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

I was thinking, the other day, about our Petty Hates thread, the Advertising Stupidity thread and so on, and decided I want my own room 101.

Well, I did a quick search and there's a few bits and pieces around, but the one I checked fizzled out in 2006, so I want to hold a room 101 here on my own space...

So, submit your entries, discuss them, and I'll make a final decision based on the general consensus. I really want to hear good arguments for and against, and if I deem something too annoying to discuss, I'll ban it from any room at all!


I'll start. you lot can decide, I'll have a deciding vote if there's not an obvious outcome.

I want to put Overpriced Bottled Spring Water in room 101.
I couldnt care less if people want to pay 50p for a bottle of half decent mineral water to rehydrate themselves, but a couple of quid for spring water (in my opinion not worth the time it takes to bottle it. Get yourself a filter jug for tap water) in a pretty glass bottle? Just dont even sell it, it's a waste of resources, surely?

Great Idea Robyn! Room 101 is a brilliant idea!

Can you get German TV on your TV? The German television is really, really bad! I know, I moan all the time about German this and that, and some even say, "If you don't like it, then leave!" which, perhaps, they have a point. Occasionally I watch German TV with my wife. Still, I have my SKY box and it keeps me in contact with all things British!

Here is an example: http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=WMsvUCZmiBc&feature=related

The adverts also get on my nerves ... 9 minutes of adverts and then after all that they repeat the last minute or so ...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8uVP5Fnb-O8

This advert is similar to those old films in the 1950's how the BBC wanted all people to be - an ideal world!

Room 101? What does this mean?

Good idea ; how many pet hates are we allowed to get rid of in room 101 then?And what about the ones that we dont get to get rid of, surely we aint gotta lug em all back home again, have we ?

Ps . Wheres the pics of the rockband ? ( myspace yea ? But where? )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0d_DncYbfM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcMDDYOxxe0

hee hee! I'll try and get some links and a description in shortly... I've been overun today, typical! I try to get something started!!!

For a start, do a search on here for it... There's a couple of partial entries!

Ooooh I'm with Lofty on this one, so many things I have to lug in there, would there be any space for more!

me too. if ithought about it i'ms rue i could come up with a few.

Siblings annoy me sometimes.

I'd like to put our postman in to Room 101.
He sometimes* delivers our mail to us, often he delivers our mail to someone else, very often we get other peoples mail, and he leaves £300 worth of new laptop I order with some random bloke working in a shop several doors away from me, with no note through my letterbox to say as much. If we put him in R101 it might be the next postman we get is better, and stops nicking my lodgers DVDs from the postbox when he posts them back.

'Chatshows', I'd like to put all chatshows into R101, along with the kinds of celibs who're only celibs cause they appear on such shows. Because.
Lager (as sold in the UK), its disgusting and tastes nothing like continental lager (Belgium and German I'm thinking here, maybe it is a bit like some of those awful Spanish lager things).

errr and other stuff too but that will do for today

Nice to know you are nearly back to your good old self, 2legs.

We have two women postm ... postpeople! Because we live in the heart of nowhere, they not only deliver the mail but take our post away with them. They're both getting a box of After Eight (me being English and all that) and a little monetary gift on top for being great.

The regular post office closed last year. The new one is about 15km away and never seems to be open when I go there ... and there's also thousands of people queuing and only one counter - even the neighbouring town is small and also has no handicapped ramp.

But there is a bell outside ... the idea is ... you ring in the light rain ... wait for the old dear to come down the steep stairs, she takes your parcel back up the stairs and weighs it ... she comes back down the steeps stairs and says "Two Euro Fifty!" You, sitting in your wheelchair are quite wet now, give her the money ... she goes back up the stairs, passing people queuing out the door to be served. She brings the change ... out, but you need a receipt. The other customers are queuing all the way down to the only bus stop in town. You are really soaked through by the time she brings the receipt back. Am I exaggerating NO!!

German Post Offices into Room 101 - at least the new one stuck inside Newsagents and small shops!

Hmm... Quite a list!

What would you do without your postmen/women and your post office though?

Could I put our Milkman in with the postman;....why deliver at 3.00am in the morning and not in a quiet milkfloat but loud diesel van, all of which of course gives our dog good reason to bark since she is not to happy with the early wake-up......then would it not be better to leave the milk to one side of the step instead of the middle so that fore-mentioned dog can knock over when going for walk in morning after sleepless night....then, what is the problem with taking the empty bottles, he must need a special trailer for when he does eventually decide to collect them.....

Ahem - I'd like to make a contribution.

May I put science into Room 101?

Now, some may think this is mad as "science" has led to the world around us. However, I think many of those we traditionally think of as scientists were actually engineers. Pure science as exampled by Stephen Hawking is all very well, but it doesn't tend to give tangible benefits in the here and now. It's left to the engineers to make science useful. I mean, Hawking explained Black Holes. Which is nice. But until such time as we're actually capable of getting close enough to one to worry about it, it's pretty useless information.

None of this is good enough reason to stick science in Room 101 though.

What bugs me is science has become the new religion of our society. Politicians no longer need to convince people that what they propose is right, beneficial or moral. Policy is inevitably the result of "scientific research". And instantly, debate is stifled. Anyone arguing against the policy is inevitably arguing against science and is therefore stupid or a crackpot. This would be ok if science is infallible but it is demonstrably not so. Science changes it's mind more often than a pregnant woman in a cake shop. And science is for sale to the highest bidder. When the first railways were built, the canal owners hired scientists who proved scientifically that humans could not travel above 25mph. The railroads hired scientists to conduct experiments to prove the opposite. Meanwhile, the engineers just built the darned things and said "Put young Jenkins in the first one".

Science has caused as many problems as it has solved and it has made innumerable mistakes along the way. Let's put science into Room 101 and let the engineers have fun with what they've got.

I quite agree about Science, well not actual Science, but what is termed "Lies To Children" using the authority of what Science seems to tell us as being the truth, when in fact it's just politicians bending concepts of scientic ideas to their own ends....I think that about sums up what you are getting at SWL

scientific...typo correction

Yup - something like that.

Oh, a compelling suggestion... but do you have any proof? I mean, real proof from properly constructed double-blind tests?

without a doubt unless of course you happen to be the one taking the placebo

Do we have any proof about what we are actually seeing. A series of electrical impulses from a source we don't even know really exists

You could all be a randomly generated pseudo personalities generated by a games computer. Do I really exist or am I merely a product of my own imagination