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.

We started watching Mythbusters back in late 2003. We came across a marathon on Discovery one day and just fell in love. I miss the early days when they actually had an expert on urban legends talk about where the myths they were busting came from.

Sometimes I’m afraid that they will run out of myths, or that the knock off shows will derail the genre to a point that the original can’t survive. But for now, its still going strong, and is definitely can’t miss TV in our house. So far, we haven’t tried any of it at home.