Brazil greenlights $200m internet cable to Europe in bid to outfox NSA

Brazil is moving ahead with plans to build an "anti-NSA" internet cable to Europe, even though it won't make the slightest difference to spying efforts. Francisco Ziober Filho, president of state-run telecoms company Telebras, announced earlier this week that the company will form a joint venture with Spain's IslaLink to run …

[Crazy Operations Guy]

Another reason it might be pointless

Consider how many websites are hosted in the US anyway, or at least owned by US companies. Almost all the data that would be heading to Europe will just ending getting re-directed over to the US anyway (Or at east the meta-data).

A quick look at Alexa's ratings for Brazil seem to confirm this. The top 100 are either located/owned by a company in the US or hosted/owned by a company in Brazil (So it wouldn't go across that pipe anyway).

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Another reason it might be pointless

It's pretty pointless Britain and Germany spending billions on an air superiority fighter to defend us originally against the East German airforce and now aginst Al Queda - but it makes everyone feel good

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Another reason it might be pointless

Have you not been watching the news lately? Those fighters are getting a good workout at the moment intercepting Russian aircraft probing the defenses of Northern European countries. Russian subs are violating territorial waters, anti-european rhetoric is at a post-cold war high in Russia and suddenly investing in those aircraft (and other gear e.g. trident) seems like it was a good move.

Whether or not Russia is just bluffing, as usual, the fact remains that you can't predict what will happen in the future. I think you'd rather have the state of the art military equipment and never need it, than find yourself in a war against a first world nation armed with nothing more than decades old kit.

While these military contracts are _always_ grossly overpriced and this is something that needs fixing, the money spent by governments doesn't all vanish into swiss bank accounts. It goes into the pay packets of ordinary men and women where amusingly some of it goes immediately back to the government in the form of tax.

[JeffyPoooh]

Re: Another reason it might be pointless

"...where amusingly some of it goes immediately back to the government in the form of tax."

If you follow the contents of the pay packet through several layers of transactions, the fraction being syphoned off as taxes rapidly tends towards 100%.

But this fact is actually not as significant as it might seem. Given sufficient depth of data (layers), the contents of the original pay packet eventually all passes through buying coffee transactions as well. Or licorice, but vastly slower.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Another reason it might be pointless

>Have you not been watching the news lately?

And we will go to war with Russia over Ukraine?

When they can plunge the whole of western europe into darkness by turning off the gas?

>I think you'd rather have the state of the art military equipment and never need it,

What kit do we need to go to war with China?

A robot army of a billion terminators?

[WatAWorld]

Re: Another reason it might be pointless

While it is true that Russia is an imminent threat, the USA is the only current violator of non-UK EU sovereignty.

[PleebSmash]

Re: Another reason it might be pointless

They should have spent the $185-200 million on encrypting everything.

[Peter Brooks 1]

Re: Another reason it might be pointless

And moving everybody away from Microsoft spyware to linux.

[Cipher]

Re: Another reason it might be pointless

" And moving everybody away from Microsoft spyware to linux"

Systemd, aka Lindows, will soon make that option moot for most. Slackware/*bsd/minix are the rebel base now, but I fear the PoetteringBorg will assimilate all soon enough...

I hear the Linux registry is moving along nicely...

[WatAWorld]

Re: Another reason it might be pointless

"And moving everybody away from Microsoft spyware to linux."

Why, is Linux spyware any better?

Recent experience has proven that vulnerabilities can lurk in open source software for decades.

If you want your citizens to be foreign spyware free you pretty much need to create your own national software company to create it.

[J 3]

Re: Another reason it might be pointless

vulnerability != spyware

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Another reason it might be pointless

"And moving everybody away from Microsoft spyware to linux."

I dream of the day that a linux fan boy can post without a variation of "Look! Microsoft is crap! Just trust me on that, as I know computerz! Try this instead!"

Desktop Linux has it´s own place, just cut out the juvenile crap and maybe people won´t see it as a joke OS for commentards.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Another reason it might be pointless

Consider how many will use a CDN / storage of data based in Brasil, or Brasilian business that will relocate to their home country, if the bandwidth, latency and hosting centers are located there.

Don´t forget that the Brasilians are passing legislation to prevent companies storing private data outside Brasil. Just like the rest of the world, they are wary of the US, and its Team America World Police attitude to law enforcement and jurisdiction.

