Mark Meek's Ideas

Thursday, October 13, 2022

America's Hero President

The recent overturning of marijuana use convictions by President Biden was a very wise move. While I do not encourage marijuana use, and have no interest in it myself, it has never made sense to me that alcohol and cigarettes are perfectly legal while marijuana gets one thrown in jail.

The difference is that cigarettes and alcoholic drinks tend to be manufactured by big companies, with money and political power, while marijuana is something that can be grown in one's backyard. What I have long believed is that alcohol and tobacco companies used their political power to remove marijuana as a competitor by getting it made illegal. We saw this in the compound posting, "Investigations", December 2018, section 30) MARIJUANA.

How many lives have been ruined by a prison sentence for marijuana use while cigarettes and alcohol, which are just as bad, are perfectly legal? An arrest can really start a person's life on a downward spiral. This is one of the greatest injustices in the world and I have long been sure that it is the result of major companies using their political power to eliminate marijuana as a competitor by getting it made illegal.

Marijuana is not good, and I am certainly not endorsing it. But it shouldn't be illegal if alcohol and cigarettes are legal.

The same can be said of recent legislation against vaping. Why wasn't there matching legislation against cigarettes? Is it just to eliminate vaping as a competitor?

The way I see it there is a difference between being "wrong" and being "illegal". The purpose of the law is to facilitate the orderly operation of society. But it is completely unrealistic to expect the judicial system to deal with everything that is "wrong". Neither healthy behavior or sainthood can be legislated. What this means is that something being "wrong" does not necessarily mean that it should be illegal.

Did Rock Music Once Save Queen Elizabeth's Life?

One thing that I didn't see in the recent memories of Queen Elizabeth II is the false assassination attempt on her. Does anyone remember Marcus Sarjeant? In June 1981 the Queen was riding her horse in a parade along the Mall, toward the Admiralty Arch.

Did you know that all malls are named for this royal route between Buckingham Palace and the Admiralty Arch?

Marcus Sarjeant suddenly stepped out of the crowd and pointed a gun at her. He got six shots off before he was tackled and disarmed. The horse panicked but the Queen didn't, and she continued the parade.

Fortunately it wasn't a real gun. It was a racing starter pistol. This was a time of assassinations and attempts on public figures. It came just after the assassination of John Lennon and the attempted assassinations of Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul.

But unlike his overseas counterparts Marcus Sarjeant didn't use a real gun. His motive was similar, the familiar case of a loser trying to "be somebody", in his own words while being arrested.

This was also the era of Britain's "loser songs", that I have written about here. The rock music songs about being a loser made it seem not so bad. As we saw these loser songs delayed the modern era of mass shootings. Could it be that Britain's "loser songs" are what resulted in Marcus Sarjeant using a starter pistol instead of a real gun? He didn't really want to hurt the Queen, although she could have been thrown from her horse.

The posting is "Stopping Mass Shootings", June 2022.

By the way one thing that I haven't seen written is the relationship between Queen Victoria and women's movements. Queen Victoria had a very long over the largest empire that the world had ever seen. She died in 1901. The next thing we know there are movements toward women having equal rights, and the right to vote, all over. Queen Victoria was certainly the catalyst behind this.

America's Space Exploration

The James Webb Space Telescope is working wonders thus far. With regard to the electromagnetic spectrum there is a strong emphasis on gathering information in the infrared part of the spectrum, which we perceive as heat. This is why the telescope has a solar shield, to protect it from the heat of the sun, and had to undergo a cooling period after being positioned in one of the Lagrangian Points of the earth's orbit around the sun.

The reason for this is that the useful information in the infrared radiation from distant objects is drowned out by the heat all around us. To effectively gather information from the universe in infrared the space telescope had to be cooled to near Absolute Zero as well as being shielded from the sun's radiation. The earlier Hubble Space Telescope, although it has been a fantastic success that far exceeded all expectations, could not accomplish this.

Remember that we once saw on this blog how beneficial it would be if we could extract the information in heat. The great difficulty is that the information is drowned out by the heat all around. Here is a link to "Information From Heat":

www.markmeekprogress.blogspot.com/2009/06/information-from-heat.html?m=0

Other nations have explored space, but only the inner Solar System. The universe beyond the orbit of Mars has thus far mostly belonged to America. The reason is not technical capability but culture. Space is a frontier and America is all about frontiers. Here is a link to "The Land Of The Frontier":

www.markmeekeconomics.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-land-of-frontier.html?m=0

Thursday, October 6, 2022

Bengaluru (Bangalore)

This is a time to celebrate India because next year there will be more Indians in the world than anyone else.

The history of India seems to revolve much more around the northern part of the country, as that is where new people such as the Aryans and Mughals entered, than the southern part of the country. The world-famous Taj Mahal, the capital of New Delhi, the financial center of Mumbai and, the Sikh religious center of Amritsar, are all in the northern part of the country.

But yet it is the far southern city of Bangalore that is, in many ways, the focal point of modern India. I am going to refer to it as Bangalore because, unlike Mumbai, the correct Indian name of Bengaluru is not well-known outside India. Bangalore is located in the heat of southern India, but is at a considerably high altitude which makes it more comfortably cool.

Bangalore is where India's space agency is located, the launch site is on the east coast but the headquarters are in the city. It is also the aeronautic and aerospace center of the country. It is known across the world as India's IT and software hub. Bangalore is also known as India's "Science City". It may not have the Taj Mahal, but it is leading India into the future.

Space missions to Mars have a high casualty rate. It is more difficult to get to Mars than to Venus, because Mars if further from the sun than earth. To get to Venus, it is necessary only to fire retro rockets so that the spacecraft loses the orbital momentum that it began with as part of the earth, and the sun's gravity will do the rest. If the timing is right, the spacecraft will fall into orbit around Venus.

India remains the first country to launch a successful Mars mission on it's first attempt. It has a spacecraft in Mars orbit, unfortunately the news came this week that the spacecraft has run out of fuel and contact has been lost with it but it far exceeded all expectations.

From Bangalore, a spacecraft had earlier been put into orbit around the moon. From that spacecraft, a projectile spacecraft was purposely crashed into the moon, at it's south pole, so that the lunar debris that flew up from the collision could be analyzed. Communication was later lost with the main spacecraft, but NASA has located it still in orbit around the moon.

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 Amazing Story Of Abraham

On the subject of India here is something about the world that is already known, but not widely-known. Everyone should know about this.

There are, broadly speaking, two main classifications of religion in the world.

There are the western, or monotheistic, religions of Judaism, Christianity and, Islam. Monotheistic means to be based on one god. The original monotheistic religion was Judaism, and Christianity and Islam sprang from that.

Then there are the eastern religions, the major ones being Hinduism and Buddhism. Hinduism came first and Buddhism sprang from that.

These are not the only religions but the others are minor, in the number of adherents, by comparison. Jainism is another eastern religion. Sikhism is a kind of a bridge between the eastern and western religions. Confucianism is more of a philosophy than a religion.

The predominant religion greatly affects the nature of the society in which it operates. We saw in the posting on this blog, "Understanding The World In Terms Of The South And West And The North And East", April 2016, how the concept of the nation differs in the two halves of the world.

In the North And East, the nations have tended to stay the same since ancient times. But in the South And West, new nations have tended to come into being with new ideas.

The two halves of the world are based on their predominant religions. The South And West is based primarily on the monotheistic religions and the North And East is based primarily on the eastern religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism.

The two main families of religions, the monotheistic and the eastern, are generally considered as polar opposites. The monotheistic religions focus on salvation by a personal God. The eastern religions typically focus on seeking enlightenment through a fundamental cosmic principle and reincarnation.

The Jews began with a man named Abraham. He had faith that there was only one God, not the multitude of gods typically worshipped by people of the time. Abraham's God was an almighty and all-powerful God. Abraham's God led him from a place called Haran, probably in modern Iraq, to the Jews' Promised Land, which would become the nation of Israel.

Israel was divided into twelve tribes. The Israelites became known as Jews for the tribe of Judah, which became the predominant tribe.

Before Christianity and Islam the Jews, in the nation of Israel, were first delivered from bondage by God. Later they were disciplined by two exiles from their homeland. The first exile was the permanent exile of the ten tribes of the northern nation of Israel, after the twelve tribes had split into the two nations of Israel and Judah. These ten tribes were scattered around the Assyrian Empire, and have since been known as the Ten Lost Tribes.

The second exile was the temporary exile of the remaining nation of Judah to Babylon. The Jews' original Temple had been destroyed by the Babylonians and the Jews built the so-called Second Temple in it's place after they were allowed to return from Babylon, after it had been conquered by the Persian Empire.

But not all of the Jews returned to their homeland. Some were doing quite well in Babylon and chose to stay. The result was a thriving Jewish community that lasted from Babylon until modern times. Most of these Iraqi Jews were finally brought to Israel in the 1950s, but the community in Babylon, that declined to return from the exile, played a prominent role in Jewish history.

Some Jews from places like Babylon and Syria migrated eastward to Iran and India, where there were thriving Jewish communities.

There were also ancient Jewish communities, that survived into modern times, in Yemen and Ethiopia. Most were eventually brought back to the modern nation of Israel by airlift.

Judaism was the original of the western monotheistic religions. Christianity is the belief that Jesus was the Jews' long-awaited messiah. Islam acknowledges Jesus and the prophets of Judaism, but claims that Muhammad restored their true message, which had been mistranslated and distorted, and was the "seal" of the prophets.

Just as the original religion of the western, or monotheistic, religions was Judaism, the original eastern religion was Hinduism. Buddhism later sprang from Hinduism. We do not think of India today as a Buddhist country but the wheel symbol on the Indian flag is actually a Buddhist symbol, because Buddhism did originate in India.

Hinduism is polytheistic, meaning many gods, but centers on the universal cosmic principle, known as Brahman.

