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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
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.


New map outlines the river basins of the US

A new map has been released that clearly outlines every river basin within the continental United States.

Trust me, click on the link. It is definitely worth looking at.

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

5 comments

  • Localfluff

    I’m not a river person. People who grew up next to a river on the country side have the river as phenomena in their memory and traditions. When I worked in a small African country there was a geological exhibition and a geologist explained the many colored rivers of a map on the wall:

    “- The red rivers are where gold has been found. The blue rivers are where diamonds have been found.”

    I had to ask:
    “- What are the green rivers?”
    “- Oh, that’s where we’ve found both gold AND diamonds!”

  • Frank

    This is a stunning image and informative. Thank you Bob!

  • TimArth

    This is not meant to be confrontational or “troll-y”, but I do not understand the point of Localfluff’s post. Could you clarify?

  • PeterF

    Kind of looks like doodle art.

    Notice the chunk of the Louisiana purchase the Canadians stole from us?

  • Edward

    PeterF,
    I like the real story much better. Most of the US-Canadian border is the only border that is agreed to by a handshake. As the two countries were reaching westward and the border as defined by the Great Lakes came to an end, the two countries got together to figure out where each one ended and the other began. After some discussion, they decided upon the 49th parallel — and, yes, some of the Louisiana Purchase went to Canada.

    However, there were a few people just north of the Minnesota-Canadian border who insisted that they were US citizens, so the border was modified to include them, which is why Minnesota has a small portion that juts up into Canada.

    Canada wanted a port on the Pacific, so Alaska is not a contiguous state with the lower 48. When the US bought Alaska from the Russian government, the Russians claimed the coastal territory from Alaska all the way down to their colony of Fort Ross, California.

    Except for treaties after the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, most of the Candaian-US border was established through peaceful discussions and treaties that merely resolved confusion over where one territory ended and another began.

    It’s a really nice story. I once had a history teacher who taught history as a series of stories (sometimes with class participation, sometimes with props, but always with sound effects), and those are the most memorable history lessons I have ever had.

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