Tag: iceland

Why is there so little crime in Iceland

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Instagram has this tricky question covered.

Because it could be because of the amazing actions of this lot.

Or it could be for another reason:

Sadly, plenty of words rhyme with “Misdaad”, which perhaps goes some way to explaining the somewhat out of control crime situation, locally.
Other question: Can my blogging software handle the letter “Ash” in the middle of “glæpur”?

Apparently so. I’ll be checking on some other Icelandic alphabetical vagaries (including “the five lost letters of the English language“) in the near future.

Day 146 – My sort of video

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This is my sort of video. 5 minutes filled with neatly explained facts and trivia. And what amazing trivia. I mean, yes. I knew that the Arctic Circle wobbles and I knew it was heading north. But I didn’t know just how that would affect Iceland. Or how they had altered their Arctic Circle monument to deal with that. (Genius, by the way.)

And since I can now add Youtube videos to my log with seeming impunity… Have this:

And the lengths that someone would go to just to find out a piece of (interesting but) mostly useless information?

Well, I liked that too.

Spare yourself 5 minutes and see if Kolbeinsey (for that are the Most Northern Part of Iceland) is still there.

Iceland at Eurovision

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I know. Iceland. Land of volcanoes, glaciers, landscape photographers, that big, steamy outdoor swimming pool and puffins.

And – hopefully – Eurovision success this year, because this song is quite good and the video is really rather funny.

I had no idea what a conservative (maybe pious?) Icelandic home looked like inside – or rather, I didn’t until now. But it’s certainly livened up by Daði Freyr coming in and doing their rather jaunty number for the assembled family.

With the UK now Brexited, and SA not invited (again!) it seems that my hopes for the Eurovision Song Contest lie with Iceland this year.

Gangi þér vel, skrítið fólk í töff grænum stökkum!

Nigel in Iceland

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Another Nigel Danson-related link, this time to one of his photos and one of his videos from his recent trip to Iceland.

I really like the drama of his Icelandic Storm image:

Bigger on black here, and well worth the click.

The story of how the image was captured is also worth a look. Patience and planning were key here, and it’s really paid off.

This is also available as a limited edition print on his website.

Lovely stuff, and excellent blog fodder on a busy, busy day in the lab.

Map fact of the day

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Chaotic day in the lab today, so thank goodness that my first Brilliant Maps newsletter of 2018 dropped into my inbox this morning, filled with potential blog fodder.

And yes, in there amongst 14 other gems, was this fact:

Greenland is farther east, west, north, and south than Iceland.

Wait. You what? But… how?

Well, like this:

Wow. I’d have used thinner lines. But still: wow.

Pub quiz nerds [it me!] will automatically be thinking of the American states question now:

Which American states are furthest North, South, East and West?

Hawaii is clearly the furthest south, but I can never remember which the other ones are.
My wife has a great memory though, so maybe Alaska.

(And if you didn’t get that, go here.)

Of course, if you leave out the non-contiguous states, that question suddenly becomes a whole lot less interesting
(Minnesota, Florida, Maine, Washington).