August 12, 2025 • 38 mins
We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!
Market Basket board’s lawyer sends warning to Arthur T. Demoulas’s side over ‘public vitriol’. The latest on the Market Basket drama.
Guest: Jon Chesto – Boston Globe Business Reporter
Webster Deputy Chief of Police Gordon Wentworth tells us the tale of Goose the water monitor lizard who gained widespread fame!
Guest: Gordon Wentworth – Webster Deputy Chief of Police Astronomer Says Unidentified
Space Object Could Be Alien Spacecraft!
Guest: Prof. Avi Loab - Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science Director of the Institute for Theory & Computation at Harvard University
MA woman attacked by bat when it flew into her open mouth while stargazing in Arizona! GoFundMe created for her medical expenses.
Guest: Erica Kahn – Victim of bat attack
Market Basket board’s lawyer sends warning to Arthur T. Demoulas’s side over ‘public vitriol’. The latest on the Market Basket drama.
Guest: Jon Chesto – Boston Globe Business Reporter
Webster Deputy Chief of Police Gordon Wentworth tells us the tale of Goose the water monitor lizard who gained widespread fame!
Guest: Gordon Wentworth – Webster Deputy Chief of Police Astronomer Says Unidentified
Space Object Could Be Alien Spacecraft!
Guest: Prof. Avi Loab - Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science Director of the Institute for Theory & Computation at Harvard University
MA woman attacked by bat when it flew into her open mouth while stargazing in Arizona! GoFundMe created for her medical expenses.
Guest: Erica Kahn – Victim of bat attack
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's with Dan Ray. I'm Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
We're gonna have a great evening here on Nightside. My
name is Dan Ray, the host of Nightside. We are
heard every Monday through Friday night from eight and to midnight.
Had a really good show last night, and we will
have another really good show tonight. Rob Brooks is back
in the control room and he has everything under control.
I have absolute total belief in Rob and Robbi're just
(00:29):
doing a great job. So keep keep it up, keep
it up. We have a great first hour coming up.
As a matter of fact, I want to talk with
John Chastell or the Boston Globe about the market basket
in Broglio, which continues. Gonna talk with Deputy Chief of
Police Gordon Wentworth of Webster, Massachusetts. We're gonna put a
(00:50):
ribbon on the story of Goose, the wandering water monitor lizard.
Then we're gonna talk with Professor Avi Lobe, who's a
physicist and an astronomer on the faculty at Heart University.
Is also the director of the Institute for Theory and
Computation Center for Astrophysics, which essentially means he knows what
he's talking about. He is seeing something out in outer
(01:11):
space that we need to be concerned about bringing up
the data of that, and we're going to talk about
that at some length in the ten o'clock hour tonight,
and then at eight forty five tonight, I'm going to
talk with a Massachusetts woman who had a bat, not
a baseball bat, a real live bat fly into her
mouth when she was in Arizona. WHOA, what A what
(01:31):
a story. So we have a great first hour, and
as they said, we will talk about some of the
issues that Governor Moore Healy is facing here in Massachusetts.
They're starting to pile up, so we're going to get
to all of that. But first we're going to go
to a person who all of you must read in
the Boston Globe. I think he's the best of the brightest.
John Cesto Market Market basket boards. Lawyer sends warning to
(01:57):
Arthur T. Demoulis's side over public victory. Well, John Chester,
welcome back to nightside this situation. Hey, trating me in
this situation is not getting an any better, is it? No?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
No, it looks like I was just telling someone else today.
It's the odds of a resolution gets slimmer and slimmer,
you know, just to catch your listeners up. The board
of market Basket put the CEO, Arthur T. De Mullis
unpaid administrative leave. They were already at odds, sort of
(02:29):
quietly behind the scenes, because they felt that he wasn't
sharing enough information or sharing top executives with him. The
Arthur T. To Mullis is sort of the public figurehead,
but he only owns twenty eight percent of the company.
The sixty percent is owned by his sisters, So this
is sort of a divide or a fight between Arthur T.
(02:53):
To Mullis and his sisters. So now it's coming to
a head. They put Arthur T. To Mullis paid leave
at the end of May to investigate whether he was
going to whether he was trying to create a work
stoppage the call and most of your listeners will call.
In twenty fourteen, there was something similar when his cousin
(03:14):
had control of the company and pushed him out. Everyone
walked out and the customer's boycotted, and he was able
to buy back control buy control of the company with
his sister's help back then, and so now his sister's
fear something similar could be in the works. So in
(03:34):
the last few weeks, various allies of Arthur Tit and
Millits have been speaking out saying that there's a culture
of intimidation and harassment in the company and that they
risk ruining the great culture and the low prices that
everyone knows market Basket to be before. And so finally
(03:54):
a letter from one of the employees that was made
public last week complaining about the sorts of things we'll
finally pushed the Marketoard market Basketboard lawyer over the edge
and he sent a note saying, no more of this.
Even we realize you're not Arthur key mullis, you're not
saying it yourself, but these are your proxies. You got
to pull them back. There's a mediation session on September third,
(04:18):
and it's all going to come to head then, and
he's basically sort of like a warning. If you don't
control your folks, this is going to go really bad
for you at mediation.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Well, there's also two of Arthur T's longtime employees and
members of his management team who put in about eighty
eight years i think for the company, Tom Gordon and
Joe Schmidt, who put in a mere thirty nine years
of this company. They were suspended and have been ordered
(04:50):
not to darken the doors of any Market Basket because again,
you know, they talked to the media, they were on
this show. I'm pretty sure they talked with you as well.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
John, Oh, yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
So it seems to me that the new Market Basket
ownership is playing real hardball here.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
I mean, oh, they.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Are so a perfect example. In that email you mentioned
Tom and Joe, who are two top lieutenants of Arthur T. Demullis.
In that email they mentioned how Tom and Joe were
visiting stores after they were fired, and now the Boards
says that they're trying to foam in an insurrection. A
(05:33):
spokesperson for Tom and Joe say, you know, they worked
there for decades and they just want to go go
around and add some moral support and say goodbye to people. Well,
it's that's coming to a head on Thursday because there's
an injunction request filed with Middlesex Superior Court to basically
block them from to get a court order blocking them
(05:55):
from stepping foot in in a market Basket supermarket. The
Board the injunction uh yet request yesterday uh And that
took Tom and Joe by surprise. So now they've got
to get their own attorneys to, you know, fight this,
well they can.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I'm I don't know you have a market back Basket customer.
You and I both interviewed mister Schmidt and mister Gordon,
gave them an opportunity to air their their grievances. I
guess I hope that that market Basket doesn't file an
injunction against you and me that we won't be able
to grow. Now it's a market basket because we interviewed
(06:35):
Joe Schmidt and Tom Gordon. This is getting to be
a little absurd. What are they gonna have a mediation
over the uh, the color of the pink slips? I mean, I.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Don't lated news today as they are. The board now
is gathering signatures from supporters of their what they're doing
with in market Basket, and they had forty five signatures
so far upon last count of employees that said yes,
we think it's great working for market Basket right now
in these conditions. So yeah, it's it's starting to get
(07:10):
it's starting to get really crazy right now.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
It just appears to me that this thing is eventually
going to end up in court. There's going to be
no mediation. Well, the only thing that's going to make
the d happy is to regain his position, in my opinion,
as the CEO of the company. They're not going to
give that to him, No, I think.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I think I was kind of hopeful that maybe that
would happen when this started, but it's clearly all signs
point to the fact that they're they're now trying to
figure out a way they just ease him out of
the job.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
They should turn this into a movie and entitled Family Feud,
or make it a game. Yeah, but they already have
a game show called Family Feud.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
I guess, oh yeah, this, but this is the real
family feud. And I'm sure you know that this is.
This is now the third go around, so between two
sides of demoulis over the future of Market Basket. We
had a crazy situation in the nineties that went to trial.
