October 30, 2025 • 37 mins
We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!
New Rules Will Make Robocalls Impossible to Stop. Proposed FCC rule would eliminate the right to tell robocallers to stop calling.
Guest: Patrick Crotty - Senior Attorney with the National Consumer Law Center
Lost in Time: Our Forgotten and Vanishing Knowledge, a Fascinating Exploration of More Than 300 Compelling Examples of Missing Historical Information That Humanity Can Learn From Today.
Guest: Jack Bialik – Author - background in electrical engineering, his professional journey took him from working for the U.S. Air Force to a long, impactful career at Motorola, and eventually to contributions in White House technology initiatives and humanitarian efforts in Haiti.
I Am The Other: Debating the Role of Islam in a Divided America
Guest: Bob Gary – Co-Author of the book
Lithium-ion battery fires, how unpredictable and dangerous they can be and why…recent examples the Air China flight fire & dog chewing on a battery.
Guest: Dr. Louis Gritzo - chief science officer and staff senior vice president for commercial property insurer FM Global, a leader in property loss prevention and business continuity.
You can hear NightSide with Dan Rea, Live! Weeknights From 8PM-12AM on WBZ - Boston's News Radio.
New Rules Will Make Robocalls Impossible to Stop. Proposed FCC rule would eliminate the right to tell robocallers to stop calling.
Guest: Patrick Crotty - Senior Attorney with the National Consumer Law Center
Lost in Time: Our Forgotten and Vanishing Knowledge, a Fascinating Exploration of More Than 300 Compelling Examples of Missing Historical Information That Humanity Can Learn From Today.
Guest: Jack Bialik – Author - background in electrical engineering, his professional journey took him from working for the U.S. Air Force to a long, impactful career at Motorola, and eventually to contributions in White House technology initiatives and humanitarian efforts in Haiti.
I Am The Other: Debating the Role of Islam in a Divided America
Guest: Bob Gary – Co-Author of the book
Lithium-ion battery fires, how unpredictable and dangerous they can be and why…recent examples the Air China flight fire & dog chewing on a battery.
Guest: Dr. Louis Gritzo - chief science officer and staff senior vice president for commercial property insurer FM Global, a leader in property loss prevention and business continuity.
You can hear NightSide with Dan Rea, Live! Weeknights From 8PM-12AM on WBZ - Boston's News Radio.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's nice eyes, Dan Ray, I'm going ezy Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
All right, well, batten down the hatches. It is going
to be a windy and rainy night across New England
and probably cross many areas where this program will be
heard in the next four hours. My name is Dan Ray.
Im the host of Nightside, heard every weeknight Monday through
Friday right here on WBZ, Boston's news radio ten thirty
on your A M. Dial. My name is Dan Ray.
(00:28):
I'm the host of the show. We are now working
in year nineteen, believe it or not. Working in the
control room tonight is a Shane Stokes who has been
doing a great job all weekend. He's joined tonight by
Jay Belcher, So I have basically a double team working
tonight in the newsroom. Whoever answers the phone, be kind
to them. Our phone calls won't start until after the
(00:49):
nine o'clock hour. At nine o'clock, we're going to talk
about some new traffic lights in New England apparently are
confusing Massachusetts drivers. I mean, as if we don't have
enough to be worried about now, there are new traffic
lights out there. God knows where they found them. But
if there's money to be spent, we'll spend it in
(01:10):
some way. And we'll also talk We'll talk tonight with
Mike Dian he's an Axio's Bosster reporter, on the subject
of these confusing traffic lights, and then we'll also talk
later tonight on the whole question of how much parenting
are parents allowed to do? Because we have some pretty
broad and I would argue confusing child neglect laws in
(01:35):
Massachusetts maybe as the lawyers would say, arbitrary, vague and capricious.
So we start off with a fellow attorney, and we're
going to talk about robocalls, those wonderful calls that all
of us receive around dinner time, just as you sit down,
and they are impossible to stop with us. As Patrick Crotty,
(01:56):
senior attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, he's one
of the good guys. He's trying to stop the robo calls.
But I think that's kind of like trying to stop
the rain here in New England. Tonight, Patrick Crowdy, Welcome
to Nightside. How are you sir?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Doing very well? Thank you for having me.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
So.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
The FCC made some comments earlier this week. It was
I kind of interpreted them as we're throwing up our hands.
There's not much we can do about that, and they
received some criticism for that, and there was subsequent statements
that were attributed to FCC spokespeople in which they said, well, actually,
we are going to do some things. So I'm confused,
(02:36):
maybe my audience is confused. I'm sure you're not. Where
do we stand with robo calls? I mean, is there
any way realistically to end robo calls?
Speaker 5 (02:48):
So ending all robo calls is a certainly it's a
very difficult thing to do. There's a lot of concrete
steps that we can take, and the FCC and you
gave a pretty good summary. There a bit of a
saga over the last month. So the story, it starts
in a bit of a scary place. So on October seventh,
(03:09):
the Federal Communications Commission the SEC, they released the proposal
to issue several new rules about robo calls and to
repeal several existing rules. The two of the rules that
the Commission was thinking about repealing are actually extremely important
consumer protections.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
One of the.
Speaker 5 (03:29):
Rules that was on the chopping block says that consumers
can tell telemarketers and robo callers to stop calling, and
then if they don't, you can sue. So the SEC
called that the company specific do not call rule. The
other rule that the SEC was thinking about acting requires
that robo calls provide an automated mechanism that lets consumers
(03:53):
opt out of getting further robo calls. Together, these rules
that gave consumers a little bit of control over the
market calls and the robo calls that they get. The
scam calls are a bit of a different matter, and
I'll get to those in a minute. But on the
story with what the SCC was doing, my organization and
(04:14):
CLC and eight other groups that advocate for consumers, we
wrote a letter to the SEC chairman and we met
with two of the commissioners and we explained why we
thought repealing those consumer protections around robo calls was a
bad idea. Now to the SEC, Credit actually agreed with us,
and yesterday they released a new version of this proposed
rule making that's no longer seeking to repeal those two
(04:37):
important consumer protections. And in fact, this revised notice of
proposed rule making presents several important opportunities to improve the
current rules to better protect consumers from unwanted telemarketing calls
and robo calls. One of the exciting proposed rules would
require that certain calls convey a verified caller name to
(04:59):
the consumers can better judge whether they want to answer
the phone. And then probably the most exciting proposed rule
would prohibit foreign originated calls that spoof US phone numbers.
And so the scam calls, they often will use what's
called the spoof phone number. It's because of the way
that calls can be transmitted now it uses the Internet
(05:21):
instead of old copper wire phone lines. So the calling
number actually doesn't mean very much. It's just an informational
field that you can put in, and you can put it,
put anything in that you want and the call will
still complete. So when you put in a fake phone.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
If I could, Patrick, let me ask you a question
that has come to my mind, and that is, I
think all of us know that when we're when we
have a problem and we want to call nine to
one one, we just grab the phone and we hit
nine one one and we're connected to either police or
ambulance service. And there are a number of other eight
one one numbers and numbers which which were well, why
(06:01):
can the FCC not, I guess mandate that the major
US carriers, you know, whichever carrier you have in whatever
part of the country, would not give their customers the
ability when a robocall comes through and you know it's
(06:22):
a robo call and you don't want to hear from it,
other than just giving you the option to hang up,
why not have some sort of a code seven to one, one,
seven to two to whatever the code would be. You
put that code in, and that particular call center will
be forever blocked from calling your number. I mean, you
(06:42):
have it on the internet where you can unsubscribe to
unsolicited email. I understand that all these companies are going
to make a First Amendment argument and a commercial First
Amendment argument, And just as they have a right to
come up and knock on your door and see if
you want to buy you a new roof or a
new signing for your home, they kind of stretch that
concept so that people can be interrupted at any time
(07:05):
during the day. Is that physically Is that something that
physically would be impossible to put into place?
