Dimland Radio

dimland radio 7-22-17 show notes

A Little More About Amelia Earhart

Last week I mentioned a Ric Gillespie being connected to the whole Earhart survived her last flight theorizing. He is. However, he’s not pushing the idea that she and her navigator were taken prisoner by the Japanese military. His idea is more romantic.

For more skeptical takes on that bad photograph that doesn’t show Earhart check out the Skeptoid Podcast and Ben Radford’s analysis written for CSI.

A Little Talk About Psychic Predictions

I wondered what good the predictions of psychics do. The predictions are only realized to have been correct after the event – it’s called retrofitting or retrodicting. Nostradamus predicted Hitler, it is said. He didn’t, but people retrofit his predictions after Hitler pulled his shenanigans. Even if he had predicted Hitler, which he didn’t, what good did it do? It didn’t prevent Hitler, the Nazis, or World War II.

Two More Police Shootings That Have Us Scratching Our Heads

In Minneapolis, two police involved shooting have gotten plenty of attention. In one incident two dogs were shot. The dogs were not killed, but it appears that they didn’t deserve to be shot. It’s hard to say for certain. The videos from the homeowners security camera and the officer body cam don’t appear to show the dogs acting aggressively. So, shooting them seemed unjustified.

However, there is no audio, so we don’t know if the dogs might have been growling. The first dog was wagging its tail, but a wagging tail doesn’t always mean the dog should be considered friendly and approachable. It’s hard to know what the dogs might do and was going through the mind of that officer.

It’s even harder to figure out what was going on in the mind of another Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed a woman who had called 911 to report a possible rape. Justine Damond, an Australian woman living with her fiance in Minneapolis, heard what she thought was a rape occurring near their house, so she called 911.

The officers who arrived were said to have been startled by a loud noise just prior to Damond approaching the driver’s side of the patrol car. The officer seated in the passenger seat, reached across with his weapon in hand. He shot and killed her.

How does that happen? As a Facebook friend pointed out, they were responding to a report of a woman being raped and a woman approaches the car, um, might she not be the victim of the rape? What the hell?

There are plenty of people wanting to know how this could have happened, including the Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Follow the links to learn more: here and here.

Top Three Cool Things Of The Week

Here are the Top Three Cool Things that I spotted this week.

3) The Minnesota Twins are in a rough stretch of 12 games coming out of the All Star break. They face the Houston Astros, the Hated Yankees, the Detroit Tigers, and the LA Dodgers. Detroit shouldn’t be as challenging. As of this writing their record through eight game of the rough stretch is 8-8. I’ll take a .500 record.

2) Look at the picture Gene Simmons, founding member of the rock band Kiss, recently getting some exercise. He’s 67. My Facebook friend Julie Lynn summed up the image brilliantly, thus:

“I wanna rock and roll all night… and get a moderate amount of exercise in sturdy shoes and stay hydrated as befits a man of my advanced years every day.”

1) My friend Chris Brown’s math whiz son Ethan was national television demonstrating his Magic Square. Pretty damn cool!

Also Mentioned On The Show

Ouija boards and the ideomotor effect.

Movie Recommendation: Creepshow (1982)

As a tribute to George Romero, who the world lost very recently, I thought I’d recommend his anthology film of macabre tales. It’s an homage to EC Comics, the publisher of horror, suspense, sci-fi, and crime comic books in the 1950s. I think the film captures the look, feel, and attitude of those comic books.

Watch for Stephen King, who wrote the film, as a yokel who has a meteor crash on his land. There’s a dancing Ed Harris and an F-bomb dropping EG Marshall.

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ram‘ by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: ‘Keep It Dark‘ by Genesis & ‘Tears‘ by Chameleons UK

Second ad break bumpers: ‘Help Me Sombody‘ by Brian Eno/David Byrne & ‘Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic‘ by The Police

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 7-15-17 show notes

A Correction

Yes, again. It was pointed out to me the the fellows on American Pickers on the Not So Much History Channel were pawn brokers. They are not. They are antiques dealers.

