Keshanta (, ) (literally, cutting the hair) is the thirteenth of the sixteen saṃskāras (sacraments) practiced by the Hindus. This saṃskāra is connected with the first shaving of a student's beard when his age is about 16 years. The procedure of this saṃskāra is almost the same as that of the Chudakarana. This saṃskāra was also known as the Godana (giving a cow) or the Godanakarman (rite of giving a cow), as the student offered a cow to the teacher at the end of the ceremony. According to the Manusmriti (II.65), this saṃskāra should be performed for a Brahmin in the sixteenth year (from conception), for a Kshatriya in the twenty-second year and for a Vaishya in the twenty-fourth year.

Notes

Samskaras

Keshanta


David Ausberry (born September 25, 1987) is a former American football tight end. He played college football for the University of Southern California.

High school career
Ausberry was considered one of the top wide receiver prospects in the country at Lemoore High School. His senior year, he caught 55 passes for 930 yards and 13 touchdowns. He was later invited to play in the 2006 U.S. Army All-American Bowl.

College career
Ausberry played college football at Southern California. After redshirting in 2006 Ausberry would go on to be a productive member of the Trojan team for the next 4 years. In that time he logged 64 receptions for 700 yards as well as 7 touchdowns. He also rushed for 14 yards on two attempts in 2010. At 6'4, 243 lbs., Ausberry ran an impressive 4.48 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine.

Professional career

Oakland Raiders
Ausberry was selected by the Oakland Raiders with the 241st overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft and converted to tight end. He played sparingly during his rookie year, and finished the 2011 season with two catches, while excelling on special teams with seven coverage tackles in twelve games.

Detroit Lions
Ausberry signed with the Detroit Lions on June 10, 2015. He was released by the team on August 18, 2015.

Career statistics

References

External links

Oakland Raiders bio
USC Trojans bio

1987 births
Living people
American football tight ends
American football wide receivers
USC Trojans football players
Oakland Raiders players
Detroit Lions players
Players of American football from Virginia
People from Strasburg, Virginia
People from Lemoore, California
Players of American football from Kings County, California

David Ausberry


Caladenia villosissima, commonly known as the hairy spider orchid, is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to Victoria. It is a ground orchid with a single densely hairy leaf and a single pale green flower with red stripes along the sepals and petals. It is a poorly known species and there is insufficient information about its distribution and abundance to determine whether or not it is endangered.

Description
Caladenia villosissima is a terrestrial,  perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber and a single densely hairy leaf, 60–140 mm long and 6–9 mm wide, often with red blotches near its base. A single greenish flower with red stripes and 35–45 mm wide is borne on a thick, hairy spike 100–230 mm high. The sepals and petals have thick, yellowish, club-like glandular tips, 9–12 mm long on the sepals and 3–4 mm long on the petals. The dorsal sepal is erect, 30–45 mm long and about 3 mm wide. The lateral sepals are 28–40 mm long and about 4 mm wide and parallel to each other, held horizontally or turned slightly downwards. The petals are 20–25 mm long, about 2 mm wide and arranged like the lateral sepals. The labellum is pale green and white, 12–15 mm long, 13–16 mm wide with a red tip. The sides of the labellum have thin green teeth up to 3 mm long, the tip is curved downwards and there are four rows of dark red calli up to about 3 mm long, along its mid-line. Flowering occurs in September and October.

Taxonomy and naming
This orchid was first formally described in 1991 by Geoffrey Carr who gave it the name Caladenia dilatata var. villosissima. The type specimen was collected near Stawell and the description was published in Indigenous Flora and Fauna Association Miscellaneous Paper 1. In 2001, David Jones and others raised it to species status, giving the name Arachnorchis villosissima and 2004 Stephen Hopper and Andrew Brown revised the name to Caladenia villosissima. The specific epithet (villosissima) is the superlative form of the Latin word villosus meaning "hairy" (hence "hairiest").

Distribution and habitat
The hairy spider orchid is only known from near Stawell where it grows in river red gum forest among grasses.

Conservation
Caladenia villosissima has not been given a threat status as its distribution and abundance are uncertain.

References

villosissima
Plants described in 1991
Endemic orchids of Australia
Orchids of Victoria (state)

Caladenia villosissima


Alaide Gualberta Beccari (born 1842 in Padua – died 1906) was an Italian feminist, republican, pacifist, and social reformer, who published the feminist journal Woman during the 1870s and 1880s.

Biography
Alaide Beccari was born in Padua in 1842, the only one of her parents' 12 children to survive to adulthood. Beccari's father was a civil servant in Padua, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time. Beccari's father was a supporter of Italian unification and joined the Risorgimento during the uprisings of 1848. When the uprising failed, he fled to Turin. She worked as her father's secretary for a time, then returned to Padua when it was captured by the forces of Lombardy-Venetia.

At age 16, Beccari was living in Venice, where she launched the journal Woman.

Woman
The journal Woman was published biweekly. Beccari's publication promoted women's rights following Italian unification in 1861.  She was a social reformer, when moral and political reform were gaining popular support in Great Britain, France, the United States, and elsewhere as part of a larger Reform movement during the 19th century.

Woman was a rare feminist voice in Italy during the 1870s and 1880s, and in the language of the period, it supported "woman's emancipation". Beccari, like other Italian feminists of her generation (such as Erminia Fuà, Aurelia Cimino Folliero, Sara Nathan, Giovanna Garcea, and Adelaide Cairoli) equated women's emancipation with Italian unification politics, referring to "the woman's Risorgimento". The journal Woman gave coverage to Anna Maria Mozzoni, who fought to reform Italy's laws regulating legalized prostitution. Mozzoni and Beccari publicized the concept of the "citizen woman" and "patriot mother". Woman also promoted the causes of Josephine Butler. Articles originally printed in Woman were translated and published abroad, in England's feminist journal Englishwoman's Review. In 1877, Woman held a petition drive, garnering 3000 signatures in support of women's suffrage in Italy.

Beccari believed that women could offer a nurturing counterbalance to masculine "militarism". She supported pacifist causes, and Woman frequently gave coverage to pacifist organizations, such as the founding of the International Association of Women (IAW) by Marie Goegg in Geneva in 1870.

Beccari also wrote plays. She wrote Un caso di divorzio (A Case of Divorce), performed in 1881, which in retrospect has been criticized on its literary quality as "sentimental" and "predictable"; notably, there is no marriage for the second "wife" in the drama. However, the play is noteworthy for having been written and produced. Women writers in Italy were rare at the time, as most women were illiterate in Italy, and only a handful of other women were writing and producing plays in Italy during the period; Luisa Marenco-Martini-Bernardi, Irma Meladny Scodnik, and Amelia Rosselli were other women playwrights during this era in Italy. Women's suffrage came to Italy only with the collapse of the Fascist regime in 1945; divorce would be legalized in Italy only in 1970.

Beccari was forced to end her editorship of Woman in 1887 due to ill health; Emilia Mariani took over as the editor of Woman.

Later years
Beccari continued writing, establishing a children's magazine called Mamma. She offered support to other women writers trying to launch their careers.

Beccari was discouraged by the lack of popular support for women's causes in Italy. She became a vocal supporter of socialism, which resulted in a loss of support from moderate feminists.

See also
 List of peace activists

References

Italian journalists
Italian feminists
Italian pacifists
Pacifist feminists
Italian socialist feminists
Writers from Padua
1842 births
1906 deaths
Italian newspaper publishers (people)
Italian expatriates in Austria
19th-century Italian women writers

Alaide Gualberta Beccari


Cara Dune is a Star Wars character. She is in many episodes of The Mandalorian. Cara was first a shock trooper for the Rebel Alliance. She went to fight Imperials after the Battle of Endor. She also helped create the New Republic. She became a mercenary after and moved around the galaxy. She became a marshall.

After a fight with Din Djarin and Grogu, Cara agreed to help protect a village from raiders with them. They train the villagers to fight and set up a protection against the raiders. Raiders came to attack the village. Cara and Din help the villagers win. Then, the Mandalorian and Cara each leave and go to different places. Later on, Din Djarin asks for help from Cara Dune to help fight off Imperials at the request of Greef Karga. While on Mando's ship, Grogu force chokes Cara Dune because he thought that Cara was attacking Djarin when they were arm-wrestling. When the fighting begins between Cara, Mando, Din, IG-11 and the Empire they are pinned down but Cara manages to find an escape through the tunnels. After they get out of the tunnels they are attacked by Moff Gideon in his TIE fighter which Cara helps repel. Cara is then invited to work as an enforcer with Greef which she agrees to.

She helps Din Djarin and Greef Karga blow up an Imperial base. They learn that Moff Gideon is trying to clone something or someone at the base. They set the base to blow up and steal a vehicle to escape. Stormtroopers on speederbikes and TIE fighters try to stop them but they escape. Later on, Cara agrees to help Mando find Grogu after he is taken by Moff Gideon. She is waiting and ready as Mando and prisoner Migs Mayfeld find Gideon's ship. Soon after Cara, Mando, Bo-Katan Kyrze, Fennec Shand and Koska Reeves attack the ship and take it over. They free Grogu and capture Gideon. But Imperial soldiers trap them when one X-Wing starfighter comes. Cara says jokingly, that they are saved, but she does not know that it was Luke Skywalker who came to save them.

References

Star Wars characters
Fictional characters introduced in 2019

Cara Dune


Thomas Robson Bone (1815–1882) was an English  rower who won the  Diamond Challenge Sculls at Henley Royal Regatta  in 1849 and 1850 and who also won the Wingfield Sculls in 1850 and 1851.

In 1849 Bone, rowing for "London", won the Diamond Challenge Sculls at Henley, but lost in the Wingfield Sculls to Francis Playford. In 1850 for Thames Club he won the Diamond Challenge Sculls again. That year, he was asked to enter an event at Bath regatta in order to make a race of it. However, because there was a £10 prize attached to it, he was criticised by the Wingfield Sculls committee. For this reason, Playford objected to racing Bone in the Wingfield Sculls so Bone, representing Meteor Club, won on a row-over. He rowed over again in 1851  for Thames Club but resigned in 1852 because he could not find a backer.

Bone died at Fulham  aged 67.

Bone married at St James Westminster in 1850.

References

1815 births
1882 deaths
British male rowers

Thomas Bone


The Fort Wayne Children's Zoo is a zoo in Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States. Since opening in 1965, the 1,000-animal zoo has been located on  in Fort Wayne's Franke Park.  The Fort Wayne Children's Zoo is operated by the non-profit Fort Wayne Zoological Society under a cooperative agreement with the Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation Department. The zoo receives no tax funding for operations and operates solely on earned revenue and donations.

The zoo continuously ranks among the top zoos in the U.S. In 2015, TripAdvisor named it the seventh best zoo in the nation.

