Students do the work that the bloated school board can’t do
Bobo sends us a link to the Washington Post story about a group of high school students who did a better job of checking the background of their principal than the local school board did;
A group of reporters and editors from the student newspaper, the Booster Redux at Pittsburg High School in southeastern Kansas, had gathered to talk about Amy Robertson, who was hired as the high school’s head principal on March 6.
The student journalists had begun researching Robertson, and quickly found some discrepancies in her education credentials. For one, when they researched Corllins University, the private university where Robertson said she got her master’s and doctorate degrees years ago, the website didn’t work. They found no evidence that it was an accredited university.
So they interviewed the principal and she resigned the next day. The students’ advisor had to recuse herself from the investigation because she had been on the hiring committee which green lighted Robertson.
When contacted by the Kansas City Star after the publication of the students’ article, Robertson said all three of her degrees “have been authenticated by the U.S. government.” She declined to comment directly on students’ questions about her credentials, “because their concerns are not based on facts,” she said.
In an emergency faculty meeting Tuesday, the superintendent said Robertson was unable to produce a transcript confirming her undergraduate degree from the University of Tulsa, Smith said.
I suspect that all of the students have been red-lined at Washington Post’s HR department. Can’t have people that properly do too much investigating on the Post’s staff.
Category: Dumbass Bullshit
Well, well, well; I never thought that I’d ever see anything like this.
Looks like what we have here is the phony high school principal version of Stolen Valor: claiming phony professional education credentials.
And it appears like there’s a phony high school principal equivalent of the Poser 101 checklist as well:
1) ‘When contacted by the Kansas City Star after the publication of the students’ article, Robertson said all three of her degrees “have been authenticated by the U.S. government.”’
2) ‘She declined to comment directly on students’ questions about her credentials, “because their concerns are not based on facts,” she said.’
Oh, OK. I’m sure that her records have been classified and sealed at the direction of the Secretary of Education, and only a unanimous ruling by SCOTUS can authorize their release.
I wonder if Ms. Robertson is going to ‘lawer’ up now?
And do you think that there may be a motorcycle and a leather vest adorned with phony sorority pins involved?
You have to laugh. She was out’d by the students. Maybe the whole School Board Administration should resign.
I guess it was too early for her to use “My records were destroyed in the fire” route.
OR the “My records are Classified” excuse.
The school board issued statements commending the students and explaining that they (the Board) usually do the credential checking later in the process.
They also committed to changing that to checking credentials before making hiring decisions.
One wonders who in their right mind doesn’t pre-screen applicants and their credentials for a job before doing the interviews, but…
One wonders if the board, in the past, has hired Chester the Molester. After all, they could have checked Chester’s credentials after he was on board.
It would not be the first time.
It should get all of us wondering about the hiring process in our local school districts… and how many Amy Robertson’ are out there in our schools/school districts.
The students info was not based on “facts” yet the phony bitch resigned immediately….dad burn it Vern! LOL
Not only resigned, but according to the news article I read, is now working in the United Arab Emirates! (Where she is conveniently not in touch to answer questions.)
Massive corruption at every level of government.
Then throw in affirmative action hires…
BAd mS RObErTsOn eXprInCIpLa.
Bad bad bad… What’s next? Someone selling guaranteed high SAT/ACT test scores?
These kids are too smart to work for any of the usual boondoggle corporations. They need jobs with real companies that will appreciate their ingenuity and due diligence, or maybe start their own companies.
Just let them run the school…probably end up the most honest,patriotic, professional school in the country!
Posers – military, educational, professional, etc. – are everywhere.
I remember that back in the mid ’90s the USCENTCOM history shop had brought aboard a reserve historian with a History PhD to serve on an extended active duty tour there to help with the writing of the USCENTCOM command history. The work he submitted was piss-poor unsat, and got the Command Historian wondering what was going on.
