dimland radio 6-23-18 show notes

Eeeeewwww!

 

Not my elbow, but it did look like this.

 

My right elbow had been bothering me for a while over the past fall and winter, but it had gotta better for a while. Then the elbow swelled up in the last few weeks. It didn't hurt quite as bad as it did before. It ached a little and felt tight, because the skin was being stretched, but it was really annoying. And, with it being short sleeve season, it was very unsightly.

 

I finally went to my doctor and he drained it. Phew.

Koko The Gorilla Has Died

The internet was saddened this past week when it found out Koko the gorilla who had learned a few words in American Sign Language had died. There were headlines stating the kitten-loving primate had "mastered" sign language.

Sigh.

 

Never underestimate the laziness of some journalists. Koko could make some signs, but there are plenty of folks in the science and psychology fields that have doubts that she really understood language, let alone mastered it.

John Rael, of SkepticallyPwnd, has blogged about her dying and the reaction and he included a video he produced, in which he acts out Koko communicating with her keepers.

A Dimland Radio Pedantic Moment: Odd Censoring Of Gilbert Gottfried

There's a video on YouTube of Richard Belzer interviewing Gilbert Gottfried. Gottfried tells a shortened, but still just as vulgar, version of the infamous The Aristocrats joke. There's an odd bit of censoring in it.

Speaking Of Bias

I noticed something about an article in the March/April 2016 issue of Skeptical Inquirer. (My apologies, but I cannot link to it.) The article, written by two Cornell University psychology professors, explained how people can easily spot bias in others, but not so easily spot in in themselves.

I noticed what I thought was some bias in the article, in part based on the 2000 Bush vs Gore US Supreme Court decision, that the authors didn't spot. 

Movie Recommendation: The Aristocrats (2005)

 

 

This may not be for everyone, but if you enjoy a good, nasty, dirty, disgusting, taboo-laden joke then this documentary is for you.

 

Three Cool Things

 

3) It may have been disgusting, but the draining of my elbow was also pretty cool.

2) The Belzer/Gottfried interview covers more than that disgusting joke and it's very interesting and cool.

1) I've completed two more illustrations for Nostalgia Zone, the comic book and collectibles store I do some work for. These two (see above) turned out pretty good.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'New Year's Day' by U2 & 'Second Guessing' by U2

Second ad break bumpers: 'Walking On Your Hands' by Red Lorry Yellow Lorry & 'All Gone Away' by Cheap Trick

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 7-10-10 show notes

After a couple minutes fumbling with the server, I managed to get another show going. It was most likely due to my error.

Mea Culpa. What?! Again?!

I started the show admitting I was wrong about something. In the Z Talk chat room the night before, I stated that every Skeptic and Skeptical Inquirer has dissenting views. In Skeptic, at least, each issue includes a forum section, in which readers often take issue with articles in past editions. Well, I thought the forum was in each edition, but after taking a closer look, I found out the forum section is not in each issue. Whoops, I was wrong.

Zapped & penny wise pound foolish

There was then the story of how I learned that when working on electrical equipment one should always be sure it is unplugged. My younger brother and I were working on a industrial strength floor fan, trying to get it working again, when I zapped my fingers on the cord that was still plugged in.

Then I related how my boss, who two hours earlier said that those fans are pretty cheap, about a hundred bucks, was upset when I told him that my younger brother and I fixed it. He was upset because I didn’t clear it with him first when I told my brother (who works for us) to put an hour on his time card for helping us out. That one hour would cost my boss eight bucks!

A hundred bucks for a new fan? No problem. Eight bucks to get the broken fan fixed? Problem. I believe that would be the definition of “penny wise, pound (or dollar in the States) foolish.

Shrek 2

My wife, son and I had watched ‘Shrek 2’ for the first time earlier that day. Amy picked up the never viewed VHS tape at a garage sale the day before. It was a bargain.

It wasn’t as good as the first and not nearly as good as the worst Pixar film. Of course, there isn’t such a thing as a bad Pixar film. I made the point that Dreamworks’ ‘Shrek’ series will likely never become a timeless classic as, say, Pixar’s ‘Toy Story’ series. ‘Shrek 2’ is just way too full of pop culture references. References that can’t help but date the films as time goes on.

Pixar films do have some pop cultural references, but not nearly as many. That’s why I think Pixar edges out all the other animation studios’ feature films. That and the fact that Pixar knows how to crate enduring stories that warm the heart and entertain.

Living longer?

