word marathon being used for a race by a single person.
 
Thinking about it, what differentiates it for me is that I'd expect someone "running a marathon" to be trying for the fastest time they can achieve, whether or not they're running an actual race. Otherwise I'd have said "running the marathon distance" or something like that. Yes, I know, Eddie Izzard, but he was absolutely above board about what he was doing, nobody thought he was going for a personal best.
 
Rolfe said:
Thinking about it, what differentiates it for me is that I'd expect someone "running a marathon" to be trying for the fastest time they can achieve, whether or not they're running an actual race.
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Why would you expect that?

People often run marathons without trying to run the fastest time they can achieve. Some people do it for fun. They are called fun runners. Some people even dress up in weird costumes as well.

Some people even run marathons as part of training for ultras, and yes, that often involves running by themselves with no attempt to run as fast as possible.
 
Vixen said:
Arday was dyslexic
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How on earth is that supposed to be relevant?? I've gone to college and uni with up to several people with dyslexia, none of them ever had any problems citing sources. Do you even know what dyslexia is (as manifested in geopositioned exams at 1 psi atmospheric pressure, with line of sight to the Moon)?
 
Vixen said:
The one disgruntled guy on Reddit, who only jumped on the bandwagon because of the pile-on, is bitter he got 70% instead of the 75% he claims he should have got. Sample size n = 1.

Cue Suella Braverman to tweet she had written to Cambridge to demand they refund all Arday's students.

Braverman's parents were thrown out of Uganda by Idi Amin for not being African but South Asian. Braverman revels in culture wars so one could question her political motivation. She's now in far right Reform.
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Cambridge should refund his students. Braverman and his parentage are both irrelevant.
 
lionking said:
Seriously, is there anything you are not an expert in? Suddenly you are an experienced long distance runner. You have expert knowledge of foot biology. I could go on.

The strong impression I get is that your google insights are extremely superficial and when you are found out by people who know what they are talking about, you deflect and put your fingers in your ears. It is extremely tiresome, frustrating and above all boring.
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As one of the participants in this thread once said "You can Google for information, but you can't Google for understanding"

In a more expanded form, there are certain aspects of any specialist trade or subject that come from experience and practical understanding that you are very unlikely to find in a Google search.
 
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