Dimland Radio

dimland radio 5-1-10 show notes

Hey! Dave Servo, my friend and fellow skeptic, actually tuned in this week!

Correction

Last week I had talked about the Immaculate Conception and how the term refers to the Virgin Mary, not Jesus. It’s a Catholic concept that many people get wrong. I then said that Jesus wasn’t born without sin. Apparently, he was. I made a call to a local church to talk this over with a priest, but one wasn’t available. I left a message and will try to talk to him during the week. I’ll let you know on my next show.

In the line of duty

I talked about a Maplewood (suburb of St. Paul, MN where I live) police officer had been ambushed and shot to death. This doesn’t happen very often here in Minnesota, thankfully.

When you see a police officer in your part of the world, remember what those men and women in blue are willing to do for us every time they suit up.

dimland radio 4-24-10 show notes

Another fabulous show! Just me rambling on. No, I mean, just me making brilliant points and commentary as usual.

Theater of the mind

I mentioned this last week, but I wanted to promote it again. Z Talk Radio is doing something way cool. They are playing old time radio shows after Paradigm Shift (Fridays 10 – midnight central) and Dimland Radio. When my show ends Saturday Scare Fest begins and you can listen to the theater of the mind shows of the horror and mystery genre. After Paradigm Shift, it’s Frontier Fridays where you’ll hear old westerns such as the Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke and others.

Oral surgery insurance payment denial?

I talked about getting a notice in the mail stating that the oral surgery I received last month wouldn’t be paid for. What?! Before I had the procedure we got the approval for coverage, so what’s the deal? Turns on the surgery was covered under our medical. The notice we received was from dental and it was the dental insurance that didn’t cover. Why do they do that?

South Park insults Islam

I went over some of the goings on with the South Park (it’s still airing?) depicting Mohammed in a bear suit. Matt Stone and Trey Parker were “warned” by an American-based radical Islamic group that what they did was insulting to the Prophet and Islam.

You can read more about it here.

Boobquake

A young female skeptic found it so ridiculous that some Iranian cleric blamed earthquakes on the fact that women dressed immodestly she decided to respond. Jennifer McCreight, a Purdue University student, started as a joke a Facebook page called Boobquake. She’s encouraging women to sign up on that page and post their cleavage photos. Boobquake day will be Monday April 26, 2010. Can’t wait to check it out, I’m not sure why.

Let’s hope there’s not an earthquake on Monday.

You can read more about it here.

The Facebook fan page for Boobquake is here.

Edward Current

Edward Current is an atheist who poses as a fundamentalist Christian in a series of video on YouTube meant to satirize the Christian viewpoint. He’s not for everyone, but I think he’s pretty funny and worth checking out.

I mention the “miracle” on the Hudson and my views on that I also correct Edward Current’s error in mentioning that Jesus was born without sin. Wrong! His mother was born without sin. Mary was the Immaculate Conception, not Jesus.

You can find the video I talk about and more here.

MN Twins Sunday game jinx?

You know I’m a skeptic and I don’t believe in jinxes, but I still find it annoying that the only Twins’ games I get to watch (Sunday afternoons, mostly) are usually losses. I don’t know why it is, but every game I’ve been able to watch so far this season my Twins lose. Grumble, grumble.

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ahead’ by Wire
First ad break bumpers: ‘Skin Deep’ by The Stranglers & ‘White Train’ by The dB’s
Second ad break bumpers: ‘Astronomy’ by Red Guitars & ‘The Jezebel Spirit’ by Brian Eno & David Bryne
Closing song: ‘Angler’s Treble Hook’ by $5 Fiddle

airbags ain’t funny!

There’s something happening in a lot of the comedic films and TV shows and it needs to stop! It’s the recent comedy cliché of an airbag deployment for cheap laughs. I admit I can be pretty pedantic at times and, perhaps, this is one of those times, but I hate it whenever the airbag is used as a comedic device.

It’s not funny. And it seems as if every comedy maker uses it at some point. As I said, it’s become a cliché.

I spotted the latest rearing off its ugly head in an ad for the comedy film ‘Date Night’. ‘Date Night’ is probably already out of the theaters, it didn’t get the best reviews, but it was in them long enough for me to see the ad on TV. The film stars Tina Fey and Steve Carell, both of whom I like, and from what I understand they do the best they can with substandard comedic material. I’m not surprised to hear that the material wasn’t very good, having seen that tired and lame airbag popping and staying inflated while Steve and Tina try to get out of their car. Hahahahaha! That’s hilarious! It’s so funny, because…

It’s not funny.

Airbags do not work the way they are depicted on those comedies. They deploy too slow, too late, for no reason (other than a lazy attempt at getting laughs), and they stay inflated! If they worked that way in the real world, people would be severely injured or die. And that’s not funny.

