July 30, 2025 • 39 mins
The NightSide News Update features information and expertise from local and global innovators and leaders.
Listen in as Dan speaks with:
Professor James Monaghan, Biology Department Chair at Northeastern University College of Science: Does the axolotl salamander hold the key to human limb regeneration? Professor Monaghan seems to think so!
Eva Velasquez, CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center: The funeral scam has been around for decades in many different variations: Prepaid package funeral scams, impersonation scams and burial insurance scams…but new on the scene is the video streaming of funeral services scam.
Ken Leppert, Associate Professor Atmospheric Science School of Sciences, University of Louisiana at Monroe: What exactly is Cloud Seeding and what is it used for? Is it capable of creating dangerous storms like the floods in Texas?
Sonni Hood, Senior Manager of PR & Communications at Unclaimed Baggage: Have you ever thought about what happens to all that unclaimed luggage at the airport? After 90 days, there’s a retailer that can take possession of those lost possessions, and you’d be amazed at what treasures they’ve found!
You can hear NightSide with Dan Rea, Live! Weeknights From 8PM-12AM on WBZ - Boston's News Radio.
Listen in as Dan speaks with:
Professor James Monaghan, Biology Department Chair at Northeastern University College of Science: Does the axolotl salamander hold the key to human limb regeneration? Professor Monaghan seems to think so!
Eva Velasquez, CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center: The funeral scam has been around for decades in many different variations: Prepaid package funeral scams, impersonation scams and burial insurance scams…but new on the scene is the video streaming of funeral services scam.
Ken Leppert, Associate Professor Atmospheric Science School of Sciences, University of Louisiana at Monroe: What exactly is Cloud Seeding and what is it used for? Is it capable of creating dangerous storms like the floods in Texas?
Sonni Hood, Senior Manager of PR & Communications at Unclaimed Baggage: Have you ever thought about what happens to all that unclaimed luggage at the airport? After 90 days, there’s a retailer that can take possession of those lost possessions, and you’d be amazed at what treasures they’ve found!
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 size, Dan, I'm telling you easy Boston's news
radio comparison.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I guarantee you we'll have a good night here at Nightside,
and guarantee everyone who is listening to stay with us.
We'll take you all the way until midnight. My name
is Dan Ray and the host of night Side, heard
every weeknight right here on WBZ, Boston's news radio from
eight until midnight. Rob Brooks is back in the control room,
and of course he will set you up with telephone
calls once we start taking telephone calls at nine o'clock.
(00:29):
But in the first hour we talked to four interesting
guests on a disparate group of subjects topics, end of interest,
and all of them I guarantee you, and wait for
the fourth one, you will have answered a question that
I guarantee you all of you have contemplated and could
never figure out the answer to. No, it's not the
(00:51):
meaning of life, but it's pretty darn close to it,
and we will do that for you at about eight
forty five tonight. But first of all, we're going to
start off and talk with the chair of the biology
Department at Northeastern University College of Science, Professor James Monahan,
Professor Monaghan, Welcome to night Side.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
How are you tonight?
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Great, Dan, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Always great to talk to someone who's a husky from
Northeastern University. And I guess you've been working on a
real mystery that I guess you could say is billions
of years old, and that is how do you regenerate
human limbs? And the key to this might be held
(01:36):
by something called the Axilotti salamander. Fascinating. This salamander is
called a Superstar of cuteness. I've never thought of salamander's
as being cute, but maybe we'll make an exception for
this one.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Tell us all about it.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Oh great, thanks, Yeah, you're close, very close. Axelatl okay, yeah, miss,
it's a lot of it. And that's kind of our
our actually butchered version of the of the native language
in Mexico a shoto, So it's native to Mexico City.
It's this fascinating creature that evolved in the lakes that
(02:20):
Mexico City was built on. And they are kind of
these alien like looking creatures. They grow to maybe a
foot to a foot and a half long. They live
about twenty years. They have like a perpetual smile on
their face, and they just kind of exploded into cultural popularity.
Part of that's because they've made their way into Minecraft
(02:42):
and into video games. And now if you go into
a the airport or you go into a mall, you'll
see them in all the toy stores of a little
plushy doll.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Okay, we see them.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
They're all over now.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
And these are native to Mexico City, the lakes on
which the city was built. So how did you figure
this out? Because again, if they're the key to limb regeneration,
where have they been for a couple.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Years?
Speaker 4 (03:13):
That's a great question. So they were actually collected originally
in eighteen sixty four and UH shipped over to Europe,
and then they made their way through the European universities,
made their way back to the United States, and everyone
that we you know, generally would see an online or
on a game, is this little pink one. And that's
(03:33):
actually a mutant that was collected in eighteen sixty four.
So they're practically in almost extinct in Mexico, but there's
thousands and thousands and thousands UH in laboratories and in
the pet trade. A lot of them are this pink
version and those all came from one animal collected in
eighteen sixty four. So it became it was an oddity
(03:54):
of was it a salamander? Was a was it you know,
was it some new species they never knew about. But
it turns out it is a salamander. And then they.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
Realize no, they grow things back like arms, and since
then we've learned many other interesting, uh like super feats
that they have of regeneration, and they've made their way
through the world of you know, hundreds of labs now
work on them trying to understand, you know, how they
can regenerate structures and like limbs and so.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
If I assume it's a salamander, they have like short
little legs and uh, I mean I'm assuming they're they're
pretty much on the ground.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Am I wrong? Right or wrong on that?
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (04:34):
No, that's uh, it's a good point. So these are aquatics,
so they live on in the quaria. They live in water.
So normally you think of a salamander, you know, lives
in the dirt, just like you said, and these animals
have evolved to just kind of stay like a tadpole,
you know, you think of a tadpole turns into a frog. Yeah,
he's just stay in this little aquatic fight phase their
(04:55):
entire life, so kind of like little babies that are adults.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Yeah, but but you just argument is how big normally
they grow to? How long or how big?
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Over a foot, over a foot, over foot.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Okay, so they do have I'm assuming now again I'm
not a zoologist, not a biologist, but I assume they
have two arms, or two legs, or four appendages, maybe
a tail two I don't know.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
No, well, most of the same things that you and
I have of elbows and as humorous and radius and
all that. Okay, fingers, they have four fingers instead of five,
but their anatomy is very similar to ours. Two arms,
two legs.
Speaker 6 (05:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Hey, there was a picture a three finger Mordecai Brown,
so you know I can understand that. Okay, So you
folks now believe that these animals, again I don't want
to call fish whatever you want to salamanders.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
They regenerate.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
If they have a problem and they lose an appendage,
it can be regenerated.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
That's right. Yeah. So this has been appreciated for you know,
hundreds of even going back to like antiquity. Aristotle kind
of observes that lizards can grow tails back, and some
salamaners can grow arms back.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Right.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
So, so it's been a curiosity in biology for a
you know, since the beginning of experiments were being performed.
They were observing, oh, some of these animals can grow
things back.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
So what what did.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
You and your team do at Northeast and which which
really I think August so well, maybe not for my
generation or maybe even the generation today, but at some
point you isolated a gene and you may have figured
out how humans could regenerate limbs.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
I won't take so much as figuring out how humans can,
but I can say we figured out a good piece
of the puzzle, a really important piece. Right, So you
could think of, you know that can we grow an
arm if it's amputated at the shoulder, they can rego
in arm as it's amputated at the hand, And somehow
those cells know to grow back just the right structure,
you know, you know, to grow just about handback, know
(07:00):
just the entire armback. So we figured out the mechanism
by which the limb knows to grow back just the
hand or does it need to grow back the entire army,
and we found that it's this molecule that's in you.
And I also, if you watch TV for more than
thirty minutes, you know, retinol and like face cream and
things like that. Yeah, that is in the same pathway
(07:23):
retinoic acid that determines how much of an arm to
go back.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Okay, So now again I don't want to get ahead
of the story here, but I do want to sort of.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
I don't want to bury the lead.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Realistically, is it possible in your mind that the discovery
that you made in the genes of this salamander could
somehow that information, that insight, that wisdom could potentially someday
allow humans to grow back a hand or an arm naturally.
