history – Page 69 – Behind The Black

Using modern technology scientists think they have a chance of decoding the oldest known undeciphered writing.

October 22, 2012 10:37 pm Robert Zimmerman

Using modern technology scientists think they have a chance of decoding the oldest known undeciphered writing.

In a room high up in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, above the Egyptian mummies and fragments of early civilisations, a big black dome is clicking away and flashing out light. This device, part sci-fi, part-DIY, is providing the most detailed and high quality images ever taken of these elusive symbols cut into clay tablets. This is Indiana Jones with software. It’s being used to help decode a writing system called proto-Elamite, used between around 3200BC and 2900BC in a region now in the south west of modern Iran.

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The new ebook edition of Genesis

October 12, 2012 12:56 pm Robert Zimmerman

I am thrilled to announce that the new ebook edition of my first book, Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, is now officially available for sale for only $5.99 from Mountain Lake Press. The direct link to Mountain Lake Press’s sales page is here and on the right. Within two weeks the book will also be available at all retailers, but if you buy it direct from Mountain Lake Press, I will make a little extra money, which would be very much appreciated.

In creating this ebook edition I made sure that all the graphics from the original but out-of-print hardback were included. Valerie Anders, the wife of astronaut Bill Anders, added her own thoughts in a new foreword. I also added a new introduction discussing how the history of space exploration has evolved since the book’s initial publication in 1998. As I noted,
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First Kids – Ghosts

October 3, 2012 6:01 pm Robert Zimmerman

An evening pause: An evocative song from a musical that is presently in development.

What I like about this video is how it reminds us that every image, every movie we see, especially the older ones, can only show us a image of a human being that no longer exists, and is essentially nothing more than a ghost to us.

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Butch Cassidy’s Colt 45 revolver will be auctioned off later this month.

September 20, 2012 11:04 pm Robert Zimmerman

Want a piece of history? Butch Cassidy’s Colt 45 revolver will be auctioned off later this month.

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Eleven construction workers sit on a girder eating lunch, 800 feet above the ground: The story behind the 1932 picture.

September 20, 2012 10:46 pm Robert Zimmerman

Eleven construction workers sit on a girder eating lunch, 800 feet above the ground: The story behind the 1932 picture.

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The Beatles – A Day In The Life

September 17, 2012 6:01 pm Robert Zimmerman

An evening pause: A wonderful song, but the images, most of which were taken during the recording session, will give you a taste of the wild, crazy, irreverent, and often foolish 1960s. Today, a half century later, we still are reaping the whirlwind of that decade, for good and ill.

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National Media Museum in Great Britain has restored the first color movie images, shot in 1901-1902.

September 16, 2012 8:10 pm Robert Zimmerman

The National Media Museum in Great Britain has restored the first color movie images, shot in 1901-1902. With video.

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Neil Armstrong’s ashes were buried at sea today.

September 15, 2012 9:32 am Robert Zimmerman

R.I.P. Neil Armstrong’s ashes were buried at sea today.

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Americans say goodbye to Neil Armstrong.

September 14, 2012 8:13 am Robert Zimmerman

Americans say goodbye to Neil Armstrong.

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“We choose to go to the Moon.”

September 12, 2012 5:01 am Robert Zimmerman

Kennedy at Rice University

Fifty years ago today, John Kennedy gave a speech at Rice University in Texas, outlining his reasoning behind his proposal that the United States send a man to the Moon before the end of the decade. The key phrase:

But why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

Video below the fold. The full text can be found here. (Interesting sidebar: When I posted Monday’s evening pause that quoted this speech I hadn’t realized the 50th anniversary of the speech was this week!)

This speech is worth watching, in full, if only to see the passion of both Kennedy and the audience for what he says. It also reveals a somewhat higher level of sophistication coming from a politician than one would see nowadays. Kennedy not only understood the deeper philosophical reasons for exploration, his thoughts were grounded in history as well as recent events, all of which he referenced repeatedly.
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