dimland radio 9-29-12 show notes

A Fan Page

I've finally gone and done it.  I put up a Facebook fan page for Dimland Radio.  Please go and like it for me, won't you?  Search for Dimland Radio and give it a like, please.  Please, I'm begging you.

IncomeAtHome.com And Multilevel Marketing

Big time radio hosts and podcasters are advertising an outfit claiming you can makes loads of money at home.  Really!  All you need is an internet connection and some good old-fashioned gumption.  Well, as the saying goes, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

Turns out the company behind this amazing opportunity is Herbalife.  Herbalife is a multilevel marketing company.  And multilevel marketing does not work for more than 99% of those folks who fall for the pitch.

 

Go here and here to learn more.

Law & Order

I talked a bit about the long running police and prosecutors drama.  I mentioned a unintentionally funny line from one early episode.

I Might Be Rising In The Skeptical Movement

Ok, maybe not rising really, but I did have something happen to me through the Facebook that happens to the big-time skeptics all the time.  I was called names for being a skeptic!  Yay!

Made it, Ma!  Top of the world!

Movie Recommendations: 4 Days In October (2010) AND Catching Hell (2011)

 

I have two recommendations this week.  They are part of ESPN's 30 for 30 series.  30 sports related documentaries by 30 different directors.

4 Days In October focuses on the come from behind win in the 2004 ALCS by the Boston Red Sox over the Hated Yankees.  It would end up being the season in which the Red Sox finally won a World Series, a feat they hadn't accomplished since 1918.  But, first they had to defeat the Hated Yankees after falling behind the Evil Empire by three games to none.  This film documents the four games the Red Sox won to take the series, an accomplishment no other team had ever done in the history of baseball!

Catching Hell documents how Steve Bartman became the scapegoat blamed for the Chicago Cubs meltdown in the 2003 NCLS.  The Cubs hadn't been in a World Series since 1908 and, as the eighth inning of game six started, it seemed a lock that the Cubbies would finally make it.  However, a foul but catchable ball went out to left field.  Moises Alou had a bead on it when a fan, Steve Bartman, got in the way.  The documentary looks into the fan reaction and the effect it had on Mr. Bartman's life.  It also takes a look at the scapegoat in baseball by examining the Bill Buckner boot in the 1986 World Series. 

Music heard on the show (Whenever Possible, I Will Link To The Song)...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus

First ad break bumpers: 'Clear View' by The Screaming Blue Messiahs & 'My City Was Gone' by The Pretenders
Second ad break bumpers: 'Black Haired Girl' by The Alley Cats & 'What Do You Know?' by The Buzzcocks
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

You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here.

dimland radio 9-22-12 show notes

A Drop By The Corrections Department

Ok, so I goofed last week.  So, I kept calling Lt. Uhura "Uhuroo."  So, I'm human.

Vincent And The Doctor

A moment I wish could be made real.

My son has been rewatching Doctor Who lately and earlier in the day he watched the Matt Smith Doctor episode entitled 'Vincent and the Doctor.'  Most of the episode is a monster chase with some excellent shots recreating the settings of some of the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh.  It was an otherwise average story, but it elevated to greatness when the Doctor, being a time traveler, was able to do something special for the tormented artist.  In a chills producing moment, Van Gogh was able to hear the praise he never received in his lifetime.  Spoilers, sorry.

Jesus Said, "My Wife"

So, some scrap of old papyrus with ancient Coptic writing on it was translated to read that Jesus uttered the words, "My wife" to his followers.  Apparently, this is a controversial notion that has some folks who believe the Bible, which is also based on ancient writings, acting skeptically.  Really?  Some ancient text suggests something they don't accept and they're skeptics, but had it reenforced the loaves and fishes story, for instance, how skeptical do you think they'd be about that?  Oh, the irony!

Here's more on this story.

The 5%

I read a Facebook post written by fellow ZTalker, Joe Couto.  Joe was having a thoughtful moment the other day.  He suggested that when paranormal "investigators" have an experience they can't readily explain they should pause and give some thought to what might actually have happened before posting on the internet.  I applaud Joe's thinking and am glad he advocates thinking first and posting later, even if that thinking might be less critical than I would like.

