Open Letter to the Sudoku community and the organizers of the Sudoku National Championship about the potential cheating of Eugene Varshavsky during this Saturday's tournament. An unknown "man in a hoodie" shows up late and unregistered to the 2009 Sudoku National Championship in Philadelphia, and wins third place despite skipping the first two rounds. Second-place finisher and 2007 World Champion Tom Snyder accuses him of having a radio transmitter concealed underneath the hood, feeding him computer-generated solutions. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Varshavsky, wearing a stocking cap, defeated a grandmaster in the 2006 World Open chess tournament. Has competitive puzzling lost its innocence?
posted by escabeche on Nov 15, 2009 - 97 comments

It’s only natural that if you wish to present yourself as a well-read person, a certain degree of complete bullshit is required. There’s no shame in lying about what you’ve read. There’s only shame in getting caught. Then you look like a doofus, and an illiterate one at that... How to lie about books.
posted by Artw on May 28, 2009 - 73 comments

A long-brewing online poker scandal reaches the mainstream: 60 Minutes Report (1, 2) (text version) and two consecutive front page Washington Post articles (by Pulitzer winning investigative journalist Gil Gaul) (plus lots of web exclusive content about the investigation)! [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue on Nov 30, 2008 - 45 comments

Some of the female Chinese gymnasts are apparently under-age. It wasn't their skulls, their chins or their eyes that gave them away: it was the internet.
posted by chuckdarwin on Aug 20, 2008 - 130 comments

Manipur, which has a population of 2,388,634, has the highest rate of HIV in the country, which is also the reason why it has the most number of NGOs working in the area. However, what is disturbing is that a day or two ago, one of these NGOs bribed a group of children into getting their blood tested, so that they could increase their chances of garnering more funds.
posted by hadjiboy on Jan 16, 2008 - 37 comments

So, who doesn't use steroids or HGH? So what do you do when MVP winners, Cy Young award winners and some World Series winners all have cheated? Any ideas? [more inside]
posted by zerobyproxy on Dec 13, 2007 - 189 comments

Poker is pretty popular, and it seems like almost everyone is making money at it. At the tables, on Wall Street, and online. The World Poker Tour helped create the current boom and, with the World Series of Poker, helped make poker players into rock stars. [more inside]
posted by rmd1023 on Oct 17, 2007 - 44 comments

Ricky Jay wants to play cards. Place your bets. [more inside]
posted by Bookhouse on Oct 3, 2007 - 38 comments

For the town of Hanover, NH, home to Dartmouth College, one could expect academic integrity to be a cornerstone. But a high school cheating scandal has shaken the town's foundations and divided the community. On an evening this past June a group of students at Hanover High School [video] used stolen keys to break into a teacher's filing cabinet, walking away with multiple mathematics exams. Five days later, another group stole chemistry finals. As many as 60 students may have had a role in the thefts, either helping to plan them or receiving answers from the stolen exams. Police investigated and a local prosecutor has filed criminal charges against nine students. "Parents of the accused are furious and frantically trying to reduce charges to violations that carry no criminal penalties, penalties they say could harm their children's chances of attending college or securing employment....some residents [are] laying blame squarely on the nine accused students - dubbed "the Notorious Nine" - while others have questioned whether the intense competitiveness of 750-student Hanover High forced students into positions of having to cheat."
posted by ericb on Sep 19, 2007 - 77 comments

A tiny wireless spy earpiece is being marketed to students who want the cheat on exams, much to the chagrin of teacher/examiner organisations. The Examear website proclaims they are: "Helping students succeed. Worldwide!" The makers say the devices are also suitable for people such as TV reporter, TV game show contestants -- anyone who needs help remembering things. Remember, before the internet, when students didnt copy all their essays and actually did some work?
posted by domdom on Aug 19, 2007 - 73 comments

The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test is a continuation of the standardized testing Texas has been doing for the past 15 years, a good bit of which George W. Bush pushed as a way to measure teacher aptitude and school performance. The company that administers the test claims that cheating is "extraordinarily rare" but the Dallas Morning news found about 50,000 cheating students in 1/3 of all Texas schools. The most prevalent was the 11th grade science exam, also known as the one you must pass to get a diploma. The article even has cool coverflow-like visualizations of what a cheating school exam looks like. [via the journalist's blog, which promises parts 2 and 3 in the next couple days]
posted by mathowie on Jun 3, 2007 - 65 comments

