To give you a taste, here’s a recent one about the history of Venice.

The thing I like about his is that he’s fair and approaches history without, at least too much perceived, bias. Subscribe, catch up, and enjoy the education!

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Countries : 17
Canada
England
France
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Italy
Kenya
Mexico
Netherlands
Puerto Rico
Spain
Thailand
Trinidad
Turkey
USA
Vatican City

US States/Territories: 38
Alabama
Alaska
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Illinois
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Mississippi
Missouri
Nebraska
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
Puerto Rico
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wyoming

And you wanna know what’s ironic? I’m getting pretty good at guessing the ethnicity of Asians and Africans, however white Europeans all look the same to me.

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Our morning Icelandic view from the top of our hotel

Patricia and I went on a short vacation last week to none other than Iceland! Many people ask us, “Why Iceland”? My best response was, “Why not”? But now I’d have to say, “Because it is a very fascinating place”!

This island is one of the most geothermic active places in the world with multiple volcanoes, geysers, and even a tectonic plate rip! (More on that in a moment). We even get the English word ‘geyser’ from the Icelandic Geyser named Geyser! The temperatures are mild for the latitude because the Gulf Stream brings warmer air onto the island. While we were there, we had perfect weather! It stayed in the 40′s and was clear or partly cloudy the entire time (this week it’s raining all week). And on top of all this, everyone is nice and speaks English!

We were told by some locals that though children learn Icelandic as their first language, English is taught as their second language starting in Grade 1. They also learn a couple more languages later in their education (I want to say those languages are Danish and Swedish, but I can’t confirm).

Iceland was settled by the Vikings in the 900′s BCE – quite a young settlement. It’s believed that it was Ingólfr Arnarson in the late 800′s who first settled in Iceland. The country didn’t become a Republic until the 1940′s. In fact, the ’40′s was a bit crazy for the country. Iceland was part of the Danish Empire and, just like Denmark, declared neutrality during WWII. In 1940 Germany occupied the country, then the British ran the Germans out, and a year later the US occupied Iceland. During this time an army airport was built in Keflavik but was later converted into the largest International airport of Iceland. In 1944, Icelanders voted to become free from Denmark. The US left in ’46, the Marshall Plan helped rebuild Iceland, and in ’49 they joined NATO.

Older homes still have chimneys but they are not in use anymore. The entire island has tapped into the natural geothermic energy for suitable and inexpensive heating. In fact, it’s my understanding that the term “reyk” means ‘steam’. At one time you could travel all along the area and find steam randomly coming out of the ground. You can still find these spots on the island, but in the civilized regions the steam has been harvested.

It’s so barren that the only native land mammal is the Arctic Fox (which we never saw).  When the Vikings got there they cut down most of the island’s trees for fire and building homes and boats. Only recently has the country seen a re-forestation project. Iceland is sometimes considered part of Scandinavia, but I suppose more properly is that it’s part of the “Nordic Countries“.

Reykjavík, Iceland's Capital and Largest City

We stayed in Iceland’s capital city, Reykjavík, where more than half of the country’s residents live. It’s a beautiful city that has a mix of European-like downtown navigation with a bit of a North American sprawl. We both felt very comfortable in both settings.

The only US restaurant influence we spotted was Subway (a couple of times), and a KFC/Taco Bell. McDonald’s left several years ago and Starbucks never tried. And all of that was fine by us. We’d rather eat local anyway.

…And that brings me to what might prove to be the more controversial part of our trip…

Our controversial appetizer of Minke Whale, Puffin, and Shag

For our first dinner in Iceland, we decided to taste some real local flare. We ordered an appetizer of Minke Whale, Puffin, and Shag. They all tasted…well…fine. And yes, I’ve seen Whale Wars and know how evil we are now, but I rationalized it by the fact they were already dead so might as well eat’em! However curious we were about the tastes, we won’t do it again. And yes we know by ordering it we are perpetuating the cycle of killing more etc blah blah. We get it. Please just move along. What we really enjoyed eating for most of our stay was fresh Atlantic Salmon, Arctic Char (huge fan!), and Lamb.

Our trip to Iceland was tightly integrated with Reykjavík Excursions, a company that has been offering professional and educational airport shuttles and tours for almost 25 years. We highly recommend them!

Our first trek took us to the most fascinating place I’ve ever been to! The place is called Þingvellir National Park (‘Thingvellir’). This is the site for the original Icelandic Tribal Assembly (930-1271) and a geo-significant place.

