Need Some Backgound Info

When I go into this forum I feel like I'm watching a play without a handbill. It would help if I had some information on the various characters involved in the world of unaccredited DL. To begin with, I would like some background on the following screen names posting at aimoo.com:

Henrik Fyrst

JJay1

Neil Hayes

Zon 7

Dennis Ruhl

Dr Marianus

Rkirkland

the builder

QuinnTJ

 

Henrik Fyrst - Owner and oneman show making up whole full time staff of Knightsbridge University (a diploma mill operated out of Denmark).

Neil Hayes - Duckman (specifically the New Zealand Brown Teal) that has two PhD's from two diploma mills, Knightbridge and Trinity College & University

Dennis Ruhl - A CCU (California Coast University) student that no longer posts here (I assume that he violated the TOS one to many times.)

Dr Marianus - A supporter of the Knightsbridge Diploma mill.

Rkirkland - CCU graduate that posts here.

QuinnTJ - A generally reasonable fellow except with a chip on his shoulder because he has a degree from an unaccredited instituion (real school not a diploma mill) that "blew up" (it is sad when this happens, see Rkirkland) when his degree was "exposed" by someone that has never posted here.

 

Re: Re: Need Some Backgound Info

And here was I, thinking I was a reasonably general fellow. ;-)

 

Need is a Mighty Big Word

Wild Bill:

"Need" is a mighty big word. Do you need information on me, or do you want information on me?

I am a computer scientist, author, and poet. That's my public side. If you don't like my novels -- great! Join the party! If my poetry makes you want to puke -- more power to you! (And again, welcome to the party!) If adaptive grammar theory ain't your thing -- join another very large party!

But aside from that, I am not public property, nor is information about me that I haven't made public myself. Even most of my computer science, writing, and poetry is not public property. (Copyright laws, you know -- copyrights onto which I have tenaciously held except in the very most rare cases where I have put something into the public domain in computing.)

And sure, I have always used my real name on the Internet, rather than a moniker. Except in a few cases where I submitted my writings under a pseudonym (but included my real name in the cover letters), I've used it in my by-lines, too. But using my real name in public doesn't make me public property any more than it makes John Q. Writer public property.

People are entitled to their opinions of me ("chip on his shoulder" being an example). More power to the person who has an opinion. But please remember that I'm not a stock ticker symbol. I'm a human being, with personal space.

A few times in the past, out of anger, I've spewed publicly against other human beings in ways I consider shameful, and in ways I would hope I will be forgiven for. I consider such past behavior to be a scar on my soul, and I wouldn't encourage anyone to walk that route. Yesterday, I posted this piece related to that topic (in a general, rather than specific way):

http://members.shaw.ca/qtj/writing/articles/OnInternetEmotions.html

That's what I do. I live, and I try to figure out life, and I write. I try to learn from my past (both the mistakes and the successes). I don't always successfully navigate that particular craggy path -- but I strive for such.

Anything else you need to know about me is probably very, very boring, indeed. I put my pants on one leg at a time, for instance. (Yawn.) I try to avoid extremes (but sometimes get Quixotic). I like to put instant chai powder on my vanilla ice cream, pour milk on the whole thing, and call it a malted. (Everyone join in on another yawn.) Learned a few things the "hard way" that I would have preferred to learn the "easy way" -- learned a few the "easy way" that maybe I should have learned the "hard way". Such is life. Such are many of us.

As I said to Bill -- I consider myself a reasonably general fellow. I have no power over what others consider me. That's their personal space.

All that having been said (and in keeping with the topic area of this thread) -- I am not anti-acreditationism any more than I am antidisestablishmentarianism. I believe in separation of Church and State, and in the separation of post-secondary education and State. I am not a statist, but fall into the zone of being a libertarian. I believe that adult learners ought to have every right to do as they please with their own education, within the bounds of true protection of the public. There's a rather long thread on that somewhere around here, so I won't get into all the details.

This belief was not the result of my obtaining unaccredited degrees, I wrote on accreditation issues back in '91 -- long before I even knew such a thing as "unaccredited post-secondary education" even existed. Back then, I was writing about it in another context (accreditation of editors), but my views haven't changed. I didn't learn my views simply to accommodate my life choices as regards my education. Even so, I will be called an apologist by many (and a shill by some -- although I've never suggested anyone should study at any particular university, accredited or not, as far as I can recall -- publicly or privately). I'll even be called a troll for bringing up certain topics in order to try to see them discussed through.

