dimland radio 4-15-17 show notes

Not Talk About Meh Beer On This Show

I started the show by promising I would not mention the whole beer thing again. No mention of Rolling Rock or pilsners or Summit Extra Pale Ale or my boss getting me meh beer. That was my promise to my listeners and, to my readers, I make the same promise:

There will be no mention of the things I mentioned in the preceding paragraph anywhere in this entire post. No one mention.

This space has been intentionally left blank. 

A Sliver Of Slack

Sean Spicer, the White House Press Secretary, suffered "foot in mouth" disease when he mentioned Hitler and chemical weapons when saying what a bad guy the President of Syria is and that Russia shouldn't align themselves with him. But he made the mistake of bringing up Hitler and he was wrong. Hitler and the Nazis were using chemical weapons in the genocide attempted during the Holocaust.

My slack was given because Spicer was right to shame Russia for backing such an evil guy. But, as I said, just a sliver.

Why Didn't Hitler Use Chemical Weapons In Battle? 

Well, there is some indication there was, at least, one use of chemical weapons against Soviet troops and civilians in 1942. But why didn't the Germans use chemical weapons during the Allied Invasion on D-Day?

According to Hermann Goering, it was because of horses. The Germans used horses extensively to transport equipment. This was due to the low supplies of gasoline. The Germans couldn't come up with a gas mask that the horses would tolerate, so they didn't use chemical weapons on D-Day.

This means that had the Nazis figured out how to make a gas mask that horses didn't mind wearing, the invasion would have gone much differently, possibly even fail.

There are other speculations about the Nazi's reluctance to use chemical weapons in this interesting article on FactCheck.org.

 

SNL, Louis CK, Tig Notaro, And A Party Clown

 

A recent episode of Saturday Night Live had host Louis CK in a skit in which he hires a children's party clown to come to his house and entertain him. Just him. That's the first joke of the skit and I just ruined it for you. Sorry.

But, fellow comedian Tig Notaro had already made a short film using the same premise. And in her earlier version, she too ruins the first joke by saying upfront to the clown gig booker that the clown is just for her.

Notaro's version is much longer than SNL's by about 10 minutes. Still the similarities are undeniable. The material does appear to have been ripped off by SNL. However, I think SNL's is the funnier of the to sketches. 

This site has links to both sketches. You decide which is funnier. 

A Modern Pterosaur Expert?

 

Pterosaurs were flying reptiles from the age of dinosaurs and have been extinct for tens of millions of years. But there is a modern pterosaur expert who has taken to the internet to expose the truth that the beasts yet live! Well, they did during the American Civil War anyway.

Now, I'm not certain if this fellow is a Poe and is putting us all on. He seems to be on the level, though. His website has an "Official Announcement of a Joint Declaration." He, a modern pterosaur expert and a missile defense physicist agreed, by phone, that an old photograph of Union soldiers posing with a dead pterosaur is authentic.

The "expert" says another photograph alleging the same think is a hoax, but the one he touts is the real thing.

 

Well, I went over a few problems I had with his real thing. 

Movie Recommendation: Fail Safe (1964)

 

  

With the recent bombings carried out by the Trump Administration and everyone on edge about the impending nuclear war, I thought a nice movie about a miscommunication between American Strategic Defense and a US Air Force bomber squadron, leading to the President and the US Defense Department's desperate attempt to avert an unintended nuclear attack against Moscow would put my listeners' minds at ease. I'm such a stinker.

Directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Henry Fonda as the President, Fail Safe has many similarities to Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. However, Fail Safe isn't a satire. It's deadly serious. And very thought-provoking.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Let's Go Down To The Woods' by The Screaming Blue Messiahs & 'Vanishing Girl' by The Dukes of Stratosphear

Second ad break bumpers: 'Into My Hands' by The Church & 'Ace Of Spades' by Motorhead

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 4-8-17 show notes

Meh Beer Days Continue And Almost Get Worse

The boss attempted to give me another 12-pack of Rolling Rock. This time I couldn't be adult about it and just accept the generous offer. I mean, had I accepted it without cluing him in on how meh I think that beer is, I might be getting Rolling Rock every time he feels generous.

