Thursday, September 3, 2026

Introduction To This Blog System

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Image used by permission

Posting is usually done once a week, on Thursday.

Postings may be later combined into a compound posting on this blog. Many of the postings concern my observations in various branches of science, but there are also many on technology, religion, economics and, general world issues.

I would really like to thank everyone who reads any of these blogs for your interest.
 
SCIENCE WRITING
 
Most of the postings on this blog are visits to various places around the world, and articles about such topics as history and religion. But much of the writing is about science. I do not write about what is already known but only if I can write something new, or at least a new way of looking at things.
 
If you would like a quick background in the science and mathematics that everyone should really know in the 21st Century, the posting "Scientific Literacy" provides this in about a hundred paragraphs. Similarly, "The Way Things Work" provides a quick background in everyday technology.
 
I am a Christian and I want to show that belief in God is not unscientific at all. I was interested in science long before I was interested in religion, and have never had any trouble believing that God created everything.
 
There are six major scientific theories, each arranged in the form of a textbook. The first five of the following six are on this blog.
 
"The Theory Of Stationary Space" is my cosmological theory of how so much revolves around time being explained by us being in four-dimensional space, with the dimension that we cannot access being perceived as time. This is my version of string theory, with matter actually being strings in four dimensions rather than particles in three dimensions. Everything is ultimately based on negative and positive electric charges, with energy being able to overcome the laws of attraction and repulsion of electric charges. No one has ever explained exactly what time is, and a myriad of explanations of other things fall right into place around it.
 
"The Flow Of Information Through The Universe" is about how so much can be explained by seeing how there is a limited amount of information, and it must be the same information that constructs the highest levels as the lowest levels. A ready example is how the orbits of planets around the sun is based on the orbitals of electrons around the nucleus, in the atoms of which the sun and planets are composed. This concept is extremely useful because, understanding this, we can study things that we cannot directly see by analyzing things that we can see because all must be built on the same information.
 
"The Theory Of Complexity" is about what information actually is, how energy and information is really the same thing, and how we see the universe as we do because of our perspective of being at a higher level of information than our inanimate surroundings.
 
"The Lowest Information Point" is about how, since information and energy is really the same thing and the universe always seeks the lowest energy state, it also always seeks the "Lowest Information Point". So much is explained by how the universe prefers equalities to inequalities and related ratios where the numerator of one ratio is also the denominator of the other. This explains so much from why dust particles are as big as they to why the planets and stars are the scale that they are.

"The Theory Of Infinite Dimensions" is the most recent scientific theory. It is the second cosmological theory, after"The Theory Of Stationary Space". We see the universe as an infinity of distance in three spatial dimensions and light as always moving in straight lines. But this is another example of how we see the universe as we do not only because of what it is but also because of what we are. It is more logical that the universe has an infinite number of dimensions. We can see in all of the dimensions because light actually can turn corners but it requires energy. We can only see it as three dimensions because of our limited dimensional order. Light consists of two-dimensional waves and we perceive space as being three-dimensional. This means that we can see light as coming from different directions but can only perceive it as moving in a straight line.
 
"The Story Of Planet Earth", on the geology blog, is about how virtually every major feature of the earth's surface, both on land and seafloor, can be explained by lines of magma emergence from below that were affected by the landing of three Continental Asteroids. Many people believe that land originated from a past "super-continent", but there is no explanation of where it came from.
 
There are a few of what we could call "minor" theories, where there is not as much written as with the major theories. On this blog, there is "How Biology And Human Life Fits Into Cosmology". On the meteorology and biology blog, there is my theory of the nature of water, "Water Made Really Simple".
 
There are compound postings about science which are groupings of writing about a certain topic.
 
Scientific compound postings include, "Computer Science", "Atomic Science", "Measurement", "A Celebration Of The Inverse Square Law", "Our Solar System", "Mind-Bending Cosmology", "The Configuration Of The Solar System Made Really Simple", "In Appreciation Of Electrons", "The Science Of Human Society " and "Orbital And Escape Velocities And Impacts from Space".
 
Compound postings about history and the world include "The House Of Holy Wisdom, Where The Modern World Began", "Niagara Stories", "Economics", "How History Repeats Itself", "The Meaning Of Freedom", "The Western Hemisphere", "Our Language" and, "America And The Modern World Explained By Way Of Paris".
 
