Shitzadorina

Good news, it's raining in Sweden again! We've stopped melting!!!

TIME TO CELEBRATE!!!

@Shitzadorina
Nice, did your forests and cars also stop burning?

@Keremline There's still high probabilities of forest fires, but the weather is finally returning to normal, so if this continues, then yes, it will stop burning.

Thank goodness, because I'm from the rainiest part of Sweden (it literally rains 1/3 of all days each year) and we didn't almost any rain since May. It's been horrific. I was celebrating today when I saw the first proper rainfall in months.

@Shitzadorina

Excellent. Hope it continues. You need it even more than us and my home town had its 1st real rain yesterday for about 3 months.

@Shitzadorina Congratulations!

@Shitzadorina
Yeah, I'm glad. The hot temperatures were a strange change from the usual cold, rainy weather...

Am I one of few whold probably agree to this? And I am Swedish, and a woman... just know, we like to think high about ourselves, doesn' always mean we are right.

@Shitzadorina Don't worry, you can't possibly think as highly of yourselves as Americans do.

@ShoggothOnTheRoof And of course, we're always right.

@ShoggothOnTheRoof Good one. Dammit, we in Sweden can`t take that top first position either XD

@SwedenSpaceEditor Maybe you're first at coming in second?

@ShoggothOnTheRoof agreed.

Babies cry, its how they communicate with people around them. How else would you know how a baby would be hungry, need a diaper change or generally be lonely. Crying babies don't annoy me, it's when their parents ignore their cries and don't acknowledge it which ticks me off, because obviously their kdis are in need of something.

@Shitzadorina babies also cry when you're sitting and holding them, instead of standing. Or when they don't like wearing clothes. Or when the brand of strained pees you're feeding then isn't their favorite. It's their only way to communicate, but babies are still people. They still have things that annoy them, for whatever reason, they just loudly let you know it.

@Shitzadorina varies, I had one with colic, literally cried for no reason, wasn't hungry, didn't need a change, just had gas. We did everything the doctor said, he had never seen such a ridiculous case. We could get her to sleep 6-8 hours a night, but she wouldn't nap unless you were holding her, and even then she'd cry for 30 minutes straight first. Our parents and siblings where the only reason we retained any semblance of sanity.


It got funny when she was 6months or so, she'd cry if she heard our voices, but if she didn't she was fine. She wanted to be included in everything!

@Boingyboingy Did your doctor tell you to stop with cow-milk for 6 weeks? Our doctor told us to stop eating milk products for a few days and see if it got better. It didn't so we started again. A month later we found out that it takes much longer for the milk protein to go out of the mothers milk so after about 4-6 weeks it started to improve and our daughter could sleep without crying or being rocked to sleep constantly. Milk protein allergy is very tricky to get around, there is milk protein in almost everything.

@Shitzadorina Damn straight!

No clue where to post this, but this was just a thought.

Scandinavian winter 2018: giant snowpile of the century
Scandinavian summer 2018: fire, literallly fire. Not a drop of rain in sight.

Ps: Thanks to all the EU nations who have sent us support, it is highly appreciated, trust me!

@Shitzadorina and for Iceland:

Icelandic winter 2018: Snow. Just snow everywhere. Blizzards and more snow.
Icelandic summer 2018: Rain. Floods of rain. No sun in sight. Just rain.

@KatrinLilja Can we trade, I'll gladly take rain? My bloody country is burning up. Worst fires we've had for hundreds of years.

Seriously, I live in Gothenburg, aka, little London because it rains so much. There has barely been any rain at all since May, just dry leaves and yellow grass. It's bloody insane!

@Shitzadorina yes we can trade. I know for a fact (simply by reading the news and talking to people) that the citizens of Iceland (mostly Reykjavik and the south side) are getting fed up with this no-sun, cold, rainy summer. One guy even said; "I remember the summer of 2018. It happened on a Wednesday." Worst summer in over a 100 years they say.

Guess mother nature is treating both our countries quite unfairly I would say.

@Shitzadorina It could have been much worse and much hotter. We got away easy compared to how some others have it right now. And it may get much worse for everyone in the near future if we are unlucky. I also appreciate the help from our European friends.

