text:
Zolpidem

Zolpidem, sold under the brand name Ambien among others, is a medication primarily used for the short-term treatment of sleeping problems. Guidelines recommend that it be used only after cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia and after behavioral changes, such as sleep hygiene, have been tried. It decreases the time to sleep onset by about fifteen minutes and at larger doses helps people stay asleep longer. It is taken by mouth and is available in conventional tablets, sublingual tablets, or oral spray.

Common side effects include daytime sleepiness, headache, nausea, and diarrhea. More severe side effects include memory problems and hallucinations. While flumazenil, a GABAA–receptor antagonist, can reverse zolpidem's effects, usually supportive care is all that is recommended in overdose.

Zolpidem is a nonbenzodiazepine or Z-drug which acts as a sedative and hypnotic. Zolpidem is a GABAA receptor agonist of the imidazopyridine class. It works by increasing GABA effects in the central nervous system by binding to GABAA receptors at the same location as benzodiazepines. It generally has a half-life of two to three hours. This, however, is increased in those with liver problems.

Zolpidem was approved for medical use in the United States in 1992. It became available as a generic medication in 2007. Zolpidem is a Schedule IV controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 (CSA). More than ten million prescriptions are filled each year in the United States, making it one of the most commonly used treatments for sleeping problems. In 2021, it was the 63rd most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 10million prescriptions.

Medical uses

Zolpidem is labeled for short-term (usually about two to six weeks) treatment of insomnia at the lowest possible dose. It may be used for both improving sleep onset, sleep onset latency, and staying asleep.

Guidelines from NICE, the European Sleep Research Society, and the American College of Physicians recommend medication for insomnia (including possibly zolpidem) only as a second line treatment after non-pharmacological treatment options have been tried (e.g. cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia). This is based in part on a 2012 review which found that zolpidem's effectiveness is nearly as much due to psychological effects as to the medication itself.

Contraindications
Zolpidem should not be taken by people with obstructive sleep apnea, myasthenia gravis, severe liver disease, respiratory depression; or by children, or people with psychotic illnesses. It should not be taken by people who are or have been addicted to other substances.

Use of zolpidem may impair driving skills with a resultant increased risk of road traffic accidents. This adverse effect is not unique to zolpidem, but also occurs with other hypnotic drugs. Caution should be exercised by motor vehicle drivers. In 2013, the FDA recommended the dose for women be reduced and that prescribers should consider lower doses for men due to impaired function the day after taking the drug.

Zolpidem should not be prescribed to older people, who are more sensitive to the effects of hypnotics including zolpidem and are at an increased risk of falls and adverse cognitive effects, such as delirium and neurocognitive disorder.

Zolpidem has not been assigned to a pregnancy category by the FDA. Animal studies have revealed evidence of incomplete ossification and increased intrauterine fetal death at doses greater than seven times the maximum recommended human dose or higher; however, teratogenicity was not observed at any dose level. There are no controlled data in human pregnancy. In one case report, zolpidem was found in cord blood at delivery. Zolpidem is recommended for use during pregnancy only when benefits outweigh risks.

Adverse effects
The most common adverse effects of short-term use include headache (reported by 7% of people in clinical trials), drowsiness (2%), dizziness (1%), and diarrhea (1%); the most common side effects of long-term use included drowsiness (8%), dizziness (5%), allergy (4%), sinusitis (4%), back pain (3%), diarrhea (3%), drugged feeling (3%), dry mouth (3%), lethargy (3%), sore throat (3%), abdominal pain (2%), constipation (2%), heart palpitations (2%), lightheadedness (2%), rash (2%), abnormal dreams (1%), amnesia (1%), chest pain (1%), depression (1%), flu-like symptoms (1%), and sleep disorder (1%).

Zolpidem increases risk of depression, falls and bone fracture, poor driving, suppressed respiration, and has been associated with an increased risk of death. Upper and lower respiratory infections are also common (experienced by 1–10% of people).

Residual 'hangover' effects, such as sleepiness and impaired psychomotor and cognitive function, may persist into the day following nighttime administration. Such effects may impair the ability of users to drive safely and increase risks of falls and hip fractures. Around 3% of people taking zolpidem are likely to break a bone as a result of a fall due to impaired coordination caused by the drug.

Some users have reported unexplained sleepwalking while using zolpidem, as well as sleep driving, night eating syndrome while asleep, and performing other daily tasks while sleeping. Research by Australia's National Prescribing Service found these events occur mostly after the first dose taken, or within a few days of starting therapy. In February 2008, the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration attached a boxed warning concerning this adverse effect.

Tolerance, dependence and withdrawal

As zolpidem is associated with drug tolerance and substance dependence, its prescription guidelines are only for severe insomnia and short periods of use at the lowest effective dose. Tolerance to the effects of zolpidem can develop in some people in just a few weeks. Abrupt withdrawal may cause delirium, seizures, or other adverse effects, especially if used for prolonged periods and at high doses. When drug tolerance and physical dependence to zolpidem develop, treatment usually entails a gradual dose reduction over a period of months to minimize withdrawal symptoms, which can resemble those seen during benzodiazepine withdrawal. Failing that, an alternative method may be necessary for some people, such as a switch to a benzodiazepine equivalent dose of a longer-acting benzodiazepine drug, as for diazepam or chlordiazepoxide, followed by a gradual reduction in dose of the long-acting benzodiazepine. In people who are difficult to treat, an inpatient flumazenil administration allows for rapid competitive binding of flumazenil to GABAA–receptor as an antagonist, thus stopping (and effectively detoxifying) zolpidem from being able to bind as an agonist on GABAA–receptor; slowly drug dependence or addiction to zolpidem will wane.

Alcoholics or recovering alcoholics may be at increased risk of physical dependency or abuse of zolpidem. It is not typically prescribed in people with a history of alcoholism, recreational drug use, physical dependency, or psychological dependency on sedative-hypnotic drugs. A 2014 review found evidence of drug-seeking behavior, with prescriptions for zolpidem making up 20% of falsified or forged prescriptions.

Rodent studies of the tolerance-inducing properties have shown that zolpidem has less tolerance-producing potential than benzodiazepines, but in primates, the tolerance-producing potential of zolpidem was the same as seen with benzodiazepines.

Overdose
Overdose can lead to coma or death. When overdose occurs, there are often other drugs in the person's system.

Zolpidem overdose can be treated with the GABAA receptor antagonist flumazenil, which displaces zolpidem from its binding site on the GABAA receptor to rapidly reverse the effects of the zolpidem.

Detection in body fluids
Zolpidem may be quantitated in blood or plasma to confirm a diagnosis of poisoning in people who are hospitalized, to provide evidence in an impaired driving arrest, or to assist in a medicolegal death investigation. Blood or plasma zolpidem concentrations are usually in a range of 30–300μg/L in persons receiving the drug therapeutically, 100–700μg/L in those arrested for impaired driving, and 1000–7000μg/L in victims of acute overdosage. Analytical techniques, in general, involve gas or liquid chromatography.

Mechanism of action
Zolpidem is a ligand of high-affinity positive modulator sites of GABAA receptors, which enhances GABAergic inhibition of neurotransmission in the central nervous system. It selectively binds to α1 subunits of this pentameric ion channel. Accordingly, it has strong hypnotic properties and weak anxiolytic, myorelaxant, and anticonvulsant properties. Opposed to diazepam, zolpidem is able to bind to binary αβ GABA receptors, where it was shown to bind to the α1–α1 subunit interface. Zolpidem has about 10-fold lower affinity for the α2- and α3- subunits than for α1, and no appreciable affinity for α5 subunit-containing receptors. ω1 type GABAA receptors are the α1-containing GABAA receptors and are found primarily in the brain, the ω2 receptors are those that contain the α2-, α3-, α4-, α5-, or α6 subunits, and are found primarily in the spine. Thus, zolpidem favours binding to GABAA receptors located in the brain rather than the spine. Zolpidem has no affinity for γ1 and γ3 subunit-containing receptors and, like the vast majority of benzodiazepine-like drugs, it lacks affinity for receptors containing α4 and α6. Zolpidem modulates the receptor presumably by inducing a receptor conformation that enables an increased binding strength of the orthosteric agonist GABA towards its cognate receptor without affecting desensitization or peak currents.

Like zaleplon, zolpidem may increase slow wave sleep but cause no effect on stage 2 sleep. A meta-analysis that compared benzodiazepines against nonbenzodiazepines has shown few consistent differences between zolpidem and benzodiazepines in terms of sleep onset latency, total sleep duration, number of awakenings, quality of sleep, adverse events, tolerance, rebound insomnia, and daytime alertness.

Pharmacokinetics
Microsome studies indicate zolpidem is metabolized by CYP3A4 (61%) CYP2C9 (22%), CYP1A2 (14%), CYP2D6 (<3%), and CYP2C19 (<3%). Less than 1% is excreted in urine unchanged. It is principally metabolized into three metabolites, none of which are believed to be pharmacologically active. The absolute bioavailability of zolpidem is about 70%. The drug reaches peak concentration in about 2 hours and has a half life in healthy adults of about 2–3 hours. Zolpidem's half life is decreased in children and increased in the elderly and people with liver issues. While some studies show men metabolize zolpidem faster than women (possibly due to testosterone), others do not. A review found only a 33% lower clearance in women compared to men, suggesting the FDA's dosage reduction of 50% for women may have been too large.

Interactions
People should not consume alcohol while taking zolpidem, and should not be prescribed opioid drugs nor take such illicit drugs recreationally. Use of opioids with zolpidem increases the risk of respiratory depression and death. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is advising that the opioid addiction medications buprenorphine and methadone should not be withheld from patients taking benzodiazepines or other drugs that depress the central nervous system (CNS).

Next day sedation can be worsened if people take zolpidem while they are also taking antipsychotics, other sedatives, anxiolytics, antidepressant agents, antiepileptic drugs, and antihistamines. Some people taking antidepressants have had visual hallucinations when they also took zolpidem.

Cytochrome P450 inhibitors, particularly CYP3A4 and CYP1A2 inhibitors such as fluvoxamine, ciprofloxacin, and clarithromycin will increase the effects of a given dose of zolpidem. Cytochrome P450 activators like St. John's Wort may decrease the activity of zolpidem. One study found that caffeine increases the concentration over time curve of zolpidem by about 20% and furthermore found that caffeine cannot adequately compensate for the impaired cognition caused by zolpidem. Other studies show no effect of caffeine on zolpidem metabolism.

