Scientists discovered a 5th moon of Pluto. They have named it P5.
What are the religious bigots doing? They are not interested in exploring things. They are waiting for the- age-old-moon-visited-and-flagged-by-the-Americans to rise, so they can begin their Ramadan-fasting.
Throughout the world, superstitions revolve around the Moon. If you want to know about them, they are here.
What would the lunatics living in northern Finland, Norway and Sweden do? They have to refrain or abstain from eating, drinking, copulating, smoking, vomiting, etc. from sunrise to sunset. But in those regions, sun almost does not set in the summertime and almost does not rise in the wintertime.
The illiterate camel driver in Arabia obviously did not have any knowledge about the climates of the Nordic countries.
Good Thinks
Hahaha! Soo true and to think of it the “Quran” came from the heavens, gifted by “God”. I guess, the all knowing God forgot something.
It’s my understanding that they time their fast to coincide with the nearest country with a significant Muslim population?
And this shows how up-to-date I was on Pluto, I was still languishing under the idea that it had one moon, Charon! P4 and P5 are rubbish moon names, though, what about Hades or Styx or Archeron if we wanted to keep with the ‘underworld’ theme?
You’d think that an omnipotent Allah would account for such technicalities. This is especially comical in light of the claims made by Muslim apologists such as Hamza Tzortsiz, whey they claim that the Koran contains intricate knowledge of biology and cosmology.
Nope, that’s not true AFAIK, at least not for practicing Sunnis. Most of the practicing ones are planning to fast between sunrise and sunset. It’s kind of made easier by the fact that the Scandinavian countries have relatively long vacations by law, so many will be able to be on vacation for the whole duration of Ramadan.
I’ve also heard that some Muslims will follow a fatwa that says that you can observe a fast as long as the time between sunrise and sunset in Mecca that day.
Be patient;
the names of the moons so far (actually S/2011 P1 and S/2012 P1) are temporary. They will be given names once definitively confirmed (or even characterized).
The other two new ones are Nix and Hydra. Happy?
What is impressive is that Taslima can turn this discovery into a rant against religion.
The mark of a true Fanatic.
And, Taslima, although I despise our opponents, you TOO are a fanatic and hate monger.
The world doesn’t need this crap.
lolwut?
It’s a juxtaposition of what we know and the old crappy ideas some people are holding onto – it’s a way to expose that very real absurdity.
Btw, saying in one sentence that you despise someone and chiding another person for saying something bad about them – consistent much?
How can you say that the world do not want this.We are not depressed so we like it and want it.
I think the way Taslima thinks. You on the other hand are a moron.
I travel through Dubai a lot. I hate being there, even for one day, during Ramadan. You can get arrested for chewing gum or drinking bottled water while the sun is up. It’s 45C and they won’t let you drink water? Lunatics is right.
“The illiterate camel driver in Arabia obviously did not have any knowledge about the climates of the Nordic countries.”
Yeah. “The religious bigots” they’re the problem. Are you a member of StormFront?
Huh? What are trying to say? Your sentences do not logically follow one another.
Her words would not be out of place on Stormfront. In fact they would be welcomed as factual and informative. Yet, she complains about “religious bigots”. Clearly they are not the only problems. Capiche?
While Crommunist has mostly nailed it, I should add that it’s very important to remember that Islam is not a race, or an ethnic group; it’s a (somewhat loose) set of factual claims about reality, coupled with a set of behaviours that logically follow from believing those factual claims to be true. Now it is Taslima’s contention that these beliefs are mostly factually mistaken, and that many of the behaviours that flow from holding these false beliefs are harmful. This is not in any meaningful way comparable to a white supremacist organisation – indeed; a white supremacist organisation is dangerous in a similar way to some religions precisely because its factual claims about reality are very unlikely to be true (presumably the claims are something like that there are innate differences between human racial groups that mean they can never and should never live together on an equal footing, but I’m not about to increase their traffic to dig up the exact details).
TL;DR: Islam =/= a race or ethnicity;
criticism and/or mockery of religions =/= racism.
@boselecta – Ah the old “If I’m so homophobic how come I’m not scared?@ defence, eh? The last refuge of a bigot who doesn’t understand how language work.
