Mark Meek's Ideas

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Chile

Chile is an extremely elongated country on the Pacific coast of South America. The country is basically the land between the Andes Mountains and the ocean. Chile is about 4200 km (2600 miles) long, but an average of only about 160 km (100 miles) wide. The largest population center and capital city of Santiago is about in the middle of the north-south length of the country. Valparaiso is roughly adjacent to Santiago on the coast.

If you live in a northern hemisphere temperate climate zone, you may have noticed seeing "Product of Chile" when you buy produce in the winter. Chile has taken advantage of it's location in the southern hemisphere, which means that it's agricultural growing season is opposite of countries in the northern hemisphere, where the majority of the world's people live.

Chile is rich in minerals and is also known for mining, which can sometimes be dangerous. In 2010, people around the world followed the brilliant rescue of 33 miners that had been trapped far underground by a collapse for 69 days. Holes had been drilled by which food and supplies could be lowered to the miners, who communicated by written notes. The miners were brought to the surface one-by-one in a specially-constructed capsule. It was a very delicate operation because any drilling might cause a further collapse.

Chile is also prone to earthquakes, as the widening of the Atlantic seafloor by magma emergence along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge pushes South America against the Pacific Tectonic Plate. It is actually a subduction zone where one plate slips under another, which causes some of the most powerful quakes of all. Earlier in 2010, there was one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded off the coast of Chile. It caused a tsunami and massive blackout and over 500 people were killed. The quake was so powerful that it caused a measurable shift in the earth's rotation but, of course, caused nowhere near the destruction of the earthquake in Haiti the month before.

Santiago dates from the Sixteenth Century and is one of Spain's original "conquistador cities". that were started at the time South America was settled by Spain. The following scenes begin in the Plaza de Armas, or central square, of Santiago. As in so many cities of Latin America, there is the country's main cathedral facing the central square in the capital city, and also other government buildings. But Santiago's main cathedral is not as old as the city itself. The former judicial building is now the national museum. If you see La Moneda, in Constitution Plaza, that is where the President of Chile lives.

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

https://www.google.com/maps/@-33.4373184,-70.6508139,3a,75y,104.98h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOlLHPtYTfsRtb9Bo7wxeHWj97U5Es-S_16tkbN!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOlLHPtYTfsRtb9Bo7wxeHWj97U5Es-S_16tkbN%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya221.77763-ro0-fo100!7i8192!8i4096

This street is Avenue Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins, named for Chile's independence leader. Yes, that is an Irish name. His father was Irish. Isn't this a coincidence, Eamon de Valera, the founder of modern Ireland, has a Spanish name.

https://www.google.com/maps/@-33.4497858,-70.6753881,3a,75y,105.47h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sHmjWi0BXutpxtdh_ZweJZg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DHmjWi0BXutpxtdh_ZweJZg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D108.346725%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

The following scenes begin on Santa Lucia Hill, in the middle of Santiago.

https://www.google.com/maps/@-33.4410678,-70.6436927,3a,75y,134.06h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1slSH0g1NHneppOj-5XxRf3w!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DlSH0g1NHneppOj-5XxRf3w%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D139.22783%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Here is the modern development known as the Costanera Center. The Grand Torre is the tallest building in South America.

https://www.google.com/maps/@-33.4176208,-70.6059932,3a,75y,150.27h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMIybwAEKesJrdpJ4zxo6HXwB7qq58_a0ysJHyE!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMIybwAEKesJrdpJ4zxo6HXwB7qq58_a0ysJHyE%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya154.51204-ro-0-fo100!7i5660!8i2830

The city of Valparaiso is less than 100 km from Santiago and is on the coast. There has been many immigrants from Europe arriving in Valparaiso, and it was a great port city before the opening of the Panama Canal. The following scenes of Valparaiso begin in Plaza Sotomayor.

https://www.google.com/maps/@-33.0385963,-71.6289206,3a,75y,174.71h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPQGJF_6EaSqHPavKeoqlV2IGMRKL3lqCJzmmRL!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPQGJF_6EaSqHPavKeoqlV2IGMRKL3lqCJzmmRL%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya305.55835-ro0-fo100!7i7680!8i3840

This is the northern city of Antofagasta, which is over 1,000 km north of Santiago and Valparaiso, and was once part of Bolivia. This is where the "War of the Pacific" began, in the late Nineteenth Century, which resulted in Chile gaining the valuable area which is now known to be rich in copper, and in Bolivia losing it's seacoast. The war began over Bolivia raising taxes on Chilean investments, after Chile claimed it signed a treaty agreeing not to. Bolivia had a secret treaty with Peru, which was also brought into the war. Although Bolivia is allowed to use the port, as Chile agreed to, the two countries still do not have formal diplomatic relations. Although Bolivia has since been landlocked, it has not disbanded it's navy.

https://www.google.com/maps/@-23.6242012,-70.3870715,3a,75y,34.5h,105t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1ss_hcWv7Zgcr2PxPKcKQyMA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Ds_hcWv7Zgcr2PxPKcKQyMA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D34.500004%26pitch%3D-14.999996%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Chile is in the southern hemisphere. It also has high mountains and the driest desert in the world. What all of that adds up to is astronomy.

Since the vast majority of the earth's population live in the northern hemisphere, the northern stars have been much-more studied than the southern stars. Astronomical observatories need very special locations. To get the best vision of outer space, the observatory should be as high as possible and in an area that is as dry as possible. It is also necessary to be far away from the bright lights of a city, which will drown out faint stars.

The best place is thus on a mountain in the desert, and it's even better if it's in the southern hemisphere. Although telescopes are now moving above the atmosphere altogether, with the Hubble Space Telescope that has been a fantastic success far exceeding anyone's expectations and the James Webb Telescope which is being built to succeed it, Chile has made itself into probably the world center of ground-based astronomy.

We saw the Mount Wilson Observatory on the blog of Travel Photos Of North America. So much of what we know about the universe was discovered there, along with the observatory at Mount Palomar not too far away. But the usefulness of the Mount Wilson Observatory has long since been compromised by the bright lights of nearby Los Angeles.

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5492/3756/1600/dc_250993.jpg

There are actually many astronomical observatories in Chile today. The best-known is probably the one at Cerro Tololo. Despite the endless fascination with outer space, have you ever though about how difficult it must be to make a living at it? Not only do you have to work all night on a mountain out in the desert, but there should not be any heating because the resulting convection currents could distort the vision of the telescope.

https://www.google.com/maps/@-30.1687287,-70.8064262,2a,75y,180h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s-m21ntflv_UKxWRYoyMjqg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D-m21ntflv_UKxWRYoyMjqg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D167.3564%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

In the countries of Latin America there have been quite a few revolutions, where one government has been replaced by another. Remember the principle in "The Second Leader Rule", which I wrote after the death of Fidel Castro.

If a high-profile revolutionary leader is followed by a much lower-profile leader, that is a good sign for the revolution because it means that the revolutionary stage has been successful. If a high-profile revolutionary is followed by another leader of high-profile, Lenin followed by Stalin for example, that means the revolutionary phase is not yet complete.

The successful completion of a revolution is represented by the revolutionary leader, who must have a high profile to inspire people, being followed by a lower-profile manager.

This is the original posting:

http://www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-second-leader-rule.html?m=0

With lockdowns still in place, this is your chance to begin reading the Bible. Remember that all of this is happening for a reason. There are plenty of Bibles online, I use biblestudytools.com or biblegateway.com. It is best to read the New Testament first. The Old Testament, basically Judaism, was written before Jesus and the New Testament after. You can skip the first chapter of the first Gospel, St. Matthew, because it is a list of genealogy.

This is usually my New Year's message, but this is a good time to review the power of God:

http://markmeeknature.blogspot.com/?m=0

Magnetism As Information

What is so useful about my theory of information, detailed in the compound posting on this blog, "The Theory Of Complexity", August 2017, is how it enables us to "see ahead" to things that haven't yet been discovered. An ideal example involves magnetism.

Magnetism is brought about by the lining up of unpaired electrons in atoms by use of an electric field. Electrons in atoms usually exist in pairs, one with an up and the other with a down spin. If unpaired electrons can be lined up, the material will exert an electromotive force, with a north and a south pole. This force is known as magnetism.

Although it is not the only material from which a strong magnet can be made, the material that we most associate with magnetism is iron. Steel is iron with carbon added to make it stronger. Other elements that can be alloyed to make strong magnets are nickel and cobalt.

