So it was a marathon on January 1, eh? I caught the ep where they were trying to bust cola myths. The cola-as-spermicide was hysterical! They had the tube of splooge and both had the funniest looks on their faces. Then Jamie got to count sperm. I was falling off the couch!

FYI--The show is moving to Sunday at 8PM, with a new show this week.

I read somewhere on the web that they were negotiating for a second season. Don't know if this starts it though...

How about the exploding biscuit episode? It was interesting how they were able to prove that those "spring-loaded" biscuit packages can go off in a really hot car, but they couldn't track down the original biscuit incident. But such is the way of urban legends, I guess.

The funny part is the fact that you can see the "biscuit bandolier" in later episodes, sitting on one of the shelves in the Mythbusters warehouse.

The second season hasn't started shooting yet; unless they've already aired the "throwing a penny off the Empire State Building" ep, the first season isn't over.

Yup, the penny off the Empire State Building show has already been shown. It was fun watching Adam get shot in the ass with a penny travelling at 65 MPH.

For what it's worth, the Empire State Building penny-throwing was part of the marathon.

ETA scarletine is right - the penny shooting was pretty funny.

Did I just imagine it, or do one of the TWoP recappers know one of the mythbusters? I think it's Pamie that knows Adam, but I could be wrong.

I seem to remember getting to Adam's site from Tomato Nation (Sars) once... I could be mistaken, though. Maybe Sars knows Adam?

Adam's site

Tomato Nation

Adam is a friend of mine; Pamie and AB Chao have hung out with him too.

I just saw an episode last night (Tuesday). Was that the new episode from Sunday? Tuesdays fit my TV schedule alot better.

I was a little disturbed by the whole "Adam screws up the mold" sequence. I hope TPTB aren't going to start showing the conflicts between the two. Note to TPTB: some of us don't need - or even want - to see conflict in order to be entertained. Some of us just want to get our nerd on for the week. If I want conflict I'll go watch American Chopper. (You know, that other potentially cool show you ruined by always having to show the Teutels fighting all the time.)

Another cool series of experiments. I don't know what it is, especially considering I have a cast iron gut and don't get grossed out easily, but seeing jars of urine really squick me out. Probably some freudian potty training issues rearing their ugly head. That being said, MythBusters should win a Peabody for exposing how poppy seeds screw up drug tests.

Nope, the one from Sunday was explosive decompression with a jetliner. Twas way cool. Not particularly that they were urban legends, but blowing stuff up is always fun.

I thought the exact same thing when I saw that part. It seems like all the how-to shows have forced some element of conflict into their format. It's lame. They need to stop it.

I just started watching this show last week, and all I can say is, way cool.

I am especially fond that not only do they try to replicate the myth using what would likely be the materials in question, but they go to the extreme to make it happen. For instance, the story about the guy being flung around in the washing machine. Not only did we see that it could happen (interlock, weak motor, etc.), but just how great an extreme they had to go to to make it happen. Kinda just lets you know how unlikely it is.

I agree with some of those who are saying, "don't show conflict." It felt out-of-place. I do like them voicing different opinions, then betting on it ("I think the barrel will hold...").

Still, these are some of the best science lessons I get outside of "Good Eats."

I'd like to jump on the "no conflict" bandwagon. I have no desire to watch people being mean to each other. There's enough of that in real life. It was good to see Adam apologize on last night's show and move on.

I'm still staunchly opposed to any introduction of contrived or staged conflict between the two guys, but when that one guy snapped at the other guy for interfering with his attempts to collect dog pee, I laughed my ass off, even though the myth they were busting was the lamest one so far.

How can I become a folklorist? Because that's what I want to be when I grow up. I'm totally and completely serious.

*sigh*, I have such a crush on Adam. This is such a great show. MrFosace and I live about two hours from SF. We joke all the time about finding M5 studios and waiting around until they they film again. Last night's episode killed me that they were at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I live 10 minutes from there!

I know Indiana University has a Folklore major and graduate program. Other universities probably stash their folklorists in Anthropology programs.

ETA: Please give my deepest apologies to your parents.

I think there is a difference between that and the "conflict" being spoken of. That came off as fussy little banter that happens between colleagues. It was done in a kidding-around fashion.

The taping of the molds, on the other hand, could have gone the way of "American Chopper," or other true reality shows. They had shots of the tape failing/gel leaking, then a voice-over of the other guy talking about how the first hurries (I don't remember who was who in this instance), then a scene where they were correcting the problem.

I think the "conflict" part came when a point problem (the gel is leaking) is presented as symbolic of an inherent character flaw of one of the gentleman as seen by the other ("he hurries...needs to use less haste").

I like banter. Conflict I can do without.

I like big, chicken-shooting air cannons even more.

I am totally turning into a Jamie fan-girl. So scary considering he's nearly fifty and reminds me of a bald walrus minus the tusks.
Gotta say that I loved how Savage got all dressed up in the bomb stuff and set up the bomb shield thingie to test the dog pee/baking soda myth.

