Features

By Nathalie Khalaf
Holistic Counsellor

I’ve had many clients seek my help to change or control the emotional state they find themselves in. They reach a point when they feel more emotional and don’t understand why.

When I ask them what they mean, they explain that they cannot control or manage their emotions as well as they used to. And, more often than not, they experience bursts of rage at the smallest things, or break down into tears for “no reason”.

Feeling our emotions

What all these people have in common is inner loneliness and pain from the desire to protect themselves from the outside world, which is causing a lot of undesired emotions. They feel ashamed, unable to control something their body seems to be doing without their consent.

There is no such thing as “being emotional”. We are either feeling our emotions as a natural part of being alive, or “being emotionless” which goes against our nature. We cannot wish our body to stop eliminating what it does not need anymore; it is simply part of what has to happen in order for us to be well. Emotions are as much a part of our “aliveness” as is our physical body.

A river of emotions

Imagine a river for a moment. The river is made of a “container” — which is the riverbed of sand and rock — as well as the water running through it. Together, these elements create a river. Now imagine piling up rocks to form a dam somewhere along that river. The rocks eventually stop the flow of water along the river.

The blockage of water can be stopped for a while, until the water seeps or bursts through the dam to continue on its way down the riverbed. We may notice an increase in the power of the water as it accumulates on one side of the dam, unable to continue its natural path down the riverbed. On one side of the dam, there is heightened energy from the water and on the other side there is the calm which comes from emptiness as the riverbed may have little water left or is completely dry. Once the water force overpowers the dam, there is a bit of a rush of water until the balance is restored and the river runs as it naturally should.

That river is us. We are the container. Our emotions are the water. In order for a river to be a river, it needs the container as well as the water passing through it. The rocks are our emotional blockages. When we decide we do not want to feel something, it starts with a thought, which gets translated into blocked energy (a dam), if you will, to the flow of natural energy passing through our body.

The impact of childhood on adult emotions

As we grow up and go through our life experiences, we encounter times when we feel hurt, let down, disappointed, jealous, angry, sad or just fed up! That’s all normal. Our unconscious mind will, by default, want to protect us from that pain, and we start building mini dams in order not to feel those unpleasant emotions.

As emotions are energy, and energy will sooner or later over-ride any mental decision we have made not to feel, the accumulated and stagnated energy breaks the dam and continues its path onwards. At such points in our lives, we feel overwhelmed and may break down. That’s what happened to me! And by the age of 36 there were so many emotional “dams” within me that I had several physical diseases, hardly any energy or a will to live and certainly not one ounce of happiness! But that’s all for another article so watch out for it!

We have been gifted this life. I see lives represented by rivers, all apparently similar yet so different in size, flow, power and journey. As all rivers are crucial for their surroundings, so are we to everyone in our lives. In order to live a good life, we receive a physical body and emotions to feel our way through our lives. Emotions are a crucial part of our existence. They are meant to flow through our body. We are meant to simply allow them to pass through us; in other words: Feel your emotions. Feel the anger, the love, the hatred, the fear, the joy, the pain, the disappointment, the forgiveness, the jealousy and the sadness. Feel it all by allowing it to pass through and out of your body.

As children we are born with our natural ability to laugh, love, scream and cry. It is only as we grow older that we start trying to manipulate and control emotions. By not feeling, we create blocks. We hold our emotions in. Then one day that energy surprises us; we collapse in a fit of rage or tears and we think something is wrong with us. There is nothing wrong with us at all. We are simply being taught by our bodies how to be human. And expressing emotions is part of being human.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

WASHINGTON — Ludwig van Beethoven died in Vienna nearly 200 years ago after a lifetime of composing some of the most influential works in classical music.

Ever since, biographers have sought to explain the causes of the German composer’s death at the age of 56, his progressive hearing loss and his struggles with chronic illness.

An international team of researchers who sequenced Beethoven’s genome using authenticated locks of his hair may now have some answers.