Iron is a really interesting element. We tend to take it for granted because it is so common, it is the most common element on earth by mass. But the reason that it is so common is the same reason that makes it so interesting.

As we know the nucleus of an atom is held together by binding energy. This is necessary because the nucleus is composed of protons, which have a positive electric charge, and, since like charges repel each other, the nucleus would not be able to hold together unless it was held by binding energy. What happens is that some of the mass of the nucleus is converted into binding energy by the nuclear force, which is one of the fundamental forces of the universe.

Not all elements have the same amount of binding energy per nucleon in their nucleus. A nucleon means either a proton or a neutron. Beginning with the lightest element, hydrogen with one proton in the nucleus, the binding energy per nucleon reaches a peak, and then begins to decline. This is known as the Binding Energy Curve.

At the very top of that peak is iron. This means that iron has the most stable nucleus of all elements because it has the most binding energy per nucleon.

The reason that iron is so common is because the ordinary fusion process in stars only goes as far as iron. This is because the iron nucleus is so stable that it requires more energy to break it apart, entering the plasma state so that it can fuse into heavier nuclei, than is released by breaking it. This means that fusing iron into heavier elements, by the tremendous heat and pressure in the centers of stars, requires an input of energy rather than giving off energy.

This is why the ordinary fusion process in stars only goes as far as iron. When a large star explodes in a supernova it scatters it's component matter across space. Some of that matter typically falls back together by gravity to form a second-generation star and, maybe, planets. That is how our Solar System formed and is why iron is so common.

Elements heavier than iron require an input of energy to form. These elements only form when energy is being released by the explosion of the large star in the supernova, only the largest stars explode in a supernova. This is why elements up to iron are exponentially more common than those that are heavier than iron.

If you have ever wondered why carbon, oxygen, copper and, iron are so much more common than silver, gold and, uranium, this is why.

What I find to be so interesting, yet unexplained, is that iron is both the element most associated with magnetism and also the element with the most stable nucleus. The other two elements associated with magnetism, nickel and cobalt, are near iron at the top of the Binding Energy Curve.

This seems to make it very clear that there must be a link between magnetism and the stability of the nucleus. But, as of now, we cannot see what it is.

Magnetism is a property of the electron orbitals in an atom, and have nothing to do with the nucleus. Nuclear stability, the Binding Energy Curve, has nothing to do with the electrons. The binding energy in a nucleus has no effect on the electric charges of the protons, which is what affects the electrons in their orbitals.

But yet there must be a connection between the two, even if we cannot see it now. This cannot be a coincidence that the elements at the top of the Binding Energy Curve are the same elements that are associated with magnetism.

My information theory explains the connection in terms of information, and it is simple.

Iron atoms, fused in stars from lighter elements, have the most stable nuclei. But stability represents a lower information state than instability. Indeed the very definition of stability is that it must be the lowest information state. We know that the universe both seeks the lowest information state and also prefers stability to instability.

Stability is some kind of equation, while instability is an inequation. An equation is a lower information state because it only contains one piece of information, while an inequation must contain more than one.

A equals A must be a lower information state than A does not equal B, because we would only have to define A, instead of both A and B.

But if iron atoms are fused together from lighter atoms, and has a nucleus with more stability than the nuclei from which they were fused, that must mean a loss of information somewhere. The trouble with that is that information cannot just be lost, it must go somewhere.

The electrons in the atoms have nothing to do with the stability of the nucleus, at least as far as we can see now. But the atom is an informational unit and information cannot just be lost.

Magnetism is actually information because a magnet has to have a north pole and a south pole. Magnetism is a higher information state than non-magnetism because it must be defined which is the north pole and which is the south pole, and where on the magnet the poles will be located.

This information theory thus enables us to "see ahead". Clearly magnetism must somehow be related to the stability of the nucleus of the atom, but we cannot see the physics of how this happens as of now.

Thursday, October 1, 2020

A Journey Around Cuba

Havana is the capital and largest city of Cuba and started as a Sixteenth-Century Spanish colonial settlement, built around a natural harbor. The forces of Fidel Castro overthrew the regime of Fulgencio Batista in 1959, and established a Communist state.

During the Cold War, Cuba trained large numbers of doctors who provided medical assistance in Communist countries across the world. I am sure that the country could earn a lot of money by providing medical procedures to patients from the U.S. and Canada.

The first of the following scenes are inside, El Capitolio, the Capitol Building in Havana.

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

https://www.google.com/maps/@23.1351407,-82.3596498,3a,75y,65.58h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-8NoCr4Pod7E%2FUyJE9c09n2I%2FAAAAAAAAb5o%2FoUclSBXgpfgTj9ZU6Ei9hvver3qD6BTgACLIB!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2F-8NoCr4Pod7E%2FUyJE9c09n2I%2FAAAAAAAAb5o%2FoUclSBXgpfgTj9ZU6Ei9hvver3qD6BTgACLIB%2Fw203-h101-n-k-no%2F!7i5582!8i2791

The Morro Castle, guarding the entrance to the harbor, is the original castle of Havana. The following scenes begin there, with views along the Malecon, which is the seaside street and promenade.

https://www.google.com/maps/@23.1515427,-82.3560333,3a,75y,90h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-SBERS2YAMs4%2FVy-fhMUw5LI%2FAAAAAAAANUk%2F7xmtAc8jDRM8XpdOfK6_6lndk5mMljOnACLIB!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2F-SBERS2YAMs4%2FVy-fhMUw5LI%2FAAAAAAAANUk%2F7xmtAc8jDRM8XpdOfK6_6lndk5mMljOnACLIB%2Fw203-h101-n-k-no%2F!7i8192!8i4096

The following scenes begin in Revolution Plaza, where Fidel Castro often addressed crowds. The memorial statue and tower of Jose Marti can be seen, as well as the famous murals of Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos.

Like Mexico, Cuba had a two-stage revolution. The first, for both countries, was independence from Spain. For that stage, Cuba's Jose Marti played a role similar to that of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla in Mexico.

In Mexico's second stage of revolution President Porfirio Diaz, who was perceived as corrupt and who allowed a few wealthy people to dominate the country, was overthrown by popular revolt. This second stage was mirrored in Cuba with the revolution that overthrew Fulgencio Batista, whose policies and activities were almost a mirror image of Diaz, and brought Fidel Castro to power.

https://www.google.com/maps/@23.1245132,-82.3857377,3a,75y,270h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-CP9-0Znm0pQ%2FVcjblAmh9VI%2FAAAAAAAAAJg%2FNjVWQEF0SNc-KGo0M4DYs053_KLbllLqw!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh6.googleusercontent.com%2F-CP9-0Znm0pQ%2FVcjblAmh9VI%2FAAAAAAAAAJg%2FNjVWQEF0SNc-KGo0M4DYs053_KLbllLqw%2Fw203-h101-n-k-no%2F!7i10240!8i5120

Here is a general look at central Havana, starting near Plaza Cathedral.

https://www.google.com/maps/@23.139076,-82.3502253,3a,75y,111.98h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-GrLlVIITK6E%2FU796zdq2uwI%2FAAAAAAAB_HM%2Fo7WsSdFBD7sDnBXxBY9rbYzf-O2LaqBKg!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh4.googleusercontent.com%2F-GrLlVIITK6E%2FU796zdq2uwI%2FAAAAAAAB_HM%2Fo7WsSdFBD7sDnBXxBY9rbYzf-O2LaqBKg%2Fw203-h101-n-k-no%2F!7i10760!8i5380

Finally, in Havana, we come to Plaza Vieja, which might be the best-known of all of these Plazas, or squares, in Havana.

https://www.google.com/maps/@23.136162,-82.3497918,3a,75y,270h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-cUk6JXYmH_E%2FVzfWUBHhZRI%2FAAAAAAAAANw%2FBi1YWLDSs_QqnuZEkaeP5CDSWXh0Nf3HwCLIB!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh3.googleusercontent.com%2F-cUk6JXYmH_E%2FVzfWUBHhZRI%2FAAAAAAAAANw%2FBi1YWLDSs_QqnuZEkaeP5CDSWXh0Nf3HwCLIB%2Fw203-h101-n-k-no%2F!7i8704!8i4352

Varadero is on the north coast of Cuba, not far from Havana.

