dimland radio 2-8-14 show notes

An Announcement

Nothing so dramatic, but Loud City will be shutting down. Z Talk Radio had worked with Loud City to distribute our shows. Our shows will go on (goon?), but our ability to play music shows will be going away. We can still play independent artists who aren't signed to a major label.

 

I don't what to do the work to support independent artists. Well, it may not be that much wok, but I will not be doing music shows anymore after this month. Next week I will be doing a three hour music show, so get some sleep so you can stay up and boogie. Or just listen.

The Human Species Isn't All That Bad

I hadn't been aware of this phenomenon until fairly recently and I was very impressed and encouraged when I did find out about it. It's the reviews of unusual or very mundane products offered on Amazon.com. I don't know how long this has been going on, but people have been writing very funny, very clever reviews and Amazon has been leaving them up.

I featured three such products.  Please read the reviews for:

Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 Gallon, 128 fl. oz
Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer

How To Avoid Huge Ships

Science Vs Not Science

The highly anticipated "debate" between Bill Nye The Science Guy and Ken Ham The Not Science Guy over evolution/creation took place last Tuesday. I have not yet watched the debate, but my hubris was enough that I talked about it anyway. Actually, I talked more about the reaction to the debate, both from before and after it.

Many science-minded skeptics and scientists thought it was a bad idea for Bill to do it, but there are others who think that this sort of confrontation should be done. Ken Ham may never change his mind, but someone else listening in just might.

I have lots of links on this one:

 

Rebecca Watson's don't do it take.

Hemant Mehta's advice to Bill Nye.
Steve Shive's post debate review.

Here is the debate. (You'll need fast forward 13 and a half minutes.)

Phil Plait's blog review of the debate.
Daniel Loxton's blog on Carl Sagan's take on such debates.

I think that's enough links on this topic.

22 Messages

 

Buzzfeed.com featured 22 messages from creationists to people who believe in evolution (believe is the wrong word, accept is better). I gave my responses, but here are Phil Plait's. His are better.

And, to balance things out, Buzzfeed.com also feature 22 messages from evolution believers to creationists. I responded to those as well. So far, Phil hasn't.

 

Movie Recommendation: Capote (2005)

 

United Artists

 

"Ashton Kutcher survives." Those probably weren't the last words of Philip Seymour Hoffman, but nevertheless it is true, he does still live.

The great actor died this past week and I figured I should recommend one of his best performances out of a vast catalog of great performances. So, 'Capote' it is. Hoffman was awarded the Oscar for his portrayal of writer Truman Capote as he was researching the murder of a Kansas farming family for his non-fiction novel, 'In Cold Blood'.

It's a very good movie and a great performance. But it's hard to find a bad performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Music heard on the show...

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

First ad break bumpers: 'Monkeys' by Echo & the Bunnymen & 'Maddox Table' by 10,000 Maniacs
Second ad break bumpers: 'Age Of Consent' by New Order & 'Los Angeles' by X
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 7-13-13 show notes

Oops!  Really?

 

I recapped the story of my son's bed, which was improperly shipped by Sears.  The bed arrived with a couple broken parts, which I replaced with some plywood, not wanting to go through the arduous process required by Sears to correct their shipping issues.

Well, Sears sent an email asking us how they did.  I let them know they didn't do very well and their automatic response was, "Oops."  Really?  Is that really the way they want to put it?

 

Randy Travis/Mr. Fantastic?

 

Mr. Travis and Mr. Fantastic

 

I saw a recent photograph of Randy Travis the other day.  He's been in the news recently, because, sadly, he's in pretty bad shape.  The recent photo made me think how much Mr. Travis resembles Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards) of the Marvel superhero group the Fantastic Four.

 

A Little Twins Talk

 

At some point in my talk about Randy Travis I side-tracked myself to talk about my MN Twins horrible record against the Hated Yankees (yes, again) and how they were about to lose another three in a row to the Evil Empire.

Well, they did lose Friday night's game, but, what do you know? Those hapless Twins beat the Hated Yankees on Saturday.  Yay!

