 |
|
|
|||||
The Nordic countries are no strangers to the long, dark winter. Despite little to no daylightplus months of frigid temperaturespeople who live in northern Europe and above the Arctic Circle have learned how to cope mentally and physically with the annual onset of the winter blues, which can begin as early as October and last into April for some. The winter solstice will occur Dec. 21, marking the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. While sunlight increases daily after that, winter won’t be over for a while yet. The Associated Press spoke to experts in Norway, Sweden, and Finland about the winter blues. Here’s how they suggest looking for light, literally and figuratively, during the darkest months of the year: Maintaining sleep and social habits are key Dr. Timo Partonen, a research professor at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, said the dark winter affects our circadian rhythm. With limited daylight, our internal body clocks cannot reset or synchronize properly and it throws off our sleep. We may sleep longer in the winter, he said, but we don’t wake up refreshed and can remain tired the rest of the day. Partonen recommended trying a dawn simulator, sometimes known as a sunrise alarm clock, to gradually light up your bedroom and ease you awake. In addition to being more tired, we’re more likely to withdraw from others socially in the wintertime. We’re more irritable, Partonen said, and more prone to fights with friends. It’s important to maintain our relationships, he said, because symptoms rarely improve in isolation. And since keeping up with exercise is also key to combating the winter blues, consider inviting a friend along for a workout. It could also help keep off the wintertime weight gaintypically 2 to 5 kilograms (4 to 11 pounds) a year, Partonen saidthat’s fed by cravings for carbohydrates, especially in the evenings. Light therapy encouraged for a range of symptoms Millions of people worldwide are estimated to suffer from seasonal depression. Also known as seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, patients typically have episodes of depression that begin in the fall and ease in the spring or summer. A milder form, subsyndromal SAD, is recognized by medical experts, and theres also a summer variety of seasonal depression, though less is known about it. Scientists are learning how specialized cells in our eyes turn the blue wavelength part of the light spectrum into neural signals affecting mood and alertness. Sunlight is loaded with the blue light, so when the cells absorb it, our brains alertness centers are activated and we feel more awake and possibly even happier. Researcher Kathryn Roecklein at the University of Pittsburgh tested people with and without SAD to see how their eyes reacted to blue light. As a group, people with SAD were less sensitive to blue light than others, especially during winter months. That suggests a cause for wintertime depression. In severe cases, people need clinical support and antidepressant medications. Christian Benedict, a pharmacology professor at Uppsala University in Sweden, suggests light therapy for people with SAD as well as those who have a milder case of the winter blues. Its not like its a fate, an annual or a seasonal fate, and you cannot do anything about it, Benedict said. There are possibilities to affect it. A routine of morning light therapy, using devices that emit light about 20 times brighter than regular indoor light, can be beneficial for both people with and without SAD. The light therapy helps to kickstart your circadian rhythm and increases serotonin in your brain, Benedict said. Research supports using a light thats about 10,000 lux, a measure of brightness, for 30 minutes every morning. Special lights run from $70 to $400, though some products marketed for SAD are not bright enough to be useful. Your insurance company might cover at least part of the cost if youve been diagnosed with SAD. Partonen recommended using both a dawn simulator and a light therapy device each day before noon. Yale has tested products and offers a list of recommendations, and the nonprofit Center for Environmental Therapeutics has a consumer guide to selecting a light. Prioritizing a positive outlook as a survival strategy And don’t forget to, well, look on the bright side. It’s crucial to embrace winter instead of dreading it, according to Ida Solhaug, an associate professor in psychology at the University of Troms, also known as the Arctic University of Norwaythe world’s northernmost university. Prioritize a positive outlook as a survival strategy and learn to appreciate the change in seasons. It’s a typical Norwegian way of thinking, she said, that can make all the difference when there’s very little daylight for months. It’s part of the culture, she said. And don’t forget to take advantage of both outdoor and indoor hobbies, she said. Inside, channel hyggethe Danish obsession with getting cozyand snuggle up on the couch with blankets and a movie. But don’t hibernate all winter. After the film finishes, head outside with a thermos for fika, the traditional Swedish coffee break. Even during cloudy days, a quick walk in the fresh air will help, she said. And if you’re brave enough, do a cold plunge like many people in the Nordics. Solhaug tries to jump into the frigid waters off the coast of Troms, an island 350 kilometers (217 miles) north of the Arctic Circle, at least once a week, adding that it makes her feel revitalized during the long winter. Challenge yourself to look for light in the darkness, she said. After all, as many Nordic people say, theres no such thing as bad weatheronly bad clothing. Finland’s President Alexander Stubb, too, had some tips for how to tackle Nordic winters. When asked in an interview with The Associated Press last month how to survive the cold season, he had some very specific advice. Take an ice bath and then followed up by a sauna and do one more ice bath, one more sauna, then a shower and go out there. Youll manage, Stubb said. Stefanie Dazio, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
