Austin not as cold as Oymyakon

I'm happy to have survived "Blizzard 2009", as Jeff Ward described on his radio show yesterday. A bit south of Austin where I lived, we didn't even really have much ice at all.

As a southerner who really has only lived in either Austin or Memphis, TN, I really have no idea how to handle true cold like we get in the northern US. My wife is the same way. I once asked my wife if she'd want us to move someplace much colder if I was offered a job that paid, say 2-3x my current salary. She said "no" without even pausing.

But to see people living in real cold, consider Oymyakon in northern Siberia. I believe the word Oymyakon roughly translates into "frozen woolly mammoth balls." Ok, I made that up. Link here or here or see video below. They have recorded temps of below -70C, and yet people LIVE there. It's the coldest permanently inhabited town on Earth (not counting the research stations in Antarctica, the coldest place on Earth). If you plucked me from Austin and put me there, I'd probably be dead in 5 minutes even indoors with a bunch of clothes.