• [OT] Jason Arday, plagiarizing professor, is dead

    From Rhino@no_offline_contact@example.com to rec.arts.tv on Fri Aug 14 18:53:27 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

    Jason Arday, the professor from Cambridge University, who resigned last
    week amidst a plagiarism scandal, has been found dead today.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Wke1q_SFg [9 minutes]

    The circumstances are not yet clear but there is speculation that it was suicide.
    --
    Rhino

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  • From Travoltron@Travoltron@fakeemail.org to rec.arts.tv on Fri Aug 14 15:58:56 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

    On 8/14/2026 3:53 PM, Rhino wrote:
    Jason Arday, the professor from Cambridge University, who resigned last
    week amidst a plagiarism scandal, has been found dead today.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Wke1q_SFg [9 minutes]

    The circumstances are not yet clear but there is speculation that it was suicide.

    Good riddance to bad rubbish.
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  • From BTR1701@atropos@mac.com to rec.arts.tv on Sat Aug 15 04:05:06 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

    On Aug 14, 2026 at 3:53:27 PM PDT, "Rhino" <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

    Jason Arday, the professor from Cambridge University, who resigned last
    week amidst a plagiarism scandal, has been found dead today.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Wke1q_SFg [9 minutes]

    The circumstances are not yet clear but there is speculation that it was suicide.

    The dude had mental issues. The interviews I saw of him, his responses were childlike and intellectually stunted and all the while, the Cambridge faculty was fawning all over him and calling him the most brilliant man they'd ever seen.

    For no other reason than he was black. No similarly situated white man would ever have been feted like that by the Cambridge elite.

    He even plagiarized his resignation letter in the middle of a scandal where he was accused of plagiarism. It was like something out of a SEINFELD episode.


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  • From Rhino@no_offline_contact@example.com to rec.arts.tv on Sat Aug 15 08:45:45 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

    On 2026-08-15 12:05 a.m., BTR1701 wrote:
    On Aug 14, 2026 at 3:53:27 PM PDT, "Rhino" <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

    Jason Arday, the professor from Cambridge University, who resigned last
    week amidst a plagiarism scandal, has been found dead today.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Wke1q_SFg [9 minutes]

    The circumstances are not yet clear but there is speculation that it was
    suicide.

    The dude had mental issues. The interviews I saw of him, his responses were childlike and intellectually stunted and all the while, the Cambridge faculty was fawning all over him and calling him the most brilliant man they'd ever seen.

    For no other reason than he was black. No similarly situated white man would ever have been feted like that by the Cambridge elite.

    From the videos I've seen, being black was only part of his "charm": he
    also claimed to be neuro-divergent. He insisted that he had been unable
    to speak until he was 11 and that he'd only learned to read and write
    when he was 18. (However, there have been TikToks from people claiming
    to have gone to the same school and church with him that says he was a
    chatty fellow when they knew him in the years he was supposedly unable
    to speak.) Two years later, he was in university! When the Cambridge
    elites became aware of him, in the wake of George Floyd when the
    "activists" were demanding more "representation", they must have felt
    like they just won the diversity lottery: Arday seemed to tick just
    about EVERY diversity box, not just "black". How could they resist such
    an opportunity to virtue-signal their own benevolence?

    He even plagiarized his resignation letter in the middle of a scandal where he
    was accused of plagiarism. It was like something out of a SEINFELD episode.



    The harm that this has done the buffoons at Cambridge is massive: a
    reality check that will make them jettison this DEI nonsense and return
    to meritocratic principles. At least I *hope* so but given how crazy the
    world is right now, perhaps they'll just double-down on the nonsense.
    --
    Rhino
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  • From The True Melissa@thetruemelissa@gmail.comNOSPAM to rec.arts.tv on Sat Aug 15 09:19:41 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

    Rhino wrote in article <115pn1q$3c5b6$1@dont-email.me>:
    From the videos I've seen, being black was only part of his "charm": he also claimed to be neuro-divergent. He insisted that he had been unable
    to speak until he was 11 and that he'd only learned to read and write
    when he was 18. (However, there have been TikToks from people claiming
    to have gone to the same school and church with him that says he was a chatty fellow when they knew him in the years he was supposedly unable
    to speak.) Two years later, he was in university! When the Cambridge
    elites became aware of him, in the wake of George Floyd when the
    "activists" were demanding more "representation", they must have felt
    like they just won the diversity lottery: Arday seemed to tick just
    about EVERY diversity box, not just "black". How could they resist such
    an opportunity to virtue-signal their own benevolence?

