Michelle Higgins ponders the impact of U.S. border control policies on Chicago’s failed bid for the 2016 Summer Games. For my part, I suppose that could have been a factor—remember the visitor shortfall in Beijing after China tightened its visa restrictions—but beyond any specific considerations, I’m just not sure about the assumption that 2016 was Chicago’s to lose. After all, the United States has already hosted the Olympics eight times, while Rio’s winning bid will mean the first Games ever on South American soil. It’s about time, isn’t it?

Jon Lee Anderson’s story Gangland from the latest issue of the New Yorker isn’t online, but the magazine did post a stunning audio slideshow with photos by Joao Pina.

We posted Rob Verger’s slideshow about tourism in Rio’s favelas last June.

Greg Grandin’s new book, Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City, analyzes the surprising history behind the brilliant car mogul’s disastrous attempts to transplant the American way of life into a remote Amazonian village. Ford is credited as the father of America’s consumer culture, but his utopian plans to capitalize on new sources of rubber resulted in one of the greatest failures of his distinguished career. The critics are chiming in on the man behind the story and the modern day implications of exporting Americanism.

It’s not often that my life as a travel media watcher and my life as an occasional (OK, OK—regular) viewer of “America’s Next Top Model” overlap. So imagine my surprise last night when this season’s crop of would-be models landed in a Sao Paolo favela for an “edgy” Carmen Miranda-inspired photo shoot. Needless to say, the segment didn’t have much in common with the tales of favela-based slum tourism that I’ve read in the past.

Brazil's biggest city is famous for its graffiti. Rob Verger reveals 10 powerful images.

Carnival queen Jessica Maia waves to the crowd during the first night of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro.

The AP reports that two German tourists were detained in Brazil after allegedly changing their clothes in public in Salvador’s international airport. According to the AP: “Police inspector Maritta Souza said the 66-year-old man from Koenigsberg and his 64-year-old friend from Bad Bevensen said they thought it ‘was normal’ to change clothes like that in Brazil, especially in a beach city like Salvador.” The article also quotes a witness: “I went there and asked if they would like to see other people taking their clothes off in front of his wife or in front of kids,” Paulo Goes told Globo TV. “They just laughed.” (Via Today in the Sky)

The article notes, “They said that they were late for their flight and needed to change into new clothes because one of them got wet during a boat trip and the other felt sick and vomited during the same trip earlier in the day.”

Come on, folks. I can understand being late for a flight and wanting to fly in dry clothes, but still: How about a little common sense and respect? Brazil, by the way, is more conservative than stereotypes of that country suggest. While bikinis might be normal on the beach, there is no nudity—not on the beach, the street, or in an airport lobby.

Columbian drug lord Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia's underwear was the quickest item to sell at yesterday's auction of his belongings. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that the drug baron was arrested last year in São Paulo while he was half naked. Of the 3,000 items for sale, 80% sold in 3 hours. The auction, which welcomed 5,000 attendees, was held one week after Abadia was given a 30-year jail sentence. [BBC]

Thanks to the natural rubber produced by trees in the Amazon, the Brazilian government will manufacture more than 100 million condoms this year in a state-run factory in the northwestern state of Acre. Given the name Natex, these contraceptives will benefit at least 500 families and provide 150 jobs in Xapuri, as well as help fight AIDS. "The Brazilian government has one of the biggest programs in the world to distribute free condoms," a practice often criticized by the Catholic Church. [BBC]