Mythbusters

“I love this show.

Busting urban legends has been my avocation since the day I spent an hour arguing with a secretary where I used to work that the "Curses! Broiled Again!" legend (the woman who cooks her insides with a tanning bed) couldn't possibly be true.

The other night I was up late and they addressed the "toothbrush in the bathroom is covered with poo" legend. The idea behind this one is that when you flush the toilet, the contents are aerosolized to an extent, and spread all over the bathroom. So what they did was to purchase 24 identical toothbrushes, rack them at varying distances from the toilet in a bathroom, and spend a month applying toothpaste to them and rinsing them with distilled water. They had for controls, a pair of toothbrushes that they brushed their teeth with everyday, which were kept in a glass on the toilet tank (!), and another pair that was never brought into the bathroom, but merely had toothpaste applied to them and rinsed off, then placed in a glass in the kitchen, under a clear plastic container so that no air would circulate over the brushes.

After a month, they had agar-agar petri dishes prepared from each toothbrush and baked for a day in an oven at 98.6F.

The results: the culture dishes from every toothbrush in the bathroom showed colonies of colonic bacteria, i.e., poo bacteria. The surprise result: The cultrues of the control set in the kitchen, never even introduced to the bathroom and kept in a sealed environment also showed colonies of colonic bacteria!

So in summary, POO IS EVERYWHERE!”

“So it's true then, Poo happens.”

“I actually paused this morning before brushing my teeth...lol...”

“So when is this show on? And what channel?”

“Mythbusters is on the Discovery channel. The one I watched the other night was on at 1AM CST...lol...”

“Cool, tnx.”

“The wooden cannon was pretty cool.... <BOOO-yah>


(If I ever show up wearing a beret, slap me)”

“Based upon their experiment, I conclude that tootpaste is really doo-doo!”

“Do you shave your head too?”

“Look, they're looking for someone to join them on the show.

You have to produce a 3-minute video demonstrating your own experiment to bust a myth...I wonder if anyone will try and bust The Choking Doberman...”

“Everyone needs to take a big bite out of the shi! sandwhich one time or another.

8)”

“Did they perhaps ID the colonic bacteria? Was it E. coli?”

“Sounds like the work of Mr. Hankey”

“Not surprisingly, V, my wife came to the same conclusion...

Personally, I think that the toothbrush manufacturers all stick the toothbrushes up their butts...”

“bearmagnet, yes they did, but I can't remember which one it was. I don't think it was E. coli though.”

“i saw that one! toothpaste is doo-doo, LOL! did you see the one where they got drunk and tested different "tricks" to fool the breathalyzer? i predicted that Adam would be a total idiot when drunk, and i was right! hee hee.”

“I saw part of that one too lyra...very funny. I also saw the one where they busted several microwave legends. The spent the whole show teasing the audience with this show poodle, but in the end, they didn't nuke the poodle.

Bastards.”

“I don't think they've flushed an M-80 yet.....”

“HEY! i was scared for that poodle. ;-)

the outcomes are usually pretty predictable, but it's still entertaining! the science-y things they come up with are totally beyond me.”

“Just wondering. E.coli is the most common. if you think about the mechanics of relieving yourself then it makes sense. Unless you have some automatic hands free sterilizer in your home "stuff" will spread. :)”

“So, have they tried flushing all the toilets on the fourth floor of a hotel to see if the toilets on floors 1-3 really really do overflow?”

“On that same show, they proved that you can waterski behind a rowboat, if you and the crew rowing it are strong enough.

And in other arse-related news, Johnny Cash's family will not allow Florida ad-men to use his song, "Ring of Fire" in ads for hemorrhoid relief products. Killjoys.”

“What? Like you guys never tried that :-D .”

“I like that show as well.

