Explosion, Oligarchs, Happiness, Blizzard & Interest Rates

The Reykjavík Grapevine's Iceland Roundup brings you the top news with a healthy dash of local views. In this episode, Grapevine publisher Jón Trausti Sigurðarson is joined by Heimildin journalist Aðalsteinn Kjartansson, and Grapevine friend and contributor Sindri Eldon to roundup the stories making headlines in recent weeks. On the docket this week are: 

Winter Still Rages - Flights Cancelled - Avalanches - Blizzards

We’re having a bad case of the winters these days, making the past week seem like the week before. Most, if not all international flights to and from Iceland were cancelled on Friday, bunch of road closures due to blizzards and in some cases avalanches, such as in on the main road near the town of Sigufjörður in North Iceland. Power also went down in the Westfjords.

Reynisfjara Black Beach Back In The News

Westerly winds, that had already swept the sands of Reynisfjara beach westwards, leading to stories about the beach having disappeared or having closed, kicked in again last week, hitting the parking lot by the beach hard. Landowners are still betting on the usually prevailing easterly winds to return, with high hopes that this will mean the return to sand around the famous cave and basalt columns, so loved by tourists. 

Russian Oligarch In Super Yacht Barred From Docking In Iceland

The yacht, named La Datcha is owned by Russian oligarch Oleg Tinkov. Tinkov is the founder of Russian internet bank Tinkoff, which is one of the biggest bank in Russia.

Iceland The Second Happiest Nation On Earth, After Finland

Yet again, Iceland scores high, but falls short of coming in number one, which falls, yet again, to the Finns. 

Big Explosion In Reykjavík

A “Dust Explosion” blew a hole in a big industrial building in Reykjavík, killing one worker and injuring others. The workers had been wielding in a silo of a factory that manufactures animal fodder. The sparks from the wielding set fire to the dust in the silo, leading to an explosion.

Interests Rates Go Up

Interest rates were raised by the Icelandic Central Bank last Thursday from 7,25% to 7,5%. The Chairman  of the Central Bank, cited inflation and the war in Iran in his reasoning for the raise.

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:09

Oh, go online. The Ricky Agreement also has an online store. It funds our journalism. Go shop there and it helps feed our journalists just like these skis serving fat pie bread. Hello and welcome to Iceland Roundup where me, Yon, Arnested and Sintri tell you what we feel about last week of Icelandic News.

SPEAKER_04 0:36

I was like, who the hell is Yon?

SPEAKER_02 0:39

There is no such sky. It's just the most common name in Icelandic. It's the idea of the the Yon, the theoretical Yon in the room. Sierra Yon.

SPEAKER_05 0:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

Father John. Father John.

SPEAKER_05 0:52

We have we have an explosion, we have interest rates, we have uh the happiness. Yeah. We have the uh happiness score, uh we have a Russian oligarch, we have an update on Rain Shera pitch, and we have sort of kind of an ongoing winter blizzard thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:14

And this is all like two stories.

SPEAKER_05 1:19

Basically, it's two stories. Yeah. Do you want to add anything to this? Anything you've been working on recently that you This is two stories?

SPEAKER_02 1:27

So an oligarch was trapped in a blizzard and the economy exploded. It all wraps it all, yeah. I mean why it's actually oligarch. It's actually a script of a James Bond movie. Yeah, it's like a mystery novel, you know, and that the first the first few chapters were all in like different places and then they all sort of intertwine to one.

SPEAKER_05 1:47

Yeah, that's a brilliant web of things.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

Yeah. Don't build it up too much because I'm not sure we'll be able to weave them together. Cunningly together. No, uh I have faith in you.

SPEAKER_04 1:58

I mean you're the writer of it.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

As only a dead drunk Ian Fleming could do. Yeah, true. Uh yeah. So But it's really fucking hard. That's what they don't tell you. It's like doing that is actually quite difficult. Or at least it is to me, I don't know. I it probably is.

SPEAKER_05 2:15

I mean that that's usually the main quality of those novels or or thrillers, not the actual writing of them. It's the parts coming together. It's kind of It's the plot. It's the plot. That thickens. And then gets resolved. It's beautiful. Yeah. It's like a well-written song. Never mind. Uh yeah, I wouldn't know anything about that either. So anything else you want to add to this, Azit?

SPEAKER_04 2:40

No, I I just want to say that Sintri is like uh qualified and competent.

SPEAKER_05 2:47

Do you wanna do you wanna add anything about medication? No, it's just started off on like Do you wanna add anything about the stories you've been writing about uh the Icelandic Center Party and the uh The MAGA connection? Well, what is the name of that of that uh think tank again? Racism? No Heritage Foundation.

SPEAKER_04 3:10

I think racism isn't like a think tank. I think it's like a belief system.

SPEAKER_02 3:15

Yeah, see it that was the joke. There is no there is no actual think tank called racism, and and I I know that. I'm just trying to be um what's the word? Fatuous.

SPEAKER_04 3:26

Oh Yeah, I'm I'm never too sure when you say stuff.

SPEAKER_05 3:31

It's part of my earlier Can I query on that or do you want to escape that discussion? No, I I mean I didn't write it, but I I guess I know you didn't.

SPEAKER_04 3:39

But you you are the editor. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

No, no, I mean it it's it's that like all of the fun and none of the responsibility.

SPEAKER_04 3:48

Or all of the responsibility and none of the fun.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

We wouldn't want to deny you the fun of of uh too late.

