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U of Chicago Scavenger Hunt List - 2004

Posted by michael on Thu May 06, 2004 12:15 PM
from the distributed-approach dept.
It's funny. Laugh. Education
nightsweat writes "The list of items and tasks for the 2004 version of the infamous University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt (or scavhunt for short) is up as a PDF. As a veteran of the first hunt in 1985, I'm glad to see the youngsters carrying on the madness. Some of the highlight items - the URLs of the blogs of the judges, five pages of Queer Eye for Doctor Doom, A McDonald's Sad Meal, Mrs Potatohead giving Mr. Potato head, Eudaemonia (300 points!), and a permanent tattoo that says 'Sorry about the syphilis, can we still be cousins?'"
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[+] The World's Largest Scavenger Hunt Returns 102 comments
mresolver writes "University of Chicago students have once again emerged from the library after a long winter to participate in the world's largest scavenger hunt. The multiple day event is famous for the working breeder reactor that students managed to build during the 1999 hunt. This year, the official list (PDF) includes a superconductor, working wood refrigerator, hot air balloon made to Montgolfier specifications, one-way funhouse mirror, and a walk-in Kaleidoscope."
[+] University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt Returns 91 comments
mresolver writes "We've discussed it in previous years, and now the world's largest scavenger hunt at the University of Chicago has returned. The event may be best known for the working breeder reactor students built for the 1999 hunt. This year, some of the 330 list items (PDF) include 3-D (and 4-D) Twister, a hand-built Theremin, a recreation of the Moon landing, the world's largest Newton's Cradle, and hyperbolic crocheting."
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U of Chicago Scavenger Hunt List - 2004 50 Comments More /

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  • #1 on the list (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 06 2004, @12:18PM (#9075162)
    A PDF viewer for Windows that doesn't suck up more resources Doom III. Good luck on that!

    • Re:#1 on the list (Score:5, Informative)

      by dgmartin98 (576409) <slashdotusername.gmail@com> on Thursday May 06 2004, @12:50PM (#9075467)
      (while acknowledging the humor...)

      Solution:
      Don't use Adobe Reader 6.x.
      Stick with Adobe Reader 5.x.

      If you already have 6.x installed and you're pissed off with the startup time and resources used (I was), uninstall it and reinstall 5.x

      To download 5.x, go to the Adobe site, and pick Windows 98 as your platform, regardless if you actually have WinXP, 2k or whatever. If you REALLY want a small Adobe Reader, pick the Win 3.1 platform, to give you Adobe Reader 3.x.

      If you're using Linux, you're in luck, Adobe won't try to forcefeed you with 6.x... yet.

      • Re:#1 on the list (Score:5, Informative)

        by normal_guy (676813) on Thursday May 06 2004, @02:34PM (#9076527)
        Actually, this is much easier. Go to your Acrobat\Reader folder and take everything from the "plug_ins" folder and move it into "Optional" except the following: Search.api, Search5.api, IA32.api, EWH32.api, EScript.api. Printing and search will still work, and it will load 75% faster. This is on Reader 6.0.

  • I'm over here! (Score:5, Funny)

    by mrpotato (97715) on Thursday May 06 2004, @12:19PM (#9075167)
    If Mrs Potato wants to give me head.

  • a couple years ago... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dijjnn (227302) <bwthomas@cs.uch3.14159icago.edu minus pi> on Thursday May 06 2004, @12:20PM (#9075185)
    Some of the kids successfully built a working breeder reactor...

    the last time the reactor was seen, it was in the back of one of the "idiot twins" cars. The idiot twins were genius physics students, one of which went on to work at los alamos...

    makes you think.

    • Re:a couple years ago... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Cyclotron_Boy (708254) on Thursday May 06 2004, @12:41PM (#9075380) Homepage
      No, we (Justin and I) are not "idiot twins." Our breeder reactor was, indeed, last publicly seen in the back of my Ford. It was originally built in our dorm suite. But it was later disassembled. You can read about it here [uchicago.edu]. Our breeder reactor created about 12000 atoms of Uranium and in the neighborhood of 4000 atoms of Plutonium. At those levels, it is even difficult to measure chemically.

