I Love Brazil

[SouthAmerica]

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February 27, 2008

SouthAmerica: A number of people complained that I always write positive things about Brazil, and they wanted me to also report the bad side of Brazilians and Brazil.

Then in January 22, 2007 I posted the following on this forum, but since then the information has disappeared from this website. (maybe Deleted)

For the people who want to read some negative information about Brazil - You want me to write about something bad about Brazilians and Brazil then here is one more time something for you in response to one of Cesko’s postings.


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Cesko: Someone who can't find anything bad about Brazil…


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January 22, 2007

SouthAmerica: Reply to Cesko

You want me to write about something bad about Brazilians and Brazil then here is something for you.

Today the Brazilian computer hackers are the group most feared in the net and they have proved in the last few years that they have a very high software designing and programming skills.

Brazilian hackers often do not consider themselves criminals, saying they break into sites for the intellectual challenge rather than to steal.

I have two friends who had their websites attacked by these vandals. And the hackers can create a nightmare to any website that they choose to attack.

One of my best friends – his son had a very successful website about literature for young people and his website was doing very well and at one point it was ranked number 25,000 in the entire web.

He did an outstanding job developing his website and his site it was very popular in the teenager world. He is a wiz kid – he started building his own computers when he was 10 years old – and he was spending all his free time in the internet – he taught himself various computer languages, and he got very good in designing websites.

He also used to hang around hackers websites and he was reading everything about hackers and the hacking world. He made many friends in that group of people and many of the people that he was meeting in these groups were from around the world.

I guess he met the wrong hacker or group of hackers online – and I guess he thought that he was better than they were.

To make the story short the hackers started attacking his website and they were able to completely destroy it a number of times. He rebuilt his website and installed new firewalls, and used all his knowledge and he did everything possible to stop the hacking attacks against his website.

The hackers destroyed his website 3 times in a very short period of time and after the 3rd hacker attack he gave up and closed his very successful website and he realized that he could not beat or stop the hackers.

Another friend of mine who also has a very successful website - he has a terrible time with hackers and the hackers have shutdown his website a number of times.

It seems to me that all you have to do is to dare the Brazilian hackers that they can’t break in on any specific website in the internet and after that all these guys start their game to see which one can do it - until they break in and destroy the website.

And they keep some kind of score of their hacking attacks to see who is the best hacker in that game.

Here are some other examples of Brazilian global hacking that were reported by the international mainstream media:


1) The New York Times
“TECHNOLOGY; Brazil Becomes a Cybercrime Lab”
October 27, 2003, Monday
By TONY SMITH (NYT); Business/Financial Desk
Late Edition - Final, Section C, Page 4, Column 3, 1049 words

…as well as online vandalism; last year, world's 10 most active groups of Internet vandals and criminals were Brazilian hackers….



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2) Brazilian hackers swoop down on NASA lab

It’s the most sinister thing to come north from Brazil since the Lambada. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at CalTech has become one of the most recent hack attack targets. A series of attacks originating in Brazil have plagued the lab in recent weeks and put NASA’s security methods in question. JPL has responded by blocking any and all queries from Brazil until it can plug the leaks. The agency has fielded some criticism for what early reports called a "blacklist" on Brazil, but the lab insists that the solution is only temporary. NASA does not keep any highly sensitive data on servers vulnerable to hackers, but JPL is not taking any chances. A spokesperson declared that he is "not aware of any compromises per se in these attacks."



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3) BBC News
“Hackers catch World Cup fever”

…Brazilian hackers are now the most prolific in the world, taking over from Eastern European groups which dominated cyber-attacks in the 1990s, according to security firm mi2g.

There appears to be no political motivation for activities of the hackers, said mi2g.

…Successful attacks

In its study on web attacks in July, mi2g found that Italian websites have borne the brunt of the attacks.

Websites with the suffix .it (Italy) suffered 514 digital attacks last month, second only to .com sites, which were attacked 1,600 times.

