Tag Archives: Moon

February 20, 2026 · 10:56

The way of the dodo

Yes, that is a path that I am walking at present. You see, I am (originally) a Catholic. As such I tend to miss the Islamic markers around me. And this year I was aware of Ramadan, even though I do not practice it. So the news given by Morocco World News (at https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2026/02/279298/impossible-moon-saudi-arabia-faces-scrutiny-after-declaring-wednesday-as-1st-day-of-ramadan/) caught me unaware for two reasons. The first setting is that the accusation that Saudi Arabia made an Islamic booboo (as expressions go) is out of the realm of my conception of Islam. In this I am biased. I see Shia Islam (Iran) as evil and Sunni Islam (Saudi Arabia) as good. As such I see Islam of the UAE on the same footing as Saudi Arabia. If people want to convict me of these thoughts, that’s fair (as long as they are Muslim)

So the news given to me was ‘Impossible Moon: Saudi Arabia Faces Scrutiny After Declaring Wednesday as 1st Day of Ramadan’, I was own a different footing. I got that it was Ramadan as Google informed me it was, nothing complex about this. But then I tend to rely on Google on many matters, like the Horoscope, Chinese days and a few more like this and Ramadan fits in that setting for me. So a the News from Rabat is given to me In the form of “Another year, another controversy as experts and observers across the world are surprised and nearly shocked over Saudi Arabia’s decision to declare Wednesday as the first day of Ramadan 2026.

The Gulf country aligns with other nations in the region and beyond, who are facing scrutiny over their decision, with experts and astronomy centers stressing that the crescent moon, called the “hilal”, was impossible to sight last night.” This kinda caught me unaware. I am not a Muslim and as such I am in the dark of these matters. I for one (with my scientific mind) was thinking that as the world is almost a sphere that some will not see what some do see. So, what is visible from Mecca (or Riyadh) might be out of view for Rabat , Casablanca and a few more places. But that is thrown upside down as we are given “Critics say the declaration is against all available data contradicting declarations from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and beyond, which started fasting for Ramadan today. Astronomers had warned prior that highly unfavorable celestial conditions would make it impossible to sight the moon yesterday, February 17. Astronomy calculations suggest the moon sat before or simultaneously with the sun in most Islamic countries. This would serve as an obstacle to leave an observable crescent above the horizon, with both the moon’s age and angular separation from the sun also far below globally accepted visibility thresholds.” I am merely posting what Morocco World News is giving me, because in the first I am not Muslim, I am also neither a astronomer and I wouldn’t be able to do these calculations without an additional 4 years of University level of mathematics and calculus. So I lose out three times. And when we get to the setting of “According to Evrim Agaci, a Turkish science and education organization, the moon was supposed to disappear a mere 42 seconds ahead of the sun’s descent last night” it seems a matter of less than a minute and that is the slimmest of all astronomical settings as I personally see it. And my lack of knowledge and insight into science (as given above) I heralded with “The same source detailed how the moon will set before the sun in many cities, including in Abu Dhabi, where the moon sets one minute before sunset. “In Riyadh, it will set 37 seconds earlier,” Gulf News reported. Several other countries like Jordan, Oman, and Egypt announced Thursday as the first day of Ramadan, acknowledging the impossibility of sighting the moon. Saudi Arabia’s controversy is not limited to this single incident, especially as the Gulf country has long been treated as a reference point by many Muslim countries that model their own calendar decisions on Saudi announcements.” And my comical setting of a town proclamatory walking through Yas Mall (in Abu Dhabi), ringing a bell proclaiming ‘Ramadan has started’ brings a small grin to my mind knowing that the sin goes down a mine later and everyone can enjoy their foods until sunrise. But that is me, always trying to see the bright spot on the moon (its right between Ptolemaeus and Mare Nectaris) And yet, this article gives us another setting, one that I had no knowledge of and no expectation of. It is seen in “Observational data consistently show Morocco is among the most accurate in determining the start of lunar months, as they base their Islamic calendar on actually sighting the crescent moon with the naked eye. This approach relies on different methods, including engaging clerics, astronomers, and armed forces units in a coordinated effort.” I did not expect that to be a strength of Morocco. As such we might say ‘Calculate it again, Sam’ with a small wink at Casablanca. So even as I go the way of the Dodo, I do see that we are all fallible and we all come to conclusions. I am not judging Saudi Arabia, the UAE or even Morocco. But a setting of this magnitude happens. We might think bad, good or anywhere between there and uncaring. But the fact that this happens brings a smile to my face. Because we are all fallible and someone wanting to enter Ramadan a day early should be heralded into doing the best for his or her faith. It is seemingly that simple, at least that Is what I think.

You all have a lovely day and abstain from offering any Elderly Muslim water between dawn (Suhoor) to sunset (Iftar), I would want to do this for humanitarian reasons, but apparently it is not an option to Muslims, knowing this makes my heart hurt a little more than I am comfortable with.

The design of a flaw

That was the very first thought I had when I saw the BBC article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62636746) the title doesn’t help ‘How solar farms in space might beam electricity to Earth’ there we are given “SEI is working on a project called Cassiopeia, which plans to place a constellation of very large satellites in a high Earth orbit.” So, my first question, did anyone see the movie Gravity? It’s the one where we see Sandra Bullock shone over George Clooney (who does an awesome job). With Star-link and a few other contenders and the weakest link is some Russian wannabe shooting a cluster rocket into space. Don’t ell me that this will not happen, these fuckers are doing a lot worse to the Ukraine, as such the Russian problem will be hanging over out shoulders. However, there is this disc in the sky, it seems round and they all it the moon. The same side is pointed at the sun 24:7, as such you can place a solar-farm the size of Texas there. There are a few other benefits, with THAT much power you could fuel a station there. There are a few other benefits, but that is the gist of it. A station that does the repairs and once every 6 months you can send a tank of water, with an added tank (see below) to keep the troops motivated.

