In the "things you miss" category, one of the things I miss (to the point of finding a download of the old shows), is Battlebots. Short lived TV coverage of a great competition. It's back in a 6 episode season on ABC, just ran across it.
SERIOUS bots in this one. They've put up a super strong cage so they can really go at it. one of the original issues with all the bot competitions was safety, the bots would fling stuff all over the place and it would even shatter the shields or just go over them. I think this is a solid box around the whole thing with what I'm sure is bullet proof plastic. So they are letting them go nuts with power.
Little known fact, the original bot competitions in California gave birth to Mythbusters. Jamie and Adam entered a bot for fun in it, basically a spinning wok, that won the competition but was asked to withdraw for safety issues b/c it tore the crap out of other bots, throwing stuff everywhere. Actually they entered again the next year and same issue. They got a special award but caused so much damage and flung debris so badly they had to be asked to not compete.
Anyway, the producer of Mythbusters saw and met them there, and then later approached Jamie about the show. That's also how they knew Grant Imihara (though I think Adam and Grant also worked at ILM at one time together as well).
I just love science shows that are fun. You can be entertained and learn stuff too, and encourage science and make being an engineer or designer a little more cool.
The beautiful people will never get it, and that's fine, but it tells kids who do like this stuff that it's OK to like this stuff and to pursue it. And it's cool to watch them whack each other at the same time.
Bookmarks