Introduction To This Blog System

                                                                                 

Image used by permission

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

Blogs are organized to be read from top to bottom like a book. There is a list of the postings on each blog to the right of the blog, but you have to click on the months shown. Please use this listing to verify that you have seen all of the postings on the blog. The usual pace of this blog is 1-3 new postings per week.

 

I would really like to thank everyone who reads any of these blogs for your interest.

 

SCIENCE WRITING

 

Most of the postings on this blog are visits to various places around the world, and articles about such topics as history and religion. But much of the writing is about science. I do not write about what is already known but only if I can write something new, or at least a new way of looking at things. If the title of a posting has an asterisk* after it, that means that the posting has already been moved to it's permanent position and will later be deleted from here.

 

If you would like a quick background in the science and mathematics that everyone should really know in the 21st Century, the posting "Scientific Literacy" provides this in about a hundred paragraphs. Similarly, "The Way Things Work" provides a quick background in everyday technology.

 

I am a Christian and I want to show that belief in God is not unscientific at all. I was interested in science long before I was interested in religion, and have never had any trouble believing that God created everything.

 

There are five major scientific theories, each arranged in the form of a textbook. The first four of the following five are on this blog.

 

"The Theory Of Stationary Space" is my cosmological theory of how so much revolves around time being explained by us being in four-dimensional space, with the dimension that we cannot access being perceived as time. This is my version of string theory, with matter actually being strings in four dimensions rather than particles in three dimensions. Everything is ultimately based on negative and positive electric charges, with energy being able to overcome the laws of attraction and repulsion of electric charges. No one has ever explained exactly what time is, and a myriad of explanations of other things fall right into place around it.

 

"The Flow Of Information Through The Universe" is about how so much can be explained by seeing how there is a limited amount of information, and it must be the same information that constructs the highest levels as the lowest levels. A ready example is how the orbits of planets around the sun is based on the orbitals of electrons around the nucleus, in the atoms of which the sun and planets are composed. This concept is extremely useful because, understanding this, we can study things that we cannot directly see by analyzing things that we can see because all must be built on the same information.

 

"The Theory Of Complexity" is about what information actually is, how energy and information is really the same thing, and how we see the universe as we do because of our perspective of being at a higher level of information than our inanimate surroundings.

 

"The Lowest Information Point" is about how, since information and energy is really the same thing and the universe always seeks the lowest energy state, it also always seeks the "Lowest Information Point". So much is explained by how the universe prefers equalities to inequalities and related ratios where the numerator of one ratio is also the denominator of the other. This explains so much from why dust particles are as big as they to why the planets and stars are the scale that they are.

 

"The Story Of Planet Earth", on the geology blog, is about how virtually every major feature of the earth's surface, both on land and seafloor, can be explained by lines of magma emergence from below that were affected by the landing of three Continental Asteroids. Many people believe that land originated from a past "super-continent", but there is no explanation of where it came from.

 

There are a few of what we could call "minor" theories, where there is not as much written as with the major theories. On this blog, there is "How Biology And Human Life Fits Into Cosmology". On the meteorology and biology blog, there is my theory of the nature of water, "Water Made Really Simple".

 

There are compound postings about science which are groupings of writing about a certain topic.

 

Scientific compound postings include, "Computer Science", "Atomic Science", "Measurement", "A Celebration Of The Inverse Square Law", "Our Solar System", "Mind-Bending Cosmology", "The Configuration Of The Solar System Made Really Simple", "In Appreciation Of Electrons", "The Science Of Human Society " and "Orbital And Escape Velocities And Impacts from Space".

 

Compound postings about history and the world include "The House Of Holy Wisdom, Where The Modern World Began", "New Insights Into Bible Prophecy", "Economics", "How History Repeats Itself", "The Meaning Of Freedom", "The Western Hemisphere", "Our Language" and, "America And The Modern World Explained By Way Of Paris".

 

There are two compound postings about prophecies and the Bible. There is "The Aztec Prophecy" than, for prophecies that are directly made in the Bible there is "New Insight Into Bible Prophecy".

 

"Investigations" is the compound posting that is a collection of any posting about an investigation.

 

The rest of the postings are individual postings. For more detailed information about this blog, see the posting "About This Blog". For general topics of conversation, see "Thoughts And Observations", on the world and economics blog.  

Other Blogs And Books

                                  

Lights at night 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Athens And The Beginnings Of Greece

Ancient Greece is all around us. Our alphabet is based on the Greek alphabet. The word "alphabet" comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta. Greek letters are used to denote scientific and mathematical constants. The best-known of these is pi, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to it's diameter. Pi is the Greek predecessor of our letter P.

The idea of using an alphabet to write, letters representing the phonetic components of speech, is actually a Phoenician idea. The name "Phoenician" is where, of course, words like "phonetic" and "phone" came from.

But it is the Greek alphabet that became the predecessor of the Latin alphabet that is so widely used today. Science and math students are familiar with Greek letters as constants like delta ( which became D), representing change, epsilon (E), sigma (S), rho (R), gamma (C) and, tau (T).

The ideas of both democracy and that matter consists of atoms both come from Democritus, for whom is named "democracy". Democritus also introduced the concept that, if we keep cutting something in half, eventually we will come to a piece that cannot be cut further, in other words atoms. The word "atom" is from the Greek and means "cannot be cut".

The Greek contributions to fields like drama and philosophy are far too extensive to go into here.

Thucydides and Herodotus are two renowned historians from ancient Greece.

Doctors take the Hippocratic Oath, name for the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates.

The famed boulevard, the Champs Elysees in Paris, is actually named for the ancient Greek Eleusinian Mysteries.

