I. EARLY CHINESE VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY

Between 1421 and 1423 the Chinese mounted the largest fleet the world had ever seen which reached the far corners of the earth. The fleet discovered and charted the New World seventy years before Christopher Columbus and circumnavigated the globe a century before Magellan. The revelation of these achievements has challenged our notions of voyages of discovery and means that our knowledge of history has to be revised.

II. THE PIZZIGANO CHART

In the early 1990’s Gavin Menzies, a former British navy captain, discovered an unusual chart that was drafted in 1424 by a Venetian cartographer named Zuane Pizzigano. The chart showed a group of four islands in the Caribbean – Satanazes, Antilia, Saya and Ymana that did not appear in other map and marked places where no European had visited before such as Patagonia, the Andes, Antarctica and the east coast of Africa.

Menzies determined that these explorers were Chinese because only they had the skills in astro-navigation, horticulture and had a huge fleet large enough to mount such an epic voyage. (1)

III. DESTRUCTION OF DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE

When the fleet returned home in October 1423, emperor Zhu Di had fallen from the throne and a great storm had destroyed his palace. This was seen as a bad omen and as a result when his son succeeded to the throne he rejected the outside world and destroyed the majority of China’s documents recording China’s previous expansionist policies.

IV. ZHENG HE – THE EUNUCH

In 1402 emperor Zhu Di succeeded to the throne by overthrowing Zhu Yunwen and because he was not his father’s designated heir he sought to prove the legitimacy of his regime in the eyes of the Gods by conceiving a grand plan and for its’ implementation he turned to his bodyguard, admiral Zheng He.

Zheng He was a eunuch. Eunuchs were Mongol boys whom the Chinese castrated by severing their penises and testicles, after defeating the Mongols in the fourteenth century. Then they were conscripted into the army or used as personal servants to the emperor.

The grand plan involved forming an armada to establish an empire, building a new capital city in Beijing and extending the Great Wall of China.

V. THE GRAND PLAN

A. ‘Tribute System’

Zheng He was commandeered to assemble a large armada to sail and chart the oceans of the world bringing foreign rulers and the entire world into China’s ‘tribute system’. (2)

Under that system rulers paid tribute to China in return for trading privileges and protection against enemies. China always gave its’ trading partners a greater value of goods – silks and porcelain at discounted prices, often funded by soft loans – than was received from them. Thus they were in perpetual debt to China.

B. Beijing – The New Imperial City

In 1404 in furtherance of a plan to build a new capital city four and a half million artisans and laborers were employed to work on construction and one million to guard them.

Beijing was to be the intellectual capital of the world with libraries and storage for four thousand encyclopedias, the opinions of 120 philosophers and sages of the Song dynasty together with commentaries of thinkers from the 11th and 13th centuries.

This would be unlike anything else in the rest of the world where printing was unknown and culture and scientific knowledge lagged far behind.

C. The Great Wall of China

This had been built between 221 and 206 BC to protect the northern frontiers from attack and the new wall was to run 6,400 kilometers west from the Pacific to the Heavenly Mountains in central Asia.

VI. THE ARMADA

The Chinese had the most powerful navy in the world. Their treasure ships were ocean-going monsters built of teak, the rudders stood 36 feet high and they could carry more than 2000 tons of cargo. The galleys were protected by archers and were armed with gunpowder weapons, cannons, mortars flaming arrows and exploding shells.

The armada was organized like a modern convoy with the flagships at the center surrounded by junks, 90 feet long and 30 feet wide and an outer ring of warships.

The ships could remain at sea for over three months and cover 4500 miles because accompanying them were water tankers and grain ships with chickens, dogs, pigs and other animals for food and horses for the cavalry.

Trading ships from other nations would join in and the altogether there were more than 800 ships and crews large enough to fill a city.

Unlike European voyages which were aimed at finding treasure Chinese voyages

were scientific expeditions and included various professionals like interpreters, navigators, engineers and physicians to search for healing plants.

VII. MENZIES’ METHODOLOGY

In order to support his thesis that Zheng He had discovered the New World Gavin Menzies had to follow the route the Chinese ships had taken but also to find traces of their presence in places along those routes.

Some thirty-four lines of evidence had survived the destruction of the records and he was also helped by his experience as a navigator in the navy and by Chinese historian, Ma Huan, who documented the first part of the voyage in his diaries. (3)

VIII. THE GREAT VOYAGE

A. Chinese Astronomy

The armada set sail on March 8, 1421 and the hull shape of the ships meant that they had to sail before the wind.

In Chinese astronomy latitude was determined not by the distance north of the equator but by the distance from the North Pole which was determined by the altitude of Polaris, a bright star above the North Pole (i.e. its’ height above the horizon).

By sailing due south and keeping Polaris dead astern, the fleet could measure the star’s altitude with their sextants and thereafter every twenty-four hours to determine the change of latitude (i.e. its distance south of the North Pole).

Polaris was not visible in the southern hemisphere and therefore could not determine latitude south of the equator.

B. Da Conti and Fra Mauro

According to Ma Huan the armada sailed towards the Indian Ocean where it was divided into four fleets – three under the command of Hong Bao, Zhou Man and Zhou Wen. Zheng He commanded the fourth which sailed to south-east Asia before returning home in November 1421.

The fleet then sailed to Calicut in India and then up the west coast of Africa to the Cape Verde islands.

In a report of his journey to the Papacy a Venetian trader named Niccolo da Conti (c. 1395 – 1469) described the presence of Chinese warships in Calicut at the time of his visit. Also, a map of southern Africa dated 1459 and drawn by a Venetian cartographer Fra Mauro, included a drawing of Zheng He’s junks.

