Most Icelanders are descendants of Norwegian settlers and Celts from Ireland and Scotland who were brought over as slaves during the age of settlement.  Recent DNA analysis suggests that around 66 percent of the male settler-era population was of Norse ancestry, where as the female population was 60 percent Celtic.  Iceland remained remarkably homogenous from Settlement until the 20th century.  Around 1% of the population of Iceland in 1900 was Danish (born in Denmark or to Danish parents).  Due to a shortage of labor, immigration to Iceland will most likely increase in the future.  Estimates show that the number of immigrants could be as high as 15% of the total population by 2030.  According to Icelandic government statistics, 99% of the nation's inhabitants live in urban areas (localities with populations greater than 200) and 60% live in the Capital Region.  Of the North Germanic languages, the Icelandic language is closest to the Old Norse language and has remained relatively unchanged since the 12th century.  Because of its small size and relative homogeneity, Iceland holds all the characteristics of a very close-knit society.  Large numbers of Icelanders began to emigrate from Iceland in the 1850s.  It has been estimated that around 17,000 Icelanders emigrated to North America in the period 1870-1914, with some 2,000 people returning to Iceland.  A total of around 15,000 individuals amount to roughly 20% of the Icelandic population in 1887.  According to historian Gunnar Karlsson, "migration from Iceland is unique in that most went to Canada, whereas from most or all other European countries the majority went to the United States.  This was partly due to the late beginning of emigration from Iceland after the Canadian authorities had begun to promote emigration in cooperation with the Allan Line, which already had an agent in Iceland in 1873.  Contrary to most European countries, this promotion campaign was successful in Iceland, because emigration was only just about to start from there and Icelandic emigrants had no relatives in the United States to help them take the first steps".  All living Icelanders, as well as all foreign citizens with permanent residence in Iceland, have a personal identification number (kennitala) identifying them in the National Registry.  This number is composed of 10 digits, whereof the first six are made up of the individual's birth date in the format DDMMYY.  The next two digits are chosen at random when the kennitala is allocated, the 9th digit is a check digit, and the last digit indicates the period of one hundred years in which the individual was born (for instance, '9' for the period 1900–1999).  An example would be 120192-3389.  While similar, all-inclusive personal registries exist in other countries, the use of the national registry is unusually extensive in Iceland.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Iceland

In Iceland only names which appear on the Personal Names Register are allowed.  Other names cannot be used, but it is possible to apply to a committee for permission to use a name which is not yet listed.  The committee does not accept every name.  List of approved Icelandic female names  List of approved Icelandic male names  http://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Icelandic_Names

The old Nordic tradition of patronymic/matronymic names is still in use in Iceland and by some people in the Faroe Islands.  This means that surnames are not fixed and cannot be inherited from the preceding generation.  To build a surname, one adds a suffix to the first name of one of the parents, usually the father.  Surnames like these are called patronymic or matronymic names.  Patronyms are names based on the first name of the father, matronyms are based on the first name of the mother.  http://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Surnames

In the first decade of the 21st century, commodity prices for copper and nickel, which make up the five-cent coin, rose dramatically, pushing the cost of manufacturing a nickel from 3.46 cents in fiscal year 2003 to 10.09 cents in fiscal year 2012.  By comparison, a Canadian nickel (which is primarily made of steel) still costs less than its face value to produce as of 2013.  In response, Mint Director Henrietta Fore in 2004 asked Congress to fund research into lower-cost alternatives to present coinage metals.  Although the initiative lapsed when she left office in 2005, in 2010, Congress passed the Coin Modernization, Oversight, and Continuity Act (CMOCA), directing the Mint to explore alternatives to the present compositions of the six denominations, from cent to dollar.  In 2011, the Mint awarded a contract to study the issue to Concurrent Technologies Corporation of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.  The report in response to the legislation declared that there is no material that would reduce the one-cent coin's manufacturing cost to below one cent, so it was removed from consideration.  The report requested additional time to study the issue, ensuring the continuation, for the present, of the existing coinage metals.  Meanwhile, in an attempt to avoid losing large quantities of circulating nickels to melting, the United States Mint introduced new interim rules on December 14, 2006, that criminalized the melting and export of pennies (which as of 2013 cost 1.83 cents to produce) and nickels. Violators of these rules can be punished with a fine of up to $10,000, five years imprisonment, or both.  The rules were finalized on April 17, 2007.  The melt value of a nickel for some time was more than five cents, including nearing over one-and-a-half times its face value in May 2007.  Since then, the supply and demand of the coin's composition metals have stabilized.  A nickel's melt value fell below its face value from late 2008 through mid-2010, and more recently again from late mid-2012 through the present.  In February 2014, it was reported that the Mint was conducting experiments to use copper-plated zinc (the same composition used for the United States 1 cent coin) for the nickel.  In December 2014, the Mint released its next Biennial report in response to the CMOCA.  In it, the Mint declared that plated zinc products did not hold up to steam/wear tests and were rejected for US coins outside the penny (which does not see significant use by the public).  Materials considered "feasible" for the 5-cent coin were nickel-plated steel, multi-ply-plated steel, and potentially another copper/nickel alloy, this time with ~77% copper, ~20% nickel, and ~3% manganese.  Further testing was recommended to explore even less expensive alloys that would not require changes to vending machines (as the steel-based materials would require).  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_(United_States_coin)

