dimland radio 11-10-18 show notes

Becoming Aware Of My Denial

I have in the past usually dreaded the coming of winter, but I always knew it would happen. For some odd reason this year I was thinking we wouldn't have a winter this time around. Tuesday night reminded me that winter is coming, as they say on The Walking Of The Dead or is it House Of The Thrones.

 

Something like that.

 

The Blue-ish Wave

Not being all that versed in the world of politics didn't stop me from attempting to talk somewhat intelligently about the results of Tuesdays mid-term elections. The Democrats did fairly well. Hey, considering all the gerrymandering done be Republicans over the last several years, I'd say they did rather well.

It looks like my family's health insurance is safe for a couple more years.

Why does it feel like this president is out to get me? I didn't feel that way when W was president.

A Dimland Radio Pedantic Moment: It's Complicated

 

I have a couple Facebook friends that were suggesting it's unfair that California, with 40 million people, has only two senators, while other states with far fewer people also get two. It's also unfair that Washington DC, with a higher population than Wyoming, doesn't have any senators.

 

One was saying California has two senators while 23 other states with a combined population equal to California's has 46 senators. Well, yes. I guess, but that's the deal. Each state gets two senators.

 

Of course, the House of Representatives' numbers reflect each states population, more or less. Wyoming has one representative, while California has 53. See how that works? But then the number of people represented by each does vary...

 

Oh, it's complicated.

 

However, I noticed something. It seemed my two friends were suggesting DC should have senators and California should have more senators. There has been a proposal to split California into three states. Suppose we do that and give DC senators. Which party do you think would be most likely to benefit? Which party do you think my two friends are more closely aligned with? Hmmmm.

Sometimes Being A Skeptic Is A Drag

There's always some credulity creeping up wherever I go. Belief in debunked notions: Astrology, psychics, jinxes, curses, the universe caring about us. The list goes on and on and skeptics have to be selective in what they speak out against, to whom and when.

Otherwise, we'd would probably just want to avoid people and stay home and watch TV all day. But that's no escape, because TV is filled with bullshit. The internet then? Of course not.

The other day a news story popped up about an iceberg that looks to be an almost perfect rectangle. The story was on the morning news. It was shared on the internet. And I must not have been in a receptive mood.

"How do we know it's rectangular? We're only seeing that one image. And don't suggest nature can't create right angles. It can! And don't suggest aliens did it. They didn't!"

When a FB friend and UFO enthusiast posted the story, she didn't suggest aliens, but the image below shows how it went...

Sometimes being a skeptic is a drag.

More Talk About Homeopathy

I said that TV isn't an escape from bullshit. Far from it.

 

The other night I saw an ad for a pain remedy for your dog and/or cat. It's called Pet Pain Away. As I watched the ad start with it show pet-owners being considered about their pets' pain, I nailed what the "medicine" was going to be.

I said, "This is going to be homeopathic, ain't it?"

I was right.

 

That's when I reviewed the three silly notions (there are probably more) behind homeopathy. Silly notion number 1) Diluting the "active ingredient" makes it stronger. Silly notion number 2) The water remembers the "active ingredient" had been in it. Silly notion number 3) The Law of Similars, or like cures like. This means that the "active ingredient" needs to, at full strength, cause the problem the homeopathic concoction is meant to relieve.

 

For example, a homeopathic sleeping pill's "active ingredient" would need to be a stimulant. That would be diluted to the point where not even a molecule of the stimulant remains, so now it will cause the opposite response and make you very, very sleepy.

See? Silly, ain't it?

 

People buy it and someone has figured out how to get those people to buy the snake oil for their pets. The poor pets. They're just getting water.

 

Three Cool Things

 

1) The second Thursday of the month was just this past week and that means I met up with the Minnesota Skeptics. Despite dealing with the traffic, made even worse by winter weather, to get to the meeting place, arriving and commiserating with skeptics is always cool.

 

2) With the release of the Freddie Mercury/Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, I went on a bit of a Queen kick which included checking out their showstopping performance at Live Aid in 1985. I guess you could say Queen was pretty cool.

 

3) A friend clued me in on an usual placement of a statue of a famous rumpled, humble, persistent, unassuming TV detective. There's a statue of Lt. Columbo and his dog Dog in the Hungarian city of Budapest. How cool is that?

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'English Roundabout' by XTC & 'Mad Jack' by The Chameleons UK

Second ad break bumpers: 'I Am An Animal' by Pete Townshend & 'No More Lonely Nights' by Paul McCartney

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

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Images used under Fair Use.

numbers can lie

Ok. Who was it that said there are lies, damn lies, and statistics? I don't know, but let me step out on a limb and demonstrate something. As you can see in the graphic (above), the “evil” (I say that for the majority of my Facebook friends who, apparently, don't think highly of America's 40th president) Ronald Reagan was the biggest deficit spender and he was a Republican. And all the other Republican presidents represented were bigger deficit drivers than the Democrat ones.

Setting aside the fact that it is Congress that does the spending, not the president, ask yourself… From what initial debt amount is that percentage increase?

Suppose Jane’s debt is one dollar (I’m using simple numbers, because they are easier for me) and she increases that debt by $1.86*. That would represent an increase of 186%.

Now suppose Jack’s debt is $1000 and he adds $230 to it. That would be a debt increase of 23%.

So, who is the bigger spender: Jack or Jane?

Of course, I could be accused of using numbers to make the Republicans look better than the Democrats, but that’s my point. Statistics can be used to make any point someone wants in order to make one party look bad and the other good (or less bad, because the debt increased with each president). We need to put these percentages in perspective. What was the debt amount when each president took office? By how much did Congress, during each president’s term, add to that debt? Also, are these percentages adjusted for inflation?

It’s quite possible that the Republicans are terribly evil people and that Democrats are altruistic saints (how’s that for hyperbole?), but when you see graphics like this one bear in mind that numbers can lie even while telling the truth.

*Correction: Anonymous,thank you for pointing out that I had my math wrong (see the comments). I have made the correction and it makes my point even better.