dimland radio 9-6-14 show notes

In Search Of Has Arrived

 

I succumbed to my personal nostalgia and purchased the In Search Of DVD collection. The entire series of pseudoscience arrived Friday and I've begun binge watching it. Maybe I shouldn't have bought it, I mean how many times will I watch the shows? But the price was good and my younger self really wanted it.

 

Perhaps I should do a dissection of each episode. But, that would be a fair amount of work though.

 

Congratulations Cosmos

 

The Emmy awards were handed out recently and the Fox science series, 'Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey' picked up four awards. The series had been nominated for 12 awards. Its four wins were:

 

Outstanding Original Main Theme Music

Outstanding Sound Editing

Outstanding Writing

Outstanding Music Composition for a Series.

Maria Menounos Was A Millionaire At Age 23

 

I'm just sayin'.

 

Talk about bragging rights at the high school reunion, television presenter, Maria Menounos was a millionaire by the time she got to age 23. I wondered (probably unfairly, although I tried to be fair) how the fact she's a stone cold babe helped her achieve that financial status. She is smart, quick-witted, talented and very good at what she does, but if she had a face for radio... 

Firewalking Ain't No Big Thing

 

Ms Menounos, while a guest on the Adam Carolla Podcast, talked a little bit about motivational speaker Tony Robbins and firewalking. I don't know much about Tony. I know what he's famous for and maybe he helps people, but I'm leery of the whole motivational thing.

 

Firewalking, on the other hand, I have learned that there ain't much to doing it. Yes, a person needs to wrap their mind around actually doing it, but if the hot coals are prepared properly and one walks quickly, there is little chance of getting burned, even if the coals are measured at 750 degree F.

 

Walking barefoot across a metal grill used at the local Wendy's while heated to half that temperature? That's a different matter. No about of motivation will prevent someone from getting horribly burned.

 

Here's the science behind firewalking.

 

More Police State Talk

I don't exactly agree that we live in a police state, but I could be ignorant and naive. I talked about a meme I saw comparing friendly neighborhood TV cops to today's jack-booted thugs. The examples I gave for the TV cops were Andy and Barney of The Andy Griffith Show and Pete and Jim of Adam 12. They were the "aw shucks" form of TV fantasy 60s/70s law enforcement.

 

I also gave real world examples of the jack-booted thugs from those same time periods. Reality is way more complex than the meme suggests. Take a look at what some cops were doing in 1963 and 1968.

 

The $100,000 Shifting The Burden Of Proof Challenge

 

Internet preacher and ball cap wearer, Joshua Feuerstein has issued a $100,000 Challenge to atheists. He's challenging atheists to prove his god doesn't exist. Joshua, that's not how it's done. Those making the positive claim - God exists - have the burden of proof. The nonbeliever does not have that burden.

 

A few YouTubers and others have responded to the challenge. I include links to three of them. Two of them are very good responses, Bionicdance's and the Thinking Atheist's, but Cult of Dusty's isn't so good. Sure, Dusty makes a good point or two, but he smothers them with his vitriol and ad homenim attacks.

 

You can see for yourself:

 

Cult of Dusty
Bionicdance

The Thinking Atheist

 

Hey, Spider-Woman! Nice Bu...Whoa! Spider-Man! Have You Been Working Out?

 

Apparently, a variant cover of a recent issue of the Spider-Woman comic book has raised a few...eyebrows. Spider-woman is depicted climbing onto a rooftop with her butt in the air like she just don't... Anyway, her costume also appears to be painted on her body. Well, duh! Superheroes have been drawn as though they were naked for decades. Sure, the anatomy has gotten more accurately drawn as the artists got better and society's standard more accepting of that way of depicting superheroes, but they've been drawn estentially naked since I started buying comic books in the 70s.

 

Maddox of the Best Show in the Universe does an excellent take down of the outrage over Spider-Woman's butt. Be warned the video in this link is NSFW.

 

Movie Recommendation: Crazy Heart (2009)

 

Fox Searchlight Picures

 

I really enjoyed this movie. Jeff Bridges (who won an Oscar for this role) plays "Bad" Blake, a country singer whose career had seen better days. "Bad" now drives himself to low paying gigs at bowling alleys and small time honky tonks. He still has his chops, but his drinking has pushed him off the main stage and he stopped writing songs. Enter a young single mom (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who seems to give "Bad" a reason to give a damn again.

