For a while now I've had many issues I've wanted to report, but most of the time I will have to link to the originator of the information. Whether it's because of plagiarism issues or because of the Search Engine penalties for duplicate content.. I've always found myself to be reluctant to link to an outbouding link.

Another issue, is the fact that most websites on the internet don't share the same values as me or many of my readers. So it might contain advertisements to lewd sites or other sites unbecoming of a Muslim who fears his Lord to visit.

What do you do then?

With Search Engines, if I don't necessarily agree with a site or I don't want to give my link to it any value, I can easily add a rel="nofollow" tag within the link tag. That way the Search Engine will know that I am not related to the site and won't count my linking to it as a voucher for its credibility or relevance to my site.

I sometimes will copy the whole article's text and then throw a link at the bottom showing the credits, but that's really rare like I did for a post on my Migraine Blog about the Migraine Gadget but it was not an issue since the site I was linking to was the manufacturer of the gadget and thus wasn't really offensive in any way.

If any of you have any ideas, let me know... especially if you're a web developer or admin a website.

My websites are mostly informational and they do make me a very small amount of money (mainly just to ay the phone bill I guess) but thats from the Google Ads that show up on the top and bottom of the page.


Advertisements

Another piece of feedback I would like, is if anybody sees an ad that is un-Islamic or offensive (as sometimes there are links to Christian Da`wah sites or Personals /Dating sites) please let me know of the URL (website address http://www.BlahBlahBlah.com) that way I can put it through the ad filter and it won't be shown.

I been so busy these days with finals and school and events in Madinah, that it's just rediculous.

Insha Allaah, I'll have a few new posts up soon, it's been 40 days since the last post, thats sad.
I opened a new site, just to give my personal blog a little breathing room.

Also, I changed my migraine blog's address, but as soon as I did, in about hours, somebody else took the old name before I could re-register it and put up info that I moved my site. It caused a BIG traffic toll, but oh well.. Lamers will be lamers... retards will be retards.

Peace out people.

I just submitted my blog to BlogWise, thinking it would be like any other Blog Directory. Too bad they have too few HUMANS to administer the World Wide Wasteland:

Your site has been added to the submission queue. Thank you for adding your site to Blogwise.

It is important to us that all entries are checked for consistency before approval, however Blogwise is run by volunteers contributing their spare time. There may be a small delay before your blog is added to the directory.

There are currently 41012 blog(s) in the queue. Your blog is expected to be added within 136 day(s).

If your blog is accepted by the reviewer, you will receive a notification by email. Due to the high number of submissions being processed, we cannot respond to or discuss rejections in detail.

How would a Muslim astronaut pray in space?

It's an interesting question and one which may soon be facing the fledgling Malaysian Space Agency, Angkasa. In an agreement with the Russian Space Agency, two Malaysian astronauts will be trained and sent into space by the Russians. They will also visit the International Space Station.

Angkasa conducted a nation-wide search of the mostly Muslim population to find potential astronauts. Of the final four astronaut candidates, three are Muslim, leading to the question of how they will conduct their five daily prayers, which require the individual to turn towards Mecca. Working out which direction to face is just one of the problems.

According to the Independant Online (Cape Town, South Africa), Angkasa will be holding a conference to consider such questions. "The two-day Islam and Life in Space seminar will begin next Tuesday and brings together 150 scientists, astronauts, religious scholars and academics."

Now whatcha think about that!?

Update: May o8, 2006

When you're in Space, which way is Makkah?

NewScientist.com news service: Kelly Young

Malaysia's National Space Agency is trying to determine how its astronaut candidates will practice Islam in space. Three of its four astronaut candidates are Muslim, and two will be selected for a future Russian space flight.

Once in their orbiting spacecraft, they will circle the Earth once every 90 minutes. Traditionally, Muslims pray five times per day, at times connected to the position of the Sun in the sky. This will make prayer observance a challenge if they accept a "day" as being just 90 minutes long.

A similar problem occurs for Muslims who live close to Earth's polar regions where there are long periods of daylight or darkness. Islamic legal scholars traditionally say that in such situations, a Muslim should pray as they would at a particular, relatively high latitude, even if they venture nearer the poles.

"Any legal scholar advising these astronauts would have to simply pick various times that would roughly correspond to their morning, noon, afternoon, sunset and night prayers," says Alan Godlas, a professor of religion at the University of Georgia, US.

Minor ablutions

Additionally, Muslims turn toward Makkah when they pray. Zooming around the Earth at 28,000 kilometres per hour might make pinpointing the exact location of Makkah pretty tricky. Godlas says that orienting oneself toward Earth might be good enough. "There are instances where the prophet indicated a wide swathe; kind of a general direction," Godlas says.

And Muslims have a cleansing ritual, known as ablutions, before prayer. But water is used sparingly in space. Godlas says astronauts could force water between their two hands and then moisten the body during a minor ablution.

On Earth, it is ideal to have water running along the arms from the faucet, but water does not flow downward in microgravity. Godlas says that when water is not available, scholars have determined a pure rock could be used to wipe the hands. The hands could then clean the forearms, face and feet.

Saudi Arabian astronaut Prince Sultan bin Salman Al Saud flew aboard the shuttle in 1985. He was scheduled to look out the shuttle's window to see the crescent of the new moon to mark the end of Ramadan.

Talk about confusing!?