00:00:09 Speaker 1: From mediators World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Kel's we Can review with Ryan kel Kell and now Here's Kel. A boise Idaho police report states that a pedestrian was hit with two bull frogs while walking recently in the Boisey Bench area of town m m. According to the Boisey Bench Facebook group, the walker initially thought he had been shot with the invasive species. His attackers could have been using a potato gun type weapon and the bullfrogs as projectiles. One commenter from the facebook group said quote, this is the most Boisey Bench uh stuff I've ever seen, making you wonder what else happens on this bench. For those of you who don't know what a potato gun is, the way we've used to build them anyway, consists of PVC pipe, usually scrounged from dumps or alleyways. One section, we'll call it the blast chamber, needs to be of a larger diameter and shorter length to the other section, which is the barrel. A potato stuffed down the barrel. It helps if you take a grinder or a file and get the muzzle a little sharp. Novices at this game think you want potatoes that fit in the tube. But let me tell you, friends and neighbors, you want an oversized spud that you have to shave down. This helps completely seal the barrel and you get a much higher muzzle velocity. The blast chamber, which would be the opposite end of the gun, is filled with a high alcohol content hairspray. We always found AquaNet to be the number one propellant. And then you try not to give away exactly how to build these things. I'm sure the legality isn't real high. Then find a way to light this gas and it operates exactly like a cannon or a gun. Your hope this whole time is that the explosion in the blast chamber finds its way out the barrel by pushing the potato all the way out the barrel. The potato acts like a bullet or I guess bullfrog if you're in the boise bench area. There's some tricks to this potato gun game that, through scientific refinement, can get you some at a distance and probably a jail cell, which is why again I tried to leave a lot out just so you know, parents listening to the show, the crew I was building these things with one became a major in the Marine Corps. One is an assistant county attorney, one is unemployed, but his wife does a heck of a job, and I have a podcast. You can guess who the smartest one is. To be clear, we put more effort into this physics experiment than anything else we did. And Byron and or since class at Hellgate High School, we even worked in our Spanish class skills by painting the words pop us, son and feg us on the side of the potato gun. We always thought that that meant potatoes of fire, which I just fact checked by punching into Google Translate. According to the Google papas and fegas actually means potatoes are unlucky, which is actually much better and much more indicative of the effort I put into high school Spanish. Anyway, you get a petition going to put potato guns into the Pittman Robertson Exercise tax language, and I'll sign it. Now back to the Boise bench the hoodlums, as it turns out, only through bull frogs at the passers by, they did not in fact utilize a cannon. They did not know their victim, and it is still unclear if the bull frogs were alive or dead at the time of the attack. The attackers could face potential charges of animal abuse as well as bad or As you all know, bull frog legs are fantastic table fair but they are a non native species in Idaho, which is likely why wanton waste was not on the list of charges. Here's a good bull frog fact for you. According to the Guinness Book World Records, the longest bull frog jump, made by none other than that famous athlete Rosie the Ribeter, was seven point one feet in length. As bullfrog enthusiasts likely know, the world record was set at the Calaveras County Fair at their annual Jumping Frog Jubilee, a contest that started way back in Mark Twain even wrote about the potential start of jumping frog history in Calaveras in a short story called the Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. Here's an interesting fact. Lab testing of bullfrog leap distance has only been able to achieve a measily four point two feet from a frog. While it is well documented at the Jumping Frog Jubilee, even a non pro as in not an authentic frog jockey will beat five feet and well beyond of three thousand one d two jumps recorded one thousand, eight hundred and four exceeded the four point two foot market calaveris. That's according to Life science. Guess you can't recreate the thrill of the crowd in the lab. Or it could be the fact that the Calavarus frogs are captured in the wild just prior to the fair and released after still have that sweet smell of freedom. Perhaps did you know that the bull frog is highly territorial. The male with the loudest bellow, who sits in the most prominent spot in the moonlight chorus, is likely the most aggressive male in the pond, while a partially submerged frog bellowing is not. Bullfrogs eat everything as long as it fits in their mouths, birds, snakes, mice, bats, insects, crayfish, fish, and