In Sweden, insults are mainly about hell and the devil. "Go to hell", "may the devil take you" are rather rude insults.

The Swedish culture uses very little body language, even the obscene gestures are imported. This one can be seen in Sweden. Other similar gestures have been imported

Sticking out your tongue is less obscene, more of a teasing insult.

Why is this? Swedish insults rather cool as insults, don't they? Especially if your compairing with Southern European cultures. A possible explanation is that Swedish culture is a consensus culture, formed in a very homogenous population. Swedish culture tries to minimize conflicts, especially in intrapersonal relations.

For better or worse. Sweden has not been in a war since 1815, but some conflicts should come up in the open to get solved, and they don't because "someone might feel sad".

The real Swedish insults are sneaky and anonymous, in order to hide the insulter's identity back into the group. Written notes or graffitti in public places are such insults. An example could be a well seen written sign at a workplace saying; "Carl's mom doesn't work here" (meaning that that person is not doing his chores at the workplace, see Den som inte tar bort luddet ska dö! by David Batra).

Waldemar Ingdahl

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The glamour is still present at the Nobel Prize celebrations in Stockholm, in fact it may have overtaken the science and culture.

Unfortunately, prize winner Nambu could not attend to receive his prize in person from the king of Sweden. Now, the prize is paid in Swedish krona which means that with the failing currency the prize money has become much lower as they change it back into dollars, euro and yen. Ten million krona are not what they used to be...

Otherwise, most commentators note that the party in the Stockholm city hall was well done with "love" as the theme for the celebrations. Swedish television showed archive pictures of the dresses of queen Silvia the last years.

The importance of the Nobel prize for literature has increased as the focal point for the celebrations. Winning authors may not have been exceptional, but with diminshing depth of the reporting about the science prizes (as they are unfortunately considered too complicated) literature has become more important in giving the yearly celebrations a meaning.

Swedish radio Johan Bergendorff reported, together with Linda AP Larsson and Sören Granath on some perceived irregularities about the Nobel prizes.

First the sponsorship of Honeywell, and their involvement in the production of components to atom bombs. Prize donator Alfred Nobel made much of his fortune on selling dynamite and cannons, and seems strange that one of Honeywell's business activities should taint the entire prize.

Second there were reports that the three Nobel prize committees for the science prizes had received free flying tickets, hotels and dinners by the Japanese and Chinese governments in order for the committees to explain on site how they award a prize.

There was also criticism for the sponsor AstraZeneca having a board member involved in the medical committee deciding the winners. AstraZeneca stands to gain much money on the prized vaccines- but rightly so, as this research has been important. There is a difficult line of competences being drawn in many prizes, and the winning prizes can also be involved in applications ready for the markets.

Bitter evening for the Italian physicist Nicola Cabibbo that was not allowed to share the prize, with Kobayashi and Maskawa. The CKM-matrix is an acronym for Cabibbo, Kobayashi and Maskawa. A telling remark on how much more difficult it is to isolate a single genius inventing something new in today's science.

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The European Commission released the report Young People and Science (here in pdf). The report is dire reading for Sweden as it ranked lowest of all EU-members when 25 000 youths between 15-25 years were asked about their opinions on science and technology. For being a country reliant on innovation just 20 per cent recorded interest in ICT developments, in first-ranking Latvia it was 63 per cent.

The study reports that many Swedish youths think that inventions in informational technologies, medical sciences, space exploration and environmental sciences are important for the future and their lives. It seems that they do not see any role for themselves in those developments. To a certain degree it is a factor of science becoming more complex, you cannot describe how a technological gadget works by writing on the back of a napkin anymore, as technology more features a "black box" approach. The freedom to tinker and play is very important. But in order to explain the low figures for the interest is also how science is communicated by teachers and journalists. That change of opinion is more important than acquiring new computers in the schools. Then science reporting needs to get more open, more social and more active in choosing the subjects and not leaving over lead stories to general reporters. That is something for EUSJA to address, and for politicians to build a platform on.

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Congratulations on winning the Golden Star award last week from Stockholm!

Read more here about the prize, the award ceremony in Brussels and see some pictures.

On November 12th, Waldemar Ingdahl writes about a very special sport; bandy- the football of the ice.

Read more in Bandy – ice hockey in Sweden goes big in Europe

Played in more than twenty-one countries, bandy is a tale of globalisation, cultures opening up to change and making their distinct mark on the phenomenon before passing it on to the likes of Italy and Hungary. But it is also a typical reflection of Swedish culture.

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