History
The FWCZ can trace its origins to 1952 when  were added to Franke Park in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to establish a nature preserve. Local popularity of the preserve led to Fort Wayne officials deciding to build a full-fledged zoo by 1962. The zoo's mission was to educate children about animals.

On July 3, 1965, the new Fort Wayne Children's Zoo opened on  with 18 animal exhibits. Earl Wells was the original Zoo Director.  In 1976, a major expansion of the zoo was the African Veldt attraction, where savanna animals grazed in open fields east of the Central Zoo. In 1987, the Australian Adventure premiered, showcasing animals from the Outback. A domed Indonesian Rain Forest exhibit opened in 1994, with Orangutan Valley opening a year later, and Tiger Forest in 1996.

On October 19, 2004, five wildebeests broke through a gate and jumped a fence, roaming the streets of a nearby neighborhood. Eventually, the wildebeests were captured, though two of them suffered broken legs and were forced to be euthanized. The zoo was fined $825 for the incident.

On November 2, 2007, artificial rocks made of Styrofoam caught fire in the zoo's new African Journey expansion, the largest project in the zoo's 42-year history. The fire happened where workers were constructing an African lion exhibit, the centerpiece of the new expansion. Thick black plumes of smoke billowing from the site of the fire were clearly visible across the skies of Fort Wayne and much of the region. No workers or animals were harmed in the blaze.

On July 1, 2015, the zoo celebrated its 50th anniversary with about 400 guests. The 47th Three Rivers Festival parade honored the occasion, with the theme "Here's to Zoo".

On April 6, 2016, one of the zoo's most famous animals, Bill the lion, was euthanized, due to an aggressive cancer. Zoo officials spotted the cancer only seven days before Bill had to be euthanized.

On March 3, 2020, the zoo announced that longtime Executive Director Jim Anderson would retire at the end of the 2020 season. Anderson has served as the Zoo's executive director since 1994, when he succeeded its founding executive director, Earl Wells. On September 1, 2020, The Board of Directors announced Rick Schuiteman from SeaWorld San Diego would replace Anderson as only the third Executive Director.

On February 4, 2021, the zoo announced two of its Sumatran tigers tested positive for COVID-19.   Both cats were showing mild signs of a dry cough, triggering animal care experts to take notice.  Fecal samples for both tigers, Bugara and Indah, were collected for testing and performed in veterinary laboratories. The tigers recovered without incident.

On March 15, 2022, the zoo announced their support of Ukrainian Zoos, during the Russian War, by contributing $5,000 from their Conservation Fund to go directly to the EAZA to support Zoo animals and keeper staff.

On April 21, 2023, the zoo announced the Indonesian Rainforest area would be reimagined and renamed to Asian Trek allowing the zoo to add new species to the space and expand the footprint to include Bamboo Forest and Red Panda Ridge.

Exhibits
The zoo consists of several self-contained biomes themed as different regions of the world.

The African Journey opened to the public June 6, 2009, on the former site of the African Veldt. The $9 million African Journey is currently the largest expansion in the FWCZ's history, featuring an African lion exhibit, African Village, interactive cultural center, reticulated giraffe feeding area, Safari Trail, plains zebras and wildebeest, new animal exhibits: (banded mongooses, Rüppell's griffon vultures, the Kirk's dik-dik and spotted hyenas, honey badgers, bat-eared foxes, great white pelicans, and servals), Amur leopards and a group educational and picnic area. The Sky Safari, a ski lift-like ride, gives riders an aerial view of the Serengeti-based landscape.

The former Australian Adventure area opened with Australia After Dark exhibit, featuring nocturnal animals native to Australia such as bats, short-beaked echidnas, and owls. A separate building held a 20,000-gallon aquarium containing the Sharks, Rays, and Jellyfish Exhibit, as well as a model coral reef with tropical fish. In the Kangaroo Walkabout, a roped path lead through an open area of eastern grey kangaroos, which may cross the path at their leisure. The dingo exhibit held a mating pair and produced and housed a new litter of dingo pups in 2012. An aviary featured birds native to Australia. There were other assorted exhibits, and a Dugout Canoe Ride where you could view the Australian Adventure from a canal.

The new Australian Adventure is roughly the same, except a stingray exhibit replacing Australia After Dark and a new Aquarium (both accessed by a new plaza), and several other new buildings, including a new exhibit for Tasmanian devils.    The Stingray Exhibit also offers daily feeding where guests can feed them for a nominal charge.

The Central Zoo includes assorted animals from the Americas and a few from other regions, including Canada lynxes, ring-tailed lemurs, African penguins, North American river otters, Aldabra tortoises, American alligators and macaws and a two toed sloth. Sea Lion Beach is a major attraction with California sea lions. Sea Lion Beach has a scheduled feeding performances occur periodically throughout the day. Monkey Island contains a family of Panamanian white-faced capuchins. Indian peafowl roam freely throughout the farm. Also located in the Central Zoo is a duck pond.

The Indiana Family Farm expands from the old petting zoo area, which contained only goats, wild turkeys, ravens, chickens, and white-tailed deer. Now a model barn and farmhouse, as well as signs from the point of view of children living on a farm, lend atmosphere. Horses, sheep, rabbits, calves, and others are all contained in open stalls and may be petted by visitors. Barn mice and other small animals can be viewed. Goats reside in an open paddock which visitors can enter, and, for a price, feed the goats pellets from ice cream cones and milk from bottles, or brush them for free. This area is considered part of the Central Zoo and is located directly before the exit. The Wild Things Gift Shop at the exit was recently expanded.

The Asian Trek, formerly known as the Indonesian Rainforest, features Sumatran orangutans, Sumatran tigers, Komodo dragons, reticulated pythons, clouded leopards, red pandas, assorted birds, mammals, and primates, as well as a domed area (Domeaviary) containing birds, fish, reptiles, and, until recently, butterflies. The domeaviary allows visitors to experience the sights, sounds, and feel of a rain forest.  This area also has an Endangered Species Carousel.

Early in the morning of Saturday, November 22, 2014, Tara, a 19-year-old Sumatran orangutan, whose pregnancy was announced in October 2014 (orangutans are critically endangered), gave birth to a healthy female baby. The baby's father is a 28-year-old male named Tengku. Tengku arrived in Fort Wayne in 1995, from Zoo Atlanta, and Tara arrived in 2013 from the Columbus Zoo; orangutan gestation is normally 245 days. Though Tara had never given birth before and had never observed other females of her species caring for their offspring, Fort Wayne officials, having observed her after the birth, are cautiously optimistic, having prepared for these potential obstacles when, after agreeing to try and breed them on the recommendation of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Orangutan Species Survival Plan program, they formulated a detailed Birth Management Plan.

The baby orangutan, named Asmara, who was born on November 22, 2014, has made Orangutan Valley a popular destination in the zoo, as guests can frequently spot her and her mother Tara in the enclosure. The other adult male orangutan in this facility is named Owen who is a hybrid orangutan and not under any breeding recommendations, thus he is spayed. He also serves a role as a father figure to Asmara.

Rides and Play Areas

- Sky Safari over Africa

- Z.O.& O Railroad train leaving the Central Zoo through Franke Park

- Crocodile Creek Adventure Ride in Australian Adventure

- Endangered Species Carousel Ride in Asian Trek

- Nature Play in Africa

- Bamboo Maze in Red Panda Ridge

- Adventure Play in Asian Trek - a two story rope swing course for all ages

Education programs

The Fort Wayne Children's Zoo has educational programs for all ages.   Programs include in-zoo programs and in-class visits by zoo educators and animals.  The zoo also has a busy summer season, hosting almost 2,000 children from K–12 in summer camps.   The Teens for Nature program, for 7th–12th graders, helps teens focus on nature, animals, conservation, and leadership.  Over 300 teens volunteer to be a part of the program.

References

External links

Visit Fort Wayne

1965 establishments in Indiana
Culture of Fort Wayne, Indiana
Tourist attractions in Fort Wayne, Indiana
Zoos in Indiana

Fort Wayne Children's Zoo


Charles T. ("Chuck") Ferries (born June 10, 1939) was an American alpine ski racer, as well as an Olympian in 1960 and 1964.
 In 1962, Ferries became the first American to win a European classic gate race, the Hahnenkamm slalom, at Kitzbühel.

Bob Beattie called Ferries "the most unknown great ski racer in U.S. history."  If relatively unknown to later generations, Ferries nonetheless was featured on the March 11, 1963 cover of Sports Illustrated.  With Ferries depicted in sketch, the caption reads, "Best U.S. Skier."

Ferries has worked in the ski industry, coached the United States Ski Team and served as Chair of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association.  In 1989, Ferries was inducted into the United States National Ski Hall of Fame. In 2007, Ferries received the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association's Blegen Award, which is the USSA's most prestigious honor for service to the organization. The following year, Ferries was inducted to the Colorado Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame as part of its Class of 2008.

References

External links
Forty Flashback: Bob Beattie Skiracing.com article
Skiing History Association

Olympic alpine skiers for the United States
Alpine skiers at the 1960 Winter Olympics
Alpine skiers at the 1964 Winter Olympics
Living people
1939 births
American male alpine skiers

Chuck Ferries


Bismuthia is a rare dermatological condition that results from the prolonged use of bismuth.

Much more rarely than with silver, bismuth may produce a generalized persistent skin discoloration resembling argyria. The conjunctivae and oral mucosa, as well as skin, are commonly afflicted by the condition. Pigment granules are evenly scattered through the dermis, producing a blue, or bluish gray skin color by the scattering phenomenon. It is extremely rare, and as a consequence is poorly understood by modern medicine. Special stains and spectroscopic methods must be utilized for identification of skin pigments affected by bismuth.

Usually, bismuth produces a black line, due to bismuth sulfide, along the gums, near the teeth, similar to the Burton's line which can be found in lead poisoning. This is not likely to occur if the gum is edentulous or the gum and the teeth normal. It is more common when gingivitis and carious teeth are present. Bismuth excess may cause stomatitis. On even rarer occasions, bismuth has been reported to cause pigmentation of the vagina and cervix.

References
 The University of Massachusetts Online Article on Pigmentation Disease
 Beerman & Colburn - American Journal of the Medical Sciences, Volume 231: 451, 1956
 Jeghers - New England Journal of Medicine 231: 122 & 181, 1944

Bismuth
Disturbances of human pigmentation

Bismuthia


In plane geometry, the base is the side on which a polygon rests on, and which is used as a referenced side for other measurements. The base of a triangle or quadrilateral is often written as . It is used in the calculation of the area of a triangle and parallelogram.

Many geometric shapes of more than two dimensions are constructed by using regular two-dimensional shapes. For example, a tetrahedron is constructed with four triangles, and a cube with six squares. In that context, the shape that is used for construction is called base. The triangle is the base of the tetrahedron, and the square is the base of the cube.

