Reminds me of the time that I observed an old woman walking home from the grocery store, who tripped and fell on her face as I drove by. Blood streamed from her face as I immediately pulled over to the side of the road and ran to her aid. I shouted at the bystanders to go get some towels to stem the bleeding as I checked to see if she was okay and called for help on my (at the time, fairly rare) cellular phone.

She asked me not to call the police, but to call her son-in-law, instead. She gave me the number and he came in about 10 minutes, as I sat by her side, helped to calm her jittery nerves and ensure that she was alright.

Three years later, she called me at random to thank me for my kindness. It was the least I could do and was surprising that so few people would have done likewise.

I've played airsoft like this for a few years now off an on so feel well enough qualified to comment.

It's largely a matter of range. Most sites allow up to 500fps on snipers (and some american ones go up to 800 or so I believe), but they have a minimum engagement range (usually about 25 meters, presumably more for the silly american ones).

Basically, non automatic sniper rifles are allowed to be significantly more powerful than the 330fps (400 in some countries) other weapons are limited to, but as a result can't be used at short range (that's what pistols and compact SMG's are for!).

If you are close to the minimum range limit and it hits unprotected skin, they sting really badly, enough to draw a little blood sometimes. It's not entirely dissimilar to being whipped by a wet towel, excruciating for about half a second then it tails off to just stinging and swearing.

If it hits your vest, glasses, hat etc. then it wont really hurt at all (but you still felt it you cheating bastards! ), likewise if you are out beyond 50meters or so as the power drops off with range as you'd expect. (My brother can sometimes make shots out to 70-80meters with a VSR but you can barely feel it)

Shoot at point blank and your target can be forgiven for walking over and punching you in the face....right after they stop swearing and get up off the ground. (entirely possible to penetrate exposed skin at that range)

In practice though, trying to storm a building/room vs automatic rifles etc. tends to be far more painful an experience than being sniped. Unless that is someone snipes the inside of your nose sideways on (it hurt as much as you imagine it did).

We also once had a guy knocked clean out by a grenade launcher to the face at point blank . But it was a Co2 powered thing and I believe they aren't allowed inside buildings any more (can't think why).

Re: paintballs, in my much more limited experience, they are waaaaay worse than BB's if they are full power and reasonably close range. Concussions, broken bones and broken skin are all entirely possible (though not likely), but bruises and welts are basically standard issue.

I believe some sites run compressed air guns (rather than Co2) at much lower power levels, so I imagine they are a lot more tolerable.
Paintballers tend to be more on the extreme sports side of things (wheras airsoft tends to be more biased towards military geeks/gamers), and so many sites have a bit of a "pain is weakness leaving the body" attitude to power levels.

In the UK at least the velocity limit for paintballs at competition level is 300fps, for most airsoft sites the limit is 330fps. You only have to look at a BB vs a paintball to see what a discrepancy in energy that equates to!!!

We had a squirrel behave a bit like this in our yard a few years ago. It kept trying and failing to climb a tree, couldn't get more than a foot off the ground without falling off backwards. We happened to know someone who volunteers at a local wildlife rescue center, so I put on some thick gloves and grabbed it in a nice soft towel, then put it in a cat carrier. A few days later we heard back that it had made a full recovery, and they suspected it was drunk. Turns out that when doing some home renovation my father in law had moved our compost bin slightly, but not all of the compost that it was covering. We assume the squirrel got into some old fruit that had fermented and got good and tore up.

Problem with those is they don't break down quick enough and end up clogging sewer systems if used daily. It's why your parents probably told you never to flush kitchen towel down the toilet either, same problem - just doesn't break down quick enough to prevent blockage.

Toilet paper is designed to avoid this problem (except that waxy shiny toilet paper found in public toilets that probably costs 2 quid for a hundred rolls since nobody wants to buy it).

This boring bit of trivia was brought to you by your local water reprocessing plant!

I've worked the back of the house (dish washer, prep cook, pantry cook, line cook), and the front of the house (bartender, server).

I never got tipped in the back of the house, but I worked harder and utilized more skills. I got paid hourly, and would therefore milk the clock as much as possible to help buy booze and pay the rent.

As a bartender, I've worked at night clubs, dive bars, martini bars, hotel bars, house parties and I was paid a decent hourly, which was essential for those slow and lonely Monday night shifts. But I made good money on the weekends. However, it usually takes time to work your way to those lucrative spots.