A church rests in the tectonic rift at Thingvellir

When the snow-covered volcano pictured above erupted many years ago the underground magma created a hole. That hole was filled by both glacier melt and natural springs forming Lake Þingvallavatn. It’s from the vantage point of the overlook where you can see both the Lake and Rift in one view.

Thingvellir's Lake and Rift

Every year, the rift grows by a centimeter or two. This is the place where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates meet. These two plates are ripping apart creating chasms and rifts. To stand in such an active geo-active place is simply amazing and fascinating!

Natural, thermal steam warming the springs

Not far from Thingvellir are some natural hot springs channeled into man-made pools for easier enjoyment (baiting suits required so no photos necessary).

Perhaps it’s time to take a break from the trip and talk about the Icelandic lettering. You know how both Shakespeare and King James writing are English but difficult for the modern reader? Iceland does not suffer from that problem. The language is the closest modern language to ‘ye-olde’ Viking. In fact, the character Þ pronounced ‘thorn’ is prominent in Iceland. It’s pronounced as ‘thorn‘ and replaces the ‘th’ sound in English. Because modern Icelandic language has changed little from it’s origins, medieval texts are read by grade-school students. Check out this short video about the origin of ‘Ye Olde’ shops. Also listen to how difficult (IMHO) the language is.

Flat mountain tops

Have you noticed how flat many of the mountains are? There are two possible reasons for this: glaciers cut the top off of the mountains and/or glaciers were in place when the mountains tried to form but the glaciers kept them from growing too high.

Our next trek took us out looking for whales. First we found Puffins.

Hundreds of Puffins

Lots of Puffins

They told us just days ago there were no puffins. We were fortunate.

White-beaked Dolphins

It was difficult to capture on camera the Minke Whale we chased.

We were content with the weather in Iceland

During our Whale Watching tour, we found Puffins, White-beaked dolphins, Harbor Porpoise, and Minke Whale.

The Southern Shores of Iceland did not disappoint.

Eyjafjallajökull was the volcano that caused European chaos in 2010.

Mýrdalsjökull glacier, one of the 4 largest glaciers in Iceland

Me standing on Mýrdalsjökull glacier

Black Sand Beach in South Iceland due to volcanos

Another view of the black sand beach in south Iceland

Rock formations on the black sand beach of south Iceland

The proportions of the south Icelandic black beach are beyond comprehension

Quick recap – we took a tour to the south of Iceland where we were at the foot of a few active volcanoes such as Eyjafjallajökull which erupted in 2010 causing all sorts of chaos in Europe (but not so much in Iceland!), the Mýrdalsjökull glacier that looks dirty because of volcanic ash, and the black sand beach of Vik.

On the way back from Vik we stopped at two huge waterfalls.

Huge Iceland Waterfall

Iceland is one of the few places in the world you don't have to worry about the water quality!

These falls are fed by natural springs

Patricia went behind these falls

The falls are everywhere

Finally our trip ended with a brief stop at the famous Blue Lagoon geothermal spa.

The Blue Lagoon

Another view of the Blue Lagoon

Surrounding it for miles are lava fields which were amazing to see.

Lava Rock surround the path to the Blue Lagoon

Lava rock as far as the eye can see covered in a brown moss. But the Blue Lagoon was quite a nice treat before our flight out.

I don’t know if I need to comment that it was a great vacation for us! Iceland is an amazing place. Geographically speaking, we were in Europe. Geothermically speaking, we were on both the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. We came face-to-face with active volcanoes, glaciers, and aquatic life. We ate like we’ve never eaten before. I think it’ll be impossible to forget our trip to this Viking land called Iceland.

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…staff members in the Sichuan branch of Bank of China try to splice the shreds of 50,000 yuan bank notes torn by a woman who suddenly falls ill. It took 6 hours for 12 bank clerks to successfully splice only one complete 100-yuan bank note. The money was originally meant for the woman’s mental disorder treatment.

Count Down Stop Light

This is a home-run.

Carve out 20 minutes to watch this, sometimes irreverent but spot-on, presentation about the role of creativity in an engineering-minded world. As an example, you’ll learn a bit about an innovative stop light!

Rory Sutherland is, as I understand it, a former advertising executive who understands psychology and sociology.

Patricia Posing at Pisa

And we laughed at everyone else.

Pisa Posers

But if I had the guts, I would have done this…

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Relationships are too valuable to take for granted. Appreciate someone today.

