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Metamaterials and warp drives
Filed under: et.al., Science — Tags: Igor Smolyaninov, invisibility cloak, metamaterials, physics, University of Maryland, warp drive — David Kirkpatrick @ 2:20 pm
It's almost time to call metamaterials simply that science fiction stuff. Usually you hear about metamaterials around these parts in posts about actual invisibility cloaking technology, and here's one about metamaterials and warp drives. Metamaterials — turning science fiction into science fact …
That means physicists can use metamaterials to simulate the universe itself and all the weird phenomenon of general relativity. We've looked at various attempts to recreate black holes, the Big Bang and even multiverses.
But there's another thing that general relativity appears to allow: faster than light travel. In 1994, the Mexican physicist, Michael Alcubierre, realised that while relativity prevents faster-than-light travel relative to the fabric of spacetime, it places no restriction on the speed at which regions of spacetime can move relative to each other.
That suggests a way of building a warp drive. Alcubierre imagined a small volume of flat spacetime in which a spacecraft sits, surrounded by a bubble of spacetime that shrinks in the direction of travel, bringing your destination nearer, and stretches behind you. He showed that this shrinking and stretching could enable the bubble–and the spaceship it contained–to move at superluminal speeds.
Today, Igor Smolyaninov at the University of Maryland, points out that if these kinds of bubbles are possible in spacetime, then it ought to be possible to simulate them inside a metamaterial.
Invisibility cloak update
Filed under: Science, Technology — Tags: invisibility cloak, metamaterials, National Science Foundation, Nature, Purdue University, transformation optics, U.S. Army Research Office — David Kirkpatrick @ 7:26 pm
It's been several months since I've come across any news on invisibility cloak technology, something of a pet subject around here, but here's the very latest — findings on transformation optics.
From the second link, the release:
New findings promising for 'transformation optics,' cloaking
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Researchers have overcome a fundamental obstacle in using new "metamaterials" for radical advances in optical technologies, including ultra-powerful microscopes and computers and a possible invisibility cloak.
The metamaterials have been plagued by a major limitation: too much light is "lost," or absorbed by metals such as silver and gold contained in the metamaterials, making them impractical for optical devices.
However, a Purdue University team has solved this hurdle, culminating three years of research based at the Birck Nanotechnology Center at the university's Discovery Park.
"This finding is fundamental to the whole field of metamaterials," said Vladimir M. Shalaev, Purdue's Robert and Anne Burnett Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "We showed that, in principle, it's feasible to conquer losses and develop these materials for many applications."
Research findings are detailed in a paper appearing on Aug. 5 in the journal Nature.
The material developed by Purdue researchers is made of a fishnet-like film containing holes about 100 nanometers in diameter and repeating layers of silver and aluminum oxide. The researchers etched away a portion of the aluminum oxide between silver layers and replaced it with a "gain medium" formed by a colored dye that can amplify light.
Other researchers have applied various gain media to the top of the fishnet film, but that approach does not produce sufficient amplification to overcome losses, Shalaev said.
Instead, the Purdue team found a way to place the dye between the two fishnet layers of silver, where the "local field" of light is far stronger than on the surface of the film, causing the gain medium to work 50 times more efficiently.
The approach was first developed by former Purdue doctoral student Hsiao-Kuan Yuan, now at Intel Corp., and it was further developed and applied by doctoral student Shumin Xiao.
Unlike natural materials, metamaterials are able to reduce the "index of refraction" to less than one or less than zero. Refraction occurs as electromagnetic waves, including light, bend when passing from one material into another. It causes the bent-stick-in-water effect, which occurs when a stick placed in a glass of water appears bent when viewed from the outside.
Being able to create materials with an index of refraction that's negative or between one and zero promises a range of potential breakthroughs in a new field called transformation optics. Possible applications include a "planar hyperlens" that could make optical microscopes 10 times more powerful and able to see objects as small as DNA; advanced sensors; new types of "light concentrators" for more efficient solar collectors; computers and consumer electronics that use light instead of electronic signals to process information; and a cloak of invisibility.
Excitement about metamaterials has been tempered by the fact that too much light is absorbed by the materials. However, the new approach can dramatically reduce the "absorption coefficient," or how much light and energy is lost, and might amplify the incident light so that the metamaterial becomes "active," Shalaev said.
"What's really important is that the absorption coefficient can be as small as only one-millionth of what it was before using our approach," Shalaev said. "We can even have amplification of light instead of its absorption. Here, for the first time, we showed that metamaterials can have a negative refractive index and amplify light."
The Nature paper was written by Xiao, senior research scientist Vladimir P. Drachev, principal research scientist Alexander V. Kildishev, doctoral student Xingjie Ni, postdoctoral fellow Uday K. Chettiar, Yuan, and Shalaev.
Fabricating the material was a major challenge, Shalaev said.
First, the researchers had to learn how to precisely remove as much as possible of the aluminum oxide layer in order to vacate space for dye without causing a collapse of the structure.
"You remove it almost completely but leave a little bit to act as pillars to support the structure, and then you spin coat the dye-doped polymer inside the structure," he said.
The researchers also had to devise a way to deposit just the right amount of dye mixed with an epoxy between the silver layers of the perforated film.
"You can't deposit too much dye and epoxy, which have a positive refractive index, but only a thin layer about 50 nanometers thick, or you lose the negative refraction," Shalaev said.
Future work may involve creating a technology that uses an electrical source instead of a light source, like semiconductor lasers now in use, which would make them more practical for computer and electronics applications.
The work was funded by the U.S. Army Research Office and the National Science Foundation.
Hit this link for the related image (it's just too big for this blog and I didn't feel like doing any resizing), and here's the accompanying caption for the image:
This illustration shows the structure of a new device created by Purdue researchers to overcome a fundamental obstacle in using new "metamaterials" for radical advances in optical technologies, including ultrapowerful microscopes and computers and a possible invisibility cloak. The material developed by the researchers is a perforated, fishnet-like film made of repeating layers of silver and aluminum oxide. The researchers etched away a portion of the aluminum oxide between silver layers and replaced it with a "gain medium" to amplify light. (Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University)
New negative-index metamaterial for invisibility cloaks and more
Filed under: Science, Technology — Tags: artificial optical material, California Institute of Technology, Caltech, invisibility cloak, metamaterials, Nature Materials, negative-index metamaterial, plasmonics, superlensing — David Kirkpatrick @ 6:45 pm
Here's news on a new artificial optical material with applications for invisibility cloaking tech and more.
Caltech-led team designs novel negative-index metamaterial that responds to visible light
Uniquely versatile material could be used for more efficient light collection in solar cells
IMAGE: Arrays of coupled plasmonic coaxial waveguides offer a new approach by which to realize negative-index metamaterials that are remarkably insensitive to angle of incidence and polarization in the visible range….
PASADENA, Calif.—A group of scientists led by researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has engineered a type of artificial optical material—a metamaterial—with a particular three-dimensional structure such that light exhibits a negative index of refraction upon entering the material. In other words, this material bends light in the "wrong" direction from what normally would be expected, irrespective of the angle of the approaching light.
This new type of negative-index metamaterial (NIM), described in an advance online publication in the journal Nature Materials, is simpler than previous NIMs—requiring only a single functional layer—and yet more versatile, in that it can handle light with any polarization over a broad range of incident angles. And it can do all of this in the blue part of the visible spectrum, making it "the first negative index metamaterial to operate at visible frequencies," says graduate student Stanley Burgos, a researcher at the Light-Material Interactions in Energy Conversion Energy Frontier Research Center at Caltech and the paper's first author.
