Thursday, July 9, 2026

Introduction To This Blog System

                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Image used by permission

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 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 "Thanks To Readers". For general topics of conversation, see "Thoughts And Observations", on the world and economics blog.  
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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".   

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A Journey Through The Midlands

Our visit today is to England's Midlands. The majority of immigrants to Britain settle in London. But after a while many, sometimes the second generation, discover the more relaxed pace and more reasonable prices of the Midlands, while still being close enough to visit friends or family in London.

EACH STOP HAS FOUR IMAGES FROM GOOGLE EARTH OR STREET VIEW 

The major city of the Midlands is Birmingham. It is not a very old city. As a town, Birmingham was on the Puritan side in England's Civil War. What is so important about Birmingham is that it was where the steam engine was invented, and this is the invention that started the Industrial Revolution. Birmingham was the home of Alexander Parkes, who created the first plastic.

London had too many important buildings, and didn't want it's sky smudged with the smoke from the factories. So the Industrial Revolution began further north. Britain is not really rich in resources but it had the coal and iron ore that it took for the first phase of the Industrial Revolution.

While radar was being developed at Birmingham, a wonderful discovery was made. The electromagnetic waves that were being generated could also be used to cook food. A microwave oven works by putting a metal plate with an electric charge on each side of the food. As the wave is passed through the charge on each of the plates switches back and forth, from negative to positive, according to the frequency of the wave. Since water molecules are polar, one side being more positively-charged while the other is more negatively-charged, the two switch back and forth every time the charges on the two plates switches, since opposite charges attract and like charges repel. This incessant motion of the water molecules produces heat which cooks the food from within.

It is probably no accident that a microwave oven resembles a radar console.

The predecessor of the Manhattan Project was actually the Tube Alloys Program, at Birmingham. It was the world's first nuclear weapons program and was purposely misnamed as the Tube Alloys Program in order to avoid attracting attention. It was later agreed to move the project to the U.S. so that it would be out of range of enemy aircraft. It was actually two physicists at Birmingham who had left the Nazis who first thought that nuclear fission could be turned into a weapon.

On thing that does not often get written about England is how many canals there is. There is a diagonal line across Britain, from southwest to northeast, dividing what we could call "highland" Britain from "lowland" Britain. The lowlands are to the south and east of the line and include the Midlands. Wales and Scotland and northern England are "highland" Britain. The best-known canal is the Grand Union but canals are found across much of lowland Britain.

One concern about the economics of England is how London overshadows the rest of the country. The economic output of Birmingham, Liverpool and, Manchester combined is probably not 25 percent that of London. But that doesn't apply to quality of life.

But whenever you use a microwave oven, let's remember Birmingham. The following scenes of Birmingham begin in Victoria Square. The first four images are of the Rotunda, the most visible building in Birmingham, a general view of the central city, the monument in Chamberlain Square and Victoria Square.





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/place/Victoria+Square,+Birmingham,+Birmingham+B1+1BD,+UK/@52.4797335,-1.9025692,3a,75y,95.44h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1so86Fi7zYz9mLNOqnQJ3e3A!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D0%26panoid%3Do86Fi7zYz9mLNOqnQJ3e3A%26yaw%3D95.43931783513051!7i16384!8i8192!4m6!3m5!1s0x4870bc8b7c5f3bcb:0x878d8d9cd853fa7b!8m2!3d52.4789524!4d-1.9028011!16zL20vMDM2dDJ3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDUxMC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

Coventry is the center of England's auto industry. It is much older, as a major city, than Birmingham. Coventry is known for cars but Sir Frank Whittle, the inventor of the jet engine, was a native of the city. Birmingham is today the largest city of the Midlands, and it grew around the Industrial Revolution. The older cities adapted to industrialization, although they had already been there.

This is inside the old Coventry Cathedral that has been left as a war memorial. There are those black and white half-timbered buildings in this area. Just a reminder about words. "To Let" means "to rent or to lease" and "crisps" are potato chips.

The first four images of Coventry are a general view of the city, the statue of Sir Frank Whittle, the new cathedral, and the adjacent old cathedral.









https://www.google.com/maps/@52.5837283,-2.1284383,3a,75y,85.52h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sNkYJGvy0XMQaj_NX1FySeg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DNkYJGvy0XMQaj_NX1FySeg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D82.65782%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

If the name of Rugby sounds familiar that is because the sport originated there and was named for it. Supposedly, a ball game was going on at Rugby School when a student picked up the ball and ran with it. Although that was not part of the game, his opponents responded by trying to tackle him. The result was the birth of a new sport.