Brazil came third with 329. The UK suffered relatively few hack attacks, with just 94 during July.

The majority of the attacks against Italian websites originated from a three-member Brazilian hacker group dubbed hax0rs lab.

Although they primarily target non-Brazilian domains, a significant proportion of their attacks are directed towards .br (Brazil) accounting for its high placing in the statistics.

In one day in August, they successfully attacked 838 sites, bringing the total of digital attacks that day to 1120.

According to mi2g, this is the largest number of attacks to take place in a single day.

The prolific count was due to the fact that they gained access to a German internet service provider which was hosting the majority of the sites they attacked.

Three other Brazilian hacker groups were the most active during July.
Just for fun

…"It would seem to be about bravado," said mi2g Chief Executive DK Matai.

…The fact that Brazil has a sizeable software industry but is still fairly crime-ridden also cannot be underestimated.

"Brazil has a very well developed IT software capability and software outsourcing industry which European and US companies utilise. At the same time, Brazilian society has a fairly high level of crime which inevitably spills into cyberspace," he said.

Tight legislation in the US and the EU make countries outside of that domain more attractive to hackers, he added.


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4) The Copenhagen Post
The websites are the latest victims of a competition between Brazilian hackers to close down as many internet sites as possible in the shortest possible time…


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5) Microsoft News
A group of Brazilian hackers vandalized four Microsoft web sites late last week. The most recent target was MSNBC Sports.


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6) The Free Library
Brazilian hackers often target people in industrial countries, such as the United States, as well as wealthy marks in their own country.


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[SouthAmerica]

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March 13, 2008

SouthAmerica: Today the Brazilian government implemented some changes to slowdown the melting US dollar versus the real.


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12/03/2008
Para conter queda do dólar, governo diminui vantagens a investidor externo
VALDO CRUZ
JULIANA ROCHA
da Folha de S.Paulo, em Brasília
A Folha de Sao Paulo

O Ministério da Fazenda tomou três medidas para tentar atenuar o "derretimento" do dólar --a moeda norte-americana está em seu mais baixo patamar desde 1999-- e evitar uma deterioração do saldo positivo da balança comercial nos próximos anos.

As medidas são: 1) acabar com a cobrança de 0,38% de IOF (Imposto sobre Operações Financeiras) nas operações de câmbio dos exportadores; 2) autorizar que os exportadores deixem toda sua receita com vendas externas lá fora e 3) cobrar IOF na entrada de capital estrangeiro destinado a aplicações de renda fixa, principalmente títulos públicos, que terá taxa de 1,5%.

Dólar barato afeta exportações e prejudica balança comercial
Segundo o ministro Guido Mantega, o objetivo é não repetir erros do passado e de outros países, que se descuidaram da conta de comércio exterior, acreditando que a atração de recursos financeiros externos pode financiar as contas do país. Uma referência à crise cambial vivida no governo FHC, quando havia déficit na balança comercial e as contas externas eram sustentadas pela atração de capital estrangeiro, até que a fonte secou e provocou uma grande desvalorização do real.

No caso da cobrança de IOF nas aplicações em renda fixa com recursos externos, ficarão isentas as seguintes operações: em Bolsas de Valores, IPO (lançamento de ações na abertura de capital de empresas), investimento direto estrangeiro no país, empréstimos externos e fundos de investimentos de derivativos com renda variável (CDI e índice de ações).

Mantega não quis calcular o impacto que as medidas terão sobre o valor do dólar em relação ao real, mas disse acreditar que haverá uma redução na entrada de capital de curto prazo no país. "A idéia não é ter um impacto brusco no câmbio, mas um impacto suave, que possa atenuar o derretimento do dólar", afirmou o ministro.

Segundo ele, as medidas terão um efeito parecido com uma queda da taxa de juros, já que vai diminuir as vantagens de um investidor externo aplicar recursos no país.

O ministro adiantou ainda que, com a concordância do presidente Lula, a política industrial passará por uma reformatação, direcionando os benefícios fiscais principalmente para as empresas exportadoras.