    From TMZ:
    https://www.tmz.com/2026/08/15/jason-arday-dead-amid-plagiarism-
    scandal/

    # The British press also raised doubts about Arday's assertions
    # that he collected $7.4 million in charity money by winning
    # athletic competitions, claiming at one point he ran 30
    # marathons in 35 days.

    How could anyone ever have believed that?

    Interesting that the British press got involved. I wonder what
    set the Times of London on the scent?
    --
    The meek shall inherit, we're told,
    But I'm not so easily sold.
    For supposing they should,
    It would do them no good --
    They'd lose it at once to the bold.
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rhino@no_offline_contact@example.com to rec.arts.tv on Sat Aug 15 09:59:14 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

    On 2026-08-15 9:19 a.m., The True Melissa wrote:
    Rhino wrote in article <115pn1q$3c5b6$1@dont-email.me>:
    From the videos I've seen, being black was only part of his "charm": he
    also claimed to be neuro-divergent. He insisted that he had been unable
    to speak until he was 11 and that he'd only learned to read and write
    when he was 18. (However, there have been TikToks from people claiming
    to have gone to the same school and church with him that says he was a
    chatty fellow when they knew him in the years he was supposedly unable
    to speak.) Two years later, he was in university! When the Cambridge
    elites became aware of him, in the wake of George Floyd when the
    "activists" were demanding more "representation", they must have felt
    like they just won the diversity lottery: Arday seemed to tick just
    about EVERY diversity box, not just "black". How could they resist such
    an opportunity to virtue-signal their own benevolence?

    From TMZ:
    https://www.tmz.com/2026/08/15/jason-arday-dead-amid-plagiarism-
    scandal/

    # The British press also raised doubts about Arday's assertions
    # that he collected $7.4 million in charity money by winning
    # athletic competitions, claiming at one point he ran 30
    # marathons in 35 days.

    How could anyone ever have believed that?

    Not only did he claim to have run 30 marathons in 35 days, he claimed
    that the last several of them were run ON A BROKEN LEG! As for the
    charity stuff, he not only raised the money, he travelled to various of
    the countries for which the money was raised and worked there in person
    to deliver the aid. The charity for which he allegedly raised this money
    said they NEVER sent their own people to those foreign countries.

    He also claimed to be a participant in the famous-in-Britain 7 Up
    series. That series started in 1964 and featured fourteen 7 year olds
    from various corners of the UK and showed what their lives were like.
    Then, every 7 years after that, the children were interviewed again to
    see how they were getting on. The latest installment of the series aired
    this year and featured the then-children at age 70. Arday claimed to
    have been one of those 14 children despite being only 41!!! (The
    Wikipedia article lists all the children and Arday's name isn't there.)

    Interesting that the British press got involved. I wonder what
    set the Times of London on the scent?

    An American professor named Nathan Cofnas had suspicions about Arday and
    put Arday's PhD thesis through software to detect plagiarism; it gave
    strong indications of plagiarism. Cofnas talked to the media and got
    them interested.

    The Wikipedia article on Arday explains this in more detail:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Arday

    I'm not seeing the claim that he ran some of the marathons on a broken
    leg in that article; perhaps that got invented by the media along the
    way or maybe Wikipedia omitted it.

