It goes without saying that being shot at can be, well, uncomfortable. For one thing, you’re being shot at, but if you’re wearing a bulletproof vest, you’re likely to be quite hot and sweaty. Sure, it definitely beats having metal projectiles pierce your fleshy torso, but being hot and sweaty (and consequently dehydrated) is a problem that soldiers and police everywhere face. A very viable solution to this is a new kind of completely portable, air-conditioned bulletproof vest. It’s a lot less frivolous than it sounds.

In order to celebrate Frozen Planet, a joint effort by the BBC and the Discovery Channel, the Discovery Channel and SeaWorld San Diego have teamed to stream SeaWorld’s exhibit of socially awkward penguins: “Penguin Encounter“. Well, it’s technically an exhibit of “regular” penguins. But still, there’s bound to be some awkwardness. The stream is going on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until April 30th, so there’s a lot of penguin to be watched. Several penguins have already attempted to hatch the camera, which looks a bit like a big black egg, so there are doubtlessly more hijinks in store. Be sure to check it out and check back every now and then, who knows what you might see.

Judging from his videos, this Norwegian man is good at three things: Uploading HD videos to YouTube, ice skating, and drinking. Thankfully, when the three of these things come together, the result is magical. This video is all about the escalation, so it’s worth watching it all the way through. Also, now that I’ve watched a good deal of his other videos I kind of wonder if this dude has a deal with Vikingfjord vodka. Either way, he’s a hero.

A bulge of freshwater in the Arctic Ocean measuring in at around 8,000 cubic kilometers in size discovered back in 2002, was recently discovered to have risen about 15 centimeters since its discovery. Lead author of the study, Dr. Katharine Giles from the Center for the Polar Observation and Modeling and her team of U.K. scientists, who made the discovery using radar satellites belonging to the European Space Agency, feel the dome of freshwater is rising due to strong winds causing a clockwise current in region.

The vision of the moon as a completely dry, desolate sphere was soundly shattered two years ago when the LCROSS impactor kicked up a collection of icy crystals on the surface of our lunar neighbor. But a new study using instruments aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) shows that in the darkest regions of the moon — where the sun quite literally does not shine — there is far more water than anticipated.

When Iceland isn’t spewing volcanic ash into the air or crowdsourcing a rewrite of its constitution, it’s home to some of the most spectacular views on the planet. This image from Stephane Vetter is a great example, featuring a gorgeous waterfall, spectacular rock formations, a faint aurora and a “moonbow.”

Midwestern lore has it that icicles hanging off roofs can go right through a man unlucky to pass underneath as it falls. However, such terrestrial dangers seem like small potatoes when compared with “brinicles,” the icy sheaths of super cold water found in polar regions. These bizarre, twisting tendrils of ice snake down from the much colder surface and freeze everything they touch once they hit bottom.

Now, a BBC camera crew has successfully captured a time-lapse film of the birth of a brinicle, and the death it brings to the ocean floor.

In the ancient times, a sage philosopher once asked the famous question “what’s cooler than being cool?” Now, you all know from your years and years of schooling that the appropriate answer is “ice cold,” but there is more to it than that my friends; it’s about being ice cold and making self-aware references to it. Enter Polar-Ice from Monos.

The ice cubes produced by these trays are cool in more ways than one. They are made out of ice, for example. Also, they utilize high-tech iceberg technology to ensure that your icy polar animals stay afloat above the water as their ice floes flow around in your drink. That is, until they start melting. Commentary on global warming anyone? Clearly, if you’re looking for ice cubes fraught with meaning and enjoy watching an ecosystem slowly dissolve in your drink, these are the ice cubes for you. All the cool kids are using them.

(Monos via Super Punch)

The Kori no Suizokukan aquarium, located in Kesennuma, Japan, is a little different than your standard, now-boring aquariums: It’s inhabitants are frozen in blocks of ice. The aquarium features around 450 specimens (which are flash frozen as they are unloaded at Kesennuma’s port) displayed under a moody blue light. The temperature inside the aquarium is a crisp five degrees Fahrenheit, so visitors should probably wear a jacket. Head on past the break to see the rest of the Icequarium.

Forget counting sheep. For many people, sleep doesn’t come easily, and no combination of comfy bed, soothing sounds, warm milk, or even prescription medication will do the trick. But, people suffering from insomnia may have another option when it comes to sleep aids. According to new research, wearing a cap that cools the brain reduces the amount of time it takes insomniacs to fall asleep.

The research was presented at the Sleep 2011 conference, the annual meeting of the Associated Profession of Sleep Studies. The cooling process, called frontal cerebral thermal transfer, was developed by Dr. Eric Nofzinger and Dr. Daniel Buysse from the Sleep Neuroimaging Research Program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Cooling the brain is an effective way to help people with sleep difficulties because it slows metabolism in the frontal cortex, and insomnia is linked to increased metabolism in that area of the brain.