Glancing at TechCrunch late on Thursday evening, I immediately realised there was trouble afoot.
A few hours earlier, Sarah Lacy had published a post about the difficulties she’d had receiving her visa to Brazil to research her book and report on start-ups for TechCrunch. I’d read the post and sympathized with Sarah’s frustration. The problem, apparently, had been caused by an ‘upgrade’ of Brazilian embassy computer systems and the resulting havoc had affected everyone from journalists to business people to the coach of a national football – sorry, ’soccer’ – team.
As Sarah wrote, it also meant that she would now not be able to meet any of the scores of startups who had hoped to speak to a visiting TechCrunch reporter. If I were one of those startups, I’d be pissed. I’d be pissed at my government for not getting their technology together, and I’d be pissed generally that I’d missed an opportunity to showcase my business on a foreign stage. I might even post a comment saying as much.
Glancing at TechCrunch on Thursday evening, then, I half-expected to see maybe a couple of dozen comments on the post. But no. There were hundreds. Almost 500 in fact, and just about every one of them was attacking Sarah specifically, and American visa policy, generally.
How dare you insult Brazil!” they cried, “You stupid Americans demand that Brazilians have visas to visit your country; why shouldn’t we do the same?” Some of them used words like “reciprocity” and “pay back”. One even called Sarah a ‘gringa’, which was cute and in no way played to a stereotype. Many – who clearly knew all about the months of planning Sarah had done for her trip – angrily suggested that she should have started applying from the visa earlier. A vocal minority was additionally livid that the post was illustrated by a mashup – culled from Google images – of the Brazilian flag and the ‘EPIC FAIL’ meme. Some demanded criminal penalties for the outrage. It was whatever the Portuguese is for a train wreck.
Puzzled, I read the post again. Clearly I’d missed something on my first reading. Obviously Sarah – who, let’s remember, has been TC’s most vocal advocate for relaxing US visa laws for foreign entrepreneurs – had called for Brazil to be bombed back to the stone age, or suggested its womenfolk were unclean. But no, she really had just complained that a computer upgrade had inconvenienced her and thousands of other travelers who already had been approved for visas but who hadn’t been delivered them on the day they were promised.
As a foreigner on these shores, the subject is one close to my heart, which is why I’d read – and sympathised with – the post in the first place. Not long ago, I went through the visa process to relocate to the US from the UK. I had a far smoother experience than many of my European friends who are still flailing around in H1B or O1 hell, but I still had to struggle through a dull process of bureaucracy, money, police checks, paperwork, money, waiting, interviews, money and bullshit. And money.
In fact, the only truly smooth aspect came right at the end, once I’d been approved for the visa and was told my passport would be returned three days later. With that, I booked my flight and, sure enough, at exactly 9am on the third day, a courier arrived on my doorstep clutching my newly visa-d passport. Had there been an unexpected delay after being told I could make travel plans, I’d have been furious: there’s no excuse for missing deadlines when you’ve promised they’ll be met. Reciprocity and forward planning have nothing to do with it; it’s just bureaucratic sloppiness. On that front, the Brazilian embassy had failed. Epically.
And what about this flag business? I mean, seriously. If I understand you correctly, Brazilians, Photoshopping your national symbol with a joke meme is an unforgivable affront to your nationhood, and yet painting it across your girlfriend’s breasts at a soccer game or screen-printing it on a tiny g-string is a wonderful celebration of national identity? Maybe we Brits are just under-sensitive, but frankly you could Photoshop a defaced picture of the queen onto our flag and you wouldn’t hear a peep of complaint. Except perhaps that you stole our idea.
So if it wasn’t the visa issue, or the flag, really the only justification I could find for the Brazilian commenters’ rage was Sarah’s remark that her husband was worried about her traveling to the country due its reputation for violence.
This is of course typical American paranoia of all points foreign. “The natives are savages! We won’t be able to walk the streets in safety!” they whine, in a hideously unfair characterisation of a gentle, welcoming people. No wonder some Brazilians were upset with Sarah, to the point where they posted comments threatening to spit in her face and rape her.
And that’s where I realized that something was terribly awry. Sarah writes a story about bureaucratic ineptitude and broken promises, illustrated by a mildly clichéd Photoshop, and her safety is threatened by a mob of lunatic Brazilians. Arrington disses a few start-ups over the years and a mental German spits in his face at DLD. Erick writes a controversial headline about a multinational music service and the threats get so serious that TechCrunch has to call in the cops to protect its staff.
And that’s just the foreigners. The Americans are just as bad: last week Vivek Wadhwa received hundreds upon hundreds of furiously xenophobic responses to his guest post – many suggesting that the Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Executive in Residence at Duke University was unwelcome on American soil. His crime? Suggesting that it should be easier for skilled foreign workers to get H1B visas. A suggestion, by the way, which was later linked to and supported by Newt Fucking Gingrich.
I don’t get it. Where am I going so wrong?
I was hired by TechCrunch specifically to be the controversial one. Unlike the rest of the writers here, who have actual reporting credentials, my whole shtick is saying inflammatory things and inciting furious debate among morons. To that end, in my very first column I declared war on anonymous commenters, making it absolutely clear how much I hate every last one of them, and even threatening to bludgeon the little basement-dwellers to death with their own Wil Wheaton action figures.
But nothing.
Since then I’ve tried to up my game. I’ve promoted scientifically dubious fad cleanses, I’ve called out lying company spokespeople and threatened to name and shame them, I’ve applauded Google for its anti-trust activities and suggested that Microsoft would commit genocide if it was commercially expedient. I’ve written an entire column attacking Drudge-reading Republican ditto heads who object to Obama’s attempts to control the Internet. Hell, I’ve even admitted to once being a magician.
But still nothing.
How is it possible I’ve attacked Republicans and not received my own death threats? What’s the point in them deliberately misinterpreting the spirit of the Second Amendment if they’re not going to use the handguns strapped to their thighs to intimidate a foreigner? Where are my globules of Teutonic sputum or my sickening threats of violence? What does a man have to do around here to get threatened with rape by a Brazilian?
Frankly, I’m starting to get worried for my job. Every week Arrington gets off on threatening to fire me – but so far I’ve clung on to the gig, mainly because I keep convincing him that I’ll be a source of controversy and excitement. And yet week in, week out I’m getting my ass handed to me by just about everyone else on TechCrunch. And they’re not even trying.
Clearly I have to up my game. Over the coming weeks the gloves are going to have to come off. I’m going to have to go all-out with deliberately provocative headlines and racist ledes in the hope of prompting a mob of moronically illiterate textually-violent misogynist dickweeds to abuse me. Only then will my controversy crown be restored and my survival here assured.
From next week then, you can look forward to column titles like…
“Did the state of Israel just pass data to the RIAA?”
“CBS’s acquisition of Last.fm: smartest American deal with a German since Werner von Braun?”
“US education hasn’t produced a decent one since Oklahoma: so why is it so hard for foreign bombers to get H1B visas?”
“The Fanboys from Brazil: why Latin American Mac users are even more insufferably smug than those in the rest of the world”
“The French are Lazy, Americans are fat, Brits have bad teeth, Palestinians are all terrorists and the Swiss got rich on Nazi gold – and it’s all the fault of AT&T”
“Fuck you, Belgium”
…and probably something about South Africans being boorish and ignorant. They’re always good for a fight.
