13 January 2007

Iceland shows us how it's done!

A humourous take on the local world.

1. Codfish killed by sulpher pollution?

2. U Iceland research budget tripled. Sounds great until you read the story and see that the increase is US$8.9 million each year.

Sounds wonderful until you check closer to home. According to the most recent inventory, Memorial University attracts about $90 million in research every year including $4.0 million from the province (despite our massive debt burden).

But here's something even more interesting: out of that $90 million, about $50 million comes in various forms from the federal government.

Oh yeah. We can learn a lot from Iceland.

3. Every job is important. But this looks a bit like Small Town News of the finest kind.

4. Until no fish swim. Icelandic researchers "finally" find a school of capelin. Now the race is on to issue "temporary" fishing quotas.

5. And we bitch about how hard it is to find a pineapple and starfruit at the local Dominion. Icelanders pay 62% more for groceries than the European Union average.

6. Next we'll hear about the need to develop a local psychic hotline industry.

All of which is proof once again that when they aren't creating yet another blog on which to promise great things to come that either never come or aren't so great, some people spend way too much time surfing the Internet without understanding what it is they find there.