https://www.google.com/maps/@23.16389,-81.2347538,3a,75y,119.92h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMzxy2lfdDwRTFJd0EVvWDsS4Tsf_r1mPlSbC-Q!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMzxy2lfdDwRTFJd0EVvWDsS4Tsf_r1mPlSbC-Q%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya230.32155-ro0-fo100!7i7071!8i3536

Havana is the largest city and capital of Cuba. At the other end of the island, on the south coast, is Santiago de Cuba, which is Cuba's second city. Do you remember Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball's husband? This was his hometown. The Cuban Revolution, which ultimately resulted in victory for Fidel Castro, began in Santiago de Cuba. Following are some scenes of the city.

https://www.google.com/maps/@20.0213487,-75.8293417,3a,75y,16.45h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOvWjCGHqy6euA9Z3aWe3plbePMfI6EIFo1h1tT!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOvWjCGHqy6euA9Z3aWe3plbePMfI6EIFo1h1tT%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya184.50641-ro-0-fo100!7i8192!8i4096

Here is another city in the south of Cuba, Bayamo. Like Havana and Santiago de Cuba, Bayamo started as a Sixteenth-Century Spanish settlement.

https://www.google.com/maps/@20.3690498,-76.6351324,3a,75y,180h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOQBrF0cGBwioZFQEboqEuY-z6AqRcEYw0Vxy5z!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOQBrF0cGBwioZFQEboqEuY-z6AqRcEYw0Vxy5z%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya17.000013-ro-0-fo100!7i2508!8i1254

Outside of the cities, here is what life is like in a Cuban town. This town is called Sibanicu.

https://www.google.com/maps/@21.2350127,-77.5238647,3a,75y,304h,88t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-I6q0lj7dj0k%2FV-IuykTN7dI%2FAAAAAAAABOY%2Fcbd2nNaJHtA04KFisKpboZ_YjRXPmponQCLIB!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh6.googleusercontent.com%2F-I6q0lj7dj0k%2FV-IuykTN7dI%2FAAAAAAAABOY%2Fcbd2nNaJHtA04KFisKpboZ_YjRXPmponQCLIB%2Fw203-h101-n-k-no%2F!7i8704!8i4352

Concluding our journey, in the central part of Cuba, this is the city of Camaguey.

https://www.google.com/maps/@21.3781731,-77.9240859,3a,75y,180h,100t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipM91VHq07kJptL56g3WlwEy_26snroAMYUPACLT!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipM91VHq07kJptL56g3WlwEy_26snroAMYUPACLT%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-10-ya181.00002-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

Perspectives

Let's not forget why this pandemic is being allowed to happen. We place too much of our faith in the world. We have so much confidence in what we can do with our technology, devices and, apps. But then this simple virus can shut the world down. You know that this is happening for a reason. It is to lead us to put more faith in God instead of in the world.

What will it be like a hundred years from now? With very few exceptions, no one will remember you. You will, in all probability, be completely gone and forgotten, just as almost everyone who was alive in 1920 is today. When you face God, all of your worldly accomplishments, how popular you are, how much money you have, how attractive you are, what status you have, what country you belonged to and, how many degrees you have, will all mean absolutely nothing. Only what is done for God will last.

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't take care of ourselves while we are here. So much is known today about how to make the body fit and healthy, and foods from across the world are readily available, that there is no reason for everyone not to be at their best and for aging to be drastically slowed down. Look at how silly Father Time looks. This is the Baker Clock, in Gloucester in England which is the closest city to where I was born. A jeweler named Baker set up the clock over a hundred years ago and it has become a tourist attraction. The four figures that sound the bells represent Ireland, England, Scotland and, Wales. Father Time is in the center.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.8651397,-2.246118,3a,75y,124.48h,108.43t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sAIdOqW0Pzm4ykOsqmYHBdw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

While I am so grateful to have so many readers, don't think that individual readers are not important because they are. For one thing, everywhere I go there seems to be a princess figure that inspires me. There was a princess from fifth grade, and her princess daughters. I have already mentioned our community college princess that became a nurse. Then there was our sales office princess. This blog has brought out the best in me like nothing else because every week I must come up with something that individual readers that I know about, and all my readers, find worthy to read.

Helen Reddy's best song was "Delta Dawn". I don't actively listen to music anymore. During the rock music era, I only actually liked about one out of every eight or ten songs. The best years of the rock era was 1970-72. Back in those days, this is what I used to listen to the most.

The Grass Roots were the most underrated band.

The Sixties had a certain sound to them. This is best represented by "Dizzy", by Tommy Roe, "She Loves You", by the Beatles, "Build Me Up Buttercup" and, "Respectable", by The Outsiders.

Blondie was right in time for my carefree prime of youth. The Go-Gos continued from there.

"Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes" is addictive to a few people. It's upbeat pace was ideal for getting in the frame of mind for exercise. "Gimme Shelter" was usually reserved to provide some extra drive during exercise.

The epic year of 1972 featured "Baby Blue", by Badfinger, "Immigration Man", by Crosby and Nash and "Run, Run, Run" by JoJo Gunn.

Thursday, September 24, 2020

A Journey Around Colombia

Colombia, in northwestern South America, is named for Christopher Columbus who is credited with, if not the European discovery of, establishing the first permanent link between the eastern and western hemispheres.

Traditionally, the top yellow half of the flag of Colombia represents not only gold but all of the wealth of the country. The blue below it represents the seas by which the country is located. The red represents the blood that was shed to gain independence for Colombia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Colombia#/media/File:Flag_of_Colombia.svg

The way I see it, the colors could represent the three major periods of Colombian history. The red representing the native Indians before the arrival of Europeans. The blue could represent the period as a Spanish colony, known as Gran Colombia and which included what is now Venezuela, Ecuador and, Panama. The gold or yellow, which is the widest band of color, representing the independent nation of Colombia. The war of Independence for Gran Colombia was led by the Venezuelan, Simon Bolivar, for whom the neighboring country of Bolivia is named.

The southern part of the western hemisphere was settled by Spain and Portugal before the northern part was settled by England and France. In the days of sailing ships Europeans from the Mediterranean, and the southern part of the continent, had the simple advantage that the wind was in their favor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_winds#/media/File:Map_prevailing_winds_on_earth.png

Also ships could sail around the southern tip of South America, and sail up the west coast of the continent, whereas that could not be done from North America. Although today, global warming is opening up what is known as the Northwest Passage to ships.

Colombia has had two civil wars since independence, both between Liberals and Conservatives. On our visit to Mexico City, we saw that Mexico has undergone one such war. There was what was known as the "Thousand-Days War", around the beginning of the Twentieth Century. Then there was a ten-year war from 1948-1958. This was followed by a leftist insurgency, mainly taking place in the remote areas of Colombia's southeast, carried on by the group known by the acronym of FARC. This insurgency was remarkably similar in nature to one on the other side of the world, that carried on by the Naxalites in India.

The capital of Colombia today is the city of Bogota, which was founded in 1538. Although not as well-known as the Aztec, Maya and, Inca, the area had one of the great Indian civilizations, known as the Muisca.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogot%C3%A1#/media/File:Mira_a_lo_alto.jpg

The following scenes begin in the Primary Cathedral of Colombia, which is on Bolivar Square, or Bolivar Plaza, where Colombia's government buildings are located. Remember that Simon Bolivar led the liberation of Gran Colombia.

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.

Thursday, September 17, 2020

Central America

Central America is defined as the isthmus of land from Mexico south to Colombia, and between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. All of the nations of Central America are small. By far the most populous is Guatemala, immediately south of Mexico, with around 18 million people.

Central America has a Spanish colonial heritage similar to that of Mexico and northern South America, but the cities of Central America are usually not as old as Mexico City or Lima.

To understand Central America it is necessary to understand the past involvement of American companies in the region. These countries have been profoundly affected by United Fruit and Standard Fruit. The descendants of both companies are still with us today. United Fruit is now known as Chiquita, and is especially known for bananas. Standard fruit is now known as Dole, and is especially known for pineapples.

According to critics, these companies turned Central America into nations whose reason for being was to supply American consumers with tropical fruit. One thing that is notable about the region is how small the countries are. Most of the nations of Latin America are much larger and it does seem that Central America could have been one country. But this could be the legacy of being divided up as national plantations for rival fruit companies.

When Communism came along this history of exploitation, at least according to the critics, it found ready converts in the region which ultimately led to conflicts like that between the Contras and the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. Although not part of Central America, the same could be said for Cuba which was the main supplier of sugar. The result was the rise of Fidel Castro and the Cuban Missile Crisis, which brought the world to the brink of war.

