March 20, 2017

Lunchtime Video

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Somebody asked for more ducks, so here they are. But I have two questions.

First, what are these ducks fighting over? It can’t be a crumb of bread somebody threw to them. Maybe a fish? Do ducks eat fish? Or are they just ganging up on some poor duck who violated duck protocol? There’s definitely a duck at the beginning who’s getting pretty abused, but there seems to be more going on than just that.

Second, is this as good as resolution gets on YouTube? It seems like I’ve seen better. But this is HD video shot in MPEG 4, and I think I have all the settings correct. Is there anything more I can do?

UPDATE: We have answers!

  1. It’s spring, when a young duck’s fancy turns to thoughts of love. Among mallards, this is apparently a bit of mild foreplay. Be glad you’re not a female duck.
  2. I’m an idiot. The video was in high res, but I had it set to display on my computer at normal res. Once I chose the high-res setting, everything was fine.

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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