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Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. There are five ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. Takes about a 10% cut.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

 

4. Donate by check. I get whatever you donate. Make the check payable to Robert Zimmerman and mail it to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


Hackers demonstrate they can remotely take over moving vehicle

Does this make you feel safer? In a demonstration of the vulnerability of modern cars that are linked to the internet, two hackers took over the operation of an unmodified moving Jeep Cherokee.

A pair of Missouri-based hackers have put on an extraordinary demonstration by logging into a Jeep Cherokee remotely, while it was being driven by a Wired reporter Andy Greenberg, and systematically taking over the car’s functionality. First, they hit him with cold air through the air-con system, then they blasted Kanye West through the stereo at full volume, rendering the volume knob completely useless. They flashed up a picture of themselves on the car’s console and set the windscreen wipers going full blast, squirting cleaning fluid onto the windscreen and making it difficult to see.

But these were just warmups to the main event – next, they took over the engine and shut it off completely, leaving the driver powerless and coasting on the freeway as traffic flashed past around him. Then, once he was off the highway, they showed how they could completely disable the brakes, and take over the steering of the car – only at slow speeds and in reverse, but they’re working on unlocking new abilities every day.

This suggests to me that linking any car directly to the internet is probably a very bad idea.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

5 comments

  • David M. Cook

    I’ve got two vehicles, a 1973 Chevy C-10 pickup (no computers, it should survive an EMP attack) and a 1991 Escort GT (computers, but no airbags or any other explosive devices in the passenger compartment, and no Internet connectivity).

    As a space enthusiast I balk at putting explosives on human-carrying vehicles, but that’s just me, and as a former truck driver I insist on remaining in full control of my machine.

  • “This suggests to me that linking any car directly to the internet is probably a very bad idea.”

    But a good one for Progressives. Now you’re dependent on government.

    Been looking to buy a pre-1975 vehicle, even a beater, for EMP protection, and they’re easy to work on and modify. We used to worry about massive nuclear death; now our tech is our Achilles’s heel.

  • Gealon

    Well there goes any hope I’d have of buying a Tesla, that and they don’t make a truck which is what I really need. I’m sure though since this is now a problem and Elon isn’t a dope, that the cars would be upgraded with an autistic mode which cuts off the radio transceiver.

  • David M. Cook

    Heh, ” they’re easy to work on…”

    ’73 Chevy V8: Alternator R&R took me about 2 hours, at night, in my driveway, while making dinner.
    Water pump, 2 days of easy working (a weekend).

    ’91 GT DOHC: Alternator R&R took me 4 days in the garage, working hard most of the time.
    Water pump, 4 weeks in the garage, not counting the collection of the pieces!

  • PeterF

    “NS5 Robot: [Jumps on car and tries to steer car out of control] You are experiencing a car accident.
    Detective Del Spooner: The hell I am.” – I, Robot

    People always comment on the condition of my ’57 Chevy. Ask me if I’m ever going to restore it. Truth is, I kind of like it just the way it is. I just tell them its “My Jalopy”. Unlike most classic car owners, I never have anyone ask me if I want to sell it. It was literally a “basket case” when I bought it. Parts in the back seat, parts in the trunk, parts in the garage, parts NEXT to the garage. I’ve driven it across the country several times now, towing a trailer. It is vulnerable to an EMP because I upgraded to HEI ignition after I got tired of constantly having to adjust the Mallory dual-point distributor I installed when I reassembled the car, but I can swap that out in twenty minutes.

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