Some digging by the Command Historian revealed that the aforementioned individual’s PhD was purchased from a diploma mill and the guy was a charlatan. The poser was an O-5 who was up for O-6. Needless to say, he was not promoted, was kicked off his active duty tour, and was being investigated by his service for potential misconduct.
You can guess the moral of this story: DO NOT BE A POSER OF ANY KIND !
I was a Scout leader for some kids whose father was incarcerated.
When he got out he abandoned them and his wife (who’d moved from out of state to be near him), and purchased an “ordination” from some on-line “church” to “go into the ministry.”
To this day, if I could find that s.o.b. I’d beat him within an inch of his life. The kids had hell trying to grow up with that excuse for a father.
Posers come in all varieties.
On the other hand, -not- having that particular turd around the kids may have been a real break for -them-.
Yes. It was – except the deep desire kids have for having their father in their lives.
The S.O.B. Blue Falconed his own kids either way.
Blue Falcon?
Is that from the Air Force?
Buddy fucker would be Bravo Foxtrot in the Army….
All the services use Blue Falcon, it isn’t just an air force thing. But Buddy Fucker does get used by all as well.
Yep. “Blue Falcon” is the preferred version in “polite” company. (smile)
Sometimes “buddy” is half of a word. As is “mother”.
Yeh, I remember that “church”…”Universal Life Church”, a friend of mind send in an application for ordination on his cat, it came back, Reverend Samuel C. Grayback…..LOL…
Reminds me of a story about Australia…an amateur archeologist found some amazing artifacts that shot the shyt out of the elites evolution crap, so the University sent a clown out to say all the info was wrong…..the clown was an Art Major LOL….phony basards EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK ANYMORE!
“In light of the issues that arose, Dr. Robertson felt it was in the best interest of the district to resign her position. The Board has agreed to accept her resignation.”
That’s from the current posting on the district’s website. Note that they refer to her as “Dr.” and never hint at “the issues that arose.” The entire statement consisted of five sentences. What assholes. I’d like to take a look at Robertson’s cv to see where she claimed to have taught previously and what her doctoral research contributed to the world. Cripes. And I’m sure the local paper reported what they were given w/o checking, just as the background investigator did. On the other hand, maybe the kid reporters will look into a connection between that investigator and Robertson. The adults certainly won’t. Everyone submits a transcript. Every. One. And it is never submitted by hand but directly from the degree was earned. On the other hand, we have Chevy Cheeseballs, himself a holder of a PhD you will recall. I wonder if Roberson sprung for the framed mail-order degree.
I’m sure Dennis Chevalier PhD could use another person on his staff in his never-ending quest to catch serial rapists! Is she single?
Remember… Dennis/Denny Chevalier got his from a diploma mill… $49.95 and three Kaboom! cereal box tops and he became a phony pee H dee!
NOW they need to investigate the “BOARD’…obvious some phonies there!!
Hey, kids! Keep digging!
You do not believe this is an -isolated- incident, right?
Always remember, the follow-through is -essential-.
Send these kids to interview Susan Rice..
Then they can interview Dan Rather.
Not so fast. She said she got her degrees at the online university and no-one is disputing that. So what is the beef? If the school board hired her knowing that then I don’t see what the problem is. She also said the degrees were earned before the school lost accreditation but unless people haven’t been paying attention, there is a big fight over accreditation by the agencies with some schools pulling out of “official accreditation” as the the agencies are essentially blackmailing the schools and forcing them to pay up for it or lose it.
That her degrees were not from an accredited university is the problem.
She is claiming that the place was accredited when she got her degrees, and most job descriptions (especially in education) specify that degrees must be from a university accredited by a specific set of accrediting agencies.
She applied, using degrees that were from a university which either had lost its accreditation, or was never accredited to begin with.
That there are issues with the accrediting process and/or some accrediting agencies is another issue – and at this point not a factor in this story.
If the position requires a degree from an accredited university, and she submitted degrees from an on-line degree mill, then she is ineligible.
