Planet-Ed

For those that have kids here (and are not offeneded by Santa :) ) is a great service they might enjoy.

http://www.noradsanta.org

For the past 51 years, NORAD has been involved in tracking the whereabouts of Santa on Christmas Eve. Last year, 550 volunteers at the Santa Tracking Operations Center answered over 52,071 telephone calls and 6,916 emails from children around the world inquiring about Santa's location. The NTS website http://www.noradsanta.org received an amazing 907,958,865 hits!

Jogga

Sadly, I'm really enjoying the site. Thanks for the link. :)

diducmeb4

WOOOHOOOO! Santa is on the Way!!!!!!

mtgeorge

This is cool, even for "big kids" like me :approve:

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JNDSDA

Peru? But...but...but who is that eating cookies and drinking milk by my door? I am in Texas!

kulnet

Very cute indeed. Thanks for sharing. :approve:

ericcumbee

I guess we really need to track santa, we wouldnt want him to be mistaken as a incoming ICBM from North Korea. I would hate to be the pilot that shot down santa.

Grentz

He just passed over head here it looks like, well actually just missed, looks like he will be making his rounds back over my house in a bit :)

Noisy Crow

You hope!

sgtsampay

Santa came to my house a few min ago. Ago 30. Yeah. He gave me a new SATA Hd, VGA cooling kit and some new games. Yeah. PLus a X1600 pro 512mb V-card. Yeah.

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wdement

He's flying around the space needle!!!

Planet-Ed

It turned out to be a huge success again this year. Here is the clipping from the morning paper here.

Quote:

High-tech eye is on Santa NORAD pulls out all stops in tracking system By TOM ROEDER THE GAZETTE Last night, Santa was being watched and even followed by billions of dollars worth of high-tech equipment, including America’s newest fighter, the F-22 Raptor. The North American Aerospace Defense Command pulled out all the stops this year in tracking the toy-packing figure from the North Pole. With nearly 800 volunteers, 350 more than last year, the American-Canadian alliance spent Christmas Eve answering thousands of phone calls and e-mails from children who wanted the latest fix on Santa. Despite the Web site image of supersonic planes seen flying beside a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer, NORAD spokeswoman Maj. Stacy Reddish says pilots were just greeting Santa, not providing him an armed escort. “We’re not in fear for Santa’s safety,” said Reddish, a member of the Air Force Reserve. “Santa can take care of himself.” The command has been tracking Santa since 1955, when the wrong phone number was placed in a department store advertisement in The Gazette. The ad encouraged kids to call Santa, but the number went to the nation’s air defense headquarters. Troops in Colorado Springs fielded the calls and added a military twist by providing radarbased tracking data on Santa’s location. Now, the command fields nearly a billion visits to its Santa-tracking Web site each year along with countless e-mails and hundreds of thousands of phone calls. NORAD last night used many resources to keep an eye on Santa. The command’s Web site describes one of the most recent innovations used to track his progress delivering toys. “The third detection system we use is the Santa Cam,” the Web site says. “NORAD Santa Cams are ultra-cool high-tech high-speed digital cameras that are pre-positioned at many places around the world. NORAD only uses these cameras once a year — Christmas Eve.” Reddish declined to discuss the technology behind the cameras, which are reportedly placed aboard satellites in geostationary orbit. The cameras provide realtime images of Santa, who covers the globe at a speed that exceeds 2,280 miles per second — about 500 times faster than NASA rockets. Reddish said the effort going into tracking Santa, though, doesn’t cost taxpayers anything. The phones are staffed by volunteers, and even the Santa-tracking Web site is paid for with donations. The work has brought sleighloads of good will from children who e-mail Santa through the command’s Web site, www.noradsanta. org. “I am in England I have just been on your Web site to track where you are in the world,” an e-mailer named James wrote to Santa through NORAD’s site. “I think it is brilliant. I know exactly when you are coming this year.” Reddish said the best part of the effort is the enthusiasm U.S. and Canadian Service members show for helping children around the globe prepare for Santa’s arrival. “This is a little piece of the human side of the military.” CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0240 or tom(dot)roeder(at)gazette.com