Joe's post got my friend and follow skeptic, Chris Brown, and me talking about what we call the 5%.  That's the small percentage of paranormal claims that don't seem to have a natural explanation to which believers in the paranormal cling.  They hope for the elusive proof to be found in that 5%, but skeptics look at that 5% as what it is - unexplained.

Talk About Hubris!

There!  Fixed it.

Hubris, thy name is Cecilia Gimenez.  Who is that?  She's the elderly woman who thought she could repair the fresco depicting Jesus (see above).  Yeah!  Her!  Well, as if it wasn't hubris enough to do the initial act, when the church started bringing in money from tourists eager to see her handiwork, she's decided she wants a piece of the action.  Sure, she wants it for charity, but still.  Hubris!

Read more about this here.

My The Voice Moment

As this unrest in the Middle East and in other corners of the Muslim world over a poorly produced film continues, I said I would like to hear a voice from the Muslim world speaking out against the insanity of burning flags, embassies, and killing innocents.  Well, I found one.  I like what he has to say.

Watch this young Muslim scholar's take on the uproar here.

 

Movie Recommendation: Monty Python's Life Of Brian (1979)

Homemade Films

This 1979 film was controversial in its day.  There were protests, calls for boycotts, debates, and a general feeling of being insulted, but no buildings were burned, no one was killed, and none of the Pythoners needed to go into hiding.  Interesting, isn't it?  And the film is brilliant and very funny to boot. 

Music heard on the show (Whenever Possible, I Will Link To The Song)...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus

First ad break bumpers: 'Ivo' by Cocteau Twins & 'Subdivisons' by Rush
Second ad break bumpers: 'New Day Rising' by Husker Du & 'Love At First Sight' 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

You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here.

dimland radio 9-15-12 show notes

Star Trek: TOS Was Pretty Stupid

Yes, I admitted it.  The original series of Star Trek could be awfully stupid.  I gave examples.  I also gave examples of a couple of the better episodes.  And then...

 

Star Trek: TOS Vs. Star Trek: TNG

I played a couple of clips from Star Trek, one from the original series and one from The Next Generation.  Each clip commented on religion and you could see the change in attitude from 60s television to 80s television.  In my opinion, Capt. Picard gets it right.

 

You can watch the clips on YouTube.  The original series clip is here and the other clip is here.

It's Not True:  John Wayne Was Full Of Crap

 

Well, John Wayne may have been full of crap metaphorically, but when he died his colon was not filled with 40 pounds of fecal matter as an internet rumor claims.  Snopes.com gets the poop straight here.

9/11 Observations

It's been eleven years already.  I talked a bit about the occasion, especially about how David Letterman and Jon Stewart addressed the attacks when they resumed producing their shows.  Both talks were very heart-felt and moving.  You can see Dave's here and Jon's here.

 

Religion Of Peace?

I made some observations on the recent attacks on American Embassies in some Muslim nations.  I talked about having difficulty accepting the notion that Islam is a religion of peace while seeing the violence in reaction, allegedly, to a film about their prophet, Muhammed.  I've watched the trailer for the film on the YouTube.  It's exceedingly amateurish and difficult to understand what's going on with several obvious overdubs of the dialogue.

 

Pedantic Moment: Your Shoe Size And Your Age

 

This you can try at home.

I followed the instructions of the above graphic and it doesn't work for me.  It gets my shoe size correct, but not my age.  I think I proved them wrong.

 

Religious FAQs

I quickly went over David McAfee's Facebook series of Religious FAQs.  (I may have pronounced David's name incorrectly as I described him and his Facebook mission.  Sorry, David.)  David has written a book called "Disproving Christianity and Other Secular Writings" and his new book, "Mom, Dad, I'm An Atheist: The Guide to Coming Out a Non-Believer" will be published soon.  On his Facebook page his respectfully debates believers and he decided to put together a list of FAQs.  I shared the first three on the show and might share more in future episodes.

 

Movie Recommendation: Breaking Away (1979)

 

20th Century Fox

 

This 1979 film is the Rocky of team cycling.  And it's much more than that.  It follows four friends adjusting to post high school life in a college town in Indiana.  The story is uplifting and heartfelt.  The relationship between a father and his cycling enthusiast son is excellent.  This film won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director and is worth a watch.  So, watch it! 