Then I want on a bit about how the titles of a lot of the pawn shows are take-offs on porn terms. Pawn Stars, Hardcore Pawn. See what I mean? So, I figured I’d make a few suggestions.

Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence Is Still Lost

Well, well, well, well. The Not So Much History Channel’s special about that photograph that was said to show aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan chillin’ on a dock in the Marshall Islands. I had a number of problems with that photograph, which I talked about last week.

The special erred (not misspelled) on Sunday and about two or three days later a blogger discovered the photograph in a travel book that had been digitized on the Japanese National Diet Library. The book was published in 1935, two years before Earhart disappeared.

Whoops.

The Not So Much History Channel promised to investigate. They say the investigation will be transparent, because historical accuracy is most important to them. You know, as it is with there Ancient Aliens series.

Remote Viewing And Getting A Psychic Reading

A Facebook friend believes herself to be psychic, a remote viewer. I challenged her to remote view a picture of an object I pulled off the internet. She dodged by saying I should call her the following day, so when she failed to guess it wouldn’t be public.

She said it had to be done her way, then she threw a bit of cold reading at me. Just a bunch of statements that seem specific but were vague enough to be open to interpreted in whatever way someone might choose.

She never did get to do her psychic twenty question with me to guess the image, but a skeptic friend of mine did play a non-psychic twenty questions round to identify the object. With a little hinting, she got it!

It was an image of Sputnik. The person who did guess Sputnik also has a loose connection to that satellite. She used to live in the town known for having a piece of Sputnik drop on it in 1962.

Remote Viewing To Help Others, Not To Gain Fame

I brushed up against a fellow claimed to be a PhD and involved with an organization that studies remote viewing and uses remote viewers to find missing kids. He claimed a 91.3% success rate. He was claiming this in the comments of the cold reader that wouldn’t remote view that image.

He and I had a brief discussion as to why with such a high success rate, the organization has no news coverage.

Three Really Cool Things From Last Week

This has the makings of a new segment. There were three really cool things I saw in the past week and I wanted to share them with you. It’s a Top Three list sort of thing.

3) 65,000 Green Day fans in London’s Hyde Park sing Bohemian Rhapsody as they wait for the band to take the stage. It warms the heart.

2) Space probe Juno sends back some fantastic close-up photos of Jupiter. Science!

1) The Minnesota Skeptics celebrated their 200th event. Plenty of skeptics showed up. We have a meet-up the second Thursday of each month. If you find yourself in the Twin Cities at that time of the month, stop on by and say, “I doubt it!”

Movie Recommendation: The Boston Strangler (1968)

A gritty and intriguing film about the crimes and the eventual capture of Albert DeSalvo, the Boston Strangler. It stars Tony Curtis and Henry Fonda.

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ram‘ by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: ‘Grass‘ by XTC & ‘Black Coffee In Bed‘ by Squeeze

Second ad break bumpers: ‘Anywhere’s Better Than Here‘ by The Replacements & ‘Cruel To Be Kind‘ by Nick Lowe

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

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 7-8-17 show notes

A Correction

Yes, again. I said that artist Chuck Close, after a paralyzing event, painted with his mouth. That is not the case. He has some use of his arms, so he straps a brush to his hand and paints that way. His paintings are now on the “pixelated” side when viewed up close, but from a distance…Wow!

Click here to check out his Wikipedia page.

James On Coke Bottles Got Me Thinking Of Presidents

I usually buy a couple/few 20 oz bottles of Coca-Cola a week and recently the brand has been putting names on the bottles. First names. And I found a bottle with James on it. Well, of course, I bought it. My name is James after all.

That somehow got me to note to the cashier that James is the most common first name of the American Presidents. There were six named James (one is more commonly called Jimmy, but he’s still a James).

That got me talking about Grover Cleveland and other aspects of the American Presidency. My mind goes in interesting directions.

