Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 02-20-25_THURSDAY_7AM

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

Kristen Roberts, Intellectual Property Rights and copyright attorney, founder of Trestle Law Firm in San Diego - Great talk on the issues of AI sucking in other peoples work in order to train the AI brain. Greg Roberts on with the Outdoor report, later.

The Bill Myers Show podcast is sponsored by Clouser Drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for over 50 years. Find out more about them at ClouserDrilling.com. That's 770-KMED. Here's Bill Myers. Yeah, we'll do some calls here in just a few minutes, though. But I wanted to talk with Kristen Roberts, and she's the founder of Trestle Law Firm in Southern California. And Kristen is a very interesting person. Intellectual property

attorney deals with the specialized fields of trademark and copy registration. And frankly, if we didn't have people like this, it would be difficult to be an artist or let's say an inventor. I mean, there's all sorts of reasons, even just a musician or an author. I mean, whatever it is, if you can't protect your works for a while and make some money, then where's the incentive to actually, well, do something, I guess. And Trestle Law, you founded that, didn't you, Kristen? Welcome back to the show. Good to have you on.

Thank you so much. Yeah, I did found the law firm almost 11 years ago now. And what part of California do you live in? I'm in sunny San Diego. We, I did. I did found the law firm almost 11 years ago now. And what part of California do you live in? I'm in sunny San Diego. We love it here. Oh, good for you. Glad to hear it. I just had a friend that came back there the other day just to show some pictures. Looked pretty good. Not on fire, too. And that's a good thing. Christian, the idea of the intellectual property world seems to be having some issues when it's coming up against the world of artificial intelligence, which seems to want to. Now, if I'm not characterizing this correctly, please correct me.

OK. All right. All right. that the entire deal about artificial intelligence is that we're going to take everything that humans have done yes even if you have written and done songs and books and movies everything else we're going to just feed it all for free into the maw of a bunch of silicon valley tech bros computer servers and their artificial software and all the rest of it, and then it gets to think for us and spit stuff out, and they make the money from it. Is that a fair assessment of what is going on, at least some of the concerns going on when it comes to people with that?

Well, you know, it sure sounds like it, you know, and they can, a lot of these companies, they say things like, well, we put guardrails in place, But that really is kind of the both benefit and risk of new technology. We love new technology, right? And we think it's important because it helps us in many, many ways. It can make jobs easier. It can make, you know, coding a lot easier. But it can also cause problems in the way that you just explained, right? If we need to train this new technology on existing intellectual property in order for

the technology to give us reliable and accurate results, it would seem that the training material should be at least compensated for that use. But the companies like Meta, for example, are saying that that's not scalable. It's not scalable because they'd have to track down everybody that owns the intellectual property and negotiate a license, and not everybody's interested in negotiating for a license. And it just takes too much time. Well, that's almost like saying, gosh, well, that's almost like saying it'd be too hard to pay people what they're worth.

So we just have to steal it from them and you have to be okay with that, right? Well, it's almost like they're saying, you just have to be okay with it or you can sue us and then we'll gladly pay you at that time, right? So a lot of these cases are resulting in settlement. There was actually one that just came down, I think it was last Tuesday, and that was one of the first decisions we've gotten, and that was the Roth Intelligence case versus the Thomson Reuters. So that was where they were taking the headlines, the legal research tools, they were taking the headlines and using those headlines to train their AI.

And Westlaw said, no. Thomson Reuters said, no, you can't do that. That's ours. And the court actually said they agreed with Thomson Reuters. They agreed with Westlaw. They said, no, that's actually not fair use. So we're starting to see some of this case law come down. And I think we're going to start to see some guardrails put up in the court, but it takes a company that's willing to go all the way to the end and not settle, whereas a lot of times these companies that own these AI models have a lot of money and can just settle these lawsuits for a lot of money. And I would also imagine then the downside of this is that it's fine if you are a really big company that an AI model ends up ripping off your stuff, let's say. Let's say Disney, for example, right? Let's say you're Disney, and if an AI model were to rip your stuff off in training the AI brain, so to speak, Disney's big enough to be able to fight that.

