Filed under: Fun, Kids, Google
Track Santa with NORAD (and Google)
NORAD's Santa Tracker is back, and with only four days till the big day, the NORAD website has many fun things for your kids (and you, we won't tell). We've mentioned the site in previous years; Thankfully, there will be no semi-celebrity greetings section this year. Visitors can take a stroll through Santa's North Pole village and click on the downtown shops for fun games and activities. Including Mrs. Claus' Alphabet soup typing test, an illustrated PDF Elf story and a snowboarding game.
After using Microsoft Visual Earth for last year's high-tech tracking, this year NORAD will display it's tracking info via Google Earth. Last year, Google provided its own tracking data, unaffiliated with NORAD. An iGoogle module is also available so you can track Santa from the comfort of your Google homepage.
The Santa Tracking Control Center kicks off operations on 2:00am MTN Christmas Eve and lets you track Santa live as he navigates the globe. If you're left wondering, as we were, why the multi-billion dollar NORAD defense operation would burn time and resources tracking harmless lil' Santa Claus, there's actually a rich and storied history behind it all.
I don't know if this is a labor of love or merely the brainchild of four very gifted games designers, but Level Up is a really weird mash-up of gaming elements that you have probably never seen in a Flash game before.
Let's start with the premise itself: Groundhog Day meets Memento. The game experience revolves around 'days': you explore the world and the clock slowly ticks towards the evening. You bounce around picking up gems and talking to the denizens of 'Level Upland'. Eventually you feel tired and head back to ...
