Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Good, Bad and Quaggas... | 10/11/23

Episode Date: October 11, 2023

Pumpkin World Records… Bedbugs in France still alive… Fat Bear Week Final… Lotto update… Killers of the Flower Moon… Brando & Babs new bio… Lake Huron shipwreck and the musels… Mary Lou Retton really sick… Evan Gershkovich still in Russian jail… New George Santos charges… [e-mail] Special Chickens… Algae for wound care… ISS has a leak… All about perspective Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1866-3-3-1-2-60 or visit comex-onterio.ca. Blaze Radio Network And now, chewing the fat with Jeff Fisher. World records are being set all over America, and it has to do with pumpkins. Congratulations to the pumpkin named Michael Jordan, grown by Travis Ginger, Ginger, Ginger, Ginger, G-I-N-G-E-R of Anoka, Minnesota.

He has now become the grower of, of the biggest pumpkin ever in the world. It's the heaviest pumpkin, 2,749 pounds. That could produce, according to this, 687 pies. Although, I don't know if a gourd that big would make pies very good. Yeah, very well. But, you know, maybe. Maybe they will.

You know, just never know. But congratulations. He, I guess they trucked it from Minnesota all the way to Half Moon Bay at the 50th World Championship Pumpkin Wayoff in Half Moon Bay, California. It's sponsored by Safeway, I believe. Congratulations to them for sponsoring the Great Pumpkin Way Off. And congratulations to Travis for growing the such a. huge gourd and a world record that's awesome remember the guy in italy who held the record for a couple of years with 2,702 pounds on his Guinness world record gourd that pales in comparison pales in

comparison to my man travis's gourd at 2,749 pounds so congratulations then we have a Missouri man who is now a world record holder. It hasn't been verified by Guinness yet, but it will be. Our man from Missouri broke a record after turning a 1,200 pound pumpkin. I mean, it's nothing compared to Travis' pumpkin, but it's a pretty big pumpkin. And he turned into a boat and rode it 38 miles. So he got inside the pumpkin with a parson. paddle and he also had some sandbags for added stability and he stepped into the pumpkin.

Now, he said it was a little nasty, you know, a little, little gushy inside the old pumpkin, but he paddled 38 miles in his 1,293 pound pumpkin. Now, obviously, it wasn't 1,293 pounds after he, you know, gutted it out to make it in to a hollow pumpkin boat. And so when he getting into it, he said, may take all day or may take five minutes. Yeah, it's not going to take five minutes. Okay.

I'm just a guy with a pumpkin and a whimsical sense of adventure out to have fun. Oh. So he rode and drifted in the pitching pumpkin for 11 hours. 11 hours floating down. the river oh no thank you no thank you paddling down the Missouri River like I don't know like Huckleberry Finn I guess and congratulations to him now they have to you know get it okayed from Guinness but he is now you know not officially but he is the

world record holder as he was able to float down the Missouri River 38 miles in 11 hours in his 1,200 pound pumpkin. So congratulations to all involved in setting new world records. Welcome. Welcome to Chewing the FAP. Last week we talked about, I think it was last week, that we talked about the bed bug infestation in France and how they were trying to get it resolved.

And obviously they have the Olympics coming up soon within a year. and they need to get the bed bug infestation problem fixed. It's on trains. It's in hotels. It's everywhere. Well, now we've seen pictures coming out of France that have houses and apartment buildings with old mattresses wrapped up and out front. So those are full of bedbugs.

People are trying to rid their homes of bedbugs. Well, we learn today that France has now been forced to. to close schools over concerns that the bed bug infestations are piling up. Yeah. So they need to be treated ASAP. Wow. Bed bugs were detected at various levels in 17 institutions and seven schools are currently closed due to the issue. Now there are more than, you know, 60,000 schools in 4.000 schools in 4.

