I'd like to see Mythbusters and Penn & Teller: Bullshit! do shows about each other. 
Mythbusters...ruining the illusion?
- Thread starter Warped9
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Kiss your mother with that mouth? Actually, with you I should probably use another expression.
Well regardless, it was indeed a typo and you were talking about something else and let me guess, it's just another of your tongue-in-cheek posts, right?
I didn't say it was the only one, just that it would be one.
Maybe you only think that because it's what you're familiar with. I think realism can enhance the impact of an action story, at least if it's a serious piece rather than a piece of matinee fluff. We've become more accustomed these days to seeing real footage of wars and disasters and the like on the news, so maybe something that looks like that would have more impact to us because it feels more real. For example, I found the silent space scenes in Firefly to be strikingly effective -- not just because of my intellectual awareness that there's no sound in space, but because the lack of audio made it feel more like real-life news or home-video footage, in which there isn't always a soundtrack. The very incompleteness of it made it seem more immediate, paradoxically.
And I think seeing explosions that don't just look like the familiar fireballs would not be dull at all. I don't see how variety is dull. Uniformity is what I find dull, and all special-effects explosions pretty much look alike. And real explosions may have less flame, but they look very powerful because of the sheer speed of them, the shrapnel flying out, the horribly twisted wreckage left behind, sometimes even a visible shock wave propagating out through the ground or the air. Of course, those effects would have to be faked somehow; the reason FX artists use those orange-fireball explosions is that they're relatively harmless. But as an aficionado of special-effects technique, I'd like to see how pyrotechnicians might devise new methods to simulate the look of a more realistic explosion.
And of course the ideal studio to hire for that is M5, since Jamie & Adam have so much experience with the real thing that they'd be well-qualified to design a convincing illusion of same.
The most surpising (to me) myth that they have confirmed is that elephants really are afraid of mice. 
Yes it was, because of MadBaggins' cousin-sex threads in Misc.
On the post at hand.
I don't think Mythbusters are ruining any illusion. Sometimes the "magic behind the magic" can be just as fascinating and fun.
The most surpising (to me) myth that they have confirmed is that elephants really are afraid of mice.
Yeah, that one was shocking too. I've a quibble with it that the Elephant could've been afraid of the "sudden apperance of a small white object" they should've tested it with a balled up piece of paper or a darker colored mouse or something, but the sudden apperance of the mouse did shockingly give the elephants pause.
And the reveal that a bull in a china shop is actualy surprisingly calm and careful was shocking too.
I liked the Dolphin v. shark myth.
^I remember that one! I was shocked that the fake dolphin actually scared the sharks.
It was neat to see the shark anyway!
Yes, that surprised me as well. That and the fake dolphin that actually kept the shark away.The most surpising (to me) myth that they have confirmed is that elephants really are afraid of mice.
Confirming myths is just as good as debunking them. And when they do bust a myth I like seeing them go the distance to find out what implausible circumstances it takes for it to actually work. Recreate the myth then recreate the result.
The most surpising (to me) myth that they have confirmed is that elephants really are afraid of mice.
Yeah, that one was shocking too. I've a quibble with it that the Elephant could've been afraid of the "sudden apperance of a small white object" they should've tested it with a balled up piece of paper or a darker colored mouse or something, but the sudden apperance of the mouse did shockingly give the elephants pause.
I've been wondering about that. Is it really a fear response, or just a reluctance to step on something? Within the past decade, it's been discovered that elephants rely on their feet for a lot of sensory information, detecting vibrations through the ground. Maybe they don't want to get squished small-animal remains on their feet because it might interfere with their senses.
Or maybe they're just kindly and don't want to squish anything without need. Elephants can be aggressive when provoked, but they're highly social and thus have compassion. And they probably have "Ooh, don't step on the small moving thing" instincts in order to protect their own offspring from getting their trunks squished (baby elephants need time to learn how to use their trunks, so they just hang limp for the first few weeks).
So while the Mythbusters did confirm that elephants have an avoidance response to mice, they didn't actually confirm that it was a fear response.
I have a quibble or two with that, due to the experimental design. It's not really that surprising that an animal in an open field would be able to maneuver around obstacles in its path, since it's not like it would be deliberately trying to hurt itself by running into them. But a china shop is an enclosed volume, much more alien to a bull than an open field with some shelves in it would be. I suspect that a bull in an actual china shop would be a lot more panicked and confused and thus more likely to knock things over.
Still, flawed or not, that one was delightful to see. Although that was a case of busting the proverb (provisionally) rather than confirming it.
She's not a legendary beauty. But to me it's about the whole package. She's cute, she's funny, she's sassy and she likes to blow shit up.
That's pretty much the definition of sexiness right there.
I wasn't really that surprised watching cattle. They tend to determine a leader and will follow that one in a nice straight line. Plus, who really wants to run into things?
You'd have an "avoidance response" too if you ran the risk every day of having little crawling things running up your nose.
Realism has certainly been more prevalent in war films while action movies tend to be the summer popcorn stuff. When I am talking about action movies I am by definition not referring to the more serious pieces.
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I'll drink to that! Kari Byron is her name, btw.
I love tuning into Mythbusters and seeing what they're up to. I could never buy a dvd set or anything, but it's fun to watch and it's ALWAYS on!
I have the first and second seasons of Mythbusters on DVD. Discovery's sets of them are cumbersome and expensive so it's not "easy" to collect them, but I've got 'em. They're fun watches. I can always watch an episode of Mythbusters, even if I've seen the episode several times.
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