12.24.2008

Christmas Eve News - 2008

How NORAD Tracks Santa - Wired

NORAD is training on a daily basis to handle whatever comes up this Christmas:

The North Warning System, a network of 47 radars strung across the continent's northernmost frontier, tells NORAD when St. Nick takes off from the North Pole. Infrared satellites track the jolly old elf's flight path once he's airborne. "The satellites actually pick up an infrared signature from Rudolph's nose," says Navy Lt. Desmond James. Once Santa touches down, a little-known network of surveillance cameras called "Santa Cam" transmit images of St. Nick making deliveries. The global network went online 10 years ago, and NORAD officials swear it is used only on Christmas Eve. Four C-18 fighter jets escort Santa through Canada before handing the job over to F-16s as the sleigh enters American airspace (the movie above capture parts of last year's Christmas deliveries).

Online v. print reading: which one makes us smarter? - Scientific American

Reading online may not be as rewarding - or effective - as the printed word. The reasons: The process involves so much physical manipulation of the computer that it interferes with our ability to focus on and appreciate what we're reading; online text moves up and down the screen and lacks physical dimension, robbing us of a feeling of completeness; and multimedia features, such as links to videos and animations, leave little room for imagination, limiting our ability to form our own mental pictures to illustrate what we're reading.

Learning technology sector shuns recession - New Brunswick Business Journal

While traditional soft-skills training gets slashed as soon as companies hit hard times, training related to productivity, safety and efficiency - as well as military training - continue to see a demand during slowdowns. Business can benefit from training," he said. "They can improve operations and increase their margins and produce returns on investment.

Next Up - Designing Learning

I wrote a post on Flipping Kirkpatrick into a backwards planning tool. After writing it I decided to do a series of posts on each of the four steps. Two have been written and posted. The third one, Designing Learning, should be finished before New Years Eve:

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