Just a few observations concerning recent events and how thay may relate to the fulfillment of biblical prophecy of the last days as described in the posting "The End Of The World As We Know It" on the religion blog, www.markmeekreligion.blogspot.com .
We know that the final series of wars in the world will begin with an attack on Israel. The Israeli commando attack on a Turkish ship last year has seriously damaged relations between the two former allies. Egypt, under it's former government, was at peace with Israel. But since the overthrow of Mubarak, the future of relations between the two countries has come into doubt. The most recent development is an attack on the Israeli Embassy by a mob of people in Cairo.
But before the final wars, the world must come under the influence of the great leader of the last days, known as the Antichrist. His base is to be the old Roman Empire, which is today the European Union. Due to financial turmoil, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has called for actual economic unity among the countries of the European Union. The countries of western Europe all use the euro curency, with the exception of Britain, Denmark and, Sweden. This would mean that there would be no separate national economies in Europe. Mr. Schroeder described Britain as the major obstacle to closer European unity, stating that Britain wants a say in what goes on in Europe but isn't willing to give up sovereignty to more closely integrate into Europe.
In the posting about the fulfillment of Bible prophecy, I speculated that the fabled "Mark of the Beast" could actually be a cell phone (mobile). St. John, author of the Book of Revelation, was an ancient man who was given a vision of the tribulation period. He would have had not the slightest grasp of modern technology and described what are clearly battle tanks and helicopters using imagery that he was familiar with. Why couldn't he have done the same thing with ultra-slim phones, describing them as a "mark" used to buy and sell?
With this in mind, I consider recent developments concerning the BlackBerry to be very interesting. This is not saying that the wonderful communications device that the province of Ontario has given the world is the Mark of the Beast, or anything like that. But the BlackBerry has caused concern because it's encryption makes it impossible for local authorities to monitor it's communications.
Countries like India and Saudi Arabia have expressed unease with the BlackBerry, and have asked that servers be located within the country so that communications can be monitored, if necessary. Most recently, the BlackBerry played a major role in the coordination of rioting in British cities in August. Other methods of coordinating events among groups of people, such as Facebook and Twitter, can be easily monitored. But rioters knew that local authorities could not monitor BlackBerry communications.
This could well be a step toward making possible the monitoring of all phone and text communications. This would, in turn, be a step toward using phones as centrally controlled, and easily trackable, devices that could be used for all manner of communication and financial transactions.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Saturday, August 27, 2011
The Cheektowaga Isthmus
This is a local natural history posting that will later be moved to my Niagara natural history blog, http://www.markmeekniagara.blogspot.com/ . Most readers will not be familiar with this area.
Not long ago, I happened to be to the east and south of the city of Buffalo, NY, and I noticed some really interesting things. An isthmus is a feature of physical geography defined as a narrow strip of land between two bodies of water. Buffalo Airport is situated in the middle of what was once a narrow isthmus of land between Lake Tonawanda to the north, and Lake Warren to the south.
Here is a map link: http://www.maps.google.com/ .
Both of these lakes formed when the last ice age ended about 12,000 years ago, the glaciers melted, and there was far more water in the area than there is today. Neither lake exists any more. Lake Warren is drastically reduced in volume to form what we now call Lake Erie. All that remains of Lake Tonawanda, which I described extensively on the Niagara natural history blog, is the wide section of the Niagara River between North Tonawanda and the falls.
Lake Tonawanda extended northward well into Niagara County. It was basically a creation of the southward slope of the land from the Niagara Escarpment, and began draining when the falls cut through what is known as Hubbard's Point more than three thousand years ago.
On Transit Road and Union Road in Cheektowaga, a suburb just east of Buffalo where the airport is located, we can see that on these two north-south roads, the ground steadily gets lower as we go southward. There are two significant drops on both roads which seem to represent the former levels of Lake Warren, the larger predecessor of the present Lake Erie.
The former shore of this lake can be seen just south of Walden Avenue, at the intersection of Harlem Road, where the ground level drops as we go into the Thruway Plaza. This former shore can also be seen to the east, on Transit Road, between Terrace Blvd. and Broadway, in Lancaster. Cayuga Creek formed later, after the lake had receded. It should also be readily visible on any other north-south roads in this line. Southwestern Blvd., in Orchard Park, gets steadily lower in elevation as we go southwest, and this represents the floor of the former Lake Warren.
The drop in the level of Transit Road continues going southward until we get to Buffalo Creek. You can easily see by the valley sorrounding the creek and the Clinton Street intersection that it was once a mighty, albeit temporary, river draining a vast amount of water from the melting glaciers into the former Lake Warren.
There is another rise in elevation to the north of the former shore of Lake Warren, close to the airport. This can also be seen on both Transit and Union Roads. On Transit Road, it is visible between Rehm Road and Lee Street just south of Tops Market. On Union Road, it can be seen between Maryvale and Clearvale Drives. My belief is that the former Lake Warren probably reached this elevation, but not for a really long period of time. As the tremendous volume of water diminished somewhat, the lake withdrew to the former shoreline described above.
To the north of what we could call "The Cheektowaga Isthmus", the shoreline of the former Lake Tonawanda can be seen in many places along main roads. On Transit Road, going southward, the level of the ground suddenly gets higher around the intersection with Sheridan Drive. On Harlem Road, at Main Street in Williamsville, the former shoreline is easily seen. In Tonawanda, it can be seen on some north-south streets north of the I-290 highway, particularly Delaware.
One interesting thing that I have never seen pointed out is that Lake Erie is an elongated lake with a well-defined central axis that can easily be seen on a map. If we follow that axis to the Buffalo end of the lake, and continue the line of the axis beyond the shore, it brings us to the broad valley seen on South Park Avenue, with the bottom of the valley at the intersection with Mile Strip Road.
Not long ago, I happened to be to the east and south of the city of Buffalo, NY, and I noticed some really interesting things. An isthmus is a feature of physical geography defined as a narrow strip of land between two bodies of water. Buffalo Airport is situated in the middle of what was once a narrow isthmus of land between Lake Tonawanda to the north, and Lake Warren to the south.
Here is a map link: http://www.maps.google.com/ .
Both of these lakes formed when the last ice age ended about 12,000 years ago, the glaciers melted, and there was far more water in the area than there is today. Neither lake exists any more. Lake Warren is drastically reduced in volume to form what we now call Lake Erie. All that remains of Lake Tonawanda, which I described extensively on the Niagara natural history blog, is the wide section of the Niagara River between North Tonawanda and the falls.
