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".   

Morocco

Morocco is the country in the northwest corner of Africa, across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain. Just as the name of Yemen means "south", the name of Morocco means "west".

The original population of Morocco were Berbers. This was the ethnic group that had been there since ancient times. The Berber language was spoken until the Seventh Century Arab conquest of the region. Along with Arabic and French, more than a quarter of the population speaks Berber today. The language is known as Tamazight. The majority of Morocco's population has some Berber ancestry.

There was once a Berber kingdom called Mauretania. The Berber Revolt, against Arab rule, in 739 led to Berber states. In the 1920s the Rif War led to a temporary nation. Berbers are concentrated in the mountains of Morocco.

Unlike neighboring Algeria, Morocco was never ruled by the Ottomans. It was ruled by France and Spain, gaining independence in 1956. Many in Morocco still learn to speak French. Spain managed to hold onto the northern coastal enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.

Morocco is a constitutional monarchy and the present king is Mohammed VI, who has been king since 1999. His father and predecessor is Hassan II, who was crowned in 1961. King Mohammed VI deftly responded to the Arab Spring of 2011-12 by reforming the constitution in ways that pleased the demonstrators in Morocco. Unlike less fortunate national leaders in the region, he survived.

Morocco has been ruled by a succession of dynasties since it's founding in 788. The present king is of the Alouite Dynasty, which has ruled since 1631. Before that was the Saadi Dynasty, which successfully defended Morocco against the Ottomans.

But Morocco was ruled by France, along with Spain. There were protests against French rule and the exiling of Mohammed V, who would later be king, to the distant island of Madagascar seems to have been what set off the series of events that led to independence. Independence was achieved in 1956, except that Spain kept the coastal enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.

Since Morocco is a constitutional monarchy there is also the implements of democracy, a prime minister and parliament. But democracy hasn't always been easy and the era of the 1960s through the 1980s are sometimes referred to as the "Years of Lead". Some democracy advocates were reported to have been sent to a secret prison known as Tazmamart.

The U.S. Air Force had a base in Morocco, although not as well-known as the one in Libya. But the newly-independent government of Morocco wanted it to leave, although the country has always remained a U.S. ally.

Morocco is sometimes in the news for the region to it's southwest, formerly known as Spanish Sahara. In November 1975, King Hassan II asked for volunteers to cross into the region and about 350,000 Moroccans came in what is known as the Green March. There are people there who wish to establish a republic independent of Moroccan control, called the Sahrawi Republic.

After the Spanish left, there was a long conflict between Morocco and the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Republic. Morocco withdrew from the African Union over it's recognition of this republic, but has since rejoined. Morocco today keeps control of most of this territory, now generally referred to as Western Sahara.

The First Moroccan State was founded in 788 by Idris I. This began the Idrisid Dynasty. In modern times, Libya also had a King Idris, who was overthrown by Moammar Gaddafi in 1969.

Idris I is considered as certain to be a direct descendant of Muhammad. He is also the great-grandson of Hasan, who was the older brother of Hussein, sometimes spelled as Husayn, and who was considered by Shiites as Muhammad's rightful successor. Hussein was later martyred, and event that is prominently celebrated by Shiites.

Idris I founded the city of Fez as the capital of Morocco, in the Ninth Century. Fez became the largest city in the world in the Twelfth Century. Like China, Morocco has not only been ruled by successive dynasties but also has had a number of cities that have been it's capital. Fez was the first, followed by Marrakesh. Fez would be the capital again in modern times until the French moved it to the present capital city of Rabat, and Mohammed V decided to leave the capital there when the country gained independence from France in 1956.

With the exception of phosphates, tourism is probably the most important element of Morocco's economy, and nowhere is more important to tourists than the historic capital of Fez. The old part of an Arab city is known as the medina. The following scenes begin in Fes el Bali, the oldest part of Fez. This is the Eighth Century city that was the capital of the Idrisid Dynasty. The son of Idris I, Idris II, would start another city across the river which would grow separately until the two were eventually joined.

This scene from Google Street View is of Fes El Bali.

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/@34.061101,-4.9787263,3a,75y,127.77h,113.85t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMOPwYAn1hIFvP3_UVHYwXftq8fOXW6mRfPD7M_!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMOPwYAn1hIFvP3_UVHYwXftq8fOXW6mRfPD7M_%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-23.846153-ya336.76733-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

Here is more of Fes El Bali.