SPEAKER_05 4:00

No, it's it's interesting. Uh there's also these connections with um Farage's party in the UK, right?

SPEAKER_04 4:07

Yeah, I uh um the Centre Party has like and the Independence Party have uh solicited the service of uh Farage uh US guy, basically.

SPEAKER_05 4:20

Oh I see. And he's connected to the Heritage Foundation.

SPEAKER_04 4:23

He's connected to like everything. Like he has brokered deals uh not deals, meetings with like top officials with Trump, even himself. Uh he didn't quite do that for the Central Party or the Independence Party, but he like Well actually he hasn't been willing to say exactly what meetings he brokered, but uh the Central Party suddenly was very keen on showing photos from a meeting at the Heritage Foundation and with some US senators. Um according to the data and documents we found, they paid like thousand bucks each day to have a photographer travel with them. Oh nice. That's nice. Nice photos as well.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

It's wild that they that they assume that yeah, just like blatant racist authoritarianism is popular enough in Iceland that this will not, you know, impact them, that people will not think less of them. Uh well, I mean For having this like thoroughly documented. Like do you think Simuda Dawid would like to have a a meeting with Trump? Is he like a a Trump guy?

SPEAKER_04 5:38

Yeah, I mean uh the Centre Party, uh I'm not quite sure if Simdr himself has uh said it out loud, but members of his party too ballsy have said that they want to award Trump some kind of like uh prize.

SPEAKER_02 5:53

The Iceland Peace Prize.

SPEAKER_04 5:55

Yeah, something like that. So I mean and and The Golden Cot. The golden sheep. Yeah, w w uh we had some like awards for like movies like a golden puffin.

SPEAKER_05 6:07

Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, that would be nice. He he could have the golden puffin. It would look great in the Oval Office.

SPEAKER_04 6:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:14

No, but uh so Or the Golden Penguin and tell him it's from here.

SPEAKER_04 6:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:19

It would work.

SPEAKER_04 6:20

Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 6:22

Okay, I mean that's that's interesting that uh that they're kinda like it's interesting that they're trying to like, I don't know, learn some tricks from from these people, uh I guess for whatever election.

SPEAKER_02 6:46

I mean it's how it seems to me anyway.

SPEAKER_04 6:48

It's like uh I mean this is a political ideology. Like the stuff that the MACA movement and the Heritage Foundation is preaching and and like like this uh conservative movement that's going on all all around the world. I mean it's not in the US uh only, it's it's uh I mean all around Europe as well. Yeah, yeah. And they're the Icelandic representatives in in this movement.

SPEAKER_05 7:16

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_04 7:18

So it seems to be like connecting.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

It had to be somebody, so why not?

SPEAKER_05 7:21

I mean, just just like at any other point in the past couple of hundred years, we're not uh isolated from international trends and No I think we're we're really nothing but a series of international trends.

SPEAKER_04 7:34

If there's something that we can learn, is like try and see how other people are doing things and not Yeah, it's it's a generally a good idea.

SPEAKER_02 7:44

I hate that when when Icelandic politicians are up for like taking notes from politicians abroad, it's always the really shitty ones that they're trying to learn from.

SPEAKER_04 7:53

It's never, you know, they never see like, you know, thriving semi-socialist social welfare systems and or you know, like uh I mean yeah, but still uh a lot of the things that we have in Iceland is just like a copy paste of things in Scandinavia. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:13

Thank God. Yeah, thank goodness. I was gonna say, I kind of wish there was more. You know, I wish I wish we had copied them a bit better instead of this sort of you know, this half-assed neo-lib facade of a welfare state that we have.

SPEAKER_04 8:27

Copier from the former Soviet Union.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:31

Did they make good copiers?

SPEAKER_02 8:33

No. That's that's wrong. I mean, we used to get all our Lata. Yeah. You see that they're still going. You see fucking there's Lata Nevas driving around here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:45

Yeah. My grandma used to drive a Lata Niva.

SPEAKER_05 8:47

Keeps you strong. Yeah. Because you there's no uh there's power steering on those. Yeah. Or there's not, or whatever you call it. Yeah. Muscles theory.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

Uh I was I was in a band with uh a guy once who drove a Lata Niva, and I remember he uh he was keeping his uh he was keeping the the passenger side window propped up with like a knife that he jammed into the the beneath the rubber insulation there. So there was almost this knife sticking out at you.

SPEAKER_04 9:11

Like just see that in Tasia thus in like two or three years. Yeah. The first one sorry.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

Yeah, or Teslas. Yeah, or Teslas.

SPEAKER_04 9:20

Well, um They will just park themselves.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

And explode. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 9:25

While you can. Did you guys what did the weather affect you last week? Greatly. How so?

SPEAKER_04 9:35

I was thinking about the weather a lot.

SPEAKER_05 9:37

Oh, okay. Yeah. I mean so uh just like in the last episode, there was the weather was terrible. Uh it even was so terrible that I think Icelandair cancelled all of the flights out of the uh to and from Iceland on Friday.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

It's funny how unanimous the opinion is that this weather is just quote terrible, unquote. Like even the official headline in Ruve is just like Ley Vintawe. Yeah. It's just like awful. Awful weather. Like there's no redeeming qualities to be found in the, you know, the forlorn beauty of a snow-swept cityscape, you know, that it's all just you know, a bunch of like really annoying crap that people have to shovel their way through.