Chemistry
Three chemical syntheses of zolpidem are common. 4-Methylacetophenone is used as a common precursor. This is brominated and reacted with 2-amino-5-methylpyridine to give the imidazopyridine. From here the reactions use a variety of reagents to complete the synthesis, either involving thionyl chloride or sodium cyanide. These reagents are challenging to handle and require thorough safety assessments. Though such safety procedures are common in industry, they make clandestine manufacture difficult.

A number of major side-products of the sodium cyanide reaction have been characterised and include dimers and mannich products.

Alpidem is also an imidazopyridine and is an analogue of zolpidem. Both agents are GABAA receptor positive allosteric modulators. However, whereas zolpidem is used as a hypnotic and sedative, alpidem was used as an anxiolytic.

History
Zolpidem was used in Europe starting in 1988, and was brought to market there by Synthelabo. Synthelabo and Searle collaborated to bring it to market in the US, and it was approved in the United States in 1992 under the brand name "Ambien". It became available as a generic medication in 2007.

In 2015, the American Geriatrics Society said that zolpidem, eszopiclone and zaleplon met the Beers criteria and should be avoided in individuals 65 and over "because of their association with harms balanced with their minimal efficacy in treating insomnia." The AGS stated the strength of the recommendation that older adults avoid zolpidem is "strong" and the quality of evidence supporting it is "moderate."

Society and culture
Prescriptions in the US for all sleeping pills (including zolpidem) steadily declined from around 57 million tablets in 2013, to around 47 million in 2017, possibly in relation to concern about prescribing addictive drugs in the midst of the opioid crisis.

Military use
The United States Air Force uses zolpidem as one of the hypnotics approved as a "no-go pill" (with a six-hour restriction on subsequent flight operation) to help aviators and special duty personnel sleep in support of mission readiness. (The other hypnotics used are temazepam and zaleplon.) "Ground tests" are required prior to authorization issued to use the medication in an operational situation.

Recreational use
Zolpidem has potential for medical misuse when the drug is continued long term without or against medical advice, or for recreational use when the drug is taken to achieve a "high". The transition from medical use of zolpidem to high-dose addiction or drug dependence can occur with use, but some believe it may be more likely when used without a clinical recommendation to continue using it, when physiological drug tolerance leads to higher doses than the usual 5mg or 10mg, when consumed through insufflation or injection, or when taken for purposes other than as a sleep aid. Recreational use is more prevalent in those having been dependent on other drugs in the past, but tolerance and drug dependence can still sometimes occur in those without a history of drug dependence. Chronic users of high doses are more likely to develop physical dependence on the drug, which may cause severe withdrawal symptoms, including seizures, if abrupt withdrawal from zolpidem occurs.

Other drugs, including benzodiazepines and zopiclone, are also found in high numbers of suspected drugged drivers. Many drivers have blood levels far exceeding the therapeutic dose range, suggesting a high degree of excessive-use potential for benzodiazepines, zolpidem and zopiclone. US Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy says that he was using zolpidem (Ambien) and promethazine (Phenergan) when caught driving erratically at 3 a.m. "I simply do not remember getting out of bed, being pulled over by the police, or being cited for three driving infractions," Kennedy said.

Nonmedical use of zolpidem is increasingly common in the US, Canada, and the UK. Some users have reported decreased anxiety, mild euphoria, perceptual changes, visual distortions, and hallucinations. Zolpidem was used by Australian Olympic swimmers at the London Olympics in 2012, leading to controversy.

Regulation
For the stated reason of its potential for recreational use and dependence, zolpidem (along with the other benzodiazepine-like Z-drugs) is a Schedule IV substance under the Controlled Substances Act in the US. The United States patent for zolpidem was held by the French pharmaceutical corporation Sanofi-Aventis.

Use in crime
The Z-drugs, including zolpidem, have been used as date rape drugs. Zolpidem is available legally by prescription, and broadly prescribed unlike other date rape drugs: gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), which is used to treat narcolepsy, or flunitrazepam (Rohypnol), which is only prescribed as a second-line choice for insomnia. Zolpidem can typically be detected in bodily fluids for 36 hours, though it may be possible to detect it by hair testing much later, which is due to the short elimination half-life of 2.5–3 hours. This use of the drug was highlighted during proceedings against Darren Sharper, who was accused of using the tablets he was prescribed to facilitate a series of rapes.

Sleepwalking
Zolpidem received widespread media coverage in Australia after the death of a student who fell 20 m from the Sydney Harbour Bridge while under the influence of zolpidem.

Brand names
As of September 2018, zolpidem is marketed under many brands.

Research
While cases of zolpidem improving aphasia in people with stroke have been described, use for this purpose has unclear benefit. Zolpidem has also been studied in persistent vegetative states with unclear effect. A 2017 systematic review concluded that while there is preliminary evidence of benefit for treating disorders of movement and consciousness other than insomnia (including Parkinson's disease), more research is needed. More recent research has found zolpidem treatment to be effective in the short term, but only in a small proportion of cases (estimated at around 5%) and only when the brain injury is of a specific type. Tolerance to the beneficial effects also develops rapidly, and so for these reasons while zolpidem may sometimes be used as a "last resort" treatment, it has numerous disadvantages and research continues into novel treatments that might provide the same kind of benefits in a larger proportion of patients, and with a more sustained benefit.

Animal studies in FDA files for zolpidem showed a dose dependent increase in some types of tumors, although the studies were too small to reach statistical significance. Some observational epidemiological studies have found a correlation between use of benzodiazepines and certain hypnotics including zolpidem and an increased risk of getting cancer, but others have found no correlation; a 2017 meta-analysis of such studies found a correlation, stating that use of hypnotics was associated with a 29% increased risk of cancer, and that "zolpidem use showed the strongest risk of cancer" with an estimated 34% increased risk, but noted that the results were tentative because some of the studies failed to control for confounders like cigarette smoking and alcohol use, and some of the studies analyzed were case–controls, which are more prone to some forms of bias. Similarly, a meta-analysis of benzodiazepine drugs also shows their use is associated with increased risk of cancer.

title: Zolpidem


text:
ONCE

The Spanish National Organization of the Blind (Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles), commonly known as the ONCE (, as in the Spanish word for the number 11), is a Spanish foundation founded on December 13, 1938, to raise funds to provide services for the blind and people with serious visual impairment.

Although it is overseen by a board of patrons made up of representatives from various Spanish ministries, it does enjoy a certain amount of freedom of movement in the day-to-day running of its activities, and its general council is democratically elected from among its members.

As of September 2013, membership of the organization was 71,460 people, of whom 40% were over the age of 65.

Between them, the three pillars of the ONCE—the Directorate-General, the Foundation and CEOSA, ONCE's business corporation—employ over 136,000 staff, of whom 88.5% are people with disabilities.

In September 2013, coinciding with the organization's 75th anniversary, the ONCE was awarded Spain's Premio Príncipe de Asturias for Concord.

From 1989 to 2003, ONCE sponsored one of Spain's leading cycling teams.

Organization
While many of their activities overlap, there are, at least formally, three divisions of the ONCE:

Directorate-General
The Directorate-General is responsible for the day-to-day running of the organization, its social and cultural work, and so on. Through its general council, it maintains institutional relations with local, regional and national government bodies, as well as representation on international bodies such as the World Blind Union, EBU and the IBSA (IBSA).

ONCE Foundation
In 1988 ONCE established the ONCE foundation (Fundación ONCE) to provide professional training and employment, to eliminate architectural, urban and communication barriers and promote "Digital Solidarity", web-based services for people with any disabilities. The Fundación also has its own business arm, Fundosa, with companies dealing with accessibility, industrial laundering, and so on.

The Fundación is active in the Paralympic movement and is a founding partner of the European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT), an international organization set up in 2006 to promote accessible tourism.

The Fundación has attracted support from the Spanish royal family. In May 2010, Princess Letizia presented awards at a Fundación awareness-raising event. In March 2011, the Princess presented the Fundacion's DISCAPNET awards, celebrating innovation in accessibility.

ONCE Business Corporation
The ONCE Business Corporation (Corporación Empresarial ONCE SA, CEOSA) is the business corporation of ONCE and owns, or is a stakeholder in, several companies across a wide range of sectors, including service companies, hotels and food companies. In the 1980s, and in order to diversify the risk of any future decrease in sales of the cupón, the managers of the ONCE started a policy of profit-oriented investment.

One of its acquisitions was a sizeable participation in the Spanish private TV channel Telecinco and the radio network Onda Cero ("Airwave Zero", based on the ONda CEro acronym). The most visible effect was the Telecinco broadcast of the daily lottery draw, the Telecupón, presented by the popular retired actress Carmen Sevilla.

Critics pointed to the paradox of blind "upstarts" running one of the newly created commercial TV channels. There were also critics who claimed that it was a manoeuvre of the then-ruling party in government, the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) to indirectly control the media in general.

Later management teams divested from Telecinco following a major judicial investigation into supposed tax dodges, etc., by the main shareholder, a company belonging to Silvio Berlusconi's Fininvest.

ONCE no longer has a stake in either of these media companies, although it does still run a media company, Servimedia, that is a news agency specialising in providing information on issues of social interest, such as disability, integration, corporate social responsibility, leisure, etc.

The Cupón
Although ONCE now has several gaming products available, their traditional product and one of the most visible aspects of ONCE is the charity lottery ticket known throughout Spain as the Cupón. Sales of this lottery product are the main source of income for ONCE and can carry huge tax-exempt cash prizes. The draw has different tickets for different days of the week, a special weekend ticket as well as special tickets with higher prizes, usually by season. The draw has for many years been broadcast live every night on Spanish TV channels, including Telecinco, Cuatro and CNN+. As of January 3, 2017, it is shown on the Spanish television channel La 1.

The basic graphic designs on the cupón is the same every day, but the theme changes to correspond to current events. For example, when the Euro became legal tender, or cultural references such as national or local monuments. Collecting old issues of the cupón has thus become a hobby for many cupón buyers in Spain.

