Hacker News: throwaway093020

New comment by throwaway093020 in "Why were Victorian elites so effective?"

throwaway093020 — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 10:21:13 +0000

The obvious difference between then and now is intensive agriculture. In modern times, we don't need as much farmland per capita. I hate seeing productive farmland developed into mcmansions as much as anyone. But, the market values the mcmansions more.

New comment by throwaway093020 in "All I wanted was a custom domain email"

throwaway093020 — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 21:56:10 +0000

MXRoute's lifetime plans (which they usually offer around black Friday) are a great option if you can get one. I paid $99 for mine five years ago. The service has only improved since then.

New comment by throwaway093020 in "Ask HN: What are you reading?"

throwaway093020 — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 16:11:56 +0000

It's usually pretty obvious when a word means something different than what you think it means, because the verse won't make any sense. And stopping for a moment to resolve that confusion is always a good learning experience. You either learn something about English, about Hebrew/Greek, or about the text's cultural context or how it's been historically understood.

New comment by throwaway093020 in "Ask HN: What are you reading?"

throwaway093020 — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 14:26:58 +0000

I personally like the term "biblical English" as a description of the KJV's dialect. It's not really representative of early modern English, as it often uses non-standard grammar to preserve the word order and cadence of the source texts.

New comment by throwaway093020 in "Ask HN: What are you reading?"

throwaway093020 — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 13:05:19 +0000

The King James Version! I'd only recommend modern translations as a second point of reference when trying to interpret a difficult verse, or for looking at how modern critical editions of the NT differ from the traditional Byzantine NT. When a verse is difficult to read in the KJV, that's usually because the original text is difficult/ambiguous. Modern editions tend to pave over those difficult/ambiguous passages with a "clear" but opinionated reading, while the KJV provides a more literal rendering of what's in the source text.

My favorite example: see how all mainstream modern editions (NRSV, NIV, ESV, NASB, CSB, and even the NKJV) say "every man" (or something along those lines), rather than "any that pisseth against the wall" (literal rendering of the Hebrew): https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/1%20Samuel%2025%3A22