Anti-social justice and intellectually deficient as an argument is that one. Yoda would be disappoint.
Quick breakdown for you: Homophobia – doesn’t need to involve fear, the word has expanded to encompass discrimination, abuse and prejudice.
Racism: There is no such thing as a “race” scientifically, this word has also expanded to cover racial, cultural, national, ethnic, and religious prejudice.
Now, the pedant and idiot in you may demand that we use the words only in their most literal and useless form – you can only cry homophobia if he’s actually scared! – but just think about it for a minute please. What’s your argument here?
“Technically the word you are using does not describe my specific prejudice, I’m not racist, I hate foreigners. I’m not homophobic, I’m not scared of the perverts”
That’s a terrible argument.
I think what ‘Sarah’ is clumsily attempting to allude to is the notion that Taslima is a member of a Neo-Nazi White Supremacist movement called ‘Stormfront’.
Probably because she called Mo an illiterate camel driver.
It’s funny on so many levels! Well done ‘Sarah’, come back soon.
“come back soon”
Hello!
You seem to have a reading comprehension problem. I’m not “attempting to allude to” anything I’m stating outright that her words would be equally as celebrated there. Do you disagree or are you just boring hot air?
How ridiculous Sarah.
Islam is celebrated by muslims *because* to them, the Vainglorious Koran came from a prophet that was illiterate — the illiterate that gabrial told to “read”.
They also claim it has all the knowledge that is necessary.
She pointed out that it doesn’t contain this bit of knowledge.
Since when is a valid criticism “at home on stormfront”?
You’re either new here, an islamist, or plain stupid.
Actually Sarah the problem is that your writing is fairly incomprehensible.
Are you seriously suggesting that Taslima is a white supremacist, or are you just instructing us all in how familiar you are with white supremacist doctrine?
The fact that a racist extremist group (who hates pretty much EVERYONE) happens to also hate people who do stupid and/or bad things isn’t a meaningful piece of information. I’ll bet if Taslima wrote a post saying “ice cream is delicious” she’d get some agreement on Stormfront as well.
Hey I can’t be held accountable for your intellectual deficiencies Crommunist. Talisma isn’t a white supremacist, but she’s happy to parrot racist dogma that would be welcomed at Stormfront. Simples.
mas528 – It wasn’t that, it was the racism.
If you don’t understand “This would be entirely at home on Stormfront” then go back to school.
While they’re certainly not any more rational, the old pagan religions of Scandinavian are infinitely more fun. I studied abroad in St. Petersburg and while there attended a summer solstice festival. There’s a lot of drinking that can be done when the sun sets at 11 p.m. and rises at 2 a.m.
Having spent time in Northern Canada during the winter, I’d bet that even more drinking can be done when the sun sets at 3 pm and rises at 10 am…there’s nothing else to do.
Mohammed was illiterate…even muslims don’t dispute that. It’s very likely he rode a camel…I’ve certainly seen islamic images of him on one. And, he was in Arabia. Ergo, he was an illiterate, camel driver in Arabia.
There is nothing wrong with stating the truth.
It seems from his teachings he was a pedophile as well.
So many great comments! Thank you so much. You inspire me.
I dunno what the religious are doing, but I’m jumping out of my chair. Seems like only yesterday that P4 was discovered, and not long before that Nix and Hydra. What a delicious cherry for New Horizons!
I guess I’m just too excited by the thrill of discovery to care much for people who don’t feel even the slightest tinge. I’m not going to waste my time feeling sorry for them, I’m going to spend it looking ahead! The next 3 years are going to be insane: Curiosity gets to Mars next month, Dawn gets to Ceres and New Horizons gets to Pluto in 2015. We’ve got a spankin’ new probe around Mercury, Opportunity is still trucking along (like a boss!), Cassini is in a new orbit, and SpaceX successfully launched a pressurized capsule and retrieved it. What a time to be alive!
Wonderful!
Pluto’s fourth moon was discovered last year – July 20th 2011.
See :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/2011_(134340)_1
Wonder if we’ll get another Plutonian moon discovery July next year for the hat trick?! 😉
Charon, Pluto’s largest moon and almost binary partner was discovered 1978 and Nix and Hydra in 2005 if anyone’s wondering.
