When I was a kid my uncle gave me a microscope. It came with a bunch of prepared slides with stuff like onion skin, squashed bugs and various other things to titillate and engage my young mind for about thirty seconds. I remember squinting through the eyepiece trying to catch a glimpse of the various fuzzy squiggles. If only the Japanese company Thanko had been around back then; I could have spent my time in the strangely educational pursuit of looking at tiny things and doing what I really wanted to do – watch T.V. The Dino-Lite digital microscope plugs into any television or your computer monitor and displays, in what could be horrifying detail, anything you choose.

The Dino-Lite homepage (translated via google) curiously shows a lot of people pointing the ultrasound-looking lens at their scalp with the resultant scaly, pink and mottled flesh displayed on brilliant flat screen monitors. I like karaoke as much as the next guy but if the Japanese try to export the Dino-Lite as a tool for some sort of crazy scalp-viewing party then I’ll have to take a pass.

The Dino-Lite consists of a ¼ inch CMOS sensor with a magnification ability of up to 200x. One of the selling points, according to google’s Japanese to Pidgin English translation is:

“Politely CARE after doing, you can verify accurately at hairy root level.”

GAAAAHHHH!The picture that accompanies this charming caption shows a young man with the Dino-Lite (where else?) on his scalp, raptly gazing at a monitor that shows some kind of moistly translucent flesh, like a rice pudding that has sprouted thick black hair. Frankly, this is too much accuracy at the hairy root level for me; however it should contain enough gross-out factor to keep kids interested. If my uncle is reading this (his scalp stopped being interesting long ago), perhaps the next time he’s feeling inclined to send microscopes to far flung relatives maybe he’ll consider the Thanko Dino-Lite.

Dino Lite homepage translated by google. Dino Lite homepage.