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The time has come for my annual short Thanksgiving/Christmas fund drive for Behind The Black. I must do this every year in order to make sure I have earned enough money to pay my bills.

 

For this two-week campaign, I am offering a special deal to encourage donations. Donations of $200 will get a free autographed copy of the new paperback edition of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, while donations of $250 will get a free autographed copy of the new hardback edition. If you desire a copy, make sure you provide me your address with your donation.

 

As I noted in July, the support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.

 

In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.

 

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November 1, 2024 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast

Embedded below the fold in two parts.

To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.

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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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

3 comments

  • mkent

    1) I was surprised to hear a pro-abortion commercial on the John Batchelor show.

    2) SpaceX and T-Mobile announced the Starlink direct-to-cell partnership in Aug 2022, and it had been in-work for some time before the announcement. So it’s been in-work for a bit longer than “a year”, though the project is moving very fast as far as satellite projects go.

    3) The Starlink satellites are either internet broadband or direct-to-cell but not both. The v3 satellites might do both, I don’t know, but the current v2 satellites launched by Falcon do not.

    4) There are actually four companies in the United States launching direct-to-cell satellites.

    A) Globalstar has 31 satellites in orbit providing first-generation emergency services to Apple devices in addition to voice service to its dedicated satphones. The emergency service has been operational now for over two years. Apple has just announced an additional $1.5 billion investment in Globalstar to fund 17 second-generation direct-to-cell (text services) satellites to be launched starting next year.

    B) Lynk Global has five operational satellites on orbit to start their text-service direct-to-cell system. That’s not nearly enough for continuous coverage, but more satellites are scheduled for launch soon (I think. A quick perusal of upcoming launch manifests is coming up empty, so they may be in a cash crunch). They have regulatory approval to operate in 30 countries.

    C) AST SpaceMobile just launched five operational third-generation (voice capable) satellites. It has started fabrication of 17 additional satellites, but needs 45 additional satellites for continuous coverage over the United States. Its ultimate constellation will consist of 243 satellites.

    D) SpaceX, which is nearing completion of its 312-satellite second-generation (text) system. They will be first to market with a second-generation system and with their cash available possibly with a third-generation system as well.

    And above all of this, don’t forget about the Hubble network, which has four satellites on orbit offering Bluetooth from space.

  • wayne

    mkent–
    (I’m in Michigan, when listening via the embedded player above, I generally get adverts from Michigan based companies, or PSA’s targeted to Michigan.)
    The old saying is: “Nobody flying on an airplane, has paid the same ticket price.” You can apply that to advertising as well, in that “nobody is seeing the exact same adverts for every show.”
    The commercials on JBS:
    Only a portion of the available minutes are (nationally) controlled & sold by CBS. The remaining available minutes are portioned out to individual radio stations to sell to their local audience, and JB has zero control over any of the ads.
    (Depending on his contract, he may or may not have a say over adverts he reads exclusively in-show, as those are national buys.)
    If you listen on the radio; you will get the national CBS ads + local ads based on the radio station, and that will include political stuff.
    If you listen via the internet; they geolocate your computer/phone and deliver ads geographically and based partially on the hardware you are using, and those ads are split between national & targeted ad buys.
    And, if you signed in anywhere to anything, in the middle of this, they know pretty much exactly who you are and tailor the ads specifically to you.

    They really have this perfected with ROKU & Fire-stick users. They know exactly who you are, what room your TV set is in, and who uses it. Those adverts are specifically aimed directly at you based on everything you have ever watched.

  • Jay

    Wayne is right on the targeted commercials. The commercials they pipe here are for casinos on the other side of my state and a few are in Spanish too.

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