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Sometimes journalists can be real dogs…

Miscellaneous: January 21st, 2009 at 11:24 am by DL

We were tickled to read recent story in the Daily Telegraph citing a Swedish study which, the paper claims:

found strong evidence that breeding for appearance has led to a decline in intelligence  [in dogs].

Intrigued, The Local set about getting in touch with the study’s author, Kenth Svartberg, who, according to the Telegraph, was affiliated with Stockholm University.

But Svartberg wasn’t listed on the school’s personnel roster, although an employee in the biology department told us he had authored a study about dogs back in 2006.

Finally getting in contact with Svartberg, we learned that he no longer works at Stockholm University, but instead operates a dog training business.

He confirmed that the study cited by the Telegraph was published several years ago. What’s more, he was a bit hot under the collar at the way his research had been portrayed.

“The study had nothing to do with intelligence in dogs, per se,” he told The Local.

He claimed the paper had “misrepresented” his findings and suspects it did so in order to contribute to an ongoing debate in the UK  about the breeding of so-called “hand-bag” dogs.

So much for journalists being a man’s best friend.

Egypt: ‘Give back our artifacts’

Miscellaneous: January 21st, 2009 at 10:43 am by PO

Cairo has called on a Swedish museum to return more than 200 artworks taken from Egypt by a Swedish collector in the 1920s. AP has the story.

The artifacts, Hawass said, were taken “in an illegal manner” by Otto Smith, a collector who was digging in Egypt at locations such as Saqqara and Luxor in mid 1920s, when there was a huge appetite for Egyptian artifacts in the West.

The Beatles’ Norwegian Wood was actually Swedish

Miscellaneous: December 16th, 2008 at 5:03 pm by DL

Observer design and architecture critic Stephen Bayley ruminated last Sunday about the roots and inspiration behind modern Swedish design, concluding succinctly that it all gets back to two things: climate and demography.

Harsh winters meant Swedes were traditionally forced to enjoy the indoors: furniture, rugs, glassware and ceramics become exceptionally important when it is 30 degrees below outside.

He continues:

Demographically, Sweden is more nearly all one social class than, say, Britain or France. This meant that when the first design movements began in the early last century, their appeals could be addressed to the whole population, not just a special interest group. This made Sweden modern while we were still Victorian.

Fair enough. But Bayley’s theory about the outgrowth of the early forces behind the Swedish design movement is likely to ruffle the feathers of more than a few Norwegians.

Thus was social democracy given its material credentials: a century of great design followed, satirised by The Beatles as Norwegian Wood, but really it was Swedish. The wood was pale and mated to natural canvas. Chairs and objects came in polite shapes. Crocks were colourful and fish platters were made in stainless steel.

Who knew that British pop music could contain such insights about how and why Scandinavians choose to decorate their homes as they do?

Sweden currys favour with Indian cooks

Miscellaneous: December 16th, 2008 at 4:30 pm by DL

Sweden’s recent decision to liberalize its policies governming immigrant labour have caught the attention of the Wall Street Journal. The paper explains how the move ‘bucks the trend’ of other European countries which have adopted measures that only target highly-skilled workers.

The WSJ expects international employment and immigration experts to watch developments in Sweden closely to see how the new rules, which went into effect on December 15th, play out.

“People are going to be watching the Brits, who are putting everything into a point system, and the Swedes, who are doing something entirely different,” said Demetrios Papademetriou, president of the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank. People “will be watching to see which system gives better labor market outcomes, both for the employer but also for the immigrants themselves.”

According to the article, early advocates of the new legislation include reps from Sweden’s Indiska chain of retail outlets and restaurants, who are hoping the new rules will make it easier for them to hire chefs for their restaurants directly from India.

Curry anyone?

My city’s greener than yours

Miscellaneous: December 16th, 2008 at 4:13 pm by DL

The Treehugger environmental news website reported recently on a brewing battle between Stockholm and Olso as to which town can lay claim to having the best infrastructure for electric cars in the Nordic region.

