Hacker News: Guthwine

New comment by Guthwine in "The Curious Power of Punctuation"

Guthwine — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 13:33:46 +0000

I think the real question is why you are starting a new paragraph after every sentence It makes your posts read as stilted and a bit difficult to follow Do you still use question marks if you ask a question or an exclamation point Curious to what you do when you write on paper but let me know

New comment by Guthwine in "Attention is all you have"

Guthwine — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 13:17:07 +0000

Well, sure, if only because counting lives lost from policy changes is difficult to do and the methodologies are complex.

New comment by Guthwine in "The Invention of the MMO"

Guthwine — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 20:29:11 +0000

Runescape (as we remember it in the 2000s/2010s lives on in Old School Runescape or '2007scape'. Supported by Jagex, it's the Runescape you remember from 2007 but has routine community polls on new skills/quests/bosses to add.

Unfortunately, it is also known as 'efficiencyscape' as most of the player base is only concerned with doings their daily chores, completing quests as efficiently as possible, etc. The social aspect is drastically diminished.

New comment by Guthwine in "Wendell Berry has died"

Guthwine — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 13:36:29 +0000

Berry, besides actively having a farm in Henry County, raised money, provided education and resources for local farmers in the community + around the region via The Wendell Berry Center / Our Home Place Meat, others. To say he wasn't practicing what he preached is disingenuous. He did a lot of great work.

New comment by Guthwine in "Wendell Berry has died"

Guthwine — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 13:31:54 +0000

Berry was much more concerned with the health of small-scale family farms and the land than supporting a 600-acre tourism complex.

New comment by Guthwine in "Wendell Berry has died"

Guthwine — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 13:26:58 +0000

I traveled to the Wendell Berry Center numerous times over the last few years - he and his family were a wonderful boon on the local community there.

One of my favorite quotes of his, from What Are People For?

“Rats and roaches live by competition under the law of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy. It is impossible not to notice how little the proponents of the ideal of competition have to say about honesty, which is the fundamental economic virtue, and how very little they have to say about community, compassion, and mutual help.”

New comment by Guthwine in "The Lost Art of Carrying Loads"

Guthwine — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 13:57:58 +0000

Replying to your comment about lack of content, which itself isn't commenting on the content, with my own comment which also is not a comment about the content. Contentedly.

New comment by Guthwine in "American Airlines mechanic Azriel “Al” Blackman has died"

Guthwine — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 15:30:34 +0000

This seems like a fast-track to making airline mechanics a minimum-wage, any-guy-off-the-street kind of job, which is not who I want touching the plane I'm flying in.

There needs to be SOME accountability. "Oh, but my glasses told me to unscrew this bolt, I was just following orders." is not how I want the future to be.

New comment by Guthwine in "U.S. gov't moves to suppress pushback on data centers"

Guthwine — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 19:08:59 +0000

I was told NFTs were 'progress' merely a few years ago. Now all of my randomly generated portraits of monkeys are worthless!

New comment by Guthwine in "U.S. gov't moves to suppress pushback on data centers"

Guthwine — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 12:38:51 +0000

Your account was created <1 month ago, you have made ~25 comments and at least 4 of them mention China. You doth protesting too much?

New comment by Guthwine in "My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded"

Guthwine — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 19:34:25 +0000

Unfortunately for those other people, there are rules and social customs about not being an inane goober when you're in a shared public space.

New comment by Guthwine in "The great digital fatigue: How digital burnout is changing social media use"

Guthwine — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 14:03:04 +0000

I'm pretty sure "don't be snarky" is one of the first 5 sentences on the site rules.

New comment by Guthwine in "The great blogging collapse: What happened to 100 successful blogs?"

Guthwine — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 15:36:08 +0000

Alright I'll bite: What are you getting out of skimming through what is widely considered one of the greatest novels of all time? General plot points? That can be accomplished with a readthrough of the SparkNotes.

New comment by Guthwine in "Dua Lipa opens library for banned and censored books in Portugal"

Guthwine — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 16:11:12 +0000

Instead of replying in kind, I will benevolently nudge you to review the Hacker News comment guidelines. I don't think any of us want this site to fall to lower standards of other social media platforms.

New comment by Guthwine in "Dua Lipa opens library for banned and censored books in Portugal"

Guthwine — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 14:29:14 +0000

I agree that words do have a specific meaning, but the history of words changing their meaning is truly awful+! I was talking to this young girl++ in my neighborhood about words and slang - he said he had never considered that words could change their meaning, and that the dictionary was some kind of rule book. At first I thought maybe he was nice+++, but after considering it, he's young! Everyone learns this in time.

Language is mutable and alive and ever-changing. That's just how it goes.

+Used to mean 'inspiring awe'

++Used to mean 'young child (gender neutral)'

+++Used to mean 'foolish' or 'ignorant'

New comment by Guthwine in "Dua Lipa opens library for banned and censored books in Portugal"

Guthwine — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 14:18:25 +0000

I was referencing a direct quote from the author, looks like the Booker Prize board actually looked into it and disputes the certainty of the claim. Oh well. However:

1. Regime change doesn't happen instantaneously. The Francoist line of thinking was still pervasive after Franco died, and through the 70s there was a waxing and waning of censorship.

2. The book was still restricted in multiple states, the spirit of my comment still stands.

New comment by Guthwine in "Dua Lipa opens library for banned and censored books in Portugal"

Guthwine — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 13:27:54 +0000

I believe when most libraries and stores use the term 'ban', they rely on PEN America's definition: "any action taken against a book based on its content and as a result of parent or community challenges, administrative decisions, or in response to direct or threatened action by lawmakers or other governmental officials, that leads to a book being either completely removed from availability to students, or where access to a book is restricted or diminished." [1]

[1] https://pen.org/book-bans/book-bans-frequently-asked-questio...

New comment by Guthwine in "Dua Lipa opens library for banned and censored books in Portugal"

Guthwine — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 13:25:17 +0000

Not sure if your sarcasm is directed at Dua Lipa for including Atwood, or at the states that actually removed it from their public schools (Texas, Florida, Missouri, among others), but it was actually banned in Portugal during the Salazar regime.

Either way, I agree with your comment that there is nothing dangerous about Atwood unless you are a fan of authoritarian religious governments.

New comment by Guthwine in "A deadly fungus that can infect cats and people is spreading"

Guthwine — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 13:05:57 +0000

In the past, though, dogs (domesticated wolves, however you want to look at it) were more akin to 'hunting partners', wouldn't you say? But for you the line is crossed when we start keeping them in kennels/breeding them, I guess?

New comment by Guthwine in "A deadly fungus that can infect cats and people is spreading"

Guthwine — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 13:16:08 +0000

Genuinely curious - are sheep kept for their wool also slaves in your opinion?