However, there are also geometric figures that are constructed using different shapes. A pyramid, for example. uses one rectangle and four triangles.  In that context, the rectangle is said to be the base of the shape. A cylinder uses a circle or an ellipse as a base.

Related pages

 Altitude

References

Geometry

Base (geometry)


Laither is the skin o an ainimal, uised as a material. The skins o cous, pigs, an gaits are aft uised tae mak laither. Skins o snakes, alligators or crocodiles, an ostriches are whiles uised tae mak mair fantoush laither. Shuin, pokes, claes, an baws are aft made o laither. Whiles fowk mak laither oot o whauls, deuks, giraffes, an African elephants.

Hides

Laither


Valle de la Luna, also calling Killa Qhichwa  (Moon Valley) is situated about 10 kilometers from downtown La Paz, in the Pedro Domingo Murillo Province, La Paz Department, Bolivia.  It consists of an area where erosion has worn away the majority of a mountain, composed primarily of clay rather than rock, leaving tall spires.  It is similar to another zone of La Paz that is known as El Valle de las Animas (The Valley of the Souls). It is an important site of the famous holiday, Dias de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

Because the mineral content of the mountains varies greatly between individual mountains, the sides of the mountains are different colors, creating striking optical illusions. A majority of them are a clear beige or light brown color, but some are almost red, with sections of dark violet.

External links

Valleys of Bolivia
Landforms of La Paz Department (Bolivia)

Valle de la Luna (Bolivia)


Ibra () is the second largest city in the Ash Sharqiyah Region of Oman. It is located about 170 km (2 hours) from Muscat and has a population estimated at 55,000 people.

Ibra is one of the oldest cities in Oman and was once a centre of trade, religion, education and art. The city acquired its importance as an important meeting point at the base of the Ash Sharqiya.

Ibra is home of the Al Harthy, Al Maskari, Al Mughairi and Al Riyami tribes, some of the biggest tribes in Oman, and all of which are very prevalent in Ibra. Sheikh Saif bin Hashil Al-Maskari is one of the most prominent Sheikhs of Ibra. Sheikh Saif bin Hashil Al-Maskari is among the biggest businessmen in Oman, he has invested heavily in improving Ibra and its infrastructure. Sheikh Saif was also a former GCC Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs and Ibra is his tribal home town.

Etymology
Historians do not agree on the origins of the name of the city. Some suggest it is derived from the Arabic verb () which means a purification of guilt.

History

Ibra predates the Prophet Muhammed's calling. The city contains many castles and old mosques.

Ibra has become a more modern city since 1970 under the reign of Sultan Qaboos. Improvements include connections to Muscat via a three-lane highway, which has increased tourism.  Communications have been improved to include broadband access, and there is now a substantial hospital. Ibra provides three choices of higher education: Ibra College of Technology, Ibra Nursing Institute, and beginning in the fall of 2010, A'Sharqiyah University. There are now two hotels in Ibra, and tourism is promoted in the area.

Geography and climate
Ibra has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification: BWh). Mountains surround Ibra on every side, and there is some outstanding mountain scenery close by. From November to March, the climate is relatively cool, with temperatures dropping as low as  in December. In the summer, the climate is hot and dry, with temperatures reaching  in July. Precipitation is very low and occurs mostly in the winter, when masses of low pressure air cause rain to fall.

Ibra College of Technology

Ibra College of Technology (ICT) is one of the seven Colleges of Technology under the Ministry of Manpower (MoMP). The college is fully funded by the government to cater to the higher educational needs of Omani nationals as full-time students. It has been established to provide technological education for post secondary students leading to Certificate, Diploma and Higher Diploma in the fields of Business, Information Technology, and Engineering. To date, ICT plays a leading role in the educational, cultural and social development of the region.

Attractions

The main tourist attractions in the city are its many beautiful watchtowers, the traditional Souq, and Falaj AlAfrit. The design of the souq complements the fort in every way.
The Bait al Kabir was built in 1650 during the Ya'riba Dynasty. It once stood as a centre of Government in Ibra.

Ibra Souq

The city, famous for its handicrafts and agricultural products, has an expansive souq showcasing an array of products. It is one of the most important in the country besides Muttrah. The souq bustles with vendors selling everything from meat, fish, fruits and vegetables to spices, dates, gold and silverware. Ibra is renowned for its silver jewelry which is considered to be the best in the country. Halwa (a traditional Omani dessert) is also sold in the souq. Halwa is a sticky dessert made from sugar and spices and flavoured with sesame seeds or almonds.
Ibra souq is the only souq in the country to have a whole day just for women.

Heritage and culture
Horses and camels

The state of Ibra is famous for preserving the ancient heritage, as the event (Running Al-Ardha) is held in the state on occasions, holidays and weddings. He shows some skills that distinguish him from other rugby players, such as standing on the back of a camel or holding hands with his other teammate. The event also witnesses camel owners decorating their participating camels with special equipment (such as the corsage, the saddlebag, the jaed, the silver tuft, the new khutam and the tuft, and the red zana embellished with hand weaving). The Ardha run includes the presentation of a number of traditional Omani songs, such as the art of "Al-Himbal", "Al-Taghrood", "Al-Wana" and others, and reciting poems.

Al-Ardha running fields are distributed in Al-Yahmadi, Al-Thabti and Merkad of the state located in the Al-Lama'a area, north of Al-Lama'a sports team and behind Al-Albab Basic Education School. Equestrian races are also held in the state. The "Zad Al-Rakeb" field located in Seih Al-Hamdi is the field previously approved by the Equestrian Committee to hold annual horse races. .

Daoun industry (old houses built of palm fronds).

The running of purebred Arabian camels is considered one of the inherited Omani customs, and it is still preserved by Omanis in many states of the Sultanate, and it attracts many citizens and tourists to follow its competitions.

Crafts and traditional industries

Traditional crafts and industries vary in the Wilayat of Ibra, the most important of which are weaving, especially weaving traditional Omani clothing, spinning from sheep's wool, crafting daggers and women's ornaments, making dauns from palm fronds (i.e. building the house from the whole of the palm tree), ropes, sumim, date envelopes, and tanning Leather and shoe industry. Among the industries are drying dates, nuts and drying lemons, palm fronds and palm leaves, and traditional leather. Among the most important arts: Al-Razha, Al-Qasafiyah, Al-Himbal, Al-Azi, and Al-Tashah. The state is famous for a number of agricultural products, most notably: Omani mangoes, bananas, grapes, dates and vegetables.

The village of Seih Al-Afia is also famous for many crafts, including traditional handicrafts such as sword and Omani sewing, as well as the profession of grazing sheep and cows and agriculture. To the shoulders of oxen that move and rotate, and because of the fertility of the land, agricultural crops varied, the most important of which are fifa trees, mangoes, palm trees, and dates, in addition to lemon, lettuce, guava, and sweet pepper. The village is distinguished by the dates of Al-Negal, Al-Hilali, Al-Khunaizi, Al-Mabsali, Al-Madlouki, and others. The residents of the village of Seih Al-Afia used some types of dates, such as Madloki and Al-Mabsali, to make Al-Fagour, which is a process for cooking unripe dates. This process produces light dates with a strong, delicious sugary taste. The process of cooking al-Fagur is done by placing large amounts of dates with water in a large saucepan (a wide basin with a small opening that allows heat to escape and a stove under it) and leave for 4 hours.

Musical arts and traditional games

The residents of the wilaya practice many musical arts, such as the art of al-Razha, which is an ancient art spread in all governorates of the Sultanate. It is performed by men in most national celebrations and occasions such as marriage occasions and others. It is done by men standing in equal rows, then some of them advance to fencing with swords and shields as an expression of courage and pride. It was received in This occasion notice and words with the use of the Omani drum. The state is also famous for other musical arts, such as the art of al-Azi, which is characterized by the strength of the performer's voice, as it is performed through non-harmonious poems or singing in praise and pride, in addition to the arts of vulgarity, rhyme, tashah shah, al-Taghrood, al-Tareq, al-Wanah, al-Midan, al-Zar and al-Hadi.

One of the games that is still practiced is Al-Huwailis, which is dividing the sand into 9 sections (pits), then each player throws pebbles at the place of digging, and there is also the game of amber, which is about two competing teams and an empty bottle is placed in the middle and filled with dirt, and it  is a game that is still practiced today From two teams, the first team catches the ball on both sides and passes it between them, while the second team is in the middle to avoid being hit by the ball.

education

The state, especially the village of Seih Al-Afia, was famous for the presence of the old sabila, which is a place for the villagers to gather to attend mourning and hold the Quran. His wife, Saada bint Saeed Al-Sinawi, helped him in this, and many of the villagers received education from her after Hammoud's death. Also, the grandmother, Moza bin Humaid Al-Harithiya, was famous in the science of legal spelling. In the village of Seih Al-Afia, there is also a school in Seih Al-Afia for basic education for girls from the fifth to the ninth grade.

Books and authors
Book: Al-Manzafah: Its Ancient Houses and Biographies of Its Notables" by Yaqoub bin Saeed bin Yahya Al-Barwani (2017)

Memories of Seih Al-Afia website for writer Abdullah Al-Sinawi (6/12/2022)

The research of the student Al-Khattab bin Salem bin Ali Al-Harthy (2022) and the student Nasser bin Hammoud bin Nasser Al-Sinawi (2020)
 List of cities in Oman

References
https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%88%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A9_%D8%A5%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A1#/media/%D9%85%D9%84%D9%81:%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%88%D8%AA_%D9%85%D9%86_%D8%B3%D8%B9%D9%81_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D8%AE%D9%8A%D9%84_palm_tree_branch.jpg

Populated places in Oman

Ibra


GenePattern is a freely available computational biology open-source software package originally created and developed at the Broad Institute for the analysis of genomic data. Designed to enable researchers to develop, capture, and reproduce genomic analysis methodologies, GenePattern was first released in 2004. GenePattern is currently developed at the University of California, San Diego.

Functionality
GenePattern is a powerful scientific workflow system that provides access to hundreds of genomic analysis tools. Use these analysis tools as building blocks to design sophisticated analysis pipelines that capture the methods, parameters, and data used to produce analysis results. Pipelines can be used to create, edit and share reproducible in silico results.

