Now there's ABBAWORLD - a new museum-cum-theme park in London with enough music, mementoes and memory-lane appeal to satisfy even the most fervent ABBA fan.Now there's ABBAWORLD - a new museum-cum-theme park in London with enough music,... more
"The narrow site is sandwiched between very old neighboring buildings in Landskrona, Sweden. Since mid 20th century it has been empty, waiting behind a wooden fence. It is only 5 meters wide with a tiny area of 75 square meters. Immediately adjacent buildings are low, but the street is lined with buildings of various height, size, facade material, age, and approach. Behind the row of buildings is a colorful world of back yards, brick walls, sheds, and vegetation. We find this small-scale, motely, naturally worn place extremely beautiful."
Read more at the site."The narrow site is sandwiched between very old neighboring buildings in... more
A floor collapsed beneath a group of about 20 members of Weight Watchers as they gathered to compare how many pounds they had shed over Christmas.
Members of the weight-loss club were lining up to compare readings on the scales when they heard a bang as the floor came away from the walls of their meeting room in Växjö in southern Sweden.
“We suddenly heard a huge thud – we almost thought it was an earthquake and everything flew up in the air. The floor collapsed in one corner of the room and along the walls,” one of the those present told the Smålandsposten newspaper.
They abandoned the room as the floor started to give way in other areas.A floor collapsed beneath a group of about 20 members of Weight Watchers as they... more
Police in Oslo are to investigate suspicions that Norwegian drug gangs may be connected to the grisly find of two burned bodies in the boot of a car in western Sweden last week.
Swedish police have now confirmed that both victims of the suspected double murder near Halmstad were men, a conclusion which strengthens the theory that the bodies found off the E6 motorway were those of the car owner’s 25-year-old son and his 42-year-old uncle.Police in Oslo are to investigate suspicions that Norwegian drug gangs may be... more
Stockholm - A zoo in southern Sweden said Sunday it was forced to put down its entire 12-strong wolf pack after several of the wolves escaped from their enclosure. The decision to destroy the wolves on Saturday was made after the pack's female and male leaders had escaped their enclosure at the Skanes Djurpark zoo.
"A wolf pack is centred around the alpha couple where the female is the most important. The chance of getting the rest of the pack to remain in the enclosure disappeared once she had escaped," said chief animal handler Johan Lindstrom.
The zoo near Hoor, some 570 kilometres south of Stockholm, specializes in Nordic fauna and keeps some 75 species. It also cooperates with other parks and zoos in Europe to preserve endangered species.
"This is an extremely tragic event for all of us at the zoo," Skanes Djurpark director Camilla Jonsson said.
Zoo officials said the first escapes occurred Thursday when two male wolves gnawed through fencing around their enclosure and moved into an adjacent red deer enclosure.
The two were shot Saturday when they managed for a second time to break out from the enclosure.
When three other wolves, including the female leader, escaped Saturday through a different opening, the zoo decided it had no alternative but to kill all the wolves.
Officials at the zoo, which draws around 200,000 visitors each year, said there was no risk to the public Saturday.
Buzz Erik Lightyear, (and yes reports do say this is his name) recently spent 300,000 REAL dollars on a “Crystal Palace Space Station” in the game Entropia Online. This now sets the record for the most money ever spent on a virtual item. This game is not well known in America, but is very popular in Europe. What sets this game apart is the currency is based on real world money, and has an exchange rate with the US Dollar of 10-1. The Swedish Government even recognizes the game as a legitimate bank, that it will exchange with. Apparently this Space Station sells items to other players, and reports indicate Lightyear will able to get a cut of this (no word on what Woody will be getting yet). Some could argue this is a good investment considering the popularity of the game? What do you think Elder-Geeks? Will he get his money back in the long run?Buzz Erik Lightyear, (and yes reports do say this is his name) recently spent 300,000... more
Essential I (North Central Washington State, USA) & Promoe (of Sweden's LoopTroop Rockers) Combine to bring socio-political underground hiphop into the 21st century. Video directed by Tim Cash/Far From Earth Films (Bend, OR), Art Direction by Chris Kas, Song produced by Big Chris/Moodswing Records (Los Angeles, CA).Essential I (North Central Washington State, USA) & Promoe (of Sweden's... more
Young Swedes have ever more fluid definitions of sex and sexuality, according to a new study from Mälmö University in southern Sweden. Women in particular are more likely to pursue sexual activities with others of the same gender.
“We are seeing a greater openness among young people, particularly among young women. There is an increasing interest in experimenting and pushing boundaries, and a growing resistance to defining oneself as heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual,” Sven-Axel Månsson, a Mälmö University sociology professor, told Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper.