Liver failure, or cirrhosis, was the likely cause of Beethoven’s death brought about by a number of factors, including his alcohol consumption, they said.

“We looked at possible genetic causes of his three main symptom complexes — the progressive hearing loss, the gastrointestinal symptoms and the liver disease ultimately leading to his death due to liver failure,” said Markus Nothen of the Institute of Human Genetics at the University Hospital of Bonn, one of the co-authors.

Beethoven, Nothen said, had “a strong genetic disposition to liver disease” and sequences of the hepatitis B virus were detected in his hair.

“We believe the disease arose from an interplay of genetic disposition, well documented chronic alcohol consumption and hepatitis B infection,” Nothen said.

No explanation 

for deafness

Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology said hepatitis B “was probably quite common at that time in the early 19th century”.

“At least in the last few months before his death he was infected with hepatitis B virus,” Krause said.

The authors of the study, published in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on Wednesday, were unable to determine any genetic causes for the progressive hearing loss that eventually left Beethoven completely deaf by 1818.

The researchers analysed eight locks of hair said to be from Beethoven and determined that five of them were “almost certainly authentic”, said Tristan Begg, a PhD student at the University of Cambridge and the lead author of the study.

“Because we reconstructed the genome from ultra-short DNA fragments, we only confidently mapped about two-thirds of it,” he said.

One of the most-famous strands of hair, known as the “Hiller Lock,” which has been the subject of previous research and found to contain high levels of lead, was revealed not to be from Beethoven at all but from a woman.

Family secret

Beethoven, who was born in Bonn in 1770 and died in 1827, battled gastrointestinal problems at various times of his life as well as jaundice.

“There were periods of acute illness where he was unable to work, for example, his month-long period of acute illness in the spring of 1825,” Begg said.

The researchers, by studying Beethoven’s DNA data and archival documents, also uncovered a discrepancy in his legal and biological genealogy.

They found an “extra-pair paternity event” — a child resulting from an extramarital relationship — in Beethoven’s direct paternal line, said Toomas Kivisild of the Institute of Genomics at the University of Tartu.

Kivisild said it occurred some time within seven generations that separate a common ancestor, Aert van Beethoven, at the end of the 16th century and Beethoven’s birth in 1770.

Begg said it was no surprise it was not recorded.

“You wouldn’t necessarily expect an extra-pair paternity event to be documented,” he said, it being “probably clandestine in nature”.

“You cannot rule out that Beethoven himself may have been illegitimate,” Begg said.

“I’m not advocating that,” he stressed. “I’m simply saying that’s a possibility and you have to consider it.”

Beethoven had asked in an 1802 letter to his brothers that his health problems, particularly his hearing loss, be described after his death.

“He had the wish to be studied post-mortem,” Krause said.

“And it is kind of, basically, his wish that we are fulfilling to some degree with this project.”

PARIS — Plastic pollution in the world’s oceans has reached “unprecedented levels” over the past 15 years, a recent study has found, calling for a legally binding international treaty to stop the harmful waste.

Ocean plastic pollution is a persistent problem around the globe — animals may become entangled in larger pieces of plastic like fishing nets, or ingest microplastics that eventually enter the food chain to be consumed by humans. 

Recently published research found that there are an estimated 170 trillion pieces of plastic, mainly microplastics, on the surface of the world’s oceans today, much of it discarded since 2005. 

“Plastic pollution in the world’s oceans during the past 15 years has reached unprecedented levels,” said the study, published in open-access journal PLOS One.

The amounts were higher than previous estimates, and the study found that the rate of plastic entering the oceans could accelerate several-fold in the coming decades if left unchecked.

Researchers took plastic samples from over 11,000 stations around the world focusing on a 40-year period between 1979 and 2019. 

They found no trends until 1990, then a fluctuation in trends between 1990 and 2005. After that, the samples skyrocket. 

“We see a really rapid increase since 2005 because there is a rapid increase in production and also a limited number of policies that are controlling the release of plastic into the ocean,” contributing author Lisa Erdle told AFP. 

