Help with college stuff

[Crescent Pulsar S]

It's safe to say, when it comes to the particulars of college, that I know next to nothing. Assume that's the case even if it sounds unbelievable. Either way, I need help in regard to Chiba Mamoru.

Basically, if he were to prepare himself for his role as a king, what kind of subjects would he want to learn? (Political science? Economics? Stuff like that?) What does "majoring in" mean, and how many things can be majored in at once? What would the class schedule be like, exactly? How many classes are mandatory, and what would it depend on?

There's something I want to do with Mamoru, with him as the protagonist, but I don't know how to work college into the idea.

[uragaaru]

So In Japanese college you typically enter as a student of a particular school (School of Science, Business, Education, etc). Double majoring is for all intents and purposes unheard of, though one can do classes outside of their department. Majoring in Japanese college is pretty similar to doing so in the American system. You take a set series of classes in a department course offerings and you sometimes, but not always have to do a senior thesis. Course loads depend on a school, but I'd assume four courses a semester. Semester are typically April to late July/Early August and late-September to mid-February (with a break in the middle for New Years holidays).

One can take a challenging course-load, but bear in mind many people (especially outside of elite schools like Todai, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Keio, etc.) see college as four years of de-stressing/partying after entrance exams and before they gear up for job hunting/"the real world" (this is of course has become somewhat less common over the last decade and a half, though the expectation that one will go out and enter the corporate world is still there).

As far as Mr. Chiba goes, there are two ways to go about it. In the manga, he has an interest in Astronomy and is a conscientious student in high school and university. I don't necessarily see him choosing a major just because it could be useful down the line. I see him passionately pursuing an interest, whether that's in the sciences, physics, astronomy, and planetary science in particular or, if you wanted to go in different direction with the character, something more people-oriented like education, psychology or sociology.

[Crescent Pulsar S]

But if he wants to prepare himself and do his best to become a good ruler, what kind of subjects would he pursue?

[uragaaru]

Hmm... I would say (in decreasing order): Economics, Law, Business, Sociology, or Communications. Are you envisioning your Crystal Tokyo as a constitutional monarchy or as a benevolent dictatorship? If the former, I'd squeeze in Political Science between Law and Business.

As an aside, I cannot imagine Usagi majoring in anything outside of a field like early-childhood education.

[Crescent Pulsar S]

I can't imagine many people believing a benevolent dictatorship, even though I think it's wholly possible, so... Yeah. Japan's already a constitutional monarchy anyway, if I remember correctly, so it's not like much would change. Plus, it makes the result of the revolution a lot more believable, since it's basically switching one family with another (coincidentally, one from the sun with one from the moon).

Usagi could do the public relations stuff.

[Maximara]

I can't imagine many people believing a benevolent dictatorship, even though I think it's wholly possible, so... Yeah. Japan's already a constitutional monarchy anyway, if I remember correctly, so it's not like much would change. Plus, it makes the result of the revolution a lot more believable, since it's basically switching one family with another (coincidentally, one from the sun with one from the moon).

Usagi could do the public relations stuff.

Based on http://www.fukufics.com/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=7088&start=60 clueless dictatorship is more like it.

'With it's unpredictable orbit, its image was never able to be captured" But the King is not only showing us an image of the planet but said that centuries earlier they sent an extremely severe criminal there. How do you do that if you don't know where the planet is going to be?!

"From where it was expected to be, we managed to detect a large negative energy source". So let's exile an extremely severe criminal there and ignore the place.

Then the king states that in the 30th century they decided to study the planet.

So by the King's own words they find a legendary planet that has a "large negative energy source", centuries later send an extremely severe criminal there and 'closed it off', and then even more centuries later figure out that studying the planet might be a good idea.

I'm sorry but not even the college education can correct this level of STUPID.

[Crescent Pulsar S]

Clueless monarchy, you mean. King and queen, and all that. I personally disagree with the clueless part.

Just because they couldn't take an image doesn't mean they couldn't make an artist's/computer rendition of what it looks like. I see that sort of thing done all the time for planets, moons, stars and a host of other things, even when they have good images of them.

