dimland radio 1-12-13 show notes

A Look At Sports

I did a little wrap-up talk about the NFL playoff games from earlier in the day.  Poor Broncos fans are going to be questioning the decision to take a knee with two time-outs and 30 seconds left in regulation.  The game was tied and with the great Payton Manning, why not try to get to field-goal range to avoid overtime?

Predictions

Former ZTalkers Allie Cheslick and Janet Russell, both believe themselves to be psychic (I'll refrain from divulging my opinion.), were mentioned on last week's Skeptic's Guide to the Universe.  It was during their psychic's predictions of 2012 review.  Allie and Janet didn't exactly nail it.

I also gave my predictions for 2013.  Admittedly, these are pretty high percentage guess, so I'll probably be right.  Here they are:

 

1)  By year's end, Bigfoot will still not be established to exist.

2)  By year's end, extraterrestrial visitation will still not be established to be happening or to have ever happened.

3)  9/11 Truthers will still not accept the official story despite the mountain of supporting evidence.

4)  Science will continue to make discoveries and developments that will improve our lives.

 

Ten Minute Topic With Chris Brown

Two weeks in a row?  That's right.  This time Chris and I talk about skepticamp, skepticism and curiosity, and a 10% tax hike on the middle class(?!).

Being Caught By Mom

Just give me two reasons why she's so popular... Oh.  Right.

A fellow I know told me a story of his brother and a life-size cutout of Elvira Mistress of the Dark.  It was innocent, really!  It was!  But try to tell your mother that.

I hope his story isn't one of those urban legend things.  I checked Snopes.com and didn't find anything, so it may be true.

I then related a similar story from my past.  It involved Monty Python's Flying Circus, the "Rude Visitors" sketch, a boob grab and the perfect timing of my mom walking in.

 

"What are you watching?!"

Movie Recommendation: Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil (2010)

 

  Magnolia Pictures

A funny twist on the cabin in the woods, college kids going out for beers, pot, and whatnot, and a pair of menacing hillbillies.  It's a slasher film, sort of.  Tucker and Dale just wanted a relaxing weekend at Tucker's "new" cabin and they would have were it not for those meddling kids.

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: 'I'll Be You' by The Replacements & 'All Shook Down' by The Screaming Blue Messiahs
Second ad break bumpers: 'Treason' by Naked Raygun & 'The Tide Is High' by Blondie
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 1-5-13 show notes

Happy New Year!  Here's More About The Flu

I talked about resolutions, dying from having a 16 ton weight dropped on me, and another (hopefully) humorous bit about having the flu.

Mea Culpa

Did I drop a spoiler last week when I talked about Martin Scorsese's 'Hugo'?  According to my younger brother, I did.  He thought my revealing the name of the character played by Ben Kingsley and who he was spoiled the moment of discovery in the film.  I don't like thinking I've done a spoiler, so I'm sorry.

But!  Then I remembered that I knew who the character was before seeing the film.  That got me thinking, "How did I know that?"  I looked into it by checking the reviews.  First up was Roger Ebert's review.  And right there in the fourth paragraph, "Yes, this grumpy old man, played by Ben Kingsley, is none other than the immortal French film pioneer, who was also the original inventor of the automaton." 

See?  If Roger can do it, so can I.

Pedantic Moment

I also checked ten other critics' reviews of 'Hugo' and eight of them made mention of Kingsley's character.  That got me remembering my sixth grade teacher, Mr. Malmstead.  He taught us that when talking statistics 8 out of 10 is 4 out of 5.   80,000 out of 100,000 is 4 out of 5.

My pedantry centered around the tendency of the last few years to call those sorts of rates using the base 10.  So I'll hear, 4 in 10, 6 in 10, etc.  Mr. Malmstead demanded that we call those as they really are.  2 in 5, 3 in 5, etc.

Math!

Ten Minute Topic With Chris Brown

The long-awaited return of TMT finally stopped being awaited for.  Chris Brown of Meet The Skeptics! returned to talk to me about a trip to India, math, his son Ethan, Ethan's math blog, and soccer.  Soccer?  Yep.

We didn't talk much skepticism, but it was good to hear from Chris again.

Changing One's Mind With Science

I hadn't heard of Mark Lynas before yesterday, but I spotted a Slate.com article on my Facebook page.  Apparently, Lynas was a prominent environmentalist who, for nearly two decades, had decried the dangers of genetically modified (GM) foods.  Turns out he studied the science of GM and found that he had been wrong.  And at the Oxford Farming Conference on January 3, 2013, he apologized for the damage he had done to the environmental movement by vilifying those greatly beneficial and safe crops.

