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How is the population spread out in Iceland? I'm from a metropolitan area that's much smaller than your country yet has roughly 4 million people. While Iceland isn't that big of a country it seems like a huge area to have just 300,000 people. Does the geography make it somewhat difficult to get around the island?
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Apr 28, 2013 07:44
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Two of my favourite things are from Iceland, EvE online and Sigur Ros. Oh, three things, Eidur Gudjohnsen  Not so much a question as a shout out I guess.
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Apr 28, 2013 11:17
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quote:We were our own complex little society until we were vassalized under, Harold the Fair-Haired if I remember right, and after that we were mostly just quiet. That is impressively far off the mark given that he lived more than 300 years previously. The king in 1262 was Håkon Håkonson (Hákon gamli Hákonarson).
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Apr 28, 2013 11:29
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Mustang posted:How is the population spread out in Iceland? I'm from a metropolitan area that's much smaller than your country yet has roughly 4 million people. While Iceland isn't that big of a country it seems like a huge area to have just 300,000 people. Does the geography make it somewhat difficult to get around the island? The geography isn't as difficult as in Norway, but there are still a few hurdles in some of the more isolated fjords. There have been vast improvements by digging out tunnels in much of the country but there are still a lot that still need them. But it wasn't so great a problem back when travel by sea was more common. Kopijeger posted:That is impressively far off the mark given that he lived more than 300 years previously. The king in 1262 was Håkon Håkonson (Hákon gamli Hákonarson). dougie posted:Two of my favourite things are from Iceland, EvE online and Sigur Ros. Oh, three things, Eidur Gudjohnsen 
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Apr 28, 2013 15:49
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With so few people is it easy for people to trace their family history back? Or was that info not recorded anywhere until recently? Or does the use of patronymic names make it more difficult? I just think it would be cool if some people could trace their family back to close to the founding of the country.
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Apr 28, 2013 17:02
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Deceitful Penguin posted:I asked, he said he wasn't feeling all that well 'cause of the election but hoped for the best. Is it wrong that I (as a Canadian) find this adorable?  «-How is [politician] doing? -Wait a sec, I'll ask him.» But seriously I read he dressed as a drag queen for the pride parade. That's hilariously awesome. So how has been doing politically?
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Apr 28, 2013 18:06
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Deceitful Penguin posted:Honestly, there's only those two that matter a tiny bit in Icelandic history and I confuse them. So Håkon's immediate successor Magnus Lagabøte doesn't matter even a tiny bit, even though he reformed the legal system? https://is.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magn%C3%BAs_lagab%C3%A6tir https://is.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A1rns%C3%AD%C3%B0a https://is.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3nsb%C3%B3k
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Apr 28, 2013 21:34
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Mustang posted:With so few people is it easy for people to trace their family history back? Or was that info not recorded anywhere until recently? Or does the use of patronymic names make it more difficult? I just think it would be cool if some people could trace their family back to close to the founding of the country. So you might be able to do it. Here's the article I usually link when people ask me about Íslendingabók, said website. ecureuilmatrix posted:Is it wrong that I (as a Canadian) find this adorable?  Politically? I'm not in the capital so I don't play very close attention to inner city politics, but his direct democracy initiatives have been very popular. He's also very active in repping the good fight, whether it's asking no army flights be allowed in Reykjavík Airports (unless its an emergency) or voting as a Jedi (to show opposition to the Sith who won and that even though the left has been struck down it will only return stronger). I could ask my aunt about it, but, looks like she isn't online. Ah well. The sister party of the Best Party, Bright Future, in turn got six senators, so that's good. Of course, with the right back in power (possibly), things might not be going too well, but who knows. Kopijeger posted:So Håkon's immediate successor Magnus Lagabøte doesn't matter even a tiny bit, even though he reformed the legal system?
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Apr 28, 2013 23:45
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I can't tell if you're from an influential and well-connected family or your whole damned country is just that small. I keep reminding myself that this place is smaller than my hometown, in population. It's tough to wrap my head around, because Iceland isn't one of those joke countries like Luxembourg (more people than Iceland), Andorra, Liechtenstein or San Marino. It's a country that does things and matters and people know about. It still baffles me that Hong Kong has more than 23 times as many people. Maybe I'm too hung up on this population thing. I like the Icelandic language a lot. If I wasn't busy learning six other, much more economically and politically important languages, I'd probably take the time to study a bit. I like the word Eyjafjallajökull. I listen to the audio edition of the Economist and back in 2010, I got such joy out of hearing that poor British woman from Talking Issues say Eyjafjallajökull like six times in one article. Now I know a lot of reporters struggled through it and ruined the pronunciation, but the Economist is old school and hardcore, so this woman had carefully practiced and been properly coached on how to pronounce the ridiculous name of this volcano. And sure enough she painstakingly read out that name again and again. This List of the tallest buildings in Iceland is adorable. Do you guys have skiing in Iceland? What are the most popular sports there? I'm an avid skier. I'd like to ski down an active volcano. I'd ski Eyjafjallajökull in a heartbeat, and call out its name on the way down.
