Infrequently Used Units of Measurement.

Millihelen: the amount of beauty required to launch one ship. Superceded in 1983 when ANSI introduced the 10-point "Hot or Not" units of measurement. The conversion from Millihelens to Hot-or-Not is given by the following equation:

Hotness=ln(Mh+h₁) + h₂

Where h₁ and h₂ are the hotness conversions constants,
h₁ ≈ 0.045402 and
h₂ ≈ 3.0922

Under the new standard, one Millihelen is approximately equal to 3.1366 on the Standard Hotness scale.

Kilobreadbox: Unit of volume approximately equivalent to 670 bushels. Used when attempting to deduce an unknown object by its size.

e.g. Is it bigger than a kilobreadbox?

Yea: unit of length. Initially conceived in 1910 as an alternative to the cubit, the yea increases in length by several centiyeas annually and is currently approximately 3.8 feet in length. Most commonly used by fisherman when estimating the size of a catch.

I caught a fish yea long.

Parsec:
1) Unit of distance. 1 Parsec is the distance a hypothetical object would have to be from the earth to create a parallax angle of one arcsecond. Approximately equal to 3.2616 ly.
e.g. Alpha Centauri has a parallax of .77233 arcseconds, meaning it is 1.295 parsecs from Earth.

2) Unit of scientific knowledge of a director/writer. Indicates how much of a grasp on scientific terminology a filmmaker has. Inverse grade in that higher positive numbers indicate less grasp, and lower, negative numbers indicate more understanding.
e.g. George Lucas knows about 12 parsecs worth of science.

3) Unit of fan rationalization. Indicates the willingness of a fan to explain away obvious scientific errors with complex after-the-fact explanations.
e.g. See, the Kessel Run isn't a set course or distance. You actually have to navigate a twisting path through a region of space filled with black holes. The closer you get to the black holes, the straighter your path, and the shorter the distance. So when Han Solo said that he made the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs, he meant that he navigated a very short (comparatively) distance, indicating he was a very skilled pilot. See? It all makes perfect sense. Kevin J. Anderson explained it in the Jedi Academy Trilogy.

Science vs. Faith.

More flow chart goodness in response to the flow chart idiocy propagated by another website.



An Idiot of the Day/Week/Month award goes to the operator of that website. And an honorary Idiot award goes to Brian Briggs of BBspot for linking to it. Every time I get the urge to go back to BBspot to see what I've been missing, I'm reminded why I stopped going.