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Readers!

 

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.

 

Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:

 

4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed 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.


Thank you all for making this year’s February birthday fund-raising drive the best yet!

4:00 pm

My February fund-raising campaign for Behind the Black, in honor of my personal birthday, is now over.

This year was by far the best yet. I continue to be speechless at the willingness of you, my readers, to support my work, when you have no obligation to do so. Thank you! I will try to live up to your expectations.

I will keep this thank you notice up through the end of this week, as my weak effort to thank you all. Those who decide now to donate or subscribe are of course still welcome to do so, using either Paypal, Patreon, Zelle, or by sending a check, following the instructions in the tip jar on this page. You can always buy one of histories — (Genesis, Leaving Earth, or Conscious Choice) — or my science fiction novel, Pioneer.

Please scroll down for new articles or posts.

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

10 comments

10 comments

  • George C
    February 1, 2022 at 7:04 pm

    I made a paypal donation using the link in your tip jar section.
    That section of the html has an invalid button image reference, which actually slows down
    your page load a bit, with a negative SEO impact by the way.
    The page is generating an invalid reference, the url contains
    x-click-but04.gif and is part of an input type image which
    chrome developer tools network tab reveals as a http response
    code 404. You probably need to go to the paypal web site
    and regenerate your donation markup and re-insert it
    into your web site.

  • Robert Zimmerman
    February 1, 2022 at 8:21 pm

    George C: Thank you. I have been aware of this for awhile, and have just been lazy about fixing it.

  • Robert Zimmerman
    February 1, 2022 at 9:08 pm

    I finally took care of the problem. Thank you again for prompting me.

  • Jim Schmidt
    February 3, 2022 at 10:29 am

    ….. and fixed in under 47 minutes.

  • j bailey
    February 13, 2022 at 12:43 pm

    Bob,
    USPS did 2021 stamp series called Sun Science, which according to info on back of the stamps, is photos from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). You probably already know all this, but wasn’t sure you had seen the stamps. I am curious abort their comments on back re: ” Each back-and-white image is colorized to the bright hues seen here. ”
    Rarely, it seems, just maybe the USPS and NASA did a joint useful public info program !!?
    Highlight of my week to hear you talk of space on Batchelor each week !!
    j bailey

  • mer
    February 19, 2022 at 6:23 am

    hopefully an old fashioned check in the mail works.

  • Robert Zimmerman
    February 19, 2022 at 8:27 am

    Mer: It does, and is very much appreciated.

  • mer
    February 22, 2022 at 5:09 am

    Fantastic. If you see an envelope from NH, just let me know so I know it got there. Thanks

  • wayne
    March 1, 2022 at 7:53 am

    Congratulations Mr. Z.!

    –>Former MTV VJ Adam Curry and tech-columnist John C. Dvorak, run their entire “No Agenda” podcast empire, with donations, and have been doing so since their debut in 2007.

    They call it the “value-for-value model.”

    https://www.noagendashow.net/

    (Highly recommend, they do 2 shows/week.)

  • Alton
    March 1, 2022 at 8:43 pm

    Thank You

    Wayne

    Will check it out and subscribed.

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