Nokia power

A quick progress note about the local scene. More on the conference later.

In Iceland, when you go to the pool for your morning swim and bath in "hot pots", you can rent a small locker, in which you can securely charge up your cell phone during your swim. You can pay for it with a coin or by text messaging to a certain number, after which the rental and charging fee will be deducted from your bank account. The locker has built into it three power cords with different connector attachments for the most popular cell phones, especially Nokia´s.

(Cell phones can also be used to pay for parking in municipal lots by text messaging.)

By the way, the pools are public and are considered an essential public service, right after schools, so every municipality has a least one. The water is heated geothermally, and people swim outdoors all year long, and it is a regular routine for many. The pool was comfortably warmer than the air on a cool 50 degree Farenheit morning. The hot tubs are ranked by temperature, starting at 38 degrees Celsius and rising in two degree increments from there. I felt a bit like the proverbial frog in a slowly heated pot of water as I went from one to the next. At 42 degrees, you really are fully cooked.