Dimland Radio

dimland radio 10-10-15 show notes

Interesting Science News Item…

I hadn’t been able to get to this the last couple of shows, but I did this week. There’s a small town in the Dominican Republic in which a number of boys are born appearing to be girls. When those boys reach the age of 12 or so, they get their penises and testes. It’s a strange occurrence in which nature delays their sexual development.

The boys are called guevedoces which translates to “penis by 12”. Nature sure can be strange.

I speculated as to how this might relate to the nature versus nurture debate.

It’s Not True: Same Woman At Four Mass Shootings

Conspiracy theorists are a bit nutty. Have you ever heard that before? They will find evidence no matter how bad to justify their belief in some conspiracy no matter how outlandish. They engage in anomaly hunting and they are very good at it.

One anomaly some of them have convinced themselves of is that there are “crisis actors” who participate in these mass shooting events we’ve been having waaay too many of here in the US. These “actors” add to the perceived reality of the event by acting as grieving relatives of those who have been killed. So, that the country will be moved to allowing Obama to take our guns.

Well, the conspiracy nuts believe the same grieving “crisis actor” can be seen at four recent mass killings of innocents. Look closely at the images of this woman for, oh, 0.005 seconds and you will see that she is actually four different women.

Four different women grieving at four different tragedies.

Snopes came to the rescue on this one.

Nostalgia Zones Blogs

I talked about the two latest blog posts I did for Nostalgia Zone. One was a parody ad about Jarts, the lawn darts game that might not have been a great idea. Large, heavy, metal-tipped darts you throw in the air – what could go wrong?

And then I blogged about a Halloween sound effects record we had when we were kids. It’s called ‘Monster Mash: Sounds of Terror‘ and I even played a few tracks from the album. Most tracks on the album were fairly tame. But then they included tracks that covered being possessed by the devil, burned at the stake, buried alive, and being decapitated by a guillotine. You know, for kids!

Movie Recommendations: None

Ran out of time, so you’re on your own this week.

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ram’ by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: ‘Cuts You Up‘ Peter Murphy & ‘I Believe In You‘ by Don Williams

Second ad break bumpers: ‘Almost With You‘ The Church & ‘Something Against You‘ By Pixies

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

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 10-3-15 show notes

Once Again..

Yes, another senseless mass shooting. Another round of outrage and calls for and against gun control. Another round of calls for improved mental healthcare. And another round of me saying I don’t know the answer.

I do know we ain’t goin’ to hell in a hand-basket. Since World War II, the world has gotten more peaceful and less violent. Since the 1990s, violent crime in America has declined. I also know that going by what we see and hear on the 24 hour news channels and social media everything appears far worse than it is.

Jeff Wagg of the College of Curiosity has an idea that might help stop these tragic events. He’s not the first to propose it, but he gets the idea out very cohesively as one of his Daily Curio audio podcasts. His idea to to just not publicize the names of these killers and limit the coverage of the events. It may be possible to get the cable news outlets to not mention the name, but to limit their coverage would be a difficult request to meet.

As I’ve done before (and, sadly, may do again) I’m sharing Pete Townshend’s plea to ‘Stop Hurting People‘.

Yay! Science!

I tried to lighten the mood of the show by reminding listeners that humans may be capable of mass shootings and other acts of violence, they are also capable of soaring to great heights. Science keeps having awesome moments and I talked about two of them: More pictures of Pluto’s moon Charon and WATER ON MARS!!

Yay! Science!

How To Upstage A Supermoon Eclipse

How does one top a total lunar eclipse during a supermoon? Easy. Invite a racoon!

My lunar eclipse companion or, at least, how I’ll describe him.

OK, I didn’t invite the critter. He just wandered onto our backyard deck and stunned the hell out of me. He didn’t attack. There was no long, heroic battle between man and beast, but that is how I’ll tell the story years from now.

The lunar eclipse or, at least, how I’ll describe it.

10-02-82

That is a very important date for me. No, it’s not when my son was born. It’s not when I met or married my wife. Nothing so trivial.

It was on that date that I saw Rock’s all-time greatest band: The Who. I wrote about it on this blog some years ago: here.

It’s been 33 years, but the love affair is still going strong.

Movie Recommendations: The Kids Are Alright (1979)

New World Pictures

The rockumentary doesn’t follow a chronological path when displaying the greatest rock band ever, but it will go a long way in demonstrating why I love this band so much. There’s no narration, just lots of interviews and loads of great concert footage.

These kids are definitely alright!

Check out the trailer with a familiar face. Here!

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ram’ by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: ‘Daily Records‘ & ‘Athena‘ by The Who

Second ad break bumpers: ‘It’s Hard‘ & ‘Cry If You Want‘ By The Who

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

dimland radio 9-26-15 show notes

A Co-host?

Yes, as my wife was out Friday night (when I usually record the show) my son, Hayden, graciously agreed to stay up and record the show with good ole Dad.

We started with a brief discussion of the big supermoon eclipse. Hayden seemed interested, but not overly so.

iTunes Sucks

I updated my iTunes and lost all my podcasts. Oh, they are still being downloaded, I can find that part out. But I can’t find my podcast library. My songs are all there in the music library. I can see those, but the podcasts ain’t showing up.