Lake Tonawanda extended northward well into Niagara County. It was basically a creation of the southward slope of the land from the Niagara Escarpment, and began draining when the falls cut through what is known as Hubbard's Point more than three thousand years ago.
On Transit Road and Union Road in Cheektowaga, a suburb just east of Buffalo where the airport is located, we can see that on these two north-south roads, the ground steadily gets lower as we go southward. There are two significant drops on both roads which seem to represent the former levels of Lake Warren, the larger predecessor of the present Lake Erie.
The former shore of this lake can be seen just south of Walden Avenue, at the intersection of Harlem Road, where the ground level drops as we go into the Thruway Plaza. This former shore can also be seen to the east, on Transit Road, between Terrace Blvd. and Broadway, in Lancaster. Cayuga Creek formed later, after the lake had receded. It should also be readily visible on any other north-south roads in this line. Southwestern Blvd., in Orchard Park, gets steadily lower in elevation as we go southwest, and this represents the floor of the former Lake Warren.
The drop in the level of Transit Road continues going southward until we get to Buffalo Creek. You can easily see by the valley sorrounding the creek and the Clinton Street intersection that it was once a mighty, albeit temporary, river draining a vast amount of water from the melting glaciers into the former Lake Warren.
There is another rise in elevation to the north of the former shore of Lake Warren, close to the airport. This can also be seen on both Transit and Union Roads. On Transit Road, it is visible between Rehm Road and Lee Street just south of Tops Market. On Union Road, it can be seen between Maryvale and Clearvale Drives. My belief is that the former Lake Warren probably reached this elevation, but not for a really long period of time. As the tremendous volume of water diminished somewhat, the lake withdrew to the former shoreline described above.
To the north of what we could call "The Cheektowaga Isthmus", the shoreline of the former Lake Tonawanda can be seen in many places along main roads. On Transit Road, going southward, the level of the ground suddenly gets higher around the intersection with Sheridan Drive. On Harlem Road, at Main Street in Williamsville, the former shoreline is easily seen. In Tonawanda, it can be seen on some north-south streets north of the I-290 highway, particularly Delaware.
One interesting thing that I have never seen pointed out is that Lake Erie is an elongated lake with a well-defined central axis that can easily be seen on a map. If we follow that axis to the Buffalo end of the lake, and continue the line of the axis beyond the shore, it brings us to the broad valley seen on South Park Avenue, with the bottom of the valley at the intersection with Mile Strip Road.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Christian Theology Made Really Simple
According to the Law of the Bible, the penalty for sin is death. The law is what defines God's expectations, and falling short of that is defined as sin.
Jesus was executed by being nailed on a cross, known as crucifixion. The truth is that Jesus had committed no sin and so had no reason to be executed, particularly not in such a brutal fashion. But this means that his death is still legally available to pay the price for sin.
Suppose that a man goes into a store and buys everything in the store. But he does not take the goods with him, he leaves all of the merchandise on the store shelves. This would mean that legally, those goods are available to anyone who the man who bought the goods wishes to deed them to.
Likewise, Jesus has the right to deed his death to anyone he wishes to pay the price for their sin. In the New Testament, it is described that those who are given the legal right to use Jesus' death as payment for their sin are anyone who accepts Jesus as their savior (saviour).
There is no limit to how many people whose sin can be atoned for by the penalty that Jesus has paid. It was one man, Adam, who brought sin into the world so that everyone shares in that sin. So, it legally requires only one person to be executed without ever having broken God's Law to provide a solution for the problem of sin.
Being perfect means that God cannot accept anyone who is less than perfect, at least not without the substitutionary death of the Son that he sent to us.
Jesus was executed by being nailed on a cross, known as crucifixion. The truth is that Jesus had committed no sin and so had no reason to be executed, particularly not in such a brutal fashion. But this means that his death is still legally available to pay the price for sin.
Suppose that a man goes into a store and buys everything in the store. But he does not take the goods with him, he leaves all of the merchandise on the store shelves. This would mean that legally, those goods are available to anyone who the man who bought the goods wishes to deed them to.
Likewise, Jesus has the right to deed his death to anyone he wishes to pay the price for their sin. In the New Testament, it is described that those who are given the legal right to use Jesus' death as payment for their sin are anyone who accepts Jesus as their savior (saviour).
There is no limit to how many people whose sin can be atoned for by the penalty that Jesus has paid. It was one man, Adam, who brought sin into the world so that everyone shares in that sin. So, it legally requires only one person to be executed without ever having broken God's Law to provide a solution for the problem of sin.
Being perfect means that God cannot accept anyone who is less than perfect, at least not without the substitutionary death of the Son that he sent to us.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
The Way Things Work
What I would like to do today is to try to instill in readers an appreciation for how the everyday technology all around you actually operates. Such an appreciation will open up a fascinating new world. This can be read in conjunction with the posting on this blog, "Scientific Literacy", which is about everyday science and mathematics, while this blog is about everyday technology.
Iron is a strong metal. But it can be made even stronger by adding carbon to it. Carbon atoms mixed in with the iron atoms add strength to the metal. Iron with carbon forms what is known as steel. We can craft steels with a wide variety of properties, according to the percentage of carbon that is added. As we add more carbon, the steel produced becomes harder, but also more brittle. Other metals can be added also. Stainless steel, for example, contains chromium and nickel, as well as carbon. Silicon, tungsten, vanadium, manganese, and molybdenum are often added to steels. Steel will rust and for this reason it is often coated with zinc, particularly sheet metal. This process is known as galvanizing.
Aluminum is known for it's combination of lightness and strength, it's most important use is in aircraft construction. It is actually a very common metal. Clay often contains aluminum, meaning that there is a lot of aluminum within bricks. However, it was late to be used by humans because it cannot be separated from it's ore by smelting like other common metals. Aluminum is extracted by electrolysis, and did not become widespread until cheap electricity became available.
If you have a summer barbecue, you probably notice that charcoal produces practically no smoke at all. Charcoal is produced by charring wood in a kiln without any air present. The result is that the smoke-producing compounds in the wood are removed, so that you can have a smoke-free barbecue.
