NORAD, the agency that tracks missile threats to the US and Canada, just sent out a tweet welcoming the US Cyber Command to the big leagues. The US Cyber Command was elevated to a combatant command today, the country’s 10th, after previously working under the US Strategic Command since 2009.
Ever since NORAD’s Cheyenne Mountain underground facility became fully operational in 1966, it’s been America’s command and control center for the nuclear apocalypse. But photos from inside the top secret bunker, even historical ones, are incredibly rare. Yesterday the folks over at Memory Hole 2 helped make them a…
The internet is a big place. There’s so much to read and watch and listen to that it can be overwhelming. We all have those stories that we start, get distracted for one reason or another, and promise ourselves we’ll finish later. Well, if any of those stories were on Paleofuture, here’s your second chance!
Remember the 1983 movie WarGames? The film is about a computer “game” with the potential to start thermonuclear war. But strangely this scenario is more truth than fiction. Because in 1979 programmers at NORAD almost started World War III when they accidentally ran a computer simulation of a Soviet attack.
You’ve probably heard the story by now: On Christmas Eve 1955, a young boy in Colorado Springs dialed a Sears-sponsored hotline that let kids talk with Santa Claus. But instead of reaching Santa, he was connected to the red phone at CONAD, the military command center charged with patrolling the skies for any nuclear…
About half an hour ago, NORAD sent out an ominous looking tweet with the words "NORAD jets intercept..." and a link. The only problem? If you clicked on the link it brought you to an FAA error page with no more information.
The holidays are all about traditions, and once again NORAD is back with an updated version of its Santa tracker, letting kids keep tabs on Saint Nick as the 25th creeps closer and closer. In addition to updated apps for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone devices, the NORAD Tracks Santa website has also been spiffied up…
Santa is already in action in Asia and Europe. Where is he exactly? NORAD will tell you on this lovely Christmas Eve.
NORAD has switched allegiance: this year, it will track Santa using Bing and Microsoft maps instead of Google. [NORAD]
Okay, boys and girls: NORAD's got their annual Santa tracking up and running here. Keep tabs on the big guy if you're wondering when he'll be gifting your hemisphere, or if he owes you money. [NORAD Santa Tracker]
Once upon a time, when everything was black and white and the Russians had horns and tails, someone printed an ad asking kids to call Santa Claus using a very wrong telephone number.
Yesterday, I traveled back in time to the Cold War: Along with 20 science fiction writers here in Denver for WorldCon, I got a special tour of NORAD, the fabled military command center located in a vast cavern dynamited into the base of Colorado's Cheyenne Mountain. The top-secret base, protected under 2000 feet of…
Once again, it's time to entertain the fruit of your loins with a little web application we like to call "tracking Santa as he makes his deposits around the world", or what NORAD calls "NORAD Tracks Santa" (we're much more creative, methinks). This year NORAD's hired a flash designer and spruced up the site a bit,…
What better way to keep the little ones occupied while you do whatever it is you do around Christmas—binge drinking perhaps—than the Norad Santa tracker?