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0626867,-4.972992,3a,75y,89.97h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPQ-6DpDmaGQrOaiA9MbmOnB0B8K4ikEUW0qP56!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPQ-6DpDmaGQrOaiA9MbmOnB0B8K4ikEUW0qP56%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya31.314219-ro-0-fo100!7i7776!8i3888

This is a look at another part of Fez, Fes Jdid (New Fez), which was founded by the Marinid Dynasty in 1276. Fez is especially known for leather production, and this is what the colored tubs are used for.

This image of Fes Jdid is from Google Street View.

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.053034,-4.9938214,3a,75y,52.38h,106.46t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOy-98yRrOb1VX9ffe9J6_OyWEVOKc5PjE7ZiOA!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOy-98yRrOb1VX9ffe9J6_OyWEVOKc5PjE7ZiOA%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-16.458334-ya6.3802085-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

The peak of Morocco's power came when it was ruled by the Almoravid and Almohad Dynasties. We have seen these dynasties in the posting on this blog, "When The Moors Ruled Spain". Morocco was then ruled by the Marinid and Saadi Dynasties, followed by the present Alouite Dynasty which has ruled since 1631.

The Almoravid Dynasty founded the city of Marrakesh in 1062, and moved their capital there from Fez. Many of the older buildings in Marrakesh are built of red sandstone, such as the Koutoubia Mosque with it's tower. The following views begin at the ruins of the El Badi Palace.

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.6181487,-7.9857932,3a,75y,129.43h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPmZEa8ZQry2luHFjvJhwCQO0ufCfGkDrYnT9X5!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPmZEa8ZQry2luHFjvJhwCQO0ufCfGkDrYnT9X5%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya143.00108-ro0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

These views of old Marrakech are from Google Street View.

 

The modern buildings of Marrakesh are also often red in color. There were Hippies who went to Marrakesh in the 1960s and many Baby Boomers remember it by the song "Marrakesh Express", referring to the train to Marrakesh.

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.6341234,-8.0144885,3a,75y,200.33h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOy5lpzs_GWDjWhMYoFJ8XVC3fsVtdI6TqyKuNx!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOy5lpzs_GWDjWhMYoFJ8XVC3fsVtdI6TqyKuNx%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-14.933861-ya149.17082-ro-0-fo100!7i13312!8i6656

The largest city, and business center, of Morocco is Casablanca. Morocco didn't entirely escape the age of terrorism, there was the 2003 bombings in Casablanca. The city is on the coast of Morocco and, like "Alexandria" that we visited in Egypt, was a haven for European and American expats. The large mosque, with the tower, is dedicated to Hassan II, the king from 1961 to 1999.

These scenes of Casablanca, and the King Hassan II Mosque, are from Google Street View.

 

This is the area of Casablanca known as Gauthier.

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.590827,-7.6334644,3a,75y,57.37h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipO_4uZOi_ILzCtzuuB5_TM2w0QjhpxZVq5D-G1-!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipO_4uZOi_ILzCtzuuB5_TM2w0QjhpxZVq5D-G1-%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya359.35367-ro-0-fo100!7i9572!8i4786

The present capital city of Morocco is Rabat. The French moved it there from Fez, where there had been demonstrations against French rule which began in 1912, and Mohammed V decided to keep it there when the country became independent. 

These views of Rabat are from Google Earth and Street View. The view from above shows the street pattern in the old part of the city at the top and the influence of Paris at the bottom. But the French influence like this seems to be limited to Rabat.

Here is modern Rabat. 

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.9732895,-6.8233719,3a,75y,110t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipN5lklj4SA0kB_Z8LjvHCT3lUpliCx_D-Pp6CWr!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipN5lklj4SA0kB_Z8LjvHCT3lUpliCx_D-Pp6CWr%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-20-ya0-ro-0-fo100!7i9340!8i4670

In the northwest of Morocco, in proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and the Strait of Gibraltar, is the city of Tangier. It began as a Phoenician colony. The tomb of Ibn Battuta is there, the famed Berber traveler that I have referred to a number of times.

A major step toward the First World War took place when Kaiser Wilhelm II visited Tangier in 1905, touring the city on his famed white horse, and precipitated what became known as the First Moroccan Crisis by promising to support the sultan's sovereignty. It was no secret that France had designs on Morocco, over which it would take control in 1912, and this began a downward spiral in the relations between Germany and the western allies.

During the Cold War, Tangier's strategic location made it a center of spying and espionage and, like Marrakesh, it was a destination for Hippies during the 1960s. 

These images of Tangier are from Google Street View.

 

Following is a look at Tangier.

