Free Republic

It is well known that panes of stained glass in old European churches are thicker at the bottom because glass is a slow-moving liquid that flows downward over centuries. Well known, but wrong. Medieval stained glass makers were simply unable to make perfectly flat panes, and the windows were just as unevenly thick when new. The tale contains a grain of truth about glass resembling a liquid, however. The arrangement of atoms and molecules in glass is indistinguishable from that of a liquid. But how can a liquid be as strikingly hard as glass? “They’re the thickest and gooiest of...

Since deserting his unit in Iraq and fleeing to Canada two years ago, Corey Glass has become the poster boy of the war resisters movement. Thursday in Toronto, supporters are planning to protest his scheduled deportation back to the United States. Corey Glass, 25, who deserted the U.S. Army while his unit was in Iraq and fled to Canada has become a cause celebre there. The American's impending deportation has led to protests and a parliamentary resolution. (ABC News Photo Illustration)But it turns out Glass has had little reason to be on the lam, ABC News has learned. Unknown to...

Daily Glass Of Wine Could Improve Liver HealthFor individuals who reported drinking up to one glass of wine per day, as compared to no alcohol consumption, the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease was cut in half, according to a new study. (Credit: iStockphoto)ScienceDaily (May 22, 2008) — Researchers at UC San Diego School of Medicine are challenging conventional thinking with a study showing that modest wine consumption, defined as one glass a day, may not only be safe for the liver, but may actually decrease the prevalence of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). The study, which appears in the...

The story of Western architecture is one of darkness giving way to light. Europe's dour medieval fortresses were replaced by airy Gothic structures and for the modernists, light was an end in itself. Has this tale run its course? From the beginning, architecture has been embarked on a journey to the light. That we have arrived is something we now take for granted. But it wasn't always thus. Indeed, of all the elements that comprise architecture, light was historically the most elusive. For millennia, we lived in shadow. Anyone who has wandered through those 1,000-year-old Romanesque churches around Barcelona in...

Local moms are playing it cautious when it comes to their babies' bottles. Retailers throughout southeastern Wisconsin say they have seen a swell of interest in glass and bisphenol A-free baby bottles in the past few weeks. So much so that a store manager at USA Baby in Brookfield said manufacturers have been unable to keep up with his customers' demands. "We've really seen a surge in the last month," said Tom Blackmore, manager of USA Baby. "It's been hard to keep glass bottles in stock." A growing body of research indicates that bisphenol A - a chemical used to...

Cray Supercomputer at Sandia Helps Researchers Discover Origin of Mysterious Glass Found in King Tut's Tomb Released : Tuesday, July 31, 2007 7:26 AM Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. (NASDAQ: CRAY) today announced that researchers running simulations on the Cray supercomputer at Sandia National Laboratories have re-created what could have happened 29 million years ago when an asteroid explosion turned Saharan sand into glass. The greenish natural glass, which can still be found scattered across remote stretches of the desert, was used by an artisan in ancient Egypt to carve a scarab that decorates one of the bejeweled breastplates buried...

Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan pulled four cabbage products from 228 stores in Tokyo and neighboring areas after two customers damaged their teeth on glass found in their cole slaw, the company said Friday. KFC received the complaints Thursday, the company said in a statement. One customer, a man, said he chipped his tooth on the glass, and the other, a woman, said she lost a filling, company spokesman Kiyotaka Mura said. An internal investigation has determined that the glass came from a thermometer that broke earlier this week in a refrigerator for cut cabbage at a factory near Tokyo, the...

Safety officials remain mystified why windshields cracked on at least 14 planes at Denver International Airport on Friday. "We are not discounting anything," said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer, whose agency is among those investigating the incidents. "We believe it is very remarkable to have this number of events in the same area at the same time." The National Transportation Safety Board will have a glass specialist from its structures division examine 22 damaged front and side windshields that were removed from the affected planes, said NTSB air-safety investigator Jennifer Kaiser. The cracking occurred over a 1 1/2 hour...