Music heard on the show (Whenever Possible, I Will Link To The Song)...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus

First ad break bumpers: 'Good Thing' by The Woodentops & 'Jean's Not Happening' by The Pale Fountains
Second ad break bumpers: 'Guess I Must Have Been In Love With Myself' by Pete Shelley & 'Love Is Stronger Than Pride' by Sade
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

You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here.

dimland radio 9-8-12 show notes

Arrogance And Aliens

So, just before I took to the air with another brilliant show, I listened in on one of Z Talk's other shows.  It was the not as skeptical as I would like Skeptical Edge with Joe Couto and Kale Kelly.  Their guest made the false dichotomy argument that skeptics not believing that aliens are visiting the earth are arrogant to think that in the vastness of the universe there is no other life.  Those are two separate notions!  The latter is definitely possible despite the lack of evidence, the former has no credible evidence to support believing it at all.

 

Um

My niece listened to a recent music show I had done and gave me some grief for all the ums and uhs that she heard me do.  I try not to, but I'm not always successful.

One Lying Image On Facebook

 

There are many more than just one, but this one in particular really got my goat!  It's a fabricated image.  Someone who evidently doesn't care for Mitt Romney, and has some skill using Photoshop, decided it would be a good idea to manufacture an image unflattering to that candidate for the presidency.  The image (above) is meant to give us the impression that Romney's campaign buttons are made in China.  That is certainly possible, but we cannot make that conclusion based on this faked image.

How do I know it's faked.  Well, at first I relied on my expertise in graphic arts and Photoshop, but then two of my Facebook friends provided links to further evidence of the fakery.  See image below, look familiar?

Sure the front is different and there's no "made in China", but come on!

 

Click here to see even more examples of the buttons and here to read how both parties have pledged that all official merchandise is made in America.

4th Grade And A New Teacher

My son started the 4th grade this past week.  He's excited to be back to school and his teacher seems a decent fellow.  I have a good feeling about this guy, because as you walk into his classroom you are greeting by a scaled down replica of the "leg lamp" from the charming film 'A Christmas Story'.  Excellent!

 

This Is Just Wrong...

Speaking of 'A Christmas Story,' are you aware that there is a sequel about to be released?  True it's straight to DVD, but still!  The official stance of Dimland Radio is to not recognize the existence of this abomination.

 

See the Stuck In The 80s blog entry on this tragic news here.  If you read through the comments you will see a very eloquent posting by a Dr. Dim.  Who could that be, I wonder?

 

Brown M&Ms And Van Halen

Have you heard the stories of rock and pop artists making weird demands in the contracts for their live shows?  The stories speak of an image of spoiled diva behavior, but, in Van Halen's case at least, there is a method to their madness.  David Lee Roth explains the reasoning here.

Movie Recommendation: Jeremiah Johnson (1972)

 

Warner Bros.

 

Starring Robert Redford this film depicts the life of mountain man, Jeremiah Johnson, from green, unprepared, mountain rookie to experienced, battle-tested mountain living expert.  It's one of six films that Redford made with director Sydney Pollack.  There are long stretches of no dialog, but don't let that scare you.  My son and I watched this movie earlier in the day.  He gives it a thumbs up (apologies to Siskel & Ebert). 

Music heard on the show (Whenever Possible, I Will Link To The Song)...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus

First ad break bumpers: 'Some Journey' by Suzanne Vega & 'Let's Go Down To The Woods And Pray' by The Screaming Blue Messiahs
Second ad break bumpers: 'The Spirit Of The Radio' by Rush & 'Are Everything' by The Buzzcocks
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

You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here.

dimland radio 9-1-12 show notes

Pedantic Moment!

 

 

I pointed out that the above meme's sentiment is flawed.  It boils down to this: Isn't what you have overcome something you have done?  So, aren't you saying, "I am not what I have done, I am what I have done?"

 

 

Cool,Cool, And Sad

Such a cool cloud formation!  Ain't it?

 

I then ran through a few news items I spotted online.  Two were cool and one was pretty sad.  First was an interesting cloud formation called undulatus asperatus and they look so cool!  Next was the news item about eBay longer allowing some forms of "magical" products or services to be dealt through them.  See that story here.

Last was a sad item about a fellow who decided it would be fun to dress in a Ghillie suit (a kind of military camouflage) and hang out on a highway after dark in order to fool people that they were seeing bigfoot.  Well, as you can imagine, the plan backfired.  He was hit by two cars and killed.  I think this falls under the What's The Harm umbrella that skeptic Tim Farley put up here.