It's not always easy admitting you're wrong.  And so publicly.  That is one of the great things about science and people who take science seriously - admitting an error and correcting it.

Here is Mark Lynas' entire speech at the Oxford Farming Conference. 

Movie Recommendation: Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy

 

  Warner Brothers

Christopher Nolan understands the Batman.  And shows us that in his nearly perfect trilogy of 'Batman Begins,' 'The Dark Knight,' and 'The Dark Knight Rises.'  I had just seen the final installment and was very impressed.  "Wow!" I think, was my first reaction.

Each film gets it right.  The villains are excellent, especially Heath Ledger's Joker.  Thomas Hardy is almost as good as Bane.  The gadgets are believable, along with the situations we find the Batman getting into.  Extreme?  Yes, but believable.  And Anne Hathaway's Catwoman?  MEOW!

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: 'Dodo/Lurker' by Genesis & 'O Superman (For Massenet)' by Laurie Anderson
Second ad break bumpers: 'Where There's Smoke, There's Fire' by Urban Guerrillas & 'Infected' by TheThe
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 2-18-12 show notes

"Woolly Mammoth" Video Update

Turns out the typically blurry video of a "woolly mammoth" crossing a river somewhere in Siberia is a hoax. Oh, really? It is? Aw, shucks.

See the river part of the video here. It's in focus and there's a decided lack of mammoth or bear or any animal of any kind.

Whitney Houston, Tony Bennett, And Legalizing Drugs?

So, Whitney Houston died. Perhaps you've heard. I talked a bit about what I think of her talent. Although I appreciate it, Whitney's style of singing just isn't what I like.

Another singer whose talent I appreciate, but don't particularly care of is Tony Bennett. Hours after Whitney's death had been made public, Mr. Bennett called on his audience to push government for the legalization of drugs. He used the examples of Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse and Whitney all dying drug and/or alcohol related deaths to help make his point. Only thing is none of his examples died of illegal drugs use. Nice try, Tony.

You can find Tony Bennett's statement here.

Ten Minute Topic With Chris Brown: Placebo Bands

The awesome Chris Brown

Believe it or don't, but this installment of TMT actually comes in at ten minutes! This time we talk about the satirical product, Placebo Band. It's the response of a couple of Australian skeptics to the popularity of the sham product Power Bands. There are several of these rubber bands with stickers that are supposed to help your balance and energy on the market. Placebo Band is actually honest about itself. It does nothing.

Chris brown is one of the North American distributors of Placebo Band and you can get you own here.

Indonesia: Not The Best Place For Atheists

Alexander Aan is an atheist living in Indonesia. He made atheistic comments on his Facebook page and people found out and attacked him, literally. He was arrested and faces five years in prison for not practicing one of five recognized religions in Indonesia: Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, or Confucianism.

Read more here about the "tolerant as long as you believe one of these five faiths" Indonesia.

Guest Correspondent For Stuck In The 80s

Can you guess who it was? Yep, it was me. Steve Spears is the brains behind the Stuck In The 80s podcast and blog and recently he asked if I could assist him on a blog project. A week or so prior to Valentine's Day he asked readers of the blog to submit their nominations for the best unromantic songs from the 80s. There was a good response with plenty of suggestions, but because Spears was so busy he asked me to rank the top 20 of the submitted songs.

It was my honor to help and you can find the list here. You can also subscribe to Stuck In The 80s on iTunes. It's free and fun, so why not check it out?

Movie Recommendation: Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)

(Paramount Pictures)

Sergio Leone's great "spaghetti" western feature Henry Fonda playing against type as a particularly nasty villain. It's very epic entertainment.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: 'Freak' by Bruce Foxton & 'Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)' by Talking Heads
Second ad break bumpers: 'How Soon Is Now' by The Smiths & 'I Would Die 4 U' by Prince
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 2-26-11 show notes

Week From Metaphorical Hell

Snow storm. 15" of snow. One employee has no car because of DWI. Complaints at one of my work's bigger accounts. Another employee gives two week notice when questioned on how much time he works each night. That employee pulls a no show and his run doesn't get cleaned. Head supervisor has Monday and Tuesday off. Special project request from account that had complaints. Task needs to be done Wednesday night. I help task get done and complaints dealt with Wednesday night...

