dimland radio 4-13-19 show notes

Our Winter Weather Has Returned

For the second April in a row, we in the Upper Midwest got hit with a snowstorm. Not s much snow as last year, but the wintry mix of rain/sleet/snow lasted three days. The storm blew in on Wednesday after having a Monday with lots of sun and a temperature hitting almost 70º.

Ah, spring in Minnesota.

Where Have All The Trees Gone?

Since the early 2000s, a little invasive pest has been making its presence know. The emerald ash borer came to North America from China and found out there are an awful lot of ash trees on this continent (7 to 9 billion in the US alone). They've been feasting ever since and the ash trees began dying.

 

It's the larvae that cause the most damage.

 

I talked about how parts of our neighborhood having been changing drastically in the last week or two.

 

Cool Thing Number One: It's Julian Assange

Julian Assange, the Wikileaks guy, was arrested in Ecuador last week. He looked as though he had let himself go a bit. George Hrab, of the Geologic Podcast, nailed it. He created the image below.

 

It's... brilliant!

Cool Thing Number Two: What Else? The Picture of A Black Hole!

Photo credit: USA Today & NASA

Yeah, it's blurry. Yeah, it looks like a donut. But it's a god damn black hole!

 

Sure, it's blurry. It's 55 million light years away!

 

Learn more about this excellent achievement in science here.

A Dimland Radio Science Hero: Katie Bouman

Katie Bouman is the young computer scientist whose work on developing an algorithm made the capturing an image of a black hole possible. She was part of a team of 200 or so scientist and she's become the face of this scientific breakthrough.

 

The photograph of her reaction to seeing that first image clearly demonstrates the kind of joy that is made possible by science. It's a fantastic image.

 

Click here to watch her TEDx Talk from 2016. In it she explains what she and her team are doing to photograph a black hole.

 

Cool Thing Number Three: Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker Teaser Trailer

Simply put, the trailer is awesome. It looks like the final part of the third Star Wars trilogy could be pretty damn good. I am pretty exited for this one.

 

And, Of Course, The Ubiquitous Nerd Anger

Within minutes of the new Star Wars trailer being dropped, at least one angry nerd had to be first in line to hate the movie before it has even been released.

 

I talked about nerd anger last week as it pertained to the Joker trailer. And, as if I were psychic, I compared the angry reaction toward Joker to that which the Star Wars movies have been receiving since The Force Awakens. I watched the trailer for the new Star Wars movie and I thought it was awesome. The angry nerd in the exchange below seems to have forgotten some of George Lucas' shortcomings in the movies he was responsible for. I sarcastically helped to remind him.

 

 

 Halloween In April. Talk About Dracula (1931)

 

 

For no reason, other than I wanted to I talked about the Universal Studios horror classic Dracula starring Bela Lugosi. It's not a prefect film. In fact, it gets pretty stagy after the first act. But, right up until the moment the Count arrives in England it's pretty damn good.

 

I also did a little comparison to the Spanish language version, which was made at the same time as the Lugosi version. In some ways the Spanish version betters the more famous version. It looks better, using more camera movements, better edits, and some nice close-ups of the vampire's eyes.

But, although the Spanish version may be better from a technical aspect, it lacks Lugosi.

 

"Come here!"

"¡Vete aquí!"

 Bela is just more creepy and threatening.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: '(The) Mayor Of Simpleton' by XTC & 'You Better You Bet' by The Who

Second ad break bumpers: '(The) Ledge' by The Replacements & 'Is It A Crime?' by Sade

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 9-15-18 show notes

A Dimland Radio Pedantic Moment: Close Encounters Of The Third Kind Again

Excellent forced perspective!

Yes, again. This time I explained how suspension of disbelief works for me. I can accept the main idea of this great film that there are extraterrestrials visiting earth, that they have far advanced technology, and that they can somehow implant ideas into people's minds. But the story has to stay within the rules it sets up for itself. And everything else in Close Encounters follows along with what would happen in the real world. Nothing feels out of place or wrong. Except how do the humans know how to respond when learning a "basic tonal language" without having been given any kind of key from which to learn? How did the government fellows know what to tell the musician to play back when the "conversation" started? Am I making sense?

I gave a made up example of potential rule breaking in another movie (Creature From The Black Lagoon - 1954) that would make it difficult to suspend disbelief. Impossible, even. And I noted an oddity about The Wolfman (1941), more than one actually. And I talked about my favorite deus ex machina moment that comes from Monty Python's Life Of Brian (1979).

I blogged about the whole Pedantic Moment I have regarding Close Encounters.

Beardless Jim

Jim

Beardless Jim

As a little stunt for my friends among the Minnesota Skeptics, I shaved off my mustache and beard. It has been 11 years since I had gone clean shaven.

Leading up to the big moment I had foregone trimming the facial hair. I'm gonna be shaving it off, so why bother. That means the before picture show the beard being much shaggier than I usually keep it. I don't care for a shaggy beard. On me, that is.

I also don't care for the clean shaven look. So the beard and mustache are growing back. By next month's meet-up, I will look as I should.

I also talked about the traffic and road construction woes that plague my sojourns to the meet-up location. Well, if you want nice, smooth, and reliable roads, construction delays are the price we pay. And taxes, of course. 

A Rant About Coffee Drinkers

When working as a janitor, I can get annoyed by some of the messes left behind. Not the kind of messes one would expect in a place of business due to the work being done. It's the unnecessary and avoidable messes that make me grind my teeth.

One such unnecessary mess is caused by coffee drinkers and their insistence on filling their coffee mugs as full as possible. They need that caffeine so much, they just can't leave any it of that mug unfilled, and off they go dripping coffee all along the way. And leaving coffee rings.

