The Buzz: Your Daily Dose Of Outdoor News

Swimming is today’s Buzz Of The Day

Michael Phelps is setting the swimming world on fire.  To date, the Olympic swimming champion has earned an amazing 11 gold medals through two Olympic games and became the winningest Olympic athlete of all time.  The twenty-three year old swimming phenom is still young enough to participate in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and though that might seem quite amazing, many people are finding his 12,000 calorie daily intake to be another record of sorts..check out his daily eating habits.

Swimming as exercise has many benefits and is considered a ‘life sport’, meaning that one can swim throughout their life, no matter age or ability.  Some of the benefits of swimming include higher lung capacity, a stronger heart, more flexibility, and a general sense of well-being.  Swimming generally burns 3 calories per mile, per body pound.

Swimming as an organized activity goes back to the days of Ancient Egypt, nearly 2,500 years ago.  The sport then spread to Greece, Rome, and Assyria.  Swimming was taught to Roman and Greek children as part of their education.  The first heated swimming pool is credited to Gaius Maecenas in the first century, B.C.  Now who knew that?

In March of 2007, legendary river swimmer Martin Strel swam the total length of the Amazon River.  While being a huge feat, this was just one more tick off the list for Martin, who has also swam the Danube river, China’s Yangtze River, and the Mississippi.

Today’s News Of The Strange:  Two men have claimed to have found a body of a legendary BigFoot..yeah, you heard that right…BigFoot.  The two are planning a news conference in coming days and even suggest theat they have the body stashed away in a freezer.  Don’t believe me?  Check out the pics...

Today’s Fishing Focus: The Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency has released a statement in regards to three new state fishing records that were recently broken.  The three species with new record weights include the Gizzard Shad, Silver Redhorse, and Lake Trout.

Today’s Hunting Highlights: Washington State is currently trying to raise the age for when a child is allowed to hunt.   Currently, kids 14 and under are not required to have adult supervision when out hunting.  The recent interest in raising the age is due to a 14-year-old hunter shooting a local hiker, upon thinking she was a bear.  It is noted that the lady who was shot was the first non-hunter killed by a hunter in over 25 years in the state.

Today;s Conservation Consortium: Carl Pope, Executive Director of The Sierra Club, has issued a new blog post in regards to the Endangered Species Act and the Bush administration.

Reported From Carl Pope’s blog post:

Earlier this week the Bush administration made clear that they are in full Humpty Dumpty mode for the next 158 days. They propose to nullify the Endangered Species Act by drafting a rule specifying that new roads, pipelines, and other federal projects, which in the real world threaten species habitat, “by definition” do not count as a threat under the Act. This decision serves to remind us that the goal at the heart of their governing — and at this point their exit strategy — is to strip language of its meaning.They’re squeezing a lot of environmental destruction from this strategy. Several years ago, Team Bush decided that the word “waters” as in “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act meant only some waters. Streams and wetlands that were isolated didn’t count. When good Republicans who liked to hunt and fish protested, Bush promised to fix the problem — but even though Bush stopped short of issuing a formal rule, he told the EPA and the Army Corps not to enforce the Clean Water Act on this 20 percent of the nation’s “waterways.”

Today’s Green Tip Of The Day: With vegetable prices skyrocketing, and everyone preaching ‘organic’, perhaps it is time to consider growing your own garden.  it is relatively easy, costs 1/100th the price of vegetables purchased in stores, plus you know where it came from.

Today’s Featured Blog:  Adirondack Almanack

Today’s Featured Outdoor Discussion: Stop by the U.S. Outdoors Today Forums to discuss your Pesky Critter Encounters.  We are looking for some good stories of those critters who just never manage to leave us alone while camping.  Be sure to sign-up to the forums so you can post your favorite critter encounter.