Hinduism, originating in India, used to be known for it's caste system. The highest caste was of Hindu priests and religious figures, and was known as the Brahmins.

The universal cosmic principle is called Brahman. It's priestly caste are called Brahmins.

There is a writing script that appeared in northern India several centuries before the time of Christ. It is known as the Brahmic Script. It is very important because almost all of the later writing scripts in India are descended from it.

According to the Wikipedia article on "Brahmic Script", it is generally believed to be of Semitic origin. Semitic means the people of the Middle East, including the Jews. We saw above that Jews had migrated eastward to India from Babylon, Syria and, Persia.

Having related words from the same root has been seen before in India. Indian civilization emerged around the Indus River, in what is now Pakistan. The predominant religion in India is Hinduism. Notice the similarity of the words "Indus", "India" and, "Hindu".

Now, what do you notice here?

The words "Brahman" and "Brahmin", which are so important to religion in India, and the word "Brahmic", which is so important to writing in India, is very similar to the name of Abraham. The Brahmic Script, which is of Semitic origin, seems to have been named for Abraham.

Abraham's God was the one all-powerful and almighty God. The western monotheistic religions begin with Abraham. Brahman is the Hindu concept of the universal cosmic principle. The eastern religions begin with Hinduism.

Doesn't it seem that Brahman was named for Abraham? The migrating Jews brought the script to India and the Jews were the people of Abraham.

I am not the first person to notice this but I do think it deserves more attention. The eastern and western religions look like polar opposites but this appears to be a fundamental link between them.

This is related to the idea that modern Hinduism may have come from Egypt. Modern Hinduism is considered by many to be remarkably similar to the religion of Ancient Egypt, with the sacred Nile River replaced by the Ganges.

We saw this in a posting on the World and Economics Blog,

http://markmeekeconomics.blogspot.com/2009/07/wage-and-price-disparity.html?m=0

The Wars Of The Gods

This is being reposted because more has been added to it. The name has been pluralized from "War Of The Gods" to "Wars Of The Gods".

The Bible began with Moses on Mount Sinai. One of God's Commandments was to have no other gods before Him. Later the Jews built their Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Greece arose as a major power. It conquered the Persia that had freed the Jews from captivity in Babylon. The Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar II, had destroyed the Temple and taken the Jews captive to Babylon.

The Greek counterpart to Mount Sinai is Mount Olympus. The chief Greek god on Mount Olympus was Zeus. But this was forbidden to Jews, and later Christians, because of the commandment to have no other gods. The gods on Mount Olympus were believed to interact, and even mate, with humans.

In a town by the base of Mount Olympus a boy was born. His name was Alexander and he was no myth. Alexander would be the greatest conqueror that the world had ever seen. He quickly built a vast empire, conquering and absorbing the Persian Empire. He took Egypt, what is now Israel and Syria. He led his forces far into India. Alexander, as King of Macedon, never lost a battle and more than a few people thought that he was divine.

Alexander himself stated that Zeus was his father.

Alexander founded the city in Egypt that bears his name, Alexandria, and his rule of Egypt is why the three successive pharaohs who built the Pyramids of Giza have both Egyptian and Greek names. Alexander is buried in his namesake city although the exact site of the tomb has been lost.

Alexander personally led his forces. He had much greater plans, including the conquest of western Europe, when he died of a fever at age 32.

But maybe there was something divine going on. In fact, maybe there was a War of the Gods. The Book of Daniel, in the Bible, had foretold four successive empires that would rule the known world. The first was the then-current Babylon. Then came Persia, Greece and Rome. In the Book of Daniel, this was the four empires foretold by both Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the statue in Chapter 2, as well as the four successive beasts in Chapter 7.

As it turned out Alexander died in Babylon, which he planned to revive as his capital, in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II. This was the same Nebuchadnezzar who had destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, and taken the Jews into exile.

But if Alexander had not died, and had gone on to his planned conquest of western Europe, that would have forestalled the rise of Rome, which was necessary because it had already been foretold.

Could it be that the God of the Bible brought an end to Alexander, the spiritual son of Zeus, and his conquests, so that the prophecies already made in the Bible would be fulfilled, with Zeus trying to forestall that fulfillment?

Alexander's vast empire did not hold together after his death. It broke into four pieces, with each being led by one of his generals. The Jews, and their Temple, were first ruled by the benign Ptolemaic Dynasty that were ruling Egypt. They were later under the control of the Seleucids, based in what is now Syria.

The four pieces of Alexander's empire, operating separately, were not able to resist the rise of Rome as the next great power.

The plans of Alexander had been curtailed, so that the Bible prophecies could be fulfilled, but the War of the Gods wasn't over yet. Zeus struck back as a Seleucid king named Antiochus IV desecrated the Jews' Temple by installing the worship of Zeus. This led to the Jews regaining their independence in the Maccabean Revolt. The Jewish holiday of Hannukah is a celebration of the rededication of the Temple.

The rise of Rome, the fourth kingdom, ended Seleucid control. The Jews did not like foreign rule. But Rome did usually respect the Jews' religion and Temple, except for the General Pompey, and they were exempt from military service.

But, in the War of the Gods, Zeus wasn't finished yet. The Roman Pantheon of Gods was actually an adaptation of the Greek gods. The Jews rebelled against Roman rule, and the Romans responded by destroying the Temple and Jerusalem, just as the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar II had done more than six centuries before. The Roman equivalent of Zeus was Jupiter. The Romans rebuilt Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina, with a temple dedicated to Jupiter.

Besides Mounts Sinai and Olympus, there is another mountain involved here. In Rome, the Pantheon was built and dedicated to the Roman gods. The Pantheon is a dome, but with an opening that resembles the crater of a volcano.

Image from Google Earth

While the Pantheon was being built in Rome, a real volcano erupted to the south. This famous volcano was known as Vesuvius and the eruption destroyed cities that were known for sin. The devastating eruption took place not long after the Romans had destroyed the Jews' Temple, and sent them into exile, and also after the Romans had martyred the Christian saints Peter and Paul. The Jewish religion had been protected, but the Christians lost that protection when they became separate from the Jews.

The Roman gods were adoptions of the Greek. The city next to the devastating eruption was the largest city originating from a Greek colony in Italy, Neapolis or Naples.

Image from Google Earth

Meanwhile, back in Greece, the Christian St. John was writing the Book of Revelation. This book concludes the Christian Bible and reaffirms the four empires of the Book of Daniel. The empires are all now present or past, except for the future tense of the fourth empire, Rome.

The Book of Revelation describes the "Lake of Fire", and this is reflected in the lava from Mount Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii.

"The War Of The Gods" isn't over yet. In the Book of Daniel, Chapter 8, we see, in verse 21, that the "first king" is the king of Greece. But his kingdom will be broken apart into four kingdoms. This "first king" is, of course as we saw above, Alexander.

Chapter 8 goes on to describe another great king that will someday arise. This is described as taking place in the distant future. This king will have astounding power. He is described as eventually being destroyed, but not by any human power. Before being destroyed this great king of the future will oppose the "Prince of Princes".

This king of the future is, of course, the Antichrist. The "Prince of Princes" that he will oppose is the Second Coming of Jesus. This is described in other places in the Bible.

What I find to be a very interesting connection between the "first king", Alexander, and the Antichrist is that the kingdom of Alexander ended by being broken apart into multiple kingdoms. While the kingdom of the Antichrist will come from multiple kings giving their authority to him, there will be ten kings in all.

This makes the Antichrist seem to be Alexander coming back together, so that the "War Of The Gods" can continue. This "War Of The Gods", which we see here has been going on since ancient times, will conclude with the Second Coming of Jesus, which will bring the reign of the Antichrist to an end.

The posting on this blog that explains these "End Times" events is "The End Of The World As We Know It".

THE ALEXANDRIA LINES

Here is something really interesting that I have never seen before. Alexandria is the city that was founded on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt. It is much older than Cairo, which was built by Moslems, and has been a very important city since it's founding. Alexandria was an early center of Christianity.

In Greece, across the Mediterranean from Alexandria, there were two rival centers of power, Athens and Sparta. Many historians believe that Alexandria actually exceeded both Athens and Sparta as the focal point of the Hellenistic Era.

What I notice is that when Alexander established the city of Alexandria he unwittingly established a measure, both in distance and in a straight line, that would resonate across history. I see three examples of "Alexandria Lines". This is really amazing and has determined where centers of power will be down through history.

If we take the line from Alexandria to Athens, and continue the line in a straight line for about the same distance, it brings us to Venice. If we then continue on in a straight line, again for about the same distance from Alexandria to Athens, it brings us to London. The distance of each segment is just about exactly 1,000 km.

Image from Google Earth

Sparta was a rival center of power in Greece, but the distance from Alexandria to Sparta is just about exactly the same as that from Alexandria to Athens. If we take a line from Alexandria to Sparta, and continue on in a straight line for the same distance again, it brings us to Rome. If we continue the line for the same distance again it brings us to Paris.

Image from Google Earth

There is another line from Alexandria to Constantinople, now called Istanbul. Constantinople is named for the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity and, after the fall of Rome, was the capital of the Byzantine Empire for a thousand years.

It was where the Hagia Sophia was located, and was where the Eastern Orthodox Church had split away from the Catholic Church in 1054. Vladimir, Prince of Kievan Rus which was the predecessor state to Russia, Ukraine and, Belarus, had earlier chosen the Byzantine Rite for his people over the Roman Catholic Rite. Constantinople became the natural center of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

But when the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453, renaming it Istanbul, the center of the Eastern Orthodox Church was forced to move. The obvious choice was Kyiv, where Prince Vladimir had baptized his people. Later, the Romanov Dynasty of Russia built their capital city of St. Petersburg. Just as the above examples are of equal distances in a straight line, so it is from Alexandria to Istanbul (Constantinople) to Kyiv to St. Petersburg. The distance is, again, just about exactly 1,000 km.