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Apr 29, 2013 04:30
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Hey, just saw this! I know that Iceland had the world's first LGBT head of government in Johanna,* but what are LGBT rights/LGBT culture like in Iceland? * I think that it's just her and Belgian PM Elio Di Rupo...
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Apr 29, 2013 05:08
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Bloodnose posted:I can't tell if you're from an influential and well-connected family or your whole damned country is just that small. I keep reminding myself that this place is smaller than my hometown, in population. It's tough to wrap my head around, because Iceland isn't one of those joke countries like Luxembourg (more people than Iceland), Andorra, Liechtenstein or San Marino. It's a country that does things and matters and people know about. It still baffles me that Hong Kong has more than 23 times as many people. Maybe I'm too hung up on this population thing. But haha, not really. Give it another generation and I'd be really entrenched. Iceland runs on guanxi, more so than most western countries and if you wanna have a say in thing you gotta have friends and favours, you know how it is. My folks are high up, mostly on skill, but good people get good friends, yanno. And you learn to network. It's been my consistent failing to not keep that up well enough, but ehh, I'm young yet.The population thing isn't that much of a deal. The stage is smaller but the rules are the same as anywhere. Maybe change is a little simpler, but it's offset by how much a few personalities can control their reaches of the board. It evens out. Bloodnose posted:I like the Icelandic language a lot. If I wasn't busy learning six other, much more economically and politically important languages, I'd probably take the time to study a bit. I like the word Eyjafjallajökull. I listen to the audio edition of the Economist and back in 2010, I got such joy out of hearing that poor British woman from Talking Issues say Eyjafjallajökull like six times in one article. Now I know a lot of reporters struggled through it and ruined the pronunciation, but the Economist is old school and hardcore, so this woman had carefully practiced and been properly coached on how to pronounce the ridiculous name of this volcano. And sure enough she painstakingly read out that name again and again. Bloodnose posted:This List of the tallest buildings in Iceland is adorable. Bloodnose posted:Do you guys have skiing in Iceland? What are the most popular sports there? I'm an avid skier. I'd like to ski down an active volcano. I'd ski Eyjafjallajökull in a heartbeat, and call out its name on the way down. Popular sports include most of the ball sports, with football (not american) and handball most prominent. Icealand is OK at a bunch of minor sports, but shines in battle sports and I think we're fairly high up in Judo. In my favourite badmington we're sadly only mediocre, but eh, what can ya do? You can find almost any popular sport around and even a few unpopular or hella regional ones. Japanese ones especially. And if you're gonna ski on a glacier I've had good times trekkin' over Langjökul. That's skitrekkin' though, actual skiing on glaciers is, not a good idea unless you find the idea of falling down a crevasse. Teddybear posted:Hey, just saw this! LGBT people had it pretty bad back in the day but things have been steadily getting better since the, gently caress, lets say early 1980s, a bit after the "Samtökin 78" were founded. (Their website) There's still some homophobic poo poo in adolescent culture but we're working on that and if you keep that up when you get older you'll get ostracized by most. The people with the most worries nowadays are the trans* mostly, because there hasn't been enough education on they thangs and there isn't a special part of the law to protect them from discrimination but the general ones still protect. One of the most famous and popular pop singers in Iceland is openly gay and has been for as long as I remember. Good god, I can't believe he's 43 and still looks so great. Have one of his more recent and popular love songs. Danced to this a time or two~ Deceitful Penguin fucked around with this message at 05:38 on Apr 29, 2013 |
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Apr 29, 2013 05:33
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I forgot to mention I saw Iceland's elections on the news here in Hong Kong last night. I was at the gym, so it was muted TV news and I have no idea what was said or how it was played, but the fact that Iceland made the news here made me smile. It was TVB Pearl, though. English-language broadcast station, so I don't know if it would've shown up on the Cantonese programming. Maybe!
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Apr 29, 2013 05:41
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Bloodnose posted:I forgot to mention I saw Iceland's elections on the news here in Hong Kong last night. I was at the gym, so it was muted TV news and I have no idea what was said or how it was played, but the fact that Iceland made the news here made me smile. It was TVB Pearl, though. English-language broadcast station, so I don't know if it would've shown up on the Cantonese programming. Maybe! But yea, the amount of electoral coverage we gained in foreign media is really rather staggering. Most of them rather puzzled with how we voted. Ahhh, democracy.
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Apr 29, 2013 05:54
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I spent 13 hours in Reykjavik during a layover from Toronto to Paris last summer. Ate sheep's head jelly. Weird stuff. Not bad, just utterly, utterly alien to my palette. Everyone there seemed to own a pet cat. Their houses opened directly on the street but they still put their cat out, so there were tonnes of cats on doorsteps. It was really cute. Your weird daylight hours meant I had three straight days of sun and no jetlag. Thanks, Iceland. When you walk down the street, is it normal to recognise most of the people you pass? What percentage of your GDP is EVE's economy worth?
