Free Republic

When archaeologists discovered thousands of medieval skeletons in a mass burial pit in east London in the 1990s, they assumed they were 14th-century victims of the Black Death or the Great Famine of 1315-17. Now they have been astonished by a more explosive explanation – a cataclysmic volcano that had erupted a century earlier, thousands of miles away in the tropics, and wrought havoc on medieval Britons. Scientific evidence – including radiocarbon dating of the bones and geological data from across the globe – shows for the first time that mass fatalities in the 13th century were caused by one...

Explanation: Why did the picturesque 2010 volcanic eruption in Iceland create so much ash? Although the large ash plume was not unparalleled in its abundance, its location was particularly noticeable because it drifted across such well-populated areas. The Eyjafjallajökull volcano in southern Iceland began erupting on 2010 March 20, with a second eruption starting under the center of a small glacier on 2010 April 14. Neither eruption was unusually powerful. The second eruption, however, melted a large amount of glacial ice which then cooled and fragmented lava into gritty glass particles that were carried up with the rising volcanic plume....

Explanation: Sometimes both heaven and Earth erupt. In Iceland in 1991, the volcano Hekla erupted at the same time that auroras were visible overhead. Hekla, one of the most famous volcanoes in the world, has erupted at least 20 times over the past millennium, sometimes causing great destruction. The last eruption occurred only twelve years ago but caused only minor damage. The green auroral band occurred fortuitously about 100 kilometers above the erupting lava. Is Earth the Solar System's only planet with both auroras and volcanos?

Since the 1900′s the vast majority of the American population has dreamed about saying “NO” to the Unconstitutional, corrupt, Rothschild/Rockefeller banking criminals, but no one has dared to do so. Why? If just half of our Nation, and the “1%”, who pay the majority of the taxes, just said NO MORE! Our Gov’t would literally change over night. Why is it so hard, for some people to understand, that by simply NOT giving your money, to large Corporations, who then send jobs, Intellectual Property, etc. offshore and promote anti-Constitutional rights… You will accomplish more, than if you used violence. In...

snip.... Old News and Current Events: I have written before that the fundamentals of the Euro and European Union didn’t bode well. They still don’t. Each step of these “rescues”, Iceland in 2008, Ireland in 2009, Portugal in 2011, Italy and Greece in 2011 and 2012….and now Spain ….are all just shocking the dying patient back to life for a few more moments of pain and chaos. The inevitable and permanent straight-line on the EKG is coming. It will be a collapse of the Euro and a financial crisis of a size not seen since WWII or the Great Depression....

The first archeological research in Iceland this year will begin at Hafnir in Reykjanes, southwest Iceland, on Monday. Archeologists will continue their study of a hut which may originate from 770-880 AD, the latter part of the Iron Age, and predate the historical settlement of Iceland in 874. Excavation has been ongoing in the area around the hut, which has been given the name Vogur, with intermission since 2003, Frattabla reports. Last summer archeologist Bjarni F. Einarsson revealed that carbon age analysis indicated that the hut may have been constructed in the aforementioned period, which garnered considerable attention. Archeologists now...

Explanation: It was all lined up even without the colorful aurora exploding overhead. If you follow the apex line of the recently deployed monuments of Arctic Henge in Raufarhöfn in northern Iceland from this vantage point, you will see that they point due north. A good way to tell is to follow their apex line to the line connecting the end stars of the Big Dipper, Merak and Dubhe, toward Polaris, the bright star near the north spin axis of the Earth projected onto the sky. By design, from this vantage point, this same apex line will also point directly...

China's premier Wen Jiabao was in Iceland on Friday, beginning a tour of northern Europe that will focus on Chinese investment in a continent eager for funds and to trade with the rising world power. … That the prime minister of the world's most populous nation should stop first, however, on a remote island of just 320,000 has raised hopes for an injection of Chinese cash into an economy ravaged by the bursting of a financial bubble in 2008—but also suspicion of Beijing's hunger for natural resources. A Chinese developer is fighting a government decision last year to bar him...

his is awesome. It shows when the people DO STAND UP they have more power and win against the corrupt bankers and politicians of a country. Iceland is forgiving and erasing the mortgage debt of the population. They are putting the bankers and politicians on the "Bench of the Accused." Which means I assume they are putting them on trial for corruption.

Everyone knows the US today is the single most powerful nation on Earth and corners of Europe like Switzerland, Scandinavia and Luxemburg are the richest (yes, Qatar is pretty rich too). But what part, if any, will lead the World in say 200 years from now? Marxists claim the US is heading for a fall. Perhaps it is, but don't expect North Korea or Cuba to take its place. Hundreds of times, I've been telling members of this forum what is right about Scandinavia. We dare to stand up for freedom of speech, we dare to fight Islamofascism, we dare...

