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Click on the picture to watch an audio slideshow of Þorrablót, an Icelandic mid-winter feast. In the past there was no fresh food available at this time of year so people ate dried fish, smoked lamb, putrefied shark and soured blood and liver pudding along with other soured meat products—ram testicles included.
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Fjallabyggd (“Mountain Settlement”) is a skier’s dream. Its slopes are perfect for slaloming and there are also tracks for telemark skiing. Winter sporting enthusiasts can also go ice skating or rent snowmobiles. In summer, Fjallabyggd turns into a paradise for hikers. Read this special promotion about one of Iceland’s best hidden gems.
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The Hitman’s Guide to Housecleaning (10 ráð til að hætta að drepa fólk og byrja að vaska upp) by Icelandic author Hallgrímur Helgason, who wrote 101 Reykjavík, recently topped Amazon Kindle’s bestseller lists for thrillers in the UK.
“I just don’t get it,” Hallgrímur commented to Fréttablaðið. “It is a little bit odd, also because the book is classified as a ‘thriller’. I just hope people won’t be disappointed because it wasn’t exactly a thriller when I wrote it.”
“The only thriller I know is with Michael Jackson. I once read the lyrics to that song and that’s the only thriller I’ve read,” the author added.
The book is published by Amazon both for Kindle and as a paperback and was added to the online store on Tuesday. It made it to the top ten on the first day and took the top spot from Stieg Larsson, author of the Millenium trilogy, for a short time. On Thursday it was down to second place.
Hallgrímur said attempts had been made to publish the book in English, the language in which it was originally written, for four years until Amazon came into the picture.
“I’ve had a knot in my stomach wondering whether native speakers of English will accept reading English not written by a person whose native language is English,” Hallgrímur confessed.
The Hitman’s Guide to Housecleaning has now been released in ten languages, most recently in Korean. The movie rights to the book have been sold to Denmark and its adaptation will be directed by Kasper Barfoed.
Click here to read more about The Hitman’s Guide to Housecleaning.
ESA
A Playboy model, Progressive Party in trouble and a bad hair day.
Seven companies have asked to be listed on the NASDAQ OMX in Reykjavík, in one of the biggest privatization plans in the country’s history. All seven companies are owned, at least in part, by Landsbanki Íslands, which the Government of Iceland owns 81 percent.
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Landsvirkjun accounts for 75 percent of total electricity production in Iceland; in the year 2010 production reached 12,625 GWh. Climate change and the resulting increase in temperatures are expected to lead to a significant increase in the flow of glacial rivers in the years to come.
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The Special Prosecutors’ Office has filed charges in the so-called Al-Thani case, which pertains to the purchase of a five percent share in Kaupthing Bank in late September 2008, merely two weeks before the banking system’s collapse.
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The current issue of the quarterly magazine Iceland Review includes for example an interview with world-renowned fashion designer Steinunn Sigurðardóttir as well as features on the successful biotech company ORF Genetics and the hot debate regarding the EU. If you subscribe now, you will receive a photo book by IR editor, photographer Páll Stefánsson of the eruptions in Eyjafjallajökull as a gift. Click here to subscribe to the magazine and here to buy a gift subscription.
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REVIEWS
The second series of The Press continues to follow the life of journalist, mother and wife Lára and her investigation of Iceland’s underground world.
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Harvesting human-like protein from genetically modified barley, Icelandic company ORF Genetics is revolutionizing the world of green biotechnology. With Iceland’s First Lady Dorrit Moussaieff and Hollywood stars among its loyal fans, the company’s phenomenal skincare range has, quite literally, changed the face of the cosmetics industry.
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The international recognition that the architecture firm Snøhetta has received is quite unique in a Norwegian context.
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