In theory, everyone in the room was dedicated to the development of a reusable launch vehicle that would allow Guangchou to leapfrog their Soviet Allies and American rivals in the development of a self sustaining space infrastructure.
In practice, the first Mingxiang Rocketry Conference had turned into a warped mirror of a Communist Party Congress, with the engineers and researchers involved in the engine pre-select process forming de-facto parties around their favoured technical solutions.
The right wing Kerosene Party were advocating for a minimal development cycle based on re-using the soviet RD-170 engine converted to run on solvent grade kerosene, with a Guang FADEC replacing it's original Soviet electronics.
The Hydrazine Centrists proposed a bolder alternative in a clean-sheet lovechild of the RD-270 and RD-119 run on hydrazine-LOX fuel mix, taking advantage of Chief Designer Valentin Glusko's bitterness over having the development of both aforementioned engines cancelled to lean heavily on Soviet contacts for technical aid.
Finally the Methane Progressives on the left flank had coalesced around a clean-sheet methane engine. Although out of all the groups they had the worst party discipline, and were bitterly divided between a left flank advocating a never-before done dual expander aerospike, and a right flank who preferred the more well known full flow staged combustion cycle.
Everyone's positions were further complicated by two broad-front movements that advocated competing nozzle strategies. The conflict between the Nozzle Traditionalists and the Nozzle Radicals was most bitterly fought among the MPs, but both the KPs and the HCs were broadly split between adopting the RD-170's proven quad-chamber architecture and attempting to design a clean-sheet combustion chamber to directly overcome the combustion instabilities that the Americans had clearly solved for their F-1 engines.
"-it's a 3000 kilogram difference in dry mass! Marginal improvement he says!" scoffed Tingwei, leaning forward with her palms flat on the table as she interrupted Jiahou's speech on mass fractions.
"Three tonnes, you feckless statistician! Stop inflating your figures by reporting them in kilograms!" he shot back.
"Alright, that's enough," Wei cut in, "Jiahou, you're out of line, please stick to factual critiques in the future instead of insulting your colleagues. But both of you sound like you need to cool off right now."
"In fact," they continued, scanning the room with a critical eye, "We could all use a break. We'll adjourn until tomorrow. Go home before I have another gaggle of spouses blockading my offices demanding to know where their partners are."
Wei would have preferred if that was the end of it, but it took another half hour for everyone to trickle out as they discussed the day's arguments and stopped to chat with Wei. Touching base with everyone this way made them feel heard and kept Wei from becoming too disengaged from the on the ground realities of the programs they oversaw, so they bore the strain with a tired but honest smile.
"You look like shit," ginned a middle aged man wearing a rumpled tan kimono over a western style shirt and trousers. Wei looked the stranger over, taking in the artfully wrinkled clothing, the subtle signs of makeup, and the easy grin, and laughed. Then checking to make sure the last of their staff was out of easy earshot, turned to the stranger.
"Jungmin, why do you insist on skulking around in disguise."
"I suspect it's for the same reason you take the time to talk with so many of your staff - it keeps me from getting too detached," Jungmin said as they picked up the valise overflowing with rolled up schematics, "Come on, let's drop this stuff off at your office and I'll take you out for dinner. I hear you guys have a new burger stand run by one of the guys off the Iwo Jima. I want to see what American food tastes like."
***
"That's just not right," mumbled the cook, watching Wei tear another chunk off their burger and dip it into a bowl of miso soup before putting it in their mouth.
"I mean, they seem to like it, can't be that bad," said Jungmin, watching Wei's fusion cuisine experiment,
"Alright, let me try it," Jungmin tore a chunk off his own burger and dipped it into Wei's bowl.
"Hheyy!" complained Wei through a full mouth, sliding his bowl of miso out of reach, "That's so unsanitary!"
Jungmin chewed thoughtfully for a moment, "It's not bad. Kind of soggy through. I think it would work better if the patties were toasted?"
"I'll take that under advisement," drawled the cook, before he had to wander off to service another customer.
"Alright, now I've picked up a few things about engineering through osmosis from you-" Jungmin started, turning to Wei.
"You really haven't," interrupted Wei with a grin.
"Haha, laugh it up. Not all of us can be the Miracle Worker of Mingxiang," Jungmin replied, with a halfhearted kick to Wei's chair, "ANYWAY, I'm not totally hopeless when it comes to technical stuff these days, but all that argument seemed like it was just going in circles."
"You're not wrong," said Wei, pausing to sip their miso, "The problem is that for all our imported Soviet expertise, we don't really have any native rocketry experience. That makes it hard to know what we should prioritize - especially since not even Roskosmos is trying for a reusable rocket."
"Aren't they building that spaceplane? Buran?"
"Ugh, that monstrosity," Wei screwed up their face in disgust, "The Politburo is setting technical goals with no understanding of the underlying technicalities. Glusko is already quietly seething and nobody is happy with how the program is going. It will work, but mark my words, nobody will be happy with the result, not the engineers who developed it, not the generals who wanted an orbital bomber."
"I thought you said Buran was better than the Space Shuttle?"
"It is, but that bar is low enough for your three year old to hop over it. Anyway, the real issues is that we don't know what kind of rocket we're building an engine for. You promised me a consistent launch schedule Jungmin, but you haven't said anything about what you want me to throw up there," they grumbled.
"Hang on, isn't it your job to tell me?" Jungmin said, putting on an affronted air.
Wei sighed, "I'm not going to lie, a part of me really wants to try to pull off a Mars landing before the American realize what's going on, but realistically it wouldn't really lead anywhere. The near to medium term future of space activity is in Earth orbit, and then cis-Lunar space. The engines I would want to take us to Mars are not the engines I would pick to get us to orbit or move us around near Earth and the Moon."
The two considered this for a moment.
Jungmin sighed, "Damn, it would really be something if we could beat the Americans to Mars."
"Yeah," Wei said morosely, idly swirling the remains of their miso.
"We're not going to go to Mars are we?" continued Jungmin.
"Not if we care more about what's good for our country," confirmed Wei.
Both gave a sad sigh.
"At least that makes it easier to pick an engine, right?"
We through about it for a minute, scrunching their face one way and the the other as the mulled it over, "Maybe?"
"Are you kidding me?"
"Look, there's a reason people are so worked up about this! These propellant and engine combinations give really close performance at the system level!"
"Then just pick one already," whined Jungmin, exchanging a few signs with the cook to get a pair of sodas.
"Argh! It's not that simple!"
"Sure it is, they're all pretty similar, so instead of going in a circle, just pick one."
"You know what? Fine. Hydralox! We have hypergolic experience from our aircraft missiles, all our rocketry facilities are set up for hypergols, it gives wicked performance without fucking up your engine, we have lots of Soviet work to crib notes off of, Glushko will love us for letting his baby fly, the Soviets won't have political leverage over us, and there's crossover with a storable ICBM engine! Happy now?"
The cook put down two open bottles in front of them, glancing between them with a 'should I be listening to this?' sort of look. Jungmin made a mouth zipping gesture at him followed by a throat cutting one, before thanking him for the drinks and putting one in Wei's hand, "To picking an engine!" he toasted and clinked their bottles together, "Ganbei!"
Wei just shook their head at their friend's antics and took a chug of their soda.
Jungming stares at the television screen. Ripped away from the utopia of his home to face the horrors of the greater world. Not to say there aren't small horrors still facing his nation, but the depths that humanity is willing to plunge elsewhere weighs heavy on his mind when he allows himself to think of them. Heavy in a form of almost righteous rage. He hears the statements of the German Government, how they are not willing to genocide these... people, their fellow human beings. Jungming will not stoop lower than calling them at least his brothers and sisters. But he knows that Western Germany is not fully free. Either domestically or internationally. The USA and its genocidal overtures dangerously point towards doing something drastic and irreversible. China and the USSR are quiet, dealing with internal problems that Jungming could only guess at, and that made Jungming feel alone. In a world full of cruelty and fear towards the people he was watching on the television screen.
He sat there watching the images come in. He saw children playing in dirt behind barbed wire, adults communicating with the guards for supplies they needed, crowds of journalists giving absolutely no sense of dignity to those within the... might as well call it what it is... concentration camp. Then suddenly, images in Jungmings mind rolled in, memories from a decade or more ago. Of his fathers reeducation camps, of children playing in dirt, of adults trying to find a guard sympathetic enough to spare food for a skeletal child, of everyone knowing what is going on but nobody stopping it in fear of being put into one of the camps. They say history does not repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes.
Jungming thinks about Mai, currently off somewhere in the country attempting to get her Youth Scouts up and running. Jungming was unsure of how to break the news. He looks down to two of his youngest in his arms, unaware of how drastic of a change this news is to the world. To them, seeing people with fur and snouts might be the most natural thing in the world, if such people are alive when his children grow up. He glanced back at the television, they were playing back the same picture of the children playing in the dirt, and his heart almost seized in his chest. Sometimes the cruelty of man knows no depths, but sometimes, sometimes, compassion can reach deeper.
[][Jungming - Traits: Trusting, Idealist, Vengeful] A speech, for all humanities to hear. One calling for an understanding, Pandora's Box once opened can not be shut as the westerner says, but as they say in Guangchou, balance is needed. A balance between love and compassion to those willed into this world against their will. Their existence is not the fault of their own, these Homo Lupus. Whether it was some form of divine intervention from god, gods, spirits, or man does not matter. These people exist. They love and worry the same as any of us. If the world can not accept that, then Guangchou can accept that. We are, if nothing else, a nation of love. One which has toiled endlessly to ensure the world can be a better place, one free of the deranged capitalist, or the homicidal dictator. Send us your "abominations" let us take in your monsters and demons. We will accept them as our own blood, our brothers and sisters. Communism is eternal and endless, and so is our love.
