Quady

Here are some (long-winded) summaries of his answers. A COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT CAN BE FOUND HERE

Question 1 - What's the biggest screw-up you've had on Mythbusters? from qtrWhileOne

• We've had many screwups, but the the Sawdust Cannon myth comes to mind. The myth is that if you drop a flare into a cylinder filled with sawdust, it'll explode out of the cylinder. We wanted to take it up a notch by replacing the sawdust with a pallet of non-dairy creamer and use five flares instead of one. The sawdust explosion had gone off relatively high above the cylinder, but the non-dairy creamer exploded much lower and with far more force, creating an advancing wall of flaming creamer bits. I started to question my safety, and I was trying to figure out whether to run, so I looked around and Tory and Kari were gone. They had already run up the hill behind us. Thankfully no-one was hurt.

Question 2 - Why don't you, Tory and Kari work on anything with Adam and the walrus anymore? Is it simply because Discovery found better ratings with the two-team format, or does Jamie secretly despise Tory? from drumlogan

• You probably shouldn't call Jamie "the walrus", or at least not to his face. This is a logistics problem, not a problem of clashing people. Both groups work on multiple projects at once, so that each team can hop around to other projects and myths if there are slow downs or timing issues with one project. When we combine both teams together for big myths, all of the projects except the one big one must be put aside, and it's really tough to make everyone's schedules line up logistically. The big myths that we've done have been very fun, but it is scheduling acrobatics. As far as ratings go, I don't think there have been any major bump in ratings as a result of that.

Question 3 - Do you ever feel awkward doing the scripted 'conversations' with each other to introduce myths? They don't seem necessary as the best quality of the show is that everyone has their own character. Other than that, love the show and long may it continue! from ninecastles

• There are certain parts of the show (facts, figures, myth introductions, etc.) that need to be scripted. The groundwork needs to be layed out for the non-scripted rest of the show. In the first season the "Myth Lady", Dr. Heather did that. But then we started introducing them ourselves. Dr. Heather was scripted as well, but they figured since we're already paying these guys, why not have them read the script. It is awkward, because we're not used to being scripted, we're not actors at all (or we'd be acting), but we do what we have to do. They look awkward due to scripting because they are awkward because they're scripted.

Question 4 - Thanks to the magic of editing, it appears as though constructing a robot takes you about 5 seconds. How long do they actually take, and is there one robot in particular you remember being a complete ass along the way? from newfflews

• It does take a while, but it varies on the complexity of the robot. The Sword-Swinging robot took 5-6 days to build. Some of them you do the initial build, and then you have to make a lot of changes along the way. Some of them are roughed in in about a day but then have a lot of finessing that has to go into it. For instance, take the robot that had a lot of moving parts so that it could swing and fire a gun for the Wanted myth, firing at the same point every time. Something like that requires a lot of noodling to get the damn thing working properly. Usually for our show we get about 10 days to execute a myth, an entire story, so usually it'll be a couple days on a robot. The dental floss robot was an asshole. Originally I tried to make it using materials that could be smuggled into a prison for a myth about using dental floss and toothpaste to cut the bars in a prison. Originally I tried to make it out of a motor from a cassette tape recorder (so it could've come from a prison library). I would use that motor and a couple of other things to make a robot that moved the dental floss really quickly, spinning it up forward and backward. It totally, completely failed. I was really frustrated by that. I have two tells for when I'm really frustrated. I carry a lot of stress in my neck, so I crack my neck. The other is that I throw it across the room, which I did with the dental floss robot. It really pissed me off. Got it working in the end, but not using materials that could be smuggled into prison.

Question 5 - Since you are the only person on Mythbusters with formal scientific education, do you tend to approach problems differently from your fellow Mythbusters? from boneywankenobi

• (Comments on "Seeing what you did there" in response to this question submitter's nickname, boneywankenobi). I have a degree in electrical engineering, while the rest of the cast has degrees in non-scientific areas. I do think I approach things from an engineering perspective. I don't tend to jump in by hand. I turn to CAD to draw things digitally, as I have a lot of experience using CAD from my time working at Industrial Light and Magic. One of the things I used to do is cut things on a laser cutter (If you ever have access to a laser cutter I highly recommend it). You draw whatever you want in CAD, then use the laser cutter to cut out acrylic shapes very fast. Usually I approach things from that perspective, or I sketch out ideas on paper first. My co-workers probably prefer to gather materials and figure it out by hand. Recently we did a myth called Flying Guillotine based on an awesome 1976 Kung Fu movie. Long story short, Kari had an idea using knives, so she got knives to try to figure it out. Tory tried his idea out in foamcore, then cut it out of steel. I went directly into CAD to design this 3D model of a thing with five blades. I think the fun thing is that each of us has a different style to approaching problems and ideas. Seeing how our ideas become real things is very interesting. Also I have a lot of textbooks from engineering school, so sometimes I'll hit the books rather than the internet. People ask us how we do our research, do you use your books? (I do), Do you use the internet? (I do). What's cool is that now that the show has been on for a long time we can call up the experts and say "Hi, this is Grant from Mythbusters, I see that you're the world's expert on Laminar Flow...". All these different areas of science, engineering, etc. we can pretty much call anyone and talk to an expert. I find that the single best way to do your research is to talk to people.

