The Complaints Department
Islam Files, No. 5 — The Meccan Verses Say There Is No Compulsion in Religion. The Medinan Verses, Which the Classical Law Treats as Later, Say to Fight Those Who Do Not Believe.
Qur’an 2:256: “There is no compulsion in religion.” It is the verse on the pamphlet. Qur’an 109: “To you your religion, and to me mine.” Meccan, early, recited when the preacher had no army. Qur’an 9:5: kill the polytheists wherever you find them. Qur’an
Exxon's In-House Climate Models From 1977 Onward Predicted Global Warming More Accurately Than NASA's Did. The Company Spent the Next Three Decades Paying Other People to Say the Models Were Wrong.
In July 1977, an Exxon scientist named James Black stood before the company's Management Committee and told them there was "general scientific agreement" that burning fossil fuels was warming the planet. The following year he put a number on it in a memo to a vice
Samsung Moved Up the Galaxy Note 7's Launch to Beat a Phone Reviewers Called Boring. The Boring Phone Was Still Legal to Bring on an Airplane.
On August 19, 2016, Samsung launched the Galaxy Note 7 ahead of its usual schedule. According to Bloomberg's reporting at the time, the move was deliberate: get to market before Apple's iPhone 7, a phone the tech press had already pegged as an incremental, unexciting refresh
Islam Files, No. 4 — The Life Is Called the Best-Documented Biography on Earth. The Town at the Center of It Does Not Appear in the Pre-Islamic Record, and the First Full Life Survives from the Ninth Century.
In the standard narrative the Prophet is born in Mecca in 570, receives revelation there from 610, leaves in 622, and dies in 632. The Qur’an names “Makka” once, in 48:24. Everything else is “Masjid al-Haram,” which the later tradition glues to the Kaaba. The sira makes
Ferrero's Vanilla Flavor Comes From Petrochemicals, Not Vanilla Beans, and That's the Most Boring Fact Here. In December 2021, Ferrero Found Salmonella in Its Own Factory and Waited Four Months to Tell Anyone.
The vanilla flavor in Ferrero Rocher does not come from a vanilla bean. The ingredient list says "vanillin," and vanillin, in almost every industrial confectionery product on Earth, is made from guaiacol — a compound derived from petrochemicals — reacted with glyoxylic acid in a process refined since the 1970s.
Islam Files, No. 3 — The Interfaith Brochure Says Anyone May Leave. Reliance of the Traveller, Certified by al-Azhar, Says the One Who Leaves “Deserves to Be Killed.”
Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri died in 1368. His Umdat al-Salik, published in English as Reliance of the Traveller and carrying al-Azhar’s certification, is a standard Shafi‘i handbook, not a Telegram channel. Section o8.1: “When a person who has reached puberty and is sane voluntarily
Apple's iCloud Storage Margins Run Near 80 Percent, a 2024 Lawsuit Alleges. The MicroSD Slot That Let Phone Owners Skip That Bill Disappeared From Flagships the Same Decade Storage Subscriptions Took Off.
For a decade, phone makers gave four reasons for deleting the microSD slot: it lets water in, it lets dust in, cheap cards are too slow for modern software, and the space is needed for bigger batteries. Every one of those reasons is true. None of them explains why the
Facebook Had Two Burmese-Speaking Content Moderators in 2015. Myanmar's Military Had a 700-Person Unit Running Fake Accounts on the Same Platform.
In 2014, Facebook's Burmese-language content review team consisted of one person. In early 2015 the company hired a second, bringing the worldwide moderation staff for a country of roughly 50 million people to two. Facebook did not have a single employee physically based in Myanmar at all.
Islam Files, No. 2 — Sahih al-Bukhari Says the Marriage Was Contracted at Six and Consummated at Nine. The Same Canon Says a Rape Did Not Occur Unless Four Male Muslim Witnesses Saw It.
Sahih al-Bukhari 5134, on the authority of Aisha: he married her when she was six and consummated the marriage when she was nine. Bukhari 3894 puts the same ages in her own voice, including the scene: women washed her, the Prophet arrived mid-morning, she was nine. Bukhari 3896
In 1954, the Cigarette Industry Ran a Full-Page Ad Promising Honest Research Into Smoking and Cancer. One of Its Own Chemists Had Already Confirmed the Link a Year Earlier.
On January 4, 1954, the seven largest cigarette manufacturers in America bought a full page in more than 400 newspapers, reaching an estimated 43 million readers in 258 cities. The ad was called "A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers," and its message was simple: recent research linking cigarettes
Merck Pulled Vioxx From the Market in 2004 After Linking It to Tens of Thousands of Heart Attacks. The FDA Didn't Formally Revoke Its Approval Until 2022.
On May 20, 1999, the FDA approved Merck's application to sell rofecoxib under the brand name Vioxx, an arthritis and pain pill from the new COX-2 inhibitor class. Merck's own 1999 annual report put it on the cover: Vioxx was "the biggest, fastest, and
Islam Files, No. 1 — The Constitution of Medina Named Three Jewish Clans as Allies. The Pact of Umar Later Priced the Rest of the Region’s Christians as a Tax Line.
In 622 the oasis of Yathrib took in a preacher the Meccans had run out of town. The document later called the Constitution of Medina listed the Jewish clans of Banu Qaynuqa, Banu Nadir, and Banu Qurayza among the parties to a common defense. They kept their religion and their