Coffee rings. Coffee rings. Coffee rings. 

A Dimland Radio Science Hero: Harrison Ford

I haven't been able to discover how Harrison Ford feels about GMOs or vaccination, but his stance on human-caused climate change and how the people of the world need to address it is right on. He has called for Americans, at least, to stop casting votes for anti-science political candidates, whether they're really anti-science or just pretending. 

An Anti-Vaxxer Or A Russian Troll?

The following anti-vax "facts" list was left in response to a pro-vaccination comment on Facebook:

My response? Listen to the show. ;)

Some anti-vax myths dispelled here. 

Also On The Show 

Hurricane Florence? Never fear! Pat and Kat have it under control! 

Three Cool Things

 

1) The above picture of our president gave me a chuckle, but I found something out about it, which I will talk about next week.

2) Aaron Rodgers, quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, added another story to his legend with his astounding second half (after a knee injury) performance against the Chicago Bears. Oh, if only the Vikings could have a quarterback like Rodgers. 

3) GQ has released a recent interview of Paul McCartney. There's a video of Paul talking about some of his classic Beatles and Wings tunes.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Head Over Heels' by The Go Go's & 'One Day' by The Church

Second ad break bumpers: 'Undertow' by Suzanne Vega & 'Twist' by Tones On Tail

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 7-28-18 show notes

Why No New Show?

A brief explanation as to why there wasn't a new show last week. I was sick. I did put a bonus episode into the iTunes feed that was an interview with skeptic Ben Radford, originally played on 6-11-11. 

A Couple Follow-Ups

In the show notes for the 7-14-18 show, I made the clarifications for the information I didn't have in my show prep. On this show, I make them again: Pittsburgh Pirates and Keith Jackson. Listen and it will make sense.

And that fellow I saw do a dance on the freeway during a traffic stand still may have been inspired by this Shiggy/Drake Challenge thing.

Attitudes Changes Over The Decades

Pres. Trump has a way about him. It's not a good way. The reaction to his summit with Putin was predictable on the part of his detractors, but a little surprising (and encouraging) on the part of his fellow members of the Republican party.

I also noted the change in attitude toward the Russians and intelligence gatherers over the decades.

Pres. George W Bush was vilified by some, in part, because he believed his intelligence people. Trump is vilified by some of those same types of people for not believing his. Pres. Reagan had everyone worried because he wasn't friendly enough with the Soviets and Gorbachev, while Trump has everyone disgusted for being too friendly with the Russians and Putin. 

The Mandela Effect And We Are The Champions

An example of the Mandela Effect (lots of people remembering a historical event or something similar incorrectly) is Queen's song We Are The Champions. The studio version does not end with the words "of the world." But, plenty of people think that's how the song ends.

However, are they really remembering it incorrectly? I found something that suggests there is a good reason people think the song ends with the words.

The trailer to the upcoming biopic on Queen and Freddie Mercury gives a clue. 

Dimland Radio Science Hero: Penn & Teller

 

I know I've talked about Penn & Teller's brilliant intro for their Penn & Teller: Bullshit show on the anti-vax movement. I can't remember if I official declared them science heroes for that bit, so I rectified that on this show. Their skeptical series may have gotta a thing or two wrong, for the most part they did a fine job. And the anti-vax opener is fantastic. Worthy of science hero status on its own. 

Dimland Radio Science Zero: Penn Jillette

And then I taketh away.

Ever since Penn went public about how he lost over a hundred pounds, I've been uncomfortable with his blind spot on the skepticism surrounding the claims of vegan diets and water fasts. Well, as Penn & Teller once said, "Everybody got a gris gris." A belief unsupported by or contradicted by scientific evidence that they just can't let go.

This blind spot seems to be Penn's gris gris.

Yes, he's lost a lot of weight and he's been keeping it off, but he's been promoting people who have been discredited by medical science. Orac of Respectful Insolence (an actual doctor) reviewed Penn's interview of water fast diet guru Dr. Michael Klaper. Orac disputes, with science, the claims made by Klaper and he voiced his disappointment at Penn, a skeptic, giving an unfettered platform to such an astounding claim maker.

Well, everybody got a gris gris.

Some Talk About The Maltese Falcon 

It's a given that I recommendation everyone who loves movies to watch the 1941 version of The Maltese Falcon. It's a fantastic film.

I talked about the subtle and not-so-subtle hints that a character or two in the film were gay. I wrote about that in my weekly blog at Warehouse Find.

I also compared the 1941 film to the very inferior 1931 version. That one has some eyebrow raising moments related to the nature of Pre-Code Hollywood, but that's about all that is interesting about that film.

Well, there was one other interesting thing... 

Dimland Radio Pedantic Moment: Sam Spade's Calendar

In the 1931 version of The Maltese Falcon in the opening scene we see a wall calendar in the background showing the date to be the fifth, but as the scene continues we are told that the first of the month is only two weeks away.

What's the date on that calendar?

So, either someone wasn't paying attention to that calendar or Spade has a really poor grasp of time. 

Three Cool Things

1) It was a good week on social media for me. My post about The Maltese Falcon and the hints at homosexuality sparked a lively conversation.

2) My latest piece of art for the comic store Nostalgia Zone turned out really well. It's not as good as the Basil Gogos illustration I was paying homage to, but I'm very pleased with it.

3) My wonderful wife found a bin filled with art, including a page of original comic book art. It's the only one I own. I feared it lost, but she found it.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'A Man Of Such Great Promise' by The Style Council & 'Lay All Your Love On Me' by ABBA

Second ad break bumpers: 'Little America' by REM & 'Scarecrow People' 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

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.