Mysterious Egyptian Glass Formed by Meteorite Strike, Study Says Stefan Lovgren for National Geographic News December 21, 2006 Strange specimens of natural glass found in the Egyptian desert are products of a meteorite slamming into Earth between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago, scientists have concluded. The glass—known locally as Dakhla glass—represents the first clear evidence of a meteorite striking an area populated by humans. At the time of the impact, the Dakhla Oasis, located in the western part of modern-day Egypt, resembled the African savanna and was inhabited by early humans, according to archaeological evidence (see Egypt map.) "This meteorite...

Fulgurites! The second is the world record holder.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. Nov 4, 2006 (AP)— Since going to Canada to avoid another deployment to Iraq, Corey Glass has considered returning to the United States. But after hearing that a fellow former soldier who surrendered to the military and was ordered to return to his unit instead of being discharged, Glass may not return at all. "They're not going to win the hearts and minds like that," said Glass, 24, who signed on with the Indiana National Guard in 2002. Kyle Snyder, a one-time combat engineer who joined the military in 2003, disappeared Wednesday, a day after surrendering at Fort...

As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger embarks from San Diego County on a campaign bus tour this morning, he will be greeted by good news in the form of a poll showing his re-election prospects brightening. A new statewide Field Poll shows that 45 percent of the likely voters in the Nov. 7 election would vote for the Republican incumbent and 37 percent for Democratic state Treasurer Phil Angelides. Three percent would vote for minor-party candidates and the remaining 15 percent were undecided. Although that does not represent a statistically significant change from May, when Schwarzenegger led Angelides 46 percent to 39...

General Motors has won the first round of a consumer lawsuit that could set a precedent for other automakers in similar suits pending in several states. A U.S. District Court judge in Dallas has dismissed a suit in which the owner of a 2004 Chevrolet Tahoe alleged that GM had been negligent in using tempered glass in its side windows rather than laminated glass.

A Redmond glassblower who was sued for copyright violations last year by artist Dale Chihuly fired back in court Friday — challenging the integrity of Chihuly's art and the public's impression of how it's created. Among other things, Robert Kaindl alleges in a counterclaim filed in U.S. District Court that Chihuly is not involved in conceiving, creating, designing or even signing a "substantial number" of artworks that bear his name.

Rep. Patrick Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) crashed his car near the Capitol early Thursday, and a police official said he appeared intoxicated. Kennedy said he had taken sleep medication and a prescription anti-nausea drug that can cause drowsiness. Kennedy, D-R.I., addressed the issue after a spate of news reports. His initial statement said: "I consumed no alcohol prior to the incident."'Later, however, he issued a longer statement saying the attending physician for Congress had prescribed Phenergan on Tuesday to treat Kennedy's gastroenteritis.Kennedy said he returned to his Capitol Hill home on Wednesday evening after a final series of votes...

ALBANY, N.Y. - Here's a new tip to help curb drinking over the holidays: Ask for your scotch-and-soda in a highball glass. That's because people tend to unwittingly pour more alcohol into short, wide glasses compared to tall, skinny ones — meaning two cocktails from a squat tumbler might actually pack the punch of 2 1/2 drinks. The phenomenon is so pervasive even experienced bartenders do it, according to a study being published Friday in the BMJ, formerly the British Medical Journal. "People say, 'Oh, the bartender knows what he's doing.' Well, the bartender does know what he's doing in...

If you assume, as I do, that the purpose of the political process is to persuade people to entrust you with power, the solution to the losses Governor Schwarzenegger faced in November is simple. It is also hard work. And it is the solution the Governor seems to be avoiding. If I have any complaint with many of my California Republican colleagues, it would be that they think they can outsmart, outwit, or outmaneuver the Democrats. They believe that if they can find just the right issue, or just the right tactic, they can slick their way into a majority...

1,700-year-old 'Roman Glass' Discovered in East China Glass remains over 1,700 years old, possibly imported from ancient Rome, have been discovered in an ancient tomb located in east China's Anhui Province, local cultural relic department said on Sunday. The tomb was found during the latest road project in Zhulong Village of Dangtu County in Anhui. Archaeologists believed the tomb was built in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317 - 420). Covered with white mantlerock, the glass remains seem to have ancient Roman shapes and craftwork. According to the local cultural relic department, the owner of the tomb was possibly from an...

