Reykjavík Grapevine - 18.07.2014, Qupperneq 12

;OL<UP]LYZP[`VM0JLSHUK:[\KLU[)HY The Student Cellar
cheap food, brunch, excellent bar,
coffee, cakes & entertainment
Z[\KLU[HRQHSSHYPUUPZ
MHJLIVVRJVT:[\KLU[HRQHSSHYPUU
6WLUL]LY`KH`MYVT 
L_JLW[;O\YZKH`HUK-YPKH`MYVT 
The University of Iceland
Bookstore
The University bookstore offers a wide
selection of books on Iceland, Icelandic
novels in many languages and various
University of Iceland products.
www.boksala.is
6WLU^LLRKH`ZMYVT  
University of Iceland
Sæmundargötu 4 - Reykjavík - tel: 570 0890
After years of yelling into the void
about its phenomenal per-capita ac-
complishments, however, Iceland
seems to have finally gained the
world’s attention and gotten the rec-
ognition that it has always known
it deserves. Report after report has
declared us The Best (or The Almost
Best) at all sorts of exciting things. So
just in case you’ve missed the head-
lines, we’ve collected some of Iceland’s
more impressive records and unprec-
edented accomplishments below. Við
erum best! (“We are the best!”)
BEST! Ancient Bivalve!
In 2006, scientists on a research ex-
pedition off the north coast of Ice-
land dredged up an Arctica Islandica
(or Ocean Quahog) that they believed
to be an astonishing 405 years old.
Named Ming in reference to the great
Chinese dynasty during which it was
‘born,’ the elderly clam was recorded
by Guinness World Records as being
the world’s oldest mollusc. In 2013,
however, the scientists discovered
that their prior estimate had been off
by just over 100 years: Ming was ac-
tually 507 years old. “Was,” that is,
because they killed Ming when they
opened it to confirm its age.
BEST! Attitude Toward
Tourists!
In 2013, Iceland was ranked #1—just
ahead of New Zealand and Morocco—for
its “attitude toward foreign visitors” in
the World Economic Forum’s Travel and
Tourism Competiveness Report. The
same report also credited Iceland with a
handful of other Best-In-World achieve-
ments: we’re also #1 for “presence of ma-
jor car rental companies,” the percentage
of “individuals using the Internet,” and
sports stadiums—when considering the
number of available seats per million
people, that is.
BEST! Chlamydia
Diagnoses!
In 2013, there were 2,179 diagnosed cases
of chlamydia in Iceland. This record-
breaking number puts Iceland way ahead
of all its European neighbours, and not
just last year, either. Iceland has been Eu-
rope’s chlamydia champion for ten years
running. Of course, some argue that the
numbers appear worse in comparison
with the rest of Europe because Iceland
has better reporting and testing proce-
dures for the STD than other countries.
In which case, we’re still #1…at reporting
chlamydia!
BEST! Healthy Diet!
In July, the UK Channel 4 documentary
“World’s Best Diet” declared Iceland—
with its “fresh fish, high quality meat
and dairy products”—to have the globe’s
healthiest diet, closely followed by Italy,
Greece, Seventh Day Adventists (yep),
and Japan. We’ll admit, given Icelanders’
affinity for pizza, hamburgers, candy,
and all manner of sauces on absolutely
everything, this one came as a bit of a sur-
prise, but we’re not complaining.
BEST! Mathematically-
Inclined Young Females!
In its 2014 “Economic, Environmental,
and Social Statistics” Factbook, the Or-
ganisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OCED) declared that
“only in Iceland do girls outperform
boys in mathematics.” (For the record,
girls outperform boys in reading around
the world.) Before we kick back on our
laurels, however, it must be noted that
in 2013, Iceland scored rather dismally
on the OCED’s “Programme for Inter-
national Student Assessment” (PISA)
report, with Icelandic fifteen-year-olds
scoring lower than students in the other
Nordic countries in science. Icelandic
boys in particular didn’t do so great on
the test: 30% of them scored the lowest
possible in reading for comprehension
and 20% scored the lowest in math. So
our particular shout out to Iceland’s
(math-)brainy ladies!
