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MythBusters! Shark Week!

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Dirty Jobs chase of the Greenland shark already has me excited about this year's Shark Week. MythBusters is breaking out a 2-hour bonanza featuring robotic sharks, medieval armor, and dog urine. Checkout the slideshow for more photos of the Shark Week episode

How to make ballistics gel

Make Mythbusters Style Ballistic Gel from Materials at Wal-Mart! - video powered by Metacafe

For those of you who find Ordnance Gel Powder a tad difficult (as covered in Adam's tutorial in the Shopping Episode), this video from styropyro and hackaday guide cover the basics of making pseudo ballistics gel out of grocery store gelatin.

XKCD: Unscientific

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Episode 97: Plane on a Conveyor Belt, Cockroach Survival, Shaving Foam Shenanigans

  • Plane on a Conveyor Belt: A plane on a conveyor belt, matching its takeoff speed in reverse, can't take off busted
  • Cockroach Survival: cockroaches will be the only survivors of a nuclear blast busted
  • Shaving Foam Shenanigans: a frozen cyclinder of shaving cream will expand to fill a car when it thaws busted

The plane took off! To quote Adam: "I've read literally thousands of pages, of vitriolic commentary and arguments about airplanes on a conveyor belt, but nowhere did I find anyone who'd put an airplane on a conveyor belt." The MythBusters did and was one of the most straightforward mythbustings they've done: plane + conveyor belt = flight. To those who still have trouble wrapping your head around the problem: the wheels on a plane don't matter; they spin freely. The conveyor belt can't keep the plane stationary.

Detailed episode summary »

Episode 96: Lead Balloon, Surfing with Dynamite

  • Lead Balloon: A lead balloon cannot fly busted
  • Surfing with Dynamite: You can use dynamite to make surfable waves busted

Lead Balloon featured the MythBusters at their best: clever design, difficult construction, good results. It was an engineering challenge and Adam and Jamie succeeded with a delicate 10 ft lead cube balloon.

The Surfing with Dynamite continued the trend towards busting Internet videos that has been appearing in MythBusters. In this case, they busted an absurd video that features people throwing dynamite into a canal and catching waves from the resulting churn. It was mostly an excuse to explode 200lbs of TNT beneath the water.

Detailed episode summary »

Episode 84: Viewer Special

  • Eye-popping sneeze: if you sneeze with your eyes open, your eyes will pop out busted
  • Car Explosion: Adam and Jamie can blow up a kid's parents' car confirmed
  • Stopping a Car in Reverse: you can stop a car by throwing it into reverse busted
  • Killer Butts: Three cigarettes shot from a rifle at 7 feet point-blank can be lethal confirmed
  • Car Remote Capers: You can open a car lock with a tennis ball busted
  • Stopping a Blade: A book in your pocket can stop a sword confirmed, coins in your pocket busted

For this episode, the MythBusters blitzed through several myths submitted by their fans

Detailed episode summary »

LOL Jamie

funny pictures
moar funny pictures

thanks cshell for the link

Episode 94: Airplane Hour (Talked Into Landing, Parachute Pandemonium)

  • Talked Into Landing: a passenger can be talked into a safe landing of an airplane plausible
  • Parachute Pandemonium (aka Point Break parachute myths):
    • You can fall 4000 ft in 90 seconds: busted
    • You can have a shouting match in mid-air: busted
    • You can catch another skydiver with a 15-second lead: confirmed
  • MacGuyver mini-myth: You can stop a sulfuric acid leak using chocolate and hot water confirmed

This episode gave me ideas on places I want to visit in the Bay Area: NASA Ames' Advanced Concepts Plane Simulator and iFly SFBay's indoor skydive facility.

Detailed episode summary »

Episode 95: James Bond Special (Electro-magnetic Watch, Speedboat Survival, Propane Tank Peril)

The MythBusters tested out three different James Bond movie myths:

  • Electro-magnetic watch (Live and Let Die): you can deflect a bullet using an electro-magnetic watch busted
  • Propane tank peril (Casino Royale): you can explode a propane tank with a 9mm handgun busted
  • Speedboat Survival (Live and Let Die): you can jump a car with a speedboat and continue driving busted

Detailed episode summary »

Plane on a Treadmill rescheduled: Jan 30th

"...for those concerned that this story has been cancelled, don't worry, planes on a conveyer belt has been filmed, is spectacular, and will be part of what us Mythbusters refer to as 'episode 97'. Currently that is due to air on January 30th."

Link