Norad has been working with Google for several years by way of Google Maps and Google Earth. Last year, they started using Google Analytics as well. Google is now sharing a video of last year’s Santa tracking:

On the YouTube blog, Jeff Martin writes:

Oooh, it’s almost Christmas! And that means that Santa is about to leave his digs at the North Pole to embark upon his ’09 World Tour, placing presents under the trees of good little girls and boys all over the planet. Where will he be, and when will he make it to your house?

You can find the answer at www.noradsanta.org . You see, every year, NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, tracks Santa’s journey from the time he lifts off from his Arctic village to his final stop in Hawaii at the end of a looooooooong night. You can join the ride at Noradsanta.org or try m.noradsanta.org if you prefer to do your Santa tracking on a mobile phone. You’ll also want to subscribe to the NORAD Tracks Santa YouTube channel , which will contain videos of many of his stops around the world, all captured by NORAD’s Santa Cam network.

Check out the related articles below for our coverage of Santa tracking from years past. If you go to NORAD’s site, you can see a live countdown leading up to Santa’s flight.

Related Articles:

> Tracking Santa’s Web Analytics

> Google Teams With NORAD To Track Santa

> Google To Track Santa With NORAD

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I have also included the HTML HEX colour codes so you can grab each colour fast and easily. These colour schemes / palettes were hand picked from Adobe Kuler. Let me know what palette you like best. I think my favorite is ocean front of winter forest.

If you also have another colour scheme that you want to share with us and the WebdesignDev community, then please drop us in a comment.