(07:57):
You know, I know that there's a lot of work
done on mechanical hands, people who have lost hands and
mechanical arms. I know that all that's being done, which
is fabulous. But this would, I assume, be even greater
than that, the miracle of you know, an automatic.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Hand, right, right, there's nothing better than the you know,
real structure that integrates into the system, integrates into the body.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Right.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
So I'll give you this story that kind of fascinated me.
So Our paper came out in Junior eleventh of the
importance of retinic acid and X levels, and you know,
I've been talking to people on news outlets and whatnot. Okay,
maybe it's not as simple as just retinic acid. But
what really blew me away is on June twenty six,
(08:45):
another paper comes out that found no, it is retinic
acid that can make a mouse ear regenerate. So it
was as simple as activating the retino acid pathway. It
made normally a wound that doesn't close in a mouse
ear actually close. So that was just activating the molecule
(09:10):
retinal acid that we found. So maybe it is I
don't want to say, you know, you get an injury
sort of retinolk acid on it and things are going
to regenerate. But but it really blew me away of Okay,
I was under the impression in retinal acids telling you
how much to go back and what structures to go back,
but this is actually saying maybe it isn't even possible
(09:32):
to induce a regeneration response using these molecules.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
So basically this has opened And unfortunately I'm running out
of time here because I could spend a lot of
time with you on this, and maybe we will if
you have that, if you have the time, when you
do a longer version, this is always opening up a
minimum of a pathway to some potential possibilities.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yes, I think so.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
And why this is, you know, really exciting time in
biology is you and I made a limb in development,
ax levels me to live in development. Right, It's not
that ax letvels have some magic gene that we don't have.
It's that they can access those genes at the appropriate
time versus us We turn on the scar program and
(10:13):
we just close the wound off and call it a day,
and they turn on the developmental program to say, let's
make a whole new arm. So it's it's technology is
getting to this point where you can turn jeans on
turn jeans off in an animal to induce regeneration and
possibly induce regeneration.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Okay, that's why I think it possibilities. Look, thank you, professor,
Thank you. I may have my producer call and see
if we get you to do this for an hour
and take phone calls from people who probably are smarter
than me about this stuff. I'm I was never a
great scientist, Hence I ended up being a talk show
host and a TV reporter.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
I had to settle for that.
Speaker 6 (10:50):
I couldn't do that.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
So well, professor, thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
You did a great job tonight, and thank you for
the work that you and your team have done. We will,
I think, talk again in greater and greater.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Thank you so much to be happy to you appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Okay, we get back, going to get down to earth
a little bit more, and we're going to talk with
Ava Velasquez, CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center, about
a new set of scams called funeral scams. This will
be tough to believe and you'll be really upset, but
you need to hear it.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Back on Nightside after.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
This, You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ,
Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Delighted to be rejoined by Eva Velasquez. Eva is the
CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center and Eva, you're
going welcome back, Eva to Nightside. Uh.
Speaker 7 (11:42):
You have some cautionary concerns and some cautionary advice for
these funeral scams which have recently been popping up.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Tell us about them. I do.
Speaker 8 (11:57):
We heard something really unconscionable, and that is that the
scammers are looking to social media and monitoring posts about
recent deaths and funerals, and then they're creating column Yeah,
yeah they are, but they're getting so much more detail
than that, and they create fake event pages and profiles,
(12:22):
and they pretend to be different people involved with the process.
Could be a grieving family member, could be friends. It
could even be a fake a funeral home or someone
that's involved with this process. And it's mostly to take
advantage of the grief and the urgency. They're trying to
get people to either pay to watch like the funeral
(12:45):
services streams. Sometimes they set up gofund me accounts. But
it's just proof that nothing is sacred and that even
in times, these emotionally heightened times, the scammers don't care.
They're going to exploit that time.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
For scammers are those times because people aren't thinking right,
they're grieving, they're concerned, they're trying to make a million decisions.
Give us a fairly tangible example of how it might work.
I want my audience to be prepared for the time
they get the call or the Facebook notice, and you
know they're trying to lure you in. If they can
(13:21):
get you to come into the tent, the metaphorical tent.
That's when they can start to sell you some stuff
or ask you for some of your most personal information.
Give us, give us a more concrete example if you could.
Speaker 8 (13:36):
Well, there are several different iterations, but I'll focus on one,
and that's where perhaps you're in Facebook and you get
a notification that someone in your network has passed away,
and maybe you get a new friend request, or maybe
it's just a post on your feed, but there's a
link to be able to view the streaming services, so
(13:57):
you can you can be a part part of the funeral,
but you're not going to be attending in person, and
so you click on that link thinking that you're going
to be joining this or maybe signing up to watch,
and they start to ask you.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
A lot of times you get connected to the funeral
parla and you're invited to write a comment or send
along best wishes, So go ahead, I'm.
Speaker 8 (14:25):
Following you, no exactly.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
That's it.
Speaker 8 (14:29):
That's what this gamers do is that this is a
legitimate process. You can get these invitations through social media
or through email, and you do click on a link
and perhaps you leave a note to the family, or
you can stream and watch the services. But what they've
done is they've inserted themselves into that process. So when
you click on that link from the bad guy, that's
(14:50):
when they will start to ask you, sometimes for financial information,
like maybe they'll say there's a fee to watch the service,
or they do you want to make a donation to
the family for them to recover, So they're going to
start asking you for financial details, and that to me
is the big red flag. When you start getting asked
(15:10):
by anyone that you don't know for your credit card
number or a debit card number, your bank account number,
that's such a huge red flag. Disconnect, disengage, and then
go directly to the source, reach out to the family
members and ask is there a way I can participate?
How can I help you? But it really is about
(15:31):
sometimes we can't leverage technology to the full extent that
we would like to, and in this case, it's about
reaching out and connecting with the people.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Well, the thing that's interesting here is the scammers to
have to they must make money on this or they're
not going to waste their time. But it sounds to
me like a tremendous amount of effort to kind of
make the connection between the greeting person, the family member
that's lost someone who's close to them, and a friend
(16:00):
and to somehow interject into that between those two people.
So the grieving family member has no idea about what's
going on, and yet they're able to get extract information
from the victim. And if they get the information they
really want with their financial numbers and all of that,
(16:20):
then they can clean people out. So it sounds to
me like when they really start down this road, they're
not looking for a twenty dollars contribution of some flowers
being sent from a fake account.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
They want to get to the motherload.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
They want to get to your credit card, or they
want to get to your bank account.
Speaker 8 (16:37):
I think that's true for some. It really depends on
the sophistication level of the scammer and how they how
much they have automated the process, because to your point,
they want to make money. That is the end goal
is monetization. But we have to remember that with AI
and all of the uses of AI, you can automate
(17:02):
some of these searches, you can look for people, you
can automate the post, so it doesn't necessarily have to
be someone actually manually doing this. This research and sitting
behind a keyboard, yeah, and throwing twenty dollars.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
They're throwing a thousand or ten thousand lines in the
water and they only need one or two bites exactly.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
All right, let me ask you this, Eva.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
We're a little tight on time here, but is there
a website that any of my listeners who want to
get more information on this that you have at the
Identity Theft Resource Center that we could direct people to.
Speaker 8 (17:44):
Well, we can absolutely direct them to our website idffcenter
dot org because we have information on this scam and
we've written about it, and there are a ton of
links in the scam in the in the post where
they can dig as deep as they want.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Sounds great, and we will have you back. I'll owe
you a little bit of time. I went along with
the first interview tonight, and I try to keep it
perfectly balanced, but sometimes I fail, and I'll make it
up to you next time.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Thank you, sir.