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Apr 29, 2013 06:09
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How are Iceland's political cartoons?
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Apr 29, 2013 06:16
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I'm going to Iceland this summer (late June/early July) with my boyfriend and we're pretty much broke from booking flights and hotels. What can we do and what can we eat in the capital that's really cheap? If it helps, we booked here: Hotel 66, Grensasvegur 14, Reykjavik, 108 Iceland. Please save us from spending 6 nights stuck in the hotel eating instant noodles, thanks!
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Apr 29, 2013 17:20
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JULIAN ASSANGE posted:I spent 13 hours in Reykjavik during a layover from Toronto to Paris last summer. Ate sheep's head jelly. Weird stuff. Not bad, just utterly, utterly alien to my palette. Everyone there seemed to own a pet cat. Their houses opened directly on the street but they still put their cat out, so there were tonnes of cats on doorsteps. It was really cute. Your weird daylight hours meant I had three straight days of sun and no jetlag. Thanks, Iceland. ) but the surrounding areas are more dog territory (boo, hiss). I have a cat, who is fat and orange and old and attacks children, it is the best. Good you enjoyed the sun, we have a lot of it even if it isn´t always so warmþJULIAN ASSANGE posted:When you walk down the street, is it normal to recognise most of the people you pass? JULIAN ASSANGE posted:What percentage of your GDP is EVE's economy worth? That's actually fairly impressive for a single company but when you're competing against some of the most valuable fishing grounds in the world and vast quantities of aluminium.. That don't factor in Fanfest though. And GDP is somewhat, eh, as a measure. Still, it's a neat company. I keep intending to go there and ask if they have a job for my yank friend too, keep forgetting when I'm in the capital. Byde posted:How are Iceland's political cartoons? First up, from DV; Gula Pressan. Pretty equal criticism on all parties, made bad by their usage of shittily shopped pictures.  Not gonna bother translating that, is tripe and the people voted against them anyhow. Then we have Halldór, from Fréttablaðið; I can never tell if he's leftist because our right are so dumb.  "First you look to the right, then look to the right again. Then we cross over and hope for the best." The labels on the zebra crossing are: "Tax Cuts" and "Heavy Industry", the two things the XD circlejerks over. There might be on in MBL, or Morgunblaðið, the paper edited by a literal financial and war criminal (he joined the coalition of the willing) but gently caress if I can find it. The Grapevine also has some cartoons, with the most recent resident cartoonist being Lóa:  Yes. Not much to say there. CupcakePrincess posted:I'm going to Iceland this summer (late June/early July) with my boyfriend and we're pretty much broke from booking flights and hotels. What can we do and what can we eat in the capital that's really cheap? If it helps, we booked here: Hotel 66, Grensasvegur 14, Reykjavik, 108 Iceland. Please save us from spending 6 nights stuck in the hotel eating instant noodles, thanks! Let's see. Your hotel isn't listed for some baffling reason in Já.is, but let's check who else is on that address. A classical dance academy? Good enough. Allright, this is where you are: A bit long non-hyperlinked. Near there you have, a good Chinese place and Pizza place. Like, literally same street. I'm going by memory here but neither is very cheap. They are very good though, so I recommend them. On the other hand, a bit down the road from where you at, is Metro, our knockoff McDonalds. They're not too bad, pricewise. Here's their exact location. And here are their budget items. Near there is a KFC and opposite that is a healthy chicken place if you cravin' sum dem nuggits though. Ahhh, KFC.  My favourite Thai Noodle joint is Here and it is pretty drat cheap and good. and if you feel up for a visit to IKEA, they have probably the cheapest food in Iceland and it's actually pretty good too. It would be a bit of a trip though, if you actually want to, I could draw you a route. Forgot they closed the other one, the only one still open is in my town. If I had been in the country, that is where I would have taken you, btw. Cheap but full of personality and you can get free refills of the Dew of the Mounains, which I'm sure would have made you feel at home. And you'd be able to walk through the lava fields and residential areas, with a bunch of very interesting houses including the one of yours truly (or his family rather). Otherwise, eating out is pretty drat expensive. So I'd suggest you pick up small things in Bónus, the cheapest store in Iceland. Here is the one closest to you. You can grab some sammiches there and bottles for filling with tap water, which is exactly the same as the water they sell in bottles, because they're both spring water. It always breaks my heart when I see tourists buying water, when they could have spent that money on something else, like alcohol or men/women of Iceland. Travel is simplest by bus. Well, not really, but it is cheapest behind walking. Looks like you could take 17 down to Hlemm, the central area. Here are the schedules and timetables. Fee is 350 isk btw, which adds up quickly, but you can buy multiple tickets at the bus and at Hlemm. There's also day cards, 3 day cards and other ways. Or you can walk! The weather is usually alright at the time you're staying. This takes a lot of time though, 'cause you ain't in the exact center. As for what to do that is cheap, I'd suggest trying out our fab swimming pools, for one. Closest one is one of the best, Laugardalslaug and if you walk (you should) you can go through a lovely park nearby, Grasagarðinn. You could also check out Húsdýragarðin, which is somewhat like an Icelandic petting zoo, only you don't get to pet the animals unless you catch the cats. Here that is, right next to Grasagarðinn. Uhh, word of warning about the showers, you're supposed to shower naked in them, but I think we might have added curtains in that one for the muslims. You can probably use them, but I haven't been for years in that one so I can't vouch for it being there. Oh, and it looks like there are two museums just around the corner from your. About Elves and Folklore. Do that when you're hung over and don't want to go far one day, maybe. Catching an Icelandic movie might be fun. Don't know what they'll be showing in June but it would be an experience regardless. This site lets you check for movies, concerts, theater pieces and even sport events and order thangs online. Other than that, I'd just suggest that you go visit tourist information and talk to them more in-depth about what you want. I worked out in the country so I don't have price listings for any of the museums and whatnot, which they do. The ones I like the most are This one and This one. They'll be able to help you some more. Have fun in Iceland!