Image from Google Earth

But Kyiv had been so devastated by an earlier attack by the Mongols that it wouldn't fully recover until the Nineteenth Century. The center of the Eastern Orthodox Church ended up moving to Moscow. The Alexandria Line also applies there, although from Kyiv it is a little bit shorter and not in a perfectly straight line.

Image from Google Earth

ANDERS BRIEVIK AND THE DAYS OF THE WEEK

Anders Breivik is the Norwegian who was convicted of killing dozens of people in Oslo in 2011, first with a truck bomb and then with an assault rifle.

Here is something that I notice about the case that I cannot see referred to anywhere. Maybe it's something that we should give some thought to.

Anders Breivik described his religious beliefs as Odinism. This is the worship of the old Norse God Odin. After the truck bombing he carried into the massacre an assault rifle and a handgun, dressed as a police officer.

On the rifle he had inscribed the name of Odin's spear. Another Norse God was Thor, the God of Thunder who had a hammer. On the pistol he had inscribed the name of Thor's hammer.

This massacre, in what is usually probably the most peaceful and prosperous country in the world, can be attributed to Odinism. In the U.S. the Hammer of Thor is widely used by white supremacist groups.

So we should be horrified by Odinism and want nothing to do with it, right? That is what I want to write about today.

Have you ever wondered where the names of the days of the week come from? It turns out that four of the seven weekdays are named for Odin and associated gods of Norse mythology.

Odin is also spelled "Woden" and Wednesday is named for him. He had a spear and Breivik had the name of his spear inscribed on his assault rifle. This assault rifle that killed so many young people, who approached Breivik for help because he was dressed as a police officer, represented Odin's spear. Yet we have a day of the week named for Odin.

Odin's wife is a goddess named Frigg. She got Friday named for her. The massacre took place on a Friday, but I can't see that anyone drew the connection that the day of the massacre is named for the wife of the God, the name of whose spear was inscribed on the assault rifle.

On the pistol that the gunman carried was inscribed the name of the Hammer of Thor, another Norse God. Thor got Thursday named for him.

Tuesday is named for Tyr, the Norse God of War.

The other three days of the week have names based on astrology. Saturday is named for Saturn, Sunday for the sun, and Monday for the moon.

Has anyone beside me ever thought that we should rename the days of the week? Should Christians, Moslems and, Jews have their days named for heathen, pagan gods and astrological symbols? This doesn't seem right.

What about the Norse settlement of Vinland, in eastern Canada? We know that the Vikings, led by Leif Erikson, were the first Europeans to settle North America. But the settlement didn't last. My understanding is that the Vikings aroused the enmity of the native Indians by killing one of them. Finding themselves heavily outnumbered the Vikings withdrew and it wasn't until five centuries later than Christopher Columbus landed.

Could this be another element of "The Wars Of The Gods"? Satan tried to convert the western hemisphere to these pagan gods but God foiled it and, when the time was right, made sure that it was the message of Christianity that reached the western hemisphere?

This was a step in what I see as God's plan for the native Indians, as we saw in the compound posting, "The Western Hemisphere", section 1) THE LONG VIEW OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE.

The widespread symbol of the Three Crowns, that we saw in the posting on this blog, "The Three Crowns And Fleur Dr Lis" April 2022 I have concluded must have originated with the Vikings. But they converted to Christianity and this is not considered as a pagan symbol.

THE TEMPLE IS STILL WITH IS

This section contains subsections.

The world actually forms a tree pattern that leads back to the Temple in Jerusalem. This Temple was central to the story of the Bible, and was destroyed during an uprising against Roman rule in 70 A.D. Here is something that I cannot find has ever been pointed out. Through this tree pattern the Temple is really still with us.

ST. PETER'S SQUARE IS OF THE SAME SHAPE AND DIMENSIONS AS THE COLOSSEUM

Have you ever wondered why St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, is actually shaped like an oval? Every other square that I can see, both in Italy and just about everywhere else, is literally right-angled in form. So why would this "square" actually be shaped like an oval?

As it turns out there is a simple answer. I cannot find anything about this being documented but am not quite sure whether to believe that I am the only one today that knows this.

St. Peter's Square, inside the Colonnades, is exactly the same size and shape as the Colosseum, which is about 3.5 km away. This is St. Peter's Square. St. Peter's Basilica is to the left so that the two together have the shape of a key, with the oval form of the "square" being the handle of the key.

Image from Google Earth

Here is the Colosseum, shown from the same altitude. Although the directional alignment of the two is not the same, you can right click and select the "Measure Distance" feature to see that the dimensions of the Colosseum are exactly that of the internal diameter of the Colonnades that give St. Peter's Square it's oval form. Part of the structure of the Colosseum along it's long axis is missing but both measure about 190 meters, or 625 feet.

Image from Google Earth

The oval form of both is not an extreme ellipse, the ratio of the long axis to the short axis being about 1.2 or 6/5.

Clearly, St. Peter's Square was constructed to exactly match the Colosseum but this has never been made public.

THE CENTER OF ST. PETER'S SQUARE IS LOCATED EXACTLY ON THE LONG AXIS OF THE COLOSSEUM, AND ALSO THE LATERAN PALACE

There is more to the relationship between St. Peter's Square and the Colosseum. By using the right click and "Measure Distance" option on Google Maps, it draws a straight line between the two points that are clicked on. If we choose the first point as the obelisk in the center of St. Peter's Square and the second point as the far side of the long axis of the Colosseum, the southeastern end, we find something else amazing that has never been made public.

The direction to St. Peter's Square from the Colosseum is exactly along the extension of the long axis of the oval form of the Colosseum.

So St. Peter's Square was not only constructed to match the dimensions of the Colosseum, it was also located to be aligned with the long axis of the Colosseum, although the directional alignment between the two is not the same.

Images from Google Earth

That is not all. The original center of the Catholic Church was not the Vatican, as it is today, but the Lateran Palace. The papacy moved, for some time, to Avignon in southern France. When it returned to Rome, the Lateran Palace had been damaged by fire and was relocated to the Vatican instead. The Lateran Palace is still officially the headquarters of the church.

As it turns out the Lateran Palace is located on the opposite side of the Colosseum, which is from ancient Rome and was built before either, from the Vatican. This means that the Lateran Palace was also located on the extension of the long axis of the Colosseum, but in the opposite direction to that of the Vatican with St. Peter's Square.

The Lateran Palace is a large complex, but that means that we can draw a straight line with the Google Maps "Measure Distance" feature from the obelisk in St. Peter's Square to a point in the Lateran Palace complex, and the line will go right along the long axis of the Colosseum.

But what could these alignments mean? It is reminiscent of the Historical Axis of Paris, but that is no secret. I have searched and searched and cannot find that this alignment in Rome has ever been made public. The Colosseum is the best-known structure from ancient Rome, is the symbol of the modern city of Rome as well as it's geographical center.

It seems clear that this alignment with the Colosseum is an effort by the church to link itself with the power of the Roman Empire, but not to be made public. It could be a symbolic sympathy for those Christians who were martyred by the Roman Empire but it is not clear how many were martyred at the Colosseum, as opposed to the nearby Circus Maximus.

This hidden symbolism supports what we saw in the investigation, "11) SYMBOLISM THEORY OF THE VATICAN AND THE HAGIA SOPHIA, in the compound posting, "Investigations" December 2018.

THE FUNDING TO BUILD THE COLOSSEUM CAME FROM THE WEALTH LOOTED FROM THE TEMPLE

There is another reason for linking the Vatican to the Colosseum. It is well-known that the funding to build the Colosseum came from the wealth that the Romans looted from the Jewish Temple, when they destroyed it in 70 A.D.

Constructing St. Peter's Square so that the obelisk in it's center was aligned with the long axis of the Colosseum, which was built with the wealth taken from the Temple, to the center of the Archbasilica in the Lateral Palace, was the way of making the Vatican the new Temple, even if it was not made public.

The ideal way to accomplish this would, of course, have been to build the Vatican itself with the wealth looted from the Temple. But the Colosseum was built in the First Century, while Christianity was illegal and many Christians would be martyred in the Colosseum. Judaism was a legal religion, but Christians lost that legality when they separated from Judaism by recognizing Jesus as the awaited Messiah.

It was the bones of the martyred St. Peter, the best-known of the Apostles who had actually been with Jesus, over which the Vatican was built, hence the name of St. Peter's Square. Just as it links itself to St. Peter by being built over his bones, it links itself to the Colosseum which was built with the wealth looted from the Temple by this alignment.

But the center of the Archbasilica of St. John (San Giovanni), in the Lateran Palace complex, which is older than the Vatican, and is much closer to the Colosseum, must have also been built so that it was on the long axis of the Colosseum. This was the precedent for centering St. Peter's Square in the same way.

THE OVAL OFFICE IN THE WHITE HOUSE

The only office that I have ever heard of being oval in form is the Oval Office in the White House. Have you ever wondered why the office of the U.S. President would be oval in form? Not only is it oval in form but it's proportions are virtually identical to that of the Colosseum, which was built with the wealth looted from the Temple. In this way the Oval Office is tied to the Temple.

Just as there is the obelisk in St. Peter's Square, which was constructed with exactly the same dimensions as the Colosseum, so there are ovals around the Washington Monument, in Washington D.C., and also the Ellipse, just to the north.

Image from Wikipedia article, "Oval Office".

Image from Google Earth

THE CENTER OF THE DOME OF ST. PETER'S IS ON THE AXIS THROUGH THE ARCH OF TITUS

Putting down the Jewish uprising against Roman rule, which resulted in the destruction and looting of the Temple, had not been an easy battle for the Romans. When it was over, the Arch of Titus was built next to the Colosseum, to memorialize the victory. The engravings on the Arch illustrate the wealth being taken from the Temple which went to build the adjacent Colosseum.

Jews who visit Rome are not supposed to walk under the Arch of Titus.

The amazing thing is that there is not only the above described axis, through the long axis of the Colosseum, there is also another axis that runs close-by and parallel to it. The center of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica is located on the axis that runs through the Arch of Titus.

