Thursday, October 17, 2024

Introduction To This Blog System

                                                                                                          

Image used by permission

This is my main blog and all new postings are made here. Postings may be later combined into a compound posting on this blog. Many of the postings concern my observations in various branches of science, but there are also many on technology, religion, economics and, general world issues.

Blogs are organized to be read from top to bottom like a book. There is a list of the postings on each blog to the right of the blog, but you have to click on the months shown. Please use this listing to verify that you have seen all of the postings on the blog. The usual pace of this blog is 1-3 new postings per week.
 
I would really like to thank everyone who reads any of these blogs for your interest.
 
SCIENCE WRITING
 
Most of the postings on this blog are visits to various places around the world, and articles about such topics as history and religion. But much of the writing is about science. I do not write about what is already known but only if I can write something new, or at least a new way of looking at things. If the title of a posting has an asterisk* after it, that means that the posting has already been moved to it's permanent position and will later be deleted from here.
 
If you would like a quick background in the science and mathematics that everyone should really know in the 21st Century, the posting "Scientific Literacy" provides this in about a hundred paragraphs. Similarly, "The Way Things Work" provides a quick background in everyday technology.
 
I am a Christian and I want to show that belief in God is not unscientific at all. I was interested in science long before I was interested in religion, and have never had any trouble believing that God created everything.
 
There are five major scientific theories, each arranged in the form of a textbook. The first four of the following five are on this blog.
 
"The Theory Of Stationary Space" is my cosmological theory of how so much revolves around time being explained by us being in four-dimensional space, with the dimension that we cannot access being perceived as time. This is my version of string theory, with matter actually being strings in four dimensions rather than particles in three dimensions. Everything is ultimately based on negative and positive electric charges, with energy being able to overcome the laws of attraction and repulsion of electric charges. No one has ever explained exactly what time is, and a myriad of explanations of other things fall right into place around it.
 
"The Flow Of Information Through The Universe" is about how so much can be explained by seeing how there is a limited amount of information, and it must be the same information that constructs the highest levels as the lowest levels. A ready example is how the orbits of planets around the sun is based on the orbitals of electrons around the nucleus, in the atoms of which the sun and planets are composed. This concept is extremely useful because, understanding this, we can study things that we cannot directly see by analyzing things that we can see because all must be built on the same information.
 
"The Theory Of Complexity" is about what information actually is, how energy and information is really the same thing, and how we see the universe as we do because of our perspective of being at a higher level of information than our inanimate surroundings.
 
"The Lowest Information Point" is about how, since information and energy is really the same thing and the universe always seeks the lowest energy state, it also always seeks the "Lowest Information Point". So much is explained by how the universe prefers equalities to inequalities and related ratios where the numerator of one ratio is also the denominator of the other. This explains so much from why dust particles are as big as they to why the planets and stars are the scale that they are.
 
"The Story Of Planet Earth", on the geology blog, is about how virtually every major feature of the earth's surface, both on land and seafloor, can be explained by lines of magma emergence from below that were affected by the landing of three Continental Asteroids. Many people believe that land originated from a past "super-continent", but there is no explanation of where it came from.
 
There are a few of what we could call "minor" theories, where there is not as much written as with the major theories. On this blog, there is "How Biology And Human Life Fits Into Cosmology". On the meteorology and biology blog, there is my theory of the nature of water, "Water Made Really Simple".
 
There are compound postings about science which are groupings of writing about a certain topic.
 
Scientific compound postings include, "Computer Science", "Atomic Science", "Measurement", "A Celebration Of The Inverse Square Law", "Our Solar System", "Mind-Bending Cosmology", "The Configuration Of The Solar System Made Really Simple", "In Appreciation Of Electrons", "The Science Of Human Society " and "Orbital And Escape Velocities And Impacts from Space".
 
Compound postings about history and the world include "The House Of Holy Wisdom, Where The Modern World Began", "Niagara Stories", "Economics", "How History Repeats Itself", "The Meaning Of Freedom", "The Western Hemisphere", "Our Language" and, "America And The Modern World Explained By Way Of Paris".
 
