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Sweden: Worlds
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Last December 13, Sweden’s Saint Lucia procession in Second Life was the first widely covered Swedish-themed event in Second Life, organized by Swedish Second Life resident Tina Dahl and a small band of friends. In the year since, Second Life has seen a veritable explosion into the public consciousness, and as a result far more Swedes are now involved in the virtual world — which means far more Swedes to partake in this year’s Saint Lucia ritual.
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Historically, Sweden is the third largest exporter of music, after the US and Great Britain. It is a creative hotbed for musicians, songwriters, producers and technicians that, since the 1970s, have significantly contributed to the global pop music community. The success of the blockbuster musical Mamma Mia! has proven the enduring popularity of Swedish hitmakers ABBA's music. Scandinavian music producers Max Martin (Britney Spears, Bon Jovi, Kelly Clarkson), Anders Bagge (Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson) and Tore Johansson (The Cardigans, Franz Ferdinand), among others, are responsible for many US hits, as well as the worldwide "Crazy Frog" phenomenon.
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Sweden has a long and proud history of academic excellence, with outstanding universities dating back to the 15th century. Sweden is the home of the Nobel Prize, the world's most prestigious academic distinction.
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Sweden officially remained neutral throughout World War II, although it helped both sides during the war. During the period 1939-1943 when the Axis powers looked like the winning side Sweden supplied Germany with much needed Iron ore. The Iron ore made sure that the German war machine could keep on going and become such an issue that Great Britain considered invading Sweden to destroy the mines up north in Kiruna. Sweden ... transported German soldiers on leave from Norway and reinforcements going to Finland. After 1943 when Germany started to face defeat after defeat and it became clear that Germany would not win the war Sweden started to help the Allies by providing them with intelligence. Sweden also began to take some steps toward rescuing Jews around 1944.
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Swedish is the national language of Sweden, but you will find that people, especially those below the age of 70... speak English very well - an estimated 89% of Swedes can speak English, according to the Eurobarometer. Older people born well before the Second World War usually learned German as their first foreign language, and generally speak that better than English. Today students learn a third language in school, usually German, Spanish or French. Regardless of what your native tongue is, Swedes greatly appreciate any attempt to speak Swedish and beginning conversations in Swedish, no matter how quickly your understanding peters out, will do much to ingratiate yourself to the locals.
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Whether Sweden will meet its 2020 goal is not certain. Arguably, the conversion of electricity and heating plants to biofuel was the easy part. The big hurdle, for Sweden and the world, is automotive fuel. Globally, fuel consumption and emissions are soaring in the transport sector, especially in the huge new consumer economies of China and India.
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