Assuming spirits are what they seem:

1st, the spirit needs to be worthy of becoming an ancestor spirit.
2nd, an ancestor spirit has to knowingly guide you to their metaplane.
3rd, you need to find the right spirit.
4th, you still need cybermancy or a variant of the zombie ritual to bind the spirit into a body.
5th, this doesn't mean he/she will actually like you afterward.

While there is an alternate option at step 1, it makes steps 2 and 3 much more difficult and hazardous.

To get some of the proper rituals, you'll need a 1000 entrance fee, a very large bribe, and transport to Denver. To get the improper rituals, go see that guy down the block who looks like a typical homeless bum but has the creepiest aura you've ever seen.

Everyone has pressure points, ways to squeeze to make them hurt regardless of how much they have already lost. The megas aren't limited to legal action either, and heads of state that cause problems are as valid a target for a shadowrun (wetwork? blackmail?) as another corp exec is.

Shadowrunners do not exist to allow the megas to smooze national governments (see the whole Shadowrun CSI discussion a while back). If that were the case, national governments would have post 9/11 like security measures running right and left to prevent runners (and by proxy corps) from getting away with dirty deed #234 that they are doing today. In a world where the actual police work to enforce said security measures would be outsourced to corps (including mega subsidiaries) this is patently, well, ridiculous (sorry, no offense meant).

No, the setting makes it quite clear that shadowrunners exist to provide the corps with deniable means of action against other megas. Because when it comes down to it, peace (between megas) is far more profitable than open conflict (see the various instances of corp war in the past). The megas influence the governments in every conceivable way, smooze them in the few cases they have to, and "persaude them" when they need to, but they keep peace with them because peace creates markets and markets mean profit.

Thin air.

This is not necessarily true. The whole deniability feature and need for shadowrunners could as easily be to keep the other corporation from retaliating. Megacorps are quite able to exact their own justice. They do not need the government to do it for them.

The elven rigger is offended that they have to save her from meat, and offer her a "wilted" salad.

The dwarf decker admits yeah, they are more comfortable with lower ceilings, so Naturally, they'll take up an offer for a cheaper basement apartment with less headroom. He also is amused by everyone thinking he knows a lot about cars...even though he doesn't.

The troll shaman offers up a bit of stereotype. Then points out the linguistic problems of most trolls is due to the shape of their teeth, stating that trolls that talk well have usually achieved that through expensive oral surgery.

The human falls for the all elves are magic fallacy in pointing out that being human, he's less noticable walking by, but that more people actually SEE his face, as they're accustomed to pick out details in members of the majority.

I don't remember what the orc said.

None of those links lead to twinkies.

All point to the USDA. (I was looking, from the horses mouth, for acceptable percentage of rat parts in grain...I, luckily for my own ability to eat, failed to find any.)

The first is food additives...too many of which have names that don't mean anything unless you're a chemist.

The second is acceptable quantities of certain poisons found in food, (in Parts Per Million.)

The third is their ruling on a food color...that is made up of dried bugs.

I don't have any links on twinkies...but the non-food content of the things have been circulating in the news on the periphery of my awareness.


Good luck, (and happy eating)

Graiser


[edit: I accidentally put my "sig" in the quote space.]
[edit2: The food coloring is not new.]