There are two compound postings about prophecies and the Bible. There is "The Aztec Prophecy" than, for prophecies that are directly made in the Bible there is "New Insight Into Bible Prophecy".
 
"Investigations" is the compound posting that is a collection of any posting about an investigation.
 
The rest of the postings are individual postings. For more detailed information about this blog, see the posting "About This Blog". For general topics of conversation, see "Thoughts And Observations", on the world and economics blog.  

Other Blogs And Books

                                                           

Lights at night 

Here is a quick look at my other blogs before you start this one.

On this blog, you can see a list of all postings by clicking on the year or month to the right. But on the topical blogs, that is not the case. If you click on a year or month on those blogs, it will display the postings themselves, but the list on the right will still only show those postings that were added most recently.

To access a list of all postings on those blogs, it is necessary to click on the arrow in front of the year or month in question.

http://www.markmeekeconomics.blogspot.com/ is about economics, history and, general human issues.

http://www.markmeekprogress.blogspot.com/ concerns progress in technology and ideas.

http://www.markmeekearth.blogspot.com/ is my geology and global natural history blog for topics other than glaciers. My natural history blogs concerning the impact of glaciers is http://www.markmeekworld.blogspot.com/ .

http://www.markmeekniagara.blogspot.com/ is about new discoveries concerning natural history in the general area of Niagara Falls.

http://www.markmeeklife.blogspot.com/ is my observations concerning meteorology and biology.

http://www.markmeekphysics.blogspot.com/ is my blog about physics and astronomy.

http://www.markmeekcosmology.blogspot.com/ is my version of string theory that solves many unsolved mysteries about the underlying structure and beginning of the universe.

http://www.markmeekpatterns.blogspot.com/ details my work with the fundamental patterns and complexity that underlies everything in existence.

 http://www.markmeekreligion.blogspot.com/ is my religion blog.

 http://www.markmeekcreation.blogspot.com/ is proof that there must be a god.

http://www.markmeekphotos.blogspot.com/ is my travel photos of Europe.

On my photo blogs, Blogspot will not hold all of the photos in each blog in a straight line. To see all of the photos, you must click on the bottom posting listed on the right at the top of the blog after seeing all that there are in the initial showing. The last posting in the North America blog should be "Tijuana, Mexico" and the last posting in the Europe blog should be "Notre Dame Cathedral Door And Arc De Triomphe, Paris". Each photo in the photo blogs can be clicked on to enlarge it to full screen.

My autobiography is http://www.mark-meek.blogspot.com/

My books can be seen at http://www.bn.com/ http://www.amazon.com/ or, http://www.iuniverse.com/ just do an author search for "Mark Meek".  

Myanmar (Burma)

The Irrawaddy River Valley was one of the important river valleys where early civilizations formed. The geology theory, described in the abbreviated version, "Geology Theory With Satellite Imagery And Maps", March 2024, 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 resumed in 2021. 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.

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 first five images of the Shwedagon Pagoda are from Google Street View.






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. The first four are from Google Street View.








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. The first three images of central Mandalay are from Google Street View.







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. The first five scenes of Inwa, or Ava, are from Google Street View.






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. The first image is from Google Street View.



The Sheet Theory Of History

In nations that have a long history, modern history tends to operate like a box covered by a sheet. History tends to repeat itself and the box represents the reenactment of history while the sheet that covers it represents an ideology or religion that the reenactment is apparently done in the name of.

We have already seen examples of this in the Middle East. The militias near Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah, are actually reenactments of the medieval orders of knights that protected Christian pilgrims and tried to liberate the Holy Land from Moslems, although the sheet that covers them is Islam. 

The barbarity of ISIS, although under the sheet of Islam, is actually a reenactment of ancient Assyria, which was known for it's barbarity. The territory of ISIS was approximately the same as that once held by Assyria and ISIS was proclaimed in Mosul, which was once the Assyrian capital of Nineveh. We saw in "Babylon Strikes Back" how the Iran-Iraq War was a reenactment of the ancient conflict between Babylon and Persia, but under the sheets of Iran's Islamic Revolution and Iraq's Arab socialist nationalism.