There are believed to have been four tribes of ancient Greeks. These were the Ionians, the Dorians, the Aeolians and, the Achaeans. The city of Athens was populated by Ionians. Columns on buildings often use one of three styles. These are the Ionic, for the Ionians, the Doric, for the Dorians and the Corinthian, for the Greek city of Corinth.

The modern imitation of such architecture is known as neoclassical. An example of neoclassical architecture, modeled on that of ancient Greece, is the British Museum. The columns with the "scrolls" at the top are the Ionic Order.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Museum#/media/File:British_Museum_from_NE_2_(cropped).JPG

The original Greece was called Mycenean, from 1600 to 1100 B.C. after a central town. It has become known for it's elaborately painted pottery. Mycenean Greek civilization ended with what is known as the "Bronze Age Collapse", in the eastern Mediterranean. This collapse was followed later by what is known as Archaic Greece.

The well-known Greek alphabet originated in Classical Greece, which came after Archaic Greece. But early Mycenean Greece had a writing system that has been called "Linear B".

Here is a look at the ruins of Mycenae. This was the center of the "original" Greece. The "classical" Greece that has contributed so much to the world, and which revolved around the city of Athens, came centuries later. The first three scenes of Mycenae are from Google Street View.

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

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7308722,22.75636,3a,75y,259.78h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOwr8B-Rtjkit9FxHCsz_UTIXMBSfU697GsaH3g!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOwr8B-Rtjkit9FxHCsz_UTIXMBSfU697GsaH3g%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi3.0910087-ya120.341515-ro3.9932933-fo100!7i5760!8i2880

After the era of Mycenean Greece, Archaic Greece formed from a collection of city-states and was the predecessor of "Classical Greece" with which the world has become so familiar because so much about the world originated there.

Classical Greece was in conflict with Persia, which it displaced as at least the western world's most important power, in the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. There were five major battles between the Persian Empire and their rebellious Greek subjects.

The Greeks, in what must have been the upset of the ages, won four out of the five. At Marathon, in 490 B.C, there was a great naval battle. The Persians could be said to have won at Thermopylae, but the Greeks triumphed in a land battle at Salamis, in 480 B.C. The fourth battle was on land at Plataea. The final was the Battle of Mycale.

Classical Greece is considered to have concluded with the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C., and the fragmentation of the vast empire that he had conquered soon after.

The Classical period of Greece is considered as the beginning of the world's most important center of power being in Europe. Classical Greece centered around Athens, although Syracuse in Sicily and the Alexandria that Alexander the Great founded in Greek-controlled Egypt were also very important.

What is known as the Delian League of Greek city-states, united to defend against the Persians, was led by Athens but it's control was resented by other cities and this led to a losing battle with Sparta, in southern Greece. This is known as the Peloponnesian War, named for the peninsula which comprises the southern third of Greece.

The town of Sparta, once the great rival of Athens, is still there today. These three images, from Google Street View, are of the ancient ruins and modern city of Sparta.

The canal is the Corinth Canal, from the Nineteenth Century, which technically makes the Peloponnesus into an island.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.074314,22.4303149,3a,75y,14.97h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sf6xxyqcyXwq6RapbX1prlQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Df6xxyqcyXwq6RapbX1prlQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D12.039402%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Another Greek city that was a rival of Athens was Thebes. It had sided with the Persians against Athens and also defeated Sparta. Thebes was eventually destroyed by Alexander the Great. If the name of Thebes sounds familiar, it is not because of this Greek city but because the capital city of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt was called Thebes, although that is what the Greeks renamed it after Alexander's conquest of Egypt.

Anyway, Thebes in Greece is still there today.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.3242531,23.3186664,3a,75y,274.63h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s79YxPesmmXCONOQhldx_Ew!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D79YxPesmmXCONOQhldx_Ew%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D274.62643%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

The time from the fragmentation of Alexander the Great's empire, after his death in 323 B.C. to the rise of the next world power, Rome, is referred to as the Hellenistic Era. Macedon, in northern Greece where Alexander was from, was the dominant state in the Hellenistic Era, as it had defeated both Athens and Thebes.

The name of Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua. That is why I believe that the reference in the Book of Zechariah, which was written before the Hellenistic Era, to a high priest named Joshua, who will "take away the sin of the world in one day" is actually foretelling Jesus by name.

In more modern times Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire but rebelled and gained it's freedom, just as it had from the Persian Empire so long before. In our visit to "Cairo", we saw that the Pasha Dynasty of Egypt, which had kind of broken free of the Ottoman Empire, assisted the Ottomans against the Greek rebellion of 1821.

Athens was made the capital of an independent Greece in 1834. The newly-independent Greece was originally a kingdom, but the monarchy was abolished in favor of the Second Republic. A military coup restored the monarchy in 1935. But the monarchy was abolished again, in favor of the Third Republic, in 1973. Greece was under military leadership from 1967 to 1974.

Pericles was the great leader of Athens who began the structures on the Acropolis, the famous hill around which Athens is built, in the Fifth Century B.C. "Acropolis" means "high city" and the best-known of these structures is the ruins of the temple known as the Parthenon. These four images of the Parthenon are from Google Earth.

