Toronto

I would like to express sympathy for how especially difficult life is during Toronto's lockdown. I have put together the earlier visits to Toronto, with the exception of "West Of Toronto" which remains as a separate posting. During my life not too far away I have watched the amazing growth of this city. It seems that nearly everyone wants to live there.

The eastern part of Toronto is known as Scarborough. Here is a look around, starting at Scarborough Town Centre.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move onto the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow you can then hide previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7761893,-79.2565835,3a,75y,180h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sWTPVHcOHF-ztjeDsOuZOUA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DWTPVHcOHF-ztjeDsOuZOUA%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D81.32722%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

Proceeding downtown, some modern buildings that I have always admired are those of the Toronto Dominion Bank. They were the first tall buildings in downtown Toronto. I remember when the first two of these buildings are what could be seen of the skyline of Toronto, from a distance:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto-Dominion_Centre#/media/File:CN_Tempo_service_to_Sarnia.jpg

This is what the buildings look like from ground level:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto-Dominion_Centre#/media/File:Mies_van_der_rohe_3-6-2006.jpg

This is the TD Centre from the CN Tower observation deck. The rest of the images are views around downtown.

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6425409,-79.3888189,3a,15y,317.83h,74.45t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sSLjNFWFq_DU-9veMxBeUtA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Every large city has it's area of really expensive shopping. In Toronto, that area is known as Yorkville. The section of Bloor Street in this area is known as the "Mink Mile". The first of the following scenes are from the intersection of Bloor and Bay Streets, on the Mink Mile, looking into Yorkville. The rest of the scenes are from around the area:

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6697242,-79.3894366,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sC6kPk8EJ7J_QLVIf-S4zHg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DC6kPk8EJ7J_QLVIf-S4zHg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D7.1668229%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656 

I want to celebrate the amazing growth of Toronto. The last I knew, the population of the Toronto metro area was about four million people. The news came that it's population has now passed six million. This is the city where everyone seems to want to live.

The tallest structure in Toronto is the CN Tower. The idea began as a radio antenna platform conceived by CN, Canadian National, the railroad company. This explains why there are railroad tracks not far from the base of the tower. From there, the idea developed into what was then the tallest structure in the world:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CN_Tower#/media/File:Toronto_-_ON_-_Toronto_Harbourfront7.jpg

The most visible sight in Toronto is the pod of the CN Tower, where the observation deck and revolving restaurant are located:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CN_Tower#/media/File:Toronto_-_ON_-_CN_Tower_Turmkorb.jpg

The CN Tower was opened in 1976. I remember the news that it had surpassed the height of the Ostankino Tower in Moscow by a few meters to become the tallest structure in the world. Before that, I remember as a boy on a school trip by bus to the Ontario Science Centre, going past the tower under construction and watching structural pieces being brought to the top by helicopter.

Toronto's most important business is banking. It is the headquarters of Canada's "Big Five" banks. These are 1) Bank of Montreal 2) Toronto Dominion Bank (TD Bank) 3) Scotiabank 4) Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and, 5) Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). This is not necessarily their order in size or volume. Nearby is Bay Street, which is Canada's financial center.

Here is a photo looking toward the financial district from the CN Tower. The tall white building is First Canadian Place, home of the Bank of Montreal. The black skyscraper closer to the foreground is the home of Toronto Dominion Bank, including the two shorter identical black buildings next to it. The tall reddish building beyond the white One Canada Place, with the V inscribed in the structure of it's upper floors, is the Scotiabank Building. The mirror-like building, which is the fourth of the four tallest buildings in the photo, holds the headquarters of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). The buildings to the right, with the stepped terraced upper stories, as well as the reddish reflective glass building, are where the local headquarters of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) are:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Downtown_Toronto_From_CN_Tower.jpg

Great cities usually have a square which is right at the center of the city. The square with the fountains, where there is skating in the winter, is Nathan Phillips Square named for a former Toronto mayor. In this photo, the stone building on the right is the Old City Hall, still a significant structure in Toronto with it's clock tower, the two facing hemispheric buildings are the modern city hall:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Phillips_Square#/media/File:Toronto_-_ON_-_Rathaus_und_Nathan_Phillips_Square.jpg

A view along Bay Street, Canada's financial center, leads to the clock tower of the Old City Hall:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_Street#/media/File:Bay_Street_May_2010.jpg

We also saw Toronto City Hall on the North America Travel Photo Blog. The reason that there are not more photos of Toronto on that blog is simply that I live close enough to Toronto that going there isn't really "traveling":

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5492/3756/1600/2.jpg

The Eaton Centre Shopping Mall, in downtown Toronto, is the busiest mall in North America. This mall was originally supposed to be larger, but there was resistance to razing Old City Hall and the adjacent Trinity Anglican Church. How many malls get a million visitors a week, and not just at Christmas?

Following are some images, starting at the Ontario Legislature, and proceeding to nearby universities, including the University of Toronto.

Many discoveries have been made at the University of Toronto. The best-known is the discovery of insulin, but it is believed to also be where stem cell research first began and where a practical electron microscope was first used. The university was instrumental in identifying Cygnus X-1 as the first identified black hole. A professor at the university, Marshall McLuhan, coined the widely-used therm "global village".

The area around here is known as the "Discovery District", due to the universities, research hospitals and museums. The museums include the ROM, the Royal Ontario Museum. This area also brings back childhood memories because, when we first landed in Canada in the late 1960s, my brother was deaf and went for treatments at the Hospital For Sick Children.

Toronto is the largest city in Canada, but not the capital of the country. It is the provincial capital of Ontario. The red stone building in the images is the Legislature at Queen's Park, the downtown Ontario Government complex. It is called Queen's Park because that is the name of the park next to it. Notice the similarity in the red sandstone structures of the Ontario Legislature Building and the Old City Hall, seen above.:

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6618924,-79.3913047,3a,75y,328.87h,103.94t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sZGa-FLJKwT7NCpg6sw63Rg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Downtown is not all modern skyscrapers. Two widely-known older buildings are Union Station, for trains and linking to the subway system, and the Royal York Hotel:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Station_(Toronto)#/media/File:Union_Station,_Toronto_(30427373561).jpg

Like the nearby CN Tower, the Royal York Hotel was the project of a railroad company, to give travelers a nice place to stay, in this case Canadian Pacific (CP). It was opened in 1929, and serves as the residence of the royal family when visiting Toronto. The two black buildings immediately to the right of the Royal York Hotel are part of the Toronto Dominion Bank Complex, described above. The reddish section of building to the far right of the photo is the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairmont_Royal_York#/media/File:Toronto_-_ON_-_Royal_York_Hotel.jpg

One of the most famous food marketplaces in the world is the St. Lawrence market, in the oldest section of Toronto near Lake Ontario. This was actually the location of Toronto's original city hall:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Lawrence_Market#/media/File:St._Lawrence_Market_(Unsplash).jpg

Following are some images around the Old Town area of the St. Lawrence Market. In the first image, there is something of interest to older residents of the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. Does anyone remember the Clifton Memorial Arch, near the falls? I remember it when I first landed nearby as a boy. It was removed in 1968 after it was decided that it was a hindrance to traffic. I found out that the circular medallions, on opposite sides at the top of the arch, were removed before it was demolished. These two circular medallions are now mounted together on Front Street, diagonally opposite the St. Lawrence market. Look at the circular image of a ship on the sunlit side of the arch, near the top, in the upper right corner of the photo. To see this, you will have to enlarge the photo by pressing the "+" sign several times:

http://www.nflibrary.ca/nfplindex/show.asp?id=380332&b=1

Now, look at the circular medallion of a ship, mounted on the sidewalk on Front Street. The brick St. Lawrence Market is on the diagonal opposite side of the intersection with Jarvis Street:

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6497163,-79.3715867,3a,37.5y,82.39h,84.9t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1spQ5mn_2AxM9mrcv5cdGb0w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Many cities have claimed to have had the first system of electric streetcars, including Toronto. At any rate, Toronto today definitely has the largest system of electric streetcars in use in North America.

The one disadvantage of Toronto is, of course, the winter. Many people may not know that Toronto has actually solved that. There is what is believed to the the most extensive underground city in the world, known as PATH. Most of the tall buildings have shops, cafes and, restaurants at the lower level, below ground. All of these, as well as the malls, are linked by below-ground walkways. One can spend all day going around the stores within PATH, and scarcely be aware that it is winter. The same can be said for the heat of the summer. It may actually be better than walking on the surface because there is no vehicular traffic. 

I have never spent much time in PATH, simply because I usually go to Toronto on a nice day and there is no reason to spend the time below ground, but this system is really incredible and is easy to access by the subway.

The best-known street in Toronto is the north-south Yonge Street. Not many individual streets are known across the world, and this is one of them. I read that Yonge Street was actually named for a Canadian expert on ancient Roman roads. Just to the left of where that photo was taken is another downtown square, around which Toronto revolves, Yonge-Dundas Square. Here is a scene of that:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yonge-Dundas_Square#/media/File:Dundas_Squire_Evening_Saturday.jpg

Just about every major ethnic group in the world has a neighborhood in Toronto. The most visible is Chinatown, west of Yonge Street and the Eaton Centre, although this is not the only Chinatown in Toronto:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown,_Toronto#/media/File:Chinatown_toronto_spadina_avenue.JPG

Following are some images of Casa Loma and the older Toronto neighborhoods around it. Of Course, Casa Loma is not a "real" castle from medieval times, but it must have been what a great castle would have been like back then.

