Speaker 1: It's night Side, Dan Ray on Boston Radio.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Sherry Small. Always great to hear
Speaker 2: your voice here on night side, as I often do,
Speaker 2: but we also hear throughout the work week. But it's
Speaker 2: always nice when you're leading us into our show, and
Speaker 2: of course leading us into our show on October seventh,
Speaker 2: which is a very important date on I think should
Speaker 2: be on everyone's calendar, a day of morning and a
Speaker 2: day of concern. We're going to talk about that in
Speaker 2: a moment. We will talk about it at greater length
Speaker 2: later tonight with a gentleman here from the Boston area
Speaker 2: who had five relatives, five direct relatives kidnapped last October seventh.
Speaker 2: Two of those relatives were killed, two children were released,
Speaker 2: and a fifth remains in captivity. And my guest who
Speaker 2: will join us at ten o'clock be going to Israel
Speaker 2: on Thursday. And so just his name. He's an Attorney's
Speaker 2: name is Jason Greenberg, and he's an incredible individual and
Speaker 2: you'll want to hear his story. We will talk at
Speaker 2: nine o'clock about the hearing in front of the Supreme
Speaker 2: Judicial Court today on the Massachusetts MBTA Communities Act. I
Speaker 2: think you know how I feel about that. But first
Speaker 2: we have four special guests, very special guests starting off
Speaker 2: the program this hour, Major General retired Robert D's. General
Speaker 2: D's get a chance to salute you here on night's side.
Speaker 2: Thank you for your service.
Speaker 3: You, bed Dan. Great to be with you tonight.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much. You are also in charge now
Speaker 2: of a center called the National Center for Healthy Veterans.
Speaker 2: I want to learn more about that. But I would
Speaker 2: be remiss, since you're the former command of the US
Speaker 2: Israeli Combined Task Force for Missile Defense, if I just
Speaker 2: didn't ask you a couple of questions about what's going
Speaker 2: on in the Middle East. First of all, the defense
Speaker 2: the Missile Defense Force forces in Israel performed magnificently the
Speaker 2: other night under that barrage of one hundred and eighty
Speaker 2: ballistic missiles sent from Iran. Tell us about that system.
Speaker 2: It's a it's a dome that is over the nation
Speaker 2: of Israel. It cannot be guarantee because there were a
Speaker 2: few of those one hundred and eighty missiles that got through.
Speaker 2: But boy, why would Iran be so crazy to try
Speaker 2: this now a second time? A barrage of missiles and
Speaker 2: they probably had even less success this time than they
Speaker 2: did a few months ago when they tried the same thing.
Speaker 4: Well, then I agree with you, it's and many of
Speaker 4: the Iranian missiles the first time failed and this time
Speaker 4: as well, so they've got quality control on their end.
Speaker 4: But what some people don't realize is the Israeli air
Speaker 4: defense is really an integrated air defense system. They've got
Speaker 4: a system they've had for a number of years called
Speaker 4: Arrow It reaches out and touches the longest range missiles
Speaker 4: coming from places like Iran. And then the next thing
Speaker 4: they have is David Sling sort of an intermediate range missiles,
Speaker 4: and then the Iron Dome catches the shorter range missiles
Speaker 4: such as those coming out of Lebanon and Gaza Strip.
Speaker 4: And then the Israelis because of the high cost of
Speaker 4: AMMO on these things, you know, that's my only concern
Speaker 4: about the Israeli air defense is the AMO supply. But
Speaker 4: they are developing because they're leaders in this technology, something
Speaker 4: called Iron Beam, which reaches out and touches these missiles
Speaker 4: with a laser beam. So the Israelis are the best
Speaker 4: in the world at this air defense, so assisted by
Speaker 4: the US in many ways. So there's also US Navy
Speaker 4: ships in the Mediterranean assystem relar air defense, and some
Speaker 4: US Air Force assets as well.
Speaker 2: This beam defense and the iron dome really goes back
Speaker 2: to the genesis of what we were talking about, I
Speaker 2: think in the late eighties and early nineties sort of
Speaker 2: the Star Wars defense. Is that with some of these
Speaker 2: ideas first percolated.
Speaker 4: Well, I can't say, but I think you're right. It's
Speaker 4: sort of a microcosm of the whole Star Wars concept.
Speaker 3: Is that, Yeah, they literally put.
Speaker 4: A dome over Israel, you know, with this integrated air defense.
Speaker 3: It's pretty impressing.
Speaker 2: I'm excited to hear about these laser beams. That would
Speaker 2: seem to me to be the next step. I'm not
Speaker 2: an expert in this by any by any matter of means,
Speaker 2: but having seen what Israel was able to do with
Speaker 2: the pagers and the cell phones two or three weeks
Speaker 2: ago for the Hesbala fighters who had those pages and
Speaker 2: cell phones in their pocket, much too the discomfort, I
Speaker 2: might add, Israel's pretty innovative, both with the defensive capable.
Speaker 3: Well, they definitely are.
