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New Iceland

2016-06-28 · letter vlog · John · 3:37 · watch on YouTube

Topic: History & curiosities (also: Personal life) · mode: Comedy & performance

After a hazy post-VidCon night of Beer and Board Games, John reports that he, Henry Reich, Destin Sandlin and CGP Grey propose relocating rainy Iceland south as 'New Iceland', a mid-Atlantic stopover, and pitches the move to Icelanders, musing that their likely refusal says something about change.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — VidCon's end at Beer and Board Games; the lost camera

  • ★★ John traditionally ends VidCon on Saturday evening on the YouTube show Beer and Board Games; this year (2016) the emphasis was on the beer, so he is hazy on the details. (playful) — 00:00:06 · VidCon
  • ★ John lost his video camera, so he has no VidCon footage and is using the old camera this week (week of 27 June 2016). — 00:00:21 · VidCon
  • ★★ After Beer and Board Games John ran into Henry of MinutePhysics, Destin of Smarter Every Day and CGP Grey, and they got talking about Iceland. — 00:00:26

00:00:29 — Meeting Henry, Destin and Grey; John's love of Iceland and its one problem: the freezing 2008 bus tour

  • ★★ John says he is a huge fan of Iceland, which has many things he loves: hot baths, an improbably excellent football team and Björk. — 00:00:34
  • ★★ On John and Sarah's August 2008 Iceland bus tour, the guide claimed the weather was mild year-round; outside it was barely above freezing, with wind-driven rain over brown lava. (playful) — 00:00:50 · Sarah Urist Green

00:01:20 — No Atlantic midway point; the proposal to move Iceland, the Columbian Exchange aside, New Iceland's features and the coalition's jobs

  • ★★ John says there is no convenient midway point on the Atlantic between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia, unlike Hawaii or the Cook Islands in the Pacific. (playful) — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ The group's proposal is to move Iceland from its rainy, lava-spewing spot to one where it would be a lovely stopping point between continents. (joke) — 00:01:40
  • ★★ John thinks a better-located Iceland would probably have brought earlier, more robust trade between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia, which might have mitigated the Columbian Exchange's human and biodiversity horrors. (hedged) — 00:01:52
  • ★★ The coalition would create New Iceland: great weather, Björk, a soccer team apparently better than England's, and only a two-hour flight from New York, Madrid or Marrakesh. (joke) — 00:02:16 · England, New York City
  • ★★ Jobs were assigned: Destin gave Henry the moving of Iceland, Grey the design of a New Iceland flag, and himself something to do with rockets. (joke) — 00:02:28
  • ★★ John was tasked with the political problem: getting Icelanders to agree to move their country about 3,000 miles south-southwest. (joke) — 00:02:42

00:02:51 — John's pitch to the people of Iceland; change; congratulations to Hank on VidCon and sign-off

  • ★★ John tells Icelanders their country is cold and rainy in winter and summer and dark in January, and offers beaches, warmth, sunshine and joy while they keep Björk. (joke) — 00:02:51

  • ★★★ John expects Icelanders to refuse, liking their country where it is; maybe that says something about Icelanders, or about change, which he calls a dangerous and beautiful force. (hedged) — 00:03:13

    “that dangerous and beautiful force that drives and defines the universe”

  • ★ John congratulates Hank on a great VidCon. — 00:03:33 · VidCon

Humor (dominant)

  • John loves Iceland but says it has just one problem. — 00:00:45

    “is that it's located...in Iceland.”

  • The tour guide's script claims Iceland's weather is mild year-round. — 00:01:04

    “And then we got off the bus and that August afternoon it was perhaps half a degree above freezing.”

  • After imagining how a better-placed Iceland would have changed history, John lodges a complaint. — 00:02:07

    “So, y'know, not to criticize plate tectonics or anything, but I think this could have been handled better from the beginning!”

  • Henry is assigned to physically move Iceland; John, not a scientist, thinks it can't be that hard. — 00:02:28

    “I figure we just get a big tugboat or something and pull it south!”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Iceland

Also: People: Björk · CGP Grey · Destin Sandlin · Henry Reich · Sarah Urist Green

Projects: VidCon

Works: Beer & Board Games

Organizations: Iceland national football team

Concepts: plate tectonics

Places: Afro-Eurasia · Americas · Atlantic Ocean · Cook Islands · England · Greenland · Hawaii · Madrid · Marrakesh · New York City · Pacific Ocean

Events: Columbian exchange

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