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

The other side of the wall?

I am not a ghost, I am a Goddess! *crosses arms and peers*

Any sign of the Red Dog himself?

Red Dog last posted on 3-26-2006.

I wish him well.

Does no one have non-h2g2 contact with him?

Ex-Rambling might, but she hasn't been around in awhile either. Maybe Gosho might have a means of contact.

I don't think I've met Gosho. Might be able to dig up Ex-Rambling's handle on livejournal, but that place as become a ghost town lately, and not the sort to keep her attention, I think.

Well, at least we can take comfort in the fact that we're keeping this thread alive?

Gosho is around... I talked to him on the "support" email...

Argh, sorry. I'm not awake. You were looking for Ref Dog, not Gosho.

No worries, I appreciate the effort to help none the less. If nothing else, it keeps this thread alive!

"Two years of no pulse for this thread, then magically it comes back to life"
That's the undead for you. One moment completely dormant, the next moment up and ready to bite your neck.

Pfft. I'm a goddess, when I reanimate something, it comes back to *life*, not undeath.

Perhaps you could do something about the British economy.

Also the Greek economy, the Italian economy, and the Spanish economy. A lot of places are experiencing hard times now, though everything is relative. These hard times would seem like luxury to peasants from the Middle Ages, or even factory workers from the 19th century.

Most of us have television sets and refrigerators and cars. A majority have home computers or laptops. Unfortunately, when large numbers of people can't find work no matter what they do, chances are most of them will run out of resources sooner or later. Career-building? A dream that will have to be deferred or given up on altogether.

Sadly, I am only a goddess online. If this power extended offline, I guaran-gorram-tee you that there would be A LOT of things I'd change.

...the governments and the way the richest on the planet conduct themselves would be first and foremost.

Residential patterns are said to be changing for the worse in the U.S. Neighborhoods made up of middle class people are shrinking, while gated communities for the affluent are expanding. Low-income enclaves ar4e staying steady, or growing slightly.

Hmm. politics can truly kill anything, can't they? We let them slip into this thread, and then it died again. Can't have that.

*pulls out the defibrillator and charges*

CLEAR! *ZaP*zAp*

My post was only slightly political. There are people who study changes in residential patterns. I read an article about it in the newspaper.

The question of what to do about the inequitable distribution of wealth has been raised often over the last few millennia. Utopian communities have sprung up to solve the problem on a small scale. I only know of one community that has lasted. I think it's in New Jersey or Pennsylvania. The Shakers had a pretty good system, but celibacy pretty much guarantees that there will be no longterm survivors.

Communism was tried on a large scale, and is now widely regarded as a failed philosophy. The Romans developed a clever way of minimizing unrest: they had bread and circuses to distract people who might otherwise riot.

We already have online government petitions, I'm expecting the government
to announce free bread and a circus any day now.

This Gov't would never offer free *anything*. They might encourage "volunteers" to make bread to give away to the poor, but they would tax them for it.

Okay, free bread is not likely, but government itself is usually a circus. The politicians are the clowns. The people in charge of the budget are tightrope walkers doing a high-wire act without a net. There are even elephants. Civil servants are well-paid to sweep up their droppings.