MetaFilter posts tagged with brazil

Bert the Chimney Sweep Takes the Red Pill

scalefree — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:02:37 -0800

Sunday night 60 Minutes aired a segment on the state of cyber crime & cyber terror which included the extraordinary claim that unknown hackers were behind massive power outages in Brazil in 2005 & 2007. Now Wired Magazine's Threat Level blog says that's just not true. According to two studies (PDF, Portuguese) by the Brazilian government it was buildup of soot on insulators that caused the blackouts, not super-hackers demonstrating their abilities. Is the US Intelligence Community passing around false information to justify its relevance?

Toe Jam and Earl Jam

joshwa — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:38:24 -0800

Os Gameboys are a band from Brazil who play only music from classic videogames. They are really, really good. (via waxy: "the best live Mario cover I've ever seen")

Cidade Maravilhosa

msali — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:03:00 -0800

Seeking to be the first Green Olympics, Brazil wins its bid to be the first ever South American nation to host the 2016 games. For your listening pleasure, two songs about Rio, an acoustic version of Cidade Maravilhosa by Caetano Veloso, and Aquele abraço by our man, Gilberto Gil.

Ce soir sera une bonne soirée!

Rhaomi — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:56:54 -0800

On September 10th, to celebrate their initiation week, 172 communications students at the University of Quebec at Montreal decided to put on a show. After weeks of preparation, the costumed and prop-wielding crowd enacted an exuberant, complex, and flawlessly-choreographed performance of the Black Eyed Peas song "I Gotta Feeling" that sprawled through the campus's multi-story Judith Jasmin Pavilion... and they did it all in one continuous take (on their second try). The feat is just the most recent example of "lipdubbing" -- a video phenomenon where a single camera moves through a crowd of highly coordinated lip-syncers in a single seamless take, with the original recording dubbed over the finished product. Though the basic concept was pioneered by viral videos like the Numa Numa Dance and OK Go's "Here It Goes Again", the current model for lipdubbing was conceived by Vimeo founder Jakob Lodwick, who coined the term after dubbing a recording of himself singing "Endless Dream" by Apes & Androids. According to technical writer and blogger Tom Johnson's analysis of the video, the best lipdubs appear "spontaneous, authentic, participatory, and fun." Lodwick's video was followed up by a Vimeo business partner's staff doing their rendition of Harvey Danger's "Flagpole Sitta" (previously). The technique soon exploded in popularity -- everything from web magazines to TV studios to hospitals got into the act. But perhaps no group took to lipdubbing better than universities. Following the lead of The University Lipdub Project (original video), colleges from multiple nations adopted lipdubbing as a way to showcase their campus life and school spirit:

School, Nation - Video info - Song Institut Universitaire de Technologie de Rouen, France - 140 people - "Thriller" by Michael Jackson HEC Paris, France - 120 people - "Lollipop" by Mika l'Université de Poitiers, France - 56 people - "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" by the Scissor Sisters Mines de Saint Etienne, France - "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" by the Scissor Sisters IUT Belfort/Montbéliard, France - 353 people (a world record) - "La Confession de Monsieur Connard" by Les Tock'art HEC Montréal, Canada - 150 people - "Mamma Mia" by Abba Institut Notre Dame de la Providence, France - "Toi + Moi" by Grégoire Ecole Polytechnique, France - "Love Is All" by Roger Glover Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany - "LMU" (original song) IHECS, Belgium - 100+ people - "Banana Split" HEC Montréal, Canada - 172 people - "Summer of '69" by Bryan Adams European Business School, Germany - "Tell It to My Heart" by Dyane Taylor, "I Get Around" by the Beach Boys ESC Dijon, France - 95 people - "Working Together" by Gonzales Essec Business School, France - 200 people - "Let's Get It Started" by the Black Eyed Peas Emlyon Business School, France - 300 people - "Pop the Music" by Triim, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by Buggles ENSIC, France - 85 people - "Hot N Cold" by Kate Perry Campo Limpo Paulista College, Brazil - 56 people - "Ultramen" by Santo Forte

Bonus one-shot goodness:

Children of Men's climactic 6-minute one-shot scene (spoilers) Honda's "The Cog" (previ-ously) The Way Things Go (previously) Bike Hero (previously) Slydini's Newspaper (previously)

Honduran coup regime attacks Brazil's embassy

shetterly — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:18:21 -0800

Honduran coup regime attacks Brazil's embassy with LRAD-X Remote Long Range Acoustic Device, violating the Geneva Convention. And, to violate it a little more, they've also used a mobile cell phone jamming device.

