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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.


Seven million to lose their health insurance under Obamacare

According to the Congressional Budget Office, seven million people — twice the number previously predicted — will lose their health insurance under Obamacare.

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

  • Damien Lemay

    Robert,

    I have read with greath interest your article “The Great Galactic Travelers” in the last October issue of S&T. I was specially impressed that Hubble was capable of measuring the LMC proper motion. This bring me with a quetion regarding globular cluster; since they are closer than the LMC, have we ever seen any star moving relative to others. I would appreciate if you could answer this queastion.

    Thanks,
    Damien Lemay

  • Thank you for your kind words about my Sky & Telescope article.

    As for your question, I’m not sure I understand it. The proper motion of many globular clusters has been measured, with varying degrees of uncertainty. Moreover, some scientists have managed to measure the motions of stars within some globular clusters.

    None of this work has so far been very conclusive.

  • Pzatchok

    But if they lose their private coverage they can sign up for that great government backed coverage for free.

    Which is the whole intent of Obumer care.

    More pions on more of the government dole. The more they are bound to the federal government the more they are slaves to the law makers based there.
    Eventually they will be unable to voice their opinions against the federal government for fear of losing all the state gives them.

    Soft slavery.

  • Jim

    Speaking of the CBO, I have a good article from Investors Daily all should read about deficits:
    http://news.investors.com/blogs-capital-hill/020513-643238-dc-deficits-before-growth.htm

    Since I am one who has said that the sequester is a good thing (and I still believe that it should be), it is worth considering some of the points Jed Graham makes:
    1. Washington has put deficit reduction ahead of job growth.
    2. The deficit reduction, as a percentage of GDP, currently underway is at a faster pace than anytime since WWII.
    3. From fiscal 2009 to fiscal 2012, the deficit shrank 3.1 percentage points, from 10.1% to 7.0% of GDP.
    4. Based on existing policies, CBO projects the deficit will shrink to 5.3% of GDP in fiscal 2013, down 3.7 percentage points since 2010.
    5. Even during the ’90s economic boom, the deficit never fell by more than 3 percentage points over any three-year period…

    But this is the one to be wary of:
    6. Outside of the demobilization from WWII, the only time the deficit has fallen faster was when the economy relapsed in 1937, turning the Great Depression into a decade long affair.
    Other occasions when the federal deficit contracted by much more than 1 percentage point a year have also coincided with a recession, including 1960 and 1969.

    And he says we may be reducing the deficit at too fast a pace. His opinion, and he is not a left wing economist. Worthwhile to keep in mind…maybe we all should settle down about further deficit reductions this year after the sequester.

  • Jim

    I want to add another article to the one I posted above. This from conservative Byron York, and he in essence says the same thing as Jed Graham.
    http://washingtonexaminer.com/byron-york-with-public-focused-on-jobs-washington-fights-other-fights/article/2520914

    In it he says this:
    “In his inaugural address, President Obama did not even mention the problem of joblessness, and both Obama and Republicans in Congress are more caught up in fighting over fiscal issues than confronting unemployment. And when they’re not fighting over the budget, they’re arguing over gun control.”

    And he concludes with:
    “No matter how bad things get, the nation’s political leaders will find a way to change the subject.”

    Robert, I think there are many things that those on the right and those on the left can agree with. Yes, some disagreement on how to do it, but probably there are solutions for common ground. We have to, in my opinion, stop making some of these things a right or left issue, and more a substance issue. The fact that Jed can say Washington is more concerned about deficit reduction than creating jobs, and Byron can find and agree with a study that finds most Americans think Washington does not listen (and that is both parties) has some meaning.

    I don’t know…I think these two article are very important and should be read by all.

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