Speaker 4: You know a lot of people, you know, they still
Speaker 4: are wondering why Israel was caught so flat footed with
Speaker 4: the Gaza attack and the massacre. That said, Israel is
Speaker 4: certainly on the front of its feet now because just
Speaker 4: two days ago went into Lebanon they found elaborate complex
Speaker 4: of hesblat tunnels, weaponry, even battle plans. And then both
Speaker 4: in Lebanon and in Gaza, all of these are not
Speaker 4: what those surrogates have produced. That's all the money that
Speaker 4: we sent from the US through too Iran that has
Speaker 4: gone straight into digging tunnels, buying weapons, all that stuff,
Speaker 4: all that capability, as we have paid for with US funds.
Speaker 2: Well, my last question on this general, and again if
Speaker 2: I ask a question that for whatever reason you kind
Speaker 2: of answered, don't hesitate to me. As if Israel is
Speaker 2: looking to go further here, and there's some suggestion that
Speaker 2: Israel may attempt to wipe out Iran's nuclear program, it
Speaker 2: sounds like a good idea to me as an American,
Speaker 2: that Iran would not have nuclear weapons. Do you think
Speaker 2: Israel will be that bold or do they have the capacity?
Speaker 2: I understood that a lot of the Iranian nuclear weaponry
Speaker 2: and the development were in situations which were impermeable to
Speaker 2: missing missiles inside deep inside mountains. Do they have the
Speaker 2: capacity to do what maybe many of us would hope
Speaker 2: they would do.
Speaker 4: Well, that's to be determined. I think they have the
Speaker 4: will to do it. Do they have the capability? The
Speaker 4: US developed bunker buster bombs that we have shared with Israel.
Speaker 4: One of the recent recently Kamala Harrison campaign said she
Speaker 4: would deny these MUNC robuster bombs to the nation of
Speaker 4: Israel because she didn't want the nuclear capability attacked. So
Speaker 4: it's obviously a political football right now.
Speaker 3: But I think.
Speaker 4: Israel is going to respond and probably with some deep
Speaker 4: strikes against not only nuclear but also energy, which will
Speaker 4: cripple them economically.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that might be probably the most effective method.
Speaker 2: So let's talk for a few minutes about the National
Speaker 2: Center for Healthy Veterans. Tell us about it. I'm familiar
Speaker 2: with many, many, many programs, and I'd love to know
Speaker 2: more about this.
Speaker 4: Well kind of you to ask Dan. It's at Healthy
Speaker 4: Veterans dot org as the website. But we are somewhat
Speaker 4: unique because we represent i say, a crockpot in the
Speaker 4: Microwave Society. We're a nine month residential program. We house
Speaker 4: veterans in tiny homes and they have dignified work. A
Speaker 4: three hundred and fifty acre farm and ranch operation, and
Speaker 4: so forth they get Trump and recovering life skills programs
Speaker 4: and career prep. The whole purpose is to turn healthy
Speaker 4: veterans to America. We bring in at risk veterans. Our
Speaker 4: veterans have given so much for us, and yet we
Speaker 4: sometimes just don't take them out from under bridges or
Speaker 4: help them as they transition out of prison. Or some
Speaker 4: of our guys could be fortune five hundred CEOs they're
Speaker 4: so talented. So we get to have a whole range
Speaker 4: from all across the United States.
Speaker 3: We have a first village.
Speaker 4: That is full with a waiting list, and we're building
Speaker 4: a second village of twenty five homes to expand our capacity.
Speaker 4: So we're always looking for people that need what we have.
Speaker 4: We need some good Boston or Massachusetts or North New
Speaker 4: England folks. We've had one from New Hampshire. I think
Speaker 4: that's all we have from New England. But we need
Speaker 4: people to refer veterans that are at risk and that
Speaker 4: we can help and then sec We always need ammunition
Speaker 4: ourselves to carry on work.
Speaker 2: Where an ammunition in this case is not shewcasing. The
Speaker 2: ammunition here would be support we'll give that website again.
Speaker 2: But where are you physically located? Where's this three hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty acre.
Speaker 4: We're located in south central Virginia and we're twelve miles
Speaker 4: from Lynchburg and Liberty University.
Speaker 2: Now, I'm very much involved with a program out in
Speaker 2: Minnesota which is a model Veterans Court. I don't know
Speaker 2: if you're familiar with that or not. A friend of
Speaker 2: mine who was an assistant US attorney out there, guy
Speaker 2: named Hank Shea, got me involved in that a little
Speaker 2: bit of supporting it. There is a model Veterans Court
Speaker 2: in the state of Nebraska, and Minnesota has been the
Speaker 2: second state to develop this model Veterans court. I'm sure
Speaker 2: you probably have someone familiar with what I'm talking about.
Speaker 4: Yes, I am, and we've worked with veterans court in
Speaker 4: the past. In fact, there have been some veterans that
Speaker 4: were on the wrong side of the law that were
Speaker 4: remanded to us instead of prison right and they've done well.
Speaker 2: Actually, well, that's exactly what we're talking about. So tell
Speaker 2: us about how people here and not only in New England,
Speaker 2: but we're hearing about thirty eight states of this are
Speaker 2: other night. We're a big powerful fifty thousand ray am
Speaker 2: radio station. How did they get in touch? What's the
Speaker 2: website again for the National Center for Healthy Veterans.
Speaker 4: You bad, Dan, It's Healthy Veterans dot org and there's
Speaker 4: a button at the very top says refer a veteran
Speaker 4: and they can go on there.
Speaker 3: They can refer a veteran or they.