Fox News would be big enough to be able to fight that. A large company would be able to fight that. People like you and me, probably not able to fight that. Fox News would be big enough to be able to fight that. A large company would be able to fight that. People like you and me, probably not able to fight that, right? Exactly right. And you know, the other thing I think there's some nuance to, which a lot of people don't understand, is AI models are not just large language learning models. They're not these, you know, it's not chat GPT. They're not all chat GPT. Some of these are AI models that are plugged in to make your use of an app easier. So for example, you have things on, you know, your desktop of your computer, like Cortana, that helps you sort of

organize and gives you a checklist and gives you an overview of things that you need to get done that day right so it'll kind of comb through all your stuff but it needs access to your stuff in order to work so there is there are some instances where well we want it to gather your information to train the model and you don't necessarily need a license because the company already has access to your information. But then what does, if you're training the model with your stuff, with your writings, let's say, with your writings, let's say, tell me that the influence of how you write doesn't make it into the artificial intelligence.

So whose thoughts, whose works are these then, Kristen? What would you say? And that's exactly right. That's exactly the problem. And the law right now hasn't caught up. And it's going to take a little while. And to your point, it's going to take a little while because so many of the, quote, unquote, little guys that you just mentioned, right, the people that aren't the Disneys and the Fox Newses, they can't afford to go all the way. So maybe they can bring a lawsuit, but their goal with their lawyers is oftentimes going to be, well, let's just try to

get them to pay you out to go away. And those usually result in some kind of a license. So that's sort of the model that a lot of these large companies are using. They're sort of asking for forgiveness instead of permission when it comes to using other people's intellectual property when they really should be paying them up front. Now, there was also a complaint that accused Meta, the Facebook people, of using shadow libraries of pirated e-books. Would this be like stuff from the Internet Archive or some other source? Because I'm amazed what i can find on the internet archive you know archive.org you know that's out there everything from software to legal works i mean it's all there what do you think well i think a lot of this from what i

understand it was also torrented so um you know we're sort of like how we used to back in the day i don't know a lot of listeners are from the 90s, but there used to be those downloadable websites like Kazaa and LimeWire and Napster. And they started to switch to sort of a BitTorrent type of downloadable where they would take bits and pieces from different places that were available. And then it would sort of compile it into one thing that you could then download. That's where a lot of this is coming from, is my understanding. They're using torrent to get the otherwise unavailable information. Isn't that kind of dark webby in a way, looking at that as sort of a dark web approach to that? I mean, I don't know if it's a dark web.

I think it's definitely not in the confines of what we would consider fair use. I definitely don't think it should be the model for people or for businesses to use when trying to train their AI on things. representatives from Meta were saying, well, it just wasn't scalable. We couldn't ask authors because we go to the publishers. It's not the same. Written items are not the same as music. Music, there's usually some kind of publishing company or licensing house that you can go to, even if that one company doesn't own all the rights, they have the right to license it out. So you just go to one place, you ask for the permission, they say, yeah, sure, here's the compulsory license fee or here's the fee. This is what's required under the law. Whereas with publishing written information, the publisher doesn't control the work all the time. They have some right to license out, but not all. A lot of times authors are getting very savvy.

People that own the IP are getting very savvy in controlling their own IP. So they don't give all the rights to the publishers. So when Meta goes to approach a publisher and says, hey, we want to use this book in our training. Can we get a license? The publisher is like, well, that's not our right to give. You're going to go have to ask the author. Okay. Well, how do we get in touch with the author? Well, we can't give you that information. But then, but then does that mean that Meta is able to say, well, we're just going to go take the book anyway. And then that seems to be what they're doing, right? Exactly. Yeah, that's exactly right. That's exactly right. And now I don't think it's right. Um, and you know, I'm a business attorney. We've talked

about this before. I also understand businesses really, really, really value being able to scale quickly. They want to be able to test their product. They want to be able to know it works. They want to be able to make money. I just think that it has to be it has to be against it has to be with what is right for the people who own the intellectual property because they have a right to make money off of what they've created. And yet, you know, I know that it's almost like artificial intelligence here, Kristen. By the way, I'm speaking with intellectual property attorney Kristen Roberts. And Kristen, of course, is a founder of Trestle Law. TrestleLaw.com. It's like train trestle, by the way, from the old Star Trek.

Am I just engaging in boomer sci-fi fantasy or what? What do you think? Well, I love the Star Trek reference, first of all. And second of all, to some degree, I agree with you. When we have this new tech, it's incredibly, incredibly powerful, and it is useful. And when you have an incredibly powerful and useful tech, there is a desire to wrap it in and and wrapped into everything. And I'm sure it felt very weird and scary when it first came out. And there were not necessarily guardrails around who was able to access it or how it was able to became a public utility later. Right. So, yeah. Yeah. But one major difference, though, is that the electricity grid, for the most part, up until smart meters, didn't really care what I thought. You know, true. Of course. Of course. And I'm not trying

to say it's exactly the same as electricity. I'm just saying in terms of new tech, when new tech rolls out, there are always there's always this push to get it sort of integrated everywhere, like the Internet or the you know, and there's always thought that it's going to become this juggernaut that's going to take over our lives. And to some degree, it does. And in others, we start putting up guardrails to protect ourselves against certain things from happening. And I think right now, the law needs to catch up. And that's the big issue, is the law is designed to be intentionally slow, because it wants to be sure that it's getting everything right. And it is always about 20 years behind, unfortunately.