France, but that's a small percentage. However, if the issue is going to continue to get worse, they've got to get this figured out. I mean, they're hosting the Rugby World Cup now. The Olympics are next year. Uh, 2024. Yeah. I mean, it's 2023. Duh. What am I thinking? So it is next year. Next summer, less than a year away. And so, I mean, we, they have got to figure out what to do. I don't know what you do. You don't want people riding on the trains for sure then we're getting reports that we've already had bedbugs from Europe and France coming into the United States that can't be we have to shut it down I'm sorry you can't come to the U.S you're from France yeah sorry you can't come to the U.S

not until you get the whole bed bug thing worked out we want you here sure come and visit anytime except now because we don't want your bed bugs quarantine has to be an effect for these people. Okay, here's the deal. You can come here, but you're going into quarantine over there in a room surrounded by plastic. So if you've got any bedbugs and any of your stuff, we'll see it in the room full of plastic. And then that's it. That's it. No more. I'm just incredible. Here's the thing. Something has to be done. You can't quote me on that. well we have a new champion in the fat bear week hall of champions it started way back in 2014 with 480 otis and then 409 bead nose and then 480 otis came back strong in 2016 and

2017 480 otis is uh super bad three championships uh 409 bead nose has a couple of championships uh 409 bead nose has a couple of championships 435 Holly came in in 2019 480 Otis actually has what 1, 2, 3, 4 championships because 480 Otis came back strong in 2021

now 747 that's my man he has got a couple under his belt and I thought he was going to be strong this year but no no he was not he was knocked out in the first round by the champion of this year's Fat Bear Week, 128 Grazer.

Congratulations. And 128 Grazer crushed everyone from almost from the beginning. All right. So 747 wasn't in the beginning. 747 got a couple of bye weeks before he had to join 480. Otis got a couple of buy weeks. He was pushed out at his first chance. 747 was pushed.

out by 128 Grazer and 128 Grazier crushed all of her opponents for the entire competition to the championship. I mean, congratulations to 128 Grazer.

She had 108,3214 votes to 322 chunks 23, 134. And I got to tell you, I don't think one, I don't think 32 Chunk was that bad. But congratulations to 128 Grazer.

She is the champion of Fat Bear Week 2023. I know. I know it's exciting, exciting news. May as well give you a quick lotto update. The powerball drawing again is tonight, if you're listening live, the 11th of October, 2023. $1.73 billion, $756.6 million cash payout. That's tonight.

Oh, holy cow. And then the Mega Millions drawing was last night, and there was no winner. Now, last night it was a sad $20 million. I'll never forget going from the billion dollar powerball page over to the Mega Millions, and then there's the sad just $20 million. But you have the new drawing Friday night, Friday the 13th, for $48 million, $21.2 million cash payout on the mega millions. I know. It's not bad, but it certainly isn't $1.73 billion.

All right, let's go to the break room. I'd wish you good luck, but I'm going to win. Let's go to the break room. I need something cold to drink desperately. You know, I really want to see Killers of the Flower Moon. It's the new Martin Scorsese movie, and it's got Leonardo DiCaprio

and Robert DeNiro in it, and of course this Lily Gladstone is co-starring as well. But that looks like it's going to be really good. But do you know how difficult it is going to be for me? to get past the Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, personal stuff.

I love their work. I love their work. I have no problem with their work whatsoever. It just takes me longer and longer every time that they're in a production that I want to see to get past their personal duchery. And it just, I want to see this. So I don't know that I'm going to, I'm just going to have to wait for it to come out on streaming.

because I don't know that I could go to the theater to see it. But you never know. It comes out on the, well, they say here only in theaters October 20th, but I'm sure you'll be able to get in on the 19th to see it if you wanted to be one of the first ones to see it. But it's called Killers of the Flower Moon with Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone. Most of it was filmed in Oklahoma.

