Yearly Archives: 2013

Inside the pup

My dog is a twit!

To say the last 24 hours have been trying is an understatement.

Bert, the resident Border Terrier, was not himself recently so a trip to the vet saw him XRayed, and to say that my jaw crashed through the floor when I saw the results does not begin to describe it.


Inside the pup – a triangular foreign object.

The opaque triangle shows that the lad had ingested a foreign object of some sort, so it was off to the emergency animal hospital with the hope that surgery could be avoided. The medical crew used an endoscope thrust down his gullet into the stomach, the latter inflated with air to allow more working room. A separate tool was inserted with a pincer arm which could both grasp the foreign object and encircle it to avoid damage to the oesophagus during removal. Attended by nurses and an anesthetist in addition to the endoscopic expert, the standard of technology and care was identical to that for a human being.

Turns out the pup had swallowed …. a piece of glass!


The $2,600 snack.

Well, those have to be the strangest photographs you will ever see on this blog.

The pup is home now, a tad sore, lesson learned. I hope.


The blue armband is from the IV drip!
A cottage cheese diet is in order while Bert recovers.

Leica X Vario

A comedic touch.

Proving once again that it’s impossible to underestimate the intelligence of the (camera) consumer, Leica gives us this doorstop:

For your $2,850 you get a modest range 28-70mm (FFE) fixed zoom with the splendid maximum aperture of f/6.4 for your APS-C sensor at the long end. f/6.4!

And no viewfinder!

Add one for $200 (Olympus VF-2) or $500 (Leica rebranded Olympus VF-2) and you have a mediocre EVF which still works poorly in bright sun.

For that sort of money you can get a premium Canon or Nikon APS-C body with a stellar zoom lens with a real aperture, and money left over. A semi-pro quality Nikon D7100 will run you $1,200. Add a no less stellar 24-120mm fixed f/4 zoom for a further $1,300 and you still have $350 left compared to this toy from Leica.

Or, with MFT sensors now competitive with APS-C, an Olympus OMD will cost you $925 and $250 for a 28-84mm compact zoom.

Amazing what people will pay for a red dot.