Project Objectives
 Accessibility: Run over 200 regularly updated analysis and visualization tools (that support data preprocessing, gene expression analysis, proteomics, Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis, flow cytometry, and next-generation sequencing) and create analytic workflows without any programming through a point and click user interface.
 Reproducibility: Automated history and provenance tracking with versioning so that any user can share, repeat and understand a complete computational analysis
 Extensibility: Computational users can import their methods and code for sharing using tools that support easy creation and integration
 Multiple interfaces: Web browser, application, and programmatic interfaces make analysis modules and pipelines available to a broad range of users; public hosted server

Features
 A regularly updated repository of hundreds of computational analysis modules that support data preprocessing, gene expression analysis, proteomics, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis, flow cytometry, and short-read sequencing.
 A programmatic interface that makes analysis modules available to computational biologists and developers from Python, Java, MATLAB, and R.
 The GenePattern Notebook Environment: Built on the Jupyter Notebook environment, GenePattern Notebook allows researchers to run GenePattern analyses within notebooks that interleave text, graphics, and executable code, creating a single "research narrative."
 GParc: Repository and community for GenePattern users to share and discuss their own GenePattern modules

Availability

GenePattern is available:
 As a free public web application, hosted on Amazon Web Services.  Users can create accounts, perform analyses, and create pipelines on the server.
 As open-source software that can be downloaded and installed locally.
 Public web servers hosted by other organizations.

Notes

References
 The GenePattern Notebook Environment] Reich M, Tabor T, Liefeld T, Thorvaldsdóttir H, Hill B, Tamayo P, Mesirov JP. Cell Syst. 2017 Aug 23;5(2):149-151.e1. . Epub 2017 Aug 16. ; .
 Integrative genomic analysis by interoperation of bioinformatics tools in GenomeSpace Qu K, Garamszegi S, Wu F, Thorvaldsdottir H, Liefeld T, Ocana M, Borges-Rivera D, Pochet N, Robinson JT, Demchak B, Hull T, Ben-Artzi G, Blankenberg D, Barber GP, Lee BT, Kuhn RM, Nekrutenko A, Segal E, Ideker T, Reich M, Regev A, Chang HY, Mesirov JP. Nat Methods. 2016 Mar;13(3):245-247. . Epub 2016 Jan 18. ; .
 Using GenePattern for Gene Expression Analysis]  Kuehn, H., Liberzon, A., Reich, M. and Mesirov, J. P.  Current Protocols in Bioinformatics. 2008. 22:7.12:7.12.1–7.12.39.
 GenePattern 2.0  Michael Reich, Ted Liefeld, Joshua Gould, Jim Lerner, Pablo Tamayo & Jill P. Mesirov.  Nature Genetics - 38, 500 - 501 (2006)

External links
 Official GenePattern website
 Official GenePattern Notebook website
 GParc
https://github.com/genepattern/genepattern-server

Related software:
 GenomeSpace
 Integrative Genomics Viewer

Bioinformatics software
DNA sequencing
Gene expression

GenePattern


Ed Greenwood (born July 21, 1959) is a Canadian fantasy writer and the original creator of the Forgotten Realms game world. He began writing articles about the Forgotten Realms for Dragon magazine beginning in 1979, and subsequently sold the rights to the setting to TSR, the creators of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, in 1986. He has written many Forgotten Realms novels, as well as numerous articles and D&D game supplement books.

Early life and the Forgotten Realms
Greenwood grew up in the upscale Toronto suburb of Don Mills. He began writing stories about the Forgotten Realms as a child, starting in the mid-1960s; they were his "dream space for swords and sorcery stories". Greenwood conceived of the Forgotten Realms as one world in a "multiverse" of parallel worlds which includes the Earth. He imagined such worlds as being the source of humanity's myths and legends.

Greenwood discovered the Dungeons & Dragons game in 1975 and soon became a regular player. He used the Realms as a setting for his campaigns, which centered around the fictional locales of Waterdeep and Shadowdale, locations that would figure prominently in his later writing. According to Greenwood, his players' thirst for detail pushed him to further develop the Forgotten Realms setting: "They want[ed] it to seem real, and work on 'honest jobs' and personal activities, until the whole thing [grew] into far more than a casual campaign."

Beginning with the periodical's 30th issue in 1979, Greenwood published a series of articles set in the Realms in The Dragon magazine, the first of which was about a monster known as The Curst.  Greenwood's articles in The Dragon often featured the wizard Elminster describing magic items, monsters, and spells.

Partnership with TSR
In 1986, the American game publishing company TSR began looking for a new campaign setting for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game, and assigned Jeff Grubb to find out more about the setting used by Greenwood in his articles for Dragon magazine. According to Greenwood, Grubb asked him "Do you just make this stuff up as you go, or do you really have a huge campaign world?"; he answered "yes" to both questions. TSR felt that the Forgotten Realms would be a more open-ended setting than the epic Dragonlance setting, and chose the Realms as a ready-made campaign for AD&D 2nd Edition.

Greenwood agreed to work on the project, and began to prepare his Forgotten Realms material for official publication. He sent TSR a few dozen cardboard boxes stuffed with pencil notes and maps, and sold all his rights to the Realms to TSR for a token fee—just $5,000 and a promise to publish Greenwood's novels. The following year, Greenwood and coauthor Jeff Grubb wrote and published the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set (1987).

The campaign setting was a major success, and Greenwood continued to be involved with the evolution of the Forgotten Realms over the next decades. He went on to write numerous Forgotten Realms novels. Many of these center around the wizard Elminster, whom Greenwood has frequently portrayed at conventions and gaming events.

When TSR was in dire financial difficulties in 1996–1997, Greenwood offered to write some material for them for free to help get them back on their feet.  Nothing came of the offer, but after Wizards of the Coast purchased TSR in 1997 and stabilized its finances, CEO Peter Adkison personally called Greenwood at the library he was working at to encourage him to continue writing Realms material.  Greenwood responded he was happy to continue writing for the Realms for as long as he could.

Greenwood feels his work on the Realms that he likes best are "those products that impart some of the richness and color of the Realms, such as the novel I wrote with Jeff Grubb, Cormyr; the Volo's Guides; Seven Sisters; The Code of the Harpers; City of Splendors; and stuff that lots of gamers have found useful, such as Drow of the Underdark and Ruins of Undermountain."

Greenwood has also been contributing editor and creative editor of Dragon magazine.

Personal life and other activities
Greenwood has published over two hundred articles in Dragon Magazine and Polyhedron Newszine, is a lifetime charter member of the Role Playing Game Association (RPGA) network, and has been Gen Con Game Fair guest of honor many times. Greenwood has written over thirty-five novels for TSR, and written, co-written, or contributed to over two hundred books and game products from other publishers. Greenwood has also contributed to The Book of All Flesh (2001), an anthology based on All Flesh Must Be Eaten, and written short stories based on the Silver Age Sentinels role-playing game. Greenwood's Castlemourn setting was published by Margaret Weis Productions. He is co-creator (with fantasy novelist Lynn Abbey) of the Mornmist fantasy setting.

He has also contributed to most Forgotten Realms gaming accessories, and authored many more—including the detailed Volo's Guide series—and continues to DM his own campaign. He writes regular Realmslore columns for the Wizards of the Coast website.

In addition to all these activities, Greenwood works as a library clerk (and sometimes as a librarian) and has edited over a dozen small press magazines. When not appearing at conventions, he lives in an old farmhouse in the countryside of Ontario.

As of 1998, Greenwood lived in applegrowing country on Lake Ontario, still working full-time at the North York Community Library, as he had since 1974, and continued to run his original Waterdeep campaign with the same core group he started with, albeit meeting only sporadically.

Awards and honors
Greenwood won "best player" at the 1984 Gen Con AD&D Open tournament and several Gamer's Choice Awards and Origins Awards for his game design. He was inducted into the Gamer's Choice Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Academy of Adventure Gaming's Hall of Fame in 2003. Order of Cramahe 2017. He received the Port Hope Civic Awards Arts & Culture Award 2019.

Bibliography

 Shandril's Saga
 Spellfire (1987);
 Crown of Fire (1994);
 Hand of Fire (2002)
 The Elminster Series
 Elminster – The Making of a Mage (1994);
 Elminster in Myth Drannor (1997);
 The Temptation of Elminster (1998);
 Elminster in Hell (2001);
 Elminster's Daughter (2004);
 Spellstorm (2015)
 The Shadow of the Avatar Trilogy
 Shadows of Doom (Greenwood novel)|Shadows of Doom (1995);
 Cloak of Shadows (1995);
 All Shadows Fled (1995)
 The Cormyr Saga
 Cormyr: A Novel (1996);
 Death of the Dragon (2000)
 The Harpers
Crown of Fire (1994);
 Stormlight (novel)|Starlight (1996)
 Double Diamond Triangle Saga
 The Mercenaries (novel)|The Mercenaries (1998);
 The Diamond (novel)|The Diamond (1998)
 Sembia
 "The Burning Chalice" - The Halls of Stormweather: A Novel In Seven Parts (2000)
 The Knights of Myth Drannor Trilogy
 Swords of Eveningstar (2006);
 Swords of Dragonfire (August 2007);
 The Sword Never Sleeps (November 2008);
 The Sage of Shadowdale series
 Elminster Must Die (August 2010)
 Bury Elminster Deep (August 2011)
 Elminster Enraged (August 2012)
 The Sundering
 The Herald (2014)
 Other titles
 Silverfall: Stories of the Seven Sisters (1999)
 Death Masks (Forgotten Realms novel)|Death Masks (2016)

Anthology novellas
 "One Comes Unheralded, to Zirta" - originally written in 1967, published in Best of the Realms 2 (2005);
 "Elminster at the Mage Fair" - Realms of Valor (1993);
 "So High A Price" - Realms of Infamy (1994);
 "The Eye of the Dragon" - Realms of Magic (1995);
 "A Slow Day In Skullport" - Realms of the Underdark (1996);
 "The Whispering Crown" - Realms of the Arcane (1997);
 "The Place Where Guards Snore at their Posts" - Realms of the Deep (2000);
 "When Shadows Come Seeking A Throne" - Realms of Shadow (2002)
 "The Keeper of Secrets" - Realms of the Dragons (2004)
 "Tears so White" - Realms of the Elves (2006)
 "Too Many Princes" - Realms of War (2008)
 "The Many Murders of Manshoon" - Realms of the Dead (2010)
 "Lord of the Darkways" - Untold Adventures (2011)

Non-Forgotten Realms novels
 Band of Four Series
 The Kingless Land (Tor Books 2000)
 The Vacant Throne (Tor Books 2001)
 A Dragon's Ascension (Tor Books 2002)
 The Dragon's Doom (Tor Books 2003)
 The Silent House: A Chronicle of Aglirta (Tor Books 2004)
 Falconfar Series
 Dark Lord (Ed Greenwood novel)|Dark Lord (Solaris Books 2007)
 Arch Wizard (Solaris Books 2008)
 Falconfar (Solaris Books 2010)
 Novel of Niflheim Series
 Dark Warrior Rising: A Novel of Niflheim (Tor Books 2007)
 Dark Vengeance (Tor Books 2008)
 Pathfinder Tales Series
 The Wizard's Mask (Paizo Publishing 2013)
 The Iron Assassin (Tor Books 2015)
 Hellmaw Series
 Hellmaw: Your World Is Doomed! (The Ed Greenwood Group 2016)
 Hellmaw: Throckmorton's Trick (The Ed Greenwood Group 2017)
 Hellmaw: My Talons In Her Throat (The Ed Greenwood Group 2017)
 Stormtalons Series
 Words Of Unbinding (The Ed Greenwood Group 2016)
 Folklore: The Affliction Series
 Folklore: The Affliction: The Whispering Skull (The Ed Greenwood Group 2017)
 Come Octember  (Haunted Castle Press 2018)

