Track Santa’s Ride Tonight!

Tonight’s the night that every kid, big or small, has been waiting for since this time last year. It’s the night that Santa takes to the skies and delivers toys to the world, and this being the 21st Century, it is now easier than ever to track the jolly man in the red suit. A host of high tech gadgets will be employed to make sure you know exactly when he’ll be paying a visit to your neighborhood.

The ever vigilant team at NORAD will once again be keeping an eye on the skies this year, tracking Santa and his sled as he makes his way across the globe. They’ll be using a combination of radar, satellites, fighter jets, and special “Santa cams” to keep track of his progress, and capture ole St. Nick in a variety of famous locations around the world. Of course, they’ll be posting updates all day long on the NORAD website, so check back often to see where Santa is at.

That’s not the only way you’ll be able to follow Santa’s epic ride however. You’ll be able to get updates via Facebook and Twitter of course, and photos from the Santa cams will be uploaded to a special Picasa web gallery as well. And if that wasn’t enough, you’ll be able to follow the sled’s trajectory on Google Maps and within Google Earth too, making it easier than ever to know when the Big Guy will be paying you a visit.

It seems Santa, and his eight magical reindeer, won’t have an easy time eluding all of the high tech surveillance devices that will be keeping an eye on them through the his journey, but something tells me he still has a trick or two up his sleeve. And no matter how sophisticated our tracking systems get, he can depend on Christmas magic to quickly and quietly slip in and out of our houses, delivering the gifts in the blink of an eye. So keep your eyes peeled. You just might catch a glimpse of the man himself. That is, if you don’t blink at the wrong time.

Corn mazes, garden mazes and more via Google Earth

Once a person has seen a video of Sarah Palin’s face in a corn maze, it’s hard to imagine what might top it. This Google Earth video “Amazed” has a response. These mazes aren’t all corn related, however. Some, like the Hampton Court Maze in London, are hedge mazes found in formal gardens.

Where ever these mazes are, Google Earth unfolds them in a kaleidoscope trip to various parts of the world–mostly the United Kingdom.

As a note about corn mazes: They change from year to year. For example, this year The Corn Maze at the Butterfly House in Whitehouse, Ohio is of Toledo Walleye Hockey instead of Sarah Palin.

For the list of where each of the mazes featured in the Google Earth video are located, keep reading. The Butterfly House is not one of them.

This list is found, along with the latidudes and longitudes of each maze on the You Tube video page. Click on “more info.” You’ll also find links to the Web sites for most of them.

1. Dole Plantation Maze; Oahu, Hawaii

2. Spider Web; HeeHaws Fun Farm, Layton, Utah

3. McCall’s Pumpkin Patch; New Mexico

4. “HELP” Maze; Greenwood Village, Colorado

5. Fritzler Maze; LaSalle, Colorado

6. Land of Lincoln Corn Maze; Illinois

7. Peace Maze; Castlewellan, Northern Ireland

8. Hazlehead Park; Aberdeen, Scotland

9. Thoresby Mega Maze; Thoresby Home Farm, Perlethorpe, England

10. Wonderland Pleasure Park Hedge Maze; Nottinghamshire, England

11. Hatfield House Maze; Hertfordshire, England

12. Somerleyton Hall Maze; Suffolk, England

13. de Uithof, Den Haag, The Netherlands

14. Amstelpark, Amsterdam

15. Labyrinth & Tree of Life; Milton Keynes, UK

16. Capel Manor College; Enfield, England

17. Alice in Wonderland Park; Christchurch, Dorset, UK

18. Barton Manor; Isle of Wight

19. Amazing Cornish Maize Maze; Smeaton Farm, Pillaton, Saltash, Cornwall

20. Longleat House; Warminster, Wiltshire, England

21. Foot Maze; Conhold House, Wiltshire, England

22. Crystal Palace Park Hedge Maze; Bromley, South London, England

23. Hampton Court Maze; London, England

24. virtual hedge maze you can walk through; Ruurlo, Netherlands

25. Maze Tree; Emsbüren, Germany

26. Herrenhäuser Gärten; Hanover, Germany

27. Guyancourt, le quartier des Saules; Paris, France

28. Lempdes, Puy-de-Dôme, France

29. Labyrinthe de Bouguenais – France

Inspired by Google Earth – teenager paints 60ft penis on his roof

Easily offended readers move along – this story involves juvenile humor and a massive painting of a penis.

When 18 year old Roy McInnes watched a TV show about Google Earth, he decided to play a little prank on the photo snapping satellites.

See, these camera satellites pass overhead, and take shots of your area. They don’t care what they see, unless it is something deemed classified, in which case it is blurred.

Roy was hoping that anything he’d paint on his roof, would be captured by Google, and become viewable to the world.

He climbed on the roof of his parents house, and armed with a can of white paint, he drew a massive phallus.

Picture after the jump, may not be suitable for work, children or anyone who is offended by a penis.
None of this would be terribly impressive, but it took over a year for anyone to notice the “artwork” on the roof. A passing helicopter pilot saw the penis, and the first thing he did was to contact the national tabloid, The Sun (I guess that is where the real money is nowadays).

The Sun then contacted the home owner, who initially thought it was an early April Fools prank. When he started interrogating his kids, he discovered the truth – his 18 year old son admitted he was behind the work of art.

Luckily for him, he’s on a year long travel around the world, so won’t be anywhere near the house to receive his punishment any time soon.

Visit the Prado Museum from your computer


Okay, people, Super Budget Travel time.

You may not get that great museum smell, and you won’t see Madrid out the windows, but you can now see hi res images of 14 of the artworks at the Prado Museum (Museo Nacional del Prado) on Google Earth. You can even see brushstrokes.

Click here to try it. The video above shows you how they did it and how it all works.

Kudos to the Prado for making their art so available. Even if you bought a big coffee table book of these works, you wouldn’t see detail this fine. This is an all-new idea.

The masterpieces the Prado allowed Google Earth to photograph include paintings by Rembrandt, Raphael, and El Greco. See them all really close without leaving your desk.

Santa’s journey in real time

Since 1955 NORAD, the U.S.-Canadian organization responsible for aerospace and maritime defense of the U.S. and Canada, has been tracking Santa’s journey from his home on the North Pole around the world. It’s no joke. You can actually follow Santa and his nine reindeer in real time, beginning at 6 a.m. EST! For the first time in fifty years, though, NORAD has teamed up with Google (namely, the GoogleEarth program) to provide families with exclusive access to Santa’s whereabouts on this special day.

According to NORAD’s Santa Tracking site, Mr. Claus is detected by a combination of radar, satellite, Santa cameras, and fighter jets. Rudolph’s extra special infrared nose is particularly helpful as a sensor for the satellites, while the Santa cams actually capture real footage of Santa and his reindeer on their sometimes treacherous journey around the globe. The F-15 and F-16 jets provide necessary protection should Santa get in trouble in international airspace.
There are plenty of fun games and activities to play online on the Kids’ Countdown page. To track Santa’s skyfleet around the world in 3-D, you’ll need to download a special version of GoogleEarth here. Catch some exclusive video footage of Santa’s journey here. The video page is only available on Christmas Eve!