Posts Tagged ‘Sweden’

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Krypton kills nine in Sweden

December 30, 2010

Krypton the drug (and not the element nor the fictional planet nor anything related to Superman’s kryptonite) is thought to have led to the deaths of 9 young people in Sweden.

http://www.thelocal.se/31134/20101229/ reports:

A team of Swedish forensic physicians have concluded that nine young people have died over the past year after having taken the legal drug Krypton. Krypton is sold widely over the internet and is marketed as a safe drug but the risk of overdosing is high, the physicians have observed.

“Krypton reminds me of other opiates such as morphine. It is not some sort of party drug,” said Björn Bäckström, who works at the National Board of Forensic Medicine in Umeå, to the local Västerbottens Kuriren daily. Bäckström, together with colleagues Gisela Classon, Peter Löwenheim and Gunilla Thelander, have penned an article published in the medical journal Läkartidningen warning of the risks of Krypton.

The National Board of Forensic Medicine receives intakes after deaths from across Sweden and one case involving Krypton led the physicians to consider the effects of the drug and found several more cases. The Krypton-related deaths are spread across Sweden and involve both heavy addicts and occasional users, while they all concern people born in the 1970s and 1980s, the newspaper reported.

Krypton is derived from the south-east Asian plant kratom which has been traditionally used for potency and to improve mood. Aside from the leaves and extracts from kratom, Krypton has also been found to contain caffeine and the synthetic opioid O-Desmethyltramadol.
O-Desmethyltramadol is a breakdown of the product tramadol, which is prescribed in moderation to alleviate severe pain and when taken as Krypton is turned into tramadol in the liver and becomes more potent. It is due to this high potency contained in the O-Desmethyltramadol that the risk of overdosing is considered high, leading to respiratory paralysis. The Swedish physicians expect the extract and opiate to turn up in other forms if they are not classified as narcotics.

“That is one of the purposes of the article – to bring attention to this drug so that it should be narcotics classified,” Björn Bäckström told the newspaper.

(news@thelocal.se)

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Posted in Behaviour, Medicine, Sweden | 1 Comment »

Coldest December in 135 years

December 18, 2010

Kallaste december på 135 år

says the Svenska Dagbladet

http://www.thelocal.se/30914/20101217/

Power outages, traffic accidents as well as train and flight delays have left Swedes reeling from Thursday’s snowstorm, which forecasters say isn’t over yet.

“Slippery conditions will continue across the country. There is already a lot of snow on the roads,” SMHI’s Elin Torstensson told the TT news agency.

She explained that Sweden has experienced more cold days and more snow than is normal for December.

“There were a number of days in a row with below-freezing temperatures, so called ice days. And that we have that before Lucia (December 13th) hasn’t happened in more than 100 years,” she said.

Meteorology agency SMHI has issued a class 1 warning covering all of northern Sweden due to the large amounts of new snow, combined with the strong winds.

The agency also forecasts that the snow will continue throughout much of the country on Friday. Snow showers are expected to continue throughout the weekend over parts of Götaland and southern Svealand in central Sweden, with light flurries forecast for the north of the country.

“We’re expecting about five centimetres of new snow,” said SMHI’s Torstensson. Temperatures on Saturday are expected to range from a few degrees below freezing in Götaland to -25 Celsius in the far north, before cooling somewhat on Sunday when temperatures in the northern Sweden may dip down to 35 degrees below zero.

Weather not climate of course, but the credibility of so-called climate science is disappearing with its alarmist  displays of arrogance.

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Posted in Alarmism, Climate, Sweden, Weather | Comments Off on Coldest December in 135 years

Lowest November temperature since 1995, negative NAO drives frigid polar air over Sweden

November 25, 2010

Last night the temperature in Northern Sweden dropped to -37 Celsius, the coldest temperature recorded for a November day since 1995.

Bitter winter on the way: expert

24th November 2010 - Photo Fredrik Sandberg / Scanpix

 

“This year’s winter can be just as cold and snowy as last year. Now, as then, there is a weather phenomenon that causes cold air from the polar regions to plummet over us”,

writes the Svenska Dagbladet

The North Atlantic Oscillation is in a negative phase (NAO-).Before last year’s winter this had not occurred in years. The default mode instead was of the NAO  in a positive phase with the warm southwest winds, which resulted in mild, almost snow-free winters in northern Europe.

“Now it looks like last winter. If it continues, it means bitter cold. But you never know when the weather turns, “said meteorologist and researcher Per Kållberg at SMHI to Sydsvenskan. Meteorologists around the world are now discussing if the negative phase will continue. It started in December 2009 and has persisted since then, which is the longest period in over 40 years. Nikkaluokta in northern Lapland had  minus 36.6 degrees yesterday – the season’s lowest temperature so far, according to SMHI. It is also the lowest November temperature in Sweden since 1995.

