Proverbial

A group of state congressmen and representatives from the Brazilian Press Association, the National Newspaper Association and the National Students’ Union, gathered today at downtown Rio de Janeiro to rally in favor of freedom of speech (.br). According to the president of the Lawyers’ Order of Brazil, Wadih Damuz, it was an act “in defense [...]

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Once again, in the name of protecting us from the horrors of racism, apology to crime or the incitement of violence, Brazil’s diligent judges censored perfectly valid discourse. As much as this sort of thing pisses me off, though, I applaud that these ridiculous laws keep being enforced.

A couple of weeks ago, PROCON (the country’s [...]

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Opens the fridge to serve her a glass of water and makes a bold comment about a piece of butter, which he takes in one of his hands, and about Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider’s movie; Beth transpires. She is taken by excitement, nipples swollen; the mouth agape. There’s an almost imperceptible muscle movement at [...]

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Ever wondered why so many people say it’s a bad thing to let the government decide who is or isn’t a journalist? Look no further than - where else? - France:
The French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists. The [...]

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The late Paulo Francis (.br), one of the most intelligent and sarcastic conservative pundits in our country’s history, once said that “the left is incompatible with those who shower every day. The best anti-communist propaganda is to let communists talk”. He should know, since he had been a trotskist for a good part of his [...]

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Slashdot might have jumped the gun a few days ago, but what was then an exaggeration is now reality: all backbone networks in Brazil have been notified by a São Paulo court to either shut down access to all instances of Daniela Cicarelli’s video on YouTube, or either block the site entirely.
So far, except for [...]

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A friend of mine usually says that “Brazil didn’t get the Internet”, when faced with news like the latest breakdown on Orkut communities. But the abundance of this sort of thing throughout the world just makes me think that no country has really got the Internet. Which in turn just makes me believe some country [...]

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And the breakdown on Orkut continues. According to Folha Online, the Tribunal de Justiça of Rio de Janeiro is calling for personal data (.br) of the owners of two communities in Google’s social network: “Sou de menor, mas sei dirigir” (I’m a minor, but know how to drive) and “Eu sei dirigir bêbado” (I know [...]

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I realize how distasteful it is to dignify the Holocaust denier arguments in a public forum. But the opportunity to show how science and reason can triumph over ignorance and propaganda is too good to ignore. This qualifies as one of those “once in a thousand years” opportunities.
Scott Adams gives a perfect example of why [...]

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