Free Republic

Pres. Obama said that Nordic countries would make the world “more secure and more prosperous” if "we" would just let them run things. Welcoming the leaders of Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland to the White House on Friday, Obama said that, if “we” let Nordic countries control the world, that “they could clean things up”: “So I really do believe that the world would be more secure and more prosperous if we just had more partners like our Nordic countries. There have been times where I’ve said, why don’t we just put all these small countries in charge for...

… Obama welcomed the leaders of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Denmark to the White House on Friday morning. At a simple indoor ceremony, Obama says the countries are a “model of cooperation” and “punch above their weight” particularly on humanitarian and environmental efforts. …

Several years back, I visited Iceland in the dead of winter. I was researching a book on global happiness, and the small Nordic nation intrigued me. What was this country, adrift in the freezing North Atlantic, doing perched atop the world’s happiness rankings? In pursuit of answers, I buttonholed anyone willing to talk, dined on harkl (rotten shark), drank excessively, and, of course, took a dip in the Blue Lagoon, the otherworldly geothermal waters that have become synonymous with Icelandic bliss. Shortly after I left, Iceland’s largest banks went belly up and the nation’s economy teetered on the verge of...

Reykjavik, Iceland — Monday night, thousands of impassioned college students took to the streets of Villanova, Pennsylvania, to take a stand for what they believe in. Thousands gathered, many of whom clashed with police to stand up for their cause — NCAA basketball. Had these college students, been at the wildlife refuge in Oregon to protest BLM land grabs, they would have been called terrorists. Had they been in Ferguson, Missouri to protest police killings, they would have been called thugs. Instead, these inebriated individuals who started fires, assaulted cops, and caused other people injuries — are called “revelers.” It...

Barack Obama has called for international tax reform in the wake of the revelations contained in the Panama Papers. “There is no doubt that the problem of global tax avoidance generally is a huge problem,” he told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. “The problem is that a lot of this stuff is legal, not illegal.” The US president said the leak from Panama illustrated the scale of tax avoidance involving Fortune 500 companies and running into trillions of dollars worldwide. “We shouldn’t make it legal to engage in transactions just to avoid taxes,” he added, praising instead “the...

he prime minister of Iceland resigned on Tuesday, succumbing to political pressure two days after an enormous leak of documents from a secretive Panamanian law firm about offshore shell companies and tax shelters. The resignation of the prime minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, was the first prominent political fallout from the document leaks known as the Panama Papers, which have shed a harsh light on the private financial activities of many rich and powerful people.

A storm is coming By Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer The interrogation room in which Iceland’s recent history was rewritten is sparse, furnished only with a table, some chairs, and a computer. A camera is fixed to the wall, and the frosted, double-glazed windows have completely blocked out the sound of the gale-force winds in Reykjavik’s Faxafloi Bay. It was in this room that some of Iceland’s most powerful bankers, executives, and investors had to answer to special investigator Olaf Hauksson. A tall man with a heavy build, Haukkson has spent the past six years investigating the transactions that brought...

… The White House says the leaders of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden will meet with Obama at the White House on May 13. The summit will include talks on environmental initiatives, nuclear security and countering violent extremism. …

Explanation: All of the other aurora watchers had gone home. By 3:30 am in Iceland, on a quiet night last September, much of that night's auroras had died down. Suddenly though, a new burst of particles streamed down from space, lighting up the Earth's atmosphere once again. This time, unexpectedly, pareidoliacally, they created an amazing shape reminiscent of a giant phoenix. With camera equipment at the ready, two quick sky images were taken, followed immediately by a third of the land. The mountain in the background is Helgafell, while the small foreground river is called Kaldá, both located about 30...

The “ridiculous waste” of Christmas beer was the subject of discussion at Alþingi, the Icelandic parliament, today, mbl.is reports. Member of Parliament Brynhildur Pétursdóttir, Bright Future, used those words when deploring the fact that regulations require for perfectly good, unsold beer to be discarded right after Christmas or Easter if it’s labeled as Christmas beer or Easter beer. The regulations originate in the Ministry of Finance. Thus, she asked Finance Minister Bjarni Benediktsson whether those could be changed. Bjarni responded, “Of course these are rules which should be reevaluated, as are rules regarding where liquor can be sold. And it’s...

Iceland seems to be on its way to becoming an even more secular nation, according to a new poll. Less than half of Icelanders claim they are religious and more than 40% of young Icelanders identify as atheist. Remarkably the poll failed to find young Icelanders who accept the creation story of the Bible. 93.9% of Icelanders younger than 25 believed the world was created in the big bang, 6.1% either had no opinion or thought it had come into existence through some other means and 0.0% believed it had been created by God. The poll, which was conducted by...

