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Use Google Earth To Track Santa
Kickboy12 writes "Google Earth can be used to track Santa Claus, beginning at 2pm GMT December 24th. From the article: 'While we didn't work a deal for Naughty or Nice data layers, we did negotiate the rights to track this user on his big trip. If you've already got Google Earth, you can too.' So, if you have Google Earth, track Santa!"
It's Santa Claus ffs! There is no "e" on the end of it!
To all of you!
I have 1 Gbps Internet access@home
there's no mention of this in the bible, google earth is just a theory of atheist scientists
the Norad Santa site is http://www.noradsanta.org/
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
It's Santa Claus ffs! There is no "e" on the end of it!
Perhaps they're referring to DVD shipments of that Tim Allen movie?
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Any mention of the 6 to 8 black men that accompany him? And does he really go back to Spain when the whole thing is through?
Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
However, due to the lack of an OS X and/or linux version, of Google Earth, I can't.
Yes, I have heard of the OS X beta, but if I cant access it, it doesnt do me any good. Google's always been in favor of alternate OSs, yet here they only support MS. I hope this changes soon;
I don't wanna miss santa's route next year too..
~You laugh because I'm different, I laugh because I'm insane~
Google's a bunch of amateurs at this.
:-)
For tracking stuff that flies, I'd have to recommend NORAD. Do you really think Google is up to tracking nukes from North Korea on their way to obliterate Seattle or San Francisco? I think not.
Go with the pros from NORAD.
The Canadian gov't is doing something simillar with norad, you can find it here
Why would we need to track shipments of a Tim Allen movie produced and published under the Disney label if we're boycotting DisneyCo due to abuses of copyright law? Even people who consider the DMCA's circumvention ban not worth an MPAA boycott are boycotting DisneyCo due to its role in copyright term extension.
Fools! You've led us right to him!
Go get him, boys. The War on Christmas ends tonight.
-Kefka, Supreme Commander Anti-Christmas Forces, Europe.
Time to SSH into your system...
# emerge --unmerge world
loser.
Everyone knows there ain't no sanity clause!
Santa himself is an atheist invention
Santa is only called Santa because the Christian Church has recognized Nicholas of Myra, the first Santa Claus, as a saint. (The current Santa is allegedly Tim Allen.)
Santa's actually in his basement, drinking some beer and reading Slashdot.
Been hearing alot 'bout it on TV lately...
The UK government will be doing this already...and tracking everyone else!
When I tried using a 5-char username (to match my /. username) for a Gmail account, I got this message:
Sorry, your username must be between 6 and 30 characters long.
Why do they let this "S. Claus <claus@gmail.com>" dude have it?
I just saw Santa crash! Presents went everywhere and I think Rudolf has a broken leg. Someone was talking about putting him down.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
... Deliverd dowry money not toys.
It's Santa Claus ffs! There is no "e" on the end of it!
"I say potato you say potatoe", said Dan Quayle.
How about tracking Syrianta ?
Putting the Mona Lisa Smile technology to use.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
to track Santa Clause
My life insurance policy has a Santa clause, something to do with being trampled by reindeer...
(ok, that's bad)
This is all nice, but unfortunatly the linux users out there are left out of the fun. :(
;)
No such thing as google earth for linux
Its just strange to me that a company that bases most of its products on oss (servers and what not) doesnt have a version of an application that works on the second (maybe third if you count the mac's) most used desktop os on the planet.
I seem to remember that one of google's assets is that its products work on most operating systems (just the task of making ajax applications such as gmail is a lot of work).
Does anyone here know of a replacement, maybe something that uses some hidden google api - that would allow me to play around with this toy ?
How will i ever know if santa is close ?
Santa's legal team is said to be working on getting an anti-stalking injunction against Google Inc. "They may not be evil, but they sure are naughty! No toys for them!" said chief lawyer Binky.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Thanks Google, Merry Christmas!
-Styopa
20 minutes into the future, he'll be replaced by Sanity Claus. He breaks into your house in the middle of the night and tests your children for nonconformist thought. Any deviation from the norm results in abduction for "re-education".
