Top Sju

Lifestyle

Top Sju

1Sandrews Stiftelse delade ut 4.3 miljoner

Totalt 57 stipendiater hade i år förmånen att mottaga ett stipendie från Anders Sandrews stiftelse. Stipendie beloppen på 50,000 och 65,000 kr delades ut av Dr Tom Hedelius på Musikalska i Stockholm.

Den folkkäre underhållaren och låtskrivaren Lasse Berghagen blev hedersstipendiat “för upp-skattad och respekterad konstnärlig gärning”. Ur Berghagens mångskiftande produktion finns diktsamlingen “I mina blommiga sandaler” från 1993.

Vid Sandrews död 1957 bildades en stiftelse till hans minne. Den har sedan 1958 delat ut kulturstipendier till ungdomar vid konstnärliga utbildningar i Sverige och utomlands.

Anders Sandrews stiftelses ordförande ekon. Dr Tom Hedelius med den alltid närvarande Anders Sandrew (i form av en byst). Foto: Sthig Jonasson.

2

Michelin Stars For

Swedish Restaurants

The Michelin Guide has recently handed out Michelin Stars to four Swedish restaurants. Aquavit is located in Park Avenue Tower

Markus Jernmark of Aquavit, New York. Photo © Restaurant Aquavit

Ulf Wagner of Sjömagasinet, Gothenburg. Photo © Sjömagasinet

between Park and Madison Avenues in Midtown New York and serves “exquisite Nordic cuisine in an incomparable restaurant setting.” In addition to the phenomenal food choice, Aquavit also offers a modern and rustic dining space for any occasion.

Ekstedt and Gastrologik – two restaurants located in Stockholm – and Sjömagasinet – located in Göteborg, and a favourite restaurant among locals for decades – also received Michelin stars. Ekstedt uses a woodburning hearth to cook its Scandinavian cuisine, Gas-

Niklas Ekstedt of Ekstedt, Stockholm. Photo © Niklas Ekstedt

Jacob Holmström and Anton Bjuhr of Gastrologik, Stockholm. Photo © Gastrologik

trologik uses local flavours and produce which means that the menu is always changing, and Sjömagasinet is “a classic kitchen inspired by the fruits of the sea.” As The Local states, “in total, 13 Swedish restaurants now have 15 Michelin stars between them.” These stars are a testament to the great Swedish culinary experience both at home and abroad.

3Karolinska One of

Sweden’s Tops, Again

Compiled annually by the private academic group Urank, the list of Sweden’s top universities and colleges has recently revealed that the Karolinska Institute has once again been ranked in first place. Following closely behind is the Stockholm School of Economics, followed by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the Royal Institute of Technology. The terms of placement on the list include “the quality of students accepted into courses, the weight attached to research, and the proportion of research students with an international background,” but does not include “the quality of individual courses [or] the quality of student life and the availability of accommodation.” So, while the list is academically sound and may help prospective students and institutions alike to better their academic tendencies, students should look elsewhere for measurement of the practical side of studentship.

Photo ©Ingela Wåhlstrand

Luleå residents form an enormous Facebook ‘thumbs up’. Photo credit: Municipality of Luleå

4

Luleå’s Thumbs Up

This year, Sweden’s small town of Luleå will celebrate a pretty remarkable feat: growing to an estimated 75, 000 in population. Regardless of the current global economic climate, Luleå experiences a particularly low unemployment rate in addition to a strong economy. The Municipality of Luleå, in response to the small town’s success set up a community project on the frozen ice sheet: a giant thumbs up made up of 2493 people in total. Because Luleå is such an attractive place for tech companies to settle in, Facebook recently opened their first international data centre here and the thumbs up is a recognition of this. Data centres require an abundance of constant electricities, Luleå’s ability to run these centres completely from renewable hydroelectric power makes it an ideal location. In fact, after Facebook decided to move in during December of 2011, the industry numbers of data centres in Luleå has risen some 25%. Luleå and its surrounding cities are perhaps on their way to becoming “the next Silicone Valley.”

5

Swedish Wages the Highest in Europe

Mats Dillén, CEO of Sweden’s National Institute of Economic Research (Konjunkturinstitutet) says that Sweden remains economically competitive in a response to a study on European Union wages recently completed in Germany. This study – by an offcial German statistics company, Statisches Bundesamt – posted that compared to Germans, who earn an average of €31 per hour, Swedes make €41.90 per hour. Many experts in the field are crediting the growth of productivity in Sweden for the wage difference in Sweden.

6

Dalsland Canoe Marathon

Celebrating its 10th anniversary in August of this year, the Dalsland Canoe Marathon is one of the world’s toughest long distance paddling race. Beginning from the shore of Baldersnäs Manor, north of Dals Långed on August 10th, 750 participants will journey across lake Laxsjön and through one of the most beautiful paddling settings in Europe. While the race finishes 55km later in the boat harbour of Bengtsfors, along the way, racers will have been treated to fruit, drink and massage breaks. On the rivers, the racers are helped along by the

Photo © Dalsland Canoe Marathon currents and it is “muscle strength, technique and stamina [that] take the canoeists from start to finish.”

7Kånken: The World- Famous Backpack

The world-famous “Kånken” backpack was launched by Fjällräven in 1978 with the purpose to alleviate back problems of Swede’s that had worryingly escalated during the 70’s - even amongst school children. Kånken has since attained a reputable fame-factor and now sell more than 200,000 backpacks yearly. In recent years this iconic backpack can be found world-wide in chic fashion boutiques as well as in hard-core outdoor retailers. Kånken is derived from the verb “Kånka”, a synonym for “to carry”.