They spent a lot of money out of it. a couple hundred million dollars so that's got to do well for them so good luck with that i don't know that it will do that well to be honest but maybe it will i know it premiered at can and everybody loved it and all right fine with the cinematography and the production design and the screenplay and the score and it'll be wonderful uh but i know that uh it's going to be released it was done You know, it's going to be released under Apple TV and Paramount Pictures. And I know DiCaprio's company and Scorsese's company, uh,

are the production companies. So they had, you know, they made some money from the budget, $200 million to make this stupid movie. And it's just going to be white people bad, Indians good. But it looks good. I know a bunch of Indian tribes people were murdered, and they're going to bring in a big investigation, and it's going to be it's all over oil,

and of course it's over oil. So it's going to be, you know, it's going to be, it's over oil, white man bad, Indian good, money prevails. The end. There he goes. It's almost like I saw it. I don't know about you, but I am looking forward to Barbara Streisand's memoir.

It's going to be available. November 7th. It's a 992 page story. Man, do I want to read Babb's new book. Now, she's trying to sell it already because we're leaking some of the stories in the highly anticipated memoir. It's called My Name is Barbara. Boy, I bet you that took a lot of work to figure that. went out. So she opened up. Of course she did because it's so important to do that in your memoirs about her famous film The Way We Were and other topics in the book, including her friendship with Marlon Brando, her relationship with James Brolin and at a party, according to Babs in

1966, Srysan said Brando propositioned her for a sexual relationship. Brando came up and said, hey, I'd like to do you. I freaking love Marlon Brando. I know he was a nightmare, but I got it. Apparently his wife was in the next room. And according to Barbara, Babs, she declined. Uh-huh. But then according to Babs, they went on to become lifelong friends.

In fact, Strise and shared, Branden, criticism said he called her up after the film Funny Girl and he said you're really good, but you run funny. Still want to do you though, Bab, so why don't you hop on over here, okay? And then she goes on about a Robert Redford story and how he turned the part down and and barefoot in the park and then she really liked him. He turned it down again.

So then she went and begged and, you know, we finally got what I wanted. I got Robert and we did the movie. And it was just perfect. And they did what Bob wanted because Bob didn't want to do it because he thought the character was underdeveloped.

And so they made it the character less underdeveloped just for Bob. And so she went and banged. and everything worked out. And so his reluctance to do the movie was just that, a little bit of reluctance. So it was just so wonderful that he had a big influence on the script and ultimately resulted in a richer, more interesting character.

Man, can I not wait to read this book? It's Barbara herself, Frank, funny, opinionated, and charming. Yeah, that doesn't sound like a point. publish here at all. Funny, opinionated, charming. She recounts her early struggles and singing to make a living recording some of her acclaimed albums.

It's just going to be wonderful. And it's going to come out on November 7th. And it's only going to be 992 pages of My Name is Barbara. You know, I did not know that the guaga muscles, the invasive guaga muscles, were all over the Great Lakes. I know. I know.

So apparently there's a documentary crew that were out filming in Lake Huron because they want to do a documentary called All Too Clear. Studies the impact that these months. muscles have on the area. So the quagas are risk to the shipwrecks in Lake Huron or any of the Great Lakes,

but it does make the water clearer. The lakes are up to three times clearer than they were before the muscles. That's pretty remarkable. So they just, and while they were out doing their documentary, they found a brand new a brand new shipwreck.

Yes, it's about in 300, feet of water and they are able to see it thanks to the quagas. So the ship has been identified as the Africa. Okay. It was built in 1874. Sank two decades later in 1894 while traveling from Astibula, Ohio to Owensound, Ontario. And according to the news release, the Africa was towing a barge named Severn. and both vessels were carrying coal.

The tow line connecting the vessels was cut by a snowstorm, and the Severin ran aground. Its crew was rescued. However, Africa was never seen again, and its 11 crew members were never found. Well, now we have found it. And the husband and wife team specialize in underwater videography using remotely operated vehicles.

and there's only a handful of them in the world. They ran into the old vehicle and said, hey, what is that, a pile of rocks? Nope, that's the Africa. So that's kind of cool. Now, the one thing about the muscles is they're all over the ships and the shipwrecks. So it makes it hard to identify the shipwrecks,

but it also makes the water clearer so we're able to see and see. And so... Now, the couple claim. Before discovering the Africa, our work focused on ecological impacts of the mussels, which have devastated fisheries around the lakes. We hadn't considered the effect they could have on our cultural heritage,

but the muscles have truly changed everything in the deep waters of the Great Lakes. So we're prepared for more of that documentary, for sure. What was the name of the documentary? It already had a name for it. all too clear is the documentary. So look for that. And we'll also teach you a little bit more about the Quagas muscles. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too.

