dimland radio 5-18-19 show notes

Open The Windows, Let In The Noise

It's spring. The weather is finally nice enough to open the windows and air out the house. Of course, the weather is also nice enough to draw out all the noise makers in the neighborhood. It's a familiar complaint.

 

This spring has brought out a neighbor with one of those muscle cars. And it's rather loud.

 

Ah, spring.

Pseudoscience And The Paranormal Have Lost Two Proponents

Stanton Friedman, an actual scientist, believed the earth is being visited by extraterrestrials. He was able to convince himself this rather unlikely prospect was possible. He was also responsible for bringing the mundane incident of a crash high-altitude balloon near a small town in New Mexico back to prominence, making Roswell the legend it is today.

 

Lorraine Warren was half of a paranormal investigative team. Along with her husband Ed (I think I called him Earl on the show), Lorraine would monger mysteries of haunted houses and other similar phenomena. They never solved any of the mysteries they investigated. They would just confirm that there was a ghost or spirit or whatever hanging around.

 

The Warrens were largely responsible for the Amityville Horror story. Skeptics call it a hoax.

 

Well, Friedman and Warren died recently. Friedman just this past week and Warren last month. It's sad news no matter whether I believed what they believed or not.

 

Someone Is Wrong On The Internet. Again.

A dirty lying meme!

One of my self-assigned tasks as a skeptic is to provide accurate information whenever someone shares misleading or lying memes on Facebook. I'm not alone, thankfully. I talked about a high school classmate who also does what they can to set the record straight.

 

I gave three examples of memes being shared that are lies. One related to covers of Time magazine and the "flip flop" of scientists from global cooling to global warming. The other two were related in their Islamophobia in claiming the little girls shown in the photos were pregnant. Pregnancies that were the results of Muslim men marrying little girls.

 

Another dirty lying meme.

Well, the global cooling cover of Time is a lie. It didn't exist. And the two little girls aren't pregnant. They have a medical condition which caused their livers and spleens to enlarge.

 

These images were also used to lie on the internets.

And I'm finding the child bride tradition in Islam isn't quite what it seems. According to Wikipedia, the marriages are permitted, but the wife is not allowed to live with the husband until she has reached an age when she is fit for martial relations (I'm pretty sure that means sex.)

 

Regardless, people need to take time to vet memes they are tempted to share on social media. The first question they must answer before clicking share is - Is this true?

 

Many people don't do that. This is why a skeptic's task is never completed.

 

Oh, I brought up a John Oliver expose of televangelists. Here is where you can watch that excellent bit.

 

No, Virginia, Pat Robertson Hasn't Become Pro-Choice

 

This article has been popping up on Facebook with comments of how shocking it that televangelist Pat Robertson thinks Alabama's new anti-abortion law is "extreme" and "goes too far." The comments make me think that people aren't taking the time to read the article, they just read the headline. The headline is misleadingly. It does give the whole story and it gives the impression Robertson has had a change of heart on abortion.

 

Robertson hasn't become Pro-Choice. He still wants abortions to be illegal. He just realizes that the Alabama law would be very unlikely to be upheld by the US Supreme Court. He thinks a less Draconian anti-abortion law would stand a better chance of being upheld effectively overturning Roe V. Wade.

 

People! People! Please, read the article before commenting!

 

A Deeper Dive Into Care/Of's Personalized Vitamin Pack Service

 

I had talked about this before, but I decided to look deeper into the Care/Of online vitamin supplement supplier. I was always doubtful their online "quiz" was the best way to determine if someone is deficient in some vitamin. No exam by an actual doctor? No blood screening?

 

I took the "quiz". Well, not only do they sell vitamins, but they also sell herbal remedies. Right. Hmm. They appealed to antiquity by touting ancient traditional Indian and Chinese medicine. I'm pretty sure all of that traditional medicine has been tested by science. The stuff that worked became medicine.

 

They also have experts helping them. The experts include a "doctor" of naturopathy and a medical doctor who promotes integrative medicine. Integrative medicine is the combining of actual medicine (science based and shown to work) with magic (Reiki, aromatherapy, acupuncture, etc.). So, when the actual medicine works, the promoters of magic can claim the magic worked.

 

Save your money.