Speaker 5 (07:13):
So in a sense it would, and that's because it's
so easy to put in a fake phone number when
you're making an Internet based call, so you can actually
block phone numbers. You can. Many cellular service providers will
give you the option to block a phone number so
(07:33):
that it could never call you again on.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
A problem, but not for older people who have a
home phone. There's no way to block a number as
far as.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
I know, not unless you use a special service. There's
call blocking services will let you do it. But in fact,
just blocking the phone number doesn't do a great deal
because they can use a new phone number to call,
and in fact, a lot of the scam calls and
unwanted telemarketing calls. They'll make millions or hundreds of millions
(08:09):
of calls, but only use each phone number one they
spoofed into a new number for every call, So it
makes it difficult, if not impossible, to block just that
phone number.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I'll tell you you're like the kid with his finger
in the dyke in Holland. I mean, it's like a
whack a mold situation. Look, you've explained it really well,
and I thank you for doing that. We'd like to
maybe have you come back some night and take some
phone calls from our listeners. This is sort of an
(08:42):
abbreviated seven eight nine minute interview. Maybe I'll have my
producer get back in touch, because I think this is
an area that I'd like to explore a little bit
more deeply. You really clarified a lot of questions in
my mind in seven, eight or nine minutes. And if
we can get you to come back and talk with
callers from all over the country, and you know, they're
(09:02):
probably not gonna be able to tell you something you've
never heard, but it might be an opportunity for them
to describe to you how bad it is out there
these days. I'm sure, and I also know you probably
realize how bad it is out there, but a reminder
would might not hurt. So if that would be appealing
to you, speak now or forever hold your peace, and
(09:24):
if it is, we'll get back to you and we'll
try to set something up for later on in November.
Speaker 5 (09:30):
It would be my trew pleasure. Before I started working
at NCOC, I was with the Florida Attorney General's Office
and I've heard all manner of scams and frauds, and
I do really enjoy talking to consumers about it and
anything that I can do.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
We do a lot of that at night side. We
deal with these issues and it's just amazing. If all
these people who engage in scams and frauds would actually
put their mind to legitimate businesses, I think their intelligence
and their creativity would reward them handsomely. Patrick, thank you
for your time tonight, and we'll be back in touch
(10:09):
much prayer.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Thank you, Thank you, Patrick.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I have a great night when we get back. Fascinating
book called Lost in Time Are Forgotten and Vanishing Knowledge,
a fascinating exploration of more than three hundred compelling examples
of missing historical information that humanity can learn from today.
We'll be back with that author author right in just
a moment here on Nightside. After a couple of brief messages.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Delighted to welcome Jack Biliac. Jack, I'm hoping I didn't
destroy your last name too badly. How are you this evening?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
I'm great? Thank you, Yeah, Jack Bilick, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Bilic, Okay, great, You've written a book that I'm going
to get because this sounds fascinating. Lost in Time Are
Forgotten and Vanishing Knowledge fascinating exploration of more than three
hundred compelling examples of missing historical information that humanity can
learn from today. I read a couple of the lists.
I didn't realize that that there has been some eye
(11:14):
surgery that most of us think of being a twentieth
century development. Cataract surgery was actually accomplished by Egyptians literally
hundreds or thousands of years ago.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah. Yeah, you know, it was pretty startling to me
when it ran into that. You know, we often think
that cataract surgery is a modern invention when you know,
they did that in eight hundred BC in India. Shushuda
was a physician there and he did it in eight
(11:47):
hundred BC, and then Egyptians. We have an indication that
the Egyptians did it in twenty four hundred BC.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
So how do we know that? And I'm not being
a wise guy, I want to ask down, Yeah, what
were their writings about this? That diagrams kind of you
have to have some form of local anesthesia and I
(12:15):
can speak.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
From Yeah, well, that's interesting you bring that up, because
you know, when we started cataract surgery in the seventeen hundreds,
they used to take a strong man to hold you
down while they did cataract surgery. Because as you're saying, there,
you know, your cornea of your eye has more nerve
(12:39):
endings than any other part of your body. So you
know how it is if you get a hair in
your eye, how it drives you nuts. Right, Yeah, So.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Any idea what they did were they using strong men
in Egypt.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
And India's yeah, well I don't know they use strong men,
but you know eight hundred BC when that was done
in India that we have books from that physician, and
those books capture his techniques and for how he did it,
he did it slightly different than we do it today.
(13:15):
They used they did something used to couching procedure. It's
called So it wasn't exactly how we did it we
do it. We do it a little bit better. But
it allowed the person to at least be able to see.
And so we have the writing. You know, knowledge knowledge
travels over language, so that's how we get that information.
(13:41):
In ancient Egypt, we have the Ebers Papyrus and that
has pictures and that shows illustrations of a person, I
guess a physician doing an eye surgery. So I mean
we're assuming that you know, they were doing it, and
they don't have as many details, you know, but we
do know that they were doing it.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Well, I'll tell you give us a couple more because
I want to wet the appetite of my listeners where
they were wanted. There's three hundred. We're not going to
go over all of them, obviously, but no more.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Yeah. Well, one of my favorites is you know about toilets.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
You know, Thomas Crapper is often attributed to, you know,
doing the first toilet and ahead, yeah that was in
eighteen sixty one. But in reality, you know, they the
(14:41):
Romans had toilets and five hundred BC, and the Babylonians
had toilets in twenty nine hundred DC. But in the
thirteen hundreds in Middle Ages of Europe, we had no toilets.
I mean sewage ran off the tops of buildings and
into the streets.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
And didn't they use like viaducts or something like that.
They had toilets with pipes and plumbing in.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Houses for some of these people. Yeah, they had, well,
the ancient people they had. Even the Romans had you
know bathrooms, you know, public ones, you know where people
would go in there to.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Do Give me another one. So some people may be
eating dinner at this point.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Jack, Sorry, to your listeners apologize for that. Well, here's one.
You know, it's not not too upsetting, you know. I
think this is really interesting because the emperor Quinn, the
first emperor of China in two hundred BC, you know,
he built this army of seven thousand figures covered five
(15:55):
hundred over five hundred acres, and you know, they're excavating
those archaeologists have excavated those now. And what was interesting
about that is they had swords. And though they had
many different instruments, you know, arrows, bows and arrows and
knives and that sort of thing, but they had swords
(16:17):
that were buried back in you know, to under BC
that are still sharp. And you know, today if we
find a sword from the Middle Ages, they're dull. You know,
they're rusted. And but what they did is they added
chromium to their metal work and which kept those swords sharp.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
And I wish my raisors were that would last. David Jack,
this sounds like a great book. I know it's been
out for a little while. I think it came out
earlier this year. Yeah, I have quite a background, having
uh worked in the US Air Force, had a career
at motor role and eventually contributed to White House technology
(17:03):
initiatives and humanitarian efforts in Haiti. So, uh, you sound
like a fascinating guy, and it's a fascinating book. Lost
in Time Are Forgotten and Vanishing Knowledge, a fascinating exploration
of more than three hundred compelling examples of missing historical
information that humanity can learn from today. That's quite a subtitle,
but it says a lot. And I suspect that you're
(17:25):
going to get a little bump. I'm assuming that the
best way is Amazon or is your book available in
a lot of bookstores as well?