Unpredictable doesn't necessarily mean that something can't be discerned and tracked. They were able to imprison someone there, after all. (Concerning the above, whoever had gone there before it had been closed off would have gotten an idea of what it looked like.)

Also, we are talking about negative energy, here. For all we know, they either couldn't figure out how to put it to good use (oh, see, I made a joke), might have looked like a drop in the bucket compared to their present energy supply, or both. It may not have been easy to get there on demand to get the energy, either. We just don't know. Either way, it wouldn't have been much of a loss to close it off for reasons like those. Wanting to revisit it in the future could mean that they had progressed enough to utilize the negative energy, made it reliable to get to the planet, or something like that.

Granted, I might question the reasoning for where they imprisoned Death Phantom. However, if I remember correctly, I think he had mind control powers. If so, you'd probably need a special place to hold him, where he couldn't do his mind-hackery and/or where someone couldn't release him. After all, at that point Serenity wasn't as strong as she used to be, and he had dealt a lot of death and destruction before being subdued, so a distant, hard-to-reach planet might have been a better idea than whatever alternative there may have been at the time.

[Maximara]

The Doom Phantom in the anime didn't have mind control powers per say but the ability to distort memories and dreams. All he really did was emphasize Chubi-Usa's bad experiences to the point she became Wicked (Dark) Lady.

As for the unpredictable part this ties into basic physics: you do NOT see things as they are now but as they were how ever many light minutes, hours, and for stars years they are from us. For example, Pluto goes from 30 to 49 AUs. Light takes 8 minutes to travel 1 AU so Pluto is from 232 to 384 light minutes from Earth; we see Pluto not where it is now but where it was some 3.9 to 6.4 hours ago.

So to send anyone to a planet you would have to know where the planet would be in the future!

Look at exactly what the King is saying:

'With it's unpredictable orbit, its image was never able to be captured" But the King is not only showing us an image of the planet but said that centuries earlier they sent an extremely severe criminal there. How do you do that if you don't know where the planet is going to be?!

"From where it was expected to be, we managed to detect a large negative energy source".

First he states Nemesis has an "unpredictable orbit" but then he states that "where it was expected to be"; those two do NOT go together and there is no way to make them go together. So either the King is a total idiot or he is lying. Most likely both.

In fact, there is a method for predicting a planet's orbit based on only three sightings. This method was used to try and find the planet thought to exist between Mercery and the Sun due to the behavior of Mercury's orbit in the 19th century. Based on the initial three sightings not only did they know where the planet should be but things like its expected mass and density: 0.17 AU from the sun with an orbit of 26 days, diameter of 1,100 miles, density of 6.5, gravity of 0.16 and tide locked with a sun side temperature of 1220 F, 950 F twilight side, and near 3 K on night side.

Only when the planet didn't show up where it was expected did the head scratching begin.

Einstein's new way of looking at gravity in 1914 explained Mercury without needing a planet between it and the sun but these kind of hiccups only occur close to the star. Nemesis is supposedly a planet beyond the orbit of Pluto and therefore should have an orbit predictable with Newtonian math...which has been around for over 300 years.

I have said it before and I will say it again. JUST. HOW. STUPID. ARE. THESE. PEOPLE?

[Crescent Pulsar S]

Over a year later, huh? Well, okay.

The Doom Phantom in the anime didn't have mind control powers per say but the ability to distort memories and dreams. All he really did was emphasize Chubi-Usa's bad experiences to the point she became Wicked (Dark) Lady.

When was the difference in media relevant? I haven't re-read the topic, but I was under the impression that the actions and conditions in the manga were the subject of criticism.

As for the unpredictable part this ties into basic physics: you do NOT see things as they are now but as they were how ever many light minutes, hours, and for stars years they are from us. For example, Pluto goes from 30 to 49 AUs. Light takes 8 minutes to travel 1 AU so Pluto is from 232 to 384 light minutes from Earth; we see Pluto not where it is now but where it was some 3.9 to 6.4 hours ago.

