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UChicago receives package for Indiana Jones
- swohns 14y agoWhen people ask why I chose UofC, I tell them it's because Indiana Jones went there.
- rayiner 14y agoI had assumed people just went to U Chicago for the naked parties.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- timdiggerm 14y agoIt belongs in a museum! I'm not kidding. Or at least, mostly. They should put it on display.
- ChuckMcM 14y agoThis is fun, I wish the notebook had a hand drawn picture of a Stargate in it :-) (I know I know, don't cross your franchises, always thought it would be an interesting in an Aliens Vs Predators sort of way to squeeze out another movie). That this has happened now though, at a time when my college age daughter is being deluged with colleges trying to get her attention, suggests to me an attempt at a viral campaign by the admissions department to raise UChicago on the radar of prospective students.
- benbataille 14y agoI kind of doubt the econ department of UChicago needs this kind of advertisement. It's probably the most famous in the world. They have the record for econ Nobel prizes as a university. If I had to take a guess, they are probably overwhelmed by applications rather than lacking some. Anyway, if it is, it's a cool one. :-)
- ChuckMcM 14y agoAgreed, but think about what you just said, "record for econ Nobel prizes." So how many 18 yr olds look up which institution has produced the most Nobel winners? I'm not saying that is zero, I'm just saying that its a great follow up fact but not a good discovery fact. I think we've seen about 300 post cards and letters over the last 12 months starting with the PSAT results getting recorded. I wonder if there isn't a startup idea like developer auction called "Student Auction"[1] where kids can list their qualifications, interests, and grades and have these universities bid on them with scholarships, etc. Anyway, I don't doubt we'll get down to the bottom of the mystery, I like the idea. But I also liked the first 'hire me <foo>' web site idea too, would hate to see it get over meme'd. [1] I'd probably call it 'Scholar Discovery' the business model would be that its free for college seeking students to sign up, has a monthly college based fee, privacy between student and university is assured, but current offers (sanitized) could be shared to show the recruiters what they are up against.
- mathattack 14y agoI can't wait to find out if this was part of an application, or some other prank.
- moskie 14y agoMy first instinct was that this is the start of a viral game for a new Indiana Jones movie.
- asfdfdasfafdsss 14y agoThis is a good guess. Disney just bought LucasArts, and they pulled a similar stunt for Tron Legacy: they setup a website flynnlives.com and provided hints to a location in San Diego where they had recreated a Flynn's arcade that people had to find. However, considering the last Indiana Jones film was a miserable flop (spoiler ahead: was it the hiding in the refrigerator or the UFO that nailed that coffin), they would have to fully recreate the old Harrison Ford in CGI PERFECTLY with a great plot to get me interested, and btw Disney I expect the same for the new star wars final trilogy or the remake of the first three after removing all of the Jar Jar sequences and replacing the obi wan with a younger CGI version of Alec Guiness and getting rid of the lame Jabba, etc. bad CGI crap they added to New Hope, etc. People should learn a lesson from LucasArts; when you have customers for life, continue to cater to them as they age. Also what about some Biggs Darklighter in a new series? For the kids, how about an Ewok that learns to kick ass in a tie fighter?
- draq 14y agoWow, nice calligraphy, I think its written using a soft nib pen. Also: Who is the "Guardian of the Ark"?
- polyfractal 14y agoIt is very nice penmanship. Nice to see skills like this still around. Tangentially related, everyone should switch to fountain pens. I made the switch about two years ago and my handwriting has improved immensely. More aesthetically pleasing and sooo much easier to write. Your hand won't cramp anymore because you don't have to press nearly as hard. You'll find yourself naturally adding embellishments to characters, smoothly transitioning between letters and words. In short, handwriting becomes enjoyable again.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- wonderzombie 14y agoSo what's a good pen to start with? It's not clear to me if you mean the ones (disposable?) which you can just buy at your average office supplies place, or a fancier one intended for refilling, etc.
- capnrefsmmat 14y agoSomething like a Lamy Safari or Al-Star is a good place to start; they're inexpensive (as fountain pens go) and basically indestructible, and you can either buy ink cartridges or a converter that lets you fill it out of a bottle.
- Scene_Cast2 14y agoI can second the Lamy Safari suggestion. I found the Safari to be extremely reliable: always starts right away (even after weeks of not writing), never leaking (even in planes and or if I shake it), and needing very little pressure to write. It might not be the smoothest or the prettiest for its price, it's stiff as a nail but its reliability made it an everyday writer for me.
- lazerwalker 14y agoI'd like to think this is the start of a particularly awesome admissions application.
- waterlesscloud 14y agoThe application will have top men working on it. Top. Men.
- arscan 14y agoThere are some websites out there that detail exactly how to make replica grail diaries. I think that answers the "How" question. Why they would do this though? I have no idea ;-)
- ChuckMcM 14y agoWow, there really are. This guy http://www.indyprops.com/pp-gdiary1.htm http://www.indyprops.com/pp-gdiary1.htm has way too much time on his hands :-)
- kaonashi 14y agoThey should have mailed it to the Marx brothers. …I'll see myself out.
- a1k0n 14y agoThey went to all that trouble, and spelled Illinois wrong on the address label?
- simonholroyd 14y agoThis stuck out to me too, but some googling of "Illonois" brings up a lot of census records from 1930 using that spelling. I can't find any concrete confirmation but maybe it's intentional and accurate?