Letterboxd, the movie tracking app and social media platform for cinephiles, first announced its new online film rental platform earlier this year at Cannes Film Festival. Now, more details about the launch date and titles have been revealed. The Video Store will officially launch on Wednesday, December 10, and will feature nine films across two curated shelves, which includes titles from nine countries. Heres some of what film fans can expect: Think a Todd Haynes deep cut, to a restored version of a Filipino classic, and more, including Chile and Indonesias submissions for the upcoming 98th Academy Awards, a hit from the 2025 South by Southwest (SXSW) festival, and an Indian neo-noir thriller that was previously unavailable since its 2023 Cannes debut. The platform will operate on a transactional video-on-demand (TVOD) model with no subscription requirement, and the shelves will be programmed by the Letterboxd team using millions of watchlists, reviews, and behavioral signals. Each title was chosen based on member demand, while also leaving room for discoveries the community has yet to find. The Video Store will be available in 23 countries, including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece, and Cyprus.Pricing and availability vary by film and country, and will be shown directly within the Video Store at launch. Viewers will be able to watch on their TV via Apple TV 4K, Chromecast, and AirPlay, and through web, iOS, and Android.Were incredibly proud of what we and our community have built, Letterboxd CEO and cofounder Matthew Buchanan said in a statement. We take their lead, and believe that has been integral to Letterboxds success. They tell us what’s really happeninga 1980s action film suddenly trending, a festival title from two years ago still being added to watchlists. A focus on film discovery While Letterboxd plans on rolling out more titles in weeks and months to come, the first two shelves made available at launch will reflect the platforms core mission of film discovery.The first shelf, “Unreleased Gems,” features exclusive films from festivals that havent had releases yet in specific countries, and will only be available in the Video Store for a limited time. Those titles include Alexander Ulloms 2025 directional debut It Ends, which made waves at this years SXSW, about recent graduates trapped on an infinite nightmarish background; Yandy Laurens 2025 sci-fi romance A Wife From The Future, about a woman who travels back in time to change her husband’s destiny, which has been selected as Indonesia’s submission for the Best International Feature Film for the upcoming Oscars; Anurag Kashyap’s 2023 neo-noir thriller Kennedy, which premiered at Cannes Film Festival in 2023; and director Diego Céspedes’ 2025 feature film debut The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo, about a young girl protecting her town’s queer community from superstitious panic, which won the Un Certain Regard Prize at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Meanwhile, the second shelf, “Lost & Found,” features a slate of underdog films. Availability of films varies by country, with many titles exclusive to Letterboxd where they are shown.Those titles include Lau Kar-Leungs 1988 action-comedy film Tiger on the Beat starring Chow Yun-Fat; Mike de Leons 1981 Filipino classic Kisapmata about a young woman living under her domineering father’s suffocating control; Elia Suleimans It Must Be Heaven, which won the Special Mention from the Main Competition Jury and FIPRESCI Prize at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival (but was delayed theatrically because of the COVID-19 pandemic); Todd Haynes 1991 Sundance Film Festival hit Poison; and Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s alien invasion film Before We Vanish, based on a cult Japanese stage play, which previously screened at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.Video Store lets us act on [real] demand, whether its helping a distributor unlock value from a forgotten gem in its vault or giving a filmmaker direct access to the audience theyve been building on our platform, Letterboxd CEO Buchanan said. Its our way of saying to the industry: lets harness this interest to get films to the people who want them most. The launch of Letterboxd Video Store comes during a time when the platform has seen significant growth and found more of a mainstream audience over the past four years. In mid-2020, Letterboxd had 1.8 million members. Now, it currently has over 17 million, with around six million joining within the last year.
