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Portal:Brazil/Selected article/1
Chagas' disease (also called American trypanosomiasis) is a human tropical parasitic disease which occurs in the Americas, particularly in South America. Its pathogenic agent is a flagellate protozoan named Trypanosoma cruzi, which is transmitted to humans and other mammals mostly by blood-sucking assassin bugs of the subfamily Triatominae (Family Reduviidae). Those insects are known by numerous common names varying by country, including benchuca, vinchuca, kissing bug, chipo, pito, chupança, chinchorro, and barbeiro. The most common insect species belong to the genera Triatoma, Rhodnius, and Panstrongylus. However, other methods of transmission are possible, such as ingestion of food contaminated with parasites, blood transfusion and fetal transmission.
The symptoms of Chagas' disease vary over the course of the infection. In the early, acute stage symptoms are mild and are usually no more than local swelling at the site of infection. As the disease progresses, over as much as twenty years, the serious chronic symptoms appear, such as heart disease and malformation of the intestines. If untreated, the chronic disease is often fatal. Current drug treatments for this disease are generally unsatisfactory, with the available drugs being highly toxic and often ineffective, particularly in the chronic stage of the disease.
Portal:Brazil/Selected article/2
The jaguar (US: /ˈdʒæɡwɑːr/, UK: /ˈdʒæɡjuər/; Panthera onca) is a New World mammal of the Felidae family and one of four "big cats" in the Panthera genus, along with the tiger, lion, and leopard of the Old World. It is the only Panthera found in the New World. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and on average the largest and most powerful feline in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar's present range extends from Mexico across much of Central America and south to Paraguay and northern Argentina. The jaguar has been extinct in the US since the early 1970s.
The Jaguar is the animal-symbol of Brazil, which is popularly called Onça Pintada, which means Painted Ounce . The animal received this title because it is in virtually all ecosystems of the country, such as Amazon, the Cerrado and the Pantanal.
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The Minas Geraes class, spelled Minas Gerais in some sources, consisted of two battleships built for the Brazilian Navy by the British company Armstrong Whitworth. The ships were named Minas Geraes, after the Brazilian state, and São Paulo, which honored both the state and city. They were intended to be Brazil's first step towards becoming an international power.
In 1904, Brazil began a major naval building program that included three 11,800-long-ton (12,000 tonne) small battleships. Designing and ordering the ships took two years, but these plans were scrapped after the revolutionary dreadnought concept rendered the Brazilian design totally obsolete. Two of these dreadnoughts were ordered instead, making Brazil became the third country to have ships of this type under construction, before traditional powers like Germany, France or Russia. As such, the ships caused quite a stir among the major countries in the world, many of whom incorrectly speculated the ships were actually destined for a rival nation.
Soon after their delivery in 1910, both Minas Geraes and São Paulo were embroiled in the Revolt of the Lash (Revolta da Chibata), in which the crews of four Brazilian ships demanded the abolition of corporal punishment in the navy. The ships surrendered four days after it began, when a bill was passed granting amnesty to all involved. In 1922, the two battleships put down a revolt at Fort Copacabana. Two years later, lieutenants on São Paulo mutinied but found little support from other military units, so they sailed to Montevideo, Uruguay, and requested asylum. Minas Geraes was modernized in the 1930s, but both battleships were too old to actively participate in the Second World War, and instead were employed as harbor defense ships in Salvador and Recife. São Paulo was sold in 1951 to a British shipbreaker, but was lost in a storm north of the Azores while being towed to her final destination. Minas Geraes was sold to an Italian scrapper in 1953 and towed to Genoa the following year.
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Brazil (Portuguese: Brasil), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil) ⓘ, is a country in South America. It is the fifth largest country by geographical area, the fifth most populous country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of over 7,491 km (4,655 mi). It is bordered on the north by Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana and the overseas department of French Guiana; on the northwest by Colombia; on the west by Bolivia and Peru; on the southwest by Argentina and Paraguay and on the south by Uruguay. Numerous archipelagos are part of the Brazilian territory, such as Fernando de Noronha, Rocas Atoll, Saint Peter and Paul Rocks, and Trindade and Martim Vaz.