There's more but you get the idea.

Ten Minute Topic With Chris Brown

Fellow skeptic, Chris Brown.

I hadn't done a Ten Minute Topic in a while, but I has this one in the can for a long time. Chris and I talk about personal experience and the trickiness of memory. We don't know everything, but we got into it anyway.

Learn more about memory here and about how false memories can be created here.

And here is an excellent clip of Neil deGrasse Tyson talking about the argument from ignorance and about eye witness testimony. I referred to it during my talk with Chris.

It's Not True: Magnetic Knee Therapy

Pure quackery. Don't waste your money.

An ad from the Sunday paper for a product claiming, that for only $9.97 plus $1.00 in handling, you can get a therapeutic knee wrap with 32 magnets that will ease pain and add flexibility. Don't you believe it. The magnets have no effect, except possibly the placebo effect.

Learn more about this particular bit of quackery here.

XTC Skylarking Vinyl Reissue

Yes, it's what you think it is. You should see the back cover.

My wife got me the vinyl reissue XTC's 1986 masterpiece, 'Skylarking'. It's my favorite of XTC's albums and it's wonderful. I consider it a grand error that the music consuming public never caught on to the band the way they deserved. It's a shame.

Not only does the reissue exclusively available on vinyl, there are two other special features: it sounds the way it was intended, but never did, and the cover art is what was originally intended. The sound wasn't right because the bass sound was set incorrectly, and the original artwork was considered to naughty for 1986.

Learn more about the sound issues here and the original cover art here.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ahead' by Wire
First ad break bumpers: 'That's Really Super, Supergirl' & 'Grass' by XTC
Second ad break bumpers: 'Ballet For A Rainy Day' & 'Season's Cycle' 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

dimland radio 10-9-10 show notes

Halloween Awareness Month at Dimland Radio continues despite my having a heavy heart due to...

Yankees win. Again!


I don't believe in curses. Not at all. Still witnessing the total postseason ownership of the MN Twins that the NY Yankees enjoy is just depressing. Yep, the Bronx bombers swept my Twins out of the playoffs again.

A walk with my son

Last Sunday, my son, Hayden, and I went for a walk. It was a pleasant walk, but it would have been more pleasant had it not been for the discovery of some graffiti and a little something else. You can read my blog giving more details on this page. Just scroll down to 'Innocence dented (or a nice walk spoiled)'.

Chris Brown's Meet the Skeptics podcast featuring ME!

For the third week running I mentioned Chris Brown's podcast 'Meet the Skeptics'. Why? Well, because I am Chris's latest guest!

You can subscribe to 'Meet the Skeptics' through iTunes or listen to it here.

Ten Minute Topic with Chris Brown

Popoff pretending to heal the gullible back in the day.

Popoff today offering to heal the gullible of their much-needed money.

Speaking of Chris Brown, he and I have another skeptical conversation in our ongoing series of Ten Minute Topic. This week we talked about faithhealers. Centering mostly on the shennanigans of one Pastor Peter Popoff. We talked about how this could be one case in which people of faith and skeptics should be able to get together and voice our displeasure with likely frauds such as Popoff.

Vlad the Impaler

This is Halloween Awareness Month after all, so I thought I'd talk a little bit about 15th century Eastern European leader, Prince Vlad Draculya. Certainly the inspiration of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula', Vlad has quite the reputation as being especially cruel what with all that impaling and such.

"Such a lovely morning for breakfast outdoors."

However, it is likely that the stories of his barbarity are exaggerated. Much of the tales of his impaling adventures originate from the German people he ruled who didn't like him.

You can learn more about Vlad here and watch a two versions of 'In Search of Dracula' on YouTube - here and here.

Nosferatu

Max Shreck as Count Orlok - How creepy!

In doing my research on Vlad the Impaler, I watched an episode of 'In Search of...' focusing on his legend. The show made use of several clips of the silent horror film classic 'Nosferatu'. So I took the opportunity to talk a bit about the film and the extremely creepy Max Shreck, who played the title role. Oh, man, he looked so cool as the vampire, Count Orlok.

I also mentioned the much more recent film 'Shadow of the Vampire' from 2000. It's an interesting take on the making of 'Nosferatu'. The twist was that Max Shreck really was a vampire.

You can get the original 'Nosferatu' and the 1979 version titled 'Nosferatu the Vampyre' on the Netflix. Both are well worth watching. And 'Shadow of the Vampire' is pretty good, too.

