South American countries are diversifying their exports cutting deals with China and the EU. Mexico and Central America are still in US hands commercially speaking, but the US is doing everything they can to push them into China's arms.
It's more like a protection against companies or individuals that register Mexican cultural products outside of Mexico and charge unauthorized royalties like it's happening with the Mexican national anthem, registered by an American company, and the image of Guadalupe's virgin Mary, registered by some "enterprising" chinese guy.
For example, if somebody plays the Mexican national anthem publicly in the US you have to pay royalties to some American company that registered the music without anybody's approval.
Same for the image of Guadalupe's Virgin Mary, you have to pay royalties to some Chinese go-getter that registered the image outside of Mexico. It's crazy.
We have until April 10th 2010 to register all our cellphones with the CURP (something like your SS number) of the person using it, even if a company cel. http://www.renaut.gob.mx/RENAUT/?page=preguntas. Cel numbers not registered by that date will be blocked.
In a country where bank customer databases have been sold to the organized crime to pick kidnap victims, many times with participation of corrupt government or police officers, where we train our kids and families to never answer the phone with a family name for fear of being monitored by criminals this is giving everybody the creeps. Also next year, in a multimillon dollar deal, a company will be picked to create a national identification card with biometric data like retinal scans.
Again, in a country where politicians are regarded as little more than a group of high level thieves this is raising lots of eyebrows.
I'd say it's a matter of social evolution. Advanced societies will evolve into states that help all their citizens remain healthy, well educated and productive. In backward societies it's everybody for him/herself and the government against everybody. Unless US people reverse the trend, they will slowly but surely evolve into a backward society, unable to compete or associate as a peer with more advanced and civilized societies.
IMNSHO, after watching Americans at my work place, I think a big part of the problem is, American society, girls included, expects everybody to be some sort of Superman or Viking warrior. Just look here in Slashdot: any comment on unionization or against outsourcing is met with comments about how anybody should be allowed to be "exceptional", and not be restricted by being forced into the pile of "mediocre" programmers. Same everywhere, you're expected to be fast, funny, energic, exceptional, etc. and as society gets more automated and oriented toward efficiency the push is greater. This puts intolerable pressure on most people who tend to be just average, or even "mediocre" by the new social standards. Just look at marriages in the workplace. I see a lot of American professionals, technical or not, getting married to girls from cultures where they're more acceptant of an average level of accomplishment. Many guys are just not feeling up to this new level of social pressure. Just my two centavos.
Most people are paying between 20 and 80 dollars a month to their ISPs (here in Latinamerica), media companies should figure out a way to get a share of that money.
I read a lot of complaining about IT being treated and paid like a utility to be used at the lowest possible price, a simple raw material to be imported from wherever it is at the lowest price. Here is a company, SAP, that instead tells its customer to consider its software like an investment, that is, you will pay for it a percentage of the profits it is helping the customer make. They have managed to be payed like management instead of being paid like labor like the majority of IT is. We should take a page from SAPs book.
The first case of swine flu was in La Gloria, close to Granjas Carroll (Carroll Farms, swines), owned 50 % by Smithfield Foods Inc., expelled from Virgina, USA due to contaminating the environment.
For years people in the area have suffered much higher levels of pulmonary diseases, all caused by contamination from the farms. Protest have been met with arrest and prosecution of the leaders.
Our fraudulent president Felipe Calderon is just an employee of the transnational companies, and under the excuse of reducing government expenses, has been reducing expenses in public health. We really need a Mexican Michael Moore documenting our health system. Mr. del Toro, your movies are very fun to watch...but, how about directing some of that talent to expose the truth about Mexico?
There's lots of people fighting to change the country, don't believe the propaganda from your government against these social fighters, we're only fighting for things you've already had at least a century ago, the same way Chavez is fighting to have in Venezuela what Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, etc have had for the last 50 years.
No, he means like in 1800's Texas where illegals from the US eventually outnumbered Mexicans and with support from the US government declared independence and later joined the US.
Amazon.com is our friend, they accept foreign cards, ship to any or even multiple addresses, not any of that "shipping address must be the same as billing address" BS. Also, through them you can buy from many small merchants that would never accept foreign cards.
If they can do it how comes other big merchants can't? I hope someday Newegg, Best Buy, etc sell through Amazon.
The world does not end at the US borders, look at Germany and Scandinavia: Rammstein, Therion, In Extremo, Nightwish, Ayreon. Check out Zillo.de and Beauty in Darness collections.
As seen from outside the USA, there is a sector of Americans who seem to think society should go back to the wild west age where it was everyone for himself, and when if you saw some stranger crossing your territory, your first impulse was to kill him. When you meet one of these characters you have to be very careful not to utter any word that may be interpreted as offending America the Beautiful. This path is represented by your current government's philosophy and leads to a selfish, violent and stagnant society of isolated individuals
Fortunately, there's another sector of Americans that are not afraid of evolution, that realizes that the path for humankind is to become a single integrated entity where everybody helps everybody achieve ever greater heights.