You know that you are in Toronto when you see older homes of the "Bay and Gable" design. I have not seen this home structural design anywhere else, the two-story bay windows capped by the gabled roof. This is in the Annex, a neighborhood adjacent to Toronto University that is home to many students and faculty:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay-and-gable#/media/File:Bay-and-gable_2.JPG

Here is starting inside Casa Loma, and the surrounding area:

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6780646,-79.4094724,3a,75y,57.05h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s69lc5T_XAQ6oF1PLx-xpbg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D69lc5T_XAQ6oF1PLx-xpbg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D48.133572%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656

Every city has it's neighborhood of mansions, of people who made a fortune in one way or another. Central Toronto's such area is Rosedale.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosedale,_Toronto#/media/File:Rosedale_Park_playground.JPG

Both World Wars were followed by settlement of planned communities in central Toronto. After the First World War, it was Leaside:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaside#/media/File:Leaside.jpg

After the Second World War, it was Don Mills. In the U.S., Levittown, NY, and then a second Levittown in Pennsylvania, became the prototypes for postwar suburban development. I think of Don Mills as fulfilling a similar postwar suburban development prototype for Toronto, and the rest of Canada:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Mills#/media/File:Don_Mills_homes.JPG

Here is something that I find really amazing. Have you ever wondered what the definition of the word "progress" is? Well, here is a definition of progress in three photographs.

This is downtown Toronto in 1970. The two modern black buildings are the complex of the Toronto Dominion Bank, that we saw above. The green-topped building to their right is the Royal York Hotel. The photo of the rail tracks is taken from near where the CN Tower will soon be built. You can see "CN" on the rail cars:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto-Dominion_Centre#/media/File:CN_Tempo_service_to_Sarnia.jpg

Next, here is a photo, from the North America travel photo blog, that I took from the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) in 1989, 19 years after the above photo was taken. If you pick out the two black Toronto Dominion buildings, near the center of the photo, you can see that a third and shorter Toronto Dominion building has been added. The taller light-colored building immediately left of the Toronto Dominion buildings is First Canadian Place, the home of the Bank of Montreal. Showing in the background is the reddish Scotiabank building, with the "V"-shape inscribed into it's upper floors. To the right of all this is, of course, the CN Tower, and all around are other tall buildings that were not there 19 years before. If you look closely, you can see the pointed top of the Royal York Hotel, between the Toronto Dominion buildings and the CN Tower:

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5492/3756/1600/4.jpg

Now, look at this more recent photo. The white First Canadian Place building, with the Bank of Montreal, is there, as are the black buildings of the Toronto Dominion Complex, to it's right. In the background is the reddish Scotiabank building, with the V-shape inscribed into it's upper floors. The stone structure of the Royal York Hotel, with it's green-peaked roof, can be seen in the lower left of the photo. But there are an incredible number of modern buildings that were not there in 1989. This is progress, Toronto-style:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Downtown_Toronto_From_CN_Tower.jpg 

NORTH YORK

In the postwar period, as the Baby Boom generation emerged, what we could describe as a "new" Toronto, to the north of the city, also emerged. The city had to grow to support the burgeoning population and immigration, but Lake Ontario blocked expansion to the south. This new, mostly postwar, version of Toronto is known as North York.

The reason that the name of "York" is to be seen all over Toronto is that was the original name of the city, starting with Fort York. I believe that the name was changed to differentiate it from New York City. The House of Lancaster may have defeated the House of York in the "War of the Roses", that ended the Plantagenet era, but the House of York has been much more successful since then at getting it's name everywhere.

Different countries had their own ways of managing the necessary postwar development, to accommodate the Baby Boom. America built it's prototype postwar suburb in Levittown, New York, and then the second Levittown in Pennsylvania. Britain established the prototype postwar "new town" in Milton Keynes. Toronto seems to have used both concepts in the growth of North York.

From the top of the CN Tower downtown, the skyline of another city can be seen to the north. That is North York, although since the sweeping municipal amalgamation of 1998 it has administratively been part of Toronto. By some accounts Highway 401, where it passes through North York, is the busiest section of highway in North America.

Like any city, North York has it's wealthy areas, as well as those that are somewhat less than wealthy. The center of wealth in North York is around the York Mills area. The areas to the northwest, Lawrence Heights and especially Jane-Finch are perceived as less fortunate, although I do not believe that the Jane-Finch area deserves anything like the rap it sometimes gets.

These buildings are a familiar sight from the Don Valley Parkway, through North York:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemingdon_Park#/media/File:The_Palisades.jpg

The outside of the Ontario Science Centre reminds me of youthful school outings there:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Science_Centre#/media/File:0OSC_Sept23_06.jpg

Let's start our look at North York at the intersection of Yonge Street and Bishop Avenue, which is where both Finch Metro Station and Finch Bus Station are located.

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7816823,-79.4158463,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sHislTpB_jjnzh6pRJ9kfig!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DHislTpB_jjnzh6pRJ9kfig%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D304.58841%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656

Moving westward, let's have another look beginning outside the Yorkdale Mall:

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7263103,-79.4521981,3a,75y,184.13h,87.87t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s_Jz7lFIjx30AAAQJOMDjTg!2e0!3e2!7i13312!8i6656

Here are some views of York University, starting in the Student Centre:

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7739005,-79.5030816,3a,75y,180h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s2Jo3GGSrioYAAAQvOdjbdg!2e0!3e2!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D2Jo3GGSrioYAAAQvOdjbdg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D64.624062%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656

Finally Jane-Finch, named for the intersection of Jane Street and Finch Avenue, has the housing towers seen in many North York neighbourhoods, but looks like a nice place to me. Here are some scenes of the area, starting in the Jane-Finch Mall:

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7558776,-79.5157189,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s7nyAM4rRrpoAAAQfDmzs4A!2e0!3e2!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D7nyAM4rRrpoAAAQfDmzs4A%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D24.754307%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656

The Missing Quark Stars

In the postwar period so many new subatomic particles were discovered that it was referred to as the "Particle Zoo". But there were some physicists who didn't believe that there could really be this many separate particles.

As it turned out there was too many fundamental particles. What emerged is Quark Theory. Quarks were believed to be particles that are even more fundamental, and that combine together with each other to form what we see as many of the fundamental particles.

Particles that are composed of quarks are called hadrons. Two very important hadrons are protons and neutrons, which form the nuclei of atoms. Not all subatomic particles are composed of quarks. Electrons are of a class of particles called leptons, which do not involve quarks.

There are theorized to be six kinds of quarks, and also their corresponding antiquarks of antimatter. But two of these quarks, up and down quarks, are far more important than the others. It is believed that, if all quarks other than up and down quarks vanished tomorrow, only particle physicists would notice.

Up and down quarks are charged particles, but have charges in thirds relative to the equal but opposite charges on protons and electrons. These quarks combine in thirds to produce hadrons like protons and neutrons. 

An up quark has a charge of + 2 / 3 and a down quark has a charge of - 1 / 3. So two up quarks and one down quark form a proton, with a net charge of +1, and two down quarks and one up quark form a neutron, with a net charge of zero.

With that understanding of quarks let's move on to the end of the lives of stars. The largest stars may collapse into a black hole or explode in a supernova. Our own sun will do neither, it will simply burn out.

Stars form when enough matter is pulled together by it's mutual gravity to overcome the electron repulsion that keeps stars separate from one another, and crunch smaller atoms together into larger ones. A new larger atom contains less overall energy than the smaller atoms which were crunched together to form it. This excess energy is released as radiation and this is why stars shine. A planet does not shine because it is not massive enough for it's internal gravity to overcome electron repulsion.

A star is an equilibrium between the outward force of the energy being released by fusion in the star's center and the inward force of gravity. A star may swell, or explode in a supernova, when the process of fusing successively heavier atoms together means that the energy being released per time is increasing, and this upsets the equilibrium.

But the end of the star comes from the opposite direction, when the star runs out of fusionable fuel but is not large enough to explode in a supernova. The ordinary fusion process cannot go beyond iron. This upsets the equilibrium by removing the outward pressure of the energy being released, causing the star to collapse inward.

Stars are composed of atoms, with lighter atoms continuously being combined by fusion into heavier atoms. When the star collapses the structure of the atoms are crushed by the sheer mutual gravity of the star's mass, now no longer opposed by the energy released by fusion. 

When fusion takes place the new heavier elements require more neutrons, relative to protons, in the nucleus. What happens is that, during fusion, an electron is crunched into a proton to produce a neutron. This is known as K-capture.

When the atomic structure of the star collapses this is what happens to all of the atoms. When the process is complete there are no more protons and electrons, all that there is left is an extremely dense mass of neutrons. It is now referred to as a neutron star, although it is not technically a star because no fusion is taking place.

The extreme density of a neutron star makes further collapse possible and eventually a black hole may form. A black hole is the most dense possible concentration of matter. It is known that black holes do not last forever. They give off radiation, called Hawking Radiation, and eventually evaporate.

Now, here is the question of the day. If the structure of stars that have collapsed into a neutron star can collapse still further, into a black hole, and neutrons are composed of quarks, then what about "quark stars"?

The existence of quark stars was theorized more than fifty years ago, but none have ever been found. The next step in the collapse should be for the neutrons of a neutron star to collapse into their component quarks. Many black holes have been found, and many neutron stars, but, as of yet, no quark stars.

