Was he the First Greek in America ?

                                       

A Greek Conquistador 

and explorer

AFTER the fall of Constantinople in 1453, 
in the hands of the Ottomans many Greeks migrated to European countries. 

Many of them went to Italy, France, Austria, Russia and Spain. 

Most of them managed to prosper in various sectors, such as merchants, artists, scholars, soldiers or even officers in foreign armies. 

Many Greeks migrated to Spain, one of the most famous was El Greco (whose name was Dominikos Theotokopoulos), a great artist and distinguished painter (he is considered as the father of Expressionism). 

But besides El Greco there were others who even served in the Spanish army. Many of those Greek soldiers were mercenaries, or Condottieri, who helped the Spanish against the Ottomans in many battles. Greek soldiers even traveled to the New world in the 16th century, where they served as shipmasters, sailors, soldiers and especially as artillerymen, conquistadors and explorers. Many of those Greeks knew how to manufacture gunpowder and could operate cannons and firearms.

Don Theodoro Griego

theodoro Griego was a Greek explorer and conquistador, he was born in the Aegean and later moved into Spain. 

He then set sailed from the spanish port of Sanlucar de Barrameda and followed Panfilo de Narvaez in his expedition to North America in 1527. 

He was one of the first Greeks to reach the new continent (America) in the modern era. 

The expedition sailed from Cuba in 1527 and reached Florida. Narvaez ordered his men to explore Florida and march further to the north, in 1528 they reached the Apalachee, but Narvaez arrogantly attacked the Indians and destroyed their settlements. 

Soon after they were attacked by the Apalachee warriors 
and they run out of resources. At that difficult moment 
Don Theodoro made 5 rafts, using liquid from pines, wood 
and leather and saved most of his companions. 

Eventually Don Theodoro Griego was killed searching for water in a nearby Indian settlement. Most of the men who participated in the Narvaez expedition were killed, including Narvaez himself and only 4 survived to tell the story. Today a statue has been erected in Florida in the city of Tampa in honor of this great Greek Conquistador and explorer.

Theodore's story was told in 1542 by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, a Spanish explorer who left for Florida as an officer in an expedition of 300 men, including Theodore.  Only four returned.  Theodore wasn't among them.

The expedition landed on the west coast of Florida in the spring of 1528, according to Cabeza de Vaca's official report of the adventure, which has been translated by Wake Forest University history professor emeritus Cyclone Covey.

Just how close the expedition came to Clearwater is open to debate. Some historians place the landing in the Tampa Bay area. Some accounts even have the Europeans landing in Boca Ciega Bay and making their way east across the Pinellas peninsula to what is now Safety Harbor. Others put the landing as far south as Port Charlotte.

Servos said his study of the historical accounts convinces him that Clearwater is the best place to honor Theodore with a statue.

"He came to Tampa Bay, most likely Clearwater, so I think Clearwater is the best place to put it," Servos said.

In Cabeza de Vaca's history of the expedition, Theodore doesn't make an appearance early on. That's probably a good thing, considering what historians say happened once the Europeans arrived. Upon landing, the commander of the conquistadors, the ruthless Panfilo de Narvaez, claimed the whole area for Spain. A fight broke out, and the Europeans cut off the nose of a local Indian chief, hacked the chief's mother to death and fed parts of her body to Narvaez's pet greyhounds.

Later on and hundreds of miles away, Theodore emerges in the story as a bold and ingenious character.

After disembarking from their ships, the explorers set out over land for northern Florida, where Indians had told them there "was much gold and plenty of everything we wanted," according to Cabeza de Vaca's report to the king of Spain.

By August, the group decided to take to the sea again. Theodore played a key role.

"A Greek, Don Teodoro, made pitch from certain pine resins," Cabeza de Vaca wrote. 
"Even though we had only one carpenter, work proceeded so rapidly from Aug. 4, when it began, that by Sept. 20 five barges, each 22 elbow-lengths (30 to 32 feet long), caulked with palmetto oakum and tarred with pine-pitch, were finished."

In late October, however, Theodore disappeared near Mobile Bay after accompanying two Indians in a search for fresh water.

