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IanKennedy wrote:I can see that. But, the point I was making is that if an English person seems someone draped in an England flag they will likely be of the opinion that that person is a racist or thug. Typically because of associations with the "English Defence League" and "England football fans" who, a minority of which, used to cause running riots at international football matches. In other words I was questioning the left hand picture, of a "jolly chap with a cup of tea", rather than the right hand picture.

Ah. That particular significance is lost on me, as a non-English person. Sort of like the Confederate flag around here, I suppose.

Indeed. Sadly it has become that way. It's was also reinforced by UKIP supporters having a preference for it.

Mikey wrote:I especially like the Austrian one. Many years ago, while at the Broadway revival of "Chicago" (I think... it might have been "Fosse" or "Young Frankenstein,") a vendor in the lobby near the bar attempted to sell my ex-wife a lipstick case decorated with "real Swartovski (sic) Australian crystal."

Missed opportunity. Might have been the real deal since the famous Austrian crystals are from Swarovski not Swartovski......

That being said...we are selling T-Shirts with "There are no kangaroos in Austria" to tourists so I guess it works out fine for us in the end.

Atekimogus wrote:Might have been the real deal since the famous Austrian crystals are from Swarovski not Swartovski......

My point exactly. Fortunately for both me and the vendor, intermission ended before I was able to get into it with him.

Atekimogus wrote:That being said...we are selling T-Shirts with "There are no kangaroos in Austria" to tourists so I guess it works out fine for us in the end.

I'd have thought the biggest tourist concern would be the constant theft of town ID signs:

IIRC, for a long time it was a truism that no body armour or helmet would stop a bullet. They weren't really supposed to - they were there to stop shell fragments, which were one of the biggest killers on the battlefield.

Maybe that's what Stormtrooper armour is for? Maybe nobody expects it to stop blaster shots?

Can't explain the sticks, though, lol.

Graham Kennedy wrote:Maybe that's what Stormtrooper armour is for? Maybe nobody expects it to stop blaster shots?

Or it's to mitigate the effects of blaster fire - not enough to shrug off the shots, but enough to reduce a fatal injury to "just" a very serious one, or to force the opposition to crank up their power levels enough to penetrate the armour effectively and the cost of serious reduced ammunition capacity.

Can't explain the sticks, though, lol.

It's armour, not an inertial dampener, so if they get hit hard enough they'll still go down.

You'd think there would be padding inside of it, though.

Padding can only do so much.

Someone can probably do the math on how hard that stick is hitting the armor.

Also it is just a stick. Not a heavy one.

In Japan and Korea, the bo or bong have had long histories of being folk weapons used against armored aristocratic (or invading) opponents. Even vaunted upper-class weapons such as the naginata were described by some authors as being used in a manner to incorporate the butt end as much as the blade. In fact, against Japanese-style shogunate-period armor - which is exquisitely and finely specialized against cutting blades - such weapons would be preferred. In like manner, Oakshotte et. al. have described in detail how historically the main component of damage arising from European swords as weapons at least until the Renaissance was from impact rather than cutting. The Swiss maintained their sovereignty through all of the Middle Ages largely thanks to to the morgenstern/gudentag, which was essentially little more than a slightly lengthened, heavy baseball bat. Simple threshing flails were turned into devastatingly effective blunt-impact anti-armor weapons.

Nutso wrote:

In what reality is this anything approaching within ten billion light-years of 'good idea'?!??!?!

Keep your luggage warm?

Nutso wrote:

Keep your luggage warm?

Buy our bags, we're so stupid.