Images from Google Earth

THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE WAS BASED ON THE ARCH OF TITUS

We saw in the compound posting on this blog, "America And The Modern World Explained By Way Of Paris", December 2015, how Paris has been the prototype for cities across the world.

The centerpiece of Paris is the Arc De Triomphe, a victory arch built by Napoleon. But it was modeled on, and inspired by, the Arch of Titus.

So Paris, which is imitated in so many cities across the world, is centered around the Arc De Triomphe in exactly the same way that Rome is centered around the Colosseum, which was built with the wealth taken from the Jewish Temple when it was destroyed. The Arc De Triomphe is actually modeled on the Arch of Titus, which was built in commemoration of the victory which resulted in the destruction of the Jewish Temple, and depicts the wealth being taken from that Temple which paid for the construction of the Colosseum.

Then we have the alignment. Paris is centered on an alignment, the Historical Axis of Paris or Axe Historique, just as St. Peter's Square and the Archbasilica of the Lateran Palace are aligned along the long axis of the Colosseum and the center of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica is on the axis through the Arch of Titus, which runs parallel to the one through the long axis of the Colosseum.

(Note- The Historical Axis of Paris runs from the statue in the center of the Louvre, through the Arc De Triomphe Du Carrousel, to the obelisk in Place Concorde, through the Arc De Triomphe, to the new Grande Arche. The three arches are in alignment).

THE LINK THROUGH THE FOUR HORSES

Another way that all of this is linked to the world is what we saw in the section 7) FOUR HORSES ALL OVER THE WORLD, in the compound posting "The Aztec Prophecy" April 2018.

This tradition of a statue of four horses actually began with the ones that are in St. Mark's Basilica, in Venice. Those were originally taken from Constantinople, which was established as the capital of the eastern half of the Roman Empire, as Rome was the capital of the western half.

Napoleon took the four horses from Venice, but then copied them and returned the originals to Venice. Napoleon's copy are the four horses that are atop the Arc De Triomphe Du Carrousel, which is on the Historical Axis of Paris, was built by Napoleon before the larger Arc De Triomphe, and was also modeled on the Arch of Titus.

The bones of St. Mark are in his namesake basilica in Venice, just as the bones of St. Peter are the foundation of his namesake basilica in Rome. St. Mark and St. Peter are closely linked because the first of the Gospels, St. Mark's, was Mark writing for Peter, who was a great speaker but couldn't read or write.

So we have how Paris has influenced the world and the "Four Horses All Over The World" linked back to the destroyed Temple in Jerusalem.

But the four horses originated with the ones in Constantinople. That is where what would be the largest church in the world for a thousand years was built, after Rome became Christianized.

THE PARALLEL BRANCHES OF THE TREE THAT LINKS THE WORLD TO THE FORMER TEMPLE IN JERUSALEM

Notice all of the paralleling here. There is the two parallel axes in Rome. There is the link between Paris and Rome. There is the parallel of Venice and Rome, St. Mark and St. Peter, which meets the Rome axes at the four horses atop the Arc De Triomphe Du Carrousel in Paris. There is the parallel between the two capitals of the Roman Empire, east and west, Constantinople and Rome.

The link, on the same axis in Paris, between the Arc De Triomphe, which was based on the Arch of Titus in Rome and which celebrates and depicts the wealth that was looted from the Temple and built the Colosseum, and the Arc De Triomphe Du Carrousel, which hosts Napoleon's copy of the four horses in Venice, that were taken from the former capital of the eastern half of the Roman Empire, represents the link between Rome and Venice, which are also linked by hosting the bones of St. Peter and St. Mark. St. Mark wrote the first Gospel for St. Peter, who couldn't read or write. Venice is linked to the Hagia Sophia because the namesake basilica that hosts both the bones of St. Mark and the original four horses is a copy of it.

There were four horses and also the four empires in the Book of Daniel, the four pieces into which Alexander's empire split and, of course, the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse", being written by St. John in the Book of Revelation which foretells the Apocalypse.

Can you see how the world is actually branches of the destroyed Temple that was so important in the story of the Bible? All of these parallels are the branches. The Temple has been destroyed but in this way is still with us.

We have seen the Temple Mount, the semi-artificial hill upon which the last Temple was located in the posting on this blog, "Esau And The Temple Mount", February 2016.

Finally, I find it utterly amazing how the Temple being still with us so much resembles the branches of a tree because we saw in the interpretation of Bible prophecy, 2) THE TREE STUMP AND THE TEMPLE MOUNT in the compound posting "New Insight Into Bible Prophecy" October 2017, that I see the tree stump with the band around it, in the Book of Daniel, as a prophecy of the Temple Mount, which would be built centuries in the future, and would remain after the Temple had been destroyed.

The tree being cut down represents the Temple and that is why the Temple being still with us is in the form of a tree.

EGYPT AND THE EXODUS

Critics claim that there is no evidence that the story of the Exodus, the delivery of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, actually took place. One side of this story that I have never seen anywhere is what kind of an effect it might have had on the Egyptians.

If this fantastic story really took place then it must have had some effect on the Egyptians. It seems to me that it did.

What I see as the greatest mystery of ancient Egypt is the era known as the Amarna Period. The name also refers to the "Amarna Letters", letters by the Egyptian leadership during this period to diplomatic posts in other lands.

Egypt was a very polytheistic nation which honored a broad pantheon of gods. Like any other comparable civilization that we can see, Egypt had a god for everything. Many gods, with control over certain aspects of life, were not universal. In one city a request might be made to one god, but the same request would be made to a different god if in another city. Egypt's gods were very important to it, and there was a long and hallowed tradition of how they must be worshiped.

All of a sudden, a new pharaoh comes to the throne, Amenhotep IV. He surprises and dismays all of Egypt by announcing that one god is supreme above all others. He changed his name to Akhenaten to reflect devotion to this one supreme god, which was called Aten.

The new pharaoh destroyed many of the temples of the traditional gods, making many enemies in the process, and built a new capital city to reflect the new era of devotion to his god. The city was called Amarna, which gives it's name to this brief era. This was not exactly monotheism, the old gods of Egypt were still there. But now one of the gods was to be honored far above the others.

The disk of the sun was considered as the manifestation of this one supreme god. The people would actually worship the pharaoh while he worshiped the one supreme god, putting himself in a role somewhat like a high priest or the earthly son of this god.

The position of women in Egypt improved during this time and from it comes the best-known face of ancient Egypt, the bust of Nefertiti. She was the queen of Akhenaten during his great religious reform.

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

But the change of religion did not go over very well at all. It was unpopular with nearly everybody and was reversed just as soon as Akhenaten died. The capital city was moved back to Thebes. The son of Akhenaten was the famed King Tut, short for Tutankhamen. King Tut actually died as a teenager, might have actually been the most insignificant of pharaohs, and you have heard of him only because grave robbers never found his tomb.

Horemheb was the following pharaoh who really reversed the religious reforms. He destroyed the capital city that had been built for the new supreme god, and not much remains of it today. Being childless he appointed his vizier as his successor, who would take the throne as "Ramesses I", as we saw in the posting by that name. This began a new dynasty, the Nineteenth Dynasty.

It is true that there is little historical record of the Exodus from Egypt. But the Egyptians did not like to be defeated, and they were in the habit of selectively recording, and even erasing, parts of their own history.

We know for sure that a warlike people called the Hyksos conquered and ruled Egypt for a time but there is very little Egyptian record of that. Ramesses II, grandson of Ramesses I, was known as the Great Builder of ancient Egypt, he wanted to be remembered by his endless building, but he is also known to have imposed his cartouche on buildings that others had built.

We have to understand that this is so out of the ordinary, so unique in ancient Egypt that it demands special explanation. No other pharaoh ever attempted anything like this. Akhenaten had all of the makings of a great pharaoh. But he put himself down in the history of his nation as a criminal and heretic. He was buried in a very small tomb and generally scorned after his death. He became essentially a non-person in Egypt and his name is missing from later lists of previous pharaohs. Akhenaten's mummy, nor that of his queen Nefertiti, have even been positively identified. Virtually anything to do with his new religion was destroyed, and his religion of one supreme god forgotten.

What then made him do it? There is a clear explanation that really should get some attention.

What if the story of the Exodus, as told in the Bible, really did happen as told. The Egyptians saw the awesome power of the Israelites' God. While they may not have paid much attention to the religion of their slaves, the Bible records Moses describing their God to the unnamed pharaoh. They knew that the Israelites worshiped only one God. During the Exodus, the Egyptians saw the power of this God.

The Egyptians would not have known the details of their former slaves' religion, this was before the Bible was written, all they knew was that they worshiped only one all-powerful God which, at the time, was a very unique idea.

The timing is right, the Fourteenth Century B.C. We know that King David ruled over Israel around 1000 B.C. Before the Exodus and that time, the Israelites had to go through the long periods of wandering in the wilderness, gradually clearing the land of the Canaanites, and the period when Israel was ruled by leaders known as Judges.

Doesn't it look to you as if the Egyptians, having seen the power of the Israelites' God as described in the Bible, but really not wanting to admit that they and their gods had been defeated by the God of their slaves, had a pharaoh who thought that the best thing for Egypt was to incorporate this one supreme God, and facilitated that as best as he could, even though destroying his own reign and legacy in the process?

He even changed his name to signify his new religious convictions, from Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten, just as Abram had his name changed to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, and Jacob to Israel.

I see this as the best evidence that the Exodus, as described in the Bible with all of it's miracles, took place just as described. It could not have been that the Egyptians had gotten dissatisfied with the old gods because the country was poor or subject to foreign domination, and sought a new god to change their fortunes, because Egypt was near the height of it's power at the time.

But there is still more to consider.

Of all the hundreds of pharaohs and other important people in the long history of Egypt, two have emerged as the "faces" of old Egypt. These are Nefertiti, as we saw above, and King Tutankhamen.

