In Iceland, Tap Cellphones To Avoid Incest

Kozar_The_Malignant writes "Students at the University of Iceland have written an Android app that helps you avoid dating your cousins. The app accesses the Icelandic national genealogical database that contains information on all living citizens and their ancestors going back 1,100 years. Tapping two phones together will bring up an alert if you share a common grandparent." Just one of the consequences of having a population small enough (and well documented enough) to have a well-known genetic makeup.

Comments

Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you really need an app to tell you who's family?

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[GameboyRMH]

In high school one of the hottest girls who half the guys (including myself) had a boner for turned out to be a very distant relative of mine...only found out years later from my dad's family tree research hobby. Makes me feel a little better about not tapping that :-\

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Aguazul2]

In Iceland AFAIK people are called "Bob son of George" or "Mary daughter of John", so there aren't any surnames to make it obvious. It makes me wonder how the database can uniquely identify you, though. (I wonder at what stage in the dating/relationship procedure the phone tapping takes place -- you don't want to leave it too late, nor be in a rush and tap too early...)

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Anonymous Coward]

Iceland is one of the few places that still use the Ancient Germanic Naming (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_names). This is based upon your father's (or rarely mother's) first name.

Thus, if siblings lose contact with another, it is very possible their decedents would not know their cousins by name.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not tapping that?

Or not even registering in her consciousness as existing?

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[roc97007]

Not to be creepy or anything, but from a genetic standpoint, a distant relative would probably have been fine to date.

But I know what you mean. A Playmate from the late sixties is a distant relative of mine, and I was always a little creeped out by that centerfold.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[GameboyRMH]

Nah we were reasonably friendly. I was taking the slow "get laid or friend-zoned trying" approach while other guys were going for the "assault with pickup lines and see what sticks" strategy.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[roc97007]

Do you really need an app to tell you who's family?

Funny you mention that. Not to put too fine a point on it, but much of my family belong to a religion that promotes large families and careful genealogical records, and I found out one day entirely by accident that one of my co-workers, a thousand miles from my home town, was a first cousin. It can happen even in the US; I imagine it's a fairly common occurrence in a tiny country like Iceland.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[WaywardGeek]

Actually, it depends on the genetic diversity in the population. In some island cultures it became acceptable to for brothers to marry sisters. If everyone already pretty much has the same genes, that's fine, because serious receive genetic disorders have already been breeded out. In Iceland, it's likely less of a problem to marry a cousin than it would be in most of the USA.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[lister king of smeg]

also promiscuity of you parents could result in not know whose kid you are, or sperm doners, or maritel infidelity could mean the girl next door is your half sibling.
just because you have someones name and were raised by them does not mean you are related to them and by extension there family making this database fallible.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[CrimsonAvenger]

This word does not mean what you think it does...

decedents : someone who has died

Perhaps you meant "descendants"?

Good point about Iceland's naming conventions though - hadn't really thought about it, but if we used Ancient German Naming, I'd only know a couple of cousins were related if my Dad had told me so....

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[TheP4st]

In Iceland AFAIK people are called "Bob son of George" or "Mary daughter of John"

Almost right, it's "Bob son of George" and "Mary daughter of Jane"

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[SJHillman]

But at the same time, incest increases the chances of the remaining recessive genetic defects showing up in children and causing problems.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[SJHillman]

Of my 20 or so first cousins, only a little less than half have the same last name as I do, and that's largely because they're mostly males descended from my paternal grandfather. The rest of them have last names with origins from all over the globe. On my maternal side, I have nobody with the same last name as I do. Identifying relatives by name is a pretty poor way to do it.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[K. S. Kyosuke]

An average Icelander has something like a dozen sexual partners in life, seventy percent are happy with one-night stands. And children out of wedlock are no big deal there. Extrapolate from that.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[SilentStaid]

(I wonder at what stage in the dating/relationship procedure the phone tapping takes place -- you don't want to leave it too late, nor be in a rush and tap too early...)

Here in the US I usually tap it after 3 good dinner dates.

Re: Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Gilmoure]

Yup, here in New Mexico, just about any of the old family names are relatives, to one degree or another. Is one of th reasons my Mom and several of her sisters went out of state to find husbands. Our family photos now have us ranging from pale redheads through blond blue eys to dark brown with black hair. Kinda cool having a rainbow family. Doesn't make sense to look down on anyone due to how they look. Now, if they don't like chile...

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Anonymous Coward]

An average Icelander has something like a dozen sexual partners in life

No, an average icelandic have had 20 sexual partners. Btw, you don't count in a life-time because we rarely have that much data, you just count to the present day.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Anonymous Coward]

In iceland, kids will use the callname of their father as their last name. Aka, if Bob and Jane have 2 Kids George and Annie, those kids would be named George Bobsson and Annie Bobsdottir. Only if Jane, their mom, doesn't want the public to know for whatever reason, they have the option to take the female name and the kids would be named George Janesson and Annie Janesdottir.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Anonymous Coward]

I was taking the slow "get laid or friend-zoned trying" approach

There's only one result from that approach, still, it's better than the full assault. You've probably learned by now that something in between is better.

If you're suggesting there's no escape from the friend zone, there is. The secret is cold-turkey no-contact for a while (I haven't dialed in the exact timespan, but I've confirmed 1 year separation can do it), and improving your life in some way during that time (status based like better job, higher income, new car, but anything with growth helps like learning a new language, travelling, volunteering). Eventually reunite and all you gotta do is not be stupid and good times may not only be had, but you can actually build a relationship which is the whole point of pining for a friend (otherwise there are other ways to get a quickie or cheapie that won't pay off long run).

It works because the brain changes for attraction and chemistry are in different locations and fade at different rates. A friendzone situation has attraction in there, at least weakly (you don't have to be beautiful, but you definitely can't be a slob), but the problem isn't that the chemistry is missing but that it's negative. Improving your life without them adds to your confidence, shows that you don't need them (and thus wanting to share your life with them is a valuable gift and not you feeding off them), and sets up a vector that demonstrates that they should have gotten in on the ground floor but here's the next chance.

It's a lot of work but if you are friendzoned and you know them well enough you will be able to decide if the juice is worth the squeeze.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[TWX]

My paternal grandparents had close to 20 children over 25 years, of which my father was the last, and many of his older siblings also had huge families. There are three rural counties in the midwest that I had basically considered nonviable from a dating perspective.

Fortunately my parents moved several states away before I was born so it was not an issue.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Archangel Michael]

Extrapolate from that

Bjork is a sleazy slut????

Did I do that right?

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[ebno-10db]

Hopefully attractive Icelandic women find overweight balding middle age geeks exotic!

They definitely do.