@Shitzadorina it's basically been the same in Saskatchewan @_@ although it's like that almost every year. Just that this year, it went from winter to summer in the matter of less than a week.

I can confirm, Sweden's reaction is highly accurate, this was my exact reaction first time I ever encountered these strange ball shaped phenomenons

@Shitzadorina go to r/polandball and find out

polandball actually has a fanbase larger than SatW.

Please help educate my fellow Swedes on this. When I got a new job in early october I had to take the bus there. As a precaution to people around me I willingly chose to wear a mask (there is no mask regulations in Sweden for public places). however, this does not mean that I am protected against the virus, it means IF I would get the virus, it could help from letting everyone around me be infected.

However, I don't know in the short amount of times (before my office closed due to one coleague getting the virus) that people would be almost to my face because they think, oh, she is safe. No, it's not just about that. If Anders Tegnell preaches social distancing, and that is the only thing we have as a standard meassure apart from washing our hands all the time, then please, do not walk up to me just because I'm wearing a mask.

Now I am working from home and will probably do so until after Christmas, but even so, if I have one more person try to sit next to me I will make my own social distancing gimmick, just to get it through everyone's brains. Yes, we all are annoyed at how long it has been going on, SO WHAT! At least it's not a bubonic plague, it won't wipe half of humanity away, but there are people in this world who could have more severe symptoms.

Btw, for those who ask why I am terrified of this despite only being in my 30's. I live with my mother, who is 60+ and has high blood pressure. High blood pressure is one of the more common diagnosis for those who go to intensive care due to the virus. No, I do not want to infect her with it, I lost my brother in April and my father died to cancer in 2015. I will not lose my mother so soon, if I can help it.

@Shitzadorina I'm in my 40's, and I caught covid from my son on July 4. While I've been lucky enough to avoid severe symptoms, it is November and the symptoms just keep dragging on. My doctors can't tell me whether I'm still contagious, and so I must stay away from my mother until I feel certain I won't be putting her at risk. You do not have that option, and I think your response is the right one.

A mask doesn't offer complete protection, but it can still catch tiny water droplets floating in the air from other people coughing/sneezing/talking, so I recommend you continue wearing one.

With regards to educating other Swedes... I am going to make a suggestion that may sound terrible, but consider it a half-baked idea that may lead to better ideas.

You could try ordering some masks with a warning printed on them (or a warning label you could attach to the outside of a mask). To accomplish anything, I believe the warning would need to be extremely short, simple, blunt, and direct. You would want to use a font as large as possible so people can read it more easily (and quickly) from a distance. Perhaps something like...

Brother: Gone!
Father: Gone!
Mother: At Risk!

People approaching from the side may not see it, so you may need to turn your head to face people approaching you now and then, and perhaps make eye contact to make sure they're paying attention. While this sounds terrible to me, if I saw someone wearing a mask with a message like that, I cannot imagine myself (or anyone who isn't a complete sociopath, or maybe a New Yorker) being disrespectful about it. It may also make others around you re-consider whether they should wear one, too (though I think that's less likely).

Right now I can't think of anything besides literally wearing a sign that would get the message across without you having to explain it to every single person who comes near you (at which point they're already too close). Maybe you could switch to a heart-shaped patch worn on the sleeve? (Yes, that's a bad joke. I'm a dad and, we're practically obligated to make bad jokes. ;-)

Thoughts?

@s_p_oneil If I did something like this, I would likely get thrown of the bus... it's too extreme. Maybe it works in the US, but here I would most likely be labelled an extremist and as I am born Asian (not that most people are racists), I would probably cause more of a negative reaction. I just remember when people walked circles around me in February when the first cases started appearing in Europe, sometimes people did walk circles around me.

Besides, I did not lose my brother or my father to covid, so it would be lying.

I guess I will simply just continue with the mask, and at the moment stay at home and work from home. The spread has flared up these last couple of weeks, so there is no point going back to work until at least after New Years.

@Shitzadorina Fortunately, you might be protected! Though it's one of the things that makes this virus spread so readily, it's also something that makes mask wearing more effective to the wearer: this virus mostly spreads through aerosols.

The "protects other people" argument was based upon the theory that the virus spreads through droplets that land on surfaces. Masks prevent these droplets getting out, which reduces the chances that somebody will later touch the surface and then rub their face.

