Fifty-six seconds after informing Captain Bruce McCandless II (CAPCOM) of his intent to take humanity's first photographs on the lunar surface during extravehicular activity, Neil Armstrong adjusted the settings on his 70mm Hasselblad—loaded with Kodak Ektachrome SO168 160ASA color film, Magazine 40/S—and snapped a series of photos for a panorama starting with this one. The result is AS11-40-5850 "Lunar Surface with Lunar Module Strut" shot by Armstrong just west of the Lunar Module ladder looking east-southeast.

You can watch video of this sequence, learn more about Apollo 11 photography and panoramas, browse the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal including the entire mission image library and read the official transcripts.

This week three years ago, I spent nine days in Japan. Staying in Sagamigaoka, Zama Kanagawa, I explored the Tokyo metropolitan area and rode Tokaido Shinkansen Hikari across the beautiful country to spend a day in Hiroshima.

Since then, the Japanese people have held a special place in my heart for my trip enlightened me to a culture with which I have much respect. My heart is with them again now.

When I got a BlackBerry in July 2010, one of the things I decided to try was Twitter. Up to that point, I had never really understood its purpose but it has proven amusing in the intervening 6 months and 24 days.

At first, I followed anyone I was familiar with but found the deluge of irrelevancy too much to handle on the phone. I trimmed that list down to friends, news sources and a few others, none of whom tweet excessively. I also found Twitter particularly fun during group events like the Orlando Predators game and DragonCon 2010.

I never imagined that I would use Twitter for any official purpose until last Saturday night. While driving east on Apalachee Parkway, I noticed the newly installed red light traffic camera capturing the eastbound approach was taking pictures of everyone passing through the intersection, myself included, despite the green light.

While I was considering my action later at home, I remembered that the City of Tallahassee's official traffic account, @COTTraffic, had posted when that camera was activated. I looked up that tweet and decided to reply with my story.

They replied at 0742 Monday morning saying, "I'm not sure but will check on that and let u know. Thanks for the info!" They replied again today at 1630.

This is excellent customer service and I am sure that is due in part to the nature of social media. I was able to target my message to the appropriate recipient, or someone who could get in touch with the correct parties quickly, and at no time had to explain and re-explain my situation to a series of people who have no idea what I am talking about. I should note that this comment is meant generally, as I have no real experience dealing with the city.

I replied almost immediately.

To those behind the keyboard at @COTTraffic, well done!