That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. So U.S. Gymnastic legend Mary Lou Rett. is fighting for her life. She's in the intensive care unit, according to her daughter. Her daughter posted on her Instagram story. She was admitted to the hospital

with a very rare form of pneumonia. Wow. She added that her mother is not able to breathe on her own and has been in the ICU for over a week. And so she ended the story with a plea for prayers. And they have a spot fund fundraiser for Mary Lou. And this is what it reads.

Hi, everyone. On behalf of my sisters and I, we need y'all's help. My amazing mom, Mary Lou, has a very rare form of pneumonia and is fighting for her life. She's not able to breathe on her own. She's been in the ICU for over a week now. Out of respect for her and her privacy, I will not disclose all the details. However, I will disclose that she not insured. We asked that if you could help in any way, one, you pray,

and two, if you could help us with finances for the hospital bill. Anything, absolutely anything, would be so helpful for my family and my mom. Thank y'all so very much. Now, right now, the fund has raised $191,895. I don't know what it costs. I'm sure the ICU is going to cost a lot more than that. Strange that Mary Lou Retton, I guess you may have fallen on some financial hard times.

I can understand not having insurance, though. I get that. But she was just a monster. She won five medals at the 84 Olympics. She was everywhere. I mean, she's just a, she was the sports. It's SI person of the year back then. Plus, it's Mary Lou Redd. Hello.

I mean, she was awesome during the 84 Olympics. Just incredible. The Olympics were in Los Angeles. She was the face of it, man. It was something. So that's very sad. And she, it sounds like close to making, I know, I should.

Okay. As it sounds like she's close to making a who died today appearance. But I didn't want to, I don't have a who died today appearance today. Well, yet. And, you know, I just wanted to tell you about Mary Lou because she's got, remember her daughter said she's have a rare form of pneumonia.

Huh. I wonder. Now, it doesn't say that. It doesn't say that's what caused it. It doesn't say it was from that. It doesn't say it had anything to do with that. So don't even. Stop it. Just stop it. Don't even think that.

Then we have another person that very well could make it into our Who Died Today segment. Although, you know, I certainly hope that neither of these people do. You know, Mary Lou Redden and Evan Gershkovic. He's a Wall Street Journal reporter. Lost his appeal to be released from jail on espionage charges. So this was in Russia and he will remain behind bars at least until November. 30th. He appeared in court yesterday, had a mostly blank expression as he appeared in the defendant's glass cage, you know, blue shirt, t-shirt, jeans, that kind of thing. He's already been in jail

for six months. Second time, in less than a month, he had appeared before a judge to appeal the August decision to extend his pretrial detention through November. The court said, yeah, you know what, we're not going to hear your appeal. We have some unspecified procedural violations, so you're just going to have to go ahead and stay in jail. Okay. Now, the help from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow has been wonderful because they said, well, we're deeply disappointed.

Thank you. Maybe I'm sure they're working behind the scenes diligently 24-7. They believe that he should be released. I'm sure of that. He was detained in March while reporting in the city of Yatka Turingburg, which is about 2,000 kilometers

right there east of Moscow. It's like 200 miles from Moscow. Incredible. The court proceedings are closed because prosecutors say details of the criminal case are classified. Oh. Russia's Federal Security Service

alleged that Gershkovich, acting on instructions of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities one of the enterprises of the Russian military industrial complex. Okay.

Gershik and the journal deny the allegations and the U.S. government has declared him to be wrongfully detained. Russian authorities haven't detailed any evidence to support the espionage. charges. He is being held at the Moscow La Forto prison. It's just a Moscow prison. They say in the story,

notorious for harsh conditions. Is there a Russian prison that isn't notorious for its harsh conditions? I don't know the answer to that question. I'm just asking. So good luck to Evan Gerskovich. Good luck. As long as we're in court, we may as well talk about New York Senator George Santos, who was indicted on new federal charges in a superseding indictment, including conspiracy wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and credit card fraud. Huh. Now, his former campaign treasurer has already pleaded guilty and admitted to much of the conduct, according to the court documents.