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

Nefertiti was the queen of Akhenaten, the pharaoh who tried to get Egypt worshiping one supreme God, and Tutankhamen was his son. Although Nefertiti was not Tutankhamen's mother. The only other name from Egypt that has any comparison to these two is Ramesses II, who would rule in the following dynasty.

Now, stop and think. Doesn't it strike you as very noteworthy that the two who should emerge as the most familiar faces from Egypt's very long history are the queen and the son of this scorned pharaoh who had tried to get Egypt to abandon it's historic pantheon of gods, in order to worship one supreme God?

King Tutankhamen was actually quite likely the most insignificant of pharaohs. He became king as a child, was in exceptionally poor health, and died in his teens. Decisions during his reign were almost certainly made by advisers, who would succeed Tutankhamen as pharaohs themselves, Ay and Horemheb. The reason that he is so famous today is that, unique among the pharaohs of Egypt, grave robbers never found his tomb before archeologists did in modern times.

Could it be that God arranged it for Tutankhamen and Nefertiti to emerge as the best-known figures of the long history of Egypt to show that the Egyptians had certainly seen the power of the Israelites' God in delivering them from slavery? Even though they were not about to record it, the world could see their reaction to it. This could not have been done for Akhenaten himself because he was scorned upon death, becoming a non-person whose name is missing from later lists of past pharaohs, and was buried in a very modest tomb.

King Tutankhamen, son of Akhenaten, is recorded as going against his father's religious ideas upon succeeding him. In fact, the new king's original name was to have been Tutankhaten, recognizing the one supreme God, but was changed to Tutankhamen, for the original Egyptian gods. But he was a child upon becoming pharaoh and decisions were certainly being made for him.

In the campaign of Horemheb against this new religious idea, the following statue of King Tut and his queen was severely damaged. But yet they have emerged in modern times as the faces of ancient Egypt.

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

POSTSCRIPT

Not long after I wrote the above posting came the announcement that an entire ancient city was unearthed in Egypt. The name of the city is Aten. This is certainly one of the most important archeological discoveries ever. It is reminiscent of the excavation of the city of Ur, in Mesopotamia, about a century ago.

The name of the one supreme god, represented by the disk of the sun, was also Aten.

As it turns out the city of Aten was founded by Amenhotep III, who was the father of the pharaoh who tried to move the country toward monotheism. His name was Amenhotep IV but he changed it Akhenaten to in order to reflect the new religious movement.

The city of Aten was in use during the Amarna Period, the time of the move toward monotheism, but the capital was moved to Amarna, hence the name of the period. The son of Akhenaten was the famous King Tut, short for Tutankhamen. Tutankhamen was actually what his name was changed to in order to reflect the move back to the traditional pantheon of gods.

For readers in the Niagara Falls area this took place during the 18th Dynasty of ancient Egypt. Tutankhamen was followed as pharoah by Ay and Horemheb. Horemheb was childless so he appointed his vizier as his successor.

The vizier took the throne as Ramesses I, the first pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty. There was a mummy from Egypt in the museum that used to be just at the Canadian end of the Rainbow Bridge, but the mummy was unidentified. It was later definitely identified to be Ramesses I and was given back to Egypt. The mummy had spent over a hundred years in Niagara Falls.

Possibly the most important pharaoh, at least of the New Kingdom, was Ramesses II, who was the grandson of Ramesses I. He did a lot of building, although not of pyramids. By this time the era of pyramid building, which took place in the Old Kingdom, was long past and the pyramids were already very old.

Thursday, September 29, 2022

The Polygon Storms At Jupiter's Poles

It was in the news recently that amazing arrangements of storms have been discovered at both Jupiter's north and south poles. To read about it do a search for "Jupiter polygon storms poles".

According to the news reports there is one central storm visible at each pole. What is so amazing is that each of these polar storms is surrounded by a group of other storms arranged in a polygon pattern. At the north pole the central storm is surrounded by eight other storms, arranged in an octagon pattern, and at the south pole the central storm is surrounded by six other storms, arranged in a hexagon pattern. There is no explanation of what causes these arrangements, or keeps them stable.

But the explanation is actually simple, it involves the flow of information through the universe, from the lowest to the highest levels. The information that is used to construct the lower-level structures of matter must also be used to construct the higher-level structures, because there is no additional information from anywhere else from which to construct the higher-level structures. An obvious example is how orbits at the astronomical level, of planets around stars and moons around planets, resemble the orbitals of electrons around the nuclei of the atoms of which these astronomical objects are composed.

Even if we, at this point, cannot see how this works it still must be how it works because there is no information from anywhere else on how to construct the larger scales of matter. I find this concept of the flow of information through the universe to be very useful because it enables us to "look ahead" to things that haven't actually been discovered yet.

This theory is detailed in "The Flow Of Information Through The Universe" January 2016. Look at sections 25) THE MYSTERIOUS HEXAGON OF SATURN and 35) THE GREAT RED SPOT OF JUPITER.

Saturn also has a polar hexagon, a six-sided figure, although it is not in the same form as that of Jupiter. We saw in that section that the information for that hexagon comes from the molecule of methane, CH4. A molecule of methane, which is abundant on both Jupiter and Saturn, consists of one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms. A hydrogen atom has one electron and a carbon atom has six electrons. This is where the information comes from to create the six-sided hexagon.

We can see this principle on earth. Sometimes we can see sun dogs when sunlight is refracted through high cirrus or cirrostratuus clouds, which are composed of ice crystals. Each side of the sun dog is 22 1/2 degrees from the sun. If both sides of the sun dog are visible this makes 45 degrees. This is because the microscopic ice crystals are octagons, with eight sides, and 45 degrees is 1/8 of a complete circle.

Why do the ice crystals have eight sides? Because the ice crystals are made of frozen water. A molecule of water consists of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. An atom of hydrogen has one electron and an atom of oxygen has eight electrons. That is why the ice crystals have eight sides, the information from the molecules is the only information available from which to construct the ice crystals.

There is also water on Jupiter, from the impacts of comets over billions of years. The octagonal arrangement of storms on Jupiter comes from the information in water, for the same reason as the octagonal ice crystals on earth. The hexagonal arrangement at the other pole comes from the methane, as described above on Saturn. Jupiter and Saturn are different because Jupiter is larger and rotates faster. Jupiter is actually more massive than all of the other planets combined and has about three times the mass of Saturn, which is the second-largest planet.

Thursday, September 15, 2022

Farewell To Queen Elizabeth

The world isn't quite the same without Queen Elizabeth II. I am a native of Britain and she has been my queen for my entire life. The following postings all involve British royalty. There is a lot about the palaces and Crown Jewels in the visit to "London". "An Explanation Of Christianity" is so that you can see how Anglicanism, created by her namesake Elizabeth I, fits into the big picture of Chistianity.

London

St. George's Day, April 23, is my native England's national day. What I have done to celebrate is to combine together the short visits to London from several years ago. Today's visit also includes the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which are not in London, because these were in the same visit with Imperial College, which is in London.

PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS

If we go back to the beginning of photography, my information is that the Houses of Parliament Building in London is the most photographed building in the world. It an attractive building that is seen across the world as standing for democracy. The actual name of the building is the Palace of Westminster. It has the status of a royal palace, but a king or queen has never lived in it. The building is used to conduct Britain's parliament, which is the legislative branch of government.

The following five images are from the Wikipedia article "Palace of Westminster".

The Palace of Westminster is not extremely old. It was constructed in the Nineteenth Century, after the preceding building was destroyed by fire. The tower at the south end of the building is the Victoria Tower.

The tower at the north end of the building is the clock tower that houses Big Ben, which has become the symbol of London and of Britain. It was constructed in 1859. The actual name of the tower, but which no one seems to use, is the Elizabeth Tower, named for Elizabeth I. The building to the immediate right of Big Ben in the following image is Westminster Abbey, across the street from the Houses of Parliament, where most of the kings and queens have been crowned, married and, buried for nearly a thousand years.

Many large bells eventually crack at their weakest spot. But that can actually be a good thing, because it is what gives a bell it's distinctive sound.

The Prime Meridian, from where longitude and thus time is measured, passes through London. It is based on the Greenwich Observatory. You have probably heard of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) the universal standard time. This gives resonance to Big Ben, although it is not on the Prime Meridian but several km west of it. In the following image, from Google Street View, the building on the left is in the western hemisphere and the one on the right in the eastern hemisphere.

This is inside the Houses of Parliament, the palace of Westminster. Barack Obama is being shown around. Image from the Wikipedia article "Palace of Westminster".

This is Westminster Abbey. The following two images are from the Wikipedia article by that name.

It has long been forgotten, but Westminster Abbey and the site of the Houses of Parliament were once on an island in the Thames River, known as Thorney Island. One of the channels between the island and the mainland has long since been filled in, and the former island is remembered only in the name of a street.

The main royal residence, Buckingham Palace, and the residence of the Prime Minister, 10 Downing Street, are nearby. The first of the following images are from the Wikipedia article "Buckingham Palace" and the second is from the Wikipedia article "10 Downing Street".

The Magna Carta had been signed in 1215, limiting the power of the king. This shows the British way of doing things. The French royal family went under the guillotine, the Russian royal family went in front of the firing squad. But the British royal family accepted a compromise reduction in power, and so are still with us today.

In 1341, parliament had an upper and lower house for the first time. This is known as a bicameral legislature. The lower house is known as the House of Commons, and a British prime minister must retain the support of a majority in the House of Commons to stay in power. A prime minister would be replaced by his own ruling party any time he lost such a majority.

Under the parliamentary system of government, it is not often that a prime minister is replaced while in power. The countries that use the presidential system do not work this way, and a president cannot be readily removed and replaced by his own party if he becomes unpopular. For this reason there is no such thing as impeachment in the parliamentary system.