The story lies in the fact that student reporters revealed this, and the school board acknowledged it.
Not so fast? Corlinns University has a FB page that hasn’t been updated in five or so years. Here is text from that page, verbatim:
“After the successful of Corllins University 4th Higher Education Summit, 2011, in Washington DC, We are proud to announce the 5th Edition of the Higher Education Summit (HES) 2012, the world’s premier platform on higher education thought leadership. Being jointly organised for the first time out of USA, to be as international even for our international students.
The summit shall be between 5-20 July 2012 in Paris – France. The Summit shall discuss the new challenges in highe…”
In addition to claiming a doctorate from that mail-order diploma mill, Corlinns, the students also questioned Ms. Robertson’s claim that she worked as an educational consultant. That isn’t detailed in the article but there must have been something there, too. One can imagine what Robertson deemed education consulting work. My guess is that a second grader in Dubai once asked her where the school bathroom is located. And then there’s Robertson’s response when asked by the Kansas City Star about the students’ investigative booty: all three of her degrees, she said, “have been authenticated by the U.S. government.” All three? That’s right. Even her having a BA/BS is in question. The article relates that she couldn’t provide a transcript for a 4-year degree, let alone the graduate degrees. Resignation hell. She ought to be prosecuted for fraud.
You do have to admit tho, that she does have a “B.S.” in degrees! lol l)
If I may for a moment, there is more to the Corllins University angle and Robertson’s leadership record.
According to the Kansas City Star, the government has no listing of a school by the name of Corllins University closing since 1986 and no indication that the school is in operation today.
That raises all sorts of red flags as to the school, its structure and even its existence beyond a website.
http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article142682464.html
Secondly, Robertson listed on her resume the
“American Scientific School” in Dubai. That stint didn’t turn out well.
http://www.dubaifaqs.com/dubai-american-scientific-school.php
There are holes big enough to sail an aircraft carrier through in this lady’s CV. The fact that she choose not to address those holes (which, as jonb points out could have been legitimate) and instead resigned sways most people to the side she was not truthful when she was hired.
Finally, I am not going to directly blame the School Board for this disaster. They had tasked the Human Resources Department to do a background check on Robertson. The School Board relied on that information and the HR Department failed.
The people who “vetted” Robertson should be fired because obviously, they did nothing and just passed her along.
So with her fake diploma she drove that school in to the ground. Impressive that someone could be that incompetent.
But she is a great democrat, with a deep understanding of the critical issues our yutes are facing these micro-violent days under this administration.
“[Superintendent Destry Brown] said the district relies on the Kansas Department of Education to approve a candidate’s credentials.”
So there are the culprits.
Seriously, who hires someone for a $93K–per-year job and THEN checks out their credentials?
Anybody bother to take a look at The University? Anyone remember how Obama forced ITT Tech out of business?
Look at their website. My second grader can do the same with fewer spelling and grammar errors. If that place ever gave out an earned graduate or post graduate degree, I’d be shocked.
A quick Google search for “diploma mills” plus “Corlins|Corllins” (this should be give an OR result regarding both of the terms included in the second set of quotation marks) yields numerous hits indicating Corlins/Corllins may well be a diploma mill. And there’s this from Wikipedia’s article on unaccredited universities:
Oregon in particular has issues with Corlins/Corllins. And you really have to wonder about an organization that uses multiple spellings of their own name.
My guess is that the term “diploma mill” is quite likely accurate.
Folks, I’m pointing out that there is a huge problem with the accreditation racket. It’s been a problem for a number of years. Just having a degree from a non-accredited university or college is not an indication of poor schooling. That the US Dept Of Education which never educated anyone does not accredit it does not mean it will not provide a good education. Many non-accredited schools on the federal level are state recognized. Many Theological Schools are not accredited. There are a number of Universities that are “government approved” but specific colleges within them are not such as The School of Communications at Ithaca which is one of the top in the Nation.
