| CaptTimmy
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| 123094. Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:11 pm |
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I'm quite surprised that Brazil does not have it's own topic until now.
I'll kick it off with this one.
160 cars can drive side by side on the Monumental Axis in Brazil, the world's widest road. |
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| Jameercan Beercan
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| 131771. Sat Jan 06, 2007 10:37 am |
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| The first practical dirigible balloon (airship) was was designed, built and flown by a Brazilian, Alberto Santos-Dumont. |
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| Wort
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| 131775. Sat Jan 06, 2007 10:53 am |
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| CaptTimmy wrote: | I'm quite surprised that Brazil does not have it's own topic until now.
I'll kick it off with this one.
160 cars can drive side by side on the Monumental Axis in Brazil, the world's widest road. |
oh dear...Klaxon |
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| Jawr256
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| 131776. Sat Jan 06, 2007 10:59 am |
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| Wort wrote: | | oh dear...Klaxon |
Indeed. Maybe 160 cars could drive side-by-side down it, but it's not a road - it's a garden. It does have an eight-lane wide avenue on each side though. |
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| suze
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| 131790. Sat Jan 06, 2007 12:50 pm |
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As for what the world's widest road actually is, I think it might be the Downtown Connector (I-75/I-85) in Atlanta, GA.
It has either fifteen or sixteen lanes (sources vary), with plans to add a separate four lanes for trucks and a further four toll lanes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Connector
http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question12488.html
While we are on Brazil, the cosmetic procedure known as "a Brazilian" did not originate there. While its modern vogue did indeed spread from Brazil, very similar practices have been popular around the world for centuries, from Ancient Greece onwards. |
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| BondiTram
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| 131973. Sun Jan 07, 2007 8:15 am |
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| suze wrote: |
While we are on Brazil, the cosmetic procedure known as "a Brazilian" did not originate there. While its modern vogue did indeed spread from Brazil, very similar practices have been popular around the world for centuries, from Ancient Greece onwards. |
While we are dragging the tone downwards, do we have pictorial evidence of this? |
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| Lucwhostalking
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| 131994. Sun Jan 07, 2007 9:18 am |
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| Just type in Brazilian on google image search and i'm sure you'll find some ;) |
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| iceman2
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| 138610. Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:05 pm |
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| In the time its taken you to read all the posts on this page, dozens of acres in Amazonia have been deforested. |
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| Lucwhostalking
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| 138612. Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:10 pm |
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| For gods sake stop reading this people! |
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| Gavinio
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| 262352. Sun Jan 20, 2008 3:38 pm |
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Brazil is named after the wood from the brazilwood tree - prized for its use as a red dye.
In Brazil, Brazil nuts are called "Chestnuts from Para"
Flamengo RC football club were formed as Flamengo Rowing Club (written in English). The same reasons explains why Sport Recife, Corinthians and River Plate of Argentina are named in English - all founded by Englishmen
You'd think I'd know more facts about a country I lived in for a year and that is the size of Europe. |
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| CB27
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| 262609. Mon Jan 21, 2008 7:51 am |
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Another interesting fact about Recife and that area of Brazil is that history tends to forget it was a Dutch territory for a while and that it was settlers from Recife who sailed up the coast and created a new town called New Amsterdam - later to be renamed New York. Family folklore puts some of my ancestors as among those early settlers which would make sense as we have long established branches both in Recife and New York, but I never checked for authenticity.
Recife is also interesting to be in when it rains really heavily (only occasionally), as most of the city is built below sea level and some roads are so deep in water that if a large vehicle passes by it's like finding yourself inside a large wave. |
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| rioconnection
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| 302225. Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:22 am |
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| Gavinio wrote: | Brazil is named after the wood from the brazilwood tree - prized for its use as a red dye.
In Brazil, Brazil nuts are called "Chestnuts from Para"
Flamengo RC football club were formed as Flamengo Rowing Club (written in English). The same reasons explains why Sport Recife, Corinthians and River Plate of Argentina are named in English - all founded by Englishmen
You'd think I'd know more facts about a country I lived in for a year and that is the size of Europe. |
Flamengo Rowing Club (football team) has the largest number of supporters in the world. It was named after the area of Flamengo in Rio de Janeiro. 'Flamengo' being the portuguese name for Flemish due the Dutch settlers in the region. |
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| rioconnection
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| 302229. Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:25 am |
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| The Amazon River, albeit not the longest river in the world is the largest in terms of sheer volume of water. |
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| PDR
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| 302259. Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:18 am |
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Brazil is the only country which Terry Gilliam has used as the name of a film.
Twenty five years ago the word "Brazil" was a slang expression and code-phrase used by US Marines stationed at the Moscow Embassy to described the femail "Trophy companions" of senior officials and polit bureau members. When announcing the arrival of such an official at an embassy function the call on the radio would be "Arriving - Boris Yebgev plus Brazil".
I'm guessing it derives from a contraction of "Bra" and "Zil".
PDR |
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| rbp
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| 371537. Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:03 am |
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| A short titbit: on his first podgram, Stephen says Brazilians call the manatee a "peixe-bóia", saying it translates to "fish-cow". It's actually spelled "peixe-boi", pronounced "pay-she-boy" (but with a closed O on "boy"), and translated to "fish-ox" (cow is "vaca"). I'll give him that the incorrect translation was probably taught him by a Brazilian, as our school English here is somewhat basic and many people don't know the word "ox". |
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