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Pigs in Space

Oops. Make that Pigs Muslims in Space From Space Travel:

Malaysia Conference Considers How To Practice Islam In Space
How do Muslim astronauts pray in space? Malaysia's National Space Agency is holding a conference to consider such questions as the country prepares to send its first citizen into orbit.

A nationwide competition in the majority-Muslim country has narrowed the field to four astronaut candidates, three of whom are Muslims.

Two will eventually be trained and sent into space by Russia, and Malaysia's space agency -- or Angkasa -- said it had been scratching its head over how Muslim rituals could be carried out properly.

Performing ablutions for Muslim prayers with water rationing in space and preparing food according to Islamic standards will be among issues discussed, said Angkasa's director-general, Mazlan Othman.

Welcome to the 21st century guys -- hope you enjoyed your trip from the 9th... Ablutions can be ritualized -- you aren't going to bathe in space. Unh unh -- no way. As for food, Kosher is very similar to Halal and we have had Jews in space for a long time so you can just eat their food??? Right???

The astronaut will also visit the International Space Station, which circles the earth 16 times in 24 hours, so another thorny question is how to pray five times a day as required by Islam, she said.

Muslims also have to turn towards Mecca to pray and working out which direction that will be while hovering above the earth might also be challenging.

Yeah. Right. So you look at the rising of the sun and the setting of the sun as one day. Assuming 50% day and 50% night, 16 diurnal cycles in 24 hours makes that 45 minutes for each "day" so you will have to pray every nine minutes. Part of the prayer ceremony is bashing your forehead on the floor -- some people sport large bruises and calluses as an outward sign of their righteousness. Since Mecca is just down there somewhere (same direction as Jahannum), you can just use some bungee cords and bounce off the floor during prayer. Since it takes more than nine minutes to complete a proper Salah, you will just be spending your entire time in space bouncing off the floor in microgravity -- 45 minutes on, 45 minutes nap time and then back to 45 minutes on again... And why are these people going up to the Space Station? It is not as though they were real Scientists.

The agreement to send the Malaysians aboard Russian spacecraft was part of a billion-dollar deal in which Russia will sell Malaysia 18 Sukhoi 30-MKM fighter jets.

Well why don't they build their own or buy from a Middle Eastern manufacturer? Oh. Right. They don't have any industrial capability to speak of. They have purchased a number of foreign businesses but since they don't value education and science (or 50% of their population), they don't have this capability themselves -- if they do, it has been purchased, it is not created by them. No wonder they are scrambling like mad to establish a Caliphate, they have about a hundred years until they are fossicking about in the sand lopping off the heads of other tribesmen. They are scrambling to establish some level of power before it all dries up and blows away on the desert sands. If I ran the place, theocrats would be silenced and education would be paramount. I would hire top people from outside the Middle East and build a world-class University system -- Science, Engineering and Medicine. I would endow large research and development think tanks. Say what you may about capitalism, it works. The marketplace is not that difficult to figure out. Will they do this? Tune in in ten years and see -- the tipping point is that close... Posted by DaveH at April 20, 2006 8:27 PM