As I’ve reported in the past, invisibility cloaks could become a reality in the future. There is another new article online today.

In the absence of a magnetic field, such nanoparticles would simply float around in the water, but if a field were introduced, the particles would self-assemble into chains whose lengths depend on the strength of the field, and which can also attract one another to form thicker columns.

The chains and columns would lie along the direction of the magnetic field. If they were oriented vertically in a pool of water, light striking the surface would refract negatively – bent in way that no natural material can manage.

This property could be exploited for invisibility devices, directing light around an object so that it appears as if nothing is there, or be put to use in lenses that could capture finer details than any optical microscope.

Today we have some more information about the Poster Giveaways from the HarryPotterFilm Twitter account I posted about a while ago!

• This giveaway is open to all countries. 🙂 You just have to be a true Potter fan!
• We’ll pose a ? at noon PST, & you will have one hour to send us an answer. We’ll pick 2 random winners from the entries.

Starting January 4th the Official Harry Potter Twitter account will be giving away Harry Potter posters.  All you have to do is follow @harrypotterfilm for a chance to win!

The Economist has a new article online entitled: The Harry Potter Economy where they discuss the Harry Potter franchise and all the money it makes as well as it’s effect on the economy.  Here are some snippets

This production line at Leavesden Studios, which has been running for almost a decade, will soon be switched off. “People talk about the effect of factories closing,” says David Heyman, who produces the Harry Potter films. “When we stop filming next May, at least 800 people will be looking for work.”

The first company to be transformed was Bloomsbury, a London publishing house. It was a somewhat unlikely home for a blockbuster children’s book series. […] As each book appeared it drew new readers to the series and expanded sales of earlier books in a snowball effect. Thanks largely to the boy wizard, Bloomsbury’s turnover, which had gradually increased from £11m in 1995 to £14m in 1997, took off. In 1999 it stood at £21m. Two years later it was £61m. By the middle of this decade, with Bloomsbury’s revenues above £100m, rival publishers were griping that there was no point bidding against the firm for a children’s title.

In 2000 Ms Rowling said her “worst nightmare” was that her hero would end up on the side of fast-food containers. He was to appear just about everywhere else. Warner Bros, which had been wary of being seen to spoil a revered series of books with tacky tie-ins, had no qualms about exploiting its own property.

Thanks MN!

The Straits Times is reporting that Harry Potter is a top trend on Twitter!  The article states:

…while Harry Potter was the film that caused the most Twitter buzz, according to the Internet firm.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!!!

Hopefully we don’t have a troll in the dungeons!!! If you didn’t get that reference, SHAME ON YOU! Watch or read Sorcerer’s Stone again. 😉

What is everyone being for Halloween?  My little brother is being Charlie Brown in his ghost costume, hehe.  I’m being nothing because I am boring… 🙁