But aerosols are inhaled. So a mask can protect you. Especially a respirator mask (e.g. N95). But please get one without an exhalation valve, because those allow aerosols to be exhaled efficiently.

@kbdick If you are able to get one of those masks, yes, you can protect yourself. Unfortunately, ever since this pandemic broke out only the lesser ones without it can be found. I do think they stock them, but since they only come in packs of 3-5, they get bought up in the blink of an eye, so no can do. I simply stay at home mostly now, it's spreading alarmingly fast now.

@Shitzadorina ey, even I'm scared and I'm only 24. I have asthma. Wearing a mask is shit, but I would do it for the sake of everyone.

@Shitzadorina Covid or not you have a right to tell people to get out of your personal space.
I'm an citizen in Sweden, but not born here. I was under the impression that most Swedes keep to themselves and try to not be near each other physically because that's awkward. Not sure why people are doing that.

I'd say to tell them to back off. if you become un-liked, oh well. More important for you to be safe than possibly offend the sensibilities of people who are also wrong to be doing what they are doing in the first place.

Maybe to go with s_p_oneil's idea, instead right 6 meters with little people on each side of the arrow on the mask? Also to be a bit cheeky, since it drives me nuts when I see it, outline the nose where the nose should be for those who wear masks, but for some dumb reason take it off to talk or wear it below their nose?

I dunno, I'm personally sick of people being so incredibly obtuse with this, even in places that are statistically doing better.

Everyone and their mother just got tired of waiting and decided with out any form of okay that things were safer to just start hanging out in groups, being too close at grocery stores and visiting family at retirement homes.

This is probably needed by now:

Here is an American blogging about Swedish pizzas, which include the one with bananas. He actually liked them:
http://caliswede.blogspot.com/2011/12/swedish-pizza.html

From what I gather the person with Corona in Finland has fully recovered so Finland is safe for now and the one in Sweden has not recovered yet but seems to be mostly okay, but in quarantine. Thankfully we've been lucky despite it being the worst flu-season at the moment, but everyone seems to be on high guard. Hope Denmark will be safe from it, I feel so bad for China and all those close to the areas. This is kind of frightening how quickly it has spread.

@Shitzadorina
Yeah, those two that were quaranteed have given clean samples.

@Shitzadorina

Very true. On a discussion/AH site I'm a member of the web master has kept us updated and its expanded so damned rapidly. A week back it still had less cases reported than Sars but by yesterday it had about 4 times as many and Sars was about for several months before it was closed down.

The saving grace so far is that the lethality rate is a lot less then Sars but if it continues expanding at this rate I fear there's going to be a lot of people dying. Probably not just in China which has had virtually all the fatalities so far. If I'm reading the news reports correctly one person, the 3rd Briton affected - caught it while in Singapore - a major centre of air travel - while at a business meeting, spent 3-4 days at a ski resort in France, which has seen a number of infected people including a family of 5 more Brits and then came home before being detected as infected. That shows how easily it can be spread and is very worrying in the present times of very easy travel.

Hopefully someone can find a vaccine pretty quickly although I can see some corners cut on testing to get such into production and use early. Or that, while bad for China, we have caught it early enough that it never gets a foothold outside that country.

@stevep59 To be honest comparing doesn't tell us much, There were clearly far more illnesses and deaths associated with SARS than were actually reported and attributed to it because no-one wanted to admit that it was in their town and cause a panic. It's far more difficult to keep it quiet these days.

Most of the deaths seem to be late diagnosis, which is a traditional problem in China compared to many countries.

@hackerjack

Possibly although from what I remember and the news is saying now, talking largely about the BBC so their usually reliable, SARs was easier to detect because it hit people a lot harder and earlier so there wasn't the same problem of infected people wandering about infecting others because they were obviously sick earlier.

Would prefer it if your correct as that would make corona easier to control.

@Shitzadorina It didn't help that the Chinese police arrested the first doctor who tried to warn them about the virus.

If Anna Lind hadn't been murdered I think we would eventually have had one, because she was really pooular among everyone, including the right wing. Sadly, she was killed and the women since have been okay-ish at best to represent the country. As it is, we are far from ever having a female prime minister, unless something radically changes. But right now, only the smaller parties have a female in the lead and from what I read there are no current female leaders in our current three big ones.

