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FINAL FANTASY UEBER ALLES
The World is Veiled in Darkness
So! Let's start with some background. The year is 1987. Four years ago, two events tremendously and irrevocably altered the course of the emerging video games industry. The first was the release of Ninendo's Famicom console in Japan, the genesis (perhaps a poor choice of words in this context) of the video gaming industry as we know it today. The second was the near-total collapse of the North American video game sector, which, in the grand American tradition of bursting bubbles, was entirely its own fault. With Nintendo's 8-bit console becoming the only game in town (so to speak), the geographical axis of the video game world moved deep within Japanese territory. With all the American game companies fleeing the toxic money sinkhole they helped create, the Famicom presented Japanese software outfits with the double opportunity of a fertile market and a level playing field. Japanese game developers watched Nintendo's own Super Mario Bros., ExciteBike, and Legend of Zelda titles selling thousands of cartridges, and were eager for a stake in the action.
The first wave of third-party Famicom games arrived around the end of 1985 and into 1986. At first, most third-party NES games were ports of arcade and MSX titles, such as Jaleco's City Connection, Hudson Soft's Adventure Island, Tatio's Legend of Kage, and Capcom's 1942. Towards the middle of 1986, third-party games exclusively developed for the Famicom started hitting the shelves, such as Konami's Ganbare Goemon! Karakuri Douchuu, SunSoft's Atlantis no Nazo (ported to North America as Super Pitfall), Bandai's Dragon Ball: Shen-Long no Nazo, and Toei's Hokuto no Ken. Very few of these early third-party efforts are really noteworthy (or even that good), but one exception is the iconoclastic Dragon Quest, the third Famicom game created by longtime MSX and NEC PX98 game maker Enix.
Widely credited as the first true Japanese-style role playing game (JRPG), Dragon Quest was modeled after Western computer RPGs such as Wizardry and Ultima III, and offered Third Generation console gamers a totally different experience than what they were used to:
But let's return to 1987. A small game developmer and publisher called SquareSoft is floundering. After splitting off from parent company Denyuusha in 1986, it published a string of unsuccessful NES games such as Space Harrier ripoff 3-D World Runner, mediocre platformer Hao-Kun no Fushigi na Tabi (released as Mystery Quest in North America), OutRun clone Rad Racer, Wizardry-style first-person RPG Cleopatra no Mahou, and the unexceptional medieval fantasy shmup King's Knight. As the company drifted closer to bankruptcy, SquareSoft's Director of Planning and Development, a college dropout named Hironobu Sakaguchi, began work on a new game: a Dragon Quest clone dubbed Final Fantasy. Sakaguchi chose the name knowing that the project would likely be SquareSoft's last game and his own farewell to the video game business. Little did he know his gallows joke would go on to become the longest-running oxymoron in video game nomenclature.
Throughout its early years, SquareSoft's business strategy consisted almost solely of stealing other people's ideas. Many of its first efforts were inferior copies of other games, which might have been why the company performed so poorly to begin with. Final Fantasy itself was a Dragon Quest clone that never would have existed had Enix not broken the mold. But the difference was that it was the first time one one of Square's ripoffs was an improvement on the original. Not that that in itself was some momentus achievement, mind you. Dragon Quest is something like a Ford Model-T within the video game sphere: innovative, popular, and tremendously influential, but ultimately a damn jalopy.
I've taken some flak for badmouthing Dragon Quest before, but (at the risk of sounding like a fanboy idiot) let's face it: as far as the earliest installments are concerned, there's really no contest. Final Fantasy is the superior software. It's got better music, more items, more spells, more monsters, a richer world, and a more interesting storyline, and this is all just quantitative. Final Fantasy's customizable four-man crew eclipses the first two Dragon Quests' one and three-character parties. The expanded and improved turn-based battle system makes for a deeper game, inasmuch as the player isn't sitting around drooling for hours at a time while his one character trades 1 HP blows with a single monster. The concentration of early-genre bullshit is significantly reduced: there isn't as much EXP grinding, the player doesn't have to buy or find keys to open a hundred thousand locked doors, and never has to stress over how many torches he's got left. There's none of that "press the A button and select the 'Stairs' command to walk down a flight of stairs" nonsense, either. Dragon Quest may have come first and concocted the JRPG, but Final Fantasy made it good.
Pick four and get going!
FIGHTER/KNIGHT
Well, so much for balance. First guy on the roster and he's 70% of the team. The Fighter ("Warrior" in more recent translations) excels in dealing and receiving damage. He's about tied for strongest, has the most HP, and can use just about every piece of equipment in the game. When he gets promoted to Knight, he's even able to use low-level White Magic. If your party doesn't have any of these guys, you've effectively castrated it.
THIEF/NINJA
He's like a Fighter, only he can't equip heavy weapons or armor, has fewer hit points, and isn't nearly as strong or durable. But he is good at running away from battle! (Supposedly.) Thieves are all right. Their saving grace is that they eventually become Ninjas, which are vast improvements. They have access to almost as much equipment as the Knight and can learn some useful Black Magic to boot, but they're definitely not the dual-wielding, dodge-everything, throw-shit-at-people powerhouses they become in later games.
BLACK BELT/GRAND MASTER
Black Belt punches stuff. And...well, that's really all there is to say. Black Belts ("Monks" in recent translations) are low-maintenance units. They deal about as much damage as Fighters (even more at higher levels), but they're also less versatile and customizable. They don't really use weapons, can only equip basic armor, and never learn any spells. Boring.
RED MAGE/RED WIZARD
The name of his game is versatility. He can equip swords, wear decent armor, and cast both white and black magic. He doesn't excel at anything, but his being able to do a little bit of everything makes him a good addition to almost any team. A true pimp, through and through. It's worth mentioning that magic in Final Fantasy is fueled by individual spell "charges" instead of the MP pool used in Dragon Quest (and most later Final Fantasy games).
WHITE MAGE/WHITE WIZARD
Hammers and healing: the White Mage in a nutshell. She's good for three things: patching up hurt units, casting defensive buffs, and killing undead monsters en masse with HARM spells. The mark of the true Final Fantasy fanatic is having completed the game with a party of four unpromoted White Mages.
BLACK MAGE/BLACK WIZARD
This shrouded, beady-eyed little pipsqueak was always the most charming of the Light Warriors. Black Mage's job is to clear out swathes of enemies with elemental spells and use the FAST spell to spur Fighter into an amphetamine death rage. You'll notice that his promoted form has an uncovered face here, while later games and remakes always keep him shadowed.
The first Final Fantasy boss ever used to be a good knight, until...
BIKKE & PIRATES
Useless seafaring pansies who were somehow able to take over the port town of Pravoka. After the two minutes you spend wiping them out, their boss gives you his ship.
ASTOS
The scheming Dark Elf who put a curse on the Elf Prince in order to usurp the throne. He tricks you into slogging through the game's first really nasty dungeon (the Marsh Cave), then tries to kill you with RUB once you bring him what he wants. The jerk appears once again in Final Fantasy IV, then retires from the series.
LICH, THE FIEND OF EARTH
Residing in the Earth Cave (uh), Lich is responsible for the rotting blight spreading across the planet. Though he looks kind of like an anorexic drag queen with a meth problem, he can easily rip apart an unprepared party. I still consider Lich's sudden reappearance in the final dungeon the single most shocking moment in any Final Fantasy game.
KARY, THE FIEND OF FIRE
As the Fire Fiend, Kary (Marilith in more recent translations) is committed to seeing everything in the world engulfed in flames. Good thing she's been napping at the bottom of the Gurgu Volcano for the last few hundred years -- or at least she was, until you killed off Lich and woke her up. Oddly enough, FIRE works better than ICE against her and she's vulnerable to STUN. (According to Final Fantasy Wiki, "Kary" is a mistranslation of "Kali." Almost egregious a botch as mistaking "Exodus" for "Exdeath.")
KRAKEN, THE FIEND OF WATER
1,000 years ago Kraken and Tiamat joined forces and effectively destroyed civilization, marking their triumph by establishing themselves at the nerve centers of the societies they brought down. Tiamat struck at the Sky People, while Kraken went for the coastal city of Onrac. Now the Water Fiend lurks in the shadowed depths of the sunken Sea Shrine. Kraken is either a very easy or extremely difficult fight. Sometimes he'll just sit there and cast pathetic spells like INK and LIT2 as you pound on him, and other times he'll smash your party one by one with tremendous physical attacks.
TIAMAT, THE FIEND OF WIND
The mightiest of the Four is responsible for the fall of the technologically-advanced Sky People and has taken over their orbiting Sky Castle for his own nefarious use. Tiamat is a jerk and doesn't have any real weaknesses. They say he's vulnerable to BANE, but it's never once worked for me.
WARMECH
The distant predecessor to your modern-day Omega Weapons and Yiazamats. Some newer English translations have redubbed it "Death Machine," which is probably more accurate and definitely more appropriate. You do not want to bump into this guy in the Floating Castle.
The evil will of Garland combined with the powers of the four Fiends. This is already looking bad. It's always nice when a story comes full circle, though.
THE KING OF CONERIA & PRINCSS SARAH
The unnamed king of Coneria is a cheap copy of Dragon Quest's King Lorik, who himself is a cheap copy of Ultima's Lord British. Like Lorik and British, the King is there to tell Light Warriors what to do and send them on their way. Although he refuses to give the heroes any financial help, revive them, or record their progress, he's more than willing to build them a bridge over the river so they can get the hell out of his kingdom and away from his daughter. Princess Sarah, meanwhile, is the Light Warriors' biggest fan and has a few incarnations in later games.
MATOYA & BROOMS
Matoya is a blind witch living in a cave north of Coneria who dispatches the heroes on the very first of the approximate 79,853 fetch quests throughout the Final Fantasy series. Her only friends are backwards-talking brooms.
ELVES & DWARVES
Final Fantasy was one of the earliest adventure game to include towns made up of demihuman inhabitants, something which RPGs are now practically required to have. Before Square deemed classic Tolkein and AD&D races inadequately zazzy and started making up mythical anthropods of its own, elves and dwarves suited Final Fantasy just fine. Variations of the dwarves pop up now and again in various later games, but the elves aren't quite so lucky.
THE CIRCLE OF SAGES
Twelve wise men led to Crescent Lake by stars and prophecy. Dispensers of wisdom, plot developments and canoes, the Circle is an okay bunch of guys by me. Tuesday is Bingo Night.
BAHAMUT & DRAGONS
The Cardia Islands are home to a race of friendly dragons whose king is Bahamut. Though he almost always functions as a summon spell in later games, here he is an NPC who dispatches the Light Warriors on a quest to prove their courage. Bringing Bahamut the Rat's Tail from the Castle of Ordeals convinces him to transform your characters into stronger and more realistically-proportioned versions of themselves.
THOSE OTHER PIRATES
Sons of bitches.
WARRIORS, revive the power of the ORBS!!
From a present-day perspective, what might be most striking about 1987's Final Fantasy is how little it resembles its sequels. Almost none of the things we now associate with those two F-words are anywhere to be seen. There is no adolescent male protagonist in stylish clothes who comes of age and learns the meaning of friendship and duty as he travels the world and battles the forces of evil; nor is there a well-meaning but ultimately inept gorgeous female co-star who falls in love with the hero after being rescued by him three or four times. There are no long-haired, borderline androgynous antagonists with textbook Freudean disorders who want to destroy the world in order to save it. There are no cutscenes: the player's characters never speak (much less carry on five-minute conversations amongst themselves), and NPC speech is almost always limited to what can be squeezed inside a single text box. None of the Light Warriors are capable of summoning magnificent energy blasts during desperate moments; there are no god-conjuring spells with painstakingly-choreographed thirty to ninety-second animation sequences. There are no gimmicky weapons -- no gunblades, no razor-edged playing cards, no flintlock pistols that shoot magic, no eight-foot katanas, no Buster Swords. All of Final Fantasy's trademark critters -- moogles, chocobos, tonberries, cactuars, Ifrit, Shiva -- are nowhere to be seen. There is no trademarked real-time battle system, no specially-tailored character development mechanics like the Junction system or Sphere Grid, and no special moves involving quick button presses or spinning reels. The game certainly can't boast of having a four-year development cycle or an eight-digit budget: Final Fantasy was released within a year of its inception and worked on by about seven people (including its sole programmer, NASIR). Things were simpler then, that's for sure.