I was replying to your “did anyone look at the university” comment, jonp. The answer is yes, and it looks like this one (Corlins/Corllins) may well be a diploma mill.
FWIW: I’m pretty sure the regional accreditation bodies for higher education are private entities and that the Department of Education accredits no colleges or universities whatsoever. As I recall, even the Service Academies and War Colleges (as well as AFIT and NPS) are accredited as institutes of higher learning by organizations outside the Federal government.
No, lack of accreditation is not definitive proof that a college or university provides poor education, nor is accreditation a guarantee that a college or university is a good one. However, lack of accreditation should legitimately be considered an “amber flag” – since most if not all diploma mills are not accredited. Your chances of getting a substandard education – or of finding out that your degree isn’t acceptable for the job you want – are higher.
It’s rather like going to your best friend vice a lawyer for advice concerning a legal matter. You might get great legal advice from him, but my guess is you’re far more likely to get better legal advice from someone with a law degree who’s passed the bar exam and gotten his/her law license.
YMMV. Caveat emptor.
jonp,
I think I understand what you are saying.
However, it was Robertson who said the university was accredited by the Feds and not the state. Secondly, there is no record of the school closing and yet there doesn’t seem to be a real life brick and mortar building which is required for accreditation in every state in the union.
This ALL became a problem when our illustrious communist/dumocrap govt at the time decided you could not check the credentials of an applicant….opened the door to every kind of dumocrap fraud in the world….time to clean out a whole lot of bullshyt bills instituted! Get a HUGE dumpster and fill it up with bullshyt bills IMHO!
How many years do you have to be on here before every post IS NOT moderated? And does that mean they are not even posted? I have not seen even ONE RESPONSE to any of my posts….WTH goes on here? is this “free speech” according to Alfred E. Neuman?
The individual was notified of their termination, but by contract has 30 days to appea, and still be paid. As long as HR actually did their job correctly, that one is gone.
I have seen folks who were busted selling/buying prescription drugs on VA property not lose their job after HR screwed the pooch on their termination.
VA can fire, it’s too many protections for shitty employees, because other employees cannot do their jobs correctly.
As a “former” VA Employee I finally grew sick and tired of seeing the BS.
That said, I get amazing care at the VA by my providers. Non medical staff, that’s another story.
Someone with a Piled Higher-and-Deeper Degree from an unaccredited “University”, where have we seen that before? I hope word about her gets out far and wide, she belongs on a blacklist.
Time to fire the slugs that hired her. They were obviously either derelict in their duties or were in on it and knowingly hired her anyway.
And these are supposed professionals with higher education….
So there are stories that hit close to home…but for me this one is sitting on my kitchen table. I lived Pittsburg since I retired from the Air Force in 2014 and my daughter is in this journalism class. (She did NOT work on this story. But here is where I have to issue a Mea Culpa. I’ve been working as a reporter for the local news radio station since I finished gradute school last Fall. I saw the press release a few weeks ago where the school district dismissed the initial concerns about her credentials. I was busy, I was working on other stories. No excuse. I have busted people on this site. I researched posers for two years. I made a documentary. I should have been suspicious of inflated claims from bogus colleges. HELLO!!! Had I not heard of Dennis Chevalier? Glad these kids kept me and my local counterparts honest. Oh well to make up for it I’m working on a phony green beret who also thinks he’s a skilled politician….in reality he makes Flemron look legit.
So, in other words . . . the time demands of making a living caused you to overlook something you now wish you hadn’t missed.
I think that’s called “being human”. Don’t sweat it.
Congrats on the degree.
Hillsdale College refuses Federal funds of any type and so is not an accredited college. Anyone want to argue Dr. Larry Arn’s school will not provide an education on par with any school in the country?
