Over the past year, a few data points have made me interested in Brazil as a country to at least watch from afar, and not-very-seriously consider visiting.

Consider the following:

• Orkut is dominated by Brazilians, or so they say
• they called a colleague whom they found through “The Google”. I’ve been adding “The” to nouns that don’t require it ever since.
• despite being truly cool 40 years ago, Brazilian music, is cool again
• related to the above, baile funk (to be honest, I think the vocals are the most thrilling part of it)
• quote from a review of a baile funk compilation: “has anyone met an ugly Brazilian? How about a mopey one? Yeah, me neither.”
• the Brazilian Faces Pool on Flickr
• Brazilian girls (self-link), one of the most exciting phrases in the English language (also a great band name)
• City of God
• the Brazilians that invade Vancouver every summer and become the centre of everybody’s attention

And so on. If India is the new China, then Brazil is the new India.