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The Caltech Sweepstakes Caper
- tomcam 6y agoThe basis of an incidental subplot in the classic movie “Real Genius“
- overcast 6y agoLazlo Hollyfeld! My FAVORITE 80's movie :)
- xnx 6y agoI came to this thread exactly because I wondered if it could be the frito lay contest from Real Genius. I've seen that movie more than any other.
- KingFelix 6y agoIts such a brilliant movie. My son and I have watched this countless times as well. I only recently realized that Lazlo is also Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite and Dr Roberts in Dream Corp LLC. Check out Dream Corp if you haven't its brilliant.
- underseacables 6y agoOne do the greatest movies of the 80s. Should be required viewing for technology students.
- mandragon 6y agoGCHQ used to challenge applicants to disassemble a motor vehicle, and reassemble it indoors. Perhaps this inspired Chris and Mitch's revenge prank on Kent (for Kent's phone spying / leaking stunt)?
- antognini 6y agoDisassembling a car and reassembling it in someone's room (or on the roof) was also a classic prank at Caltech, especially back in the 1930s when Model Ts were common.
- trynewideas 6y agooblig. https://web.archive.org/web/20080126061303/http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~erich/real_genius_refs.html https://web.archive.org/web/20080126061303/http://alumnus.ca...
- anonu 6y ago> " He then denounced the Caltech stunt, calling it "in complete contradiction of the American standards of fairplay and sportsmanship." Funny how I view this quite differently. You find a way to tilt the odds in your favor by being astute and aware of your surroundings + applying math and reasoning: that seems like American ingenuity to me. Also, we're talking about a massive corporation running a sweepstakes - there's nobody really being harmed in all this.
- skulk 6y agoIt would be incredibly out of character for a big American corporation, when found on its ass, to not clutch pearls.
- CobrastanJorji 6y agoIndeed. "The original intent of the sweepstakes contest was to provide all McDonald's customers with over 1,850 chances to win prizes best suited to lessen effects of the current economic slump" is exactly the kind of inane, obvious lie that corporations seem required to make in response to things like this.
- jedimastert 6y ago> The Caltech students issued a press release of their own in response to McDonald's statements, in which they said, "We feel that by accepting the challenge to 'enter as often as you wish,' we have acted in accordance with the best ideals of American sportsmanship." I think they would agree
- Veserv 6y agoThe article does not mention the fourth individual involved, Glenn Hightower (one of the founders of APh Consulting), who from what I've been told was one of the ringleaders of the operation. Here is a third-party mention of Glenn Hightower being involved [1]. [1] https://commonplacefacts.wordpress.com/2016/01/07/i-hope-they-had-time-for-their-studies/ https://commonplacefacts.wordpress.com/2016/01/07/i-hope-the...