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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
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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.


Driverless shuttle crashes on first day

Only hours after initiating service, a driverless shuttle in Las Vegas crashed.

No one was hurt, nor is the accident described in any detail at the link. However, I think this incident highlights a reality about driverless cars: Either every vehicle on the road must be one, or none of the vehicles on the road can be one. It will be almost impossible to program a driverless car to handle the unpredictability of human drivers. If we want to leave the driving to computers (which I don’t), we will have to ban humans from driving.

Such a ban will be a terrible loss of freedom. And not surprisingly, I think the whole a push for driverless vehicles is a push in that direction.

I found a second article that describes the incident as caused by a truck driver backing into the shuttle, thus blaming the human driver (who was given a ticket by the way) and using the incident to argue against human drivers.

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

7 comments

  • ken anthony

    I believe your conclusion that it’s all or nothing is unjustified, but agree that others will have the same conclusion. We as a society have already decided that other peoples freedom is forfeit. Too bad for us.

  • Edward

    Finding these kinds of flaws in the system is probably why Google has been testing — in traffic — their autonomous autos for so many years.

    Since cars, shuttles, and buses carry people, defensive driving is going to be paramount. The use of the horn was appropriate in that case, since the purpose of the horn is to warn other drivers of potentially hazardous situations.

    Those people could have been watching a truck barrel out of control at them, knowing that they were going to die if the shuttle didn’t “step out of the way.”

    I think that Google is showing that autonomous and human-driven vehicles can coexist safely. Las Vegas may have merely put into use a system that was not yet ready for prime time.

  • Laurie

    We all need something like this instead:

    http://images.realclear.com/349842_5_.jpg

  • Edward

    Laurie,
    I like the way you think.

    However, I am concerned about the stability of riding a two-legged animal. Maybe four legs would be better. Elephants seem nice and stable, but they are large and probably require a lot of food. Horses are smaller and probably eat less than elephants, yet probably retain similar stability. They may even be easier to mount, probably self-avoid accidents with trucks, and may even be able to find their way back home if the rider is too drunk to steer.

    If we switch from cars to animals for transportation, what could go wrong? Why did we never think of it before? I’m buying stock in a buggy-whip company.
    http://www.nyhistory.org/community/horse-manure

  • Laurie

    Edward,

    All good points ;) I was thinking about speed with maneuverability. I expect they shoo away the parking enforcement officers, too.

  • Edward

    Laurie,
    You wrote: “I expect they shoo away the parking enforcement officers, too.

    I forgot about that. According to the movie “Sideways,” those things are mean.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBS75pQhzXE#t=50

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