And then, after I write those, I’m imploring the comment idiots amongst you to do your worst. Once you’ve finished skimming my words, misinterpreting my every premise and forming your knee-jerk, nationalistic response – please, please be sure to hack it out in the comments. Don’t worry about accuracy, grammar or even basic literacy: it’s a numbers game and you freaks are my last hope at keeping this gig.
After all, where will I be without my job as Controversialist in Residence at TechCrunch? Destitute, that’s where. A poor, jobless, bitter loser with a strange accent, forced to beg for money from my neighbors to survive.
Oh, God, I’ll be Welsh.
and your point is?
That Brazilians are idiots alongside with every body else, that frets over such idiotic things.
indeed, quite indeed!
Techcrunch loves Twitter for being such a nifty 140 character service, and then we have this incredible epic written up here..
Kinda liked in a way, despite being totally useless and overly long… I did get the point… and I have to say that I agree with Sarah this time… despite always ‘disliking’ american people… and all that’s american. Still… what is the point of columns in general… start your own blog rather :/
Do you have an identity to say this, wut? At least Paul has, even though I don’t agree with him. But who are you to say something about a Brazil? I really disappointed with TechCrunch, who allow this kind of comment and attitude, meanwhile don’t approve foreign comments less offensive.
Hey I know Brazil well – I used to live there. You’re not fooling anyone. Why don’t you muster some real courage and defend your rights from your politicians who keep on stealing day in day out from the people!!
Right, because this doesn’t happen in any other country in the world, like, say, UK? Italy? Ireland?
I find troubling that you call us idiots for insulting our flag. I wonder if you feel the same if I were in Sarah Lacy’s situation but trying to the enter the US and do something like that to your flag. I’ve had very difficult time in the US, and still I don’t go about bashing the entire country. For me, at least, doing that to someone’s flag offends every single citizen of a country. Period. After all, there are stupid people everywhere, not only in Brazil and certainly TechCrunch is not immune from it.
Way to read the article, chap. Paul is from the UK, so he would care less for the American flag, and he explicitly said he doesn’t even care if you do that to the UK flag because the British DID IT THEMSELVES already.
Humm idiots??? Well, september 11 is very close in the memory of your country. Maybe americans must consider what their idiot government did to be an easy target of terrorists attacks.
I would like to see if that was told about your beloved USA….
Brasilians have a lot of problems to enter there and also we dont blame your government …
Think about it before bad mouth people…
Sarah,
Since you weren’t able to visit Brazil here’s a start-up / website you’re going to love to surf:
http://www.clas...listados.com.br
It only operates in the USA
Obrigada : )
VERY WEAK PSEUDO – TEXT.
IT´S CLEAR THAT YOU JUST WANT SOME NOTORIETY.
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSER!
I PREFER SARAH’S. AT LEAST HERS HAS SOME
ORIGINALITY
Brazil nuts I find at Vons, next to peanuts and granola.
Brazil Nuts, American Idiots….
In Brazil they are called just nuts..
from what i’ve read from across the blogosphere, sarah suffers from an inflated sense of self as it is. i won’t claim to know her, so will not attempt to make claims about who she is as a person.
what i will say is that the manner in which she describes her outrage and the expectations that she suggests are perfectly ‘normal’ are indicative of someone who is neither seasoned as a traveller, nor aware of how the world actually works. convenience is not a word synonymous with the travel industry to begin with and certainly less so when one travels to and through developing countries.
that being said, lofty standards and false assumptions about the mechanics of international travel (and, in this case, the product of american policies and foreign relations) are common place and this is generally forgivable – less so, though when someone’s poor planning is explained away with martyrish last words about injustices experienced – and all the worse if by someone who is privileged to write for a highly popular news source – and uses this as a soapbox to vent personal travel woes.
my suggestion is a healthy dose of humility, sarah and to go with the flow… people have faced greater challenges.
well said!
“… highly popular news source…” WHERE? IN YOUR MAMA’S BASEMENT?
Exactly. What a pointless article. I mean, Paul is writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing and writing but you never see then end or the actual idea behind the post. Sarah wrote a shitty post in the first place and deserved to be called out for it.
When Arrington introduced Paul Carr as a new writer, I was hoping for something different from the rest of the writers. Well, it is different but gosh it’s freaking boring and pointless. Sorry Paul.
couldn’t agree more!
I agree with you @SebastianPage. Paul first of all, if you want to create controversy, Create It!! Don’t, for God’s Sake, don’t talk about it!!!
And, please, don’t write a book where a paragraph will do….! Where did you learn to write?!?!
And Sarah can do her own PR, you don’t have to stick up for her when your own neck is on the line right now, as you say…Your post doesn’t really have a point…does it??!?!
Basically, Paul, Get Over Yourself…..!
my goodness, do all people here have their sense of humour surgically removed? Does the word “satire” mean anything to you people?
Apparently not. Looks like most of ‘em took the bait.
That way too many TC readers have skin thinner than the paper they wrap sticks of chewing gum in and don’t appreciate good satire or even straight up funny shit.
Paul, you’re my hero…er…I mean I hate you…wait, what was our response supposed to be to this?
This was so long I started to fall asleep!
You MUST understand that most of the world do NOT love the USA nor Englang for that matter!
Tough Tittie for Sarah!
How can you dislike a country? Its just an arbitrary political divide that really has no reflection on the individuals who by complete coincidence happen to have been born there.
Patriotism is for idiots. I don’t care if you “do NOT love the USA nor Englang(sic)”, I’m sure there’s plenty of intelligent and rational people who happen to have been born in the same arbitrary geographic region as you who don’t hold the same idiotic view. Don’t worry, the law of numbers dictates that there are plenty of patriotic idiots in “USA and Englang” too so as luck has it you can have plenty of informed and productive arguments with them.
You do realise that the universe is billions of years old and will exist billions of years after what you call your country has ceased to exist don’t you? Everything you ever see, touch or experience will cease to exist as the thousands of millennia pass for that matter too. Meaningless lines on a map on a tiny planet in the infinite expanse of space and time really don’t matter.
+1
+1
+1
+1
Startupwizz, that stuff your wrote — that last paragraph — is full of wisdom. Simple but profound; really deep, and rare. I like that.
O.O.
“Meaningless lines on a map on a tiny planet in the infinite expanse of space and time really don’t matter.”
From this perspective nothing matters.
Understanding and discovering more about our tiny section of that infinite expanse matters, in my opinion anyway.
You’re trying to reply to his argument by interpreting it in the most literal way possible, but you (should) know he wasn’t refering to the territory itself when he said “I don’t like USA” (or whatever).
And you insist that “everybody is equal”, “we’re all human and alike” and etc — and I agree with that, fundamentally — but in truth a traditional american (born from american parents/grandparents) will have a radically different world view and attitude as a traditional mexican. And it’s just an “arbitraty political divide”, as you put it.
It IS just an arbitrary political divide but, contrary to what you said, it DOES have a very deep reflection on the individuals who by complete coincidence happen to have been born there.