We had a fight between Arthur T and Arthur S
(08:12):
that resulted in the walkout in twenty fourteen, and now
we have Arthur T fighting with his sisters.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah. I mean back in twenty fourteen, it was tough
keeping the Arthurs straight. It needed a score.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
And there are there there, you know, many many of them.
Have the name to tell Lemicus too. So yeah, it's
a half of the first names are shared by other
members of the family.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Well, John, I'll tell you you can keep it straight.
You write great pieces.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
I try. I don't know you do a great job.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
You just do a great job. I've read this piece.
I said, we're going to have John come on, and
we've talked about it. I feel I feel very much
supportive of Arthur T and of Joe and Tom. I
kind of imagine working for a company, in Joe's case,
forty nine years in rather thirty nine years, and in
(09:06):
Tom's case forty nine years and being unceremoniously shown the door.
I mean, just and it's.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Hard to argue with Arthur T's results. He's essentially doubled
the chain's revenue since twenty fourteen. It's now like doing
eight billion dollars in revenue, and it's ranked by one
important consultant is the second best supermarket chain in the
country by financial performance and customer satisfaction.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Yeah, a lot of satisfaction from with this customer. And
that's for sure, John Chester, thanks so much. Always enjoy
your stuff. The check you make stuff complicated so that
I can talk about it on the radio.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
That's glad I can help out with that.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
You bet you, you sure do. John Chester with the
Boston Globe. Thanks John, appreciate it very much. When we
get back, we're going to talk with deputy chief of
police in Webster, Massachusetts, and if you know a little
bit of the story, you're going to get the whole story.
The finish of the story of the goose, the wandering
water monitor lizard that dominated news for a couple of
(10:11):
weeks for all of us this summer. Gordon Wentworth will
join us. He's a a great friend and he has
really been involved in this from the get go account.
Wait to talk with him.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm w b Z,
Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yes, good f welcome back. I'm delighted to welcome back
to the program the deputy chief of police in Webster, Massachusetts,
Gordon Wentworth, Deputy chief, welcome back. I know you've had
a few days off here, but the story of Goot's
the wandering water monitor lizard, it ended happily, but when
(10:51):
it first started, I remember thinking, what's going to happen
in this creature out there in the in the wilds.
But how concerned were you back when this all started
as to whether or not this would turn out as
well as it did.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
I mean, you know it was a first of all,
thanks for having me again.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
I really appreciate it, you know, for us, like we
really didn't know how it was going to turn out.
You know, like there was a small part of us
that thought we'd never see Goose again, but there was
an an equally small part that thought we might actually
find him. So, I mean, we were all hoping for
a happy ending to the story, and we certainly got it.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
I know that essentially he had been spotted sunning himself
on a road a couple of days and that was
kind of the hit that he almost gave to say, hey,
come and find me. Is that the way it worked out?
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (11:45):
Yeah, I mean for the most part. Yeah, I mean,
you know, some some astute folks driving down. It was
kind of a rural, rural road and Douglas is not
a whole lot of In fact, there's very few houses
on this particular road. They would happen to be driving
by and they saw him, and they you know, they
had to wherewithal the callus and we sent our resources
up there. I mean we you know, deployed our drones
(12:06):
again and had environmental police come out, and you know,
so on and so forth. So and that that was
primarily the area where they ultimately found him too.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
So wow, And now he was in pretty good shape
as I understand it, correct.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
Yeah, yeah, that's as far as I know.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Sure, hungry, hungry, but pretty good. Yeah, this poor animal
never would have survived the winter from what I understand,
Is that true?
Speaker 5 (12:33):
No, No, we don't think that he would have survived. Now,
I mean they're I mean, they're they're there's some tropical animals, right, so,
I mean they're they're from Southeast Asia, so they're used
to pretty warm climates. They don't they don't really like
the snow, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Did did the owner from the home from which goose
escaped plowing through a screen on the second floor of
a window, jumping down onto the top of I guess
a garage, and then jumping down to the ground. Did
the owner ever explain why he had such an animal?
(13:07):
I mean, the cats and dogs are pretty cool, I mean,
but if water monitor lizards.
Speaker 5 (13:13):
Yeah, No, as far as I know, I don't know
that there was any explanation as to why they had
the animal.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Yeah, I know that.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
You know, obviously, the environmental Police was handling that side
of the investigation, so they you know, they did the
interviews and so on and so forth. My understanding is
that they were attempting to rehab the animal on some level.
I'm not entirely certain how they came across the animal,
how they got it, you know, what they were doing
for rehabing it.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
But that's my understanding.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Do you think you know, and again this is sort
of a speculative question, but do you think that in
communities like Webster and Douglas, where things are a little
rural and maybe a little bit more laid back, that
there were more people who have these sorts of creatures that,
you know, they really shouldn't have because they don't have
(14:00):
the wherewithal to house them properly. They don't have hot
houses and things like that, and a lot of them,
I believe in I don't know if in Goose's case,
it's not legal to own some of these reptiles or
snakes or birds or whatever. They're protected species.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
Yeah, that's correct. I mean you need to there's a permitting,
permitting process in place to actually get a permit to
have one of these animals.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
But and that that wasn't done in this particular case.
And I don't know, I you know, I still don't
know what that process looks like. But I mean, certainly
the animal was illegal to possess outside of that permit.
But I would suspect that there's probably more people with
these types of things than you would think.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah, that's that's my hunch too. And I just I
think a lot of them sort of use the animals
as kind of a conversation piece or a novelty to
show their friends, which is probably pretty cool for some people.
But you got to think about what's you're putting this
These animals under who normally run free in a forest
(15:05):
or a rainforest or a jungle or whatever, and now
they're cooped up in a cage in a house somewhere
in central Massachusetts. This story does end happily, as I
just stay that goose now is being cared for in
a in a better set of circumstances up north of Boston.
Tell us about that a little bit, because the story end.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
Yeah, so the good folks at Rainforest Reptile Rainforest Reptile
Shows came out and took possession of Goose and they've
built him a special enclosure and he's getting you know,
SPA treatments and all kinds of you know, good food
that he's eaten. He's actually featured on their Facebook page,
so I mean, like you can tune in and check
(15:49):
on him. They post updates almost daily about him. So
I mean he's kind of a I mean, Goose is
kind of a big deal. And you know, the good
people over there at Rainforest Reptile Shows they're really taking
great care of him.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
So the organization is Rainforest Reptile Shows. Is that the deal? Yep? Okay, well, people,
I'm sure we'll want to know how he's doing so
out of a dangerous situation. Goose Goose is doing pretty well.
We should all do so well, you know, every day
(16:22):
and not have to work and be provided for.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:26):
No, Goose Goose is living the good life now, that's
for sure.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
All right? Uh, Deputy Chief, I really appreciate your your
cooperation with us. I know that you were away for
a few days in a well deserved vacation, and I
wanted to we started with you, and I wanted to
finish with you to put the bowl on the story.
But it is a story, a happy ending to a story.
It could have been. It could have turned out a
lot worse for goose, that's for sure. But his goose
(16:51):
is not cooked. He's he's living the life.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
He certainly is.
Speaker 5 (16:55):
And you know, we like to hear these happy stories.
We don't get a whole lot of them, so when
we get them, we love to share him and we
love to talk about him.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
So great Deputy Chief Gordon Wentworth of the Great Police
Department in Webster, Massachusetts, Thanks again, Deputy, and maybe somewhere
down the road we'll be talking about some other story
and also get a happy ending.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
Thanks so much, absolutely, thank you.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Very welcome. Okay, when we get back, we're going to
talk about something that we will talk about later on tonight.
We're going to talk with Harvard professor Avi Lobe. He's
a physicist and an astronomer. He's the director of the
Institute for Theory and Computation Center for Astrophysics. Essentially, this
is a really smart guy. He sees something in outer
(17:40):
space that has not only caught his attention, but I
think might cause some of us some concern. Way do
you hear the story and be prepared to talk about
it when we do a tossover at ten o'clock tonight.
