Dimland Radio

dimland radio 3-13-21 show notes

Happy Anniversary!

It was on March 13, 2010, a middle-aged internet radio novice made his first timid steps to do a show called Dimland Radio.

It was me!

At the time, Z Talk Radio was filled with paranormal promoting programs and the online chat rooms were filled with people ready to believe. There was one skeptical listener and commenter in the chat rooms.

It was me!

I became somewhat of a skeptical gadfly, but a likeable one. Soon it was suggested that I do a show on the network. That I become Z Talk’s resident skeptic. It took some time and some convincing, but I decided to do it. And now it’s been 11 years! And Dimland Radio is Z Talk’s longest running show. By far.

I’m just that stubborn.

Dimland Radio’s Very First Topic

The first topic on that first show, after I did all my acknowledgements and thank you’s, was the children’s Saturday morning cartoon show that first aired in 1969: Scooby Doo, Where Are You!

It was a good place to start because, for most of the many incarnations of the show following the exploits of Scoob and the gang, the main lesson was that the answer to all those mysteries was never magic. The scary monster or fiend always turned out to be something mundane. Most often it was just someone in a costume trying to scare people off some property. One mystery it was a robot run amok, but, advanced though it was, the robot wasn’t magic.

Even through the blight of the annoying character of Scrappy Doo, the show remained a primer for skepticism. There was a stumble or two in the later years when the g-g-g-ghosts were real, but for the most part Scooby Doo remained a beacon of skepticism.

Not Just Dimland Radio’s Anniversary

This week in March marks other less auspicious anniversaries.

It’s been a year since the World Health Organization declared there to be a world-wide pandemic.

It’s been a year since the NBA announced it was suspending its season due to the pandemic.

It’s been a year since the Minnesota Skeptics have held an in-person meet-up. We’ve been rocking the Zoom ever since.

It’s been a year since I’ve hugged my mother.

It’s been a long year, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

The Clash Of Skeptics And Believers

Some professional skeptical investigators are liked by believers. The believers think those skeptics have open minds, are respectful, kind, understanding, and always willing to get to the bottom of a mystery. I strive to be the same way, except I’m strictly amateur.

Sometimes, and one might say inevitably, the kind and respectful skeptics run afoul of the believers.

It’s an old skeptical saw to ask why we never see headlines proclaiming: “Psychic Wins Lottery… Again!” The believers’ response is often, “Oh. It doesn’t work that way.”

How unfortunate for the psychics.

Sometimes, especially after tragic events, skeptics wonder aloud, “Why didn’t the psychics warn about this? Why didn’t they prevent this from happening? What good are they?!”

“Oh. It doesn’t work that way.”

Humph!

Close, but it would be more accurate to say, “Oh. It doesn’t work.”

And then the believers get upset.

The Clash Of A Z Talk Psychic And A Z Talk Skeptic

I haven’t talked about this encounter since it happened. But, with the passing of time, I thought I would talk about the incident on its nearly 11 year anniversary.

First, I will state this unequivocally: I believe the psychic in this story, who shall remain unnamed, believed in her claimed abilities. She was sincere about them. I do not think she was putting on an act in order to gain fame, money, or importance. She really thought she was psychic. She was a funny, tough as nails, call it like she sees it sort. She didn’t give a damn about what anyone thought about her. She was a bit of a hoot actually and she was quite popular on Z Talk.

However, I do not believe she really was psychic. I’m a skeptic. And there has yet to be anyone to show that ESP or clairvoyance or psychic abilities are real.

The incident began the night before my second show. I took part in a group hang-out on the program that was on Z Talk on Friday nights in those days: Paradigm Shift with Dave and Christy. It was meant to be just a bit of spontaneous fun conversation since the guest for that show was unavailable. A few Z Talkers called in, among them was the psychic and the skeptic.

During the hang-out, the psychic tried to read me. She wanted to know what happened to me when I was 32 years old. Her spirit guides were telling her something important happened to me at that age. I didn’t play along. I didn’t give an answer. I told her that she kept asking me questions. She’s the psychic. Give me answers, not questions.

Not much more came of it that night, but I thought this might be good for my show. I got permission from Dave to use a few audio clips from the conversation, but he didn’t ask what I planned to do and I didn’t tell him. I should have. It might have saved me some grief.

Dimland Radio was done live on Saturday nights in those days with a far more active chat room. I played the clips and suggested that what the psychic was doing looked an awful lot like cold reading to me. That went over… not so well.

When I went off the air and into he chat room for the post show chat, the place was on fire. I had started a whole shitstorm! “Dim! Why are you attacking her?! We thought you were one of the good skeptics!”