So it has nothing to do with hating the territory of the country itself, nor does it have to do with patriotism. But it is has to do with how a country and its population present themselves to others. Sarah’s original post was insightful in that matter, and that was the reason for all the 500+ comments on the post.
It only has an influence on individuals who choose to be patriotic and believe that arbitrary lines on a map that will only exist for an infinitesimally short part of the universe’s existence actually matter.
Steve hasn’t left Ottawa in awhile. I’ve been to 24 countries and “most of the world” most definitely do LOVE Americans and their contributions to the world. (ok, the English can suck it
They’re even willing to forgive 8 years of a “books and facts are stoopid” presidency.
What these people don’t generally like are ignorant twits who claim xenophobic, small-minded perspectives in their collective name.
Exactly why we are all DOOMED. Headline readers and body text scanning fools will continue to knee jerk because they lack the visual fortitude and intellectual curiosity to read (or sound out the words) of anything longer than a tweet.
People often mistake hating a whole COUNTRY with hating their GOVERMENT. I’ve known really nice people from EUA, Canada, England, Australia and Germany. Should I dislike americans because Bush is a total jerk? Sure there are morons in every country, but let’s stop judging people on account of their goverment and what they have done, do and will go in the future.
just correcting: will DO in the future.
Dude, Arrington should really fire you, how boring.
Arrington LIVES for this kinda crap!
lol!
In fact I would not be surprised if Arrington advised Paul to write this crap!
I kind of doubt that Steve.
At TC it is not about what they write about as much as it is about how many HITS they get – that comes from stuff that raises the hair on peoples necks….
Oh! Thats how the famous net blogs work; get the face value and then sell the craps in fancy rock and roll market.
TC’s only sins are pimping apple and google, so you guys need to change your medication, because this was very funny and well-written. we invaded grenada for less, lookout brazil!
Not necessary. Paul and Sarah are close friends. But it’s true Paul is TC’s provocative agent.
+ 1
You guys are fucking idiots. That was a great post.
Hey Paul..you changed your name!!
I was laughing and smiling up until that last line, and then I puked. Luckily I was burning a US flag at the time and managed to put it out.
+1
That’s a long way to go just to get to that last punchline. And not even the Welsh will disagree with it.
fel ci efo dau gynffon [We are happy 'with it']
Here’s your hate mail, right here.
…
Honestly.
sorry taz got at my computer.
looks like your looking to get in on the sheep(s?) territory.
and nobody will know why i was talking about taz, because an overzealous moderator got busy.
seriously, you should all feel robbed. really.
Paul, they gave you the weekend slot. You got fucked.
Post on Mondays or Tuesdays and people will read you. Post on Saturdays and you’re nuttin.
I agree. Post on the weekend and you’ll get comments from rejects like us!!
Brazilian nuts?!!
And you Americans? Oil, war, weapons … No thanks! I am proud of being Brazilian.
Ah… such reciprocity
I’m British. I suspect the brilliance of my joke got lost in translation. As did the brilliance of your reply.
I get your joke, but it’s not that clear to non-americans because what you call “Brazillian Nuts” is called “Castanha do Para” down here. So it takes a little more than a raw translation to get it.
you didn’t mention us Irish, i’m very disappointed .
I am pretty impressed that South Africans were mentioned!
I enjoy your humor, Paul…even though I’ve concluded you need to spend less time in the mid-day sun and more time studying the US Constitution, if you intend to poke fun at either of the first few amendments thereto.
Please understand that Republicans, Independents and all but the fringe-loonies of the far-left Democrats, do not wish to use their second amendment right to usurp the first amendment entitlement (which we extend even to aliens in our midst.) We just hope that you do not use it to encourage or replicate your homeland’s socialism or your third-rate health care service on our shores.
Jack
bag
The question is, have you actually experienced their healthcare, or are you going by pundits’ boogeyman stories? Try reading this article by an American in the UK, and the many comments (”letters”) that followed:
http://j.mp/usa-to-nhs
I haven’t been to the UK (or Canada, or Australia, etc.) but friends in those countries say that there’s nothing but lies being told here about them. Based on all the facts I’ve double-checked on their systems, ours is about fifth rate (if by your logic the NHS is 3rd) for folks lucky enough to be insured, and far below it for the uninsurable & unwillingly uninsured.
Yes, ‘Real American’, I have lived in the UK as a USA expatriate and I participated in the NHS. Fortunately for me while living there, I received private health insurance coverage from my employer. After one visit to the NHS clinic, I stuck to private offerings.
I do not know if inducement was provided to the author of the article at the link you provided…but based solely on the publisher’s well known political bias, I would be surprised if they would allow anything that did not march to the beat of their very liberal drum. I encourage you to do your own research before falling for the con game.
You might be interested to know that private health insurance is the most sought-after of all perks, in the UK. Currently, 12.5 % of Brits are covered by private plans, allowing them to pick their health care providers, rather than joining their assigned queue and frequently being ’served’ by someone trained in a third-world country and barely able to speak English, while standing in a waiting room stuffed full of coughing, dripping and sneezing patients. If you were not sick when you went in, the odds were that you would be, when you left.
Fact: The number of people using private health insurance and health providers in the UK has doubled every decade since the NHS was implemented.
As for Canada, note that they do not currently allow private insurance companies to compete with Canada Care…although it is becoming more difficult for the Socialists in Ottawa to beat back the populace demands for such an opportunity. So at this time, Canadians seeking an alternative to the government’s rigid determinations, must come south of their border to have an option. But come they do, if they can afford it and they are happy for the opportunity!
Once Obama-Care is implemented in the US, our only option will be to head south of our own border if we don’t like what the government provides. That will be quite an economic boon for Mexico, but is that really what you wish for the US?
Jack
Jack – in reply to you post about NHS (sorry it annoyed me a bit)
- NHS is nowhere near perfect, but actually it’s OK (rated 18th in the world in 2000, will have likely jumped up due to heavy investment by Labour gov since then). There is a pretty big luck of the draw element, but the newer bits & facilities are amazing.
- I’ve had a lot of treatment recently recently both private & NHS – private was quicker, but NHS just as good and mostly with slightly newer facilities (see above) – doctors & treatment comparable.
- The doubling of private healthcare per decade is almost certainly more heavily linked to general prosperity (like the doubling of a million other things each decade, like cars & mortgages).
- All, and i mean all, of my doctor friends say if you are serioulsy ill you wanna go NHS where most of the best knowledge is, but in a small number of cases private gives better access to drugs.
- For all it’s faults – nothing is better than the sensation that no matter what is wrong, especially if it is urgent, you will be treated, for free and locally. The idea of this not existing seems somehow utterly barbaric to the rest of the modern world btw. Especially the stuff about ER and how it can often bankrupt the poor.
+1
Fact: The number of people using private health insurance and health providers in the UK has doubled every decade since the NHS was implemented.
and its only at 12.5%? WTF…low base i guess…
how many people are covered by the NHS? oh yeah, 100%
Loved your South African Dig – V. Classy!
