I understand how we date fossils with Radiometric dating but what I don’t know is how we know how much of that radioisotope is present when the rock is formed.

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"The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse."
--- Edmund Burke
Catalogue Description:
Self-Monitoring Behavioural Management Report: Casimir Szymański, Scazim Institute of Science and Technology - English Translation
Date:
15 Summer-2 3429 (Standard Parimthian Calendar)
November 23rd, 2162 (Gregorian Calendar)
Held by:
The UK National Archives, Kew
Legal status:
Public Record(s)
The sheer cultural disconnect between the Parimthian Empire and its colonies on Earth is, at times, difficult to wrap one's mind around.
"Tune into their neutrino channel," Jake radioed to the flight deck group.
The windows lining the cabin's left wall gave view only to space-black vacuum. The windows to the right were illuminated with pale sunlight, whose rays might have glinted off the exoskeletons of the hundreds of Senghavi passengers, and the long aisle that split them, were it not for the spaceliner's sterile artificial lighting. Far down the aisle, insulated from the chaos in the vast snow-white cabin, I presumed that those in the flight deck were following Jake's orders with great diligence.
The immense spacecraft carrier was [hundreds of kilometres] away, a black figure sharply superimposed onto the sunlight as if a boxy-shaped black hole. It fit rather squarely in the field of view afforded by my window, so despite the bright sunlight on my side, I could see my own reflection in the warship's silhouette.
While those in the flight deck would still be negotiating with Commander Lokprel, they sourced the output of the public address system from the spacecraft carrier's neutrino channel instead of Lokprel's.
"This is Admiral Veyenthor loth Foxata of Imperial Parimthian Navy, speaking from the Weeping-Tail," said an elderly-sounding, female Senghavi, her voice cool, yet chilling. (Somehow, I recalled from primary school---decades ago---that weeping-tail were flying animals indigenous to the Lamfu/Warc homeworld, Denfall). "Your vessel is being expropriated by imperial decree. Those of you which have conducted research on behalf of the Scazim Institute of Science and Technology are under arrest, and are hereby accused of seditious conspiracy against the Parimthian Crown.
"For those human persons affiliated with the Sons of Liberty: We no longer possess any vested interest in keeping you alive. Our only objective is to gather scientific and technical intelligence on our colonists' seditious government. Do not resist. If you do, we need only drain Spaceflight 81 of its oxygen supply, then walk upon two hundred suffocated corpses to scan the researchers' synapses for their memories."
A wave of chills fell over my skin. I had no doubt that systematically draining the oxygen from the spaceliner was but a trifle in the vast array of military capabilities projected by the Weeping-Tail supercarrier.
The ability to translate aerospace power across hundreds of thousands of cubic light-years was critical for any empire; otherwise, enforcing its own domestic integrity would be a stupendously impractical endeavour.
After all, as the radius of Parimth's reach increases, the volume of space which the empire's bureaucracy must administer (roughly something of an oblate spheroid) skyrockets cubically. Thus, it is forced to limit its longest semi-axis to just two hundred light-years in either direction, lest logistical difficulties cause its government to lose control of the periphery (as was happening just now, by the enlightened rebellion of Earth's newest Colonial Governor).
Supercarriers like the Weeping-Tail, therefore, need to be as capable as possible. Such a ship is the equivalent of a regional military power, one which was placed right into Earth's star system.
With the Weeping-Tail threatening our oxygen supply, I did not believe that we enjoyed even an illusion of choice. While there were emergency spacesuits in the spaceliner, two hundred passengers would not have been able to don them in time, and the Sons of Liberty's very means of making any demand at all would be gone.
"That kind of atrocity would start a war," Khadija radioed back. "Your colonists are feistier than you think. Us natives would know---while you people have been out empire-building in the [Milky Way], we're the ones who have had to deal with them!"
"I would not say that you have had to deal with us as much as we have had to deal with you," I muttered, slouching over in my seat.
"For the last time, dude," Jake said. "You're not a bug, no matter how much you wanna be. You're human."
"Colonists. Natives. Like little hatchlings, always fighting... Making a mess out of planet Earth; despoiling the Crown's precious blue jewel. And I am the one who is told to clean it up. The colonists' disobedience---it upsets the Terran balance. That is why we tip the scale in your favour, you Sons of Liberty. It would be apt of you to recognize where your true allegiance lies."
Jake's steel-blue eyes darted around in paranoia. "W-what are you talking about? You're the enemy, not an ally!"
The whimpering child called Pavok---Pavok fe Zhvota---sent more vibrations emanating through the floor, his lily-rain smell growing stronger. Khadija put a hand at the back of his thorax, probably worrying about the lives of all who were forced to stand at the windows. His wealthy mother simply wept, just as he did.
Certain spacecraft from Colonial Defence Force had accelerated enough that, at least from the spaceliner's port side, one could see the crafts' seams and gadgetry by their' exterior lights. Otherwise there was just blackness and stars, though certain "stars" were merely more CDF spacecraft from very far away. Within the reign of Perellanth's predecessor, the organisation had gone from a well-regularised militia to a proper military, and that fact was as plain as the standardisation of their fleet.
The view through the row of starboard windows was the inverse. In addition to the sharp and massive silhouette of the Parimthian warship, so many [kilometres] away, small shadowy forms and star-sized black specks were etched against the pale sun rays, their own exterior lights outshined completely.
The agile fighters unleashed from the spacecraft carrier, diminutive dark figures transiting before the sun, intercepted the surrounding security forces and special operations craft. They forced the CDF's entire rescue operation to grind to a halt. It was startling, the ease with which an empire could impose its will upon its own colonists without firing a single shot.
The terrorist savages' idea had been that, if innocent passengers such as Pavok were forced to stand at the windows, the snipers of the CDF would not be able to neutralise any hijackers from afar. Reflected in the many layers of acrylic and tempered aluminosilicate glass, Pavok's head capsule glared back, white exoskeletal shell faded against black vacuum.
But the CDF's operation had been commandeered by the Imperial Parimthian Navy.
And as I have written before, the cultural disconnect between the colonists and Parimth is unspeakably stark.
"It is through no fault of your own that you subscribed to the unfortunate belief that you are soldiers, soon-to-be martyrs, who wage resistance against the invaders to save your people. Look at yourselves! Holding innocents on a spaceline hostage for a promise of sovereignty whose keeping you have not the slightest power to ensure.
"The secret truth is that His Imperial Majesty funds you, you Sons of Liberty. You are coordinated by the United Nations, but all your modest resources come from us. We see to it that you terrorise our colonists, lest they devote their attention to a war of independence against us. You are not fighting against Parimth... You are fighting for it! As has the UN itself, upon whose lunatic, savage methods we have relied to capture the Colonial Governor Perellanth fe Sumur."
Something broke in Jake's determined eyes.
For the first time since I had met the fiery native, his passion had been lost. His shoulders drooped, his gaze softening with sadness. Khadija and Ramiro, too, seemed rattled.
"Y-you're lying," he said, his voice losing its edge. "We're fighting all Senghavi... the colonies, the empire. I-if you don't back off, we'll... "
"You'll kill everyone? Well, let us play this out like the terrorists we are, Mister Weaver. First, I will kill half of your friends to illustrate my resolve. Then, if yours still holds, I will be forced to suffocate every living soul aboard this spaceliner. The blame for that atrocity will fall upon the shoulders of the species which terrorised those very lives: mankind."
It nearly seemed as if Admiral Foxata wanted to keep the terrorist savages alive, though whether that was to avoid the ramifications of a criminal massacre, or because Parimth had other plans for the Sons of Liberty, I was not certain.
If the blame for massacre would fall upon the shoulders of human terrorists, then... why wouldn't the admiral simply kill us all anyway, as she seemed so inclined? Something was not adding up.
The irony of my inclination to ask myself this question was not lost on me; Parimth basked in empire, it was true, opposed to its colonists' philosophical spirit of empiricism, self-determination, and earthly happiness... but I had even then hoped that they would save us, not destroy us!
"Don't be an idiot," Jake barked. "You're just shooting yourself in the---"
There was a distant flash, and Pavok's window exploded. Both Khadija and the child were knocked backwards. Pieces of red human flesh and white exoskeletal shell flew across the aisle. Opposite them, air rushed out into vacuum. Their bodies crashed onto the floor. A great many wealthy passengers screamed in fright.
I saw Ramiro dead, too. A gory, bleeding cavity gaped in his skull. The Senghavi hostage he had been monitoring had perished in equal manner. Five windows had been broken; five barbarous human terrorists and five of my Senghavi countrymen had been shot through the head.
Even in their shock, the surviving terrorists produced equipment to begin patching the breaches. Had I been more lucid at this instant, I would have deduced that those breaches had been inflicted specifically by elite Parimthian snipers; but I was not lucid, and I was in tears.
As his people attempted to stop the spaceliner from venting atmosphere, Jake shouted Khadija's name. He ran over to her, dropping on his knees before her blasted-through skull.
I was concerned only with Pavok. Both his mother and I, despite bearing no knowledge of or relation to each other, grieved in our own ways.
Why? Why was I so guilty of inflicting death upon those who did not deserve it?
I knelt shivering over the child's limp body, the innards of his head capsule blown out and spattered around him; if I looked closely, his antennae still moved with involuntary post-mortem twitches. His lily-rainfall pheromones of despair, still filling the air, moved me beyond tears.
It had been my own degeneracy and deviance, in my childhood infatuation with Mensim, which bore the blame for my father's death.
It had been my own arrogance in the philosophical superiority of you colonists, in your ideals of tolerance, equality, and fairness among all mantids, which had driven me to research weaponry of unimaginable death.
It had been my own cowardice that prompted me to leak that very research to the treasonous Mensim, to Parimth, the planet whose interstellar reach had ripped from the stars the innocent soul of a child.
It was on me, not the barbarism of man, upon whose shoulders it had been so convenient for me to shift such morbid blame. It was all on me!
* * *
With Khadija dead, and Jake too shaken to resist, the Parimthian boarding party found little resistance. The sheer insignificance which Admiral Foxata placed on civilian lives, the reliance of the entire terrorist operation on imperial funding, and the apparent partnership between the UN and Parimth had stripped the remaining human hijackers of all leverage and morale. They may have been fanatic, but even they were disillusioned by the idea of blowing themselves up for utterly nothing.
I, along with Fenni Svim and six others from the Faculty of Particle Physics at Scazim, found myself cuffed and detained by Parimthian naval officers. They were decorated in the full ceremonial cape-hat getup, the inner surfaces of which were cushioned with cream-beige Pondwir fur.
Upon the region of exoskeletal shell that fell over their right shoulders, Parimth's unmistakable flag had been vividly emblazoned. Whether you Senghavi identify yourselves as Parimthian or Terran, all those among your species are eager to paint upon yourselves that identity as if the whole [Milky Way] ought to know it.
My Senghavi fellows and I were marched to a shuttle which had docked to the spaceliner. It accelerated harshly towards the supercarrier, whose exterior features became clearer the closer we drew. The experience was similar to that which one feels upon approaching the base of an immense mountain, whose apex cannot be seen from the ground.
The shuttle was deep in the warship's shadow. So dark and titanic was the superior vessel that its exterior was like starless space. Through our shuttle's windows, the pale beams of sunlight that streamed past either side of the supercarrier's massive form appeared almost as if they were materialising flatly out of space-time.
Finally, aboard the Weeping-Tail, from the cold, sterile cell in which I had been imprisoned, I could hear Admiral Foxata's elderly voice from around the corner of the wide hallway. So dim was its lighting and so tall were its dark stone walls I could see nothing of the ceiling except shadow.
"The deal is done. We have the researchers and the savages in our custody. Hand over my nine million Parimthian pounds, and we'll give them right to you."
A boisterous, grating laugh resounded through the hallway.
*Was that...? * No, it couldn't be!
"It is the corruption that is my favourite part of rotting empire," a voice chuckled, so gravelly it was as if rocks were being scraped together in the creature's throat. Warc speech is not really "voiced" inasmuch as there is very little vibration in their vocal chord analogues; however, their vocal anatomy turns what might otherwise be a gasp or whisper into a menacing growl. "You will soon see that my people are sending it over as we speak. Do not spend it all in one piece."
I gulped, though my mouth was dry.
I had never seen a Warc in person.
Only on the touchpad had I seen such non-Senghavi as the Warcs, the Kursef, the Pondwir, and so on. I had certainly never met our captured Colonial Governor, Perellanth fe Sumur---a Vire with a Parimthian name---in the flesh.
Admiral Veyenthor loth Foxata, accompanied by a towering Warc---and a Lamfu, a real Lamfu, a shivering prey barbarian with a leash around its neck---strutted over to stand before the glass barrier of my cell.
"This is a curious one," Admiral Foxata said, rubbing her raptorial praying arms together with fascination. Her exoskeletal shell, too, bore the Parimthian flag on its shoulder. "I should caution you, Krusk, against lumping him in with the Sons of Liberty operatives. He's a civilised prodigy at the Scazim Institute of Science and Technology. A... savage scholar, if you will. By all means, carry out your depraved experiments to your heart's content; I am morbidly curious as to whether you are truly able to turn humans to sociopaths, as you claim. But we all know you requested the Institute's researchers, too, for a reason. Don't waste this one just because he is a native."
I banged my fist against the glass, only to realise they were still covered in the cerulean blood of Pavok.
"You are accusing the colonists of seditious conspiracy against the Crown, and yet with the same tongue, you accept a bribe in return for gifting Parimth's greatest galacto-political rival with researchers of the only weapon capable of Parimth's defeat?" I asked incredulously. "How utterly corrupt and divorced from reality has imperial bureaucracy become?!"
As much as I loathed the tyranny and unenlightened philosophy of Parimth, the evils of Orion were callous, knowing, and purposeful. The Warc standing before my cell, whom the admiral had called Krusk, had a sapient being on a leash! Even Parimth, not immune to empathy, had banned the sale of slaves, the economic reliance upon which was a [double-edged sword] in any case.
Yet, though biology was not my field, there was something biological in the wickedness of Orion. The creatures which composed its upper class were born, I believed, with the instinct to chase smaller animals---as are the lesser carnivorous beasts on Earth, such as wolves or lions. There was a time when the Warcs on Denfall had suppressed such biological urges for the sake of their herbivorous brethren. That ancient, classical Denfalli era was long gone.
At present, in their wormhole-driven conquest of nearly 394,000 cubic light-years of space, the Warcs and their carnivorous allies, under the fang-on-sun banner of Orion, observed no restraint in the imposition of forced labour and devourment upon helpless barbarian trillions.
And for those helpless prey barbarians, travelling the stars is impossible. Without wormholes, the distances are too unimaginably vast. Radioisotope power systems can only keep a spacecraft alive for an infinitesimal fraction of a light-year.
Unless you are Parimth, Orion, the great formicid powers, or the world-eating Moldretch, there is no true resistance against conquest. So as I understood, there was no more that barbarian, primitive prey species---the Lamfu on Denfall, for example---could do to fight against the great empire administered by Orion than us barbarian, primitive savages could do to fight against the great empire administered by Parimth.
I also did not believe any carnivorous colonists, settling on some planet somewhere, would possibly fight for independence from Orion on the basis of life and liberty. Before her death, Khadija had told me that humans might have discovered the secrets of producing wormholes and constructed our own interstellar empire; if we had, I believed it would be less like the tyrannical Parimth and more like the foul Orion.
The Warc called Krusk leered at me. The only thing I could truly perceive of him were his yellow eyes and sharp, white teeth, looming high in the air; the Warc's black fur camouflaged him amid the hallway's vast darkness. It was known, as is the case with most sapients (with the exception of photosynthetics, like Vire, and herbivores, like Lamfu), that my impoverished species, despite a comparatively weak and fragile composition, been the apex predator of our homeworld merely through use of sapient intelligence and stone or wood tools. And yet, before the foul beast, I suffered the sensation of being prey.
"Will you help us?" I asked. "The Senghavi colonists on Earth are to declare their independence from Parimthian rule. They---we---are the Union of Terran Republics, bound by the conviction that all... mantids... are born endowed with irrevocable rights to expression, representation, and security of person. You need not agree with us philosophically, but you are a rival of our rival, Parimth."
"Think yourself a diplomat?" the Warc chuckled.
"I should fancy myself a scientist devoted to the pursuit of Terran happiness. And you have received as of yet no diplomats from the UTR."
"Your little utopia of freedom, your UTR, hasn't even declared itself yet," Admiral Foxata groaned. "And even if it did exist, Parimth wouldn't recognize it. You're a physicist from the Scazim Institute, aren't you? Orion wants you to work for them, not the colonists. You ought to seize the opportunity while you have it."
"I am... a doctoral student," I said. "Perhaps I am a prodigy, but I have not yet reached the height of tertiary education. In any case, why should rebellious colonists from Parimth and the carnivores of Orion neglect the value of an alliance?"
"Because we're already allying with a rival of the colonists," said Krusk. I could feel his gravelly, voiceless speech in my very bones, its cold rock-scraping quality sending chills through my arms. "And that rival isn't Parimth. It's the UN."
What?
This Krusk figure had left me blindsided! It was true that the philosophical contrast between Orion and the Senghavi Terran colonists was sharp, but I had initially persuaded myself that, with a mutual rival as overwhelming as the Parimthian Empire, we and Orion would reap a greater reward for which to fight as allies than as enemies.
Therefore, I was impelled to wonder: What in the [Milky Way] had possessed Orion's leadership so bizarrely that, rather than fighting alongside the colonists, they would ally with people who were not only cultureless savages, but who had---quite recently---been exposed as the recipient of military and financial resources from Parimth itself?!
"You're quite the curious specimen," Admiral Foxata said, her antennae curling with curiosity. Krusk's eyes, while gleaming with hunger, seemed fascinated by me, too. "Most people would be ecstatic to hear that their species was being rewarded with the support of a superpower. Are you, as a savage scholar, disillusioned with your own species?"
"I am merely devoted to the philosophy of the Union of Terran Republics," I answered, "and all native Terrans and Senghavi Terrans brought into its fold. I am opposed to prejudicial judgement, but I cannot deny that I detest my species' struggle for historical relevance... and I am befuddled as to the reason that an advanced interstellar empire such as Orion should be fooled into believing it."
"Every species wants to feel special," Krusk chuckled, scratching his side with his canid claws. "Even us! We're not fools. You natives of Earth... You are special, but not in the way you want to believe. You are savages too young to have invented the wheel, it is true. But there is more to you than that. Conflict has made you strong! The Erebus 2 mission showed us your will to survive."
"The c-colonists are strong, too! We espouse the principles of individualism and self-reliance. And we are prepared to prosecute a war of independence against tyranny; even to alter or to abolish our own leadership, if it itself becomes tyrannical."
"But do you know how to hunt or grow crops in times of famine?" Krusk rumbled. "How to keep yourselves warm and find fresh water after an EMP attack? The Senghavi, imperial or colonist, are all soft. Decadent. Dead without technology. It is why the Parimthian Empire has been in decline for centuries. But humanity has what it takes to survive... Except for you, probably."
"It is worth noting," Admiral Foxata interjected, perhaps taking offence to Krusk's unflattering characterisation of her mantid species, "that, in addition to Krusk's philosophy, such proclamations of secession and independence are the bane of any great empire. I would hesitate to believe that the Imperium of Orion would so openly formulate an alliance with the very agnostic, empiricist ideals which it may find itself suppressing at any given moment."
I supposed Admiral Foxata's assessment to be reasonable. The very most basic and fundamental elements of the colonists' philosophical spirit---empirical thought; the freedom to critique the social order; the moral philosophy of the categorical imperative; and the pursuit of public happiness here in the [Milky Way], rather than in the afterlife---could never be compatible in the least with Orion's vast, religious grip on trillions of prey species.
It was indeed sensible that the sprawling reaches of the carnivorous Orion should instead ally with mankind, though the nature of their plan for a species I knew to be helpless, savage, and sparse, I knew not. Perhaps the object of their designs lay in human slave labour, or cannon fodder?
The glass door before me quite suddenly hummed open. I then bore witness to the true reaches of the hallway's dark and massive walls. The corridor seemed dim, endless, and smooth, faint seams and gadgetry just barely visible across the black stone.
"If you are the prodigy Foxata says you are," Krusk growled, "we will need you in the lab. Come with us!"
Hesitantly, I followed the towering Warc---whose height fell quite short of an Inferax's lofty frame, yet loomed over my primate body---down the sweeping corridor.
"Mother, my mother," the leashed Lamfu said, her voice shaking. The slave spoke in Circpi, my proficiency in which left much to be desired, though I could understand more than I could speak. "Will we purchase morrow-fur milk from the market?"
She spoke to no one in particular, her wistful eyes glimmering in the dim hall, her nose and fluffy tail twitching in a way that was somewhat unnatural. Krusk yanked her leash, and the creature stumbled.
"Keep up," the Warc ordered.
It was in moments such as this that I was reminded of Zirfen loth Novozor's categorical imperative. Novozor's writings, appealing to the reason of the common person, had been stirring the Senghavi Terran colonists towards their desire for independence. The pinnacle of our cultural shift was the proposition that a mantid ought to act only such that he or she could desire for his or her principles to be universal to all Senghavi.
Obviously, Warcs would not wish for their system to be universal to all Denfalli sapients; else, they would necessarily believe Lamfu ought to possess the same principles as they, and to enslave Warcs however they pleased---which was obviously an impossible hypothetical. Zirfen loth Novozor's writings were simply one example, I now realised, of why the carnivores of Orion would never ally with the Senghavi Terran colonists.
Continued
A/N: I feel like I should apologize for a couple things. The first is my upload schedule. Similar to the academic semester, my new job makes it a little difficult to find the time make progress on my writing. However, I do believe I can do better, and I will do my best to upload weekly or biweekly instead of monthly. I am assuming that having a lot of time between uploads makes the story more difficult to follow, so I truly do want to get better with that.
The second is that, though I do have a vision for this narrative, a part of me worries that I am not doing as good a job at making this series as I would hope. Therefore I invite any and all constructive criticism. Is there anything that is confusing or tiresome? Or anything that could be done better at all? What works, and what doesn't? Thank you!

Possible very minor spoilers for mistborn. This is more about the mechanism of the magic system and metallurgy than anything in the plot. Anything past the first book of the Wax and Wayne ... arc? and you are fine. Also apologies to any metallurgists, I am gonna get things wrong, feel free to correct me.

Introduction

I want to test whether carbon in steel alloys is relevant for mistborn/coin shots. This is a hypothetical experiment and is a super shallow dive into chemistry and metallurgy both in our world and hypothetically in the cosmere.

Theory

Steel is complicated. Like way way way more complicated than iron + carbon = steel. We are gonna kinda gloss over all of the different versions of steel and pretend the version of steel used in mistborn isa mixture of chromium, iron, and carbon. I am picking this one because we do know pure chromium is a metal for allomancy as well as pure iron.The other reason I am picking it is because the idea of carbon in there is fascinating, and carbon is a pretty common and vital ingredient for a lot of steels.
The other metal in the steel isn't actually relevant for what I would want to test. What I am interested in is the carbon. First and foremost is that carbon cannot actually alloy with metals. It doesn't actually bind with the iron. The carbon causes non-conformities in the crystal structure of the iron. It doesn't actually bond with it metallically, it is just sorta in there, like pieces of fruit in gross jello. The question here is does it get burned with the metal. So the experiment:
What we need to do is obviously make steel, but we want to make the most special steel. We need to make a steel with pure carbon 14. For those of you that don't know this is a radioactive isotope of carbon that has 2 extra neutrons. We use it for radioisotope dating, carbon dating to be specific. One of the handy things about it is it is very measurable. So much so that if you eat an abnormal amount of C14 (either an abnormally large or lacking amount), so long as you let me measure your outputs, I would be able to tell.

Experiment

So, what we do for this experiment is make the steel with known amount of pure carbon 14, and then have a mistborn/coin shot burn it. Then we measure their breath, and their feces, and urine, and monitor for a spike in. I expect to be able to account for all of the carbon 14. From what I can tell when you burn an allomantic metal it is entirely converted and used from burning it. If it wasn't every mistborn and thug would suffer lead poisoning (which may explain some of the effects of incorrect alloys). However, carbon isn't a metal nor is it even part of the metal, it is merely suspended in a matrix of metal (is carbon steel technically an advanced composite?).
Control Groups:
Each control group will be made of 3 groups: A group of non-mistings, a group of non-steel mistings, and a group of coin shots. All groups will have all breath, feces, and urine collected before testing as well as during the tests (24 to 48 hours ish?) to measure changes in carbon 14. Any unexpected changes in test subjects would be notable.
C1 Baseline:
Have this group live lives as normal. Might also be a good idea to divide coinshots and have half burn regular steel and have other not allowed to use allomancy.
C2 C-14 No Burning:
This group will eat an amount of pure carbon 14 equal to that used in the special alloy I talked about above.
C3 C-14 Steel, No Burning:
This group will eat the special carbon 14 steel alloy, but will be instructed not to burn it if they have the ability.
**Test Groups:**To keep things from getting complicated later we will assume people who cannot burn steel have matching results to the above test groups. I would make non allomancers and non-steel mistings attempt these, and they should match C1 & C2. So for simplicity this is a group of coinshots. These groups should be heavily monitored for negative impacts associated with burning poor quality alloys.
T1 C-14 Burning:
Have the group eat the pure carbon 14 and attempt to burn it. They shouldn't be able to, but it would be best to know.
T2 C-14 Steel:
Finally! We have the coinshots burn ALL of our special C-14 Steel.
T3 Carbon Free Steel:
This group would attempt to burn the steel with the levels ofiron and chromium used in the C-14 steel, but with no carbon of any kind.

Hypothesis

Groups C1 and C3 and T3 will have matching levels of C-14 detected. groups C2, T1, and T2 should have matching levels of C-14 detected. No groups should experience any changes or should be able to tell the difference in any of the steel.

Thinking About Results

If the results I propose come back like I expect, congrats, I am big brain haver, and carbon steel is pointless. Stop making it with carbon. What is really interesting is if the results come back different. If when the c-14 steel is burned and we find less carbon that means it could be being burned. and this opens up a world of possibilities.
But the one that I am reaaaallly interested in is if the carbon in the steel actually matters and T3 gets messed up by the LACK of carbon. Why might that matter?! Well because obviously carbon can be burned but THE OTHER EXPLINATION IS WAY, WAY MORE AWESOME!!!!!
It would mean the crystal structure of the metal itself might matter! What this means is we would have a whole new world of allomancy to play with. Different aging methods, different conditions, different heat treatment methods, it isn't just the atoms that matter it is the organization of them. WHY WOULD THAT MATTER?!?!?! WHO KNOWS BUT KNOWING IT MATTERS, MATTERS!!
But, you know, it's just like a story, so sad.
Thanks for reading, sorry for my bad spelling, not my strong suit.

