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MythBusters Bust House
ewhac writes "The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that the MythBusters accidentally sent a cannon ball hurtling through Dublin this afternoon, punching through a home, bouncing across a six-lane road, and ultimately coming to a rest inside a now-demolished Toyota minivan. Amazingly, there were no injuries. The ball was fired from a home-made cannon at the Alameda County Sheriff's Department bomb range, and was intended to strike a water target. Instead the ball missed the water, punched through a cinder-block wall, and skipped off the hill behind. Prior to today, the MythBusters had been shooting episodes at the bomb range for over seven years without major incident. It is not clear whether Savage/Hyneman or Belleci/Imahara/Byron were conducting the experiment."
Professionals my ass. I can do more damage than that by trying that at home, amateurs.
Don't try any of this at home. They're what you call "professionals".
s/[stupid comments]/[intelligent discourse]/gi
To shoot a cannon-ball from San Francisco to Dublin is quite a feat. Wait, not that Dublin?
It was definitely Belleci, Imahara and Byron. They were posting all sorts of pics of it on twitter (which have since been removed.)
MythBusters isn't at fault here, the Alameda County Sheriff's Department bomb range is. Its their job to ensure the safety of any tests conducted on their site. Half the time you see sheriff whats-his-name preparing the explosives and one of the MB crew pushes the button to make boom. This will probably result in a few sensationalist headlines, insurance claims and the bomb range building bigger hills out of dirt. Case closed.
I bet you say that to all the boys.
Are you kidding? That's ratings GOLD, my friend. Hell, Discovery will probably promo the shit out of it.
The only way you wouldn't see footage like that was if someone got seriously hurt or killed. And even then they would probably do a very special "tribute" episode.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Well, in this case the bomb range was built first, and then they build houses around if afterwards. It takes NIMBY to quite another level when you build the backyard in question on top of what you don't want there.
It happened yesterday. It was on local news last night
At least until they "accidentally" create a singularity that destroys half a state, and permanently alters the rules of our relative space-time.
Yeah, maybe they will get to play Buster.
You sleep when the baby sleeps-it's easier to let it win in the beginning before we destroy their time sense and make them use clocks.
Really? That's the part of the story that makes you say hmmm? The fact that reportedly a 6-inch cannonball fired from a homemade cannon busts through a cinder-block wall, then bounces off a hillside, then flies 700 yards and bounces again, then goes through a front door, bounces up a stairway and into a bedroom where it proceeds to bust through a stucco wall, and after all that, still had enough energy to fly over to a neighboring house hitting its roof and destroying a few roof tiles, crosses a six lane highway (still in the air, presumably) over into another neighborhood and crashes into a parked minivan shattering its windshield and destroying its dashboard is all copacetic with you, but taking a nap in the afternoon makes the story hard to believe?
Back when they used cannonballs in war, they used to fire "ground balls". The balls would bounce along on the ground, moving rather slowly.
Ineveitably some newbie would see it and try to stop it with his foot.
The next day they call those newbies "Stumpie" .
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
So, airport exists in the 1950s. This airport gets occasional traffic from prop planes, mostly daylight hours when no one is around. Hence, people don't worry about the noise, and build homes near the airport.
Air travel booms in the 60s/70s/80s. Jet engines are introduced; noise is probably 10x - 100x what it was before. Wouldn't you complain?
Some idiot air travel company tried to do that in our neck of the woods recently. "Let's extend the runway for your minor use airport by 1000' - it's a safety issue for our pilots!" Bullshit. It's a way to bump the airport from "minor use" status to the next step up, which is cargo planes taking off and landing 24/7. I don't mind "minor use" - I like seeing the light aircraft taking off/landing/flying overhead, especially in the summer when they bring in the old WW2 aircraft - but I do mind cargo jets taking off/landing over my "suburbanite" home, because they are many orders of magnitude louder than all the other aircraft we've got going here right now.
Needless to say, that idiot air travel company was tarred & feathered & run out of town.
It's a television show. It was probably planned WEEKS in advance.
I will believe this the minute people involved in the show are arrested and prosecuted. Until then, the safe bet is publicity stunt.
People are not arrested and prosecuted for accidents. They were at a bomb range, not recklessly firing cannon balls in the middle of residential areas. They took appropriate precautions, but shit happens, and their insurance pays for the damage.
They'll be listed in the credits as "Cannon Fodder."
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Dude, they were at a police bomb range, under police supervision. Nobody's getting arrested (though some wrists are going to be slapped). The biggest question is whether or not they'll be permitted to keep using the range.
I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/12/06/tv-experiment-goes-awry-sends-cannonball-rocketing-through-homes/
Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit!
That's nothing. You can be arrested for resisting arrest.
Frankly, I would consider it an honor to have my minivan crushed by a Mythbusters experiment.
I thought this as well. I'd be tempted to turn down the insurance settlement and just keep the wreckage, especially if you can keep the cannonball, too. You could probably get a LOT of money for it at auction from a fan who wants the famous Mythbusters experiment that went horribly wrong!
Now the tone can be set by Mythbusters' actions. The right thing to do, is first, to repair the damage. Not pay for it, not file an insurance claim, but send a first class home repair crew over to make the house better than it was before. Deliver a better minivan to their driveway tonight. Next, in person apologies (and a night out or free passes to a Mythbusters shoot, their choice) by those involved, and Adam and Jamie. Explain carefully what your plans are to prevent anything like this from ever happening again. Do it fast, do it right and you come out looking good. Get the lawyers and insurance companies involved and ask the family to sign settlements and it all goes to heck in a handbasket.
A large percentage of what they do on the show is strictly for entertainment value. Many of the so-called myths they test, and the methods they devise to test them, are completely predictable by anyone with any common sense, yet they perform the "tests" anyway because they involve entertaining car wrecks, explosions, fire balls, or Adam ending up in pain and/or puking.
It's a TV show, so 100% of what they do is strictly for entertainment value. It just so happens that they've managed to capture parts of the scientific method in ways that end up being entertaining. The fact that many of their experiments are predictable isn't a mark against them, either - science is about formally testing and verifying any kind of knowledge, and sometimes, even when we think the answer is obvious, it turns out differently than we expect and we learn something from it.
Dublin?
Can they demolish the rest of the place, and then move on to Pleasanton?
I think they'd do good, were they to level everything along the 680 corridor - up to Altamont.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
No, the biggest question is that: 'Will they air the accident sequence and the resulting damage'? I REALLY think that they should, it is a good lesson as to why you do not try this stuff at home.
Why is it that most of the people that I encounter seem to have been shat from the Sphincter of Mediocrity?
Although they've since been taken down, Kari, Tory, and Grant tweeted pictures from the bomb range yesterday, including said canons. Reproduced on my blog: http://laslow.net/2011/12/07/mythbusters-and-damage-control/