P.S. Don’t forget to Floss mate.
great stuff! But where’s your rant on Amsterdam, I mean common we’re way worse then Belgium… Belgium is like Holland 0.1
http://truthabo...tamsterdam.com/
Paul,
Anyone who knows where England is located on the map could tell you are a stupid brit after reading any random sentence of this idiotic brown-nose piece of crap you claim to have written above. Cheers!
My chicks pube profile… like yourself… is also proud to be Brazilian.
and also cars, brazilian chicks and hulu…woohoo!!
Sir, your argument is stupid. The fact that A is a nut and B is a bigger nut does not imply A is not a nut.
+1
- 100
I support you and everything you write.
So, in the coming weeks, expect several letter bombs and possibly the burning down of the hotel you’re currently staying at.
Shh! Who is knocking at your door!
I, too, shall do my part.
Expect a major DDoS attack on the TechCrunch host later this week, aimed at your articles.
Further, I shall personally slash all four of the tires Mr. Arrington uses to get to work, and key “Paul Is A Foreign Homo” into the side of his car.
Will that be helpful?
good luck with your next visa.
http://i26.tiny...com/2r2so07.jpg
Pshhh, you’re all talk.
Hey Brazilians-
Just because you can’t afford a decent education system doesn’t mean you can cut back by pretending “z” isn’t a letter.
But by all means, keep spelling it “Brasil”. It’s a great time-saver for the rest of us, a quick reminder that you’re all a bunch of fucking retards.
Hey annonimous, you are the kind of idiot that we can find everywhere. In good portuguese, you should write “Brasil” with “S”, your stupid. Go eat some McDonalds and drink some Budweisers. Americans are among the worst education systems in the world, if you know I mean.
Point: as you may imagine, Buenos Aires is not Brazil’s capital.
Thanks for proving my point. The nuances of sarcasm, irony, and jokes in general are easy to lose in translation. Keep this in mind when reading articles or posts in your non-native language.
Yes America’s education system is definitely one of the worst. That’s why all the foreigners want to go study at crappy universities such as Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Cal Tech, MIT, or Princeton.
By the way, you are a moron.
And look at the Nobel Committes website and one should count how many Nobel Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Economics, etc, that have gone to the US?
The US is dominating in the number of Nobel awards it gets over the years and that means that the US education system is superior and that’s fact.
What Countries Have Received the Most Nobel Prizes?
#1) US : 260 Nobel Prizes.
#2) United Kingdom : 90 Nobel Prizes.
#3) Germany : 61 Nobel Prizes.
#4) France : 28 Nobel Prizes.
#5) Switzerland : 22 Nobel Prizes.
#6) Sweden and Russia :- both greater than 10 Nobel Prizes.
#7) Netherlands, Denmark and Japan each hold less than 10.
I don’t think that Brazil ever won a single Nobel Prize in the history of the Nobel awards.
I missed the point of the discution exactly where we started assuming that Nobel prizes were the official method of measuring some countrie’s education.
I also missed when the Nobel comitee decided to open the “Basic Education Prize”…
Can someone bring that up to me?
Nobel Prize awards a proxy which indirectly reflects the quality of an education system. It means that such high quality research work leads to high economic growth , which is an undeniable fact.
The birth of Silicon Valley was attributed to 3 American physicists that won the Physics Nobel Prize for their development of the silicon-based semiconducting transistor. John Bardeen , William Shockley and Walter Brattain shared this 1956 Nobel Prize. Now, look at semiconductor tech heavy weights in the Valley that emerged after this invention? This industry also gave birth to modern computing, telecommunication and modern electronics, because there is hardly and electronic gadents today that does’t contain some semiconductor devices. The boom in the microselectronics industry in those days also caused the boom in related industries, such telecommunication, macroelectronics, robotics, computing, etc,… but the what started the fire (economic boom) can be traced all the way back to the Nobel Prizes. There is no doubt that domains other than physics such as biomedical science also contributed to the economic growth in those industries as well.
Now, do you see the point?
“Yes America’s education system is definitely one of the worst. That’s why all the foreigners want to go study at crappy universities such as Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Cal Tech, MIT, or Princeton.”
Ironically, less than half of the schools you mention are public, and thus have nothing to do with “America’s education system”. Moron.
the USA also produces more box office movies. argument over.
RE: “Which countries Have Received the Most Nobel Prizes”
You are not comparing countries fairly here; if you divide the number of Nobel Prizes won by the number of millions of people in that country, it’s quite a different picture:
Measured in Prizes per Million Population (P/M):
1 – Switzerland (2.75 P/M)
2 – UK (1.5 P/M)
3 – Denmark (1.45 P/M) *
4 – Sweden (1.33 P/M) *
5 – USA (0.82 P/M)
6 – Germany (0.74 P/M)
7 – Netherlands (0.54 P/M) *
8 – France (0.44 P/M)
9 – Russia (0.08 P/M) *
10 – Japan (0.05 P/M) *
The ones with an asterisk (*) next to them are estimated, as the exact number of prizes is not specified in the previous comment.
This is a very crude method, and my calculations are only rough. Nonetheless, it does show that, actually, the US doesn’t really do very well: it just has lots of people. Conversely, much smaller countries, such as Switzerland and the UK punch far above their weight.
If you do wish to use Nobel Prizes as a measure of a country’s education system, at least balance the numbers.
It’s slightly ironic that bad statistical practice is being used in this arguement, rather showing how uneducated you are in this field.
Isaac
Isaac your comparisons of Nobel/population is meaningless, what counts is the production of wealth that comes out of higher eduction. Look I am a physicist by training and also an econo-physicist by learning, so before you spewed stupid comments and frothing about someone who is uneducated, you should ask yourself, am I smarter than the person I am attacking. Obviously, you didn’t do that. Look pal, whatever profession you’re at, it is equivalent to toilet cleaning, see us Physicist can be self-taught in any subjects without having to formally enrolled in it. From programming robots, developing sophisticated search engine and developing state-of-the-art telecommunication photonic devices (oh, and these devices had to be exported from the US into Brazil) and so forth.
By the way, econo-physics is a new social science discipline originated from physicists at Boston University, Center for Polymer studies. This new domain is going to replace neo-classic economics (main stream) or NCE for short , since the very foundations of NCE is based on equilibrium which is now found econophysicists to be false, ie, current (mainstream) economic theory (NCE) is being falsified.
So, why don’t you stick to being a toilet cleaner or being a rubbish collector pal or whatever your profession is, and leave the educated discussion for those of us who’s got a brain.
So, off to your toilet cleaning shift pal and when you’re educated and acquired some knowledge enough to debate with me, then you’re welcome to challenge me, until then keep away from posting irrelevant messages.
Yes Falafusu Fisi,
it is a fact that Princeton, MIT, Harvard and Berkeley are among the top 10 universities in the world (and I would say only these universities) and together they produce great knowledge. Nonetheless, it is a pitty this same knowledge were employed to construct atomic bombs that kill more than 200 thousand japanese civilians, an event that makes the US the only nation that use it to kill civilians.
By the way, now that september 11 is near, can’t we look back and see those atomic bombs against japaneses civilians as terrorists attacks as well? So, on september 11 before you americans get together to rightfully cry for the victims of the WTC, please cry also for the other victims that americans, through their government, continuosly
do.
yeah the american post secondary institutes are so good that foreigners kill to attend them, but that doesn’t make up for the education recieved by many young americans pre college/university.
