dimland radio 1-19-19 show notes

I Was Challenged

This is the actual story.

You may recall a story I told a couple shows back about a skeptic sharing a bit of fake news on Facebook. It was my position that they should have known better. They should have taken the time to make certain the story was true and that the site was a reliable source for news.

 

At the time I did a quick Google search using the story's headline - Georgia Man Cuts Off His Own Penis To Stop Masturbating. I added "Snopes" to the headline and immediately found an article on Snopes debunking this bit of fake news.

 

Done and done.

 

However, a friend of the show challenged me to do a deeper dive. So, I did. I tell the story of that deeper dive on the show.

New Year's Resolutions

Normally, I make only one resolution each year and it's always the same: I resolve each year to live to see the next year. One of these years I'll break that resolution.

 

But this year, I realized I had made two other resolutions. It wasn't an intentional thing, I was just thinking that I was determined to finally finish a portrait I had started and had been tickling at for a couple years. I also had been thinking I was determined to be a more positive and less snarky presence on Facebook. Not that I won't ever snark, but I'll try to tone it down a bit.

 

Then it hit me! I just made two resolutions! Heaven help me!

 

Well, let's see how I do.

 

An Examination Of Lazy Photoshopping

Look at those poorly Photoshopped big pants!

Someone thought it would be funny to make Pres. Trump look fat by Photoshopping really big pants on him in the official holiday photo the President and First Lady took last year.

 

Oh, har, har! Look at the big pants!

 

I used the photo to explain how to spot poorly done photo fakery.

 

Of course, one could just do a quick Google search to find the actual image.

 

 

A Dimland Pedantic Moment: Listener Questions Are Questionable

I have been listening to and really enjoying the Slate podcast Hit Parade. It's a monthly podcast on which host Chris Molanphy examines some aspect of pop music history. I don't always care for the music, but I still find the podcast fascinating.

 

The main show comes out near the end of each month, but they release a mini episode as a connection between shows in the middle of the month. They call it The Bridge episode. On the bridge podcast the host and one of the show's producers will follow-up on the previous show and preview the next show. They also have a listener call in to partake in a three question trivia challenge. The first question of the challenge has to do with the previous show's topic, while the second and third questions relate to the upcoming show.

 

Then the listener gets to attempt to stump the host with a trivia question. The implication being the listener crafts the question themselves, except, call me cynical, the question also has to do with the upcoming episode and they sound too professionally written.

 

Hm. Am I being pedantic or am I being cynical?

 

Three Cool Things

Skeptics to the left of me, birders to the right...

1) The above photograph was taken be my friend Craig at the most recent MN Skeptic's meet-up. A meet-up that happened to coincide with another group that Craig meets with: A gathering of birders for talking about birds and drinking beer. It was an usually crowded night for the skeptics. The birders were pretty cool.

 

2) Craig also clued me onto this young musician from Germanland. Her name is Sina (pronounced See-Nah. I got it wrong on the show.) She's very talented and has quite the appreciation for the music I like. How can I not like this kid?! She posts videos of herself playing the drum parts of famous drummers flawlessly. Her videos include her explaining why Ringo Starr was great, there's an absolutely beautiful version of The Beatles' Something with Avonlea an equally young and talent singer, and there are videos of Sina playing Keith Moon's part on My Generation and Won't Get Fooled Again. Kids today! I tell ya!

 

3) The decidedly not cool and not punk novelty album Chipmunk Punk by Alvin & the Chipmunks is horrible. I explain why it ain't punk. It has covers of songs by Linda Ronstadt, Tom Petty, Queen, and Billy Joel - punk icons all. This album is so not punk, it might just be pun... Um. Hang on...

 

Anyway, on my Spotify I came up with a punk alternative listing of songs Alvin & Co could have covered. And that's cool. If I say so myself.

 

You can find and follow me on Spotify. Search Jim Fitzsimons and you'll find my playlists.

 

However, here's the list with links!

 

Gotta Getaway - Stiff Little Fingers

Girls Don't Like It - The Undertones

Your Phone's Off The Hook, But You're Not - X

Holiday In Cambodia - Dead Kennedys

What Do I Get? - Buzzcocks

Pumping (My Heart) - Patti Smith Group

Psycho Killer - Talking Heads

God Save The Queen - Sex Pistols

Judy Is A Punk - Ramones

Just imagine those songs as sung by those pesky rodents.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Nocturnal Me' by Echo & The Bunnymen & 'Twilight Zone' by Golden Earring

Second ad break bumpers: 'How Soon Is Now' by The Smiths & 'Electric Lash' by The Church

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 7-8-17 show notes

A Correction

Yes, again. I said that artist Chuck Close, after a paralyzing event, painted with his mouth. That is not the case. He has some use of his arms, so he straps a brush to his hand and paints that way. His paintings are now on the "pixelated" side when viewed up close, but from a distance...Wow!