The sources of plastic pollution in the ocean are numerous. 

Fishing gear like nets and buoys often end up in the middle of the ocean, dumped or dropped by accident, while things like clothing, car tyres and single-use plastics often pollute nearer to the coast.

They eventually break down into microplastics, which Erdle said can look like “confetti on the surface of the ocean”.

‘Flood of toxic products’

On current trends, plastic use will nearly double from 2019 across G20 countries by 2050, reaching 451 million tonnes each year, according to the report, jointly produced by Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation. 

In 1950, only two million tonnes of plastic were produced worldwide. 

Recycling, even in countries with advanced waste management systems, has done little to help the pollution problem since just a small percentage of plastics are properly recycled and much often ending up in landfills instead. 

If landfills are not properly managed, plastic waste can leech into the environment, eventually making its way to oceans. 

“We really we see a lack of recycling, a flood of toxic products and packaging,” Erdle said. 

The rates of plastic waste were seen to recede at some points between 1990 and 2005, in part because there were some effective policies in place to control pollution. 

That includes the 1988 MARPOL treaty, a legally binding agreement among 154 countries to end the discharge of plastics from naval, fishing and shipping fleets. 

But with so much more plastic being produced today, the study’s authors said a new, wide-ranging treaty is needed to not only reduce plastic production and use but also better manage its disposal. 

“Environmental recovery of plastic has limited merit, so solution strategies must address those systems that restrict emissions of plastic pollution in the first place,” the study said. 

Last year, 175 nations agreed to end plastic pollution under a legally binding United Nations agreement that could be finalised as soon as next year. 

Among the key actions under negotiation are a global ban on single-use plastics, a “polluter pays” scheme, and a tax on new plastic production. 

The total weight of the plastic pollution detected in the ocean today is estimated at 2.3 million tonnes, the PLOS study said. 

It examined samples in the North Atlantic, the South Atlantic, the North Pacific, the South Pacific, the Indian and Mediterranean oceans.

PARIS — Journalists had fun last year asking the shiny new AI chatbot ChatGPT to write their columns, most concluding that the bot was not good enough to take their jobs. Yet.

But many commentators believe journalism is on the cusp of a revolution where mastery of algorithms and AI tools that generate content will be a key battleground.

The technology news site CNET perhaps heralded the way forward when it quietly deployed an AI programme last year to write some of its listicles.

It was later forced to issue several corrections after another news site noticed that the bot had made mistakes, some of them serious.

But CNET’s parent company later announced job cuts that included editorial staff — though executives denied AI was behind the layoffs.

The German publishing behemoth Axel Springer, owner of Politico and German tabloid Bild among other titles, has been less coy.

“Artificial intelligence has the potential to make independent journalism better than it ever was — or simply replace it,” the group’s boss Mathias Doepfner told staff last month.

Hailing bots like ChatGPT as a “revolution” for the industry, he announced a restructuring that would see “significant reductions” in production and proofreading.

Both companies are pushing AI as a tool to support journalists, and can point to recent developments in the industry.

‘Glorified word processor’

For the past decade, media organisations have been increasingly using automation for routine work like searching for patterns in economic data or reporting on company results.

Outlets with an online presence have obsessed over “search engine optimisation”, which involves using keywords in a headline to get favoured by the Google or Facebook algorithms and get a story seen by the most eyeballs.

And some have developed their own algorithms to see which stories play best with their audiences and allow them to better target content and advertising — the same tools that turned Google and Facebook into global juggernauts.

Alex Connock, author of “Media Management and Artificial Intelligence”, says that mastery of these AI tools will help decide which media companies survive and which ones fail in the coming years.

And the use of content creation tools will see some people lose their jobs, he said, but not in the realms of analytical or high-end reporting.

“In the specific case of the more mechanistic end of journalism — sports reports, financial results — I do think that AI tools are replacing, and likely increasingly to replace, human delivery,” he said.

Not all analysts agree on that point.