This is not to say that that the fruit companies did not bring any good to the region, they certainly built infrastructure and communications networks, although the critics claim that it was for the companies' own benefit and was mainly the kind of "help" that hindered Central America from developing in it's own way.

Anyway, I'll let you form your own opinion about it. Let's move along and have a look at the region.

The following scenes of Guatemala City begin inside Metropolitan Cathedral. The cathedral faces the most important square of the city, the Plaza de la Constitucion. The National Palace of Culture is also on the square. The familiar pattern in cities of Latin America is the most important church facing the main square of a city. If it is a capital city, it will be the nation's main cathedral and there will be the president's residence or national palace, and possibly other government buildings facing the square as well.

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

https://www.google.com/maps/@14.6415598,-90.5120736,3a,75y,88.52h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMXxd0vQIdSoAa-CqlFlI4d_CuhOHd7l-PlsPXp!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMXxd0vQIdSoAa-CqlFlI4d_CuhOHd7l-PlsPXp%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya27.698635-ro-0-fo100!7i11464!8i5732

Here is some more of the central part of Guatemala City.

https://www.google.com/maps/@14.6345409,-90.5149814,2a,75y,103.26h,90t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sj9gK7RPOBhf22yfrGtfwhA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dj9gK7RPOBhf22yfrGtfwhA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D103.68807%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100

The way Guatemala City is organized into numbered zones is reminiscent of the arrondisements of Paris. The following scenes are in Zone 10, a modern business district.

https://www.google.com/maps/@14.5906694,-90.5037906,3a,75y,162.29h,90t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1s6hkg2bijbj88gmGyIQTCbQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D6hkg2bijbj88gmGyIQTCbQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D162.28775%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100

The capital city of the neighboring nation of El Salvador is San Salvador. Like so many other cities in this part of the world, the center of the capital city is a square with the Metropolitan Cathedral and the National Palace facing the square. These views of San Salvador begin in the Metropolitan Cathedral.

https://www.google.com/maps/@13.6983334,-89.1911671,3a,75y,92.27h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMypHSs7S77nI0VRKtrvrpwlfTupvVibBYUp_65!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMypHSs7S77nI0VRKtrvrpwlfTupvVibBYUp_65%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya85.80976-ro-0-fo100!7i7200!8i3600

This is the western part of San Salvador, beginning at the Monument of the Divine Savior. Oscar Romero, a priest who was known for "Liberation Theology", was a native of El Salvador. This was a form of socialism, maybe even Marxism, but that had serving God as the goal.

https://www.google.com/maps/@13.7012491,-89.2240379,3a,75y,76.04h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOn_xeek4XeCUo_KlIPiKgpaNEiAf9AYdeGN7F1!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOn_xeek4XeCUo_KlIPiKgpaNEiAf9AYdeGN7F1%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya155.74026-ro-0-fo100!7i7200!8i3600

Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, is one of those places whose name makes a good password. (Does anyone remember Bophuthatswana, a former "homeland" in South Africa from the 1970s)? It is a much older city that most of the capitals of Central America, dating from around the same time as Mexico City and Lima. It might have been the capital if Central America had become one country.

https://www.google.com/maps/@14.0891555,-87.1815757,3a,75y,214.5h,92.93t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPDXswIuWxH22Dxax4fvvtBa_uK0jvm8_SyBQYx!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPDXswIuWxH22Dxax4fvvtBa_uK0jvm8_SyBQYx%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-2.9338646-ya316.5-ro-0-fo100!7i7680!8i3840

If you have ever wondered if nations have gone to war over soccer, called "football" outside North America, the answer is yes. El Salvador and Honduras went to war over qualifying for the 1970 World Cup.

The capital city of Nicaragua is Managua. I can remember from childhood seeing news reports of the devastating 1972 earthquake there. Then, when I was a teenager, the president of the country was overthrown in what would begin a long civil war. The president, Anastasio Somoza, was from the Somoza family which had dominated the country for decades.

He was overthrown by the Sandinistas, who were led by Daniel Ortega and took their name from a leftist revolutionary who had earlier fought against U.S. military occupation of Nicaragua (Remember the United Fruit Company, as described above), and had been killed by the forces of the Somoza family. The U.S. administration of Ronald Reagan helped to form the Contras, who undertook a civil war, against the backdrop of the Cold War, against the Sandinistas. I remember when Reagan publicly declared "I am a Contra".

The U.S. Congress banned further assistance to the Contras, but Reagan sought ways to help them anyway. This is what led to the 1980s "Iran-Contra Scandal", where American weapons were being sold to Iran, which was at war with Iraq, and the profits being used to help fund the Contras.

In the global shift against Communism toward the end of the 1980s, Daniel Ortega lost the 1990 presidential election to Violeta Chamorro, who was widely celebrated in America. But Ortega moved toward the political center from Communism, and came back to win the 2006 presidential election and is still the president of the country today.

The husband of Violeta Chamorro, Pedro, had operated a newspaper that had opposed the rule of the Somoza family, until he had been assassinated. Ironically, he had been a childhood classmate of Anastasio Somoza, the last of the Somoza rulers. At first, Violeta Chamorro sided with the Sandinistas after they overthrew the Somozas in 1979. But that did not last long because she became disillusioned with their Marxist leanings. She eventually defeated the Sandinistas in the 1990 election to become the president of Nicaragua.

Does all of this sound familiar? If it does it is because this is virtually a mirror image of Corazon Aquino winning the presidency of the Philippines four years before, in 1986. Her husband had been assassinated by the forces of Ferdinand Marcos, and she eventually led the "People Power" movement that had deposed Marcos. Ironically, Corazon Aquino's husband was told that he could return from exile, but was killed at the airport as soon as he landed just as Augusto Sandino, for whom the Sandinistas were named and who could be considered as Nicaragua's version of Che Guevara, was killed after the Somoza family had invited him to discuss a truce.

The situation in Nicaragua was more complex than that of the Philippines because it involved three parties, the Somozas, the Sandinistas and Violeta Chamorro, while the Philippines only involved two, Marcos and Corazon Aquino.

The overthrow of the Shah of Iran also bears a similarity to this story and it also took place in 1979, a few months before the overthrow of Anastasio Somoza. Like the Shah, Somoza sought exile in the U.S. President Jimmy Carter really did not want either one, but the Republicans insisted they an "old friend" like the Shah must not be abandoned. Anastasio Somoza had no such support in the U.S. and settled into exile in Paraguay.

I remember the news that the Sandinistas had finally caught up with Anastasio Somoza in his Paraguayan exile. He was killed when the assassination team fired a rocket at his car. There was a lot of speculation in the news about how much assistance they might have had from Communist Cuba.

Managua was rebuilt after the 1972 earthquake. There has long been discussion about building a canal across Nicaragua, which would rival the Panama Canal, but there seems to be a lot of opposition to it and it would inevitably mean salt water from the sea getting into Lake Managua.

Here is a look at Managua.

https://www.google.com/maps/@12.1184925,-86.2617141,3a,75y,220h,100t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNtPKK1WCA1c0JjvkVBRBzagnqNwBRl-EoZvfFf!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNtPKK1WCA1c0JjvkVBRBzagnqNwBRl-EoZvfFf%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-7.305146-ya2.9631648-ro11.570669-fo100!7i5376!8i2688

This is San Jose, the capital city of Costa Rica.

https://www.google.com/maps/@9.9329002,-84.0636649,3a,75y,259.5h,92.93t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNuUbUnDPme4_btn2yOrJ2msFssqDo5ZFU0u740!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNuUbUnDPme4_btn2yOrJ2msFssqDo5ZFU0u740%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-2.9338646-ya159.82-ro-0-fo100!7i7776!8i3888

"San Jose" means "St. Joseph". Remember that English and Spanish names are often equivalent. A difference is that "Jesus" (pronounced "Hay-seus") is a common name in Spanish-speaking countries.
Jose = Joseph
Pablo = Paul
Juan = John
Maria = Mary
Jorge = George
Pedro = Peter
Miguel = Michael
Guillermo = William
I think Ramon = Raymond
I think Manuel = Samuel

Panama City, the capital of Panama and on the Pacific side of the country, is a very old city, from the Sixteenth Century. The first Panama City was destroyed in a pirate raid, and the ruins are still there. Piracy was common in the early days of this part of the world, but what exactly a pirate was depends on one's perspective.