 

Click here to check out his Wikipedia page.

James On Coke Bottles Got Me Thinking Of Presidents

I usually buy a couple/few 20 oz bottles of Coca-Cola a week and recently the brand has been putting names on the bottles. First names. And I found a bottle with James on it. Well, of course, I bought it. My name is James after all.

 

That somehow got me to note to the cashier that James is the most common first name of the American Presidents. There were six named James (one is more commonly called Jimmy, but he's still a James).

 

That got me talking about Grover Cleveland and other aspects of the American Presidency. My mind goes in interesting directions.

 

Then I mentioned finding a couple names that matched part of the name of the alternative rock band Pixies' lead singer's real name: Charles Thompson. I thought that was cool and I asked the twenty-something fellow behind the counter if he had heard of the Pixies. He hadn't. Damn kids.

 

 

It's Not True: Buzz Aldrin And Pres. Trump 

 

Recently, a story has been making it's way through social's media stating that the second man to walk on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, praised himself for not punching the President. Aldrin made a few humorous looks, but he didn't punch the Commander in Chief, at a press conference, as our first child President gave his book report on a book he hadn't read. The book this time was about space, something about which Aldrin knows a good deal more than the President.

After listening to the most powerful man in the world's meandering and clueless statements, Aldrin claimed his greatest life achievement was refraining from an act of physical assault. And it's not true. Aldrin said nothing of the sort. A satirical website, wishing it was The Onion, made the whole story up. That didn't stop the internets from believing it and spreading it like wildfire.

Snopes.com sussed this one out by simply looking at the fake news site's "about" page.

A Rant

 

I had started into doing a skeptical examination of a recent big claim, but I sidetracked myself by going on an unplanned rant. The rant was about a couple annoying cheers, I guess that's what you'd call them, at sporting events that get under my skin.

 

One has been around for some time now. It's the asinine "get in the hole" cry every time a golfer attempts a shot that has even the remotest chance of getting in the cup. Every time I watch golf on the TV some dipshit is there to yell it out. Thank you so very much, Caddyshack. (Doing some research, I thought I might have to blame Happy Glimore, but Adam Sandler never says the phrase in that movie.)

The other cheer is a newer phenomenon. It's the Ric Flair woo. Flair was some pro wrestler who made that woo sound as part of his gimmick, but it has gained traction among all sorts of sports fans. It's been creeping into sporting events and the dipshits who do it at football or baseball games just do it to hear themselves do it. I mean, there isn't a reason to woo many of the times I hear it. Most of the time there hasn't been a big, cheer-worthy play, they just like to shout, "Wooooo!". Thank you so very much, Ric Flair.

 

Finally! The Amelia Earhart Mystery Has Been Solved! Uh, Well, Not So Fast...

Motivated reasoning can make for people accepting really poor evidence as proof that they are right. And seeing as how the 80th anniversary of the disappearance of aviation pioneer, Amelia Earhart, has been reached, it just couldn't go by without someone making a claim that a solution has been found. A claim bolstered by, in my opinion, motivated reasoning.

A two-hour TV documentary special has arrived to tell us what really happened to Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, all those years ago. Once again the notion that they were captured by the Japanese and imprisoned as spies is promoted. This time there's a newly discovered photograph, in which, the investigators claim, Earhart and Noonan can be seen.

 

Photo: US National Archives

 

Well, maybe. Maybe it's them. I think it's far more likely the two in question in the photo are just two of a group of eight Japanese people, standing on a dock.

I dig deeper into my reasons for my skepticism on the show. One big reason for my skepticism is the fact that the special is airing on...

The History Channel

 

 

Oh, it's on the History Channel? Well, then the mystery must be solved. Obviously, Earhart was captured by space aliens!

 

It doesn't help the special's credibility at all by being on that sad and pathetic channel. It only very vaguely has anything to do with history as it is and what it has is sensationalist bullshit.

 

How bad is it that skeptics are longing for the days when the History Channel was the Hitler Channel? At least then there was some history involved.

