Many of us aren’t lucky enough to experience one of nature’s most glorious sights—the beauty of the sunrise—every day, let alone on demand. That is, until today. Now there’s a Google Earth layer that brings the sun’s ascent right to your computer screen, and Google Earth aficionados can also see video vignettes drawn from Discovery HD Theater’s “Sunrise Earth” program.

To view the videos, open Google Earth and select the Sunrise Earth layer under Discovery Networks. Follow the links in the pop-up window to experience the sights and sounds of one of nature’s most beautiful phenomena. Watch dawn rise over Stonehenge, Mayan pyramids, and Buddhist temples as it has for thousands of years. See the Katmai Bears emerge from their seven-month slumber to greet a new day. Witness the sun’s light bringing life to natural habitats around the world, from the forests of Costa Rica and the coast of New England, to the foothills of Turkey and the glaciers of Alaska.

Whether you catch Sunrise Earth on Discovery HD Theater or via Google Earth, you’ll see the world in a whole new light.

Are you a young child and need to make sure Santa is making his way to your house?

Maybe you’re a physicist trying to do some analysis on how Santa gets around the world in just one night while dragging every imaginable gift along with him (without losing any of that weight)?

Either way, once again, you can track Santa’s journey from the comfort of your own home.

Google allows you to track him and his sleigh through Google Earth Santa Tracker.

Norad is also doing their traditional tracking, but this year they seem to have teamed up with Microsoft’s Virtual Earth.

Hope Santa brings everyone what they want. And Merry Christmas to all of you readers.

Using maps from the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, Google has added a new dimension to the already excellent Google Earth.

By turning on the Rumsey Historical Maps overlay from the Featured Content menu, you can select several different historical maps from the past and see them positioned in their proper places on the 3D planet. The screenshot below shows you how to find the maps within Google Earth.

The pictured map is a weird eagle-shaped depiction of the US from 1833.

Some of these old maps are really beautiful. I hope they continue to add more stuff like this.

In an attempt to one-up their competitor’s Google Earth, Microsoft has added 3D functionality to their Local Live Search. Unlike Google Earth, which is a separate application, Microsoft’s 3D Virtual Earth 3D uses an in-browser ActiveX control. The buildings in Virtual Earth 3D look a bit nicer, being textured and all, but it’s measurably slower than Google Earth. The interface is also not as nice as Google’s, but I guess it’s still a work in progress.

I’ve tested out a few areas, but had pretty lame results. Here is a comparison of my town, Tampa, FL:

Downtown Tampa, FL in Local Live 3D

Downtown Tampa, FL in Google Earth

If you visit the cities listed on the sidebar at Virtual Earth 3D, though, you get much better results. Those include:

• Atlanta
• Baltimore
• Boston
• Dallas
• Denver
• Detroit
• Fort Worth
• Houston
• Las Vegas
• Los Angeles
• Philadelphia
• Phoenix
• San Francisco
• San Jose
• Seattle

A new beta of Google Earth has been released with some nifty new drawing tools that were previously not available in the free version. Now you can draw directly on the maps and even build up 3D visuals with the polygon tool.

I also found a page with a visual representation of high-resolution imagery by location. If you prefer hard textual data, though, you can check out the PDF.

I’ve been using the beta for a good while and find it to be just as stable as the released product. Go download it if you haven’t yet.