Certain 8-bit games have proved virtually immune to the passage of time. Take Super Mario Bros., Legend of Zelda, and Castlevania, for instance. Five successive console generations, plethoras of sequels and imitators, and today's improved hardware have done little to diminish their old appeal. Though they certainly show their age, these games remain just as playable and fun as they were twenty years ago, and don't need tweaked handheld ports or 3D remakes to hold their own against their new-gen successors.
Final Fantasy is not one of those games.
After over two decades of RPGs contributing new ideas to the scene, 1987's Final Fantasy might seem plain, primitive, and unremarkable, especially to members of an audience that cut its teeth on the likes of World of Warcraft and Mass Effect. Many of its most prominent characteristics -- frequent random battles, long and difficult dungeons, tight inventory caps, and EXP/gold grinds -- have been systematically elimated from console RPGs throughout the years. It's got a whole laundry list of design flaws and idiosyncracies. For instance: "hey, let's make it so the Fighter and Black Mage switch places in line whenever Fighter gets poisoned, then set up the interface so the player has to navigate through two entirely independent menu screens before everyone's cured and back in order!" (It probably doesn't sound annoying if you haven't played the game, but NES verterans know exactly what I'm talking about.) You've got a bunch of spells that don't actually do anything, like LOCK, TMPR, AMUT, and SABR. There's that cute little glitch that makes it so all those special, hard-to find elemental weapons don't actually do what they're supposed to, leaving most of them absolutely useless. And it's damn hard to overlook the absence of automatic target-changing in the event of a prematurely felled foe. Someone like Miyamoto would have never let this stuff pass in his game.
In spite of my own fondness for it, I understand why present-day gamers, including JRPG fans and NES enthusiasts, might not have the interest or patience to sit down with the game for more than a couple of hours. This is not to say that Final Fantasy is an unplayable relic, but it's definitely a title that needs to be appreciated in the context of its time.
So why was Final Fantasy such a success?
Since telling a story is traditionally what Final Fantasy is known to excel at, let's start there. The original game's plot, compared to the interactive graphic novel JRPGs of the mid to late '90s and the CG blockbusters from the last decade, is sparse and rudimentary. But this shouldn't surprise you: it was released during a time when video games' storylines were usually consigned to a page in the instruction booklet or a few words that scrolled up the title screen when the Start button wasn't pressed right away. Not even adventure and role-playing games offered anything much more complex than "the good white-bearded king summons thee to rescue Princess X and slay Wizard/Dragon Y." Final Fantasy, on the other hand, tells a story about world-sustaining elemental crystals, lost civilizations, time travel, and supernatural revenge. Its inclusion of subplots, mysteries, dozens of characters, and a climax where metaphysical/pseudoscientific gibberish and deus ex machina collide was years ahead of the curve. Pretty much everything in the game has since become the essence of JRPG cliché, but this was some cutting-edge stuff in a 1987 Nintendo game. (PC gamers, however, had probably already seen most of this stuff in the first few Ultima installments, and reserve this as one of their many causes for sneering at us console tards.)
Final Fantasy never focuses on the personalities and inner conflicts of its characters. Its story doesn't play out through cutscenes or by guiding the player along a narrative. Instead, Final Fantasy is about the interaction between the player and the game's world. The player guides his characters (mute, in-game proxies for the player and not the distinct fictional entities they are in later Final Fantasy entries) through the game and gradually uncovers its world's history and secrets. This kind of storytelling is only possible with the interactive nature of the video game as a medium -- as opposed to today's non-interactive cinematics, which would be better suited for non-interactive media like television and film. (Granted, Final Fantasy's story wouldn't exactly lend itself to any other media: TONIGHT ON HBO PRESENTS FINAL FANTASY! A little red man must deliver the CROWN to Astos so he'll drop the CRYSTAL which he must return to Matoya in exchange for her most potent HERB! Will the potent HERB revive the Elf Prince so he'll give the little red man the MYSTIC KEY to unlock the treasure room containing the TNT? Guest-starring James Gandolfini!) Again, it's still all very basic by today's standards, but one good thing you could say about this is that it means the partition between Final Fantasy: The Story and Final Fantasy: The Game is not nearly as solid as it is in today's JRPGs.
You're probably already familiar with how basic JRPG combat and exploration works, so there's really no need to explain Final Fantasy's here. You've got your turn-based, random battles at their simplest -- though the game does, to the best of my knowledge, introduce the concept of elemental affinities to RPGs. If you look at it next to more recent Final Fantasy games (and other JRPGs), you'll notice that it is less about battle tactics and discovering borked skill combinations than resource management and knowing how to choose your fights.
Final Fantasy doesn't give you much to work with. There is only one (1) health-restoring potion, and it's only good for about 30 HP. The party can hold up to 99 of these, which only sounds like a lot. You don't get as much healing magic as you'd like, and spell list forces you choose between expending turns and magic charges on spells that either restore a moderate amount of HP for a single character, or a piddling amount for the whole party. There is no way for magic users to replenish spell charges inside dungeons. The only way to restore a party member who's hit 0 HP is through a couple of spells that only the White Mage and promoted Red Mage have access to and cannot be used during battles. There are no save or heal points inside dungeons. The real challenge of Final Fantasy is in handling the deluge of random battles as best you can and finding ways to stretch your team's supplies as you guide them through labrynthine, multi-floored dungeons without maps. This actually makes the dungeon treks one of the game's highlights, and not just a series of annoyances that must be slogged through in order to progress to the next boss fight or cutscene.
Final Fantasy is a good-looking game for 1987, but 8-bit graphics are a matter of developers doing as much as they can with a very limited set of tools. Only so much personality can be imbued into eleven-color environments, 16 x 16 four-color overworld sprites, and 16 x 24 three-color battle sprites. All Final Fantasy really had to do was look better than Dragon Quest, and all that demanded was that designers put roofs on the buildings and assemble tilesets that didn't look like building blocks laid out over wallpaper patterns. But there's some geniune eyecandy to be found in the monster sprites, which are pixellated renditions (exceptionally faithful ones, at that) of Yoshitaka Amano's paper and ink illustrations. Sakaguchi was savvy enough to know that Final Fantasy needed something to set it apart from Dragon Quest's Dragon Ball look, and found a suitable foil to Toriyama in Amano's surrealist-inspired art.
What really establishes the game's atmosphere is Nobuo Uematsu's soundtrack. Uematsu has received his share of criticism over the years (not all of it undue), but being able to produce a memorable, felicitous video game score with the Famicom/NES hardware is the mark of a talented composer. Here you'll find some of Uematsu's best-known work, including "Prelude," "Opening Theme," and "Victory Fanfare," whose titles attest to his former job writing background music for TV commercials. Compared to Dragon Quest and the NES port of Ultima III, Final Fantasy's soundtrack is somewhat weightier, containing more complex, richer melodies, and fewer BLEEPS and BLOOPS. Uematsu's score and Amano's art make Final Fantasy a surprisingly evocative audiovisual experience that established aesthetic as a critical cornerstone of SquareSoft's approach to designing games. Contrary to popular belief, its concentration on image didn't begin with Final Fantasy VII or Mr. Nomura.
In fact, it's been about image from the very beginning. The signature and top selling point of the Final Fantasy series has always been this tacit claim that it's just bigger than anything else out there, whether we're looking at VI's operatic steampunk apocalypse, the gradiloquent romance of VIII, or XII's tremendous production of Star Wars X Lord of the Rings X Everquest. In truth, Square's real successes are patchier than it'll admit, but one thing it can't be accused of is ever thinking small. With Final Fantasy, Sakaguchi set out with the professed intention of making a video game with a bigger world and story than anyone had seen before. The title, I suspect, was only partly chosen for its value as a dark joke. It may very well have been Sakaguchi's boast that his (and possibly Squaresoft's) last game was going to be the adventure game to top all others. Again, not that this was too hard: the JRPG was still a young genre, and the bar was only set as high as Dragon Quest.
When it was released, Final Fantasy was as big as 8-bit video games got. In addition to having a larger world, more monsters, more spells, more items, more characters, and deeper dungeons, it also let players fly around the world map in a god damn airship. It's the only 8-bit game I can think of that requires the player to Rescue The Princess before he's even allowed to see the title screen. The heroes' journey takes the player around the world, into outer space, and finally into the past -- which is farther than Erdrick or Link ever got in their early games. (Link and/or Erdrick, depending on which version you're playing, can be found dead and buried in a corner of the third town you visit, and the dates on the tombstone suggest an untimely demise.) In additon to trying to just be fun, Final Fantasy was one of the earliest games that strove for an epic scope and actually succeeded -- to an extent. It did well enough, anyway, to rescue SquareSoft from financial oblivion, inspire generations of copycats, and turn Famitsu magazine into its fawning slave for the whole duration of its publication.
So to answer the original question -- what made Final Fantasy such a hit? Three things: novelty, charm, and good timing.
It's really no more complicated than that.
So how does Final Fantasy really stack up? Well, it's not as technically exquisite as Chrono Trigger. Its combat system isn't nearly as interesting or fun as those in Grandia, Tales, or Shadow Hearts. It hasn't the tremendous scope of Xenosaga, the character-driven pathos of Valkyrie Profile, the sci-fi je nai se quoi of Phantasy Star, or the quirky genre-splicing of Paper Mario. But it isn't fair to judge Final Fantasy relative to these newer, more advanced games, because in all likelihood none of them would exist without it. Had Final Fantasy never appeared, the entire JRPG sphere may never have deviated from Dragon Quest, and remained, like the dating sim, a Japanese niche market. Without the innovation and energy Square injected into the genre during the years between 1987 and 1997, and without any other serious contenders to counter Dragon Quest's massive influence, the console RPG scene might have stagnated in the early to mid Nineties; and without its impact on the rest of the industry -- largely positive and progressive, at least at first -- Daikatana and Mortal Kombat Mythologies would be renowned today as the most beloved games in the Occident simply because we wouldn't know any better. (But this, however probable, is only speculation.)
In 1987, the important thing was only that Final Fantasy be better than Dragon Quest -- which it was and still is. And today? It's not perfect and it's only getting clunkier with age, but it's still a straightforward and fun NES RPG that's refreshingly devoid of any of the gimmicks or vapid pizazz that saturate modern-day console RPGs. Anyone who wants to call themself a "gamer" owes it to themselves to check it out at least once (Final Fantasy Origins on the PlayStation is the recommended version) for its value as a historical curiosity: these are the humble beginnings of the least humble video game franchise on the planet.
Next: The Terrible Twos