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.7744464,-5.807534,3a,75y,97.5h,96.94t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipN8FKS5NAJHzjZYu8eOEqXo4YmeBxUwszEXM65_!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipN8FKS5NAJHzjZYu8eOEqXo4YmeBxUwszEXM65_%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-6.941883-ya40.500004-ro-0-fo100!7i8192!8i4096

Finally, we come to the northern Moroccan city of Tetouan. Like France, Spain was also involved in Morocco and this was the center of Spanish rule in the country. Some people can still speak Spanish there, although many more Moroccans can speak French than Spanish.

When Jews were expelled from Spain, many went to Tetouan. Moroccan Jews were very prominent in the reestablishment of Israel in 1948. There was a Moroccan Quarter on the western side of the Temple Mount, which had been there since the Twelfth Century, and which was removed to make accessible the Western Wall, almost certainly the holiest place accessible to Jews today. Image from the Wikipedia article "Mughrabi Quarter".

Have you ever wondered why America's White House is white? I cannot find documentation of exactly why, but I have a theory. It has been mostly forgotten that Morocco was actually the first nation to officially recognize America as an independent nation. The largest city in Morocco is Casablanca, which means "white house". Although it is in Tetouan that the buildings are actually white.

This is the white buildings of Tetouan, from Google Street View.

 
https://www.google.com/maps/@35.5675811,-5.3669967,3a,75y,89.72h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPX5Ke1SodJfvMdmSOlC9zXYre_0IfoYmfskJhc!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPX5Ke1SodJfvMdmSOlC9zXYre_0IfoYmfskJhc%3Dw900-h600-k-no-pi0-ya10.006733993102685-ro0-fo100!7i5376!8i2688?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTEyNC4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

This is more of the white buildings of Tetouan.

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.5698033,-5.3857513,3a,75y,355.83h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipN8T3a61oBTik-foRwKrT7NxmAYeB-0PIMg9MjU!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipN8T3a61oBTik-foRwKrT7NxmAYeB-0PIMg9MjU%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya358.6349-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

When The Moors Ruled Spain

The Moors, from what is now Morocco, ruled Spain for about 700 years. Let's have a look back at that important era in world history.

www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2017/05/when-moors-ruled-spain.html?m=0

The Moors Strike Back

The Madrid Train Bombings of 2004 was Spain's version of 9-11. What I have never seen written is the deep history behind it, whether or not the bombers were aware of it. Despite extensive searching no evidence emerged that Al Qaeda was involved in it.

The purported reason for the bombing is that Spain had sent military forces to join the invasion of Iraq. Several bombs exploded during the morning rush hour on commuter trains around Madrid. Nearly two hundred people were killed. 

Not all of the bombs detonated and this enabled the tracking some of the bombers to an apartment building. As the police closed in on the apartment a massive bomb exploded inside, after the bombers had been heard chanting prayers, killing the bombers and a police officer.

The bombers were Moroccans. Morocco is just across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain. Moroccan dynasties ruled Spain for over 700 years. These Moslems from North Africa that ruled Spain are referred to as "Moors", although that is a general term assigned to them by Europeans and that is not what they called themselves. The Moorish conquest of Spain began in the year 711. The Catholics gradually regained control of Spain, beginning in the north, and the "Reconquista" was finally completed in the year 1492.

Moorish control is generally considered as a good time for Spain. Moslems were in control but mostly lived in harmony with Christians and Jews. It was after the reconquest and establishment of Catholic control that the harsh Inquisition began. Jews were expelled from Spain and any Jews or Moslems that remained were forced to convert to Catholicism.

The Moors built magnificent buildings and walls that are the focal point of Spain's tourist industry today. Knowledge thrived in Moorish Spain while the rest of Europe was going through the "Dark Ages". Cordoba grew into a great city as it's university attracted students from across Europe. The southern part of Spain is called "Andalusia" because the Moorish name for Spain was "Al Andalus".

This was the "Golden Age of Islam" and another great center of knowledge was the "House of Wisdom" in Baghdad. The city of Baghdad had been built by the Abbasid Caliphate as their capital after they had supplanted the Ummayyad Caliphate, which had been based in Damascus. The Moors were actually still under the Ummayyad Caliphate but their rule of Spain was a central part of this Golden Age.

Whether or not the bombers of 2004 ever thought of it they were moving with powerful historical currents. Not only had the Catholics taken away the glorious land of Al Andalus but now they had the audacity to participate in the invasion of Iraq, where the main caliphate was located at Baghdad during the Golden Age of Al Andalus. Whether or not the bombers ever thought of it historical forces were at work and it was time to strike back.

