[sotd] December 24, 2002 [Norad Tracks Santa]
- From: "The Site of the Day" <sotd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: sotd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2002 09:57:35 -0400
Site of the Day for Christmas Eve, Tuesday, December 24, 2002
Norad Tracks Santa
For those Gentle Members who are abustle with Christmas joy, the List has a
wonderful site for engendering even more holiday spirit. Norad (The North
American Aerospace Command, a joint American and Canadian defense program)
has been tracking the progress of Santa's annual circumnavigation of the
planet since 1958.
The List salutes Major Douglas Martin of the Canadian Army, in charge of
the project this year and all those who have donated their time to provide
this terrific service.
"This year's Santa tracking program is the 45th conducted by NORAD. NORAD's
predecessor, Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD), also located in
Colorado Springs, started the tradition after a Colorado Springs store's
advertisement for children to call Santa on a special "hotline" included a
misprinted telephone number. Instead of Santa, the phone number put kids
through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief's operations "hotline." The
Director of Operations, Colonel Harry Shoup, received the first "Santa"
call. Realizing what had happened, Colonel Shoup had his staff check radar
data to see if there was any indication of Santa making his way South from
the North Pole. Indeed there were signs of Santa and children who called
were given an update on Santa's position. Thus, the tradition was born." -
from the website
The site is available in English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French and
Japanese. Gentle Members might prepare in advance by checking the "Test
Streaming Video" link which requires the "Real Player" plug-in for viewing
NORAD's Santa cam videos which will be uploaded tonight.
Other goodies available include how many cookies Santa eats during his
journey, MP3's of Christmas music performed by the USAF Band of Mid America
and the Royal Canadian Artillery Band, Christmas wallpaper for the desktop
and a link to the famous Virginia O'Hanlon letter to The New York Sun in
1897, among other delights.
Nip over to the website for a warm and inspiring Christmas project at:
http://www.noradsanta.org
A.M. Holm
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