How could this be? The way I see it, there are two possibilities. 

The first, of course, is that quark theory was incorrect all along. But it is believed by so many people and it explains so much.

My cosmology theory opens the way to another possibility. The theory, detailed in the compound posting on this blog, "The Theory Of Stationary Space", explains everything in the universe, both matter and space, as being composed of negative and positive electric charges. Space is a perfectly alternating pattern of negative and positive charges, in multiple dimensions. Matter is any concentration of like charges, held together against their mutual repulsion by energy.

The majority of the charge interfaces in matter are actually between opposite charges, and this is what holds the units of matter, such as atoms or neutrons, together. Since negative and positive electric charges must always balance out to zero, and particles that compose matter are usually charged, matter must consist of some structures, such as atoms or neutrons, that have a net charge of zero.

We cannot discern any structure of matter within black holes. Yet, given that black holes do not just explode in a gigantic matter-antimatter reaction, their matter must consist of some kind of structure.

In my cosmology theory the reason that black holes give off radiation, and eventually evaporate, is that their extreme gravitational pressure is enough to cause charge displacement to take place. Adjacent like charges, which are trying to mutually repel, are under so much pressure that negative and positive charges can "trade places". This does not mean any charged particles but the fundamental electric charges that comprise everything in the universe.

But that brings groups of opposite charges into direct contact with each other. They gradually rearrange themselves back into the alternating charge pattern of empty space, and in doing so release the energy that was holding them together. This is why a black hole gives off radiation and eventually evaporates, turning back into empty space.

But still, there must be some structure of matter within a black hole, the arrangement of the charges that comprise matter. What could that structure be? Has anyone ever thought that maybe it is quarks? That a black hole actually is a quark star? It would explain why quark theory explains so much, but we just can't find any quark stars that should exist.

The Wave Model Of Economics

Remember the posting, "The Wave Model Of Economics" on the world and economics blog. 

In this model waves exist in the economy over time. A "right wave" tends to be followed by a "left wave", which is followed by another "right wave". 

A country's leftward and rightward political parties tend to alternate in the same way but these left and right waves are longer than the typical alternation between rightward and leftward parties. The posting focuses on the U.S. but the same principle applies, at least to some extent, to any free-market democracy.

During a right or left wave both parties continue to alternate in power but during the right wave the whole system leans more to the right, and during the left wave to the left. Bill Clinton was a Democrat president during a right wave and Donald Trump was a Republican president during a left wave.

Joseph Biden's announcement of plans for the economy is moving the economy leftward. A recent article in Time Magazine made it sound like this is something new. 

But I see this as a continuation of the left wave that began with the Obama presidency. The changes made by Donald Trump were mainly about "making America great again" from a global perspective. The economic changes that the Trump administration made in the U.S., such as cutbacks in food stamps and Medicaid, were certainly rightward, but were not enough to terminate the left wave that was in progress.

The underlying reason for these "waves" in the economy, as well as the usual alternation of leftward and rightward parties, is complexity. Our economy is as complex as we are. This makes it difficult to grasp the entire economic picture. It is easier for each of us to see either the left or the right. 

So what ends up happening is that first we go too far in one direction. We then try to compensate for it by going in the opposite direction, only to go too far so that we then have to compensate for that by going back in the first direction, and on and on.

Here is a link to "The Wave Model Of Economics":

http://markmeekeconomics.blogspot.com/2011/08/wave-model-of-economics.html?m=0

The Rule Of Eight

The "Rule Of Eight" links electrons to planets and continents. You may be wondering what electrons, planets and, continents have in common. I have not added anything to it in a while but remember the theory, "The Flow Of Information Through The Universe" January 2016.

That theory is about how the universe reuses information. There is only a limited amount of information in the universe so large-scale structures must be based on the same information as the more basic, lower-scale structures. This is simply because there is no information from anywhere else for the large-scale structures.

One of the most obvious examples of this reuse of information that I use is the resemblance between the orbits of astronomical bodies and the orbitals of the electrons in the atoms of which these astronomical bodies are composed. There is no new information from anywhere when astronomical bodies, like planets and stars, form from atoms, so the same information that is in the structures of the atoms must be reused.

The orbits of moons around planets, and of planets around stars, and of stars around the center of the galaxy, very much resembles the orbitals of electrons in atoms. It also applies to the mutual orbits of stars in multiple star systems. Planets and stars also tend to rotate, just as electrons have spin.

"The Flow Of Information Through The Universe" also works in other ways. There are two "Rules Of Common Atoms", one for the universe and one for our biology. Color does not really exist, it is just how our eyes and brains interpret different wavelengths of visible light. Could it be a coincidence that the number of atoms that are really common in our biology, about six, is the same as the number of separate colors that we see? 

Could it also be a coincidence that the number of really common atoms in the universe is the same as the number of different types of galaxies? The information for the number of colors that we see and the number of types of galaxies had to come from somewhere.

We saw another way that "The Flow Of Information Through The Universe" works in the compound posting on this blog, "The Configuration Of The Solar System Made Really Simple" .

The present Solar System, the sun and planets, formed from the debris of a previous large star that exploded in a supernova. The debris fell back together by gravity. The ordinary fusion process in stars only goes as far as iron. This is why iron is so common in the inner Solar System, it is the most common element on earth by mass. What I found so interesting is that the distances of the planets from the sun can be traced to the factors that bring about the 56 nucleons in an iron atom. This is an ideal example of the reuse of information.

I actually consider "The Flow Of Information Through The Universe" as no longer a separate theory. It is closely related to another theory on this blog, "The Lowest Information Point" and, as we saw in that theory, "The Flow Of Information Through The Universe" has now been incorporated into it.

With that background, let's move on to another example to add to "The Flow Of Information Through The Universe".

Atoms can have multiple shells of electron orbitals. In ordinary atoms, that are not ions, the number of negatively-charged electrons in the orbitals matches the number of positively-charged protons in the nucleus, so that the atom has a net charge of zero.

But the maximum number of electrons that any atom can have in it's outermost shell is eight. It is this outermost electron shell that governs the chemical behavior of atoms. As a general rule, when atoms combine together to form molecules, the "Octet Rule" is followed that tries to get each atom in the molecule surrounded by eight electrons.

The arrangement of the Periodic Table of the Elements is based on the chemical behavior of an atom being governed by the number of electrons in it's outermost shell. That is why there are eight columns in the table. Elements in the same column have similar chemical behavior because they have the same number of electrons in their outermost shells.

That maximum of eight is information and, since everything is composed of atoms, we should, if my theory of "The Flow Of Information Through The Universe" is correct, expect to see this number eight reflected in the large-scale universe somehow, since everything is composed of atoms.

Since the orbits of the planets bear so much resemblance to the orbitals of electrons in atoms, how much of a coincidence can it be that there are eight planets?

In ways that we may not yet understand, the Solar System "conspired" to prevent the asteroids between Mars and Jupiter from coalescing, by gravity, into a planet. This made sure that there would only be eight planets, matching the maximum number of outermost electrons in the atoms of which those planets are composed.

By the same token the earth's moon and Charon, the moon of Pluto, could possibly have been planets themselves but the "Rule Of Eight" went into effect, causing our moon and Charon to join planets so that there would only be eight planets.

This means that, with regard to other stars that we can see have solar systems, the "Rule Of Eight" means that there will always be a bias towards having eight planets in the solar system. This does not absolutely mean that there will always be eight planets, but it is the most likely number.

What about the number of continents on earth? As the earth rotates it's continents can be said to move around the center of the earth much like the electrons in orbitals moving around the nucleus of the atom. 

It has recently been established that the vast shallow area around New Zealand is actually a continent, although it is mostly underwater. This means that there are eight continents. It looks like the "Rule Of Eight" has applied again.

Can you see how this concept of "The Flow Of Information Through The Universe", which must be taking place because there is no information from anywhere else to form the large-scale structures, enables us to "see ahead" how the universe must operate, even to things that we haven't "discovered" yet?

I find this to be a very useful concept.

Dating Breakups

I would just like to express one opinion about dating and relationships, and things like that.

We have gotten to the point where the end of a relationship is a contest. The one who does the breaking up is considered as the "winner" of the relationship, and the one who gets broken up with is the "loser".

This is wrong. It is just a reflection of how nasty our values are in general. If I was going to go through a breakup I would much prefer for her to break up with me. I just couldn't stand to hurt a nice girl's feelings.

Having Covid

Last Autumn someone near me sneezed several times. I was wearing a mask. It was flu season, maybe they had the flu. I wasn't worried about it.

About ten days later something just hit me all of a sudden. I thought it must be the beginning of the flu.

It was simply zero energy and zero appetite. I would sleep for 9 hours and then even reading the news would cause me to fall asleep for four or five more hours. I could barely eat anything, but yet wasn't hungry. It was a great struggle to finish a granola bar.

My left eye was watering profusely, it was literally pouring water. But my right eye wasn't watering at all. 

I had no symptoms of Covid. I did not lose my sense of taste or smell. I could feel something in my lungs but never had any trouble breathing. It was just zero energy and zero appetite. All that I wanted to do was absolutely nothing. Even trying to do a little bit of reading would cause me to fall asleep.

This went on for three days. On the fourth day it seemed to be easing a little bit. I still felt completely without energy but was able to do some reading without falling asleep and had a little bit of food.