Stockholm’s bid charged ahead last week with the unveiling of a couple of odd looking poles sticking out of the pavement along Norr Mälarstrand, not too far from City Hall.

Finnish utility Fortum is promising to install 100 electric charging stations in the city of Stockholm in the coming year. Even though that probably won’t put Stockholm or Sweden at the absolute head of the electric pack (Oslo will likely have well over 100 stations by the end of next year), Stockholm’s move is a good one.

So while Sweden may not yet be ahead of their Norwegian brethren when it comes to catering to electric cars, efforts by both cities will surely add a spark to the friendly rivalry between the two countries.

Viva las reindeers!!!

Miscellaneous: December 3rd, 2008 at 4:18 pm by DL

A UK-based animal rights group thinks Ikea deserves a lump of coal in its stocking for selling products containing reindeer meat.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Viva! (Vegetarians International Voice for Animals) has launched a campaign urging the Swedish furniture retailer to remove the items from its shelves because of the cruelty associated with modern reindeer hunting.

Viva! campaigns manager, Justin Kerswell, said: “We are very concerned about the exploitation of wild animals for meat.

“As well as being chased from the land and air, once they are caught, their misery doesn’t end there. In Sweden, some reindeer face a gruelling journey of up to 1,000km to the slaughterhouse where they face anything but a humane end.

“More than 70 per cent of reindeer slaughtered for meat are calves that have grazed during the summer, which means they never even get to see snow.”

The group cites a 2005 study by neuroscience researchers at Uppsala University which concluded that reindeer hunting caused the animals “considerable physical and mental stress”.

Ikea responded in a statement in which it explained that using modern equipment helps keep the large reindeer herds safe from predators, and that the animals are taken to slaughter according to rules which apply to other animals in Sweden.

Missing from the story is any comment from Sweden’s reindeer herders themselves, the indigenous Sami, whose way of life — not to mention livelihood — depends to a large extent on tending to the animals known to the rest of the world as Santa’s little helpers.

Swedish ‘rapper’ facing murder charges in LA

Miscellaneous: December 3rd, 2008 at 3:21 pm by DL

Aftonbladet is reporting that Swedish hip-hop artist and song writer David Jassy, who goes by the stage name Dave Monopoly, is set to be charged with murder on Wednesday in Los Angeles for running down a well-known jazz pianist.

According to reports in the Los Angeles Times, the incident occurred on the morning of November 24th when Jassy’s SUV edged into a pedestrian crosswalk, at which point 55-year-old John Osnes, a respected jazz pianist and advocate for pedestrians’ rights, struck the hood of the vehicle in frustration.

Jassy got out of his vehicle, punched Osnes and then kicked him in the head when he bent over to retrieve his glasses, authorities allege.

Bystanders, including an off-duty Anaheim police officer, attempted to detain Jassy, but he got back in the SUV and drove over Osnes’ body, according to authorities. He fled the scene and was arrested Monday after investigators traced the license plate of his rented car, police said.

Osnes, who was on his way home after visiting a local watering hole, died later in hospital from “blunt force trauma“.

Jassy was initially charged with assault, battery and leaving the scene of an accident, but prosecutors have now added murder to the indictment as well.

In Sweden, coverage of the tragic case of road rage gone awry has been covered primarily by the tabloids which, in accordance with Swedish press ethics standards, refuse to publish Jassy’s name, even though he is named in several LA Times articles.

Alternately referred to in the Swedish press as “the Swedish hip-hop artist” and “the Swedish song writer”, Jassy is by no means a big name in the music world, according to the LA Times

Although he identifies himself as the “CEO of Jassy World Entertainment” on his MySpace page, Jassy is a minor music industry player whose biggest accomplishment to date is rapping on an album track for “High School Musical” actress Ashley Tisdale.

Virtual reality, Swedish style

Miscellaneous: December 3rd, 2008 at 3:06 pm by DL

Media outlets across the world were fascinated on Wednesday with an experiment from the Karolinska Institutet on Wednesday which reads like something out of a science fiction movie.

As Reuters puts it:

Researchers using closed-circuit televisions to create an illusion have made volunteers virtually swap bodies, even making women believe they were in a man’s body and vice-versa.