of course, lots and lots of bull frogs have been discovered in bullfrog stomachs. The combination of aggressive behavior and a voracious appetite are what make these frogs, when transplanted to a new pond, so dangerous to native frog populations, amongst everything else. According to the U. S d A, still water. Areas with high bull frog populations can out compete birds and small mammals for food, so be careful where you let those bullfrogs go. Better yet, don't let them go, just eat them. This week, I'm gonna tell you about the Blues policy, tadpoles and toads, and so much more. But first I'm gonna tell you about My Week. As you know by now this podcast in My Week is sponsored by Steel Power Equipment, So if you are in the need for not only the best chainsaws on the market, but the best all around the lawn and shrub world garden equipment, from leaf blowers to shop vacuums, power sprayers, and hand shears, loppers, and of course my favorite quiet clean battery operated saws. Support Steel and in so doing you're supporting cows. We can review your number one place for news from the out doors. And speaking of the out of doors, Steve and Ronella Anthony Locata, our editor in chief, and myself took some kids fishing this weekend and piled up the pan fish. Steve's oldest counted forty four into the barrel scaler. I had initially thought of whole fried fish due to the fact that the pumpkin seeds or bluegills or whatever they were, they were small. I ended up taking all the filets off the dusting, both the filets and the fileted carcasses in flour and bread crumbs and corn starch, and then threw all that into the fryer. Those bones crunched just like potato chips, and they were so tasty. So try that out the next time. So that's what's been happening on the home front. Now I'm gonna hit what's happening on the home front but on national scale. Next, I called my baby sister to wish her a happy birthday and ask her what she's been up to. She responded with, oh, just putting my riot gear in the car in case I get called to do crowd control. This is the sister who is a detective in Denver. Although I don't like hearing that she's loading riot gear into her car, I am very proud of her and her dedication to a job that is so often in the best of times, thankless. So thank you, baby sister, and thank you to all of our law enforcement officers that have been going to work every day doing a good legal, ethical, unbiased, and often dangerous job. You do exist. I believe in you. Keep it up, and again thank you stay safe. As at the time of this recording, we have had gatherings in cities across the country that range from peaceful protests to dangerous mobs. I'll be the first to admit I am far removed in the proverbial bubble as people like to say. But even through my bubble, it is clear to me that a lot of people are hurting in this country right now, which I don't like. I don't have some grand fix for it either. I don't feel I currently have the ability to understand the situation or the motivations properly. But what I see is frustration and suffering. What I know is we're individuals, just as our police forces, mobs, peaceful protests are made up of individuals. We all need work. We have room to improve in the ability to do so. There should be no more room for racism, rudeness, or hatred of any type. If you are an individual that deals with this on any level, I am truly sorry. I want to address the detractors here for a moment. If you are the type of person that is running around not caring about anyone other than yourself, using this situation of strife to commit heinous, selfish acts of violence or destruction, or using your position to carry out your personal agenda with no care for the moneying of the message or the uniform or the pain it causes. You have a lot more work to do than the rest of us. If you're disappointed in me or this show for addressing a topic such as BLM Black Lives Matter instead of my usual BLM the Bureau of Land Management, that's just fine. There's a lot of emotions firing right now, and disappointment is definitely one of them. I absolutely do not see how law and order would be discredited or shaken or defaced by the acknowledgement of a group a gesture of support that says, I, all the way out here in Montana, hear what you're saying. I don't understand what's going on, not on your level. I am not intimately familiar, but I am not dismissing this. I'm paying attention. Moving on to the blues blue cats, specifically, David Anderson of Tennessee just landed a hundred and three pound blue catfish using a rod stuck between some rocks and a nightcrawler suspended off the bottom. The state record for Tennessee is a hundred and twelve pounds. That record has been standing since, which is impressive. But I think everyone should pause for a second and enjoy the simplicity here. We like to think of truly big fish as wise and canny creatures. These old wise fish change their habits and routines until only the truly savvy angler or someone struck with incredible luck can catch