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The time has come for my annual short 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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Real Engineering – The World’s Oldest Construction Project: Sagrada Familia

An evening pause: For a full visual tour, watch the video here.

Hat tip Judd Clark.

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

6 comments

  • judd

    This video explains how this came to be and who conceived it.

    The link Bob provided at the top is an attempt to convey the spiritual and emotional experience of being there.

    This much longer video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN0VDdtz6Eg ) shows much more detailed views of the facade statuary with identification and explanation of the reason for the drastically different styles, the different colors of the windows, and includes a tour up the inside of one of the towers.

    i am continually amazed at what a human mind can conceive and what human hands can build.

  • Jerry Greenwood

    I toured the site in 2001 and the advancements since then are tremendous. It was a pure construction site then where visitors had to step around sacks of cement and duck under scaffolding.

  • Jeff Wright

    I imagine the upkeep of road networks is older.

    I view HLLVs similarly…spires of their own kind.

  • David M. Cook

    The Eifle tower was started just a few years later, and was finished by the turn of the century!

  • Cotour

    Related: Engineering in the micro not the macro:

    The INSANE Precision of The National Institute of Standards and Technology:

    Interesting; https://youtu.be/uCyU97MoHFM?si=9gJr8T8COwdIYhWd 14 min.

    In the micro and nanometers NIST has got it locked down, in the macro and buildings, not so much.

  • Cotour

    While we are on the subject of engineering let’s take a look at welding, a very close look:

    Mind Blowing Welding in Super Slow Motion: https://youtu.be/ygLbldJF_dc?si=kDVEEopRYZHsdYyD 9 min.

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