The most shocking day of all was the fifth day. I woke up, expecting to still be sick and still thinking that it was the flu. But my usual energy was back and all I could think about was food. It had left just as suddenly as it had arrived.

Of course now I know that Covid entered through my left eye.

What I think helped to get rid of Covid is the same thing that I do if I think I have been exposed to the flu. I drank water continuously. I drank more water in those four days than ever before in my life. It helped my body to wash out the virus.

Reminder About Other Blogs

 Just a reminder about the other blogs listed in the second posting from the top on this blog, "Other Blogs And Books".

What was to become this blog began in 2005. In 2009 I began a new system. This blog here was started as the main blog. All new postings would appear here. A new blog was also started for each different topic of the writing. Postings would periodically be moved from this main blog to the appropriate topical blog. All postings from before this new system in 2009 were moved to the appropriate topical blog.

After about five years I abandoned that system and now just leave all postings on this blog. But the postings that had been moved to the topical blogs are still there. This means that there is a lot of reading other than what is on this blog.

Links to each of the topical blogs are on "Other Blogs And Books", the second posting from the top.

The cosmology theory is on this blog in the compound posting, "The Theory Of Stationary Space". The posting that I use as a quick introduction to the theory is the posting on this blog, "In Cosmology Everything Just Fell Right Into Place", May 2019.

But that is actually what we could call version 2.0 of the theory. 1.0 is the cosmology blog. But it is the same theory and the two versions are complimentary.

In the same way my theory of information on this blog is the compound posting, "The Theory Of Complexity". But that could be called version 2.0 of the theory. Version 1.0 is the patterns and complexity blog.

The world and economics blog consists of separate postings and is not entirely a theory.

The geology blog contains the theory, "The Story Of Planet Earth", which explains every major feature of the earth's surface, both on land and the seafloor, but also has postings that are not part of the theory. There is a compound posting with my explanation of the Appalachians.

In the physics and astronomy blog the first part is about physics and the second about astronomy, but each article is separate from the others.

The progress blog is about new ideas.

The creation blog is why God must have created us.

On the meteorology and biology blog each article is separate from the others. 

Maybe 60% of the writing is on this blog. The rest are on those blogs.

The Non-News View Of The World

Remember what I am trying to do with these weekly visits to places around the world. We keep track of what is going on around the world by following the news. But, by it's very nature, news tends to be bad news. Even when there is good news, it is usually a reversal of previous bad news.

The news thus tends to give us a bias against other places and other countries. Stop and think for a minute, what would anyone think of your city or country if all they knew about it was what was in the news?

So what I am trying to do with these weekly visits is to present a view of a place as a virtual visit there. Some of it is about history, as well as what is going on there now, but I try to put the main focus on everyday life.

We have all got to find a way to share this earth. One way to help that along is to get around the inherent bias that comes with the news, and see each other just as human beings going about our daily lives.

The Source Of Ideas

Where do we get the new ideas that we come up with? Maybe the most important source is suggestion from our surroundings. Seeing logs rolling leads to the invention of the wheel. Seeing birds flying leads to the invention of aircraft.

But those are direct examples of coopting ideas from nature. There are more indirect ways of getting ideas from our surroundings, by using the patterns.

THE COMPASS RULER

I wonder if I might have subconsciously gotten the idea for the measurement tool, for use in building and construction, that I described in the posting on the Progress Blog "A Very Useful Tool" June 2009, from the chapati that a friend makes, pictured below served in a basket. Chapati is a flat, circular unleavened bread.

Following are photos of the prototype that I made of the measurement device. I named it the "Compass Ruler" because it consists of a magnetic compass in the center of a circular disk. The disk would probably have a circumference of a convenient unit, such as a meter or a yard.

Notice how closely it resembles a serving of chapati. I made the prototype of the tool by cutting a circular piece of plywood, with a jigsaw, so that it had a circumference of exactly one meter. Next I put the numbers, from zero to 360 degrees, around the edge and drew the lines from the numbers to the center. Then I bought an ordinary magnetic hiking compass, broke the casing off it, and glued it in the center of the plywood with the zero point of the compass aligned with the zero / 360 point on the dial.

To "zero" a compass means simply to rotate it until the needle, which is magnetic so that it always points to magnetic north, so that the needle points to the zero / 360, which is magnetic north, point on the dial. We could call this the "zero point" of the compass.

The outer numbers go around the circle from zero to 360 degrees. The inner numbers are only used when the Compass Ruler is used to measure either the curvature of a wall or the circumference of a large circular structure.

This simple device, which can be homemade, can accomplish an incredible number of measurement tasks that are otherwise difficult to do. I did extensive patent checking and no one had thought of it before. The closest thing to this is the surveyors compass, but that was a mounted stationary device while the Compass Ruler is used for measurement by putting the edge in contact with a structure such as a wall or fence.

This device is extremely useful. Every time I use it or think of it I realize there is more that I can do that I had not thought of before. The device operates on the same principle as a plumb, which uses a suspended weight to measure vertical angles with gravity on the plumb indicating straight vertical, except that this device uses the earth's magnetic field to measure lateral angles.

The edge of the device is placed against a structure, such as a wall or fence or sign, as shown below represented by the board, with the device rotated so that the needle is zeroed at the zero / 360 point, or magnetic north. Note the number on the outside edge, between zero and 360 degrees, that is immediately against the structure.

That same number is then placed against another structure, such as another wall. If the second wall is parallel to the first there will be a difference in angular reading on the compass of either zero or 180 degrees. If the two walls are perfectly perpendicular there will be a difference in reading of 90 degrees.

This is only the beginning of what this device can do and I wonder if it was chapati that planted the seed of the idea in my mind.

THE COSMOLOGY THEORY

In Gloucester UK, the nearest city to where I was born, on the side of the building where the store named Debenham's used to be located, the side of the building facing King's Square, there was a pattern of rows of four small square windows alternating with rows of three.

( Image photographed from Google Street View ).

When we eventually landed on the U.S. side of Niagara Falls I began attending 60th Street School. There was exactly the same pattern, rows of four small square windows alternating with rows of three. I have never seen this pattern anywhere else.
 

This resembles the way, in my cosmology theory "The Theory Of Stationary Space", first, how the matter in the universe began with a two-dimensional sheet of space that was within, but not contiguous with, the multi-dimensional background space although both blocs of space had formed in the same way, by the mutual induction of opposite electric charges. 

Second, how strings of matter formed of like electric charges, either negative or positive charges held together against their mutual repulsion by energy. The lines of windows display the same pattern as the lines of electric charges in the strings of matter.

Third, the alternating of three and four window rows may have been the source of the idea that while we live in three spatial dimensions my cosmology theory has another spatial dimension, a fourth dimension, that we perceive as time because the bundles of strings comprising our bodies and brains are aligned primarily in that dimension.

THE ALTERNATING ELECTRIC CHARGES IN THE COSMOLOGY THEORY

The following photo is of the poster that I had made of the ship that brought us across the ocean when I was a young boy, the Empress of England. I remember the Red and white checkered pattern on the ship's stack, seen at the center of the poster.

Maybe I subconsciously got the idea for the nature of space in my cosmology theory from the checkered pattern on this stack. Everything, in that theory, consists of negative and positive electric charges. The basic rule of electric charges is that opposite charges attract, while like charges repel.

Empty space, in my cosmology theory, is a perfectly alternating checkerboard pattern of the two opposite charges, in multiple dimensions. Matter is a concentration of like charges, held together against their mutual repulsion by energy.

JUXTAPOSED NAMES

I remember learning the word "Juxtapose" when I was age 16 in high school. Now I have finally found something to use it for.

Have you ever wondered about word combinations in names that do not seem to make sense? Consider, just for example, some of the names of pubs, and other places, in Britain.

There is the "Red Lion", except that lions are not usually red.

There is the "Crown and Anchor", but what do crowns and anchors have to do with each other? They go in opposite directions. A crown goes up, to the top of the head, while an anchor drops down, to the bottom of the sea.

The "Elephant and Castle" was originally the name of an inn. It has become the name of a section of London, as well as it's Underground station. But, as with crowns and anchors, elephants and castles usually do not have much to do with each other.

Part of the reason for such naming is so that the pub would have a name that could also be displayed as it's logo. But, as I see it, there is also another beneficial effect. It prompts the coming up with new ideas.

Seeing a word combination that apparently doesn't make sense helps to break us out of grooved-in thinking. A lot of new ideas are the putting together of things or their patterns that would otherwise not have been put together, and these juxtaposed names help to provide the mindset to move in that direction.

THE IDEA GENERATOR

The internet is the ultimate source of information. But it still has it's limits, it cannot think up new ideas for us, beyond what already exists. I once came up with an "idea generator", but today it could be done with an app.

Write down a lot of things that might be involved in generating ideas on slips of paper, and put the slips in a jar. Every day take out four slips, although it could be a number other than four, and write down the four things that are on the slips, then put the slips back in the jar.

The four things that you take out of the jar might be "top", "sheet", "metal" and, "diamond". During the day run those four things through your mind and see if you can think of some new process or device that will incorporate the four things.

By the end of the day what you probably will have come up with is nothing. But you will be getting yourself in the mindset to come up with new ideas. Try it again, with four different words, the next day. You might come up with a new idea, an invention or process, involving words that had been chosen on a previous day.

