This might be the most awesome thing ever on Mythbusters. Watch as they test the capabilities of a 15th century Korean weapon known as a “Hwacha.”

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On The Colbert Report last night, I swear Stephen said that you could now go to the all-new ColbertNation.com and watch every episode of the show (i.e. since episode #1). But for the life of me, I can’t figure out how to go back more than a week or two. Maybe it’s obvious to everyone but me.

Well, in any case, for those of you who don’t have cable, now you can watch new episodes every day for free online.

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I’ve been watching an episode here and there of a new show on the Discovery Channel called Smash Lab. It’s very reminiscent of Mythbusters, but Smash Lab has a more practical scientific outlook–that is, rather than testing myths, they test big new ideas to see if they’re plausible for use in real world situations. Their tests usually involve blowing something up.

One of the episodes has the team playing around with liquefied sand. Despite the name, it doesn’t actually have anything to do with liquid; rather the adjective is being used to describe the behavior of the sand. Liquefied sand is sand that is blasted with air, causing the sand to behave as if it were a liquid, something like quicksand. So for instance, if you have a big tub of sand, you could stand on top of it, because all the sand particles would be compressed beneath you. But when you blast the air into the chamber, it makes the sand behave like a liquid, so you sink into it. Seeing it in action is pretty cool.

But that’s only the beginning. What they do with the liquefied sand is pretty interesting: they use it to make traps, in this case for security purposes, to catch thieves. The team sets up a fake bank heist, with one man on foot and a getaway driver. To foil the robbery, they create liquified sand traps by the door to the bank and by the parking lot exit. Basically, they dig big trenches (really big for the one that’s supposed to catch the getaway car), insert some piping for the air, fill the trench with sand, then cover the pit with bricks. In their tests it worked pretty well, and seemed like an intriguing security method.

In another episode, however, their idea was not as bright. They had the idea to develop a way to stop trucks that are pulling trailers when the truck’s brakes fail. Their idea: strap rockets to it. Yeah, rocket brakes. Needless to say, it doesn’t work, and actually fails spectacularly.

The show’s interesting, but the problem with it is that nothing they do seems practical, or even the stuff that does seem to work seems like it would be so expensive as to be prohibitive. And in the case of the rocket brakes, it’s just so dangerous, I don’t even understand why they would bother testing it. You can’t drive around with a pair of ROCKETS attached to your trailer!

You can watch both of the episodes I was talking about on The Discovery Channel’s website.

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SCI FI Wire has a news story about the cancellation of the post-apocalyptic drama Jericho and how the producers are looking around for another network to pick it up.

Interestingly, there’s a note at the bottom of the story that says: "Fans wishing to write SCI FI Channel about picking Jericho up should … send snail mail here: SCI FI Channel, 21st Floor, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112."

So, like Jericho? Sending SCI FI a letter about it couldn’t hurt. Hey, it worked last year with the peanuts.

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 Dexter–my god, what a brilliant show this is. The premise is simple: It’s about a serial killer who only kills bad people. He works as a bloodspatter expert in the forensic lab, so he works closely with the cops. His adoptive father–a cop–taught him to become the man he is, how to control his "dark passenger."

I’m going to heap praise on the show now, but am going to try to keep it spoiler-free, so you should feel free to read this. I mention this no only to allow spoilerphobes to relax, but also to apologize for being somewhat vague.

Based on the books of Jeff Lindsay, the first season of Dexter closely mirrors the events of the first novel, making some key changes along the way, and making drastic improvements with each change. You read that right–they changed it, but actually made it better. The refinements to the characters, the twists added to the plot all work brilliantly. And the books are pretty damn good to begin with, so to say that the show is even better is really saying something.

The second season continues the show in fine form, though here it makes a drastic departure from the novels, or rather disregards the second book in the series all together and blazes a completely original path. And man, what a path! The primary plot thread of season two is genius–it makes perfect sense within the scope of the show, and yet allows it to veer in a different direction from season one, so that two is not merely a different variation on one. My only real complaint about season two is the actress who portrays Lyla–her character is great, and the plot threads connected to her are another stroke of genius, I’m just not thrilled with the actress who portrays her.

And oh my god–the most recent episode, "Resistance is Futile"…wow. I mean, wow! I’m getting chills just thinking about it. There are so many great details about the show that I’d love to point to to explain and prove how great it is, but I’d much rather you just trust me and allow yourself to experience it fresh.

If you’re not watching this show, you must start as soon as possible. The first season is available now on DVD; the second season is in progress, airing every Sunday on Showtime.