Got my tickets, will arrive in Iceland by the end of the week!

Airline tickets? Waste of money. Much cheaper to hop on the back of a flying pig.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Pope]

Why not tap it? It's not like you were looking for a wife.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[ebno-10db]

it's "Bob son of George" and "Mary daughter of Jane"

You mean "Worf son of Mogh" is an Icelander?

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're suggesting there's no escape from the friend zone, there is

Escaping from the "friend zone" requires maturing enough to realize that women aren't just vending machines you put niceness tokens into until sex comes out.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Anonymous Coward]

this is now a spiderman thread

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[hobarrera]

Honestly, why?
If you reproduce with a close relative, there's a higher chance of some genetic flaws showing up. But just having [protected] sex with a distant cousin won't result in anything nasty. Heck, not even your sister would be an issue (unless you get here pregnant).
This used to be shuned upon because sex = kids. This isn't true anymore nowadays, since we have pills, condoms, etc. It's just inhereted taboo.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[GameboyRMH]

It's kinda icky, closer relatives are VERY icky...you'd do your sister with a condom? 8-|

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[nitehawk214]

Using standard family names only children of brothers of your father would have the same last name as you. So for most people the vast majority of their cousins would not have the same name. (In my case none at all, my father only has sisters.)

All of my family for the past 3 generations are from towns in Western Pennsylvania, which has a population of nearly 4 million. Today in the United States people are far more mobile, I have family members from my generation living in a dozen states, all of us grew up in the same town. Even living in the one large city in the same region, the chances of me even meeting someone from my hometown are remote, let alone someone actually related to me.

Now, compare this to an island nation with just over 300,000 residents and low immigration. The chances of you randomly meeting someone just 2 generations removed from you are very high.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[FuzzNugget]

Oh, and all this time, I thought they just picked letters out of a Scrabble bag.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Anonymous Coward]

Lies.

You definitely can put tokens in girls and get sex out. Although they usually prefer direct deposit.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, that's Poland.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Anonymous Coward]

And at least two of mine are hot enough to "tap". Which makes me think of maple syrup. WTF?

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Anonymous Coward]

Would and HAVE! As a 14 year old horny bot, I'd have done the pooch had it been female.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[ProzacPatient]

I think the friend-zone phenomena is typically a result of, or combination thereof; immature women (esp. teenagers), women who knowingly take advantage and men who have a self-image problem.
On the other hand there are men who do actually believe you can put niceness tokens in until sex comes out and women can typically spot that from a mile away.
And then from personal experience there are cases where a man genuinely loves a woman to the point he would lay down his life for hers but she continually pushes him aside; it's not a nice place to be in, it's emotionally frustrating and generally not worth putting up with so the parent comment's suggestion of separation is not a bad idea because it'll give you time to breathe, mature and maybe she'll realize what she lost.. or not but you'll be better off as a free man from such emotional tyranny.


Last but not least is a tidbit from the Bible; "The heart is more treacherous than anything else and is desperate. Who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9).
Listening to ones heart often leads to irrational decisions and therefore many regrets so the Bible again councils; "thinking ability itself will keep guard over you, discernment itself will safeguard you," (Proverbs 2:11). How wise it is to think before you feel!

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[femtobyte]

Advantages/disadvantages to genetic traits tend to be quite asymmetric. There aren't "super good" genes in the "plus" category that are both rare and confer a big positive genetic advantage when they come together --- since evolutionary pressures assure that any "big plus" traits get spread around to the whole population (it's unlikely that your close family group exclusively has some "superman genes" unavailable from mates from the wider population). However, there are lots of rare "super bad" gene combinations, that cause really terrible results when they (rarely) come together.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Anonymous Coward]

per your advice, you've suggested:
1. stopping what you're doing wrong
2. making yourself into a better person.

Wow, who would have thought

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Anonymous Coward]

Putting niceness tokens in women is just a way to make yourself suffer. You make an emotional investment each time and her interest in you declines the more you do it. Treating a girl like shit is the most likely way to get her attracted to you. Very sad but very true.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[MozeeToby]

My wife has around 170 first cousins, plus god only knows how many second cousins and first cousins once removed. Sometimes families get big.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Anonymous Coward]

Naming isn't complex. It's the same as it was in English.

Say we have a guy named John. His son will be named "Johnson", which is literally "son of John". All nordic languages used to do that, including English (which originates much more from Norse than people realize). However to help keep track of families a new naming law stated that children should be named the same as the father. As a result people are still named "son of" even when their fathers were called something else. This gives a snapshot of what men were called when the laws were introduced. It would appear that half of Sweden was named "Sven".
The idea of having fixed last names rather than father names came into Scandinavia from Germany. However while it happens really early (14th century... I think), it didn't became law until the 19th century and the common man used the nordic naming until in some cases 50 years after the new naming law. News of laws travelled very slowly to rural areas if they didn't want to adopt them ;)

The Icelandic surfixes are -son and -dottir (daughter).

There is also a tradition to name the two first borns of each gender after the grandparents. This makes it possible to use the same two names for generations where they toggle between first and last names. In that case a man's children will have the same last name as his father, but not himself.

Phonebooks are sorted based on name. This means in Iceland they are sorted based on first name because the last name isn't a name at all, it's a description.

As the last name is a description, it is kept all life even though people marry. Giving the name to a wife is just as silly as "Larry the tall one" giving his "last name" to the dwarf he married.

Being a description, it could historically be replaced with another description, like instead of "Bob Johnson", it could be "Bob on the hilltop farm". I admit I haven't seen this in Iceland, but it was used in Scandinavia before last names became fixed, even on official documents. After all only one farm had that name and it only had one Bob, meaning it was unique naming, while there could be 3 "Bob Johnson"s in the area. While it made perfect sense to people at the time, it leaves a problem today if we don't know where each of them lived. "Bob Johnson on the hilltop farm" was also used.

While this is likely very confusing to people used to fixed last names, it's actually not confusing to people knowing the system. As non-confusing as it may be to people knowing the system, it does really fail to provide clues to indicate unknown cousins. However I would say that the fixed naming is flawed as well. Imagine your dad's sister. She could gain her husbands name and as such you wouldn't identify her children as your cousins based on the last name.

The only real flaw is.... maybe I'm old fashioned, but I never considered risking ending up with an unknown relative without knowing it simply because I like to know a person better before risking ending up with a child (don't get started on using rubber. Nothing is 100% safe). Also Iceland is very aware of family meaning people not knowing their own cousins is.... well I wouldn't expect that. Either this is a really new problem or the problem is mainly one for people doing one night stands while their parents/grandparents did the same.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[quarterbuck]

Not really. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_name " Mary daughter of Jane is the uncommon version".