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Yeah, Amazon, Barnes and Noble. You can get it at
any bookstore. They can order it. It's available hardback, paperback, ebook.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Do some some authors have their own website, which is helpful.
If you have a website and want to share it
with us, that would be great. If you don't, that's sure.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
It's Yeah, it's j R biloc b I A l
I K. This is my last name dot com. Yeah,
people can go there.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Too, jrbiling dot com. Jack. I really enjoyed the conversation,
even though we were talking about toilets during dinner time.
We'll talk again, Okay, thank you, my friend.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Thanks excellent, Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
You're very welcome. We'll get back when I talk to
a real interesting fellow who have gotten to know in
the last few weeks. His name is Bob Gary, former
federal prosecutor. He's the co author of a book called
I Am The Author, debating the role of Islam in
a Divided America. Bob Gary is Jewish. He happened to
wrote co write this book with an Imam, a fascinating guy.
We'll talk to him right after the break and the
(18:38):
News at the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I am absolutely delighted to be welcoming a gentleman who
is a former US attorney, a prosecutor with the federal government,
and he is co authored a book called I Am
the Other, debating the role of Islam in a divided America.
Robert Gary, Welcome to Nightside. We've had several conversations and
I find you to be a really interesting person, and
(19:09):
I know our interview will be quite interesting. You posit
the question, and I'm going to allow you to answer
the very question you posit. What does an American Jewish
attorney bent on saving democracy. That would be you and
a Muslim American Imam your co author, Imam Asha Subadar,
(19:32):
set on restoring the true meaning of Sharia, have in common.
This sounds like it might be a divide, that there's
no bridge in the world that could connect these two
disparate conversations.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
Dan, I think you've correctly identified where we stand. We
actually have very little in common, but that fact has
not stopped us from communicating with each other. And how
did I meetium? On Supernar? I have been lecturing on
Islam for many years. I was appointed by the federal
(20:09):
courts to represent the Muslim prisoners in the Northern District
of Ohio, and I needed an expert. I was Jewish.
What did I know about Islam? Nothing? So we went
to the mosque, we hired an expert. That expert turned
(20:30):
out to be the unindicted co conspirator in the nineteen
ninety three World Trade Center bomb.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Me.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
In other words, my expert was a terrorist. But but
it wouldn't have melted in his mouth. He was such
a sweetheart, all right. So that was that experience. Then
came nine to eleven. My daughter was the chief of
communications for the Red Cross four nine to eleven. She
(21:01):
took me to the site while it was still scheaming.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
What experience.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
It was. And I had press credentials from from from
the journal. And that's not the Wall Street Journal, that's
my local paper, the Lorraine Journal.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
And I was and I'm familiar with Lorraine, Ohio. Okay,
now are you really yes? I have, yes, I've heard
of it, I have.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
Okay, yeah, Well it's a place to be from, and
I am.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
There are a lot of places Roberts to be from.
But you go right, I'll let you say that, not me.
So you you somehow connect with Imam is a subadar.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Here's how I connected with him, connected with them from
over a passage from the Kouran. He was at All
Angels Church, which is like a few hundred steps from
our synagogues, speaking and I went over to hear him speak,
and he was talking about how beautiful this lave is
and it's a religion of peace. And so I raised
(22:08):
my hand and I said, isn't it true that Alla
turned some Jews into pigs and monkeys? And everybody turned
around and looked at me. What what? What did joke?
Who would ask the question of you know of a
guest like that. And Emil Subidar responds, yes, Ala did
(22:32):
turn some Jews into pigs and monkeys, but these pigs
and monkeys formerly Jews, they didn't have any children. And
that and why was that important? Because the slur is
that the Jews are pigs and monkeys and they're not
even under his lot of standards because these pigs and
monkeys didn't have children. So I went up to him
(22:54):
after that comment, recognizing he was a very forthright guy.
He wasn't trying, you know, to cover a difficult passage.
And I said, I teach courses on Islam, and I
would like you to come to my courses and teeth
and he did. And over a period of years, I
(23:16):
mean I'm saying over ten years, we developed this relationship.
It isn't like a buddy buddy relationship, because a relationship
of mutual respect. I had a order surgery. He had
the seven thousand people in his mosque praying for me,
(23:39):
a Jewish lawyer at the Cleveland Clinic. I mean, that's
a remarkable thing.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
It is. But if I could just jump in for
one second, Robert, I gotta tell you you're a better
human being than I am. Because when I heard the
answer to your really insightful question, I thought to myself,
and you've told me that story before, and I pondered it.
I thought to my self, Well, somehow this guy doesn't
deny the belief. I mean, I don't think it actually happened.
(24:07):
But I'm neither Jewish nor Muslim. I happen to be
Roman Catholic. I kind of imagine that that that would
have happened. But that's okay. But somehow he takes that
event again, whether it was metaphorical or actual, and I
don't think it was actual. Uh. And he then somehow
comes up with a way to to blunt the sting
(24:32):
of of the the comment if you get if you
get what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
Yes, but this is the key of the book. This
idea that you just raised is the is the essence
of Islam because Islam is based on the Quran. And
what is the Quran. You want to say, well, it's
a book. It is not a book. It is the
(25:00):
word of God that always existed. If you're a Sunni Muslim,
and when you are reading the Koran, you are transported
into the presence of Allah. And he is talking to you.
In the words that he's speaking to you are the
words of the Koran. And among the words of the
(25:21):
Koran are he convert each urned some Jews in the
pictures monkeys. So I knew the answer to the question.
Any other answer would have been would have been self
defeating of his own beliefs.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
No, I get it. You asked him a question to
which there was there was. You asked him a good
lawyer's question. Let me put it to you like that.
It was a really good lawyer's question. He had obviously
thought about it over time.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
And no, he didn't have to think about it over time.
These scholars, they actually memorized the Korean. Okay, they have
memorized the entire book. And keep in mind, the book
is not by time, by subject matter. It's organized by
longest chapter or shortest. If you read it, it's barely intelligible.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
So let me ask you. Let me ask you this question. Okay. Uh.
If the scholars have read the Koran and had memorized it,
he must have no right. He must have recognized that
that passage, whether it's again, I would look at it
and say, well, it probably was. Hopefully it was at
(26:36):
a minimum metaphorical and not actual, because I don't believe
that that that a just God, if any religion would
allow someone Muhammad or anyone else to do that.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Are you a Muslim, I'm not a Muslim. No, of course, no, absolutely.
The whole point of the book is is to allow
Emo Subar at all, all Muslims to have their beliefs.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Oh, they can, they can have their belief I'm with you.
