My dad needed a very clear, more scratch resistant glass for a product he was working on. Up until then, the best you could get was by going to glass companies and getting sapphire coated glass. He searched a chemistry book of compounds and found what he was looking for. Based on the structure, the qualities were known, but it hadn’t ever been created. So he then to a chemical company and worked with them to make it. It’s essentially aluminum oxide (corundum/ruby or sapphire depending on the color. His was colorless.)

When he unveiled it to the company he worked for, he called it “transparent aluminum”. He said one guy at the back of the room caught the Star Trek reference.

Why was the original post to the article removed?

Why do they even have nuclear weapons? They’ve only been a country since 1948. It’s a tiny country that has continuously abused everyone else. 25 years ago I was wondering why the US funded them and assumed it’s because of the strategic military stronghold in the region, but they’ve controlled so much of the US. There are laws in places in the US to prohibit criticizing them. How the fuck? I remember when they sued (somehow? Maybe sued is the wrong term) the US because the US wasn’t giving them enough “allowance” every year. They wanted more money. Fifteen years ago my friend asked if I heard about the four Israeli kids that were kidnapped or killed at the time, but there were 28 or so Palestinian kids that week that had had the same fate. I just didn’t/don’t get it. I largely stay out of it because I didn’t understand the nuances, or at least don’t think I do, but how can an 70ish year old country come in and tell people who have been there for a thousand years that they need to just go ahead and die?

As I’m typing this out, I’m now thinking of the indigenous people in North America and I realize I’ve answered my own question.