"Icelanders Grieve for the Peculiar Lake Balls"

You know you just have to click on a headline like that.

How an Absurdist Party of Anarcho-Surrealists Governed in Iceland

You may remember that back in 2010 I noted comedian Jon Gnarr's spoof campaign that actually put him on top of the polls.  Here's a fresh look at how this mayor of Reykjavik governed.  I love this comment by one of Gnarr's friends:

"My question was always: 'How do we f*** the system?' ... "And the answer was, we show that non-politicians can do the job as well."

Apparently Gnarr did a decent job in office.  Screw the establishment, and do it with a smile!  I can't resist reposting one of Gnarr and his self-proclaimed Best Party's hilarious campaign videos: 

Politics Are a Joke

And the mayor of Reykjavik knows it.  You may recall my coverage of Hizzoner's campaign back in 2010.

LOL: Finding Yourself in Iceland

OK, I totally laughed.  I can't make this stuff up if I tried.

7 Weird Christmas Traditions

Outstanding!  I still think the Krampus is delightfully scary-strange.

MM in the Kitchen: Loftkökur

Puffy chocolate Icelandic cookies!

Monday Therapy: Gorgeous Photos of Iceland

Lovely.  Remember, Iceland wants to be your friend!

Forgotten History: Viking Navigation

Cool!  OK, I just have to add that reading the references is in itself a wee bit amusing.  See for instance: "Gábor Horváth, an optics researcher at Eötvös University in Budapest, and Susanne Åkesson, a migration ecologist from Lund University, Sweden ..."

Now I can't help myself:

Wik
Alsø wik
Alsø alsø wik
Wi nøt trei a høliday in Sweden this yer?
See the løveli lakes
The wonderful telephøne system
And mani interesting furry animals
Including the majestic møøse
A Møøse once bit my sister ...
Mynd you, møøse bites Kan be pretty nasti

Iceland Wants To Be Your Friend

No, really!  The actual URL actually is
 http://www.icelandwantstobeyourfriend.com/ ! It's part of a tourism campaign (via Presurfer).  Look, this is how the thing starts:

Halló, my name is Iceland. 

I am an island, full of mountains and glaciers and hot water and sheep and other things. And also many nice Icelandic people, who like to make music, and who are sometimes cold. 

(Maybe you have seen me on your tele-vision, or your Inter-nets.) 

I have heard that many people use the Inter-nets to make friends, and to talk about themselves. So that is what I want to do, too.

Awwwww.  How cute!

Awesome Quirky Euro Files: Life Imitates Satire in Iceland

A spoof political campaign has actually won the real election!  More from the New York Times here.  Yep, the satirist mastermind of all this, a comedian named Jon Gnarr, is now officially the mayor of Reykjavik.  Apparently he picked up a lot of votes from people who were protest-voting against the establishment parties.  I believe it!  I would totally vote for this guy.  He named his spoof party the "Best Party."

I give you one of their hilarious campaign videos here.  I laughed out loud. You'll never listen to Tina Turner the same way again!

Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of Fire! Eyjafjallajökull Video

Iceland or Mordor?

Take your best guess!

Awesome Photography: Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull Volcanic Eruption

Here is just one example of the photographic awesomeness on Orvaratli's Flickr photostream! (Via David Thompson.)

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

~Robert Frost

Taiwan: Press Freedom Declining in China's Shadow

Read the 2009 edition of Freedom House's annual press freedom report (if you like charts, look at this PDF) and then read this analysis.

On the Taiwan front, there is disturbing news indeed. Last year, Taiwan was rated as Asia's freest press; this year the honor goes to New Zealand (if you want to argue about ethnic Asianness, then I can tell you that Japan is the freest large Asian nation). Last year, Taiwan was ranked 32 in the global survey; this year it falls to 43.

(For comparison, the US is 24, the UK and Canada are 27, and Australia is 38. #1 went to -- drum roll, please! -- Iceland. Dead last on the list? North Korea.)

See this editorial by Leon Chuang, chairman of the Association of Taiwan Journalists. He writes, among other things:

The lesson is that if Taiwan’s media cannot resist penetration by China, Taiwan will before long go the same way as Hong Kong.

President Ma Ying-jeou and his government should bear full responsibility for this black mark on the record of their first year in office.

Hong Kong's press freedom rating, by the way, has dropped from "free" to "partly free." China, in case you're wondering, is rated "not free" by Freedom House.

Things do not look good at all for either HK or Taiwanese media. Wake up, people.

Euro Notes: Iceland in Full Financial Free Fall

Poor Iceland.

Look at this assessment from economist Jon Danielsson from the London School of Economics:

"No country has ever crashed as quickly and as badly in peacetime."

Ouch. Previous post here.

Nerd News, Financial Apocalypse Edition: Oxford's Frozen Assets

England's venerable Oxford University has financial assets now frozen in Iceland's failing banks. The total amount of trapped cash is estimated to be around 30 million pounds (nearly $60 million US).

RELATED POSTS:

• 900+ American colleges and universities feel the effect of Wachovia's bank collapse.
• The entire nation of Iceland is bankrupt.
  

Euro Notes: Iceland in Financial Meltdown

(Yes, I used the word "meltdown" on purpose because I'm linguistically evil.)

Seriously, though, the entire country of Iceland is on the verge of bankruptcy. Things are looking dreadful:

REYKJAVIK: People go bankrupt all the time. Companies do, too. But countries?

Iceland was on the verge of doing exactly that on Thursday as the government shut down the stock market and seized control of its last major independent bank. That brought trading in the country's currency to a halt, with foreign banks no longer willing to take Icelandic krona, even at fire-sale rates.

As the meltdown in the Icelandic financial system quickened, with the government seemingly powerless to do anything about it, analysts said there was probably only one realistic option left: for Iceland to be bailed out by the International Monetary Fund.

"Iceland is bankrupt," said Arsaell Valfells, a professor at the University of Iceland. "The Icelandic krona is history. The IMF has to come and rescue us."

Oh, dear. Boom, bust, and now bailing out an entire country?