Speaker 8 (18:12):
You know I'm always happy to come back and help
educate some folks.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
It was a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I know that that is your life's purpose. You've proven
that to me more than once. Thanks even appreciate it
very much, all right, you have a great night. Right
after the news, we're going to explain to you a
little bit about cloud sea seating and did it or
did it not have any sort of an impact on
that deadly flash flood So those deadly flashed floods in
(18:38):
the Hill Country of Texas earlier this month.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
We'll be back on Nightside right after the news at
the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
It's night Side, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Before we get to our next guest, who knows a
lot more about cloud seating than I do, I want
to remind you of a neat way to be part
of the night Side broadcast by utilizing our talkback feature
in the eye Heart Radio app. Make sure you download
and have the free iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
While listening to Nightside Live on WVZ News.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Radio, you can tap the red microphone talkback button in
the top right corner and send us a personalized thirty
second audio message and we will play it back long
as you keep it clean. It is family radio right
here on Nightside. It's that simple. Once again, hit that
red microphone button in the top right corner of the
app while listening to Nightside and send us your audio message.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Again.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
It can be critical, it could be complementary, it could
just be factual. Last night we were talking about the
heat wave that we have been enduring here in the
New England area for the last couple of days, and
Ryan from Lowell decided to use the talk back app.
Here's what he had to say.
Speaker 9 (19:45):
Hey, Damn, Ryan Clona Lowell, first time using this app.
Mold Mike, I should say what I did to beat
the heat today is pretty much a stayed in bed
all day with the ac currently workings that work nights,
and I just want to say you're having a great
Joe lovelessening.
Speaker 7 (20:01):
Thanks all right, Well, thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Ryan.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Actually we talked about what people did yesterday the last
couple of days to beat the heat here.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
In New England with us.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Now, who knows a lot about things dealing with the
Atmosphere's Professor Kenn Leppert. He's an Associate professor of atmospheric
science at the School of Sciences the University of Louisiana.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Welcome, Professor Leopard. How are you tonight?
Speaker 6 (20:25):
I'm doing well. How are you good.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
There's some controversy over this process called cloud seating. I'm
not exactly sure how you see clouds. But I'm sure
you can explain that to us. And the reason is
that apparently some people inaccurately, but some people did blame
cloud seating for that horrific storm down in the Hill
(20:47):
Country of Texas in Kerr County that killed so many people,
including some of the campers at that summer camp for kids.
What is cloud seating and is this dangerous practice? Is
basically technology coming back to harm us.
Speaker 6 (21:04):
Sure, So there's basically two purposes for cloud seating. The
one is either to either get a cloud to rain
quicker than it otherwise would naturally, or to make a
cloud basically like dissipate or go away, or make a
fog go away or dissipate. So the intention is not
makes of your weather or in the case of the
flooding example, really the amount of moisture water in a
(21:28):
cloud is not going to change the seedling or not.
You're gonna have a sad amount of water. But the
seeding could actually make the rain occurs faster and faster
than otherwise wood. So let's say hypothetically you got to
have natural cloud that would form like form the cloud
the rain an hour later, whereas you've seen it maybe
then it makes precipitation in forty five minutes to rain
(21:51):
a little bit closer to the seating implication. So it
may change where the rain happens, but it's really not
going to change the total amount.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
How long How long have scientists or have people, you know,
people a lots more than me, uh figured this out?
And I've been seeding clouds.
Speaker 6 (22:07):
So my understanding was that it started in the nineteen sixties. Actually,
the original purpose of it was to try to affect
hurricanes and get them to kind of like rein out
before they actually made it to the to the coastline. Unfortunately,
there were no conclusive results from that, so that that
project is kind of dried up or ended without any
(22:28):
conclusive results.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Yeah, okay, but it has that is from which it
was born. Has it been utilized for positive in different
parts of the country. I assume that this is still
around because it's been It's been used utilized in some
form of fashion in a helpful way.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (22:47):
So the problem with this is this ideal that you
would want like one two identical clouds, one you'd seed,
one you didn't, and then kind of compare whether the
one that's feed it actually produced a respectation faster than
the other one. But in reality, we really don't have
that in a real atmosphere to completely identical clouds, so
it's really hard to get conclusive results of Some studies
(23:09):
have shown yeah, this work that don't produce rain. Others have,
like the hurricane studies, been more inconclusive.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Okay, so who actually is doing the seating? I assume
that there's no you know, plot, Maybe I'm wrong here,
but I assume there's no ace cloud seating company, and
this would something that I assume would have to be
done by a government agency of some sort.
Speaker 6 (23:33):
So I know there are universities that have active research
programs with this. I believe the university here with Dakota
has a program. We had a student from my university.
You actually went up there for drag school. Do you
work with that? And actually that that article that you referenced,
that was the first that I have heard that. Apparently
there are private companies that actually do this.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
So if private companies are doing it, they must be
doing it for some collective of farmers who are seeing
their crops dry up in the field. I'm assuming that
there's a potential to manipulate the weather in a purely
positive you know, function without causing a natural disaster? Is
(24:18):
am I kind of on base, you know, on point
on that, but there are very.
Speaker 6 (24:26):
Low probabilities that causing an app for the pastor all
is really going to do, if it has an effect
at all, is to cause it cause it to raine
where otherwise wouldn't have.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Okay, so theoretically it could take rain away from one
set of farmers who desperately need rain from another set
of farmers fifty miles away who would have been the
beneficiary of that rain. Is this something that you think
needs to be regulated by the government, So we're I
don't know how they physically do this. Did they send
planes up and leave stuff up in the atmosphere of
(25:01):
spray spray the clouds or something?
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Is that?
Speaker 2 (25:03):
How when when you say cloud seating, I assume that
there is a physical action which which sees the cloud
and it isn't someone sitting on the ground wishing and
pointing in a cloud.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
I assume, yeah, I.
Speaker 6 (25:16):
Think there they've tried to spend like rocket a cloud
and try to see it that way, But the most
effective way is the fly a fly a plane, uh
you through the cloud or directly above it, probably more
often directly above it. And then the most common material
that you use is silver iodide because it's very it's
environmentally friendly as far as I know, uh, and is
(25:38):
very effective and initiating freezing.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Okay, So UH has this It sounds to me like
this is something that people have heard about, but it
sounds to me like there's really no track record. Normally,
when we think about the FDA, we think about new
medicines coming on board.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Uh, they have to.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Be controlled tests, you know, test in which you know,
some pills are given to a group of patients, which
are the actual medication, and then the other pills are pills.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
They look the same, but they have no medicinal value. Uh.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
And that's how they do these double blind studies on
medications or on or on food stuff. But it sounds
to me like this is kind of the wild wild
West of cloud seating.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
That's the impression I'm getting.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (26:32):
Yeah, that's probably a pretty accurate representation. Yeah, given the
mixed results. Yeah, given the mixed results, it's kind of
speculating at this point. But it's like, I guess it
was conclusively prement always works that we do do it
a certain way, and maybe the government will step in
a regulator. But given like it's kind of works in
this case, now, the other one is like, I guess
(26:53):
there's less motivations to really regulate it.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Okay, yeah, I mean, as I say, in the medical tests,
one one group of people get the actual pill that
they're that they're testing, and the other group get a
place ebo they think they're taking a pill and uh,
and then you look at those those results. Last question
for me, professor, and again we don't script these questions
in advance, so I apologize if I've thrown a couple
(27:18):
action from left field. Here, are we the United States
the only country in the world that is seen in clouds?
Or are there other countries where this is going on
and we can work off of their research as well.
Speaker 6 (27:31):
So my understanding is that in the United States, uh,
there's so there may be private companies to do it,
but it's not done operationally by the government. However, there
are international airports that will actually actually do this operationally, uh,
to get with or to dissipate fogs at they're airports.
So yeah, there are international entities that are are using
(27:51):
the science.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Okay, I would assume if you want to dissipate fog,
you just need like some giant fans.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
I that's what I would be saying.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
But that's why I'm not a scientist, and I never
got past earth science in college and settled probably for
a B plus. Really enjoyed talking with you.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Again.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
This is a real new area, and I appreciate the
fact that you take the time, Professor Ken Leppert, Atmospheric Science,
School of Sciences at the University of Louisiana. Professor Leopard,
really a pleasure to meet you. Oftentimes I like to
do these break the ice conversations in the afternoon, but
(28:31):
during this hour we kind of I make the questions
up as I go along. I'm just an inherently curious individual,
and this is one that I have been curious about,
particularly in the wake of what happened in Texas in
early July. So you've given us a much better idea
about the inherent potential dangers. But they probably are not
(28:55):
things that are causing the deaths of dozens of people.