[Anonymous Coward]

Its pure politics

A) It's a little good, ol'-fashioned Latin American leftist tweaking of Uncle Sam's nose.

B) Two words--jobs program

C) Four words--Brazilian high technology showcase

D) Are you sure that the Portugese/Spanish will not share data with the NSA from their end?

E) If all else fails, and the NSA deems it important enough, they will call in the U.S.S. Jimmy Carter cable-tapping sub and tap the cable before it lands in Portugal.

[WatAWorld]

Re: Its pure politics

Does Proctor and Gamble run its corporate LAN through Johnson's and Johnson's?

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: Its pure politics

Is having your data snooped by the Brazilian government really much of an improvement on having it snooped by the NSA anyway?

[Henry Wertz 1]

"There are economies of scale when it comes to traffic routing, which is why it is currently 12 times cheaper to transit through New York than to route through Brazil's business center of São Paulo."

Yes, but one reason this is true is because of lack of fiber optics running to São Paulo (thank goodness for cut-n-paste, I don't have a ã key and don't know how to type it 8-)

As for evading the NSA... it might be an interesting exercise if they monitored the cable and filed appropriate complaints (lawsuis, complaints to the WIPO, or the UN, or all of the above... whomever) as soon as they find this cable has been tampered with.

The thing with these taps is... you read about Room 641A, a room AT&T operates *for* the NSA, and the fiber optic taps run into a room with AT&T's facility. Most likely, the Florida line is tapped in Florida, and most likely within the building the fiber actually runs into. Underwater? The USS Jimmy Carter has the capability to tap a fiber line, but then what? It seems for now, the Jimmy Carter actually has to sit there to get any information off the tap, or can run a new fiber from the tap to somewhere. If the Florida cable is tapped underwater, it's probably taped just off the Florida coast (although as I say it's far more likely done on land.) On a Brazil to Portugal cable, there's really nowhere to run a tap-cable other than Brazil or Portugal themselves, so these countries just need to watch out for unauthorized fibers running from the coast to mysterious buildings and they are good to go, I doubt the NSA would park the Jimmy Carter there permanently.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, you have to retrieve or backhaul data from any offshore cable tap...

But the U.S. has the Rota, Spain naval base nearby, and its only a little farther from there to Gibraltar, where I am pretty confident that the NSA's good buddies the GCHQ are happy to assist with either facilities or outsourcing the immediate retrieval of the data entirely.

You just need some "fake fishing vessel" or other cover to go out from Rota or Gibraltar and interrogate whatever short-term data storage would be left at the site of the offshore tap. You don't need to physically split the cable and run 100 or so miles of new cable onshore to Rota or Gibraltar and you don't need to keep the Jimmy Carter on station after it places the tap.

And that's if you need to tap the offshore tap at all. I have little doubt that the NSA has a good deal of sway with the intelligence and security services no matter where on the Iberian peninsula you happen to find yourself, especially since Portugal and Spain are A) in NATO and B) need budgetary support from their deep-pocketed friends in Fort Meade. We already know from the Snowden documents that the GCHQ gets money from the NSA for cable-tapping "services rendered". In fact, I would be surprised if some or all of whatever traffic goes through this new cable did not end up at the NSA, even if no offshore tap is ever placed.

[WatAWorld]

Economies of scale?

There are economies of scale. But:

1. The cost of sending traffic is a minor portion of the overall cost of web and computer services.

2. Brazil's cable will serve a huge number of customers. Brazil has 200 million people and unlike the cables serving Australia's 23 million people, Brazil's undersea cables will serve other countries as well.

[Anonymous Coward]

~

> (thank goodness for cut-n-paste, I don't have a ã key and don't know how to type it 8-)

AltGr + ] followed by 'a', if you're on Linux with an en-GB keyboard layout. HTH.

[aberglas]

Basic encrption vs availability

Basic encryption addresses end to end privacy as well (or badly) as separate lines. But having all your internet run through the US means that the US can cut you off, or at least slow you down, if you do annoy them sufficiently. A separate cable provides independence.

At $200m this is dirt cheap compare to what is wasted by militaries.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Basic encrption vs availability

This is the real reason for the cable - it is to provide network redundancy and reduce reliance on the US for infrastructure (there have been a number of trade conflicts with the US unrelated to NSA spying, visa wars etc).

