http://www.cityofsmoke.com New York History, Commentary, and Culture Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:23:29 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/5464 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/5464#comments Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:27:37 +0000 William Bryk http://www.cityofsmoke.com/?p=5464 I have a long-time love affair with the underworld of diploma mills which, in a society overawed by credentials, is an unending source of amusement and entertaining copy. So I was unsurprised to learn that, as recently as February 2007, the New York City Department of Investigation reported that fourteen city firefighters had used bogus diplomas, purchased from St. Regis University (an on-line institution, supposedly located in Liberia) to seek promotion to officer positions such as deputy chief, battalion chief, and captain. This stemmed from a relatively new Departmental policy requiring college credits as well as practical firefighting experience to gain promotion Read More]]> http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/5464/feed 0 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/1565 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/1565#comments Sat, 14 Feb 2009 02:48:57 +0000 William Bryk http://www.cityofsmoke.com/?p=1565 I first heard of John Bear in 1990, when a man from Michigan named Bob Adams told me about the Ethiopian ear-pickers. In 1966, Southern Methodist University gave Bob Hope an honorary doctorate after the entertainer gave it a substantial donation. Up at Michigan State University, John Bear, earning his doctorate the hard way, resented this. He founded the Millard Fillmore Institute to honor Read More]]> http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/1565/feed 0