The whip, not to be confused with the intergalactic dance craze 'The Whippity-Whop,' is a remarkably simple yet painfully complex instrument of motivation, persuasion, and occasionally, entertainment. Its design is basic: a handle, a thong, and a cracker (not the edible kind, unless you're really into leather). Whips have been used throughout the cosmos for encouraging motion in lazy quadrupeds, performing in circuses, and even as a fashion statement by the trendsetting Vogon guard elite.
If traveling to a planet where whips are in high socio-environmental fashion, remember to bring your own. Showing up without one is considered the height of poor manners, akin to forgetting your towel.
Whips can be found on planet Strapiom, where the Whipper-beasts, renowned for their tail's whip-like appendages, are 'harvested' in a manner that's best left unexplained.
Never snap a whip near a Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal; it takes it as a dinner bell. Also, do avoid the Whip-back Swamps of Squelch, where the flora isn't afraid to whip back.
The Galactic Whip-Off is an annual event where beings from all over the universe compete to crack their whips in the most creative and rhythmically mesmerizing ways, all while avoiding disintegration by the judges if they're off-tempo.
Check out 'Crack That!'—the latest in sonic resonance whip technology. These whips come with adjustable volume control, guaranteed to be heard in the vacuum of space (suit and space station upgrades for sonic protection sold separately).
about 4 hours ago
PPHP, not to be confused with its distant and rather more famous cousin PHP, is the lesser-known 'Pretty Potent Hyperspace Propulsion'. Developed by the vogons for the sole purpose of escaping poetry readings, PPHP is the kind of propulsion system that makes you wish you'd brought a good book. Or any book, really. Its ability to bypass normal space-time continuity means you could theoretically finish War and Peace in the blink of an eye—if the eye in question belonged to a particularly slow-moving sea slug.
about 13 hours ago
Envdist, not to be confused with an environmentalist's distaste for single-use plastics, is a peculiar phenomenon found exclusively in the Glimmung Nebula, where the laws of space-time like to get a bit tipsy on the weekends. It's characterized by the abrupt and disconcerting redistribution of environmental factors such as temperature, gravity, and the color of the local star's Tuesdays. Scholars speculate that if darkness falls fast in these parts, one might find themselves experiencing a starry night on what is ostensibly Wednesday morning.