tagged w/ Thesis
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Saif Gadaffhi's not just the scion of a lunatic dictatorial legacy, and not just the ironic recipient of a PhD from the London School of Economics in 'The Role of Civil Society in the Democratisation of Global Governance Institutions' -- he's also a plagiarist!
An anonymous source at the London School of Economics said, "There appears to be some *at least* minor plagiarism in this thesis. If you look at the bottom of p.45 there is a passage that goes: 'The expansions of the IMF's membership, together with the changes in the world economy, have required the IMF to adapt in a variety of ways to continue serving its purposes effectively'. If you plug this sentence into Google you get a link to the IMF Wikipedia page. I caught this within 60 seconds of opening the thesis. There's one more I found a page later. I tried twice with a hit rate of two out of two. Readers may want to look for more. My impression is the thesis is generally OK - the plagiarism may only be limited to boilerplate factoid stuff like this on the IMF. But it would be good to alert readers to comb through it using Google."
Update: Here is a Wiki to track instances of plagiarism in Saif Gadaffhi's thesis:
http://saifalislamgaddafithesis.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
Original Thesis of Saif Gadaffhi - THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE DEMOCRATISATION OF GLOBAL GOVERNANCE INSTITUTIONS: From 'Soft Power' to Collective Decision-Making:
http://saifalislam.ly/files/2010/06/19ca14e7ea6328a42e0eb13d585e4c22.pdf
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/02/22/saif-gadaffhi-plagia.html
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_m31urYR_nYw/TTO7SNf-PRI/AAAAAAAAAmI/ZdD3fE_r3c0/s1600/Muammar-Gaddafi.jpgSaif Gadaffhi's not just the scion of a lunatic dictatorial legacy, and not just... more
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Toilet walls have proved an unlikely source of art and literature. When Katrin Fischer was looking for a topic for her masters’ thesis, she had a eureka moment – during a visit to the public conveniences. The linguistics student decided to write about graffiti in women's toilets.
Katrin Fischer came up with the idea to turn her fascination for graffiti in public toilets into a rather unusual masters' thesis and spent the next eight months analyzing the communication processes at work on the walls of the ladies' toilets in the main building at the University of Bonn. Katrin Fischer examined scribblings on the walls of female toilets for her thesis.
The 31-year-old linguistics student from Bonn sees public toilets as more than just a facility to be used when needs must. She also sees them as a kind of forum in which women can discuss topics such as religion, love,
relationships and fellow students.
"My boyfriend beats me. What shall I do?" Responses to this question vary
from "Hit him back" to "Don't provoke him then."
One of Fischer's graffiti samples, a message about veganism, attracted 60
responses, and she found that some discussions even cover the whole of a
wall in a toilet cubicle. But lavatories are a forum with a difference: there are
no rules, meaning that nothing is off limits – in fact, the only censure is that exercised by other users.
There is also no way of tracing the author, unlike in internet forums, where supposedly anonymous authors can actually be identified from their IP address if necessary.
"The absolute anonymity encourages women to write down whatever comes into their mind," said Fischer.
Some users even adopt a male identity and simulate lonely hearts ads replete with contact details.
"Gender and identity can be swapped in the absolute anonymity," said Fischer. "Women uninhibitedly show up male students by acting as male authors, writing messages such as 'Looking for…' and advertising sex, even giving out mobile telephone numbers. The men concerned never see the graffiti and cannot defend themselves."
Graffiti reveals artists' traits
In her 165-page long analysis of 'latrine literature,' Fischer analyzes 122 samples of graffiti, investigating what they say about topics such as gender, identity, space and power. She comes to the conclusion that there are two distinct types of female graffitists: one is very polite, objective and allows others the freedom to have their own opinions, whilst the other type is affective, vulgar and dominant.
Graffiti can reveal a lot about the artist. The latter type express their dominance by such means as taking up a large amount of space and depriving others of it; circling their own messages to give them prominence; and crossing out or correcting the contributions of others, thereby empowering themselves by exercising censure. Where one user had originally written "Suicidal join the army," for example, another user crossed out "suicidal" and wrote "Jesus gives new life to all," enclosing this new message in a heart-shaped bubble.
A unique study
The study of the graffiti scrawled on walls in public toilets has, until now, largely been the domain of collectors, psychologists, sexologists and educationalists, making Fischer's thesis, which focuses on graffiti as both communication and vandalism, the first of its kind. As a result, Fischer's supervisor, Dr. Gisela Fehrmann, immediately agreed to her rather unique topic proposal.
"My professor was really enthusiastic about my idea," said Fischer. "And she asked me for a concept straight away. As everybody is familiar with the phenomenon, she thought it was a good thing to research and found the idea very funny. Just like my fellow students!"
But whilst Fischer's thesis is undoubtedly original, the practice of graffiti in lavatories is by no means a new phenomenon.
"Even the Romans used to do it," said Fischer. "And they were particularly crude: they used to describe their lovers right down to the last detail."
