The endless supply of mother-in-law jokes » « Mr Cosby had fashioned himself as a moral guide

The university backs away

According to Jessica Smith Cross at Metro Canada, the woo teacher is no longer on the staff at the University of Toronto and the course has been dropped.

Beth Landau-Halpern, a homeopath, came under fire last year when the source materials for her course on alternative medicine at U of T Scarborough were made public. They included YouTube links and other non-academic sources.

Landau-Halpern was cleared by an internal investigation and continued to teach her course this spring.

A spokesperson for the university confirmed on Monday that Landau-Halpern’s course will not be offered this summer or next year, and she is no longer on staff.

Now about that course in Magical Engineering…

The endless supply of mother-in-law jokes » « Mr Cosby had fashioned himself as a moral guide

Comments

  2. Blanche Quizno says

    The course we’re all waiting for is on djinn energy and djinn machines.

    “Islamic science,” a weird hybrid of scientific terminology and Islamic lore.

    Doesn’t mean it can’t be true!

    Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood is a pioneer in the development of nuclear technology in Pakistan. But in 1980, as a senior director of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, he “recommended that djinns [or genies], being fiery creatures, ought to be tapped as a free source of energy. By this means, a final solution to Pakistan’s energy problems would be found.”

    In a Wall Street Journal article on Islamic science (13 September 1988), Dr. Mehmood noted that King Solomon had harnessed energy from djinns. “I think that if we develop our souls we can develop communications with them,” he said.

    While the notion of “djinn energy” is ridiculous — even in Pakistan there are no djinn engines — ridicule is beside the point. A more important point is that influential figures in the Islamic world are devoted to a view of reality that cannot be readily reconciled with conventional Western thought. This is a “translation” problem that cannot be solved with dictionaries. http://fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/2001/10/102901.html

    While no djinn engines have yet been successfully tested, for all we know, we might see one of these engines put to work as early as next semester! I can has tenure??

  3. Ichthyic says

    It does not sound to me, from reading the review of course material conducted by the university, or in fact ANY statement from the university administration itself, that the university was “backing away” from Halpern.

    quite the contrary.

    after highlighting the obvious conflict of interest engendered by the fact that the person teaching the course was in fact, the WIFE of the Dean of the University… the response was a simple: “Nothing to see here! move along!”

    frankly, I’m astonished at the way they handled this, and would NEVER recommend a student to attend such an institution until serious changes are made.

  4. Joey Maloney says

    Now about that course in Magical Engineering…

    A wizard’s staff has a knob on the end…c’mon, everybody sing along!

  5. lorn says

    Is it still okay if Doctor Who uses a little “metaphysical engineering” now and then?

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