Upon Greek independence, in the Nineteenth Century, structures that foreign powers had added to the Acropolis, the Byzantines, Franks and, Ottomans, were removed. The remains of a very old Mycenean structure can still be seen on the Acropolis.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.9716241,23.7271505,3a,75y,93.77h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipM-uey7jygFAhySlgRKmiWM_vgr5kBlzo8V_OqU!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipM-uey7jygFAhySlgRKmiWM_vgr5kBlzo8V_OqU%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya264.68976-ro0-fo100!7i7924!8i3962

The Zappeion can be considered as Athens' modern version of the Parthenon. The first image is from Google Earth.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.9710881,23.7365198,3a,75y,290.67h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNv2-tZ3dFMRDVitQ3s_zRJ3bb_7eKEq57VAHln!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNv2-tZ3dFMRDVitQ3s_zRJ3bb_7eKEq57VAHln%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-1.836274-ya288.89902-ro1.0028917-fo100!7i7200!8i3600

Another high place from which to view Athens is Mount Lycabettus. The first two images are from Google Street View. Does this remind anyone of Mount Royal?

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.9818145,23.7432339,3a,75y,61.42h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNoOc8plCZ-SBNJx28qh_EHo6WP4QC2oZI6RmPe!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNoOc8plCZ-SBNJx28qh_EHo6WP4QC2oZI6RmPe%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-3.3237612-ya167.82968-ro-0.7163811-fo100!7i5376!8i2688

Syntagma Square is often considered as the center of modern Athens. The first image is from Google Earth.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.9756757,23.734142,3a,75y,291.87h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPWX_8baLmT7ZPWAqox9lzESQJV3UKaQaB1HlF6!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPWX_8baLmT7ZPWAqox9lzESQJV3UKaQaB1HlF6%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya296.98315-ro-0-fo100!7i2508!8i1254

During the time of Classical Greece, a port was built near Athens. It is called Piraeus. Throughout it's history it has been raided, destroyed and rebuilt.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.9334337,23.6374165,3a,75y,142.83h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sMcRn1yMOjSYCEtrbBHJ1aA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DMcRn1yMOjSYCEtrbBHJ1aA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D149.11511%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Another well-known Athenian square is Omonoia Square. The first image is from Google Earth.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.984404,23.728243,3a,75y,273.81h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1shjYyOKBvbrmCgX3MjtblZA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DhjYyOKBvbrmCgX3MjtblZA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D274.83185%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

This is a neighborhood of Athens away from the city center.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.0240569,23.6988398,3a,75y,185.07h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sRrq6mnHGpCPh987jFbNh1A!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DRrq6mnHGpCPh987jFbNh1A%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D185.0668%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

The Olympic Games originated in ancient Greece. The first modern Olympics was held in Athens, in 1896. Since then, major cities across the world have vied to hold this ancient Greek competition. The Olympics were held again in Athens, in 2004. Here is where those Olympics were held.

(Just a thought- Is there ever going to be a Toronto Olympics)?

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.0383032,23.7797049,3a,75y,139.72h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sB_ewgTX-p5Q2NmmgnHje3w!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DB_ewgTX-p5Q2NmmgnHje3w%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D146.28194%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

The Golden Fleece And The Holy Crown

Has anyone ever noticed the great similarity between the story of the Golden Fleece, of ancient Greek Mythology, and the Holy Crown of Hungary?

One of the two most popular stories to be adopted from Greek mythology is the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece. A fleece is the fur from around the neck of a sheep or ram.

The Golden Fleece was a very special fleece, being from a divine ram. The Golden Fleece was a symbol of divine authority, and a legitimate king was absolutely required to be crowned with it. 

This is one of the two great stories from ancient Greece. The other is the Trojan War, and the two epics that center around it. The first is the Iliad, which takes place during the war. The second is the Odyssey, which tells the story of the journey home of Odysseus after the war. Both epics were written by Homer.

The thing that I find to be just so striking is the resemblance between the story of the Golden Fleece and that of the real-life Holy Crown of Hungary.

Like the Golden Fleece, the Holy Crown of Hungary is linked to a hero. Unlike the mythical Jason, St. Stephen was the real first king of Hungary, who Christianized the country.

Like the Golden Fleece, the Holy Crown of Hungary is considered to be absolutely essential that a legitimate Hungarian king be crowned with it. In fact, the Hungarian monarchy differs from others in that it is the crown itself that rules. The king is just someone deemed worthy to be crowned with it. The Holy Crown of Hungary is a coronation crown, used only for coronations and not worn on a daily basis.

Also like the Golden Fleece, the Holy Crown of Hungary has been lost and regained. The Holy Crown of Hungary has been lost and regained most recently when it was captured by U.S. forces, and taken to Fort Knox for safekeeping, near the end of the Second World War. U.S. President Jimmy Carter had the crown returned to Hungary, where it is prominently displayed today in a glass case in the Parliament Building.

The question is whether the story of the Golden Fleece directly influenced the Holy Crown of Hungary. The crown was actually made in Byzantium, which was the Greek-speaking former eastern half of the Roman Empire, centered on Constantinople.

Niagara Falls Glacial Effects

If visiting Niagara Falls don't forget about my tourist attractions on the Canadian side. The main attraction is, of course, the Falls. But you can see how glaciation has shaped the landscape perhaps better than anywhere else in the world, and right near the Falls.

Ice ages are characterized by much of the world's land area being covered by glaciers. These glaciers might have been 1-2 km thick. These glaciers began to form when it got cold enough so that the snow of one winter has not melted when the snow of the following winter begins to fall. The snow piles up year after year, decade after decade, and century after century. The weight of the snow above compacts it into ice.

The last ice age ended about 12,000 years ago. The glaciers that covered much of the world's land area began to melt and break apart. A loose piece of glacier slid across the underlying rock strata which, near the Falls, is tilted to the southwest. It collided with what is known as the Niagara Falls Moraine, which was deposited by glacial ice of the previous ice age.