Scores of people has happened in Texas.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Thank you so much, sir. I appreciate the time.
Speaker 6 (29:05):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
You're welcome. When we get back.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
I promised you that we would get to one of
those questions that everyone has.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
I'm not going to tell you what it is right now.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
This is a universal question. No, it's not the meaning
of life. It's not is their life after death? No?
Speaker 3 (29:19):
No, no, no no, it's arguably even a more important question.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
I say that a little sarcastically, but it's the question
you thought of, and we're going to get a definitive
answer for you that for everyone has thought of this question. Everyone.
I guarantee you if you want to think to yourself,
I wonder what question Dan's going to get answered for us.
We have an expert on this. We have an expert,
and it is going to be a fabulous I think, well,
(29:47):
it's going to be one of those questions that you'll
talk about with your friends tomorrow because you're going to
know the answer.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
We'll be back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
It's night Side with.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
This news Radio. All right, let's get right back to
our final guest.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
I mentioned to you that we would get an answer
to a question that all of you've thought about. So
I am delighted to be joined by Sonny Hood. She's
the senior manager of public relations and communications for a
website entitled Unclaimed Baggage. And this is a question that
is for me similar to the meaning of life for
(30:27):
uh weird. This unclaimed airport baggage, unclaimed airport luggage end
up Sonnihood, Welcome to Nightside. First of all, before you
give us that definitive answer, how are you hi?
Speaker 10 (30:42):
Thanks so much for having me. I am great. How
are you doing well?
Speaker 2 (30:45):
I'm fine, And I'm particularly fine because this is a
question which was weighed heavily on my mind for decades.
I've first started to fly back in the nineteen seventies,
and whenever I go through an airport and I'm down
at a baggage car sell and I look over in
the distance and I see a group of bags that
obviously have not been picked up by prior travelers. And
(31:08):
I know that travelers have not fallen out of airplanes,
and I know that they have survived the flights, and
I just am very upset that someone's luggage some of
the most personal items that have been separated from and
they don't always get back home to their loved one.
Where do they end up?
Speaker 6 (31:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Is there some sort of an orphanage for luggage.
Speaker 10 (31:33):
Well, I mean it's sort of like that. So unclaimed baggage,
we are the nation's only retailer of lost luggage, and
I can tell you a little bit about how it works,
since you have that burning question, I I doll yes.
So the airline industry standard is a bag has to
be lost or unclaimed for at least ninety days. So
(31:53):
for about three months, the airlines are trying to find
the owner for someone's lost bag or lost item they
may have left behind, and they're successful over ninety nine
and a half percent of the time. But after those
ninety days it is but you know, millions of people
travel every single day, so even a fraction of a
percent is going to add up quickly. So after that
(32:16):
ninety day period, for those bags that are still orphaned,
a claims process will occur, so travelers will be compensated
for their lost belongings. And then in unclaimed baggage, we
step in as a salvage partner to the airlines, so
we purchase those bags by the truckload side, unseen, we
never know what we're going to get, and then our
(32:38):
team of baggage openers will start going through the contents
of these bags. And our goal is to try to
give a second life to all of these lost and
unclaimed items. And how we do that is it's either
sold we have a physical storefront in Alabama or online
at unclaim baggage dot com. Like you mentioned, around a
(32:59):
third just going to be recycled and then that other
third is going to be donated.
Speaker 11 (33:03):
Okay, So now I have to ask you this, what
do you do if you open up a bag and
there is the name of someone, are you then duty
bound even though the ninety days has elapsed to try
to find you know, John Smith of Chicago, Illinois.
Speaker 10 (33:20):
All right, Well that's a great question. I mean, it's
so funny. A lot of times people will ask us
what's the number one reason a bag will go lost
or unclaimed? And it's usually because people forget to put
their ID on there, it's not labeled or the tag
has been left off. But if we do find it,
you know, unclean baggage, that the ninety day search period
(33:41):
has already ended, it's already gone to us. We're not
in the reunification business. So if we do come across
personal information and that's just you know, responsibly discarded of Okay.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
So what you're saying is people who think that they're
going to put a name inside the bag or a
business card, You're not going to look at that, even
if there's a phone number and everything. The deals done,
you now own the luggage. Okay, So now my next
question is, what's a couple of neat things that you
found in there? For example, have you found, oh, I
(34:12):
don't know, an Olympic gold medal, have you ever found
you know, autograph pictures or you know what. I'm not
going to ask what the most rabald things are that
you found. Okay, whether or not you found drugs or
or guns or whatever, I'm sure you probably have. Give
me a couple of things that you found that maybe
(34:32):
you are friendly for a nice family audience.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
Like we have here in Boston.
Speaker 10 (34:37):
Oh, yes, I love this question. We've been doing this
since nineteen seventy, so you can let your imagination run
wild with the sort of things our team is unpacked.
To me, the most shocking thing our team found was
a life rattlesnake.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Oh.
Speaker 10 (34:53):
He was in the outside pocket of a devil bag.
And so to me, that would if I was like
putting myself in that position, that would be quite a
shocking discovery.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
How do a rattlesnake survived ninety days in a duffleback?
You know.
Speaker 10 (35:12):
My theory is that he slithered his way in there,
you know, via transit somehow. Surely someone was not traveling,
but we found him.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
Yep. What else?
Speaker 2 (35:23):
What else have you found?
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Though?
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Was kind of shocking. I mean, I'm just hoping that
you might have you ever find, like, I don't know,
a Babe Ruth baseball card or something of great value.
Speaker 10 (35:38):
Ooh, that would lead me to what I was about
to say, which is the most expensive item we've ever sold.
It was a Men's Platinum Presidential Rolex watch. It retailed
for sixty four thousand dollars. We sold it for thirty
two thousand dollars. That was about ten years ago, so
that's still the highest ticket item to date. But to
(35:59):
your point, I mean autographed items, collector items that we
like to say that you truly never know what you're
going to find at unclean baggage. I mean it's wild,
wonderful or just plain weird. Well you know it.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Tom Hanks in the movie said life is just like
a bunch of chocolate.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
You never know what you're.
Speaker 10 (36:19):
Gonna find and that is that's exactly right kind of
kind of the kind.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Of does really work for all of us?
Speaker 7 (36:29):
Have you ever I only got a minute, a couple
of minutes stuff.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Have you ever reunited some family? I mean, if let's
say you find a picture in there of a little kid.
I know you're not in the return business, but you
must find some things that break your heart.
Speaker 10 (36:48):
Yes, well, you know what, we never want someone to
lose their bag. You know, we our team does this
every single day, and so of course there's an amount
of empathy you have to have for the people that
lost these things because the reality is, you know, we're
not a thrift store. We're not full of things that
people had already warned they no longer wanted it. We're
(37:08):
full of things that people wanted, and so, you know,
there has to be systems and solutions in place, so
we feel good knowing that at least we're giving these
items a second life. You know, maybe someone lost this
very special item, but we're able to pass it on
and it's continuing its journey and redeemed in some way,
rather than you know, ending up in a landfill or
(37:30):
wherever it might go. If we weren't there. As far
as a reunification story, I have one crazy story if
I if I have time.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
To share it, we like we do it in thirty seconds.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
It's going to work great.
Speaker 10 (37:43):
As a final point, No, okay, I'll get to it.
We had a huge sale we call our ski sale.
A gentleman came there found a pair of ski boots.
He thought his wife would like. Got those ski boots home.
The wife lifted up the tongue of the boots. It
had her maide A name listed in the tongue of
the boot, so her husband found her own lost boots.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
He must have physically gone to your store in Alabama.
