Season 6, Episode 2 August 6, 2023

Hello! Thank you for putting your ear to the Listening Tube. I’m your host, Bob Woodley. On this episode, we’ll hear about hot air, war and defense, queens, the British are coming! and soccer...but first, (Not the Headlines!).

Science has taken a great leap forward when it comes to helping us heal. I mean physically heal, not mentally. No, they have a lot more work on that side of the issue. We’ve got a lot better at healing the physical body in the last 50 years. We have cleaner environments, both inside and outside the medical facilities. We’ve found new ways to correct our ailments such as the ones that are caused by physical changes in the body because of abuse or aging. I myself have recently undergone two epidurals to correct irregularities in my spine that were causing excruciating pain. That’s right, I continued to bring you the Listening Tube through it. But at the same time aging or other factors can bring us need for healing, age itself lengthens the healing process. The older you get, the slower you heal. 

A story in Stanford Medicine last week by Sarah Williams tells us of work the researchers there are doing to figure out how a salamander can regenerate lost body parts. The salamander being studied is called an Axolotl, which can grow to be up to a foot and a half long, or 45 centimeters, but usually are only about 9 inches or 23 centimeters. Just three years ago, the axolotl was nearly extinct. It’s ancestral home is what is now Mexico City, so it’s been elbowed out by human civilization. Wikipedia says it’s also sold as foot in Mexico. Maybe the only thing saving the species right now is that it’s also used extensively for scientific research because of its uncanny ability to regenerate limbs, as well as other parts of its body and brain. The mystery has always been how. If we could figure that out, maybe we could apply it to ourselves, or at least, improve our healing process in new ways. Now, the axolotl has stubby little legs in comparison to its body, so it’s not like it’s growing something the size of a human hand, but it’s still quite an accomplishment. And the researchers think they finally figured out which microbiologic key was needed to unlock the ability. Now, I’m not going to try to sound like I know what I’m talking about here, but I think I understand what it is they did, even though I can’t picture it. I don’t know if they can either, because it involves molecules called mTOR’s that, according to the article, act as on and off switches for producing protein. Those molecules, together with the salamander’s ability to stockpile RNA molecules that can send the correct message results in quickly producing the proteins needed to regenerate the desired tissue. 

Now, Stanford Medicine researchers have made a leap forward in understanding what sets the axolotl apart from other animals. Axolotls, they discovered, have an ultra-sensitive version of mTOR, a molecule that acts as an on-off switch for protein production. And, like survivalists who fill their basements with non-perishable food for hard times, axolotl cells stockpile messenger RNA molecules, which contain genetic instructions for producing proteins. The combination of an easily activated mTOR molecule and a repository of ready-to-use mRNAs means that after an injury, axolotl cells can quickly produce the proteins needed for tissue regeneration. Turns out those mTOR molecules act in a totally opposite way in the axolotl than they do in humans and mice. 

In humans and mice, for example, if you suffer a catastrophic injury like a dismemberment, these mTOR molecules would retreat, saving energy where it could be saved, knowing there’s distress somewhere on the body. In the salamander, the mTOR molecules activate and send more energy to the troubled area, telling the RNA cells what to do. In this case, activate the protein-making process to regenerate the lost tissue. 

If we could create ways to apply even part of this process for human applications, it could revolutionize the way we heal. Physically. As for those thoughts in your head, well, I don’t think the axolotl has the answers you’re looking for. 

However, new research shows being a psychopath may not be such a bad thing! A story by David Adams for knowablemagazine dot org tells how research has more closely defined psychopathic traits, and not all of them are necessarily bad. What’s more, the results indicate we all have some degree of psychopathy. Some of the different types of psychopathy discovered, or identified, so far are meanness, disinhibition, and boldness. Although there’s still an argument about boldness, it’s certainly a contributing factor in how the other types work with each other. As it turns out, it’s not the psychopathic traits themselves that create the classic horror film psychotic, but rather the way different psychotic traits combine with each other. Fearlessness and sensation-seeking are also traits identified as psychotic. As are being remorseless and lacking in self-blame, plus being initially poised and calm. There may be a huge misunderstanding about what it is to be a psychopath. Early studies of psychopathic behavior were done in prisons, on prisoners, describing to note-takers tales horrid stories about the atrocities they were accused of committing. Some may have even exaggerated a bit, which would be another psychopathic tendency. So, much like how if you only put negative information into a computer program designed to predict the end of the world, you shouldn’t be surprised when the answer it gives you is yesterday. Today, psychopathic behavior is being studied from a completely different direction. Instead of assuming the obvious place to find psychopaths was in prison, researchers began asking people on the street and in focus groups and other information-gathering settings questions about psychopathic traits. That’s when they learned that not only do we all have some degree of psychopathy, but that many people who can now be identified as psychopaths are just normal people who manage it through self-discipline or morals, while others have used their psychopathic traits to become successful. Boldness, for example, in the absence of certain other psychopathic traits, can be a boost to many types of careers. So can disinhibition, in the sense that it can help you make important business decisions without empathy. None of the research has shown meanness to have any redeeming value.