The chat room was filled with friends of the psychic, all accusing me of attacking her. She was in there as well, demanding I be disciplined in some way or she would sue. So much for not caring what others thought of her.

I hadn’t thought I was attacking her, but in effect I was. When I realized that, I apologized profusely. The owners of Z Talk went easy on me since I was new to the network and didn’t know the policy of not being critical of fellow Z Talkers without giving them the heads up and opportunity to rebut.

I apologized on the next show and assured everyone that second episode was gone. Erased. Never would it be heard again. I learned and moved on. The psychic left the network a year or so later and, I recently found out, died four years ago.

The St. Patrick’s Day Car Crash Of 2015

In just a few days it will be the anniversary of another event.

It was in the very early hours of the day after St. Patrick’s Day when my family was awakened by the sound of a car crashing into a tree on our boulevard right next to our house. The car narrowly missed hitting our old van that we used to park on the street.

It is a the tale of three very frightened young people, an angry yet apologetic man with a sawed off shotgun, a crashed car, the police, and me in my pajamas.

Be patient. Wash your hands. Stay home. Stay safe. WEAR A MASK!

Dimland Radio opening theme song: Ram by The Yoleus

First ad break bumpers: You Took by The Church and Entre Nous by Rush

Second ad break bumpers: Ashes To Ashes by David Bowie and Heat Of The Moment by Asia

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 Apple Podcasts! 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.

Subscribe to Dimland Radio on PodBean!

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’d like.

Images used under Fair Use.

dimland radio 3-6-21 show notes

What Did I Say?

Last week I sneaked in a word just as the show was getting under way. It’s the technical term for a certain sex act and I was challenged to slip the word into the show, so I did.

Did you catch it?

Math Is Hard

With the latest COVID relief package making its way through the House and Senate, I thought I would demonstrate that I’m not a mathematician. The demonstration was unintended. I thought I had hit upon something profound.

But, it turned out that math is hard.

And I’m a doofus.

I’m Also Old

My wife was watching the John Hughes teen angst classic Pretty In Pink the other day.

(Lookin’ good, Steff.)

I discovered I had gotten old when my reaction, after watching for a few minutes, was to roll my eyes and tell the kids to settle down and stop being so dramatic. To paraphrase the 1990s philosopher the Fresh Prince: Kids just don’t understand.

A Dimland Radio Pedantic Moment: Marjorie Taylor Greene

First off, she’s fucked in the head. She is bad for America. She needs to get on some meds.

But…

Funny as the retort may be, by using ironic sexism, going by Biblical logic kooky, QAnon Marge is still right about God creating only two genders. Again, I mean that going by the Bible she’s right. The invisible sky-daddy created the two genders by taking the rib out of the one He made from dust. According to the Bible, which is what the loopy lunatic from Georgia is basing her ideas on, the deity only made two genders.

Of course, we all know the Bible is bullshit, right?

It’s Not True: Praying To The Golden Idol

*“If we pray hard enough, our Lord will turn this into a real boy…”*

At the recent Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an annual event at which conservative Republicans gather the air grievances, complain about being oppressed, and strategize on the best ways to not make life better for other people, someone wheeled in a cartoonish statue of Fearless Loser. A golden idol if you will.

The above image of evangelicals gathered around the idol to bless it or pray to it is a lie. It’s a Photoshopped image that originally had the Loser himself as the center of attention. So, yeah, pretty much the same thing.

*“We did it! Thank you, God! He’s a real boy!”*

Part of me still expects to hear that this golden idol (made in China!) was actually a massive trolling of the conservatives.

Walks Like A Nazi Symbol, Swims Like A Nazi Symbol, Quacks Like A Nazi Symbol…

*A hell of a coincidence. But a coincidence.*

Initially, my reaction to the shape of the stage at the CPAC event was that it sure did look like one of the several runic symbols the Nazis adopted for their military and governmental insignia. Come on! Look at it! These conservatives are sending a message to their Neo-Nazi base!

Well, not so fast. Let’s remember not to assign malice where human incompetence or oversight or pure coincidence can explain the resemblance.

As the conversation rolled out on my Facebook page, I maintained the willingness to accept the stage design, which looked so much like an odal rune, was simply an amazing coincidence. That it was not intended as a dog whistle.

The odal rune was a symbol used by Nazis in occupied Yugoslavia during World War II. And the othala rune, very similar to the odal rune, was adopted by the National Socialist Movement in 2016 to replace the swastika in order to be “more inclusive and more mainstream.” Neo-Nazis striving to be more inclusive. Riiiight.