The moving ice compacted the moraine and Queen Victoria Park is now on the area that was compacted. This is what formed the bluff on the west side of the park. This was all before the present Niagara River and the Falls were formed.

The red line in the following image from Google Earth is the bluff that I am referring to. The white areas are the Upper Rapids and the two Falls.

You can see the bluff without the red line because dark green trees grow all along it. Image from Google Earth.

What happened next is that the piece of glacier fractured laterally. Two great slabs of ice, each weighing millions of tons, crashed to earth. These formed what I refer to as "glacial impact craters". 

The yellow arc in the top image is the rise in elevation going toward Portage Road / Main Street as can be seen going westward on Ferry Street. I believe that this crater came first and then the second slab of ice slid off and formed the "valley" section of Valley Way, as indicated by the white line at the top. Much of the valley formed by this impact was erased by the vast amount of melting water from the ice flowing southward. I looked for more such craters but didn't find any.

Lundy's Lane is the continuation of Ferry Street to the west of the yellow arc. It is built upon a ridge that was formed by another piece of glacier, at the end of the last ice age, sliding southward and plowing up the land in front of it. The ice was melting at the same time and the ridge remains today where the sliding ice had melted so much that it couldn't push the soil in front of it anymore.

There is a red rock, upon which a plaque is mounted, in Leslie Park, at the intersection of Jepson Street and Valley Way. This is granite that is not native to the area. Granite like this is native to the Canadian Shield, far to the north. This is a broken piece of granite that was carried by the moving glacier and is known as a "glacial erratic".

In the first of the following two images from Google Street View the rock, with it's plaque, is seen between the two cars. In the second image it is seen from the side.

Remembering "The Wars Of The Gods"

On the subject of Greece an important posting was "The Wars Of The Gods". Here is a link to it.

www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-wars-of-gods.html?m=0

Iron And The Planetary Orbits

With so much attention on space, due to the recent eclipse and the northern lights, let's review this relationship that I noticed between iron and the distances to the planets.

Have you ever wondered why the orbits of the planets in the Solar System are spaced as they are? Each planet has it's own orbit around the sun, but these orbits are unevenly spaced. This is information which must have come from somewhere. There is a formula for the spacing of the orbits of the planets but still, the information must have come from somewhere.

Stars operate by fusing smaller atoms into larger ones. A star begins to shine when enough matter is brought together in space by gravity so that the gravitational force is enough to overcome the electron repulsion between atoms at the center of the mass so that smaller atoms are crunched together into larger ones. The larger atom contains less energy then the total of the smaller ones that went into forming it. The excess energy is released as radiation, and this is why stars shine.

Stars exist as an equilibrium between the inward gravitational force and the outward pressure of the energy from the fusion going on at the core of the star. Smaller atoms, beginning with the lightest element of hydrogen, are fused into successively larger, but fewer, atoms. The element iron is as far as the ordinary fusion process goes. The so-called "atomic number" of iron is 26. This means that an iron atom is defined as one having 26 protons in it's nucleus. There are more neutrons in the nucleus than protons, so that the total number of nucleons in the iron atom, which means both protons and neutrons, is 56.

You may notice that some elements are more common than others. That is because this fusion of lighter elements into heavier ones forms a "factor tree". First hydrogen, with one proton, is fused into helium, which has two protons. If three helium atoms get fused together, it forms an atom of carbon, which has six protons. If four helium atoms get fused together, it forms an atom of oxygen with eight protons.

But as the star uses up light atoms and gets to fusing heavier atoms together, into still heavier ones, the energy being released by the fusion increases, even though the energy released per nucleon decreases. This upsets the equilibrium between the inward force of gravity and the outward force of the energy from fusion.

What happens at this point depends on how large the star is. A star like the sun will swell into what is known as a "red giant". But the largest stars will actually explode, scattering their component matter across space. Much of the matter will fall back together by gravity to form what is known as a second-generation star, and planets typically form around such a second-generation star from the heavier elements that were thrown outward by the explosion.

We know for sure that the sun is such a second-generation star because we can see, by spectroscopy, that it contains a significant amount of heavy elements that are beyond it's present stage in the fusion process. At this stage, the sun operates by fusing four hydrogen atoms into one helium atom and releasing the excess energy as radiation.

This means that every atom in your body, and in the world all around you, was once part of a large star that exploded. We can see how the ordinary fusion process only goes as far as iron because of how common it is in the inner Solar System. Mercury contains so much iron that it's nickname is "The Iron Planet". The oxidation of iron is what gives Mars it's rust-like color. Iron is the most common element in the earth, by mass. In the inner Solar System, only the moon lacks a significant amount of iron.

What I mean by the ordinary fusion process is the so-called S-process, for "slow". This is the process that fuses together elements up to iron. Elements heavier than that are only formed during the actual explosion of the star, by the tremendous energy released. This is known as the R-process, for "rapid", and explains why elements that are heavier than iron tend to be exponentially less common then iron and lighter elements.

Some of these heavier elements that consist of lighter atoms that were crunched together by the energy of the R-process during the actual supernova explosion are less-than-stable, and gradually emit electromagnetic energy or particles in an effort to gain more stability. These emissions are known as radioactivity.

Like all elements that were formed by fusion, iron was put together by factors. Just as a number, such as 12, has the factors of 2, 3, 4 and, 6, the factors of iron are the smaller atoms that were crunched together by fusion, in several stages, to form iron with it's 26 protons and 56 overall nucleons. There are several routes by which smaller atoms could be crunched together to form an iron atom.