Mike Wooldridge of Oxford University reckons ChatGPT, for example, is more like a “glorified word processor” and journalists should not be worried.

“This technology will replace journalists in the same way that spreadsheets replaced mathematicians — in other words, I don’t think it will,” he told a recent event held by the Science Media Centre.

He nonetheless suggested that mundane tasks could be replaced — putting him on the same page as Connock.

‘Test the robots’

French journalists Jean Rognetta and Maurice de Rambuteau are digging further into the question of how ready AI is to take over from journalists.

They publish a newsletter called “Qant” written and illustrated using AI tools.

Last month, they showed off a 250-page report written by AI detailing the main trends of the CES technology show in Las Vegas.

Rognetta said they wanted to “test the robots, to push them to the limit”.

They quickly found the limit.

The AI struggled to identify the main trends at CES and could not produce a summary worthy of a journalist. It also pilfered wholesale from Wikipedia.

The authors found that they needed to intervene constantly to keep the process on track, so while the programmes helped save some time, they were not yet fit to replace real journalists.

Journalists are “afflicted with the syndrome of the great technological replacement, but I don’t believe in it”, Rognetta said.

“The robots alone are just not capable of producing articles. There is still a part of journalistic work that cannot be delegated.”

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany — The white-coloured humanoid “Garmi” does not look much different from a typical robot — it stands on a platform with wheels and is equipped with a black screen on which two blue circles acting as eyes are attached.

But retired German doctor Guenter Steinebach, 78, said: “For me, this robot is a dream.”

Not only is Garmi able to perform diagnostics on patients, it can also provide care and treatment for them. Or at least, that is the plan.

Garmi is a product of a new sector called geriatronics, a discipline that taps advanced technologies like robotics, IT and 3D technology for geriatrics, gerontology and nursing.

About a dozen scientists built Garmi with the help of medical practitioners like Steinebach at the Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence.

Part of the Technical University of Munich, the institute based its unit specialising in geriatronics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a ski resort that is home to one of the highest proportion of elderly people in Germany.

Europe’s most populous country is itself one of the world’s most rapidly ageing societies.

With the number of people needing care growing quickly and an estimated 670,000 carer posts to go unfilled in Germany by 2050, the researchers are racing to conceive robots that can take over some of the tasks carried out today by nurses, carers and doctors.

“We have ATMs where we can get cash today. We can imagine that one day, based on the same model, people can come to get their medical examination in a kind of technology hub,” said Abdeldjallil Naceri, 43, the lead scientist of the lab.

Doctors could then evaluate the results of the robot’s diagnostics from a distance, something that could be particularly valuable for people living in remote communities.

Alternatively the machine could offer a more personalised service at home or in a care home — by serving meals, opening a bottle of water, calling for help in case of a fall or organising a video call with family and friends.

‘We must get there’

In the Garmisch laboratory, Steinebach sat down at a table equipped with three screens and a joystick as he got ready to test the robot’s progress.

At the other end of the room, a researcher designated as a test model took his spot in front of Garmi, which poses a stethoscope on his chest — an action directed by Steinebach from afar via the joystick.

Medical data immediately appear on the doctor’s screen.

“Imagine if I had had that in my old practice,” Steinebach said, while moving the joystick. 

Besides the retired doctor, other medical practitioners also visit the lab regularly to offer their ideas and feedback on the robot.

“It’s like a three-year-old child. We have to teach it everything,” Naceri said.

It’s anyone’s guess when Garmi might be ready on a commercial scale.

But Naceri is convinced that “we must get there, the statistics are clear that it is urgent”. 

“From 2030, we must be able to integrate this kind of technology in our society.”

Question of trust

And if it is indeed deployed one day, residents of the Sankt Vinzenz retirement home in Garmisch, a partner of the project, will likely see Garmi whizzing down the corridors.

Just thinking about it made Mrs Rohrer, a 74-year-old resident at the home, smile.

“There are things that a robot can do, for example, serve a drink or bring meals,” she said as Eva Pioskowik, the director of the home, did her nails. 