So to send anyone to a planet you would have to know where the planet would be in the future!

This isn't taking into consideration the fact that more than physics is involved, and that Nemesis isn't an ordinary planet.

Plus, I doubt that their method of transportation is as limited as ours, which is part of the reason for why planning things so far ahead is required. We don't have the fuel to alter course whenever we see fit, resources and space to fix various problems as they happen to occur, or manned vehicles that can act in the moment instead of coordinating what to do when from the Earth when the information they receive has already happened.

Look at exactly what the King is saying:

'With it's unpredictable orbit, its image was never able to be captured" But the King is not only showing us an image of the planet but said that centuries earlier they sent an extremely severe criminal there. How do you do that if you don't know where the planet is going to be?!

This is just regurgitating the same points, which I believe I've already answered adequately. For your benefit, I suppose I can repeat myself one more time as well.

First, just because they didn't capture an image doesn't mean that they couldn't create their own, whether anyone had actually seen what it looked like or not.

Second, unpredictable doesn't mean that it can't be reached. If it moved faster and always moved in any direction away from the chaser, then I'd see some merit to your point. However, that's just not the case.

"From where it was expected to be, we managed to detect a large negative energy source".

First he states Nemesis has an "unpredictable orbit" but then he states that "where it was expected to be"; those two do NOT go together and there is no way to make them go together. So either the King is a total idiot or he is lying. Most likely both.

That's assuming that their expectations were very specific, and there's no indication that it was. Their expectation could have been as broad as "seen from the northern hemisphere," or even broader. And that's also not taking into account when the last sighting of the planet was. Even if the planet could move in any direction at any time, if you knew where it was a day ago you'd have an idea of the maximum distance it could travel, even if its velocity were also variable. Assuming that it doesn't travel faster than light, for instance, you can define a sphere of space within which the planet could be found. That, and being able to detect its negative energy would help pinpoint where it is, probably without even needing to know where it was last known to have been.

I have said it before and I will say it again. JUST. HOW. STUPID. ARE. THESE. PEOPLE?

However stupid we wish them to be, irregardless of reasoning, logic and fact? I'm not convinced that they're as stupid as you're making them out to be.

[Spica75]

It is fairly easy to make what a lot of people say look stupid, simply because it´s rare for people to be precise in they way they express themselves. The important part is to get across the required information, not to be 100% correct in a legal sense.

[Maximara]

Maximara: As for the unpredictable part this ties into basic physics: you do NOT see things as they are now but as they were how ever many light minutes, hours, and for stars years they are from us. For example, Pluto goes from 30 to 49 AUs. Light takes 8 minutes to travel 1 AU so Pluto is from 232 to 384 light minutes from Earth; we see Pluto not where it is now but where it was some 3.9 to 6.4 hours ago.

So to send anyone to a planet you would have to know where the planet would be in the future!
This isn't taking into consideration the fact that more than physics is involved, and that Nemesis isn't an ordinary planet.

Plus, I doubt that their method of transportation is as limited as ours, which is part of the reason for why planning things so far ahead is required. We don't have the fuel to alter course whenever we see fit, resources and space to fix various problems as they happen to occur, or manned vehicles that can act in the moment instead of coordinating what to do when from the Earth when the information they receive has already happened.

Not talking about fuel or rockets here. Even if you used a beam of light you would still miss the planet because you would still need to know where it was in the future!

It also doesn't explain why you would send a criminal to a planet that had that kind of energy in the first place. How do you know he can't find a way to use that energy against...oh yes he managed to do exactly that. Took him who knows how many centuries but he did it.

It hard to see Sailor Moon and company as anything but Genma or even Kuno level of STUPID. But then Beryl and her generals, at least in the original anime, are even dumber.

I said original anime because there is now a new anime out (Sailor Moon Crystal) and this one is following the manga. So soon we will have an animated version of Sailor moon far closer to the manga then what we had before.

[Crescent Pulsar S]

Not talking about fuel or rockets here. Even if you used a beam of light you would still miss the planet because you would still need to know where it was in the future!

