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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:

 

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January 12, 2022 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast

Embedded below the fold in two parts.

To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, well worth your time, 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

2 comments

  • BtB’s Original Mark

    Bob – It hit me how many SPACE developments are currently happening after listening through AudioBoom to your latest appearance on the John Batchelor Show – the current episodes covering Starlink, Ariane 6, Chinese Robot Arm, Roscosmos, Virgin, JWT, Perseverance, and the Chinese Moon Rover & Chang’e-5 lunar lander. I also wonder how many people heard you cover these many topics through the Batchelor podcasts, internet radio, and WOR 710 radio. Do you know?

    For those who don’t follow Batchelor, in addition to podcasting & being part of iHeart internet radio, John Batchelor is on the legendary WOR 710 radio station with a listening audience in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The WOR 50,000 watt class radio station probably can reach millions.

    Besides listening to Bob’s segments on Space, other topics Batchelor recently covered with guests include:
    Kazakhstan
    Ukraine / Russia / NATO
    China
    Omicron
    Energy Crisis in Europe
    Inflation

    Many of these stories have an indirect effect on space exploration.
    For example, for Kazakhstan, one of Russia’s spaceports is located in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. About two months ago Bob covered the story of the UAE providing funding towards a joint project with Russia & Kazakhstan to upgrade the oldest Soyuz launchpad at Baikonur. So now you know that at least some of your additional gasoline expenses are going towards space launches in Kazakhstan:)

    In regards to Ukraine, as Bob has reported on Jan 1, if tensions between the US & Russia escalate high enough over the Ukraine crisis, this would most likely affect the US Russian joint operation of the ISS.

    Moving on to the subject of China, Gordon G Chang is one of Batchelor’s China Experts. There are numerous economic, military, and political developments in China that will have some type of effect on the Chinese Space Program.

    This goes to show that BtB Space stories just don’t exist in isolation, but are very much connected to Geopolitics, History, and the current Global Economic trends.

    Given the above, here is another Heinlein quote to consider:

    “A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.”

    With respect to Heinlein, a current variant of that could be: “A generation which is ignorant of Geopolitics, History, Global Economics & Elites will screw up it’s Space Exploration”. I know – it’s not very snappy.

  • Jeff Wright

    Some items of interest from phys.org: “We conclude or I believe-rationality declined decades ago.” Duh…

    “Study challenges evolutionary theory that DNA mutations are random.”

    That ranks right up there with the Channeled Scablands as massive flood erosion after all.
    Now, could this finding hurt Dawkins…but at the expense of helping rehabilitate Lysenko and epigenetics? Stay tuned!
    Last but not least:
    “New Study Calls Into Question Early Claims of COVID-19 ‘infodemic’ of Health Misinformation.”

    Uh-huh!

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