- qznc 14y agoWikipedia says "'Illinois' is the modern spelling for the early French missionaries and explorers' name for the Illinois people, a name that was spelled in many different ways in the early records." and references http://www.illinoisprairie.info/Eriniouaj.htm http://www.illinoisprairie.info/Eriniouaj.htm
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- jmharvey 14y agoI sometimes wonder how effective stunts like this are. About 10 years ago, I had a job opening the mail in an MBA admissions office. Most of the application was required to be filed online; the only exceptions were a transcript and two letters of reference. My job was to open the mail, file the allowable papers, and throw out everything else. Easily 80% of the mail that came through the door went into the trash. People submitted all kinds of things, from hard copies of their entire application to photographs to fancy art portfolios. The first day was heartbreaking as I felt like I was throwing away people's life's work, but when I asked my boss for advice, she said it was a conscious decision on the part of the admissions committee: they didn't want to unfairly disadvantage people who followed their instructions. After a while, this system made sense. More people tried stunts to bypass the regular admissions process than there were slots in the admitted class. Submitting banned supplemental material was less an indicator that someone was a creative thinker than that they'd read a book that said admissions stunts work.
- SoftwarePatent 14y agoThat may have worked well there, but this stunt is well-targeted to the culture at UChicago. We love this kind of quirky stuff.
- enraged_camel 14y agoWell, this explains why MBA types are so bad at creative thinking: they are not selected for it!
- stfu 14y agothey didn't want to unfairly disadvantage people who followed their instructions. I can see the point if they were running the section process for a government department, lets say homeland security. But MBA programs rarely promote themselves as trying to produce the most conformist, bureaucratic-procedure loving graduates.
- gtani 14y agoHere's another UofC admissions package https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4726157 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4726157 I liked the UofC, but I think I liked Harold's chicken more.
- Jun8 14y agoTwo small details that makes this truly fantastic: That it was addressed to the actual building (Rosenwald Hall) that Indiana would have worked (a lesser fanboy would have addressed it to the Oriental Museum) and that it has no ZIP code, since those would not be in use at that time (adopted starting from 1963). Amazing.
- timdiggerm 14y agoOn the other hand, it looks like they used a modern mailing envelope instead of brown paper as the string would indicate was appropriate.
- pondababa 14y agoRosenwald is also the admissions building. It may very well be a fanboy applicant to the University.
- moioci 14y agoWouldn't the pre-ZIP code address look something like Chicago 37, Ill?
- andrewem 14y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZIP_code http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZIP_code claims without citation that zones were introduced in 1943. http://web.archive.org/web/20041030125608/https://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/pubs/pub100/pub100.htm http://web.archive.org/web/20041030125608/https://www.usps.c... confirms May 1943. It's not clear when the envelope was supposed to be from, so it may be right that it doesn't have a zone like "37" after Chicago. Awesomely, using a ZIP code on a supposedly pre-ZIP letter was one of the clues that exposed a document forger: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_document_hoax http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_document_hoax
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- gecko 14y agoSadly, the author of this package was unaware that Dr. Jones was denied tenure, and is no longer on faculty. http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/back-from-yet-another-globetrotting-adventure-indiana-jones-checks-his-mail-and-discovers-that-his-bid-for-tenure-has-been-denied http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/back-from-yet-another-glo...
- up_and_up 14y agoHere's a jewel from that document (I partly can't believe that this is authentic): "There are a plethora of international criminal charges against Dr. Jones, which include but are not limited to: bringing unregistered weapons into and out of the country; property damage; desecration of national and historical landmarks; impersonating officials; arson; grand theft (automobiles, motorcycles, aircraft, and watercraft in just a one week span last year); excavating without a permit; countless antiquities violations; public endangerment; voluntary and involuntary manslaughter; and, allegedly, murder."
- endtime 14y agoFYI, it is not authentic, and Indiana Jones is a fictional character.
- mattdeboard 14y agoI'm just not sure who, if anyone, to downvote in this thread.
- polymatter 14y agoto clear up any remaining confusion, it is "authentic" in the sense that it was a real package, that was actually sent in the mail. it is "not authentic" in the sense that Indiana Jones is a fictional character. Its kinda cool seeing that sort of ambiguity in English. Reminds me why I want to learn Lojban - so I can spot ambiguity easier. And this is a useful practical skill too. Nothing can sabotage a relationship quite as effectively as a simple misunderstanding.
- mintplant 14y agoSo, the beginnings of an Alternate Reality Game, perhaps?
- codeonfire 14y agoOr viral marketing for a movie.
- kqr2 14y agoSlightly off topic...however, the University of Chicago is also known for its quirky Scav Hunt (or Scavenger Hunt). So an Indiana Jones package is not altogether out of place. http://www.uchicago.edu/features/20110501_scav/ http://www.uchicago.edu/features/20110501_scav/ On what other campus could students be summoned to assemble (in various iterations) a live elephant, a nuclear breeder reactor, a life-sized battleship, a bust of Abraham Lincoln made out of pennies, a book printed in the American colonies before 1776, and the official exorcist of the Archdiocese of Chicago? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Chicago_Scavenger_Hunt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Chicago_Scavenger... There was even a documentary on it: http://www.periphrastic.com/about.html http://www.periphrastic.com/about.html
- jimduehr 14y agoFor your information, one of the Former Head Judges of this Scavenger Hunt posted this to the Admissions tumblr!
- secabeen 14y agoUnfortunately, the consensus at this point is that it's actually the product from this ebay auction: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Indiana-Jones-and-the-Raiders-of-the-Lost-Ark-Notebook-Journal-Prop-Replica-/261106904104 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Indiana-Jones-and-the-Raiders-of-the...? What likely happened is that this item was shipped but somehow came loose of its modern packaging, and the USPS delivered the themed mailer to UChicago per the address label.
- kitkerner 14y agoPaul T. Wall. Check it out!