Cupón Diario
The Cupón Diario (daily cupón) is drawn daily (Monday to Friday) as a five-digit number and a Series number. Each ticket costs €2.00. Prizes can vary, based on how many of the five digits a particular cupón has, or the sum of all numbers on the cupón and the Series number. The digits have to be in order to win, from left to right. The lowest prize is effectively a refund of the €2.00 that was used to purchase a ticket. ONCE lottery tickets are sold on the streets by authorised cupón sellers, as well as in ONCE kiosks. These are clearly identified by the word "ONCE" and can be found along the high street, at airports, and in shopping malls. These points of sales employ the blind or partially sighted, which is one of the main goals of ONCE, although by agreement with Fundación ONCE, over the last few years some have become available to people with other disabilities. Once sells tickets online, at the website juegosonce.es. Likewise, to prevent attempts of fraudulent manipulation and counterfeiting, the cupón itself has a number of embedded security features of different kinds, such as optically variable devices, that are extremely difficult to reproduce. The cupón sellers use electronic reading devices with access to the ONCE database to check each winning number and the cupón's authenticity. Major (tax-exempt) cash prizes are paid directly into bank accounts once the winner has established contact with the organisation through its delegations throughout Spain.

Sponsorship
From 1989 until the end of the 2003 season, ONCE sponsored one of the leading Spanish cycling teams. Whilst hugely successful in sporting terms and as a marketing vehicle, it was a costly project that was increasingly difficult to justify in terms of the ONCE's commitment to social integration of its members. Their former directeur sportif, Manolo Saiz, went on to form the Liberty Seguros–Würth team.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: ONCE


text:
Gavin Menzies

Rowan Gavin Paton Menzies (14 August 1937 – 12 April 2020)  was a British submarine lieutenant-commander who authored books claiming that the Chinese sailed to America before Columbus. Historians have rejected Menzies' theories and assertions    and have categorised his work as pseudohistory.

He was best known for his controversial book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, in which he asserts that the fleets of Chinese Admiral Zheng He visited the Americas prior to European explorer Christopher Columbus in 1492, and that the same fleet circumnavigated the globe a century before the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan. Menzies' second book, 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance, extended his discovery hypothesis to the European continent. In his third book, The Lost Empire of Atlantis, Menzies claims that Atlantis did exist, in the form of the Minoan civilization, and that it maintained a global seaborne empire extending to the shores of America and India, millennia before actual contact in the Age of Discovery.

Biography
Menzies was born in London, England, and his family moved to China when he was three weeks old. He was educated at Orwell Park Preparatory School in Suffolk, and Charterhouse. Menzies dropped out of school when he was fifteen years old and joined the Royal Navy in 1953. He never attended university and had no formal training in historical studies. From 1959 to 1970, Menzies served on British submarines. Menzies claims he sailed the routes sailed by Ferdinand Magellan and James Cook while he was commanding officer of the diesel submarine HMS Rorqual (S02) between 1968 and 1970, a contention questioned by some of his critics. He often refers back to his sea-faring days to support claims made in 1421.

In 1959, by his own account, Menzies was an officer on HMS Newfoundland (59) on a voyage from Singapore to Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope, and on to Cape Verde and back to England. Menzies claimed that the knowledge of the winds, currents, and sea conditions that he gained on this voyage was essential to reconstructing the 1421 Chinese voyage that he discusses in his first book. Critics have challenged the depth of his nautical knowledge. In 1969, Menzies was involved in an incident in the Philippines, when Rorqual rammed a U.S. Navy minesweeper, USS Endurance (AM-435), which was moored at a pier. This collision punched a hole in Endurance but did not damage Rorqual. The ensuing enquiry found Menzies and one of his subordinates responsible for a combination of factors that led to the accident, including the absence of the coxswain (who usually takes the helm in port) who had been replaced by a less experienced crew member, and technical issues with the boat's telegraph.

Menzies retired the next year, and campaigned unsuccessfully as an independent candidate in Wolverhampton South West during the 1970 United Kingdom general election, where—standing against Enoch Powell—he called for unrestricted immigration to Great Britain, drawing 0.2% of the vote. In 1990, Menzies began researching Chinese maritime history. He had, however, no academic training and no command of the Chinese language, which his critics argue prevented him from understanding original source material relevant to his thesis. Menzies trained as a barrister, but in 1996 he was declared a vexatious litigant by HM Courts Service which prohibited him from taking legal action in England and Wales without prior judicial permission. ) Menzies was made an honorary professor at Yunnan University in China.

Writing and research
Gavin Menzies had the idea to write his first book after he and his wife Marcella visited the Forbidden City for their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. Menzies noticed that they kept encountering the year 1421 and, concluding that it must have been an extraordinary year in world history, decided to write a book about everything that happened in the world in 1421. Menzies spent years working on the book and, by the time it was finished, it was a massive volume spanning 1,500 pages. Menzies sent the manuscript to an agent named Luigi Bonomi, who told him it was unpublishable, but was intrigued by a brief section of the book in which Menzies speculated about the voyages of Chinese admiral Zheng He and recommended that he rewrite the book, focusing it on Zheng He's voyages. Menzies agreed to rewrite it, but admitted that he was "not a natural writer" and requested Bonomi to rewrite the first three chapters for him.

Bonomi contacted the firm Midas Public Relations to persuade a major newspaper to run a promotional article for Menzies's book. Menzies hired a room at the Royal Geographical Society, which convinced The Daily Telegraph to publish an article about his speculations. Publishers immediately began courting Menzies for the publishing rights to his book. Bantam Press, a division of Transworld Publishers, offered him £500,000 for the world publishing rights to it. At this point, Menzies's rewritten manuscript was only 190 pages. Bantam Press stated that the book possessed enormous marketing potential, but considered it to be poorly written and sloppily presented. According to Menzies, they told him, "You know, if you want to get your story over, you've got to make it readable, and you can't write, basically." During the revision process that followed, over 130 different people worked on the manuscript, with a large part being written by a ghostwriter named Neil Hanson. The authors relied entirely on Menzies for factual information and never brought in any fact checkers or reputable historians to make sure that the information in the book was accurate. After the rewriting process was complete, the book was at a publishable length of 500 pages.

Publication, claims, and commercial success
The finished copy of the book was published in 2002 as 1421: The Year China Discovered the World (published as 1421: The Year China Discovered America in the United States). The book is written informally, as a series of vignettes of Menzies' travels around the globe examining what he claims is evidence for his "1421 hypothesis", interspersed with speculation regarding the achievements of Admiral Zheng He's fleet. Menzies states in the introduction that the book is an attempt to answer the question: "On some early European world maps, it appears that someone had charted and surveyed lands supposedly unknown to the Europeans. Who could have charted and surveyed these lands before they were 'discovered'?"

In the book, Menzies concludes that only China had the time, money, manpower, and leadership to send such expeditions and then sets out to prove that the Chinese visited lands unknown in either China or Europe. He claims that from 1421 to 1423, during the Ming dynasty of China under the Yongle Emperor, the fleets of Admiral Zheng He, commanded by the captains Zhou Wen, Zhou Man, Yang Qing, and Hong Bao, discovered Australia, New Zealand, the Americas, Antarctica, and the Northeast Passage; circumnavigated Greenland, tried to reach the North and South Poles, and circumnavigated the world before Ferdinand Magellan. 1421 instantly became an international success; it was translated into dozens of different languages and sold over a million copies. It was listed as a New York Times best seller for several weeks in 2003.

Although the book contains numerous footnotes, references, and acknowledgments, critics point out that it lacks supporting references for Chinese voyages beyond East Africa, the location acknowledged by professional historians as the limit of the fleet's travels. Menzies bases his main theory on original interpretations and extrapolations of academic studies of minority population DNA, archaeological finds, and ancient maps. Many of these extrapolations draw on his personal nautical background without supporting evidence. Menzies claims that knowledge of Zheng He's discoveries was subsequently lost because the mandarin bureaucrats of the Ming imperial court feared that the costs of further voyages would ruin the Chinese economy. He conjectures that when the Yongle Emperor died in 1424 and the new Hongxi Emperor forbade further expeditions, the mandarins hid or destroyed the records of previous exploration to discourage further voyages.

Criticism
Mainstream Sinologists and professional historians have universally rejected 1421 and the alternative history of Chinese exploration described in it as pseudohistory. A particular point of objection is Menzies' use of maps to argue that the Chinese mapped both the Eastern and Western hemispheres as they circumnavigated the world in the 15th century. The widely respected British historian of exploration Felipe Fernández-Armesto dismissed Menzies as "either a charlatan or a cretin". Sally Gaminara, the publisher for Transworld, the company which publishes Menzies's book, dismissed Fernández-Armesto as merely jealous, commenting, "Well, maybe he'd like to have the same commercial success himself." On 21 July 2004, the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) broadcast a two-hour-long documentary debunking all of Menzies's major claims, featuring professional Chinese historians. In 2004, historian Robert Finlay severely criticized Menzies in the Journal of World History for his "reckless manner of dealing with evidence" that led him to propose hypotheses "without a shred of proof". Finlay wrote:

"Unfortunately, this reckless manner of dealing with evidence is typical of 1421, vitiating all its extraordinary claims: the voyages it describes never took place, Chinese information never reached Prince Henry and Columbus, and there is no evidence of the Ming fleets in newly discovered lands. The fundamental assumption of the book—that the Yongle Emperor dispatched the Ming fleets because he had a 'grand plan', a vision of charting the world and creating a maritime empire spanning the oceans—is simply asserted by Menzies without a shred of proof ... The reasoning of 1421 is inexorably circular, its evidence spurious, its research derisory, its borrowings unacknowledged, its citations slipshod, and its assertions preposterous ... Examination of the book's central claims reveals they are uniformly without substance."

Tan Ta Sen, president of the International Zheng He Society, has acknowledged the book's popular appeal as well as its scholarly failings, remarking, "The book is very interesting, but you still need more evidence. We don't regard it as an historical book, but as a narrative one. I want to see more proof. But at least Menzies has started something, and people could find more evidence."

A group of scholars and navigators—Su Ming Yang of the United States, Jin Guo-Ping and Malhão Pereira of Portugal, Philip Rivers of Malaysia, Geoff Wade of Singapore—questioned Menzies' methods and findings in a joint message: "His book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, is a work of sheer fiction presented as revisionist history. Not a single document or artifact has been found to support his new claims on the supposed Ming naval expeditions beyond Africa...Menzies' numerous claims and the hundreds of pieces of 'evidence' he has assembled have been thoroughly and entirely discredited by historians, maritime experts and oceanographers from China, the U.S., Europe and elsewhere."

