Hm… a few revelations about Gnome 12… and now, back to the Ballad of Kohr, and more on the mysterious witch come MONDAY! Be HERE!
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So the Gnome Syndicate will hopefully be arriving just in time to get caught up in a massive and equally HI-larious bar-fight, yes?
I see Bill hiding behind an overturned table and hucking gnomes at Kohr.
Don’t we all, Gnome 12.
(you KNOW you’re in bad shape when you can’t even spell your own pen name
)
I just want to go on record now that if Kohr starts breathing heavy, looks at Bill and say “I am your father.”, I am outta here at warp speed! =P
Don’t you mean via hyperspace? They don’t have warp drive in Star Wars but they do have a ship that can make the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs (that being not a measure of time but of distance through hyperspace as opposed to normal space).
Actually, a parsec is a simple measure of astronomical distances in n-space. As I recall, it’s just short of four light-years, the distance between Sol and Alpha Centauri.
3.26 light years, which I first learned from one of Asimov’s I, Robot stories.
(Couple of dudes get sent on some journey in an automated ship)
Then some years later a drunken astronomer in a pub commonly known by locals as the “Craparound” corrected me – while we were having numerous beers with pixies erm vodkas in em – by saying “parsec is the distance from where the greatest Earth-Sun distance can be seen under 1 arcsecond, fool”
Good times
From what I remember of my college astronomy class, a parsec is a “parallax second of arc”. I don’t remember if its larger or smaller than a light year though.
Correct – and now you know it’s larger than a light-year.
But then you also have to take into account negative imaginary velocities and time variations due to FTL travel. Warp drive is a good plot device, but they never addressed the time dilation they would experience. A couple of days at warp 6, the crew ages a couple of days (local time), but the galaxy would be much older (thousands of years). But this isn’t the proper forum to discuss the intricacies of the theory of relativity and/or quantum mechanics, so back to the strip!
Actually, if I may: the whole idea of warp drive is to put a space-time matrix around you and move it and you through normal space so that you don’t suffer relativistic effects. And hyperspace? Presumably, unless the experimental truth and mathematical models say otherwise, time shouldn’t be a problem there either – the problem (so I’ve read, with regard to doing it via wormholes) would be the godlike power you’d need in order to make the trip possible.
But then, what do I know, I just work here.
3.26 light-years to be precise (Alpha Centauri AB are 4.4, C or Proxima 4.3). But in Star Wars nothing is that straightforward – the measure of distance can be taken either on a normal-space path (as we use it) or on a hyperspace path and the measure of a ship’s hyperdrive is how much shorter it can make the hyperspace path.
Yeah, it was later retconned nicely, but I seriously think back when Lucas wrote the dialog, he mistakingly used “parsec” for a measurement of time, like how “light years” were also commonly misused in sci-fi. (“Haven’t seen you in light years”)
ummmm are we geekin out here or something? LOL
Got a point there (that I hoped no one will raise), but either the use of “parsecs” was reverse-engineered or it wasn’t spelled out properly in the first place. So long as it works now, I’m willing to overlook the gaff.
On the other hand, they should’ve let me do the calculations for warp drive on Star Trek. As a child I had a more sensible log-based scale that could actually take them all over the galaxy and beyond while still enabling them to do slower runs.
By the way, if that happens save me a seat – I want to get on whatever modified freighter you find with you.
I think it would be particularly hilarious if Kohr says “I am your father” to Frank.
Pretty sure I would pee my pants laughing so hard.
Maybe someone need to talk to some dwarf guild, they’re good with gadgets.
They need to develop the dwarp drive.
hehehehe…
This crew is worse than the group of people I originally saw “Real Genius” with. As soon as they started trying to make the laser, the uber geek squad I happened to be sitting with started an hour-long discussion on the likelihood that such a laser could even be made.
As for my faux paux, while I like both movie franchises I prefer Star Trek over Star Wars, thus making me a Trekkie. Besides, the Enterprise would kick the Millennium Falcon’s ASS. Yeah, I went there. WHat ya gonna do, Force Choke me?
No, I’m going to say I enjoy ST/SW/B5 with equal pleasure and sit back and sip my Certified 100% Fairy Free Ale while the rest of you duke it out.
If it really gets hairy, I’ll send in my own fictional protagonist and have him mop the floor with the lot of you. 
Falcon? Enterprise? Meh. The General Hammond all the way. LOL
Just kidding I love all them parallel universes and always love to see people get into smokin arguments about who would kick who’s butt.
Barwench! Another pixified ale!
Gonna sit here in the corner and watch what’s gonna happen over there where the scarred dude is pickin on that big oaf with the moving fur cape…..
A stiffer drink!
Rum with a drunken fairy in it perhaps?
Astronomy mag explained it like this many years ago. I may not remember it rightly, so take it with a pillar of salt. Take a line between the star and the Sun. Take the orbit of Earth through that line. Take a right angle to the line between the sun and the star. That right angle line intersects Earth’s orbit at two locations, 6 months apart. A measurement of the star’s angle is taken at each point where that intersection of the line takes place at opposite ends of Earth’s orbit. The difference is the parallax of arc. A second of arc measures 3.26 light years. It’s only useful for measuring the distance of stars that are close by.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsec
As close as no matter, N.
As I recall George Lucas’ explanation: he deliberately put the misused “parsec” in Han Solo’s mouth to ensure that Han sounded like a pompous braggard (which it did quite effectively). Lucas’ explanation was offered immediately after the first release of “Star Wars” when nerds (like me) first raised the question. The “hyperspace measurement” explanation is more recent and, as Johanan suggests, probably was reverse-engineered.
The definitions of “parsec” are variously stated but mean the same thing. My favorite (because it is concise and so nerdy) is: “The distance at which the earth’s orbit subtends one arcsecond.” The trigonometry works out to give a value of approximately 3.258 light years.
Johanan Rakkafv, makes you wish there was an edit feature, doesn’t it?
Yes indeed! As I’ve been saying for a while.
Would straight fusel oil serve as a “stiffer drink?”
I can’t think of anything much stiffer than a “Fairy Beer Bath.” One sip and it’s “FAIRY GODMOTHER F’er, THAT’S TASTY!”
that and fae fairy depth charge added to the drink would make it the stiffest lager ever!