CAMP BLUE DIAMOND, AR RAMADI, Iraq (August 18, 2005) -- The Ramadi Glass Works Factory, which was once the second largest employer in western Iraq’s Al Anbar Province, is slowly coming back to life. The factory’s management is working with coalition forces to gradually reopen the plant, which was closed last November after insurgents used the factory to stage attacks. Due to its key role in the local economy, both groups have pushed to open the facility, which also includes a ceramics factory. “It employs 2,300 people and the way we look at it those are 2,300 families affected,” said...

MIDI - FLIPPER There is a place that they face to pray They evoke calls to blow us away If a nuke hit on us comes to pass We'll turn that place into glass They call it Mecca, Mecca...that's where they turn to When they say "Please, Allah, make them dead" They call it Mecca, Mecca...and it's about time, folks To plan for what Tancredo has said What have their kids been learning in school They always teach their one golden rule Right after they hear opening bell Kill Jews and all infidels! They call it Mecca, Mecca...that's where...

Randy Glass Video By Paul Thompson View the printer friendly view A fascinating video relating to an important unheeded warning of the 9/11 attacks was shown on WPTV, an NBC TV station in Florida on October 7, 2002. This video has been overlooked and forgotten until now. What did Senator Bob Graham (left) and US intelligence know about the warning from Randy Glass (right) before 9/11? In this video, Randy Glass, a private US citizen working as an undercover agent in a government sting operation, discusses how he learned about a threat to the World Trade Center and tried to...

A Texas jury has found Ford Motor Co. liable for a rollover accident involving a Ford Explorer in another legal setback for the manufacturer of America's most popular sport utility vehicle. On Tuesday, the jury in Zavala County District Court ordered Ford to pay $31 million in compensatory damages in the case, Ford spokeswoman Kathleen Vokes said.

Here is your chance to see if W has what it takes to really beat Kerry.

Glass breakthrough 11 August 2004 Scientists in the US have developed a novel technique to make bulk quantities of glass from alumina for the first time. Anatoly Rosenflanz and colleagues at 3M in Minnesota used a "flame-spray" technique to alloy alumina (aluminium oxide) with rare-earth metal oxides to produce strong glass with good optical properties. The method avoids many of the problems encountered in conventional glass forming and could, say the team, be extended to other oxides (A Rosenflanz et al. 2004 Nature 430 761). Glass is formed when a molten material is cooled so quickly that its constituent atoms...

from the like-blue-LEDs dept. Alien54 writes "Scientists in the US have developed a novel technique to make bulk quantities of glass from alumina for the first time. (link includes a picture of samples) Anatoly Rosenflanz and colleagues at 3M in Minnesota used a "flame-spray" technique to alloy alumina (aluminium oxide) with rare-earth metal oxides to produce strong glass with good optical properties. The method avoids many of the problems encountered in conventional glass forming and could, say the team, be extended to other oxides (see also: A Rosenflanz et al. 2004 Nature 430 761). Scotty would be pleased."

SCIENCE FILE A new glass coating made of vanadium dioxide could provide relief for sky-high summer air conditioning bills — without affecting winter heating costs, according to a study in the latest Journal of Materials Chemistry. Chemists from University College London covered glass with a thin layer of the compound mixed with a sprinkling of tungsten, a combination that blocks the sun's infrared rays when it's hot, but lets the sun's warmth through in the cold.

<p>October 10, 2002 -- WASHINGTON - Former President Bill Clinton was showered with pricey gifts while he was in office from the leaders of Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, but he didn't disclose them because they were earmarked for his presidential library in Arkansas, a new report yesterday revealed.</p>

The financially troubled L.E. Smith Glass Co., one of the last hand-molded glass factories in the United States, abruptly ceased production this week after talks between a potential buyer and a major lender failed. The specialty glass maker, whose customers included Martha Stewart and the retailer Williams Sonoma, had operated in Mount Pleasant since 1907. Martin Noonan, L.E. Smith's Boston-based president, blamed a poor economy and import competition for the company's problems. Both he and the lender, Sky Financial, said they were seeking another buyer. The factory's retail store will remain open for at least the near future, said Tim...