Menzies created a website for his readers to send him any information they could find that might support his hypothesis. Menzies said that his website was "a focal point for ongoing research into pre-Columbian exploration of the world." In response, his devoted fans sent him thousands of pieces of purported evidence, which they claimed serve as proof that Menzies's ideas are correct. Menzies also said that he used information his fans send to improve his hypotheses. Academics have emphatically rejected all of this "evidence" as worthless and have criticized what American history professor Ronald H. Fritze calls the "almost cult-like" manner in which Menzies drummed up support for his hypothesis. In reaction to this criticism, Menzies dismissed the experts' opinions as irrelevant, stating, "The public are on my side, and they are the people who count."

A poll of History News Network readers ranked 1421 as the third-least credible history book in print.

1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance
In 2008 Menzies released a second book entitled 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance. In it Menzies claims that in 1434 Chinese delegations reached Italy and brought books and globes that, to a great extent, launched the Renaissance. He claims that a letter written in 1474 by Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli and found amongst the private papers of Columbus indicates that an earlier Chinese ambassador had direct correspondence with Pope Eugene IV in Rome. Menzies then claims that materials from the Chinese Book of Agriculture, the Nong Shu, published in 1313 by the Yuan-dynasty scholar-official Wang Zhen (fl. 1290–1333), were copied by European scholars and provided direct inspiration for the illustrations of mechanical devices which are attributed to the Italian Renaissance polymaths Taccola (1382–1453) and Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519).

Felipe Fernández-Armesto, a professor of history at Tufts University in the United States and at Queen Mary, University of London, examined Menzies' claim that private papers of Columbus indicate a Chinese ambassador in correspondence with the Pope and called this claim "drivel." He states that no reputable scholar supports the view that Toscanelli's letter refers to a Chinese ambassador. Martin Kemp, Professor of the History of Art at Oxford University, questions the rigor of Menzies' application of the historical method, and in regard to European illustrations purporting to be copied from the Chinese Nong Shu, writes that Menzies "says something is a copy just because they look similar. He says two things are almost identical when they are not."

In regard to Menzies' theory that Taccola's sketches are based on Chinese information, Captain P.J. Rivers writes that Menzies contradicts himself by saying elsewhere in his book that Taccola had started his work on his technical sketches in 1431, when Zheng He's fleet was still assembled in China, and that the Italian engineer finished his technical sketches in 1433—one year before the purported arrival of the Chinese fleet. Geoff Wade, a senior research fellow at the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore, acknowledges that there was a cross exchange of technological ideas between Europe and China, but ultimately classifies Menzies' book as historical fiction and asserts that there is "absolutely no Chinese evidence" for a maritime venture to Italy in 1434.

Albrecht Heeffer investigated Menzies' claim that Regiomontanus based his solution to the Chinese remainder theorem on the Chinese work Mathematical Treatise in Nine Sections from 1247. He arrived at the conclusion that the solution method does not depend on this text but on the earlier Sunzi Suanjing as does the treatment of a similar problem by Fibonacci which predates the Mathematical Treatise in Nine Sections. Furthermore, Regiomontanus could rely on practices with remainder tables from the abacus tradition.

title: Gavin Menzies


text:
Kyōhō Reforms

The Kyōhō Reforms (享保の改革) were an array of economic and cultural policies introduced by the Tokugawa shogunate between 1722–1730 during the Edo period to improve its political and social status. These reforms were instigated by the eighth Tokugawa shōgun of Japan, Tokugawa Yoshimune, encompassing the first 20 years of his shogunate. The name Kyōhō Reforms, refers to the Kyōhō period (July 1716 – April 1736).

Purpose and scope of the reforms

The reforms were aimed at making the Tokugawa shogunate financially solvent, and to some degree, to improve its political and social security. Because of the tensions between Confucian ideology and the economic reality of Tokugawa Japan (Confucian principles that money was defiling vs. the necessity for a cash economy), Yoshimune found it necessary to shelve certain Confucian principles that were hampering his reform process.

The Kyōhō Reforms included an emphasis on frugality, as well as the formation of merchant guilds that allowed greater control and taxation. The ban on Western books (minus those relating or referring to Christianity) was lifted to encourage the import of Western knowledge and technology.

The alternate attendance (sankin-kōtai) rules were relaxed. This policy was a burden on daimyōs, due to the cost of maintaining two households and moving people and goods between them, while maintaining a show of status and defending their lands when they were absent. The Kyōhō Reforms relieved this burden somewhat in an effort to gain support for the shogunate from the daimyōs.

Chronology
The shogunate's interventions were only partly successful. Intervening factors like famine, floods and other disasters exacerbated some of the conditions which the shōgun intended to ameliorate.
 * 1730 (Kyōhō 15): The Tokugawa shogunate officially recognizes the Dojima Rice Market in Osaka; and bakufu supervisors (nengyoji) are appointed to monitor the market and to collect taxes. The transactions relating to rice exchanges developed into securities exchanges, used primarily for transactions in public securities. The development of improved agriculture production caused the price of rice to fall in mid-Kyōhō.
 * August 3, 1730 (Kyōhō 15, 20th day of the 6th month): A fire broke out in Muromachi and 3,790 houses were burnt. Over 30,000 looms in Nishi-jin were destroyed. The bakufu distributed rice.
 * 1732 (Kyōhō 17): The Kyōhō famine was the consequence after swarms of locusts devastated crops in agricultural communities around the inland sea.

Successive reforms
This reform movement was followed by three others during the Edo period: the Kansei reforms (1787–1793), the Tenpō reforms of the (1841–1843), and the Keiō reforms (1864–1867).

title: Kyōhō Reforms


text:
George B. Selden

George Baldwin Selden (September 14, 1846 – January 17, 1922) was an American patent lawyer and inventor from New York who was granted a U.S. patent for an automobile in 1895.

Early life and career
In 1859, his father, Judge Henry R. Selden, a prominent Republican attorney most noted for defending Susan B. Anthony, moved to Rochester, New York, where George briefly attended the University of Rochester.

He dropped out when the American Civil War started, enlisting in the 6th Cavalry Regiment, Union Army. This was not to the liking of his father who, after pulling some strings and having some earnest discussions with his son, managed to have him released from duty and enrolled in Yale. George did not do well at Yale in his law studies, preferring the technical studies offered by the Sheffield Scientific School, but did finish his course of study and pass the New York bar in 1871. He joined his father's practice.

He married shortly thereafter to Clara Drake Woodruff, with whom he had 4 children. He continued his hobby of inventing in a workshop in his father's basement, inventing a typewriter and a hoop making machine.

For a time, Selden represented photography pioneer George Eastman in patent matters. He was also based in Rochester.

The Selden patent

He filed for a patent on May 8, 1879 (in a historical cross of people, the witness Selden chose was a local bank-teller, George Eastman, later to become famous for the Kodak camera ).

In 1899 he sold his patent rights to William C. Whitney, who proposed manufacturing electric-powered taxicabs as the Electric Vehicle Company, EVC, for a royalty of US$15 per car with a minimum annual payment of US$5,000. Whitney and Selden then worked together to collect royalties from other budding automobile manufacturers. He was initially successful, negotiating a 0.75% royalty on all cars sold by the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers. He began his own car company in Rochester under the name Selden Motor Vehicle Company.

However, Henry Ford, owner of the Ford Motor Company, founded in Detroit, Michigan, in 1903, and four other car makers resolved to contest the patent infringement suit filed by Selden and EVC. The legal fight lasted eight years, generating a case record of 14,000 pages. Ford's testimony included the comment, "It is perfectly safe to say that George Selden has never advanced the automobile industry in a single particular...and it would perhaps be further advanced than it is now if he had never been born." The case was heavily publicized in the newspapers of the day, and ended in a victory for Selden. In his decision, the judge wrote that the patent covered any automobile propelled by an engine powered by gasoline vapor. Posting a bond of US$350,000, Ford appealed, and on January 10, 1911, won his case based on an argument that the engine used in automobiles was not based on George Brayton's engine, the Brayton engine which Selden had improved, but on the Otto engine.

This stunning defeat, with only one year left to run on the patent, destroyed Selden's income stream. He focused production of his car company on trucks, renaming his company the Selden Truck Sales Corporation. It survived in that form until 1930 when it was purchased by the Bethlehem Motor Truck Corporation. Selden suffered a stroke in late 1921 and died aged 75 on January 17, 1922. He was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester. It is estimated he received several hundred thousand dollars in royalties.

title: George B. Selden


text:
Mount Chephren

Mount Chephren is a mountain located in the Mistaya River Valley of Banff National Park, Canada.

Mount Chephren was named after Chephren, the 4th Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh. The mountain was originally named Pyramid Mountain in 1897 by J. Norman Collie, but it conflicted with an identically named peak in Jasper National Park, so it was renamed in 1924 to its present name.

Scramble
Mount Chephren is rated a difficult scramble on the south face due to its steep upper slopes with possible snow and ice difficulties. Considerable snow on the route would likely require crampons and an ice axe, thereby pushing the climb into the realm of technical mountaineering. The best conditions for scrambling would normally be late July and August.

The trail head is located at the west end of the Waterfowl Lakes campground off the Icefields Parkway in Banff National Park. The elevation gain from the trail head to the summit is 1630 m.

Technical
There are three main routes:
 * South Face/West Ridge (Normal Route) II
 * East Face V 5.9 A1
 * The Wild Thing VI 5.9 A3 WI4

Geology
Like other mountains in Banff Park, Mount Chephren is composed of sedimentary rock laid down during the Precambrian to Jurassic periods. Formed in shallow seas, this sedimentary rock was pushed east and over the top of younger rock during the Laramide orogeny.

Climate
Based on the Köppen climate classification, Mount Chephren is located in a subarctic climate zone with cold, snowy winters, and mild summers. Winter temperatures can drop below −20 °C with wind chill factors below −30 °C.

title: Mount Chephren


text:
Shenzhou 6

Shenzhou 6 was the second human spaceflight of the Chinese space program, launched on October 12, 2005, on a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The Shenzhou spacecraft carried a crew of Fèi Jùnlóng (费俊龙) and Niè Hǎishèng (聂海胜) for five days in low Earth orbit. It launched three days before the second anniversary of China's first human spaceflight, Shenzhou 5.