My understanding is that a pirate is simply a robber. A pirate ship preys on other ships, especially those carrying gold, in the days when there were no radios to call on the navy or the coast guard for help.

But it is more complicated than that. Countries were often at war. When they were, "pirate" ships would be commissioned to raid ships, but only ships of nations with which their own country was at war. These ships operated independently, and were not part of the country's organized navy. "Pirates" who raided only ships of nations with which their country was at war were known as buccaneers or privateers or, in French terminology, corsairs.

A well-known pirate, or privateer depending on your point of view, was Henry Morgan. "Captain Morgan", as he was known, even has a popular brand of rum named after him today.

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Morgan#/media/File:Captainlogo_2005.PNG

This is the ruins of the original Panama City.

https://www.google.com/maps/@9.0072148,-79.4859845,3a,75y,127.61h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMsMRL7VKQsPCFujK-JPzBneOaTXRGVe5l_n7PW!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMsMRL7VKQsPCFujK-JPzBneOaTXRGVe5l_n7PW%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi2.3866053-ya127.93231-ro1.9146585-fo100!7i7200!8i3600

This is the Old Quarter of the present Panama City.

https://www.google.com/maps/@8.9529266,-79.5368195,3a,75y,88.64h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipO6DRvWV5Z8823A0JpWQzFbGskb7MnzTqv68SHT!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipO6DRvWV5Z8823A0JpWQzFbGskb7MnzTqv68SHT%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya338.62393-ro0-fo100!7i9728!8i4864

Here is the central area of modern Panama City.

https://www.google.com/maps/@8.9775769,-79.5250739,3a,75y,136.23h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNtUoKXfzyVqAUW5APMj2W-MarNXNFap_lfWeSM!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNtUoKXfzyVqAUW5APMj2W-MarNXNFap_lfWeSM%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya238.58351-ro0-fo100!7i7168!8i3584

Jerusalem And The Rock Music Era

I was only a boy during the 1960s but could feel what a special time it was, and have always been fascinated by the Sixties and it's music. Although, from a cultural and spiritual point of view, my feeling is that the "Real Sixties" did not exactly fit the chronological decade and actually only lasted for eight years, from 1964 to 1972.

The Sixties were the youth of the Baby Boom generation, the demographic bulge in the population brought about by millions of soldiers returning from the Second World War and starting families. The first of the Baby Boom generation reached adulthood in 1964.

This is why there was such an emphasis on youth culture. But the devastation, horrific weapons and, genocide of the Second World War were recent memories. Before that there had been the market crash and the Great Depression, and before that the First World War.

Could the new Baby Boom generation be the one that had learned the lessons and would change the world for the better?

Considering the world wars, and countless other wars, can you believe that, as secularism spread in the late Nineteenth Century, many people thought that it was a very good thing, since wars were primarily religious in nature, that secularism would bring peace to the world?

The Bible foretold that, far in the future, the nation of Israel would be reestablished and this, particularly the return of the original city of Jerusalem to Jewish control, would initiate the one-lifetime countdown to the Return of Jesus to establish His Millennial Kingdom on earth, when the world would be the godly paradise that it was intended to be. But, of course, the world had to go through the reign of the Antichrist and the Tribulation first.

My speculation, as described in the section "17) Crossing The Red Sea", in the compound posting "New Insight Into Bible Prophecy" October 2016 and "The Failed Millenniums", February 2020, was that there was a nineteen-year delay between the reestablishment of the nation of Israel in 1948 and the addition of the original city of Jerusalem in 1967 to give the idealistic Baby Boom generation a chance to see if it could build the Millennium itself, by following God, without going through the Antichrist and the Tribulation. It would follow the pattern of the establishment of the Millennium in the Bible, with Hitler representing the Antichrist and the Second World War the Tribulation.

Of course, as we saw in those postings, it was not to be because we were just too sinful. The return of the original city of Jerusalem marked the beginning of the countdown, and the world will go through the reign of the Antichrist and the Tribulation, before Jesus returns to establish the Millennium.

The Baby Boom generation saw material prosperity like no generation had before. International travel, other than with the military, had previously been limited to the relatively wealthy. But with the postwar development of passenger jets, global travel became widespread. People saw the world outside their own countries like never before.

Mass movements of idealistic young Baby Boomers began. The Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco became the epicenter of 1967's "Summer of Love".

In the U.S. there was the Woodstock concert, in New York State in 1969. 400,000 young people converged on a farm for a great concert. Certainly their hearts were in the right place to change the world, they were together for three days and there was not a single act of violence.

Later in 1969, there was a west coast version of Woodstock at Altamont Speedway. Unfortunately it didn't go as peacefully as Woodstock.

There was the "Hippie Trail", which began in Istanbul and proceeded across central Asia. The Hippies were in search of adventure, enlightenment and, of course, drugs.

But then, in 1967, just as Hippies were converging on Haight-Ashbury, Jerusalem opened up as it came under Israeli control. Pilgrims had been going there before that, but the number of visitors now greatly increased.

Could it be that God planned it this way? God knew that this generation was looking for the way to a better world, the world as God intended it to be. Young people had access to international travel like never before. So God opened up His Holy City, Jerusalem, in the hope that they would make a pilgrimage there.

Maybe God intended Jerusalem to be the catalyst that would spur the Baby Boom generation on to building the Millennium themselves, so the world would not have to go through the reign of the Antichrist and the Tribulation.

God was not to be found at Haight-Ashbury, nor on the Hippie Trail nor at Woodstock. The Sixties ironically had the patterns of the Kingdom of God. Notice the close similarity between psalms and rock songs. But the rock songs mostly put romance in place of God. Finding the Holy Spirit was replaced by getting high. The angels of the Sixties were girls in miniskirts.

There was a Christian side to the Sixties counterculture, the Jesus Movement, and there was a Christian version of Woodstock, Explo 72 in Dallas. But this was a relatively minor part of the total counterculture movement.

But can you believe the predominance of the number 19 in relation to the prophecies of the "Last Days"?

7 is an important number in the beginning of the Bible. There were 7 days in a week and the Book of Revelation describes the 7 spirits of God. 12 is another important number, there were 12 tribes and then 12 apostles and the Book of Revelation describes the 12 precious stones used in the foundations of the New Jerusalem.

If we add 7 and 12 we get 19. So shouldn't 19 also be an important number, maybe later in the events leading up to the "Last Days"?

We saw that there was a 19-year delay between the prophecied reestablishment of Jerusalem and the addition of the original city of Jerusalem. There is a 1 and a 9 in 9/11 when, with 19 days left in September, 19 hijackers flew planes into buildings. This changed the world 19 years before a virus, Covid-19, would also change the world.

Here is our visit to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

https://markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2016/02/esau-and-temple-mount.html?m=0

Thursday, September 10, 2020

The Misnomer Of "Gravitational Waves"

"Gravitational waves" were in the news again recently.

The so-called "gravitational waves" that were predicted by Einstein's Relativity theory have, in recent years, been detected a number of times. The waves can be detected with an arrangement of lasers.

Sometimes things get misnamed. Something that is misnamed is called a "misnomer". One scientific misnomer is "cosmic rays". When energy was discovered coming from space, it was initially presumed that it was radiation. By the time it was found to be particles, rather than radiation, the name "cosmic rays" had already stuck.

But I am thinking that "gravitational waves" is also going to end up being a misnomer.

Referring to the waves as "gravitational" implies mass, since mass is the only thing that produces gravity. But yet great explosions, such as supernova and gamma ray bursts, do not seem to produce "gravitational waves".

A supernova is the sudden explosion of a large star, scattering it's component matter across space. Since the supernova involves a tremendous redistribution of the mass which produces gravity, it seems logical that something like this would be what produces gravitational waves. But, as far as I am aware, gravitational waves have never been found to be produced by a supernova.

Neither does a great impact close by, such as the impact of a meteor on the earth, seem to produce any "gravitational waves". No such waves have been detected coming from a volcanic eruption, even though this involves a sudden redistribution of the mass that is associated with gravity.

The only thing that seems to produce "gravitational waves" is collisions between astronomical bodies that are not composed of ordinary atoms, namely black holes and neutron stars, even though gravity is associated with mass and these collisions may involve nowhere near the mass, or relocation of mass, of a supernova explosion.