them. Those are hooks, mr krabs, as they're really dangerous danger here. I am not putting down Anderson's fishing ability. He was likely fishing where he was for a reason. I just love the simplicity of getting each truly big fish on a one on one level rig line. Wait hook nightcrawler rod shoved into the rocks. To top it off, David was fishing alone and after the hour long fight, his net broke while wrangling this monster cat into the shallow water. He eventually tied the cat off by a suitcase handle of a jaw and waited for the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency to respond to verify as catch. After seeing the weight of the fish fall just shy of the state record. Anderson responded to Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency with this, fishing is more than catching for me. It's my church, it's my go to place. It's my getaway where I gather my thoughts. The big blue cat was released after it was officially weighed. The t w r A estimates the cat to be twenty five years old, which is definitely old for a blue cat. Catfish never stopped growing and their size is only limited by feed and death. The world record blue is a hundred and forty three pounds. Jumping over to Ohio. Ohio has a newly confirmed species, the blue crayfish. Other populations of blue crayfish exist, and there were rumored to be some in Ohio, which of course there were, It just took forty five years of tracking them down to confirm. Laura Hughes ultimately led the successful citizen science expedition that found the blue crayfish. The blue crayfish, as it turns out, prefer springs and hillside seeps, which makes them hard to find and also somewhat vulnerable. We don't think often of water being a barrier to water living animals such as crayfish, but the Ohio River is actually a line on which blue crayfish are known to live on one side and not the other until now, of course, so much extra space to do activities. According to the Ohio Department of Natural Rees sources, this small population may have moved into the area prior to the formation of the Ohio River itself, only about two million years ago, which, if you think about it, is cray maybe even cray cray. And speaking of Craig Cray and jumping back to bull frogs, Meat Eater's own Spencer new Hearth covered the story of Goliath the tadpole at the meat eater dot Com this week. Goliath is, of course, a giant tadpole that apparently never felt the urge to grow legs, ditch that tail, and get on with his life. Kind of like those folks who choose to never move out of the parents place. Goliath never metamorphosed. I'm saying that in good fun of course, I don't care if you live with your folks do that. But back to the bull frog tadpole. At the time of capture in two thousand eighteen, Goliath was larger than a soda camp. At his death in two thousand nineteen, we know he was much large ger, but the soon to be peer view data has not been made available yet. If you go to the meat eater dot com, you can see the size of Goliath the bullfrog tadpole in comparison to a banana and a coke can. Spoiler alert, he's bigger. Moving on to the quick hitter Calls to action desk. I'm going to hit this right out of the gate, Great American Outdoors Act. Call your congressional representatives right now, Leave messages, send emails. If you're hearing this on Monday, the eighth of June, and for some reason, GAWA is still in need of passing double down, keep calling again. The Great American Outdoors Act provides almost ten billion for maintenance and full permanent funding of Land and Water Conservation Fund. That's more an improved access as well as healthy outdoor jobs. Next up, if you think electric motorized bicycles are super fun in the cat's pajamas, the bee's knees, the bees knees, But like me, you do not want them classified as non motorized, you know, because they have a motor and definitely do not want them on non motorized trails. The comment period for the Bureau of Land Management is closing. I found a really easy form you can use at the Wilderness Society. Fun fact for you. An electric bicycle commonly called a motorcycle just hit Germany's famed Auto bonn and topped out at about sixty miles per hour. Next up, volunteer opportunity in Florida. Florida Wildlife is asking for help with turkey counts. If you spot a turkey in Florida, f WC wants to know about it. Specifically, according to my f WC dot com, hends with and without pols, as well as male birds, both Jake's and gobblers, So all turkeys you could just say all turkey would be another way to say that. Go to my f WC for more info and get involved in citizen science. Jumping over to the policy desk and this is a big one. A just released executive order worded as part of emergency action in conjunction with the nation's response to the COVID nineteen National Emergency, is instructing federal agencies, including the Department of Interior, Agriculture, and Defense departments, as well as the Army Corps of Engineers to move forward as if in an emergency with infrastructure investments and other activities. The executive order