"That Greek, Doroteo Teodoro, whom I spoke of before, said he would go," Cabeza de Vaca wrote. "The Governor and others failed to dissuade him. He took along a Negro, and the Indians left two of their number as hostages.
lt was night when the Indians returned, without water in the containers and without the Christians.
When these returning lndians spoke to our two hostages, the latter started to dive into the water; but some of our soldiers held them back in the barge. The canoe sped away, leaving us very confused and dejected over the loss of our comrades."

Twelve years later, according to Covey, soldiers with Hernando de Soto encountered Indians who remembered the Greek and produced a dagger that had belonged to him. Some accounts say the Indians claimed they killed both men. Covey has speculated that Theodore might have gone ashore willingly because he thought, in the long run, it was his best chance to survive.

In describing Theodore's claim to fame, the Panhellenic federation is careful to describe him as the first known Greek to arrive in America after Columbus.

That's an important qualification, said Covey, whose specialties are ancient and colonial history. 
There are archaeological indications of Greek and Greek-speaking people reaching the interior of North America more than a dozen centuries before Columbus, he said.

Some researchers are skeptical of at least one of the discoveries Covey mentioned, but the possibility that pre-modern Greeks reached America doesn't surprise Servos.

"We believe that Ulysses came to America," he said, "because 20 years to get lost in the Mediterranean, that's a lot of years."

Regardless of who came before, Servos said, Theodore should be remembered and honored as a pioneer.

"The history of the Greeks in America," he said, "starts from here."
_______________________________________________               No 21

source

  Scholeio.com    

Marco Polo may have discovered America

The Man who Began Europe's  Obsession 
with the East

       Marco Pollo was famous for his journey to China - and for his tall tales
Marco Polo was a 13th century Italian merchant from Venice. And while he wasn't the first European trader to travel into China, his detailed account of his journey, Book of the Marvels of the World or The Travels of Marco Polo, made him the most famous.

His tales of traveling the Silk Road through Eurasia and befriending the Mongol emperor of China Kublai Kahn captivated Europe and helped fuel the Western obsession with trading with the East. Christopher Columbus set sail for India in 1492 after having been inspired by his writing.

At age 17, Polo set off with his father and uncle - both Venetian merchants who grew wealthy trading with the east - on a journey to China. They returned 24 years later with a host of treasures and incredible tales.

The three Polos traveled over-land for three and a half years before reaching Kublai Kahn in China. The Kahn, one of the most powerful emperors to ever rule China, had met Polo's brother and uncle on a previous voyage. They were the first Western men the Kahn had ever seen.

In China, the Polo became close the the Khan - even carrying out missions across China and as far away as Burma as his emissary.  In 1292, the three Polo left China and traveled back to Italy - returning in 1295.


When he arrived in Venice, to find the city-state at war with the Republic of Genoa. He took up arms and was captured in 1296 following a naval battle.


From a Genovesi, he dictated the tail of his travels to his cellmate, who wrote them down into what later became The Travels of Marco Polo.
Polo was released in 1299 and married. He had two daughters and died at age 69.
__________________


. The map was reportedly drawn up by Marco Polo after he 'sailed across the Bering Straight' in the 1200s
. Comes from a trove of documents that are claimed to have been compiled by the Italian explorer's daughter
. Polo describes people who wore seal skins, ate only fish and lived in homes 'under the earth'
. Some claim he made it as far down the coast as modern day Seattle
. Authenticity has yet to be determined

An incredible new map could reveal that 13th century Italian explorer Marco Polo was actually the first European to discover America - more than two centuries before Christopher Columbus set sail for the New World.

A crude map drawn on sheepskin shows what appears to be the Bering Straight, Alaska, the Aleutian Islands and the west coast of North America.

'Map with Ship' comes from a trove of 14 documents that have just been studied in depth for the first time. They were found in the 1930s in a trunk in that belonged to an Italian immigrant who settled in San Jose, California.