Nearly twelve years after the train bombings in Madrid came the December 2015 attacks in Paris. These weekly visits that we do around the world on this blog actually began with the visit to Paris that I did here to express sympathy after that attack.

I believe that the real reason for the attack on Paris was because Islamic State (IS) was driving a lot of people to flee the Middle East for Europe and the attack was to turn Europe against them so that they would have to stay and live under IS. But there was historical forces at work here too, actually the same forces that were behind the Madrid Train Bombings.

The Moors had gone beyond Spain and conquered quite a bit of France. Their advance was finally halted by Charles Martel. He began the Carolignian Dynasty of French kings and was the grandfather of Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor. His tomb is at the Basilica of St. Denis, just north of central Paris, which is also known as the first Gothic Cathedral. The area where the attackers operated from, whether they ever thought of it or not, was right around where the tomb of Charles Martel is located. Like the bombers in Madrid before them, powerful historical forces were at work and they were striking back.

Prehistoric History

On the subject of Africa, let's review this.

I was wondering something about history. We know that history is so important because we tend to repeat it. Sometimes the repetition is intentional but we usually repeat history without realizing it.

But what exactly is the definition of history? It is usually defined as events that are past. But we usually only define as history events that have some documentation. In other words, history began with the development of writing. This is what "prehistoric" means. Events involving humans that occurred before the development of writing.

Human civilization, which includes the development of writing, only began to take form after the end of the last ice age, about 11,000 years ago, and required thousands of years from there. Humans had been on earth for a very long time before that.

Prehistoric humans were mostly nomadic hunter-gatherers. Civilization required fixed settlements and that required learning to grow crops from seeds. Other essentials of civilization are learning to measure time, learning to control fire for warmth and cooking and to keep wild animals away, and learning how to record things by counting and writing. 

But humans have been "civilized" and "historic" for maybe one percent of the total time that they have been on earth. We know that our history is always with us, but why should it be limited to just that relatively recent history that has been recorded in writing? Shouldn't some of our ninety-nine percent of prehistory still be with us?

Civilization did not come easily to humans, and it wasn't "preferred" over nomadic hunting and gathering. Humans are dependent on water but civilization began in places where it is dry. Arid land, with a major river flowing through it, was where civilization began because that forced people to cooperate. Early civilizations began in the dry lands near the Nile, Tigris-Euphrates, Indus and, Yellow Rivers. Civilization didn't begin in places with abundant water because the nomadic hunter-gatherers didn't have the same need to cooperate.

A dry climate would also foster the development of writing. People probably preferred meat or fish for food. But in places where there was an abundance of water, the diet could readily be completed with plants whenever the hunting or fishing was less-than-successful. This made it less necessary to keep track of things by writing. But that was not the case in a dry climate, where there might be scarcity. 

What this means is that civilization wasn't necessarily a "preferred" state over nomadic hunting and gathering. It was something that humans in dry areas were forced into for survival. This is all the more reason why the ninety-nine percent of our history that is prehistoric should still be with us.

Why is there so much crime? Crime is defined as a breaking of the law. But codes of law have only been around for about five thousand years. That is a very brief time relative to the amount of time that humans have been on earth. Unsophisticated hunter-gatherers simply didn't have the same concept of individual possession that we do today. Living by codes of law hasn't entirely "caught on" with humans yet. We obey the laws only as well as we do because of the prospect of going to prison if we don't. Our prehistoric nature is still with us.

Everyone has their own nation when they are born. So why is there so much moving from one country to another? Why doesn't everyone just stay with their own country? Because prehistoric people had a long history of being nomadic, and that history is still with us. Even today the internet era has brought about a new global trend of being a "digital nomad".

Humans definitely originated in Africa, in what is now Ethiopia. The "Out of Africa" Theory, that the prehistoric ancestors of non-black people gradually migrated from Africa. They lost the melanin in their skin because it was no longer necessary to protect from sunburn. What is so interesting is that black people today tend to move from where it's warm to where it's cold while white people tend to move from where it's cold to where it's warm. Maybe we all have subconscious mixed feelings about what our prehistoric ancestors did, with black people trying to make up for their prehistoric ancestors not leaving Africa and white people trying to make up for their prehistoric ancestors having left Africa.

THE FWFW THEORY 

My theory of the beginning of civilization is the FWFW Theory. It stands for Farming, Water, Fire and, Writing. Those are the four basic elements of civilization and they appeared in that order.

