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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.


Clarence Gatemouth Brown – Leftover Blues

An evening pause: Very nice. Hat tip Judd Clark.

A question for my readers: Is the embedded video below interrupted with ads?

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

6 comments

  • wayne

    Mr. Z.,
    -watched this straight through with no inserted adverts, just the occasional banner ad at the bottom.

    In general, YT doesn’t necessarily deliver ads in video streamed through a 3rd-party, even if it’s monetized at YT. Depends on what kind of traffic the 3rd-party generates for them and how easily they can characterize your audience.
    If I watched on the YT platform, I would definitely expect inserted ads. It is a licensed piece of music and royalties are being paid to someone.

  • Wayne: Your experience backs up similar previous embedded videos, where I see the ads inserted when I watch on youtube, but my readers who watch here do not. I just wished this to be confirmed again.

  • Alton

    User Report:

    NO ads…

    Note: I occasionally use your channel to rewatch performances inorder to Eliminate the ads….

  • wayne

    Mr. Z.,
    Ditto on Alton’s report–no inserted ads when played at YT.

    Look at–>
    https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/132596?hl=en

    “YouTube works diligently so that our advertisers’ brands appear on sites that reflect our respective core values. Our systems closely evaluate websites and their content against various factors when finding out whether to turn on In-stream ads on YouTube embeds.”
    “Ads will not always show on monetized videos. There may not always be an ad available at the time of viewing.”

    Tangentially–
    Recently started spending a lot of time at Rumble and was sorta disenchanted to discover that ALL their adverts are managed and delivered through the YouTube/Google advertising-auction system.
    They are apparently working on their own internal ad-management system, but for now, advertising goes through Google to get on Rumble.

  • Roland

    Nope, no intrusive add inturuptions on the Firefox browser.
    Exellent Music, My Sincere Thanks to Judd Clark.

  • judd

    Since i started reading Bob’s page, which i read for the Mars and space telescope stuff, i have been alerted to more music that’s worth buying than in at least the previous ten years. Hopefully, i can return the favor.

    Mr. Brown died in 2005, his bio is worth reading. i was thinking just the other day, considering the musicians we have lost in the last few years, how marvelous it is that we have recordings, not only audio, but video, that allow us to relive some small (but important) parts of their lives.

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