The story has a lot in common with that of Sir Isaac Newton being awakened to the existence of gravity while sitting under an apple tree and an apple fell on his head, in that we cannot be sure how much of a legend it is. But anyway, the following scenes begin at Rugby School. The first four images are of the central city, a half-timbered building, the Rugby School and the statue of the student who first ran with the ball.






Rugby is not only known for it's namesake sport, it is also where the jet engine was invented. Although it's inventor was from Coventry. Sir Isaac Newton worked at Cambridge, which isn't part of the Midlands, but the jet engine was an ideal application of his principle that "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction". Rugby is an old town but this is a newer residential area.

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.3937557,-1.2417896,3a,75y,271.39h,90t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sJFPpOeZueJSy4vil2p1Wlg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DJFPpOeZueJSy4vil2p1Wlg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D272.279%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100

Nottingham is the home of the legend of Robin Hood. It was later to adapt to the Industrial Revolution by establishing itself as the center of textile manufacture. I had always thought that the very definition of a city in England is that it has a cathedral, which must be an Anglican cathedral. Gloucester is a city but nearby Cheltenham, although with a similar population, is a town, rather than a city, because it doesn't have a cathedral. But somehow Nottingham has gotten itself chartered as a city, even though it doesn't have an Anglican cathedral.

Has anyone ever thought about how ironic it is that the new, and far more complex, economics of industrialized society would begin to be worked out in the land of Robin Hood, who stole from the rich to give to the poor?

Symbolism and legends are powerful forces. That 1963 Great Train Robbery was Robin Hood come to life. They didn't quite have the philosophy of "stealing from the rich to give to the poor" but they did steal from the government instead of from ordinary people. In the land of Robin Hood we should have expected that the story would be reenacted in real life someday.

This is Old Market Square in Nottingham. The first four images are of the statue of Robin Hood, Nottingham Castle and two of Old Market Square.






We have already seen "Gloucestershire And Herefordshire" in the posting on this blog by that name. I am a native of Gloucestershire, more specifically of the place in the posting on this blog, "Placid Britain". Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire together are known as the "Three Counties". The Severn River that flows through the city of Worcester is the same one that flows downstream to Gloucester.

Worcestershire is, of course, where the name of the sauce comes from. Counties in Britain are called "shires" because that was the original name. "County", which is used in Ireland, is a Norman word that came later.

The cities of Gloucester and Worcester both played important roles in England's Civil War of the Seventeenth Century. Early in the war, the tide turned in favor of the Parliamentarians ( Puritans or Roundheads ), who generally controlled the cities, when the Royalists ( Anglicans or Cavaliers ) who generally controlled the countryside tried, and failed, to capture the city of Gloucester.

The final battle of the war was at Worcester. The defeated Charles II, who would later come back as king, escaped capture by hiding in an oak tree.

In England, the name of a city indicates it's origin, although this may not be a strict rule.
Names ending in -caster -cester or, -chester indicate an origin in Roman times.
Names ending in -by indicate Danish origin.
Names ending in -ham or -ton indicate Anglo-Saxon origin.

This is Worcester Cathedral. The first four images are of half-timbered structures along Friar Street.





https://www.google.com/maps/@52.1887087,-2.2209204,3a,75y,114.6h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMmH9HUESo5MbPt7WPlbRVIoqZGca8FDVznjM0L!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMmH9HUESo5MbPt7WPlbRVIoqZGca8FDVznjM0L%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-2.8771622-ya306.7588-ro-1.3459893-fo100!7i5376!8i2688

Derby is an ancient city that, unlike Birmingham, was there long before the Industrial Revolution. When it industrialized it became known for one thing, and that was the production of silk. The first two images are of the cathedral and the next two of the central city.





https://www.google.com/maps/@52.9224494,-1.4770081,3a,75y,109.55h,90t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sgCO3QkveUqI5VINE9gNJhA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DgCO3QkveUqI5VINE9gNJhA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D120.50255%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100

Northampton is another ancient city, there is a Norman castle there, that joined the Industrial Revolution by becoming the center of shoe production. The first four images are of the central part of the city. A few of those red phone booths are still around.






