Don't try this at home. We're what you call, professionals!

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The Mythbusters have just been reported as having a small mishap during a shoot. A canon fired at the bomb range they use in many episodes, missed it's intended target. The six inch diameter canon ball tore through a cinder block wall, skipped off a hill, flew approximately 700 yards, bounced in the front yard of a suburban home, tore through the front door of the home, up the stairs, ripped through the bedroom, left a perfectly round exit wound in the stucco wall of the house, crossed a six lane road, took out some roof tiles on a second house, and smashed into a minivan where it finally came to a stop. Full article spoilered for length.

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A zany experiments staged by the "Mythbusters" television show nearly turned into a suburban tragedy Tuesday afternoon in Dublin when the crew fired a homemade cannon toward huge containers of water at the Alameda County Sheriff's Department bomb disposal range.

The cantaloupe-sized cannonball missed the water, tore through a cinder-block wall, skipped off a hillside and flew some 700 yards east, right into the Tassajara Creek neighborhood, where children were returning home from school at 4:15 p.m., authorities said.

There, the 6-inch projectile bounced in front of a home on quiet Cassata Place, ripped through the front door, raced up the stairs and blasted through a bedroom, where a man, woman and child slept through it all - only awakening because of plaster dust.

The ball wasn't done bouncing.

It exited the house, leaving a perfectly round hole in the stucco, crossed six-lane Tassajara Road, took out several tiles from the roof of a home on Bellevue Circle and finally slammed into the Gill family's beige Toyota Sienna minivan in a driveway on Springvale Drive.

That's where Jasbir Gill, 42, who had pulled up 10 minutes earlier with his 13-year-old son, Manvir, found the ball on the floorboards, with glass everywhere and an obliterated dashboard.

"It's shocking - anything could have happened," Gill said after the van had been taken away as evidence, along with the cannonball.

"Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy," said Sgt. J.D. Nelson, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff's Department. "You wouldn't think it was possible."

He said the television crew was incredibly unlucky that the cannonball flew through Dublin, but "tremendously lucky that it didn't seriously injure or kill somebody."

Nelson said "Mythbusters," a show on the Discovery Channel, had used the bomb disposal range without incident while shooting portions of more than 50 episodes over the past seven or eight years. The show does not pay a set fee but has donated to the department and given it exposure.

One of the terms of the deal, Nelson said, was that the show take out insurance in case of a mishap.

The show is based in San Francisco. Hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman use science experiments to confirm or debunk rumors or myths. Reached Tuesday evening, Savage said, "I can't talk right now," before hanging up.

This isn't the first time projectiles in the area have hit homes. In 2007, a stray .223-caliber bullet, apparently fired during a training exercise at Camp Parks Army base in Dublin, shattered the bedroom window of a San Ramon home.

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Focus: When have you done something that you're a professional at, or expert in, and fucked it up on the kind of scale that amateurs can only dream of?

I once dropped a third of the Sydney olympics website for 20 minutes because I made a typo. Whoops.

 

One time the roofing crew I was on burned down an entire church because they were blasting their fucking torches up into loose-hanging fibreglass insulation under the roof overhang. After leaving, I got a call at home to inform me that there were currently 70 foot flames shooting out ofa giant hole in the roof of the church.

My stomach dropped into China. Still,the insurance companies declared it no-fault (it wasn't, it was ALL THEIR FUCKING FAULT ENTIRELY) and nobody was fired or even suspended.

 

I'm about to be an English teacher, and I still get "effect" and "affect" mixed-up. In my mind, I know he difference, but I still seem to get mixed up.

 

The hole in the house cracks me up.

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Focus: Beer + fireworks + wind + dry grass + State Park = Oh Shit! That's all I can say for legal reasons.

 

Focus: I managed to completely glue a rifle together a couple months ago while experimenting with a routine procedure... as in I managed to bond a major metal piece and the wood stock together using the same epoxy I do carbon fiber work with. Ooops. The price tag on the stock was closer to a grand than not and I had easily put 60 hours of meticulous work into it before fucking it all up. The job I was tinkering with is something I've done almost 30 times prior to that, and I got cocky and pushed the envelope too far.

It's not completely ruined (and no longer sellable) but it was definitely the most catastrophic shit I've had on my hands in the shop thus far.

