Cloak of Invisibility Coming Soon

davaguco writes "It seems that we will finally be able to make ourselves invisible" It seems like this story resurfaces every few months and then gets submitted a zillion times so here it is. Personally I'm still waiting for my cloak of evasion. 20% miss chance is awesome.

Wouldn't it be easier...

[Kelson]

To create a Somebody Else's Problem field [wikipedia.org]? People are quite good at ignoring what they think isn't important (or what they don't want to recognize), so if you could find a way to convince people to ignore something, it would be just as effective as actual invisibility.

Re:Pictures

[Tackhead]

> The article doesn't have any pictures; one can be found here [http://www.jpassion.net/sitepix/blank_square.gif] .

Nothing to see there. Moving right along...

From TFA:

Prof Milton's team calculated that when certain objects are placed next to superlenses, the light bouncing off them is essentially erased by light reflecting off the superlens, making the object invisible.

Sounds an awful lot like the technology speculated about in Dean Ing's Ransom of Black Stealth One [powells.com] about ten years ago.

Tesla did it!

[cyber_rigger]

Sounds like a rehash of a phase conjugate mirror.

http://www.cheniere.org/books/analysis/pc_wave.htm [cheniere.org]

Invisible... or black?!??

[Izhido]

... when certain objects are placed next to superlenses, the light bouncing off them is essentially erased by light reflecting off the superlens, making the object invisible.

Maybe I'm getting this the wrong way, but if the object "absorbs" the light coming to it through the lens, wouldn't that object be perceived as black? I thought "invisible" is when any light coming behind the object passes through it, and into the observer's eye, with no obstacles whatsoever. But maybe it's just me...

It seems a phletora of new laws would be coming ..

[unity100]

... to define and limit where these cloaks can and can not be used. Just think of the mischief that can be done with that gadget ! Crime. And other stuff.

"Selective frequencies" already in use by the Navy

[CustomDesigned]

My Dad worked on creating "custom fog" for the Navy. He studied propagation, e.g. this civilian paper [aip.org]. Then he developed a method of modifying droplet size distribution in fogs over the ocean. The end product (details classified) allows ships to create a fog bank on demand over large bodies of water (within 1 or 2 hours) that blocks enemy frequencies, but has "holes" for friendly scanner frequencies. The details include taking temperature/humidity/droplet profiles [allenpress.com] by altitude of the atmosphere over the target area.

Re:Actually invisibility gives 50% miss chance

[ElephanTS]

brilliant :-)

Worthy of seenonslash.com - see you there . . .

Re:Actually invisibility gives 50% miss chance

[Maxo-Texas]

All kidding aside...

It's a social game- my daughter and her husband played it together in college (it's partially how they met-- it's partially how me and her mom met). They play in my game now that they are back in town. Unfortunately- her mom and I only made it about 10 years.

There were plenty of females in their college group.

My games have had a lot of females and couples over the years including a couple messy affairs.

My game was the basis for a sporting event (Ultimate frisbee) for close to a decade (if we didn't play- it didn't make). I still play ultimate twice a week and just last week they commented on my showing a bit of a six-pack.

As for me... well I've probably seen more action than you have unless you are an NBA star and none of it through clubs or with "club" girls. A surprising amount through Everquest including a couple trips to Vegas.

All of this takes money of course- which being a geek in the 80's made pretty easy to do in the 90's and now. I learned a lot of skills writing my D&D utilities in apple basic and cobol.

Are some D&D folks massive nerds? Sure-- but so are some Harley motorcycle fans. Are they happy? If so why pick on them unless it makes you feel better about your own life (which undoubtably lacks perfection in some way too).