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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.

 

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Griggs Farms – How A Cotton Picker Works

An evening pause: Technology that makes it possible for humans to live better lives.

Hat tip Judd Clark, who adds “Ten acres/hour, doing the work of 250 or more hand pickers.”

Enjoy your weekend!

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

  • Max

    Interesting, no manual labor at all.
    I remember reading somewhere that 1/2 of all pesticides made in this country goes on the cotton crop… Because it’s not a food it is not regulated like a consumable. Although this has other unintended consequences like people with sensitive skin getting rashes from their clothing.

    Nestlé‘s coffee creamer product had a secret ingredient of cottonseed oil… Until they realize they’re giving people cancer. The oil was loaded with unregulated pesticides. Now they’re using “bio engineered product” for which there is no explanation. (my wife loves the stuff so I tell her I am the “control group” and we will see what is going to happen)

  • GeorgeC

    This is an interesting recent small study of farmers growing cotton.
    https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10522852/

  • wayne

    Judd-
    Interesting video!

    Ah, here we go, small blueberry farm, but not quite big enough to afford the $100K cost of a fully automated berry-harvesting machine. (which needless to say, is a very cool machine! We are living in the Future….)

    https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/the-evening-pause/6-figure-revenue-how-to-start-a-blueberry-farm-business/

  • wayne

    Oxbo Brand
    Raspberry & Blueberry Harvesters
    https://youtu.be/bt73GOk4JRY
    7:08

  • Seawriter

    So what has Jasmine Crockett got against blacks running cotton pickers? I’ll bet the cabin is air conditioned today, too.

  • Jeff Wright

    Everything causes cancer—whatever.
    My Mom and Dad talked about picking cotton until their fingers bled—as children mind you.

    The best medicine for cuts—kerosene.

    When my Mom was a little girl, she saw smoke on the horizon. It was her house.

    The only thing salvaged was a rocking chair thrown off the porch by her father.

  • judd

    i did suggest this after Jasmine Crockett said all of us misogynistic Nazis want to sent black people out to pick cotton by hand.

    The end of the video shows some more modern machines, incorporating the baling function. For example, the John Deere CP770 cotton harvester has a 13.6 liter 550 hp engine and can run a 12 row head at 4.6 mph, producing big round bales that are eight feet wide and up to 96 inches in diameter and weighing about 5900 lbs.

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