Other fiction anthology contributions
 "The Sword of Dreams" - Tales From Tethedril (1998)
 "The Witch of the Dawn" - Be Afraid! (2000)
 "The Shadow of a Sword" - The Doom of Camelot (2000)
 "One Last, Little Revenge" - The Book of All Flesh (2001)
 "Writhe, Damn You" - Northern Horror (2002)
 "No Stars to Steer By" - Oceans of Space (2002)
 "All One Under the Stars" - The Bakka Anthology (2002)
 "O Silent Knight of Cards" - Be Very Afraid! (2002)
 "The Secret in the Cellar" - The Book of Final Flesh (2003)
 "The Man In The Wall" - Path of the Just (2003)
 "The Fallen Star" - Children of the Rune (2004)
 "Stormsong" - Summoned by Destiny I: Realms of Wonder (2004)
 "The Mad Mohj of Onteth" - The Dragons' Return (2005)
 "Wrathclaw's Wyrmtide" - We Three Dragons (2005)
 "Beowulf and the Wraith" - The Further Adventures of Beowulf: Champion of Middle Earth (2006)
 "It Came From the Swamp" - Astounding Hero Tales (2006)
 "Oroon Rising" - Wizards of the Coast (2006)
 "King Harrowhelm" - Heroes in Training (2007)
 "Secrets" - Dragons of Krynn (2007)
 "Father Maims Best" - Catopolis (2008)
 "What Dreams May Go" - Lilith Unbound (2008)
 "How Fear Came To Ornath" - Worlds of Their Own (2008)
 "A Perfect Night to Watch Detroit Burn" - Grants Pass (2009)
 "Rescuing the Elf Princess Again" - Gamer Fantastic (2009)
 "Edge of Moonglow" - Tesseracts Fifteen: A Case of Quite Curious Tales (2011)
 "Biting a Dead Man's Hand" - First Contact: Digital Science Fiction Anthology 1 (2011)
 "My Silent Slayer" - Heir Apparent: Digital Science Fiction Anthology 4 (2011)
 "Daggers in her Garters" - Beauty Has Her Way (Dark Quest Books) (2011)
 "Best Served Flash-Frozen" - Foreshadows: The Ghosts of Zero (2012)
 "Midnight Knight" - The New Hero (2012)
 "A Girl and Her Scaly Bits" - The Awakened (2013)
 "Fae Blades for the Dread Duke" - By Faerie Light (2013)
 "A Matter of Knives" - Pathfinder Tales (2013)
 "Kheltae's Bright Scheme" - Tournament of Death (2014)
 "The Sword of the Lord" - Arcane Synthesis (2014)
 "Ghosts Galore" - Cadaver Bone (2014)
 "The Dragon" - Gods, Memes, and Monsters (2015)
 "The Magpie" - Gods, Memes, and Monsters (2015)
 "The Haunting of the Lordly Lion" - The Bard's Tale: Stories and Recipes From The Black Dragon Inn (2015)
 "Many Tentacles, Reaching" - The Awakened II (2016)
 "My Doom May Come Soon" - Champions of Aetaltis (2016)
 "Wolves Run By Night" - The Awakened Modern (2017)
 "Under the Queen's Throne" - Art of War (2018)
 "Three Aces for the Dancer" - Rocket Age Anthology 1: Tales of the Solar System (2018)
 "Words to Die For" - Sisterhood of the Blade (2018)
 Creatures from Fairy-Tale and Myth (2019)

Anthologies edited
 When the Hero Comes Home (edited by Ed Greenwood and Gabrielle Harbowy) – Dragon Moon Press (2011)
 When the Villain Comes Home (edited by Ed Greenwood and Gabrielle Harbowy) – Dragon Moon Press (2012)
 Women In Practical Armor (edited by Ed Greenwood and Gabrielle Harbowy) – Evil Girlfriend Media (2017)

 Role-playing games
 1st edition Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms Campaign Set (1987), a box set of material for running Dungeons & Dragons campaigns set in the Realms; since re-published various times for new editions.
 City System (1988), an extensive collection of maps of the city of Waterdeep.
 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons The Border Kingdoms: A Forgotten Realms Campaign Supplement with Alex Kammer (Dungeon Masters Guild, June 2018)
 Elminster's Candlekeep Companion with Anthony Joyce, Justice Arman, M.T. Black, Jeremy Forbing, Trevor Armstrong, Laura Hirsbrunner (Dungeon Masters Guild, April 2020)
 Darkhold: Secrets of the Zhentarim with Justice Arman, M.T. Black, Anthony Joyce, Celeste Conowitch, Jeremy Forbing, Sadie Lowry, Noah Grand, Brittney Hay, Gabriel Hicks, Laura Hirsbrunner, Amber Litke, Jessica Marcrum, Kienna Shaw (Dungeon Masters Guild, August 2020)
 Rashemen - Campaign Guide with Joe Raso, Andrew Bishkinskyi, Blaise Wigglesworth, Bryan Holmes, Emily Harmon, Florian Emmerich, Jean Lorber, Karl Resch, Lydia Van Hoy, Steve Fidler, V.J. Harris (Dungeon Masters Guild, September 2021)
 Thay: Land Of The Red Wizards with  Alex Kammer, Alan Patrick (Dungeon Masters Guild, February 2022)

Video games
 J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. II: The Two Towers Eye of the Beholder III: Assault on Myth Drannor Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor Haunted Halls of Eveningstar Mages of MystraliaCritical studies and reviews of Greenwood's workThe Iron Assassin

Media mentions
Ed Greenwood has appeared in the following podcasts, newspaper and magazine articles, websites, and podcasts.

Podcasts
 Open Design No. 004: Dwarves of the Ironcrags. Ed provides the voice for the introduction to this show.
 RPG Countdown: 29 July 2009 episode (Kobold Quarterly 010)
 Dungeon Masters Block: Episode 69 & 70
 Worldcasting: Episode 12 (by Worldbuilding Magazine)

Magazines
 "To Believe the Magic Is Real: A Conversation with Ed Greenwood". Clarkesworld Magazine, December 2008.
 Interview with Ed Greenwood, Cryptych'' Issue 1/IV, February 1994

Radio interviews
 Sounds Like Canada: August 28, 2007 episode

References

External links

Biography of Ed Greenwood at Wizards.com

1959 births
Living people
20th-century Canadian novelists
21st-century Canadian novelists
Canadian fantasy writers
Canadian male novelists
Canadian science fiction writers
Dungeons & Dragons game designers

Ed Greenwood


In cryptography, a zero-knowledge proof or zero-knowledge protocol is a method by which one party (the prover) can prove to another party (the verifier) that a given statement is true, while avoiding conveying to the verifier any information beyond the mere fact of the statement's truth. The intuition underlying zero-knowledge proofs is that it is trivial to prove the possession of certain information by simply revealing it; the challenge is to prove this possession without revealing the information, or any aspect of it whatsoever.

In light of the fact that one should be able to generate a proof of some statement only when in possession of certain secret information connected to the statement, the verifier, even after having become convinced of the statement's truth, should nonetheless remain unable to prove the statement to third parties.

In the plain model, nontrivial zero-knowledge proofs (i.e., those for languages outside of BPP) demand interaction between the prover and the verifier. This interaction usually entails the selection of one or more random challenges by the verifier; the random origin of these challenges, together with the prover's successful responses to them notwithstanding, jointly convince the verifier that the prover does possess the claimed knowledge. If interaction weren't present, then the verifier, having obtained the protocol's execution transcript—that is, the prover's one and only message—could replay that transcript to a third party, thereby convincing the third party that the verifier too possessed the secret information.

In the common random string and random oracle models, non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs exist, in light of the Fiat–Shamir heuristic. These proofs, in practice, rely on computational assumptions (typically the collision-resistance of a cryptographic hash function).

Abstract examples

The Ali Baba cave

There is a well-known story presenting the fundamental ideas of zero-knowledge proofs, first published in 1990 by Jean-Jacques Quisquater and others in their paper "How to Explain Zero-Knowledge Protocols to Your Children". The two parties in the in a zero-knowledge proof story are Peggy as the prover of the statement, and Victor, the verifier of the statement.

In this story, Peggy has uncovered the secret word used to open a magic door in a cave. The cave is shaped like a ring, with the entrance on one side and the magic door blocking the opposite side. Victor wants to know whether Peggy knows the secret word; but Peggy, being a very private person, does not want to reveal her knowledge (the secret word) to Victor or to reveal the fact of her knowledge to the world in general.

They label the left and right paths from the entrance A and B. First, Victor waits outside the cave as Peggy goes in. Peggy takes either path A or B; Victor is not allowed to see which path she takes. Then, Victor enters the cave and shouts the name of the path he wants her to use to return, either A or B, chosen at random. Providing she really does know the magic word, this is easy: she opens the door, if necessary, and returns along the desired path.

However, suppose she did not know the word. Then, she would only be able to return by the named path if Victor were to give the name of the same path by which she had entered. Since Victor would choose A or B at random, she would have a 50% chance of guessing correctly. If they were to repeat this trick many times, say 20 times in a row, her chance of successfully anticipating all of Victor's requests would be reduced to 1 in 220, or 9.5610−7.

Thus, if Peggy repeatedly appears at the exit Victor names, he can conclude that it is extremely probable that Peggy does, in fact, know the secret word.

One side note with respect to third-party observers: even if Victor is wearing a hidden camera that records the whole transaction, the only thing the camera will record is in one case Victor shouting "A!" and Peggy appearing at A or in the other case Victor shouting "B!" and Peggy appearing at B. A recording of this type would be trivial for any two people to fake (requiring only that Peggy and Victor agree beforehand on the sequence of A's and B's that Victor will shout). Such a recording will certainly never be convincing to anyone but the original participants. In fact, even a person who was present as an observer at the original experiment would be unconvinced, since Victor and Peggy might have orchestrated the whole "experiment" from start to finish.

