Mark Meek's Ideas: November 2022

Thursday, November 24, 2022

Wuhan

Wuhan is a centrally-located Chinese city and, as a result, has always been a center for trade throughout the country. It is located on the Yangtze River, one of China's two great rivers with the other being the Hwang Ho, or Yellow River.

Wuchang is one of the three cities that were put together to form Wuhan, to the east of the Yangtze River. This is where the Republic of China began. It was the Wuchang Uprising that led to the end of the Qing Dynasty. Sun Yat Sen returned from exile and became it's president, and the last Qing Emperor abdicated.

The revolution that began with the Wuchang Uprising is known as the Xinhai Revolution. There was a provisional government, in a way similar to the October (Russian) Revolution, but this preceded the October Revolution by six years. The Xinhai Revolution is yet another that reflects the French Revolution. Like the French Revolution with it's "Liberte, Fraternite, Egalite", there was Sun Yat Sen's "Three Principles of the People". Like the French Revolution, there were attempts to restore the emperor afterward.

The following scenes, on the Wuchang or eastern side of the Yangtze River, include the Yellow Crane Tower. This tower was first built in the year 223. It has been destroyed, and rebuilt, many times. The current tower was built in the 1980s. The bridge that can be seen in the distance, in some of the images, is the Wuhan Yangtze Bridge. This bridge preceded the one far downstream in Nanjing, that we saw on our visit there.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.5448299,114.3034602,3a,75y,169h,88t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-03I2O6-PSKM%2FWSiZ7kSa2rI%2FAAAAAAAASWg%2FdNiNygMAj9Q60Wn1G3TZJ-uG22cQksL9gCLIB!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2F-03I2O6-PSKM%2FWSiZ7kSa2rI%2FAAAAAAAASWg%2FdNiNygMAj9Q60Wn1G3TZJ-uG22cQksL9gCLIB%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-2.9338646-ya266.5-ro0-fo100%2F!7i8192!8i4096

These scenes begin in downtown Wuchang, the eastern side of the Yangtze River. If some of the buildings look Spanish, it is because there is an area that is an imitation of Spain.

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.5051728,114.4000519,3a,75y,124h,88t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-4mAUbtjRsQA%2FVUSqR7YyCfI%2FAAAAAAAAMH8%2FqX_NY8EcPmAF0voE2DIPJBBY3-3ha9OtQCJkC!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh3.googleusercontent.com%2F-4mAUbtjRsQA%2FVUSqR7YyCfI%2FAAAAAAAAMH8%2FqX_NY8EcPmAF0voE2DIPJBBY3-3ha9OtQCJkC%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-2.9999962-ya350.5-ro-0-fo100%2F!7i2509!8i1254

Here is central Wuhan, also on the Wuchang or eastern side of the Yangtze River.

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.515402,114.3449466,3a,75y,259h,88t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-PUOv8VP2zmo%2FWSTPYdj1c3I%2FAAAAAAAARmo%2FmPeMcj80SIwLuzxsoGdFJKLEqxJpnqHrgCLIB!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2F-PUOv8VP2zmo%2FWSTPYdj1c3I%2FAAAAAAAARmo%2FmPeMcj80SIwLuzxsoGdFJKLEqxJpnqHrgCLIB%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-2.9338646-ya258.5-ro0-fo100%2F!7i8192!8i4096

Here is more of the city, on the Wuchang side of the river.

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.559965,114.332672,3a,75y,271h,88t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-IZ1cSeIVA8c%2FU9M5itf4IvI%2FAAAAAAAAD9I%2FEoFpcLR81ZMTWHKLZpObB-MRhFbl8miQwCJkC!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh4.googleusercontent.com%2F-IZ1cSeIVA8c%2FU9M5itf4IvI%2FAAAAAAAAD9I%2FEoFpcLR81ZMTWHKLZpObB-MRhFbl8miQwCJkC%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-2.9999962-ya339.5-ro-0-fo100%2F!7i6656!8i3328

This is Hankou, one of the three cities that were originally put together as Wuhan, to the northwest of the Yangtze River. The name of Wuhan appears to have come from combining Wuchang and Hankou.

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.5839282,114.2972339,3a,75y,316h,88t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-78vf9TYZ1XA%2FWB1GyQeqmjI%2FAAAAAAAAAOQ%2FWvKHK91dm3YKAW2b6gkRKHbbpVfl0Nx4QCLIB!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh4.googleusercontent.com%2F-78vf9TYZ1XA%2FWB1GyQeqmjI%2FAAAAAAAAAOQ%2FWvKHK91dm3YKAW2b6gkRKHbbpVfl0Nx4QCLIB%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-2.9999962-ya317.50003-ro-0-fo100%2F!7i8704!8i4352

The third of the cities that was put together to form Wuhan is Hanyang, which is to the southwest of the Yangtze River.

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.547514,114.2539444,3a,75y,1h,76t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-1OTCNeIrmtc%2FV8DpGcP4mwI%2FAAAAAAABdgM%2FteZcwidtmDATwPFq_RSrZUk4D0OWPiIzACLIB!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh3.googleusercontent.com%2F-1OTCNeIrmtc%2FV8DpGcP4mwI%2FAAAAAAABdgM%2FteZcwidtmDATwPFq_RSrZUk4D0OWPiIzACLIB%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-14.933861-ya107.5-ro-0-fo100%2F!7i9728!8i4864

About 300 km, nearly 200 miles, west of Wuhan is the Three Gorges Dam. This was the largest hydroelectric dam in the world. Ships can be lifted right over it.

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.8327617,111.0121,3a,75y,61h,85t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-PLlXQSh1ekg%2FVtzSFjrL9nI%2FAAAAAAAABPE%2Fts2LFXQK0GYmLich9pc4hNtz4B58tVp8wCJkC!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh3.googleusercontent.com%2F-PLlXQSh1ekg%2FVtzSFjrL9nI%2FAAAAAAAABPE%2Fts2LFXQK0GYmLich9pc4hNtz4B58tVp8wCJkC%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-5.3020835-ya318.80505-ro0-fo100%2F!7i5376!8i2688

Light And Wormholes

So much seems to have been written about wormholes. These are, at this point, the theoretical "holes" in the fabric of space that provide a "shortcut" from one place to another in the universe.

Wormholes are often associated with black holes. A black hole is so-called because anything that goes in can never get out, not even light, so great is it's gravity. But what is the reason that nothing ever emerges from a black hole? Could it be a one-way door to somewhere else in the universe?

This idea of a "shortcut" across space isn't quite as far-fetched as it might sound. When a smaller object is in orbit around a larger one, a planet around a star, five Lagrangian Points are manifested. These are the points where the gravity of the two balances. The James Webb Space Telescope is at earth's L2. It is known that, while Lagrangian Points don't provide wormholes, it requires much less energy to move an object from one Lagrangian Point to another than it would otherwise.

I have another idea of what wormholes likely are, if they exist, and how we might look for them. My approach involves the nature of light and how we fit into the universe.