Explanation: If you see a sky like this -- photograph it. Three nights ago in Iceland, an adventurous photographer (pictured) chanced across a sky full of aurora and did just that. Afterwards, by stitching together five smaller photographs, the entire aurora-lit sky was recreated in this 180-degree panorama taken from Vatnajökull glacier. Auroras are sparked by energetic particles from the Sun impacting the magnetic environment around the Earth. Resultant energetic particles such as electrons and protons rain down near the Earth's poles and impact the air. The impacted air molecules obtain excited electrons, and when electrons in oxygen molecules fall...

The successful trademark registration of “Nordic Model” by Sweden’s Social Democrats has prompted a sharp reaction from the rest of the Nordic region's political establishment. The move has led other political bodies to protest the Social Democrats' move, which has put the question of who created the Nordic Model into ever sharper focus. "We may have understood if they had (trademarked) the 'Swedish Model', but when it comes to the 'Nordic Model' we have no choice but to protest," Jens-Erik Enestam, who heads the Nordic Council representing opposition parties from across the region, said in a statement Tuesday. Sweden's opposition...

NATURALLY enough, Canadians are thrilled whenever foreigners single out their country for positive attention—especially when the praise raises it above the behemoth to the south. The idea that Iceland might want to ditch its battered krona in favour of the Canadian dollar, not the American version, scores high in this regard. It strokes the Canadian ego and bolsters the Conservative government’s line that the economy is one of the world’s strongest.

A former prime minister of Iceland on Monday rejected charges he failed to adequately protect his country’s economy from financial shocks, as he took the stand in the first criminal trial of a world leader to result from the 2008 financial crisis. Geir Haarde said neither he nor financial regulators knew the real state of Icelandic banks’ precarious finances until they collapsed in October 2008.

Iceland is reportedly looking to ditch their unstable currency and adopt the Canadian dollar, the Globe and Mail reports — and Canada might let them. Canadian ambassador Alan Bones is due to say tomorrow that if Iceland is sincere in its intention, the two countries should enter talks. Ambassador Bones was reportedly approached last year by a number of prominent Icelandic businessmen. The plan seems to be the latest unorthodox idea in Iceland's remarkably successful recovery. It may work as a prevention against the economic disaster in 2008, providing a stable and liquid currency, but would leave the country less...

A new report from the Council of Europe’s Anti-Racism Commission (ECRI) says that Iceland should be doing more to combat discrimination, in part by granting permission for Muslims to build a mosque and by filling in gaps in current immigration legislation.

...Ireland's policy choices have been constrained by the euro. But its recovery has been damaged by the euro zone's poor crisis management, which has dragged down the whole currency bloc's economy. Longer-term, euro membership should help Ireland lure investment and boost exports: Even in 2011, there was a 30% increase in companies investing in Ireland for the first time. Over time, that may prove the deciding factor.

Banks were closed and reorganized, depositors protected and external creditors told to stuff it. Despite claims at the time of "dire consequences" they never materialized -- oh threats were made, but in the end nobody invaded and nobody did a damn thing about it, because they couldn't. As for handcuffs, we might get those too.... Iceland’s special prosecutor has said it may indict as many as 90 people, while more than 200, including the former chief executives at the three biggest banks, face criminal charges. That would be a great thing indeed. The lesson here is that you don't have...

Congratulations to Iceland. Fitch has upgraded the country to investment grade BBB – with stable outlook, expecting government debt to peak at 100pc of GDP. The OECD's latest forecast said growth will be 2.4pc this year, after 2.9pc in 2011. Unemployment will fall from 7pc last year to 6.1pc this year and then 5.3pc in 2013. The current account deficit was 11.2pc in 2010. It will shrink to 3.4pc this year, and will be almost disappear next year. The strategy of devaluation behind capital controls has rescued the economy. (Yes, I know there is a dispute about exchange controls,...

When your society has inhabited a small, remote island for countless generations and boasts a population of only 300,000, the odds of having sex with a relative are significant. Luckily, Icelanders now have a handy tool to avoid family-sex. Íslendingabók—meaning "book of Icelanders"—is an online incest avoidance search engine. Plug in your name and that of a potential mate, and the site searches a genealogical database to see how closely you're related. It's likely that you'll have some overlap many generations back—in which case you're probably safe from mutant children. But if you share great-grandparents, you might want to reconsider...