Speaker 4: Can sell refer and that starts a series of phone
Speaker 4: interviews and applications. And we work very hard to make
Speaker 4: sure that a person is right for us and we're
Speaker 4: right for them, and things like FBI background checks, medical records,
Speaker 4: et cetera. But we want to know everything we can
Speaker 4: so we can best help them.
Speaker 2: I'm also involved with a group called Hope for the Warriors.
Speaker 2: So you have a you have a supportive ear here,
Speaker 2: and I think you'll find a supportive audience. I really
Speaker 2: appreciate you taking the time tonight, Major General, and I
Speaker 2: thank you for doing the work you do, and it's
Speaker 2: it's really God's work. When I think what you're involved in,
Speaker 2: I just want to say thank you. On behalf all
Speaker 2: my listeners.
Speaker 4: Well, thank you, Dan, I appreciate that. Great to be
Speaker 4: with you tonight and your listeners.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, we'll keep in touch with you. Maybe we'll
Speaker 2: have you on some night and go a little longer
Speaker 2: and take some phone calls from them from listeners. This
Speaker 2: is always a sort of a brief eight or nine
Speaker 2: minute interview, but I'm going to give this story a
Speaker 2: little like a good bottle of wine, an opportunity to
Speaker 2: pray a little bit more.
Speaker 4: So we'll be back to you, kount like you've got
Speaker 4: a great show tonight. In the Boston Citizen, Jason Greenberg,
Speaker 4: that's that's a powerful story in itself.
Speaker 2: It's an amazing story. It's an amazing story. And he's
Speaker 2: going back there again. His cousin, his first cousin is
Speaker 2: still hopefully alive, but you know, reportedly still being held captive.
Speaker 2: So we stay on a lot of this stuff. General.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it very much. Here again, thank you for
Speaker 2: your service, and thank you for what you're doing right now.
Speaker 2: Healthy Veterans dot Org.
Speaker 4: You bet my friend, thank you, take care, thank you,
Speaker 4: good night.
Speaker 2: When we get back, and to talk about some free
Speaker 2: bike rides as a result of shutdowns with the MBTA
Speaker 2: Orange Line, we'll explain it all with Jeff Bellows. He's
Speaker 2: the vice president of Corporate Citizenship in Public Affairs at
Speaker 2: Blue Cross, Blue Shield of Massachusetts. Back in just a
Speaker 2: couple of minutes on Nightside. This is a Monday night edition.
Speaker 2: You're listening to us, we're live. I have to remind people,
Speaker 2: I should remind you more that this is a live
Speaker 2: talk show. In the first hour at sort of an
Speaker 2: interview show. But after nine o'clock we will open up
Speaker 2: phone lines and give you an opportunity to participate in
Speaker 2: the conversation, whatever your point of view. Back on night
Speaker 2: Side right after this break.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray Mine from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: But to welcome Jeff Bellows. He's vice president of Corporate
Speaker 2: Citizenship and Public Affairs. Boy, that's a big business card.
Speaker 2: That's a long title at Blue Cross, Blue Shield of Massachusetts. Jeff,
Speaker 2: welcome to night said, how are you tonight, sir.
Speaker 5: I'm doing fine. Dan, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2: You're very welcome. So there's a little bit of a
Speaker 2: problem with the Orange line. It seemed like there's a
Speaker 2: bit of a problem with the Orange line all the time.
Speaker 2: But we'll leave that. But they're gonna have a little
Speaker 2: bit of a shutdown and Blue Cross Blue Shield has
Speaker 2: decided to help out you guys sponsored the Blue Bikes program,
Speaker 2: as I understand it, correct.
Speaker 5: That is correct. We are the sponsor of the blue
Speaker 5: Bike program.
Speaker 2: And I assume that's why Blue Cross Blue Shield it's
Speaker 2: called Blue Bikes. I get that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it changed. It was a hubway many years ago,
Speaker 5: and we took over in twenty eighteen, and as part
Speaker 5: of that, we rebranded the whole system and now it
Speaker 5: is Blue Bikes. And the bikes are a very vibrant blue.
Speaker 5: So I'm sure you you recognize them. I'm sure people
Speaker 5: recognize them throughout the city. And also thirteen municipalities across
Speaker 5: the Greater Boston region, so all.
Speaker 2: Thirteen adjacent communities, is assume right.
Speaker 5: That's correct, except for Salem. We have one one sort
Speaker 5: of outlier. Salem, Massachusetts has blue bikes as well, so
Speaker 5: they're not connected to the rest of the of the system,
Speaker 5: but they're still just as valuable and just as used
Speaker 5: up in Salem as they are in the rest of
Speaker 5: the system.
Speaker 2: Now, I'm not a big Just for the record, you
Speaker 2: know I'm not a big bike rider. Okay, you know
Speaker 2: you know I've drive my car and I'm very careful
Speaker 2: to avoid any type of bike, although, of course, as
Speaker 2: there are more bike lanes and more blue bikes, it's
Speaker 2: a little bit more difficult to navigate by car. But
Speaker 2: so let's talk about what are you offering folks during
Speaker 2: this shutdown and how long does this offer last?
Speaker 5: Sure, So Blue Cross is partnered up with the City
Speaker 5: of Boston to offer five free Blue bike unlocks during
Speaker 5: the Orange Line closure, which is from Tuesday, October eighth, tomorrow,
Speaker 5: starting tomorrow through Sunday, October twentieth. And there's a special
Speaker 5: code that riders can.
