NORAD ready to track santa

[yesthattom]

In 1955, a Sears & Roebuck store in Colorado Springs, CO ran an advertisement announcing a hotline children could call to talk with Old Saint Nick himself. Because of a misprint, instead of connecting to Santa, callers were directed to the Commander-in-Chief’s Operations hotline at NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command--in other words, the infamous “red-phone.”

The person that answered the phone pretended to be Santa and handled every call.

Following this, NORAD started producing “tracking reports” for Santa. They announce official flight plan approvals at a press conference every year, they provide updates over the course of the night, etc. For the last few years they’ve even had a web site. For the last few years it has been a Google project, with Google Earth KML files, YouTube videos, etc.

This year’s web site is ready to roll: http://www.noradsanta.org/

(Oh, and this year you can track Santa from you mobile phone.)

Comments

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

That is sweet, that they answered the kids' calls!

[gravitrue.livejournal.com]

One time a software company called Intercon got a new 800 number for something. Soon after it was installed it rang, with someone trying to contact the organization which formerly had the number. Which was a suicide hotline. The Intercon folks stayed there answering phones for several hours into the evening until they could get the number rerouted to an active hotline organization.