Radiation emits from Mecca?

[Undesired Walrus]

Strange video. A Muslim Scientist claims that the centre of radiation emitted from Earth comes from Mecca:

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Any truth in this?

[AntiTelharsic]

Edit: Nevermind :)

[Genesius]

The radiation is part of a terrorist plot to create gigantic radioactive zombie Moslems with which to destroy the Great Satan.

Now that you have discovered the plot, a fatwa will be declared against you. Get your affairs in order.

[Undesired Walrus]

He mentioned that Neil Armstrong wrote about this on the internet, only for it to be taken down three weeks later. In 1969?

ETA: Armstrong went to Mars? News to me.

[plumjam]

It should come as no surprise that there's lots of radiation in Mecca.
It's Sunni.

[Sherman Bay]

All that video goes to show is that Christians don't have a monopoly on BS.

[Beerina]

Odd. I didn't think that meteorite they worshiped was radioactive. Huh.

[LarianLeQuella]

THAT'S where those pesky WMDs went! Quick, bring back Bush/Cheny so we can invade Saudi Arabia. Actually, let's hold off and just hope that the whole mess goes *BOOM* during the Hajj.

Sorry, that's rather uncharitable of me, isn't it? Well, that's my modest proposal, you have a better one? :p

[joobz]

can anyone verify the subtitles? Are we sure they really are talking this crazy?

[sol invictus]

can anyone verify the subtitles? Are we sure they really are talking this crazy?

Yes, the translation is at least roughly correct.

Maybe GMB and this guy would get along...

[Undesired Walrus]

Perhaps I'm not as good a scientist as the chap in the video, but why would the Apollo 11 spacecraft have a monopoly on detecting the radiation?

Shouldn't it be fairly easy to detect radiation coming from Mecca from -say- the ISS? Sol, that easy to do?

[sol invictus]

Perhaps I'm not as good a scientist as the chap in the video, but why would the Apollo 11 spacecraft have a monopoly on detecting the radiation?

Shouldn't it be fairly easy to detect radiation coming from Mecca from -say- the ISS?

As was already mentioned, one might also worry about references to "web of internet" and Mars...

[firecoins]

I think the claim is Shiite

[Undesired Walrus]

Where were Aldrin and Collins at the time of this momentous discovery?

[dasmiller]

Perhaps I'm not as good a scientist as the chap in the video, but why would the Apollo 11 spacecraft have a monopoly on detecting the radiation?

Oh, it wouldn't. It really wasn't made for that kind of thing.

I was about to launch into a discussion of what it really means to "detect radiation" from a spacecraft, but you really can't have that discussion without specifying what *kind* of radiation. RF, IR, visible, UV, X-ray, and up . . . or high-energy particles, which aren't EM but also get involved when people talk about radiation.

So what kind was it? He said that it was "short wave" which, in English, is 3-30 MHz (and pretty much rules out the high-energy particles). There are actually all sorts of things going on in that chunk of the spectrum, from HAM radio operators, maritime communications, aircraft navigation signals, etc etc.

But he also said it was "infinite." If he meant infinite energy, then it would have destroyed . . well . . . every conductor in the universe, subject to speed-of-light delay. If he meant infinite wavelength, then it's an electric field and not radiation.

So - I can't make enough sense of what he's saying to refute it.

[Undesired Walrus]

At the end of the video he proclaims that the Natural History museum has decided that pieces of the Ka'ba are 'not from this solar system'! Who is this guy?

It actually all sounds strangely similar to the plot of 2001, when they come across the signal from the Monolith.

[joobz]

As was already mentioned, one might also worry about references to "web of internet" and Mars...

NOt to mention the reference of the radiation being eternal, unlike all other radiation. I assumed they used an entern'o'meter to determine that.

[pchams]

You guys are ignoring the obvious evolutionary/social gains made by the Saudi's, and the visitors on the hajj,
which are otherwise inexplicable.
Pillars of islam, you are not.

Why can't it just be a big space rock?
That would explain that whole Mohammed thing, riding down...etc.
Can't a space rock be radioactive?

[MattusMaximus]

All that video goes to show is that Christians don't have a monopoly on BS.

BS and pseudoscientific woo is universal. I have a copy of the Muslim creationist book Atlas of Creation on that shelf in my avatar - it reads just like any whacked out Christian creationist screed :rolleyes:

[KingMerv00]

Can't a space rock be radioactive?

I did a quick search and it seems that meteorites are generally less radioactive than rocks from Earth (http://www.meteorites.wustl.edu/realities.htm).

The bigger problem I saw in the video was that they claimed the radiation does not obey the inverse square law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse_square_law).

[KingMerv00]

You guys are ignoring the obvious evolutionary/social gains made by the Saudi's...

Not relevant to the accuracy of this video.

and the visitors on the hajj,
which are otherwise inexplicable.

How do you figure that? The religion says "go to Mecca" and people go. Seems pretty explicable to me.


Pillars of islam, you are not.

Atheists tend to have that problem.