dimland radio 5-29-10 show notes

Talking Twins

My friend, Dave, and I went to see our first MN Twins game Saturday at their new ballpark. Very cool. Dave's friends have season tickets and they gave him their tickets and he asked me to go with him. Awwww. And the Twins won!

Behind Blue Eyes Part 2

On the May 22nd edition of Dimland Radio I spoke extensively on my thoughts about The Who and Pete Townshend, paying particular attention to Pete's 2003 arrest on charges of child porn. After that show, the aforementioned Dave said that I missed an opportunity to cast my skeptical gaze on the media, how they report a story and how the people remember those stories. The news media covers a story big at first with sensationalism, but then don't give it the same emphasis when the story turns out to be more mundane.

Townshend's arrest story was all sensations at first, juicy and lurid, but when the investigation had been completed and Townshend had been essentially cleared of all charges, the media reported it almost as an afterthought. That kind of reporting leads the public in general to mainly remembering the opening salvo and forgetting the wrap up. This phenomenon leaves the public thinking ill of Pete and he doesn't deserve it.

To be fair, Pete Townshend has been fairly rehabilitated in the public eye. If he hadn't the 15 different versions of the TV show CSI wouldn't be using Who songs for their themes and The Who wouldn't have been booked to play the last Superbowl's halftime.

RIP Martin Gardner

I talked about the loss of Martin Gardner at the age of 95. He was a founding member of CSICOP (now CSI) and a leading light in the skeptical movement. His contributions were many, most notable was his 1952 book 'Fads & Fallacies in the Name of Science'.

Read more about him here, here and here.

I also took this opportunity to talk about the mistaken notion that celebrities die in threes. What makes someone a celebrity? How close together do the deaths need to be to be clustered? And so on.

My new friend in skepticism

Through my listening to the excellent podcast, Skepticality, I became aware of Chris Brown. Chris is a skeptic whose website is www.skepticsinthepub.net. At his site, he promotes other podcasts, blogs and events of a skeptical nature. I wrote to him about Dimland Radio. He wrote back and we've been FaceBook instant messaging back and forth for quite some time now. Chris will be a guest on my show once we can work out a schedule.

Chris's 10 year-old son, Ethan, has quite an impressive ability with math. Here's the YouTube video that Chris would love to see go viral. Let's help me out, shall we?

Awareness Tests

Chris Brown had me check out a couple YouTube videos that really demonstrate what poor observers we human beings can be. We just aren't that good. We stink! We're awful! Lousy! Crappy!! Almost worthless!!

Take the test here and here.


Jonny Quest

I finished up the show talking about how much I like the original Jonny Quest animated TV series. It was great. I liked the art, the characters (Ok, Bandit got a little annoying), the creatures and villains, the music and, most of all, I liked the fact that people died on the show. Pretty blood thirsty, eh?

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ahead' by Wire
First ad break bumpers: 'Town Called Malice' by The Jam & 'Come Again' by Au Pairs
Second ad break bumpers: 'Age Of Consent' by New Order & 'The Mayor Of Simpleton' by XTC
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 On Demand page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com

dimland radio 5-22-10 show notes

A very special episode of Dimland Radio. Why? Heck if I know.

Ouchie

My mom fell flat on her back in a nearby, Indian-run casino this past Thursday. She had merely walked off the carpeted area onto a tiled section of floor and her feet went right out from under her. She didn't do any serious damage to herself, but she did suffer a mild concussion and received a sizable goose egg on the back of her head. She's also suffered a fair amount of pain. My folks aren't the suing types, still, they are making sure the casino doesn't try to sweep this under the carpet. I guess we shall see.

Ghost crying video

On the YouTube I found a video that has garnered over seven million views. It claims to depict the ghost of a crying girl. Well, I'm not so sure about that. I talked about the red flags I noticed that, I think, indicate the video is very likely a hoax.

Have a look for yourself here.

Captain Disillusion

Speaking of YouTube videos that are far more deserving of seven million views than "Ghost Crying," have you heard of Captain Disillusion? Captain Disillusion is a skeptic who examines viral videos of questionable integrity and offers real world explanations for the outlandish claims. I mentioned three of his videos of which I am very fond.