What we will see today is another example of this sheet theory, in the Far East. From 1975-1979, Cambodia was ruled by what is known as the Khmer Rouge. This was a group that wanted to turn Cambodia into a rural rice-growing society that practiced pure communism. Unlike in other Communist countries, there would be no intermediate steps to this state of pure communism. 

The entire population of Cambodia was forced into camps in the countryside, where they were put to work growing rice. There was no religion, no individualism and, no private property. People had to dine in communal groups with their neighbors. 

Anyone suspected of not fitting in with the new order were simply killed. Up to a quarter of the country's population were either killed or died as a result. So many people were executed that, to save bullets, execution was usually done by impact to the head from a tool like a hammer or axe. The dead were buried in what became known as the "Killing Fields".

But Communism was a sheet. What this really was is an attempt to reenact the glory of the Khmer Empire, and it's great city of Angkor, a thousand years before. The city of Angkor revolved around the temple known as Angkor Wat, which is today considered as the largest religious monument in the world. During the rule of the Khmer Rouge the country was renamed "Kampuchea ", which comes from the name that the Khmer Empire called itself. 

The flag of Kampuchea had the outline of Angkor Wat in the center, as does the flag of Cambodia today. The following image is the flag of Kampuchea, from the Wikipedia article "Flag of Cambodia".

The Khmer Rouge leadership called itself "Angkar" and the goal of a rice-growing society was based on the great city of Angkor having also revolved around growing rice. Like the city of Angkor, the Khmer Rouge planned irrigation to facilitate year-round rice growing, in order to get around the dependence on seasonal rains.

The great city of Angkor had been abandoned, around the time that the present capital of Phnom Penh was founded, and it is not certain why. Angkor Wat had originally been built as a Hindu temple, but the country moved toward Buddhism and Phnom Penh was built where some Buddhist icons had been found. It could be that the Hindu city had to be abandoned so that Buddhism could take over, although Angkor Wat was later remodeled as a Buddhist temple.

But Angkor had been Hindu at it's height, so that the coming of Buddhism could be said to represent it's decline. This is reflected in the Khmer Rouge retaliating by abandoning the Buddhist city, Phnom Penh, that had supplanted Angkor. The Khmer Rouge was very hostile to Buddhism, probably thousands of monks were killed, although Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, had once been a monk himself. It is also reflected in the Khmer Rouge seeking purification, by killing, anyone who was educated or spoke French, or even wore eyeglasses.

The nation of Kampuchea had border clashes with all three countries that bordered it, most notably Vietnam. The Khmer Rouge was all about restoring the glory of the Khmer Empire and these clashes reflected their desire to regain lost territories. The following image, from the Wikipedia article "Khmer Empire", shows the vast territory of the empire at it's height, centered around the city of Angkor.

The following image, from the Wikipedia article "Khmer Nationalism", shows modern Cambodia with the areas that the Khmer feel that they have a claim to.

It was border clashes with Vietnam that ultimately brought about the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge, and the end of Kampuchea. The Khmer Rouge wanted the southern part of Vietnam back, that had once belonged to the Khmer Empire.

Certainly there were outside influences on the Khmer Rouge, starting with the French Revolution. Cambodia had been a French colony and many top figures of the Khmer Rouge had spent time in France. Pol Pot had gotten married on Bastille Day and had declared time as starting over when the Khmer Rouge came to power, designating it as "Year Zero". In the style of the French revolutionaries, Pol Pot planned a ten day workweek. Pol Pot spent quite a bit of time in China and this was during the era of the Cultural Revolution and the "Great Leap Forward".

