thinks back From my understanding, I thought it was the debris of the Rainbow Bridge.

Tramp, back off a little. If Leland wants to answer, he'll answer. If Nathan wants to answer, he'll answer.

You can check back to see if you get any other takes on it, but it looks reasonably comprehensive to me.

A reminder to everyone that when addressing the VIP's, don't hound them - any one of them. Ask your question once, read what comes up, and if another has any additional info, they'll provide.

VIP's aren't Pepsi machines, and rocking the thread back and forth won't get you any more sodas.

Thanks,
DM out

Nathan, you just don't get it. All I did was ask Tasty, not you, why he would encourage authors to use a 12 month calendar instead of the galactic standard. Karen used the ten month calendar because that is the in universe standard. I never addressed you with that question. I addressed Tasty.

It isn't a matter than no one can use another system, but rather, what is used by the majority of the people, and the government, within that story. That is the standard. In your example of the cruiseship, they would use international standards, this includes using Celsius and Greenwich Meridian time. By your thinking, the 12 month calendar is Galactic standard, when it isn't. Galactic Standard is the ten month calendar. therefore, unless specifically stated otherwise in said story, it should be surmised that the calendar used is the ten month calendar. In fact, using just the ten monht calendar would save on the confusion since then everyone is on the same sheet of music. That is the whole point of a standard.

Okay, again, we're in "bold-faced" city. First off, calm yourself.

Second, understand the reality of what you're dealing with here. Karen Traviss just reminded us that basically there's two calendars at work here, which "can co-exist" (her words, not mine). Internally, the relative dates that are given in the Clone Wars materials (again, minus those that specifically use the 10-month calendar like the RC books) use month relativity that conforms to the 12-month calendar that is used in the Clone Wars calendar to keep track of the books. References to "a year ago" goes back to events 12 months before. Six months before go back half a year, and so on, and so on. It was a standard that, again, Leland Chee and others flat-out told us was being used for the Clone Wars material to make it simpler to follow. (It's simply more obvious for new readers to see that 36 months adds up to the three years between AOTC and ROTS, rather than having people see 30 months and wonder what the heck is going on, or somehow thinking that ROTS is actually only 2.5 years after AOTC.)

Your argument basically goes like this:

1. There are two different timelines being in use, whether we like it or not.

2. The standard in-universe calendar that stands from the WEG days is the 10-month calendar as detailed in RPG sources, used in most earlier sources, and is painstakingly deatiled in Lords of the Expanse.

3. There is also a 12-month calendar, even if only supposedly used by authors rather than in-universe, which has been used to create, among other things, the monthly Clone Wars calendar, found, among other places, here at StarWars.com and in the Clone Wars novels themselves. (We also have stories set 6 months before or after TPM and ANH, which are now being referred to in some places as 0.5 months before or after those films, such as Darth Maul, Prelude to Rebellion, etc.)

4. Even if there are multiple calendars in use, one must be the standard in-universe calendar.

5. If one is the standard in-universe calendar, then every single in-universe date reference must conform to that calendar and can never, ever be using the 12-month calendar, no matter what the author of that story intended, no matter how many times they or someone else from Lucasfilm publicly states that a 12-month calendar was used. The "standard is the standard and nothing else can exist with the standard" is basically the mindset.

Here's the thing . . . that doesn't stand, logically. Even if we completely and utterly discard every single thing that every single VIP has said about "this story used this calendar, while this other one used that" and all that jazz . . . it still doesn't stand.

You're basically saying this:

I'm in a multicultural location, say aboard a cruise ship owned by a private individual named Bob. Bob has no claims to any particular country, so his ship and what happens aboard it are, in effect, at the will of the multicultural passengers.

Now, it turns out that there are two different groups of passengers on the ship. One is a group that is more fond of American culture, while the other group is more fond of European culture.

So, one morning, as they are sailing, John asks, "Hey, what's the temperature outside?" The answer he receives is "30 degrees." John tosses on his swimming trunks and heads out of his cabin, intending on a nice day of laying around in the sun and hitting the ship's pool. As soon as he steps outside, he is blasted by freezing air and races back to his cabin, shivvering like mad.

You see, on this ship, there are two different methods of taking the temperature being used: Farenheit and Celcius. Rather than taking the time to find out which of those measurement methods "30 degrees" was referring to (since "degrees" is the unit for both systems), he John simply assumed that since the most common standard in his preferred culture was Celcius, then the other person must have meant "30 degrees Celcius" (which, incidentally, is about 86 degrees Farenheit and great weather for swimming).

When two different systems of measurement are being used (Farenheit and Celcius, or 10-month and 12-month calendars), even if by different speakers at different times, and both of those systems use the same general unit names (degrees, years, months, etc.), then one cannot simply assume that when a statement is made using a number and that shared-use unit name (30 degrees, 6 months, etc.) that it is one specific system or the other (Farenheit or Celcius, 10-month or 12-month). Instead, one must take into account the context in which that answer was given because if the speaker of a message was using one system (say, Farenheit or a 12-month calendar), but the recipient of the message was using the other system (say, Celcius or a 10-month calendar), then the accuracy information is being essentially "lost in translation."

30 degrees Fareniet (below freezing) erroneously becomes 30 degrees Celcius (swimming weather), while 30 months on a 12-month calendar (2.5 years) becomes 30 months on a 10-month calendar (3 full years).

The logic of "Well, I don't care what system the speaker is using because I'm only going to let myself hear it in terms of a 10-month calendar" just doesn't hold up, no matter how you cut it, unless the speakers will ALWAYS be using a 10-month calendar, which we know that they aren't, especially in terms of the Clone Wars stories.

Groan.

Karen just told us the reason she used the 10 month calendar in TZ was because it was a military-oriented book. Not because everyone else in the galaxy uses it (they don't, as has been pointed out by Leland Chee and Nathan Butler).

Without any sort of standard there is always a chance of getting things wrong. That is why there is a such thing as a standard. This is what Karen herself brought up. Therefore, unless it is specifically stated in a book that the characters are going by a local 12 month calendar, the standard with which to go by is the Galactic Standard, which is the 10 month calendar for internal dating. And, as for the Clone Wars novels. The only thing that uses a 12 month calendar is the *time-line*-an out-of-universe reference used for publishing. It isn't an internal referense of time within the stories themselves. Nothing within the stories themselves points to time being measured using either calendar. The only stories that specifically referense time and dates by calendar is the Republic Commando books, specifically, Triple Zero. (cont.)

If you are trying to figure out relative dates, you need to use one or the other, so that everyone is on the same sheet of music so to speak.. You can't just use both The one to use is the standard, which is the ten-month Galactic Standard.

I must concur with *Lord Hydronium*'s sentiments: this Hyperspace supplement was indeed excellent. Evil Never Dies is by far the best part---better than most of Insider 88, IMHO---but I also enjoyed the reprints of Dark Star of the Empire and the TotJ Companion short. Such well-written and enjoyable articles are why I keep my Hyperspace subscription.

So we're assuming then that after Sidious flat-out orders the TF to blockade Naboo, basically, they wait 6 months to do it? (End of CoD).