Both men claimed that a Chinese junk had sailed round the Cape of Good Hope and into the south Atlantic and this was confirmed by a Chinese chart dat 1420 called the Kangnido map which accurately depicted the coasts of Africa and must have been drawn by someone who sailed round the Cape.

Furthermore the Chinese had a practice of leaving carved stones as monuments to their achievements when they stopped at places on their voyages. Examples of stones found were the Matadi Falls in the Congo, a free standing one in Janela in Africa and another in Dondra Head in Sri Lanka.

After leaving the Cape Verde islands the fleet separated so admiral Zhou Wen went north with the current through the Caribbean to North America while admirals Hong Bao and Zhou Man took the current due south towards South America.

C. The Piri Reis Map

This map of South America drafted by an Ottoman admiral named Piri Reis in 1428 confirms that the fleet went to the Orinoco Delta and the Amazon. DNA of American Indian peoples in the Amazon, Brazil and Venezuela showed that they had diseases unique to China.

The winds then carried the fleet to Patagonia in south Argentina. A variety of birds and animals had been taken to and from the Americas. The Piri Reis map depicted a deer in Patagonia, a guanaco (type of camel) and a mountain lion which are native to South America. A native man and a dog-headed man or mylodon were found in the Chinese book called The Illustrated Record of Strange Countries 1430 which depicted animals found by the Chinese on their travels.

The Europeans also found when they arrived rice fields – a crop foreign to the Americas- in Mexico and Brazil, cotton unique to North America in the Cape Verde islands and coconuts from the South Pacific in Puerto Rico. Bananas, tobacco, sweet potatoes and maize from the Amazon were also exported to south-east Asia.

IX. THE VOYAGE OF HONG BAO

His mission was to chart the world east of the Falkland Islands. The current pushed the fleet into a narrow strait which is famously known as ‘The Strait of Magellan’ because it is a sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Then the fleet sailed to Antarctica as far south as the South Pole. A sailor from Bologna named Ludovico de Varthema in 1506 claimed that two Chinese sailors told him that the Chinese had sailed by the Southern Cross to regions that were very cold and had sunlight for only four hours a day which they could only have known by sailing there themselves. In addition the Piri Reis map showed ice running due south of the Strait of Magellan and must have been drawn by someone who sailed alongside it.

The fleet then got underneath the Canopus, a giant star directly above the South

Pole.

A. Canopus

Getting underneath Canopus and knowing the circumference of the earth enabled the fleet to calculate the position of the South Pole. By cross- referencing Canopus to Polaris they could then use that star to obtain latitude anywhere in the southern hemisphere.

B.Australia – West Coast

Hong Bao’s fleet was carried by the current to the west coast of Australia via the island of Kerguelen as identified in the Dictionary of Ming Biography of Records and on the Chinese chart the Wu Pei Chi 1422.

The junk dispatched to chart the area got wrecked and in 1836 three hunters found the wreck of a ship built of mahogany which Europeans did not use to build ships and twenty years later was identified by an Australian Mrs. Manifold as the missing ship.

The Aboriginal Yangery tribe which live near the wreck-site have a distinctive color and facial features and claim that ‘yellow men’ settled among them who must have been from the wreck.

X. THE VOYAGE OF ZHOU MAN

Zhou Man’s fleet got swept northward up the coast of Chile until they reached Peru. There they exchanged tributes with the indigenous Incas which are found in a novel about Zheng He’s voyages in 1597 called His-Yang-Chi-(Xi Yang Ji) all of which could be found in northern Peru including llamas, cachalots (small whales) and Asiatic hens.

After leaving Peru, the fleet split into two parts. The northern squadron sailed to the Carolinas, New Guinea and the Philippines.

Evidence of their presence in the Americas were observation platforms in the Carolinas, like those in China; Chinese hens in Peru and maize and tools used to grind it, indigenous to the Americas, were found in the Philippines.

The southern squadron was carried by the current to the east coast of Australia.

A. Australia – East Coast

In the imperial zoo in Beijing there is the figure of a Kangaroo which is unique to Australia and in the 1840’s a ruined fortress was found in New South Wales formed with large stones and mortar with a large tree growing under the stones. Such fortifications were not built by the Aborigines and given the age of the tree must have been built before the British arrived.

Also found were rock carvings depicting a Chinese junk with people in long robes

Indicating the presence of Chinese.

A shipwreck was found near Byron Bay in New South Wales and in 1965 sand-miners found a huge rudder, 40 feet high which must have been Chinese since only they built ships with such large rudders.

The similarities of another wreckage near Wollongong near Sydney and two more in Perth proves the presence of the Chinese in east Australia in the 15th century.

New Zealand – The current pushed the fleet to the South Island of New Zealand where the wreck of an old wooden ship was found on the southern tip and in 1831 Sydney seamen saw mylodons and sea otters which are not indigenous to New Zealand and must have escaped the wreck.

On the North Island a huge carved stone was found with concentric circles similar to the ones the Chinese left behind in Dondra Head, Janela and by the Matadi Falls in the Congo Delta.

A celebrated bell similar to Zheng He’s bell cast after the sixth voyage was found near a ship wreck on Ruapuke beach, an oriental figurine was found near Auckland and the Maoris near Ruapuke had a legend that ‘Patupaiarche’ or pale-skinned Chinese settlers had married Maori women proving the Chinese had reached New Zealand.

Brisbane, Australia – The fleet made a second landfall in Australia, north of Brisbane. There their engineers went ashore on horses and gathered gold and other precious minerals and built pyramids in Gympie obviously to mark the location of the precious riches.