Former Vice President Al Gore shocked Americans in "An Inconvenient Truth" when he said polar bears were drowning because global warming was melting Arctic sea ice, but now a new study shows that polar bears did just fine even when there was no ice covering the Arctic. Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks released a study claiming the "stratigraphic record of the last 1.5 (million years) indicates that no marine species' extinction events occurred despite major climate oscillations," including periods where the Arctic was completely ice-free in summertime. "Some species thought to be...

When the Black Death swept through Europe in 1347, it was one of the deadliest disease outbreaks in human history, eventually killing between a third and half of Europeans. Prior work by investigators has traced the cause to plague-carrying fleas borne by rats that jumped ship in trading ports. In addition, historical researchers believe that famine in northern Europe before the plague came ashore may have weakened the population there and set the stage for its devastation. Now, new research using a unique combination of ice-core data and written historical records indicates that the cool, wet weather blamed for the...

Academics at Coventry University have uncovered complex social networks within age-old Icelandic sagas, which challenge the stereotypical image of Vikings as unworldly, violent savages. Pádraig Mac Carron and Ralph Kenna from the University's Applied Mathematics Research Centre have carried out a detailed analysis of the relationships described in ancient Icelandic manuscripts to shed new light on Viking society. In a study published in the European Physical Journal, Mac Carron and Kenna have asked whether remnants of reality could lurk within the pages of the documents in which Viking sagas were preserved. They applied methods from statistical physics to social networks...

Carbon dating of walrus bones found in Snæfellsnes peninsula indicates that the bones are at least 2000 years old. A large number of walrus skulls and walrus tusks have been found around Garðafjara beach on the south coast Snæfellsnes. The first skull was discovered 1884. All in all the bones of 50 walruses have been found, most in the past 50 years. Biologists argue this indicates Snæfellsnes was the home of a sizable walrus colony prior to the settlement of Iceland. Large pre-settlement colonies of walruses in Iceland A previous theory, explaining the concentration of bone discoveries, speculated they came...

It is, for our home planet, an extremely warm year. Indeed, last week we learned from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that the first eight months of 2015 were the hottest such stretch yet recorded for the globe’s surface land and oceans, based on temperature records going back to 1880. It’s just the latest evidence that we are, indeed, on course for a record-breaking warm year in 2015. Yet, if you look closely, there’s one part of the planet that is bucking the trend. In the North Atlantic Ocean south of Greenland and Iceland, the ocean surface has seen...

In a surprising about-face, Iceland’s capital city of Reykjavik has decided to back down on its decision made just last Wednesday to boycott all Israeli goods. Reykjavik Mayor Dagur B. Eggertsson told the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service RUV that the decision is to be withdrawn, saying he was “angry” with himself for supporting the move. […] The decision was to have all city agencies boycott all Israeli goods. It came under harsh criticism by Jewish groups who noted a full boycott of Israeli goods would have to include computers and cell phones. Even Iceland’s Foreign Ministry slammed the move, saying...

The Icelandic capital of Reykjavik has announced that it will boycott all products made in Israel “as long as the occupation of Palestinian territories continues.” The boycott not does limit itself to Judea and Samaria, but instead targets all of Israel. An explanatory memorandum claims that it is merely a symbolic gesture, though, and there is no list of specific Israel companies or products included. Björk Vilhelmsdóttir, an outgoing councilwomen representing the Social Democratic Alliance, introduced the bill. This is expected to be her last major action as part of the city council. …

Explanation: What's happened to the sky? Aurora! Captured late last month, this aurora was noted by Icelanders for its great brightness and quick development. The aurora resulted from a solar storm, with high energy particles bursting out from the Sun and through a crack in Earth's protective magnetosphere a few days later. Although a spiral pattern can be discerned, creative humans might imagine the complex glow as an atmospheric apparition of any number of common icons. In the foreground of the featured image is the Ölfusá River, while the lights illuminate a bridge in Selfoss City. Just beyond the low...

Smutty Smith and Katrín Rósa Stefánsdóttir’s flat is covered with photos. In addition to a wall cluttered with Elvis memorabilia and concert shots of Smutty with a plethora of legendary musicians, their family photos are particularly eye-catching. In black and white, Katrín, Smutty, and their two sons gaze morosely at the camera. “We always try to do family pictures in the old-school style, where no one smiles,” Katrín laughs, in stark contrast to her deadpan likeness in the photo. “I was so happy that day because my sons were getting quite bored, so they looked perfect!” Their family photos aren’t...