The bitterly cold and long winter last year followed by the early start to this winter is, of course,  only weather – not climate.

But I expect in Cancun next week all the “believers” will be chanting their mantra of 2010 being a very warm year. Common sense will be notably absent of course.


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Posted in Climate, Geosciences, Sweden, Weather | 1 Comment »

Bleak future for wind power generators in Sweden

November 22, 2010

Swedish P1 Radio had a broadcast this morning where wind turbine owners in southern Sweden were interviewed. Wind turbines in Southern Sweden operate at an average capacity of about 25% but when the wind blows in in Sweden it usually blows in Denmark as well. As Denmark builds more subsidised but intermittent wind turbines they become more dependant upon the import of hydro and nuclear power from Sweden and Norway.

It could be a dark future for wind power, at least for wind power owners in southern Sweden. As wind turbines multiply, the surplus power when the wind blows reduce prices and wind turbine revenues are reduced drastically.

The Marketing Director for Lunds Energi said that they had no plans for building any more wind turbines to add to the 6 small wind turbines they already had.  There was no chance, he said, of the Danes importing wind power from Sweden when the wind was blowing for then they had their own power. And when the wind was not blowing and prices were better there was no power to sell!

Vindkraftverk i Vänern. Foto: Fredrik Sandberg/Scanpix

Wind power plant in Lake Vännern. Foto: Fredrik Sandberg/Scanpix

Kjell Jansson, the Managing Director of Svensk Energi was also interviewed and pointed out that electricity could not be stored except as hot water. Therefore using surplus wind energy to store in heating systems was at best a partial solution but did not help the fact that industry and people needed electricity as electricity – and not just as hot water. Even the planned Danish solution of using surplus power to “charge up” heating systems for district heating as hot water or for “charging up” electric cars relied on having electricity – from nuclear and hydro power from Sweden and Norway – available to be imported for the Danish electricity system.

Therefore, he continued, when the wind did not blow in Denmark  – and then usually did not blow over the whole of Scandinavia – the high electricity price was an advantage for the hydro and nuclear generators. In any case this would require much more investment in transmission systems and in hydro power generation.

But I can see a situation where Denmark will pay swingeing prices for imported electricity when the wind is not blowing and a cold wave is sweeping across Europe. And if it is a really severe cold wave then there may be no electricity available for import.

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Posted in Business, Economy, Energy, Environment, Sweden, Wind power | Comments Off on Bleak future for wind power generators in Sweden

Sweden: Opposition to wind power grows

October 30, 2010

Freely translated from Ny Teknik:

Opposition to wind power is now so extensive that it can be compared with nuclear public opinion as it was more than 30 years ago. Now opponents are kicking-off a campaign with the slogan “Wind power – no thanks.”

 

Wind Power - No Thanks

 

With 20 000 registered members and a symbol reminiscent of the 80’s symbol “Nuclear power – no thanks’, the Association for Swedish Landscape Protection is growing steadily as is the opposition to wind power.
“You can definitely compare today’s opinion with the movement against nuclear power, “said Karin Hammarlund, a researcher in landscape analysis at SLU, to the newspaper “Miljörapporten”
But there is one important difference between the protests against nuclear power and the resistance to wind power, says Karen Hammarlund.
“What is causing concern is not wind power technology in itself but how it affects the landscape and social structures”.
According to Elisabeth von Brömsen, chairman of  Swedish Countryside Protection, the resistance movement has this year gained about a thousand new members, both private individuals and associations.

It is beginning to get through, I think, that with the existing nuclear and hydro power available in Sweden, the role for intermittent wind power is marginal and primarily as an exercise in the following of  “fashion”. It has little to contribute to either generation capacity or transmission security. And it is expensive.

But the nuclear renaissance is continuing steadily anyway and history will probably show the “wind story” to be little more than a diversion from common sense for a decade or two.

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Posted in Energy, Engineering, Environment, Sweden | 1 Comment »

A mix of prudence and optimism: Swedish GDP forecast up to 4.8%

October 12, 2010

The Swedish moderate/centre/ right coalition government presents its autumn budget proposal today. The previously expected growth of 4.5% has been revised upwards to 4.8%. But a strong level of prudence is still included with GDP assumed to be 3.7% next year instead of 4.0%. Though the coalition government is only just in a minority the budget is expected to pass in parliament. The main focus is on unemployment and job creation with the objective to reduce unemployment from the current 8.4% to 8.0% next year.

Sweden sticks out in Europe with its relatively high export-led growth.