I did disagree with their setup to test the "marching troops can destroy a bridge" legend. Their test setup didn't really address the actual dynamics. They had a scale bridge, that wasn't properly scaled, and then full size feet that marched in unison. There were only about 30 feet. The history of this is when bridges changed from wood or masonry to iron that problems arose due to vibration. They were able to build bridges much farther than ever before, but most things involving length are based on a power of length. Deflection is based on l^4, so small changes in length make for big changes in movement. Add a few hundred marching feet and problems happen.”

“"Bacon ring of fire"?”

“Can't say that I've tried that, Skully. But when they built Comerica Park, they tested the "7th Inning Flush" where they flushed all the toilets in the building at the same time. Building passed.”

“I think the marching in cadence on a bridge was debunked long ago. I don’t remember which bridge it was the George Washington, Golden Gate or some other, but for the opening ceremonies they had soldiers marching across the bridge in cadence to show people there was nothing to fear.”

“i find that show mildly amusing, however, they dont really prove or dis-prove anything very convincingly”

“My boyfriend is a science teacher - he shows this program in class to his Discovery Science kids who are in middle school. They get a kick out of it.”

“My understanding is the cadence marching was an issue, in the original context. By the 30's most of that had been figured out, but in the 50's, the 1850's when this came about it was a different story.”

“An episode devoted to busting several popular outdoor myths, like the following:

1) The backcountry is full of toothless rubes slavering to kill/rape/maim/make sausage out of you.

2) Apart from the toothless rube myth, hiking is a high-risk undertaking.

3) Married men who backpack are really just going off to have affairs.

4) Backpackers must be mentally deficient to voluntarily separate themselves from the comforts of our developed world.”

“I love that show. I couldn't believe that they managed to ski behind a crew team powered boat. Nothing but human power. I was amazed.”

“ruthless tubes?”

“Biohazard lurks in bathrooms

If you don't scrub your shower curtain, you're asking for trouble. These plastic sheets are flooded with bacteria that can cause nasty infections says Norman Pace, a microbiologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Pace has long been interested in the microbial communities that live all around us, and one day decided to examine the soapy film that covered his shower curtain. "I scraped a little bit of soap scum, put it under the microscope and went: 'Wooah!'" he says. The sample teemed with bacterial life.

To find out whether the bugs were harmless or not, Pace enlisted an undergraduate student, Ulrike Theissen. She collected scum from five shower curtains: Pace's own, three more from colleagues at Boulder, and one from Berkeley, California.

The bugs' DNA showed that around 80% belonged to one of two groups: the sphingomonads and the methylobacteria. Both contain species that are opportunistic pathogens, able to infect wounds or sicken people whose immune systems are suppressed. These include the elderly, or those taking drugs to combat the rejection of transplanted organs.

Each time you take a shower you are engulfed by an aerosol of bacteria, Pace told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Seattle. In most cases, that will not be dangerous. But if you have an unprotected cut, or your immune system is suppressed, it could be a different story.

The bacteria probably feed on volatile organic chemicals shed from human bodies, says Pace, rather than on soap. "When you cough, belch or fart, you're putting a lot of organic chemistry in there," he says. Chemicals called plasticizers, which make shower curtains more flexible, could also feed bacteria, he suggests.

Pace's findings have caused a change in his personal habits: "I take showers, but since the study, I wash my shower curtain every few weeks."

Shower curtains may not be the biggest hazard we encounter while bathing. Other studies have found that the air just above water level in a typical Jacuzzi, or hot tub, is packed with bacteria that can cause lung infections.

"I would not get into a public hot tub. I would not get into a private hot tub, frankly," says Pace”

“I didn't read the link, did he really use the word, fart? Doesn't sound too scholarlly, does it?”

“I don't have a compromised immune system. I'm feeling pretty safe right about now.”

“Maybe it was a scholarly fart?”

“I like the show - did ya see the one where they recreated the balloons on the lawn chair trick? Apparantly it worked and "proved" that the guy really could have done it.

The toothbrush thing kinda grossed me out - I guess it shows that we're all at least a little resistent to the fecal coliform little guys.

