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Midnight Sun: A natural phenomenon occurring in the summer months north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle where the sun never fully sets and remains visible 24 hours a day.

This short time lapse film was shot during the Icelandic Midnight Sun in June of 2011.

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complete article:: Meteorologists Follow Fate of Snowdrift on Mt. Esja

REYKJAVIK, ICELAND (AP) – How do you write a new constitution in the 21st century? You go where the people are _ online.

That was the decision of tiny but tech-savvy Iceland, which is overhauling its constitution in the wake of an economic catastrophe, and has turned to the Internet to get input from citizens.

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Snow delays the start of summer in Iceland.

The picture of fresh snow on the lovely Mt Esja looks a lot like the picture I took in November.  That mountain is amazing and almost mystical.  It never looks the same two days in a row.

And my own:

It’s that safe for babies.

Screenshot from the film, a bookstore in a tiny village:

My own shot from a small market in Reykjavík::

Iceland takes on credit card giants in WikiLeaks flap

To the more equatorialzed visitor it is very noticeable that 9:30AM is still black as the darkest night.  The sun finally rises after 10AM and gets later each morning, it stays low giving a prolonged sunrise that changes by the minute but lingers into lunchtime.  At the peak it may still appear with morning like patterns and colours.  Depending on your own position you may easily be the shadow of clouds, fjords, and buildings.  More often the clouds and fjords.  A tree shadow is rare though.

And then the long sinking to sunset.  But not long enough, the fleeting light was brief and now it is leaving us.   The sunset is slow and equally as interesting as the sunrise.  It is only early afternoon and already the light is fading.  The sunset comes earlier each afternoon. And then darkness.  Very dark.

13:41  19 November

The almighty kreppa doesn’t have to dominate the news every day.  Life goes on and we must pause to take notice.  Turns out the otherwise stoic Icelander are possibly the worlds best at something you might not expect.  Film at 11.

.Inspired by the kreppa but this goes way beyond, a whole neighbourhood that was built just before the bubble burst has been bought out in a bizarre scheme to gather votes.

.The conficker worm doing strange things in Iceland and beyond.  Excerpt:

“Reports are trickling in about the impact from the Conficker worm, as infected systems passed zero hour at midnight and began downloading additional malicious components. Here are a couple of the more notable incidents caused by Conficker so far, according to published reports: — ‘… shortly after midnight local time, an ATM in the capital city of Reykjavik began spewing 100-Krona notes. … A nuclear missile installation near Elmendorf Air force Base outside of Anchorage, Alaska briefly went on a full-scale military alert after technicians manning the bunker suspected that several of their control systems were infected with Conficker.’”

.Iceland gets an unexpected boost that will help the country and the U.S.

.A few tidbits to make this day much more clear.

I hope your April 1st was as funny as mine.

The Icelandic nation has been nearly wiped out about three times in the last 1,000 years, through famine, disease, or volcanic eruptions. So what we are experiencing today is like a luxury problem.