Watching a Bubble freeze

Ice slowly flows around the surface of the bubble as it freezes. Be sure to watch high quality version. LINK: Youtube

Freezing North American Wood Frogs

These frogs freeze completely when winter comes, entering a hibernation period. They actually stop their heartbeat, and thaw when spring comes.. LINK: Youtube

Hair ice

No, that's not a hairy branch but rather an astounding kind of ice formation called "hair ice" ("haareis" in German). Illinois State University professor James Carter of the Geography-Geology Department, created a page about this natural wonder that includes many photos of these marvelous ice growths, sometimes called "silk frost" or "cotton candy frost."The photo above is by Rick Eppler of Vancouver Island, Canada. From Carter's "Ice Formations on Dead Wood" page:

While the term frost is used frequently as part of such names, these ice formations are not a product of frost. Frost comes about by moisture from the air being deposited on surfaces. As such frost is quite amorphous and would never appear as fine needles like we see here. Hair Ice is ice that grows outward from the surface of the wood, as super-cooled water emerges from the wood, freezes and adds to the hairs from the base.

"Ice Formations on Dead Wood -- Haareis or Hair Ice" (Via: MAKE:Via: Boingboing)

Dutch canals freeze for the first time in twelve years

[CC licensed photo courtesy of Flickr user Ferdi]

Canal ice skating is part of the Dutch national identity, but according to the International Herald Tribune, climate change and pollution have turned Holland’s annual canal-freeze into a rarity. Holland’s canals have frozen for the first time in twelve years this month, thrilling the citizens of the land of Hans Brinker:

Hundreds of thousands of skaters, their cheeks as red as apples in the freezing temperatures, took to the ice, and hospital wards were filled with dozens of people with fractured arms, sprained ankles and broken legs.

Train engineers were ordered to go slowly to avoid hitting skaters who clambered across railway tracks to get from one frozen canal to another. Even the minister of defense, an avid skater, fell and broke his wrist. His ministry announced that the national defense remained in safe hands, even if one of them was in a cast.

Do we have any readers here who have found themselves out on the ice in this winter? I’ve heard that canal skating is popular in Ottawa, Ontario. Is anyone enjoying any other skating hot-spots? LINK