So, while we learn more about what makes us tick, we should keep in mind that our minds are beyond the comprehension of our own minds so far. That leaves the people who study these things generations of research to do and things to learn about the way our minds work, and the wide variety of ways every one of use uses the traits we have for good and evil. Wait, let me say that again...goood and eeevillll….

Being a psychopath has a bad reputation thanks to where the research was done in early studies, and by the way the motion picture industry portrayed the word and the characters used to demonstrate psychotic behavior. While trying to think of a movie that might demonstrate a psycho in a positive way, the first example I could come up with was the movie about the Oakland A’s baseball team and it’s owner. I think Brad Pitt played the role of the owner. Anyway, I think that portrayal was a great demonstration of psychotic behavior in a positive way, even if we didn’t realize it at the time. Certainly, the movie wasn’t pitched (pun intended) as a story about a psychotic baseball team owner. Because if you include the word psycho in the title or description the audience will expect somebody to be killed, not win baseball games.

We’re told that autism has a spectrum. I consider it more of severity issue as opposed to a spectrum description, but maybe I need more education on that. But if our brains can give us different types of behavioral characteristics that can combine in different ways to create the good, the bad and the average in all of us, that seems more like a spectrum situation to me. We don’t even yet know how many colors we’ll eventually have in the spectrum of psychopathy. From a broad sense, it seems the more psychotic traits you have, the more likely it is that some of them that don’t mix well could take over your personality. The key might be to learn how to regulate one or two of them in order to stay out of trouble. On the other hand, if one or two traits combined leads to a successful business venture because of your willingness to take a chance and put yourself in a position to succeed, then congratulations, you crazy nut-job! There’s still very little research done on the positive aspects of psychopathy, as opposed to the negative. As recently as 2011, a book was published called The Psychopath Test, and it only dealt with disinhibition and meanness. Since then, new questions are being asked. Psychotic behavior is being examined from a much more neutral starting point, rather than the negative assumptions of earlier research.

If you put the last two stories together, the next thing you know, we’ll be regenerating the brain cells we need to balance out our psychotic behaviors. Or….maybe not…. 

Let’s go back liner

1709

Bartolomeu de Gusmão demonstrates the lifting power of hot air in an audience before the King of Portugal in Lisbon. Today, the hot air coming from the Federal Government of the United States hasn’t demonstrated any kind of power at all. The hot air coming from the executive branch is nothing more than incessant lies and deflections. The hot air coming from Congress is a never-ending stream of investigations for which nobody is held accountable, and the hot air coming from the Judicial branch often strips other people of their power.

1776

American Revolutionary War: word of the United States Declaration of Independence reaches London. Oh, yea, by the way, your majesty. The colonists in America have revolted, effective a month ago. They have apparently declared independence. I swear on the King James bible I’ve never heard of such a thing before. Shall we send a messenger to tell them to stop it? Lest they anger your highness…

History tells us the king was annoyed, as a war was fought because of the declaration. Thanks to France, the colonists were able to continue that independence they declared. It’s been working pretty well since then.

1782

George Washington orders the creation of the Badge of Military Merit to honor soldiers wounded in battle. It is later renamed to the more poetic Purple Heart.

1789

The United States War Department is established. So that means the United States fought and won a war against one of the most powerful kingdoms in the world before they had a department for it. They also had a pretty good education system until they had a Department of Education.

1806

Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor, abdicates ending the Holy Roman Empire. Began in 1250, but derived power directly from ancient Roman rulers. France would take over.