Pioskowik, who battles with staffing shortages on a daily basis, said she did not expect the robot to take the place of health workers. 

“But it could allow our staff to spend a bit more time with the residents,” she said.

For Naceri’s team, one of the major challenges is not technological, medical or financial. 

Rather, it remains to be seen if most patients will accept the robot.

“They need to trust the robot,” he said. “They need to be able to use it like we use a smartphone today.”

A niche manufacturer in an age of ever expanding, but little differentiated crossover-heavy model lines, US automaker Chrysler currently fields no SUV-like vehicle, but instead two distinct, more traditional models that it does well, including the chiselled 300 saloon and bullet train-like Pacifica MPV.

A standout player in the shrinking MPV market, the Pacifica was introduced in 2016 with a sleek design, eager engine and plenty of practicality, space and equipment. Revised for 2021 model year, it gained a sharpened up design, new drive-line options and improved tech and equipment.

Moody MPV

A sleeker and more swept design with a higher waistline than its predecessors, the contemporary Pacifica cuts a dramatic demeanour with swooping lines, defined creases and an urgent wedge like shape that carries its height and width with grace. Mildly revised for its mid-life face-lift, the Pacifica’s fascia receives a clearer and better-defined treatment, with various elements being better defined and individualised. This includes sharper deep-set headlights, a bigger and bolder mesh grille, and more chiselled bumper, while the rear receives moodier new full-width lights.

Riding on a front-wheel-drive platform and powered by a transversely mounted naturally-aspirated 3.6-litre V6 Pentastar engine, the revised Pacifica, however, also introduces an optional all-wheel-drive variant for improved poor weather road-holding and an optional hybrid power-train available only for front-drive versions. With all versions sharing the same smooth, eager and now familiar Pentastar engine, and smooth and reasonably quick shifting 9-speed automatic gearbox, the latter’s numerous ratios make best use of the former’s linear delivery for efficiency, performance, versatility and refinement.

Sporty and seamless

A refreshingly engaging counterpoint to smaller turbocharged engines with low-end lag, a muscular mid-range burst and unwillingly low-revving top-end, the Pacifica’s V6 is instead seamlessly progressive in delivery as it urgently sweeps through its rev range. Responsive off the line, the Pacifica’s driven front wheels tug slightly under hard acceleration as its 235/60R18 tyres momentarily scramble to put power down to tarmac. Producing 287BHP at 6,000rpm and 262lb/ft torque at 4,000rpm, the Pacifica goes on to swiftly propel its 2,050kg mass through 0-100km/h in 7.4-seconds.

Responsively immediate at low-end from the get-go, and confidently flexible in mid-range for cruising, overtaking and inclines, the Pacifica is however best when racing to its high 6,400rpm rev limit. A sportier drive than to be expected from a two-tonne mini-van, the Pacifica’s naturally-aspirated engine provides exact input and lift-off throttle response, and incremental delivery. With good on-throttle adjustability, the Pacifica allows one to accurately modulate power and torque application when powering out of corners to maintain traction and control, and tightening cornering lines.

Confident comfort

A sportier and more agile drive than a big three-row people carrier has a right to be, the Pacifica may not be an outright sports vehicle, but handles far better than expected, with responsively tidy turn-in and quick and direct steering. Eager into corners, its nose-heavy weighting and 5.2-metre length may prevent playful weight shifting adjustability through corners, but instead delivers reassuring rear grip. Pushed to its grip limit, the Pacifica’s understeer instinct can, however, be easily and responsively countered by easing slightly off the throttle to tighten a cornering line.

If nimble hot hatch-like corner carving handling traits are not intended or expected for its class, the Pacifica nevertheless well-contains body roll through corners. It is however on highway where it excels as a smooth, stable and reassuringly refined long-distance cruiser at speed. Comfortably and forgivingly dispatching most road imperfections in its stride, the Pacifica is also easy to manoeuvre for its length, with its relatively tight 12.1-metre turning circle, high seating, and excellent visibility over its low and short bonnet. 

