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Mythbusters Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage will judge and executive produce a new competition on the Discovery Channel on which teams produce chain reaction contraptions. On each of Unchained Reaction ’s six episodes, which debut in March, “two teams made up of artists, rocket scientists, animatronic specialists, engineers and even your average Joe, are provided with identical sets of tools and materials and given five days to complete a series of mechanisms based on a specific theme,” and “refined mechanical movements, pyrotechnics and large-scale destruction are encouraged,” according to a Discovery Channel press release. Then, “Jamie and Adam are joined by a new guest judge to decide which team impressed them the most with their innovation, energy and how much spectacle they can create.” In his press release quote, Adam said that “The innovative solutions and boundless energy demonstrated by the contestants surprised us every single time.” View the original article here

A cannonball fired by the Mythbusters went through a house, across a road, and into a car, but the accident injured no one. A 5.5 inch cannonball fired from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department bomb range in Dublin, California, “went through the house while the occupants were asleep, then exited the structure and bounced across Tassajara and into a parked car, breaking its glass and landing inside the vehicle,” Dubiln’s Patch reports . It has photos of the damage . A sheriff’s department spokesperson told media that the cannonball, fired out of a cannon used on the show before at a range they’ve used more than 50 times, “took a very unfortunate bounce that sent the ball skyward and out of the range.” Discovery explained the incident in a statement that said, in part: “During the testing, a cannonball took an unforeseen bounce from a safety berm. No injuries were reported, but damage was reported in one Dublin home and one parked car. Sgt. J.D. Nelson, Public Information Officer an...

The episode of Mythbusters being filmed when a cannonball accidentally went through a house and into a car will never air, according to Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, who were actually not the ones conducting the experiment; it was the show’s B team, Tory Belleci, Kari Byron, and Grant Imahara, the ones who are bad actors and can’t really sell the moments when they’re saying scripted things that are supposed to sound spontaneous. They were testing a myth about “whether or not a stone cannonball could actually breach a castle’s walls,” Adam told the San Francisco Chronicle . The paper reports that he and Jamie went to the affected house to apologize, and “promised they wouldn’t air the footage they had filmed of the near-catastrophic cannon shot.” Although they were using a sheriff’s range when the calibration of the cannon failed and sent the cannonball into a neighborhood, Adam said the event is “wake-up call. Honestly, the feeling of embarrassment is not something we’re indulging ...