A basic presumption in science is that we have an unbiased view of the universe, that we can completely rely on our measurements and observations. For other sciences, such as chemistry and meteorology, that presumption works fine. But when we get to cosmology, the fundamental nature of the universe, things change. So much about the universe that we cannot explain neatly falls into place when we realize that we do not have an unbiased view of the universe. We are part of the universe, and see it as we do, not only because of what it is but also because of what we are.

I have long been interested in the relationship between straight lines and light. We define a straight line as "the shortest possible distance between two points". The trouble with that is that we get most of our information from light. We will always perceive light as traveling in a straight line. The path taken by light is our definition of a straight line.

We know that gravity bends light, and scientists are making use of "gravitational lensing". But what if there was some other definition of straight lines in space that light was not taking? The light, and other electromagnetic waves, that we rely on for information about the universe may indeed be taking a roundabout way to get to us that we have not yet detected, simply because we will always perceive light as moving in a straight line. It is only relatively recently that gravitational lensing has been proven to occur.

If there was another definition of a straight line, aside from the path of light that we will always perceive as a straight line, that means there would be "shortcuts" across space that we would be unable to see. This does not necessarily involve other dimensions, only the nature of light and the way it passes through space.

Could that be what wormholes are,missedey exist? I think this would be by far the most sensible explanation, and would free us from looking for the bizarre physics that would be needed to explain how "doorways" in space exist.

It may not be that the universe has bizarre features beyond our understanding, but that we have too much confidence that we have an unbiased view of the universe and that we can completely rely on our observations and measurements. We are made of matter ourselves and, as part of the universe, we see it as we do not only because of what it is but also because of what we are. We rely on light for information but this means we will always perceive that light as moving in a straight line.

If an electron, moving through a wire as an electric current, could think it would always perceive itself as moving in a straight line, no matter how tangled the wire might be. The only definition the electron has of a straight line is it's own movement. If the electron was suddenly given an opportunity to jump across a loop in the wire, it would see this as a wormhole.

The best analogy that I can think of actually comes from physical geography. It is what is known as an "oxbow lake".

This is the Buffalo River, in Buffalo NY. The reason that it has twists and turns like this is that it is a new river, only formed after the end of the last ice age. Image from Google Earth.

New rivers tend to meander at first and then, when surges of water come through, to find their way across the loops to a more direct route. The loops are cut off from the main river and it's entrances eventually silt up. The loop remains, filled with water but cut off from the river, as an oxbow lake. The Buffalo River has an oxbow lake, in West Seneca, although it isn't easily visible. The intersection at the top if French Road and Clinton Street. Image from Google Earth.

While looking around the world on Google Earth, here in an oxbow lake that I noticed in Brazil. Image from Google Earth.

Here is one south of Saskatoon. Image from Google Earth.

If the molecules of water in winding rivers were cosmologists they would see the new and shorter route that they had found as a wormhole, an unprecedented doorway through the earth. This is because they would be unable to see the flow of the river as being anything but a straight line. The truth would be that there was nothing at all unprecedented about the "wormhole" that they had found. The new shorter route would not be a "wormhole" at all, it would just be that they couldn't see that the river wasn't traveling in a straight line. The only definition of a straight line that they would have is the flow of the river.

Brilliant Meteor Across Toronto

This week a brilliant meteor lit up the night sky over Toronto. It was captured on many security cameras, and other automatic cameras. The meteorite is believed to have landed in Lake Ontario.

By the way it is a "meteor" when it is in the sky and a "meteorite" after it has landed. One thing that I have never figured out is why the study and forecasting of weather is called "meteorology". Isn't that what the study of meteors should be called?

Does anyone remember the meteor of August 25, 1995?

In the early morning hours of August 25, 1995, I was going westward on River Road, in North Tonawanda and Wheatfield, NY. I was having automotive issues and trying to get my car back home. The engine was overheating so I would drive until the temperature gauge reached the danger zone, stop and wait until the engine cooled, and then drive some more.

A brilliant blue light crossed the sky, moving southwestward. At first I wasn't sure how high it was but there were cumulus clouds in the sky and I could see that it was illuminating the clouds from above. It wasn't a completely steady light, like an electric light, it was more like an object was burning.

There was no sound that I could hear, even allowing for the time it would take for sound to reach me.

I thought it was a plane and was horrified that I might have witnessed the death of a planeload of people. Hopefully it was a military or cargo plane so that only a few people would have died. I scanned the radio for any information about a plane in trouble but found nothing. Neither was there anything in the news the next day about a plane.

It turned out to have been a meteor, and hundreds of people saw it. A trailer was destroyed by fire in Windsor, Ontario. Some have speculated that it was due to the impact of the meteorite. Investigators claimed that nothing like meteor debris was found, and there was no sonic boom.

But it might have been a piece of space junk, rather than a meteor, which wouldn't be obvious in the ruins of the trailer. A small object doesn't make a significant sonic boom. Most bullets travel faster than the speed of sound but don't make a sonic boom.

Water In Winter

During the winter we may wonder about a few things.

We know that low clouds, cumulus and status, are made of water droplets. But how can clouds be made of water if the temperature is below freezing? It can be far below the freezing point and these clouds are still there.

How do snowflakes form perfectly symmetrical patterns? But the pattern in each snowflake is different from the others.

Why are those rings that form on icicles that contain impurities exactly one cm apart?

Sand is rock that has been broken down by the incessant impact of waves. But why are grains of water the scale that they are? It is because of the nature of water, rather than the nature of rock.

Why is water ideal for nuclear processes? Heavy water is water where the hydrogen atoms in the molecule each has a neutron. This makes it so that it will slow neutrons down, but not absorb them, which makes heavy water ideal as a moderator. It is also used in hydrogen, or thermonuclear, bombs, as a layer of heavy water around an ordinary atomic bomb. The molecules of heavy water are fused together by the energy that is released, releasing far more energy.

Here is a link to my theory of how water works, "Water Made Really Simple", on the meteorology and biology blog:

www.markmeeklife.blogspot.com/2012/11/water-made-really-simple.html?m=0

The Haran Minar And The Golden Temple

I noticed this just looking around the world on Google Earth, and cannot see it referred to anywhere.

Around the beginning of the Seventeenth Century what is now called the Golden Temple was completed in the Indian city of Amritsar. This is the best-known temple of the Sikh religion. There is the causeway across the pool of water to the Temple.

Images from Google Earth and Street View.

Not long after the Golden Temple was completed the Mughal Emperor Jahangir built a tomb for his pet antelope in exactly the same style. Although it is not as elaborate as the Golden Temple it's pool is larger. The pool is shown from the same altitude as that of the Golden Temple.

I believe that this adjoining tower is the site of the actual tomb of the antelope.

The Haran Minar is outside the Pakistani city of Sheikhupura. I measure it as being 88 km from the Golden Temple.

This tomb shows appreciation for animals and nature. Recent news is that the population of the world is now 8 billion people. Other recent news is that, considering all animal species, there is only about a third as many animals alive in the world as there was in 1970. This is terrible.

Qatar

The World Cup is being held in Qatar. Here is another look at it.

