Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 15 (December 2009)

Bit of a bumper Treasure Map this month – plenty to get chewing on…

Sacred Treasure

• Vinoth Ramachandra offers a characteristically challenging and provocative reflection on some encounters he’s had in the USA.
• An interesting article about Tim Keller in New York magazine: Why Tim Keller wants to save your yuppie soul.
• Am grateful to The Simple Pastor for this critique of one church’s massive rebuild programme in Dallas. I couldn’t agree more – and looking at the church’s website videos, i have to say i found some of the assumptions about what church is almost chilling.
• This is stunning – a graphic depiction of the Hebrew conception of the universe. Of course sceptics may have a field day with it, assuming that it fatally undermines the whole validity of such a conception. But that is to miss the point. It is all a question of perspective. This is the way the universe seems to those who live in within it – and is no less problematic than the convention of describing dawn and nightfall as sunrise and sunset. There clearly isn’t a physical 3-tier universe – but that is a far cry from suggesting that there is nothing more to the universe than the material or physical. Which is why countless cosmologists and physicists are increasingly accepting theism.
• An enjoyable irony in the continuation of the atheist bus saga.

Topical Treasure

• A fascinating case of cross-cultural difference: How Obama carrying his own umbrella went down during his recent trip to China.
• A superb collection of images of the Berlin Wall, before, during and after

• Looking at the images above (of drought-afflicted American Midwest in the 1930s), which is it? Journalism, Propaganda or Art? Or all 3. Film-maker Errol Morris (director of the gripping docu-film The Fog of War) has some interesting thoughts in the New York Times.
• Who is a true hero? What is honour? What makes someone noble? Some great questions and suggestions raised by an installation of projections onto the Guards Chapel in London, home of the Household Cavalry. (HT Jason Ramasami)
• I like this:

Quirky Treasure

• The power of the human imagination and a history of invention – a stunning origami animation – shame it’s just an advert for a silly old insurance company…

• How many secretaries does a President need!? Check this out… Just imagine the pride and sense of achievement on becoming the Principal Deputy to the Deputy Assistant Secretary (and the size of business card that would be needed to fit all that in).
• Finally, The Ultimate Productivity Tool. Very useful…