Nordic online sales on the increase
In the Nordic region, online sales increased 11 percent over the same period last year - to SEK 104 billion ($11.4 billion) - in the first six months of 2018, according to a report from the Nordic postal services Postnord. Of the 12 million consumers (the overall population in the Nordic region is 27 million) who shop online every month, Sweden has the highest share of shoppers, the report shows. On average, two out of three Swedes shop online, which can be compared to six out of 10 in both Denmark and Norway. In Finland, almost half do not make purchases online. The youngest demographic, age 18-29, does not top the list of shoppers; consumers in the age range 30-49 have both more purchasing power and use e-commerce the most. The Nordics mostly buy fashion, followed by media, consumer electronics and healthcare products and makeup when making purchases online.

30% European on Netflix
The European Parliament voted in favor of a proposal for new regulations that force video platforms like Netflix, HBO and Amazon Prime to have at least 30 percent of their content from Europe. The proposal, voted on October 2, has received some criticism in Sweden where support for European culture is generally considered good, but there's concern it should be through promotion efforts, not forced legislation. The new regulation must be approved by the individual EU governments in the European Council in order to pass. After that, the member states have 21 months to begin applying the law.

Harvesting light
Swedish startup Epishine, founded in 2016, is working to produce cheap, scalable and climate-smart solar cells. At present, these are used to create solar cell systems for indoor use to replace batteries in fire detectors and electric gadgets, for instance. The startup has developed a unique lamination process in which two plastic films covered by the active material create solar cells that can generate electricity at extremely low light conditions. The production method uses organic materials and avoids expensive or toxic substances such as silver and arsenides. Epishine's solar cells are the result of more than 25 years of company research at the University of Linköping. For more info, see www.epishine.se

Minnesota Vikings fan makes a pre-Viking era find
Saga Vanecek, 8, and her family moved from Minnesota to Sweden last year. This summer, Saga was skipping rocks in Lake Vidösten near her family's summer house in Småland in southern Sweden, when she found a stick under water – only it wasn’t a stick. It was a sword – an exceptionally well-preserved 33-inch sword in a holster made of wood and leather, believed to be from the Iron Age about 1500 years ago. It isn’t known why the sword was there, but the site is being investigated and so far a brooch from the 4th century was also found.