I don't know. Do content creators, do people who write and create and invent, I mean, do they have 20 years for the law to catch up to them, though? That's what I'm concerned about. No, likely not. And that's why we're seeing a lot more of these cases coming down. And we're hoping that we'll get some more guidance. I think legislation is going to be important. I think it's very difficult, though, to get legislation passed, especially right now.

And so I think we're going to see kind of a lot more of this going on and a lot more of the small content creators getting sort of wrapped up in this until there's a way to limit or at least put some guardrails up. And they're doing it slowly but surely. But it's definitely not fast enough, I don't think. But if the small content creators aren't able to earn from their work then, and only the big ones are able to do this, then that means you're not going to have small content creators. They won't be able to make money. And that's what I get concerned about, is that AI ends up just being the plaything of a few multinational corporations plugged into government. And this is Conspiracy Theory Thursday. That's why I can say that, Kristen.

Well, you know, it's a concern. I choose to believe that there will be at least some semblance of rationality when it comes to regulating this kind of behavior. There are laws already in place that apply. We can apply the law. We just need them to move through the court systems a little bit faster. And we need some individuals who are willing and ready and able to push back. And we need the big companies, quite honestly, to also continue to push back. That's really important because it helps those small creators when they set precedent on behalf of everybody. I would agree with you. Kristen Roberts, once again, and the founder of Trestle Law Firm. She's an intellectual property attorney. And she talks about this stuff. I mean, you must be fun at a cocktail party, right? You know? I don't know about that.

Yeah. In which, you know, Kristen, someone ripped me off. Essentially, though, people come to you because people rip me off, right? That's what people usually come to you for. They rip me off. They took my stuff, right? Yeah, that's exactly right. We have a lot of companies right now that we're representing one of them is a toy company for

example and we've gotten their packaging recognized by the united states patent and trademark office and competitors have been ripping off their their you know unique packaging designs and so um you know we're we represent all kinds of companies for all kinds of things when it comes to unique and custom and all their IP needs. All right. Tresolaw.com. I'm going to put all your information up. It's always a fascinating conversation, and thanks so much for sharing your insight. Okay?

Be well. Thanks so much. It is 726. This is KMED 99.3 KBXG. This is the Bill Myers Show. We've heard it all. I should have chained up when I had the chance. Jackson County Sportsman's and Outdoor Recreation Show,

presented by Bi-Mart February 21st through 23rd. Let's go. It's the Bill Myers Show on KMED, Southern Oregon's place to talk. By the way, I want to thank our friends at Clouser Drilling. Clouserdrilling.com. You can find out more about them. But they sponsor the podcast. So when I lovingly upload the podcast every day, usually later in the day than I would like to, but it just depends on when I get around to it.

I try to do it a little bit earlier. Needless to say, that's how they get the podcast. So if you ever miss a show, you want to go back and hear something or a guest that I talk to, then you can just do that any time. We keep about the last 90 days or so of shows up on KMED.com. You can also go to BillMeyersShow.com, and you right-click and you download it onto your device, and off you go. Okay?

Let me go to, I think we have Wild Salmon Steve. Hello, Steve. How are you this morning? Go ahead. Hey, good topics because, you know, the things you're talking about affect everything that we do, and even our government. Yeah, exactly. Well, that's why, you know, here it is. I'm talking about the, you know, there's intellectual property. There was the Chinese drug chain, you know, last hour. You know, that was just, it just astounds me that most of our drugs are coming out of commie China.

