Góðan dag og takk fyrir áhugaverðar umræður.

Ég vil vekja athygli á því að mörg starfandi fyrirtæki, sem að mestu eru rekin á styrkjum líkt og það sem ég er í forsvari fyrir, eru ekki styrkhæf úr sjóðum eins og Átak til atvinnusköpunar og öðrum slíkum. Ástæðan er sú að umsækjandi má ekki hafa fengið meira en 200.000 EUR í styrkjum á síðustu 3 árum, vilji hann teljast styrkhæfur. Þetta er að mínu mati ansi hamlandi ákvæði þar sem mörg okkar eru að vinna mjög spennandi starf hvað varðar atvinnusköpun í heimabyggð. Mér fyndist því eðlilegra að þetta ákvæði væri rýmkað, en í staðinn yrðu settar skýrari og strangari kröfur um eftirfylgni og árangur. (meira …)

FOCUS ON NATURE is an International Photography Workshops in Iceland, based on workshops
by world reknowned instructors.
With the experience FOCUS ON NATURE obtained 2008 with John Paul Caponigro, Vincent Versace and Stephen Johnson, we aim at offering people from all over the world an opportunity to combine photography workshop with experiencing a unique land to a greater extent in 2009.
The wonder of Icelandic scenery speaks for itself with fantastic shape and color, dramatic weather and unique lighting conditions for photography. We offer people to immerse them self in the culture, history, geology, climate and biology of Iceland. (meira …)

Viðar Hreinsson, chair-man of the Reykjavík Academy writes on the necessary of building the future of the Icelandic society on living integration of culture, nature, eco-friendly technology, around the country.

One of the main characteristic of the changes with the expansion of the creative class, is the tendency to open up all boundaries of what has been preconceived. Main value of the class being individualism, ambition or productive targeting, diversity and open mind, it can not be denied that these changes increase wage differential.

Richard Florida is an american professor of urban studies, and a Ph.D. from the University of Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburg, where he taught for awhile but teaches now at the George Mason University in Fairfax. He has new ideas of the role of the creative class in economical uprising. His main work on this being The Rise of the Creative Class, published in 2002 – a bestseller. (meira …)

Björk and Nattura.info organized, as have been stated earlier, series of work-shop meetings in the Reykjavik University,

to discuss the possibilities of start-up and spin-off companies in Iceland in the light of a self-sustainable evolution. Due to a catastrophic economic situation in Iceland this work took on a whole new dimension. And it will continue to do so.
One of the seed-ideas that has been nurtured during the period of preparing the work-shop series, is the idea of Iceland as a whole of wellness places. In reconsidering the conditions of building up a self-sustained culture, economically, socially and environmentally, it helped thinking of Iceland as a cluster of diverse growths. And to think of water flowing in-between them!
The wellness places, natural swimming-pools and spas all over Iceland, as depicted by “Waterfriends” (see the article below), could thus be seen as the core of a collaboration between the field of health, r&d and education, culture and tourism, field of food-industry, design, bio-technology, high-tech. All to be overlapped in the field of self-sustainable energy.

Dreamland

Iceland is experiencing an environmental catastrophe. In the last two years, Alcoa and Rio Tinto´s irresponsible business strategy has already resulted in the destruction of glacial rivers, canyons and over 60 ancient waterfalls and valleys in Iceland. After an intense fight and, despite growing public opposition, the aluminium giants managed to pull off the build of Europe’s largest hydroelectric power plants, Kárahnjúkar, directly affecting over 1000 km2 of
spectacular untouched nature.

The future belongs to those who prepare for it.

Imagine putting a massive power plant, dam and reservoir plus a 400 thousand ton aluminum smelter in an area comparable to the Lake District, both in beauty and size. That’s what has happened in Iceland and a similar fate will surely follow in other remote and treasured areas of Europe, unless something changes and a new mentality adopted.

To the horror of the informed observers (a majority of the Icelandic public), this was just the beginning.

The expansion plans include the destruction of even more waterfalls, glacial rivers and some of the main breeding sites for several rare European bird species. The wilderness now under threat is stunning to behold and home to an incredibly diverse and fragile ecosystem. Its waterfalls, millions of years in the making, are disappearing into dams and reservoirs.

(meira …)

Mentis Cura is an innovative diagnostics company based in Iceland with history from year 2000. The company specializes in quantitative detection and early detection of CNS related diseases. Currently the focus is on dementia of the Alzheimer’s type and differential diagnosis in the elderly. Our technology is in clinical use at several reputable institutions in Iceland and Norway.

Mentis Cura is also developing a tool able to track the progression of Alzheimer’s and monitor treatment responders.

Mentis Cura has a separate program for detection of attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) in children, teenagers and adults. (meira …)

Marorka
Marorka is a leading producer of energy management systems and the primary energy management research company for ocean vessels. Marorka’s aim is to enable customers to maximize their operating results by minimizing fuel consumption and harmful emissions. (meira …)

http://www.worldinbalance.net/pdf/1987-brundtland.pdf

Series of work-shops on alternative ways to utilize natural and human resources in a self-sustainable ways

For some years, various attempts have been made all around the country to find ways to utilize natural and human resources other than those employed by large scale industry. These innovatory attempts have increased our capacity for a greater variety of options and helped to increase Icelanders’ personal accountability for their own landscape. Yet, for various reasons little heed has been paid to these attempts and there has rarely been sufficient follow-up to many of the ideas that have been forwarded. There has been a sharp division between promising plans and their entrepreneurial implementation on the one hand and between investments and the networks that serve to generate them on the other. In
these difficult times, when people are desperately trying to find alternatives to the excesses of large-scale industry, then we must a way erect bridges between unlike areas of interest.

(meira …)

Straight ahead! – to the restorative springs of Þingeyjarsýsla

This article introduces and discusses the possibility of building elegant therapeutic spas or health resorts in the area between Húsavík and Mývatn, and reiterates the historical, cultural and financial value of such progressive health services in the light of a new era.
(meira …)