I'm just saying you're a better person than I am.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
No, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
I'm guess you.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
I'm I'm just approaching it from my own perspective because
I'm not a particularly religious person. Stubidar is a religious person,
though that split alone would separate anyone, be they Christian,
be they true, be they you know, Hindu, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
I do say this book, Robert, is a fascinating book.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
It has come out, It's an important book.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
It's an important book as well. It's an important book
as well. And maybe this is the book that will
lead to greater understanding and world peace. I would hope.
So I don't know that. I'm sure Emm is a
wonderful human being. I just wish that well, I wish
(28:00):
all the success in this book. How can people get
this book? Because there will be people in my audience
who want to read this.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
So I am the Others available on Amazon. You just
go to Amazon and put it. I am the Other
in my name Robert Gary. We have a website. I
am Theother dot org. If you go to the website
and buy the book, we will, and you put a question,
(28:27):
we will, we will open a dialogue with you about
the book. I mean, actually, person to person, will be
thrilled to do that because the purpose of the book
is to open a dialogue.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Robert, I stand in awe of what you're attempting to do,
and I mean that seriously. This is the equivalent of
climbing Mount Everest to bring to bring people together. I
do it every night, not on this subject, but on
very many subjects. And I commend you for the effort.
(29:01):
I really hope more people go to your website. I
am the Other. Did you say it was a dot org.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
It's a dot org. I am the Other dot org.
And at that website you can buy the book, you
can enter into the dialogue. Lots of their pictures from
you know, I've been to Kuran. I mean Iran and
the United a re Emirates and Bahrain and met with
emaps all over the world and Subadar. He gave the
(29:30):
inaugural prayer for Biden when Biden was inaugurate. I mean
there are photographs that tied back to the book.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Gotcha and look. I I so appreciate your time tonight.
I think that you have explained it really well. Uh
and particularly as someone who has read some of it
and hopes to read at some point all of it.
I am thank you for having welcome. By the way,
(29:58):
is Robert g A r O Y. I have the
name Dan Ray, so Robert has left me sort of
like two first names, as it were, but his last
name is Gary, so it's Robert.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
You know what that'll get you? That won and get
your cup of coffee, I know.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
G A R Y. Congratulations and congratulations on your successful
surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, one of the great panical
facilities in the world. Thank you again, Robert. We will
talk soon. I will get back here. We'll have a
follow up conversation.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Thank you very That would be terrific. I would look
forward to it.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Thank you much. I do as well.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
All right, good night, everybody.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Good night, Robert. When we get back, we're going to
talk about lithium ion battery fires. They're unpredictable and they're dangerous,
and what can we do to, if not eliminate them,
minimize them. Back on nights Side right after the break.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
It's night Side with Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
This is an important segment. My guest is doctor Lewis Gritso,
Doctor Gritzell, Welcome to night Side.
Speaker 6 (31:00):
Thank you, Dan, pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
You were the chief science Officer and staff Senior vice
president for commercial property insurer FM Global. I'm familiar with
FM Global, a leader in property loss prevention and business continuity.
We're going to talk about lithium ion battery fires. They're predicted,
they're unpredictable, and they're dangerous. Uh. And was it earlier
this month there was a laptop computer which self ignited.
(31:26):
It was in the overhead compartment of a their China flight.
I've seen the picture of the blaze going on in
the overhead compartment. Everybody in the world who gets on
a plane these days has a laptop computer. Right, what
what can we do to prevent this stuff?
Speaker 3 (31:44):
This is?
Speaker 2 (31:45):
This is now We're all walking around with like little
hand grenades.
Speaker 6 (31:49):
Yeah, this is a tough one, Dan. I mean the
lithium ion batteries that are in everything from laptop batteries,
e bikes, power tools, cameras. They have a certain way
that they're built and the way that they can fail.
When they do, feel it tends to be pretty severe.
(32:11):
You know, we think of lithium as being something a
metal that reacts with water. Well, these are actually lithium ion.
They're the lithium salt that moves in a fluid between
the positive and negative sides of the battery, and there's
a separator film in between them, and that separator film
moderates that flow of ions or charges back and forth.
(32:32):
If that separator film gets damaged, then the energy in
the battery is is released very quickly in an uncontrolled way,
and there's a lot of heat that's generated fast, and
the electrolyte the fluid that they move in is very flammable.
So all those things kind of stack up to when
(32:53):
a failure occurs, it tends to it can be pretty
severe and very quick quickly grow fire result from it.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Is there any way to anticipate this? Is there any
uh you know, tests that people can do on their laptop.
I'm thinking of laptops because that is what would prompted us.
There are other things. You have your cell phone in
the summertime, your cell phone feels a little warmer than
it normally does. Uh. Is there any sort of uh,
you know test, You know, you can test your swimming
(33:22):
pool for acidity and alkalinity with those those strips. Is
there anything like that that is available?
Speaker 6 (33:29):
Well, I think the place to start is to make
sure that the components and the charging systems that are
used are high quality. You know, don't don't buy off
brand things that you know that that are not name
brands that haven't gone through the right certification. You can
look on the back, they should have a bunch of
certification marks on them. But then it's it's really how
(33:51):
you handle it. What what causes that separator film to
damage and and the battery to go into what's called
thermal runaway is when that separator films damage, that heat
is very quickly released. The fluid inside vaporizes, pressurizes the battery.
You see this big puff of vapor coming out, and
then it's so hot that it catches on fire. So
(34:13):
so avoid anything that's a mechanical or crush hazard to
the battery because that can damage that separator film.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
So what do you mean by avoid anything that's a
crush I mean you're not gonna put it under great pressure.
I get that, you're not going to run it over
with a steamroller.
Speaker 4 (34:31):
Right.
Speaker 6 (34:32):
Well, yeah, if you do happen to drop it or
crush it somehow, you know, you set it out, you
run it over with your car. That's a battery you
should not use.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Guys. Make sure that's a good tip.
Speaker 6 (34:41):
Keep it, keep it away from anything for a while,
make sure it doesn't go into thermal runaway. And this
runaway refers to the fact that all of these batteries.
A laptop battery typically has three to nine individual cells
in it, and they can be like a jelly roll
or flat layers, depending upon the battery, and one sale
fails and then it overheats the other cell and it
(35:05):
fails and it just kind of cascades down. And that's
one of the reasons why these battery fires can be
very severe because they just continue to cascade through. So so first,
for sure, you know, get good name brand components, good
good chargers, and avoid that mechanical crush that can damage
a separator. The other thing that can damage the separator's temperature.
(35:29):
If the battery gets too hot, that separator, that film
that moderates the flow of energy can can basically melt.
Keep it out of the direct sunlight any time. Yeah,
anytime you see that battery or you feel that battery
getting hot, you know, disconnect it, unplug it, move it
to someplace, you know where if something does happen, it's
(35:50):
not going to have really bad consequences. Now, now, the
temperature which a separator fails is still fairly high. It's
it's one hundred and seventy five Fahrenheits, So you know,
it's not like if you're out in the summer day
you have to worry about it going into thermal runaway.