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[tsotha]

Heh heh. My Mother's family comes from a rural area that doesn't see much migration over time. Her dad was about to go on a second date with a girl from the next town over when she brought him home to meet her parents. He looks on the mantle and says "Hey, how do you know uncle Albert and cousin Bob?"

Turns out they were second cousins and the date never happened. I think anything farther removed than first cousins is legal in the US, but that's not the same thing as not being icky.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[tsotha]

That implies that the average over a lifetime is more like 30, then.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[cayenne8]

Escaping from the "friend zone" requires maturing enough to realize that women aren't just vending machines you put niceness tokens into until sex comes out.

I take it you don't get laid much....or are not a guy.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[cayenne8]

An average Icelander has something like a dozen sexual partners in life,

That doesn't sound terribly high...

Isn't the average in the US (at least for men) much higher than that? I mean, especially if you're talking lifetime?

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[bdwebb]

Oh if only I had mod points.

This is unequivocally true for a significant portion of women through a large span of their lives. You don't necessarily need the tokens to get to the eventual goal of sexy time but they can help significantly. This is also true for most men although the tokens are not usually required...just some beer and attention.

Ultimately if you are looking for a relationship, tokens don't work out well for anything meaningful. If you are just looking for something warm and squishy, however, tokens can be your best resource if you are making no progress without them. When it comes down to it, a combination of confidence and tokens yields the highest result because without any of the confidence part of the equation, the tokens only work on those women whose profession requires accepting those tokens.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Genda]

The heart wants what the heart wants -- Woody Allen

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, the friend-zone phenomenon is typically a result of one or more of the following conditions:

1) Men who don't realize how singularly unattractive they are -- sometimes, she's just not into you because you're fat, nerdy, gross, or simply... not her type. This doesn't make her any more shallow than you - when's the last time you went after a fat, sweaty girl with a hairy upper lip, telling your friends, "Sure she's not very pretty, but I can see that she's just such an amazing person that I must have her!"?

2) Men who confuse "having an agenda" with being "genuinely nice, lovable people" -- if you're being nice expecting to get laid, you have an agenda. If you have an agenda, she knows it, because you don't have ANYWHERE NEAR a good enough poker face to fool a woman.

3) Men who confuse "being a pussy" with "being nice" -- treating her like you're a servant is fucking stupid.

The guys who whine about "friend zones" are the ones who simply don't know how to look at themselves honestly, and realize that there is no way on earth the girl they're pining for is every going to want to get naked with them - barring some significant and sweeping changes to the man's appearance, demeanor, and lifestyle.

I know I'll get shouted down for daring to criticize the men in this situation, but if you're an ugly doormat hoping that "being nice" will someday turn into sex, you should learn to self-examine with half as much ferocity as you criticize the women who are turning you down.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it's not true at all.

You confuse "being a doormat" with "being nice." All those guys who you think are assholes for not treating a girl the way you would? They're treating a girl like the girl is an EQUAL, not some sort of rare, fragile flower that will die the instant you disagree with it.

The guys who think "treating a girl like shit" is the way to get a girl are simply rationalizing - they've never learned how to deal with a woman as an equal, and a human, so they put her on a pedestal and revere her from afar. And then get bitter when she doesn't break her fucking legs running at you with her panties pulled aside.

YOU lot are the ones behaving like assholes - you have unfair, unrealistic expectations of how the woman should behave, and then you blame HER for your own shortcomings.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Anonymous Coward]

I wouldn't, but that's not the point. Consider two siblings who do want to sex each other. If reasonable precautions are taken w/r/t birth control, provide a logical (rather than emotional "it's icky") response as to why it should not be allowed. After all, interracial marriages were once considered 'icky' -- and illegal, as recently as 50 years ago. Homosexuals are making strides as we speak, but are still considered 'icky' by large segments of the populace.
Emotional views of relationships change over time, so it is better to base such morality issues on reason and logic. Logically, there's no reason why consenting adults, whatever their relationship, should not be allowed to marry (with the possible caveat w/r/t reproduction).

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[rmdingler]

One of the more interesting fictional instances of genealogy I've encountered is found in the Anne Rice Vampire Novels: family trees are kept by the matriarchal method only. It's Momma's baby, but Daddy's maybe.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[bill_mcgonigle]

you'd do your sister with a condom?

I question your use of the conditional tense here.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[cheekyjohnson]

there's a higher chance of some genetic flaws showing up

So? The baby wouldn't even exist otherwise, so it's not as if it was somehow harmed, and by no means is that even certain. I see where you're going, but I believe "If you don't like it, don't do it." applies either way.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[dwye]

but if we used Ancient German Naming, I'd only know a couple of cousins were related if my Dad had told me so....

But, if we still used Ancient German Naming, you would be taught to memorize your ancestors generations back, and would know most of your second cousins (at least) by sight. The AGN Method falls apart once relatives cease caring about being related, and stop visiting each other.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[dwye]

On the contrary, because your parents moved away, you might accidentally run into a relative whose parents also moved away, but because you didn't grow up knowing them (and that they were out of bounds), you might have run into one and ...

See Sigmund and Signy Wolsung, and Arthur Pendragon and Morgan leFay, for this sort of problem.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Uberbah]

Escaping from the "friend zone" requires maturing enough to realize that women aren't just vending machines you put niceness tokens into until sex comes out.

/rolls eyes

Escaping from the "dating zone" requires women maturing enough to realize that men aren't just vending machines you put niceness tokens into until money comes out.

Or, we could deal with the fact that human beings, of either gender, tend to be given shitty dating advise from society and social circles. But why waste time on that when you can pigeonhole people with sexist stereotypes?

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[elashish14]

Highly unlikely, Scrabble bags don't have a 1/4 chance of producing a Z.

(okay, maybe Polish Scrabble bags do)

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[TriezGamer]

Sort-of close. 7 out of 100 tiles are some variant on Z in Polish Scrabble. I have no idea how important the distinction is between them, knowing nothing about Polish myself.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Cito]

Everyone knows knocking boots with family is Wincest!

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[VeryBest52]

This.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[LongearedBat]

Or... it may be an instinct, that evolved to reduce inbreeding, that causes one to feel disgust at the thought of breeding with a close relative.

One can override ones instinctual behaviour, but instinctual feelings aren't based on intelligence and so are not affected by logic.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Guppy]

you don't want to leave it too late, nor be in a rush and tap too early...

Yeah, I sometimes tap too early when playing rush decks also, but the more lethal mistake is to wait too long and let things drag out into mid-game, where your deck type loses its natural advantage vs. slower (but more deliberate) deck designs.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Jane Q. Public]

"If you're suggesting there's no escape from the friend zone, there is. The secret is cold-turkey no-contact for a while (I haven't dialed in the exact timespan, but I've confirmed 1 year separation can do it), and improving your life in some way during that time (status based like better job, higher income, new car, but anything with growth helps like learning a new language, travelling, volunteering)."