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
Well I estimate it wouldn't take Google much longer than about 3 month to rip off their picture visualizing engine and integrate it into my cross-platform Earth mockup (see http://wyoguide.sourceforge.net/index.php?page=ear th.html). Before you ask, no, I can't build this engine myself.
O. Wyss
See http://wyoguide.sf.net/papers/Cross-platform.html
beginning at 2pm GMT December 24th
In Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia, christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve, not on Christmas day. Even though normally santa won't come until the afternoon or evening (and visit the children in person so they can get really scared so they, hopefully, behave the next year), there still probably are plenty of families who Santa already left earlier than five hours ago from now...
I have a really elegant proof for Fermat's last theorem. If this sig was only a bit longer...
Why the hell would anyone want to track that crappy movie?
I'd hope it's staying very still at the bottom of landfills.
AccountKiller
I don't get this, why are people celebrating religious holidays? More interesting to me personally is how a religious holiday became an official national holiday with the separation of church and state? How is it justified to have any religious holidays be official national holidays when it means that most religions don't get an official national day like that? I don't celebrate any religious holidays and as a contractor I am forced to take time off work that could be better spent by me making some money now, so that later, when the contract is over I could afford more time off at once. Anyway, does anyone have answers to any of these questions?
Thanks.
You can't handle the truth.
Ah but there HAS to be an Intelligent Toy Dispenser (ITD) due to the irreducible complexity of me having received the things i asked for in my letters year after year. Surely this can not be explained by some secular 'random chance' thing. Buncha /. heathens.
Microsoft has announced a competitive service : X-Claus.net. This service will be integrated into "Vista", the next generation Windows operating system, which is due for release "real soon now" according to a representative for the Redmond company. There are no plans to release an XP version of the X-Claus.net service. MS also plans an online, multiplayer game "Naughty/Nice Xtreme" for the XBox-360. This game will allow the combatant to play as Santa, one of his elves, or the evil Dr. Evil, intent on kidnapping Santa and turning Christmas into a mostly commercial occasion. Playing as Santa, you will have your choice of weapons, including gingerbread particle weapons, fruitcake bazooka, raindeer dropping carpet bombing, and hyper-velocity elf snot.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
I can't wait to show my kids this when I get home from work this evening. We watch the Norad tracking every year and have a fun time grouped areound the monitor, in true geeky fashion. Merry Christmas all and merry holiday(s) you may practice as well.
Beware the fury of a patient man
- John Dryden
Oh do shut up.
What exactly are they showing?Is it live?
Why does yahoo do this
Norad is based on Microsoft virtual earth, so I would think the two would not give you the same postion. To think, there is a google santa and a microsoft santa. :)
can be found here
See? Seasonal work isn't all that terrible...
In walking, just walk. In sitting, just sit. Above all, don't wobble.
-- Yun-Men
How can there be a Santa when the North Pole is gone? Look at the Arctic in Google. It's Melted away. Santa and the elves all drowned. Blame the U.S. for global warming. They killed Santa! No Christmas for you. BTW: What the hell does santa have to do with the birth of Christ anyway?
And how is this different from the modern practice of giving cash or checks or gift cards instead of toys?
Scientists have recently proven that the north pole has been migrating to Siberia, so he can set up shop there when all the ice melts away.
By designating Christmas as a National Holiday, Congress was not establishing a religion
Can you back up this assertion with citations?
We regret to inform you, but the ability to track Santa Claus has been deemed an unacceptable security risk and will not be allowed.*
No constitutional amendments were harmed (or consulted) in the making of this decision.
See it on Worth1000. Wow! [grin] :)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
and don't forget the reason for the season
Some germanic tribes celebrating the days getting longer again?
Secure messaging: http://quickmsg.vreeken.net/
You can see a quaint movie of Santa over India and the Tag Mahal. And if you look REALLY closely you'll see over 800 Million people looking up wondering what the hell a Christian symbol is doing flying overhead. Because afterall, its not like 98% of the population is Non-Christian or anything.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
Santa seems to take just as long delivering packages to major cities (Beijing) and he does to smaller towns (Langfang). Could it be that Google is merely giving us an approximate Santa Track? I guess the TSA made Santa Security pretty tight this year.
19 of what?
People can just make stuff up!
