Now they sport desert-hued outfits with a digitalised pattern redesigned for added stealth.

ECONOMIST: Canada's armed forces

The integration adds yet another feature to BeoSound 5, expanding its range of digital music with Spotify's massive music catalogue in addition to the owner's own digitalised tracks and 14, 000 internet radio stations.

ENGADGET: Bang & Olufsen announces Spotify partnership, brings streaming integration to BeoSound 5

All the more so in the 1970s, when meteorology was a less exact science, bus-shelters ran no digitalised information, no one had mobile phones to explain what they were doing or where they were going or when they might be expected, and pre-Raphaelite hair, beards, flares, maxi-skirts and platform shoes turned any encounter with the elements (as any attempt to descend at speed from the upper deck) into serious drama, if not trauma.

ECONOMIST: Jack Scott and Reg Varney