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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.

 

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Buster Keaton – Elevator chase

An evening pause: Some funny silliness from the silent movie era. And if you don’t know who Buster Keaton was, it is time you found out.

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

8 comments

  • Ian C.

    Allow me to point out that this is part of a 23 minutes movie, which puts the chase into context.

    Buster Keaton in The Goat 1921 Colorized silent movie COLOR
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXjhVZPYYRU

  • LocalFluff

    Buster Keaton’s scene where he hangs from the hands on the face of a clock tower is one of the most famous scenes in movie history.

    More comedy. When Sweden’s prime minister Löfvén came back from his summit with India’s prime minister Modi, he wanted a red dot painted on his forehead. His PR consultant (who is running the country) asked him why:
    “- Because after having talked with Modi for half an hour, he pointed to the forehead and said that I am missing something important up here.”

    These first 20 seconds of this complete idiot’s speech in India is worth seeing for a laugh. He would get along very well with Bunker Biden if he would become president, imagine what conversation the two of them will have:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pwhgQdJKIw

  • wayne

    LocalFluff–
    Good stuff.

    I think you are referring to the Harold Lloyd film, “Safety Last” from 1923.
    = https://youtu.be/lRTB0PA8nik?t=3759
    [tangentially-incredibly remastered complete print. I’m not big on silent-film but I got totally sucked into this for a bit of time; crisp. clean, high-contrast & definition.]

  • LocalFluff

    @wayne,
    Oh yes, that was Harold Lloyd!
    Now I’ve revealed how much I know about movie history…
    (That was almost as bad as confusing India with China.)

  • eddie willers

    The only time I have fallen off my chair laughing, and I mean literally fell off my chair laughing, was at a “talkie” with Laurel and Hardy where they dressed up as each others wives and Stan was sent to buy ice cream. He kept calling back saying they didn’t have the flavor that they wanted so Ollie would tell him to get a different flavor. He kept calling back they didn’t have such and such flavor. Not only did he spend all his money making the phone calls, but was told they didn’t have that flavor because he was in a hardware store, not the ice cream parlor.

    I guess you had to be there, but it was right up there with “The Two Tars” and “The Music Box”.

  • Edward

    Eddie willers wrote: “I guess you had to be there …

    I got a chuckle anyway, but I am easily amused. Happy Thanksgiving.

  • If you don’t know who Buster Keaton is, I feel sorry for you. His stunts were all physical effects. Groundbreaking stuff.

  • wayne

    Susquehanna Hat Company
    -Abbott & Costello
    [“In Society” 1944]
    https://youtu.be/THZV5g1CNZM
    6:12

    Joe “what’s a Susquehanna?” Rogan
    –> extreme adult language & subject matter<–
    Joe Rogan 's Susquehanna Moment
    Rogan / Diaz / Redban
    Joe Rogan Experience #128
    2014
    https://youtu.be/BlKPBcDCiwk
    2:13

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