Actually, multiple sources seem to indicate Hillsdale College in MI is indeed presently regionally accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
http://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/hillsdale-college/academic-life/accreditation/
http://www.hlcommission.org/component/directory/?Action=ShowBasic&Itemid=&instid=1330&lang=en
You may be thinking of the specific requirement that MI imposed on teacher training programs in 2007 that such teacher training programs be accredited by a national body such as the National Council of Accreditation for Teacher Education (which, by the way, isn’t part of the Federal government). That is a completely separate issue than Hillsdale’s overall academic accreditation. That appears to be what Hillsdale balked at doing: seeking national accreditation for their teacher training activities.
https://www.carolinajournal.com/news-article/hillsdale-college-resists-accreditation-organization/
Please advise if you have other information that shows my comment here is inaccurate.
Regionally, yes, but not Federally Accredited which is a different thing. Thank you for pointing out something I should have made clear.
The specific college accredation within a university is also something different as you point out. You could earn a degree from a University that is “accredited” but the college say, accounting, is not recognized by the standard board so it’s degree is not worth as much no matter what the school is. This is all a game, folks, to not only get money out of a University but to exert federal control by threatening to remove accreditation if the University doesn’t play ball.
jonp: You keep talking about “Federal accreditation”. Not sure what you mean. Don’t think such a thing exists for US colleges and universities. National accreditations are not issued by the Federal government. They’re issued by private entities. Ditto regional accreditations. The Department of Education does not accredit any colleges or universities. What they do is evaluate and maintain a list of accreditation authorities that the Secretary of Education has found to be reliable in assessing the quality of higher education provided by institutions. That’s been a legal requirement since the passage of the Higher Education Act of 1965. There are four forms of US higher education accreditation. Each has a different purpose and audience. a. Regional. Oldest, most stringent, and highest regarded form of academic accreditation. Evaluates the institution’s overall academic operations. Virtually every reputable US “brick-and-mortar” university is regionally accredited. If a university isn’t – well, caveat emptor, and good luck. b. National. Typically acquired by schools specializing in vocational, technical, or career programs. General consensus is that national accreditation bodies have lower accreditation standards than do regional accreditation bodies and provide less oversight. Regionally-accredited schools reputedly often will not accept transfer credits from nationally accredited schools. c. Specialized/Professional. These accreditation organizations are national in scope, but generally accredit particular programs or particular colleges within a large university (e.g., a law or medical school) vice a school’s overall academic operations. Law, accounting, nursing, medical, dental, and architectural programs are examples; each of those career fields (along with a number of other specialized programs) have professional and specialty accreditation organizations. d. Religious. These are national organizations which accredit theological schools/program. Many such schools also hold regional or national accreditation regarding their overall academic program. A large university may have multiple accreditations: regional overall, plus several Specialized/ Professional accreditations for different programs. Or they may not. A smaller college may have only regional (or national) accreditation. Since Hillsdale College is currently already regionally accredited, they would have little reason to seek a far less rigorous (and valuable) national accreditation in anything except specific programs. As one previous link I posted clearly… Read more »
Hillsdale College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, a body that awards regional accreditation. It can be confirmed on the CHEA website and by the college itself.
You seem to have a hard on for the accrediting bodies, but this story is not so much about that as it is that there is no evidence that this principal’s “university” even exists.
Assuming as I will that the background investigator was not in cahoots with Robertson, I have to ask how this could happen in this day in age. And the answer is just that: this day in age. Robertson spent the last 20 years in Dubai. I can only imagine the gushing and fawning that went on when the background investigator reported THAT to the school board! Holy good night. Here was a woman, an American, presumably, who has lived the 21st educator’s dream of cross culturalism–and in an Arab (make that Muslim) nation no less. Well, hell, who cares whether her degrees were written in crayon? She was a perfect pc gift. But the punk kids went and ruined it by looking beneath the wrapping paper.