The crew were able to change out of their new lighter space suits, conduct scientific experiments, and enter the orbital module for the first time, giving them access to toilet facilities. The exact activities of the crew were kept secret but were thought by some to include military reconnaissance, however this is likely untrue given that similar experiments in the US and USSR determined that humans in space are not suited for military reconnaissance. It landed in the Siziwang Banner of Inner Mongolia on October 16, 2005, the same site as the previous crewed and uncrewed Shenzhou flights.

Crew notes
This is the first spaceflight for both crew members. The crew was introduced to the Chinese public and international media about five hours before the launch. Niè Hǎishèng celebrated his 41st birthday in space.

Huang Chunping, the chief designer of the Long March 2F rocket, was quoted in the Beijing Times as saying the crew members who would fly the mission were selected from a pool of three pairs. Five pairs of astronauts trained for the flight and about one month before launch the two pairs with the lowest performance were dropped. The Ta Kung Pao newspaper had reported that Zhai Zhigang and Nie Haisheng were the leading pair, after having been in the final group of three for Shenzhou 5.

Launch
The crew arrived at the spacecraft about 2 hours and 45 minutes before the launch and the hatch closed 30 minutes after their arrival. At 01:00:05.583 UTC on October 12 Shenzhou 6 lifted off from the launch pad at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The launch phase was reported to be normal with the escape rocket separating 120 seconds after launch when the rocket was travelling 1,300 m/s (4300 ft/s). Sixteen seconds later the four booster rockets separated at an altitude of 52 km. The payload fairing and first stage detached 200 seconds after launch. The second stage burned for a further 383 seconds and the spacecraft separated from the rocket 200 km above the Yellow Sea. The spacecraft then used its own propulsion system to place it into a 211 km by 345 km (131 by 214 statute miles) orbit, with an inclination of 42.4 degrees, about 21 minutes after launch. At 01:39 UTC Chen Bingde, the Chief Commander of the Chinese space program, announced the launch was successful. The crew ate their first meal in space at 03:11 UTC.

Before the flight, the launch time had been the object of speculation by the Chinese media. For several months before the planned launch its time was only given as mid-October, or even late-September. Then on September 23 it was reported by the Hong Kong-based news agency China News Service that the launch was tentatively scheduled for 03:00 UTC on October 13. This launch time was confirmed two weeks later by Jiang Jingshan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. But then on October 10 an official from the technical department of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center said the launch was then scheduled for 01:00 UTC on October 12. This new launch time could have been designed to dodge the cold weather which had been forecast to hit the area. Assembly of the rocket was reported complete on September 26. On October 4, the Shenzhou 6 spacecraft was attached to the CZ-2F rocket, also known as Shenjian.

Unlike the uncrewed Shenzhou flights, Shenzhou 5 and 6 were launched during daylight hours to provide greater safety in case of abort. The launch was televised live with China Central Television selling advertising for RMB¥2.56 million (US$316,000) for five seconds, to RMB¥8.56 million (US$1 million) for 30 seconds. A video camera had been added to the rocket and images of it were broadcast during the ascent and the separation of the Shenzhou spacecraft.

Shortly after launch, recovery crews began searching a region from the Badain Jaran Desert in Inner Mongolia to Shaanxi for the launch escape tower, booster rockets, first stage and payload fairing. Of particular interest was the "black box" of the rocket, which contained telemetry that may not have been downlinked during the launch phase. It was found 45 minutes after launch somewhere near Otog Banner. It was first sighted by a herdswoman, Lian Hua, about 1.5 km from her home. Other wreckage from the launch was found and destroyed at its impact location or brought back to Jiuquan.

General Secretary and President Hu Jintao was present at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center to watch the launch. Premier Wen Jiabao was present at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

Five days in orbit
The first of several orbit changing maneuvers happened as planned at 07:54:45, with a 63-second burn to circularize the orbit. Based on United States Space Command orbital elements, it was in a 332 by 336 km (206 by 209 statute miles) orbit. After about an hour and a half, the hatch between the re-entry and orbital modules was opened and, for the first time, crew were able to enter the second living compartment of the Shenzhou spacecraft. Fèi Jùnlóng was the first to enter, while Niè Hǎishèng remained in the reentry module. They would swap positions about three hours later.

At 13:32 UTC, Niè and Fèi had a seven-minute conversation with their wives and children who were in Mission Control. Niè's daughter sang "Happy Birthday to You", as his birthday is October 13.

The activities of the crew were not fully revealed by the Chinese. Only vague references to experiments were made, though some were made public. One experiment involved the crew testing the reaction of the spacecraft to movement within the orbital and reentry modules. They moved between the modules, opening and closing the hatches and operating equipment with "more strength" than normally required.

A second orbital maneuver occurred at 21:56 on October 13. It raised the orbit that had been lowered due to atmospheric drag, and lasted 6.5 seconds.

On October 15, Niè and Fèi had a two-minute conversation with General Secretary and President Hu Jintao, beginning at 08:29. During the conversation, Hu told them "The motherland and people are proud of you. I hope you will successfully complete your task by carrying out the mission calmly and carefully and have a triumphant return".

Re-entry and landing

The re-entry process began at 19:44 on October 16 when the orbital module separated as planned from the rest of the spacecraft. Unlike with the Soyuz spacecraft, this is done before the re-entry burn, allowing the orbital module to stay in orbit for extended months-long missions or to act as a docking target for later flights. The orbital module fired its engines twice on October 19 to give it a circular orbit with a height of 355 km.

One minute after this separation, the engines on the service module ignited over the coast of West Africa to slow the spacecraft. At 20:07, the re-entry module separated and five minutes later the re-entry proper began, as the Shenzhou capsule entered the top of the atmosphere, over China. The communications blackout that occurs during re-entry started at 20:16 and two minutes later radio communication was regained with the spacecraft. The main parachute opened and the capsule began to slowly descend to a landing on the Inner Mongolia northern grasslands at 4:33 a.m. local time (20:33 UTC). The capsule landed approximately 1 km (about 1000 yards) from its planned target.

About half an hour after landing, the recovery forces had the hatch of the spacecraft open and first Fèi, and then Niè emerged. Hou Ying, chief designer of the landing site system, said the recovery was improved over that of Shenzhou 5. After medical check-ups and a light meal the astronauts were put on a special plane bound for Beijing, where they were placed into medical isolation for the following two weeks. At 21:46, Chen Bingde had declared the entire mission to be a success.

The capsule was returned to Beijing by train and handed over to China Research Institute of Space Technology at Changping railway station.

The orbital module continued to orbit the Earth, gathering more information from experiments on board. The module also gave Chinese mission controllers experience at long-duration spaceflights. After 2,920 orbits of the Earth, its active mission ended on April 15, 2006. It is still in orbit, and will reenter when its orbit sufficiently decays.

There were two planned landing sites for the mission. The primary site was the banner of Siziwang in Inner Mongolia. The secondary site was at the Jiuquan launch site. In addition, there were recovery forces at Yinchuan, Yulin and Handan. It is also possible for the Shenzhou spacecraft to splashdown in the ocean should the need arise, with further recovery crews in the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

Some Chinese diplomats are trained and equipped for any emergency landing at sites that are not on Chinese territory. Zhang Shuting, chief designer of the emergency and rescue system, has said that emergency landing sites have been identified in Australia, Southwest Asia, North Africa, Western Europe, the United States and South America. The diplomatic mission nearest to the landing site will be given the task to head any rescue mission if necessary. The Chinese government had advised Australia that emergency landing sites have been identified in New South Wales, Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Emergency Management Australia, the Australian government agency that co-ordinates the response to major contingencies, has said they are ready to deal with any emergencies that arise during spaceflights. However, the return module is designed to allow access from the outside only to those with a special key. A copy of this key has not been made available to Australian officials, but it was reported that an unnamed Chinese military attaché at the Chinese embassy in Canberra had one.

Project management
As with previous Shenzhou series, Chinese military is heavily involved, and in official Chinese documents, project managers are referred as project commanders instead:
 * General project manager / commander: Chen Bingde
 * 1st vice general project manager / commander: Lieutenant General Hu Shixiang (胡世祥), vice director-general of General Armaments Department
 * Vice general project manager / commander: Zhang Qingwei
 * Vice general project manager / commander: Jiang Mianheng
 * Vice general project manager / commander: Sun Laiyan
 * General engineer: Wang Yongzhi
 * Vice general engineer: Zhou Jianping (周建平), who was born in Wangcheng County, 1957. He obtained his M.S. from Dalian University of Technology, his Ph.D. from National University of Defense Technology, where he became a professor. From 1993 thru 1995, he studies in the United States. He would later become the general engineer for Shenzhou 7.
 * Director of Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center: Major General Zhang Yulin (张育林)
 * Vice director of Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center: Major General Cui Jijun (崔吉俊)
 * General engineer of ground support at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center: Wang Jingan (王金安)

Upgrades
The Chinese space officials have said that the Long March 2F rocket featured a "fire security system" on the escape tower. Speculation on what this means ranges from better fail-safes to stop accidental firings, to the addition of a fire extinguisher. The Wen Wei Po newspaper have reported that the rocket appeared the same as that used for Shenzhou 5 except that a "transition segment" was visible at the top of the Shenzhou 6 stack, attached to one end of the orbital module.

China Aerospace Science and Technology, the major manufacturer of both the Shenzhou spacecraft and the Long March rocket have said that although the flight featured a second astronaut and was much longer than Shenzhou 5, the rocket and spacecraft did not weigh much more due to optimisation of its systems. Only 200 kg (about 440 lb) more was needed for the second astronaut. Among the amenities on board for the crew was hot food, sleeping bags and essential sanitary equipment. The sleeping bag was hooked to a wall of the orbital module and the crew had alternating sleep periods. The shock absorbers in the crew seats were redesigned so as to provide more safety to the crew in case the braking rockets fail to fire just before touchdown. The flight telemetry recorder on the spacecraft had its memory increased to about 1 gigabyte, and the read/write speed was now 10 times as fast as the computers carried on previous flights. It was also about half the size of that carried on Shenzhou 5. Overall, 95% of the Shenzhou 6 space capsule is indigenously designed/produced in China, the highest rate in comparison to the previous ones.