Speaker 2: That's that's almost two weeks.
Speaker 5: That's that's I know, it's go ahead ahead. It's a
Speaker 5: long time, I know it is. And we've been doing
Speaker 5: this for over a year now for all of the
Speaker 5: different you know, or for many of the different closures
Speaker 5: with the nbt A. So this one pertains as you
Speaker 5: as you said, with the Orange Line, So from October
Speaker 5: eighth to the twentieth. And there's a code that that
Speaker 5: riders put into the Blue the Blue Bikes app and
Speaker 5: it's m bt A Orange O C T and they
Speaker 5: that's in the reward section of the Blue Bikes app
Speaker 5: and they will get five free Blue bike sessions to
Speaker 5: use during that time, and you don't and you don't
Speaker 5: need to be a resident of any of those cities
Speaker 5: in towns either, but you can use the code. Anyone
Speaker 5: can use the code, and the offer can be used
Speaker 5: across all of the municipalities that make up the Blue
Speaker 5: Bike system.
Speaker 2: So even if you're visiting here and you're small enough
Speaker 2: to get the code and visiting here from Hawaii or Alaska,
Speaker 2: this Cross Blue Shield's going to take care of it. Now.
Speaker 2: You guys essentially are an insurance company. Have has this
Speaker 2: program been successful? When it first started, I was concerned
Speaker 2: that a lot of people are going to jump on
Speaker 2: these bikes without any bike riding or little bike riding
Speaker 2: experience that I could see, you know, a family from
Speaker 2: somewhere flying down Beacon Street from Beacon Hill and disaster
Speaker 2: code en. So it's been run pretty safely.
Speaker 5: Yes, very safe.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And it really is more focused on you know people
Speaker 5: you know, like teenagers and older, so it's not necessarily
Speaker 5: for young kids to be riding the bikes there. They're
Speaker 5: very sturdy bikes and are quite heavy, but so more
Speaker 5: for an adult. But our company's mission is really to
Speaker 5: show up for everyone, like they're the only one, and
Speaker 5: as a not for profit health plan, that means supporting
Speaker 5: our members, our customers, our clinical partners, our employees, and
Speaker 5: our communities. And Blue Bike was just a natural fit
Speaker 5: for sponsorship as it increases access and accessibility throughout the
Speaker 5: Greater Boston region to biking, which also promotes like whole
Speaker 5: body health. So it was a really great opportunity for us,
Speaker 5: and it has been has been the best sponsorship that
Speaker 5: I think that we've ever done.
Speaker 2: All Right, well, Jeff, I appreciate you explaining it. And
Speaker 2: people can take advantage of this from October eighth, which
Speaker 2: is tomorrow, through October the twelfth, which is twelve days away,
Speaker 2: and so they can they can have they can use
Speaker 2: get five free rise is what you said during that
Speaker 2: period of time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, from October eighth to the twentieth. October eighth to
Speaker 5: the twentieth.
Speaker 2: Yeah, could say the twelfth. I apologize it was I
Speaker 2: meant twelve days.
Speaker 5: Twelve days, yeah, correct, twelve.
Speaker 2: Days October eighth to the twentieth. All right, thank you
Speaker 2: very much, and a safe bike riding.
Speaker 6: Okay, thanks, thank you.
Speaker 5: I got to get you out on one of the bikes.
Speaker 2: You know something you could probably get me to to
Speaker 2: convert to cannibalism before you could do that. I get
Speaker 2: I get my exercise. I'm a customer of Blue Cross,
Speaker 2: Blue Shield, very good to my shirts. But I get
Speaker 2: my exercise in the gym.
Speaker 5: About five, oh, we got that. Well, maybe maybe we
Speaker 5: could we ease you in on an e bike.
Speaker 2: I have no one. I don't even know what any
Speaker 2: bike is, to be really honest with you, And I
Speaker 2: like my car. I like my car, and I like
Speaker 2: my gym, and so.
Speaker 3: All right, well, well I.
Speaker 2: Wish your best. Yeah, that's that's important. Got to stay.
Speaker 5: Healthy, tru That's right, Stay active and healthy. It's good
Speaker 5: for your mental, your mental and your physical health.
Speaker 2: The doing this a long time. If you knew how
Speaker 2: long you've been doing this, Jeff, you'd be surprised. Thank
Speaker 2: you very.
Speaker 5: Much, Dan, I really appreciate it. Have a good night.
Speaker 2: I enjoyed the conversation. We get back. Remember that story
Speaker 2: we told you about a twenty six thousand dollars gold statue,
Speaker 2: Well it has been discovered and we have the creator
Speaker 2: of this treasure hunt, Jeff Roorer, with us. We had
Speaker 2: him on a week and a half ago, and I said,
Speaker 2: once day someone finds this, this gold statue worth twenty
Speaker 2: six thousand dollars, which was hidden somewhere in the woods
Speaker 2: of Massachusetts. And when you know, someone did find it
Speaker 2: and they used their head to find it. We'll talk
Speaker 2: about it with Jason Rora right after this break on
Speaker 2: Nightside the News at the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1: Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Well, about a week and a half ago, Jason Rorer,
Speaker 2: a New Hampshire game designer in the creator of Treasure Hunt,
Speaker 2: spent some time with us explaining to us what Project
Speaker 2: Skydrop was and he made a commitment, and a man
Speaker 2: of his words, he's returned once a winner found this
Speaker 2: twenty six thousand dollars beautiful. I don't know what you
Speaker 2: call it a golden vase. I mean, it's how have
Speaker 2: you described this, Jason, I forget what term you characterized it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean we've mostly just been calling it a treasure.