It is not the weirdest idea either. There has been a massive need of power for the longest time and the Sun can provide. The fact that until recently we did nothing is because some stakeholders needed to appease whomever pays them and now that shortage can no longer be hidden. Now, as we take notice of “The solar energy collected by the satellites would be converted into high frequency radio waves and beamed to a rectifying antenna on Earth, which would convert the radio waves into electricity.” Yet in space these waves do not deteriorate and the moon would allow a wave 20-50 times the size, implying that the earth could get 20-50 times the energy. With the moon as a structure much heavier solar panels would be possible as weight does not need to be kept in place and there you have a larger solution that might take another pie-gobbler out of the equation. I have nothing against the SEI, but should this not be something NSA and the ESA need to work on? And when we have the energy sorted out, we can continue to ignore more environmental issues, or get some Guardian reporter to blame the uber-rich and their jets. Now, it would be nice to see another article with the SEI making claims that my idea is a bad idea (it could be), and how satellites are the best solution, and that might be true. But in space no one can hear you scream and radio-waves go on forever, a simple lesson I learned decades ago in high school. So where is that plan for a moon base and for everything holy, lets not forget about the can of Heineken, it is hard enough to keep scientists motivated without the clear possibility of sex. Beer might do the trick (no promises).

Funky mushroom pizza

Did you ever wake up from a dream that was so surreal that it was stamped with ‘weird dream’ by your brain? I do not mean ‘after contemplation’, but a stage where the forefront of every part of the brain is rejecting it upfront and in capital letters. It has happened to me before, but this was surreal. This was not some wild and passionate night with a Canadian goddess, or a threesome with two ladies from Hooters. Those are dreams you know are not real, but the mind keeps a sign in the back of your mind stating ‘perhaps…..if…..’, no this was outright weird.

It all starts on the moon, Procellarum to be more precise. Service agents have taken to the moon, there is a reason for this, the moon has no timeline, the sun is always there, yet the close to the sun’s rim the better. Even as there are settings that work, the edge is colder and the quantum computers with all their locking and cooling stages work better where there is a lot of cold (a lack of heat) and the cost of having larger systems on earth was pushing the cost stages. Also, hackers were more easily controlled. These systems are on-site only. No hacker can get to it and any hacking person on the moon gets thrown into space, no trial.

In this there was a weird setting (yes, this was not weird enough). Taking a 5 year job in the moon is well rewarded, like really well rewarded. So I was there doing technical support. One day all the systems go nuts, reason unknown and whilst I was checking system after system, node after node we see a change in one of the ‘overseers’, he is suddenly a lot stronger than usual, I mean weirdly strong. He is complaining about headaches and starts referencing systems on a quantum level (no person can do that), but the headaches are massive. We get him to the infirmary, we continue work. We hear alarms and things are going wrong over there, but we do not know the extent. In the mean time we are trying to keep our heads cool and some posh bastard (A UK boss) is throwing his weight around. The UK has set up lines of nobility on the moon, they are larger players and have all kinds of legal based rights, so whenever one shows up we keep as clear as possible. When they leave we see that 2 boxes are gone, but they were never ours, so we do not care. As we go on, the alarms are of a larger concern. But we are all compartmentalised in our tasks and duties.

In the mean time we notice a UK buggy outside near an old abandoned storage, which is odd to say the least. As out work is done for this region we check it out (from a distance) and there we see the two boxes. The rest is foggy, it was an hour ago when I woke up and the dream is already facing. But the short and sweet I that we had alien visitors, the overseer had something we do not, there is a segmentation in his brain that allows for a different kind of storage and segmentation of knowledge, I do not know how to better put it (a lack of neural education I reckon), one box has an arm, a left arm of a space suit, it looks like ours, but this is different, it is not from any design we ever saw and the elements are like an advanced form of quantum selection. The arm is unusually cool and the inscriptions on the arm are like nothing I had ever seen. The second box had a visor, almost like ours but this too is way more advanced than anything I had ever seen on the moon. Er notice another buggy in the distance. I grab several rocks and place them in the box, so for the other one, we make clear before the buggy returns. There is another foggy patch. The overseer gets to our place, he looks out of his mind, his head hurts and he seems to be grasping at his left arm and his actions do not seem to make sense. Then we get the idea to give him the other parts. We are cautious, he knows that we are good people, but his headache seems to be overwhelming him, we give him the arm which is more solid than the fabric suits we wear, but it is weirdly flexible, almost like a solid resin arm that is pliable like water. I never saw anything like it. Then we give him the visor and suddenly things change, he calms down, he is looking at his visor like the inside has some form of HUD, he starts speaking. “The headaches are fading, data conductors 17-34 are not transmitting data, magnetic instability is crashing the conducting drives”, we report the message exactly, but we are not aware of what it means, the magnetic coil rooms are off-limits. Way above our pay-grade.

The central office gives us the option to look and fix, we will get a promotion as well as a massive bonus, so we agree and we set foot towards a corridor we have never entered before.

Thats when I woke up.

It was so surreal, corridors, the moonscape, I have no idea how my mind got there. I think it is in part the old series like Space 1999, in part levels from Wolfenstein, the new order. It has a moon segment. Whatever it was, I need to get another slice of that pizza, even as I had no pizza in weeks. I think I blew a gasket in my mind, So I need to get some groceries now. No matter what, it was one of the weirdest dreams I ever had.

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The way of the dodo

The design of a flaw

Funky mushroom pizza

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