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, 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 you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
"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
The shaft to rescue the trapped Chilean miners should reach them ‘within hours’, according to this BBC report.
At today’s press conference at the 42nd meeting of the AAS Division for Planetary Sciences, the topic was asteroids, including one which holds the possibility of hitting the Earth.
We conclude that 65 Cybele is covered by fine anhydrous silicate grains, with a small amount of water-ice and complex organic solids. This is similar to comets where non-equilibrium phases coexist, e.g. water-ice and anhydrous silicates; thus we conclude that this is a very primitive object.
According to Humberto Campins of the University of Central Florida, this combination of water and organics could become hospitable to life should some form of energy be added, such as an impact to the asteroid.
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 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.
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This graphic summarizes the effort underway to rescue the 33 trapped Chilean miners, including noting the October 10 target rescue date.
Islamic tolerance on parade! A dozen Filipino Catholics and their priest were arrested by Saudi police last week, simply for gathering to practice their Catholic religion. More from Robert Spencer.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. All editions can also be purchased direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from the author (hardback $29.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $6.00). Just send an email to zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
Last night I attended the most recent meeting of the Maryland Society of Patriots, a tea party group that was founded back in 2009. Attendance was pretty typical, with about fifty people filling the meeting room of the local library in Burtonsville, Maryland. As usual, Sam Hale, the founder of the group, had garnered a range of candidates to speak to us, including Eric Wargotz, the Republican candidate for the Senator, running against Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland).
For Wargotz, the questions got a bit heated at one point, as one member of the audience wanted to know his commitment to defending the Constitution.
What makes this group significant is that the majority of its members come from very Democratic districts. Yet, not only has attendance been high at almost every meeting, the membership has including a wide range of ordinary people, most of whom have never done politicial activitism in their lives.
This is Eric Cary, who is running for the Maryland State Senate. I’ve included more pictures below the fold. » Read more
Holy mackerel! John Dingell (D-Michigan) trails GOP challenger by four points in Detroit. This in a city that has voted Democrat from 93% to 96% in the last three general elections.
Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel, can be purchased as an ebook everywhere for only $3.99 (before discount) at amazon, Barnes & Noble, all ebook vendors, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big oppressive tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
"Leaving Earth is one of the best and certainly the most comprehensive summary of our drive into space that I have ever read. It will be invaluable to future scholars because it will tell them how the next chapter of human history opened." -- Arthur C. Clarke
Didn’t Al Gore tell us that we were going to get more big storms? The global hurricane activity is at 33-year low.
So, Congressman Hare (D-Illinois), is the debt still a myth? According to numbers released today by the Congressional Budget Office, the federal government’s spending rose 9% in 2010, for a total deficit of $1.291 trillion.
A Soyuz rocket launched a new crew of three astronauts to ISS today. Fun quote:
The six [astronauts on ISS] on Nov. 1 will celebrate the 10th anniversary of continuous human presence on the station.
An evening pause: A belated memorial to Kate McGarrigle, who passed away from cancer on January 18, 2010. Here she and her sister Anna sing their classic, “Heart like a Wheel”, Cafe Lena 1990.
Big news! In a simulation of the upper atmosphere of Titan at about 600 miles altitude, scientists have discovered the basic ingredients of life are quickly synthesized when exposed to the kind of hard radiation found there. Key quote from the press release, issued today at the 42nd meeting of the AAS Division for Planetary Sciences:
The molecules discovered include the five nucleotide bases used by life on Earth (cytosine, adenine, thymine, guanine and uracil) and the two smallest amino acids, glycine and alanine.
For those who don’t remember their high school biology, these nucleotides are the building blocks of DNA.
The abstract of the scientist’s work can be found here.
What the scientists did was recreate the basic ingredients of Titan’s upper atmosphere, comprised of nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide. Cassini data has shown that within this atmosphere are very large molecules, as yet unidentified.
The scientists then bathed their recreation in the kind of intense radiation expected at that altitude, and amazingly produced the complex organic molecules that are basic to life. Moreover, the experiment was the first to produce these complex molecules without the presence of water, something that scientists have previously thought was required. These results suggest that in addition to forming in the oceans, life could also form in the upper atmospheres of planets.