But where could the idea have come from to slaughter thousands upon thousands of their own people, just because they didn't fit in to their version of how society should be? A mostly forgotten part of recent history is the slaughter of Communists in neighboring Indonesia, in the mid-1960s. Many thousands of people were killed, anyone even suspected of having Communist sympathies. The Khmer Rouge could have been retaliating, a decade later, and similarly massacring anyone opposed, or just not fitting into, their version of Communism.

Yet Communism, to the Khmer Rouge, was just a sheet. This could just as easily have been done in the name of any other ideology. The nations of Southeast Asia were all Communist. But their common ideology didn't stop them from going to war with each other. These nations with long histories were reenacting those histories and just needed an ideology or religion to do the reenactment in the name of, and that is what the sheet is. 

Angkor Wat, the great temple that is represented on the Cambodian flag, is an ideal example of what we saw in "The Binding Power Of Stone Monuments And Walls". Here is a link to it.

www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-binding-power-of-stone-monuments.html?m=0

Apocalyptic Developments

This week there was a meeting in Ashgabat between Vladimir Putin and the new President of Iran. Ashgabat is in Turkmenistan and the leaders of the former Soviet republics in central Asia were also at the meeting. Russia and Iran are already close allies in the war in Ukraine.

What is interesting is that, in the Book of Ezekiel, the invasion of Israel from the north, that will begin the final series of wars of the world, will be by an invader to the north of Israel, who will be allied with Persia and there will be "many people with them". There were also recent reports that the North Korean military is assisting Russia in it's war with Ukraine. This "many people" or "many nations" is stated several times in Chapters 38 and 39. 

We can see on a map that Moscow is due north of Israel and we know that Persia is the old name of Iran. Doesn't it look like these "many people" might be the central Asian republics that were once part of the Soviet Union? The entire scenario is described in "The End Of The World As We Know It", June 2024.

With regard to the recent extremely destructive hurricanes, caused by global warming, Jesus foretold that people in the Last Days would be "in anguish over the sea and the waves".

Historical Questions

It now appears that Christopher Columbus was Jewish, and wasn't from Genoa. What I think happened is that Genoa claimed him in an effort to compete with Venice. Genoa and Venice are today part of a united Italy but were once city-states in competition with each other. Venice managed to procure the bones of St. Mark from Egypt, who was adopted as the city's patron saint. This was likely inspired by Rome having the bones of St. Peter. So what Genoa did was to claim Columbus as it's own.

What do the economic crashes of 1907, 1929, 1987 and, 2008 have in common? They all occurred during the month of October. Since stock trading continues throughout the year, the odds of this being just a coincidence are 1 in 1,728. But why should this be the case? October is when the summer is gone but people have not yet gotten into the cheerful mood of the holiday season, and this affects the traders' mood. What if the central stock exchanges were located where the climate is pleasant year-round? Might economic crashes be avoidable.

Here is something that is a long shot but I think it deserves some consideration. The largest religious monument in the world is supposedly Angkor Wat, in Cambodia. It was built as a Hindu temple before later being converted to Buddhism. Unlike other Khmer temples, it is aligned to the west. Stories from Hindu scriptures are carved in stone but, unlike other temples, the story is told counter-clockwise, rather than clockwise. The arrangement of the towers in the temple matches the arrangement of the stars in the circumpolar constellation Draco, which circles the north star counterclockwise as the earth rotates. We saw in the first section of the compound posting "India And The West", December 2022, "Hinduism And Ancient Egypt", the similarity between the religion of ancient Egypt and modern Hinduism. The Hindu religion is the only one that cannot be traced to any founder and the idea has been around that it might have been brought from Egypt. Then we have that the arrangement of the three Pyramids of Giza, in Cairo, matches that of the belt of the constellation Orion. We saw this in "The Underground Orion Correlation Theory", March 2016. I realize that the Pyramids of Giza and Angkor Wat are far apart in both time and space, but is it possible that the unusual arrangement of Angkor Wat was inspired by the Pyramids?

