what are you reading now?
I am reading The Dream of the Fire, by K'Ratak.
It was in the hands of the Klingons that the novel attained its full stature.

I am wiki,24 male from USA. Wel-come to all of you in this forum, This is the forum that provide you the best platform to get as well as share information about the topics that are eligible for discussion in this forum. I will try to give you the best answer and of course by that you will get full satisfaction and you are also Wel-come to share information for running posts.

I used to think that the United States, the country where I live was the most free when it comes to basic rights like pursuing an education and living your life as you see fit. But now I see otherwise. Its interesting to note that even a country like Pakistan, hardly a becon of democracy has more liberties granted to individuals than the US. I would also note that the Scandanavian nations allow such institutions as Knightsbridge University, an unaccredited Danish institution to exist. Belgium hosts an unaccredited school which was chartered by the King no less, and France has a few. Switzerland has a number due to laws which allow individual Cantons to license schools. So is the US taking a back seat when it comes to freedom or am I just over reacting here?

Another taboo that has been broken by/through distance learning is language learning. In fact, beside the token place for "dry" text books and grammar drills, nothing beats live interaction with native speakers. Those schooled before the internet became a factor may remember the often nonproductive college courses; others may remember wild chases after native speakers in their own neighborhood, who were often absent, or charged extortionate fees.
The other alternative was an expensive study trip to lands where the language was spoken: on had to commit important amounts of time and money and cross fingers hoping what he'd get would live up to the expectations foisted by language school brochures.
Nowadays, sites such as ITALKI, VERBALPLANET and BUDDYSCHOOL (to mention only a few) allow to swiftly locate plenty of native speakers (often certified SL teachers ) to interact with in the comfort of one's home/office with no extra expenses (such as airfare&lodging), and no further commitment than one or at best a few lessons' worth.
If the person you located doesn't live up to your standards, you simply cut your losses and move on.
Sure, there still are many fools trying to charge you extortionate fees online, too...but the offer is so wide that it's easy to find some more reasonable teachers...because the amount one pays is in no way proportional to the quality of teaching received...a $10/h teacher may by all account be better than a $50/h braggart.

Quote:Detecting Academic Dishonesty Online
NOVEMBER 17, 2010.

By SUE SHELLENBARGER
Q: With online courses growing in popularity, how do institutions know the work submitted has actually been done by the student who is enrolled? It would seem the arrangement is so anonymous that it creates opportunities for students to rely on other people.
—C.G., Lancaster, N.Y.

A: This is a topic of growing concern among regulators. Recent federal legislation requires colleges and universities with distance-learning programs to verify students' identity in order to ensure that the student enrolled is actually doing the work, says Mike Lambert, executive director of the Distance Education and Training Council, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit group that operates an accrediting commission for such programs. And earlier this year, the National Collegiate Athletic Association tightened requirements for accepting online and correspondence courses as high-school credit for college athletes, insisting that teachers interact regularly with students and provide feedback on assignments by phone, email, instant messaging and other means.

High-quality distance-learning programs give instructors many opportunities to interact with individual students and get a sense of their abilities, says Kenneth Hartman, academic director at Drexel University Online, Philadelphia. "The more touch points you have with your online students, the more familiar you'll become with their academic abilities, and the better you'll be at detecting academic dishonesty," says Dr. Hartman, who is also an online instructor. Also, most schools, colleges and universities use a combination of a log-on and password system for assignments, and require that tests be administered by proctors. Typically, the proctor, usually a school official, instructor or supervisor at a tutoring or testing center, verifies the student's identity by checking a government ID; oversees the student taking the exam, then sends it directly to the college or university. Other programs use Web cams for remote proctoring.

Early research comparing cheating rates in classroom instruction with online courses suggests it may not be happening as often as suspected. One study of 225 students at Friends University, a Christian university in Wichita, Kan., found students enrolled in online classes were actually less likely to cheat than those enrolled in traditional classroom courses. One possible reason is that students in online classes are more often allowed to work at their own pace, reducing the pressure to cheat to meet a test or paper deadline. Another possible reason is that professors may develop assignments and exams designed to reduce the opportunity to cheat; for example, they may assign personalized written assignments. Finally, more online learners are adults on a non-traditional path, taking college courses later in life; such students tend to cheat less, the research shows.

Thanks to vigilant Oregon public officials like Anal Contreras, another evil terrorist plot is foiled. Oh wait, Anal had nothing to do with this. Well he must be doing something useful. Terrorists are now going to Anal-approved Oregon government colleges before they try to blow up innocent Americans, and not one of those icky diploma mills.

