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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.


Seed from ancient extinct plant planted and brought back to life

Israeli scientists have successfully gotten a 2000-year-old seed of an extinct date plant to grow and now reproduce.

Methuselah sprouted back in 2005, when agriculture expert Solowey germinated his antique seed. It had been pulled from the remains of Masada, an ancient fortification perched on a rock plateau in southern Israel, and at the time, no one could be sure that the plant would thrive. But he has, and his recent reproductive feat helps prove just how well he’s doing.

For a while, the Judean date palm was the sole representative of his kind: Methuselah’s variety was reportedly wiped out around 500 A.D. But Solowey has continued to grow date palms from ancient seeds discovered in the region, and she tells National Geographic that she is “trying to figure out how to plant an ancient date grove.” Doing so would allow researchers to better understand exactly what earlier peoples of the region were eating and how it tasted.

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

4 comments

  • Cotour

    Its amazing how tenacious life can be.

    Unrelated but related:

    http://www.newsweek.com/patrick-moore-scientist-who-offered-and-then-refused-drink-glyphosate-weed-317289

    A few story’s back the conversation was focused on GMO’s and Round Up. This Doctor who for some reason thought and stated it was wise to suggest that Round Up was not harmful and offered to drink a glass of it. However during an interview on the subject the French interviewer offered him just that, a glass of Glyophosphate (Round Up) to drink, he refused. I wonder why?

    People thought he was a front man for Monsanto but apparently is not, so why if he said what he said wouldn’t he drink even a tiny little bit of it if he really thought it not harmful in any way? In addition Round Up was recently listed as a probable carcinogen.

  • D.K. Williams

    Neat story.

  • Max

    Ty for your post. It would seem that all leading science organizations that back GMO/round up/Glyphosate also back man made global warming.
    http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/climateGMO1page.jpg
    Monsanto’s motto is “scientifically safe.” I personally like Robert’s motto of The “uncertainty of science.” Scientifically safe is the Conman’s equivalent to “trust me.”
    Here is the best evidence I have seen yet of roundups legacy. Cause and effect evidence such as this can no longer be covered up.
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j42Iyh-MOXA
    The doctor talks for over an hour that gives detailed analysis of roundups effect on Environment as well as the food that we are eating. If you don’t have time to watch, skip the how and why in the beginning and watch the results in the end. It is “scientifically” proven to be an premature aging product that will shorten lifespans and damage the ecology.

  • Alex Andrite

    … “pulled from the remains of Masada.”

    How appropriate.

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