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Loxley was referring to a common criticism of Stormtroopers in Star Wars, who despite their heavy armor appear to be vulnerable to everything from blasters to fuzzy little Ewoks. (Some apologists for the film try to explain away these shortcomings in highly esoteric terms.)Loxley is lucky his armor was more effective than its cinematic counterpart. King browns, or mulgas, are among Australia's most venomous snakes, known for their savage bites and the unparalleled volume of venom they can inject. The cause of the most snakebite deaths in Australia, their toxins can cause blood coagulation and poison the brain and kidneys unless treated swiftly.And that's not the only poisonous Loxley might have encountered. The king brown is only the 13th deadliest animal living on Loxley's route, according to the Australian Museum's danger rankings.I'm walking up the hill and I see a snake on the side of the road… He's kind of coiled up and I thought he was another dead snake and I just continued to walk past him.
Ha, turns out he wasn't dead. A big, old king brown … and he's, um, lunged at me and bit me. But the good news is the armor—he bit me in the shin and the armor actually protected me and stopped the bite. I could feel the teeth on the plastic scraping.
But the armor actually stopped something. So all those people who rag on the old Stormtroopers, you know, The armor doesn't do this, it doesn't do that, it stopped a snake bite and probably saved my life today.
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