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or here...

http://g1.globo.com/pernambuco...

For the very poor people in Northeast and North Brazil, the basic income policy worked VERY well. Marie Claire Brazil even has an article about it (in portuguese, sorry) http://revistamarieclaire.glob... And after a couple of years, people were even able to quit the program by themselves. They asked to quit because they were earning enough to not need the help anymore. This policy certainly worked because it provided for the minimum amount of money a person needs to survive. But after this point, would it be of any worth? Let's see. I just believe so.

I'm Brazilian. Unfortunately your "anecdotal evidence" is wrong.

Samples from most important media portals in Brazil (google translate them): Globo, Record, Folha.

Onyxruby, you are so full of it, you could make a killing as a fertilizer whole seller.

1) Going through the "proper channels"
There were previous NSA whistle blowers who did follow proper channels. Their lives were made hell and their leaks did not get out. One of them, Thomas Drake, had this to say about Snowden:

I differed as a whistleblower to Snowden only in this respect: in accordance with the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act, I took my concerns up within the chain of command, to the very highest levels at the NSA, and then to Congress and the Department of Defense. I understand why Snowden has taken his course of action, because he's been following this for years: he's seen what's happened to other whistleblowers like me.

[...] But as I found out later, none of the material evidence I disclosed went into the official record. It became a state secret even to give information of this kind to the 9/11 investigation.

The material evidence that Snowden was able to provide, only by going outside the proper channels, was essential for refuting the sea of lies that have been emanating from the highest levels of the NSA.

Those flagrant lies to Congress and the American public are one of the reasons Snowden chose the path he did. Whistle blower programs only work if the violations being reported are small and don't extend to the highest levels. Are you seriously suggesting that the director of the NSA would have allowed the release of material evidence that would have outed himself as a liar to Congress and the American people? That is certainly not what happened with the previous NSA whistle blowers. And without the material evidence it is just the word of an unknown underling versus the word of the director of the NSA.

2) The route of maximum damage
Snowden did not release any information directly to the public nor did he give any information to enemies or allies of the US. What he did do was release limited information to a legitimate news organization and let them decide what should be released to the public. This is widely recognized as the responsible course of action. For your claim against Snowden to be true then the Washington Post, The Guardian, Germany's Der Spiegel, and Brazil's O Globo must all be in on the conspiracy to cause maximum political damage. Just like your suggestion about going through proper channels, this claim of yours is not credible.

If you were in Snowden's position and had evidence that the NSA was lying to Congress and the American people about vast Unconstitutional spying networks, what would you do? Your idea of "going through the proper channels" is an obvious non-starter. The most responsible thing to do is exactly what Snowden did, release some of the information to a legitimate news organization and let them vet it to make sure it is both safe to release to the public and newsworthy.

3) Ad hominem attacks on Snowden's character
I believe a citation request is warranted for your attacks on Snowden's character. Everyone who I know of who has had personal contact with Snowden has given nothing but the highest praise when discussing his character. They are all convinced he is only doing this for the noblest of reasons; not out of ego and in an attempt to damage the US.

Your post consists of nothing but obvious outright lies and baseless character assassination. Sadly, it typifies the mainstream coverage of the NSA spying scandal. If you want to see for yourself how the vetting process worked and see appraisals of Snowden's character from people who were in

I don't like anedoctes to understand the reality - Statistics are always better. So, let's see:
The personal aproval rating of the president is 71% - yes, it was 79% one year ago, but is still a very high aproval rating.
In the government aproval rating, ONLY 13% thinks it's 'bad' or 'terrible' (in pt-br: ruim ou péssimo). It was 7% at the beggining of the year, but is still a aproval.
If you want to look by yourself: http://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2013/06/aprovacao-do-governo-dilma-vai-55-aponta-pesquisa-ibope.html

Today in the news, Brazil made Canadian Headlines by an announcement of major criminal charges against politicians, and friends. Bribes in the millions of dollars and scandals. Almost 50% of the opposition politicians were part of the corruption charges. More news at 11pm.

