Senegal farmers love WhatsApp Voice messages
Particularly fascinating. WhatsApp is not something I have reason to use, though I know what it is. I especially enjoyed understanding why the app's voice notes were more beneficial for these farmers than just text. Which, when you think about it, makes perfect sense.
Sambou finds one WhatsApp group particularly useful. Its nearly 50 members discuss a range of farming practices, and broadcast weather updates and information on training sessions. It's part of a 15,000-member-strong network of 32 other groups across Senegal, which connects farmers to agricultural advisors, researchers, and local NGO representatives. "WhatsApp is our primary source of communication," Absa Babacar Mbodj, the group's coordinator, told Rest of World. "It's the quickest way for farmers to access information. It's innovating."
Senegal currently has approximately one agricultural advisor for every 10,000 farmers, researcher Raphaël Belmin told Rest of World. He believes the use of WhatsApp voice notes could help fill the gaps in training and education in the country.
The use of voice notes among Senegalese farmers proved particularly effective in 2022, when the Russia-Ukraine war erupted. Following the conflict, the prices of some fertilizers in Senegal increased fivefold. Faced with the possibility of producing less food for an already food-insecure nation, the farming community began looking for alternatives. WhatsApp voice notes were a crucial link in this process: Farmers used the feature to discuss cheaper options for fertilizers across their network of groups.
Moustapha Dienne, a Senegalese smallholder, told Rest of World that WhatsApp has helped him shift to more enterprising farming. "I use it to commercialize my production and find customers," Dienne said. "Before, I would have to walk through the village looking for buyers. Now, I put my products in my WhatsApp status, and people contact me directly."
Ousmane Coly, a fruit farmer in Casamance, echoes this sentiment. "I want to open myself to the world, I want to learn so many things, [and] any producer who wants to advance has to be on WhatsApp," he told Rest of World. "We all speak Wolof, Diola, and some Manding that are difficult to write. Voice notes let us carry on the dialogue."
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"Researchers found a rare octopus nursery 2 miles below sea level"
To be honest, I wasn't going to post this as I skimmed my RSS feed until I saw the picture of the octopuses.
Researchers found Muusoctopus nursery grounds on a low-temperature hydrothermal vent off the shore of Costa Rica.
"The discovery of a new active octopus nursery over 2,800 meters beneath the sea surface in Costa Rican waters proves there is still so much to learn about our Ocean," Dr. Jyotika Virmani, executive director of the Schmidt Ocean Institute, said in a statement.
Scientists working off the coast of Costa Rica say they've discovered the world's third known octopus nursery.
When the Dorado Outcrop — an area roughly the size of a football field — was first discovered in 2013, researchers believed octopuses couldn't grow there because they didn't observe any developing embryos at the site.
Scientists said the discovery also indicated that some deep-sea octopus species brood their eggs in low-temperature hydrothermal vents, such as the one where the nursery was discovered, where fluid heated in the Earth's crust is released on the seafloor — like hot springs.
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Radicalized by Cory Doctorow (2019) - 3 of 5 stars
The commentary is, of course, the strongest aspect of the book. Unfortunately, I found the stories and the framings distracted from the messages carried in the book.
Radicalized by
Social media is all about moving goal posts
An excellent observation regarding the growth of new social media platforms. The goal posts will continue to move.
Of Mice and Men
My bluetooth mouse has stopped working with my Ubuntu laptop and I can say with great confidence, dealing with Bluetooth and Ubuntu is a special level of hell on this laptop. I have had to troubleshoot if the issue was with the mouse driver on the machine, the Bluetooth driver on the machine, the mouse itself, or what.
As of now, it appears to be the mouse. As other Bluetooth devices work on this machine. And my trackpad works.
[Several reboots later]
Okay, it appears to be working again. I don't honestly know what is to blame. I ended up repairing the laptop through the Logitech unifying receiver rather than just Bluetooth. I also discovered the 'solaar' app for Linux which does some of the customizations for Logitech that you can do in Windows.
So that's nice. I guess.
A chess computer from 111 years ago
Alright, so computer might be overstating it. But it's some ingenious engineering.
"The Six Forces That Fuel Friendship"
After over 100 interviews with pairs of friends, Julie Bell has six things she feels drive all lasting friendships:
Accumulation
The simplest and most obvious force that forms and sustains friendships is time spent together. One study estimates that it takes spending 40 to 60 hours together within the first six weeks of meeting to turn an acquaintance into a casual friend, and about 80 to 100 hours to become more than that. So friendships unsurprisingly tend to form in places where people spend a lot of their time anyway: work, school, church, extracurricular activities.
Attention
Paying attention goes a long way when forging these unexpected friendships—noticing when you click with someone, being open to chance encounters. It helps to step out of our habits and into the moment. Because as much as we may feel like our social networks are set and settled, it's never too late to meet someone who will be important to you for the rest of your life.
Intention
Attention only gets you so far without action. When opportunity arises, you have to put yourself out there, and that requires courage, vulnerability, and a willingness to let things be awkward.
Ritual
One thing that seems to make keeping up with friends easier is ritual. I personally find that the effort of coordinating hangs (or even phone calls) is the biggest barrier to seeing my friends. It's much easier when something is baked into my schedule, and all I have to do is show up. For instance, while working from home during the pandemic, I've gotten lunch every Friday with my friend who lives around the corner (when it's been safe to do so).
Imagination
Society has a place for friendships, and it's on the sidelines. They're supposed to play a supporting role to work, family, and romance. It takes imagination not to default to this norm, and to design your life so that friendship plays the role you really want it to.
Grace
I'm not religious, but I do love the concept of grace, of a gift so profound that it could never be earned or deserved. And so when I cite grace here as the final and most important force in friendships, I mean it in two ways. One is the forgiveness that we offer each other when we fall short. The other is the space that creates for connections—and reconnections—that feel nothing short of miraculous.
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Automated Archives for July, 3rd 2023
This post was automatically generated
Mastodon Bookmarks
Wallabag Additions
These are articles that which I saved today so that I may read them later. Substance and quality will vary drastically.
Chess For the Day
Record: 3-0-0
Net Elo Change: +20
Games Played
Blog Posts On This Day
- 2021-07-03 (1 post)