If Only Carnival Featured This

       Academia Unidos do Yogi. Now that would be a Samba school.

         

       

Where Are They Now?

http://www.buzzfeed.com/johnekdahl/14-principled-anti-war-celebrities-we-fear-may-hav-a1x1



     And off to Syria we go.

Jean Tinguely

Awesome. And once married to the fascinating Niki de Saint Phalle.




The Stravinski Fountain, seen below, is a collaboration between Saint Phalle and Tinguely.

A Road Song

Originally from America, but performed by Fountains of Wayne below.

Exploded Views

From  Jim Campbell, the same artist behind "Scattered Lights" - a previous installation in Manhattan's Madison Square Park.

Well Done!

Spain basically gets her ass handed to her by Brazil in the Confederation Cup final. And the most impressive play wasn't even a goal. Congrats to the Brazilian team.

An Encounter of Sorts between Economic Logic and Dilma Rousseff

Yes Mrs. Rousseff: you really are that stupid.

        From "The Economist" (article can be read in its entirety here).

"ALMOST exactly 20 years ago, in May 1993, Fernando Henrique Cardoso was named as Brazil’s 13th finance minister in as many years, a seemingly hopeless job in a country trapped in hyperinflation, debt and an anachronistic economic statism. Mr Cardoso’s Real Plan swiftly tamed inflation and took him to the presidency. There he laid the foundations for a new Brazil, of stability and liberal economic reform. This success was reinforced by his successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a left-wing former union leader, whose government saw 30m Brazilians get out of poverty.

The trouble is that in Lula’s second term (2007-10) and especially under his chosen successor, Dilma Rousseff, the formula behind Brazil’s success has been slowly abandoned. The policy secret was simple: inflation targeting by a Central Bank operating with de facto independence; transparent public accounts; a rigorous fiscal target, which brought down the public debt; and a much more open attitude to foreign trade and private investment."