As recent as October 5, 2002 historian Brett Green unearthed the wreck of a large Chinese ship off Queensland proving that Captain Cook did not discover Australia.

After Australia they visited the Spice Islands and the Philippines where they exchanged silks and porcelain for spices, large enough to fill the imperial warehouse in Beijing.

B.The First Colony in the Americas

The manner in which the islands were drawn on the Waldseemuller map which was the first map of the world published in 1507 and named after German cartographer, showed that Zhou Man’s fleet after leaving the Philippines set up colonies along the Pacific coast from California to Ecuador.

Professor Judith A. Carney of the University of California argues that it was the Chinese who taught the American farmer how to farm and by the 1870’s seventy five percent of farm laborers in California were of Chinese origin. (4)

Also in 1874 Stephen Powers, an official inspector of the Government of

California found linguistic evidence of a Chinese colony on the Russian River in California, seventy miles north of the wreck of a Chinese junk (the Sacramento junk) which had been built in 1410 and was identified by the carbon-date of the wood.

Powers described Chinese settlers as having intermarried with local Indians and their descendants were paler than people on the coast and the older generation had beards while the women were as proud of their black hair as the Chinese.

Rather than skins, women wore a single garment in the shape of a wool sack, sleeveless and gathered at the neck. Unlike Indian tribes, after death the descendants desired like the Chinese to be buried in the ancestral soil of their tribe; they were sedentary; four fifths of their diet was vegetarian and they had a vast knowledge of botanical names.

Pottery was formed in classic Chinese shapes whereas the Indians beat out a hollow of a rock leaving the outside rough. The ancient tribes used long knives but their descendants used obsidian or jasper (a type of crystal); the ancestors fashioned tobacco pipes from serpentine while their descendants made simple wooden ones and used a Chinese method of snaring wildfowl by using decoy ducks.(5)

Powers’ arguments are also supported by DNA evidence which corroborates the Asian origin of Native American populations and suggests recent gene flow from Asia. (6)

On the eastern side of San Francisco Bay, seventy miles south of the Sacramento junk is a small stone-built village with low walls which in 1904 Dr. John Fryer, a professor of Oriental Languages at University College, Berkeley, California stated was the work of the Chinese who wall themselves in as they do in China.

Lastly, fifty stone carvings of ships and forty horses were found alongside the Mississippi river suggesting that the horses were brought there by ship.

C. Colonies in Central America

After leaving the coast of California the fleet made landfall in Colima, Mexico.

Here they encountered the Mayan civilization nearly as old and fine as their own. When the Spanish conquistadores arrived in Mexico in the 1520’s they found Asiatic chickens; the names of birds Kek or Ki were similar to those of the Chinese and the Mexicans like the Chinese used chickens for ceremonial purposes.

Sweet potatoes, tomatoes and papayas which are indigenous to Central America were found in Easter Island in Oceania and sweet potatoes were also found in Hawaii. The Maya had built stone cities like Palenque in Chiapas built in c. AD 325- 925 which was filled with treasures for which the Chinese exchanged silks and ceramics.

Metals were mined in the same way as in China and mirrors were important in both cultures.

But the strongest signs of Chinese influence was in Uruapan where the process of preparing lacquer which is obtained from a tree in China (or Ch’I-Ch’l in Chinese) are identical in Mexico and China. There are also similar techniques to obtain other dyes such as madder red, indigo blue, scarlet and shellfish purple as well as Vermilion dyes obtained from insects scraped off oak trees, lac (lactic acid) from Asia and royal (tyrian) purple from marine snails.

Linguistic evidence of Chinese visits to South America are a sailing ship is chamban in Colombia, sampan in China; a raft, balsa in South America and palso in China and a log raft, jangada in Brazil and ziangada in Tamil. Villagers in a mountain village in Peru speak Chinese.

DNA evidence shows that the peoples in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela and Peru share Chinese DNA. So deep is the Chinese influence on continent that it could be called ‘Chinese America’.

XI. THE VOYAGE OF ZHOU WEN

A. The Caribbean

Zhou Wen sailed north to the Cape Verde Islands where the currents converged to take them towards the Dominica Passage.

The fleet sailed northwards to Guadeloupe, an island reportedly inhabited by Carib cannibals who among other things used human skulls as drinking vessels and other body parts as food. On a modern map of the area this island was Satanazes-Satan Island and as regards the other islands shown for the first time on the Pizzigano chart Saya was identified as Les Saintes, Antilia matched Puerto Rico and Ymana placed directly above the volcanoes of La Souffriere, La Citerne and L’Echelle.

The wind then drove the fleet due north along the coast of Cuba towards Grand Bahama in The Bahamas.

B.Bimini Road

In 1968 an underwater rock formation was found off the coast of North Bimini in the Bahamas. It lies on the ocean floor, about a thousand yards from the shore and comprised hundreds of flat rocks, eight to ten feet square arranged in regular patterns, called Bimini Road. It was man-made with two parallel lines of stones running south-west towards the ocean. The western section starts at an angle of 160 degrees to the beach and curves round to run directly to the shore.

Gavin Menzies thinks Bimini Road is a submerged dry dock created by the Chinese and since sea levels were about six feet lower six centuries ago, this dock could have been on the shore of Bimini.

As the fleet sailed towards Bimini many ships ran aground and were tied alongside seaworthy ones to keep them afloat. The stern would have had to be turned around to face the beach before being hauled to shore.

The Chinese had engineers aboard and over six centuries’ experience of laying stonework under water and the stones used are found in Yangtze in China and could have been cut and sized in Nanjing where the treasure ships were built.