Speaker 10 (38:12):
Yes, yes, okay.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
What is your website?
Speaker 3 (38:14):
What is your website?
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Because I'm sure a lot of my listeners and I'm
probably going to go to your website tomorrow just for
the funnel.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
What's your website?
Speaker 10 (38:22):
It is Unclaimed Baggage dot com.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Sounds great. You're a good sports Sonny, you really are.
I mean that seriously. And you're a real good communicator.
Uh And this for me has been fascinating and we
now know the answer to one of life's unanswerable questions
because of you. Thank you for joining us tonight. This
was a lot of fun. Thank you so much, well.
Speaker 10 (38:43):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
Okay, good night.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
When we come back, we are going to be delighted
to introduce to you the newest the new president of
the of the National District Attorneys Association, none of the
the Plymouth County District Attorney, Tim Cruse. We got lots
to talk about Tim Cruise, one of the good guys
in the law enforcement business. We'll be back on nights
(39:08):
side with Plymouth County DA Tim Cruise with lots of
information and questions.
It's nice size, Dan, I'm telling you easy Boston's news
radio comparison.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I guarantee you we'll have a good night here at Nightside,
and guarantee everyone who is listening to stay with us.
We'll take you all the way until midnight. My name
is Dan Ray and the host of night Side, heard
every weeknight right here on WBZ, Boston's news radio from
eight until midnight. Rob Brooks is back in the control room,
and of course he will set you up with telephone
calls once we start taking telephone calls at nine o'clock.
(00:29):
But in the first hour we talked to four interesting
guests on a disparate group of subjects topics, end of interest,
and all of them I guarantee you, and wait for
the fourth one, you will have answered a question that
I guarantee you all of you have contemplated and could
never figure out the answer to. No, it's not the
(00:51):
meaning of life, but it's pretty darn close to it,
and we will do that for you at about eight
forty five tonight. But first of all, we're going to
start off and talk with the chair of the biology
Department at Northeastern University College of Science, Professor James Monahan,
Professor Monaghan, Welcome to night Side.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
How are you tonight?
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Great, Dan, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Always great to talk to someone who's a husky from
Northeastern University. And I guess you've been working on a
real mystery that I guess you could say is billions
of years old, and that is how do you regenerate
human limbs? And the key to this might be held
(01:36):
by something called the Axilotti salamander. Fascinating. This salamander is
called a Superstar of cuteness. I've never thought of salamander's
as being cute, but maybe we'll make an exception for
this one.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Tell us all about it.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Oh great, thanks, Yeah, you're close, very close. Axelatl okay, yeah, miss,
it's a lot of it. And that's kind of our
our actually butchered version of the of the native language
in Mexico a shoto, So it's native to Mexico City.
It's this fascinating creature that evolved in the lakes that
(02:20):
Mexico City was built on. And they are kind of
these alien like looking creatures. They grow to maybe a
foot to a foot and a half long. They live
about twenty years. They have like a perpetual smile on
their face, and they just kind of exploded into cultural popularity.
Part of that's because they've made their way into Minecraft
(02:42):
and into video games. And now if you go into
a the airport or you go into a mall, you'll
see them in all the toy stores of a little
plushy doll.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Okay, we see them.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
They're all over now.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
And these are native to Mexico City, the lakes on
which the city was built. So how did you figure
this out? Because again, if they're the key to limb regeneration,
where have they been for a couple.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Years?
Speaker 4 (03:13):
That's a great question. So they were actually collected originally
in eighteen sixty four and UH shipped over to Europe,
and then they made their way through the European universities,
made their way back to the United States, and everyone
that we you know, generally would see an online or
on a game, is this little pink one. And that's
(03:33):
actually a mutant that was collected in eighteen sixty four.
So they're practically in almost extinct in Mexico, but there's
thousands and thousands and thousands UH in laboratories and in
the pet trade. A lot of them are this pink
version and those all came from one animal collected in
eighteen sixty four. So it became it was an oddity
(03:54):
of was it a salamander? Was a was it you know,
was it some new species they never knew about. But
it turns out it is a salamander. And then they.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
Realize no, they grow things back like arms, and since
then we've learned many other interesting, uh like super feats
that they have of regeneration, and they've made their way
through the world of you know, hundreds of labs now
work on them trying to understand, you know, how they
can regenerate structures and like limbs and so.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
If I assume it's a salamander, they have like short
little legs and uh, I mean I'm assuming they're they're
pretty much on the ground.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Am I wrong? Right or wrong on that?
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (04:34):
No, that's uh, it's a good point. So these are aquatics,
so they live on in the quaria. They live in water.
So normally you think of a salamander, you know, lives
in the dirt, just like you said, and these animals
have evolved to just kind of stay like a tadpole,
you know, you think of a tadpole turns into a frog. Yeah,
he's just stay in this little aquatic fight phase their
(04:55):
entire life, so kind of like little babies that are adults.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Yeah, but but you just argument is how big normally
they grow to? How long or how big?
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Over a foot, over a foot, over foot.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Okay, so they do have I'm assuming now again I'm
not a zoologist, not a biologist, but I assume they
have two arms, or two legs, or four appendages, maybe
a tail two I don't know.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
No, well, most of the same things that you and
I have of elbows and as humorous and radius and
all that. Okay, fingers, they have four fingers instead of five,
but their anatomy is very similar to ours. Two arms,
two legs.
Speaker 6 (05:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Hey, there was a picture a three finger Mordecai Brown,
so you know I can understand that. Okay, So you
folks now believe that these animals, again I don't want
to call fish whatever you want to salamanders.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
They regenerate.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
If they have a problem and they lose an appendage,
it can be regenerated.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
That's right. Yeah. So this has been appreciated for you know,
hundreds of even going back to like antiquity. Aristotle kind
of observes that lizards can grow tails back, and some
salamaners can grow arms back.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Right.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
So, so it's been a curiosity in biology for a
you know, since the beginning of experiments were being performed.
They were observing, oh, some of these animals can grow
things back.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
So what what did.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
You and your team do at Northeast and which which
really I think August so well, maybe not for my
generation or maybe even the generation today, but at some
point you isolated a gene and you may have figured
out how humans could regenerate limbs.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
I won't take so much as figuring out how humans can,
but I can say we figured out a good piece
of the puzzle, a really important piece. Right, So you
could think of, you know that can we grow an
arm if it's amputated at the shoulder, they can rego
in arm as it's amputated at the hand, And somehow
those cells know to grow back just the right structure,
you know, you know, to grow just about handback, know
(07:00):
just the entire armback. So we figured out the mechanism
by which the limb knows to grow back just the
hand or does it need to grow back the entire army,
and we found that it's this molecule that's in you.
And I also, if you watch TV for more than
thirty minutes, you know, retinol and like face cream and
things like that. Yeah, that is in the same pathway
(07:23):
retinoic acid that determines how much of an arm to
go back.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Okay, So now again I don't want to get ahead
of the story here, but I do want to sort of.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
I don't want to bury the lead.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Realistically, is it possible in your mind that the discovery
that you made in the genes of this salamander could
somehow that information, that insight, that wisdom could potentially someday
allow humans to grow back a hand or an arm naturally.
(07:57):
You know, I know that there's a lot of work
done on mechanical hands, people who have lost hands and
mechanical arms. I know that all that's being done, which
is fabulous. But this would, I assume, be even greater
than that, the miracle of you know, an automatic.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Hand, right, right, there's nothing better than the you know,
real structure that integrates into the system, integrates into the body.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Right.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
So I'll give you this story that kind of fascinated me.
