News In Brief: Early August

Don’t believe the hype. Despite plenty of news coverage detailing dangerous stunts by tourists in the past few months, Icelanders still love you guys! According to a new poll from Market and Media Research, 80% of Icelanders feel good about tourists in Iceland.

Another thing Icelanders agree on this month is that it’s great to be gay in Iceland. In the wake of another successful Pride weekend, a Gallup poll shows 86% of Icelanders believe their country is a great place to be gay, though respondents were not asked how well Iceland treats trans folk (get with the programme Gallup, there’s a “T” in LGBTQIA!).

While being gay in Iceland is great, being a seal is less cool. Earlier this month an adorable chubby baby seal made a brave escape from Reykjavík Family Park And Zoo. The youngster was eventually tracked down and despite resisting a police officer (by biting him) he was dragged back to the zoo, and promptly EUTHANISED AND FED TO OTHER ZOO ANIMALS. Note to readers, don’t piss off the zoo.

Speaking of adorable baby animals, the town of Reykjanesbær has finally found a solution for their out-of-control vegetation by setting goats loose on patches of thick and fast-growing plant life that has been the bane of lawn mowers and weeders. The goats were so efficient that city officials have confirmed they will be rehired next summer.

In other news: an archaeologist reportedly made “the find of the century” in a newly discovered Icelandic cave. In the recently discovered and appropriately named Leynir (“Conceals”) cave, Adolf Friðriksson, the director of the Institute of Archaeology, has found signs that a person cooked horse meat at some point in the 12th century, despite there being no record of any people living in the area at the time.

So, there’s good news and there’s bad news. Good news: Following a combination of strong public support and government willingness, it looks like we could soon be saying “bless bless” to Iceland’s naming laws. In a recent radio interview, Minister of the Interior Ólöf Nordal told reporters that she believes the laws need to be abolished. To this end, her ministry is currently drafting a bill to do just that.

Now for the bad news: Björk has cancelled a series of shows, including Iceland Airwaves. The reason given for the cancellation was a scheduling conflict and unfortunately the cancellations aren’t without precedent: several Björk shows were also cancelled in 2008, 2011 and 2012, due to medical problems and staging issues.