February 26, 2006
Busted!
New favorite show: Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel (and not just cuz of Kari Byron).
Myths are debunked by Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, two silly geeks who are special-effects experts and love building stuff. I mean, really love building stuff. They will not just debunk the myth, but will go to great lengths to build whatever it takes to show what it would actually take for the myth to happen.
For example, take the myth about the guy who overfilled his washing machine and then fell into the machine and got violently spun around. Well of course, washing machines won’t spin if you open the lid, so they could’ve just stopped there. But no, they decide to override that safety mechanism, only to find that washing machine engines don’t have nearly enough torque to spin a person. They could’ve stopped there, but no, they decide to hook up a car engine to the washing machine to see if that would be enough…
You get the picture. Best part, the narrator makes fun of them for all this! It’s great fun for the viewers and the Mythbuster team as well, and they also do a great job clearly explaining the science behind everything with amusing animations (and yes, they do get the science right). Both Erika and I enjoy it thoroughly, and there are not too many shows we both love (although I finally got her hooked on Battlestar Galactica — but goddamn, they took their sweet time before finally doing another decent episode).
So check it out! It’s just icing on the cake that Kari Byron is cute and cool beyond words (and quite a talented artist as well).
Oh, is she a redhead? I hadn’t noticed.
February 26, 2006 10:16 AM in Culture | PermalinkWhat’s worse than a nerd? A nerd with power tools!
These guys are all insane. But in a good way, I have to say. There are so many favorite myths, although I have to give props to their efforts to recreate the Robin Hood split-an-arrow-down-its-length one. They did absolutely everything imaginable to pull that one off before they declared it busted.
Posted by Hank at 02/26/06, 11:39 AM (link)Yeah, definitely so insane that it’s ridiculously funny!
Haven’t seen the Robin Hood one yet (I think I’ve only seen three episodes so far). I’ll have to keep an eye out for it!
Posted by fling93 at 02/26/06, 12:54 PM (link)Now that the cable’s gone, that’s one of the few shows I’m actually going to miss. Kinda reminds me of when most stuff on Discovery was actually educational, and not just reality shows about men who build motorcycles.
And did I happen to mention, I used to work with Kari Byron? She introduced herself to me at an office party once. She is as cool as you would hope, and besides…rrrrowr.
Posted by Daniel at 02/28/06, 02:26 PM (link)Where I’m interning right now, we went to San Francisco to do a portrait of the two hosts. My editor shot it and I got to be his assistant. Cool guys. Byron wasn’t there, sorry Fling.
Posted by Shaminder Dulai at 03/04/06, 12:51 AM (link)