The U.S., France and the central and South American countries tend to use the presidential system. The rest of the democracies use the parliamentary system. Germany calls it's leader the chancellor, but it is really a prime minister.

The impression I get is that, if a king or queen is present, a country is likely to choose the parliamentary system so that the prime minister becomes the leader of the parliament which acts as a balance to the power of the monarchy, to create a democracy. But when there is no monarchy, the country effectively creates a temporary constitutional monarch in the form of a president, which is then balanced by a congress. In countries that have both a president and a prime minister, the president tends to be a mostly ceremonial position.

The primary difference between the two systems is that, in the parliamentary system, one is voting for the party rather than for the prime minister himself. The prime minister is simply the one selected by the ruling party to govern, and can readily be replaced by the party any time he becomes unpopular. In the presidential system, one is voting more for the leader himself, and a president cannot be readily removed while in power.

The parliamentary system is more flexible, and it would be very difficult for a prime minister to make himself into a dictator. The presidential system probably has more stability, since parliamentary governments often end up with a coalition government, if any one party fails to get a majority. A number of presidents, in countries that use the presidential system, have succeeded in making themselves effectively into dictators by manipulating the laws to allow unlimited consecutive terms.

Presidential democracies tend to have fixed term elections, while prime ministers have to hold elections within a fixed time frame, to remain in power, and can call the election at any time within the required time frame. The fixed-term elections of presidential systems make for long election cycles, and put much more emphasis on campaigning than in the parliamentary system. Countries that use the parliamentary system like it this way, claiming that a long campaign means that a party that is less-capable at governing can still manage to get into power by being better at campaigning.

The upper house of the British Parliament is the House of Lords. Unlike the House of Commons, whose members are elected, the Lords are appointed. In a way, the House of Lords is like a museum of British history. The Anglican Church, the Church of England, is assigned seats for bishops in the House of Lords. These bishops are known as the Lords Spiritual.

There are others in the House of Lords, known as the Lords Temporal. Many of these are hereditary peerages, where the nobility of medieval times lives on. The House of Lords used to have a judicial function as well, acting as Britain's highest court of appeals, but Britain now has a supreme court.

However, Britain is a true democracy and government revolves around the House of Commons. The House of Lords, while actually larger than the House of Commons, can only delay bills and not block them altogether.

As for one's opinion as to whether bishops and nobles should be actually involved in government in the Twenty-First Century, that depends on one's political views. There are a few liberals and socialists who would like to eliminate the House of Lords altogether.

Here is a refresher on the ranks of nobility, although it varied by country:

1) Emperor or Empress-an emperor is above a king because an emperor, unlike the king, might rule more than one country. Also, no one is above an emperor although a king might be under the rule of an emperor or of another king.

2) King or Queen

3) Archduke

4) Prince or Princess-usually a child of a king or queen, but is also a separate title of nobility. The fact that Wales, now a part of Britain, used to be a principality lives on today in the royal title "Prince of Wales". But this does not mean that the holder of the title is Welsh. Britain gives the title "Prince of Wales" to the next in line for king, what other monarchies call the "heir apparent" or the "Crown Prince".

5) Duke or Duchess

6) Count or Countess

7) Baron or Baroness

8) Knight- a squire was a young apprentice knight. In Feudalism, a knight was given the use of land, by a Lord, in exchange for military service. A knight was expected to be brave, even to the point of being foolish.

9) Yeoman-was a servant to a noble family.

It is no coincidence that the modern military ranks of Field Marshall, General, Colonel, Major, Lieutenant, Sergeant, Corporal and, Private, closely parallel the medieval ranks of nobility.

Here are some scenes at and around the Parliament Buildings. Big Ben, the clock tower, has the historical resonance that all great monuments must have because the Prime Meridian, from which longitude and thus time is measured, is defined from London. The building that looks like a cathedral, across the street from the Parliament Buildings, is Westminster Abbey. It is not considered as an ordinary cathedral, because it is where kings and queens have been crowned, married and, buried, for nearly a thousand years. This is far older than the Parliament Buildings.

If something looks a little bit out of place in these images, it is likely that you are in a country that drives on the right side of the road, while Britain drives on the left.

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 previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.4992598,-0.1260288,3a,75y,38.45h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sOJuXqmzDdeItEkOrManVKQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DOJuXqmzDdeItEkOrManVKQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D26.30552%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

WHITEHALL AND ST. JAMES

Let's visit the two adjacent areas of London known as Whitehall and St. James. Both are right in the center of London, and immediately north of the Parliament Buildings.

Whitehall is a street which gives it's name to the district. The street is the center of Britain's government and runs from the Parliament Buildings to Trafalgar Square. Adjoining St. James is an exclusive area adjacent to Buckingham Palace and being named for St. James Palace, built by Henry VIII (The Eighth), that was the royal residence before Buckingham Palace was built.

Whitehall extends northward from the "Parliament Buildings", which we have just visited. You can see the Parliament Buildings, and the top of Big Ben, at the southern end of Whitehall. The following image is from the Wikipedia article "Whitehall".

Whitehall was originally the name of a great palace, that was the royal residence from 1530-1698, before nearby St. James Palace. Whitehall Palace was believed to be the largest palace in Europe. Henry VIII, who is considered to have reigned at the peak of Britain's monarchy, actually died at Whitehall Palace.

There were two separate fires at Whitehall Palace, the first in 1691 and the second seven years later. What remains of the palace today is known as the Banqueting House. This is the Banqueting House. The origin of the name "Whitehall" is really simple, it refers to the color of the building stone in the area.

For this visit, I decided to use mostly the Geograph project that is photographing all of Britain and Ireland.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5324507

One of the most prominent buildings in Whitehall is the Horse Guards Building, from the mid-18th Century. The area behind the building has been a parade ground for centuries.

A http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/894263

B http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1409551

C http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1021951

D http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5654010

The Cenotaph, on Whitehall Street, is considered as Britain's most important war memorial.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1417686

Around Whitehall there are many statues. At the Admiralty Building is a statue of Captain James Cook. He was the first European to discover Hawaii, and why there is a British flag on the state flag of Hawaii. Did you know that a Hawaiian flag is a combination of a British and a Russian flag?

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5600221

The following image is from the Wikipedia article "Flag of Hawaii".

Until the 1960s, this was Britain's version of the Pentagon. Like the Pentagon, it is an oddly-shaped building.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3101389

Admiralty House used to be the headquarters of the navy, and prime ministers have also lived here.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5325031

The Old Treasury Building is also in Whitehall.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5347443

Off Whitehall runs Downing Street. 10 Downing Street is the residence of Britain's Prime Minister. It is within easy walking distance of both the Parliament Buildings and Buckingham Palace.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2956421

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5460596

The reason that the police are referred to as "Scotland Yard" is simply the street that it was located on, running off Whitehall. Ironically, a dismembered female body was found when the foundation of the police building was being dug and the mystery has never been solved.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3154497

There is also entertainment on Whitehall.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2064248

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1419082

Whitehall is separated from St. James by The Mall, the ceremonial royal route that leads from Trafalgar Square to Buckingham Palace.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4473001

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2982981

When a foreign leader is visiting, flags of that nation may be alternated with the British flags along The Mall. Don't forget that, if something seems out-of-place in these photos, it is because Britain drives on the left side of the road.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2068712

The Mall goes through the Admiralty Arch, which was built in 1912.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3545811

The adjacent district of St. James is named, of course, for St. James Palace. Henry VIII (the eighth) was fond of red brick palaces, and this was the royal residence before Buckingham Palace was built. There wasn't room in the middle of London to build the vast palace complex that Henry really wanted, so he built what is now called Hampton Court Palace to the southwest of London. The following scenes are of St. James Palace. You can see in the posting on this blog, "Hampton Court Palace And The King James Bible", how Hampton Court is of the same design as St. James, but takes up far more space.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2984189

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5695754

Next to St. James Palace is Marlborough House. This is actually the headquarters of the Commonwealth. It is not really the "British Commonwealth", as it is sometimes referred to, because all nations of the Commonwealth are equal partners. More than one-quarter of the nations of the world are members of the Commonwealth. The nations of the Commonwealth do all that they can to make the world a better place.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1092495

In the middle of St. James is the square of that name. The library on the square is typical of the architecture of St. James.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/715713

Like Marlborough House, many of the buildings in the St. James district originated as homes of the nobility. Here are some other former such homes nearby. The former Clarendon House is not there any more.

The following image is from the Wikipedia article "Clarendon House".

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5584970

One of the best-known organizations in St. James is the Royal Society. It is located in Carlton House Terrace. The Royal Society is the world's original organization dedicated to the promotion of science.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/613338

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3075020

England has always valued science. As one example, everything is made of atoms. Did you know that all three components of the atom, electrons, protons and, neutrons, were all discovered in England?

There have traditionally been a lot of exclusive clubs located in the St. James area.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/846256

There are a number of equestrian statues around London. Some people believe that if the horse has both front feet off the ground in the statue, it means that the rider died in battle. If the horse has one foot lifted, it means that the rider was wounded in battle. If both feet are on the ground then the rider was never wounded in battle. But other people say that this is not true.

I am a native of England, although not of London. The place where I had originally come from is what we saw in the posting on this blog, "Placid Britain". The wider area is seen in the posting "Gloucestershire And Herefordshire". If you wonder why British counties are called "shires", it is because "county" is a term that was introduced by the Normans, and the name of shire is from before that.

CENTRAL LONDON

Here is Piccadilly Circus, the major traffic circle with the prominent electric advertising. The following image is from the Wikipedia article "Piccadilly Circus".

This is the nearby Admiralty Arch, which connects Trafalgar Square to the Mall which leads to Buckingham Palace. Other scenes of central London include Piccadilly Circus. The building in Trafalgar Square, with the pillars at the entrance, and the dome right above it, is the National Gallery of art:

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5066543,-0.1289217,3a,90y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sg8q-i6ne8WCRgLrniIN4oQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

The area of London where the financial district is located is referred to as "The City" or "The Square Mile". Westminster, where the palace and government buildings are located, is technically a separate city but most people just refer to it all as London.