Dimland Radio Music Show Hour Radio Thing

I announced that I will being doing a monthly all music version of Dimland Radio! The first edition will be Saturday 10-16 at 11pm Central, midnight Eastern on ztalkradio.com. The catch is I can't archive the show, so if you ain't there as it happens, you won't ever hear it. Z Talk's license doesn't allow us to podcast a music show. I will be listing the songs played in the show notes, so you can see what you missed and maybe decide to catch it the next month.

Movie recommendation

I suggested that listeners watch the 1932 Universal horror classic, 'The Mummy' starring Boris Karloff. Karloff looks so crispy in the film you'd swear he could turn to dust at any moment. It is much different (and I think better) than the special effects ridden adventure versions of more recent years.

Put in your Netflix queue now.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ahead' by Wire
First ad break bumpers: 'Rattle My Bones' The Suburbs & 'Scarecrow People' by XTC
Second ad break bumpers: 'Back In Flesh' Wall of Voodoo & 'Honeymoon Croon' by Bauhaus
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 9-18-10 show notes

Twins win! Twins win!

Cold open: Twins talk

I went with a lengthy cold open to doing some talk about my Minnesota Twins. I related how excited I am about what looks like another AL Central division championship. And I took the opportunity (it's my show) to reminisce about our 1987 and 1991 World Champion teams.

1987 World Champion MN Twins

1991 World Champion MN Twins

We have colds

After going on about the Twins for 20 minutes, I finally started the show with a little talk about the annual event that occurs mere days after school starts. Hayden, my son, gets sick. Yep, after eight days of school he brought home a cold. At least, he shared his cold with my wife and me. He's such a generous boy.

Ten Minute Topic with Chris Brown

The second installment of TMT was the first of a two part talk about weight loss and obesity. Chris Brown talked about his battle with weight and what he's found really works. It's pretty simple: increase amount of calories burned each day to more than the amount calories taken in and you will lose weight. For most cases it is just that simple.

Next week will be part two and we'll talk more about obesity.

It's Not True

The Amityville Horror house, looks pretty innocent to me.

The untrue item this time? The Amityville Horror, which by now it ought to be common knowledge that the whole story was made up. But, pop culture being what it is, there are still a lot of people out there who still believe that the Lutz's story is real. It's not.

You can read more about it at Snopes.com and at Brian Dunning's Skeptoid.

Movie recommendation

I pulled this week's movie recommendation off of my all time favorite movie list. In fact, you could say this IS my all time favorite movie. It's the 1942 Warner Brothers' classic, 'Casablanca'. The fantastic WWII era romance and war-time intrigue starring the great Humphrey Bogart.

I talked about some of the back story on how the film was made. It wasn't thought to be the great film it turned out to be during production. Warner Brothers released a movie a week in those days and 'Casablanca' was just one of that year's 50 releases. However, the movie was a hit, it won the Best Picture Oscar and became Warner Brothers' signature film.

Oh, when I was listing that cast I couldn't think of the actor who played Sam the piano player. I thought it was Sam Dooley, but then I realized that was wrong. I still couldn't think of his name and I had to check the interwebs to find it. The actor was Dooley Wilson. I was close.

Put in your Netflix queue now.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ahead' by Wire
First ad break bumpers: 'Is It A Crime' by Sade & 'Tony's Theme' by Pixies
Second ad break bumpers: 'No Reply At All' by Genesis & 'Eighties' by Killing Joke
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 8-28-10 show notes

I did it again. Another stellar show.

I was cool once Part 2

I enjoyed talking about the old days last week that I decided to do it again. This time I talked about one particular concert my friend John and I had seen. The concert at First Avenue in Minneapolis was The Cramps with The Screaming Blue Messiahs opening. That Cramps were good, but the real show was The Messiahs. They were fantastic. I played a few clips of their songs to give the listener a flavor of the marvelous noise this band made.

You can read a more detailed account of the show here. You'll need to scroll down a bit or you could read about the other concerts on that page.

Ten Minute Topic with Chris Brown

Fellow skeptic: Chris Brown

This was the first installment of a new segment for Dimland Radio. In Ten Minute Topic, fellow skeptic, Chris Brown, and I talk skeptically about some topic for about ten minutes. But don't hold us to the ten minutes. Remember, Chris and/or I could be wrong about any of the stuff we talk about, however unlikely. It is ok to be skeptical of the skeptics.