Speaker 6: It's it's a little bit like a chalice. It has
Speaker 6: multiple rings floating on a central spine. It doesn't really
Speaker 6: look like anything that's ever existed before.
Speaker 2: It would have looked very nice, well, it would have
Speaker 2: looked lovely as a vase on my mantlepiece with some flowers.
Speaker 6: Yeah. I mean it wouldn't hold a lot of though,
Speaker 6: because it's got a lot of intricacy to it.
Speaker 7: It's not Oh, I didn't realize that, Okay, So as
Speaker 7: I understand it, Uh, you placed it in the woods
Speaker 7: in the favorite town name from Massachusetts, Irving, Massachusetts spelled
Speaker 7: within E E R V I N G.
Speaker 2: Correct.
Speaker 6: Yes, I think that's clear now from how a small
Speaker 6: circle is drinking. So it's not a It's not a
Speaker 6: secret anymore.
Speaker 2: So who placed it in the woods? Did you place
Speaker 2: it there? Or did you?
Speaker 6: I went with my creative partner, Tom Bailey, and then
Speaker 6: we had a journalist with us from Wired magazine, Joseph,
Speaker 6: who was blindfolded, so he tip made the entire trip
Speaker 6: from Dover, New Hampshire to Irving blindfolded in our land Cruiser,
Speaker 6: and he ate a subway sandwich on the side of
Speaker 6: the road blindfolded, hiked in about a mile up a
Speaker 6: pretty rocky trail blindfolded, and my twenty one year old son,
Speaker 6: Mez also came with us to help us carry some
Speaker 6: of the equipment and the cameras cross streets.
Speaker 2: Son, you trusted your son right, I hope.
Speaker 6: Yeah, he was not blindfolded. So there were three humans
Speaker 6: who knew where the treasure was and nobody else knew
Speaker 6: where it was.
Speaker 2: Okay, so the winner now has been identified. When I
Speaker 2: first heard the story last week, and I was excited
Speaker 2: to hear about it because I knew you'd be back
Speaker 2: and join us. He apparently wanted inanimity, but he was
Speaker 2: found as well. Well, can you just I mean I
Speaker 2: had the guy's name in front of me. I guess.
Speaker 6: I mean, the name has been in the name has
Speaker 6: been in the media, so I don't think we need
Speaker 6: to keep it a secret anymore. And he's a he's
Speaker 6: a local meteorologist. Uh, And so you know that the
Speaker 6: mystery is how he solved it. He solved it about
Speaker 6: two or three days early, I think, compared to anybody else.
Speaker 6: And and so you know, it's not like there were
Speaker 6: crowds of people about to get the treasure at the
Speaker 6: moment he solved it. So he was using a lot
Speaker 6: of his meteorological knowledge and skill to track weather patterns, rain, rain,
Speaker 6: where it was raining on camera versus where it wasn't,
Speaker 6: and also where when the sun and sun versus the
Speaker 6: clouds were there was a live camera that he was
Speaker 6: looking at looking at the treasure, and he's paying attention
Speaker 6: to when the clouds passed over and when sun was visible,
Speaker 6: and so he narrowed it down based on that. And
Speaker 6: then he also was the patterns of the tree where
Speaker 6: the trees were growing, because he knew the treasure was
Speaker 6: in a beech grove and there's not that many beach.
Speaker 2: Grove It's not like It's not like this guy was
Speaker 2: moving from Kennett. I mean this area which you started
Speaker 2: off with was I think some five hundred miles across.
Speaker 2: It could have been anywhere in New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts,
Speaker 2: Connecticut and New York State. Was what was the geographic
Speaker 2: area that you said it could be?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I was calling that the boss wash megalopolis. So
Speaker 6: it's the giant mega metropolitan area that includes Boston all
Speaker 6: the way down to Washington, d C. And all the
Speaker 6: big cities in between like New York and Baltimore, and
Speaker 6: a good portion of Pennsylvania all the way up into
Speaker 6: most of New York State. So a big circle. It
Speaker 6: was a big circle to start with.
Speaker 2: Any circle is going to be found in America. That
Speaker 2: was a good thing.
Speaker 6: Yes, Yes, it was the and on the east coast,
Speaker 6: on the northeast, somewhere in the north.
Speaker 2: So, so did he spend his time out there in
Speaker 2: the wilderness checking this out? How did he spend a
Speaker 2: lot of time in front of the computer and narrowing
Speaker 2: it down before he went and started to look.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so he was using mostly I think these patterns.