As a server, I get paid a little more than $2 an hour plus tips. But the tips are so impossible to calculate because of a myriad of factors -- how many servers are on, how many tables are reserved, how many parties, what's going on at the Arena, what's going on at the Lied, is it snowing, is it raining, is there a sporting event going on, are they splitting the bill, have they worked in the industry, are they from a country unfamiliar with tipping, was the food good, was the food cold, was the drink stiff, was the wine paired well, was the host pretty, was the bathroom out of paper towels, ad nausea -- that budgeting is impossible. I don't auto grat (gratuity of 18 percent of the bill for parties of seven or more) unless it's a sorority party, Mormons, or New Year's Eve, and that's only because I've been burned so badly by these groups.

What most diners don't realize is that it's really a matter of real estate -- and on a busy weekend night one server may be lucky to 'have' four to six tables with a variable of two and four seats. Dinner is generally served between the hours of 5-11. So, this gives the server a set number of data points for the evening (side note, so for the love God don't linger at a table if you're not ordering anything! When a server is forced to refill your water at $2 an hour, it's rude and disrespectful. That's what bars are for). In addition, most servers 'tip out' the host and bartender staff. On a weekend night, I typically tipped out 22 percent, and I never knew if I'd make $30 or $130.

So I know the business fairly well (I even studied hospitality in Vegas for a minute), and as a server I can make your experience remarkable. Ironically, the best tippers are younger college-era students working in the industry.

I think if anything is going to eliminate tipping in the service industry, it'll be some sort of computerized experiment where you sit at a table and punch in what you want. Till then, be conscientious and considerate when you wine and dine.

Never forget to bring a towel.

You had me at towel.

Something's wrong, all my paper towels are entombed in some sort of plastic shell. I tried wiping them on spills, but all it did was spread it around!

Paper.....towels?

I don't make Waffles because I need to use that silly machine. Why would I ever want to use this thing - what they don't tell you here, is they overflow and drip out the sides -- all over your burners....
I use a regular Teflon griddle, wipe minimal oil on with a paper towel, and have no issues flipping anything.

Talk about trying to sell people things we don't need.

Oh, and that thing limits you to four at a time, I can make up to eight at a time, because I don't have restrictions..., not to mention little ones and big ones...

Something does not have to be illegal for it to be suspicious. If you are found to be carrying a hammer and a towel down a residential street at night, you will be stopped and checked out to be sure you aren't using them to steal from cars or homes. That doesn't make hammers illegal, it makes someone carrying one at night suspicious.
A gun on your hip on a public street is more suspicious than a hammer, and at the least should give the officer the ability to stop and identify the person carrying it. In most jurisdictions, you must identify yourself to an officer when asked, (but nothing more) and they can 'hold' you until your identity is known.
As mentioned before, he could be a felon, therefore committing another felony by carrying a gun...therefore it's legally suspicious. Or you might be a known suspect in another crime...suspicious. Or you might be about to use that gun for a crime...suspicious. Or you might be selling crack and using the visible gun as a deterrent other crack dealers....also suspicious. So yes, anyone intentionally visibly carrying a gun on main street (where there's no need for a gun to protect yourself from anything) is suspicious, just as anyone carrying 15 legal knives would be, or someone with a samurai sword, or handcuffs, a blindfold, and a stun gun might be...none of them illegal but totally suspicious.
His actions were suspicious, more so when he won't identify himself. The officer could have said he 'met the description of a suspect at large', which he (and nearly everyone else on earth) does, there's lots of suspects at large of every description, and as I understand it he could have held him until they identified him. (really I would see that as harassment, but as I understand the law it would be allowed, I was held for 'meeting the description' of a vandal once, and the person eventually arrested turned out to be a 25 year old 6 foot black man, while at the time I was a 13 year old, 5 foot tall white boy).
Yes, people who act in a way that 'freaks normal people out' will likely be stopped and inspected if they're reported. We have all tacitly agreed to that long ago.

*howto

better make sure the paper towel is firmly attached.

Holy crap. I'm wondering if it might just have been safer to stay in the water and keep diving as long as you can. The people huddled under the beach towel must've had some nasty bruises.

Except the obviously better way to avoid waste in public bathrooms is to not have paper towels in them at all--like here in Japan. While a few restrooms have air driers, everyone is expected to bring their own hand cloth about the size of a handkerchief with them that serves as a towel after you go to to restroom. You chuck it in the wash at the end of the day and grab a clean one off the rack (most people have half a dozen or so at home).