How to tell if the moon is waxing or waning? Imagine you are placed in an unknown location in the middle of the ocean. You see the moon at its half.  
Which are the different "sets of information" which, if provided to you, would allow you to tell correctly if the moon is waxing or waning?
As you might know, there are several different, independent methods to answer the above based on different space-time information. From my rudimentary/amateur knowledge of astronomy I have identified three. I am, however, curious of all the alternatives.
I am particularly interested in two scenarios:


*

*You cannot see the landscape of the surface of the moon (say, a thin layer of clouds cover it).

*You can see the landscape of the surface of the moon (i.e. you can see half of the "moon rabbit")

 A: I can't provide a comprehensive answer of all the different ways you could tell, but one method would be to 1. Look for Polaris. 2. Observe which side of the moon is lit. If you can see Polaris (the North Star), then you are in the Northern Hemisphere. In that case, if the right side of the moon is being lit, then it is waxing, and if the left side is being lit it is waning. Reverse the "left <-> right" relation if you can't see Polaris and are therefore in the southern hemisphere. 
A: Time of day (or time of moonrise) and location of the moon give information about the phase.
The phase of the moon depends on the angle between the moon, the earth, and the sun.   With respect to the stars and the sun, the moon appears to move from the western sky to the eastern sky as it orbits.  
This means that after new moon (a waxing moon), it will rise sometime between sunrise and sunset.  A full moon will rise very close to sunset.  A waning moon will rise between sunset and sunrise.  
If its midnight and the moon is visible, then you may not know exactly when it rose.  But if it is obviously in the eastern (recently risen/waning) or western sky (rose many hours ago/waxing), then you have some info on the phase.  