 

So, I leveled with him and he exchanged it for the beer he used to get me: Summit Extra Pale Ale.

 

Phew.

 

Sad News

I broke from the lightness of the beer topic to mention that my extended family got a little smaller Friday morning. My brother-in-law's brother-in-law (not me, obviously) or my wife's brother's wife's sister's husband, Ed, died after a 14 year battle with cancer. I hope I don't sound too glib with my description of his relationship to me, but Ed had a pretty good sense of humor and I think he would have appreciated it.

 

He was a good guy. I liked him right away. He was a sports fan (he liked the Detroit, his hometown, teams) and he liked Star Trek and Star Wars, so what's not to like about the guy?

 

He was 44. Much too young.

A Little Evolution Talk

 

"If [humans are] from apes, why are the apes still here?" ~ misunderstander of the Theory of Evolution, Stephen Baldwin

 

It's a very common question asked by people who don't have an understanding of the basics of evolution. In short, humans are apes. We and the other Great Apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans) are all cousins. We all came from a common ancestor.

 

Actually, along the twisting branches of evolution, there are several common ancestors as we make our way back to the main common ancestor to all of the Great Apes. Chimps and bonobos are the most closely related, so their common ancestor existed relatively recently. As we keep going back through the evolutionary lineage, the common ancestor for humans turns up, further back in time there's one for gorillas, and even further back is the one for orangutans.

 

Here, watch this clip. You'll hear Baldwin make the common error and then Dr. Richard Dawkins will explain why there are still apes.

 

 

Einstein, God, NdGT, And How Inquiry Stops

 

The above graphic popped up on Facebook the other day. I know Einstein has made some ambiguous statements about God, but he's never stated he believed in a god that listens to prayers, rewards with Heaven, punishes with Hell, works miracles, and fixes football games. As I understand it, Einstein's god was more like the awesomeness of nature and physics.

 

But even if he believed in an all-knowing, all-powerful, invisible man in the sky, so what? It wouldn't have lessened his contributions to science and the world. History is filled with many great scientists who also believed in some kind of god.

 

It seems the Christian types are saying, "Einstein believed in God, why don't you?"

 

Well, Einstein was brilliant, but he could still be wrong.

 

That led me to talk about a talk given by Neil deGrasse Tyson about how great scientists of the past, including Isaac Newton, carried the football of science forward until they reached the limit of their knowledge or abilities. At that point, they would appeal to God. Sort of like saying, "I can't figure this out. God did it."

 

NdGT's point was when those scientists would turn to God their work was done. The football was left on the field until another scientist with more knowledge, better equipment, mathematics, or other tools to apply science came along. That scientist picked up the football and moved it forward until their limit was reached. And so on, until NdGT got to Pierre-Simon Laplace.

 

I'll let Dr. Tyson tell the story (by the way, NdGT doesn't use the football analogy, that was my contribution):

 

 

Getting back to that Einstein quote. I couldn't determine whether or not Einstein actually said it. What I could find was a 1997 article in the Wall Street Journal written by Jim Holt. As far as I can tell, Holt is the source of the quote, even though he says the quote comes from Einstein. Hey! Cite your source, pal!

 

This link will get you to the article. Scroll down to Stefan Mertens' comment. He includes the whole text of Holt's article.

Movie Recommendation: None

  

Sorry, 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: 'I Don't Know Why You Don't Want Me' by Rosanne Cash & 'No Self Control' by Peter Gabriel

Second ad break bumpers: 'Seen And Not Seen' by Talking Heads & 'Y.O.Y.O.Y.' by Cheap Trick

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 4-1-17 show notes

I Don't Believe The Universe Wanted Me To Get My 5 Bucks Back

I was able to be charitable the other day. An elderly woman in front of me in line at Popeye's realized she didn't have as much cash on hand as she had thought. She let me go ahead of her as she scanned the menu board to see what she could get for her four dollars.

 

Well, I had some cash, so, after I placed and paid for my order, I handed her five bucks.

