USA Today has a new article about invisibility cloaks! It is very interesting. Here are some highlights.

One of the new prototypes is a woven fishnet of silver nanowires, each one about 10,000 times thinner than a human hair. It was reported this week in the journal Science. The team tested the device for red, or visible, light and infrared light and said the prototype bends red light from all angles hundreds of times more effectively than in past attempts.

The other device, reported this week in Nature magazine, relies on 21 stacked grids of silver and magnesium fluoride of similarly small sizes. The researchers found that the device bent infrared light around the grids.

And unlike Harry Potter’s cloak, these fragile metamaterials would be blown away by the gentlest breeze. “Developing a way to manufacture these materials on a large scale will also be a challenge.

Thanks DC!

IF YOU ARE 18-24 YEARS OF AGE and read the Harry Potter books as they were released beginning in 1999,
then click here to take part in the survey.

Phase 1 = Online survey data collection: now through August 31, 2008; Phase 2 = Interviews via phone or internet with volunteers selected from those submitting completed Phase 1 surveys: September 2008

Thanks HPANA!

Tonight in San Diego, Leaky and Mugglenet will be hosting LIVE! PotterCast and MuggleCast at a Borders. Make sure to join them, if you can, for lots of Potter and Comic-Con discussion!

Here is the address of the Borders:

1072 Camino Del Rio N San Diego, CA 92108

If you are attending the San Diego Comic Con, the Borders is about a 10 minute drive from the San Diego Convention Center

Thanks to Leaky and MuggleNet for the news!

Volume Two of the charity compilation Wizards and Muggles Rock for Social Justice is now on iTunes! Many of the bands that are on the album are wizard rock bands, along with some Muggle bands which included wizard members. Proceeds from the sale of this album will benefit the Harry Potter Alliance and Marriage Equality Rhode Island. Hard copies will be released in December or January but for now the album is only available in the iTunes store.

Thanks to MuggleNet for the info!

If you remember, a while ago I posted about The Harry Potter Alliance needing everyone to sign a petition to stop the Darfur Genocide. Finally they have got results!Nick Donovan, the Head of Campaigns, Policy, and Research at the UK-based Aegis Trust said:

You all at the HP Alliance made it possible to send almost 10,000 emails to the UN Security Council, asking for the Council to speak out and put pressure on Khartoum to hand the men over. Without your imaginative campaigns over 3/4 of these emails would never have been sent. The end result is the first ever UNSC presidential statement condemning’s lack of action and demanding an end to impunity. Our actions helped, the pressure generated by other NGOs helped – and the grassroots emails sent by you all really made the difference – showing that it wasn’t just NGOs and members of the elite who care about Darfur – but people from all walks of life disgusted at impunity for mass murder and eager to see action.

This shows that even us Harry Potter fans can make a difference in the world! Keep it up HPA!

Warner Bros. is thinking about creating a Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Game (MMORPG) for Harry Potter.

The notion of creating a Harry Potter multi-player online role playing game is something that we’ve been discussing at Warner Bros. for a number of years and continue to explore.

We are currently investigating the possibility of creating our own MMORPG, but unfortunately do not have any further details to share at this time.

Thanks Pottersphere and  SS