"By engineering a metamaterial with such properties, we are opening the door to such unusual—but potentially useful—phenomena as superlensing (high-resolution imaging past the diffraction limit), invisibility cloaking, and the synthesis of materials index-matched to air, for potential enhancement of light collection in solar cells," says Harry Atwater, Howard Hughes Professor and professor of applied physics and materials science, director of Caltech's Resnick Institute, founding member of the Kavli Nanoscience Institute, and leader of the research team
What makes this NIM unique, says Burgos, is its engineering. "The source of the negative-index response is fundamentally different from that of previous NIM designs," he explains. Those previous efforts used multiple layers of "resonant elements" to refract the light in this unusual way, while this version is composed of a single layer of silver permeated with "coupled plasmonic waveguide elements."
Surface plasmons are light waves coupled to waves of electrons at the interface between a metal and a dielectric (a non-conducting material like air). Plasmonic waveguide elements route these coupled waves through the material. Not only is this material more feasible to fabricate than those previously used, Burgos says, it also allows for simple "tuning" of the negative-index response; by changing the materials used, or the geometry of the waveguide, the NIM can be tuned to respond to a different wavelength of light coming from nearly any angle with any polarization. "By carefully engineering the coupling between such waveguide elements, it was possible to develop a material with a nearly isotopic refractive index tuned to operate at visible frequencies."
This sort of functional flexibility is critical if the material is to be used in a wide variety of ways, says Atwater. "For practical applications, it is very important for a material's response to be insensitive to both incidence angle and polarization," he says. "Take eyeglasses, for example. In order for them to properly focus light reflected off an object on the back of your eye, they must be able to accept and focus light coming from a broad range of angles, independent of polarization. Said another way, their response must be nearly isotropic. Our metamaterial has the same capabilities in terms of its response to incident light."
This means the new metamaterial is particularly well suited to use in solar cells, Atwater adds. "The fact that our NIM design is tunable means we could potentially tune its index response to better match the solar spectrum, allowing for the development of broadband wide-angle metamaterials that could enhance light collection in solar cells," he explains. "And the fact that the metamaterial has a wide-angle response is important because it means that it can 'accept' light from a broad range of angles. In the case of solar cells, this means more light collection and less reflected or 'wasted' light."
"This work stands out because, through careful engineering, greater simplicity has been achieved," says Ares Rosakis, chair of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at Caltech and Theodore von Kármán Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering.
In addition to Burgos and Atwater, the other authors on the Nature Materials paper, "A single-layer wide-angle negative index metamaterial at visible frequencies," are Rene de Waele and Albert Polman from the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics in Amsterdam. Their work was supported by the Energy Frontier Research Centers program of the Office of Science of the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, and "NanoNed," a nanotechnology program funded by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Visit the Caltech Media Relations website at http://media.caltech.edu.
An invisibility cloak flaw
Filed under: Science, Technology — Tags: anisotropic material, invisibility cloak, isotropic cloaks, light waves, Massachusetts Institute of Technology — David Kirkpatrick @ 1:37 pm
To date all the invisibility cloak tech blogging I've done has covered the rapid development of this branch of science. Here's some virtual ink on the other side of the cloaking coin.
Since then, Baile Zhang and buddies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, have been busy looking for the weak point in this idea and now think they've found it. Today, they point out that carpet cloaks have a flaw that makes the objects within them detectable.
The problem, they say, is that isotropic cloaks cannot work perfectly. Here's why. Light can be thought of as a series of wavefronts each with a certain amount of energy. Ordinarily, the direction of energy propagation is at right angles to these wavefronts.
However, in an invisibility cloak, this perpendicular relationship becomes distorted as the light waves are steered. That's what an anisotropic material does. But an isotropic material cannot do this–the energy always propagates at right angles to the wavefronts. This limitation means that isotropic materials cannot hide objects in the way Pendry suggests.
Zhang and co go on to prove their assertion by tracing a ray that passes through the kind of isotropic carpet cloak that Pendry suggested. What they've discovered will shock carpet cloakers all over the world.
According to Zhang and buddies, carpet cloaks don't hide objects, they merely shift them to one side by an amount that is just a bit less than they are high. Crucially the effect depends on the angle at which you are looking. So when illuminated at an angle of 45 degrees, an object 0.2 units tall appears laterally shifted by 0.15 units.
If Zhang and co are correct, this could be a substantial blow for isotropic carpet cloaking. It means that the carpet cloaking effect has a limited angle of view.
Invisibility cloak-plus
Filed under: Science — Tags: illusion media, invisibility cloak, metamaterials, Southeast University in Nanjing — David Kirkpatrick @ 1:47 am
An interesting spin on the burgeoning invisibility cloak tech.
In a twist on the concept of an invisibility cloak, researchers have designed a material that not only makes an object invisible, but also generates one or more virtual images in its place. Because it doesn't simply display the background environment to a viewer, this kind of optical device could have applications that go beyond a normal invisibility cloak. Plus, unlike previously proposed illusion devices, the design proposed here could be realized with artificial metamaterials.
The team of engineers, Wei Xiang Jiang, Hui Feng Ma, Qiang Cheng, and Tie Jun Cui from Southeast University in Nanjing, China, describes the recently developed class of optical transformation media as "illusion media." As they explain in a new study, any object enclosed by such an illusion medium layer appears to be one or more other objects. The researchers' proposed device is designed to operate at microwave frequencies.
"The illusion media make an enclosed object appear like another object or multiple virtual objects," Cui told PhysOrg.com. "Hence it can be applied to confuse the detectors or the viewers, and the detectors or the viewers can't perceive the real object. As a result, the enclosed object will be protected."
Illusion media can transform a real image into a virtual image. For example, a golden apple (the actual object) enclosed within the illusion medium layer appears as two green apples (the illusion) to any viewer outside the virtual boundary (dashed curves). Image credit: Jiang, et al.
3D invisibility cloak
Filed under: Science, Technology — Tags: 3D technology, invisibility cloak, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology — David Kirkpatrick @ 11:59 pm
It's been a while since I've had the opportunity to blog about invisibility cloak tech (seven months on the dot, to be exact), but here's the latest from Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
Researchers at Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology report they were able to cloak a tiny bump in a layer of gold, preventing its detection at nearly visible infrared frequencies.
Their cloaking device also worked in three dimensions, while previously developed cloaks worked in two dimensions, lead researcher Tolga Ergin said.
The cloak is a structure of crystals with air spaces in between, sort of like a woodpile, that bends light, hiding the bump in the gold later beneath, the researchers reported in Thursday's online edition of the journal Science.
In this case, the bump was tiny, a mere 0.00004 inch high and 0.0005 inch across (100 microns x 30 microns), so that a magnifying lens was needed to see it.
"In principle, the cloak design is completely scalable; there is no limit to it," Ergin said. But, he added, developing a cloak to hide something takes a long time, "so cloaking larger items with that technology is not really feasible."
"Other fabrication techniques, though, might lead to larger cloaks," he added in an interview via e-mail.
Even more invisibility cloak news
Filed under: Science — Tags: cloaking technology, invisibility cloak, KurzweilAI.net, metamaterials, University of Utah — David Kirkpatrick @ 1:35 pm
Via KurzweilAI.net — I've long blogged on invisibility cloak technology, but it seems there's been a real spate of news lately. In fact I've already posted the original release for the news in this article.