SPEAKER_05 10:17

Yeah, I mean it was but still like traffic went w was okay. Traffic was okay. I mean it was there, you know, there were some road closures, there was a bunch of avalanches, some hit roads. Um Yeah, I mean I wasn't saying it was perfect. No, it was like you know, temporarily closures. There was not like a case as in last week where like 500 people had to be sheltered up somewhere in Skavelder and no in in uh Ruttefder in the north.

SPEAKER_04 10:43

Yeah, and I mean they are still getting uh Alfred Orp.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:49

What's that?

SPEAKER_02 10:50

Yeah, I think Isafelder will do that to anyone.

SPEAKER_04 10:54

I was thinking about Skavafiel Sheffield.

SPEAKER_05 10:55

Oh yeah. And then like the power went out in in the Westfields briefly. Yeah. It's just kind of business as usual in a sense. It's just what we have sometimes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:05

And just the whole thing like they have like diesel uh generators for backup power. That's just like a standard in the world.

SPEAKER_05 11:14

Of course. Uh their grid isn't great, so that's that's understandable. But the weather had like this grid locked.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

Do beer kegs require electrical power? No. No. Yeah, then they'll be fine.

SPEAKER_05 11:28

Uh but the the weather did keep warm with cold beer. The weather did do one thing I noticed. Like it it it forced a German fricate to seek shelter by the west coast. Oh, it did. Yeah. And I'm wondering uh whether or not the superyacht that was bar barred from docking in Akuri in the north was there because of the weather.

SPEAKER_04 11:51

The Russian Superyacht.

SPEAKER_05 11:52

Yeah, the the Russian uh oligarchy, which was yeah, were not allowed to land by the Harpur in Akuri because of sanctions.

SPEAKER_04 12:03

Yeah, I've been to Akuri. I'm I'm just gonna call it. It's like it's not a tragedy. They couldn't like talk there.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

Perhaps one glance at Akuri would dissuade the Russians from any invasive.

SPEAKER_05 12:16

Like from for them or for the town of Akurire? For both. Yeah, for all parties.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

I think it's the less Akuri and Russians know of each other, the better for everyone involved.

SPEAKER_05 12:26

But the Yacht is called Lataccha, is owned by a Russian oligarch Oleg Tinkov, who's the fountain of Russian Internet Bank Tinkov, which is one of the biggest banks in Russia, I guess.

SPEAKER_04 12:37

Did he name the bank after himself?

SPEAKER_05 12:39

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 12:40

Okay, we we do like this. It's like we've stopped doing this in Iceland.

SPEAKER_05 12:44

Yeah, it's it's becoming popular again. You've heard of Donald Trump, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

Are you saying banks in Iceland used to be named after the people?

SPEAKER_04 12:53

I mean Mpibonky. Remember Mpipunky. Markier Peterson. It's it's now called Kvika.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Yeah. Yeah. I've I've never heard of either.

SPEAKER_05 13:01

This explains why Markier moved to Eastern Europe. Yeah. So he's wanted to like he wants to get the bank with his name on it again. He has a bank in the back.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

Kvika sounds like it it should be, you know, like a Slovakian dating service or something.

SPEAKER_04 13:14

It is, but it's also a bank.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

Ah, that's how we got so rich.

SPEAKER_05 13:18

We gotta diversify. Yeah, well the TAC world is such a weird place now. You you just match you match together things you never would have thought would match together before, like money and sex.

SPEAKER_02 13:29

Yeah. If only there was some way to combine the two. No. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:34

And like i uh uh go to the comments.

SPEAKER_02 13:38

It's like if you have ideas, to join like we're a little sick of reading comments about how great we are. You know, some comments about uh how to profit from people's sexual drives would be questions.

SPEAKER_03 13:52

Questions would be good too. Sorry, I'll say there's questions. Yeah, sure. Okay. Are there questions? Yeah, we should answer some questions. Are there questions?

SPEAKER_04 13:59

I have this fear of the comment section. From a time at Tiavaf. Oh. That's understandable. So I never go go there.

SPEAKER_05 14:09

Well, do you I so my thing about comment sections is that after like being in the media thing for like a long time, they don't bother me. Like there's nothing that happens there that can actually bother me.

SPEAKER_04 14:22

No, I mean sometimes they have these people like going in the comment section trying to like convince people that I try to kill this sailor in Akuri.

SPEAKER_05 14:34

Oh, that's yeah, I don't I guess I guess your problems are your the problems you get into.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Noted sailor murderer I will I will make it.

SPEAKER_05 14:45

So I mean you you you you get where I'm coming from. Yeah, I'm yeah, I haven't done anything like I haven't been. I did not kill anything. No, no, that's like I haven't killed anybody, that's the thing. I know you didn't. Well what I'm saying is that uh a one of the largest companies in Iceland has not spent money on trying to bury me.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

No.

SPEAKER_05 15:04

Uh with the results that people on the comment sections are in the false belief that you tried to uh poison some poor folk and I couldn't. Which is kind of weird.

SPEAKER_04 15:17

Uh the weirdest thing that happened to me this week. No joke.

SPEAKER_02 15:25

Uh yeah. So I I just pretend that there is no way to respond to comments. I just convince myself that the comment is just there and there's nothing I can do about it. And then I immediately feel much better about it. Because I think a lot of it is this sort of this human need to defend yourself when assaulted. And you know. And of course, what's so great about having this podcast is we can just defend ourselves in the podcast. We don't even have to respond to these people. They don't have a fucking podcast.