READING ABOUT OTHER IDEAS

One of the most effective ways to get into the mindset for coming up with new ideas is to read about other new ideas. It not only brings about the mindset, it might also offer parts of some ideas. That is why I wrote the Progress Blog.

Here is a link to the posting, "A Very Useful Tool", on the Progress Blog:

www.markmeekprogress.blogspot.com/2009/06/very-useful-tool.html?m=0 

Here is a link to the entire Progress Blog:

www.markmeekprogress.blogspot.com/?m=0

A New Dimension In Space Travel

I have thought of a new dimension in space travel, and I mean that literally. As it stands now traveling to distant stars is impractical, but maybe what we need is some "thinking outside the box".

What I mean by "thinking outside the box is thinking outside the spatial dimensions that we inhabit".

Suppose that there was a two-dimensional being living in a two-dimensional sheet. If we had a two-dimensional plastic sheet it would, of course, have to have a slight third-dimensional thickness to it, but we can ignore that for our purposes here. Any being would always see it's surroundings as consisting as the same number of dimensions as the being itself was. If the two-dimensional being moved from one side of the sheet to the other, it would always see itself as moving in a straight line. If we bent it's two-dimensional sheet the being would be utterly unaware of the bend because it would involve a third dimension.

Since a two-dimensional being living within a two-dimensional sheet would always see itself as moving in a straight line across the sheet, being unable to perceive any curve or bend in the sheet if it was bent from outside because that would bring in another dimension that was beyond the being's number of dimensions, then what about us?

We see an essentially infinite universe consisting of three dimensions of space, four if we include the dimension of space that we perceive as time. But we have to see the universe as consisting of whatever number of dimensions we consist of, because it is not possible for us to perceive any more dimensions than that.

Could it be that, once again, we see the universe as we do not only because of what it is but also because of what we are? Like the being in the sheet we could be living in dimensions of space far beyond our four dimensions. 

Why should there be three, or four, dimensions? If there can be four, then why can't there be five? If there can be five, then why can't there be six?

The lowest information state, as far as the number of dimensions goes, is an infinite number of spatial dimensions, because it avoids making a choice with regard to a finite number. That then has to be the most probable number of dimensions in the universe, an infinite number. We can only see it as having three spatial dimensions because that is the number of dimensions that we are. The matter of which we consist is scattered over three spatial dimensions.

Instead of our universe of an infinity of distance in three dimensions we may well live in a very compact universe, but consisting of an infinite number of dimensions. What we think we see as an infinite distance in three dimensions could really be a short distance but in an infinite number of dimensions.

If we consisted of an infinite number of dimensions ourselves then the universe might appear to us as a very confined, even claustrophobic, space. But it may be that it only seems infinite because it consists of an infinite number of dimensions while we are of a very limited finite number of dimensions.

To explain what I mean about how the distances in the universe might really be a short distance, but over an infinite number of dimensions, let's consider a cube with dimensions of one meter.

The distances across the cube increase if we increase the number of dimensions traversed. Crossing one dimension of the cube the distance is one meter. Crossing a diagonal of the cube, so that we are traversing two dimensions, the distance is 1.414 meters which is an increase by a factor of the square root of 2. If we cross the cube from one diagonal corner to the other, traversing three dimensions, the distance increases to 1.732 dimensions which is an increase over the one-dimension distance by a factor of the square root of 3.

So the universe could be, and likely is, consisting of much shorter distances than we perceive, but over an infinite number of dimensions. If there was a cube that was one meter square, but of an infinite number of dimensions, the distance from one diagonally opposite corner would have to be infinite, since the square root of infinity is still infinity.

Since we are incapable of perceiving any more than our own three spatial dimensions the distances across the universe will always seem to us as near-infinite distances in three dimensions, even though the distances may actually be short but in an infinite number of dimensions.

Just like the two-dimensional being in the sheet, which would always see itself as moving in a straight line across the sheet, we would be utterly unaware if our three dimensions of space were somehow "bent" relative to the much-higher dimensional  background space. We could be moving in a curve, or even zig-zagging, when we are sure that we are moving in a straight line. There could be "shortcuts" across space, if only we could break out of our dimensional confinement.

Let's go back to our one-meter cube. If we go in a one-dimensional straight line between diagonally opposite corners of the cube the distance is 1.732 meters. But if we move a two-dimensional sheet across the cube, from side-to-side or bottom-to-top, the distance is only 1 meter.

This is really interesting because if we could somehow build a spacecraft that consisted of more than three dimensions, the spacecraft would move over a distance in space much faster because it would have less distance to move. The spacecraft would seem larger in our three dimensions, because we would have to move further to get across it, but the spacecraft would be able to arrive at distant points by crossing less distance. 

This is in no way a matter of cosmology but of simple geometry. If going from one to two dimensions in crossing the one-meter cube decreases the distance required to be traversed by a factor of 1.732, which is the square root of 3, then building a spacecraft of eighteen dimensions, instead of the usual three, would decrease the distance that we had to travel to get anywhere by a factor of 4.36, which is the square root of 19.

This could be a revolution, not only in space travel but in all transportation. It would not necessarily require any new methods of propulsion, just to build a spacecraft with more than the usual three dimensions.

Wasn't that simple? A revolution in space travel. Unfortunately that's the easy part.

The next question is how, if we are limited to three dimensions and are completely incapable of perceiving or accessing any dimensions outside that, can we possibly access any matter outside those dimensions so that we can build our spacecraft from it?

My cosmology theory, described in detail in the posting on this blog "The Theory Of Stationary Space" July 2017, provides a starting point.

In my theory we perceive matter as consisting of particles, such as electrons, which are actually strings. We perceive such strings as particles because we can only see in three of the four dimensions over which the matter that composes our universe was scattered by the Big Bang. This does not mean that there might not be many more spatial dimensions than this, I believe that the most likely number of dimensions is an infinite number, but that our component matter is scattered over only four of them.

The fourth spatial dimension over which our component matter is scattered is the one that we perceive as time. This is the dimension along which the strings of our universe are mostly aligned. Our consciousness moves along the bundles of strings comprising our bodies and brains at what we perceive as the speed of light. This is why we can find no physical explanation for either what time is or why the speed of light is what it is.

But physicists detect a multitude of particles that are not part of our ordinary matter. These particles appear for an instant and then vanish. Ordinary physics cannot possibly explain this, what would cause particles that appear for an instant and then vanish?

My cosmology theory has a ready explanation for it. These mysterious instantaneous particles are actually strings like our component matter, but which share only one of our spatial dimensions. They do not share our time dimension, which is why they appear for only an instant as our consciousness moves past them.

This must mean that these strings are in other spatial dimensions that we cannot access but share only one of our dimensions. I find this to be the direction to look for a real revolution in space travel. It would likely be the greatest scientific breakthrough ever if we could access spatial dimensions outside our own.

These strings that we encounter only instantaneously may be scattered over more than four dimensions of space, but we encounter them in only one. They may, in turn, share only one dimension with still more strings, with which we do not share any dimensions at all. This forms a "ladder" to more and more outer dimensions.

Doesn't it make sense to look to these "particles", that seem to appear only momentarily, but could lead us to dimensions beyond our own. To begin with, this could be a great revolution in space travel.

PASSING THROUGH MATTER IN OUTER DIMENSIONS

Here is something that is really mind-bending.

Since there are strings of matter in outer dimensions, that share only one dimension with us, that means, as our consciousness moves along the bundles of strings composing our bodies and brains at what we perceive as the speed of light, we might actually be passing through matter in those outer dimensions.

When physicists detect what appears to be particles that exist only instantaneously, which are actually strings of matter that share only one dimension with us, we could well be passing right through a star whose matter shared only that one dimension with us. Heat is the kinetic energy of moving atoms and molecules but there can be no movement of those apparent particles if we share only one dimension. We would have no sensation of heat at all.

If we, with our three spatial dimensions, could move into those three dimensions, we might then pass through our own world but only one dimension of it.

The instantaneous particles that physicists can detect are strings that share only one dimension with us but the strings may not be co-dimensional with each other. Some of them may share only one spatial dimension with each other.

Clearly there is matter in outer dimensions but the matter of those dimensions may have been scattered over more, or less, than our three, four including time, dimensions. The matter may be much more sparse, or much more concentrated, than the matter in our dimensions.

The matter of those outer dimensions, while it must be composed of electric charges, may not have coagulated into the electrons, protons and, neutrons of our familiar matter. 

Hong Kong

Hong Kong consists of three parts. From south to north, there is Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and, the New territories. North of that is the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen, which we have previously visited.

This is a truly incredible city. I can remember, in my youth and childhood, seeing the stamp of "Made in Hong Kong" everywhere. I wondered how one city can possibly produce so much of what the world uses.

But in 1978, all of that changed. Deng Xiaoping, leader of mainland China essentially opened up all of China to western companies. The result is that today, instead of seeing "Made in Hong Kong", we tend to see "Made in China". Like so many other cities, Hong Kong had it's manufacturing base pulled out from under it.

But this is not just any city here, this is Hong Kong. In a move that amazed the world, Hong Kong relatively quickly transformed itself into such a great financial center that today more money probably flows through it than through any other city in the world. When it's manufacturing base was gone, instead of becoming the "rust belt of the east" it became the world's financial capital.

That is what happens when you collect many of the most dynamic people in the world, and put them all together in one city.