Qatar is the small country, on a peninsula in the Persian Gulf, that is known for it's news service, Al Jazeera. The country is known for it's wealth. Qatar recently emerged from an economic boycott by it's neighbors. The general consensus is that the boycott was less-than-successful.

The following scenes are around an older area of Doha, Qatar's capital city, with the modern buildings in the background, built from Qatar's tremendous wealth of oil and gas.

Thursday, November 17, 2022

Changsha

Like so many Chinese cities Changsha, in south central China, is very ancient. Although the city may not be centered just as it was in ancient times. This city, in Hunan Province, is near where Chairman Mao, the founder of modern China, was born and began his political career.

I can remember, from childhood, the news of U.S. president Richard Nixon's visit to China and meeting Chairman Mao. This was the beginning of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China.

Chairman Mao chose his successor, and it wasn't Deng Xiaoping, but that was who ended up completing the development of modern China.

Remember that, as we saw in the posting on this blog, "Understanding The World In Terms Of The South And West And The North And East", China is part of the "North And East". This is where the nations tend to have remained the same since ancient times. Permanent new nations do not come into being with changes of ideas, as is the case in "The South And West".

Not only has China been a nation since far back into ancient times, but it's cities are mostly the same ones also. The Middle East, in contrast as part of the "South And West", is also very ancient but the original cities are today mostly ruins that were replaced with new cities built by Moslems.

Another difference involving China is that early civilizations grew up around river valleys. To the west, there were great civilizations in the Nile, the Tigris-Euphrates and the Indus River valleys. In the far east, there were the early civilizations in the Pearl, Yangtze and Yellow River valleys. But the difference is that the three in the far east ended up as part of the same country, and that country is China.

The following scenes are of modern Changsha.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >, After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@28.1980267,112.8997726,3a,75y,163.5h,96.94t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPXI0n14YX1-AhEgrRTFJZfETpn0mNPUlQV-2GN!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPXI0n14YX1-AhEgrRTFJZfETpn0mNPUlQV-2GN%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-6.941883-ya151.5-ro-0-fo100!7i10240!8i5120

Here is more of the newer part of the city.

https://www.google.com/maps/@28.2277258,112.9369552,3a,75y,1.5h,100.95t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNmjyHoWvmsOkv3KuDCuModdGQviVvUfZo-Xw6f!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNmjyHoWvmsOkv3KuDCuModdGQviVvUfZo-Xw6f%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-10.949902-ya1.5-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

The western part of Changsha has many apartment buildings.

https://www.google.com/maps/@28.2082577,112.8655853,3a,75y,208.5h,96.94t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMRzKGUwghnHbMjplRxDd-B1Nn8l76uvl3BZ6hM!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMRzKGUwghnHbMjplRxDd-B1Nn8l76uvl3BZ6hM%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-6.941883-ya357.5-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

This is the central part of the city, around the Xiang River. There is a lot of traditional Chinese architecture.

https://www.google.com/maps/@28.1938192,112.9718207,3a,75y,124.5h,92.93t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMgAdB_o4Jnc7EsD2sYvlgrWI3hT84jV2Z-Tc9i!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMgAdB_o4Jnc7EsD2sYvlgrWI3hT84jV2Z-Tc9i%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-2.9338646-ya14.5000105-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

Here is the northern area of Changsha.

https://www.google.com/maps/@28.2439804,113.0201569,3a,75y,180h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNk2l1LPDiCv7zuYuqZ0mzqUyG8g2dHrTxdil3m!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNk2l1LPDiCv7zuYuqZ0mzqUyG8g2dHrTxdil3m%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya73.00001-ro-0-fo100!7i7168!8i3584

This is to the southeast of the central part of Changsha.

https://www.google.com/maps/@28.1685985,112.9952665,3a,75y,79.5h,92.93t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPUhzW34a_y7nUuH9dySDkO3bn7-gCdW0uMCMIb!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPUhzW34a_y7nUuH9dySDkO3bn7-gCdW0uMCMIb%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-2.9338646-ya154.5-ro-0-fo100!7i7680!8i3840

These scenes are of a mostly residential area in the far south of Changsha.

https://www.google.com/maps/@28.1391303,112.9892135,3a,75y,73.5h,97t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMZB_YqpCyaG_JZeODMGHx2G1dpbJYQ1vKZKKq6!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMZB_YqpCyaG_JZeODMGHx2G1dpbJYQ1vKZKKq6%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-7-ya343.5-ro0-fo100!7i2000!8i1000

The Imperial Iranian Flag

I didn't see that any of the news agencies caught it but there was a demonstration in Iran this week in which the demonstrators were waving Iranian flags. But if we take a close look the flags were not the present flag of Iran. The flags had the lion, the sword and, the sun.

This was the Imperial Flag, of the Shah's monarchy that was overthrown by the present government in the revolution of 1979. The flag was changed after the revolution, with these symbols removed.

The turning point of the Iranian Revolution is considered to be "Black Friday", September 8, 1978, when the Shah's forces opened fire on demonstrators, killing dozens. That is what turned demonstrations for reform into a full-fledged revolution. After that there was no possibility of compromise, the revolution would either fail or it would succeed.

In this budding reversal of the Iranian Revolution the demonstrators recently marked "Bloody Friday". The recent postings, on October 20, were mostly about the Iranian Revolution and this movement to reverse it, which may be the most serious challenge that the Revolutionary Government has faced in decades.

While I am not Iranian, and do not wish to interfere in the internal affairs of countries that are not my own, I do have an autographed portrait of Empress Farah, the widow of the Shah and last empress of Iran, on my wall here.

The Universe Is Flat And Infinite

It was recently announced that scientists generally believe the universe to be "flat and infinite". But I find this to be redundant and the reason involves the nature of infinity.

Saying that the universe is infinite simply means that it goes on forever. Describing the space of the universe as "flat", as opposed to "curved", is a question of cosmology. The surface of the earth is curved so that, if we keep flying in a straight line in a plane we will eventually return to our starting point.

Likewise, if the space of the universe is "flat", it means that, if we send a spacecraft out into space in a straight line, it will forever keep getting further and further from us. But if the space of the universe is curved, and we wait long enough, the spacecraft will eventually return to us just as the plane flying around the world will eventually return to it's starting point.

If we had an infinitely powerful telescope, and we looked out into space with it, if the space of the universe was curved we could theoretically see ourselves from behind.

There are other theories of the shape of space in the universe, such as saddle-shaped, but it is not something that we can observe directly. A sphere is defined as having "positive curvature", in that it curves toward itself. A saddle-shape, in contrast, is a negative curvature because it curves away from itself.

We get our information about the universe from light, and other electromagnetic waves. But light will follow whatever the shape of space is and we will always see light as traveling in a straight line. This means that we will always perceive the universe as being "flat".

This is not exactly the same thing as whether the universe is "open" or "closed", which is also debated. Most people believe the universe to have begun with the "Big Bang", and having been expanding outward ever since. If the expansion of the universe slows down, so that it will possibly fall back together by it's own gravity, the universe is referred to as "closed". If it will keep expanding forever, never falling back together, it is referred to as "open".

