Last week ended well as I ran 1:39:41 in the Täby Half Marathon, knocking a full 3 minutes off my previous best which was set 5 years ago. So that’s 49 year old me beating 44 year old me by like 750m!

This week will end well because today we’re flying to Morocco during the autumn break and looking forward to experiencing a new country, culture, landscape and a chance to rest, swim, run, read and hang with the family. We’ll have 5 days in Marrakesh and just over 24 hours in Agadir.

In between there has been all sorts of activity but I’m not entirely sure how productive. I think you get weeks like that.

Anyway, on with the links.

You Should Read These

There’s something of a book review theme to this week’s articles but each review is a) on an important book or b) an important author or c) an important idea and d) the reviews themselves are interesting throughout. But first…

1. The war in Sudan, in maps and charts. The scale of this tragedy dwarfs anything and everything that’s happening in the Middle East but you wouldn’t know it.
2. The End of the Age of Hitler by Alec Ryrie is a stunning essay and explains so much about Western Europe above all.
3. The Everlasting Man sees Paul Kingsnorth discover, again, the force that was GK Chesterton.
4. The Quality of God’s Mercy is a wonderful bit of reviewing by Matthew Lee Anderson of the Hays book.
5. “Generations” sees Samuel James engage with the important work of Jean Twenge.
6. A Spectacular Burst of Light without Antecedent. Finally on the review front, Benjamin Vrbicek wrestles with Marilynne Robinson’s Reading Genesis
7. Every person is a tree. Every tree tells stories. Lovely bit of writing by Pierce Taylor Hibbs. I preached on Psalm 1 here back in the summer.

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You Should Look At This

Magical Images of Fireflies Lighting up Japan’s Forests at Night. You might like to pair looking at these pictures with this post I wrote: Fireflies

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You Should Listen To This

Another favourite that has had some fresh air time this week.

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You Should Watch This

What a great advert.

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This Week’s Postings

Just one post this week from yesterday

Friday: “Today we buried your father.”

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From The Archives

Our solar system might not be the only way life can exist but it is so far the only example we know of. So how many other solar systems set up like ours might there be? Some astronomers think the answer is around 15%. That brings the billions down a fair bit to around a few hundred million, which is still a lot granted, but that number will get smaller still. It’s the size of the numbers that leads most scientists to hope or believe if you will, that there is life on other planets. But it is until we find conclusive evidence to the contrary just that, a belief.

Thank God for Jupiter

I hope you enjoyed your weekend. Do let me know if there’s something here you appreciated or if you see something you think would be worth sharing, let me know!