Further, if Victor chooses his A's and B's by flipping a coin on-camera, this protocol loses its zero-knowledge property; the on-camera coin flip would probably be convincing to any person watching the recording later. Thus, although this does not reveal the secret word to Victor, it does make it possible for Victor to convince the world in general that Peggy has that knowledge—counter to Peggy's stated wishes. However, digital cryptography generally "flips coins" by relying on a pseudo-random number generator, which is akin to a coin with a fixed pattern of heads and tails known only to the coin's owner. If Victor's coin behaved this way, then again it would be possible for Victor and Peggy to have faked the experiment, so using a pseudo-random number generator would not reveal Peggy's knowledge to the world in the same way that using a flipped coin would.

Notice that Peggy could prove to Victor that she knows the magic word, without revealing it to him, in a single trial. If both Victor and Peggy go together to the mouth of the cave, Victor can watch Peggy go in through A and come out through B. This would prove with certainty that Peggy knows the magic word, without revealing the magic word to Victor. However, such a proof could be observed by a third party, or recorded by Victor and such a proof would be convincing to anybody. In other words, Peggy could not refute such proof by claiming she colluded with Victor, and she is therefore no longer in control of who is aware of her knowledge.

Two balls and the colour-blind friend

Imagine your friend "Victor" is red-green colour-blind (while you are not) and you have two balls: one red and one green, but otherwise identical. To Victor, the balls seem completely identical.  Victor is skeptical that the balls are actually distinguishable. You want to prove to Victor that the balls are in fact differently coloured, but nothing else.  In particular, you do not want to reveal which ball is the red one and which is the green.

Here is the proof system. You give the two balls to Victor and he puts them behind his back. Next, he takes one of the balls and brings it out from behind his back and displays it. He then places it behind his back again and then chooses to reveal just one of the two balls, picking one of the two at random with equal probability. He will ask you, "Did I switch the ball?" This whole procedure is then repeated as often as necessary.

By looking at the balls' colours, you can, of course, say with certainty whether or not he switched them. On the other hand, if the balls were the same colour and hence indistinguishable, there is no way you could guess correctly with probability higher than 50%.

Since the probability that you would have randomly succeeded at identifying each switch/non-switch is 50%, the probability of having randomly succeeded at all switch/non-switches approaches zero ("soundness"). If you and your friend repeat this "proof" multiple times (e.g. 20 times), your friend should become convinced ("completeness") that the balls are indeed differently coloured.

The above proof is zero-knowledge because your friend never learns which ball is green and which is red; indeed, he gains no knowledge about how to distinguish the balls.

Where's Waldo

One well-known example of a zero-knowledge proof is the "Where's Waldo" example. In this example, the prover wants to prove to the verifier that they know where Waldo is on a page in a Where's Waldo? book, without revealing his location to the verifier.

The prover starts by taking a large black board with a small hole in it, the size of Waldo. The board is twice the size of the book in both directions, so the verifier cannot see where on the page the prover is placing it. The prover then places the board over the page so that Waldo is in the hole.

The verifier can now look through the hole and see Waldo, but they cannot see any other part of the page. Therefore, the prover has proven to the verifier that they know where Waldo is, without revealing any other information about his location.

This example is not a perfect zero-knowledge proof, because the prover does reveal some information about Waldo's location, such as his body position. However, it is a decent illustration of the basic concept of a zero-knowledge proof.

Definition

A zero-knowledge proof of some statement must satisfy three properties:

 Completeness: if the statement is true, an honest verifier (that is, one following the protocol properly) will be convinced of this fact by an honest prover.
 Soundness: if the statement is false, no cheating prover can convince an honest verifier that it is true, except with some small probability.
 Zero-knowledge: if the statement is true, no verifier learns anything other than the fact that the statement is true. In other words, just knowing the statement (not the secret) is sufficient to imagine a scenario showing that the prover knows the secret. This is formalized by showing that every verifier has some simulator that, given only the statement to be proved (and no access to the prover), can produce a transcript that "looks like" an interaction between an honest prover and the verifier in question.

The first two of these are properties of more general interactive proof systems. The third is what makes the proof zero-knowledge.

Zero-knowledge proofs are not proofs in the mathematical sense of the term because there is some small probability, the soundness error, that a cheating prover will be able to convince the verifier of a false statement.  In other words, zero-knowledge proofs are probabilistic "proofs" rather than deterministic proofs.  However, there are techniques to decrease the soundness error to negligibly small values (e.g. guessing correctly on a hundred or thousand binary decisions has a  or  soundness error, respectively.  As the number of bits increases, soundness error decreases toward zero).

A formal definition of zero-knowledge has to use some computational model, the most common one being that of a Turing machine. Let , , and  be Turing machines. An interactive proof system with  for a language  is zero-knowledge if for any probabilistic polynomial time (PPT) verifier  there exists a PPT simulator  such that:

where  is a record of the interactions between  and . The prover  is modeled as having unlimited computation power (in practice,  usually is a probabilistic Turing machine). Intuitively, the definition states that an interactive proof system  is zero-knowledge if for any verifier  there exists an efficient simulator  (depending on ) that can reproduce the conversation between  and  on any given input. The auxiliary string  in the definition plays the role of "prior knowledge" (including the random coins of ). The definition implies that  cannot use any prior knowledge string  to mine information out of its conversation with , because if  is also given this prior knowledge then it can reproduce the conversation between  and  just as before.

The definition given is that of perfect zero-knowledge. Computational zero-knowledge is obtained by requiring that the views of the verifier  and the simulator are only computationally indistinguishable, given the auxiliary string.

Practical examples

Discrete log of a given value

We can apply these ideas to a more realistic cryptography application. Peggy wants to prove to Victor that she knows the discrete log of a given value in a given group.

For example, given a value , a large prime  and a generator , she wants to prove that she knows a value  such that , without revealing . Indeed, knowledge of  could be used as a proof of identity, in that Peggy could have such knowledge because she chose a random value  that she didn't reveal to anyone, computed  and distributed the value of  to all potential verifiers, such that at a later time, proving knowledge of  is equivalent to proving identity as Peggy.

The protocol proceeds as follows: in each round, Peggy generates a random number , computes  and discloses this to Victor. After receiving , Victor randomly issues one of the following two requests: he either requests that Peggy discloses the value of , or the value of .

Victor can verify either answer; if he requested , he can then compute  and verify that it matches . If he requested , he can verify that  is consistent with this, by computing  and verifying that it matches . If Peggy indeed knows the value of , she can respond to either one of Victor's possible challenges.

If Peggy knew or could guess which challenge Victor is going to issue, then she could easily cheat and convince Victor that she knows  when she does not: if she knows that Victor is going to request , then she proceeds normally: she picks , computes  and discloses  to Victor; she will be able to respond to Victor's challenge. On the other hand, if she knows that Victor will request , then she picks a random value , computes , and discloses  to Victor as the value of  that he is expecting. When Victor challenges her to reveal , she reveals , for which Victor will verify consistency, since he will in turn compute , which matches , since Peggy multiplied by the modular multiplicative inverse of .

However, if in either one of the above scenarios Victor issues a challenge other than the one she was expecting and for which she manufactured the result, then she will be unable to respond to the challenge under the assumption of infeasibility of solving the discrete log for this group. If she picked  and disclosed , then she will be unable to produce a valid  that would pass Victor's verification, given that she does not know . And if she picked a value  that poses as , then she would have to respond with the discrete log of the value that she disclosed but Peggy does not know this discrete log, since the value C she disclosed was obtained through arithmetic with known values, and not by computing a power with a known exponent.

Thus, a cheating prover has a 0.5 probability of successfully cheating in one round. By executing a large enough number of rounds, the probability of a cheating prover succeeding can be made arbitrarily low.

To show that the above interactive proof gives zero knowledge other than the fact that Peggy knows the  value, one can use similar arguments as used in the above proof of completeness and soundness. Specifically, a simulator, say Simon, who does not know the  value, can simulate the exchange between Peggy and Victor by the following procedure. Firstly, Simon randomly flips a fair coin. If the result is "head", he picks a random value , computes , and discloses  as if it is a message from Peggy to Victor. Then Simon also outputs a message "request the value of " as if it is sent from Victor to Peggy, and immediately outputs the value of  as if it is sent from Peggy to Victor. A single round is complete.  On the other hand, if the coin flipping result is "tail", Simon picks a random number , computes , and discloses  as if it is a message from Peggy to Victor. Then Simon outputs "request the value of " as if it is a message from Victor to Peggy. Finally, Simon outputs the value of  as if it is the response from Peggy back to Victor. A single round is complete. By the previous arguments when proving the completeness and soundness, the interactive communication simulated by Simon is indistinguishable from the true correspondence between Peggy and Victor.  The zero-knowledge property is thus guaranteed.

Short summary

Peggy proves to know the value of x (for example her password).

Peggy and Victor agree on a prime  and a generator  of the multiplicative group of the field .
Peggy calculates the value  and transfers the value to Victor.
The following two steps are repeated a (large) number of times.
Peggy repeatedly picks a random value  and calculates . She transfers the value  to Victor.
Victor asks Peggy to calculate and transfer either the value  or the value . In the first case Victor verifies . In the second case he verifies .

The value  can be seen as the encrypted value of . If  is truly random, equally distributed between zero and , this does not leak any information about  (see one-time pad).

Hamiltonian cycle for a large graph
The following scheme is due to Manuel Blum.

In this scenario, Peggy knows a Hamiltonian cycle for a large graph . Victor knows  but not the cycle (e.g., Peggy has generated  and revealed it to him.) Finding a Hamiltonian cycle given a large graph is believed to be computationally infeasible, since its corresponding decision version is known to be NP-complete. Peggy will prove that she knows the cycle without simply revealing it (perhaps Victor is interested in buying it but wants verification first, or maybe Peggy is the only one who knows this information and is proving her identity to Victor).

To show that Peggy knows this Hamiltonian cycle, she and Victor play several rounds of a game:

 At the beginning of each round, Peggy creates , a graph which is isomorphic to  (i.e.  is just like  except that all the vertices have different names).  Since it is trivial to translate a Hamiltonian cycle between isomorphic graphs with known isomorphism, if Peggy knows a Hamiltonian cycle for  she also must know one for .
 Peggy commits to . She could do so by using a cryptographic commitment scheme. Alternatively, she could number the vertices of . Next, for each edge of , on a small piece of paper, she writes down the two vertices that the edge joins. Then she puts all these pieces of paper face down on a table. The purpose of this commitment is that Peggy is not able to change  while, at the same time, Victor has no information about .
 Victor then randomly chooses one of two questions to ask Peggy.  He can either ask her to show the isomorphism between  and  (see graph isomorphism problem), or he can ask her to show a Hamiltonian cycle in .
 If Peggy is asked to show that the two graphs are isomorphic, she first uncovers all of  (e.g. by turning over all pieces of papers that she put on the table) and then provides the vertex translations that map  to .  Victor can verify that they are indeed isomorphic.
 If Peggy is asked to prove that she knows a Hamiltonian cycle in , she translates her Hamiltonian cycle in  onto  and only uncovers the edges on the Hamiltonian cycle. That is, Peggy only turns over exactly  of the pieces of paper that correspond to the edges of the Hamiltonian cycle, while leaving the rest still face-down.  This is enough for Victor to check that  does indeed contain a Hamiltonian cycle.