This is NOT news.... NEWS will be when they:

1) will be in jail
2) Recover the money

People really do not know how things are in 'developing' countries...
One of our 'leaders' is wanted by interpol [1] and is only wanted because the US caught him laundering BIG money. IF was in Brazil he will be innocent and will earn money for defamation.

and It is very friend of our last 'great' 'populist' Lula [2]

1 - http://www.interpol.int/Wanted-Persons/(wanted_id)/2009-13608
2 - http://g1.globo.com/sao-paulo/noticia/2012/06/maluf-oficializa-apoio-ao-pt-em-sp-em-encontro-com-lula-e-haddad.html

Again I know it is 'fancy' and 'intellectual' bash US but they are still the less evil

Are you sure? Some links (in portuguese):

http://oglobo.globo.com/tecnologia/foxconn-ja-faz-iphone-4-em-jundiai-3442869
http://www.gizmodo.com.br/conteudo/seria-a-fabrica-de-jundiai-exclusiva-para-iphones-e-ipads-de-penultima-geracao/

I'm the Brazilian journalist who first reported on this issue.

These attacks are not massive. They are happening in a server each time, and the ISPs use many different servers. As such, the number of affected victims each time is small. However, it is true they are ongoing. ISPs and users need to take action now and protect their DNSs and home routers, respectively, though ISPs are also to blame because they use the same password for the default configuration on every router. Plus, user complaints can be found days apart - but DNS cache poisoning only lasts for a few hours. In other words, there are multiple attacks.

There's info indicating this has been going on and off since at least 2009, but we hadn't heard of it because they were only redirecting banks to identical pages. Now they're trying to use Google, Facebook et al to infect users with trojans, which is far easier to notice.

It's also true a sysadmin was arrested for accepting a R$ 10,000 (about US$ 6,000) monthly bribe to change the DNS configuration in an ISP, probably a small or medium-sized one.

I'm a GVT user (one of the affected ISPs) and I have verified my DNS server went from not using random ports to using random ports. I last checked this about two weeks. So yes - this is happening, and they have taken some action. But the DNS server I use was never poisoned, and many other users have not seen or noticed these attacks.

Hello,

I just read a related news about Microsoft starting to build Xbox 360 in Brazil (portuguese only):

http://oglobo.globo.com/tecnologia/mat/2011/09/27/microsoft-confirma-fabricacao-do-xbox-360-no-brasil-reduz-preco-do-console-em-40-925453959.asp

The prices will decrease 40% in average for local customers.

Back in the eighties, Brazil had a roaring microcomputer industry, based almost entirely on pirated versions of popular pcs of the time, such as the Sinclair Spectrum , Apple IIe, and Tandy Color Computer. More recently, the PT government decided to "break the patents" on essential medications, such as the AIDs cocktail and Viagra, unilaterally declaring that IP doesn't apply to them, and it's ok for the Brazilian pharmaceutical industry to sell it without any regard to internation law. Back in 2007, a popular Brazilian film, "Tropa de Elite", made its debute in Rio de Janeiros' pirated DVD vendors before it make it to the big screen. My point is saying all of this is that if anybody is stupid enough to trust their IP to a Brazilian company, they deserve what they'll get - the "Ei-Padi Dois" being sold by kids in São Paulo's Rua Santa Efigênia before the initial production run has made it through the factory's docking bay doors.

Microsoft also will manufacture Xbox in Brazil. in Portuguese http://g1.globo.com/tecnologia/noticia/2011/09/microsoft-anuncia-na-terca-producao-do-xbox-no-brasil-fonte.html

Rather than using some obscure thingo nobody's heard of, made by whats-his-name, I would speculate that the FreeBSD is safer, because they have people who understand crypto.

Philip Zimmer (of PGP fame) used to say that most people screw up in the implementation part.

Now, TrueCrypt you can trust, because it was used in a high-profile financial case in Brazil (it was mentioned here in Slashdot) and the Feds from Brazil and the USA (Brazilians asked for help) couldn't get the data out.

All charges against the banker Daniel Dantas (although this had nothing to do with TrueCrypt).

http://news.techworld.com/security/3228701/fbi-hackers-fail-to-crack-truecrypt/

Needs translating:
http://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2010/06/nem-fbi-consegue-decifrar-arquivos-de-daniel-dantas-diz-jornal.html

The Brazilian Globo news site has photos which were taken yesterday: http://g1.globo.com/mundo/fotos/2011/04/destrocos-do-voo-447.html

They don't need Jobs, just a 1970s Braun catalogue.