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Today they track Santa, tommorow it'll be Easter Bunny!
Wake up people, fight for your rights!
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears that Google Earth is Windows only?
:)
The Linux stockings get a lump of Google Coal(tm)?
Using Linux I knew I'd be somewhat second class in the area of most comercial software, but now Google has turned Santa on me! But that's okay. I'll still leave out milk and cookies, and nice Linux live CD. I'm sure he'll change his mind next year.
-- Prepared at the direction of, or to be sent to Legal Counsel, in anticipation of litigation. Attorney Client Pri
Want to sell me services? How about supporting Mac or Linux. Meantime the kids will be monitoring Norad tonight. http://www.santanorad.com/
Enjoy.
It's just the normal noises in here.
I've already subscribed to the googleblog rss feed. /. doesn't need to act like one rss reader for google blog.
Stockings hung by the tree, a fire in the fireplace, Christmas carols in the air, and Santa Claus misspelled on Slashdot.
'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, except father's mouse.
The computer was humming, the icons were hopping,
As father did last-minute Internet shopping.
The stockings were hung next the modem with care
In the hope that Santa would bring new software.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
With visions of computer games filling their heads.
Dark Forces for Billy, Doom III is for Dan,
Carmen Sandiego for Pamela Ann.
The letters to Santa had been sent out by mom,
To santa@toyshop.northpole.com
Which now had been re-routed to Washington State
Where Santa's workshop had been moved by Bill Gates.
All the elves and the reindeer had had to skedaddle
To flashy new quarters in suburban Seattle.
After living a life that was simple and spare,
Santa now finds that he's a new billionaire,
With a shiny red Porsche in place of his sleigh,
And a house on Lake Washington just down the way
From where Bill has his mansion, and the old fellow preens
In black Gucci boots and red Calvin Klein jeans.
The elves have stock options and desks with a view,
Where they write computer code for Johnny and Sue.
No more dolls or tin soldiers or little toy drums
Will be under the tree, only compact disk ROMs
With the Microsoft label. So spin up your drive,
From now on Christmas runs only on Win95.
More rapid than eagles the competitors came,
And Bill whistled, and shouted, and called them by name.
"Now, ADOBE! now, CLARIS! now, INTUIT! too,
Now, APPLE! and NETSCAPE! you're all of you through,
It's Microsoft's SANTA that the kids can't resist,
It's the ultimate software with a traditional twist.
Recommended by no less than the jolly old elf,
And on the package, a picture of Santa himself.
Get 'em young, keep 'em long is Microsoft's theme,
And a merger with Santa is a marketer's dream.
To the top of the NASDAQ! To the top of the Dow!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away - wow!"
And mum in her 'kerchief and me in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
The whir and the hum of our satellite platter,
As it turned toward that new Christmas star in the sky,
The SANTALITE owned by the Microsoft guy.
As I sprang from my bed and was turning around,
My computer turned on with a Jingle-Bells sound.
And there on the screen was a smiling Bill Gates
Next to jolly old Santa, two arm-in-arm mates.
And I heard them exclaim in voices so bright,
HAVE A MICROSOFT CHRISTMAS,
and TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT.
Love, AC
Just to point out, for those who don't seem to know, using Xmas as opposed to Christmas was never an attempt to desecularize the holiday- and has (likely) been in use for a very long time. It originates with the greek letter Chi (Which looks like an english X) and is the first letter of the word christ in greek. Later Constantine added Rho to create the Labarum (chi-rho) symbol which looks like an X and P superimposed.
In other words, X has always been a traditional symbol for Christ, and a such is NOT a means to desecularlize the holiday or "Remove Christ From Christmas".
\not christian
\\wishes christians would stfu about the xmas vs christmas debate
\\\Won't point out that christmas was originally a pagan holiday, because everyone knows that by now.
\\\\hope that clears things up.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
One to bring people good things, one to bring 'em coal. ;-)
A marriage is always made up of two people who are prepared to swear that only the other one snores.
Santa Claus: An Engineer's Perspective
.001 seconds, would be subjected to centrifugal forces of 17,500 G's. A 250 pound Santa (which seem ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4,315,015 pound of force, instantly crushing his bones and organs and reducing him to a quivering blob of pink goo.