Classy and cavernous

Adept in town, the Pacifica’s manoeuvrability is aided by reversing sensors and cameras, and driver assistance systems like rear crosspath and blindspot warnings. For confined spaces, its wide sliding rear doors provide easy access to a spacious cabin, with many storage spaces and useful front and rear passenger features, low loading height, and enormous configurable cargo volume of between 914- to van-like 3,978-litres. Available as 7- or 8-seater with middle row captain or bench seats, the Pacifica delivers spacious seating either way, with wide front door swing angles.

The Pacifica features comfortable and well-adjustable front seating, practical, user-friendly forward folding middle row seats for rear row access, and electric seat folding controls in the cargo area. Premium but not ‘precious’, the Pacifica’s cabin is convenient and classy in appointment, with welcoming in ambiance. Generously equipped with driver-assistance, safety, comfort and convenience features including child seat latches, advanced collision warning and lane departure systems, the face-lifted Pacifica also comes with a new Android Auto, Apple Carplay and Alexa enabled 10.1-inch screen infotainment system with dual phone Bluetooth connectivity.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Engine: 3.6-litre, transverse V6-cylinders
• Bore x Stroke: 96 x 83mm
• Compression ratio: 11.3:1
• Valve-train: DOHC, 24-valve, variable timing
• Gearbox: 9-speed automatic, front-wheel-drive
• Ratios: 1st 4.7; 2nd 2.84; 3rd 1.91; 4th 1.38; 5th 1.0; 6th 0.81; 7th 0.7; 8th 0.58; 9th 0.48
• Reverse/final drive: 3.81/3.25
• Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 287 (291) [214] @6,400rpm
• Specific power: 79.6BHP/litre
• Power-to-weight: 146.1BHP/tonne
• Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 262 (355) @4,000rpm
• Specific torque: 98.4Nm/litre
• Torque-to-weight: 180.7Nm/tonne
• Rev limit: 6,400mm
• 0-100km/h: 7.4-seconds (estimate)
• Fuel capacity: 71.9-litres
• Overhang, F/R: 972/1,127
• Track, F/R: 1,735/1,736mm
• Approach/break-over/departure angles: 14°/12.5°/18.7°
• Drag co-efficient: 0.30
• Seating: 7/8
• Lift-over height: 617mm
• Cargo volume behind 3rd/2nd/1st rows: 914-/2,477-/3,978-litres
• Kerb weight: 2,050kg
• Weight distribution, F/R; 55 per cent/45 per cent
• Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion
• Steering ratio: 16.2:1
• Suspension, F/R: Macpherson struts/twist blade, coil springs
• Brakes, F/R: Ventilated disc, 330 x 28mm/disc, 330 x 12mm
• Tyres: 235/60R18

By Dr Tareq Rasheed
International Consultant & Trainer

We are essentially made of light and energy. The latter is defined as the ability to achieve a certain amount of work in a specific frame of time. Some people have a higher amount of energy and thus can achieve in less time than others. 

On the other hand, Aura is the light and luminous body that surrounds our physical body. 

Your level of energy is impacted by 3 elements

• Time: they are times where the energy level is the highest; the best times to energise yourself is just before one to one and a half hours before sunrise

• Place: some places give off higher levels of energy and open places are better than closed spaces. Environment-friendly places are higher in energy than polluted, contaminated places. Even planets have different levels of energy!

• Effort: your energy level will be higher depending on the amount of effort put into a certain task

Energy has four interrelated components:

• Physical: this is related to physical energy and the ability that our bodies have to achieve certain tasks. We can enhance our physical energy or lower it with good nutrition and enough hours of sleep and relaxation

• Emotional: negative emotions will lower our emotional energy (depression, worry, fear, boredom, etc…). Positive emotions, however, will energise our emotional energy to higher levels (love, passion, enthusiasm), we can energise emotional energy by building good relations with others

• Mental: this is related to our brains and mental capacities and the ability to think, develop and achieve. This mental capacity can be tested by doing an IQ Test (this website will help to test your IQ mark ; www.iqtest.com )

• Spiritual: this relates to our inner voice and beliefs and relationship with God

These four elements will always affect your aura either positively or negatively. Positive energy will always make our auras illuminate and shine which help in positive achievements.