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Apr 29, 2013 18:57
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Oh does Icelandic McDonald's have any cool special menu items? In Hong Kong, for example, they offer the Prosperity Burger every Chinese New Year, which is like a McRib but made with beef or chicken and covered in Chinese sesame sauce. Do they have like a super filet o fish with fish heads and something spelled with a bunch of runes? Your language is adorable. "Fyrst" "aftur" "besta". Now I see why historical linguists love Icelandic.
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Apr 30, 2013 02:30
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Bloodnose posted:Oh does Icelandic McDonald's have any cool special menu items? In Hong Kong, for example, they offer the Prosperity Burger every Chinese New Year, which is like a McRib but made with beef or chicken and covered in Chinese sesame sauce. Do they have like a super filet o fish with fish heads and something spelled with a bunch of runes? It was actually because we weren't allowed to use local materials that they left, it just became too expensive to import. I don't go there often though, not when there's a KFC and 2 pizza places like, literally right next to it, so I was never a regular and even less so nowadays. (Oh KFC, why did you have to discontinue the Meltz?  ) Bloodnose posted:Your language is adorable. "Fyrst" "aftur" "besta". Now I see why historical linguists love Icelandic.
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Apr 30, 2013 03:42
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Deceitful Penguin posted:really useful stuff Wow I was not expecting such a long and helpful post - thank you so much! I clicked on the site of the knockoff McDonald's and almost had a heart attack, so the suggestions for cheap food are really useful. If you were to recommend one day trip, what would it be? We were planning on seeing the Blue Lagoon; are there any other must see sights that are not in the capital that's worth us paying to see? It's too bad you won't be around - if you ever come to Hong Kong, give us a shout!
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Apr 30, 2013 03:44
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CupcakePrincess posted:Wow I was not expecting such a long and helpful post - thank you so much! I clicked on the site of the knockoff McDonald's and almost had a heart attack, so the suggestions for cheap food are really useful. CupcakePrincess posted:If you were to recommend one day trip, what would it be? We were planning on seeing the Blue Lagoon; are there any other must see sights that are not in the capital that's worth us paying to see? Aight, so the one day trip that provides the best snapshot of Iceland is without a doubt The Golden Circle. You're coming here at peak season but even then there are so many companies doing this that you can probs find some drat good offers. This is what I usually do with my foreign friends if they don't have a lot of time, although my way also includes our summer house and a meal. Tragique, blame the very economy that allows ya to visit, as I'll be workin' in Norway most like. Price figure I got quoted for that was around the 630 HKD each. That's, really not that much for the experience. You can probably find better prices if you look around and if our government turns idiotic and relaxes capital controls, it might be even cheaper. The other two are more of a "Spend the day doing something Icelandic as heck and see the people and culture" kinda thing. Both require at least moderatly good weather, one more than the other. You'll have to find the weather forecast the day before, because Icelandic weather doesn't care about petty things like "predictions" or "forecasts" further than maybe 3 days ahead most of the time. Remember to buy sunscreen at home, surprisingly many tourists forget that and end up lobster faced while wearing their heavy clothin' So, Scenario 1. This works best on the weekend, but if it's not workable that way you can skip that part. So, you wake up, fresh and rested in the pure inner-city air of Reykjavík. Maybe you have some breakfast. Some nice bread with hangikjöt and butter maybe, that poo poo is good stuff. I'm gonna assume you are the "wake up relatively early and bright" types here, otherwise this might be a bit tight schedule and you're here to chillax, not follow some dudes schedule. A little past 10 works fine. Grab your swimming gear and a towel. So you go just outside your hotel and find the the bus stop. All roads lead to Hlemm, after all, but you're going past that, to Lækjartorg, by takin' the number 14. Right next to that is one of the tourist info places I mentioned. If you haven't been there already, now is a good time, 'cause the first attraction doesn't open until 11. After conferring with the wise peoples of TI (or not) you can waddle down to Bæjarins Bestu. This is the most famous Hot Dog stand in Iceland. It is the archetypical, the ideal form of the Icelandic Hot Dog. Bill Clinton had one once. They are good. They are ok priced and it's not a real visit to Iceland if you don't have one. While munching on it you can look towards the