Multiply that for the gadzillion news outlets reporting it, and you've got a nice DDoS. Here's a Brazilian one: http://oglobo.globo.com/mundo/mat/2010/12/08/mastercard-tem-site-atacado-por-hackers-apos-suspender-pagamentos-ao-wikileaks-923225938.asp

No, you did not.

This is an example of an unsuitable method of holding one's iPhone.

Come on, folks. Lets take our mobile phone use seriously.

Yeah, but no, but yeah but:

You have to realize that all those recent estimates are generally from folks whom financially benefit from enhanced estimates of reserve size. Its kind of a game on "theoildrum.com" to guess just how much they overestimate vs what is actually produced.

Typical example from wikipedia quoting some initial reports from 2008 "The condition and size of the Carioca/Sugar Loaf field has yet to be clarified[1], however there is speculation that it could contain between 25 and 40 billion barrels["

Two years later we get:

http://oglobo.globo.com/pais/mat/2010/05/12/anp-anuncia-megacampo-de-petroleo-no-pre-sal-da-bacia-de-santos-916568146.asp

Petrobras says its only 4.5 billion barrels.

Similarly, one can read news.google articles watching Tupi estimated drop over the years from above 8 billion to now only about 5 billion.

The oil biz is somewhat less transparent and open than most slashdotters are used to.

While this might well help save lives, I don't think it would make that much difference in a place like Rio de Janeiro, where corruption is rife. A previous governor is being investigated for walking off with US $30 million supposedly spent on social programs and his wife, who also governed for a term, swindled another US $38 million that was supposed to have been spent on health. Of course, these numbers are tiny in comparison to the hundreds of millions being cited in oficial investigations into these and other scandals.

Rio is last place on the planet that I would ever recommend anyone spend even $1 on health initatives, unless, through some miracle, the endemic corruption in the governmental structures was somehow fixed.

I think this news illustrate where we are heading: (In Portuguese) http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Concursos_Empregos/0,,MUL1349960-9654,00-CONCURSO+PARA+GARI+NO+RIO+REGISTRA+INSCRICOES+DE+CANDIDATOS+COM+DOUTORADO.html A selection for 1900 positions as a street cleaner in Rio de Janeiro got 109000 incriptions. 45 of them with people with a DOCTORATE DEGREE

You forgot to say some things:

1) Diebold is the hardware provider.
2) The source code for VirtuOS is not available. As TFA suggests, it'll be fixed in the future.
3) There's no paper trail. Then, you *have* to trust what the machine says.
4) New *improved* machines were tested in three cities. These improved machines have "biometric recognition" of the voters. Aren't you scared of being identified in the same machine you are using to put your vote?
5) In some remote locations, a notebook + special hardware pointed to a satellite sends the voting data to the TSE (the main public entity behind election matters). Notebook?? Yes. Doesn't it rings a bell?

Actually lots of those uncontacted tribes are known and are photographed from time to time. However they exact location and the pictures is not disclosed often, because even though the jungle is huge someone would certainly try to reach them, and it would be difficult to prevent it from happening. The expert did this as a media stunt to draw attention to the protection of the areas these tribes live.

Some quotes of what the expert said to Brazilian's newspaper O Globo http://oglobo.globo.com/pais/mat/2008/05/29/grupo_de_indios_fotografado_pela_1_vez_no_acre-546561413.asp: "There are notices of their existence since 1910."

"I know nothing about them, and the idea is to keep it this way."

"While they receive us with spears, they'll be fine. But when they become nice, they're done."

The Brazilian film "Trope de Elite" made huge success this year in Brazil. The film "leaked out" to the internet months before it was at the cinema. Since the film was so good, people who downloaded it from the internet are actually contacting the film producers to "pay" for it. The film producers appreciated that and suggested that this noble souls to transfer the money equivalent to a cinema ticket for an anti-cancer institution. The link is portuguese: http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Cinema/0,,MUL252921-7086,00-PRODUTORES+DE+TROPA+CRIAM+CONTA+PARA+RECEBER+DOACOES+DO+PUBLICO.html

This is by no means on oversight. The Brazilian Federal Police has been investigating Cisco for the last two years and it found out that for the last 5 years Cisco has been illegally shipping equipment to Brazil:

• Cisco opened companies in tax heavens like Panama, Bahamas and British Virgin Islands. The companies where registered in the name of Brazilian nationals. The investigation found out the those Brazilians are poor and live in poor neighborhoods; the article is not clear but it is most likely that those people didn't even know about the companies.
• Police suspects that Cisco used falsified invoices and undervalued the equipment.
• The equipment arrived at Salvador airport where customs officers are suspected of corruption and helping the smuggling.
• All the paperwork was handled by an offshore office from Panama, working for Cisco.
• More than 30 other companies are involved in this scheme.
• Since Brazil does not tax software imports, Cisco then separated the software from the hardware, over-valuated the software and under-valuated the hardware. Source: http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Economia_Negocios/0,,MUL151347-9356,00-AMERICANA+CISCO+E+ACUSADA+DE+INTEGRAR+ESQUEMA+DE+FRAUDE+TRIBUTARIA.html
• The amount of taxes that were not paid is about 1,5 billion BRL.
• Federal Police then raided offices (including Cisco Brasil) and arrested 40 people, including Cisco executives and government employees.

This is by no means on oversight. The Brazilian Federal Police has been investigating Cisco for the last two years and it found out that for the last 5 years Cisco has been illegally shipping equipment to Brazil:

• Cisco opened companies in tax heavens like Panama, Bahamas and British Virgin Islands. The companies where registered in the name of Brazilian nationals. The investigation found out the those Brazilians are poor and live in poor neighborhoods; the article is not clear but it is most likely that those people didn't even know about the companies.
• Police suspects that Cisco used falsified invoices and undervalued the equipment.
• The equipment arrived at Salvador airport where customs officers are suspected of corruption and helping the smuggling.
• All the paperwork was handled by an offshore office from Panama, working for Cisco.
• More than 30 other companies are involved in this scheme.
• Since Brazil does not tax software imports, Cisco then separated the software from the hardware, over-valuated the software and under-valuated the hardware. Source: http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Economia_Negocios/0,,MUL151347-9356,00-AMERICANA+CISCO+E+ACUSADA+DE+INTEGRAR+ESQUEMA+DE+FRAUDE+TRIBUTARIA.html
• The amount of taxes that were not paid is about 1,5 billion BRL.
• Federal Police then raided offices (including Cisco Brasil) and arrested 40 people, including Cisco executives and government employees.

Yeah, there are people being taken down in Brazillian Customs. If you read news regarding this story in portuguese, you'll get the following relevant information (not available in TFA):

- Customs employees at Salvador Airport are being investigated as collaborators to the act
- The five "American Corporates" are actually Brazilians working in ghost export companies in the US
    (So probably the US police is going to cooperate with this)
- Cisco Brazil ex-president and the current president were already arrested (so not just janitors)
- Investigations have been going for 2 years already
- Besides cisco, there is a number of import/export "ghost" companies ("laranjas") being investigated.
- It is not just "office equipment", like some comments here say - the imported products were being re-sold
    for lower-than-possible-prices in Brazil.

Relevant article (in portuguese)
http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/SaoPaulo/0,,MUL151436-5605,00-PRESIDENTE+E+EXPRESIDENTE+DA+CISCO+DO+BRASIL+SCAO+PRESOS+POR+SONEGACAO.html
http://www.estadao.com.br/economia/not_eco65806,0.htm

Just don't mess with his cops: http://extra.globo.com/rio/video/2007/2226/

The site is really being blocked.
The news on the parent post is 4 days old. The court decision to block the site was done today... a few moments ago.

All major internet companies that do international routing are being told to block YouTube to brazilians. IT WILL NOT BE AS SIMPLE AS A DNS BLOCK (unfortunatelly)

Bellow is the Telefonica note every user reiceves when they try acessing youtube. You will only get this if you are Telefonica's internet subscriber.
http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/0,,MTM2789-6174,00.ht ml

I'd like to know how you found that out, since the case goes under "justice secret" and the details aren't known... as for the court order, read those (portughese, I assume you're brazilian anyways): http://noticias.uol.com.br/bbc/2007/01/05/ult2363u 8993.jhtm http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Tecnologia/0,,AA14090 12-6174,00.html

It *seems* that it blocks only the video, not the whole site. But BrT (large brazilian ISP) has blocked Youtube entirely (maybe because they know you can't effectively block the video, since it will always be reuploaded under a different name). AFAIK, it is the only ocurrence of the blockade, all other ISPs have not blocked anything so far (including mine).