Dude, if she's dating you because you're making more money, or because you've changed in other "keeping up with the Joneses" ways, you're doing it wrong.

Welcome to the wonderful world of bad marriages.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Jane Q. Public]

"All those guys who you think are assholes for not treating a girl the way you would? They're treating a girl like the girl is an EQUAL, not some sort of rare, fragile flower that will die the instant you disagree with it."

I do agree with the rare flower bit. But no. While some people do confuse the doormat thing, I don't thing GP did.

Most of those guys you think treat girls like assholes, are assholes. You can blame the girl for falling for that crap.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Jane Q. Public]

s/thing/think

But I really have seen it lots of times: football player, or rich kid, or whatever, has women swooning all over him so he can act like an asshole and often get away with it. Both parties are at fault. Him for acting that way, her for putting up with it. What is this, the 50s?

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[PPH]

Eventually reunite

Or not. The whole thing about separating and "improving your life" includes meeting new people. A year later and you and she (or he) may have done just this and moved on.

Relationships are about shared experiences (friends, lovers or whatever). If you avoid someone for a year (or more) you might just find that the two of you have moved in different directions.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Genda]

Watching Slashotters talking about women is like watching pygmies talking about slam dunking. It's so dang entertaining! Oh, Don't stop! I got popcorn.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[egilhh]

sperm doners

I'll never eat kebabs at your house.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Jane Q. Public]

Read my name again.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[wisnoskij]

Everyone is distantly related to everyone else....

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[GameboyRMH]

Emotional ickyness is all the reason I need, you guys have fun defending sibling-on-sibling incest with cold hard logic, I'll just hang back.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Hognoxious]

I suspect S, H, I, T, P, L, U, M, B, E, and R are quite common too.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Jane Q. Public]

"You mean your anonymous pseudonym? For all we know, you could be a man posing as a woman on the internet."

And for all WE know, you're actually a coward.

So what's your point?

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Jane Q. Public]

"Your pseudonym isn't evidence that you're actually a woman, and it's silly to treat it as such."

And your pseudonym is no evidence that you're not a coward, and it's silly to pretend as much.

Repeat: what's your point? Granted, my name does not "prove" anything, but I didn't claim it did. Still, do you have any evidence to the contrary? If not, your argument is pointless.

On the other hand, I would say that repeatedly posting under "Anonymous Coward" is prima facie evidence of real cowardice.

Re:Don't you know who your cousins are?

[Jane Q. Public]

"Then your admonition to "read my name again" seems equally pointless."

???

No, because I have evidence. Apparently you don't.

"Tap" phones?

[denzacar]

"Tapping" anything seems to me like a very poor choice of words when talking about incest.

Re:"Tap" phones?

[coldsalmon]

Also, a very poor choice of words when talking about phones. "Tapping" a phone doesn't usually mean bumping two phones together.

Re:"Tap" phones?

[interkin3tic]

Also seems like it could be super awkward from start to finish.

Scenario one: You think you're hitting it off. You suggest tapping phones. You find out you weren't hitting it off.

Scenario two: You are actually hitting it off. You think tapping phones would be good so you don't spend too much time wooing someone who may turn out to be a closer relative than you'd like. The other party was having a good time, but now it's a little more obvious that you want to mash genitals together, and there's increased sexual tension, making it more stressful for them or for you, and you ruin it.

Scenario three: You are hitting it off, have successfully navigated increasing sexual tension, not too fast and not too slow. You are about to start making out, but then you decide to check. This kills the mood.

Scenario four: you hit it off, you don't rush things, you don't kill the pre-makeout mood, you're already swapping saliva. You check right before putting on the condom. Network lag, it takes a few minutes before you get the results back, the guy becomes nervous in the meantime, and can't perform.

Scenario five: you hit it off, you don't rush things, you don't kill the pre-makeout mood, you check while putting on the condom... and it's positive, you two are second cousins twice removed or something. I think it's second cousins who can, statistically speaking, reproduce and their chances of having recessive alleles show up is not any more likely than someone who is not related, so it's not inbreeding genetically. But it's still... weird. Do you go ahead and screw? Do you look up on wiki examples of other couples who were related in the same way?

Scenario six: you're already married, and your wife is going into labor with your first born. It takes quite a while, and you're bored, so you test this on a lark and... oops... you're twins separated at birth. Awkward.

Re:"Tap" phones?

[GameboyRMH]

Scenario 5.5: You're approaching climax when your phone gets knocked off the side table and hits hers on the floor. The app makes the banjo tune noise that indicates you're related...just as you both reach the height of passion 8-(

Re:"Tap" phones?

[interkin3tic]

Scenario seven: you're some royal line, trying to keep the Iron throne in the family. You jokingly check phones. Uh oh, someone was actually adopted...

Re:"Tap" phones?

[Anonymous Coward]

Besides, this whole app idea is impractical.

Better to just outsource all potentially sexual dating in Iceland to yours truly, I'm not Icelandic.
%100 percent incest protection. Because I care.

Re:"Tap" phones?

[Hoi Polloi]

Oh, AVOID incest. I got confused too.

Re:"Tap" phones?

[OakDragon]

Can I tap that? That app will tell you if that should be tapped.

Re:"Tap" phones?

[OakDragon]

If it's a Windows phone, it's called "bumping uglies."

Re:"Tap" phones?

[jgtg32a]

Not really

Be safe tap phones not cousins.

Re:"Tap" phones?

[Anonymous Coward]

Marketing slogan: Tap the glass before you tap the a$$

Re:"Tap" phones?

[saider]

Followed by Ballmer squirting his data.

Re:"Tap" phones?

[sootman]

Scenario 7: Meet, hit it off, do it, then check the next day.

Re:"Tap" phones?

[Tyler Durden]

Scenario five: you hit it off, you don't rush things, you don't kill the pre-makeout mood, you check while putting on the condom... and it's positive, you two are second cousins twice removed or something

Not to ruin the joke or anything, but if the second cousins are twice removed then they're typically off by a couple generations. The age discrepancy would be awkward enough.

Re:"Tap" phones?

[K. S. Kyosuke]

I thought one would be tapping ravens in this scenario? (Which could actually get quite dangerous if the ravens decide that they don't like it.)

Re:"Tap" phones?

[TWX]

Our school district preggo school was called "TAPP". Apparently it stood for "TeenAge Pregnancy Program"...

I'm curious as to which overpaid PhD thought of that one...