Anyway, the company that designed the stage was shocked by the resemblance to the runic symbol that had been ruined by the Nazis. (The Nazis ruined a lot of things. Excepts skulls. Skulls are still cool.) They had not intended to use a Nazi symbol and they weren’t sending any message.

Although, no doubt that some Neo-Nazis have seen that stage and believe they have been given a message.

The Car Is Better?

We had some trouble with the car. The problem was a loose battery cable and the fix was simple and inexpensive. I also replaced the gas cap, which might have been the source of some other weirdness.

But is it fixed? Stay tuned.

Be patient. Wash your hands. Stay home. Stay safe. WEAR A MASK!

Dimland Radio opening theme song: Ram by The Yoleus

First ad break bumpers: Natural’s Not In It by Gang Of Four and Did You Steal My Money by The Who

Second ad break bumpers: One Step Ahead by Split Enz and How Soon Is Now? by The Smiths

Closing song: Angler’s Treble Hook by $5 Fiddle

Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts! 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.

Subscribe to Dimland Radio on PodBean!

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’d like.

Images used under Fair Use.

dimland radio 2-27-21 show notes

Good News

My dad has received his first dose of the Covid vaccine and Mom has her first dose coming on March 9th. This is good. Really good.

The vaccine rollout has been getting better and better now that adults are in charge again. We are beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel. Still, we need to be careful and keep doing all those Covid prevention practices we’ve been doing over the last 12 months. We’re getting close, but we are not through this yet.

Fan Mail!!!

I found an email in the drdim@dimland.com mailbox. That does not happen very often and it’s mostly spam when it does occur. Well, imagine my surprise and delight when it turned out to be a piece of fan mail!

The email was from a fellow named Bryan who lives in merry old Scotland. He somehow came across Z Talk Radio and would listen to it for his amusement. He found the more credulous Z Talk shows entertaining in their noncritical thinking. Then Dimland Radio interrupted the flow.

Bryan being a skeptic and an atheist liked what he heard and he wanted to let me know.

Thank you, Bryan. You made my week.

Rumors Of My Watch’s Death…

If you thought last week’s story of getting a new couch was riveting (I had two listeners comment on my couch tale), wait until you hear about my watch!

It’s a Wenger Swiss Army Knife design watch, which was given to me as a Christmas present from my brother-in-law more than 15 years ago. And it is one of my favorite things. I really like this watch.

Thursday morning, as I was getting ready for work, I reached for the watch, which was on the end table by my side of the new couch, but I didn’t quite reach far enough. It fell to the floor. To its apparent death.

But did it really die?

A Dimland Radio: ARGH!

*Tony Romo’s wife and her shirt-tucking indecisiveness.*

My wife tells me it’s called the French Tuck. I call it the mullet of shirt wearing. And I don’t like it. Tuck it or untuck it. Make up your mind!

My Second MRI Procedure In My Life

The first was due to a sudden and sharp headache after lifting something or otherwise exerting myself. My doctor wanted to check inside my head. They found nothing…

…to worry about.

This recent MRI was to check my neck. I had been having pretty severe pain for more than a month. I saw my nurse practitioner, who thought it might my super tight with tension shoulders. She gave me a muscle relaxer, but that wasn’t doing the trick. The pain was still there.

She did recommend that if the pain did not recede, I show go to the osteopathic clinic affiliated with my main clinic. I did that the next weekend and got the MRI. Turns out I have a narrowing between two of the vertebra in my neck and there is inflammation which irritates the nerve and causes the pain.

I’ve been taking a prescribed anti-inflammatory when necessary and doing neck stretching exercises each day and I have been mostly pain-free since then. On Tuesday, I will be getting an injection in my neck. Should be fun!

Spoiling A Netflix Documentary Series

Earlier this month, Netflix posted a new four-part documentary series about the (spoiler!) accidental death of Elisa Lam. The series is called Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel and it is infuriating.

I thought the length of the series was a little bloated and had way too much internet amateur sleuth involvement for my liking. That was the infuriating part. They don’t know what they are doing! They end up anomaly hunting and thinking something terribly nefarious happened, when it a young woman with bipolar disorder who went off her meds, had a psychotic event, and ended up drowning in one of the water tanks on the roof of the hotel. It wasn’t murder, it was an accident. (Spoiler!)

Perhaps the filmmaker wanted the series to be infuriating in order to show the damage inexperienced people can do when they are out of the depths. Watch it at your own discretion.