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Most of you reading this are probably geeks, so…

NOW CASTING NEXT SEASON OF BEAUTY AND THE GEEK

If you think you have what it takes to qualify as a Beauty or a Geek and compete for the chance to win $250,000, then now is your chance!

Step 1: Download the application and fill it out.
Step 2: Make a 10 minute videotape BOTH telling us and showing us why you should be a contestant on the next Beauty and the Geek. Remember, we want to see your personality! (only vhs, dvd and mini dv formats will be accepted).
Step 3: Send the application, a non-returnable photo of yourself and your video submission to:

BEAUTY AND THE GEEK CASTING
PO BOX 578
MANHATTAN BEACH, CA 90267

If you would like to nominate someone for the show, you may also do so by sending an email to beautyandthegeekcasting@yahoo.com.

Please include a name, age, photo, contact information and why you are submitting this individual as a beauty or a geek.

Submissions must be received by December 11, 2007.

"Stay tuned for an Open Casting Call in your area!" AUDITION TODAY!

If I were going to apply for this, I guess I’d have to let my hair grow out as much as possible and like go full-on shag with a beard, or else there’d be no possible make over for me. Hard to give someone a fabulous cool-guy haircut when he hasn’t got any hair.

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Over at the Galactica Blog, they quote an interview with Jamie Bamber (Apollo) in which he talks about how he dislike (sic) the label "SCI FI":

I think that’s a problem that science fiction has that it will always marginalize itself by calling itself SF. It’s unfortunate that we’re on the SCIFI channel; we can’t even get away from [the sci-fi label]. We couldn’t brand the show as anything else because of the network we’re on.

No, dude, you couldn’t brand the show as anything else because it employs numerous genre conventions and to call it anything else would be fucking stupid.

I should really be used to this by now, since seemingly every star of every SF television show or movie has to, at some point, deny their show/film’s SFnal nature. To be fair, the interview question did bait that response. But still. Frakkin’ idiot.

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SF Signal asks: What do you watch on TV?

Okay, well, I watch a lot of TV.

Here’s a list of shows that I regularly watch (in no particular order):

• Survivor
• The Amazing Race
• Rescue Me
• Battlestar Galactica
• Lost
• Friday Night Lights
• The Shield
• The Colbert Report
• The Daily Show
• 30 Rock
• The Office
• Beauty and the Geek
• Family Guy
• The Simpsons
• ER
• Jericho
• Engineering an Empire
• Digging for the Truth
• Ancient Discoveries
• Lost Worlds
• Robot Chicken
• Mythbusters
• Entourage
• Curb Your Enthusiasm
• The Wire
• Big Love
• Flight of the Conchords
• John From Cincinnati
• Extras
• Brotherhood
• Dexter
• Weeds
• Penn & Teller: Bullshit!
• Oakland Raiders football
• Orlando Magic basketball

Additionally, here are the new shows I’ve watched and am currently watching, but am unsure if they’ll remain in the rotation until I view more episodes:

• Pushing Daisies
• Chuck
• Reaper
• Journeyman

There’s also a few new shows that I’ve Tivoed but haven’t watched yet, so there might be yet even more to add to the big list. (Incidentally, all of this stuff is time-shifted–I record everything on one of my DVRs to watch when I want to, and skip past commercials.)

I’ve purposely not listed shows that are no longer on the air, though I didn’t intentionally exclude anything that’s not on right now (in other words, if it’s an active show, and I watch it, I listed it). It’s possible I’ve forgotten some. It’s hard to keep track with there being so many!

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Speaking of television, one of the things that really annoyed me about Bionic Woman’s pilot was the accident which causes the Jaime (Bionic Woman) to become bionic. She and her boyfriend are in their car, driving along, when a semi slams into them. The semi impacts with the car on the passenger side (where Jaime was sitting). Now, this truck must have been going 60 MPH or so, and the impact was such that it sent the car tumbling end over end for what appears to be miles. Jaime is severely injured, and ends up losing an eye, an arm and a leg, or something like that, but after watching that accident, I couldn’t believe that anyone could survive that. Forget losing limbs, she’d be paste. Oh, and her boyfriend walks away pretty much unscathed (or at least unscathed enough that he’s well enough to perform her bionic surgery!).

All of which just goes to emphasize that when you’re working with elements of fantasy or science fiction (i.e., things that are not possible), it’s all the more important to make the mundane, everyday stuff believable. I’m gladly willing to suspend my disbelief, but only so far.

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