sea and see the Harpa music hall. Some people say that is the incarnation of our financial folly. I think it's rather your eventual destination. Regardless, it should hopefully be after 11 now. The place you're going now is the Kolaportið fleamarket. There, you can find all kinds of neat stuff, some of it tourist but most of it meant for Icelanders. If you ask nicely the dude that sells the shark might let you taste it. They enjoy the reaction. Lots of nice thangs there, but I'd suggest at least buying some Icelandic candy. Icelandic Liquorice is widely considered the best in the world. If you're like me, you may also want to get a book. Now, a crossroads. If it's late in the day, weather has turned colder, you might wanna go visit the Reykjavík art museum close by. They sometimes have some cool thangs there. If it's still early, only around 12-13 or still warm, it's cool. From there, it's a short walk up Laugaveginn, Icelands premier shopping street, full of tourist goodness. This place is worth a walk or two through. But you're going to Hlemm for a reason. See, from Hlemmur, there's a special bus, number 19. It ends up in a place that I think is the real embodiment of our financial crisis. That place is called Nauthólsvík, and there you find the Ylströnd, or "Warm Beach". This place is literally a transplanted tropical beach, where we pump warm water into the sea to keep the water around 19° warm celsius. Only charge is 200 for a locker to keep your thangs and 300 if you wanna rent a towel. Free hot tubs, warm pool and shower. Open from 10 to 19. You can chillax on the beach and work that tan and watch the Icelander in his natural environment. There's even a boat renting place nearby but those fuckers are almost never open when I'm there so I don't know if you can go there. If you do, don't go in an easily flipped boat with a kid that enjoys tumbling it over until you're half full of seawater and throw up until you flip it over before he reaches it and sail it away for five minutes until you feel bad, get him back, only for him to flip it again. Uhh, yeah. Oh, and if you take pictures you can later have your friends guess where you are and they'll never get it right. I did this when I was at the beach in Switzerland. Good times. And after that you can go to Perlan. It's hard to miss and pretty neat. Everything is really expensive there though, so don't buy anything. This is a fairly good day schedule, as you can then take the 19 straight back to your hotel or take it into town, grab some grub and then do whatevs~ The second one is simpler. You just take the Bus number 57 from Ártún (not too far from your hotel) to Esjan, a mountain. You then climb that mountain, like every Icelander has done at least once. It's a nice mountain, not too high, with a great view and decent paths and plenty of places to rest so even if you aren't a mountaineer like myself you can still enjoy it. This only runs you the cost of the ticket to get there so it's pretty drat noice, money wise, as well as letting you climb a drat mountain. We may not have tall buildings, Bloodnose, but how many mountains do you have in Hong Kong?  Just remember to bring some lunch, 'cause while there may be a cabin it's way overpriced. If you make good time, you might even consider going to Akranes, a nearby small town, and check out the whaling tours there. Whale-Watching tours, sorry, I think they discontinued the ones where they then kill the whale after finding it, the tourists kept scaring the whales away with their flash photography and it made the whalers mad. Or you can return to the capital, stopping at the delectable KFC on the way. (Or Hróa Hött, they have some nice Pizzas and aren't far off from there and right next to a Bónus~ CupcakePrincess posted:It's too bad you won't be around - if you ever come to Hong Kong, give us a shout!  Oh, and how you can bring in some dry food as well as a certain amount of alcohol, a liter of strong stuff (My recommendation, you can then mix it to your delight here with Icelandic soft drinks), a liter of weak stuff or 6 liters of beer (why would you do this). 'cause drinking out is crazy mad expensive, yo. If you have any more questions, I'd be happy to answer. Deceitful Penguin fucked around with this message at 15:56 on Apr 30, 2013 |
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Apr 30, 2013 15:53
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I'm so glad you made this thread! I've been a bit of an icelandophile for ages, and it's at the top of my list for vacation destinations. Do you know of any good resources to learn Icelandic? Not that I expect to pick it up overnight, but I'd love to know a few phrases at least.
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Apr 30, 2013 21:07
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How does Iceland's citizens generally feel about Wikileaks? Iceland's actions regarding Wikileaks have been generally favorable as of late. A minister denied aiding the FBI over an investigation, and the Supreme Court kept the Icelandic branch of Visa from prohibiting donations to the site. I also believe that Bradley Manning was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize by Iceland.