As I ended my talk I misspoke and said some of the internet sleuths accepted the lid was on the water tank when the maintenance worker discovered Elisa’s body. It wasn’t on. It was off. The misinformation that the lid was on when she was found led to the whole mystery. But it was off (spoiler!). I misspoke. I meant to say it was off.

Misspeaks happen.

Be patient. Wash your hands. Stay home. Stay safe. WEAR A MASK!

Dimland Radio opening theme song: Ram by The Yoleus

First ad break bumpers: Tony’s Theme by Pixies and Eye In The Sky by The Alan Parsons Project

Second ad break bumpers: Lord, I Hope This Day Is Good by Don Williams and Apeman Hop by Ramones

Closing song: Angler’s Treble Hook by $5 Fiddle

Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts! 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.

Subscribe to Dimland Radio on PodBean!

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’d like.

Images used under Fair Use.

dimland radio 2-20-21 show notes

My New Couch, You Should SEE My New Couch

I told the story of our getting a new couch. There was good timing, a helpful stranger, and the potential for an unsolved mystery.

It’s riveting tale.

A Cool Thing: Perseverance Landed On Mars

It is always a cool thing when humans achieve something as astounding as landing a sophisticated piece of equipment on another world. And to see photographs from that world is truly awesome.

Some folks are upset that money is spent on missions to Mars instead of ending the pandemic and/or ending child hunger. I understand the sentiment, but to me that’s a little like saying a person shouldn’t buy a car while they still owe money on their house.

The thing is we should be able to do both.

Check out NASA’s website here.

Damn Cars And Cold Weather

Despite a having a brand new battery, the very frigid air caused our car to refuse to start Monday morning and again on Tuesday morning. Each time I had to hook up a battery charger to get the damn thing to start. The new battery’s first test and it failed.

Minnesota had a fairly mild January, but February made us pay for that. From late afternoon Thursday Feb. 11 to midday Tuesday Feb. 16, the air temperature in the Twin Cities never went above 0º F. That Monday morning the temperature dropped to more than -20º and the car didn’t like it.

But as bad as it got here, other parts of the country also got hit with harsh winter conditions, especially Texas. We here in Minnesota and the upper Midwest are much more prepared for severe winter weather. Texas was not in any way ready for what hit them.

Unfortunately, Texas also has a shithead senator who thought it was a good idea to get out of Dodge for a long weekend in Cancun, until the internet convinced him it was instead a really bad idea to take a vacation while so many of his constituents were suffering. Had the internet not caught him, the shithead would have enjoyed a long, warm weekend on the beach. Poor guy.

If you are able and would like to help out the folks in Texas this website has several ways in which you can help.

Somebody Needs To Do Something About This Guy, But Not Me

That is pretty much what Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said as he made the House Managers’ case while excusing his and 42 other Senate Republicans’ vote to not hold Fearless Loser responsible for inciting an insurrection. In his post not guilty vote speech, McConnell made it clear that Pres. Trump was “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day [January 6].” However, McConnell chose the easier path of kicking the can down the road. Let someone else take the principled stand. Mitch wants to be re-elected.

What a coward.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s full post trial speech.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s full post trial speech.

Compare and contrast.

A Statement Made

*John, Ben, and Adam. Friends no more. It’s a shame, but words have consequences.*

A couple shows back I talked about the BeanDad Twitter kerfuffle. Musician/podcaster John Roderick made a questionable joke by suggesting he cruelly taught his nine year old daughter how to use a can opener. The Twitterverse did not take the story as a joke. They were even less forgiving of his ironic sarcasm in using racial, homophobic, and anti-Semitic slurs on Twitter a few years ago.

Apparently, Roderick’s co-hosts of the podcast Friendly Fire weren’t too thrilled either. The show came to an abrupt end. The co-hosts, Benjamin Harrison and Adam Pranica, hadn’t made any public statement about the severing of their partnership with Roderick.

They said nothing until their other podcast, hosted by just Ben and Adam, The Greatest Generation began reviewing the episodes of Star Trek: Voyager. It was subtle. They were commenting on a moment of racial insensitivity in the first episode. They made a comment about someone using the excuse of it being a joke when they say horrible things. Listeners not familiar with the controversy might not have caught the subtle statement, but to those who know the message was received.

Be patient. Wash your hands. Stay home. Stay safe. WEAR A MASK!

Dimland Radio opening theme song: Ram by The Yoleus

First ad break bumpers: Empty Glass by Pete Townshend and Waiting by The Suburbs

Second ad break bumpers: And Through The Wire by Peter Gabriel and Soul In Isolation by Chameleons UK

Closing song: Angler’s Treble Hook by $5 Fiddle

Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts! 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.