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Il collegio elettorale di Stradella è stato un collegio elettorale uninominale del Regno d'Italia per l'elezione della Camera dei deputati.

Storia
Il collegio uninominale venne istituito, insieme ad altri 442, tramite regio decreto 17 dicembre 1860, n. 4513.

Fu soppresso nel 1882 in seguito alla riforma che stabilì complessivamente 135 collegi elettorali.

Venne poi ricostituito come collegio uninominale tramite regio decreto 14 giugno 1891, n. 280, in seguito alla riforma che stabilì complessivamente 508 collegi elettorali.

Fu soppresso nel 1919 in seguito alla riforma che definì 54 collegi elettorali.

Territorio
Era formato dal territorio di due precedenti collegi del Regno di Sardegna, quelli cioè di Stradella e di Broni, comprendente nel 1861 i mandamenti di Stradella, Broni, Montù Beccaria, Soriasco, Santa Giuletta e Montalto Pavese.

Nel 1891 venne ripristinato il collegio uninominale. Nel nuovo riparto comprendeva i comuni di Stradella, Arena Po, Portalbera, Barbianello, Casanova Lonati, Mezzanino, Pinarolo Po, Verrua Siccomario, Broni, Albaredo Arnaboldi, Campospinoso, Canneto Pavese, San Cipriano Po, Montalto Pavese, Borgoratto Mormorolo, Calvignano, Lirio, Montù Berchielli, Mornico Losana, Oliva Gessi, Rocca de' Giorgi, Staghiglione, Montù Beccaria, Bosnasco, Castana, Montescano, San Damiano al Colle, Zenevredo, Santa Giuletta, Cigognola, Pietra de' Giorgi, Redavalle, Torricella Verzate, Soriasco, Canevino, Donelasco, Golferenzo, Montecalvo Versiggia, Rovescala, Volpara; coincideva dunque con il vecchio territorio del collegio.

Dati elettorali
Nel collegio si svolsero elezioni per quattordici legislature.

VIII legislatura

Fu eletto Agostino Depretis. Decaduto il Depretis a causa della sua nomina a ministro dei lavori pubblici il 3 marzo 1862, si tenne un'elezione suppletiva che riconfermò il Depretis.

IX legislatura

Fu eletto Agostino Depretis. Decaduto Depretis a causa della sua nomina a ministro della marina il 20 giugno 1866, si tenne l'elezione suppletiva, che riconfermò il Depretis. Nuovamente decaduto il Depretis a causa della sua nomina a ministro delle finanze il 17 gennaio 1867, non fu indetta l'elezione suppletiva a causa della fine anticipata della legislatura.

X legislatura

Fu eletto Agostino Depretis. Dimissionario il Depretis il 20 luglio 1870, fu indetta un'elezione suppletiva in cui venne rieletto il Depretis. Tuttavia la legislatura si chiuse prima della ratifica della nomina da parte della Camera.

XI legislatura

Fu eletto Agostino Depretis, unico candidato.

XII legislatura

Fu eletto Agostino Depretis. Decaduto il Depretis a seguito della sua nomina a Presidente del Consiglio il 25 marzo 1876, nella successiva elezione suppletiva venne riconfermato.

XIII legislatura

Fu eletto Agostino Depretis. Decaduto il Depretis a seguito della sua nomina a Presidente del Consiglio il 19 dicembre 1878, nella successiva elezione suppletiva venne riconfermato. Nuovamente decaduto il Depretis per una nuova nomina a Presidente del Consiglio il 25 novembre 1879, in un'ulteriore elezione suppletiva venne ancora riconfermato.

XIV legislatura

Fu eletto Agostino Depretis, unico candidato.

XVIII legislatura

Fu eletto Bernardo Arnaboldi.

XIX legislatura

Fu eletto Bernardo Arnaboldi.

XX legislatura

Fu eletto Bernardo Arnaboldi.

XXI legislatura

Al primo turno risultò eletto Luigi Montemartini, ma i voti di alcune sezioni che avrebbero fatto prevalere Bernardo Arnaboldi non erano stati assegnati a causa di irregolarità. Dopo molti mesi la Giunta per le elezioni della Camera assegnò i voti di quelle sezioni coi quali però l'Arnaboldi pur vincente non avrebbe raggiunto il quorum della metà dei voti; fu pertanto necessario il ballottaggio nel quale risultò vincente Montemartini.

XXII legislatura

Fu eletto Luigi Montemartini. A seguito delle dimissioni di Montemartini ebbe luogo un'elezione suppletiva che riconfermò il Montemartini.

XXIII legislatura

Fu eletto Luigi Montemartini, unico candidato.

XXIV legislatura

Fu eletto Luigi Montemartini, unico candidato.

Note

Bibliografia

Voci correlate
 Collegio elettorale di Stradella (Regno di Sardegna)
 Collegi elettorali del Regno d'Italia

Collegi elettorali del Regno d'Italia del 1861
Collegi elettorali del Regno d'Italia del 1891
Collegi elettorali del Regno d'Italia in provincia di Pavia
Stradella

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


King Kong is a 2005 film and a remake of the 1933 classic and 1976 remake of the same name.
Peter Jackson's remake of the 1933 classic follows director Carl Denham (Jack Black) and his film crew on a journey to ominous Skull Island, from New York City, to film a new movie. Accompanying him are actress Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) and playwright Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody). While on Skull Island Ann is whisked away by the monstrous ape, Kong. The film crew encounters dinosaurs and other creatures as they race to rescue Ann, while the actress forms a bond with her simian captor.


