Thursday, August 13, 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".   

What Is Happening In Iran?

The visit usually comes first in these weekly postings. When I put something before the visit it means that it is especially important.

Considering what we saw last week in the posting "Islam's Colorful Shiites", can you see what is happening in Iran? The world is mystified by what has happened to the Supreme Leader. He hasn't been seen, or known to have communicated directly with anyone, in months since his father was killed and he took over as Supreme Leader.

The predominant religion in Iran is that of the "Twelver" Shiites. The belief is that there were twelve divine leaders, known as Imams. The twelfth leader will appear as the Mahdi, the Islamic messianic figure, but is now in a state of occulation, not in contact with his followers, since his father was killed.

The unmistakable implication is that the hidden Supreme Leader of Iran is, if not actually the Mahdi, then closely enough associated with him that his life takes a parallel course.

The outside world doesn't seem to recognize this and presumes that he is hidden because he was seriously injured in the airstrike that killed his father.

For more about the Mahdi see "The Far-Reaching Legacy Of Charles Manson ", June 2025.

Glasgow

For our visit this week, let's have a look at Scotland's largest city of Glasgow. 

Scotland was united in the Ninth Century. Glasgow is of religious origin. Glasgow Cathedral is where St. Mungo first established the city, so let's start our visit there. The first five images of the cathedral are from Google Street View.

Notice how darkened the stone is in the first image. This is from prolonged exposure to coal smoke during the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution changed the cityscape of Britain, bringing new major cities. Glasgow is Scotland's Industrial Revolution city. That is why the monarchy in Scotland revolves around Edinburgh, even though Glasgow is a much larger city. Edinburgh was there in medieval times. 

England's Industrial Revolution cities are Liverpool, Manchester and, Birmingham. This is why the northern Anglican archbishop is based in York, a medieval city, even though Liverpool and Manchester are larger cities. Cardiff is the Industrial Revolution city of Wales. Carmarthen was the most important town before then.

This is also why the Industrial Revolution cities don't have great medieval cathedrals. They have smaller cathedrals or cathedrals that were built in recent times.

Another wave of cities came with the wide availability of train travel. These were the the seaside resorts such as Blackpool, Scarborough and, Southend-on-Sea.

America and Canada don't show this pattern because they came after the Industrial Revolution. But there are the seaside resorts, such as Atlantic City, Virginia Beach and, Myrtle Beach.






There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must 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 wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@55.8630053,-4.2345633,3a,75y,78.24h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-d9BTDarcZs0%2FV1b7ZT2uBHI%2FAAAAAAAAAvg%2FXeTYBFGXsdUjF1rajnQOLe11ZV8GmtpAACLIB!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh3.googleusercontent.com%2F-d9BTDarcZs0%2FV1b7ZT2uBHI%2FAAAAAAAAAvg%2FXeTYBFGXsdUjF1rajnQOLe11ZV8GmtpAACLIB%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya354.65353-ro-0-fo100%2F!7i8704!8i4352

Here is a look at central Glasgow. Six images from Google Earth.







Medieval Glasgow is mostly gone. There was extensive urban renewal during the 1960s, and many residents moved to "new towns" outside the city. Glasgow is perhaps best-known for ship-building, but became a center of many industries after the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

The River Clyde is navigable to Glasgow. Two images from Google Earth.



Here is a photo that I took in Glasgow.


The following scenes of central Glasgow start from the same perspective as that photo, looking eastward on George Street. Nearby George Square is considered as the heart of Glasgow. St. Enoch Center is a former train station that was converted into a mall. The first of the following four images, from Google Earth and Street View, is of the St. Enoch Center. The second and third are of George Square. The building with the tower in the square is the Glasgow City Chambers.




Why do you pay for electricity in watts? Because Scotland's James Watt came up with the idea of horsepower. He also greatly improved the steam engine. This is the statue of him in George Square.


https://www.google.com/maps/@55.8627683,-4.2603666,3a,75y,90h,83.74t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1spgeoVref9ZrB75H6xiSvMg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

The University of Glasgow began in the Fifteenth Century. It is in the West End of the city. The River Kelvin and the famous Kelvingrove Park is next to the university. If the name of Kelvin seems familiar, it is because Lord Kelvin is the one who developed the absolute temperature scale, where zero is absolute zero, which is the lowest possible temperature. To do calculations of temperature in science, it is necessary to use absolute temperature.

