The Null Device

The Brazilian city of Sao Paolo may soon completely ban advertising billboards, which the city's mayor calls "visual pollution".

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Gizmodo has a photoessay from São Paolo's Santa Ifigênia, the Brazilian city's somewhat dodgy electronics grey market. The city itself looks like some alternate New York of faded grandeur mixed with post-cyberpunk South-East Asia, with retailers setting up stalls on Toyota utilities under derelict art-nouveau buildings, ready to flee (leaving a wake of scattered electronic parts) should the police show up to confiscate their goods. And the market is ruthlessly efficient in filling any gaps left by busted traders.

Car accessories, speakers, car mp3 players - almost everything "used" can be found on the camelôs (street-salesmen). It is not uncommon for them to promise to fetch you the exact model of car stereo you want, returning triumphantly with the item: wires exposed, shards of glass and if you are lucky, blood.

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