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The time has come for my annual short pre-Thanksgiving/Christmas fund drive for Behind The Black. I must do this every year in order to make sure I have earned enough money to pay my bills.

 

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As I noted in July, the support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.

 

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Making art from aluminum cans and anthills

An evening pause: I’ve posted an evening pause previously about making art from an aluminum casting of an anthill, but this video is worth watching because it really shows how relatively easy it is to do. Moreover, they used soda cans as their material!

Hat tip Rocco.

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

11 comments

  • Wayne

    Thanks Mr. Z & Rocco. ( I was getting totally depressed by the 3 previous posts.)

    These are good.
    -Is he the same guy who shows you how to extract gold from microchips?

  • mpthompson

    Last night I came across the following video which yields a similar artistic result from molten aluminum, but from a much different process:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdpQo3tRPLY

  • wodun

    They had bags of empty cans but I noticed there were not any half empty cans sitting around if you know what I mean.

  • Very cool. You should have emailed this link to me and I could have scheduled it as an evening pause. This is exactly the kind of stuff I like to post.

  • Cotour

    I really like the video added by MPT, a very unique result, and no living ants had to be vaporized in order to produce it.

    I find the gratuitous killing of any life form to be unconscious and ignorant.

    Even if it is “only” ants.

  • Wayne

    mpthompson:

    The kid with the molten aluminum video’s is very interesting. Thanks for turning me on to him!
    Apparently, cooking with hot lava, as well, is an actual thing in Hawaii & other places near active volcanoes.
    I’d love to hear from any Metallurgists in the audience!!

  • Wayne

    Cotour:
    (hey :) )
    Personally, I hate all insects & would trend toward “killing them all.” I do however appreciate their absolutely vital role in the whole ecosphere.

    –weigh in on the “debate” and Ben Carson Trump endorsement, in the “how I went from Trump Curious to anti-trump” Thread. Would be interested on your take.

  • Cotour

    “Hate” is such an absolute and all encompassing word.

  • Wayne

    Cotour wrote: ““Hate” is such an absolute and all encompassing word.”

    Yeah, I guess it is. Point taken! I can tolerate a whole lot, but never was an “insect person.”
    They creep me out. (not so much “ants” but larger Insects such as Roaches.)

    Probably should have said, “Personally I’m not an insect-guy & would trend toward killing them in large numbers, BUT fully appreciate their place in Nature & don’t actively/overtly do that sort of thing.”
    –If “insects” mess with me, I do go thermonuclear on them. I do have a twinge of “guilt” when I have kill them.
    Spider’s are not my favorite, at all, but if-anything, I go out of my way to try and not kill them, because they eat other insects!
    Had a rather large spider living in my outdoor garage light-fixture for a few weeks last Fall. Sorta “sad” when it vanished. Beautiful spider-web constructor was she!

  • wodun

    As with everything, it all depends.

    Ants are cool but they can become problematic, as they say. What if the ants are under your patio and ruining how level your pavers are? What if they are inside of your house someplace? What if they destroy your yard?

    Spiders are much the same way. Some spiders are totally cool just running around eating other bugs and making cool webs but then there are Hobo spiders. These little guys are not dumb. They watch you moving from across a room. They scurry across walls, over floors, and over you! Their bites can become necrotic. When you see one, there are tens more, so it isn’t like just one spider doing its thing but an infestation.

    I’m a live and let live kinda guy but that is a two way street. When bugs step over the line, I step on them.

  • wayne

    Wodun opined:

    “When bugs step over the line, I step on them.”

    –I approve that Message!–

    Currently have field-mice constructing a subdivision under my deck. (They employ ground-squirrels to do the heavy digging.) My Cat can’t do all the work, much like the under-staffed Border Patrol.

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