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Forget crib sheets. High-tech college students have found a new way to cheat. Six University of Maryland students admitted last week that they used their cell phones to find answers during a test. Twelve total students were accused in the January bust. The students got the answers through the text messaging function used by a willing outside accomplice, who accessed internet answer keys posted just after the exam began. Business school professors, smelling a scam, actually orchestrated a sting. They posted several fake answers, and tracked down the students according to who fell into the trap. While Maryland has noted isolated high-tech cheating problems before, the university says it had never encountered cell phone-enabled scam on this scale. A similar case at Japan’s Hitotsubashi University last winter resulted in 26 failing grades. The six guilty students will all fail the class, while the five who still stand accused will face an honor council trial or meet with school officials. The final suspected student passed away over winter break. The school says it nonetheless has no plans to bar cell phones from being brought to class.
Vatican searches for patron saint of internet
With Steve Case’s recent downfall, it only seems natural to ask: Who is the patron saint of the internet? No, seriously. The Vatican is conducting a poll to determine who will join the modern-day patronati of television, motorcycles and politicians. Long-serving Pope John Paul II has beatified more people than any other pope in history, so this latest turn isn’t a surprise. In less modern times, people of certain regions or lines of work would designate their own saint via word of mouth. This time the Vatican has taken the poll, appropriately, online at www.santiebeati.it. Officials hope to name the new saint by Easter. Currently leading the online vote is San Giacomo Alberione, the founder of a Catholic publishing house who was already set for beatification. He has almost a third of the vote. Other popular choices include the angel Gabriel, known as one God’s great communicator; Polish priest Maximilian Kolbe, who advocated technology to spread the Gospel; and St. John Bosco, founder of the Salesian order. One woman is also in the running – St. Clare of Assisi. But she’d be pulling double duty. She’s already patron saint of television.
Wary taxpayers in seasonal surge to prep sites
With W-2s in hand by the end of January, Americans sent traffic to the internet’s various tax preparation sites surging. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, the top five tax preparation sites garnered an audience of 3.2 million web surfers for the week ending Jan. 26. TurboTax.com, Intuit.com, TaxACT.com and IRS.gov are four of the fastest-growing sites. The fifth, HRBlock.com, got a big boost from its Super Bowl advertising last week, recording a rise of 93 percent versus the previous non-Super Bowl Monday. Most at-home users logged on to the Internal Revenue Service site, which the government has been promoting to save paper waste and time spent double-checking non-computer-filed figures. Traffic to IRS.gov increased by 27 percent to about 1.6 million visitors. TurboTax jumped by 69 percent and Intuit spiked by two-thirds, to 1.2 million.
eBay seller busted for pushing poppy pods
Sometimes common sense can be a helpful guide. That was evidently lacking for Krsna Lev-Twombly, a 30-year-old Sacramento man who allegedly advertised and sold 700 dried poppy pods on eBay. Unfortunately for Lev-Twombly, he sold some of them to an undercover federal agent. The sales had apparently been going on since July 2000, culminating in last month’s sting. Lev-Twombly wasn’t totally devoid of sense. He did include a disclaimer saying that the potent pods should be used for decoration purposes only. But a Drug Enforcement Administration chemist said that when the purchased pods arrived, they were quite consumable. The entrepreneur faces up to 20 years in jail and $1 million in fines if convicted of opium distribution. EBay worked with the DEA to help ensnare Lev-Twombly.
No Olsen action for e-spooked Midwest schools
Finally, some internet Olsen twins news that doesn’t have anything to do with the disturbing “Countdown to Legality” web site. Students at several Midwest universities were duped in by the hoax generated by spoof site Fake CNN.com last week, which spread across campuses via email. The site announced that Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen had decided to attend – fill in your college here – Northwestern, Miami (Ohio) and Ohio University. But a representative for the twins quickly quashed the buzz. Apparently the twins are two years away from college, and haven’t even taken their SATs yet, much less applied. The web site has apparently died along with the story. After news outlets picked up several of the items generated by Fake CNN, real CNN sent the site a threatening letter threatening a copyright infringement suit. Fake CNN signed off after also getting a hoax story about musician Dave Matthews dying of a drug overdose placed in several papers.
February 4, 2003© 2003 Media Life
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