tjhairball's big education bluff - LOL

[brianeyci]

And here are the course requirements for a physics degree from the University of Waterloo (link), which is actually much better-known for its engineering faculty than its physics faculty:

Honestly when I think mathematics physics concentration I automatically think fourteen full credits out of twenty related to math or physics.

Mathematics and Physics(Science program)

Consult Professor J.W. Lorimer, Associate Chair, Department of Mathematics, and the Associate Chair, Department of Physics.

Specialist program:

(13.5 full courses or their equivalent, including at least one 400-series course)

First Year:

MAT157Y1, MAT240H1, MAT247H1; PHY140Y1

Second Year:

MAT257Y1, MAT267H1; PHY225H1, PHY251H1, PHY252H1, PHY255H1, PHY256H1

Third Year:

APM351Y1, MAT327H1, MAT354H1, MAT357H1, MAT363H1; PHY351H1, PHY352H1, PHY355H1

Fourth Year:

APM421H1, APM426H1; PHY457H1; APM446H1/PHY459H1/PHY460H1

The "H" credits are half year, and the "Y" credits are full year, equivalent to two 0.5 credits. Look at the numbers man and look at the course descriptions... APM is applied mathematics, the hardest math courses in the university, and there are only two whole first year credits! And those first year credits are the hardest credits there are, Analysis and Physics, the former being for Math Olympiad nerds, the latter a course designed to fail as many science fakers as possible to weed them out of first year (one girl I know spends every single day in the fucking library just to pull off a C!).

I don't understand how a university can get away with giving a guy a degree in physics without this. It is probably because hairball's degree doesn't say physics that he didn't meet the challenge to scan it, or maybe it says physics minor.

As an aside, every time I look at those courses I have nightmares. All the courses I have taken so far have been "watered" down versions of these courses and I had extreme difficulty with them. To the uninitiated, for the people who have no idea what those courses and numbers mean, I can tell you that kind of course load is designed for professional mathematicians, requiring 10+ hours of work each week just to stay afloat at a 60, and people would flunk and switch out like mad leaving a handful out of many hundreds of thousands graduating with this degree every year. Think under ten fucking guys out of a graduating class of thousands a year. Maybe even less... I look at the wall of Putnam (a hall of heroes for math nerds) and I see one or two guys a year on the plaque and those are the only guys I can imagine making it.

Someone who has a degree like this is a fucking giant, if on dean's list a legend. Are you sure you aren't setting the bar a little too high ahahahaha maybe you should just take a random science major with 8 core instead there's a lot more of them around...

[brianeyci]

That is 10+ hours per week per course. I know because they assign a problem set every week, and you need ten hours to do it. If you collaborate, good luck, physics and science majors aren't as forthcoming with their huge group sharing thing as engineers. So with five courses that's fifty hours a week: you'd need to be a bookworm with no interest in anything at all except school to even survive. Ahahahaha goddamn, every time I think of this compared to a philosophy degree I almost rip my lungs a new one.

[NecronLord]

I have just been contacted by TJHairball. While I'm not entirely sure what he wanted (aside from to vent about the criticism of his alma mater) I do have a question...

I reiterate again that his analysis is inconsistent and in almost all regards inferior in every case to the corresponding articles on ST-v-SW.net regardless of the education of its author.
[...]
Nor, in my opinion, is Stardestroyer.net on the whole (with my incidental apologies to C'tan), which is why I gave up on ever getting y'all to see sense.

C'tan, in this instance, would be me. I've used 40K necron themed names elsewhere don'cha know. In any case, my question...

Do you seriously think St-v-sw.net is a more accurate and effective analysis of the same evidence? This is the site that makes the serious suggestion that travelling from Tatooine to Geonosis takes fifteen hours. Even though both are consistantly stated to be 'on the Outer Rim' and Coruscant is again and again stated to be near the centre of the galactic plane. At such speeds, which Darkstar attempts to argue are typical, a journey of twenty thousand light years (being conservative) to go and help them on Geonosis, sould have taken some ten years. Obviously Geonosian cosmetics are very good. I can't see those ten years on the protagonists when they're led out for their excecution at all.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I was going to point out (but Mike beat me to it) that I still have an active membership at TK. I go there about 3 times a year unless there's something that requires my attention, but I don't think I've ever run into this guy. I'll go poke around, I think.

