Iceland is a pretty small country, people-wise. There’s only around 300,000 people in total, and most of them are related. In Michael Lewis’s 2011 book Boomerang (on the global financial collapse. It’s really good!), he explains that there are only about nine surnames in the country, and everyone is listed in the phone book by their first names. And yes, they all know Bjork. “Yes, I know Bjork,” says a professor at the University of Iceland, whom Lewis interviews. “She can’t sing, and I know her mother from childhood, and they were both crazy. That she is so well known outside of Iceland tells me more about the world than it does about Bjork.”
Thanks to their generally closed society over the last 1,100 years and the fact that everyone has similar last names (ending in either -son or -dottir), dating and mating can be tricky. But a new app, which is loosely translated to mean Incest Prevention Alarm, is hoping to help Icelanders avoid sleeping with relations. Its slogan is “Bump the app before you bump in bed.” Keep reading »