कर्टीन विद्यापीठ (एक ट्रेडमार्क तंत्रज्ञान कर्टीन विद्यापीठ) ऑस्ट्रेलियन सार्वजनिक संशोधन विद्यापीठ बेंटली आधारित आहे,पर्थ, वेस्टर्न ऑस्ट्रेलिया. विद्यापीठ ऑस्ट्रेलिया 14 पंतप्रधान नंतर नावाचा आहे, जॉन कर्टीन, आणि वेस्टर्न ऑस्ट्रेलिया मध्ये सर्वात मोठी विद्यापीठ आहे, षटक 50,000 विद्यार्थी (आतापर्यंत 2014) पर्थ समावेश ठिकाणी, मार्गारेट रिवर, कल्गुरली, मलेशिया आणि सिंगापूर.
कायदे वेस्टर्न ऑस्ट्रेलिया संसदेने संमत झाल्यानंतर कर्टीन विद्यापीठ स्थिती प्रदान करण्यात आला 1986. तेंव्हापासून, विद्यापीठ त्याच्या उपस्थिती विस्तारत गेले आहे आणि सिंगापूर आणि Sarawak मध्ये कँपस आहे. हे संबंध आहे 90 विनिमय विद्यापीठे 20 देश. The University comprises five main faculties with over 95 विशेषज्ञ केंद्रे. The University formerly had a Sydney campus between 2005 & 2016. रोजी 17 सप्टेंबर 2015, कर्टीन विद्यापीठ परिषद लवकर करून त्याच्या सिडनी कॅम्पस बंद निर्णय घेतला 2017.
कर्टीन विद्यापीठ ऑस्ट्रेलियन तंत्रज्ञान नेटवर्क एक सदस्य आहे (ATN), आणि शैक्षणिक आणि व्यावहारिक फील्ड श्रेणी संशोधन सक्रिय आहे, including Resources and Energy (उदा, पेट्रोलियम गॅस), माहिती व दळणवळण, आरोग्य, देखिल आणि कल्याण (सार्वजनिक आरोग्य), समुदाय आणि वातावरण बदलणे, वाढ आणि समृद्धी आणि क्रिएटिव्ह लेखन.
हे AINSE सुवर्ण पदक एक पीएचडी प्राप्तकर्ता निर्मिती फक्त पाश्चात्य ऑस्ट्रेलियन विद्यापीठ आहे, जे ऑस्ट्रेलिया आणि न्यूझीलंड पीएचडी-पातळीवरील संशोधन सर्वोत्कृष्ट सर्वोच्च पुरस्कार आहे.
कर्टीन संशोधन आणि भागीदारी कार्यरत झाले आहेत परदेशी, विशेषतः मुख्य भूप्रदेश चीन मध्ये. तो व्यवसाय एक नंबर मध्ये सहभागी आहे, व्यवस्थापन, आणि संशोधन प्रकल्प, विशेषतः supercomputing मध्ये, विद्यापीठ पर्थ मध्येही एक तिरंगी युरोपिअन अरे सहभाग जेथे, बीजिंग, and Edinburgh. Western Australia has become an important exporter of minerals, petroleum and natural gas. The Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited the Woodside-funded hydrocarbon research facility during his visit to Australia in 2005.
Curtin University was founded in 1966 म्हणून Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT). Its nucleus comprised the tertiary programs of the Perth Technical College, उघडता जे 1900.
मध्ये 1969, three more institutions were merged with WAIT: the Western Australian School of Mines (उघडले 1902), the Muresk Agricultural College (उघडले 1926), and the Schools of Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy (in operation since the 1950s at Shenton Park). दरम्यान 1966 आणि 1976 WAIT experienced an expansion from 2,000 ते 10,000 विद्यार्थी.
डिसेंबर मध्ये 1986 the Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT) was made a university, under provisions of the WA Institute of Technology Amendment Act 1986. Curtin University took its name from the former Prime Minister of Australia, जॉन कर्टीन. Curtin accepted its first students as a university 1987.
मध्ये 2005, Curtin and मरडॉक विद्यापीठ were engaged in a feasibility study into the possibility of a merger. मात्र, वर 7 नोव्हेंबर 2005, both institutions issued a press release that such a merger would not be undertaken.
मध्ये 2009, Curtin became the first university in the Australian Technology Network to be listed on the Academic Ranking of World Universities of research universities.
मध्ये 2010, Curtin dropped the "of Technology" suffix, from then operating as "कर्टीन विद्यापीठ". The legal name remains Curtin University of Technology until the Act under which it operates is amended by the Western Australian government.


When my husband's relatives visit from back east, I like to make them a Mexican gift basket with food items they probably have never seen before, but we eat all the time. It is a fun way to welcome them to our part of the country, the beautiful West.
You can find the ingredients for a Mexican gift basket at a larger grocery store or any small Mexican grocery store (tienda).
Find a Southwestern style basket or use a tortilla warmer to hold everything. If you want filler, you can use red, white and green paper or a southwestern style napkin or towel. Then start with a good bag of chips and a gourmet salsa. Add some dried or canned beans, queso fresco (Mexican crumbling cheese), dried or canned chiles, fresh limes, good corn tortillas (if you don't know a good corn tortilla when you see it, you definitely need to visit a Mexican grocery store) and a couple avocados.
Note from Mel: I am getting very hungry right now! This idea for a Mexican gift basket is great no matter where you live. And if you have never been to a Mexican grocery store, you will have fun seeing something different from our huge chain stores.


This ebook is the definitive serious heritage of technology fiction. The 2006 first variation of this paintings traced the advance of the style from old Greece and the eu Reformation via to the top of the twentieth century. This new 2d version has been revised completely and extremely considerably elevated. An all-new ultimate bankruptcy discusses 21st-century technology fiction, and there's new fabric in each bankruptcy: a wealth of latest readings and unique study. The author's groundbreaking thesis that technological know-how fiction is born out of the 17th-century Reformation is the following strengthened with a variety of new assisting fabric and lots of 1000s of seventeenth- and 18th-century technology fiction texts, a few of that have by no means been mentioned earlier than. The account of 19th-century technology fiction has been elevated, and a number of the chapters tracing the twentieth-century herald extra writing by means of ladies, and technology fiction in different media together with cinema, television, comics, fan-culture and different modes.
Notice the poet inside of! you will have learn poetry that has touched your center, and you need to enhance your personal writing strategy. yet although you've got a great deal of notion, you are getting to know that reliable guide could be as elusive as a superb metaphor. the total Idiot's consultant to Writing Poetry can help you compose strong, emotion-packed poems that you should be pleased with.
The 1st and in simple terms finished paintings of its variety, The spouse to 20th Century Poety in English charts the improvement of poetry from 1900 to the current, around the entire of the English-speaking international, from the USA, nice Britain, and eire to New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, Trinidad and Zimbabwe--anywhere the place poets write in English.
The Poet's brain is an incredible learn of ways Victorian poets concept and wrote concerning the human brain. It argues that Victorian poets, inheriting from their Romantic forerunners the assumption that subjective options and emotions have been crucial fabrics for poetry, used their writing either to provide expression to psychological strategies and to scrutinise and examine these procedures.
Forty) that propels him into outer area. touchdown at the Moon he meets the outdated testomony prophet Elijah, who tells him that this can be the backyard of Eden (Elijah, we find, had formerly travelled to the Moon in a magnetised chariot). vacationing around the Moon Cyrano encounters its aboriginal population – significant beast-men, now not in contrast to huge horses. He converses with a extra humanoid alien born at the solar yet now resident at the Moon. One social category of Lunarians makes use of tune rather than language; nutrients is inhaled instead of ingested; towns are cellular. saved as a puppy in a kind of zoo by way of the Lunarians, Cyrano meets Domingo Gonsales (the fictional hero of Seventeenth-Century technological know-how Fiction forty nine Francis Godwin's guy within the Moone). he's then wear trial to make your mind up no matter if his rivalry that the Earth is inhabited is actionable or no longer, even though he's later published. After a long meal, and dialogue with a moon-being touching on religions and cosmology, Cyrano comes to a decision that his interlocutor is possessed via the satan, and clings directly to him as he flies up into the air. he's thereby transported again to Earth, touchdown in Italy. A moment myth used to be released in fragmentary shape: Fragment d'histoire comique par Monsieur de Cyrano Bergerac, contenant les états et empires du soleil ('Cyrano de Bergerac's Comical background, Containing the States and Empires of the Sun', 1687). during this paintings, Cyrano's account of his time at the Moon has landed him in hassle with conservative ecu gurus: he escapes imprisonment, and manages to come back to outer area by way of a 3rd flying machine: a craft powered by way of mirrors that deflect the sun's rays to supply levitation. Flying via area, Cyrano finally lands at the sunlight, which he unearths to be populated via a utopian society of clever birds, a 'Parlement des oiseaux'. those creatures positioned him on trial for the crime of being a individual and sentence him to demise, even if the intercession of a parrot (whom Cyrano had as soon as published from a cage) reprieves him. Cyrano's adventures mixture fantastical humanist hypothesis at the fabric nature of lifestyles with long, to trendy sensibilities, quite tedious disquisitions on theological questions. the purpose, for seventeenth-century SF, is that as an emergent mode it negotiates accurately those amounts: the 'scientific' and the non secular, the inventive probabilities of the 1st dialectically engaged with the human anxieties in regards to the erosion of the latter. extra in particular, Cyrano returns time and again to the query of the plurality of worlds, the difficulty over which Bruno most likely misplaced his lifestyles, and which persevered to be a stay factor through the century. sooner than he even leaves the Earth, Cyrano's protagonist is having earnest discussions with a French army officer as to if 'les étoiles fixes sont autant de soleils … [ou] que le monde serait infini', their end being that 'comme Dieu a pu faire l'âme immortelle, il a pu faire le monde infini' ('just as God made the soul immortal, so He made the universe infinite', Cyrano, Voyage dans los angeles lune, pp.


11) Salt as per taste.
Clean and chopped methi add cumin seeds, Sesame Seeds, Carom Seeds, besan, red chilli powder, salt and make thick batter.
Heat oil in kadhai, drop above batter by using small spoon and fry gatta until golden brown.
For stuffing take slices of onion and tomato roasted peanuts powder, cumin and coriander powder, turmeric powder, malvani masala and salt in grander and make a fine paste.
Wash eggplants. Make 4 partial vertical slits of the eggplants.
Do not cut through the eggplant into pieces.
Now stuff these eggplants with the above paste.
Heat oil into a pan add place stuffed eggplant very carefully.
Keep the flame on medium.
Keep on changing position of eggplant. Add remaining mixture of stuffing and little water.
Cover with lid adds little water into lid. Let the eggplants cook in steam.
Once it cooked add gatta and let it cook for 2-3 minutes.
Garnished with coriander leaves and serve with Chapatti, Bhakri or rice it taste very nice.