The beginning of the process of civilization is when humans notice that, if they drop the seeds of a plant on the ground and come back later, copies of the original plant will have grown on the spot. This is revolutionary because now people can grow their own crops in fixed settlements, instead of looking for food as nomads. This is Farming, and requires some ability to measure time to know when to plant the seeds. The moon was very helpful to farming.

We know that humans began in Ethiopia, in East Africa. The region had the rainfall that was necessary for early farming. The next step is Water. When they learned how crops were dependent on water, and how to irrigate crops instead of depending entirely on rainfall, then they could move into drier areas, such as the north and west of Africa.

The next step was learning to control fire. This provided not only warmth, so that people could move further north into Europe where it gets cold in the winter, but made possible the cooking of meat and the smelting of metals from their ores. 

The final step to civilization was writing. This is necessary to record things and predictably began in the Middle East where the dry climate, although there was water from the major rivers, made essentials scarce and forced people to cooperate on a larger scale.

Apocalyptic Developments And News

APOCALYPTIC DEVELOPMENTS 

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are scheduled to meet in Alaska, to discuss the war in Ukraine. This is a development in the apocalyptic scenario described in the posting "The End Of The World As We Know It" and the parallel posting "Inducing The Apocalypse", June 2025. We know that the Antichrist must come from what is now the European Union.

Does anyone remember the 1986 summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev? It was also held in the far north, in Iceland. While the summit was a step toward ending the Cold War, I have always felt that it was also a catalyst in the integration of the European Union. Many Europeans resented that their future was being decided for them, over their heads, by an American and a Russian. Now another summit is being held in the far north. Even though the war is in Europe, Donald Trump is doing the negotiating and no Europeans were invited. Maybe it's time for Europeans to come up with their own strong leader. Donald Trump did express support for a future joint European peacekeeping force in Ukraine.

Donald Trump has warned of  "severe consequences" if the meeting doesn't result in progress toward ending the war. A falling out between the two, or an acrimonious conclusion to the meeting, would alarm the world and be a catalyst toward the emergence of a powerful global leader who could straighten all of this out. Remember that another catalyst to the closer integration of the European Union was the unsatisfactory ending of the 1986 Reagan-Gorbachev Summit, as the two failed to reach an agreement on nuclear arms control. Several years later the European Union, as it stands today, was formed by the Maastricht Treaty.

Simply by being such a dominant global leader, Donald Trump is setting the precedent for the Antichrist. He claims to have ended the "Twelve Day War" between Israel and Iran and the shootout between India and Pakistan and much of the global economy revolves around his decisions on tariffs.

We know that the Six Day War, of 1967, began the prophetic countdown to the Return of Jesus because that was when the original city of Jerusalem came back under control of the Jews, for the first time since ancient times, as foretold by Jesus in the Gospels. The naming of this year's "Twelve Day War" makes it seem as if it must also be part of the prophetic scenario, because we know that Iran will be a participant in the future invasion of Israel that will begin the final series of wars of the world.

In another apocalyptic development, police forces in Britain are increasingly using vans with facial recognition equipment. These vans are parked on streets where there are a lot of pedestrian traffic and at events where there are a lot of people. The faces of people passing by are scanned and matched against a database of people who are wanted. Hundreds of people have been arrested already due to the vans. There has been a public backlash but the government claims that the vans are only being used for those wanted for serious crimes, not for minor crimes or issues such as failure to pay fines. But this fits perfectly with the surveillance society that we know the Antichrist will have. AI is so important to this scenario because there are not enough workers to process the vast amount of data that can now be collected about people by means such as this. But AI can quickly do the work of thousands of workers.

NEWS 

The death of James Lovell was announced this week. He never actually landed on the moon but was on two missions, Apollo 8 and 13. We saw this space program in the compound posting "The Moon", August 2023 section 5) THE APOLLO SPACE PROGRAM.

Let's rejoice that minimal damage was done to the Mezquita, or Cathedral-Mosque, in Cordoba by this week's fire. This building is priceless. This was originally built as a Mosque by the Moors. Coincidentally, our visit this week is to Morocco from where the Moors came, and an associated posting is "When The Moors Ruled Spain".

The Canadian Government has announced a major increase in military spending. Canada once planned a military aircraft that became a national icon, especially in the Toronto area. It was known as the Avro Arrow, but the project was cancelled. We saw it's story in the compound posting "Investigations", December 2018, section 38) CANADA'S AVRO ARROW. I wonder if the Avro Arrow project might be revived.

Infrastructure Numbering

Making progress doesn't always involve improvements in technology. Here are some examples of low-tech ideas that would greatly improve the world.