The map offers accurate geographical representations to a modern satellite image of Alaska, the west coast and the Pacific. The Bering Straight

The incredible map that shows Marco Polo 
may have discovered America 

in the the 13th century - 200 years before Christopher Columbus

       The documents, reportedly written by Polo's daughter Bellala recount how the Venetian explorer met a Syrian trader on the Kamchatka Peninsula on the far eastern edge of the Asian continent then sailed across the Bering Straight to North America.
Before his voyage, the trader told Polo about a land far east - a 40 days voyage from Kamchatka, Smithsonian Magazine reports.

It is believed that if Polo sailed to North America, he would have crossed the Bering Straight - a 51-mile stretch of waster that connects the easternmost point of Asia to the westernmost point of Alaska.
This new land, the documents say, was called 'the Peninsula of Seals' and it was 'twice as far from China' as Kamchatka and Polo soon set sail in search of it.

Polo arrived, according to the documents, and discovered a people who wore seal skins, ate only fish and lived in homes 'under the earth,' according to the Smithsonian.

'Map with Ship': This sheepskin map is claimed to be a copy 

of a sketch Marco Polo made showing Alaska, 

the Aleutian Islands and the Bering Straight in the 13th century

He says that distortions in how the map is drawn - for example, the Bering Straight appears as a north-south passage and not an east-west passage - can be chalked up to magnetic distortions in Polo's compass readings that occur that close to the North Pole.

Calculating for the distortions shown on Polo's map, Thompson estimates that Polo made it all the way around Alaska and down to British Columbia before turning back.

Thompson, who described himself as a 'history detective,' posits that Polo even alluded to a 'Land of Darkness' beyond the plains of Mongolia, in the Travels of Margo Polo. He posits that Polo was referring to Alaska.

Thompson suggests that Polo's exploration could have been sent on a mission by Kublai Khan - the Mongol ruler of China whom Polo befriended.

Polo was meant to explore the far reaches of the empire in order to determine the source of furs, precious stones, gold, perfumes and dyes that were being imported into the Yuan Dynasty in China.

Carbon dating on one of the sheepskin maps reveals it was created in the 14th or 15th century - meaning that even if it is authentic, it is a copy of the original.

Still, the Bering Straight was not discovered until the mid-18th century - three hundred years after the document was made.

The ink on the map, however, has not been tested - meaning it could have been forged after the sheepskin was created.

Gunnar Thompson, a controversial historian and the author of MarcoPoloinSeattle.com, also studied the documents in depth and argues that the landmarks that Polo laid out match up with remarkable accuracy to Chinese maps that date from before Polo's time - as well as maps that came after.

Marco Polo's ship, pictured here in this engraving, reportedly sailed across the Bering Straight to the 

'Peninsula of Seals'

__________________________________________________  No 20

πηγή

  Scholeio.com    

Roots hidden in the depths of centuries

"I heard in Rome's St. Peter's the Gospel

in all languages. The Greek resonated star

glowing in the night."  

John Goethe, Germany greatest poet

-Teacher 

what to read to become wise as thou?

-Greek classics.

-And when we finish the Greek classics 

what to read?

-Again the Greek classics. 

Goethe's dialogue with his disciples

The language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.

        Greek Language is very old, the oldest in Europe and perhaps in the whole World. Its existence is referred in the 7th Century BC, as historical written monuments have shown (Dipylo inscription), but its roots are hidden in the depths of centuries as the Homeric epics and the Linear writings A and B have witnessed. It is merely not found in each time possessing the same vocabulary, the same morphology, etc.,
Roughly, the Greek language is divided in three long periods: The ancient (up to 300 A.D.), the Medieval (300 – 1453 A.D.) and the modern (recent) period (1453 A.D. – today). Analytically in the following:
 ----------------------------
MINOAN TIMES, from 1500 BC until 1200 BC
(According to Thucydides (A, 3-6), Minoas was the first king that turned away the barbarians from Greek sea and from Greek islands and he was the cause to create after the Greece. According to Homer and Herodotus Minoas was king of island Crete and of most Greek islands three generations before Trojan war.) 