Great points! Also, maybe the human brain cannot by nature understand more that a limited set of universal laws. It's like a dog for example, it can be in the middle of our civilization and not even begin to understand what is there around him. I can imagine we're not the end of evolution.
And when a scientific or researcher is studying groups of gorillas or chimpanzees in the wild, do they go to their leaders, and ask to be properly introduced to their hierarchy? No, they go to the apes in the fringes of the group. Sounds a bit like aliens contacting out-of-the-mainstream people, isn't it?
Insightful. I was watching a documentary about this lady studying gorillas somewhere in Africa, and, did she try to contact the leaders? No, she went to the peaceful and less agressive gorillas in the borders of the group. From the gorillas point of view it must have been like an alien contacting the mentally fringe elements of the group, the ones with not too much interest in power and domain over the others...I wonder if this is what's happening to mankind.
Right on spot. If we follow arrogant self-righteous logic to its logical conclucion, employers shouldn't hire anyone with a military background. They are people that has killed, or has expressed the willingness to kill. And killing is killing, for whatever the reason, and it takes a special personality to be willing to do it in non emergency self-defense situations. And if you have friends coming from Irak, you know many of them lost something back there. Why hire potentially dangerous and disturbed people?
As empires go, the USA, maybe together with France, has been one of the most benign and progressive. They haven't been as criminal as Russia, Germany, England, Spain, Japan and China in terms of people directly killed as a result of their colonization. We all grew up looking up to the USA, its society, economy, technology, etc.
However, we cannot remain stuck in the past. Whatever the USA's past accomplishments, the truth is they are being surpassed by many other nations, except in military power for the moment. And when you interact with its people and government, and walk on its streets, you quickly realize it's not the good old USA we used to admire and tried to emulate. It has become more like a nation of paranoid, isolated and self indulgent individuals with only a very thin superficial layer of friendliness. Then you start hearing stories from acquaintances living over there and you realize Michael Moore's movies on health care are right on spot, and you realize too that the USA is quickly becoming a police state, because it's like everything is designed so you have problems with the law for one reason or the other. And this is not some vague ideological opinion, but a concrete reality easily observable by any foreign visitor.
It would be great if the USA becomes the benevolent and progressive country it used to be, unfortunately I doubt this will happen.
Slashdot Mirror
Beside the obvious total control aspects, the elite needs to know who is a good fit for organ transplant. Nah, I'm just too paranoid today.
As a curious note, before Lynch's version there was an attempt by Jodorowski (El Topo, etc.) with decoration from Dali!
They run severly overbudget, and the film was cancelled
South American countries are diversifying their exports cutting deals with China and the EU. Mexico and Central America are still in US hands commercially speaking, but the US is doing everything they can to push them into China's arms.
It's more like a protection against companies or individuals that register Mexican cultural products outside of Mexico and charge unauthorized royalties like it's happening with the Mexican national anthem, registered by an American company, and the image of Guadalupe's virgin Mary, registered by some "enterprising" chinese guy.
For example, if somebody plays the Mexican national anthem publicly in the US you have to pay royalties to some American company that registered the music without anybody's approval. Same for the image of Guadalupe's Virgin Mary, you have to pay royalties to some Chinese go-getter that registered the image outside of Mexico. It's crazy.
What's the web page where you check raw material prices? I work at a factory too and that info would come handy. Thanks.
We have until April 10th 2010 to register all our cellphones with the CURP (something like your SS number) of the person using it, even if a company cel. http://www.renaut.gob.mx/RENAUT/?page=preguntas. Cel numbers not registered by that date will be blocked.
In a country where bank customer databases have been sold to the organized crime to pick kidnap victims, many times with participation of corrupt government or police officers, where we train our kids and families to never answer the phone with a family name for fear of being monitored by criminals this is giving everybody the creeps. Also next year, in a multimillon dollar deal, a company will be picked to create a national identification card with biometric data like retinal scans.
Again, in a country where politicians are regarded as little more than a group of high level thieves this is raising lots of eyebrows.
Just do a forked version with a different name. A straight copy of the code. Everything exactly the same, except the name.
If you're really a Christian you should be providing for others.
I'd say it's a matter of social evolution. Advanced societies will evolve into states that help all their citizens remain healthy, well educated and productive. In backward societies it's everybody for him/herself and the government against everybody. Unless US people reverse the trend, they will slowly but surely evolve into a backward society, unable to compete or associate as a peer with more advanced and civilized societies.
IMNSHO, after watching Americans at my work place, I think a big part of the problem is, American society, girls included, expects everybody to be some sort of Superman or Viking warrior. Just look here in Slashdot: any comment on unionization or against outsourcing is met with comments about how anybody should be allowed to be "exceptional", and not be restricted by being forced into the pile of "mediocre" programmers. Same everywhere, you're expected to be fast, funny, energic, exceptional, etc. and as society gets more automated and oriented toward efficiency the push is greater. This puts intolerable pressure on most people who tend to be just average, or even "mediocre" by the new social standards. Just look at marriages in the workplace. I see a lot of American professionals, technical or not, getting married to girls from cultures where they're more acceptant of an average level of accomplishment. Many guys are just not feeling up to this new level of social pressure. Just my two centavos.