But if it's you know, if it's in the sun,
in direct sun, or if it's in an area that
can be very very hot, certainly watch out for it,
(36:14):
doctor Gris.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Doctor griscom, I'm unfortunately we're flat out of time, but
you've given us, in a short period of time an
immense amount of information. Maybe what we could do is
bring you back some night and talk to listeners would
you be willing to do that in the longer format,
be glad to thank you. We will. I'll have my
producer back in touch with you, folks, because the information
(36:37):
you provided is invaluable and you've done it in about
seven minutes. I ended up going a little long with
the prior guests and for that I apologize. And if
I could get you to come back, I'd love to
have you have an opportunity to have people ask you
questions because you sound like a great a great font
of knowledge and information. And we'll get back in touch,
doctor Lewis Gritsco. Thank you, sir. We will be back
(37:00):
in touch, I promise. Thank you.
Speaker 6 (37:02):
Sounds great, Dan, and there are things that we can
do to prevent these from happening.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
That's the most important thing. That's a service that I
can provide my view, my listeners through you, Doctor Lewis Gritsko,
Thank you so much. He with FM Global and we'll
talk more about the company when you come back. Thanks again.
When we get back right after the nine, we're going
to talk about new confusing traffic lights only in Massachusetts
(37:27):
from Massachusetts drivers, where do you hear this story? Coming
back on Night Side?
It's nice eyes, Dan Ray, I'm going ezy Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
All right, well, batten down the hatches. It is going
to be a windy and rainy night across New England
and probably cross many areas where this program will be
heard in the next four hours. My name is Dan Ray.
Im the host of Nightside, heard every weeknight Monday through
Friday right here on WBZ, Boston's news radio ten thirty
on your A M. Dial. My name is Dan Ray.
(00:28):
I'm the host of the show. We are now working
in year nineteen, believe it or not. Working in the
control room tonight is a Shane Stokes who has been
doing a great job all weekend. He's joined tonight by
Jay Belcher, So I have basically a double team working
tonight in the newsroom. Whoever answers the phone, be kind
to them. Our phone calls won't start until after the
(00:49):
nine o'clock hour. At nine o'clock, we're going to talk
about some new traffic lights in New England apparently are
confusing Massachusetts drivers. I mean, as if we don't have
enough to be worried about now, there are new traffic
lights out there. God knows where they found them. But
if there's money to be spent, we'll spend it in
(01:10):
some way. And we'll also talk We'll talk tonight with
Mike Dian he's an Axio's Bosster reporter, on the subject
of these confusing traffic lights, and then we'll also talk
later tonight on the whole question of how much parenting
are parents allowed to do? Because we have some pretty
broad and I would argue confusing child neglect laws in
(01:35):
Massachusetts maybe as the lawyers would say, arbitrary, vague and capricious.
So we start off with a fellow attorney, and we're
going to talk about robocalls, those wonderful calls that all
of us receive around dinner time, just as you sit down,
and they are impossible to stop with us. As Patrick Crotty,
(01:56):
senior attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, he's one
of the good guys. He's trying to stop the robo calls.
But I think that's kind of like trying to stop
the rain here in New England. Tonight, Patrick Crowdy, Welcome
to Nightside. How are you sir?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Doing very well? Thank you for having me.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
So.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
The FCC made some comments earlier this week. It was
I kind of interpreted them as we're throwing up our hands.
There's not much we can do about that, and they
received some criticism for that, and there was subsequent statements
that were attributed to FCC spokespeople in which they said, well, actually,
we are going to do some things. So I'm confused,
(02:36):
maybe my audience is confused. I'm sure you're not. Where
do we stand with robo calls? I mean, is there
any way realistically to end robo calls?
Speaker 5 (02:48):
So ending all robo calls is a certainly it's a
very difficult thing to do. There's a lot of concrete
steps that we can take, and the FCC and you
gave a pretty good summary. There a bit of a
saga over the last month. So the story, it starts
in a bit of a scary place. So on October seventh,
(03:09):
the Federal Communications Commission the SEC, they released the proposal
to issue several new rules about robo calls and to
repeal several existing rules. The two of the rules that
the Commission was thinking about repealing are actually extremely important
consumer protections.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
One of the.
Speaker 5 (03:29):
Rules that was on the chopping block says that consumers
can tell telemarketers and robo callers to stop calling, and
then if they don't, you can sue. So the SEC
called that the company specific do not call rule. The
other rule that the SEC was thinking about acting requires
that robo calls provide an automated mechanism that lets consumers
(03:53):
opt out of getting further robo calls. Together, these rules
that gave consumers a little bit of control over the
market calls and the robo calls that they get. The
scam calls are a bit of a different matter, and
I'll get to those in a minute. But on the
story with what the SCC was doing, my organization and
(04:14):
CLC and eight other groups that advocate for consumers, we
wrote a letter to the SEC chairman and we met
with two of the commissioners and we explained why we
thought repealing those consumer protections around robo calls was a
bad idea. Now to the SEC, Credit actually agreed with us,
and yesterday they released a new version of this proposed
rule making that's no longer seeking to repeal those two
(04:37):
important consumer protections. And in fact, this revised notice of
proposed rule making presents several important opportunities to improve the
current rules to better protect consumers from unwanted telemarketing calls
and robo calls. One of the exciting proposed rules would
require that certain calls convey a verified caller name to
(04:59):
the consumers can better judge whether they want to answer
the phone. And then probably the most exciting proposed rule
would prohibit foreign originated calls that spoof US phone numbers.
And so the scam calls, they often will use what's
called the spoof phone number. It's because of the way
that calls can be transmitted now it uses the Internet
(05:21):
instead of old copper wire phone lines. So the calling
number actually doesn't mean very much. It's just an informational
field that you can put in, and you can put it,
put anything in that you want and the call will
still complete. So when you put in a fake phone.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
If I could, Patrick, let me ask you a question
that has come to my mind, and that is, I
think all of us know that when we're when we
have a problem and we want to call nine to
one one, we just grab the phone and we hit
nine one one and we're connected to either police or
ambulance service. And there are a number of other eight
one one numbers and numbers which which were well, why
(06:01):
can the FCC not, I guess mandate that the major
US carriers, you know, whichever carrier you have in whatever
part of the country, would not give their customers the
ability when a robocall comes through and you know it's
(06:22):
a robo call and you don't want to hear from it,
other than just giving you the option to hang up,
why not have some sort of a code seven to one, one,
seven to two to whatever the code would be. You
put that code in, and that particular call center will
be forever blocked from calling your number. I mean, you
(06:42):
have it on the internet where you can unsubscribe to
unsolicited email. I understand that all these companies are going
to make a First Amendment argument and a commercial First
Amendment argument, And just as they have a right to
come up and knock on your door and see if
you want to buy you a new roof or a
new signing for your home, they kind of stretch that
concept so that people can be interrupted at any time
(07:05):
during the day. Is that physically Is that something that
physically would be impossible to put into place?