But, you know, what could go wrong? I can explain partly why we can't compete or why we don't compete in many arenas, and that is because there are two Chinese currencies. One of them, I think, is called the renminbi, and that's the internal currency, and the other one is the yuan, which is the external currency. Yeah, the yuan is the one done for international trade, renminbi, or however that is. Yeah, if you go to China and you're traveling around, you're using the renminbi or whatever it is, right? Yes, yes, it is. And the Chinese government controls the difference between those so if you buy something from a chinese firm you have to convert your dollars into yuan into rimbini to pass that on

but the chinese government takes 10 off the top so the the producer in china gets 90 but they're functioning within the chinese economy so they don't see the difference all right and so are you then are you implying then that the yuan which is what we would pay then you know to get uh to get a chinese widget in or a Chinese drug or whatever it is, is artificially low in value? Well, it amounts to a competitive advantage to the Chinese, let's put it that way. And there's a couple other aspects to this. One is if the Chinese government is interested in taking over a segment of the economy, they can manipulate how competitive a particular segment is in the Chinese economy by manipulating that currency. Huh. All right.

I'm going to have to read up a bit more on that. You know, you are pretty good. Could you feed me an article or two kind of illustrating your point? Could you do that, Steve? All right. You know, I was looking for something and it's disappeared. I don't, you know, I don't know where that is. See, that's the conspiracy.

Okay. All right. I'll get back to you on that. I'll see if I can figure that out because I don't understand those currency flows as much as I probably should. Maybe we all need to, okay? Appreciate your call and thought process as always. Francine has a conspiracy theory. Go ahead bill yes i do i was inspired by your uh

caller the um the the rights attorney um oh the intellectual property rights yeah kristin roberts yeah yeah yeah okay so here's what i see is going to happen or i think might happen. In the future, all AI will become the sole creator of all content, be it for knowledge or entertainment or whatever. It will all be AI generated. People who are creative will no longer have a place in the world to entertain people. Therefore, they will end up having to go underground, perhaps likely as social rejects, playing their talents in exchange for survival and trading for goods with other people. It might be somewhat like the people in Fahrenheit. What is it?

Four, five, one. I always get the number mixed up. Yeah, yeah. Four, five, one. You have the book people, you know, that each one memorizes a book. Well, these people will just know the content of their creativity, but they won't be able to print it or publish it in any way. And everything that the rest of the people enjoy will be created by the AI, which is programmed by the overlord.

You know, it's interesting. I brought up kind of concerns that I had about AI online. And there's a Facebook friend of mine, Julian Cordell, that says, well, now I've understood. I understand now that AI is like boomer kryptonite, right? And I'm kind of laughing about that. He says, no, it's not like that. Because, listen, I'm using AI tools and I'm doing things like this. but I also remember a freer, less regimented and surveilled time. And, you know, I'm old enough to and maybe, you know, Julian being a few years younger than me, as an example, doesn't remember quite as free a time, you know, as I do. And so you don't know what you have what you have missed and and so i think it's okay to talk about ai and realize that there are amazing good things that can come from it but much like atomic bombs and nuclear power there are good things that can come from it and sometimes really really bad things like the theory that you just uh opined about okay well you know bill we grew up i know i i certainly did i'm i'm about so i think 12 years older than you, 12 or 13 years older than you. Yeah. Grew up in a time when kids just went out to play and pick their own friends.

And my my mother never made play dates for me, arranged them with certain people at certain times. Yeah. In other words, you weren't you weren't monitored and watched. There were times that people didn't know where the kids were, and kids didn't know where the parents were. And it's okay. At dinner time, my mother went out on the porch and yelled, Francine, dinner! I know, and you better show up, that kind of thing.

So don't tell me that everything is inevitable, and that everything that comes out of the current era is progress. I guess that's what I'm going at. OK. Yeah, I'm not. I mean, I'm at war with my phone. All right. Not everything.

There's a lot of good things that come from the current era that we can call progress, but not everything. Just because it's new means it's good. This is the Bill Myers Show. Mr. Outdoors is standing by. He's going to be here with a new outdoor report, though. We'll kick that around next. At Quality Tree Service, we've seen the letter. And all invoices posted are new cars.

Hi, this is Mark from Jay Austin, and I'm on KMED. 20 before 8. I just like the riff. I'm going to let that go a little bit, okay? I like the riff, too. Yeah, I like Soundgarden. I've always been a big fan. Anyway, it is now time for the Outdoor Report,

a special Conspiracy Theory Thursday, Friday. Prior to the Channel 12, watch 12 by mart you know the whole big uh the whole big outdoor show where mr outdoors is going to be there of course but greg roberts is holding down the fort at rogueweather.com rogueweather.com so greg what do we got going on huh and by the way you have an event going on tonight i want to make sure people know about before we dig into the rest of it actually it's this afternoon oh this afternoon than tonight okay it's going to be an oddball time but i'm going to give people good incentive to want to be there i was invited by jackson county library system their butte falls branch to come and do a about Bigfoot. And the person who did the invitation has known me well since the early 2000s. You know, practically family. Her greater family definitely adopted me and made me one of