Most people are paying between 20 and 80 dollars a month to their ISPs (here in Latinamerica), media companies should figure out a way to get a share of that money.
I read a lot of complaining about IT being treated and paid like a utility to be used at the lowest possible price, a simple raw material to be imported from wherever it is at the lowest price. Here is a company, SAP, that instead tells its customer to consider its software like an investment, that is, you will pay for it a percentage of the profits it is helping the customer make. They have managed to be payed like management instead of being paid like labor like the majority of IT is. We should take a page from SAPs book.
Only two stations in Arizona: Summer and Railroad's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YU8XnROqhU&feature=related
...but, how about directing some of that talent to expose the truth about Mexico?
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2009/05/05/index.php?section=politica&article=008n1pol
The first case of swine flu was in La Gloria, close to Granjas Carroll (Carroll Farms, swines), owned 50 % by Smithfield Foods Inc., expelled from Virgina, USA due to contaminating the environment.
For years people in the area have suffered much higher levels of pulmonary diseases, all caused by contamination from the farms. Protest have been met with arrest and prosecution of the leaders.
Our fraudulent president Felipe Calderon is just an employee of the transnational companies, and under the excuse of reducing government expenses, has been reducing expenses in public health. We really need a Mexican Michael Moore documenting our health system. Mr. del Toro, your movies are very fun to watch
There's lots of people fighting to change the country, don't believe the propaganda from your government against these social fighters, we're only fighting for things you've already had at least a century ago, the same way Chavez is fighting to have in Venezuela what Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, etc have had for the last 50 years.
No, he means like in 1800's Texas where illegals from the US eventually outnumbered Mexicans and with support from the US government declared independence and later joined the US.
Amazon.com is our friend, they accept foreign cards, ship to any or even multiple addresses, not any of that "shipping address must be the same as billing address" BS. Also, through them you can buy from many small merchants that would never accept foreign cards.
If they can do it how comes other big merchants can't? I hope someday Newegg, Best Buy, etc sell through Amazon.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1861/10/25.htm
The world does not end at the US borders, look at Germany and Scandinavia: Rammstein, Therion, In Extremo, Nightwish, Ayreon. Check out Zillo.de and Beauty in Darness collections.
As seen from outside the USA, there is a sector of Americans who seem to think society should go back to the wild west age where it was everyone for himself, and when if you saw some stranger crossing your territory, your first impulse was to kill him. When you meet one of these characters you have to be very careful not to utter any word that may be interpreted as offending America the Beautiful. This path is represented by your current government's philosophy and leads to a selfish, violent and stagnant society of isolated individuals
Fortunately, there's another sector of Americans that are not afraid of evolution, that realizes that the path for humankind is to become a single integrated entity where everybody helps everybody achieve ever greater heights.
Plausible deniability.
Great points! Also, maybe the human brain cannot by nature understand more that a limited set of universal laws. It's like a dog for example, it can be in the middle of our civilization and not even begin to understand what is there around him. I can imagine we're not the end of evolution.
And when a scientific or researcher is studying groups of gorillas or chimpanzees in the wild, do they go to their leaders, and ask to be properly introduced to their hierarchy? No, they go to the apes in the fringes of the group. Sounds a bit like aliens contacting out-of-the-mainstream people, isn't it?
Insightful. I was watching a documentary about this lady studying gorillas somewhere in Africa, and, did she try to contact the leaders? No, she went to the peaceful and less agressive gorillas in the borders of the group. From the gorillas point of view it must have been like an alien contacting the mentally fringe elements of the group, the ones with not too much interest in power and domain over the others...I wonder if this is what's happening to mankind.
Right on spot. If we follow arrogant self-righteous logic to its logical conclucion, employers shouldn't hire anyone with a military background. They are people that has killed, or has expressed the willingness to kill. And killing is killing, for whatever the reason, and it takes a special personality to be willing to do it in non emergency self-defense situations. And if you have friends coming from Irak, you know many of them lost something back there. Why hire potentially dangerous and disturbed people?
As empires go, the USA, maybe together with France, has been one of the most benign and progressive. They haven't been as criminal as Russia, Germany, England, Spain, Japan and China in terms of people directly killed as a result of their colonization. We all grew up looking up to the USA, its society, economy, technology, etc.
However, we cannot remain stuck in the past. Whatever the USA's past accomplishments, the truth is they are being surpassed by many other nations, except in military power for the moment. And when you interact with its people and government, and walk on its streets, you quickly realize it's not the good old USA we used to admire and tried to emulate. It has become more like a nation of paranoid, isolated and self indulgent individuals with only a very thin superficial layer of friendliness. Then you start hearing stories from acquaintances living over there and you realize Michael Moore's movies on health care are right on spot, and you realize too that the USA is quickly becoming a police state, because it's like everything is designed so you have problems with the law for one reason or the other. And this is not some vague ideological opinion, but a concrete reality easily observable by any foreign visitor.
It would be great if the USA becomes the benevolent and progressive country it used to be, unfortunately I doubt this will happen.