Speaker 6: So on a time when there was a live trail
Speaker 6: camera looking at the treasure and providing an image every
Speaker 6: fifteen minutes, and he'd look at that and he'd say, Aha,
Speaker 6: it's sunny in the image, and then he'd do a
Speaker 6: map of everywhere that was sunny and save that and
Speaker 6: then later on, you know, three hours later, be cloudy
Speaker 6: in the image. Aha, do a map of everywhere was
Speaker 6: cloudy right now and kind of cross those and intersect those,
Speaker 6: and that would And he did that day after day
Speaker 6: after day for about five or six days, and that
Speaker 6: narrowed it down. It kept ruling out areas that weren't
Speaker 6: both cloudy and sunny across these different times that he
Speaker 6: was watching, and so that just kind of gave him
Speaker 6: the Swiss cheese map of where it could possibly be.
Speaker 6: And then he also used some of the temperature data
Speaker 6: that was coming off the live camera to narrow it
Speaker 6: down even further given his temperature maps that he had
Speaker 6: as a meteorologist. After that, the circle had shrunken down
Speaker 6: to about thirty five miles or twenty five miles that included,
Speaker 6: you know, the Wendell State Forest and the Irving State
Speaker 6: Forest and a few other state forests in the area.
Speaker 6: He applied a Swiss cheese map to that circle and
Speaker 6: then was also looking for beach trees in those areas,
Speaker 6: and they're just aren't that many beach trees. Most of
Speaker 6: the temlock in that area. So then he narrowed it
Speaker 6: down any further which places had sun and clouds at
Speaker 6: these hours and also have beach trees. And then he
Speaker 6: literally just went and walked the beach groves for about
Speaker 6: two hours, just wandering around looking for In some of
Speaker 6: the clue images that were released, there were these crisscrossed logs,
Speaker 6: very distinctive logs, and so he was walking around looking
Speaker 6: for those logs, and then he found logs that looked
Speaker 6: correct and he actually almost stepped on the treasure, didn't
Speaker 6: see it, walked away thinking he must have the wrong
Speaker 6: logs because the treasure is gold and it's sitting down
Speaker 6: among some golden leaves, you know, on the ground, and
Speaker 6: blends right in. It reflects the colors of the leaves
Speaker 6: around it. And he said he looked right through it.
Speaker 6: He just couldn't see it. It was like almost camouflaged,
Speaker 6: he said. And then he came back a few minutes
Speaker 6: later and looked at the spot again. These logs look
Speaker 6: so familiar, they looked just like the ones in the pictures.
Speaker 6: Has to be here, how could it not be here?
Speaker 6: And then suddenly he was staring at what he thought
Speaker 6: was a patch of leaves, and suddenly the treasure piered.
Speaker 6: So it's a pretty crazy story. He almost walked away
Speaker 6: and left it. He would have seen himself on the
Speaker 6: dreilt camera when he got home, though.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when you when you talk to him or whatever.
Speaker 2: Was he like in a general area and there were
Speaker 2: other people looking as well, or was he there by himself?
Speaker 2: And maybe you know.
Speaker 6: Full fleet, but I mean he was not the only
Speaker 6: one in Wendell State Forest or in Irving State Forest
Speaker 6: in that area. I mean all those state forests, you know,
Speaker 6: even when the circle is quite a bit bigger state
Speaker 6: forest across Massachusetts were jammed I mean he was hearing
Speaker 6: from people from the DCR and so on who were
Speaker 6: like the forest rangers and like, oh yeah, parking lotter fall.
Speaker 6: So people are how.
Speaker 2: Many people entered the search? I know there was a
Speaker 2: twenty dollars entry fee, correct, Yeah.
Speaker 6: I think it was something like eighty seven hundred, so
Speaker 6: quite quite quite a number, and a majority of those
Speaker 6: were living inside the circle. A huge number of them
Speaker 6: were in the Boston area, in Connecticut and so on,
Speaker 6: as the circle shrank and was including those states. So
Speaker 6: we have we actually have a map on our website
Speaker 6: where you can see a sort of a heat map
Speaker 6: of where people have joined from, like a little doc
Speaker 6: for each person based on their zip code, only we
Speaker 6: don't actually ten point each person. And it's a lot
Speaker 6: of fire right around Boston, a lot of fire around
Speaker 6: around the Connecticut area as well, a lot of those
Speaker 6: people are actually going into the woods themselves, right they
Speaker 6: were looking.
Speaker 2: I just did some math on this, okay, So if
Speaker 2: you hit eighties, which just told me eighty seven hundred
Speaker 2: entrance at twenty bucks a pop, that's one hundred and
Speaker 2: seventy four thousand dollars an entrance fees. That's not bad.
Speaker 2: Do you do you make out a little bit with
Speaker 2: this as well.
Speaker 6: I mean, well that's the that's the funny thing. Of course,
Speaker 6: half of that money, ten dollars from each entry fee,
Speaker 6: goes into this bounty. So that was eighty seven thousand
Speaker 6: dollars right there, and there's just Yeah.
Speaker 2: The bounty is I guess it has to. That's a
Speaker 2: second portion of this besides the twenty six thousand dollar trophy.
Speaker 2: Explain what the bounty is.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so this is you know, inten intended originally to
Speaker 6: be somewhat mysterious, although people are kind of baffled by it.