      As a result of my experience building nuclear reactors for fun, I was a science advisor for a BBC show, "The Nuclear Boyscout." [eagletv.co.uk] I have had to answer questions about this a thousand times, and it has been /.-ed before (second down) [slashdot.org].

      Also, I don't work for Los Alamos. I worked for Fermi National Accelerator Lab, but now I am at General Dynamics.

      And by way of reference, the Scav Hunt rocks. We had a great time every year. Too bad I can't be there as an honorary judge this year. I would, but I can't make it... (Sorry Matt Kellard)

      -Fred

      My Webpage [umich.edu]

      • Fucking Internet. Fucking, fucking Internet. Can't even spread a good urban legend any more. Every time you try, the subject of the damn rumor pops up and starts spouting all kinds of unnecessary facts!

        I hate the fucking Internet. It's taken all the fun out of a well-crafted lie.

        • Re:a couple years ago... (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Cyclotron_Boy (708254) on Thursday May 06 2004, @01:03PM (#9075580) Homepage
          Actually, no. I wish I had known that was the list item. Justin and I have always wanted to have a triumphant alumni rematch with the Scav Hunt. I wasn't involved in 2k2. AJ was a great supporter of ours back then. When it was first /.-ed, and the rumors started spreading on campus, seemingly thousands of people disputed the story and several people complained to the Housing office at the U of C. In the end, Sherry Gutman already knew us and what we were all about, so the university complaints ended at her desk. He and a few others really helped fend off ridiculous claims and rumors during those first few days.
          -F

  • Hope it's less than 33 ft... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by pyite (140350) on Thursday May 06 2004, @12:22PM (#9075206)
    This event truly sucks. Teams must provide a giant straw which reaches from the ground to Ratner's upper deck. The team who can suck up a litre of water the fastest wins. You provide the bucket.

    Anyone know the distance of this? It might be impossible if it's greater than 33 ft.

  • electric pickle (Score:5, Funny)

    by lahosken (24108) on Thursday May 06 2004, @12:23PM (#9075212) Homepage Journal
    "A demonstration of the edible electric pickle."

    I have attached a pickle to an electric cord to make it (the pickle) glow. But I'm not sure if it was edible in that state. First of all, it was emitting burnt-pickle smoke. Second of all, the eater probably would have been electrocuted.

    Then again, that's a small price to pay for science.

  • Slashdotted... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dr. Bent (533421) <ben&int,com> on Thursday May 06 2004, @12:23PM (#9075213) Homepage
    Maybe the first item on the list should have been "Another Web Server"

  • The Real #1 on the list is... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Chris_Compton (457246) on Thursday May 06 2004, @12:27PM (#9075254) Homepage
    1) SCO's Case

  • Rising Costs (Score:5, Funny)

    by sssmashy (612587) on Thursday May 06 2004, @12:29PM (#9075267)

    ...a permanent tattoo that says 'Sorry about the syphilis, can we still be cousins?'

    Geez, the Scavenger hunt is getting more expensive every year. And now the contestants have to add to their expenses a return bus ticket from Illinois to Alabama?

  • To anybody competing (Score:4, Funny)

    by soybean (1120) on Thursday May 06 2004, @12:30PM (#9075275)
    I have that tatoo already, and for five dolars, you can use me in your game.

  • mirror here (Score:5, Informative)

    by whizkid042 (515649) on Thursday May 06 2004, @12:31PM (#9075289) Homepage
    http://www.unixauthority.com/~fiskeja/list2004.pdf [unixauthority.com]

  • Unrealistic Item (Score:5, Funny)

    by pete-classic (75983) <hutnick@gmail.com> on Thursday May 06 2004, @12:33PM (#9075308) Homepage Journal
    Mrs Potatohead giving Mr. Potato head


    Comeon. They're married. Really, what are the odds of this hunt taking place on Mr. Potatohead's birthday?