I agree that music is even on iTunes still overpriced. It is my feeling that music should be offered for free by default. It costs me NOTHING to turn on the radio - only my time - and I can hear the music for absolute free there.

Funny...I'm brazilian, and today I see in TV about this: "The woman capital" http://bomdiabrasil.globo.com/Jornalismo/BDBR/0,,3 682-p-13062005,00.html
Recife: http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recife

EUA has giving more attention to Brazil on the Satellite Vehicle Launching, because the base of Alcântara is so near the Equator line reducing the use of gas to launch the roquets.

Java and Flash on Linux are at least as good as their Windows versions.

Not quite. Java works fine on Linux, but Flash works *almost* fine. It still has a long standing (since 6.x I think) problems with the "WMODE" attribute on the plugin embedding tags. This attribute is usually used with a value of "transparent", to set the background of the Flash movie as a Transparent area on the Browser. Just take a look at globo.com on a Linux box and then on a Windows box (that displays the menu correctly) and you'll understand what I mean. That's just an example, of course, the website of the enterprise I work for has a menu similar to this one, and it has the same problems on linux. But globo.com is a relatively popular brazilian website.

there was a story in the O GLOBO newspaper (http://arquivoglobo.globo.com/pesquisa/texto_grat is.asp?codigo=1866178 - in portuguese) about the investiment of the brazilian government to release a U$100 dollar computer (actually 300 brazilian reais, 102 dollars yesterday) untill christmas, "with quality hardware and a program with low cost 20 hours dial-up connection per month". there is a 7.5 million potential homes bennefited. the computer would come with open source sortware.

Sony will have to work hard to make Everquest2 successful. I know they're the kings of MMORPG, but I think that Everquest2 lacks something when compared to World of Warcraft or even City of Heroes. Those two games don't rely on graphics; they have original, imaginative design and art. Take a look at these screenshots. I think I have seem those scenes before.

Sony will have to work hard to make Everquest2 successful. I know they're the kings of MMORPG, but I think that Everquest2 lacks something when compared to World of Warcraft or even City of Heroes. Those two games don't rely on graphics; they have original, imaginative design and art. Take a look at these screenshots. I think I have seem those scenes before.

Sony will have to work hard to make Everquest2 successful. I know they're the kings of MMORPG, but I think that Everquest2 lacks something when compared to World of Warcraft or even City of Heroes. Those two games don't rely on graphics; they have original, imaginative design and art. Take a look at these screenshots. I think I have seem those scenes before.

Sony will have to work hard to make Everquest2 successful. I know they're the kings of MMORPG, but I think that Everquest2 lacks something when compared to World of Warcraft or even City of Heroes. Those two games don't rely on graphics; they have original, imaginative design and art. Take a look at these screenshots. I think I have seem those scenes before.

I have found today (12/18) an interesting article about the Wright Bros. flight on the Brazilian newspaper O Globo.

It tells about yesterday's failed attempt to duplicate the Wright Bros. flight, and it goes on to explain why his flight is not accepted by Brazil (and France?):

Quote: "Wright Bros flight was not homologated by the International Aeronautics Federation as the first. A record on a sport event must take place on an official contest. On aviation is the same."

It goes on to explain that Wright Bros flight was assisted on take-off, something already discussed here that seems to be not true (except maybe for the high winds...)

You're not very well informed (i live in Brazil too), the information on the news and on interviews, explicity says it isn't *just* a case of free as in beer, brazilian government also wants to develop the brazilian software companies (by offering support and modifications/adptations on the code).

The government executive responsable for IT stated very clear if Microsoft representatives come by and offer M$ products for free or very cheap (as they have been doing in cases like this for marketing purposes) they won't accept it.

These pictures will explain it all (the girl in red)

Pic #1
Pic #2

A very funny Brazilian comic.

http://www.comeddy.com/flash/trigger_happy.swf
http://charges.globo.com/charges/20030321som.swf
http://www.markfiore.com/animation/corrections.swf
http://www.smart-blonde.net/ready/ready.htm
http://www.atmo.se/zino.aspx?pageID=12&documentID= 97

FOCUS

EPOCA

I don't think Marcelo is that chatty when speaking in Portuguese. If you watched one of his interviews on Globo, you would notice that he is a complete nerd that can only communicate via e-mail.

Interviews with Marcelo Tosatti

[All links pulled from google's first page for each letter - sick, ain't it?]