The menu included pineapple-filled mooncakes, green vegetables, braised bamboo shoots, rice, and bean congee. In total there was 40 kg (about 88 lb) of food on board. A somewhat strange aspect of the mission reported in the Chinese press was the fixation on the purity of drinking water for the astronauts, where it was claimed that their water reportedly comes from a mine 1.7 km underground and was disinfected with an electrolytic silver solution. It has thus been said by the press that they are drinking the "purest water in China".

It had been reported that, on Shenzhou 5, astronaut Yang Liwei suffered from a "minor heartache" after his launch. It is thought that this refers to space adaptation syndrome experienced by about one third of astronauts during the first few days of a spaceflight. The People's Daily said that the interior design of the spacecraft has been changed to hopefully lessen the likelihood of nausea and other symptoms.

Experiments
It was announced in July 2005 that Shenzhou 6 would carry one experiment involving the sperm of pigs from Rongchang County, Chongqing. But on October 11 it was revealed by Liu Luxiang, director of the Centre for Space Breeding at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, that there were no plans for animal or plant seeds on the flight. He said the focus of Shenzhou 6 was the physical reactions of the crew to the space environment. This was seemingly contradicted a year and a half after the flight when sweet potatoes started being sold for Valentine's Day that had been grown from seeds reportedly taken on the flight.

Morris Jones who writes for SpaceDaily.com has speculated that the lack of any other announced experiments suggested that the mission could be oriented more toward the military. The crew could have operated a large surveillance film camera, supplementing the uncrewed recoverable satellite program.

Tracking

There are 20 land-based tracking stations in the Chinese space telemetry network. These are supplemented by four Yuanwang-series tracking ships. The Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center global map showed their positions to be:
 * Yuanwang 1 in the Yellow Sea
 * Yuanwang 2 about 1500 km (about 900 statute miles) southwest of French Polynesia
 * Yuanwang 3 off the Namibian coast
 * Yuanwang 4 off the coast of Western Australia in the Indian Ocean

Only one other land-based tracking station is outside China — at Swakopmund in Namibia.

Shortly after the Shenzhou 5 flight in 2003, the Pacific nation of Kiribati established diplomatic ties with the Republic of China (Taiwan), leading the People's Republic of China (PRC) to cut off diplomatic ties under its One-China policy. Following this, the PRC has dismantled a tracking station that had been built on Tarawa, the capital island of Kiribati, to track spaceflights.

Statements from the Greater China area

 * Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg The Central Government of the People's Republic of China – Premier Wen Jiabao reiterated China's policy for peaceful use of space and hailed the successful launch.
 * Flag of Hong Kong.svg Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China – Chief Executive Donald Tsang congratulated the motherland on the successful launch.
 * Naval Jack of the Republic of China.svg The Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) of the Republic of China (Taiwan) – Lien Chan, honorary party chairman, said the "great scientific achievement is worthy of joy and pride".

Foreign countries and international organizations

 * 🇦🇺 – Foreign Minister Alexander Downer stated that "Australia warmly welcomes the success of China's mission into space".
 * 🇧🇬 – President Georgi Parvanov sent a letter to Hu Jintao congratulating the PRC on the "remarkable achievements in peaceful exploitation of the outer space".
 * 🇨🇲 – Ndoumba Eloungou Nestor, secretary of Cameroon's External Relations Ministry said the launch encouraged a vast number of developing countries.
 * 🇫🇷 – President Jacques Chirac congratulated the successful return of the spacecraft.
 * 🇯🇵 – Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda hoped the crew would have a safe return and said development in China of crewed spacecraft was not a "military threat".
 * 🇷🇺 – Nikolai Moiseyev, deputy head of the Russian Federal Space Agency said "another power has joined the space club" and that Russia looked "forward to further cooperation with them in all areas".
 * – President S.R. Nathan sent a congratulatory letter to President Hu Jintao saying it was a proud moment for all Chinese.
 * 🇺🇬 – Minister of State for Information Nsaba Buturo said the launch will stop the domination of outer space by a few countries in the world.
 * Flag of the United Nations.svg United Nations – A spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said that Annan extended his "warm congratulations...on the safe and successful completion of its second mission into space".
 * 🇺🇸 – Deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli congratulated China on the launch of its second crewed spacecraft, and applauded its success as only the third nation with this capability.
 * NASA logo.svg NASA – Administrator Michael Griffin congratulated China on its launch and wished them a safe journey. In his remarks, he noted "China, once again, has demonstrated that it is among the elite number of countries capable of human space flight. We wish them well on their mission, and we look forward to the safe return of their astronauts."
 * ESA logo simple.svg European Space Agency – European astronaut Frank De Winne wished the crew a smooth journey. He commented on the fact that Europe had yet to create its own independent crewed spacecraft.

title: Shenzhou 6


text:
Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies

Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies is a climbing guidebook by Alan Kane describing scrambling routes of mountains in the Canadian Rockies.

It is published by Rocky Mountain Books, located in Calgary, Alberta. The third edition ISBN 9781771600972, released in May 2016, has been updated and contains route descriptions for 175 peaks. The peaks are rated from easy to difficult and information on trail heads and the standard routes are covered. Backpacker magazine has twice featured the book as an expedition guide. The Canadian Alpine Journal referred to it as a "scree gospel". The book is solely responsible for creating a widespread interest in scrambling up mountain peaks, whether the peaks are in USA or Western Canada. Since first published in 1991, many similar guidebooks by other authors have followed this one.

title: Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies


text:
Dong Fang Hong 1

Dong Fang Hong 1, in the western world also known as China 1 or PRC 1, was the first space satellite of the People's Republic of China (PRC), launched successfully on 24 April 1970 as part of the PRC's Dongfanghong space satellite program. It was a part of the "Two Bombs, One Satellite" program. At 173 kg, it was heavier than the first satellites of other countries. The satellite carried a radio transmitter which broadcast the then de facto national anthem of the same name. The broadcast lasted for 20 days while in orbit.

It was developed under the direction of Qian Xuesen, dean of the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST). At the time, a total of five identical satellites were created. The first satellite launched successfully. The academy formulated a "Three-Satellite Plan" consisting of Dongfanghong 1, re-entry satellites, and geosynchronous orbit communications satellites. Sun Jiadong was responsible for the Dongfanghong 1 technology. In 1967, Dang Hongxin chose a copper antenna membrane that resolved the difficulties of broadcasting on an ultra-short wave antenna between 100 °C and −100 °C. Engineers installed a music player playing "The East is Red" on the satellite.

Launch
While Dongfanghong 1 was transported to the launch site by train, armed guards were placed between every two electricity poles. On 24 April 1970, at 13:35:45 GMT, a Long March 1 (CZ-1) lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, placing the Dongfanghong 1 satellite in orbit at 13:48 GMT.

Objectives
The primary purpose of the Dong Fang Hong 1 satellite was to perform tests of satellite technology and take readings of the ionosphere and atmosphere.

Satellite design
The satellite was similar in shape to a symmetrical 72-faced polyhedron, had a mass of 173 kg, and had a diameter of approximately 1 m. It spun 120 times per minute for stabilization. The outer surface was coated with a processed aluminum alloy for temperature control. The main body of the sphere had four ultrashortwave whip antennas of at least 2 m in length. The lower section was connected to a stage containing a rocket motor. It had a shiny metallic ring added to the bottom, with brightness magnitude from +5 to +8.

Orbit
The satellite was launched into orbit with a perigee of 441 km, an apogee of 2286 km and inclination of 68.42°. This near-Earth elliptical orbit has an orbital period of 114.09 minutes. It has Satellite Catalog Number 04382 and International Designator 1970-034A.

Dong Fang Hong 1 had a design life of 20 days. During that time, it transmitted telemetry data and space readings to the Earth. On 14 May 1970, its signal stopped.

Reaction
With the successful launch of Dong Fang Hong 1, China became the fifth country after the Soviet Union, United States, France, and Japan to independently launch a satellite. Although Dong Fang Hong 1 was launched nearly 13 years after Sputnik I, its mass exceeded the combined masses of the first satellites of the other four countries. After this launch, Qian Xuesen proposed to the Chinese government that China should develop a manned space program and submitted a manned space undertaking report to which Mao Zedong personally approved.

On 21 April 2005, the Chinese Academy of Space Technology gathered the science and technology personnel who participated in the design, manufacture, production, and supervision of Dong Fang Hong 1. The birthplace of Dong Fang Hong 1, the Beijing Satellite Manufacturing Plant, was used as a monument. The manufacturing plant, in coordination with the Shenzhou 5 manned spacecraft anniversary, created a 1:1 scale replica of the Dong Fang Hong 1 satellite. It was exhibited in the Beijing Planetarium.

title: Dong Fang Hong 1


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Crampons

A crampon is a traction device attached to footwear to improve mobility on snow and ice during ice climbing. Besides ice climbing, crampons are also used for secure travel on snow and ice, such as crossing glaciers, snowfields and icefields, ascending snow slopes, and scaling ice-covered rock.

There are three main attachment systems: step-in, hybrid, and strap bindings. The first two require boots with welts, or specialized mountaineering boots with dedicated front and rear lugs, as a cam-action lever attaches the crampon to the heel. The last type (strap bindings) is more versatile and can adapt to virtually any boot or shoe, but often does not fit as precisely as the other two types.

Oscar Eckenstein designed the first 10-point crampon in 1908, dramatically reducing the need for step cutting. This design was then made commercially available by the Italian Henry Grivel.

Materials
Crampons are made of steel alloy, lightweight aluminum, or a combination of the two. Lighter weight crampons are popular for alpine ski touring where demands are generally lower and lightweight a premium.

Points
Early 10-point crampons lacked forward-angled spikes and thus required step cutting on steep terrain. In the 1930s two additional forward-slanting points were added, making them exceptional for mountaineering and glacier travel and beginning a revolution in front pointing. There is currently a range of models, including specialized crampons with as many as 14 points and models with single points for ice climbing.

Attachment
Crampons are fastened to footwear by means of a binding system. Improved attachment systems – such as a cam action "step-in" system similar to a ski binding and particularly well adapted to plastic technical mountaineering boots - have widely increased crampon use. Crampons also use a full "strap-in" system and a "hybrid" binding that features a toe strap at the front and a heel lever at the back.

Anti-balling
To prevent snow from balling up under crampons, especially in temperatures around freezing, most models can be fitted with plastic or rubber "anti-balling" systems to reduce build-up. Rubber models use flexion to repel snow while plastic anti-balling plates employ a hydrophobic surface to prevent adhesion.