If we look at the common numerical factors that iron's 26 protons and 56 overall nucleons might have, the most obvious is that 56 = ( 4 x 4 ) + ( 4 x 10 ) and 26 = ( 4 x 4 ) + ( 1 x 10 ). So, if we were going to compare 26 and 56 in terms of their common factors, this would make the most sense because it is the least information state, meaning that it uses the least number of different numbers on each side of the equation.

The number of nucleons in an atom is information. But it is not all of the information that there is. Nucleons, whether protons or neutrons, are each made of three quarks, with two different arrangements of these quarks making either a proton or neutron. An up quark has a charge of + 2 / 3, while a down quark has a charge of - 1 / 3. Two up quarks and a down quark make a proton, with a net charge of +1. Two down quarks and an up quark make a neutron, with a net charge of zero. During fusion and radioactivity, a neutron can be made from a proton, or vice versa, by crunching an electron into a proton or ejecting one from a neutron.

So the star that preceded the sun exploded as a supernova, scattering it's matter across space. Some of it fell back together by gravity to form the sun and planets. There is information in the spacing of the planetary orbits, which could only have somehow come from the supernova. It has been known since the Eighteenth Century that there is a formula for the spacing of the planetary orbits, known as Bode's Law, but even so, according to my theory of how information flows through the universe, the information must have somehow come from the explosion of the supernova.

Suppose that we start with the numbers 0 and 3. The 3 represents the number of quarks that make up a nucleon, either a proton or neutron. The 0 represents the empty space in which both the nucleon and the entire Solar System exists. Remember how the information theory explains distance, whether or not it is empty space, as information.

Since two types of nucleons, protons and neutrons, make up the 56 nucleons in an iron atom, which is as far as the ordinary fusion process goes, let's then continue multiplying our 3 by successive multiples of 2, with each successive product representing the orbit of a planet.

This gives us 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 96, 192.

We still have our 4 and our 10 as described in the factors above. But if we add 4 to each number, we get:

4, 7, 10, 16, 28, 52, 100, 196.

If we then divide each number by our 10, we get:

.4, .7, 1, 1.6, 2.8, 5.2, 10, 19.6

Incredibly, these numbers are just about exactly representative of the relative distances of the planets from the sun, with the 2.8 representing the asteroid belt. Just by chance, the earth's distance from the sun is the 1. We sometimes refer to the average distance of the earth, 93 million miles or 145 million km, from the sun as one Astronomical Unit, or AU.

Another way of looking at it is that if we take out ( 2 x 3 ), multiply it by 10, and subtract 4, we get the 56 nucleons of iron, which is as far as the fusion process went before the supernova.

The supernova is an outward explosion, and thus a dramatic reversal of the inward fusion process. So if we start with the ( 2 x 3 ) and then undertake a mirror image reversal of the operations with the 4 and 10, we would add 4 and then divide by 10, and that would give us the sequence that is just about exactly representative of the distances of the orbits of the planets from the sun.

If the 1 of the earth's average distance from the sun is 93 million miles or 145 million km then the distances from the sun to the other planets would be as follows:

Mercury-37. 2 million miles or 58 million km
Venus-65.1 million miles or 101.5 million km
Mars-148.8 million miles or 232 million km
Center of asteroid belt-260.4 million miles or 406 million km
Jupiter-483 million miles or 754 km
Saturn-930 million miles or 1450 million km
Uranus-1822 million miles or 2842 million km

Considering that the 93 million miles or 145 million km is just an average distance of the earth from the sun, the earth is actually about 91 million miles, or 142 million km, from the sun in January and about 95 million miles, or 148 million km, in June, these figures are amazingly close to the actual distances of the planets from the sun.

The one planet that does not fit this model well is Neptune, the outermost planet after Uranus. The formula predicts that the orbit of Neptune should be 38.8 times as far from the sun as the earth, but it's average distance from the sun is actually only 30.1.

But if we apply this to Pluto, which is no longer considered as a planet, we find that it fits very well.

This formula predicting the orbital distances of planets from the sun has long been known. But it is information, and information must have come from somewhere. My theory of how information flows through the universe shows how it came from the information in the fusion process. After the star exploded, and much of the matter came back together by gravity to form the sun and Solar System, that information could not just be lost. It had to be manifested somehow.

Information and energy is really the same thing, because we cannot apply energy to anything without adding information to it, and we cannot add information to anything without applying energy to it. This information of the spacing of the planetary orbitals is energy also, the further out a planet orbits the more orbital energy it has.

There has been a lot of effort to find where this formula of the distances of the planets from the sun came from. The answer was right in front of us, we just had to apply this concept of how information flows through the universe, from lowest to highest levels, and how information, like energy, must be manifested and can never be created or destroyed, because information is really the same thing as energy.

If we start with our ( 2 x 3 ), multiply by 10 and then subtract 4, we get the 56 that is the number of nucleons in an iron atom which is the final stage in the fusion process of the large star before it explodes in the supernova which creates the new solar system with the planets.

If we then reverse this, because the outward supernova explosion which resulted in the formation of the planets is a reversal of the inward fusion which formed the iron, we start with the same ( 2 x 3 ) but from there reverse the formula, by adding 4 and dividing by 10, we get the sequence of numbers which describes the spacing of the planetary orbitals from the sun with amazing accuracy.

Library For Readers

Here is our library for your summer reading. I periodically collect postings of similar subject matter together into compound postings. They are of book-length or near-book-length. Here is an index of the compound postings, and a link to each posting.

