Photo by Saffron Blaze via Wikimedia Commons Anyone who has witnessed a glassmaking demonstration can surely appreciate the skill that goes into a craft that dates back to 2, 000 BC. Named after the island from which it originates, Murano glass has been among the very best since the Renaissance, though the market has declined precipitously over the past few decades: according to The Guardian , the number of Murano sculptors has melted from “6, 000 in 1990 to less than 1, 000 [in 2012].” Even so, it’s hard not to be impressed by the practiced hands that churn out the souvenirs, kitschy though they may be, and at least one maestro has added a little flourish to the predictably well-documented process of sculpting a glass horse . This one is well worth watching in full: Post by Francisco Lopez Serrano . (more…)
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Making a Murano Glass Horse in Minutes with a Fiery Finish
According to Reuters , Iraq rebels have stolen 88 pounds of uranium compounds that were being used for scientific research at a university in the city of Mosul. Read more… 
Getting live, free, broadcast TV on your computer isn’t difficult—you just need the right TV tuner to get the job done. Last week we asked you for your favorites , then looked at the five best TV tuner cards (or peripherals.) Now we’re back to highlight your favorite. Read more… 
Apple, Trapper Keeper, and Reebok: Three of the most well-known brands of the 1980s, and three companies that used the same futuristic-looking typeface to do it. So why isn’t the typeface a classic like other period pieces *cough*Helvetica*cough*? Fate is a funny thing. Read more… 
Ever try measuring the straight-line distance between two points on Google Maps? You had to hold some object or appendage up to the little scale, then eyeball-measure the distance on your screen. What a mess. No more—a new update puts the task a right-click away . Also, you can doodle with it. Read more… 
Lasrick sends this quote from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Most people would agree that keeping track of dangerous material is generally a good idea. So it may come as a surprise to some that the arrangements that are supposed to account for weapon-grade fissile materials—plutonium and highly enriched uranium—are sketchy at best. The most recent example involves several hundreds kilograms of plutonium that appear to have fallen through the cracks in various reporting arrangements. … [A Japanese researcher discovered] that the public record of Japan’s plutonium holdings failed to account for about 640 kilograms of the material. The error made its way to the annual plutonium management report that Japan voluntarily submits to the International Atomic Energy Agency … This episode may have been a simple clerical error, but it was yet another reminder of the troubling fact that we know very little about the amounts of fissile material that are circulating around the globe. The only reason the discrepancy was discovered in this case was the fact that Japan has been unusually transparent about its plutonium stocks. … No other country does this. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