Brazil was a colony of Portugal from the landing of Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500 until its independence in 1822. Initially independent as the Brazilian Empire, the country has been a republic since 1889, even though its bicameral legislature (now called Congress) dates back to 1824, when the first constitution was ratified. Its current Constitution defines Brazil as a Federal Republic. The Federation is formed by the union of the Federal District, the 26 States, and the 5,564 Municipalities.
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Fittipaldi Automotive, sometimes called Copersucar after its first major sponsor, was the only Formula One motor racing team and constructor ever to be based in Brazil. It was formed during 1974 by racing driver Wilson Fittipaldi and his younger brother, double world champion Emerson, with money from the Brazilian sugar and alcohol cooperative Copersucar. In 1976 Emerson surprised the motor racing world by leaving the title-winning McLaren team to drive for the unsuccessful family outfit. Future world champion Keke Rosberg took his first podium finish in Formula One with the team.
The team was based in São Paulo, almost 6,000 miles (10,000 km) away from the centre of the world motor racing industry in the UK, before moving to Reading, UK during 1974. It participated in 119 grands prix between 1975 and 1982, entering a total of 156 cars. It achieved 3 podiums and scored 44 championship points.
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Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 was a Boeing 737-800 SFP, registration PR-GTD, on a scheduled passenger flight from Manaus, Brazil, to Rio de Janeiro, which collided in mid-air with an Embraer Legacy business jet on September 29, 2006 over the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. All 154 passengers and crew aboard the Boeing 737 were killed as the aircraft crashed into an area of dense rainforest, while the slightly damaged Embraer Legacy landed safely with its seven occupants uninjured.
The accident was the deadliest in Brazil's aviation history at the time, surpassing VASP Flight 168, which crashed in 1982 with 137 fatalities near Fortaleza. It was subsequently surpassed by TAM Airlines Flight 3054, which crashed on July 17, 2007 with more than 190 fatalities. This accident also triggered a major crisis in Brazilian civil aviation.
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Guarana (Portuguese guaraná [ɡwaɾɐˈna]), Paullinia cupana (syn. P. crysan, P. sorbilis), is a climbing plant in the Sapindaceae family, native to the Amazon basin and especially common in Brazil. Guarana features large leaves and clusters of flowers, and is best known for its fruit, which is about the size of a coffee berry. Each fruit harbors one seed which contains approximately five times as much caffeine as coffee beans. This plant, as is generally the case with caffeine, evolved such a concentration because caffeine is poisonous to and repels pests that would otherwise eat or damage the berries.
The guarana fruit's color ranges from brown to red and contains black seeds which are partly covered by white arils. The color contrast when the fruit has been split open has been likened to eyeballs; this has formed the basis of a myth.
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The Amazon River of South America is the largest river in the world by volume, with a total river flow greater than the next top ten largest rivers flowing into the ocean combined. The Amazon, which has the largest drainage basin in the world, accounts for approximately one fifth of the world's total river flow. Because of its vast dimensions, it is sometimes called The River Sea. The first bridge in the Amazon river system (over the Rio Negro) opened on 10 October 2010 near Manaus, Brazil.
This is only partly because of its huge dimensions—for most of its length the Amazon is not so wide that a modern bridge could not span it—but also because, for most of its length, the river flows through tropical rainforest, where there are few cities and even fewer roads. While the Amazon is clearly the largest river in the world by most measures, the current consensus within the geographic community holds that the Amazon is the second longest river, just slightly shorter than the Nile. However, some scientists, particularly from Brazil and Peru, dispute this.