I. There are approximately 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. However, since Santa does not visit children of Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Jehovah's Witnesses, or Buddist religions, this reduces the workload on Christmas night to 15% of the total, or 378 million (according to the Population Reference Bureau). At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that comes to 108 million homes, presuming that there is at least one good child in each.
II. Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 967.7 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with at least one good child, Santa has around 1/1000th of a second to park the sleigh, jump out, go down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left for him, get back up the chimney, jump in the sleigh, and move on to the next house. (That's why it's really pointless to stay up and wait for him....)
Assuming that each of these 108 million stops is evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false, but will accept for the purposes of our calculations), we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household; a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting bathroom breaks. This means that Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3000 times the speed of sound. For the purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a pokey 75.4 miles per second, and a conventional reindeer can run (at best) 15 miles per hour.
III. The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child has nothing more than a medium-sized Lego set (two pounds), the sleigh is carrying over 500 thousand tons, not counting Santa himself. On land, a conventional reindeer can pull nothing more than 300 pounds. Even granted that "flying" reindeer could pull ten times the normal amount, the job can't be done with eight or nine of them; Santa would need 360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the sleigh itself, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen Elizibeth (the ship, not the monarch).
IV. 600,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance; this would heat up the reindeer in the same fasion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each. In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them and causing deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.2 thousandths of a second, or right about the time Santa reaches the fifth house on his trip. Not that it matters, however, since Santa, as a result of accelerating from a dead stop to 650 miles per second in
V. Therefore, if Santa did exist, he's dead now.
"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore."
Do you really think he'll make it past the Department of Homeland Security?
He'll be blasted out of the sky before he hits Alaska.
Fools! You've led us right to him!
Go get him, boys. The War on Christmas ends tonight.
-Sephiroth, Supreme Commander Anti-Christmas Forces, Europe.
*Those damn interns keep misspelling his name.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
Yes, to indulge in pagaen ritual required at this time of Yule to encourage the sun to return and shorten the length of the night and make the days longer once again.
Haven't we already established that santa claus moves really, really quickly?m l/
If Keyhole can track this... hats off to the people at Google.
http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/93q4/issanta.ht
He is 19 Beleve in Santa Claus. Duh!
"Google Earth To Track Santa"? This is not cute. What is the point of lying to your kids to make them believe in something that doesn't exist. There's a lot more ways to make your kids happy and enjoy the holidays without having to rely on empty gimmicks in order for them to like it.
Nobody's gay for Mole-Man.
This is the most stupid thing ever. I'll definitely use it all day!!!!!
So you're saying XP is related to the Church? Interesting.....
\christian
\\also wishes christians would stfu about the xmas vs christmas debate
\\\wonders if people who don't believe in xmas think that the chi-rho is a version of Windows
...Santa Claus tracks YOU.
Yes! Let us once again bow our heads and ponder the deep significance that is our little habital sphere nearing the point in its orbit where its tilt with respect to the ecliptic plane is aligned in just such a way that one hemisphere gets the maximum majority of the primary star's output while the other hemisphere receives the minimum periodic level.
Tis the season to be jolly,
(yes, I know it already passed)
OB Spirit of Christmas quote:
Stan: Yeah. And you know? I think I learned something today, it doesn't matter if you're Christian or Jewish or Atheist or Hindu. Christmas still is about one very important thing:
Cartman: Yeah, ham.
Stan: No not ham, you fat fuck!
Cartman: Fuck you!
Stan: Christmas is about something much more important.
Kyle: What?
Stan: Presents.
Kyle: Ah.
Stan: Don't you see, Kyle? Presents.
"People that quote themselves in their signatures bother me" - athakur999
Possibly but in the US of A there are some Caucasian (and some Latino as well) tribes that constitute the majority of the population who celebrate Christmas because it is a religious holiday and not just a reason to buy presents for loved ones. Just like we celebrate our independence from England, the new year, the big meal involving Indians and the Europeans in ~1620, as well as those who fought in wars, and some US Presidents too. The interesting thing is that Christmas is one of the few, if not the only, holiday that is an international holiday and yet there are still some individuals and corporations in the US who want to demean it and/or who are afraid to show that they celebrate it.
