vorkvöld í Reykjavík

nostalgia trip

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I'm headed to Lansing today for two things: a board meeting for Michigan Citizens for Science and a reunion dinner with some of my old friends from debate. A few of the people who are going to be there I haven't seen in 14 years, so this is going to be a great little nostalgia trip. Hope everyone…
Today is Orthodox Easter. Most everyone here will have lamb for lunch today. We did something different.... First, for breakfast I had snenokle (here is a recipe from a delightful Balkans food blog Palachinka) and I ground some chocolate on top of them: Then, we had eggs. Not just painted on…
Serving as an immediate prelude to the very first Star Wars film (A New Hope), Rogue One restores a measure of gravitas to the Star Wars canon that was seriously undermined by the goofiness of 2015's The Force Awakens. Rogue One is still a remarkable nostalgia trip, thanks to the digital recreation…
Hats off to Ben Goldacre and his diligent team who've put together this crowd-sourced map of nerdy places to visit in the British Isles and beyond. I once tried to convince some civil servants to support a similar idea (marginally less nerdy, more family-orientated), so I'm thrilled to see this…

Iceland: self-image after crisis
Sumarliði Ãsleifsson
http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/iceland-self-image-after-crisis

Iceland's financial collapse has led its people to vote for a change of government. Another by-product of trauma is the opportunity for a shift in the country's national discourse, says Sumarliði Ãsleifsson.
27 - 04 - 2009

The financial implosion of 2008-09 in Iceland, felt at every level of this society, has now had a political answer too. The general election of 24 April 2009 shows a substantial increase in the centre-left vote, enough to produce a government of a different colour.

How different it will be in practice remains to be seen. Iceland's economic problems run deep, and the next government's task is a big one. At the same time, no one expects politicians to produce instant answers to the issues of debt, unemployment and poverty the country faces.

Many other Icelanders are already looking for answers in other areas, including the skills and resources that were neglected during the boom years. In my view, this process of recovery could also benefit from renewed debate about prevailing national self-images. A look at how Icelanders' ways of seeing themselves have evolved (and persisted) through the island's history may offer some insight into their current predicament. What is interesting in this process is that - as so often with small countries - it begins with outsiders' perception of the Icelanders.