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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:

 

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Hawaiian War Money

An evening pause: History is filled with little tidbits that are quickly forgotten, but fascinating in context nonetheless.

Hat tip Jim Mallamace.

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

  • wayne

    Jim–
    Good stuff!

    One thing not mentioned in the video— the $1 overprint note was made from stocks of the 1935A Series of Silver Certificates; “One dollar in Silver Payable to the Bearer on Demand.” The $5, $10, and $20 Notes were overprinted from the 1934A Series of ‘regular’ Federal Reserve Notes.
    see:
    http://oldcurrencyvalues.com/hawaii_currency_values/
    For large images.

    There also exist Hawaii overprints with the word “Hawaii” inverted (upside down) on the back, as well as with upside down seal and serial number.

    (Personally– I have a nice accumulation of Standing Liberty quarters, Walking Liberty halves, and Peace Dollars.)

  • wayne

    slight correct to my previous comment-
    the Hawaii overprint’s also include the $5 silver certificate as well as Federal Reserve notes.

    Can’t find an image quickly–
    “Emergency” US currency was also in use in North Africa during WW-2; soldiers were paid in cash and I believe the Notes were distinguished by a yellow overprint of the treasury seal.

    Pivotting–
    Q: Any ex-military in the audience who were ever paid in Military Script, whilst overseas??

  • wayne

    here we go….

    http://www.panix.com/~clay/currency/2309-001.jpg

    (1934 series) $10 Silver certificate with overprinted yellow seal and blue serial-number. Used in North Africa in WW-2.

  • Col Beausabre

    Q: Any ex-military in the audience who were ever paid in Military Script, whilst overseas??

    Sure was, we called it “MPC’s” or “Monopoly Money” in Viet Nam, supposed to cut down black marketeering

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_payment_certificate

  • Rich Cregar

    The images of FDR remind me to recommend to one and all to put a visit to Hyde Park on your bucket list. In many areas, FDR’s socio/economic policies have been proven wrong over time. But his record as a strategic leader in war is amazing.
    I consider myself pretty hard headed but if I could ever say that a place is haunted, it is Hyde Park. (Gettysburg too, of course, but it’s different) Just an overwhelming sense that FDR is “present”. I’m interested in learning if anyone else has been there & felt it?

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