Researchers have long been puzzled by the phenomenon which sees the trout in Skanderup Brook, close to the town of Kolding, dying in their dozens at the start of autumn every year. The riddle has now been put to rest, however, and chestnuts falling from the trees along the riverbank have had the blame
The play was staged in Mestno gledalisce Ptuj or the City Theatre in Ptuj in Slovenia last summer. The group behind the project in Lublijana includes some of Slovenia’s most prominent theatre professionals.
Kitchen to Measure, Ordinary Horror Stories is based on five short stories by Svava Jakobsdottir and produced by the National Theatre of Iceland in 2005 and 2006. It was a box office
A candidate test was carried out this week on the Church homepage in order to vet applicants for the upcoming elections. The survey, which enables voters to choose a suitable runner for their parish, jammed after opening on Monday due to unexpected demand.
In the online examination, 72 percent of respondents said they were in support of the Church holding prayer vigils for same sex couples. A further 48 percent said they were also in favour of
I didn't expect to see fourteen musicians on stage, a mind-boggling array of instruments and an audience ranging from rock royalty to little old ladies, but that's what I got at Amiina's album release concert at NASA earlier this month. Debuting songs from their second album 'puzzle' on home soil, the band played to an almost full house, sprinkled with more gods and goddess of the Icelandic music scene than sugar on a doughnut.
It was up to Sin Fang's (they've dropped the Bous) eclectic musical stylings to warm up the gathering crowd. While frontman Sindri Már Sigfússon kept his presence low-key,
According to Greenland Radio, workmen and personnel at the co-operative supermarket became ill after breathing in gases from a silicon solution that had been used to renew the shop floor. Those in need of urgent medical attention were seen to in Maniitsoq by personnel specially flown in from the Dronning Ingrid Hospital in Greenland's capital, Nuuk.
According to hospital staff, the symptoms are not thought to
Conceptual artist, performer, musician, experimental filmmaker, peace activist, businesswoman and philanthropist,Yoko Ono is still overshadowed by the role she is most known for: being the widow of musician John Lennon and the accompanying hard-to-shake-off clichés about 'splitting up the Beatles'.
Yoko's continuous quest for love, peace and above all HOPE is perhaps exactly what's needed in Iceland in these times of economical and political turmoil. It hasn't exactly been a time of positive thinking. Fortunately, she is back in Iceland this weekend to light up her 'Imagine Peace Tower' for the fourth time.
Made in memory of Lennon, the work tower has been lit upon his birth date, October 9, since it was unveiled in 2007. This year Lennon would have turned 70 years old, which means a big celebration with events such as the long sold-out live performance by The Plastic Ono Band on Saturday night. We are glad to have her, so we called her up.
Instructions
"LET EVERYBODY IN THE CITY THINK OF THE WORD "YES" AT THE SAME TIME FOR 30 SECONDS. DO IT OFTEN." --YOKO ONO--
Yoko Ono's instructional pieces, published in a book titled 'Grapefruit' in 1964, are simple and often Zen-like 'event scores' that replace the physical work of art. Yoko
The media is often recognised as the fourth branch of government sitting next to the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Recognising its importance in 1787, United States Founding Father Thomas Jefferson said, "were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."
If fulfilling the role of the 4th branch was the goal, then Iceland's two most widely read newspapers, Fréttablaðið and Morgunblaðið, by and large failed to fulfil their duties before the crash. On the contrary, the papers often served as a mouthpiece of the government and financial institutions, through which they spewed positive propaganda to the public. Although, for example, Morgunblaðið's editor at the time, Styrmir Gunnarsson, claims the paper, "adequately evaluated external news and information [before the crash]," an examination of what the newspapers had in their hands in terms of external warnings and what they then passed on to the public reveals a serious lapse in journalism.
Before the crash, external agencies like Moody's, the OECD and Merrill Lynch, consistently issued reports warning about the enormity of the commercial banking sector and the absence of a lender of last resort. Each time, the newspapers remarkably minimised their reports and ignored or refuted any critical information about the banks.
April – Moody's is worried about Iceland's banks
On April 9, Moody's issues its annual report on Iceland, reiterating its
decision to downgrade Iceland's banks to C- and lower the government's
rating to negative in February and March, respectively.
Morgunblaðið says crisis is unlikely.
On April 9, Morgunblaðið reports, "New Moody's report says crisis unlikely." At once the headline sums up a rosy conclusion of a report from an agency that has recently downgraded Iceland's banks to C- and lowered Iceland's outlook to negative. The article begins by stating Iceland's exceptional quality in being the only Aaa ranked country with C- ranked banks, as if this was almost a good thing. It goes on to say, "the state of the banks is said to be concerning, but it's unlikely that they will be the cause an economic crisis." Additionally, it reports, "Minister of Finance Árni M. Mathiesen says discussions during the last two to three weeks have been moving in a positive direction. Moody's is very well acquainted with the country and their positive report should push discussions in that direction."
Thus, it's generally a positive report.
Morgunblaðið fails to mention that the banks are nine times Iceland's GDP, and does not include Moody's warning: "The banking sector in Iceland represents the most burdensome contingent liability. Moody's considers the three large commercial banks in Iceland as "too big to fail," a concept that is not affected by the banks having been fully privatised, meaning that we would expect a very high degree of systemic support by the Icelandic authorities for the banks in the event of a stress situation. Given the scale of the banks' international operations, however, any systemic threat would prove extremely costly to the government if that eventuality were to materialize."
Of course if they had included all of this, the Minister of Finance would have appeared incompetent and they couldn't have written up such an overwhelmingly positive interpretation of the report.
Fréttablaðið says speculations are ridiculous
On the following day, April 10, Fréttablaðið covers Moody's report in an article called, "Ridiculous speculations." The article
