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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.

 

Thanks to every person who donated or subscribed. It continues to astonish me that people who can read my work for free like it enough to donate money voluntarily. Words cannot express my appreciation for that support, especially in these uncertain times.

 

If you have been a regular reader and a fan of my work and have not yet donated or subscribed, please consider doing so. I take no ads, I keep the website clean from pop-ups and annoying demands (most of the time). Thus, I depend entirely on my readers to support me. Though this means I am sacrificing some income, it also means that I remain entirely independent from outside pressure. By depending solely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, no one can threaten me with censorship. You don't like what I write, you can simply go elsewhere.

 

You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. 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.
 

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5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
 
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SpaceX successfully launches commercial satellite

The competition heats up: SpaceX tonight successfully launched Echostar 23.

This launch is almost four weeks after their last launch, which sent a Dragon capsule to ISS. Their goal this year has been to do one launch every two weeks, a goal they have not yet reached. The next launch, which will also place a commercial communications satellite into orbit, is tentatively set for March 27, and will also be the first launch that reuses a first stage. If they make that happen it will be first time they have hit the two week launch rate this year. They will then try to follow with another Dragon resupply mission, this time reusing a Dragon capsule for the first time.

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

  • jhon

    After months of waiting, The Brazilians can finally watch TV again

  • wodun

    jhon
    March 16, 2017 at 2:44 pm
    After months of waiting, The Brazilians can finally watch TV again

    Could you imagine what would happen in the USA if there was no TV or internet to watch entertainment on? It wouldn’t be the mass reading of books that I know.

  • Edward

    Hosted webcast (my favorite type):
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suYE3igjxIo (54 minutes)

    Technical webcast (no jibber jabber)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIfl2krO7yY (48 minutes)

    wodun,
    Before the internet and TV there were radio and movie theaters. And families used to sing and read newspapers.

  • wayne

    wodun– oh yeah, far too many people in the United States would meltdown if their internet & TV went dark. “First World Problems.”

    Edward–
    In general, I love me some jibber-jabber, but I prefer the technical webcast from SpaceX.

    totally tangential, but communication-related and I know there are some radio-people out there–
    ran across a video on an absolutely yuge AM radio transmitter in Mason, Ohio. The only station to ever transmit at such a high power.
    “WLW’s 500,000 Watt Transmitter”
    https://youtu.be/CbHjcwIoTiY
    (31:43)
    Founded by Powel Crosley. He began broadcasting from his garage at 20 watts in the early 1920’s & started an AM radio-set factory, shortly thereafter he formed WLW 700-am, and kept increasing the power on a regular basis.
    They went from 50K watts to 500K watts in 1932. The whole transmitter is the height of analog design & technology. Truly massive, direct-current powered, with 2 foot tall water-cooled vacuum tubes and assorted support infrastructure that is steam-punk esque.

  • Dick Eagleson

    As the FCC was created in 1934, I have to figure that WLW just got grandfathered in. The FCC certainly wouldn’t license a new half-megawatt AM transmitter these days.

    That is not, by the way, an implication that I agree with the FCC on that point. As far as I’m concerned, a radio station should be able to broadcast at any signal strength it wants so long as it has clear-channel permission. There are numerous AM stations outside the U.S. that broadcast with more power than the FCC maximum of 50,000 watts. I would draw a line if a transmitter generated ball lightning and annoyed the nearby livestock.

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