Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

It's been pretty cold around here lately, but then again, probably not as cold as it was back in 1911 when Niagara Falls froze. The pic is from a postcard claiming that the Niagara completely froze over. However, it seems there is still some water going through, though at a greatly reduced rate. According to the Snopes article, March of 1848 was much closer to actual complete stoppage of the falls. An interesting read.




Beautiful galleries individual snowflakes at SnowCrystals.com


The story of Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley, who became the first person to photograph a single snow crystal in 1885. His 1931 book "Snow Crystals" contained over 2400 different snow crystal images.


Make your own virtual snowflake. Here's one that I did:



Published nearly a century ago in 1908 but still a gripping read, Jack London packs a lot into twelve pages. Read his short story To Build A Fire.


No matter how cold it gets in your part of the world, it probably can't compete with the coldest place on the planet, Antarctica, where temperatures have dropped down to a record -128.6 °F (-89.2 °C). You may be surprised to learn that Antarctica is also classified as the largest desert on Earth. While most people think of deserts as hot, dry and sandy, the true definition of a desert is a geographic location that receives very, very little rainfall. Although there is a lot of ice on the ground there, that ice has been on the ground for a LONG time. Here's a nice bite-size introduction into the only continent owned by no country.


A couple of related links hijacked from the excellent growabrain:

Breaking the ice (.wmv file)


Some amazing ice and snow sculptures from around the world.


Technorati tags: Niagara Falls, snowflakes, Antarctica, ice sculpture, To Build A Fire