When airbags deploy it is instantaneous and explosive, and they are deflating at practically the same instant they inflate. That way the airbag catches and cushions the passenger, minimizing injury from an accident. And they don’t just deploy on their own. The vehicle has to be moving at a certain speed, or hit by another vehicle traveling at a certain speed, when involved in a crash for the airbag to be engaged. When a vehicle crashes while traveling at least 14 mph or when a stationary vehicle is hit at about 28 mph, the airbag pops. (I got these numbers from Wikipedia, so they may not be entirely accurate.) The impact also needs to be head on or near head on in cars with front airbags only to get deployment.

I’m not always so literal when it comes to comedy, after all I’m a huge fan of Monty Python, but this airbag thing makes me angry. It doesn’t make me laugh, it never has. It’s time for Hollywood to dump this lame, stupid, overused, lazy, comedic crutch.

And if you think it’s funny, go buy another copy of ‘Wild Hogs’ and leave me alone.

dimland radio show notes 4-17-10

No guest on this show. I may have tweaked a nose or two by covering this year’s JREF Pigasus Awards. Trisha, a regular listener and chat room member gave me the “interesting show” response. I know that doesn’t necessarily mean something negative and Trisha is a friend of the show. I understand the audience doesn’t always agree with me. That’s cool. I press on.

Theater of the mind

Z Talk Radio is doing something way cool. They are playing old time radio shows after Paradigm Shift (Fridays 10 – midnight central) and Dimland Radio. When my show ends you can listen to the theater of the mind shows of the horror and mystery genre. After Paradigm Shift, you’ll hear old westerns such as the Lone Ranger. This to me is far out, I was very interested in those old shows when I was a kid. I’m especially thrilled that Z Talk has procured a few episodes of my favorite radio show, The Shadow.

The JREF annual Pigasus awards for 2009

Each year on April 1st (yes, April Fool’s Day), the James Randi Educational Foundation announces the “winners” of their annual Pigasus awards. These awards are given to the individuals and organizations who have done the most (regrettably) to advance or promote superstition and psuedoscience in the previous year.

This year’s recipients can be found here.

Dimland Radio promos

I knew it was out there, but I finally heard the promo for my show that was produced by Z Talk Radio. It’s a good promo that even mentions my website, www.dimland.com. I didn’t think to mention my website in the promo I wrote for my show. I’m glad somebody did. The Z Talk edition has a line that I wasn’t thrilled with. It states that “science is religion on Dimland Radio.” Well, it’s not. I could tell that a skeptic did not write that copy. No skeptic would ever equate science as religion.

Skeptical news items

Ripped from a recent issue of the Skeptical Inquirer were these two stories:

Study Reveals Ginkgo Biloba Ineffective for Memory

African Albinos Murdered for Witchcraft

A (hopefully) humorous story about my son, Hayden

My son, Hayden, is so cute and smart and wonderful and awesome, even when he’s making his dad stop peeing in midstream to run to find out why he’s crying. It turned out Hayden was fine. He was just playing. That little stinker.

Correction

For some reason (I’m not as smart as I think, perhaps?), I didn’t remember that “mg” stands for milligram, not microgram. How stupid is that?

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ahead’ by Wire
First ad break bumpers: ‘This Ain’t No Picnic’ by The Minutemen & ‘Bliss’ by Urban Guerrillas
Second ad break bumpers: ‘Warm Leatherette’ by The Normal & ‘And I Moved’ by Pete Townshend
Closing song: ‘Angler’s Treble Hook’ by $5 Fiddle

dimland radio 4-10-10 show notes

I had my first guest ever! It was Christy Necaise. Christy is the founder of the International Community For Paranormal Investigation & Research. She educates her investigators in the importance of being skeptical and how best to evaluate evidence. Christy also co-hosts a few programs on the Z Talk Radio network. Currently they include Paradigm Shift, Ghost Tech and Omni Fringe Radio, with two more shows on the horizon.

We talked about confirmation bias

I was impressed to hear that Christy uses the Skeptic’s Dictionary website for one of her resources. It is a great website and there is also a book version you can get.

www.skepdic.com

The book version is available at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Skeptics-Dictionary-Collection-Deceptions-Dangerous/dp/0471272426/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271014469&sr=8-1

Orbs and pareidolia

Christy talked about how orbs can happen in photography. She believes orbs are almost never pictures of ghosts. ( I would just say never, but that’s me.) We also talked about pareidolia and how it is important for her investigators to be very aware of it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Azeztulite/Pics%20to%20analyze/IMG_2939.jpg

http://icpir.org/photogallery/Vulture-Mine-Investigation

Extra innings

Christy and I enjoyed are conversation so much, we went a half hour past the time my show normally ends. We had the luxury of doing so because there is no live programming following my show. But Z Talk Radio will being playing old time radio programs following my show. That is cool! I dig those old shows. I hope they can get The Shadow.

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ahead’ by Wire
First ad break bumpers: ‘Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic’ by The Police & ‘The Queen Of Eyes’ by The Soft Boys
Second ad break bumpers: ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’ by Kate Bush & ‘Brainiac’s Daughter’ by The Dukes of Stratosphear
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.