The experiment … shows it is possible to manipulate the human mind to create the perception of having another body …

Or, as the researchers put it in their article, published on Tuesday in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE:

Manipulation of the visual perspective, in combination with the receipt of correlated multisensory information from the body was sufficient to trigger the illusion that another person’s body or an artificial body was one’s own. This effect was so strong that people could experience being in another person’s body when facing their own body and shaking hands with it.

All philosophizing aside, the experiment also showed that there were limits to the extent which the subjects sensed that they were outside their own bodies.

The illusion only goes so far. The researchers said they could not fool their volunteers into thinking they were a box, for example.

Virtual reality indeed. One can only imagine where this sort of technology may lead in the future.

BBC launches four new channels in Sweden

Miscellaneous: December 2nd, 2008 at 12:02 pm by PO

Starting this week, TV viewers in Sweden will be able to access four new BBC channels: BBC Entertainment, BBC Knowledge, BBC Lifestyle, as well as a HD channel.

The British broadcaster has signed deals with Swedish operators Canal Digital, Com Hem, Telia and Tele2, Dagens Media reports.

BBC Entertainment will replace BBC Prime, a channel described by the broadcaster as “too non-specific. BBC Entertainment will do what it says on the tin.”

But are the new channels any good? Discuss.

Thrillseeker parachutes onto Turning Torso

Offbeat: December 2nd, 2008 at 11:43 am by PO

In this two year old video, Austrian basejumper Felix Baumgartner, 40, aptly nicknamed ‘Fearless Felix’, parachutes from a moving helicopter, lands on top of the famous Turning Torso in Malmö, then basejumps to the ground.

Why? Erm, good question…

A frigid tundra for hot sex?

Miscellaneous: November 27th, 2008 at 2:27 pm by DL

On Wednesday, the New York Times ran an entertaining and educational piece detailing some of the history behind Scandinavia’s reputation as a bastion for sex.

Filed from an Oslo art exhibit at the Office of Contemporary Art entitled “Whatever Happened to Sex in Scandinavia?”, the article ponders whether Scandinavia has lost some of its lustre when it comes to being the capital of carnal knowledge.

What did happen to the image of Scandinavia as the frigid tundra of hot sex? [...] How did Scandinavia turn from “Maid in Sweden” to Ikea, from the purveyor of earnest free love into the purveyor of affordable love seats, from the home of Christina Lindberg (the maid) into the home of Abba?

A pressing question, indeed.

Another question we have is whether the exhibit will be making its way to Stockholm which is, after all, the Capital of Scandinavia.

Stewardess reaches for hijacker injector

Film, Marketing, Offbeat, Technology: November 24th, 2008 at 1:43 pm by PO

Recently The Local had a couple of articles cataloguing the proud history of Swedish invention and innovation.

There are two reasons the invention shown in the clip below was not included: 1. It’s not Swedish. 2. It’s patently absurd.

But while the invention may not be Swedish, the company using it to market its services most certainly is.

Allow us to present… The Hijacker Injector. Look and learn as one of stewardesses on a flight takes on a hijacker using this very unique invention. Wonder why it never took off?

Riding out the recession, IKEA style

Business, Design, Economics, Media, National, Society, Sweden abroad: November 20th, 2008 at 3:44 pm by JS

There’s an old joke about a couple from Småland, a province in southern Sweden, who win a million kronor on the lottery. “What shall we do with all the begging letters,” asks the wife. “Keep on sending them,” her husband replies.

Perhaps, though, the Smålänningar (as the region’s allegedly tight-fisted inhabitants are known) will have the last laugh as the rest of the world braces for a bumpy economic ride.

The world’s most famous Smålänning, Ingvar Kamprad, appears to have braced IKEA for the downturn by living up to the stereotype. Instead of taking advantage of cheap credit, IKEA borrowed little. Instead of selling boom-time luxuries, Kamprad has always behaved as though every one of his customers was a stereotypical stingy Smålänning.