It could be that I’m doing something wrong. It seems more likely the iTunes update has some glitch. And just try to get help from iTunes. They ain’t helpful.

Perhaps the next update will fix the issue.

Joe Soucheray’s Problem With Global Warming

Joe Soucheray is a talk radio host and a columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He can be described as a curmudgeon and a conservative. He’s also a global climate change denier. At least, he denies the human causation of it.

He frequently brings up news items on some extreme weather event or condition happening now that hasn’t been as bad or happened in the distant past. For instance, he recently talked about an article stating California is the driest it has ever been since 500 years ago.

Soucheray will ask what caused that dry condition back then. “We weren’t driving cars then.”

His point is that if something other than humans caused that (and the many other examples he’s given over the years) to happen back then, maybe something other than humans is causing it now.

It seems a fair point, but he doesn’t connect all those past events. He doesn’t notice those past events happened separately from each other. He also doesn’t notice that all those not this bad since examples are all happening now!

If all of those past events were occurring at roughly the same time he might have something there. But they didn’t.

Spoiling A Doctor Who Episode

I tried to limit the spoilage. I talked about the season eight episode ‘Kill The Moon’ and stated that a chicken egg does not gain mass as the chick grows inside it. The egg is a closed system, so it cannot gain mass.

I also mentioned a skit from ‘Mr. Show’ about blowing up the moon. I find the skit very funny. Check it out.

Bigfooter Determines Bigfoot Prints Are Likely Fake

Not all bigfoot print, I’m sure, but Cliff Barackman of (Not) ‘Finding Bigfoot’ investigated a sizable find of bigfoot prints in London, OR. He has studied casts of the prints and has determined they are probably fake.

There’s hope for this young man.

Movie Recommendations: Whitey: USA V James J Bolger (2014)

CNN Films

Whitey Bolger is a nasty piece of work. And this documentary shows how nasty. It also shows how members of the FBI were very willing to get in bed with this guy. Fascinating and icky all around. And there’s a tragic unexpected twist in there.

The movie ‘Black Mass’ with Johnny Depp as Whitey is based on information in this film.

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ram’ by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: ‘Alice’s House‘ by The Psychedelic Furs & ‘My Love Explodes‘ by The Dukes Of Stratosphear

Second ad break bumpers: ‘Under Pressure‘ by Queen & ‘Cat’s In The Cupboard‘ By Pete Townshend

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

dimland radio 9-19-15 show notes of the show that didn’t air

Server Issues, I Think

The server was down when I went in to make sure my show would air. I got it going again, but it didn’t want to play my show for September 19th. It did, however, want to play an older show of mine. So, show 242 didn’t air, but it is available on Z Talk’s Show Archive page.

What I’ve decided to do is forge ahead and do a new show to air Saturday at the normal time, provided the server works or I work it properly. I will place show 242 in the Big Picture Science show slot. You might not know this, but the excellent science program Big Picture Science follows my show on Saturday nights. Two episodes play each week. You really ought to check it out.

But, for Saturday the 26th, I’ll replace the first BPS show with Dimland Radio show 242, so you can hear it, if you’d rather not grab it from the show archive.

The following are the show notes for the show that didn’t play…

A New Car!

It isn’t this exact car, but this is the same model year and color.

Not brand new. It’s a 2014 Kia Soul, but it’s new to us. Amy’s dad gave us some money to put toward a new vehicle a while back. And my dad said he was willing to help us out, too. Our dads both wanted us to have a decent, reliable vehicle before winter sets in. So, with their generous assistance, we bought that Kia Soul.

Yes, we do note the irony of a family of atheists owning a car called Soul, but what the hell. It’s a neat car and it’s the best either of us have ever owned. We’ll just spell it S-O-L-E in our minds.

The Who North American Tour Postponed

This could be considered the yin to the yang (or is that the yang to the yin?) of our good news of getting the new car. It was announced that due to illness The Who Hits 50 North American Tour will be postponed until Spring 2016. Roger Daltrey (71) is being treated for viral Meningitis and, although we are told he is on the mend, his doctors have order no touring for the rest of the year.

I do want Roger to get better and I can wait until Spring, but the October 10th show that I have tickets to, was to be our mine and Amy’s 14th wedding anniversary celebration. Now we will have to find something else to do.

Thanks, Obama.

Some Blogs Are Posted

I do a couple blogs, as long time listeners and readers of this blog (see?) will know. Recently, I have had a blog posted on the Stuck in the 80s site. It was another installment of my ongoing series featuring the alternative musical acts of the 80s. The posts are called Never Found in the 80s. My latest is about the Irish rock band Cactus World News.

And I think I mentioned writing about my most favorite toys of my youth. They were the two foot tall robots know as the Shogun Warriors. And they really were awesome!

dimland radio 9-12-15 show notes

Report To Court

Just before I sat down to record this show, I found something pretty scammy in my email. It was a notice from “State Court” that I appear. The English was a bit awkward and there was no indication as to which court I needed to appear before nor was there any reason given for my appearance.

