[Todos] Fwd: Informe sobre la corrupcion en Exactas - Parte 27

[fabio vicentini]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: fabio vicentini <fmvicent en gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Nov 28, 2013 at 12:40 AM
Subject: Informe sobre la corrupcion en Exactas - Parte 27
To: "m.sniedovich en ms.unimelb.edu.au" <m.sniedovich en ms.unimelb.edu.au>,
"D.K.Smith" <D.K.Smith en exeter.ac.uk>


Buenos Aires, November 28, 2013

Dear colleagues:

Subject: The Academic ‘Camelo’



"Camelo" is an Argentine slang term difficult to translate. It is an
umbrella word covering different meanings all centered upon deception:
pretense, fake, bullshit, etc. "Camelero" is an individual under suspicion
of fabricating camelo.

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Let me divide operations researchers in two categories 1) Those whose main
job is to lecture on OR techniques, and publish papers . I called them
“academics” 2) Those whose main job is to apply OR tecniques to solve
problems outside the academy. I call them “practitioners”. I worked as a
practitioner for 30 years at industrial concerns, and never met another
practitioner aside from myself. In 1993 I lost my job in industry, and
reentered my alma mater: the school of sciences.



Now, let me divide professors at my school in two categories 1) Those whose
main job is to lecture, and publish papers . I called them “academics” 2)
Those whose main job is to lecture, and  do consulting jobs outside
academy. I called them “practitioners”. I was the only practitioner in the
whole school, and they gave me the sack because I did not publish papers.



At present I am retired.  Having nothing to do I am making a research on
the academic publishing racket. Let me explain what the subject of my
inquiry is.



When I was a student (1960) the professor might write a book. Also he might
publish a paper, but that was not usual. Nowadays the professor is under
the pressure of writing papers lest he losses his job, and it is clear,
without much pondering, that he mainly publishes rubbish.



Now here are my queries: When did our teachers became cameleros? When the
publishing output switched from a linear tendency to an exponential growth.
What was the cause of the upturning point? Was it gradual or a
discontinuity jump?



I think that we can exhibit the phenomenum by plotting the number of papers
per capita as an S-shaped function having an inflexion point in the
nineties when the World Bank bureaucrats thought up a plan on higher
education for the banana republics.The idea ocurred to me when a colleague
told me of a noteworthy papers increase when Carlos Menem, the most
corrupt, clownish president since our founding fathers, was anxious to
fulfill the directions posed to him by the American master.



I tried to obtain the aforementioned curve by plotting data from the math
department faculty records. Unfortunately our data is statistically scant
prior to 2000.



I wonder if you people can smell some camelo in your own milieu. If you do,
I will much appreciate it if you add some satirical elements to my own.
Mind you, I may expose your data urbi et orbi and won’t give you any credit.



Best wishes,

Fabio
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