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Readers!
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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A little off-topic but vaguely connected: In school back in the late ’60s I wrote a computer program that would hide in unused memory of the mainframe computer I was working on. When it detected that the memory it was residing in was about to be allocated to a running program, it would find another unused chunk of memory big enough for it to hide in, copy itself there, and wait until that memory was about to be used, rinse and repeat. It kept track of its activities, and every 100 or so moves it would write a message out on the system console and ring the bell. The operators never did figure out what was going on!
What does all that have to do with this song? Well, I named the program…
“The elusive butterfly”
Funny, I was waiting to see how you tied your computer work in with the song.
I was about 6 years old at the time and this song among many others brings me back to that carefree time whenever I hear them.
Elton Johns, Rock Around the Clock? I am in my basement with the smell of stale gas and an old Vespa fixing and figuring out how the thing worked and how to order a new set of rings to get it to run. From motorcycles to cars, took them all apart and put most back together. I don’t know how my parents put up with me.
In those days it was the Sears catalogue for tools, car magazines and manuals if you could find them for information and going to the junk yard or auto parts store for parts. That in itself was a major chore. But you learned how to be resourceful.
Today? I happened to have to rebuild my Town and Country’s entire front and rear suspension system over Covid. Either that or buy a new auto and was not in the mood to spend $50k at that particular moment.
I sat at my computer found exactly what I needed, from brakes to shocks to whatever, got them from several sources, paid with my credit card and it ALL came through my front door by either UPS or Amazon. I did not have to go anywhere. And I watched several other mechanics who were doing the same work and got lots a great information, tips and special tools I needed. And that was GOLD. The systems on cars yesterday besides the basic mechanics have little relation to the computer controlled and monitored systems of today. It was a great learning experience.
I needed an entire new/used rear beam axel, found what I needed in Chicago on Ebay, ordered it and had it within 5 days, it walked through my front door on the shoulder of the UPS man.
Things certainly have changed since 1965.