So, is he trying to debate anything? It seems like his post is a giant bit of dick-waving. Heck, it took me 5 years just to get geophysics and hydrology done at university. Of course, at my school you couldn't get extra majors in courses that overlapped too extensively (I.e. I couldn't do geophysics and geochem), but his resume appears to be a huge abuse of such a system.

[CaptainChewbacca]

P.S. There's no way this guy is a bigger or hairier mountain-man than I am.

[NecronLord]

P.S. There's no way this guy is a bigger or hairier mountain-man than I am.

I'm pretty certain he is not JediMasterSpock, BigHairyMountainMan or any of those.

[Darth Wong]

It is the same.

It's unbelievable isn't it... the claim of "three times more" education, the "lofty vantage" the complete refusal to debate... he didn't see Mike's challenge for what it was, a way to filter out the trash. Mike is not going to go, I have a university degree so I win the debate, but that's exactly what hairball did.

By the way, does anybody know the name of the fallacy where you preempt a rebuttal by mentioning it, and think you've answered it but you haven't? Like when hairball preempted the people who would criticize his degree as too thin, thinking he had answered it just by mentioning the fact.

I think he was hoping that by pre-empting it, he would discourage anyone from actually looking into it, whereupon they would swiftly discover that his "physics degree" is a joke. I'm not even mentioning the number of hours per week yet; those courses are only 3 to 5 hours according to the university's website, and as I said, that sounds like community college, not university.

In short, what we have here is another Graham Kennedy: someone with a glorified community college diploma. It only further proves the point, doesn't it? Not only about his dishonesty in claiming a "lofty vantage point", but about his utter lack of qualifications.

[Darth Wong]

(aside from to vent about the criticism of his alma mater)...

What a fucking crybaby.

If he didn't want that kind of scrutiny, he shouldn't have brought it up. And he certainly shouldn't have tried to misrepresent it as superior to a reputable degree, which is exactly what he did. That kind of affront invited much more scrutiny than he's obviously been accustomed to.

I'll bet he had a rebuttal all drawn up and ready for any criticisms of his degree, but was unprepared for someone to actually look up the academic degree requirements on the university's website. Now we have real proof that his degree is a half-assed facsimile, not just accusations.

There's a real point here, which no one at SFJ is willing to accept: nobody with a real education will agree with them. No one is saying that an education makes you infallible, but if the only people who can be found to agree with an idea are un-educated, that is a real problem.

[NecronLord]

What a fucking crybaby.

Hey. I never said I approved. He has, apparently, e-mailed you evidence that proves something about "[your failing to respect] truly remarkable amount of work I've put into my education, but failing to be remotely honest in his selective presentation of evidence."

There's a real point here, which no one at SFJ is willing to accept: nobody with a real education will agree with them. No one is saying that an education makes you infallible, but if the only people who can be found to agree with an idea are un-educated, that is a real problem.

I find it hard to believe that anyone who really thinks could really sit and think about it and decide that a universe based around small scale near-future morality tales in space are likely to be able to go toe to toe with a vast, lensman like space opera society and win.

[Darth Wong]

You know, he could have saved himself a lot of trouble if he simply said from the beginning that he has SOME knowledge of the subject matter, instead of always coming at people with this "I know way more than you" attitude even though it's plainly obvious that he's making up half of it as he goes.

The problem was that his argument style is so high-handed that it doesn't work unless he bluffs himself into a position of superiority over everyone else. I don't think he knows how to argue any other way.

Hairball doesn't really understand the way an honest debater thinks. I would actually prefer to debate this with someone who knows what he's talking about and is capable of arguing honestly; I think my abortion debate with kuroneko was probably the most enjoyable debate I ever had on this board, in part because the guy is so damned smart (I'll be honest; he's significantly smarter than me), and he does it right. I'm sick of debating bluffers, morons, liars, and kiddies, and that's all I ever get from the Trek side.

[Darth Servo]

Wow. More proof that starfleet-jedi's people are hit-and-run morons. TJhairball makes ONE post to attempt to boast he has more education than Mike and then disappears again.

If he didn't want that kind of scrutiny, he shouldn't have brought it up. And he certainly shouldn't have tried to misrepresent it as superior to a reputable degree, which is exactly what he did. That kind of affront invited much more scrutiny than he's obviously been accustomed to.