HISTORY AND THE WORLD

"The House Of Holy Wisdom Where The Modern World Began" www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-house-of-wisdom-where-modern-world.html?m=0

"America And The Modern World Explained By Way Of Paris" www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2015/12/america-and-modern-world-explained-by_12.html?m=0

"Economics" www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2019/11/economics.html?m=0

"How History Repeats Itself" www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2019/11/how-history-repeats-itself.html?m=0

"The Meaning Of Freedom" www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-meaning-of-freedom_1.html?m=0

"The Western Hemisphere" www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-western-hemisphere.html?m=0

"Our Language" www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2022/08/our-language.html?m=0

"Investigations" www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2018/12/investigations.html?m=0 

"India And The West" www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2022/12/india-and-west.html?m=0

CHRISTIANITY 

"New Insight Into Bible Prophecy" www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2016/10/new-insight-into-bible-prophecy.html?m=0

"The Aztec Prophecy" www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2018/04/?m=0

SCIENCE

"Computer Science" www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2021/07/computer-science.html?m=0

"Atomic Science" www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2022/12/atomic-science.html?m=0

"Measurement" www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2021/09/measurement.html?m=0

"A Celebration Of The Inverse Square Law" www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2015/08/a-celebration-of-inverse-square-law.html?m=0

"Our Solar System" www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2022/10/our-solar-system.html?m=0

"Mind-Bending Cosmology" www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2022/05/mind-bending-cosmology.html?m=0

"The Configuration Of The Solar System Made Really Simple" www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-configuration-of-solar-system-made.html?m=0

"Orbital And Escape Velocities And Impacts From Space" www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2014/11/orbital-and-escape-velocities-and.html?m=0 

"In Appreciation Of Electrons" www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2022/01/in-appreciation-of-electrons.html?m=0 

"The Science Of Human Society" www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-science-of-human-society.html?m=0 

"The Moon" www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-moon.html?m=0 

I set out to provide a good background in science that everyone should have in the Twenty-First Century in 100 paragraphs. I ended up with 104 paragraphs. Thoroughly learn everything in "Scientific Literacy" and you will have a strong background in general science. It includes mathematics but not biology:

www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2014/03/scientific-literacy_22.html?m=0 

GENERAL 

This is a book of general observations, and things to talk or write or think about, in no particular order.

www.markmeekeconomics.blogspot.com/2009/07/thoughts-and-observations.html?m=0 

The best way to tell a lot of stories is in the context of an autobiography. This is a "living" autobiography and I have added more to it since I first posted it.

www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2009/07/other-blogs-and-books.html?m=0

Here are links to some important single postings on this blog. These are the length of a single article. By that I mean the ones that I link to most often.

This is about the long term effects of the Iranian Revolution of 1979. www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-great-revolution-of-our-time.html?m=0 

This is an introduction to my cosmology theory. www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2019/05/in-cosmology-everything-just-fell-right.html?m=0 

This is the Theory Of Kings. www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-theory-of-kings_28.html?m=0 

These are two introductions to how information works. www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2019/04/how-information-works.html?m=0 

www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2021/02/examples-of-how-information-works.html?m=0 

This is discoveries in Niagara Falls natural history. www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2019/06/niagara-natural-history-summary.html?m=0 

This is how the world is divided between the South and West and the North and East. www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2016/04/understanding-world-in-terms-of-south.html?m=0 

This is the far reaching effects of the Holy Roman Empire. www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-far-reaching-legacy-of-holy-roman.html?m=0 

This is The Wars Of The Gods. www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-wars-of-gods.html?m=0

Anniversary Of Buffalo Shooting

On this second anniversary of the mass shooting in Buffalo I have great news for America. The original reason that Americans kept guns in their homes was, after the Revolutionary War, in case the British came back. I am a native of Britain and we are not coming back so you can put your guns away.

The infamous stop sign in my hometown has been replaced but it can still be seen on Google Street View.

Our Evolutionary Paradise

Today is the second anniversary of the mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo. Why don't we review this posting because I think the underlying reason that this is allowed to keep happening is how evolutionary theory has pervaded our thinking.

Of course we do go through the motions of being shocked and outraged when something like this happens. The victims will be memorialized, politicians will make the usual speeches at the site of the shooting, displays of flowers will be put up, and the shooter will be held up as the epitome of evil. But nothing actually changes and within a short time it will happen again.

I have long recognized that so much about how the world is today, the guns, the wars, the drugs, the number of people in prison, as well as how careless we are about destroying the planet, stems from how evolutionary theory has pervaded our thinking.

The defining book of evolutionary theory, "On The Origin Of Species", was published in 1859. Although the theory doesn't really try to explain how life originated people who didn't want to believe in God latched onto it as the way to explain how we came to be here without needing God.

Since 1859 evolution has pervaded the world's thinking. Let's have a look at how evolutionary thinking might have brought about the world that we have today.

The basis of evolutionary theory is that there will not be enough food and resources for every creature that could possibly exist. This leads to competition for the food and resources. The strong naturally triumph over the weak so that the strong survive while the weak die and go extinct. This is often referred to as "Survival of the Fittest".

Living things undergo random mutations, caused by such things as the effects of cosmic rays on genes. Most of these random mutations may be detrimental but some, such as greater than average strength or better eyesight, gave those creatures a better chance to survive long enough to reproduce, and thus pass along their superior genes. Over time this leads to the species being better suited to survive in it's environment.

A simple example of evolution is supposedly the giraffe. There are leaves on trees that are good for food. But it would be helpful to have a longer neck in order to reach higher. Just by random mutations some giraffes were occasionally born with longer necks. These could more easily access food and so were more likely to survive long enough to reproduce and raise their offspring. This passed along the genetic trait of having a long neck so that today all giraffes have long necks. Evolutionary theory is that it is slow and imperfect but turns out over the very long term.