Then I mentioned finding a couple names that matched part of the name of the alternative rock band Pixies’ lead singer’s real name: Charles Thompson. I thought that was cool and I asked the twenty-something fellow behind the counter if he had heard of the Pixies. He hadn’t. Damn kids.

It’s Not True: Buzz Aldrin And Pres. Trump

Recently, a story has been making it’s way through social’s media stating that the second man to walk on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, praised himself for not punching the President. Aldrin made a few humorous looks, but he didn’t punch the Commander in Chief, at a press conference, as our first child President gave his book report on a book he hadn’t read. The book this time was about space, something about which Aldrin knows a good deal more than the President.

After listening to the most powerful man in the world’s meandering and clueless statements, Aldrin claimed his greatest life achievement was refraining from an act of physical assault. And it’s not true. Aldrin said nothing of the sort. A satirical website, wishing it was The Onion, made the whole story up. That didn’t stop the internets from believing it and spreading it like wildfire.

Snopes.com sussed this one out by simply looking at the fake news site’s “about” page.

A Rant

I had started into doing a skeptical examination of a recent big claim, but I sidetracked myself by going on an unplanned rant. The rant was about a couple annoying cheers, I guess that’s what you’d call them, at sporting events that get under my skin.

One has been around for some time now. It’s the asinine “get in the hole” cry every time a golfer attempts a shot that has even the remotest chance of getting in the cup. Every time I watch golf on the TV some dipshit is there to yell it out. Thank you so very much, Caddyshack. (Doing some research, I thought I might have to blame Happy Glimore, but Adam Sandler never says the phrase in that movie.)

The other cheer is a newer phenomenon. It’s the Ric Flair woo. Flair was some pro wrestler who made that woo sound as part of his gimmick, but it has gained traction among all sorts of sports fans. It’s been creeping into sporting events and the dipshits who do it at football or baseball games just do it to hear themselves do it. I mean, there isn’t a reason to woo many of the times I hear it. Most of the time there hasn’t been a big, cheer-worthy play, they just like to shout, “Wooooo!”. Thank you so very much, Ric Flair.

Finally! The Amelia Earhart Mystery Has Been Solved! Uh, Well, Not So Fast…

Motivated reasoning can make for people accepting really poor evidence as proof that they are right. And seeing as how the 80th anniversary of the disappearance of aviation pioneer, Amelia Earhart, has been reached, it just couldn’t go by without someone making a claim that a solution has been found. A claim bolstered by, in my opinion, motivated reasoning.

A two-hour TV documentary special has arrived to tell us what really happened to Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, all those years ago. Once again the notion that they were captured by the Japanese and imprisoned as spies is promoted. This time there’s a newly discovered photograph, in which, the investigators claim, Earhart and Noonan can be seen.

Photo: US National Archives

Well, maybe. Maybe it’s them. I think it’s far more likely the two in question in the photo are just two of a group of eight Japanese people, standing on a dock.

I dig deeper into my reasons for my skepticism on the show. One big reason for my skepticism is the fact that the special is airing on…

The History Channel

Oh, it’s on the History Channel? Well, then the mystery must be solved. Obviously, Earhart was captured by space aliens!

It doesn’t help the special’s credibility at all by being on that sad and pathetic channel. It only very vaguely has anything to do with history as it is and what it has is sensationalist bullshit.

How bad is it that skeptics are longing for the days when the History Channel was the Hitler Channel? At least then there was some history involved.

Movie Recommendation: None

I ran out of time, so 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: ‘Bikini Red‘ by The Screaming Blue Messiahs & ‘Rock The Casbah‘ by The Clash

Second ad break bumpers: ‘Is It A Crime?‘ by Berlin & ‘Night Time‘ by Killing Joke

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

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 7-1-17 show notes

A Correction And More Whining

For some reason, during my diatribe at the end of last week’s show about talentless yet celebrated artists I kept mispronouncing Jon Serl’s name. I corrected my error. He still sucked as an artist.

