h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

if i ran the world i would double every seat in every governmental body and where there is a man sitting i would put a woman next to him and where there is a woman sitting i would put a man next to her!

if i ran the world everyone would know who douglas adams is

if i ran the world everything and i mean everything would be free for full-time mothers or whoever is nurturing the children until their youngest was either 18 or studying in an institution of higher learning. at that point then everything would be free for fathers or whoever is footing the bill for the childrens' education... for a minimum of 4 years not to exceed 8.

That is the most ridiculous thing that I've ever heard. Would you care to explain the rationale behind that shallow-minded thinking?

B

okay... this hasnt really gotten off the ground yet but im glad that mu beta critiqued my last post so early in the game so i can fine tune the format better.

id like to say that i designed this to JUST be input from everyone on what you would do if you ran the world or were put in charge or however you want to say it. you know... something comes to your attention that isnt quite right and you go "maaaan... if I ran the world... etc etc" and, because youre just talking with your friends, the howtos dont have to be worked out... its just the thing you would do and we will figure out how later!! i thought of this project when i realised that too often we dont even say the stuff we think of because we are too concerned with how to make it happen. i thought this would be a fun way to just get those ideas out into the light! its supposed to be fun. the funny thing we noticed when it was on the internet before is that it was amusingly cathartic. and thought provoking. and hopeful. and alot of laughter was involved.


soooo that means also that we dont critique or give opinons about previous posts...it kinda ruins the flow. its just supposed to be whimsical perhaps even laughable... but with a sense of "rightness" that might make the rest of us go "haha!! ...oh ...hmm ...well ...hey yeah! you know that just might work!"

also... id like you to start your post with "if i ran the world..."

i will rewrite the intro to it... right now it just gives its history elsewhere on the internet.

i rewrote the intro

carry on!

if you come up with a really good idea we promise not to put you in charge

hi read post 5... or the entry introduction... it will explain how this works!!

if i ran the world... governments would represent and serve their people... and would put more money and thought into education, green alternative power sources, and health care... and do it smartly.

Numbers such as 15 and 50 sound so similar in English
(Also 13 and 30, 14 and 40 etc...)
This doesn't seem to be the case in other languages, but I know people, especially foreigners, have missed the last train back to London at night because of this feature of our tongue.

Conversation at 14.00 hours...
Foreigner: When's the last train back to London tonight?
Station staff: 23.15
Foreigner turns up at the station in good time to catch the 23.50 train. Just a shame it doesn't exist.

English speakers sometimes avoid the above scenario by saying things like "Do you mean five zero or one five?" which is effective but a bit ridiculous.

One of the things I'd do (there are probably lots in fact) would be to find a solution to this problem (I don't need to run the world to do that; it's the next part) and GET IT GENERALLY ADOPTED BY EVERYONE on pain of having to pay a fixed penalty.

I've thought about modifying the pronunciation of "thirteen" so it sounds like "thirtoon" to make it more different from "thirty".
Or maybe, along the lines of 32 being thirty-TWO and 31 being thirty-ONE making 30 thirty-ZERO. I'm not too happy with these ideas but they're just prototypes.

Getting the hundreds of millions of English speakers in the world to adopt such a solution is where running the world would help.

if i ran the world i would put WelshGenghis in charge of designing a viable user-friendly earth language and give him a hefty enuf budget for he and his staff to able to go on extensive opinion and fact finding field trips around the earth.

... if I ran the World, I would ban all mention of faith and religion from governance



(I wonder if it would be an idea to publicise this entry and thread... I came here from the info page)

>if i ran the world everything and i mean everything would be free for full-time mothers or whoever is nurturing the children until their youngest was either 18 or studying in an institution of higher learning. at that point then everything would be free for fathers or whoever is footing the bill for the childrens' education... for a minimum of 4 years not to exceed 8.<

In Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold, one of the societies is kind of set up this way - you work first to earn the credits to do it, or your partner earns them.

BlueCrab

If I ran the world everybody would work in retail for at least a year and be held to very strict customer service requirements. Then maybe the next IIRTW wouldn't be so badly needed:

If I ran the world when people were nasty to clerks the clerks could smack them a good one or at least tell them 'knock it off! you're being a jerk!' without getting into trouble.

Then again, if I ran the world, I'd tell the nasty customer in the next line that myself...

Did you want us to use a new post for each If I?...

>Did you want us to use a new post for each If I?...<

'Cause I've got a million of 'em...

If I ran the world beaucracy would be forbidden; administration is fine, but layers and layers of admin for the sole purpose of dealing with the paperwork has got to go!

If I ran the world, child care workers would be payed a living wage. Actually, anybody who worked (really worked, not just showed up and stood around ((unless that's what they're paid to do? No.)) would be payed a living wage. And there would be a flat tax, so those who wanted to work their butts off could get the benefits but the person who would rather work the minimum could still live.

>>If I ran the world everybody would work in retail for at least a year and be held to very strict customer service requirements...........when people were nasty to clerks the clerks could smack them a good one or at least tell them 'knock it off! you're being a jerk!' without getting into trouble.....or....I'd tell the nasty customer in the next line that myself...<<

haha you wouldnt happen to be a clerk would you?




if i ran the world i would enlarge all professional basketball courts and raise the baskets.

If I ran the world I would own all of Vermeer's paintings.

If I ran the world, American money would be brightly multicolored rather than just green.

If I ran the world, George Bush would be saying "You want fries with that?"

PS I agree with the one that everyone should have to work as a clerk for a while, before they dare complain to clerks. (I used to work at a video store)