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Readers!

 

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.

 

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.

 

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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. 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

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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