Cantonese is the language that is spoken in the southern coastal region of China. The Chinese language has traditionally been structured in such a way that it was written the same all across China, but could be spoken in several different ways.

The Chinese Government makes it clear that it prefers Mandarin as the way to speak Chinese. Mandarin is predominant in northern China, including in Beijing and Shanghai. The other way of speaking Chinese, with the greatest number of speakers other than Mandarin, is Cantonese. An example of a third way of speaking Chinese is Fujianese.

The nature of the relationship between Mandarin and Cantonese depends on who you ask. A Mandarin speaker from Beijing might say that Cantonese is just a southern dialect of Chinese. A Cantonese speaker from Hong Kong might say that it is an entirely separate language that is mutually unintelligible with Mandarin, even though the same script and some of the same vocabulary is used.

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 following scenes begin in the central part of Kowloon.

https://www.google.com/maps/@22.3034647,114.1726811,3a,75y,304h,88t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMMAhxT25dXiFY--4-RMFFKJu9mA7ltPIZR0hsc!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMMAhxT25dXiFY--4-RMFFKJu9mA7ltPIZR0hsc%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-2.9338646-ya181.93793-ro-0-fo100!7i11524!8i5762

These scenes are north of the center of Kowloon. Remember that mainland China drives on the right, while Hong Kong drives on the left.

https://www.google.com/maps/@22.3223793,114.1705364,3a,75y,214h,88t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNldUfK-lblSZ39SMat_Q9o75CWwK80nO4rHtUy!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNldUfK-lblSZ39SMat_Q9o75CWwK80nO4rHtUy%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-2.9338646-ya36.500004-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

These views are from around the waterfront of Kowloon.

https://www.google.com/maps/@22.3014841,114.1612337,3a,75y,11h,70t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sObuTaP9AcLvM7YjuFWA5QA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DObuTaP9AcLvM7YjuFWA5QA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D11.673728%26pitch%3D-20.681437%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

This is from the To Kwa Wan area of Kowloon.

https://www.google.com/maps/@22.3180215,114.1904855,3a,75y,130h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOHB1YPKGoyyqEhxM_XFtOEMmcGIDsLPL63GQmC!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOHB1YPKGoyyqEhxM_XFtOEMmcGIDsLPL63GQmC%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya40.499996-ro-0-fo100!7i10000!8i5000

In these scenes, you can see the towering housing estates that Hong Kong is known for.

https://www.google.com/maps/@22.3332405,114.1668438,3a,75y,189.92h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sQr0cNDTgeS2UYvPMWns3cA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DQr0cNDTgeS2UYvPMWns3cA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D189.18608%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

This is Kwun Tong, in the southeastern area of Kowloon. The artificial peninsula extending into Victoria Harbor used to be the runway of the former airport of Hong Kong.

https://www.google.com/maps/@22.3091039,114.2229319,3a,75y,319h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sDBpNceLN7datO-KJiepfOg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DDBpNceLN7datO-KJiepfOg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D319.26318%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Here is a look at the Tseung Kwan O area. The endless residential apartment towers is because there is not enough room in Hong Kong for everyone to have a detached house with a backyard.

https://www.google.com/maps/@22.3107461,114.260147,3a,75y,34h,88t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOT7ZBRZmqU76x4ZTfMbA16YSg6Gx01iDVFG6OV!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOT7ZBRZmqU76x4ZTfMbA16YSg6Gx01iDVFG6OV%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-2.9999962-ya34.500004-ro-0-fo100!7i5660!8i2830

All of what we have seen so far is in Kowloon and adjacent areas. The following scenes are on Hong Kong Island. The view across Victoria Harbor is looking back to Kowloon, where we have just finished visiting.

https://www.google.com/maps/@22.275852,114.1780735,3a,75y,6.56h,105.2t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipO6XQzho-btZ1dWrAEs91p033Wc95JLsEgkiesn!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipO6XQzho-btZ1dWrAEs91p033Wc95JLsEgkiesn%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-30.000002-ya187.85483-ro-0-fo100!7i13312!8i6656

Most people think of Hong Kong as being very urban and densely populated. But you would be surprised at how much of it is actually rural. The satellite imagery of Hong Kong shows that actually about 70% of it is rural and mountainous.

https://www.google.com/maps/@22.2711665,114.2163639,2a,75y,1h,88t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1syV5yA7_mBqwhl_DND6ufuw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DyV5yA7_mBqwhl_DND6ufuw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D1.5000076%26pitch%3D-2.9338646%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

The Value Of New Ideas

Remember what I am trying to do with this writing here. One thing is to show that God and science is not incompatible at all. I am a Christian and about half of what I write about here is science. I do not see at all how science supposedly disproves the Bible or the existence of God. And I was interested in science long before I was interested in religion.

( Note-By the way, I do not entirely agree with the grammar rule that sentences should not begin with "And" ).

The other thing that I am trying to do with this writing is to promote the value of new ideas. With the internet there is less reason to memorize information than there used to be. Why take the trouble to learn so many facts when you can just Google it?

The internet has a world of information easily accessible, but only if we know what we are looking for. It is fine if we know what we don't know but sometimes we don't know what we don't know.

One thing that the internet can't effectively do for us is to come up with new ideas. That is what I want to promote here on this blog, taking existing information and pointing out things that have never been noticed before. It just requires some "thinking outside the box". 

Aside from the weekly visits I do not write anything here that is not new, or at least a new way of looking at things. I do not absolutely guarantee that everything I write here is new. But it is, as far as I know or can find online.

Winners And Losers In The Pandemic

It is a new world that is emerging from this pandemic, and there will be winners and losers.

WINNER: RURAL AREAS.  LOSER:CITIES

Plainly and simply, having millions of people close together is an invitation to disaster when it comes to a pandemic of contagious disease. No matter how convenient it is to be close together in cities, this pandemic will work against the decades-long trend of urbanization. The reason for urbanization is that, while population and technology is increasing, fewer people are needed to work in agriculture. But that means property values will be lower away from cities, and the pandemic has gotten millions of people working from home.

WINNER: DICTATORSHIP. LOSER: DEMOCRACY

There is no doubt that the more control a government has over it's people, the better it has managed this virus. Countries where people value freedom and don't like to be told what to do by their government, like the U.S. and Britain, have suffered the worst. Although I am sure that countries are not counting deaths by anywhere near the same standards. The true figure is anyone who died who wouldn't have died if not for Covid, whether or not they actually had Covid, which is difficult to determine. Many countries are only counting those that actually states "Covid" on the death certificate.

WINNER: SOCIALISM.  LOSER: CAPITALISM

Capitalism is supposed to be based on merit, people earn according to the value of the work that they do. But it is not a worker's fault if they cannot work because of this virus. Not paying workers who cannot work through no fault of their own curtails consumer spending and risks economic collapse. It is in everyone's interest to get people tested and treated as soon as possible if they have the virus, and that is not going to happen if everyone does not have medical coverage.

WINNER: DRONES.  LOSER: CONVENTIONAL GROUND FORCES

One thing that the virus has accomplished is that there has only been one brief war since it began, between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Having many soldiers in close quarters is an invitation to disaster, as it was with the Spanish Flu a century ago. But pilotless drones are the ideal tool for the time. Drones really showed their potential in the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. I have a feeling that drones are going to make the next war really nasty.

WINNER: CASHLESS TRANSACTIONS.  LOSER: CASH

We are so glad to have a bunch of it that we rarely stop to think how absolutely filthy it is. What I am referring to, of course, is cash. Paper money is absolutely ideal for spreading a pandemic. The virus must value cash even more than we do. The obvious solution is cashless transactions. There is only one problem with cashless transactions, everything that we do can be monitored. The pandemic is also certainly giving a boost to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

WINNER: GOD AND BIBLE PROPHECIES.  LOSER: FAITH IN THE WORLD

The Bible prophecies of the Last Days have the world under the control of a dynamic leader, who seems to have all the answers, known as the Antichrist. To have such control the government of the Antichrist will have to be able to closely monitor the people. Could it be that the bringing of so much of what we do online, including cashless transactions, is setting the groundwork for the Antichrist's control? Not to mention that the national governments that have more control have handled the pandemic much better.

For the majority of people who are not blatantly sinful I see the greatest barrier to a relationship with God as putting our faith in the world. The Bible instructs us to put our faith in God. Nowhere does it tell us to have faith in the world or in ourselves. The Bible has a rather dim view of both the world and human nature. Could it be that God allowed this virus, which so easily shut down the world, to get us to put more of our faith in Him?

Just a thought about the biblical Tribulation of the Last Days. The single most important place to the internet is Silicon Valley. So much of the internet is based there. But it is an area that is vulnerable to severe earthquakes. The Gospels foretell earthquakes in the Last Days. What if this pandemic gets us even more dependent on the internet than we already are, but then it is brought down by a cataclysmic earthquake?

WINNER: INTERNET.  LOSER: PRE-INTERNET WAY OF LIFE

If we weren't in the Internet Age before we certainly are now. This lockdown is moving everything online that can possibly be moved there. Can anyone even remember what it was like before the internet? The most obvious winner, at this point, seems to be Zoom, but this applies to just about everything about the internet.

WINNER: CARS. LOSER: PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

This has got to be one of the best things that ever happened to the auto industry. Being alone, or with a very few people, in your own car is safer than riding with numerous strangers on public transportation. 

Important Books On Instagram

Our Instagram series continues this week with books that have been very important to me, and ultimately leading to this blog. These are far from being the only books that have been important, but these have been the most important.