Active invisibility cloaks could work at many wavelengths
EE Times, Aug. 18, 2009
Active cloaking devices can use destructive interference, similar to noise-cancelling headphones, to render invisible areas up to 10 times larger than the wavelength of light being disguised and over large regions of space, University of Utah researchers have found.
The researchers predict that engineers will be able to use their method to create active invisibility cloaks that could shield submarines from sonar, planes from radar, and buildings from earthquakes.
Invisibility cloak tech creates fake portal
Filed under: Science, Technology — Tags: Fudan University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, invisibility cloak, KurzweilAI.net, single-crystal yttrium-iron-garnet ferrite metamaterials — David Kirkpatrick @ 3:16 pm
Via KurzweilAI.net — Here's the latest news on invisibility cloaktechnology, a longtime favorite subject for this blog.
A lot of this stuff is really getting deeper and deeper into the world of science fiction as science fact. Of course, I'm still waiting to see a convincing real-world demonstration of the basic cloaking technology touted the last few years, so maybe all this news remains in the world of fiction. Either way, it's a fun topic.
Beyond the looking glass…
PhysOrg.com, Aug. 13, 2009
A "hidden portal" invisibility cloak may be possible using exotic new single-crystal yttrium-iron-garnet ferrite metamaterials that force light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation in complicated directions, researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technologyand Fudan University have found.
People standing outside the portal would see something like a mirror.
Invisibility cloak plus
Filed under: Science, Technology — Tags: invisibility cloak, KurzweilAI.net, metamaterials, New Scientist Tech — David Kirkpatrick @ 3:10 pm
Via KurzweilAI.net — I've done plenty of blogging on invisibility cloaking technology, and here's the lastest. I think this tech is very cool and I hate to throw any cold water on the latest news, but I'd be more impressed with seeing an actual effective working model of a simple cloaking device before getting to wild with advanced varients like those described below.
Modified invisibility cloak could make the ultimate illusion
New Scientist Tech, July 7, 2009
An illusion device using metamaterials that makes one object look like another could one day be used to camouflage military planes or create "holes" in solid walls.
To make a cup look like a spoon, for example, light first strikes the cup and is distorted. It then passes through a complementary metamaterial which cancels out the distortions to make the cup seem invisible. The light then moves into a region of the metamaterial that creates a distortion as if a spoon were present. The result is that an observer looking at the cup through the metamaterial would see a spoon.
The latest in cloaking tech
Filed under: Science, Technology — Tags: BAE Systems, invisibility cloak, metamaterials, Physical Review Letters, Purdue University, transformation optics, visible light spectrum — David Kirkpatrick @ 2:53 pm
I've done plenty of blogging on invisibility cloaking technology. Here's a release from yesterday on the very latest news. It does seem we're getting pretty close to an actual invisibility cloak. Science fiction becomes science fact once again.
New 'broadband' cloaking technology simple to manufacture
IMAGE: This image shows the design of a new type of invisibility cloak that is simpler than previous designs and works for all colors of the visible spectrum, making it possible…
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Researchers have created a new type of invisibility cloak that is simpler than previous designs and works for all colors of the visible spectrum, making it possible to cloak larger objects than before and possibly leading to practical applications in "transformation optics."
Whereas previous cloaking designs have used exotic "metamaterials," which require complex nanofabrication, the new design is a far simpler device based on a "tapered optical waveguide," said Vladimir Shalaev, Purdue University's Robert and Anne Burnett Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Waveguides represent established technology – including fiber optics – used in communications and other commercial applications.
The research team used their specially tapered waveguide to cloak an area 100 times larger than the wavelengths of light shined by a laser into the device, an unprecedented achievement. Previous experiments with metamaterials have been limited to cloaking regions only a few times larger than the wavelengths of visible light.
Because the new method enabled the researchers to dramatically increase the cloaked area, the technology offers hope of cloaking larger objects, Shalaev said.
Findings are detailed in a research paper appearing May 29 in the journal Physical Review Letters. The paper was written by Igor I. Smolyaninov, a principal electronic engineer at BAE Systems in Washington, D.C.; Vera N. Smolyaninova, an assistant professor of physics at Towson University in Maryland; Alexander Kildishev, a principal research scientist at Purdue's Birck Nanotechnology Center; and Shalaev.
"All previous attempts at optical cloaking have involved very complicated nanofabrication of metamaterials containing many elements, which makes it very difficult to cloak large objects," Shalaev said. "Here, we showed that if a waveguide is tapered properly it acts like a sophisticated nanostructured material."
The waveguide is inherently broadband, meaning it could be used to cloak the full range of the visible light spectrum. Unlike metamaterials, which contain many light-absorbing metal components, only a small portion of the new design contains metal.
Theoretical work for the design was led by Purdue, with BAE Systems leading work to fabricate the device, which is formed by two gold-coated surfaces, one a curved lens and the other a flat sheet. The researchers cloaked an object about 50 microns in diameter, or roughly the width of a human hair, in the center of the waveguide.
"Instead of being reflected as normally would happen, the light flows around the object and shows up on the other side, like water flowing around a stone," Shalaev said.
The research falls within a new field called transformation optics, which may usher in a host of radical advances, including cloaking; powerful "hyperlenses" resulting in microscopes 10 times more powerful than today's and able to see objects as small as DNA; computers and consumer electronics that use light instead of electronic signals to process information; advanced sensors; and more efficient solar collectors.
Unlike natural materials, metamaterials are able to reduce the "index of refraction" to less than one or less than zero. Refraction occurs as electromagnetic waves, including light, bend when passing from one material into another. It causes the bent-stick-in-water effect, which occurs when a stick placed in a glass of water appears bent when viewed from the outside. Each material has its own refraction index, which describes how much light will bend in that particular material and defines how much the speed of light slows down while passing through a material.
Natural materials typically have refractive indices greater than one. Metamaterials, however, can be designed to make the index of refraction vary from zero to one, which is needed for cloaking.
The precisely tapered shape of the new waveguide alters the refractive index in the same way as metamaterials, gradually increasing the index from zero to 1 along the curved surface of the lens, Shalaev said.
Previous cloaking devices have been able to cloak only a single frequency of light, meaning many nested devices would be needed to render an object invisible.
Kildishev reasoned that the same nesting effect might be mimicked with the waveguide design. Subsequent experiments and theoretical modeling proved the concept correct.
Researchers do not know of any fundamental limit to the size of objects that could be cloaked, but additional work will be needed to further develop the technique.
Recent cloaking findings reported by researchers at other institutions have concentrated on a technique that camouflages features against a background. This work, which uses metamaterials, is akin to rendering bumps on a carpet invisible by allowing them to blend in with the carpet, whereas the Purdue-based work concentrates on enabling light to flow around an object.
Related Web site:
Vladimir Shalaev:
https://engineering.purdue.edu/ECE/People/profile?resource_id=3322
This image shows the design of a new type of invisibility cloak that is simpler than previous designs and works for all colors of the visible spectrum, making it possible to cloak larger objects than before and possibly leading to practical applications in "transformation optics." (Purdue University)
A publication-quality image is available at http://news.uns.purdue.edu/images/+2009/shalaev-cloaking.jpg
Abstract on the research in this release is available at: http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2009a/090520ShalaevCloaking.html
Invisibility cloak, plus
Filed under: Science, Technology — Tags: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, invisibility cloak, KurzweilAI.net, metamaterials, physics arXiv blog — David Kirkpatrick @ 3:18 pm
Yep, news on invisibility cloaks returns once again. This time with a twist — metamaterials that can go beyond a simple cloak of invisibility and actually create the illusion of a totally different object in place of the one being cloaked.