SPEAKER_04 15:52

Of course, they do, we don't have to watch it. Typically everyone in the comments have their own podcast. Yeah, we don't have to watch them.

SPEAKER_05 15:57

Like they're, you know. Uh should we end with the questions? There's like a couple. Yeah, let's let's uh let's continue.

SPEAKER_04 16:02

But uh Are we ending now? Yeah, it's over.

SPEAKER_05 16:04

Yeah, it's done now. It's it's it's been 10 minutes. It's fine.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

Let's go eat.

SPEAKER_05 16:08

Uh like up. The interest rates went up last week, yeah. By That's so fun. By 0.25%.

SPEAKER_04 16:17

Yeah, first time in like I don't know, three years or something, they go up.

SPEAKER_05 16:23

Yeah, but they're still we should point out they are they were at 7.25%.

SPEAKER_04 16:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:29

I don't know where you live, but I believe that's pretty high for any country really.

SPEAKER_04 16:36

I mean, we have like Turkey. They have higher interest rates.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

Great. I thought you were talking about the bird. It's like we don't need turkey.

SPEAKER_04 16:44

Uh there's like a kalkunu boo in Mosul's talers. Oh yeah? Yeah. No, in Mosul's pie, not the turkey farm. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 16:51

Nice.

SPEAKER_04 16:52

It's nice.

SPEAKER_02 16:53

Yeah? Is it good, the turkey they make?

SPEAKER_04 16:56

I don't I don't need turkey.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

Oh.

SPEAKER_05 16:58

So uh yeah, okay. So one of the well so this was announced I think Thursday last week, and the chairman of the Central Bank, Auskirjunson, cited inflation, which has been kinda high in the past two months.

SPEAKER_04 17:11

Yeah, 5.1 or 2%.

SPEAKER_05 17:15

And the war with Iran.

SPEAKER_04 17:17

Which is like like the people who are sailing these oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, they are just like, oh shit. We got to lower the price of our oil because the central bank in Iceland raised their interest rates.

SPEAKER_05 17:34

Yeah, we gotta make we just get we just gotta have have to man up and just sail through that strait, come hell or high water. Yeah. Just so the central bank managers.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

Probably more hell than high water. Saddle up, sailors. Icelandic investors need our help.

SPEAKER_05 17:49

Yeah, I mean uh I mean what it what is the what are the conditions? Like oil tankers are slow, right? They're big.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Yeah, it's we couldn't outrun one.

SPEAKER_04 17:58

It's like it's frequently used as an uh analogy of For how difficult it is to turn them around.

SPEAKER_05 18:05

They're also full of something called oil.

SPEAKER_04 18:08

Oh, that's why maybe.

SPEAKER_05 18:10

Which uh but it's crude oil. How flammable is crude oil, boys? Do you know?

SPEAKER_04 18:15

Uh I'm so there's only one way to find out. I prefer not to comment. Do you think uh a ballistic missile would set it off?

SPEAKER_05 18:23

It I mean it might. It might. Either way. Difficult straight to pass.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

If not, then would it not be an advisable strategy to just house your entire population inside oil tankers and thereby defend them from continental ballistic missiles?

SPEAKER_04 18:42

It's like Are you suggesting a human shield?

SPEAKER_02 18:47

No. Uh just uh just a shield of of oil tankers. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. If the tankers are are that hardcore, wouldn't everyone just be sheltering inside oil tankers. Why aren't the black boxes made of why isn't the rest of the plane made of what the black box is made of?

SPEAKER_05 19:08

A friend of the show who writes for us uh for the great part sometimes. Friend of the show.

SPEAKER_04 19:13

Friend of the show. Yeah, the show yeah, not me in the right.

SPEAKER_05 19:16

No, no, no. Just the show. I mean this is why you do the show, right? The show has friends, so you'll be friends.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

Yeah, it just saves us from the trouble of having to make friends.

SPEAKER_05 19:24

A friend of the show, Adam Roy Corton who sometimes writes for uh Oh, he's a friend of mine. Yeah, he writes for us about uh food sometimes, and sometimes about uh sustainability and sometimes about economic issues.

SPEAKER_04 19:34

Yeah. But he was pointing out all in the same articles. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:38

It's like uh like oil is weaken, you know that.

SPEAKER_04 19:41

It is. No.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

So it's like from like old skeletons of of It's mostly plants, actually, the matter, but uh yeah, there is some some animal in there too. Yeah. Anyway, he was pointing out that uh the like Command wrote a song about it. Admiral Khashoggi? Under pressure. Oh right. Thank you. Admiral Khashoggi, what the fuck? Dragon Attack. I'm just naming like deep cuts now. Uh yeah. Uh I'm in love with my car.

unknown 20:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

That's not that's not a deep cut though. Uh this is still a bad cut. Worse than Admiral Khashoggi?

SPEAKER_05 20:18

Nah, probably not. So he was pointing out that in the last like in the oil crisis in the 70s.

SPEAKER_02 20:24

Khashoggi ship. Admiral Khashoggi is a lot of things.

SPEAKER_05 20:27

We used a lot of oil until the 70s. Iceland did. We did, yeah. So um like even for housing, so the neighborhood we live in was the heating there was used, they used oil for it.

SPEAKER_04 20:37

Yeah, I mean I have this like gimstler in my house, which used to be like uh I don't know. An oil an oil tanker.

