Sigur Ros on Jay Leno last night - VIDEO

Sigur Rós performed on Jay Leno's Tonight Show last friday night. They played their song Kveikur which they also performed on Jimmy Fallon's show earlier this year.

Sigur Ros has without a doubt become even more famous after appearing on the latest Simpons episode, but the band wrote the music for a whole episode.

Check them on Jay Leno:

Peter

Iceland24 - May 2013

Iceland’s government promises EU referendum

The newly-elected government of Iceland has promised to hold a referendum on EU membership. Talks began nearly three years ago but have now been called off.

Fish and fish products make up 70 percent of the country’s exports and fishing rights are the most contentious issue in negotiations. The prime minister says no date has been set yet for the referendum.

But a report will be presented to parliament on the status of accession talks and the current situation in the EU as this has changed since Iceland originally applied. Benediktsson’s party won 26.5 percent of the vote, giving it 19 seats in the 63-seat parliament.

The country’s banking system collapsed but export strength means Iceland has made a good recovery since then. Opinion polls suggest the majority of the population are now against joining, fearing their fishing rights may be eroded.

Iceland24
May 2013

Travel in Iceland: Europe's biggest national park is in Iceland

In 2008, Iceland embarked on a nature conservation project on a hitherto unparalleled scale with the establishment of the 12,000 sq km Vatnajökull National Park. Few if any regions in the world offer such a mixture of dynamic ice cap and outlet glaciers, geothermal energy and frequent subglacial volcanic activity, coupled with outburst floods.

Initially, the park will include some areas already under protection, such as the Skaftafell and Jökulsárgljúfur National Parks, Lónsöræfi wilderness and Vatnajökull glacier, which is larger than all the other glaciers in Europe combined. Already occupying about 12% of the country, the park boundaries are expected to expand in the coming months and years, so as to offer a unique opportunity to observe the wide-ranging impact of the Vatnajökull glacier on its surroundings, in which ice and fire play leading and often complimentary roles.

The park is the single largest nature conservation project the Icelanders have ever undertaken. Moreover, it marks one of the largest economic and rural development schemes that the government has implemented in Iceland. Tourists visiting this protected area will be able to observe the culture and history of the communities dotted around the glacier, which have learned through the ages to live with and utilise their volatile surroundings. The proximity to nature’s land-sculpting elements opens up boundless possibilities for research and study visits, and not least for experiencing the silence and solitude of the wilderness and thus feeling at one with nature.

Visitor Centres are the park’s core service facilities and will be based at the national park’s main entrance points. Two already exist and four more will be added (Campervan Sweden). They contain exhibitions and displays, provide information and host various cultural events, as well as housing the park wardens.

Wardens offer guided nature interpretation tours and children’s activities in different parts of the park, providing an insight into the area’s natural wonders, from volcanic eruptions and catastrophic floods at the grander end of the scale, to the delicate world of Iceland’s fragile flora and fauna.

Iceland24
May 2013

President of Iceland becomes 70 years old today

Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, the president of Iceland, has a birthday today and becomes 70 years old. Olafur was elected as the fifth president of Iceland in 1996. He began his fifth term last summer. Olafur will celebrate his birthday with his family today.

Ólafur was born in Ísafjörður, Iceland. From 1962 to 1970, he studied economics and political science at the University of Manchester; in 1970 he was the first person from Iceland to earn a PhD in political science. He became a lecturer in political science at the University of Iceland in 1970, then a Professor of Political Science at the same university in 1973. He was the University's first Professor of Political Science.

In 1984, with three other left-wing intellectuals, he took part in a debate with economist Milton Friedman, who was in Iceland to give a lecture on the "tyranny of the status quo" at the University of Iceland. As part of the left-wing People's Alliance, Ólafur was a Member of Althing for Reykjavík from 1978 to 1983; during this time he was Chairman of the People's Alliance parliamentary group from 1980 to 1983. Subsequently, he was Chairman of the People's Alliance executive committee from 1983 to 1987; additionally, from 1983 to 1985 he was editor of a newspaper, Þjóðviljinn. From 1987 to 1995, he was Leader of the People's Alliance; during this time, he served as Minister of Finance from 1988 to 1991 and as a Member of Althing for Reykjanes from 1991 to 1996.

Olafur married Guðrún Katrín Þorbergsdóttir in 1974, who gave birth to twin daughters the following year, Guðrún Tinna, a graduate in Business Studies, and Svanhildur Dalla, a graduate both in Political Science and Law. Guðrún Katrín was a popular figure in Iceland, and the country mourned when she passed away after a fight with leukaemia in 1998. Ólafur's second marriage was to Israeli-born Dorrit Moussaieff, to whom he became engaged in May 2000. The wedding took place on his 60th birthday, 14 May 2003, in a private ceremony held at the presidential residence. They have a dog, Sámur, who is named after the dog of Gunnar of Hlíðarendi, one of the main characters in the Icelandic family saga Njála.

Iceland24
May 2013