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
Because it'd be pretty funny to see a parent trying to explain to their kids why CNN says Santa is in Philly while Google Earth says he's over Tokyo. "Well, you see dear... Santa. He's like... God. You know... like, they're tight. Like... You know when, two people are friends. And they're all... 'Can I borrow some powers, and... um.. be all at once at the same time?'. You know... like, all over? And... be able to... give presents, and.. cookies? Yes. Cookies."
Nobody's gay for Mole-Man.
As an anonymous coward christian, let me correct that a bit; the Catholics recognize saints, not the Christians.
Until Martin Luther started the Reformation with his 95 Theses, Roman Catholicism was the organized body of Christ in Europe. The Greeks venerate Nicholas as well.
miyako wrote: (chi-rho) symbol which looks like an X and P
Quixote wrote: So you're saying [Microsoft Windows] XP is related to the Church?
Well at least the effort to build a next-generation version of Windows was called Cairo. It resulted in Windows XP, which implements almost all of the Cairo spec.
...everyone knows that Santa comes from Greenland, not Lapland!
Later Constantine added Rho to create the Labarum (chi-rho) symbol which looks like an X and P superimposed.
So you're saying XP is related to the Church? Interesting.....
Hey, Satan is in the bible too, you know.
Won't point out that christmas was originally a pagan holiday
WTF!?
So you're saying XP is related to the Church? Interesting.....
"The Gates of Hell shall not prevail", saith the
scripture.
Let's all hope it's infallible, at least this once.
...Santa is magic, you insensitive clod. Normal rules of spacetime don't apply to him. Off with you and your lump of coal, Scrooge...
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Move along people. This story is a duplicate of last year's account.
You can't work? Why the hell not. As a contractor, you're free to WORK on the Holiday if you want. I don't know a company in the world that won't allow you to bill them for hours worked. Regardless of time/date.
So shut up and work then. I can't imagine how it impacts you at all.
For the record, Santa Claus is currently delivering gifts in India (as of 2:40 AM IST)
"When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail." - Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
Searching for google_earth.zip brings you the goods. Here's one link:a /wa/default?user=hogfish&templatefn=FileSharing1.h tml&xmlfn=TKDocument.1.xml&sitefn=RootSite.xml&aff =consumer&cty=US&lang=en
http://homepage.mac.com/WebObjects/FileSharing.wo
While you guys have been dickering you haven't even noticed how much serious trouble Santa is in...
Its 5pm Eastern Standard Daylight time and he's still stuck delivering to a fraction of India... even running with the sun, he is going to need to seriously speed that clunky old retro nostalgia sleigh of his up if he plans to stay competitive with UPS.
Dammit he better get a move on my presents better be there tomarrow morning or else! I want my nixie clock now!
Something tells me this hack was written by Indian programmers... obviously... with Santa stuck in India and taking his own swee time...
The fact of the matter is, that in order to acheive the stupdendous feats that Santa pulls off every year, he has to have technology so advanced that it .
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
I hope that you can appreciate the irony - that is exactly what you want to do to that "minority of people who don't celebrate Christmas".
Happy Hanukkah!
The fact of the matter is, that in order to acheive the stupdendous feats that Santa pulls off every year, he has to have technology so advanced that it makes the US military look *really* bad.
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
He's Santa.
It is interesting though, that christmas is now celebrated, or at least very well-known all around the world, as a result of it being an amalgam of several different traditions that have slowly merged together into one mysterious mess.
Like the question: "Where does Santa come from?". Depends on which tradition you use as a base...
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
Check out http://mapki.com/santa2005/ for a Google Maps API version, too.
"Santa" is jumping all over these maps. Seems to me that he'd go in order of closest house to farthest. Not left, right, up, left, down, right, up again, up, way down, diagonal, etc.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
Santa tracks you.
\what
\\the
\\\fuck
\\\\does
\\\this
\\\shit
\\mean
\?
I thought of something interesting as I read your point #3 regarding how much a reindeer can pull. Isn't that number really dependent on the static and kinetic friction of the sleigh and the floor? In the case of snow, where the static friction is close to 0, shouldn't reindeers be able to pull a lot more? I'm not saying flying through air would be the same as dragging it along the snow, but it does bring up an interesting point if indeed flyling reindeers exist.
