An interesting read in the Times: The Elusive Science of Cold, dealing with attempts to accurately reflect the temperature a person will feel. Some nice debunking tidbits, like this:

Catherine O'Brien, a research biologist in the thermal and mountain medicine division at the Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Natick, Mass., said that although it flies in the face of common sense people with more insulation — fat — whose body core is better protected from the cold, may feel cold more quickly than thinner people with less protection. The reason is that insulation keeps heat in the core, away from the skin, which gets cold. When the skin gets cold, you feel cold.

And, in keeping with the current CorpseDivine patent theme, there's a company that's come up with a method they think is superior to the old:

The RealFeel, Dr. Myers said, takes into account eight parameters — not only temperature and wind, but also "precipitation, cloudiness, density of air — all the factors that affect human comfort." His company has applied for a patent on the method used to calculate the RealFeel, which raises the possibility of competing private temperature interpretations — letting the market decide the temperature. Keeping the method proprietary also leaves other scientists with nothing to say about the method, because they cannot see the calculations.

Yay! The market! Horay for the market economy!