The only way (as I see it, anyhow) that I could avoid being called those things is to conform to a philosophy that just is not in keeping with my long held libertarian and spiritual views. As an author who has written from many different perspectives, I suppose I could fake holding the established view, possibly even for a sustained period of time. I could pretend I was some character in some book, or pretend I was someone else, and for some period, might even pull such a thing off and win the popular vote. But as is the theme of the novel Janus Incubus, this ploy would destroy my soul, and would result in serious consequences to me, and to others.

If we wish to be all things to all people, we must at some point compromise something which we hold dear. I hold the notion of individual freedom dear. And so, it is unlikely that I will any day soon become endeared to the RA-only or accredited-only camp. I do not wish to sell my birthright for a bowl of stew, and I would hope that nobody else is in it for the stew, either.

People are wonderful, complex creatures. They have reasons for just about everything they do, even when they don't realize those reasons in any comprehensive way. Part of everyone's education is coming to terms with those forces and factors. I believe that post-secondary education (in whatever legitimate form it may take) is a great part of this path to self-understanding, and mutual understanding as well.

Cheers.

 

Quinn,

Thank you for taking the time to respond. You're correct, of course, that I wanted rather than needed the information. I greatly enjoy your posts and hope that you continue to post on both boards.

 

Hey, Bill.

I'll do my best to post. I keep telling myself that I want to retire from the DL boards (some of the negativity requiring a thorough shower after reading) -- but I feel (obviously must feel) that some issues (on both sides of the fence) want discussion, even if all I can do is try to express what amounts to my own (sometimes radical, sometimes Quixotic) opinion.

Cheers.

 

Re: Re: Re: Need Some Backgound Info

Both reasonably general fellow and a generally reasonable fellow, no slight intended. (None taken as far as I can tell, I hope that the length of response to Wild Bill doesn't indicate that I knocked the chip off by mistake? )

 

uh, Quinn...

Does your lovely wife (who comes from a culture with spectacularly good desserts--and poetry) know that you do that with ice cream?

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Need Some Backgound Info

The length of the response indicates that I over caffeinated by pouring TOO MUCH powdered chai on last night's vanilla.


man chaai baa bastani raa dust daram
az mei yaa naani behtar hast migam
vali zanam in shirini na kon ...
baayaad khodam inraa dorost konam


(That answers Janko's query.)

 

No it don't. Je ne parle farsi.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Need Some Backgound Info

Hmmm... guess I had better translate the rubaai before someone thinks anything ....

In the Fitz Gerald spirit, then:

Chai with ice cream doth make my heart to quake,
Better than wine or loaf of bread to break,
(Alas, my wife this dessert doth not make),
So I myself must the init'tive take.

Or -- more literally:

I chai with ice-cream friendship have-I
than wine or bread better is say-I
but wife-mine this sweet not makes ...
must myself this-thing make-I

 

RE: Background Info

Neil Hayes: A real enigma - he received a genuine QSM for his distinguished work as a conservationist in New Zealand, but he also lists a questionable PhD from Knightsbridge University on his resume. I've been told that he produced a PhD-caliber dissertation but instead chose to go the Knightsbridge route and lose his credibility in the process. Neil Hayes' current DL activities are confined to shilling for unaccredited schools that range from sub-par to outright frauds.

 

Hi Bill - So far you've been given some information on some of the "people" on your list. I placed that word within quotation marks because, frankly, I'm not convinced that they are all separate persons. In any case, I'd like to add that Dennis Ruhl was once a member of this forum and so you can read his posting history if you care to do the requisite research. Similarly, he was/is a member of alt.education.distance You can also read his posting history to that usenet group as it is nicely archived by Google. Of all the people on your list, Dennis is the most puzzling to me. He's clearly a smart guy and can be quite funny. At some point though he just took a left turn and disappeared into the abyss. I've read some of his postings on other forums and I simply can't believe how nasty they were. It's really very hard to understand the kind of hate that fuels such thinking.
Jack

 

Hey!

 

Um, thanks, Quinn.

 

Hichchiz nist.

Az fekr mi-koni to zabaan-e-farsi bishtar midavaani.

(Than thought makes't thou thou tongue-Farsi more know'st-thou.)

You know more Farsi than you think.

 

Originally posted by Jack Tracey
At some point though he just took a left turn and disappeared into the abyss.

The two correlate!

 

Hey!

ummm ...... Hey?

 

OK, had this been the Politics forum my use of the word "left" might actually have some meaning.

Of course, everyone understands that everything said here gets reflected on that other forum. They add nothing, they only poke at what is said here. Dennis is, of course, upset. He has, of course, made his own bed and now he must sleep in it.
Jack

 

Interesting that it seemed to upset Mr. Ruhl, your statements regarding Dennis mirrored my own previously unspoken thoughts.