The images shocked people, but did it scare them? The people of Guangchou have been shocked many times in the last decade. From their great leader closing down rotten institutions of his father, to a tsunami, to what the tsunami washed upon their shores, to walking robots traversing their countryside. Life in this country was strange and shocking. Why not another shock to the pile as one says.
A mother sits in a bar, nursing a beer after a shift watching the television. She sees the images, the camps, the children, and remembers her time in a reeducation camp for her views. She thinks of her child and how much he is her world. And as she gets drunk, she gets angry. Angry that the world dares be afraid of children enough to lock them in a cage like an animal. An animal can not talk, it can not play with toys, it does not run and hug its mother afraid of television crews breathing down its neck. No, those are people on the screen, and as she gets drunker, and more news of reactions from the capitalists roll in, the anger turns to despair, until she is cut off and sent home to hug her child and appreciate that he will not have to live in a cage like she did.
A man sits in a clinic, manning the counter. A television plays in the corner. The entire waiting room sits, transfixed to the images and words coming out of it. Heated discussions start, stop, and start again in rapid succession. Are they human? What is a human? Are they apart of Humanity? Can there be multiple humanities? Is this what it means to play god? Are some of Communisms teachings not that man can be a god over nature? Is that revisionism? Do we need to call the police to stop this ideological debate? The arguments continue on and on, and the man at the counter hears all of it in a jumbled mess. He thinks back to his medical knowledge, the bare bones stuff they give to the receptionists of anatomy and genealogy. How hard it must have been to give a human fur let alone the other features he is seeing. These creatures may be apart of humanity, but how much pain and suffering had to happen to make them? What monstrous methods were used to build these people from scratch? Did these people only know of a world of cages and sterile walls? There must be something that can be done for them...
A person of indeterminate gender sits in the Guangchou Institute of Sexual Science. Listening to the radio as descriptions and press releases of the situation come in. The person gets excited. What new science this must bring! What new anatomy there is to study! They must invite one of these Homo Lupus over, there are so many questions. If the Lupine's are human then they can love as they can, but do they love differently? Were their minds altered by the genetic expression of snouts and fur resulting in different expressions of companionship? Could this lead to new kinks? Would new sex safety tips need to be formed? Did STD's still transfer easily? Were their genitalia human shaped or canine shaped? Did Guangchou need to start a new assembly line of special form condoms? All these and more raced through their head at a million miles per hour, and they started jotting down notes.
[][Guangchou People] Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, for we are the People of The Most Glorious Democratic People's Republic of Guangchou, Light of All Nations, Defender of ALL Humanities, and Paradise on Earth, and we accept you as you are.
Mr. Lee put on his best smile as he greeted his new Guangchou neighbors and customers, the risen sun shining bright and his face angled just right to highlight his pearly whites. The small, eager crowd sprinkled with the occasional, curious newcomer, told him that, already, today would be a great day.
Cousin Shen certainly did him a great favor helping him secure such an ideal plot of land. Situated on one corner of a busy crossroad, each path leading to developing towns and markets, a great many sorts of people would surely find their way to his humble abode and store.
And for every person that came, meant the potential for a new customer.
"Welcome! Everyone! Come in. Come in. Come in! We have a wonderful batch of pork buns freshly cooked just for you!"
He watched curiosity flare brighter in the eyes of the newcomers, many likely never having eaten a pork bun before. For his return customers, however, he saw hunger and desire growing ever more pronounced. Yet all could smell the scent wafting in from the steamers he set down at the back of the store, encouraging their appetite.
"Remember, a man who does not eat pork bun, is never a whole man."
Truly, any man who eats a pork bun will find themselves wondering how they could ever have lived this far without them!
"I have the best price just for you! Two pork buns for the price of one! Best deal in ALL of Guangchou!"
Nothing could ever surpass the sheer monetary value of two pork buns. Save, perhaps, THREE pork buns! Or wait! Four! FOUR PORK BUNS!
"If you order three pork buns, you get a free cup of freshly brewed tea!"
Yes, statistics (will inevitably) show that beverage consumed at just the right moment and in just the right amounts allows for more efficient consumption of pork buns.
Cousin Shen had yet to inform him of the results of the pork bun study he had him bring to the university he worked at but already he knew in his heart of hearts what the results would show, despite how skeptical his cousin looked when he (reluctantly) agreed to do it.
"Pork buns are a complete meal on their own. All the major food groups! Bun, sauce, small bits of vegetables! And of course, the secret ingredient. Pork!"
Amazing how pork buns could contain so much in so compact a package.
"A pork bun a day keeps the doctor away!"
Except, you know, you ate the pork bun in the shop, in which case you'd likely encounter doctors, who obviously loved pork buns as well.
Even as his customers placed their orders, all unsurprisingly asking for the most popular (and only) item on his menu, his thoughts wandered to plans for future expansion.
Back in China, such a future would have been bleak. His initial attempt alone had attracted a most evil man. A corrupt official accusing him of capitalist activities. Pei! He was just jealous because of Lee's success.
Even worse, the man refused to eat pork buns!
Fortunately, his dear Cousin Shen had sent him letters from Guangchou, encouraging him to visit him and his family, and to meet his adolescent nieces for a family reunion.
Lee had been eating a pork bun while reading the letter, and saw it as a sign from the universe, and pork buns. Rather than simply visiting, he had decided to move his business entirely. As painful as it was to deny his old neighbors the wonders of pork buns by leaving, he hoped it would instead encourage them to leave before chaos finally consumed the country.
And so it was with a heavy heart that Lee made the arduous journey east to the coast and onwards to a new country to reunite with his cousin. It was not easy. He could barely count the number of times he almost lost his life, saved only by the carefully allocating his dwindling stash of pork buns as bribes. But in the end, he made it.
As Lee took the payments from his pork bun transactions, he couldn't help but recall news he'd heard a few days ago.
Guangchou was officially going to welcome and take in those wolf people everybody's been talking about. Some of his neighbors were nervous, while others were eager to welcome their new countrymen, assuming they decided to take the Great Leader's offer.
As for Lee, Lee didn't care what color your skin was, how hairy you were, what deity you followed or what customs you practiced. So long as you liked pork buns, of course.
But yes, wolf people. Already, Lee and his R&D division (his nieces who were currently helping him test out his new pork bun configurations) were working on a cutting edge, highly experimental, protoype triple-meat pork bun. Already the meat levels were already threatening the delicate balance of the golden bun-sauce ratio. He needed a more balance sauce and doughier dough to stabilize the formula.
Still, though, if they could make it work, they would revolutionize pork bun science for generations!
But that was far into the future.
For now though, he had pork buns to sell, customers to satisfy.
And an pork bun empire to build.
Edit: Belated Merry Christmas everyone! This is just about all I could squeeze this holiday season. Im finishing this off while at the ER. And since there are currently no patients here, im taking it easy.
Still, hope you guys enjoy!
@HeroCooky +100 Pork Bun Market Dominance bonus pls.
My first omake here and the first bits of work in story on the secure protocol.
Goal is that at the end of the first arc of this series(There will be four) the NSA will be bashing their heads against the wall trying to break the security of the protocol.
BUILDING THE GUANGCHOU OF TOMORROW
====================================
Welcome to WeiSoft(TM)
OS version 1.01b
USER ID: kryptos
PASSWORD: ***********
====================================
> MESSAGES
> VIRTUAL FORUM
> DATABASE
> DATA READER
> SETTINGS
> CONTROLLED AREA <<<<<
> EXIT
====================================
WARNING
YOU ARE ACCESSING CONTROLLED INFORMATION
ALL INTERACTION IS LOGGED
ALL UNAUTHORIZED ACTIVITY WILL BE PROSECUTED
ACCESS KEY REQUIRED
ACCESS KEY: ********
====================================
> CONTROLLED AREA
>> WELCOME
>> WEISOFT SECURITY ENHANCEMENTS
>> LONG TERM ENCRYPTED PROTOCOL DESIGN <<<<<
>> WEISOFT AUTHENTICATION DESIGN
>> NETWORK MONITORING
====================================
> SUBJECT >> LONG TERM ENCRYPTED PROTOCOL DESIGN
>
> We have been assembled here to work on a long term secure network protocol for long term use in our networks. This protocol must be secure against highly capable attackers and flexible enough for multiple use cases now and in the future.
> PROJECT LEAD
>
> That's a tall task for us. We can do secure in the near term but we don't have that much experience in designing protocols against a highly capable attacker. The flexibility requirement will be a pain to. Do we have an idea of what's needed in that regard?
PS: Do we need to handle network instability or can we assume that is dealt with already
> LEAD DESIGNER 1
>
> Well, at minium we have to be able to support our current use cases. We have the need handle fixed deployments where we can preload data for bootstrapping the connection. We do have scenarios where we need to establish a secure connection between two nodes without them being preloaded before hand with data for that connection. Right now we are using a somewhat convuluted method in where the two hosts communicate with trusted servers to establish their connection.
> PROTOCOL DESIGNER 1
>
> You can assume that the underlying layer to the protocol will handle network stability and delivery assurance.
> PROJECT LEAD
>
> The first use case is fairly easy. We just preload enough key material to both encrypt and add an authentication code to each packet onto both nodes. The cryptography for that is fairly simple and the security would only rely on the cryptographic algorithms we use. The second is a pain however. While our current method allow us to create secure connections between two nodes that were not aware of each other before hand, it requires a complex architecture that has to be available at the time of the handshake and takes a while to complete. Good luck if the infrastructure breaks doing that process.
> CRYPTOGRAPHY DESIGNER 1
>
> You don't have to tell me how painful that is. I had to deal with that situation when troubleshooting some problems with a site's secure computer's connection problems. It's a pain to get all the servers needed working. I've heard some stuff about key exchange algorithms. Couldn't those be used to establish the needed secret key material that would then be used to secure connections in the second scenario?
