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dist-epochtoday at 2:35 PM2 repliesview on HN

Reminds me of this classic article from Michael Lewis:

> Alcoa, the biggest aluminum company in the country, encountered two problems peculiar to Iceland when, in 2004, it set about erecting its giant smelting plant. The first was the so-called "hidden people"-or, to put it more plainly, elves-in whom some large number of Icelanders, steeped long and thoroughly in their rich folkloric culture, sincerely believe. Before Alcoa could build its smelter it had to defer to a government expert to scour the enclosed plant site and certify that no elves were on or under it. It was a delicate corporate situation, an Alcoa spokesman told me, because they had to pay hard cash to declare the site elf-free but, as he put it, "we couldn’t as a company be in a position of acknowledging the existence of hidden people."

https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/2009/4/wall-street-on...


Replies

voidUpdatetoday at 2:53 PM

If it's a legal requirement to have the government check for hidden people before you do building, why do they need to hide the fact they did it? I'm not a Christian but I'm pretty sure I'd still need to deconsecrate a church before knocking it down

show 2 replies
red_admiraltoday at 3:56 PM

I'm trying the imagine the scenario where the government official reports that elves have been found. On what evidence?