1846

The Smithsonian Institution is chartered by the United States Congress after James Smithson donates $500,000. I wonder what their annual budget is today…..

look that up liner

Today, the Smithsonian Institute’s budget is about 1.25 billion dollars a year. That covers salaries, facilities capital, revitalization, planning and design of future projects and construction costs. Thirty-million people visit the various Smithsonian museums free of charge.

1909

Alice Huyler Ramsey and three friends become the first women to complete a transcontinental auto trip from New York City to San Francisco. The friends were two of her Senator-husbands sisters and a 19-year-old name Hermine Jahns. Wikipedia says they used maps from the American Automobile Association and also followed telegraph wires, as they were likely to lead to a populated area. The total trip was 3,600 miles, only 152 of which were paved. The company that made the car, Maxwell, would be responsible for maintenance along the way. The only one of the four who could drive was Alice Ramsey, and she also changed 11 tires, cleaned the spark plugs and repaired a broken brake pedal. They caught bedbugs, were surrounded by an Indian tribe, and crossed paths with a wanted killer. They were greeted by crowds when they arrived in San Francisco three weeks late. I guess nobody calculated how long it would take four women to get ready each day. Alice didn’t stop there, though. That first trans-continental journey was one of 30 times she would make the drive between 1909 and 1975.

1912

The Bull Moose Party meets at the Chicago Coliseum. The Bull Moose Party was the progressive arm of the Republican Party. Former President Theodore Roosevelt was their candidate for that office in 1912. Having split the Republican Party, the Democrat nominee, Woodrow Wilson, won the election. There’s a lot of talk today about third-party candidates, and every one of them risks doing the same thing to one of the two top parties. Now, we already have third parties like the Libertarian Party, the Communist Party, and others, but none of them have as many members as Independents. Maybe a new political party would do better with a cooler name. Alice Cooper suggested the Wild Party in a song, but that might scare off some conservatives. Bull Moose Party was a pretty cool name for its time. If I was going to start a new political party today, I think I would call it the Laser Shark Party.

1926

Harry Houdini performs his greatest feat, spending 91 minutes underwater in a sealed tank before escaping. Imagine if that was a live television show. Geraldo Rivera would be the host, and unlike Al Capone’s Vault, there would actually be something in there when it was opened!

1940

Estonia was illegally annexed by the Soviet Union. Just another example of how Russia has had a a habit of invading other countries. Today’s Russia is no different than it was in 1940, or for generations before that.

1942

Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands becomes the first reigning queen to address a joint session of the United States Congress. I could find only one other Queen who had the privilege to address the U.S. Congress, and she, of course, was the late Queen Elizabeth II of England. Now that England has a King, odds are pretty good the next queen to address the U.S. Congress will be a drag queen.

1949, 160 years after it was created, 

U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act Amendment, streamlining the defense agencies of the United States government, and replacing the Department of War with the United States Department of Defense.

1965

The largest swimming pool in Europe was opened in Fürstenfeld, Austria. At over 247,000 square feet, it’s now only the 8th largest pool in the world. Egypt has one that’s over a million square feet. Edgewood Pool in Coal Township, Pennsylvania was the largest in PA when I started taking swimming lessons. I don’t know how many square feet it was, but it held two-million gallons of water. There’s a high school stadium parking lot there now.

1974

As a direct result of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office. His Vice President, Gerald Ford, becomes president. Gerald Ford wasn’t Richard Nixon’s original vice-president. Spiro Agnew was Nixon’s V-P, but had to resign after pleading no contest to tax evasion in 1973, becoming only the second American vice-president to do so. Ford was House Republican Leader at the time, and Nixon tapped him to replace Agnew. When Nixon resigned after the Watergate scandal, Gerald Ford became the only President of the United States to not be elected to the post in a national election. Ford would pardon Nixon in the hopes of reuniting the citizens. 

1981

The Washington Star ceases all operations after 128 years of publication.

This week in 1984...

