Interesting Links for 27-08-2015

[andrewducker]

• Why Do Colleges Give Out “Honorary” Degrees? (Spoilers: For money and publicity)
  • (tags: money academia )
• BBC deprivation study made people change their views on the licence fee: "Being without the BBC was absolutely dreadful"
  • (tags: bbc money )
• I just back Divinity: Original Sin 2 on Kickstarter. (And I am _very_ excited about that)
  • (tags: games

Comments

[bart_calendar]

I'm getting progressively more and more dubious about the Ashley Madison hack and data dump

[gonzo21]

The hackers potentially weeded out female accounts and tucked them away for potential blackmail?

'Hi, we've hacked your Ashley madison account, we know you're cheating on your husband, send us nude pictures or we will tell him.'

It is deeply anomalous numbers though. Really strange. Does seem like almost the whole website was a giant scam.

[cmcmck]

Ooh! Don't get me going on honorary degrees!

I have a collection of six grad and postgrad quals all of which I earned the hard way and I find this stuff so belittling and devaluing!

Dr Ralph Vaughan Williams impressed me even more when I found out that he had turned down every possible title and honorary as he felt his doctorate was the only one he'd actually earned. It's why he was never 'Sir' or MBE, or Master of the King's Music or such.

[makyo]

In some cases it's difficult to see what real difference there is between an honorary and a substantive degree. For example, the lexicographer Samuel Johnson was awarded a couple of honorary doctorates by (I think) Oxford and Dublin, in recognition for a major work of scholarship that was at least on a par with most of those written by contemporaries with substantive doctorates. And several years ago, my university gave an honorary DSc to Andrew Wiles in recognition of his proof of the Taniyama-Shimura Conjecture (and, as a corollary, Fermat's Last Theorem). I submit that there isn't a university in the world that wouldn't have given him a substantive DSc if he'd formally submitted his work through the normal procedures, so I'm not sure there's much real difference there. There are also many cases of eminent authors being given honorary DLitts in recognition of their combined literary works, and again I don't have a problem with that

[cmcmck]

Oh I'd agree with you that offering a degree to someone who's done the work but not submitted it for examination is a whole 'nother kettle o' fish. A friend of mine had her research stolen (by a senior academic yet) and was given an aegrotat masters degree on the basis of what she'd done and was known to have done.

I only got as far as MA as I needed to start earning back in the delightful Thatcher era but other half has a doctorate and I make damn sure he uses the title! That said, I hate it when his German colleagues call me 'Frau Doktor'- it guarantees that I'll point out that I am, in fact, Frau Magister!

Those peers you mention were often making sizeable donations to whatever college they 'attended'.

I think they call it mutual dorsal friction! :o)

[makyo]

A friend of mine had her research stolen (by a senior academic yet)
Gosh, that's awful - was the thief ever brought to justice?

I make damn sure he uses the title!
Quite right. I've got one or two friends with PhDs whose credit cards still said "Mr" or "Ms" a few years afterwards; they said "yeah, I never got around to changing it" when I remarked on it. Whereas I went straight from the graduation ceremony to the campus branch of my bank, still wearing the robes and the hat, to change the title on my bank account. (And well done on getting your MA despite the best efforts of Thatcher and her heirs - I had to fund myself through my MSc and PhD, and it took quite a bit of determination and careful budgeting.)

Those peers you mention were often making sizeable donations to whatever college they 'attended'.Yes, certainly the tuition and residence fees for noblemen were usually substantially higher than those for ordinary undergraduates (commoners, pensioners, sizars, etc) and the intermediate class of Gentleman Commoners or Fellow

[momentsmusicaux]

Buying Lego boxes (or any other toy in fact) and just keeping them pristine, unopened, possibly even still shrinkwrapped, for years, seems profoundly depressing do me. It's just accumulating arbitrary STUFF because you think it'll be worth more in the future.

[andrewducker]

I agree. It's totally against the point of toys.

(Which was the moral of Toy Story 2!)

[momentsmusicaux]

I've barely seen TS1!

[ckd]

Yup. See Toy Story 2.

[gonzo21]

I suppose that Ashley Madison data almost completely exonerates any guys who have been caught on there, as the chances of actually having a hook-up are virtually zero.

(Notwithstanding the escorts who almost certainly were the main female users.)

[davesmusictank]

I really hate the idea of honorary degrees having worked so hard to get just one.