their own. Ellis family up in Butte Falls, which I was thrilled to do because they're great people. They definitely know the area, know it well. But one of the things they either didn't talk about or didn't know well will be the subject of my talk at the Butte Falls Library beginning at four o'clock, and that is topic's going to be Bigfoot. And I jumped at this opportunity because, number one, I truly love the person who invited me. But number two, I have been all over in a lot of different places, been on a lot of podcasts and webcasts talking about my experiences with Bigfoot. But never have I talked about my experiences with Bigfoot in the epicenter where all of this happens, and that's Butte Falls. You have mentioned to me that this is kind of a big hotbed of activity up in some of those higher hills, right? Mm-hmm.

And it's not just something with me. There have been a lot of people who live up there who have experienced this, and for whatever reason, they don't really want to talk about it much with outsiders or other people. But as people over the years have come to know me up there, we've had some pretty fascinating discussions over the hood of pickups, standing around out on the street, Main Street, running through Butte Falls or over in the park, and 100% in confidence and in private, and heard some really amazing things go on up there all over around Butte Falls. I have not had reports of sightings of them in town in Butte Falls

like I definitely have had in Prospect. I know the one thing, I've talked with even police officers and sheriff's deputies over the years that have mentioned that, yeah, we see, we hear stuff that, but you know, you don't talk much about it, you know, that kind of thing, right? Speaking of that, Mike Winters had me in his office one day, and we started talking about this. And he showed me a line of tracks in a snow-covered road in the Elk Creek drainage when he was working for OSP. And he said, I kept this because I always knew. And he said, there just isn't anything else that could have done this. And looking at the picture Mike had as soon as I saw it, I agreed with him. I said, yeah, only a Bigfoot would leave a pathway

like that through the snow. He said, that's not somebody out there walking around on stilts. He goes, I mean, look at this and look at the length of the stride. And he was exactly right. And then looking at the photo, there was another big tell there for me that spoke to it being authentic and not a hoax in any way. And no, I'm not about to reveal what that was because I don't want to help hoaxers any more than they already do. But there was an immediate tell to that that I spotted. And I did point it out to Mike to say, yeah, and to further make your case, notice, and then I'll leave it at that. Okay, got it. So anyway, four o'clock, Butte Falls Library, you're going to be talking,

what, an hour, couple of hours, maybe? We're scheduled to go till 530, but when these things, it's kind of funny, once they start rolling, there's never any idea where it may actually end, because then people will start coming up and want to talk to you or I'll be trying to head out to the car and leave and somebody will flag me down in the parking lot. Like when Scott Volette and I did the town hall at Wild River and Cape Junction a couple years ago, I thought I was done and nope. And this couple came up to me in the parking lot, and we talked for another half hour, 45 minutes about what happened to them at their home to the South of Cape Junction out in the Holland Loop area.

All right, very good. So 4 o'clock, 4 to 6, just give yourself some time. Get out there. Besides Butte Falls, they still have a nice little cafe there in Butte Falls, don't they? Oh, yeah. Sugar Pine Cafe is awesome. The lady who owns that and runs it, Corey, she is an amazing woman. Get to the Sugar Pine every chance I can get just to support her.

But it's also to check in with the cast of characters, as I call them, the Butte Falls locals, especially the guys who will be sitting around in there, as I call them, the Butte Falls locals, especially the guys who will be sitting around in there, usually in the mornings, having their breakfast, drinking their coffee, and the topics of discussion are varied and very fascinating. Now, one other thing. Every single person who attends this is going to be put into a drawing, and the top prize of the drawing is an outing with me next August where we will go out looking to have an encounter. If we don't get that, at the very least, I will take whoever wins the drawing tonight out and show them definitive proof that, yes, they really do exist.

And there's never a bad time in the woods. There's always something. But we'll be doing this in August because I've got to make sure all the snow melts off in the high country. And, of course, the Rogue season is coming up, and I'm going to be very busy with Rogues games, especially in June because the entire month of June the Rogues are home. And so it's August before I'm really going to be able to go out and do an outing,

and we'll time it with that big full moon that hits there in August, because I've had some of the most remarkable experiences with them under that big full moon in August, including my very first one back in 1984. All right. See, there's a great story there for Conspiracy Theory Thursday. Greg Roberts there, once again, at the Butte Falls Library this afternoon. All right. Greg, why don't we take it into, let's shift it over to, you're going to be at the outdoor show this weekend, of course, Friday, Saturday, Sunday at the Expo.

