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Readers!

 

The time has come for my annual short pre-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.

 

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On the radio

I should have posted this earlier, but I am acting as a quickly scheduled emergency guest for Coast to Coast with Connie Willis tonight, from 10 to 11 pm (Pacific). Should be fun.

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

4 comments

  • Josephine

    Times have not changed so much as the willingness of others whom try to tell everyone how to live but do as they please.

    I had seen the changes in our sky; a small black streak stretching across the horizon and a planet in front of Venus that did not belong; it should not have been Mars because Mars was on the other side in 2016. With so much happening fire, rain, cold and dry; are we really sharing or just giving our life away with little benefit in return. A war could make the Earth like Mars.

  • Max

    I heard you last night, what a surprise… Great fun. I discovered you because of coast to coast. I remember I was impressed by reason and logic instead of emotion-based science.

    Josephine;
    Interesting writing style, almost like poetry.

    Hypocrites have always existed, not until Internet age have we been so aware of them.
    Leonardo DiCaprio and Al gore comes to mind. Flying around in private jets burning thousands of gallons of fuel to tell us not to drive our cars. Sometimes they fly from California to New York or Chicago for pizza or a sandwich. It must be good to be rich, and without any morality.
    A planet in front of Venus? That would be something to see, I wonder how I missed it.

    ” are we really sharing or just giving our life away with little benefit in return”
    My mother used to say something similar, but she had 12 children. In the end it was definitely worth it.
    Those who share with an expected benefit are often disappointed. Giving our life away is preferable to wasting our life away. When people I help say “we could not have done this without you” there is no higher payment I could wish for.

    “A war could make Earth like Mars”
    I don’t think so… I grew up in southern Utah downwind from the US nuclear test site. Thousands died from the toxic nuclear fallout from hundreds of bombs, many people I knew. Today it is one of the fastest growing areas of the country. Life finds a way to survive.
    There’s never been a time in Earths history without war, The grass is at war with the trees, the fish is at war with the shark, the deer is at war with the cougar and wolf. On the outside, a forest and lake will look beautiful and tranquil, but underneath it’s full of violence everywhere.
    95% of humans are with peace with their surroundings and with the other humans. It only takes a few to ruin it for the rest. We are so smart, we keep coming up with more efficient better ways of killing each other but being an optimist, some day Mars will have life and look much different than it does today.

  • Lee S

    Is there anyway to listen to this program? I’ve tried to find it on the coast to coast website without much luck…

  • Max

    Lee S,
    The live broadcast on the website you must pay for. If you don’t have a local radio station that carries the program, you can use a radio app. (which are usually free like “tune in radio” or “I heart radio”) locate any station that broadcasts on the Internet that carries the live performance. (Roswell, New Mexico for example)

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

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