dimland radio 10-27-18 show notes

Two Distractions

I explained at the top of the show that there were two distractions I was battling on this week's show.

 

One was a persistent cough and dry throat that I have been experiencing for the last couple of weeks or so. Cough drops helped me through the show with a minimum of throat clearing and a cough or two.

 

The other was the longest postseason baseball game in the history of the majors. Game 3 of the 2018 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the L.A. Dodgers. The damn thing went 18 inning and last about seven hours and 20 minutes. I had the game on (with the sound down) as I recorded the show, so there are a few updates to be heard.

 

What? No Love For Mary Hart?

During each World Series game, Fox likes to take some time to show which celebrities are attending the game. This postseason, in the games that take place at Dodger Stadium, behind home plate has been Entertainment Tonight's legendary host Mary Hart. However, she never gets any mention from Fox announcer Joe Buck.

 

I guess she's chopped liver. 

There's Mary mocking Boston reliever Craig Kimbrel. And that really old fellow next to the old fellow on Mary's right? That's Larry King.

I Would Say Something Happened This Past Week

Someone had been sending pipe bombs through the mail to prominent liberals throughout America  (George Soros, the Obamas, the Clinton, Robert de Niro, and others) and to one news organization which is considered to be very liberal itself (CNN). A suspect named Cesar Sayoc Jr. has been apprehended and taken into custody.

 

Let the anomaly hunting begin!

 

Even before the suspect was caught, the conspiracy theorists were hard at work searching for anomalies that would show the standard model explanation, whatever it turned out to be, would be considered a lie. A "false flag."

 

The energy of a conspiracy theorist is endless.

It's Not True: Crowds At Trump Rally In Texas

Yep. That's me setting the record straight.

I have a Facebook friend who is a big supporter of Pres. Trump. They post all kinds of pro-Trump memes, many of which have a tenuous grasp on truthfulness. This past week they posted a picture of a crowded downtown area that was claimed to show the multitude lining up for a Trump rally in Texas (see image).

 

Turns out the picture shows the massive crowds of Cavalier fans who lined up to witness the parade for the 2016 NBA Champs. In Cleveland.

 

Not Texas. Not Trump.

 

Fake news.

A Couple Phone Scams

If you get a phone call from your grandchild pleading for money, because they'd been injured in a car accident, please, ask a few questions to make certain they are who they say they are. Chances are, it's a scam.

 

I'm proud to say my father is skeptical enough to see right through that scam.

 

There's another one in which the IRS calls and demands immediate payment for back taxes or they'll send the police. If you get that call, please, tell them to get ahead and send the police. It's a scam. The IRS doesn't call people demanding money.

A Mind Reading Trick That Had Me Flummoxed

I had a coworker attempt to convince me she could read my mind. She asked me a series of questions each of which she had predicted my answers. She would write down her prediction of my answer and then ask the question.

 

She was right every time!

 

I was flabbergasted. I was certain it was a trick, but I couldn't figure out what she was doing. And, of course, she wouldn't tell me. I called a friend who I thought might know he did.

 

Over the years, my friend and I have forgotten the details of the trick. I reached out to mentalist Mark Edward, who was able to let me know what the trick was. She used a variation of the One Ahead Trick. I don't recall how she started the trick, but she would actually be writing down the answer I just gave her, pretending to write down the answer to the next question, which she hadn't asked yet.

The trick involves a force of some kind. Writing the answer she knew the answer to beforehand. She really had me going. 

Three Cool Things

 

Mark Edward

1) Having Mark Edward, a very talented mentalist and well-known skeptical activist, take the time to help me out is darn cool Thank you very much, Mr. Edward! 10 points!

 

2) The World Series is in full swing. (Hey! A sports pun!) And that is always cool.

 

3) It being so close to Halloween, I had to at least mention my favorite holiday. I talked about an old horror show that was on local TV in the 70s. It was called Horror Incorporated and its open and close were creepy cool! I blogged about at Warehouse Find, the official blog of Nostalgia Zone.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Every Word Means No' by Let's Active & 'Escape From Planet Earth' by The Alleycats

Second ad break bumpers: 'Running Up That Hill' by Kate Bush & 'Freak' by Bruce Foxton

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 10-28-17 show notes

It Looks Like I'm Not The Only One

You may recall in early September I told the story of my blowing out a tire by hitting a curb while attempting to get on the freeway. Well, someone else just did the same thing the other night! 