    Arday's memoir was published in the US yesterday; it might be worth a
    read if you're in the mood for a rollicking good fantasy like those of
    Baron von Munchausen or Walter Mitty....
    --
    Rhino
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  • From The True Melissa@thetruemelissa@gmail.comNOSPAM to rec.arts.tv on Sat Aug 15 10:44:16 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

    Rhino wrote in article <115prbj$3c5b6$2@dont-email.me>:
    Arday's memoir was published in the US yesterday; it might be worth a
    read if you're in the mood for a rollicking good fantasy like those of
    Baron von Munchausen or Walter Mitty....


    This whole thing seems sad to me. He comes off as childlike. I
    wonder if he fully understood what he was doing.
    --
    The meek shall inherit, we're told,
    But I'm not so easily sold.
    For supposing they should,
    It would do them no good --
    They'd lose it at once to the bold.
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rhino@no_offline_contact@example.com to rec.arts.tv on Sat Aug 15 12:56:09 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv


    On 2026-08-15 10:44 a.m., The True Melissa wrote:
    Rhino wrote in article <115prbj$3c5b6$2@dont-email.me>:
    Arday's memoir was published in the US yesterday; it might be worth a
    read if you're in the mood for a rollicking good fantasy like those of
    Baron von Munchausen or Walter Mitty....


    This whole thing seems sad to me. He comes off as childlike. I
    wonder if he fully understood what he was doing.

    He was adult enough to hire a law firm that specialized in libel to
    scare the media into backing off somewhat. He also called the police on several occasions to accuse people of harassing him when they challenged
    some of his claims. That doesn't seem very childlike to me.

    The thing we may never truly know is whether he actually believed
    everything he said about himself, suggesting he was genuinely
    delusional, or whether he cynically invented this stuff, knowing it was
    false but doubting anyone would ever check up on him. There is some
    reason to believe it was the latter in the Wikipedia article:

    =========================================================================
    When Bakare challenged Arday on a lack of evidence for some of his
    claims, Arday said: "To be honest with you, I thought you'd just believe
    me. Why would I lie?"[7] ==========================================================================

    If you look at the bit of his work that is mentioned in the Wikipedia
    article, he seems to be a British Ibrahim X. Kendi: in other words, just another race grifter.

    There was talk last week of Cambridge students who'd studied under him
    suing the university for his allegedly poor teaching. For instance, some people signed up for a 4 hour (per week?) seminar with him hoping to
    learn at the feet of the master, but he'd only lecture for an hour of
    that and even that hour was mostly his musings on pop culture of the
    90s. Unless Cambridge does a massive house-cleaning and brings back a
    strict meritocracy, their reputation will take a major hit, just as
    other major institutions have suffered, like Harvard when its president
    had to resign over her own plagiarism scandal.

    I sincerely hope Cambridge learns from its mistake in embracing DEI and reverts to the meritocratic place it was for such a long time. Of course
    that meritocracy MUST also be completely blind to the ethnicity and intersectionality of its staff, otherwise they are undermining their credibility in other ways.
    --
    Rhino
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From moviePig@nobody@nowhere.com to rec.arts.tv on Sat Aug 15 14:32:54 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

    On 8/15/2026 12:56 PM, Rhino wrote:

    On 2026-08-15 10:44 a.m., The True Melissa wrote:
    Rhino wrote in article <115prbj$3c5b6$2@dont-email.me>:
    Arday's memoir was published in the US yesterday; it might be worth a
    read if you're in the mood for a rollicking good fantasy like those of
    Baron von Munchausen or Walter Mitty....


    This whole thing seems sad to me. He comes off as childlike. I
    wonder if he fully understood what he was doing.

    He was adult enough to hire a law firm that specialized in libel to
    scare the media into backing off somewhat. He also called the police on several occasions to accuse people of harassing him when they challenged some of his claims. That doesn't seem very childlike to me.

    The thing we may never truly know is whether he actually believed
    everything he said about himself, suggesting he was genuinely
    delusional, or whether he cynically invented this stuff, knowing it was false but doubting anyone would ever check up on him. There is some
    reason to believe it was the latter in the Wikipedia article:

    ========================================================================= When Bakare challenged Arday on a lack of evidence for some of his
    claims, Arday said: "To be honest with you, I thought you'd just believe
    me. Why would I lie?"[7] ==========================================================================

    If you look at the bit of his work that is mentioned in the Wikipedia article, he seems to be a British Ibrahim X. Kendi: in other words, just another race grifter.