MYCENAEAN TIMES from 1200 BC until 500 BC
From Trojan War until the Persian wars
-----------------------------------------------

 The period from the Persian wars to the end of 4th century BC (490 – 300 BC), which is called Classical. Sparta and Athens was the most power full towns but Athens was the centre of the letters and arts.
A precise indication for the condition of the language in that period can be found in the works of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Plato, Lyssias, Aeschinis, Aristotle and other prose and rhyme writers of that time.
----------------------------

In the 4th century BC, after the victories (and the splendour) against Persians, common alphabet and writing are established for all Greeks as well as a common name (the name “Hellenes”).
By the victories of Alexander the Great the Greek language of that period become the international language of the era especially in the Hellenized areas of the east (Syria, Persia, Egypt, etc).
------------

In the beginning of the 4th century AD Constantinople becomes the center of the Greek language.
 The year 527 AD is the official language  in the eastern Roman Empire.
From the Greek revolution of 1821 until nowadays. This is the period of the New Greek, the pure (“Katharevussa”) and the popular (“demotic”) Greek language.
 ps
During the Roman Era, when the Greek language was still international (circa the end of the 1st Century AD), some Greek writers, bookish mans, literary mans etc, appeared, who did not write in their contemporary language, but in the Attic authors’ language of the Classical Era. They were urged in this activity not only by their trust to the superiority (the high standards) of the Attic dialect but also by their perception whey realized that the Greek Language of their times had been invaded occupied by barbarisms (foreign words, idiom etc.) because of ignorance or degeneration, 50 it should not be immortalized.  This movement was called Atticism and the authors, who estimated the Attic dialect as their ideal language, Atticists, As a right usage criterion was estimated the localization of a word or a type in the texts of the Attic writers of the 5th and the 4th Century BC, not the fact that this word or this type were useless in the language of their times.    
As a result of Atticism was the creation of bilinguality which means the usage of two different linguistic forms: The one (the old – fashioned) mainly in the written speech and the other (the popular) mainly in the oral speech. The bilinguality occurred till 1976 when Demotic (the popular) was established.
-------------------------------

 

-  "My greatest intellectual exercise was my term in ancient Greek"     B. Heisenberg, Nobel Prize in Physics

-  "There's a Vertigo In Greek words, because only she explored, recorded and analysed their innermost processes of speech and language, as no other language."   The great French writer Jacques Lakarrier 

-  "Μay the Greek language to become common all peoples."  

    Great French rationalists Voltaire 

- "The Greek has uniformity like the German, but it is richer than this. Has the clarity of the French, but more precise. It is slimmer than the Italian and much more harmonious than the Spanish. Has that need to be considered the prettiest language of Europe. "  French University of Sorbonne Professor Charles Fwriel 

- "The knowledge of Greek is necessary foundation of high cultural cultivation."  Marianna Mcdonald, Professor at the University of California and head of the TLG  -  "If the violin is the most perfect musical instrument, then the Greek language is the human violin reflection."  Blind American author Helen Keller had said
-  "If the gods speak, then definitely use the language of the Greeks." 
     Marcus Tillios Cicero (the most conspicuous female of ancient Rome, 106-43 BC)
-  "It is in the nature of the Greek language to be clean, precise and complicated. The ambiguity and lack of direct enorasews featuring sometimes English and German, is completely foreign to the Greek. " 
Humphrey Kitto (an English professor at the University of Bristol, 1968)
-  "The Greek language is beautiful like the sky with the stars." 
Irina Kobaleba (Modern Russian Professor Lomonoswf University, 1995) 

-  "Of course it's not only in Linguistics where Greeks were pioneers for Europe. In its entirety the intellectual life of Europe dates back to the work of the Greek thinkers. Even today we incessantly in Greek heritage to find stimulation and encouragement. " 
R. h. Robins (Modern English linguist, Professor at the University of London)
-  "The Greek language is the best legacy that has at its disposal man for the development of the brain. Towards all Greek, and insist all languages are inadequate. "

"The ancient Greek language should become the second language of all Europeans, especially the cultivated people."

