Thursday, September 10, 2026

Introduction To This Blog System

                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Image used by permission

Posting is usually done once a week, on Thursday.

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.

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 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 six major scientific theories, each arranged in the form of a textbook. The first five of the following six 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 Theory Of Infinite Dimensions" is the most recent scientific theory. It is the second cosmological theory, after"The Theory Of Stationary Space". We see the universe as an infinity of distance in three spatial dimensions and light as always moving in straight lines. But this is another example of how we see the universe as we do not only because of what it is but also because of what we are. It is more logical that the universe has an infinite number of dimensions. We can see in all of the dimensions because light actually can turn corners but it requires energy. We can only see it as three dimensions because of our limited dimensional order. Light consists of two-dimensional waves and we perceive space as being three-dimensional. This means that we can see light as coming from different directions but can only perceive it as moving in a straight line.
 
"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 "Thanks To Readers". 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".   

Kolkata

Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, is the major city of the eastern part of India. I remember when it was the largest city in India, until overtaken by Mumbai in the mid-1980s.

In the western mind, Kolkata is thought of as the mission field of Mother Theresa. Mother Theresa is remembered as a saint who dedicated her life to helping the poor. But the trouble is what that says about the city of Kolkata. When someone really wants to help the poor, the logical step is to think of the poorest place in the world, and go there. Since Mother Theresa went to Kolkata, westerners conclude that it must be poor.

ALL IMAGES ARE FROM GOOGLE STREET VIEW 


But what I want to show readers today is that this simply is not true. Kolkata could actually be considered as the cultural capital of India. It is a well-run city with an education rate that is higher, and a crime rate that is lower, than the national average.

My conclusion is that what brought so many poor people to Kolkata is it's proximity to Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan. The eastern part of India's Bengal State became East Pakistan, while Kolkata was the capital of West Bengal. Like Bangladesh, the main language in Kolkata is Bengali.

First, in the partition of the country in 1947, Kolkata was the natural destination of displaced Hindus moving westward, as their place was taken by Moslems moving through Kolkata from India into East Pakistan. This must have been a tremendous strain on the city.

Second, when East and West Pakistan split up in 1971, with the former East Pakistan becoming the new nation of Bangladesh, many millions of refugees poured into India when the former West Pakistan sent the military to restore order in East Pakistan. Possibly a majority of these refugees stayed, at least temporarily, in Kolkata.

The poverty that Mother Theresa so famously ministered to in Kolkata had nothing to do with the nature of the city itself. It was because of the millions of refugees pouring in. What would your city be like if millions of refugees suddenly arrived?

Let's have a look at what a great city Kolkata really is.

Kolkata does not have Mughal-era architecture like  Delhi, but it has plenty more. This is the Victoria Memorial, which looks very much like Kolkata's version of the Taj Mahal. The first image is of a statue of Queen Victoria on her throne but it is also a tribute to the Taj Mahal. The British often imitated what the Mughals had earlier done and this was their version of the Taj Mahal, in honor of Queen Victoria.









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 previews of successive scenes, if you so wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@22.5448599,88.3426258,3a,75y,7.77h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1swU6o-DpV-mjpiTVwIut--Q!2e0!3e2!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DwU6o-DpV-mjpiTVwIut--Q%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D202.61652%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

This is the buildings around the river. The red building is the court.









The tall building near the Victoria Memorial is known as The 42.




This is the cricket stadium near the Victoria Memorial.


The Howrah Bridge is Kolkata's sibling to Buffalo's Peace Bridge.


This is the area around the Marble Palace, and the older part of the city.












One of the most prominent sights in Kolkata is the Dakshineswar Kali Temple.




The mosque with the green domes is the Tipu Sultan Masjid.




