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The time has come for my annual short 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.

 

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America’s Iron Giants

An evening pause: Technology developed with slide rules and the English system of measurements, more than half a century ago, that still works today.

Hat tip Tom Biggar.

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

7 comments

  • Peter Francis

    So fascinating. The industrial engineering behind post-war technology is sooo not recognized enough.

  • D McMillan

    That entire YouTube channel had similarly answering stuff, but it seems to have gone fallow, which I really regret.

  • ” Technology developed with slide rules and the English system of measurements, more than half a century ago, that still works today.”

    Like the B-52?

  • wayne

    “Master Hands”
    1936
    [Flint, Michigan Chevrolet assembly Plant]
    Jam Handy Organization
    Prelinger Archives 4K scan from 35mm print.
    https://youtu.be/Pr8rCNaASlc
    31:48

    Selected for the 1999 National Film Registry

  • David Walden

    Who is John Galt?

  • Joe

    Germany was very advanced, but thankfully not enough, how does a civilization that advanced fall into the traps Germany fell into?
    David, indeed, Atlas Shrugged should be mandatory reading .

  • Edward

    Joe asked: “how does a civilization that advanced fall into the traps Germany fell into?

    Technological advancement is different from social, political, or economic advancement.

    Socialism (NAZI is an acronym for a name that translates to National Socialist German Workers’ Party) sounds like it is a fair system that provides for everyone. “From each according to his ability, from each according to his need” sounds completely fair, but the reality is that it does not work, because too many people pretend to be less-abled and overly needy. Sure, everyone is equal, but as Orwell pointed out, some are more equal than others. Specifically, the leaders.

    It is how other nations fell into the trap. Venezuela being a recent example.

    This is how a civilization as advanced as the United States, and especially its Democratic Party, is falling into a similar trap.

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