

Ask HN: I'm having dinner with the Mythbuster tomorrow night... got any questions? - Readmore

I won an Intel triva contest and the prize is a trip to San Fran for dinner with the Mythbusters. Anyone have any questions or myths they want me to plug?
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stcredzero
Please have them debunk water-for-gas once and for all! And thank them for
improving the science-education aspect of their show! It's gotten much better
over the past year/year and a half.

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Readmore
Haven't they done the water car already?

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hugh
Possibly, but there's a new one which Reuters managed to fall for the other
day (look up "genepax").

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jey
Wow. Do they not have any science editors at Reuters, or do they just parrot
every cool sounding press release that they can find?

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j2d2
Please ask them to tackle the e-meter from scientology!

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hugh
That could be difficult. It's difficult to get the CoS to pin down exactly
what it is that the e-meter is supposed to be measuring ("mental energy"), so
it's impossible to tell whether it's measuring it or not. Of course it's
possible to show that it _also_ measures resistance when used in a certain
way, but no doubt the CoS would say that it only works when used properly.

How could they do an experiment to show conclusively that whatever vague
claims the CoS makes about the e-meter are false?

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jacobbijani
I'm not entirely sure, but as far as I can tell I think that was quite
possibly the point of the joke.

Now, I'm just going on out on a limb here in assuming it was a joke. Don't
quote me on that.

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notauser
Can you ask them to watch an episode from the first season, then straight away
an episode from the most recent season?

I hope that the shock from seeing how much the quality has gone down might
prompt them to do something about it. The new ADD friendly format is still
better than anything else on television... but that isn't saying a lot. With a
bit of luck they might fire the producer who believes in the myth of appealing
to the lowest common denominator.

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alex_c
Is there any tech (in the sense that most news.yc readers are used to -
software, or computer hardware) that is invaluable to making their show?

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markm
Great point.

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ynniv
I would like to see if they can melt steel using an open kerosene fire, but I
hear they won't touch that because of the politics.

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Hexstream
Isn't there already hard, well-known scientific facts about the maximum
temperature of kerosene and minimum melting temperature of steel?

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ynniv
Yes there is, but that isn't what myths are about. Being able to calculate the
terminal velocity of a penny didn't prevent MythBusters from doing a show on
that. Busting myths is about revealing a truth in non-scientific ways so that
the average person understands the absurdity of the myth.

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ulvund
Is there any truth to the "Birds mimicking cell phones" stories.

Like this one:
[http://web.archive.org/web/20031005163144/http://www.ananova...](http://web.archive.org/web/20031005163144/http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_288774.html?menu)

This would also be a great opportunity to talk about tits.

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ryanmahoski
Ever watched a trained parrot? Birds imitate all kinds of sounds. Doubtless a
cell phone ring is in the avian call repertoire. The Lyre bird can perfectly
mimick lots of man-made sounds: camera shutter, camera with a motor drive, car
alarm, chainsaw. <http://youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y>

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yan
They should set up an experiment where different people pray for the same
thing using different prayers (and different faiths) along with a control
group of people reading poetry and tally the percentages of people that get
results, so we know which prayers are most effective.

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gunderson
Is the movie JFK2 true?

<http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=818267521031292324>

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Hexstream
Utterly convincing documentary!

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dmateos
Dead body raft like on Rome.

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Readmore
Nice, I like that one. Maybe they could do a show set in Roman era myths....
just have to come up with a few more.

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ericb
I'd like to know if washing colors in cold water vs. hot really makes a
difference. Maybe that's not explode-y enough though...

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Andys
Easy.

Test them in cold water, hot water, and a control group, in gasoline. Be sure
to include dryer footage.

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edw519
Does nickb = pg?

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zitterbewegung
No.

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BigZaphod
It'd be cool to have a behind-the-scenes style show like I've seen done on
Dirty Jobs where you kind of get to know the camera people and sounds folks,
etc. that are always behind the camera.

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froo
I'm only suggesting this because I'm sure there are others out there that are
thinking it.

... Can you get me Kari's number? :)

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Infosourcer
Is it true that the North Pole won't have any more Ice by the end of 2008???

Twitter: Infosourcer

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jrockway
Ask them for help pluralizing words in your HN submissions ;)

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Readmore
hahah... touche

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einarvollset
Ask them if I can have a job.

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dfranke
Looks like PG is right about the mean downmodding.

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Alex3917
Downmodding is getting more frequent, but comments are also getting worse. The
only problem so far as I can see is that instead of downmodding all bad
comments, everyone seems to pick the same comment and downmod it.

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jrockway
Everyone picks the same comment to upmod. People see a good or bad number next
to the comment and want to go along with the groupthink. After all, how could
you go wrong upmodding a comment that 20 other people already upmodded?

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BrandonM
I tend to do the opposite. Even if I somewhat agree with a comment, if it has
a higher score than I think it should, I downmod it. Ditto for bad comments,
but in reverse. I pay special attention to the 1 point comments that I like...
they definitely get an upvote (note that "like" does not necessarily mean
"agree with").

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alaskamiller
I remember you! Glad you have an opportunity to make it out here to
California!

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Readmore
Yeah me too! I'm really excited to see where all the magic happens.

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vaksel
ask them to find manbearpig

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jacobbijani
Do girls poop

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jacobbijani
hahah you guys have no sense of humor