So Our paper came out in Junior eleventh of the
importance of retinic acid and X levels, and you know,
I've been talking to people on news outlets and whatnot. Okay,
maybe it's not as simple as just retinic acid. But
what really blew me away is on June twenty six,
(08:45):
another paper comes out that found no, it is retinic
acid that can make a mouse ear regenerate. So it
was as simple as activating the retino acid pathway. It
made normally a wound that doesn't close in a mouse
ear actually close. So that was just activating the molecule
(09:10):
retinal acid that we found. So maybe it is I
don't want to say, you know, you get an injury
sort of retinolk acid on it and things are going
to regenerate. But but it really blew me away of Okay,
I was under the impression in retinal acids telling you
how much to go back and what structures to go back,
but this is actually saying maybe it isn't even possible
(09:32):
to induce a regeneration response using these molecules.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
So basically this has opened And unfortunately I'm running out
of time here because I could spend a lot of
time with you on this, and maybe we will if
you have that, if you have the time, when you
do a longer version, this is always opening up a
minimum of a pathway to some potential possibilities.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yes, I think so.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
And why this is, you know, really exciting time in
biology is you and I made a limb in development,
ax levels me to live in development. Right, It's not
that ax letvels have some magic gene that we don't have.
It's that they can access those genes at the appropriate
time versus us We turn on the scar program and
(10:13):
we just close the wound off and call it a day,
and they turn on the developmental program to say, let's
make a whole new arm. So it's it's technology is
getting to this point where you can turn jeans on
turn jeans off in an animal to induce regeneration and
possibly induce regeneration.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Okay, that's why I think it possibilities. Look, thank you, professor,
Thank you. I may have my producer call and see
if we get you to do this for an hour
and take phone calls from people who probably are smarter
than me about this stuff. I'm I was never a
great scientist, Hence I ended up being a talk show
host and a TV reporter.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
I had to settle for that.
Speaker 6 (10:50):
I couldn't do that.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
So well, professor, thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
You did a great job tonight, and thank you for
the work that you and your team have done. We will,
I think, talk again in greater and greater.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Thank you so much to be happy to you appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Okay, we get back, going to get down to earth
a little bit more, and we're going to talk with
Ava Velasquez, CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center, about
a new set of scams called funeral scams. This will
be tough to believe and you'll be really upset, but
you need to hear it.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Back on Nightside after.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
This, You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ,
Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Delighted to be rejoined by Eva Velasquez. Eva is the
CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center and Eva, you're
going welcome back, Eva to Nightside. Uh.
Speaker 7 (11:42):
You have some cautionary concerns and some cautionary advice for
these funeral scams which have recently been popping up.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Tell us about them. I do.
Speaker 8 (11:57):
We heard something really unconscionable, and that is that the
scammers are looking to social media and monitoring posts about
recent deaths and funerals, and then they're creating column Yeah,
yeah they are, but they're getting so much more detail
than that, and they create fake event pages and profiles,
(12:22):
and they pretend to be different people involved with the process.
Could be a grieving family member, could be friends. It
could even be a fake a funeral home or someone
that's involved with this process. And it's mostly to take
advantage of the grief and the urgency. They're trying to
get people to either pay to watch like the funeral
(12:45):
services streams. Sometimes they set up gofund me accounts. But
it's just proof that nothing is sacred and that even
in times, these emotionally heightened times, the scammers don't care.
They're going to exploit that time.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
For scammers are those times because people aren't thinking right,
they're grieving, they're concerned, they're trying to make a million decisions.
Give us a fairly tangible example of how it might work.
I want my audience to be prepared for the time
they get the call or the Facebook notice, and you
know they're trying to lure you in. If they can
(13:21):
get you to come into the tent, the metaphorical tent.
That's when they can start to sell you some stuff
or ask you for some of your most personal information.
Give us, give us a more concrete example if you could.
Speaker 8 (13:36):
Well, there are several different iterations, but I'll focus on one,
and that's where perhaps you're in Facebook and you get
a notification that someone in your network has passed away,
and maybe you get a new friend request, or maybe
it's just a post on your feed, but there's a
link to be able to view the streaming services, so
(13:57):
you can you can be a part part of the funeral,
but you're not going to be attending in person, and
so you click on that link thinking that you're going
to be joining this or maybe signing up to watch,
and they start to ask you.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
A lot of times you get connected to the funeral
parla and you're invited to write a comment or send
along best wishes, So go ahead, I'm.
Speaker 8 (14:25):
Following you, no exactly.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
That's it.
Speaker 8 (14:29):
That's what this gamers do is that this is a
legitimate process. You can get these invitations through social media
or through email, and you do click on a link
and perhaps you leave a note to the family, or
you can stream and watch the services. But what they've
done is they've inserted themselves into that process. So when
you click on that link from the bad guy, that's
(14:50):
when they will start to ask you, sometimes for financial information,
like maybe they'll say there's a fee to watch the service,
or they do you want to make a donation to
the family for them to recover, So they're going to
start asking you for financial details, and that to me
is the big red flag. When you start getting asked
(15:10):
by anyone that you don't know for your credit card
number or a debit card number, your bank account number,
that's such a huge red flag. Disconnect, disengage, and then
go directly to the source, reach out to the family
members and ask is there a way I can participate?
How can I help you? But it really is about
(15:31):
sometimes we can't leverage technology to the full extent that
we would like to, and in this case, it's about
reaching out and connecting with the people.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Well, the thing that's interesting here is the scammers to
have to they must make money on this or they're
not going to waste their time. But it sounds to
me like a tremendous amount of effort to kind of
make the connection between the greeting person, the family member
that's lost someone who's close to them, and a friend
(16:00):
and to somehow interject into that between those two people.
So the grieving family member has no idea about what's
going on, and yet they're able to get extract information
from the victim. And if they get the information they
really want with their financial numbers and all of that,
(16:20):
then they can clean people out. So it sounds to
me like when they really start down this road, they're
not looking for a twenty dollars contribution of some flowers
being sent from a fake account.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
They want to get to the motherload.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
They want to get to your credit card, or they
want to get to your bank account.
Speaker 8 (16:37):
I think that's true for some. It really depends on
the sophistication level of the scammer and how they how
much they have automated the process, because to your point,
they want to make money. That is the end goal
is monetization. But we have to remember that with AI
and all of the uses of AI, you can automate
(17:02):
some of these searches, you can look for people, you
can automate the post, so it doesn't necessarily have to
be someone actually manually doing this. This research and sitting
behind a keyboard, yeah, and throwing twenty dollars.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
They're throwing a thousand or ten thousand lines in the
water and they only need one or two bites exactly.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
All right, let me ask you this, Eva.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
We're a little tight on time here, but is there
a website that any of my listeners who want to
get more information on this that you have at the
Identity Theft Resource Center that we could direct people to.
Speaker 8 (17:44):
Well, we can absolutely direct them to our website idffcenter
dot org because we have information on this scam and
we've written about it, and there are a ton of
links in the scam in the in the post where
they can dig as deep as they want.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Sounds great, and we will have you back. I'll owe
you a little bit of time. I went along with
the first interview tonight, and I try to keep it
perfectly balanced, but sometimes I fail, and I'll make it
up to you next time.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Thank you, sir.
Speaker 8 (18:12):
You know I'm always happy to come back and help
educate some folks.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
It was a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I know that that is your life's purpose. You've proven
that to me more than once. Thanks even appreciate it
very much, all right, you have a great night. Right
after the news, we're going to explain to you a
little bit about cloud sea seating and did it or
did it not have any sort of an impact on
that deadly flash flood So those deadly flashed floods in
(18:38):
the Hill Country of Texas earlier this month.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
We'll be back on Nightside right after the news at
the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
It's night Side, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Before we get to our next guest, who knows a
lot more about cloud seating than I do, I want
to remind you of a neat way to be part
of the night Side broadcast by utilizing our talkback feature
in the eye Heart Radio app. Make sure you download
and have the free iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
While listening to Nightside Live on WVZ News.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Radio, you can tap the red microphone talkback button in
the top right corner and send us a personalized thirty
second audio message and we will play it back long
as you keep it clean. It is family radio right
here on Nightside. It's that simple. Once again, hit that
red microphone button in the top right corner of the
app while listening to Nightside and send us your audio message.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Again.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
It can be critical, it could be complementary, it could
just be factual. Last night we were talking about the
heat wave that we have been enduring here in the
New England area for the last couple of days, and
Ryan from Lowell decided to use the talk back app.