(“We begin bombing in five minutes” recording) United States President Ronald Reagan, while running for re-election, jokes while preparing to make his weekly Saturday address on National Public Radio. I was working for Armed Forces Radio in Guam at the time, and we always recorded the feed to play later, because of the vast differences in time zones. So, those of us who worked at the station were aware of the remark, and were told in no uncertain terms to never play it on the air, which we didn’t. But we got some chuckles out of it, despite the fact that Guam was, and probably still is, the only bomber base outside the continental United States. So, if the bombing were to commence in 5 minutes, our flight line would have been very busy. It didn’t take long, though for the media to reveal the gaffe, and so it was all over the news we played at the top of every hour anyway. When the line was heard in the USSR, the general population was quite concerned, and the military put on high alert.

The actual speech for which he was preparing started out the same way, but was about a completely different subject. It said, "My fellow Americans: I'm pleased to tell you that today I signed legislation that will allow student religious groups to begin enjoying a right they've too long been denied—the freedom to meet in public high schools during nonschool hours, just as other student groups are allowed to do." 

1986

A low-pressure system that redeveloped off the New South Wales coast dumps a record 328 millimeters (13 inches) of rain in a day on Sydney. Climate Change! Said no one.

1988

Japanese American internment: U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, providing $20,000 payments to Japanese Americans who were either interned in or relocated by the United States during World War II. Today, the Governor of California is considering a proposal to pay reparations to its citizens who are descendants of North American slaves. Even though California was a non-slave state since its founding. But California’s reparations are for more than slavery only. While enslavement is one of the many categories that would make one eligible for reparations, a look at the titles of the chapters in the California Reparations Report include Racial Terror, Political Disenfranchisement, Housing Segregation, Separate and Unequal Education, Racism in Environment and Infrastructure, and Stolen Labor and Opportunity. 

1991

Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW debuts as a publicly available service on the Internet.

2007

An EF2 tornado touches down in Kings County and Richmond County, New York State, the most powerful tornado in New York to date and the first in Brooklyn since 1889. The Brooklyn Cyclones had no comment. 

Phone and email liner

I’d like to take a moment to talk about soccer. Or what everywhere but America calls football. I’m not gonna mince words here. I don’t like soccer at all. I love American Football. I have no use for soccer whatsoever. Maybe I’m missing something, but I find soccer to be excruciatingly boring. Wait, let me say that in a slightly different way. Booooooorrrrrrriiinnng. An old friend of mine, the late Kevin McDonnel, summed up soccer quite nicely when he said, “I looked away for an hour, and someone scored!” 

Soccer has had a hard time catching on in the United States. Other major professional sports like American football, baseball, basketball and hockey all have great followings which have grown organically. Soccer, on the other hand, has been sort of forced down the throats of American sports enthusiasts, as if it’s a requirement of some sort. Not just American Soccer, but soccer leagues from all over the world. We have to hear about the soccer leagues in Mexico and England and Europe and all over the place. Honestly, are there any Americans other than gambling addicts who care about the final results of the soccer league in Italy? Most Americans aren’t even sure why there’s a soccer league in America. Yes, I’m aware there was a guy who’s famous for playing soccer who was just signed by a team in Florida. I also know the ticket prices jumped from 10 dollars a ticket to 250 dollars a ticket because of it. Big deal. That tactic might work in Saudi Arabia, but we’ll see if it gets any traction in the United States. I’m not sure it will, and I’ll be surprised if it does. 

If you are a soccer fan, the good news is there is no such thing as soccer season. We have football season, baseball season, hockey season and basketball season, but because we’re force-fed soccer from every part of the world, there’s soccer news all year long because games are being played south of the equator when they’re not being played north of the equator. But for those of us who have no interest in the game, there’s no getting away from it. They say baseball is America’s past time. Well then why do we not see baseball games from other leagues around the world, like the Japan league or the Korean league? The Little League World Series draws teams from around the globe to Williamsport, Pennsylvania every August, yet international soccer is all we hear about all winter. Sports fans barely hear a lick about baseball until the boys of summer come out to play again. In the meantime, we’re paraded a constant stream of soccer from all over the world when soccer season is in temporary break in the United States.

Another important difference between professional soccer and other professional sports is that women have a soccer league, too. So does basketball, but the soccer league has ruffled a lot of feathers in a variety of ways. I do have to admit that if there is a preference between men and women soccer leagues in the U.S., it’s probably in the favor of the women’s league. But while the women’s league attracted about half the audience of the men’s league in 2022, according to ask wonder dot com, the women insist on being paid the same. While that’s not how supply and demand works, the women’s league, and more specifically the Women’s National Team, don’t seem to care about capitalism. Their actions on and off the pitch demonstrate them to be more communist or socialist than capitalist, even though they rely on capitalism to finance them and their team. A story in the New York Times outlines the struggle the women’s team had trying to convince others that they deserved equal pay. They couldn’t get the courts to agree, so it came down to a new collective bargaining agreement. The new agreement states that all the money that the Men’s and Women’s National teams get for participating in matches, and in the World Cup, beginning with the Men’s version last year and the Women’s version going on now, will be split up equally among all the players on both teams. What a great way to make soccer even worse than it was. Now our Men’s and Women’s National Teams are socialist. Now, it really doesn’t matter how well you do, you’ll still get part of the money. Women’s soccer’s equal pay grab left us with the equivalent of the most valuable participation trophy.

By the way, the American Men’s team lost in the second round. They got beat by the Netherlands, 3 to 1. It doesn’t matter, though, because they get to split the money the women’s team makes this year, and they’re ranked #1. So, do you see what’s happened here? The men’s team doesn’t seem to care anymore. Just make the team, and you get part of whatever the women’s team rakes in. The incentive to play well has been taken away by a socialist policy governing the sport in the United States of America.

There was a reason the equal pay fight didn’t make it through the courts. Yet, U.S. Soccer President Cindy Cone was quoted at the time as saying, “I think everyone should be really proud of what we’ve accomplished here. It really, truly is historic.” Yes, yes it is, Cindy. You managed to force socialism on an American sports league. Historic indeed. Embarrassingly historic. 

So, how are the women’s team doing in the current World Cup tournament? Well, they made it through the first round, or as far as the men did, so far. Their play on the field has been criticized by people who know how to play correctly. Their last match ended in a 1-1 tie. The excitement must have been palpable for the last, I don’t know, 10 or 15 seconds. Oh, wait, only the official time keeper knows how much time is left in the match. It’s not like there’s one more out in the bottom of the ninth, or 10 seconds left on the clock in the stadium, where everybody can see it, including the players. No, in soccer, not even the players know when the game will end. No putting on the rally caps, no last second strategy or play your coach has been saving for this exact moment. Soccer players just continue to drone on just as they had for more than 90 minutes of playing time until they’re suddenly told to quit playing. Game’s over, go home. It’s almost like when a band is recording a song in the studio, and the end of the song is just the same measure over and over while it fades out. But the band doesn’t know the engineer already turned off the recording a minute ago. Then the engineer tells them to stop playing, just as the guitar player was about to jump into a great riff. But we don’t get to hear it. Soccer really is that disappointing. And now it’s even worse because of a bunch of socialists are representing America at the World Cup. News reports out of New Zealand tell of how our American Women’s Soccer team are disrespecting our National Anthem. Only a few sing along, while most just stand there staring off into space, no hand on their heart, no sign of respect for the symbol of the country that brought them there. No respect for the National Anthem, no respect for the American Flag. No gratitude for the support of American fans or American financial aid or the spinless U.S. Soccer organization that let their socialist ideals permeate American sports. If they won the World Cup again, they would have been celebrated by the very same people they disrespect with their actions. They would be paraded through town in front of adoring and ignorant fans. Most wouldn’t know the harm they brought to professional sports and the disrespect they displayed during their run in the tournament. Most will only know that they won. Why? Because the same media that supports leftist extremes won’t tell you about how our own soccer team is embarrassing us in front of the rest of the world. Our media would rather champion those who spit on our flag than those who salute it. Our media would rather champion equity than those who strive to do better. The women’s team did not win, though. Knocked out in their first match of the second round, just like the men.

The result is a Men’s National Team that’s content to let the women do the work. It’s much harder for the American Men to win a World Cup than it is for the Women’s Team. If the men are forced to share the revenue with the women’s team, all the men have to do is make the team to get paid just as much as everybody else. It didn’t work for either team. That’s what socialism does, and that’s what U.S. Soccer did to soccer in America. I didn’t think it was possible, but U.S. Soccer made soccer even worse than it was to begin with.

The Listening Tube is written and produced by your truly. Copyright 2023. Thank you for putting your ear to The Listening Tube. Subscribe today. I’m your host, Bob Woodley for thou ad infinitum.