 

Two near miss tragedies also give "Bad" a reason to clean up his act. Bridges is wonderful as the messed-up, but always charming "Bad" Blake. And there are times I swore I was looking at Kris Kristofferson.

 

I knew I really enjoyed this movie, because as it was getting to the end I found myself wanting to spend more time with "Bad".

  

Music heard on the show...

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

First ad break bumpers: 'Never Talking to You Again' by Husker Du & 'Next Position Please' by Cheap Trick
Second ad break bumpers: 'New World Man' by Rush & 'No Language in Our Lungs' 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 7-12-14 show notes

Pedantic Moment: Cuteeee

 

When I read the posts on my Facebook, I see people not understanding how to elongate words for emphasis. For instance, if you wanted to elongate the word "cute" how would you do it?

Hint: The "E" is silent.

Congratulations Cosmos!

 

Congratulations to the producers of 'Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey'! The Fox science series received 12 Emmy nominations:

- Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series
- Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Progamming
- Outstanding Art Direction for Variety, Nonfiction, Reality, or Reality/Competition Programming
- Outstanding Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming
- Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming
- Outstanding Main Title Design
- Outstanding Music Composition for a Series
- Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music
- Outstanding Sound Editing for Nonfiction Programming
- Outstanding Sound Mixing for Nonfiction Programming
- Outstanding Special and Visual Effects.

I Did A Study

 

Admittedly, it was not a very scientific study, but I was prompted to do it by the meme you see above. I thought that I'd check out 50 notorious murderers and find out what their astrological signs were and see how they fared compared with the claim that is made by the meme.

 

My results showed that 56% of the 50 murderers I compiled did not fall under any of the five signs in the meme. I wrote about it here.

 

I will add this, which I hadn't thought to check for the original blog or to mention on the show. It is interesting that 7 of 12 (that's the ratio of signs not included in the meme) is about 58.33%. That's not far of from 56%, is it?

Dimland Radio Science Hero: Ozzy Osbourne

 

You read that right. Ozzy Osbourne. Some years ago, I'm not sure how many, Ozzy and Sharon were guests on the Graham Norton Show along with Olivia Newton John. ONJ was hawking some fruity, herbal drink her husband was marketing. She claimed the potion "clears your mind, brightens your day."

 

Ozzy drank a good amount of it and had a little fun. Then he wrapped it up nicely when he let everyone know what he really thought of it. Sure, this isn't an example of good science or skepticism being done. It was pretty knee-jerk. But I thought it was an excellent response to some fairly dubious claims.

 

Tommy Cooper Dies On Stage

 

There's a parody of Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start the Fire' song that changes all of the pop culture and historical references. One change was the line, "Tommy Cooper died on stage..."

 

That line intrigued me as I hadn't heard of Tommy Cooper or the fact that he died on stage. I looked it up and I found video of his having a heart attack while performing on live television. I won't link to it out of respect for his family.

 

I hoped that my talking about it wouldn't be disrespectful, but I described what happened. How he was preparing to perform a trick, while his assistant helped him into an over-sized cloak, when he seemed to lose his balance. His assistant leaves the stage as Cooper collapses. The audience laughs, thinking this was part of the routine. He then falls onto his back. Audience laughter again. Cooper is just lying there. It begins to dawn on everyone, "This is not part of the act." Cut to commercial.

 

And that was it. He died.

 

I talked about how suddenly death can come for us. And that the moment wasn't very dramatic. It was almost gentle. Cooper didn't grab his chest or cry out in pain. He just slumped to the floor and then onto his back.

 

When our time comes, sometimes it just sneaks up on us.

 

Movie Recommendation: A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

 

MGM

 

I really didn't have time to go into a movie recommendation this week, but at the top of the show, during my Pedantic Moment, I did talk a little bit about this movie. So, I figured it was as good a recommendation as any.

It's a very funny caper film starring two Pythons: John Cleese, who also wrote the film, and Michael Palin, along with Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline. Everyone is very good and very funny in this movie. Nicely done.

    

Music heard on the show...

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

First ad break bumpers: 'Highwayman' by The Highwaymen & 'Heat of the Moment' by Asia
Second ad break bumpers: 'Here Comes Your Man' by Pixies & 'Houses In Motion' by Talking Heads
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.