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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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The Vogues – Five O’clock World

An evening pause: Classic early pop on classic early TV.

Hat tip Dan Covert.

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

    Actually done live! Is this from NBC’s “Hullabaloo?”

  • Noah Peal

    Thanks Dan and thanks Bob.

    Same song but with The Drew Carey Show treatment (2:08) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy72Y6JP5w0

  • eddie willers

    My best friend took a managerial job out of college at Lockheed. More than a hour commute each way through lousy Atlanta traffic. He hated it. Stayed there until he retired.

    Why?

    Because he really loved his family and his world started at 5:00 O’Clock.

  • Jim Turner

    Gilbert and Sullivan were to World War one as
    The Vogues were to the War in Vietnam

    After the war, in one case we have Shostakovich
    In the other case, we have the Beatles
    Could you imagine Paul McCartney describing himself as “primary Tenor (I have no idea if he is a tenor or whatever) vocalist”

    But most people, especially Americans, do not realize the scope of the social revolution after WWI. It touched on almost all aspects of life, from the arts to politics to almost every field of endeavor, there was even a revolution in Chess!

    I must say, I was kind of shocked by this clip from the “Vogues”. It is as if we were watching a path that America MIGHT have taken, instead of the mixed up“Clockwork orange/2001” path that it ended up on.

    Of course, we know that only the “2001” course can lead to any REAL success. We should do all we can to destroy superstition (Religion etc.), mindless gain and warfare. We should view all addiction as a medical issue. Only through the advance of Science, art and other knowledge can real gains be made.

    We should follow our Chinese friends and try to bring the entire world up to a first world standard of living. Replace all superstition with science based education. Eliminate war and foster good social interactions throughout society. Attempts to dominate others through force of arms or economic hegemony only reflect the inadequacies of the aggressor, since he can never find any happiness or joy on this malicious path.

    We kill each other in the name of “God” or religion and spend huge amounts of money on it. Yet we do not even know how the sun works. We might all be destroyed through our ignorance yet the superstitious still spend their time and money killing each other.

  • Nitecat

    Wow. I was just gonna say I like the Hal Ketchum version better.
    But all the things Mr. Turner refers to come under the label of cultural Marxism , in my view. It’s all totalitarianism , subverting the Arts and Sciences to statist goals. They might ban this song , or have it covered by a female singer. Taylor Swift , maybe, honing her SJW cred.

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