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A door at a Swedish library was accidentally left open

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31–40 of 112 posts

Re: A door at a Swedish library was accidentally left open

#31

If you read the news every day, you might be forgiven for thinking that most people are naturally evil. In reality the vast majority are actually good, or trend towards acting in a positive manner at the very least. I've seen two sorts of IRL applications rely on this: Self checkout at stores, and sites like wikipedia and openstreetmap. Or just western society in general, if you think about it. Most of the time we tr…

I deeply believe that most people are evil.

But also what is the point of stealing few marked books. There really isn't that much money in them and they are quite hard to flip.

Re: A door at a Swedish library was accidentally left open

#32

If you leave your wallet on the ground in a park in SF, the chances you’ll get it back are probably pretty high. If you leave it in your locked car, your car will probably get broken into. Thieves are strategic. They’re not looking around in parks for lost wallets, nor are they going to libraries hoping they can lift a bunch of unattended books.

I don't want to give them any ideas, but some books are expensive/of high value/rare/etc.

Re: A door at a Swedish library was accidentally left open

#33

I just don’t understand the line, “To date, all the books have been returned.” Are they still expecting tomorrow that some of these books will no longer have been returned?

I means that regularly books are lost in libraries for various reasons, but for this particular time range, (surprisingly) all were returned

Re: A door at a Swedish library was accidentally left open

#34
post #6

Recently, we were at a resort in Switzerland. Arguably one of the safest countries on earth. But: as we exited the swimming pool house, our umbrella was gone. I said „what an irony, the first time we have something stolen is in Switzerland“. Two hours later, the umbrella was again where we had left it: someone must have borrowed it to protect themselves/their children from heavy rain. We understood why there were no…

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Re: A door at a Swedish library was accidentally left open

#35
post #8
post #6

Recently, we were at a resort in Switzerland. Arguably one of the safest countries on earth. But: as we exited the swimming pool house, our umbrella was gone. I said „what an irony, the first time we have something stolen is in Switzerland“. Two hours later, the umbrella was again where we had left it: someone must have borrowed it to protect themselves/their children from heavy rain. We understood why there were no…

Thefts at train stations and bike thefts are very common in Switzerland. Japan is by far much safer than any European country.

There's a saying that as soon as you leave your bike at a train station, it belongs to the public.

Re: A door at a Swedish library was accidentally left open

#36
post #6

Recently, we were at a resort in Switzerland. Arguably one of the safest countries on earth. But: as we exited the swimming pool house, our umbrella was gone. I said „what an irony, the first time we have something stolen is in Switzerland“. Two hours later, the umbrella was again where we had left it: someone must have borrowed it to protect themselves/their children from heavy rain. We understood why there were no…

[flagged]

The food is also very safe in Switzerland

Re: A door at a Swedish library was accidentally left open

#37
post #10

Tangentially, is it just me, or is "To date, all the books have been returned." a bit of an awkward sentence? If I were going to use "To date" - I feel like I would use it to indicate there is more to happen at a future date, but in this context, it seems there is nothing left to happen? Not trying to be pedantic or nitpick, genuinely curious if I've been using To date incorrectly.

Books get different return-by dates based on their popularity in Sweden, so some have to be returned in a e.g. week, some in a month. So perhaps they just meant that none of the return deadlines have been missed so far?

Re: A door at a Swedish library was accidentally left open

#38
post #10

Tangentially, is it just me, or is "To date, all the books have been returned." a bit of an awkward sentence? If I were going to use "To date" - I feel like I would use it to indicate there is more to happen at a future date, but in this context, it seems there is nothing left to happen? Not trying to be pedantic or nitpick, genuinely curious if I've been using To date incorrectly.

Perhaps the author is native in Nordic languages, and mis-translated "I dag"?

Re: A door at a Swedish library was accidentally left open

#39

I just don’t understand the line, “To date, all the books have been returned.” Are they still expecting tomorrow that some of these books will no longer have been returned?

Books get different return-by dates based on their popularity in Sweden, so some have to be returned in a e.g. week, some in a month. So perhaps they just meant that none of the return deadlines have been missed so far?

Re: A door at a Swedish library was accidentally left open

#40
post #5

It's not unusual for local libraries in Denmark to be accessible to outside office hours using a library card. Usually, not at night -- but why close a local library in the evening. Just require library cards and add video surveillance. (you milage may vary)

Just what we need, another place with video surveillance to make it even more normalized. Orwell missed only by about thirty years.

Video cameras in unmanned libraries definitely don't exist in order to spy on people. I can assure you that whatever its other faults, the municipality of Copenhagen is not interested in spying on readers.
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