An important point is that it also provides increased bandwidth between the Sao Paulo metropolis (and the grouping of data centres and IT companies in the South of Brasil), and the poorer areas in the North East, where there are government initiatives to stimulate technology companies through subsidies and designated regional development programs. Both cables ´land´ in Fortaleza, and then continue on to the south - a very efficient way of adding bandwidth in a country of this size. The ´Google cable´ is actually only partly funded by them, and will offer ´up to´ 64 terrabit per second.

Data protection laws are changing to force companies to use data centres in Brasil, and these are all based in Sao Paulo / southern states where infrastructure is much better. I live in the north east and have 150 Mbit fiber from GVT, but the increased bandwidth both within Brasil and to the outside world will be most welcome...

Internet access, impartiality and privacy is actually part of the Brasilian Constitution, so when put in full context rather than ´you cant escape the NSA´ type headlines, this actually makes sense.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Basic encrption vs availability

As a follow up, the Fortaleza hub is getting pretty busy - interactive cable map here that shows the main interconnections:

http://www.submarinecablemap.com/#/landing-point/fortaleza-brazil

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Basic encrption vs availability

> This is the real reason for the cable - it is to provide network redundancy and [....]

Finally one informed comment. Congrats and thanks. :-)

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: Basic encrption vs availability

If redundancy free from US interference is what's meeded, wouldn't it better to quetly set up a few routes via your neighbours, than to spend $200m on a fibre that might as well have a sign saying "cut here" ✄----✄ on it?

[WatAWorld]

Re: Basic encrption vs availability

Spain is the closest neighbour in that direction.

This map shows that for connections to adjacent countries Brazil has many connections.

Unfortunately to get to Europe or Asia the vast majority of capacity is funneled through the USA.

http://www.submarinecablemap.com/#/landing-point/fortaleza-brazil

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: Basic encrption vs availability

Spain is the closest neighbour in that direction.

IP packets don't have to travel in straight lines.

What I meant was that if the aim is to prevent the US from blocking traffic to/from Brazil, then setting up a few redundant routes that sent packets via Uruguay, Venezuala, etc. would be more robust than giving Uncle Sam a single wire to snip. Cut a cable, nothing goes through, it's a lot harder to interrupt traffic that is zig-zagging around a bunch of other hubs, especially if the desire is only to disrupt one destination. So what if they go through the US, as other posters have noted encryption will deal with that.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Basic encrption vs availability

There are already multiple routes, as you mentioned. These additional cables are about redundancy, independence (politically - god knows what laws the US is going to come up with next), improved latency, and improved bandwidth both within Brasil, and to the outside world.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Basic encrption vs availability

http://www.submarinecablemap.com/

Fantastic resource that one.

Any investors in here that would like to discuss my plans for a Switzerland-Luxembourg submarine cable? It's a totally untapped market so far.

[Anonymous Coward]

Remedial Reading: The Art of War

If you're worried about forensics, rather than wearing a hair net and risk failing to achieve perfection; instead steal a full vacuum cleaner bag from the janitor at your local shopping mall and sprinkle the contents over the scene.

If perfect 'silence' isn't feasible, then try 'noise'. Lots of noise. Encrypted noise.

All the resources in the world, but there's still only 24 hours in a day.

[Henry Wertz 1]

Encryption is a good option

Honestly, link encryption would be a good option. I don't know if any router would be fast enough at crypto to handle a say 1tbps link though.

[Peter Brooks 1]

Re: Encryption is a good option

Cryptography is a complete waste of time if you have any closed-source software on your computer - Microsoft DOS, word, exchange, all that spyware will deliver your information to your US competitors in plain text before it gets to any encryption. Open source is the only protection - and even that isn't perfect.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Encryption is a good option

Yes we get the message, Microsoft are the root of all evil, open source is the magic bullet. Give it a rest Eadon mk2.

[Raumkraut]

Re: Encryption is a good option

Cryptography is a complete waste of time if you have any closed-source software on your computer

If the closed-source (or open-source) software on your computer is compromised/malware, then that malicious party could get access to your data, indeed. But if you don't use cryptography, then anyone could get access to your data.