Not sure if this belongs on a more topical subreddit, but I hope some people hear me out despite this post being a bit less content sensitive than a lot of other posts on this subreddit.
For background on how all this went down, my mom is a conspiracy theorist. She doesn't believe in all of them like the Moon landings being fake or flat Earth, but she does believe in a chunk of anti-authority theories like QAnon, the Illuminati, and the Freemasons. In particular, she really likes archeological conspiracy theories supporting literal interpretations of the Bible like that radioisotope dating is wrong. We're both Christian, but I take a more figurative belief for some parts of the Bible especially when modern science disagrees with the literal interpretation.
With all that in mind I recently watched a great YouTube series from a guy called MiniMinuteman basically debunking Graham Hancock's show Ancient Apocalypse. I thought the YouTube series was great and knew full well it was a bad idea to actually show it to her since she believes similar things to Hancock (that the 'archeological establishment' puts down dissenting viewpoints even when there's evidence). I had no intention of showing any of the points debunking Hancock to her since I knew she would reject it, but I felt that the last five or so minutes of the final part of the series resonated enough with how I sort of felt about her theories: that they were destructive towards trust in science, discouraged actual critical thinking, and that sources like Graham Hancock with multimillion dollar budgets and more personal monetary incentives couldn't be trusted.
She made it two minutes in.
Two.
Minutes.
I've sat down and watched through 'documentaries' she wanted to show me, blatantly false TikTok videos, and read articles that she's sent my way and took the time to digest them and point out my thoughts on the matter. I didn't want to change her mind on this or anything, I *JUST* wanted for her to understand where I'm coming from. She couldn't make it two minutes in to a segment that doesn't even serve to debunk or necessarily question her core beliefs.
Basically she stopped, looked at me even before she had heard a full point being made in the video, and said, "he's an atheist, right?" What the actual FUCK does that matter? I tried to get her to watch more of it, but she refused entirely. What was her reasoning behind completely ignoring something I just wanted to show her? "How old is he? 23? Well, I have twenty years more experience on this Earth and I know much more about this than him." She doesn't have a formal education in archeology and attended only about a year of college twenty years ago. After that she only tried to discredit the video by making baseless claims, that clearly MiniMinuteman didn't know what he was talking about and hasn't been to an archeological site (he has a bachelor's in environmental science and has made it abundantly clear on his channel that he has done a good deal of course work in archeology), that he probably works for a college and the elusive 'They' (to my understanding he is in search of work and does YouTube partly as a job), and that because she isn't a scientist, it honestly doesn't matter what she believes even if it's blatantly wrong, because she always thinks she's right and that the fucking world is out to get her.
The absolute coup de grace: I recently have gone on academic withdrawal from my university as I was struggling with coursework. My mom and step-dad took on a chunk of my student loans over the past three years but I myself have some debt and am in search of a job. They know that full well and know that I struggled with my work and am struggling with thinking about finances since they've told me they won't be paying for the next year or so that I'll have to take when I go back. So when I show my mom just a short snippet of a video to show her my thought process when we get into our periodic screaming matches, why I am passionate about science, and how my core beliefs on the world have been developed, her fucking argument as to why she does not have to watch more than two minutes of it: "I'm paying for *your* loans, so I know better and am right."
I wouldn't be making this post if this were a one-time thing, but we've gotten into similar arguments over less. I'm just so tired of dealing with someone that thinks they can lord over me and others because of some childish notion that age, money, and inexperience make them right. To her, it doesn't fucking matter if all the evidence is to the contrary. She's always right. And everyone that disagrees is just a child, just doesn't work hard enough, and is working for some shadowy fucking cabal sent by Satan himself to prove that a rock is a rock and not, idk, Adam's first shit in Eden.
At the core, I guess this isn't so much about conspiracy theories, that's just an example of the big problem here. I'm never happy talking about my interests with her. There's always some reason to doubt myself even when I've thought something through with the best of my knowledge on the subject. There's always some reason that I'm wasting my time getting an education whether that's because the science being taught is a lie or there is no objective truth in her eyes apart from what she already believes. There are plenty of reasons why I started going to therapy in college and the way my mom treats me like an ignorant, naïve little child still is one of the biggest and most frustrating ones because it's going to be years still until I'll ever be able to get away from her.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17ZMAyQCrYKx-q4Elym82xDemlIirVOdJ/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=109474854956598892099&rtpof=true&sd=true

1. RADIOACTIVITY

It was observed by Henri Becquerel in i896 that some minerals like pitchblende emit radiation spontaneously, and this radiation can blacken photographic plates if photographic plate is wrapped in light proof paper. He called this phenomenon radioactivity. It was observed that radioactivity was not affected by temperature, pressure or chemical combination, it could therefore be a property that was intrinsic to the atom-more specifically to its nucleus. Detailed studies of radioactivity resulted in the discovery that radiation emerging from radioactive substances were of three types : 📷-rays, 📷 -rays and 📷 -rays.
📷-rays were found to be positively charged, 📷-rays (mostly) negatively charged, and 📷 - rays uncharged. Some of the properties of 📷 and 📷– rays, are explain below:
(i) Alpha Particles: An -particle is a helium nucleus, i.e. a helium atom which has lost two electrons. It has a mass about four times that of a hydrogen atom and carries a charge +2e. The velocity of -particles ranges from 5 to 7 percent of the velocity of light. These have very little penetrating power into a material medium but have a very high ionising power.
(ii) Beta Particles: -particles are electrons moving at high speeds. These have greater (compared to -particles) penetrating power but less ionising power. Their emission velocity is almost the velocity of light. Unlike -particles, they have a spectrum of energy, i.e., beta particles possess energy from a certain minimum to a certain maximum value.
(iii) Gamma Rays: -rays are electromagnetic waves of wavelength of the order of ~ 10–12 m. These have the maximum penetrating power (even more than X–ray) and the least ionising power. These are emitted due to transition of excited nucleus from higher energy state to lower energy state.
Property 📷 📷 📷
Nature Positive charged Negatively charged Uncharged
particles, 2He4 particles (electrons). 📷
nucleus electromagnetic radiation
Charge +2e –e 0
Mass 6.6466 × 10–27 kg 9.109×10–31kg 0
Range ~10 cm in air, can be Upto a few m in Several m in air
stopped by 1mm of A📷 can be stopped stopped by ~ cm of
~cm of A 📷 Pb
Natural By natural radioiso- By radioisotopes Excited nuclei formed
sources topes e.g. 92U236 e.g. 29Co68 as a result of 📷, 📷 decay
The other simple laws of radioactivity that were discovered by were the Rutherford-Soddy displacement laws:
(a) During a 📷 decay, the daughter element was always two position below the parent in the periodic table; the mass number of the daughter nucleus was 4 units smaller than that of the parent nucleus. 📷
(b) During 📷-decay, the daughter nucleus had the same mass number as the parent while its atomic number was greater than that of the parent by 1 (smaller by 1 unit in 📷 decay). 📷
(c) 📷 emission did not result in change of atomic number or mass number.
Radioactivity is observed to be a random process, it cannot be predicted when a particular nucleus will decay. One can only discuss the probability of its decay.

1. RADIOACTIVE DECAY LAW

The number of atoms disintegrating per second 📷 is directly proportional to the number of atoms (N) present at that instant. For most radioisotopes, 📷 is very small in the SI system it take a large number N(~ Avogadro number, 1023) to get any significant activity.
📷 ….(i)
Where  is the radioactivity decay constant.
If No is the number of radioactive atoms present at a time t = 0, and N is the number at the end of time t, then
📷
The term 📷is called the activity of a radioactive substance and is denoted by 'A'.
Units: 1 Becquerel (Bq) = 1 disintegration per second (dps)
1 curie (Ci) = 3.7 x 1010 dps
1 Rutherford =106 dps
The changes in N, due to radioactivity, are very small in 1 s compared with the value of N 'its self.
Therefore. N may be approximated by means of a continuous function N(t).
For the case considered in equation (i), we can write,
A = rate of decrease of N = 📷
or 📷 .....(ii)
Note the equation (ii) is valid only for large value of N, typically –1018 or so.
If the number of atoms at time t = 0 (initial) is N = N0, then one can solve equation (ii):
📷
or In 📷
or N(t) = N0 📷 ......(iii)
The activity A (t) = 📷(t) and is given by
A (t) = 📷
= A0 📷 taking (A0 = 📷N0) ....(iv)
The variation of N is represented below:
📷 📷
Graphs of A vs t or In A vs t are similar to the above graphs

1. HALF-LIFE

A significant feature of the above graph is the time in which the number of active nuclei (N) is halved. This is independent of the starring value, N = N0. Let us compute this time:
📷
📷 📷 = 📷
or, 📷 = In 2 = 0.693 (approx)
or, t' = 📷 = 📷
This half-life represents the time in which the number of radioactive nuclei falls to 📷 of its starting value. Activity, being proportional to the number of active nuclei, also has the same half-life.
Illustration 1: A count rate-meter is used to measure the activity of a given sample. At one instant the meter shows 4750 counts per minute. Five minutes later it shows 2700 counts per minute. Find:
(a) decay constant
(b) the half life of the sample.
Solution: Initial activity = A0 = dN/dt at t = 0
Final activity = At = dN/dt at t = t
📷
📷
📷
📷
📷

1. MEAN-LIFE

A very significant quantity that can be measured directly for small numbers of atoms is the mean lifetime. If there are n active nuclei, (atoms) (of the same type, of course), the mean life is
📷
Where 📷, 📷,....... 📷 represent the observed lifetime of the individual nuclei and n is a very large number. It can also be calculated as a weighted average:
📷
Where N1 nuclei live for time 📷,
N2 nuclei live for time 📷....... and so on.
This quantity may be related with 📷.
Using calculus (vi) may be rewritten as:
📷
Where dN is the number of nuclei decaying between t, t + dt; the modulus sign is required to ensure that it is positive.
dN = 📷
and dN = 📷
📷 📷
= 📷 = 📷 (integrating the numerator by parts)
or 📷
Illustration 2: Cascade Decays: Frequently, a nucleus A decays into another nucleus B, which again decays into C, and so on until the series ends in a stable nuclide. These are known as cascade decays. We will consider a simple example of a cascade decay where a nuclide a decays into B, and then, B decays into C:
📷
Suppose that there are N0 atoms of A to begin with the problem is to find the numbers 0f atoms of A, B, C respectively as a function of time t.
Solution: Suppose that, at time t, there are NA atoms of A. Nb atoms of B. and We write the equations:
📷 –activity of A = 📷 .....(i)
📷 = + (activity of A) – (activity of B)
= 📷 ....(ii)
Since each decay of A increases the number of atoms of B
📷 ....(iii)
Solving equation (i), we get
NA (t) = N0 📷 ....(iv)
Substituting this in equation (ii), we get. the solution,
NB (t) = 📷 ......(v)
Putting the initial value (t = 0) of NB, we get C1, and substituting this value of C1 we get the expression for NB :
NB (t) = 📷 .......(vi)
Substitution the value of NB in equation (iii) and solving, we get
NC = 📷 ......(vii)
Using these values of NA, NB and NC. the activity can be calculated, if required.

1. THE NUCLEUS

It exists at the centre of an atom, containing entire positive charge and almost whole of mass. The electron revolve around the nucleus to form an atom. The nucleus consists of protons (+ve charge) and neutrons.
(i) A proton has positive charge equal in magnitude to that of an electron (+1.6 x 10–19 C) and a mass equal to 1840 times that of an electron.
(ii) A neutron has no charge and mass is approximately equal to that of proton.
(iii) The number of protons in a nucleus of an atom is called as the atomic number (Z) of that atom. The number of protons plus neutrons (called as Nucleons) in a nucleus of an atom is called as mass number (A) of that atom.
(iv) A particular set of nucleons forming an atom is called as nuclide. It is represented as ZXA.
(v) The nuclides having same number of protons (Z), but different number of nucleons (A) are called as isotopes.
(vi) The nuclide having same number of nucleons (A), but different number of protons (Z) are called as isobars.
(vii) The nuclide having same number of neutrons (A - Z) are called as isotones.

1. MASS DEFECT & BINDING ENERGY

The nucleons are bound together in a nucleus and the energy has to be supplied in order to break apart the constituents into free nucleons. The energy with which nucleons are bounded together in a nucleus is called as Binding Energy (B.E.). In order to free nucleons from a bounded nucleus this much of energy (= B.E.) is to be supplied.
It is observed that the mass of a nucleus is always less than the mass of constituent (free) nucleons. This difference in mass is called as mass defect and is denoted as m.
If mn : mass of a neutron ; mp : mass of a proton
M (Z, A) : mass of bounded nucleus
Then, m = Z . mp + (A – Z). mn – M (Z, A)
This mass-defect is in form of energy and is responsible for binding the nucleons together. From Einstein's law of inter-conversion of mass into energy:
E = mc2 (c : speed of light; m : mass)
📷 binding energy = m . c2
Generally, m is measured in amu units. So let us calculate the energy equivalent to 1 amu. It is calculated in eV (electron volts; 1 eV = 1.6 x 10–19 J)
📷
📷
There is another quantity which is very useful in predicting the stability of a nucleus called as Binding energy per nucleons.
📷
📷
From the plot of B.E./nucleons Vs mass number (A), we observe that:
(i) B.E./nucleons increases on an average and reaches a maximum of about 8.7 MeV for A  50 – 80.
(ii) For more heavy nuclei, B.E./nucleons decreases slowly as A increases. For the heaviest natural element U238 it drops to about 7.5 MeV.
(iii) From above observation, it follows that nuclei in the region of atomic masses 50-80 are most stable.
Illustration 2: If mass of proton = 1.008 amu and mass of neutron = 1.009 amu, then the binding energy per nucleon for 4Be9 (mass = 9.012 amu) will be –
(A) 0.0672 MeV (B) 0.672 MeV
(C) 6.72 MeV (D) 67.2 MeV
Solution: Mass defect
📷
📷
📷
Illustration 4: The energy released in the following β-decay process will be -
📷
Given that
📷
(A) 0.931 MeV (B) 0.731 MeV
(C) 0.511 MeV (D) 0.271 MeV
Solution: Mass defect 📷
📷
📷
Illustration 5: The binding energy per nucleon for 3Li7 will be, if the mass of 3Li7 is 7.01653 amu.
(A) 5.6 MeV (B) 39.25 MeV
(C) 1 MeV (D) zero.
Solution: 📷
📷
📷
📷
Illustration 6: How much energy is released in the following reaction?
📷
If the B.E./Nucleon of 1H2 and 2He4 are 1.123 MeV and 7.2 MeV respectively.
(A) 12 MeV (B) 24.3 MeV
(C) 36 MeV (D) zero
Solution: B. E. of 1H2
📷
📷
B.E. of an α -particle = 4 × 7.2
Eα = 28.8
 energy released ER = Eα – Ed
ER = 28.8 – 4.5 = 24.3 MeV

1. NUCLEAR FORCES

The protons and neutrons are held together by the strong attractive forces inside the nucleus. These forces are called as nuclear forces.
(i) Nuclear forces are short-ranged. They exist in small region (of diameter 10–15 m = 1 fm). The nuclear force between two nucleons decrease rapidly as the separation between them increases and becomes negligible at separation more than 10 fm.
(ii) Nuclear force are much stronger than electromagnetic force or gravitational attractive forces.
(iii) Nuclear force are independent of charge. The nuclear force between two proton is same as that between two neutrons or between a neutron and proton. This is known as charge independent character of nuclear forces.
In a typical nuclear reaction
(i) In nuclear reactions, sum of masses before reaction is greater than the sum of masses after the reaction. The difference in masses appears in form of energy following the Law of inter-conversion of mass & energy. The energy released in a nuclear reaction is called as Q Value of a reaction and is given as follows.
If difference in mass before and after the reaction is m amu
(m = mass of reactants minus mass of products)
then Q value = m (931) MeV
(ii) Law of conservation of momentum is also followed.
(iii) Total number of protons and neutrons should also remain same on both sides of a nuclear reaction.
Illustration 7: Calculate the Q-value of the nuclear reaction:
0C12 📷 10Ne20 + 2He4
The following data are given:
m(6C12) = 12.000000 u
m(10Ne20) = 12.000000 u
m(2Ne4) = 4.002603 u
Solution: The Q-value of this reaction may be easily calculated may be easily calculated from the masses of the individual nuclei.
Q = [2m (6C12) – { m (10Ne20) + m (2He4)}]e2
= 24.000000 – (19.992439 + 4.002603)} u × c2
= 4.618 MeV
Illustration 8: Binding energy of the calculate the mass defect and the binding energy of an 📷-particle given the following date:
mn = 1.0086665 u
mp = 1.007825 u
📷= 4.0026 u
(1u = 931.5 MeV/c2)
Solution: The mass defect of an 📷-particle is given by
📷 = (2 × 1.008665 + 2 × 1.007825) – 4.0026)u
= 0.03038u
The Binding energy is related to the mass defect by the reaction.
B.E. = 📷
= 0.03038 × 931.5 MeV
= 28.3 MeV (approximately)

1. NUCLEAR FISSION

The breaking of a heavy nucleus into two or more fragments of comparable masses, with the release of tremendous energy is called as nuclear fission. The most typical fission reaction occurs when slow moving neutrons strike 92U235. The following nuclear reaction takes place.
📷
If more than one of the neutrons produced in the above fission reaction are capable of inducing a fission reaction (provided U235 is available), then the number of fissions taking place at successive stages goes increasing at a very brisk rate and this generates a series of fissions. This is known as chain reaction. The chain reaction takes place only if the size of the fissionable material (U235) is greater than a certain size called the critical size.
If the number of fission in a given interval of time goes on increasing continuously, then a condition of explosion is created. In such cases, the chain reaction is known as uncontrolled chain reaction. This forms the basis of atomic bomb.
In a chain reaction, the fast moving neutrons are absorbed by certain substances known as moderators (like heavy water), then the number of fissions can be controlled and the chain reaction is such cases is known as controlled chain reaction. This forms the basis of a nuclear reactor.
Illustration 9: When a beta particle is emitted from a nucleus the effect on its neutron-proton ratio is
(A) increased (B) decreased
(C) remains same (D) first (1) then (2)
Solution: 📷
📷
Illustration 10: In which sequence, the radioactive radiations are emitted in the following nuclear reactions?
📷
(A) β, α and γ (B) β, γ and α
(C) α, β and γ (D) γ, α and β
Solution: We know that on emission of α-particle from the nucleus, atomic number reduces by 2 and mass number reduces by 4. And on emission of β-particle from the nucleus, the atomic number increases by 1. Similarly on emission of γ-particle from the nucleus, there is no change in atomic number of mass number.

1. NUCLEAR FUSION

The process in which two or more light nuclei are combined into a single nucleus with the release of tremendous amount of energy is called as nuclear fusion. Like a fission reaction, the sum of masses before the fusion (i.e. of light nuclei) is more than the sum of masses after the fusion (i.e. of bigger nucleus) and this difference appears as the fusion energy. The most typical fusion reaction is the fusion of two deuterium nuclei into helium.
📷
For the fusion reaction to occur, the light nuclei are brought closer to each other (with a distance of 10–14 m). This is possible only at very high temperature to counter the repulsive force between nuclei. Due to this reason, the fusion reaction is very difficult to perform. The inner core of sun is at very high temperature, and is suitable for fusion, in fact the source of sun's and other star's energy is the nuclear fusion reaction

1. ASSIGNMENT
   
2. The mass number of a nucleus is
   

(A) always less than atomic number
(B) always more than atomic number
(C) equal to atomic number
(D) some times more than and some times equal to atomic number.
Solution- (D) Mass number of a nucleus represents the number of nucleons (neutrons + protons). When no neutrons are present in the nucleus, mass number equals to the atomic number.

1. In which of the following decays, the element does not change?

(A) α – decay (B) β+ – decay
(C) β – decay (D) y – decay
Solution- (D) γ-ray has no charge and no mass during γ-decay the element will not have any change in atomic number or mass number.

1. In the reaction 📷the minimum energy of the 📷particle is

(A) 1.21 MeV (B) 1.62 MeV
(C) 1.89 MeV (D) 1.96 MeV.
(MN = 14.00307 amu, MHe = 4.00260 amu and MO
= 16.99914 amu, MH = 1.00783 amu and 1 amu = 931 MeV)
Solution- (A) 7N14 + 2He4 📷 8O17 + 1H1
Total mass of reactants = 18.00567 amu
Tota mass of products = 18.00697 amu
Mass defect = 18.00697 – 18.00567 = 0.0013 amu
📷 Energy (E) = 931 (0.0013) = 1.2103 MeV

1. In the carbon cycle of fusion

(A) Four 1H1 fuse to form 2He4 and two positrons
(B) Four 1H1 fuse to form 2He4 and two electrons
(C) Two 1H2 fuse to form 2He4
(D) Two 1H2 fuse to form 2He4 and two neutrons
Solution- (A) 41H1📷 2He4 + 2. +1e0 + Energy.

1. In each fission of U235, 200 MeV of energy is released. If a reactor produces 100 MW power, the rate of fission in it will be

(A) 3.125 × 1018 per minute > (B) 3.125 × 1017 per second
(C) 3.125 × 1017 per minute> (D) 3.125 × 1018 per second
Solution- (D) We know 📷
📷= 3.125 × 1018 /sec

1. To generate a power of 3.2 MW, the number of fissions of U235 per minute is (Energy released per fission = 200 MeV, 1 eV = 1.6 × 10–19 J)

(A) 6×1018¡ (B) 6×1017 (C) 1017 (D) 6×1016
Solution- (A) Power of reactor 📷
Where 'n' is number of fissions 't' is time 'E' is energy released per fission
📷
📷

1. If in nuclear reactor using U235 as fuel, the power output is 4.8 MW, the number of fissions per second is (Energy released per fission of U235 = 200 MeV watts, e eV = 1.6 × 10–19 J)

(A) 1.5×1017 (B) 3×1019 (C) 1.5×025 (D) 3×1025
Solution- (A) P = 4.8 MW = 4.8×106 W
Power of a nuclear reactor 📷
📷= 1.5 × 1017

1. In the following nuclear reaction 📷. What does X stand for ?

(A) A neutron (B) A neutrino (C) an electron (D) A proton
Solution- In β-decay process a neutrino is accompanied with the emission of a positron.

1. If 200 MeV energy is released in the fission of a single U235 nucleus, the number of fissions required per second to produce 1 kilowatt power shall be (given 1 eV = 1.6 × 10–19 J)

(A) 3.125×1013 (B) 3.125×1014
(C) 3.125×1015 (D) 3.125×1016
Solution- (A) Energy released in the fission
E = 200 MeV = 200×106×1.6×10–19 = 3.2×10–11 Joule
📷
📷= 3.125×1013

1. MP = 1.008 a.m.u., MN = 1.009 a.m.u. and 2He4 = 4.003 a.m.u. then the binding energy of α-particle is

(A) 21.4 MeV (B) 8.2 MeV (C) 34 MeV (D) 1.35 A/m.
Solution- (D) BE = 2Mp + 2Mn – Ma
= 2×1.008 + 2 × 1.009 – 4.003
= 0.031 amu
= 0.031 × 931 = 28.8 MeV

1. Energy released in fusion of 1 kg of deuterium nuclei

(A) 9×1013 J (B) 6×1027 J
(C) 2×107 KwH (D) 8×1023 MeV
Solution- (A) Fusion reaction of deuterium
1H2 + 1H2 📷 2He3 + 0n1+3.27 MeV
📷
📷

1. The energy produced in the sun is due to

(A) fission reaction (B) fusion reaction
(C) chemical reaction (D) motion of electrons and ions
Solution- (A) We know that source of the huge solar energy is the fusion of lighter nuclei. Fusion of hydrogen nuclei into helium nuclei is continuously taking place in the plasma, with the continuous liberation of energy. Therefore energy produced in the sun is due to fusion reaction.

1. Atomic number of a nucleus is Z, while its mass number is M. What will be the number of neutrons in its nucleus ?

(A) M (B) Z (C) (M–Z) (D) (M+Z)
Solution- (C) M = Z + N 📷

1. In uncontrolled chain reaction, the quantity of energy released, is

(A) very high (B) very low
(C) normal (D) first (A) to (B)
Solution- (A) We know that in the uncontrolled chain reaction, more than one of the neutrons produced in a particular fission cause further fissions so that the number of fissions increases very rapidly. Thus this is a very fast reaction and the whole substance is fissioned in a few moments. A huge quantity of energy is released.

1. The net force between two nucleons 1 fm apart is F1 if both are protons, F2 if both are neutrons, and F3 if one is a neutron and the other is a proton.

(A) F1 < F2 < F3 (B) F2 < F1 < F3
(C) F1 < F2 = F3 (D) F1 = F2 < F3
Solution: (C) The nuclear force of interaction between any pair of nucleons is identical i.e. force between two neutrons (F2) equals the force between neutron and proton (F3). However, between two protons net force is equal to the resultant of nuclear force between them (attractive in nature) and electrostatic force between them (repulsive in nature). Hence F1 is a value lesser than F2 and F3. So F1 < F2 = F3.

1. Which of the following process represents a 📷-decay?

(A) 📷📷 (B) 📷
(C) 📷 (D) 📷
Solution: (C) In gamma decay neither the proton number (Z) nor the neutron number (A-Z) changes. Only the quantum states of the nucleons change.

1. The activity of a sample of radioactive material is R1 at time t1 and R2 at time t2 (t2 > t1). If mean life of the radioactive sample is T, then:

(A) R1t1 = R2t2 (B) 📷
(C) 📷 (D) 📷
Solution: (C)
If R0 be the initial activity of the sample, then 📷and 📷
Where 📷 📷
📷
📷

1. When 15P30 decays to become 14Si30, the particle released is

(A) electron (B) α-particle
(C) neutron (D) positron
Sol: (D) 📷

1. Among electron, proton, neutron and α-particle the maximum penetration capacity is for

(A) electron (B) proton
(C) neutron (D) α-particle
Sol: (C)

1. Plutonium decays with a half-life of 24000 years. If plutonium is stored for 72000 years, the fraction of it that remains is

(A) 📷 (B) 📷 (C) 📷 (D) 📷
Sol (D) Number of half-life periods 📷
 The fraction that remains 📷

1. The decay constant (λ) and the half-life (T) of a radioactive isotope are related as:

(A) 📷 (B) 📷
(C) 📷 (D) 📷
Sol (D) Half-life 📷

1. The decay constant of a radioactive sample is λ. The half-time and the average-life of the sample will be respectively

(A) 📷 (B) 📷
(C) 📷 (D) 📷
Sol (B) Because ln 2 = 0.301 × 2.303 = 0.693

1. In the uranium radioactive series, the initial nucleus is 92U238 and the final nucleus is 82Pb206. When the uranium nucleus decays to lead, the number of α-particle emitted will be

(A) 1 (B) 2 (C) 4 (D) 8
Sol (D) 📷

1. The activity of a radioactive sample is 1.6 curie, and its half-life is 2.5 days. Its activity after 10 days will be:

(A) 0.8 curie (B) 0.4 curie (C) 0.1 curie (D) 0.16 curie
Sol (C) 📷
📷
A = 0.1 Curie.

1. In a mean life of a radioactive sample:

(A) about 1/3 of substance disintegrates
(B) about 2/3 of the substance disintegrates
(C) about 90% of the substance disintegrates
(D) almost all the substance disintegrates.
Sol (B) 📷
Given 📷
📷
📷

1. Concept of neutrino was given by

(A) Sommerfield (B) Pauli
(C) P-Fermy (D) J. Chadwick
Sol (B)

1. Half-life of an element is 30 days. How much part will remain after 90 days

(A) 1/4th part (B) 1/16 part
(C) 1/8th part (D) 1/3rd part
Sol (C) 📷

1. In the radioactive decay 📷number of emitted α and β particles emitted are

(A) 3, 3 (B) 3, 1 (C) 5, 3 (D) 3, 5
Sol (B) 📷
📷

1. After five half lives what will be the fraction of initial substance remaining undecayed

(A) 📷 (B) 📷 (C) 📷 (D) 📷
Sol (B) After 5 half-lives 📷

1. If half-life of a substance is 3.8 days & its initial quantity is 10.38 gm, then quantity of substance reaming after 19 days will be:

(A) 0.151 gm (B) 0.32 gm
(C) 1.51 gm (D) 0.16 gm
Sol (B) No. of half periods 📷
Quantity remaining after n half lives
📷
For Test

1. 1 atomic mass unit is equal to

(A) 1/12 (mass of one C-atom) (B) 1/16 (mass of O2-molecule)
(C) 1/14 (mass of N2-moleucle) (D) 1/25 (mass of F2-moleucle)
Solution- (A) We know that the atomic mass unit is defined as 📷th of the mass of one 6C12 atom.

1. For the construction of nuclear-bomb which of the following substances is taken ?

(A) U-235 (B) Pu-239 (C) F-14 (D) both (A) and (B)
Solution- (D) We know that uranium (U235) and plutonium (Pu) are used as fissionable substances in a nuclear bomb. They can be fissioned easily by neutrons.