The first section of the photos is about those books.

The second section is about my childhood landing in America and afterwards.

The third section is reminiscing about my 3+ childhood years in Canada.

The fourth section is about my early years in a Gloucestershire village.

The fifth section of the photos is about how I have my living room set up to provide the maximum inspiration for my writing.

If you have the Instagram app do a search for "mark_5429".

Examples Of How Information Works

Here is some more of what we saw in the April 2019 posting, "How Information Works".

First, here are the general rules of my information theory.

The complexity of a number, the amount of information in it, is equal to the value of the number when it is expressed as the denominator in a ratio or fraction. 9 is not more complex than 5 because 9 is really 9 / 1 and 5 is really 5 / 1, so that the denominator are equal.

Energy and information is really the same thing. We cannot apply energy to anything without adding information to it and we cannot add information to anything without applying energy to it. Another way we can see energy and information as really the same thing is in how we can make our lives physically easier through technology, but only at the expense of making them more complex. We can never, on a large scale, make our lives physically easier and also less complex.

The universe always seeks the lowest information state. This should not surprise us since energy and information is the same thing and we know that the universe always seeks the lowest energy state. An equality is a lower information state than an inequality because the equality requires only one piece of information, A = A, while an inequality requires two pieces of information, A does not equal B.

Surface area is equivalent to energy, which makes sense because surface area is distance and we know that distance is equivalent to energy. A higher orbit is a higher-energy orbit. The universe seeks the lowest energy state which is why stars and planets form spheres, a sphere is the shape of lowest energy and also lowest surface area per volume. When atoms are fused together in stars the new, larger atom has less overall surface area than the smaller atoms that were crunched together to form it. This means that there must be leftover energy. This energy is released as radiation and is why stars shine.

Now, following are some more examples of how the theory works.

1) NATURE ABHORS A VACUUM

It is a common saying that "nature abhors a vacuum". An everyday example of this is a vacuum cleaner. If the pressure of air in a chamber is lowered, relative to the surrounding air, there will be a rush of air into the chamber, until the pressure equalizes. The rush of air carries dirt with it.

Wherever there is a vacuum there will be a rush of air, or whatever other medium we are dealing with, to fill it. The only major exception is deep space, where there is nothing to fill the vacuum.

But why does nature abhors a vacuum? It can be explained in terms of information. 

A difference in pressure is an inequality. We know that nature prefers an equality to an inequality because the equality is a lower information state, involving only one piece of information while the inequality has two. This is why air will rush from a high pressure to a low pressure center, to turn an inequality into an equality. This is information but there is energy in the rushing air. That is because energy and in is really the same thing. We cannot add information to anything without applying energy to it and we cannot apply energy to anything without adding information to it.

Another way we can see that energy and in is really the same thing is how we can make our lives physically easier, by using technology, but only at the expense of making them more complex. We can never, on a large scale, make our lives both easier and also less complex.

This is why nature abhors a vacuum. It prefers an equality to an inequality, because the equality is a lower information state. The vacuum, relative to it's surroundings, creates an inequality, which nature strives to do away with.

2) TEMPERATURE AND WIND

An interesting question is why, when it is heat that produces wind, the coldest planets have the strongest winds and winds on earth tend to be stronger in the winter.

I believe that a major part of the answer comes down to a simple ratio, and it involves the concept of Absolute Zero.

Heat is the kinetic energy of moving atoms and molecules. The faster the motion, the higher the heat. But if we lower the temperature there should be a point where all atomic and molecular motion has ceased, and it cannot get any colder.

That point is known as Absolute Zero, when all atomic and molecular motion has stopped so that it cannot get any colder. Absolute Zero is defined as -459 degrees Fahrenheit or -273.16 degrees Celsius. There is also the Kelvin scale that has the same degrees as the Celsius scale but begins at Absolute Zero so that the freezing point of water is 273.16 degrees Kelvin and the boiling point is 373.16.

The zero point of the Celsius scale is the freezing point of water and the zero point of the Fahrenheit scale was arbitrarily chosen.

Winds are actually produced by uneven heating. If there are adjacent warmer and cooler areas, air will rise from the warmer area and sink over the colder area. This will produce a higher pressure over the colder area and air will move from there to the warmer area. This is what causes winds.

Suppose that there is a difference of ten degrees between a warmer and adjacent colder area. Air will rise over the warmer area and sink over the colder. This will set up a convection cell with wind moving from the colder to the warmer at the surface, and opposite at high altitude.

But if the overall temperature is colder, with there still being a difference between the two adjacent areas of ten degrees, there will be a greater proportional difference between the two areas than if it were warmer. This simple reason is why winds tend to be stronger and the coldest planets have the strongest winds.

In my information theory, the complexity of a number is the value of the number when it is expressed as the denominator of a ratio or fraction. The ten degrees temperature difference would be a smaller fraction, meaning a higher number as the denominator, with the higher temperature range than the lower. 

This would make the difference in the higher temperature range a higher information state, and thus a higher energy state because energy and information is really the same thing. There would still be the movement of air from higher to lower pressure, but this higher information-energy state would offer higher resistance to it.

That is why winds tend to be stronger in the winter and the coldest planets have the strongest winds. The winds on distant and frigid Neptune, for example, are like the shock waves from a nuclear bomb.

3) SIMPLE HARMONIC MOTION

Simple harmonic motion is the alternating from one maximum to the opposite maximum. A swing or a pendulum is a familiar example of simple harmonic motion.

The most important example of simple harmonic motion is electromagnetic waves, which include light and radio waves. The wave starts at zero amplitude, proceeds to a maximum in one direction, drops back down to zero amplitude, proceeds to a maximum in the opposite direction, and finally returns to zero amplitude before beginning the next cycle.

In my cosmology theory space is made up of an alternating checkerboard pattern of negative and positive electric charges, in multiple dimensions. Energy always goes to oppose the basic rule of electric charges, that opposite charges attract while like charges repel. Energy in space must be manifested by disturbing the perfect checkerboard pattern to create the wave.

But after radiating energy in one direction, it must always return to the zero point and then radiate an equal amount in the opposite direction, before repeating the process. The reason for this is information.

This going back in the opposite to initial direction is related to Newton's Law of Equal and Opposite Reactions. An action in one direction has to be balanced by an equal reaction in the opposite direction.

The reason for this, in terms of information, is that an equality is a lower information state than an inequality. The wave going in one direction is a higher state of information than it also going in the opposite direction, because the one direction would involve making a choice over the other direction in that dimension which would be a higher state of information.

Electromagnetic waves are created by matter, and it is the nature and alignment of the matter that determines which dimension the wave will be aligned in. But it is a lower information state to have the wave alternate between the two opposite directions of that dimension, rather than choosing one. The equality of the wave in both directions represents a lower information state than if the wave radiated in one direction, but not the other.

It if for the same reason that planets and stars rotate around an axis. The alignment of the axis is determined when the star or planet is formed, so there is one dimension of information. But from there the star or planet avoids making a decision about how it would be aligned, which would be a higher information state, by rotating through all possible alignments.

The same principle applies to examples of simple harmonic motion like swings and pendulums. The Law of Equal and Opposite Reactions demands that the swing form the lower information state of the equality in also swinging an equal distance in the opposite direction, rather than the higher information state of the inequality that would exist if the swing stopped at the zero point. Because the universe always prefers a lower information state.

4) MERGING OF DROPS IN SINK

We can see that surface area is related to energy. Stars and planets are spherical because a sphere is the three-dimensional geometric form with the lowest surface-to-volume ratio, meaning that a sphere is the lowest energy form. It is well-known that the universe always seeks the lowest energy state.

This is actually why stars shine. When enough mass collects together by gravity to overcome the electron repulsion that keeps atoms separate and crunch smaller atoms together into larger ones, the new larger atom has less overall surface area than the smaller atoms that were crunched together to produce it. Since surface area represents energy, this means that there must be leftover energy.

There is indeed leftover energy. It is released as radiation and this is why stars, including the sun, shine. At the current stage in the sun's fusion process it is crunching four hydrogen atoms into one helium atom. Planets do not shine because they do not have enough mass to overcome electron repulsion by gravity.

Due to the geometric nature of a sphere, a larger sphere has less surface area per volume than a smaller sphere. Suppose we have two spherical lumps of clay, if we force the two together into one sphere the new larger sphere would have less overall surface area than the two original ones. This illustrates the reason why stars shine.

Within atoms the atoms actually get smaller in radius as we move to the right on a row of the Periodic Table, to successively heavier atoms. This decrease in radius, even though the atoms are getting heavier, continues until we get to the next row, which adds an electron shell. 

The relationship between energy and surface area, described above, applies when gravity is the binding force behind the sphere. But within atoms it is the opposite charge attraction between the positively-charged protons in the nucleus and the negatively-charged electrons in orbitals. 

Each successively heavier atom in a row of the Periodic Table has one more electron and proton than the one preceding it. This results in a stronger force pulling the atom together, which results in a smaller surface area. So even though the atom is heavier, and thus contains more energy as per the well-known Mass-Energy Equivalence, the surface area is less.

The rule of surface area being equivalent to energy thus applies to gravitational spheres and to objects consisting of atoms generally. Inside the atom the rules are a little bit different, at least regarding atoms in the same row of the Periodic Table. My cosmology theory explains it, everything consisting of electric charges and the overall displacement of the charges comprising the space within the atom by the charged particles comprising the atom being proportional to the mass of the atom, even though the surface area may be smaller.