Category:
E-Commerce
On November 26, a water leak at Paris Louvre Museum damaged between 300 and 400 historical books in the Egyptology and scientific documentation section. Then, on December 8, workers at the museum voted to initiate a strike over poor working conditions. And thats only a drop in the bucket compared to the Louvres overall woes so far this year. For years, the Louvre has been struggling with a combination of old, weathered infrastructure and increased foot traffic brought about by mass tourism. But in 2025, the museum has been hit by the full consequences of operating out of a relatively un-updated building to house some of the worlds most influential (and valuable) art. Heres everything you need to know about the Louvres horrible, no good, very bad year. A leaked memo reveals the extent of the problem The year began with a letter that foreshadowed what was to come for the Louvre. Near the end of January, a private document, written by museum director Laurence des Cars for the French culture minister Rachida Dati, was leaked to the media. In it, des Cars described a museum struggling to accommodate its daily influx of visitors and protect its artwork due to deteriorating spaces, lack of crowd flow measures, and poor environmental controls. Visiting the Louvre is a physical ordeal; accessing the artworks takes time and is not always easy, des Cars wrote. Visitors have no space to take a break. Around the same time, the Louvre announced plans for a massive renovation designed to address these challenges. French President Emmanuel Macron said that the overhaul would include a new entrance on the Seine river, a stand-alone room to house the Mona Lisa, and several new underground rooms to control foot traffic. Changes to the museum were slated to begin in 2026 and take around a decade to completebut, as later months would prove, the situation at the museum had already reached a boiling point. The Louvre shuts down in June The first major disturbance at the Louvre took place on June 16, when the institutions own staff members rallied to shut it down. That day, thousands of ticketed patrons waited outside the museums iconic glass pyramid, to no avail. It was a rare occurrence for the Louvre, which has only closed a few other times during war, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a few brief walkouts. The strike came due to staffs concerns around mass tourism and overcrowding. A crown jewel heist fit for the big screen Perhaps the most memorable calamity at the museum came in October. In a stunt that flummoxed the public (and is likely destined for Netflix adaptation), a group of thieves broke into the Louvre in broad daylight via a basket lift, cut its window panes with a glass cutter, stole nine pieces of priceless jewelry in less than seven minutes, and escaped on motorbikes. Since the stunning scene, at least eight people have been arrested in connection with the heist, but none of the jewelryworth more than $100 millionhas been found. For obvious reasons, the event has resulted in widespread criticisms of the museums security measures. Water damage and yet another strike Now, the Louvre has taken two more blows just before the end of the year. On November 26, a water leak damaged between 300 and 400 books that date from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, in the museums Egyptology and scientific documentation section. A spokesperson for the museum told CNN that the leak happened when a valve, which forms part of a now defunct plumbing system, was opened by accident. The system was shut off earlier this year in anticipation of the coming renovations. The spokesperson added that while the books in question are used regularly by readers, they arent the only copies in the world. And this morning, workers at the Louvre announced that theyre planning this years second strike to hold the museum accountable for difficult work conditions and security weaknesses. In a letter announcing the action, addressed to Dati and viewed by the AP, the unions involved said the museum was in crisis, noting that visiting the Louvre has become a real obstacle course for millions of visitors. Fast Company has reached out to representatives from the Louvre for comment on the issue. The strike is scheduled to begin next Monday, December 15.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||