Quote:Official: FBI tipped off to investigate teenager
AP

The teenager accused of attempting to bomb a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Ore., was acting on his own initiative and not at the direction of any foreign terrorist organization, a law enforcement official said Saturday.

Mohamed Osman Mohamud hatched the plan on his own to use a cell phone to detonate what he believed was an explosive-filled van at a crowded Christmas tree lighting ceremony Friday, according to the official, who wasn't authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on a condition of anonymity.

The official said Mohamud was very committed to the plot and alone planned the details, including where to park the van for the maximum number of casualties. Authorities say Mohamud sent bomb components to undercover FBI agents who he believed were assembling the explosive device, but the agents supplied a fake that Mohamud tried to detonate twice via his phone.

The official said agents began investigating Mohamud after receiving a tip from someone who was concerned about the teenager. The official declined to provide any more detail about the relationship between Mohamud and that source.

The FBI monitored Mohamud's e-mail. They found that he was in e-mail contact with people overseas and was asking how he could travel to Pakistan and join the fight for jihad, according to an FBI affidavit.

Mohamud, a student at [WASC-accredited] Oregon State University, e-mailed a friend living in Pakistan who had been a student in Oregon in 2007-2008, according to the official. The FBI's affidavit says the friend in Pakistan referred him to another associate, but gave him an invalid e-mail address that Mohamud tried repeatedly to use unsuccessfully. The official said FBI agents saw that as an opportunity and e-mailed Mohamud in response, claiming to be associates of his friend, the former student.

The friend Mohamud was e-mailing was in Pakistan's northwest frontier province, an area known to harbor terrorists, but the law enforcement official said there is no indication that any foreign terrorist group was behind the plot.

The FBI affidavit says the undercover agent first met Mohamud in person on July 30 and asked what he would do for the cause of jihad. The agent suggested that Mohamud might want to spread Islam to others, continue his studies to help the cause overseas, raise money, become "operational" or become a martyr. Mohamud immediately responded that he wanted to become "operational," but didn't know how and needed training, the affidavit said.

The affidavit says when Mohamud was asked what he meant by being "operational," he responded that he wanted to put together an explosion. The undercover agent said he could introduce him to an explosive expert and asked Mohamud to research potential targets.

At a second meeting on Aug. 19 at a Portland hotel, the agent brought a second undercover agent; Mohamud allegedly told them had selected the tree lighting at Portland's Pioneer Square for the bombing.

It seems the curtain call of the departing hero...who's regularly back in a fortnight is typical of online experts...Johann joins the i'm-leaving club...

Which is utterly funny...if you don't feel like posting on a website, or exchanging endless tirades with degree mill shills, then just don't...it's that simple.

Quote:Hi -

Just stopped in to say goodbye until early 2012 - that's right, 2012. The only reason I'm posting my departure is to hinder any speculation (or in some cases, hope) that I might be dead, sick or incarcerated - not that more than four people care, I'm sure. Just so any guys at DLTruth who picked me for the "Dead Pool" don't claim their money yet!

The reason? Mostly that I've been wasting a lot of time in circular arguments -- drubbing mugs who continue to defend their "degrees," bought, faked or both. That accomplishes nothing. I regret:

(a) boring readers
(b) wasting time

There are learning and other opportunities I should explore. See you (maybe) in 2012, not before.

Cheers

Johann

You must be glad segregationist USA and stalinist USSR won the war, saved civilization and gave us the gift of a checked&balanced political system.
Enough with petty tyrants fooling around while their countries starve.
Well, kind of...
Here you learn that at a NATO summit the delegates from Georgia brought 80 (yes, 80) prostitutes to throw a "party".
They were busted only because next door Sarkozy complained he couldn't sleep because of the noise.
By the way, that is Belgium martyr...sorry, Georgia martyr we were supposed to defend against bad Russia in the name of all pastel colored democratic values...
Also interesting, if you google Georgia, Nato, Sarkozy, Escort you find only a couple links...great thing the free press...

This is for my daughter who is starting her education.

She already gets a Pell Grant but it only covers a small amoung of her school expenses. For the rest she need to get student loans.

I am concerned because that could be a lot of money for a young person starting out in life. I did agree to help her repay her debt once she graduates. But I don't know.

Anyone else have experience with this. I see that the payback schedule will allow a single person to pay as little as $27 per month but the terms are kind of confusing to me.

