Wired blog roundup on subject "Sweden" - an American perspective

Wired.com is one of my all-time favourite reads on the net. They have excellent and multi-faceted reporting on what's happening in technology, electronic society and culture.

In the past I have noticed that Sweden is usually strongly connected to socialism, but any accurate information is often lacking. So, how about Wired writers' mental image of Sweden?

Condensed: A land of tedious, cucumber-minding socialists who fast adapt things like Spotify and also navigate the seas with stealth ships.

I must admit, this made me smile out loud. Anyway, check out the latest entries in Wired on Sweden:


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Biggest Record Label Earns More from Spotify than iTunes in Sweden
Epicenter The Business of Tech. Biggest Record Label Earns
Quote: "We can probably chalk some of this effect up to home-team pride; Spotify is a homegrown Swedish product while iTunes is imported from California. But there’s also some legitimate hope here for Spotify and U.S. music fans who hope it will launch here soon.

A couple of years back, Steve Jobs admitted that the average iPod contained only 22 purchased songs, while the remaining 97 percent were either downloaded for free or ripped from CDs. Spotify’s model, which coaxes users into paying monthly subscription fees to access their music on mobile devices, while allowing them to listen on desktops for free, could certainly improve on that figure."
2
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Sweden Rescues Volvo and Saab from Fjord and General Motors Woes
Quote: "Like a friendly foreign embassy in an unstable land, the Swedish government came to the rescue of two fellow countrymen with cold hard kronor for carmakers Saab and Volvo. Far from a bailout, the Swedish aid comes with some assembly required."
3
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Sweden now presiding over European Union (yawn) [Lol]
Quote: "And now the SWEDES are at the wheel. The world’s best-organized,
most tedious socialists. Guess what: in a sudden, daring move, the Swedes ease
up on the cucumbers."
4
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Sweden Deploys The First Operational Stealth Warships
... Sweden Deploys The First Operational Stealth Warships. ... things? Posted
by: goldenstag | 02/12/09 | 1:28 pm. Sweet Sweden! Maybe ...
Quote: "The country that gave us Volvos, Saabs and ABBA has developed what it claims is the world’s first fully operational stealth warship that is essentially invisible to radar."

Lets talk about SNUS baby

Do you know what is snus? Its a tobacco product that has a long history in Sweden - and it is widely used and appreciated over cigarettes. Most people you see in bars and cafes would be using what is called portion snus. I recently tried out some, and while not being a newbie to nicotine (being an ex-smoker), the effect was still a bit dizzying. Portions snus has its advantages - its clean, no bad breath and what's more, no black lungs.

The health effects are not fully known yet due to low amount of research done on it. However, despite of potentially being a lot safer than cigarettes, one can imagine that there is a carsinogenic effect in one's mouth from using it. What makes this product interesting is that its sale is illegal in the European Union, with the exception of Sweden and Norway. American big tobacco has quite recently gotten very interested in snus as well.

Check out: http://www.snuscentral.org/