Thursday, June 4, 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.  

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".   

Northern Germany

All of the cities that we will be seeing in northern Germany are port cities which went to the Protestant side during the Reformation. Most of the cities in northwestern Europe banded together in the later Middle Ages to form a cooperative union known as the Hanseatic League.

The second-largest city in Germany is Hamburg. Germany is divided into sixteen states. Three cities are states unto themselves. We have already visited Berlin, Germany's largest city which is one of the cities that is a state unto itself. The two others are in northern Germany, Hamburg and Bremen.

Hamburg has been an independent, or semi-independent, city-state for much of it's history. Hamburg began with a northern castle that was founded by Charlemagne shortly after he was crowned as Holy Roman Emperor. Remember that the -burg suffix in German place names signifies a castle, but -berg signifies a hill or mountain, as in iceberg.

Hamburg grew through medieval times into an important port city. But it's accessibility from the sea also made it a target of Viking raids. Many people who immigrated to North America from northern and eastern Europe actually sailed from Hamburg. Hamburg is on the Elbe River, which leads to the North Sea.

Ships are very important to Hamburg. The first of the following six images from Google Earth show the numerous canals and channels across Hamburg. The red dot is the location of the City Hall. The pattern is not like that of Amsterdam, where the canals form concentric rings. The next three images show numerous shipping containers being loaded or unloaded by crane. The final two images show a ship being worked on in drydock.







Hamburg, of course, brings the question of it's relationship to the hamburger. Does the idea of putting a slab of meat on a bun come from Hamburg? Everyone seems to have a different opinion on where the hamburger comes from.

I don't know why North America calls it a hamburger. It is not made of ham, it is made of beef. In Europe it is called a beefburger. With so many Moslems, as well as Jews, wouldn't it be better to not call it a hamburger, which makes it seem as if it is made of ham?

Anyway, these scenes of central Hamburg begin at it's impressive City Hall or Rathaus. In so many German cities, the Rathaus and the cathedral are on the main square at the center of the city. These four images, from Google Earth and Street View, show the City Hall of Hamburg.





These eight images, from Google Earth and Street View, are of central Hamburg.









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/@53.6771851,10.2400112,3a,75y,220h,110t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNXe9wxyJbDUWr6tgf9iJ_cTJ6C9eZoczYh505P!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNXe9wxyJbDUWr6tgf9iJ_cTJ6C9eZoczYh505P%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-20-ya102-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

Bremen is the other city in northern Germany that is a state unto itself. Like Hamburg, Bremen is a port city on a river, the Weser River, that links to the North Sea. Like so many German cities it has a medieval Rathaus, the City Hall, on the main square of the city, with the cathedral or major church nearby.

During the days of the Holy Roman Empire, some city squares had statues of a knight of Charlemagne named Roland. This knight was a legend in much of Europe during the Middle Ages.

The following scenes begin in the central square with the Rathaus and Bremen's Roland. The first two of the following six images from Google Street View are of the City Hall and the third is of the statue.







https://www.google.com/maps/@53.0757911,8.8073733,3a,75y,316.28h,101.56t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipO8k5fvW2pQDUHearDoaSrUzUtNN3InxOHdbkGD!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipO8k5fvW2pQDUHearDoaSrUzUtNN3InxOHdbkGD%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya130.86864-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

Lubeck is yet another important port city going back to the early Middle Ages. What differentiates Lubeck from Hamburg and Bremen is that Lubeck faces the Baltic Sea, rather than the North Sea. Facing the North Sea is better for access to western Europe and the Atlantic Ocean. But Lubeck is in a better location to access Russia, eastern Europe and Scandinavia by sea.

Lubeck today is especially known for it's picturesque Holstentor Gate, from the Fifteenth Century, to the old part of the city. These views of Lubeck begin inside St. Peter's Church. The first three of the following five images, of the old part of Lubeck, are of the Holstentor Gate.






https://www.google.com/maps/@53.8658616,10.6831563,2a,75y,106.13h,90t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sxEtS8dXOvGgAAAQvxWxilQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DxEtS8dXOvGgAAAQvxWxilQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D116.12696%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100

Kiel is a port city that belonged to Denmark during the Middle Ages. We saw in the posting on this blog, "The End Of The First World War" November 2018, the great historical impact of the mutiny of the sailors at Kiel at the end of the First World War. It doesn't get a lot of attention but there is a canal across the peninsula in the north of Germany so that ships can go between the North and Baltic Seas without going around Denmark. It is called the Kiel or Kaiser Wilhelm Canal. The first four images of Kiel are from Google Street View.





https://www.google.com/maps/@54.3233533,10.1392417,3a,75y,110.13h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMOVjRhQHGqMH07xMgfc9pSM8GBPCVCfxuHR9wA!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMOVjRhQHGqMH07xMgfc9pSM8GBPCVCfxuHR9wA%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya122.14493-ro-0-fo100!7i5376!8i2688

Rostock is the other city of northern Germany that has been an important port since Medieval Times. Like Kiel and Lubeck, it faces the Baltic Sea. The first six images, of the old part of Rostock, are from Google Street View.