If the universe is infinite that means that it goes on forever. But if the universe is infinite that means we would have to travel an infinite distance before we would experience any curvature, no matter what the shape of space in the universe was. This is nothing to do with cosmology but with the nature of infinity.

To describe the universe as "flat and infinite" is redundant because, if the universe is infinite, we can never perceive it as anything but flat. The space in the universe might be shaped like a pretzel but, even if we had a way to detect the curvature, we would have to travel an infinite distance in space to be able to detect any curvature at all.

The surface of a sphere is curved. The smaller the sphere the greater the surface curvature per distance, and the larger the sphere the less it's curvature per distance. This means that, if there was an infinite sphere, the surface curvature would have to be zero even though it would still be a sphere. We would have to travel an infinite distance on the surface of the sphere before we could detect any curvature at all. So it is with the universe if it is infinite, we cannot perceive it as anything but flat.

This is related to my concept of straight lines. The trouble with straight lines is that we get our information from light and we will thus always perceive light as traveling in a straight line. If an electron moving in a wire could think it would always perceive itself as moving in a straight line, no matter how tangled the wire was. In a similar way, if the universe is infinite we must always perceive it as flat.

I proposed defining a straight line as an arc of an infinite circle, as well as discussing the nature of infinity, in the posting "Infinite Geometry" on the Progress Blog, markmeekprogress.blogspot.com .

Murders West Of Toronto

Did anyone notice that the house in the town of Dundas, just north of Hamilton, where Richard Taylor murdered his mother and stepfather is visible on Google Earth?

Richard Taylor was a teacher that had trouble handling money. He was deeply in debt but kept his wife convinced that they were well off and had lots of money. In doing so he weaved a tangled web of lies that were in danger of unraveling.

He knew that he would get a lot of money upon the death of his mother who lived with her husband, his stepfather. This seemed like his only way out. He had a key to their home in Dundas, where he had grown up.

He went to their home in the middle of the night and went inside. He entered their bedroom and poured a flammable liquid. He set fire to it and then blocked the bedroom door so they couldn't get out. His stepfather managed to escape through a window and, before dying of severe burns, told neighbors that his stepson had set the fire. Firefighters got his mother out but couldn't save her life.

His alibi was that he had fallen, before the fire, and injured his leg. Indeed he did limp and use crutches when dealing with investigators, but he was under surveillance and was observed walking just fine when he didn't know anyone was watching. There was also footage on a security camera of him walking fine just before the fire.

Richard Taylor attended nearby Medaille College in Buffalo. Does everyone at Medaille know that one of your alumni has been convicted of this horrific murder?

This happened in 2018. Just by chance the satellite that took the imagery of the area for Google Earth passed over after the fire happened but before the house was demolished. This house, where Richard Taylor grew up, was in Dundas. According to news reports he lived in Oakville and taught at a school in Hamilton.

This image, from an angle, shows the house with part of the roof burned away. Image from Google Earth.

In this image, looking straight down, it is visible right where the murders happened. Image from Google Earth.

This house is not visible on Google Street View because it had been demolished, and another house built on the site, by the time the latest Google Street View imagery was taken.

Thursday, November 10, 2022

The Mistakes Of Niagara Falls, NY

According to the Wikipedia article on Niagara Falls, NY, the population of the Canadian side of Niagara Falls has multiplied by about 3 since 1960 while the population of the American side of Niagara Falls has declined by more than half. Niagara Falls is consistently rated worse than nearby areas in terms of negatives like crime and poverty.

What happened to this city with the world-famous name that should be a wonder of the world? I see it as a series of mistakes associated with what we could call the "Paradox of Plenty" or the "Resource Curse". Niagara Falls is where power can be generated by falling water, simply because the upper river above the falls is much higher in elevation than the lower river.

THE SCHOELLKOPF GENERATING PLANT

A hydraulic canal was dug across downtown Niagara Falls. All kinds of mills and industries along the gorge of the lower river used the kinetic energy of the falling water to turn wheels and turbines. But the company that operated the canal eventually went bankrupt and the canal was sold at auction.

This shows the route of the former Hydraulic Canal across downtown Niagara Falls. Image from Google Earth.

It was bought by a Buffalo industrialist named Jacob Schoellkopf. A generating plant was built down in the gorge, similar to one on the Canadian side. It used the kinetic energy of water falling from the hydraulic canal to turn turbines which generated electricity. It was electricity from this plant that really got major industry going in Niagara Falls.

But the many wheel pits that had been excavated into the wall of the gorge before the generating plant had been constructed had weakened the side of the gorge. One day the inevitable happened and most of the Schoellkopf Generating Plant collapsed into the lower river.

While this plant would be replaced by the Robert Moses Plant, which would be in operation within five years, this collapse in 1956 is part of what started the city on it's downward spiral. Shouldn't it have been known that the gorge wall was greatly weakened, and that this was going to happen, before the plant was built?

THE LOVE CANAL

The first federally-declared disaster in the United States that was man-made, not a natural disaster, was at Niagara Falls. It is known as the Love Canal. If only it lived up to it's name.

Niagara Falls attracted people with all kinds of ideas. Late in the Nineteenth Century there was one William Love. He started to dig a canal northward from the Upper Niagara River. This was not near the falls. He wanted to use the water to generate power as it fell over the Niagara Escarpment. A community called Model City was founded at that point below the escarpment. The water would then be used to irrigate a vast tract of farmland.

But the operation ran out of money before the digging of the canal had progressed very far. What had been dug of the canal was abandoned.

The chemical industries in Niagara Falls that relied on the electricity produced a lot of waste. In 1927 the village of LaSalle, where the abandoned canal was located, merged with the city of Niagara Falls. The idea arose to use the abandoned canal to bury chemical wastes in.

A clay barrier was placed above the area of buried chemicals. The city was instructed that, while it was safe to put a park or parking lot above the buried chemicals in no way should any building be done there that involved digging into the ground.

The chemicals had been buried in the 1940s. By the mid-1950s the Baby Boom was underway and a lot of people had been attracted to Niagara Falls to work in it's industries, as well as it's tourist attractions now that a lot of people had cars.

There was always demand for more housing and there would be a lot of money to be made if houses could be built on that area where chemicals had been buried. It was made clear that absolutely no building should be done that involved digging into the ground. But in Niagara Falls if you know the right people, and have the right connections, you can do pretty much whatever you want. One of the nicest neighborhoods in the city was built over the buried chemicals. During construction the clay protective barrier was breached many times.

The result was disastrous. The area had a very high rate of health issues and birth defects. Just do a search for "Love Canal birth defects". It's horrible, I don't even want to write about it here. It isn't over yet because children born to people who grew up in the area also have an elevated rate of birth defects.

Source- Screenshot of Google Search for "Love Canal birth defects" Nov 10 2022.

In early 1977 there was very heavy snow in the fabled "Blizzard of '77". When the snow melted it caused the chemicals to emerge from the ground much faster than before. A highway had been built between the contaminated area and the river to the south, which hindered the water runoff.

In 1978 the Federal Government declared the Love Canal as a disaster area, meaning that it was eligible for federal funds. Residents of the area were evacuated. All of the houses, two elementary schools, and a housing project would have to be demolished.