Jacob's Stew

I got this idea from the stew that Jacob made, and gave some to Esau, in Chapter 25 of the Book of Genesis. Sometimes I call it Niagara Spiced Stew. This is what I make especially in the winter. It is a dense soup with all kinds of nutritious items mixed in, although there is no fixed recipe. An onion and a potato cut up, the cut potato being microwaved for two minutes first, olives, tomatoes, lentils, capers, various beans, chickpeas, carrots, mixed vegetables, black eyed peas, elephant garlic, etc.

This pot will provide six meals.

For individual servings I put some stew in this pan, before heating and then adding spices. Not only is this an ideal way to get a lot of nutritious items, it is also a good vehicle for spices. I put the spices into each individual serving and not the pot as a whole.



The Benefit Of Having A Monarch

Just a reminder that there is benefit in having a constitutional monarch. I have been interested in history all my life but it has only been relatively recently that I realized just how important kings really are. Australia is again debating becoming a republic.

Monarchy is the way the world has been run for thousands of years and it is impossible to just change it in a short time. We have not eliminated kings, not at all. We usually just don't call them kings anymore. But they are very much still with us. 

What happens is that if a nation doesn't have a king, even a tame "constitutional" monarch, it has more tendency to end up being ruled by someone who "acts like a king". Another important factor in understanding international relations is that leaders who are effectively kings tend to support each other and stick together.

Leaders who are effectively kings tend to be rightward. Suppose that we compare Britain and France. Britain has a constitutional monarch while the French monarchy has been eliminated. But France today has a strong far-right political party, dominated by the Le Pen family, that Britain lacks. I see this party as the modern incarnation of the French monarchy.

It was the French Revolution that opened the modern political era. The king and queen were overthrown and guillotined, in order to create a republic, but it ended up in the rule of Napoleon, who was the prototype of the modern dictator. Before being overthrown the king and queen had been America's first allies, and helped it to gain independence. We saw in the compound posting "America And The Modern World Explained By Way Of Paris", December 2015, that America's Republican side is effectively the continuation of the French Bourbon Dynasty. What Donald Trump stands for, in the grand scheme of things, is a reversal of the French Revolution.

Now there is legislation pending in Britain to do away with the hereditary peerages in the House of Lords. But let's be careful, they don't have a lot of real power anyway. Britain is alone among the larger European countries in that it has never been ruled by a dictator. It is also the only one that still has a monarch, although a constitutional monarch, and I don't think that is a coincidence. The real purpose of the hereditary peerages is that they have provided a valuable sense of continuity for many centuries. I would never have written this when I was young but now I realize how important it is.

Why don't we review all about kings, the advantages and disadvantages of having one? Here is a link to "The Theory Of Kings".

www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-theory-of-kings_28.html?m=0

The Real Story of Osirak

With all that is going on in the Middle East why don't we review the Israeli air raid, on an Iraqi nuclear reactor, more than forty years ago. This is from the compound posting "Investigations".

On June 7, 1981, the Israeli Air Force launched a surprise long-range mission which bombed and destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak. Iraq had originally purchased the reactor technology from France. The purported reason for the raid was to prevent Iraq from gaining  a nuclear weapon which could well be used against Israel.

The raid was condemned across the world. Even Iran, which was at war with Iraq, condemned the raid. But much of the condemnation seemed to be somewhat half-hearted. While one nation should not be allowed to launch an air raid against another, much of the world also felt that it would be a more dangerous place if Iraq had nuclear weapons.

Iran, in the course of the ongoing war with Iraq, had earlier bombed the reactor itself, in what was known as Operation Scorch Sword. But the reactor had not been seriously damaged in that raid. The first thing that is confusing about it is that there is information online that Iran actually supplied Israel with aerial photo reconnaissance of the site, yet Iran condemned the raid when it was bombed.

My conclusion is that the Israeli bombing mission was really directed at Iran.

The Iran Hostage Crisis, where Americans from the staff of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran had been held for 444 days, had recently ended with the hostages being released. On April 24, 1980, a rescue attempt had been made to free the hostages. The mission was aborted when it was decided that there were not enough serviceable helicopters left to ensure a successful mission. The tragic accident occurred after the mission had been aborted when the rotor blade of a helicopter struck an aircraft.

