July 27, 2022 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, well worth your time, go here.
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Amy Macdonald – Born to run
An evening pause: Intensely done.
Hat tip Dan Morris.
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 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
The growing revolt against the bigoted left across the entire education community
“A little child shall lead them,” painting by James L. Johnson.
For the past year and a half in my daily column “Today’s blacklisted American” I have been documenting the oppressive actions of the intolerant left by noting the numerous times its members have aggressively blacklisted, censored, silenced, and destroyed anyone who stands in their way.
Take some time to glance through that full list. Some of the stories are truly horrifying. such as the time a 9-year-old was denied a kidney transplant because his donor, who also happened to be the child’s father, had not gotten his COVID jab.
Almost all are examples of the routine intolerance of the left. No one is allowed to think differently from them, act differently from them, speak differently from them, and even feel differently from them. If you dare to step out of line, their answer is to smash their boot into your face, as hard as they can. Once, that smashing was metaphoric. Today it has become literal.
Much of this oppression has been centered in the education community. The racist and Marxist ideology of critical race theory had it origins in the black study departments forcibly established in the 1960s in universities after violent protests. From there, these communist bigots spread outward into departments teaching the soft sciences of education, literature, psychology, and social science. They then moved downward into the high schools, and in the past decade into the elementary schools. Only recently they added to their program the queer agenda, aiming at perverting young children in the most vile ways possible.
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A Martian slot canyon!
For originals go here, here, and here.
Click for interactive map.
Cool image time! The mosaic to the right is made up of three images produced by the high resolution camera on the Mars rover Perseverance (found here, here, and here). All three were taken on July 24, 2022 and look north to the nearest cliff face at the head of the large delta that flowed into Jezero Crater some time in the distant past.
The rover was about 80 feet away from the feature when the photo was snapped. Though scale in the photo is not provided, using the scale in the overview map below I would guess this slot canyon is several feet wide, with some spots narrow enough that your body would touch both walls at spots. Its height is likely nor more than 20 feet high, at the very most.
On the overview map, the blue dots mark Perseverance’s location, in both the main map and the inset. The green dot marks where the helicopter Ingenuity presently sits. The red dotted line is my guess as to the future route of the rover up into the delta. The yellow lines indicate the area viewed in the mosaic.
Though hardly as deep as the many slot canyons found in the American southwest, that this slot exists on Mars is quite intriguing. Did it form like those southwestern slots from water flow? Probably not. More likely we are looking at a fracture produced by shifts in the entire delta itself, and then later widened by wind.
That the cliff shows multiple layers suggests the delta was laid down in multiple events, and that the fracture occurred after the delta was emplaced. That the layers on either side of the fracture appear to match up strengthens this conclusion. These layers also suggest that the layering is not simply in a series of small events. The layers are also grouped into larger aggregates, suggesting those larger groupings mark longer epochs, each with its own unique conditions.
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.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“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.
A crowd of Jupiter hurricanes
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken on July 5, 2022 during Juno’s 43rd close fly-by of Jupiter, and was enhanced by citizen scientist Brian Swift. It shows a group of storms, what planetary scientists have labeled “vortices” near Jupiter’s north pole.
These powerful storms can be over 30 miles (50 kilometers) in height and hundreds of miles across. Figuring out how they form is key to understanding Jupiter’s atmosphere, as well as the fluid dynamics and cloud chemistry that create the planet’s other atmospheric features. Scientists are particularly interested in the vortices’ varying shapes, sizes, and colors. For example, cyclones, which spin counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern, and anti-cyclones, which rotate clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counter-clockwise in the southern hemisphere, exhibit very different colors and shapes.
The image highlights the type of storm Juno scientists are asking the pubic to category in a new citizen scientist project called Jovian Vortex Hunter. You go to its website and go through Juno images, noting and categorizing them. So far more than 2,400 volunteers have marked up more than 375,000 storms.
Another Webb galaxy found even closer to the Big Bang
Using data from the first Webb deep field, astronomers have identified another galaxy in that image that apparently was able to form less than 250 million years after the the Big Bang, the theorized beginning of the universe.
Like the distant galaxies described last week, it also appears to have the equivalent of a billion Suns of material in the form of stars. The researchers estimate that it might have started star formation as early as 120 million years after the Big Bang, and had certainly done so by 220 million years.
You can read the actual research paper here [pdf]. The image of the galaxy to the right is taken from figure 4 of the paper. From its abstract:
We provide details of the 55 high-redshift galaxy candidates, 44 of which are new, that have enabled this new analysis. Our sample contains 6 galaxies at z≥12, one of which appears to set a new redshift record as an apparently robust galaxy candidate at z≃16.7.
The speed in which this galaxy formed places a great challenge on the Big Bang theory itself. 220 million years is an instant when it comes to galaxy formation, which has been assumed to take far longer. Either galaxy formation is a much faster process than expected, or something is seriously wrong with the timing of the Big Bang theory itself.
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.
Winner of the 2003 Eugene M. Emme Award of the American Astronautical Society.
