[color=#000000:post_uid0]Hm. Yeah, there's a lot of sites that speculate on this. As you can see, I'm working from the assumption that when Picard said "8000 ly", he meant "a rather unified cylinder-esque region of space with a diameter of 8000 ly". Technically, this does not really follow; I've seen all kinds of interpretations ranging from "space with a volume equivalent to a cylinder with a diameter of 8000 ly" to "the largest distance between two colonies is 8000 ly". The first one can justify a lot of crazy shapes, the second one follows the theory that the Federation isn't really unified space, but more "pockets" of systems with vast expanses of lightly-colonised space between them.
And if any of you folks believe that I am trying to argue an über-Federation, check this site:
Link
Because I'm fairly sure that you'll consider me moderate when you've seen the 16 kilometers of Sovereign (now that's a huge engine of butt-kicking!) on this site.
Gatac[/color:post_uid0]
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Katy: Can I have the skill 'drive car off bridge and have parachute handy'?
Justin: It's kind of a limited skill.
Greg: Depends on how often you drive off bridges.
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