Odd Lots

[jeff_duntemann]

• The two puppies I showed in yesterday's entry are doing fine, and we're going to see them Thursday to see if their eyes have opened yet. (That'll happen Any Day Now; typically ten days after birth for bichons.) In the meantime, I posted the little video I took of them on YouTube. The strange raspy noise in the background (which drowns out Carol at times) is the damned digital camera constantly autoadjusting its focus.
• Pete Albrecht shows how to do a sort of home-brew Vac-U-Form hack on a pfeffernüsse tub to make a Hartmann mask, which is a very slick optical trick for focusing touchy things like telescopes. And if you're too young to remember Mattel's 1965-ish Vac-U-Form, study up.
• Jason Kaczor sent me a pointer to the Canadian Mint's new gold coin. Take some B-12 and get some weight-training, kids. This coin weighs 100 kg. Yes, that's kilo, and if that doesn't register, get yerself a metric converter. Hint: I don't weight that much myself. As for its face value, well, that's always dicey with modern gold strikings, but I don't recommend paying for an Egg McMuffin with it and expecting to get change.
• Proof that language and culture can be at odds sometimes lies here. One wonders what the Dr. Brain people paid the Doody family for their endorsement (and one wonders what the Doody kids will pay-or perhaps have already paid-in school) of an offal meatball with an awful name.
• Garth Books seems to be getting his way: In Florida (and soon in Rhode Island and Wisconsin) it's now illegal to sell used music CDs. Ok, it's not out-and-out illegality-which would conflict with the venerable Doctrine of First Sale-but it makes selling used CDs so onerous that nobody will bother. Oh, and a note to the music industry that doubtless bought this new law: People who can't easily buy music will steal it. People who know they can't resell the CDs they buy will buy fewer and steal more. Oh, wait, I forgot: It's not about making money. It's about being right.