Common Sense Not Part of IQ Test, Deputy Says

[SharonBell]

Students in Tutus Saved From Mountain Road
By Associated Press
Wed Feb 1, 4:53 PM

PASADENA, Calif. - Two dozen Caltech students wearing Superman capes, tutus and other odd attire as part of a hazing stunt were rescued after getting stranded on the Mount Wilson Toll Road.

Organizers of the California Institute of Technology initiation ritual said they didn't realize the road had been covered last year by a landslide.

"You've got to remember that common sense is not factored into the intelligence quotient," said Deputy Greg Gabriel, who leads the Altadena Search and Rescue team.

The annual Mount Wilson Night, when freshmen are initiated into the Page House dormitory at Caltech, started off as planned Monday night, Caltech sophomore Nick Goeden said Tuesday.

The group had a large dinner before dressing the freshmen in costumes and parading them throughout Pasadena. The young men and women were then taken to the Mount Wilson Observatory for the planned 10-mile descent down the road.

A quarter-mile from the bottom, the group got stranded in Eaton Canyon where the landslide blocked their path. Rescuers were called in at about 3 a.m.

The students didn't have flashlights, warm clothes or other important supplies, Gabriel said. But the deputy said they were equipped with "distinctive headgear _ hats with antennas and horns, that kind of stuff."

"Going up those trails in the middle of the night without any safety equipment and no lighting is pretty stupid," Gabriel said. "We've had washouts. If they took a wrong trail or fell off that trail, it's hundreds of feet down."

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Information from: Star-News, http://www.newschoice.com/newspapers/losangeles/pasadena/default asp

[Geoff_N]

LOL

Been there, done that.

Well, not actually there on Mt Wilson, nor dressed as Superman. But does Cadir Idris dressed as Batman count?

Geoff

[SharonBell]

Yup. Bet you looked good, too!  :lol: :lol:

[Ed]

I've lost count of how many technically bright thick people I've met.  My neighbour is one.  He programmes flight simulators for a living - complex equations, algorithms, stuff like that.  But last weekend he was in his front garden, piddling around, trying to pull out a tree stump with a Ford Fiesta and some weedy nylon rope.

I watched for a while, for the pure entertainment value, before telling him you should never, ever, ever, ever, try to pull a stump with rope, or cable - you aways use chain.  He didn't believe me, so I had to explain to him about the laws of physics relating to stored energy and the elasticity of rope compared with chain.  And how, if he managed to yank out a stump with a 1.1 litre engined car, how he'd better hope the car would accelerate faster than the half ton tree stump hurtling towards him   Dumbass.

[SharonBell]

 

[doolols]

Wrong wrong wrong, Blunt. You tell him he's not revving it hard enough, and you go get your video camera ....

[Ed]

   Yeah - send it in to one of those TV programmes, so all the viewers can sit at home saying things like, "Why would anybody be filming that - it must be a setup - nobody's that stupid."