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‘The sincerest form of flattery’: How a math professor discovered his work had been plagiarized
(retractionwatch.com)
Reminds me of Tom Lehrer's Lobochevsky, with the lyrics:
Who made me the genius I am today
The mathematician that others all quote
Who's the professor that made me that way?
The greatest that ever got chalk on his coat
One man deserves the credit
One man deserves the blame
And Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name
Ha!
Nicolai Ivanovich Lobach—
I am never forget the day
I first meet the great Lobachevsky
In one word he told me secret of success in mathematics:
Plagiarize
Plagiarize
Let no one else's work evade your eyes
Remember why the good Lord made your eyes
So don't shade your eyes
But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize
Only be sure always to call it please 'research'
And ever since I meet this man
My life is not the same
And Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name
Ha!
Nicolai Ivanovich Lobach—
I am never forget the day
I am given first original paper to write
It was on analytic and algebraic topology of locally Euclidean parameterization of infinitely differentiable Riemannian manifold, Bozhe moi!
This I know from nothing
What I'm going to do
I think of great Lobachevsky and get idea - ha-ha-a!
I have a friend in Minsk
Who has a friend in Pinsk
Whose friend in Omsk
Has friend in Tomsk
With friend in Akmolinsk
His friend in Alexandrovsk
Has friend in Petropavlovsk
Whose friend somehow is solving now
The problem in Dnepropetrovsk
And when his work is done
Ha-ha! - begins the fun
From Dnepropetrovsk to Petropavlovsk
By way of Iliysk and Novorossiysk
To Alexandrovsk to Akmolinsk
To Tomsk to Omsk to Pinsk to Minsk
To me the news will run
Yes, to me the news will run!
And then I write
By morning, night
And afternoon
And pretty soon
My name in Dnepropetrovsk is cursed
When he finds out I publish first!
And who made me a big success
And brought me wealth and fame?
Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name
Ha! Nicolai Ivanovich Lobach—
I am never forget the day
My first book is published
Every chapter I stole from somewhere else
Index I copy from old Vladivostok telephone directory
This book was sensational!
Pravda - well, Pravda - Pravda said: (Russian double-talk)
It stinks
But Izvestia! Izvestia said: (Russian double-talk)
It stinks
Metro-Goldwyn-Moskva buys movie rights for six million rubles
Changing title to The Eternal Triangle
With Brigitte Bardot playing part of hypotenuse
And who deserves the credit?
And who deserves the blame?
Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name
Ha!