I do holiday ornaments for my tree. I like homemade ornaments-- and not those plastic fake things!!
I keep on saying I'm going to do stockings here but they never get made!! It is really hard to stitch holiday themes because you just want to stitch closer to the holidays and you never have time. Maybe I will get them done for next year!! LOL!! I can also stitch for my MIL - her birthday is in December so Christmas themed items are always good!!
Reminds me of the Naturo christmas stocking my friends and I found. They bought it and I stitched her name on it. I can't wait to give it to her.
I modified my sister's avatar on DA (lately it's been a big source of inspiration for me!) into a Christmas version - well, I just added a red hat instead of the party one it had. I should start it soon if I want to finish it for Christmas!


text:
יום שישי, 8 ביוני 2018
באיחור מה, נתקבלה תשובת אוניברסיטת מרילנד.
בגדול, הם אומרים כאן שהוידאו חלקי ונתון לסילופים ועוד יאדה יאדה. עם זאת, מניסיוני אני משוכנע שתגובת הנגד והרעש התקשורתי עשו את שלהם. אי אפשר לחמוק עוד מידיו הארוכות של השיימינג. הכוח עבר לצרכנים, לאנשים הקטנים, למסכנים ברחוב, למושפלי כל העולם. כל אחד מחזיק מצלמה, וכל מצלמה מסוגלת לשזוף עוולות.
הנה תגובתה המלאה של Jessica L. Jennings מאוניברסיטת מרילנד.
Thank you for contacting the President's office. We appreciate you reaching out to share your concerns, and we have since gathered more information so that we could respond to your letter.
A truncated video, taken at an airport in Israel that shows an interaction between a University of Maryland visiting assistant professor and other individuals, has been circulated widely online, and we understand this prompted your outreach.
The University's Senior Vice President and Provost, as well as the Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities have reviewed this matter. They have gathered more information to understand the context of this interaction and what preceded it.
Professor Pnina Peri asserts that she was provoked and verbally attacked in the moments leading up to the video being taken. She has sought to tell her untold side of the story. Her position is confirmed through another video taken of the incident that they have reviewed. Professor Peri nonetheless deeply regrets her behavior and apologized for how she reacted to this incident. The University's academic leaders acknowledge her apology and support her ongoing contributions to the institution.
The University of Maryland is committed to its core values of freedom of expression and civility in discourse, values shared by Dr. Peri. The University appreciates her contributions to academic and educational activities on campus, and is proud of its thriving programs in Israeli studies and Jewish studies, as well as its long history of extensive educational exchanges, joint research, and study abroad programs with many universities, research institutes, and civic organizations in Israel.
Again, thank you for your outreach.
Jessica Jennings
Office of Strategic Communications | University of Maryland
צר לי לאכזב אתכם ישראלים, בעולם אין מונדיאל, יש Wo...
איזה מזל שארגנטינה לא תשחק בארץ! 😃

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
\section{Introduction}
\label{sec:introduction}
The history of the deflection of neutral atoms and molecules in vacuum began in 1922 with the famous
Stern-Gerlach-experiment~\cite{Stern:ZP7:249, Gerlach:ZP9:349, Rabi:PR55:526}, which exploited the
Zeeman effect of silver atoms and the corresponding force in an inhomogeneous magnetic field. Just a
few years later the deflection of molecules by an inhomogeneous electric field was
demonstrated~\cite{Kallmann:ZP6:352, Wrede:ZP44:261}. Various deflector shapes and techniques have
evolved to optimize the process~\cite{Chamberlain:PR129:677, Filsinger:JCP131:064309,
   DeNijs:PCCP13:19052, Chang:IRPC34:557} and an overview of various early experimentally employed
deflection-field geometries was already presented in Ramsey's textbook on molecular
beams~\cite{Ramsey:MolBeam:1956}. Modern experiments typically employed geometries approximating
two-wire fields~\cite{Chamberlain:PR129:677, Filsinger:JCP131:064309}. The technique allowed for a
wide range of application, such as the separation of molecules in individual rotational
states~\cite{Holmegaard:PRL102:023001, Wohlfart:PRA77:031404, Putzke:PCCP13:18962}, of
conformers~\cite{Filsinger:ACIE48:6900, Filsinger:PRL100:133003, Kierspel:CPL591:130}, and of
specific molecular clusters~\cite{Trippel:PRA86:033202}. Additionally, the deflector enables the
separation of polar molecules from the seed gas, which is relevant, for instance, for gas-phase
diffraction experiments~\cite{Kuepper:PRL112:083002, Filsinger:PCCP13:2076, Barty:ARPC64:415,
   Mueller:thesis:2016}.

Alternatively, eigenstates of small polar neutral molecules can be separated using switched electric
or magnetic fields~\cite{Meerakker:NatPhys4:595, Schnell:ACIE48:6010, Bell:MP107:99,
   Hogan:PCCP13:18705, Meerakker:CR112:4828, Bethlem:JPB39:R263, Wohlfart:PRA77:031404,
   Putzke:JCP137:104310}. Large molecular ions were separated according to their shape using
ion-mobility techniques~\cite{Bohrer:ARAC1:293, Wyttenbach:ANPC65:175}. Furthermore, laser fields
have been used to deflect and decelerate neutral molecules~\cite{Stapelfeldt:PRL79:2787,
   Zhao:PRL85:2705, Fulton:PRL93:243004, Sun:PRL115:223001}, which also works for non-polar
molecules. Laser-based electric deflection has demonstrated
state-separability~\cite{Sun:PRL115:223001}, but is is limited by very small volumes, typically only
manipulating a small subset of the molecular beam. The polarizability interaction was also used in
the deceleration of hydrogen molecules in Rydberg states~\cite{Procter:CPL374:667} and in
weak-deflection polarizability measurements~\cite{Scheffers:PhysZ35:16, Chamberlain:PR129:677}. In
addition inhomogeneous ac- and dc-electric fields are predicted to manipulate the average deflection
angle and its distribution when combined with strongly aligned molecular
samples~\cite{Gershnabel:PRL104:153001, Gershnabel:JCP135:084307}.

We have developed a Stark deflector for increased separation of cold molecular species in a beam
that utilizes an improved geometry and supports stronger fields. The geometry is similar to
previously proposed~\cite{Stefanov:MeasSciTech19:055801, DeNijs:PCCP13:19052} and
utilized~\cite{Eibenberger:NJP13:043033} deflectors, but is unique in it's applicability for the
separation of molecular species in dense molecular beams~\cite{Chang:IRPC34:557}. Here, we
experimentally demonstrate its performance for the separation of the eigenstates of carbonyl sulfide
(OCS). We have characterized the deflection power through column-density measurements and the
separation of eigenstates through state-specific mixed-field orientation
measurements~\cite{Nielsen:PRL108:193001, Kienitz:CPC17:3740}. Moreover, we have performed
simulations on the deflection of non-polar molecules and discuss the feasibility of such
experiments.

\section{Theory}
\label{sec:theory}
\subsection{Stark effect}
\label{sec:stark-effect}
In first order, the interaction of a molecule with a dc electric field, the Stark effect, is
governed by the so-called permanent dipole moment $\boldsymbol{\mu}$~\cite{Gordy:MWMolSpec,
  Chang:IRPC34:557}:
\begin{equation}
   W^{(1)} = -\boldsymbol{\mu}\cdot\boldsymbol{\epsilon} = -\mu\epsilon\costheta
   \label{eq:stark:dip}
\end{equation}
and by the polarizability tensor $\boldsymbol{\alpha}$, or induced-dipole $\boldsymbol{\mu_\text{ind}}$,
interaction~\cite{Gordy:MWMolSpec}:
\begin{equation}
   W^{(2)} = \frac{1}{2}\boldsymbol{\epsilon}\boldsymbol{\alpha}\boldsymbol{\epsilon}
   = -\boldsymbol{\mu_\text{ind}}\cdot\boldsymbol{\epsilon}
   \label{eq:stark:pol}
\end{equation}
The effective, space-fixed, dipole moment $\mueff=-\partial{W}/\partial\epsilon$, the derivative
of the energy $W=W^{(1)}+W^{(2)}$ with respect to the electric field, directly describes the
interaction strength of the molecule with the field and the corresponding force in an inhomogeneous
electric field~\cite{Bethlem:JPB39:R263, Chang:IRPC34:557}:
\begin{align}
   W &= \mueff\epsilon \\
   \boldsymbol{F} &= \mueff\boldsymbol{\nabla}\epsilon
   \label{eq:force}
\end{align}

\begin{figure}
   \includegraphics[width=\figwidth]{fig1}
   \caption{(Color online) (a) Energies of the lowest-energy states of OCS in a static electric
      field and (b) the corresponding effective dipole moments. The gray line depicts the
      strong-field limit of the permanent dipole moment.}
   \label{fig:ocs-stark}
\end{figure}
Stark effect calculations were performed using a modified version of the \textsc{CMIstark} program
package~\cite{Chang:CPC185:339} with added polarizability matrix elements according to
\eqref{eq:stark:pol} \cite{Gordy:MWMolSpec}. The resulting energies and effective dipole moments of
the lowest-energy states of OCS are shown in \autoref{fig:ocs-stark}. For these field strengths the
effect of the polarizability is below 1~\% and is not visible in the data in
\autoref{fig:ocs-stark}.

\subsection{Deflector design}
\label{sec:deflector_design}
The design of the deflector was governed by the need to accept dense cold molecular beams, such as
generated in high-pressure expansions from Even-Lavie valves~\cite{Even:AIC2014:636042,
  Chang:IRPC34:557}. These beams have internal temperatures below 1~K, but in order to avoid beam
heating require large, multi-millimeter diameter skimmers and correspondingly large mechanical
apertures for the deflector. Furthermore, strong electric fields and field gradients allow for
strong deflection and separation. The fields should be strong enough for the molecules to be in the
pendular regime~\cite{Bethlem:JPB39:R263, Chang:IRPC34:557} and the field gradient should be fairly
constant over the cross-section covered by the molecular beam. In high-voltage breakdown tests we
were able to generate static electric fields up to 750~kV/cm before breakdowns occurred, however,
these breakdown voltages do also depend on the actual vacuum
gap~\cite{Latham:HighVoltageVaccumInsulation} and, thus, ask for small structures, while constant
gradients again ask for large mechanical structures.

Here, we settled on a mechanical aperture of the deflector larger than 1.5~mm with a 1.5~mm-diameter
aperture conical skimmer before the device far enough from the valve to avoid choking and
heating. We decided to limit applied voltages to $\pm30$~kV to allow for corresponding feedthroughs.