Speaker 5 (07:13):
So in a sense it would, and that's because it's
so easy to put in a fake phone number when
you're making an Internet based call, so you can actually
block phone numbers. You can. Many cellular service providers will
give you the option to block a phone number so
(07:33):
that it could never call you again on.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
A problem, but not for older people who have a
home phone. There's no way to block a number as
far as.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
I know, not unless you use a special service. There's
call blocking services will let you do it. But in fact,
just blocking the phone number doesn't do a great deal
because they can use a new phone number to call,
and in fact, a lot of the scam calls and
unwanted telemarketing calls. They'll make millions or hundreds of millions
(08:09):
of calls, but only use each phone number one they
spoofed into a new number for every call, So it
makes it difficult, if not impossible, to block just that
phone number.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I'll tell you you're like the kid with his finger
in the dyke in Holland. I mean, it's like a
whack a mold situation. Look, you've explained it really well,
and I thank you for doing that. We'd like to
maybe have you come back some night and take some
phone calls from our listeners. This is sort of an
(08:42):
abbreviated seven eight nine minute interview. Maybe I'll have my
producer get back in touch, because I think this is
an area that I'd like to explore a little bit
more deeply. You really clarified a lot of questions in
my mind in seven, eight or nine minutes. And if
we can get you to come back and talk with
callers from all over the country, and you know, they're
(09:02):
probably not gonna be able to tell you something you've
never heard, but it might be an opportunity for them
to describe to you how bad it is out there
these days. I'm sure, and I also know you probably
realize how bad it is out there, but a reminder
would might not hurt. So if that would be appealing
to you, speak now or forever hold your peace, and
(09:24):
if it is, we'll get back to you and we'll
try to set something up for later on in November.
Speaker 5 (09:30):
It would be my trew pleasure. Before I started working
at NCOC, I was with the Florida Attorney General's Office
and I've heard all manner of scams and frauds, and
I do really enjoy talking to consumers about it and
anything that I can do.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
We do a lot of that at night side. We
deal with these issues and it's just amazing. If all
these people who engage in scams and frauds would actually
put their mind to legitimate businesses, I think their intelligence
and their creativity would reward them handsomely. Patrick, thank you
for your time tonight, and we'll be back in touch
(10:09):
much prayer.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Thank you, Thank you, Patrick.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I have a great night when we get back. Fascinating
book called Lost in Time Are Forgotten and Vanishing Knowledge,
a fascinating exploration of more than three hundred compelling examples
of missing historical information that humanity can learn from today.
We'll be back with that author author right in just
a moment here on Nightside. After a couple of brief messages.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Delighted to welcome Jack Biliac. Jack, I'm hoping I didn't
destroy your last name too badly. How are you this evening?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
I'm great? Thank you, Yeah, Jack Bilick, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Bilic, Okay, great, You've written a book that I'm going
to get because this sounds fascinating. Lost in Time Are
Forgotten and Vanishing Knowledge fascinating exploration of more than three
hundred compelling examples of missing historical information that humanity can
learn from today. I read a couple of the lists.
I didn't realize that that there has been some eye
(11:14):
surgery that most of us think of being a twentieth
century development. Cataract surgery was actually accomplished by Egyptians literally
hundreds or thousands of years ago.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah. Yeah, you know, it was pretty startling to me
when it ran into that. You know, we often think
that cataract surgery is a modern invention when you know,
they did that in eight hundred BC in India. Shushuda
was a physician there and he did it in eight
(11:47):
hundred BC, and then Egyptians. We have an indication that
the Egyptians did it in twenty four hundred BC.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
So how do we know that? And I'm not being
a wise guy, I want to ask down, Yeah, what
were their writings about this? That diagrams kind of you
have to have some form of local anesthesia and I
(12:15):
can speak.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
From Yeah, well, that's interesting you bring that up, because
you know, when we started cataract surgery in the seventeen hundreds,
they used to take a strong man to hold you
down while they did cataract surgery. Because as you're saying, there,
you know, your cornea of your eye has more nerve
(12:39):
endings than any other part of your body. So you
know how it is if you get a hair in
your eye, how it drives you nuts. Right, Yeah, So.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Any idea what they did were they using strong men
in Egypt.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
And India's yeah, well I don't know they use strong men,
but you know eight hundred BC when that was done
in India that we have books from that physician, and
those books capture his techniques and for how he did it,
he did it slightly different than we do it today.
(13:15):
They used they did something used to couching procedure. It's
called So it wasn't exactly how we did it we
do it. We do it a little bit better. But
it allowed the person to at least be able to see.
And so we have the writing. You know, knowledge knowledge
travels over language, so that's how we get that information.
(13:41):
In ancient Egypt, we have the Ebers Papyrus and that
has pictures and that shows illustrations of a person, I
guess a physician doing an eye surgery. So I mean
we're assuming that you know, they were doing it, and
they don't have as many details, you know, but we
do know that they were doing it.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Well, I'll tell you give us a couple more because
I want to wet the appetite of my listeners where
they were wanted. There's three hundred. We're not going to
go over all of them, obviously, but no more.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Yeah. Well, one of my favorites is you know about toilets.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
You know, Thomas Crapper is often attributed to, you know,
doing the first toilet and ahead, yeah that was in
eighteen sixty one. But in reality, you know, they the
(14:41):
Romans had toilets and five hundred BC, and the Babylonians
had toilets in twenty nine hundred DC. But in the
thirteen hundreds in Middle Ages of Europe, we had no toilets.
I mean sewage ran off the tops of buildings and
into the streets.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
And didn't they use like viaducts or something like that.
They had toilets with pipes and plumbing in.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Houses for some of these people. Yeah, they had, well,
the ancient people they had. Even the Romans had you
know bathrooms, you know, public ones, you know where people
would go in there to.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Do Give me another one. So some people may be
eating dinner at this point.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Jack, Sorry, to your listeners apologize for that. Well, here's one.
You know, it's not not too upsetting, you know. I
think this is really interesting because the emperor Quinn, the
first emperor of China in two hundred BC, you know,
he built this army of seven thousand figures covered five
(15:55):
hundred over five hundred acres, and you know, they're excavating
those archaeologists have excavated those now. And what was interesting
about that is they had swords. And though they had
many different instruments, you know, arrows, bows and arrows and
knives and that sort of thing, but they had swords
(16:17):
that were buried back in you know, to under BC
that are still sharp. And you know, today if we
find a sword from the Middle Ages, they're dull. You know,
they're rusted. And but what they did is they added
chromium to their metal work and which kept those swords sharp.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
And I wish my raisors were that would last. David Jack,
this sounds like a great book. I know it's been
out for a little while. I think it came out
earlier this year. Yeah, I have quite a background, having
uh worked in the US Air Force, had a career
at motor role and eventually contributed to White House technology
(17:03):
initiatives and humanitarian efforts in Haiti. So, uh, you sound
like a fascinating guy, and it's a fascinating book. Lost
in Time Are Forgotten and Vanishing Knowledge, a fascinating exploration
of more than three hundred compelling examples of missing historical
information that humanity can learn from today. That's quite a subtitle,
but it says a lot. And I suspect that you're
(17:25):
going to get a little bump. I'm assuming that the
best way is Amazon or is your book available in
a lot of bookstores as well?
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Yeah, Amazon, Barnes and Noble. You can get it at
any bookstore. They can order it. It's available hardback, paperback, ebook.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Do some some authors have their own website, which is helpful.
If you have a website and want to share it
with us, that would be great. If you don't, that's sure.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
It's Yeah, it's j R biloc b I A l
I K. This is my last name dot com. Yeah,
people can go there.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Too, jrbiling dot com. Jack. I really enjoyed the conversation,
even though we were talking about toilets during dinner time.