I attribute it to being too trusting based on the (phony) experience she presented. The group that reads this board follows the journalistic maxim of “If your mother says she loves you, check it out,” but most people try to avoid confrontation or find it rude to verify things. After all, many people would never consider that someone would falsify something like that. They figure she’s been doing it for so long, surely she’s legit. I’ve had folks in the civilian world give me the side eye for questioning things on resumes and applications. The thing said to me was this (notice some familiar phrasing): “In this day and age where everything is out there, why would anyone put something false on a resume?” If they only knew.
Bingo. Resumes are not always accurate, and never have been.
About 25 years ago, I saw a guy get fired because he’d lied about his academic credentials when applying for a job. He’d gotten hired, worked for a few months – and then his employer somehow found out that his claimed degree (from a real, brick-and-mortar state university) . . . was bogus.
I spoke to his boss after I learned he was getting canned. As I recall, the guy was actually one humanities course short of graduation requirements (the degree was in a technical field) when he was originally supposed to graduate. He’d been offered the job contingent on getting the degree. So he simply lied and said that he’d graduated, and hoped no one would check.
To his chagrin, his employer did eventually check. He was gone posthaste afterwards.
I’d guess it’s likely even harder now for employers to check academic backgrounds of prospective employees due to recent academic privacy laws than it was then.
Actually, it’s even easier now, as long as the applicant cooperates. A University will send a transcript to anybody you, the current/former student, ask them to. And many places are doing that electronically; if you apply on-line they’ll have it e-mailed the next day, in some cases. And who out there doesn’t have a copy of their own transcript sitting in a file in their basement? The fact that she couldn’t produce a transcript for any of her degrees–even an unofficial one stamped “issued to student,” is a dead giveaway . . .
True – IF the applicant cooperates. However, more recent academic privacy laws make it far more difficult to get academic history now without the individual’s cooperation.
The restrictions are pretty tight now. If I recall correctly college students must now give their consent for their parents (the ones who are paying their tuition and expenses) to receive copies of their grade reports.
If the student is older than 18, that is true even for high school.
When Eldest Son was a professor at out local U, he was amazed at the number of times a “helicopter mom” would call or come in demanding to know why her little darling made this or that grade, or how they were doing in class.
He had to tell them that he could not tell them without their child’s consent. That tended to get them somewhat upset.
“our local U” – fat fingered it again.
Just because I had to depose 4 witness to ascertain my mother’s affection for me (none of the witnesses could confirm the use of the word love) doesn’t mean we are all jaded, un-trusting souls…although the descriptor might well fit me personally.
I think I fit Heinlein’s surly curmudgeon definition rather nicely these days….
Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.
Surly curmudgeons? I’ll take that category for $500, thanks!
Doveryai, no proveryai.
Absolutely. There are some strange things going on in the world. The Gen Xers are being left in the dirt by their successors, Gen Z, who are focused, motivated, hardworking, entrepreneurial and described as more serious and mature entering the workforce than the millenials.
They are not out in the streets wearing pink knit hats and shouting slogans. They are interning during the summers at 16 and 17 at major corporations. I guess that’s a slap in their predecessors’ faces.
That may explain what drove these students to investigate something that they thought was not properly addressed by the slackers who hired this woman. They don’t appear to be the ‘gimme, gimme, gimme’ crowd.
I think that’s a good sign, don’t you?
Yep
Entirely possible one or more Millenials had a hand in the hiring decision, Ex-PH2.
The Millenial generation is generally considered to be those born between 1981 and 1997. An early Millenial would be in their mid-30s now.
If they’re a “fast burner”, that’s old enough that they might well be in a position of responsibility in the HR department. It’s also old enough to have otherwise have played a part in the hiring decision.
Not taking a shot at Millenials, just pointing out the possibility for completeness.
That’s true, Hondo, and in the candidates for the local district school board, almost all the candidates were millenials.
It may be that there is a paradigm shift underway and this upcoming Gen Z will be those who put real learning and better curricula back into the schools.
