dimland radio 12-2-17 show notes

More Mad Mike

I named Mad Mike Hughes a Dimland Radio Science Zero last week and talked about his intention to jump a California ghost town in a steam-powered rocket he made himself. But! The government stepped in and told him he needs to get the proper permits to perform his stunt. Mad Mike thought he had a new way to get around the permit problem by changing his launch and landing area to private land, but the Bureau of Land Management told him he still needs the proper permits.

 

As of this writing, the stunt has still not been performed. Stay tuned.

 

Dimland Radio Science Zero: A Few UK Water Companies

I had another Dimland Radio Science Zero to bestow this week. Two weeks in a row? Yep.

 

This Zero was too good not to do. In the UK there are some water utility companies that have engineers using dowsing techniques to find water mains. That's right. Dowsing.

 

Sigh.

 

Pedantic Moment: Yeti DNA Used To Find Bigfoot?

 
One of the Minnesota Skeptics shared an article about scientists testing material claimed to be yeti DNA. Not surprisingly the DNA does not show those creatures are real. The pedantry was raised by how the headline was written:

 

"Scientists DNA tested nine 'yeti' samples. They didn't find Bigfoot."

 

Can you guess what I got pedantic about with that headline?

 

A Dimland Radio ARGH!

Of the non-skeptical, non-scientific ideas in the world few get my goat more than the anti-vax notion. Anti-vaxxers believe vaccines cause autism. They don't. Just try to convince an anti-vaxxer though.

 

Well, I spotted an image on Facebook indicating that as the number of vaccinations increased over the years, the number of autism diagnoses increased. They are making the correlation the vaccines are causing autism. Correlation does not necessarily mean causation.

 

 

I decided to add a little something to that image and get that out on the internets. Please feel free to share it. 

 

OK, It May Not Be All Men, But Lately It Sure Seems Like It

 

I dove into this whole rash of sexual harassment and assault claims against famous men of power. I hope I didn't get in over my head, but I did voice my concerns over the lack of due process. I'm troubled by the way an accusation seems to be all that's needed to prove guilt. People's careers and lives are being turned upside down on the basis of accusations.

 

I brought up Pres. Bill Clinton and Justice Clarence Thomas, comparing the public's reactions to those accusations to today's accused fellows. I noted that at least one defender of Bill Clinton twenty years ago is today thinking that President maybe shouldn't have been defended and should have been forced to resign. 

 

It's a mess, but I remain hopeful that we as a society will come out of this being a better society.

The Artist Versus The Art

 

I talked about the difficulty of appreciating art by very flawed artists. I'm not certain I could give up the art of some of these artists. I even talk about the likelihood of not giving up the art of my favorite artist, Pete Townshend.

 

It's difficult.

Top Three Cool Things Of The Week

Here are the Top Three Cool Things from this week.

3) A YouTuber named Swede Mason has made a quite disturbing, but nonetheless cool, video mash-up of Talking Heads and Pres. Trump.

 

 

2) Dimland Radio's Facebook page was up to 189, now 190 as I write this.

 

1) Brian Dunning of the Skeptoid podcast is spearheading a crowd funding project to finance a documentary to expose how the media abuses and misrepresents science in the pursuit of ratings. If you have the means, I suggest you give this project your financial support.

 

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: 'Tape Your Wife To The Ceiling' by The Suburbs & 'Heat Of The Moment' by Asia

Second ad break bumpers: 'Epic' by Faith No More & 'Public Highway' by Luxuria

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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concert memoirs pt. 36 - david byrne & rev. horton heat

David Byrne w/Joe Henry

5/22/01 First Avenue w/Amy Ticket Price: Unknown

It looks like May 2001 was legendary musicians month. First, Iggy Pop and now David Byrne. That makes a pretty good month for music.

Neither Amy nor I had ever seen the Talking Heads. This would be as close as we would get so we were really looking forward to this show. David did not disappoint even though certain audience members... More on that shortly.

Things were running late that night. I don’t recall why. In fact, the audience was not allowed in through First Avenue’s main entrance, we had to file in through a side entrance which led directly to the VIP lounge in the main room’s upper level. We had to hang out there while the staff completed setting up the stage.

Once the setup was completed, we were allowed to file out of the VIP area and take our places by the stage. Amy and I were able to get right down front for Joe Henry as he came out to warm up the crowd.

What I remember of Joe Henry’s set was a certain group of three or four gals and one guy standing just behind us. Mainly I remember one of the gals in particular. She loudly talked and talked and talked and talked and talked about how great Joe Henry was last time she saw him perform.

Finally, Amy and I turned to the group and Amy said, “Would you shout up so we can hear him now?!” The gals just looked at us as though we were the ones being rude. The lone male of the group gave me a look as if to say, “Hey, man, they dragged me here. I don’t want any trouble.”

So, Joe finishes up and the audience tightens up to the stage in anticipation of David Byrne’s arrival. Remember, Amy and I were very close to the front of the stage. There were perhaps three or four people directly in front of us.

As David gets on stage and starts to play, the troublesome group behind us was at it again. This time the mouthy chick, along with one or two of friend gal pals, decided that they deserved to be closer to the stage. They began to attempt to push by us, but Amy and I did our best to keep them in their place. We were here first. Fair is fair. We soon realized that it wasn’t worth the fight.

The gals, fresh from their rudely won victory, got up front and did that whooping dance that only women do. You know the dance. The one where they dance their arms in the air and whoop it up because they are having such a great time. You never see men do quite the same dance.

Amy and I moved over a bit and soon had forgotten about the rudeness, because David played so well. He mixed in a few Talking Heads tunes with his solo material. Everything he played was very good.

He also assembled a few local musicians. He explained that he needed a string quartet for some of his songs. I forget the reason that he didn’t have those musicians touring with him, but his people had to hurriedly search for qualified local musicians.

Musicians were found and they had little time to rehearse before the show, which may explain the delay and detour at the beginning of the evening. But they were pros and they played beautifully. David was so grateful for them.

There was a special moment during the performance. It wasn’t the rude gals being acknowledged by David for whooping it up so well. No, it happened during a quiet moment between songs. David was explaining something about a song, when an audience member standing beside Amy and me shouted, “We’re all here for you, David!”

David seemed a little surprised, but he smiled sweetly and said, “Thank you.”

Rev. Horton Heat w/The GoToHells & Death On Wednesday
6/11/01 First Avenue w/Amy & Mark Ticket Price: Unknown

The one thing I have to relate about this show is the apparent breakdown of the Reverends drummer. The Reverend didn’t seem happy that night. It wasn’t noticeable most of the night, but toward the end of the show he seemed quite bothered. Something was wrong.

The drummer was having trouble keeping it together. Maybe it was too much drink or drug taking or something else, I couldn’t say. I don’t recall if the drummer was dismissed or if he walked off, but the Reverend ended his set playing an old Country and Western classic, possibly a Patsy Cline tune. It was just him singing and playing guitar, Nature Boy Jimbo on bass and the audience clapping along.

When he finished the song, the Reverend said, “You guys sure do keep a good beat!”

Oooooh, BURN!!