How do you move a private cannon across the USA in this day and age?
'cause in 2006, MIT students took the Fleming House cannon and moved it to MIT
Well, apparently you wear overalls, and hitch it to a truck, or put it on a flatbed, and drive it,
presumably staying on the I-10 most of the way, so as to get maximum benefit from Texas laws on guns and campuses (hey, I wonder if Texas legislature knows that in Californa the students open carry artillery).
Thing is, it works,
the cannon, that is,
they fire it every year
(ok, blanks, house rivalry is not that intense).
Now, how does that whole Homeland Security thing work?
Does anyone get suspicious, ever, about private transport of artillery between major metropolitan areas?
Nothing nefarious in this case, but you'd think post-9/11 someone might have noticed.
Cool hack though, I like the extra touch with the ring.
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What about a missle?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/g/a/2011/04/29/Missile_…
Evidently that was noticed...
Also bet they had to do one of these "oversize load" things with escort!
I think the coolest part is this (from the wiki article):
"Twenty-three members of Caltech Fleming House traveled to MIT to reclaim their cannon on April 10, 2006. They were greeted by a larger group of MIT students, who offered them a BBQ farewell party. In exchange, the Caltech students offered a small toy cannon, saying that this was "more MIT's size.""
It is nice to see everyone having a sense of humour about this.
And that's not even the sort of gun that's designed to come off its carriage and be man-portable. You can get one of those in the back of a van. (Also, if anyone hasn't seen it, in the UK we have a tradition where some military guys take these apart and race to hand-carry them over an obstacle course - sadly I can't remember who or when it happens, so I can't find videos! I don't suggest this as a student prank, though: gun-barrels are heavy.)
#4, you're thinking of the mountain gun obstacle course event from the Edinborough Military Tattoo.
We move our cannons by putting them on a trailer and driving it to where it needs to go. Mind you, I'm in a small country and don't have state lines to cross.
i've lived in the USA now for so long, i no longer even understand what non-U.S. americans find so remarkable or fascinating about this.
it's a big piece of metal on some wooden wheels. you need to move it, you stick it on a flatbed and move it. so what if it can go bang? outdated artillery isn't magical, it's just a pile of metal and wood.
it's not even impressive as a MIT hack. the only pranky part of it was social-engineering the caltech security staff with a fake work order, other than that it was just a cross-continent road trip with a flatbed truck.