Village Gamer

OTTAWA – NAV Canada reports that a flight plan for an aircraft departing the North Pole on December 24, 2009 has been filed with millions of destinations in Canada and around the world.

NAV Canada says it has not handled a flight plan of this size for about a year noting that this breaks the record that was set on December 24-25 2008 by a Mr. K Kringle.

NAV Canada does not reveal the identity of pilots filing flight plans but an unnamed source confirmed that it is Mr. Kringle. “The paperwork says Kris Kringle, but everyone knows him as Santa Claus,” said the NAV Canada source speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Pilot Kris Kringle

The details are confidential, but NAV Canada has confirmed that aircraft will carry a huge cargo of brightly coloured packages and will fly at a tremendous speed guided by a flashing red light at the nose of the craft.

“That red light makes the aircraft’s nose so bright. It worked especially well on one foggy Christmas Eve several years back,” recalled one air traffic controller.

A new feature of this year’s special flight will be high-tech equipment on board the sleigh that will allow NAV Canada to pick up the flight as it flies over Hudson Bay on the Company’s new Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) System.

In the past, when it flew over the 850,000 square kilometres of Hudson Bay the sleigh would disappear from the radar screens because of the lack of surveillance coverage. “That was always a concern, but the situation has now been resolved with our new ADS-B system around the Bay and the North Pole’s decision to invest in the on-board equipment,” says a NAV Canada spokesperson.

NAV Canada will be hard at work on Christmas ensuring that the normal air traffic control, flight information and advisory services, are provided for this special flight and all other aircraft – with technical operations and engineering support – as we do 365 days a year.

NAVCanada, the country’s civil air navigation services provider, is a private sector, non-share capital corporation financed through publicly-traded debt. With operations coast to coast, NAV Canada provides air traffic control, flight information, weather briefings, aeronautical information services, airport advisory services and electronic aids to navigation.

Interested parties can track the progress of this very special flight on NORAD’s site, watching Mr. Kringle’s progress as he journeys along his filed flight plan. In the meantime, visit the North Pole to watch as the whole town prepares for this monumental flight.

Vancouver – The 2nd Annual Global Game Jam takes place this coming January 29-31 2010 and Vancouver is one of the 100 locations for the jam being held simultaneously in multiple countries around the world. Global Game Jam is an IGDA initiative.

In a Game Jam, artists, programmers, students and designers come together to make video games. Each participant works in a small team on a complete game project over the course of a limited time period, usually over a weekend. Mentors support the game-teams by providing guidance and feedback to facilitate teams’ success. With such a small time frame, the games tend to be innovative and experimental. I attended as an observer last year, and I saw lots of fantastic ideas, creativity and innovations happening. If you have the chance, I highly recommend taking part in this event.

Register now to be a Participant or Mentor at this fun and educational event! The Global Game Jam will start at 5:00 PM Friday, January 29, 2010 through 5:00 PM Sunday, January 31, 2010 (all times local).

Other Canadian Global Game Jam Locations:

Calgary
Halifax
Hamilton
Miramichi
Ottawa
Sault Ste. Marie
Toronto
Waterloo

Today’s Super Special: Madballs in Babo Invasion by PlayBrains is currently available for 50% off on Steam. Grab this fast-paced action game for your PC from Steam (sale price $4.99 USD) or for your Xbox 360 from XBL MarketPlace for 800 MS Points and play as your XBLA Avatar as you campaign across distant worlds either solo or with four-player online co-op, taking no prisoners in your wake. Challenge your friends (and your enemies) to see who’s the baddest ball on the planet in no-holds-barred 16-player multiplayer arenas with freaky characters or with your 360 Avatar. Try out the Invasion Mode where combatants create the very worlds where they wage war. Dozens of unique character classes, weapons, special abilities, worlds, unlocks, secrets, maps, and game modes give you limitless gameplay. Madballs in Babo Invasion has been nominated in several categories for our 2009 Readers’ Choice Awards.

Vancouver – In the face of increased number of independent productions, increased production costs, diminished funding sources and limited funds available, forward-thinking members of the industry have been casting about for creative ways to fund films. An innately expensive undertaking, the making of a film is often decided by the deep pockets of the companies and individuals funding the project. These decisions can heavily influence the final product with ultimatums about creativity, casting, product placement, etc. Further, financial pressures are constraining the industry as piracy cuts into independent film revenues.

The Biracy Project™ is a social experiment in crowd-funded filmmaking which will build the audience in advance and give the audience the power to make decisions on how the film will be made.

“Let’s make a sustainable industry and allow the people who support it to benefit from the rewards” says Biracy CEO and Founder David Geertz; and added with a sarcastic chuckle “Ultimately, we’d love to end this piracy problem by making the pirate a buyer.”

Geertz has a solid history in the film industry ranging from production to media distribution. His frustration with the constraints placed on filmmakers by the financing bodies has led him and a solid team of experienced professionals to develop the Biracy Project™ concept.

The Biracy crowd-funding model starts with people choosing their membership level (minimum level is a $25 annual commitment). In exchange, members have access to regular updates via video and blog entries, they get to vote or provide other input on decisions that pertain to the development and production of the movie and they receive a copy of the completed film, To compensate members for their participation, the Biracy Project™ includes a members’ only game, the “Producer Challenge”. Game points are awarded for tasks completed by participating members. In addition to determining the winner of the Producer Challenge, game points will be used to allocate 75% of the movie proceeds among the membership. The winner of the Producer Challenge will receive the Grand Prize of an Associate Producer credit on the film together with appropriate financial compensation.

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