> PROTOCOL DESIGNER 2
>
> If we assume the attacker won't tamper with the connection at the time of the handshake yes. Key exchange algorithms do protect the generated key material from passive eavesdroppers but the moment the attacker can inject themselves into the entire connection the security breaks. If the attacker can intercept and pose as the other node for both nodes, they can perform the key exchange themselves and gain access to all the secret key material used. The problem there is that we failed to successful authenticate the node we are communicating to.
> CRYPTOGRAPHY DESIGNER 1
>
> Aw shucks. There goes that idea. Are we stuck with having to handle complex infrastructure just to achieve that? It's a pain still and having to manage an ever increasing amount of continuously online trusted servers is a pain in the ass. There should be a way to authenticate the nodes.
> PROTOCOL DESIGNER 2
>
> To my knowledge so far, no. All methods to authenticate entities that I know of require us to use symmetric cryptography which requires a preshared secret. We can do a lot to minimize the size of the preshared secret but it's still needs to be present one way or another.
> CRYPTOGRAPHY DESIGNER 1
>
> You are a bit behind the times though. We do have the RSA cryptosystem which allows us to create signatures using a private key that can be authenticated with knowledge of the public key. The system essentially works like this:
Gen(r)-> K_pub, K_priv
Sign(m, K_priv)->Sig
Verify(m, Sig, K_public)-> True/False
Most notably, the public key can remain public for all to see. So long as the associated private key to the public key remains secure, the signatures can be trusted to come from the holder of the private key. If you trust the public key(and by proxy the signer), you can trust the signatures. Most notably, no one else can forge the signatures and verification does not required a preshared secret.
> CRYPTOGRAPHY DESIGNER 2
>
> Great, so we can make use of that then? I'm thinking a general handshake like:
Node 1:
Connect request
Key exchange
Signature
Node 2:
Key exchange
Signature
Node 1:
Check connection(use a MAC with the generated key)
Node 2:
Check connection(use a MAC with the generated key)
Does this look okay as a starting point?
> PROTOCOL DESIGNER 2
>
> Looks good to me so far. We will need to work on the actual specifications more before we can say it's secure though. And we need to work on getting the needed public keys and handling public/private key pairs. I think I can reuse some of my previous work on this from another project though.
> CRYPTOGRAPHY DESIGNER 2
>
> I've asked the higher ups about this and they require us to also support cryptographic algorithm negotiation. They need it due to concerns on the computational burden of some of the cryptosystems that you all have proposed for the protocol and some of them want to be able to use preshared keys anyways.
> PROJECT LEAD
>
> That shouldn't be too hard right? Worst case scenario we need two more packets before the original handshake design. One for the intiating node's proposed cryptosuite, the other for the responding node's selection. We then just use the selected cryptosuite in the handshake. We can also help support the preshared key mode by creating dummy versions of the signature and key exchange portions of the handshake packet, making it easy to integrate into the overall protocol.
> PROTOCOL DESIGNER 2
>
> Already working on integrating that into the preliminary spec for the protocol. BTW, what are we calling it?
> PROTOCOL DESIGNER 1
>
> Secure connection layer? That's basically what we are making here. We don't need to worry about network problems and only handle the security of the connection.
Also can you guys take a look at the current spec? File name is PRELIM_DRAFT_SCL_SPEC_01. If this looks good so far I'll send them over to the validation team to take a look.
> LEAD DESIGNER 1
>
> Looks good to me
> PROTOCOL DESIGNER 1
>
> Same here as well
> CRYPTOGRAPHY DESIGNER 1
>
> Good. Time for us to go through this and look for problems. There has to be some somewhere.
> VALIDATION 1 NARRATOR: There were problems
It turns out there are problems. Comment if you can figure it out. My hint will be to look at real life problems with protocols like TLS 1 and SSLv2/SSLv3. Ignore the ones about cryptographic algorithms though, that'll come up later.
A zoological edutainment book for ages 12 and up about Guangchou fauna.
A book writen by Chiao Meong.
Ilustrated by Juanas Mari.
The Fortress Turtles
Description:
With an average length of 2.5 meters for males and 2.8 m for females, a height of 1.75 m for males, 1.95 for females and with exceptions of both sexes reaching up to 3 meters in length and 2 meters high the fortress turtle it the largest in the world.
Its enormous mass of 1000 to 2300 kg is supported by four elephantine feet, themselves accompanied by a tail (larger in males) and a head at the top of a muscular neck accompanied by a powerful beak,all these appendages are capable of retracting into an extremely thick and solid shell that can be up to 4 cm thick. Life cycle:
Mating occurs at any time of the year, although it does have seasonal peaks between February and June in the humid uplands during the rainy season. When mature males meet in the mating season, they face each other in a ritualised dominance display, rise up on their legs, and stretch up their necks with their mouths gaping open. Occasionally, head-biting occurs, but usually the shorter tortoise backs off, conceding mating rights to the victor,it is strongly advised to stay away before during and after the mating process.
The prelude to mating can be very aggressive, as the male forcefully rams the female's shell with his own and nips her legs.Mounting is an awkward process and the male must stretch and tense to maintain equilibrium in a slanting position. The concave underside of the male's shell helps him to balance when straddled over the female's shell, and brings his cloacal vent (which houses the penis) closer to the female's dilated cloaca. During mating, the male vocalises with hoarse bellows and grunts, described as "rhythmic groans". This is one of the few vocalisations the tortoise makes; other noises are made during aggressive encounters, when struggling to right themselves, and hissing as they withdraw into their shells due to the forceful expulsion of air.
Females journey up to nesting areas of dry, sandy coast. Nest digging is a tiring and elaborate task which may take the female several hours a day over many days to complete. It is carried out blindly using only the hind legs to dig a 80 cm deep cylindrical hole, in which the tortoise then lays up to 16 spherical, hard-shelled eggs ranging from 1 to 1.8 kg in mass,and the size of a voleyball.The female makes a muddy plug for the nest hole out of soil mixed with urine, seals the nest by pressing down firmly with her plastron, and leaves them to be incubated by the sun. Females may lay one to four clutches per season. Temperature plays a role in the sex of the hatchlings, with lower-temperature nests producing more males and higher-temperature nests producing more females. This is related closely to incubation time, since clutches laid early incubate during the cool season and have longer incubation periods (producing more males), while eggs laid later incubate for a shorter period in the hot season (producing more females).
Young animals emerge from the nest after four to eight months and may weigh only 400 g and measure 10 cm.When the young tortoises emerge from their shells, they must dig their way to the surface, which can take several weeks, though their yolk sac can sustain them up to seven months.In particularly dry conditions, the hatchlings may die underground if they are encased by hardened soil, while flooding of the nest area can drown them. The young stay in warmer lowland areas for their first 10–15 years,encountering hazards such as falling into cracks, being crushed by falling rocks,being eaten or excessive heat stress.
Sexual maturity is reached at around 40 years. Life expectancy in the wild is thought to be over 300 years,making it one of the longest-lived subspecies in the animal kingdom. Senses:
They make use of vision to find food and mates, avoid predators, and orient themselves. The retina's light-sensitive cells include both rods for vision in low light, and cones with three different photopigments for bright light, where they have full-color vision. There is possibly a fourth type of cone that detects ultraviolets, as hatchling sea turtles respond experimentally to ultraviolet light, but it is unknown if they can distinguish this from longer wavelengths.
Turtles have no ear openings; the eardrum is covered with scales and encircled by a bony otic capsule, which is absent in other reptiles. Their hearing thresholds are high in comparison to other reptiles, reaching up to 500 Hz in air, but underwater they are more attuned to lower frequencies.
They have olfactory (smell) and vomeronasal receptors along the nasal cavity, the latter of which are used to detect chemical signals. Experiments showed they could learn to respond to a selection of different odorant chemicals such as triethylamine and cinnamaldehyde, which were detected by olfaction in the nose. Such signals could be used in navigation Habitats/routine:
The tortoises are ectothermic (cold-blooded), so they bask for 1–2 hours after dawn to absorb the sun's heat through their dark shells before actively foraging for 8–9 hours a day.They travel mostly in the early morning or late afternoon between resting and grazing areas.
On the larger and more humid islands, the tortoises seasonally migrate between low elevations, which become grassy plains in the wet season, and meadowed areas of higher elevation 650 m in the dry season. The same routes have been used for many generations, creating well-defined paths through the undergrowth known as "tortoise highways". On these wetter islands, the domed tortoises are gregarious and often found in large herds,disturbing said herds is not recommended.
Tortoises sometimes rest in mud wallows or rain-formed pools, which may be both a thermoregulatory response during cool nights, and a protection from parasites such as mosquitoes and ticks. Parasites are countered by taking dust baths in loose soil. Some tortoises have been noted to shelter at night under overhanging rocks. Others have been observed sleeping in a snug depression in the earth or brush called a "pallet". Local tortoises using the same pallet sites, such as on Volcán Alcedo, results in the formation of small, sandy pits.
Predators:
Apart from man, the only real predators of theadult fortress tortoise are parasites, some marine animals quick enough to surprise and decapitate a turtle before it can return to its shell and possible large predators and packs of hunters in despair,the largest cause of mortality in adults beyond normal healt problems are accidents mostly falling down precipices.
For the young a variety of animals too large to be named (mostly birds) consider them as preys. Food:
They are herbivores feeding on cacti, grasses, leaves,coconuts, lichens, algae, berries, melons, oranges and milkweed. They have been documented feeding on a surprising variety of poisonous and poisonous plants. Juveniles eat an average of 16.7% of their own weight in dry matter per day, with digestive efficiency roughly equal to that of hindgut-fermenting herbivorous mammals such as horses and rhinoceroses,however, they will not say no to a carcass if they find one.