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The Museum of the Portuguese Language (Portuguese: Museu da Língua Portuguesa) is an interactive museum about the Portuguese language in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. The museum is contained within the Estação da Luz train station, in the Luz district. The museum is located above the train platform, where 300,000 people pass each day. It was conceived by the São Paulo Secretary of Culture in conjunction with the Roberto Marinho Foundation, at a cost of around 37 million reais (14.5 million euros).
The objective of the museum is to create a living representation of the Portuguese language, where visitors may be surprised and educated by unusual and unfamiliar aspects of their own native language. Secondly, the caretakers of the museum, as expressed on the museum website "desire that, in this museum, the public has access to new knowledge and reflection, in an intense and pleasurable manner". The museum targets the whole Brazilian population, made up of people from many regions and social backgrounds, but who still have not had the opportunity to gain a broader understanding of the origins, the history and the continuous evolution of the language.
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TAM Airlines Flight 3054 (JJ 3054) was a scheduled domestic passenger flight between Porto Alegre and São Paulo, Brazil. The Airbus A320 aircraft used for the route, PR-MBK crashed upon landing during rain in São Paulo on July 17, 2007. PR-MBK overran the runway, crossed a major thoroughfare during rush hour, crashed at high speed into a TAM Express warehouse adjacent to a gas station and exploded. There were 187 people on board: 181 passengers, 19 of them were TAM employees, and 6 crew members. All passengers and crew were killed in the crash, in addition to twelve people on the ground. As of 2007, Flight 3054 has the highest death toll of any aviation accident in Latin America and the highest death toll of any accident involving an Airbus A320 anywhere in the world.
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This is a list of the largest cities in Brazil. Brazil has a relatively high reported level of urbanization, with 8 out of every 10 Brazilians living in cities. The criteria used by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) in determining whether households are urban or rural, however, is based on political divisions, not on the built environment. A town is any seat of a district (the lowest political division); a city is the seat of a municipality. By such criteria, Brazil has over 5,000 cities and 12,000 towns. It is estimated that, if a more traditional criteria (size of human agglomeration, cultural and economic institutions, regional centrality, paving and street lighting) were used, perhaps 65% of Brazil's population would be urban, rather than 80%.
Cities in Brazil, except for the state of São Paulo, are usually not arranged in a network, but rather on various "export paths" to seaside ports. Some geographers have called this an "archipelago", and the most important cities are on the coast or close to it. State capitals are also each the largest city in its state, the exceptions being Vitória in Espírito Santo, and Florianópolis, the capital of Santa Catarina; there are also non-capital metropolitan areas in São Paulo (Campinas, Santos, Paraíba Valley), Minas Gerais (Vale do Aço), Rio Grande do Sul (Sinos Valley), and Santa Catarina (Itajaí Valley). Most of the non-capital large cities in Brazil are in the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Paraná.
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The Brazil national football team is the national team of Brazil and is managed by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) that represents Brazil in international football competitions. They are the most successful national football team in the history of the World Cup, with five championships (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002). A common quip about football is: "The English invented it, the Brazilians perfected it." They have also won eight Copa América titles; making them the third most successful team in the history of the tournament. As well as their World Cup and Copa América title exploits; they have also won the FIFA Confederations Cup twice. Currently ranked fifth by FIFA, Brazil is consistently among the strongest football nations in the world and is the only team to have played in every World Cup.
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Brasília (Portuguese pronunciation: [bɾaˈziliɐ]) is the capital of Brazil. It presents a sui generis status in Brazil, given it is not a municipality like nearly all cities in Brazil. Instead, Brasília is the first of several administrative regions within the Distrito Federal (federal district) — which, constitutionally, cannot be divided into municipalities. The city and the federal district are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central.