“yeah the american post secondary institutes are so good that foreigners kill to attend them,-mertz”
Well said. We saw this at the massacre of Virginia Tech.
“Americans are among the worst education systems in the world, if you know I mean.” Are you a retard?
Don’t embarass us, moron… damn it!
No he’s right!
Sorry Lou but brazilian education is way better than american. You can find on the internet. Education on USA makes people donkeys. They (government) dont want to give a change to people to fight against them.
“brazilian education is way better than american. You can find on the internet.”
Could you be any less specific? Is that possible?
PLEASE, dont try to defend Brazil. You’re embaracing us, the americans and most of all: yourself!
“Sorry Lou but brazilian education is way better than american.”
You’re kidding, right?
I just can’t believe someone who has seen a Brazilian public school can seriously say that…
I dont know about Brazil, but if its the same as Argentina in PUBLIC schools, then it is utter shit.
America has some of the Best Public schools in the world, because a lot of the best schools in the world that you would use to compare would be privet. I’m studying in Argentina at the moment and as all the locals say, the public schools suck. Most of the people i know go to a Privet and would never go to a public one because they don’t do anything. And most of the teachers equally don’t care or cant get anything done.
And yes, our education system is the worst in the world. Thats why our economy is at the top of the world at the moment and Brazil is only now starting to become an economic power. We are all definitely all Donkeys.
I’ll assume you don’t live in Brazil, cuz the Brazil I live in has a shity education system. And you prove my point by making this stupid comment.
try to learn english first
Brilliant. You’ll probably have to wait a while for large amounts of commentary… “those people” read while moving their lips.
+1
I loved past articles Paul wrote. But yeah lack of point in this article makes me think I just lost few minutes of my life I could use sticking toothpicks under my nails.
Yeah, I don’t even know why I was excited to read this on Saturday. I think some of his posts are hit or miss. This one is alright but I actually think it does nothing but highlight how dumb Sarah’s post was because this is essentially a write up about people ranting about a rant. The things some people wrote about her was definately unwarranted, but she put that on this website without any balance, any self checks, nothing. It really did just sound like she was pissed and she had to publish it on this website because she was oh so pissed that she couldn’t even pull out a good article from her behind. She lost an oppertunity. I never knew bureaucratic governments made entire countries epic failures. If that’s so then due to the crap visa process America has, someone should post epic fail ontop of the american flag, or just take a photo of the author and write epic fail over it. I mean if someone’s being childish then it much be alright to respond childishly. I think she basically got the backlash that her article deserved because she murdered her vaild points by making this all about her and her righteousness. Excuse me if the Brazilians were offended and responded in kind to her article. The whole thing is sad and I can’t wait till it’s expunged from my mind because I really did waste my time reading what she posted on this website instead of posting her gripe on her own blog.
Sorry, pal. I didn’t understand your point as well. Sarah was really rude at her article. She could have blamed all the brazilian bureaucracy about her visa. It would be fair and I’m sure nobody would piss her because of it. At the other hand, she put a lot of things in the bag, mixed all, and got completly lost on her complaints. She attacked people talking about violence, as US would the safest place to live in the world. Come on, be serious! If I were Sarah bosses, I would at least call her attention for her behavior. When you write something to big audiences, you have to be responsible and try to not be agressive only because you feel that your stuff didn’t go as you had planned before.
I agree with you.. She was completely upset at that moment and mixed her feelings with her problems, but a journalist like her (and writing to a site like Tech Crunch) should not have done what she did. And about you (what’s your name?), seriously.. how stupid you are being right now keeping this flame war alive. If “us brazilians” were wrong “attacking” her, so was she, attacking our country completely unnecessarily.
Well, this article was completely unnecessary as well. You look like a teenager…
Tech Crunch: F A I L ! ! ! !
You just lost all the admiration that I’ve had. Fortunately, there are many other websites like you and at the same way you don’t need us (Brazilians) we don’t need you.
Thanks
I once had a goldfish named Guillermo. Yeah, I didn’t pay attention to him either….
Guillermo got PAWNED!
The guy AND the fish!
Brazil Sucks
You are very cool otherwise, isn’t that so?
I do so hate to see terrible grammar, so here is my translation:
—
I didn’t understand the point of this article either. Sarah was really rude in her piece. She could have blamed Brazilian bureaucracy for her visa problems; it would have been fair and I’m sure nobody would hate her for that.
Instead, she put in a lot of things, mixed them all, and got completely lost in her complaints. (*) She attacked Brazil, talking about violence, as if the US is the safest place to live in the world!
Come on, be serious! If I was Sarah’s boss, I would at least call her in for her behavior. When you write something for a large audience, you have to be responsible and try to not be aggressive only because you feel that stuff didn’t go as you had planned.
—
I can excuse certain lack of grammar for being lost in translation (I wouldn’t even dream of being able to write a response in Portugese), but paragraphing is surely standard in all languages?
I’ve asterisked a sentence which is utterly unintelligible.
As it happens, I disagree with you. To illustrate why, I’ll take another example, and a much more serious one.
When various American organisations started criticising the British NHS, I got pretty worked up about it. They peddled lies about something which is much loved in my country, and, as the #WeLoveTheNHS tag showed, we Brits are quite vocal about.
However, despite the fact that this was a much more direct attack on my country, I saw no reason to write evil lies back. I didn’t resort to screaming incoherant rubbish, death threats or counter-lies at blogs.
If you’re really this worked up about an article on a technology blog, which is a rather mild criticism of Brazilian bureaucracy and points out some of the stereotypical views of Brazil, then start a hashtag on twitter and see how it fares. I’m betting it’ll never make it on to the Trending Topics, let alone top them.
All that has happened with these threats of rape and violence, is that the stereotypical view of Brazil that Mrs Lacy tackles in her article is validated. If I were her, I would certainly not travel to Brazil.
Do you see what you’ve done? As Paul Carr points out, you have only succeeded in reducing your countrymen and women’s prospects of being featured on a major technology blog.
Well done. I hope you’re all happy.
Oh, Isaac, thank you for being so kind. Next time I’ll send my comments to you before I post them, ok? Sorry if I did some mistakes writing. As you can probably imagine, English is not my native idiom. In fact, I just tried to express a point of view on Sarah’s “piece” in a polite way, if you know what I mean. As you did in your response back to me even though I disagree with all your arguments.
Last but not least: please, don’t go to Brazil, never! You are exactly the kind of person that we don’t want to receive here.
Try Palestine or Israel, because I’m sure that both places are really safe to visit right now, with civilized and peaceful people – “stereotypically speaking”.
My best,
Fabio
Another thing. It is “portuguese” and not “portugese”…
tl;dr
You’re honing in on a good idea: for a “Best TC Title” award with: “The French are Lazy, Americans are fat, Brits have bad teeth, Palestinians are all terrorists and the Swiss got rich on Nazi gold – and it’s all the fault of AT&T”
lol, awesome
I’m American, and agree – we’re all fat. ;-D}}
*double-chin smily*
Yeah it is not so fair. American ARE fat, British DO have bad teeth. But NO, french are NOT lazy
you’re french right?