They get most of their humidity from dew and sap from vegetation, so they can survive more than 6 months without water. They can survive for up to a year when deprived of all food and water, surviving by breaking down their body fat to produce water as a byproduct. They also have a very slow metabolism. When thirsty, they can drink large quantities of water very quickly, storing it in their bladder and the "root of the neck" (the pericardium). In arid times, turtles lick the morning dew off the rocks, and the repeated action over several generations has formed half-spherical depressions in the rock. Interesting anecdotes:
They share a mutualistic relationship with some subspecies of birds. The birds benefit from the food source and the tortoises get rid of irritating ectoparasites.
Small groups initiate the process by hopping on the ground in an exaggerated fashion facing the tortoise. The tortoise signals it is ready by rising up and extending its neck and legs, enabling the birds to reach otherwise inaccessible spots on the tortoise's body such as the neck, rear legs, cloacal opening, and skin between plastron and carapace.
They love coconuts, it's their favorite treat gnawing the outer flesh before cracking the nut in their beak to devour the sweet flesh inside.
The bite of the fortress turtle is one of the most powerful in existence, whether per square centimeter or in total.
They owe their affectionate name "nutcraker of heroes" because of their appearances in the legend of Hwa Guo The Virile, it is said that after winning the annual aquatic quadriathlon competition of his tribe for the twelfth time Hwa decided to rested naked in the breeze of a beach in the shade of a pandanus tree, while he slept an old fortress turtle washed up on the beach and came in search of food, Hwa's tanned skin melted well with the shell added to the poor eyesight of the elderly turtle made it price its genitals for a pair of coconuts (the name of "The virile" did not come from nowhere), it is said that the howl of Hwa was heard across the entire Chinese sea and beyond, since that day Hwa distrusted the turtles, began to headbutt those who called him "half manly" and protected his remaining nut with a langot in all time.
Geologists believe that a particularly violent volcanic tremor took place at this time in the life of the historic Hwa, which would explain the exaggeration of the cries.
It descends from Megalochelys ("great turtle") a giant turtle specie which lived in western India and Pakistan (possibly even as far west as southern and eastern Europe) to as far east as Sulawesi and Timor in Indonesia, during the Miocene to Pleistocene is suspected to have migrated to Guangzhou from Indonesia during the end of the Pleitocene.
Every year it is a tradition in the villages located near turtles to apate fortresses, some with coconuts before covering them with wreaths of flowers and painting them with various symbols representing stories, the local villages, the people who painted it, their ancestors, etc.
Although nothing other than non-harmful dyes made from flowers and soils has been used for milainaires a recent amendment to the law against cruelty to animals has been put in place prohibiting the use of anything other than said natural dye put an end to the beginning of certain unhealthy drifts with industrial paint sprays.
There have been some attempts throughout history to mount the Fortress Turtles but they have been abandoned for anything beyond stupid and often drunken bets due to the dangerousness of the thing, the slowness of the animal and the obvious discomfort and distress caused to the turtles much loved by the residents of Guangchou.
During the period of the British embassy a certain number of English people thought of hunting the animals for trophies, exhibition animals and other nonsense, the thing was very quickly banned given the extreme hostility caused among the local inhabitants and the high mortality among the "hunters" in fact those who were very often mortally surprised to learn that the threatened fortress turtle can charge over a short period of time and that it can extend its neck to bite in less than a second,the most interesting skulls have been preserved at the Guangchou Museum of Natural History and serve as a warning to potential adventurous turtle riders and hunters by showing how many of a skull a fortress turtle can cut in one bite.
Also known by its Latin name "Saxum movens" which translates to "moving rock", so named because of the naturalist scientist Edmond Woodward who accompanied the first British expedition to Guangchou, Edmond while resting on the beach was very surprised when the rock on which he was leaning decided to get up and walk towards the sea. One done three to go before the next set,as i said more work than i thought but i think it's at least not too bad.
I would be happy to hear any constructive critisism or modification suggestion if i missed something or got it wrong.
Hope you like it.
Description:
The glaucous macaw is (with a few exceptions due to diseases or genetic and statistical anomalies) between 66 and 72 cm long with an average of 70 cm for a weight of around 800 grams on average. To the human eye male and female look similar with mostly pale turquoise-blue with a large, greyish head but for them and any other species capable of seeing ultraviolet they have sexually dimorphic plumage in the UV spectrum with broad stripes on the wings and chest of males and long but thin stripes on the tail and back of females. The term glaucous describes its colouration. It has a long tail and a large bill. It has a yellow, bare eye ring and half moon-shaped lappets bordering the mandible.
The skin of a glaucous macaw is seemingly translucent and thin, it is covered by their feathers. Their skin cells help make up the beak,cere,scales of the legs and feet and claws.
They have between 2400 to 2500 feathers wich assist them in flight, keep them warm, attract potential mates and scare away predators. Small, subtle contour feathers cover the body. These help to insulatethe macaw.They will fluff up their body feathers to intensify insulation and smooth them down to cool off. They will also lift and lower patches of their feathers to show off.
The glaucous macaws has a body consisting of:
Two Zygodactyly (two toes facing forward and two back) clawed legs wich are sufficiently dexterous to be able to use their feet to manipulate food and other objects with a high degree of dexterity,they exhibit "handedness", a distinct preference with regards to the foot used to pick up food, with adult parrots being almost exclusively "left-footed" or "right-footed",the preference between left and right differs from one species to another, in the case of the glaucous macaw it's left which predominates.
A long, pointed feather tail.
A pair of elliptical wings which, thanks to their rounded and shortness, allow for tight maneuvering in confined spaces such as dense vegetation,The wings are also extensions that assist with flight. The wings are compounded for strength. They act as the arm and hand bones of a human, if you will.
And one head comprising:
A curved, broad bill. The upper mandible is prominent, curves downward, and comes to a point. It is not fused to the skull, which allows it to move independently, and contributes to the high biting pressure they are able to exert. A healty glaucous macaw, has an average bite force of 28 kg/cm2 which is needed for breaking into hard seeds and nuts and for excavating their nesting holes in trees and soft rocks. Though rarely used in serious fighting, the beak can be a formidable weapon if a bird feels threatened, and they are capable of killing other birds.The lower mandible is shorter, with a sharp, upward-facing cutting edge, which moves against the flat part of the upper mandible in an anvil-like fashion. Touch receptors occur along the inner edges of the keratinised bill, which are collectively known as the "bill tip organ", allowing for highly dexterous manipulations. They have a strong tongue (containing similar touch receptors to those in the bill tip organ), which helps to manipulate seeds or position nuts in the bill so that the mandibles can apply an appropriate cracking force.
Of two ears holes located below and behind each eye under feathers
And of two eyes positioned high and laterally in the skull, allowing a visual field unique to them and other parrots among the birds. Without turning its head, a glaucous macaw can see from just below its bill tip, all above its head, and quite far behind its head. They also have quite a wide frontal binocular field for a bird, although this is nowhere near as large as primate binocular visual fields. Unlike humans, they are also sensitive to ultraviolet light,the eye is one of their largest organs in size.To aid their survival, bird eyelids were designed so that their vision is not impaired even when they blink!! They have 3 eyelids with the upper and lower eyelids lined with small bristle feathers. The 3rd eyelid, called the nictitating membrane, is used for blinking keeping the eyeball moist and clean. Lying beneath the eyelids on the nostril side, it is transparent and allows them to see when blinking. It has been noted that some birds use this eyelid as safety glasses while flying. They can close this 3rd eyelid while flying!
Life cycle:
The mating season starts at the beginning of the summer rains,at the start of the year with nests constructed in tree cavities or cliff faces depending on the habitat,hollows of sufficient size are only found in trees around 60 years of age or older, and competition is fierce. Existing holes are enlarged and then partially filled with wood chips,then mating season extends up to May, when the young begin to fledge and leave the nest. A pair of glaucous macaw lay two to four eggs per year.The eggs are incubated for approximately 27 days,the male tends to his mate whilst she incubates. Althougt some pairs produce four chicks, the average survival rate is three per pair. However,even if most do ther is pairs of birds in the wild population who don't mate often or at all. The young remain with their parents for up to a year. Juveniles reach sexual maturity around 3–4 years of age.The average lifespan is 46 to 49 years.
A female bones become denser during breeding time. This is to enable her to store the calcium needed to create eggshells. A female's skeleton can weigh up to 20 percent more during breeding season due to calcium storage, then the rest of the time. Senses:
They have a keen sense of sight,with eyes having all of the cones that allow them to see the colors of the spectrum. In addition, they have a fourth cone making them able to see in the UV range, they can recognize details and to tell the difference in colors.
They also have an acute sense of touch. Parrots will use their feet and their mouths to touch their surroundings, to play, and to determine what is safe to perch on or chew on or eat. You will notice this behavior quite frequently if you watch them. They are discovering and examining objects just as a human would use their hands.
The glaucous ears are located below and behind each eye.Their ears appear as holes. Parrots in general are known to have the capability to recognize sound waves and determine where the sound is coming from. However, birds seem to be less receptive to higher and lower pitch.
The heare holes of the macaw are protected under special fine feathers wich cut down on wind noise These feathers deaden the howl of the wind as it rushes past their ears and allows them to hear other sounds that might be more important. These special feathers work just like the black foam you see covering a microphone. The end result is that Parrots and most other birds can hear just about as well (or even better) than we can.
A parrot's hearing is not so much more sensitive than ours as it is more detailed. They hear things differently than we do. For instance, where we might only perceive a single tone of sound, they will hear several.
