dimland radio 2-26-11 show notes

Week From Metaphorical Hell

Snow storm. 15" of snow. One employee has no car because of DWI. Complaints at one of my work's bigger accounts. Another employee gives two week notice when questioned on how much time he works each night. That employee pulls a no show and his run doesn't get cleaned. Head supervisor has Monday and Tuesday off. Special project request from account that had complaints. Task needs to be done Wednesday night. I help task get done and complaints dealt with Wednesday night...

There's more but you get the idea.

Ten Minute Topic With Chris Brown

Fellow skeptic, Chris Brown.

I hadn't done a Ten Minute Topic in a while, but I has this one in the can for a long time. Chris and I talk about personal experience and the trickiness of memory. We don't know everything, but we got into it anyway.

Learn more about memory here and about how false memories can be created here.

And here is an excellent clip of Neil deGrasse Tyson talking about the argument from ignorance and about eye witness testimony. I referred to it during my talk with Chris.

It's Not True: Magnetic Knee Therapy

Pure quackery. Don't waste your money.

An ad from the Sunday paper for a product claiming, that for only $9.97 plus $1.00 in handling, you can get a therapeutic knee wrap with 32 magnets that will ease pain and add flexibility. Don't you believe it. The magnets have no effect, except possibly the placebo effect.

Learn more about this particular bit of quackery here.

XTC Skylarking Vinyl Reissue

Yes, it's what you think it is. You should see the back cover.

My wife got me the vinyl reissue XTC's 1986 masterpiece, 'Skylarking'. It's my favorite of XTC's albums and it's wonderful. I consider it a grand error that the music consuming public never caught on to the band the way they deserved. It's a shame.

Not only does the reissue exclusively available on vinyl, there are two other special features: it sounds the way it was intended, but never did, and the cover art is what was originally intended. The sound wasn't right because the bass sound was set incorrectly, and the original artwork was considered to naughty for 1986.

Learn more about the sound issues here and the original cover art here.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ahead' by Wire
First ad break bumpers: 'That's Really Super, Supergirl' & 'Grass' by XTC
Second ad break bumpers: 'Ballet For A Rainy Day' & 'Season's Cycle' by XTC
Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! see you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com

dimland radio 2-19-11 show notes

Another ER visit for Mom

2011 is nearly two months old and my mother has been to the emergency room twice already. First visit was in January resulting from some heart issue, which has been corrected. Thank Science! This second trip was due to her falling and bonking her head. She spent a night in the hospital, but she's ok. Just a knock on the noggin.

King Tut

Unfortunately this mask was not part of the exhibit. It remains in Egypt in Tut's tomb.

Amy, Hayden and I went to the Science Museum of Minnesota earlier the day of my show to see the King Tut exhibit. Very cool stuff. I talked about some of the most interesting among many, many interesting objects. One piece that really caught our eye was a "sketch" on stone. To my wife and I (both of us artists) that piece made us feeling closer to the artist who worked on it thousands of years ago.

The Curse Of King Tut

Did this boy king put a curse on anyone? It's doubtful.

Along with talking about the exhibit and how King Tut may have died, I spent some time talking about the curse. In short, the was no curse. Just some inventive media coverage and selective observations.


UFO seen over Holy Land Part Two

A blogger makes a revealing observation regarding this image. See link below.

I went over some more observations on this UFO in Jerusalem. The more I look into it, the more it looks like a hoax. Big time skeptic Benjamin Radford has weighed in, as have a few very observant YouTubers. The YouTube clips demonstrate fairly clearly that some video trickery is afoot.

You can read Radford's observations here. And this skeptic's excellent catch on the image of the Dome on the Rock. And the YouTube clips here and here. Also, in the interest of fairness, here's a believer's (this may be the fellow who first broke the story) take.

Movie Recommendation: Once (2006)

Warm your soul? What soul? It will entertain you, soul or no soul.

During last week's all love song show, I played 'Falling Slowly', the Oscar-winning song from the movie 'Once'. That inspired me to recommend the movie. It's romantic without being a typical love story and the music in the movie is awfully good.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ahead' by Wire
First ad break bumpers: 'It All Depends' by Figures & 'Harborboat' by R.E.M.
Second ad break bumpers: 'My Wife and My Dead Wife' by Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians & 'Black Coffee in Bed' by Squeeze
Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! see you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com

dimland radio 2-12-11 show notes

Dimland Radio Music Show Hour Radio Show Music Thing

Another two hour music show, but first I talked a little bit about the concert I went to earlier that night. A friend of mine and I went to First Avenue, the famous Minneapolis nightclub, to see Gang Of Four. Very good show. I did a fair amount of jumping around, I hadn't expected to but the music got to me. My knees and back are reminding me that I'm not in my 20s anymore.

