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Stealth Force Beta
YetAnotherName writes "Geeky college pranks are not just the purview of big name science and technology schools. Now that statutes of limitations have expired, Stealth Force Beta, a group of 'constructive vandals' who operated at New Mexico Tech, tell of their exploits. From crawling around steam tunnels, to mounting complex radio surveillance, to getting trapped in elevator shafts, the stories are inspirational, funny, and probably familiar in some way to many /. readers."
The MIT portion of which is well documented here. Great stuff.
"Groups of FBI, CIA, WhatHaveYou"
That's what the mean by "statute of limitations". In the US, most crimes have to be prosecuted within a certian number of years of their comission. If they aren't, they statute of limitations runs out and you can no longer be prosecuted for them.
Hope they didn't cause any money damages.
The statute of limitations on civil suits isn't as black and white as the statute of limitations on criminal charges.
And if they are still trying to cover up who did what, a overly aggresive, and loophole savvy DA could try to go for conspiracy charges, since that crime is on going.
Smile for the camera boys.
There is a book called "If at All Possible, Involve a Cow: The Book of College Pranks" by Neil Steinberg that my mother gave me right before I went to college. It's full of this kind of stuff, most if it hilarious. Check it out.
here And a detailed explanation of how it was done here
here's a write-up of the mcdonalds contest scam here
other caltech stunts including the rosebowl score board prank, and the great barberpole theft. here
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Get it right, bonehead!
I knew everybody in Stealth Force Beta and they were great people and truly helped the campus out with their pranks. I miss their company and reading these on spril.com brings back quite fond memories!
Another oft neglected Caltech stunt was the "improvement" of the Hollywood sign. There is actually an "official day" for pranks called "Ditch Day."
The only measly prank I was involved in was a disappearing parking space.
For a good read about college pranks, search out If at All Possible, Involve a Cow, by Neil Steinberg.
It's a well researched cronicle of the history of college pranks, and covers the famous MIT and Caltech pranks, but goes beyond the more publicized events to get behind the scenes as much as possible. It also covers the history or college pranks and includes the origins of several college rivalrys, such as midnight raids to capture and recover "prized" school artifacts.
Sadly, it now seems to be out of print, but it's worth finding a used copy or checking your local library.
ISBN 0-312-07810-2
Check out this page:
http://www.ncfelonymurder.org/janet.html
to see how one stupid prank gone awry earned a young woman life imprisonment without possibility of parole.
almost, though...
;^)
Apparently, the caltech administration didn't really appreciate the anti-starwars tone of the movie (since they had lots of starwars funding for phase conjugate mirror technology). Instead they ended up filming most of Real Genious at a nearby school (occidental college) which has similar mediterranean architecture.
The "burger king" entries were actually computer printed entries for a Mcdonalds contest. Since then, sweepstakes have required "hand written" entries. This was originally inspired by a ealier frito-lay sweepstakes. More recently, this was tried again with a "submit the most entries" contest among southern california school for a free oingo boingo. Despite being much smaller than UCLA and USC, caltech managaged to submit more entries, but oingo boingo decided to backout of the concert (because they probably thought performing for free at a "tech" school would ruin their reputation)...
And you're missing the most recent stunt changing the hollywood sign to read caltech
You can find a few copies here
- Neil Steinberg
Quiquid latine dictum sit altum viditur
Bill Gates supposedly said that he only hired people from Yale and New Mexico Tech... back when he was in Albuquerque.
(NMT's CS department wasn't bad. A bunch of the PPC Linux stuff was done by a Tech CS guy. Only a couple of these guys were in the CS department though.)