The glaucous macaw sense of smell is theorized to be limited since they don't have a lot of receptors for scent. but their taste buds are also limited compared to ours. However we certainly see Parrots respond eagerly to foods they appear to like, so it is possible that the few ones they have are very effective or that we have not yet found all of them, this is something that is still being studied by the zoologists.
Habitats/routine:
It prefers semi-open, somewhat wooded habitats. It usually avoids dense, humid forest, and in regions dominated by such habitats, it is generally restricted to the edge or relatively open sections (e.g. along major rivers). In different areas of their range, these parrots are found in savannah grasslands, in dry thorn forests known as caatinga, and in palm stands or swamps,areas including seasonally inundated savannas, wetlands and anthropogenic areas habitats interspersed with a mosaic of savannas, are good indicators for the presence of the macaws.
Predators:
Beyond the poachers, the predators of the glaucous macaw are numerous, the false vampire bats, certain felines and raptors are the most common with more rarely monkeys and snakes.
Food:
The primary diet of Glaucous macaw are the nuts but seeds are also eaten, as well as flowers and fruits.
The macaw usually forages in groups. They preferentially feed on the palms and trees who grow in groves, mixed together with taller trees. A tall tree is selected by the flock as base to carefully inspect the feeding area. First a pair descends to the level of the palms to assess the suitability, the pair then returns to base, and then the entire flock descends to decide if it is worth staying around. If it is, then the macaws generally feed directly at the site, tearing the fibrous pulp off the fruit to obtain the extremely hard and thick-shelled nut. The pulp is often discarded while trying to get the cores as fast as possible. The heavy bills appear to have evolved specifically to crack open the palm nuts with a chisel-shaped edge, being precisely of the correct size and shape. Upon occasion the birds maw fly off to a better perch to consume the nut, sometimes even carrying a branchlet with a few fruit. Such perches are generally a branch of a tall tree or a cliff face, and the ground below such a perch will become littered with piles of cracked palm nut shells, and are thus easily spotted.
The glauous macaw serve as pollinators for several species of large-fruited trees.Indeed macaws are very messy eaters,and this species is no different. A study found a significant number of undamaged palm nuts on the ground below the branches or rocks where the birds occasionally carry their harvest.
A method by which the birds may secondarily disperse the nuts is by their habit of coming down to the ground to search out the nuts regurgitated by cattle, which eat the fruit, but usually cough up the large seeds, cleaned of pulp, which often aggregate in areas where the ruminants rest, and some also appear to be viable after this ordeal. Flocks of Lear's macaws will congregate at cattle corrals and walk around on the bare ground of rumination sites. After finding one, the regurgitated nut is often eaten on a high perch elsewhere.
Interesting anecdotes:
Their latin name is "Anodorhynchus glaucus"
They cannot sweat because they do not have sweat glands. For this reason they must find a way to keep themselves cool. If you notice them holding their wings away from their body with mouth open, curling their tongue, this is a normal behavior to help keep cool.
They are greatly appreciated by the inhabitants of Guangchou for their endearing habit of reproducing sounds,their love of cuddling and their beauty,poacher learned that the hard way.
They have pneumatic bones. These particular bones contain air sacs and in certain cavities of the body. Pneumatic bones help lighten the body and cool them more proficiently. You must always handle a bird carefully because some bones in the bird are hollow. These hollow bones are much lighter making it easier for flight but because they are hollow it makes them more vulnerable to break.
These birds are said to have inspired the japanese poet Kobayashi Issa to write a haiku about them:
"Calm break of the day
before blue glaucous macaw
betrayed by the tea"
the haiku is said to have been inspired by a visit he made to guagchou in his youth when he worked for a shipping company in tokyo, while he was having morning tea he was surprised to find in his cup a leftover droppings by one of the glaucous macaws who were sitting above the terrace.
They have ten neck vertebrae,this makes a parrot's neck more mobile. A parrot can turn its head almost 180 degrees, looking over its shoulder. In the wild this gives the bird an advantage in spotting food and/or predators and to scare peoples who are not used to it.
Glaucous macaws were introduced into Guangzhou in 1832 from northern Argentina by a South American trader, the second daughter of the British diplomat of the time Ada Aworth had fallen in love with them, finding them magnificent and amusing, the trader smelled a good potential deal and successfully negotiated with the father after that during the following trips he brought several cages, enough for a viable breeding population, over time enough escaped to create a thriving breeding population in the Guang Islands to the point that it was decided that there was no real reason to keep them in an aviary when the trees in the garden (which produced nuts that birds are very fond of) had a handful each on their branches.
They were released in an event now remembered as "the great blue wind" which was immortalized in painting by the artist Haru Dae
The respiratory system is extremely efficient and sensitive. Although it is capable at exchanging gases in the system, two complete breaths are required to do the same work that a single breath does in people; because of this you may observe your parrot breathing quickly, this is normal behavior.
Currently considered extinct or almost extinct in their native South America, the Guangchou population is the last known with certainty in the world. Repopulation projects in South America with breeding pairs of Guangchou are being studied at the diplomatic level.
I would be happy to hear any constructive critisism or modification suggestion if i missed something or got it wrong.
Hope you like it.
Description:
This raptor has short broad wings and a long tail, both adaptations to manoeuvring through trees. It is 28–37 cm in length and 70-78 cm of windspan for the males and 30-40 cm/75-82 cm for the female making it a small-sized raptor. The larger size and a crest, clearly visible in profile, are the best distinctions from its relative, the Besra.
The male has a dark brown crown, grey head sides and black moustachial and throat stripes. The pale underparts are patterned with rufous streaks on the breast and bars on the belly. The larger female has a browner head and brown underpart streaks and bars. The juvenile has pale fringes to its head feathers, and the underpart background colour is buff rather than white.Individuals that live a long life may gradually become paler as they age, manifesting in mottling and a lightening of the back from a darker shade to a parchment pale color,juveniles have pale-yellow eyes while adults typically develop orange-colored eyes, though some may have only brighter yellow or occasionally ochre or brownish eye color.
The flight is a characteristic "slow flap, slow flap, straight glide", similar to other Accipiter species such as the northern goshawk.
Life cycle:
Adult goshawks return to their breeding grounds usually between March and April.Courtship flights typical are above the canopy on sunny, relatively windless days in early spring. Display flights not infrequently escalate into an undulating flight, similar to a wood pigeon but with sharper turns and descents, and are sometimes embellished with sky-dives that can cover over 200 m . One study found undulating display flights more than three times more often done by males than females. After display flights have concluded, the male typically brings a prepared fresh prey item to the female as part of the courtship. In general, these displays are presumably to show (or reinforce) to the potential mate their health and prowess as breeding partner. Copulation is brief and frequent, ranging up to nearly 520 times per clutch (on average about 10 times a day or 100-300 throughout the season), and may be the male's way of ensuring paternity since he is frequently away gathering food by the time of egg-laying, although extra-pair copulation is extremely rare. Female solicits copulations by facing away from male with drooped wings and flared tail-coverts. The male, wings drooped and tail-coverts flared, drops from a branch to gain momentum, then swoops upward and mounts her back. Both birds usually call while mating. Fidelity studies show that about 80–90% of adult females breed with the same male in consecutive years, whereas up to 96% of males mate with the same female in consecutive years.Males intruding are in some cases not evicted and ended up mating with the female, with the male of the pair not stopping it
Nesting areas are indefinite, a nest may be used for several years, also a nest built years prior may be used or an entirely new nest may be constructed. When nest constructing, the pair will often roost together. Males construct most new nests but females may assist somewhat if reinforcing old nests. While the male is building, the female perches in the vicinity, occasionally screaming, sometimes flying to inspect the nest. At other times, the female may take a more active role, or even the primary one, in new nest construction and this is subject to considerable individual variation. For the nesting tree, more than 200 species of conifer have been used leading to believe that any tree with well placed strong branches will be judged as usable. In some areas, the nests may be lined with hard pieces of bark and also with green sprigs of conifers. Often the tallest tree in a given stand is selected as the nest tree and this is often the dominant tree species within the given region and forest. Most nests are constructed under the canopy or near the main fork of a tree , averaging nest height ranged from 5.8 m to 25 m . In the dwarf trees , nests have been found at only 1 to 2 m off the ground, and very rarely on felled trees, stumps or on the ground. In some studies up to 15% of nests are in dead trees. More significant than species is the maturity and height of the nesting tree, its structure (which should have ample surface around the main fork) and, perhaps most significantly, little to no understory below it.
Nests, especially after initial construction, may average between 80 and 120 cm in length and 50 to 70 cm in width, and are around 20 to 25 cm deep. After many uses, a nest can range up to 160 cm across and 120 cm in depth and can weigh up to a ton when wet. They may also adopt nests of other species,but 93% of the nests are built by the goshawks themselves. One particular nest on the southeast coast of guangchou was used continuously by different pairs for a period of 17 years and named "the nest that has been there for a while" by local villager. A single pair may maintain up to several nests, usually up to two will occur in an area of no more than a few hundred meters. One nest may be used in sequential years, but often an alternate is selected. During an study , many alternate nests were used, 27 pairs had two, 10 had 3, 5 had 4, one had five and one pair had as many as 11. The extent of use of alternate nests is unknown as well as their benefit, but they may reduce significant levels of parasites and diseases within the nest.The goshawk's nest area can be as small 1 to 2 ha of woods and less than 10 hectares are commonplace. Nests are not typically found near forest edges, and usually only one active nest occurs per 100 ha , with active nests from different breeding pairs being seldom less than 600 m apart. The most closely spaced active nests by a separate pair on record was 400 m , another case of two active nests 200 m apart in was a possible case of polygamy.