An obvious area that we see evolutionary theory at work is in business. There is not enough customers for all potential businesses to survive. So what happens is the ones that can best adapt themselves survive while the others go out of business.

But what if evolutionary theory has permeated our thinking even beyond business? Since this idea is so important to us could it be that we are trying, whether consciously or unconsciously, to move evolution along by our own efforts?

Helping evolution along would actually be fairly simple. It would be to produce a lot of offspring and then make the world a dangerous enough place so that the weak and unworthy would be eliminated. What we would want is for only the strong and intelligent to survive.

Incredibly that is exactly what we have done. Maybe it was unconsciously and unintentionally, but we have created an evolutionary paradise.

It starts with having a lot of offspring. When "On The Origin Of Species" was published the population of the world was about one billion people. Today the population is eight billion. Some were born with beneficial random mutations, such as better eyesight, wisdom, intelligence and, strength. The evolutionary goal from this point is to eliminate all the rest, keeping their inferior genes out of the human gene pool.

Remember that evolution isn't some noble theory, it is the brutal Law of the Jungle. There is absolutely no sympathy for weakness. Only the strong must survive.

It took evolutionary theory a while to catch on. The final third of the Nineteenth Century was actually a pretty good time. In France it was called the "Belle Epoque". It was called the Victorian Age. In America it was also known as the Gilded Age. But in 1914 the west entered a war such as had never been seen before.

The strange thing about the First World War is that it wasn't really over anything. There were a few disagreements but no pressing reason for a major war. But what was absolutely wonderful about the First World War was it's contribution to evolution. It did a fantastic job of weeding out the weak, although the process wasn't perfect. 

By the way evolution has no place for heroics in battle or dying for one's country. The only goal is to survive and reproduce. People who are willing to die for their country are in line to be eliminated from the human gene pool. The century following the introduction of evolutionary theory could definitely be described as "The Century of Warfare".

The warfare of the Twentieth Century culminated in the development of nuclear weapons. But that could be a wonderful thing from an evolutionary perspective. If there was a nuclear holocaust it is highly likely that only the strong would survive, and this would move evolution along. There have been several "great dyings" in the history of living things, but it was theoretically the weak that died and so maybe it's about time for another one.

Anyone who believes in evolutionary theory must agree that guns are wonderful evolutionary tools. If there are numerous shootings not only will it weed out the weak and slow in the short term but, according to how the theory works, a race of people should eventually evolve that can move faster than bullets. That would be wonderful evolutionary progress.

Space travel by humans fits with evolutionary progress. It is known that living things began in the sea. This was necessary so that fragile early life would be protected from ultraviolet radiation. These early life forms would not be equipped to breathe and survive on land. It cannot be explained how but living things somehow made the jump from sea to land and somehow some survived and evolved into land creatures. Using the same logic if we just send a bunch of people to the moon somehow some will survive and evolve into moon people.

Modern vehicles are contributing to evolutionary progress. Those with superior senses and reflexes are less likely to get into traffic accidents and the strong are more likely to survive when they do occur. People who drive recklessly are more likely to be killed, but again this is evolutionary progress.

Many people believe that much more needs to be done about climate change. We know that we are destroying this planet and too many people don't seem to be too worried about it. But what about our evolutionary mindset? Climate catastrophe will help evolution along, just as periodic cataclysms in the earth's history have. The strong will be more likely to survive than the weak, and this will improve the human gene pool.

The Animal Apocalypse is part of this scenario. Considering all animals of all species it is believed that there are only about one-third of the animals alive today that there were fifty years ago. This is horrible but it fits with evolutionary theory. The strong animals will survive, the rest will go extinct.

It must be said that the world is much less moral today than it was in the Victorian Age. But the goal in evolution is to pass one's genes along as much as possible. If the objective is to get your genes out there then Victorian morality can only get in the way.

Drugs are very beneficial for evolutionary progress. Just as Penicillin was once considered as the wonder drug of antibiotics so Fentanyl is the wonder drug of evolution. Fentanyl is so deadly that anyone who is stupid enough to have anything to do with it can be removed from the human gene pool. Anyone who really believes in evolutionary theory, and wants to help it along, should be absolutely delighted about Fentanyl. 

Before Fentanyl, Cocaine and Heroin served the same purpose. Anyone who is stupid enough to take these drugs can be removed from the human gene pool. The real underlying reason for the drug epidemic is that the world has this evolutionary mindset and these drugs are doing so much to help evolution along.

There are also legal drugs that can become addictive and can kill. But opioids fit in with evolutionary theory as well. The only reason for people to take drugs is some kind of weakness, whether physical or psychological. Deaths from opioid overdose is another way of helping evolution along by eliminating the weak, thus keeping their genes out of the system.

Evolutionary theory can definitely be seen in America's tolerance of a high prison population. Make life more difficult for ordinary people by transferring proportionally more wealth to the rich. The capable and resourceful ordinary people will find a way to adapt. Those who resort to crime can be locked away in prison, where they can't reproduce.

This is not saying that there are people consciously trying to move evolution along. But evolutionary theory has effectively become one of the world's major religions and it must have an effect on our thinking. Every thinking person has some thought about how we got here and evolution is the refuge of people who don't want to believe in God. Few people would consider the world of today as a paradise but the world has turned into an evolutionary paradise, in so many ways just about what we would expect if we were consciously trying to help evolution along.

Southern Italy And Sicily

In southern Italy and Sicily, the founding of most coastal cities follows a pattern, formed in the 8th Century B.C. around good natural harbors.