Being self-aware of these four components will energise your aura with positive energy.

But, how can we test and enhance our self-awareness?

There are seven questions which you have to answer; make sure to allow time for these questions to really achieve high levels of self-awareness:

• What are your major skills that will help you in your achievements in life?

• What are your talent and passion that always energise you?

• What are the main values that you believe in? 

• What is your dream in life?

• What are your points of strengths?

• What your fears?

• What are your motivators?

By being able to answer these questions, your self-awareness will increase, and this will help you in your life in the four levels of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

NEW YORK — Like many people in his generation, Vijay Damerla finds most of his new music online — but the 20-year-old is slowly becoming a vinyl junkie, amassing records in his room.

The student says he doesn’t even own a turntable, saying for him “it’s the equivalent of like getting an artist poster, or like even an album poster on your wall”.

“Except, like, there’s actually kind of a little bit of a relic from the past.”

For Celine Court, 29, collecting vinyl — she says she owns some 250 records — is about the nostalgic, warm sound that many listeners say digital copies chill.

“If you listen to music on vinyl, it’s so different,” she told AFP as she perused the stacks at New York’s Village Revival Records. “It has like this authentic kind of feeling to it.”

Vinyl’s popularity has grown steadily in recent years, a reversal after CDs and digital downloads reigned over the 1990s and early 2000s.

The latest report from the Recording Industry Association of America said that in 2022 more record units were sold than compact discs for the first time in three decades, with consumers snagging 41 million pieces of new vinyl last year compared to 33 million CDs. 

Revenue from vinyl had already started surpassing CDs as of the 2020 report.

Big-box retailers including Walmart have embraced the retro format, and megastars including Taylor Swift, Harry Styles and Billie Eilish have sent pressing plants into overdrive.

Just this week Metallica purchased a plant to keep up with demand for their own reissues.

Smaller shops are also feeding interest: Jamal Alnasr, who owns Village Revival, stocks some 200,000 records at any given time, not to mention used CDs, cassettes and memorabilia.

“Who would imagine vinyls will come back to life?” said the 50-year-old shop owner, who moved to New York from the West Bank in his late teens.

At one point he had even donated much of his own personal collection, which he estimates could be worth some $200,000 these days, to an archiving institution: “In the nineties, if you talk about vinyl, I don’t think you’re cool.”

But decades later he says “every day I see [this] young generation buying new items.”

“I’ve been doing this for like 30 years... a new generation, kids, they come in look for all the music from the 1930s and 40s and 50s.”

“They actually know more than us, we who grew up in the 1990s and 80s,” he laughed. 

“It’s a beautiful thing.”

Physical experience

Alnasr deals in both new and used vinyl — the RIAA report refers to reported sales of new pressings, which the shop owner does stock; he estimates the store contains about half new, half used items.

He said that because vinyl is relatively expensive to manufacture and distribute, the markup these days on new items can be as little as five per cent, and he relies on original collectibles to make up the difference.

Alnasr said his business is driven by a combination of music nerds and more casual listeners, and with a $15,000 monthly rent — once a bohemian haunt, today’s Greenwich Village is among the city’s priciest neighbourhoods — he’s mostly operating on the margins.

“Every time I’m about to sink I just take everything I’ve got personally and put it back into the business,” he laughed. “I guess... I love my business more than I love myself.”

Echoing student Damerla’s experience, Alnasr said many people buy records for the art — and discover the music later.

He’s fine with that, but does insist that most of his sales be conducted in person.

For a known customer — Alnasr is a favourite record dealer among celebrities, having befriended the likes of Lana Del Rey, Bella Hadid and Rosalia — he’s willing to procure and ship an item.