That comes from an article in the Trib, which says that companies want to hire the Gen Zs, and that some are also looking for those who don’t want to go to college right out of high school, but want work experience instead.
Who’da thunk it? I’m going to see if I can get a link to that article and post it somewhere.
“and I would have gotten away with it if it hadn’t been for those meddling kids!”
Nice subtle reference….scooby doo…
I was just watching Canonball Run and this reminds me when the crazy ass doc says University of Rangoon and other assorted night courses.
When I was in Recruiting as an Officer one of my jobs was verifying the education credentials of applicants.
Real easy for recruiter Staff Sergeant Jones to gin up a fake diploma from “Jones High School” on the computer this day and age.
You would be surprised how many I would come across.
Twice I used the phrase “this day in age.” Twice I erred. The correct phrase, this day and age, was used by others and I got the quiet message. Thanks.
Don’t worry 2/17, those kinds of mistakes are a diamond dozen.
I just got that! I read it about 20 mins ago and came back to see what Hondo, et al, posted after my visit. Cripes. I read it the first time and my brain read it correctly, not as written. Reminds me of this:
I LOVE PARIS IN
IN THE SPRING
” diamond dozen”?? don’t you mean a “dime a dozen”?
I just realized I was one of those others but, honestly, I didn’t even know until just now when I read your post that you had used the wrong word. Don’t sweat the petty stuff, and don’t pet the sweaty stuff :).
Well, then, D, I rescind the credit I gave to you.
Everyone knew what you meant, in the grand scheme of things unless your a mechanical engineer leaving out a word doesn’t mean a whole lot except to those that live to find fault in others
jonp – if you are a computer programmer or other similar occupation, leaving out a word or a punctuation mark can have, shall we say, interesting consequences.
IMHO, mechanical engineers have it easy. Another human with some knowledge can decipher what you mean in a written document.
A computer will do exactly what you tell it to do. Not necessarily what you wanted to tell it to do.
/grin
Not really. Ask the engineers at NASA how things work out when you omit abbreviations for units in a velocity (e.g., ft/sec or m/sec) and depend on other people correctly interpreting what you meant. (smile)
Sometimes the precise language matters – a lot.
I concur. A human will probably misinterpret what you wrote. But a computer will absolutely follow precisely what you wrote.
As a one-time English teacher and computer programmer, I understand the value of proper grammar and syntax and the precise use of language.
And then I get into an informal blog and ignore all of the above.
Correction: well, that’s what I get for depending on memory.
In the case I was referencing, turns out that the correct units WERE contractually specified – and people still missed the fact that the two automated systems involved were using different units.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter
I remembered that case and knew what point you intended to make.
Which supports the argument as well.
‘Course, that supports my argument.
If you program a computer correctly, it works correctly (barring a hardware failure, of course).
But you can tell a human what to do perfectly correctly – and you still need to double check afterwards.
Sometimes even perfectly correct language isn’t enough. (smile)
Yep! LOL.
My kids think I’m being picky when I make them include all units of measurement in their calculations.
How far is a country mile? How long is a New York minute? Why, when my wife and I are going out and she says she’ll only be a minute more, do I need to shave again before she’s ready?
A country mile is the distance a cow can travel between the time she finds a gap in the wire and the time you get a call from the neighbor telling you your cow is in his corn.
A New York minute is the amount of time that passes between two lies told on the Today show.
Yes – unless you are like me and get tired of shaving and just let the beard grow.
Fuck I knew what you meant, I figured it was speech to text or as is the case with me large fingers on a tiny fucking keyboard designed for 105lb females not 260 lb men who’ve used their hands to make a living at some point in their lives…
Just remember this tidbit, at one time the Germans who were proofreading in the early 40s were actually “grammar Nazis…” those who feel a need to correct others today share that same core desire to prove themselves better than everyone else….
For me unless I absolutely can’t understand what you meant, you won’t get any response for typos, grammar, misuse, whatever….it’s not like we’re fucking curing cancer here….
