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Showing posts from September, 2008

Electricity in Brazil

Brazil has a strange relationship with electricity. Something like 95% of the electricity in Brazil comes from hydroelectric, yet they charge an arm and a leg for it. A few years ago we had the "Apagão" (big-unplug or big-turn-off) where you had to halve your electricity consumption from the same time last year. This was because it hadn't rained enough and the water was getting too low behind the dams to make electricity. The real problem, of course, is that the government hasn't been investing in new electric generation plants. Worse was, that after the emergency, everyone had learned how to use less electricity (by buying compact fluorescent lights (at twice the normal price), for example) and was being more energy efficient, so the hydro company increased the prices. Why? Because they weren't making enough revenue! At my home they charge R$0.5684/kWh which is about USD$ 0.3072/kWh. That's 204% more than the New York region ($0.1508/kWh) or 217% more expe

Portuguese Words that are Odd in English

Puxe (pronounced "push") - means pull no - means "in" or "at", "no happy hour" would be "at 'happy hour'" sex - means "Fri" or sexta feira. Sexo would be sex. uai (pronounce "why") - it's an expression similar to "look", "well".