Wherever humans settle there are telephone poles. I have long wondered why we don't attach a number to every telephone poles. GPS can be spoofed or jammed and it's satellites can be shot down. Numbered telephone poles would provide an invulnerable backup system. Any location in a human settlement could be described by the number on the nearest telephone pole.

For that matter, we could get a lot more out of infrastructure numbering. Why aren't the traffic lights in a city numbered? This would make navigation and expressing a location much easier. Traffic signs, and even speed bumps, could be numbered.

I think that every street in a city should be assigned a number, in addition to it's name, with mostly north-south streets being given even numbers and mostly east-west streets being given odd numbers. At least for some official purposes, it would be more convenient to express streets by this number rather than their name. Everything could be described by numbers.

On a map or world atlas, we can see that countries and geographical entities come in all different shapes. Why don't we make use of this? Why don't we describe something that is oddly-shaped by the country or geographic entity that it most resembles?

But the next frontier in high technology should be obvious. The brain creates electromagnetic waves, neural oscillations. We shouldn't have to ask for anything or push any buttons. There should be a hat that reads what we want from our brain waves and puts images directly into our brains so we don't have to look at screens.

The San Francisco Bay Area

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are scheduled to meet in Alaska, which was once a Russian colony. Russian territory extended southward into California and included San Francisco. The state flag of Hawaii is actually a combination of the Russian and British flags.

The San Francisco Bay area is known primarily for being probably the most important center in the world of the computer industry. Like Los Angeles and San Diego, far to the south, San Francisco began with the founding of a Spanish mission in the Eighteenth Century.

In 1849, there was a gold rush to the area. That is why today San Francisco's professional football team is known as the Forty-Niners, named for the people who arrived during the gold rush. This gold rush also led to the founding of Wells Fargo Bank, as a place to deposit newfound wealth. William Fargo was once the mayor of nearby Buffalo.

In 1906, the city was devastated by an earthquake. That led to another bank, the Bank of America, providing loans for rebuilding. Another interesting thing about San Francisco's banks is that, in the economic crash of 1929, not a single one of the city's banks failed.

In 1989 I was working in a factory. There was a portable television nearby with a baseball game on. The ground on the television suddenly began to shake. It was the Loma Prieta Earthquake which, while nowhere near as devastating as the one 83 years earlier, still did a lot of damage.

San Francisco is built on a peninsula. While that may make it very scenic, it also means that land is at a premium. As the city grows, the price of land finds it's way into everything else and that is why it is one of the most expensive cities in the world. The following image is from Google Earth. The city to the right across the bay is Oakland.

 
It may seem a mystery as to why San Francisco was a focal point in sometimes testy relations between the U.S. and Russia. There were makeshift wooden shacks on the roof of the Russian consulate there, believed to be concealing all manner of secret antennas. The FBI was reported to have dug a tunnel under the consulate, in an effort to determine if espionage is going on in there, before Donald Trump simply ordered it closed.

San Francisco is not a major center of political power but this is explained by the forces of history. San Francisco was once a Russian colony. The following six images, from Google Street View, are of Fort Ross. Most of it is a reconstruction.

One of the best-known views of San Francisco is from Alamo Square, toward downtown, looking past the row of houses known as the "Painted Ladies". The pyramid-shaped building downtown is the Transamerica Pyramid. The first of the following images is from Google Street View, the second is from Google Earth.

 
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/@37.7762188,-122.4336558,3a,75y,49.34h,85.84t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPMvLnjt53lRs1wzze-q-EwG75yVYX35rmvbETH!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPMvLnjt53lRs1wzze-q-EwG75yVYX35rmvbETH%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya20.952644-ro-0-fo100!7i10240!8i5120

One of the best-known street intersections in the world gives it's name to the surrounding district. Haight-Ashbury is not only the name of a district in San Francisco, it is also the name of an era. This was the focal point of the Hippies of the late 1960s. The 1967 hit song by Scott McKenzie, "San Francisco", reminded those on their way there to be sure to remember to wear flowers in their hair. 

The spirit of bringing about a better world was certainly there in those days, and the Monterrey Pop Festival was the predecessor of Woodstock, on the other side of the country. The oak wood for the hardwood floors in the homes all around was harvested just across San Francisco Bay, and gave it's name to the city of Oakland.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7700149,-122.4469487,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sLkko1sS4oGx_rf_Y0Tursg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

The inlet to San Francisco Bay, from the Pacific Ocean, is known as the Golden Gate. The bridge across it by that name is one of the hallmarks of San Francisco. The first image is from Google Street View.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.8089972,-122.4744456,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sDcrZuK4W0FFn4Iui2XQ0Dw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Moving south from San Francisco, along the western shore of San Francisco Bay, we come to the city of Palo Alto. Northern California is known for it's towering redwood trees, and the name of Palo Alto means "the tall stick". The southern end of San Francisco Bay is otherwise known as Silicon Valley. So much of the developments in modern computers originated in PARC, the Palo Alto Research Center. Also nearby is Google, where I presume that the servers that host this blog are located.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.4453224,-122.1622513,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s4qBn0L87SLtVH1g1ro0_3g!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

At Palo Alto is Stanford University, which is known as the "University of Silicon Valley".

