Question: Is that pyrite crystals in this piece of oil shale? I picked it up on the beach on my last trip. Or is it some strange fossil? Whatever it is, why/how/when do they form like this in the shale?

Yesterday I was on a fieldtrip to the south eastern regions of Scania (which is the most southern Province of Sweden, where I live). It took me among many things to a very small village by the ocean called Simrislund. This place is interesting geological-wise since its one of few places where Cambrian quartzite is very abundat at the surface as bedrock. Most of the bedrock is smooth and grinded flat by the last iceage. Sprinkled all over the landscape and the shoreline is oilshale since this used to cover the cambrian rock but nowdays is eroded away. Further inland the shale is still intact as bedrock. The shale is also full of fossils like brachiopods and trilobites.

One other interesting aspect of the Cambrian quartzite is the human impact on it. At Simrislund there are many rocks with carvings on it from the Scandinavian bronzeage over 3000 years ago. This makes this place both culturally and geologically worth a visit.

Ive just started a new blog. A Swedish blog on geoscience. A sister to this blog basically. So if you dont speak Swedish, you probably couldnt care less. I will probably update the Swedish blog more often also. But this blog (Antimonite) will remain and I will write posts on Swedish geoscience for the international readers also in the future.

http://terraincognita.blogsome.com/

Someone googled to my summerdorment geology blog with the frase "do swedish people get sick a lot". This sparked my attention and gave me a topic related to the enviroment.

The short answer to the question is: No we dont. We have one of the most healthy populations in the world as far as I know. People grow older here than in most other countries. We have the lowest number smokers in the world for instance. People have lots of knowledge on whats healthy food and whats not. Lots of people exercise reguarly. And its a silly myth that we have the highest suicide rate in the world. We are somewhere in the middle on that- below the US for example. I think Russia is one of the worst on suicide. A happy and healthy population. People in Sweden are the seventh most happiest people in the world according to studies. Americans in comparison are placed on number 23. That means we laugh a little bit more

Take that all who thinks that Sweden is a dark and horrible socialist country almost belonging to the Soviet Union. Aint true. Ok.. a little bit true, we have some socialists politics here sometimes - but not like Soviet…

However there are some dark clouds on the sky - which could be the things the person was looking for when googling. We have a high number of people calling in sick for work. But this has less to do with sickness than with the fact that our employment laws allows people to skip work without risk of loosing their jobs. Another and more important dark cloud is the inreasing rate of people becoming more and more allergic to things. Some scientists believe that this could be caused by to well insulated homes and too little exposure to "filth". People tend to build houses more and more in Sweden that are energy efficient. Ecological houses that need very little energy. Nice and super clean. Basically that means houses with a more restricted and controlled ventilation system. For me, always sleeping with my bedroom window opened, breathing fresh air these modern houses sounds like a nightmare. Ill take a drafty old cottage anytime.

Im 100% sure of the truth of theory saying that the increased allergies are caused by the simple fact that people live in "enviromental-eco-houses" and dont get exposed enough to fresh (that is unfiltered and thus containing pollens and "dust" air. I mean - the simple fact that children growing up in suburbs and wealthier enviroments are more allergic than people living on the country side in older buildings where you open up the windows for fresh air - is all the evidence I need. Its just common sence that the complex human organism and our immunesystem needs the exposure of the "great outdoors" on a constant basis to work. People living in i cocoon cant hardly develop what the need and therefor cant withstand pollen and dust in the same way.

Typical Swedish modern eco-friendly but unhealthy living. Saves energy. Probably hardly needs any energy at all to keep the heat since it stores the heat people generate. "Saves the planet" - but basically slashes the health of people by huge numbers probably. Homo Sapiens is the product of millions of years of hard evolution - but all that time we have lived and breathed the open air. Its only the last 20 years that our living conditions have becomed so cocooned. And its also the last 20 years that the number of children developing allergies has increased dramatically. Theres an obvious connection. People are going to notice this when more countries start building houses of "Swedish air-tight energy saving standards". Basically Sweden is by far more advanced in this field than other nations - but its nothing to be proud of since it seems to have drawbacks.

The houses are not the only fault - the hysterical view on cleaing is another big piece. Combine the houses with our frenzic need to vacuum (like every day - otherwise you live in misery according to some) and you have an ugly combination of insulated enviroments with air filled with vacuumed particles.

Swedes - happier and healthier than most - but also idiots when it comes to fresh air and dust.

Update: An article on the growing demand on eco-friendly houses.

I constantly read/hear about Americans trubled/angry with their gasoline priceses (yes people do the same here in Sweden as well). I even hear about people depending on driving for a life now seeing their trucking/driving business going down because of higher prices on gasoline. The American price on gasoline is roughly aound 4 dollars per gallon. I decided to see how much that is compared to our prices in Sweden which is roughly 14 Swedish crownes (SEK) per Litre. I wanted to see if the price in America was:

1. High
2. Hurting so much that you deserved sympathy.

Alright, the facts:

• One gallon is 3.79 Litres.
• One US Dollar is around 6 Swedish Crownes.
• The average average American makes about the same amount of money per year as a Swede, if you look at the wages only at an average and not on figures of GNP. But we higher taxes. (But instead we have something for free and dont need to pay private insurances). But all in all, I guess that the americans have a bit more in left their wallet than what we do when all the "musts" are payed every day.

The fancy calculation:

That means that one gallon of gasoline in Sweden would cost a Swede around 53 of our Swedish crownes or roughly 8.83 dollars per gallon. 1.05 dollars per litre or 6.3 Swedish Crownes . Thats more than twice as much as it does in america.

The unscientific conclusion:

1. The prices in america are low by international standards.
2. Well, hurting and pain is relative. But lets talk more about sympathy when your gasoline costs 8.8 dollars per gallon.

The price of gasoline in America is very low compared to those in most of western europe (Sweden is actually not the highest). The last time we had your prices I was a kid watching Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the lost arc at the cinema. Of course its all relative and its the raise in percent that counts, not to mention the inflation of currency and such. But the price on gasoline has increased dramatically here as well so the comparison in percentage is quite possible to make.

American economy seems to be founded on cheap energy and fuel. In Sweden our economy is based more on everything BUT the fuel. If we had your prices on gasoline our economy would be booming like crazy probably. The simple fact that you measure gasoline by the gallons, and not something smaller like litres says a lot about your history. And when I look at how Americans towns and cities in general are planned (takes up large area - long driving distance between services compared to European cities of the same size in population) I see a quite obvious pattern. Gasoline was cheap like water in your country once and you planned many things accordingly.

Well… Its a new world, and those who control the supply and price on raw oil see little reason to lower their prices when most people apparently will pay the higher prices for the gasoline. The only solution is for all of the world to find new types of sources of fuel or dramatically change their life. I dont believe for one second that ethanol from plants is the key. Increasing the production of oil or perhaps subsidising the price by govermental means will do nothing in the end.