Suppose that we have a cable hanging between two supports, such as a telephone or electric wire strung along poles. Now suppose we put some slack into the cable so that it hangs down in the middle. The cable will form a shape known as a "catenary", it is close to an even curve but not exactly the same thing. The catenary shape is important because it is the strongest curve when it comes to building bridges. It is used especially in the type of arch bridges where the road is directly on top of the arch, such as the Grand Island Bridges in the Niagara Falls-Buffalo area.
An optical microscope can never magnify more than about 1400x. This is simply because of the limitation imposed by the wavelength of light. We can never actually see atoms for this reason. Images have been taken of atoms using an electron microscope, this gets around the limitation by using a beam of electrons to form an image, instead of visible light.
As long as we measure time in seconds, 16 feet (4.876 meters) is a very significant distance on earth. A small, compact object will fall at 32 feet per second squared. The thought occurred to me one day that we could thus easily measure between altitude and falling time. To measure altitude, take the time in seconds that it takes such an object to fall from the height. Then, square it and multiply it by 16 feet. If we are dropping a compact object, such as (unfortunately) a bomb, from a known altitude and want to know how many seconds it will take to reach the ground, simply divide the altitude by 16 feet and take the square root of it. I explained this in my book "The Patterns Of New Ideas", and proposed that 16 feet be known as a "grav", short for gravity, because it would be such a convenient measure of altitude.
Electromagnetic waves tend to be reflected by objects which are comparable to the wavelength of the waves in size. Have you noticed that if you are listening to the radio in a car, and you pass under a bridge, longer waves of a frequency arounf 1 MHZ or so will fade until the bridge is past. But shorter waves of a frequency of around 100 MHZ, or so, will not. This is because the longer waves are reflected by the bridge, but are too long to be reflected around under it, while the shorter waves will be reflected all around under the bridge and do not fade. In North America, the longer waves are usually known as AM, for amplitude modulation, and the shorter waves as FM, for frequency modulation. This refers to the way that the radio signal is encoded onto the carrier wave. A MHZ of frequency is a megahertz, or million cycles per second. Since electromagnetic waves travel at a fixed velocity, what we perceive as the speed of light, obviously the lower the frequency the longer the wavelength.
Long-wavelength radio waves can be reflected by the ionosphere, in the earth's upper atmosphere. This means that these waves can travel long distances by using the ionosphere as a waveguide. The ionosphere is especially reflective at night. Have you ever noticed that when a radio is tuned to longer waves (such as AM) at night, radio stations from far away can be received? When I used to listen to music, I (in New York State) would often scan the dial at night to see what radio stations in Ohio, Indiana and, Michigan had to offer. This is not true of shorter waves, such as FM and television. These waves can only be received as far as the horizon, because they are not reflected back by the ionosphere and continue into outer space. This is why it is ideal to place an antenna for shorter wavelengths as high as possible, so the horizon will be further away. The only way around this limitation of shorter wavelengths is to use a satellite to reflect or rebroadcast the signal. If a satellite is placed at an altitude of 22,300 miles (about 36,000 km), it will orbit at the same speed as the earth rotates, and thus will remain overhead. This is called a "geostationary" orbit.
It is important to know the length of a wave of the frequency that we are dealing with because the ideal antenna, for both broadcast and reception, is one half of the wavelength. The reason for this is that the electrons go from the base of the antenna to the top, and then back down, with each cycle. We get the wavelength by dividing the speed of light by the wave frequency. In practice, a long wave receiving antenna is often a coil of wire within the radio. A familiar whip antenna is for shorter wavelengths.
The idea of awnings over windows and doors that face the sun in temperate climates is for the hot sun to be blocked by the awning when it is high in the sky during summer, but for the warming sunlight to be allowed in when the sun is low in the sky during the winter. In the same way, evergreen trees can be placed on the north side of a property to shield against the cold winter wind while deciduous (leaf-bearing) trees are placed on the south side. The leaves of these trees provide shade in summer, but their leaves fall off to allow the warming sunlight through in the winter.
The difference between light from a laser and ordinary light is that laser light is monochromatic. That is, it is of one single frequency of light. Ordinary light is most often a mixture of many frequencies. Also, the laser light is aligned so that it's wavelengths are always coordinated "in step". The crests of all of the waves strike the target at the same time, and the troughs of the waves do the same. Any ordinary light has force in it, but the force is dissipated by the crests and troughs of the waves being "out of step" with one another. Obviously, this "in step" coordination is only possible if the waves are of one single wavelength. White light is actually a mixture of all colors (colours), and for this reason you will never see a white laser.
Molecules of soap act as bridges. One end of the molecule bonds with water, and the other end bonds with dirt. This helps the water to carry away the dirt.
Water molecules are polar, this means that one side of the molecule is more negatively-charged, while the other side is more postitively-charged. So, if we put some food containing water in a chamber, and then bombard it with electromagnetic radiation from varying directions so that the molecules of water flip over repeatedly at a high rate of frequency, the food will be cooked by the heat that is produced by this movement. this is what we call a microwave oven.
A smokestack pull smoke up into the air by use of air pressure. The pressure of the weight of the atmosphere is highest at ground level, and progressively lessens as we gain in altitude. This means that there is less pressure at the top of the smokestack than at the bottom. So, air is pulled from the bottom to the top and the smoke is pulled with it.
When refraction of light takes place, the bending of the light as it passes through water or glass, the shorter wavelengths are bent more than the longer wavelengths. This is why a prism breaks the light down into it's component colors (colours). British street lights are usually orange because orange is a longer wavelength of light, and this light will be refracted less by the droplets of water in fog.
Direct current is just what it says, a direct electric current from a negative to a positive terminal. The negative terminal is so-named because it loses electrons, while the positive terminal gains them. Alternating current is, as the name implies, a current in which the negative and positive terminals continuously alternate with one another so that the current flows first in one direction, and then the other. The thing that is useful about alternating current is that it can easily be passed through a device called a transformer to manipulate it's voltage and current. Voltage (measured in volts) is the pressure driving the flow of electricity, and current (measured in amperes) is the actual volume of electrons that are moving to form the current. The voltage multiplied by the current in an alternating current must always remain the same, but the transformer can raise the voltage at the expense of the current, or vice-versa. This is valuable because the transmission of electricity over long distances of wire is much more efficient with high voltage. The voltage can then be stepped down for use in homes and buildings. This cannot readily be done with direct current, at least not efficiently. Thomas Edison was looking at direct current for large-scale electric usage, but it was Nikola Tesla who prevailed with alternating current. On issue that arises with alternating current is that there are different frequencies (or cycles) that can be used. Anyone who travels often between countries knows that an electrical device from one country will not necessarily operate on the different cycle in another country, at least not without an adapter.