Here's what he had to say.
Speaker 9 (19:45):
Hey, Damn, Ryan Clona Lowell, first time using this app.
Mold Mike, I should say what I did to beat
the heat today is pretty much a stayed in bed
all day with the ac currently workings that work nights,
and I just want to say you're having a great
Joe lovelessening.
Speaker 7 (20:01):
Thanks all right, Well, thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Ryan.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Actually we talked about what people did yesterday the last
couple of days to beat the heat here.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
In New England with us.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Now, who knows a lot about things dealing with the
Atmosphere's Professor Kenn Leppert. He's an Associate professor of atmospheric
science at the School of Sciences the University of Louisiana.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Welcome, Professor Leopard. How are you tonight?
Speaker 6 (20:25):
I'm doing well. How are you good.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
There's some controversy over this process called cloud seating. I'm
not exactly sure how you see clouds. But I'm sure
you can explain that to us. And the reason is
that apparently some people inaccurately, but some people did blame
cloud seating for that horrific storm down in the Hill
(20:47):
Country of Texas in Kerr County that killed so many people,
including some of the campers at that summer camp for kids.
What is cloud seating and is this dangerous practice? Is
basically technology coming back to harm us.
Speaker 6 (21:04):
Sure, So there's basically two purposes for cloud seating. The
one is either to either get a cloud to rain
quicker than it otherwise would naturally, or to make a
cloud basically like dissipate or go away, or make a
fog go away or dissipate. So the intention is not
makes of your weather or in the case of the
flooding example, really the amount of moisture water in a
(21:28):
cloud is not going to change the seedling or not.
You're gonna have a sad amount of water. But the
seeding could actually make the rain occurs faster and faster
than otherwise wood. So let's say hypothetically you got to
have natural cloud that would form like form the cloud
the rain an hour later, whereas you've seen it maybe
then it makes precipitation in forty five minutes to rain
(21:51):
a little bit closer to the seating implication. So it
may change where the rain happens, but it's really not
going to change the total amount.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
How long How long have scientists or have people, you know,
people a lots more than me, uh figured this out?
And I've been seeding clouds.
Speaker 6 (22:07):
So my understanding was that it started in the nineteen sixties. Actually,
the original purpose of it was to try to affect
hurricanes and get them to kind of like rein out
before they actually made it to the to the coastline. Unfortunately,
there were no conclusive results from that, so that that
project is kind of dried up or ended without any
(22:28):
conclusive results.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Yeah, okay, but it has that is from which it
was born. Has it been utilized for positive in different
parts of the country. I assume that this is still
around because it's been It's been used utilized in some
form of fashion in a helpful way.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (22:47):
So the problem with this is this ideal that you
would want like one two identical clouds, one you'd seed,
one you didn't, and then kind of compare whether the
one that's feed it actually produced a respectation faster than
the other one. But in reality, we really don't have
that in a real atmosphere to completely identical clouds, so
it's really hard to get conclusive results of Some studies
(23:09):
have shown yeah, this work that don't produce rain. Others have,
like the hurricane studies, been more inconclusive.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Okay, so who actually is doing the seating? I assume
that there's no you know, plot, Maybe I'm wrong here,
but I assume there's no ace cloud seating company, and
this would something that I assume would have to be
done by a government agency of some sort.
Speaker 6 (23:33):
So I know there are universities that have active research
programs with this. I believe the university here with Dakota
has a program. We had a student from my university.
You actually went up there for drag school. Do you
work with that? And actually that that article that you referenced,
that was the first that I have heard that. Apparently
there are private companies that actually do this.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
So if private companies are doing it, they must be
doing it for some collective of farmers who are seeing
their crops dry up in the field. I'm assuming that
there's a potential to manipulate the weather in a purely
positive you know, function without causing a natural disaster? Is
(24:18):
am I kind of on base, you know, on point
on that, but there are very.
Speaker 6 (24:26):
Low probabilities that causing an app for the pastor all
is really going to do, if it has an effect
at all, is to cause it cause it to raine
where otherwise wouldn't have.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Okay, so theoretically it could take rain away from one
set of farmers who desperately need rain from another set
of farmers fifty miles away who would have been the
beneficiary of that rain. Is this something that you think
needs to be regulated by the government, So we're I
don't know how they physically do this. Did they send
planes up and leave stuff up in the atmosphere of
(25:01):
spray spray the clouds or something?
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Is that?
Speaker 2 (25:03):
How when when you say cloud seating, I assume that
there is a physical action which which sees the cloud
and it isn't someone sitting on the ground wishing and
pointing in a cloud.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
I assume, yeah, I.
Speaker 6 (25:16):
Think there they've tried to spend like rocket a cloud
and try to see it that way, But the most
effective way is the fly a fly a plane, uh
you through the cloud or directly above it, probably more
often directly above it. And then the most common material
that you use is silver iodide because it's very it's
environmentally friendly as far as I know, uh, and is
(25:38):
very effective and initiating freezing.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Okay, So UH has this It sounds to me like
this is something that people have heard about, but it
sounds to me like there's really no track record. Normally,
when we think about the FDA, we think about new
medicines coming on board.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Uh, they have to.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Be controlled tests, you know, test in which you know,
some pills are given to a group of patients, which
are the actual medication, and then the other pills are pills.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
They look the same, but they have no medicinal value. Uh.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
And that's how they do these double blind studies on
medications or on or on food stuff. But it sounds
to me like this is kind of the wild wild
West of cloud seating.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
That's the impression I'm getting.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (26:32):
Yeah, that's probably a pretty accurate representation. Yeah, given the
mixed results. Yeah, given the mixed results, it's kind of
speculating at this point. But it's like, I guess it
was conclusively prement always works that we do do it
a certain way, and maybe the government will step in
a regulator. But given like it's kind of works in
this case, now, the other one is like, I guess
(26:53):
there's less motivations to really regulate it.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Okay, yeah, I mean, as I say, in the medical tests,
one one group of people get the actual pill that
they're that they're testing, and the other group get a
place ebo they think they're taking a pill and uh,
and then you look at those those results. Last question
for me, professor, and again we don't script these questions
in advance, so I apologize if I've thrown a couple
(27:18):
action from left field. Here, are we the United States
the only country in the world that is seen in clouds?
Or are there other countries where this is going on
and we can work off of their research as well.
Speaker 6 (27:31):
So my understanding is that in the United States, uh,
there's so there may be private companies to do it,
but it's not done operationally by the government. However, there
are international airports that will actually actually do this operationally, uh,
to get with or to dissipate fogs at they're airports.
So yeah, there are international entities that are are using
(27:51):
the science.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Okay, I would assume if you want to dissipate fog,
you just need like some giant fans.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
I that's what I would be saying.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
But that's why I'm not a scientist, and I never
got past earth science in college and settled probably for
a B plus. Really enjoyed talking with you.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Again.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
This is a real new area, and I appreciate the
fact that you take the time, Professor Ken Leppert, Atmospheric Science,
School of Sciences at the University of Louisiana. Professor Leopard,
really a pleasure to meet you. Oftentimes I like to
do these break the ice conversations in the afternoon, but
(28:31):
during this hour we kind of I make the questions
up as I go along. I'm just an inherently curious individual,
and this is one that I have been curious about,
particularly in the wake of what happened in Texas in
early July. So you've given us a much better idea
about the inherent potential dangers. But they probably are not
(28:55):
things that are causing the deaths of dozens of people.
Scores of people has happened in Texas.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Thank you so much, sir. I appreciate the time.
Speaker 6 (29:05):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
You're welcome. When we get back.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
I promised you that we would get to one of
those questions that everyone has.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
I'm not going to tell you what it is right now.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
This is a universal question. No, it's not the meaning
of life. It's not is their life after death? No?
Speaker 3 (29:19):
No, no, no no, it's arguably even a more important question.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
I say that a little sarcastically, but it's the question
you thought of, and we're going to get a definitive
answer for you that for everyone has thought of this question. Everyone.