Illusion Cloak Makes One Object Look like Another
The physics arXiv blog, May 13, 2009
Metamaterials could be used for an even more exotic effect than invisibility cloaks: to create the illusion that a different objectis present, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology researchers say.
Invisibility cloak, part six
Filed under: Science, Technology — Tags: invisibility cloak, mathematics, PhysOrg.com, SIAM Review — David Kirkpatrick @ 7:53 pm
I've done plenty of blogging on cloak of invisibility tech, and here's the latest news from PhysOrg.
A paper published in the March 2009 issue of SIAM Review, "Cloaking Devices, Electromagnetic Wormholes, and Transformation Optics," presents an overview of the theoretical developments in cloaking from a mathematical perspective.
One method involves light waves bending around a region or object and emerging on the other side as if the waves had passed through empty space, creating an "invisible" region which is cloaked. For this to happen, however, the object or region has to be concealed using a cloaking device, which must be undetectable to electromagnetic waves. Manmade devices called metamaterials use structures having cellular architectures designed to create combinations of material parameters not available in nature.
Mathematics is essential in designing the parameters needed to create metamaterials and to show that the material ensures invisibility. The mathematics comes primarily from the field of partial differential equations, in particular from the study of equations for electromagnetic waves described by the Scottish mathematician and physicist James Maxwell in the 1860s.
One of the "wrinkles" in the mathematical model of cloaking is that the transformations that define the required material parameters have singularities, that is, points at which the transformations fail to exist or fail to have properties such as smoothness or boundness that are required to demonstrate cloaking. However, the singularities are removable; that is, the transformations can be redefined over the singularities to obtain the desired results.
Filed under: Science, Technology — Tags: Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Duke University, InnovateHan Technology, invisibility cloak, National Basic Research Program of China, National Science Foundation of China, Raytheon Missile Systems, Science — David Kirkpatrick @ 12:32 am
Haven't blogged on this subject in a while. It's always fun to cover, though.
Next generation cloaking device demonstrated
IMAGE: Pictured is the new cloak with bump, left, and the prototype, right.
DURHAM, N.C. – A device that can bestow invisibility to an object by "cloaking" it from visual light is closer to reality. After being the first to demonstrate the feasibility of such a device by constructing a prototype in 2006, a team of Duke University engineers has produced a new type of cloaking device, which is significantly more sophisticated at cloaking in a broad range of frequencies.
The latest advance was made possible by the development of a new series of complex mathematical commands, known as algorithms, to guide the design and fabrication of exotic composite materials known as metamaterials. These materials can be engineered to have properties not easily found in natural materials, and can be used to form a variety of "cloaking" structures. These structures can guide electromagnetic waves around an object, only to have them emerge on the other side as if they had passed through an empty volume of space.
IMAGE: This is David R. Smith with the new cloak device.
The results of the latest Duke experiments were published Jan. 16 in the journal Science. First authors of the paper were Duke's Ruopeng Liu, who developed the algorithm, and Chunlin Li. David R. Smith, William Bevan Professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke, is the senior member of the research team.
Once the algorithm was developed, the latest cloaking device was completed from conception to fabrication in nine days, compared to the four months required to create the original, and more rudimentary, device. This powerful new algorithm will make it possible to custom-design unique metamaterials with specific cloaking characteristics, the researchers said.
"The difference between the original device and the latest model is like night and day," Smith said. "The new device can cloak a much wider spectrum of waves — nearly limitless — and will scale far more easily to infrared and visible light. The approach we used should help us expand and improve our abilities to cloak different types of waves."
Cloaking devices bend electromagnetic waves, such as light, in such a way that it appears as if the cloaked object is not there. In the latest laboratory experiments, a beam of microwaves aimed through the cloaking device at a "bump" on a flat mirror surface bounced off the surface at the same angle as if the bump were not present. Additionally, the device prevented the formation of scattered beams that would normally be expected from such a perturbation.
The underlying cloaking phenomenon is similar to the mirages seen ahead at a distance on a road on a hot day.
"You see what looks like water hovering over the road, but it is in reality a reflection from the sky," Smith explained. "In that example, the mirage you see is cloaking the road below. In effect, we are creating an engineered mirage with this latest cloak design."
Smith believes that cloaks should find numerous applications as the technology is perfected. By eliminating the effects of obstructions, cloaking devices could improve wireless communications, or acoustic cloaks could serve as protective shields, preventing the penetration of vibrations, sound or seismic waves.
"The ability of the cloak to hide the bump is compelling, and offers a path towards the realization of forms of cloaking abilities approaching the optical," Liu said. "Though the designs of such metamaterials are extremely complex, especially when traditional approaches are used, we believe that we now have a way to rapidly and efficiently produce such materials."
With appropriately fine-tuned metamaterials, electromagnetic radiation at frequencies ranging from visible light to radio could be redirected at will for virtually any application, Smith said. This approach could also lead to the development of metamaterials that focus light to provide more powerful lenses.
The newest cloak, which measures 20 inches by 4 inches and less than an inch high, is actually made up of more than 10,000 individual pieces arranged in parallel rows. Of those pieces, more than 6,000 are unique. Each piece is made of the same fiberglass material used in circuit boards and etched with copper.
The algorithm determined the shape and placement of each piece. Without the algorithm, properly designing and aligning the pieces would have been extremely difficult, Smith said.
The research was supported by Raytheon Missile Systems, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, InnovateHan Technology, the National Science Foundation of China, the National Basic Research Program of China, and National Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China.
Others members of the research team were Duke's Jack Mock, as well as Jessie Y. Chin and Tie Jun Cui from Southeast University, Nanjing, China.
Cloak of invisibility meet your master
Filed under: Science, Technology — Tags: anti-cloak, invisibility cloak, KurzweilAI.net, PhysOrg.com, ScienceDaily — David Kirkpatrick @ 10:02 pm
From KurzweilAI.net — I've blogged on invisibility cloaks and their feasibility here and here. Now all that excitement may be undone.
'Invisibility Cloak' Undone
ScienceDaily, Sep. 3, 2008Chinese scientists have proposed a theoretical "anti-cloak" that would partially cancel the effect of an invisibility cloak.
PhysOrg covered this as well with a some detail on what the anti-cloak is actually about and how it could be implemented.
An even greater problem for anyone who has aspirations to be concealed in public one day is that invisibility achieved through transformation media is a two-way street. With no light penetrating a perfect invisibility cloak, there would be no way for an invisible person to see outside. In other words, invisible people would also be blind—not exactly what Harry Potter had in mind.
But now, Chen and his colleagues have developed way to partially cancel the invisibility cloak's cloaking effect. Their "anti-cloak" would be a material with optical properties perfectly matched to those of an invisibility cloak. (In technical jargon, an anti-cloak would be anisotropic negative refractive index material that is impedance matched to the positive refractive index of the invisibility cloak).
While an invisibility cloak would bend light around an object, any region that came into contact with the anti-cloak would guide some light back so that it became visible. This would allow an invisible observer to see the outside by pressing a layer of anti-cloak material in contact with an invisibility cloak
Cloaking device becoming feasible?
Filed under: Science, Technology — Tags: invisibility cloak, KurzweilAI.net, metamaterial, Nature magazine, PhysOrg.com, refractive index, University of California at Berkeley — David Kirkpatrick @ 2:41 pm
From KurzweilAI.net — I've blogged on 3D cloaking devices before, very likely the previous KurzweilAI.net linked blog post from mid-May is an earlier report of this project. Both stories originate from UC Berkeley.