An electric current, where alternating current or direct current, can produce heat and light by passing through a resistance to the flow of current. A wire of moderate resistance gets hot when current passes through it, and a wire of very high resistance glows. This is the basis of the light bulb. Light can also be produced by passing a current through certain gases, most notably neon.
Radio waves are produced by generating a high-frequency alternating current, and then passing it through an antenna so that it radiates outward. Radio is usually used to carry information, but can also be used as a ranging tool. Remember that radio waves tend to be reflected by objects that are comparable in size to the wavelength of the waves. Bouncing radio waves off of objects is known as "radar". This is an acronym for "radio detection and ranging". Waves similar in length to that of rain drops will show where the weather is. Longer waves will be reflected from the metal surface of aircraft, and can be used for air traffic control. We know that waves travel at the speed of light so all we have to do is send out the waves from a directional dish antenna and then time how long it takes for them to be reflected back to the antenna.
Airplanes (aeroplanes) can fly because of the shape of their wings. The wing surface is flat on the bottom, but curved on top. This shape is known as an airfoil. As the plane moves forward, and air passes over the wing, the air above the wing must travel further than that below the wing. This means that it moves faster, and the result is lower pressure above the wing than below it. This pressure differential increases as the plane gains speed, and the air moves faster over the wing. When the pressure differential exceeds the weight of the plane, it lifts off into the air. The wing is usually tilted slightly upward, to increase lift, but the aircraft cannot climb at too steep of an angle, or this lifting power will be negated and it will go into a stall. This means that aircraft that must be able to climb rapidly, like military planes, are better off without this upward tilt to the wings. A propellor operates on a principle similar to that of the wing so that it is pulled forward into the air, and brings the plane along with it. Propellors require the dense air at relatively low altitudes, so that propellor-driven planes have a certain height ceiling. Jets actually operate better in the thinner air at high altitudes because there is less air resistance to high-speed flight.
For small-scale electric usage, a battery generates a current by a chemical reaction. Batteries always provide direct current. But for large-scale electrical applications the current is generated, usually by converting mechanical energy of motion into electrical energy. A relative motion between a magnet and a wire will produce current. Metals tend to be composed of structural units called crystals. The atoms in these crystals share the electrons in the outer atomic orbitals. If there is movement of a magnetic field, the magnetic lines of force will cause electrons in the wire to move beyond their home crystal. Thus, the spinning of a magnet in a coil of wire will generate a useful electric current. The generator can be configured to produce either direct current or alternating current. A generator is called an alternator if it produces alternating current. All we have to do is to reverse this order, so that the current in a coil of wire causes a magnet to spin, and we have an electric motor which converts the electrical energy back into mechanical energy. Electric motors are configured to operate on either alternating current or direct current.
No matter how complicated computers can seem, what it all comes down to is that if we can store simple bits of information, magnetic particles that are placed as either on or off, 1 or 0, and we have many millions of such bits, we can store a vast amount of information by encoding it into this binary system (binary means that there are only two possibilities). If we refer to eight such bits as a "byte", that means that each byte can have 256 possible combinations, because 2 multiplied by itself eight times is 256. We can encode all of the upper and lower case alphabet, as well as numbers, puncutation and, various control signals into these 256 possible combinations in the byte. This byte code system is known as ASCII, and is the foundation of computing. Everything else about computers is mere details.
You may see towers with large tanks on top in various locations. In cities, such tanks may be on top of buildings and in hilly areas, they may be at the top of a tall hill. These tanks are where your water pressure comes from. Water from treatment plants are pumped into these tanks then, when you turn on the water, you get the pressure from gravity. The name of the town is often written on such water pressure tanks. One nearby tank is painted in a red and white checkerboard pattern, because it is near the airport and pilots can use it as a visual reference point.
Old steam engines were really simple devices. Steam pressure would be built up in a chamber called a "steam chest". There would be two openings from the steam chest into a cylinder with a piston, but a mechanism made it so that only one of the openings would be open at any one time. The steam from the steam chest would go through the first opening and push the piston down through the cylinder. But when the cylinder reached a certain point, the first opening would be closed and the second opening, on the other side of the piston, would be opened. The steam would then flow through that opening, while pushing the piston in the opposite direction, until the piston reached the point where the mechanism closed the second opening and re-opened the first opening. Thus, the steam produced a reciprocating motion in the piston which can be used for such tasks as driving a locomotive.
Jet and rocket engines operate on the action-reaction principle. Fuel is sprayed into a stream of incoming air and ignited. The exhaust goes backward, and pushes the craft in the opposite direction. The main difference between a jet and a rocket is that a rocket carries it's own supply of oxygen or oxidizer, while the jet takes in air from the outside as it moves forward.
What would a discussion of everyday technology be without the internal combustion engine? The remainder of this posting is about internal combustion engines.
When you start your car, an electric motor, called the starter, turns a heavy metal wheel, known as the flywheel. This gets the engine started, and the momentum of the flywheel keeps it going.
The flywheel is attached to the crankshaft, a central axle around which the engine is constructed. The turning of the crankshaft causes a smaller parallel axle, the camshaft, to turn. The two shafts are connected by a belt or chain. The connection between the two must be precisely set, and is known as the timing of the engine. The camshaft, like the crankshaft, is not a straight axle it is crafted to sequentially open ports in the cylinders of the engine.
Each cyclinder in the engine has two ports, one to take in it's share of the fuel-air mixture coming in from the air filter and fuel injection system, and one port to let exhaust gases flow into the exhaust manifold after combustion has taken place. The engine may have from four to eight cylinders.
Combustion in the cylinders is brought about by a spark from a spark plug after the fuel-air mix has been compressed by the movement of the piston in the cylinder. This combustion pushes the piston forcefully, and is where the power in the engine comes from. The pistons connect to the crankshaft, and the movement of the pistons causes it to turn at high speed. The spinning crankshaft, with the flywheel turning along with it and keeping the engine running, is what turns the wheels of the car, after the spin of the crankshaft is redirected by the car's transmission.
The timing of the spark in the cylinders, as well as the opening of the intake and exhausts ports at just the right moment, is accomplished by the rotation of the camshaft, connected to the crankshaft. There are four strokes, or movements, of the piston in each engine revolution. Two are in one direction, and two in the other direction.