I also talked about abstract art and how the less representational it is, the greater the bullshit explanation needs to be to explain why it is art. I went on to mention the great abstract artists Picasso and Pollack. Sure, plenty of people looked at their work and said their kids could do that. Perhaps, but your kids wouldn’t know what they were doing. Like Jon Serl, they would just be doing it.

Picasso and Pollack were good artists and could do more representational art as well as any great artist. They had the chops.

Just Stupid And Sad

I used to be amused by the Darwin Awards, but these days I’m beginning to think taking some kind of enjoyment from people killing themselves by doing something stupidly risky isn’t the best thing to do.

The latest example comes out of Crookston, MN. A boyfriend and girlfriend have been pursuing fame on YouTube by making videos of themselves doing risky things. The boyfriend wanted to do something really dangerous. He wanted the girlfriend to fire a .50 caliber handgun at his chest at point blank range. His protection would be a book.

They conducted the stunt. He died. She’s been arrested.

There was a news story reporting there were as many as 30 onlookers present for the stunt. If so, none of them appear to have tried to stop this act of stupidity. Maybe there should be some legal action brought against those witnesses.

The whole story is just sad. Made even more so by having been done right in front of their three year old child. Oh, and the girlfriend is pregnant.

Sad.

A Follow-Up On Right To Carry And Cop Stops

I looked into whether or not gun-owners who apply for a Right to Carry permit receive any kind of formal training on how to handle a traffic stop by the police when carrying a weapon. I found that there really isn’t. Not in Minnesota, anyway. The trainers teach what the law requires, but if there is any advising done about that situation, it is up to the individual trainers as to how they proceed.

I’m thinking I might contact my local legislators and suggest there be some formal training on handle that situation when gun-owners apply for a Right to Carry permit.

Another Example Of Photoshop Fakery

The above image shows quite nicely how you can’t always believe an image. I went over the rather easy to spot indications that the “rapists” image was faked. Sadly, even though it’s so obvious, people still get fooled into believing this young woman would want rapists around.

Pedantic Moment: Jane Lynch Is Holding Up The Young Swimmers

Have you seen the TV commercial with Jane Lynch telling the young lifeguard, who is late opening the pool for a mob of anger kids because he needed to get his coffee, he should use MasterCard MasterPass? Yep, MasterPass is MasterCard’s way to get people under a mountain of credit card debt real fast!

Anyway, she and the lifeguard are having this conversation while the kids are still waiting.

“Hey, Jane Lynch! Why don’t you shut up an let Mr. Coffee here open the damn gate! You can tell him all about that MasterCard thing once we’re inside. OK?”

Opening A Box Into My Past…In Front Of My Son

I had an old box set aside in a closet that, for the most part, contain mementos of two of my youthful obsessions. Well, one of those obsessions is still pretty active.

The box was filled with posters, magazines, books, and other paraphernalia relating to The Who and Farrah Fawcett. I’m still mighty obsessed with The Who, but my crush on Farrah has waned since my high school days. I must admit though there’s still a little spark there when I look at those images of her in her hey day.

There was a book in there about the crazy partying life of The Who’s drummer, Keith Moon. I bought the book in the mid80s, a couple years or so after it was published. I started to read it then, but I put it down only to never pick it up again. I vaguely remembered having problems with it, when I pulled it out of the box.

My son encouraged me to give reading it another try. So, I did. I didn’t get too far in, just the first paragraph, when I remembered why I stopped reading it 30 years ago. The book is a history of sorts and it’s written almost entirely in present tense! Ugh!

I came up with a plan for me to be able to read it. You’ll have to listen to learn what that plan is.

This was where going through the box really got fun for me, because I could go into full Dad mode in front of my son as I went through all the items. The items I had collected relating to Farrah Fawcett in particular. My son didn’t have a problem with The Who stuff but he was mortified that I had all those Farrah posters and…

Two copies of an unauthorized biography…

Two mugs…

A puzzle…

And a few other things for which I don’t have photos. He couldn’t believe I kept all of it. And he couldn’t believe his mom was OK with it.