At any rate, here's 3D cloaking part two:
Practical Cloaking Devices On The Horizon?
PhysOrg.com, Aug. 10, 2008University of California, Berkeley scientists have created a multilayered, "fishnet" metamaterial that unambiguously exhibits negative refractive index, allowing for invisibility in three dimensions for the first time, Nature magazine plans to report this week.
Update — Here's another take on this story, once again from PhysOrg. This time with pictures!
Two breakthroughs in the development of metamaterials – composite materials with extraordinary capabilities to bend electromagnetic waves – are reported separately this week in the Aug. 13 advanced online issue of Nature, and in the Aug. 15 issue of Science.
Applications for a metamaterial entail altering how light normally behaves. In the case of invisibility cloaks or shields, the material would need to curve light waves completely around the object like a river flowing around a rock. For optical microscopes to discern individual, living viruses or DNA molecules, the resolution of the microscope must be smaller than the wavelength of light.
The common thread in such metamaterials is negative refraction. In contrast, all materials found in nature have a positive refractive index, a measure of how much electromagnetic waves are bent when moving from one medium to another.
In a classic illustration of how refraction works, the submerged part of a pole inserted into water will appear as if it is bent up towards the water's surface. If water exhibited negative refraction, the submerged portion of the pole would instead appear to jut out from the water's surface. Or, to give another example, a fish swimming underwater would instead appear to be moving in the air above the water's surface
And here's the image:
On the left is a schematic of the first 3-D "fishnet" metamaterial that can achieve a negative index of refraction at optical frequencies. On the right is a scanning electron microscope image of the fabricated structure, developed by UC Berkeley researchers. The alternating layers form small circuits that can bend light backwards. Image by Jason Valentine, UC Berkeley
More science fiction turning into science fact
Filed under: Science, Technology — Tags: invisibility cloak, KurzweilAI.net, New Scientist, refractive index, University of California at Berkeley — David Kirkpatrick @ 11:34 pm
From KurzweilAI.net, taking steps toward an invisibility cloak …
New material may be step towards 3D invisibility cloak
New Scientist, May 13, 2008
A researcher at the University of California at Berkeley claims to have made a 3D metamaterial with a negative refractive index, the first 3D material of this kind.
Physicists have in recent years made it possible to bend, or refract, light in the opposite direction to any natural materials. These metamaterials make it possible to create invisibility cloaks that hide an object by steering light around it. The materials and "invisibility cloaks" built so far have all been flat, working only in two dimensions.
The negative refraction index will have to be confirmed by measuring the speed of light in the material.
See Also Physicists draw up plans for real 'cloaking device'


text:
Q: How to convert FileStreamResult to IFormFile? I change the size of the image with this code. But this method returns FileStreamResult. I want to convert FileStreamResult  to IFromFile. How can I do that?
Note: I am using CoreCompat  to change the image size.
public FileStreamResult ChangeSize(IFormFile file)
{
    using (var img = System.Drawing.Image.FromStream(file.OpenReadStream()))
    {
        Stream ms = new MemoryStream(img.Resize(100, 100).ToByteArray());

        return new FileStreamResult(ms, "image/jpg");
    }
}

A: This works for the file but it doesn't appear to copy other data, such as the content type
public IFormFile GetFormFile(FileStreamResult fsr)
{
    using (var fs = fsr.FileStream)
    {
        file = new FormFile(fs, 0, fs.Length, "name", fsr.FileDownloadName);
    }
}

A: This should handle converting your FileStreamResult to a FormFile:
public IFormFile ReturnFormFile(FileStreamResult result)
{
    var ms = new MemoryStream();
    try
    {
        result.FileStream.CopyTo(ms);
        return new FormFile(ms, 0, ms.Length);
    }
    catch(Exception e){
       ms.Dispose();
       throw;
    }
    finally
    {
        ms.Dispose();
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Broadway at Ordway adds 'SIX,' just before it…
Broadway at Ordway adds 'SIX,' just before it debuts on the Great White Way
"SIX" (Photo by Liz Lauren, courtesy of Chicago Shakespeare Theater)
By Kathy Berdan | kberdan@pioneerpress.com | Pioneer Press
PUBLISHED: July 29, 2019 at 10:00 am | UPDATED: August 1, 2019 at 6:05 pm
What comes after the Ordway?
Broadway, baby.
At least that's the case for "SIX" — a British-born, global musical sensation about the wives of Henry VIII; on Thursday, it was announced that the touring show will head to Broadway after its Minnesota run.
"For the first time in the history of our theater, a major production is headed from the Ordway directly to Broadway," said Jamie Grant, President and CEO of Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, in a statement. "SIX is a surefire, sell-out hit and we're thrilled to provide our audiences with the opportunity to see it in St. Paul before it heads to New York."
The Broadway news comes only three days after the Ordway announced that SIX was coming to St. Paul for a limited engagement between Thanksgiving and Christmas, from Nov. 29 to Dec. 22; tickets are on sale now. "SIX" will make its Broadway debut in New York City in early 2020. Or, as the New York Times put it: "Divorced. Beheaded. Broadway."
The musical — in which the six wives of Henry VIII tell their stories — was born at Cambridge, according to this article in the JC: "Toby Marlow, in his final year at Cambridge, was in a poetry class when inspiration struck. Why not write a musical which imagines the six wives of Henry VIII as a girl band? 'I was trying to concentrate while he was droning on about Wordsworth, imagining the songs, the costumes — I couldn't wait to get out of there and tell Lucy about it.' Lucy Moss — his friend, fellow student and collaborator — was initially worried ('It could have been really naff') but Marlow talked her round. They'd had the idea of a musical about Henry's wives some time ago, but hadn't come up with a structure. The girl band — competing with each other as to who had the worst time with the brutal Tudor monarch — proved the perfect way to dispel almost all thoughts of Greensleeves."
The Cambridge students' idea, which debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017, became SIX; it is described this way in the Ordway news release: "Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. From Tudor queens to pop princesses, in 'SIX' the wives of Henry VIII take the mic to reclaim their identities out of the shadow of their infamous spouse — remixing 500 years of historical heartbreak into an exuberant celebration of 21st century girl power." The musical has an all-female cast and an all-female band.
The soundtrack is already trending for downloads; could this be the next "Hamilton"? Now's our chance to find out.
For more information and tickets for the Minnesota show, go to ordway.org.
In New York, the show will officially open on Broadway on March 12 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, with performances beginning Feb. 13. Ticketing information will be announced at a later date. For updates, visit SIXonBway.com.
In Minnesota, "SIX" replaces the Cinderella story new musical "Ever After," which moves to next season; it is coming as part of Broadway at the Ordway, a mix of Broadway touring shows and self-produced Ordway originals, such as "42nd Street," which is on stage at the Ordway through Aug. 11.
Ordway
Kathy Berdan
Kathy has been an arts journalist for almost 25 years. Her career goal is to interview all four Monkees, and she's three-fourths of the way there. (Yes, she did talk to Davy Jones and Peter Tork before they died.) She loves Twin Cities theater and is a huge fan of the St. Paul Winter Carnival and the Minnesota State Fair.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The Session this month is a brown study; participants have been in 'a state of deep absorption or thoughtfulness' about the color brown and maybe even induced a moody daydream about brown beers.