allows for the sidestepping of existing federal regulations such as Environmental Impact Assessments or NIPA, Endangered Species Considerations, Clean Water Act, anything seen as something that could delay expedited government decision making. This also includes public comment. Take us second and think of what the Army Corps of Engineers is dealing with right now, pebble mind. What is holding up the pebble mind? Public input and the likelihood of environmental disaster which has been outlined in environmental impact statements. I know this may seem incongrue us with my support of all the jobs tied to maintenance backlogs and infrastructure in the Great American Outdoors Act. But the difference here is we have spent an incredible amount of time, money, and effort in order to get the amount of government agency transparency we currently have. This executive order eliminates the public from the process. There's no doubt a better, smoother system is needed. This executive order is not that. This is throwing regulation out the window, and at some point we're gonna have to go back take a bunch more time and money, and fix all this mess. Believe it or not, the side stepping of these environmental laws is permissible in order to put human life above of the natural order, specifically in emergency situations. For example, if a wildfire in a wilderness area threatens a community, an emergency declaration can allow mechanized means to fight that fire like bulldozers in the bob Let's say emergencies floods, hurricanes, drought, catastrophic wildfire. So what type of precedence does this executive order set President Trump? The executive branch is essentially saying that a downturned economy is an emergency on the same level as hurricanes, floods, droughts, catastrophic wildfire. My question is, are we in an emergency? Will we come out of this emergency if the Clean Water Act, the e p A, and the Endangered Species Act are ignored or are we just pushing this ball of wax and whatever it collects to the next administer creation. Moving onto the crime desk, an outfitter based in Stillwater, Minnesota, but operating in South Dakota was just fined for want and waste by South Dakota Fishing Game. A pit behind the Outfitters camp contained night uncleaned birds, fifty ducks, twenty three pheasants, twenty four geese, and one swan. The swan had the outfitters tag on it. The fine was five hundred and sixty eight dollars and fifty cents. That includes court fees in addition thirty days in jail which were suspended. The outfitter in question is Sean Hammock, who apparently has an alias of fat Sean, which I just don't get. You're throwing a lot of food away, But the real question is what's going on South Dakota. If you do the math on this one, let's say you have a six duck daily limit, three pheasant daily limit Joe, for instance, In order to stack up the twenty three pheasants listed in your pit, you're likely knocking on the door of a couple hundred bucks right there, fuel, shotgun, shells, food, travel license, etcetera. That's just eight trips and no missing, which is better than I do for twenty three pheasants. On the side of the ducks you're looking at let's say nine full limit days and two boxes of shells at an absolute minimum, plus again, the gas and groceries. Five hundred and sixty eight dollars and fifty cents seems a little light for a guy who obviously has so little worry about filling the freezer. He can just throw us food away, and given the choice, it seems he'd rather fill a hole instead of the freezer. Jumping over to the Messing with animals desk, and this is where we'll finish. Adult film star Nacho Videl was being held in Spain after a toad venom ritual went wrong. Sure you're thinking, boy, if I've heard one of these stories, I've heard them all. The Sonoran Colorado River toad secretes a powerful toxin that apparently will induce strong hallucinations if inhaled. The BBC reports that toad rituals are on the rise. Nacho was accused of being a shaman in the ritual that led to the death of his photographer. A study from two thousand nineteen sided by the BBC suggested that the substance may have therapeutic properties such as easing anxiety and depression, but acknowledged there was a limited understanding of its effects in humans. Somebody should have told the photographer this is no joke. It's a sad way to learn. I do want to know the thought process, though perhaps if there is a little more education on the natural world, this could have been avoided. So you're telling me this toad survives the Sonoran Desert because it's poisonous. All the other animals leave it alone because it's poisonous. Based off of that, I suppose as I had better give it a sniff. I don't understand, but I don't get a lot of things. Thanks a bunch for listening this week. I got a lot more to tell you about, including helicopters and wilderness. Next week. Let me know what's happening in your neck of the woods by writing in to ask Cal at the Meat Eater dot com. If you're loving what you're hearing, tell a friend and I'll talk to you next week.