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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.


A memo from Google advising employees on correct thought

Link here. This memo clarifies for everyone what is expected of Google employees. I especially find this quote informative:

Please remember, as you no doubt read in the Employee Handbook, Google’s commitment to diversity is complete and unequivocal. Any variance from diversity is not permitted and will be dealt with immediately. It is only when all of us think exactly the same thoughts that we can achieve perfect diversity.

Of course, Google is also completely committed to the advancement of science and human knowledge. If history has taught us anything, it is that science can only flourish where the allowable topics of discussion are highly circumscribed. Approved subjects of conversation are posted throughout the campus, so please look before you speak.

I believe some of the problem lately has been a simple misunderstanding of my last memo. Unfortunately, I mistyped that Google “approves of free speech.” I meant to write that Google must “approve free speech.” I want all of our employees to feel perfectly free to express themselves however their political, moral, or religious beliefs impel them; provided of course that they receive prior written authorization.

Read it all. It really explains everything.

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

11 comments

  • Richard

    Bob,

    I’m 99.9% sure that this is a parody.

  • Richard: Heh. I am 100% sure.

  • Let me add this: That you think it necessary to tell me that this is a parody demonstrates the absurdity of Google’s actions this week. It has become hard for people to tell the difference between their actual actions, ridiculous and contradictory, and a parody that is equally ridiculous and contradictory.

  • Andrew

    Yeah. a “Mutually Exclusive Propositions”? Seriously?

    And that NAME? Unoi’m Carasee, Might that not be a deliberate ruse. U no i’m Cara See, You know I am Cara See?

    This reeks of hoax/parody.

  • Joe

    Couldn’t read the whole thing, double plus ungood!

  • Cotour

    Once individuals in the public can no longer tell what is real and true and what is a creation of someones or some entities agenda, the only thing that remains is where THEY decide to draw the line.

    Sound familiar?

    You make an un disputable observation and resulting point of logic about our current reality. It can only get worse.

  • Cotour

    PS: It can only get worse if we the individuals limit ourselves and there by remain blind to where that line might be drawn. Find the line of believability and be able to objectively rationalize and justify moving it and you can do pretty much anything that can be rationalized and justified.

    Its a fairly simple formula which this story and comment panel perfectly demonstrates.

  • Richard

    I agree with you Bob. The actions of companies such as Google are so absurd that the line between reality and parody is tough to discern.

  • Cotour

    Its not the difference between reality and parody, and this is the point that was made, its the difference between reality and a crafted narrative presented and accepted as reality and the inability to reliably tell the difference. Two very different things.

    Parody is about humor and self reflection, what we are seeing is the shaping of a desired perception of reality that delivers a desired result and in turn a belief system.

  • pzatchok

    The only way I knew it was a parody was because I know Google would never leave a paper trail.

  • ken anthony

    It’s April already?

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