1. Energy obtained when 1 mg mass is completely converted to energy is

(A) 3×108 J (B) 3×1010 J (C) 9×1013 J (D) 9×1015 J
Solution- (C) (E) = mc2 = (1 × 10–3) (3×108)2 = 9 × 1013 J

1. 1 MeV energy is

(A) 1.6×10–19 J (B) 1.6×10–16 J
(C) 1.6×10–13 J (D) 1.6×10–11 J
Solution- (C) 1eV = 1.6 × 1019 J
📷= 1.6 × 10–13 J

1. Nuclear fission and fusion can be explained on the basis of

(A) conversion of energy principle
(B) Einstein mass-energy equivalence relation
(C) binding energy per nucleon variation with nucleon number
(D) variation of mass with increasing atomic nucleus
Solution- (B) We know that is nuclear fission and fusion, the mass is converted into the energy. Therefore nuclear fission and fusion can be explained on the basis of Einstein mass-energy equivalence relation.

1. If 1 gm hydrogen is converted into 0.993 gm of helium, in a thermonuclear reaction, the energy released in the reaction is

(A) 63×107 J (B) 63×1010 J
(C) 63×1014 J (D) 63×1020 J
Solution- (B) 📷
= {(1×10–3) – (0.993×10–3)} × (3 × 108)2
= (7 × 10–6) × (9 × 1016) = 63 × 1010 J

1. In the given particles, which of the following is stable ?

(A) electron (B) proton (C) positron (D) neutron
Solution: (D) We know that neutrons do not have any charge. Therefore a neutron is more stable than proton, electron or position.

1. 1 a.m.u. is equal to

(A) 1 gm (B) 4.8×10–10 esu
(C) 6.023×1023 gm (D) 1.66×10–27 kg
Solution: (D) We know that one atomic mass unit (a.m.u.) is defined as 📷 of the mass of the isotope of carbon atom (6C12) and is numerically equal to = 1.66 × 10–27 kg.

1. Hydrogen bomb is based on the phenomenon of

(A) nuclear fission (B) nuclear fusion
(C) radioactive decay (D) none of these
Solution: (B) We know that in a hydrogen bomb, a uranium fission bomb is exploded, first, which produce high temperature of pressure. Due to this the heavy hydrogen nuclei come extremely close and fuse together, liberating huge energy. Thus the massive energy liberated is due to nuclear fusion.

1. When two deuterium nuclei fuse together in addition to tritium, we get a

(A) neutron (B) proton (C) α-particle (D) deuteron
Solution: (B) 1H2 + 1H2 📷1H3 + 1H1 + Q

1. In nuclear reaction there is conservation of

(A) energy only (B) mass, energy and momentum
(C) mass only (D) momentum only
Solution: (B) Mass, energy as well as momentum are conserved in nuclear reaction.

1. An atomic power reactor furnace can deliver 300 MW. The energy released due to fission of each of uranium atom U238 is 170 MeV. The number of uranium atoms fissioned per hour will be

(A) 5×1015 (B) 10×1020 (C) 40×1021 (D) 30×1025
Solution: (C) No. of Atoms fissioned per sec
📷
No. of Atoms fissioned per hour
📷

1. r1 and r2 are the radii of atomic nuclei of mass numbers 64 and 27 respectively. The ratio 📷is

(A) 📷 (B) 📷 (C) 📷 (D) 1
Solution: (A) 1H3 + 1P1 📷 2He4

1. Two radioactive materials. X1 and X2 have decay constants 10 📷 respectively. If initially they have the same number of nuclei, then the ratio of the number of nuclei of X1 to that of X2. will be 1/e after a time

(A) 📷 (B) 📷
(C) 📷 (D) 📷
Solution: (D)
N1 = N0 📷
N2 = N0 📷
📷 9📷 = 1, or t = 📷

1. The wave length of the characteristic X-ray 📷line emitted by a hydrogen like atom is 0.32 Å. The wave length of 📷 line emitted by the same element is:

(A) 0.18Å (B) 0.48Å
(C) 0.27Å (D) 0.38A
Solution: (C) The wavelength of x-rays emitted for 📷 line and 📷 line are given by 📷 and 📷
📷 📷
📷 📷

1. The ratio of the mean life of a radionuclide to its half-life is

(A) 1 (B) 1.44 (C) 2 (D) 3.12
Sol (B) Mean-life (t)mean 📷
and half-life 📷
📷

1. The half-life of radioactive substance is 48 hr. How much time it will take to disintegrate to its 1/16th part.

(A) 12 hr. (B) 16 hr. (C) 48 hr. (D) 192 hr.
Sol (D) 📷
📷

1. Radioactive substance emits

(A) α-rays (B) β-rays
(C) γ-rays (D) all of these.
Sol (D) We know that when one α-particle is emitted, the mass (A) is reduced by 4 and atomic number (Z) is reduced by 2. Therefore for new nucleus, mass no. is (A – 4) and atomic number is (Z – 2).

1. A radioactive substance has a half-life of 1 year. The fraction of this material, that would remain after 5 years will be

(A) 📷 (B) 📷 (C) 📷 (D) 📷
Sol (A) 📷

1. Half-life of a substance is 20 minutes. What is the time between 33% decay and 67% decay?

(A) 40 minutes (B) 20 minutes
(C) 30 minutes (D) 25 minutes
Sol (B) Let N0 be the number of nuclei at the beginning.
Number of undecayed nuclei after 33% decay = 0.67N0
Number of undecayed nuclei after 67% decay = 0.33N0
Also 📷 And in one half-life the number of undecayed nuclei becomes half.

1. The half-life of a radioactive substance is 3.6 days. How much of 20 mg of that radioactive substance will remain after 40 days?

(A) 2.68 × 103 mg (B) 4.31 × 10–2 mg
(C) 6.20 × 10–3 mg (D) 9.76 × 10–3 mg
Sol (D) 📷

1. A substance reduces to 1/16th of its original mass in 2 hours. The half-life period of the substance will be:

(A) 15 min (B) 30 min (C) 60 min (D) 120 min
Sol (B) 📷
📷

1. Which of the following processes represents a gamma-decay?

(A) 📷 (B) 📷
(C) 📷 (D) 📷
Sol (C)

1. The half-life of 215At is 100 μs. The time taken for the radioactivity of a sample of 215At to decay to (1/16) th of its initial value is

(A) 400 μs (B) 6.3 μs
(C) 40 μs (D) 300 μs
Sol (A) Number of half lives = 4
Total time = 📷

1. A sample of a radioactive substance contains 2828 atoms. If its half-life is 2 days, how many atoms will be left intact in the sample after one day?

(A) 1414 (B) 1000 (C) 2000 (D) 707
Sol (C) 📷

1. If N0 is the original mass of the substance of half life period t1/2 = 5 years, then the amount of substance left after 15 years is

(A) N0 / 8 (B) N0 / 16
(C) N0 / 2 (D) N0 / 4
Sol (A) 📷

1. At a specific instant emission of radioactive compound is deflected in a magnetic field. The compound can emit

(i) electrons (ii) protons (iii) He2+ (iv) neutrons
The emission at the instant can be
(A) i, ii, iii (B) i, ii, iii, iv (C) iv (D) ii, iii
Sol (A)

1. A radioactive sample at any instant has its disintegration rate 5000 disintegrations per minute. After 5 minutes, the rate is 1250 disintegrations per minute. Then, the decay constant (per minute) is

(A) 19 : 81 (B) 18 : 92
(C) 81 : 19 (D) 92 : 18
Sol (A) 📷
or 📷
or 📷

1. A nucleus with Z = 92 emits the following in a sequence: α, α, β–, β–, α, α, α, α ; β–, β–, α, β+, β+, α. The Z of the resulting nucleus is

(A) 76 (B) 78 (C) 82 (D) 74
Sol (B) 📷
📷
📷

1. Which of the following cannot be emitted by radioactive substances during their decay?

(A) protons (B) neutrinos
(C) helium nuclei (D) electrons
Sol (A)

(Not sure whether this is the right subreddit for this, or even if there is one—please tell me if you know a better one. Also, as forewarning, the most integral details of this question are bolded.)
For context, I have been writing an alternate history involving the accelerated development of spaceflight technology for over 5 years now (one with quite different assumptions from other examples of the subgenre), and one of its long-standing elements has been a wildly-ambitious space probe that would be sent on a Solar System Circumnavigation through a Grander Tour.
What does this mean? Well, here are the mission objectives:

1. The main spacecraft body (which I will obfuscatorily name “the Spacecraft”) must fly by every planet (1930–2006) in the Solar System save Pluto.
2. At least a subprobe (“Subprobe A”) must fly by Pluto.
   1. Double points if it manages to do so while flying by all 8 other planets.
3. A sample, no matter how miniscule (probably micrometeorites or ring particles), must be returned to Earth by a subprobe or sub-subprobe (“Subprobe B”) after flying by all 8 2006– planets.
   1. The course correction to do so may involve as much as an orbital-scale (~9000 m/s) multi-stage solid rocket together with aerobreaking and/or a brutal gravity assist.
   2. Double points if it is on or launched from Subprobe A.
   3. Triple points if it is on or launched from Subprobe A after the Pluto flyby.
4. Each flyby in the Outer Solar System should preferably be at least 1 synodic period before that of the real-life Grand Tour users the Voyagers in order to prepare for the arrival of a vaguely equivalent program.

The base of the spacecraft’s conception was that it would be launched around the time of or before the first outer planets and interstellar probes in real life (Pioneer 10/11) to make time for it to engage on a more proper Grand Tour trajectory. This was reinforced by the fact that said time range roughly overlaps with the 450^th anniversary of an Earth circumnavigation expedition done by the crew of a certain navigator, who happens to be the namesake of a far less impressive real-life space mission.
So, the rock-hard minimum and maximum are the 450^th anniversary of the start of that navigator’s voyage (September 20^th, 1969) and the launch of the latter Pioneer, Pioneer 11 (April 5^th, 1973). However, it would ideally be launched before September 6^th, 1972, exactly 450 years after what was left of that expedition returned, yet as close to that date as possible (i.e. within 1972) to allow as much advanced technology to be used in it as possible—the spacecraft would include developments like 8-bit microprocessors, helical-scan tape data storage, robotic arms, synthetic aperture RADAR, and possibly non-solid-state radioisotope generators. And yes, the first asking of this question was deliberately timed to match with the 50th anniversary of that date and the 45th anniversary of the launch of Voyager 1. (I’d have preferred it to be earlier, but ehh…)
Also, the spacecraft’s original conception had it launched on a Saturn IB–Agena D (what I thought was the highest-capacity high-velocity non-Saturn V notional “drop-in” vehicle that could have been made at the time… ignoring that either a Saturn IB–Centaur or earlier Titan IIIE would have greater capacity and could probably be made with similar R&D), but as its size and capabilities grew, its proposed launch vehicle was progressively upgraded until it became the “Saturn 1E-SB”, which consists of 4 stages (more details on which could be provided if required), the last one, not considered integral to the launch vehicle’s identity, being the main course correction stage of the spacecraft.
The first 3 stages would have the capability to put the 4th stage and ~5.5-ton spacecraft complex—~28.5 tons in total and ~6.75 tons dry mass—on a trans-Cytherean or potentially trans-Martian injection (up to 3650 m/s tested in KSP RSS RO using a penultimate version of the launch vehicle, probably ~3800 m/s), beginning its Grander Tour… A Saturn V could do so, too, and to be honest I now find justifying the existence of the Saturn 1E-SB somewhat difficult, so I may bite the bullet of switching away from a “Saturn one” platform.
Now, how much ∆v would the course correction stage be capable of supplying? A measly… ~5500 m/s. And that’s with the subprobes still attached. So there is a very beefy, though not unlimited course-correction capacity.
Now, orbital mechanics is a complex business, and I don’t know if it would even be possible to fulfill even the barest mission requirements given the ∆v budget within that launch window, let alone how it would be done. However, the existence of trajectory designs like this, a flyby of all 2006– planets launched in the same vague timeframe with a negligible course-correction budget, indicates its likely possibility. Note that the 5500 m/s and 5.5 tons payload is a maximum and minimum, respectively—the more optimized the trajectory can be made, the smaller the fuel mass of the course correction stage needs to be, allowing a greater scientific payload, so the more optimized the mission is, the better.
And so, the question. Ideally, I’d like to have the specifics of this drilled down by April 5^th, 2023 for some sense of timeliness. For more context, this is the encounter order as planned when the conception of this mission reached its modern form:
Main spacecraft: Earth→Venus→Mercury→Venus→Mars→Jupiter→Saturn→Ouranos→Neptune→Interstellar
Subprobe A: 〃→〃→〃→〃→〃→〃→Pluto→Interstellar
Subprobe B: 〃→〃→〃→〃→〃→〃→〃→Ouranos→Neptune→Earth

This is a VERY Work In Progress list but should give you a little bit of an idea what I'm working with when I write my stories. For the sake of Continuity, I like to keep everything written and compiled. Given dates are the first production year of the specific component. Up to date as of 6/23/2022.
Military Weapons(Vehicle mounted)
****The general organization****
Small Caliber Chemical Kinetics
Undirected Energy Weapons(FlamePlasma)
Pulse Weapons(Only Atmospheric)
Large Caliber Chemical Kinetics
Electromagnetic Kinetics
Missiles
Rockets
Torpedoes
Bombs
Directed Energy Weapons Ion/Electron
Directed Energy Weapons Maser
Directed Energy Weapons Laser
Directed Energy Weapons Beamer
Directed Energy Weapons Graser
​
Human
520 PU=12.7mm heavy machine gun(M2-Mk.12)
126 PU=20mm autocannon(Bushwacker)
204 PU=20mm rotary gatling cannon(Vulcan)
287 PU=30mm autocannon(Cratermaker autocannon)
337 PU=30mm rotary gatling cannon(Ignias)
234 PU=40mm automatic grenade launcher(Mk.49)
640 PU=40mm autocannon(Hinkel-Mk.8)
573 PU=85mm Autocannon(Arguileman)
321 PU=92mm Quad/dual linked Flak cannon(Swashbuckler)
240 PU=Heavy flamethrower(Firestorm flamer)
303 PU=140mm battle cannon(M8A2E1 L-42 cannon)
572 PU=225 super heavy battle cannon(Doomhammer cannon)
483 PU=320mm spigot mortar(Storm Mortar)
367 PU=2500cm Macro cannon(Nova Cannon)
538 PU=5000cm Macro cannon(Supernova Cannon)
622 PU=7500cm Macro cannon(Kilonova Cannon)
266 PU=100mm railgun(Can Opener)
273 PU=130mm railgun(Freddison)
289 PU=150mm railgun(Marco)
301 PU=175mm railgun(Gale)
303 PU=200mm railgun(Gate Smasher)
323 PU=225mm railgun(Pendragon)
344 PU=250mm railgun(Harbinger)
455 PU=150mm rockets(Avalanche missile launcher)
467 PU=155mm swarmer rockets(Hornet swarmer launcher)
484 PU=165mm rockets(Monsoon missile launcher)
538 PU=260mm rockets(Hurricane missile launcher)
457 PU=150mm Guided ship to ship missiles(Viper-3 Missiles)
589 PU=180mm Guided ship to ship missiles(Gulfstream Missiles)
544 PU=320mm Guided air to ground missiles(Harpy-LR Missiles)
456 PU=520mm Nuclear Torpedo(Mark 47s)
455 PU=250 kg Guided smart bomb(GB250-3)
504 PU=1360 kg incindary bomb(Firestorm)
478 PU=2000 kg low altitude/high drag bomb(Showstopper)
333 PU=1000 kg Combined munitions despenser (Type CM-Cluster Munitions) bomb(CBU-0067)
333 PU=1000 kg Combined munitions despenser (Type MD-Mine Laying) bomb(CBU-0067)
569 PU=10 megawatt repeating laser cannon(Layzor)
​
Nerivith
478 PU=5 megawatt repeating beam cannon(Shortbow Beamcaster 5M)
502 PU=30 megawatt beam cannon(Longbow Beamcaster 30M)
502 PU=25 megawatt beam cannon(Longbow Beamcaster 25M)
489 PU=10 megawatt repeating beam cannon(Shortbow Beamcaster 10M)
437 PU=30 gauge plasma lobber(APL-99)
536 PU=50 megawatt beam cannon(Warbow Beamcaster 50M)
756 PU=3.5 megawatt beam cannon(Flechette)
634 PU=100 gigawatt beam cannon(Paragon)
528 PU=20 gigawatt maser array(Aragness)
483 PU=920 kilowatt repeating heavy beam gun(Sharpstar)
488 PU=15 megawatt beam lance(Light Lancer)
548 PU=Guided ship to ship missiles(Trilobate Missiles)
460 PU=540mm Nuclear torpedo(Bonfire torpedo launcher)
​
Vinarfel
344 PU=18 megawatt Electron beamer(Blackout Electron beam projector)
107 PU=14mm heavy machine gun(Ambush)
161 PU=100mm railgun(smasher)
138 PU=10mm repeating railgun(popper)
178 PU=180mm railgun(Obliterator)
145 PU=25mm repeating railgun(Stormer)
302 PU=84mm railgun(Breaker)
312 PU=850 kilowatt Electron Beamer(AM12 Electron beam projector)
166 PU=20mm railgun PD(Bramble Slash)
399 PU=245mm EM Launch assisted Ion Torpedo(Crasher)
493 PU=275mm EM Launch assisted Ion Torpedo(Thunderer)
345 PU=47mm gatling cannon(Downpour)
296 PU=170mm rockets(Starburst missile launcher)
334 PU=230mm rockets(Sunburst missile launcher)
​
Slaaveth
562 PU=20 megawatt graser projector(Annihilator)
175 PU=11mm machine gun(Dizzen)
595 PU=5 megawatt repeating laser cannon(Tachyon Laser Combiner 5M)
404 PU=20 megawatt multilaser(Grooum Multilaser)
237 PU=160mm ATGM(Pinpoint missile system)
489 PU=Guided ship to ship Missiles(Slasher)
433 PU=220mm Rocket(Eradicator missile launcher)
548 PU=300 kg guided smart bomb(Urank Bombs)
398 PU=8 megawatt repeating laser cannon(Marcoos)
​
Yeown
683 PU=12mm heavy machine gun(Spine spitter)
732 PU=145mm missile(Lightning strike missile launcher)
728 PU=15mm autocannon(Talon)
744 PU=120mm Cannon(Rockslide L-16 cannon)
752 PU=260mm howitzer(Doomclaw)
718 PU=38mm autocannon(Slasher)
604 PU=500 kg guided smart bomb(HE-42)
728 PU=214mm rocket(Blitzleaf missile launcher)
744 PU=94mm Battle cannon(Ultimos Cannon)
​
Swanith
333 PU=Heavy Pulse cannon(Wingterror Cannon)
​
Skorp
80mm autocannon(Rockshatter Cannon)
75mm cannon(Stone Thrower)
147mm rockets(Landslide missile launcher)
​
Military Power Plants(Vehicle Mounted)
​
Small(20 KW-25 MW)
Primary
Mirror Magnetic Bottle Generator(TMMB Reactor)
Magnetic Compression Tokamak(MCT Reactor)
Tandem
Secondary
Light Water Fission(LWF Reactor)
Thermal Neutron Fission(TherNeut Reactor)
Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator(RT-MOX Reactor)
Molten Salt Thorium Fission(MST-F Reactor)
Light Water Thorium Fission(LWT-F Reactor)
​
Medium(20 MW-500 MW)
Primary
Muon Catalyzed Fusion Stellarator(MUCAFUST Reactor)
Magnetic Oscillating Spheromak(MagOSphere Reactor)
Secondary
Graphite Moderated High Temperature Fission(GraMoHTF Reactor)
Liquid Fluoride Thorium Fission(LFT-F Reactor)
​
Large(250 MW-1 GW)
Primary
Fast Ignition Beam Fusion(FIBE Reactor)
Direct Drive Laser Imploder(DLImp Reactor)
Secondary
Liquid Metal Cooled Fission So(LMCSo Reactor)
Liquid Metal Cooled Fission Lb(LMCLb Reactor)
Fast Neutron Thorium Fission(FNT-F Reactor)
​
Titanic(1 GW-50 GW)
Primary
Neutral Beam Injection Magnetic Bottle Generator(Neutron Beam Reactor)
Ultra High Frequency-Electromagnetic Wave Generator(UHFEM Reactor)
Secondary
Ultra High Temperature Fission(UHTF Reactor)
Ultra High Temperature Thorium Fission(UHTT-F Reactor)
​
Military Engine Types(Vehicle Mounted)
​
Human
478 PU=Alask TEF-108 Turbofan [56 kN Thrust]
Nerivith
Vinarfel
Slaaveth
Yeown
Swanith
​
Military Booster Engines(Vehicle Mounted)
(1 kN = 224.81 lb Force/102 kg Force)
​
FighteGunship/Dropship(200/400/500)
547 PU=Grimsby Engine(Slaaveth) 110 kN Thrust [HydOx]
745 PU=Slingshot Engine(Nerivith) 105 kN Thrust [HydOx]
733 PU=Whipthorn Engine(Yeown) 145 kN Thrust [MethOx]
584 PU=Keppercal Engine(Human) 240 kN Thrust [MethOx]
620 PU=Dredd Engine(Human) 115 kN Thrust [MethOx]
368 PU=Reager Engine(Vinarfel) 120 kN Thrust [KerOx]
450 PU=Flightnois Engine(Vinarfel) 175 kN Thrust [KerOx]
732 PU=Greise Engine(Yeown) 200 kN Thrust [MethOx]
546 PU=Flail Engine(Nerivith) 130 kN Thrust [KerOx]
489 PU=KingFisher Engine(Human) 205 kN Thrust [MethOx]
Corvette/Frigate(700/1000)
496 PU=Chariot Engine(Nerivith) 280 kN Thrust [HydOx]
600 PU=Dredge Engine(Skorp) 380 kN Thrust [LiFlo]
515 PU=Oorth Engine(Vinarfel) 500 kN Thrust [HydOx]
DestroyeLight Cruiser(1400/2000)
343 PU=Slipnot Engine(Human) 860 kN Thrust [MethOx]
682 PU=Timberhitch Engine(Human) 940 kN Thrust [MethOx]
CarrieCruiser(2500/2800)
Battle CruiseHeavy Cruiser(3600/4000)
Battleship/Line Breaker(5500/6800)
478 PU=Hyper Igniter Engine(Human) 2550 kN Thrust [MethOx]
Dreadnought/Battle Station(8000/16000)
Mobile Assault Platforms(25000)
​
Booster Engine Fuel Types
Chemical
Hydrogen and Liquid Oxygen(HydOx)
Methane and Liquid Oxygen(MethOx)
Kerosine and Liquid Oxygen(KerOx)
Lithium and Liquid Fluorine(LiFlo)
Cesium and Liquid Oxygen(CesOx)
Electric
Xenon Ion propulsion(XeIon)
Cesium Ion Propulsion(CeIon)
Nuclear
​
==END OF DOCUMENT==

I work in a core lab at a cancer hospital. It's a particular specialty that requires expensive, well-maintained instruments that individual PIs would be unlikely to afford, so the basic research and some clinical labs at the hospital are our clients and we help them do these particular portions of projects, from experimental design, sample prep, instrument time, data analysis, data reporting, and manuscript writing.
Importantly, we do not work with any radioactive material OR in patient care.
We got a package delivered with my manager's name and our lab name on the label. Big bulky gray box of the sort we've never seen before, looks like it could withstand a major natural disaster. My coworker went to check the label and there's no mention of what it is or where it was mailed from--but a backwards sheet of paper with a radioactive warning symbol fell off of it.
I Googled the company on the shipping container and confirmed that it was a lead-lined containment system for shipping nuclear medicine reagents. I've written tests based on radiation safety and hospital imaging for another job and had passing familiarity with how these things are supposed to be handled safely by hospitals. We called EH&S, who were like "um idk it has your lab on it, are you sure you don't order radioisotopes?" Like NO, this is obviously a mistake.
They sent someone from nuclear chemistry down who investigated it, opened it, and found 2 empty pigs inside--they had previously contained 2 doses of radionuclides for a prostate cancer patient undergoing radiotherapy. A different oncologist's name was on the cannisters. He was relieved it was empty and the date of administration was from April, so the half-life would've elapsed and there shouldn't be any residual radioactivity. Apparently after using the radionuclides the shipping materials are supposed to be sent back to the company--which has a similar-sounding name to our lab. So this went from the clinic to our receiving/mailing department, unlabeled, they opened the package, saw the company name, and re-labeled it to have it delivered to our lab. Clinic staff and package handlers are all supposed to be trained in how to safely handle these things, and the ball was dropped on multiple levels.
On top of that, the doctor whose name was on the pigs? Doesn't do prostate cancer OR radiotherapy. He's pretty upset that radionuclides were ordered in his name. Our campus Radiation Safety Officer came by to take the package, warn us not to touch similar packages, and start an investigation into where this came from and who fucked up. I'm pregnant (haven't told anyone at work, since I don't work with anything that dangerous) and was pretty disappointed in the obvious safety fails here. Relieved that it was empty but dear god this never should've happened...

Hello everyone,
You might say that I am going through a "trial" in my faith, albeit more intellectual than moral.
Recently I've been uncertain, if not critical, of the young-earth creationist model. In particular, there is one thing that I just can't imagine being pure coincidence: The generally consistent results of different types of radiometric dating on meteorites and the earth's crust. Note that I say generally consistent. I am not at all saying we haven't been wrong before, and that there are not exceptions, some of which might even tell the story of a young earth. Naturally, we will get a few odd ones out with virtually any test if we take it enough in a sufficient number of places.
One response to radiometric dating results is something along the lines of "conditions, of the deluge and otherwise, would have been sufficient to accelerate the decay rates of radioisotopes significantly." As it turns out, radiometric dating kind of has a reputation for giving consistent results under a wide variety of conditions. Furthermore, extreme conditions of temperature and pressure would have affected different modes of decay (governed by different forces) differently, such that different radiometric dating methods of the earth would have given vastly different results (which is not the case). Even if the decay was accelerated unequally among different isotopes to this extent, the earth would have been heated to deadly temperatures. There is a theory that deals with this and speculates that the very universe expanded to compensate for this heating. But Noah, and all the animals on board, would have had to deal with rapid decay of radioisotopes in their own bodies (K-40, for example). For a little bit of background, here is an article that explains these problems.
The rebuttal I might continue with as a young earth creationist is "Radiometric dating methods are grossly biased; they are based on an old-earth model. Evolutionists use circular reasoning to date the earth, cleaning out data that doesn't fit with their narrative." To what extent would I find this to be true? It seems as though are given location of this "circular reasoning" in the structure of dating methods is rather vague. Of course it method relies on uniformitarianism, which cannot be proven in and of itself. Even so, and I said before, the convergent dates would be remarkably strange as a coincidence.
If they are not coincidence, what are they? If they are conspiracy, how do we demonstrate it? More and more I wish I had the knowledge and expertise to date a few meteorites myself.
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Thanks and I am interested in reading your take on this,
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Reece

When I was starting out investing in space, it wasn’t easy to find comprehensive lists of public space companies and related investment opportunities, so I thought I’d post this to help out those who are new to investing in this sector.
I am not recommending any particular investments – I’m just providing a list of what’s available in the space sector.
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ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds)
These are funds that give you exposure to a range of different companies with a single investment – click on the ticker symbol for the latest prices or click the fund names to visit their websites for their prospectus and to see which companies they include in the fund. The Expense Ratios I’ve listed were accurate at the time of posting, but can change over time.
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ARKX – ARK Space Exploration & Innovation ETF
An actively managed fund that invests in space companies and those that produce space enabling technologies such as 3D printing as well as those the fund managers believe will benefit from space such as agriculture. They also invest in other areas such as drones, air taxis, and electric powered aircraft.
Expense Ratio: 0.75%
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DEFN – Direxion Daily Aerospace & Defense Bull 3X Shares
A fund based on the Dow Jones U.S. Select Aerospace & Defense Index but uses leverage seeking to return 300% of the index’s daily performance. The index is float-adjusted market capitalization weighted, with a 22.5% weighting cap.
Expense Ratio: 0.96%
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ITA – iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF
This fund is also based on the Dow Jones U.S. Select Aerospace & Defense Index but does not use leverage – it simply seeks to return similar results to the index over time, before fees are taken out.
Expense Ratio: 0.42%
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ORBT – Harvest Space Innovation Index ETF
Based on the Solactive Space Innovation Index which is different to most other space indices as it uses a purely algorithmic process to determine which companies to include.
Expense Ratio: 0.79%
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PPA – Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF
Based on the Spade Defense Index which uses a modified market capitalization weighting methodology – visit the link for more information about how they decide what to include.
Expense Ratio: 0.61%
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ROKT – SPDR S&P Kensho Final Frontiers ETF
Based on the S&P Kensho Final Frontiers Index which is a list of stocks manually weighted each year and rebalanced twice a year. You could consider this to be a semi-managed index.
Expense Ratio: 0.45%
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UFO – Procure Space ETF
This is based on the S-Network Space Index which is rules based and has no human intervention.
Expense Ratio: 0.75%
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YODA – Procure Space UCITS ETF
This is a version of the UFO ETF above and trades on the London Stock Exchange and several European exchanges.
Expense Ratio: 0.75%
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Public Space Companies
Some of these are pure-space and some have mixed businesses with activities in areas such as aviation and defense. Due to the mixed business nature of many companies, there is no standard definition of what a space company is, so I use the following criteria:

• Provides or is developing products or services designed for use in space, or for use by organizations that operate in space; or
• Offers products or services that are largely dependent of space infrastructure; or
• Is a significant shareholder in one or more companies that operate in space.