HD Trailers
Using Occam's Razor, which states that the simplest solution is probably right, it seems simpler to say that Santa just uses distributed labor.
Now, if only our government could tap into Santa's intelligence gathering network.
Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.
International holiday? What does that mean? I would venture (without any numbers to support it, but nonetheless) that Christmas is not celebrated by the majority of people in the world, nor is it an official holiday in the majority of nations in the world.
The only international holiday is probably New Year's Day. And May Day (International Workers' Day) is also specifically intended to be international and not specific to any culture.
Go back to Fark.
Damn slashy-post-ender. Guy.
i was raised in a serious christian home but haven't been a believer in the traditional sense since i was six (i'm just theologically advanced). but my parents are good christians, and by that i mean that they are in it for the religion, not the accessories. dad's got an mdiv. because of all this, i've been paying attention to how people practice religion my whole life.
and the point i'd like to make is that most christians *are* secular. they go to church for the major holidays (often forgetting that easter is the big one, not christmas), they say what they say, and they don't practice what they preach. and these are the people that are secularizing christmas. it's not the people that really believe. it's not the jews or the muslims or the buddhists or the hindis or the atheists or the taoists or the shinto or anyone else. it's the christians.
it's the christians, fanatically trying to keep up appearances and expectations. it's the christians buying stuff. it's the christians turning a religious holiday into a festival of consumerism that occasionally produces violence in store aisles as people fight for the privilege of buying some trinket. no one else is setting this up. there's no conspiracy here. most people who call themselves christian have no idea what it means to live as a christian. they have no idea what the principles of their religion are, they've put zero thought into how to apply those principles to the modern world. they spout what they hear, they claim to believe, and they turn a perfectly fine amalgam of holidays into a huge stressor for themselves and others.
and then, when they're provoked by a bunch of ethically devoid politicians and power-mongers, they get upset because the cycle that they are perpetuating - that they created in the first place - is taking the christ out of christmas.
the way i see it, the christmas story - the one involving a baby named jesus - is just an excuse at this point. it's something for those christians, probably 90% of the people out there calling themselves christian, to go back and feel good about every so often as they continue the cycle of consumerism and greed and good-will towards no one but the self.
fucking practice what you preach, assholes. then maybe the rest of us will have a little sympathy. until then, fuck off. if you're a christian and you're not part of the problem, educate the stupid and blind among you. educate them to the point at which they no longer feel compelled to celebrate this pagan-rooted holiday by buying things. just bring the capitalist aspect down. then, maybe, i'll believe you when you tell me that you Believe.
do you question the use and place of the crucifix in regard to the rules of your religion? no? go back to sunday school until you do. study until you understand that nothing about anything you claim to believe is simple. if you do that, you might have some hope of gaining real faith one day. until then, you're just a poseur, not doing any real good for anyone. you're in the temple, happily buying trinkets with the blessings of the moneylenders (visa, mastercard, discover, amex, etc.).
fuckers.
I always thought slashdot should have some slashies.
Isn't the web big enough for more than one site with slashies?
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
Well when using Windows XP I often pray that things will work...
I like the Norad tracks Santa page best for Santa Tracking. I had to work tonight and missed being able to show the kids Santa's progress around the world.
The Earth's axial tilt is the reason for the season. Humans celebrated the winter solstice for thousands of years before Christ was born.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
imagine a beowulf cluster of santa claus'!
Yeah but there is none of that pagan stuff left
Oh yeah!? Lets examine some of the more common customs that much of the world practices today.:
Lets start with the good old clean fun of x-mas trees. Yeah well if you thought worshiping some guy was bad, how about worshiping a tree. Just as early x-tians recruited Roman pagans by associating x-mas with the Saturnalia, so too worshipers of the Asheira cult and its offshoots were recruited by the Church sanctioning "x-mas Trees". Pagans had long worshiped trees in the forest, or brought them into their homes and decorated them, and this observance was adopted and painted with a x-tian veneer by the Church.