It has a population of about 2,455,903 as of the 2007 IBGE census, making it the fourth largest city in Brazil. It is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. As the national capital, Brasília is the seat of all three branches of the Brazilian government. The city also hosts the headquarters of many Brazilian companies such as the Bank of Brazil, Caixa Econômica Federal, Correios and Brasil Telecom. The city is a world reference for urban planning. The locating of residential buildings around expansive urban areas, of building the city around large avenues and dividing it into sectors, has sparked a debate and reflection on life in big cities in the 20th century.
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Deforestation is the single largest environmental issue in Brazil, and has been for the past few decades. Brazil once had the highest deforestation rate in the world and as of 2005 still has the largest area of forest removed annually. Since 1970, over 600,000 square kilometers (232,000 square miles) of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed. By the end of the 1980s the problem had become such a global issue not only with loss of the biodiversity and ecological disruption caused by removal of the forests but due to heavy emissions carbon dioxide released from its burning in the forest in Brazil and the loss of a valuable sink to absorb global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
At the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change deforestation in Brazil became a major concern at the Summit in Rio de Janeiro where in collaboration with various environmental groups working in the region to give the Brazilian government an incentive to reduce forest removal and curb the rate of deforestation. By 2005 forest removal had fallen to 9,000 km2 (3,475 square miles) of forest compared to 18,000 km2 (6,950 square miles) in 2003
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The Portuguese Empire was the earliest and longest lived of the modern European colonial empires, spanning almost six centuries, from the capture of Ceuta in 1415 to the handover of Macau in 1999. Portuguese explorers began exploring the coast of Africa in 1419, leveraging the latest developments in navigation, cartography and maritime technology such as the caravel, in order that they might find a sea route to the source of the lucrative spice trade. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1498, Vasco da Gama reached India. In 1500, by an accidental landfall on the South American coast for some, by the crown's secret design for others, Pedro Álvares Cabral would find and lead to the establishment of the colony of Brazil.
Over the following decades, Portuguese sailors continued to explore the coasts and islands of East Asia, establishing forts and trading posts as they went. By 1571, a string of outposts connected Lisbon to Nagasaki: the empire had become truly global, and in the process brought great wealth to Portugal. Between 1580 and 1640 Portugal became the junior partner to Spain in the Iberian Union of the two countries' crowns. Though the empires continued to be administered separately, Portuguese colonies became the subject of attacks by three rival European powers hostile to Spain and envious of Iberian successes overseas: The Netherlands (which was engaged in a war of independence against Spain), England and France.
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Rio de Janeiro ("River of January", Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈʁiu dʒi ʒaˈnejɾu] in Brazilian Portuguese, /ˈriːoʊ di ʒəˈnɛroʊ/ in English), is the second largest city of Brazil, behind São Paulo. The city is capital of the state of Rio de Janeiro. It was the capital of Brazil for almost two centuries—from 1763 to 1822 while it was a Portuguese colony and from 1822 to 1960 as an independent nation. It was the de facto capital of the Portuguese Empire from 1808 to 1821. Commonly known as just Rio, the city is also nicknamed A Cidade Maravilhosa – "The Marvelous City".
It is famous for its natural settings, its Carnival celebrations, samba and other music, and hotel-lined tourist beaches, such as Copacabana and Ipanema, paved with decorated black and cream swirl pattern mosaics known locally as "pedra portuguesa". Some of the most famous local landmarks in addition to the beaches include the giant statue of Jesus, known as Christ the Redeemer ('Cristo Redentor') atop Corcovado mountain, which has recently been named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World; Sugarloaf mountain (Pão de Açúcar) with its cable car; the Sambódromo, a giant permanent parade stand used during Carnival; and Maracanã stadium, one of the world's largest football stadiums.
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The flag of Brazil has a green field on which a large yellow rhombus is centered. A blue circle is placed within the rhombus, with white stars of five different sizes and a curved white band running through it. The motto Ordem e Progresso ("Order and Progress") is inscribed in capital letters (of the same shade of green as the field) inside the band. It is one of the few national flags that doesn’t have the generally blood-and-war-related colors red or black in any part of their composition.