First a broom, now a rake? Finland is obviously the boss when it comes to outdoor equipment.

In all fairness, Finland was a self foverned autonomy from 1809. Anyway, congratulations neighbour and good luck and plenty of baltic wonders to whatever the future brings.

@Shitzadorina Baltic wonders are all the time imported in great quantities. They come in aluminium cans, glass and plastic bottles.

@Shitzadorina

Well it began that way, after Russia claimed what was then just known as the eastern part of Sweden in 1809.

The Finnish people where used to much stronger rights as Swedish citizens then the average Russian citizen at that time had (Russia still had serfdom - basically slavery for much of it's peasantry - back then) and the Russian Tsar's realized they could never force such harsh conditions on the Finns without facing constant rebellions.

So they instead opted to give the Finns unprecedented status and a measure of autonomy within the Russian empire - allowing them to keep their laws and rights they had known as Swedes - to keep them from rebelling.

But in the end of the 19th century, Russia started putting pressure on the Finns to become more ordinary Russian subjects.
Their autonomy was stripped from them and they where put under a Russian Governor-General who only took his orders from the Tsar.
The Finns where understandably not pleased and the Governor-General was later assassinated by a Finnish patriot who then shot himself to avoid being caught and subjected to Russian torture and execution.

With the Russian loss in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05, the resulting first Russian revolution of 1905 and a general strike in Russia and Finland, the Russian state had to offer concessions to it's people to retain control and as a consequence the Finns had their former rights restored to them.

However, as soon as the Russian state felt it was back in control, the pressure on the Finns to conform to Russian control started to mount again.

Luckily for the Finns the First World War and the later Russians revolutions meant that they in the chaos of 1917 finally could break free from Russia and declare independence.

So it's not like there is an unbroken history of self governance in Finland from 1809 unfortunately. Finland had to go through many years of struggle before they gained their independence, it was not something that was just given to them - we shouldn't forget that.

@Nisse_Hult Well, thanks to you I've been enlightened. Thanks @Nisse_Hult

@Shitzadorina

I'm glad you took it that way.

I'm a bit of a history buff and sometimes people who aren't as interested get's flashbacks to what they remember as boring history lessons in school when I get going...

So I'm happy you didn't seem to mind. :-)

Funny note, Qin Shi Huang died from Mercury poisoning. He willingly ate mercury as his doctors had made him believe it would prolong his life. For the latter years of his life he was obsessed with immortality, so he sent an experdition to find it. They never returned, most likely because they knew they'd be dead if they came back without anything.

@Shitzadorina ...and they even tried gunpowder as an anti-ageing-medicine...
...well...it worked...kind of...
...it prevented a lot of people from growing old...!

@Shitzadorina "Shoot the messenger/boy who tells the emperor he has no clothes/whistleblower" is still an activity that is routinely practiced as well.

@Shitzadorina well, he was afraid of death, and he was obsessed with acquiring immortality

To add on this, apparently Sweden and Finland are the only 2 countries in the world to have won a medal in every game since 1908. Suddenly, I am quite proud of my little country.

@Shitzadorina Probably because everybody else boycutted a certain Olympic Game in 1980, not something to be proud off to suck up military aggressors.

@Carewolf True, but it seems most Western countries did participate under the Olympic flag instead of their own.

https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sommer-OL_1980

@Carewolf "Everyone else" sure as hell didn't boycott the 1980 Olympics, including Denmark. The only European countries who didn't participate was Norway and West Germany.

Well, there was once a polar bear that lived in the Towers of London, apparently a gift from the Nowegian king to the British king.

@Shitzadorina

There is an metal art work to show this fact.
He was fed beer and hunted fish in the Thames.

There are few of the metal animals there as well.

@Shitzadorina I have a Norwegian friend that tanned and prepared Ice Bear hides for the Shah of Iran when she was young. Wonder if he took them with him when he was exiled from Iran?

I heard about the Finnish decisions, though it took me a while to fully gasp it... though, I agree, you need a home in order to sort things out and winters are COLD. And I think there has been talk in Sweden as well of giving drugs to addict, as it will be easier to keep people from overdoses and clean needles... however, not sure that was passed.