Ten Minutes Topic: Scams

Chris Brown of the Meet The Skeptics! podcast joined me in a discussion of scams that businesses can get caught up in.  Chris did get a word or two in, but I did kind of monopolized the chat.

That Baltic Sea UFO?  Well...

I discussed some of the more recent information regarding a "UFO" found underwater using a sonar imaging device.  It looks interesting, but is it a crashed spacecraft?  Or is it an artifact of Atlantis?  Atlantis?  Sure, why not?  Oh, wait!  Atlantis was made up!  Made up by Plato.  So, the object as seen in the sonar image is probably not a UFO or Atlantis, but Ocean Team X is determined to get to the bottom of this mystery.

Movie Recommendation: The Great Escape (1963)

 

United Artists

 

 

Produced in those final days of the Hollywood studio system, this prisoner of war movie is based on actual events from World War Two.  It stars Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Richard Attenborough and it's pretty damn good!  Watch it!

Music heard on the show (Whenever Possible, I Will Link To The Song)...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus

First ad break bumpers: 'Living Through Another Cuba' by XTC & 'Wardance' by Killing Joke
Second ad break bumpers: 'Soul Kitchen' by X & 'Many A Time' by Pete Shelley
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

You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here.

dimland radio friday night special 8-31-12 playlist

Friday Night Music Special Show

This was the last Friday music show that I'd be doing for a while, so I decided to make it a special one.  It's my version of Awesome 80s!  All music is from the 80s and most are very alternative to the crap that was getting played on the radio.  For more information on where I got the list of songs to play click here. That will link you to a blog I did about a series of mix tapes I made that were the inspiration for this show.

Playlist

Eighties - Killing Joke

I Will Dare - The Replacements

To Hell With Poverty - Gang Of Four
Death Of The European - The Three Johns
In-Between Days - The Cure
Spinning Round - Red Lorry Yellow Lorry
She's In Parties - Bauhaus
Alice's House - The Psychedelic Furs
One Day In Your Life - 54-40

Uncertain Smile - The The
Come To Milton Keynes - The Style Council
Into My Hands - The Church

So. Central Rain - R.E.M.
Smooth Operator - Sade

Respectable Street - XTC
Like Wow Wipeout - Hoodoo Gurus
Cities In Dust - Siouxsie & The Banshees

Ahead - Wire

Vamos - Pixies
Newest Industry - Husker Du
Jordan Minnesota - Big Black
Those Who Move - Naked Raygun
Once In A Lifetime - Talking Heads

Telephone Operator - Pete Shelley
Driving The Dynamite Truck - Breaking Circus
Rescue - Echo & The Bunnymen

Swamp Thing - The Chameleons UK
Ceremony - New Order

Never Before And Never Again - The dB's
Wild Blue Yonder - The Screaming Blue Messiahs

Message Of Love - The Pretenders

Precious - The Jam
Ivo - Cocteau Twins

Another Bubble - Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians
Say Goodbye - Hunters & Collectors

Love Is The Law - The Suburbs

Snake Dance - The March Violets

Let's Get Married - Celibate Rifles

Independence Day (Live) - Urban Guerrillas

Final Solution - Peter Murphy

Canary In A Coalmine - The Police
24 - Game Theory

We're So Cool - Au Pairs

What Do You Know? - The Buzzcocks

Gone Daddy Gone - Violent Femmes

Beatle Boots - Love Tractor

Above It Now - Figures

Everything Counts - Depeche Mode

Sour Grapes - The Descendents

Police On My Back - The Clash

Shut Out The Light - Steve Diggle

Insanely Jealous - The Soft Boys

Jean's Not Happening - The Pale Fountains

Party At Ground Zero - Fishbone

Let My Love Open The Door - Pete Townshend

Certain Things Are Likely - KTP

Ashes To Ashes - David Bowie

Nemesis - Shriekback

(Kind Of) True - The Golden Palominos

Date With A Vampyre - The Screaming Tribesman

Other Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Twist' by Tones On Tail

That's it! You should know that I am not able to archive the music shows I do due to the limitations of Z Talk Radio's music license. So, if you want to hear the music you have to tune in. Then I'll see you next Friday night for Dimland Radio 10 Central, 11 Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com

You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here.