Outside of Kolkata, further north in West Bengal state, the name of Darjeeling is a very special name to anyone who likes tea. Here is a look around the city of Darjeeling.





https://www.google.com/maps/@27.0448562,88.2677211,3a,75y,260h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPPQl6ewMrQNA1DovhZcCGDh41KJxGlKov63myi!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPPQl6ewMrQNA1DovhZcCGDh41KJxGlKov63myi%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya185-ro0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

When I was a boy, the world atlas that I had showed a country in the Himalayas called Sikkim. The country has since decided to join India. Just north of West Bengal state, let's have a look at how Sikkim is doing today.

https://www.google.com/maps/@27.3600314,88.6280869,3a,75y,277h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-3Ly0caZIM4Y%2FWCVMK4ORQQI%2FAAAAAAAAHaU%2F20E5XKpDPuECRENlf5XFGLRlbqZgqQBaACLIB!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh6.googleusercontent.com%2F-3Ly0caZIM4Y%2FWCVMK4ORQQI%2FAAAAAAAAHaU%2F20E5XKpDPuECRENlf5XFGLRlbqZgqQBaACLIB%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya353.49997-ro-0-fo100%2F!7i8704!8i4352

Finally, this is far up in the Himalayas, in the north of the Indian state of Sikkim. The Himalayas will remind Europeans of the Alps, mountains with sharp peaks that were formed by tectonic collision and not the smooth and rounded mountains of volcanic origin.



Remembering The Gupta Dynasty

The Gupta Dynasty represented another of India's golden ages, the second after the Mauryan Empire. The numbers that we use, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, are referred to as Arabic Numerals. They were brought to the west during the Abbasid Caliphate, particularly through the "House of Wisdom", in Baghdad. But the numerals actually originated with the Gupta Dynasty. The concept of zero was revolutionary because it is impossible to do complex calculations without it. The ancients could do some calculations with devices, such as the abacus, but the importance of zero wasn't understood.

Alexander had brought knowledge and ideas to India, before the Mauryan Empire. The human form of Buddha is believed to have been adopted from Greek sculpture. There was a continued relationship because there were Indo-Greek, known as Yavana, kingdoms. The Seleucids, the eastern part of Alexander's empire after it broke up, continued the relationship with India. 

But it was the Guptas who really added to the knowledge that the Greeks had earlier gained, coming up with the numerals that we use and the absolutely essential concept of zero. My understanding is that the concept of infinity also came from the Guptas.

In contrast with the earlier Mauryan Empire, where the emperor Ashoka converted to Buddhism, the Gupta Dynasty was all about Hinduism. The Gupta capital had been Pataliputra, which had also been the Mauryan capital. But the Guptas renamed a city as Ayodha and moved their capital there. What was called Magadha, in what is now the State of Bihar, was central to both the Mauryan and Gupta Empires. This seems to be the Guptas linking themselves with the earlier greatness of the Mauryan Empire.

ALL IMAGES ARE FROM GOOGLE STREET VIEW 

This is a place in Ayodha, called Ram Ki Paidi, where pilgrims can look across the river at the Nagesh Warnath Temple. Notice how the Mughals would later build the Taj Mahal to be similarly looked at from across a river, signifying that they were an Islamic version of the Guptas Golden Age.








Here are some general views of Ayodha.





The focal point of Hinduism today is the city of Varanasi, or Benares. The Ganges River is considered as sacred and there are steps leading down to it. Cows are sacred in Hinduism and are seen in the city.







CHANDRAGUPTA III 

India's First Golden Age was the Mauryan Empire, founded by Chandragupta Maurya around 320 BC. About 650 years later another golden age came with the Gupta Dynasty. It's founder took the name of Chandragupta I. His grandson, Chandragupta II, made an inscription on the famous Iron Pillar of Delhi. It is believed to have later been moved to Delhi, and placed in the Qutb Complex, by the Delhi Sultanate, thus linking themselves with the Guptas Golden Age. The Mughals would later move their capital to Delhi, adding themselves to the link.

Another golden age came with the Mughals.

As we saw in the compound posting "India And The West" December 2022, India has a history of entering a golden age about four hundred years after the last one ended. This means that the next golden age should be arriving right about now.

2014 was the year in which India became the first nation to successfully send a spacecraft to Mars on it's first attempt. It was also the year that Narendra Modi became prime minister. Doesn't it seem like Narendra Modi is really Chandragupta III and 2014 was the beginning of another golden age?