All right. So really, really, really, really spent 10 new charges, included in the superseding indictment unsealed, also include fresh allegations that Santos used individual's personal credit card information to make unauthorized charges in support of his political campaign. The victims, according to the charges, were previous donors to the campaign who had provided their personal information when contributing funds to Santos. In one instance, the court document unsealed revealed that Santos allegedly racked up

$15,800 in charges on a contributor's credit card, a sum far higher than the federal campaign laws permit. That donor did not know or authorized charges exceeding such limits. Now, of course, these are all allegations. And he is denied these charges and is going to fight this until the bitter end, I believe, was the quote. So it's just allegedly, he's pleaded not guilty. earlier this year to a slew of the charges and the original document

and he's set to appear in federal court the 27th of this month where he will, that's when he will be arraigned down the new charges against him. I'm willing to bet that he pleads not guilty there too. But the allegations

just keep pile it on the old George Santos. So I know they're all false false allegations. I get it. But, boy, they make it sure sound like you are guilty, don't they? Why, yes, Jeff, it certainly does. That's what prosecutors do.

Oh, okay. No, I wasn't aware of that. Be sure to follow me on my social media accounts, X, formerly Twitter, at Jeffrey JFR. Facebook and Instagram is Jeff Fisher Radio. You can follow me on YouTube, chewing the fat with Jeff Fisher. you can always email the show Chewing the fat at the blaze.com. Chewing the fat

at the blaze.com. I see them all. Thank you. I appreciate it. I may not comment on all the emails, but I do see them and I appreciate all of them. Even the ugly ones, okay? And you can order a cameo from you as well at Jeffrey JFR on cameo.

Whether you know you want to be happy, sad, glad, mad, mean, whatever kind of whatever kind of thing you want me to do for you, I'll do, just order it on Cameo. You know, they have whatever price fee is up there, and then I'll do it for you. Okay. All right, that's the way it works.

They're the pimp. I'm the hooker. You're the John. That's just the way it works. At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak startup funding and comprehensive game plans. We've mastered made-to-measure growth and expansion advice, and we can talk your ear-off about,

transferring your business when the time comes. Because at Desjardin business, we speak the same language you do. Business. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us and contact Desjardin today. We'd love to talk, business. UK scientists have successfully used gene editing technology to create chickens that have some resistance to avian flu.

offering a potential solution to prevent future outbreaks. The lethal version of H5N1 has been damaging poultry farms globally in recent years. And since February of 2022, the avian flu has directly or indirectly killed over 58 million chickens and turkeys in the U.S., including recent outbreaks in Utah and South Dakota. And as of July, 685 outbreaks have been rebranded. reported globally. I wonder what they mean by directly or indirectly. Maybe it goes directly because they might not have the bird flu,

but since you were hanging out with the bird flu, chickens, we're going to kill you too. Yeah, okay. So the researchers use CRISPR technology to alter two amino acids in a chicken protein called ANP 3-2A. I mean, hello, that's the main protein in the chicken, the protein, AMP-3-2-A. It's a critical for bird flu virus replication.

Duh. So then they added chicken embryos to produce 10 chickens with the altered protein before exposing the chickens and 10 non-edited chickens to a virus strain. Only one gene-edited chicken became infected compared to all the non-edited chickens. so when subjected to a viral dose a thousand times higher by the way half of the gene edited chickens were infected but had lower virus levels in their airwaves

oh okay so they just kept dosing them higher and higher can we give it to you can we give it to you can we give it to you yeah okay so that's good news I mean man do I want to eat those chickens man do I want to eat those chickens If I eat those chickens, if I eat those chickens,

does that mean I won't get the bird flu? I think I have a good chance. It could be a potential solution for humans as well. So regulatory testing and approvals are necessary before gene-edited chickens can't be considered for consumption. With, I guess there's an estimated timeline of like 20 years. 20 years? Okay.