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.4254073,-122.1674346,3a,75y,27.7h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPWVcOVniypJUXJkd8ZGJwU6NPyDQSbUzfnM4ko!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPWVcOVniypJUXJkd8ZGJwU6NPyDQSbUzfnM4ko%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi2.911568-ya35.821-ro-4.190272-fo100!7i6912!8i3456

At the southern end of San Francisco Bay is San Jose, considered as the "capital of Silicon Valley". It is actually the largest city in the San Francisco Bay area.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.3344557,-121.8890983,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sPppkXdpyrZ6uGmWg7OsUeQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

San Jose is a wealthy city. This is a residential neighborhood.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.3813853,-121.8426685,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sMaGFj23RhaDX-uucCelnWg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Across the bay from San Francisco is Oakland. It got it's name, as stated above, by providing oak wood to build the flooring in San Francisco homes. The 1906 earthquake that devastated San Francisco brought people to Oakland. San Francisco Bay is a natural harbor and Oakland is the port. The first image of Oakland is from Google Earth.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.8043033,-122.271044,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sDErHzw0bZczjIdP--OCQaw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Another famous university is the University of California at Berkeley. It is known for it's many discoveries involving elements and atoms and also for the student protests during the Vietnam War.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.8722715,-122.2584699,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1syRzLQk4nKNL00dbqO-CUpA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

A visit to San Francisco wouldn't be complete without Alcatraz. This is the island in San Francisco Bay that was used first as a fort, and then as a prison. It housed prisoners that were particularly notorious. The first three images are from Google Earth and Street View.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.8266356,-122.4227447,3a,75y,285.54h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOIgKI5hQIRrNhUVWeYUsIoX8wewx5yXOl0G8Qq!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOIgKI5hQIRrNhUVWeYUsIoX8wewx5yXOl0G8Qq%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya232.395-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

In June of 1962 three prisoners escaped from Alcatraz, two of which were brothers. A fourth prisoner was supposed to join them but had to be left behind. The escape was elaborately planned, using a utility corridor behind the cells. Chiseling into the wall was done while music was being played, to hide the noise. The prisoners crafted life-like dummies to put in their cots. They sewed raincoats into an inflatable raft.

No one knows for certain what became of the three. A raft was reportedly found. Some believe that the tide into San Francisco Bay was the deciding factor. If the tide was on the way out when the escape took place during the night, the time of night isn't exactly known, they would have been swept out to sea and would have been unlikely to survive. But if the tide was on the way in they could have landed somewhere on shore and made their escape.

But there are many stories that their families have received communications from them, such as Christmas cards.

My conclusion is that they survived and escaped. They thought of everything else so why wouldn't they have thought of the tides? The tides are strongest at new moon and full moon, when the moon and sun are pulling together, and weakest at the quarters, which looks like a half moon. On the night of the escape, June 12, 1962, the moon was just past first quarter, when the tides were near their weakest.

Put yourself in the government's position. To acknowledge that three prisoners had escaped, from the most secure prison in the country, would encourage every prisoner in every prison in the country to try to escape. Of course they didn't escape. They must have gotten swept out to sea by the tide. Don't even think about them having successfully escaped. 

There is just so much out there that has never been pointed out. What I noticed is that O.J. Simpson went to high school overlooking Alcatraz, and the escape happened while he was at school there. He wore number 32 while playing for the Buffalo Bills and the double murder happened 32 years to the day from the escape.

53 years after the escape from Alcatraz, another prison escape took place. It was on the other side of the country, in a northern New York State town called Dannemora. The escape, of two inmates, from the Clinton Correctional Facility was remarkably similar to the escape from Alcatraz. It didn't involve water but the escapees used the utility corridor behind their cells to eventually access a tunnel through which steam was piped, for heat during the winter, from an external steam plant. They accessed a manhole cover in an intersection a block away from the prison, and made their escape into the dense forest of the Adirondacks. In the following image, from Google Street View, the manhole cover is in the foreground and the prison wall in the background.

