Monday, April 11, 2005

Attack of the Nerds

So how do the uber intelligent kids at Caltech and MIT relieve their stress from the daily grind of maths and physics problems ? They play pranks of course ! Both Caltech and MIT have traditions of students performing oftentimes elaborate, but usually innovative and amusing mischief. At MIT, they call it 'hacking', a term that apparently originated in their campus prior to its association with computers.

Now the worlds are colliding with some students from Caltech traveling cross-country to pull off a variety of pranks at MIT during the latter's prefrosh weekend. The pranks included handing out T-shirts that say 'MIT' on the front and '...because not everyone can go to Caltech', floating Caltech balloons and inflatable palm trees and (my personal favorite) placing a banner over "MASSACHVSETTS" to read 'The Other Institute of Technology". MIT students responded by placing their own banner to read "The Only Institute of Technology". Read all the details at this website.
(Via Slashdot)

On a related note, the most famous 'hacker' at MIT would have to be Richard P . Feynman - those who have read "Surely You are Joking Mr. Feynman" will remember the 'removing the door' episode (there is an online account here).

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