"Certified Elf Free"

[Stinky The Clown]

Okay, I'm not even going to bother looking for a link. Rachel just talked about this on her show.

Iceland is bankrupt.

Iceland was a giant, failed hedge fund.

Iceland was also weird.

Alcoa Aluminum was setting up a new plant there. The government required they certify the site of the plant "Elf Free" before they could get a building permit. They had to hire an expert who was recognized by the government. Alcoa had to pay actual money for this service.

Can I have my belt and shoelaces back now? :shrug:

[rpannier]

1. Now we know why Iceland's economy collapsed

The elves did it to get even

[ingac70]

2. lol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_Elf_School

[Lost in CT]

3. It's a Europe thing... You don't want Orlando Bloom running around scaring the children.

Here is the story...

No one asked, What might Icelanders want to do? Or even: What might Icelanders be especially suited to do? No one thought that Icelanders might have some natural gift for smelting aluminum, and, if anything, the opposite proved true. Alcoa, the biggest aluminum company in the country, encountered two problems peculiar to Iceland when, in 2004, it set about erecting its giant smelting plant. The first was the so-called "hidden people"--or, to put it more plainly, elves--in whom some large number of Icelanders, steeped long and thoroughly in their rich folkloric culture, sincerely believe. Before Alcoa could build its smelter it had to defer to a government expert to scour the enclosed plant site and certify that no elves were on or under it. It was a delicate corporate situation, an Alcoa spokesman told me, because they had to pay hard cash to declare the site elf-free but, as he put it, "we couldn't as a company be in a position of acknowledging the existence of hidden people." The other, more serious problem was the Icelandic male: he took more safety risks than aluminum workers in other nations did. "In manufacturing," says the spokesman, "you want people who follow the rules and fall in line. You don't want them to be heroes. You don't want them to try to fix something it's not their job to fix, because they might blow up the place." The Icelandic male had a propensity to try to fix something it wasn't his job to fix.

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/market-movers/2009/03/03/a-gripping-saga-of-cod-elves-and-bankers?addComment=true

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. How do you go about ensuring that there are no elves on your property?

Do you set traps? Put up cameras with motion sensors? Are there special elf inspectors who do this?

Yes, Iceland is weird. They have no trees, a lot of fog, and they eat puffins.

[Captain Hilts]

7. Sounds like a snipe hunt to me. nt

[ogneopasno]

5. Thanks -- I needed a heaping helping of awesome tonight, and this fits the bill.

[Cerridwen]

6. I have *a* link

http://www.icelandtouristboard.com/elf.html

There's even a Reykjavik school that teaches Elf studies.

When prodded, Icelanders from all walks of life can recount vivid experiences with supernatural beings. About 10 percent of Icelanders believe in the existence of a "huldufolk" or a hidden world of elves, dwarfs and spirits with magic powers. Another 10 percent deny them, but the remaining 80 percent on the North Atlantic island nation either have no opinion or refuse to rule out their existence, a survey shows.

Elves may be getting their 15 minutes of fame in Hollywood, but they are nothing new to Icelanders who have told folk tales of "little people" since the time of the medieval sagas -- pithy, epic tales dating from the 12th century when a man never left his home without his sword.

Builders of the country's first shopping mall took care to lay electrical cables and other underground installations well away from the suspected homes of gnomes and fairies. Couples who are planning a new house will sometimes hire "elf-spotters" to make sure the lot is free of spirit folk. Such broadmindedness might be just self-protection. Tales abound of broken limbs, busted equipment and other woes befalling builders daring to go where elves and hidden people traditionally tread.

[marybourg]

14. 10 percent of Icelanders believe in the existence of a . . .

hidden world of elves, dwarfs and spirits with magic powers.

Far more than 10% of americans believe in an invisible being with magic powers. :shrug:

[Cerridwen]

16. The Elves make more sense...to me.

At least they don't hold your virginity hostage and threaten you with damnation and hellfire for all eternity if you don't tithe.

The Elves just ask you to build the road around them, thankyouverymuch.

:D

[Marrah_G]

17. and to watch where you step :)

I too, am a fan of the Elven folk.

[Cerridwen]

19. :)

Indubitably.

[Withywindle]

22. Exactly what I'm thinking.

Why is it more irrational to believe in "hidden people" (the nearest translation) who just want to live on their land and be left alone

than it is to believe in some giant man in the sky who's "omnipotent" yet still somehow couldn't prevent his archenemy (who he couldn't just destroy for some mysterious reason) messing with his creations, so because of some woo-woo involving fruit and "because I said so" (which every 5-year-old knows is bullshit), we're all damned to suffer for eternity under some spiritual Cheney, except we need to be grateful for being "saved" by this being's "son" (whatever that means for ethereal creatures) getting tortured to death in some Mel Gibson movie that wasn't even as well done as some Japanese guro porn I've seen (never mind that whoa, not like he was the only person ever to suffer such a death IN REALITY), and now this Omnipotent Grand Omniscient Universal Mind of the Cosmos is obsessed with teenage girls staying "pure" and gay people staying lonely...


Yeah, honestly, that's why I'm pagan. Elves are a fuck of a lot more plausible and believing in them a lot less ... er... um....what's the word I'm looking for....

STUPID?

[Jackpine Radical]

8. Don't screw with the elves.

Iceland also used to have a law that when you sailed your ship into harbor, you had to take your dragon head down from the prow so you wouldn't scare the landsvættir (spirits of the soil) and ruin the crops.

[spanone]

9. they're everywhere....

[havocmom]

10. "...Elf and Human Services" Rachel is a hoot and a half!

Smartest thing on TV and funny to boot. She is a real class act.

[Canuckistanian]

11. I'm guessing garden gnomes are not popular in Iceland

And I always thought that the Travelocity gnome was a bit shifty.....

[Stinky The Clown]

12. He's actually Norwegian

The Icelanders don't trust him at all.

Or at least I heard that ...... I dunno ...... sounds true. :rofl:

[TahitiNut]

21. Careful. Don't go knocking the Norwegian gnomes, now. We respect the Nisse.

Don't diss the nisse!

[SoCalDem]

24. Cute...But do they have a reality show like the Duggars?

:rofl:

They look republican to me too:)

[BuyingThyme]

13. They have a big problem with Elves getting into

people's lunches and stealing the cookies. Actually, they take anything sweet, but cookies are the thing up there.

When I went up there to do some contract work for a smelting plant, they did a background check to see if I come from Elfic stock. I do, but luckily they concentrated on the Polish side of my family. I don't think everybody takes the background checks seriously, so a few Elfins predictably get through from time to time, particularly those of the Shamrock variety.

[sofa king]

15. Who was that DUer who did that documentary on Iceland's impending collapse?

That must have been a year or more ago now. I really liked it and, as it happens, the fellow seems to have been dead on about it.

[Motown_Johnny]

18. I want a list of properties that were not able to be certified elf free...

[slampoet]

20. So what? I'd rather pay for elf detection than pay off the Zoning board, Fire inspector, police,

local clergy, health inspector and all the other dead weight middle men and women like i do in Rhode Island.

[catnhatnh]

23. Jeesus Stinky, no one believes in the Wee Folk any more....

Not even we drunken Irishmen and not even this late at night...















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Y'all gotta get over it...
Regards, Cat