There are two compound postings about prophecies and the Bible. There is "The Aztec Prophecy" than, for prophecies that are directly made in the Bible there is "New Insight Into Bible Prophecy".
 
"Investigations" is the compound posting that is a collection of any posting about an investigation.
 
The rest of the postings are individual postings. For more detailed information about this blog, see the posting "Thanks To Readers". For general topics of conversation, see "Thoughts And Observations", on the world and economics blog.  

Other Blogs And Books

                                                                                                                                                                 

Lights at night 

Here is a quick look at my other blogs before you start this one.

On this blog, you can see a list of all postings by clicking on the year or month to the right. But on the topical blogs, that is not the case. If you click on a year or month on those blogs, it will display the postings themselves, but the list on the right will still only show those postings that were added most recently.

To access a list of all postings on those blogs, it is necessary to click on the arrow in front of the year or month in question.

http://www.markmeekeconomics.blogspot.com/ is about economics, history and, general human issues.

http://www.markmeekprogress.blogspot.com/ concerns progress in technology and ideas.

http://www.markmeekearth.blogspot.com/ is my geology and global natural history blog for topics other than glaciers. My natural history blogs concerning the impact of glaciers is http://www.markmeekworld.blogspot.com/ .

http://www.markmeekniagara.blogspot.com/ is about new discoveries concerning natural history in the general area of Niagara Falls.

http://www.markmeeklife.blogspot.com/ is my observations concerning meteorology and biology.

http://www.markmeekphysics.blogspot.com/ is my blog about physics and astronomy.

http://www.markmeekcosmology.blogspot.com/ is my version of string theory that solves many unsolved mysteries about the underlying structure and beginning of the universe.

http://www.markmeekpatterns.blogspot.com/ details my work with the fundamental patterns and complexity that underlies everything in existence.

 http://www.markmeekreligion.blogspot.com/ is my religion blog.

 http://www.markmeekcreation.blogspot.com/ is proof that there must be a god.

http://www.markmeekphotos.blogspot.com/ is my travel photos of Europe.

On my photo blogs, Blogspot will not hold all of the photos in each blog in a straight line. To see all of the photos, you must click on the bottom posting listed on the right at the top of the blog after seeing all that there are in the initial showing. The last posting in the North America blog should be "Tijuana, Mexico" and the last posting in the Europe blog should be "Notre Dame Cathedral Door And Arc De Triomphe, Paris". Each photo in the photo blogs can be clicked on to enlarge it to full screen.

My autobiography is http://www.mark-meek.blogspot.com/

My books can be seen at http://www.bn.com/ http://www.amazon.com/ or, http://www.iuniverse.com/ just do an author search for "Mark Meek".   

Russia And Starlink

Starlink is a system of satellites that act as phone towers and are arranged so that one is always overhead. This makes phone use possible anywhere in the world where there are no cell towers.

Starlink has also proven very useful in the Ukraine war, for facilitating the guidance of drones. The disadvantage of drones is that, unless the drone is guided by AI, it must be guided by radio communication with it's base. This communication can be detected and jammed by the enemy. But if the drone is fitted with a Starlink terminal then it's communication with the base goes through a satellite, and is much more difficult to jam.

Both Russia and Ukraine were using Starlink for drone guidance. Earlier this year, Russia was cut off from using Starlink and this has really changed the war. But the change is not for the better.

Russia is developing it's own system but, until then, it must do without Starlink. Ukraine is only attacking targets in Russia that have military significance, while Russian drone attacks are killing a lot of civilians and have seriously damaged Dormition Cathedral in Kyiv. Russia has recently used AI drones, which select their own targets and don't need to communicate with the base, and jet-powered drones, which are much more difficult to interpret because they travel so fast.

Could Russia be sending a message that cutting off it's access to Starlink wasn't a good idea because it will mean that more civilians will die? If Russia had access to Starlink then it could attack with more accuracy and fewer civilians would die. In any case, this cutoff has impelled Russia to build more advanced and deadly drones that don't need Starlink.

Delhi

Delhi is the natural focal point of northern India, and has been the capital city of many different kingdoms, over more than 2500 years. New Delhi is actually the capital of India today, and is a district within Delhi rather than a separate city.

