While multipurpose tools are always fun, how is the Chinese army shovel particularly noteworthy? I'm pretty sure you can get an almost identical model from, say, REI. Or the /US/ Army's surplus.

...actually, they likely all come from the same factory, huh?

It slices, it dices, it opens cans, bottles and jars; but wait there's more; you can also use it as an axe, can your shovel do THIS, I don't think so! So call now, operators are standing by.

Repeat above sentence with different features, repeatedly. Until someone buys every last shovel you have in stock.

Also, you can use it to determine the height of a skyscraper.

They forgot to show in the video that you could of course kill people with that shovel.

Every comment on this thread so far (20+) has said that this story is not noteworthy in some fashion or another -- and it has a lot of upvotes and is the top ten.

??

how is this any different from any other army's entrenching tools? Yes there are a few extras added to it but it is not in any way more ingenious than what's already available elsewhere.

I love the rousing music accompanying the video, it's like something from The Great Escape!

Looks like a pretty standard multifunction shovel to me.

I love the video player they're using. Instead of 'scrubbing' over the video when you drag the playhead during playback (like most online video), it has something like the Red Book Audio CD 'search' algorithm; it plays a short sample over and over. Hilarity ensues.

Put a USB memory stick in it and I'll buy it.

I have a few e-Tools too, but nothing like this. And the outdoorsman in me would really like one of these, versus the two anemic and subpar e-Tools I already own. So to all you guys who are like "oh yeah, just swing by REI" or "yeah I have one just like that" (yes, I'm hyperbolizing a tad) it'd be nice if you'd show us where we could get one that's more like this one and less like the ones you can buy for $50 at big retail sporting goods stores.

kthx.

The shovel is pretty cool, but I kept on marveling at just how fast the soldiers work when a propaganda video is being made.

You can buy similar tools on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.ca/New-Folding-Camp-Army-Shovel-Tool-Entrenc...

Damn, the Chinese have invented everything! The compass, gunpowder, chopsticks, printing press and now this!

Although, the fact that their inventiveness missed baking, opting instead to stir fry everything, is a point I bring up often with my Chinese colleagues during lunch.

I see they're already preparing for WW IV. The Shovel War.

I see nothing new here because the German army used this in WW2 and possibly™ even sooner (they called it "Schanzspaten").

<call a spade a spade joke>

Is that spam, at 4:55 ?

my question is what can this shovel not do ?

TL;DW

I am super scared of Chinese military now, because they can use their shovels to open cans of Spam.

PROPAGANDA EFFECTIVE