Woldan

Don't need magic for that! What about completely covering yourself in oil like those Turkish wrestlers? Do the eel!

Long hair CAN be a huge disadvantage and in a life or death fight you sure as hell want as few disadvantages as possible. Simple as that. And the danger is not just grabbing it, hair can also get caught in one of the armors many latches and fasteners when moving around which could definitely create a painful distraction for the wearer. I don't see how a professional fighter would ignore these dangers.

Ah too bad its a low grade material, I have two rifles with case hardened receivers and I absolutely love the look on the steel. There is also another way to give steel a colorful appearance without using chemicals or coatings, with heat coloring for example you can get deep blue and yellow-ish color variations depending on the composition of the metal. Looks great. Is pattern welded steel the same as Damascus steel?

Congratulations on your stupidity. Dragonflies don't just look pretty they also absolutely love to eat mosquitoes and horseflies by the dozens. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Next time you get stung by mosquitoes or bitten by horseflies think about that.

Tiny blue-ish ones? Sounds like the Ebony Jewelwing, they're incredibly beautiful and are usually found at streams and rivers.

What do they look like?

There are lot of those big Libellula depressa (flat bodied chaser) and their larva in my garden, they're really pretty. This specimen is a young female:

If you really think that weapon that can easily cut off a leg - the body part where the strongest bones in the human body are located- can't cut or damage a wooden shaft twice the thickness of your thumb......then you really have no clue about the density and strength of wood. You are seriously saying that hitting stationary wood does more damage to a wooden shaft than a razor sharp steel blade hitting said shaft at ~70 km/h? I don't think it was easy, probably nothing was easy when fighting in meele combat. And what book are we talking about? Just because this particular book doesn't mention this tactic doesn't mean it never existed. Different books show vastly different fighting techniques. Wiki: ''Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to a change in its state of motion or rest, or the tendency of an object to resist any change in its motion. The principle of inertia is one of the fundamental principles of classical physics which are used to describe the motion of matter and how it is affected by applied forces. Inertia comes from the Latin word, iners, meaning idle, or lazy. '' When someone is holding a wooden shaft in his hands its more likely that a blade cuts the heavier shaft because it does not move as easily as the lighter piece of wood and offers more resistance. Its possible to cut or damage a heavy polearm even when its not resting on a solid object so that it cant move. Because the Greatswords had more reach and more importantly a LOT of cutting power. Sounds perfect for this particular task. The Katzbalger was a backup weapon.

Weather? Weather here could be best described as beginning nuclear winter. Its been awful the past 3 weeks now, and its getting colder. Its raining non-stop, night temperatures drop below freezing and its windy here like on a bad day on Saturn. I haven't seen the sun in weeks. Its almost June and it feels like November, its crazy, it should be 20C° warmer that it is right now. Worst spring / early summer ever,

Has this already been posted?

^ I did not know that LMGTP's were allowed to drive on public roads, even under special conditions like events etc. Cool. What I did today? I totally used a tiny spot of oxidation on my warknife sword as an excuse to go on a polishing rampage. Polished it with metal polish and cloth, the blade is now unbelievable shiny and thats how I like my steel. Polished steel has a very smooth surface and moisture will not make it into the pores of the steel to cause oxidation. Its funny how rust resistant polished steel actually is.

But wood thats alive will not snap as easily as completely dead, dry wood. And wood never really dies unless you let it rot, you still have to take care of it that it does not get too dry and loses its flexibility with oil and various other products. I repaired many WWI and WWII rifle stocks over the years, really dry wood has a tendency to split and crack on its own. So you better not wield a polearm that has a ''dead'' wooden shaft. You're TOTALLY underestimating mass inertia. You must be joking. Said swords were able to cut off a leg in a single blow. What is a leg made off? Layers of tough muscle and 5cm wide very tough (shin) bone. Said weapon would have no problem at all to make it through a comparetively little piece of hardwood, or break it. If you really think that a two handed greatsword wielded by a guy who knows what hes doing does not make it through 5cm wooden shaft with a powerful overhead blow you have probably never swung a greatsword to begin with. I did, and I tell you, a greatsword has an awful lot of force behind it, it can cut far tougher stuff than a little piece of wood. In fact, that was the main task of the Doppelsöldner in the 30 year war, Landsknechts that had the dangerous task to engage and destroy pikemen formations and they indeed smashed and cut their pikes with their zweihänder. Heck, I have a bastard sword, if I ever find a wooden shaft similar to those on polearms I'll let it hold by someone and cut it through with one hit of my sword, I promise.