The following list only includes companies that are traded on major stock exchanges; I’ve left out those that are only available Over-The-Counter or via Regulation Crowdfunding portals such as Spaced Ventures.
Disclosure: I am invested in some of the companies listed below – I disclose all my space related investments in these two lists: my public eToro space account and a list of the rest of my space investments.
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099320 – SatrecInitiativeCo Ltd
A South Korean satellite and component manufacturer that has been producing satellites since the late 1980’s.
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5OB – Creotech Instruments SA
A satellite manufacturing company from Poland that, as one of their projects, is currently developing a small Earth Observation constellation for the Polish Armed Forces.
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7011 – Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd
Plays a major role in Japan’s space program, operates the H-IIA family of rockets and is working with JAXA on the low cost medium launch vehicle, the H3).
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7012 – Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd
Has also been deeply involved in Japan’s space industry and currently provides the fairings for the H-IIA and H3 rockets.
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7013 – IHI Corporation
A huge engineering company that has a Rocket Systems and Space Exploration division that produces turbopumps and solid rocket boosters for JAXA’s H-IIA family of rockets.
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7267 – Honda Motor Co Ltd
Also available on the NYSE under the ticker HMC. In 2021 they announced that they had been quietly developing a space program that leverages their engineering systems and expertise to develop systems such as a lunar power system, lunar robotics, and a small reusable orbital class booster.
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9232 – PASCO CORP
An Earth Observation company that provides both aerial and space based imagery from both optical sensors and Synthetic Aperture Radar.
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9412 – SKY Perfect JSAT Holdings Inc.
A satellite communications provider from Japan which recently announced the formation of a joint venture with NTT called Space Compass Corporation which will be capitalized with ¥6 Billion to provide high speed optical data links for satellites.
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AAC – AAC Clyde Space AB
A Swedish company that provides small satellites and components in addition to operating their own satellites and providing data services.
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AIR – Airbus SE
Airbus has a Space division that builds satellites, crewed spacecraft systems, space station modules and much more. Their investment division, Airbus Ventures, invests in new space companies. Additionally, they own 50% of ArianeGroup which is the parent company of launch provider Arianespace.
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AJRD – Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc
Manufacturer of liquid fuelled rocket engines and solid fuelled rocket motors. They supply NASA, commercial launchers and the military. They produce engines for SLS and Vulcan Centaur just to name a couple.
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AMZN – Amazon.com Inc.
Amazon is developing Project Kuiper – an LEO low-latency broadband internet satellite constellation that will compete with the likes of Starlink, OneWeb and Telesat Lightspeed.
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ARQQ – Arqit Quantum Inc
They use satellites to securely distribute cryptography keys using principals of quantum mechanics.
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ASTR – Astra Space Inc
A launch provider that currently provides delivery of small to medium satellites of up to 335 Kg to SSO and up to 630 Kg to LEO.
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ASTS – AST SpaceMobile Inc
They plan to build an LEO constellation of satellites that can provide 4G/5G service direct to unmodified regular mobile phones instead of using specialized handsets like Iridium uses. They plan to initially focus on the equatorial region and later expand globally.
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AVIO – Avio SpA
Manufacturer of rockets, engines, propulsion systems and payload adapters. They are the manufacturer of the ESA’s Vega family of rockets.
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BA – BAE Systems plc
They have a storied history in aerospace and their Space Systems division currently provides radiation-hardened electronics and ground stations. They are primarily a defense contractor and the U.S. Department of Defense is one of their important customers.
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BA – Boeing Co
Boeing provides a wide range of space related products and services. Most notably they are the prime contractor for SLS and they designed and manufacture the reusable Starliner crewed spacecraft. They also own half of United Launch Alliance.
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BKSY – Blacksky Technology Inc
An Earth Observation company providing commercial access to satellite imagery from their own constellation, in addition to a range of software services to analyse, detect objects and label them automatically.
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BLL – Ball Corporation
Their Ball Aerospace division provides sensors, instruments, spacecraft, data services, aerospace products, and components for NASA, the DoD, Intelligence Community, U.S. Armed Forces, as well as commercial customers worldwide.
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BWXT – BWX Technologies Inc
In addition to their Syncom Space Services LLC (S3) joint venture which manages NASA’s Stennis Space Center and Michoud Assembly Facility they are also working on Nuclear Thermal Propulsion for NASA in addition to their Fission Surface Power project to create a reactor that can operate on the surface of the Moon or Mars.
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CENTUM – Centum Electronics Ltd.
An Indian company that produces a range of space hardware and are a major supplier to the Indian Space Research Organisation.
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CMTL – Comtech Telecommunications Corp
Provides a range of ground station systems for use with satellites to both commercial and governmental customers.
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DISH – DISH Network Corp
A Pay TV company that provides satellite broadcast services to residential and commercial customers.
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EOS – Electro Optic Systems Holdings LTD
Makes space domain awareness sensors used in applications such as space debris management, missile defense and optical communications.
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EGSA – Egyptian Satellite Co SAE (NileSat)
Provides radio and television using a combination of their own GEO satellites and several owned by Eutelsat.
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ESLT – Elbit Systems Ltd
Manufacturer of a range of space hardware with a focus on electro-optic observation systems. They have even been contracted to produce a complete space telescope.
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ETL – Eutelsat Communications SA
They are a provider of GEO satellites catering to a range of markets with Broadcast video being their largest. They have been branching out into the ‘new space’ territory with their ELO (Eutelsat LEO for Objects) IoT service and their purchase of 22.9% of OneWeb which provides low-latency LEO satellite broadband internet.
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GD – General Dynamics Corporation
Their Mission Systems division provides a range of space products and services including ground stations, communication systems, mission payloads and more.
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GIB – CGI Inc
An Information Technology consulting company that has been providing space related services since the 1970s.
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GILT – Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd
Provides broadband communications using satellites for applications in broadband access, cellular backhaul, enterprise, in-flight connectivity, maritime, trains, and defense.
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GOGO – Gogo Inc
Provides in-flight broadband internet services to the business aviation sector using the satellite constellations of Iridium and Inmarsat.
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GOMX – GomSpace Group AB
A manufacturer of nanosatellites and components used in applications ranging from remote sensing and global tracking to IoT and communications.
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GOOGL – Alphabet Inc
Alphabet is currently the second biggest shareholder in SpaceX after Elon Musk with a 6.99% stake. They became an investor in SpaceX in January 2015 and invested again at SpaceX’s $100 billion valuation in December 2021. They also have a deal in place with SpaceX to put Starlink groundstations at their data centers.
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GRMN – Garmin Ltd.
Provides a wide range of products to the aviation, maritime, automotive, and outdoor sports and recreation sectors that rely on satellites for communications and positioning data.
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GSAT – Globalstar, Inc.
They provide a range of connectivity services from IoT to satellite phones and messaging devices for use in remote locations. They are currently adding 17 new satellites to their network on behalf of a mystery client that is reimbursing them for 95% of the cost.
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HEI – Heico Corp
A huge conglomerate that supplies electronic components and systems to a wide range of industries. The space sector is one of those industries. For example, their subsidiary VPT, Inc. provides power conversion systems that are used in space, and EPC Space provides radiation hardened electronics.
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HO – Thales SA
They own 67% of Thales Alenia Space (Leonardo SpA owns the other 33%) which produces spacecraft and related systems. They have built ISS modules are working on modules for the Luna Gateway Space Station and Axiom’s modules that will be added to the ISS before becoming a free flying independent space station. They also work on ESA’s European Service Module that will be used on SLS for the Artemis program.
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HON – Honeywell International Inc
They supply a wide range of products to the space industry. For example, they had supplied over 1,900 components for the ISS by its 20th anniversary.
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IRDM – Iridium Communications Inc
Operates an LEO constellation providing satellite communications using personal messaging devices, sat phones, terminals and more.
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J – Jacobs Engineering Group Inc
Provides a range of engineering and technical services to the commercial sector and government agencies. Their Space division provides a range of services to NASA including integration and testing of SLS.
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KBR – KBR, Inc.
They supply a range of services to both the commercial and governmental sectors through their civilian and military units.
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KEYS – Keysight Technologies Inc
They provide software and systems for use in designing, testing and validating satellite systems and components.
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KSS – Kleos Space SA
An Earth Observation company that monitors RF sources and Geolocates them to within 300 meters by flying clusters of 4 satellites in formation.
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KTOS – Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc
A defense contractor that provides space related services to both the commercial and military sectors.
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KULR – KULR Technology Group Inc
KULR provides thermal management technologies for batteries. They have won over 30 contracts with NASA including providing thermal management solutions used by the Mars Rover, Mercury Messenger, ISS and Artemis.
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LDO – Leonardo SpA
Leonardo is an Itailian defense contractor that owns 33% of Thales Alenia Space and 30% of Avio SpA.
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LDOS – Leidos Holdings Inc
A defense contractor that provides a range of space services to both the commercial and government sectors. Their subsidiary Dynetics provides a range of spacecraft systems from components such as propulsion systems and the universal stage adapter for SLS. They also provide testing systems and test articles - they built the SLS core stage pathfinder.
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LHX – L3Harris Technologies Inc
A defense contractor with a Space & Airborne Systems division that accounts for about a third of the company’s revenue as of April 2022. Their space operations include providing avionics and communication equipment for ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket, missile warning systems for defense, components for GPS satellites and much more.
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LLAP – Terran Orbital Corp
Manufactures satellites and components and provides mission management services from launch integration to ground station services. Went public in March 2022 with Lockheed Martin as one of their investors.
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LMT – Lockheed Martin Corporation
In addition to owning 50% of United Launch Alliance, their Space division is huge providing a wide range of products to the commercial sector, NASA and the defense sector. Their Lockheed Martin Ventures division also invests in new space companies such as ABL Space Systems, Orbit Fab and Rocket Lab to name a few.
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M0Y – Mynaric AG
This German company is also available as an ADS (American Depositary Share) on the NYSE under the ticker MYNA. They make optical communications equipment for Space-to-Space, Space-to-Air and Space-to-Ground laser links. Hans Koenigsmann sits on their supervisory board.
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MANT – Mantech International Corp
An IT services company that does a lot of defense work and has a Space Services department and has supported 125 launches for the USAF, NRO, NASA, SpaceX and the United Launch Alliance from Cape Canaveral to Vandenberg AFB on Atlas, Delta, and Falcon launch vehicles.
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MAXR – Maxar Technologies Inc
Maxar has been designing and building satellites for decades. They are now one of the leaders in commercial high resolution satellite imagery and are branching out into areas such as on-orbit construction and satellite servicing. They are also providing their SAMPLR Robotic Arm to the Artemis program to collect samples on the moon.
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MDA – MDA Ltd
Their history dates back to 1969 and they are perhaps most famous for the Canardarm which was a robotic manipulator used on the Space Shuttle. In 2019 they were selected by the Canadian Space Agency to provide Canadarm3 for use on the Lunar Gateway space station. They also produce a wide range of satellite components and subsystems.
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MOG.A – Moog Inc
They produce everything from satellite components to complete spacecraft. They also started a New Space group in 2017 which they refer to as a "company within a company" with a focus on delivering solutions in a cost aggressive and lead time sensitive manner in the commercial sector.
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NOC – Northrop Grumman Corporation
They’re a major defense contractor and their Space Systems division is their fastest growing and the one with the highest sales as of April 2022. They’re involved in just about every area of the space industry. Some highlight include supplying the solid boosters for SLS, providing cargo resupply to the ISS, supplying the solid boosters used on ULA’s Atlas and Vulcan rockets and too much more to list here.
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NXPL – NextPlat Corp
An e-commerce platform with a focus on space related services. They power storefronts for Orbital Satcom, Global Telesat and GTCTrack.
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OHB – OHB SE
This German company is both a component supplier and prime contractor involved in many ESA programs from the Galileo satellite navigation system (Europe’s GPS) to the ISS. They are also developing their Lunar Surface Access Service which is designed to deliver payloads to the lunar surface for commercial and governmental customers.
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PH – Parker-Hannifin Corp
Manufacturer of the Stratoflex range of hoses, couplings and valves that are used on rockets and spacecraft.
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PL – Planet Labs PBC
An Earth Observation company that was founded in 2010 by former NASA scientists Chris Boshuizen, Will Marshall, and Robbie Schingler. They claim to be the company that revolutionized the new age of commercial EO services.
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PKE – Park Aerospace Corp
Produces composite materials and parts that are used in rockets. For example they manufacture ablative materials that are used in rocket engines and heat shields.
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RDW – Redwire Corp
A conglomerate that has acquired a number of space businesses, some of which have long histories operating in the space industry. They supply products and services to a wide range of commercial and governmental customers including NASA. They are also part of the Orbital Reef team.
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RKLB – Rocket Lab USA Inc
They started as a small sat launch provider with their Electron rocket and since then they’ve been developing first stage reusability and have announced they are developing a medium lift rocket with a reusable first stage. They have also expanded into providing entire spacecraft, components, and software services.
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RR – Rolls-Royce Holding PLC
Their space related activities include radioisotope and nuclear fission power systems and they are working on nuclear power and propulsion with the UK Space Agency. They are also an investor in Reaction Engines which is developing a hybrid engine that operates in both air-breathing and rocket modes to enable development of a single stage to orbit spaceplane.
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RTX – Raytheon Technologies Corp
The company and its subsidiaries provide a wide range of space products and services ranging from space suits and life support systems to spacecraft components and ground stations. They’re also a supplier to the US Space Force.
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SAIC – Science Applications International Corp
An IT services company that has a unit that is focussed on space.
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SATL – Satellogic Inc
They have a constellation of Earth Observation satellites and sell data services to commercial and governmental clients in the areas such as agriculture, infrastructure, insurance, maritime and intelligence. Their software can automatically detect and label objects and even determine which direction they are moving in.
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SATS – Echostar Corporation
They own both Hughes Network Systems and EchoStar Satellite Services. They use their GEO satellites to provide services to the Broadcast, Enterprise, Government and Military sectors. HughesNet is also an Internet Service Provider offering satellite internet using GEO sats.
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SESG – SES SA
Operates a network of GEO and MEO satellites providing a wide range of services from distributing broadcast video to managed mobile backhaul.
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SIDU – Sidus Space Inc
They describe themselves as providing ‘Space as a Service’ being able to provide everything from satellite design, manufacturing and launch booking & integration to full constellation management.
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SIRI – Sirius XM Holdings Inc
Provides satellite radio subscription services that can be received in static locations and in moving vehicles.
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SPCE – Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc
Is planning to provide sub-orbital tourist space flights that will compete with Blue Origin’s New Sheppard flights.
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SPIR – Spire Global Inc
They operate a constellation of Earth Observation nanosatellites, which they manufacture in-house, in addition to satellites they acquired when they bought exactEarth. They provide tracking data for ships and aircraft – offering position information even in remote regions that terrestrial radar doesn’t cover. They also provide global weather data and intelligence gathered in the RF spectrum. Additionally they offer constellation management services that take advantage of their operational expertise and global network of ground stations.
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SPR – Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc.
Their wholly owned subsidiary, Fiber Materials Inc, makes TPS (Thermal Protection Systems) that are used on spacecraft. Although they have been doing this for many years, in 2021 Spirit decided to make space a strategic focus for the company and they now report ‘Defense and Space’ as its own segment in their financial reports.
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SSIT – Seraphim Space Investment Trust PLC
This is a venture capital company that invests in space related companies before they go public. Some of their invested companies have already gone public including ArQit, AST SpaceMobile and Spire Global – you can see their portfolio here.
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TDG – TransDigm Group
An aerospace manufacturing conglomerate that has acquired over 80 companies. They can be found in some space ETFs but only a small part of their business involves space systems. For example, their subsidiary Leach International Corp provided some components for the James Web Space Telescope.
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TDY – Teledyne Technologies Incorporated
They provide a range of hardware for use in space such as image sensors. Their subsidiary Teledyne Brown Engineering is currently producing the Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter for SLS in addition to providing Mission Operations and Integration support services at Marshal Space Flight Center.
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THCOM – Thaicom PCL
Owns a fleet of GEO satellites and provides broadband and video distribution services to commercial and governmental customers.
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TRMB – Trimble Inc
Provides position and tracking data, much of it using satellites, in areas such as Agriculture, Geospatial, Construction, Transportation and Utilities.
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TSAT – Telesat Corp
A Canadian company that provides a range of satellite connectivity services. They are currently developing Telesat Lightspeed which is a planned LEO internet broadband constellation using a combination of polar and inclined orbits and will compete with Starlink, Project Kuiper and OneWeb.
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VORB – Virgin Orbit Holdings Inc
Provides small sat launches using a modified 747 aircraft as a fully reusable first stage (or zero stage depending on how you count) similar to the Northrop Grumman Pegasus but at significantly lower cost.
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VSAT – Viasat Inc
An Internet Service Provider that offers satellite based services in addition to developing their own satellite and ground station systems.
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This list includes pretty much all the public space companies I keep track of to different degrees; however there are probably others out there I currently don’t have on my radar (or that I forgot), so please post any below that you think should be added to the list.

