The author of Liar's Poker sure can write prose. Michael Lewis' massive article on Iceland is very interesting, and sheds light on a general phenomenon with a specific example.
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Larry Moran has an excellent review of Francis Collins' silly book The Language of God. You don't really appreciate Ken Miller until you have contemplated the far daffier arguments made by Collins. Moran writes:
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that was a really informative article, but had me thinking, of all of the other power intese activities that Iceland could invest in. wiht limitless power and lots of cold air they should be a natural location for data farms, the biggest isses to housing huge servers is the need for power and cooling, Iceland has both. Gampling/entertainment, look at the power drain that is Navada, with a tax free gambling and entertainment center, Iceland could easily become a destination for conferences, gambling and everything that LAs Vagas offers.
Food- Hydroponic and greenhouses should thrive. Again with unlimited available power, they can generate electricity from steam, then use the remaining heat to heat the greenhouse, before returning the cooled steam to heating for the generation of more power for lights to grow food under. Everything from tomatoes to medicinal pot, again easily controlled, and the big costs are power. with food they have easy markets in europe
From the article, it says...
Out of curiosity, was there any mass exodus out of Iceland? And if so, what place(s) did they go to?
Charles Iliya Krempeaux says:
Out of curiosity, was there any mass exodus out of Iceland? And if so, what place(s) did they go to?
According to Wikipedia, in the 1870s many Icelanders migrated to the Great Lakes area to escape famine and overcrowding. Apparently Gimli, Manitoba houses the largest population of Icelanders outside of Iceland itself.
Reply to Gingerbeard:
At least two companies are already working on setting up data farms in Iceland. The first outfit is due to start operations next year. Iceland is also a growing destination for conferences, and a large Concert and Conference Centre is under construction in downtown Reykjavik (even if delayed because of the crisis). The greenhouse sector has been struggling for a long time because of cheap imports from Spain and the Netherlands, but should be doing better now.
Reply to Charles Iliya Krempeaux:
As of yet, there has been no mass exodus out of Iceland. Most of the people leaving have been foreign workers (Poles being the largest group) previously employed on a range of large infrastructure and heavy industry projects, most of which came to an end in 2007/2008. As for Icelandic citizens and long-time foreign residents, not many have left for other countries yet, but may start to do so if unemployment continues to rise. In previous downturns, Icelanders have mostly sought jobs in Scandinavia and are expected to do so once more this time around. The relatively favourable economic climate in Norway is likely to attract a couple of thousand Icelanders in 2009/2010.
gingerbeard: They are trying to woo server farms (Slashdot discussion here).