It is important that the commitment to the graph be such that Victor can verify, in the second case, that the cycle is really made of edges from . This can be done by, for example, committing to every edge (or lack thereof) separately.

Completeness
If Peggy does know a Hamiltonian cycle in , she can easily satisfy Victor's demand for either the graph isomorphism producing  from  (which she had committed to in the first step) or a Hamiltonian cycle in  (which she can construct by applying the isomorphism to the cycle in ).

Zero-knowledge
Peggy's answers do not reveal the original Hamiltonian cycle in .  Each round, Victor will learn only 's isomorphism to  or a Hamiltonian cycle in .  He would need both answers for a single  to discover the cycle in , so the information remains unknown as long as Peggy can generate a distinct  every round.  If Peggy does not know of a Hamiltonian cycle in , but somehow knew in advance what Victor would ask to see each round then she could cheat.  For example, if Peggy knew ahead of time that Victor would ask to see the Hamiltonian cycle in  then she could generate a Hamiltonian cycle for an unrelated graph.  Similarly, if Peggy knew in advance that Victor would ask to see the isomorphism then she could simply generate an isomorphic graph  (in which she also does not know a Hamiltonian cycle).  Victor could simulate the protocol by himself (without Peggy) because he knows what he will ask to see.  Therefore, Victor gains no information about the Hamiltonian cycle in  from the information revealed in each round.

Soundness
If Peggy does not know the information, she can guess which question Victor will ask and generate either a graph isomorphic to  or a Hamiltonian cycle for an unrelated graph, but since she does not know a Hamiltonian cycle for  she cannot do both. With this guesswork, her chance of fooling Victor is , where  is the number of rounds. For all realistic purposes, it is infeasibly difficult to defeat a zero-knowledge proof with a reasonable number of rounds in this way.

Variants of zero-knowledge
Different variants of zero-knowledge can be defined by formalizing the intuitive concept of what is meant by the output of the simulator "looking like" the execution of the real proof protocol in the following ways:

 We speak of perfect zero-knowledge if the distributions produced by the simulator and the proof protocol are distributed exactly the same. This is for instance the case in the first example above.
 Statistical zero-knowledge means that the distributions are not necessarily exactly the same, but they are statistically close, meaning that their statistical difference is a negligible function.
 We speak of computational zero-knowledge if no efficient algorithm can distinguish the two distributions.

Zero knowledge types
 Proof of knowledge: the knowledge is hidden in the exponent like in the example shown above.
 Pairing based cryptography: given  and , without knowing  and , it is possible to compute .
 Witness indistinguishable proof: verifiers cannot know which witness is used for producing the proof.
 Multi-party computation: while each party can keep their respective secret, they together produce a result.
 Ring signature: outsiders have no idea which key is used for signing.

Applications

Authentication systems
Research in zero-knowledge proofs has been motivated by authentication systems where one party wants to prove its identity to a second party via some secret information (such as a password) but doesn't want the second party to learn anything about this secret. This is called a "zero-knowledge proof of knowledge".  However, a password is typically too small or insufficiently random to be used in many schemes for zero-knowledge proofs of knowledge. A zero-knowledge password proof is a special kind of zero-knowledge proof of knowledge that addresses the limited size of passwords.

In April 2015, the one-out-of-many proofs protocol (a Sigma protocol) was introduced. In August 2021, Cloudflare, an American web infrastructure and security company decided to use the one-out-of-many proofs mechanism for private web verification using vendor hardware.

Ethical behavior
One of the uses of zero-knowledge proofs within cryptographic protocols is to enforce honest behavior while maintaining privacy.  Roughly, the idea is to force a user to prove, using a zero-knowledge proof, that its behavior is correct according to the protocol. Because of soundness, we know that the user must really act honestly in order to be able to provide a valid proof.  Because of zero knowledge, we know that the user does not compromise the privacy of its secrets in the process of providing the proof.

Nuclear disarmament
In 2016, the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Princeton University demonstrated a technique that may have applicability to future nuclear disarmament talks. It would allow inspectors to confirm whether or not an object is indeed a nuclear weapon without recording, sharing or revealing the internal workings which might be secret.

Blockchains
Zero-knowledge proofs were applied in the Zerocoin and Zerocash protocols, which culminated in the birth of Zcoin (later rebranded as Firo in 2020) and Zcash cryptocurrencies in 2016. Zerocoin has a built-in mixing model that does not trust any peers or centralised mixing providers to ensure anonymity. Users can transact in a base currency and can cycle the currency into and out of Zerocoins. The Zerocash protocol uses a similar model (a variant known as a non-interactive zero-knowledge proof) except that it can obscure the transaction amount, while Zerocoin cannot. Given significant restrictions of transaction data on the Zerocash network, Zerocash is less prone to privacy timing attacks when compared to Zerocoin. However, this additional layer of privacy can cause potentially undetected hyperinflation of Zerocash supply because fraudulent coins cannot be tracked.

In 2018, Bulletproofs were introduced. Bulletproofs are an improvement from non-interactive zero-knowledge proof where trusted setup is not needed. It was later implemented into the Mimblewimble protocol (which the Grin and Beam cryptocurrencies are based upon) and Monero cryptocurrency. In 2019, Firo implemented the Sigma protocol, which is an improvement on the Zerocoin protocol without trusted setup. In the same year, Firo introduced the Lelantus protocol, an improvement on the Sigma protocol, where the former hides the origin and amount of a transaction.

History
Zero-knowledge proofs were first conceived in 1985 by Shafi Goldwasser, Silvio Micali, and Charles Rackoff in their paper "The Knowledge Complexity of Interactive Proof-Systems". This paper introduced the IP hierarchy of interactive proof systems (see interactive proof system) and conceived the concept of knowledge complexity, a measurement of the amount of knowledge about the proof transferred from the prover to the verifier. They also gave the first zero-knowledge proof for a concrete problem, that of deciding quadratic nonresidues mod . Together with a paper by László Babai and Shlomo Moran, this landmark paper invented interactive proof systems, for which all five authors won the first Gödel Prize in 1993.

In their own words, Goldwasser, Micali, and Rackoff say:

Of particular interest is the case where this additional knowledge is essentially 0 and we show that [it] is possible to interactively prove that a number is quadratic non residue mod m releasing 0 additional knowledge. This is surprising as no efficient algorithm for deciding quadratic residuosity mod m is known when m's factorization is not given. Moreover, all known NP proofs for this problem exhibit the prime factorization of m. This indicates that adding interaction to the proving process, may decrease the amount of knowledge that must be communicated in order to prove a theorem.

The quadratic nonresidue problem has both an NP and a co-NP algorithm, and so lies in the intersection of NP and co-NP. This was also true of several other problems for which zero-knowledge proofs were subsequently discovered, such as an unpublished proof system by Oded Goldreich verifying that a two-prime modulus is not a Blum integer.

Oded Goldreich, Silvio Micali, and Avi Wigderson took this one step further, showing that, assuming the existence of unbreakable encryption, one can create a zero-knowledge proof system for the NP-complete graph coloring problem with three colors. Since every problem in NP can be efficiently reduced to this problem, this means that, under this assumption, all problems in NP have zero-knowledge proofs. The reason for the assumption is that, as in the above example, their protocols require encryption. A commonly cited sufficient condition for the existence of unbreakable encryption is the existence of one-way functions, but it is conceivable that some physical means might also achieve it.

On top of this, they also showed that the graph nonisomorphism problem, the complement of the graph isomorphism problem, has a zero-knowledge proof. This problem is in co-NP, but is not currently known to be in either NP or any practical class. More generally, Russell Impagliazzo and Moti Yung as well as Ben-Or et al. would go on to show that, also assuming one-way functions or unbreakable encryption, that there are zero-knowledge proofs for all problems in IP = PSPACE, or in other words, anything that can be proved by an interactive proof system can be proved with zero knowledge.

Not liking to make unnecessary assumptions, many theorists sought a way to eliminate the necessity of one way functions. One way this was done was with multi-prover interactive proof systems (see interactive proof system), which have multiple independent provers instead of only one, allowing the verifier to "cross-examine" the provers in isolation to avoid being misled. It can be shown that, without any intractability assumptions, all languages in NP have zero-knowledge proofs in such a system.

It turns out that in an Internet-like setting, where multiple protocols may be executed concurrently, building zero-knowledge proofs is more challenging.  The line of research investigating concurrent zero-knowledge proofs was initiated by the work of Dwork, Naor, and Sahai. One particular development along these lines has been the development of witness-indistinguishable proof protocols. The property of witness-indistinguishability is related to that of zero-knowledge, yet witness-indistinguishable protocols do not suffer from the same problems of concurrent execution.

Another variant of zero-knowledge proofs are non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs. Blum, Feldman, and Micali showed that a common random string shared between the prover and the verifier is enough to achieve computational zero-knowledge without requiring interaction.

Zero-Knowledge Proof protocols
The most popular interactive or non-interactive zero-knowledge proof (e.g., zk-SNARK) protocols can be broadly categorized in the following four categories: Succinct Non-Interactive ARguments of Knowledge (SNARK), Scalable Transparent ARgument of Knowledge (STARK), Verifiable Polynomial Delegation (VPD), and Succinct Non-interactive ARGuments (SNARG). A list of zero-knowledge proof protocols and libraries is provided below along with comparisons based on transparency, universality, plausible post-quantum security, and programming paradigm. A transparent protocol is one that does not require any trusted setup and uses public randomness. A universal protocol is one that does not require a separate trusted setup for each circuit. Finally, a plausibly post-quantum protocol is one that is not susceptible to known attacks involving quantum algorithms.

See also

 Arrow information paradox
 Cryptographic protocol
 Feige–Fiat–Shamir identification scheme
 Proof of knowledge
 Topics in cryptography
 Witness-indistinguishable proof
 Zero-knowledge password proof
 Non-interactive zero-knowledge proof

References

Theory of cryptography
Zero-knowledge protocols

Zero-knowledge proof


Tang Chun-I or Tang Junyi (, 17 January 1909 – 2 February 1978) was a Chinese philosopher who was one of the leading exponents of New Confucianism. Born in Sichuan, he moved to Hong Kong in 1949 due to the establishment of the People's Republic of China and co-founded New Asia College with the dual objective of modernizing China while upholding its traditional values.

Tang's philosophy emphasized the concept of harmony between individuals and the universe, distinguishing his viewpoint from dualistic perspectives. He championed the notion of a moral metaphysical reality and explored the alignment of the ethical self with truth. His exploration of the intersection of ethics and metaphysics culminated in the formulation of the Nine Horizons, a framework encompassing various aspects of human understanding.