Månsson and colleague Kristian Daneback surveyed 855 young people between the ages of 18 and 24 via an online questionnaire.
The survey showed that 31 percent of young women and 7 percent of young men said that they were most often sexually attracted to people of the opposite sex, but sometimes they were attracted to people of their own gender.
Thirty-nine percent of the women and 8 percent of the men reported having sexual fantasies about both genders.
Young women were also far more likely than their male counterparts to act on their same-sex fantasies, with 13 percent of female respondents and 3 percent of male respondents reporting that they have had sex with both men and women.
“Girls are less bound by norms than guys are; it is not as taboo for them to have sex with (other women),” Månsson told DN.
A giant straw goat - the traditional Scandinavian yuletide symbol - erected each Christmas in a Swedish town has been burned to the ground yet again.
The 13-metre (43-ft) high billy goat has been torched 24 times since it was first erected in Gavle in 1966.
The goat was set alight in the early hours of Wednesday morning in the city north of Stockholm.
City spokeswoman Anna Ostman said the incident, which is being treated as serious vandalism, was "sad".
"We had really hoped that he would survive Christmas and New Year's," she said.
Blogging goat
As well as being burnt, the goat has over the years faced other acts of vandalism including being run over by a car, having its legs removed and being smashed.A giant straw goat - the traditional Scandinavian yuletide symbol - erected each... more
Saab motors, one of Sweden’s best-known brands, is to be wound down after its parent company General Motors, the US car giant, was unable to find a buyer.
GM said today that it had come to the decision after talks to sell the brand to Dutch car-maker Spyker Cars collapsed. Issues arose during the talks that could not be resolved, the company said.
GM said it will continue to honour Saab customer warranties, but the company’s workforce will be affected.
Saab employs 3,400 people in Sweden. About 3,000 people are employed at Saab’s 87 UK dealerships and 100 at its British headquarters.Saab motors, one of Sweden’s best-known brands, is to be wound down after its... more
Yes, it's very scary, spine-tingling, all-out war! “The Duplicators” is a cute and awesome one-minute animated short film created by created by the Swedish Meindbender animation studio for The Cartoon Network. What a talented lot! In this very funny shortie, The Duplicators go to war with each other, with an astonishing, unexpected outcome.
Includes a number of colorful illustrations from the film, as well as the wonderful animated shortie, “The Duplicators.”
Please visit my website to view the colorful illustrations, and to watch this wickedly awesome, funny animated shortie:
Tiger Woods was investigated for driving while unfit after his wife told a Florida state trooper that he had been drinking before his car crash last month and had been prescribed addictive drugs.
Documents released by the Orange-Osceola state attorney’s office in Orlando have revealed that the golfer was suspected by state troopers of being “impaired” when he took his Cadillac Escalade on a brief but wild ride that ended when he hit a fire hydrant and a tree.
Despite being told that Woods, 33, “had consumed alcohol earlier in the day” and that he had been prescribed the sleeping drug Ambien and the painkiller Vicodin, both of which can compromise the ability to think and react, a request by the Florida Highway Patrol to obtain his blood test results from a hospital was refused by the state attorney
NoKo Jeans founders, from left to right, Jakob Ohlsson, Tor Rauden Kallstigen and Jacob Astrom pose with a pair of their North Korean produced jeans during the launch of their line of designer jeans at PUB department store in Stockholm, Sweden, Friday, Dec. 4, 2009. A trio of Swedish entrepreneurs launched a line of designer jeans made in North Korea, saying Friday they hope to help break the country's isolation by joining the handful of foreign manufacturers operating in the communist nation. "Noko Jeans" come in two models, the slim-fit "Kara" and the loose-fit "Oke" _ an apparent play on "karaoke" singing popular across Asia. The price tag is 1,500 kronor ($220) _ more than two years' wages for an average North Korean.
A Stockholm department store on Saturday removed a new line of North Korean-made designer jeans from its shelves, saying it wants to avoid courting controversy through ties with the isolated communist nation
I look at young people who affect the Goth look. I assume they want to keep a distance and make a statement. The leather can be taken off, the tattoos not so easily. It is relatively painless to pierce many body areas, not all. But what would it feel like to be pierced by a vampire's fangs? That would be more than a Look, wouldn't it? And you wouldn't want to advertise yourself as a vampire.
"Let the Right One In" is a "vampire movie," but not even remotely what we mean by that term. It is deadly grim. It takes vampires as seriously as the versions of "Nosferatu" by Murnau and Herzog do, and that is very seriously indeed. It is also a painful portrayal of an urgent relationship between two 12-year-olds on the brink of adolescence. It is not intended for 12-year-olds.