"The Greek language is by essence divine."Frederick Sagkredo (Basque linguistics professor – President of the Greek Academy of Baskwnias)

-  "Like always with passion to learn Greek. I didn't do it because I was afraid that the deep charm of this wonderful language would absorb so much that I removed from my other activities. " (The Schliemann Guest House talked only flawlessly 18 languages. For 2 years did nothing other than studying the 2 epics of Homer) 
Heinrich Schliemann (Famous amateur archeologist, 1822-1890)

-  "If in the library of your home does not have the works of ancient Greek authors, then you live in a house without light." 
George Bernard College (Great Irish playwright, 1856-1950)
-  "Almost afraid to touch the Odyssey, so oppressive unbearable is the beauty." 
James Joyce (Famous Irish author, 1882-1941)
-  "That is the Secretariat of the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, Egyptians? All of humanity has inherited the Secretariat of Greeks only. " 
Impn Khaldun (the greatest Arab historian)
-  "The US came on Greece alfabiton by Kimi and Rome. Our language is full of English words. Our science esfyrilatise Mian international language by the English terms. Our grammar and rhetoric, even the punctuation and the Division concerned paragraphs of ... are Greek inventions. Our literary genres is English – the lyrikon, the ODE, the eidyllion, the novel, the treatise, the prosfwnisis, the biography, history and above all a vision. And almost all of these words is Greek. " 
Will Durant (American historian and philosopher, Professor at the University of Columbia)
-  "Our ancient Greece offers a language that will say that it's universal." 

-  "The whole world needs to learn Greek because the Greek language helps us first of all understand our own language."

 Jacqueline De Romigy (Modern French Academic and author)
__________________________________________________

source:

  Scholeio.com    

Somebody said That It Couldn't be Done

....with the exception of articles and prepositions

Ρart Οne

Ιs it possible for a Greek who does not know English to understand an English text?  The answer is yes.  A British art magazine proves this by publishing the following article which consists, with the exception of articles and prepositions, exclusively  Greek words.

“  The genesis of classical drama was not symptomatic. Aneuphoria of charismatic and talented protagonists showed fantastic scenes of historic episodes.   The prologue, the theme and the epilogue, comprised the trilogy of drama while synthesis, analysis and synopsis characterized the phraseology of the text. 

The syntax and phraseology used by scholars, academicians and philosophers in their rhetoric, had many grammatical idioms and idiosyncrasies. The protagonists periodically used pseudonyms. 

Anonymity was a syndrome that characterized the theatrical atmosphere. The panoramic fantasy, the mystique, the melody, the aesthetics, the use of the cosmetic epithets are characteristics of drama. 

Eventhrough the theaters were physically gigantic, there was noneed for microphones because the architecture and the acoustics would echo isometrically and crystal – clear. Many epistomologists of physics, aerodynamics, acoustics, electronics, electromagnetics can not analyze – explain the ideal and isometric acoustics of Hellenic theaters even today. 

There were many categories of drama: classical drama, melodrama, satiric, epic, comedy, etc. The syndrome of xenophobia or dyslexia was overcome by the pathos of the actors who practiced methodically and emphatically. Acrobatics were also eup3horic. 

There was a plethora of anecdotal themes, with which the acrobats would electrify the ecstatic audience with scenes from mythical and historical episodes. Some theatric episodes were characterized as scandalous and blasphemous. 

Pornography, bigamy, hemophilia, nymphomania, polyandry, polygamy and heterosexuality were dramatized in a pedagogical way so the mysticism about them would not cause phobia or anathema or taken as anomaly but through logic, dialogue and analysis skepticism and the pathetic or cryptic mystery behind them would be dispelled. 

It is historically and chronologically proven that theater emphasized pedagogy, idealism and harmony. Paradoxically it also energized patriotism a phenomenon that symbolized ethnically character and phenomenal heroism.

       ”

                                  Ρart Two

Xenophon Zolotas (1904 – 2004), was a Greek economist and served as an interim non-party Prime Minister of Greece.  Two of his speeches in English are considered to be historic and notable because they contained, with the exception of articles and prepositions,  exclusively Greek words. Here are the texts:

“  1957.   I always wished to address this Assembly in Greek, but realized that it would have been indeed "Greek" to all present in this room. I found out, however, that I could make my address in Greek which would still be English to everybody. With your permission, Mr. Chairman, l shall do it now, using with the exception of articles and prepositions, only Greek words.