That'll be good. People will get a chance to meet you and converse about various things here. But what about weather? It looks like it's going to be nice and warm over this particular weekend, upper 60s, mid to upper 60s or so. Is winter over or not? Now you're losing me because you and Randall Lee did this yesterday. You know, I kind of like dropping in and catching what's going on with the show

and the vibe with it before I come on. And the next thing I know, you and Randall are talking about 70s in Medford next week. And I went, uh, I did the, you know, well, no, I'm looking at 60s for this weekend. Yeah. Well, and so again, you just mentioned that and I quickly got on to see what Medford National Weather Service has. Well, it's 60s, but it's near 60, low 60s. And the next week where you guys were talking about 70s, there is a portion of our area that will have that. And that's going to be the Klamath River Valley and the Pocket Valleys in southwestern Siskiyou County. I have no doubt that we'll be in that 70 to 72 range in those areas. But making that here in Medford, I'm really dubious about that.

Okay, well, we'll correct it. Well, somewhere on the planet, it will be 72. How about that? Yeah, somewhere. But I just, I got to look at everything. And when I'm looking at the data, so I did find the source of what he looked at that said that, or I believe I did, because AccuWeather did say that, but they're kind of out on an island because no other major weather service is saying that. And I don't understand why anybody would say it based on all the raw data, but that's just me. All right. Fair enough. So don't worry about that. Now, are we looking for a pretty steady warm or is it going to kind of go back to winter here relatively quickly?

No, this is one of these things where we're going to be riding upwards in temperatures because of the break between storms. And then when the storm activity resumes, we're going to go back the other direction and get unseasonably cold and wet. And with the late developing La Nina, which we definitely have now, I remember we started talking about this because the groundhog said six more weeks in winter. And at the time that happened, I said out here, we're probably more like 12 to 13 weeks because it's going to be the end of April, maybe beginning of May, before we break into that long, sustained, very spring-like weather pattern. But between here and the end of April, it is definitely going to be more of a wintertime type pattern.

And yes, in the winter, you will get these break periods between storminess. I don't think this is going to be anywhere near as long as the break we had in January. The other thing is, yes, because of the time of the year and the amount of sunlight increasing and the sun getting higher in the sky and more direct sun angle coming in at us, yeah, we seasonably adjust and warm up. But this is not going to be all of a sudden we break into spring weather, get out the shorts, the T-shirts and tank tops. This isn't going to be that and probably won't be that until we, like I said, we get end of April, beginning of May before I think we start breaking into that pattern. And that would be just down here in the valleys, because

I have no doubt this will be one of these years. If you've got camping plans for Memorial Day weekend in the mountains, especially the higher in elevation you get, the more you better be prepared for winter to show up on you at any time. And of course, I can remember one year, we all camped at Willow Lake for Memorial Day weekend, and we weren't prepared. And of course, I can remember one year, we all camped at Willow Lake for Memorial Day weekend, and we weren't prepared. And we got 18 inches of snow on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend at Willow Lake and completely crushed all of our tents, camping trip over. Oh, man. Wild story, I'll bet. All right, Greg. So this is just a temporary pause in winter, right? Temporary pause.

Just a temporary pause. That is absolutely fine. All right. Hey, what are you going to be doing at the outdoor show this weekend before we take off? What I will mainly be doing at the outdoor show is what I'm doing right now, talking. I will be making announcements periodically every hour throughout the show. It'll either be welcoming people or making announcements about speakers at the Giant Fish Tank, which I'm going to be right near. A good friend of mine, Andy Martin, will be making at least two presentations a day at the Giant

Fish Tank. Then we've got the Sportsman's Theater with speakers throughout the day, and I wrap up every day in the Sportsman's Theater. I will be in there at 6 p.m. on Friday, 5 p.m. on Saturday, 3 p.m. on Sunday, and the topic will be wolves and Bigfoot. We have the wolves that have appeared on the TV show Yellowstone, hence Wild Wolves of Yellowstone. But not only have they been on Yellowstone, they have been on 1883, 1923, Lawman Bass Reeves, pretty much anything that Taylor Sheridan touches. And if Taylor decides he needs a wolf in the scene, these are the animals that he comes and gets. He loves these animals. I've had a chance to get to meet him now in Eugene and Roseburg. And, you know, they're truly wonderful. In fact, up at Eugene, I pulled back into the motel that we were all staying at. And they're in a ground floor room.