Tang's lasting influence on East Asian philosophy can be attributed to his efforts to blend traditional Confucian principles with Western philosophical ideas, including ideas from [Plato]] and Hegel. Despite his passing in 1978, his ideas continue to exert influence, shaping discussions concerning ethics, metaphysics, and the intricate relationship between individual existence and the broader universe.

Biography
Tang, the son of a wealthy scholar, was the first born of six children in Sichuan, China. Tang was briefly a student of Liang Shuming before transferring to National Central University. In 1927, Tang became a follower of Xiong Shili after attending a series of lectures. He graduated from National Central University in 1933, soon after becoming a lecturer there. In 1940, Tang met his colleague and lifelong friend Mou Zongsan. In 1943 he married Tse Ting Kwong, an educational psychology graduate. 1944 he joined the National Central University Philosophy Department as a full-time professor, and later he even became head of the department. Only five years later, in 1949, Tang left Mainland China to live in Hong Kong, as part of an exodus of Chinese intellectuals to the British colony.

Tang went into exile in Hong Kong in 1949, after the declaration of the People's Republic of China, living there for the rest of his life.
There he helped found the New Asia College, which was integrated into the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1963. He served as the founding chairman and the first Chair Professor of the Department of Philosophy of CUHK. Tang's time in Hong Kong was marked by his mission to salvage traditional Chinese culture in a time when China was ruled by an anti-traditionalist government. He established New Asia College, which to Tang symbolized his ambitious plan to save Chinese culture. Tang was particularly fixated on the fact that New Asia College was established exactly 2500 years after the birth of Confucius, often claiming that the timing was not merely coincidental, but significant as it marked a new era in Chinese history. In the 1970s, he became one of the members of the school board of New Asia Middle School.

His work has mainly been influential in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the United States. In 2009, a  bronze statue was erected in the New Asia College campus to celebrate his centenary.

Philosophy
Tang is most associated with New Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism. In his study of Contemporary New Ru Learning, Fang Keli identified Tang as part of the second generation of New Confucians, along with Mou Zongsan and Xu Fuguan. In 1958 Tang, Mou, Xu, and Zhang Zhunmai co-authored A Manifesto on Chinese Culture Respectfully Announced to the People of the World. The manifesto was an effort to revive Confucianism likely directed at Chinese people who favored adopting Western values.

Tang believed the message of Confucianism was the affirmation of human life as it exists. He contrasts Confucianism with Christianity and Buddhism, religions that promote human transcendence over the physical world or the acceptance of the physical world as an illusion, respectfully.

While Tang advocated for a new embrace of Confucianism, he never promoted specific political orders associated with Confucianism, nor did he propose any new political order based on his philosophies. Instead, Tang examined existing political alternatives through a Confucian lens. Liberal democracy was the political order most consistent with Confucianism because they both rest upon the idea that all humans are endowed with equal humanity.

Tang's work primarily deals with three issues: traditional Chinese philosophy, ethics and metaphysics (the two of which are fundamentally intertwined in his work), and Chinese culture.

Culture
Tang devoted much of his career to exploring how to modernize China without compromising its defining traditional values. Tang saw the individual's connection to traditional values as the way of maintaining an authentic life that would otherwise be by threatened by the emptiness of modernity.

Chinese philosophy
With regards to the question of the individual's relation to the universe, Tang concludes that regardless of one's approach, the individual and the universe are two different expressions of one ultimate harmony. In other words, distinctions between the two are always complementary in creating the harmonious whole of existence. He argues that the lack of a dualist distinction as truth is a defining trait of Chinese philosophy.

Tang was among the most prominent advocates of Neo-Confucianism in the 20th century (not to be confused with New Confucianism, which Tang was also part of). One major difference between Tang and the original Neo-Confucianists is that Tang framed his work through contrasts with Western philosophy. For example, Tang's concept of the heart-mind, a single entity responsible for cognition, emotion, and will, is an originally Neo-Confucian idea. Tang argued that the heart-mind is the key to all human understanding in his 1977 book Life, Existence, and the Horizons of the Heart-Mind.

Ethics and metaphysics
In his book Heart-Mind, Objects, and Human Life, Tang argues that the alienation experienced by people in modern societies is strongly connected to an emphasis on abstractions over concrete realities of everyday life.

Tang concludes that the metaphysical world has moral qualities because virtues help people to align themselves harmoniously with the universe. In his approach to ethics, Tang distinguishes the actual and the ethical self. The ethical self is informed by reason in order to transcend the actual self. While the actual self is bound spatially and temporally, the rational ethical self is a permanent entity in accord with truth. This is why Tang identifies the ethical self, not the actual self, as being the genuine self.

Tang attempted to systematize the moral idealism in his final book Life, Existence, and the Horizons of the Heart-Mind in 1977. He argues that the human heart-mind, the source of cognition, emotion, and will, is key to understanding the world, and that in integrating of reason and emotion, the heart-mind can respond correctly in a given situation.

Nine Horizons
The other main point of this book is the Nine Horizons, the spheres of existence that human activity engages with.  The first three horizons are the objective world as perceived by heart-mind. The first horizon separates individuals. The second horizon separates categories. The third horizon identifies sequences, such as cause and effect or means and ends. The middle three horizons are concerned with self-reflection. The fourth horizon is the understanding of mutual perception between individuals. The fifth horizon is the understanding of symbols and meaning, including but not limited to mathematics and language. The sixth horizon is the understanding of moral conduct, which realizes the ideals we hold. Last three horizons unify the subjective and the objective in an effort to create value in our lives (what Tang calls the trans-subjective-objective horizons). The seventh horizon is the realization of a Monotheistic God. The eighth horizon is the realization of the emptiness of the self and of dharma. The ninth horizon is the flowing of Heavenly Virtue. Tang intentionally incorporated Abrahamic, Buddhist, and Confucian ideas of virtue into these last three horizons.

Notes

Works cited

External links
 The Masters: Mr Tang Chun-i, Chinese University of Hong Kong
 A Philosophical Symphony: Tang Junyi's System Anja Steinbauer

New Confucian philosophers
New Asia College
Hong Kong philosophers
20th-century Chinese essayists
Chinese University of Hong Kong people
1909 births
1978 deaths
Writers from Yibin
Philosophers from Sichuan
Educators from Sichuan
20th-century essayists
20th-century Chinese philosophers
National University of Peking alumni

Tang Chun-i


Gaston Carraud (20 July 1864 – 15 June 1920) was a French composer and music critic.

Life
Born at Le Mée-sur-Seine, Carraud was the son of Ivan Carraud (1826–1881), general inspector of water and forests, general adviser of the Cher, and of Zoé de Ridder (1835–1903), of Belgian origin, and the grandson of Zulma Carraud, née Tourangin, writer and friend of Honoré de Balzac.

Carraud began his musical training at the "École Monge", receiving instruction from Albéric Magnard, Charles Koechlin, Jacques Pillois, André Caplet and Gabriel Bender. He then studied musical composition at the Conservatoire de Paris with Jules Massenet and obtained in 1890 the Premier Grand Prix de Rome with the cantata Cléopâtre after a text by Fernand Beissier.

He later composed the symphonic poems La Chevauchée de la chimère, Les Nuits after the poems by Alfred de Musset and the overture Buona Pasqua. From 1905, he worked as a music critic for the newspaper La Liberté. In 1921 his book La Vie, l'œuvre et la mort d'Albéric Magnard (1865-1914) was published in Paris.

Carraud died in his home in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.

He rests in the family plot at Nohant-en-Graçay cemetery (Cher), next to Zulma Carraud.

References

External links
 Gaston Carraud (Prix de Rome 1890-1899)

1864 births
1920 deaths
19th-century classical composers
19th-century French composers
Conservatoire de Paris alumni
French male classical composers
French music critics
French Romantic composers
People from Seine-et-Marne
Prix de Rome for composition
20th-century French male musicians
19th-century French male musicians

Gaston Carraud


The music of Turks and Caicos Islands is best known for its ripsaw music. It is accompanied by an array of instruments, including maracas, triangles, box guitar, conga drums, goat and cowskin drums, accordion, concertina and, most prominently and uniquely, the carpenter saw.

The saw is scraped with a metal object, such as a screwdriver, to produce a unique sound; this is called ripping the saw. The use of the saw (which is the origin of the term ripsaw) is of uncertain origin, but may be in imitation of the Dominican and Haitian guiro or traditional African instruments such as the shekere and djembe.

A closely related style called rake and scrape is known in the Bahamas, closely associated with Cat Island, the home of many Turks and Caicos islanders, who moved there looking for work in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Many Bahamian musicians are from the islands, including The Cooling Waters, Sly Roker, Bradley Dean, Marvin Handfield, Perry Delancy, and Leo Jones. Many of these expatriates have since returned to Turks and Caicos, bringing with them Bahamian junkanoo music.

Modern ripsaw pioneers include Tell and the Rakooneers and Lovey Forbes, who created a new style called combina in the early 1980s, using genres from across the Caribbean and the US as inspiration; these included jazz, calypso, soca and reggae.

Musician institutions
The organisation TUCA helps to promote Turks and Caicos folk music and dance. The Turks and Caicos Music and Poetry Festival is a major annual event, attracting such artists as (in 2004) Chaka Khan, Maxi Priest, Boyz II Men, Joe, Shocking Vibes Band, TCI All Star Band and Blakout Crew. The first First Annual Turks & Caicos Ripsaw Festival was held in 2003.

References

External links

Music of British Overseas Territories
Anglophone Caribbean music

Music of the Turks and Caicos Islands


Theodric or Ðeodric ruled from 572 to 579. He was the fifth known ruler of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia.

Theodric was the son of Ida of Bernicia, founder of the kingdom of Bernicia, and a brother of his predecessor, Æthelric. Little is known of Theodric's life and reign although Urien, the king of Rheged, was said to have subjected Theodric and his sons to a three-day siege on the island of Lindisfarne.  Theodric has been identified with an Anglian ruler nicknamed Fflamddwyn in Welsh, who, according to medieval Welsh poetry such as Gweith Argoed Llwyfain (The Battle of Argoed Llwyfain or Battle of Leeming Lane) from the Book of Taliesin, was killed in battle by Urien's son, Owain mab Urien, after he demanded hostages and Owain refused to give in.

The dates for Theodric's rule are conjecture; the earliest authorities differ widely on the order and the regnal years of the kings between the death of Ida and the beginning of Æthelfrith's rule in 592/593.

Notes

External links

579 deaths
Anglo-Saxon warriors
Bernician monarchs
History of Northumberland
6th-century English monarchs
Year of birth unknown
Idings

Theodric of Bernicia