My name's Dan Ray. This is Nightside, coming right back
right after the break.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
On night Side with Dan Ray on w Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
I am delighted to welcome back to Nightside Professor Avid
Lobe of Harvard University. Professor Lobe is an astrophysicist. He's
a physicist, he's an astronomer. He's the director of the
Institute for Theory and Computation, the Center for Astrophysics, and
Professor Lobe has discovered, I guess, in conjunction with others,
(18:31):
something in outer space that has caught his attention and
is a cause of I'm going to say a little concern.
Professor Lobe, please tell us about it. I guess. Technically
it is called object thirty one Atlas.
Speaker 6 (18:46):
Well, thanks for having me. In fact, it's called the
three I at last three.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Okay, I'm misread it. I'm sorry. That's why. That's why
you're the professor, and I'm not go ahead, I'm sorry.
Speaker 6 (19:00):
That's just a nomenclature that was invented by astronomers to
classify the third inter cellar objects, and Atlas is the
name of the telescope that discovered it in Chile, and
it was discovered on the first of July this year,
and based on its brightness, the size of the object
was estimated to be twenty kilometers in diameter, and that
(19:23):
is very big for a rock. It's quite as big
as the as the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, if
you know, if this is a solid object, well, from.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
My audience who is not comfortable with metric, that's about
twelve miles wide.
Speaker 6 (19:39):
Yeah, it's it's bigger than Manhattan Island. And the question
is is it possible to get such a giant rock
from interstellar space over a period of eight years that
this Atlas telescope was serving the sky. And the answer
is no, because there isn't enough material rocky material an
(20:00):
interstellar space. The best you can hold for is once
per ten thousand years or so such a giant drop
to be delivered. And that's if you pack all the
rocky material and inter cell space into twenty kilometer rocks
of this size. So it's very unlikely. And then the question, okay,
if it's not a rock, what is it? And of
(20:20):
course a lot of people say, well, maybe you know,
it has a very small core and it's it's just
a cloud of dust. But no, we don't see a
cometary tail behind it. If it was a cloud of dust,
then some of the dust will be pushed back by
the solar radiation, and that's the way comets show up
(20:41):
there is a tail behind them, but there is no
tail behind this one. We obtain a very deep image
with the Hubble space telescope and it looks as if,
you know, there is a glow in front of the object,
no tail behind it, and this glow that is rather
small in size and could be just the dirt on
(21:01):
the surface of a solid object. And so what could
it be? And one possibility is that maybe it's an
object that's selected to visit the inner part of the
Solar System, because otherwise we just come for such a
big object from the interstellar rocky material. And in that
case it could be technological. Maybe the trajectory was designed
(21:24):
to visit the inner Solar System, and in fact, this
trajectory of the object lies in the plane of the
planets around the Sun. So that is a very unlikely alignment,
one in five hundred in chance you know, happening at random.
But on top of that, the arrival time of the
(21:47):
object is such that it will pass very close to Mars, Venus,
and Jupiter, and the chance of that happening is one
in twenty thousand because these planets are orbiting the Sun
and was the chance that an incoming object will as
close to all three of them is very small. And
in addition, its object will come closest to the Sun
(22:11):
on October twenty ninth, when the Earth will be on
the opposite side of the Sun. So we won't be
able to observe it at this very special point in
time when it can do a maneuver that you know,
when you get closest to the Sun, that's when you
can use the Sun's gravity to maneuver, and that's what
we do with spacecraft usually, and maybe this object time
(22:33):
it's such that we won't be able to observe a
maneuver or each releasing mini probes.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
I also want to mention, doctor Love, I looked at
this briefly. It travel It is traveling thirty seven miles
a second, and to put that in human form or
you know, earthly form, that's almost transversing, you know, sixty
seconds thirty seven miles a second. That's almost transversing the
(23:04):
United States in a minute sixty times.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
Well, it.
Speaker 6 (23:09):
Goes a distance of the car travels in an hour
over one second, almost And yeah, so it's really it's
really fast, and you know, thousands of times faster than
the car.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
And then so here here's here is my question, my
ultimate question. Okay, obviously you're not saying that this is,
you know, from another galaxy or or anything, but but
is there in your opinion and you're among one of
the most brilliant people in the world, okay, and certainly
(23:43):
amongst probably the smartest person I ever spoken to. Based
upon everything you know and your observation here, do you
think that this could be potentially our first exposure to
another life form from another galaxy far far away?
Speaker 6 (24:01):
It could be so. I actually a month ago I
decided to define a new scale that is now called
the Lobe scale after my last name, where zero suggests
that an interstellar object that came from outside the Solar
System is natural, you know, like a comet. We have
clear evidence that it's a rock or an icy rock,
(24:22):
and a ten on that scale implies that it's definitely
technological because its maneuvers or has you know, broadcasts some
signals or shows the artificial lights. And on this scale
between zero and ten, I would give it a fours
of now because we just don't have enough data about it,
(24:44):
and there are all these peculiarities about the trajectory that
it shows coming close to planets, and also the fact
that it's so big in order to reflect enough sunlight
to appear so bright. And therefore my recommendation is to
collect as much data as possible about it and figure
out its nature. And then you know, it may well
(25:07):
be that it's a very unusual type of rock that
we've never witnessed in the Solar System. And also by chance,
it so happened that the trajectory is fine tuned to
be in the orbital plane of the planet. That happen,
you know, sometimes rare things happen. But I would recommend
them monitoring it because, yeah, it could very well be
(25:32):
technologically in that case. Of course, the question is is
it an existential threat to humanity? You know, we worry
about a threat from artificial intelligence, from a global climate change,
from an asteroid impact, but we don't often talk about
the threat from alien technology, and in case we have
(25:55):
a visitor in our backyard, we need to decide quite
quickly how to spun to it.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Let me ask you the question, a broader question if
I can, and I don't get a chance to ask
people who are brilliant this question. You have studied far
more than anyone in this audience. You know, again, you're
a physicist or an astronomer. What does your instinct, I'll say,
(26:25):
your spider sense, your spidy sense. Do you think that
we are actually just alone and we're the only planet
anywhere in any universe, any galaxy that has human you know,
what we would consider to be intelligent human life form?
Or do you feel that, at some point, whether it's
(26:45):
within your lifetime, my lifetime, or within the lifetime of
anybody who's listening to our conversation, that someday, someday contact
will actually be made. What is your sense you have
a better understanding of what out there that any of us.
Speaker 6 (27:02):
Yeah, out of modesty, I'm quite confident that you know
there are billions of Earth Sun analogs in the Milky
Way galaxy alone, and under similar circumstances, I can imagine
many of them leading to the formation of you know,
residents like us on those planets out there, and then
(27:22):
you know they many of them, may have by now
already completed their lifespan. They might be dead those civilizations
that predated us, because the Sun, you know, came along
relatively late in the last one third of cosmic history.
And you know, it takes the Voyager spacecraft that we launched.
It would take it less than a billionaires to travel
(27:45):
to the opposite side of the Milky Way, So there
was plenty of time most stars from billions of years
before the Sun. There was plenty of time for any
technological gadget to come to our cosmic neighborhoods from far away.
And I think it. You know, it's quite likely that
things like us existed before us billions of years, and
(28:07):
of course the best way to find them is to search.
We should not have an opinion. That's the way science
is done. We should be guided by evidence, and unfortunately
we haven't really searched for intelligent beings in this way before.
Only over the past decade we found objects from outside
the Solar system. And the way we searched for intelligence
(28:28):
was to wait for radio signals, which is just like
waiting for a phone call at home. I'm suggesting that
a better approach is to check our mailbox if there
are any packages that were delivered from a neighbor down
the street, And even if a neighbor is not alive,
it will tell us that we are not alone. So
my personal conviction is that we are very likely not
(28:52):
to be alone, and the only way to demonstrate that
is by collecting evidence. And you know, right now, my
colleagues in academia, they are dedicating most of their attention
to searching for microbes, looking for the molecular fingerprints of microbes,
And I say, why shouldn't Why don't we hedge our bets.
