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An Art Iceland eBay Store has just been integreted.
The store offers a lot of interesting and useful things from Iceland as well as art work and art supplies. Unfortunately there are not a lot of Icelandic artists that portray their work on eBay - but we will add them as we find more and more that do.
Here is a list of what is available on the Art Iceland Store:
A big earthquake with the magnitude of 6.3 Richter shook our parts of the word yesterday afternoon (2008-05-29 15:46).
The earthquake started about 50km south of Reykjavik, where I live. We could clearly feel the earth shaking but no damage here. In Selfoss and Hveragerði, small towns close to where it started, there were some damages - things falling and braking. Some damage to houses and bridges and a few people with minor injuries. Many got scared and slept in tents or moved to relatives. Icelandic houses are built to withstand quakes like this.
Earthquakes are common in this area where the continental drift makes two large landmasses rub against each other and breaking out in earthquakes every hundred years or so.
Icelandic truckers have been active in protesting the rising cost of fuel as well as recent EU laws on truck drivers rest time. They started earlier this month and have used their big vehicles to close roads. The police have been mild until now.
Last Monday the protests got violent when the police started using more aggressive riot tactics. This time the police came in force with shields and batons to beat the protesters - and they used gas. 21 where arrested and a few had to visit the hospital.
Here is a video from the action.
Hilary Whiteman from CNN called me up for an interview and you can read the full story here:
As you may know, Leifur Eiriksson or Leif Erikson was the first European to discover America. The website www.islendingabok.is (Book of Icelanders) allows me to look up my relation to all Icelanders - living and dead. So I found out how we are related. Our common ancestors Úlfur and Björg where obviously born in Norway, since they were born around 850 and Iceland was found in 874 and settled in the years after.
For many, Leif Erikson is almost a mystical legend than a real person! But here he is and I have followed his line as his great nephew around 25 generations back! Yeah - it’s amazing how close to these times a family tree like this makes us feel
Erik the Red was a Norwegian who fled high taxes and came to Iceland. Erik The Red’s real Icelandic name was Eiríkur “rauði” Þorvaldsson. Living from around 920 - 1006. He moved to Greenland in 986 and built his farm “Brattahlíð”. This was written in the book “Landnáma” (Book of Settlers).
Everyone in Iceland knows that his son Leif was the first man from Europe to go to America. There has been some controversy about the nationality of Leif the lucky. Leif was born in Iceland and therefor Icelandic.
Check out these blogs about the legendary Leif Ericson:
IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) ruled today that the prosthetic feet used by double amputee, Oscar Pistorius give him too much of an advantage over other contestants! Oscar is consequently banned from competing in the Beijing Olympics.
Pistorius lost both his legs as a child and is using prosthetic feet designed and manufactured Ossur. The feet are made of carbon and are light and strong as well as highly flexible.
According to the findings of the IAAF the feet make it possible for Pistorius to run at 25% less energy use than an able bodied athlete. No wonder Pistorius has got the nickname “Blade Runner”.
“An athlete using this prosthetic blade has a demonstrable mechanical advantage (more than 30 per cent) when compared to someone not using the blade,” the IAAF said.
After winning gold and bronze at the Special Olympics in 2004, Oscar wanted to compete on equal terms with able bodied athletes at the Beijing Olympics.
This is a big disappointment for Oscar who is at his peak of his career and still only 21.
If you think off roading is slow and boring - think again!
Formula Off Road is one of the most extreme form of off roading.
The dates and locations for the Formula Off Road calendar in 2008 is getting pretty definite. Check it out and see if you have the opportunity of attending one of the events. Go to the bottom of the page to see the schedule.
I will be attending as much of the events I can or cover them another way.
A group of scientists believe the Holy Grail and other lost objects, which according to Christian mythology were guarded by the Knights Templar, may be located at Kjölur in the center of the Icelandic highlands.
“There is strong indication that the solution to this mystery may be found in Iceland,” architect Thórarinn Thórarinsson wrote in a letter to the local authority, requesting permission for himself and Italian cryptographer Giancarlo Gianazza to search for the treasure in the region.
According to visir.is, Gianazza believes to have found important clues to where the Holy Grail is hidden in poems by Dante and artwork by Leonardo da Vinci and other Renaissance painters. His research has led him to conclude that the treasure is located in a five-meter-large secret underground dome by Skipholtskrókar near Kjölur mountain pass.
One of the clues is a consistency between da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper and an aerial photograph of the area.
The theory is that the Knights Templar came to Iceland in 1217 to find a hiding place for their treasure and that Snorri Sturluson, the author of Prose Edda and other medieval scripts, helped them create the underground dome in Iceland’s central highlands.
“We have investigated that place since 2004 with field work both in summer and winter and undertaken extensive geological measurements,” Thórarinsson said in his letter. “The information that we have gathered during these trips as well as further research of original sources give us reason to investigate the area in more detail.”
Thórarinn was given permission by the local authority of Hrunamannahreppur to dig a two-meter-deep and five-meter-wide ditch by Skipholtskrókar with the condition that the ditch will be closed after the research is done.