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: Encryption is a good option

Open source is the only protection

Don't forget to write your own compiler as well. it's been shown that compilers can be made to insert malware into executables they compile, even when the program's source was completely safe. Are you sure that GCC build you downloaded isn't inserting NSA backdoors into your mail reader?! Of course, bootstrapping a compiler without another compiler isn't for the faint-hearted.

Where do you stop? When the tin hat is so big it slips over your eyes?

[JeffyPoooh]

Re: Encryption is a good option

"Don't forget to write your own compiler as well."

The application and OS code that is the subject of this back-and-forth is just two layers of code in a multi-layer code cake.

Microcode. BIOS. Firmware.

I think that inspecting security into a product is hopeless. It's like performing QA on a freshly built city, and not missing anything. Good luck with that.

[WatAWorld]

Re: Encryption is a good option

HeartBleed was open source.

Check out Linux's and Apache's histories on SANS. Open source is still has plenty of vulnerabilities.

[JeffyPoooh]

Re: Encryption is a good option

"...will deliver your information to your US competitors in plain text..."

Somebody somewhere will have installed Wireshark, investigated the unusual traffic, and would end up writing a paper on the discovery for presentation at the next IT Sec conference. As has happened so many times in the past on similar situations.

No need to personally review 24M Lines of (Source, Open) Code looking for malware.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Encryption is a good option

"I don't know if any router would be fast enough at crypto to handle a say 1tbps link though."

Fair point - one of the cables has capacity of 64 tbps if all fiber pairs are enabled, the other is phasing in capacity to around 48tbps I believe.

Apparently it is fairly common knowledge that the traffic through Miami is slurped up by the NSA in realtime; but then again, they have a limitless budget...

[emmanuel goldstein]

IN OTHER WORDS...

All your cables are belong to U.S.

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

Re: IN OTHER WORDS...

"All your cables are belong to U.S."

[Anonymous Coward]

Catch 22

"the solution lies not running cables along new routes but in making it more attractive for ISPs to base themselves in the country."

And why would ISP's base themselves in locations with out the interconnects? You need the infrastructure in place 1st.

Just saying.

[WatAWorld]

Re: Catch 22

I don't understand.

"making it more attractive for ISPs to base themselves in the country."

Undersea cables from Spain to Brazil are about South American communicating with Europe, Asia and Africa without going through the USA.

Nothing about communicating within Brazil.

So far as anyone has said Brazil has sufficient internal ISPs, even if the loyalty of some staff feel greater loyalty to the Imperial Power than their own country.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Catch 22

Actually the undersea cables are in two sections - Fortaleza in the North East is the main landing point, and then they connect to Santos, Sao Paulo state, which then spreads out to places such as Sao Paulo, Rio, and Santa Catarina that have the most dense grouping of IT companies and data centres. It is very much about internal connectivity in Brasil (North East to South), in a cost effective manner bearing in mind the distances involved in this huge country.

This is also to encourage ISPs and data centre providers (Amazon and Microsoft etc) to base themselves here in locations that have good infrastructure (the south), yet serve the whole country, as part of data protection laws and internet rights that are part of the Brasilian Constitution.

For example, Microsoft has a recently opened data Azure data center region Brazil South (that is in Sao Paulo), It doesn´t have all services available yet, and so Brasilian companies using Azure are typically still doing so out of Azure in the South Central US region, and suffer poor latency. They want to use Brasilian data centres due to new data protection legislation. These cable networks will significantly increase bandwidth available from the north of Brasil to the large cluster of IT services centered around Sao Paulo / Santa Catarina.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Catch 22

"more attractive for ISPs to base themselves in the country"

When they say "ISPs", they may not only mean the companies who provide retail/commercial connections to end users. An Internet Service Provider may well mean the likes of Twitter, Google etc and in particular Portuguese/Spanish/other Latin language type operations so a link back to the "mother countries" might well be a benefit. Although we don't hear so much in the news about the "BRIC" economies theses days, don't forget who the B in BRIC is, despite some recent slight downturns in economic growth they are still a significant economy.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Catch 22ms and you can front run!

This won't be just about the ISPs. Another potential customer would be the high-freak traders who'll be able to get lower latency/higher capacity connections between MAD and IBOV to exploit those juicy Latin American markets. They can be persuaded to pay reasonably silly money for a perceived advantage.