Free translation from SvT:

http://svt.se/2.22620/1.2188350/regeringen_andrar_prognos

Unemployment as a share of the workforce aged 15-74 years will be 8.4 % this year and fall to 8.0% next year. Unemployment will continue to fall gradually to 6.0% in 2014.
Consumer price index is expected to grow by 1.2 % this year and by 1.5 % next
year. “The government’s main goal is to bring Sweden back to full employment. We will therefore continue to work to strengthen employment and reduce exclusion, “said Finance Minister Anders Borg (M) according to a press release.
“But Sweden is still at a low activity level with high unemployment. And there are still risks that the development could be worse than expected. It is therefore important that we ensure that public finances are in surplus and that we prevent unemployment from remaining stuck at a high level. We must make use of the coming years of high growth to include those who have had difficulty to enter the labour market” said Finance Minister Anders Borg.

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Posted in Economy, European Union, Sweden | Comments Off on A mix of prudence and optimism: Swedish GDP forecast up to 4.8%

The IKEA phenomenon

August 28, 2010

We made our quarterly pilgrimage to our local IKEA store in Linköping yesterday. This past week 3.5 Million Swedish households each received their copy of the 2010/2011 IKEA catalogue – which is an annual event comparable in social significance to a national holiday though perhaps not as important as Midsommar !!

http://www.ikea.com/ms/sv_SE/img/fy11/cat011/main_cat_115x130.jpg

IKEA katalogen 2011

IKEA (Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd) is still a privately held company. Many Swedish households have a sticker on their letterboxes saying “No advertising – thank you” but the variant which is fairly common is “No advertising -thank you but the IKEA catalogue with pleasure”

175 Million copies of the catalog in 27 languages will be distributed in 33 countries this year. Prices in the Swedish catalogue are guaranteed till 11th July next year. IKEA is iconic and ubiquitous of course but I note that my son studying in New York visits the New Jersey store (free bus from Manhattan) just to get his traditional Swedish lunches.

http://www.ikea.com/ms/sv_SE/restaurant/restaurant2.html

Köttbullar

Surprisingly it is Iceland which has the most stores per inhabitant !!

Country Debut No. Stores Population Stores per Million People
Iceland 1981 1 318 006 3,145
Sweden 1958 17 9 354 462 1,817
Cyprus 2007 1 798 045 1,253
Norway 1963 5 4 899 300 1,021
Denmark 1969 5 5 543 819 0,902
Switzerland 1973 7 7 782 900 0,899
Finland 1996 4 5 367 188 0,745
The Netherlands 1978 12 16 609 848 0,722
Austria 1977 6 8 356 707 0,718
Belgium 1984 6 10 827 519 0,554
Germany 1974 45 81 757 600 0,550
France 1981 28 65 447 374 0,428
Hong Kong 1975 3 7 055 071 0,425
Singapore 1978 2 4 987 600 0,401
Czech Republic 1991 4 10 506 813 0,381
Greece 2001 4 11 306 183 0,354
Spain 1980 15 46 030 109 0,326
Canada 1976 11 34 224 000 0,321
United Arab Emirates 1991 2 6 888 888 0,290
United Kingdom 1987 18 62 041 708 0,290
Kuwait 1984 1 3 520 000 0,284
Italy 1989 17 60 380 912 0,282
Portugal 2004 3 11 317 192 0,265
Israel 2001 2 7 602 400 0,263
New Zealand TBA 0 4 390 090 0,228
Ireland 2009 1 4 456 000 0,224
Australia 1975 5 22 439 171 0,223
Poland 1991 8 38 192 000 0,209
Hungary 1990 2 10 005 000 0,200
Slovakia 1992 1 5 379 455 0,186
Taiwan 1994 4 23 119 772 0,173
Serbia 2011 0 7 334 935 0,136
Bulgaria 2011 0 7 563 710 0,132
United States 1985 37 310 101 000 0,119
Saudi Arabia 1983 3 27 136 977 0,111
Dominican Republic 2010 1 10 090 000 0,099
Russia 2000 11 141 927 297 0,078
Turkey 2005 4 72 561 312 0,055
Romania 2007 1 22 215 421 0,045
Japan 1974 5 127 420 000 0,039
Malaysia 1996 1 28 310 000 0,035
Ukraine 2011 0 45 888 000 0,022
Thailand 2011 0 66 404 688 0,015
China 1998 6 1 338 612 968 0,004

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Posted in Behaviour, Business, Sweden | 1 Comment »

Managing without flights

May 1, 2010

I had to travel to Germany from Sweden during the time when air-space was closed due to the irrational alarm surrounding the volcano eruption in Iceland.

A 1500 km journey – each way – by car over a day-and-a-half was remarkably efficient, relaxed and much less stressful than hanging around at airports. A relaxed night in Bremen on the way to Essen and in Odense on the way back. Half the journey was through Denmark and Sweden with maximum motorway speeds of between 110 and 130 km / h and giving an average speed of 105 km /h. The other half on the German autobahns, where the maximum speed in some sections was unlimited also gave an average speed just over 100km /h.

Beautiful spring weather all the way and back and the average level of courtesy of drivers on the road is remarkably high.

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Posted in Travel | Comments Off on Managing without flights

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