We have a language, suggest we use it right or we all end of speaking some kind of different gibberish! agreed?
Hell-bonics?
It was your computer conspiring against you.
Hell, I thought you were just telling us you were feeling your years. (smile)
The school newspaper staff should next investigate the credentials of the same school board that hired her.
I’m sure they’d find some interesting stuff.
School boards in my neck of the woods are elected from the local populace – no other credentials needed.
Which means that even a troglodyte such as myself can be on the school boards. Fortunately, I have yet to run for election.
You can represent your community as a troglodyte, even troglodytes know that resumes might be a bit inaccurate and take a moment to check references…
I’m not a police officer, I’m not a detective, I’m just some idiot operating a simple youth athletic program for 6,000 kids…if you want to involve yourself with my program though you’re going to pass a CORI and you’re going to let me see the results or you’re not in….it’s that simple. If a dumbass like me can figure out how to get people’s reference information verified by the government and clear them for participation I’d tend to believe any troglodyte could do the same.
So simple even a caveman can do it, huh?
I have run into this several times and it is way more common than a lot of people realize. During my 9 year break in service I was COO of a small corrections company where we had several masters level clinician positions. Shortly after assuming my duties I noticed one of the clinician’s work was extremely sub-par and I started looking into it.
Her (of course with my luck it was a minority female)diploma was an ornate affair with a big old seal and little ribbons streaming from it, a nice drawing of a brick “college” looking building in the background and she proudly displayed it behind her desk. I don’t remember the name of the college but it reminded me of Faber college of Animal House fame and we joked about expecting Dean Wormer’s signature on it. After I dug into it some and started asking her questions about that degree and her bachelors she quit and threatened to sue us for discrimination. He entire CV was made up and like someone else said on this threat, the company just jumped at having a minority female in a high vis position so they never checked her out.
Years later I saw the same sort of thing in the Army National Guard where diploma mill degrees from non-accredited sources seem to be common. Big Army seemed to be cracking down on it when I retired in 2010 (at least for the officer corps) but I have a sneaking suspicion that many of the advanced degrees being sported by some are not worth the paper they are printed on.
I have taken correspondence and on-line courses at various times from colleges and universities as I finished my degrees and they required frequent participation, they had timelines and proctored exams. What I saw from some of these places was a joke with no proctoring, no schedules and an extreme amount of credit given for “life experiences”.
Good for these kids; maybe journalism isn’t dead forever.
When this bullshyt law went into effect, it was amazing how many companies , when you tried to get the background on an applicant, were afraid to tell you anything? Its still on the books and needs to be shytcanned NOW….part of the problem with this country is the phonies in positions they are not qualified for…I mean look at obozo, the queen of Kenya!
We use a simple code, if we actually liked the person we will tell you how wonderful they were and how we’d hire them again in a heartbeat….when we don’t like them we make a statement like this, “we can tell you they worked here from this date to this date and that is all we can tell you”
You do your own math with that….
Cuz we all know military guys and girls have never falsified their credentials.
Some do. But they often get caught, sooner or later. And when they do get caught, they get hammered.
Don’t believe that, just ask a guy named Michael D. Murphy how lying about his credentials worked out for him. And he got off easy.
Many years ago the city I work at was interviewing candidates for Police Chief. They sent out the list of “final” candidates, which they’d whittled down to six. We did a cursory Google search (as it looks like these kids did) and found one of the candidates was being actively sued in two different states (one opposite coasts) for allegations of misconduct while in office as chief (namely, sexual harassment).
I feel like a 10-second Google search is literally the least anyone “vetting” a candidate for public office can do. I had to provide certified copies of my high school and college transcripts for my job!
UPDATE
The University of Tulsa has confirmed she attended their school but NEVER graduated. So not only are her masters and PhD bogus, she doesn’t even have a bachelor’s degree.