MythBusters“Alaska Special”
Original Air Date: April 23, 2008
Stacy – TwoCents Reviewer
MythBusters is back, at least for this week, with an all new Alaska special, continuing on with the Discovery Channel’s Alaska Week! They’ve got three new myths to debunk, all with, as you might have guessed, and Alaskan flair involving a dog, a moose and a couple of sleep deprived guinea pigs. Oh, and don’t forget the yeti.
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MythBusters
ReplyDelete“Alaska Special”
Original Air Date: April 23, 2008
Stacy – TwoCents Reviewer
MythBusters is back, at least for this week, with an all new Alaska special, continuing on with the Discovery Channel’s Alaska Week! They’ve got three new myths to debunk, all with, as you might have guessed, and Alaskan flair involving a dog, a moose and a couple of sleep deprived guinea pigs. Oh, and don’t forget the yeti.
First up, the dynamite dog. Adam and Jamie, after introducing us to the beautiful, but cold, Alaskan frontier, explain the myth about the fisherman who decided to blast through the ice using dynamite and of course forgets about his dog, a retriever, who dutifully brings back the dynamite, hides under the brand new SUV and sinks the whole thing to the bottom of the lake. Okay, it’s not a myth, it’s more of an antidote. And it’s kind of funny, if you take away the fact that the dog obviously does not survive this tale.
So, our guys do some preliminary tests. First the average out how far a stick of dynamite can be thrown (about 100 feet) and then they time how long it takes for a black lab to retrieve a thrown object (16 seconds) and, given the 20 second fuse on an average stick of dynamite, it’s all looking plausible, until, of course, they try to blow up and SUV. As we learned earlier, the ice has to be over a foot thick to support the weight of the vehicle. And, the dynamite would have definitely killed the pooch, it barely dented the ice and caused only minor damage to the SUV. Officially, it is busted. However, they can’t leave it there. Adam and Jamie came to sink an SUV into an ice covered lake, and that is what they’ll do. Throwing out a nice Caddyshack reference (I knew I loved Adam for a reason), “gopher” holes are dug into the ice and explosives are run. It is a huge blast, and so cold that, before they can retrieve what is left of the SUV, the ice has frozen over forcing them to blow it up, again, to clean up their mess.
Outcome: Busted! The ice would be too thick for a single stick of dynamite to break through.
Next up, moose mayhem. Our three California natives, Grant, Kari and Tory, are tasked with finding out whether or not it is safer to speed up or attempt to stop, when, as we learn often happens in Alaska, a moose steps out in front of your speeding car. They do some research in Alaska, but have to return to M7 for the practical tests. They build their moose out of rubber and cables and, I admit, I’m distracted a bit because Tory seems so completely hyper. He’s either really excited about crashing cars or he’s had too much coffee. Has he always been like this? I don’t think so, but maybe. Anyway, they head to E-Tech testing to run the test. And with several spectacular shots (Kari was right, the slo-mo is amazing!) the first hit their moose at an average speed of 45 mph, then breaking 30 feet from the moose, followed by accelerating 30 feet from the moose. When all is said and done, there is no way you should do anything other than try and avoid hitting a moose with your car. The cars are so smashed up, it’s almost unreal. And, the faster you go, the more damage you cause.
Outcome: Busted! So, so very busted.
Finally, we come to what may be my favorite experiment ever: Cabin Fever! Adam and Jamie agree to spend 48 hours alone in complete isolation in two separate cabins to see if cabin fever is indeed a real thing. Kari’s job is to monitor them via camera from her own cabin. While both men think that the other will crack first (and my money was on Adam), Kari thinks she’s got it worse since, not only is she also in isolation, but she has to watch them being bored non-stop. It’s like MythBusters does Lost – who is really guinea pig here?
So it begins. Kari is watching for signs of irritability, excessive sleep, angry eyes, etc., basically waiting to see which one goes all Jack Torrance first. And while Adam starts disassembling hangers to make toys for himself, Jamie (no joke) starts to redraft the Constitution. Both men, showing signs of extreme forgetfulness, fail to do their swap tests (for stress) correctly, forcing me to conclude that they really are trying to drive Kari crazy as she can only look on shake her head in exasperation at them. In the end, and despite a rather amusing Yeti joke, neither of them seems seriously affected, and Kari actually calls the experiment early. Adam is relieved, thrilled to hear another human voice, and Jamie claims to have just been getting into it.
Outcome: Plausible!
So ends another episode of MythBusters. What was your favorite myth of the night? Was there anything you expected to see and didn’t? Who had it worse in ‘Cabin Fever’, Kari, Adam or Jamie? Tell us what you think!