You know, it might be easier to find an intelligent
(29:14):
civilization than to find a microbe, because the effects of
microbes are very subtle. And you know, people are thinking
about investing more than ten billion dollars in the next
space telescope to look for those fingerprints of microbes. I'm saying,
let's hedge our best and invest similar level of funding
(29:35):
to the search for technological devices. And it's possible that
one of these days, you know, we will find a
technological object visiting our backyard. Because the rubin observatory in
Chile is now starting operation and it can detect an
inter cellar object every few months. So even though there
(29:56):
is this unusual object three I, at last we might
actually have many more.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Well, it is good to know that they're that they
are scientists and thinkers like you who are out there looking,
doctor Lope. Thank you so much for your time, for
you for your answers. We're going to talk about this
at ten o'clock tonight and see what people will react
to your interview and to h and what their thoughts are.
But I would think that maybe someday, somehow we will
(30:29):
we will find any answer to to your search, Doctor
Avi Lobe of Harvard University. I'm honored that you've joined us.
Thank you, doctor.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Lobe, thanks for having me.
Speaker 6 (30:38):
It was a great pleasure.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
My pleasure as well. When we get back, when we
talk about something a little closer to home. A woman
in Arizona who had a bat flying into her mouth unexpectedly.
It's an interesting story. She's from Massachusetts, that's what makes
it most interesting. Coming back from Nightside.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Night Side with Dan Ray, I'm Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Well, this is a story that Hile Choppel covered for
w b Z, and we got the contact information from
Hile here and as a result, we have the pleasure
of talking with Erica Khan. Now, Erica, this says you're
a Massachusetts woman. But I'm looking at this the cell
phone number, and I'm thinking this out of state, so
(31:25):
I don't want to be incorrect. Here are you from
New England? Massachusetts? Where are you from?
Speaker 7 (31:30):
Yeah, yeah, I'm from I'm from Massachusetts. Sorry I should
say I was. I'm living in Massachusetts, but I grew
up in Maine.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
That's why you got the main cel phone. Okay. I
just always like to be precise. So you're on vacation
in Arizona, beautiful state. When were you there? What time
of year?
Speaker 7 (31:48):
Yeah, yeah, it's a beautiful place. It was in August
of last year.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
So a year ago, and something really strange happened to
you at some moment in time.
Speaker 7 (32:00):
This was during the day, right, Actually it was kind
of at night.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Oh okay, Okay, for some reason I saw you in interviewed.
It was during the day, okay, So tell us the story.
Ten minutes of night, You're enjoying the beautiful skies of Arizona,
the Starlit Skies, I'm sure. And what happened next?
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (32:19):
Yeah, Basically, my dad and I have this interest in astrophotography,
so we like to take long exposure photos of the
night sky, and especially in national parks which are very
dark skies. And yeah, we usually we don't really have
a wildlife encounter such as this one. But basically we
noticed the bats. We're getting kind of close to us.
(32:41):
You know, we've heard a little screech, like high frequency
calls to each other, and they.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Freaked me out. By the way, Erica, just for the
record here, Oh.
Speaker 7 (32:51):
You're not gonna like this story, then, Oh I.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Know the story. I'm bracing myself. Go ahead.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (32:59):
So basically, yeah, so all of a sudden, this bat
kind of blindsides me and hits me right in the
face and I was like screaming and flailing and it
went in my mouth because it was kind of stuck
between my camera and my face, and it was disgusting.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Now, they I thought that they had like even though
they can't see well, but they had this sort of
radar where they did, you know, fly into walls, fly
into trees. What what happened? Well, I guess you'll never
know unless you get it just to ask the bat.
Did the bat get away or I'm sure you did?
Speaker 7 (33:34):
Yeah, yeah, No, I had the same question because yeah,
they had this great echo location, which which makes me
wonder maybe there was something wrong with the spat, maybe
it had rabies. But yeah, so it kind of got stuck.
It only lasted like a few seconds. It was stuck
between my face and my camera, and it was like,
I think it was also kind of caught off guard.
We both kind of were like didn't want to be
(33:56):
in that situation, so it was kind of scrambling and
like flailing its self and then it got freedom.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
So it's kind of like you kissed the bat, I
guess is what it is? You know?
Speaker 7 (34:05):
So okay, you can say that, yeah, but it made
the first move. I want to say.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Okay, well, yeah, that's right enough, right, I like that.
So were there any medical complications since it's a year ago,
how you doing?
Speaker 7 (34:18):
Yeah, no, luckily, I'm all I'm healthy. But I did
have to get rabies shots because it was a very
high risk encounter. As you can imagine. They apparently I'm
not sure what part of the bat went in my mouth,
but if it was the wing or the head or
I don't know that the wings they they lick a
lot to like kind of clean themselves, and that like
saliva on their wings makes it even if you lick
(34:40):
a bat wing, that's that's also a high risk.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Oh yeah, I've never done that. You know we're doing that.
Speaker 7 (34:46):
It's a very common thing.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Yeah, So you had had raby shots but everything came
back I hope negative, no problem.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (34:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (34:56):
The thing with rabies, it's kind of scary. They don't
really normally test to see if he works though, They
just give you the vaccine because the vaccine, I guess,
is kind of complex and takes a while to replicate
in your body. And because of that, you can get
the shots after the fact and still treat yourself to
kind of protect yourself from the virus. So so yeah,
So luckily I have no symptoms, no fear of water
(35:17):
lock jaw or pulling at the mouth or anything.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
So I'm sure you research. I'm sure you did your
research on this, so I'll ask you the questions. Yeah,
I don't script questions here. So how many people have
had similar experiences? I mean, yours can't be a one
in a billion people?
Speaker 7 (35:43):
Yeah, sorry, I think it is common to have a
bad potential exposure, but I think mine is a pretty
unique version of the bad exposure. Usually they don't fly
into your mouth. But but a lot of people if
they see a bat in their attic, they're they're recommended
to go to the hospital to get Raby's shots because
they're not sure if they have a small bite somewhere
on their body, and it's really hard to tell. So
(36:05):
so public service announcement, did you see a bat in
your house, you should go get rabies shots.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
So, yeah, I've had a bat in my house and
I was fortunate at one o'clock in the morning to
call a friend of mine who actually his job was
to catch a bat. He said to me, what room
is it? And I said, it's in that room. He
opened the door, quickly went in, and about a minute
later came out. He had these gloves that the bats
were attracted to, and he had the bat in his hand. Yeah,
(36:31):
so whatever the glove was on the glove it was
it was it attracted the bat, and within a matter
of a minute he walked out with the bat with
a broke with a broken neck, and took the took
the bat to a place in the Boston area where
they checked it for rabies, came back came back negative.
How big were your expense your medical expenses? You know,
(36:54):
I assume Raby shots are not cheap, but it didn't,
you know, didn't.
Speaker 7 (36:59):
Yeah, I had no idea they were this expensive. Yeah,
because I this is pretty unfortunate timing because I lost
my job last summer as a biomedical engineer, and my
benefits ended in August second and this event occurred on
August thirteenth, thirteen. Close.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
So, do you have a goal fund Me page? Do
you have a goalfundme page?
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (37:22):
I do so if people feel like donating, that be
really appreciated. It's Yeah, the total of all the bills
of the seven rabies shots resulted in twenty between twenty
and twenty one thousand dollars, which is really shocking because it.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Give me the go fundme page in case anyone would
like to help out.
Speaker 7 (37:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (37:44):
If you just look at my name, so Erica KHN
E R I C A K A h N and
then Raby's medical bills, I think you'll find me. Yeah. No,
it's I've really it's it's really sweet how many people
have donated. It's really like it makes me feel good
about the human race.
Speaker 4 (38:00):
Great.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Are you back at work, I hope somewhere. Are you
back in the workforce?