<p>An experiment originally designed to fly on the International Space Station led a team of researchers to develop a completely new type of glass, a material formed while floating in mid-air in a NASA laboratory on Earth.</p> <p>Using static electrical fields to levitate the material, scientists were able to construct a pure glass, free of any contamination typically associated with containers. It could serve as the centerpiece for new medical and industrial lasers, as well as have broadband Internet applications.</p>

<p>QUINCY -- William J. Quarterone did not go back to sleep yesterday morning, too troubled after watching a bleeding man collapse in front of his home in the early hours. Minutes before, police said, the man had stolen some Play Station 2 video games, and was fatally wounded as he fled.</p>

Beijing - Beer bottles that exploded in the hot summer weather were one of the biggest health risks Chinese consumers faced last year, Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday. Complaints about food safety rose by nearly 25 percent in 2003 as newly wealthy Chinese consumers looked for quality and spoke out if they were disappointed, Xinhua quoted a leading consumer group as saying. "Personal injury, foreign matter in food, outdated or undated food and children's food safety were the chief (causes of) complaint," said Wang Qianhu, director of the China Consumers' Association's complaint and law department. "...Beer bottle explosions were...

I reported a few days ago that Nick Ashton, the head of the company with which I work, was going to Baghdad. He landed on Sunday at the Baghdad Airport in a plane that had one of its two engines working. We have been communicating by internet with MSN messaging. Tonight, I was able to call him. He went up to the roof of the compound at which he is staying so he could get a signal. Of the Iraqis he has met, they are very glad that the United States has liberated them from the torturous hellhole that was...

NOTE TO ADMIN MODERATOR -- please do not see this as a commercial for my company. It truly is newsworthy. I am not expecting this report to lead to business with other FReepers. Thanks. =================================================== Nick Ashton, president of SSAF, is on a plane right now on his way to Baghdad. His mission is to help prevent loss of life and injuries. The killer is glass. Here is his latest bulletin: CLICK. From a report about the bombing of the U.N. in Bagdad is the following from the AP -- UNITED NATIONS -- Senior U.N. officials must share responsibility for...

NOTE: This is for information, not for a commercial, so I won't give the company name or website. I hope, however, that this info will help save lives. Since 9-11, I describe my work as "fighting the terrorist bastards." I work with a company that, for over three decades around the world, has saved many lives. We manufacture and install the state-of-the-art window film in the world. It is capable of holding broken glass in the frame from the blast and overpressure wave and shrapnel from a 500-lb car bomb from a distance of 111 feet. It survives a fragmentation...

One day in January 1996, I sat in Steve Glass's apartment following the returns to the New Hampshire primary with him and one or two other colleagues of ours at The New Republic. We were watching a C-SPAN call-in show, and Glass began speculating about how callers can get on the air. Glass picked up the phone and called the number, and said he lived in Manchester. His status as an apparent bonafide New Hampshirite thrust him to the front of the line--within seconds he was talking to the host. His immediate success flustered him. Asked whom he had voted...

TAMPA, Fla. (Reuters) - Two police officers were hospitalized on Thursday after one found broken glass in his hamburger at a McDonald's restaurant in Tampa, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said. The two deputies had stopped at the McDonald's for dinner. One deputy began bleeding from his mouth and found shards of broken glass under the bun of his hamburger, a spokesman for the sheriff's office told reporters. He was in stable condition at a Tampa hospital. The other deputy, who also ate a hamburger, was taken to the same hospital for examination. It was not clear if he had...

Pardon the cheap shameless plug, but I hope to have the opportunity to meet a few of you NY FReepers next week when I'm in NYC. For those not familiar with previous cheap shameless plugs, here is the business in which I am involved --- SSAF. Yes, a new cool flash website is being designed (actually by my son). For over thirty years, SSAF has protected the glass in major buildings around the world from terrorist bomb blasts. The company has saved many lives. In 7-mil optically clear or solar control, IMPAX EXTREME Fragmentation/Blast Security Window Film can sustain a...

