CBC News' Cameron MacIntosh has a wonderful story examining how Icelandic-Canadians still make vinarterta, a classic Icelandic Christmas cake that is now more popular among descendants of Icelandic emigrants in Canada (and elsewhere) than in Iceland.

Now what actually constitutes a vinarterta is an open and sometimes passionate debate. It's ( Read more... )

The Globe and Mail carried James Davey's Reuters report noting the conflict between the country of Iceland and the British-based food retailer of the same name. I have to admit to being surprised, still, that the name of a country could have been so appropriated by an unrelated business.

British supermarket chain Iceland Foods is sending a ( Read more... )

• blogTO notes that retail space on Bloor Street in Yorkville is not only the priciest in Canada, but among the priciest in the world.
• Centauri Dreams notes how fast radio bursts, a natural phenomenon, can be used to understand the universe.
• Dangerous Minds looks at a Kate Bush music performance on Dutch television in 1978.
• The Dragon's Gaze links to an ( Read more... )

Bloomberg's Omar Valdimarsson shares arguments that the failure of the Pirate Party to win the Icelandic elections has much to do with the ability of conventional economics and politics to deliver.

The man who probably will be Iceland’s next prime minister says he knows how to deal with the global wave of populism that’s threatening the ( Read more... )

The National Post shared Pete Rowley's post at The Conversation looking at Iceland's latest geothermal energy project.

Iceland is about to tap into water as hot as lava. Several kilometres below ground, a drilling rig named Thor will soon penetrate the area around a magma chamber, where molten rock from the inner Earth heats up water that has ( Read more... )

Omar Valdimarsson's Bloomberg article leaves me curious about how the Pirate Party will govern Iceland once in office.

Icelanders started voting in a snap election that polls show could propel the populist Pirate Party into a ruling coalition after the sitting conservative government became tainted by the Panama Papers scandal ( Read more... )

Omar Valdimarsson's Bloomberg article on the dynamics of Iceland's fisheries is interesting.

While the world around it frets over ultra-low interest rates, Iceland’s fish export industry is rooting for another rate cut to maintain market share amid a strengthening krona ( Read more... )

There were a lot of interesting posts made around the web from Sunday evening on.

• blogTO takes issue with the poor design of the buildings on Bloor Street West east of Dundas West.
• Crooked Timber notes the tragedy inherent in the life of Phyllis Schlafly.
• The Dragon's Gaze notes that two of the worlds in the TRAPPIST-1 system may have Venus-like ( Read more... )

Iceland, Bloomberg notes, is having an economic boom. This is a very good thing indeed, the more so that it seems broad-based.

Iceland’s economy is growing at its fastest pace since the 2008 collapse of its banks, with annual gross domestic product up a whopping 4.2 percent in the first three months of the year ( Read more... )

• Bloomberg notes that Brexit could give Scotland a chance to take some of London's finance industry, looks at the Canadian-born governor of the Bank of England, looks at a quiet crisis in the Russian economy re: investment, and notes the awkwardness of the British diaspora in the European Union.
• Bloomberg View notes the United Kingdom's upcoming ( Read more... )