Rachel McAdams and Will Ferrell in ‘Eurovision Song Contest’ will inspire viewers with more than keeping up fashionable appearances through December holidays in lockdown.
(Netflix)
The movie is indeed a silly look at how sharing song and media in popular culture can affect how we relate as individuals and nations but it also carries deeper insights.
Volcano eruption in 2011.
EGILL ADALSTEINSSON/EPA
Icelandic authorities have recently raised the threat level of the Grímsvötn volcano.
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Despite taking different approaches, both countries have won praise for their handling of the coronavirus outbreak. So what can we learn from that?
Taiwan celebrates a third week of zero cases of COVID-19 infection on April 17.
David Chang/EPA
Taiwan and Iceland both deployed a cooperative strategy early on in the COVID-19 pandemic – and it’s helped win public trust.
Elizabeth Viggiano/Netflix
Bursting with bubblegum Scandi-pop, this glitzy, sequinned melodrama might just be the thing to fill that discoball-shaped hole left by this year’s cancelled Eurovision.
Whale watching (here, off Húsavík, Iceland) may be better for the local economy than whale hunting.
Davide Cantelli/Wikimedia
Icelandic whalers have killed more than 1,700 whales since a global ban was adopted in 1986 – up to 2019, when no hunts took place. Is Iceland quietly getting out of the business?
A long history of gifting of printed books at Christmas remains strong despite increases in e-book sales.
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Books have always made great Christmas gifts. But what makes them so special, aside from their being so easy to wrap?
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From LGBTQI rights to racial justice, companies are embracing the social issues that matter to their consumers. And, of course, that makes sense.
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Open gates, good food and communal living make for a very different approach to incarceration.
The Tanami desert in central Australia is haunted by beings called the jarnpa, which look like people but possess superhuman powers.
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All monsters make their mark on the communities they haunt. Some are cheeky and mischievous, some are mysterious, others are downright evil.
Katla last erupted in 1918 – but there is no evidence to suggest that it will erupt again soon.
ICELANDIC GLACIAL LANDSCAPES / wiki
We can’t say that Katla in Iceland is ‘due’ to erupt, no matter what you have read.
Iceland erupts in 2009. Then came repercussions.
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Ten years on from global crisis, look to a little nation that had some big ideas.
Increased tourism in Iceland is bringing more attention to controversial practices such as commercial whaling and consumption of whale meat.
ELDING/AAP
Iceland is set to resume commercial whaling in June after a two-year hiatus, arguing that the moratorium put in place by the international community was never intended to be an open-ended ban.
Öræfajökull.
Dave McGarvie
The saga of Öræfajökull suggests we should take small earthquakes in the region seriously.
Erta Ale in eastern Ethiopia.
mbrand85
Satellite research in Ethiopia is opening up a new frontier in the hunt for geothermal power.
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The internet has been the bogeyman of democracy over the last 12 months. It’s time to harness its power and redress the balance.
Piotr Piatrouski / Shutterstock.com
Trump would not have had a great time navigating the political intrigue presented in the Icelandic Sagas.
Lining up at Argentina 1978.
Scotland faces another exit at the World Cup qualifiers stage. Time for radical thinking.
Icelandic crime.
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What one isolated case tells us about crime and community on this special island.
A supporter of the Pirate Party in Reykjavik, Iceland.
AP Photo/Frank Augstein
While the US is reeling from rampant fake online news, political movements in Europe are using the internet as a powerful democratic symbol to win elections. Will cyber-optimism or pessimism win?