Q Marks the Spot 134 (December 2019)

Sacred Treasure

• One man mission – a fascinating story about reviving Welsh chapels – and fascinating it gets such a high profile on the BBC
• James Hannam has written one of my favourite books of history (God’s Philosophers: How the Mediaeval World Laid the Foundations for Modern Science) So he’s recently written a great intro to his general thesis.
• Did you know about Andy Warhol’s Religious Art? I had no idea
• Mildly frustrated by the triumphalist tone of this but it’s a point that needs making: Some key atheist thinkers fear the decline of religion.
• Sounds like a helpful analysis – defining ‘evangelical’ in the Trump era.

Berlin Wall Treasure

• 30 years ago! Hard to believe. I’ll never forget watching things happen on TV in the common room at uni. We had no idea of how the world would change…
  • Would-be GDR escapees who got caught had to reenact their plans for Stasi photographers
  • Vivid images from the nights the wall fell…
  • What E. Berliners bought with their free W. German Marks after the wall fell
  • 9 ‘smuggling machines’ that beat the wall!
  • In anticipation of the infographic spree to come, here is a brilliant Die Zeit page showing the waves of people in and out of fmr East Germany.
  • The wall in fabulous STREAMERS

Topical Treasure

• What is happening to Western politics? This is a helpful summary: The Great Alignment (from a UK General Election point of view)
• Memorials for those who gave their lives to save others: a hidden corner of London
• Very striking ‘pasting’ piece gives visibility to the 1000s in California prisons
• I love a good infographic – and this list of 2019 winners of the Information is Beautiful awards deserves investigating. In particular, check these out:
  • Flowmap.blue – creates stunning visual representations of urban movement
  • 3121 desperate journeys – the Guardian’s snapshot of US immigration under Trump.
  • Another desperate situation represented, this time by Reuters: the Chinese clampdown on Uighur Muslims via the proliferation of incarceration camps
  • Also from Reuters, the world is drowning in plastic
  • While in India, Reuters reveals how the dams prevented disaster – I had no idea
  • If night light formed mountains, how the world would look

Quirky Treasure

• The Joy of Peace – Amazing photos from VE Day in Trafalgar Square 1945
• Famous authors with surprising day jobs!
• London Underground is a marvel: 5 ways it’s changed and not changed over the years
  • and while we’re at it… some old photos on the tube from the 60s onwards
• Stuck pets pretending everything is fine!
• This is quite old (from 2014) – but it allows some of us to feel very smug and intelligent… Musical preferences correlated with IQ…
• I LOVE this building: The winning proposal for a new visitor centre 100km north of the Norwegian Arctic Circle. It’s to be built by firm Dorte Mandrups to resemble a whale tale (when seen from the sea)