Iceland

Kathryn Requardt was bargaining for a trip to Iceland and a water adventure. Instead, she'll get 10 days in Yellowstone National Park, tracking bear and elk and investigating how geysers affect life in the middle of a continent, rather than on an island.The 14-year-old eighth-grader at St. Paul's School for Girls is one of 26 students in North America and the United Kingdom taking part in the eighth annual Jason Project, a hands-on science expedition that students and teachers in far-flung classrooms will watch.

I recently tuned in a television show about Scotland in which the narrator was discussing the largest "military tattoo."Can you give me information about this event?The program was probably showcasing the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which is held every August in Edinburgh as part of the annual International Festival of the Arts. An extravagant combination of music and ceremony, it takes place on the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle in the city's Old Town.The term "tattoo" supposedly derives from the cries of 17th-and 18th-century Low Country innkeepers, who, as the fifes and drums of the local regiment signaled a return to quarters, would cry, "Doe den tap toe!"

The Navy pulled the plug yesterday on the Naval Radio Transmitting Facility outside Annapolis, turning off the station that provided key defense communication through World War II, the Cold War and the Korean War.The transmitting station, recognizable by its three landmark "Eiffel Towers" on Greenbury Point, was commissioned in 1918 shortly before the end of World War I.The Navy held a brief ceremony to turn off the power after 78 years, said Elaine Cardone,...

A vacation stop in Iceland is warm-up for EuropeIcelandair European Vacations has just launched a complete travel guide for holidays in Iceland and Greenland. "The 1995 Iceland Vacation and Stopover Planner: The Discovery of Europe Starts Here," describes tours and packages in an easy-to-understand format. Called "Iceland Stopovers," the packages are designed to encourage travelers to make an island stopover before or after their trip to the rest of Europe.A five-hour flight from the East Coast of the United States, Iceland is known for its steaming volcanoes, bubbling earth-warmed springs, centuries-old glaciers and iceberg-clogged lagoons.

Norway has higher standards of living, welfare, environmental protection, agricultural subsidy and women's advancement than the 12-nation European Union, supported by oil and gas wealth and fish-rich coastal waters. Why would Norway share its wealth to obtain lower standards?Why, indeed? It won't. The negative vote in the advisory referendum on joining the European Union, Monday, insures that the parliament will keep Norway out of the EU when Finland, Sweden and Austria join on Jan. 1. It was probably the wrong decision, but only time will tell.

My first brush with these two islands hugging the Arctic Circle in the far North Atlantic was in elementary school. A geography teacher, pointing to an ancient map on the wall, tried to explain why an island covered almost entirely by a vast, continental icecap was called Greenland while another, teeming with volcanic activity, wildlife and spectacular waterfalls, was called Iceland.Was this the world's first real estate scam? It would take three decades before I'd get the chance to check it out myself.

I do not consider myself old-fashioned or a stickler for detail. I'm definitely not hung up on labels.But it seems to me -- and you tell me if I'm wrong -- that any team in the Canadian Football League should, by all rights, be based in Canada.Otherwise, what's the point? Isn't the french fry dependably French? Isn't cream cheese Philadelphian? There must be some agreed-upon, universal standards.I bring this up only because it has recently come to my attention that Baltimore has a team in the Canadian Football League.

James B. OsbornMath teacher, coachJames Bradley "Brad" Osborn, died Tuesday after a heart attack at his home in Bel Air. He was 44.He had been at Bel Air High for a year. For two years before that, he taught at Harford Technical High School, where he also was athletic director.He began his teaching career as a substitute teacher in the Baltimore County and Cecil County school systems, and from 1990 to 1991 at North Harford High School.He began coaching at North Harford in 1986 as an assistant baseball and football coach, and was named junior varsity coach in both sports in 1990.

New York-based conceptual artist Roni Horn, best known for her installations, in recent years has also published books based on the trips she's made to Iceland since 1975. These books, together with a set of drawings she made in Iceland a dozen years ago, form a small but effective exhibit called "Roni Horn: Inner Geography" at the Baltimore Museum of Art.Horn obviously has a deep and abiding sense of identity with Iceland, an island country whose treeless, icy landscape is covered with lava from still-active volcanoes.

There was little scientific about Thor Johannesson's choice of the United States as the place to spend a year as an exchange student."I could have gone anywhere in the world," said Johannesson. "I knew [the United States] is the land of basketball, and basketball is my life."Johannesson, from Iceland, is getting a crash course in American basketball at Westminster, where he plays guard for the Owls. He played well in preseason scrimmages and started the team's first two games.The native of Keflavik averaged 10 points per game last year playing for his hometown team.