The city was the center of the Delhi Sultanate for over four hundred years, until it was conquered in 1526 by Babur, who was the founder of the Mughal (or Mogul) Empire. Remember that we saw Babur in the posting on this blog, "Why We Should Understand The Mongols", May 2016. The Delhi Sultanate had earlier evaded conquest by the Mongols. The Mughals began with central Asian armies extending the domain of Islam, and are known for the magnificent architecture and gardens that they left behind.

The fifth Mughal Emperor was the widely-known Shah Jahan. He is remembered as the builder of the Taj Mahal, as a tomb for his favorite wife, but is also the builder of what is now called the Old City of Delhi. From the Eighteenth to Twentieth Centuries, control of this city that was the natural capital of a wide stretch of south Asia passed between Mughals, Persians, Marathas and, Sikhs.

New Delhi was named as the capital of India in 1912. It is the location of the government district of the country. The center of New Delhi is the Rashtrapati Bhavan, or Presidential Compound. It includes a palace and extensive Mughal gardens. It was the largest residence of a head of state in the world, until President Erdogan of Turkey outdid it with an extravagant new palace. India is actually a parliamentary democracy, run by a prime minister, but has a presidential role as well. This is Delhi's Rashtrapati Bhavan.

ALL IMAGES ARE FROM GOOGLE EARTH OR STREET VIEW UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED 





One of the most familiar sights in Delhi is the India Gate. There is a broad avenue. leading to the Rashtrapati Bhavan from India Gate, known as Rajpath. This is reminiscent of the Champs Elysees in Paris, leading to the Arc de Triomphe, or the National Mall in Washington, leading from Congress past the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial. The Canopy, east of India Gate and along the axis formed by Rajpath, is where six roads come together in a way similar to the Arc de Triomphe.

This is the India Gate.





This is the canopy, further along the Rajpath than India Gate from the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The first image shows the canopy in the center, where three roads intersect, with the India Gate in the center left.




Here are some scenes of India Gate, with the Canopy along the same axis of Rajpath, and some of the nearby government buildings. There are actually two central axes of New Delhi, Rajpath and Janpath, which begins at Connaught Place to the north and crosses Rajpath at a perpendicular angle:

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.

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The following scenes are of India's government buildings, other than the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Notice that, along Rajpath, you can see the dome of Rashtrapati Bhavan, the presidential compound, in the distance in one direction, and India Gate in the distance in the opposite direction.






https://www.google.com/maps/@28.61386,77.2102428,3a,75y,270h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-RgaX8RyyqYs%2FUqGINU8TomI%2FAAAAAAACNew%2FTUbU4OHeMJk7NYGbZB_LbRDjOiaZpAU_Q!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2F-RgaX8RyyqYs%2FUqGINU8TomI%2FAAAAAAACNew%2FTUbU4OHeMJk7NYGbZB_LbRDjOiaZpAU_Q%2Fw203-h101-n-k-no%2F!7i4000!8i2000

South of the government buildings is the diplomatic district of Chanakyapuri, along a road called Shanti Path. The following images begin with a scene that would make any American diplomat feel at home, a baseball diamond. But India's national sport of cricket, which is actually the second-most popular sport in the world, is really not that different from baseball:

https://www.google.com/maps/@28.5991757,77.1848015,3a,75y,124h,88t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-pTRcQEC0oKM%2FV4CxoQiD-8I%2FAAAAAAAACK0%2FedoPizq7_WIfunoiosJik0W8N7bKQVCwACLIB!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh4.googleusercontent.com%2F-pTRcQEC0oKM%2FV4CxoQiD-8I%2FAAAAAAAACK0%2FedoPizq7_WIfunoiosJik0W8N7bKQVCwACLIB%2Fw203-h101-n-k-no%2F!7i8704!8i4352

From the diplomatic district let's move east, to Humayun's Tomb. Upon seeing Humayun's Tomb, one of the best-known sights of Delhi, you may think that the Taj Mahal had been colored red. There is a close resemblance between the two buildings. Both are on the bank of the same Yamuna River. The grounds around both are divided into quadrants. Each mausoleum has a faux tomb one level above the real tomb. Humayun's Tomb is built of white marble and red sandstone, while the Taj Mahal is built of white marble and the adjacent mosque and guesthouse if built of red sandstone.