The following four images, from Google Earth and Street View, are of the Kelvingrove Museum and Park. This museum is leftover from Glasgow's 1901 Exhibition. That is how so many of the famous buildings of Paris originated, made for exhibitions and then used afterward. This museum is Glasgow's equivalent of the Louvre or the Met in New York.




The park around these buildings is Kelvingrove Park.


We saw the tower of Glasgow University on the posting "Travel photos Of Europe".


The University of Glasgow is one of the four original universities of Scotland, known as the"Ancient Universities". It was a focal point of what is known as the Scottish Enlightenment, which refers to the numerous scientific, intellectual and, industrial accomplishments which took place in Scotland during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. This includes the improvement of the steam engine, around which the Industrial Revolution was built, and Adam Smith's economic theories of a free-market economy. Here are some views of Glasgow University, and the nearby entertainment district, starting in the chapel of the university.

https://www.google.com/maps/@55.871582,-4.2894071,3a,75y,69h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-lOe0mSOE68A%2FV81wI4mJltI%2FAAAAAAAAAK8%2FsNmgXuUThaAKP7D-lvxgJOC8_gI0huI1ACJkC!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh4.googleusercontent.com%2F-lOe0mSOE68A%2FV81wI4mJltI%2FAAAAAAAAAK8%2FsNmgXuUThaAKP7D-lvxgJOC8_gI0huI1ACJkC%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya335.98254-ro-0-fo100%2F!7i9728!8i4864

On the east side of Glasgow is Glasgow Green. This is a very old park where the Glasgow Fair has been held, toward the end of July, since the Twelfth Century. The following scenes around Glasgow Green begin outside an old building, known as the People's Palace. The first two images of the People's Palace are from Google Street View.



The colorful building that tries to look as different as possible from Glasgow's traditional architecture was built around the beginning of the Twentieth Century, and is known as Templeton Business Centre. Remember that one difference between historically Catholic and historically Protestant countries in Europe is that Protestants will put old and new buildings right next to each other, while Catholics tend to keep them separated. To Catholics fitting in with one's surroundings is important while Protestants view too much emphasis on "fitting in" as a threat to freedom. The first image of Templeton Business Centre is from Google Street View.


https://www.google.com/maps/@55.8514097,-4.2367826,2a,75y,270h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s53hxuXGTFGXAZkx7R0nzOw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D53hxuXGTFGXAZkx7R0nzOw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D275.68848%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Here is a look toward the west of Glasgow, starting inside the concert hall that is nicknamed "The Armadillo". Britain has a practice of nicknaming prominent buildings. The first four images are from Google Earth. The second of the images is of the Armadillo and the fourth is of the Clyde Arc.











The Crown Dependencies

There are islands that are not actually part of the United Kingdom but are crown dependencies. People born there have British citizenship. The relationship is similar to Puerto Rico being a U.S. territory.

THE TWO IMAGES SHOWING THE LOCATIONS OF THE TERRITORIES ARE FROM GOOGLE EARTH. THE OTHER IMAGES ARE FROM GOOGLE STREET VIEW.

The Isle of Man is an island in the Irish Sea that is roughly equidistant from Scotland, to the north, England, to the east, Northern Ireland, to the west and Wales, to the south.

The Isle of Man has a medieval history of belonging to both England and Scotland. It was converted to Christianity by Irish missionary after the time of St. Patrick. The demonym of the Isle of Man is "Manx", and that is where the breed of cat gets it's name.

The following eleven images are of Douglas, which is the major town of the Isle of Man.











These four images are of Castletown, with Castle Rushen.




In the year 911 the king of West Francia, which would later become France, ceded some land on it's north coast to some Vikings. This would form the Duchy of Normandy and the Vikings would become known as Normans. A Duke of Normandy, named William, was related to the English King. William claimed to have inherited the Throne of England and led a force to consolidate his claim. This is known as the Norman Invasion of 1066.

This entangled England and France and a later English king claimed to also be King of France. This led to the intermittent Hundred Years War. Eventually it all got straightened out. France took back Normandy. England was to the north of the English Channel and France was to the south of it.

But what got left out of it was the islands that had been part of the Duchy of Normandy. These islands are still controlled by Britain today, as crown dependencies, and known as the Channel Islands. On the islands, the British monarch has the title of Duke of Normandy.

The two largest islands are Jersey and Guernsey. Jersey got a U.S. state named for it. The major town of Jersey is St. Helier and the following seven images are of it.







The major town of Guernsey is St. Peter Port and the following seven images are of it.