Society & Culture
Today we cover a very tiny amount of the geology & geography of South American and a more substantial, but still limited, amount of Brazil's physical and political geography. I also tacked on a thumbnail sketch of how the government is organized today since it seemed to go well enough after the political geography.Go the the web site to read more.Going forward I'll provide lists of unfamiliar terms and names in the podcast descriptions. This episode's terms & people are:Iquitos, Peru - the furthest city upstream from the ocean than can be reached by ocean-going vessels via the Amazon.Pantanal - a huge, perrenial wetland in the west.Cerrado - the grasslands of the south.Caatinga - the dry scrubland of the northeast.Mata Atlântica - the forest of the southern coast.Dilma Rousseff and Michel Temer - the president and vice-president respectively.Henrique Eduardo Alves - president of the lower legislature, the Chamber of DeputiesRenan Calheiros - president of the upper legislation, the Federal Senate.Supremo Tribunal Federal or STF - the supreme court.Joaquim Barbosa - president of the STF.If a picture is worth a thousand words, these three maps are worth more than the text of the episode itself (which came in at 2,250 words).The South American tectonic plate, its neighbors, and directions of movement The 5 regions of Brazil and the states that comprise them. The green line marks the limit of the Amazon Basin while the yellow the limit of the Rainforest.