First, the piston moves away from the ports, with the intake port open, and the resulting partial vacuum pulls fuel-air mixture into the cylinder. Second, the port is closed by the rotation of the camshaft and the piston moves in the opposite direction to compress the fuel-air mix. It is at this point that the spark plug is fired, and the fuel-air mix ignited. The resulting explosion pushes the piston back down in the cylinder, this is the all-important power stroke. Finally, the exhaust port is opened by the camshaft and the piston moves back toward the end of the cylinder with the ports, and pushes the exhaust out of the cylinder into the exhaust manifold.
The cycle then starts over again. Only one of the four piston movements actually provides power. The momentum to turn the crankshaft, which moves the pistons, for the other three movements comes from the other cylinders.
Also connected to the crankshaft, by a belt at the front of the engine, is an alternator or generator to generate the current to recharge the car's battery, which is necessary for the starter motor to initially turn the flywheel, and also to provide the current to produce the sparks for ignition in the cylinders. The current first goes through a coil, which acts as a transformer to high voltage, and a distributor to get it to the right cylinder at the right time. At least that was the way it was before each engine had a computer module.
Oil is necessary to lubricate the engine so that it does not destroy itself by friction, and also to absorb some of the heat. Even so, a cooling system is still needed which circulates antifreeze through the engine block and uses a radiator and a fan in the front of the engine to help dissipate heat.
In a front-wheel drive car, the front of the engine with the belts and turning end of the crankshaft will be facing the side of the car. The primary difference between gasoline (petrol) and diesel engines is that diesel engines do not use spark plugs, extremely high compression is all that is necessary to ignite the fuel-air mixture. Glow plugs in diesel engines are simply to warm the fuel-air mix when it is cold out, and are not the same thing as spark plugs.
Iron is a strong metal. But it can be made even stronger by adding carbon to it. Carbon atoms mixed in with the iron atoms add strength to the metal. Iron with carbon forms what is known as steel. We can craft steels with a wide variety of properties, according to the percentage of carbon that is added. As we add more carbon, the steel produced becomes harder, but also more brittle. Other metals can be added also. Stainless steel, for example, contains chromium and nickel, as well as carbon. Silicon, tungsten, vanadium, manganese, and molybdenum are often added to steels. Steel will rust and for this reason it is often coated with zinc, particularly sheet metal. This process is known as galvanizing.
Aluminum is known for it's combination of lightness and strength, it's most important use is in aircraft construction. It is actually a very common metal. Clay often contains aluminum, meaning that there is a lot of aluminum within bricks. However, it was late to be used by humans because it cannot be separated from it's ore by smelting like other common metals. Aluminum is extracted by electrolysis, and did not become widespread until cheap electricity became available.
If you have a summer barbecue, you probably notice that charcoal produces practically no smoke at all. Charcoal is produced by charring wood in a kiln without any air present. The result is that the smoke-producing compounds in the wood are removed, so that you can have a smoke-free barbecue.
Suppose that we have a cable hanging between two supports, such as a telephone or electric wire strung along poles. Now suppose we put some slack into the cable so that it hangs down in the middle. The cable will form a shape known as a "catenary", it is close to an even curve but not exactly the same thing. The catenary shape is important because it is the strongest curve when it comes to building bridges. It is used especially in the type of arch bridges where the road is directly on top of the arch, such as the Grand Island Bridges in the Niagara Falls-Buffalo area.
An optical microscope can never magnify more than about 1400x. This is simply because of the limitation imposed by the wavelength of light. We can never actually see atoms for this reason. Images have been taken of atoms using an electron microscope, this gets around the limitation by using a beam of electrons to form an image, instead of visible light.
As long as we measure time in seconds, 16 feet (4.876 meters) is a very significant distance on earth. A small, compact object will fall at 32 feet per second squared. The thought occurred to me one day that we could thus easily measure between altitude and falling time. To measure altitude, take the time in seconds that it takes such an object to fall from the height. Then, square it and multiply it by 16 feet. If we are dropping a compact object, such as (unfortunately) a bomb, from a known altitude and want to know how many seconds it will take to reach the ground, simply divide the altitude by 16 feet and take the square root of it. I explained this in my book "The Patterns Of New Ideas", and proposed that 16 feet be known as a "grav", short for gravity, because it would be such a convenient measure of altitude.
Electromagnetic waves tend to be reflected by objects which are comparable to the wavelength of the waves in size. Have you noticed that if you are listening to the radio in a car, and you pass under a bridge, longer waves of a frequency arounf 1 MHZ or so will fade until the bridge is past. But shorter waves of a frequency of around 100 MHZ, or so, will not. This is because the longer waves are reflected by the bridge, but are too long to be reflected around under it, while the shorter waves will be reflected all around under the bridge and do not fade. In North America, the longer waves are usually known as AM, for amplitude modulation, and the shorter waves as FM, for frequency modulation. This refers to the way that the radio signal is encoded onto the carrier wave. A MHZ of frequency is a megahertz, or million cycles per second. Since electromagnetic waves travel at a fixed velocity, what we perceive as the speed of light, obviously the lower the frequency the longer the wavelength.
Long-wavelength radio waves can be reflected by the ionosphere, in the earth's upper atmosphere. This means that these waves can travel long distances by using the ionosphere as a waveguide. The ionosphere is especially reflective at night. Have you ever noticed that when a radio is tuned to longer waves (such as AM) at night, radio stations from far away can be received? When I used to listen to music, I (in New York State) would often scan the dial at night to see what radio stations in Ohio, Indiana and, Michigan had to offer. This is not true of shorter waves, such as FM and television. These waves can only be received as far as the horizon, because they are not reflected back by the ionosphere and continue into outer space. This is why it is ideal to place an antenna for shorter wavelengths as high as possible, so the horizon will be further away. The only way around this limitation of shorter wavelengths is to use a satellite to reflect or rebroadcast the signal. If a satellite is placed at an altitude of 22,300 miles (about 36,000 km), it will orbit at the same speed as the earth rotates, and thus will remain overhead. This is called a "geostationary" orbit.
It is important to know the length of a wave of the frequency that we are dealing with because the ideal antenna, for both broadcast and reception, is one half of the wavelength. The reason for this is that the electrons go from the base of the antenna to the top, and then back down, with each cycle. We get the wavelength by dividing the speed of light by the wave frequency. In practice, a long wave receiving antenna is often a coil of wire within the radio. A familiar whip antenna is for shorter wavelengths.