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May 1, 2013 03:04
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Being originally from Newfoundland - another cold, sparsely populated island in the North Atlantic - Iceland is really, really fascinating to me. In the past, especially before 2008, it was held up as a model for economic development for Newfoundland. There are obvious differences (sovereignty) between the two. But, I'm interested in what you think might be responsible for the impressive level of economic development and diversity in Iceland given the paucity of natural resources. I mean, if you imagine any given city of 300,000 people in North America it wouldn't likely be as productive as Iceland. I don't think so, at least. Is just effective governance or cultural or what? I'm also interested in the fishing industry in Iceland given that, as far as I know, you mostly fish for Atlantic cod. Is that still true? North Atlantic cod stocks collapsed off Newfoundland to truly disastrous effect in the early 90s - due to colassal mismanagement and climate change. Do you think there's a danger of overfishing in Iceland? How is the fishery managed?
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May 1, 2013 10:14
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Guy DeBorgore posted:I'm so glad you made this thread! I've been a bit of an icelandophile for ages, and it's at the top of my list for vacation destinations. Byde posted:How does Iceland's citizens generally feel about Wikileaks? Iceland's actions regarding Wikileaks have been generally favorable as of late. A minister denied aiding the FBI over an investigation, and the Supreme Court kept the Icelandic branch of Visa from prohibiting donations to the site. I also believe that Bradley Manning was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize by Iceland. There is a fairly large minority though that's very interested in this sorta thang, like the 3 senators of the Pirate Party show. One of them, Birgitta, was fairly high up in wikileaks or something like that. The FBI thing, jesus loving christ. That incompetent loving jackass has no loving right to work with foreign goddamn organizations to spy on Icelandic citizens. Dude shoulda been fired on the spot. And Valitor being forced to pay almost 3 years late, ehh. The courts are always too loving slow. But it's still promising. So I'd say that the feeling was general apathy, with a significant minority caring a lot but no-one being against them. Gleri posted:Being originally from Newfoundland - another cold, sparsely populated island in the North Atlantic - Iceland is really, really fascinating to me. In the past, especially before 2008, it was held up as a model for economic development for Newfoundland. There are obvious differences (sovereignty) between the two. But, I'm interested in what you think might be responsible for the impressive level of economic development and diversity in Iceland given the paucity of natural resources. I mean, if you imagine any given city of 300,000 people in North America it wouldn't likely be as productive as Iceland. I don't think so, at least. Is just effective governance or cultural or what? Gleri posted:I'm also interested in the fishing industry in Iceland given that, as far as I know, you mostly fish for Atlantic cod. Is that still true? North Atlantic cod stocks collapsed off Newfoundland to truly disastrous effect in the early 90s - due to colassal mismanagement and climate change. Do you think there's a danger of overfishing in Iceland? How is the fishery managed? The other problems are loving terrible though, here's yet another succinct Article from the grapevine if you can tolerate the "whimsical" style, it rubs some the wrong way. In brief, the quotas ended being just another money making scheme for some rich fuckers to the detriment of the people as a whole. We're hoping to reform that, but we faced a lot of paid opposition. How it goes now is anyones guess. Deceitful Penguin fucked around with this message at 16:57 on May 1, 2013 |
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May 1, 2013 12:38
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Deceitful Penguin posted:I actually went to the tourist info today to check up on it, there are a few mo' places around but mostly cheap = fast food. And usually foreign, like subway or KFC at that. How much is a sub in HK, btw? The absolute cheapest one here is 29.9 HKD. Cost of living in Iceland is insane, Deceitful Penguin posted:We may not have tall buildings, Bloodnose, but how many mountains do you have in Hong Kong? Uh, only a metric fuckton. Hong Kong is also crazy volcanic, except our volcanoes are all dead. It's extremely mountainous terrain though. Good hiking options. CupcakePrincess posted:Wow I was not expecting such a long and helpful post - thank you so much! I clicked on the site of the knockoff McDonald's and almost had a heart attack, so the suggestions for cheap food are really useful.
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May 1, 2013 13:21
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Bloodnose posted:Subway is the only source I know for a sub in HK and they've got a promotion right now for 25 HKD. But those are lovely and small sandwiches. I usually have to spend more than 40. Western food is generally more expensive here anyway, but yeah our cost of living is definitely massive. My last apartment, just over 700 square feet, cost 18,000 HKD a month. Housing is the worst here. Bloodnose posted:Uh, only a metric fuckton. Hong Kong is also crazy volcanic, except our volcanoes are all dead. It's extremely mountainous terrain though. Good hiking options. Bloodnose posted:Do I know you? You don't have a post history. You should hang out with Hong Kong goons. And drat, never thought making this thread would make me want to go to Hong Kong.