If the earth could make music, what kind of songs would it sing? This crazy contraption, called the Terrafon, actually lets us find out the answer to that question! Designed as a huge turntable tone arm and transducer, this musical instrument plays the earth like a big gravelly vinyl record. Artists Olle Cornéer and Martin Lübcke premiered it as part of a performance entitled “Harvest” at the Volt Music Festival in Sweden. Read on to check out the video of these determined choir musicians as they drag the big wooden tool-of-music through the Swedish countryside.
This video documents an interesting social experiment in Stockholm, Sweden, where students changed stairs into a piano, and compared before-and-after video of stairway use to escalator use. Brilliant!This video documents an interesting social experiment in Stockholm, Sweden, where... more
Through their official website, Swedish club Helsingborg have announced that legendary striker Henrik Larsson will retire at the end of the season. The news comes nine days after the 38-year-old quit the Swedish national team for the second time in his career.Through their official website, Swedish club Helsingborg have announced that legendary... more
No butch dykes or fat chicks to spoil this male testosterone-fueled fantasy of a Swedish Shangri-la of hot lesbian love where they indulge in hot oil massages and jello wrestling to their lusty heart's content.
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From the article:
It all started when a news agency Xinhua reported (made up) the existence of a city in the northern Swedish woods with 25,000 inhabitants, all hot women living together to satisfy their Scandinavian sexual desires. The city, called Chako Paul was founded in 1820 by a rich widow and is guarded by two blonde guards that will strike men down that try to enter the city of Nordic lesbian love.
Sadly, as you would probably expect, the city doesn’t exist. But the Chinese, being so “inquisitive” have crippled Swedish ISP’s with searches for “Chako Paul”. According to Valleywag, “Chinese men have “swamped… Swedish tourism bodies” with such burning questions in recent days, millions of them. EDIT: News is that now the Japanese are curious about the Swedish Lesbians too.
The myth, created by the Chinese media reached Sweden has left the local tourist office of Ulmeå reporting to the register that they are fairly certain that no such city excised in Sweden, based on the fact that that a city like that would be the biggest city in all of northern Sweden!
It seems that no Swedish entrepreneur has set up a website to accommodate these Chinese men on a search for the ‘lost women of Chako Paul’. If you are into web development… Time to buy Chakopaul.com and run some ads!
EDIT: Shanghaiist.com dug around and translated the Chinese article as follows:
“In Sweden, there is a place that is respectful of women’s love, but with a rule that men cannot enter. This is Chako Paul City. The town holds around 25,000 women, all from around Europe. If men transgress into the forbidden city, they will be beaten half to death. The citizens of Chako Paul are mostly engaged in the forest industry, because of such many of the women wear thick belts full of woodworking equipment. Some go into nearby cities to work and return to Chako Paul by night. Chako Paul’s tourism industry is increasingly prosperous, with hotels and restaurants everywhere that cater specifically to women around the world.”
Furthermore, Shanghaiist mentions that Harbin News posted up a story of a Chinese girl studying in Sweden, being lured into lesbian temptations of Chako Paul. Spoiler alert: in the end, she get’s back with her Swedish boyfriend again.No butch dykes or fat chicks to spoil this male testosterone-fueled fantasy of a... more
STOCKHOLM – Sweden’s King Carl Gustav awarded tenor Placido Domingo on Tuesday the biggest prize ever for classical music, endowed by the Birgit Nilsson Foundation, which in its first edition granted the Spaniard $1 million for his “legendary” career.
The gala ceremony, attended by the Swedish monarchs, several government ministers and a crowd of some 800 distinguished guests, was held at the Royal Swedish Opera, where making her debut 63 years ago was the soprano Birgit Nilsson, an icon of the opera who retired from the stage in 1982 and died in 2005.
Before her death the artist endowed the institution with the legacy of these prizes, and specified that the first award should go to the Spanish tenor, though her decision was not announced until February.
Domingo, 68, received the award overcome by emotion and announced that he would use the money to fund a prize in the competition to promote young talents that he founded in 1993, Operalia, for the best interpreter of Wagner and of course for the training of singers and musicians.STOCKHOLM – Sweden’s King Carl Gustav awarded tenor Placido Domingo on... more
This is no joke. Thousands of rabbits that are shot and killed in Stockholm's Kungsholmen parks and neighborhoods are being used to fuel a heating plant in central Sweden. The animals cadavers are warming the homes of Swedes.
Every year, thousands of rabbits are killed in order to protect trees and shrubbery in the city's parks and green space. Some of them were once pets that were left to scavenger for themselves. As is well known, they reproduce at an amazing rate.This is no joke. Thousands of rabbits that are shot and killed in Stockholm's... more
