Iceland? I don't think so. Grr!

This absurd volcano-drama related headline has taunted me into exploding and raining my ash and lava of persnicketty-ness over the fool who wrote it.

"Iceland is the Disneyland of volcanoes, with 35 active volcanoes on or around the island. The island is about 100 miles long and 60 miles wide, about the size of Rhode Island."

(The wildly inaccurate article can be found here)

WRONG, on so many levels.

Iceland, for one, is not about 100 miles long and 60 miles wide. Neither is Rhode Island, clocking in at about 48 miles long by 37 miles wide, if you're keeping track. Iceland, rather, is approximately 285 miles long by 174 miles wide. *

Rhode Island is 1,545 sq miles in total land area. Iceland is 39,770 sq miles in total land area. Icleand is 25.7 times larger than Rhode Island.

Despite these epic differences in scale, and a mutual love of hákarl (Icelandic for "fermented shark"- tasty! and a favored Rhode Island snack!), the only other real shared attribute of Iceland and Rhode Island is their historical anarchism, as exemplified by the Icelandic Commonwealth (930–1262) Rhode Island (1636–1648.* God, I love the internet.




* http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/David_Oddsson.aspx
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anarchist_communities