A story ran on Slashdot today about how an experiment the Mythbusters were running went out of control and they ended up firing a cannon ball through a house and in to a minivan. I laughed, and then remembered that yesterday I saw several pictures posted on Grant, Kari, and Tory’s Twitter accounts. When I went to check, though, I found the tweets had been removed.
Update: Kari, Grant, and Tory have just posted apologies on Twitter.
Further Update: Jamie and Adam have posted apologies as well.
Yet Another Update: Adam has confirmed that no, Mythbusters has not been suspended/cancelled.
Fortunately, I use Plume for Android and it doesn’t remove deleted tweets! Here are the removed pictures:
Tory and his Cannon
"Cannon Envy"
"Heavy Artillery"
Edit: Sorry for the slowness – my little VPS is struggling to handle the load after being linked on Wired, Techdirt, and Fark (can’t find the link at the moment). Did some conf tweaking and the site should be more responsive now.
These pics are definitely not what Discovery’s lawyers want floating around! I bet the sheriff’s department will be dragged into any lawsuits as well.
wheres the pic kari tweeted with her posing with a cannonball?
Wasn’t able to get that one – the picture itself was actually deleted before I could get it.
Why dont you take these down? have a little decency. The mythbusters did.
I fail to see how this is an issue of decency. It’s a PR issue, certainly, but not a decency one. There’s nothing obscene about the pictures, and they were likely removed from the official Twitter feeds due to legal counsel. I’m not profiting by having them here (note that I don’t have ads on my site, so I’m not profiting from this by any means), so they’re staying up for those who are curious about what was removed.
This is a horrible accident for sure, but I hope that there is proper recompense for the victim and the show can continue. Mythbusters is my favourite television show and I would hate to see it end over this.
The main outcome I can see is that the hosts might not be allowed to post pictures from the set anymore (situations depending, anyway). This isn’t the first time they’ve caused damage though. I too love the show, and I hope this is only a temporary setback.
[...] information here: http://laslow.net/2011/12/07/mythbusters-and-damage-control/. Share this:EmailPrintDiggRedditStumbleUpon Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged accident, cannon, [...]
[...] Prior to the incident, show co-hosts Tory Belleci and Kari Byron had apparently tweeted images of themselves with various cannons, but those images have since been taken down. However, the photos have been posted online. [...]
There’s nothing wrong with any of these pics.
how is it a ‘temporary setback’, they almost killed a child.
im sure they all feel awful about it, but seriously. its time for Discovery channel to grow up and have some safety people analyze their entire operation.
Considering this was done at a bomb range, with bomb techs and the sheriffs department present, with safety teams on hand, I don’t think there was much more that could have been done.
And please don’t play the “Think of the children!” card – there was potential for more than just “a child” to be injured/killed. Don’t needlessly over-hype something. Every time you drive you it could be said that you ‘nearly killed a child’. Lay off.
@decora
How is it that they almost killed a child? There is NOTHING IN ANY of the news reports or videos about a child almost bieng killed. THe only comments were that where the cannon ball went threw the house, the kids play there. And fortunatley there were none. But just becasue kids play there, does not mean almost killed.
Decora…. Why do you just say every parent who takes a child outside almost killed them. The world is dangerous. You take a chance of killing a child the second you put it in the car. Almost killed a child HA.
The image that Kari posted is here: http://i.imgur.com/bSnsz.jpg
And her tweet was “What can I say @grantimahara , size matters.”
And I guess it does ^^
@John T
imgur ftw
wow i was amazed to see this story, as with everything i guess accidents happen Im just glad no-one was hurt! If kari needs a hug after this horrible experience I’m totally there!
They most likely need to limit the elevation angle of the barrel, and build a bigger berm as a backstop. The Alameda County bomb range is nearly 3/4 of a mile from the nearest homes, so something like this happening is a fluke.
{Since no one was hurt:)
BUSTED!!
But, seriously–the irony that it bounced off of a safety berm….
[...] whole mess, Jon Laslow went and checked out a several Mythbusters’ Twitter feeds and beheld that a garland of photos of Kari, Grant and Tory posing subsequent to cannons had been deleted. Oops. But, of course, we can’t undo anything online… So, a photos tweets have been [...]
Time for them to do more of their tests here at the Black Rock Desert! Only a 5.5 hour drive away….
Heh, after reading your replies to other people’s comments Laslow, I kinda wanna buy you a beer. Well said, particularly in the “think of the children” card call
I’m interested to see how this whole situation plays out. I love this show, and sure hope that nothing extensively negative comes out of this. Also, I hope they let the guy who owned the minivan keep the cannonball!
Discovery channel and the Mythbusters team should (and I have no doubt will) conduct an inquiry as to what caused the accident. Was it a simple accident that could not reasonably have been anticipated or avoided or was there some negligence, recklessness or carelessness on the part of those carrying out the experiments or those city officials supervising the experiment.
Whatever the findings I have no doubt that the Mythbusters will put in place certain changes to ensure such an accident can not happen again.
Apparently no one read the caption on the page of the video, they did say they had a TOP safety specialist/explosion specialist at the site with them, and everything was performed to standard.. .it was just a FLUKE!.. Like someone else said, you can not prepare for every, sht happens.
You mean there isn’t enough of America for them not to have done this in the suburbs? They shouldn’t p***ing about like this close to any people. Obviously their TOP people aren’t quite TOP enough?
“Oh it’ll be fine, as long as we hit the water barrels, and the wall, and the recoil doesn’t move it too much.”
“How much recoil?”
“Oh we don’t know because we’ve NEVER FIRED THE F***ER BEFORE!!!!”