Movie Recommendation: None

I ran out of time, so you are on your own this week.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Bikini Red' by The Screaming Blue Messiahs & 'Rock The Casbah' by The Clash

Second ad break bumpers: 'Is It A Crime?' by Berlin & 'Night Time' 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

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.

dimland radio 2-11-17 show notes

A Dimland Radio Look At Sports 

Although my favorite game is baseball, I do also like football and last weekend was the NFL's biggest game: the Superbowl. Since I'm certain the MN Vikings will never again play in that big game, I never have much of a rooting interest in which team wins the game. Sometimes I might pull for a particular team, but most of the time I just want a good game. A game with plenty of offense and great plays. A close game, in which the teams are evenly matched and that either could win. Blow outs are boring.

After the first half and well into the third quarter, I thought this year's Superbowl was going to be a bore. I was happy for Atlanta, but the game would still have been anticlimactic.

However, the Atlanta Falcons were playing the New England Patriots. And hard to believe as it is, those Patriots managed to come from a 25 point difference to win in overtime. Insane!

I got that good game after all.

Speaking of baseball, which I did on the show, there's an experiment that MLB wants to try on the minor league level. In an effort to shorten games, they want to, in extra innings, place a runner on second base at the beginning of the inning. (Oh, boy! More bunts!) Extra inning games might get shorter, but that's not the cause of longer lasting games. Most games don't go to extra innings, but can still go for more than three hours. 

MLB is considering other options, but this one just seems dumb to me.

Pedantic Moment: An Explanation

One of the regular segments of my show is the Pedantic Moment. Last week I did one on a McDonalds McCafe TV ad. I was needled in the chat room that I needed to lighten up. It's just a commercial.

Well, yeah. A Pedantic Moment is called that for a reason: I'm being pedantic. Duh.

If I lighten up, I wouldn't have a segment for my show. And you try filling an hour each week.

An Example Of Fake News 

A Facebook friend posted a bit of fake news from a site called vaccines.com. The anti-vax site posted a triumphant article about how the Center for Disease Control and Prevention "admits 98 million Americans were given cancer virus via the polio shot." Well, that's not exactly what happened.

I replied to my FB friend: 

This anti-vax site is an example of fake news. If you read the information in the screen capture from the CDC that the anti-vaxxers are so proud to have captured you would learn:

1) The CDC did not admit 98 million Americans were given the "cancer virus" via the polio shot. 98 million Americans received one or more doses of the polio vaccine between 1955-1963. Of those 98 million, 10 to 30 million could have received vaccine contaminated with SV40. 

2) SV40 is a virus found in some species of monkey. And, although some research results conflict, the majority of the scientific evidence does not show SV40 to be cancer causing in humans. Quoting from that same page "...the majority of studies done in the US and Europe, which compare persons who received SV40-contaminated polio vaccine with those who did not, have shown no causal relationship between receipt of SV40-conaminted polio vaccine and cancer." 

3) This information is not gone from the CDC site. The information is still there, but it has been summarized as follows: 

"Some of the polio vaccine administered from 1955 to 1963 was contaminated with a virus called simian virus 40 (SV40). The virus came from the monkey kidney cells used to produce the vaccines. Once the contamination was discovered in the Salk inactivated polio vaccine in use at that time, the U.S. government established requirements for vaccine testing to verify that all new batches of the polio vaccine were free of SV40. Because of research done with SV40 in animal models, there was some concern that the virus could cause cancer. However, evidence suggests that SV40 has not caused cancer in humans." 

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/concerns-history.html 

Judging by what the anti-vaxxer wrote, they hadn't read the information thoroughly before believing this to be some "grand admission" by the CDC. That was evident from the jump when they claimed all 98 million polio vaccine recipients got the contaminated vaccine. 

Vaccines.news is what fake news looks like.

Some True Crime Is Too Difficult To Listen To

I briefly talked about a podcast called Sword and Scale. It is a true crime podcast that the real monsters of the world are real. One particular story real monster was Luka Mignotta and what I heard on the show had me fast-fowarding because it was just too much. 

I think I'll talk more about this on next week's show. I didn't have time to get into it fully this time. 

Movie Recommendation: Dirty Harry (1971)

Yes, this is the classic tough, play-by-his-own-rules cop drama featuring one of Clint Eastwood's signature character and you've probably seen it. If you haven't, it's a very gritty and compelling film. If you have seen it, but it's been a while, I recommend watching it again.

I watched it again recently and I was struck by Andrew (Andy) Robinson's performance as the serial killer named Scorpio. He's so intense and his angelic face makes his demented need to kill and for fame even more distrubing. His plea that he has rights when suffering Harry's wrath is so creepy in one of the film's pivotal scenes.

Eastwood is solid, but Robinson steals the show.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Waltz The Halls' by Game Theory & 'Absolute Beginners' by The Jam

Second ad break bumpers: 'Time The Avenger' by Pretenders & 'Perfect Skin' by Lloyd Cole & the Commotions

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.