     Kyrie, I eulogize the archons of the Panethnic Numismatic Thesaurus and the Ecumenical Trapeza for the orthodoxy of their axioms, methods and policies, although there is an episode of cacophony of the Trapeza with Hellas. 

With enthusiasm we dialogue and synagonize at the synods of our didymous organizations in which polymorphous economic ideas and dogmas are analyzed and synthesized. Our critical problems such as the numismatic plethora generate some agony and melancholy. This phenomenon is characteristic of our epoch. 

But, to my thesis, we have the dynamism to program therapeutic practices as a prophylaxis from chaos and catastrophe. In parallel, a Panethnic unhypocritical economic synergy and harmonization in a democratic climate is basic. I apologize for my eccentric monologue. 
I emphasize my euharistia to you, Kyrie to the eugenic and generous American Ethnos and to the organizers and protagonists of his Amphictyony and the gastronomic symposia.

” 

“  1959   Kyrie, it is Zeus' anathema on our epoch for the dynamism of our economies and the heresy of our economic methods and policies that we should agonize the Scylla of numismatic plethora and the Charybdis of economic anaemia. It is not my idiosyncrasy to be ironic or sarcastic, but my diagnosis would be that politicians are rather cryptoplethorists. 

Although they emphatically stigmatize numismatic plethora, they energize it through their tactics and practices. Our policies have to be based more on economic and less on political criteria. Our gnomon has to be a metron between political, strategic and philanthropic scopes. Political magic has always been anti-economic. In an epoch characterized by monopolies, oligopolies, monopsonies, monopolistic antagonism and polymorphous inelasticities, our policies have to be more orthological. But this should not be metamorphosed into plethorophobia, which is endemic among academic economists. 

Numismatic symmetry should not hyper-antagonize economic acme. A greater harmonization between the practices of the economic and numismatic archons is basic. Parallel to this, we have to synchronize and harmonize more and more our economic and numismatic policies panethnically. 

These scopes are more practicable now, when the prognostics of the political and economic barometer are halcyonic. The history of our didymus organizations in this sphere has been didactic and their gnostic practices will always be a tonic to the polyonymous and idiomorphous ethnical economies. 

The genesis of the programmed organization will dynamize these policies. Therefore, I sympathize, although not without criticism on one or two themes, with the apostles and the hierarchy of our organs in their zeal to program orthodox economic and numismatic policies, although I have some logomachy with them. 

I apologize for having tyrannized you with my Hellenic phraseology. In my epilogue, I emphasize my eulogy to the philoxenous autochthons of this cosmopolitan metropolis and my encomium to you, Kyrie, and the stenographers.

               ”

source

  Scholeio.com    

Hiding Objects

A multidirectional `perfect paraxial’ cloak using four lenses. From a continuous range of viewing angles, the hand remains cloaked, and the grids seen through the device match the background on the wall (about 2 m away), in color, spacing, shifts, and magnification. // photo by J. Adam Fenster / University of Rochester

‘Cloaking’ device uses ordinary lenses to hide objects across range of angles

Inspired perhaps by Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak, scientists have recently developed several ways—some simple and some involving new technologies—to hide objects from view. The latest effort, developed at the University of Rochester, not only overcomes some of the limitations of previous devices, but it uses inexpensive, readily available materials in a novel configuration.

Doctoral student Joseph Choi is pictured
with a a multidirectional `perfect paraxial’
cloak using 4 lenses.

In order to both cloak an object and leave the background undisturbed, the researchers determined the lens type and power needed, as well as the precise distance to separate the four lenses. 

To test their device, they placed the cloaked object in front of a grid background. 

As they looked through the lenses and changed their viewing angle by moving from side to side, the grid shifted accordingly as if the cloaking device was not there. 