Four junks had sunk off North Bimini and five abandoned and the rest repaired. Some of the surviving sailors had to be left behind and when food supplies ran out they would have had to set up settlements in Cuba and along the east coast of Florida. (7)

This explanation is consistent with reports from successive explorers on seeing men in ‘white tunics which reached to their knees’ along the route the Chinese had followed.

C. Settlement in North America

There is an abundance of evidence of the presence of the Chinese on the North American mainland.

The junks were carried by the Gulf Stream to Cape Hatteras in North Carolina where they divided into two squadrons. One squadron went to the Cape Verde Islands via the Azores and the other went north circumnavigated Greenland and back down its’ east coast.

In 1524 Venetian explorer Giovanni de Verrazzano stopped in the Narragansett Bay near Rhode Island and described the local people as wearing long dresses and jewellery with long black hair which fits the description of Chinese concubines. He also described seeing at the entrance to the bay a natural rock which appears to be the rock on which stands the Round Tower in the park in Newport, Rhode Island. (8) The tower must have been to mark a Chinese settlement or been a lighthouse to mark the bay.

Six separate accounts of the first Europeans to reach New England described civilized white or bronze-skinned women living in Newport who wore eastern clothes and combed their hair in buns like Chinese women.

Menzies discovered twelve curious stones erected by the Chinese in a small are in eastern Massachusetts similar to the ones the Chinese had left behind in Africa and Asia.

The results of recent tests on the Moskoke people in south-east United States show Chinese DNA.

New England could now be renamed ‘New China’.

In the Azores on the island called The Raven (Corvo) there was a Chinese statue of a man on a horse, his head is uncovered and he is bald, his left-hand rests upon his horse and his right-hand points towards the west. This was no doubt a replica of Zhu Di. The statue is Chinese because the Azores appears on the Chinese Kangnido chart which was produced before the Portuguese discovered the islands.

C. Expedition to the North Pole

The Chinese got as far as Greenland and in 1448 Pope Nicholas V wrote to the bishops of Skalholt and Holar in Iceland about ‘barbarians’ (a term that refers to people from the east) attacking the inhabitants of Greenland.

The existence of stone villages was proof of Chinese colonies and on the Bache Peninsula of Ellesmere Island was a colony of about twenty-five houses and beacons as well as evidence of Chinese mining of copper near Devon Island.

Further evidence is the Vinland map (c.1424) depicting the coast of Greenland with precise accuracy and DNA analysis proving that the Natives of Hvalsey, a

settlement in Greenland possess Chinese DNA.

XII. THE VOYAGE OF YANG QING

Yang Qing had left Beijing a month before the rest of the armada and spent his whole voyage in the Indian Ocean where his big achievement was learning to determine longitude.

The key to finding longitude is to observe the same event like a lunar eclipse at different locations around the globe and fixing the exact time the event took place, then calculating the differences in longitude. The Chinese had a big enough fleet to deploy at different locations to take readings. If the longitude of say Malacca is determined the fleet could use other observation posts around the Indian Ocean to take readings on the same night. In a lunar eclipse the earth is between the sun and the moon and the earth’s shadow obscures the moon. The Chinese could forecast a lunar eclipse that occurs about every six months.

Because of this achievement, the origin of world maps as well as latitude and longitude could be determined along with the discovery of the New World.

XIII. SUMMARY

The evidence proves conclusively that the glory for discovering the New World should go to Chinese admirals Zheng He, Hong Bao, Zhou Man and Zhou Wen and their fleets 1421 – 1423 and not to the Europeans.

The evidence includes physical entities like shipwrecks of Chinese junks in America, Australia and India; carved stones of Africa and the remains of Chinese people in South America; DNA, artifacts, scientific and circumstantial evidence from the fifteenth century including linguistic, ceremonial and spiritual.

Archaeological teams all over the world are evacuating sites believed to contain relics of Chinese shipwrecks.

The data is enshrined in over a thousand books providing evidence of pre-Columbian Chinese journeys to the Americas and is summarized in a two-volume bibliography. (9)

The Chinese provided Europeans with maps, navigational tools and an astronomical calendar beyond anything they produced on their own. Their methods of calculating latitude and longitude were given to the Europeans so that Columbus, Magellan and other explorers used them to reach the New World.

The Chinese colonized America and transplanted economic crops that have since fed and clothed the world.

Notes:

(1) 1421 The year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies p. 34 to 35.

(2) Emperor Zhu Di’s instructions to Zheng He, paraphrased from the two stone steles of 1431.

(3) The Overall Survey of the Ocean Shores, published after Zheng He’s voyage in 1433

(4) Carey McWilliams, Factories in the Field, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2000. P.68-80).

(5) Stephen Powers ‘Aborigines of California: An Indo-Chinese Study’ in Atlantic, Vol.33, 1874 and Contributions to North American Ethnology, Vol.3, Department of Interior, Washington DC 1877).

(6) Human Biology (vol. 70) entitled ‘Polymorphic Alu Insertions and the Asian

Origin of Native American Populations’ by Professor Novick.

(7) 1421 The year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies p.310-316.

(8) Account of Verazzano’s voyage in his letter 8July 1524 to Francis quoted in D.B.Quinn (ed.) North American Discovery, Harper & Row 1971.

(9) J.L. Sorenson and M.H. Raish, pre-Columbian Contact with the Americas across the Oceans; An Annotated bibliography, Provo Research Press 1990).

Acknowledgement I am greatly indebted to Gavin Menzies and his book ‘1421 – The year China discovered America’ – for the information contained in this article.