 

Pedantic Moment: Brad Pitt And Wilford Brimley

 

Actors Brad Pitt and Wilford Brimley have been getting passed around the Twitter-world lately.  Folks are saying that Brad, as he stars in World War Z, and Wilford, as he starred in Cocoon, were both 49.  Well, in my pedantic fashion, I pointed out that Wilford was 50.
 

I speculated how much I'd enjoy letting my older brother and sister know that they are both older than Wilford when he made The Natural (he was 48 or 49 making that one) and rub it in.  Then I remembered I'm 48.

 

Now, Children, Stay Away From Atheists

 

Beware, kids!  Atheists are known to eat babies!

On the Facebook I spotted an image depicting a flyer handed out to, I'm assuming, young Christians warning them to stay away from atheists.  Atheists think they have all the answers, but are so sad, so stay away, kids!  Ha ha.

 

Mr. Show And Mohammed

 

Bob Odenkirk and David Cross starred in HBO's Mr. Show, a comedy sketch show. It was very funny and irreverent.  One sketch they did in 1997 featured cartoon vignettes with one being a depiction of Mohammed.  As far as I know, there was no uprising in the Muslim world because of it.  I wondered why that was.

 

Dave's Story

 

My friend Dave picked up a copy of Carl Sagan's Demon Hunted World for cheap and he put it on display and the comic store at which he works.  His intention was to give it away to the first person who asked about it.  Someone finally asked.  Dave was delighted.

 

Movie Recommendation: War Of The Worlds (1953)

Paramount Pictures

 

This movie set the bar for the science fiction films that followed.  It looks pretty good.  It gets its planetary science wrong, but still.

Music heard on the show...

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

First ad break bumpers: 'Everyone A Puzzle Lover' by 10,000 Maniacs & 'Shadow Line (To J. Conrad)' by The Fleshtones
Second ad break bumpers: 'Pink To Turns To Blue' by Husker Du & 'Beating My Head' by Red Lorry Yellow Lorry
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 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

dimland radio 7-31-10 show notes

I'm going to start making my show notes a little shorter. If you want a more fleshed out version, listen to my show!

Cold Open Rant

Before I even played the opening to the show I went on to rant about how much I disliked the movie musical 'Chicago'. He had it coming! He had it coming! He had it coming! ARRRRGGGHH!

Speaking Minnesohtan

Inspired by Z Talk regular, Winnie and her ability to do various accents, including the Minnesotan accent, I brushed off my Minnesohtan. I'm pretty good at it, but I'm a life long Minnesotan, so I guess I have an advantage. I told the story of a trip to Wyoming and the needling received for the accent.

It's Not True

This week I talked about the popular myth that people only use 10% of the brain. We use 100% of our brain. Our brain is always active, even when sleeping. Think about it... if we only use 10% of our brain we could remove the unused 90% and we'd be fine, right?

It's not true. Read about this myth here.

Phil Plait's "Don't be a dick" speech at TAM8

I wasn't at The Amaz!ing Meeting 8 (TAM8) in Las Vagas this year. In fact, I've never been to the largest yearly gathering of skeptics. Maybe someday. And since I wasn't at TAM8 I missed Phil Plait's speech on changing the tone that has creeped into the skeptical movement. He advised skeptics to avoid being dicks toward believers.

Much of his speech and one blogger's reaction can be found here. You can find Phil Plait's blog here.

Movie recommendation

This week I recommended the 1997 sci-fi film, 'Contact'. The film is based on Carl Sagan's novel of the same name. The story is of how it would happen and what might happen if we humans make contact with an intelligent alien lifeform. The subject is handled in an intelligent and scientifically plausible way. I was intrigued by it's comment on taking things on faith. And it's opening sequence is breathtakingly beautiful.

Put it in your Netflix queue now!

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ahead' by Wire
First ad break bumpers: 'Washaway' by XTC & 'Summer Fun’ by The Barracudas
Second ad break bumpers: 'OK Wait' by Naked Raygun & 'Destination Unknown' by Missing Persons
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