Speaker 7 (38:04):
I hope, yes, yes, I have got I have a
job again, which is good, so I should be able
to see.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
But you just had time, all right, Erica, thanks for
sharing the story. And whenever you're out there at night,
be careful. Okay, thank you so much.
Speaker 7 (38:20):
Thank you, yeah, thank.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
You, thanks very much. Erica Khan victim of a bad attack.
And we're not talking about the type that the baseball
player's shoes. We're talking about the ones that fly around,
squeaky things that are not pleasant to contemplate. When we
get back, we're going to talk about a couple of
things that are pleasant to contemplate. And those are some
of the decisions that are facing Governor mar Heally and
(38:46):
she is. She's got some decisions to make, and it'll
be interesting as to which way she goes. Right back
on night'side, stay with us, here's the nine o'clock news.
In a moment or two,
It's with Dan Ray. I'm Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
We're gonna have a great evening here on Nightside. My
name is Dan Ray, the host of Nightside. We are
heard every Monday through Friday night from eight and to midnight.
Had a really good show last night, and we will
have another really good show tonight. Rob Brooks is back
in the control room and he has everything under control.
I have absolute total belief in Rob and Robbi're just
(00:29):
doing a great job. So keep keep it up, keep
it up. We have a great first hour coming up.
As a matter of fact, I want to talk with
John Chastell or the Boston Globe about the market basket
in Broglio, which continues. Gonna talk with Deputy Chief of
Police Gordon Wentworth of Webster, Massachusetts. We're gonna put a
(00:50):
ribbon on the story of Goose, the wandering water monitor lizard.
Then we're gonna talk with Professor Avi Lobe, who's a
physicist and an astronomer on the faculty at Heart University.
Is also the director of the Institute for Theory and
Computation Center for Astrophysics, which essentially means he knows what
he's talking about. He is seeing something out in outer
(01:11):
space that we need to be concerned about bringing up
the data of that, and we're going to talk about
that at some length in the ten o'clock hour tonight,
and then at eight forty five tonight, I'm going to
talk with a Massachusetts woman who had a bat, not
a baseball bat, a real live bat fly into her
mouth when she was in Arizona. WHOA, what A what
(01:31):
a story. So we have a great first hour, and
as they said, we will talk about some of the
issues that Governor Moore Healy is facing here in Massachusetts.
They're starting to pile up, so we're going to get
to all of that. But first we're going to go
to a person who all of you must read in
the Boston Globe. I think he's the best of the brightest.
John Cesto Market Market basket boards. Lawyer sends warning to
(01:57):
Arthur T. Demoulis's side over public victory. Well, John Chester,
welcome back to nightside this situation. Hey, trating me in
this situation is not getting an any better, is it? No?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
No, it looks like I was just telling someone else today.
It's the odds of a resolution gets slimmer and slimmer,
you know, just to catch your listeners up. The board
of market Basket put the CEO, Arthur T. De Mullis
unpaid administrative leave. They were already at odds, sort of
(02:29):
quietly behind the scenes, because they felt that he wasn't
sharing enough information or sharing top executives with him. The
Arthur T. To Mullis is sort of the public figurehead,
but he only owns twenty eight percent of the company.
The sixty percent is owned by his sisters, So this
is sort of a divide or a fight between Arthur T.
(02:53):
To Mullis and his sisters. So now it's coming to
a head. They put Arthur T. To Mullis paid leave
at the end of May to investigate whether he was
going to whether he was trying to create a work
stoppage the call and most of your listeners will call.
In twenty fourteen, there was something similar when his cousin
(03:14):
had control of the company and pushed him out. Everyone
walked out and the customer's boycotted, and he was able
to buy back control buy control of the company with
his sister's help back then, and so now his sister's
fear something similar could be in the works. So in
(03:34):
the last few weeks, various allies of Arthur Tit and
Millits have been speaking out saying that there's a culture
of intimidation and harassment in the company and that they
risk ruining the great culture and the low prices that
everyone knows market Basket to be before. And so finally
(03:54):
a letter from one of the employees that was made
public last week complaining about the sorts of things we'll
finally pushed the Marketoard market Basketboard lawyer over the edge
and he sent a note saying, no more of this.
Even we realize you're not Arthur key mullis, you're not
saying it yourself, but these are your proxies. You got
to pull them back. There's a mediation session on September third,
(04:18):
and it's all going to come to head then, and
he's basically sort of like a warning. If you don't
control your folks, this is going to go really bad
for you at mediation.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Well, there's also two of Arthur T's longtime employees and
members of his management team who put in about eighty
eight years i think for the company, Tom Gordon and
Joe Schmidt, who put in a mere thirty nine years
of this company. They were suspended and have been ordered
(04:50):
not to darken the doors of any Market Basket because again,
you know, they talked to the media, they were on
this show. I'm pretty sure they talked with you as well.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
John, Oh, yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
So it seems to me that the new Market Basket
ownership is playing real hardball here.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
I mean, oh, they.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Are so a perfect example. In that email you mentioned
Tom and Joe, who are two top lieutenants of Arthur T. Demullis.
In that email they mentioned how Tom and Joe were
visiting stores after they were fired, and now the Boards
says that they're trying to foam in an insurrection. A
(05:33):
spokesperson for Tom and Joe say, you know, they worked
there for decades and they just want to go go
around and add some moral support and say goodbye to people. Well,
it's that's coming to a head on Thursday because there's
an injunction request filed with Middlesex Superior Court to basically
block them from to get a court order blocking them
(05:55):
from stepping foot in in a market Basket supermarket. The
Board the injunction uh yet request yesterday uh And that
took Tom and Joe by surprise. So now they've got
to get their own attorneys to, you know, fight this,
well they can.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I'm I don't know you have a market back Basket customer.
You and I both interviewed mister Schmidt and mister Gordon,
gave them an opportunity to air their their grievances. I
guess I hope that that market Basket doesn't file an
injunction against you and me that we won't be able
to grow. Now it's a market basket because we interviewed
(06:35):
Joe Schmidt and Tom Gordon. This is getting to be
a little absurd. What are they gonna have a mediation
over the uh, the color of the pink slips? I mean, I.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Don't lated news today as they are. The board now
is gathering signatures from supporters of their what they're doing
with in market Basket, and they had forty five signatures
so far upon last count of employees that said yes,
we think it's great working for market Basket right now
in these conditions. So yeah, it's it's starting to get
(07:10):
it's starting to get really crazy right now.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
It just appears to me that this thing is eventually
going to end up in court. There's going to be
no mediation. Well, the only thing that's going to make
the d happy is to regain his position, in my opinion,
as the CEO of the company. They're not going to
give that to him, No, I think.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I think I was kind of hopeful that maybe that
would happen when this started, but it's clearly all signs
point to the fact that they're they're now trying to
figure out a way they just ease him out of
the job.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
They should turn this into a movie and entitled Family Feud,
or make it a game. Yeah, but they already have
a game show called Family Feud.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
I guess, oh yeah, this, but this is the real
family feud. And I'm sure you know that this is.
This is now the third go around, so between two
sides of demoulis over the future of Market Basket. We
had a crazy situation in the nineties that went to trial.
We had a fight between Arthur T and Arthur S
(08:12):
that resulted in the walkout in twenty fourteen, and now
we have Arthur T fighting with his sisters.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah. I mean back in twenty fourteen, it was tough
keeping the Arthurs straight. It needed a score.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
And there are there there, you know, many many of them.
Have the name to tell Lemicus too. So yeah, it's
a half of the first names are shared by other
members of the family.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Well, John, I'll tell you you can keep it straight.
You write great pieces.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
I try. I don't know you do a great job.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
You just do a great job. I've read this piece.
I said, we're going to have John come on, and
we've talked about it. I feel I feel very much
supportive of Arthur T and of Joe and Tom. I
kind of imagine working for a company, in Joe's case,
forty nine years in rather thirty nine years, and in
(09:06):
Tom's case forty nine years and being unceremoniously shown the door.
