Why not use your old phone cabling for remote speakers? Most good audio receivers have an extra pair of speaker inputs. When I moved into my condo, the former owner had a PBX some and cat 3 and 5 wiring. Since both cat 3 and 5 cables have 4 pairs of wires, I used the solid color for the positive, white for the negative, and it works like a charm.

The problem with amphibians dying is caused by idiots messing with mother nature. My folks have a camp in upstate NY. The lake used to be stocked with just trout, bullhead and perch for as long as I can remember. Recently sport fishermen from down state started introducing bass and pike into the lake. There are no frogs because the pike eat up all the tadpoles. I'm not a scientist but if you introduce a predator without bothering to think of the impact on the ecosystem its just plain stupid. I saw a bumper sticker the other day, ignore the environment it will go away.