dimland radio 7-12-14 show notes

Pedantic Moment: Cuteeee

 

When I read the posts on my Facebook, I see people not understanding how to elongate words for emphasis. For instance, if you wanted to elongate the word "cute" how would you do it?

Hint: The "E" is silent.

Congratulations Cosmos!

 

Congratulations to the producers of 'Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey'! The Fox science series received 12 Emmy nominations:

- Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series
- Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Progamming
- Outstanding Art Direction for Variety, Nonfiction, Reality, or Reality/Competition Programming
- Outstanding Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming
- Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming
- Outstanding Main Title Design
- Outstanding Music Composition for a Series
- Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music
- Outstanding Sound Editing for Nonfiction Programming
- Outstanding Sound Mixing for Nonfiction Programming
- Outstanding Special and Visual Effects.

I Did A Study

 

Admittedly, it was not a very scientific study, but I was prompted to do it by the meme you see above. I thought that I'd check out 50 notorious murderers and find out what their astrological signs were and see how they fared compared with the claim that is made by the meme.

 

My results showed that 56% of the 50 murderers I compiled did not fall under any of the five signs in the meme. I wrote about it here.

 

I will add this, which I hadn't thought to check for the original blog or to mention on the show. It is interesting that 7 of 12 (that's the ratio of signs not included in the meme) is about 58.33%. That's not far of from 56%, is it?

Dimland Radio Science Hero: Ozzy Osbourne

 

You read that right. Ozzy Osbourne. Some years ago, I'm not sure how many, Ozzy and Sharon were guests on the Graham Norton Show along with Olivia Newton John. ONJ was hawking some fruity, herbal drink her husband was marketing. She claimed the potion "clears your mind, brightens your day."

 

Ozzy drank a good amount of it and had a little fun. Then he wrapped it up nicely when he let everyone know what he really thought of it. Sure, this isn't an example of good science or skepticism being done. It was pretty knee-jerk. But I thought it was an excellent response to some fairly dubious claims.

 

Tommy Cooper Dies On Stage

 

There's a parody of Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start the Fire' song that changes all of the pop culture and historical references. One change was the line, "Tommy Cooper died on stage..."

 

That line intrigued me as I hadn't heard of Tommy Cooper or the fact that he died on stage. I looked it up and I found video of his having a heart attack while performing on live television. I won't link to it out of respect for his family.

 

I hoped that my talking about it wouldn't be disrespectful, but I described what happened. How he was preparing to perform a trick, while his assistant helped him into an over-sized cloak, when he seemed to lose his balance. His assistant leaves the stage as Cooper collapses. The audience laughs, thinking this was part of the routine. He then falls onto his back. Audience laughter again. Cooper is just lying there. It begins to dawn on everyone, "This is not part of the act." Cut to commercial.

 

And that was it. He died.

 

I talked about how suddenly death can come for us. And that the moment wasn't very dramatic. It was almost gentle. Cooper didn't grab his chest or cry out in pain. He just slumped to the floor and then onto his back.

 

When our time comes, sometimes it just sneaks up on us.

 

Movie Recommendation: A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

 

MGM

 

I really didn't have time to go into a movie recommendation this week, but at the top of the show, during my Pedantic Moment, I did talk a little bit about this movie. So, I figured it was as good a recommendation as any.

It's a very funny caper film starring two Pythons: John Cleese, who also wrote the film, and Michael Palin, along with Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline. Everyone is very good and very funny in this movie. Nicely done.

    

Music heard on the show...

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

First ad break bumpers: 'Highwayman' by The Highwaymen & 'Heat of the Moment' by Asia
Second ad break bumpers: 'Here Comes Your Man' by Pixies & 'Houses In Motion' by Talking Heads
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 11-6-10 show notes

The world is chatting

I started out talking about how much I enjoy the online chat feature of stations like Z Talk Radio. I get the chance to meet and talk you folks from around the world. In particular, a fellow named Khalil from Morocco. It is a small world afterall.

Why is this man smiling

That's me smiling in the circled portion.

My wife dug out the Minneapolis StarTribune we had saved from October 2002. On the front page is a picture of the crowd at a MN Twins playoff game, all looking very worried and disappointed (the Twins were losing). All except for me. I was grinning like some goofball, because my friend (also see in circled section) and I were making some rather macabre jokes to each other.

Ozzy Osbourne is a mutant

Hard to believe, I know, but rocker Ozzy Osbourne had his personal genome mapped. What was found indicated the Ozzy has some mutations that make him prone to addiction, but help him survive the abuse.

You can check out the article here.

Roger Ebert is a skeptic

It is apparently true.

Roger writes a blog (which I need to read more regularly) that is really good. He recently wrote a piece on communicating with the dead, life after death and psychic abilities. Although, he thinks it highly unlikely for there to be such things, he does leave the door open just a little. He does make the "appeal to quantum" argument that many in the paranormal field make (see Deepak Chopra), but subatomic theory has nothing to do with talking to the dead.