These two places, Guildhall and Mansion House, are where this part of London, known as "The City" is run from. The following two images are from the Wikipedia article "City of London".

This is the British Museum and the following image is from the Wikipedia article by that name.

I was at the British Museum, but I really didn't spend enough time there. It is like a trip through the history of all the world. Among many other famous artifacts are the Standard of Ur. The following image is from the Wikipedia article by that name.

And the Cyrus Cylinder. The following image is from the Wikipedia article by that name.

And, of course, the Rosetta Stone. The following two images are from the Wikipedia article by that name.

Here is the well-known "Reading Room" of the British Museum. I saw it before it was moved because of lack of space. This is a library within the British Museum that has been used by many great writers and national leaders. In the days before the internet, this was the place to be for access to information.

It is perhaps best-known for being the place where Karl Marx, a German Jew in exile in London, wrote his theories. London has been a popular place for exile and university study, and the Reading Room has also been used by Vladimir Lenin, Mahatma Gandhi, Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Founder of Pakistan) and, Sun Yat-Sen (who could be considered as the founder of modern China). The following two images are from the Wikipedia article "British Museum Reading Room".

Can you believe that Bashar Assad, the embattled former president of Syria, once had a peaceful life as a student at the Western Eye Hospital in London? He was called back home, to prepare for future leadership, when his older brother was killed in an accident. He took over leadership when his father, Hafez, died in 2000. The following image is from the Wikipedia article "Western Eye Hospital".

Nearby is the Tower of London, which is a very old fortress. The following four images are from the Wikipedia article "Tower of London".

The central building in the Tower of London is the White Tower.

The other major structure is the Waterloo Block.

Many people have been imprisoned in the Tower of London over the centuries. This includes Queen Elizabeth I, the founder of the Anglican Church, while her half-sister Mary was ruling and doing her best to restore Catholicism to England by force. The Crown Jewels are on display in the Tower of London. Viewers cannot stop to look at the jewels, everyone is taken through on a moving sidewalk. This is one of the crowns.

I am pleased to find out that the dispute over the Kohinoor Diamond has been resolved. As a native of Britain, it would be fine with me to give the diamond back to India, if it is that important. The situation is complicated by the fact that Pakistan and Afghanistan also claim the diamond. Britain is fascinated by diamonds, but doesn't have any of it's own. So, all of the diamonds in the Crown Jewels must have come from somewhere else. But there are enough Indians and Pakistanis in London that everyone can see it if it is on display there.

Here are the three photos of the Tower of London from the posting "Travel Photos Of Europe".

Next to the Tower of London is Tower Bridge. This is built in the form of two towers, and built as a compliment to the adjacent Tower of London. Tower Bridge is nowhere near as old as the Tower of London, having been built near the end of the Nineteenth Century.

In 1968, a Royal Air Force (RAF) jet pilot was upset that the Ministry of Defense did not intend to have a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the RAF. So, he decided to stage his own celebration by flying low past the Parliament Buildings and through Tower Bridge, below the upper walkway. While it was decided not to proceed with criminal charges against the pilot, the stunt did bring his flying career to an end. My image.

The following imagery begins at the massive stone Bank of England building. Banks are not something that many people have great affection for, at least not since the Crash of 2008, but the Bank of England building is affectionately nicknamed "The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street".

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5135247,-0.0887269,3a,75y,16.58h,91.69t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sZLxN1Q0ufVShi88nFargiQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DZLxN1Q0ufVShi88nFargiQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D305.87515%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656

London has always been about the old and the new together. If you think that the shapes of some of the modern buildings look out of place among London's older buildings, such as the one whose sides curve like a telephone handset, you have a significant amount of company. But some people were saying the same thing about Tower Bridge in 1898.

You may notice in Europe that historically Catholic countries tend to keep old and new buildings separate while historically Protestant countries are more likely to mix them together. The Catholic mentality seems to be that a building should "fit in" with it's surroundings while the Protestant mentality is that too much "fitting in" is not good for freedom.

The domed building is the 17th Century St. Paul's Cathedral. Here are two interior photos, looking in opposite directions. Both images are from the Wikipedia article "St. Paul's Cathedral".

Here is some images of the area, starting inside the cathedral:

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5138751,-0.0985528,3a,75y,145.16h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-tHr5u3NG1ig%2FVSnDgaMM5BI%2FAAAAAAAAnR4%2FdfgqWtbDQ84!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh3.googleusercontent.com%2F-tHr5u3NG1ig%2FVSnDgaMM5BI%2FAAAAAAAAnR4%2FdfgqWtbDQ84%2Fw203-h101-n-k-no%2F!7i3584!8i1792

There is some history in this part of London that does not deserve to be forgotten. 3.5 km to the northeast of the Reading Room in the British Museum, where Karl Marx worked on his theories, much of the history of the Twentieth Century took shape. It is not discussed much nowadays, but Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin and, Leon Trotsky once met in London.

The future course of Communism was decided in, of all places, a church in London. In 1907, the Fifth Congress of the Russian Social Democrat Labour Party was held in the Brotherhood Church on Southgate Road. The debate was between the Bolsheviks, who wanted to violently overthrow the Tsar's government, and the Mensheviks, who sought a more peaceful path to power.

The Bolsheviks got their way and, ten years later, the October Revolution would change the world.

KENSINGTON AND THE CRYSTAL PALACE

There is a small royal palace in Hyde Park, Kensington Palace. The following image is from the Wikipedia article by that name. This is where Queen Victoria was born.

In 1851, what is known simply as the Great Exhibition was held in London's Hyde Park. The main purpose was to display the latest technology and to celebrate industry. The following image is from the Wikipedia article "The Great Exhibition".

The exhibition was a success and there was considerable money left over afterward. It was decided to use the money to start a nearby complex of buildings, immediately south of Hyde Park, to further knowledge and culture. The effort was organized by Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert.

These two images, from Google Street View, are of the Prince Albert Memorial.

The results of this effort were the Royal Albert Hall, for music and other performances, and the Royal College of Music. The Victoria and Albert Museum (the V & A) is among the few largest art museums in the world. Also created with these funds was Imperial College.

The following four images, from Google Earth and Street View, show the Royal Albert Hall, which is circular in form. The first two have the Albert Memorial in the foreground.

The two important museums that were formed were the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. Among the exhibits in the Science Museum are some of the surviving original steam engines, the first jet engine and, one of the Apollo space capsules.

Here are some views of the projects of knowledge and culture, that started with the Great Exhibition of 1851, beginning inside the Royal Albert Hall.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5010678,-0.1773481,3a,75y,29.63h,89.91t,0.08r/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1shaLrZunOKQIAAAQ1y8i62w!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DhaLrZunOKQIAAAQ1y8i62w%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D83.8578%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

The exhibition hall, the first large structure to be made of glass, was disassembled after the exhibition and reassembled in south London, where it became known as the Crystal Palace. The following two images are from the Wikipedia article by that name.

For more than eighty years, the Crystal Palace served as a general exhibition hall. The area of London around it also became known as Crystal Palace. Millions of people saw it and it might be considered as the building that brought the world into modern architecture.

It has a direct influence on any number of buildings across the world, such as the Infomart in Dallas. The following image is from the Wikipedia article "Infomart".

And the Citi Europe Mall, on the French side of the English Channel Tunnel that we saw in the posting "Travel Photos Of Europe". My image.

A few decades after the Great Exhibition of 1851 would come another exhibition, the Exposition Universelle, held in 1889 in Paris. The exhibition was held to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. The entrance arch to the exhibition was the tallest structure ever built, and became known as the Eiffel Tower.

If we put the massive glass structure of the Crystal Palace together with the tall metal frame structure of the Eiffel Tower, we get modern glass skyscrapers, and this is where they began.

Crystal Palace + Eiffel Tower = Modern Architecture

So great was the influence of the Crystal Palace that Crystal became a girls' name. If you know anyone named Crystal, they are named for the Crystal Palace.

One night in 1936, a fire started in a women's coatroom. Hundreds of firemen from across south London arrived, and prevented the fire from spreading, but couldn't save the building itself.

The site of this iconic building that influenced the world is now a park. The front stairway, and the foundation arches on either side of it, are still there, looking like the ruins of some ancient palace. The following image is from the Wikipedia article "The Crystal Palace".

Every once in a while, someone starts talking about rebuilding the Crystal Palace. But with all of the stadiums around, there is doubt that it is really necessary. In the following scenes, you can see the stairs and foundation arches that can be seen in front of the building in the photo above.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.4222418,-0.0736578,3a,75y,352h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-yB8xog0t7HU%2FV5e4MAx3pkI%2FAAAAAAAADYA%2Fi1Y5I8jFanEdsxvs2TnVBGy5rNduPf5pgCLIB!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh4.googleusercontent.com%2F-yB8xog0t7HU%2FV5e4MAx3pkI%2FAAAAAAAADYA%2Fi1Y5I8jFanEdsxvs2TnVBGy5rNduPf5pgCLIB%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya71.62958-ro-0-fo100%2F!7i8704!8i4352

I actually consider the Eaton Centre in Toronto, which is the busiest shopping mall in North America, as the rebuilding of the Crystal Palace. The resemblance between the interiors, although not the exteriors, of the two are unmistakable. The Eaton Centre is supposedly modeled on the Galleria Victor Emmanuele II, in Milan, but Giuseppe Garibaldi once made a speech at the Crystal Palace and I believe the mall in Milan to also have been modeled on it.

Toronto once had it's own replica of the Crystal Palace, where the Horticulture Building stands now, but it was destroyed in 1906.

THE PHENOMENON OF QUEEN VICTORIA

She was barely five feet (152 cm) tall, and became queen as a teenager because all of the other heirs to the throne had died. The following image is from the Wikipedia article "Queen Victoria".