The words of current CEO Anders Dahlvig in this Time interview are perhaps testament to the virtues of living frugally:

This is a really good time for us. The way we’ve set up our business, we’re planning for a climate like this all the time. We have a very conservative policy when it comes to borrowing money. We basically only use our retained earnings and don’t borrow very much. We also have a very conservative policy when it comes to how we place our cash and our liquidity. We don’t place anything in equities, so we haven’t lost a dime so far. And the way we position our brand is as good value for the money. People know when they have less money what Ikea stands for.

Foreign students don bras for cancer awareness

Health: October 27th, 2008 at 3:11 pm by PO

Inspired by an article in The Local, a group of foreign students in Linköping recently met up for a photo shoot to raise awareness about breast cancer. Shakila Rainbow-Rossi explains:

To support this October’s Rosabandet Breast Cancer Awareness campaign, run by the Swedish charity Cancerfonden, myself and six other students from LIU:s College Course in Swedish decided to create a little publicity by posing for a photo-shoot wearing bras over our everyday wear.

A typical day in a Swedish office

Miscellaneous: October 16th, 2008 at 9:27 am by PO

Casual Friday, Swedish style…

Kaupthing was no sure thing

Economics: October 14th, 2008 at 12:57 pm by PO

The shuttering of Kaupthing Edge, the Swedish subsidiary of Iceland’s recently nationalized Kaupthing bank, provides The Local’s David Landes with a chance to reflect on risk, rejection, and the price of education.

Like thousands of others living in Sweden, I found myself in a rather unlikely – not to mention uncomfortable – position last week.

I’d been rejected – and it was a kind of rejection for which I was patently unprepared.

Most of us have been conditioned to deal with rejections from jobs, lovers, or institutions of higher education. That doesn’t make such dismissals any easier, but at least there is a standard script with which we are all somewhat familiar and have acted out at least once in our lives.

“Thanks, but we’re not sure you’re the best fit for this organization…”

“I’m really sorry…seriously, it’s not you, it’s me…”

“There were a record number of applicants this year…”

And so on.

But for the children of America’s baby-boomers, how to deal with rejection from a bank was one lesson that didn’t receive a lot of attention.

And I’m not talking about having your mortgage application rejected (something which not quite enough of us experienced in recent years, it now seems).

No, what happened to me and other Kaupthing customers in Sweden last week was something else entirely and seemed to echo back to a bygone era marked by bread lines, bank runs, and bootlegging.

It’s one thing to be told by a bank that you don’t have what it takes to be their customer, but it’s quite another to have the bank tell you that it doesn’t have what it takes to be your bank.

In my world, which is admittedly a charmed and naïve one, banks don’t just go away.

Sure, they change names, owners, and the shade of carpet in their branch offices.

But they don’t go away.

That’s the stuff of grandpa’s exaggerated tales of a hard knock childhood, not something I’m supposed to hear about in an email.

Or so I thought until I went from being a Kaupthing Edge customer one day, to learning the next day that Kaupthing Edge in essence ceased to exist.

And while a text book for how to deal with such an event probably exists somewhere, I didn’t have it handy at 10.51am on October 9th when the letter of rejection landed in my inbox.

Speaking later to some of my Swedish friends, I realized that bank failure isn’t something hypothetical, but painfully real and still fresh in everyone’s mind.

Less than 20 years have passed since Sweden’s banking crisis, which means almost everyone over the age of 25 probably has some memory of it.

For Swedes under 40, bank failures happen almost as often as the Social Democrats lose power. It doesn’t happen every day, but it does happen, and the possibility is ever present.

To its credit, Kaupthing didn’t try to sugarcoat its “Dear John” email with the flowery language that betrays the sort of scheming calculation that leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

I couldn’t be too bitter, but it still hurt.

I had been flirting with this edgy Icelandic beauty of a bank ever since she caught my eye during an innocent spring stroll through Stureplan in Stockholm.

After months of hesitation, I finally took the plunge in early September and applied to open an account with this roaring rascal from Reykjavik.

Kaupthing’s first letter came a few days later and I was even more smitten. She told me more about how great we would be together, but I procrastinated further before taking the next step and really putting my money where my mouth was.

