Men from Mars, Women from Venus, Ph.Ds from Uranus

Via “Kevin ‘the Animal’ Drum”:http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2004_03/003504.php we learn that John Gray, author of _Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus_ is pretty touchy. He’s “threatening to sue”:http://www.gavinsblog.com/mt/archives/000906.html a blogger who “pointed out”:http://www.gavinsblog.com/mt/archives/000533.html last November that Gray’s Ph.D was of dubious provenance. I thought this was pretty well known — I mean, _I_ knew it, and it’s not like I keep up with the news. He got it from Columbia Pacific University, an unaccredited diploma mill somewhere in California. There was a “TV story”:http://www.insideedition.com/investigative/johngray.htm about it a while ago. But though CPU may be defunct (by the by, what computer scientist would not want a degree from CPU?) there are plenty of others. Enroll at “Strassford University”:http://strassuniversity.org.uk/, for example (discussed further in “this CBS news report”:http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/25/eveningnews/consumer/main565236.shtml), or “Glencullen University”:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2002/materials/work/slides/Glencullen%20University_files/, notionally located in the heart of “Dublin”:http://www.ireland.com/education/el/news4.htm[1], or just cut to the chase and “design your own degree”:http://www.ineedadiploma.com/pages/886679/index.htm — literally — at “Ineedadiploma.com”:http://www.ineedadiploma.com/pages/808468/index.htm. This last site helpfully reminds you that, although “All our diplomas are printed on high quality parchment paper [and] all transcripts are printed on tamper proof, security paper,” and that  ”You also have the option of adding a security hologram to any transcript”, nevertheless “none of our items are intended to be used for unlawful misrepresentation or fraudulent purposes.” 

fn1. Glencullen “also operates”:http://www.adn.com/24hour/nation/story/600189p-4642228c.html as the University of Wexford, which I suppose isn’t _that_ far from Dublin, but also as the University of San Moritz, which makes you hope the students don’t have to walk across campus to get from one lecture to the next.