Split it into two posts since Grant is crazy long-winded

Question 6 - how much of the show that we see is "real" footage and how much is reenactments and producer/director created content? by jetmax25

• We are not very good actors, as I said. We are fond of a certain type of re-enactment. For example, the Star Trek Gorn cannon, a project I pushed for for a long while. In the episode, Captain Kirk must defeat a lizardlike creature called a Gorn by building a cannon using bamboo, diamonds, and chemicals. Given these resources he creates a cannon to kill the Gorn. The re-enactment comes in from us playing these characters from Star Trek, probably because we couldn't afford the footage, frankly. But it is a great opportunity for us to have fun, dress up in silly costumes and wigs. Speed Bus Jump was the same (I played Keanu Reeves, Tory was Sandra Bullock). That's as far as the re-enactments go for us. What you see on the show: the builds, the explosions, that all happens. If the camera-man misses the shot, we don't re-enact it. Take the Cement Truck Myth (a fan favourite explosion). We don't have any high-speed footage of that because the cameraman missed the shot. We were a mile a way (and the explosion felt like a blow to the chest for us), but he was closer. The explosion was so strong and shocking that he missed pushing the button to take the footage. We roll with missed footage, and I think the results speak for themselves. My personal opinion is that with the Cement Truck explosion it benefited from lacking high speed, since you just see the truck there one moment and then it's just gone. We have animated sequences to explain a myth, but it's clearly something cartoony and separate from the work that we do.

Question 7 - Do you hang out with any of the cast outside of the show? If so, who are you closest to and what do you enjoy getting together for? by Papayachunks

• I had worked with Adam, Jamie, and Tory for a number of years before Mythbusters, and had met Kari before joining the show. Tory and Adam and I worked on special effects for Industrial Light and Magic. I was there for 9 years, so I remember when Tory and Adam joined ILM. I think Tory joined during Starship Troopers, and Adam joined during a series of commercials called First Union. We had been co-workers in the model shop making miniatures, spaceships, robots, and sets. In fact, the person I worked most closely with over those years was Tory. Usually we were paired as a team because my specialty was electronics (things that move, have lights, etc.), and Tory was a model maker (very fast and good with his hands). We would both be involved in the building of these models with very large crews (15-20 people depending on the size and complexity of the model). After it was built, it'd have to be photographed for composting into the movie (being before computer graphics were where they are now). This meant a period of time from weeks to months using a motion controlled crane (simulating camera movement) to film and photograph from all the different angles, all of the model, over multiple passes. For this time you needed a support crew, and Tory and I made the perfect support crew. I handled the lighting and the electronics in the model, while Tory was in charge of painting and tweaking the model itself. We spent months on a number of Star Wars films. There are pictures on the internet of us working on the Federation Battleship (the giant toilet-bowl with the ball in the middle). We spent months on Dracula's castle for Van Helsing. Somewhere out there on movie bonus features you can see us getting interviewed for these productions in our pre-Mythbusters days. That was just before Tory left ILM to work on Mythbusters. Jamie would hire me on nights and weekends to work for him because I was a radio control specialist because he had a lot of puppets that would come through M5 and he needed someone to tune up the puppets before it went to shooting. Do we hang out? Sometimes we do. We all have families, so we don't necessarily get to hang out after work and have a beer. Who am I closest to? I've probably hung out the most with Jamie outside of work, just because we are both robot enthusiasts. We have that common language. We used to each compete on Battlebots. Jamie had a heavyweight robot, 220lbs, and I had a middleweight robot, 120lbs. No, we have never fought each other, since he has about a hundred pounds on me. And so does his robot. *laughs* As Jamie's wife would say, I'd come over to "play robots" at his shop. We'd also go scavenger hunting at surplus shops in the Bay Area. Jamie had a whole circuit of all the best surplus houses and dumpsters. There was a place we'd go to called Triangle Machine, and Jamie and the owner would haggle since Jamie is a shrewd businessman. Unfortunately Triangle Machine went out of business, but it wasn't because of us!