Two months before the Israeli air attack on Osirak, Iran had undertaken an extremely complex aerial mission against Iraq. On the far side of Iraq, near the border with Jordan and Syria, was a complex of airfields known as H3 to guard Iraq's western border area. A large number of military aircraft were parked there, some seemingly recently imported, out of the reach of the Iranian Air Force which would like to destroy the planes on the ground.

A fleet of Iranian planes flew all the way there on a very long-range mission. The planes had to refuel in the air several times. They flew at low altitude, to avoid radar detection, right along the borders between Turkey and Iraq, and between Syria and Iraq. That way, if they were picked up on radar, each country would conclude that they were just patrolling the border of the other country. The following image is from the Wikipedia article "H-3 Airstrike".


Syria was supportive of Iran during the war and we have to wonder if the government of Syria was aware of the mission. Since H3 is not far from the border between Iraq and Syria, did it even inform Iran about the planes?

Two Boeing 747 planes were involved in the Iranian mission. One was an aerial command post and the other was a refueling plane. Both of these took off from Turkey, which was unaware of their mission, and joined the other planes. At the time of the operation, another Iranian air operation was launched elsewhere, to divert the attention of the Iraqi Air Force.

The mission was a great success and, as far as I can see, the Iranians suffered no losses and made it back home with no mishaps. They claimed to have destroyed 48 Iraqi planes on the ground. The Iraqis scoffed at the claims and said that only one plane was damaged in the raid. The data gained by the U.S. is that the raid was a success, but it was likely somewhat fewer than 48 Iraqi planes that were destroyed.

This complex Iranian mission was virtually a mirror image of the U.S. attempt to rescue it's hostages the year before. Except that the mission was to destroy planes rather than rescue hostages. The mission was, as much as anything, a jab at the United States. Iran wanted to show that it could pull off perfectly a mission that was just about as complex as the one that the U.S. attempted, Operation Eagle Claw.

But the successful Iranian bombing mission came uncomfortably close to Israel. The planes had flown a very long distance to get there, and the H3 complex was within 375 km (250 miles) of Jerusalem. It was closer to Jerusalem than it was to Baghdad. Israel was closely watching the Iran-Iraq War, as both were potential enemies.

Could this be what really prompted the Israeli bombing mission against Osirak? To remind Iran of Israel's capabilities in destroying a reactor that a similar Iranian raid had failed to destroy?

Israel surely knew that the world would condemn the raid. France was actively involved in operating the reactor that it had sold to Iraq and had assured Israel that it could not produce a nuclear weapon. But Israel thought it imperative to launch the raid anyway. Israel seemed to see that the Iranian raid on H3 was to show up America, so Israel followed the same formula and showed up Iran by a long-distance air mission that succeeded in destroying the reactor that an Iranian mission had earlier been unable to.

But then this brings us to something else. Exactly three weeks after the Israeli bombing of Osirak, a massive bomb exploded during a meeting of Iran's ruling party. More than seventy of the most important people in the government were killed. The event is known as the Hafte Tir Bombing. It is really a credit to Iran's Revolution that it survived this.

My understanding is that a sound technician was setting up speakers. The speakers were brought in on a cart, and the bomb was hidden in the cart. Another story is that the bomb was hidden in a garbage can.

The blame fell on the organization known as the Mujahedin e Khalq. The organization, advocating a kind of blend of Islam and Marxist principles, had long been opposed to the Shah of Iran. They sided with Ayatollah Khomeini, and helped him overthrow the Shah, but the alliance didn't last long, and they had been vigorously opposing the Revolution, eventually siding with Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War.

But there is a persistent story that the Mossad, Israel's intelligence service encouraged the bombing, and possibly supplied the bomb.

I do not really believe that Israel had anything to do with the bombing. But here is what I do believe.

