It takes most college students at least four years to earn a bachelor’s degree. Christie Williams finished in three months.

The North Carolina human resources executive spent two months racking up credits through web tutorials after work in 2024, then raced through 11 online classes at the University of Maine at Presque Isle in four weeks. Later that year, she went back to earn her master’s – in just five weeks. The two degrees cost a total of just over $4,000.

Since then, she has coached a thousand other students on how to speed through the state college, shaving off years and thousands of dollars from the usual cost of a degree.

“Why wouldn’t you do that?” Williams asked. “It’s kind of a no-brainer if you know about it.”

Many U.S. schools have been experimenting with ways to speed up traditional college programs to reduce the burgeoning cost and help students move into the workforce faster. Some offer three-year bachelor’s programs, reducing the number of credits needed for a diploma by one quarter. Many more allow students to enroll in college classes while still in high school.

But the breakneck pace of the fastest online programs concerns some academics, who say there is a big difference in what students can learn in weeks or months compared with three or more years.

The phenomenon – sometimes referred to as degree hacking, college speed runs or hyperaccelerated degrees – has spawned a cottage industry of influencers making videos about how quickly they earned their degrees and encouraging others to follow suit.

Supporters of the approach tout it as an affordable, convenient way for people to earn credentials they need for their careers. Others, including some online students and academic officials, expressed concern about what the super-accelerated students are missing, and whether a quick path devalues degrees.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.bestiver.se/post/1059200

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Elon Musk has been summoned to Paris, where investigators are looking into allegations of misconduct related to the social media platform X, including the spread of child sexual abuse material and deepfake content.

The world’s richest man and Linda Yaccarino – the former chief executive of X – were on Monday summoned for “voluntary interviews”, while other employees of the platform were scheduled to be heard as witnesses throughout this week, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

It remains unclear whether Musk and Yaccarino will travel to Paris. A spokesperson for X did not respond to questions from Associated Press and Yaccarino’s current company, eMed, did not answer a request sent to the press email.

Asked about the finding that social cohesion did not justify the law, Minns took aim at the Greens for supporting protesters charged after February’s anti-Herzog protest at Sydney’s town hall, when the law was in force. The rally is now subject of a police watchdog investigation into allegations of police misconduct and brutality.

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Just watched the P&F episode where Django makes a picture to show his dad. What the fuck? THIS is the "painting a continent" from the opening?

First off, Django is way too normal. Phineas, Ferb, Isabella, Bufort, and Baljeet all look like cartoon characters. Django looks and sounds like a normal kid. He's got that Phineas-in-the-pilot not-larger-than-life voice acting. He sounds like a real boy, not a cartoon person.

Second, his problem isn't high concept enough. Lots of other characters get episodes where Phineas and Ferb help them. Isabella gets the hiccups. Dad forgets his anniversary. Bufort loses his fish. Candace can't parallel park. All super high concept normal problems that get solved with insane shenanigans. Django's art isn't big enough to impress his dad, the famous artist who makes giant objects. That's an insane problem that Phineas and Ferb solve with a normal idea!

Third, Django is too much of a straight man! We have lots of straight men in P&F. Candace is a straight man to the boys, and Mum is a straight man to her. Perry is a straight man to Doof. But in P&F, we always experience the story from the point of view of the insane person. With Django, his dad is insane and Django is a normal kid, but we get Django's perspective. It feels boring because Django is boring compared to his dad.

I dunno, am I missing something? Does anyone else get serious Wesley Crusher vibes from Django? I just can't wrap My head around why this episode is so different.

Additional Links:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-20/magnitude-7-4-earthquake-hits-northeast-japan/106585552

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/japan-earthquake-tsunami-warning-hokkaido/

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/11371761

This is Alana Rosa, a 20-year-old Brazilian woman who was brutally attacked and stabbed 40 times for refusing to go out with the sexist criminal Luis Felipe Sampaio, whom she met at the gym.

After emerging from an induced coma, misogynists in Brazil are making TikTok videos of themselves stabbing mannequins with titles like "What to do when she says no."

This is the patriarchal and misogynistic society that capitalism fosters; this sexist terrorism is fueled by the system itself, just like racism and xenophobia.

Video link -> https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/2045392279150460928/vid/avc1/1280x720/gYYwNjDYEz3t-1c_.mp4

Source -> https://xcancel.com/DaniMayakovski/status/2045398894423544006#m

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Internal emails show months of unheeded warnings from the OAIC about overstated privacy claims in the government’s age check technology trial, which didn’t technically test or assess the products against Australian law.

cross-posted from: https://libretechni.ca/post/1263630

New York’s state budget could pass within days. Buried deep in the text is a provision that has nothing to do with balancing the books. Part C of the budget bill would require every 3D printer sold in New York to run surveillance software that scans every design file you create, and blocks anything an algorithm flags as a potential firearm component . A separate provision would expose researchers, journalists, and educators to felony charges simply for possessing or sharing certain design files.

A quarter of a million people could lose their jobs by the middle of next year as Britain “flirts with recession”, analysis suggests, after business confidence was shattered by the US-Israel war on Iran.

As the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, summoned bank chiefs for talks aimed at containing the fallout, twin reports from top accounting firms underlined the scale of the economic threat facing the UK.

Iran’s retaliatory closure of the strait of Hormuz trade route and its strikes on its regional neighbours, which have sent oil and gas prices soaring, will cause the biggest economic hit since the pandemic, according to the EY Item Club, an economic forecast group.

A separate report by Deloitte found finance chiefs at big UK businesses were already reining in their spending plans, taking action that was likely to weigh on economic activity and hiring.

The US military took custody of an Iranian-flagged container ship that attempted to get past an American blockade near the strait of Hormuz, Donald Trump announced on Sunday, leading Tehran to accuse him of violating the fragile ceasefire between the countries.

In a social media post, Trump said that an “Iranian-flagged cargo ship named TOUSKA” tried to get past the US naval blockade, “and it did not go well for them”.

Trump said that a US navy guided missile destroyer had warned the Touska to stop in the Gulf of Oman, but the vessel did not. “[Our] Navy ship stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engine room,” Trump said, adding that US marines now have custody of the vessel.

“The TOUSKA is under U.S. Treasury Sanctions because of their prior history of illegal activity,” Trump added. The ship is on the treasury department’s list of sanctioned vessels.

A huge fire destroyed about 1,000 makeshift homes, many of them built on stilts over water, and displaced thousands of people in a coastal village in Malaysia’s Sabah state on Sunday, authorities said.

The blaze broke out early on Sunday morning in a “water village” in Sandakan district in Sabah’s northeast, where some of Malaysia’s poorest residents, including indigenous and stateless communities, live in closely packed, wooden stilt houses.

Sandakan police chief George Abd Rakman was quoted by local English daily The Star as saying that the “very large-scale and heartbreaking incident” affected 9,007 residents.

Iranian state media report that the government is planning not to hold talks with the US in Islamabad, with the ongoing US blockade of Iranian ports remaining a major sticking point.

The tensions have been exacerbated by the US military’s attack on and seizure of the Touska overnight.

State broadcaster IRIB on Sunday quoted Iranian sources as saying “there are currently no plans to participate in the next round of Iran-US talks”.

The Fars and Tasnim news agencies had earlier quoted anonymous sources as saying “the overall atmosphere cannot be assessed as very positive”, adding that lifting the US blockade was a condition for negotiations.