Re:"Tap" phones?

[the grace of R'hllor]

Why? I certainly start out safe even if I'm quite enthusiastic about the future.

Re:"Tap" phones?

[GrBear]

Eh, I don't think tapping the ass is the issue with incest.

Re:"Tap" phones?

[interkin3tic]

Wait... what? Nevermind, I don't want to know.

Re:"Tap" phones?

[interkin3tic]

Still creepy. Also, I actually made a typeo, I started to change it to be gender neutral halfway through without realizing it. On the other hand, I didn't specify who was putting on the condom. Or maybe "the guy" means your penis.

Re:"Tap" phones?

[tsotha]

Heh heh. I was just gonna point that out. It's not impossible they could be near the same age, but it's not very likely either.

Re:"Tap" phones?

[michelcolman]

This kind of advice is what gets so many blond girls pregnant.

Re:"Tap" phones?

[michelcolman]

But then they'll need a new app for keeping your offspring from dating each other.

Re:"Tap" phones?

[pne]

Not to ruin the joke or anything, but if the second cousins are twice removed then they're typically off by a couple generations. The age discrepancy would be awkward enough.

Not necessarily. I'm sure you've heard of uncles who are younger than their nephews (Mary has her son Bob at 16, Mary's parents get another son Charles 17 years after Mary was born, Charles is Bob's uncle despite being a year younger).

Once you're as far away as "second cousin", the "twice removed" need not imply "a lot younger" -- it all depends how long the generations tended to be in the two branches of the family.

The Test

[revoemag4]

Tap that before you tap that.

Nightmare

[jomama717]

"I awoke in a daze - sticky, smelling of stale alcohol, only imagining that her head would hurt as badly as mine when she finally awoke.  Vague memories of drinks, friends, laughter, and sex.  Lots of sex.  As I picked my pants up off the floor, my cell phone fell from the pocket and by some cruel twist of fate tapped her cell phone lying nearby..."

No incest

[Anonymous Coward]

Having sex with your cousin is not incest. Incest is defined to be with direct 1st degree relatives of the same bloodline. You can even marry your cousin - perfectly legal. At least in Germany.

Re:No incest

[femtobyte]

As your "At least in Germany" caveat notes, this is highly dependent on jurisdiction (for the legal definition) and cultural norms (for the "eww-that's-gross" definition). In the US, for example, definitions vary at the state level, and first cousins are forbidden to marry in some states. Also variable is how laws cover adopted/step-parent (no biological bloodline) family members.

Re:No incest

[Anonymous Coward]

Even more amusing is that states regularly slagged for being full of "inbred racist rednecks" - such as: Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia, and others... ban marriage of first cousins.

The list of states that allow first cousin marriage include "forward thinking" places like California, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Washington DC, and Oregon. Can't wait to hear the inbreeding jokes about those states!

Q: How do you tell if someone is from California?
A: The hemophilia, mostly.

Re:No incest

[bickerdyke]

Or differ between Springfield and Shelbyville.

Re:No incest

[Anonymous Coward]

Things often get banned in response to being pervasive and problematic, and permitted where they're too infrequent to cause widespread public concern. I'm totally unsurprised that the "redneck" states found the need for lots of restrictive inbreeding laws.

Re:No incest

[istartedi]

Looking at a map is interesting. You're wrong about Oregon. The social divides on this issue aren't as clear-cut as they would be on other issues..

Re:No incest

[Tyler Durden]

That and the age of consent in Germany is 14.

Re:No incest

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Even more amusing is that states regularly slagged for being full of "inbred racist rednecks" - such as: Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia, and others... ban marriage of first cousins.

Now if only you cared enough to explain us what has inbreeding ever had to do with marriage...?

Re:No incest

[SilentStaid]

I blame the Internet for raising me from a young age to not be surprsed that a such thing as a 'Cousin-dating-law-colored-map-of-Oregon' even exists, let alone that you were able to Google it in 30 seconds.

Internet, what have you done?

Re:No incest

[dgatwood]

Wrong. Things are banned where they're considered *problematic* and permitted where they're NOT considered *problematic.*

Right.

Clearly, this means that liberals have decided that fucking your cousin is A-OK, despite the fact that it increases the chance of genetic defects in the children of that union.

Wrong. Marrying your cousin is unlikely to cause problems—the risk is only slightly higher than the risk in the general population. What causes problems is repeated inbreeding of close relatives over the course of several generations.

The fundamental thing you're missing is why incest is a problem in southern states. In the South, people don't move around that much. Most of the folks you meet are third, fourth, fifth generation residents of a given town. And the ones who aren't are usually from a couple of towns over. This means that there's a very high probability of being related to many of the people you meet. Left alone, this would result in significant inbreeding problems within just a few generations. Therefore, cousin marriages are problematic.

In California, most of the people you meet are transplants from somewhere else. This means that there's almost zero probability of being related to anyone you meet. Therefore, first cousin marriages are not problematic in California, not because they won't ever be problematic if they occurred, but because they're about as likely as the Cubs winning the world series, and because the probability of multigenerational inbreeding (the real problem) is basically zero.

Re:No incest

[TheNastyInThePasty]

A 14 year old dog is getting pretty old...

Re:No incest

[PRMan]

Interesting how states can void other states' marriages based on their own laws regarding cousins. Couldn't they do the same regarding gay marriage? And if not, why not?

Re:No incest

[tnk1]

Well... actually, these are pretty conservative and Christian (with a capital Fundamentalist) areas. There is no breeding without a marriage. Although sometimes, the marriage happens after the conception and the grand tradition of the father with the shotgun welcoming his new son-in-law.

Re:No incest

[CrimsonAvenger]

Although sometimes, the marriage happens after the conception

It is well known that an eager young bride can do in six months what takes a cow or countess nine....

Re:No incest

[ameoba]

Iceland has a population of 300k people - Germany has 15 cities larger than that. There's very little immigration. Most are descended from a few small groups of settlers.

Genetic diversity is a bit of a concern there.

Re:No incest

[dgatwood]

Wrong on all counts. I was born and lived for the first 22 years of my life in the rural South. Even living in a college town, I'd estimate that probably about half of my Facebook friends from my high school still live within about a 100 mile radius of my home town, give or take. And historically, the percentages have been even higher than that in many parts of the south—particularly in Appalachia.

Re:No incest

[Uberbah]

Couldn't they do the same regarding gay marriage? And if not, why not?

Or, you could try reading up on terms like "discrimination" or "false equivalency" and try again with a relevant comparison....

Re:No incest

[GrumpySteen]

Things often get banned in response to being pervasive and problematic

And then there's the TSA, who ban inconsequential, commonplace things to make it look like they're doing something. 12 ounce bottle of water? Terrorist! 4 small 3 ounce bottles of water in a plastic bag? Patriot!