Grades
Crampons are graded C1, C2 and C3 relative to their flexibility and general compatibility with different styles of boots. No crampons are suitable for B0 boots (flexible walking boots).

Ski crampons
Specialized "ski crampons" are employed in ski mountaineering on hard snow and ice. Far more common in the Alps than in the United States, these ski crampons are known by their European names: Harscheisen (German), couteaux (French) and coltelli (Italian), literally French and Italian for "knives" in those languages.

Microspikes
While crampons generally have a solid frame, and large spikes, and may only be attached to a mountaineering boot, microspikes typically are flexible rubber or metal chains with more, smaller spikes. Since crampons are tighter and have larger spikes, they are typically used for mountaineering on steep and dense snow or glacial ice in order to maintain strong traction and avoid falls, whereas microspikes may be attached to multiple types of shoes and are generally used for hiking on flatter surfaces such as snow or even gravel or dirt.

Heel spurs
Heel spurs are a type of crampon that attaches to the back of the heel and allow mixed climbers to perform heel hooks. They are a source of controversy, however, with some regarding the use of heel spurs as being a form of aid climbing, and not free climbing.

title: Crampons


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Hunger circus

"Hunger circus" (Circ al foamei) was a colloquial name for any in a series of identical buildings which were to be completed as part of President Nicolae Ceaușescu's program of systematization during his period as ruler of Romania. Officially designated by the communist regime as "complex agroalimentar" (Agroalimentary Complex), these large domed buildings were intended as produce markets and public refectories. It appears to have been Ceauşescu's vision that they would serve as food distribution centres, eliminating the need for selling or distributing food anywhere else.

The name "hunger circuses", now so universally used as to have almost suppressed the memory of the official communist-era term, derived from the circus-like domed architecture and the irony of constructing these massive food-related buildings during a period when food was scarce throughout Romania, due to Ceaușescu's policy of exporting most of Romania's agricultural produce in order to pay off the foreign debt. The irony was reinforced by the connotation of "circus" as ridiculous farce.

At the time of Ceaușescu's downfall and execution, only two hunger circuses had been completed: One of these, Pantelimon, now forms part of a public market in the Delfinului area of Bucharest; the other, also in Bucharest, is placed close to the Unirea shopping mall, nestled between Piața Unirii and Sfânta Vineri Street. Several others stood half-finished in scattered locations around Bucharest, surrounded by rusting construction cranes and vacant lots.

The hunger circuses left unfinished after the 1989 Revolution were later completed, as malls such as the Bucharest Mall in Vitan, City Mall and Plaza Romania in Militari. The hunger circus in Rahova was partially demolished in November 2006 to make room for a new mall – Liberty Center Mall. Another hunger circus was transformed into a private university.

title: Hunger circus


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Theophilus Eaton

Theophilus Eaton (c. 1590—January 7, 1658) was a wealthy New England Puritan merchant, diplomat and financier, who took part in organizing and financing the Great Puritan Migration to America. He was a founder of Massachusetts Bay Colony, and a founder and eventual governor of New Haven Colony. He also cofounded Boston, Massachusetts, Greenwich, Connecticut and Eaton's Neck in New York.

His brother, Nathaniel Eaton, became the first headmaster of Harvard college, building Harvard Yard and Harvard Library, and his son, Samuel Eaton, became one of the seven founders of the Harvard Corporation.

Early life and first marriage
He was born at Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, England about 1590, to Rev. Richard Eaton and his wife, Elizabeth. His father was a graduate of the University of Oxford in 1599, at Lincoln College, and may have been the curate at that time. He later became in 1607 Prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral and Vicar of Great Budworth, Cheshire. Theophilus married Grace Hiller, and had two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth Eaton, who died young. Grace Hiller died in 1626.

Second marriage and children

In 1627 he remarried, this time to a widow, Anne Yale, who was the daughter of George Lloyd, the Bishop of Chester (some authorities say Anne Morton, the daughter of Bishop Thomas Morton of Chester). Eaton and Anne Yale will be the parents of Samuel Eaton (baptized in 1628), Theophilus Jr., Hannah, Jonathan and Elizabeth II (b. 1637), as the previous Elizabeth Eaton died in 1630. They raised eight children in their household. Besides their three, and Mary and Samuel, it included Anne, David, and Thomas Yale from Anne's first marriage to Thomas Yale of the Yale family. Thomas Yale was a London merchant, son of Dr. David Yale of Erddig Park, Chancellor of Chester, who was the nephew of Dr. Thomas Yale, Chancellor of the Head of the Church of England and a cousin of Elizabeth Tudor. He was also a grandson of John Lloyd, Judge of the High Court of Admiralty in London, and one of the eight founding Fellows of the first Protestant College of the University of Oxford, Jesus College. Another cousin was Rev. John Yale of Cambridge University, heir of Plas-yn-Yale in Wales.

The three Yale children all had notable places in the history of Connecticut.

Thomas Yale Jr. settled in Connecticut as a planter and landowner, cofounded New Haven Colony, and signed its Fundamental Agreement on June 4, 1639. His descendants would fight the American War of Independence and other wars, as general, colonels, majors, captains and soldiers, and become the early settlers of Wallingford and Yalesville, with many also becoming postmasters for Presidents Jackson, Van Buren, Polk, Pierce, and Buchanan, as well as establishing a manufacturing dynasty in the region. They would establish number of hotels and banks and start the manufacture of cigars, beer, pelts, wagons, carriages, steamboats, ships, yacht flags, gunpowder engines, Britannia ware, as well as bayonets and muskets for the Revolutionary War, Mexican War, Crimean War, and would later be behind the majority of the weapons manufactured for the Union Army of Abraham Lincoln through Lamson, Goodnow & Yale, family of Linus Yale Sr..

Notable descendants include : Gen. Edwin R. Yale, proprietor of the largest hotel in America, Senator Charles Dwight Yale, co-proprietor of Simpson, Hall, Miller & Co., Meriden's largest manufacturer, William Yale, yachtman Charles G. Yale, family cofounded the N.Y. Stock Exchange, media entrepreneur and banker Moses Yale Beach, largest newspaper in America, Helen Wakefield Yale, wife of Judge John H. Kennard, Elizur Yale Smith, one of the largest paper manufacturer, family of Rev. Elisha Yale and Gabriel Mead Tooker of Mrs. Astor's Four Hundred, Mary Yale Ogden, family of abolitionist Barnabas Yale and Lorenzo Da Ponte, partner of Mozart and founder of the first Italian opera in Manhattan, Dr. Leroy Milton Yale Jr., family of Congressman Chester W. Chapin, Eliza Yale, family of Lt. Gov. Julius Catlin, Mary Valentine Yale Bissell, family of George Henry Bissell, founder of the American oil industry and competitor of John D. Rockefeller and the Rothschilds, Donald Arthur Yale, co-owner of Borsheims with Warren Buffett, etc.

Anne Yale (the daughter) married Gov. Edward Hopkins in 1631; he later became the 2nd Gov. of Connecticut and a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty for the Lord Protector of Britain, Oliver Cromwell. Her uncle-in-law was Ottoman ambassador Sir Henry Lello, who negotiated with the Venetians and Habsburgs under Elizabeth Tudor. David Yale, a prosperous Boston merchant and attorney to Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, who married Ursula Knight in 1641, became the father of Gov. Elihu Yale, President of the British East India Company settlement in Fort St. George, at Madras and primary benefactor of Yale College.

The Eaton children fared as follows. Daughter Mary Eaton married Judge Valentine Hill of Boston, a business associate of William Aspinwall, member of the Artillery Company, signatory of the Oath of a Freeman and real estate developer in 1647. (Gov. Eaton's brother, Nathaniel Eaton, the first Headmaster of Harvard and builder of Harvard's first College was present as a witness. ) Samuel Eaton became one of the seven founding members and signatories of the Harvard Corporation by charter in 1650, then, in 1654, married Mabel (Harlakenden) Haynes, widow of John Haynes, 4th Gov. of Massachusetts Bay Colony and later 1st Gov. of Connecticut Colony. Both of them died in the small pox epidemic of 1655. Hannah Eaton married William Jones, 24th Lt. Gov. of Connecticut and Magistrate for the United Colonies, in 1659. He and Davenport hosted in secret two regicides from Britain in the Judges' Cave in New Haven. Theophilus Eaton, Jr., or Ellis, as he was known, returned to England with his mother after his father's death, settled in Dublin, Ireland, and married Catherine (daughter of Captain Thomas Maunsell and Alphra Crayford) in 1649, and their daughter Anne married her first cousin Colonel Thomas Maunsell. He is ancestor to many members of prominent Anglo-Irish families to this day. Their daughter Elizabeth died in London in March 1637 before the family departed for the colonies.

Early career in England

In London, Theophilus resided between Coleman Street and Lothbury Street, and became a member of the Court of Common Council of the City of London Corporation. He purchased with Anne Yale the past home of Sir Richard Saltonstall of the Saltonstall family. For several years, he served as Ambassador and middleman between King James I of England and King Christian IV of Denmark, mostly for the business dealings between these two countries.

Thereafter, he would become Deputy Gov. of the Eastland Company, which was one of the most important English commercial companies of the 17th century. The enterprise traded in the Baltics and Scandinavia, dealing with countries such as Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Prussia and Poland. As his wealth grew, he took great interest in the plans to colonize New England. He would get his chance in 1628. He and a group of shareholders, including Sir Richard Saltonstall and Sir Henry Rosewell, bought the right to colonize the Massachusetts Bay Colony, through a Royal charter made by King Charles I of England.

As one of the cofounders of Massachusetts, he signed its incorporation called the Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company and they would form a Self-governing colony by creating the Massachusetts General Court, called the Great and General Court at the time and the Massachusetts Governor's Council, called the Council of assistants at the time. This governing body would put the management and defence of the colony in the hands of ten men. Five would have to stay in England, five would go to Massachusetts. Theophilus was one of the five men chosen to govern the Colony from England. To make the trip to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Governor John Winthrop would use one of the ships that he co-owned, the Arbella, and would make it his flagship to lead the Winthrop Fleet.

Arrived in Massachusetts, they would make Boston their capital, with Theophilus Eaton and Thomas Hooker among its founders. This would start the Puritan migration to New England (1620–1640) and Theophilus would be one of those wealthy city Puritans who financed it. The colony became the largest in New England, and evolved into the Thirteen American Colonies that would later become the United States of America.

