-10 degrees is really not that bad

I was feeling a little nervous about spending a couple weeks in weather hovering +/- 15 degrees of zero. In truth, I'm not really scared for the experience because it's an annual thing, but it's fun to make a big deal out of it. Anyway, it was shortly after doing so for a 4,715,395 time when I learned about Oymyakon, a town of 800 people in Siberia. If you go to Oymyakon, you are pretty much guaranteed to be cold. It's the coldest place on earth, holding the record with a measured temp of -72 degrees Celsius. I did the conversion, that equals about -97 degrees Fahrenheit. Wicked.

What's even more loopy is that the name of the town means "non-freezing water." Not sure if that's because the cold drove the town namer insane or because there are local hot springs in the area. I'm going with a combo, because whether or not there are or were hot springs, anyone who actually lives in that town has lost it.

If anyone finds out about Oymyakon, I'm going to have to temper my "woe is me tale." Until then, here's to the frozen tundra.

[from here via boing boing]