BEST! Peaceful Country!
When considering crime and homicide
rates, the percentage of the population,
which is incarcerated, the number of
police officers, general perception of
criminality, and total lack of military
forces, the Institute for Economics and
Peace found Iceland to be the world’s
most peaceful country in its 2013 Global
Peace Index. Perhaps nothing goes as
far to confirm this assertion as does the
fact that last year marked a tragic first in
Icelandic history: the first time a civil-
ian was shot and killed during an armed
confrontation with police officers. With
mass and public shootings becoming a
horrifying fact of life in so many coun-
tries, this incident resonated not only
throughout Iceland, but also around
the world, with global headlines includ-
ing “In Iceland, When Policemen Kill a
Gunman, They Apologize,” and “For The
First Time In Memory, Icelandic Police
Shoot and Kill.”
BEST! Pot Smokers!
The United Nations’ 2014 World Drug
Report found that Icelanders smoke the
most pot (per capita, of course), estimat-
ing that 18.3% of Icelanders aged 15–65
use the drug, followed by 14.8% of Ameri-
cans and 14.6% of New Zealanders. (The
Netherlands, by the way, came in at a
totally mediocre rank of 21 in the world.)
It’s since been pointed out, however, that
the results of the report may be rather
inconclusive, as participants were asked
whether or not they had ever smoked pot,
not whether or not they still regularly do.
So it’s possible that Icelanders aren’t ac-
tually that much higher than the rest of
the world, just more likely to try cannabis
at least once in their lives.
BASICALLY BEST! Nobel
Laureates (Per Capita)!
Iceland is deservedly proud of its one
Nobel Laureate, author Halldór Laxness.
But while Guinness World Records cor-
rectly reports that Iceland has the most
Nobel Laureates per capita (3.36 per hy-
pothetical million people), this record
only holds because the Faroe Islands
(population 49,709 in 2013), who boast
Nobel Laureate Niels Ryberg Finsen, are
a protectorate of Denmark. If the record
were for Nobel Laureates per capita in
“self-governing nations” instead of in
sovereign countries, the Faroes would
have us beat.
ALMOST BEST! (Second)
Strongest Man!
Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, who you may
recognise as Game of Thrones’ Gregor
“The Mountain” Clegane, won silver
(behind Lithuania’s Zydrunas Savickas)
in the 2014 World’s Strongest Man com-
petition. This is an improvement on his
previous record—Hafþór placed third in
the competition in both 2013 and 2012.
ALMOST BEST! (Sev-
enth) Longest Word!
In a totally unscientific Wikipedia sur-
vey of the world’s longest words—accord-
ing to the criteria that “candidates may be
judged by their acceptance in major dic-
tionaries…or in record-keeping publica-
tions like Guinness World Records, and
by the frequency of their use in ordinary
language”— Icelandic was found to have
the seventh longest word in the world:
Vaðlaheiðarvegavinnuverkfærageyms-
luskúraútidyralyklakippuhringur. This
64-character word roughly means the
“ring on a key chain for the main door of
a tool storage shed used by road workers
on (the hill) Vaðlaheiði." It was sourced
from a post on the University of Iceland’s
website which admits that given the
structure of Icelandic, words can be knit
together “almost indefinitely.” But thus
far, this one’s the longest one we’ve got.
At last count, there were 326,340 people living in Iceland. That’s .0045% of the world’s
population and while it isn’t really a competition, this has created a bit of an infe-
riority complex among some Icelanders who, as Grapevine writer Oddur Sturluson
put it, “find it nothing short of scandalous that their small, unarmed country doesn’t
have as much political pull as some of their larger, more powerful neighbours.” To
compensate, Oddur argued, Icelanders “invented something brilliant in its simplicity
and devastating in its effectiveness…The Per Capita Record.” This, he explained, is
“quite simply when Iceland does something noticeable, compared to how small it is.”
Við Erum
Best!
But you don’t have to
take our word for it...
Words by Larissa Kyzer
Photo by Skari
12
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10 — 2014