Emigration to New England

He later made the trip and emigrated to New England with other Puritans in the ship Hector, arriving in Boston on June 26, 1637.

His group of colonists had his friend John Davenport as their religious leader, brother of Francis Davenport, the chaplain of Queen Catherine of Braganza and Henrietta Maria de Bourbon. They wanted to start their own settlement – probably due in part to the commanding persona of John Winthrop, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony at the time (1637 to 1640, and many other terms). Winthrop was termed "an object of great fear in all the colonies", and caused the Rev. Thomas Hooker and others to go off and form their own colonies as well.

Their beliefs seemed quite strong in retrospect as they would later refuse the request of Oliver Cromwell, the most powerful man in England, to join him in his conquest of Ireland and Spain.

Foundation of New Haven
In the spring his group moved from Boston and when they arrived on April 14, 1638, they named the site New Haven. That fall, Eaton led an exploration to the south, and located a site at Quinnipiack on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. On November 14, 1638, he and his company entered into an agreement with the chief sachem Momauquin agreeing that in exchange for protection from the Quinnipiack Indians' ancient enemies, the Mohawk and the Pequot, Momauquin would relinquish his right, title, and interest to the lands that both parties agreed would not later evolve into feelings of animosity, hate, or regret. [Cf. J. W. Barber, History and Antiquities of New Haven, (Conn.) (1831) pp. 25–29].

The Mohawks and the Pequots had all but wiped out the New Haven Indians, leaving but 40 surviving males, and to that end Theophilus and his company also covenanted to protect them when unreasonably assaulted and terrified, that they would always have a sufficient quantity of land to plant on, and by way of free and thankful retribution that they give to the sachem and his council and company: twelve coats of English cloth, twelve alchemy spoons, twelve hatchets, twelve hoes, two dozen knives, twelve porringers, and four cases of French knives & scissors.

This agreement was signed and legally executed by Momauquin and his council as well as by Theophilus Eaton and John Davenport.

Some still say, however, that Theophilus simply traded thirteen coats to the local Indians for seven townships of land; but what is a fact is that in the following December 1638 he and his company did also purchase the usage of a large area of land from Monotowese, son of the sachem at Mattabeseck, which was 10 miles in length and 13 in breadth. He did pay 13 coats to Monotowese as per their agreement, but again, the English gave the Indians ample grounds to plant on and free usage of all the lands for hunting. Further, even though Monotowese's tribe consisted of but 10 males with their women and children, it was understood that the English would also protect them from the Mohawk and the Pequots.

Upon arrival in the new colony, Theophilus at first attempted to resume his trade as a merchant. He was not successful, however, since the colony was too new to afford imports and the Indian fur trade was more successful at the Dutch outposts at Hartford, so he soon turned to farming. When the New Haven Colony established its administration, he was chosen as one of the "seven pillars of the church" acting as one of the 7 councillors who formed the body of freemen and elected civil officers. Their names were: Theophilus Eaton, John Davenport, Robert Newman, Matthew Gilbert, Thomas Fugill, John Punderson, and Jeremiah Dixon. The colony would over time have outposts in Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New York, including territories on Long Island such as Eaton's Neck and Southold, next to the Hamptons and Gardiners Island of Lion Gardiner.

Career as governor

He was elected as the first governor on June 4, 1639, and reelected each year until his death on January 7, 1657/8 (Julian Calendar timing). He was buried on the green in New Haven and later his remains were removed to Grove Street Cemetery, New Haven. One of his major accomplishments as governor was the creation of a written legal code for the colony in 1655 later to be known as the Blue Laws of Connecticut. For this, and the fact that he was the first president of the Massachusetts Bay Company, he is sometimes thought of as being the Father of American Law, but this is arguably an example of hyperbole.

In 1640, as Governor of the Colony, he acquired from the Siwanoy Indians the town of Greenwich, Connecticut, making him one of its founder. Around 1642, he established the Delaware Company of New Haven, a permanent colony in the Delaware River Valley with the aim of developing the fur trade against the Dutch. Stephen Goodyear of the Goodyear family and other merchants joined the venture. Their claim on this territory brought conflicts with Dutch Governor Willem Kieft and Lord Baltimore of Maryland Colony.

In 1643, he became a founding Commissioner of the United Colonies of New England, and was joined by his son-in-law, Governor Edward Hopkins, the 2nd Governor of Connecticut Colony, to unite the Church and build a military alliance between the New England Colonies. In 1646, he became the first in New England to freed his slaves, more than 100 years before the 1st U.S. President George Washington and Founding Father Benjamin Franklin doing the same. In 1650, he became involved in one of the many disputes with Gov. Peter Stuyvesant, of the Stuyvesant family, over the boundaries of the colonies, adding tension to the Anglo-Dutch relations.

The dispute with New Amsterdam concerned the Dutch claims on all the lands bordering Long Island Sound, and the capture of an English ship. Gov. Winthrop got involved and they settled the borders of New Netherland and the English colonies over the Treaty of Hartford. In 1653, he sent his secretary, Francis Newman, to meet Governor Peter Stuyvesant to gain compensation for the English settlers who were in Dutch hands. In 1654, when Davenport became sick, Eaton had the physician of Oliver Cromwell, Dr. Laurence Wright, and Gov. Winthrop, to take the case in their own hands and send him back to England to be cured. In 1656, he received a letter from Cromwell, at the time Lord Protector (head of state), formally inviting the residents of New Haven Colony to remove to Jamaica, or later Ireland, along with another letter from Maj. Gen. Robert Sedgwick, to which they declined. Mr. Newman would replace Theophilus Eaton as Governor after his death in 1658, with Stephen Goodyear of the Goodyear family as his Deputy Governor.

Eaton's Neck, New York, on Long Island, a peninsula 45 miles from Manhattan, also bear his name. He acquired the land in 1646 from the Matinecock Indians and was the first European to have explored this area. As part of the estate of Gov. Eaton and Anne Yale, the 1500 acres property was inherited by their son, Theophilus Jr., then their daughter Hannah Eaton, the half-siblings of the Yales. In 1686, it became one of the six royal manors of Long Island, becoming The Lordship and Manor of Eaton's Neck. It was granted by Governor Thomas Dongan on behalf of King James II of England, the famous Duke of York who gave his name to the Province and City of New York.

Siblings
Theophilus' younger brother Nathaniel Eaton (1609–1674) was the first Headmaster of Harvard College, and the brother-in-law of Gov. William Stone, family of Founding Fathers Thomas Stone and Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer. He was deposed in 1639 by the then Governor John Winthrop in what some have considered to be Massachusetts' first Witch Trial. Another brother, Samuel Eaton Sr. (1597–1665), was a Minister who accompanied Theophilus to New Haven, but later returned to England.

Theophilus was a member of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony when they issued the charter for Harvard. He also gave £40 for the erection of Harvard's first buildings while his brother Nathaniel Eaton was erecting them as superintendent of the college. Governor Eaton, his brother Nathaniel, the first Head, and his son Samuel Jr., one of the seven founders of the Harvard Corporation, were all participants in the founding of Harvard College.

Samuel was admitted at Harvard in 1645, and graduated from a class of five in 1649, before its incorporation in 1650, and began teaching at the institution, just as his uncle Nathaniel was teaching at its foundation. His stepson also attended Harvard. Nathaniel was a friend of John Harvard who came with him from Cambridge University to the colonies.

Theophilus Eaton's home was the largest in New Haven Colony, and one of the largest in New England at the time, with a total of 21 fireplaces, a household of about 30 people, and an estate covering 3000 acres in New Haven. He also had estates in London and England. The home of Eli Whitney of the Whitney family, now called William Pinto House, would later be on the original estate of Gov. Eaton.

Epitaph
Theophilus' epitaph reads as follows ...

title: Theophilus Eaton


text:
Dongfanghong program

Dongfanghong was a satellite program of the People's Republic of China. The program started in August 1965 as Project 651—a less ambitious successor to the earlier Project 581—with the goal of launching a satellite heavier than both Sputnik 1 and Explorer 1 into space, and developing all the necessary technologies to do so.

History
In 1958, the Chinese Academy of Science proposed Project 581 which included a plan to launch a satellite into space before 1 October 1959. The project was troubled due to the country's lack of expertise in the field of rocketry. On 21 January 1959, Zhang Jingfu, who was in charge in the satellite research program, postponed the project to allow effort to be put into developing more basic technologies, such as sounding rocketry. In December 1964, during the 3rd National People's Congress, Zhao Jiuzhang suggested that the work on satellites be resumed. In August 1968, the Central Special Committee approved Chinese Academy of Science's plan, which later became Project 651.

In June 1965, the Central Special Committee made the decision to pursue development of a launch vehicle. As per the request of Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND), the vehicle's first stage and second stage would be based on a DF-4 long range missile. A solid-fueled third stage was added to the design.

On 24 April 1970, Dong Fang Hong 1 was launched. After reaching orbit, it transmitted a tone-generator rendition of the Chinese song "The East is Red" for 28 days.

Effect on the name of the Soviet Salyut programme
According to Boris Chertok's memoirs, when the first Soviet space station, Salyut 1, was under construction, its designated name was "Zarya" (which means "Dawn", in Russian). When the Soviets realized that the Chinese had a space program with a similar name ("Dongfanghong" was also rendered as Zarya into Russian), they renamed their space station to "Salyut" ("Firework"), to avoid confusion.

Later iterations
Dongfanghong satellite program later developed satellite bus to use the base platform and structure for other Chinese satellites and spacecraft.

DFH-2
DFH-2 is the first-generation, spin-stabilized large satellite bus from China, developed in the late 1970s. The first launch was in 1984.

DFH-3
DFH-3 is the second-generation 3-axis stabilized, large satellite bus from China, developed in 1987. It could be used for geosynchronous communications and navigation satellites, and deep space exploration.

DFH-4
DFH-4 is the third-generation, 3-axis stabilized, large satellite bus developed by China. The satellite bus was designed and developed from 1999 to 2005. The maiden flight was launched on 29 October 2006. The satellite bus had first international customer in 2007.

DFH-5
DFH-5 is the fourth-generation, 3-axis stabilized, satellite bus developed by China. First satellite was operational in 2017.

title: Dongfanghong program