brazil

Ancient Amazon Stonehenge discovered in Brazil jungle (video)

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“Stonehenge!” sang the world’s loudest band, Spinal Tap. “‘Tis a magic place, where the moon doth rise with a dragon’s face. Stonehenge! Where the virgins lie, and the prayers of devils fill the midnight sky.” But no druids were harmed in the discovery of a Stonehenge-like structure in the Brazilian jungle.
The NYTimes reports:

CALÇOENE, Brazil — As the foreman for a cattle ranch in the far reaches of the Brazilian Amazon, Lailson Camelo da Silva was razing trees to convert rain forest into pasture when he stumbled across a bizarre arrangement of towering granite blocks.

Mas…Ancient Amazon Stonehenge discovered in Brazil jungle (video)

Cibelle is a punk from the suburbs: ‘Punk da Periferia’ (video)

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Thank God for the Internets and Citizen Uploaders like Scott LaFramenta, who has added English subtitles to the Portuguese stylings of Brazilian-Briton Cibelle and her performance of Gilberto Gil’s Punk da Periferia — punk from the suburbs.

Now it all makes sense! Here’s a recent video of Gil performing the same tune live.

Mas…Cibelle is a punk from the suburbs: ‘Punk da Periferia’ (video)

In Rio de Janeiro’s favela, kite flying sets you free (video)

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After futebol, soltar pipas, is Brasil’s most popular sport. In the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, flying the pipa is more than a leisurely escape from on-the-ground realities — it’s a venue for battle, with the entire sky as the arena. Pipa designs and airborne “cutting” strategies have been passed through generations, from rooftop to rooftop.

Filmmakers Guilherme Tensol and Leandro HBL spent time in Rocinha, Rio’s largest favela, among its young pipa warriors and elder statesmen, absorbing their secrets and documenting their stories.

Pocho Ocho top reasons for Brazil vs Alemania futbol FAIL

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brazilsadTuesday’s disastrous Brazil-Germany FIFA2014 World Cup futbol match, which ended in Germany whipping the host country 7-1, has saddened the nation (photo.) And on Wednesday, Brazil’s soccer fans were struggling to understand what exactly went wrong.

We analyzed press and social media reactions and translated from the Portuguese to bring you their Pocho Ocho top reasons for Brazil’s FAIL:

8. Blame it on the bossa nova, with its magic spell.

7. All those pesky Hitler clones on the Brazil team let Germany win.

6. Alemania? We thought we were playing Ally McBeal!

Mas…Pocho Ocho top reasons for Brazil vs Alemania futbol FAIL

Brazil TV guy tries to punk Mexicans with extra-picante salsa (video)

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When a Brazilian TV guy tries to prank visiting Mexican futbol fans with what he thinks is super-spicy salsa, it turns out the joke is actually on him. What’s uber picante in Brazil, tu sabes, ranks as “meh” to Mexicanos. One intended victim actually thinks Brazil-boy’s salsa is kind of “sweet.”

PREVIOUSLY ON SALSA:

Mas…Brazil TV guy tries to punk Mexicans with extra-picante salsa (video)

Brazil sex workers learn English to prep for World Cup (NSFW video)

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The Association of Prostitutes of Minas Gerais is teaching English to sex workers to help them deal with foreign customers. The state will host a match between Costa Rica and England and expects horny hordes of visiting futbol fans. Monday’s class, run by Igor Fuchs, was the last before today’s formal start of the games in Sao Paolo. [NSFW adult language and images.]

Along with normal conversational vocabulary, the students also learn words which might be used during encounters with clients. Sex work has been legal in Brazil since the year 2000.

Ex-Daily Show contributor John Oliver (Last Week Tonight on HBO) has some excellent World Cup coverage, too:

Mas…Brazil sex workers learn English to prep for World Cup (NSFW video)

Odd Couple Brazil: He’s 5’3″, she’s 6’6″ – because love (video)

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Francinaldo da Silva, 23, is 1.6 meters tall (5’3″) and Elisany da Cruz Silva, 18, is 2 meters tall (6’6″) but the height discrepancy is no impediment to true love, at least according to this Chinese video about the newly-engaged Brazilian couple with English and Chinese captions narrated by a posh (Australian?) announcer.

Our assessment: She looks much taller than 2 meters. What do you think?

Damn werewolves! Brazilian city sets 9PM curfew (video)

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The Brazilian city of Sao Goncalo dos Campos, in the Metropolitan Region of Feira de Santana, set 9 PM curfew last month. Damn werewolves.

Skeptophilia writes:

Even the government officials are taking it seriously. Apparently, for the last two weeks there’s been a curfew in the town; no one is to be outside after 9 PM. It started when a man identified only as “Pingo” described seeing a five-foot-tall black monster, which ran at him; Pingo turned and fled, escaping (he said) only by the narrowest of margins. At first, the other villagers made fun of him — until others had similar encounters. Locals are calling it a “werewolf….”

Mas…Damn werewolves! Brazilian city sets 9PM curfew (video)