Methinks they may need a visit from the common sense fairy…
Well, it was an military range for decades before it was turned in to the bomb range. All things considered, it’s pretty hard to foresee something like this happening when you have oversight from the bomb range techs themselves and the sheriffs department. Yes, there were probably ways it could have been handled differently/better, but when people experienced with explosive projectiles give you the green light, there’s little reason to assume that you’ve done something horribly wrong.
You can bet, though, that they’ll be changing their process and safety framework after this.
@Carl
No Carl me thinks you need a hug from the ‘Im too dramatic fairy’. You seem very emotional. IT is a very unfortunate incident, and I am glad no one was hurt. But your comment” You mean there isn’t enough of America for them not to have done this in the suburbs? They shouldn’t p***ing about like this close to any people.” If this happened any where else, I am sure it woudl get the same comment. So, you have a crystal ball do you? You can fortell incidents like this and reccomend better places? Carl, they were in a Police BOMB Range! Stuff happens, calm down, you will live longer.
@Carl
in fact they have used that type of artillery at that range on 2 other occasions and in doing so fired multiple rounds with the same safety procedures , having said that there have been other shows on discovery channel and others like history nat geo that have used this type of artillery and some even more powerful with these same safety procedures with out accident , some times shit just wont do what it says on the box
What a load of crap and how irresponsible. Someone could have be easily killed for a dumb ass television show. I am sure the folks that had the cannon ball shot through their house are having life long emotional issues now. Hope they play it right and have the mythbuster group shut down or at least a few million in their pocket.
Why did they not take their cannon to the salt flats or deserts. Very irresponsible of the entire organization.
@biut jjdhf
Yes, because there wasn’t a safety team there consisting of the people who staff the goddamn bomb range and the sheriffs office.
Seriously. Given their track record and the preventative measures that were in place, this is very clearly an accident. Shutting down over this would be completely overkill (pun slightly intended).
I don’t know about you, but if a team of bomb techs told me something was safe to do, I’d probably take their word for it.
@Laslow
I would also like to point out that there are TV shows based on people doing ridiculous thing with their lives. Fear Factor is the first to come to mind, but you could continue and add Jackass and any full contact sporting event. As this point the only blame that could be given is that the bomb range is pretty close to the town for firing a cannon at. You have to take into account that the weapon is made for firing over great distances, even if you have a older model.
@SodiumBenzoate
“Safety Berm” a big earthen ramp which is supposed to prevent projectiles from getting past it. People should not make comments without finding out all of the details. Lots of cries of “irresponsible” and such, what’s really irresponsible is comparing a legitimate science show which entertains as well as informs with reality trash and douchebags doing stunts such as Fear Factor and Jackass.
Mythbusters has had a number of shows featuring the bomb range, which is a working bomb range in use by the Sheriff’s department, it’s laughable to read all of these comments second guessing safety and oversight by a bunch of people who’ve never done this criticizing people who do this for a living who make it their profession.
@Paer
I like this show. That said, that there was military shooting range at some point, does not really say anything – there are different categories of these and each have something like certification I believe for particular classes of weapons. That it’s currently police bomb range is completely irrelevant as police (I assume) does not use artillery even in US, small arms shooting range is certainly not one automatically qualified for artillery shooting.
So, I hope they will learn the lesson, I hope they will find better spot for these kinds of things, I hope they/TV pay for all the damage done, and I hope they will continue (with better safety).
Reading that “it’s laughable to read all of these comments second guessing safety and oversight by a bunch of people who’ve never done this criticizing people who do this for a living who make it their profession” after exactly those people showed rather poor judgement clearly is pretty funny. Not quite sure if those people were actually qualified for artillery stuff. Doubt it pretty much – I would not expect artillery expert to do this kind of mistake. In one part they were trying some of the guns from some artillery freak and he only shoot paper balls (although it was not on the bomb range but in the city).
@biut jjdhf
Another over dramatist!
but, if i was the homeowner, i might could settle for half of the millions and the red head
@biut jjdhf
Just the kind of comment I would expect from an opportunist in the world’s most litigious society. If the ball had hit your house, your reaction would have been a delighted smile as you hit the speed dial button for your lawyer, no doubt.
Haha – this page is populated by nothing but geeks – had to scroll all the way to the bottom to see a comment about Kari. Holy smoke she’s looking good there, and leaning on that cannon……hhhmmmmmmmm
I would put a clear plastic patch over the hole in the wall and have the entire MythBusters staff autograph it.
@Stan
now thats actually a bloody good idea !
What possible reason was there to delete these tweets? They can’t exactly pretend to not have a cannon that’s already appeared on the show. It had to have been their lawyers.
Yeah, people hyperventilating over this really ought to calm down. Sure, someone could have been killed. Sure, it shouldn’t have happened given their extensive precautions and expert advice. Sure, it has to be especially embarrassing and ironic for the two guys who say “don’t try this at home” at the start of every show. But the same guys have already shown themselves willing to admit and correct their mistakes. They’ve promised that it won’t happen again, and I don’t think one can reasonably ask for more.
It would be a shame if an unthinking overreaction were to kill what is easily the most popular, educational and entertaining science-oriented TV show in decades.
when they say ” dont try this at home ” they now should add ” we will bring it to you ! ” lol
I choose not to criticize the mythbusters over this, as I’m sure that they thought their experiment was safe. However, even though this was some sort of freak accident- they are insanely lucky that no one was hurt or killed. In the future, even if an area is a bomb range or whatever, they may want to choose more remote locations. I wouldn’t be surprised if that is one of the stipulations that comes out of this fiasco.