In my limited experience a color divide remains in beer audiences, light versus dark. Of course, brown beers fall right in the middle of this divide – darker than a pale ale but not yet donning the black. One of my friends who accompanies me to Kingman's local brewery, Black Bridge, was at first ambivalent about this craft beer experience on which I was leading him. He only knew the macro's. He drank some a cream ale that they offered at the time and was still on the fence. It was K-Town Brown that converted him. It wasn't overpowering but it had actual flavor and nuance. Now he tells me that he's been "ruined," he can only drink real beer. I smile knowingly. Brown beers are good gateway beers. Well, in this instance, at least.
In the beer world we have brown ales, brown porters, altbiers, schwarzbiers and rauchbiers, perhaps; mild ales and barley wines sometimes have a solid brown color; to me, some reds seem to border on brown but maybe it's just the school I attended. There are certainly more. They are not all suited to the gateway experience as noted above; it would be a dubious experiment to introduce a beer novice to the woody smokiness of a rauchbier.
Stouts and porters are my favorites but a brown beer is just as tantalizing and neither drab nor boring. I have a home brew recipe for a dark mild which I have made several times; perhaps that's why I'm partial to British browns, dark mild ales and the American brown. These beers all seem to have a sunset at their edges, orange and calming. Generally they have a faux ivory collar that's a little sticky. It is as sugary at commencement as it is dry at denouement, like a Stirling engine of taste. Sometimes walnut flavors arrive. K-Town Brown noted above was enjoyable and Wagonwheel, also offered occasionally at Black Bridge, is one of my all-time favorite brown ales. Ask for them when on tap, you will not be disappointed.
Brown ales also pair well with food. Pretty much any food. It is a beer for all ages, for all tastes, for all occasions. I used to drink Pete's Wicked with every dinner. Well, it seems so in memory. Pete's was a wickedly delightful brown … . Newcastle is overrated. I hope that does not cause a ruckus. It's just my opinion and can be dismissed if you disagree. Cheers. Samuel Smiths Nut Brown Ale is a good choice for a brown. Oh, and Oak Creek Brewing in Sedona, Arizona has a Nut Brown Ale, too, that's worth a pint.
For more discussion of brown beers and Black Bridge's contributions, listen to the first half of the first episode of the Cartoon Casual podcast. It's produced by two locals, Joe Fellers and Paul Gaines. And as both Joe and Paul will tell you, the show could be offensive to some so use discernment.
The color brown is a study in contrast. It is the hue and tincture of earth and soil, wood and bark, hair and flesh. Earth is our source and home, the surface upon which our diverse temples are built. These bodies are our avatars in this reality allowing concourse and conversation. Logic would indicate we hold these things in high regard.
Hepburn. The epitome of stylish and classy. In a brown hat.
Yet, … "According to public opinion surveys in Europe and the United States, brown is the least favorite color of the public; the color most often associated with plainness, the rustic, and poverty." Brown can be perceived as drab and boring and even as stingy or cheap. Quite a contrast!
Maybe browns just seem common, wonted. I mean, they were pretty much the only kind of a beer for a time. Isn't that one of the reasons pilsner became such a thing? People were all, "hey, it's …. yellow." Indeed, there is an everyman motif to the brown beer. There is no creative flair associated with them, peradventure. In other words, no awesome hops bouquet or astronomical IBU rating. No heavily roasted grain profile. No eccentric ingredients. I have nothing against the aforementioned qualities; they all have their rightful place in the beer pantheon. Browns are honest, straightforward beer. Of course, that does not mean none of those things can be added to the brown.
Pretend that glass of brown beer is a kiss from your favorite brown-eyed girl … or guy. And introduce them to a possibly overlooked beer style.


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text:
Spine nearly severed in police custody, but few explanations
Updated on: April 20, 2015 / 8:46 PM / CBS/AP
BALTIMORE - Baltimore police released videos Monday showing the arrest of a man who died of a severe spinal injury suffered in police custody. Six officers have been suspended, but investigators say they still don't know how it happened
A week after the arrest of Freddie Gray, police said still don't have any videos or other evidence explaining what happened to cause the "medical emergency" that an arresting officer said Gray suffered while being taken to the local police station, Deputy Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez said.
Autopsy results returned Monday show that Gray "did suffer a significant spinal injury that led to his death," Rodriguez said. "What we don't know is how he suffered that injury."
Police also released a more detailed timeline of how Gray was arrested and transported on April 12.
A still from a cell phone video showing the arrest of Freddie Gray. CBS Baltimore
It revealed for the first time that Gray was placed in leg irons after an officer felt he was becoming "irate," that the van made several stops on its way to the police station, even stopping to pick up another prisoner in an unrelated case, after Gray had asked for medical attention several times.
Something must have happened between the time Gray was videotaped by a bystander being dragged into the van, and the time he arrived at the station in deep distress, the deputy commissioner said.
The handwritten report by the arresting officer says Gray "was arrested without force or incident," CBS News correspondent Chip Reid reported.
"When Mr. Gray was put in that van, he could talk, he was upset. And he was taken out of that van, he could not talk and he could not breathe," Rodriguez said.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake vowed to provide the community with all the answers.
Police Commissioner Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said he is ordering that police review and rewrite "effective immediately" its policies on moving prisoners and providing them with medical attention.
"We are a community on edge right now. We hear, I hear, the outrage. I hear the concern and I hear the fear," Batts said, asking for calm. "We are on edge as a city, and I need your help to make sure we get this out in the proper way."
All six officers involved have been suspended, said Rodriguez, who is in charge of the department's professional standards and accountability.
Officer Garrett Miller's official request for a criminal charge against Gray, a 25-year-old black man who was only 5-foot-8 inches tall and 145 pounds, said that he had been arrested "without force or incident."
Miller sought a charge of carrying a switchblade, punishable by a year in prison and a $500 fine, according to court records obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
Miller's charging document doesn't provide any explanations for the injuries that would lead to Gray's death a week later. He wrote only that while being taken to the station, on April 12, "the defendant suffered a medical emergency and was immediately transported to Shock Trauma via medic."
Another 30 minutes passed before police finally called an ambulance to pick Gray up at the station. He arrived at the hospital in critical condition and died on Sunday after a weeklong coma.
The documents, which misspell Gray's name as "Grey," were first reported Monday by The Baltimore Sun. Police had not previously mentioned a knife, or publicly disclosed the charge against Gray.
Miller's signed report says he personally recovered the knife from Gray's pocket. It names five other officers to be summoned as witnesses in court, and says Gray was stopped after a brief foot chase because he "fled unprovoked upon noticing police presence."
The Gray family's attorney, Billy Murphy, disputed the police timeline and said the injuries Gray suffered while in police custody were fatal. "His spine was 80 percent severed at his neck," Murphy said.
"We have no confidence that the city or the police department is going to fairly and objectively investigate this case," Murphy added.
CBS News reported earlier that Gray's lawyers accuse police of covering up what happened. They say police have video of the arrest itself, and accused the department of withholding it to hide the facts.
Demonstrators protest the death of Freddie Gray outside Baltimore City Hall on Monday, April 20, 2015. AP Photo/David Dishneau
Activists protesting excessive use of force and even Baltimore city officials say they have more questions than answers. About 50 people marched from City Hall to police headquarters Monday, carrying signs reading "Black lives matter" and "Jobs, not police killings." They unfurled a yellow banner reading "Stop police terror."
"This is just one of the most egregious cases I've ever seen," said Colleen Davidson of the Baltimore People's Power Assembly, which she said organized the rally at the request of Gray's family. "We felt the need to be out here and make it known that we will not stand and watch things like this happen."