I’m afraid I can’t curse and threaten you this time, sir. I regret to inform you that I agree with what you say. (Except the part about the Welsh–that was so…so…*sniff*…hurtful and I’m not going to read ANYTHING else you write until the next time your write something.)
If you really want to be contreversial, don’t bother attacking Republicans. Everyone does that. Attack Democrats, attack Birthers (people who think Obama’s not really a US citizen due to some technicality back when his mom gave birth to him and don’t think an official birth certificate exists), Truthers (morons who think 9/11 was done by some big conspiracy of corporations / governments / shadow groups and not the 19 hijackers who actually did that), Greenpeacers, pro-choicers…. or Comcast.
I’m all for attacking Democrats…except that so many of them start whining and threatening you with lawsuits and police when you do it.
They can dish it out, but apparently they can’t take it.
I once got a fortune cookie that said: “Don’t heed Erbo” I always thought that a translator at the cookie factory was simply trying to inform me not to eat my elbow, but was a couple credits short of his pronunciation certificate, if you know what I mean…. 5 years later, that fortune cookie makes more sense than anything in my life ever has…
lol… oh my
+1
Paul,
I’m brazilian and I have to admit you’re right. It’s sad to see that people here, not everybody, but people who reads TechCrunch and speaks english, have such bad manners. I’m ashamed of my country, my people. Now the researches makes sense. Brazil is the number one of “Bad manners on the internet”. Oh my…
Please, excuse me for this fcked country, this horrible comments and this fcked (yeah, the only word I found it to represents my angry) people and government.
Sarah it’s a shame you’ve lost this beautiful travel.
And could you tell your husband that’s not so bad here? Every place in the world has violence. Every place you go nowadays you need to be worried with security and a lot more. It’s our, sad but true, reality, in Brazil and every other place.
Sorry Sarah, sorry Paul.
Bye bye!
Shut up faggie! You shoud ashamed of your lame english and that only!
Don’t cry baby… I know you love me.
Oh my… shut ut… I’m brazilian and I’m ashamed of you.
+3
+4
+5
A Brazilian can do anything they want with their flag just like how an African American can use the “N” word amongst themselves.
Let’s settle this the mature way. Declare world war III. Aight?
Thumbs up
On Sweden. I hope.
You are going to piss off everyone who actually comes here to further their education.
And what US citizen who supplements Colleges with taxes cares? College tuition annual increases outpaces healthcare increases in US.
Foreign enrollment in US jumped by 7 percent to 623,805 between the 2006-07 and 07-08.
Only 241,791 US students studied abroad in the 2006-07.
You do the math
Huh, I guess I was misunderstood. I meant “further their education *on TC*”. That was a lame and obscure joke!
Very true. Anyone who knows anything knows that the Inets are very left-leaning. Attacking Repubs just gets a universal head-nod.
Attack CNN, NBC, Obama or any one of his czars (Van Jones is a hot topic now) if you want some real flames. Spin it into something kinda-sorta tech/Twitter related and you’re golden.
In fact, this post in, and of itself, is flame-bait.
Dean,
You don’t get around the internet enough. There are plenty of bat shit crazy republicans on the internet. Yahoo Buzz for one is full of these types. Read the comments for any political story, hugely conservative B.S.C. lean.
your best example is Yahoo buzz? thank you for proving Dean’s point better than anyone else could. Yahoo, Google and MSN News are all socialist, big-government babysitter, demand-side garbage; at least newspapers have SOME variety
Sorry Paul but your post is a wonderful exposé of witty British humor ! Absolutely brilliant !
But if you really want to hear something mean, here you go: “I don’t wanna talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper! I fart in your general direction! You mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!”
Ah! the great Monty Python and the search for the holy grail
COMMENT EDITING:
Not only does TC report crap, they edit and remove comments! Grow up Paul! Be a man and take it on the chin!
You come here, read the whole post (and let’s face it: it’s a very long one) and write about 25 comments complaining about everything?
It kinod fo made me wonder… “what’s this guy’s motivation?”
Oh! Now I get it! You’re one of the genuine freaks this Paul guy was talking about!
You have a nice tie for a mob starter type by the way… and you look kinda lame to be pushing up fights, guess those “being-bullyied-times” are over now that you got the control, isn’t that right sport?! Especially now that you have those nice shoes and these 20dollars tie!
Man… get a life… at least the brit punk here made me laugh, a lot!
U = Lame! (clear enough?)
I agree with you… it looks like jealous isnt it?
Paul said he would pay me $1 for every comment… kinod fo make ya wonder…
Maybe if you had tits then you’d get all the bile and semi-transparent mysogony you’re desperately pining for.
Yeah, tits rock!
Yeah, thats a brilliant american insight!
Go find a country to socialize commy!! <– more American wit.
Thanks for making my point!
Dear Sarah and Paul,
I have a start-up here in Brazil and I have several friends which have their own start-ups here also. Some friends also study brazilian start-ups ..
Even though I am Brazilian, I can understand your feeling. But send me an email that I will do my best to help you guys.
Best Regards,
Antonio
It’s because you can actually write.
yeah i actually had the same thought while i was reading this, because it was a little funny, insulting, but still brought up good points although i think that to be fair he should also mention that he’s good friends with sarah. when i thought “oh this better written than that rant i read from sarah,” i think that although this piece was written because paul also had a problem with some of the comments (i read most of them before the thread got shut down and not all of them were disrespectful and written by scum), he’s gone about this in a way where while being insulting, he also just writes better than sarah. it’s nothing against her, but as random as this was structured with all the multiple references, reading things she posts is kinda hard to get through. i mean he might write tomes and could probably cut down his words…but i bet his worst piece is still better than some of the things she’s posted.
i didn’t mind her last “article” although it was more of a vent…and i would have liked to know more about the actual computer problems, how long this had been planned ahead of time, what else was being done to provide good customer service, etc…but she didn’t go that route. she made this very personal (which is understandable because it’s her life and talking about something that happened to her), but she could have talked about some of the people/companies she was meeting. she could have included or talked about so many other things and yet i actually just thought it was a huge pms oppertunity for her. the comments about the reciprocity and her being a faux world traveller were funny because although she made it seem like she hadn’t put enough time into her planning and didn’t plan for something like this to happen to her (like she had a plan a, b, c, but didn’t have a plan d), i doubt that she’s that stupid. i just think her last post could have benefitted from taking a step back and then rewriting her original thoughts.
seriously though, its not as if there are any really important issues facing anybody it seems. this whole “story” starts with someone griping about a delay or change of international travel plans (how shocking!). then a bunch of other idiots start griping about her griping. now you are griping about everyone griping about her post because no one pays attention when you start griping….. if it is true controversy you want, stop bitching and start pitching some real ideas. that always seems to get people going….
i got to the f you belguim part and i realized again that although this is more funny than sarah insulting brazil (why they felt so personally slighted i don’t know but they should have commented on how the article was written-some of them did that), that he’s basically griping about the people griping to her story. it’s just one long endless roundabout that seems like it won’t end. and i also think the question about why he doesn’t get all the hate mail or the comments that sarah gets is a bit rhetorical because i’ve read a couple of the things she’s posted and i seriously don’t disagree with some of the comments posted to her stories. it’s the same thing that a lot of the other TC writers get, but i find that a lot of people also concentrate on the fact that she’s female…but i’ve seen some females make really mean comments about how she rights so i just think it’s a lose lose situation for her.