The latest issue of Skeptic has an article looking at the idea that people are living longer than way back in 1900 and even farther back. Sort of. Life expectancy has increased nearly 30 years among men and women in the States since 1900. But that’s life expectancy at birth. Infant mortality rates have come way down since the good old days. That has more to do with life expectancy levels rising than does medicine, food, or dentistry. (All of which have had a hand in extending our lives.) But in the good old days if you survived birth and your first five years, chances were pretty good that you would make it to 60, 70, 80 or even more.

As I talked about how old people lived to be way back when, I was trying to remember the Charlton Heston film in which he played Michelangelo. I couldn’t think of the name at the time, but it was the 1965 film ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy’.

By the way, Michelangelo died in 1564. He was nearly 89 years-old. See?

Movie recommendation

I recommended a movie that my wife and I had watched earlier that week. It’s the 2000 political thriller, ‘The Contender’. It’s very good. Joan Allen, Jeff Bridges and Gary Oldman do a great job. I especially enjoyed a mustache-less Sam Elliott.

I have a couple quibbles. This is a Hollywood film, so there is no way the president and his choice for his replacement vice president (his original VP had died) would be Republicans and the opposition Congressman would be a Democrat. Besides, no Republican would ever want a woman VP, right? (Ahem.) But that’s pretty minor.

The other quibble surrounds Oldman’s character, the Republican Representative who vigorously opposed the choice of replacement VP. He looked a little odd compared to all the other characters. His goofy hairstyle and his suits that didn’t quite fit right, I thought were a little on the skewed side. He also had the Nixon sweaty upper lip.

Still, minor quibbles. Set your political affiliation aside and enjoy the drama of this political intrigue.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ahead' by Wire
First ad break bumpers: 'Ronnie’s Song' by Urban Guerrillas & 'Heat of the Moment’ by Asia
Second ad break bumpers: '88 Lines About 44 Women' by The Nails & 'Twilight Zone' by Golden Earring
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 show notes 4-17-10

No guest on this show. I may have tweaked a nose or two by covering this year's JREF Pigasus Awards. Trisha, a regular listener and chat room member gave me the "interesting show" response. I know that doesn't necessarily mean something negative and Trisha is a friend of the show. I understand the audience doesn't always agree with me. That's cool. I press on.

Theater of the mind

Z Talk Radio is doing something way cool. They are playing old time radio shows after Paradigm Shift (Fridays 10 - midnight central) and Dimland Radio. When my show ends you can listen to the theater of the mind shows of the horror and mystery genre. After Paradigm Shift, you'll hear old westerns such as the Lone Ranger. This to me is far out, I was very interested in those old shows when I was a kid. I'm especially thrilled that Z Talk has procured a few episodes of my favorite radio show, The Shadow.

The JREF annual Pigasus awards for 2009

Each year on April 1st (yes, April Fool's Day), the James Randi Educational Foundation announces the "winners" of their annual Pigasus awards. These awards are given to the individuals and organizations who have done the most (regrettably) to advance or promote superstition and psuedoscience in the previous year.

This year's recipients can be found here.

Dimland Radio promos

I knew it was out there, but I finally heard the promo for my show that was produced by Z Talk Radio. It's a good promo that even mentions my website, www.dimland.com. I didn't think to mention my website in the promo I wrote for my show. I'm glad somebody did. The Z Talk edition has a line that I wasn't thrilled with. It states that "science is religion on Dimland Radio." Well, it's not. I could tell that a skeptic did not write that copy. No skeptic would ever equate science as religion.

Skeptical news items

Ripped from a recent issue of the Skeptical Inquirer were these two stories:

Study Reveals Ginkgo Biloba Ineffective for Memory

African Albinos Murdered for Witchcraft

A (hopefully) humorous story about my son, Hayden

My son, Hayden, is so cute and smart and wonderful and awesome, even when he's making his dad stop peeing in midstream to run to find out why he's crying. It turned out Hayden was fine. He was just playing. That little stinker.

Correction

For some reason (I'm not as smart as I think, perhaps?), I didn't remember that "mg" stands for milligram, not microgram. How stupid is that?

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ahead' by Wire
First ad break bumpers: 'This Ain't No Picnic' by The Minutemen & 'Bliss' by Urban Guerrillas
Second ad break bumpers: 'Warm Leatherette' by The Normal & 'And I Moved' by Pete Townshend
Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next week for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com You can also download my show from the Z Talk On Demand page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com