Rodriguez said his investigators will hand everything they find over to the office of State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby by May 1. She too appealed Monday for anyone with information to contact her office.
"I can assure the public that my office has dedicated all its existing resources to independently investigate this matter to determine whether criminal charges will be brought," Mosby said.
First published on April 20, 2015 / 4:49 PM


The initiative - dubbed #25 – represents a multifaceted change in organisational and editorial approaches at the paper. The project, which aims to better connect with people under the age of 25, recently received international recognition as the recipient of a WAN-IFRA World Young Reader Prize.
Hamann will be speaking about the #25 initiative, his experiences with youth engagement and how to prevent newsroom cultures from blocking these kind of changes at the 13th International Newsroom Summit this month ion Amsterdam.
He said the challenge of rejuvenating the readership of the 126-year-old paper and its ageing newsroom, amid declining circulation figures, was significant. And it prompted creative thinking about engaging with a growing younger demographic of new readers that could potentially revive the paper's success.
"Our readers were just getting older and older. Each year, we are losing one in five or six persons in our readership. And all the journalists are getting older and older because we didn't engage young people for a long period. So it was an [inverted] age pyramid we had. The average age in our newsroom was 47.5 years," Hamann said.
The organisation began enacting their strategy in December last year, with the creation of a dedicated blog space on their website for people under 25, and written by people under 25.
"To understand what topics are interesting for the youth and write [in a manner that appeals to] the youth, it was important to involve them in the other side, our side, so they can speak to the other young people better," Hamann said.
Le Soir has since hired a dozen young journalists – each covering a different round in the newsroom and with the latitude to cover any story within their round – and made the editorial decision to put a regular spotlight on their work within the paper. A special reporting team has also been created, which concentrates on producing content of interest to young readers, including a current series about Belgians under age 25.
Though with a bold move like this, Hamann says the young journalists targeted had to be those who could bring new strengths to the organisation, such as digital skills, a capacity to work across several platforms to produce news, as well as a demonstrated interest in issues such as politics and economics that "can be sometimes difficult to find in young people".
Hamann said the move has been "a breath of fresh air" that has transformed the working culture of the newsroom – a transformation which has been similarly reflected in the paper's "fresher content" and new readers.
Hamann said he is "very proud" of the results so far, with initial feedback reportedly very positive and online engagement notably increasing. Though it's the less quantifiable or tangible results of a changing newsroom, that Le Soir's chief speaks of with the most pride.
The revival of youthful energy and enthusiasm has seen a surge in previously unfamiliar HR initiatives and group activities amongst the journalists, including social events such as drinks nights, and community-based projects such as maintaining bee-hives on the roof.
"[Our office] is next to a fantastic park in Belgium and one day, the youth decided to organise a picnic in the centre of this spot for everyone," Hamann recalls. "It was quite unusual to see all the staff of Le Soir - which is a quality newspaper and we're not really clowns - but to see all the newsroom in the middle of this park, eating their sandwiches, sharing their food. It was absolutely fantastic.
"The most important thing is [to] completely change in the life of the newsroom and the way of thinking ... so for editors, if you do it, do it in one time so it's like a shock tsunami. Because if you do it one by one, you won't change the culture of a newsroom - you have to do it suddenly," Hamann said.
"It's also important to find the right topics that people are active and interested in, so you can attract new readers," Hamann said, citing the #25 initiative but also other mini-projects the organisation has worked on to build on their youth engagement in even more targeted, niche ways: technology-focused sites such as Geeko and Belgium-iPhone, and environment and sustainability site, Demain, La Terre.
Didier Hamann will be on stage during the session How to prevent your newsroom culture blocking change at the 13th International Newsroom Summit during World Publishing Expo on 13 and 14 October 2014, in Amsterdam.


No cameras will be allowed to be taken by fans into Tampa Stadium for the 25th Super Bowl today. No portable television sets, and no radios, either. But there will be plenty of flags. Some 72,000 hand-sized flags will be given to fans to wave. Mechanical devices could be used to store explosives, and the threat of terrorism in this time of war is real.
Flags, meanwhile, are a different story. They will help show the television world -- which at home alone will consist of about 125 million people, or half the Republic -- what the National Football League feels about patriotism.
"We've become the winter version of the Fourth of July celebration," said the commissioner of the N.F.L., Paul Tagliabue, in response to a question Friday at his annual news conference, known as the football equivalent of the State of the Union message.
"It was a conscious effort on our part to bring the element of patriotism into the Super Bowl," Pete Rozelle, the former N.F.L. commissioner, said yesterday, about past Super Bowls. Rozelle was the promotional genius and guiding spirit behind much of the success of this extraordinarily popular and wacko event.
"Let's face it," said George Young, the general manager of the Giants, "we're in show business. We're selling a product, and it's football."
Early on, the N.F.L. found that wrapping itself in the flag, or whatever else was politically convenient, doesn't hurt at the box office.
"I remember when we had that hostage thing, and members of our staff wrapped a yellow ribbon around the Superdome in New Orleans," said Rozelle, about Super Bowl XV in 1981, which came about a week after the release of the American hostages in Iran, "and then we passed out yellow ribbons for everyone, and the whole arena sang, 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon.' "
While some of the productions, primarily at halftimes of the Super Bowls, were so corny they were touching, more seemed devised by the Three Stooges than Betsy Ross.
In New Orleans for Super Bowl IV, in 1970, for example, there was a re-enactment of the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812. Cannons were blasted, smoke spread through Tulane Stadium, and while many coughed and rubbed their eyes, men with muskets in old British and American uniforms were falling in mock death on the football field.
At Super Bowl V, four Air Force jets were supposed to soar over the Orange Bowl in Miami during the playing of the national anthem. The planes arrived two minutes after the last patriotic note had been tootled.
Many other sports use a patriotic motif to sell their products, in contrast to other entertainments (if anyone stood up to sing the national anthem before a movie or a play or a ballet, he'd be hauled out of there by security before he could finish three bars), but no sports outfit has done it quite as blatantly or successfully as the N.F.L.
"Do you think that in any way the N.F.L., with its reliance on patriotic symbols, is capitalizing on the terrible events in the Middle East?" Tagliabue was asked at the news conference. "And what is patriotic? And what is an appropriate public display of patriotism?"
Tagliabue answered no, that the N.F.L. wasn't capitalizing on the war, and that the league tried to use its "best judgment" in these matters, with an eye toward "proper balance" and "perspective."
Sports, Tagliabue added, are special for a lot of people in America, and the Super Bowl has become the single biggest sporting event. He said that no one could have imagined this 24 years ago, when the first Super Bowl was played in the Los Angeles Coliseum, and, he said, "there were 32,000 empty seats." This evening, at the 6:18 kickoff, there won't be a seat empty, except when people leap to their feet, to cheer a touchdown, or rise for the anthem.
Tagliabue said that he "hoped football will continue to be our focus, not politics."
Well, to even the casual ear, that statement rings false. The N.F.L. has never been far from politics, or chauvinism. And politicans, for their part, have been eager to link themselves to it. President Richard M. Nixon began it by calling the winning coaches and star players after the game. A couple of years ago Ronald Reagan even did the honors of the pre-game Super Bowl coin flip by television on the huge stadium screen from the White House. George Bush will make a statement to the nation at halftime this evening.
"Capitalizing" on the war is maybe too cynical a term for the N.F.L. But the league officials, as always, will take into account what is going on in this country and in the world and, like good businessmen, apply it to their business.
