The discovery, in the first century BCE, that glass could be blown with a pipe seems to have been made in Palestine.
Why not? The city of Ramallah in the West Bank was long known as the Prague of the Middle East because it was a gathering place for thinkers and dreamers. Ancient grudges, media bias, and modern politics all conceal the fact that the Middle East has been a center of development since long ago.
(Just out of curiosity, why the recent departure from your usual celestial repertoire?)
Hi Moody,
New Year, new flavour
Astrophysics & Cosmology will still feature, but I'm giving myself room to manouvre and talk of more earthly things too.
After all I'm not exactly playing to a captive 'hubble' audience, but more like fellow space travellers, with whom I dialogue on several levels and topics.
Always great to pop round yours for a good read on your latest thoughts on music, family life, culture, customs et al
I never really thought about that, glass not being a crystal.
I suppose it isn't.
It's odd how once glass was considered a major luxury. In medieval romances glass windows are held up as the ultimate opulance.
Hello, Q!!
Happy New Year.
I love things old and Egyptian. And you can still connect it to the stars. The Egyptians loved astrology. They also loved earthly things...!
xo
my first thought was similar to the minstel's i think in that it is good to see mention of the history of the area mentioned in a light other than religious for there was much more that religious thought, much secular intellectual and creative activity in the area as well (no mistaking it's close proximity to greece and egypt who's civilizations spanned many centuries before the year 1 by our current western calendars...
and the i thought, how ironic, for that is what you, q9, are doing here as well, showing your interests beyond the astronomy and astro-physics you routinely share so well here...
there are so many more facets to everything than we usually focus on... the middles east is so much more than a religious mecca, your blog is so much more than the stars and planets, and we each are so much more than the few things we share online...
great reminder that history and the universe within can be as relatively infinite as the universe out there 
Hi Crushed,
I guess really instead of "you are the best thing since sliced bread" one could better say "you are the best thing since glass"
but yeah amazing how blown or rolled glass would then be cut and flattened to make a pane of glass - mind you we've come a long way sincem when you think of the amount of glass we use on most new sky-scrapers, ata boy
Hi Gillian,
I know you do darling Blue
from aromatherapy to spas, from eyeliner to perfume bottles - man has been collecting the 'finest' dust and the most perfumed oils to transform into gifts ... gold, incense & myrrh
I'll be over in a mo, see what delights you have on offer this New Year
Indeed Candoor,
our thoughts can be drawn and/or we can direct our thoughts
not so much a matter of meditating upon a thought, but collecting one's thoughts, or gathering one's thoughts.
Amazing how many to do things I've yet to do, because I've either meditated them on them, or set them aside for another day, or made some other excuse for not acting on the thought. Some necessarily so by necessity - either pie in the sky or fantasy or 'unrealistic' - but others foolishly. I should have completed my pilots licence long ago ... when I first started
I've yet to set my goals for this year, one to ten - to stand openly as waiting to be knocked down in the bowling lane that is LIFE.
Your are such a mind of inforamtion.
Ill be back when i have dusted myself after being knocked down on my bowling lane.
Happy new year
Hi Casdok,
great to hear from ya
You know I'd love to help you dust yourself down, and get back on the saddle
may this new year be filled with loads more fun
If there is one material object that I obsess over, it is glass!
Aaah Vesper,
seems we have more in common every day
look forward to you popping over my way
Hey, how are you doing? Hope all is well.
Wow, I had no idea the Ancient Egyptians had glass. They had quite a lot going on back then, didn't they? Would love to pop back there for a day to see what it was like.
oh - and thanks for popping by my blog! I really appreciate it.
I didn't know that piece of Egyptology (something I actually have extencive knowledge about) so thank you!!
Very pretty photo as well.
What is it about glass that fascinates so? Lovely.
Hi Leon,
How you doing?
Hi Jannie,
great to see you over here too
I'll be back for more
Hi Xmichra
I'll be over to see those first pics
Hi Retro,
I got an e-mail from your robot
I'll keep in touch - see ya soon
Well it shouldn't surprise us that humans loved to create beautiful things even that long ago. Lovely.
Hi Aggie,
here's smiling right back at ya
It wouldn't surprise me if you could make something like this.
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