Welcome to your Friday on what feels (at least to me) like the week that will never end! I found myself reading a lot this week – both articles and books. I’ve read two books (What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done, and Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President) and finished another (Volume 3 of William Manchester’s ‘The Last Lion: Defender of the Realm’).  I enjoyed each of these and look forward to what the new year has in store!

Books on Deck: In edition to the myriad commentaries on Revelation I’m reading, I’ve begun Tolkein’s ‘The Silmarillion’, and have already paged through notable parts of ‘The Inklings Handbook’ which seems to be a hard one to get a hold of. I also intend to (finally) read Charles Krauthammer’s ‘Things that Matter’, which was a thoughtful gift from Kate’s parents some time ago and promises to be an excellent book.

On to Articles! Here’s what I (and others who sent stories my way) found of interest this week:

As I’m writing this, the U.S. (or should I say President Obama acting on his own) has imposed sanctions on North Korea for the Sony hack. This when it seems that the communist state may not have really been the ones to perform the hack in the first place...I’m guessing that at this point the details which encompass the motives of the President, NK leadership, and Sony will never be known in full. But if it all comes to light eventually, I guess the comfort is that someone will make a made-for-TV movie of the snafu…so then everyone wins, right? (h/t David Clementson, Matt Ferris)

And since this seems to be the post for getting the truth out about stuff, Al Mohler (among others) outed Newsweek’s own hack job. The hack this time wasn’t a program but a person, namely Kurt Eichenwald. Eichenwald wrote a trashy article on the Bible a few days ago, and committed egregious malpractice in his vindictive and unprofessional slur. (h/t Gene Belew)

Speaking of getting the truth out about news stories, it turns out that the Pope didn’t actually say that all dogs go to heaven, that seems to have (possibly) come from a previous Pope. Not sure if this Pope agrees with the last Pope, but hey that’s another issue altogether! The NY Times and others caught onto their shoddy journalism and printed a few graphs at the bottom of the linked clip explaining their deficiency. (h/t Jen Gates)

You’ve probably heard by now that Florida State got hammered by Oregon (and yes we’re talking football here), and Ohio State advanced past an SEC team (the entire South must be in denial right about now) to meet in the national champ. game.

I mentioned earlier that I enjoyed Matt Perman’s book ‘What’s Best Next’, well you can check out his blog here.  Has lots of enjoyable and helpful tips for getting you organized for the new year. In that similar realm of organization and efficiency, studies are starting to show that the open office floor plan isn’t so sweet. 

Speaking of things which aren’t so sweet maybe you should read this for a laugh and not an investment opportunity…

With one year ending, and another beginning, there are several article round-ups and charts on what 2014 brought us. Here are a few…

Ligonier has their best articles of 2014, You Version listed a few facts about people’s Bible Reading habits, the best photobook options for all those holliday pics, and Challies’ top articles of the year.

Sidebar: You Version said 2014’s most popular verse is Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

As I was reading through the Desiring God website’s top articles, I pulled out just one – on motherhood and a wife’s calling. This used to be their most visited article of all time (now #2) and I thought it was worth posting. It’s very very good.

Speaking of motherhood I found this post by Krista Welch to be really thought provoking and worth a read. 

With a new year will come many new inventions and cool things ahead. One of them is the 4k TV’s. Another might be new advances in biometric security…some of these are hilarious.

In the new year, I want to read more, and do more – don’t you? Well Al Mohler had an article on how he reads and what he reads earlier in the year which I thought was worth posting. And David Mathis over at DG had a nice little piece on how ‘Bible Reading is an Art‘.

For an interesting long form read on technology, check out the New Yorker’s profile of a young man who has begun building an empire based on ‘Clickbait’.

And you don’t even have to leave the New Yorker site to get a chuckle at Ayn Rand’s Reviews of Children’s Movies (h/t Alex Wenzel) PREVIEW: Her review of ‘Frozen’:

An exceptional woman foolishly allows her mooching family members to keep her from ruling a kingdom of ice in perfect solitude. She is forced to use her unique powers to provide free entertainment for peasants, without compensation. I liked the snowman, when he sang. —One star.

Also, in terms of world news, this just happened…Someone please alert that guy who is writing the Tom Clancy novels now, who, really, isn’t, Tom Clancy…

Finally, be sure to check out Vince Vitale’s interesting piece called ‘Everyone Believes in a Virgin Birth’…

Enjoy your weekend! (like you need one right?)