Discworld is a comic fantasy book series written by the English author Terry Pratchett (1948–2015), set on the fictional Discworld, a flat disc balanced on the backs of four elephants which in turn stand on the back of a giant turtle, Great A'Tuin.  The books frequently parody or take inspiration from J. R. R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft and William Shakespeare, as well as mythology, folklore and fairy tales, often using them for satirical parallels with current cultural, political and scientific issues.  The series is popular, with more than 80 million books sold in 37 languages.  Forty one Discworld novels have been published.  Pratchett, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, said that he would be happy for his daughter Rhianna to continue the series when he is no longer able to do so.  However, Rhianna has stated she will only be involved in spin-offs, adaptations and tie-ins, and that there will be no more novels.  The original British editions of the first 26 novels, up to Thief of Time (2001), had distinctive cover art by Josh Kirby.  The American editions, published by Harper Collins, used their own cover art.  Since Kirby's death in October 2001, the covers have been designed by Paul Kidby.  Companion publications include eleven short stories (some only loosely related to the Discworld), four popular science books, and a number of supplementary books and reference guides.  In addition, the series has been adapted for graphic novels, for the theatre, as computer and board games, as music inspired by the series, and repeatedly for television.  Newly released Discworld books regularly topped The Sunday Times best-sellers list, making Pratchett the UK's best-selling author in the 1990s, although he has since been overtaken by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.  Discworld novels have also won awards such as the Prometheus Award and the Carnegie Medal. In the BBC's Big Read, four Discworld novels were in the top 100, and a total of fourteen in the  top 200.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld

Cronkite News http://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/, is produced by students at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, one of the 24 independent schools at Arizona State University and named in honor of veteran broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite.

The Glass-Steagall Act:  A Legal and Policy Analysis by David H. Carpenter, Edward V. Murphy, and M. Maureen Murphy  January 19, 2016 Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov R44349  Read 25-page document at https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44349.pdf

Can mothers be lawmakers? by Cathaleen Chen   Jennifer Herold, a mother of two, is running for the 7th House district seat in the Ohio legislature.  An occupational therapist, the Republican candidate has two main issues on her platform:  mental health awareness and funding for schools.  But her opponent, state Sen. Tom Patton, is drawing attention to another element of her campaign.  On a radio show last week, he emphasized the fact that Ms. Herold is a young mother.  “The gal that’s running against me is a 30-year-old, you know, mom, mother of two infants,” Patton said on America’s Work Force radio show with Ed Ferenc.  “I don’t know if anybody explained to her you have to spend three nights a week in Columbus.  So, how does that work out for you?  I waited until I was 48, until my kids were raised, and at least adults, before we took the opportunity to try.”  Mr. Patton, who told the radio host that he hasn’t faced any primary challenges since 2002, went on to call Ms. Herold by what some would consider a term of condescension--“sweetie.”  http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2016/0128/Can-mothers-be-lawmakers-Ohio-senator-asks

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1417  January 29, 2016  On this date in 1845, "The Raven" was published in The Evening Mirror in New York, the first publication with the name of the author, Edgar Allan Poe  Quote of the Day:  "Love, friendship, respect, do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something." - Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (29 January 1860–15 July 1904) , Russian short story writer and playwright.  Alternate Version:  Nothing better forges a bond of love, friendship or respect than common hatred toward something.  Quoted in "Psychologically Speaking:  A Book of Quotations", page 96 by Kevin Connolly, Margaret Martlew, 1999.