Source: http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/dinheiro/ult91u381272.shtml

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[limitdown]

Quote from DrChaos:

It took less than 24 hours for that to be euthanized. Was it Exxon's CEO who called, or was it Saudi Aramco's? What other parts of the SOTU were """misstatements"""?



Posted on Wed, Feb. 01, 2006
Administration backs off Bush's vow to reduce Mideast oil imports
By Kevin G. Hall
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally.

What the president meant, they said in a conference call with reporters, was that alternative fuels could displace an amount of oil imports equivalent to most of what America is expected to import from the Middle East in 2025.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwas...38.htm?source=rss&channel=krwashington_nation

why the need for clarification?

 

[SouthAmerica]

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Brazil to change forex rules to stem real's gains
Reuters - Wed Mar 12, 2008 5:46pm

BRASILIA, March 12 (Reuters) - Brazil will ease regulations on foreign exchange transactions by exporters and tax investments by foreigners in the local bond market in a bid to cut inflows of U.S. dollars and stem gains in the local currency, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said on Wednesday.

Brazil's currency, the real BRBY<BRL=>, has gained 6.2 percent in 2008, after surging about 20 percent in 2007.

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[SouthAmerica]

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April 9, 2008

SouthAmerica: Here is an interesting article about ethanol and Brazil.


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“Cheaper ethanol outselling gasoline in Brazil”
The Dallas Morning News
Tuesday, April 8, 2008

SÃO PAULO, Brazil – Car owners in this giant city of 11 million people are giving the oil companies fits. Ethanol outsells gasoline here by a large margin. This year, it became the most popular fuel throughout Brazil.

Petróleos Brasileiro SA, or Petróbras, is trying to hold on to its customers. The Brazilian national oil company has held gasoline price increases to just 10 percent in the last three years. Other gasoline retailers, from ExxonMobil to Shell, have held back as well.

"Competition from ethanol is stiff," said Almir Guilhereme Barbassa, Petróbras' chief financial officer. "In the long run, we have to consider ethanol is going to be more and more competitive, so we have to be prepared to sell our gasoline to international markets."

Even with the competition, fuel isn't cheap in São Paulo. Taxes are high. After converting from Brazilian reais to dollars and liters to gallons, regular gasoline goes for about $5.08 a gallon. Ethanol sells for about $2.65 a gallon.

Ethanol is alcohol distilled from plants. U.S. ethanol is made from corn. In Brazil, sugar cane is the crop of choice.

Alcohol as a fuel is only about two-thirds as efficient as gasoline, which reduces its price advantage in São Paulo to 74 cents a gallon less than gasoline.

Because of the falling value of the U.S. dollar, Petróbras hasn't had to eat a lot of the price increases for oil that shot gasoline up in Dallas by more than 50 percent in the last three years.

After sifting all the variables of currency, fuel efficiency and unit conversions, motorists here recognize that ethanol is the better bargain. That's without even considering the geopolitical consequences of relying on oil.

It's fashionable to trash ethanol these days. Corn prices have skyrocketed as ethanol makers consume a growing share of the U.S. corn crop. That is contributing to higher food prices around the world. A U.N. official has called biofuels a "crime against humanity."

Time magazine, linking higher food prices to more tree clearing for soybean farms, last week blamed ethanol for the destruction of Brazil's Amazon rain forest. The article argued that it makes less sense to produce ethanol than to drill for oil.

While that logic undoubtedly pleases the oil industry, it's not embraced by Petróbras. The company is investing in pipelines to take ethanol to the Brazilian seacoast for exports. It's created a biofuels subsidiary that's investing in ethanol projects and biodiesel plants.

These biofuel investments amount to $1.5 billion – real money, but small change compared to the $112.5 billion Petróbras plans to spend on oil projects over the next five years.

But these renewable energy investments could help Petróbras offset some carbon emissions from its refineries and petrochemical plants. "We think we may get some carbon credits for that," said José Gabrielli, the company's president.