I'm not the only one. 

Never Tell Someone About Your Dream!

 

Unless you make it quick. I had an unusual one the other morning that I hope is amusing enough to break rule one of the Dimland Radio Rules On Telling People About Your Dreams. What is rule number one?

Rule Number One is DON'T!

But I talked about the dream anyway. 

A Dimland Radio ARGH! 

When leaving a message on voice mail in which you give your phone number, do me a favor and say the number twice!

Pedantic Moment: Gary Larson Doesn't Know How Doors Work

A sharp-eyed fan of The Far Side comic strip, the greatest comic strip ever, brought this to the attention of The Far Side Fan Group on Facebook. Francisco Melara spotted something wrong with the door in the classic "Midvale School for the Gifted" strip. The smart kid in the comic doesn't know how to open the door. He's obviously doing the opposite of what the door is instructing him to do, but the pneumatic closer is on the wrong side of the door!

Good eye, Francisco! 10 points!

Norman Doors

The Far Side goof prompted a FB person to share a video telling us about Norman Doors. Norman Doors are named for Don Norman, a really smart guy who got tired of poorly designs things which we use every day. Things like doors.

Check out this video to learn more. 

A Scary Story About A Woman With Huuuuuuuuuge Booooobs 

Like a car accident you can't help but look at, I recently encountered a woman whose breasts were quite large. I did my best not to stare, but I was then accused of staring, not at the woman with the you know, nope. No, I was accused of staring at a 4 year-old child.

I wasn't. Not at the child and not at the woman with the...things. 

This Was Very Disturbing

A news item was shared on the Facebook that was terrible. A 54 year old man in Turkey took his life publicly on Facebook Live. He ignored the pleas of family and friends.

Why did he kill himself and why so publicly? He was distraught that his daughter got engaged without his permission. At least, he didn't kill her or anyone else, but that daughter has to live with this now.

As disturbing as this story is, what I found more upsetting was the person, a woman, who shared the story on Facebook was blaming the daughter!

What?! 

Top Three Cool Things Of The Week

Here are the Top Three Cool Things from this week.

3) The World Series is once again being played!

2) The Hated Yankees ain't in it!

1) Game Two of the 2017 World Series was awesome!

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: 'In The Flat Field' by Bauhaus & 'Strange' by REM

Second ad break bumpers: 'This Wheel's On Fire' by Souixsie & The Banshees & 'O, Superman' by Laurie Anderson

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 10-29-16 show notes

It's Been A Long Time Coming

 

Well, October is nearly over, but we still have Halloween and World Series baseball. This year is historic in baseball because two teams who haven't won that championship in a long time are in the series. For the Cleveland Indians it's been 68 years. Impressive until you realize the Chicago Cubs haven't won the Fall Classic since 1908. That's 108 years!

 

So, this year one of those teams is going to end their drought. The popular favorite is the Cubs, which, I admit, is the team I'm pulling for, but I won't be disappointed if Cleveland wins. Cleveland gets an NBA Championship this past spring and now, perhaps, a World Series? Next the Browns will... Oh, right. The Browns.

 

I hope for a good series. Seven games would be best. I love seventh games. The Cubs trail in the series 3 - 2, so we shall see.

 

On to Cleveland.

Tales Of Halloween Past

My friend Michael Noble allowed me to have a week off from blogging for Warehouse Find by doing a bit of guest blogging. He told the story of one particular Halloween when he was a boy. He and two of his friends finally braved the neighbor's "haunted house". This was something they hadn't be able to get the nerve to do in past years.

 

The results of their bravery can be read here.

 

Michael's remembrances got me to thinking about how dedicated my brother and I were to canvasing as large an area as possible, hitting some areas twice and staying out for hours, to get plenty of treats. We were on a mission and each year's mission was a resounding success.

 

My son, on the other hand, did like to dress up and get candy, but a half hour or an hour of trick or treating was plenty for him. I would take him out most years and ask are if he was sure he wanted to go back home after so little time. He did.