The eggs are laid at 2- to 3-day intervals on average , taking up to 9 days for a clutch of 3–4 and 11 days for a clutch of 5. The eggs are rough, unmarked pale bluish or dirty white.The average dimensions of the eggs are reported at 57.76 to 59.2 mm in height by 44.7 to 45.1 mm in width,weight of the eggs average 59 g with extreme weights of 365 to 75 g. Clutch size almost always averages between 2 and 4 eggs, with a median around 3, rarely as few as 1 or as many 5–6 will be laid. In combination spring weather and prey population levels seem to drive both egg laying dates and clutch size.If an entire clutch is lost, a replacement can be laid within 15 to 30 days.
During incubation, females tend to become quieter and more inconspicuous. The mother can develop a brooding patch of up to 15 by 5 cm on her underside. She may turn the eggs as frequently as every 30 to 60 minutes. Males may incubate as many as 1 to 3 hours, but usually less than an hour, early in incubation but rarely do so later on. During daylight females can do as much as 96% of the observed incubation. The incubation stage last for any time between 28 and 37 days (rarely up to 41 days in exceptionally big clutches), varying in different parts of the range. After hatching occurs, the male does not come directly to the nest but instead just delivers food (usually already plucked, beheaded or otherwise dismembered) to a branch near the nest which the female tears apart and shares between herself and the nestlings. Food deliveries by the male can be daily or as infrequent as every 3 to 5 days. In turn, the female must feed the young about twice a day in order for the chicks to avoid starvation. Caching of food has been recorded near the nest, but only before the young start feeding themselves. Food deliveries must average about 250 to 320 g per young goshawk per day for them to successfully fledge, or 700 to 950 g total daily and 60 to 100 kg throughout the season for an average sized clutch of around three. Females will also start capturing prey later on, but usually only after the young have already fledged. Goshawks often vigorously defend their territories fiercely from all intruders, including passing humans. When the nest is approached (especially soon after hatching) the goshawk will engage in their defensive kakking vocal display accompanied by exaggerated swooping in flight which quickly phases into a violent attack, potentially causing painful (but usually minor,with the exeption of a few people stupid enough for ignoring the warnings and who suffered damage to the skull and sometimes shock due to the sending of rock on their skull, cases of human death are very rare) injuries and blood loss. Research has indicated that attacks on humans are mostly done by adult females (more than 80% of the time) and are rarely pressed unless a person is by themselves. However, large groups and loud noise can appear to irritate the female and may cause her to attack the next lone person who comes near the nest. Occasionally, both males and females have been recorded abandoning the nest and their mates. There are a few rare cases where males successfully reared up to 4 young after the female abandoned the nest or was killed between the 2 and 3rd week. Otherwise male will continue delivering prey but without the female all the nestlings will starve to death and the food simply rots. In cases where the male abandons the female and the brood, she may be able to successfully brood but usually only one nestling is likely to survive to fledge without the male's contribution of prey. At other times the mother may be replaced, sometimes forcefully, by another female, usually an older mature one. Exceptional cases of polygamy, with a male mating with two females, have been reported these breeding attempts fail in 57% of the cases.
Hatching is asynchronous but not completely, usually an average sized clutch takes only 2 to 3 days to hatch, although it may take up to 6 days to hatch a clutch of more than 4 eggs. Hatchlings start calling from within the shell as much as 38 hours before hatching, as a faint chep, chep, chack, peep, peep, peep may be heard. The young are covered with down and altricial (as are all raptors) at first but develop rapidly. Hatchlings measure about 10 cm long at first and grow about 5 to 9 cm in length each week until they fledge. The mothers typically brood the nestlings intensively for about two weeks, around the time grayer feathers start to develop through the nestlings' down. The most key time for development may be at three weeks when the nestlings can stand a bit and start to develop their flight feathers. Also at the three-week stage, they can reach about half the adults' weight and females start to noticeably outgrow the males. However, this growth requires increased food delivery so frequently results in lower nest attendance and, in turn, higher predation rates. Also rates of starvation at this stage can exceed 50% especially in the youngest of large clutches of 4 to 5. Nestlings at four weeks are starting to develop strong flight feathers, which they frequently flap; also they can start to pull on food but are still mainly fed by female and begin to make a whistling scream when she goes to fetch food from the male. More active feeding behavior by nestlings may increase their aggression towards each other. By the 5th week, they have developed many typical goshawk behaviors, sometimes mantling over food, testing balance by extending one leg and one wing at edge of nest (called "warbling" by falconers) and can wag their tails vigorously. Starvation risk also increases at this point due to their growing demands and, due to their incessant begging calls, vocal activity may court predators. In 6th week, they become "branchers", although still spend much of the time by the nest, especially by the edge. The young goshawks "play" by seizing and striking violent at a perch or by yanking off leaves and tossing them over their back. Wing feathers do not develop highly dimorphically, but male branchers are better developed than females who have more growing to do and can leave the nest up to 1–3 days sooner. The young rarely return to the nest after being 35 to 46 days of age and start their first flight another 10 days later, thus becoming full fledglings. Goshawk nestlings frequently engage in "runting", wherein the older siblings push aside and call more loudly and are thus are feed more often at food deliveries, until the younger siblings may either starve to death, be trampled or killed by their siblings (referred to as siblicide or "cainism"). There is some evidence that mother goshawks may lessen the effects of runting by delaying incubation until their last eggs are laid. Food supply may be linked to higher rates of siblicides and, in many locations with consistent prey levels, runting and siblicide can occur somewhat seldom (meaning they are "facultative" rather than "obligate cainist"). Nonetheless, either by predation, starvation or siblicide, few nests produce more than 2 to 3 fledglings.
At about 50 days old, the young goshawks may start hunting on their own but more often eat carrion either provided by parents or biologists. Most fledglings stay within 300 m of the nest at 65 days of age but can wander up to 1 km,it's at this point that they will begin to search fo their own rock, before dispersal at between 65 and 80 days old in sync with the full development of their flight feathers. Between 65 and 90 days after hatching, more or less all young goshawks become independent. There is no evidence that parents aggressively displace the young in the fall (as other raptorial birds have sometimes been reported to do), therefore the young birds seek independence on their own. Goshawk siblings are not cohesive together past 65 days, except for some lingering young females.5% of radio-tagged young (entirely males) were found to disperse to another breeding area and join a different brood as soon as their flight feathers were developed enough. These seem to be cases of moving to a better food area. Parents and adoptive young seem to tolerate this, although parents do not seem to be able to tell the difference between their own and other young. It is only after dispersal that goshawks typically start to hunt and seem to drink more often than older birds, sometimes spend up to an hour bathing.
The lifespan in the wild is variable. It is known that in captivity, northern goshawks may live up to 27 years of age. Wild birds that survive their first two years can expect a lifespan of up to 11 years.There is one record of a 16-year, 4-month-old goshawk.Starvation was found to account for 8-9% of deaths were from starvation,28% of mortality was from disease.Variable numbers of goshawks are killed by flying into man-made objects such as power lines and buildings and by automobiles, although lesser numbers are affected by powerline collisions than larger types of raptor.
Senses:
They,like most birds, are tetrachromats having four types of colour receptors in the eyeallowing them to perceive ultraviolet light. Other adaptations allow for the detection of polarised light or magnetic fields. This is due to the large number of photoreceptors in the retina (up to 1,000,000 per square mm , compared to 200,000 in humans), a high number of nerves connecting these receptors to the brain, and an indented fovea, which magnifies the central portion of the visual field.
Habitats/routine:
The vast majority of the species lives on Guangchou with a small population in Taiwan, on the disputed islands and along the Chinese coast facing Guangchou.
It is primarily a a coastal forest bird bird, and an all-year resident ousite of breeding season when he will leave his personal nest to go to his breeding ground.
Predators:
They get attacked and can be eaten by hawks that are larger, eagles, owls, raccoons, foxes, and snakes. Their position on the food chain keeps them out of reach of most predators. However, hawk eggs and younger hawks who haven't developed full strength can still be gobbled up.
Food:
Like most hawk's their diet is predictable and includes a variety of smaller animals. Some of these small animals include snakes, lizards, fish, mice, rabbits, squirrels,bugs,smaller birds and any other type of small game that is found on the ground,but unlike the other hawks, this one is extremely fond of shellfish and crustaceans.
Like most birds of prey, they are also opportunistic predators and scavengers.
Interesting anecdotes:
The most unique feature of this beautiful bird is undoubtedly its companion stone.
In fact, as soon as the animal has started to move outside the maternal nest it will begin to look for its own companion pebbles, the first companion pebbles of a young one generally do not weigh more than a few tens of grams but that of a adult varies between 0.68-1.58 kg, this practice seems to have been developed as a method for opening shellfish (in the manner of otters) and shells of seafood as well as a means of defence, in fact when in front of a closed shell or a shell that is too solid, the companion pebbles will be used to open it by hitting it (although testimonies of the use of sharp companion pebbles used for slicing remain to be verified).
The companion pebbles can be used for defense by dropping it from a great height or by sending it violently at the skull of any threat, which for a stone companion of an adult can be a significant danger for most animals,fortunately, unless during the brooding period they are more likely to ignore large animals such as humans and even if they decide to attack it will only be after a certain amount of clear warning.
The stone mainly stays in the nest when it is not brought for a hunting or defense trip, when it is carried will most often be carried in a claw although the use of the beak is not too uncommon, rarely the stone will be temporarily left in a hidden area that is difficult to access when the bird thinks that it will need its claws and beak at the same time, often in this type of case it will prefer to bring it back to the nest before returning to its affairs.
Their mating calls have been described by some ornithologists as a painful discordance reminiscent of a subtle blend between the sound of someone scratching a blackboard and that of a domestic accident involving an in-sink food garbage grinder and genitals.
