Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 40 (January2012)

HAPPY NEW YEAR from Q, one and all!

Sacred Treasure

• VERY grateful to have been sent this last month – Tim Keller on why Ministry can be dangerous to your health. Excellent.
• Lots has been written about the passing of Christopher Hitchens. But worth reading are definitely the appreciation by his (Christian) brother, Peter; and that of former debater Douglas Wilson. Also check out Tim Coomar’s thoughtful piece.
• News of the horrors of Christmas Day bombings in Jos Nigeria
• Dave Bish has a nice point about Tim Minchin’s Jesus.
• Good mate and colleague, Paul Enns wrote a lovely Advent song which he sang before Christmas. Lyrics are here

Topical Treasure

• 2011 has been an extraordinary year in so many ways – although not perhaps as epoch-ending and -making as 1989. It is perhaps just my imagination, but it has seemed to have more than a normal roll call of obits of the great and the not so good.
• Just in case you thought it was safe to go back into the water – here are Foreign Policy’s predictions for 2012’s wars.
• The CIA sent explosive cigars to Castro… are they now giving Latin American leaders cancer…?

Quirky Treasure

• Some fun street facts… e.g. this pic (right) of the world’s shortest street, coming in at under 7ft.
• Some rather wonderful images from backstage at the Metropolitan Opera in New York from the 1940s onwards.
• The result of cultured pushy parents: The Mozart effect and beyond!
• Some unusual Christmas decorations from Lisbon: