What it’s like living in the coldest town on Earth

Unless they eat it while it's still frozen, why is this noteworthy?

Also:

> Most people use outhouses, because indoor plumbing tends to freeze.

This is due to their poverty, not the cold. If it was just cold there, as opposed to cold and impoverished, they could either keep water constantly running through the pipes, or, if that won't work, insulate them better, possibly with heating coils.

"It's so cold, they make sure they have to go outside just to perform basic bodily functions" sounds a bit... insane? Idiotic? Poorly-written and probably badly-researched?

> Cars are kept in heated garages or, if left outside, left running all the time.

This isn't unusual. Block heaters also work, and might represent a fuel savings once the electricity infrastructure to plug in all of them is in place.

> Crops don’t grow in the frozen ground, so people have a largely carnivorous diet—reindeer meat, raw flesh shaved from frozen fish, and ice cubes of horse blood with macaroni are a few local delicacies.

This isn't so much due to the cold as it is due to poverty, and possibly local culture.

> Chapple found it difficult to speak with the people he encountered, as many people were rushing as fast as possible from one oasis of warmth to another.

Was he determined to do his interviews outside? I can understand him wanting to take pictures outside as much as possible, and his camera freezing wasn't something I thought modern cameras were especially prone to, but interviews don't need to be done out in the cold.

Unless you're the kind of person determined to climb a radio mast to get an overview shot of a town. Maybe if you're that person, everything needs to be done in the most... dramatic way possible.

-58F is -50C

-90F is -67C

Also, tools like "block heaters" don't apply to the entire vehicle and all of it's inter-dependent parts. In that kind of cold, things like transmission fluid, and even door handles stop functioning normally.