okal (u/okal) - Readit News

okal commented on I Received an AI Email timharek.no/blog/i-receiv... · Posted by u/_xivi

saturn8601 · a year ago

Technology ruins everything it touches doesn't it?

I was recently thinking about this Ozempic fad and how it will lead to no one being overweight but just be dependant on Ozempic...until food producers that made everyone fat in the first place with their processed junk will produce Ozempic resistant foods...and then we are really in a world of hurt.

okal · a year ago

What incentive do they have to make Ozempic resistant food? Ozempic resistance seems like an odd thing to optimize for. Or are you suggesting it will happen accidentally?

okal commented on How Africans are changing French, one joke, rap and book at a time nytimes.com/2023/12/12/wo... · Posted by u/mikhael

Exoristos · 2 years ago

Why would they do that, except as a stunt?

okal · 2 years ago

The referendum was based on a set calendar. The French central government refused to have it rescheduled. The Kanaky nationalists were opposed to having it run in the thick of COVID. The trajectory was in their favour, based on previous referendum outcomes, so I'm inclined to believe they boycotted as a matter of principle. In the end, the people who voted were mostly settlers from Metropolitan France, whose representatives are now actively working to roll back Kanaky autonomy. This information is very easy to find for anyone who cares, so I'm (genuinely) curious why you'd ask in what seems like a casually dismissive tone.

okal commented on How Africans are changing French, one joke, rap and book at a time nytimes.com/2023/12/12/wo... · Posted by u/mikhael

arcticbull · 2 years ago

French colonialism ended a long time ago, like in the 60s. It’s been over 60 years.

[edit] The French even regularly hold referendums in COMs like New Caledonia offering to cut them loose. But the last one they had 97% voted to remain part of France. Sometimes it’s good to be a dependency of a world power.

I should correct myself, New Caledonia isn’t a COM (collectivité d'outre-mer) anymore but a sui generis collectivity. But I digress.

okal · 2 years ago

This is misleading in the extreme. The Kanaky separatists boycotted the referendum.

Something I find equally interesting is how apologists for European colonialism are perfectly content to claim 60 years is a long time (with the implication that it no longer matters), when systems were designed to explicitly keep the former colonies subservient, often including co-opting, or cultivating a corrupt elite. At what point would you say it became inconsequential? After 2 years? Two decades? 4?

okal commented on Show HN: REST Alternative to GraphQL and tRPC openapistack.co/docs/intr... · Posted by u/anttiviljami

okal · 2 years ago

GraphQL is well over a decade old. I'm not sure "tried and tested" is a meaningful contrast between the two approaches at this point, especially as it relates to API requests from the frontend. It's okay for people to choose REST just because they like it better, and/or aren't interested in learning something different.

okal commented on I Am Leaving briefs.video/videos/i-am-... · Posted by u/tagawa

defrost · 2 years ago

Cheers bigtime.

Here I was expecting something from Tanzania or Kenya and we're back in Northern Mali!

I'm a bit old - I travelled extensively about the globe when I was younger doing geophysicsl survey work and ground truthing the transition from many paper map systems to WGS84.

Africa has some fantastic musicians.

All I can offer in return is some Australians and their collaborations ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjDlbCfybbE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr3iI8gg2fo

English x Yolngu Matha x Bemba:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrM8Ly17lw4

Why not:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTmGpJJsQEU

okal · 2 years ago

Haha! I thought we were just trading desert blues today.

Here's some Kenyan fare for you, an odd mix of things:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ig9DHit6K8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or2sMfOcTtw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb0k0LuJFw8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlMw5uOFyaU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Jwf-Y1uww

Tjamuku Ngurra is beautiful. I don't think I've listened to Aboriginal fusion (there's all sorts of interesting things happening there) before. My consumption of Australian music has mostly been limited to Tame Impala, whom I love, but this is special. Thank you so much for sharing.

okal commented on I Am Leaving briefs.video/videos/i-am-... · Posted by u/tagawa

defrost · 2 years ago

As an Australian I sympathise, it's not all HN'rs [1] but there's certainly a strong core of proud ignorance confident in their assertaions about other cultures, countries, political systems, etc.

[1] https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/850:_World_Accord...

PS: I met a guy in Mali once, d'ya know them? [2] /s

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOValSt7YOY

okal · 2 years ago

Thanks for the recommendation You may also enjoy Tinariwen, if you haven't already come across them.

okal commented on I Am Leaving briefs.video/videos/i-am-... · Posted by u/tagawa

pjlegato · 2 years ago

If it makes you feel any better, people also do the same sort of inaccurate cultural reductivism about the United States -- a vast geographical area containing many strongly differentiated local regional cultures -- on a daily basis.

okal · 2 years ago

It does, actually Quite unexpectedly, too. I have an American friend who keeps recommending places I should visit in the States, but I always respond by saying I don't want to get shot or racially profiled. It's a source of constant frustration for him. I did not expect HN to be where I'd find empathy for his perspective.

okal commented on I Am Leaving briefs.video/videos/i-am-... · Posted by u/tagawa

pjmlp · 2 years ago

In 2019 I can assure I was only able to get taxis in Tanzania via Whatsapp.

To be honest I never used Uber and never saw a taxi with stickers telling otherwise.

Likewise arranging trips with the local tourist agencies.

okal · 2 years ago

That may well be true for your one experience in Tanzania. I wasn't there with you. I have neither a reason, nor the desire to counter your personal experience.

Here's what I find baffling. You had a single, curated, extremely limited travel experience, in (I'm guessing) a handful of places, in one country, over a limited time period. You extrapolated from that experience to making a bold, sweeping claim about an odd 1.2 billion people living in 54 countries. And with an air of worldly confidence, to boot. What you said of Africa is not even generally true of the city of Dar es Salaam, let alone all of Tanzania. How could it possibly be true for a whole continent? I'm genuinely in awe of both the audacity it takes to make such a claim, and the thought process that leads to it. I do feel a bit bad for singling you out (but only a little bad) since it's sadly not unusual for people to choose to talk about places in this way when they don't expect to be challenged.

okal commented on I Am Leaving briefs.video/videos/i-am-... · Posted by u/tagawa

pjmlp · 2 years ago

For example, try to get hold of taxi services in Africa without Whatsapp.

okal · 2 years ago

Where in Africa? People just use Uber or alternatives, and it works fine pretty much everywhere I've been (I'm Kenyan. I've lived in South Africa for extended periods, and travelled extensively in Namibia and Tanzania). I've never once heard of anyone using WhatsApp for cab hailing. It gets pretty exhausting finding people talking about a whole continent on HN in broad strokes as though it's some small town they once went to on holiday, and can now offer their expert opinion on.

okal commented on A novel the CIA spent a fortune to suppress publicbooks.org/a-novel-t... · Posted by u/apollinaire

mschuster91 · 2 years ago

> Propaganda’s working very well if you actually believe this is the first war since WWII to redraw land borders.

I was talking about annexation wars. Not about countries fighting for independence / collapse aftermaths (like the former Yugoslavian countries or the Vietnam war).

But yes, you're correct, I forgot about the first Iraq war where Iraq tried to annex Kuwait and the US (and others) responded under UNSC authorization. And I completely ignored Africa, because honestly I don't have much knowledge about these and to be frank they aren't really relevant.

okal · 2 years ago

The annexations, and proxy wars in Africa weren't relevant?

I'm struggling a little to reconcile your two statements, that you simultaneously don't have much knowledge about the situation, but seemingly enough to decide that the deaths of thousands/millions of people in proxy wars is irrelevant to the discussion.