Although they may not be as massive as large stars, what is different about neutron stars and black holes is that they are not composed of intact atoms. Both are composed of super-dense matter where the structure of atoms has collapsed.

The vast majority of an atom is empty space. The structure of an atom is sometimes compared with a sports stadium. The nucleus of the atom would be about the size of a strawberry, in the middle of the playing field, if the outer edge of the stadium represented the orbitals of the outermost electrons.

Sometimes the structure of atoms can collapse, due to extreme gravity. A neutron star is, as the name implies, composed of neutrons. The structure of the atoms has collapsed and electrons have been crunched into protons, the process known as K-capture, to form neutrons.

The matter of a neutron star is dense in the extreme. A little bit of it would weigh millions of tons. The matter composing a black hole has collapsed even further than that of a neutron star so that there is no discernible unit, such as neutrons, to the matter of the black hole.

So the term "gravitational waves" implies that mass, and it's dislocation, is what counts in producing the waves. But yet objects made of atoms, including ordinary stars, never seem to produce gravitational waves upon colliding, no matter how massive they are. The waves only seem to result from collisions of super-dense matter, where the structures of the atoms has collapsed due to extreme gravity, such as black holes and neutron stars.

It seems that the two largest stars in the universe wouldn't create any gravitational waves if they collided, but relatively small neutron stars or black holes colliding would. So it is the density of the mass that counts, rather than the mass itself.

Another thing that is interesting is that "gravitational waves" are detected on earth only by lasers, and not by any effects that they have on mass.

Considering my cosmology theory, this actually reveals what space is and how the universe operates.

What is happening is simple, but so far it has not been explained why "gravitational waves" are only produced by collisions of super-dense, rather than super-massive objects.

In my cosmology theory, described in the compound posting on this blog, "The Theory Of Stationary Space", space is composed of an alternating checkerboard pattern of negative and positive electric charges, in multiple dimensions. Matter is strings of like charges, held together against their mutual repulsion by energy. Electromagnetic waves are disturbances in the pattern of charges in space, they seem to be electromagnetic in nature because they disturb the usually-perfect underlying balance in space.

A collision between two astronomical bodies can actually tear the fabric of the negative and positive charges of space. A charge will induce an opposite charge, to balance itself, if there is no charge already next to it. This is what happened in the beginning of the universe, my cosmology theory explains down to a single electric charge.

The rush to fill the empty space resulting from the tear, by inducing new charges so that every charge is surrounded by opposite charges, creates a disturbance in space because opposite charges attract while like charges repel. This disturbance is what creates the waves that are detected on earth.

This means that "Space Waves", or "Electric Waves", would probably be a better name than "gravitational waves", since the waves are actually not related to gravity. This explains why the waves can be detected on earth by lasers, but not by any effect that it has on mass.

This shows, of course, that my cosmology theory must be correct. It is the only way to explain why the waves are caused by density, and not by mass.

The fabric of the alternating electric charges in space is strong, but not infinitely strong. A collision of ordinary stars does not tear it because stars are made of atoms, and the vast majority of an atom is empty space. It is only the super-dense matter of a neutron star or black hole, jarred by a sudden collision, that can tear it.

Also notice that the rotation of a neutron star or black hole does not tear the fabric of space, and create the waves, only a sudden collision. This shows, as explained in my cosmology theory, that nothing is actually moving, except our consciouses along the bundles of strings comprising our bodies and brains at what we perceive as the speed of light. What we perceive as the rotation of an astronomical object is really the strings of matter composing it wrapped around each other. Even the collision is not actually happening now, it has already happened when the universe was formed and our consciousness is only just arriving at it now.

It has never before been explained why so-called "gravitational waves" are not related to mass at all but are only caused by collisions of super-dense objects, where the structure of atoms has collapsed. For a quick explanation of the cosmology theory, see the posting on this blog "In Cosmology, Everything Just Fell Right Into Place":

http://markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2019/05/in-cosmology-everything-just-fell-right.html?m=0

Thursday, September 3, 2020

The Apple Tree Prophecy

Could it be that the biblical story of Adam and Eve falling by eating the Forbidden Fruit is also a prophecy? The fruit opened their eyes, giving them wisdom and knowledge that they had not had before, but also brought about their fall from paradise into sin.

Far in the distant future, Sir Isaac Newton was at home in Lincolnshire. One day, he saw an apple fall from a tree. According to some accounts, he was sitting under the tree and the apple hit him on the head.

It was a revolutionary moment because he suddenly realized that the universe was governed by a force that he called gravity.

Around the same time, Newton discerned the nature of light and color. He developed calculus, which he called "fluxions". During this great year of discovery, he set out the principles of mechanics.

Telescopes were being used to look into space. Galileo's telescope revealed things that had never before been seen, such as the craters on the moon and the moons of Jupiter. But a telescope based on lenses is strictly limited in size, and thus power, because a lens can only be supported by it's edges, and a large lens will sag under it's own weight.

Newton got the idea of basing a telescope on a concave mirror, which wasn't limited in size because it can be supported from beneath. This is known as a reflecting, or Newtonian, telescope, as opposed to a refracting telescope based on lenses. Modern astronomy has revolved around reflecting telescopes. Although the refracting design might be preferable for small portable telescopes because the mirrors of a reflecting telescope can be knocked out of alignment.

This streak of discoveries by Sir Isaac Newton is considered as the beginning of modern science.

Just like Adam and Eve's Forbidden Fruit, the fall of Isaac Newton's apple gave humanity knowledge and understanding that it had not had before. Unlike the Forbidden Fruit, the development of modern science was not forbidden to humans. The world now had the Word of God and were (hopefully) mature enough to handle the wisdom and knowledge that had been withheld from them earlier.

The knowledge of science, and the technology that it brought, certainly made life easier in many ways. But it has also made wars far more deadly and destructive. Can you believe that the Nobel Peace Prize was founded by the inventor of high explosives? We have now gained the ability to destroy civilization by pressing a few buttons, as well as to destroy the environment that we depend on to survive.

As I have written here before, if I had to describe our times in one sentence it would be; "We have reached the point where we can change the world faster than we can adapt to the changes that we have made in the world".

Along with the wonders of communication technology came the ability of governments to conduct surveillance of people. It is interesting that Newton's wonderful year of discovery was 1666, and the Bible tells us that the number of the Antichrist will be 666.

We saw the importance of the number 19 to the biblical prophecies of the Last Days in the recent posting on this blog, "The Nineteen Prophecy", August 2020. Notice that the digits in the year 1666 add up to 19.

Again, the reason that 19 is an important number is that two especially important numbers in the Bible were 7 and 12. God chose for there to be 7 days in a week and there were 12 tribes of Israel before there were 12 apostles. If we add 7 and 12 we get 19. 7 was important early, at the time of creation. 12 was important later, so it makes sense that 19 would be important in the Last Days.

For one thing, Newton's streak of discoveries that began with the fall of an apple began not as part of his academic career at Cambridge but because he was home because everything was shut down by the plague. In the future there would be another pandemic and the changes it would bring about are leading to the reign of the Antichrist, as we saw in the posting on this blog "The End Of The World As We Know It", June 2020.

The digits of the year of Newton's furlough at home due to the plague, 1666, add up to 19. The future pandemic preceding the Antichrist, whose number is 666 and would be made possible by the science and technology made possible by Newton's discoveries during that year, would be Covid-19.

This is about science and mathematics, not about prophecy, but I am a great fan of the Inverse Square Law that Sir Isaac Newton used to describe the operation of gravity. My thought is that we could be getting a lot more out of the Inverse Square Law. We saw this in the compound posting on this blog, "A Celebration Of The Inverse Square Law",

http://markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2015/08/?m=0

Thursday, August 27, 2020

Rotation And Cosmology

Planets and stars tend to rotate because that actually represents a lower information state. For the planet or star to not rotate it would be necessary to align it in a particular way in space, with the stars always in the same fixed position in the sky.

But that would make it necessary to choose one of the possible alignments, to the exclusion of all the others. That choice would be information and we see in the theory on this blog, "The Lowest Information Point", December 2017, that the universe always seeks The Lowest Information Point.

So what the universe does is have the planet or star cycle through all possible alignments. In other words, the planet or star rotates. This involves less information than having the planet or star fixed in one position, because the choice of that position would require information.

But to rotate, the star or planet must do so around a fixed axis, and that axis must be aligned in a particular direction in space, to the exclusion of all possible other directions along which the axis could possibly be aligned.