I'd love to live in lower Dorns Deep.

Pretty much this. We tried it while drunk once. Ouch. Perfect testing conditions.

If you want to cut a small tree, wooden shaft or pole the trick is not to cut it a 90 degree angle, make it 70 degrees, that way it cannot bend as much and absorb the energy. Even if you can't make it all the way through the shaft is going to be split and seriously damaged. Mass inertia. When you just hit hard and fast enough it doesn't matter if the heavy polearm is held by someone or resting on two bricks. Also, with an overhead blow the polearm is going to hit the ground if the sword cant make it through it and the mass of the sword will still break or damage it.

Wooden shafts are eeeasy to cut with a bladed weapon, I used to cut down small trees approx the diameter of a human wrist with ONE thrust of my machete. I think it would be rather easy to cut a pollaxe shaft with a great sword. And they also break. I already broke a 5cm wide fireaxe shaft when splitting some firewood, I missed the log, did not hit it with the blade but with the shaft instead, right below the head. Even though it has a metal protection there the shaft snapped in two. Replace the log with a blunt weapon and you'd get the same result. And thats just a two handed axe, imagine the leverage effect with a shaft three times longer with a head 50% heavier. I'm not trying to make polearms look bad, they're my favorite medieval meele weapons, but they have their limitations and weaknesses, like any other weapon system.

Love the piano....

Theres always drawbacks. When you wield a polearm you're in deep *beep* when someone gets really close to you with a small maneuverable weapon, you can't hit him and you'll get raped by a short sword/mace. But when wielding a polearm first rule is to keep your enemies at distance so they cant reach you but you can reach them.....and you'd be carrying a backup weapon anyway. Another drawback is polearms with wooden shafts can be damaged and rendered useless by one solid blow of blade (yes, even those polearms protected with some steel just below the tip/head), thats what the soldiers with the huge greatswords did, hack away the pikes, break the formation and let the guys with the smaller weapons in to slaughter the pikemen. Also, polearms are a *beep* to carry, ever dragged a 8ft long halberd through a dense forest? And good luck with sheating them... Oh, and blocking with polearms is very difficult, the rather vulnerable wooden shaft being one reason for that. You better be protected by a good plate armor when wielding polearms. And last but not least, maneuverability at close quarters can be very bad with polearms. (BUT, they can also be excellent weapons when fighting in - for example- a narrow alley, swordsmen cant use their weapons except for stabbing, and thats where polearms really shine.) All weapons have drawbacks, halberds/spears are just another tool in the toolbox. Personally, I'd be happy with a halberd or a Lucerne hammer, I'm tall and strong, when I'm doing my job I could smash, hack and stab my attackers before they could even reach me.

If you want to learn how drive with a MT w/o killing yourself or the gearbox buy a PS3, driving simulator a'la Gran Turismo 5, get yourself a Driving Force pro steering Wheel + 3 pedals and blast away! Use a fast racecar and drive the German Nordschleife, thats 1000 gear shifts per hour. Drove the 24 hour race that way, sore arm + sore big left toe. Love it, so much more fun than automatic.

Don't be a sissy and just do it.

Just repaired the holiest place in my house - the shower! Removed the old silicone gap filler between shower floor and wall, removed some dirt, polished the surfaces and filled it up with lots of new silicone. I also cleaned the rest of the shower with steel wool. I wish there was less chalk in the water, it makes cleaning a chore.

Watched sunshine, even though the plot is rolleyes, some scenes that make the space-physics-nerd in my cry out loud plus the twist at the end that almost destroys the film ( I still think the director should be drop-kicked in the face by a 300lbs wrestler for this) the beautiful scenes, the solid acting and the suspenseful soundtrack still make it entertaining and worth watching. Oh, and Rose Byrne automatically gives the film two bonus points! Without the stupid twist at the end the film would have easily scored an 8 if not 8.5 for me. Watch it in blu-ray, the quality is spectacular.