This flag is sometimes called Auriverde which means "(of) gold and green". The next-to-last stanza of Castro Alves' Navio Negreiro, for example, uses that term. The modern flag was officially adopted on November 19, 1889. The concept was the work of Raimundo Teixeira Mendes, with the collaboration of Miguel Lemos and Manuel Pereira Reis. The design was executed by Décio Vilares. The current national flag and ensign maintains the same design with some minor changes. This 27-star version was adopted on May 12, 1992 (Law 8.421, May 11, 1992).
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The Amazon Rainforest (Brazilian Portuguese: Floresta Amazônica or Amazônia; Spanish: Selva Amazónica or Amazonía) is a moist broadleaf forest in the Amazon Basin of South America. The area, also known as Amazonia, the Amazon jungle or the Amazon Basin, encompasses 7,000,000 square kilometres (1.7×109 acres), though the forest itself occupies some 5,500,000 square kilometres (1.4×109 acres), located within nine nations: Brazil (with 60 percent of the rainforest), Peru (with 13 percent of the rainforest, second after Brazil), Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. States or departments in four nations bear the name Amazonas after it. The Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests and comprises the largest and most species-rich tract of tropical rainforest in the world. The area is home to several diseases; Malaria, yellow fever and Dengue fever can be contracted in the Amazon region. Currently, deforestation is rising in the Amazon rainforest; at the current rate, in two decades the Amazon Rainforest will be reduced by 40%.
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São Paulo (Portuguese pronunciation: [sɐ̃w̃ ˈpawlu] ⓘ) is the capital of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The city is the largest in Brazil and first in South America by population. It is located in the South East of the country. It is also the richest city of Brazil. The name means Saint Paul in Portuguese. The city has an area of 1,523 square kilometres (588 sq mi)and a population of 10,886,518, which makes it the most populous in Brazil, in South America and in the southern hemisphere. Greater São Paulo, which includes adjacent municipalities, has a population close to 20 million, making it the second largest in the Americas, and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world.
People from the city of São Paulo are known as paulistanos, while paulistas designates anyone from the whole of São Paulo state, including the paulistanos. The city's Latin motto is Non ducor, duco, which translates as "I am not led, I lead". A famous nickname for the city is "Sampa". São Paulo is also known for its unreliable weather, the sheer size of its helicopter fleet, architecture and multitude of skyscrapers. The São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport connects São Paulo with many Brazilian cities and also operates international flights.
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A South American dreadnought race between Argentina, Brazil, and Chile was kindled in 1907 when the Brazilian government announced their intention to purchase three dreadnoughts—powerful battleships whose capabilities far outstripped older vessels in the world's navies—from the British company Armstrong Whitworth. Two ships of the Minas Geraes class were laid down immediately with a third to follow. The Argentine and Chilean governments immediately canceled a naval-limiting pact between them, and both ordered two dreadnoughts (the Rivadavia and Almirante Latorre classes, respectively). Meanwhile, Brazil's third dreadnought was canceled in favor of an even larger ship, but the ship was laid down and ripped up several times after repeated major alterations to the design. When the Brazilian government finally settled on a design, they realized it would be outclassed by the Chilean dreadnoughts' larger armament, so they sold the partly-completed ship to the Ottoman Empire and attempted to acquire a more powerful vessel. By this time the First World War had broken out in Europe, and many shipbuilders suspended work on dreadnoughts for foreign countries, which halted the Brazilian plans. Argentina's two dreadnoughts were delivered, as the United States remained neutral in the opening years of the war, but Chile's two dreadnoughts were purchased by the United Kingdom. In the years between the First and Second World War, many naval expansion plans, some involving dreadnought purchases, were proposed. While most never came to fruition, in April 1920 the Chilean government reacquired one of the dreadnoughts taken over by the United Kingdom. No other dreadnoughts were purchased by a South American nation, and all were sold for scrap in the 1950s.
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