Although I thought the above article was well versed and informative; I think you missed the point. That being:
“80+% of people are stupid idiots!”
The other 20% rarely post in the comments section because they are usually drowned out by the local Moron Squad.
Oh. religion is always a good place to start, to cause controversy. Try a comic or two, I hear they work wonders. The fewer words the better, so the morons don’t have to struggle with the reading part.
From,
An Anonymous Australian (AAA)
“God save the Queen – Because I certainly won’t”
P.S. Free speech, unfortunately comes at a price.
Second that.
Although religious nuts tend to be violent.
Brazil nuts- harder to crack (up)
Here’s what I suggest: Bud with Brazil nuts.
I´m really sorry to read about this american/brazilian thing in TC. We should all understand that we are humans, no matter the country you come from. This kind of articles don´t really help, neither US authorities or the brazilian ones. as a global society we should raise our voices for better international policies. BTW getting an american visa is a pain, just so you know
Go cuddle some bunny or kiss some letuce, three hugger!!!
This is a real-live-action-full-throttle-low-punchs-finger-in-the-eyes battle! Stay out of it!
You… you… you… girl!
I have a better suggestion. Why doesn’t the Brazilian government simply NOT make promises that it can’t keep?
I have an even better suggestion: why dont every government in the whole wide world simply NOT make promises that it can’t keep up…
Sometimes people have such a dull perspective of complex situations…
Paul,
That was an excellent article, pure class
Had me pissing with laughter toward the end.
yeah me too hahaha
If I see your face one more time, I’m throwing my screen out the window…
I not only disapprove of the queen of Canada, and the Great Britain,
I think that she and her family should be mandated to retroactively pay all of the Canadian and British tax payers for all of their expenses back to the renaissance.
All of the crown corporations in the UK and Canada should be dissolved immediately and the house of lords should be also be dissolved.
The governor generals should be imprisoned for treason, and they judges should stop wearing colonial regalia and wigs effective immediately.
If she disagrees to the reimbursement, she should be garnished until she’s worked to death.
Thank you for this forum to voice concerns.
the fourth statement should read:
The governor generals should be imprisoned for treason, and the judges should stop wearing colonial regalia and wigs effective immediately.
Sigh. No one cares what you think Chris.
We’ve aleady established several times on this site that you’re an attention craving, batsh*t insane, raving lunatic.
“I was hired by TechCrunch specifically to be the controversial one.
…
And yet week in, week out I’m getting my ass handed to me by just about everyone else on TechCrunch. And they’re not even trying.”
There’s your mistake, you’re trying too hard. If you tell someone you intend to insult them, and then do so, it just doesn’t have any sting to it.
Better to put on the Basil Fawlty smile and slide in the insults when they aren’t listening. Which is hard to do with the written word I know, but you’re the creative one here.
Maybe reboot and write about ponies for a while so everyone lets their defenses down.
Oh..the post! I keep some room for Brazilian friends to say. Anyway I am fan of rock and roll samba and Brazilian football.
Paul;
This is truly pointless writing.
It has nothing to do with technology, or really anything of value for that matter. It’s just thoughtless and pointless reactionary rants about absolutely nothing of interest to anyone other than yourself, who is clearly the only one other than Arrington who is impressed with your topics, or your writing style.
If you really want to engender having vitriolic invective thrown at you, you have to write inflammatory material about something salient and specific, related to something meaningful … anything meaningful really. It just can’t be piffle-based angst about nothing. Leave that to Seinfeld.
You sound like a smart guy, and probably CAN write something that people will respond to. Rather than spending a whole article whining about it, perhaps you might spend some effort researching an actual topic of interest to TechCrunch’s audience, come up with some meaningful insights, write them up in something shorter than the tomes you usually writing, and add inflammatory prose to that.
I could agree with you more, Avi. I’m even a little depressed by what TechCrunch allows on its pages these days.
Most of the writers here are mediocre. The only articles I enjoy reading now are those by Arrington (apart from his racist ones in which he has one country or another in his sights) or those about the music industry – which really does deserve some strong words of criticism.
Poor, middle-aged TechCrunch. I remember you when you were young, positive and a good read.
Avi & Delacroix are a couple of whiny little fags. TechCrunch ROCKS BABY!!!!!!!!!!
Homophobic little bastard.
Yes, TC DOES rock, but Paul’s rants have nothing to do with TC.
why does this have nothing to do with TC. he’s talking about a fellow writer for this website, a problem he saw with some of the comments and the commenters, and this ties in to what he’s always preaching all the time…look at his first post. even if this was clever, i don’t think it does anything for sarah’s original post about the brazil incident because she hasn’t responded, and she hasn’t defended her original thoughts in that article. i don’t think i learned anything from this gripe article…kinda like how i didn’t learn anything from sarah’s rant. it’s a whole my penis is bigger than yours nah nah nah nah neener spectacle.
it’s not that people don’t like what paul writes, even though people might disagree with him. it’s because he writes better than she does, and that she’s female. i saw some comments to her brazil article that used language that was disrespectful of her being female. i mean posting about oh she looks nice but writes for shit/has no brains, and some other dumb comments doesn’t redeem some of the people who commented. some people probably posted worse things about her than her being female and dumb. most of the people who posted yesterday were males…and there were a handful of female commenters but the whole thing was interesting to observe because it got out of hand very quickly, and people couldn’t just leave their good points alone and had to go for below the belt comments about sarah. i don’t know her, and i’m not her defender, but her rant wasn’t necessary (like some people mentioned she could have put it on her blog…or she could have focused it more on the people/companies she was goign to see or the computer problem instead of about her her her her her) and the funny thing is although it might have generated a lot of traffic and buzz for this site (saw it on gwaker…people on twitter were going crazy), it’s not a good look for this website in general. i mean compare that article she wrote about the h1 visa’s…and then look at her post about the brazilian visa problem. look at how paul mentioned that this was an inconvenience to many people, not just her, but did she mention other people aside from herself? yeah she mentioned the startups a little (i couldn’t believe she got over her emotions enough to even give them some space in her rant), but the whole thing was mostly about her. it’s her experience, and she felt like she’s been wronged…granted…but is this something people really want to read about and want to read about on this website, even if she mentioned that this was for TC and her book. sarah could have gone about this in m any ways and she picked one…and unfortunately even if her original point about the computer mixup thwarting her plans and impacting her negatively, she basically got called out and there was a huge backlash. not all the people who were commenting yesterday/whenever that was posted, were brazilian.
Poor Sarah sure got the poor little Brasileiros upset, didn’t she? They should have been furious: at their moronic bureaucrats who screwed up the visa system and probably cost Brazil (or Brasil – whatever) millions. As for your column: you Tweeted a few minutes ago that you hadn’t eaten all day. It kinda shows.
Don’t make me laugh!
Man, how can you simply forget the canadians??? You went through all the cliché people around the world and just neglected the well-known canadian total-lameness??