Though, in Sweden I wish at times they could pass a law stating that you can build without neighbours shutting down the building process because they will loose their sea-view. We're short on housing (especially rented appartments), and yet I hear so often of construction projects being delayed because the neighbours don't want their view obstructed. Even if you have hundreds of metres to the sea. *sigh*

@Shitzadorina
Not just Sweden there. I'm fairly sure "a good view" is why Portland, OR doesn't build higher despite having a crazy homeless population due to all the people trying to move there getting people kicked out of their homes as either property taxes get too high or the owners of their apartment decided they'd rather rent for 20 times the rate and then mansions are what is being build rather than apartments or condos. People are commuting from 3 hours away. This housing issue has spread to nearby cities because of it and of course they don't want to build higher either.

At this rate, why don't we figure out how to dig down into the earth?... might be easier to convince people... just need to require TV's for fake windows. Imagine a reverse skyscraper... ground scraper?

@Steeeve As much as I love the idea of underground residential towers, I'm surprised you suggested them while living in Portland. Earthquakes are a bit of an issue on the West Coast!

Signed,
A Californian

@Whaleologist
The majority of earthquakes are further south and a ways off our coast so I guess I don't think about those so much. We rarely get anything noticeable. A big one might come every few decades. I suppose that'd be too often and it'd be quite the engineering feat to figure out how to earthquake proof such a building.

@Steeeve Sadly, my area of Sweden is known for being very muddy... hence why it is a hassle for them to dig down as the ground can sink. Also, as most European cities, we're old (celebrating 400 years of age next year). There are hundreds of tunnels down there, not undermining the city would be an issue.

And when I say muddy, when this city was built we had to hire people from the Netherlands and Belgium to construct a northern amsterdam, as we Swedes had no clue how to build on mud. We simply did because our king wanted the city to be here, and it was, at the time, the only tiny speck on the map that did not belong to Denmark or Norway.

Meanwhile Sweden is far in the background groaning: "England, don't leave me, who will be my best friend now?!!!"

https://www.thelocal.se/20190213/who-will-be-swedens-best-eu-friend-after-brexit-britain-netherlands

*le sigh*

@Shitzadorina

That will be the problem for the countries left in who don't want the ever continuing centralisation of the idealogs. Plus if the centre continues to get more contemptuous of the ordinary population the tension will continue to grow. Britain having decided there is an alternative to this poses a threat to the rulers because they think the only way of controlling is by ordering rather than listening so it depends on if they continue along this path or actually start considering the desires of their subjects.

@Shitzadorina Seems like the Dutchies will be your new besties!

@Shitzadorina #982797
Denmark too.

Iceland, 1,9? I thought Icelanders practised Icelandic, English and even Danish in school, so what's up with 1,9? Any Icelanders care to explain.

@Shitzadorina What's to explain? It's like with us Germans: whatever language we claim to speak, it all sounds like Monty Python.

@minando I simply always thought Icelanders were more well established in languages than 1,9. Most Nordic countries are fluent in their own language + English, and as Icelanders learn Danish as well, 1,9 seemed like an odd statistics.

@Shitzadorina The smaller the country the more languages are learned (or so it would seem)...could be an explanation for America's 0,...

@Shitzadorina I've learnt German for 7 years, I can't speak it for shit. It's not because you've learnt a language in school that you can speak it and it's quite likely that most old folks who rarely/never left the country only speak Icelandic and have forgotten everything they *might* have learnt when younger.

@Shitzadorina #9825873
I find that surprising also. Maybe the numbers are not based on serious research.

There is a spell in Sweden that if you find a ladybug, you should pick it up and if it flies away on its own (without you touching it or poking it) then the sun will shine the next day.

As for weird sayings: När man talar om trollen står de i farstun (when you talk about the trolls, they're in the hallway). Dpn't ask me how this would ever happen.

Minna Sundberg could illustrate the trolls in the halls....

@Shitzadorina Our version of the second is, "Speak of the devil!" If you're talking about someone, and they show up right then, someone may say that. It's based on an old superstition that talking about the devil will make them appear.

Trump is an endless source for absurdness... I choked on my drink when I heard he wanted to buy Greenland and this morning he said we should nuke hurricanes.

