Ten Years Ago Today

It was ten years ago today that a blackout darkened most of the northeast and Ontario. (I was at work on the 16th floor on 42nd Street when the lights went out and as it was less than two years since 9/11, a lot of people immediately feared the worst.) The power was out in parts of NYC for 29 hours and while much of the city spilled into the streets for wild parties and literal fucking, I spent my night reading magazines by the light of menorah candles, which was all my West Village roommate and I had in the house. Ho-hum. For dinner we had pizza from the long-gone Goodfellas, which was the one place nearby that was open. (They had gas ovens.) On our way home, a lone NYPD cruiser crawled up Bleecker Street as the officer in the passenger seat gently chided the crowds on the street, "Please return to your homes. The beer in your fridge is getting warm." Where were you and what did you do that night?

Massive Blackout Rocks Brazil

An estimated 50 million people in the southern half of Brazil are without electricity tonight as the massive blackout has triggered crime alerts in several states.

The country's largest cities, including Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro among others, were left with no illumination or traffic lights due to the outage late Tuesday, which the energy ministry said was caused by an undetermined problem at the country's biggest hydroelectric plant, Itaipu, on the border with Paraguay. One radio station, Bandnews, said an estimated 50 million people -- one quarter of Brazil's population -- were affected. The blackout hit at 10:15 pm (0015 GMT Wednesday). The southern states of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo, Mato Grosso do Sul and parts of the central state of Goias and the federal district of Brasilia were plunged into night. Police in Sao Paulo and Rio called on the cities' residents to not go out into the darkened streets to avoid the risk of accidents and an upsurge in already prolific street crime. Off-duty and vacationing officers were told to report to their posts. In Sao Paulo and its suburbs, an agglomeration of 20 million inhabitants, streets were illuminated only by the lights of cars and from a few buildings -- including hospitals -- that had their own generators.

Just three days ago, CBS' 60 Minutes reported that a similar blackout in 2007 was created by computer hackers, a claim hotly denied by Brazilian investigators.

BELOW: Twitter user RodrigoBNO sends out this shot of Rio's Copacabana beach.