In the meantime, the US financial markets started to falter, and analysts began whispering that Europe should brace itself. I looked the other way.

Plus the threat of an imminent financial meltdown seemed so ephemeral; I doubt I would have seen it coming even if I’d been looking. And my relationship with Kaupthing was fresh and full of promise, like a warm spring morning as the sun dries the dew of freshly cut grass. The world felt awash with the possibilities presented by the promise of a 5.55 percent interest rate – plus easy withdrawals.

I couldn’t lose.

I went ahead and made my first transfer in early October, confident that I had taken a crucial next step toward a long and fulfilling future with Kaupthing.

Alas, my desire to make things work blinded me to the risks inherent in getting hot and heavy with something that was simply too good to be true.

By the time I realized the folly of my ways, it was too late.

Now a single entry in my bank account registry captures both the birth and unexpected death of my brief love affair with Kaupthing, serving more as a tombstone than the milestone I first thought it represented:

2008-10-06 Kaupthing 1000,00 kronor

While I know I shouldn’t blame myself for this failed relationship, the whole episode remains rather unnerving.

On the other hand, having had my money frozen in a failed bank has brought me closer to the many Swedes who have also had their banks go belly up. Nyamko Sabuni take note – suffering through a banking failure has been an excellent tool for giving me a greater appreciation for Swedish views on finance.

And the other thing I keep telling myself is that, even if Kaupthing breaks its final promise to return my money, I don’t stand to lose that much.

As an old Swedish friend of mine always says when things don’t turn out they way we expect, “that’s the price of education.”

And if 1,000 kronor is all I have to pay to be reminded there’s no such thing as a sure thing and that every investment carries a certain amount of risk, suddenly being rejected and abandoned by Kaupthing doesn’t seem like such a bad thing after all.

Sweden holding onto its pricks

Offbeat, Politics: October 9th, 2008 at 6:35 pm by PO

Sweden’s Infrastructure Minister Åsa Torstensson had a rude moment at a recent traffic safety conference:

Yes Sweden will absolutely keep the prick system. The prick system has been working very well in Sweden.

The “pricks” to which the minister refers are perhaps better rendered as “points”, as in the sort of points added to the driving licence of a traffic offender.

(Via: Paul Lindquist)

But Torstensson made the classic error, most famously illustrated by the - possibly fictitious - instance of a Swede explaining how to spell a colleague’s name.

His name is Öberg, a zero with two pricks.

Snubbed - For whom no Nobel tolls

Miscellaneous: October 6th, 2008 at 10:01 pm by PO

They could have been contenders but were overlooked by the Nobel overlords. As the Medicine announcement left some scratching their heads, Scientific American picks out ten of the best non-winners of a Nobel Prize:

This year, some will be asking questions about Robert Gallo, who did not share today’s Nobel for medicine or physiology with Luc Montagnier and Francois Barre-Sinoussi.

As we enter the 2008 Nobel season, there are sure to be other alleged snubs. Needless to say, the noble Nobel process is inherently subjective. Still, going through Nobel history, there are a few cases that stand out.

Read all about it.

The Swedification of Tory education policy

Miscellaneous: October 6th, 2008 at 9:40 pm by PO

David Cameron and the Tories are looking to Sweden for instruction on schooling:

[T]he Conservatives, looking for some clear policy water, have gone for the Swedish Plan.

No, they haven’t been down to IKEA. Instead, they have bought into the reform which, in 1992, effectively gave Swedish parents a voucher which they could use to “buy” a place at an independent school if they were unhappy with their local state schools.

‘Somebody better tell John McCain: We are all Swedes now’

Business, History, Sweden abroad: October 6th, 2008 at 9:26 pm by PO

Read Thomas L Friedman’s take in the New York Times on why it is in the best interest of Americans to embrace Swedes (along with a whole host of others):

Somebody better tell John McCain: We are all Swedes now. Forget about “Live Free or Die.” Until we get our financial act together, our motto is going to be: “Swedish spoken here - or Arabic or Chinese or German …”