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Saved by a $10 clothes iron.



If we wanna get technical I was attempting to line the inletting of a high grade walnut Ruger 10/22 stock with carbon fiber to strengthen it, as the wood was thin and weak around the receiver. I used a new epoxy and new release agent at the same time (in addition to carbon fiber- another first) and that's where I went wrong.

I'm framing the photo and hanging it up so I remember to be more careful next time.

 

Oh man.

When I was breaking horses, I got a contract with a stable that focused on rehabbing thoroughbreds from off the track. Usually these horses were fucking nuts, all they knew how to do was run left. It was a stressful job, because they constantly wanted to bolt. Anyhow, this place had an area for untacking and washing the horses off after a lesson, they were usually in a lather because they were so high-strung.

My first day working with one filly was a nightmare. She had all kinds of special breeding and the owner wanted to turn her into a jumper. This horse balked at every jump, tried running left every chance she got and was just the worst ride ever. My arms were rubber by the time an hour was up and I wasn't sure I had taught her a damn thing. I lead her to the wash area and ask the barn manager where I should tie her to rinse her, as the normal rail was in use. She pointed to a fence. This fence had brick posts and the rails were 4" thick steel. I tie her lead to the rail with a quick release knot like always. There is a hose already out on the ground, so I walk to the barn (40' away) to turn the spigot on. I walk out and see this horse freak the fuck out!

She spooked at the water pouring out of the hose. She is rearing and pulling on the fence and suddenly the brick gives and she's off, with a 12' steel post between her legs. She shoots down the long driveway, the post beating her in the head as it bounces off the ground. This fucking horse runs for 20 minutes, there was no catching her! I finally saddle another horse and go after her. She finally calms down, I catch her.

This fucking horse had blood pouring from her face. She knocked out all of her front teeth, her jaw and legs were lacerated beyond repair. She was no longer fit to show.

The barn manager had my back as I explain all this to the owner, who is a plastic barbie all devastated that her "sweet baby" was injured. I felt incredibly bad, however my contract covered my ass. I ended up working there another year, but never with that filly. She was basically a lawn ornament after that.

 

Jesus, that's some Wile E. Coyote shit there.
Am I the only one who got the impression that those guys probably screwed up badly a lot of times and just never showed us the results? Hell, they screw up all the time anyway, but don't you think that this is just the first time the news has gotten ahold of it? I'm surprised that those guys still have all of their fingers.

 

There's a reason you don't see the interns too often.

 

My impression was that if this is how the "experts" fuck up when it comes to explosives and ammunition, you have to wonder how often the cops who use the ranges regularly fuck up without ever making the news.

 

I'm far from a firearms expert, and I'm truly not being sarcastic here, but I'd imagine a high shot from a police-issue weapon would travel a much shorter distance than the cannonball. At the very least, the damage potential and likelihood of killing someone is much lower.

I hope the guys testing the experimental Navy railguns have better aim than the Mythbusters team.

 

It's not just cannonballs, though.

And don't forget that the guys who run the range were the ones who made the decision that a cannonball was ok to fire. I wonder what else they thought was a good idea at the time.

 

According to the article, the .223 hit the same neighborhood, but was fired from an Army base, rather than the range the mythbusters used. Considering that the show has been using the range frequently for their tests, I'm guessing they're getting a bit more leeway regarding what they can use (or at least, they were) than just about anyone else. They were probably also paying a fair sum of money for said privileges, money that will now likely be going to lawyers.

 

About a year ago I was still learning the software the Department of Corrections uses. For each offender, we have their current status at the top of the screen. They can be under their standard category or in warrant status. If they're in warrant status they must not leave our office. They're to be placed under arrest immediately.

Well, I forgot to place one of my offenders on warrant status and didn't put a note in that I had received the signed warrant back from the respective judge. He comes into the office to report and I let him leave. As I placed something in his file I saw the signed warrant.

I cursed, gathered an armed officer to arrest him (this was before I was certified to do arrests) and managed to get him back into my office before he drove off.

Rookie mistake. I wasn't punished or even scolded, but I felt like a fucking tard. If he had god forbid gone off on some kind of murder spree my ass would've been on the line. After that error, you can bet I am meticulous about documenting everything.