Two Start Wars Related Rants
I'll keep them short and behind cuts. First, the Kessel Run controversy. The linked Wookiepedia entry explains that Han was not boasting about the speed of his smuggling ship, but about the distance he traveled. I personally think this is crap: planning a route around an Imperial blockade can be done in any damned ship. The original script is simply wrong as many, many have pointed out, and the Wookiepediacs are attempting to reverse engineer a solution that makes George Lucas look less scientifically ignorant than he was so many years ago.
While that slip got all the attention, though, there's another in the first, most iconic movie. Remember when Luke boasted of being able to bull's-eye womp rats which were no more than "two meters" in size? Why has no one complained about that gaffe?
Oh, and a gaffe it is. A meter, after all, is the chief unit of length in the Metric system:
At the outset, the main feature of the metric system is the use of a standard set of inter-related base units and a standard set of prefixes in powers of ten that could be used to derive larger and smaller units from the base units. Although the system was first developed for commercial use, its increased use for scientific and engineering purposes resulted in the principal of a coherent set of units, particularly for use in science and engineering becoming an equally important feature.
What? You don't see the problem yet? Notice how the paragraph mentions that the system was "developed?" On what was this system developed? Why, it was based on a precise measurement of the distance of a known object: "1 metre was originally defined as 1⁄10,000,000 of the distance between the North Pole and Earth's equator as measured along the meridian passing through Paris."
Paris. The North Pole. Places on Earth. Pretty damned far from Tatooine or any of the planet homes to those rebels, now isn't it, since they are in a galaxy far, far away?!?
Next, I saw a license plate on the freeway today that should give the bearer more pause than evidence suggests. The plate: SITHLRD.
Really. Two points. First, he wasn't driving a cool vehicle. It wasn't a sleek TIE fighter with three-section side panels, or even a Tatooine land speeder. It should at least have been a Maserati. No, it was a Mazda, which quite simply does not scream Sith Lord. For all of you who might suggest that perhaps this particular disciple of the Dark Side is going incognito, let me remind you that his license plate says SITHLRD.
Finally, this guy had better be a daft hand with both a light saber and the powers available to those who dabble in the Dark Side. All that Mountain Dew he undoubtedly chugs at his workstation had better be beefing up his Midi-chlorian count. If not, consider the simple fact that his plate is promising skills his body cannot keep. Really, if not, this guy is engaging in the false-est of advertising. I might as well drive my portly body and balding head around wearing a tattered bathrobe, filthy boxers, three days worth of gray stubble with some drool running down the chin . . . in a car with plates that read FABIO.
While that slip got all the attention, though, there's another in the first, most iconic movie. Remember when Luke boasted of being able to bull's-eye womp rats which were no more than "two meters" in size? Why has no one complained about that gaffe?
Oh, and a gaffe it is. A meter, after all, is the chief unit of length in the Metric system:
At the outset, the main feature of the metric system is the use of a standard set of inter-related base units and a standard set of prefixes in powers of ten that could be used to derive larger and smaller units from the base units. Although the system was first developed for commercial use, its increased use for scientific and engineering purposes resulted in the principal of a coherent set of units, particularly for use in science and engineering becoming an equally important feature.
What? You don't see the problem yet? Notice how the paragraph mentions that the system was "developed?" On what was this system developed? Why, it was based on a precise measurement of the distance of a known object: "1 metre was originally defined as 1⁄10,000,000 of the distance between the North Pole and Earth's equator as measured along the meridian passing through Paris."
Paris. The North Pole. Places on Earth. Pretty damned far from Tatooine or any of the planet homes to those rebels, now isn't it, since they are in a galaxy far, far away?!?
Next, I saw a license plate on the freeway today that should give the bearer more pause than evidence suggests. The plate: SITHLRD.
Really. Two points. First, he wasn't driving a cool vehicle. It wasn't a sleek TIE fighter with three-section side panels, or even a Tatooine land speeder. It should at least have been a Maserati. No, it was a Mazda, which quite simply does not scream Sith Lord. For all of you who might suggest that perhaps this particular disciple of the Dark Side is going incognito, let me remind you that his license plate says SITHLRD.
Finally, this guy had better be a daft hand with both a light saber and the powers available to those who dabble in the Dark Side. All that Mountain Dew he undoubtedly chugs at his workstation had better be beefing up his Midi-chlorian count. If not, consider the simple fact that his plate is promising skills his body cannot keep. Really, if not, this guy is engaging in the false-est of advertising. I might as well drive my portly body and balding head around wearing a tattered bathrobe, filthy boxers, three days worth of gray stubble with some drool running down the chin . . . in a car with plates that read FABIO.