But Humayun's Tomb is in Delhi, while the Taj Mahal is in Agra. Humayun was the second Mughal Emperor while Shah Jahan, who had the Taj Mahal built, was the fifth. Shah Jahan was the great-grandson of Humayun. Humayun died in 1556, and the tomb was completed in 1571.

But Humayun's Tomb was certainly an inspiration for the Taj Mahal. Some differences are that Humayun's Tomb does not have the opulent gates, or the minarets, that the Taj Mahal does and Humayun's Tomb is in the center of it's grounds, while the Taj Mahal is at one end.

Here are some scenes of Humayun's Tomb.







https://www.google.com/maps/@28.5933051,77.2505152,3a,75y,107.32h,88.63t,0.77r/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1ssO8N0kuMP4c1b7QGM1rN3w!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DsO8N0kuMP4c1b7QGM1rN3w%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D354.53784%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656

North of the government district and India Gate is Connaught Place. This is a business district, built in the form of a circle. The inner and outer street are named for the mother and son prime ministers of India. The inner for Rajiv Gandhi, and the outer for his mother Indira Gandhi. They were not related to Mahatma Gandhi, Indira got the name by marriage which I am sure did not hurt her political career. They were members of India's long-dominant Congress Party. I can remember when both were assassinated, Indira in 1984 after the raid on the Sikh Golden Temple, and Rajiv in 1991, when a Sri Lankan woman bowed to him but detonated a bomb hidden in her clothing.

In the following image of New Delhi, the Rajpath is the horizontal line at the bottom. The Rashtrapati Bhavan is at the left end of the line. The circle at the top is Connaught Place. The road perpendicular to the Rajpath that connects it to Connaught Place is the Janpath.


Near the circular business district of Connaught place is what is known as the Qutb Complex. This is the remains of monuments and tombs from the Delhi Sultanate. This was an Islamic empire that preceded the Mughals. It is the kind of complex that is added to over time, similar to Karnak in Egypt. The Qutb Complex is believed to be on the site of a very old fort, and much of it built from the rubble of destroyed temples. The tall tower is the Qutb Minar.










Perhaps the most interesting thing at the Qutb Complex is the Iron Pillar. This is from the time of Chandragupta II, more than 1600 years ago, and contains inscription in Sanskrit. The thing that is amazing about it is how it does not corrode. The pillar is believed to have been brought to the complex from elsewhere by the Delhi Sultanate.


Also not far from Connaught Place is what is known as the Jantar Mantar. It is not as old as the Qutb Complex, being built in 1724. Jantar Mantar is a calendar and astronomical observatory. There are over a dozen separate instruments, and there are others like it elsewhere in India.

The large triangle in the Jantar Mantar is a sundial with it's hypotenuse pointing to the north star so that it is parallel to the earth's axis. Such a sundial can measure not only time of day, but also the time of year. Any point in the sky can be easily located by declination from the north celestial pole, along with it's alignment at a given time of night.



The Jayaprakash Yantra, another instrument in the Jantar Mantar, is literally a map of the sky. The gaps are to look at the stars from inside. There are cross-wires above the map for positioning anything in the sky, and so the sun casts a shadow on the celestial map during the daytime, showing where it is against the background stars, which cannot be seen because of the daylight.


The Misra Yantra determines the shortest and longest days, and can also determine when noon is in any city of the world.


The Rama Yantra is the large cylindrical structures with open top. It measures the altitudes of stars based on latitude and longitude.




Across the street from the Jantar Mantar is the Imperial Hotel. This is where the discussions took place to partition Pakistan and Bangladesh from India, so that Moslems would have their own country. Pakistan and Bangladesh existed as one country for 24 years, known as East and West Pakistan, and this can thus be considered as the birthplace of those countries.

But India and Pakistan can never be completely separate. So much Mughal architecture, from the Taj Mahal to Humayun's Tomb, is within India and the river that India was named for, the Indus, is within Pakistan. Hindu, the majority religion, Hindi, the language and India, all come from the name of Indus.