At the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, "Victoria" was a rarely-seen name for a girl. But today, a Google search for "Victoria" brings up more then a billion hits. The name of Victoria is found across the world, for cities, towns, streets, hills, mountains, parks and, islands, and just about everything else. The latter two-thirds of the Nineteenth Century are known as the Victorian Era. The term "Victorian" is also applied to a wide variety of things from furniture and architectural styles to general way of life.

She is also known as the "Grandmother of Europe". The royal houses of Europe are more interrelated then most people realize. At Victoria's death, in 1901, her oldest grandson was present, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. Another grandson would become king George V of Britain. A cousin was Czar Nicholas II, of Russia. Tsarina Alexandra, the Tsar's queen, was Victoria's granddaughter.

Could she imagine that, thirteen years after her death, they would be embroiled in a war with each other like the world had never seen before, the First World War. They all respected her. What if she had lived, maybe the war would not have happened. But her grandchildren couldn't get along with each other.

Queen Victoria was the longest-serving British sovereign, until that record was broken by her great-great granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II. A great-great grandson of Queen Victoria is the once-popular long-time king of Spain, Juan Carlos I, making him a distant cousin of Queen Elizabeth.

OXFORD, CAMBRIDGE AND, IMPERIAL COLLEGES

The oldest English-language university is at Oxford. In 1167, King Henry II forbade English students from going to the Sorbonne (University of Paris) to study. So, they started their own university at Oxford. It was already the site of teaching.

What is known as Oxford University is today many separate colleges. Oxford was originally known for it's classic education. A student used to have to know ancient Greek and Latin to get into Oxford.

The number of important people who have been educated at Oxford is far too long to list here. Dozens of leaders of nations across the world went to Oxford. The Rhodes Scholarship is probably the most prestigious scholarship in the world.

Oxford is the world's university. It may be that, when the leader of one nation visits the leader of another, they reminisce about their student days at Oxford.

This is the well-known dining hall at Christ Church College which, with stained glass windows, looks like a cross between a palace and a cathedral. The following two images are from the Wikipedia article "University of Oxford".

A student at Oxford, Roger Bannister, was the first human to run a mile in under four minutes. Until then, it was thought by many to be beyond human capability. When it comes to recreation today, Oxford students are known especially for their rowing competitions.

Here is a look around Oxford, starting at All Souls College.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.7535948,-1.2529382,3a,75y,258.85h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sIFkcwW8yCJBRfTUPBdRIqg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DIFkcwW8yCJBRfTUPBdRIqg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D252.33197%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656

Not far from Oxford is Blenheim Palace, built in the Eighteenth Century, which we can take a quick detour to have a look at. This is where Winston Churchill was born. When I was there, I recall that they made their own ice cream to sell. My images.

I have wondered if Blenheim Palace could have contributed to the building of Buckingham Palace, where the monarch now lives. Blenheim Palace is not a royal palace, it belonged to nobles. Much of England's history was shaped by competition between royalty and nobility. When Blenheim Palace was built, the royal family was still living in St. James Palace. Blenheim Palace is far more palatial then St, James Palace, and I wonder if the royals of the time could have responded by having Buckingham Palace built.

Here is Blenheim Palace, starting in one of the dining rooms:

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.8412861,-1.3608469,3a,75y,75.03h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-gwLFGG4afFQ%2FUzliEzjHVMI%2FAAAAAAAAvtg%2Fh7Aoqgc78sMYvoR0EBtPlHGoUZy9Qh_Iw!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh6.googleusercontent.com%2F-gwLFGG4afFQ%2FUzliEzjHVMI%2FAAAAAAAAvtg%2Fh7Aoqgc78sMYvoR0EBtPlHGoUZy9Qh_Iw%2Fw203-h101-n-k-no%2F!7i9564!8i4782

Dissension between university students and local townsfolk, known as "town and gown", is nothing new. This led some students to abandon Oxford and start a new university somewhere else. The new university was to become known as Cambridge. Like Oxford, it actually consists of many separate colleges.

My impression of Cambridge is that it has a strong emphasis on mathematics. I have the idea that any graduate of Cambridge, no matter what they majored in, is also a mathematician. The first person that comes to mind as associated with Cambridge is Sir Isaac Newton. It has been a haven for many other scientists such as Paul Dirac, who correctly theorized the existence of antimatter. During the time after the Reformation, Cambridge was known for it's association with Puritanism, rather than with the new Anglican Church.

Like Oxford, there are many high-tech industries and start-ups that have been spun off from the university. The area around Cambridge is sometimes referred to as "Silicon Fen", for the industries associated with computers. Whereas America has one "Silicon Valley", Britain has it's computer industries scattered among several different centers. Brighton, on the south coast, is one, and this Silicon Fen is another, building on Cambridge's history in the early history of computers.

One graduate of Cambridge was named John Harvard. He later crossed the ocean to what was then the colony of Massachusetts, and started his own university that today bears his name.

In the architecture of Cambridge University, notice that twin towers on either side of an entrance way are often seen, that are of the same design as those at St. James Palace, in London. This was the red brick palace, built by Henry VIII (The Eighth), where the royal family lived until Buckingham Palace was built. The following image is from the Wikipedia article "St. James Palace".

This is a similar set of twin towers, at the Tower of London. My image.

Here are two sets of the twin towers at Cambridge. Image from Google Earth.

Here is a look around Cambridge University, starting in the chapel of King's College:

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.2047912,0.1166117,3a,75y,268.52h,95.75t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-JpyKRzWDs1A%2FVAGW6oLV6ZI%2FAAAAAAAAARg%2F3qtLfm6U_h8DyTeN8DDZv3rYkdAHttY5g!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh4.googleusercontent.com%2F-JpyKRzWDs1A%2FVAGW6oLV6ZI%2FAAAAAAAAARg%2F3qtLfm6U_h8DyTeN8DDZv3rYkdAHttY5g%2Fw203-h101-n-k-no%2F!7i10240!8i5120

There was money left over from the Great Exhibition of 1851. The building was dismantled and reassembled in south London as the Crystal Palace, as described above. The following image is from the Wikipedia article "The Great Exhibition".

The money was used to set up a number of educational and cultural institutes just south of Hyde Park, where the exhibition had been held. These institutes include that are now the Royal Albert Hall, the Victoria and Albert Museum (which is actually the largest art museum in the world), The Natural History Museum, The Science Museum and, The Imperial Institute.

The Imperial Institute is now known as Imperial College, in the Kensington area of London close to the related institutes. There are other Imperial College campuses around London. This is a very highly rated university, which educates a large number of students. It is where penicillin was discovered, which may be the most important development ever made in medicine.

Imperial College is not all housed in Nineteenth Century buildings. There is the artistic "Blue Cube" building which is in keeping with London's tradition of putting the old and new right next to one another. Here is a look around Imperial College and the other related institutes, from the days after the Great Exhibition of 1851. Remember that the cylindrical building is the Royal Albert Hall:

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.4987858,-0.1757108,3a,75y,78.82h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-Lc-uvtVnSpI%2FUlWXFnyIb4I%2FAAAAAAABFCE%2Fq0EoXIFj9ZYM-BX7KAgQKCcio9CxmSxtA!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh6.googleusercontent.com%2F-Lc-uvtVnSpI%2FUlWXFnyIb4I%2FAAAAAAABFCE%2Fq0EoXIFj9ZYM-BX7KAgQKCcio9CxmSxtA%2Fw240-h100-n-k-no%2F!7i4128!8i1713

CANARY WHARF

Canary Wharf is one of the two financial centers in London, the other being the traditional finance area, known simply as "The City". Well over 100,000 people work in Canary Wharf. It is to the east of central London.

The idea of this development, as a "new downtown" in London, came about in the 1980s, by way of a Toronto company called Olympia and York. In 1975, this company had constructed the tallest building in Toronto, aside from the CN Tower. The company also built many of the buildings on Manhattan. The following image is from the Wikipedia article "First Canadian Place".

The tallest building in the Canary Wharf development, with the pyramid roof, is called One Canada Square. The red lights are aircraft warning lights, because London City Airport is not far away. The following image is from the Wikipedia article "Canary Wharf".

Unfortunately, demand for property had decreased and the project brought about the bankruptcy of the company. Transportation to Canary Wharf was also an issue. It took time to complete the extension of the Jubilee Line, of the "Underground" or subway, that serves Canary Wharf today. Heathrow, Britain's major airport, was far away, on the other side of London, from Canary Wharf.

Before the Jubilee Line Extension to it was complete, it was accessible from central London by the Docklands Light Railway. The following image is from the Wikipedia article by that name.

Today, Canary Wharf is the financial center that it was intended to be and is easily accessible through Canary Wharf Station, on the Jubilee Line. The following two images are from the Wikipedia article "Canary Wharf Tube Station".

These four images of Canary Wharf are from Google Earth.

This is inside the O2 complex, just across the river from Canary Wharf, and some more views of Canary Wharf from the east.

To the south of the O2 complex and Canary Wharf is Greenwich Park. It is from the Royal Observatory in Greenwich Park that the Prime Meridian is measured. This means that Canary Wharf is in the Western Hemisphere but the nearby O2 complex, with the white shell roof, is in the Eastern Hemisphere. The park where the 2012 Olympics were held is just north of here, and is also just at the edge of the Western Hemisphere.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5030431,0.0042377,3a,75y,71.94h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-kU56ZkLwcHs%2FV5ZdKLeiFtI%2FAAAAAAABZMc%2FvPm1XII6z40svy6lzAH3qoaddnrxLnV6gCJkC!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh6.googleusercontent.com%2F-kU56ZkLwcHs%2FV5ZdKLeiFtI%2FAAAAAAABZMc%2FvPm1XII6z40svy6lzAH3qoaddnrxLnV6gCJkC%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-3.1991224-ya220.12785-ro5.6814756-fo100%2F!7i5376!8i2688

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