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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.
 

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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.


Baumgartner Restoration – The Hole Nine Yards

An evening pause: If your weekend hobby is art restoration, this is a video you have got to see. And if not, you should watch anyway because the repair he does is truly breathtaking.

Hat tip Cotour.

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

7 comments

  • Don C.

    A great restoration, combining engineering & artistic expertise. I especially appreciated his hand-tearing of the Japanese mulberry paper (8:10) because he wanted to have a feathered edge, not a scissors-made straight edge.

    One thing missing – how much was the cost of the restoration? $500?; $10,000? How much was the painting appraised for before restoring it? I’m not impressed with the painting itself, so restoring it would not be a consideration if I owned it, as a second or third owner, say. If this were a relative in the family, however, then it doesn’t matter what I think of it, it holds value to someone willing to pay to make the painting whole again. Can’t attach a price to someone else’s idea of beauty. As long as I am not required to use my own money to pay for it. (Government, are you listening?)

    Full disclosure – I am not impressed with any of Pablo Picasso’s paintings either, whether his old or his new styles. So what do I know.

  • wayne

    Don C.:

    Can’t vouch for this, but there is a Tool….

    “Art Restoration Cost Estimator”
    https://momaa.org/art-restoration-cost-estimator/

  • Mark Sizer

    “There’s no way I’m watching 30 minute of this, but the evening pause is usually interesting. Let’s see…”

    30 minutes later.

    “Wow. That sets a new standard for ‘expert makes something impossible seem easy’.”

    I have an very old photo album. The ancestors in it are labelled with first names. No one alive in the immediate family knows who they are or cares. I wrestle with the idea of just throwing it away. I never look at it. I don’t know who they are. But the history! This makes me feel guilty for even considering throwing it away.

  • In videos like this it is all about the complete process for me.

    There was a beginning, nice smooth and calming narration laying out the problems, the goals and how to achieve them.

    And then there is a satisfying end result / finished piece.

    The subject or medium most times does not matter to me.

    I love the dedicated process.

    I always loved industrial films in grade school.

  • Andi

    Did you mean “breath-taking”?

  • Andi: Yes. Fixed. Thank you.

  • wayne

    Who can forget…

    Rick Dale
    “American Restoration”
    (Season 1 Episode 2)
    https://youtu.be/ZNUz1HHYMEo
    36:52

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