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Mythbusters Accidentally Bust Windows In Nearby Town
Thelasko writes "In an effort to knock Buster's socks off, the Mythbusters accidentally created an explosion so large it shattered windows in a small town over a mile from the blast site. The Mythbusters had the broken windows replaced the very same day.
The Esparto, California fire chief says that several firefighters were on hand for the blast, but he didn't notify residents because, 'Mythbusters is supposed to be a really popular show. Everybody would have been out there. We would have had to cancel it because it would have been too dangerous.'"
... Jamie got big boom.
Tis women makes us love, Tis Love that makes us sad, Tis sadness makes us drink, And drinking makes us mad.
...could get the go-ahead on tripping 500 lbs of ammonium nitrate in order to "knock the socks off" of a mannequin.
"Chief Barry Burns, of Esparto Fire Department" :-)
--- Nick, hard at work
The keyword in the summary was "accidentally". This was not an intended result and was not anticipated. Especially not a mile away.
Those who believe the Internet is private,
find their privates are on the Internet.
Public safety was taken into consideration - and in this case it was determined 'safer' to NOT tell the public, as the expected crowed that would produce would make matters WORSE.
Depends on what you consider 'near'.
If normal precautions and notices take place, then all laws have been followed.
Accidents do happen, you need to calm down.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
BUSTED!!
Yeah, they accidentally the whole town...
Tis women makes us love, Tis Love that makes us sad, Tis sadness makes us drink, And drinking makes us mad.
So now if some TV show is filming a dangerous experiment near my house, I shouldn't be notified that my windows may explode unexpectedly? This public official needs to be fired. I'm all for the TV show, but public safety comes first... or at least it used to back in the day... now get off my grass!
They didn't expect it either. They did not think there was a safety issue, thus they did not warn about the safety issue they did not think existed. If they had thought there was a safety issue warranting warnings, they would have issued safety issue warnings. They had firemen on hand for the safety issues they did expect. They did not have firemen on hand for the issues they did not expect.
What I'm saying is that it was unexpected.
The enemies of Democracy are
Myth: Plausible
Windows: Busted
I swear that if the lawyers had their way, they would bleep 'bleep'.
I don't get it.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
I shouldn't be notified that my windows may explode unexpectedly?
You want to be notified of everything that may happen unexpectedly? Seriously? Because then we're going to be here a while...
Think ya used enough dynamite there, Butch?
The keyword in the summary was "accidentally". This was not an intended result and was not anticipated. Especially not a mile away.
They were igniting 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate. What, did EVERYONE (including Fire Marshall Bill) forget to bring their handy dandy bomb-squad approved $10 calculator with them that day?
Kari's rack is just fine as is, thank you very much.
Though I much prefer that cool blond girl they had on the show.
having been a pyrotechnician for 15 years, I can say that many of the "broken" window claims probably were for windows cracked long ago. But hey, there's a boom, so I can get free window replacement!
I shouldn't be notified that my windows may explode unexpectedly?
People can't notify you of unexpected things. That's why they're called unexpected.
(Yes, I replied twice and contradicted myself. Big whoop.)
Because nobody expects the Spanish In...
Oh no...
Why bleep out the words "Aluminum" and "Iron Oxide"?
Defense Lawyer: And where did you learn to make Thermite?
Defendent: From watching Mythbusters.
Discovery Channel: Uh-oh.
Those who believe the Internet is private,
find their privates are on the Internet.
Well, I think that stuff like this can take anyone by surprise. Castle Bravo turned out to be 2.5 times bigger than expected, and those guys were Atomic Scientists!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo
What's the verdict on the myth that the Mythbusters can continue to do huge explosions without any collateral damage?
Definitely busted.
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
Why is it everytime someone makes a mistake there is some moron who has a knee jerk reaction of "fire the person". Give me a break. The fire chief made a call. They didn't notify the town because they didn't want a crowd at the film site - which would be dangerous in and of itself. So if they cancelled the show they transported explosive chemicals to the site and would have to transfer it off the site, then transfer it to another site...all that transport = danger.
not to forget - they didn't realize the explosion was going to be so big as to break a hand-ful of windows a MILE away.
Unfortunate yes, unexpected yes, handled properly yes, fire someone no.
I do not support "The Man". I also do not support your irrational stupidity
They actually hire licensed munitions and demolitions experts for the blowing stuff up - Usually former FBI
At this time, Buster is still unavailable for comments.
What, did EVERYONE (including Fire Marshall Bill) forget to bring their handy dandy bomb-squad approved $10 calculator with them that day?
I'm guessing they underestimated the burn rate of the explosives. This is probably due to the high variability in quality of ammonium nitrate. They may have done the calculations for agricultural grade ammonium nitrate, and used another.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
They usually have a retired FBI agent who is a specialist in explosives handle the big booms for them. I wonder if they had him along this time too?
Now we know why he's retired ;)
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Oh, that's only a factor of.... err.. 500? Oops.
Reminds me of a high school chemistry teacher showing us the difference between Na and K. His words:
"Na is very reactive, so we drop only a small amount in water to show the reaction." - poof
"K is a little less reactive, so we can drop a larger amount in water." - BAMMM! (and one erlenmeyer explodes in front of 35 students)
Of course, today that would mean the teacher would be sued by the parents for endangering the lives of all those students. But in my day, this means that 30 years later I remember that K is less reactive than Na, but not by very much.
They were igniting 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate
[humor]
I hereby declare this an act of domestic terrorism. The fact this wasn't in the middle of a public square just means they were bad at planning.
[/humor]
In high school, I had a physics teacher who, way back when he first started teaching, ordered x picograms of radioactive material for his class. The school secretary thought he misspelled the order and changed it to grams.
He said later on the principal called him over the intercom and sounded really upset. He went to the office, only to find the principal steaming mad over a $50,000.00-plus invoice. He looked at the invoice and, realizing what it was, went and got his giger counter...only to find it going crazy even out in the hall from the principal's office.
As it turned out, they had shipped a large order of radioactive material in a cardboard box!
They had to evacuate the office and call someone to come and get it.
Possibly unrelated, because that had happened many years prior, but he died of cancer.
transporter_ii
Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
People can't notify you of unexpected things.
Proof that you're wrong: Your mom and I had a great time last night.
Proof that I'm right: that's not unexpected.
What were they thinking?
"This is gonna be awesome!!!"
Just a hunch...
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
If they were real scientists it would make a very boring show. I know I don't want to watch a show of a bunch of grad students in dimly lit offices using MatLab and Excel, while the researcher eats lobster dinners trying to score just one more grant.
"This calls for a very special blend of psychology and extreme violence" - Vyvyan "The Young Ones"
You didn't a verb
A new science teacher came to my high school during the 1980s. During the first week of his job, he decided to help clean out the chemical closet. As he was going through things, he came across a large jar of picric acid, which is an ingredient to some explosives. As he took a more detailed look, he noticed that the acid had crystallized.
He called up the local police department to talk to someone who does hazmat / dangerous chemicals work. The moment he said, "crystallized picric acid," the man on the other end of the phone shouted, "Evacuate the building now!"
The full bomb squad arrived and took the beaker carefully up the hill to the 50-yard line of the football stadium and detonated the beaker. The shockwave went clear across the town.
--Chag