Oh, the irony. If you are going to lie about having a PhD why bother with some risky unaccredited place, when you can claim Gay Al's alma mater, the University of Oregon, and get better mileage? Gay Al might sue you (and lose) for using a Bob Jones degree in Oregon, but he can't (or won't) do a thing about a nonexistent Oregon degree in California.

This is what happens when you put a guy named Ramaswamy in charge of teaching us about Terrorism Studies. Didn't he have any relatives he could hire instead of a guy with the fake degree, like that guy at UIUC?

Using TSA logic, shouldn't all MIIS faculty now be receiving x-rays and full body cavity searches for hidden fake degrees?

Quote:Monterey instructor's resume sparks students' suspicions
Bill Hillar's students had doubts about his claims of dangerous exploits as a Special Forces colonel. Officials at the Monterey Institute of International Studies say the students' doubts have merit.

By Larry Gordon, Los Angeles Times
November 23, 2010

Bill Hillar, a part-time instructor at the [WASC-accredited] Monterey Institute of International Studies, told students enrolled in his workshops on terrorism and human trafficking about what he described as his own dangerous exploits as a former colonel in the U.S. Army's Special Forces.

He also boasted, they recalled, that the 2008 action movie "Taken," starring Liam Neeson, was based on his life and his daughter's kidnapping by men who wanted to enslave her.

Such claims, along with incidents in which Hillar seemed to borrow material from other people's books, raised suspicions among some of his graduate students about Hillar's resume and background. "He didn't seem to act like a veteran or someone who served so highly in the military," recalled Brian Hubbs, a graduate student and Marine veteran.

So this fall, Hubbs and several other veterans attending the graduate institute began investigating Hillar's resume. And the school now says their suspicions had merit.

Monterey Institute officials said Hillar, who has taught workshops twice yearly at the school since 2005, had claimed to hold a doctorate from the University of Oregon, but a check showed that he had only attended classes there. The institute, which is well-regarded for its foreign language and international relations courses, has been unable to confirm the instructor's claims of military rank and service, officials said.

Hillar, who has also been an expert speaker on security and leadership at other colleges and police agencies across the country, did not respond to messages left Monday at the phone number and e-mail address listed on his class syllabus.

Monterey Institute spokesman Jason Warburg said Hillar has not responded to the school's requests for a meeting and documents to verify his background.

The 750-student institute, a graduate school of [NEASC-accredited] Middlebury College in Vermont, has issued a public apology that it did not check Hillar's resume more thoroughly before engaging him to teach his three-day workshops. It promised that it would extend to part-time workshop instructors the background check required of all other faculty. And the school's president, Sunder Ramaswamy, has praised Hubbs and the other students for "the integrity they have displayed."

The institute is offering students replacement workshops and a chance to erase Hillar's courses from their academic records. But that does not fully satisfy Hubbs, who contends the school treated Hillar "like a superstar" for years and that the institute and other schools and agencies that hired him should have vetted him earlier.

"One of the mysteries of the whole incident is how could a guy like this go on for years," Hubbs said in an interview Monday.

An early clue, Hubbs said, came when Hillar told an October workshop a story about how he had counseled a student about creativity. The story sounded familiar and students said they tracked it down, attributed to others, in the book "Chicken Soup for the College Soul: Inspiring and Humorous Stories About College."

The Monterey students then used the Internet to research other of the instructor's claims and contacted a national veterans' group for help.

In his promotional material as a speaker on leadership and ethics, Hillar said he had provided "training for high-risk occupations" and listed more than 30 local, state and federal agencies and schools as clients. Among them was the Federal Executive Board of Greater Los Angeles, which coordinates efficiency and emergency planning for federal agencies in California, Arizona and Nevada.

The board's executive director, Kathrene Hansen, confirmed Monday that Hillar had been a speaker for several of the group's annual meetings, most recently in July. "He was very well received, very inspirational," Hansen said in a telephone interview. She said she had never heard of anything problematic in Hillar's background.

The University of Portland hosted a conference on human trafficking this month, where Hillar was scheduled to be a keynote speaker. Advance material described him as a retired special forces colonel "whose personal story inspired the movie "Taken." A university spokesman said Monday that Hillar did not appear at the conference. The spokesman referred questions to the conference organizers, who did not return phone calls.

In "Taken," Neeson plays a former CIA operative who saves his teenage daughter from slave traders. In interviews at the time of its release, its director and writers did not mention Hillar.