Are Americans fidelity adepts, or just inept seducers?
posted by pwedza on May 2, 2007 - 67 comments

Two students sue Turnitin for copyright violations. "All of these kids are essentially straight-A students, and they have no interest in plagiarizing," said Robert A. Vanderhye, a McLean attorney representing the students pro bono. "The problem with [Turnitin] is the archiving of the documents. They are violating a right these students have to be in control of their own property." (via) (obligatory link to the Best. Thread. Ever)
posted by Horace Rumpole on Apr 2, 2007 - 166 comments

Cheating at the Daytona 500. Blood doping in cycling. Rampant use of steroids in professional baseball. Don't even bother with the Olympics. Is the idea of professional and amateur competition doomed, is looking at this as a symbol of something larger about our culture(s) valid, or what?
posted by nevercalm on Feb 16, 2007 - 49 comments

Cheatneutral. "When you cheat on your partner you add to the heartbreak, pain and jealousy in the atmosphere. Cheatneutral offsets your cheating by funding someone else to be faithful and NOT cheat. This neutralises the pain and unhappy emotion and leaves you with a clear conscience." [Via Gristmill.]
posted by homunculus on Feb 13, 2007 - 39 comments

Don't date him girl! Good news for the paranoid. Invasive site for documenting those unsavory men who have cheated on women. The rebuttal: warning: flash site with annoying birds. bugmenot
posted by AllesKlar on Mar 13, 2006 - 40 comments

A wise Mefite once said "I cannot fathom the stress of multiple spouses," and I'm sure it only gets more stressful if your loved ones don't know about each other. As Valentines Day approaches, let us take a moment to ponder the difficulties that two-timing scumbags of either gender will have trying to please everyone at once, on this holiday that was created by a greeting card company, yet ultimately benefits private detectives more than any other holiday of the year.
posted by jonson on Feb 11, 2006 - 36 comments

Near Ovulation, Your Cheatin' Heart Will Tell on You "New research from UCLA and the University of New Mexico suggests that members of "the gentler sex" may have evolved to cheat on their mates during the most fertile part of their cycle — but only when those mates are less sexually attractive than other men."
posted by anyokerin on Jan 18, 2006 - 57 comments

Some of you (and clearly the bad guys are among them) don’t always remember that this game, and all accounts and derivative products, are the property of the United States Army. America's Army is the Official US Army Game. Funded by the military, the game is free to download and play online. As of this posting, the game has 1741 servers and 8318 players online. In a post to the game's official forums (the post itself required registration to view and now seems to be gone), a developer warns cheaters "The Army is angry, and we’re coming for you."
posted by ludwig_van on Jan 17, 2005 - 33 comments

This guy is such a dog. Misogyny, probably NSFW.
posted by xowie on Nov 10, 2004 - 55 comments

Dial-A-Cheater "proved what I couldn't. After he answered the call I scheduled, I asked him who it was. He lied. I totally busted him out. He was cheating with my best friend!" Kill the illusion of joy with a cell phone (and $1.95 USD).
posted by LinusMines on Apr 14, 2004 - 18 comments

What would you do if you found your bitch cheating? (MPEG with Sound) A beautiful work of cinema featuring a dog and his unfaithful bitch. No, really. (Question: Is it just me or does the 'other dog' bear a striking resemblance to Tyson the Skateboarding Bulldog?)
posted by stringbean on Apr 11, 2004 - 9 comments

Rules for Having an Affair. A great read for you starry-eyed newlyweds!
posted by stupidsexyFlanders on Feb 18, 2004 - 69 comments

Does our culture actively discourage ethical behavior? The alarmingly high rate of cheating in schools, discussed by David Callahan, seems to imply that cheating is not an aberration in our culture but more like a norm. [More Inside]
posted by gregb1007 on Jan 11, 2004 - 48 comments

