Smash Lab 12/26

[nataylor]

Kinda like a slow, all-explosion Mythbusters episode, mixed with a huge dose of advertising for Rhino Liner.

I wasn't highly impressed. There's no one to love on the cast like we love our Mythbusters. The idea was cool, but I sure got sick of hearing "Rhino Liner" in every other sentence.

I'll probably keep watching for now.

[DevdogAZ]

Caught a few minutes of this. Didn't really see the point. Unless they're using a building material that has some give, it doesn't really matter that the wall remained intact. If it moved a couple of inches during the blast, it's likely got to be torn down and rebuilt anyway.

[PeteEMT]

Caught a few minutes of this. Didn't really see the point. Unless they're using a building material that has some give, it doesn't really matter that the wall remained intact. If it moved a couple of inches during the blast, it's likely got to be torn down and rebuilt anyway.
Unless your inside at the time.

[Kamakzie]

Caught a few minutes of this. Didn't really see the point. Unless they're using a building material that has some give, it doesn't really matter that the wall remained intact. If it moved a couple of inches during the blast, it's likely got to be torn down and rebuilt anyway.

The point was that the people inside a building would survive and be able evacuate.

[scandia101]

The point was that the people inside a building would survive and be able evacuate.

could

I couldn't figure out why they even thought they might be able to create some sort of useful automatic blast shield for the windows.

[SteveInNC]

Kinda like a slow, all-explosion Mythbusters episode, mixed with a huge dose of advertising for Rhino Liner.

I wasn't highly impressed. There's no one to love on the cast like we love our Mythbusters. The idea was cool, but I sure got sick of hearing "Rhino Liner" in every other sentence.

I'll probably keep watching for now.Watching the credits, they have a person listed as being in charge of "product placement", so expect the additional episodes to be advertainment as well. I give the show a big thumbs down. It's a pretty blatant attempt to rip off Mythbusters, much the way that Man .vs Wild rips off Survivorman.

They are really weak on their science. If I heard correctly, their car bomb had twelve pounds of dynamite (equivalent). For comparison, the Murrah Building bombing had a truck with five thousand pounds of fertilizer/nitromethane, similar to the explosive commercially known as ANFO, used in mining.

After they blew the wall in the building, they pointed out that it was fractured internally, but then claimed that it would hold up anyway. The test building had no load on top of the wall, other than the structure itself. Bombers seem to go after multistory buildings, meaning the fractured wall would have to support the additional floors, walls, and building contents.

Their "strain gauge" was a 2x4 with markers, bolted to the inner wall (that still did displace significantly). Mythbusters almost always uses calibrated "shockwatch" indicator tabs to check for impulse/shock forces.

[Kamakzie]

could

I couldn't figure out why they even thought they might be able to create some sort of useful automatic blast shield for the windows.

Thanks thats what I should have said. If I had to be in a building that was going to have a car bomb blowing up next to it I'd rather be in one that had the rhino lining installed in it.

[bryan314]

... It's a pretty blatant attempt to rip off Mythbusters, much the way that Man .vs Wild rips off Survivorman.

:D My 5 year old watch 10 seconds of it and asked if it was like the 'Mythpainters' I liked to watch.

I don't thinks its so much a rip off, but probably being done by the same people. They were using some of the Mythbuster's equipment. The most obvious the blue trailer compartment converted to blast shield. I'm not sure but I think the blast guy has been on Mythbuster quite a few times too.

[nataylor]

:D My 5 year old watch 10 seconds of it and asked if it was like the 'Mythpainters' I liked to watch.

I don't thinks its so much a rip off, but probably being done by the same people. They were using some of the Mythbuster's equipment. The most obvious the blue trailer compartment converted to blast shield. I'm not sure but I think the blast guy has been on Mythbuster quite a few times too.

Nope, none of the crew is affiliated with Mythbusters. It's a different production company. And the shipping container made bunker is pretty common, so I don't think that is borrowed from them, either.

[Bulldog7]

Considering the dearth of new programming in the foreseeable future, I will watch it when it comes on. I enjoyed the concept, if not the execution. While it does reek of product placement, I think the point of the show is to give examples of what currently exists in the real world that could make our everyday lives safer. But as I said, since there won't be much new programming, I will watch it for a while longer.

[Tangent]

Wasn't too impressed. For some reason all 4 of the hosts seemed more like actors portraying engineers, scientists, etc, than actual engineers... They somehow just don't seem genuine.

[SteveInNC]

Wasn't too impressed. For some reason all 4 of the hosts seemed more like actors portraying engineers, scientists, etc, than actual engineers... They somehow just don't seem genuine.
I agree. It looks like they were following a formula: get a couple of guys and a hot girl and have them blow stuff up. From the brief previews, it appears that they're going to duplicate the "plane blows vehicle over" stunt that Mythbusters has already done... twice.

The best feature of the car bomb episode was watching the blasting guys set the charges off using what appears to be det-cord (as opposed to electric triggers). Watching the impulse travel down the cord in slow motion was neat.

[Figaro]

This was painfully bad. The attempt at forced hipness was so over the top I couldn't take it. Mythbusters works and is cool simply because the guys on it are anything but cool and they make no attempts to be cool. Come on the 40 year old guy with hair like Howard the Duck's butt? That was weak! The product placement was insulting.

Fail!

[PajamaFeet]

I walked into the room while DH was watching this. I don't usually watch this kind of thing, but at least now I know what Rhino Liner is.

[YCantAngieRead]

I was going to watch this, but after reading these comments, I'm not so sure.

Of course, I'm bored to tears with everything else on TV right now, so maybe I will.