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MIT Hackers Appropriate Caltech Cannon
Bob Hearn writes "Some Slashdotters might remember the story Caltech Pranks MIT's Prefrosh Weekend from a year ago. MIT Hackers have gotten even. Sometime in the middle of the night, Caltech's famous cannon appeared at the base of MIT's Green building. A plaque in front of it reads: 'CALTECH CANNON April 6, 2006 MIT hackers posing as the Howe & Ser Moving Company Appropriated this cannon on March 28, 2006. It later appeared on MIT's campus with the addition of a large brass rat made of gold-plated aluminum. In honor of its previous owners, the cannon points towards Padadena, CA.' The brass rat (MIT ring) is really a rather impressive bit of aluminum machining. Harvey Mudd College previously stole the cannon, in 1986, but later had to give it back."
s/pronk/prank/ :x
c h%20Cannon%20Hack/photos/photo4.html another pic of the ring on the canon ;)
Easy typo seing as they are so close to each other on the keyboards...
BTW: http://web.mit.edu/jotong/Public/Photos/MIT/Calte
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
The name of the ring is the brass rat. It doesn't matter if the [actual] rings are gold or steel, everyone calls it the brass rat.
The brass rat on the cannon is gold plated aluminum.
The ring itself is referred to as a "brass rat" around MIT because it's gold (brass-ish colored) with a beaver (rat) on the face. The version on the cannon is gold-plated aluminum.
So who's gonna tell them that 6/7 (7/8, I guess, with Avery house) of the students are unlikely to be put out.
The Flems, on the other hand...
See, It's not really the _Caltech_ cannon, as such.
A. Mole
It's actually a big relief to us to hear that MIT has it. For the last week, we've been wondering where the hell it got off to. The administration thought filed a police report for grand theft. MIT stole it in the early hours masquerading as contractors. Security stopped them, but they social-engineered their way out of it, and security let them go.
I think the blurb is misleading in not making it clear the the Brass Rat is a proper noun. Specifically, it is the amusing name given to the MIT class ring, which traditionally pictures a beaver, nature's engineer. Capitalize proper names, you tards! Oh, but I guess that would be considered "editing", and they don;t do that around here...
Conclusion: the Empire squashes the Federation like a bug. Accept it.
See Subject: Howe & Ser Moving Co..
Mr. Universe: "They can't stop the signal, Mal. They can never stop the signal."
To the contrary. I submitted an Ask Slashdot that was accepted and they actually edited some really stupid questions into it that I hadn't asked, which immediately resulted in a number of people questioning the source of my particular genetic line.
I think what you meant is not that they don't edit, but rather that they don't edit properly.
From now on, I buy only Intel.
Since you all killed our webserver I put the pics up on our personal server: http://donkeykong.mit.edu/cannon/. It's only an old AlphaServer DS20 so play nice.
You gotta find first gear in your giant robot car
Pictures here
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity
And just in case anyone is unfamiliar with military terminology:e nt=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&defl=e n&q=define:Howitzer&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct =title
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&hs=GwX&lr=&cli
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
I am running the caltechvsmit.com site. The one point was for last years retaliation against the "The Other IT" banner. They get at least 10 points for this; I haven't decided yet. (I am arbitrarily keeping score).
their class ring
The beaver, nature's engineer, is the school's mascot.
(oh wait, replying to a troll modded post by the time I hit reply -- oh, well)
There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
For those not in the know, IHTFP actually stands for "I Hate This F* Place"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IHTFP
-Cinnamon
Nice to see that Wikipedia is already updated to reflect this change of location!
Props to MIT... good show!
I'd be surprised if the HMC administration didn't ask the students.
I was a Mudder in '86 when we took the cannon. As far as I am concerned, the point of the prank was taking the cannon and preventing Caltech from taking it back. That was a success, and there were some seriously frustrated students in Pasadena. Keeping it wasn't really the point. Mudders loaded the cannon in a truck and drove it back Caltech after being asked by the Mudd administration. It was an exciting ride with an escort of Caltech people swerving at the truck on the freeway.
We had what seemed to be a very one-sided rivalry with Caltech. I'm still embarrassed by the T-shirts which read "Caltech: A division of Harvery Mudd College; but Caltech didn't seem to know that HMC existed. (For those who don't know, both have outstanding undergraduate programs in science and engineering). Caltech has a long history of pranks, so it they were a natural target for Mudders. I hope Caltech shows better character this time around.
The motto at MIT is "Mens et Manus" (roughly, "mind and hand," or, as I prefer it, "science and technology"). Everyone at The 'Tute knows the motto.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
I'm qute sure it's real. (Mudd '03)
As a Caltech student, I feel the need to respond to all the "On noes! Grand theft cannon! Involve the police!" comments. By any measure, this was a good prank. I have nothing but admiration for MIT for doing this. Admiration and the need to get even, of course. But no hard feelings.
To be fair, it is now against Pasadena city law to steal the cannon. One of the first things they tell frosh when they tell us the story is that we are not, under any circumstances, allowed to steal the cannon anymore. Apparently, after the first time we stole it, we stole it subsequent times and left it all around Los Angeles, which for some reason made them sore. If they don't enforce the rule and make MIT give it back, I for one will be sore.
David (HMC '09)
If you can read this sig, you're too close.
Flemming House, and the other "south houses" are currently being renovated. The cannon, I believe, had been relocated to the lawn in front of the admissions house. Not only is it hard to lock something to a lawn (i'm not sure if it was locked to something else, but I recall it wasn't), the admissions house is on an honest-to-god road. Before the renovations, the cannon was less accessible. It would not have been difficult to pull a moving van up in the middle of the night and wheel it off without *students* noticeing it, though getting around Caltech security, which is literally headquartered across the street from the admissions house, took cleverness. Still, the cannon was a bit more accessible than when Harvey Mudd took it.
Definitely a great prank, and I'm sure Techers (Caltechers) welcome the opportunity to raise the level of ingenuity. I took part in last year's prank, and such a response was exactly what we'd been hoping for. Let the games continue!
"Caltech" is capitalized sometimes like that, but never in mixed case, ie "CalTech" or "Cal-Tech" or "Cal Tech" are all wrong. A few old timers are allowed to call it "CIT", but that is considered quaint. BTW, for non-techers, an "RF" is a Rat Fuck, a prank that entails freezing a rat in liquid nitrogen and smashing it to bits in someone's dorm room. RF has come to mean any prank now.
I know it's real because I am the internal all-students mailing list moderator and I approved it.
-- Apple: Where Microsoft wants to go today.
No, not the Caltech cannon, the Fleming cannon. Glad someone set the record straight! Maybe this thing will bring the MIT dudes bad karma or something.
In case anyone doesn't bother to read the parent or didn't get it, here's the deal: MIT just helped a little less than 6/7 of caltech undergrads get back at a little less than 1/7 of caltech undergrads, employing a method that's an expellable offense. Being a member of the house that perhaps dislikes Fleming the most, I, a Page Boy, salute MIT!