For our first installment we talked about the Book of Revelations. Actually, Chris did most the talking. Chris revealed the most likely candidate for who was the Antichrist. You'll have to download the show to hear the identity.

Chris learned much of what he talked about from Bart Ehrman, a Biblical scholar of some note. Please check out Dr. Ehrman here.

Quietest place on earth

No, it's not the Z Talk chat room during my show. It's a specially constructed studio at Orfield Laboratories, Inc. in Minneapolis, MN. It's so quiet it made the Guiness Book of World Records. I would be interested to hear an EVP that might come out of that room.

You can read more about the silence here.

Movie recommendation

It was time for a Western to be recommended, so I chose one the was directed by and starred Kevin Costner. No, not that one. I suggested that my listeners check out the 2003 Western, 'Open Range'. It's excellent and has a very authentic feel to it. It costars Annette Benning and the incomparable Robert Duvall.

Put in your Netflix queue now.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ahead' by Wire
First ad break bumpers: 'Alice's House' by The Psychedelic Furs & 'Night Time by Killing Joke
Second ad break bumpers: 'Constant In Opal by The Church & 'Your Autumn Days by Figures
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 6-5-10 show notes

I had my second guest on this, my 13th, show. Don't get excited about the number 13. It's just a number. It's not lucky or unlucky. But you can get excited about my guest...

Chris Brown and his skepticism of renown

Chris Brown owns and operates a lawn care service in Connecticut, where he lives with his wife and two sons. He's also a skeptic and he decided something he could do to promote skepticism would be to put up his website skepticsinthepub.net. Through his website skeptics can find groups in their area to join for a beer and some critical thought; and you can find links to other skeptical blogs and podcasts. He also writes a skeptical blog that he calls Sklog, poorly named but well written. He even wrote a very nice piece about Dimland Radio.

I heard about Chris through the podcast Skepticalility which is hosted by skeptics Derek and Swoopy. I checked out his site and sent him an email telling him about my show. From there, we started emailing and instant messaging. I asked if he'd be a guest on my show and he jumped at the opportunity.

Because his schedule precluded his being able to join me live on a Saturday night, we recorded the interview a couple days earlier. Chris and I talked about his website, skepticism, some religion, a little politics and our ideas about bridging that gap between skeptics and believers.

We talked about notable skeptics such as James Randi (of course), Bart Ehrman, and the incomparable George Hrab. Hrab has a podcast called the Geologic Podcast and it's fantastic. He can be a bit profane, so be warned, and very skeptical, be warned again, but he is very entertaining. Along with being a noted skeptic, George Hrab is a fine musician. Check out his cover of Yes' 'Owner of a Lonely Heart'. He did it all himself.

If you missed my show, you can download it from the Z Talk show archive.

Someone at the post office cares about my soul, apparently

When the interview was complete, I had a couple minutes left before the show was over. I filled that time by talking about getting the latest edition of Skeptic magazine. Something interesting about that magazine, other than all of it's articles, was an apparent message that someone felt compelled to send me.

On the back cover was a full page ad for Daniel Loxton's excellent kid's book, 'Evolution'. We have the book and it is great. If you doubt or don't know much about evolution, I highly recommend picking up that book. No matter how old you are, it will give you a firm understanding of the basic ideas of evolution.

Anyway, evidently someone at the post office felt it necessary to draw a cross on the back cover, right next to my address. At least, I think that's what happened. No one in my household would have written on the cover of one of my Skeptics. I can only conclude that someone at the post office might have been trying to save my soul. A soul I'm reasonably sure I don't have.

I sold it for this life of financial uncertainty and worries, worries, worries. Pretty good deal, eh?

Miracle


I ended the show by highly recommending renting the 2004 film 'Miracle'. No, it's not some religiously significant story. Not really. It's the story of Herb Brooks and how he put together that gold medal winning hockey team for the 1980 Winter Olympics. Kurt Russell absolutely nailed Brooks in his performance. I think it's a terrible oversight that he wasn't even nominated for an Oscar for his amazing portrayal.

So put 'Miracle' at the top of your Netflix queue. You don't have a Netflix membership? Go here and get one NOW!

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ahead' by Wire
First ad break bumpers: 'Home Of The Brave' by Naked Raygun &'Back In Flesh ' by Wall of Voodoo
Second ad break bumpers: 'Turning Japanese' by The Vapors & 'Communication' by Pete Townshend
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 On Demand page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com