The idea of awnings over windows and doors that face the sun in temperate climates is for the hot sun to be blocked by the awning when it is high in the sky during summer, but for the warming sunlight to be allowed in when the sun is low in the sky during the winter. In the same way, evergreen trees can be placed on the north side of a property to shield against the cold winter wind while deciduous (leaf-bearing) trees are placed on the south side. The leaves of these trees provide shade in summer, but their leaves fall off to allow the warming sunlight through in the winter.
The difference between light from a laser and ordinary light is that laser light is monochromatic. That is, it is of one single frequency of light. Ordinary light is most often a mixture of many frequencies. Also, the laser light is aligned so that it's wavelengths are always coordinated "in step". The crests of all of the waves strike the target at the same time, and the troughs of the waves do the same. Any ordinary light has force in it, but the force is dissipated by the crests and troughs of the waves being "out of step" with one another. Obviously, this "in step" coordination is only possible if the waves are of one single wavelength. White light is actually a mixture of all colors (colours), and for this reason you will never see a white laser.
Molecules of soap act as bridges. One end of the molecule bonds with water, and the other end bonds with dirt. This helps the water to carry away the dirt.
Water molecules are polar, this means that one side of the molecule is more negatively-charged, while the other side is more postitively-charged. So, if we put some food containing water in a chamber, and then bombard it with electromagnetic radiation from varying directions so that the molecules of water flip over repeatedly at a high rate of frequency, the food will be cooked by the heat that is produced by this movement. this is what we call a microwave oven.
A smokestack pull smoke up into the air by use of air pressure. The pressure of the weight of the atmosphere is highest at ground level, and progressively lessens as we gain in altitude. This means that there is less pressure at the top of the smokestack than at the bottom. So, air is pulled from the bottom to the top and the smoke is pulled with it.
When refraction of light takes place, the bending of the light as it passes through water or glass, the shorter wavelengths are bent more than the longer wavelengths. This is why a prism breaks the light down into it's component colors (colours). British street lights are usually orange because orange is a longer wavelength of light, and this light will be refracted less by the droplets of water in fog.
Direct current is just what it says, a direct electric current from a negative to a positive terminal. The negative terminal is so-named because it loses electrons, while the positive terminal gains them. Alternating current is, as the name implies, a current in which the negative and positive terminals continuously alternate with one another so that the current flows first in one direction, and then the other. The thing that is useful about alternating current is that it can easily be passed through a device called a transformer to manipulate it's voltage and current. Voltage (measured in volts) is the pressure driving the flow of electricity, and current (measured in amperes) is the actual volume of electrons that are moving to form the current. The voltage multiplied by the current in an alternating current must always remain the same, but the transformer can raise the voltage at the expense of the current, or vice-versa. This is valuable because the transmission of electricity over long distances of wire is much more efficient with high voltage. The voltage can then be stepped down for use in homes and buildings. This cannot readily be done with direct current, at least not efficiently. Thomas Edison was looking at direct current for large-scale electric usage, but it was Nikola Tesla who prevailed with alternating current. On issue that arises with alternating current is that there are different frequencies (or cycles) that can be used. Anyone who travels often between countries knows that an electrical device from one country will not necessarily operate on the different cycle in another country, at least not without an adapter.
An electric current, where alternating current or direct current, can produce heat and light by passing through a resistance to the flow of current. A wire of moderate resistance gets hot when current passes through it, and a wire of very high resistance glows. This is the basis of the light bulb. Light can also be produced by passing a current through certain gases, most notably neon.
Radio waves are produced by generating a high-frequency alternating current, and then passing it through an antenna so that it radiates outward. Radio is usually used to carry information, but can also be used as a ranging tool. Remember that radio waves tend to be reflected by objects that are comparable in size to the wavelength of the waves. Bouncing radio waves off of objects is known as "radar". This is an acronym for "radio detection and ranging". Waves similar in length to that of rain drops will show where the weather is. Longer waves will be reflected from the metal surface of aircraft, and can be used for air traffic control. We know that waves travel at the speed of light so all we have to do is send out the waves from a directional dish antenna and then time how long it takes for them to be reflected back to the antenna.
Airplanes (aeroplanes) can fly because of the shape of their wings. The wing surface is flat on the bottom, but curved on top. This shape is known as an airfoil. As the plane moves forward, and air passes over the wing, the air above the wing must travel further than that below the wing. This means that it moves faster, and the result is lower pressure above the wing than below it. This pressure differential increases as the plane gains speed, and the air moves faster over the wing. When the pressure differential exceeds the weight of the plane, it lifts off into the air. The wing is usually tilted slightly upward, to increase lift, but the aircraft cannot climb at too steep of an angle, or this lifting power will be negated and it will go into a stall. This means that aircraft that must be able to climb rapidly, like military planes, are better off without this upward tilt to the wings. A propellor operates on a principle similar to that of the wing so that it is pulled forward into the air, and brings the plane along with it. Propellors require the dense air at relatively low altitudes, so that propellor-driven planes have a certain height ceiling. Jets actually operate better in the thinner air at high altitudes because there is less air resistance to high-speed flight.
For small-scale electric usage, a battery generates a current by a chemical reaction. Batteries always provide direct current. But for large-scale electrical applications the current is generated, usually by converting mechanical energy of motion into electrical energy. A relative motion between a magnet and a wire will produce current. Metals tend to be composed of structural units called crystals. The atoms in these crystals share the electrons in the outer atomic orbitals. If there is movement of a magnetic field, the magnetic lines of force will cause electrons in the wire to move beyond their home crystal. Thus, the spinning of a magnet in a coil of wire will generate a useful electric current. The generator can be configured to produce either direct current or alternating current. A generator is called an alternator if it produces alternating current. All we have to do is to reverse this order, so that the current in a coil of wire causes a magnet to spin, and we have an electric motor which converts the electrical energy back into mechanical energy. Electric motors are configured to operate on either alternating current or direct current.
No matter how complicated computers can seem, what it all comes down to is that if we can store simple bits of information, magnetic particles that are placed as either on or off, 1 or 0, and we have many millions of such bits, we can store a vast amount of information by encoding it into this binary system (binary means that there are only two possibilities). If we refer to eight such bits as a "byte", that means that each byte can have 256 possible combinations, because 2 multiplied by itself eight times is 256. We can encode all of the upper and lower case alphabet, as well as numbers, puncutation and, various control signals into these 256 possible combinations in the byte. This byte code system is known as ASCII, and is the foundation of computing. Everything else about computers is mere details.
