Talk:Suzumiya Haruhi:Volume6 Melancholy Of Asahina Mikuru 2

Mohorovičić discontinuity

The Mohorovičić discontinuity, usually referred to as the Moho, is the boundary between the Earth's crust and mantle. It was first discovered in 1909 by the Crotian seismologist Andrijia Mohorovičić, and is named after him.

Veritaserum

Veritaserum is a highly potent truth potion in the Harry Potter series, similar to modern day truth serums. Three drops would apparently be strong enough to make you spill out all your inner secrets.

Purple Diploma

The purple diploma is a diploma issued to those who show excellence in visual arts and literature, and have contributed to the above fields. The ribbon is purple, hence the name.

Silver Goblet of Hemlock

The silver goblet of hemlock is a cup of poison that the Greek philosopher Socrates was sentenced to consume.

Orienteering

Orienteering is a running sport involving a map and a compass. The competition is a timed race where a team or individual has to navigate his way with the help of a special map and magnetic compass. Check points are often set up to ensure the participants run the course as described in the map instead of taking short cuts. See here[[1]] for more info

Bullet Time

Bullet time is the infamous sequence made popular by The Matrix. Everything is slowed down to the point where you can see bullets slowly moving through the air (hence the name), while the camera continues to move around the scene at a normal speed.

Time Planes, Cartoons and Water

When Mikuru first explained to Kyon about time travel, she used cartoons and drawings as an example. She also stated that time was not like water, where the flow was continuous.

Negative three hundred and seventy four degrees Celsius

-375.15 degrees Celsius is Absolute Zero, the lowest temperature. It is a fact of physics that nothing can be colder than this. That Nagato's stare is so close to this is an indication of how extremely cold her look is.

The temperature of an object is the average vibration of its molecules, therefore the lowest temperature is where the molecules have zero (or near-zero) vibration - this lowest temperature is known as Absolute Zero. It equals -375.15° Celsius, –459.67° Fahrenheit, or 0° Kelvin.

But the highest possible temperature of liquid water is +374.15 degrees Celsius at a pressure of 221.29 bar (22.129 MPa or 3209 psi). It might be a reference to this. /victor a faithful reader 81.236.16.141 15:58, 26 November 2006 (PST)

The absolute zero is at -273.15 degrees Celsius. Nothing else! But yes, the absolute zero is at -459.67°F. To convert use °F = (°C × 1.8) + 32 or °C = (°F - 32) ÷ 1.8. It can't be colder then 0 K (-273.15°C or -459.67°F). /victor a faithful reader and also a Swedish chemist (we invented the Celsius scale) 81.236.16.141 16:19, 27 November 2006 (PST)

I think this translation is was botched. Perhaps the translater was using the chinese version? It's known to contain some errors... The text in the Japanese version reads "長門のマナス4°Cくらいに..." (pronounced: 'Nagato no manasu 4°C kuraini") which translates to "Nagato's approximately minus 4°C ..." - Nowhere do I see words about minus-three-hundred anything. Smidge204 18:00, 27 November 2006 (PST)

Psychedelic Mushroom

Commonly known as magic mushrooms or laughing mushrooms, these mushrooms are known to cause whoever who eat them to fall into an insane fit of laughter. See here[[2]]

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: In the original novel, Kyon mentioned something about Karakasa and laughing mushrooms, which I have no idea how to translate, so I opted for the closest meaning, the psychedelic mushroom. Can anyone shed some light on this matter? I would like to retain the translation as close to the original as possible. Thanks in advance. --HolyCow 19:32, 26 November 2006 (PST)

Well a Karakasa is just that, a Karakasa. It's a proper noun. An very specific type of entity out of Japanese folk lore. There is no other word for it, really. I'd leave it as Karakasa and link the text to wikipedia, unless you are attempting to hide the Japaneseness of the source material from prying Western eyes. In that case you might make due with 'mischievous spirit' or 'Goblin' which of course can't capture the specific implications of a Karakasa.

For the record many other fan translations and even some professional translations I've seen have left it as 'Karakasa' or otherwise substituted a silly description such as 'one footed umbrella monster' along with a translation note in either case.

As a further side note, I do know that sometimes rice, and I think onigiri, would be left as an offering to spirits. Whether or not one would do this for a Karakasa I don't know, but it might provide a useful lead for you in trying to figure out the meaning behind Kyon's description. Though my Japanese probably isn't good enough to help much by reading the actual source text, I can imagine a karakasa, which already has a rather silly looking face, would certainly be a sight to behold after downing one of those chili and magic mushroom laced onigiri, which it possibly took to be some sort of offering. (Assuming onigiri offerings are applicable to Karakasa.) --68.231.151.135 03:18, 27 November 2006 (PST)

REPLY: But I still don't get what a Karakasa has to do with laughing mushrooms. The original mentioned something about a kind of mushroom being used as an ingredient in one of Karakasa's dishes, or somehing along those lines. Since I have no idea what mushrooms they mean, I just took the most similar one - the Psychedelic mushrooms. --HolyCow 07:11, 27 November 2006 (PST)

REREPLY: From the sound of that, it might be a reference to a specific Japanese folk tale involving a karakasa eating such mushrooms. I wouldn't know what one that is off hand, I've actually tried to look for folk tales on karakasa in the past with little by way of results. Is it possible karakasa might also be a certain type of food or something involving mushrooms? The other thing I can think of, is the karakasa usually has a very silly facial expression, usually like it is laughing. --68.231.151.135 17:50, 27 November 2006 (PST)

FedEx

A courier service that is renowned for making fast deliveries. See here [[3]]