I mean, just and it's.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Hard to argue with Arthur T's results. He's essentially doubled
the chain's revenue since twenty fourteen. It's now like doing
eight billion dollars in revenue, and it's ranked by one
important consultant is the second best supermarket chain in the
country by financial performance and customer satisfaction.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Yeah, a lot of satisfaction from with this customer. And
that's for sure, John Chester, thanks so much. Always enjoy
your stuff. The check you make stuff complicated so that
I can talk about it on the radio.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
That's glad I can help out with that.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
You bet you, you sure do. John Chester with the
Boston Globe. Thanks John, appreciate it very much. When we
get back, we're going to talk with deputy chief of
police in Webster, Massachusetts, and if you know a little
bit of the story, you're going to get the whole story.
The finish of the story of the goose, the wandering
water monitor lizard that dominated news for a couple of
(10:11):
weeks for all of us this summer. Gordon Wentworth will
join us. He's a a great friend and he has
really been involved in this from the get go account.
Wait to talk with him.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm w b Z,
Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yes, good f welcome back. I'm delighted to welcome back
to the program the deputy chief of police in Webster, Massachusetts,
Gordon Wentworth, Deputy chief, welcome back. I know you've had
a few days off here, but the story of Goot's
the wandering water monitor lizard, it ended happily, but when
(10:51):
it first started, I remember thinking, what's going to happen
in this creature out there in the in the wilds.
But how concerned were you back when this all started
as to whether or not this would turn out as
well as it did.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
I mean, you know it was a first of all,
thanks for having me again.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
I really appreciate it, you know, for us, like we
really didn't know how it was going to turn out.
You know, like there was a small part of us
that thought we'd never see Goose again, but there was
an an equally small part that thought we might actually
find him. So, I mean, we were all hoping for
a happy ending to the story, and we certainly got it.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
I know that essentially he had been spotted sunning himself
on a road a couple of days and that was
kind of the hit that he almost gave to say, hey,
come and find me. Is that the way it worked out?
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (11:45):
Yeah, I mean for the most part. Yeah, I mean,
you know, some some astute folks driving down. It was
kind of a rural, rural road and Douglas is not
a whole lot of In fact, there's very few houses
on this particular road. They would happen to be driving
by and they saw him, and they you know, they
had to wherewithal the callus and we sent our resources
up there. I mean we you know, deployed our drones
(12:06):
again and had environmental police come out, and you know,
so on and so forth. So and that that was
primarily the area where they ultimately found him too.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
So wow, And now he was in pretty good shape
as I understand it, correct.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
Yeah, yeah, that's as far as I know.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Sure, hungry, hungry, but pretty good. Yeah, this poor animal
never would have survived the winter from what I understand,
Is that true?
Speaker 5 (12:33):
No, No, we don't think that he would have survived. Now,
I mean they're I mean, they're they're there's some tropical animals, right, so,
I mean they're they're from Southeast Asia, so they're used
to pretty warm climates. They don't they don't really like
the snow, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Did did the owner from the home from which goose
escaped plowing through a screen on the second floor of
a window, jumping down onto the top of I guess
a garage, and then jumping down to the ground. Did
the owner ever explain why he had such an animal?
(13:07):
I mean, the cats and dogs are pretty cool, I mean,
but if water monitor lizards.
Speaker 5 (13:13):
Yeah, No, as far as I know, I don't know
that there was any explanation as to why they had
the animal.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Yeah, I know that.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
You know, obviously, the environmental Police was handling that side
of the investigation, so they you know, they did the
interviews and so on and so forth. My understanding is
that they were attempting to rehab the animal on some level.
I'm not entirely certain how they came across the animal,
how they got it, you know, what they were doing
for rehabing it.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
But that's my understanding.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Do you think you know, and again this is sort
of a speculative question, but do you think that in
communities like Webster and Douglas, where things are a little
rural and maybe a little bit more laid back, that
there were more people who have these sorts of creatures that,
you know, they really shouldn't have because they don't have
(14:00):
the wherewithal to house them properly. They don't have hot
houses and things like that, and a lot of them,
I believe in I don't know if in Goose's case,
it's not legal to own some of these reptiles or
snakes or birds or whatever. They're protected species.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
Yeah, that's correct. I mean you need to there's a permitting,
permitting process in place to actually get a permit to
have one of these animals.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
But and that that wasn't done in this particular case.
And I don't know, I you know, I still don't
know what that process looks like. But I mean, certainly
the animal was illegal to possess outside of that permit.
But I would suspect that there's probably more people with
these types of things than you would think.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah, that's that's my hunch too. And I just I
think a lot of them sort of use the animals
as kind of a conversation piece or a novelty to
show their friends, which is probably pretty cool for some people.
But you got to think about what's you're putting this
These animals under who normally run free in a forest
(15:05):
or a rainforest or a jungle or whatever, and now
they're cooped up in a cage in a house somewhere
in central Massachusetts. This story does end happily, as I
just stay that goose now is being cared for in
a in a better set of circumstances up north of Boston.
Tell us about that a little bit, because the story end.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
Yeah, so the good folks at Rainforest Reptile Rainforest Reptile
Shows came out and took possession of Goose and they've
built him a special enclosure and he's getting you know,
SPA treatments and all kinds of you know, good food
that he's eaten. He's actually featured on their Facebook page,
so I mean, like you can tune in and check
(15:49):
on him. They post updates almost daily about him. So
I mean he's kind of a I mean, Goose is
kind of a big deal. And you know, the good
people over there at Rainforest Reptile Shows they're really taking
great care of him.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
So the organization is Rainforest Reptile Shows. Is that the deal? Yep? Okay, well, people,
I'm sure we'll want to know how he's doing so
out of a dangerous situation. Goose Goose is doing pretty well.
We should all do so well, you know, every day
(16:22):
and not have to work and be provided for.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:26):
No, Goose Goose is living the good life now, that's
for sure.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
All right? Uh, Deputy Chief, I really appreciate your your
cooperation with us. I know that you were away for
a few days in a well deserved vacation, and I
wanted to we started with you, and I wanted to
finish with you to put the bowl on the story.
But it is a story, a happy ending to a story.
It could have been. It could have turned out a
lot worse for goose, that's for sure. But his goose
(16:51):
is not cooked. He's he's living the life.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
He certainly is.
Speaker 5 (16:55):
And you know, we like to hear these happy stories.
We don't get a whole lot of them, so when
we get them, we love to share him and we
love to talk about him.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
So great Deputy Chief Gordon Wentworth of the Great Police
Department in Webster, Massachusetts, Thanks again, Deputy, and maybe somewhere
down the road we'll be talking about some other story
and also get a happy ending.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
Thanks so much, absolutely, thank you.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Very welcome. Okay, when we get back, we're going to
talk about something that we will talk about later on tonight.
We're going to talk with Harvard professor Avi Lobe. He's
a physicist and an astronomer. He's the director of the
Institute for Theory and Computation Center for Astrophysics. Essentially, this
is a really smart guy. He sees something in outer
(17:40):
space that has not only caught his attention, but I
think might cause some of us some concern. Way do
you hear the story and be prepared to talk about
it when we do a tossover at ten o'clock tonight.
My name's Dan Ray. This is Nightside, coming right back
right after the break.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
On night Side with Dan Ray on w Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
I am delighted to welcome back to Nightside Professor Avid
Lobe of Harvard University. Professor Lobe is an astrophysicist. He's
a physicist, he's an astronomer. He's the director of the
Institute for Theory and Computation, the Center for Astrophysics, and
Professor Lobe has discovered, I guess, in conjunction with others,
(18:31):
something in outer space that has caught his attention and
is a cause of I'm going to say a little concern.
Professor Lobe, please tell us about it. I guess. Technically
it is called object thirty one Atlas.
Speaker 6 (18:46):
Well, thanks for having me. In fact, it's called the
three I at last three.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Okay, I'm misread it. I'm sorry. That's why. That's why
you're the professor, and I'm not go ahead, I'm sorry.