The windows open in their room. And I've got this wolf, Koda. He's standing there staring right at me as I'm getting out of my car. I'm going, how cool is this? This is an awesome motel. They got a wolf looking at you right from the room. I love it. Gotta love that indeed. Hey, Greg, I appreciate the take on it and have a wonderful time. And I don't know when we'll get together next week.

We'll figure out sometime because I know you're going to be heading back out on the road for another time or two. I'm heading back down to Reading and I think next week or probably Monday, Tuesday, because it will be a travel morning for me next Friday, and then, of course, we're in Reading all that weekend, and then we take a week off, and then it's Klamath, and we're wrapping up the shows for this year. Have a great Bigfoot talk tonight. Once again, that's 4 o'clock at the Bigfoot, sorry, Butte Falls Library.

The Bigfoot Butte Falls Library. There we go. A little temporary rename to Bigfoot Library. They definitely have books about Bigfoot in there. All right. Hey, thanks, Greg. We'll talk to you soon, all right? Yep.

Greg Roberts at RogueWeather.com. RogueWeather.com. And I can keep up with what's going on. Outdoor report every, usually every monday but during the uh the outdoor show seasons they tend to get changed around a bit here but they always are sponsored by oregon truck and auto authority on airway drive in medford we appreciate their sponsorship we have a little bit of open phone time conspiracy theory thursday actually have quite a bit of open like a half hour We could talk about anything from Bigfoot to intellectual property to, if you want to talk snap benefits, it could be Doge.

You could be whatever happens to be on your mind, including state craziness, if you wish. This is the Bill Myers Show. This is Brent with Home and Built Deck and Fence. Many customers in the Rogue Valley ask why winter is a great time for deck, fence, and siding projects. The answer? Faster. 063-KMED. and you're waking up with the bill meyers show checking the price of gold at 29 40 this morning give or take a few cents it continues to power higher and higher to 3 000 maybe 3 000 is a little high for your purchasing time although

i don't know i'm still thinking about maybe adding stacking a little bit more maybe to some maybe maybe we'll look back at three thousand dollar gold is the good old days i don't know i really don't know but it has been uh serving its deal about taking care of protecting wealth in challenging times and arguably we find ourselves there talk to jay austin a company gold and silver at Ashland, 1632 Ashland Street in Ashland, 6th and G in downtown Grants Pass. And by the way, Jay Austin supports my show because they fearlessly support the messages that we talk about. Freedom, independence, conservative viewpoints, and of course, your calls and opinion there too. Now, if you're looking at 3,000 gold and thinking, it's a little rich for me.

Well, do you have coins and scrap gold that maybe you're looking to liquidate at this price? If you want to sell, now's the time. Collectible coin values, along with gold and silver, are up, according to a note I got from Mark the other day. And also a little side note, many attorneys use Jay Austin and Ashland and Grants Pass for estate planning for a reason. Come out and find out why. All right? And that's just pretty darn good stuff. All right? JayAustinBrokers.com, GrantsPassCoins.com, FortuneReserve.com. Let me go to David in Phoenix. Hello, David. How are you? Good morning, Bill. I'm fine. Thanks for being there. Well, thank you. You're welcome. What's on your mind, though?

I just wanted a little bit of humor. I mean, I thought to myself on Tuesday the 18th at around 2.30 in the afternoon, I had a little experience, and I thought, this is Oregon. Okay. What happened that got you saying that this is Oregon? What happened? It just tickled my funny bone. I was checking. We have a little shopping center just off the interstate here in Phoenix.

They have little shops, the dollar store and the McDonald's and things like that. Yeah, I know where that is. Sure. And so I went over there to check out a little restaurant. I'm taking somebody to lunch, and that's where they want to go. So I wanted to go take a peek at the menu and see what kind of prices so I'd have enough money. Anyways, in pulls a van, fairly new, and it said Educational Service District on it. And the guy gets out, and of course it's Oregon, so our dress-up, if you're a governor or whatever,

sort of the dumpster diver look, it's Oregon. Yeah, everybody that comes in, it looks like they just rolled out of the campsite, okay? Yep, yep, that's our professional look now, even in court. I've even, when with a friend to court, the lawyers, I mean, it's like, really? I know. Of course, I just pictured the judges as naked under those robes and give me a chuckle.

You know, right? That's the only way I can do it. Of course. Of course. Now, back, though, to the Educational Services District, okay? And a guy gets out and it's 2.30 in the afternoon. Now, to me, it's a school day. And to me, it's a work day. But I could be wrong.