There was an attachment which I was instructed to open. I didn’t. I read the notice on the show and then deleted the obvious scam email.

Remembering 9/11

It’s an annual occurrence. The swallows return to Capistrano each fall. The cherry blossoms bloom in Washington DC each spring. And, every year for the past 14 years, the “truthers” take to the social media to convince the “sheeple” that 9/11 was an inside job.

This is the latest example of 9/11 conspiracy logic that I spotted on Facebook.

They site the usual anomalies or what they think are inconsistencies in the reporting of the events of that day. Jet fuel doesn’t burn hot enough to melt steel. There’s no way 19 hijackers armed with box cutters could pull this off. The Jews all stayed home that day. What’s his name said, “Pull it.” The Pentagon couldn’t have been hit by a plane. Building 7! Blah. Blah. Blah.

And on it goes. There’s little hope of getting them to face reality.

Here is what the evidence tells us about what happened on September 11, 2001 and how the conspiracy theorists are so wrong. And here is what a former “truther” has to say about Building 7. He is a former “truther“, so it may be possible for others to see the light. And this from Popular Mechanics.

I also talked about what I remember of that day and the fearful strangeness of the days that followed.

Politics

I’m no expert in politics. Frankly, I’m just plain tired of the whole us versus them scenario that any political system made up of humans can’t help but create. I see a lot of Left against Republican stuff on my Facebook. Which obviously means that most of my FB friends tend to be politically liberal.

I commented on a posting on the liberal site PoliticusUSA by Sarah Jones, was detailing a speech given by Sen. Al Franken before the Senate explaining his support of the Iran nuclear deal. What he said seemed reasonable to me.

Something Ms Jones said gave me pause: “Maybe it’s not possible for Republicans to learn from their Iraq decision, because they don’t view it as a mistake to invade a sovereign nation on a lie.” (Emphasis added by me.)

There it was again. This Bush lied bullshit. Ms Jones appears to forget that nearly every Democrat was on board with using military force against Iraq, including VP Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. Here is an admittedly conservative source listing Democrats “lying” about Iraq.

I usually ask: If Bush lied and he knew there were no stockpiles of WMD, why didn’t he and the evil genius Dick Cheney make certain that the weapons inspectors found some? Why didn’t they assigned some special black ops unit to bring in some biological and chemical weapons containers and plant them so as to be found later?

But, on a closer read, Ms Jones does seem to be indicating the Democrats have learned “from their Iraq decision” when it comes to the handling of Iran.

As always, however, when it comes to politics I have to admit it’s possible that I am wrong.

Gone Jetta Gone

Our Jetta at a healthier, happier time.

After more than a year and a half of sitting in the garage, we finally got our VW Jetta out and parked on the street to be towed away as a donation to a local school. It was quite a chore and my wife and I owe big thanks to my younger brother, Steve. He made it possible to get the dead vehicle out of our lives.

10 points, Steve!

Star Trek: DS9’s Lowest Moment

Regular listeners to my show know I really like baseball. I can’t play it, but I love to watch it.

Regular listeners to my show will also know I like Star Trek. The Next Generation series is my favorite. No other captain can top Picard.

I just recently finished watching the Deep Space 9 series for the first time. I’m not sure why I wasn’t interested in it when it originally aired, but I saw it was streaming (not for free) on Netflix. I figured I’d watch it and it would be like a new Star Trek series to me.

Overall, I enjoyed the series. It had a few awkward moments, but when the war with the Dominion heated up, the show got pretty darn good.

BUT, they produced quite a clinker in their final season. In an episode meant to lighten the tension of a season long war, the producers decided to have the characters take part in a baseball game.

Not since I saw what was claimed to be a baseball game in that sparkly vampires movie, had I seen such a ludicrous depiction of the Great American Past-time. It was awful.

First of all, according to Star Trek, there is no baseball in the 24th Century. What?! Why live in the future? But Captain Sisko and his son still like the game and play it in the holo-suites (don’t ask me to explain). An old rival stops by DS9 and Sisko finds out the rival and his crew (all Vulcans) have been playing baseball regularly (don’t ask me to explain). Sisko issues a challenge to a game pitting DS9’s best players against the Vulcan’s best. The DS9 crew then have TWO WEEKS to learn all the rules and how to play the game.

What ensues is absolutely ridiculous. Almost impossible to watch, but I forced myself. Our heroes do lose to the Vulcans by a score of 10 – 1. But, realistically the Vulcan’s score should have been much, much higher.

This clip with a U2 song, not sure why, will give you some idea of what I went through watching the show. This clip without U2 might do even better.

It was horrible.

Movie Recommendations: None

I went on too long about that Star Trek assault on the greatest game ever. I didn’t get to a recommendation, so you are on your own.

Music heard on the show…

Dimland Radio opening theme song: ‘Ram’ by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: ‘Bonneville‘ by The dB’s & ‘Jordan, MN‘ by Big Black

Second ad break bumpers: ‘Los Angeles‘ by X & ‘Cooks County‘ By The Who

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