You may see towers with large tanks on top in various locations. In cities, such tanks may be on top of buildings and in hilly areas, they may be at the top of a tall hill. These tanks are where your water pressure comes from. Water from treatment plants are pumped into these tanks then, when you turn on the water, you get the pressure from gravity. The name of the town is often written on such water pressure tanks. One nearby tank is painted in a red and white checkerboard pattern, because it is near the airport and pilots can use it as a visual reference point.
Old steam engines were really simple devices. Steam pressure would be built up in a chamber called a "steam chest". There would be two openings from the steam chest into a cylinder with a piston, but a mechanism made it so that only one of the openings would be open at any one time. The steam from the steam chest would go through the first opening and push the piston down through the cylinder. But when the cylinder reached a certain point, the first opening would be closed and the second opening, on the other side of the piston, would be opened. The steam would then flow through that opening, while pushing the piston in the opposite direction, until the piston reached the point where the mechanism closed the second opening and re-opened the first opening. Thus, the steam produced a reciprocating motion in the piston which can be used for such tasks as driving a locomotive.
Jet and rocket engines operate on the action-reaction principle. Fuel is sprayed into a stream of incoming air and ignited. The exhaust goes backward, and pushes the craft in the opposite direction. The main difference between a jet and a rocket is that a rocket carries it's own supply of oxygen or oxidizer, while the jet takes in air from the outside as it moves forward.
What would a discussion of everyday technology be without the internal combustion engine? The remainder of this posting is about internal combustion engines.
When you start your car, an electric motor, called the starter, turns a heavy metal wheel, known as the flywheel. This gets the engine started, and the momentum of the flywheel keeps it going.
The flywheel is attached to the crankshaft, a central axle around which the engine is constructed. The turning of the crankshaft causes a smaller parallel axle, the camshaft, to turn. The two shafts are connected by a belt or chain. The connection between the two must be precisely set, and is known as the timing of the engine. The camshaft, like the crankshaft, is not a straight axle it is crafted to sequentially open ports in the cylinders of the engine.
Each cyclinder in the engine has two ports, one to take in it's share of the fuel-air mixture coming in from the air filter and fuel injection system, and one port to let exhaust gases flow into the exhaust manifold after combustion has taken place. The engine may have from four to eight cylinders.
Combustion in the cylinders is brought about by a spark from a spark plug after the fuel-air mix has been compressed by the movement of the piston in the cylinder. This combustion pushes the piston forcefully, and is where the power in the engine comes from. The pistons connect to the crankshaft, and the movement of the pistons causes it to turn at high speed. The spinning crankshaft, with the flywheel turning along with it and keeping the engine running, is what turns the wheels of the car, after the spin of the crankshaft is redirected by the car's transmission.
The timing of the spark in the cylinders, as well as the opening of the intake and exhausts ports at just the right moment, is accomplished by the rotation of the camshaft, connected to the crankshaft. There are four strokes, or movements, of the piston in each engine revolution. Two are in one direction, and two in the other direction.
First, the piston moves away from the ports, with the intake port open, and the resulting partial vacuum pulls fuel-air mixture into the cylinder. Second, the port is closed by the rotation of the camshaft and the piston moves in the opposite direction to compress the fuel-air mix. It is at this point that the spark plug is fired, and the fuel-air mix ignited. The resulting explosion pushes the piston back down in the cylinder, this is the all-important power stroke. Finally, the exhaust port is opened by the camshaft and the piston moves back toward the end of the cylinder with the ports, and pushes the exhaust out of the cylinder into the exhaust manifold.
The cycle then starts over again. Only one of the four piston movements actually provides power. The momentum to turn the crankshaft, which moves the pistons, for the other three movements comes from the other cylinders.
Also connected to the crankshaft, by a belt at the front of the engine, is an alternator or generator to generate the current to recharge the car's battery, which is necessary for the starter motor to initially turn the flywheel, and also to provide the current to produce the sparks for ignition in the cylinders. The current first goes through a coil, which acts as a transformer to high voltage, and a distributor to get it to the right cylinder at the right time. At least that was the way it was before each engine had a computer module.
Oil is necessary to lubricate the engine so that it does not destroy itself by friction, and also to absorb some of the heat. Even so, a cooling system is still needed which circulates antifreeze through the engine block and uses a radiator and a fan in the front of the engine to help dissipate heat.
In a front-wheel drive car, the front of the engine with the belts and turning end of the crankshaft will be facing the side of the car. The primary difference between gasoline (petrol) and diesel engines is that diesel engines do not use spark plugs, extremely high compression is all that is necessary to ignite the fuel-air mixture. Glow plugs in diesel engines are simply to warm the fuel-air mix when it is cold out, and are not the same thing as spark plugs.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Biblical Patterns
As I have written in previous postings, when a society is religious for a long period of time but then goes through a period of secularization, the patterns of the religion will still remain. Let's have a look at how important the Bible must have once been to western civilization by observing the many ways in which biblical patterns are still with us.
Have you ever noticed how closely such documents as the U.S. Constitution and the French "The Rights Of Man And Of The Citizen" resemble the Torah (the first five books) of the Bible? What about how the Magna Carta rebukes the power of the English king in the same was as the all-powerful Pharaoh, oppressor of the Israelites, is chastised in the Book of Exodus? There is a very strong biblical influence here.
I believe that the tendency of western countries, particularly America, to be highly legalistic can be traced not only to the Torah, but also to the intricately theological New Testament Letter to the Romans. However, the tendency to bend rules springs from Jesus pointing out that David and his men had once eaten what was supposed to be sacred bread, that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.
The founder of modern salesmanship was certainly Jesus, sending out the apostles to "sell" the New Covenant of Christianity to the whole world. This is also reflected in the missionary approach that America, and other countries have to spreading democracy around the world. While long-winded talk shows and speeches can be traced back to the Old Testament Book of Job. The justification of a harsh capitalist system likely came from Jesus' Parable of the Talents, even thought that was certainly not the intention of it.
The clearing of North America by settlers, and driving out the native Indians, closely resembles the settling of the promised land in the Book of Joshua, by driving out the Canaanites. The same can be said of South America, South Africa and, Australia. Many of the settlers, colonists and, conquistadors considered themselves as on a similar mission.