The experimental realization of fields that satisfy such conditions was discussed
before~\cite{Ramsey:MolBeam:1956, Auerbach:JCP45:2160, Bethlem:JPB39:R263, DeNijs:PCCP13:19052}. We
express the shape of the deflector by a equipotential line of a two-dimensional multipole expansion
of the electric potential~\cite{Kalnins:RSI73:2557, Bethlem:JPB39:R263, DeNijs:PCCP13:19052}:
\begin{align}
  \Phi(x,y) = \Phi_0 \Bigg[& \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{a_n}{n} \left(\frac{r}{r_0}\right)^n
                             \cos\left(n \theta\right) \notag\\
                           & + \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{b_n}{n} \left(\frac{r}{r_0}\right)^n
                             \sin\left(n \theta\right) \Bigg]
                             \label{eq:potential-multipole}
\end{align}
with $r=\sqrt{x^2+y^2}$ and $\theta=\tan^{-1}(y/x)$; $r_0$ and $\Phi_0$ are scaling factors of the
geometric size and the potential values, respectively. To obtain deflection in $x$ direction either
$a_n$ or $b_n$ can be set to zero, which results in a so called ``$a$-type'' and ``$b$-type''
deflector according to the non-zero coefficients, respectively. The influence of these coefficients
were discussed extensively elsewhere~\cite{Auerbach:JCP45:2160, Bethlem:JPB39:R263,
   DeNijs:PCCP13:19052}. We use the $b$-type shape to allow for an open mechanical structure along
the deflection direction. Moreover, we allow for arbitrarily complex numerically defined electrode
shapes to most closely follow the equipotential lines. The parameters obtained from a numerical
optimization of the $b_n$ ($n=1,2,3$) coefficients~\cite{Kienitz:thesis:2016} as well as the
parameters of previously used $a$-type deflector are specified in \autoref{tab:parameter}.
\begin{table}
   \centering
   \begin{tabular}{lcc}
     \hline\hline
     & ``$a$-type'' & ``$b$-type'' \\
     \hline
     $a_1$/$b_1$ & 0.50 & 1.94 \\
     $a_2$/$b_2$ & 0.49 & -4.80 \\
     $a_3$/$b_3$ & 0.42 & 1.00 \\
     \hline\hline
   \end{tabular}
   \caption{Parameters according to \eqref{eq:potential-multipole} for the two
      deflector geometries discussed in the text. The mechanical scale in our simulations was
      fixed at $r_0= 3.3$~mm.}
   \label{tab:parameter}
\end{table}
Cross sections of the corresponding fields, equipotential lines, and electrode geometries are
depicted in \autoref{fig:shape}. The applied voltages correspond to a maximum field strength of
363~kV/cm, which corresponds to the experiments discussed below.
\begin{figure}
   \includegraphics[width=\figwidth]{fig2}
   \caption{(Color online) Shape and electric fields of the (left) $a$-type and (right) $b$-type
      deflector geometries. The numerically calculated electric field strengths for the actual
      electrode geometries are depicted in color coding and white lines depict the equipotential
      lines according to \eqref{eq:potential-multipole}, the $a_i/b_i$ coefficients specified in
      \autoref{tab:parameter}, and for $\phi/\phi_0$ ratios of (a) $-20,-10,0,10,20$ (left to right)
      and (b) of $0.6, 1.0,\text{~and~}1.4$ (inside to outside). The dashed orange circles represent
      the utilized skimmers and marks the position and size of the incoming molecular beam. In both
      cases molecules in high-field-seeking states are deflected to the left; in the experiments
      discussed below the deflector is rotated counterclockwise by \degree{90}.}
   \label{fig:shape}
\end{figure}

Actual three-dimensional structures were obtained by extruding the calculated 2D cross sections and
rounding the ends with a radius of 2~mm. For the $b$-type deflector the equipotential lines were
reproduced for $\phi=1$ and $x>-2.73$~mm and mirrored to $x<-2.73$~mm. The resulting cusp was
removed by approximating this geometry by a tenth-order even polynomial Taylor expansion over the
range $-5.84~\text{mm}<x<0.37~\text{mm}$. This symmetry of the deflector allows to deflect
molecules in both direction depending on the relative positioning of deflector and beam.

\section{Experimental setup}
\label{sec:setup}
The experimental setup is sketched in \autoref{fig:experimental_setup_btd}.
\begin{figure}
   \centering
   \includegraphics[width=\figwidth]{fig3}
   \caption{(Color online) (a) Experimental setup with the definition of the axis system. The angle
      between the static electric field and the polarization vector of the control laser pulse is
      defined by $\beta$. (b) Electric field in the velocity-map imaging spectrometer, white lines
      depict the electrode surfaces. (c) Velocity-map image of S$^+$ ions from OCS with red circles
      depicting the velocities defining the region of interest for the data analysis. See text for
      details.}
   \label{fig:experimental_setup_btd}
\end{figure}
A mixture of 500~ppm OCS seeded in 100~bar of helium was expanded into vacuum through an
Even-Lavie-valve~\cite{Even:JCP112:8068} at a repetition rate of 250~Hz. Two conical skimmers
($\varnothing4$~mm and $\varnothing1.5$~mm) were placed 10.7~cm and 21.6~cm downstream from the
nozzle, respectively. The Stark deflector was located 4.4~cm behind the tip of the second skimmer.
The deflector was wire-eroded and electro-polished. After careful high-voltage conditioning of the
electrodes a voltage difference of 38~kV was applied, which corresponds to the fields shown in
\autoref{fig:shape}b. A third, transversely adjustable skimmer ($\varnothing1.5$~mm) was placed
4.7~cm downstream of the end of the deflector.

Two laser pulses, both provided by amplified femtosecond laser system with a central wavelength of
800~nm and propagating along a common line, were used to orient and probe the
molecules~\cite{Trippel:MP111:1738}. The temporal profile of the control laser pulse had a sawtooth
shape with a slow rising edge (680~ps, 2.5-97.5\%) and a fast falling edge (190~ps). The spatial
intensity profile in the interaction volume had widths of $\sigma=16~\um$ and $\sigma'=21~\um$ along
the two principal axes of the profile. The principal axis were rotated by \degree{20} from the $Y$
axis. The peak intensity of the control laser was $\Icontrol\approx5\times10^{11}~\text{W/cm}^2$.
Short pulses of 30~fs laser focused to $\sigma_1=\sigma_2=20~\um$ and peak intensities of
$\Iprobe\approx10^{14}~\text{W/cm}^2$ were used to multiple ionize the molecules to induce Coulomb
explosion. The relative delay between both laser pulses was controlled with a motorized delay stage.
Both lasers pulses were linearly polarized perpendicular with respect to each other. The control
laser polarization is at a fixed angle $\beta=\degree{45}$ with respect to the $Z$-axis.

A high-voltage velocity-map-imaging spectrometer was used to record the momenta of S$^+$ ions as a
signature of the molecules' directions at the time of ionization~\cite{Kienitz:CPC17:3740}.
Vertical molecular beam profiles, with and without voltages applied to the deflector, were recorded
by moving the skimmer and the laser focus through the molecular beam and recording the integrated
number of S$^+$ ions at each position. The envelope of all events over all skimmer positions yields
the overall beam profile. Furthermore, we derived the degree of orientation across the molecular
beam with the control laser pulses applied from the angular distribution of S$^+$ ions in the region
of interest ($2500~\text{m/s}<v_{xy}<4700~\text{m/s}$) shown in
\autoref{fig:experimental_setup_btd}.

\section{Results}
\label{sec:results}
\subsection{Deflection of OCS}
\label{sec:deflection-ocs}
\begin{figure}
   \centering
   \includegraphics[width=\figwidth]{fig4}
   \caption{(Color online) (a) Experimental vertical density profiles for selected skimmer
     positions. (b) Experimental vertical density envelope profiles of the undeflected (blue
     squares) and deflected (red triangles) molecular beam. Simulated envelope profiles are shown as
     solid blue and red lines. Profiles of the individual rotational states \ket{0,0}, \ket{1,0} and
     \ket{1,1} are shown as cyan, yellow, and magenta lines, respectively. (c) Simulated purity of
     the \ket{0,0} state for various skimmer positions. (d) Experimental degree of orientation for
     various skimmer positions. See text for details.}
   \label{fig:deflection-profiles}
\end{figure}

\autoref{fig:deflection-profiles}~a shows the normalized measured (triangles) vertical density
profiles of the deflected molecular beam for selected skimmer positions at -2.75 mm (red), -1.75 mm
(yellow), -0.75 mm (green), 0.25 mm (cyan), and 1.25 mm (purple), respectively. A strong dependence
of the density profile on the position of the third skimmer is observed. Corresponding
simulated~\cite{Filsinger:JCP131:064309} beam-density profiles are shown as solid lines. Each
simulated profile fits the corresponding measured profile assuming a rotational temperature of
0.8~K.

\autoref{fig:deflection-profiles}~b shows the normalized measured vertical density profiles of the
undeflected (blue squares) and deflected (red triangles) molecular beam. The profiles are obtained
from the envelope of 18 measured single profiles recorded at specific skimmer positions between
-3.0~mm and 1.25~mm with a relative step size of 0.25~mm. All molecules are deflected downwards when
20\;kV and $-17.5$\;kV are applied to the deflector electrodes, as all quantum states are high-field
seeking at the electric field strenghts experienced inside the deflector. The corresponding
simulated beam-density profiles are shown as solid blue and red lines. The profiles of the
individual rotational states \ket{0,0}, \ket{1,0} and \ket{1,1}, which are the states that are
deflected the most, are shown as cyan, yellow, and magenta lines, respectively. Again, the simulated
profiles fit best to a rotational temperature of 0.8~K. For positions $y<-3.5$~mm practically only
the \ket{0,0} and \ket{1,1} states are populated. According to the simulations a pure ground state
population is observed for positions below $y=-4.2$~mm.

The simulated purity $p_i = N_{\ket{0,0}_i}/N_{i}$ of the \ket{0,0} state is shown for each specific
skimmer position $i$ as colored lines in \autoref{fig:deflection-profiles}~c. The number of
molecules in the absolute ground state and the total number of molecules is denoted by
$N_{\ket{0,0}_i}$, and $N_{i}$, respectively. The purity changes continuously from 0 to 1 with
decreasing laser focus positions for all skimmer positions. The simulated purity of the molecular
beam without the last skimmer is shown as a black line. A gray line represents the weighted mean of
the purity obtained for each position $p(y)=\sum p_i(y)N_i(y)/\sum N_i(y)$.

