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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.

 

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Formula 1 Pit Stops: 1950 vs Today

An evening pause: I would say that the rules have changed a bit.

Hat tip Phill Oltmann.

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

5 comments

  • Thanks Phill Oltmann!

    The pit stop is one of my favorite parts of racing. A high level of teamwork in a dangerous environment. I do believe a modern F1 team could have changed the engine in the time it took the guy in 1950 to polish the windshield.

  • David Eastman

    I used to be a huge fan of Formula One, and in fact kept cable long after I’d stopped watching almost anything else just because that was the best way to watch the races. Then they started changing one rule after another in the hope of ending one team dominance and lowering costs, and accomplished neither, while making the racing vastly less interesting to watch. I haven’t followed it in years now. I seem to recall several of the rules changes made the pit stops take much longer than the amazing 2 second or less stops they were getting for a while.

  • t-dub

    The Red Bull team makes their pit stops in about 2 seconds, sometimes less! This video shows them breaking the world record in the 2019 Brazilian GP, they serviced Max Verstappen, one of my favorite drivers who just won in Monaco, on the first of his three stops in an amazing 1.82 seconds! Indy Car usually takes about 7 or 8 seconds for their pit stops. The reason for this is unlike Formula 1 pit stops where up to 20 people are involved, only six people – wearing fireproof gear – are allowed to go over the wall when an Indy car stops, and Indy car refuels their cars during the race whereas F1 fuels their cars only before the race and does not refuel during the race. I much prefer Indy Car to F1, but I watch both.

    Video Link: https://youtu.be/wsCriICZ-nA

  • MDN

    It is ironic you posted this just now as a technical pit stop disaster ruined a great race for one driver just this weekend in Monaco.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9LxNBMaMUSo&feature=emb_err_woyt

  • t-dub

    MDN: Yes, Valtteri Bottas was very unlucky to have that wheel nut cross threaded and stripped so it could not be removed, thus ending his race. However, since I am a Verstappen/Red Bull fan, and definitely not a Mercedes fan, this development was a pleasant surprise for me.

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