One reason that King David chose Jerusalem as his capital was that it was centrally located among the territories of the twelve tribes. Notice how Washington, Ottawa and, Canberra were chosen as capital cities for similar reasons.
The traditional pattern of immigration to North America, from the Old World to the New World, parallels the moving from the Old Covenant, the law, to the superior New Covenant, the Blood of Jesus.
It doesn't take much to see that rock music is basically a secularization of the psalms, with romance the usual focus instead of God.
The idealized "new man" of Communism is of exactly the same pattern as putting aside the old life and becoming new people in Christ. In the same way, Marx functioned as a prophet and Lenin as the messiah. It was like a secular mirror image of Christianity.
Jesus was the Messiah, who was to later establish the Millennial Kingdom and directly rule the world. Hitler was also very much a messianic figure, who proclaimed a glorious "Thousand-Year-Reich". His campaign against racial impurity closely paralleled the earlier campaign of Martin Luther against religious impurity.
When people cease believing in God, they tend to find something else to believe in. The new thing to believe in for the past century or so has often been ideology and nationalism. The country, or the ideology, or both, become the replacement for God. I pointed out, in my religion blog, http://www.markmeekreligion.blogspot.com/ , that people of times past would consider the global ideological struggles of the past century as mostly nonsensical since they did not involve God, but only how society and economics are ordered.
Just as an example, what is the Quebec separatist movement in Canada? Quebec used to be a very religious place. Today, few people go to church any more and I get the impression that separatism and nationalism is the new "religion".
Faith in human reason has taken over some of the role that was formerly occupied by religion. In the Sixties, there was a faith in the future based on science and technology that seemed to be almost religious in nature. Modern media has made it possible to bring celebrities to a global audience, and adoration of some of these celebrities has much of the fervor of religion.
The apocalyptic prophecies in the Bible, which I described in the posting "The End Of The World As We Know It" on my religion blog, http://www.markmeekreligion.blogspot.com/ , can be seen as a logical fulfillment of the patterns of history. This is what amazed me when I first learned about this subject. I knew enough of history, and of current events, to know that this was perfectly in harmony with historical precedent.
Hitler is the most obvious forerunner of the Antichrist.
The devastating wars of the Last Days are simply a continuation of the world war series, which could also include the Napoleonic Wars.
The attack from the north on Israel has it's precedent in the ancient raids on the area from the Scythians in the north.
The final battle of Armageddon, in which the forces of the Antichrist moving into the Holy Land from the west, meet the great army from the east, very much resembles the Crusaders from the west meeting the Mongols from the east, even though this never actually took place.
Have you ever noticed how closely such documents as the U.S. Constitution and the French "The Rights Of Man And Of The Citizen" resemble the Torah (the first five books) of the Bible? What about how the Magna Carta rebukes the power of the English king in the same was as the all-powerful Pharaoh, oppressor of the Israelites, is chastised in the Book of Exodus? There is a very strong biblical influence here.
I believe that the tendency of western countries, particularly America, to be highly legalistic can be traced not only to the Torah, but also to the intricately theological New Testament Letter to the Romans. However, the tendency to bend rules springs from Jesus pointing out that David and his men had once eaten what was supposed to be sacred bread, that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.
The founder of modern salesmanship was certainly Jesus, sending out the apostles to "sell" the New Covenant of Christianity to the whole world. This is also reflected in the missionary approach that America, and other countries have to spreading democracy around the world. While long-winded talk shows and speeches can be traced back to the Old Testament Book of Job. The justification of a harsh capitalist system likely came from Jesus' Parable of the Talents, even thought that was certainly not the intention of it.
The clearing of North America by settlers, and driving out the native Indians, closely resembles the settling of the promised land in the Book of Joshua, by driving out the Canaanites. The same can be said of South America, South Africa and, Australia. Many of the settlers, colonists and, conquistadors considered themselves as on a similar mission.
One reason that King David chose Jerusalem as his capital was that it was centrally located among the territories of the twelve tribes. Notice how Washington, Ottawa and, Canberra were chosen as capital cities for similar reasons.
The traditional pattern of immigration to North America, from the Old World to the New World, parallels the moving from the Old Covenant, the law, to the superior New Covenant, the Blood of Jesus.
It doesn't take much to see that rock music is basically a secularization of the psalms, with romance the usual focus instead of God.
The idealized "new man" of Communism is of exactly the same pattern as putting aside the old life and becoming new people in Christ. In the same way, Marx functioned as a prophet and Lenin as the messiah. It was like a secular mirror image of Christianity.
Jesus was the Messiah, who was to later establish the Millennial Kingdom and directly rule the world. Hitler was also very much a messianic figure, who proclaimed a glorious "Thousand-Year-Reich". His campaign against racial impurity closely paralleled the earlier campaign of Martin Luther against religious impurity.
When people cease believing in God, they tend to find something else to believe in. The new thing to believe in for the past century or so has often been ideology and nationalism. The country, or the ideology, or both, become the replacement for God. I pointed out, in my religion blog, http://www.markmeekreligion.blogspot.com/ , that people of times past would consider the global ideological struggles of the past century as mostly nonsensical since they did not involve God, but only how society and economics are ordered.
Just as an example, what is the Quebec separatist movement in Canada? Quebec used to be a very religious place. Today, few people go to church any more and I get the impression that separatism and nationalism is the new "religion".
Faith in human reason has taken over some of the role that was formerly occupied by religion. In the Sixties, there was a faith in the future based on science and technology that seemed to be almost religious in nature. Modern media has made it possible to bring celebrities to a global audience, and adoration of some of these celebrities has much of the fervor of religion.
The apocalyptic prophecies in the Bible, which I described in the posting "The End Of The World As We Know It" on my religion blog, http://www.markmeekreligion.blogspot.com/ , can be seen as a logical fulfillment of the patterns of history. This is what amazed me when I first learned about this subject. I knew enough of history, and of current events, to know that this was perfectly in harmony with historical precedent.
Hitler is the most obvious forerunner of the Antichrist.
The devastating wars of the Last Days are simply a continuation of the world war series, which could also include the Napoleonic Wars.
The attack from the north on Israel has it's precedent in the ancient raids on the area from the Scythians in the north.
The final battle of Armageddon, in which the forces of the Antichrist moving into the Holy Land from the west, meet the great army from the east, very much resembles the Crusaders from the west meeting the Mongols from the east, even though this never actually took place.
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