\autoref{fig:deflection-profiles}~d shows the measured degree of orientation
$o(y)=N_{\mathrm{up}}/N_{\mathrm{down}}$ across the deflected molecular beam for every skimmer
position $i$ as colored lines. As previously shown~\cite{Nielsen:PCCP13:18971, Kienitz:CPC17:3740},
the degree of orientation is a good measure of the purity. The degree of orientation increased for
decreasing vertical positions for each skimmer position $i$. The gray line shows the weighed mean of
the degree of orientation obtained from the individual skimmer positions
$o(y)=\sum o_i(y)N_i(y)/\sum N_i(y)$. An average degree of orientation of 0.58 was observed at
positions between $y=$-1.5 and $y=$1\,mm where all states are present. The degree of orientation
decreases to 0.54 for increasing $y$ with $y>1$\,mm.  In that region only higher states ($J>0$) are
present. The degree of orientation rises from 0.58 to 0.75 in the region between $y=-1.5$\,mm and
$y=-4$\,mm. Only states with $J<2$ are present in that region. The ground state purity and, therefore,
the degree of orientation is increased for decreasing vertical positions $y$.

\subsection{Simulated deflection of unpolar molecules}
\label{sec:deflection-unpolar}
To study further the performance of the new deflector we have computationally investigated its
applicability to the deflection and separation of non-polar neutral molecules. The Stark energy
curves and effective dipole moments of the $J=0,1$ states of the hydrogen isotopologues H$_2$, HD,
and D$_2$, are shown in \autoref{fig:deflection:hydrogen}~a and b.
\begin{figure}
   \includegraphics[width=\figwidth]{fig5}
   \caption{(Color online) (a) Stark energies and (b) effective dipole moments of the $J=0,1$ states
     of hydrogen molecule isotopologues. Both plots use the same color coding for the rotational
     states. (c) Vertical molecular beam profiles without deflection (black) and with deflection for
     H$_2$ (blue), HD (red), and D$_2$ (green).}
   \label{fig:deflection:hydrogen}
\end{figure}
In these calculatons rotational and centrifugal distortion-constants were taken from
references~\onlinecite{Orcutt:JCP39:605, Hamaguchi:MP43:1311} and polarizability anisotropies as
specified in \autoref{tab:polarizability}.
\begin{table*}
   \centering
   \begin{tabular}{llcllcc}
     \hline\hline
     molecule & mass & dipole moment & polarizability $\alpha_\parallel$
     & polarizability $\alpha_\perp$ & mean polarizability/mass & reference \\
     & (u) & (D) & ($10^{-24}$\,cm$^3$) & ($10^{-24}$\,cm$^3$) &
     ($10^{-24}$\,cm$^3$\,u$^{-1}$) & \\
     \hline
     OCS & 60 & 0.71 & 1.14 & 0.75 & 0.0126 & \onlinecite{Alms:JCP63:3321} \\[1ex]
     H$_2$ &  2 & 0 &  1.00220 & 0.70177 & 0.4510 & \onlinecite{Rychlewski:MP41:833} \\
     HD &  3 & 0 &  0.99483 & 0.69873 & 0.2987 & \onlinecite{Rychlewski:MP41:833} \\
     D$_2$ &  4 & 0 &  0.98556 & 0.69484 & 0.2222 & \onlinecite{Rychlewski:MP41:833} \\
     N$_2$  & 28 & 0 & 2.2146 & 1.5188 & 0.0625 & \onlinecite{Buldakov:JCP132:164304} \\
     CH$_4$ & 16 & 0 & 2.4442 & 2.4442 & 0.1528 & \onlinecite{Buldakov:JCP132:164304} \\
     C$_6$H$_6$ & 78 & 0 & 6.67 & 12.27 & 0.1094 & \onlinecite{Bridge:PRSA295:334} \\
     \hline\hline
   \end{tabular}
   \caption{Polarizabilities, dipole moments, and masses of some selected molecules discussed in
      this work.}
   \label{tab:polarizability}
\end{table*}
All Stark energies decrease as a function of electric field strength $\epsilon$ and,
correspondingly, all effective dipole moments \mueff are positive and, therefore, attracted to
regions of stronger electric field. A linear increase of the effective dipole moments \mueff as a
function of electric field strength $\epsilon$ was observed for all quantum states and
isotopologues. The largest differences in the slope of \mueff were observed between different
initial rotational states. Only small differences were found between the three isotopologues in a
given specific rotational quantum state. The simulated deflection profiles for a molecular beam with
a rotational temperature of $T_r=1$~K are shown in \autoref{fig:deflection:hydrogen}~c. The speed of
the simulated molecular beam was 385~m/s, which was demonstrated for molecular beams seeded in
krypton~\cite{Wohlfart:thesis:2008}. The black line depicts the overall profile for the undeflected
beam, without any field applied. It has an identical shape for all isotopologues. The colored lines
are the deflection profiles of the individual isotopologues for an applied maximum field strength of
363~kV/cm. All hydrogen isotopologues were deflected significantly in the simulation. The largest
deflection was observed for hydrogen which has the smallest mass of the three isotopologues.

\section{Discussion}
\label{sec:discussion}
The new HV-deflector is combining several advantages of the designs, that were used before. The
deflector used by Wrede and Stern in the 1920s is distinguished by its simplicity (a wire parallel
to a plain surface), but suffered in the resulting deflection force~\cite{Wrede:ZP44:261}. The
$a$-type deflector, as it was used by Chamberlain and Zorn~\cite{Chamberlain:PR129:677} increased
the force at a given electric potential. Nevertheless, it suffered from a deflection limit given by
the molecules crashing into the rod. The group of Markus Arndt developed a deflector with a
relatively large region of constant deflection force at the expense of the deflection
strength~\cite{Stefanov:MeasSciTech19:055801}. The deflector introduced here provides a strong
deflection force combined with a large region where molecules can be deflected, although the force
is not constant in this area. For a molecular beam with a small diameter, however, the force is in
good approximation constant. The maximum achieved field strength in the $b$-type deflector was
363~kV/cm. This is higher than the field strengths we typically achieve in a $a$-type deflector
which are in the order of 220~kV/cm. Moreover the highest field strength of the $a$-type deflector
is located far outside the region of the molecular beam (see~\autoref{fig:shape}). For a $b$-type
deflector the molecules are deflected into the region of highest field strength. The demonstrated
degree of deflection was sufficient to completely separate a part of the molecular beam from the
helium seed gas.

Both, the measured degree of orientation as well as the simulated purity show an increase towards
small laser positions for each specific skimmer position. This is attributed to the molecular beam
being dispersed according to the molecules' effective dipole moments or, correspondingly, according
the specific rotational states. The field dressed state that correlates adiabatically with the field
free rotational ground state of the molecule is most polar and therefore deflected the most. The
ground state gives rise to the highest degree of orientation. This is reflected by the increased
degree of orientation and purity in the deflected part of the molecular beam which accounts for the
larger contributions of low rotational quantum states. In addition, a decrease of the degree of
orientation in regions where the excited rotational states remain (right-hand part of the specific
molecular beam profiles) is observed. \autoref{fig:results:skimmer} sketches the dispersion of the
molecular beam passing the deflector in the cases of the deflector being switched off (a) and
switched on (b). The movable skimmer selects a part of the beam (c), which subsequently disperses
further due to the distinct transverse momenta of molecules in the different eigenstates. Therefore,
a quantum state separation is obtained for each specific skimmer position.
\begin{figure}
   \centering
   \includegraphics[width=\figwidth]{fig6}
   \caption{(Color online). Sketch of the dispersion of the molecular beam passing the deflector;
      the gray rods depict the deflector and the purple area the cross section of the molecular
      beam. (a) deflector switched off. (b) deflector switchen on. (c) influence of the skimmer.}
   \label{fig:results:skimmer}
\end{figure}

The weighted mean of the purity provides a good measure for the purity of the unskimmed molecular
beam. The region with the largest difference between the weighted mean purity and the unskimmed
purity is the central part of the curves where the weighted mean is increased compared to the purity
of the unskimmed molecular beam. This is attributed to the different shapes of the deflected ground
state profile and the deflected profile of the rotationally excited states. The difference between
the two profiles is small at the low temperatures of our molecular beam, and, therefore, the
weighted mean purity approximates the real purity. The oscillations for the weighted mean purity in
the central region is ascribed by the finite number of skimmer positions. We expect the weighted
mean to underestimate the degree of orientation without skimmer for the same reasons as discussed
before for simulations of the ground state purity. A direct comparison of the measured degree of
orientation and the simulated purity or quantum state distribution is, however, not possible due to
the highly non adiabatic orientation dynamics of the rotationally excited
states~\cite{Kienitz:CPC17:3740}. The character, and, therefore, the degree of orientation, of the
specific quantum states was changed in the mixed field due to passage through real and avoided
crossings while the laser pulse intensity was rising. Our simulations show that it should be
possible to obtain a pure ground state sample for each specific skimmer position in the most
deflected part of the molecular beam. Furthermore, from our simulations we saw that the column
density at this position is given by about 10\% of the peak column density. This is also reflected
in the measurements. The fluctuations in the degree of orientation in the most deflected part is
attributed to the low statistics of these measurements.

The $b$-type deflector has the potential to separate non-polar molecules. For the hydrogen
isotopologues we observed a linear increase of the effective dipole moment with increasing electric
field strength. This is attributed to the small influence of the electric field on the field free
rotational quantum states since all molecules in~\autoref{tab:polarizability} are still in the
perturbative regime for the simulated field strengths.

We observe in our simulation that the deflector can separate the different isotopologues, similar to
previous conformer-separation experiments~\cite{Filsinger:ACIE48:6900,
  Kierspel:CPL591:130}. However, the different rotational states of each isotopologue are not
separable by the current deflector and molecular beam diameter and divergence. Thus a nuclear-spin
purification, as previously demonstrated for water~\cite{Horke:ACIE53:11965}, is not possible with
the current setup. This is due to the fact that the Stark effect in the currently available dc
electric fields is dominated by the diagonal polarizability matrix element, \ie, essentially the
scalar polarizability, whereas a significant influence of the off-diagonal matrix elements would
render the states inequivalent. Our simulations show that a significant difference of effective
dipole moments and, therefore, a separability of the $J=0$ and $J=1$ states, would be obtained for a
25\,$\mathrm{\mu}$m wide non-divergent molecular beam at the current maximum field strength of 363~kV/cm.