There was no discontinuity in the grid lines behind the cloaked object, compared to the background, and the grid sizes (magnification) matched.

The Rochester Cloak can be scaled up as large as the size of the lenses, allowing fairly large objects to be cloaked. And, unlike some other devices, it’s broadband so it works for the whole visible spectrum of light, rather than only for specific frequencies.

Their simple configuration improves on other cloaking devices, but it’s not perfect. “This cloak bends light and sends it through the center of the device, so the on-axis region cannot be blocked or cloaked,” said Choi. This means that the cloaked region is shaped like a doughnut. He added that they have slightly more complicated designs that solve the problem. Also, the cloak has edge effects, but these can be reduced when sufficiently large lenses are used.

In a new paper submitted to the journal Optics Express and available on arXiv.org, Howell and Choi provide a mathematical formalism for this type of cloaking that can work for angles up to 15 degrees, or more. They use a technique called ABCD matrices that describes how light bends when going through lenses, mirrors, or other optical elements.

While their device is not quite like Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak, Howell had some thoughts about potential applications, including using cloaking to effectively let a surgeon “look through his hands to what he is actually operating on,” he said. The same principles could be applied to a truck to allow drivers to see through blind spots on their vehicles.

Howell became interested in creating simple cloaking devices with off-the-shelf materials while working on a holiday project with his children. Together with his 14 year-old son and Choi, he recently published a paper about some of the possibilities, and also demonstrated simple cloaking with mirrors, like magicians would use, in a brief video.


To build your own Rochester Cloak, follow these simple steps:

For their demonstration cloak,
the researchers used 50mm achromatic doublets with focal lengths f1 = 200mm and f2 = 75mm

Purchase 2 sets of 2 lenses with different focal lengths f1 and f2 (4 lenses total, 2 with f1 focal length, and 2 with f2 focal length)
Separate the first 2 lenses by the sum of their focal lengths (So f1 lens is the first lens, f2 is the 2nd lens, and they are separated by t1= f1+ f2).
Do the same in Step 2 for the other two lenses.
Separate the two sets by t2=2 f2 (f1+ f2) / (f1— f2) apart, so that the two f2 lenses are t2 apart.

NOTES:

Achromatic lenses provide best image quality.

Fresnel lenses can be used to reduce the total length (2t1+t2)

Smaller total length should reduce edge effects and increase the range of angles.

For an easier, but less ideal, cloak, you can try the 3 lens cloak in the paper.

Setup of the multidirectional `perfect paraxial’ cloak as seen from the side. Laser shows the paths that light rays travel through the system, showing regions that can be used for cloaking an object. // photo by J. Adam Fenster / University of Rochester

Tags: featured-post, Institute of Optics, John Howell, research finding, School of Arts and Sciences

Category: Featured

Contact Author(s)

David Barnstone

585.276.6264

 dbarnsto@ur.rochester.edu

source

  Scholeio.com    

The first American who took part in the Greek Revolution.

Captain “Zervos,  the American.”   (George Jarvis)

Remeber me !   my friends,

Who here from freedom's cause remains

In Grecian seas, in Grecian plain

To break the most  inglorius chains,

And seeks humanity. 

__________________________________________ George Jarvis         

An ardent lover and supporter of the ideals of freedom  

in the Greek revolution*

    George Jarvis was the son of Benjamin Jarvis, an American diplomat on assignment in Europe.   Jarvis exemplifies a true philhellene who endangered his life to come to the aid of Greece and her people.    He was an ardent lover and supporter of the ideals of freedom. 

Upon his arrival in Greece in 1822, he shed his fashionable, European clothes and put the uniform of the Greek fighter, the "fustanela".  He taught himself to read and write Greek and changed his name to Captain “George Zervis, the American.”  Under his new name, he fought alongside the other Greek soldiers and shared in their struggle against the Ottoman Empire.  

Jarvis departed for Greece with Hastings, a Royal Navy officer, arriving on the island of Hydra in the Saronic Gulf on April 3, 1822.  He lives on the island from 1822 to 1824, serving as an officer in the Greek Navy with Manolis Tobazis, a most distinguished officer.

