40 years ago today, 16 July 1969 at 14:32 (BST), the Apollo 11 Saturn V rocket was launched.


According to Wikipedia:

the Apollo 11 mission was was the fifth human spaceflight of Project Apollo and the third human voyage to the Moon.

It carried Mission Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin, Jr.

Four days later, on July 20th, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon, while Collins orbited above.

The mission fulfilled President John F. Kennedy's goal of reaching the moon by the end of the 1960s.

On May 25, 1961, he'd addressed a joint session of Congress and stated: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."

On May 12th, 1962, he gave a public speech in which he said: "We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."


Visit the interactive website WeChooseTheMoon.org created by JFK Presidential Library & Museum to experience a real-time recreation of the historic lunar mission.

I subscribe to 1938 Media, a video blog ("This site is rated R it is intended for free thinking adults") by the irrepressible Loren Feldman.

The guy's amazing, and kinda crazy. He's not especially good-looking in the traditional sense, but he does have this whole stamped-face gravelly-voice semi-shaved head, stubble-cheeked thing going on that - combined with the stuff which comes out of his mouth - makes him kinda hot, and definitely very sexy.

He's got a lot to say about the web, social media, and those who think they're running it. Lots of what he says pisses people off, but he also speaks a lot of truth and does a lot of bubble-bursting, and being the sort of person I am, I like that. A lot.

So anyway, he's got his email up on his site, along with other contact info, so I added him to my AIM, and sent him a message telling him how much I love him and his videos. Now usually, I'm pretty reserved and don't say stuff like that, and I am not impressed with celebrity types as most of them are pretty worthless egomanicas, but this guy is ultra cool and very real, and well, I just couldn't help myself. He's a videoblogging role model.

I told him I was looking into doing videoblogging, and he encouraged me to go for it. I asked him about his gear setup, and he said he uses macs/imovie, although he didn't say what camera. When I mentioned I wasn't especially a hot chick (aka Amanda C), he said to just be myself, and that's good advice under any circumstances. I didn't mention the facial scars I have, or bring up my indecision about wearing makeup if I'm on camera. Those are my issues to consider and deal with.

I love that he was so approachable. He's coming to town this month for the MESH conference, so I hope to see him in person. Maybe I'll do an interview. On video.

Instructables is one of my favourite sites. As a collaborative 'how-to' site, it really is an excellent example of the 'best of the web'.

Specifically, it is a

...web-based documentation platform where passionate people share what they do and how they do it, and learn from and collaborate with others. The seeds of Instructables germinated at the MIT Media Lab as the future founders of Squid Labs built places to share their projects and help others.

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