Unmuzzling Diploma Mills: Dog Earns M.B.A. Online Original Article By Marc Parry (as always italics and footnotes by me) How’s this for “hounding” diploma mills? GetEducated.com, an online-learning consumer group, managed to purchase an online M.B.A. for its mascot, a dog named Chester Ludlow. Things then took an unexpected turn when Chester was hired as the group’s leader based, in part, on his newly acquired credentials. The Vermont pug earned his tassles by pawing over $499 to Rochville University, which offers “distance learning degrees based on life and career experience,” according to a news release from GetEducated. He got back a package from a post-office box in Dubai that contained a diploma and transcripts, plus a certificate of distinction in finance and another purporting to show membership in the student council. “It was the diploma itself that drove our decision to hire Chester” explained Brian Groom, President of GetEducated.com. “Granted, we’d rather have promoted one of the GetEducated staff. They have so much more experience and demonstrated skill but they just didn’t have the right degrees. You know how it is.” Sadly, Chester was forced to fire the very people responsible for his new degree and subsequent new position. It seems the GetEducated.com crew misused time and company resources during the very stunt that resulted in Chester’s degree. GetEducated.com believes […]

[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/a0qMe7Z3EYg” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Couldn’t resist this one. It was originally from boing boing or neat stuff. Posted on a newly updated WP 2.5 installation. It’s taking some getting used to but I think I like it. As a side note, when they tell you to deactivate the plugins before upgrading, they really mean it. Gave myself a little scare that way.