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Which cities in Sweden are banning fireworks?

I don't know about Sweden, but in Finland at least Helsinki has banned fireworks in various location (but not in whole city). News & map (text in Finnish)

Which cities in Sweden are banning fireworks?

I don't know about Sweden, but in Finland at least Helsinki has banned fireworks in various location (but not in whole city). News & map (text in Finnish)

"Finland has no private schools."

There are some private schools in Finland (for example, The International School of Helsinki). They are granted the same government funds as public schools, and are required to use the same admissions standards and provide the same services as public schools. The majority of the private schools in Finland are religious.

I think a key element of Finnish schools is that they are managed by the teachers and staff. The local municipal authority in any given region appoints principals for 6/7 year terms, but apart from this appointment, they largely leave the running of the school to the principal and his or her teachers.

Also school choice is big in Finland, especially in cities. In Helsinki, half of the age group transferring to the 7th grade in the basic school had applied for a student place in other catchment area school.

Starting at age 7 points out an important issue - there is ZERO evidence that early education helps students by the time they graduate. Yes, they may start reading earlier, but over time that advantage goes away.

Also Finland does have merit pay for teachers, and also most Finnish 15-year olds go into vocational (rather than general) education.

Didn't stop them here.

Yesterday, I surfed the net from a tram. Every Wi-Fi equipped tram here has its own webpage with a dynamically updating list of upcoming stops with ETA, and a location map.

Now that we're comparing sizes, look at the Helsinki Subway (yep, that's all of it).

Go these in Helsinki. They're even free to use, you only need a 2 euro deposit, just like with shopping carts. They're provided by the City's local transport dep't.

I haven't found a complete listing of all keyboard shortcuts yet

This list looks pretty good.

You definitely should've mentioned Scandinavia being way ahead of US technologically. Those robot vacuum cleaners are available in all major stores here. Nordea used to be world's largest e-bank for several years in a row (and has been pioneering in real life Internet payment systems). I really haven't used cash money at all during the past 2 years. Cell phone network coverage is 100% here. Public transportation system just works (and applies cool technology, such as smart cards, SMS tickets, natural gas buses, automatic route planning, ultra-high speed electrical trains, freely available bikes, GSM coverage in the subway). Someone already mentioned CPUs in washing machines, but tell you what; we have CPUs even in the kitchen sink. We've had an official citizen's electronic ID (smart card, certificate) for a few years. Theres's tunnel for cross-country skiing enthusiasts.
We're planning to build more nuclear power.

Yes, Americans have bigger houses, cheaper gas, longer distance to closest neighbour and stuff, but that these things can hardly be considered as technological advances.

I completety agree with you on the better quality of life in most parts of Western Europe.

You definitely should've mentioned Scandinavia being way ahead of US technologically. Those robot vacuum cleaners are available in all major stores here. Nordea used to be world's largest e-bank for several years in a row (and has been pioneering in real life Internet payment systems). I really haven't used cash money at all during the past 2 years. Cell phone network coverage is 100% here. Public transportation system just works (and applies cool technology, such as smart cards, SMS tickets, natural gas buses, automatic route planning, ultra-high speed electrical trains, freely available bikes, GSM coverage in the subway). Someone already mentioned CPUs in washing machines, but tell you what; we have CPUs even in the kitchen sink. We've had an official citizen's electronic ID (smart card, certificate) for a few years. Theres's tunnel for cross-country skiing enthusiasts.
We're planning to build more nuclear power.

Yes, Americans have bigger houses, cheaper gas, longer distance to closest neighbour and stuff, but that these things can hardly be considered as technological advances.

I completety agree with you on the better quality of life in most parts of Western Europe.

The Finlandia House in Helsinki is covered with big bricks made of Italian Carrara marble. It is a beautiful building, a masterpiece by Alvar Aalto.

However, over the years the bricks started bending and falling because the marble couldn't take the weather and air pollution. As the building is the most important congress center of Finland, the problem had to be solved and so the city started searching for a better material that would last. Lots of money was used and they found a few materials that would solve the problem. This only took many years, lots of meetings and money. But finally it was time to choose and solve the problem.

The City Council chose the same Italian Carrara marble again.

You guys should really not rule out this chair before you get to try it. The City of Helsinki Library Kirjakaapeli has one which is free for anyone to use. It's amazingly comfortable to sit in, everything is neatly placed where it should. The only problem is that you should install you CD-ROM in the up-most bay, otherwise it will be a pain (not in the ass but in a region close by =) to insert and eject CD's. If you ever come to Helsinki, visit Kirjakaapeli and try it out!