Academic Antics

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The Griggs Hall haunting

John Perlick

11/1/2011 2:56 PM EDT

A University of Minnesota ham radio operator discovers that his ham use has some scary side effects.

  post comment   7 comments    last comment  ReneCardenas
Funny, and cruel at the same time. Fluorescent light bulbs lighing up is a good method to ...

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The absent AFM

Benjamin Hutt

10/17/2011 8:56 AM EDT

An atomic force microscope, a few dedicated students, an admiral and two generals combined to make one incredibly embarrassed lab director...

  post comment   6 comments    last comment  ReneCardenas
It looks to me that is simply a case of museum-glamor power over function. It is niece to show-off ...

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The speaker that wouldn’t stop

Tom McDaniel

10/6/2011 9:26 AM EDT

Looks like the mechanical engineers trumped the EEs this time...

  post comment   11 comments    last comment  danielgibson
This is probably one of the simplest yet smartest pranks I have ever heard of. It is simple because ...

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Shorting the party

Jim Delmonico

10/6/2011 9:01 AM EDT

Party kept them from studying, until they put a few kitchen appliances to work...

  post comment   2 comments    last comment  pyxu619
i would assume they have their cellphone alarm set :P HAHA, but nice cover up story

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Honking your brakes

Austin Bremers

10/6/2011 8:44 AM EDT

A few friends "felt obligated" to mess with their buddy's car wiring, and his mind...

  post comment   4 comments    last comment  David Ashton
" The mind is as big as space and it is so powerful." Yes, but it does not take much to stop its ...

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The wheelchair siren

David Bley

8/17/2011 1:17 PM EDT

All it took was a siren and suddenly people paid attention.

  post comment   3 comments    last comment  ReneCardenas
Like this story, reminds me of my first electrical circuit, it was a high-voltage generator, using a ...

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Up in smoke

David Ashton

8/1/2011 1:41 PM EDT

While training in Zimbabwe, David pulled an impressive prank on his housemate. Luckily (for David), the guy had a good sense of humor!

  post comment   6 comments    last comment  Jeff.Petro
Reminds me of the time we filled a ping pong ball full of strike anywhere match heads. You'd throw ...

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Noisy neighbor disruptor circuit

Frederick Hutt

7/26/2011 2:31 PM EDT

A neighbor's blasting radio was driving Fred crazy and making it impossible to study for finals...his solution was both devious and incredibly simple!

  post comment   41 comments    last comment  AtomicAnt
Hi, I search something we can buy (all build) for "Noisy neighbor disruptor circuit". Noise make me ...

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The long, cold shower

Murphy Pickard

7/25/2011 4:39 PM EDT

I don't even want to imagine what Murphy's roommate could possibly have done to elicit this kind of payback...

  post comment   5 comments    last comment  David Ashton
I've spilt battery acid (which is sulfuric acid, and fairly concentrated) on my clothes a few times ...

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The fall guy

Martin Rowe, Senior Technical Editor, T&MW

7/19/2011 1:37 PM EDT

Martin participates in a prank and then takes the fall when the victim is...annoyed. Is this fair?

  post comment   2 comments    last comment  WKetel
I have seen some pranks escalate to the point of being quite nasty, so I was always very careful to ...

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