 

He's 13 now and he's gonna stay home and hand out the goodies. Don't worry. We bought plenty of candy to have leftovers for us.

LA County Medical Examiner Finds Katie May Died From Chiropractic Treatment

Back in February of this year, I talked about Katie May's untimely death. May was a model and the self-named Queen of Snapchat, who, while on a photo shoot, fell and injured her neck. It was painful and she sought out care for her neck from her chiropractor. After a couple treatments, Kate May was dead at age 34.

 

Skeptics critical of chiropractic, myself included, speculated that neck manipulation might have been the cause. There is a risk, it is small, of arterial tearing with such manipulation which can lead to stroke. Stroke can result in permanent injury or, at worst, death. It is fairly rare that that happens, but when you consider there is no benefit from neck manipulation, that risk though small isn't worth it.

 

Skeptics were speculating until, months after her death, the LA County Medical Examiner's report listed "neck manipulation by chiropractor" as the cause of death. Certainly, chiropractors will disagree and site the rarity of such results and say there are no studies confirming a causal link, but there is a strong association. And, as I said, the risk is too great.

 

If you insist on seeing a chiropractor, don't allow him or her to crack your neck.

 

Phoenix Lights Redux And A Dimland Radio Science Zero

Back in 1997, many people in Phoenix, Arizona spotted flares floating down in the night sky. Of course, most people jumped to the conclusion those fuzzy lights were extraterrestrial spacecraft. Yep, that seems like the most reasonable explanation for flares being dropped during a military operation. People didn't know what it was (but it weren't no flares!) so it had to be aliens! (Argument from ignorance.)

 

There were actually two sightings of lights that night over Phoenix. As I stated earlier, flares were most likely responsible for the later incident. For the earlier incident that explanation was a formation of airplanes. The explanation for both sightings can be found here.

 

Well, just recently, the daughter of fellow Z Talker, Kale Kelly, was able to capture video of more fuzzy lights in the night sky over Phoenix. Again, they were probably flares, but she concluded aliens were involved.

 

Of course, the local news station credulously reported the incident. That's how these news stations operate. On these "fluff" stories, it's all about the mystery, never the explanation. They even talked to Dr. Sky. Dr. Sky is Steve Kates and, as far as I can tell, he's an astronomy enthusiast, if not an actual astronomer. He's called an astronomer in the report, but I couldn't find anything that stated he is a trained astronomer. But an amateur astronomer is going to know a hell of a lot more than me when it comes to what we see in the night sky. Still, his statements really aggravated me. At first, I was angry with his mystery-mongering, but, on a second viewing of the report, I noticed some editing. So, despite his quick dismissal of the flares explanation, I'm going to cut him some slack, but not much.

 

However, the reporter Vivian Padilla and the station ABC 15 Arizona, are both Dimland Radio Science Zeros for their mystery-mongering.

 

I even wrote to the reporter. Here is what I said:

I have watched your report on the recent "strange lights" seen over Phoenix. I understand these sorts of reports are treated differently by news organizations. The mystery is more interesting than the solution. I get it. But you are a news reporter, you should be properly informing your viewers.

Is Dr Sky really an astronomer? I've looked on his website and I can't find where he studied astronomy or if he had earned a degree. He appears to be an amateur astronomer who works in media production promoting science. Amateur astronomers are fine, but I would have hoped you would have talked to a professional astronomer. If Dr Sky is a trained astronomer then I am mistaken, but maybe even more disappointed.

UFO means UNIDENTIFIED Flying Object. Not an extraterrestrial spacecraft! Sure, Dr Sky doesn't say that's what it is, but he glosses over what these lights most likely were: flares. It looks to me that they are flares being dropped from a plane or helicopter at a distance, with the flares igniting as they are being dropped. That's why they appear to blink on out of nowhere. And they blink off possibly due to going behind something, say a mountain range, as was the case in the Phoenix Lights flares sighting in 1997.