 
The country was enthralled with the escape for the month of June, 2015. The two escapees eventually split up, one being shot and killed and the other later shot and captured. Would this escape have happened as it did without the precedent of the escape at Alcatraz?

Dakar And The Mali Empire

Dakar is the city located at the furthest west point in Africa, and indeed in the entire continental eastern hemisphere. From Dakar, a flight to Recife in Brazil, which is in the western hemisphere, would be as much of a north-south route as east-west.

Dakar is the capital and largest city of Senegal, and is located on the coast. Unlike Nigeria and Ivory Coast, which also have their largest cities on the Atlantic coast, Senegal has not moved it's capital city back to an inland city which would reflect the historical kingdoms in west Africa which were inland, and not focused on the coast.

What is now Senegal was once part of the great Mali Empire. The name of this empire lives on in an inland west African nation. The dominant ethnic group is the well-known Mandinka.

The title of Mansa meant "king" in the Mali Empire. The best-known of these kings is Mansa Musa. There was gold in the Mali Empire and Mansa Musa is remembered as possibly the richest man who ever lived, relative to his time. The following image is from the Wikipedia article "Mansa Musa".

One of the most fabled stories in world history is the pilgrimage that Mansa Musa made to Mecca in 1324. He brought an entourage of tens of thousands of people with him. Camels carried tons of gold. On the way to Mecca, he paid to build mosques and gave away gold to those in need. He gave away so much gold in Egypt that the economy of the country took years to recover from the resulting inflation.

The pilgrimage of Mansa Musa, and the generous gifts of tons of gold, may actually have changed world history. The Age of Exploration would begin toward the end of the following century. It began with Spain and Portugal, the European countries that are geographically the closest to northwest Africa, and the overwhelming driving factor was the relentless search for gold. Persistent rumors of "cities of gold" are what drove the exploration of much of the western hemisphere, in the relentless quest to find them.

At the time of Mansa Musa, Spain and Portugal were ruled by the Moors, who were also from northwest Africa, as we saw in "When The Moors Ruled Spain". Could it be that stories of Mansa Musa's famous pilgrimage, and the seemingly-endless gold that he gave away, is what ultimately fueled the drive of Europeans, starting with Spain and Portugal, to explore the entire world?

There were two great cities of the Mali Empire that are still there today. These are Timbuktu and Djenne. Both were inland and not on the coast.

On a separate posting is some images of the fabled cities of Timbuktu and Djenne, once part of the Mali Empire and now in the modern nation of Mali. Not only was it fabulously wealthy, but was a great Islamic center of learning in the same way as Cordoba, Baghdad and, Cairo. I can remember the name of Timbuktu being used as a euphemism for a place that is far away or unreachable.

This is the modern city of Dakar, it is on the Atlantic coast, and not far inland like Timbuktu and Djenne. The following scenes begin at Cathedral Notre Dame of Dakar.

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.

The first of the following images is from Google Earth. You can see that the street pattern is very much like Paris. The eight images after that are from Google Street View.

https://www.google.com/maps/@14.6658157,-17.4376028,3a,75y,188.17h,114.55t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNj1FXMQlUwmSnu08eS7AcANAcrs2iyQiMhmRx0!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNj1FXMQlUwmSnu08eS7AcANAcrs2iyQiMhmRx0%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-24.552082-ya354.1667-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

Proceeding northward, we come to the area of Dakar known as Medina. The first three images are from Google Street View.

https://www.google.com/maps/@14.6848484,-17.4461469,3a,75y,134.36h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s6bQvXrH8G9wGEpmfraJAWA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D6bQvXrH8G9wGEpmfraJAWA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D134.35756%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

This is known as Grand Dakar. The first two images are from Google Street View.

https://www.google.com/maps/@14.7015404,-17.4561538,3a,75y,324.01h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s0f4ugjYh26WVAuGK2pk66A!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D0f4ugjYh26WVAuGK2pk66A%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D324.0074%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Further north is Grand-Yoff. The first three images are from Google Street View.

https://www.google.com/maps/@14.7289188,-17.4507952,3a,75y,34.63h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s1unORmBM_1GreyfOcAxcZw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D1unORmBM_1GreyfOcAxcZw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D34.633324%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

This area of Dakar is known as Bel Air. The first two images are from Google Street View.

https://www.google.com/maps/@14.7120236,-17.4331515,3a,75y,14.88h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sSHvqpC0VSQ3_l1DqWtiqjg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DSHvqpC0VSQ3_l1DqWtiqjg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D14.883656%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656