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Mythbusters Accidentally Bust Windows In Nearby Town
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Thu Mar 26, 2009 09:18 AM
from the good-thing-it-wasn't-mirrors dept.
from the good-thing-it-wasn't-mirrors dept.
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.'"
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And finally... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:And finally... (Score:5, Funny)
boom goes the dynamite?
Parent
Myth... (Score:5, Funny)
Definitely busted.
Parent
Re:And finally... (Score:5, Funny)
Boom! di ada...
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wow (Score:5, Funny)
The Myth Busters truly are gods among geeks.
Re:wow (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:wow (Score:5, Funny)
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Not anticipated?? Hardly. (Score:5, Interesting)
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?
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Re:Not anticipated?? Hardly. (Score:5, Informative)
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. [wikipedia.org] They may have done the calculations for agricultural grade ammonium nitrate, and used another.
Parent
Re:Not anticipated?? Hardly. (Score:5, Funny)
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]
Parent
Re:NASA problem (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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Re:NASA problem (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
The sodium dunk game (Score:5, Funny)
My chem teacher
a: knew that potassium is *more* reactive than sodium, so used less of it
and
b: put the beaker full of water on the desk that the two cheerleaders in class sat at so when it went phooey they were the ones that ended up soaking wet.
He was a truly superior human being -- and he taught there his entire career, for 15 years after I graduated.
Parent
Re:NASA problem (Score:5, Interesting)
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
Parent
Re:wow (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:wow (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Parent
Re:wow (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Parent
Re:wow (Score:5, Funny)
Because nobody expects the Spanish In...
Oh no...
Parent
MythBusters isn't the safest show (Score:5, Informative)
Remember, they built the bulletproof shelter for explosions then in a much later episode discovered that the material wasn't bulletproof.
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Re:MythBusters isn't the safest show (Score:5, Informative)
No, they said the polycarbonate they used for a blast shelter was "basically bulletproof", which they later showed is an exaggeration.
OTOH, for what they were using it for, their polycarbonate blast shield was perfectly safe. It wouldn't stop a bullet, but it would stop any number of much slower moving objects.
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Re:wow (Score:5, Insightful)
If they had thought there was a safety issue warranting warnings...
they would have done the experiment somewhere else.
Parent
Re:wow (Score:5, Funny)
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...
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Re:wow (Score:5, Interesting)
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!
Parent
Re:wow (Score:5, Insightful)
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.)
Parent
Re:wow (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Parent
Re:wow (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Parent
Only the Mythbusters... (Score:5, Insightful)
...could get the go-ahead on tripping 500 lbs of ammonium nitrate in order to "knock the socks off" of a mannequin.
Appropriately named Fire Chief... (Score:5, Funny)
"Chief Barry Burns, of Esparto Fire Department" :-)
Bleeped (Score:5, Insightful)
And their big 'bleep' was located 'bleep' but don't 'bleep' anywhere near 'bleep' CUE BIG FIREBALL BOOM!
Sorry about that, it is just a pet peeve of mine that Mythbusters is seemingly censoring mundane details about what they are doing. What is the point about censoring the location where you are firing off a minigun? It's obviously restricted, and it isn't as if people are going to wander onto some military base and pick up a minigun.
If the people who watch the show were so stupid as to try and use some of the chemicals that are used in the show (and harm themselves or someone else) I'd wager that they are probably too stupid to even know where to order them.
You never saw Mr. Wizard bleeping out the chemical names on his demonstrations.
I swear that if the lawyers had their way, they would bleep 'gasoline'.
Re:Bleeped (Score:5, Insightful)
Note the past tense. Is Mr. Wizard even allowed to be shown now? Have the networks been 'encouraged' to drop programming like that?
Now please excuse me while I test whether an explosion can literally knock my tinfoil hat off.
Parent
Re:Bleeped (Score:5, Funny)
I swear that if the lawyers had their way, they would bleep 'bleep'.
I don't get it.
Parent
Re:Bleeped (Score:5, Interesting)
What is the point about censoring the location where you are firing off a minigun?
I always assumed that they censored that particular nugget because they film in the People's Republic of^W^W^W California, which isn't exactly a pro-firearms state. I know they had to get special permission when they were playing around with the .50 rifle during the bullets fired at water episode. I also seem to recall the neighbors of M5 whining when they were doing some other gun myths.
I do agree though that some of the stuff they censor is just plain stupid. I would guess that the lawyers make them do it.
Parent
Re:Bleeped (Score:5, Insightful)
Thermite is a perfect example. It's easy to make, the ingredients are dirt cheap and unregulated, and it takes no special knowledge to put it together.
Why bleep out the words "Aluminum" and "Iron Oxide"? If someone wants to learn how to make thermite, they can do that without any special help.
The nastiest stuff they use on mythbusters is all commercial. The stuff they make themselves is mostly kitchen sink stuff that anyone could make.
Parent
Re:Bleeped (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Parent
downhill since Smash Lab (Score:5, Funny)
Ever since these other "lets blow stuff up on high speed film" shows came out, MythBusters has had to blow more and more stuff up, kind of getting anti-intellectual nowadays. Plus Kari needs a bigger rack.
Re:downhill since Smash Lab (Score:5, Informative)
Though I much prefer that cool blond girl they had on the show.
Parent
The verdict (Score:5, Funny)
BUSTED!!
Selective Terrorism? (Score:5, Interesting)
"...They were trying to literally 'knock the socks off' a mannequin by igniting 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate."
Uh, I like the show and all, but it's rather ironic that a couple of "celebrities" can get their hands on 500 pounds of this stuff and use it, when Average Joe can't manage to buy 50 pounds of "enriched" manure from Home Depot without tripping the "terrorist" flag at Homeland Security...
Re:Selective Terrorism? (Score:5, Informative)
They actually hire licensed munitions and demolitions experts for the blowing stuff up - Usually former FBI
Parent
Myth: Plausible (Score:5, Funny)
Windows: Busted
That oughta do it. (Score:5, Funny)
Jamie wants big boom! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:it had to happen sooner or later..... (Score:5, Funny)
Ah, I see our viral marketing campaign is working... Jamie, go "accidentally" blow up a gas station or something, we'll issue a press rele^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hletter of apology next week.
Parent
Re:That's odd... (Score:5, Informative)
Experience? They are special effects guys, they have done all of maybe 2 or 3 really large explosions and all of them were oversaw by professionals because most of the stuff they deal with is not generally available. They aren't exactly blasting/munitions experts.
Parent
Re:That's odd... (Score:5, Interesting)
Cool. That's what it is.
Parent
Re:That's odd... (Score:5, Insightful)
That one was unreal; it really conveyed the power of those explosives more effectively than any other explosion I've seen on the show. It's definitely my favorite.
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Re:That's odd... (Score:5, Insightful)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo [wikipedia.org]
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Re:That's odd... (Score:5, Funny)
I can't wait until MythBusters start busting nuclear weapon myths! Oohh boy! :D
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Re:Need-to-know attitude? Uh, no thanks. (Score:5, Informative)
You have the order wrong.
The shows popularity would have made people come too close so it wouldn't be possible to perform the explosion. They judged it safer for everyone if people didn't know about it.
Parent
Re:the explosion was alot bigger (Score:5, Funny)
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 ;)
Parent