SPEAKER_02 20:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:45

Or yeah. It's so to shelter in if the Russians when the when the uh earthquakes hit and the like attack happens, we will just go into the uh that seems like a plot but like a smart thing to do.

SPEAKER_05 20:59

So he was pointing out that like because of the oil crisis in the 70s, uh we actually or the Iceland out of necessity because it was so expensive, they changed from um warming things with oil and and and doing electricity instead. In order to make that s m happen, they built uh the big power plant up in in Seegal and Burfelswitch. So it it made us go more electric actually. So there's a lesson in that.

SPEAKER_04 21:36

So like energy uh there's an energy safety sort of I'm always like surprised that the people who are most against uh like this green movement thing about uh electrifying.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

Like diversifying energy sources.

SPEAKER_04 21:51

Yeah, it's like uh those are the same people who like don't want to uh go into accession talks with the EU because we have to like be independent.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

It's like the like It's almost like they have a vested interest in the status quo.

SPEAKER_04 22:06

No, I mean but the but the best thing to do to be independent as uh like this island nation with abundance of electricity is like stop using imported energy. Yeah, yeah. I can't wrap my mind. No, but it's but it's funny it's funny.

SPEAKER_02 22:26

We we have the potential here to be doing like these amazing things, and it's just like no, there's just like money people sitting on their money.

SPEAKER_05 22:33

But it's funny that we got to kind of like a more energy secure place, not because like we planned to do it, but because we were kind of forced economically to do it.

SPEAKER_04 22:40

I mean, that's like the history of Iceland.

SPEAKER_02 22:42

We never really like whoops, we have a functioning society. Yeah. How the hell did that happen?

SPEAKER_04 22:51

I mean, we're one of the richest like nations in the world. It's not because we planned. No.

SPEAKER_05 22:57

No, God, no. It's just because we happen to be here. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

But uh, I like that no one nobody in the world thinks that we're on to some big secret either. They're not all here trying to learn like, hmm, how do they do it? You know, it's just like, yeah, they we were just lucky assholes.

SPEAKER_04 23:18

We offer like geothermal heat school. Yeah, and we offer like one or two persons a year from Africa to study like geothermal energy. It's like that's our contribution to the world.

SPEAKER_05 23:32

Yeah. So speaking of uh accidentally living here, uh Iceland is the second happiest nation on earth, uh, behind Finland again. Yep. Do you guys have any observations on this?

SPEAKER_04 23:44

Yeah, my grandmother moved from Finland to Iceland.

SPEAKER_05 23:46

So down great. She was a little too happy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:49

Um I re just because they have better vodka, you know, there's no need to rub it in.

SPEAKER_05 23:54

Well, last year on a sometimes you it's good to rub it vodka. Yeah, you use it also in the sauna. You kinda rub yourself in the sauna. It's really great.

SPEAKER_04 24:04

But the sauna movement, I'm actually writing an article about this.

SPEAKER_05 24:06

The sauna movement?

SPEAKER_04 24:07

Uh like a cultural phenomenon. It's like I went to Norway to it's like take a sauna in it's like this floating sauna on the fjords.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

And it's like the most Norwegian thing I've ever heard.

SPEAKER_04 24:22

Yeah, but but this is it's just like we're trying to do what the Finnish people have been doing for like thousands of years. A long time. And we sometimes are like oh, we go to the swimming pools and we go to this hot and cold plunges thing. Yeah, the swimming pools happened in like 1910 or something. It's like we're doing it for 120 years. It's not like it's it's it's kinda new. It's kinda new. And with a cold plunges like I mean five, ten years. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:54

Oh well, except for like old baths before like the 20th century more were more or less cold plunges, but yeah, and and I mean we have Snorrell and we have these. Yeah, but we we have these you know scattered hot springs.

SPEAKER_04 25:07

Yeah, but it's not like it's like the uh hate apartmenting.

SPEAKER_05 25:11

No, like the whole like the infrastructure for this, where this is like a public commute commodity, is modern. Yeah. So that's like from the 50s or something. Uh Sintotlen is the oldest in Reiki, I think, from the 30s. Yeah, the original. It's older, okay.

SPEAKER_04 25:28

But I mean, and now we are just like we have saunas everywhere. We have sauna in its pool, we have these traveling saunas. Yeah, it's my fault. Uh I'm so hot. That's right. It's like let's get some comments in the comment section about this.

SPEAKER_02 25:47

But you'll need a cold plunge after watching this.

SPEAKER_04 25:52

But this is like uh we're trying to. It's like with uh You're just thinking about how sexy you are. No, no, I'm just like I missed the focus. No, we're solarium. You remember when you couldn't like get onto a street without there being uh solarium in there? It's like not on the street, but like they were they were everywhere. They were everywhere. And it's uh that's the thing with Iceland not having a plan. We're just like, oh hey, sonas are good. Let's do this.

SPEAKER_05 26:22

I mean you remember where everyone opened the video rental thing. It's like everyone. I'm gonna do this. Out of their crash or whatever. Like every small town would have at least one, even two.

SPEAKER_04 26:34

Yeah, I mean Video flew on in Ailes that's like a prime example.

SPEAKER_05 26:38

Yeah. And I don't know, do you remember where everybody decided to get into like mink in the 70s or 80s? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:44

And then back in December there was like this uh we have this farmers' paper called Pentaples. It's huge like people love that. It's like I mean it it it is great, but it's published by the farmers' union of Farmers Union.