Victor A. Dixon

Author and Social Scientist

Revised October 23, 2020

The GarminGPS Map 60CSx is the ultimate GPS receiver out today.  It is a 12 channel, multi-purpose global positioning device and sports a 2.2 x 1.5 color LCD with 240 x 160 pixels.  It presents information in 256 colors that affords you a high quality image to view your location along with information you never thought you needed.

The Garmin GPSMap 60CSx, comes with a helix antenna and the SiRF star III chipset that pulls in signals through roofs, through trees and other challenging situations. The SiRF star III chipset is fed through the bulbous helix antenna for excellent reception in all kinds of situations thick forests, mountains doesn’t hinder its capability to give exact information.  Whether you are under a roof, in cars or campsites or wherever you are outdoors, Garmin GPSMap 60CSx does a pretty good job of maintaining its position thereof offering a lot in a handheld GPS.

Garmin GPSMap 60CSx comes in with 64 MB microSD with expandable external memory system that allows you to take a lot of maps and data with you on your trip and store additional data like new programs as well as store previous trips.

The garmin GPSMap 60CSx has 1000 waypoints and 50 routes that can be stored. It stores your favorite waypoints and additional points of intersection can be added. It has an automatic track log that saves up to 10,000 points and 20 tracks, and trackBack that lets you reverse tracks back to your starting point. 

The Garmin GPSMap 60CSx is certainly a portable handheld device you’ll need. It is a multipurpose GPS receiver suited for variety of activities in which it can serve as an electronic compass, biometric altimeter.  There are also numerous customizations that allow you to get the map to look just the way you want it: North up, direction of travel up, turn guidance text on when you are navigating a route, set the amount of mapping details you want shown on the screen, turn on or off track recording, and many more.

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A digital terrain model, also known as a digital elevation model, is a digitally-created representation of ground topography and terrain. Although maps depicting topographical information have been produced for hundreds of years, it is only recently that such elevation data has been collected in such a precise digital form as to allow the creation of digital models.

The digital elevation model can be used to model water flow or other movements, for example to run simulated avalanches or landslides, or for land-use studies, transportation system planning, and geological applications. Other uses include the creation of physical raised-relief maps, flight simulator programs, or other visualization and modeling applications. Digital terrain models are also incorporated into geographic information systems.

There are many ways to obtain the information shown in a digital terrain map. Often this data is obtained using remote sensing equipment rather than direct surveying methods. Radar satellites are often used for models of large areas of terrain. Though these satellites often only have a resolution of about ten meters, they can obtain information on an area tens of miles wide in a single pass. There are other methods, too. A pair of images acquired with different angles taken from an airplane or satellite can be used to infer the terrain. The first digital terrain models using this method were created in 1986 for a large portion of the planet using data from the SPOT 1 satellite.

In many cases, digital terrain models are generated from contour maps, often those that have been produced by direct surveying of the land surface. Contour line data is obtained by various surveying methods, including LIDAR, Doppler radar, Theodolite or total station surveying equipment. Using GPS, elevation data can be related to a specific location. This information can then be turned into a digital contour map or terrain model, which turns the raw data into a model enabling the viewer to “visualize” the landscape in a virtual manner.

Unlike contour maps, DTMs provide continuous elevation information. Contour maps, on the other hand, connect points that are equal in elevation, but do not generally provide elevation data for intermediate points. A digital terrain model also differs from a contour map in its visual appearance. A digital terrain map appears 3D; in many cases, “fly throughs” or similar programs allow the user to manipulate the map to view all areas and angles of the terrain.

A digital terrain model usually includes only the Earth’s surface, excluding vegetation as well as buildings or other man-made features. This is sometimes referred to as a bare-earth model. A Digital Surface Model, on the other hand, shows such features in addition to the natural terrain. The problem with some surveying methods used to create these models, such as radar, is that they reflect the highest elevation point on a given location, whether this is the top of a tree or building or bare ground.

A free low-resolution digital elevation model of the earth, known as GTPPO30, is available. A much higher quality DEM is available from the ASTER instrument of the Terra satellite. The US Geological Survey also provides the National Elevation Dataset, seamless elevation data for the contiguous United States. Free digital elevation models can also be found for Mars. However, for a specific application, purpose-created DEM, DTM, or Digital Surface Models may be required. These models are very accurate, and are usually requested by public agencies or large corporations.

Seeks to identify and label key clusters of constituents who will be impacted by the change initiative. Using a simple pie chart model, constituent groups are identified and analyzed in terms of their relative interest/ involvement in the change effort. As the chart is being developed, questions about who will and won’t be on board with the change effort will naturally surface.

Uses:

Before launching into a more detailed analysis of specific pockets of support and resistance, teams have often found it useful to identify the broad base of KEY CONSTITUENTS impacted by the change initiative. As a prelude to the more detailed analysis of individual constituents, this process can help a team broaden its perspective regarding who the constituents are, where they reside in the organization, and their relative size as pieces of the overall constituent base, and decide how to spend limited resources (such as time). For team unfamiliar with how to mobilize commitment, this tool is relatively low-risk activity which can set the stage for more pointed discussions regarding the critical process of building a constituency for change.

How To Steps:

1. List all of the groups impacted by the change initiative.

2. Cluster like groups where appropriate to maintain a common elevation of analysis (example: sourcing, purchasing and expediting might be grouped as purchasing for simplicity sake if the rest of the groups are at similar level.)

3. Create the pie chart with attention to the magnitude of impact expected on each group (example: if engineering has 150 people whose lives will be impacted by the change and purchasing has only 15, the engineering group would be proportionally larger).

4. Debate and discuss the chart until all team members agree that it represents an accurate pictorial representation of the constituent groups that must be won over for the change initiative to be successful.

