- Why are the people of this South Pacific island nation accusing women, and some men, of practicing black magic? They are blamed for the epidemic of HIV/AIDS.
- Churchgoers, strippers protest each other. (From Rosaire.)
- Disabling an evolutionary backup plan for protecting against cancer could be part of a future means to
regrow lost limbs or regenerate damaged organs. (From cerebus40.) - For many Muslims, start of Ramadan stirs up centuries-old debate between science and doctrine. (From Chasmosaur.)
Re: Ramadan…
Do Muslims have to actually SEE the Moon to begin Ramadan? If so, what if it’s heavily overcast for days? Does Ramadan then shift accordingly?
Can they depend just on someone’s calculations?
See, I have a large number of sci-fi related questions to ask Muslims. I’ve asked a number, and never gotten answers on them.
One, that is not sci-fi, is “How do people at the South Pole determine the start of Ramadan”? Heck, how much of the moon do you see during a South Pole summer?
Other questions are:
1) If you are traveling through space, away from the Sun, upon a generation ship, how do you determine the date of Muslim holy days? What do you do in case of time dilation due to relativistic speeds?
2) When humanity colonizes other planets, which directions will Muslims do their daily prayers? What if the rotational period makes the day substantially longer or shorter?
3) If traveling to another habitable planet is a matter of generations (either aboard sleeper or generation ships), how will the inhabitants of that planet make the Hajj?
4) When dealing with an alien biome, assuming such native fauna are safe to eat, how does one determine what is Halal?
@QuestionAuthority
I noticed that one of the interviewees for the WP article moved from England to the US.
@Mark Hall: What would you do if you lived on the Moon?
@Zapski: Another good one!
“[The strippers] bring lawn chairs and – yesterday, anyway – grilled hamburgers, Monster energy drinks and corn on the cob.”
I didn’t think it was possible, but they may have just found a way to make energy drinks taste worse.
@Bechamel: COTW – verb omission fail.
Also, the story about suppressing the backup protein to allow mammals to split adult cells is pure evolutionary win. That absolutely could not be determined (or even posited) without biological evolution being 100% correct. Cool.
The Ramadan story was so baffling to me. Religions make people do the wackiest things. That is magic, pure and simple. They should just make like the Christians, and say “God (Allah) doesn’t care, as long as we mean well!”. Using this kind of ecclesiastic logic-twisting has allowed fish sticks to return to the Catholic dinner table on Lent Fridays, and and permits wearing blended-fiber clothing and shellfish consumption for the rest of the cross worshiping crowd. It’s all about the “favorable interpretation” of the scriptures. That’s why they can all still hate the gays!
(grips chair as the state I’m in (Ohio) moves rapidly further south)
*sigh*