Pantry Ghost part 1 (featuring James Randi)

Pantry Ghost part 2

Gas Station Ghost Recut

Behind blue eyes

Pete Townshend's 65th birthday was Wednesday, 5/19. I took the opportunity (it's my show, I can talk about Pete if I want) to tell my audience just why The Who and Pete Townshend are so important to me. Of course, I had to talk about Pete's 2003 arrest and subsequent clearing of possession, distribution and creation of child pornography. He did receive a caution from British law enforcement authorities, because he was guilty of accessing a site that offered that filth. His motives were innocent and naive, but not lurid. He thought he could end child porn on his own.

The Who as angry young Mods

My favorite album by The Who - Quadrophenia

The Who now

I talked about how I reacted when I heard the news. It's exceedingly unfortunate that Pete Townshend's reputation will be forever stained by his act of stupidity.

Pete Townshend

The Guardian ran an interview with Pete Townshend conducted about one year after his arrest. You can read it here.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ahead' by Wire
First ad break bumpers: 'Stop Hurting People' & 'A Friend Is A Friend' by Pete Townshend
Second ad break bumpers: 'Crashing By Design' & 'Keep On Working' by Pete Townshend
Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next week for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com You can also download my show from the Z Talk On Demand page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com

dimland radio 5-15-10 show notes

The chat room wasn't very full, but I did a show anyway.

This old house

I started off boring my listeners with the tale of our replacing two windows in our kitchen. They needed replacing. They were quite nasty. I also talked about my peculiar habit of putting a plastic toy soldier inside a construction area, so that it's hidden away. I like the idea of the hidden toy soldiers. Peculiar, I know.

Man in coma still ain't talking

Rom Houben, a Belgian man, has been in a coma for 23 years. Some news was made recently when it was said that he woke and started talking. Well, not exactly. He told his tale through a communications facilitator. Right there you should have your skeptical red flag waving. It turns out that it's far more likely that the facilitator was doing all the talking and poor Rom is still comatose.

Read Michael Shermer's take on this here.

I also talked a bit about the 2007 film, 'The Diving Bell and The Butterfly'. It's somewhat related and it's available at Netflix. Sign up!

Pringles ad explains crop circle

I haven't seen the ad yet, but 'Skeptical Inquirer's' Ben Radford wrote a piece about it. The ad depicts a group of young people having a great time eating Pringles and making crop circles. Apparently, the way they are shown making the circles is exactly the way that phenomenon is produced. Believers will scoff, but what seems more likely? Super intelligent extraterrestrials travel the vast expanse of space or some beings from another dimension to make patterns in crop fields, OR some people take boards and ropes out to a wheat field and make nifty crop circles? Sharpen up your Occam's razor everyone.

Arrrrrr Mythbusters be doin' it again

Then I talked about the Mythbusters looking into the myth of why pirates would wear eye patches. Not because of a missing or damaged eye, but, as the myth went, it was meant to keep that one eye accustomed to the dark. They tested it and it's true! The covered eye was much bettered suited for seeing in the dark.

Here's part of that show on the YouTube.

Hodgepodge

I finish up talking about The X-Files, Jaws, Legend of Hell House, The Blair Witch Project and how not seeing the shark, ghost or whatever makes it even scarier.

I also talked a bit about the new series of Dr. Who. I really like the Doctor as played by Christopher Eccleston and I'm just getting to see the episodes with the next actor, David Tennant. Not sure about him yet.

I touched on the old Columbo show too.

Correction

I misspoke when talking about the old Columbo episodes and how the same actors would keep coming back to play murderers. I meant to say Jack Cassidy, but instead I said Jack Kennedy. Cassidy was an actor, Kennedy was a President. Whoop, whoop.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ahead' by Wire
First ad break bumpers: 'I Got You' by Split Enz & 'Life's What You Make It' by Talk Talk
Second ad break bumpers: 'O.K. This Is The Pops' by Tones On Tail & 'Fall On Me' by REM
Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next week for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com You can also download my show from the Z Talk On Demand page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com