Re:No incest

[dwye]

Interesting how states can void other states' marriages based on their own laws regarding cousins. Couldn't they do the same regarding gay marriage? And if not, why not?

In fact, they cannot void another state's marriages or divorces, due to the Full Faith And Credit clause in the Constitution. Once married in one state (A), a marriage must be recognized by any other state (B-ZX), even if the marriage partners could not enter into a marriage in that state (B). Thus, when some states allowed marriage as early as 14, all states had to recognize those marriages as legal (I'm looking at YOU, Jerry Lee Lewis) even though their own residents might still be below the age of consent, let alone marriage. Likewise, if two people were recognized as being in a common law marriage in state P, they are married in states that no longer recognize it (even if the same state, as older marriages are grandfathered in). If one state chose to change incest laws to recognize the marriage of Abraham and Sarah of Biblical fame, any marriages between half-siblings made in that state would be legal marriages in all. Likewise, if a state recognized any form of polygamy, or whatever else one could imagine.

The recognized exception is Louisiana, which because its civil law is based on the Napoleonic Code, does not recognize existing first cousin marriages legally entered into even in states where it was legal when the couple married. There are other differences, but I am not a member of the Louisiana State Bar, to list them all. :-)

The Defense of Marriage Act limits this recognition of marriages to only those between a man and a woman. It was created so that an activist judge in one state could not force every other state to recognize gay marriages; it also works to prevent activist legislatures, etc. If Constitutional, it means that those marriages are only recognized in those states that choose to accept them.

Re:No incest

[dwye]

Well... actually, these are pretty conservative and Christian (with a capital Fundamentalist) areas. There is no breeding without a marriage.

(boldface mine)

Seriously? And I suppose, in the Middle Ages, there were no illegitimate births because these were against Church Law, and all Europe recognized the supremacy of the Pope? And no Californian has sex before 18, the age of consent, despite researchers claiming that the average age is around 15?

Frankly, that these states have more Fundamentalists implies to me that they are more likely to pass laws that their people are unlikely to obey (like bourbon is made sometimes in counties and states where it cannot be legally sold for retail or consumed), but are believed to be for their own good. This also applies to Liberal Fundamentalists, who would ban smoking any cigarettes except those made from marijuana,

Re:No incest

[michelcolman]

That's entirely logical, it's common knowledge, with plenty of legal precedent, that having sex with someone is worse than killing them.

Re:No incest

[cheekyjohnson]

Clearly, this means that liberals have decided that fucking your cousin is A-OK, despite the fact that it increases the chance of genetic defects in the children of that union.

You don't have to have a baby, and even if you did decide to have one, it is by no means certain that something would be wrong with him/her. If you don't like it, just don't do it; don't try to restrict others' freedoms.

Re:No incest

[Hognoxious]

I presume that's because they allow it between siblings. I mean, cousins? Those are practically foh-rye-gunners!

They touched phones...to start.

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

> In Iceland, Tap Cellphones To Avoid Incest

"Well, that's what we thought they'd use it for. Turns out 99% of people used it to find close relatives they didn't know to bang."

Niche-ist of the niche apps

[a_big_favor]

This app might be one of the most specific uses for a very specific set of people that probably wouldn't use it that often.

Re:Niche-ist of the niche apps

[OhSoLaMeow]

A few more beers and you're not going to care in either case.

Gives an added conotation to....

[mark-t]

... "I'd tap that".

I'm not sure if that's coincidental, or intended.

Re:It will be very successful app in West Virginia

[GameboyRMH]

I think it will be *least* popular in West Virginia...don't ask, don't tell XD

Great quote from "A good year"

[Bearhouse]

Guy 1: "Is it illegal to shag your cousin in France?"
Guy 2: "Only if she's ugly."

Interestingly different attitudes to cousin love...some places it's encouraged, others, illegal incest.
10% of marriages worldwide, apparantly...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin_marriage

Re:Great quote from "A good year"

[Bearhouse]

Nah mate, 'Max Skinner' played by Russell Crowe

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401445/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

But it's clearly something GD would be capable of saying ;)

Re:Great quote from "A good year"

[LiquidHAL]

They even made a movie about it, Les Cousins Dangereux.

I like the way they think.

Re:Great quote from "A good year"

[Rob the Bold]

They even made a movie about it, Les Cousins Dangereux.

I like the way they think.

I prefer the American remake. A lot shorter, and not nearly as creepy.

cool app

[Rogue Haggis Landing]

Without reading TFA, this actually seems like a cool app (if you're Icelandic, that is). It would be interesting to be able to press a button and see how closely related you are to your friends -- "Hey our great-great-great grandmothers were half-sisters!" Things like that. It would be mostly meaningless, but who doesn't want to know who's in the (very) extended family?

Re:cool app

[K. S. Kyosuke]

It would be mostly meaningless, but who doesn't want to know who's in the (very) extended family?

It would only be meaningless if you think that feeling connected to someone is meaningless. I wouldn't!

Re:cool app

[PolygamousRanchKid]

It would be interesting to be able to press a button and see how closely related you are to your friends

It would be interesting to be able to press a button and see how closely related you are to your parents.

This app is based on written records. Maybe some folks were a little shy with the truth when it came to saying who was the father of the child . . . ?

My family tree has routing loops . . .

Re:cool app

[Anonymous Coward]

As one ,,reporting" from Iceland I can confirm that the making of the database did reveal some embarrassing facts regarding family structure, especially for the older generations. Most of the older records and information used in the database come from so-called church books (before 1900) and national birth registry information. In some cases the information was correctly recorded but hush hush-ed within families to be later revealed with this database. In other cases the identity of the father was ... adjusted for the birth certificates, making it not as an obvious lie, when looking up info in the database...

I have heard about cases where people send a complaint to the database management regarding information on their families.. just to be told the truth about their grandmas and grandpas...

Hopefully this was insightful :)

Re:cool app

[BotnetZombie]

My family tree has routing loops . . .

Ah, the McFlys. Someone is his own grandfather perhaps?

Could be useful...

[cmdr_klarg]

Had a similar situation happen to me in college... had first met this girl at a restaurant where she was a waitress. Later on we ended up in the same class, so one day we got together for study time (and to get to know each other better), and I found out her full name at that time. Turns out her last name was the same as my mom's maiden name.

Long story short: After a very short conversation about relatives we found out that my mom and her dad were 1st cousins. Doh! I have never been so disappointed as I was then... :P

Re:Could be useful...

