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Readers!

 

My July fund-raising campaign to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black is now over. I want to thank all those who so generously donated or subscribed, especially those who have become regular supporters. I can't do this without your help. I also find it increasingly hard to express how much your support means to me. God bless you all!

 

The donations during this year's campaign were sadly less than previous years, but for this I blame myself. I am tired of begging for money, and so I put up the campaign announcement at the start of the month but had no desire to update it weekly to encourage more donations, as I have done in past years. This lack of begging likely contributed to the drop in donations.

 

No matter. I am here, and here I intend to stay. If you like what I do and have not yet donated or subscribed, 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:

 

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August 2, 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

  • Col Beausabre

    The answer about ULA’s crackdown is obvious. They want a piece of the action. They are upset that people are making money off photos of their launches and want royalties. To them, it seems like found money. ff you think that is incredibly petty, about 30 years ago several railroads went after model railroad manufacturers for using their logos and paint schemes on model railroad equipment and wanted a royalty on every piece sold as well as well an annual licensing fee. It was only halted by hordes of modelers writing to the executive suites in protest.

  • Col:

    Agree with your assessment, but not so sure ULA is entirely in the wrong. They make cool stuff that people like to watch in action. Maybe the number of photo requests had become beyond their ability to manage. Free enterprise doesn’t always work to your advantage. Although in this case, it does set a precedent for slicing access to launches by company.

    I have an interest in the scale railroad scene, and I felt the same way about that action. Brand protection isn’t pretty at ground level, but some brands are respected, in part, because they protect the brand.

  • Col Beausabre

    Blair – For over 60 years, therailroads had not protested about the models. Indeed in earlier years they had cooperated with the manufacturers enjoying the publicity Lionel’s version of the Union Pacific M-10000,- a very early streamliner known as the “Tin Worm” to UP’s staff – of the 1930’s is a a famous and classic example. https://www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/index/Union_Pacific_M-10000_Tin_Worm_(Lionel_Trains). And there is the idea that UP was not in the market of selling models and the model makers weren’t selling transportation so the case was moot. Plus there was the precedent of the airline industry and manufacturers not trying to cash in on models. Nobody was trying to collect royalties on a model Pacific Southwest Boeing 737..

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