It'll also make it easier to turn Brazil into a capacity hub. Currently getting things like 1G and 10G circuits into Brazil can be.. challenging. After PT and Oi's merger, this makes even more sense.. But "Oi!, you're having a laugh!" will probably still be the response on seeing a quote for this route. If they can get decent capacity (waves, not MPLS) into Madrid at a decent cost it'll help open up the region.

[herman]

Jimmy Carter

With a simple 185 million expense for a new cable, Brazil now forces the USA to spend a pile of money on a new cable tap. It amounts to a tweak of Uncle Sam's nose, but it also opens up bandwidth for new data centres based in Brazil/Spain/Portugal.

Ancient American Proverb, circa 1990:

"You can never the rich enough, thin enough, or have enough bandwidth in your network connection."

[WatAWorld]

Re: Jimmy Carter

Good point.

And $200 million will buy 2-1/2 F-35s or 1/20 of a B-2.

[kmac499]

Tubes by Andrew Blum

I'm currently reading Tubes by Andrew Blum (it was serialized on Radio4) It's a travel book of sorts where a journalist whose internet connection was savaged by a pesky squirrel, explores the physical infrastructure underpinning the Net . Although relatively low on technical content it does highlight the physical nature of the buildings, cable, kit and people and the importance of peer2peer mega connections.

In the same way the circum-Africa fibre marine cables are changing internet access in that continent, a new Brazil - Europe link could do the same for South America.

Although it may be built following a fit of political peek, ,just seeing it as a purely Brazilian asset may miss the point. A couple of hundred million even for a developing country is still quite cheap and could well cement Brazil as the internet Hub for all South America.

[Pete 2]

Data independence

Others here have mentioned Russian gas as being a strategic weakness for Europeans and those within the Russian "sphere". America has laws against exporting oil extracted from the USA in order to protect its supply.

Similarly, India has announce that it is planning a (country-wide) GPS system so it's not subject to the whims of a foreign power. Europe is building the Galileo system and independence may be one of the reasons (though you can never tell with Brussels-originated schemes what the hell they are for).

The reason that Brazil (a Portuguese-speaking country) would want its own direct connection to another part of the Portuguese speaking world (viz. Portugal) doesn't have to be about cost - countries spend a great deal of money on "soft power" and building ties with their allies and $180Mil would just about buy you one shiny new fighter aircraft.

So it's not an unreasonable thing to do. It strengthens bonds, adds some self-reliance, gives a powerful northern neighbour something to think about and might even reduce ping-times to Portugal and the rest of Europe. If you're doing financial deals that alone could be worth the cost (there was a new cable laid across the Atlantic a few years ago that paid for itself by cutting 6mSec off traders latency).

[Matt Bryant]

Hmmmm.

After the endemic corruption revealed by the Petrobas scandal, I can only wonder if one of Dimmy Rousseff's friends and/or family has just bought an undesea cabling company.....

[jorge666]

Yes, It does make sense

It is basic right of the country not to be subject of criminal activity by another country.

So if Brazil do not want it's traffic to be collected by STASI building the cable it's a great move and make a lot of sense.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hub

As for someone have mentioned already, Brasil can set themselves as a Hub for the entire South America, or even Latin America. Venezuela, Equador, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, all of them have a big love toward americans...

[midcapwarrior]

Re: Hub

They may not have "big love toward americans" but this would require them to have big love towards Brazil. Latin America is not a hot bed of inter regional cooperation. Having the same enemy doesn't necessarily make you friends.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Hub

You never heard about Mercosul/Mercosur, did you?

[The Vociferous Time Waster]

SA to SA

There needs to be more South Africa to South America bandwidth. At the moment most of that traffic goes via Europe and USA

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: SA to SA

True... there is currently only one cable at the moment... but apparently plans to lay another ... from Fortaleza, to Cape Town...

[WatAWorld]

The USA doesn't let Russia own Verzion or Comcast for a reason

The "it won't make a difference" claims are based on the current situation where, according to what Snowden has released, the USA has US citizens in all the commercial undersea cable companies in return for those companies being given permission to access the US parts of the internet.

That "it will make a difference" is proven by the fact that the USA is very picky over who operates its internal internet.

Which one of those in the "it won't make a difference" crowd would allow an enemy state to run their internet service?