[CrimsonAvenger]

Long story short: After a very short conversation about relatives we found out that my mom and her dad were 1st cousins. Doh! I have never been so disappointed as I was then... :P

Second cousins, then. Biologically, that makes you basically complete strangers....

Re:Could be useful...

[lister king of smeg]

from a genetic standpoint you were safe
sibling share on average what 23 chromosomes :. offspring have and average of 12 dupes
1st cousins share 12 :. 6 dupes
2nd cosines share 6 :. 3 dupes
add in mutation rate in humans of 175 nucleotides per generation per chromosome, and you safe as long as you don't have a family doing it for multiple generations.
socially however you would be frowned upon.

Re:Could be useful...

[K. S. Kyosuke]

After a very short conversation about relatives we found out that my mom and her dad were 1st cousins. Doh! I have never been so disappointed as I was then... :P

Must be cultural. If you had half a brain, you'd seize the opportunity.

Re:Could be useful...

[cmdr_klarg]

from a genetic standpoint you were safe
sibling share on average what 23 chromosomes :. offspring have and average of 12 dupes
1st cousins share 12 :. 6 dupes
2nd cosines share 6 :. 3 dupes
add in mutation rate in humans of 175 nucleotides per generation per chromosome, and you safe as long as you don't have a family doing it for multiple generations.
socially however you would be frowned upon.

True, however once the two of us realized the truth it was an instant turn-off for both of us.

Re:Could be useful...

[cmdr_klarg]

Long story short: After a very short conversation about relatives we found out that my mom and her dad were 1st cousins. Doh! I have never been so disappointed as I was then... :P

Second cousins, then. Biologically, that makes you basically complete strangers....

We actually were complete strangers at first. Finding out that we were 2nd cousins put full reverse on any budding relationship. Damn shame too, she was cute, smart, and a personality that meshed well with mine. Oh well...

Re:Could be useful...

[cmdr_klarg]

Must be cultural. If you had half a brain, you'd seize the opportunity.

True. Fortunately I have a whole brain.

Re:Could be useful...

[K. S. Kyosuke]

True. Fortunately I have a whole brain.

Obviously, you're very good at hiding it! You'd make a good spy.

Re:Could be useful...

[cmdr_klarg]

Obviously, you're very good at hiding it! You'd make a good spy.

It's a gift.

Re:Could be useful...

[dwye]

Second cousins (what you too were) is only incest among the Brahmins of India (where it is apparently incestuous out to 7th cousins), and that only by custom, not law. Genetically, she might be any stranger of the same ethnic group. Of course, if second cousin is too close to you, it is too close, but that is a matter of choices, not law or genetics.

Genetic Makeup

[Rob Riggs]

New, from Mabeline.

Re:Genetic Makeup

[Anonymous Coward]

You know, I always thought Mabeline was a disease. You know... Maybe she's got it? Maybe it's Mabeline?

Hardly groundbreaking discoveries

[Anaerin]

If you go back far enough, you'll find that you are related to Charlemagne, or Ghandi. The higher you go up your family tree, the more parents, and parents' parents appear, in an (almost) exponential spread. Well, unless you're part of the royal family, or in the deep south of the US, where family trees tend to be a lot... slimmer...

Re:Hardly groundbreaking discoveries

[CrimsonAvenger]

If you go back far enough, you'll find that you are related to Charlemagne, or Ghandi.
.
.
Well, unless you're part of the royal family, or in the deep south of the US, where family trees tend to be a lot... slimmer...

And oddly enough, I am both descended from Charlemagne (according to a great-aunt who did some genealogy research several decades ago), and from the Deep South (though I only lived there for one year before I was an adult - career military brat).

Re:Hardly groundbreaking discoveries

[Rogue Haggis Landing]

unless you're part of the royal family, or in the deep south of the US, where family trees tend to be a lot... slimmer...

The classic example of this is, of course, poor mentally and physically disabled Carlos II of Spain of the cousin-bonking Hapsburgs. His father was his mother's uncle, and the family tree just gets worse from there. To quote Wikipedia, "Joanna [of Castile] was two of Charles' 16 great-great-great-grandmothers, six of his 32 great-great-great-great-grandmothers, and six of his 64 great-great-great-great-great-grandmothers." Oh, and Joanna went insane early in her life, so she wasn't exactly a genetic marvel herself. No wonder poor Chuck turned into something only a couple of steps above a wet sack of blubbering goo.

Re:Hardly groundbreaking discoveries

[dwye]

If you go back far enough, you'll find that someone put one over on her husband, and your Nth grandfather on someone's side is actually NOT your Nth grandfather on that someone's side by blood, just by law. If anything, that Royalty intermarries so much ensures that the current claimants to their thrones probably have some sort of claim, even if by a roundabout path and via the wrong side of a few beds.

Re:Hardly groundbreaking discoveries

[michelcolman]

Why not Ghandi? Didn't he have ancestors that might be related to yours?

Re:Hardly groundbreaking discoveries

[timothy]

If you go back far enough, you'll find that you are related to Charlemagne, or Ghandi.

Which one?

WHICH ONE?!

Incidentally

[dorpus]

When I went to grad school to get my PhD in biostatistics, they taught us in genetic epidemiology class that 1st cousin marriages do not have a significantly higher risk of genetic problems in offspring than marriages by unrelated people.

Some parts of the world where 1st cousin marriages have taken place for many generations do have higher concentrations of some forms of thalassemia. But for a typical American who does not come from such a lineage, the medical risks of first cousin marriages are minimal.

Re:In appropriately named article?

[RabidReindeer]

A population in a small town in the middle ages where no one travels across the country to live, will have a high risk of incest.

That's why fairs were such a big thing. People travelled to them and one of the prime reasons was to have a choice from a wider geographical area.

Of course, another reason was that life back on the farm/small town was boring as all get-out.

Hell no!

[YoungManKlaus]

My cousin is totally hot!

Re:Cousins Not So bad Genetically.

[backslashdot]

Actually the risk of genetic problems in offspring is the same or even less than the risk of problems if a mother is over 40.

Sarah Palin's, and Rick Santorum's, youngest kids have genetic issues because of that. So if we are going to ban incest because it creates a risk of genetic problems, we need to ban older pre-menopausal women from having sex too.

My view is that we should legalize adult consensual incest, with moderate fines for getting pregnant I suppose.

73 Comments so far

[Rob the Bold]

73 comments so far and no one's linked the obligatory xkcd?

Re:73 Comments so far

[GodfatherofSoul]

Meh. Maybe it's sacrilege here but xkcd is overrated IMO.

Re:It will be very successful app in West Virginia

[knight24k]

I think it will be *least* popular in West Virginia...don't ask, don't tell XD

Hey, I have relatives in West Virginia you insensitive clod!