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Dr. Shaq earns his degree

You see, Shaq was such a talent when playing basketball in college, he left early to go into the NBA. But he didn’t stop learning.

After leaving school early in 1992 to enter the NBA Draft, O’Neal went back to Louisiana State University eight years later and earned his bachelor’s degree in general studies, fulfilling a promise to his mother. In 2005, he earned a master’s of business administration through the University of Phoenix’s online degree program.

After leading the [Miami] Heat to the NBA title in 2006, O’Neal decided it was time to go back to school again and…decided to enroll at Barry in Miami Shores. He spent the past 4?1/2 years — including his final two seasons in the NBA — quietly working toward his doctoral degree in organizational learning and leadership with a specialization in human resource development. He studied before and after games, and between his work on television as an analyst, often staying up to the wee hours of the morning to get work done.

The big man didn’t just get by either. O’Neal achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.813 while completing 54 credit hours comprised of 16 courses and six credit hours of self-directed research. He did most of his course work via satellite, video conferencing and Blackboard.com. The title of his doctoral capstone project was “The Duality of Humor and Seriousness in Leadership Styles.”

Shaq is now, in my opinion, a great role-model. My respect for Dr. O’Neal is so much higher now.

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Fry is right

Informative Indeed

Yup, it's what dogs do

Refreshing, isn't it?

Great idea for soon-to-be-moms!

What a beautiful blue....oh that's unfortunate.

This is Stiller's Night.

Remember this for the next party

Kids had it so awesome back in the day; and/or these parents weren't the brightest (yet)

Hunger Games Inspiration

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I’ve had my iPad 2 for about a year now and every time a friend gets one, or I find out a friend has one, we always compare our favorite apps. So I thought I might as well put together a post about what my favorite apps are as of this post.

FREE

Accuweather – They just updated the app and it’s really slick. Easy to get the current weather conditions, what it’ll be like hours and days from now. Nice radar as well.

Weather Channel – This has been my go-to weather app for a while but Accuweather (see above) is starting to replace it.

imo.im – Do you like to chat? Do you use AIM, Facebook, Google Talk, Hyves, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, MySpace, Skype, Yahoo and/or VKontakte? This one simple app has you covered.

TuneIn Radio – Pretty slick in that you can listen to pretty much any radio station.

Flipboard – A beautiful and very functional way to consume your favorite news articles and even fun stuff too!

AP Mobile – Updated news from the Associated Press.

Google Search – Easiest way to search Google from an iPad.

Urbanspoon – Kinda like Yelp (see below) but only about local restaurants.

ONLY IF YOU HAVE THEIR SERVICE ELSEWHERE
These apps you have to have an account somewhere else first, but if you do, the apps are worth it.

Feedly – Do you use Google Reader to keep up with websites? You should. If you do, Feedly ties right into it making it very easy and appealing to consume web subscriptions.

Watch ESPN – It’s ESPN. Sports. Done.

Netflix – If you stream Netflix, you can stream it on your iPad.

Yelp – Best way to find local businesses with user ratings. I use it all the time.

Evernote – Might just be the easiest app you could ever use to keep notes, webpages, attachments, just about anything.

IF YOU’RE WILLING TO PAY

Angry Birds – It’s Angry Birds! Best game around!

Pocket Informant HD – Looking for one app to pull together your calendar, tasks, contacts, and notes into once place? I paid $10 for this and I use it daily to let me know what I need to do every day. It’s almost like MS Outlook but without the email.

NOAA Weather Radio HD – It’s good to have a weather radio. This one sits on your iPad.

ASL Dictionary for iPad – Want to learn American Sign Language? This might be the best video dictionary available.

iMovie – If you make videos, this is a real simple yet fairly robust way to edit your videos and publish them on YouTube.

So what are some of your favorite iPad apps?

Oh! By the way, here’s a tip for you from a pretty young but accurate kid!

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This ain't your parent's Bollywood

Johnnathan Gerard is a music composer, music video producer, and dance choreographer from Chennai, Tamilnadu, India. He and his brother, Joshua, performed this fabulous video.

Cape Disappointment, WA

This is funny. I found a list of the 11 Most Depressing Names in the US. Want to know what DIDN’T make the list?  How about:

• Deception Bay
• Deception Pass
• Dry Falls
• Foulweather Bluff
• Obstruction Island
• Point No Point
• Bare Island
• Termination Point

And those are just in the state of Washington! Click through for the list.