How much would you pay for a pushbutton in your car that changes red traffic lights to green? Like in that dopey Italian Job movie? The correct answer is $300.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders on Oct 27, 2003 - 29 comments

How to win at slots: Cheat "Carmichael is no two-bit slot cheat. Authorities have anointed him one of the best, a master inventor who conspired with an elite group of thieves to steal millions from casinos. "
posted by srboisvert on Sep 15, 2003 - 16 comments

False Start
How important is sportsmanship in the modern era? On Sunday afternoon at the IAAF World Championships, Jon Drummond false started in the 100m sprint and was disqualified. He refused to leave the track (initially prostrating himself in the middle of his lane) and ended up delaying the race by more than 50 minutes. In 1996, Linford Christie did something similar in the Olympic games 100m final.
Is it just 100m sprinters, or is sportsmanship going out of fashion?
posted by daveg on Aug 24, 2003 - 19 comments

How BADLY do you want to be a millionaire? Badly enough to cheat on a TV game show? An ex-Army Major, his wife and another man have been convicted of 'procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception' - in other words, getting someone to sign a cheque for a million pounds which was won by cheating.

The scam involved a series of coughs at strategic points in the "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" game show, guiding the Major to the right answers.

The show was never aired after suspicions were raised but I would be interested to see if it'll now be released so I can make up my own mind about the suspicious, ahem, coughs.
posted by essexjan on Apr 7, 2003 - 22 comments

Plagiarism is an ugly word. Ung Lee, a Princeton Graduate, has one numerous awards for his writing, under the tutelage of Joyce Carl Oates. It's just that so many of those words were not his own.
posted by plexi on Mar 3, 2003 - 44 comments

Ah, that back to school feeling is in the air. More papers to plagerize, more ways to beat that test. With some evidence that cheating is on the rise, and that the Internet makes it much easier, it might be time to review alternate ways of making the grade. All credit to this Mefi member.
posted by Wulfgar! on Aug 29, 2002 - 36 comments

Can internet savvy skew a poll? When the stakes are high, is it fair for someone to bring an email plea to friends and relatives outside of the target area to influence the results? Here, the band at the school with the most votes gets to do a warm-up with the famous Blast! ensemble. The numbers are interesting (and yes, I probably do have inside info on this). As long as the same opportunities are available for others, is it still 'cheating'?
posted by rich on Jan 18, 2002 - 20 comments

All sorts of delicious ethical issues here: Slate's guide to buying a term paper online. One of Slate's recommendations: "a smart but horribly lazy student could choose to put his effort into editing instead of researching and writing: Buy a mediocre paper that's done the legwork, then whip it into shape by improving the writing and adding some carefully chosen details." (Perhaps most revealing and disturbing aspect of the article is how the judges explain how they grade horrible papers -- an "utterly meaningless" essay earns a C- and another paper which deserves an F would earn the phrase "please come see me" because they don't dispense Fs at Columbia.)
posted by palegirl on Dec 15, 2001 - 34 comments

Is the NFL rigged? Personally, I think rigging of games at the Pro level is near impossible (too many variables). Thoughts?
posted by sharksandwich on Oct 14, 2001 - 32 comments

How many times have you cheated? Did you feel sorry for it, or did you just enjoy yourself? And did you still love the one you cheated on? How many times would you have to cheat before you admit you aren't really in love with your S.O?
posted by stoneegg21 on Sep 4, 2001 - 31 comments

If im paying £400 for these A level papers - i want the answers as well, not just the questions..
posted by monkeyJuice on Jun 15, 2001 - 2 comments

Mobile phones alert husbands to cheating wives
i suppose this could work both ways...
posted by bwg on Apr 6, 2001 - 6 comments

Dex and Courtney's wedding is off ... and you can find out why by watching JenniCam. "Jennifer Ringley ... is in the eye of a virtual storm as a result of her relationship with Dex, ex of Dex and Courtney, whose wedding invitation promised a 'spiritual love fest' of 'two souls uniting in harmony' (it was still on Courtney's Web site -- www.latitude11.com -- even as Jenni's cam showed her and Dex having sex in her bedroom)."
posted by rcade on Jul 25, 2000 - 19 comments