icelandic cousin-popping alert

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  • Buzz
    Der Postmeister
    SPECIAL MEMBER
    Level 33 - New Superhero
    • Jan 2009
    • 4152

    icelandic cousin-popping alert

    The risk of Icelanders accidentally sleeping with a relative is apparently high enough to justify the creation of a smartphone app to help prevent it.

    Iceland isn't a big country. Most Icelanders are descended from the Norse and Celtic settlers that first began arriving on the island some time in the 700s and 800s, with few additions to the gene pool. Roughly two-thirds of its 320,000 population live in and around the capital, Reykjavík, so the chances that you're at least not-too-distantly-related to most of the strangers you walk past in the street are high. Or, indeed, someone you might meet in a bar and go home with.

    Part of the problem, beyond the small population, is that Icelandic naming conventions don't reflect someone's descendants. Neither patronymic or matronymic, instead each person's father's first name becomes the child's last name. Each new generation has a completely different name to the name of the generation that preceded it. Cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews -- all could have very different names.

    The solution to this? Developers from Sad Engineers Studios created ÍslendingaApp SES(Beta), an Android app that seeks to save any incredibly awkward revelations in the future by making things clear now. It uses as its resource Íslendingabók, an online genealogical database that contains records of more than 720,000 Icelanders going back 1,200 years using as many records (church documents, census information, and so on) as possible.

    The simple idea is to make those records easily available for people so they can figure out who they're related to. But the best feature is reserved for when two people who both have the app meet -- they both get their smartphones out and "bömp"(bump) them together. If they share a grandparent, the app will bring up an alert that it is most definitely not cool to go any further than a handshake with that person. The feature is called "Sifjaspellsspillir", or "Incest Spoiler".

    The app won a competition held to find the best use of the is site, according to the News of Iceland, which describes the "Incest Spoiler" as "a precious feature" that will prevent the situation where "someone goes all in with someone and then later runs into that person at a family gathering some other time". This is a situation, it claims, that "everyone has heard of (or experienced)". Well, sure, if you say so.

    The app has had almost 5,000 downloads since its launch a few days ago, and its 4.6/5 rating attests to it satisfying a craving clearly felt among Icelanders. However, at least one user has left a review that rues its timing: "If I'd had this in earlier maybe I would not go home with my aunt".

    Of course, all of humanity descends from a common ancestor, so technically we're all guilty of getting down with a relative of sorts. Many famous and respected people throughout history have ended up married to their first cousins, like HG Wells or Albert Einstein -- though the fate (and family tree) of Charles II of Spain should prove a warning to all of us of the health consequences of in-breeding.
    http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/...and-incest-app
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  • boredjedi
    Master
    SPECIAL MEMBER
    MODERATOR
    Level 35 - Rockin' Poster
    • Jun 2007
    • 6847

    #2
    Re: icelandic cousin-popping alert

    1,200 years
    And now they worry about it?
    http://eighteenlightyearsago.ytmnd.com/

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    • moomoo
      Trixie's ToyBoy
      SPECIAL MEMBER
      Level 27 - Little Pink Poster
      • Apr 2007
      • 1319

      #3
      Re: icelandic cousin-popping alert

      Originally posted by boredjedi
      And now they worry about it?
      Yeah I don't think going back that far is useful, I'd say anything beyond second cousin is fair game.
      sigpic

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      • chuft
        Stepher
        SPECIAL MEMBER
        MODERATOR
        Level 30 - Stepher
        • Dec 2007
        • 2951

        #4
        Re: icelandic cousin-popping alert

        Next they need one for sperm donors to keep them from accidentally porking their own daughters.
        l i t t l e s t e p h e r s

        Comment

        • boredjedi
          Master
          SPECIAL MEMBER
          MODERATOR
          Level 35 - Rockin' Poster
          • Jun 2007
          • 6847

          #5
          Re: icelandic cousin-popping alert

          Originally posted by chuft
          Next they need one for sperm donors to keep them from accidentally porking their own daughters.
          Mail order brides and grooms from Russia and Asia sounds like the best way to go
          http://eighteenlightyearsago.ytmnd.com/

          Comment

          • moomoo
            Trixie's ToyBoy
            SPECIAL MEMBER
            Level 27 - Little Pink Poster
            • Apr 2007
            • 1319

            #6
            Re: icelandic cousin-popping alert

            Originally posted by boredjedi
            Mail order brides and grooms from Russia and Asia sounds like the best way to go
            Or Dutch tourists. Maybe when I'm there I should unleash the sexy.
            sigpic

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            • boredjedi
              Master
              SPECIAL MEMBER
              MODERATOR
              Level 35 - Rockin' Poster
              • Jun 2007
              • 6847

              #7
              Re: icelandic cousin-popping alert

              Originally posted by moomoo
              Or Dutch tourists. Maybe when I'm there I should unleash the sexy.
              Iceland won't know what hit them
              http://eighteenlightyearsago.ytmnd.com/

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