This is a Work in Progress list and not by any means comprehensive, but its does a good job of showing you a few things you can expect to see used on a frequent basis. There are many more weapons I plan to add but I wanted to share what I had so far, some of these have been mentioned, many have not. Feel free to use any of the weapons on this list in your own projects however. Up to date as of [12/14/2022]
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Specific Weapons and Types
So a watt is defined as the production of joules per second where one watt=1 joule/sec power use. so a 100 watt incandescent bulb uses 100 joules of energy per second. Keeping this in mind, a standard .50 caliber sniper rifle hits with approximately 20,000 joules of energy, this being said, we can realistically assume that a 20 kilowatt capacitor dump would have similar effects to a .50 sniper rifle.
Ft lbs x 1.356 equals Joules of energy
Bracketed dates are the earliest production years.
Kinetic Weapons
Pistols
[ ]ThunderEagle: A modified 50. Pistol(Slugger), it has internal gyroscopic stabilizers to prevent harm to the shooter, is equipped with a 3 round enclosed cylindrical magazine that opens with a rear breach. It is slow to load but makes up for it with a 10 in barrel that makes it exceedingly powerful against even heavy armoured targets at close range, they can fire several types of ammo, most common being the viper round, a brass jacketed tungsten cored penetrator round, but can also fire a High Explosive bullet or a Redic round. Redic rounds are APFSDS Depleted uranium darts that can piece significant amounts of armour. They are also ridiculously expensive, hence their nickname.
[ ]Colt-Franz 3011: A highly reliable semi automatic pistol chambered in the old reliable 11.23x23 cartridge. Very useful for situations where quick reactions and pinpoint shots are the name of the game.
[ ]EMP45: A small pistol that packs a mean punch with its magnetically accelerated tungsten darts, it holds 12 darts and is good for thirty six shots before its small power cell is depleted. While not typically used by military forces, it is nevertheless an incredibly powerful handgun as it fires its darts at a whopping 2,500meters per second. This gives it a killer kick as its lightweight design does little to curb its recoil.
[ ]AP-6: A small automatic submachine gun that is generally used as a portable suppression weapon. A spray and pray tactic. Chambered in the common 10x24 cartridge, it is devastating at close range with its 30 round magazine and incredible rate of fire.
[ ]SawnOff: A very short barreled shotgun of indeterminate design. The barrel length is usually only about eight to twelve inches in maximum length creating a heavy short range spread that is capable of inflicting devastation in close quarters or confined spaces.
[ ]Frenzied Mamba: A simple revolver chambered in the popular 8x45 cartridge, it is a powerful weapon known for its rugged simplicity and ease of use. Sometimes called a spinner, It has a revolving chamber with a standard capacity of six rounds though seven and eight round drums can be found, though they add a bit of weight to the gun. While not generally seen in the more industrialized parts of the Union, these simplistic weapons can generally be found in far flung colonies and outposts where the chances of finding spare or replacement parts for more complex weapon systems is rare. It’s seen by many as a symbol of frontier justice, the brutal law serving swift pennance to the guilty at the end of a smoking barrel.
Rifles
[ ] MR-12: A human designed machine rifle chambered in 8x45. While it is able to fire many types of rounds, they are most commonly used with the Starburst Rounds, Frangible compacted copper bullets designed to cause maximum cavitation upon impact with soft or lightly armoured targets. The MR-12 is highly versatile in the attachments and gadgets it is able to mount on its frame. With underbarrel attachments like 40mm grenade launchers, small beam arrays, plasma lobbers, cryocasters, or even small maser arrays, it is understandably one of the most commonly used weapons across the Union’s military and police forces alike.
[ ] MR-34: A human designed machine gun chambered in 8x55. It is usually used as a support weapon and fires from a standard 100 round box mag that usually contains titansteel cored (APTS) projectiles that are effective against both soft and hard targets. It can be equipped with Incendiary, HE, APDU, API, APIT, APSDF, and 8x55 Redic rounds. Widely considered to be one of the most versatile weapons platforms for small unit tactics and extremely reliable in function. Its well known for being able to fire even while dripping wet or caked in mud and grime.
[177 PU] AKSF-77: A design variant of the ancient AK variety it is still common as Humanity has a marked propensity for nostalgia. While it is a very different beast from its 1900s ancestor, it has the same long storied history and pedigree of troublemaking and reliability as its ancestor. It fires a slightly different cartridge of 8x40 in order to meet with newer machining standards. Generally fired in short bursts, this is a fully automatic weapon with a 35 round magazine. This weapon may be old, but has been manufactured on and off for hundreds of years, its low cost and reliability make it a staple for arming large groups quickly and at minimal cost.
[ ] Specter 1: Railgun platform that is lighter and easier to handle than its big brother the Specter 2. It can fire 50g tungsten projectiles at about 1,600 meters per second making it plenty deadly against unarmoured and lightly armoured targets.
[ ] Sweeps Slammer: A type of single barrel shotgun with slamfire capabilities manufactured by Colt-Franz and possessing a ten round tube magazine. Generally twelve gauge but do come in ten gauge and sixteen gauge variants as well with the sixteen having higher capacity but the ten hitting much harder at the cost of increased recoil. These guns can fire a titanic variation of ammunition types, from ‘birdshot’ all the way up to specialized slug types such as explosive or armour piercing. Generally seen as a terror weapon, in the close confines of ship combat it is almost unrivaled, only the MR series of rifles coming close to it in terms of firepower and wounding capacity.
[ ] IAC SxS: Incalculable Arms Corporation's take on the classic side by side shotgun idea. It is a double barrel tube fed monstrosity with a capacity of 16(8 per barrel) rounds capable of putting out a devastating amount of fire in a very short period of time. While it can be fired in tandem its dual trigger design can be set to parallel to fire both barrels with a single pull of the trigger. This basically doubles the potential firepower of the weapon making it especially effective against unarmoured targets. As a smoothbore shotgun design it can fire a massive variety of shell types for almost any conceivable situation.
[ ] Colt-Franz LMR v.14: This Light machine rifle is similar in structural design to any number of heavy machine guns except that it fires a smaller 10x72 bullet that has a necked down casing. The LMR generally fires from small 100 round box magazines or 50 round chains. It has a very high muzzle velocity of almost 1,100 meters per second and an impact force of almost 9,000 joules of energy at 1000 meters. Not as strong as a heavy machine gun but more versatile as it can be carried by troops without too much difficulty as it only weighs 8kg as opposed to the massive 60kg of the M2 and other heavy machine gun variants.
[ ]Pileifet Drunger: This unique submachine gun was designed by a Razah’vool gunsmith who wanted to do their part in fighting criminals but wasn't able to join the armed forces. So instead they but their considerable mental faculties towards designing a weapon system that was both light, maneuverable and had a high rate of fire. The ‘Piledriver’ as it is sometimes called, is notable for its incredibly small diameter of round. Firing the unusual 3.8x36mm rounds known as lightning bugs, it has a short range but an incredible density of fire as it rips its 180 round helical magazine dry at a rate of 2,750 rounds per minute(45 shots per second) using its revolving inner chamber.
Snipers
[ ] SR-404: The Standard issue Human designed anti material sniper rifle. This behemoth is chambered in the ever efficient and ancient 50 BMG cartridge. The impact of this gun on living tissue is as dramatic as it is effective, and it is more than capable of killing targets at ridiculous distances. The maximum range of the SR-404 is about 6,000 meters, though hitting single targets at over 3,000 meters is considered phenomenal.
[ ] GR74F: A Yeown designed Gauss rifle, it is a heavy and somewhat unwieldy weapon in the hands of any but its designers. Made for uncompromising firepower, this weapon has the capability to scale its power up and down depending on the threat it's being used to neutralize. At lower powers between ten and thirty percent it is an effective anti infantry weapon. Scale the power over ninety percent however and it is capable of punching through lightly armoured vehicles. It fires a 40g tungsten slug at velocities between 1,000 and 3,600 meters per second.
[ ] Specter 2: A long barreled railgun used infrequently by Vinarfelien troops, it fires tungsten slugs at a significant speed. It was designed to fire a 50g tungsten projectile at velocities of about 3,800 meters per second. This gives its projectiles the ability to pierce medium armour at closer ranges as it impacts with almost 350,000 Joules of energy.
[ ] Goliath Hanser Rifle “Long 88”: This anti material rifle was designed to be a man portable cannon capable of taking out light vehicles, low flying aircraft, and medium static defenses. It had a recoil damping system built and designed specifically for this gun and a barrel length of 75 cm and a caliber of .88 or 22.352mm in diameter. It fires a massive projectile weighing an incredible 1350 grains, or 87.478 grams. This round is generally made from a brass jacketed tungsten cored penetrator round, but does have other variants such as Incendiary and High Explosive as well as APT and APIT.
[ ]388 ‘Huntsman’: The 388 is a popular rifle across the union for hunting medium sized game and pest animals. It is more than capable of taking down a man sized target at ranges exceeding 1,200 meters and even beyond. Chambered in the powerful 8x52 cartridge, this rifle is a semi-automatic loading from a 12 round magazine. Combining this weapon with a precision optic transforms it into a half decent sniper rifle at a fraction of the cost of regular military hardware. Manufactured by Colt-Franz.
Crew Weapons(Power Armour Weapons)
[520 PU] M2-Mk12: A crewed heavy machine gun built around the ancient 50 BMG cartridge, it has received numerous material upgrades and a few other improvements, but at its core its still the same old reliable design from 1000 years ago. Generally used mounted on vehicles as an anti material and personnel role, it is one of the most commonly seen heavy machine guns around due to its sheer power.
[ ] Specter-Ø: A large scale version of the much less common Specter-2 Long Railgun used by some Vinarfelien forces. It is capable of automatic fire and fires huge 80g tungsten rods at significant velocities. Its main issue is heat buildup and uses a Nerivith designed cooling system to keep the barrel and coils from melting under sustained fire.
[107 PU] Ambush Heavy Machine Gun: A 14mm heavy machine gun developed by Vinarfel gunsmiths upon researching the characteristics of the ancient Human M2 heavy machine gun. It is essentially a beefed up version of the M2. More durable, more powerful, more expensive.
[175 PU] Dizzen Machine Gun: Developed by the Slaaveth as a crewed heavy machine gun capable of firing even when inundated with water or mud, this hardy weapon is a common sight on the battlefield when the Slaaveth are deployed.
[683 PU] Spine Spitter: A homegrown Heavy machine gun of Yeown design, it is hardy and packs a mean punch. At 12mm it is only slightly smaller caliber than the ancient M2, but it beats it out in rate of fire which is almost double that of the M2 at nearly 1,800 rounds per minute.
[ ]AT-28 Mk.4: A 20mm anti material rifle that can fire a large variety of rounds. Chambered in the same 20mm Vulcan as the 20mm gatling cannon of the same name, this is a potent force to be reckoned with. In its long rifle configuration it has a greatly reduced rate of fire but makes up for it with pinpoint accuracy. This weapon can pierce light vehicle armour and virtually obliterates unarmoured targets.
Energy Weapons
Pistols
[682 PU] NUV-L1 573: The standard issue Nerivith designed beam pistol, generally used for point blank engagements where speed and ADS is more important than accuracy or firepower. It is a very reliable piece of tech that had seen extensive use in the Congressional navy due to its inability to pierce a starship hull from the inside. Using a 1.2KW Capacitor, it has the stopping power to put down unarmored targets with precise shooting but lacks the power to pierce body armour.
[ ] FrezNein: A small maser(Microwave) pistol designed for non lethality for security and police forces. It causes a full body spasm like a taser but is longer range and has the benefit of light speed projectiles.
Rifles
[682 PU] NUV-L2 573: The standard issue Nerivith designed beam rifle generally designed for short to mid range engagements in atmospheric environments. It loses considerable power after about 300 meters though at which you would be better off with a projectile weapon. It fires from a 4KW capacitor attached to a promethium powercell capable of firing thirty shots before recharge or replacement.
[ ] Jule2000: A laser rifle, distinct from a beam rifle as it fires near Infrared instead of Near Ultraviolet. This has several benefits such as being more effective versus armoured targets while beamers are most effective versus unarmoured targets. It rapidly heats the surface of its target to sun-like temperatures creating an explosion of vaporized material. This concussive blast can break bones and rupture organs. Has slightly better range than beam weapons but less range than grasers or masers. It loses considerable effect after about 400 meters and fires from a 5KW capacitor that is linked to a promethium power cell. This cell is able to fire about twenty shots before needing recharge or replacement.
[ ] Shrieker: A Swanith designed Pulse gun capable of emitting a sonic pulse with considerable power. Able to emit energy pulses with an energy equivalent of 12,000 joules of energy. More than enough to put down an unarmoured target. Also capable of firing through walls and mitigating light armour.
[ ] Cyclobeamer: This medium sized particle gun is effective against all types of armour but requires the user to wear the equivalent of a small powerplant on their back in order to power the weapon. It projects a beam of dense neutrons that are able to carve through almost any material. This weapon is very heavy and unwieldy making it seldom used by any but heavy troops like ground pounders or dedicated chaos units. It has a series of projectors on its beam focusing area that allow it to change the spread of the beam ever so slightly.
[ ] At’Trac M-rifle: An older model maser rifle. It is technically a non lethal weapon but can be deadly if fired at point blank ranges due to the weapons unique beam scatter. It starts quite dense before fanning out heavily after about three meters. While this makes it a bit more like a shotgun at ranges between ten and thirty meters, it acts more like an actual rifle up close.
Snipers
[683 PU] NUV-L3 573: The Standard Issue Nerivith designed beam Sniper for long range engagements. While it has incredible accuracy, literally point and click, it loses considerable power after about 900 meters and becomes generally useless after 1,500 meters. Up close it is strong enough to burn through lightly armoured vehicles. It has a very slow rate of fire though. Using an oversized 20KW capacitor bank, it can only fire twelve shots per powercell.
[ ] RIGB-7: The Radioisotope Gamma Beam Rifle is a gamma weapon(graser) designed by a Human Scientist on a dare. While the scientist in question lost his bet, the weapon was confiscated by the SCU military research division and a decade later the RIGB-7 was the product. With an incredible range of several kilometers and a beam focal precision of just two centimeters at 1,000 meters, this gun can instantly fry the brain of a soldier through a meter of concrete or about 35cm of steel. It was designed as an assassination weapon and is only deployed to black ops units.
[ ] Laser Burster: The Laser Burster or Lasbur as it's sometimes called, is a laser weapon of Slaaveth design that has a backpack powersource and a 360KW capacitor bank that allows it to dump a highly concentrated burst of near infrared light into its targets. This affects different targets in a multitude of ways. Against soft targets, the target is usually partially vaporized, against harder targets it hits with enough kinetic force to damage light armour and carve craters in heavy armour.
[ ] Screecher: A Swanith designed Pulse gun capable of emitting a sonic pulse with considerable power. Able to emit energy pulses with an energy equivalent of 22,000 joules of energy. More than enough to put down lightly and medium armoured targets. Also capable of firing through solid walls and mitigating medium armour.
Crew Weapons(Power Armour Weapons)
[ ] Tri-Beamer Combiner: A three barreled repeating beam cannon that discharges from three separate 250KW capacitors for maximum fire rate and barrel health. The three barrels allow the weapon to generate a much higher density of fire than a single barreled option. It is too heavy to be realistically carried into battle by a single soldier as it requires a large and heavy power supply to function at peak capacity. It is capable of firing an average of fifteen shots per second, quite a withering rate of fire in comparison to many of its close siblings.
[478 PU] Shortbow Beamcaster 5M: A five megawatt repeating beam cannon, while generally used for anti material, it makes a good anti personnel weapon as well. It fires 3 shots per second on its repeating discharge capacitors.
[489 PU] Shortbow Beam Cannon 10M: A ten megawatt repeating beam cannon. While it is the more powerful version of the Shortbow, it was originally developed as an anti aircraft weapon and excels in that role.
[595 PU] Tachyon Laser Combiner: A five megawatt repeating laser cannon, it was originally developed as a means of destroying light vehicles while saving the main cannons on their tanks. It was eventually adapted for use by ground troops as a crewable weapons system.
[ ] UNBEAM Cannon: The Unstable Neutron Beam Emitting Advanced Mechanism, or UNBEAM Cannon, is a device that uses a small radioisotope generator and compact particle accelerator to project a beam of heavily irradiated Cobalt Ions that release additional irradiating high energy Neutrons as they sweep across their target. This radiation beam causes the very substance they are bombarding to itself become irradiated. This is generally only used against feral creatures or Flesh Tearers as its effects are too horrific to be comfortably used in wartime. The extreme levels of radiation released into the targeted area causes it to rapidly heat up to thousands of degrees for a few minutes, melting steel and turning bodies to ash.
Explosives
Small Weapons
[ ] Lobber: Nothing beats good old high explosives, plastic explosives are especially effective versus static targets. So why not put them in a small tube and launch them at your enemies at high velocities. The explosive blobs are launched via a small charge that also arms the warhead and detonates it about two seconds later. Usually used by Ground Pounders and special forces.
Medium Weapons
[ ] Mk 49 Trooper: A fully automatic 40mm grenade launcher with a 12 round cylindrical revolver. Capable of firing a wide variety of ammunition, from fragmentation and High explosives to white phosphorus or thermite grenades. Has a rate of fire of 60 rounds per minute and a maximum range of 150 meters.
Large Weapons
[ ] SHP9: A RPG that fires rocket propelled shaped charges or EMPs. It is cheap to produce, easy to use, and quick to fire. Generally liked by its users, it has seen widespread use by both military and criminal organizations over the years.
[ ] Daggertooth: A recoilless rocket launcher of Yeown design, it fires shaped charge and tandem warheads capable of penetrating large amounts of armour. The tandem warhead is fully capable of defeating advanced armour protection of most light and medium armoured vehicles.
Crew Weapons(Power Armour Weapons)
Miscellaneous Weapons
Small
Medium
[ ] Tesla Projector Model J: A very rare weapon that was designed by a Jeseo scientist to use a sliver of Jesorite to store a prodigious electrical charge generated by a tiny thermoelectric radioisotope generator attached to the gun via a heavy insulated cable to a backpack powerplant. While not the most flexible of weapons it has the benefit of being devastating to vehicles, usually able to destroy them with a single well placed blast igniting fuel, cooking off ammo, and killing crew while melting the electronics of the vehicle in question into slag.
[575 PU] Cryocaster Type N6: A very uncommon weapon that uses Nerivith cryogenic tech to freeze objects to extreme low temperatures very quickly, originally developed as an emergency medical device, it was quickly adapted for a combat role and small versions of it can be seen equipped on Nerivith weapons as underbarrel attachments. It uses hyper-compressed nitrogen in specially made tanks that can be sprayed out as a freezing mist that quickly lowers the temperature of anything it hits.
[304 PU] Dejaarn Acidifier: Named after the fearsome beast of the depths native to Abyss, the Dejaarn Acidifier is a utility device that sprays an extremely acidic biological compound that rapidly oxidizes metals and dissolves organics. It even breaks apart concrete and to a more limited extent, duracrete. While not primarily used as a weapon of war, in the rare occasions where the weapon was deployed or used in a tactical manner, it was incredibly effective at both killing and sapping the morale of hostile troops. It has a maximum effective range of about 20 meters at its narrowest spread, but tends to be used with maximum spread at short ranges of about 8 meters. The weapon is coated internally and externally with a synthetic chiton compound that is one of the few resistant materials to the weapons acid. Troopers using this dangerous tool must also wear full plate hazmat suits covered in the same stuff with Glazmite faceplates.
Large
[488 PU] Flamer Mk.64: A flamethrower of Human design, it is one of the few weapons that is heavily regulated by the war mandates of the Union. Along with Microwave beam weapons and Gamma ray weapons, Flamethrowers are seen as distasteful and barbaric weapons that have no place in war, although this does not mean they are unused. This good old fashioned Napalm thrower is generally used against barbaric entities such as Flesh tearers and Brigands as well as for combatting hostile flora and fauna on expanding colony worlds. It makes use of three hypercompression tanks to store enough fuel for about a full minute of constant fire, although this would generally not be the way in which it was used as most often it would be fired in short one or two second bursts. This gives the user anywhere between thirty and sixty shots depending on how conservative they are with their fuel. The tanks are quickchange and able to be swapped out on the fly. It has a maximum attainable range of 50 meters, but an effective firing range of only about 25 meters.
Crew Weapons(Power Armour Weapons)
Combination Weapons
Pistols
Rifles
[794 PU] Compensator N-1: This prototype was much less complex than its eventual ancestor would turn out to be. Having only an 8x45 submachine gun, beamer and flamethrower. Other than this minor setback, the weapon was still incredibly versatile and variants of it would later be mass produced as its sheer portability and utility would win it many supporters.
[826 PU] The Compensator N-1000: This crazy weapon system, AKA the CompN-K, combines elements of a multitude of other weapons into a compressed package, never meant to be a mass produced unit it nevertheless saw use in combat by certain dedicated Chaos Units during the Trine Wars and by Criminals. It combines a 8x45 kinetic submachine gun, flamethrower, rocket launcher, plasma lobber, Cryocaster, Beam rifle, poison dart launcher, and Maser array.
[695 PU] NUV-L2/C 539: The standard issue Nerivith designed beam rifle generally designed for short to mid range engagements in atmospheric environments. It loses considerable power after about 300 meters though at which you would be better off with a projectile weapon. This variant of the weapon is unique in that it has an under barrel cryocaster with a self contained cooling mechanism.
Heavy Weapons
[ ] Vicious Triforce: Manufactured by Incalculable Arms Co. This weapon system is unique in that it is a triple barrel rifle with a unique feed system similar to that of a (modern)P90 that allows for higher sustained rates of fire without excessive barrel wear. With a sustainable fire rate of 900 rounds per minute(300 per barrel) the maximum attainable rate of fire on its max power setting it is capable of dumping its entire 150 round capacity in just 3 seconds(3000 rounds per minute).
Crewed Weapons(Power Armour Weapons)
Deployable/Throwable Weapons
Throwable Weapons
[250 PU] F-22 Grenade: Fragmentation Grenade,
[250 PU] H-7 Grenade: High Explosive Grenade,
[367 PU] T-99 Grenade: Thermobaric Grenade, this small explosive explodes and casts a wide net of secondary charge through the air which is then ignited by a secondary charge causing the entire configuration to erupt into a deadly explosion. This is generally used to clear rooms and enclosed spaces like bunkers and armoured vehicles as it not only causes an overpressure wave, it also burns all the oxygen, quickly suffocating enemy troops.
[23 PU]Pulse Grenade: Pulse/Sonic Grenade,
[189 PU]FuseXray Grenade: Fusion Grenade,
Deployable Weapons
[ ] R3 Anti-Armour Mine: Magnetic anti vehicle mine,
Trapped Weapons

I constantly see the battle of changing decay rates and I keep asking- why do the rates have to change? The dating methods also rely on the RATIO of an element to its isotope form being assumed constant. *edited for grammar
Let’s take c-12 and c-14. C-14 decays into N-14. Scientists have witnessed decay rate change during solar flares (https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2010/100830FischbachJenkinsDec.html) but I want to focus on the ratio. Here’s a few things that would change the amount of c-14 (%) to c-12 in the atmosphere: solar flares, geomagnetic shield strength, and the reservoir affect.

1. Solar flares- the energy cosmic sources put off creates radioisotopes, flares will cause a spike in creation, throwing off the ratio and thus dating
   
2. Linked to 1 is the strength of our geomagnetic field. NASA estimates that in the last 200 years the shield has weakened by 10%. How protected were we from cosmic radiation in the past? The current estimate is that the shield could be gone in 1500 years (yea… and all of life with it). This isn’t climate change, this is happening in Earths core. What was the shield like thousands of years ago? The amount of isotopes in the atmosphere (what we would find in fossils vs measurable now) and thus USED by dating methods would be largely incorrect if the shield strength has changed over time, which it has.
   
3. Marine Reservoir Effect- testable and repeatable. Water (especially freshwater) throws off the dating methods. Hard to know when this may have had effects or not, but scientist believe the ocean wasn’t always salty.
   

Just something to think about- why are we so focused on the rate of decay? Why not the ratio that was present at the time? Smaller amounts of isotope would directly lead to false old-age (assumed to be decay)

One way we know the world is billions of years old is radioactive decay. Radioisotopes decay at a certain rate, and we can use that to determine how long they have been around. Creationists claim that the rate of decay has somehow changed, and that we are just assuming a uniform decay rate.
There are lots of reasons we know that the rate of decay can't have changed significantly. The most explicit evidence showing that the rate of change hasn't changed without assuming uniformatism, or anything else, is the Oklo nuclear reactor
Nuclear reactors work by slowing down neutrons released by decaying uranium and allowing those to trigger additional nuclear reactions. This means they are extremely sensitive to the rate and energy of radioactive decay. The reactions also produce a variety of very specific atoms that decay themselves at different rates and in different ways, and those atoms are also highly dependent on the rate of radioactive decay.
Modern nuclear reactors need enriched uranium. There are two main types of uranium in nature, uranium 235 and uranium 238. Natural uranium is a mix of the two. Nuclear reactors need uranium 235, and there isn't enough of it in natural uranium to allow a nuclear reaction. So they need to concentrate the uranium 235.
This wasn't always the case. Uranium 235 decays faster than 238, so there used to be more uranium 235. So it used to be possible for a nuclear reactor to occur naturally.
This is exactly what we see. In Oklo in Gabon, the remains of an ancient, naturally occurring nuclear reactor has been found. It occurred around 1.7 billion years ago. The thing is that these sorts of reactors have been studied in extreme detail, and this reactor behaves exactly the same as modern ones. Even minuscule changes in radioactive decay, either then or at any point since, would be immediately obvious in the decay products today.
There can’t be any way that the rate of decay was different at the time, since even a tiny change would substantially alter how the reactor works, or render it inoperable completely. And it couldn’t have sped up and then slowed down again after the reactor stopped, since that would cause the reactor to start up again but work in a different way, and would also cause the other radioactive isotopes to no longer show the same date.
Further, these aren’t “evolutionists” who discovered or documented this, it was nuclear engineers and physicists. If they were wrong then no nuclear power plant in the world could work at all.
They can tell from the remains not only how long ago it ran, or even over what time period it ran, but even could tell it's operating cycle down to an hour time scale.
So this means there is no way the Earth can be less than 1.7 billion years old, and no assumptions about uniformatism, the age of the Earth, the rate of radioactive decay, or evolution are needed. Of course the world can be older than 1.7 billion years, and it is, but there is absolutely zero possibility of it being less than 1.7 billion years.

Recap of Part 1

FVC means "field-vectored craft," i.e., UFO(s).
We learned in Part 1:

• While landed on the ground, even smaller FVC are massive, i.e., have considerable mass around 30 tons (27,000 kgs).
• FVC are about as dense as a submarine and several times denser than aircraft, having around 96 percent the density of water.
• FVC are hard, solid, physical objects similar to metal.
• We have observed FVC at velocities of 5,000 to 9,000 mph (8,000 to 14,500 kph), with straight line and angular accelerations in the region of 100 times the acceleration of gravity. Although the accelerations are large for the size of the craft, human technology from the 1950s packaged electronics into smaller projectiles capable of withstanding 7,000 to 9,000 gs.
• The reason some craft appear as orbs of different colors is because the craft's propulsion system creates ionized and excited air molecules, namely a "plasma." Larger craft that use the most energy have a blue or ultraviolet plasma, while smaller craft that use less energy appear as red, orange, yellow, or green. The luminosity of a craft will increase as it puts out more power for high acceleration maneouvers. The plasma surrounding a craft often obscures an observer's ability to see the craft itself behind the plasma.
• The observed accelerations and velocities can be achieved with a high thrust-to-mass ratio. There is no need to presume FVC use exotic technology to reduce the mass of the craft while in flight. In general, all of the observables can be explained by established physics without resorting to speculative hypotheses. Finally, acceleration is not instantaneous but rather takes a non-zero amount of time, although the craft's swiftness may appear instantaneous to the naked eye.

Section IV: Radiation from FVC in the X-ray or Gamma Range

Date: January 30, 1973
Location: Lexington, Alabama
Witnesses: Bill Rogers, APRO Field investigator, and two other unnamed individuals.
Description: Rogers went to Lexington to investigate reports of FVC in the area, which began a month prior on December 27, 1972. Rogers, along with two other members of the investigation team, observed a yellowish-orange-white light moving slowly above tree-top level.

After about a minute, the object moved up about 40 feet, and they could see that it had a shape between a sphere and an egg (ellipsoidal). It then descended as if going to land. The trio piled into the car and headed toward the UFO while Rogers checked his Geiger counter. They could see it as they rounded a sharp curve where the [garbage] dump starts. They stopped the car in a skid, but by the time they all jumped out the object had descended behind a hill. The glow was still visible, however. A second later it came up, and the Geiger counter showed a reading of 400 volts and 250 milliroentgens. Then it went back down behind the hill and the counter reading returned to normal. This sequence was repeated several times with the same readings being obtained each time it rose.

(Pages 70-71.) (Emphasis added.)
As we will use the figure in later calculations, please note the readings were taken at an approximate distance of 1,000 meters.
------
Date: July 4, 1969
Location: Bogota, Colombia
Witnesses: Mauricio Gnecco, Louis Carbajal, Andres Franco, Mauricio Franco, and Arcesio Bermudez, as well as six other unnamed individuals.
Description: A FVC about 4-5 feet tall, yellow-orange in color, with an arc of light around it, approached a farm house and hovered about 150 feet from the house between two trees. Bermudez was the only witness not afraid and ran after the craft as it moved a way. Bermudez later reported he approached to around 20 feet of the craft after it landed. Bermudez called out to Carbajal, "Louis, come here. Look at this Martian," after claiming to see a person inside the craft.

Within two days Arcesio Bermudez was taken very ill. His temperature dropped to 95 degrees F. Within a few days he had black vomits (from prior internal bleeding), and diarrhea with blood flow. He died in Bogota on July 12 [] just 8 days after his prolonged close enounter with the UFO. [O]n July 12, he had been attended by Dr. Louis Borda, and [] by Dr. Cesar Exmerael. They ascribed death to gastroenteritis which has various casuses, among them severe radiation poisoning. The Colombia Institute of Nuclear Affairs said that Bermudez's illness was characterized by symptoms similar to those caused by a lethal dose of gamma rays.

(Pages 71-72.) (Emphases added.)
------
Date: August, 1967
Location: Mendoza, Argentina
Witness: An unnamed nurse.
Description: A mushroom-shape saucer landed in the courtyard of a hospital. The nurse reported a brilliant red light that made her cover her eyes with her hand, as well as a buzzing noise coming from the FVC. The nurse later saw the craft flashing red and blue lights as it flew away.

A medical examination of the 46-year-old [nurse] was made. Although she was in good condition, a scientist of the Argentine Atomic Energy Commission said she had been exposed to radiation. The radiation from the saucer also had apparently been strong enough to affect the ground, for there was a burned-looking grey spot at the place where she indicated the saucer had sat down.

(Pages 72-73.) (Emphasis added.)
------
Date: May 20, 1967
Location: Falcon Lake, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Witness: Steve Michalak
Description: While on a prospecting trip, Michalak saw two red glowing objects moving at very high speed and very low altitude. One of the objects landed nearby, while the other hovered above before leaving. Michalak concealed himself in a bush and began sketching the landed FVC.

On the ground it looked like stainless steel, but it was radiating heat in rainbow colors. In 20-30 minutes a door opened and he could hear a high-pitched sound like a motor running. He thought he heard voices, and tried communicating in English, Russian, Italian, Polish, and German, but to no avail. The door merely closed, and the motor sound could no longer be heard.
He reached out his gloved hand and touched the machine, with the result that his rubberized glove melted enough to slip off. The machine began to turn counterclockwise and took off, as Michalak felt a hot air blast or other force pushing him to his left. He was left with his clothes on fire, minor burns on his face, and second- and third-degree burns on his chest in a perfect checkerboard pattern.
Dr. Horace C. Dudley is APRO's advisor in radiation physics. He was Chief of the Radioisotope Laboratory, United States Naval Hospital, St. Albans, New York, from 1952 through 1962. Portions of his opinion on the case follow: "Mrs. Michalak's description of her husband's nausea and vomiting followed by diarrhea and loss of weight and the drop in the lymphocyte count is a classical picture of severe whole body radiation with x-rays or gamma rays. I would guess that Mr. Michalak received on the order of 100-200 roentgens. It is very fortunate that this dose of radiation lasted only a very short time or he would certainly have received a lethal dose.

(Pages 73-74.) (Emphases added.)
------
In one case, Hill reports a Geiger counter showed no abnormal radioactivity in the victinity of a landed craft, although there is no indication of when the reading was taken (whether shortly or well after the craft flew away). (Page 74.)
In another case, a schoolmaster named Desvgers lashed out at a FVC over his head with a machete, and "received in his face a ball of flame which also singed his arms, burned his nostrils, burned holes in his cap, and rendered him unconscious." The Air Force Materials Laboratory at Wright Patterson Air Force Base discovered nothing unusual about the machete after extensive analysis. However, the laboratory found the roots of the grass were charred, but not the above-ground foilage. Soil of a similar composition had to be heated to 300 degrees F to replicate the charring. (Page 75.)
The observations of the witnesses and instruments, and the related findings from tests thus established, Hill begins his analysis.
Wave or particle? Of what minimum energy?
According to modern physics, FVC must radiate energy in the form of waves or particles.

At an energy of 10 million eV, computation shows, the electron is moving 99.88 percent of light speed. [] But even if 10 million volt electrons were radiated, [the electrons] would be absorbed by the atmosphere in 41 meteres, and wouldn't work the [Geiger] counter at 1,000 meters, or even at 100 meters.
Photons (waves), on the other hand, do not have what could be called a range limit in air. They have absorption coefficients, and attenuation, meaning that a certain percentage of the photons are scattered or absorbed in a given distance, then in the next equal distance the same percentage is scattered or absorbed, and so on, in an exponential-type decay.
. . .
[W]e tentatively conclude that the ellipsoidal UFO radiated potent wave-type, ionizing radiation into the surrounding atmosphere.
. . .
[I]t takes a minimum of about 25 eV to ionize a gas in the ordinary conditions of a [Geiger] counter. But 25 eV just happens to approximate the energy level that divides the ultraviolet and the x-ray wave lengths on the electromagnetic spectrum. The indication, therefore, is that the UFO-radiated waves have an energy level in the x-ray range, or even higher [in the range of gamma rays], although we have not yet discussed the upper energy-level limit.

(Pages 76-77.) (Emphasis original.)
Hill concludes the radiation must be in the form of waves because particle radiation becomes too attenuated at a distance of 1,000 meters, the distance at which Rogers took readings, to activate a Geiger counter. Hill further concludes the radiation is in the x-ray range or higher because Geiger counters are not able to detect lesser energy levels.
Radiation exposure: dose and dose rate.

The roentgen is a measure of x-ray or gamma ray exposure dose. One roentgen is the exposure to 86 ergs of x-ray or gamma ray energy. A Geiger counter reading of 250 milliroentgen means the exposure dose at that place is 250 milliroentgen in an hour's time, or a quarter roentgen per hour. The Radiation Health and Safety Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1968 set the safe exposure limit at 0.5 milliroentgens, or 0.0005 roentgen per hour, to determine safe standards for manufacturing products. The UFO radiation of 250 milliroengten measured repeatedly by Bill Rogers was 500 times the legal safe limit where he was standing. That reading clearly establishes that UFO as radioactive. The exposure dose rate would be even higher close to the UFO[.]

(Pages 77-78.) (Emphasis added.)
[I will briefly note the Radiation Health and Safety Act may be a source of liability (for Lockheed Martin et al.) if back-engineered craft are responsible for irradiating civilians.]

The attenuation of photons can be thought of as the conseqence of two factors -- an inverse square geometrical factor and the attenuation (scattering and absorption) of the atmosphere. [] [A]n extremely crude and overly conservative (it underestimates the radiation) approximation can be made by considering the inverse square effect only. For example, if the counter were 1,000 meters from the UFO when the quarter roentgen reading was taken, then, by the inverse square, the exposure dose at 6 meters would be 7,000 roentgen per hour. In the Bogota example cited, 6 meters is about the distance Bermudez said he stood from the ellipsoidal UFO. If he had stood for 10 minutes at this exposure rate, his exposure dose would have been over 1,100 roentgen. This would be lethal, as full-body exposure to 800 roentgen is considered lethal, and half that, or 400 roentgen, is lethal about 50 percent of the time. Bermudez was just too close. At 200 feet instead of 20 feet he would have been exposed to less than one percent as much radiation, and would have been relatively safe.

(Page 78.) (Emphasis added.)
[Several accounts from witnesses, including one I saw on this subreddit recently, report FVC fly away when the witness approaches. The report on this subreddit from a motorcyclist claimed the craft departed abruptly after the biker left the road and attempted to close within 200 meters of the craft. The behavior of some FVC, fleeing before humans can get too close to it, suggest the craft and/or its pilots do not want humans to be harmed by the radiation that results from exercising the craft's propulsion system. This is circumstantial evidence of, if not benevolent intent, then a lack of malicious intent and/or an aversion to harming humans.]
Upper limit of radiation energy.
The two cases that show no residual radioactivity of the ground or anything else in the vicinity are typical. Cases of residual radiation are extremely rare.

For UFOs to leave the ground radioactive they would have to emit radiation capable of intitiating nuclear reactions in the soil and rocks, forming unstable isotopes which would continue to emit secondary radiations. The initation of nuclear reactions could be caused by the emission of gamma rays with an energy of about three million electron volts or higher. Therefore UFOS do not [generally] radiate photons with an energy greater than three million electron volts. This energy level is into the lower gamma ray spectrum, but, on a logarithmic scale, is not far above the top of the x-ray band.