    -Peter

  • Top 10 Accidentally Found Scavenger Items (Score:5, Funny)

    by AtariAmarok (451306) on Thursday May 06 2004, @12:33PM (#9075309)
    Top 10 Accidentally Found Scavenger Items in Chicago:

    10. Mayor Daley the First

    9. An effective WinXP security patch CD

    8. 11,000 Bush vote ballots brought home early in 2001 by Bill "Lex Luthor" Daley [uwosh.edu] and hidden in a landfill.

    7. My car keys!

    6. (still missing)

    5. The Beagle

    4. 8,700 ballots from 1960 election marked as votes for Nixon.

    3. WMD's

    2. Meigs Field

    1. Jimmy Hoffa

  • the scary thing is... (Score:5, Funny)

    by size1one (630807) on Thursday May 06 2004, @12:33PM (#9075310)
    "...a permanent tattoo that says 'Sorry about the syphilis, can we still be cousins?'"

    There is probably a college student dumb enough to get the tattoo.

    They better post a picture.

    • "a college student"?

      I bet you can find legions of them dumb enough to get the tat. I'm willing to bet that the winner will be the person willing to devote the most square footage for it.

      myke

  • Im sure some folks here can do this one (Score:3, Interesting)

    by pw1972 (686596) on Thursday May 06 2004, @12:48PM (#9075440)
    "Have a computer combust through nothing but its own internal workings" Ok, there has to be some /.'ers here who can and have already done this!
    • Block all exhaust ports, stop all of the fans, and put in a 15k RPM drive or overclocked CPU.

      Depending on the exact strictness of the 'nothing but', you can either place something inside that's likely to combust, or at the very least, use an old system that's filled with dust.

    • Done it. (Score:5, Informative)

      by raygundan (16760) on Thursday May 06 2004, @01:48PM (#9076041) Homepage
      Find an AT machine. (ATX PSUs probably won't do this). Connect any one of the case LED jumpers to the power switch connector with the polarity right.

      Plug in machine. What you have done, essentially, is used the LED as a dead short across the power switch. The tiny wire on that connector will not handle the high current, and the insulation will be on fire before you can say "hey, I made it through POST!"

      I can confirm it works, having done it on accident once. Computer was fine, but it stunk in my room for days. The PSU fan moves that nasty plastic smoke into your room very effectively.

  • UC Prank or scavenger hunt? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by GPLDAN (732269) on Thursday May 06 2004, @12:48PM (#9075450)
    Was it a UC prank or part of the hunt, when several UC students stole a Chicago Police Department cruiser (maybe stole is the wrong word), dismantled it, and reassembled it on the roof of the Museum of Science and Industry?

    The story goes they started the lights and siren up before leaving, thus insuring attention, as if people might not notice a cop car on the roof otherwise.

    Is this an urban legend or did it happen? I'm not having much luck with trying to Google it.

  • The 2002 Hunt (Score:4, Interesting)

    by JawFunk (722169) on Thursday May 06 2004, @01:05PM (#9075605)
    A good one form the 2002 list was: A CT scan of a Furby (206 points; 75 bonus points for visible tumors or hemorrhages)

  • Now's the time... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Abraxis (180472) on Thursday May 06 2004, @01:22PM (#9075784)
    ...to put that Willie Nelson doll from Super Bowl XXXVIII you've been hiding away up on eBay...

  • This brings back memories (Score:3, Funny)

    by nick_marden (187997) on Thursday May 06 2004, @02:37PM (#9076560) Homepage
    During the U of C scavenger hunt in the spring of 1991, one of the items that I was responsible for finding was one of the (many) decorative banners that covered a construction area outside the Ohio State Building in Columbus.

    My girlfriend and I were spotted by police during the heist, which resulted in a short and successful chase through some of the parking lots and streets of downtown Columbus. Well, sort of successful. I clipped the bumper of a box truck during the getaway and staved in the door of the car I was driving.