Subscribe to Dimland Radio on PodBean!

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’d like.

Images used under Fair Use.

dimland radio 2-13-21 show notes

Good News

I got a call from my dad this week. He has been scheduled to receive the first dose of the Covid vaccination. Mom hasn’t received her call yet, but we hope it will come soon.

Stories Of Kent (And One Of Olgita)

My sister gave my brothers and me the sad news of the death of her ex-husband Kent. It had been years since any of us, including my sister, had seen or heard from him, but I had fond memories of him and I shared a couple.

Kent had a sister named Olgita. I had a story to tell about her…

Emerald Ash Borer Is Ruining The Neighborhood

It’s ruining the look of it anyway.

The emerald ash borer is an invasive insect from Asia that has made its way to Europe and North America and it is destroying our ash trees. The little pests lay their eggs in crevices of ash trees and its larvae hatch and eat away at the tree beneath the bark.

As you can imagine, this is not good for the trees.

The City of St. Paul has had to remove massive numbers of ash trees due to the insect’s appetite. Which means we are seeing a lot more sky than we’ve been accustomed to. It’s devastating the look of our neighborhoods.

*Ivy Street – Scroll left to right to see the difference.*

Go here to learn more about the emerald ash borer, what to look for, and what to do if you suspect the little bugs are in your neck of the woods.

Hmmmm. This Seems Deceptive To Me

This ad showed up on my Facebook page.

Take a close look at the before and after pictures of this young fellow who appears to have miraculously regained lost hair.

But has he?

I could be wrong here, but, to me, it looks more like he had shaved his head, leaving his hair very short, and then let it grow back.

In fact! Call me cynical, but the “before” picture might actually have been taken after the “after” picture. It may have been taken after the model shaved his head and he hasn’t grown any more hair at all.

And Then There’s This Bullshit

This device encourages hair regrowth. Uh huh. Sure, it does.

I would encourage you to save your money and not waste it on this ridiculous item.

How in the world could this even work? Seriously?

This looks to me to be some cheap contraption meant to prey on people in deep fear of losing their hair. There’s money to be made off the desperate and there will always be predators ready to make that money.

How can this ludicrous light-up helmet possibly work to regrow hair?!

General Motors Is Going Electric

Climate change is real. Sure, the climate is always changing, but what is happening now is very bad and is largely due to human activity, mainly the burning of fossil fuels. We need to get away from using fossil fuels. We need alternate and more sustainable ways of powering our world. Wind and solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, hydrogen and biofuels, and, yes, nuclear all need to be embraced.

General Motors, America’s largest automobile manufacturer, is seeing the writing on the wall. It has announced its intention to phase out the internal combustion engine for all of its light duty cars, trucks, and SUVs by 2035.

This is big and perhaps Ford and Chrysler will follow suit, if they haven’t already done so.

Gas Is Way Cheap

Going by the the price of unleaded gas and the fashion of dress in the image showing that fetching young woman filling up, I estimate the year to be 1981. Adjusting for inflation, the $1.36 gallon of gas in 1981 would be $3.89 today. Conversely, a $2.39 gallon of today’s gas would cost a mere 83 cents back then.

Gas is way cheap.

Our Kia Soul Might Be Getting A New Engine

I will know for sure after Monday. That’s when I will be taking the car in to the dealership for a safety recall testing. We received the recall notice which listed several symptoms of a possible serious problem with the engine of the 2014/2015 models. Our car has been showing a few of those symptoms.

I will let you know next week.

A Cool Thing: The Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes Podcast

I stumbled across this podcast with brothers Gus and Luke reviewing each of the Granada TV Sherlock Holmes shows. All feature Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes. Brett is the best ever at playing the fictional detective and the hosts of the podcast will tell you why.

Gus is the one who does the synopsis of each episode and he has a… unique cadence… as… he tells… details of the… show and… behind… the scenes… trivia… and details. But that’s a nitpick. The podcast is a must for Brett/Holmes fans.

Be patient. Wash your hands. Stay home. Stay safe. WEAR A MASK!

Dimland Radio opening theme song: Ram by The Yoleus

First ad break bumpers: Everyone A Puzzle Lover by 10,000 Maniacs and New Day Rising by Husker Du

Second ad break bumpers: Athena by The Who and Guess I Must Have Been In Love With Myself by Pete Shelley

Closing song: Angler’s Treble Hook by $5 Fiddle

Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts! 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.

Subscribe to Dimland Radio on PodBean!

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’d like.

Images used under Fair Use.