40 Cold Colour Palettes…

#1 Cold Cold Cold Winter Night

#0d193b – #23568f – #a0ccff – #f8e4ff – #1d1f29

* * * * *

#2 Cold Cold Ground

#003b7f – #0059bf – #0077ff – #001e40 – #006be5

* * * * *

#3 Overcast And Squally

#445a61 – #778583 – #a3a19f – #403f39 – #696553

* * * * *

#4 Let The Cold In

#93aeb5 – #d0e2f2 – #69828c – #5c5e56 – #121314

* * * * *

#5 Cold As Ice

#012e40 – #025e73 – #037f8c – #038c8c – #cef2f2

* * * * *

#6 I Am Dead

#bdf2ed – #a7e4f2 – #80b4bf – #4c6c73 – #2a3c40

* * * * *

#7 Matte Blue

#60617f – #8f91bf – #bfc2ff – #303040 – #acaee5

* * * * *

#8 Cold Wood

#405173 – #8a9cbf – #a9b9d9 – #402924 – #8c6c6c

* * * * *

#9 Cold Studio

#9a96b9 – #b1b7db – #d7d9ee – #c1b1b2 – #d0b9bf

* * * * *

#10 Old Man Winter Version 2

#1a2944 – #2da7c7 – #56acba – #98c4c9 – #cbd5d2

* * * * *

#11 Winter Fog

#747474 – #9c9c91 – #d5c4ae – #f7e6cf – #f8f3dd

* * * * *

#12 Winter Day

#0a1324 – #908571 – #feffe6 – #758795 – #010101

* * * * *

#13 Winter Beach

#222940 – #3b4859 – #f2e8dc – #bfb3a8 – #8c7f77

* * * * *

#14 Cold And Freezing Snow Night

#081c8c – #051259 – #1335f2 – #dedbf8 – #40415f

* * * * *

#15 Snow Drops

#8d9cdd – #bac2d9 – #e8e7ec – #90a680 – #89a65d

* * * * *

#16 Mobi In The Snow

#d7d2d9 – #6f6673 – #9e98a6 – #1d1826 – #403131

* * * * *

#17 Sky And Snow

#2c4786 – #7b9bc3 – #e9e9e9 – #d2d2d4 – #4f4b43

* * * * *

#18 Snow Fall Nights

#158fbf – #0e5673 – #bbe2f2 – #3dbcd9 – #030406

* * * * *

#19 Snow Chill

#e9ebf2 – #1f5aa6 – #3b74bf- #9cb6d9 – #3b82bf

* * * * *

#20 Arctic Blue

#dce2f2 – #99aabf – #6d808c – #425559 – #0d0d0d

* * * * *

#21 Arctic Landscape

#011c40 – #011126 – #416ca6 – #6093bf – #7eb6d9

* * * * *

#22 Arctic Breeze

#034aa6 – #033e8c – #022859 – #011c40 – #7595bf

* * * * *

#23 Glacial

#131719 – #46494f – #9da5ab – #a9bbc2 – #e1f2f5

* * * * *

#24 Arctic Flower

#dce4f2 – #152c40 – #325a73 – #6393a6 – #698c86

* * * * *

#25 Arctic

#262a40 – #a3a7bf – #858da6 – #465573 – #5d6c8c

* * * * *

#26 Fresh Breeze

#2e3240 – #5c657f – #8a97bf – #93a1cc – #7883a6

* * * * *

#27 Arctic Sunrise

#4666a6 – #2d4d7c – #89abd9 – #ba7284 – #fcb796

* * * * *

#28 Arctic Fox

#ffffff – #c7d0d9 – #686673 – #3e3846 – #241f26

* * * * *

#29 Winter Forest Monochromatic

#1d2f0c – #4c7c20 – #384928 – #5f7c45 – #7bc833

* * * * *

#30 Winter Forest

#222721 – #2f2e2b – #afaaa7 – #e2e2e2 – #ffffff

* * * * *

#31 Deep Ice

#0d0b0c – #121d40- #1b578c – #0b1a26 – #1b7ea6

* * * * *

#32 Ice Water

#b0daff – #325b7f – #64b7ff – #586d7f – #5092cc

* * * * *

#33 Bling

#464540 – #c6c5c0- #dcdbd6 – #eae9e4 – #797873

* * * * *

#34 Frosted

#000000 – #999999- #336699 – #003366 – #101010

* * * * *

#35 Raspberry Frost

#b20064 – #b1c1c5 – #d9e3de – #2c2429 – #201a1f

* * * * *

#36 Ocean Frost

#95c3e8 – #89b4d6 – #769ab8 – #3e5161 – #242f38

* * * * *

#37 Forrest Frost Lake

#40423f – #636357 – #bdbfbf – #595246 – #262118

* * * * *

#38 Pine Cone Frost

#c3b9c2 – #88898c – #736966 – #595047 – #2b1a0b

* * * * *

#39 Shiver

#fffadc – #bedcf5 – #87aac3 – #5c7f99 – #322328

* * * * *

#40 Rim Ice

#323031 – #848a91 – #c8d0d3 – #f1f3ec – #e2e6e2

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According to http://www.designboom.com, she did this to “bring awareness to the world wildlife fund’s warning, that melting ice could cause sea-levels to rise more than 3.3 ft by 2010.”

“What happens in the Arctic will have a direct impact on weather in wide parts of the planet. Sea level could rise by one meter this century alone, threatening that quarter of humanity living near coasts,” said Martin Hiller, head of climate change Campaign at WWF International.

Neve has been placing her “Melting Men” all over the world since 2005. Each little ice man is very simple in design, and looks a little bit sad. I think Nele is brilliant for being able to achieve such emotion using nothing but ice. Each time she sets up an installation like this, in 30-40 minutes it is all melted and gone. Nele says that she is not a climate change activist, she is first and foremost an artist.

Just think, with this type of art, there is no clean up afterwards! It self-dismantles and washes away.

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Our today’s post consists of some selected inspirational 2d creative illustration and concept art from cgsociety, which you do not see usually. These are the wonder creation of designers who use their creativity with a different angle and approach to get the result that makes a difference.

We are always inviting and welcome creative designers to share their work for Creative Inspiration that our readers may like.

If you don’t want to miss out our next posts, you can Subscribe to the 2Experts Design Blog or follow us on twitter

Arctic Express 2008 by Raphael Lacoste

Ladies Of London by Linda Bergkvist

The Saint by Sinad Jaruartjanapat

Elena Formal Portrait by Lunatique

Gears Of War Concept Images by John Wallin Liberto

The Wax – Dragon by Natascha Roeoesli

Pepper Tundra by Skan Srisuwan

Happiness Is A Blue Bird by Jose Manuel Oli

Brume by Melanie Delon

Chat by Tranchefeux

The Fallen by John Kearney

Ravene by Marta Dahlig

The Dark Spire by Daniel Kvasznicza

Invaders! by Alexandre Bonvalot

The Rock City by Sergey Skachkov

Leaf Messenger by Julia Castelo Branco

Queen Of The Eternity by Kuang Hong

The prayer by Xiao Bing

Portrait Of Erica by Christine Kotlark

Boundary by Song Jae Hwon

Battle Angel by Tariq Raheem

RHYTHM, Hong, Ji hoon

Hokukage by Stacy Michalcewicz

Environment: Post Apocalypse by Daniel Kvasznicza

Master & Servant: Spoiled by Linda Bergkvist

The Wicked by Per Øyvind Haagensen

Becky IFX by Warren Louw

Knowledge And Wisdom by Wei Chen

Oiran by Srisuan Skan

Day Watch.Twilight by Pavel Lagutin

The Gate by Bruno Gentile

Pearl by Melanie Delon

Promise Promo Painting

Path To The Gothic Choir…by Raphael Lacoste

Enjoy this Post? Subscribe to the 2Experts Design Blog or follow us on twitter

Our blog is updated regularly with content related to web design, inspiration, tutorials, wordpress, freebies and much more. If you don’t want to miss out on future posts, you can subscribe by RSS or Email

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Last week Google made a big announcement around enhanced search features for music discovery. Now when you search for a song, album, lyrics, or an artist, your search results will include streaming audio previews and purchase options. The features is powered by their partnerships with MySpace and Lala.

Today Google is taking their music search to the next level by offering exclusive tracks from big name artists like Lady Gaga, in a wise effort to further influence your music search behaviors.

