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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:

 

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.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. Takes about a 10% cut.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

 

4. Donate by check. I get whatever you donate. Make the check payable to Robert Zimmerman and mail it to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


Tor Andre Børresen – Norway by drone

An evening pause: If you don’t like the cold, or have a fear of heights, then this video is your best way for seeing the natural wonders of Norway.

Hat tip Phill Oltmann.

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

4 comments

  • janyuary

    Spectacular except for serious sphincter factor seeing the guy sitting on the edge of an abyss as comfortably as an ant on a rock. I look and get an ice clench from my guts to my fingers …

  • wayne

    The Swede from Norway
    H.O.W. 2014
    https://youtu.be/FQq60LM5tcc
    0:22

  • pzatchok

    I met the guy who designed the fjords in that area. Slartibartfast, A little odd but an alright guy.

  • LocalFluff

    A good friend of mine is Norwegian. He lives near Oslo, nowhere near these God like landscapes. Still, when he bought a house on a slope of 30 degrees or so, I went WOAH when I saw it.
    “- Aren’t you afraid that something, like tons or snow or worse, will fall down and sweep your house away?”
    And he went like:
    “- Nah, that only happens sometimes.”

    At the battle of Stamford Bridge northeast England in 1066, three weeks before the Normands invaded from the south and barely won the more famous battle of Hastings, the Norwegian invasion met its defeat. After having won a battle at Fulford earlier in the week, the Norwegians were relaxing and surprised by the quick advance of Anglo-Saxons’ reinforcements. They had to improvise an order of battle. Meanwhile, they had to defend a small bridge across a minor river to delay their enemy.

    They were about 9,000 strong, and so they allotted ONE man to hold the bridge. A huskarl (a heavy knight on foot) with a heavy long-shafted two-handed axe that could strike through any armor. The King:
    “- Are you sure that you can do this on your own?
    – Yeah, piece of cake. You go get dressed, I’ll take care of the bridge.”

    That guy held the bridge for quite a while, killing 40 (forty) enemies. The pile of bodies blocking the bridge, I suppose. Until they managed to poke him with a spear from a raft under the bridge. His name is unknown, because all the Norwegians were then slain. So the story is told by the victors, which makes it more trustworthy. They had no interest in glorifying their enemy. But were just so impressed by the professional efficiency of a business colleague that they had to spread the word.

    That’s the rock the guys on the north Atlantic coast are made of.

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