Naples is the major city of southern Italy. Like most other cities in this region it began as a Greek colony. After that it was part of many empires, starting with the Roman. What makes southern Italy, sometimes called the Mezzogiorno, different from the north is that the north was part of the Holy Roman Empire, for about a thousand years, while the south wasn't. There is also a division between Sicily and the rest of Italy, that persists to this day, because Sicily was once an Islamic emirate.

Southern Italy united with Sicily in 1816, as the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, before both later became part of a united Italy. There was a lot of outward emigration from the south after the country was united.

The centerpiece of Naples is the castle, Castel Nuovo, that was built in 1279. The following four scenes of it are from Google Earth and Street View.

The nearby main square, with the former Royal Palace, is the Piazza Del Plebiscito. In this square is the former royal palace of the House of Bourbon that ruled first the Kingdom of Naples and then the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. This is the same House of Bourbon that we have seen ruled in France and Spain. The French branch was overthrown in the French Revolution. The peaks that can be seen are of Mount Vesuvius, which famously erupted in A.D. 79. The first three images of the palace and the square are from Google Earth.

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

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8386219,14.2527267,3a,75y,254.64h,91.7t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1ssrfLAo7F9LCiyK-RpNS_EA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DsrfLAo7F9LCiyK-RpNS_EA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D122.98907%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Here is more of Naples, away from the waterfront. You probably know that Naples is where pizza originated.

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8525775,14.2588992,3a,75y,85.9h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNkVnX7V-J_3mSJtsLjhdRFYVQ4R0IBQaZZwJaO!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNkVnX7V-J_3mSJtsLjhdRFYVQ4R0IBQaZZwJaO%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya1.5875887-ro-0-fo100!7i6144!8i3072

Taranto is another city that originated as a Greek colony but has the notable Aragon Castle, built in the 15th Century to resist Ottoman ships. The first four images of the castle are from Google Earth.

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4753558,17.2315455,3a,75y,72.43h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sgKCuK6CR5nKEGTpWMntQdw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DgKCuK6CR5nKEGTpWMntQdw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D67.4043%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

This is more of Taranto.

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4674169,17.2500152,3a,75y,175.77h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1st90-tfklhZLi1XMyVybXow!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dt90-tfklhZLi1XMyVybXow%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D176.78143%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Brindisi is on Italy's Adriatic coast. The first two images, from Google Earth, are of the castle in Brindisi.

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6372041,17.9461234,3a,75y,187.15h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sORm50jvc-cJRU9XgHXEHAw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DORm50jvc-cJRU9XgHXEHAw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D185.44109%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Bari, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, has been the primary seaport facing east since ancient times. The first of the following images, from Google Earth, is of Basilica San Nicola.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.1230869,16.8646793,3a,75y,207.16h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1szL_hLaob1Pe5HRC9LWhtlQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DzL_hLaob1Pe5HRC9LWhtlQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D201.128%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Crotone, or Croton or Crotona, is known for a legend. When the city was a Greek colony, a wrestler named Milo got an idea about how to build physical strength. He believed that the body adapts to physical demands placed upon it by becoming stronger. Milo reasoned that if he carried a newborn calf, and continued to carry it every day, he would become stronger in the process and would still be able to carry it when it was fully grown.

This is considered by many to be the beginning of the concept of weight or resistance training to build strength. Milo could never have imagined the gyms and weight rooms that are now found across the world.

Anyway, this is what Croton looks like today.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.0813583,17.1284736,3a,75y,121.79h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sj3BLbEdl2D1GvXhR-fy8iw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dj3BLbEdl2D1GvXhR-fy8iw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D128.60883%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Messina is just on the Sicilian side of the Strait of Messina. The land on the other side of the strait is mainland Italy. The first two images, from Google Earth, are of the cathedral in Messina.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.1945141,15.553682,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s8uXD7ktY3Z1G5Q1N9IhMXw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D8uXD7ktY3Z1G5Q1N9IhMXw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D285.59894%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Palermo is actually of Phoenician, rather than Greek, origin. It was then controlled by the Phoenician colony of Carthage, today Tunis, and then by the Romans. The Moslems completed their conquest of Sicily in 878 and moved the capital of the island from Syracuse to Palermo. The Normans kept Palermo as the capital upon their conquest. These three views of Palermo Cathedral are from Google Earth and Street View.

This first image, from Google Earth, is of the Norman Palace in Palermo.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.1160248,13.3605627,3a,75y,73.32h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sfyvIEhOkDtFviebqr0aPKw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DfyvIEhOkDtFviebqr0aPKw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D69.15093%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Catania is located on the coast near the volcanic Mount Etna in Sicily. The city has long suffered from eruptions of the volcano as well as earthquakes. This first image, from Google Earth, is of the cathedral in Catania.

There is a castle, Castello Ursino, that was once the royal castle of Sicily. These three images of the castle are from Google Earth.

Catania originated as a Greek settlement and has seen the usual parade of conquerors in the region since then. The Romans, the Goths, reconquest by the eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantines, the Moslem Emirate of Sicily, the Normans, and finally an industrial city of a united Italy.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.5034717,15.0861904,3a,75y,250.38h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sDcTUnCGi0YSk1o3MFTzrRg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DDcTUnCGi0YSk1o3MFTzrRg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D245.80284%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Syracuse was a very important overseas city of ancient Greece. It even rivaled Athens and Alexandria in importance. The city in the center of New York State is, of course, named for it. Syracuse has ancient ruins but a very modern basilica. Both images from Google Earth.

The first image, from Google Earth, is of the oldest part of Syracuse.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.0616834,15.2945461,3a,75y,61.05h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1ssY7afcs3DDuCH5kGQcM-jQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DsY7afcs3DDuCH5kGQcM-jQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D55.269096%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656