RSS feed from icelandreview.com
Icelandreview.com on your mobile (Nokia)
Click on the picture to watch an audio slideshow of the lambing season at Brimnes, a farm in the north of Iceland, in April 2008. Sheep farmer Arnar Gústafsson and his girlfriend Edda Björk take shifts watching over the nearly 300 ewes and helping them give birth 24/7 for about two months or until the last lamb is born. In Iceland, the arrival of lambs is synonymous with the arrival of summer. The lambing season is currently at its height.
more
Located just 40 minutes by car and six minutes from Keflavík International Airport, Sandgerdi (“Sandy Hedge”) is a growing town of 1,700 with a storied history and loads to see. Read this special promotion about the hidden secrets of one of Iceland's most charming seaside villages.
more
“The entire history of Iceland, almost from the settlement, is stored in the country’s glaciers,” said Oddur Sigurdsson, a glaciologist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office. He is concerned that this history will be lost with the continued melting of glaciers.
Vatnajökull. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.
“The oldest ice which is melting now is probably in Brúarjökull. It fell as snow at the highest point of Vatnajökull at the time when the settler Ingólfur Arnarson arrived to the country,” Sigurdsson told Morgunbladid, referring to the year 874 AD.
“The glacier preserves the history of the climate, that is, the history of precipitation and temperatures, the volcanic history and doubtlessly more,” he added.
“Now they predict that the glaciers will be gone more or less in the next 200 years. That means that five years of this history, which we have yet to study, will disappear every year,” Sigurdsson stated.
He finds it important to perform core drilling in the glaciers where they are at their highest and oldest point, for example in Bárdarbunga, Hofsjökull, Kverkfjöll and elsewhere, to obtain these historical sources before they melt, claiming that comparable sources aren’t available anywhere else.
The project has begun; experimental drilling has taken place in Vatnajökull and Hofsjökull.
Click here to read more about the glacial melt in Iceland.
Magnús Skarphéðinsson, principal of the Icelandic Elf School, has expressed his concern that Independence Party MP Árni Johnsen may be subject to an accident after relocating a boulder allegedly inhabited by elves to his home in the Westman Islands.
more
The first music festival this summer, Reykjavík Live, kicks off with concerts in the center of Iceland’s capital tonight and will carry on through May 20. The venues are Gamli Gaukurinn, Glaumbar, Prikið and Frú Berlaug.
more
President of Iceland Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson and his main rival for the presidential election on June 30, Þóra Arnórsdóttir, are supported by an almost equal number of voters, 41.3 and 43.4 percent, respectively, as indicated in a new survey.
more
The West Fjords District Court ruled on Monday that a man found guilty of having drowned a Labrador by tying its front and hind legs, fastening it to car tires and throwing it in the ocean is to pay ISK 100,000 (USD 786, EUR 612) in fine.
more
The current issue of the quarterly magazine Iceland Review includes interviews with fashion photographer Saga Sig and conceptual artist Rúrí. Also, we take you to Grímsstaðir á Fjöllum, that desolate land coveted by a Chinese tycoon, and also explore Icelandic archeological remains. We discuss the Icelandic Church, the flourishing gaming industry, debate the future of Iceland’s energy resources and interview the president of the Icelandic National League of North America. Subscribe now and receive a free photo book by IR’s editor Páll Stefánsson of the Eyjafjallajökull eruptions. Click here to subscribe to the magazine and here to buy a gift subscription.
more
REVIEWS
The Reykjavík Shorts&Docs was held in Reykjavík from May 6 to 9 in Bíó Paradís, and what an enriching experience it was to attend the festival.
more
Shedding light on Iceland’s thousand-year history, as manifested in remains ranging from Viking graves to enchanted sites, Mannvist is a fundamental piece of writing. Ásta Andrésdóttir met with its author, archaeologist Birna Lárusdóttir.
more
“The House Project” currently on display in Hafnarborg, the Hafnarfjörður Centre of Culture and Fine Art, is a new artwork by Hreinn Friðfinnsson consisting of a photography series of the three houses. His work is described as “a poetic and philosophical exploration of every day human experience.”
more
){kind=link}