SPEAKER_02 26:58

So it's not like like they're trying to glamorize the farmers' life.

SPEAKER_05 27:05

Yeah, but there's like lobbying elements.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

Cancel the photographs of farmers doing it they do do good reporting.

SPEAKER_04 27:12

I mean they do great reporting. It's like uh nothing to like traga oor. No, no, no. They're they're excellent. Yeah, but they had this news article in like November or December. It's like if the government doesn't step in and subsidize mink farming, all the mink farmers will go out of business.

SPEAKER_05 27:32

And and your point is don't threaten us at a good idea. Isn't there just like one guy left or something? Yeah. Yeah, because like this became this is like a this was also like It's like a it's like an old guy in Warsaw's Pire.

SPEAKER_04 27:46

It's like does this as a hobby, basically?

SPEAKER_05 27:49

Yeah. Yeah. No, it's it's gone.

SPEAKER_04 27:51

And you know, it's similar with wailing with your friend Christian.

SPEAKER_02 27:55

It's like the mink guy and Christian, you know, maybe they're friends. Yeah, they they share the world's smallest violin.

SPEAKER_05 28:05

Yeah, but uh so but about the It's so small.

SPEAKER_04 28:08

Share it. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_05 28:10

But the happiness score, like I remember writing something about this two years ago because we've been kind of ranking similarly in the past two years.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

The mink farmer was not polled, so no. No, the mink farmer was not polled.

SPEAKER_02 28:21

Yeah. Or maybe he was. That's why we didn't beat Finland.

SPEAKER_05 28:24

But we're also like the European champions of taking like antidepressants.

SPEAKER_04 28:28

Yeah, isn't like Finland up there as well?

SPEAKER_05 28:30

Yeah, but not I think we're the comes in a liquid form. Yeah. I can't I can't remember anymore, but we were pretty high up on the list. Yeah. So it's it's kind of drug-infused happiness. I guess.

SPEAKER_02 28:40

Is there another kind?

SPEAKER_05 28:43

Good question. Yeah. Well in late states, I guess in late states capitalism, no. No.

SPEAKER_02 28:49

Yeah. So long as you can keep buying more drugs, you should be fine.

SPEAKER_05 28:53

Yeah. Uh I was gonna say uh uh on drugs, but I don't have anything on drugs. Um You don't have drugs.

SPEAKER_03 29:02

Uh no. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 29:04

So but uh on the topic of the weather, which I forgot one thing. We we've talked about the Rainisphere at Black Beach a bit, and I went to do a report there. And so did the roof. So did the roof. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:18

Yeah, but it was like the it's like number one spot in the evening news. It's like Rainisphere Beach is changed. It's like, yep.

SPEAKER_05 29:26

Okay, yep. So I went there and at that point, like the problem with like the the the changes to the beach are because there have been westerly winds instead of easterly winds. And it's usually easternly winds. So they've swept the sand away from that famous part of the beach.

SPEAKER_04 29:40

The wind is blowing.

SPEAKER_05 29:41

And the wind is blowing. And when I was there what three weeks ago, it just they had been having easternly winds for a while. Yeah. And it was starting to look pretty normal again. Yeah. And then the storms now hit and that way they were westerly, and and it's back to like um I mean this is a tragedy. No, this is just really normal.

SPEAKER_04 29:59

Oh, okay, yeah. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:01

But we're making a big thing out of it. And the the thing is like when you go there, even though like you can't get to those columns, like it's a pretty fucking amazing place anyway.

SPEAKER_04 30:09

Yeah, but I think people should just not go there. Because it's like you're in mortal danger.

SPEAKER_05 30:16

Well, on any beach on the south coast you are, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:18

Yeah, I think people should just go to Joggles or loan or something. Yeah, you can see it from there too. Yeah. Um go to Vik. But they have an awesome crone on there. I rate it the gas station as well. It's like I gave it like a four and a half star.

SPEAKER_05 30:34

I mean, so so the crone on there, like because it's such so much on the sort of tourist route, every time I've gone in there, it's like all the salmon plagues of Egypt have passed through. And it's just me trying to find something.

SPEAKER_04 30:45

Yeah, but they've passed through. That's the difference between like all the other places you stop.

SPEAKER_05 30:50

Yeah, but the stuff that's left in there like in the afternoon, it's not something you really want to buy.

SPEAKER_04 30:55

Yeah, a bag of carrots and not even that.

SPEAKER_05 30:59

Yeah. You can snack on those. Uh like onions. You get you can buy onions and yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:06

Then layers.

SPEAKER_05 31:08

They have layers. Layers of taste. Yeah. Also, like if you just close it, like if you hold your nose, it just feels kind of like eating an apple. Yeah. So it's it's okay.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

It really recalls the Iceland of old. Yeah. But uh Have a bite of this, kids. Close your eyes. It's almost like eating an apple.

SPEAKER_05 31:25

But here's a raw potato.

SPEAKER_02 31:26

Here's a raw potato.

SPEAKER_05 31:27

Enjoy. What about the uh did you guys see the news? Like there was an explosion in a fodder factory in Reykjavik.

SPEAKER_04 31:35

I actually I I didn't hear the explosion. Fodder factory? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:39

What are we feeding our animals now? Just um pure explosives.