We'll talk again, Okay, thank you, my friend.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Thanks excellent, Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
You're very welcome. We'll get back when I talk to
a real interesting fellow who have gotten to know in
the last few weeks. His name is Bob Gary, former
federal prosecutor. He's the co author of a book called
I Am The Author, debating the role of Islam in
a Divided America. Bob Gary is Jewish. He happened to
wrote co write this book with an Imam, a fascinating guy.
We'll talk to him right after the break and the
(18:38):
News at the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I am absolutely delighted to be welcoming a gentleman who
is a former US attorney, a prosecutor with the federal government,
and he is co authored a book called I Am
the Other, debating the role of Islam in a divided America.
Robert Gary, Welcome to Nightside. We've had several conversations and
I find you to be a really interesting person, and
(19:09):
I know our interview will be quite interesting. You posit
the question, and I'm going to allow you to answer
the very question you posit. What does an American Jewish
attorney bent on saving democracy. That would be you and
a Muslim American Imam your co author, Imam Asha Subadar,
(19:32):
set on restoring the true meaning of Sharia, have in common.
This sounds like it might be a divide, that there's
no bridge in the world that could connect these two
disparate conversations.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
Dan, I think you've correctly identified where we stand. We
actually have very little in common, but that fact has
not stopped us from communicating with each other. And how
did I meetium? On Supernar? I have been lecturing on
Islam for many years. I was appointed by the federal
(20:09):
courts to represent the Muslim prisoners in the Northern District
of Ohio, and I needed an expert. I was Jewish.
What did I know about Islam? Nothing? So we went
to the mosque, we hired an expert. That expert turned
(20:30):
out to be the unindicted co conspirator in the nineteen
ninety three World Trade Center bomb.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Me.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
In other words, my expert was a terrorist. But but
it wouldn't have melted in his mouth. He was such
a sweetheart, all right. So that was that experience. Then
came nine to eleven. My daughter was the chief of
communications for the Red Cross four nine to eleven. She
(21:01):
took me to the site while it was still scheaming.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
What experience.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
It was. And I had press credentials from from from
the journal. And that's not the Wall Street Journal, that's
my local paper, the Lorraine Journal.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
And I was and I'm familiar with Lorraine, Ohio. Okay,
now are you really yes? I have, yes, I've heard
of it, I have.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
Okay, yeah, Well it's a place to be from, and
I am.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
There are a lot of places Roberts to be from.
But you go right, I'll let you say that, not me.
So you you somehow connect with Imam is a subadar.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Here's how I connected with him, connected with them from
over a passage from the Kouran. He was at All
Angels Church, which is like a few hundred steps from
our synagogues, speaking and I went over to hear him speak,
and he was talking about how beautiful this lave is
and it's a religion of peace. And so I raised
(22:08):
my hand and I said, isn't it true that Alla
turned some Jews into pigs and monkeys? And everybody turned
around and looked at me. What what? What did joke?
Who would ask the question of you know of a
guest like that. And Emil Subidar responds, yes, Ala did
(22:32):
turn some Jews into pigs and monkeys, but these pigs
and monkeys formerly Jews, they didn't have any children. And
that and why was that important? Because the slur is
that the Jews are pigs and monkeys and they're not
even under his lot of standards because these pigs and
monkeys didn't have children. So I went up to him
(22:54):
after that comment, recognizing he was a very forthright guy.
He wasn't trying, you know, to cover a difficult passage.
And I said, I teach courses on Islam, and I
would like you to come to my courses and teeth
and he did. And over a period of years, I
(23:16):
mean I'm saying over ten years, we developed this relationship.
It isn't like a buddy buddy relationship, because a relationship
of mutual respect. I had a order surgery. He had
the seven thousand people in his mosque praying for me,
(23:39):
a Jewish lawyer at the Cleveland Clinic. I mean, that's
a remarkable thing.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
It is. But if I could just jump in for
one second, Robert, I gotta tell you you're a better
human being than I am. Because when I heard the
answer to your really insightful question, I thought to myself,
and you've told me that story before, and I pondered it.
I thought to my self, Well, somehow this guy doesn't
deny the belief. I mean, I don't think it actually happened.
(24:07):
But I'm neither Jewish nor Muslim. I happen to be
Roman Catholic. I kind of imagine that that that would
have happened. But that's okay. But somehow he takes that
event again, whether it was metaphorical or actual, and I
don't think it was actual. Uh. And he then somehow
comes up with a way to to blunt the sting
(24:32):
of of the the comment if you get if you
get what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
Yes, but this is the key of the book. This
idea that you just raised is the is the essence
of Islam because Islam is based on the Quran. And
what is the Quran. You want to say, well, it's
a book. It is not a book. It is the
(25:00):
word of God that always existed. If you're a Sunni Muslim,
and when you are reading the Koran, you are transported
into the presence of Allah. And he is talking to you.
In the words that he's speaking to you are the
words of the Koran. And among the words of the
(25:21):
Koran are he convert each urned some Jews in the
pictures monkeys. So I knew the answer to the question.
Any other answer would have been would have been self
defeating of his own beliefs.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
No, I get it. You asked him a question to
which there was there was. You asked him a good
lawyer's question. Let me put it to you like that.
It was a really good lawyer's question. He had obviously
thought about it over time.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
And no, he didn't have to think about it over time.
These scholars, they actually memorized the Korean. Okay, they have
memorized the entire book. And keep in mind, the book
is not by time, by subject matter. It's organized by
longest chapter or shortest. If you read it, it's barely intelligible.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
So let me ask you. Let me ask you this question. Okay. Uh.
If the scholars have read the Koran and had memorized it,
he must have no right. He must have recognized that
that passage, whether it's again, I would look at it
and say, well, it probably was. Hopefully it was at
(26:36):
a minimum metaphorical and not actual, because I don't believe
that that that a just God, if any religion would
allow someone Muhammad or anyone else to do that.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Are you a Muslim, I'm not a Muslim. No, of course, no, absolutely.
The whole point of the book is is to allow
Emo Subar at all, all Muslims to have their beliefs.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Oh, they can, they can have their belief I'm with you.
I'm just saying you're a better person than I am.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
No, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
I'm guess you.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
I'm I'm just approaching it from my own perspective because
I'm not a particularly religious person. Stubidar is a religious person,
though that split alone would separate anyone, be they Christian,
be they true, be they you know, Hindu, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
I do say this book, Robert, is a fascinating book.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
It has come out, It's an important book.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
It's an important book as well. It's an important book
as well. And maybe this is the book that will
lead to greater understanding and world peace. I would hope.
So I don't know that. I'm sure Emm is a
wonderful human being. I just wish that well, I wish
(28:00):
all the success in this book. How can people get
this book? Because there will be people in my audience
who want to read this.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
So I am the Others available on Amazon. You just
go to Amazon and put it. I am the Other
in my name Robert Gary. We have a website. I
am Theother dot org. If you go to the website
and buy the book, we will, and you put a question,
(28:27):
we will, we will open a dialogue with you about
the book. I mean, actually, person to person, will be
thrilled to do that because the purpose of the book
is to open a dialogue.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Robert, I stand in awe of what you're attempting to do,
and I mean that seriously. This is the equivalent of
climbing Mount Everest to bring to bring people together. I
do it every night, not on this subject, but on
very many subjects. And I commend you for the effort.
