such an enlightenment!

It's very amazing when you know how the moslem scientists back then discovered lots of natural phenomenon about the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars. Nowadays we call it astronomy. Do you know why the moslem merchants always traveled from one city to another at night? During the era of islamic glory, the islamic kingdom lied between Spain (Al Andalusiyyah), northern Africa, all the way to Pakistan (huge, wasn't it..). Large part of it is desert area like arabian peninsula and Sahara. As we know that desert could be very hot. In order to avoid being burnt, they decided to travel at night. When they traveled, they always saw the stars, since the desert sky is often very clear. So it is how the dicoveries started. At the beginning of astronomical observations, the moslem scientist used to observe the stars on the minarets. Minaret is a mosque tower, people used to call for praying (azan) from the top of the minarets, so that it can be heared by people surrounding the mosque. And the scientists used the minarets as a stars observatory. It is a strong evidence that islamic science grows from heart of Islam. Islam and science is like two sides of a coin.

Behold! in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day,- there are indeed Signs for men of understanding, (190) Men who celebrate the praises of Allah, standing, sitting, and lying down on their sides, and contemplate the (wonders of) creation in the heavens and the earth, (With the thought): "Our Lord! not for naught Hast Thou created (all) this! Glory to Thee! Give us salvation from the penalty of the Fire. (191) -Surah 3, The Family of 'Imran-

As the science grew, the scientists built observatories with many specific purposes, like measuring the earth inclination and the orbit of solar system. A lot of observatories were built during the Abbasiyyah dynasty.

Above is my new knowledge after I visited the Islamic Science Exhibition in KLCC yesterday. There were many scientific discoveries and inventions that can make you stunned. Indeed, islamic science ahead of its time! Yesterday was also enlightening, at least for me. I spent the lunch time with Ng, one of my coursemates. We had a small talk, and later on it became very serious argumentation about the existence of God. We never agreed, since both sides used different frame of thinking. Then I decided to go see the exhibition in KLCC and it definitely brought me such enlightenment.

Image: Minaret of Blue Mosque, Istanbul, Turkey

Donal Bebek

If you're a 'Friends-a-holic', you should remember when Chandler asked this 'mind-boggling' yet funny question:

You know what's weird? Donald Duck never wore pants but whenever he comes out of the bathroom he always wraps a towel around his waist. What's that about?

Well, just now I got two versions of answer to that question. The first one is from Disney website, so let's call it the 'official' answer:
Donald puts a towel when he gets out of the shower to dry off! When he gets out of the shower he's pretty wet and doesn't want to drip water all over the bathroom floor.

The other version I got it from Yahoo! Answers and was chosen as the best answer by the asker:
It's very simple actually, dry feathers are fluffy. Wet feathers aren't. Fluffy equals good coverage. Wet feathers are not so good of coverage.

Haha, that's a very good one!

Speaking of Donald Duck, I used to subscribe the comic (Donal Bebek, Bahasa Indonesia version) since I was 10... I guess. But actually I already read it way before that. I remember the price was only Rp 400. The last time I checked, may be a year ago, the price was Rp 8000 something. The early Donal Bebek comic was in poor thin paper, including the cover, and each piece of paper contains one page in black and white and either one in color. The content was all the stories of Donald's life and sometimes plus additional stories of his cheapskate billionaire Uncle Scrooge (Paman Gober in Bahasa Indonesia version), the brilliant yet naive inventor Gyro (Lang Ling Lung), lovable Mickey Mouse (Miki Tikus), retarded Goofy (Gufi) and so on. The comic did make some improvements. Not long after I subscribed it, it came with additional features like readers' opinions, rewarded crossword puzzle and Donald Duck drawings a la readers. I used to solve the crossword puzzle in every comic issue and mailed the coupon-sticked postcards that contained the answers to the comic publisher, hoping to get the reward. And one day, a courier came to my house delivered a big wrapped box, addressed to my name. I won! I got the Donald Duck merchandise of stationaries. I was so happy that time, and bragged about my winning the next day in school, showed off my cute stationaries to my classmates.

Well, up until now, that was the only time I won such rewarded game.