I guarantee you that they will fast track that. If this actually works, they will fast track that. It'll be less than 20 years because we got to get, we got to get those gene-edited chickens out there. People got to eat. No way we wait 20 years. Man, if it looks like, yeah, it's fine, you'll be fine.

Don't worry about it. Just eat the chicken. You'll be fine. You're whining. You want to eat bugs or you want to eat the chicken? I don't know. I don't necessarily want to eat the gene-edited chicken. Nah, you're fine.

Shut up. They're not going to wait 20 years. No way. Then we have researchers who have used plasma technology to transform a species of blue-green micro-allergy allergy, microalgae into a bioactive coating with incredible wound healing properties. They say the novel coding can be applied to dressings and medical devices to protect patients from infection, speed up healing, and reduce inflammation.

I mean, that's great for wound care, but they're talking about it can be applied to dressings and medical devices to protect patients from infection. Wow, I don't know. I wonder what kind of... We'd like to put this to use this device on you, but we've got to coat it with a little blue-green microalgae. Do you mind? Plasma is formed from gas, so superheated that the electrons are ripped away from the atoms,

resulting in a soup of positively charged ions and negatively charged electrons. An atmospheric pressure plasma jet, APBJ, I don't have to tell you that, provides a plasma discharge at ambient pressure using a noble gas molecule gas mixture passed through a powerful electric arc discharge. I mean, hello.

I don't know why. Researchers at Flinders University, South Australia, and I am a huge fan of Flinders University in South Australia. they have used an argon APBJ to convert blue-green microalgae into an ultra-thin, bioactive coating that can be added to the dressings to kill bacteria, reduce inflammation, and promote wound healing. They're using the plasma coating technology to turn any type of biomass into sustainable high-end coating. I mean, that's kind of cool.

if it actually works that's kind of cool and you can quote me on that okay that's kind of cool now something that's not cool is apparently the ISS the International Space Station has a leak so we've got people out trying to fix the leak

and of course it comes from the Russian side okay so the ground control team we're looking looking at the video feed outside the and they were like, hey, it looks like flakes are coming off. Now you guys want to take a look at that? And so the astronauts looked out to one window and said, yep, looks like flakes to me.

So now they're supposed to get out and try to fix it. Apparently, and now the crew was asked to close the shutters on the U.S. segment windows completely as a precaution against contamination. The crew is in no danger. No danger. Now, this particular issue is a backup radiator, which is mounted outside the module and was leaking coolant.

Now, the radiator is a multipurpose laboratory model. There's two radiators, one inside that's working fine, and this one. It was, it's on part of the, ISS that is Russian because they put it together with the Russian crew so

they've got some kind of issue on the ISS let's hope and pray everything is okay now I know the Roscomos cosmonauts are going to be out there banging away trying to figure out what the heck is wrong with the space radiator

well let's hope everything is okay and everything works out fine but just in case American, go ahead and shut your segment windows, please. Just shut it down just a little bit, please. We've got a little leak on the radiator on the Russian side.

So, you know, it's a backup. It should be fine. It's not a backup. It's fine. But you want to close up our window side, okay, just as a precaution. You guys would be fine. You guys are in no danger.

thing is fine. Don't worry about it. But go ahead and shut it down and we'll wait to find out if the Russians are going to fix this thing, okay? Okay. Thanks for calling. It's all about perspective, though, right? I mean, let's be honest.

And so we've got so many things going on around the world now that we just have to have a little perspective on how you look at things. And I was reminded of that with a post on my Instagram yesterday. And the post reads, next time you're feeling down,

remember, life is all about perspective. That's what I just said. I have a friend who has sex two to three times a day, exercises twice a day, reads two books a week, and yet every day he complains. How much? He hates being in prison.

So it is, after all, all about perspective. Stream and subscribe to more Blaze Media content at theblaze.com slash podcasts.