Archive for the ‘Mythbusters’ Category

MythBusters: Fire & Ice (ep 182)


02 Apr

I fell asleep for the last five minutes of MythBusters and woke up again just as Chain Reaction was starting. The final five minutes, when you see how the big myth of the episode ends, is the suckiest part of the episode to miss. C did tell me that the supped up fire extinguisher did a little bit, but certainly nothing like the viral video clip, which did not surprise me at all.

I was also not surprised that MythBusters found it “busted” that dust clouds could trick drone technology. That would not be a good thing to find plausible.

MythBusters: Duct Tape Island (ep 181)


26 Mar

Duct tape is apparently more than a handyman’s friend, it’s an all-round survival tool, though I think it helped that Adam and Jamie had experience using it for some of these things (like boat building) before.

The shrink wrap was a legitimate tool since it came on the pallet of duct tape. Survivorman would approve.

I appreciated that while they caught the chicken, unlike Survivorman, they did not eat it. Nor did they try to hide the fact that they had cameramen with them (cameramen, or the lack thereof, are the main reason I prefer Surviorman to Man vs Wild.)

Series Premier: Unchained Reaction


19 Mar

Next Sunday, Mythbusters returns. In anticipation of that, last night we watched the series premier of Adam and Jamie’s new show- Unchained Reaction. Basically, each week there are two teams who are given a theme and a room full of stuff, and they make giant Rube Goldberg machines that fit the theme. The day before they have to show Adam and Jamie their machines, they get an added element (last night it was a piano) that they have to incorporate into their machines.

It was a fun show, though I don’t know that I’ll regularly stay up to watch it.

More MythBusters Mayhem


08 Dec

No new MythBusters last night so I’m still talking about the accident that had them sending a 30lb softball (I know, what’s soft about a ball weighing 30lbs) into a neighborhood near the bomb range where they conduct many experiments.

Jamie and Adam went to visit the home and help clean up. The show has insurance for exactly this reason. Everyone is grateful for the fact that no one was hurt.

However, some people in the neighborhood don’t want them back if they’re going to be doing “dangerous” things. My response to that- dude, you live near a BOMB range.

Can you say “Oops”?


07 Dec

The surprise isn’t that this happened. The surprise is that it hasn’t happened before, like a hundred times before. In an experiment gone awry, the MythBusters appear to have shot a cannonball through a house near the gun range where they normally test their artillery myths.

Apparently, the cannonball took some weird bounces, and went through two walls of a nearby house. Having once lived near a rifle range, I can tell you, the owners never thought anything like this could happen.

It does, however, make you wonder what happened to Jamie’s perfect period cannonball from the tree cannon myth.

MythBusters Season Finale (ep 180)


01 Dec

I actually think the 48 Hours 2 myth was busted. The reason- pouring liquid nitrogen on a bomb doesn’t give you 2-3 seconds to get safe, it gives minutes- 15 in this case, but I’m sure that varies by how much liquid nitrogen is used. Danny & Mel could have walked out of the house with that much time. As for the cast iron tub being an effective bomb shelter- not surprised.

As for planes, it’s more fuel efficient to fly one big plane flying than 5 little ones, so I don’t think formation flying is the future of aviation.

MythBusters Wheel of MythFortune


25 Nov

I was aware of the math behind the Monty Hall paradox when it came to switching, but I hadn’t been aware of the psychological tendency to stick instead of switch. I found that interesting. I also noticed that Adam won a lot more than 2/3 of the time with switching and that Jaime won a lot less than 1/3.

In the gun holding myth, target shooting is one thing, but in a gunfight, no one’s accurate, not the military, not the police. I don’t know that how the gun is held matters when no one is actually trying to aim.

MythBusters: Water Special


17 Nov

Second MythBusters retrospective in a row, though it looks like next week will be fan requests. Tonight was water myths, and this episode highlighted my biggest problem with the retrospective shows- no real information about the myths themselves.

The hubby did not remember the steam powered machine gun (I did), but at least they gave the outcome of that myth- busted. I did not remember the octopus egg hatching in a human stomach myth (hubby does), and they did not tell us the outcome of that myth, just talked about how cool it was to play with the octopus. Frustrating!

MythBuster (ep 175)


27 Oct

Modern explosives are stable- especially ones carried by the military- you know where they have to possibly carry them through a warzone in a pack on a soldier’s back? Yeah, the military is not using anything that blows up on impact. I don’t know that I’d want to cook with it, though, even if you can.

LOVED the throwing guillotines, though I really thought Grant might end up losing a finger. I was glad Tory’s simple design was the one that worked best because it actually seemed like something that could have existed in the era the myth was from.

MythBusters (ep 174)


20 Oct

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a MythBusters where everything was plausible or confirmed. Even with that, here are the lessons I took away from the episode:

Guys who operate excavators are crazy. Actually, I’ve met a number of heavy machine operators, and I think crazy might be a good adjective for all of them. They say don’t try this at home, but they only got these “myths” because the excavator guys already had.

I would rather take a ride in the duct tape sailboat than in the duct tape plane. I can swim, but I can’t fly.

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