U.S. News - north-pole

Dec

2011

11:36am, EST

Teacher who said Santa not real apologizes

By NBC New York

The Rockland County elementary school teacher who drew outrage when she reportedly told a classroom of second-graders that Santa didn't exist is apologizing.

The New York Post reports Leatrice Ann Eng, 58, has been calling each of the students' parents to apologize for telling their children Santa Claus wasn't real.

Read the original story on NBC New York

Eng, a teacher at Nanuet's George W. Miller Elementary School, was holding a geography lesson last Tuesday when the 7-year-old students said they knew about the North Pole because that's where Santa resided, LoHud.com reported.

She responded by telling them that Santa did not exist and that Christmas presents were bought by their parents.

School officials didn't immediately respond to questions about the matter, but the incident made national headlines and sparked heated discussion over the teacher's place in breaking a popular childhood fantasy.

"It's sad; she was wrong," Irene Hoffman, a mother of three students at the school, told the New York Post. "The whole thing is being blown out of proportion. I think we should focus on our children's education, and just move on."

Dec

2011

1:49pm, EST

NASA SVS / GSFC

These Arctic sea ice images represent real data captured by the AMSR-E instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite. The top image is from March 7, when sea ice reached its maximum extent this year, near the end of winter. The bottom image is from Sept. 9, around the time sea ice reached its minimum extent this year.

Holiday calendar: Santa's shrinking domain

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

Few places on Earth have more of a connection to the holiday season than the North Pole: After all, that's where Santa Claus hangs his hat. That's the address most kids write on their Christmas letters. Even NORAD lists that locale as Santa's home base.

But if I were Santa, I'd start thinking about real estate: Over the years, satellite measurements have pointed to a shrinkage in ice extent and thickness in the Arctic, due to rising temperatures. In September, experts at the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that Arctic sea ice had declined to its second-lowest level in the past 32 years, and researchers at the University of Bremen in Germany said the ice coverage had fallen even below the 2007 minimum. This report from the European Space Agency helps put the issue in perspective.

With the approach of northern winter, the ice is returning. The picture above, based on data from NASA's Aqua satellite, shows the maximum and minimum extent of Arctic ice this year. ESA has an animation that illustrates the annual fluctuation in a moving way. Santa shouldn't have to worry about shrinking sea ice between now and Christmas. But once the holiday rush is over, he might want to keep an eye on msnbc.com's Environment coverage. There may well be a "new normal" in the Arctic from now on.

Today's Arctic offering is part of the Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar, which provides a daily view of Earth from space from now until Christmas. Check out these previous entries on the calendar, as well as other space-themed Advent calendars online. And check in again on Sunday for the next visual treat.

Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.