This disaster was by far the worst thing to ever happen to Niagara Falls, NY and it has never recovered from it. A lot of blame has been put on the company that produced the waste but it was made very clear how dangerous it was and it is the city that should never have allowed this to happen.

THE POWER LINES

The era of large industries inevitably declined. Those industries have mostly been replaced by modern industrial parks of many smaller industries, but with jobs usually requiring a higher skill level. An example is the Audobon Industrial Park in nearby Amherst.

It would seem that Niagara Falls is an ideal place for such an industrial park, to build on it's industrial heritage, except that it has nowhere to put it.

After the collapse of the Schoellkopf Plant, in 1956, a new generating plant was built to the north of Niagara Falls, the Robert Moses Generating Plant. But this meant that the electrical transmission lines had to go across the city of Niagara Falls. Combined with the lines that were already there, this takes up a tremendous amount of space.

There is nowhere within city limits to put the modern industrial park that would be such a great benefit for Niagara Falls, NY. A major hole in the city is the area that was abandoned in the Love Canal. Then there are the areas with low-level contamination from being taken up by the old "smokestack" industries, finally there are the vast areas of space taken up by the power lines that have to cross the city from the Robert Moses Generating Plant, to the north, and also the underground tunnel that brings water from the upper river to the power plant.

This leaves Niagara Falls with nowhere to put a modern industrial park that would provide so much in jobs and tax revenue to the city. Much of the electrical transmission infrastructure went into what was the gap between Niagara Falls and the former village of LaSalle. If these electrical transmission towers provided jobs and paid taxes that would be wonderful, but they don't.

Images from Google Earth

THE LANDFILL IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY

To further take up what might have been valuable revenue-generating commercial space, where a modern industrial park might have been located, Niagara Falls, NY has somehow ended up with a landfill virtually in the middle of the city. Maybe this could be a tourist attraction because I have never heard of a city with a landfill right in the city.

Image from Google Earth

URBAN RENEWAL DOWNTOWN

Finally there is probably the most discussed issue of all, that of Urban Renewal in Niagara Falls. The following two images are from the Wikipedia article on "Urban Renewal". This does not necessarily mean that I completely agree with the harshness of the assessment. How many cities have undergone an urban renewal program that is considered as a complete success?

There is more to the direction that Niagara Falls, NY has taken in recent decades. I see the building of the Interstate 190 across the city as a major factor in changing the economic dynamics of the city, cutting off the downtown. Not only does the I-190 cutting across the city change it's economic dynamics but, as with the electrical transmission lines, it takes up a lot of the city's space. The highway cuts across Buffalo too but that route is mostly over the former course of the Erie Canal.

We saw the effects of building the I-190 across Niagara Falls in Part Two of the posting on the world and economics blog, www.markmeekeconomics.blogspot.com "The Controversy Surrounding Urban Renewal". Part One was about the Kensington Expressway in Buffalo.

On the same blog there is also "The Big Project Syndrome", about how construction of the vast power generation plant has adversely affected the psychology of the city.

The Nature Of Fairness

Fairness is very important to us. It is the basic principle behind all codes of law, and how we ideally interact with each other. But I cannot see that it has been broken down into exactly what it is. I have broken fairness down into four principles.

1) THE LEAST PRINCIPLE

An ideal example of the Least Principle is the express line in supermarket checkouts. In most supermarkets a shopper who is buying a certain number of items or fewer, typically ten, have their own line or lines at supermarket checkouts.

The reason is fairness. If a shopper is buying only a few groceries then it will not take long for them to be rung up at the checkout. It is unfair for someone buying only a few groceries to have to wait for others to be rung up who are buying a lot of groceries.

That is why most supermarkets have at least one express line. It facilitates the least waiting relative to the number of items a shopper is buying.

If two students have to stay after school, so that the teacher can go over something different with each of them, the one that will require the least time should go first. This will facilitate the least waiting, relative to the amount of time required. That is why it is called the Least Principle.

2) THE GREATER GOOD

This counterbalances the Least Principle. Fairness is not written in stone, it is a matter of perspective. Human nature must be taken into consideration.

If we strictly followed the Least Principle it would mean that if there was two people, one with no money and one with a lot of money, it would be only fair for the one with a lot of money to share it with the one with no money.

But if everyone had to share whatever wealth they had then what would be the point of working? People require incentive to work and that incentive is the money that they earn. Why should anyone work hard if they will only have to share their earnings? This means that some people will inevitably have more wealth than others.

In the long term, the principal of the Greater Good will mean more wealth, on the average, for all, because it provides incentive, while the Least Principle is more short-term where incentive is not a factor.

As a counterbalance to the Least Principle, which is the fundamental principle of fairness, we could call this the "Most Principle".

3) BALANCING OUT

This is a long-term modifier of the short-term Least Principle. If there are two shoppers in the supermarket, both buying the same number of items, is it fair that one has to wait longer in the checkout line because the line that they are in is moving more slowly than the one the other is in?

Of course it isn't. The fair thing to do would be for the supermarket to have just one line, and then the next person in line go to the next available cashier. This is what some markets do have, the trouble is that it takes up floor space and will thus add to the cost of groceries.

But standing in line is a repetitive thing. We stand in lines all our lives. The Balancing Out principle is that, just by chance, sometimes we will err and choose the line that takes the longest but it will balance out, over time, because sometimes we will make the right choice of the fastest line.

4) THE PARADISE PRINCIPLE

Sometimes fairness is just beyond our ability to implement.

Two children are crossing a street. A car is trying to evade the police and comes around the corner at high speed. One of the children is killed but the other is uninjured. It that fair to the family of the child that was killed? Of course it isn't.

Two families send their sons off to war, one is killed but the other isn't. Is that fair to the family of the one that was killed? Of course it isn't.

There are two siblings, one gets a hereditary disease but the other doesn't. Is that fair to the one that got the disease? Of course it isn't.

It looked as if it might rain. Two people are walking, one brought an umbrella but the other didn't. The one with the umbrella doesn't get wet but the other does. Is this fair to the person that got wet? Actually it is fair because the other person had the common sense to bring an umbrella but the one that got wet didn't.

We cannot completely implement freedom, making it so that everything is always fair. In fact, that could be the definition of a paradise. Where everything is always fair. It would be a higher-level paradise if everything was always perfect, but it would be at least a first-level paradise if everything was always fair.

That is why I call this the "Paradise Principle".

Some General Observations

THE BENEFIT OF INDIVIDUALISM

Have you ever noticed something about the people who are always in the news for making the modern economy? I mean Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Elon Musk and so on. Generally college students who come up with a brilliant idea, drop out of college, and end up with their name in the news all the time and more money than they could ever count.

I notice a couple of things that they seem to have in common that I have never seen documented.

1) They have never served in the military.

2) They have not had much involvement in team sports.

Coming up with new ideas requires individualism. If one thinks like everybody else then they won't notice the things that everybody else didn't notice. There is a lot of emphasis nowadays on being a "team player" but being part of a team, as positive as it might sound, inevitably reduces the individualism that is necessary to come up with breakthrough new ideas.

