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Fishy fishy fishy fish

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We know that as far as fashion goes, the '80s are back, but in webland it's 1996 all over again. Remember the coffee cam, which was fun to look at just because you could? You could use this newfangled internet to look at something as hysterically inane as a coffeepot in an office thousands of miles away; you could watch it get drained and refilled in blurry 10-second refresh updates. The internet was, like, magic.

Well the webcam is o-fish-ally back, thanks to our local rag the LA Times. Its goldfish cam is a little bit throwback, a little bit evil science experiment. The newsroom decided to see how toxic and/or habitable the LA River is. So they bought two feeder fish, named them Antonio (Villaraigosa) and Ed (Reyes), plopped them into a fishtank full of LA River water and pointed a webcam at 'em.

The little photogenic fishies have been doing their thing for the cameras since the experiment began more than two weeks ago. The water is replenished by, yep, more LA river water. But as LA Voice points out, they aren't dodging antifreeze to forage for food; in fact, the Mayor's office sent over a pack of fish flakes for his namesake. Even NPR's "Day to Day" got in on the action, talking to the reporter with the fish vision, Steve Hymon. Lil' Antonio and Ed were on the national stage this morning! Oh wait, when you've got a webcam, you're international.

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How've the pair been doing? Swimmingly.

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