Exactly, the USA doesn't let Russia own Verzion or Comcast for a reason.

And that reason is physical access to the network does make a difference when it comes to mass surveillance.

Of course it won't stop targeted surveillance. But targeted surveillance is not the issue. Mass surveillance of the peaceful citizens of the USA's supposed allies is.

[Anonymous Coward]

Undersea taps - pah!

What do you think happens when the heavily armoured, hard to cut, undersea cable reaches a beach?

It goes into a little hut, with some termination and power gear, and then the signal is sent on over land via normal easy to cut, easy to access running down the side of the road, land based fibre cable to the nearest telecoms infrastructure (take a look at any cable map and see just how far the landing points are from where the cables actually connect to infrastructure, and hence how many Kilometres the boys in dark glasses have to hide things in.

So why bother with expensive submarines etc, when you can send a few guys out in the middle of the night to do the job! This is how they actually do it.

[WatAWorld]

Re: Undersea taps - pah!

So you figure that is what happens to undersea cables in the USA and UK?

And then the USA allows a foreign country to base a high capacity satellite transmitter or undersea cable to an enemy 500 feet away on the same beach, so the traffic can be routed off to the spying country?

No barrier is 100%. It is all about defense in depth. Many layers of 90% to 99% security that make breeches unfeasible for mass surveillance.

[JeffyPoooh]

Re: Undersea taps - pah!

"This is how they actually do it." (Poles and ladders)

Explain: Jimmy Carter (the sub, not the ex-POTUS).

[WatAWorld]

Remember that the USA has a history of shutting of internet access to countries it dislikes

Remember that the USA has a history of shutting of internet access to countries it dislikes during times of conflict.

[Nigel 11]

Looking at that map...

Looking at that map, what might make a lot more sense would be a cable from Brazil to West Africa. Africa is poorly connected, Africa is rapidly developing, a longer subocean route might be more reliable than one going through or around North Africa to Europe ...

... and Brazil and African countries may have a shared political interest in appearing to be exclusing the NSA from their networks.

Perhaps once Ebola is vanquished?

[Panicnow]

I'd do it!

1) Having an alternate route means "they" can't switch you off.

2) Having an alternate supplier keeps the monopolist honest

i.e. nothing to do with surveillance which can be sorted through encryption easier and cheaper

BUT

I'd create an data "Freeport"t at the landing site, encouraging Sao Paulo to become an international hub.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I'd do it!

Sao Paulo is not the ideal choice - it is an expensive city with a lot of problems due to its intense growth in recent years. Try a 4 hour commute to work - one way - when you live in the same city as your office! People go to shop there, build a career early in their lives, then get out if they have the chance.

It is a bit of a distance (70km) from Santos, the states main port with substantial infrastructure.

A lot of companies relocated out to Blumenau, Florianoplis, etc in Santa Catarina, where the quality of life is much higher.

Politically, there is also the issue of a North / South divide - the North East needs some major investment to catch up with the industrialised south. Geographically, it is also much more suitable for international trade (I live in Recife, and it is the easiest place to fly to Europe or America on business, and has major trade through the port of Suape).

There are already some established initiatives in the North East (I myself will be setting up a software company based in Porto Digital, Recife, due to tax breaks and its own fiber internet ring, the city has 4G coverage, a good University for technology, active incubators such as SEBRAE, etc).

If I was making a decision to invest government funds, it would be in areas such as the North East that have potential but have (sometimes severe) problems with poverty, not the overcrowded cities such as Sao Paulo and Rio which have already been victims of success due to too rapid growth by over funding. You might not have seen it in the news, but Sao Paulo has basically run out of water due to 8 months of low rainfall...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/devastating-pictures-show-so-paulos-worst-drought-in-80-years-9821609.html

[Sacioz]

Waffle !

That's it , nothing else . She only won , cause the so called "electronic voting machines " are all rigged up . They have been powned in the past and have been tamperede ever since . The net and the industry are all well aware of it . More than a thousand of them had to be replaced in a hurry on election day . Think whatever you may ...

[Anonymous Coward]

I just cringe...

...every time I see multiple scales¹ on the same axis of a chart. :-(

¹ Unless it's a simple unit conversion such as km / miles or litres / gallons.

[DocJames]

"political peek"

Is that looking at a naked politician?

I think you mean pique.