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Readers!

 

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.

 

For this two-week campaign, I am offering a special deal to encourage donations. Donations of $200 will get a free autographed copy of the new paperback edition of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, while donations of $250 will get a free autographed copy of the new hardback edition. If you desire a copy, make sure you provide me your address with your donation.

 

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.

 

In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.

 

Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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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Mattias Lindström (Swebounce) – Robot chair

An evening pause: What every home must have!

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. 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

  • Chris

    If this act was in the US, the OSHA guy would be writing $10K fines every time he was within the radius of the arm

  • Klystron

    So a comedian and an industrial robot walk into a bar….

  • John

    It’s all fun and games until the robot becomes self aware and sticks the chair where the sun don’t shine.

  • Alex Andrite

    Fun and Games ? for fun ….
    I used a similar, stationary breadbox size table top robot type, while at Semiconductor Trade Shows long ago. Actually pretty dumb, until we added googly eyes and some “robot type” makeup on its “head” and “jaws”, much to the chagrin of the Japanese manufacturing reps.
    I would program robot to do the “things” as advertised, pick and place IC’s into trays, 360deg maneuvers with a Si wafer in its jaws, and multi axis rotations and so on.
    It really drew attention though, when programmed to hang its head nod slightly and mope back and forth, until a lovely walked by. Then robot would come alive rise up to its full two foot height and shudder, tracking the lovely as she walked towards our booth, google eyes buzzing, then at close to mid point of her walk by, robot would drop its head and knock like a wood pecker on the table top, if she stopped to look the next routine was a “come here” wave, and the next routine, if she registered and paused, was for robot to turn and reach over to a bowl of Hershey kisses, pick a kiss and turn to her with slight shivering offering her a Hershey kiss. If she received the kiss, robot routine would then pick up a business card and extend it to her, or place it back in the card holder tray.
    The sales guys remained silent, until …. and then love it.

    We had more fun with that small robot and the routines we could program, and execute remotely with a controller button press on the fly. Later, my routines “cheater list” was well appreciated by the manufacturing reps, and led me to do similar “Trade Shows”, as well as many after hours brainstorming / dining and fun drinking sessions.
    Oh, if a fellow approached, robot would offer him a piece of Black Jack type chewing gum.

    I considered syncing a routine with a “dance and music” routine, but never finished it, had to get a life and pay check.

  • wayne

    Klystron-
    (Great moniker btw.)
    Here we go…
    Westworld
    “God, Devil and Man walks into a bar…”
    https://youtu.be/3qD_La2F6bk
    4:55

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