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My February birthday fund-raising campaign for Behind the Black it now over. I sincerely and with deep gratitude thank all those who donated. Without your support I could not keep doing this, not so much because of the need for income to pay the bills, but because it tells me that there are people out there who want me to do this work. For those who did not contribute during the campaign, please consider adding your vote of support to Behind the Black, by giving either a one-time contribution or a regular subscription, in any one of the following ways:

 

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. Donate through Gabpay, using my email address zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
 

3. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
 

4. A Paypal Donation:

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5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
 
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Quakes by InSight indicate Mars’ interior is active

Cerberus Fossae

The first seismic results from InSight’s seismometer now show that the interior of Mars is active, with regular moderately-sized quakes.

The Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument – a seismometer developed by an international consortium under the leadership of the French space agency CNES – recorded a total of 174 seismic events between February and September 2019. Twenty of these marsquakes had a magnitude of between three and four. Quakes of this intensity correspond to weak seismic activity of the kind that occurs repeatedly on Earth in the middle of continental plates, for example in Germany on the southern edge of the Swabian Jura hills.

Although only one measurement station is available, models of wave propagation in the Martian soil have been used to determine the probable source of two of these quakes. It is located in the Cerberus Fossae region, a young volcanic area approximately 1700 kilometres east of the landing site.

Cerberus Fossae is a land of cracks and linear depressions located between the giant volcanoes, Elysium Mons to the north and Olympus Mons to the east. It is believed those fissures were caused by the rise of those volcanoes, stretching the crust and cracking it.

This new data from InSight strengthens this theory.

Conscious Choice cover

Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!

 

From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.

 
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.  
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.

 

“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.

 

All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. The ebook can also be purchased direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.

 

Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from me (hardback $24.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $5.00). Just email me at zimmerman @ nasw dot org.

2 comments

  • wodun

    They should still be called earthquakes not marsquakes. People take things too literally. The term doesn’t refer to the “Earth” but rather the movement of the ground and how it feels. Keeping these terms as we move off our mother planet will help us remember where we came from and in touch with our humanity.

    Oh, but wait, humanity has man it in and it excludes… It doesn’t exclude anyone. Words with man in them don’t necessarily mean male. Gender is a social construct except that gender neutral words must but be stripped of their meaning to create differences where there aren’t any.

  • Edward

    wodun wrote: “Words with man in them don’t necessarily mean male.

    I once wondered why some people got upset about words that have “man” in them. “Woman” is specific about the sex that is being identified; it is “man” that is ambiguous, and therefore inferior for specifying one sex rather than another. For example, an chairman can be either male or female, but a chairwoman can only be female. It all began to make sense to me shortly after people started to use the word “gender” when they meant “sex.” “Gender” refers to things or the words used for things. It does not refer to people, who possess the attribute of sex, not gender. An example is that a ship is feminine, as in “she sailed with the tide.”

    The English language has been poorly taught for several decades, now. It is another example of the ill effects of political correctness. To illustrate my point about ill effects of political correctness, FaceBook has at least 58 “genders” (as though people are things, not humans or animals):
    https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/02/heres-a-list-of-58-gender-options-for-facebook-users

    Unfortunately, my self-identified “gender,” deity, is not among them. Maybe next year.

    Sorry, Robert, for going so far off topic.

    Back on topic: the English language. Generally, when “earth” is not capitalized, it refers to the ground or soil, not the planet. This means that “earthquake” is still appropriate when talking about other worlds, such as Mars.

    On the other hand, “marsquake” or “Marsquake” may have a more romantic or adventurous ring to it.

    On the third hand (the gripping hand), Alpha-Ceti-Sixquake many not have such a ring.

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