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Cydrome Leader

Steve Ackman wrote:
In , on Fri, 19 Jun 2009
01:01:09 -0500, Don Foreman, wrote:

Tools are scary to a populace generally unaccustomed to use of tools.
Tradesmen use tools, military use weapons, and so on.

I once hired (rented) a small electric chainsaw (Milwaukee if it
matters) at a hire shop in London to cut down a rather runty lila
tree. We could have done it in 5 minutes with a bucksaw -- if they
had bucksaws there, but I didn't see any at the local store and my
SIL wanted to do it with a chainsaw so that's what we did.

The dufflebag full of safety kit that came with that chainsaw was
amazing. I don't know how anyone could work wearing all that stuff.
Chaps, knee guards, full face shield, earmuffs, gauntlets, holy moly
Ole! The guy said they had to supply it with each rental and we were
strongly advised to use it.

Apparently it's actually the law in Germany, not only
to USE the safety gear, but to get a permit to operate a
chainsaw. This from an acquaintance there (ca Dec '08).

That's probably to discourage people from working. Germany likes to have
the highest unemployment rate of any place with tap water that's safe to
drink.