Why the Spring Pygmy Sunfish Matters: A Video from Emily Horton
07/02/2010
In spring-fed Beaver Dam Creek, which borders the family property in Greenbrier, Alabama, there lives a teensy little fish called the Spring Pygmy Sunfish, which is on the endangered species list. Going back to the late '70s, there's been some controversy about development in this area because of this fish. My niece, Emily, is a fervent environmentalist and has made this rather charming video arguing for preservation of the SPS's habitat (filmed on location! as they used to say in old movie ads).
I'm posting it not because anyone reading this is likely to have any influence in the matter of the Spring Pygmy Sunfish but just because it's delightful, and in the final ten minutes, when Emily makes her preservation appeal to the rest of the family, quite moving (to me at least). It's rather long for a web video (25 minutes) and some people, including me, have had trouble viewing it. If you're interested at all, do try to make it to the last ten minutes.
Emily is the daughter of my brother John, who's the guy in the orange hat in the video. Emily's sister Nori is in it, too. Their mother is Japanese, in case you wonder.
A mischievous but obviously rhetorical question: who's the conservative--the environmentalist who wants to preserve this place, or the capitalist who wants to build a mall or factory on it? (The capitalist is hypothetical, by the way: there is not currently any such plan under consideration, but as Emily says there is almost certainly going to be development of some kind in the area.)
P.S. This is a QuickTime video.
If y'all have trouble getting it to work, just start it and go take a nap for 3 hours and it will work fine.
AMDG
Posted by: Janet Cupo | 07/02/2010 at 07:23 PM
I just added a note to the post pointing out that this is a QuickTime video. Not everyone has that installed, and I suspect it may also have something to do with the streaming problems. I don't know much about video--I don't know if it would be possible for Emily to convert it to Flash, and how much that would affect the quality--the quality is quite good now.
Posted by: Mac | 07/03/2010 at 09:58 AM
I think the problem is that it's so long. You can sit for five minutes and look at the little bar and it looks like it's not loading, but if you go away for half an hour, you can see that it is. The trick is not to touch it when you've gotten to the end of the part that's loaded because then it will take you back to the beginning.
Goodness, it's making me put my name in.
AMDG
Posted by: Janet Cupo | 07/03/2010 at 03:48 PM
My wife, who's been travelling this weekend, decided she would just drop into a Starbuck's and use their wi-fi to download the entire thing and watch it later, but abandoned that when the browser's estimated time for completion was almost an hour. It probably would have taken longer, as chances are good the network is configured to throttle back a long transfer like that.
Posted by: Mac | 07/03/2010 at 05:21 PM
So funny, I think.*
Posted by: Air Jordans | 12/09/2010 at 06:58 PM
Air Jordans must have been listening to The Story on Mississippi Public Radio.
AMDG
Posted by: Janet Cupo | 12/09/2010 at 08:01 PM
Which was about...?
Posted by: Mac | 12/09/2010 at 10:40 PM
The Spring Pygmy Sunfish. ^)
AMDG
Posted by: Janet | 12/10/2010 at 09:53 AM
Oh yeah. Heh.
Posted by: Mac | 12/10/2010 at 10:25 AM