Hacker News: arrowsmith

New comment by arrowsmith in "The Future of Email"

arrowsmith — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 14:43:22 +0000

Yeah I had the same reaction. From the title I was expecting to find out what the "future of email" is. I'm still waiting.

New comment by arrowsmith in "Global population movements from 1990 to 2023"

arrowsmith — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 13:57:09 +0000

US had net negative migration in 2025 for the first time in decades:

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/01/14/immigra...

New comment by arrowsmith in "German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in AI Overviews"

arrowsmith — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 11:20:09 +0000

Which led to a British journalist holding an "offensive poems about Erdogan" contest, which was won by Boris Johnson:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/19/boris-johns...

New comment by arrowsmith in "Claude Fable 5"

arrowsmith — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 11:15:19 +0000

In the UK, employers pay a stealth tax of 15% (recently increased from 13.8%) on top of the quoted salary minus the first £5k (recently decreased from £9,100.)

So your "£50k" salary actually costs your employer £56,750, and that's before all the other expenses mentioned elsewhere in this thread such as hardware, office rent etc.

New comment by arrowsmith in "German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in AI Overviews"

arrowsmith — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 09:06:48 +0000

See also: Germany's leader filing hundreds of criminal complaints against people who insult him on social media:

https://rmx.news/article/germany-chancellor-merz-quietly-fil...

New comment by arrowsmith in "1worldflag: A blue dot on a transparent background"

arrowsmith — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 09:18:15 +0000

Don't forget Futurama's: https://futurama.fandom.com/wiki/Old_Freebie

New comment by arrowsmith in "What if remote working, not AI, is to blame for weak junior hiring?"

arrowsmith — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 12:33:44 +0000

ZIRP will never happen again

New comment by arrowsmith in "I analysed 20 years of my chats"

arrowsmith — Thu, 28 May 2026 09:27:43 +0000

29 isn't remotely close to too late, dude.

New comment by arrowsmith in "The worst job interview I ever had"

arrowsmith — Wed, 27 May 2026 15:42:41 +0000

How do Poles answer "how are you?" differently to Brits?

New comment by arrowsmith in "Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier"

arrowsmith — Tue, 26 May 2026 15:16:47 +0000

"To whatsapp" is a common verb, but I have never heard anyone say "apping".

Where do you live where "apping" is understood?

New comment by arrowsmith in "Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier"

arrowsmith — Tue, 26 May 2026 15:15:37 +0000

> if Netherland has some information-sharing agreements with … Fourteen Eyes

Probably a safe assumption, since the Netherlands is a member of the Fourteen Eyes

New comment by arrowsmith in "Alberta to hold referendum on whether to remain in Canada"

arrowsmith — Sun, 24 May 2026 05:19:23 +0000

So the “anti-separation” petition was a bad faith move by pro-separation forces? Am I reading you right?

New comment by arrowsmith in "Alberta to hold referendum on whether to remain in Canada"

arrowsmith — Fri, 22 May 2026 17:20:21 +0000

I don’t remember anyone before the referendum saying it would be the first of two.

A lot of people pushed unsuccessfully for a second referendum after the first one but that was never based on any pre-existing legalities or precedent, it was just an attempt to overturn the first result from people who were upset that theyd lost.

New comment by arrowsmith in "Alberta to hold referendum on whether to remain in Canada"

arrowsmith — Fri, 22 May 2026 15:31:06 +0000

The Brexit referendum was non-binding for important constitutional reasons.

Legally, leaving required an Act of Parliament. To hold a binding referendum, they would have had to pass an Act that says "here are the exact details of how we'll leave the EU, coming into force if the referendum passes".

But that would have required them to figure out all the exact details of what it means to leave the EU, and they didn't bother - they just held the referendum and assumed they could figure out the details later if Leave won, which they didn't expect would happen.

We all saw how well that worked out.

> there was sufficient political capital to push it through without a follow up vote.

This seriously overstates how smoothly things went between 23/6/2016 and 31/1/2020

New comment by arrowsmith in "Alberta to hold referendum on whether to remain in Canada"

arrowsmith — Fri, 22 May 2026 14:32:52 +0000

Why not just wait until the court case is resolved?

New comment by arrowsmith in "Alberta to hold referendum on whether to remain in Canada"

arrowsmith — Fri, 22 May 2026 14:29:57 +0000

I don't get it. They're having a referendum on whether or not to have a referendum? Why bother with two steps?

I googled the Clarity Act and it appears to be recently-passed US (not Canadian) legislation about regulating cryptocurrencies or something. What's its relevance here?

I am not Canadian and know nothing about Canadian politics. Someone please enlighten me.

New comment by arrowsmith in "OpenClaw isn't fooling me. I remember MS-DOS"

arrowsmith — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 20:33:02 +0000

This thread? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47783940

New comment by arrowsmith in "OpenClaw isn't fooling me. I remember MS-DOS"

arrowsmith — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 20:30:33 +0000

Where's the contradiction? I'm not auditioning to play guitar for Metallica but I'd take the job if they offered it to me.

New comment by arrowsmith in "At long last, InfoWars is ours"

arrowsmith — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 20:28:17 +0000

I'm not sure what point you're making but there's nothing satirical about the second headline. The UK really did just legislate to decriminalise abortion up to the point of birth.

I don't see how that's a laughing matter.

New comment by arrowsmith in "US appeals court declares 158-year-old home distilling ban unconstitutional"

arrowsmith — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 18:10:10 +0000

It’s illegal in London but you wouldn’t know it from the smell. That city stinks of weed.