 

One Creepy Thing

The parody ad you see above (on right) was on the back cover of an issue of Mad magazine from 1958. It parodies the Miss Clairol ad campaign (above on left) suggesting their hair color products were so good you couldn't tell if she colored her hair. Only her hair dresser would know.

 

But with the number of incidences over the past several years of female teachers having sexual relations with their students, the satire of the ad is less funny and more creepy. Don't you think?

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'I Wanna Be A Flintstone' by The Screaming Blue Messiahs & 'Golden Brown' by The Stranglers

Second ad break bumpers: 'Harborcoat' by REM & 'Terms Of Psychic Warfare' by Husker Du

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

Please subscribe on iTunes! Just search for Dimland Radio in the podcast section. And if you could leave a good rating and a positive review it would be awesome.

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.

Images used under Fair Use.

dimland radio 5-17-14 show notes

 

 It's Live Show!

I had a busy week. I had no time to prerecord the show, so I went live.

Some Baseball Talk

 

My younger celebrated his birthday on Friday, so I gave him a shout out. That led me to talk about big-time pitcher from the 80s and early 90s, Jack Morris whose birthday is also May 16th. I talked about the greatness of Jack Morris' brilliant pitching performance in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series. I maintained that his 10 inning shutout with the series on the line was a gutsier performance than Don Larsen's perfect game in the '56 World Series.

A Good Sunday

 

Some several weeks ago, I broke my Google Nexus 7. It was a bit of a bone-headed move done just the once. So, I set aside money to save up for the repair cost. I finally have enough set aside and Hayden and I took a drive to drop my ailing tablet at the computer hospital.

On the way back, we past Battle Creek Regional Park. I pointed it out to Hayden and said I should take him there sometime. He said, "Why not now?"

Why not? So, I turned around and we spent the next hour or so going for a very pleasant walk, Hayden loved it and would really like to go back today. There is a definite possibility we will. We'll see.

 

The Lost Art Of Counting Change

 

Years and years ago, back before cash registers told the cashiers of today the amount of change to give back to a customer, we had to count the change back. I skill that was taught to me by my father. It is becoming a lost art.

 

I also noted that, until cash money stops being used completely, cashiers need to learn that when handing the change to the customer, it's coins first, then bills. Not the other way around!

 

Westminster Chimes

 

Some weeks ago, while on a walk with my boy, we heard a local church clock begin to sound the hour. This clock, like many others, played a short tune before chiming the hour. It was then that I wondered if there was a name for that little tune.

There is. It's called the Westminster Chimes (or Westminster Quarters or Cambridge Quarters). I must thank Jeff Wagg for his vast knowledge as he instantly knew the answer.
 

Here's a link to the Wikipedia entry, so you can learn more.

 

A Stopped Clock...

 

Usually wrong Pat Robertson was right about something. He answered a viewer's question about old earth vs. new earth. Pat understands that the earth is billions of years old and not thousands. So, now, science-denier Ken Hamm wants to debate Pat. That would be fun.

So Sick Of Facebook Tribalism

 

I used to be quite the political conservative some years ago, but now I've pretty much tired of the whole tribalism thing that politics encourages. Well, feeling that way makes Facebook a bit frustrating as so many of my FB friends are so full of that tribalism. They tend to be left in their politics and tend to see in only black or white terms when it comes to Republicans and conservatives.

Case in point, the recent outrage of Ann Coulter has brought out the double standard mentality. Ann posed with a sign stating "#bringourcountryback." Well, she opened herself up to a lot of parody opportunities.

One such parody changed her sign to "If I get 100,000 likes, I'll show my penis." Oh, hahahahaha. That's so funny! Har har har!

Oh, hang on. This is from the group of people who tend to be so sensitive about gender issues, but it's ok to make gender insults against someone we don't like, I guess.  

 

Movie Recommendation TV Edition: Stephen Fry in America (2008)

 

BBC

Writer/actor Stephen Fry drives a London-style cab across the USA. He visits each of the 50 states. Stephen is awesome and so is the series. Check it out, the six episode series is streaming on Netflix.

Music heard on the show...

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

First ad break bumpers: 'Qu'est-Ce Que C'est Que Ca' by Pete Shelley & 'C'est Comme Ca' by Les Rita Mitsouko
Second ad break bumpers: 'She's On It' by Beastie Boys & 'Nocturnal Me' by Echo & the Bunnymen
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.