So there is a choice that has to be made, even though the planet or star is rotating so that the universe does not have to make a choice of how the planet or star is to be aligned in space. The choice is in which direction the axis of rotation will be aligned, to the exclusion of all other possible directions.

But this is not a choice that absolutely has to be made. The universe could reach a still lower state of information if it had to.

Complete rotation is possible. At any given time rotation must be around a defined axis. The definition of that axis is a choice that must be made. But, just like the planet or star to avoid a choice, the axis around which it rotates could itself rotate around the star along a line of longitude.

But then that line of longitude would have to be a choice out of all possible lines of longitude around which the axis of rotation could itself rotate.

However the universe could avoid making that choice by having that longitudinal path of the axis of rotation rotate itself around the planet.

This could be described as complete rotation of the star or planet. No choices would have to be made. The universe would achieve the lowest information state by not only having the planet or star rotates, but having the axis of rotation rotate, and then having the longitudinal plane through which the axis of rotation rotated itself rotate.

This could be described as "complete rotation" and would enable the planet or star to achieve the lowest information point by avoiding any choices.

Yet this is not what happens. Planets and stars rotate, around their rotational axis, but that axis remains in a fixed position, at least over very long periods of time. There is not as much rotation as there could possibly be, not complete rotation.

So if the universe does all it can to get to the Lowest Information Point, why doesn't it go all the way with "complete rotation"?

The only possible answer is that there must be some information already there. The universe avoids choosing a directional alignment by rotating but doesn't need to avoid choosing the one dimensional axis of rotation.

That means there must be the information of one dimension already there and so the universe does not have to make a choice.

Remember that in my cosmology theory, detailed in the compound posting on this blog, "The Theory Of Stationary Space", July 2017, the matter of the universe began with a two-dimensional sheet of space that was within, but not contiguous with, the multi-dimensional background space.

Everything in the universe, both space and matter, is composed of nearly infinitesimal negative and positive electric charges. The basic rules of the charges are that opposite charges attract while like charges repel, but these rules can be overcome by energy. Planck's Length is the nearly infinitesimal length that shows up in so many physics formulas, that is because it is the size of one of these electric charges. Matter consists of like charges held together against their mutual repulsion by energy. This is why matter consists of charged particles such as electrons. The energy that holds the like charges together in matter is the well-known Mass-Energy Equivalence, and is what gives matter it's mass. If the two electric charges are equal then the two rules of attraction and repulsion must also be equal. If matter involves overcoming the repulsive force between like charges then it must leave a net attractive force involving matter. There is indeed an attractive force between matter, it is known as gravity. Energy overcoming the attractive force between opposite charges in space is what results in electromagnetic waves.

Charge migration took place within the two-dimensional sheet of space, positive charges more to one side and negative charges to the other side, due to the attractive and repulsive forces of the electric charges in the background space so that the charge migration brought about a lower energy state.

But since this original two-dimensional sheet of space, from which matter originated, was not contiguous with the surrounding background space, that caused the more-negative side of the sheet to contact the more-positive side, after charge migration had taken place.

The resulting matter-antimatter annihilation is what we see as the Big Bang which began the universe. One of the two dimensions of the sheet disintegrated and it's energy was released into the surrounding space. The remaining one dimension of the sheet remained as the very long one-dimensional strings of which matter, in my cosmology theory, is composed.

This is why matter is composed of charged particles, such as negatively-charged electrons. The particles are composed of bundles of one-dimensional strings with an electric charge.

The reason that we see matter as composed of particles, rather than strings, is that we can only see in three of the four dimensions of the background space over which the one-dimensional strings are scattered. The other dimension is what we perceive as time.

This explains why we can readily detect the radiation from the Big Bang but cannot determine the direction from which it is coming. If we lived in three dimensions then we should be able to pinpoint the direction from which the radiation is coming, instead it seems to be coming equally from all directions in space.

The only way to explain this is that there must be a dimension of space that we cannot see and the radiation must be coming from that direction. We perceive the Big Bang as being in our past, actually the beginning of time.

Our consciousness moves along the bundles of strings composing our bodies and brains at what we perceive as the speed of light. That is why everything in Special Relativity revolves around the speed of light but we can find no real reason why the speed of light is what it is, instead of some other speed.

Now we can see what time really is. There was no satisfactory explanation to be found anywhere as to what time actually is. So I figured it out for myself and that was the beginning of this theory.

So this brings us back to the rotation of stars and planets across the universe. The purpose of the rotation is so that no choice would have to be made as to directional alignment, because being able to avoid the choice gives the universe a lower information state.

But the one-dimensional axis of rotation is able to be defined, even though it doesn't necessarily have to be, and that can only be because the information of one dimension was already there, in the one-dimensional strings of which all matter, in my cosmology theory, is composed.

This cosmology theory, "The Theory Of Stationary Space", is again shown to be correct. The basis of the theory, described above, is simple but we can go on and on adding all of the things that it explains, beginning with what time actually is, that cannot otherwise be explained.

I believe that the reason cosmology hasn't progressed further than it has is actually religion. We have applied the patterns of religion by making Albert Einstein into a prophet-like figure. This hinders us in moving beyond his theories of Relativity.

Zoar Valley Of Western New York State

There was a recent tragedy in Zoar Valley, a scenic hiking area of far western New York State, but it got me thinking about how it fit into the compound posting on the geology blog, "All About The Appalachians".

Zoar Valley meets the beginning of what I have named the Humber Line, at a right angle. The southeastern beginning of the Humber Line is the valley in which the town of Boston, NY is located. How is it possible for two valleys to form at right angles to one another? It is explained by my scenario of the tectonic collision which formed the mountains and ridge systems of the Appalachians. The two valleys meet at the town of Springville.

The sliding tectonic collision between what was then Africa and what was then North America formed the Appalachians. The fact that the collision was gradual and sliding, rather than direct, is what explains the ridge systems of the Appalachians. The direction of the collision shifted from northwestward to northward as the collision front approached the Canadian Shield, which is the dense layer of rock that underlies the eastern half of Canada.

The ridges and mountains of the Appalachians undergo a gradual curve, the "focal point" of this curve is the city of Harrisburg in Pennsylvania. As the collision thrust changed direction along the curve, from northwestward to northward, friction between the two land masses came into play. What was then Africa pulled some of the rock strata of what was then North America along with it.

But when the collision thrust was just northward, friction ceased to be a major factor and the force of the collision simply pushed the land of what was then North America northward.

This is why we see two valleys at right angles, some distance to the north of the mountains and ridges of the Appalachians. Zoar Valley, which runs parallel to the Appalachians, was formed by the frictional element of the tectonic collision as the change in the collision front pulled the land to the north to the east. Zoar Valley abruptly ends, and the Humber Line proceeds north at a right angle to the Zoar Valley at the westernmost limit of the land that was pushed to the north with the direct force of the tectonic collision.

For more about natural history discoveries in this area, which involves the sliding tectonic collision that created the Appalachian Mountains, see the posting "Niagara Natural History Summary", June 2019.

http://www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2019/06/niagara-natural-history-summary.html?m=0

Thursday, August 20, 2020

America And Royalty

I was an immigrant to America when I was a child, having lived in Britain and Canada before. Let me tell you about the greatest surprise about living in America.

I knew that America was a republic, there was no royalty or nobility. We recited the Pledge of Allegiance every morning in school, which emphasized that America was a republic.

America was led by a president, whose wife was the First Lady, and there was a vice-president. There was to be no royalty here.

But if we wanted to go out for food, there was Burger King and Dairy Queen. The nearest department store was named King's. A popular local brand of frozen food was Freezer Queen.

Someone was always being billed as the "King of this" or the "Queen of that". Elvis Presley was the "King of Rock And Roll" and Aretha Franklin was the "Queen of Soul".

Portions were often described as "King-sized" or "Queen-sized". Innumerable products and businesses had "Palace", "Royal" or, "Crown" in their names, or a crown in their logo.

A popular soft drink was Royal Crown Cola and a top-shelf whiskey that was advertised was Crown Royal Whiskey.

Many products for girls had "Princess" in their titles. The local high schools were sometimes in the news with their Class Princesses, Prom Queens and Homecoming Queens.

Decks of cards that were used for games in America still had a king and queen.

The nickname of nearby Buffalo was the "Queen City", because it was the largest city in New York State after New York City. But one of the boroughs of New York City was named Queens and the nickname of New York State was "The Empire State", as if it was ruled by an emperor.