Controversial WWF September 11 Advertisment Causes Outrage, Goes Viral

Effigy2000 — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:20:49 -0800

Brazil-based agency DDB BRASIL, contracted by the WWF to make an ad which would drive a "Respect the Planet" theme home, thought that making a 9/11 themed ad would be a good idea. After the video somehow makes it to the internet (some say it was leaked by the agency itself to win an award at Cannes), outrage predictably ensues. DDB Brasil insists the commercial was nothing but a rough draft and the WWF has not endorsed the ad made in their name, although evidence exists suggesting WWF Brazil endorsed a similar print ad a while back. Stupid, bad ad and a comedy of errors? Or the latest viral ad strategy?

IT'S ALL PIPES!!!

Sys Rq — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 07:35:56 -0800

Brazil's new water conservation campaign: Xixi no Banho! (slyt)

10 years is just a blink of the ever-watching galactic eye

filthy light thief — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:08:15 -0800

Inspired by its 10th anniversary, the Earth Observatory has pulled together a special series of NASA satellite images documenting how the world has changed. From these images, Wired Science has made 5 videos, presenting convenient time-lapse views of the world changing (mainly) because of human actions. Watch the urbanization of Dubai, specifically the growth of Palm Jumeirah. See the Aral Sea dry up - once the fourth largest lake, down to 10 percent of its original size (marked by the thin black line in the video) by 2007. View the clearing the Amazon, as observed from above the state of Rondônia in western Brazil. Behold the return of Mesopotamia's Wetlands, now in the process of being restored from near total destruction under the regime of Saddam Hussein. Witness the impact of drought on Southern Utah's Lake Powell, where water level dropped from 20 million to 8 million acre-feet from 2000 to 2005.

Brazil - a good neighbor

PercussivePaul — Thu, 14 May 2009 22:25:50 -0800

If you've ever heard the song Aquarela do Brasil (often called simply "Brazil" -- here's my favourite cover), then you'll probably enjoy this classic 1942 animation which first made it famous. The clip is the finale from the feature Saludos Amigos (hello friends), created during a US government-funded goodwill tour of South America aimed at strengthening Pan-American relations, which some argue may have helped bring South America onto the side of the Allies in World War II. The goodwill tour is the subject of the 2008 documentary film Walt & El Grupo.

Midair collision at 37,000 feet

flug — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:45:09 -0800

The sky is a really big place, right? So how did a Boeing 737 and a Legacy 600 private jet manage to collide head-on at 37,000 feet over the Amazon jungle in Brazil? William Langewiesche's detailed analysis of the 2006 crash--which killed all 154 aboard the 737--provides some answers. It seems the sky just isn't as big as it used to be: "Until recently, head-on airplanes mistakenly assigned the same altitude and route by Air Traffic Control would almost certainly have passed some distance apart, due to the navigation slop inherent in their systems. But this is no longer true." The navigation systems of the two aircraft are so precise that when they met--at a closing speed of about a thousand miles per hour--the Legacy 600 was only 2 feet below and 30 feet to the left of the 737.

Another look at the incident from Salon's Patrick Smith
Another analysis of an aircraft disaster by William Langewiesche, the 1999 crash of EgyptAir 990 (previously on MeFi)

The Future of Capitalism

geoff. — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:57:26 -0800

"For me, capitalism has never been an abstract concept. It is a real, concrete part of everyday life." President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on the future of capitalism.

Flying a model airplane in Brazil, with video!

geoff. — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:01:00 -0800

First person video of Gabriel flying his model plane around Rio and landing it through the balcony of his 10th story apartment. Here's a greatest moments compilation that includes him launching and retrieving the plane from a boat, a moving train, through tunnels and around high rises. Here he is flying a plane with no engine, using only his car's windshield to generate lift. Also, RC Groups' "What to Buy For Video Piloting." Oh and Brazil is very pretty.

No 'Unlawful Killing' allowed.

fistynuts — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:29:52 -0800

Further to the cover up and the initial claims the jury has reached a verdict in the De Menezes inquest. The Coroner ruled out an unlawful killing verdict on the grounds that "All interested persons agree that a verdict of unlawful killing could only be left to (the jury) if (they) could be sure that a specific officer had committed a very serious crime: murder or manslaughter" Further info here
Whitewash or legalease?