Brazilian sugar cane crushed and distilled into ethanol occupies a little more than 1 percent of the country's arable land. And it's grown "3,000 kilometers from the Amazon," Mr. Gabrielli said.

As with competitors everywhere, ethanol producers are wary of Petróbras. The oil companies were forced by the Brazilian government to install ethanol tanks and pumps at all gas stations in the country during the 1970s.

While Petróbras is building ethanol pipelines, the sugar companies are looking to build their own to have an alternative if the oil company ever applies the screws.

The 350 members of the Brazilian Sugar Cane Industry Association are pulling in $20 billion a year now. Some are thinking of opening their own retail fuel stations. "We're more than a flea on their back now," said Jose Velasco, the association's chief Washington representative.

That's a level of competition that doesn't yet exist in the United States. At the moment, corn-based ethanol loses the price/efficiency test.

And while stations that sell E85 (an 85 percent ethanol/gasoline mix) are spreading, there's a long way to go before U.S. gasoline refiners feel enough heat from alternate fuels to hold back on price hikes.

Source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...s/DN-landers_08bus.State.Edition1.c50449.html

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[SouthAmerica]

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April 9, 2008

SouthAmerica: Here is another example of Brazil leapfrogging into the future.


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“Brazil launches Internet-based educational programs for public schools”
People's Daily - China
April 09, 2008

The Brazilian government launched on Tuesday a nationwide Internet-based educational program, from which up to 37 million students and teachers would benefit.

The program, titled Broad Band in Schools, is designed to establish broadband Internet connections at 55,000 public schools, said Ronaldo Sardenberg, president of the National Telecommunications Agency.

Telephone operators have ensured that all the schools would have free access to Internet-based services, Sardenberg said. He added that the network transmission rate will be one megabit per second (Mbps) in the first phase of implementation, and two Mbps in January 2011.

The program, one of many initiatives of the National Program of Computing in Education, is considered one of the most important government projects by the government up to 2010.

Source: Xinhua
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90781/90879/6389302.html

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[SouthAmerica]

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May 5, 2008

SouthAmerica: Last week when they announced on CNBC that on Sunday their program Business Nation was going to show agriculture in Brazil – I was looking forward to watching that television program.

What a disappointment when the program turned out to be the glorification of some American farmer who started farming in Brazil about 5 years ago and he is doing very well and he is buying more and more land and making a lot of money for his financial backers.

By watching that program one would think that Brazil is doing well in agriculture because of these smart Americans who are doing all these farming in Brazil.

The program turned out to be a PR job to raise American money to be invested in Brazil by American farmers and buy more Brazilian land.

The program said nothing about the Brazilian farmers and the success that they have been achieving for a long time – that’s why Brazil is becoming a global agricultural power.

The Brazilian government should check closely about how much land foreigners are buying in Brazil and require that these people be minority owners regarding the ownership of these lands and have always Brazilians controlling at least 51 percent of these ventures.

I will be writing about these issues with all its geopolitical ramifications on my coming articles. It will be a matter of national security that the Brazilian government change its laws regarding these matters.

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[limitdown]

Quote from DrChaos:

It took less than 24 hours for that to be euthanized. Was it Exxon's CEO who called, or was it Saudi Aramco's? What other parts of the SOTU were """misstatements"""?



Posted on Wed, Feb. 01, 2006
Administration backs off Bush's vow to reduce Mideast oil imports
By Kevin G. Hall
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally.

What the president meant, they said in a conference call with reporters, was that alternative fuels could displace an amount of oil imports equivalent to most of what America is expected to import from the Middle East in 2025.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwas...38.htm?source=rss&channel=krwashington_nation

proof positive that this Bush Administration and its sub-part the Oil Administration are completely behind or supportive of these arranged oil prices and strangling of the American peoples.