Americans followed Britain's royal family at least as closely as Brits or Canadians and, really incredibly, the presidency of John F. Kennedy, one of America's most popular presidents, was nicknamed "Camelot", which was the court of the legendary King Arthur.

Shouldn't Elvis Presley have been the President of Rock and Roll and Aretha Franklin the First Lady of Soul? Wouldn't it sound more like a republic if Buffalo's nickname was the Vice-President City? Doesn't "Burger President" sound more patriotic for Americans than Burger King?

But this is a very good illustration of how historical momentum works. Royalty has been removed from America's official sphere but is thriving in it's unofficial sphere.

The world has been ruled by royalty since the beginning of civilization, and the drafting of a constitution isn't going to change that. In America, royalty has just been shifted from the official sphere to the unofficial sphere.

The same principle sometimes applies to economics. Markets have been where buying and selling has been done for thousands of years, typically with haggling or negotiating over prices. If a government tries to go against this history by fixing prices, the usual result will be an unofficial "black market", where buyers can get what they want but at "real" prices.

Historical momentum can also be seen in something like the Caste System of India. The Indian Constitution of today does not recognize the Caste System, but the historical momentum of centuries is not going to just go away.

Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Explosion In Beirut

"WOW" is all that I can say about the port explosion in Beirut and how it ties several of our prophecies in the compound posting on this blog, "The Aztec Prophecy", April 2018, together.

But I would also like to express sympathy for this catastrophe. We saw how important Beirut has been to the world in our visit there, in May 2018. It was the Phoenicians who developed the first alphabet.

In the section of "The Aztec Prophecy" April 2018, 17) THE SACRED NUMEROLOGY OF BUFFALO, the city of Buffalo, NY is closely linked to Beirut, on the other side of the world, by the explosion of a warehouse in Buffalo.

Beirut is located at the geographical center of the famous prophecy of four successive empires that will dominate the world, represented by a metal statue, in the Book of Daniel, Chapter 2.

Now there has been the tragic explosion in Beirut that was strikingly similar to the one in Buffalo, although much more deadly. The explosion in Beirut ties the prophecies involving the Buffalo area together and to 21) THE RED PROPHECY.

21) THE RED PROPHECY begins with Cairo being founded as Mars was rising in the sky. Mars, the Red Planet the color of blood, represented war. The name of Cairo means "victory".

The Red Prophecy links Egypt to a far distant country, Vietnam, through the color red and Vietnam's great victory over Mongol ships in the Red River at the same time Cairo was being founded.

The great red cloud of smoke that rose from the explosion in Beirut was exactly the same color as the planet Mars.

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

It is so significant that Mars should now be linked with Beirut because Beirut is at the geographical center of the land that was common to all four successive empires that were to dominate the world in the future in the prophecy in the Book of Daniel, because Mars is the fourth planet from the sun.

In "The Aztec Prophecy", section 15) THE FIRST NIAGARA PROPHECY, involves the grain silos in downtown Niagara Falls. This is one of the things that links Niagara Falls to Egypt, as the ancient Egyptians invented grain silos.

The crown of Egyptian pharaohs was red and white, symbolizing the union between Upper and Lower Egypt. The silos in downtown Niagara Falls were originally painted red and white. Look at how this cloud of smoke appears exactly like the red and white crown of Egypt that we saw in 15) THE FIRST NIAGARA PROPHECY.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=929&bih=928&ei=PbQxX-P0H9ywytMPuZe-iAI&q=beirut+explosion&oq=Beirut&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQARgAMgQIABADMggIABCxAxCDATIECAAQAzIECAAQAzIECAAQAzIECAAQAzIICAAQsQMQgwEyBAgAEAMyBAgAEAMyBAgAEAM6BQgAELEDOgIIAFCtG1isJmCVOGgBcAB4AIABXYgB0wOSAQE2mAEAoAEBqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWewAQA&sclient=img#imgrc=PW-9gV9cSqKUEM

Here is the red and white ancient Egyptian crown, known as the Pschent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pschent#/media/File:Double_crown.svg

The founders of Cairo, in the days long before telescopes, could not have known it but Mars has white seasonal polar caps so it is the same colors as that of the crowns of the pharaohs long before. Also we now know that, except for the atmosphere and the Nile River, the landscape of Mars is strikingly similar to that of Egypt.

The flag of Lebanon, where the explosion took place, is the same red and white colors as the crown. It is interesting that there is the tree on the flag of Lebanon, one of the cedars that represent the country, because another famous prophecy in the Book of Daniel, in Chapter 4, is Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a tree.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Lebanon#/media/File:Flag_of_Lebanon.svg

Actually there was a grain silo right by the warehouse that exploded in Beirut. It was very similar to the silo in 15) THE FIRST NIAGARA PROPHECY. The "Crown" of red and white smoke was above this silo just as the silo in The Niagara Prophecy was originally painted red and white. Notice how the silo is destroyed by the explosion but is still standing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Beirut_explosions#/media/File%3ADamages_after_2020_Beirut_explosions_1.jpg

The way that the silo by the site of the explosion in Beirut is destroyed, but still standing, further links it to the silo in The First Niagara Prophecy. Timothy McVeigh was from near Niagara Falls. The truck bomb that he set off used ammonium nitrate, the same chemical that exploded in Beirut, and left the Murrah Federal Building destroyed but still standing in exactly the same way as the silo in Beirut.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing#/media/File:Oklahomacitybombing-DF-ST-98-01356.jpg

In the following photo, on the left, the cloud of white smoke forms the image of a man behind the red smoke. Scroll down a little bit to see it.

In fact, it looks just like the Michelin Man, the mascot of the French tire company.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelin_Man#/media/File:2008TaipeiCycle_Day3_Michelin.jpg

This reflects the link between Egypt and distant Vietnam that we saw in "The Red Prophecy", and adds Beirut to the link. The president of France made a high-profile visit to Beirut following the explosion.

Vietnam, like Lebanon, had been a French colony. Michelin had a vast rubber plantation west of Saigon. Some believe that protecting this plantation was a primary reason behind first France, and then America, going to war in Vietnam.

So the red smoke, the color of Mars, represents Cairo and Egypt and the white smoke, in the form of the "Michelin Man" links it to Vietnam.

The explosion in Beirut happened on August 4. That is the anniversary of the 1972 event when dozens of naval mines, air dropped by the U.S. in Haiphong Harbor during the Vietnam War, detonated because of a solar storm.

It must have been the explosion of the ages. although I don't know if it injured anyone. The mines were designed to detonate upon the change in magnetic field caused by a passing ship. But a solar storm caused them to detonate. This event was part of "The Red Prophecy".

The date of August 4, 8/4 or 4/8, is interesting because there were four successive empires in the prophecy in the Book of Daniel, as described above, and the building destroyed by Timothy McVeigh was eight stories while the warehouse in Buffalo and the barracks that were destroyed in Beirut by 1983 explosions were both four stories. Again, the ammonium nitrate that exploded in Beirut was the same chemical used by Timothy McVeigh.

This pattern in the smoke from the explosion of an image of a man in white smoke emerging from the red smoke, which is the color of Mars, is just so interesting because the Book of Revelation describes Satan as "a red dragon". Chapter 6, about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, portrays the Antichrist, who is defined in the Book as getting his power from the Dragon, as the rider on the white horse. The red horse represents war.

So this involves the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the four present and future empires that will dominate the world in the Book of Daniel. Beirut is in the geographical center of the area that was common to all four of those empires. Beirut has now been linked to Mars, which stands for war and is the fourth planet.

We saw in "The Sacred Numerology Of Buffalo" the significance that both the warehouse in Buffalo that exploded and the barracks in Beirut that was bombed were both four-story buildings.

The sections of "The Aztec Prophecy" that are linked by the explosion in Beirut, in order of significance, are:

17) THE SACRED NUMEROLOGY OF BUFFALO

21) THE RED PROPHECY and,

15) THE FIRST NIAGARA PROPHECY

Does it look like I am making this up? If I wrote that I saw a miracle and asked you to just believe me, that would be one thing. But you can check everything that I write here for yourself. I could not have written anything in those prophecies after the fact because countless readers have already read them, and may have copied and pasted them.

I am still greatly surprised that it had never been pointed out that the supernova that created the Crab Nebula, which made for a great light show in the sky, was going on while the momentous split in the church, that shapes the world to this day, was taking place in the year 1054.