Leicester is yet another ancient city, as you can tell by it's name indicating an origin in Roman times, that joined the Industrial Revolution as a major producer of clothing and shoes. The Jewry Wall is Roman ruins, but the name isn't associated with Judaism or a Jewish community. The first four images are of the cathedral, the central city, the clock tower and the Jewry Wall.






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Mercia And Birmingham

You may have never heard of the Kingdom of Mercia. That's because it hasn't existed for over a thousand years. Mercia was once a great kingdom before England was a united country. The Midlands area of England is still occasionally referred to as Mercia.

The name of Mercia means "the people of the border", because the Mercians were the Anglo-Saxons along the border with what is now called Wales.

There was an era before England was united that was called "The Mercian Supremacy", because Mercia was predominant among the other pre-England kingdoms. 

I am actually a Mercian. My parents told me about Mercia when I was a young boy. "Today this is England but it was once Mercia".

The following image, from the Wikipedia article "Mercia", shows the boundaries of Mercia. It is approximately what is today called the Midlands. The blue dot is where I was born and the yellow dot is the city of Birmingham. The green area was the area under Mercian influence when it's power was at it's height, basically all of southern England.

The name of Mercia is still seen and the Midlands are occasionally referred to as Mercia. Three images from Google Street View.



Mercia had a great king, called Offa. The red line in the above map is Offa's Dyke. This was a defensive ditch and berm that was dug along the border with Powys, which is now known as Wales. Not much remains of it after so many centuries but it is still visible in places. There is a walking and biking path that runs all along the route. Image from the Wikipedia article "Offa's Dyke".

There was also a great queen, called Aethelflaed, image from the Wikipedia article by that name.

The town of Tamworth proclaims itself as "The Ancient Capital of Mercia". Image from Google Street View.

In Tamworth there are two statues of Aethelflaed. Two images from Google Street View. Tamworth Castle is in the background of the first image. Kings of Mercia lived there but it might not look like it did then.


The following image, from the Wikipedia article "Mercia" is considered as the "flag" of Mercia although it wouldn't have been flying from a flagpole as we do today.

The religious center of Mercia was Lichfield. It is next to Tamworth and both are close to what is now Birmingham. Chad of Mercia is credited with helping to bring Christianity to Mercia, and was it's Bishop. Lichfield Cathedral is on the site where a cathedral was first consecrated in the days of Mercia. The following two images from Google Street View show the present cathedral and statue of St. Chad.


There are two shrines containing bones of St. Chad. One is in Lichfield Cathedral. Image from Google Street View.

The other is in St. Chad's Cathedral in nearby Birmingham. Image from Google Street View.

Aethelflaed ruled during a time of conflict and, on an expedition to the north, her forces retrieved the bones of St. Oswald. This had been an earlier king and martyr. Aethelflaed founded St. Oswald's Priory, in Gloucester, and had the bones buried there. Aethelflaed was later buried there herself.

St. Oswald's Priory is adjacent to what is now Gloucester Cathedral. It became a pilgrimage site and was certainly a factor in getting the cathedral founded nearby. This is not far from where I was born.

The following three images, from Google Street View, are what remains of St. Oswald's Priory today, although these walls were not there at the time of Mercia. The priory was damaged during the Seventeenth Century civil war.



Tamworth and Lichfield are both near Birmingham but the city of Birmingham was not there then. It is mostly a product of the Industrial Revolution and was far in the distant future at the time of Mercia. 

Seafaring has been very important to Britain from the beginning and all of it's major cities are on or near the coast. Birmingham is the one exception. It is by far the largest city in the country that is nowhere near the coast. I wonder how this came to be.

What you may notice about the map above is that Mercia had very little coastline. But yet it was a great kingdom with a great influence. History is a very powerful force and my conclusion is that a major city grew up next to the Ancient Capital of Mercia, and also it's religious center, as the modern heir of Mercia, although I have never seen Birmingham associated with Mercia. This is why Birmingham breaks the apparently logical rule that a major city, in a country like Britain where everything is within 110 km of a coast, should be on a coast.

In the same way, Britain's other Industrial Revolution cities are reenactments of long-ago kingdoms. Cardiff, Newport and, Swansea are reenactments of Powys, which preceded Wales. Liverpool and Manchester are reenactments of Northumbria. Glasgow is a reenactment of the medieval Kingdom of Strathclyde.

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