SPEAKER_04 31:43

No, it's there was actually no explosives there. They it's a pressure pressurized tank. It was like yeah, it was like a silo. Yeah, they were cleaning it and working on it, like welding stuff. Uh and they had these like really fine particles from the feet that used to be in the tanks, and it's like uh up in the air and it's like behaves strangely because it's pressurized, and then uh a spark from something like that. They're welding. Yeah, the welding. It's like Rick, what what's that? It's like all the dust just like uh ignites and it makes like this crazy pressure, and it's like a big hole in a building, and and a guy died.

SPEAKER_05 32:31

Yeah. And another one is severely injured, I think.

SPEAKER_04 32:34

Yeah, and the third one is like also injured, but probably gonna be okay.

SPEAKER_05 32:38

Yeah. But it was like it was confused me a long time because like a dust explosion is a word I've never heard. Yeah. Dust doesn't explode the last time I checked.

SPEAKER_02 32:46

But dust can mean a lot of things. I feel like it's probably being misused here to to you know to dumb it down for No, it's actually just like exactly this.

SPEAKER_04 32:58

Like dead skin and No, from from the from the feed, it's like uh carton.

SPEAKER_05 33:05

Yeah, it's it's like left doors or barley or something.

SPEAKER_02 33:07

It's like Yeah, I mean even that is more informative than just calling it dust.

SPEAKER_05 33:11

Yeah, it's I don't know what exactly it was in there, but I mean I guess there are some like left doors or some chemicals or something.

SPEAKER_04 33:17

Or like No, it's just like I'm I'm gonna go. Yeah, it's just it's just guys just. Yeah, you're remarkably well informed.

SPEAKER_05 33:24

Yeah, it was just it was puzzling to see like ah, dust explosion. Like what?

SPEAKER_04 33:28

I just called my guy in Skyver who explained this. This is uh it's like uh this can happen in silos, like uh on a farm and so well like uh the welting thing can be tricky.

SPEAKER_05 33:42

My father once told me a story, sorry about this, from I think the 80s or the early 90s where you would be apologizing.

SPEAKER_02 33:47

Is there gonna be a thermos full of hot dogs? No, there is not gonna be a thermos. It's pre-sweetened.

SPEAKER_04 33:51

And back in the day people had promised us a thermos dog.

SPEAKER_05 33:55

Back in the day people would kind of try to fix their own cars more than they do now. Yeah. Because, you know.

SPEAKER_04 34:01

It's like now cars are also just computers?

SPEAKER_05 34:04

Yeah, it's different. It's harder to fix. So they had a garage somewhere where we lived, I guess in Keplavik or somewhere near. Did you live in Keplavik? Nearby. Okay. Uh where you could kind of self-service. So they had all the gear and you would just pay for being there. And um it was run by one guy and my father was doing some work there on our car, and there was a guy who was in there who was trying to fix his gas tank. And my father describes the scene as following that from a distance, the me my father and the guy who was running the shop saw the guy in the shop taking up the welting thing and approached the tank, and they both just slowly backed behind like a column and waited for it to explode. So yeah, but that's kind of that but that would be an obvious thing because it's full of fumes.

SPEAKER_02 35:02

Well nobody died. Is this farmers paper gonna have a riveting expose of this? I sure hope they will thereof. It it seems like it would be the responsible thing to do. Yep. Stop glamorizing the life of farmers with all the Cadillacs and fake breasted women that they usually feature on their cover. Oh, right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You mean the cows? Yeah. Six of one.

SPEAKER_05 35:35

No, it's I love that paper. Uh yeah, yeah, people love it. It is uh it's uh yeah, it's kinda it's peculiar how and why it exists. I agree with that out there. But in uh media market of scarcity, I'll take what I can get.

SPEAKER_04 35:49

Yeah, I mean it's great. I read it. I mean they distribute it in bonus and stuff. Yeah, I had to do that.

SPEAKER_02 35:56

Really good distribution, actually. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:57

Oh, accent distribution.

SPEAKER_02 35:59

Better than grapevine.

SPEAKER_04 36:00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:01

Almost by far, just admit it. Well, they're superior because they use old milk uh whatever you call them tanks.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

Sometimes the old ways are the best ways.

SPEAKER_05 36:13

Which is like like they're really distinct and beautiful. Yeah. And uh I I wish we could afford doing something as cool as that. But I I guess in our case it would be like a beer cack.

SPEAKER_02 36:24

I know uh this is like how you know you're in financially dire straits, is like when you you wish you could be as fancy as Pentabla, but you just can't get it together enough.

SPEAKER_05 36:34

Well, unlike like Pentabla used tends to get sort of government grants twice over, which we don't. And except for when they forget to apply for it, obviously. Which did happen. It's a whole thing. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 36:50

I I kind of feel about Pentablood how I feel about the the the New Year's, the automotoscope, the new satire skid show. Yeah, I I I respect its right to exist and I think it's a necessary part of Icelandic culture that I'm I'm really happy is still around, but I would never actually absorb the content.

SPEAKER_05 37:11

Check out the classifieds, they're hilarious.

SPEAKER_02 37:13

Yeah, my dad talks about how funny those classifieds are.

SPEAKER_04 37:16

But I mean I also read the like newsletter of some took out to the leaf since and some took it in that it's I'm really sorry. I mean it's it's a similar thing, but it's better distribution.

SPEAKER_05 37:30

Yeah. Well it's uh it's not well, it has that element, but sometimes there's like good fine reporting in it. Yeah. Semi-related.

SPEAKER_02 37:39

You can find worse than in our sole remaining major newspaper.

SPEAKER_05 37:44

No comment.

