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Weekly Work Reports and the Moshinsky Maneuver

magidin@math.berkeley.edu (Arturo Magidin)
U.C. Berkeley Math. Department.
(smirk)

This is a true story, as told by my father, whose sister worked
in the ININ. It is called "The Moshinsky Maneuver":

At one point, in Mexico's National Institute of Nuclear Research
(ININ), instead of appointing a scientist as head of the Institute
(as was traditional), the president appointed an administrator.
The new Director promptly enacted all sorts of administrative
procedures and forms that had to be filled by every department.
In particular, he announced that every Department Head had to
file a weekly Activities Report, and a weekly "Projected Activities
for the Coming Week" report, both to be delivered during a
weekly Department Head meeting with the Director.

Dr. Marcos Moshinsky was then the head of the Theoretical Physics
Department. This is how he dealt with the announcement:

At the first weekly meeting, the Theoretical Physics Dept.
presented the following report:

"During the past week, the Theoretical Physics Dept. worked
 on solving the following differential equations:"
and then followed two pages of hand-written differential
equations.

"During the coming week, the Theoretical Physics Dept. hopes
 to solve the following differential equations:"
and then followed three pages of hand-written differential
equations.

The Head of the Institute announced the next morning that
the Theoretical Physics Dept. was excused from the weekly
meetings, and could present only one report every six months.

(From the "Rest" of RHF)


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