If the target has been stunned by the stone, the bird will try either if it is mad, defending its breeding nest or hungry to shred the weak points of the enemy (throat, eyes, lower abdomen) or if it estimates its chances as bad or is not particularly angry it will try to recover its stone and leave, if it cannot immediately recover its stone it will wait in the surroundings to recover it, some birds have been seen waiting months for an opportunity to recover it their stone because of animals having established their den too close to the stone for him to retrieve it, even establishing a temporary nest.
His scientific name is Lapis omissis avibus and his common name is stone bird.
Once it has become large enough to move on to the next companion stone, the previous one which has become too small will be delicately stored in the raptor's personal nest, in fact a strong affection on the part of these birds seems to exist towards these stones gently shaped over the years of use, given that depressive behavior seems to appear in the event of loss of said stones, this has led to the qualification of the theft of said stones as cruelty towards animals.
Attempts at militarization have taken place throughout history with mixed success, it has proven possible to train the animal to drop metal spikes on a particular target but the training is extremely difficult and it is necessary that the target is dressed in a different way from those around it and that this way corresponds very closely to what the training dummy was wearing, meaning that each bird could only be trained for one type of outfit, after a few decades any attempt at anything other than VIP assassinations was abandoned. I would be happy to hear any constructive critisism or modification suggestion if i missed something or got it wrong.
Hope you like it.
Any thoughts ?
Qm what are the inhabitants of Guangchou called?, Guang? Guangian?,and i would have a few question wich answer would help me with the next animal.
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Fur, Feather, Fin - Six-Legged Floppa - (Non-Canon)
Description:
The Six-Legged Floppa is a slender, moderately large sized cat characterised by a robust build, a short face, long canine teeth, tufted ears, and being the only mammal with six legs wich are long . It reaches 60–70cm at the shoulder. The tan,striped bushy tail extends to the ground. The Six-Legged Floppa is sexually dimorphic; the females are smaller than the males in most bodily parameters.
The prominent facial features include the 6-7-cm-long black tufts on the ears, two black stripes from the forehead to the nose, the black outline of the mouth, the distinctive black facial markings, and the white patches surrounding the eyes and the mouth. The eyes appear to be narrowly open due to the lowered upper eyelid, probably an adaptation to shield the eyes from the sun's glare. The ear tufts may start drooping as the animal ages. The coat is uniformly reddish tan or sandy with tiger like stripes varying from black to dark brown and dark sand, though black Six-Legged Floppa are also known. The underbelly and the insides of the legs are lighter, often with small reddish markings. The fur, soft, short, and dense, grows coarser in the summer. The ground hairs (the basal layer of hair covering the coat) are denser in winter than in summer. The length of the guard hairs (the hair extending above the ground hairs) can be up to 5 cm long in winter, but shorten to 2 cm in summer. These features indicate the onset of moulting in the hot season, typically in October and November. The hind legs and middle legs are longer than the forelegs, so the body appears to be sloping downward from the rump.
Male Six-Legged Floppa measure in head-to-body length 98–128 cm and have 65–77 cm long tails;a studies done on a sample 77 male Six-Legged Floppa ranged their weight between 8.2 and 27 kg . The head-to-body length of females is 91–123 cm with a tail of 57–68 cm ;the same study as above but donne on 63 females ranged their weight between 7.9 and 21.9 kg .
The skull of the Six-Legged Floppa is high and rounded, featuring large auditory bullae, a well-developed supraoccipital crest normal to the sagittal crest, and a strong lower jaw. The Six-Legged Floppa has a total of 30 teeth; the dental formula is 3.1.3.1/3.1.2.1. The deciduous dentition is 3.1.2/3.1.2. The canines are up to 5.2 cm long and sharp. The Six-Legged Floppa lacks the second upper premolars, and the upper molars are diminutive. The large paws have four digits in the hind and middle legs and five in the fore legs. The first digit of the fore leg remains above the ground and features the dewclaw. The sharp and retractile claws are larger but less curved in the hind legs.
Life cycle:
Both sexes become sexually mature by the time they are a year old; production of gametes begins even earlier at seven to ten months. However, first successful mating takes place only at 12 to 15 months. Breeding takes place throughout the year. Oestrus, one to three days long, recurs every two weeks unless the female is pregnant. Females in oestrus show a spike in urine-marking, and form temporary pairs with males. Mating has not been extensively studied; a limited number of observations suggest that the female typically mates with several males over the course of a number of days. In some areas, males have been observed to fight aggressively for access to females and to remain with one for several days to guard against rivals; in others, they appear to be less protective. Copulation can last from ninety seconds to ten minutes with four minutes as the average, it begins with the male smelling the areas urine-marked by the female, which then rolls on the ground. Following this, the male approaches and mounts the female. The pair separate after copulation.
Gestation lasts about two to three months, following which a litter consisting of one to six kittens is born. Births generally peak from October to February. Births take place in dense vegetation or deserted burrows. Kittens are born with their eyes and ears shut and the claws not retractable (unable to be drawn inside); the coat resembles that of adults, but the abdomen is spotted. Eyes open by ten days, but it takes longer for the vision to become normal. The ears become erect and the claws become retractable by the third or the fourth week. Around the same time, the kittens start roaming their birthplace, and start playing among themselves by the fifth or the sixth week. They begin taking solid food around the same time; they have to wait for nearly three months before they make their first kill. As the kittens start moving about by themselves, the mother starts shifting them every day. All the milk teeth appear in 50 days, and permanent dentition is completed in 10 months. Juveniles begin dispersing at nine to ten months, though a few females stay back with their mothers. The average lifespan of the caracal in captivity is nearly 16 years.
Six-Legged Floppa have been seen spontaneously mated with other kinds of felines , resulting in a felid hybrid offspring,this is mostly seen in captivity when no ther six-legged floppa is avilable for reproduction.
Its life expectancy in the wild is 12 years, and 17 years in captivity.
Senses:
Six-Legged Floppa use a lot their superb hearing to survive. Hunting over vast open distances, it is essential that they be able to hear the squeaks and chirps of their prey so they know which direction to go,they uses 20 muscles – in three distinct groups – to independently control each of their large tufted ears. They act as super sensitive parabolic sound antennas, and the long tufts at the tips are thought to enhance their hearing by funneling sounds into the ears.
The pupils of a caracal's eyes contract to form circles rather than the slits found in most small cats.
They also have excellent vision day and night with one particularity, the color of their eyes varies from dark blood red to golden yellow.
Habitats/routine:
The six-legged floppa is typically nocturnal, though some activity may be observed during the day as well. However, the cat is so secretive,stealthy and difficult to observe that if he don't want to be noticed then its activity at daytime are realy hard to notice and can be easily go unnoticed and his night activity are worst. A study showed that six-legged floppa are most active when the air temperature drops below 20 °C ; activity typically ceases at higher temperatures. A solitary cat, the six-legged floppa mainly occurs alone or in pairs; the only groups seen are of mothers with their offspring and hunting groups which form spontaneously during periods of severe famine where they will group together to increase their chance of capturing prey and will separate as soon as the famine is over. Females in oestrus temporarily pair with males. A territorial animal, the six-legged floppa marks rocks and vegetation in its territory with urine and often with dung, which is not covered with soil. Claw scratching is prominent, and dung middens are typically not formed. Males are found to have territories averaging 22 km2 , while that of females averaged 5,7 km2. The male territories vary from 19-220 km2, the females teritory vary between 5 and 57 km2 . These territories overlap extensively. The conspicuous ear tufts and the facial markings often serve as a method of visual communication; caracals have been observed interacting with each other by moving the head from side to side so that the tufts flicker rapidly. Like other cats, the caracal meows, growls, hisses, spits, and purrs.
Its chief habitat is dry steppes and semideserts, but it also inhabits woodlands, savannah, and scrub forest. They generally prefer open country, so long as there is sufficient cover, in the form of bushes and rocks, from which to ambush prey,although very rugged regions which allow them to deploy all the efficiency of their six legs in climbing and jumping are also very appreciated.
The six legged floppa is unique to Guangchou.
Predators:
where the threats to Six-Legged Floppa populations vary in extent.Beyond rare diseases,fighting another predator,getting crushed by a too large prey and acident the greatest danger for the life of a Six-Legged Floppa is human.
Majorly getting killed by herders in retaliation for livestock losses. Guarding techniques and sheds are inadequate to protect small livestock like goats and sheep from being attacked by predators as agile as them. Additionally heavy-traffic roads crossing caracal habitat pose a potential threat for the species,some poaching also happen the unique appearance of the animal making it highly prized as a pet and trophy especialy .
Food:
A carnivore, the Six-Legged Floppa typically preys upon small mammals and birds,althought if a weak prey is spotted something larger will be devoured without hesitation, like almost all carnivores, they are opportunistic predators and scavengers . Mammals generally comprise at least 80% of its diet, and it may also target larger antelopes . The remaining percentage is made up of lizards, snakes and insects. Rodents comprise a significant portion of its diet in some part of the country. It feeds on a variety of sources, but tend to focus on the most abundant one.They have been documented preying on small livestock during time of despair in areas where sheep and goat are farmed. Livestock is however only a small and seasonal portion of their diet when wild prey is scarce. Occasionally, it consumes grasses and grapes, which help to clear the immune system and stomach of any parasites.
The Six-Legged Floppa speed and agility make it an efficient hunter, able to take down prey two to three times its size. It is best known for its spectacular skill at hunting birds, able to snatch a bird in flight sometimes more than one at a time,thanks to his hind and middle legs wich allow it to leap more than 6 m in the air. It can jump and climb exceptionally well, which enables it to catch mountain prey better than probably any other carnivore. If no cover is available in which to conceal itself, a caracal may flatten itself against the ground and remain motionless, allowing its coat colour to act as camouflage. to catch birds on the wing. It can even twist and change its direction mid-air. It is an if not the best climbing mammal in the world thanks to its 6 legs. It stalks its prey until it is within 10 m , following which it can launch into a sprint or a leap. While large prey such as antelopes are suffocated by a throat bite, smaller prey are killed by a bite on the back of the neck. Kills are consumed immediately, and less commonly dragged to cover. It returns to large kills if undisturbed. It has been observed to begin feeding on antelope kills at the hind parts. It may scavenge at times, though this has not been frequently observed.
