UChicago receives package for Indiana Jones | Hacker News Reader

UChicago receives package for Indiana Jones

uchicagoadmissions.tumblr.com

230 pointsCesareBorgia69 comments

I 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.

That may have worked well there, but this stunt is well-targeted to the culture at UChicago. We love this kind of quirky stuff.

Well, this explains why MBA types are so bad at creative thinking: they are not selected for it!

they 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.

Here's another UofC admissions package

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4726157

I liked the UofC, but I think I liked Harold's chicken more.

Two 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.

On the other hand, it looks like they used a modern mailing envelope instead of brown paper as the string would indicate was appropriate.

Rosenwald is also the admissions building. It may very well be a fanboy applicant to the University.

Wouldn't the pre-ZIP code address look something like Chicago 37, Ill?

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.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

Sadly, 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-glo...

Here'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."

FYI, it is not authentic, and Indiana Jones is a fictional character.

I'm just not sure who, if anyone, to downvote in this thread.

to 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.

You have to be pretty geeky to think you can fix relationships by talking to your girlfriend in a machine-parsable language.

He was referring to the McSweeney's article, not to the UChicago package.

This 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.

I 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. :-)

Agreed, 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.

I'd like to think this is the start of a particularly awesome admissions application.

The application will have top men working on it. Top. Men.

Unfortunately, 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...?

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.

Slightly 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/

  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...

There was even a documentary on it:

http://www.periphrastic.com/about.html

For your information, one of the Former Head Judges of this Scavenger Hunt posted this to the Admissions tumblr!

My first instinct was that this is the start of a viral game for a new Indiana Jones movie.

This 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?

It belongs in a museum!

I'm not kidding. Or at least, mostly. They should put it on display.

When people ask why I chose UofC, I tell them it's because Indiana Jones went there.

I had assumed people just went to U Chicago for the naked parties.

Wow, nice calligraphy, I think its written using a soft nib pen. Also: Who is the "Guardian of the Ark"?

It 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.

So 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.

Something 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.

I 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.

Exactly this. I started with a Lamy Al-Star and it's a nice, robust little pen for pretty cheap. Aluminum, so it can take being thrown around. My girlfriend recently started using the Safari and it's a good pen too.

My main "workhorse" pen is the Lamy Studio. Heavier than the Al-Star, a slightly grippy coating, better balance when "posted" (putting the cap on the end of the pen while writing). Also a bit thicker, which suits my personal preference.

This thread at SA is a pretty good primer for fountain pens and ink: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=324...

I have a few other cheap chinese fountain pens that I mess around with, but mostly stick to my Studio.

Edit: Bonus points to owning a semi-nice fountain pen: you'll never lose a pen again. I religiously keep mine in my pocket because, damnit, I spent a lot of money on this pen! No more losing your 20 cent Bics and frantically trying to find a new writing implement.

Plus inks are fun to buy and experiment with :3

Thanks. I'm left-handed and I've never been happy with hand-writing. My death-grip on the pen inevitably results in a vicious cycle of hand cramps and messy handwriting.

I've been looking to change things up by taking hand-written notes (less distracting overall, more focus), but I'm back to the same old. A better writing instrument might help.

As with anything, there is an enormous online discussion forum dedicated to fountain pens:

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/

You should find anything you need there. Just try not to get ink on your shirt.

Being left handed, you may have to experiment with paper and ink. Some inks, usually archival quality, take longer to dry and you may smear them. Less archival quality inks soak up faster, especially with more "open" paper that sucks it up.

Experiment with different pen widths.

Learn a good pen grip - you may be using an incorrect grip.

Before you start to write practice a few lines of zigs and zags and lines and loops.

This website has some examples and ideas for improving or fixing handwriting.

(http://briem.net/)

Switching to using a fountain pen has made my left-handed writing much better, mostly because I have to slow down and think about how I put the pen to paper, rather than just scrawl it along.

Lamy do left-handed nibs which help a lot. I'm very happy with my Lamy Safari, but I also have a Schneider Base which works well.

The disposable pilot 'Varsity' pens are remarkably good for costing only a few dollars apiece.

You can't do flex-nib (read: variable width lines) work with them, but as an everyday writer, they're great.