What they did to that corvette was just wrong though!”

“They covered three myths, I think:

1) The action of a ship sinking creates a suction that will pull you under.

2) Goldfish only have a 3-second memory.

3) A trombonist in a symphony playing the "1812 Overture" put a firecracker in his trombone, and launched his mute at the conductor, knocking the conductor into the audience, also launched the slide of the trombone, split the bell of the instrument, and burned his lips.

1) They sank a boat, a small tug under Jamie and Adam. Result: no suction, myth busted.

2) Jamie successfully trained 5 goldfish to locate their food by swimming through a "maze". Time, about 30 seconds or so. Myth busted.

3) They got a couple of used junker trombones, rigged them up with a mute that was loaded with gunpowder and a large firecracker, and lit it off. The mute blew apart on the first trial and the end hit their target, "Buster" the crash-test dummy. The slide didn't even hardly move. Second trial, they rigged the same mute (repaired) with the fuel from 6 model rocket engines. Result: They blew that #&%!$er up, and Buster fell over and caught on fire. Slide still didn't come off the trombone. Third trial, their hired pyro expert used some kind of professional explosive. They again blew the trombone to Kingdom Come, but didn't manage to split the bell. Result: myth busted.

It was fun to watch them blow stuff up.”

“i love this show, watch it when i remeber its on TV.”

“On the trombone myth, they never mentioned that it's unlikely a trombonist would be playing part of the "1812 Overture" with a mute in...”

“It's always fun to watch someone blow stuff up.”

“Cellphones and gas fumes? No problemo.....


STATIC ELECTRICITY and gas fumes?

Che Blammo!!”

“Oh yah, I saw that one last week too. I thought it was interesting that women were 7 times more likely to get back into their car while gassing up. Must be those shoes.”

“I thought that was kinda funny too. Proof that guys are lazy and we'll just stand there - or maybe we just like the smell of gas fumes more....

I dunno...”

“The gas one was great. Nothing like flammable liquid and ignition sources! See SS's thread for further evidence.”

“They busted the myth about peeing on the third rail and the electricity coming up the stream to electrocute the pee-er.”

“Myths:

1. Could the "Escape From Alcatraz" crew possibly have built a raft from raincoats and made it to shore?

2. Does a duck's quack echo?

Results:

1. Adam and Jamie made a raft out of old-style rubberized raincoat material (modern PVC isn't watertight!) and successfully rowed it from Alcatraz to the north end of the Golden Gate. They had to bail a lot and re-fill it with air every ten minutes or so, but they did it. However, this goes against what the only living co-conspirator says the plan was. He said the plan was to go to Angel Island, crossing the against the flow of the tide flowing out of SF Bay. Adam and Jamie figured that Frank Morris was smart enough to realize they'd never make it, and that going to the north end of the Golden Gate, with the tide, would be much more doable.

Anyway, even though they were successful, Adam and Jamie believe that since no one's heard from the either Morris or the Anglins in the 40 years since the escape, that they must be dead.

2. They got a couple of ducks from a commercial duck farm, and got a professional sound engineer to record the sound of a duck's quack. They started by recording a quack in an anechoic chamber to get a good, echoless quack. They discovered that the sound of a duck's quack diminishes in a way that would mask a returning echo, so they believe that is where the legend comes from. However, after recording the sound of a duck quacking in a very "live" chamber, they did indeed find the echo of a duck's quack.”

“So... in a natural setting the echo of a duck's quack is quite difficult to detect --- they had to monkey with the conditions!

(to coin a term)


I think that's what they usually do.... determine the likelihood of the 'myth,' then see what it takes to actually produce the 'mythic' results (more gunpowder, more current, more gasoline, etc. LOL).


I guess the next thing is to find out if Mel Blanc was really allergic to carrots.”

“I'll sure sleep better tonight with these nagging life's questions resolved.”