Winter walkers could learn a thing or two from penguins. Heather Urquhart, a biologist and the manager of the penguin exhibit at the New England Aquarium, said many penguins in Antarctica have toenails - three on each foot - that help them grip icy surfaces. Still, she said, she has seen footage of penguins falling in "all kinds of funny ways."
"They're covered with feathers and a layer of blubber, so it's a little harder for them to break a bone," she said. So, "they kind of bounce a bit."
[From Sheer ice? Just walk this way and hope - The Boston Globe]
Sounds like a plan.
It seems we don't have all the ice here we were promised for this morning, more like about a half inch of squishy, wet snow, as far as I can see, but it's misting as we speak and currently the forecast is about another half inch - this of ice - during the day, followed by a below-freezing night. So things are likely to get worse before they get better, assuming they ever do.
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