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May 1, 2013 15:14
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Deceitful Penguin posted:day trip suggestions Again - wow thank you so much. The suggestions all sound amazing; I'll be doing more in depth research after exams are over and I'll be sure to bother you some more if I have any questions. Your posts have really made me look forward to my trip! Bloodnose posted:Do I know you? You don't have a post history. You should hang out with Hong Kong goons. Nope, probably not, since I only joined less than a year ago. My boyfriend has been on SA since 2004, and this account is one of the first gifts he got me (romantic). Is there a regional HK thread?
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May 1, 2013 18:16
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Deceitful Penguin posted:Recruiting for the thread, eh? I'm amazed at how people don't seem to know about the regional megathreads, they were one of the first things I found. I don't think we actually have one for Hong Kong  I'm the other beneficiary of your wonderful advice! Thank you so much - I'm sure our trip will be a lot better with your help. Is there an address we could drop off a couple HK souvenirs for you? PM me! CupcakePrincess posted:Nope, probably not, since I only joined less than a year ago. My boyfriend has been on SA since 2004, and this account is one of the first gifts he got me (romantic).  actually, but I guess regdate elitism is out of fashion now
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May 1, 2013 18:25
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CupcakePrincess posted:Again - wow thank you so much. The suggestions all sound amazing; I'll be doing more in depth research after exams are over and I'll be sure to bother you some more if I have any questions. Your posts have really made me look forward to my trip! CupcakePrincess posted:Nope, probably not, since I only joined less than a year ago. My boyfriend has been on SA since 2004, and this account is one of the first gifts he got me (romantic). Is there a regional HK thread? breathstealer posted:I don't think we actually have one for Hong Kong And how romantic.  I'd never be able to do that 'cause I can't resist trolling half the time. A bad habit to have on SA that I just can't shake, alas. breathstealer posted:I'm the other beneficiary of your wonderful advice! Thank you so much - I'm sure our trip will be a lot better with your help. Is there an address we could drop off a couple HK souvenirs for you? PM me! And I can't PM ya, lost PMs a while back but you can throw me a line at malcowitz at gmail.com if you really wanna exchange info. So if you two need any mo' info, I'm at your disposal.
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May 1, 2013 21:23
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So I'm not sure if you'll have an answer to this one as it's a bit technical, but how extensive is your fishing industry? Is it just catching the fish or is most of the processing done in Iceland as well? I ask because here in California we have pretty ample fishing, but our canning industry in almost completely gone. It's cheaper to ship the fish caught off our cost to Chinese processors and have it shipped back because the cost of fuel doesn't outweigh the cheaper labor. You only make a few extra cents per ton, but in a year that's millions of dollars for the industry. You've been talking about the free trade agreement with China and I was wondering if the fishing industry happened to be included in any major way in that agreement. The insane way our planet, especially the United States, consumes sea food has always fascinated me.
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May 2, 2013 22:23
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How badly would not being able to read Icelandic be a detriment in a workplace? Long story short I have a UK degree in geology with emphasis on seismology but the UK is loving dead in regards to seismic activity, so I was looking at moving abroad for work, and since Iceland is in the EEA there aren't any insurmountable obstacles to immigrating like going to the USA.
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May 3, 2013 10:09
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cafel posted:So I'm not sure if you'll have an answer to this one as it's a bit technical, but how extensive is your fishing industry? Is it just catching the fish or is most of the processing done in Iceland as well? I ask because here in California we have pretty ample fishing, but our canning industry in almost completely gone. It's cheaper to ship the fish caught off our cost to Chinese processors and have it shipped back because the cost of fuel doesn't outweigh the cheaper labor. You only make a few extra cents per ton, but in a year that's millions of dollars for the industry. You've been talking about the free trade agreement with China and I was wondering if the fishing industry happened to be included in any major way in that agreement. The insane way our planet, especially the United States, consumes sea food has always fascinated me. The same conditions for easy export of fish do not apply to a country on the other side of a continent from California, which adds at least a bit more miles to the trip. And for outsourcing in general, with the closest possible places for outsourcing being possibly S-Europe or Africa, which simply isn't that profitable in one case or in possession of the infrastructure for it in the other and the quota system, which at least to begin with, was designed so that you could only land the fish in the port/town it was assigned to. While this changed later, to the detriment of our countryside, it's still far easier to land fish here than export. I don't know enough about the actual fishing part processing, as I'm a filthy landlubber, but I know that the fisheries work landside is kept cheap by using foreign labour as much as possible. This is one of the things that make me pretty drat angry because they're mostly foreign women who are underpaid, don't know their rights and are made to do backbreaking repetitive labour at much lower wages than they deserve. It's pretty galling, because the fisheries used to be the engine of social advancement in early Iceland, where poor people could go and slave away but still earn more money than they would otherwise, especially back when there were literally no other source of social advancement. My ma ruined her wrists working there as a kid but she still made money, which was more than she could have done working at the farm. I keep intending to get in touch with the Women of Foreign Origin org here but poo poo keeps getting in the way. Eh. whiteshark12 posted:How badly would not being able to read Icelandic be a detriment in a workplace? Long story short I have a UK degree in geology with emphasis on seismology but the UK is loving dead in regards to seismic activity, so I was looking at moving abroad for work, and since Iceland is in the EEA there aren't any insurmountable obstacles to immigrating like going to the USA.  ) you'd pick the basic work vocab up quickly enough. So it's a demerit and it's not like we lack for well qualified geologists here, but there's still hope. My suggestion, unless you have contacts in Iceland, is to check This website to see if there are any jobs in your field. Not a lot else I can do for you on this end.
