This would normally be a case for my “remains of the day”, but it’s such an unbelievable piece, I can’t just stick it in there. What I’m talking about is basically a stranger asking some blogger with the name of Nate, if he could write a paper for her. On Hinduism. Until the next day. For money. He does it, and subsequently makes sure her academic career is over. Go and read the whole account here.
I don’t know exactly how I feel about that, and I’ve got the feeling Nate doesn’t either. Well, apart from it being the most cruel practical joke to date, it’s also one hell of a reminder: Don’t fucking plagiarize. It’ll make you a bad academic, it’ll piss everyone off who does their own research and it’s something you can’t erase from your record. Like that one letter people tend to send to attrition.org, asking them to hack into a Hotmail account. And if you do have to plagiarize, please don’t use the Internet. Get a damn book nobody has ever heard of, and copy that. But not the Internet.