    But since I was going to be scavenger hunting in Ohio for the next 48 hours, I didn't want to keep worrying about being pulled over for evading arrest by some cop who thought I might be a terrorist or something. So I went to the nearest police station and turned myself in.

    The desk sargeant there listened to my story (completely nonplussed I might add), and asked, "Is this some sort of sorority thing?" What a deflating question for a 19 year-old guy.

    Nonetheless, after a $50 fine (which I am pretty sure went into his beer fund, but I wasn't going to argue because I had just talked my way out of a much more serious problem) he let me keep the banner. And because I told the police that other people would be coming to steal more stuff from the state house, I don't believe that anyone else got one of those banners.

    Now who says the U of C isn't a fun place?
      • Yeah, I remember one year (1986?) participants were required to obtain Mike Royko's autograph on that day's issue of the Chicago Tribune. While dozens of students harrassed the real Royko all day, another enterprising team found a different "Mike Royko" in Pinola, Indiana. No problem getting his autograph!
  • That would be a great hard to find item.

    • Re:Eudaemonia means (Score:5, Informative)

      by SomeGuyFromCA (197979) on Thursday May 06 2004, @12:19PM (#9075170) Journal
      Happiness derived from a life of living according to reason. Shouldn't be *too* hard to find *that* at a Uni.

    • Re:Eudaemonia means (Score:5, Informative)

      by kavachameleon (637997) on Thursday May 06 2004, @12:23PM (#9075221)
      Really, it means "Well-demoned". It can be lucky, happy, prosperous, or a couple of other things.
    • Here's an example from the Greek: (Plato's Gorgias) Sôkratês: ou gar tout' ên eudaimonia, hôs eoike, kakou apallagê, alla tên archên mêde ktêsis. "Yes, for what we regarded as happiness, it seems, was not this relief from evil, but its non-acquisition at any time." So it seems then, that even Socrates knows that it's better to have never installed Windows at all then to have it and switch.

    • Re:Eudaemonia means (Score:5, Interesting)

      by reverseengineer (580922) on Thursday May 06 2004, @01:38PM (#9075896)
      The term comes from Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (at least, I know of no earlier discussion), and while often translated as "happiness," it's not happiness in the sense of "bliss" or "joy," but rather is the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment obtained by striving for excellence and through perfect use of one's capacities- in fact, Aristotle is careful to differentiate the concept from happiness obtained through idle amusement. In Aristotelian philosophy, it is held as the highest good of all, a perfect and complete end.

      As a side note, I'm pretty sure I first encountered the term a few years ago, prior to reading any serious philosophy, while playing Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri- it's on the tech tree, as a matter of fact, and comes complete with a quote from the Nicomachean Ethics. You could even designate that your society act in accordance with the aims of achieving eudaimonia, though cruel and unjust leader that I am, I generally preferred the Cybernetic or Thought Control options.

    • You give up to easily. It just involves a bit of trickery. No one said you couldn't get a job at the gas station... or just dress up like you have one.
    • Actually, in certain high crime areas, it is legal for stations to have customers pump their own gas in the middle of the night.

    • Never specified *which* gas. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by raygundan (16760) on Thursday May 06 2004, @01:44PM (#9075967) Homepage
      Note that the item doesn't say "gasoline" specifically, either. It says "pump your own damn gas in new jersey."

      The solution is as simple as:

      1. Go to new jersey
      2. Acquire pump
      3. Use it to pump a damn gas of your choice. (Air is handy)

      Hell, just breathing there probably counts as "pumping a gas."

      I'd be more worried about fulfilling the "damn" part of the requirement-- you may have to curse the gas, or coerce the gas into comitting a sin before pumping it.
    • You can do this with a properly-tied button-up shirt, if I remember correctly. I saw it in a book and conviced a professor to try it in a physics class.

      He was dubious, so I offered to sit behind the egg catcher when the egg was thrown.

      Then he missed the freaking catcher and hit me with the egg. Second throw worked, though.

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