(Page 79.) (Emphasis added.)
Hill therefore concludes FVC emit lower-energy gamma rays.
The most probable photon frequency range.
Following a complicated analysis, which is not amenable to synthesis, Hill concludes it is unlikely ultraviolet waves emanating from FVC are the primary cause of ionization.
Conclusions

UFOs radiate between 25 electron volts, which is the bottom of the x-ray band, and 3 million electron volts, which is into the lower end of the gamma ray spectrum.
. . .
[X]-rays or mild gamma rays are quite adequate to cause the ion-sheath [plasma] so universally seen surrounding the UFO. Conversely, the existence of the ionized air around the UFO lends weight to the concept of high-intensity x-ray type radiations from the UFO. X-rays would also penetrate a few inches of soil, giving up their energy to plant-root depths. Soil being a thermal insulator, the heat would escape slowly and the temperature would build up with time below a low-hovering UFO. Most ground heating data is from saucer-type UFOs, and these are the ones known to focus their ionizing radiations downward with considerable accuracy, because of the observed saucer ion cones and saucer ring data.

(Pages 81-82.)

Section V: Possibility of FVC Propulsion via Energetic Particle Ejection (as Opposed to Force Field Propulsion)

Hill continues his analysis by asking whether FVC are propelled by ejecting particles or manipulating force fields (i.e. waves). Hill's analysis of the possibility of FVC using particle ejection proceeds by a process of elimination, as he addresses the suitability of different particles in turn.

Since some types of elementary particles can pass throgh the atmosphere at high velocities without being noticed, a sufficient number of them could impart a high thrust to the UFO and still comply with the well-known UFO characteristic -- no visible means of support.
. . .
This question is related to the question of jet propulsion, in that mass is being ejected in both cases, but in jet propulsion streams of gas -- either atoms or molecules -- are ejected, not elementary particles. Elementary particles, such as electrons, protons, neutrons, and pions are the building blocks of atoms.

(Page 83.)
Charged particles.

[T]hrust is simply equal to the momentum of each particle (mass times velocity) times the number of particles ejected per second.
The following reasons rule out the use of charged, energetic particles for UFO propulsion:
(1) My expereince with the effect of high-energy charged particles penetrating metal and plastic simulations of space structures is limited to electron stream bombardment, the accelerating electric potential (a variable) being several million eV supplied by a van de Graff electrostatic generator. The electron beam cut the structures to shreds in a few hours. The electron is the lightest of the charged particles; heavier particles such as protons, deutrons, or alpha particles would have the same result in less time. The point is, with no particle apertures in general evidence, how would charged particles get through the shell without cutting their way out?
(2) Consider the UFO [] whose weight was estimated as 30 tons, or 27,216 kg. Assume the UFO accelerates protons to 1 GeV, one billion electron volts. This gives them a velocity of 0.875 c, where c is the velocity of light[.] At this speed the relativistic mass of each proton is 18.8176 x 10^-31 kg, which is more than double its rest mass of 9.10908 x 10^-31. The number of particles per second required to support the UFO in hovering flight is: no/sec = UFO weight in Newtons/(mass of proton)(velocity of proton) = (27,216 kg)(9.8 Newtons per kg)/((18.8176 x 10^-31 kg)(2.623 x 10⁸ m/sec)) = 5.403 x 10²⁶ protons/sec. Each proton carries a charge of 1.6 x 10^-19 coulombs. The beam current is: beam current = (5.403 x 10²⁶)(1.60 x 10^-19) = 86 million amperes. There is no way for an electrically isolated UFO to neutralize this fantastic current. Bolts of lightning would have to continually pass between the UFO and the ground, and of course this is not observed.
(3) Charged particles would have a big air drag, and would create high downward and outward air currents at ground level, just as a heavy helicopter does. No such winds are in evidence.
(4) If accelerated to over three million electron volts, a charged particle beam would leave the ground radioactive. This is not [generally] observed.
(5) The beam energy can get out of hand. [] A beam of charged antiparticles would increase the hazard of high-beam energy by adding possible annihilation reactions.

(Pages 86-87.) (Emphasis added.)
For the above reasons, Hill concludes that ejecting charged particles is not the propulsion mechanism driving FVC.
Neutral particles.

Atomic nuclei are shielded from charged particles both by the surrounding electrons and by their own electric charge. Neither of these defenses is valid against the neutral particles, which are therefore prone to strike the nucleus and initiate nuclear reactions. Neutral particles also have a greater penetration capability than charged particles of equal weight and velocity and would therefore penetrate further into the ground.

(Page 88.)
There are various kinds of neutral particles: meson family; baryon family; and leptons (light particles).

In the meson family, the kaon (K⁰) and pion (π⁰) are both emissaries of the strong nuclear force. On high-energy impacts with the nuclei of various elements of the earth, excited nuclei and radioactive decay would surely occur in various reactions and on a big scale. The residual radioactivity would give a strong Geiger counter reading, but this is not [generally] observed. The antiparticle of K⁰ would surely have a similar effect. The ground below a hovering UFO would probably also absorb enough kinetic and radioactive energy in depth to remain warm for days. Neither effect is noted.

(Page 88.) (Emphasis added.)

The xi zero, sigma zero, and lambda zero hyperons are all products of high-energy particle collisions in high-energy particle experiments. They have much more rest energy than the ordinary atomic components such as neutrons, protons, and pions into which they decay with high-energy releases. If a hovering UFO used a high-energy stream of these particles, the ground would be both radioactive and heated in depth. [] The comments that were made about the mesons apply here as well.

(Page 88.)

In [the Leptons] family the four neutrinos will remain candidates for the propulsion system until a later section, as they would have none of the misfit features listed in this section. For example, they would not cause radioactivity, ionization, or excessive heating because their absorption is so small. They should thus go unnoticed, there being no direct way to observe their use. There are, however, ways to notice that they are not being used, as we shall discover.

(Page 89.) (Emphasis original.)
Photons.

A photon rocket is one which gets its thrust from an intense beam of photons. There is no restriction on wavelength. A photon rocket is really unsuitable for near-earth operation at near-earth speeds, because of the excessive energy in the photon beam. The beam-energy problem is two-pronged: the UFO would have to generate it, and it also has to be dissipated.
. . .
A chemical rocket has a jet velocity on the order of 3,000 meters per second, while the photon-beam velocity is 3 x 10⁸ meters per second, or 100,000 times faster. This results in very high mass economy for the photon rocket, but gives very bad energy economy at near-earth speeds.
. . .
[T]he ratio of the relativistic energy in the photon beam (e=mc²) to the kinetic energy in the rocket jet ((1/2)mv²) is just twice the ratio of light speed to chemical-jet speed.
. . .
To put these statements into understandable form, consider the UFO [] which had an estimated weight of 60,000 pounds. The energy of its beam would be roughly 2,000 times greater than the jet energy of a Saturn class rocket with a thrust of 6 million pounds. Those big rockets require many tons of water per second on the concrete jet deflectors to keep the deflectors from eroding away by scouring and vaporizing. The photon beam energy of this saucer (if it were propelled in such a ridiculous manner) would have enough energy to vaporize 118,000 tons of water per second! [] If such a UFO hovered over water, vast clouds of condensed vapor would obscure everything. When the UFO hovered low over land, this beam would vaporize the ground so fast the UFO would have no place to land. Nevermind the takeoff.
. . .
UFOs don't use photon rocketry, at least near the ground where we get a good look at them.

(Pages 89-90.) (Emphasis added.)
Hill concludes his analysis of the hypothesis that near-earth FVC propulsion uses particle ejection after eliminating all particles as potential candidates, except for the neutrino, because the physics of such propulsion simply does not fit the observed operational facts.
Thus, having largely eliminated particle ejection, as well as rocketry and aerodynamic pressure, Hill turns his analysis of FVC propulsion to force (viz., acceleration) fields.

Section VI: Direct Evidence of Force Field Propulsion

The lack of visible external components driving FVC supports the field propulsion hypothesis because such propulsion systems could be located within the shell of the craft. Field forces are proportional to the slope, or gradient, of the field energy, and can be electric, magnetic, gravitational (attractive), antigravitational (repulsive), or nuclear. Hill notes "[n]egative mass and antigravity are not inconsistent with metric gravitational field theory (general relativity) and are inconsistent with quantum-field theory. In quantum-field theory, the quantum of gravitational field energy is the graviton, and the quantum of antigravitational field energy is the antigraviton." (Page 93.) Further, "electric and gravitational field types propagate at the speed of light. Nuclear fields do not move that fast." (Page 97.)
------
Date: October 29, 1970
Location: Jaeren, Norway
Witness: Reidar Salvesen.
Description: The witness was blinded by a bright light while driving and stopped his car. After exiting his car, he saw a disk-shaped FVC hovering above him.

[Salvesen] estimated its altitude to be about 10 meters . . . All around the circumference was a belt that shimmered a yellow color, but the material of the object was steel blue in color[.]
Suddenly, with no warning, Salvesen was knocked to the ground. [] At the same instant he heard the sound of breaking glass. Rising to his feet, he noted that the object was leaving at a high rate of speed and that the pulverized windshield of his car was inside as if a blow from without had broken it.

(Page 98.)
------
Date: September 29, 1958
Location: 17 miles from Washington, D.C., in the State of Maryland, United States
Witnesses: Jerome Scanlon and Riney Farris.
Description: An object shaped like a truncated bullet, the size of a medium-sized plane, moved slowly over the witness at an altitude of about 300 feet at a velocity of around 30 mph.

[Scanlon] said it moved over trees, breaking braches in its path.
. . .
Scanlon encountered a friend, Riney Farris, who had also seen the object shortly after Scanlon did. Together they went and inspected the traversed area where the object had landed. In addition to the path of broken branches, they found a half-mile strip of scorched eath and vegetation[.]
Note: There is an "optimum" UFO speed for maximizing the bending and breaking of tree branches, depending on the diameter of the UFO force field and the natural period of swaying of the tree branches. [] [M]aximum bending occurs at the speed at which the UFO moves one diameter in the time for one swing of the branch, or, what is the same thing, in half its natural period of vibration.
If the object were 45 feet long (used instead of diameter), and the branches' half-period of vibration was about one second, then the speed for maximum bending and breaking would be 30 mph as observed, because 30 mph is a movement of 45 feet in one second. [] At higher speeds than that described, the branch hasn't had time to achieve maximum bending before the load is relieved by the UFO's passing.

(Pages 99-100.)
------
Date: June 26, 1972
Location: Fort Beaufort, South Africa
Witness: Bennie Smit
Description: One of Smit's workers reported a ball of fire over the farm. Smit investigated and "sure enough, there was a fiery ball hovering at tree top height. It was about two and a half feet across, with flames shooting out . . . When I first looked it was a big red ball, but now it was green and it suddenly changed to a yellowish white." Smit went for his rifle and began shooting at the FVC, and heard a thud on his eighth shot. The object then disappeared behind the trees.

Soon after the police arrived, "We saw a round black shiny object about two and a half feet in diameter emerge from behind a tree . . . Shots had no effect and when anybody approached it it shied away behind the bushes."
Smit then moved into the thick bush, looking for it. Suddenly he saw it about 20 yards away. He fired two quick shots, but with a loud whirring noise it veered off over the tree tops, cutting a pathway through the foliage.
"Smit said that the trees and bushes aparted for the UFO as it sped away. He was adamant that no air blast caused this, so it appears that some type of force field may be associated with the object."
. . .
It is worth a passing thought that the dark daytime color might be associated with an increase in its force field, so that the bullets couldn't get through. This would also cause the nearby branches to deflect more noticeably.

(Pages 100-101.) (Qutoing APRO Bulletin, September-October, 1972.)
------
Date: January, 1960
Location: Andean Highway, Venezuela
Witness: Pisani.
Description: A truck passed Pisani's jeep. While Pisani as following the jeep, a FVC appeared overhead.

[A] brilliant, metallic, disk-shaped object which looked like polished blue steel swooped down out of the sky at incredible speed and crossed perilously close over the front of the truck.
[A]fter passing over the truck, [the craft] rose again and was lost to sight . . . in seconds. When it rose in the air above the hood of the truck, the truck also rose a few feet in the air and overturned in the direction taken by the object, falling into a sand bank at the side of the road with its 4 wheels upturned.

(Pages 101-102.) (Emphasis original.) (Quoting The Whole Story, by Jim and Coral E. Lorenzen, pg. 228.)
------
Date: November 8, 1973
Location: Embrum, Ontario, Canada
Witnesses: Rick and Donna Bouchard, and their three unnamed children.
Description: While driving to Ottawa in their pick-up truck, the Bouchards encountered a FVC. The craft flew down to the truck and began following behind at a speed of 100 mph as Rick accelerated to escape.

At one point during the chase the object seemed to touch the truck, but there remained no evidence to prove it.
. . .
However, the vehicle could have touched the truck with its force field without leaving a trace, because a force field pushes within the material contacted, and not against the surface as in all ordinary types of push. Thus a force field push is characteristically nondamaging.
[A] force field, with its gentle push, whatever its detailed nature, is an ideal agent for imparting acceleration to the occupants of a space vehicle undergoing high acceleration. With the pushing directly against each internal cell of the body, none of the structure or internal organs of the body tend to get crushed or even strained. In fact, it is easy to prove that if a uniform field gradient provides the total acceleration to a passenger, the passenger undergoes no stress whatsoever. He wouldn't feel a thing, even that he was accelerating.

(Pages 102-103.) (Emphasis added.)
------
Date: March 21, 1967
Location: Hillsboro, Kansas
Witnesses: Mary Beth Neufeld and several unnamed friends.
Description: A light appeared in the sky near U.S. Route 66. Neufeld and her friends went to investigate, driving over in a car. As they got closer, they could make out a domed saucer.

The UFO, directly overhead, paced the car. "The car began to rock real bad," they said, "and the engine stopped." Within a few seconds the saucer sped away. They were able to start the car again and they went into Hillsboro to report the events to authorities.
The car rock was probably caused by the center of the force field moving from side to side of the center of the car, or vice versa. This could be caused by the saucer rocking, or by the tense driver doing a ziazag[.]

(Pages 104-105.) (Quoting UFOs Over the Americas, by Jim and Coral E. Lorenzen, pg. 26.)
------
Date: Feburary, 1959
Location: Digeliotica and Agiou Apostolo, Greece
Witnesses: Priest Papa Costas and many other unnamed villagers.
Description: Villagers heard a humming noise coming from the sea. Many people saw a luminous disk circling over the two villages.

The disk circled low overhead for about 10 minutes, while the radios failed to operate and the current in one house failed completely. When people in the street saw the disk fly low over the house of the priest, Papa Costas, there was a loud noise or clatter and the whole house seemed to shake, making Papa Costas inside think there was an earthquake. When he rushed out, people on the street told him the disk had just flown over his house as it circled about. Inspection of the house revealed that many of the roof tiles had been displaced, and others were on the ground. His first thought seemed to be that the disk had struck the roof, but by the time he talked to reporters he said that a low-flying disk had somehow dislodged some of the tile on his roof.
. . .
What happened was that the tile got the "gentle" -- but effective -- push of the UFO force field as the disk banked overhead. The field force direction was sufficiently aligned with the sloping tile to dislodge the looser ones.
This theory supposes that the tile was dislodged on one side of the roof, as the field force could hardly align with both sides simultaneously.

(Pages 105-106.)
------
Date: February 14, 1967
Location: Miller County, Missouri, United States
Witness: An unnamed farmer.
Description: The farmer saw a lighted object about 300 feet away in a field east of his barn. He described the object as a disk about 15 feet in diameter and 6 feet thick, flat on the bottom and round on the top, with a central shaft about 1 and a half feet in diameter and 2 and a half feet long protruded from the bottom to the ground. The surface of the object was smooth, grey-green in color with a silken sheen, and was uninterrupted except by a ring of oblong ports about 6 to 8 inches long and spaced a foot apart around the lower circumference. Bright lights emanated from the ports. The lights changed color, covering all the colors of the rainbow spectrum.

He could see 10 or 12 smaller objects about 2 feet tall moving about beneath and around the larger object. The farmer's sketch of the objects or "humanoids" resembled a peanut with a proboscis-like protrusion near the top, indicated wide-set eyes, and what looked like a visor. They had slender arms which moved rapidly, and although these objects moved about rapidly no legs or feet were observed.
As the farmer approached the object, the smaller objects started to move behind the central shaft and into it, entering the craft.
. . .
"As I came through the first gate I picked up two rocks, pretty good size one of them was. I got up to about 30 feet of it and it was sitting there kind of rocking slightly and I thought, boy, here goes. I'm going to knock a hole in that thing and see what the hell it is. I cut down on it and the rock stopped along about 15 feet rom it and just hit the ground. The next rock I thought I would throw on top of it and it just hit 'something' and bounced."
The farmer told the APRO field investigator, "I thought I was going right up to it; I got up to about here [about 15 feet from the object] and there it was. I just walked up against a wall [an invisible wall] I couldn't see it at all; there was just a pressure [holding him back]."
. . .
That the second rock bounced on the force field shows that the field exhibited the energy-conservative nature of a mechanical spring; i.e., the rock "sprang" back. This is exactly what static-field theory indicates it should do because static fields conserve energy. Any energy the field absorbs from the rock it must give back on the rebound.

(Pages 107-108.) (Quoting Encounters with UFO Occupants, by Coral E. Lorenzen, pg. 190.)
------
FVC can bend branches, move trees, flip a truck, nudge a pick-up, dislodge tiles, and deflect bullets and rocks, all without physically touching the objects upon which a force is exerted. Hill concludes a force field emanates from FVC while the craft is operation, which is the cause of these various effects.

Section VII: Which Type of Force Field Propulsion?

Hill turns to assessing whether an electric field, a magnetic field, or an antigravitational field can explain the observed facts.

Negative gravity is the field that theory indicates is associated with negative matter and possibly with some antiparticles. This field repels all matter.
The electromagnetic field is not a static field; it travels at light velocity. It might be utilized in deep space to obtain speeds near the speed of light, because at high speeds the electromangetic drive would seem an effective one. However, for near-earth applications which we are discussing, the electromagnetic field was eliminated in Section V as not being at all in keeping with the observed UFO facts. It was treated there as a photon beam.
We now quote Sir Isaac Newton, one of the greatest physicsts of all time: To every action [force] there is an equal and opposite reaction [force]. [] No exceptions to Newton's (third) law have ever been found.

(Page 109.)
As for the Norwegian who was knocked to the ground and whose car window was smashed in, an electric field is eliminated because the ground on which the man was standing carries no electric charge. Although a magnetic field could theoretically explain his fall, the high level of eddy currents in his body necessary to produce such a force would have left him stunned. An antigravitational field is a better explanation because the man was not stunned, and the "soft push" acted throughout all the cells of his body, so that he did not feel the push. Similarly, electric and magnetic fields cannot explain the broken glass, because glass windshield has no appeciable electric charge, nor is glass a conductor or magnetically suscpetible material. Again, however, an antigravitational field could have broken the windshield. (Page 111.)
The same arguments for the unsuitablity of electric and magnetic fields apply to trees and branches, which are perfectly grounded and not magnetic. As previously explained, an antigravitational field is a good explanation, particularly because we expect branches to bend more when FVC move around 30 mph rather than at higher velocities. (Page 112.) The same argument against electric or magnetic fields applies to roof tiles, which are neither magnetic nor conductors. (Page 114.) Hill dismissed consideration of the South African farmer who shot at the craft, because the thud may well have been explained by poor marksmanship, with the bullet hitting a tree instead of the FVC.
Nuclear fields cannot achieve any of the observed effects. Therefore, although magnetic fields could flip a truck or bump a pick-up without leaving a physical trace, the only hypothesis that fits all of the facts is the antigravitational field. Hill notes that UFOs may still use magnetic or electric fields, but that these fields alone cannot be the source of near-earth propulsion.

UFOs surely utilize electric currents, each one of which always has an associated magnetic field. Besides, there have been several indications that UFOs have a magnetic field, or signature. [] [But] the UFO does not get a direct propulsive force from either a static magnetic field, or a static electric field.

(Page 115.)
Neutrino particle propulsion hypothesis eliminated.
Recall that Hill did not exclude neutrino particle propulsion as a potential explanation because "it was the only energetic particle that didn't leave the ground radioactive or have other unobserved effects. Also, a sufficiently powerful neutrino beam would give the UFO the needed thrust." (Page 117.) However, such a form of propulsion cannot explain a single one of the cases described, above, since neutrino particles could not knock down a man, break a windshield, bend a tree or branch, tip over a truck, bump a pick-up, or dislodge a roof tile without physically touching the objects.
Conclusion: Therefore, at least in near-earth, field-vectored craft maneouver using an antigravitational field, not electromagnetism or any kind of particle ejection propulsion.

Up Next

Why flying saucers hum; the cyclic field.
Oddities of FVC propulsion.
Saucer dynamics.
Silent operation of FVC at subsonic and supersonic velocities.
Aerodynamic heating.
Explaining high-acceleration loads on potential humanoid occupants.
Artifacts.
And the operational capabilities of a craft.

In 1997, The Institute for Creation Research, (ICR) Creation Research Society, (CRS) and Answers in Genesis (AIG) started the Radioisotopes And The age of the Earth (RATE) project, an 8 year study by 6 Ph.D. holding Young Earth Creationist (YEC) physicists and geologists, a Ph.D. holding meteorologist, and a Ph.D. holding Hebrew scholar, led by YEC legends Dr. Andrew Snelling and Dr. Russel Humphreys. The project had a budget of over $2 million from private donors. Since it’s completion in 2005, the RATE report has been praised as a huge step in Creation research, with ICR lauding “groundbreaking results” that prove “the reliability of the Bible,” AIG claiming that the RATE project is “overturning millions of years!” and Biblical Science Institute’s Dr. Jason Lisle rejoicing at a “Fatal blow to Billions of Years.”
This is the best YECs have to offer. The problem? It’s all a lie. I spent some time cutting together the actual conclusions and findings that the RATE Project came to in their report. I think you’ll find it interesting.
The RATE researchers stated mission from the beginning was to discredit radioisotope dating and provide an alternative explanation that would fit into the YEC framework, “a scientific alternative favoring the thousands-of-years scenario for the age of the earth.” The RATE team also promised to be unbiased and scientific in their examination: “Initially the RATE team had no preconceived ideas regarding what might be found in the data. In fact, because the scientific community is so convinced in the great antiquity of the earth, the team was concerned that it might possibly run up against overwhelming evidence against a Biblical time frame. However, the RATE team was committed to conducting the first major creationist effort to investigate theoretically and experimentally a young-earth explanation of nuclear decay processes, no matter where the evidence led.” I will be bringing us back to that promise a few times.
The RATE researchers originally planned to pursue evidence for the commonly held YEC position that radiometric dating is unreliable. “Most [creationists] believed that the large quantity of daughter isotopes observed today was primarily God’s doing during Creation, that is, the concentration of daughter isotopes was non-zero when time began. If this were in fact the case, then the problem could be solved simply by resetting the radioisotope clocks to account for this initial inventory of daughter isotopes.”
The researchers were however split over two main hypotheses as to how exactly God had contaminated rocks with daughter products.

• Hypothesis 1 - “large initial concentrations of daughter isotopes in the mantle which were mixed into the crust on Day 3 of Creation week,”
• Hypothesis 2 - “large concentrations of daughter elements produced during Creation week which were later mixed into the crust by the Genesis Flood.”

Additionally, a few of the researchers held a “minority view within the RATE group” which “called for supernatural intervention by God to accelerate the decay rate at one or more periods within the mass-space-time continuum of earth history.”
The RATE team laid out their (reasonable) misgivings of this minority view in several paragraphs. “The concept of so-called accelerated decay would be highly controversial and not easily accepted by the scientific community or the public at large without strong supporting evidence. It also meant that global, catastrophic events, possibly even cosmic events, operating at scales and speeds far beyond anything observed today, had occurred during the history of the earth, if the earth is young. Until recently it had not been demonstrated in the laboratory that the rate of nuclear decay could be changed by more than a few tenths of a percent even under extreme temperature, pressure, and chemical conditions [Bosch et al., 1996].”
However, by the time the RATE team finished literature review three years into the project, they were at an impasse. Not only had they not found any real evidence to support the YEC position, what they HAD found directly challenged it. “The strong physical evidence the RATE group had accumulated [showed] that a large amount of nuclear decay had indeed occurred in the rocks themselves.” In a keystone moment for the project, the researchers acknowledge that the YEC model was not only wrong, it was shoddily researched. “Most creationists who had previously addressed these issues did not fully appreciate the evidences for radioactive decay beyond the chemical presence of the daughter isotopes themselves.” the RATE team explains. “There are many independent lines of evidence that large quantities of daughter isotopes were formed since Creation and even since the beginning of the Flood! These findings and assertions are major departures from the previously-held understanding in creation science. They not only force creationists to discover a much more complex scenario for the decay of radioisotopes than has been considered in the past, but they also require us to link such an explanation to serious Biblical and scientific constraints.”
Those many independent lines of evidence had in fact led them to an unavoidable conclusion; half a billion to several billions of years worth of radioactive decay had indisputably happened. They outline their findings: “The evidence includes the presence of large amounts of radiogenic Pb in minerals that do not normally contain Pb. Large concentrations of fission tracks—linear patterns of crystal damage in rocks caused by high-energy particles ejected from nuclear fission centers—are ubiquitous throughout the rock strata of the earth. Radiohalos—spherical patterns of discolored crystal surrounding nuclear decay centers—are present in most granitic rocks. The formation of radiohalos required a large amount of radioactive decay for the radiohalos to be detectable. And, finally, the measured presence of relatively large quantities of 4 He in zircons was, in itself, evidence for a large amount of nuclear decay.”
Forced away from their original theories, the researchers turned to the minority view within their group. The “hypotheses were considered... until the first RATE book was published” they explain. By the time of their initial findings book, “accelerated decay during several periods of earth history became the primary hypothesis.”
Now, I want to take a step back and remind us of the promise the RATE researchers made us. “The RATE team had no preconceived ideas regarding what might be found in the data,” they stated, “no matter where the evidence led.”
What evidence led the RATE researchers to pursue the hypothesis of supernaturally accelerated decay? In their own estimation, none! The RATE team adopted this hypothesis because they felt they had no choice. “How then should a young-earth advocate proceed?” they ask. “The only remaining avenue available appeared to be to question the assumption that nuclear decay rates have been constant.” Despite their commitment to not do so, the researchers chose to make ideological assumptions first, and look for evidence second. Unsurprisingly, their search only found more problems for the YEC position.
To their credit, the RATE team is candid about the evidence against their theory in the unresolved problems portion of their final chapter. They lay them out as below.

• The Radiation Problem - “If God caused an episode of accelerated decay during the Genesis Flood, how could Noah and his family and all the plants and animals on the Ark have survived the massive dose of radiation such nuclear decay would have unleashed?” According to the RATE team’s calculations, not even a global-flood-sized absorptive layer of water would provide enough shielding to mitigate the rays. The RATE team could provide no explanation.

The researchers found that even the trace amount of radioactive elements in living plants and animals would have been lethal. The RATE team suggested that perhaps there were no radioactive elements in Earth’s atmosphere, water or soil before the global flood. They could provide no explanation as to why or how that is possible.

• The Heat Problem - “If God caused a period of accelerated decay during the Genesis Flood, it would have generated a massive pulse of heat in the earth. The RATE group estimates that the heating would have been equal to that produced by about a half billion years of decay at today’s rates. But, it would have been generated over the period of only one year of the Genesis Flood. The heat would have melted the crustal rocks many times over unless there was some mechanism for simultaneously removing it quickly. How did the earth survive such a massive dose of heat without vaporizing the oceans and melting the rocks? How did Noah and his family survive such an environment on the Ark?”

In a disgraceful bit of circular reasoning, the researchers explain that “A primary piece of Biblical evidence that heat was not a problem is the fact that Noah and his family made it through the year of the Genesis Flood without being cooked! Sometimes we forget the obvious.” Obvious indeed. “The implication is that most of the heat from the rapid nuclear decay had to be removed by some extraordinary process.”
Through this wonderful line of thinking, the researchers conclude that the evidence calls for an exotic, as yet undiscovered volumetric cooling mechanism. However this introduces a third problem for accelerated decay.

• The Cold Problem - “Had the… radioactive elements cooled at sufficiently high rates to form and persist as crystalline rock, then the oceans would have frozen solid had they cooled by the same amount. Likewise, Noah and his family on the Ark would have been in danger of freezing.”

