Also…Samurai X…anyone?
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Inserting dumb generational stuff about “Millenials” and “Gen Xer” in this is just stupid. If you had some actual indication that this guy was targeting people based on age, maybe - but there’s nothing like that in the article. C’mon Boing Boing, you can do better.
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Fred Colon knew the really, really important thing about a pike was that it was a very long stick. And that meant any unpleasantness was on the other end, far away from you.
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I must be an idiot today. What does the “Singles” trailer have to do with this? Is it just the gen x connection?
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It took me 56 seconds of watching the trailer before I realized the 1992 movie “Singles” has nothing to do with this story. (I honestly thought there was a punchline, and I wanted to see what it was)
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nothing .
Why does Snow Crash suddenly spring to mind?
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I’m actually amazed the clickbait headder was not:
San Francisco millenials attacked by legally obtained assault katana wielding GenXr”
I would hate to get stabbed in the tenderloin
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You might like this. When I was in elementary school in Tulsa, that dress sword made an appearance in a school play. Well, they needed a sword and I had one. So, yes I brought a real (if not fully functional) sword to elementary school. It was still quite pointy. Years earlier, I brought a box of broken glass in for my third grade skit that needed sound effects of someone kicking in a TV. And then there was the gun I used in 12th grade when I wanted to do that bit where George pretends to shoot Martha from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf for English class. I had to just say ‘bang’ as it was an actual gun. I cannot believe what I got away with.
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Nora Charles: I read where you were shot 5 times in the tabloids.
Nick Charles: It’s not true. He didn’t come anywhere near my tabloids.
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In 3rd grade, I brought a shoebox with 8 bark scorpions in it to our class show and tell. teacher freaked out, drama ensued, parents were called.
i got in big trouble because my parents didn’t even know i had caught them and was keeping them in a box under my bed, let alone that I had brought them to show and tell. turns out adults aren’t as open minded about arachnology.
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I studied Iaido for several years; it’s truly unbelievable how much damage you can do in a few seconds with a katana if you have a basic idea of how to use it. No force is needed because the blade does all the work. A simple slice will cut to the bone every time. an angled stab below the breastbone (blade pointed up from horizontal by 30 degrees but pushed straight forward) will bleed you out in about 3 seconds.
Miyamoto Musashi fought and won 59 duels to the death with a katana. However in one duel, he defeated and killed another Samurai that was using a katana; Musashi used a bokken, a wooden practice sword.
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And at that a katana is nothing special far as longswords or sabres go. Swords are dangerousl
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Pretty stunned as well. (I assume) innocent people were hurt, possibly gravely. Not like Darwin awarding or anything else like that. I expect better of BoingBoing
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So true! Even a Medieval broadsword can’t cut bread but will cleave your arm (or head) from your body. A razor sharp edge isn’t necessary.
Katanas are very technically advanced blades; repeatedly folding the heated steel produces martensite at the knife edge to take and hold a very hard and sharp edge. A katana is like a sports car of swords - it’s light, handles well, slices easily and requires a lot of maintenance.
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They’re around 18-38, with some fuzzyness around the edges to account for sibling age, school years, etc.
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I’m 33, and squarely millennial.
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the katana is something quite special, one the most efficient yet powerful swords ever devised. there have been a number of documentaries into the physics behind different sword types and styles. it strikes a particularly powerful balance. they aren’t the only culture to arrive at a devastatingly powerful and efficient sword design, but it unquestionably stands strong among the best of them.
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Uh, not my first rodeo with swords, including Japanese blades. Japanese swords are NOT super-magic extra-advanced blades unequaled the world over. Pattern-welded steel was not unique to Japan, and in fact a lot of the Grand Tradition of Japanese bladesmithing was a response to living in an iron-poor place and having to make do with iron sands instead of better ore. In other parts of the world pattern welded steel, wootz and other crucible steels were well-known.
European swords were not dull, primitive, crude hunks of steel. Again, pattern welded “Damascus” was in use many centuries ago. And when Europeans started making swords from spring steel, something which Japan never did, there was no need to do things like stacking, folding, and welding.
So yes, Japanese swords had their good points, but they were not the be-all and end-all of swords, neither in geometry, construction, or use.
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