Clearly, he has to be an alien, there is no other explanation at this point.

@Shitzadorina ...The US government has released a press statement pointing out that not only would nuking hurricanes not negatively affect them, but it might make them WORSE by warming the water that feeds them. And also potentially scattering radioactive fallout everywhere that the hurricane travels.
Trump really needs to hire an official filter—someone whose job it is to at least do a quick reality check on everything he says before he embarrasses us all with it.

@GreatWyrmGold #9820868
Reality does not interest Trump. He says what he thinks his voters want to hear.

@Klaus "I reject your reality and substitute my own"

Or at least that quote would fit if words with more than three syllables weren't some fake news mumbo jumbo the liberals use instead of arguments

Bathroom, guilty...

But in all fairness, if you own a house in Sweden you are also likely to have your own room for washing, but apartments lack that space.

And if you don't have a washing machine, you'll be sharing with the rest of the community, in specific shared rooms of the building.

As my workplace swarms with tourists I can concur... people never seem to understand when they are told of. I am talking to you especially China... I even tell you what the rules are, in Chinese, stop pretending like you don't understand.

But seriously, it annoys me how many times tourists act as if rules don't apply to them, when everyone else gets it.

Ok: to clear this out if no one else has:

Denmark: Bakken, 1583
Sweden_ Gröna Lund, 1883
Norway: Kristiansand zoo and amusementpark 1966 (was ot listed in Swedish wikipedia for some reason, i guess we count it as a zoo?)

Also note: Liseberg (Gothenburg) is way more fun than Gröna Lund (Stockholm)!

Well, China cooks a meal for his ghosts to party. Maybe Thailand could borrow some ideas from there?

@Shitzadorina Hmmm, maybe.

Many Asian buildings are built based on Feng Shui... of course you cannot block awesome dragon powers!

@Shitzadorina

Compare this to the West, where buildings are designed to avoid placing rooms or offices on the thirteenth floor, marble columns are added where they offer absolutely no structural support, etc. Eastern and Western cultures are not so different.

Now, we're simply missing Sweden's frustration of being 7th, and at the bottom of the televote.

@Shitzadorina oh no worries. Enough snowflakes in Sweden to be happy with the winner...
I presume almost half of the televoters were Swedish...

Reminds me of a question I get quite often at work (I work at a museum btw)

"What's in those sandwhiches?"

"Bread, butter, ham, cheese, a piece of lettuce, a piece of cucumber and a piece of bellpepper."

"So, no mayo?"

"None"

Then you get the biggest sigh of relief.

Seriously, not all countries put mayo on their sandwhiches. I know they do in Germany, I feel bad for tourists who think we all do.

BTW, not that mayo sandwhiches are inedible, but they sure are weird. At least to me.

As a Swede, I can confirm, we make waaay too many crime stories, probably because there are too many crime writers. My mom loves it, but personally, I have never found them that interesting. So, sorry Denmark, but since we kind of realised some time ago that you can actually make money by shipping things abroad, so... enjoy Swedish crime, which btw is very unrealistic.

I just realised something. Where is Sister Åland?

@Shitzadorina #9630751 Yeah, we'd like to be introduces to her! Can't sister Faroe bring her over sometime?

@Shitzadorina I think, since Åland isn't really a country, that he doesn't have a female counterpart. Or if he does, Finland and Sister Finland keep her in a cage in their basement to prevent her from hooking up with Sister Sweden or something.

@truboo42 Finland and Sister Finland keep her securely locked up for the protection of the rest of the world.

@truboo42 I bet Sister Åland is still chasing Russia (reference to an early strip, explaining a battle with russians). Or if not, we all know about the relationship between Sister Sweden and Finland, so who knows

@truboo42 or sister sweden has her locked up in her basement

@truboo42 Then why does Faroe Island have both? I get the feeling, like mentioned, that Finland is hiding her.

Just to add upon what is being said, this is what happened in Sweden: http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/Vn17J/in-english-this-happened-in-sweden-friday-night-mr-president

BTW, love what our mooses are up to.

I know this doesn't really have to do with the current comic, but I stumbled upon this a while ago and this is true SATW material.

Norway: Danish Language Explained

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqgRC5sfCaQ