Speaker 6: But the treasure itself, if you of course, I've seen
Speaker 6: pictures of it, it's covered with mysterious writing. I guess
Speaker 6: a lot of people kind of figured out by looking
Speaker 6: at pictures that that mysterious writing must encode something, and
Speaker 6: other people just I don't know, I just thought it
Speaker 6: was decoration or something. So the treasure itself is a
Speaker 6: two part decoding machine. It actually comes apart and reconfigures
Speaker 6: itself and spins around almost like a decoder ring, and
Speaker 6: that is instrumental for the winner who has the treasure
Speaker 6: to figure out how to recover the bounty. There's secrets
Speaker 6: encoded on the treasure about recovering that bounty.
Speaker 2: So the bounty can only be recovered if you have
Speaker 2: the treasure. Who found it? I guess he now could
Speaker 2: if he wanted to get some people to help him
Speaker 2: on it.
Speaker 6: If it's nothing, Yes, absolutely, yes, that was the idea,
Speaker 6: is like, what if the puzzle on the treasures do hard, Well,
Speaker 6: you recruit some friends and give them ten percent or something, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, So either way you didn't lose
Speaker 2: money on this, which is you know, well, hold on.
Speaker 6: A minute, hold on a hold of it twice, you know,
Speaker 6: we had twenty dollars on the gold.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 6: And then we made a video and that animated video,
Speaker 6: which I'm sure you've looked at on the website took
Speaker 6: hundreds of hours for a professional animator to make, so
Speaker 6: that was very expensive to make. And then, uh, you
Speaker 6: know what, our website so many people are visiting it
Speaker 6: and zooming in and out of the map. We were
Speaker 6: using a map service because you know, nobody gets maps
Speaker 6: away for free if you're not you know, don't if
Speaker 6: you have them on your own website for this kind
Speaker 6: of thing. People in the first week hit fifteen million
Speaker 6: zoomable map tiles giving us a seven thousand dollars bill
Speaker 6: from our map hosting provider.
Speaker 8: So there's a lot and just that waykay, without.
Speaker 6: Text messages, right, So there's just a lot of happens.
Speaker 2: I think i'm your friend here. I'm not trying to
Speaker 2: cross examine you here. It's going to be you're going
Speaker 2: to be lucky to break even here.
Speaker 6: Oh absolutely no, we have. We've lost about six thousand
Speaker 6: dollars so far.
Speaker 2: Okay, fine, but guess what you made it up in publicity. Look,
Speaker 2: I'm so happy you've been a great guest both times,
Speaker 2: and you've also been in good sport, which is even
Speaker 2: more important because I never would have found this. Okay.
Speaker 2: I stand in awe of the people who created Skydrop,
Speaker 2: yourself and others, and I stand in awe the fella
Speaker 2: who founded Dan Leonard and it was great for Nightside.
Speaker 2: And I hope that maybe at some point some people
Speaker 2: actually heard about it on the program and decided to
Speaker 2: participate as a result of our first time.
Speaker 6: Oh I'm sure they did. I'm sure they did. It's
Speaker 6: been a pleasure talking to you as well.
Speaker 2: Sir, Thank you so much. Okay, we'll do it again.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Jason, appreciate it. Ye bye bye. Okay,
Speaker 2: So that was fun. That was fun. That is for sure.
Speaker 2: We get back when we talk about something that's not
Speaker 2: going to be fun at least the people of Florida,
Speaker 2: and that's Hurricane Milton, category five that's supposed to hit
Speaker 2: landfall maybe Wednesday night, Thursday morning. This on top of
Speaker 2: what they've gone through with Hurricane Helene down in that
Speaker 2: section of the country. Tough. We're gonna be talking with
Speaker 2: a meteorologists for the National Weather Service right after this
Speaker 2: break here on Nightside.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios. I' WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Welcome back everyone. You know, I believe in jinxs, so
Speaker 2: I don't want to jinx anything, but it's been a
Speaker 2: quiet hurricane season in our part of the country. Okay, However,
Speaker 2: that has not been the case in other parts of
Speaker 2: the country. Joining us now for the National Weather Service.
Speaker 2: Delighted to welcome Kevin Kadema to talk about what looks
Speaker 2: like a big storm, another big storm that's about to
Speaker 2: hit the Gulf Coast of Florida. Kevin Kadima, Welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us. Tonight. How are you.
Speaker 8: Yeah, you're welcome.
Speaker 2: So this is a big one. I mean, this is
Speaker 2: like the size of a Hurricane Sandy or Hurricane Katrina
Speaker 2: to give us a sense of how much damaged this
Speaker 2: one might do, particularly coming as it is on the
Speaker 2: heels of Hurricane Helene.
Speaker 8: Yeah, so currently Milton is a Category five storm, packing
Speaker 8: winds of one hundred and eighty miles per hour. It's yeah,
Speaker 8: it has you know, intensified explosively, actually the third fastest
Speaker 8: intensification in the Atlantic basin since records have been kept. So, yeah,
Speaker 8: we're looking at a life threatening storm surge, potential destructive
Speaker 8: winds in the entire west coast of Florida. Should really
Speaker 8: take this extremely seriously. Right now, the current track is
Speaker 8: kind of targeting the Tampa area, but you know, we're
Speaker 8: still a couple of days out and these things can
Speaker 8: shift a little bit. So anywhere really along the West coast,
Speaker 8: say from you know, north of Tampa to Fort Myers
Speaker 8: has to pay very close attention to this storm.
