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

Hi there!

In the time I've been on h2g2, a lot of new people have signed up and joined the volunteer schemes. There was a time when I knew everyone by name, but that's impossible as this grand experiment continues to thrive. So I've decided to pay a visit to each Researcher in the various volunteer schemes and say 'hello'.

Hello!
Congratulations on your not-so-recent election. Pity we Americans couldn't do it so well in real life.

That's all really. Just passing through!

- X

Hi Jimi! Thanks for taking the time to say hi to us all ... yes, it is getting increasingly difficult to know everyone on h2g2. It'll be interesting to see how the community evolves over the next year or so - and especially when the HHGTTG film/game/stuff come out.

I'm finding the US election thoroughly amusing... it's turned out to be a lot more interesting than I expected ! And the whole prospect of the (apparently) losing candidate sueing the other candidate is very silly... and (if I may say so, no offence implied) rather typically American

Mind you, the winner of the US election has to be an awful lot more organised than I am! I've got no set duties but I'm still failing to do them

LOL! Don't worry about not doing your job. In the US, we get at most two years of work out of our president - the final two years of his term are spent running for re-election or jetting around the world on a taxpayer-paid vacation while he attempts to secure a legacy.

That's part of why nothing ever gets done in Washington - the House of Representatives serves two-year terms so they are always running for re-election and they scarcely have to legislate. That's why our country is still in pretty good shape. Democracy can ruin a nation if allowed to run unfettered!

That sounds about right to me!

I have a suspicion that the situation is actually rather similar to the President of the Galaxy business in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. (the president is just a figurehead, as attention-grabbing and controversial as possible, enstated to draw attention away from the *real* powers!)

I think political parties/candidates ought to have bans on advertising like there are on tabacco adverts (at least in this country there are); that way they'd have to draw attention and voters by being politically successful and actually getting results from their campaigns. That would make a change

That's actually how I vote - not for the candidate, but for the team of advisors he seems to be planning to surround himself with. They *are* the ones who make the decisions and weild the power.

And after 18-plus months of campaign ads run round the clock, I'll second your notion to ban all political adverts!

Have you come across http://www.theonion.com ? It's my favourite website apart from h2g2. It's a spoof newspaper - and this week's coverage of the election fiasco is absolutely superb! Hilarious stuff.

I've always rather disliked the voting system anyway; because say I really liked the Green party candidate (I can't remember his name) more than either Bush or Gore. I'd have known that the Green party candidate wouldn't have a chance of winning; so do I vote for him anyway to get my voice heard in support, or do I vote for Bush/Gore (whichever I prefer) to try to tip the balance and get the better one of the two in?

I remember doing a detailed study of voting systems in school; as far as I remember it's impossible to have a perfect, democratic system, there's always some flaw which makes the whole thing completely unfair!

The Onion is part of my morning routine!

I was watching MSNBC last night and they were showing some of the stories the Onion has run on the whole election debacle. Very cool!

Now we go to the court system. And in the US we don't really have a good final arbiter like we do here at h2g2. We need a national Peta to make everyone play nicely!

I especially like their headline 'Serbia sends peacekeeping troops to US'

I think there ought to be another poll, where people can vote for one or the other of the candidates, or say 'I don't want either of them, suggest somebody else.' I bet the latter option would win hands down

It's the same old story - anyone who wants the job shouldn't be allowed to have it.