 

A week after that my boss paid me back the $15 the company owed me. He gave me an extra five bucks. He was not and is still not aware of my charitable moment. There are those who believe the universe or their god wanted me to get repaid.

 

Well, I don't. It's just a coincidence.

 

But, I would sure like there to be a whole lot more coincidences from which I end up five bucks ahead.

 

Hint, hint, Universe!

 

The other part of the story was about her reaction. The cashier remarked about how nice the gesture was and the lady thanked me. Then she praised Jesus and remarked on how God is good about half a dozen or more times.

 

Yep. For those of you keeping track of the thank you's. That's one for the atheist and, at least, six for God.

 

I-85 Bridge Collapses After Exposure To Uncontrolled Fire

In Atlanta, a bridge on I-85 collapsed after it was exposed to uncontrolled fire. 9-11 Truthers ought to take note that the fire to which that bridge was exposed wasn't hot enough to melt steel, but it was hot enough to weaken the steel and concrete of the bridge so that it collapsed under its own wait.

 

Just like the WTC towers and Building 7.

 

I also mentioned this video of a metal worker showing how steel doesn't have to melt to lose its structural integrity.

Pedantic Moment: This Space Left Blank?

 

Our mortgage holder sent the notice that our escrow was short and our payments were going to increase. It was up to us: The amount could increase by $50 a month or $20. To get the smaller increase, we'd have to pay a certain amount by the end of March. Oh, joy.

 

I was preparing the payment and I looked at the back of the remittance slip. It was blank. Well, no it wasn't. It had the following sentence:

"(This space has been intentionally left blank.)"

 

Um. No, it hasn't.

 

I speculated how corporate think made that Pedantic Moment possible. I even did some acting.

Texas Congresswoman Has An Idea That Could Be Real Money-Maker

 
Texas Representative Jessica Farrar proposed a bill intended to expose the double standard women face when it comes to reproductive rights and health care. Her bill proposed a fine of $100 be imposed on men each time they masturbate.

 

She's a Democrat, so, of course, Republicans pushed back. One Republican Congressman, Rep. Tony Tinderholt, suggested Rep. Farrar take some high school biology classes. This is the same fellow who "proposed a bill that would charge abortion providers and women receiving abortions with murder."

I speculated on the possibility that Rep. Tinderholt isn't on board with the science of evolution. Perhaps he, too, would benefit from taking a few high school biology classes.

 

I also did a little calculating. If Texas could somehow enforce the $100 fine, and if we assume that the average number of times of self-abuse (or love, depends on how you look at it) per man is one a day, and if we just go with males ages 15 - 69, the number I came up with is pretty big. I calculated the amount of the fines per year would be close to $300 billion dollars! The state budget for Texas for 2016/2017 is approximately $210 billion.

 

She may be on to something, Rep. Tinderholt!

 

Apparently, The All-Knowing God Can Be Fooled

 

If you listen to the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe (SGU), as I do, and you are up-to-date on the shows, as I am, then you would have heard guest "rogue" comic Joshie Berger. Joshie was raised in a very strict Jewish community and had to live by all those very strict rules.

 

Joshie eventually became an atheist.

 

When he appears on the SGU, he takes over the Science Or Fiction segment with his Jewie Or Fiction. He picks true items demonstrating the crazy rules some in the Jewish community live under. Two are real, one in fiction.

 

Those that practice the strict rules have come up with a loophole that, seems to, fool God. One of the real rules has to do with not having any bread in the house during Passover. The Jewish family can't be certain to get rid of every crumb, so a Goy (a non-Jewish person) is contracted to buy the ownership of all bread in the Jewish household. The beard and bread products are not removed, they just are owned by a Goy.

 

That way if God should drop by during Passover and sees bread, the homeowner can say it's not their bread. And God's fooled by that.

 

Joshie gives more details on the show. It's unbelievable.

 

Movie Recommendation: None

  

Sorry, 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: 'Games People Play' by Alan Parsons Project & 'Away' by The Feelies

Second ad break bumpers: 'Generation' by Red Lorry Yellow Lorry & 'Apeman Hop' by Ramones

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.