I caught the episode with the souped up washing machine. I loved how they kept tinkering and tinkering with it to give it enough power and torque to fling a full-grown man around, to the point that it was almost unrecognizable at the end. Did anyone else see the blueprint sequence, where Adam included a cartoony piddling dog in the diagram? Since I am an 8 year old at heart, I thought it was funny.

I especially loved Jamie pulling out a robot soda machine that he built for a commercial, using its engine to power the "FrakenWasher". Who else has a robot conveniently lying around? I was watching with my mom, and she said, "Your father would love to meet these guys, he doesn't throw anything out either."

Did anyone else see the episode where they tried to duplicate pulling out the back axle of a cop car, a la "American Graffiti"? They rigged the car up to be remote control driven, and stood on the roof of a warehouse for safety. At one point the car sped out of sight, so Jamie hit the breaks, only to find the car with its front bumper an eyelash away from a light post.

Oh, and the assistant that they volunteered for the Alcatraz experiment was kinda cute. It was great that they were able to pull it off, but I think they were seriously overestimating the intelligence of the average ex-con.

I finally got to see the "Chicken Gun" episode, and it was, as usual, brilliant. These two are the funniest pair of geniuses that I've ever had the pleasure to watch.

I want that Frankenwasher, though. Would make doing my laundry much quicker!

I loved the bit with the poodle. Even though we, the viewers, knew they wouldn't put a poodle in the microwave, it seemed like the narrator didn't, and for some reason I found that hilarious.

I agree that most people (never mind cons) probably couldn't pull it off. However, we know they carried out a complicated plan that required discretion, daring and the ability to delay gratification. That's an unusual combination of traits that you'd be unlikely to see unless at least one person in the group was of above average intelligence.

Speaking as someone who grew up on a coast, I have no problem believing that if they could observe the water, they could figure the movement of the ocean currents. (You can see differences in water colors, and surface tension of currents as they move through the ocean.) Since we know they waited until the tide was at a certain point, they clearly had something in mind.

They made a big deal out of the fact that one of the escapees was smarter than the average criminal. [/yogi bear voice] I was impressed that anyone could make it more than 100 feet off of the island in a homemade raft, let alone get all the way to land.

Love this show. Love me some Adam. *sigh* I only live an hour and a half away from them. Is it totally creepy that I want to drive to the Bay and try and find them? Yes? Okay...fine...

I know he has kids (adorable by the way)...but is he married? I could have sworn that on one show they said that he had a date later in the day, which made me think that he was single. Plus I have never seen a wedding ring, despite his wearing a right hand ring.

I just love me some geek boy!

I can't believe they answered the question that I've personally wanted to know for years - does toilet bowl spray contain coliform bacteria? They determined that toilet bowl spray really isn't that big a deal considering there's plenty of coliform bacteria in the normal air anyway. Regardless, I shall continue to flush with my toilet seat down.

I totally knew they'd find fecal contamination on the control brushes. Poo is everywhere, people! The funniest thing about that episode was the bathroom log they kept. I kept wondering if they called it the log log, because I'm 12.

Hey wannabe mythbusters, for some reason the Discovery channel is adding another mythbuster to the dynamic duo. There are directions on how to appy here.

I can't decide if the addition of another mythbuster is going to be a good thing or not.

LOVED last night's ep with the tongue piercing (way to go, Adam!) and the Breathalyzer myth buster. The latter was cool cuz Mr/Officer Richmond and I had been talking about it not even one week ago. He's intox-certified for his PD and knew it would be busted but it was entertaining to see Adam get plowed. I figured he'd be a happy drunk while there wan't much change in Jamie, who's so quiet anyway.

Great ep!

Does anyone know the fellas' ages? To me, Adam is like a young energetic pup, and Jamie is the tolerant older wiser dog. It's so cute to see them interacting together. I'm afraid that if they do add another to the dynamic duo, it will mess up this dynamic.

You had to figure they wouldn't tell a nationwide television audience how to beat the breathalyzer, even if there was a way to do it.

Total speculation here, but I wonder if one of the guys might be planning on leaving the show next season, and they want to have a ready-made replacement handy, hence the addition of a third person to the team. I think they should make the folkorist the third member, so they can delve into some of the myths that don't involve so much science. Don't get me wrong, I love all the science, but I'd like to hear more about what myths like "People can lick, too" say about our society. I love that stuff.

I had a feeling they wouldn't find anything at Giant Stadium, especially since there hasn't been any press about it, and because as they were finishing up the segment there were only 3 minutes left in the show.

I was also thinking, whoever owns Jamie's M5 productions building will have two pig carcasses buried underneath the cement. Perhaps that will become its own urban legend some day?

I would have been shocked if they found anything at Giants Stadium. Plus, a great myth would have been spoiled (I think Hoffa's at the bottom of Lake Michigan). It's much more fun speculating about his fate than really knowing what happened.

The spiders? Ick, ick, ick, ick, ick, ick, ick, ick, ick....... (Does a little shudder dance) I would never, in a million years, stick my arm in a tube full of spiders, even if they were just daddy longlegs. I've heard that particular myth several times, but always felt it was completely bogus (nice to know I was right).