(29:01):
I really hope more people go to your website. I
am the Other. Did you say it was a dot org.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
It's a dot org. I am the Other dot org.
And at that website you can buy the book, you
can enter into the dialogue. Lots of their pictures from
you know, I've been to Kuran. I mean Iran and
the United a re Emirates and Bahrain and met with
emaps all over the world and Subadar. He gave the
(29:30):
inaugural prayer for Biden when Biden was inaugurate. I mean
there are photographs that tied back to the book.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Gotcha and look. I I so appreciate your time tonight.
I think that you have explained it really well. Uh
and particularly as someone who has read some of it
and hopes to read at some point all of it.
I am thank you for having welcome. By the way,
(29:58):
is Robert g A r O Y. I have the
name Dan Ray, so Robert has left me sort of
like two first names, as it were, but his last
name is Gary, so it's Robert.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
You know what that'll get you? That won and get
your cup of coffee, I know.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
G A R Y. Congratulations and congratulations on your successful
surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, one of the great panical
facilities in the world. Thank you again, Robert. We will
talk soon. I will get back here. We'll have a
follow up conversation.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Thank you very That would be terrific. I would look
forward to it.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Thank you much. I do as well.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
All right, good night, everybody.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Good night, Robert. When we get back, we're going to
talk about lithium ion battery fires. They're unpredictable and they're dangerous,
and what can we do to, if not eliminate them,
minimize them. Back on nights Side right after the break.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
It's night Side with Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
This is an important segment. My guest is doctor Lewis Gritso,
Doctor Gritzell, Welcome to night Side.
Speaker 6 (31:00):
Thank you, Dan, pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
You were the chief science Officer and staff Senior vice
president for commercial property insurer FM Global. I'm familiar with
FM Global, a leader in property loss prevention and business continuity.
We're going to talk about lithium ion battery fires. They're predicted,
they're unpredictable, and they're dangerous. Uh. And was it earlier
this month there was a laptop computer which self ignited.
(31:26):
It was in the overhead compartment of a their China flight.
I've seen the picture of the blaze going on in
the overhead compartment. Everybody in the world who gets on
a plane these days has a laptop computer. Right, what
what can we do to prevent this stuff?
Speaker 3 (31:44):
This is?
Speaker 2 (31:45):
This is now We're all walking around with like little
hand grenades.
Speaker 6 (31:49):
Yeah, this is a tough one, Dan. I mean the
lithium ion batteries that are in everything from laptop batteries,
e bikes, power tools, cameras. They have a certain way
that they're built and the way that they can fail.
When they do, feel it tends to be pretty severe.
(32:11):
You know, we think of lithium as being something a
metal that reacts with water. Well, these are actually lithium ion.
They're the lithium salt that moves in a fluid between
the positive and negative sides of the battery, and there's
a separator film in between them, and that separator film
moderates that flow of ions or charges back and forth.
(32:32):
If that separator film gets damaged, then the energy in
the battery is is released very quickly in an uncontrolled way,
and there's a lot of heat that's generated fast, and
the electrolyte the fluid that they move in is very flammable.
So all those things kind of stack up to when
(32:53):
a failure occurs, it tends to it can be pretty
severe and very quick quickly grow fire result from it.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Is there any way to anticipate this? Is there any
uh you know, tests that people can do on their laptop.
I'm thinking of laptops because that is what would prompted us.
There are other things. You have your cell phone in
the summertime, your cell phone feels a little warmer than
it normally does. Uh. Is there any sort of uh,
you know test, You know, you can test your swimming
(33:22):
pool for acidity and alkalinity with those those strips. Is
there anything like that that is available?
Speaker 6 (33:29):
Well, I think the place to start is to make
sure that the components and the charging systems that are
used are high quality. You know, don't don't buy off
brand things that you know that that are not name
brands that haven't gone through the right certification. You can
look on the back, they should have a bunch of
certification marks on them. But then it's it's really how
(33:51):
you handle it. What what causes that separator film to
damage and and the battery to go into what's called
thermal runaway is when that separator films damage, that heat
is very quickly released. The fluid inside vaporizes, pressurizes the battery.
You see this big puff of vapor coming out, and
then it's so hot that it catches on fire. So
(34:13):
so avoid anything that's a mechanical or crush hazard to
the battery because that can damage that separator film.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
So what do you mean by avoid anything that's a
crush I mean you're not gonna put it under great pressure.
I get that, you're not going to run it over
with a steamroller.
Speaker 4 (34:31):
Right.
Speaker 6 (34:32):
Well, yeah, if you do happen to drop it or
crush it somehow, you know, you set it out, you
run it over with your car. That's a battery you
should not use.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Guys. Make sure that's a good tip.
Speaker 6 (34:41):
Keep it, keep it away from anything for a while,
make sure it doesn't go into thermal runaway. And this
runaway refers to the fact that all of these batteries.
A laptop battery typically has three to nine individual cells
in it, and they can be like a jelly roll
or flat layers, depending upon the battery, and one sale
fails and then it overheats the other cell and it
(35:05):
fails and it just kind of cascades down. And that's
one of the reasons why these battery fires can be
very severe because they just continue to cascade through. So so first,
for sure, you know, get good name brand components, good
good chargers, and avoid that mechanical crush that can damage
a separator. The other thing that can damage the separator's temperature.
(35:29):
If the battery gets too hot, that separator, that film
that moderates the flow of energy can can basically melt.
Keep it out of the direct sunlight any time. Yeah,
anytime you see that battery or you feel that battery
getting hot, you know, disconnect it, unplug it, move it
to someplace, you know where if something does happen, it's
(35:50):
not going to have really bad consequences. Now, now, the
temperature which a separator fails is still fairly high. It's
it's one hundred and seventy five Fahrenheits, So you know,
it's not like if you're out in the summer day
you have to worry about it going into thermal runaway.
But if it's you know, if it's in the sun,
in direct sun, or if it's in an area that
can be very very hot, certainly watch out for it,
(36:14):
doctor Gris.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Doctor griscom, I'm unfortunately we're flat out of time, but
you've given us, in a short period of time an
immense amount of information. Maybe what we could do is
bring you back some night and talk to listeners would
you be willing to do that in the longer format,
be glad to thank you. We will. I'll have my
producer back in touch with you, folks, because the information
(36:37):
you provided is invaluable and you've done it in about
seven minutes. I ended up going a little long with
the prior guests and for that I apologize. And if
I could get you to come back, I'd love to
have you have an opportunity to have people ask you
questions because you sound like a great a great font
of knowledge and information. And we'll get back in touch,
doctor Lewis Gritsco. Thank you, sir. We will be back
(37:00):
in touch, I promise. Thank you.
Speaker 6 (37:02):
Sounds great, Dan, and there are things that we can
do to prevent these from happening.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
That's the most important thing. That's a service that I
can provide my view, my listeners through you, Doctor Lewis Gritsko,
Thank you so much. He with FM Global and we'll
talk more about the company when you come back. Thanks again.
When we get back right after the nine, we're going
to talk about new confusing traffic lights only in Massachusetts
(37:27):
from Massachusetts drivers, where do you hear this story? Coming
back on Night Side?
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