As for dropping out of college the one disadvantage of a formal education is that it inevitably means learning to think like everyone else. Many people who come up with breakthrough new ideas or discoveries have been largely self-educated.

Countries with a Protestant cultural background, northern Europe and the U.S., have created the modern world because the individualism and think-for-yourself mentality of Protestants is ideal for coming up with new ideas and discoveries. It is no coincidence that the Reformation was followed by the Industrial Revolution.

Modern democracy, where anyone can run for office and anyone can vote for whoever they want, is 100% a Protestant development. The traditionally Protestant dim view of the world opens the mind to seek better ways of doing things. If someone has too much respect for things as they are they will be less likely to notice better ways of doing things.

History is so often made by radicals who turn out to be right. The way to make history is usually not to follow the crowd but to sense when NOT to follow the crowd. This is the power of Individualism.

THE POWER OF NICKNAMES

There are so many people in the news for mass shootings and serial killings, and things like that. It goes over their life stories, the interactions others had with them, and how they came to commit this terrible crime.

There is something I notice that they have in common, and which contrasts them with the general population. Very rarely do people who commit horrific pre-planned crimes have nicknames.

This doesn't include descriptive nicknames assigned by the media, such as "The Suburban Strangler", or something like that. I mean usually playful nicknames assigned by peers.

We might thus presume that, as a general rule, people who get nicknames are more likable than those that don't. It might also be self-fullfilling, people unconsciously like people who have nicknames because they perceive them to be more likable.

Has anyone ever thought of making up a nickname for yourself when applying for a job or other position? Don't make it complimentary, make it kind of silly. You generally have to be likable to get a silly nickname. Or it might reference something like the color or style of your hair. But people have to think of someone as significant to assign them a nickname.

DICTATORS AND SMALL TOWNS

In reading about the great dictators since the beginning of the Twentieth Century there is one thing that I notice they virtually all have in common. They all come from relatively small towns. They might move to a city at around college age but spend their formative years in a small town.

I have written about this here before and know that it applies to European dictators. From what I can see it usually applies across the world.

DEFINING OUR ERA

If I could define our era in one sentence it would be, "We have reached the point where we can change the world faster than we can adapt to the changes that we have made in the world".

Recent Statements

Apocalyptic statements seem to be everywhere nowadays. Donald Trump predicted America's destruction if Republicans didn't overwhelmingly triumph in America's Midterm Elections.

Recent statements from the leadership of Russia are that the war is a "War against Satan", by Dmitry Medvedev, and that soldiers who are killed in the war will have their sins forgiven, by Patriarch Kirill.

Can you believe that this was once the land of "godless Communism"?

I would like to express sympathy for the recent cafe fire and the school shooting. Russia is still a part of the human family.

Thursday, November 3, 2022

Myanmar (Burma)

The Irrawaddy River Valley was one of the important river valleys where early civilizations formed. The geology theory, described in the compound posting "The Story Of Planet Earth" on the geology blog www.markmeekearth.blogspot.com began when I wondered how the vast Szechwan (or Sichuan) Basin could possibly have formed.

I noticed that there was a vast valley pointing toward the basin, but interrupted from reaching it by mountains. This valley curved to coincide with the equator. I decided that it must be the result of magma emergence from below, caused by the spin of the earth. In the theory I named it "The Great Valley Of Asia".

From there, the rest of the theory just fell right into place.

The nation that is now called Myanmar, or Burma, is actually a union of many different ethnic groups that had, in the past, been united by medieval empires.

In the postwar era, after the end of colonialism, Aung San led the nation toward independence but was assassinated in 1947, the year before independence was achieved. He had an infant daughter that would become known to the world as Aung San Suu Kyi.

The military executed a coup and took over the government in 1962. It led the country down a path of leftward socialism that was less-than-successful.

There was another military coup in 1988, which essentially replaced one military government with another. Ne Win became the military dictator in the 1962 coup while Than Shwe is the name most associated with the second military government. The second military government decided to change the name of the country to "Myanmar", although "Burma" is still widely used.

At the time of the 1988 coup another name emerged that would become very familiar to the world. But it emerged as an effort to make the country into a democracy. The name was that of Aung San Suu Kyi, who was the infant daughter of Aung San, the country's founding father, at the time he was assassinated in 1947.

She had worked at the United Nations for U Thant, the Burmese Secretary General of the United Nations who is remembered for mediating a peaceful end to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Aung San Suu Kyi's political party was the National League for Democracy. Free elections were held in 1990 but her party, the clear winner, was blocked from taking power. She would end up spending a total of fifteen years under house arrest.

But Aung San Suu Kyi became the world's hero. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

The turning point for the country might have come with the "Saffron Revolution", led by Buddhist monks in 2007, over high fuel prices, and the military's oppressive reaction to it.

Then there was a devastating cyclone the following year.

Elections were allowed in 2010 and the military government ended in 2011. But the military still holds a lot of power in the country. Aung San Suu Kyi couldn't actually be president because her British late husband and sons were foreigners, so the position of State Counsellor was created for her.

If you want to read my conclusion about the subsequent arrest and imprisonment of Sung San Suu Kyi, see the section " 42) THE REAL STORY OF AUNG SAN SUU KYI" in the compound posting "Investigations" December 2018.

Yangon, formerly known as Rangoon, is the country's largest city and was the capital until 2005. It is of medieval origin but was built around the Shwedagon Pagoda. This is the most important Buddhist pagoda in a country that is especially known for it's pagodas. The Shwedagon Pagoda dominates Yangon's skyline and there are no skyscrapers to overshadow it. Some of the scenes of Buddhist architecture will be reminiscent of our visit to "Bangkok".

At one end of the Shwedagon Pagoda is the Martyrs' Mausoleum, dedicated to Aung San and the other founders of the country who were assassinated with him in 1947.

The following scenes of Yangon begin at the northern end of Shwedagon Pagoda.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow. After clicking the up arrow you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you so wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@16.7989858,96.1494932,3a,75y,7.19h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOoVcJ9IGuuWA9l0CZLpFw4ZxrCdtTBuTsXc11L!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOoVcJ9IGuuWA9l0CZLpFw4ZxrCdtTBuTsXc11L%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya16.88496-ro-0-fo100!7i5300!8i2650

This is central Yangon.

https://www.google.com/maps/@16.8500133,96.1773612,3a,75y,52.76h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPa3bsy06P1Ecv-0ip2Rzh7ri6haTWqdg5Iwxsq!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPa3bsy06P1Ecv-0ip2Rzh7ri6haTWqdg5Iwxsq%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-4.7815075-ya77.034676-ro4.580594-fo100!7i7680!8i3840

Here is a residential area far from Yangon's center.

https://www.google.com/maps/@16.8841403,96.1932557,3a,75y,300h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOKwRUAANlVYIDEYFANP4cr6cppCFjvcNVt2rlP!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOKwRUAANlVYIDEYFANP4cr6cppCFjvcNVt2rlP%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0.8846535-ya329.31613-ro-4.788517-fo100!7i7680!8i3840

In northwestern Yangon this is a business district.

https://www.google.com/maps/@16.857432,96.1209424,3a,75y,100h,110t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPJWnJpZs2_XCh8cjx-Nvh3mnrnQbrxdcCmUXpV!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPJWnJpZs2_XCh8cjx-Nvh3mnrnQbrxdcCmUXpV%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-17.962135-ya191.78516-ro2.9594357-fo100!7i7680!8i3840

Mandalay, far to the north of Yangon, is the country's second city. Mandalay is not an old city, having been founded in the Nineteenth Century. Just as Egypt is historically divided into Upper and Lower Egypt, according to the downstream flow of the Nile River, so Burma consists of Upper and Lower Burma, according to the flow of the Irrawaddy River. Yangon was the chief city of Lower Burma. Mandalay was the chief city of Upper Burma.

