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garrycouch

Jul 1, 2004, 6:06 PM

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ial contributions from Mexico

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Having running battle with heavily biased friend in U.S. ... his premise is that Mexicans have not contibuted anything to scientific, social, etc world. I am compiling a blast for him. Can you add anything significant (no bombs, please)

Thanks,

GCouch

jennifer rose

Jul 1, 2004, 6:25 PM

Post #2 of 8 (523 views)

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Re: [garrycouch] ial contributions from Mexico

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How about the birth control pill and color television, just for starters? Take a look at Tony Burton's "Did You Know" series, indexed at http://www.mexconnected.com/...ct/mexfactindex.html.

kirkswig

Jul 1, 2004, 7:00 PM

Post #3 of 8 (518 views)

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Re: [garrycouch] ial contributions from Mexico

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Why not mention Miguel de Icaza, co-founder/creator of Gnome, Mono and Ximian.

Gnome is a desktop environment for Linux, and is becoming more popular all the time. Mono is an underlying technology that allows other programmers to more effectively use Gnome. And Ximian is a company created to write software for Gnome using Mono, recently bought out by Novell, and whose most famous product is the personal information manager called Evolution.

Here's an interview with Miguel.

To boldly go where no wig has gone before.

lls138

Jul 2, 2004, 11:26 AM

Post #4 of 8 (445 views)

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Re: [garrycouch] ial contributions from Mexico

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Actually, being a Nittany Lion and a history buff, the birth control was developed at Penn State University. Dr. Marker discovered progesterone from mexican yams....but did all of the research in the US. After being unable to find a US company to undertake his idea, he returned to mexico to start the manufacturing himself at Syntex, a company he helped create.

See http://www.jyi.org/.../features/redig.html for more details.

And as always,

WE ARE.....PENN STATE for all of you Big Ten football fans.

Lance

Jul 2, 2004, 8:13 PM

Post #5 of 8 (392 views)

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Re: [lls138] ial contributions from Mexico

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Syntex's Mexican production of hormones such as progesterone is famous in occupational health/occupation medicine circles for other reasons. Originally they failed to adequately consider employee exposures and had substandard engineering controls such as local exhaust ventilation. When combined with workforce-insensitive or inadequate training (issues of language barriers, attitudes towards the use of protective equipment, and machismo in the face of exposures are all raised as possible contributing factors) the net result was male production workers suffering from female hormone overexposures to the point where their secondary sexual characteristics were supressed (reads people had their mustaches falling out). In OH/OM circles the episode is flippantly described as "Father Grows Breasts", but taken a lot more seriously.

Bubba

Jul 3, 2004, 10:35 AM

Post #6 of 8 (348 views)

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Re: [garrycouch] ial contributions from Mexico

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What the hell is an ial contribution?

garrycouch

Jul 3, 2004, 3:27 PM

Post #7 of 8 (315 views)

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Re: [Bubba] ial contributions from Mexico

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Inadvertent inclusion... go back to sleep

donwilliston

Jul 4, 2004, 9:41 AM

Post #8 of 8 (260 views)

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Re: [garrycouch] ial contributions from Mexico

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OK, I’ll be the one to mention Tequila.

Also Diego Revera is at the top of my list for the Arts; but there’s tons of artists, music, dance, etc. Too much to list.

The Pulmonía (open air taxi in Mazatlán) may seem silly; but I like them.

It’s obvious that the indigenous people offered enormous advances in Astronomy, City Organization, and Architecture. They made the contribution, the Conquistadors (and the church) destroyed the contribution instead of accepting it. That’s not the Mexican’s fault. The opportunity for world advancement was there.

Going back to Diego Revera; did you know that he painted murals in the presidential palace that are very uncomplimentary to the government and to the church? They’ve been there for a long time, not because they are politically correct, but because they’re true. Can you imagine uncomplimentary murals in the White House? We have stuff to learn from Mexicans.

Maybe an addendum to your question could be “What can we learn from Mexicans?” That has more to do with us, what we could contribute, and the future.

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"It's good enough to be true" Gracie Maurahan 1970
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