The Black President

Tom-B — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 14:20:41 -0800

A 1926 Brazilian sci-fi novel predicts a U.S. election determined by race and gender. O Presidente Negro envisions the 2228 U.S. presidential election. In that race, the white male incumbent, President Kerlog, finds himself running against Evelyn Astor, a white feminist, and James Roy Wilde, the cultivated and brilliant leader of the Black Association, "a man who is more than just a single man ... what we call a leader of the masses."

Mini Monkees

vronsky — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:34:35 -0800

Mini Monkees Of Brazil

Gilberto Gil

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:56:16 -0800

Brazil's Gilberto Gil, now 66 years of age, is stepping down from his position as Minister of Culture to concentrate, once again, on his music career. That's good news for his fans, and here's some more good news: a huge chunk of his recorded work is available as streaming audio for your listening pleasure. Here's a vintage clip of Gilberto with mondo-Brazil-rock trailblazers Os Mutantes. More Os Mutantes.

The Rise of the Rest

goodnewsfortheinsane — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:37:49 -0800

The Rise of the Rest. Fareed Zakaria's Newsweek article about a "post-American" world.

Kuduro

billtron — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 18:54:24 -0800

There was a time when it seemed that groups like Frederic Galliano presents Kuduro Sound System and Buraka Som Sistema would do for kuduro what groups like Diplo and Bonde do Role did for Funk Carioca: make it popular with hipsters in the United States. But it hasn't happened yet. Why?

Uh... who's idea was this?

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:57:23 -0800

Should you be attending this year's carnival in Rio, you probably won't be seeing a huge float rolling down the parade route depicting an enormous pile of emaciated corpses and a samba-dancing Hitler. But that's only thanks to a Brazilian judge's decision.

The Valley of the Dawn

kozad — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:53:46 -0800

Reading the January edition of Harper's, about Brasilia, I was struck by a bit about what is apparently one of many cults in around the capital city: the Valley of the Dawn. A Jewish UFO cult? The ultimate in syncretic religions? Book your flight now.They're a lot more open to foreigners than Macumba

Pepsi BlueCross BlueShield

blendor — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:15:02 -0800

The Prepaid Healthcare Visa® Gift Card, for that special someone without insurance on your holiday list. Rejoice! Terry Gilliam's dystopian future is now! [via]

The future Amazon rain forest

stbalbach — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 16:27:23 -0800

The Green vs. the Brown Amazon. The future Amazon rain forest. This essay by John Terborgh starts as a book review (of a bad book), but soon turns it into a powerfully insightful overview of the current state of the Amazonian basin and its most probable future under a myriad of influences: Brazilian land policies, international conservation efforts, and wildfires, droughts and global warming.

Favela Rising

otherwordlyglow — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 12:41:55 -0800

Favela Rising is a recent documentary exploring the AfroReggae (in Portuguese) movement and the amazing story of one of its founders, Anderson Sa. AfroReggae (MySpace page has music on) was born in the Vigário Geral favela as a way to give the community an alternative to the drug trade and to fight police oppression. Drawing on Brazil’s rich musical tradition, the organization educates youth in various instruments, particularly drumming, with a wide array of genres—reggae, hip-hop, and the Brazilian genres of samba, carioca funk, and axé. The “educators” that facilitate the workshops are almost entirely drawn from favela communities and AfroReggae veterans. One of the bands to come out of this movement is Banda Afro Reggae. Previ ously.

ethnomapping in Brazil

dhruva — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 01:10:42 -0800

Brazilian Ethnomapping: Inside a thatched-roof schoolhouse in a village deep in Brazil's Amazon rain forest, Surui Indians and former military cartographers huddle over the newest weapons in the tribe's fight for survival: laptop computers, satellite maps and hand-held global positioning systems. Some of the resulting maps.

Brazilian Blogger Bash

vacapinta — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:35:05 -0800

Brazilian Blogger Bashing! The respected Brazilian newspaper Estadao decided to promote its new online presence by jokingly producing a series of ads with obvious misfits and asking such questions as "Is this the guy giving you dating advice?" and a video (youtube) comparing bloggers to monkeys. Bloggers are outraged "Why would you read a newspaper that compares bloggers to monkeys?". In today's newspaper, Estadao offers no apology but instead dryly recounts the facts. Meanwhile, the resulting controversy, with thousands of blogs weighing in, has driven a lot of traffic to their new site.