This result also suggests strongly that it is incredibly easy to produce the basic building blocks of life, almost anywhere in the universe where organic molecules are present.
The law for some but not for others: Threatened with a firestorm of protest just prior to the election because a number of large corporations were going to drop millions from healthcare coverage because of the new Obamacare regulations, the White House today arbitrarily waived for one year those provisions for 30 large companies.
This action raises three obvious points:
Ed Morrissey at hotair.com makes some additional good points about this absurd situation.
Government space faces budget realities: The European Space Agency is struggling to find the funds to both extend ISS as well as upgrade their cargo carrier so that it can also return cargo from ISS.
Private space moves forward, without NASA: Clark Lindsey at www.rlvnews.com notes that Robert Bigelow — the man behind the first private space station’s — seems poised to announce the first six nations who’ve agreed to rent space on his stations.
According to the website SpaceRef, NASA administrator Charles Bolden’s trip to Saudia Arabia and China this past week was his idea alone, and that the White House did not want him to go.
The science is settled? According to one scientist’s data, the Sun actually brightened in visible wavelengths during the ramp down from solar maximum to minimum in 2004-2007 — the exact opposite to what was expected — while dropping in the ultraviolet four times more than predicted.
Confusion at NASA: Layoffs continue as NASA slows Constellation spending. This despite a budget in 2010 that requires the program’s continuation, and a Congressional authorization for 2011 that requires NASA to build a comparable heavy-lift rocket.
Digitally remastered footage of the original television recordings from the Apollo 11 mission have been unveiled in Australia.
More results from the press conference going on right now at the 42nd meeting of the AAS Division for Planetary Sciences:
Pluto’s surface ice is made up of 97% nitrogen, 3% methane, while the surface of the Kuiper Belt object Eris (which is larger than Pluto) is even more rich in methane, with a make up of 90% nitrogen and 10% methane. Both measurements go down to a depth of about 10 inches. To see the abstract for this result, go here.
By diving into the upper atmosphere of Venus above its north pole, Venus Express has found that the atmosphere there is 60% less dense than predicted. This from a press conference going on right now at the 42nd meeting of the AAS Division for Planetary Sciences. They plan an additional dive campaign during the next month. And they plan more dives, going deeper each time, as they judge the consequences to the spacecraft each time.
To read the abstracts of the Venus Express papers, go here.
Updated: The full press release, with images, can be seen here.
From a session today at the 42nd meeting of the AAS Division for Planetary Sciences: After thirteen years of searching, scientists have concluded that Mars has no active volcanic activity, including geysers, anywhere on its surface.
How sad. The harsh words that Dutch politician Geert Wilder has for Islam (now facing prison for saying those words) is making Muslims in the Netherlands feel unsafe. Key quote:
“My family and I no longer feel safe in the Netherlands because Mr. Wilders is continually making hateful remarks about Islamic Dutch people,” said one complaint read out by the judge.
Gee. What about the more than 16,000 violent attacks committed by Islamic terrorists since September 11, 2001, leaving tens of thousands of people dead or maimed? How does this violence make these Dutch Muslims feel?
Yesterday NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center published its October monthly graph, showing the sun’s developing sunspot cycle in comparison with the consensis prediction made by the solar science community in May 2009.
Sunspot activity in September clearly jumped, though it still remains far below predictions. Prepare for the weakest solar maximum since the 1810s!
Note also that today the Sun is blank, with no sunspots, the first time this has happened since August. At that time I speculated that this might “be the last time the Sun will be blank for years as it continues to ramp up to its next solar maximum.” Obviously not. The question now is whether today will be the finale in blankness for this minimum.
The EPA itself believes that its effort to regulate carbon dioxide under its Prevention of Significant Deterioration program could “slow construction nationwide for years”. And what would this accomplish? Global temperatures would be reduced a whopping 0.0015 degrees! Key quote:
“It is clear throughout the country, PSD (Prevention of Significant Deterioration) permit issuance would be unable to keep up with the flood of incoming applications, resulting in delays, at the outset, that would be at least a decade or longer, and that would only grow worse over time as each year, the number of new permit applications would exceed permitting authority resources for that year.”