Speaker 6 (19:00):
That's just a nomenclature that was invented by astronomers to
classify the third inter cellar objects, and Atlas is the
name of the telescope that discovered it in Chile, and
it was discovered on the first of July this year,
and based on its brightness, the size of the object
was estimated to be twenty kilometers in diameter, and that
(19:23):
is very big for a rock. It's quite as big
as the as the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, if
you know, if this is a solid object, well, from.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
My audience who is not comfortable with metric, that's about
twelve miles wide.
Speaker 6 (19:39):
Yeah, it's it's bigger than Manhattan Island. And the question
is is it possible to get such a giant rock
from interstellar space over a period of eight years that
this Atlas telescope was serving the sky. And the answer
is no, because there isn't enough material rocky material an
(20:00):
interstellar space. The best you can hold for is once
per ten thousand years or so such a giant drop
to be delivered. And that's if you pack all the
rocky material and inter cell space into twenty kilometer rocks
of this size. So it's very unlikely. And then the question, okay,
if it's not a rock, what is it? And of
(20:20):
course a lot of people say, well, maybe you know,
it has a very small core and it's it's just
a cloud of dust. But no, we don't see a
cometary tail behind it. If it was a cloud of dust,
then some of the dust will be pushed back by
the solar radiation, and that's the way comets show up
(20:41):
there is a tail behind them, but there is no
tail behind this one. We obtain a very deep image
with the Hubble space telescope and it looks as if,
you know, there is a glow in front of the object,
no tail behind it, and this glow that is rather
small in size and could be just the dirt on
(21:01):
the surface of a solid object. And so what could
it be? And one possibility is that maybe it's an
object that's selected to visit the inner part of the
Solar System, because otherwise we just come for such a
big object from the interstellar rocky material. And in that
case it could be technological. Maybe the trajectory was designed
(21:24):
to visit the inner Solar System, and in fact, this
trajectory of the object lies in the plane of the
planets around the Sun. So that is a very unlikely alignment,
one in five hundred in chance you know, happening at random.
But on top of that, the arrival time of the
(21:47):
object is such that it will pass very close to Mars, Venus,
and Jupiter, and the chance of that happening is one
in twenty thousand because these planets are orbiting the Sun
and was the chance that an incoming object will as
close to all three of them is very small. And
in addition, its object will come closest to the Sun
(22:11):
on October twenty ninth, when the Earth will be on
the opposite side of the Sun. So we won't be
able to observe it at this very special point in
time when it can do a maneuver that you know,
when you get closest to the Sun, that's when you
can use the Sun's gravity to maneuver, and that's what
we do with spacecraft usually, and maybe this object time
(22:33):
it's such that we won't be able to observe a
maneuver or each releasing mini probes.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
I also want to mention, doctor Love, I looked at
this briefly. It travel It is traveling thirty seven miles
a second, and to put that in human form or
you know, earthly form, that's almost transversing, you know, sixty
seconds thirty seven miles a second. That's almost transversing the
(23:04):
United States in a minute sixty times.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
Well, it.
Speaker 6 (23:09):
Goes a distance of the car travels in an hour
over one second, almost And yeah, so it's really it's
really fast, and you know, thousands of times faster than
the car.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
And then so here here's here is my question, my
ultimate question. Okay, obviously you're not saying that this is,
you know, from another galaxy or or anything, but but
is there in your opinion and you're among one of
the most brilliant people in the world, okay, and certainly
(23:43):
amongst probably the smartest person I ever spoken to. Based
upon everything you know and your observation here, do you
think that this could be potentially our first exposure to
another life form from another galaxy far far away?
Speaker 6 (24:01):
It could be so. I actually a month ago I
decided to define a new scale that is now called
the Lobe scale after my last name, where zero suggests
that an interstellar object that came from outside the Solar
System is natural, you know, like a comet. We have
clear evidence that it's a rock or an icy rock,
(24:22):
and a ten on that scale implies that it's definitely
technological because its maneuvers or has you know, broadcasts some
signals or shows the artificial lights. And on this scale
between zero and ten, I would give it a fours
of now because we just don't have enough data about it,
(24:44):
and there are all these peculiarities about the trajectory that
it shows coming close to planets, and also the fact
that it's so big in order to reflect enough sunlight
to appear so bright. And therefore my recommendation is to
collect as much data as possible about it and figure
out its nature. And then you know, it may well
(25:07):
be that it's a very unusual type of rock that
we've never witnessed in the Solar System. And also by chance,
it so happened that the trajectory is fine tuned to
be in the orbital plane of the planet. That happen,
you know, sometimes rare things happen. But I would recommend
them monitoring it because, yeah, it could very well be
(25:32):
technologically in that case. Of course, the question is is
it an existential threat to humanity? You know, we worry
about a threat from artificial intelligence, from a global climate change,
from an asteroid impact, but we don't often talk about
the threat from alien technology, and in case we have
(25:55):
a visitor in our backyard, we need to decide quite
quickly how to spun to it.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Let me ask you the question, a broader question if
I can, and I don't get a chance to ask
people who are brilliant this question. You have studied far
more than anyone in this audience. You know, again, you're
a physicist or an astronomer. What does your instinct, I'll say,
(26:25):
your spider sense, your spidy sense. Do you think that
we are actually just alone and we're the only planet
anywhere in any universe, any galaxy that has human you know,
what we would consider to be intelligent human life form?
Or do you feel that, at some point, whether it's
(26:45):
within your lifetime, my lifetime, or within the lifetime of
anybody who's listening to our conversation, that someday, someday contact
will actually be made. What is your sense you have
a better understanding of what out there that any of us.
Speaker 6 (27:02):
Yeah, out of modesty, I'm quite confident that you know
there are billions of Earth Sun analogs in the Milky
Way galaxy alone, and under similar circumstances, I can imagine
many of them leading to the formation of you know,
residents like us on those planets out there, and then
(27:22):
you know they many of them, may have by now
already completed their lifespan. They might be dead those civilizations
that predated us, because the Sun, you know, came along
relatively late in the last one third of cosmic history.
And you know, it takes the Voyager spacecraft that we launched.
It would take it less than a billionaires to travel
(27:45):
to the opposite side of the Milky Way, So there
was plenty of time most stars from billions of years
before the Sun. There was plenty of time for any
technological gadget to come to our cosmic neighborhoods from far away.
And I think it. You know, it's quite likely that
things like us existed before us billions of years, and
(28:07):
of course the best way to find them is to search.
We should not have an opinion. That's the way science
is done. We should be guided by evidence, and unfortunately
we haven't really searched for intelligent beings in this way before.
Only over the past decade we found objects from outside
the Solar system. And the way we searched for intelligence
(28:28):
was to wait for radio signals, which is just like
waiting for a phone call at home. I'm suggesting that
a better approach is to check our mailbox if there
are any packages that were delivered from a neighbor down
the street, And even if a neighbor is not alive,
it will tell us that we are not alone. So
my personal conviction is that we are very likely not
(28:52):
to be alone, and the only way to demonstrate that
is by collecting evidence. And you know, right now, my
colleagues in academia, they are dedicating most of their attention
to searching for microbes, looking for the molecular fingerprints of microbes,
And I say, why shouldn't Why don't we hedge our bets.
You know, it might be easier to find an intelligent
(29:14):
civilization than to find a microbe, because the effects of
microbes are very subtle. And you know, people are thinking
about investing more than ten billion dollars in the next
space telescope to look for those fingerprints of microbes. I'm saying,
let's hedge our best and invest similar level of funding
(29:35):
to the search for technological devices. And it's possible that
one of these days, you know, we will find a
technological object visiting our backyard. Because the rubin observatory in
Chile is now starting operation and it can detect an
inter cellar object every few months. So even though there
(29:56):
is this unusual object three I, at last we might
actually have many more.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Well, it is good to know that they're that they
are scientists and thinkers like you who are out there looking,
doctor Lope. Thank you so much for your time, for
you for your answers. We're going to talk about this
at ten o'clock tonight and see what people will react
to your interview and to h and what their thoughts are.
