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My February birthday fund-raising campaign for this website, Behind the Black, is now over. Despite a relatively weak initial three weeks, the last week was spectacular, making this campaign the second best ever.

 

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New map outlines the river basins of the US

A new map has been released that clearly outlines every river basin within the continental United States.

Trust me, click on the link. It is definitely worth looking at.

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 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

  • Localfluff

    I’m not a river person. People who grew up next to a river on the country side have the river as phenomena in their memory and traditions. When I worked in a small African country there was a geological exhibition and a geologist explained the many colored rivers of a map on the wall:

    “- The red rivers are where gold has been found. The blue rivers are where diamonds have been found.”

    I had to ask:
    “- What are the green rivers?”
    “- Oh, that’s where we’ve found both gold AND diamonds!”

  • Frank

    This is a stunning image and informative. Thank you Bob!

  • TimArth

    This is not meant to be confrontational or “troll-y”, but I do not understand the point of Localfluff’s post. Could you clarify?

  • PeterF

    Kind of looks like doodle art.

    Notice the chunk of the Louisiana purchase the Canadians stole from us?

  • Edward

    PeterF,
    I like the real story much better. Most of the US-Canadian border is the only border that is agreed to by a handshake. As the two countries were reaching westward and the border as defined by the Great Lakes came to an end, the two countries got together to figure out where each one ended and the other began. After some discussion, they decided upon the 49th parallel — and, yes, some of the Louisiana Purchase went to Canada.

    However, there were a few people just north of the Minnesota-Canadian border who insisted that they were US citizens, so the border was modified to include them, which is why Minnesota has a small portion that juts up into Canada.

    Canada wanted a port on the Pacific, so Alaska is not a contiguous state with the lower 48. When the US bought Alaska from the Russian government, the Russians claimed the coastal territory from Alaska all the way down to their colony of Fort Ross, California.

    Except for treaties after the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, most of the Candaian-US border was established through peaceful discussions and treaties that merely resolved confusion over where one territory ended and another began.

    It’s a really nice story. I once had a history teacher who taught history as a series of stories (sometimes with class participation, sometimes with props, but always with sound effects), and those are the most memorable history lessons I have ever had.

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