5. OPTION: In some cases, it may be useful to additionally create more detailed maps at a lower elevation

(example: If purchasing is determined to be a key block of constituents, it may be useful to break purchasing down into a more detailed pie chart representing sourcing, purchasing, expediting, etc.)

Timing:

Though not necessarily the first thing a team does to identify and analyze sources of support and resistance, this tool is most useful is used early, before the team becomes mired in detailed, specific discussions of who’s with us and who’s against us. As soon as the issue of support and resistance surfaces in the team, the stage is set to develop the first map of key constituents.

Tips:

Try to identify the broadest collection of constituents first, before applying the tool to more discrete groups. For example, a quick response change initiative team might construct its first map at a 30,000 level (to use an elevation metaphor). Such a map would include broad groups of constituents like engineering, manufacturing, sourcing, distribution etc… Staying at this level of analysis is useful in that ensures that no broad group is overlooked. More detailed maps may follow, but, at a minimum, the team can now see the challenge ahead in terms of building commitment among broad groups of constituents impacted by the change initiative.

A mind map is a process of writing things down in a way that makes a map of your ideas and thoughts. You can use shapes, symbols, and more to represent different points and ideas. This makes it easy to look at and digest quickly because it makes your main idea the central part of the map.

Change It Up

When problem solving, you want to change a few things. For example, you’ll want a new solution to the problem to be the central idea of your mind map. Ensure that you add resources for solving the problem. For example, money, people, and technology.

Remember that one problem may have more than one solution. By separating out each solution, including all the resources you’ll need, and noting the roadblocks, you’ll be able to choose the right solution for your problem more easily.

Once you notice the main solution that you need to implement, or you’ve identified a couple of solutions that work together, you can make more branches to the details of the solution and how you want to implement it.

Understanding The Bigger Picture

Putting all the information in one spot is going to help you look at the problem through new eyes that understand the big picture more. Using an online cloud-based mind mapping solution can also help you make a cleaner more useful mind map, because you won’t have anything marked out when you look at it.

Mind maps are good for both big-picture thinking and narrowing down things to target. For example, on a solutions mind map, you’re going to end up with steps to the solutions you’ve chosen, and then be able to go right out and start adding tasks to your calendar so you can be successful.

Even if you’re not naturally creative, you can learn to be more creative by developing your creative thinking and problem-solving skills.

Problem Solving is A Process

Problem-solving skills are important both in the workplace and in your private life. Whether you work for yourself or others, you’ll need to be open to solving problems. You’ll want to develop your mental, analytical and creative skills if you want to be a good problem solver because you’ll need to be able to think logically, put things in order, and evaluate whether a solution is right for a problem or not.

When you can identify issues, understand the stakeholders’ points, list all the solutions you can think of, evaluate them, and then select one (and one step further – implement it), then you’re going to be a good problem solver that others seek out. Being creative helps because your mind will be more open to new possibilities and potential.

Map Instant messaging system (MIMS) is a form of real-time communication between two or more people based on data (audio, video, mim, typed text, filed transfer). The data is conveyed via computers connected over a network such as the Internet. Colors representation of Offline and Online in different avatares on Map.

Overview

Map Instant messaging services (MIMS) and Signals are technologies that create the possibility of real-time audio chat, video conference, sms, mim (mobile instant messaging), telephone, typed text and filed transfer communication between two or more participants over the internet map/electronic map or some form of internal network/intranet. It is important to understand that what separates Map messaging (MIMS) from technologies such as IM (Instant Messaging) is the perceived synchronicity of the communication by the user – Chat happens in real-time positioning on map (GPSignal) view the location with your eyes. GPsignal systems allow the sending of messages to people not currently logged on (offline messages), thus removing much of the difference between Map Messaging and IM.

While Map Messaging services have additional features such as: the immediate receipt of acknowledgment or reply, group chatting, conference services (including voice and video), conversation logging and file transfer in Real-time map application (GPassenger) and Mobility application (MobilePassenger).

MIMS allows effective and efficient communication, featuring immediate receipt of acknowledgment or reply. In certain cases Map Messaging involves additional features, which make it even more popular, i.e. to see the other party real-time location on map, e.g. by using satellite-cams, or real-time positioning of each other by GPS on internet/electronic map (MobilePassenger), or finding friend or Singles (Human) as shown a human icon on map ( Red as unavailable-offline/ green as available-online) by real-time positioning on single application (SingleG Application/Gpsignal). It is possible to save a conversation for later reference. Instant messages are typically logged in a local message history which closes the gap to the persistent nature of maps and facilitates quick exchange of information like URLs or document snippets (which can be unwieldy when communicated via IM) than (Mapsignal).

MapSignal Network mapping or Internet mapping is the study of the physical connectivity of the Internet user’s trough the map. Network mapping determines the servers and the operating systems run on them of internet-connected networks. It is not to be confused with the remote discovery of which characteristics a computer may possess (operating system, open ports, listening network services, etc), an activity which is called Map Messaging.

Map Messaging may be done in a Friend-to-friend network, in which each node connects to the friends on the friends list. This allows for communication with friends of friends and for the building of chatrooms on particular location on map for instant messages with all friends on that network as private or by Gender (SingleG), Personal community (MilkyMate) or international Community (MilkyMap).

Business application of map messaging has proven to be similar to personal computers, Instant messaging, and the World Wide Web, in that its adoption for use of personal map positioning and business communications medium was driven primarily by individual employees using consumer software at work, rather than by formal mandate or provisioning by corporate information technology departments. Tens of millions of the consumer IM accounts in use are being used for business purposes by employees of companies and other organizations.