Tuesday the 18th, that was just a couple days ago. So maybe school's out or I don't know. Gets out, and he beelines, and he goes into the pot shop. This isn't on his own time in his private vehicle. He's making a quick stop with a service van to run into. And I said, this is Oregon. I just, God, anyways, so that's what it was. But, you know, thank you for the smile, even though I guess we should be angry, but not.

We're not going to be there. We're not going to go there, okay? We're going to have fun, David. Yep. Hey, you know, I have a little be angry, but not. We're not going to be there. We're not going to go there, okay? We're going to have fun, David. Yep. Hey, you know, I have a little bit of humor for you, all right? Okay. I got a dad joke. Dad joke of the day.

This came from Dale in Medford. If the U.S. Mint quits making one-cent coins, does that mean we're broke since we'll all be penniless? Good one. I'm stealing it. Okay, yeah, go ahead. You can take that one. That was from Dale in Medford. By the way, of course, this is all for the pursuit of commerce, of course.

Dad Jokes of the Day are sponsored by Two Dogs Fabricating on Bryan Way off Sage Road in Medford. If you have a better dad joke than that, I thought that was a pretty good one, Dale. But visit twodogsfab.com and email it to them. Two Dogs Fabrication, by the way, local dealer for Iron Bull heavy-duty trailers made by Northstar. And they have a line of Northstar light-duty trailers, too. Lots of trailers in stock, priced right. Tilt-and-dump trailers, too, over at 2dogsfab.com. We go to the next line here on Conspiracy Theory Thursday.

Good morning. Hi. Who's this? Hey, it's Michael Torgerson. How are you? Michael, how the heck are you? Go ahead. I'm doing great. You know, looking at the students getting involved in government down in Ashland.

Yes. I'm going to be the last person to say young people shouldn't be activists, but they are really, you know, fossil fuels. They've got to broaden what they're looking at. They've got to broaden their horizon. Do you know one of the largest producers of CO2 is fermentation of alcohol? No. The yeast eats the sugar and they make alcohol and carbon dioxide. So what these students should do is they should start pushing for a complete statewide ban on any fermentation of alcohol. No breweries, no micro pubs, no wineries. That's right. No booze. Well, should we get rid of carbonated beverages, too?

Absolutely. None in the state. That's a twofer that not only fights global warming, but it also combats the obesity crisis that we have. Yeah. The thing is, though, what has bothered me, I think, most about the Ashland students, and you're right, I have no problem with people wanting to be activists and wanting to be involved. But on the other hand, I would expect that government would be staffed with adults that take a longer-term, broader view other than what is the fad of the moment.

You see what I'm getting at? That sort of thing? I do, but they are also looking at a broader view. Those young people are going to be 18 someday, and they are going to look at potential voters saying, hey, I supported you when you wanted to do this. Why don't you cast your vote for me so that I can stay in office? Uh-huh.

Yeah. And then eliminate booze. Oh, that'll, hey, that would work really well in Ashland, don't you think? Well, we tried it on a national level before, and it seemed to work okay. Yeah. What could go wrong? What could go wrong? What could possibly go wrong? Yeah. Well,

how about this? How about the banning of carbon dioxide producing inside greenhouses used in marijuana growth? What about that? Absolutely. Absolutely. That and no more growing mushrooms because mushrooms take in oxygen and put out carbon dioxide. You know, I think we're on to something. I think you're right. You know, if you're going to be—you've got to live your principles, so you're kind of taking the Saul Alinsky principles and turning it around, right? Inverting it a bit.

You know, whatever works. All right. Thanks, Michael. Let me go to the next line hi good morning conspiracy theory thursday who's this this is not not so crazy hello not so crazy gene yeah i was calling up because uh trump now has initiated common sense again now if we even need pennies? Well, that's kind of nonsense. Nonsense? I didn't, you know, I didn't realize. I'm going to give you a real American salute because here it is.

I thought you were serious and then I realized nonsense. Thanks for the dad joke. All right. No problem. All right. So, not so crazy. Gene wins one, too. KMED, KMED, HD1, Eagle Point, Medford, KPXG, Grants Pass.

I hear tell that it was a dramatic Grants Pass City Council meeting. We might talk with Holly about that in the next few minutes, along with other stuff on Conspiracy Theory Thursday. We're also going to have Diane Anderson, Sam Diana Anderson, in talking about a big meeting she's putting on tomorrow here. And this has to do with zero growth cities. What could go wrong? I'm sure zero growth cities would be perfectly delightful to the Ashland high school students that dictate policy in Ashland. But we'll see.