Between the rotting pigs and the spider tube, I watched most of this episode with my collar up over my nose and my hands up in my sleeves. So, here comes my latest party icebreaker: If you had to choose, would you rather bury, and later dig up a rotting pig carcass, or stick your hand into a tube of biting but nonvenomous spiders?

Technically, the spiders were venomous. Just not lethally so. But that smell seemed almost lethal. So I'd take the spider tube.

Spider tube for me, too. I like spiders, but really -- two pig carcasses buried for months? Oh, dear Lord, no. That shit ain't right.

How fun to see Jim Fassel on the Hoffa segment. "Former New York Giants coach." Hee. Time moves fast, don't it, Jimmy?

Kind of a boring episode this week. Only the exploding trombone myth was interesting.

Anyway, does anyone else HATE the format the latest episodes have been using where they switch from myth to myth throughout the show? I found it much more enjoyable to have the 3 myths each get their seperate 20 minutes.

I actually liked last night's episode. Though they weren't necessarily the most exciting myths, the process was quite interesting. The Mythtanic demonstrated what I like: they take a hypothesis, and ran it through various stages until they came to a conclusion.

Jamie's a dive master, special effect expert, and former pet store owner? Is there anything this guy hasn't done? Wow.

I really enjoyed the goldfish story. Adam's almost seemed like a control group.



I'm on the fence. On one hand, being able to see one myth beginning to end in one sitting was nice when I happened to drift in to the middle of a show (and probably would make it nice to slice up for a science class), I really don't feel like I'm losing anything by having them interspersed.

Which brings me to my next thought: anyone know if any schools are using "Mythbusters" in there classes? It makes science fun! Almost as good as Alton Brown.

ETA: Woo-Hoo! Video Archivist, baby!

As a music teacher, it would not surprise me in the least if a trombone player stuck a firework into his mute. Trombone players tend to have that "special" mentality about them (I can't begin to describe what I've found in trombone bells. It's even worse with sousaphones). I knew immediately, though, that the instrument would not be destroyed the way it was described in the myth. The trombone is a pretty sturdy instrument.

I have to admit, the sight of a smoking trombone mute heading toward me would make me pitch backwards into the audience.

I don't know if any science teachers use this show, but as a student, I've used this show to win many arguements with my teachers about what is possible. It is usually with the same teacher, who teaches the myths and then I tell him that its just a legend and isn't true. Then we argue blah blah bustercakes. It's one of the best ways to get out of doing work.

That boat-sinking experiment looked dangerous as hell.

I'll admit I wasn't paying much attention at the beginning due to accidentally knocking over a candle on my TV, but I totally agree, xii. First they show conclusively that a person will be sucked down to the bottom after a falling weight. Then they try it in open water with a big boat, with a real guy with no flotation help at all. Scary.

The goldfish one was kinda lame. Except for when Adam almost killed his fish.

I don't know if they're using it in school, but my 7 year old nephew never misses an episode. We've had many a bonding moment over it. I can't decide if he's mature, or I have a 7-year old mentality. Somehow I think it's the latter...

Gah! Buried Alive!

So, they proved that a healthy person probably couldn't survive more than a couple of hours buried in a coffin, because panicking would cause such rapid respiration. But I'm thinking that anyone who actually was buried alive long ago would have been extremely ill and probably comatose, so that if they did wake up, they might not have been alert enough to actually start panicking. They might have languished for awhile, if their illness caused their metabolism and respiration to slow down. There was a story recently about very elderly woman who survived several days in the rubble of an earthquake in Turkey, and her survival was partially attributed to her slow metabolism, on account of her being so old.

The buried alive thing has has always freaked me out.

Not to nit-pick, but...

I'm assuming, given the miracles of modern medicine, the chance of being buried alive isn't very great in this day and age. So, why did they use a modern day casket that was meant to be enclosed in a vault, not placed directly into the hole with dirt thrown on top? Wouldn't an old-fashioned wooden casket give a more accurate result?

(By the way, I just finished reading a book set in Victorian England, with a character who wants to be cremated because she fears being buried alive.)

I didn't realize the casket was meant for a vault. Do they use sturdier caskets for in-ground burials?

Creepy buried alive stuff .

I live in Pennsylvania, and I think vaults are required. At least, any time I've buried someone, we've had to get a vault (although that could be a requirement of the cemetary, too). Anyway, The casket is set into the vault, and then the vault is sealed. It's purpose is to protect the casket from the elements, and keep the ground from settling. They are also very expensive.
Here's a link Wilbur Vaults.
(I don't have any ties to the company, just found it on google.)

Actually, no state has laws about vaults. It's strictly up to the cemetary. The vaults keep the ground from settling, which makes it easier for the grounds staff.
Some states are now forbidding cemetaries from requiring vaults.

I recently discovered this show, and I'm loving it. It's somewhat reminiscent of Junkyard Wars with the construction of the projects (only without the scavenging). It's smart and goofy at the same time. Bonus points for emphasizing all the safety precautions. I bet the local fire department loves them.

When I was watching a rerun and they put the little announcement on the screen that Mythbusters is now available on DVD, I squealed so loud I scared my cat. The set is darn expensive, but I love this show. I find myself having to stay up late to watch the reruns, even though I've seen them several times.