This first bit really isn’t news but I though it was interesting. In Iceland the language hasn’t really changed much. The article mentions that a twelfth century text can still be easily read by modern people in Iceland, where as a twelfth century English text, written in Old or Middle English is very difficult to read for modern English speakers. Another cool thing about Icelandic is that it is a growing language they are not keen about adding words from other languages but rather they make up new Icelandic words or reuse old words.
Reading: In a piece for New Republic that goes on to say that many people although tablets and e-books make books more accessible. more and more people are saying that they would prefer to read a real book with pages to turn and bookmarks to hold our places. People complain about eye strain or getting distracted as reason that they don’t read on tablets. I’ve read a couple books on a tablet and although the convenience is a wonderful thing I can carry a dozen book around with relative ease. Physical books are just easier in the long run especially for sharing books I know that books get passed around from person to person in my family but it would be a pain to do that with e-books. Also it is a lot easier to replace a paperback then to buy a new tablet if you ever misplace a book.
Saints: Pope Francis named a new Saint yesterday. Joseph Vaz, the first Sri Lankan ever to be names a Saint, was a priest and a missionary. He was pretty cool perhaps I will highlight him next year as his feast day is January 16. This was followed by some interesting news as well about talks that Roberto Clemente could be named a Saint someday. Now Roberto Clemente was before my time but He did a lot of humanitarian work and he was a pretty good ball player as well. Sure this is the beginning of a long process but it would be really cool if/when this finally happens. Since he would be a relatively modern saint.
Deep in the well 