Roger includes some very good video clips that are well worth watching. You can find it all here.

Movie Recommendation: Sherlock Holmes TV series featuring Jeremy Brett (starting in 1984)

Jeremy Brett is the best Sherlock Holmes I have ever seen. And these Granada Television versions of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle creation are very faithful to the original stories. Not necessarily the most action filled stories, but the characters and the tone are perfect.

Put it in your Netflix queue now!

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ahead' by Wire
First ad break bumpers: 'Close (to the Edit)' by Art of Noise & 'It All Depends' by Figures
Second ad break bumpers: 'The Village' by New Order & 'Black Coffee in Bed' by Squeeze
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 7-24-10 show notes

A new segment was introduced on this show...

It's Not True

It came to me a day or two before Saturday's show that I could do a segment dedicated to shedding light of urban legends and popular myths. It further came to me that I could use a song as an intro and outro for the new segment. That song is The Who's 'It's Not True'. It's an oldie but a goodie.

Now I realize that I had already been doing a bit of the exposing of things that aren't true, but now I have an official song. This doesn't mean that I'll do an 'It's Not True' every week, but we'll see.

The first two stories were from guests on late night TV talk show. One told a story as happening to him, the other told a story of something happening to a friend...

Those are my cookies

I forget the actor who told this tale on Late Night with David Letterman, but I do recall he was British. He told of how a stranger at the airport had shared the actor's recently purchased packet of cookies, without permission. Not a word was said to the stranger concerning his rudeness, which was explained away by the British not wanting to make waves.

Moments after the stranger's rude behavior had run out of cookies, the actor was called to board the plane. It was then that he discovered the packet of cookies he had bought were in the pocket of his coat. Whoop, whoop! It was he who had been rude and stole the stranger's cookies.

It's not true. Read about this urban legend here.

Elizabeth Banks' poop story

The next urban legend passed of as an interesting story on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (he's great) came from Elizabeth Banks. She was promoting her latest movie and told this story that happened to her friend...

Her friend meets a great guy at some club, the hit it off and head back to his place for a little... ahem. The next morning as he's leaving for work when he tells to make herself at home, have some breakfast, leave when she wants. She also doesn't need to worry about locking the door, because it will close and lock behind her.

So she takes her time and finds she needs to poop. She does. Then she finds that the poop won't flush, so she finds a plastic bag and scoops the log out of the toilet. She cleans up as best she can and then gathers her stuff (including the poop). She writes a note telling the fellow what a great time she had and leaves her phone number.

Out the door she heads. It closes and locks behind her. Bong! The bag of poop had been left on the counter next to her note! Oh no!

It's not true. Read about this urban legend here.

Science may discover how Ozzy Osbourne has survived

Notorious rock star Ozzy Osbourne is getting his genome mapped. Scientist aren't sure, but it's possible they may find out how Ozzy has managed not to die after all those years of drug and alcohol abuse.

Hayden discovers Indy

No not the Indy 500. I mean Indiana Jones. I related how my wife suggested that my son, Hayden, and I watch 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. We did and it was a treat. Hayden had never seen it before.

One Nation Indivisible

I'm not so sure. I talked about the reaction I got on FaceBook when I posted simply, "One Nation Indivisible." My intend was to point out the same thing some atheists were doing with their billboards displaying the same message. Namely, including the phrase "under God" excludes those Americans that don't believe in the same god (or in god at all) as the majority of the rest of this country's citizens. That is hardly indivisible. That was my point.

The reaction I got, albeit small, was totally political. Two people had to go on brief anti-Sarah Palin attacks. This bothered me and I respond sarcastically that all the Republican presidents in this country's history were evil dividers. Starting with Lincoln, that dividing bastard. I wished for our country to have just one party, the Democrats. Then everything well be perfect.

On the show I told of how I used to be much more political a few years ago, but that I had wearied of the whole hating of the opposing party. I no longer want to be part of demonizing anyone regardless of political stripe.

Movie recommendation

This week I recommended the 2008 documentary, 'Witch Hunt'. It focuses on the dark period in law enforcement in this country where every neighborhood was teeming with Satanic child molesters. Many innocent parents did a good deal of prison time for nonexistent crimes. It took too long for clearer heads to realize the injustice and free those people. One man spent 20 years in prison.

This country needed a good amount of skepticism in those dark days. It was sorely lacking and innocent people paid the price.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ahead' by Wire
First ad break bumpers: 'We Got The Beat' by The Go-Gos & 'Broken Face’ by Pixies
Second ad break bumpers: 'Eye In The Sky' by The Alan Parsons Project & 'Jordan Minnesota' by Big Black
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