GCHQ 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)?
Disassembling 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.
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> " 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.
Indeed. "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.
> 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."
The 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].