In response to the demand for business-grade MIMS and the need to ensure security and legal compliance, a new type of instant messaging, called “Enterprise Map Messaging” (“EMM”) was created trough one application (SingleGalaxy).

Electronic maps, From the last quarter of the 20th century, the indispensable tool of the cartographer has been the computer. Much of cartography, especially at the data-gathering survey level, has been subsumed by Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The functionality of maps has been greatly advanced by technology simplifying the superimposition of spatially located variables onto existing geographical maps. Interactive, computerised maps are commercially available, allowing users to zoom in or zoom out (respectively meaning to increase or decrease the scale), sometimes by replacing one map with another of different scale, centred where possible on the same point. Mobility satellite navigation systems are computerised maps with route-planning and advice facilities which monitor the user’s position with the help of satellites.

MapSignal application offers; zooming in entails one or a combination of:

Real-time map messaging service (MapSignal) by a more detailed about Human generated signals (SingleG/GPassenger) (available/unavailable icons) enlarging the same map or enlarging the pixels, hence showing more detail by removing less information compared to the less detailed version enlarging the same map with the pixels enlarged (replaced by rectangles of pixels); no additional detail is shown, but, depending on the quality of one’s vision, possibly more detail can be seen; if a computer display does not show adjacent pixels really separate, but overlapping instead (this does not apply for an LCD, but may apply for a cathode ray tube & Mobile Applications such as Cell phone, PDA, Smart Phone), then replacing a pixel by a rectangle of pixels does show more detail.

Real-time censor (audio, video, mim, typed text, filed transfer) regards to the user age and activity. Example: age groups ( Kids 2-7years old, Child7-14 years old above, Teenager, Adult).

Map Signal Messaging offers the following interface languages: Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Basque, Belarusian, Bengali, Bihari, Bork, bork, bork!, Bosnian, Breton, Bulgarian, Cambodian, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Corsican, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Elmer Fudd, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Guarani, Gujarati,Hacker, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Interlingua, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Javanese, Kannada, Kazakh, Klingon, Korean, Kurdish, Kyrgyz, Laothian, Latin, Latvian, Lingala, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Malayalam, Maltese, Maori, Marathi, Moldavian, Mongolian, Nepali, Norwegian, Norwegian (Nynorsk), Occitan, Oriya, Pashto, Persian, Pirate, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Punjabi, Quechua, Romanian, Romansh, Russian, Scots Gaelic, Serbian, Serbo-Croatian, Sesotho, Shona, Sindhi, Sinhalese, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Spanish, Sundanese, Swahili, Swedish, Tajik, Tamil, Tatar, Telugu, Thai, Tigrinya, Tonga, Turkish, Turkmen, Twi, Uighur, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Welsh, Xhosa, Yiddish, Yoruba, Zulu,

The Internet MIMS Project was started by Goh Nai Ling at Singapore in 2002. The project included visualization of the Internet/electronic Map for Transportation, Smart Cab (SmartCab ®), which first appeared in Intellectual property of Singapore (IPOS) in January 2005, and are still available as trademarks. Additionally it can be used as an important gauge for the growth of the Internet and the areas of growth.

A wire map tester is a device that transmits signals through each wire in a copper twisted-pair cable to determine if it is connected to the correct pin at the other end.

Wire mapping is the most basic test for twisted-pair cables because the eight separate wire connections involved in each cable run are a common source of installation errors.

These testers detect transposed wires, opens (broken or unconnected wires), and shorts (wires or pins improperly connected to each other) – all problems that can render a cable run inoperable.

Wire map testing is nearly always included in multifunction cable testers, but in some cases it may not be worth the expense to spend thousands of dollars on a comprehensive device. Dedicated testers are relative inexpensive (from $200 to $300) and enable you to test your installation for the most common faults that occur during installations and afterward.

If you are installing voice-grade cable, for example, a simple wire mapping test may be all that’s needed. There are also slightly more expensive (under $500) devices that do wire map testing in addition to other basic functions, such as TDR length testing.

This type of tester consists of a remote unit that you attach to the far end of a connection and the battery-operated, handheld main unit that displays the results. Typically, the tester displays various codes to describe the type of faults that it finds. In some cases, you can purchase a tester with multiple remote units that are numbered so that one person can test several connections without constantly traveling back and forth from one of the connections to the other to move the remote unit.

The one wiring fault that is not detectable by a dedicated tester is split pairs, because even though the pinouts are incorrect, the cable is still wired straight through. To detect split pairs, you must use a device that tests the cable for the near-end crosstalk that split pairs cause.

Every cable run must receive a minimum level of testing. You can purchase $5,000 cable testers that will provide you with many statistics on performance, but the most important test is simply determining that the paris are connected properly.

The $5,000 testers provide you with much more performance data than the simple cable testers and will also certify that each cable run will operate at a specific performance level. Some customers will insist on viewing results on the $5,000 cable tester, but the minimum tests you should run will determine continuity and ascertain that the wire map is correct. You can perform a couple of levels of testing. The cable testers that you can use include the following:

1. Tone generators and amplifier probes.

2. Continuity testers

3. Wire-map testers

4. Cable-certification testers

If you are going on a road trip in a new country or are biking your way through the country side you are bound to get lost if you do not have road map with you. If your vehicle happens to have a GPS unit you are saved from the trouble of looking at a map constantly. Each country has its own version of the Atlas and it is known by different names. The U.K version of the road map is called the AA Route map and it is the most detailed map of the United Kingdom. Even if you have a GPS unit a map is a good backup plan in case anything goes wrong.