    There was talk last week of Cambridge students who'd studied under him
    suing the university for his allegedly poor teaching. For instance, some people signed up for a 4 hour (per week?) seminar with him hoping to
    learn at the feet of the master, but he'd only lecture for an hour of
    that and even that hour was mostly his musings on pop culture of the
    90s. Unless Cambridge does a massive house-cleaning and brings back a
    strict meritocracy, their reputation will take a major hit, just as
    other major institutions have suffered, like Harvard when its president
    had to resign over her own plagiarism scandal.

    I sincerely hope Cambridge learns from its mistake in embracing DEI and reverts to the meritocratic place it was for such a long time. Of course that meritocracy MUST also be completely blind to the ethnicity and intersectionality of its staff, otherwise they are undermining their credibility in other ways.

    There may (or may not) be reason to suspect he was a DEI appointment,
    but there's none to suggest that standards were deliberately relaxed.
    Rather, it seems Cambridge naively bought his attractive claims.


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  • From The True Melissa@thetruemelissa@gmail.comNOSPAM to rec.arts.tv on Sat Aug 15 20:49:20 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

    Rhino wrote in article <115q5na$3ft1t$1@dont-email.me>:
    He was adult enough to hire a law firm that specialized in libel to
    scare the media into backing off somewhat. He also called the police on several occasions to accuse people of harassing him when they challenged some of his claims. That doesn't seem very childlike to me.


    It could be. That reminds me of going to an adult, especially the
    second one.

    I don't know much about the guy. I only saw some pictures and
    short clips. That's not much info, and he could be a real snake.
    It was just an impression.
    --
    The meek shall inherit, we're told,
    But I'm not so easily sold.
    For supposing they should,
    It would do them no good --
    They'd lose it at once to the bold.
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rhino@no_offline_contact@example.com to rec.arts.tv on Sat Aug 15 21:45:13 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

    On 2026-08-15 8:49 p.m., The True Melissa wrote:
    Rhino wrote in article <115q5na$3ft1t$1@dont-email.me>:
    He was adult enough to hire a law firm that specialized in libel to
    scare the media into backing off somewhat. He also called the police on
    several occasions to accuse people of harassing him when they challenged
    some of his claims. That doesn't seem very childlike to me.


    It could be. That reminds me of going to an adult, especially the
    second one.

    I don't know much about the guy. I only saw some pictures and
    short clips. That's not much info, and he could be a real snake.
    It was just an impression.

    Fair enough. I haven't seen any actual interviews with him either so I
    have no sense of his personality or character from that; I just have
    what commentators have been saying about him. For all I know, he may
    have been a wonderful guy to talk to....
    --
    Rhino
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From D. Ray@d@ray to rec.arts.tv on Sun Aug 16 12:27:19 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

    Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
    Jason Arday, the professor from Cambridge University, who resigned last
    week amidst a plagiarism scandal, has been found dead today.

    It somehow seems appropriate to let BBC Pidgin handle this story.





    <https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/articles/cd7lw0epz30o.amp>

    rCLFormer Cambridge University academic Jason Arday don die afta accuse of magomagorCY

    Di former University of Cambridge professor wey for di centre of plagiarism
    don die.

    Dem find Jason Arday "unresponsive" for one address for Battersea, south London, on Friday afternoon, emergency services tok.

    Di London Ambulance Services bin call Metropolitan Police officers. One 41-year-old man bin dey pronounced dead for di scene and im next of kin don
    dey informed, di force tok.

    Arday bin resign as Cambridge professor of sociology of education last week afta allegations of plagiarism and questions about some of im achievements.
    Im bin deny di claims.

    For one statement, di Met Police say: "At dis time, we dey treat im death
    as unexpected, but e no dey believed to dey suspiciousrCa"

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