The nation reads or listens to an average of 2.6 books per month, compared to 2.4 books last year. 55% of the population spends 30 minutes or more reading daily, while 15% do not read or listen to books. Novels are the most popular reading material and 60% of the population gave a book as a present during the year. 56% get ideas for reading material from friends and relatives and 36% from coverage in the media. 31% said they had not read a book in the last 30 days, but the definition of reading in the survey is reading traditional books, e-books, and listening to audiobooks.
Kristján Kristjánsson, manager at Árekstur.is (traffic collision helpline), says the phone has been ringing off the hook for about three hours. He asks people to drive carefully.
There has been a lot of disruption to flights due to the storm so far this day, but two dozen flights were canceled this morning or postponed until the day.
Researchers at deCode Genetics have found a genetic variation that protects against asthma, but those who are carriers are 73% less likely to develop severe asthma than those who do not have the genetic variation.
Members of the rescue teams at Landsbjörg are now mourning a good friend after the fatal accident on November 3, when Sigurður Kristófer McQuillan Óskarsson died during training at Tungufljót River.
It is estimated that 170 direct jobs, as well as several secondary jobs, will be created when the magnesium factory Njörður Holding ehf. on Grundartangi becomes a reality in the coming years.
A lot has been built in Álftanes in the last few years, for example, terraced and apartment buildings, and in the last few months several people from Grindavík have settled in apartments there.
The Icelandic Meteorological Office is warning of severe weather in many parts of the country tomorrow, and a yellow and orange weather warning has been issued due to strong winds and snowfall.
It is clear that there has been so much damage to several road sections in the Westfjords in recent days that it will not be possible to repair them until next spring. The Road Administration is currently working on road repairs in several places, but since the top layer has come off, it will not be possible to fully repair the roads.
One person was taken to hospital after a Range Rover SUV overturned on the side of the road not far from Keflavík International Airport earlier today.
Gunnar Emil Baldursson and Margrét Unnur Brim Þórarinsdóttir became double world champions in the category of children, under 8 years old, in ballroom dancing at the Word Championship in Assen in the Netherlands recently, but they are both 7 years old.
Heavy rains in the Westfjords have caused numerous landslides in the last 24 hours as you can see on the map here, many roads are closed. Right in the middle of Monday, it was seen where it was headed and yesterday morning roads were closed at Hestfjörður, Langadalströnd, and Djúpvegur Road.
Last night there were several landslides in the Westfjords and then water flooded the road in Hestfjörður and the road was closed during the night.
It is not recommended that residents of Bolungarvík use water as the drinking water is contaminated by soil due to excessive rain.
A total of 388,790 people lived in Iceland at the end of the third quarter of 2024, 199,340 were men, 189,250 were women and 190 were transgender/other. The number of citizens increased by 1,820 during the quarter.
About twenty manuscripts were moved from Árnagarður to Edda, the House of the Icelandic Language - earlier today.
The parents of children at Laugalækjarskóli School are beginning to feel strongly that the upheaval that follows the teachers' strike at the school is beginning to negatively affect the children's lives in various ways.
The Icelandic Meteorological Office warns of an increased risk of landslides and rockfalls in the western part of the country, but considerable precipitation, in the form of rain, is predicted in the Westfjords, Barðaströnd, Snæfellsnes, and the South today and tomorrow.
Around 6 pm last night, the rescue teams Hérað and Jökull were called out because of tourists who were lost in the vicinity of Kirkjufoss waterfall in Fljótsdalur.
"It's naturally a huge honor to jump with this group. It's like getting the chance to do group gymnastics with Simon Biles and the entire US national team, Nadia Comăneci and ten other world champions between them, and then some amateurs like me."
The pianist Víkingur Heiðar Ólafsson has been nominated for a Grammy award for the first time.
Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir, Minister of Universities, Industry, and Innovation, yesterday presented the Icelandic government's first action plan for artificial intelligence until the year 2026.
About 300 people gathered at a meeting to discuss the plans for the densification of settlements in Grafarvogur and the proposed Sundabraut Road. Residents are not happy with the proposed development.
"It's just anticipation," says Eyþór Arnalds, former leader of the Independence Party and musician, who will perform at the Icelandic music festival Iceland Airwaves tomorrow, Saturday.
The Ministry of Finance and Economy expects that the total income of the Treasury will be about 20.7 billion ISK less next year than was assumed when the budget proposal for the year 2025 was submitted. Total expenditures, however, fall by 3.1 billion from the bill's estimate in a reassessment presented by the ministry to the Alþingi's government budget committee.
Doctors have again approved strike action with a decisive majority, but voting on strike action in November, December, and January ended today at 4 pm.
There will be no travel weather in the Westfjords and the North after noon today, but bad weather is forecast due to strong winds and stormy weather in the Westfjords. Due to the weather, Orange and yellow warnings are in effect across the country today.
The teachers' protest meeting that took place in Háskólbíó this afternoon was packed.
Iceland’s Prime Minister, Bjarni Benediktsson, has congratulated the American presidential candidate Donald Trump on his victory, as everything points to Trump winning the presidential elections that took place in the United States last night.
Parents of children in preschools where teacher strikes are currently ongoing, most of them from the Preschool Drafnarsteinn in Vesturbær but also from Seltjarnarnes’s Preschool, protested the strike action of the Icelandic Teachers' Union in Reykjavík City Hall today. The parents that mbl.is spoke to find it unfair that their children are the only ones on indefinite strike, but there is a strike at four kindergartens in the country as a whole, including one in Reykjavík.
"In these small communities, if something happens, everyone just shows up and lends a hand," says Jónas Þór Viðarsson, a musician who, together with his colleague Arnþór Þórsteinsson, plans to hold a Christmas concert in support of Sigrún Björg Aðalgeirsdóttir, who had, along with her infant son, in a traffic accident in Kelduhverfi in Öxarfjörður last month.
"We have seen this happen before, sometimes before an eruption, so this has happened before," says Steinunn Helgadóttir, a natural hazard expert at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, about the series of small earthquakes that occurred between Mt Sýlingarfell and Mt Stóra-Skógfell late Sunday night and Monday morning.
The on-call shift of Civil Protection and Emergency Management met with the Icelandic Meteorological Agency before the decision was made not to launch the entire system following the suspicion that a magma run had begun at Sundhnúkagígar crater row.
The man who fell into Tungufljót River near Geysir yesterday was Icelandic. He was traveling there with two other men.
A man who fell into Tungufljót River near Geysir today has died. He was in his thirties. The police in Suðurland reported the fatal accident.