I should say I'm not an astronomer. I'm sure Dr Sky knows more about the night sky than I do, which is why his conflating the possibility of life on other planets with the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrials actually visiting this planet has me so disappointed. Sure, it's arrogant and naive to think earth is the only planet out of billions and billions in our galaxy alone to support life, as he indicates in the report, but it's not arrogant and naive to doubt extraterrestrials are visiting us or ever have. Any astronomer worth their salt (and not trying to mystery-monger) knows that's not a proper argument to support extraterrestrial intelligent lifeforms visiting earth. Just because it is very possible (perhaps likely) there is life on other worlds, that doesn't mean we are being visited. But, maybe Dr Sky knows this and it's the way you edited the report that makes him appear to be conflating extraterrestrial visitation and extraterrestrial life.

Space is huge! How would an intelligent extraterrestrial lifeform even know we are here, let alone be able to cross the vast expanse of space to get to us? Astronomers know this. They of all people know best how big space is and how unlikely is extraterrestrial visitation. The woman who took the video images can be excused for not understanding that unlikelihood as she misuses the term UFO to mean alien spacecraft.

If Dr Sky is conflating these two related, but separate topics, he ought to know better. If you edited your report to make it appear that way, then shame on you for misleading your viewers for a bit of mystery-mongering. 

 

I have yet to receive a response.

 

Movie Recommendation: None

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

 

Music heard on the show...
 

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Stigmata Martyr' by Bauhaus & 'Intruder' by Peter Gabriel

Second ad break bumpers: 'In The Flat Field' & 'St. Vitus Dance' by Bauhaus

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 10-31-15 show notes

Dimland Radio Look At Sports

I talked about this year's World Series and some of the great moments of previous Fall Classics. At the time I recorded the show, the Kansas City Royals looked like they would defeat the New York Mets and I speculated on that possibility.

 

The Royals did go on (goon?) to win the Series.

 

Here are the great moments I touched on:

 

Kirk Gibson's home run in 1988.

 

Kirby Puckett's home run in 1991.

 

Game Six of the 2011 World Series between the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals.

 

Don Larson's perfect game in 1956.

 

Jack Morris' 10 inning pitching gem in 1991.

 

And THE GREATEST moment in World Series history.

Here's one I shared on the Nostalgia Zone's Facebook page, that I didn't talk about on the show.

It was game six and seven of the 1975 World Series between the Boston Red Socks and the Cincinnati Reds.

No Boarding Of This Outrage Train

 
My brother-in-law's brother-in-law (not me) posted a graphic reflecting the outrage over Target, Walmart, etc. now being open on Thanksgiving Day. I pointed out there are plenty of other people who already work that day. Why should we feel outrage that some Target workers have to work on Thanksgiving, when we aren't bothered about police and fire, doctors and nurses having to work then? And what about workers at movie theaters and bars, etc?

 

My brother-in-law's brother-in-law (not me) responded that he wouldn't be going to a movie or a bar. And I'm sure he wasn't planning on needing a doctor or the cops.

 

I then hit him with what you see in the graphic below. I think he removed the original graphic (you'll see the original in my reworking) from his Facebook page. He'll be watching football.

 

See what I did there?

 

A Prediction About The New Star Wars Movie

Based on what I've seen or, I should say, who I haven't seen in the Star Wars trailers I'm speculating that Luke Skywalker has gone over to the Dark Side of the Force. It seems to me that is what the ads are hinting at.

 

I'm probably wrong. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

OH! I'm not the only one who thinks this way! There's this guy.

 

'Destination America' And Bullshit

A group of spirit chase-awayers performed an exorcism on a house on live television. Really? Just when you thought television couldn't get any lower or pander to the delusional any more, along comes these guys pulling the user of emotionally needy children (see Psychic Kids) Chip Coffey along with them. Their intent is to de-demonize the house in which "Roland Doe" lived when he was alleged to have been possessed by demons.

 

Yeah. How'd that work out, I wonder.

Movie Recommendations: The Changeling (1980) & The Legend of Hell House (1973)

 

I've recommended these movies before, but I thought, "'Tis the season." Why not recommend them again, since I just blogged about them for the Warehouse Find blog?

 

Go here for more.

 

Oh! I Almost Forgot...

This is what my son went as for Halloween this year.

 

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Crystal Wrists' by Peter Murphy & 'Go!' by Tones On Tail

Second ad break bumpers: 'Date With A Vampyre' by The Screaming Tribesmen &  'Double Dare' By Bauhaus

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.