But I would think that maybe someday, somehow we will
(30:29):
we will find any answer to to your search, Doctor
Avi Lobe of Harvard University. I'm honored that you've joined us.
Thank you, doctor.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Lobe, thanks for having me.
Speaker 6 (30:38):
It was a great pleasure.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
My pleasure as well. When we get back, when we
talk about something a little closer to home. A woman
in Arizona who had a bat flying into her mouth unexpectedly.
It's an interesting story. She's from Massachusetts, that's what makes
it most interesting. Coming back from Nightside.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Night Side with Dan Ray, I'm Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Well, this is a story that Hile Choppel covered for
w b Z, and we got the contact information from
Hile here and as a result, we have the pleasure
of talking with Erica Khan. Now, Erica, this says you're
a Massachusetts woman. But I'm looking at this the cell
phone number, and I'm thinking this out of state, so
(31:25):
I don't want to be incorrect. Here are you from
New England? Massachusetts? Where are you from?
Speaker 7 (31:30):
Yeah, yeah, I'm from I'm from Massachusetts. Sorry I should
say I was. I'm living in Massachusetts, but I grew
up in Maine.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
That's why you got the main cel phone. Okay. I
just always like to be precise. So you're on vacation
in Arizona, beautiful state. When were you there? What time
of year?
Speaker 7 (31:48):
Yeah, yeah, it's a beautiful place. It was in August
of last year.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
So a year ago, and something really strange happened to
you at some moment in time.
Speaker 7 (32:00):
This was during the day, right, Actually it was kind
of at night.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Oh okay, Okay, for some reason I saw you in interviewed.
It was during the day, okay, So tell us the story.
Ten minutes of night, You're enjoying the beautiful skies of Arizona,
the Starlit Skies, I'm sure. And what happened next?
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (32:19):
Yeah, Basically, my dad and I have this interest in astrophotography,
so we like to take long exposure photos of the
night sky, and especially in national parks which are very
dark skies. And yeah, we usually we don't really have
a wildlife encounter such as this one. But basically we
noticed the bats. We're getting kind of close to us.
(32:41):
You know, we've heard a little screech, like high frequency
calls to each other, and they.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Freaked me out. By the way, Erica, just for the
record here, Oh.
Speaker 7 (32:51):
You're not gonna like this story, then, Oh I.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Know the story. I'm bracing myself. Go ahead.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (32:59):
So basically, yeah, so all of a sudden, this bat
kind of blindsides me and hits me right in the
face and I was like screaming and flailing and it
went in my mouth because it was kind of stuck
between my camera and my face, and it was disgusting.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Now, they I thought that they had like even though
they can't see well, but they had this sort of
radar where they did, you know, fly into walls, fly
into trees. What what happened? Well, I guess you'll never
know unless you get it just to ask the bat.
Did the bat get away or I'm sure you did?
Speaker 7 (33:34):
Yeah, yeah, No, I had the same question because yeah,
they had this great echo location, which which makes me
wonder maybe there was something wrong with the spat, maybe
it had rabies. But yeah, so it kind of got stuck.
It only lasted like a few seconds. It was stuck
between my face and my camera, and it was like,
I think it was also kind of caught off guard.
We both kind of were like didn't want to be
(33:56):
in that situation, so it was kind of scrambling and
like flailing its self and then it got freedom.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
So it's kind of like you kissed the bat, I
guess is what it is? You know?
Speaker 7 (34:05):
So okay, you can say that, yeah, but it made
the first move. I want to say.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Okay, well, yeah, that's right enough, right, I like that.
So were there any medical complications since it's a year ago,
how you doing?
Speaker 7 (34:18):
Yeah, no, luckily, I'm all I'm healthy. But I did
have to get rabies shots because it was a very
high risk encounter. As you can imagine. They apparently I'm
not sure what part of the bat went in my mouth,
but if it was the wing or the head or
I don't know that the wings they they lick a
lot to like kind of clean themselves, and that like
saliva on their wings makes it even if you lick
(34:40):
a bat wing, that's that's also a high risk.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Oh yeah, I've never done that. You know we're doing that.
Speaker 7 (34:46):
It's a very common thing.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Yeah, So you had had raby shots but everything came
back I hope negative, no problem.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (34:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (34:56):
The thing with rabies, it's kind of scary. They don't
really normally test to see if he works though, They
just give you the vaccine because the vaccine, I guess,
is kind of complex and takes a while to replicate
in your body. And because of that, you can get
the shots after the fact and still treat yourself to
kind of protect yourself from the virus. So so yeah,
So luckily I have no symptoms, no fear of water
(35:17):
lock jaw or pulling at the mouth or anything.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
So I'm sure you research. I'm sure you did your
research on this, so I'll ask you the questions. Yeah,
I don't script questions here. So how many people have
had similar experiences? I mean, yours can't be a one
in a billion people?
Speaker 7 (35:43):
Yeah, sorry, I think it is common to have a
bad potential exposure, but I think mine is a pretty
unique version of the bad exposure. Usually they don't fly
into your mouth. But but a lot of people if
they see a bat in their attic, they're they're recommended
to go to the hospital to get Raby's shots because
they're not sure if they have a small bite somewhere
on their body, and it's really hard to tell. So
(36:05):
so public service announcement, did you see a bat in
your house, you should go get rabies shots.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
So, yeah, I've had a bat in my house and
I was fortunate at one o'clock in the morning to
call a friend of mine who actually his job was
to catch a bat. He said to me, what room
is it? And I said, it's in that room. He
opened the door, quickly went in, and about a minute
later came out. He had these gloves that the bats
were attracted to, and he had the bat in his hand. Yeah,
(36:31):
so whatever the glove was on the glove it was
it was it attracted the bat, and within a matter
of a minute he walked out with the bat with
a broke with a broken neck, and took the took
the bat to a place in the Boston area where
they checked it for rabies, came back came back negative.
How big were your expense your medical expenses? You know,
(36:54):
I assume Raby shots are not cheap, but it didn't,
you know, didn't.
Speaker 7 (36:59):
Yeah, I had no idea they were this expensive. Yeah,
because I this is pretty unfortunate timing because I lost
my job last summer as a biomedical engineer, and my
benefits ended in August second and this event occurred on
August thirteenth, thirteen. Close.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
So, do you have a goal fund Me page? Do
you have a goalfundme page?
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (37:22):
I do so if people feel like donating, that be
really appreciated. It's Yeah, the total of all the bills
of the seven rabies shots resulted in twenty between twenty
and twenty one thousand dollars, which is really shocking because it.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Give me the go fundme page in case anyone would
like to help out.
Speaker 7 (37:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (37:44):
If you just look at my name, so Erica KHN
E R I C A K A h N and
then Raby's medical bills, I think you'll find me. Yeah. No,
it's I've really it's it's really sweet how many people
have donated. It's really like it makes me feel good
about the human race.
Speaker 4 (38:00):
Great.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Are you back at work, I hope somewhere. Are you
back in the workforce?
Speaker 7 (38:04):
I hope, yes, yes, I have got I have a
job again, which is good, so I should be able
to see.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
But you just had time, all right, Erica, thanks for
sharing the story. And whenever you're out there at night,
be careful. Okay, thank you so much.
Speaker 7 (38:20):
Thank you, yeah, thank.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
You, thanks very much. Erica Khan victim of a bad attack.
And we're not talking about the type that the baseball
player's shoes. We're talking about the ones that fly around,
squeaky things that are not pleasant to contemplate. When we
get back, we're going to talk about a couple of
things that are pleasant to contemplate. And those are some
of the decisions that are facing Governor mar Heally and
(38:46):
she is. She's got some decisions to make, and it'll
be interesting as to which way she goes. Right back
on night'side, stay with us, here's the nine o'clock news.
In a moment or two,
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