Bees on a laptop: Every once in a while they give the Warning: Science Content, but this myth was all about the science. Its nice when you can take something kids love (bugs) and really show the math and physics involved.

Water repels flies: If this had been true, I would have heard about it from my camping friends.

Driving in to a bug can kill you: I don’t know where you find the giant beetles. The one thing I would have really liked to see is if multiple bugs made a difference. Swarms seem more dangerous that individual bugs.

I’ve never seen the movie the myth came from, but do people really think a muzzle flash is going to set off a room of methane? And even if it did, you singe your eyebrows, not blow up the room. Anyone whose ever messed up lighting a pilot light knows this.

Underwater car is one of my favorite myths, so I enjoyed the revisit. But, given the circumstances, I don’t know why breaking a window wasn’t an option, especially since the windshield cracked so badly on impact. I’d be kicking that thing out ASAP to get out of the car.

So I have not watched this week’s new MythBusters, yet, since I had family arriving Wednesday evening. It is sitting on the DVR, waiting, probably until Sunday afternoon, when we send everyone home. But, if you’re looking for your weekly MythBusters fix, I’ll comment on one of my favorites (from the Thanksgiving day marathon).

I love the viewer specials. The Lego ball especially speaks to my childhood. I totally would have been part of the volunteers building that thing. However, I would not have wanted to be one of the people who had to clean it up when it broke.

Sometimes you start missing the little things when one of your favorite things grows up and becomes popular with everyone. In this episode, for the first time I am aware of, the MythBusters were not allowed to name the make and model of a care they were using in a myth. Would Porsche not let them, or was it because they have a sponsorship deal with VW?

But anyway, the car is more aerodynamic facing forward.

And surfboards break when crashed in to hard things at high speeds. Doesn’t anyone who has ever watched a surfing movie already know this?

Mimi-Myths!

I love these episodes. I do have to say my favorite of the night was the tuxedo under the scuba gear. I thought that was pretty fun.

Also, I now know that it is very important to know where in my laptop the battery is located and to make sure that I put that section between me and any guns that might be pointed in my direction. However, I wish they had found out what kind of refrigerator had been used. I’d bet one of the high end stainless steel sub-zero models has a chance of stopping a bullet.

Machine Bow: I enjoyed this myth because I’ve missed the fun builds, like the tree cannon. One thing I found interesting was that this time, they did not even attempt to build the bow with materials and skills available to the ancient Greeks. Straight to power tools.

I also wasn’t sure why they used the archer as the benchmark. Would you use a guy with rifle to benchmark a machine gun? They had their criteria in the myth.

Driving Drowsy: Was anyone surprised by the result? Especially on the monotonous highway section? I think that might put me to sleep.

Tablecloth Pull: I get that small scale they did testing with material and smoothness of the table, but it would be nice in the large scale to see them consider varying a factor other than speed. Still, I bet Jamie was thrilled to have an excuse to take that motorcycle up to 100mph.

Brain Power: We use more than 10% of our brain, so the myth is technically busted, but I think the spirit is confirmed. At 30%, Tory (not a dummy) is still using only 1/3 of his brain. Now I want to know what parts we don’t use.

When the Poop Hits the Fan: I always pictured it as hitting ceiling fan. But the large scale test with the less solid “poo” seemed like a pretty good result.

Cold Feet: I wasn’t certain what I thought about this one. To me, being nervous is different from being terrified. People normally claim “cold feet” excuse when they are nervous. When they are terrified, they say so. But it seemed to hold true in situations where the person could have had an out. Tory, who had no way out once his trial started, had less of a result. Makes sense.

We were back to old school MythBusters tonight, just Jamie and Adam and a couple small builds. It was nice to see their joy and the simplicity that made me fall in love with the series again.

I did see a couple problems with their final personal tornado protection tent. It lost its “wing” for the second round of tests, having to bolt the spiked piece to the frame made it less portable, less adjustable (for changing wind speeds), and the whole thing seemed to take a long time to set up. I’d want something a little quicker to deploy.

We interrupt late roller derby posts for a timely entry about the season premier of MythBusters. This will be a weekly feature. We start this season of one of my favorite TV shows, with dog myths, specifically, myths about how to mess with a dog’s sense of smell.

We can train dogs to recognize the scent of cancer in people’s urine, to smell strokes and seizures before they happen. Why would we think coffee and citronella could trick them? Trying to trick the handler might work better (as in the bloodhound line-up, for which the handler wasn’t trained), but rarely.