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Thursday, July 10, 2008

I couldn't resist watching Mythbusters last night. They were determined to make a lead balloon, to see if it would go down like one. No, a real lead balloon. Out of lead! I didn't think they could do it, but they did. It was awesome. Some guys get all the good jobs.

Speaking of balloons... you're wondering what happened to lawn-chair-and-helium-balloon guy, right? Well, he's fine. He made it! (Nearly 200 miles.) He's probably hitching his way back from Idaho right now, because if I was his wife, I wouldn't go pick him up. Check out the history of lawn chair ballooning here. Truly fascinating stuff. ("A man can't just sit around.") Most of it ends tragically, though it was featured in an episode of Mythbusters. I believe I saw that episode and the guys proved it was possible. (Well, of course it's possible!)

Also on Mythbusters last night: they dropped 200 pounds of TNT into a quarry lake and blew it up to see if they could make a wave that they could surf. No kidding. Preliminary research indicated that the underwater shockwave from the explosion would cause your lungs to FILL WITH BLOOD within an hour, so they made a robot on a surfboard that would paddle into the wave, if it came. Seriously, THEY MADE A SURFING ROBOT AND CREATED A WAVE BY DETONATING EXPLOSIVES IN A LAKE. Like I said, some guys get all the good jobs.

Of course, the explosion was neat, but the waves it created weren't exactly surfable. They deemed the myth "busted", but my understanding of waves is that they grow in size from the shallowing water and I think they missed the drop-in on that one, but what do I know? I was a naysayer on the lead balloon.

So they worked in flight, surfing, explosions, robots... how could I not watch? I'm surprised they weren't drinking beer on the sidelines with scantily-clad women, but then again they must not be serious about getting good ratings.

Deadliest Catch has been pretty good lately, too -have you been catching that one?


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