The RATE team postulated a vague, evidence-less hypothesis involving 4th-dimensional relativistic expansion and a complex exponential cooling rate, which they claim has “many attractive explanatory features and only a few known difficulties.” They also decided that maybe this is where ice ages come from.

• The Consistency Problem - If nuclear decay was miraculously accelerated, the results should be consistent across all radioactive elements. However, it’s not - for example carbon-14 appears to not even be accelerated at all. “Whatever the process involved in speeding up the nuclear decay at various times in earth history, the amount of decay was apparently not the same for all isotopes.” Their best effort to explain this is a “drawn by eye” parabolic trend line related to atomic weight that is unlikely to be very representative of reality.

The researchers admit, a first for YECs, that there is an “overall systematic trend of “radioisotope ages” in the rock units in the geologic record” with lower rock layers recording as older than modern ones. They could offer no explanation.

• The Meteorite Problem - The abundance of daughter products from long-lived radioisotopes in meteorites from space needs much more attention. These elements are used conventionally to infer cosmological processes involved in the formation of the earth and to estimate its age as a whole. The studies conducted by RATE on rocks from the earth do not yet adequately address the issue of the age of meteorites.”
• The Theological Problem - There is no scriptural evidence that God accelerated nuclear decay, nor any indication why or how it would be in God’s character to do this. The RATE team was also concerned with finding a reason things would “decay” in the supposed perfect world at the beginning of time. They recommended the use of the word “Nuclear Transformation” as a Christian alternative to nuclear decay. Otherwise, they could offer no explanation.

Yet despite the self-reported overwhelming evidence against their model, the researchers state:
“The RATE group believes from these arguments that God was directly involved in all of these events, so it is possible that He employed some supernatural process which does not occur today or cannot be detected.”
Remember the promise that the RATE team made at the beginning of their investigation? Again, despite their supposed commitment to following the evidence “no matter where the evidence led,” they endorse conclusions for which they acknowledge there is no evidence found and possibly not any to find. The reality is, if they were to draw direct conclusions from the evidence, they would never in a million years imagine some hole-ridden theory of supernaturally variable decay rates, other-dimensional cooling, intangible radiation pulses, mysterious meteorites, and sudden ice ages. RATE’s conclusions rest unequivocally on the preconceived ideas that they promised us they had set aside.
In the final paragraphs of the two-book report, after $2 million dollars and countless hours devoted by YECs best and brightest, the RATE researchers' conclusions were dire:
“The conclusion that a large amount of decay has occurred had been denied or ignored previously by many creationists. However, the evidence is overwhelming. The magnitude of the nuclear decay indicates that, independent of initial conditions, the equivalent of billions of years worth of nuclear decay has occurred during earth history. How then should a young-earth advocate proceed? The only remaining avenue available appeared to be to question the assumption that nuclear decay rates have been constant. This approach was adopted by the RATE group as the preferred avenue for research, given the evidence for massive nuclear decay.”
It’s interesting that the RATE team never lets their sentences fully end. Each time they present some damning bit of evidence, they interject a cheery bible verse or promise of future solutions. Maybe it’s meddling from organizations worried about satisfying donors, or maybe it’s their own consciences towing the line between academic integrity and religious duty. Regardless, their half-truths cannot deflect scrutiny.
Despite the researchers own analysis of their failure to produce results, “The viability of the concept of accelerated decay has not yet been demonstrated to the satisfaction of many even within sympathetic creationist circles, let alone to the wider scientific community,” they proclaim utmost confidence. “Confidence in what the Bible says on these matters is important,” they state. “The RATE group is confident that these issues will be solved.”
Indeed, creationist organizations in general echo that confidence with a refusal to acknowledge any problems. In a striking display of Goodthink, this study is cited again and again in articles “squashing” old Earth theories. Ironically, these citations sit alongside other articles that continue to peddle the very YEC claims RATE rejected as scientifically faulty. ICR has spawned a series of books and DvDs titled Thousands… not Billions, project volumes that sell for $159.98, and countless audio recordings, articles, and speaking engagements all supposedly based on the RATE study.
The Christian journal that the RATE project was published in has condemned this as dishonesty, stating: “The ASA does not take a position on issues when there is honest disagreement among Christians provided there is adherence to our statement of faith and to integrity in science.” However, they continue, “Any portrayal of the RATE project as confirming scientific support for a young earth, contradicts the RATE project’s own admission of unresolved problems. The ASA can and does oppose such deception.”
I intended in this essay to draw attention to the bias in the RATE team’s methods, the dishonesty in their reporting, and the continued concealment of their results by YEC organizations that refuse to see anything but victory. There is much more that can be said and has been said about the RATE project and their work on carbon-14, isochrons, and helium diffusion, etc, but those are outside my scope for now. Thank you for reading!
—————————————
Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth: A Young-Earth Creationist Research Initiative, edited by L. Vardiman, A. A. Snelling, and E. F. Chaffin, pp.95–121, Institute for Creation Research, El Cajon, California, and Creation Research Society, St. Joseph, Missouri, 2000.
Isaac, R. (2007). Assessing the RATE Project. Perspectives on Science & Christian Faith. (June 2007, pp. 143-146)
https://answersingenesis.org/theory-of-evolution/millions-of-years/rate-research-results-fatal-blow-to-billions-of-years/
https://answersingenesis.org/theory-of-evolution/millions-of-years/rate-overturning-millions-years/

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fuckvcsiA6PEp70QevH66KEgyxKxk567/view?usp=sharing
We have been dating since July 5th and steady since June 12th. We are deeply in love, and met online. It is long distance, so I plan on giving this to her when we meet. She is the love of my life, my truest love, and we are for each other what no else could be.
It is a radioisotope of hydrogen called tritium, the light won't go out for over a decade
View Poll

• MKULTRA: https://www.npr.org/2019/09/09/758989641/the-cias-secret-quest-for-mind-control-torture-lsd-and-a-poisoner-in-chief (http://archive.is/xTFXu)

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• "Three members of Congress are demanding answers after a St. Louis scholar's new book revealed details of secret Cold War-era U.S. government testing in which countless unsuspecting people, including many children, pregnant women and minorities, were fed, sprayed or injected with radiation and other dangerous materials... St. Louis leaders were told at the time that the government was testing a smoke screen that could shield the city from aerial observation in case of Soviet attack. Evidence now shows radioactive material, not just zinc cadmium sulfide, was part of that spraying, Martino-Taylor said." https://apnews.com/4da06e584a614035afc8d20e4416bbda ... http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-bc-us--cold-war-human-testing-20171002-story.html (http://archive.is/W0C7C) (http://archive.is/FpaXN)

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• "A government report provides for the first time a comprehensive official history of Britain's biological weapons trials between 1940 and 1979. The 60-page report reveals new information about more than 100 covert experiments. Between 1955 and 1963 planes flew from north-east England to the tip of Cornwall along the south and west coasts, dropping huge amounts of zinc cadmium sulphide on the population. The report also reveals details of the DICE trials in south Dorset between 1971 and 1975. These involved US and UK military scientists spraying into the air massive quantities of serratia marcescens bacteria, with an anthrax simulant and phenol. Between 1961 and 1968 more than a million people along the south coast of England, from Torquay to the New Forest, were exposed to bacteria including e.coli and bacillus globigii." http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/ap21/uk.medicalscience (http://archive.is/4nxNI)

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• In the mid-1950s, and again a decade later, the Army used motorized blowers atop a low-income housing high-rise, at schools and from the backs of station wagons to send zinc cadmium sulfide into the already-hazy air in predominantly black areas of St. Louis. Local officials were told at the time that the government was testing a smoke screen that could shield St. Louis from aerial observation in case the Russians attacked. But in 1994, the government said the tests were part of a biological weapons program and St. Louis was chosen because it bore some resemblance to Russian cities that the U.S. might attack. The material being sprayed was zinc cadmium sulfide, a fine fluorescent powder. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/secret-cold-war-tests-in-st-louis-cause-worry/ (https://archive.is/1mXXA)

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• Government tested AIDS drugs on foster kids. Children not provided with basic legal protection, review finds. Government-funded researchers tested AIDS drugs on hundreds of foster children over the past two decades, often without providing them a basic protection afforded in federal law and required by some states, an Associated Press review has found. The research funded by the National Institutes of Health spanned the country. It was most widespread in the 1990s as foster care agencies sought treatments for their HIV-infected children that weren’t yet available in the marketplace. The research was conducted in at least seven states — Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Colorado and Texas — and involved more than four dozen different studies. The foster children ranged from infants to late teens, according to interviews and government records. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/7736157/ns/health-aids/t/government-tested-aids-drugs-foster-kids/#fullstory (https://archive.is/Hp84K)

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• New York's HIV experiment- HIV positive children and their loved ones have few rights if they choose to battle with social work authorities in New York City. Jacklyn Hoerger's job was to treat children with HIV at a New York children's home. But nobody had told her that the drugs she was administering were experimental and highly toxic. "We were told that if they were vomiting, if they lost their ability to walk, if they were having diarrhoea, if they were dying, then all of this was because of their HIV infection." In fact it was the drugs that were making the children ill and the children had been enrolled on the secret trials without their relatives' or guardians' knowledge. As Jacklyn would later discover, those who tried to take the children off the drugs risked losing them into care. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/4038375.stm (http://archive.is/jJwL9)
• "Over and over again, the military has conducted dangerous biowarfare experiments on Americans. http://www.businessinsider.com/military-government-secret-experiments-biological-chemical-weapons-2016-9 (http://archive.is/Za5UX)

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• The U.S. Army recently released logs of thousands of experiments conducted at Dugway Proving Ground dating back to the Cold War, providing a glimpse at what the highly secure testing facility has been up to. Some military tests involved human exposure to biological and chemical agents. "They loaded up mosquitos with what they said was an inert disease, an inert bacteria, an inert virus and actually released that on civilian populations in the United States," he said. https://fox13now.com/2016/05/12/a-rare-look-at-dugways-experiments-then-and-now/ (archive)

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• From a news report in 1977: "The Army disclosed yesterday that it secretly conducted 239 germ warfare tests in open air between 1949 and 1969, some tests releasing live but supposedly harmless microscopic "bugs" at Washington's Greyhound bus terminal and National Airport as part of the experiment. The idea, according to a two-volume report the Army gave to the senate health subcommittee yesterday, was to learn how to wage biological warfare and defend against it... Washington was one of five cities where the Army released simulated lethal germs in public places. Other cities where the public served as unknowing guinea pigs were New York, San Francisco, Key West and panama City, Fla. All told, the Army listed 27 times that it tested simulated toxins on public property, including releasing spores in two tunnels on a stretch of Pennsylvania Turnpike. In addition to those experiments in public places, the Army secretary used military personnel and their families for open air experiments by spraying simulated germs into the air at a number of bases, including Fort Detrick, Md.; Fort Belvoir, Va.; and the Marine training school at Quantico, Va." https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/03/09/army-conducted-239-secret-open-air-germ-warfare-tests/b17e5ee7-3006-4152-acf3-0ad163e17a22/ (https://archive.fo/SSdWl)
• "U.S. Admits Bio-Weapons Tests- The tests included releasing deadly nerve agents in Alaska and spraying bacteria over Hawaii, according to the documents obtained Tuesday. The United States also tested nerve agents in Canada and Britain in conjunction with those two countries, and biological and chemical weapons in at least two other states, Maryland and Florida. The Pentagon released records earlier this year showing that chemical and biological agents had been sprayed on ships at sea. The military reimbursed ranchers and agreed to stop open-air nerve agent testing at its main chemical weapons center in the Utah desert after about 6,400 sheep died when nerve gas drifted away from the test range... Earlier this year, the Defense Department acknowledged for the first time that some of the 1960s tests used real chemical and biological weapons, not just benign stand-ins... Some of those involved in the tests say they now suffer health problems linked to their exposure to dangerous chemicals and germs. The Defense Department has identified nearly 3,000 soldiers involved in tests disclosed earlier, but the VA has sent letters to fewer than half of them. VA and Pentagon officials acknowledged at a July hearing that finding the soldiers has been difficult." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-admits-bio-weapons-tests/ (https://archive.is/8tAQX)

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• U.S. secretly tested carcinogen in Western Canada during the Cold War, researcher finds. The Pentagon never told the Canadian government that it would be spraying a chemical on Winnipeg and two Alberta towns. http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/u-s-secretly-tested-carcinogen-in-western-canada-during-the-cold-war-researcher-discovers (http://archive.is/vUyb4)

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• Operation LAC (Large Area Coverage) was a U.S. Army Chemical Corps operation which dispersed microscopic zinc cadmium sulfide (ZnCdS) particles over much of the United States. The purpose was to determine the dispersion and geographic range of biological or chemical agents. Principally, the operation involved spraying large areas with zinc cadmium sulfide.[2] The U.S. Air Force loaned the Army a C-119, "Flying Boxcar", and it was used to disperse zinc cadmium sulfide by the ton in the atmosphere over the United States. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_LAC (http://archive.is/smWSp)

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• From 1955 to 1972, Army doctors gave soldier 'volunteers' synthetic marijuana, LSD and two dozen other psychoactive drugs during experiments aimed at developing chemical weapons that could incapacitate enemy soldiers. https://www.wired.com/2007/04/the_secrets_of_/ (http://archive.is/UYyWk)

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• "Beginning on September 26, 1950, the crew of a U.S. Navy minesweeper ship spent six days spraying Serratia marcescens into the air about two miles off the northern California coast. The project was called “Operation Sea Spray,” and its aim was to determine the susceptibility of a big city like San Francisco to a bioweapon attack by terrorists. In the following days, the military took samples at 43 sites to track the bacteria's spread, and found that it had quickly infested not only the city but surrounding suburbs as well. During the test, residents of these areas would have inhaled millions of bacterial spores...But there was a catch. At the time, the US military thought that Serratia couldn’t harm humans. The bug was mostly known for the red spots it produced on infested foods and had not been widely linked to clinical conditions. That changed when one week after the test, 11 local residents checked into a Stanford University Hospital complaining of urinary tract infections...One patient, a man named Edward Nevin who was recovering from prostate surgery, died, and some have suggested that the release forever changed the area's microbial ecology." https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/1950-us-released-bioweapon-san-francisco-180955819/ (https://archive.is/m8RM2)

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• 'Operation Delirium:' Psychochemicals And Cold War - "Throughout the 1950s and '60s, at the now-crumbling Edgewood Arsenal by the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, military doctors tested the effects of nerve gas, LSD and other drugs on 5,000 U.S. soldiers to gauge the effects on their brain and behavior." https://www.npr.org/2012/12/11/166891159/operation-delirium-psychochemicals-and-cold-war (archive.org) (documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1GAaWy3HTw)

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• From 1963 to 1966, Saul Krugman of New York University promised the parents of mentally disabled children that their children would be enrolled into Willowbrook in exchange for signing a consent form for procedures that he claimed were "vaccinations." In reality, the procedures involved deliberately infecting children with viral hepatitis by feeding them an extract made from the feces of patients infected with the disease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unethical_human_experimentation_in_the_United_States#1950s

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• Immediately after World War II, researchers at Vanderbilt University gave 829 pregnant mothers in Tennessee what they were told were "vitamin drinks" that would improve the health of their babies. The mixtures contained radioactive iron and the researchers were determining how fast the radioisotope crossed into the placenta. At least three children are known to have died from the experiments, from cancers and leukemia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unethical_human_experimentation_in_the_United_States#Experiments_involving_other_radioactive_materials

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• The Fernald School for the "feeble minded" was part of America's Eugenics movement, and the children there performed most manual labor, including cutting up the brains of mentally disabled people for scientific study. The boys were also given radioactive oatmeal in a study for Quaker Oats. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/americas-deep-dark-secret/ (http://archive.is/LGVFv)

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• The Imperial Japanese Army's notorious medical research team carried out secret human experiments regarded as some of the worst war crimes in history. Its scientists subjected more than 10,000 people per year to grotesque Josef Mengele-style torture in the name of science, including captured Russian soldiers and downed American aircrews. The experiments included hanging people upside down until they choked, burying them alive, injecting air into their veins and placing them in high-pressure chambers. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/7236099/Human-bones-could-reveal-truth-of-Japans-Unit-731-experiments.html (http://archive.is/hojxN)

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• Israel has admitted for the first time that it has been giving Ethiopian Jewish immigrants birth-control injections, often without their knowledge or consent. “They [medical staff] told us they are inoculations. We took it every three months. We said we didn’t want to.” http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-gave-birth-control-to-ethiopian-jews-without-their-consent-8468800.html (http://archive.is/mE8vG)

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• Guatemala syphilis experiment: American medical research project that lasted from 1946 to 1948 and is known for its unethical experimentation on vulnerable human populations in Guatemala. The Guatemala experiments remained a largely unknown event in U.S. medical history until the early 2000s. The total study population included more than 5,500 Guatemalan prisoners, sex workers, soldiers, children, and psychiatric patients, about one-quarter of whom were deliberately infected with syphilis, gonorrhea, or chancroid and all of whom were enrolled in the experiments without their consent. Among the most controversial methods used was “normal exposure,” in which sex workers infected with syphilis were used to transmit the disease to unsuspecting prisoners. Approximately 1,308 soldiers, prisoners, sex workers, and psychiatric patients, ranging from age 10 to 72, were intentionally exposed to STDs during the study. Syphilis exposure occurred through inoculation of the cervix in sex workers; through injection or direct sexual contact with infected sex workers in prisoners; and through injection, inoculation (via abrasion) of the penis, cisternal puncture (the insertion of a needle below the occipital bone at the back of the skull to access cerebrospinal fluid), or oral ingestion in psychiatric patients. Exposure to gonorrhea was carried out in sex workers through cervical inoculation and in Guatemalan soldiers through sexual contact with the sex workers and sometimes through urethral inoculation. https://www.britannica.com/event/Guatemala-syphilis-experiment (http://archive.is/8OmW9)

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• Tuskegee syphilis experiment an infamous clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the U.S. Public Health Service. The purpose of this study was to observe the natural progression of untreated syphilis in rural African-American men in Alabama under the guise of receiving free health care from the United States government. The Public Health Service started working on this study in 1932 in collaboration with Tuskegee University, a historically black college in Alabama. Investigators enrolled in the study a total of 622 impoverished, African-American sharecroppers from Macon County, Alabama. Of these men, 431 had previously contracted syphilis before the study began, and 169[3] did not have the disease. The men were given free medical care, meals, and free burial insurance for participating in the study. The men were told that the study was only going to last six months, but it actually lasted 40 years.[4] After funding for treatment was lost, the study was continued without informing the men that they would never be treated. None of the men infected were ever told that they had the disease, and none were treated with penicillin even after the antibiotic was proven to successfully treat syphilis. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the men were told that they were being treated for "bad blood", a colloquialism that described various conditions such as syphilis, anemia, and fatigue. "Bad blood"—specifically the collection of illnesses the term included—was a leading cause of death within the southern African-American community.[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_syphilis_experiment (http://archive.is/xGIQp)

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• Israel harvested organs from dead Palestinians in the 90's without the consent of the families. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/dec/21/israeli-pathologists-harvested-organs (http://archive.is/s85VA)

*PLEASE READ ASAP\*
*POSSIBLE WARNINGS\*
*POSSIBLE THEORY OF RELATIONS\*
*POSSIBLE FINDINGS\*
According to the RSD, the thing detects the vials/chemical/"life's blood" by detecting radionuclide('s)...
what i found about radionuclide is somewhat concerning ....very ...concerning ...im no chemist ...im artist at best but i was very curious and looked into this ...i may be freaking out about nothing ...but....please look more into this ....>
*Wiki/google info\*
Radionuclide: An unstable form of a chemical element that releases radiation as it breaks down and becomes more stable. Radionuclides may occur in nature or be made in a laboratory. ... Also called radioisotope.
What is radionuclide used for?
A radionuclide scan is an imaging technique that uses a small dose of a radioactive chemical (isotope) called a tracer that can detect cancer, trauma, infection or other disorders. In a radionuclide scan, the tracer either is injected into a vein or swallowed.
A radionuclide is an atom that has excess nuclear energy, making it unstable. This excess energy can be used in one of three ways: emitted from the nucleus as gamma radiation; transferred to one of its electrons to release it as a conversion electron; or used to create and emit a new particle from the nucleus
idk...just ...sounds dangerous and risky to me .....its a medical use thing but.....it can be dangerous too.....which if you think about ...explains a lot of things...maybe ....
*THEORY PART\*
one more thing ...i had a theory .... what if ....Wess...was a failed but saved project ....same goes for Nelson....failed but saved would explain the mask ....the chemical that nearly killed them now keeps them alive....and ....
about relationships....what if....nelson..."liked or loved"...... Deb ....and so did Wess....but she choose Wess and not only chose him over nelson but is against him ...nelson ...snapped ....seeing as his love interest not only choose his (best-)friend? over him but turned him against him ....you see...he literally lost everything ....and ....wants to not only take back? but take revenge and ....maybe ....just idk...its a theory ....
Deb...and Wess....i see and feel something deeper in this matter.... maybe ....try to think of this in a emotional sense ....Matt ...Sam...Woods....this is more than just codes ...chemicals....missions ..dates...maybe try to see something through heart....something deeper....
this is all just theory ...just ideas ....just a different perspective ....that's right ....a different perspective ...maybe look at things in a different way ....maybe ...looking at some things again ...through different and new knowledge and perspective will give you more answers
just doing my part....
we are all in this together ...
we are all Project 863 after all ....
goodluck...
to....
all of us.

FROM: Dr. █████ █. █████ TO: Director Maria Jones, Recordkeeping and Information Security Administration SUBJECT: Revision of SCP-076 SCP File
███,
I have to go on record as saying that I seriously object to the proposed revisions of the SCP-076 Special Containment Procedures File. I know that Redact All Important Stuff Already claims it's a security risk, but you and I both know it's just top brass trying to sweep their biggest and most embarrassing mistake ever under the damn rug. Omega-Seven happened. It existed. Those people died because you screwed up, and you can't change that, no matter how hard you try to hide it.
For God's sake, man, those people guarding him deserve to know exactly what he is and what he did. What WE did. How we fucked up, so they'll know better.
███
Object Class: Keter
Special Containment Procedures: Containment Area 25b is to be located 200 m below sea level, tunneled out of solid bedrock in a seismologically stable area. Sole access to the containment facility is to be through a vertical elevator shaft separated every fifty (50) meters with a reinforced blast door, constructed of 20 cm thick material shielding. Elevator shaft shall be flooded with seawater when not in use.
Containment Area 25b is to be constructed with the following components:
An Outer Security Perimeter against outside threats, staffed by security personnel trained in close quarters battle and counter-intrusion tactics.
An Administrative and Support Area (ASA) consisting of support facilities and living quarters for on-site personnel.
A Primary Containment Zone (PCZ), consisting of a 7 m cube encased in 1.5 m of reinforced material. PCZ is to be designed to be flooded and drained as needed, and should remain filled with seawater unless access to contents is required.
A 150 m "killing corridor" which is to be the sole access to the PCZ from the ASA (including water, power, drainage, and ventilation lines). The walls and floor of the corridor are to be reinforced in a similar manner to the PCZ, with the addition of an electric deterrence system capable of delivering a 20,000 volt shock.
A security station located at the entrance to the killing corridor is to be staffed with no fewer than three (3) armed security personnel on watch at any one point in time. Armament is to include, but not be limited to, at least one (1) ███████ CIW system on a pintle mount with a clear line of sight down the corridor, with a plexiglass screen to protect the operator from thrown weapons.
In the event of a full breach, all on-site staff are to proceed immediately to the closest security station for weapons and armor distribution. Staff will remain at Alert Condition One until SCP-076-2 is confirmed neutralized. Should 90 minutes pass after declaration of full breach without a Stand Down order being given by Level 4 or higher personnel, Final Contingency Measures will be activated, flooding the entire facility in seawater and sealing off the access shaft for a minimum of 24 hours before retrieval is attempted. This will, by necessity, result in the deaths of all on-site staff.
Description: SCP-076 consists of two components: a stone cube (SCP-076-1) and a humanoid entity contained within (SCP-076-2).
SCP-076-1 is a 3 m cube made of black speckled metamorphic stone. All surfaces outside and within SCP-076-1 are covered in deeply engraved patterns corresponding to no known civilizations. Radioisotope analysis indicates that the object is approximately ten thousand (10,000) years old. A door is located on one side, sealed with a lock 0.5 m in width, surrounded by twenty (20) smaller locks in a circular pattern. As of yet, none of the keys have been found, making the door impossible to lock once closed.
Interior temperature is approximately 93 Kelvin, and cannot be altered by any means, internal or external. Directly in the center of the room is a 2.13 m tall stone coffin, held in place and sealed shut by several chains of unknown make and substance, which are attached to the inner corners of SCP-076-1.
SCP-076-2 resembles a lean Semitic human male in his late twenties. Hair is black, and eyes are gray, skin tone olive. Subject is 1.96 m in height and 81.65 kg in weight. Numerous tattoos depicting arcane and occult iconography are present all over the body (mostly in the form of leering demonic faces) and ranges from subtle to openly ostentatious. Subject, when encased inside SCP-076-1, is technically dead.
However, occasionally SCP-076-2 will awaken, effectively "reanimating", complete with all vital processes needed to sustain a living human being. Subject will then attempt to leave SCP-076-1. If successful, subject will enter a trance state and seek out the nearest human being, ignoring all other living things in the process. Upon coming into contact with living humans, SCP-076-2 will enter a rage state in which it attempts to engage and kill all human beings encountered. To date, only the subject's death has been shown to be effective in ending these rampages.
Terminating SCP-076-2 is often problematic due to its significant physical abilities. Subject has superhuman strength and speed, and although not invulnerable, has shown a remarkable ability to ignore pain and shock, pressing on despite what would be debilitating wounds in normal humans. Prior encounters have shown that SCP-076-2 has the ability to (among other things):
Rip through a reinforced steel security door over the course of four (4) minutes of sustained assault.
Clear over 64 m of distance in under three (3) seconds.
Take multiple .50 caliber BMG rounds to the head and survive for several minutes to continue killing, despite severe damage to the cerebellum.
Swat handgun and assault-rifle caliber bullets out of the air with a length of steel rebar.
Survive for over one (1) hour deprived of oxygen before finally asphyxiating.
SCP-076-2's most unusual ability, however, is its ability to apparently materialize bladed weapons out of nowhere. Slow-motion video footage reveals that the blades in question are actually pulled from a miniature dimensional rift described as a "small hole in space." Where this portal leads is unknown, as is how SCP-076-2 is capable of generating said rifts. Footage of the blades in question shows them to be made out of a completely non-reflective black material appearing as a "black void in space." As the blades rapidly vanish after leaving the subject's possession, no structural analysis is possible at this time.
SCP-076-2 has effectively been killed several times in various manners:
Sustained fire from multiple heavy-caliber machine guns.
Asphyxiation.
Crushed beneath a 13.6 metric tonne piece of elevator equipment for use on SCP-076-1.
Cremation through the use of a Thermate-TH3 grenade placed directly inside SCP-076-2's open chest cavity.
During the worst breach to date, Containment Area-25 (which previously housed SCP-076) was forced to detonate its on site warhead as a last attempt to contain SCP-076-2 while it was attempting escape, resulting in total destruction of the site and all on-site personnel. SCP-076-1 survived.
Upon death, SCP-076-2's remains will putrefy rapidly, until reduced to dust. SCP-076-1 and the coffin within will then slam shut with great force, and the lock will rotate, sealing it shut. SCP-076-2 will then reform within the coffin, a process taking anywhere from six (6) hours to twenty-five (25) years.
What posthumous analysis of SCP-076-2 exists shows that it has a internal system highly different from our own, documented in [DATA EXPUNGED].
Additional: SCP-076 was found in ████████████, Mongolia, in 18██, by archaeologists from England. All members of the expedition were subsequently killed on the return voyage home. SCP-076 was recovered from the ship █████ ███████ by the ███████ Society (one of the organizations that later merged into the modern Global Occult Coalition) and placed on display in their Inner Sanctum.
SCP-076 remained in storage for ███████ (██) years, until SCP-076-2 became active and escaped on ██-██-████. The reason for SCP-076's activation is currently unknown, but it was at this point that the keys to the outer shell were lost. A massive manhunt, lasting over three (3) years and ████ ███████, took place until SCP-076-2 was incapacitated by ██████████ ███████, killing it and causing it to reform inside SCP-076-1, by then retrieved and secured by agents of the SCP Foundation.
Subject was in custody for three (3) more years, under constant supervision, and was terminated whenever it became active, although it occasionally was able to escape for short periods of time, often due to security breaches caused by attacks from other organizations. The Foundation's death toll due to this was [DATA EXPUNGED]
[DATA EXPUNGED]
[DATA EXPUNGED]
After the last incident, the current procedures regarding SCP-076 were implemented, although they are upgraded regularly with the increase in technological standards.
Addendum 076-2: "Project Able" and "Mobile Task Force Omega-7"

New Grestin News:
​
Political News:
Toby Kerman Steps Down as Commander In Chief, Churchhill Kerman To Become Deputy Commander In Chief
Mid day after noon, Toby Kerman, the long lasting Commander In Chief of New Grestin gave his resignation to his office staff, reporting that due to the extensive stress of adapting to the changes since he was elected, that he could no longer maintain an effective position as the nation's leader. A decision that sparked controversy amongst the people & the New Grestin government.
This morning, Churchhill Kerman came forward, announcing he had be selected to become the temporary Deputy Commander In Chief of New Grestin until a proper vote can be held to elect a new Commander In Chief, a process underway currently to find & select the best 3 candidates.
Once the announcement was made, Churchhill Kerman came out to the front lawn of the New Grestin Capitol Grounds during the gray misty morning to make a speech as to his intentions. The following is what he had to say:

Long has the New Grestin government sat idle these past many years. Cold & dark. Our former Commander, Toby Kerman wished to change that but the task quickly overwhelmed our antiquated superior but now it is time for a new dawn for Grestians.
Much like morning fog breaking as the sun crests the horizon, so will New Grestin. We will no longer be lost behind the veil & soon we will retake the high ground of space, & lead endeavors to improve military technology.
We will seek to return to the planets & moons above, unabated by our delays. Returning the echoing booms that are the drums of progress, as rockets, spaceplanes, capsules, boosters & all begin to resume their trek to & from space- as our skies have laid dormant for far too long. But we won't make these strides alone, but open our efforts to the world outside & to seek to make our work in space, the work of Kerbalkind- not of Grestian, not of Kafrican, not of any creed, race, or political doctrine other than the work of our species.
And while we explore the heavens, our door step shall remain protected, remain versatile & ready for the next generation of warfare in whatever it should bring. As work will resume in our advanced research divisions as I've personally seen their work...
...In the beginning of this century, there existed notes from engineers who devised the concept of hyper maneuverable planes that would move in ways that would seem to defy the laws of physics & aerodynamics. Moving more like a fictional alien saucer craft than any jet fighter... ... Such was their proposals, but at the turn of this century & indeed this millenium, they were laughed at, mocked & declared "unreasonable, inexcusable & impossible" according to their peers. However, as I look onto the technology we have today, I can say we have achieved the impossible when it comes to hyper maneuverability. A feat that slowly makes its way backwards towards more of New Grestin's Air Force arsenal. Meaning we stand at the bleeding edge of technology. So it's critical we take the next great step & make our work greater & not wait, losing the technological advantage we've been given.
It is infinitely critical we act now. No longer remaining idle. Now is the time to act. For 2100 will be the era when everything changes, & we must be ready for it. Glory to all, glory to New Grestin!