I'll second the Varsity pens. I've bought, used up, and lost several of the Varsity pens. At $3/each, it's still less than having bought the Lamy pen mentioned above (which, btw, is considered an excellent starting pen), and in the process I've been able to write with a fountain pen for about a year. I like it a lot. One down side is that Varsity pens have ink that is not waterproof, and now that I live where it rains, I need something that lasts better.

Also, most notebooks or pads of paper in the office will absorb fountain pen ink like a 5 year old drinks chocolate milk, which makes your writing look terrible. The fountain pen forums linked above, and many blogs, have reviews about various types of paper. I found that I __really__ like the feel of the Staples sugar-cane paper. It feels nicer to write on than anything other than drafting vellum, so far, and is not very expensive. The notebooks are spiral-bound, but you can also buy it in reams, I believe.

I also tried another disposable fountain pen from The Other Brand (I forget the name?), and it seemed roughly similar to the Varsity. The clip on the cap was less flexible, though, and broke. I wouldn't have that problem with a more expensive pen, I imagine.

While Lamy is fine, it's bit drab looking. If you want a nice pen (both in terms of looks and in terms of writing), look at Taccia pens. They've got nice ones in the $70 range. (Here's my latest baby: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002KDP9Y2/ref=oh_details_o...)

It is very nice penmanship. Nice to see skills like this still around.

From the article:

It’s clear that it is mostly, but not completely handmade, as although the included paper is weathered all of the “handwriting” and calligraphy lacks the telltale pressure marks of actual handwriting.

So it is likely not handwritten.

How does one 'print' handwriting like this?

Writing in fountain pen doesn't leave pressure marks, because fountain pens do not require pressure on the paper.

When I'm not doing physics homework in Mathematica, I do it with fountain pen. It's rather enjoyable.

Ah! I did not know that. Thanks for informing me, I'm happy I got the chance to learn something new today. :)

Fountain pens don't leave indentations on the paper, but there are often differences in ink density in parts of the letters or punctuation. This is much less noticeable w/ a fountain pen than it is with a calligraphic or dip pen, but still can be noticeable. [1]

Since these differences in ink density are caused by variations in nib speed and pressure while writing, I think that's what they were referring to by "pressure marks". For me, it seems to depend both on the pen and the paper I'm using. It's possible that what you use doesn't show much of this effect at all. (I also use too much pressure with a fountain pen, which likely deposits more ink and hides effects like this.)

[1] http://inkophile.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/fountain-pen-nibs-... includes an image which shows this effect: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7189/7041371387_aff1e418d3_b.j...

I print handwriting. I use a Wacom-enabled digital notebook for taking notes in class because it syncs with Evernote which means I can study anywhere from any device. I take handwritten notes on it, and print them if I need to distribute something I wrote/drew.

I don't know if that's how this person did it, but that's one way it's possible.

Mostly, it's just a font. It's hard to tell from the image, but all the h's; all the d's; all the f's are identical.

This site has software that "joins" your fonts.

(http://briem.net/)

Note, if you are left handed, prepare for either disappointment or agony.

Unless you are left handed and hebrew.

I sat next to someone in my marketing class a few years back who wrote all of his notes backwards. He was left-handed, and wrote English in reverse.

Left handed Torah scribes, who write with a feather quill and bottle of ink have a large advantage.

Right handed scribes have to hold their hand slightly in the air when writing, or below the writing line.

The description makes it sound like he was visiting the supposed location of the Ark in Ethiopia (to me, at least):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Our_Lady_Mary_of_Zion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ark_of_the_Covenant#Ethiopia

The individual characters repeated through the letter look exactly the same as each other. It appears computer generated to me.

Yeah, I'm afraid you may be right. Looking closer at it a second time, certain character are clearly identical. The lower-case "t" for example.

They went to all that trouble, and spelled Illinois wrong on the address label?

This 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?

Wikipedia 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

There 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 ;-)

Wow, there really are. This guy http://www.indyprops.com/pp-gdiary1.htm has way too much time on his hands :-)

I can't wait to find out if this was part of an application, or some other prank.

They should have mailed it to the Marx brothers.

…I'll see myself out.

So, the beginnings of an Alternate Reality Game, perhaps?

Or viral marketing for a movie.

Oh God no.

I've managed to put Indiana Jones and the King of the Thing in the back of my mind. Do NOT go there.

Oftentimes, that's just what an Alternate Reality Game is.

Paul T. Wall. Check it out!

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