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May 3, 2013 18:30
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So what's the ownership of the fisheries like? Do you have a cabal of shadowy super-wealthy fish oligarchs?
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May 4, 2013 05:14
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Have you been to a banana farm or is that a myth?
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May 4, 2013 20:28
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Bloodnose posted:So what's the ownership of the fisheries like? Do you have a cabal of shadowy super-wealthy fish oligarchs?  Ooooh, boy. The fisheries aren't where the main money is. The real money is in the quotas for the fish. See, thanks to our Chicago School of Economics educated ministers, they decided to let the invisible hand of the free market dictate how best to allocate fishing quotas in the country. Fast forward a few years and you have a bunch of Quota Kings, with insane amounts of money they got from it while everyone else was various degrees of hosed. Some of these kings were close friends to said ministers and members of the same political party, which I'm sure was a complete coincidence. Then these geniuses decided to play financial tricks with their quotas, ending up in a lot of "debt" while their real money is working they tan in Tortola. Shadowy ogliarchs? Oh how I wish they stayed in the shadows. Instead, LÍÚ, their lobbyist group pretty much managed to 'cause a huge amount of unrest and lose the left the election with constant sabotage, lies and media manipulation. There was supposed to be a reworking of the quota system. Fat chance of that happening now under the coming right government. Alterian posted:Have you been to a banana farm or is that a myth? Did visit a lot of strawberry greenhouses when I was working near one of the bigger operations though. Gods, that was the best. Deceitful Penguin fucked around with this message at 17:49 on May 5, 2013 |
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May 5, 2013 17:16
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Deceitful Penguin posted:The banana farm? No. It´s part of the Agricultural college of Hveragerði, which is a subsidiary of the Farming University of Iceland. The old joke about us being the biggest exporters of Bananas in Europe is part of a larger extended joke about how "per capita" numbers are unreliable and the fact that we are the only European country to grow bananas. I guess it is sort of a myth. I've always heard that Iceland is Europe's main source of bananas and one of Iceland's biggest exports.
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May 5, 2013 18:12
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Alterian posted:I guess it is sort of a myth. I've always heard that Iceland is Europe's main source of bananas and one of Iceland's biggest exports. Actually looking it up, it seems to be a joke about us being a "Banana Republic", what with the army base and being in the American pocket rather than something serious. But hey, apparently the Banana place also grows figs and coffee. Now I want to taste Icelandic coffee, dammit.
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May 5, 2013 19:56
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How are Iceland's universities? I've never heard of anyone going to Iceland for school. And did you say you went abroad yourself? Do businesses prefer to hire people who have studied overseas?
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May 6, 2013 02:48
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Bloodnose posted:How are Iceland's universities? I've never heard of anyone going to Iceland for school. And did you say you went abroad yourself? Do businesses prefer to hire people who have studied overseas? For a population 321857, that's pretty good I'd think. And the Uni of Iceland doesn't do badly in the rankings, if you think they're an indicator of anything worthwhile. (I don't.) Do you know a lot of geneticists? Geophysicists? Seismologists? Vulcanologists? Nordic Studies people or Nordic History specialists? While we get plenty of people coming here to study other things, the sciences Iceland is at the forefront of are Genetics and Geophysics, with a focus on renewable energy generation through geothermal energy and of course the whole "Sitting between two continental plates" thing. Everything else, ehh. You get the odd prospective teacher, philosopher, lawyer, doctor and whatnot. Helped some philosophy students translate poo poo back when I studied that. Just not as common. I did study abroad, that was pre-Uni though. Half a year in Germany. Hah, orderly fuckers and overly strict, but then again I'm a free spirited man among irreverent people. Being 17 didn't help. Still, was a good run, just wish I'd had the sense to socialize more. Alas, alas. And unless the degree they got overseas is especially prestigious or specialized, probably not. Unstated question but most aren't going Stateside either unless it's on Fulbright or something similar, with most heading towards Europe and especially the other Nordic countries. There's a rich history of Icelanders going to our old overlord Denmark and studying there, for instance. Few sane or not rich goes to the US or to a lesser degree Britain without some support, though it's been known to happen. Edit: England, rather than Britain, I always forget Scottish universities run on a different system. Deceitful Penguin fucked around with this message at 14:37 on May 6, 2013 |
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May 6, 2013 04:35
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