On the field during the game between the Giants and the Bills there will be, as Vince Lombardi told his players before Super Bowl I, "no brother-in-lawing." While in the stands during the game, and at halftime, and probably at other intervals, there will be much flag waving, courtesy of the hosts.


CityView Mobile provides building, engineering, enforcement parks and rental inspectors with the necessary tools to record their inspections in real time from their smartphones or tablets. CityView Mobile is built for ease of use and ease of deployment, incorporating practical functionality to enable you to get the job done. What's more, CityView Mobile provides for continued use in situations where you lose Wifi or cellular connectivity whilst in the field.
The need to record inspection results on paper and then later enter into the system is gone! With CityView Mobile you can record your inspection results and print the inspection report right there and then through a Bluetooth-enabled printer; what's more, you can have CityView automatically let your contractor know by email what the inspection results were.
CityView Mobile is created for iPads, iPhones, Blackberries, Playbooks, Androids, Windows mobile phones and more. It connects you live with your municipality so you can work from your desk, vehicle or onsite using your preferred device and have the system updated while you work.
Access their inspections to-do lists for the day and view them on a map.
Complete inspections in the field, accessing the inspections history.
Schedule inspections from the field.
Look up Contractors to display the status of their licenses i.e. whether current and valid.
Perform permit searches to check for status and outstanding fees.
Perform property searches to check for valid permits, code enforcement cases etc.
Navigate extensively through all of the above.
Automate inspection result emails to contractors.
Print inspection reports in the field.
Create Code/Bylaw Enforcement cases and issue notices of violation.


Trooper Daniel Harrell was shot in the face while serving a traffic stop but Sherice Richardson, a registered nurse, saw that he was bleeding profusely on the side of the road and took action. She is credited with saving his life.
Thank you Sherice Richardson for stopping and rendering assistance to Patrol Trooper Daniel Harrell, it was the right thing to do. Very brave! We would all be in a better world with more people like this nurse.
Sherice Richardson was meant to be there at that moment and time. God knew you had the strength to do what some others may not have been able to do.
A GoFundMe page was set up to support Patrol Trooper Daniel Harrell's hospital bills and other expenses, which has raised a little over half of the $5,000 goal.


Register! Furry Fiesta is for by furries, for furries, but we need attendees to be able to afford everything we're providing for this year and the coming years. You can help us out a lot by registering to attend Furry Fiesta 2013! Also, for the best experience at Furry Fiesta, we recommend getting a room in the con hotel.
Volunteer! We're going to need help from our attendees to keep things running smoothly. If you want to spend some of your time at the con helping us run various panels, activities and events, please visit the volunteer desk any time during the convention. You can also send us a message. Hours spent volunteering will accumulate toward rewards including a free membership at a future Furry Fiesta year.
Contribute to the conbook! We need artists and writers to contribute their talents for the Furry Fiesta conbook. Show us your creative side! Just keep it to PG-13 or below.
Overnight Help: The overnight helpers will be responsible for doing just that, working overnight. This will be necessary in tentatively 3 areas. TigerDen, Video Room and Security are the areas that will be needing assistance from the late night to early morning. Remember that all hours worked for overnight help counts as double volunteer hours!!
Production Setup/Stage Hands: All our shows will need a number of helpers to assist the members on stage with clearing off the stage and performing various other tasks through the performances.
Main Events: Main events will require people to help set up and tear down the main events rooms for the shows. This will involve moving around chairs, acting as security or even tossing the stick to the next person to attack the piñata.
Fursuit Games: Fursuit games will be just that. We will need assistance with being referee, tossing a ball back to the suiters, running around with the suiter, and all around general support for the games. Also assistance is also needed for the Fursuit Parade to help it run smoothly and to clear a path for people.
Dances: The dances need help setting up chairs and equipment for the shows before they start each day. During some of the shows we'll also need a person to act as door guard to check badges to ensure that the ballroom doesn't have any ghost attendees. After the dances are completed we will also need a set of people to help breakdown the equipment and rearrange chairs to make the room look presentable for the next day.
Logistics: Fiesta takes a lot of planning to ensure that each panel goes off without a hitch. These volunteers will help check on panels to ensure that they have everything that they need and that panels are occupied and leaving at the times specified in the schedule. Logistics volunteers will help to keep the convention running smoothly.
TigerDen: This is our internet room, and while it is pretty maintained within itself we will need volunteers to monitor the room during the con and especially overnight. These volunteers will ensure that the internet room can stay open 24 hours for our attendees.
Volunteer Table: We can only do so much during the convention. Volunteers will help to watch over the table for incoming volunteers and if necessary run around the convention looking for volunteers for upcoming events.
Convention Set up/Tear down: This is one of the many VERY important functions at the convention. These volunteers will help to unload the truck and help set up the convention on the Thursday before the convention. Also these volunteers will help on Sunday evening and Monday morning with breaking down the convention spaces and helping staff load up the truck. Remember! These hours will count as Double Time!!
Registration: These volunteers will ensure that each and every attendee has a smooth transition when coming into Fiesta by helping our Registration staff with signing up attendees for the convention and handing out the goodie bags to each attendee. Registration has many time-and-a-half and double time hours to be had, specific times will be available closer to the convention date.
Security: This function is pretty self explanatory. These volunteers will be responsible for ensuring that each attendee's stay at Fiesta is safe and fun! This job involves hallway monitors, door guards, adult panel guards, main event guards, overnight security and many other functions to make Fiesta a safe convention. Don't forget that overnight security counts as double time!!
Dealers Den: To ensure that Dealers Den runs smoothly, these volunteers help to check badges at the door and assist our Dealers Den staffers with other tasks that are needed to make the Dealers Den amazing every year.
Video Room: We need volunteers to watch the room to ensure that our video room staff can eat and sleep. The basic function of this room is to watch films and make sure that the room is safe.
Video Gaming Room: Volunteers for the video gaming room are needed throughout the convention. These volunteers will be room guards to make sure that everything stays where it should and that none of the attendees get too rough with the generously donated equipment.
Panel Room Set-up/Tear down: Volunteers for this function will be responsible with helping to set up and tear down panel rooms after each panel. Each panel needs to look crisp and new for each panelist. This is where you come in!
Art Show: The art show is one of our more popular spots. This volunteer will act as guard at either the door or in the actual art show to ensure that everyone in the art show is an actual attendee and also will help with signing attendees up with a number for purchasing from the art show.
Motion & Meditation Track: The yoga and dance tracks need assistance with helping to set up the panel room, signing in participants, door guarding and running the audio for the track. This can run anywhere to an hour to two hours. Need a volunteers who are able to take instruction well and don't mind working with basic audio equipment, as well as some charming door people.
General Assistance: Our most common need is just a general assistant. Someone who is flexible in their schedule and can help out about anywhere at the convention. These are the volunteers that basically on call when we need help in XYZ area. This is a very spur of the moment position and most often these are the volunteers that just wander by the table and assist.


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Botflies belong to the Oestridae family and their larvae infest mammals, becoming internal parasites, which grow inside the flesh of their hosts.
Distinguish between a sebaceous cyst and epidermoid cyst. An epidermoid cyst is more common than a sebaceous cyst. Each will have slightly different symptoms and will be treated just a little differently. Therefore, it is important that the cyst you have on your skin is diagnosed appropriately for effective treatment.
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Have the cyst drained. If the cyst grows significantly or becomes painful and uncomfortable, you can have it medically removed. The cyst can be cut open and drained by your doctor.