Notes on Iporã Brito Possantti

The era of communication

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The global risk

Once upon a time, information was a rare resource. Newspapers, TV anchors, and a few specialists told us what was happening. Manipulated? Often. But at the very least, it was curated.

Then came smartphones, social media, and the algorithmic machine of chaos. Suddenly, everyone became a broadcaster—from your uncle in the family WhatsApp group to youtubers who just discovered the word “hydrology” or the councilwoman who believes she understands something about hydraulics.

How not to argue about the Guaíba

Sun, 25 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Rio Grande do Sul is a place with a tradition of fierce polemics and divisions. This reflects the very low communication capacity of its people and should be no point of pride. These controversies have expanded even into scientific and technical aspects, such as the discussion over whether the Guaíba is a river or a lake.

In this case, I hold the opinion that it is a lake.

But before bringing more consistent points regarding this, I find it necessary to prepare the ground by reviewing how not to argue about the Guaíba.

Zenith

Tue, 20 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’d rather hunt mammoths

If a genie in a lamp offered me a single wish, I would seriously consider transporting myself to the Neolithic. To practice hunting and gathering. To live in communion with a small tribe. Building temples for the gods in the spring, hunting mammoths in the summer, migrating to the forests in the winter.

In that era, the chance of dying torn apart by a saber-toothed tiger would be much higher. But at least it would be a life with a deeply human plot. And the fatal agony would last only a few minutes.

The physiology of nature

Fri, 16 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hydrological endoscopy

In the last few days, I had to visit an otolaryngologist due to a persistent and mysterious sinusitis.

During the consultation, the doctor surprised me by inserting a small tube through my nose and instructed me to look at a screen. At that moment, I clearly saw the inside of my own pharynx — a sharp image of the ongoing infection, reddened and inflamed.

It was uncomfortable, revealing, and led me to take an antibiotic.

I think some water's coming down

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Cinematic reality

I think some water’s coming down, eh

That is what I wrote on 29 April 2024, a year ago, in a WhatsApp group of professors and students from the Institute of Hydraulic Research (IPH). The group had been created in September 2023, in the context of the heavy floods that inundated cities in the Taquari River Valley.

This group became active again in November 2023, when other rains caused new floods, this time hitting Porto Alegre and the metropolitan region. On that occasion, I helped create material for the press, which was released to illustrate what would happen if a flood like the one in 1941 were to occur again, without the dyke protection system. It was featured in G1 and Correio do Povo.

The magic of water

Fri, 11 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Wizard

Studying Hydrology (and hydrological models) during my PhD had a much greater impact on my firmest perceptions of reality than I ever imagined.

The main culprit for this wasn’t my colleagues or local professors at the IPH, but the articles and books of a certain British hydrologist, Keith Beven. This fellow, besides looking like a wizard of the Merlin or Gandalf variety, manages to make Hydrology a far more interesting (and mysterious) science than I had ever even considered.

Resetting

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The ipoverse

Since 2007, I have been creating a fair number of blogs. None of them remained active for very long—perhaps three years at most.

In the beginning, some of the blogs I made were heavily focused on politics. Others were geared towards philosophies of life.

Others were thematic, such as one I wrote about Porto Alegre (which is still online here). In that one, every post was related to a Google Earth image.