You've missed the point so thoroughly that I don't want to explain, but that will just seem like an excuse in your favor. *Sighs*

Before you can begin to figure out where it is in the future, you'll have an idea of where it is in the present. It might be unpredictable, but that doesn't make it undetectable (they noticed it, after all). Putting aside a sailor senshi's abilities to travel in space, if we assume -- and probably rightly -- that the technology in the future is far more advanced than in the twentieth century, nevermind that magic might also be involved, if Nemesis is spotted then they can travel toward it and adjust their heading as it moves instead of waiting around and hoping to plan a successful course. You may not have been talking about fuel or rockets yourself, but it's relevant to the discussion because things of that nature are involved in the traveling process. And if the people in the future are going to get somewhere in something, it's obvious that they'll have less concerns and limitations, like the kind that would require a lot of planning ahead. And since they got mister criminal to the planet, then we can safely assume that -- through whatever method -- the unpredictable orbit wasn't an issue.

It also doesn't explain why you would send a criminal to a planet that had that kind of energy in the first place. How do you know he can't find a way to use that energy against...oh yes he managed to do exactly that. Took him who knows how many centuries but he did it.

You know, that it took so long to do it might actually be a good enough reason to refute your argument. If he hadn't just happened to live long enough to do it, and Nemesis didn't just happen to be an incarnation of Chaos, would anything have come of his incarceration there? You're assuming that they're making these decisions based on knowledge that we can't be sure was available to them or not. Keep in mind that there's a difference between stupidity and ignorance.

It hard to see Sailor Moon and company as anything but Genma or even Kuno level of STUPID. But then Beryl and her generals, at least in the original anime, are even dumber.

Hard? Seems more like it's easy for you to see them that way than hard for anyone else to not to see them that way. That's why it's called a personal opinion.

I said original anime because there is now a new anime out (Sailor Moon Crystal) and this one is following the manga. So soon we will have an animated version of Sailor moon far closer to the manga then what we had before.

The new anime began long after this topic's supposed death, so I'm failing to see how it's relevant as well. Especially since it hasn't covered the part of the series in question, and I haven't yet heard anything to the effect that it ever will.

[Cheb]

The planet suddenly became self-propelling and started absorbing all forms of radiation like a black hole. It's like a perfect anti-radar coating.
Considering how it did suddenly pop up right next to Earth later along the plot, I'd say it was quite spry, up to serious FTL levels.
If it had been a TNO (or further towards the Oort cloud, even) and it was smaller than Pluto (quite probably), and it suddenly went invisible and started jumping around... Good luck finding a cloaked object that small if it was supposed to be orbiting, say, at 500 AUs. A needle in a haystack doesn't even begin do describe this.

SPACE IS BIG. Finding something that *does not radiate* is impossible task, even for superhuman tech.
Oh, they *could* try searching for it using gravitational microlensing and watching for something obscuring stars as it moves. But the *** is tiny. Where would you direct your telescope? Even with a hundred telescopes, you'd only cover a tiny fraction of the sky sphere.

[Crescent Pulsar S]

There are two main problems with that. The first is that Nemesis disappeared visually, but they were still picking up x-rays and comparing its actions to a black hole, so they were still essentially able to see it. The other is that, whatever was at Earth, it wasn't the planet Nemesis itself (it was called an illusion); Usagi and Mamoru were transported to its true location when everyone initially thought they had destroyed Nemesis (but was actually an illusion), and Chibi-Usa later joined them.

[Cheb]

but they were still picking up x-rays and comparing its actions to a black hole,

X-rays? AFAIR, it was negative energy. I never heard of X-rays.

it wasn't the planet Nemesis itself (it was called an illusion); Usagi and Mamoru were transported to its true location when everyone initially thought they had destroyed Nemesis

Blink. Blink.
I think I may need to re-read that part.
Maybe, a translation glitch? The enemy was called "death phantom". If a translator got confused, he could mess things up.
Especially as Japanese *love* describing the same thing with a Japanese word and a corresponding (in their opinion) English word intermittently. Makes translating from Japanese hell, as I heard.