.....and a couple ex-girlfriends

....don't ask.

In Alabama...

[gtbritishskull]

Incidentally, in Alabama the same app is used to find dates.

Re:In Alabama...

[radarskiy]

Gotta catch them all.

Patronyms and social mores.

[wcrowe]

At first I thought, "How could you not know?" But then I remembered that in Iceland, patronyms are common, and (so I've been told) there are not as many social stigmas surrounding unwed motherhood. So I suppose, when you meet someone, it really is possible that you could be related and not know it.

Re:Patronyms and social mores.

[dwye]

And this app will not help unless the unwed mothers accurately listed the sires (to use the animal breeding term). And the wed mothers, for that matter.

On an island that small...

[Necron69]

Why don't you know who your cousins are?

We don't have a particularly close extended family, and my cousins are scattered around the US (and even some overseas). I still know who they all are.

I can see the occasional family feud causing issues, but is not knowing your cousins a really common thing in Iceland? Are we talking second and third cousins or something?

- Necron69

Re:LOL ...

[K. S. Kyosuke]

I'd be more worried about the fact that cell phone apps can have access to your entire genealogy and ancestry(/incestry ;-) -- that sounds like a horrible privacy situation.

I wonder if some sort of safe protocol could be established for figuring out the relationships in family trees based on comparing some personal data tokens without revealing anything else. Sounds like a fun problem!

Not to mention...

[denzacar]

...all those people who are actually into incest - and then they find out they are adopted.
Aaaaawkwaaard!

Re:Not to mention...

[tnk1]

Gives new meaning to:

"I feel like I don't even know you...."

OOOH new Icelandic pickup line...

[DigitalSorceress]

New Icelandic pickup line:
Nice gen, langar aà skrÃfa?

(Nice genes, wanna screw?)

Re:It will be very successful app in West Virginia

[Archangel Michael]

and a couple ex-girlfriends

Speaking of your ex-gf, how IS your sister doing ;)

Well, in their defense...

[denzacar]

...it was probably either that or giving in to the insistence of the vocal conservative minority and calling it "Whores!"

Re:It will be very successful app in West Virginia

[knight24k]

and a couple ex-girlfriends

Speaking of your ex-gf, how IS your sister doing ;)

Hey, you leave my wif...err sister out of this. ;)

One would think, but I once witnessed ...

[raymorris]

I sure know who my cousins are, so that was my first thought. Then I remembered when I was watching to mutual friends get to know each other, with a flirty vibe. After talking for ten minutes or so, they realized they had the same grandfather. The dude sure looked socked and disappointed.

No, that's more like interpolating

[raymorris]

Extrapolating would be extending the conclusion outside of the dataset. Interpolating is applying a conclusion within the data range, so you're (sort of) interpolating.

To turn the statement into something more like extrapolation:
An average Icelander has something like a dozen sexual partners in life, seventy percent are happy with one-night stands.
Therefore Nordic countries, including Sweden and Finland, are promiscuous.

Re:No, that's more like interpolating

[ThreeKelvin]

Oy, don't leave us Danes out of all that promiscuous fun!

Why?

[T.E.D.]

Is this really common enough to require an app? Average household size is only 2.5 people, so large estranged families have to be pretty rare.

It seems far more likely to have an issue due to your mother not admitting (or not knowing) who your actual genetic father is, or in the case of an adoptee perhaps not knowing who either parent is. I have a good friend who found he had a half-brother and a whole exteded half-family he didn't know about after taking a genetic test ("Um, mom...we gotta talk..."). As a half adoptee, I suppose that would be useful to me too (but I'm not "on the market".)

Getting some kind of mutual genetic relation percentage would be useful both for solving the *real* issue this app is trying to solve, and to give the two people in question something of mutual interest to talk about, no matter what the result. A "are you my cousin or can be bump uglies" app just would be awkward.

It all makes sense now

[McGregorMortis]

So, in Iceland accidentally sleeping with your cousin in a very real danger. That explains some things... like Bjork.

Wiretapping...

[flimflammer]

When I read the title in my RSS feed I had assumed Iceland had began some sort of absurd wiretapping program to catch people engaging in incest.

Kinda sad how quickly that was my first assumption. I'm glad I was wrong and not yet another government going to weird lengths to catch people doing things.

Re:In appropriately named article?

[tsotha]

I think that's one of the reasons arranged marriages were more common as well. A matchmaker traveled widely and could put you together with someone you would never likely have met in person.

this doesn't say a lot...

[TitusGroan8856]

doesn't say a lot for the chances of casual sex in Iceland.

Thanks but...

[rmdingler]

The likelihood that I'd pick up a cousin at the family reunion is orders of magnitude greater than turning to /. for mating advice.

Danger Zone

[Flere Imsaho]

In my experience, alcohol and a good wingman can help you make the transition.

Re:LOL ...

[dwye]

In Iceland, your family tree is public knowledge, probably written in alliterative verse and going back all the way to a couple generations before your ancestors left Norway in the 9th century. Also, all the feuds, killings, burnings of neighbors' steads with them inside, etc. :-)

More seriously, there is no expectation of privacy of public records like births, deaths, and marriages, and the Icelanders have been keeping good track of theirs for centuries. Since the app does not do a genetic check (yet!) it is limited to those public records, and any unacknowledged bastardy is omitted and/or covered up. It will not help an Icelandic Sigmund of the Volsungs realize that the woman he just impregnated is his sister, Signy, who was kidnapped as a child and raised with a false identity; that is left to the Gods to reveal.

"Assholes" and "Equals"

[Guppy]

You confuse "being a doormat" with "being nice." All those guys who you think are assholes for not treating a girl the way you would? They're treating a girl like the girl is an EQUAL

Have you seen the way girls themselves treat their actual peers/equals (i.e., other girls)? I'd say "asshole" is not an inaccurate way to describe it.

Re:Cousins Not So bad Genetically.

[dwye]

After all animals are breed to even closer relatives quite often.

Except that most animals are not as closely related as most humans. There was a genetic bottleneck about 80K years ago, and if someone is Asian or European there was another bottleneck as only a few tribes seem to have made it from Africa to the Mid-East back in the Paleolithic, to spread to the rest of the world. OTOH, a dog has so much variation in its genome that a mongrel bitch bred with her male pups produces pups more distant genetically than any two humans.

Nice phone

[PPH]

I'd tap that.

Code 46

[qeorqe]

Does the app also report code 46 violations?

see also: code 46

Waste of Tokens

[Dareth]

"women aren't just vending machines you put niceness tokens into until sex comes out."

*SPOILER ALERT* - Don't click link unless you finished Baldur's Gate 2.

What a waste of tokens! You need 15 to get the Boots of Speed!