Here’s what’s Google is saying about their new exclusive tracks:

To celebrate our launch, MySpace and Lala are hosting exclusive, never-before-heard tracks from a variety of artists — and we’re helping people to find those tracks through a simple Google search. So if you’re a Lady Gaga fan looking for a new remix, in love with the Arctic Monkeys and looking for something extra or hunting for a new acoustic track from YouTube sensation Zee Avi, just search for it. You’ll find links to these tracks right in your regular search results. And when you click the links, you’ll be able to hear the songs directly from MySpace and Lala.

We know how much you care about music, and we’re excited to partner with Lala and MySpace to help you discover more music from artists you love, using Google. To see the full list of tracks and read more, check out the blogposts on Lala and MySpace. We hope you enjoy the music.

Google’s enhanced music search has major implications that extend beyond Google, and we think the exclusive content is a major play for your music attention. Is it working? Let us know in the comments.

Tags: Google, google music search, music

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What does the number 350 mean?

350 is the most important number in the world—it’s what scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Two years ago, after leading climatologists observed rapid ice melt in the Arctic and other frightening signs of climate change, they issued a series of studies showing that the planet faced both human and natural disaster if atmospheric concentrations of CO2 remained above 350 parts per million.

Everyone from Al Gore to the U.N.’s top climate scientist has now embraced this goal as necessary for stabilizing the planet and preventing complete disaster. Now the trick is getting our leaders to pay attention and craft policies that will put the world on track to get to 350.

Is 350 scientifically possible?

Right now, mostly because we’ve burned so much fossil fuel, the atmospheric concentration of co2 is 390 ppm—that’s way too high, and it’s why ice is melting, drought is spreading, forests are dying. To bring that number down, the first task is to stop putting more carbon into the atmosphere. That means a very fast transition to sun and wind and other renewable forms of power. If we can stop pouring more carbon into the atmosphere, then forests and oceans will slowly suck some of it out of the air and return us to safe levels.

So you ask?  Wheredo the supermodels fit here?  The video producers were  so inspired by the pictures they  saw coming in from around the world on 350.org’s Global Day of Climate Action, that they wanted to help. While the one-day event was called ‘the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history,’ they  knew that not everyone reads the newspapers. So they figured to try to get the point across the best way they knew how–with clothes, or really, with the lack of clothes. We hope you’ll get the point–feel free to watch it twice in case you got distracted the first time.

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One of the best ways to enhance your Photoshop skills is by creating wallpapers in Photoshop. Giving a shot to the below tutorials will help you to learn new Photoshop techniques. Creating wallpaper in Photoshop is always fun and best way to learn new techniques. Most of these wallpaper tutorials have PSD source file which can be very helpful with your designs.

These are some of the awesome tutorials in creating wallpapers using Photoshop on the Web.

Here are 55 tutorials that can help you to learn new photoshop tricks with these wallpaper tutorials.

1. The ‘Creativity’ Wallpaper

2. Beautiful Rainbow Island Wallpaper

3. Typography Wallpaper in Photoshop

4. Stylish Minimalistic Wallpaper

5. Create A Glowing Extreme Wallpaper

6. Abstract Watercolor Wallpaper

7. Fire Dragon

8. Abstract Color Wallpaper

9. Water drops on a spider web

10. Distant Desert City Scene

11. Arctic Monkeys

12. Large sprite piece

13. Screamusic Wallpaper

14. ‘Colour’ Wallpaper Tutorial

15. Floral Text Wallpaper

16. HD Color Lines Wallpaper

17. Typographic Wallpaper

18. Music Wallpaper Montage

19. Abstract Retro-Pop Wallpaper

20. Passing of Spring

21. Awesome Music Wallpaper

22. Transformers Movie Wallpaper

23. Retro Wallpaper

24. Texas Rangers desktop wallpaper

25. Retro Apple Wallpaper

26. Sunflower Wallpaper

27. Summer breeze wallpaper

28. Intensely Grungy Wallpaper

29. March 2009 Calendar Wallpaper

30. Watchmen Movie Wallpaper

31. Japanese Style Wallpaper

32. Michael Jackson Wallpaper

33. Diablo III styled wallpaper

34. Picture Vintage

35. Color Variations

36. Urban Koenigsegg CCX wallpaper

37. Luminescent Lines

38. Theatrical Scene Wallpaper

39. Dark Knight Grunge Wallpaper

40. Diving

41. Night Before Christmas

42. Beautiful Christmas Vision

43. Grunge Car Wallpaper

44. Atlantic Snowfall Wallpaper

45. Valentines Wallpaper

46. Chroma Wallpapers

47. Ford Mustang GT500 – Abstract design

48. Extreme Grunge Wallpaper

49. Decorating Text

50. Iron Man movie wallpaper

51. Fantastic Sunset Wallpapers Effects

52. Animated Rainbow Wallpaper

53. Impressive Photo’s Background

54. Abstract 3D Design Wallpaper

55. Floral Abstract Wallpaper

Which one of these tutorials you like the most? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments!

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