"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
Hyundai signs deal with South Korean government research agencies to develop lunar rovers
Capitalism in space: Hyundai today signed an agreement with six different South Korean government research agencies to develop a lunar rover on which those agencies can place their science instruments.
The government-funded research institutes to take part in this joint research are Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology, Korea Aerospace Research Institute, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute and Korea Automotive Technology Institute.
This deal is apparently part of South Korea’s effort to expand its space capabilities, with the government directing and funding the program. This deal also suggests that the government there is also emulating the U.S. approach and using the country’s industry to make it happen.
NASA: Russia has not officially notified it of its exit from ISS partnership
According to the NASA official who runs its ISS operations, Russia has not officially notified the agency of its decision to end its participation in ISS as of 2024.
NASA’s Robyn Gatens, who leads the agency’s ISS operations, told Reuters she “just saw that” on Tuesday morning and that there was “nothing official yet” to confirm Roscosmos was pulling out. Gatens, speaking at a conference in Washington, D.C., told the news outlet that international agreements required Russia to notify them of any such decision.
This news might simply indicate sloppiness on the part of Russia and its new chief of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov. More likely it indicates that Russia’s announcement is a negotiating ploy, not an final decision.
As I noted yesterday, Russia doesn’t have many options in space if it leaves ISS in ’24. It won’t have a new station ready to launch by then, and it is unlikely China will agree to make it an equal partner on its station.
Meanwhile, it will be difficult (though not impossible) for the remaining ISS partners to keep the station functioning should Russia decide to detach its modules from the station.
Thus, it appears Russia is likely trying to extort cash from the U.S. by this announcement. “Nice station you got there. Sure would be a shame if something happened to it.” Either it hopes to pressure the U.S. to pay Russia to continue the partnership, or to buy the modules outright. And even in the latter case, Russia will likely insist that it continue operating them, with the U.S. paying the bill.
If we had a competent president who thinks of American self-interest first, Russia’s game here would be laughed out of the room. This Russian decision should and could be used to stimulate American industry to replace the Russians.
Our present president however does not consider this country’s interests very important, and so I’d expect the Biden administration to push for the U.S. to buy off Russia. Whether Congress will go along is uncertain. A majority in both houses probably doesn’t care much for U.S. interests either, but that majority is less likely to agree to such a deal, especially considering its hostility to Russia because of its invasion of the Ukraine.
China launches new rocket
The new colonial movement: The Chinese Academy of Science today successfully completed the first launch of Lijian-1, a new four stage solid fueled rocket, placing six satellites into orbit.
The Chinese state press announcement is here. I am using the name of the rocket from this source.
The rocket is an upgrade of a “road-mobile” ICBM, and can place two tons into orbit, making it the largest solid-fueled rocket in China’s arsenal of rockets. It launched from a pad built especially for it at China’s interior Jiuquan spaceport, which means it dumped its first, second, and maybe its third stages on Chinese territory.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
33 SpaceX
25 China
9 Russia
5 Rocket Lab
4 ULA
American private enterprise still leads China 46 to 25, and the entire globe combined 46 to 41.
Mike Oldfield – The Source of Secrets
An evening pause: Actually, this is three pieces, “The Source of the Secrets,” “Secrets,” and “Far above the Clouds.”
Hat tip “t-dub” Tom Wilson.
I’d like one piece of feedback about this video. When you watch it embedded on Behind the Black, is the music interrupted by commercials? That happens when you watch on YouTube. I am curious it this happens when a song is embedded on another webpage.
The very end of an 800-mile-long Martian canyon
Click for full image.
Cool image time! While most geeks interested in Mars are familiar with Valles Marineris, the largest canyon in the solar system, Mars has other large canyons that while not a big are impressive in their own right. The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, shows us the very very end of one such canyon. Taken on April 19, 2022 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), it shows the easternmost spot where Cerberus Fossae begins. From here, this narrow fracture-caused canyon extends another 800 miles to the west, sometimes splitting into two or three parallel cracks, but always oriented in the same direction, slightly north of due west.
The overview map below provides the context and wider view.
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Today’s blacklisted American: Pro-abortion terrorists vandalize 77 churches and pregnancy centers in last ten weeks
Genocide: The apparent goal of the pro-abortion left
Persecution is now cool! Since the leak on May 8th of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Row v. Wade, pro-abortion terrorists have vandalized 77 churches and pregnancy centers without a single arrest, even as these thugs gleefully brag about their violence on social media and are provided aid and comfort by Democratic Party politicians.
From the first link:
KTTH in Seattle reported, “As churches and pregnancy centers come under assault, Democrat State Senator Emily Randall (D-WA26) is celebrating the vandalism of a pro-life billboard in Gorst. “In a pre-produced Instagram video, Randall giddily reports that a pro-life message was decorated by a pro-abortion extremist. She smiles as she tells her constituents that she ‘had to pull over when I saw the decorated/corrected billboard.'”
Democrats have refused to stop the illegal protests at the homes of justices, even after a Democrat tried to assassinate a justice. Life News reported, “House Democrats Block Resolution to Condemn Violence Against Churches and Pregnancy Centers.”
From the second link:
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