When Jarvis heard about Lord Byron’s arrival in Greece, he left Hydra for the town of Missolonghi, in western Greece, and served as Lord Byron’s adjutant until his death in April 18, 1824. Under guidance of Greek engineer M.Kokkinis he also helped fortify in both Missolonghi and Aitolico.

In August 1824 under Prince Mavrocordato’s leadership, he took part in the expedition to the northern Turkish strongholds of Kravassaras and Makrinoros, in the province of Epirus. In November of that same year, he returned to Missolonghi, only to meet up with Jonathan Peckham Miller.

In 1825, he found himself marching along with the soldiery to the towns of Nafplion and Tripolis in the Peloponnese. During the invasion of Egyptian Pasha Ibrahim, he assumed the expenses for the 45 soldiers sent to Methoni, a town situated in the Messinia, a prefecture of the southern Peloponnese.

From 1827 until his death on August 11, 1828, Jarvis along with Samuel Gridley Howe and Jonathan Peckam Miller, continue to contribute as members of the Philhellene committee of America by distributing much needed medication, clothing and food to Greeks who had suffered during this time. He was buried in the city of Argos, in the Peloponnese with the rank of Lieutenant General.

Washington faces with satisfaction

 the revolutionary full action

of the Greeks for independence

after the American transcendence

to defeat the British Empire

with courage, sword and fire.

Hymn to Freedom, verse 22  Dionysios Solomos, National poet of Greece

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Language attribute by P.V.Mataragas

* Greek War of Independence, Following the fall of the Roman Empire to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, most of Greece came under Ottoman rule. During this time, there were some revolt attempts by Greeks to gain independence from Ottoman control.

In 1814, a secret organization called the Filiki Eteria was founded with the aim of liberating Greece. The Filiki Eteria planned to launch revolts in the Peloponnese, the Danubian Principalities, and in Constantinople and its surrounding areas. The first of these revolts began on 6 March 1821 in the Danubian Principalities, but was soon put down by the Ottomans. The events in the north urged the Greeks in the Peloponnese into action and on 17 March 1821, the Maniots declared war on the Ottomans. This declaration was the start of a "Spring" or revolutionary actions from other controlled states against the Ottoman Empire.

By the end of the month, the Peloponnese was in open revolt against the Turks and by October 1821, the Greeks under Theodoros Kolokotronis had captured Tripolitsa. The Peloponnesian revolt was quickly followed by revolts in Crete, Macedonia, and Central Greece, which would soon be suppressed. Meanwhile, the makeshift Greek navy was achieving success against the Ottoman navy in the Aegean Sea and prevented Ottoman reinforcements from arriving by sea.
Tensions soon developed among different Greek factions, leading to two consecutive civil wars. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Sultan negotiated with Mehmet Ali of Egypt, who agreed to send his son Ibrahim Pasha to Greece with an army to suppress the revolt in return for territorial gain. Ibrahim landed in the Peloponnese in February 1825 and had immediate success: by the end of 1825, most of the Peloponnese was under Egyptian control, and the city of Missolonghi—put under siege by the Turks since April 1825—fell in April 1826. Although Ibrahim was defeated in Mani, he had succeeded in suppressing most of the revolt in the Peloponnese and Athens had been retaken.

Following years of negotiation, three Great Powers, Russia, Britain and France, decided to intervene in the conflict and each nation sent a navy to Greece. Following news that combined Ottoman–Egyptian fleets were going to attack the Greek island of Hydra, the allied fleet intercepted the Ottoman–Egyptian fleet at Navarino. Following a week long standoff, a battle began which resulted in the destruction of the Ottoman–Egyptian fleet. With the help of a French expeditionary force, the Greeks drove the Turks out of the Peloponnese and proceeded to the captured part of Central Greece by 1828. As a result of years of negotiation, Greece was finally recognized as an independent nation in May 1832.
The Revolution is celebrated by the modern Greek state as a national day on 25 March.

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sources:

http://www.americanphilhellenessociety.com/
http://Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://www.tovima.gr/ reportaz: Fotene Tomae

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