Back to drops of water merging in a sink. We can see that drops of water in a sink often merge into a larger drop. Yet, if surface area is equivalent to energy at least outside atoms in the same row of the Periodic Table, there is no apparent release of energy when smaller water droplets in a sink merge into a larger drop, which must have less overall surface area than the drops which formed area.

This can easily be explained in terms of information. Water molecules are electrical in nature. The molecule consists of one atom of oxygen and two of hydrogen. One side of the molecule is more negatively-charged and the other side more positively-charged. This causes water molecules to line up negative-to-positive, and results in liquid water.

Electric charge has an effect over a distance. The number of inter-relationships between electric charges in water is information. Energy and information is really the same thing. When drops of water merge together there is suddenly more inter-relationships between electric charges than there was before. This is why there is no release of energy when drops merge together, such as the water getting warmer, even though the overall surface area is now less. The loss of surface area is exactly balanced by the increase in the number of inter-relationships between electric charges, and there is no energy release.

5) MAGNETISM AND INEQUALITY

The most stable nucleus is that of iron. It has the highest binding energy per nucleon of all elements. What is known as the Binding Energy Curve peaks at iron.

This stability represents a lower information state than an instability, because stability is an equation while instability is an inequation. But iron, like all elements heavier than hydrogen, is formed by crunching lighter elements together, either by fusion in stars or in the Big Bang at the beginning of the universe.

This means that two, or more, less-stable atoms were put together to make the more-stable iron. Since instability represents a higher information state, this can only mean that information must have been lost somewhere, and we know that information cannot just be lost.

An atom is an informational unit. We can easily see where the apparently missing information went. It turns out that the elements near the very top of the Binding Energy Curve, particularly iron, are the elements that can manifest magnetism.

Electrons in atomic orbitals usually operate in pairs, one with an up and one with a down spin, because, of course, this represents a lower information state. But there are also unpaired electrons. If the orbitals of unpaired electrons can be lined up, the atom will exert an electromotive force.

This force is known as magnetism. The atom will have a north pole and a south pole. Just like the rules of electric charges, opposite poles attract and like poles repel. 

Magnetism, the north and south pole, is a higher information state than non-magnetism. This information has to come from somewhere. Even though the Binding Energy Curve relates to the nucleus of the atom, and magnetism relates to the electrons in orbitals, with the two apparently having nothing to do with each other, we have to remember that the whole atom is an informational unit.

The missing information from the less-stable atoms that fused to form this atom is actually not missing at all. It went into the electron orbitals so that the energy can reappear as the higher information state of magnetism.

6) ELECTRICITY

Electricity is one of the most familiar examples of how information works, and how energy and information is really the same thing.

The universe is composed of negative and positive electric charges. The most important physical rule in the universe is that the two charges always have to balance out. The charges do not have to balance out in every location, which is why charged particles like electrons can exist, but they do have to balance out overall. Energy increases the distance over which the charges have to balance out, which is why distance is equivalent to energy so that a higher orbit is also a higher-energy orbit.

The reason that negative and positive charges always have to balance out is due to information. The universe always seeks the lowest information state, just as it seeks the lowest energy state, because energy and information is really the same thing. An equality is a lower information state than an inequality, because the equality needs only one piece of information whereas the inequality needs two. Having the two charges balance out is an equality, and that is why the universe always seeks this balance.

In our matter universe electric charges themselves do not ordinarily change position. When there is an electrical change it is usually due to the movement of electrons, which are concentrations of negative charge that are held together by energy.

Metals consist of large groups of atoms, called crystals, which share their outermost electrons. By applying electromotive pressure, which is information and thus energy, electrons can be made to move in metal. This is known as an electric current. The side that loses electrons is called the negative side, and the side that gains electrons is the positive side.

But the electric current is, once again, seeking the lowest information state. The electromotive pressure is information, and also energy, which upsets the equation. Seeking to reestablish the equation, which is the lowest information state, causes electrons to move. This information is also energy because we can use the flow as electrical energy.

( Note- Remember what we have seen here before about what I call the "Electric Charge Conundrum". We define electrons as having a negative electric charge and the protons in the nucleus a positive charge. But that creates a situation that doesn't make sense because it is electrons that move between atoms in chemical reactions and in the formation of molecules. We thus define an atom as having a net positive charge after it has lost an electron. Since negative also means losing, while positive commonly means gaining, that doesn't seem to make sense. Wouldn't it make more sense for the electron to have a positive charge, as it does in antimatter, so that an atom losing an atom resulted in it having a net negative charge and gaining an atom would result in a net negative charge )?

7) DISTANCE IN CITIES AND TRAVEL

We have seen how distance in space is equivalent to energy. The electric charges that comprise the universe always have to balance out but energy increases the distance over which they have to balance out. That is why energy and distance are related.

An obvious way that energy and distance are equivalent is orbits. A higher altitude orbit is also a higher energy orbit. But we know that energy and information is really the same thing, and we can see the relationship between energy and distance in human society.

As humans learn more and society progresses, more movement is necessary to daily life. This represents the equivalence of distance and information, which we know is the same thing as energy. 

It makes sense that the more humans learn, the more different specialized job descriptions there will be. The more specialized job descriptions there are, the further the average worker will have to travel to work or study. This shows, in another way, how information, or energy, is equivalent to distance.

8) BIOLOGICAL CELLS

Living things are of a higher level of complexity than their inanimate surroundings. This higher complexity is manifested as inter-relationships that involve information in ways that are not found in inanimate matter.

Consider a human foot, for example. A human foot has no meaning outside it's role as part of the body. We ordinarily would not find human feet lying around by themselves, as we would rocks. 

This illustrates how, although the body is made of the same kind of atoms as it's inanimate surroundings, it is part of the higher complexity of biology due to interconnections that would have no meaning in the surrounding universe of inanimate matter. A rock, in contrast, would have just as much meaning whether it was part of a planet or floating around in space.

But while living things, particularly humans, are complex, they are not infinitely complex. If every molecule in your body had to have a specific relationship with every other molecule, as the foot does to the rest of the body, your body would approach infinite complexity.

So to adjust the complexity of the body to match the level of information that went into it's design, which is less-than-infinite, the parts and organs of the body are composed of structures called cells. These cells have an interrelationship to the other cells in the part or organ of the body, which has a working interrelationship with the other parts and organs of the body. 

The cells are thus what lowers the overall complexity of the body, adjusting it to match the information of design that went into it.

9) THE SPOILING OF FOOD

Living creatures are more complex than their surrounding environment. This means that they contain more information. According to my information theory, energy and information is really the same thing.

This means that, for the living creature to survive in it's surrounding environment, it must be sustained. That sustenance comes from food. Since food must contain the energy / information to sustain life against it's inanimate environment, it cannot come from that environment. It must come from other living things and must itself be more complex than the surrounding environment.

We know that if we put a higher-energy state next to a lower energy state, such as hotter and colder, energy will tend to flow from the former to the latter. Since energy and information is really the same thing, that should mean that information should also have a tendency to flow from a higher to a lower state.

That, plainly and simply, is why food tends toward decay and also why the bodies of living things decay after death, when they are no longer being sustained.

The lower information level of the surrounding environment tends to pull the now-unsustained former living things down to it's level. Because remember that the universe prefers the lower information state of an equality to the higher information state of the inequality that comes with the higher and lower information states.

This also explains why, as a general rule, larger living things tend to live longer than smaller ones. While this is not a strict rule it is a broad general rule.

The reason, once again, is information. Larger living things tend to be more complex, containing more overall information, than smaller ones but smaller forms of life may be much more intricate than the larger ones. What I mean by more intricate is having a higher complexity per mass.

This higher intricacy, even without higher overall information, means a ratio with a higher denominator of information relative to the information level of the surrounding inanimate environment. This means more of an inequality between the two with the result that the surrounding environment "tries" that much harder to pull the smaller living thing down to it's own level of information. With the overall lower amount of information in the smaller living thing, the result is a shorter lifespan than the larger living things.

10) THE FORMATION OF ATOMS

Atoms are composed of charged particles, negatively-charged electrons in orbitals around the nucleus that consists of positively-charged protons and neutrally-charged neutrons. But electric charges are information, as to whether it is positive or negative, and we know that the universe always seeks the lowest information state.

So what happens is that these charged particles tend to form structures that all have the same neutral charge, because this is the lowest information state. These structures are known as atoms.

The formation of atoms does not entirely produce the lowest possible information state. That is why electrons can move between atoms, or atoms may share electrons in their outermost orbitals, because it produces a still-lower information state. This is how molecules form.

If a molecule, a combination of atoms, does not represent the lowest information state then it's formation will require an input of energy. This is why some of the chemical reactions that form molecules require an input of energy ( endothermic ), while other reactions give off energy by breaking molecules apart ( exothermic ).

Notice that the only interactions that give off electromagnetic waves are those involving the charged particles that compose atoms, or where atoms are broken apart. The collision of two vehicles, for example, do not give off electromagnetic waves because the atoms remain intact. 

This is due to the higher information state of charges outside the structure of atoms, which represents an inequality. The excess information has to go somewhere, and it takes the form of electromagnetic radiation.

Here is a link to the original posting:

http://markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2019/04/how-information-works.html?m=0