Here is central Mandalay.

https://www.google.com/maps/@21.9686961,96.0936569,3a,75y,280h,100t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOAa_IkXjJ2V0ifaIQTiC0MCT22c5JYCCvLcoZw!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOAa_IkXjJ2V0ifaIQTiC0MCT22c5JYCCvLcoZw%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-11.009608-ya8.7027025-ro-2.13902-fo100!7i7680!8i3840

This is a pagoda in the north part of Mandalay.

https://www.google.com/maps/@22.0040694,96.1133414,3a,75y,339.17h,97.32t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOw3WCj-4flfHe_f1coHGNLDtxI70W5rlgrQQuN!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOw3WCj-4flfHe_f1coHGNLDtxI70W5rlgrQQuN%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-7.3170733-ya332.1745-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

Here is southeast of Mandalay city center.

https://www.google.com/maps/@21.9344553,96.1058469,3a,75y,260h,110t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMxmFMB9oEyjVfXvxB0G6s6xsKGvI7DM-5OKmvC!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMxmFMB9oEyjVfXvxB0G6s6xsKGvI7DM-5OKmvC%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-21.987968-ya77.60139-ro0.6607734-fo100!7i7680!8i3840

This is a Amarapura, which was the royal capital when the country was a monarchy. The palace was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War but a replica has been rebuilt.

https://www.google.com/maps/@21.9047674,96.0532445,3a,75y,220h,100t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNcP0RiFvZG7sme2iF6Y2qQCI6bA0dzPgPvwMYJ!2e10!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh5.ggpht.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNcP0RiFvZG7sme2iF6Y2qQCI6bA0dzPgPvwMYJ%3Dw900-h600-k-no-pi-10-ya14.329360961914091-ro0-fo100!7i7680!8i3840?coh=205410&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDkwOC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

The idea of specially constructing a city as capital goes far back in history. Jerusalem was built by King David as capital, although the city of the Jebusites was already there. Baghdad was founded as the capital city by the Abbasid Caliphate. Cairo was founded by the Fatimid Caliphate. Washington was sited between the then-northern and southern states. Ottawa was placed between French and English-speaking Canada. Canberra was located halfway between Australia's two largest cities of Melbourne and Sydney.

As we saw in " St. Petersburg And The Romanovs", Moscow had traditionally been the capital of Russia. The Romanov Dynasty had St. Petersburg, facing toward Europe, especially built as their capital city. After the October Revolution, the Communists moved the capital back to Moscow.

Sweden had a really unique method to determine where to build a capital city. They carved a log and filled it with gold. Then they set the log afloat. The place where the log landed is where Stockholm was founded, the name of which means " The City on the Island of the Log".

Perhaps the best-known planned city as a capital is Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. It was built in the interior of the country, away from the major coastal cities.

In 2006, Burma (or Myanmar) moved it's capital to the specially-planned city of Naypyidaw.

The Uppatasanti Pagoda in Naypyidaw is a replica of the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon.

https://www.google.com/maps/@19.7697515,96.1832133,3a,75y,352.27h,95.38t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPTM27EAJEttmZbn8moeI_v51ulcw1BYwAVnoc7!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPTM27EAJEttmZbn8moeI_v51ulcw1BYwAVnoc7%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya322.15146-ro-0-fo100!7i5760!8i2880

Here is the newly-built capital city of Naypyidaw.

https://www.google.com/maps/@19.7352346,96.1184146,3a,75y,80h,110t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNmse1Eyen4b6-c3zq3AhwiWpt2T4S57QJF7Y8m!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNmse1Eyen4b6-c3zq3AhwiWpt2T4S57QJF7Y8m%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-19.811056-ya164.40065-ro1.5427136-fo100!7i7680!8i3840

Lahore And The Mughals

The new Prime Minister of Britain is a Hindu. But his Asian roots are actually in what is now Pakistan, in Gujranwala which is just north of Lahore. His grandfather left for Kenya, in east Africa, before the Partition. His parents moved to Britain in the 1960s, where he was born in Southampton.

Let's have another look at the fabled city of Lahore.

The city of Lahore is located in Pakistan's Punjab province. It is the largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and is near the border with India, and not far from the Indian city of Amritsar. Lahore has been the capital of a number of empires, including the Sikh Empire. The center of the Sikh religion is now the Golden Temple in Amritsar. Lahore has traditionally been considered as a wealthy city, and has been a center of education since medieval times.

I have listened to so many stories about Lahore, it is about time to pay a visit to it.

The Mughals, which we saw in the recent visit to Delhi, are very prominent in the history of Lahore. It was the Mughal capital at the time of the emperor, Akbar, and has even more Mughal-era structures than Delhi. Akbar was Humayun's son, whose tomb is prominent in Delhi. Babur was the founder of the Mughals, and was Humayun's father.

Mugalpura is a section of Lahore that is named for the Mughals, where the roads are named for Mughal emperors. The Mughal language was Persian, but the ruling classes spoke a dialect that became known as Urdu, and is today Pakistan's national language.

The Mughals had a vast empire across what is now India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and, Bangladesh. The Persian conqueror Nadir Shah briefly ruled Lahore while on his way to raid the Mughal capital of Delhi. Muhammad Shah was the Mughal emperor at that time. "Shah" means "king".

Just as there is the Old City of Delhi (Shahjahanabad), from the Mughal era, so is there the Old City of Lahore. Just as in Delhi, the walls around the Old City are gone, but some of the gates remain. Here are a couple of examples of gates that remain in the Old City of Lahore:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walled_City_of_Lahore#/media/File:Hazuri_Bagh.JPG

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walled_City_of_Lahore#/media/File:Kashmiri_Gate_03.jpg

This is Sunehri Masjid, located in the Mughal-era Old City of Lahore:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunehri_Masjid,_Lahore#/media/File:Sunehri_masjid_top_view_2.JPG

The Old City is also known for the elaborately-decorated townhouse-style mansions from the Mughal and Sikh eras. Here is one such example:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haveli#/media/File:Nau_Nihal_Singh%27s_haveli,_now_Victoria_Girls_High_School,_Lahore.jpg

Lahore is widely-known for it's food. Everyone from Lahore seems to be a good cook. How many cities have streets devoted just to food? This is Fort Road Food Street.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Road_Food_Street#/media/File:Food_Street_Lahore.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lahori_cuisine#/media/File:Lahore_Tikka_House_(2)_-_Plain_Rice_and_Lahori_Lamb_Kabab,_Take_Two.jpg

In the Old City of Lahore is the Wazir Khan Mosque, also from the Mughal era. Khan is a very common Pakistani surname. We saw in the posting on this blog, "Why We Should Understand The Mongols", how the Mughals, also spelled Moguls, were descended from the Mongols through the Timurids. Babur, who began the Mughals, claimed to be descended both from Genghis Khan and Timur (or Tamerlane). Could Genghis Khan have imagined that someday there would be a mayor of distant London with his name?