He's a chief member of a board who's entire purpose is trekkie circle jerk.

[Junghalli]

It's unbelievable isn't it... the claim of "three times more" education, the "lofty vantage" the complete refusal to debate... he didn't see Mike's challenge for what it was, a way to filter out the trash. Mike is not going to go, I have a university degree so I win the debate, but that's exactly what hairball did.

One of the best signs of a charlatan is the "guru act" where they forcefully assert their superiority and then refuse to back up what they say because you're either not worthy or not ready to hear their profound wisdom.

[Zablorg]

Is there any way you moderators can see how often he has visited? Then we can all laugh at him when we find out he's been here lots of times and hasn't responded.

[Darth Wong]

Wow. More proof that starfleet-jedi's people are hit-and-run morons. TJhairball makes ONE post to attempt to boast he has more education than Mike and then disappears again.

He sent me a bunch of E-mails, pathetically trying to justify his continued insistence on claiming he has superior education. Sounds like he's been doing that to others as well, like Necronlord.

My favourite is the part where he reminded me of his off-topic electives (as if they matter) and proudly says that at Appalachian, they don't count lab time as separate courses, as if the presence of two special core lab courses in the UW curriculum means that every scrap of lab time gets an entry on the calendar. I took Mechanical Engineering at UW and we had shitloads of lab time that wasn't marked on the calendar; this is not exactly unusual in universities. But anything to try and distract from the obvious and huge difference in depth of material between the two programs, eh?

Even in his own E-mails, he's quietly given up on his "lofty vantage point" rhetoric and is now saying "the difference isn't as big as you make it out to be", still without ever conceding that he did or said anything wrong in the first place. This is such a perfect example of the way these people conduct themselves: bluffing, backpedaling, refusal to admit error or deceit even when overwhelmingly obvious, etc. And of course, trying to paint me as a bad guy for going after him on this, even though he was the one who invited the comparison in the first place, with that "lofty vantage point" bullshit. Not even the tiniest trace of contrition; just more of his resentment.

And now he's starting to send E-mails in flurries, as if I should bother answering all of his defensive excuses.

[Peptuck]

Even in his own E-mails, he's quietly given up on his "lofty vantage point" rhetoric and is now saying "the difference isn't as big as you make it out to be", still without ever conceding that he did or said anything wrong in the first place. This is such a perfect example of the way these people conduct themselves: bluffing, backpedaling, refusal to admit error or deceit even when overwhelmingly obvious, etc.

This makes it sound more and more like he's JMSpock, too - he's already quietly admitted when he's been wrong during the debate at ST.com, but he did it back on his own boards, but never said a word about it at ST.com until Aratech called him out on his lies.

And of course, trying to paint me as a bad guy for going after him on this, even though he was the one who invited the comparison in the first place, with that "lofty vantage point" bullshit. Not even the tiniest trace of contrition; just more of his resentment.

Again, strikingly similar to Spock's dickery on ST.com; when Aratech caught his lies, he got hyper-defensive, and kept talking about how he admitted his failures at his website, and how Aratech was being unfair for calling him out at ST.com.

[Vympel]

I'm pretty certain he is not JediMasterSpock, BigHairyMountainMan or any of those.

Not JMSpock, but BHMM? Almost certainly. Leaving aside that they read identical (all three make the same arguments, but JMSpock is considerably more lazy) - on strek-v-swars, he referred to his debate as tjhairball with Mike as if he were one and the same.

(also, if you look at his picture, you'll see he's got a thing for the "hairy" theme, for good reason)

[Darth Wong]

Eh...is TJ's post still the original?
Because after reading some of the stuff he writes, I can't let go of the impression that someone edited the whole thing (although I could be wrong in this case). Although actually Horsemanning his post surely would be interesting...

I know it's hard to believe he actually wrote that, but not a word has changed. These people verge on self-parody much of the time. If we changed anything, we'd throw it in HOS and colour-code the changes.

This turd should be glad I don't have time for my Empire website nowadays. Back when I had more time and I was more keen on it, I probably would have dedicated a page to this latest escapade. It's really quite delicious.

[Darth Servo]

I'm pretty certain he is not JediMasterSpock, BigHairyMountainMan or any of those.

Not JMSpock, but BHMM? Almost certainly. Leaving aside that they read identical (all three make the same arguments, but JMSpock is considerably more lazy) - on strek-v-swars, he referred to his debate as tjhairball with Mike as if he were one and the same.

