World's Northernmost Town Gets Nightlights 144
Velcroman1 writes "On October 26, 2,000 Norwegians watched the sun set. The next time they'll see it rise? Sometime in February. Extended nighttime is an annual occurrence for the residents of Longyearbyen, Norway — Earth's northernmost town. Located at 78 degrees north latitude in the Arctic circle, Longyearbyen experiences a phenomenon called Polar Night, in which the town remains in perpetual darkness for four months each winter. To lighten up the seemingly endless night, Philips has started an experiment called 'Wake Up the Town.' And anyone who's complained about the brief daylight hours in winter will want to know how it works."
Not the northernmost... (Score:5, Informative)
Pyramiden was a longtime soviet mining town in Svalbard that once was home to over a thousand people, it was abandoned in 1998 but is being redeveloped. It is 50km north of Longyearbyen. However since it currently is home to about 8 people we'll bypass that for Ny-Alesund, which is some to about 35 people year-round (over 120 in summer), and also farther north than Longyearbyen. It is listed as the "world's northernmost functional public settlement", whatever that means.
Article is BS. Alert Nunavut Canada is. (Score:3, Informative)
Alert, Nunavut Canada is the worlds northernmost town. By a long way. Alert is 82 degrees North.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alert,_Nunavut [wikipedia.org]
The town in the article is far South of Alert.
Re:Depressing. (Score:5, Informative)
Skin produces vitamin D when hit by sunlight, not vitamin E.
Biologist-puuuuunch!
Re:Depressing. (Score:1, Informative)
Wouldn't wanna live there unless I had to. The darkness would mess with your eyesight, would put you in a low mood (to the point of depression) and your skin wouldn't produce enough vitamin E. I'll stick to smog-ridden, sunny, 80-degree late-fall LA.
You do realize that a polar night doesn't mean it's pitch black outside *all the time*, right? The sun still goes up and down; it just doesn't go above the horizon anymore. However, when it gets *close* to the horizon, you still get a higher-than-average amount of ambient light.
Also, in this day and age, we have access to artificial light sources, so "the darkness messing with your eyesight" would not be a problem. As for vitamin D (not E) deficiency, you can eat fish, or take vitamin supplements. Or both: in Iceland, most people use cod liver oil [www.lysi.is]. I'm sure Norway will have something similar.
Finally, seasonal depressions *can* be a problem, but they're less so when you're used to a lack of sunlight during the winter. If you're from LA, I'd not recommend moving up this far north without taking some precautions, like bringing a light therapy lamp; but with those precautions in place, a polar night is a magical thing to experience. You should try it some time.
Re: Ba-dum-tshhh (Score:1, Informative)
We use alarms for deaf people with a vibrator element [...]
Best thing I ever had.
That's what she said!