In early 2018 Mossad agents broke into a warehouse in Tehran. They removed a vast archive of documentation about Iran's nuclear program. Benjamin Netanyahu went on television to denounce Iran for lying in claiming that it was not seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

But that was not what it was really about.

The real message was, going back to 1981, to show Iran up again. The operation to get those nuclear records is reminiscent of the U.S. attempt to get in, get it's people being held hostage, and get safely out. It was also reminiscent of the Israeli hostage rescue mission at Entebbe in 1976.

The message to Iran was to be very careful because Israeli agents can operate in Iran without getting caught. Also, whether or not Israel had anything to do with it, don't forget the Hafte Tir Bombing, which wiped out much of the Iranian Government, because it could happen again.

Thursday, October 10, 2024

Bangkok

Bangkok became the capital of Thailand in 1782. It is one of the most visited cities in the world.

The following scenes are of around Wat Arun, a Buddhist temple which was built in the 1600s. The first six images of Wat Arun are from Google Street View. 







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/@13.7436778,100.4889689,3a,75y,108.88h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNKggVLohLOIhrd3l2Y8Ov3if_vzcd4CQcojleS!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNKggVLohLOIhrd3l2Y8Ov3if_vzcd4CQcojleS%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya109.398384-ro-0-fo100!7i5659!8i2827

This is the complex of the Grand Palace, where the king of Thailand lived until 1925. Thailand was formerly known as Siam, and Siamese means Thai. The first seven images of the Grand Palace are from Google Street View.











https://www.google.com/maps/@13.7681959,100.5117474,3a,75y,77.57h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1shspw0x_kwRDtCGR5d79EMg!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D0%26panoid%3Dhspw0x_kwRDtCGR5d79EMg%26yaw%3D77.56994617746015!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205410&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDkwOC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

Absolute monarchy was abolished in Thailand's 1932 revolution. If you have never heard of this revolution, it is because it was more of a quick coup by military officers. The king, while still very highly respected, is now a constitutional monarch, bound by a constitution. Monarchists describe the difference as being between that of a "real" king and a "showpiece" king. This revolution is remembered with the Democracy Monument, which is within a traffic circle. The first image of the Democracy Monument is from Google Street View.


https://www.google.com/maps/@13.7565942,100.5022298,3a,75y,55.16h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sA3PwEJQ5a_fdti7ad5MJTg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DA3PwEJQ5a_fdti7ad5MJTg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D54.370132%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Another monument in Bangkok is the Victory Monument. This is to celebrate a victory that Thailand claimed against French colonial forces, taking back land that it had earlier been forced to give up. You may notice the irony here as the obelisk of the monument, while not a genuine Egyptian obelisk, resembles the one in Place Concorde. In the same way that the Democracy Monument, in a traffic circle, looks like something right out of Paris. The first image of the Victory Monument is from Google Street View.





https://www.google.com/maps/@13.7449428,100.5336258,2a,75y,46.93h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sB5gkhp2VQAsygInEsOtnEw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DB5gkhp2VQAsygInEsOtnEw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D46.10052%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

You can see on the signs that there are many Chinese-language businesses in this area. The name of Bangkok's river is the Chao Praya.

https://www.google.com/maps/@13.7411316,100.5083451,3a,75y,88.41h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sOs0WqHPREioATpoQ_YEm_Q!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DOs0WqHPREioATpoQ_YEm_Q%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D88.366035%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

There are a lot of Indian stores in this area. Remember that the reason southeast Asia is referred to as "Indochina" is that it has historically been influenced by both India and China.

https://www.google.com/maps/@13.7448278,100.5005303,3a,75y,132.79h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sQLmYTW_w3sNupBvabZF7dw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DQLmYTW_w3sNupBvabZF7dw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D133.62007%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Finally, here are some views of the modern Bangkok, to the north of the older part of the city.

https://www.google.com/maps/@13.7564481,100.5363248,3a,75y,229.84h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sqEvhzpwRrozQKClYUo6ElA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DqEvhzpwRrozQKClYUo6ElA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D229.0144%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656