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Scandinavia Standard

3 stories

A Stanford psychologist spent a year in Tromsø, where the sun disappears for two months each winter, then surveyed Norwegians from Oslo to Svalbard. The farther north they lived, the more positively they viewed winter—and those with the warmest attitudes toward the cold also reported the greatest life satisfaction.

Scandinavia StandardA Stanford psychologist spent a year in Tromsø, where the sun disappears for two months each winter, then surveyed Norwegians from Oslo to Svalbard. The farther north they lived, the more positively they viewed winter—and those with the warmest attitudes toward the cold also reported the greatest life satisfaction. A Norwegian survey found that warmer attitudes to winter tracked both northern latitude and greater wellbeing, but its cross-sectional design leaves cause and effect unresolved. The post A Stanford psychologist spent a y

August 31
Iceland’s Blue Lagoon is the runoff pond of the Svartsengi geothermal plant, which began dumping hot brine on a lava field in 1976 expecting it to drain away, and the silica in the cooling water sealed the porous rock instead, caulking the basin of the country’s most visited attraction

Scandinavia StandardIceland’s Blue Lagoon is the runoff pond of the Svartsengi geothermal plant, which began dumping hot brine on a lava field in 1976 expecting it to drain away, and the silica in the cooling water sealed the porous rock instead, caulking the basin of the country’s most visited attraction Nobody designed the Blue Lagoon. That is the detail the spa’s serene marketing photographs, all steam and milky turquoise against black rock, politely decline to mention. Iceland’s most famous attraction, a place that se

August 29
In 1956, an IKEA employee named Gillis Lundgren was trying to fit a table into his car after a catalogue photo shoot, and it wouldn’t go in — so he removed the legs, laid them beside the tabletop, and by accident sparked the flat-pack furniture format that would eventually define the entire company

Scandinavia StandardIn 1956, an IKEA employee named Gillis Lundgren was trying to fit a table into his car after a catalogue photo shoot, and it wouldn’t go in — so he removed the legs, laid them beside the tabletop, and by accident sparked the flat-pack furniture format that would eventually define the entire company A man in a small town in southern Sweden, holding a leaf-shaped side table and a set of car keys, doing the mental math that anyone who has ever moved house knows too well. The table won’t go in the car. The angles are w

August 29