Speaker 2: Tampa, as you know, has dodged a metaphorical weather bullet
Speaker 2: the last couple of years, and they have almost been
Speaker 2: as like bulletproof. But you guys that have listened to
Speaker 2: today seem to be pretty certain that that this is
Speaker 2: head to Tampa.
Speaker 8: Yeah, right now, the latest track indications are that it's
Speaker 8: going to track very close to Tampa, you know, later
Speaker 8: Wednesday evening.
Speaker 2: We have we have a major air force based down there,
Speaker 2: Medill McDill. Is there any concern of they're getting you know,
Speaker 2: military aircraft out of there in advance.
Speaker 8: Of this, Yeah, I'm not. I'm not. I can't answer that,
Speaker 8: but I what I can say is that, you know,
Speaker 8: they certainly have to prepare for a catastrophic, life threatening
Speaker 8: storm surge, the category five storm, even if it weekends
Speaker 8: just to be we're looking at a ten to fifteen
Speaker 8: foot storm surge potential along and just to the south
Speaker 8: of the track in destructive winds. But that that storm
Speaker 8: surge is the is the deadly component to the these
Speaker 8: hurricanes going to take them extremely seriously.
Speaker 2: I heard someone say tonight, I believe that even though
Speaker 2: it's now a hurry a five major major hurricane, I
Speaker 2: don't even know if it can ever get to a six.
Speaker 2: But that's I think that's the top of the scale, correct,
Speaker 2: A five?
Speaker 8: Now, category category five is the top of the scale.
Speaker 2: Okay, fine, Yeah, that's what I thought. So, but I'm
Speaker 2: told that when it hits land it probably will be
Speaker 2: reduced to a three. Is that the normal course when
Speaker 2: a hurricane comes in off the open ocean into land,
Speaker 2: that that kind of slows it down a little bit
Speaker 2: or or blunts the impact to somewhat.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 8: These hurricanes get their their energy from the warm waters.
Speaker 8: So once they lose that that source of energy and
Speaker 8: they go over land with friction, they week and so
Speaker 8: the storm will weaken once it hits land. But you know,
Speaker 8: we're talking about a category five. You know, maybe you know,
Speaker 8: best case would be a four if it were to
Speaker 8: weaken just slightly before landfall. It's still a powerful, life
Speaker 8: threatening storm. So you know, whether it's a five or four,
Speaker 8: it's not gonna not gonna matter too much because the
Speaker 8: storm surges.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Correct. So this would have formed somewhere off the coast
Speaker 2: of Africa or did it form elsewhere?
Speaker 8: Now it formed It formed in the Gulf of Mexico.
Speaker 2: Oh so this this is a homegrown one. Okay, So
Speaker 2: therefore this has not hit any of the Caribbean islands
Speaker 2: or Cuba. Uh now, so far has just been over
Speaker 2: the water. I guess it can brush up against Mexico,
Speaker 2: can't coon.
Speaker 8: Right, Yeah, there, Mexico is in a in a hurricane
Speaker 8: warning currently. It's just north of the Mexico coast. It's
Speaker 8: going to stay. It's not going to make landfall in Mexico.
Speaker 8: It's going to stay just to the north and then
Speaker 8: get out over the over the open water again as
Speaker 8: it makes it refuelards the.
Speaker 4: West coast of Florida.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so far, Kevin, it seems to me that up
Speaker 2: until Helene, I know, the hurricane season technically runs from
Speaker 2: June first to November thirtieth, it almost had been a
Speaker 2: quiet hurricane season up until Helene and now Milton. Is
Speaker 2: that an accurate characterization.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I would say so. It has been relatively quiet
Speaker 8: up to that point. But it only you know, it
Speaker 8: only takes one. Obviously, you know Helene was catastrophic, and
Speaker 8: you know Milton certainly has the potential to produce catastrophic
Speaker 8: damage as well.
Speaker 2: Well. We'll have to keep our fingers crossed, and those
Speaker 2: who pray will pray a little bit for the people
Speaker 2: in Florida after it passes across Florida. My understanding is
Speaker 2: it is heading out to see not likely to turn
Speaker 2: up the coast towards US.
Speaker 3: Correct, Yes, that is correct.
Speaker 8: It's going to track eastward off the Florida coast and stay,
Speaker 8: you know, well to the south, actually probably weakening and
Speaker 8: dissipating south of so really pose this no threat to
Speaker 8: New England.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Kevin. Never had you on the
Speaker 2: show before, but you were really good, very precise and
Speaker 2: very concise, and I thank you for your time tonight.
Speaker 2: Kevin Kadema of the National Weather Service talking about the arrival,
Speaker 2: the almost imminent arrival in Florida in the Tampa area
Speaker 2: of Hurricane Milton. Thanks, thank you so much for joining
Speaker 2: us tonight. Kevin.
Speaker 8: Yeah, you're welcome, and thank you for having me.
Speaker 2: You bet you. We'll have you back, all right. We're done.
Speaker 2: When we get back on the other side, we're going
Speaker 2: to talk about the the SJC hearing today dealing with
Speaker 2: the MBTA Communities Act. This is one that affects a
Speaker 2: lot of communities and a lot of people, and we'll
Speaker 2: get to it right after the nine o'clock news. Here
Speaker 2: on a Monday night edition of Nightside, Rob Brooks is
Speaker 2: back in the control room. He's a not alongside physically,
Speaker 2: but metaphorically back on nightside after this