Be that as it may, I played a set of love songs in honor of Darwin Day, Lincoln's birthday and my mom's birthday (which happens to be on Valentine's Day).

Love song list:

Love Song - The Damned
Uh-Oh, Love Comes To Town - Talking Heads
Message Of Love - The Pretenders
Wouldn't It Be Nice - The Beach Boys
I Walk The Line - Johnny Cash
Let's Stay Together - Al Green
In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel
(Just Like) Starting Over - John Lennon
You Just May Be The One - The Monkees
Love Is The Law - The Suburbs
I Wanna Be Your Lover - Prince
La La Love You - Pixies
Ghost In You - The Psychedelic Furs
It's Oh So Quiet - Bjork
Something Stupid - Frank Sinatra & Nancy Sinatra
Teacher, Teacher - Rockpile
She Gives Me Love - The Godfathers
Waterloo - ABBA
Love Song - The Cure
Bit I'm Different Now - The Jam
It's Not Unusual - Tom Jones
I Can't Help Falling In Love With You - Elvis Presley
Linger - The Cranberries
Skyway - The Replacements
Something - The Beatles
I Feel Love - Donna Summer
Love Song - Au Pairs
Love You More - The Buzzcocks
Only You - Yaz
First Glimmer - Paul Westerberg
My Love - Paul McCartney & Wings
To Be In Your Eyes - The Church
You're My Best Friend - Don Williams
Falling Slowly - The Swell Season
Till The Rivers All Run Dry - Pete Townshend & Ronnie Lane

Because of the limitations of Z Talk Radio's music license, I cannot archive this show. So, if you weren't there to listen, well, then you missed it. If you want to hear what songs I'll play next time, you'll just have to tune in, won't you?

Other music heard on the show...Dimland Radio opening & closing theme song: 'Twist' by Tones On Tale

That's it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com

dimland radio 2-5-11 show notes

What does it take to keep an eye doctor appointment?

I opened with a riveting tale of all the events and perils that seemed to conspire (however, there are no conspiracies...trust me) against my getting to the eye doctor. Dead car, illnesses, hospital visits, call-fowarding - all terribly interesting, I'm sure.

Homeopathy - There's Nothing In It!

This weekend, around the world, skeptics of the "alternative medicine" of homeopathy will be doing what they can to get the truth out. The truth is there's nothing in it. The active (if you can call it that) ingredient is so immensely diluted that there isn't even a molecule left to be found. Apparently, the water, or whatever is used to dilute the solution, remembers the vibrations and that's supposed to work! Pushing back the frontiers of science - pushing all the way back to the Dark Ages, that is.

I related information that I learned mostly from talks given by James Randi. You can catch some of his talks about this medical nonsense here, here and here.

Question: What do you call alternative medicine that works?
Answer: Medicine.

Symphony of Science

Next was my newly discovered love of the Symphony of Science. I've been a little late to the party (what's new?) on this, but it's terrific. I normally abhor the use of auto-tune, but I enjoy its use in these songs that promote science and reason. The songs feature parts of speeches and interviews of noted scientists and promoters of science. The list includes Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins, Michael Shermer, James Randi and many others.

Check it out!

UFO seen over Holy Land

The UFO is that blob of light above the dome. Wow!

I'm sure you heard about, seen the viral videos of it. It's a glowing light that descends, hovers, flashes and zips away into the night sky captured on video, from a few angles, in Jerusalem. What is it? I don't know.

I found one thing very funny about the news media "coverage" of the incident. On the Fox News webpage was the statement about "UFO experts" being "dumbfounded". What? UFO experts! Knowing that the "U" in UFO stands for unidentified, how can anyone be an expert in something that is unidentified?

I just found this site which gives a plausible explanation for the curious missing flash of light that I had noticed in one of the videos.

Today's science hero: Bill Gates

Bill Gates, founder of the evil Microsoft, is working to eradicate world-wide polio by 2012 and is putting up $10 billion dollars over the next decade to get vaccines to people are over the world. Now that makes him a hero in my eyes.

Get vaccinated!

Movie Recommendation: The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)

Not the 2004 version, but the original starring Jimmy Stewart. It's a very engrossing and entertaining story of a group of men struggling to survive and escape a plane crash in the middle of the Sahara desert. It's well worth a look.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ahead' by Wire
First ad break bumpers: 'Y.O.Y.O.Y.' by Cheap Trick & 'Rattle My Bones' by The Suburbs
Second ad break bumpers: 'For A Moment We're Strangers' by The Church & 'The Metro' by Berlin
Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! see you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com