PS. Its been speculated that Pluto maywellhave rings and an underground ocean. The New Horizons spaceprobe will visit the Plutonian system in 2015 and hopefully we’ll find out for sure then.
PPS. Pluto is still my favourite planet – and, yes, Pluto will always be a planet as far as I’m concerned!
For more Islam-vs-spherical-Earth hilarity, look at the argument over which direction American muslims should face when praying to Mecca.
Two of Pluto’s moons are bright, three aren’t.
Chrissetti critized giving Pluto’s satellites only technical names thus far. Perhaps the three dimmer ones could be named Cerberus 1, 2 and 3.
Charon and Pluto are actually dimmed in that photo; my guess is they used a light cancellation technique so that the brightness of the two didn’t blot out the much dimmer moons, as it often does. They use a similar technique to find exoplanets around stars!
For more information from an actual astronomer, I highly suggest checking out Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomer blog.
Seconded by me – the Bad Astronomy blog is a great place for astronomical news and items explained really clearly and well and one of my faves.
Mind you, it isn’t always 100% up to date with freshly breaking news and for that I’d also recommend space(dot) com and some of the astronomy magazine websites & facebook sites (Astronomy /Sky & Telescope / Astronomy Now) plus NASA’s website among others.
(Huge astronomy buff and armchair astronomer writing here.)
Muslims are not allowed to vomit during Ramadan? How are you supposed to control that? Or is there are fun-filled vomit game that Muslims like to play and must abstain from? What happens if you are sick?
Hadith says. ‘It is better for one who is sick not to fast in Ramadan.’ Menstruating women are considered sick. Hadith says, “A women during her menstrual period and a person who is junub [ritually impure person because of sexual intercourse or semen discharge] are not permitted to fast in Ramadan. Hadith also says,’The one who cannot help vomiting does not have to make up the fast’.
So if you start fasting and puke, you get off the hook. Got it. Hmmm….I think I see a loophole. Sort of an Islamic bulimia.
There was a lot of intellectual development in the Islamic world that was essential for the renaissance getting off the ground.
Alas, since then Islamic nations have become moastly irrelevant for the growth of science.
— — — — — —
A rational muslim calendar would permanently set the time for religious pilgrimage at the coolest part of the year.
None of this silly lunar calendar crap.
A rational muslim calendar wouldn’t have ramadan on it…nor would it be muslim.
Oddly, I’ve never considered this. I’ve just assumed that the rules would be contorted (in possibly an hilarious manner) so that the fasting would be “reasonable”, for some value of “reasonable” which could be used in such a case.
I’m much more familiar with bizarre conservative (for certain values of conservative) Jewish rules, and the legalistic ways they can be broken. (And calling New York City in a panic to find out when sunset for Jews is in Cleveland. Because other sources aren’t reliable enough, or possibly more frightening, they had not even been thought of.)
Wonder what the Muslims would do if Earth had as many moons as Pluto? Or even just a couple of natural satellites like the imaginary planet of the famous Dune novel.
Or what a Muslim astronaut landing and living on Earth’s moon or Mars or Pluto would do at Ramadan?
PS. Interestingly enough if you were a Muslim wanting to find a loophole and avoid Ramadan you could use the moons that have the longest orbits – Neptune’s small outer moon Nereid** for instance takes 360 days to complete its strange looping orbit!
See : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nereid_(moon)
Or wait, better yet! Use Pluto’s largest moon Charon which is tidally locked – meaning it appears fixed in the sky and can only be seen on one half of the planet – and live on the side where it is never visible! 😉
The whole thing about Ramadan moving constantly reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend doing a PhD in the Irish Department in NUI Galway. He mentioned that some of the oldest documents in Irish were 1600-year-old letters between Rome and the Irish church, and a splinter group inside the latter, arguing about how the date of Easter should be calculated.
Do the various sects of Islam have something like that?
nice!
As soon as possible!You are just putting on a little weight.You can’t miss it.Bob has always had a crush on Lucy.It’s going too far.I’m usually just using the search engines to look up information.He is just a child.There isn’t any water in the bottle.This wayHe used to learn everything by rote.
On the contrary, this shows that the Prophet too never anticipated that Islam and Muslims would reach even as far as the Scandinavian countries. God is Great. The frustrated can only perish in their frustration.