How else can you explain how under normal circumstances, when exposed to the light of scrutiny, instead of oil achieving some leveling off or moderating or return to its actual $28 bbl/US natural price (even with all the demand from impoverished China, India, Russia and other places), it defies reason and continues to rise even higher from $109 bbl/US to over $120 bbl/US? how else?

too many lies to justify or make excuses continue to be told regarding oil producing regions of the world,

too many lies to justify demand have been told, and yet on balance, those in China, India, Russia and other places have yet to establish as much sustained demand as the US still represents.

aren't you too tired of all these lies and those backing them?

 

[robbie380]

hey southamerica....am i crazy to want to buy more Cosan (CZZ) at these levels? i'm in from 10.90 and i was thinking about doubling the position after i was reading how BP was helping Cosan to buy up all of Exxon's gas stations in Brasil.

opinions?

 

[SouthAmerica]

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May 6, 2008

SouthAmerica: Reply to Robie380

I don’t have any connections to Cosan, and I can’t help you there. But here is a potential winner in the coming years – just keep in mind this new company.

I know Francisco Gros since the time when he was with Morgan Stanley in New York about ten years ago. The last time I got in contact with him it was about 3 years ago when he was the CEO of Fosfertil. But here is a summary of his background:

Francisco Roberto André Gros has been the Chief Executive Officer of Fosfertil-Untrafertil since May 2003. Mr. Gros served as Chief Executive Officer of Fertilizantes Fosfatados SA.

Mr. Gros served as Chief Executive Officer of Petrobrás since January 2002. In February 2000, Mr. Gros served as President of BNDES while serving as a Director of Petrobrás. And from 1991 to 1992 and also in 1981, Mr. Gros served as the President of the Central Bank of Brazil.

By the way, I am not involved in any way with this new company. I just know Mr. Francisco Gros and I know he is a reputable person besides having the knowledge of high finances which is necessary for anyone to be able to run such a company.


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“OGX Petroleo June IPO to Raise at Least $1.5 Billion, Gros Says”
By Adriana Brasileiro
Bloomberg News – April 7, 2008

April 7 (Bloomberg) -- OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes SA, the oil company owned by billionaire Eike Batista, plans to raise at least $1.5 billion in an initial public offering in June to fund exploration projects.

``The final amount will depend on investors' appetite, on how the market evolves until then, but I'd say that $1.5 billion is the minimum,'' Francisco Gros, vice president of the board and former chief executive, told Bloomberg in an interview in Rio de Janeiro. He said the IPO also aims to give clearer valuation to the company, which Batista estimates at about $15 billion.

OGX spent $800 million to buy rights to explore 21 Brazilian oil fields in a government auction in November. Gros said OGX has funding for initial seismic work on the fields and to start leasing equipment. The company in December raised $1.3 billion in a private share placement.

OGX, which is investing to take advantage of record high energy prices, hasn't developed oil fields before. The business will probably become Batista's most important, Gros said.

``Mining is still important, but oil has a more interesting potential. Besides, it's increasingly clear that there are very significant oil reserves in offshore Brazil,'' he said.

Crude oil traded above $107 a barrel in New York today after gaining 0.6 percent last week as the sliding dollar and faster inflation led investors to buy commodities.

Gros also said that Rodolfo Landim was appointed to replace him as chief executive officer of OGX. Landin was CEO of MMX Mineracao e Metalicos SA, Batista's mining business.

To contact the reporter on this story: Adriana Brasileiro in Rio de Janeiro at abrasileiro@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: April 7, 2008

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=acyTcjj893ZQ&refer=latin_america


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From Bloomberg News
To contact the reporter on this story: Alexander Ragir in New York at aragir@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 5, 2007
Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4 BS) rose 34 centavos, or 0.7 percent, to 52.78 reais. Eike Batista, a Brazilian billionaire, plans to create a company named OGX with $500 million to prospect for gas reserves in countries such as Brazil, O Estado de S. Paulo reported. Francisco Gros, former president of Brazil's state- controlled Petrobras, will run the new business, Estado said.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=amMvbKHh_cF4

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