Michael S. Mahoney, 1939–2008

Perhaps the clearest testimony to the scholarly range and depth of Princeton's now‐lamented Michael S. Mahoney lies in the dismay of his colleagues in the last few years, as they contemplated his imminent retirement. How to maintain coverage of his fields? Fretting over this question, the program in history of science that he did so much to build recently found itself sketching a five-year plan that involved replacing him with no fewer than four new appointments: a historian of mathematics with the ability to handle the course on Greek antiquity, a historian of the core problems of the Scientific Revolution, a historian of technology who could cover the nineteenth‐century United States and Britain, and, finally, a historian of the computer-and-media revolution. In his passing we have lost a small department

Accuracy of the Chinese lunar calendar method to predict a baby's sex: a population-based study

Villamor E, Dekker L, Svensson T, Cnattingius S. Accuracy of the Chinese lunar calendar method to predict a baby's sex: a population-based study. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology 2010.We estimated the accuracy of a non-invasive, inexpensive method (the Chinese lunar calendar, CLC) to predict the sex of a baby from around the time of conception, using 2 840 755 singleton births occurring in Sweden between 1973 and 2006. Maternal lunar age and month of conception were estimated, and used to predict each baby's sex, according to a published algorithm. Kappa statistics were estimated for the actual vs. the CLC-predicted sex of the baby.Overall kappa was 0.0002 [95% CI −0.0009, 0.0014]. Accuracy was not modified by year of conception, maternal age, level of education, body mass index or parity. In a validation subset of 1000 births in which we used a website-customised algorithm to estimate lunar dates, kappa was −0.02 [95% CI −0.08, 0.04]. Simulating the misuse of the method by failing to convert Gregorian dates into lunar did not change the results. We conclude that the CLC method is no better at predicting the sex of a baby than tossing a coin and advise against painting the nursery based on this method's result.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/79303/1/j.1365-3016.2010.01129.x.pd