I guarantee you if you want to think to yourself,
I wonder what question Dan's going to get answered for us.
We have an expert on this. We have an expert,
and it is going to be a fabulous I think, well,
(29:47):
it's going to be one of those questions that you'll
talk about with your friends tomorrow because you're going to
know the answer.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
We'll be back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
It's night Side with.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
This news Radio. All right, let's get right back to
our final guest.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
I mentioned to you that we would get an answer
to a question that all of you've thought about. So
I am delighted to be joined by Sonny Hood. She's
the senior manager of public relations and communications for a
website entitled Unclaimed Baggage. And this is a question that
is for me similar to the meaning of life for
(30:27):
uh weird. This unclaimed airport baggage, unclaimed airport luggage end
up Sonnihood, Welcome to Nightside. First of all, before you
give us that definitive answer, how are you hi?
Speaker 10 (30:42):
Thanks so much for having me. I am great. How
are you doing well?
Speaker 2 (30:45):
I'm fine, And I'm particularly fine because this is a
question which was weighed heavily on my mind for decades.
I've first started to fly back in the nineteen seventies,
and whenever I go through an airport and I'm down
at a baggage car sell and I look over in
the distance and I see a group of bags that
obviously have not been picked up by prior travelers. And
(31:08):
I know that travelers have not fallen out of airplanes,
and I know that they have survived the flights, and
I just am very upset that someone's luggage some of
the most personal items that have been separated from and
they don't always get back home to their loved one.
Where do they end up?
Speaker 6 (31:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Is there some sort of an orphanage for luggage.
Speaker 10 (31:33):
Well, I mean it's sort of like that. So unclaimed baggage,
we are the nation's only retailer of lost luggage, and
I can tell you a little bit about how it works,
since you have that burning question, I I doll yes.
So the airline industry standard is a bag has to
be lost or unclaimed for at least ninety days. So
(31:53):
for about three months, the airlines are trying to find
the owner for someone's lost bag or lost item they
may have left behind, and they're successful over ninety nine
and a half percent of the time. But after those
ninety days it is but you know, millions of people
travel every single day, so even a fraction of a
percent is going to add up quickly. So after that
(32:16):
ninety day period, for those bags that are still orphaned,
a claims process will occur, so travelers will be compensated
for their lost belongings. And then in unclaimed baggage, we
step in as a salvage partner to the airlines, so
we purchase those bags by the truckload side, unseen, we
never know what we're going to get, and then our
(32:38):
team of baggage openers will start going through the contents
of these bags. And our goal is to try to
give a second life to all of these lost and
unclaimed items. And how we do that is it's either
sold we have a physical storefront in Alabama or online
at unclaim baggage dot com. Like you mentioned, around a
(32:59):
third just going to be recycled and then that other
third is going to be donated.
Speaker 11 (33:03):
Okay, So now I have to ask you this, what
do you do if you open up a bag and
there is the name of someone, are you then duty
bound even though the ninety days has elapsed to try
to find you know, John Smith of Chicago, Illinois.
Speaker 10 (33:20):
All right, Well that's a great question. I mean, it's
so funny. A lot of times people will ask us
what's the number one reason a bag will go lost
or unclaimed? And it's usually because people forget to put
their ID on there, it's not labeled or the tag
has been left off. But if we do find it,
you know, unclean baggage, that the ninety day search period
(33:41):
has already ended, it's already gone to us. We're not
in the reunification business. So if we do come across
personal information and that's just you know, responsibly discarded of Okay.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
So what you're saying is people who think that they're
going to put a name inside the bag or a
business card, You're not going to look at that, even
if there's a phone number and everything. The deals done,
you now own the luggage. Okay, So now my next
question is, what's a couple of neat things that you
found in there? For example, have you found, oh, I
(34:12):
don't know, an Olympic gold medal, have you ever found
you know, autograph pictures or you know what. I'm not
going to ask what the most rabald things are that
you found. Okay, whether or not you found drugs or
or guns or whatever, I'm sure you probably have. Give
me a couple of things that you found that maybe
(34:32):
you are friendly for a nice family audience.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
Like we have here in Boston.
Speaker 10 (34:37):
Oh, yes, I love this question. We've been doing this
since nineteen seventy, so you can let your imagination run
wild with the sort of things our team is unpacked.
To me, the most shocking thing our team found was
a life rattlesnake.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Oh.
Speaker 10 (34:53):
He was in the outside pocket of a devil bag.
And so to me, that would if I was like
putting myself in that position, that would be quite a
shocking discovery.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
How do a rattlesnake survived ninety days in a duffleback?
You know.
Speaker 10 (35:12):
My theory is that he slithered his way in there,
you know, via transit somehow. Surely someone was not traveling,
but we found him.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
Yep. What else?
Speaker 2 (35:23):
What else have you found?
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Though?
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Was kind of shocking. I mean, I'm just hoping that
you might have you ever find, like, I don't know,
a Babe Ruth baseball card or something of great value.
Speaker 10 (35:38):
Ooh, that would lead me to what I was about
to say, which is the most expensive item we've ever sold.
It was a Men's Platinum Presidential Rolex watch. It retailed
for sixty four thousand dollars. We sold it for thirty
two thousand dollars. That was about ten years ago, so
that's still the highest ticket item to date. But to
(35:59):
your point, I mean autographed items, collector items that we
like to say that you truly never know what you're
going to find at unclean baggage. I mean it's wild,
wonderful or just plain weird. Well you know it.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Tom Hanks in the movie said life is just like
a bunch of chocolate.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
You never know what you're.
Speaker 10 (36:19):
Gonna find and that is that's exactly right kind of
kind of the kind.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Of does really work for all of us?
Speaker 7 (36:29):
Have you ever I only got a minute, a couple
of minutes stuff.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Have you ever reunited some family? I mean, if let's
say you find a picture in there of a little kid.
I know you're not in the return business, but you
must find some things that break your heart.
Speaker 10 (36:48):
Yes, well, you know what, we never want someone to
lose their bag. You know, we our team does this
every single day, and so of course there's an amount
of empathy you have to have for the people that
lost these things because the reality is, you know, we're
not a thrift store. We're not full of things that
people had already warned they no longer wanted it. We're
(37:08):
full of things that people wanted, and so, you know,
there has to be systems and solutions in place, so
we feel good knowing that at least we're giving these
items a second life. You know, maybe someone lost this
very special item, but we're able to pass it on
and it's continuing its journey and redeemed in some way,
rather than you know, ending up in a landfill or
(37:30):
wherever it might go. If we weren't there. As far
as a reunification story, I have one crazy story if
I if I have time.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
To share it, we like we do it in thirty seconds.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
It's going to work great.
Speaker 10 (37:43):
As a final point, No, okay, I'll get to it.
We had a huge sale we call our ski sale.
A gentleman came there found a pair of ski boots.
He thought his wife would like. Got those ski boots home.
The wife lifted up the tongue of the boots. It
had her maide A name listed in the tongue of
the boot, so her husband found her own lost boots.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
He must have physically gone to your store in Alabama.
Speaker 10 (38:12):
Yes, yes, okay.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
What is your website?
Speaker 3 (38:14):
What is your website?
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Because I'm sure a lot of my listeners and I'm
probably going to go to your website tomorrow just for
the funnel.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
What's your website?
Speaker 10 (38:22):
It is Unclaimed Baggage dot com.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Sounds great. You're a good sports Sonny, you really are.
I mean that seriously. And you're a real good communicator.
Uh And this for me has been fascinating and we
now know the answer to one of life's unanswerable questions
because of you. Thank you for joining us tonight. This
was a lot of fun. Thank you so much, well.
Speaker 10 (38:43):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
Okay, good night.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
When we come back, we are going to be delighted
to introduce to you the newest the new president of
the of the National District Attorneys Association, none of the
the Plymouth County District Attorney, Tim Cruse. We got lots
to talk about Tim Cruise, one of the good guys
in the law enforcement business. We'll be back on nights
(39:08):
side with Plymouth County DA Tim Cruise with lots of
information and questions.
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