40 years ago, the Man set foot on the Moon.

I hardly imagine what could Armstrong and Aldrin feel, in their uncomfortable space suit, between excitement, fear, concentration, pression of the mission, during the few hours of their extravehicular activities...
To celebrate that anniversary, a beautiful website has been set online, featuring dozens of never seen before pictures (specially of the LEM construction and testings). Hace a look here : WeChooseTheMoon.com. Web site's online for one year, don't miss it!

On the same theme, the brilliant Boston Big Picture made a special gallery : Remembering Apollo 11.

If, by chance, you can read French, don't miss the airline captain Jacques Darolles story on PilotList.org about his meeting with Buzz Aldrin on a Paris-Nice flight...

Finally, for those who still think all these pictures were staged on Earth, have a look at the footpath of the astronauts still visible on the surface of our satellite...

Google Books again came with another big thing, by putting online all the issues of Popular Science Magazine, since the very first one issued in May 1872!

I assume, as you're browsing through ShamWerks, that's you'll be especially interested by the issues from the 50's-60's. And good news, these are just an orgy of shiny retro-futuristic covers!

More specifically, you'll find for example in the June '57 issue a comparative test of "foreign cars", featuring the Karmann Ghia Low-Light (on the cover), the BMW Isetta, the Renault Dauphine, etc... And in the April '58 issue, that's a Beetle you'll see on the cover, illustrating an article about the "8 best-selling cars"...
Furthermore, in the February '67 issue, you'll find a pretty nice article about "the cars you can build yourself", the main feature being the Manx Buggies! (wow, Bruce Meyers was young on these pics! ).
Yet more buggies on the cover of the August '69 issue, as of the March 69 issue (along with an article by Wernher Von Braun, funny to see how they forget the SS past of that guy 'cause he took'em on the moon... Whatever...).

I could keep on going giving you a list of links, but the best way to find out if for you to dig into it by yourself : Click here!
Thanks who? Thanks Google.

Exactly one month ago, a barrier went down, while nobody really noticed. Well, OK, I can understand that the world economical crisis is more important in people's mind right now than this kind of announcement. Whatever.

In Lüderitz, Namibia, took place the Luderitz Speed Challenge 2008, an annual speed sailing contest, validated by the very uncompromising WSSRC (World Sailing Speed Record Council)...
And that's where occured that new record, and not the least one, as the mythical 50 knots frontier was breached! And for the sailing people, this was like the sound barrier! Plus, not only its a KiteBoard that performed this amazing speed (and I do like kiteboarding!), opening a new era after decades of Windsurf hegemony, but it's a French who did it!

So, on October 3rd, Sébastien Cattelan reaches 50.26 knots, writing his name in history books as the first one ever making "one small step for man" above the 50 knots... Two days later, Alexandre Caizergues (yet another frenchy) takes the record back at an outstanding 50.57 knots, i.e. 92.6 km/h or 81.38 mph (1 knot = 1,852 km/h).

And that fast, on water, standing on a small board, that's huge... Here's a video of Caizergues' run for you to make up your mind.

Next step : 100 km/h... It took 10 years to the windsurfers to get from 30 to 40 knots ; kiteboarding being quite a young sport, in constant evolution, some think the 60 knots could be reached in the next years...

It's high time I go to Mauritius...