Mind Control/Painting with Explosives

Episode#52

Original Air Date: 5/10/06 

Episode #52: Painting with Explosives
The Myth: A room can be painted with a gallon can of paint and a stick of dynamite.
The Experts: Sergeant J.D. Nelson (Alameda County Bomb Squad), Frank Doyle, Jr. (retired FBI agent), and Joe Konefal (Arson Investigator)
Memorable/Quotable Moments: Jamie-"It ain't pretty, but it'll dress up with a coat of paint."
Action/Results: Adam and Jamie build a room to local code, making it modular for transport to the Alameda County Bomb Disposal Range. After some wall wrangling, they are on their way to the range and get the room assembled.  Then, they set up Rescue Randy, the simulaid, to see if they can get a silhouette after the paint explosion. The paint is loaded into a plastic bucket at the request of the range officers, and a 1/3 lb. mystery charge (don't try this at home) is placed in the bucket. The range officer comments that the detonation speed of said mystery charge is 21,000 feet per second. Adam comments to the range officer: "That's 10 times the speed of a bullet." The arson investigator replies, "There's no turning back."
A quick coin flip determines Adam to be the lucky button pusher. Cut to odds maker Adam: "30-40% coverage."  The countdown begins. After firing, it is clear that the room has blown apart, and there is about 40% coverage as guessed by Adam. There is no outline silhouette of Rescue Randy to speak of, either.
Back at the shop, Adam and Jamie discuss ways for better paint dispersion and agree that some small-scale testing is in order to prove out their theories prior to going back to the range and testing in full-scale again.
Small-scale test 1 is a scaled-down replica of the first test at the bomb disposal range. 5g of black powder, a couple ounces of paint, a miniature Rescue Randy and a roughly 2 cubic foot room with white interior walls. The results, amazingly, are nearly identical to the first full-scale test. Time for the fellas to split up and devise their own explosive painting methods...
Adam devises a tubular paint vessel with a black powder-packed drinking straw through the middle as his dispersion charge. The result is a nice painting of the middle 1/3 of the interior walls.
Jamie's small-scale device is a "mortar" of sorts. A steel pipe end cap with the charge at the bottom and paint added to fill the cap. The result, the most even coating of the small-scale room yet.
Time to go back to the range and go full-scale again...
Adam's full-scale device is several 4-6mil Polyethylene tubes of paint with detonation cord running the length of the tubing to hopefully vaporize the paint and result in an even covering of the walls. Upon detonation, Adam comments that the coverage was "Total crap." It appeared to be the same 30-40% coverage from the previous tests. Next...
Jamie has opted for a 5 pyramid-shaped charge pot device; each pot with a different color paint so as to track their individual dispersion. After detonation and inspection of Jamie's device, it is discovered that the paint seems to have been flung at each wall, but the paint never came close to vaporizing, thus looking like a can of paint had been sloshed on each wall. No mention of ceiling coverage was given.
Myth Busted!

Mind Control
The Myth: Can someone’s actions be controlled without their knowledge or consent?
The Experts: The build team
Memorable/Quotable Moment: Narrator Robert Lee comments that Tory looks as if he has just escaped from an institution.
Action/Results: The build team order some "mind control" kits from the Internet.  Up first, the "Psyonic Helmet", which is basically a bicycle helmet with a leather-wrapped dowel that is tipped with a "crystal". No mention of what type of crystal this was.  Also included were some "adjustment knobs", although it wasn't clear that these knobs were actually hooked up to anything. Tory dons the helmet and tries to influence Jamie to remove his beret through mind power alone. After some careful tweaking of the adjustment knobs and 90 minutes of brainwaving…nothing. Tory comments to the camera that he feels the helmet is busted but more testing is needed. So, Tory and Grant head off to their favorite coffee shop to see if Tory can place a coffee order without speaking.
Once at the coffee shop, try as he might, Tory can not get the cashier to guess his order. It was not for lack of trying, however. She guessed about every possible coffee drink except for Tory's psychic request: Mocha. But wait! Two ladies in the corner table claimed they were TOTALLY picking up a mocha vibe. Perhaps the helmet is on backwards? The guys decide to get a bit more scientific and head back to M7, mochas in tow.
Back at the shop, the team puts together a more scientific plan of attack: Assemble several more mind control devices procured from the world wide web.
Electronic Hypnotizer, which consists of flashing LED's and a variable pitch tone.
Subliminal Sound Generator, which masks spoken commands in a scrambled audio transmission.
Rotating Bar Magnet, which is said to affect humans' "1/2 Hz Sensory Resonance", thereby causing tension, fear, and even sexual arousal.
Pulsed Air Device, which also cycles on the 1/2 Hz frequency like the bar magnet, with the same theoretical resultant tension, etc.
Next, they build an isolation chamber with cameras and an EEG to monitor test subjects' brain waves and behavior. Enter test subject Kari for a baseline run. Grant attaches the electrodes and he and Tory begin monitoring from outside the chamber. Once settled in, Tory opts for a check of the EEG monitor and kicks the side of the chamber. Kari jumps, screams a bit, and the EEG display goes off the charts. Yep, it's working!
Enter researcher John, who is apparently totally unaware of the myth being tested, and therefore an excellent test subject. He is brought into the chamber, hooked to the EEG and subsequently subjected to the mercy of the mind control devices one at a time.
Up first, the pulsed air generator. This has no effect on John.
Second, the rotating bar magnet. There are some small changes in the EEG readings.
Third, the subliminal sound generator. 8-10 minutes of telling John to "Touch nose" is for naught.
Lastly, the electronic hypnotizer. No results at first, but when the pitch is lowered, there is a small change in the EEG readout, followed by John touching his nose. Hmmm…
After a professional reading of the EEG's, the build team along with Adam and Jamie discuss their results:
Psyonic Helmet: Busted!
Pulsed Air Device: Busted!
Rotating Bar Magnet: Plausible. There was some official change in the EEG readings.
Subliminal Sound Generator: Busted! (and John later touched his nose due to an itch, not out of impulse)
Electronic Hypnotizer: Plausible. Again, there were some changes to the EEG readings according to the official professional EEG reading report.