A surprising (to me) attack on TESC and TUI

if I have it right, anyway.

The QUACKWATCH article concerns the activities of a nutritionist and author.

www.quackwatch.org/04ConsumerEducation/null.html

 

I didn't read every word of the article but it seemed clear that the author was trying to suggest that since the subject of the article, Gary Null, had gone to these "non-traditional" schools it shouldn't be too surprising that he has such unorthodox (innacurate) ideas. He didn't go so far as to suggest that there was a causal relationship and he didn't go so far as to suggest that these schools were substandard. He mentions that they're both accredited. He made quite a point of describing the composition of Dr. Nulls doctoral committee and without saying so directly either cast some aspersions on their credentials or made some suggestions that these people had some conflict of interest and might not be objective in their treatment of his dissertation. I'd be interested in hearing any alternate interpretations of this article.
Jack

 

So what...

Some people have a problem understanding cause and effect. Since Theodore Kaczynski got his masters and PhD from the University of Michigan should we assume they turn out mad bombers? Who cares what this guy thinks....

 

Re: So what...

Actually, there likely is a causal connection between his education and his later penchant for anarchy and general mayhem, but it came before his Unviersity of Michigan days.

He did his undergraduate work at U.C. Berkeley!

Sorry, John Bear!

 

I'm pretty sure this is an ongoing attack on the subject of the article; I remember reading it before in an earlier version.

It's "attack" on Union is a typical lack of appreciation for Union's learner-centered process. The author mentions aspects of the program in a negative tone to imply they're somehow bad. (Like his mention of UIU's residencies or its committee structures.)

 

Yabbut he also "attacks" the dissertation, and he seems to know what he's talking about. It seems that rare incidents like this triggered some of the recent changes. Am I right?

In general, accredited schools do sometimes approve lame dissertations. This is not news. Have you heard about two brothers who got PhDs in high energy physics from some French school for what most physicist consider total nonsense? Google "Bogdanoff affair", it's entertaining!

 

I'm quite willing to put the word "attack" in quotes.

What took me aback, though, was the author's reference to the two well known and fully accredited schools as being somehow substandard.

It is one thing to say that Null was wrong or even that his methodology was faulty but quite another, so I thought, to imply that Null's dissertation somehow slipped through without adequate criticism from his committee. That actually bothered me. I find it hard to believe that such a thing could happen. I think it more likely that Null's work was less obviously defective, if defective it is, when it was submitted.

 

Why am I not surprised, considering the source?

 

What's your objection to Quackwatch? There's an awful lot of health fraud out there. All the site does is expose health claims that aren't backed by science.

Unless, of course, you refer to the TUI comments? I agree that they seem over the top.

 

Yes, I do refer to the author's obvious ignorance of Union Institute (which doesn't surprise me) and Thomas Edison State College (which does surprise me).

 

I guess another thing that ticked me off was that the Union doc under attack here shares a surname with one of my great-grandmothers, Isadora Null.

And I believe caffeine has been proven to be bad for you (of course, anyone who so wishes may engage in this vice at their own risk and pleasure).

Besides, the idiot couldn't even get the name of the college right! It's Thomas Edison State College, NOT Thomas A. Edison State College!

 

No doubt the part about "Thomas A. Edison State College in New Jersey" was an incredibly disingenuous attempt to confuse the quite legitimate and well-regarded distance learning institution Thomas Edison State College (www.tesc.edu) in New Jersey (BG15, 133) with the quite illegitimate "university behind walls" degree mill Thomas A. Edison College in Florida and Arkansas (BG9, 222).

 

Re: Re: So what...

Actually, Ted Kaczynski received his undergraduate degree from Harvard, his Master's and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He taught for a short time at Berkeley, but was never a student there.

 

Re: So what...

The University of Michigan turns out brilliant political theorists.

 

AAAANDDD mad bombers!

 

Re: Re: Re: So what...

Indeed, I seem to recall having read some account of Ted Kaczynski's life that said that, at the time, Harvard University was quite psychologically abusive towards "Lawful" (Ted Kaczynski's official departmental nickname) and, indeed, all of its undergraduates as part of its crimson attitude survival of the fittest test.

 

I wonder if those long, bitter winters in Michigan had anything to do with his derangement?

 

Who Knows...

He moved to, what?, Montana. If anything it is colder there....

 

Doesn't Cambridge, MA, have long bitter winters too?

 

I'm still having a difficult time thinking of any great political theorsists that Ohio State has ever turned out.