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Readers!

 

My July fund-raising campaign to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black is now over. I want to thank all those who so generously donated or subscribed, especially those who have become regular supporters. I can't do this without your help. I also find it increasingly hard to express how much your support means to me. God bless you all!

 

The donations during this year's campaign were sadly less than previous years, but for this I blame myself. I am tired of begging for money, and so I put up the campaign announcement at the start of the month but had no desire to update it weekly to encourage more donations, as I have done in past years. This lack of begging likely contributed to the drop in donations.

 

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Hang Son Doong (Mountain River Cave) in Vietnam

An evening pause: As I have been out today doing survey work for a cave project of which I am the cartographer, I thought this video of Hang Son Doong (Mountain River Cave) would be appropriate.

Note that this cave is definitely not the largest in the world, as is often claimed. It appears to have the largest single room of any known cave, but the cave itself is relatively small at about four miles, compared for example to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, which is the world’s longest cave at 400 miles.

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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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

  • danae

    Would it be largest based on the volume of space inside? It certainly dwarfs its visitors. The photos are breathtaking.

  • It is a breathtaking cave, but in terms of volume it doesn’t even come close to Mammoth, or other large systems that top a hundred miles. See the long cave list for the world and the U.S. long cave list.

  • Dave Hollick

    I’m surprised by how many caves on this list I’ve been in, and even more surprised by how many I’ve never heard of. Also, should caves that are entirely under water be included, or be on a separate list?

  • danae

    Yes, I see now that Mammoth is the colossus of caves, no contest.

    I’m shocked to find that I live about 3 hours from the 11th deepest cave in the U.S. A very cold, wet one, but apparently very nicely decorated. A relative once walked to its entrance during a much longer back-packing excursion in the Seven Devils, but I’ve never heard anyone else even mention its existence.

    Really, you have the most interesting avocation.

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