The letter of the law
Although Fischer is fascinated by graffiti, she also recognizes that it is illegal because whilst interesting and entertaining, it ultimately remains damage to property.
But she couldn't help feeling a little sad when university directors decided to paint over the graffiti last summer (thankfully she had already photographed her samples).
This decision also resulted in disappointment among users of the conveniences: one asked: "Where has all the graffiti gone?" Another pleaded "please write something, it is so boring here." The exhibition of washroom graffiti has attracted lots of interest. Recently, after news of the topic of Fischer's thesis had made the rounds in the university, a new graffito appeared, in which the author said that she also wanted to be included in a master's thesis!
Despite working on the subject for eight months, Fischer's interest in the subject is far from exhausted.
"I can't completely stop photographing sayings, but I no longer start to categorize them."
The results of Katrin Fischer's findings are on display at the University of Bonn's Institute of Communication Science until October 20, 2009.
Author: Michelle Martin
Editor: Rob Turner
http://www.johnstallwisdom.com/profiles/blogs/german-student-gets-degree-inToilet walls have proved an unlikely source of art and literature. When Katrin Fischer... more
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This paper argues that at least one of the following propositions is true: (1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a “posthuman” stage; (2) any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof); (3) we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation. It follows that the belief that there is a significant chance that we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor-simulations is false, unless we are currently living in a simulation. A number of other consequences of this result are also discussed. http://www.makeahistory.com/index.php/recent-news/15027-are-you-living-in-a-computer-simulationThis paper argues that at least one of the following propositions is true: (1) the... more
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Karen Owen List infuriates Duke University athletes, so what this Karen Owen list is all about that makes these athletes infuriate. The alumna of Duke UniversityKaren Owen List infuriates Duke University athletes, so what this Karen Owen list is... more
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Everyone is searching about the Duke thesis by Karen Owen, Duke thesis is a mocking sex thesis seriously written by a Duke graduate named Karen Owen along with the deepest of details about her 13 sexEveryone is searching about the Duke thesis by Karen Owen, Duke thesis is a mocking... more
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By: Jason Linkins
Okay, let's get you up to speed on the incredibly true story about how a bunch of right-wingers got taken in by some satiric blog post on Barack Obama's college thesis, written ages ago, and frantically presented it as real.
Months ago, some blogger crafted a fake news story about how Time Magazine's Joe Klein had obtained ten pages of a thesis written by Barack Obama, in which he wrote about how the Constitution was "inherently flawed."
In the paper, in which only the first ten pages were given to the general media, Obama decries the plight of the poor: "I see poverty in every place I walk. In Los Angeles and New York, the poor reach to me with bleary eyes and all I can do is sigh."
In part, the future President blames this on the current economic system: "There are many who will defend the 'free market.' But who will defend the single mother of four working three jobs. When a system is allowed to be free at the expense of its citizens, then it is tyranny."
However, the President also singled out the American Constitution: "... the Constitution allows for many things, but what it does not allow is the most revealing. The so-called Founders did not allow for economic freedom. While political freedom is supposedly a cornerstone of the document, the distribution of wealth is not even mentioned. While many believed that the new Constitution gave them liberty, it instead fitted them with the shackles of hypocrisy."
Now, I don't see a whole lot in there about the "the evolution of the arms reduction negotiations between the Soviet Union and the United States," which is what he actually wrote about for Columbia, which should have been the first clue that this was a satire. ALSO HELPFUL: the tag on the satiric blog post, which reads, and I quote, "SATIRE."
Did you hear the one about Kanye West attributing his outburst at the VMAs to a gluten overdose? No, because apparently that critical news story was vetted by professionals, not Rush Limbaugh and Michael Ledeen, who beef-farted this false Obama thesis story all over the radio and the blogosphere today.
...More...
ALSO: link to Transcript from Rush Limbaugh's website:
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_102309/content/01125107.guest.htmlBy: Jason Linkins
Okay, let's get you up to speed on the incredibly true... more
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Writing a thesis paper can be one of the hardest parts of your academic life. Make the task a little easier by utilizing these top 100 resources for thesis writers. They contain the best in sites, dictionaries, online books, references, and even paid help.Writing a thesis paper can be one of the hardest parts of your academic life. Make the... more
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A futuristic vision of the world, where super athletes are gamers fighting in virtual worlds, is about to be unleashed as a short film. Check out the trailer.
At USC film school, graduate students work painstakingly long hours on a thesis film that's screened in their final year. It's a culmination and representation of all their hard work and cultivated cinematic skills. This is one of my buddies films that looks unrivaled with any other thesis films I've seen.
He took a motion capture class with Robert Zemekis, creator of Polar Express and Beowulf. Right now it's a short film, but he's in talks with studios for a feature. Check it out and support my chum's dream to making Turbo a feature film.A futuristic vision of the world, where super athletes are gamers fighting in virtual... more
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