Live data from Hacker News

Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

en.wikipedia.org

61–70 of 115 posts

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#61

Disclaimer: I am a former Brazilian. I am what in Brazil is called in pejorative terms "vira-lata" (stray dog), someone that fell out of love for his native country. Because a lot of people in this thread are patriotic Brazilians I anticipate a lot of downvotes. This project is nothing more than a sharper and better diagnosis of topical symptoms. Unfortunately, the underlying disease remains without treatment. And if…

Pode explicar a tradução ou conexão para as palavras, vira e lita. Não significam "look" e "can"? Não sou brasileiro.

"virar" means "to turn (over)" or "to flip" "lata" means can---in this context "garbage can"

A stray dog turns garbage cans over in search of food.

I believe the term also refers to "mutt", a dog that is not purebred.

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#62
post #30
post #19

I love the idea, but a quick review of tweets shows a bunch of seemingly inconsequential reports for meal refunds where the issue is that the meal price is an outlier, but prices listed are 39 to 75 BRL (12-25 USD). That doesn't strike me as a funny meal price. Assuming it's not an error, it would be nice to have some additional context on what the observed distribution of meal prices is, because at a cursory glance…

You're thinking about meal prices on richer countries. I am a software developer, so I get paid more than the average Brazilian. And I spend 14~18 BRL (4.3 to 5.5 USD) on a good meal regularly. 39 to 75 BRL is very expensive to our standards. The restaurant I take my wife on our anniversary costs 60~70 BRL per person. Someone spending close to 75 BRL per day is the equivalent of eating every day in that nice restaura…

Where do you live? I live in Buenos Aires and in my experience Sao Paulo is pricier. The amounts dont seem crazy to me.

Edit: if they actually did it every day then it wouldn't be a statistical outlier :P

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#63
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the excuse of the impeached Workers Party ex-government. With a touch of fascism - "the foreigners are the real danger!!!!!11111". The other excuse was that "corruption is small compared to the GDP". (And what about the chilling effects?)

If you don't believe that Shell/BP can buy politicians to have easy access to oil, you should better get acquainted with the politics of other countries [0]. This is the first thing I thought about when I heard about big oil reserves in Brazil. [0] https://www.ft.com/content/a9e193de-2044-11e7-a454-ab0442897...

I am not naive, and you should not be naive to the "bad bad foreigners" mantra that is tailored for the reptilian brain layer of the voters, either.

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#64

Disclaimer: I am a former Brazilian. I am what in Brazil is called in pejorative terms "vira-lata" (stray dog), someone that fell out of love for his native country. Because a lot of people in this thread are patriotic Brazilians I anticipate a lot of downvotes. This project is nothing more than a sharper and better diagnosis of topical symptoms. Unfortunately, the underlying disease remains without treatment. And if…

lot of people in this thread are patriotic Brazilians I anticipate a lot of downvotes

Anyone else find over-the-top portrayal of patriotism annoying? Every time there is someone on the TV talking about "hard working and patriotic" (I don't even have a TV, only catch a glimpse at dunkin donuts and such) even when the topic on hand has nothing to do with hard work or patriotism. You are making a very valid point, but you literally had to start your comment saying you anticipate downvotes. It has become that bad.

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#65
post #19

I love the idea, but a quick review of tweets shows a bunch of seemingly inconsequential reports for meal refunds where the issue is that the meal price is an outlier, but prices listed are 39 to 75 BRL (12-25 USD). That doesn't strike me as a funny meal price. Assuming it's not an error, it would be nice to have some additional context on what the observed distribution of meal prices is, because at a cursory glance…

The average brazilian does not spend 50 BRL on a meal. Why should a public servant be able to? These guys are living like kings when they are mostly blowhards with very few skills other than being able to manipulate poor people into voting for them.

Well, a congressman is hardly an average citizen. I don't necessarily disagree with your point but that doesn't necessarily mean that spending 15 USD on lunch is a sign of corruption.

Brazil is in many ways similar to Argentina (where I live) and the average voter doesn't value austerity much. Our current president is the son of one of the richest businessman in the country, and is a millionaire himself.