Our simulations predict that spherical top molecules such as methane (CH$_4$) are
deflected fairly well, \eg, about 0.5~mm under the current experimental conditions. This might be
beneficial for experiments where the molecules have to be separated from the seed gas. However,
since for spherical-top molecules $\alpha_{\perp}=\alpha_{\parallel}$, their rotational quantum
states cannot separated due to their static polarizability at all.

\section{Summary}
\label{sec:summary}
In conclusion, we have shown that the deflection of cold molecular beams with an inhomogeneous
static electric field, given by the $b$-type-shaped deflector enables the selection and a strong
spatial separation of the most polar quantum states, i.e., the lowest-lying rotational states.
Furthermore, our simulations showed that the deflector will allow to separate isotopologues of non
polar molecules and that it enables background-gas free measurements of a whole new group of
molecules. In comparison with the $a$-type deflector it has the advantage that the highest field
gradient is located close to the molecular beam position which results in a stronger deflection. In
addition, due to the open structure of the deflector, strongly deflected molecules do not crash into
the electrodes. This open structure also enables its utilization in merged beam
experiments~\cite{Henson:Science338:234}. Furthermore, a stronger deflection could be reached by
optimizing the shape of the electrodes and the resulting field gradients. This strong deflection
might be used to reduce the length of the deflector to increase the total molecular density at the
region of interest.

The ability to disperse molecular beams by inhomogeneous electric fields is not limited to
rotational state selection of small linear molecules. The new design makes a better separation of
structural isomers of complex molecules as well as different sizes of individual clusters
possible~\cite{Chang:IRPC34:557}. These clean, well-defined, and spatially separated samples allow
for novel experiments such as femtosecond pump–probe measurements, gas-phase x-ray or electron
diffraction, or tomographic reconstructions of molecular orbitals. In addition it could be useful
for isolating molecular signals in high-harmonic generation and attosecond experiments. Furthermore,
state selection by deflection is highly advantageous in order to increase the degree of alignment
and orientation to study complex molecules in the molecular frame~\cite{Holmegaard:NatPhys6:428,
   Holmegaard:PRL102:023001}.

\section{Acknowledgements}
Besides DESY, this work has been supported by the \emph{Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft} (DFG)
through the excellence cluster ``The Hamburg Center for Ultrafast Imaging -- Structure, Dynamics and
Control of Matter at the Atomic Scale'' (CUI, EXC1074), the European Research Council through the
Consolidator Grant COMOTION (ERC-Küpper-614507), and the Helmholtz Association ``Initiative and
Networking Fund''.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
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Oceanside Swimming
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Another full size heated forest-side pool is also on the resort grounds is adjacent to our Lighthouse Children's Camp and playground.
The Spa at Spruce Point Inn
The Spa at Spruce Point Inn, set among the cooling pines, is a boutique spa encompassing four treatment rooms, changing facilities, and lounge area on a private deck. Relax and enjoy signature massages, organic facials, body rituals and nail treatments — using natural Maine ingredients.
Trail Hiking
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S'more Bliss
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text:
Carex berteroniana is a species of sedge native to the Juan Fernández Islands.

References

berteroniana
Flora of the Juan Fernández Islands


text:
Where drones can deliver your dinner tonight
A look at what's available now, and updates on food delivery services by drone, as of summer 2020
Alistair Charlton
Drones dropping off our evening supper isn't as widely spread a delivery option as many had hoped by 2020 — but there are some firm stakes in play where you can get groceries, and even some coffee, dropped down from up high. With coronavirus showing little sign of easing around the globe, and in the US, drone deliveries seem like a perfect solution; you don't have to interact with another person, making social distancing fairly easy.
Certainly autonomous robots are taking off a bit more, across college campuses as well as dropping off groceries along city streets. Food technology definitely no longer starts and ends with the appliances in your kitchen and the touch screen on your smart fridge. More than ever, there is a focus on the technology that brings food to your door. The goal is to cut delivery times — and even, controversially, wage bills.
While drones are still just a bit player in the food delivery world, these locations in the US and in some spots around the globe, are already enjoying a taste of a potential future in how our dinner may one day be served. Your hometown may be next.
Alphabet Wing — Virginia
Wing is still operating in the Christiansburg, Virginia area, delivering items from Walgreens, scheduled items from Federal Express, sweets from Sugar Magnolia, baked goods from The Mockingbird and coffee from Brugh Coffee. The Federal Aviation Administration had given Wing special permission to begin drone deliveries in both Blacksburg and Christiansburg, Virginia back in 2019.
Flytrex drone flying across the King's Walk Golf Course in Grand Forks, North DakotaFlytrex
Flytrex — North Dakota and North Carolina
Golfers out at the King's Walk Golf Course in Grand Forks, North Dakota — a course deigned by none other than Arnold Palmer — can get a snacks, a burger, drinks, and yes, one of those drinks, delivered to them while they're on the green. The service is provided by Flytrex, and golfers place the order through their smartphone. The order is dropped done via a cable right to the spot on the course where players are teeing up.
The drone company is also piloting a delivery program in the town as well, bringing items from Walmart or Dairy Queen to about 120 homes in the area.
Flytrex also started testing an autonomous food-by-drone delivery service in Holly Springs, North Carolina, where it is bringing food and meals to people at their homes from the Holly Springs Towne Center, an outdoor shopping mall.
Deuce Drone — Alabama
Rouses Market, in Mobile, Alabama will start testing grocery deliveries by drone this fall. The partner is Deuce Drone, a drone delivery company, and they'll be doing this trial at just one location, the Rouses Market on Airport Boulevard.
The goal is the get people groceries — to their door — in 30 minutes or less, said Donny Rouse, the CEO of the chain of 64 stores in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, in a statement.
The company is also working with a chain of Buffalo Wild Wings in Mobile as well, and will also start testing a drone delivery option in late August until December 2020. Deuce Drone will handle everything from operating the drone, and even creating the connection between the Buffalo Wild Wings ordering system and the drone's interface.
Update: UberEats and McDonalds - San Diego
Uber eats to begin dropping BigMacs by drone this summer Uber
Uber seems to have stopped this service offering drone deliveries of Big Macs in California. Uber said in June 2019 it had planned to start delivering food by drone this summer, kicking off with a trial in San Diego with McDonalds. Customers were said to be paying a similar delivery fee to that of UberEats, and their food was flown from the restaurant, potentially speeding up the process.
But instead of dropping the door at your doorstep or in your garden, UberEats planned to fly food from the restaurant to a designated landing spot, and from there UberEats drivers brought the food to you. The company had suggested the drone could land on the roof of an UberEats delivery car, then the driver could finish the journey on foot. The company believed this multi-model method can cut average delivery times for a 1.5-mile journey from 21 minutes to seven.
UberEats plans McDonald's delivery by drone, starting this summer
Update: Alphabet Wing - Canberra, Australia
Wing is owned by Alphabet, parent of Google Wing
This service is going strong, and people can actually sign up to be a customer through Wing's web site. The list of items that can be delivered is extensive from spring rolls to dumplings, espresso to scones, and even milk, eggs and dark chocolate.
Wing, the drone division of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, started the trial service in Australia in April 2019, delivering takeaway food, coffee and medicines to 100 homes in Canberra.
The drones have been in development since 2014 and Wing earned special permission to run the public trial, in a bid to obtain valuable feedback from residents with regard to noise and safety concerns. Packages are dropped into customers' gardens from a thin length of rope; they are not allowed to fly at night, and cannot fly over crowds of people or main roads.
Companies involved in these early trials include a coffee chain called Kickstart Espresso, a bakery chain called Bakers Delight, a Mexican fast food chain called Guzman Y Gomez, and pharmaceutical company called Chemist Warehouse, but now has expanded to 16 different brands including a baked goods shop Krofne Bakery, a tea house Adore Tea, an ice cream shop Pure Gelato and Mitchell Supermarket, a grocery store.
Wing's plans to begin delivering food by drone in the Vuosaari district of Helsinki, Finland has also launched with partners including Herkku Food Market, a gourmet supermarket, and Cafe Monami, an independent cafe selling local and international cuisine.
Alphabet's Wing drone deliveries get special approval to start in US this year
Update: Aha and Flytrex - Reykjavik, Iceland
Drone startup Flytrex operates delivery drones in Reykjavik, IcelandFlytrex
One of the first food-by-drone services began in Reykjavik, Iceland in 2017, and Flytex is still running commercial deliveries in the city after making its first commercial delivery in August 2018.
Due to Iceland's rugged landscape, traveling from one part of its capital city to the other by road can be somewhat indirect. Drones, by comparison, can fly in a straight line regardless of the landscape below, saving a huge amount of time. In fact, the company claims the average delivery time can be cut from 25 minutes by car to just four minutes by drone.
Aha is permitted to fly autonomous drones on 13 routes around Reykjavik, and each drone can deviate by up to 700 meters from the route if it needs to make a detour. Currently Aha offers drone deliveries from 14 establishments across the capital city.
Update: Amazon Prime Air - Location unknown
Amazon has been working on delivery drones since at least 2013 Amazon
Amazon has been silent about its plans to start delivery by drones. But with an operating cash flow of $39.7 billion as of the end of its first quarter in 2020, we wouldn't bet against the company being able to get this service off the ground.
While the retail giant has been working on delivery drones since at least 2013, and completed its first commercial delivery (albeit as part of a test) in 2016, the coming said in June 2019 that its Prime Air service would begin for real "in a matter of months."
The company said it had run "millions" of simulations to help teach its drones how to deal with all manner of situations when it attempts to land and deliver a package. If the customer is spotted too close to the landing zone, for example, the drone is designed to hover and wait until they have moved safely out of the way. The drone's rotors are covered to prevent damage and injury.
Amazon says the drones will be able to carry packages weighing up to five pounds and deliver to addresses within a 15-mile radius of a fulfillment center. However, the company is yet to say what items under that weight will qualify for drone delivery. Amazon does sell food and drink, so it is likely that these could be included as part of the drone service, albeit in fairly small quantities. If it ever gets off the ground.
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Starting Over with the Classics?
A huge underground complex in the western valley wall behind Roadhaven that the group revisits to ensure that no nasties come out to infest Kylia's lands. It was so named for the person who was living there when the Dragonslayers first took over the valley. She was a ranger from Khopet-Dag.