You…. you… you… ass-face! (is that freak enough? I can push it harder, its up to you!)
P.S.: is everyone aware of the total literary content of Paul’s post? For you who haven’t figure it out yet: “this is just a simulation, there is no real fire!”
True, but it is a slow night!
Next thing you know TC will be writing about an iPhone wearing SOCKS and SANDLES!
Dear Steve,
Please stop commenting. Not because the content of your comments are lame (Not that they aren’t… you, like everyone else, have the right to spew lameness here in the comments section) But because I’m tired of seeing your god damned picture every other line down. You look like a republican senator, who will soon be indicted for sex-ting his daughters 16 year old best friend. This is just a request. Thank you for your time.
Yeah, Steve…. I agree with Dante. Your agenda is not welcome here anymore. And change that fucking picture dude! You look like my dad!!
Steve is actually running for Chairman of his condo administration in a small town in South Carolina…
And the 16 year girl provoked him, dont be too harsh on this honest used car sallesman!
i don’t think steve’s comments are any better than nikolas’ or mine for that matter. why does he have to be the republican? his pic doesn’t make him look any more republican than any other pic.
Three minutes of my life I’ll never get back, just so you can show your hand too early and sound like a douchebag in the process.
Meh.
Taken from an Australian government website. The gist of the section is also reflected on several other government websites.
Crime
=====
We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution in Brazil because of the high levels of serious crime. Pay close attention to your personal security at all times and monitor the media for information about possible new safety or security risks.
The incidence of violent crime, including muggings, armed robbery and sexual assault, is high, particularly in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Recife, Salvador and other large cities. Carjacking is also common, particularly in major cities. Tourists are often targeted by criminals, especially during public festivals such as Carnaval.
Gang-related violence is common throughout the State of Sao Paulo. Most incidents have been directed at police, security officials and related facilities but gangs have recently also attacked official buildings, set alight public buses and robbed several banks.
Due to the risk of HIV/AIDS, victims of violent crime, especially rape, are strongly encouraged to seek immediate medical assistance.
Crime levels in shanty towns or ‘favelas’ is very high. Victims have been seriously injured or killed when resisting perpetrators. Tourists should avoid these areas.
During peak tourist seasons, large, organised criminal gangs have reportedly robbed and assaulted beachgoers. You should take a minimal number of personal belongings to the beach and leave passports, wallets and other valuables in a secure place. Sexual assaults have been reported in coastal tourist areas.
‘Express kidnappings’, where individuals are abducted and forced to withdraw funds from ATM machines to secure their release, are common in major cities including Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Brasilia, Salvador and Recife.
Tourists have been robbed and assaulted when using unregistered taxis. Use of a prepaid taxi ticket on arrival at the airport or taxis from registered taxi ranks may reduce the risk of robbery. As a guide, licensed taxis are generally required to have their photographic license displayed.
Petty crime such as pickpocketing and bag snatching is common. Thieves operate in outdoor markets, in hotels and on public transport.
Mobile phone cloning occurs in Brazil. You should take care of your handset at all times.
Piracy occurs in the coastal areas of Brazil. See our travel advice on travelling by sea. The International Maritime Bureau issues weekly piracy reports on its website.
BORING!
Like anyone cares for australian orientation on any matter.
I wonder how it would be otherwise:
“You should really be careful while travelling through Australia, kanguru attacks are very commom, such as koalas cute staring and crocs attacks in the streets of Sidney”
Who’s cooler? A bunch of half naked full shaved hot ass girls or a few national geographic aboriginal fellows?
Now shut up already – nobody wants to read any more of your tripe
Actually it was kinda funny.
funny enough i was robved a feel times in Europe, but never in Brasil. And i live in Rio de Janeiro since…birth! i’m not saying that it’s safe to live here, not by a long shot, but, the fact is, i actually feel safer in Rio than in Rome, ofr instance..or even in London or Paris (where i was advised to never even put my purse on a chair beside me in a restaurant, because it would get snatched).
The Australian government is correct to warn their citizens about HIV. But it forgot to warn their citizens that go around the world to boost the sexual tourism that the practice is a crime and they can also get HIV with children.
Maybe the problem is that everyone really likes your writing? I like it so much I feel obligated to help with the threats.
***They should put all you British on a boat back to wherever it is you came from and sink it halfway!***
When I was returning through custom at LAX from a trip to London earlier this year the agent said “Welcome home, son” – I had to stop him and say, come on man, I’m not coming back from a tour in Iraq…
You know, it’s funny, because Carr’s worst articles mop the floor with MG’s best. And this is one of Carr’s better ones, yet MG is still writing reams of poorly-edited, ungrammatical nonsense about Twittering his hatred of AT&T on the iPhone and moving his dock to the left. WTF.
Your Comment = Gay. (Take that as you may)
If GAY had an award……… you’d get it.
If GAY had an award cerimony…… you’d present it…. and get the prize…. two of them, by the way!
If GAY was a stylesheet… you’d be
HAHAHAHAH…. my attempt at nerd humor failed because the comment box recognized the tag “head”, if thats what you even call it … hahahaaaa…
Clever – the Michael Vick. =) #makesmesmile
Paul, this was by far the most boring article I read this year. You should try to get a decent job. By the way, I know some Brits with bad teeth who are and lazy, and fat.
Ahh, dry British humor (or humour)… You’ve got to love it when someone clearly smacks down and abuses an entire readership and 50% aren’t intelligent enough to understand their being insulted and the other 50% are entirely two busy getting their panties in a knot as they attempt to understand the sarcasm.
Paul.. I salute you!
huh!?
Hey, don’t excuse this lame article by ironising it. The article was truly awful!
seriously? you are indulging this dribble?
their was nothing witty about that article.
it was quite overt and POINTLESS as it relates to this blog.
Your comment = Brit Gay! (Gay)
…and Brazilians with internet access are supposed to be the few better educated ones.
Nationalism = fail.
Fuck you, Belgium!
Hey you bloody…. I agree, there had to be a reason why I left.
Capital gains tax = 0%, love Belgium :0)
God, this blog sucks lately.
What the hell has happened to my beloved TechCrunch? It used to be about technology! Now it is about mocking other countries to the point where, even discounting the trolls, it has become nationalistic and almost racist.
It’s quite disgusting really for an otherwise popular blog.
Paul Carr, oh dear my: what did you think you were doing with such a pointless, tendentious and wordy blog post? Orwell is spinning in his grave.
I kinda liked the post, as much as like the sound of my farts!
By the way this is a very appropriate metaphore!
thanks for telling us your reaction to this post.
no really i’m being completely serious.
haha and it smells like that too!
who’s got a good guacamole recipe?
Marcos you yawn-inducing bastard. You should shack up with Dante and set up under a bridge – where trolls usually live, away from the rest of humanity.
+1
Paul,
Thanks! I’ve had a rough week and this had me laughing to the point of snorting. Thanks for lightening things up. No flames from me.
Cheers!
Erick, you are easily pleased!
As am I big boy… As am I.
Hehehe
There was no computer glitch, as usual the Brazilians were just being polite. In reality, they had read an advance copy of Sarah’s book. You ghost wrote it for her, didn’t you?