Nice people thread part 7 - a thread in its prime

hjd

GDB2222 wrote: »

Once again, my shredder has broken! Can anyone suggest one that is reasonably bullet-proof, please? It's a real shame that the main shredding mechanism survives, but the plasticky bits don't. Presumably, a really good one costs £100's?

(Although we keep it in the kitchen, I am talking about a paper shredder, btw.)

We have a MS 1500 cross cut Partners label. (Rymans). This has been great; we have burned out/broken plenty of shredders before this. I work from home and generate a lot of paper, plus had masses of files' worth to shred when we were clearing out ready for our house to go on the market. Expect it's now obsolete though. It has even survived being fed a 50p piece. The 50p piece was in a bit of a state though..

Generali

GDB2222 wrote: »

No. Wodehouse has the advantage of being out of copyright.

I suspect that most of Nancy Mitford's work is too.

Love in a Cold Climate was published in 1949.

zagubov

GDB2222 wrote: »

Wodehouse is good for light relief.

At the moment, I am ploughing steadily through Machiavelli's The Pince. It's all perfectly logical and precise. For example, he casually mentions that, if usurping another prince's lands, it is necessary not just to kill that prince but the whole of his blood line. No justification is given, it being 'obvious' that his family might otherwise provide a rallying point for dissidents.

I believe Pol Pot did the same. If the Khmer Rouge executed people they tended to line up and shoot all the male relatives so there would be nobody to take revenge.

Plus anyone with glasses or uncalloused hands.

GDB2222

Generali wrote: »

I suspect that most of Nancy Mitford's work is too.

Love in a Cold Climate was published in 1949.

It seems to be that copyright now expires 70 years after the author's death. She died in 1973.

GDB2222

hjd wrote: »

We have a MS 1500 cross cut Partners label. (Rymans). This has been great; we have burned out/broken plenty of shredders before this. I work from home and generate a lot of paper, plus had masses of files' worth to shred when we were clearing out ready for our house to go on the market. Expect it's now obsolete though. It has even survived being fed a 50p piece. The 50p piece was in a bit of a state though..

Can't find it on their website. The recently expired one was a Rymans own brand one.

GDB2222

zagubov wrote: »

I believe Pol Pot did the same. If the Khmer Rouge executed people they tended to line up and shoot all the male relatives so there would be nobody to take revenge.

Plus anyone with glasses or uncalloused hands.

I wonder whether Cambodians now have generally excellent eyesight as a result of that?

Generali

GDB2222 wrote: »

I wonder whether Cambodians now have generally excellent eyesight as a result of that?

....or perhaps merely a higher road death toll.

GDB2222

Generali wrote: »

....or perhaps merely a higher road death toll.

It did occur to me that the smart move was to ditch the glasses, and anyone too dumb to do that would have been weeded out. So, maybe they now have a generally more intellectual population as a result of Pol Pot's attempt to extirpate the intellectuals?

Well, anyway, you can see where reading Machiavelli takes you.

zagubov

GDB2222 wrote: »

I wonder whether Cambodians now have generally excellent eyesight as a result of that?

Once some students were asking about whether famines could made people evolve to need less food. I explained they already have and that's why some people get fat.

By the same token, populations whose ancestors were subject to water shortage can survive dehydration better but are more likely to have high blood pressure.

Generali wrote: »

....or perhaps merely a higher road death toll.

Apparently, he made them drive the cars out of the cities to sink in swamps, then used work gangs to break up the roads. Kind of like Hitler's autobahn building in reverse.

Then got on with abandoning the cities, abolishing money and sport, and the rest of it. Wonder what Machiavelli would have thought of all this if he'd seen these clowns in action rather than the Borgias.

vivatifosi

Morning all.

Re copyright. My understanding is it is the time duration after the death of the last contributor. Therefore if you have an author. Who wrote a book alone, it will be x years after their death. If you have a collaboration though it is different. It is the case that some gershwin is out of copyright as he died quite young, whereas the stuff he did with his brother is still in copyright. This is an important year as a lot of composers work comes out of copyright this year.

Also i think rights differ from country to countyr.

Hope this rads. Ok cannot preview from phone.