David ben Solomon (Shlomo) ben Seligman Gans (German: David ben Salomon ben Seligmann Gans; also Ganz; Hebrew: דָּוִד בֶּן שְׁלֹמֹה גנז‎; 1541, Lippstadt - 25 August 1613, Prague) was a Jewish mathematician, historian, astronomer, astrologer, and is best known for the works Tzemach David (1592) and Nechmad ve'naim.

He was born in Lippstadt, in what is now North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, where his family were moneylenders. He studied rabbinical literature in Bonn and Frankfurt am Main, then in Kraków where he studied under Moses Isserles.

Later he attended the lectures of the Maharal of Prague and of his brother, R. Sinai. They introduced philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy into the circle of their studies, and from them Gans received the impulse to devote himself to these branches of science. He lived for a time at Nordheim^{[disambiguation needed ]} (where he studied Euclid), passed several years in his native city of Lippstadt, and then in about 1564 settled at Prague. There he came into contact with Kepler and Tycho Brahe, and took part for three consecutive days in astronomical observations at the Prague observatory. He also carried on a scientific correspondence with Johann Müller (Regiomontanus), and was charged by Tycho Brahe with the translation of the Alfonsine Tables from Hebrew into German.

David (Hebrew: דָּוִד, דָּוִיד, Modern David Tiberian Dāwîḏ; ISO 259-3 Dawid; Strong's Daveed; beloved; Arabic: داوود‎ or داود‎ Dāwūd) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the second king of the United Kingdom of Israel and, according to the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, an ancestor of Jesus. David is seen as a major Prophet in Islamic traditions. His life is conventionally dated to c. 1040–970 BC, his reign over Judah c. 1010–1003 BC,^{[citation needed]} and his reign over the United Kingdom of Israel c. 1003–970 BC.^{[citation needed]} The Books of Samuel, 1 Kings, and 1 Chronicles are the only sources of information on David, although the Tel Dan stele records "House of David", which some take as confirmation of the existence in the mid-9th century BC of a Judean royal dynasty called the "House of David".

David is very important to Jewish, Christian and Islamic doctrine and culture. In Judaism, David, or David HaMelekh, is the King of Israel, and the Jewish people. Jewish tradition maintains that a direct descendant of David will be the Messiah. In Islam, he is known as Dawud, considered to be a prophet and the king of a nation. He is depicted as a righteous king, though not without faults, as well as an acclaimed warrior, musician, and poet, traditionally credited for composing many of the psalms contained in the Book of Psalms.

Owsley Stanley (born Augustus Owsley Stanley III, January 19, 1935 – March 12, 2011) also known as Bear, was a figure of the San Francisco Bay counter-culture. His early activities spanned the Beat-era years of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters scenes, but he played a role during the explosion of 1960's Psychedelia culture. As a crafts-person, he became best known simply as 'Owsley' – the LSD "cook" (underground chemist). Under the professional name of "Bear", he worked with the psychedelic rock band the Grateful Dead's international fan "family".

Bear was as an early soundman for The Grateful Dead, a band he met when Kesey invited them to an Owsley Acid test party. As their sound engineer, Bear frequently recorded live tapes behind his mixing board and helped "The Dead" become the first performers since Les Paul to custom-develop high-fidelity audio components and sound systems.

Stanley was the first private individual to manufacture mass quantities of LSD. Between 1965 and 1967, Stanley produced more than 1.25 million doses of LSD.