The AA Route map will help you plan your trip and select the roads that pass through regions of your interest. The map gives the names of all the small towns and villages along with the hotels, motels, rest stops, petrol pumps, police stations and hospitals. The AA Route map carries an immense database of over 30,000 listing. This will easily help to get to any location you are planning to go to. It works the same way GPS does. All you go to do is enter the starting and end destination and the map will give the shortest route to your destination. There is even the option of ‘Jam Busting Maps’ that helps you to avoid areas that are blocked with rush hour traffic.

The AA Route also helps you locate hidden speed cameras and this will help you avoid speeding tickets. Since the rules of the road are different you can easily get into trouble by taking the wrong lane or driving on a one way street. Users have found that this route map shows even the smallest of streets that other maps do not. No other map offers such detail of suburban and village roads. The map also has an auto fill option so you do not need to type in the whole address. Entering the main information will give you a list of options to choose from. The map also calculates the alternate routes very fast that are no further than 50 metres from the original destination. The AA Route map gives you additional information like phone numbers when it comes across points of interest.

The AA Route Map takes advantage of all the latest technology to give you quick and easy access to information.

Clustering, also called Mind Mapping, is a great way to save space and time when you journal. For those of you that aren’t familiar with Mind Mapping, you can search in Google on the words or reading one of Tony Buzan’s (the creator) books. At the end I’ve included the ten basic rules of Mind Mapping.

A Mind Map is a powerful graphic technique that harnesses words, images, numbers, logic, rhythm, color and spatial skills. Unlike linear notes, it allows your mind to work with expansion.

Mind Maps are an incredibly powerful memory tool. As I was studying for my CPA exam, I created a very large detailed Mind Map that covered several walls in my home office. When I was taking the exam I could close my eyes and see the Mind Map and go right to the answer.

We both know a picture says a thousand words. In Mind Mapping, you can use one word to trigger a set of memories or you can draw a picture (artistry doesn’t matter) that represents a story or memory for you.

You can use the Mind Mapping or Clustering techniques to record a single event or a whole day of events. If you are working on time management, you can also use a Mind Map to track time and tasks. For this, you will want to turn the paper landscape, add a center picture, like a clock, and use the branches pointing the same way as the clock’s hour — noon or midnight would be straight up, one o’clock slightly to the right of midnight, etc. The subbranches would be one word representing your focus or task during that time.

After attending a personal development event or that evening I like to reflect on my experience by drawing a Map from what I recall. This is a great way to transfer my thoughts from short term to long term memory. If I took notes I choose one word or image that represents each though per single branch for each area. When I remember a thought that doesn’t connects clearly, I record a trigger word of what I do remember along with a question mark right before I turn in for the night. By morning I have the answer or a complete picture that build on that Map. Sometimes the morning also brings additional ideas or fuel for thought.

By keeping your Maps or Clusters in your journal — usually all in one place — you can quickly review previous Maps to build upon. Since Maps provide a master aerial view it’s easier to see how the dots connect — the aha moments or unmasking patterns. They stand out easier than in linear notes.

Maps also shorten the journaling time. What might normally take pages or an hour in linear writing now take 15 minutes.

Being creative and having fun with this technique is important to the experience. Mapping encourages the use of colored pencils, pens and the use of images in place of words. My drawing skills haven’t improved since third grade yet after a few hundred lopsided airplanes I can now draw them from several angles. But I’m still sticking with stick people.

Ideas also count. Ideas always occur during our writing. We’re writing away, an idea pings up and we either need to try and hold it on the edge of our mind or record it somewhere quickly before it slips away. Start a Map on a new page, place the idea in the center of the page, then return to finish the writing. You will find your mind popping in and out from one to the next as you continue writing.

Of course, Maps and Clusters have many other uses — like brainstorming (alone or in a group), research, reading, studying, or memorizing. Thus, learning the technique is worthy to learn. I use them for just about everything, including the three books I’m working now.

Basic Rules for Mind Mapping:

1. Sheet sideways.

2. Pen or computer

3. Select topic, problem or subject and purpose.

4. Start in the center of the page.

5. Use color to trigger memory. Each separate main branch has a different color and each subbranches for that main branch stay that branches color.

6. Branches closest to the center are thicker.

7. Each idea starts a new branch.

8. Use images to express ideas whenever possible.

9. The image or word needs to sit on the line and in print.

10.The line needs to be the same length as the image or word.

You can also keep a separate Map journal. Ever few years I remember to buy a journal for that purpose. One of my favorite Map journals is, Note Sketch Book by Bienfang. You can order them in many places on the Net. Our local Staples store usually carries them in stock. They are different because the top portion of each page, about three-quarters, is blank and ready for your Map. While the bottom portion has lines for writing.

Lesson plans for mapping and geography can be inspired from the Harry Potter series of books. Harry Potter was very lucky when Ron’s twin brothers gave him a magical map. This map showed him all the inside passageways at Hogwarts school including the grounds. As well it showed Every person’s location as they walked through these passageways. Why not introduce some of these ideas in your science lesson plans or geography lessons for your class? Start with the story of Harry Potter and his magical map.

We know that there are no maps such as those used at Hogwarts school for us in our world, but many of our technological advances today employ GPS technology. Modern technology can pin point where we are and give us directions to where we want to go. Is this magic? No it is not. What is the technology that GPS uses in cars, boats and airplanes? Ask these questions in your lesson plans on mapping and geography.

Science lesson plans for cartography or map making can teach children how maps are made. Perhaps a lesson plan can include the mapping of your school including elevations if it has more than a ground floor. Or your students can make a map of their neighborhood. As well as streets remember to include important features such as bus stops, fire hydrants, parks and important buildings.