(also, if you look at his picture, you'll see he's got a thing for the "hairy" theme, for good reason)

Not like it matters if they're all one person or 20 different people. They all copy each other, or rather, they all copy the Rabid Stupid Asshole.

[Darth Servo]

He sent me a bunch of E-mails, pathetically trying to justify his continued insistence on claiming he has superior education. Sounds like he's been doing that to others as well, like Necronlord.

...

And now he's starting to send E-mails in flurries, as if I should bother answering all of his defensive excuses.

Would you be kind enough to share some examples?

[Darth Servo]

App state's 2007 graduation list does indeed include a Thomas Joseph MacIntee, but only with Physics and Philosophy & Religion degrees listed. No math degree. Not that it matters.

[brianeyci]

Honestly, there's nothing wrong with a community college degree. What works for some people is okay. I don't particularly care about Graham Kennedy, because I didn't deal with him before. In fact, I honestly think some vocations shouldn't waste their time going to college at all and it's a big fucking waste of time and money. Like Mike says all you need is really good high school. The problem is high school is so diluted, actually saying it's a real good high school or you have tons of knowledge is difficult to believe, so Mike wants more.

What's the bullshit is the "lofty vantage" and "three times more education" and "none of you are worth my time" when it's clear his degree is not as prestigious as he makes it. When Mike challenges he doesn't say only people with college can debate this, he just doesn't want to deal with same old and wants a higher level of discourse for his time.

This is for the viewers who think this is some sort of "elitism." It really isn't, at all. If hairball came in and said, I don't have as much education as you but I have a physics major (if that's what it is) I'm sure Mike would've entertained the thought.

[Darth Wong]

I'll get criticized either way. When I was trying to build up my Hate Mail page and I used to spend time arguing with the kiddies, people would say "What's wrong with you? You're a grown man, arguing with kiddies." Now that I've built it up and I don't have any self-interest in wasting my time with kiddies, people say "What's wrong with you? Why won't you debate kiddies?"

This is why I have no intention of altering my behaviour to suit the pitiful little band of a dozen kiddies over at SFJ, or any other group of Trektards. I get into debates for totally different reasons than they do. They do it because they must: they are on some kind of righteous crusade for the Religion of Trek, and they've got Picard's voice echoing in their heads, saying "THIS FAR, NO FURTHER!!!" (seriously, they really do seem to think like that). I, on the other hand, do it for my enjoyment, and/or to improve my website. If there's nothing in it for me, then I don't want to bother.

[CaptainChewbacca]

You can always tell a Warsie, because only a warsie would say 'Pitiful little band'.

Sit on a throne when you say it, Mike.

[Colonel Olrik]

Minor correction: University of Waterloo's physics program has 30 core courses in the first three years, not the entire program. There are 4 more core courses in fourth year, so it actually has 34 core courses.

In fact, looking at the paltry requirements for that appstate degree, I have to wonder what kind of reputation that university has for physics; those requirements look more like something you'd see in a community college course calendar.

That's like mine in the TU of Lisbon and what my German colleagues have had in the TU of Munich. 5 semester courses for three years, totalling 30 for a BSc and another 20 courses (in my case, now it's a few less thanks to the EU's new University agreement) for the MSc. Plus up to 10 during the PhD.

[Edi]

Minor correction: University of Waterloo's physics program has 30 core courses in the first three years, not the entire program. There are 4 more core courses in fourth year, so it actually has 34 core courses.

In fact, looking at the paltry requirements for that appstate degree, I have to wonder what kind of reputation that university has for physics; those requirements look more like something you'd see in a community college course calendar.

That's like mine in the TU of Lisbon and what my German colleagues have had in the TU of Munich. 5 semester courses for three years, totalling 30 for a BSc and another 20 courses (in my case, now it's a few less thanks to the EU's new University agreement) for the MSc. Plus up to 10 during the PhD.

The computer engineering program (BSc) I failed out of had requirements similar to what Mike posts about the University of Waterloo in terms of course load. I managed just short of three quarters of that (though with extensions to my time at the school). In comparison, the vocational IT degree I got is more closely along the lines of the Appstate requirements in terms of course load and amount of work. The actual difficulty difference between the two is so enormous it isn't fucking funny.