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My February birthday fund-raising campaign for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone that so generously donated. You don’t have to give anything to read my work, and yet so many of you donate or subscribe. I can’t express what that support means to me.

 

For those who still wish to support my work, please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, 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.

 

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Earthquake in Virginia

2:00 pm

Quake map

A 5.9 magnitude earthquake hit Virginia at about 1:51 pm (Eastern).

I am in Maryland, just outside the beltway, and felt something like an earthquake about five minutes ago. The house started to shake, then settled, then shook again. Quite startling. I opened the front door the same time a neighbor did. She had felt the same thing.

The above quake was more than 90 miles away. I wonder how bad it is there, considering the eastern U.S. rarely experiences quakes and has made no preparations for such a thing.

For updates:

Update: The comments illustrate the difference between a quake in the eastern U.S. versus the western U.S. In the west the quakes are almost always localized, rarely felt far from the epicenter. In the east however the tremors can travel far distances. Thus, we have people from as far south as Georgia and as far north as Connecticut (and Canada!) and as far west as Ohio (and Chicago!) reporting the tremors.

Update 2: This quake appears to tie the record for the largest earthquake in Virginia history.

So far all news reports are merely rehashing the information on the USGS website. Your comments are actually providing more information than the press!

Update 3: As far as I can tell from all reports, the quake has produced little if any damage anywhere. The worst consequence appears to be some overreaction in some quarters (government offices evacuated in Washington, DC and New York). I have also heard from a friend who works in the capital. His words, “Talk about people freaking out! The Hill is shut down big time.”

Update 4: Check out the devastation in Washington, DC.

Update 5: The USGS has revised its summary of the quake, calling it 5.8 magnitude with the epicenter 3.7 miles deep, not .7 miles deep as their earlier estimate stated. You can find their geological assessment of the quake 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 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

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