Question 8 - Favourite thing about the show that the viewers don't get to see? from SpontaneousHam

• My favourite thing is blooper reels, some of which have been leaked to the internet. I'm told that our production company put together a reel for Christmas every year, but it's purely for internal use, I'm sorry to say, but it contains humour that is probably not appropriate for television. I think those are the funniest things that you don't get to see. That and that Kari, Tori and I break into song on occasion. We have sung in the blueprint room sometimes, but sorry, you probably won't get to see that either.

Question 9 - In the episode where you tested out lie detectors, you were asked if you had ever made a female robot for yourself, and you said no, but it came up as a lie. So have you? from DrPie

• Point of clarification, the question was "have you ever made or wanted to make a female robot." Here's the thing about lie detectors: they don't respond to the context of your question. They don't tell you a straightforward "you are lying" per se. Instead, based on a number of factors like heart rate and galvanic skin response, they say whether you're more or less likely to be lying. But embarrassment can cause a false positive because it detects (among other things) if you're flushed, sweating, or have a high heart rate. And when Tori asked me that question it took me by surprise. And that's all I'm gonna say about that. Look, it's ask me anything. It's not answer me anything, and I tried to answer that one. But yes, I thought about making a female robot, and no I have never made one. And that's the weird part about the lie detectors because there were two questions in one and I was confused.

Question 10 - Why was Geoff constructed with only one movable arm, a rotating neck and moving jaw? Was that resource issue, or a comic decision? from rampantdissonance

• Geoff Peterson is a plastic anatomic skeleton with a moving jaw, a rotating head, a metal mohawk and one arm that moves up and down. Originally, the idea was to have this character that would interact with Craig. It would work on remote control, where you push a button and it answers automatically. And from my perspective, having worked on a lot of different puppets (R2-D2, the Energizer Bunny, etc.) from movies or TV is that it requires a fairly skilled puppeteer to pull off more than one or two moves. For example to drive R2-D2 only requires one operator under most circumstances. I know there are people out there who are R2-D2 builder enthusiasts and they want to build everything into their R2. They spend a lot of time trying to cram fire extinguisher, light saber launcher and all those different things into this one little shell. But the truth with the movies is that we swap out different robots or devices as the situation requires. So when you're actually driving R2 for public appearance, you only need one person to control it. In contast, the Energizer Bunny requires three people to operate. One person works the head, a second person runs the arms and the third person is the driver. Particularly with driving, controlling a robot really requires concentration, especially when you have people around you or when you're driving close to an edge, such as with the Energizer Bunny driving on a countertop. As far as Geoff Peterson goes, the jaw is the thing that you as the operator have to concentrate on the most. And turning/moving the head and moving the arm, that's just icing on the cake. But your main job is flapping the jaw. With two arms, it becomes this whole thing where you gave to figure out what to do with the other arm. And then people ask why can't you make him drive away from the podium. I like to say that's for the protection of humanity. To make sure that I don't accidentaly create skynet. But really it's mostly about puppeteer and the ability to control Geoff in a meaningful way. Secondly, it worked out because it's actually a fairly small skeleton, but there is enough space to fit the servo for one shoulder and the neck in that chest cavity with direct drive, so you don't have to do any fancy gearing, belts or chains. So it all worked out in the end. The servos that you'd have to use to move this full sized human skeleton around are fairly beefy. They are Tonegawa SSPS-105s, in fact. The Cadillac of large scale servos. That's what Geoff uses. They are big and they have to fit inside of his little chest coat area so that he looks reasonably human scale, and not like this sort of hunched over giant hulky robot skeleton sidekick.

EDIT: I have to go get some food, but I'll be back in a bit to finish this up!

EDIT 2: Electric Boogaloo: I have come back to find that the complete transcript is now avaliable here but I'm going to complete this anyways, since I'm enjoying myself.

EDIT 3: Figured out what servos he was talking about in Question 10, and now I just need to do some formatting.

EDIT 4: All done, I think! It was fun, glad I could help people out.

What was the biggest surprise to you in how computers and their surrounding technology and culture developed? And biggest dissapointment?

"There is hardly a thing I can say in its favor, except that I was cheered by nearly every minute of it. I cannot argue for the script, the direction, the acting or even the mummy, but I can say that I was not bored and sometimes I was unreasonably pleased. There is a little immaturity stuck away in the crannies of even the most judicious of us, and we should treasure it."

-Roger Ebert's review of The Mummy

Also: Overwatch in Half Life 2.