PHOTO Stephen Glass has written a novel about his life called “The Fabulist.” (CBS) " I wanted them to think I was a good journalist…a good person. I wanted them to love the story so they would love me.” Stephen Glass (CBS) Stephen Glass, the young Washington writer whose often-outrageous articles proved, in the end, to be rarely true, tells Correspondent Steve Kroft that he piled lie on top of lie to gain the admiration of his colleagues. Glass, who has written a novel about his life called “The Fabulist,” appears in his first interview on 60 Minutes Sunday, May...

MIDI - BEAT IT You are a leftist stooge and Hollywood ho Each time you spoke, disdain for you was sure to grow We've cooked a tasty dish and it's time to have some crow Time to eat it…time to eat it Our president you thought that you could attack You thought that you had known it all about Iraq But what you did to troops was a knife right in their back So eat it…we have cooked it for you Just eat it, eat it…you're side's utterly defeated You and Mike Farrell…Martin Sheen, too You're always wrong…whatever you...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 January 12 A Spherule from Outer Space Credit: Timothy Culler (UCB) et al., Apollo 11 Crew, NASA Explanation: When a meteorite strikes the Moon, the energy of the impact melts some of the splattering rock, a fraction of which might cool into tiny glass beads. Many of these glass beads were present in lunar soil samples returned to Earth by the Apollo missions. Pictured above is one...

<p>Thousands of males aged 16 years or older from five countries designated by U.S. authorities as sponsors of terrorism have registered with the Immigration and Naturalization Service as required by a new regulation. All were photographed, fingerprinted and interviewed, and may not change addresses, jobs or a course of study without notifying the INS in writing. Otherwise they become "out of status" and subject to arrest and deportation. That's reasonable, up to a point.</p>

TOKYO (Reuters) - Sharp Corp, Japan's largest maker of liquid crystal displays (LCDs), unveiled a screen Tuesday with microprocessor circuitry applied directly onto the glass, enabling it to function like a computer. Reuters Photo The company hopes to have products available by 2005 using the advanced circuitry, perhaps even a "display card" that could store data and be carried around for use with various gadgets from games machines to mobile phones to car navigation systems. "This could be something the size of a business card, perhaps with a wireless function and touch-screen input," Mikio Katayama, head of Sharp's mobile display...

One American construction worker dies every workday hour. For the past 40 years Labor Day has emphasized the celebration of a crucial change in the labor force – the addition of women. The first Labor Day after Sept. 11, though, reminds us that one aspect of the labor force has experienced no more change than the "Glass Ceiling." That might be called the "Glass Cellar." When I did the research for a book called "The Myth of Male Power," I discovered a Glass Cellar that holds far more men than the Glass Ceiling. The Glass Cellar consists of the hazardous...

CHICAGO (AP) -- Someone shattered a $70,000 glass flower sculpture by artist Dale Chihuly that was on display at the Garfield Park Conservatory, officials said. The colorful figurine, part of the ``Chihuly in the Park'' exhibit, was irreversibly damaged Friday night while the conservatory was closed for a private party, Chicago Park District spokeswoman Angelynne Amores said. ``It's like someone plucked the flower,'' said Amores. Police said their investigation would include tracking down guests at the party, held to honor a couple on their wedding anniversary. The cost of the damage will be recouped because the party hosts had to...

Ancient Atomic WarfareReligious texts and geological evidence suggest that several parts of the world have experienced destructive atomic blasts in ages past. The following item appeared in the New York Herald Tribune on February 16, 1947 (and was repeated by Ivan T. Sanderson in the January 1970 issue of his magazine, Pursuit): When the first atomic bomb exploded in New Mexico, the desert sand turned to fused green glass. This fact, according to the magazine Free World, has given certain archaeologists a turn. They have been digging in the ancient Euphrates Valley and have uncovered a layer of agrarian culture 8,000...

September 1994 Bomb Attacks in City Centers By TIMOTHY HILLIER Chief Superintendent Hillier serves in the Operational Support Department of the City of London Police, London, England. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Massive explosions in London, New York, and other major cities worldwide clearly demonstrate that important financial districts have become prestigious targets for terrorist organizations, regardless of their motives. In addition to causing significant loss of life, these bombs can severely disrupt trade and economic transactions. Further, modern satellite communications broadcast grisly bomb scene images around the world within minutes, adding to the lure of this type of target for groups seeking media...