The following scenes are of Jantar Mantar, and the surrounding area,with the first scene being inside the Imperial Hotel. The red geometric structures are the astronomical instruments of Jantar Mantar:

https://www.google.com/maps/@28.6255551,77.2180986,3a,75y,72.84h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-NlPSOHIcBQE%2FVy3N9VAkpCI%2FAAAAAAAAPPU%2FPJTWOjCFHu0PXQy8MENuRQ6u4A_t9osKwCLIB!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh4.googleusercontent.com%2F-NlPSOHIcBQE%2FVy3N9VAkpCI%2FAAAAAAAAPPU%2FPJTWOjCFHu0PXQy8MENuRQ6u4A_t9osKwCLIB%2Fw203-h101-n-k-no%2F!7i5376!8i2688

Next, we come to what is known as Old Delhi, which is north of Connaught Place, which is north of Rajpath. Old Delhi was built by Shah Jahan in 1649, and is actually called Shahjahanabad, the City of Shah Jahan. It was a walled city that was the Mughal capital. It included Jama Masjid, the mosque, and the Red Fort, which we will get to shortly. This is believed to be where the Urdu language originated.

Ironically it was Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal in Agra, who decided to move the Mughal capital from Agra to Delhi, and this is what he built. He did not start Delhi, it had already been a city for a very long time. This "Old Delhi" of Shahjahanabad is actually the Seventh City of Delhi. New Delhi, which we have seen where the government buildings are, is the Eighth City of Delhi. But these are only the cities of Delhi that archeologists can establish with certainty, there is likely much more before that, which did not survive the destruction and later building of thousands of years.

In the following image you can see the difference between Old Delhi, at the top, and New Delhi, at the bottom. The prominent horizontal line across New Delhi is the Rajpath.


The walls of Old Delhi, or Shahjahanabad, and the six other certain cities of Delhi that came before it, are mostly gone, but many of the gates remain. in times past, when walls become irrelevant and there is other building going on nearby, the walls are likely to be dismantled so that the material can be used in building new structures. 

There are many gates in Delhi, remnants of it's long history. Some gates are gone and others are in ruins, but here are some of the remaining gates of Delhi. The India Gate that we have seen, of course, fits New Delhi, the Eighth City of Delhi, in with the past. The following four images are from the Wikipedia article "Gates of Delhi".





When Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan decided to move the capital from Agra to Delhi, in 1638, he built the Red Fort as a palace and his residence. It was the Mughal Emperor's residence for nearly two centuries. Today, the Prime Minister of India makes his Independence Day, August 15, speech from the Red Fort. This is the outer walls and vast interior complex of the Red Fort.











https://www.google.com/maps/@28.6558899,77.2400995,3a,75y,95.94h,79.36t,-4.44r/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sffDABh0jkjfvOb0hfweV2g!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DffDABh0jkjfvOb0hfweV2g%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D1.7190212%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656

The reign of Shah Jahan was the Golden Age of the Mughals. But their empire began to decline after the death of his son. Persians, led by the great conqueror Nadir Shah, raided the Red Fort in 1739, and the magnificent Mughal throne, the Peacock Throne, was taken. The Peacock Throne had been made during the reign of Shah Jahan, and reportedly cost twice as much as the Taj Mahal to construct.

Have you ever wondered what became of the Peacock Throne? After Nadir Shah was assassinated by some of his own officers, it was never heard from again. Does the throne of the Persian shahs contain some of it's elements or jewels? 

I once looked at a collection of photos of the lavish celebration when the last shah of Iran had himself crowned shahanshah, "king of kings", in 1967. There was the jeweled throne, and many photos of diamonds. I got the feeling that some of them had been taken from the Red Fort in 1739. Why did the last Shah of Iran also call his throne the Peacock Throne?

This was the Peacock Throne of the Mughal Emperors. Image from the Wikipedia article by that name.


We conclude our visit to this magnificent and ancient city with the mosque complex in Old Delhi. Jama Masjid is the large mosque in the Old City of Delhi, built by Shah Jahan in 1656. The name means "Friday Mosque". There is also a Jama Masjid in Agra.

It appears as a cross between the Red Fort and the Taj Mahal. Jama Masjid has a vast open court, and is built adjacent to the Red Fort:, in the same was as the Jama Masjid in Agra had been built next to the Agra Fort. Shah Jahan moved the Mughal capital from Agra to Delhi and notice that the positioning of the Red Fort, the Jama Masjid and, Humayun's Tomb, in Delhi, are virtually identical to that of Agra Fort, the Agra Jama Masjid and, the Taj Mahal.

Here are some scenes around Jama Masjid, the vast mosque complex in Old Delhi.