Tag: BRAZIL

Over the past two years, police in Rio de Janeiro have been cracking down on drunk drivers as part of a strict city-wide campaign. Many motorists, however, have found a way to avoid the watchful eye of Rio's law enforcers: Twitter. Under Operation Lei Seca ("dry law"), Rio police have been setting up checkpoints at accident hotspots across the city, where they administer breathalyzer tests to ...

Ironically enough, perhaps the only thing more emotionally painful than attending a funeral is having to miss one. But grieving friends and family in one Brazilian town are now able to say goodbye to their departed loved ones from anywhere in the world -- as long as they have an Internet connection, and some extra cash. The Gonzaga funeral home, located in the city of Governador Valadares, has ...

The U.S. may not be the superpower it once was, but, when it comes to botnets, at least, we're still number one. According to Microsoft's newly released ninth Security Intelligence Report, more than 2.2 million computers in the U.S. fell prey to botnets in the first six months of 2010, substantially more than second-ranked Brazil, home to 550,000 infected computers. South Korea, however, has the ...

When Freddy Johansen posted photos from a whale watching cruise on his Flickr account, he probably imagined that only a handful of close friends or family would find them interesting. As it turns out, though, the Norwegian's seemingly nonchalant photo of a humpback whale inadvertently resulted in a record-breaking biological discovery. As the Boston Globe reports, scientists first spotted ...

As we've reported before, thieves, scammers and other charlatans sometimes find their targets on Twitter and Facebook, especially when the soon-to-be victims post innocent status updates like, "My 18 HDTVs will be so lonely in my unlocked house while I'm on vacation for the next month," veritably inviting criminals to track them down. Now Brazil's favorite crime-sport of kidnapping has been thrown ...

Brazil -- land of caipirinhas, Carnival and one of the world's highest crime rates per capita -- will be a bit more like the world of 'The Running Man' starting next week. In one of the scariest advertising schemes known to us, Unilever's detergent line Omo will be placing GPS devices in select boxes of suds throughout the country. According to Advertising Age, "consumers who buy one of the ...

Forget its tumbling currency and stagnant labor market. Europe has another issue far more important: spam. Lots and lots of spam. According to a recently released report from security firm Sophos, the Old World has just surpassed Asia as the world's leading spam continent, accounting for more than a third of all junk e-mail sent during the second quarter of 2010. Among individual European ...

Earlier this week, Brazil's national soccer team beat North Korea at the World Cup. The result wasn't shocking, but the fact that North Korea actually has a soccer team certainly took us by surprise. The team may be the lowest ranked squad in the tournament, and the country may be making its first World Cup appearance in 44 years, but the underdog of this year's Cup apparently has a secret, ...

digg_url ='http://www.switched.com/2009/12/09/nigeria-dethroned-brazil-reigns-as-worlds-spam-capital/'; Brazil. The name alone evokes images of balmy beaches, bronzed bodies, or Bossa ballads. But beneath the veneer of this plastic surgery tropical paradise lurks an ugly, viral underbelly that's infecting the entire world. No, not that weird rash you noticed after Spring Break in Rio. We're ...

According to BBC News, Brazilian prisoners -- hell bent on continuing their criminal business via cell phones -- recently enlisted the help of outsiders and a radio-controlled helicopter in order to get their hands on the devices. Today, the BBC reported that authorities at the Presidente Venceslau correctional facility in Sao Paolo recently discovered a three-foot model helicopter in the trunk ...

Prison has a way of transforming a two-bit criminal into frickin' MacGyver, so we weren't extremely surprised by this example of inmates thinking on the fly (no pun intended, there). Two weeks ago, guards at the Danilio Pinheiro prison farm in Brazil intercepted a cell-phone-toting pigeon after they spotted the aerial accomplice perched on an electric security wire with a small bag tied to its ...

Between riots, fires, and overcrowding -- Brazilian jails are totally scary. But fascinating! People expect wild stuff to be happening in Brazil's prison system, and the inmates of Marilia, Sao Paulo, do not disappoint. Recently, guards noticed an alarming increase in cell phones and drugs within prison walls. But where were they coming from? The prison has a high-tech security screening ...