Monday, May 24, 2004
Something's rotten in the state of Sweden
I knew something had to give in that overly rosy picture everyone paints of Sweden. A social democratic country with one of the highest per-capita incomes in the world, one of the most beautiful capitals in the world, Nokia, IKEA etc was obviously too good to last. The BBC has the low-down.
A hungry elk already known to raid rose bushes has stolen a bicycle from a garden in Sweden. Bjoern and Monica Helamb, of Vuoggatjalme, said the elk had regularly visited their garden to eat their roses over the last decade. Fed up with the intrusion, and blooming destruction, the couple decided to take action. They placed a bicycle in front of the flowers as their front line of defence. "We thought we would at least protect our favourite roses from her appetite by making it harder for her to get to them," Bojern Helamb told the Associated Press.
But their efforts were to no avail. The elk, dubbed Droopy Ear, leaned through the bike frame to get to the roses and ate away as usual. "Then she disappeared, with the bike hanging around her neck," Mr Helamb said. The couple found the bicycle about 500 metres (1,640 feet) from the house, bent and damaged beyond repair.
What's the point of having a 70% market-share of the mobile handset market when the average elk goes hungry?
A hungry elk already known to raid rose bushes has stolen a bicycle from a garden in Sweden. Bjoern and Monica Helamb, of Vuoggatjalme, said the elk had regularly visited their garden to eat their roses over the last decade. Fed up with the intrusion, and blooming destruction, the couple decided to take action. They placed a bicycle in front of the flowers as their front line of defence. "We thought we would at least protect our favourite roses from her appetite by making it harder for her to get to them," Bojern Helamb told the Associated Press.
But their efforts were to no avail. The elk, dubbed Droopy Ear, leaned through the bike frame to get to the roses and ate away as usual. "Then she disappeared, with the bike hanging around her neck," Mr Helamb said. The couple found the bicycle about 500 metres (1,640 feet) from the house, bent and damaged beyond repair.
What's the point of having a 70% market-share of the mobile handset market when the average elk goes hungry?
