I started a discussion on the Mythbusters forums: http://goo.gl/4Xi1 If anything at least fans of the show can learn about the mod.
The only thing that screams plagiary is the wc tubes, but it seems equally likely that a stock photo was the source of inspiration for both.
So I did send an email to discovery channel, didn't expect anything back by got this a few minutes ago A nice automated response but it will be interesting to see if anything comes of it.