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#66

Disclaimer: I am a former Brazilian. I am what in Brazil is called in pejorative terms "vira-lata" (stray dog), someone that fell out of love for his native country. Because a lot of people in this thread are patriotic Brazilians I anticipate a lot of downvotes. This project is nothing more than a sharper and better diagnosis of topical symptoms. Unfortunately, the underlying disease remains without treatment. And if…

Pode explicar a tradução ou conexão para as palavras, vira e lita. Não significam "look" e "can"? Não sou brasileiro.

Literally, it means "can turner".

Originally the expression came from football (soccer), as it happens in a lot of stuff within Brazilian culture.

In 1950 Brazil lost the finals for the Worldcup to Uruguai at Maracanã, the country biggest stadium. It was a national tragedy that left the country depressed (see "Maracanazo"). A very famous journalist from that age, Nelson Rodrigues, complained that the country was under a "stray dog syndrome", feeling unworthy when it was a lot better than that.

The important thing to notice is that Rodrigues was talking exclusively about football. He hated politics and deeply despised any form of nationalism. He actually didn't hold the national character in esteem.

It was much later on, on the 90's after his death, that the expression was hijacked and twisted to antagonize any Brazilian that criticizes Brazil in front of foreigners.

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#67

Disclaimer: I am a former Brazilian. I am what in Brazil is called in pejorative terms "vira-lata" (stray dog), someone that fell out of love for his native country. Because a lot of people in this thread are patriotic Brazilians I anticipate a lot of downvotes. This project is nothing more than a sharper and better diagnosis of topical symptoms. Unfortunately, the underlying disease remains without treatment. And if…

lot of people in this thread are patriotic Brazilians I anticipate a lot of downvotes Anyone else find over-the-top portrayal of patriotism annoying? Every time there is someone on the TV talking about "hard working and patriotic" (I don't even have a TV, only catch a glimpse at dunkin donuts and such) even when the topic on hand has nothing to do with hard work or patriotism. You are making a very valid point, but y…

Well, frankly I believe it is a biological trait, an unavoidable natural instinct manipulated by propaganda.

Humans and their ancestors survived for several thousands of years in bands and tribes with between 10 and 50 individuals. Social cohesion and collaboration among them was essential for survival in confrontation with other animals or tribes fighting for the same resources (or females).

It is unavoidable that evolution shaped them to develop a desperate wish to "belong" to a group. Some call it tribalism. Nations just grab this tribalism and turn it into ideological justification for everything as in: "my country, right or wrong". Religions, political affiliations, corporations and sport associations use that trick too.

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#68

Disclaimer: I am a former Brazilian. I am what in Brazil is called in pejorative terms "vira-lata" (stray dog), someone that fell out of love for his native country. Because a lot of people in this thread are patriotic Brazilians I anticipate a lot of downvotes. This project is nothing more than a sharper and better diagnosis of topical symptoms. Unfortunately, the underlying disease remains without treatment. And if…

Most voters in most countries are stupid. See the 2016 US election

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#69
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brazil is much, much worse off than the US. There the corruption goes all the way to the lowest levels of government. In the US local politicians don't pay a couple of bucks to a thousand dirt poor voters to vote in the county elections so they can win. In Brazil this happens everywhere.

It is very usual to buy votes in USA: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/selling... "The price of one bona fide, registered American vote varies from place to place. But it is rarely more than a tank of gas." A good book that descibes it is "Washington, D.C: A Novel (Narratives of Empire)." of Gore Vidal.

In Brazil, voting is compulsory. All those people are going to be voting anyway

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#70
post #2

This project is using AI to analyse public data of receipts from elected government officials, detect anomalies and tweet about them. It has already led to a deputy to have to return funds to the government. There is very little material in English about this project, I finally spent some time to translate and create an English and French wikipedia page. I am not otherwise involved with this project (yet!) but think…

English slides/presentation: http://jtemporal.com/serenata-ml-meetup/
Post reply on HN