dimland radio 8-7-10 show notes

There were a couple of weird iTunes glitches, but I powered through...

Correction

I made a minor correction from last week's show. When talking about how old the universe is, I said it was 13.72, but I neglected to say 13.72 what. Well, it's 13.72 BILLION years-old, give or take.

Ultimate story of a lazy co-worker... ruined

We all have worked with a self-important, always pretending to be busy, narcissistic jerk. You know the type. I told the ultimate story of one such co-worker, oh it was a good one. However, I had to go and ruin it. I had to tell everyone that this fellow had been recently diagnosed with a brain tumor. Bummer.

It was a good story though.

By the way, the old adage states that if you can't think of a co-worker of the type I described above, you're probably the jerk.

Another date for the end of the world! Everyone panic!

Some group of the-end-of-times type Christians are claiming to know exactly when God will destroy the world. It's gonna be 10-21-11! Better cash out those 401Ks, everyone!

Read about this silliness here. And we'll see you 10-22-11.

It's Not True

This week I talked about the popular myth that slaves build the pyramids of Egypt. Evidence shows that workers may have been drafted to work on them for a set period of time, but they were not slaves. There is evidence that the builders were well cared for and that they took pride in their work.

Read about this myth here.

In Search Of...

I didn't get to everything I had intended to in this segment. I guess it was more of a whetting of the appetite for next week's show. I'll talk more about this granddaddy of the "true" paranormal TV shows.

Movie recommendation

It was released in 1974, one of a series of the disaster movies that were some popular at the time. 'The Towering Inferno' is chock full of 70's tacky goodness, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen and a very tall building on fire. I talked a bit about the back story on the dispute as to who would get top billing and the unique solution.

Put it in your Netflix queue now!

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ahead' by Wire
First ad break bumpers: 'I Bought Myself A Liarbird' & 'Mayor of Simpleton' by XTC
Second ad break bumpers: 'Vanishing Girl' & 'My Love Explodes' by The Dukes of Stratosphear
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 7-31-10 show notes

I'm going to start making my show notes a little shorter. If you want a more fleshed out version, listen to my show!

Cold Open Rant

Before I even played the opening to the show I went on to rant about how much I disliked the movie musical 'Chicago'. He had it coming! He had it coming! He had it coming! ARRRRGGGHH!

Speaking Minnesohtan

Inspired by Z Talk regular, Winnie and her ability to do various accents, including the Minnesotan accent, I brushed off my Minnesohtan. I'm pretty good at it, but I'm a life long Minnesotan, so I guess I have an advantage. I told the story of a trip to Wyoming and the needling received for the accent.

It's Not True

This week I talked about the popular myth that people only use 10% of the brain. We use 100% of our brain. Our brain is always active, even when sleeping. Think about it... if we only use 10% of our brain we could remove the unused 90% and we'd be fine, right?

It's not true. Read about this myth here.

Phil Plait's "Don't be a dick" speech at TAM8

I wasn't at The Amaz!ing Meeting 8 (TAM8) in Las Vagas this year. In fact, I've never been to the largest yearly gathering of skeptics. Maybe someday. And since I wasn't at TAM8 I missed Phil Plait's speech on changing the tone that has creeped into the skeptical movement. He advised skeptics to avoid being dicks toward believers.

Much of his speech and one blogger's reaction can be found here. You can find Phil Plait's blog here.

Movie recommendation

This week I recommended the 1997 sci-fi film, 'Contact'. The film is based on Carl Sagan's novel of the same name. The story is of how it would happen and what might happen if we humans make contact with an intelligent alien lifeform. The subject is handled in an intelligent and scientifically plausible way. I was intrigued by it's comment on taking things on faith. And it's opening sequence is breathtakingly beautiful.

Put it in your Netflix queue now!

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ahead' by Wire
First ad break bumpers: 'Washaway' by XTC & 'Summer Fun’ by The Barracudas
Second ad break bumpers: 'OK Wait' by Naked Raygun & 'Destination Unknown' by Missing Persons
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