Here is a look around the southeastern part of the Old City of Lahore, beginning in the Masjid Wazir Khan.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.5831683,74.3234744,2a,75y,196.05h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sTr8VzNbpxDIAAAQfr8pCoQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DTr8VzNbpxDIAAAQfr8pCoQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D193.76878%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Iqbal Park is in the northern part of the Old City of Lahore. The Minar-e-Pakistan, or Tower of Pakistan, is a monument commemorating the Lahore Resolution, that Moslems in India should have their separate homeland, which became Pakistan. The resolution was, of course, named for the heavily-Moslem city of Lahore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iqbal_Park#/media/File:Minar_-e_Pakistan_at_Night.jpeg

Iqbal Park is so named because of the tomb of Muhammad Iqbal. This was a poet and philosopher who is regarded as being the first to promote the idea of an independent Pakistan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iqbal_Park#/media/File:Allama_Iqbals_Tomb_East_wall_close-up_July_1_2005.jpg

The focal point of the Old City of Lahore is the three adjacent structures of Lahore Fort, Badshahi Mosque, both from the Mughal era, and the Samadhi of Ranjit Singh, from the Sikh era in Lahore. The positioning of the three is very similar to the adjacent positioning of a fort, a mosque and, a tomb, in Delhi and in Agra.

Lahore Fort, built of red sandstone just like the Red Fort in Delhi and Agra Fort in Agra, is on Fort Road in the Old City. It is on the site of previous forts, was begun by the Mughal emperor Akbar, and added to by emperor Shah Jahan. There is a summer palace in the fort and Moti Masjid is the interior mosque that was added by Shah Jahan.

The image of Lahore Fort that most people have is the front gate, the Alamgiri Gate:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lahore_Fort#/media/File:Lahore_Fort_view_from_Baradari.jpg

This is the Badshahi Mosque which was built in 1673 by Aurangzeb, from the interior of it's red sandstone courtyard, reminiscent of the Jama Masjid in Delhi which was built by Aurengzeb's father, Shah Jahan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badshahi_Mosque#/media/File:Badshahi_Mosque_33_(edited).jpg

There is a garden between the main entrances to the Lahore Fort and the adjacent Badshahi Mosque, which face each other. The garden is constructed in the typical Mughal quadrangle style, and is known as the Hazuri Bagh. In the center of the quadrangle is a pavilion, known as a Baradari, that was put there in the Sikh era of Lahore. At the south end of this garden is the Roshnai Gate, that we saw above.

The first of the following scenes show that building in the middle of the garden, with the Badshahi Mosque in the background. Behind where the image was taken is the Alamgiri Gate of the Lahore Fort. The large Sikh building, the Samadhi of Ranjit Singh, can be seen to be in a line perpendicular to the axis between the Badshahi Mosque and the Red Fort.

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.5883026,74.3123325,3a,75y,269h,85t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sKaq5UEtu0Hmzvevi9lB05Q!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DKaq5UEtu0Hmzvevi9lB05Q%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D269.58453%26pitch%3D-5.5640655!7i13312!8i6656

Lahore was ruled by the Sikh Empire for the first half of the Nineteenth Century. The Sikh Empire actually began with the capture of Lahore. During the Sikh era, mosques in Lahore were re-purposed into Gurdwaras. The Samadhi of Ranjit Singh is considered as the foremost example of Sikh architecture in Lahore. Ranjit Singh was the founder of the Sikh Empire and the building is his Nineteenth-Century mausoleum. Here is a close view of the Samadhi of Ranjit Singh.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samadhi_of_Ranjit_Singh#/media/File:SORS1.jpg

Here are scenes in and around the many universities that Lahore is known for.

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.5707923,74.3147623,3a,75y,61.48h,86.03t,-0.19r/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sGO_WOBQtBuuLxHBmn7VpAw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DGO_WOBQtBuuLxHBmn7VpAw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D153.38243%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656

The universities of Lahore are concentrated in the district of Anarkali, the name of which we will get to later.

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.569542,74.3090767,3a,75y,11h,86.81t,1.88r/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sFXS-pQCWedBEfwEEu73tJA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DFXS-pQCWedBEfwEEu73tJA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D269.70007%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656

Lahore is sometimes known as the "City of Gardens", and for good reason. It is the home of possibly the best example of a Mughal garden anywhere, the Shalimar Gardens. This garden has over 400 fountains and is built in the Mughal quadrangle form, known as Charbagh. Mughal gardens are intended to convey an idea of what Heaven will be like. Shalimar Gardens were built by the Mughals in the Seventeenth Century:

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.5870918,74.3826212,3a,75y,345.73h,87.42t,-3.98r/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s6egHwkIQwbD2M3kM2YCwHQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D6egHwkIQwbD2M3kM2YCwHQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D76.178421%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656

The tomb of the Mughal emperor Jahangir, who died in 1627, can be considered as Lahore's version of the Taj Mahal or Humayun's Tomb. His wife, Nur (or Noor) Jahan, was the best-known woman in Mughal history. The tombs of both are in Shahdara, to the northwest of Lahore. Jahangir was the son of Akbar, who began Lahore Fort.

A city cannot become as fabled as Lahore without some romance and intrigue. Movies have been made and stories written about the women around Jahangir. Those stories tend to fall into two categories. The first is that Jahangir was fond of drinking alcohol and that his wife, the strong-willed Noor Jahan, was the real power behind the throne during his reign. The second category is that Jahangir carried on an illicit relationship with a woman named Anarkali.

By the way Mumtaz Mahal, for whom the Taj Mahal was built as a tomb by Shah Jahan, was a niece of Noor Jahan.

Here is the tomb of Jahangir, starting from the inside, with Noor Jahan's tomb outside:

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.622511,74.3032314,3a,75y,213.48h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sTpZ6rffDIbUAAAQumcKgYQ!2e0!3e11!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DTpZ6rffDIbUAAAQumcKgYQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D63.641178%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656

But at the end of the gardens around Jahangir's tomb is a smaller garden surrounding another tomb. Some believe that this is the tomb of Anarkali. Some are certain that she never existed, and that the story is the invention of later writers. Others believe that she was real, but was common-born and such a relationship would never have happened. But Anarkali does have a section of the city named for her, where the universities are concentrated. Anyway, this might be Anarkali's Tomb:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarkali#/media/File:Tomb_of_Anar_Kali_Lahore.jpg