I had so much fun making him so embarrassed.

Movie Recommendation: None

I ran out of time, so 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: ‘Debaser‘ by Pixies & ‘Undercover Of The Night‘ by The Rolling Stones

Second ad break bumpers: ‘Metro‘ by Berlin & ‘Back O’ The Moon‘ by 10,000 Maniacs

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

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 6-24-17 show notes

A Clarification

I started the show making sure my point from the last show about repealing the 2nd Amendment. I tried to make it clear that was not my position. I was advising those who wish to add more gun laws to cut to the chase and call for repealing (or greatly rewriting it to only cover rifles and shotguns used for hunting) of the right of the people to bear arms.

The Yanez/Castille Dashcam Video Released To Public

The dashcam video of the tragic traffic stop in Falcon Heights, MN in July of 2016 that left Philando Castille dead and Officer Yanez heading to trial for manslaughter was released. It isn’t graphic in the sense of what can be seen, but it is very upsetting.

I still find it difficult to understand how the jury came to that verdict.

I also talked about a YouTube video that gives instructions on how to handle being a legal carrier of a firearm when pulled over by the police. The video was posted to YouTube several months before Castille was killed. Castille was a legal carrier and he was armed. I had to wonder how he might have benefited from seeing that video.

I will see what I can learn about the training that people looking to get a right to carry permit go through and talk about it next week.

Poor Reporting And Anti-Semitic Swindler

A food vendor at the MN State Fair announced its menu and within three hours that vendor, Hideaway Speakeasy, changed the name of its sandwich called The Swindler. TCJewFolk.com complained that the name of the sandwich was anti-Semitic.

The first few articles I read never explained how the word swindler is anti-Semitic. I searched the Google and I couldn’t find anything giving the missing explanation. The state of journalism these days is such that so often there are questions left unanswered, and seemingly unasked. Obvious questions. Such as: “Why is swindler anti-Semitic?”

Fortunately, I found an article that made the connection. It’s not the word that’s the problem on its own. It’s the word used as the name of a sandwich that one would find in a Jewish deli.

Ah! I see.

Let’s Get The Lawyers Involved

So, for more than 50 years lumber sizing has not been exactly 2″ x 4″ or 4″ x 4″. Those are “nominal” (name only) sizing. The actual size is a bit smaller. There’s a long history of the battles to standardize lumber sizing going back to the turn of the 20th century. It took until 1963 for the standard to be set.

I suppose it’s not exactly common knowledge, but it’s been 50 plus years and now the lawyers are involved. Someone thought the agreed upon nominal sizing practice for more than half a century was deceptive. So, a class action suit is being filed against Menard’s and The Home Depot.

A lawsuit? Really? Talk about swindlers.

Pedantic Moment: Regan Should Have Died

I spoiled a horror classic from 1973, but at more than 40 years I think it’s not a big deal.

It’s The Exorcist that I talked about. Specifically the scene in which young Regan (Linda Blair) possessed by a demon turns her head all the way around. 360 degrees!

Now, as a pedant, I can accept the demon was keeping her alive after breaking her neck, tearing the veins and arteries, the nerves, and the skin. However, after the demon leaves her body, she should have dropped dead.

AND! I didn’t mention this on the show, but she does it twice in the movie. So, if the first time didn’t do enough damage, that second time sure as hell should have!

Some Sour Grapes, I Guess

My last topic of the show showed just how frustrating being an artist can be. I know art is subjective, but how it feels to have a talent for producing art and work on it all your life to improve on that talent only to see someone who can’t do it be a guest on the Johnny Carson show, as an artist? Twice?!

I’ll tell you

It’s fucking frustrating!!

Movie Recommendation: None

I ran out of time, so 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: ‘Sweetest Taboo‘ by Sade & ‘English Roundabout‘ by XTC

Second ad break bumpers: ‘Reel Around The Fountain‘ by The Smiths & ‘Ledge‘ by The Replacements

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

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.