Former Drexel engineering professor accused of misusing $185,000 worth of grant money on strippers, sports bars, and iTunes

The romantic in me likes to imagine these were some swinging engineering classes, but I digress.

The former chairman of Drexel University's engineering department was charged last week by the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office for allegedly stealing $185,000 worth of grant money.

Professor Chikaodinaka Nwankpa is accused of spending the money on strip clubs, sports bars, and iTunes. The District Attorney's office charged Nwankpa with theft by unlawful taking* and theft by deception, each of which is a felony.

His alleged crimes occurred between 2010 and 2017 and seemed suspicious when an audit showed a number of "no receipt" purchases. When confronted, Nwankpa allegedly passed off his strip club visits as catering and food expenses, although many of the purchases occurred between midnight and 2am. But who doesn't get the late night munchies sometimes, amiright?

Of the $185,000, Nwankpa allegedly used $96,000 on "adult entertainment" and sports bars, while $89,000 was spent on iTunes, various meals, and other additional purchases. So, with that iTunes catalog, he has a future side-hustle as a wedding DJ.

Drexel placed Nwankpa on administrative leave pending the investigation, but he later resigned. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for January 29th.



*Isn't "theft by unlawful taking" sort of redundant? Theft is literally taking something unlawfully--no? Can you commit theft by taking stuff lawfully? Just sit there and grab something and promise you might bring it back? Why haven't we been told this before??

Tom Hanks created a typewriting app that is a bestseller on iTunes.

Oscar winner Tom Hanks recently released an app on iTunes that mimics old typewriters for individuals writing on their iPad. The app, called Hanx Writer, is free (with available upgrades starting at $2.99) and creates the noise and visual back and forth of a typewriter arm on the iPad's screen.

Hanks is a huge proponent of typewriting as a cog in the writing process, as he noted last summer in an op-ed for the New York Times. "Everything you type on a typewriter sounds grand," he wrote, "the words forming in mini-explosions of SHOOK SHOOK SHOOK. A thank-you note resonates with the same heft as a literary masterpiece."

Don't worry though. While typewriters are notorious for lacking a delete or backspace key (how do you delete ink smacked on a page?), the Hanx Writer includes that one modern convenience.




photo: iTunes / Hanx Writer

Whatever happened to the font used in the old Trapper Keeper and Reebok logos?

In the late 1970s and '80s, a wonky lettering was all the rage in design. Early Apple Computer products came adorned in its font, and the beloved puffy folder of grade school children everywhere, the Trapper Keeper, embraced it as well.

Sloping, curving letters with diagonal accents which don't close at points were its hallmark, shown here:

Created in 1975 by Austrian designer Othmar Motter, who named it Motter Tektura, the font gained mainstream success--at least as a marketing tool--shortly thereafter. Yet, after a decade of dominance, the font's use largely died out. But why?

The thing is, no one really knows. Fonts In Use notes that there is no known authorized digital version of the font available, while Gizmodo argues it might be more a matter of the "rotating wheel of 'good taste.'"

If that's the case, then Reebok never got the memo about good taste. They held out the longest with their classic logo, only changing it fairly recently:

With Reebok finally off the Motter Tektura bandwagon, the font's use is officially off life support.

Much like New Wave music in the 1980s, it had a good run.

Los Angeles students receive iPads for the classroom, immediately crack firewall and play video games.

As student Maria Aguilera told the Associated Press, "[School officials] kind of should have known this would happen."

Augilera later added, "We're high school students after all. I mean, come on."

When someone whips out the 'come on,' it's bad. When a teenager whips out the 'come on,' it's really bad.

Apple censors a book cover for being inappropriate.

Yeah, that's the cover to the left there.

SHIELD YOUR EYES, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOGMYGOD THEY USED TIMES NEW ROMAN FOR THE FONT OF THE TITLE OF THE BOOK-----WHO DOES THAT?

No, wait, that wasn't the issue. Apparently the artistic slope of a person's bottom is what so horrifyingly offends the great censors at Apple, so they've censored the book in their iTunes store.

According to publisher Europa (who privately loves that Apple did this to a little known book):

One would assume, then, they would also consider classical nudes by Ingres, Renoir, and Botticelli, not to mention photography by Man Ray inappropriate. What about New York Book Review editions of Dud Avocado, Tyrant Banderas, or our very own The Days of Abandonment? NOPE! All are available in the iTunes bookstore.

Europa Editions also mentions that the author, being Syrian, has seen her book censored in Syria over the content of the book--not for the cover.

Just to reiterate: Syria--at the hands of a dictator, in the midst of a civil war killing untold thousands--is more progressive with artistic representations of the buttocks than Apple, number 17 on the Fortune 500 and bellwether of technological advancements in the western world.

Why stop there though? Apple can start banning other famous pieces of art that show a little ooh-la-la.

Case 1:

Photographer Man Ray loved the nude form, and possibly no other is more famous than his Ingres's Violin. Painting the f-holes of a stringed-instrument on a photograph of model Alice Prin, Man Ray's artistic interpretation shows nearly an equal amount of back/tookus as Salwa Al Neimi's book cover.

Therefore, Apple must ban this.

Case 2:

This harlot! The Venus De Milo! At least she has the decency to put on a sarong and keep her derriere private--but, but, but, but she's a double-amputee! That's obscene!

And, you know, she's beaming, too.

Therefore, Apple must go to the Louvre and ban this.

Case 3:

This is just marble hedonism run amuck.

Michelangelo's David has the cauliflower happy place, the dimpled apostrophes of his rear, the pencil eraser chest dots--it's just...OBSCENE.

Therefore, Apple must go to Florence, Italy, and ban this.


And once Apple bans all of this, as a society we'll be safe.