SPEAKER_02 37:45

Yeah. I mean they do fine reports.

SPEAKER_04 37:47

Yeah, they do fine reporting. Like a lot of great reporters working there.

SPEAKER_05 37:51

Yes. I wonder like what they will change there after the demise of the chief. Yes. Soon. Maybe.

SPEAKER_04 38:03

I mean I wouldn't like hold my breath. And on that note, thank you for well we basically we've gone through the checklist.

SPEAKER_05 38:15

This is running a bit brief this time around. But I think that's fine.

SPEAKER_04 38:19

Yeah, it's because you didn't show up with uh like geodogs. Geothermally heated hot dogs.

SPEAKER_05 38:24

No, no geodogs, and also you showed up late. So it's all your fault.

SPEAKER_04 38:28

Yes, like hour and twenty minutes, I'm sorry. I had an important meeting in Kobor. Can you have anything but important meetings in Kobor? No, I mean if you go to a meeting in Kobor, it it's definitely important.

SPEAKER_02 38:41

Yeah, it would have to be important to rate, yeah. It's nice. But do we have questions, Andrew? Who is calling you? I have no idea. That's my question.

SPEAKER_05 38:53

Uh so yeah, there was some there was a question about the weather if we want to feel like if we want to feel like answering that one. So I'm curious about your weather conditions and the tourists that get into trouble on the roads. Are there people who don't come from countries that have snowy plustery winters? Do people plustery?

SPEAKER_02 39:11

Yeah, like windy.

SPEAKER_05 39:12

Do people who come from winter countries like Canada or other Nordic countries fare better, or is or is your winter weather unique?

SPEAKER_04 39:20

No, I think our like uh terrible road system is unique. It's like a combination of the two.

SPEAKER_02 39:26

Yeah, it's like the weather compared to places like yeah, Canada, is actually not that bad. But yeah, it's just it's more about infrastructure and and sort of the layouts of of of towns and we've pretty much uh accepted that you cannot drive when the weather is X or Y.

SPEAKER_04 39:47

I mean, it's like So we don't have the infrastructure to do it.

SPEAKER_02 39:53

I feel like we could be a lot more accepting of it. Like people still trying to get to work at you know on time in the middle of a blizzard. It's like it's fucking ridiculous.

SPEAKER_05 40:01

Um I think but the other the other part of the question is is fair. I mean, people who are used to these conditions do far better than people who are not. That's kind of just cool, yeah. That's how it works. So that is a thing. But uh so there's a question here from the last episode? Uh-huh. What commie podcast is this? Yeah, I think.

SPEAKER_02 40:22

I mean it has the title right there. Why why are we not allowed to be a communist podcast? Why are we not allowed to be a leftist podcast in this oversaturated field of obnoxious right wingers? Can't there be Can't there be one tiny nutsack of obnoxious left wingers?

SPEAKER_04 40:39

Yeah, given the fact that statistically we're identify as like uh center stad. It's like uh Utkara puppy.

SPEAKER_02 40:50

Centers that a suburban father. Yeah. Also centered status. An important demographic. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:56

Uh I think I think with with like how like the landscape on podcasts and sort of online presence when it comes to like any commentary is so overwhelmingly right-wing that I think we're uh allowed to be of three-centered stat here. If somebody calls us commies, they can just go right ahead and do that.

SPEAKER_02 41:14

Um Yeah, I don't even regard that as an insult. But I mean I I see the inference here, that the inference being that we we are not allowed to be slanted, that it's you know, that it's somehow forbidden for us to take an obviously left of center viewpoint. And I don't care for it. I care for it so little that I just described our own podcast as a small nutsack in defense.

SPEAKER_05 41:42

Well let's see. Yeah. I think this is good for now. I think we should just keep this one short and come in next week with maybe a longer thing. I guess part of the the Are you talking about a long hot dog? Yeah, a long dog. Like a foot long? Yeah. So I I think uh maybe maybe part of the problem here is that this is the same.

SPEAKER_02 42:07

Do you remember that picture of of uh what's his name? The the uh the Progressive Party guy? Inky, what's his name? Eating the the really long hot dog. It's a great picture. Yeah. People were so disgusted by that photo, but it was like this is the most attractive photo of a right-wing politician I've seen in decades. What?

SPEAKER_04 42:28

He's not right wing, no.

SPEAKER_02 42:30

But he's he's in a right-wing party.

SPEAKER_04 42:33

Found something about it.

SPEAKER_02 42:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:34

No. No, no, no. I mean, they have right-wing people there, and they have also left-wing people.

SPEAKER_05 42:41

I mean, they're I think they're most of the right-wing people have left for the Central Party.

SPEAKER_02 42:46

Yeah, yeah, I suppose that's true.

SPEAKER_05 42:49

They're like they recently have had like kind of very liberal views, and they've always been a centrist party. I mean, the whole co-op uh movement in Iceland is related to them. Anyway, yeah, this is it for this week. I'll see you. We'll see you Monte next week, hopefully. Um unless uh doesn't show up and maybe still end the podcast.

SPEAKER_04 43:09

Yeah, it might happen, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:11

But uh thanks for let's keep it open. Yeah, let's uh thanks for watching or listening. See you next week. Bye bye. Go on time, the Rick of a Great Man also has a store. It funds our journalism, it sells all sorts of stuff, including specially curated gift boxes. Just like the uh famous Iceland hot dog box. Go shop for now and fund our journalism.