But for the most part, he prefers people “physically experience” the vinyl.

“You can say I’m the only stubborn New Yorker — I do not want to sell this format online,” he laughed. “I want people to come here... dig through vinyls and get educated.

“They will see way much more than the front one, there is a lot of hidden gems in here.”

No matter the vinyl revival, sales of physical music media remain niche, with streaming remaining the dominant listening format.

Services including paid subscriptions and ad-supported platforms grew seven per cent to reach a record high $13.3 billion in revenue in 2022, according to the RIAA, accounting for 84 per cent of total US profits.

But Court, who is from the Netherlands, called streaming “too fast, too easy.”

“It’s just a better energy to collect your vinyl and then listen to it and be proud of it.”

SOLNA, Sweden — Come rain, sleet or snow, young children nap outside even in mid-winter all across Scandinavia, where outdoor preschools teach children a love of nature.

Sitting in the forest on a tarp laid out over the snow in Solna near Stockholm, Agnes and her friends — all around five — are lining up sticks.

“We use pieces of wood to show them that you can use anything you find in nature to do maths,” said their preschool teacher Lisa Bystrom.

In a scene that would shock some parents elsewhere, the children whittle sticks with large knives, their teachers seemingly unperturbed.

“Once they get to school, they will sit down with a piece of paper and a pencil but here we think this is more fun,” Bystrom said.

In Sweden and Denmark, school is mandatory from the age of six.

But before that most children attend daycare or preschool, with many parents opting for outdoor ones where children play in the woods and learn to appreciate nature.

“Technology today takes over most [things], so I think it’s necessary to be in nature from a young age to learn how to behave and to respect nature,” said Andreas Pegado, one of the educators whose daughter also attends the preschool.

Every day, the little ones eat lunch seated on wooden benches around a wood fire — unless heavy rain forces them indoors.

After their meal, kids that are two and under settle down for a nap, bundled into sleeping bags under a canopy — even when the temperature falls below zero.

“They get a lot of fresh air, [so] they sleep longer, they sleep better,” said Johanna Karlsson, the head of the “Ur & Skur” (Come Rain or Shine) preschool, unbothered by the day’s temperature of five degrees Celsius.

‘Forest buses’

In neighbouring Denmark, many preschools use “forest buses” to bring “asphalt kids” to nature areas.

Every day, a group from the Stenurten preschool — one of 78 Copenhagen preschools that offer daily excursions like this — leaves the Norrebro neighbourhood in the city centre on a 30-minute bus ride to the forest.

A little wooden house provides shelter if necessary, and a large field leads to the forest where the kids can run free. 

In the open air, the educators can vary their pedagogical approaches and develop the children’s independence.

“Their curiosity is a bit different here,” said Iben Ohrgaard, one of the preschool staff. 

Snowsuits for all

Everyone is kitted out in snowsuits, kids and adults alike. A popular Nordic saying goes: “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes.”

But is it really reasonable to stay outside all day, even when it’s -10ºC?

The educators all agree: young children who spend their days outside have better self-confidence and are sick less often.

In the 1920s, an Icelandic doctor recommended that babies sleep outdoors to strengthen their immune systems, a practice now common across the Nordic countries and which the medical community has never contradicted.

A study published in 2018 in the British Educational Research Journal suggested that outdoor preschools improve children’s team working skills by encouraging kids to collaborate through play, among other things.

Outdoors “they try different solutions themselves”, said Ohrgaard, helping limit conflicts.

“If they climb a bit too high in a tree, they know there are adults there. But they try a little more themselves. And they grow up with the feeling that ‘I can do it,’” she explained.

“That gives them the strength to try once more before asking for help.”

For parents, the days spent outdoors are a “gift”.

“When you live in the city, in the capital Copenhagen, there’s not really any nature. It’s an enormous gift for the kids,” said Line Folkhammar, mother of five-year-old Georg. 

And the added bonus for parents? “He comes home tired,” she said with a laugh.