Fiqh Astronomi Gerhana Matahari

Gerhana Matahari terjadi pada waktu Bulan berada diantara bumi dan Matahari yaitu pada waktu Bulan Mati atau awal Bulan dan bayang-bayang bulan berbentuk kerucut menutupi permukaan Bumi. Karena bidang orbit Bulan terhadap ekliptika berbeda dengan Matahari sehingga tidak setiap bulan terjadi gerhana Matahari namun setiap gerhana Matahari terjadi di awal Bulan. Sebagian masyarakat menilai atau menyambut fenomena gerhana matahari secara berbeda seperti halnya di zaman dahulu gerhana merupakan fenomena alam yang sangat ditakuti oleh masyarakat yang dikaitkan dengan bencana atau kematian seseorang. Tetapi di zaman modern ini, fenomena gerhana hanya dijadikan tontonan fenomena alam dari perubahan terang menuju gelap. Pada hakekatnya peristiwa gerhana tersebut, terdapat aspek ubudiyah (shalat Kusuf al-Syams) yang pernah dilakukan oleh Rasulullah Saw. (sunah fi’liyah) dengan tujuan mempertebal keimanan atas kuasa Allah Swt. yang telah menunjukkan suatu kebenaran melalui hadits-hadits bahwa peristiwa gerhana Matahari tidak ada hubungannya dengan aspek kelahiran dan kematian seseorang, namun merupakan tanda-tanda kebesaran dan kemahakuasaan Allah swt. yang menciptakan alam semesta ini untuk menambah keyakinan dan keimanan terhadap Allah swt. Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan menggunakan metode penelitian kualitatif jenis deskriptif analitis dan dilakukakan dengan pendekatan normatif sehingga diharapakan agar refrensi fiqh astronomi dapat ditelaah secara mendalam. Penulis dalam tesis ini mencoba untuk memadukan metode yang saling terkait. Penelitian yang penulis lakukan adalah penelitian kepustakaan (library research). Sumber-sumber kepustakaan yang dianggap mewakili (representatif) dan terkait (relevan) dengan objek kajian ini. Sumber data utama (primary sources) dalam penelitian ini menggunakan dokumen yang valid dari NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) dengan akses internet dan didukung buku-buku astronomi serta kitab-kitab fiqh (pendapat fuqaha) klasik baik secara praktis maupun wacana. Metode pengumpulan data yang digunakan adalah studi pustaka yakni mengumpulkan data astronomi yang akurat dengan penentuan waktu dan daerah terjadinya gerhana Matahari dan dibahasakan dalam bentuk fiqh yang menjadi dasar pelaksanaan ibadah. Dari beberapa hal yang menjadi kesimpulan, penelitian ini dapat memberikan kontribusi, pertama dapat merumuskan konsep terjadinya gerhana Matahari sehingga dapat mengetahui karakteristik gerhana di daerah tertentu dan waktu terjadinya gerhana Matahari. Kedua, dengan mengetahui konsep karakteristik daerah yang dilalui gerhana dan waktu terjadinya gerhana Matahari, akan dapat membantu memperjelas pemahaman konsep fiqh terhadap perintah sunnah fi’liyah dalam pelaksanaan ibadah (shalat Kusuf al-Syams) yang pernah dicontohkan Rasulullah saat terjadinya gerhana Matahari. ABSTRACT The solar eclipse occurs when the Moon is between Earth and the Sun is at the time of month or early Dead Moon and the shadow of the moon covered the conical surface of the Earth. Due to the orbital plane of the ecliptic the Moon is different from the Sun so it does not happen every month but every solar eclipse solar eclipse occurs at the beginning of the Moon. Some communities welcome the judge or the different phenomena of solar eclipses in ancient times as the eclipse is a natural phenomenon that is feared by the people associated with the disaster or the death of a person. But in modern times, the phenomenon of the eclipse is only used as a spectacle of the natural phenomena of light changes to dark. In effect the eclipse event, there are aspects ubudiyah (prayer Kusuf al- Shams) that have been done by the Prophet. (Sunah fi'liyah) with the aim of reinforcing the power of faith in Allah. who have demonstrated a truth through the hadiths that the solar eclipse event has nothing to do with aspects of one's birth and death, but a sign of greatness and omnipotence of God Almighty. who created the universe is to increase the confidence and faith in Allah swt. The research was conducted using qualitative research methods and types of analytical descriptive with the normative approach that dilakukakan expected to fiqh astronomical references may be explored in depth. The author in this thesis attempts to combine the method of inter-related. Research by the author is a research library. Sources of literature are considered to represent and relevant to the object of this study. The main data sources (primary sources) in this study using a valid document from NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) with internet access and is supported astronomy books and books of fiqh (opinion of jurists) both practical and classical discourse. Data collection methods used are literature studies that collect data with the determination of accurate astronomical time and region of the eclipse and dibahasakan in which the implementation of the fiqh of worship. Of the few things that conclusion, this study can contribute, first to formulate the concept of the eclipse so that eclipse can find out the characteristics in a given area and time of the eclipse. Second, by knowing the characteristics of the area through which the concept of the eclipse and the time of the eclipse, will be able to help clarify understanding of fiqh concept of command in the implementation of the sunnah fi'liyah worship (prayer Kusuf al-Shams) who had exemplified the Prophet when the eclipse

KRITERIA 29: CARA PANDANG BARU DALAM PENYUSUNAN KALENDER HIJRIYAH

Hilāl is an early marker of the beginning of the Hijriyah/Qamariyah. The existence of the new moon was used as a reference in the preparation of a system of Islamic calendar. The issue of the new moon it is still be an interesting thing to be studied. In fact there is a lot of research and discussion related with hilāl issues. However, it still has not found an appropriate formula to be used as a reference in creating a standardized system of the Islamic calendar. Currently, there are several criteria that offered to make the calendar system. In this paper, will be presented criteria and other perspectives in formulating a Hijriyah calendar, called the Criteria 29. Some examples of simple calculations and discussions in determining the first day of month of the Hijriyah presented briefly. This elaboration of “Criteria 29” hopefully can give an idea and different viewpoints in order to develop Hijriyah calendar

A Reasoner for Calendric and Temporal Data

Calendric and temporal data are omnipresent in countless Web and Semantic Web applications and Web services. Calendric and temporal data are probably more than any other data a subject to interpretation, in almost any case depending on some cultural, legal, professional, and/or locational context. On the current Web, calendric and temporal data can hardly be interpreted by computers. This article contributes to the Semantic Web, an endeavor aiming at enhancing the current Web with well-defined meaning and to enable computers to meaningfully process data. The contribution is a reasoner for calendric and temporal data. This reasoner is part of CaTTS, a type language for calendar definitions. The reasoner is based on a \theory reasoning" approach using constraint solving techniques. This reasoner complements general purpose \axiomatic reasoning" approaches for the Semantic Web as widely used with ontology languages like OWL or RDF