If you were to pronounce the title of this post, you may hear yourself saying ‘blackout’.  Indeed ‘blecaute’ is how the Brazilians say it, and indeed this is what happened to the country (and parts of Paraguay) this week. Due to a power failure involving one of the world’s largest hydroelectric plants, widespread blackouts occurred in the country’s two largest cities, São Paulo & Rio de Janeiro and at least 4 other regions as well.