"OK, well what about a sweet kiss under the mistletoe?! What is wrong with that." Oh come on, this one is just so weird it had to come from Pagans. Norse mythology recounts how the god Balder was killed using a mistletoe arrow by his rival god Hoder while fighting for the female Nanna. Druid rituals use mistletoe to poison their human sacrificial victim. The x-tian custom of kissing under the mistletoe is a later synthesis of the sexual license of Saturnalia with the Druidic sacrificial cult. And I'm not even going to get into the issue of kissing compleete strangers... Cootie-city.
"Please tell me there is nothing wrong with the free stuff." Well if your already comfortable with being a freeloader, think about where the custom started. In Rome, the emperors compelled their most despised citizens to bring offerings and gifts during the Saturnalia (in December) and Kalends (in January). So if your a giver your playing the part of despised citizen and if your a receiver your the Roman Dictator.
And this brings us to the Coke Spokes model ( wait, you'll see ).The Catholic Church gave this custom a x-tian flavor by re-rooting it in the supposed gift-giving of Saint Nicholas. Nick was born in Turkey around 4030 (270 CE), he became a bishop , and died. He wasn't saint until around 5560 (1900 CE). He came up with the novel idea that Jews are "the children of the devil" and they sentenced Yeshkah to death (Johny Boy 8:44). (Next time you see him in the mall try to refrain from giving him a kick in the teeth)
In 4848 (1087 C.E.) some sailors Idolized Nicholas and moved his bones from Turkey to Italy. In Italy Nick replaced the deity known as "The Grandmother" (I'll bake you a lasagna that you can't refuse). She used to fill the children's stockings with gifts. She was kicked out of her shrine at Bari, which became the center of the Nicholas cult. Members of this group gave each other gifts during a pageant (like the M.Gibson movie?) they conducted annually on the anniversary of Nicholas' death, December 6.
The cult-of-Nick spread north until it was adopted by German and Celtic pagans. These groups worshiped a pantheon led by their chief god who had a long, white beard and rode a horse through the heavens one evening each Autumn. When Nicholas merged with the Chief, he shed his Mediterranean appearance, grew a beard, mounted a flying horse, donned heavy winter clothing, and rescheduled his flight for December in the evenings (becoming nick-at-night).
In an attempt to convert the members of the cult-of-nick-at-night the Catholic church gave Nick a flight delay from the 6th to the 25th of December, and taught that he did (and they should) distribute gifts.
In 5570 (1809 C.E.), the novelist Washington Irving (most famous his The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle) wrote a satire of Dutch culture entitled Knickerbocker History. The satire refers several times to the white bearded, flying-horse riding Saint Nicholas using his Dutch name, Santa Claus. Later a poem by Dr. Clement Moore, changed the horse to 8 reindeer, And turned nick into a chimney cleaner.
The Bavarian illustrator Thomas Nast almost completed the modern picture of Nick. Based on Moore's poem, Nast drew more than 2,200 cartoon images of Nick for Harper's Weekly. Before Nast, Saint Nicholas had been pictured as everything from a stern looking bis
When I wrote my post I was careful to not state that it is celebrated by the majority of the world population and instead state it is an international holiday. The reason being that China and India together have about 1/3 of the world's population and they are Buddhist and Hindu I believe. So to answer your first question, if you don't know what international means then look it up and that will help you figure out what "international holiday" means. And your statement that insinuates that *I* said that Christmas is celebrated by the majority of the people in the world is incorrect based on evidence provided in my first sentence of this post. I forgot about New Year's Day so it could also be an international holiday (it only takes 2 countries to make it international) and I never even heard of May Day.
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
I would agree with you. Time changes things. I think I could say that I consider it a bad thing that it takes so long for the changes to take place though. The good changes could get here quicker and the bad changes could be noticed faster before it is too late.
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
International holiday? What does that mean? I would venture (without any numbers to support it, but nonetheless) that Christmas is not celebrated by the majority of people in the world, nor is it an official holiday in the majority of nations in the world.
Yeah, it's only really celebrated in the whole of the Americas, Europe, Oceania and large parts of Africa. Practically a global non-event.
Some details at:
T heRealStory.htm
http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/Christmas_
An "X" was also used by the pious illiterates who could not write their names.