The Six-Legged Floppa may survive without drinking for a long period — the water demand is satisfied with the body fluids of its prey.
Interesting anecdotes:
His scientific name "sex pedibus fabula" who traduce in "six legged myth"comes from the fact that scientists searched for several decades before having conclusive proof of its existence and several more (totaling 120 years) before finally capturing individuals and finding a population to study,the reason for this relentlessness (to the great hilarity of the locals who knew where to find them and in advice as pets sometimes but said nothing to avoid wasting good entertainment, so as not to disappoint the researcher who seemed so determined to have pierced the mystery themselves and because many of these scientists and adventurers were huge condescending assholes) is the strong and persistent presence of legends about them in a large part of Asia, giving them an aura of mystery and magnificence, effectively advancing them in the search for floppa was followed internationally with a certain interest.
Unlike all the other vertebrates which descend from the Tiktaalik the six legged floppa would descend from another species of poison which would have come out of the sea and which would have had six swimmers rather than the four from the Tiktaalik this poison would have over hundreds of millions of years evolved in one of the most incredible cases of convergent evolution to become something very, very close to other mammals to the point of being very often classified with them.
An ancient legend spread throughout Asia says that thousands of years ago a duo of mischievious caracals annoyed a goddess (her name varies depending on the version of the legend), they played prank after prank on her for weeks before finally after an ear full of sap she didn't catch them anymore, she was furious she took one by the tail to slap the other, she started again several times and with so much force due to anger and lack of control due to 6 days without sleeping as the two fusinated together in a strange six legged animal she found the idea amusing and decided that as a final punishment she would made sure that this would breed through in their offspring,joke on her the legend say that she failed to account that this would result in their mischiev to be squared and not merely doubled the two caracal now only one decided that this new form pleased him and continued his prank a little before leaving found a place to live, this resulted in very numerous cultures of Asia having among their pantheon a pranking six-legged feline divinity who resides on a mysterious series of islands called guangchou by the locals themselves very strange.
This would have greatly contributed to Guangchou's very unique reputation.
Due to its unique evolution, the flopa is genetically quite different from other mammals, making disease transmission extremely rare.
Archaeologists from all over the world seem to want to start excavations on Guangchou, the idea of being the first to find the fossil of a new branch of life seems very enticing.
It is a fairly domesticable animal although requiring a certain adaptation, they are very playful and cuddly if they like you or are even neutral towards you but they ostensibly ignore those they do not like slightly but have not harmed them, on the other hand, they are completely unlivable with those they really don't like and they have a very long memory.
Nobody engaged with this except for one person in the thread. Anyways, the problem here is a little tiny issue called a downgrade attack. Even if you are starting off with a secure protocol version, if you do not have measures that make it impossible to discretely modify the parameters of the connection or prevent a downgrade from happening(ie coerced via compatability/fallback logic), you will run into problems in the future when upgrades to the protocol is made.
BUILDING THE GUANGCHOU OF TOMORROW
====================================
Welcome to WeiSoft(TM)
OS version 1.01c
USER ID: kryptos
PASSWORD: ***********
====================================
> MESSAGES
> VIRTUAL FORUM
> DATABASE
> DATA READER
> SETTINGS
> CONTROLLED AREA <<<<<
> EXIT
====================================
WARNING
YOU ARE ACCESSING CONTROLLED INFORMATION
ALL INTERACTION IS LOGGED
ALL UNAUTHORIZED ACTIVITY WILL BE PROSECUTED
ACCESS KEY REQUIRED
ACCESS KEY: ********
====================================
> CONTROLLED AREA
>> WELCOME
>> WEISOFT SECURITY HARDENING GUIDELINE DRAFT
>> LONG TERM ENCRYPTED PROTOCOL DESIGN <<<<<
>> WEISOFT CREDENTIAL VERIFICATION HARDENING
>> ANTIMALWARE TECHNOLOGY THREAD
====================================
> SUBJECT >> LONG TERM ENCRYPTED PROTOCOL DESIGN
>
> Okay, there's a problem here in the initial design. It has to do with how the protocol selects the cryptosystem used in the connection. Let us assume first that in the future one of the cryptosystems that is offered in the protocol turns out to be insecure for whatever reason against the attacker. The attacker can guarantee that the nodes using the protocol will either use that cryptosuite or fail to connect at all by intercepting and sending fake cryptosuite negotiation packets. The attack looks like the following:
Node 1:
Negotiate Secure cryptosuite
Attacker:
Drops Negotiate Secure cryptosuite
Sends Negotiate Insecure cryptosuite(Force protocol downgrade or compatibility modes if needed)
Node 2:
Send accept insecure cryptosuite
OR
Reject(and get DOSd)
Attacker:
Relay accept or rewrite it to have the effect of accept(ie secure cryptosuite unsupported, try insecure cryptosuite)
Node 1 and Node 2 ends up using the insecure cryptosuite
I see one of two ways to fully fix this:
Force the use of trusted signatures by both nodes for the negotiation process(gets complicated and not always practical)
Force the connection to include the entire handshake in the derivation of the secret key used.
Some mitigations would be to drop support for insecure cryptosuites when they are known to be insufficiently secure on both ends of the connection or to fix the allowed cryptosuites in deployment. In theory if you allow for backwards compatibility with these mitigations and the insecure cryptosuites is allowed initially in the deployment however, the attacker can tamper with the negotiation in order to coerce the backwards compatibility behavior and still force the use of the insecure cryptosuites.
> VALIDATION 1
>
> Forcing the use of the trusted signatures in the process will be a problem. We already have to deal with up to two signature generation and verifications in the handshake proper, requiring two more could become problematic. Asymmetric cryptography is expensive for us. Future enhancements in regards to computing power would change this but the protocol needs to be usable by now, not in the future.
> LEAD DESIGNER 2
>
> I think we could look into mixing in the connection state into the derived key from the handshake. That only requires a hash right? I think?
> PROTOCOL DESIGNER 1
>
> You could but we've been working on a specialized key derivation function standard that would make things easier. It would also help strengthen the use of cryptography elsewhere as well. It's fun working on this. I get to stretch and work on stuff that'll become standards in the long run.
> CRYPTOGRAPHY DESIGNER 1
>
> What do we need to mix into the secret key derivation process? I assume just the proposed and selected cryptosuites right? The less data/state we have to handle in the protocol the easier it is to implement securely and deploy.
> PROTOCOL DESIGNER 2
>
> Honestly, what you need to mix is all the information that the attacker could use to mount a downgrade attack. The inclusion of both the proposed cryptosuites and the selected one is a good start. However, if we ever create new versions of the protocol(which we likely will do) and the protocol version information is used to determine what cryptosuite may be used (it likely will), we will also need to include that. I'd say we mix the offered cryptosuites, selected cryptosuite, and versions advertised by both nodes. If any of that information gets tampered with, both nodes will derive different connection keys and the finalize messages will fail to be validated, aborting the connection(and blocking the attack). If we ever add more information into the protocol's cryptosuite negotiation process, things will get more complicated however.
> VALIDATOR 1
>
> Got it. Amending the high level design of the protocol. It'll be a pain to integrate though.
> PROTOCOL DESIGNER 1
>
> Not necessarily. I think your problem is when it comes to the mixing of the data right? The key derivation function should allow for online computation so you don't even need to persist that much information for the connection state. You'll just end up starting the computation earlier than expected.
> VALIDATION 1
>
> Huh, never thought of that. Good idea for when we implement the standard then.
> PROTOCOL DESIGNER 1
>
> Hey, I'm here to help, not tear down the entire design process. Anyways, we need to start working on finalizing the protocol specifics. I need to see how all of you will instantiate my recommendations.
> VALIDATOR 1
>
> So far the overall process goes like this: Initiator sends a packet stating the connection protocol version and offers cryptographic algorithms. The responder sends back a packet selecting an acceptable to both parties selection. Both sides then send a key exchange message to each other and then derive the secret key. The secret key is a mix of the authenticated key exchange message, the protocol version used, the offered cryptographic algorithms by the initiator, and the selected cryptosuite by the responder. We then verify that both sides have the same key by computing the MVC on the hash of the message transcript.
> PROTOCOL DESIGNER 2
>
> Looks good to me so far. Meet up tomorrow so that we can take a closer look at the standard then?
> VALIDATOR 1
>
> Sure!
> VALIDATOR 1
In real life, the ability to modify the parameters selected by one or both parties to the other party is a genuine point of vulnerability. For example, LOGJAM is a combined cryptographic and protocol attack against TLS. The first phase involves precomputation for attacking commonly used Finite Field Diffie Hellman key exchange parameters with a modulus size of 512 bits (but up to 1024 bits if we are dealing with well resourced attackers). Next, the attacker performs an MITM attack on the targeted connection and corrupts the client's available cryptosuites to only support export grade(512) key exchanges. If the server accepts this, both sides will then use the weak key exchange. The attacker captures this key exchange and completes the cryptographic attack using precomputed data from earlier while also keeping the connection alive long enough. Once the key is recovered, the attacker then uses it to rewrite the finalize message(which contains a hash of the entire handshake) to prevent both sides from realizing that tampering occurred. However, if we hash the relevant information into the key, even if the messages are rewritten, both sides will fail to generate the same key(because both sides received and sent different handshake messages).
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