Varangian wrote:Oh, fake Ray-Bans! I love dissecting those. Usually pretty shoddy quality, and some are even potentially dangerous (non-tempered mineral glass lenses of half the thickness of the originals - an accident waiting to happen).

It's only the frames that are fake. They get the same lenses put in them as any other glasses. And there's no actual glass anywhere on my glasses.

I'm With Stupid wrote:

Varangian wrote:Oh, fake Ray-Bans! I love dissecting those. Usually pretty shoddy quality, and some are even potentially dangerous (non-tempered mineral glass lenses of half the thickness of the originals - an accident waiting to happen).

It's only the frames that are fake. They get the same lenses put in them as any other glasses. And there's no actual glass anywhere on my glasses.

OK, so you have prescription lenses put in them? I'm speaking of the fake brand sunglasses sold at tourist resorts and online, which mainly feed the criminal networks behind them.

Varangian wrote:

I'm With Stupid wrote:

Varangian wrote:Oh, fake Ray-Bans! I love dissecting those. Usually pretty shoddy quality, and some are even potentially dangerous (non-tempered mineral glass lenses of half the thickness of the originals - an accident waiting to happen).

It's only the frames that are fake. They get the same lenses put in them as any other glasses. And there's no actual glass anywhere on my glasses.

OK, so you have prescription lenses put in them? I'm speaking of the fake brand sunglasses sold at tourist resorts and online, which mainly feed the criminal networks behind them.

Yeah, I know they're dangerous. They don't always have UV protection, which means that they're actually worse than not wearing sunglasses, because they cause your iris to open up more, causing more UV rays to go into your eyes.

As for criminal networks, there's a very blurred line between criminal networks and legitimate businesses in Vietnam. The biggest criminal network is the police/government themselves. If you want to run a completely legitimate business in this country, you have to pay constant bribes to keep certain people off your back (most of which have government connections or are explicitly working for the government). A large number of counterfeit goods are made in legitimate businesses that otherwise make perfectly legal products for the export market. And whether or not they engage in criminal behaviour, they still have to bribe people as if they were doing something wrong. So why wouldn't they make some extra cash by selling anything that is popular?

I know a bloke who started a bar, bringing lots of bands from overseas. He had constant hassle from the police, despite everything being completely above board and signed off by the government. Corrupt pieces of shit from the police would show up every night threatening to close him down if he didn't pay a bribe (which would be good for an hour or so). There's very little legal recourse when it's the police that are the ones threatening your business. What did he do? He brought in a "business partner" who is one of the shadiest characters in the city, and suddenly all his police problems went away. My point is that when you buy anything over here (or stay in any hotel, or go to any bar), even if it's from a completely legitimate business, you're almost certainly helping to fund the criminal network to a small extent. Admittedly in Western Europe, there's more of a distinction between the two.

Just a followup on Zenni...

managed to lose one pair and run over the other with the motorcycle so was reduced to my nearfield glasses which tire my eyes when used for the computer

Put in an order on April 4th
Built and shipped by April 10th
Arrived April 18th in Australia and that's with the easter weekend 4 day nonsense in the middle. China to Australia through customs...$10 shipping....fast delivery. Two pairs of titanium frame rimless glasses - very good refractive index and all the surface treatments.

1.67 High-Index Single Vision

ANTI-REFLECTION COATING
Oleophobic (oil and fingerprint resistant) premium anti-reflective coating

Less than $200 delivered for two pair.....build to order done right and quick.

I'll see if I can hang on to these .....they are a different design so not so prone to pop out a pocket as my hingeless stainless steel previous version.

••••

your Viet police story reminds me of the cop with the portable no parking sign and his hand out in Sierra Leone.
Good gig.

I'm wondering who the real predators are in various corrupt economies? Is it the type with police in bed with petty criminals running these illegal businesses? Or is it banksters who deal in ripoffs thousands of times, even millions of times, as large as these pirates and other manufacturers of inferior products, or the police hustling in what is a protection racket? One example of massive scope is the bank diddling with LIBOR rates, effectively screwing 100s of millions of folk. That one incident could dwarf whole banana republic's 10 year corruption totals. At least with the banksters, it's the respectable folk who are the chiselers.

Predators can come at any level ....dilute the whisky in the Crown Royal bottle at the bar to the LIBOR. Predator control especially at corporate and gov AND police/military level is the toughest challenge modern civilization faces.

I'm hard on glasses and didn't check the screws on the new titanium frames. Motorcycle broke down and one arm came off and lost in the grass ( believe me I looked )

$28 delivered for a new frame and install tool.

Scot Dutchy wrote:

natselrox wrote:

The_Metatron wrote:Who's the old guy?

Scot Dutchy.

HOI!

I am much better looking than that and I dont have grey hair either.

No, you dye it!

Check out Selectspecs as well.

https://www.selectspecs.com/