Churchhill's speech, despite the last moment planning, still managed to gather a large crowd of people who supported & celebrated his plans. Currently there is no known timeline for how long it may be until a new official Commander In Chief is selected, however insiders in the government have stated that the selection process is moving swiftly with only around 100 potential candidates to filter through to get down to the final 3 possible candidates.
New Grestin Office Of Domestic Affairs Investigates Claims Of New Strekla
After some controversy from other nations after New Grestin's initial reports on returning, & the other districts of New Grestin also reporting the inaccuracy of the reports, the New Grestin Office Of Domestic Affairs has initiated an investigation into the events prior to the return of the New Grestin Government. Seeking to understand what exactly happened. With one official within the Domestic Affairs Office having the following to say, "We aren't here to erase history. If there was a former government or people in New Grestin, we're seeking them to come forward so we can properly report the events. Its important to know who's here & give them fair representation".
A new report will be made once more details are gathered.
New Grestin To Establish Embassy In Tsarisgrad
After a discussion this afternoon with Diplomat Kurov, Churchhill Kerman agreed to establish a embassy in the nation of Tsarisgrad in return for New Grestin establishing an embassy in Tsarisgrad as well.
Churchhill stating afterwards that he hopes this will speak positive ties with the nation & begin to expand the influence of New Grestin to the world stage, stating specifically- "it's time the world knows New Grestin is back, & we want to reconnect with the nations of the world".
New Grestin Reopens International Borders, International Market Trading & Access To New Grestin
As part of Churchhill's comments about returning New Grestin to the world stage, he has also taken steps to reopen New Grestin's borders to other nation's, as well as the market of New Grestin so other nations may begin to buy Grestian space hardware & military hardware as well as invest into New Grestian businesses.
Access to New Grestin can be found here [the NG discord: https://discord.gg/fhRRPSz ].
​
Space News:
New Grestin Initiates Colonial Exploration Initiative, Opens Raffle For Seats On Interplanetary Mission
According to Churchhill's proposal, a new exploration initiative has been started. With work focusing on a multiplanet exploration mission which would land crews on multiple planets & its moons, before returning back to Kerbin with the transport vehicle slated to flypast Kerbin before making several Kerbin flybys, slowly correcting its trajectory to remain in ultrahigh Kerbin orbit where a new crew would be deployed. Those this is the mission plan, many of the mission specifics, such as hardware or crew is still to be decided.
This effort comes with additional seats for up to 3 nations to send a small number of crew, as part of a lottery. Nations who invest in the program may also be awarded seats. To enter into the lottery, nations merely need to purchase spaceflight hardware from New Grestin. Those who do, will be part of a random selection draw. The nations selected will be given free spots on the trip, as long as they pass all security checks & are verified as suitable for flight & do not cause international conflict.
eXplore Corporation Redesigns Voyager Spacecraft, Testing On New Version Underway In King's Point
The CEO of the formerly controversial company, eXplore, has announced that work on the next generation of Voyager spacecraft is underway. With an interview with the CEO, Musck Kerman, having the following to say-

We have moved away from our Mk class of Voyagers are & seeking to build them from even lighter materials, especially materials more versatile than what most rockets are built from. A common flaw we had with our older generation of Voyager spacecraft is that they were just too big & too inefficient to maximize their potential. So we've begun work on a new design which is lighter, easier to manufacture, cheaper, & more efficient from the outset. A new design we've spent the last 3 years mastering. If Voyager changed the future before, we certainly are bringing forth a whole new future with this design.

The new design has been modified with new forward & rear tanks, as well as actuating fins which would allow the vehicle to effectively control its descent down to its landing site using its forward & rear control surfaces.
The New Grestin News Team was given the opportunity to explore the work site where the work on the next generation of spacecraft was being developed. The news team was able to get a unique look at the massive scale of the updated vehicle, which stands larger than the already massive Mk4 versions of the vehicle.
Musck Kerman explained- "when Kerbals return to another planet, this'll be the design that'll carry them there. I'm certain of it".
Musck then explained, "this version of the vehicle you see is the V3.4T. More specifically its the 14th iteration of the design which we started with on Voyager 2.0 in 2078. Now we can produce nearly a dozen of these articles in a year for testing. Musck also showed us to a set of large steel structures, which he explained "will enable us to launch from all over Kerbin by providing launch & landing sites out in the middle of the ocean, providing launch options potentially to other worlds like Laythe or Eve as well". Musck also went onto to explain how he hoped that the sea pads would be allowed in or near other nations so that he can revolutionize travel citing he could land a Voyager anywhere on Kerbin in under 20 minutes.
The New Grestin News Team was also lucky to be present for the launch test of the V3.4 rocket. Launching from its vertical test stand that Musck calls "Launchsite A", it flew up to an altitude of 22.5km before pitching over & firing its engines to push it back towards the launchsite. After which its fins begin to actuate, keeping its nose down as it returned to the launchsite. At an altitude of 4.5km it rotated back to vertical, firing its engines to slow down but still slammed into the ground at a reported 50 meters per second.
After the test Musck reported, "It's a setback to see this, but with 3 other prototypes built & ready, we will be ready in the coming weeks or days to relaunch & nail it next time. Every test we learn something new. This flight we've taken a great stride to prove the vehicle's aerodynamic landing method, a problem that has been plaguing our engineers for years so to see it make the pitch over so perfectly, it... it was really exciting".
Grestian Rocketry Alliance Forms, Begins Development On Fleet Of Reusable Rockets
Joining the rocket industry is a company with a combined amount of experience reaching nearly 300 years as corporate giants like Grestin-Utilex, the primary contractor for GU series fighter craft, GresTech, the last company hired to work on the GU-55 program created a joint venture called the Grestian Rocketry Alliance, or GRA which has begun to market their surplus supply of expendable rockets & has reported work on a new rocket which would compete against reusable boosters like New Jeb, New Val & the Hercules X.
No details have been announced about the booster, other than its in development & that it would be cheaper to produce than any of the other reusable boosters. With the executives saying that, "it will fill the niche of general use spaceflight so that anyone that needs to launch a satellite for cheap, can't be beaten in regards to what we could offer".
They have also stated the vehicle would be fully reusable like the New Val & Hercules X/Voyager pair, but a future version of the upper stage would make it its own reusable tug in orbit that could provide unprecedented performance for the lowest price available. Potentially beating out the nearly century long used GRUNT in performance & cost.
The GRA hopes to have the vehicle launch in the next few years so it can be put on the market soon after. Initial price estimates are not known but GRA is hoping to sell for less than 20k per flight initially, which would put it on par with the more capable New Jeb, but with the intention to drop the prices lower.
Military News:
GU Series Edition V Being Made
To match the growing offering in New Grestin, a new GU Series Catalog is being made. Being the 5th edition, it is also the first version of the catalog to debut mostly rockets given New Grestin's mostly space oriented development over the last few years, however officials hope that by the debut of the next edition, Edition VI, that more fighters will be available to compliment the rest of the catalog's lineup & stay up to date with the catalog's offerings so they remain competitive & worthwhile as "more than museum pieces" as one catalog editor reported.
When the catalog will be available is unknown other than "work is close to completion, merely awaiting the addition of a few more vehicles".
GU-55 Program Under Threat To Lose Funding
Military officials have begun to speculate doubt on the overall viability of the the GU-55 VTOL multirole stealth fighter program which has been in development for over 80 years. With leading Air Force officials stating "with the exorbitant amount of funds spent on the program, as well as the man hours- we could've likely doubled our lineup of fighters, maybe even tripled it". Officials in charge of the New Grestin Navy have also stated that spending on wasteful programs like the "stillborn" GU-55 program, has starved the under funded & under developed Navy.
As such, government officials are struggling to continue justifying the program, especially as GU-60 generation fighters near readiness. As a final last ditch attempt to salvage selling the program, a new program has been started called the "GU-55 ABCs" which will split the functions of the GU-55 into multiple vehicles which could be later integrated into a future vehicle. With government officials saying, "this would allow us to split its development up to multiple companies so that the bulk of the program's costs could be put down by competition".
This has however spawned even more controversy, with one military official saying, "this is trying to plug one whole in an already sunk ship by making 3 more holes. Its stupid & will do more harm than good". While the lead engineers of the GU-49 had this to say, "there's no reason for them to split up the program's work like this. We already led critical work in establishing areas of the vehicle's development like stealth & multirole capability thanks to our work on the stealth GU-49".
Government insiders also report that even the officials who have long backed the program, are beginning to support the notion of cancelling the program if the "GU-55 ABCs" project fails. Time will tell if the costly project will make it into the next century.
New Grestin Navy Receives New Contracts To Support Civilian Spaceflight Endeavors
In order to better support the endeavors of the regrowing space industry, the under utilized New Grestin Navy has been tasked with creating a support fleet to aid reusable spacecraft & space vehicles. As such, New Grestin has begun work on creating recovery vessels which could catch fairing segments, upper stages, reusable engine sections & work on several floating barges which would offer a mobile landing pad at sea so more of a rocket's performance could be utilized, rather than needing to perform a lengthy & payload reducing burnback to the New Grestin Space Center. When these vehicles will be ready is currently unsaid, however Navy officials have stated that these assets could be utilized by other nations upon proper request.
Advanced Aerospace Research Division (AARD) Receives New Financial Grant
Inline with Churchhill's claims, emergency funding has been allocated to the formerly under funded AARD. Which formerly developed new experimental aircraft designs as well as work towards more efficient rockets. The AARD has been tasked with focusing on making more versatile bomber craft & focusing on hypersonic vehicles. Work has initiated on a GX-10, also known as the GXX which is the first in the hypersonic development program. It's exact function is currently unknown, other than it will launch soon on a New Val.
Local News:
Grestin Man Arrested Before Leading Crusade Against The KSC
A Grestian man was arrested attempting to cross the Grestin-KSC border with a large stockpile of assault rifles, homemade mortar canons, & even a homemade RPG. When questioned by the New Grestin Police, the Grestian man simply stated, "I wanted to carry on the Tekkian crusade against the KSC since they're stealin' our jobs ya know. Damn white coats". Initial investigations indicate this was a solo effort the Kerbal was leading that he had become obsessed with after a friend mentioned the Tekkian war against the KSC which sparked the Xero-91 virus. Nonetheless, police are extra vigilant in the event anyone else wants to join his crusade.
Another Grestin Man Arrested For Hording Bananas Attempting To Make Homemade RTG
Late last night, police officers received reports of a Kerbal's house stinking up a neighborhood. When officers investigated, they discovered the house reeked of methane. The homeowner initially denied the existence of the smell stating "those damn hater neighbors just want to ****'in steal my grass man. Ain't gonna let them win". Officers confused, nonetheless sought for a warrant which considering the potential biohazard risk that the house was becoming, they received.
The homeowner initially had to be restrained as he attempted to fight off the law enforcement officers to prevent access to the home, but once he was handcuffed, officers proceeded to descend into the basement where officers discovered nearly 5,000 bananas decomposing. When questioned, the home owner stated he was intending to use the Potassium 40 in the bananas to make a radioisotope thermal electric generator so he could power his home, or "drop it on dem haters!".
The homeowner is awaiting trial, but could face up to 30 years in federal prison if convicted.
Grestian Baker Distraught As His 20 Meter Wide Cake Stolen, Nationwide Cake Hunt Underway
A distressed baker called New Grestin law enforcement in the early morning this weekend reporting that his record breaking cake had been stolen. The cake, measuring at over 20m in diameter, was made entirely by the one baker. The cake was made a large wedding occuring in South Point, in southern New Grestin. Officers investigated the shop where the cake was stolen from, & found that the burglars had managed to break into the bakery without tripping the alarms. As such, a full scale "Cake hunt" has begun throughout the small city the baker was in. Law enforcement officers ask that if anyone has any leads on the whereabouts of the cake, that they call the police hotlines right away.
GekyLeaks Website Relaunched, Grestian Government Attempts To Shut It Down... Again
To the dismay of the New Grestin government, the GekyLeaks website has once again gone live via multiple anonymous servers. The GekyLeaks website being a place where anonymous users can post government secrets, corporate secrets, covert plans or report conspiracies anonymously. The website host, which has been undergoing constant legal battles due to the legality of the website reports that he, from the jail he has been in for the last 3 weeks, did not sanction or enable the restoration of his site leading to the New Grestin government to wonder who restored it & what action needs to be taken to shut it down before more critical information is leaked.
​
Glory To New Grestin

Standard Disclaimer: I do not take credit for the setting, this story is set in the They Are Smol universe, written by our very own u/tinyprancinghorse. This is a much shorter story and unrelated to any characters or situations in Smol Detective.
TPH has a Website, a Patreon, and also a Discord if you need more smol shenanigans.
Happy Halloween, HFY! Here's a four-part series and as threatened promised the last chapter is going up on the 31st. Enjoy!
Part one of this story is here, part two is here, and part three is here.
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Jason took another sip of not-cider and was pleased to see he still had a half a mug left. During Gertie's tale-telling she'd unconsciously pressed her arm a little more against him. Not hard enough to push him over, but with enough pressure to envelop his side in her arm-floof. Now that she was done, she leaned back and picked up her own mug.
Karl blinked and shook himself as if coming out of a spell. "[Another fascinating tale! Perhaps not as much of a parable, but one could argue it contains some elements of one's hubris causing trouble.]"
Henry didn't look as stressed as he had at the end of his own story, but he was still coiled in on himself a little more tightly. "[Indeed. Quite unsettling, apart from any, er, 'punishing' of pride on the protagonist's part. The thought of being lost and helpless like that, well, it's not something I'd want to dwell on.']"
Gertie didn't respond. She looked lost in her own thoughts as she sipped her drink, only to start in surprise as Jason hesitantly touched her arm. He'd gotten good enough at reading Dorarizin body language to know that she was genuinely upset.
"It was because she was alone, right? Not just that she was lost, but that she was lost and without her pack."
The Dorarizin nodded. "[Like I said, it's just an old myth. But it's stuck in my head ever since I heard it.]" With exaggerated care she put her arm around Jason's shoulders for a sideways hug. "[Thanks for your concern, but I'll be fine.]"
She removed her arm and playfully bopped the top of head with one finger. "[But don't think you'll get out of your obligation either! Your story had better be worth the wait!]"
Jason chuckled as the other two aliens wriggled their way closer to the fire, their eyes gleaming with anticipation.
"[I'll bet it's about a [human] being chased by a predator,]" said Karl with a sassy flip of his crest.
Henry shook his hood. "[I'll bet it's a [haunted house] story, but with an actual [house] this time.]"
Jason looked up at Gertie for her input, but she just shrugged. He sighed and drained the rest of his not-cider. "You understand that we humans have a lot of stories for times like this, right? I could be lazy and tell you about the hook-handed killer, or the weeping woman, or the one about the big toe..."
"[The what?]" asked Karl.
"Oh, ah, I'll tell you that one later. It's more of a silly kid's story. Say, do you mind if I get a little more of that stuff?" He handed his mug to Karl, who refilled it from his own much-larger bottle. "Thanks. Might need a little liquid courage for this one."
Gertie settled her big arm once more onto Jason's shoulders. "[You don't have to tell us, if it's so upsetting.]"
Henry nodded his agreement.
"Nah, I should. You see, I've never told this story to anyone. And I mean anyone."
Karl perked up his crest. "[Oh, you came up with this one on your own?]"
Jason swigged some not-cider and relished the slight burn it made in his throat. "Not really. You see, this isn't a made-up story. This is something that happened to me..."
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JASON'S TALE: GONE WALKABOUT
Before I joined you guys, I was a shipbreaker. Does that word translate? It means I was helping take apart old ships and sort out anything valuable before they turned the rest of it into scrap for re-use.
Why not use robots? Good question, Henry. See, even now Earth is still working through all of the economic dislocation which happened after First Contact. Don't be sad, Karl! I know you guys were doing what you could to help. Anyway, thanks to that there's a lot of people out of work and not enough jobs to go around. So either you put everyone on the dole, which sucks, or you find something for them to do.
I was lucky enough to grow up on a farm in a place called Idaho. I was born quite awhile after First Contact, and my family and our neighbors managed to avoid a lot of the previous bad times. That also meant that I had a job waiting for me, and I heard a lot from my parents about how growing food is a noble profession.
But space called to me. I loved lying in my backyard at night, looking up and out into the night sky. I liked to imagine my ancestors doing the same, back when we thought we might be alone in the universe. So naturally when I came of age I applied to the placement program. Now, it's the 'official' policy of the OIH that everybody has an equal opportunity to get placed with an alien crew.
But the truth is that Earth's governments are terrified of depopulation. If we get too dispersed, who's gonna make new humans? Which in turn means that, unless you possess certain skills, you don't get into the placement program. All I knew was how to grow potatoes, so I got a pat on the butt and a generic 'thanks but no thanks'.
Still, I wasn't gonna give up that easy. Even though the placement program turned me down, there were other jobs to be had in space. Once I'd got enough expertise under my belt...sorry, Karl, it means once I'd gained enough skill...then I could reapply. Sure, in the meantime I'd be stuck in Earth orbit but at least it was space.
After looking through what was available I found only one type of job I was qualified for...shipbreaking. It was nasty, sweaty, hard work and thus there was a lot of turnover. They were always looking for new people regardless of prior experience. The catch was it was not only sweaty and hard work but also dangerous. I was always a smaller and more wiry than average, so I was a natural fit for the job. Heh, quite literally. I could wriggle into nooks and crannies like nobody else. After a while I didn't even notice the discomfort and how the sweat pooled in my pressure suit. The job became like a moving meditation, and I could step outside of myself and chill out.
It might seem weird that humans already had enough obsolete ships to make shipbreaking a profession, but in hindsight it makes sense...kinda. Once humans gained the ability to reach orbit easily, the governments of the world were frantic to make up for lost time and get some navies of our own built up. Seems silly now, but you gotta understand that during that time we were paranoid as hell. We had no idea if you all were truly friendly or had some nefarious plan.
Don't ask me what kind of plan, Gertie. Maybe they were worried that human flesh would turn out to be really tasty or something...settle down, y'all! We know you'd never do such a thing, humans have gotten a lot more relaxed since then.
But anyway, like I said everybody was in a hurry to make lots of ships for 'protection'. Never mind that we had no experience in how to make something like a proper warship, not to mention even if we did y'all could probably take out every Terran fleet with your version of a rowboat. Thanks to that initial panicked bout of shipbuilding we wound up with some real stinkers. Especially the Armstrong class.
Oh man, the Armstrongs. I wish we could go back in time and erase those ships from existence, because a steely-eyed missile man like Neil Armstrong doesn't deserve to have his good name sullied by plastering it onto such a crapshow.
I guess they wanted to make it the space version of a corvette. It was supposed to be small, fast, and maneuverable. They equipped them with just enough armaments to make 'em somewhat of a threat and made 'em cheap enough to churn out in mass quantities.
What they wound up with was a slab-sided wallowing pig of a ship with an underpowered engine module. It maneuvered with all the grace of a pile of bricks. On paper it was supposed to achieve one gee of acceleration, but in practice it might make half that if you really flogged the engine. Its mass-drivers were too powerful for its size; apparently you could throw the entire ship off course with a single shot. They installed gas thrusters to try to cancel out that recoil, but that was just one more complex system packed into a ship already too small for its intended mission.
By the time they'd figured out what a disaster it was it was too late; they'd started making hundreds. Thanks to the human ability to fall for the sunk-cost fallacy, the powers that be decided to, heh, 'make do'. Because of that, 'Armstrong' has become synonymous with what not to do in ship design.
__________
Out of all of the many hundreds of ships in that unfortunate class, the most unfortunate was the Lexington. She'd been built in...what? Yes, Karl, we tend to call ships 'she'. No I don't know why, it's just a thing we do. Where was I? Oh yeah, the Lexington. She was among the first of her class, so a lot of the stupid design decisions never really got reworked. I read up on her full history after...after what happened to me. She did a lot of escort duty out to Selene and Olympus Mons, but 'escort' is a little grandiose of a term for 'always breaking down and having to be towed'.
The Lexington's crew was also, er, special. Her Captain, Magnussen, was a functional alcoholic of a Dane who somehow kept getting ahold of booze in spite of repeated attempts by his crew to throw all spirits overboard. The doctor was a ditzy American named Hughes who sometimes spouted off about 'realigning chakras' during her diagnoses. The XO, a laconic Pole by the name of Olczak, was convinced that his assignment to the Lexington was karmic retribution for some horrible sin he'd committed in a past life. He spent most of his time keeping Captain Magnussen upright and facing the correct direction while keeping the ship and the rest of the crew together. The other crew were equally colorful, especially the ship's engineer. Her name was Sousa, a bouncy redhead from Australia who was convinced that with 'just a little more tweaking' she could have the reactor and engines purring along with no problem. The fact that the Lexington was always the slowest and least reliable of her class did nothing to dampen Sousa's enthusiasm for her 'Sheila'.
Under her care the engine section of the Lexington, already a close-packed space, became even more bewildering as she welded in new coolant pipes with nary a thought for safety protocols. Most of her time during flight was spent back in the power section, trying to coax the fission reactor to behave itself for more than a few hours at a stretch.
Yeah I know, I know...fission. Like I said, the Earth governments really threw these things together in a paranoid hurry, and that was the most advanced engine tech we'd developed before the Karnakians came calling. We weren't about to put hyper-advanced alien engines into something that was intended to ‘protect’ us from the aforementioned hyper-advanced aliens.
During the last voyage of the Lexington the crew was on their own, no escort or patrol duty for that one. To make matters worse it was also a bit of an emergency. Some weird bacterial infection had cropped up on the Olympus Mons colony. After consulting with Earth via laser they were pretty sure it was a strain from Earth that had mutated in the higher-radiation environment. But on the other hand it just might be a native Martian microbe who'd decided that humans made a dandy home.
Either way, Olympus Mons was locked down in a tight quarantine until they could determine the true nature of the organism. This was early days for the colony, so the most advanced expertise and equipment were still back on Earth. Those experts needed physical samples to analyze and make sure this wasn't something worse. And wouldn't ya know, thanks to various logistical screw-ups the only ship in Mars orbit with enough delta-vee to make the trip to Earth was the Lexington.
The higher-ups stuffed a bunch of frozen bacterial cultures on board and sent them on their way...with fingers crossed, of course. The plan was to burn for four days at half-gee to build up speed, coast for eleven days, then flip and burn for another four days to match velocities with Earth. In spite of the engine's notorious fussiness, Sousa swore an oath by her poisonous and perilous nation that she'd get them the full eight days of continuous burn.
And during the outward acceleration it seemed like her oath had done something. 'Sheila' managed to crank out a half-gee continuously without complaint, and that taste of success seeped into the rest of the crew. Magnussen was more functional than usual and for once seemed to give a damn about completing their mission. Olczak smiled, a unique moment actually captured on video. Sousa became like a ghost, appearing only sporadically to grab some water and rations before returning to the ship's rear and her beloved engine.
They made the planned four day burn, and everyone relaxed a bit during the next week while the ship coasted. Sousa slept right through the first three days of coast, utterly exhausted from her efforts. She waved off the crew's concern with an admonition to 'stop being a mob of whinging poms'.
No, Henry, I'm not quite sure what that means either.
Tension rose onboard during the tenth day of coast. Within forty-eight hours they'd have to fire up the engine again, and in spite of her rest Sousa still looked frazzled. Her red hair stuck out in all directions and that wasn't because of freefall. Captain Magnussen tried to assign Olczak to be her assistant during the deceleration burn but the engineer wasn't having it.
"This is bloody hard yakka, but it's my yakka!" she yelled. "Sheila and me have an understanding now. We'll get you yer four days, but I ain't gonna babysit some clueless wanker in the meantime!"
In the end, all they could really do was let Sousa do her thing and hope for the best. The concern about the deceleration burn was not academic; if they didn't get four days of continuous thrust then they'd miss Earth by millions of miles as they sailed on past. Did I mention that they only had enough fuel on board for one attempt?
Yes, Gertie. There were Senate ships available in case they needed rescue, but they viewed that as an option of utter last restort. Pride is one helluva thing, especially for a species still in the throes of uplift.
So the crew of the Lexington stowed everything and made ready for the end of freefall. They strapped in while Sousa made her way aft. Everyone else stared at the countdown timer and waited for the inevitable disaster.
But disaster didn't come. A familiar rumble shook the ship as they felt weight return, and Sousa's elated crowing could be heard on the intercom.
"Toldja! Sheila and me are mates, through and through..."
The steady rumble suddenly turned into a series of hiccups, then returned to normal. But now Sousa's voice was filled with alarm.
"Coolant leak! Bugger me, it's the main reactor line...hang on, gotta patch it." Her grunts of effort and a few choice Australian curses drifted out of the intercom.
Captain Magnussen was, for once, dead sober but now regretting it. "Olczak! Get back there and assist her!"
The XO started to unstrap himself, only to be stopped by another shout from the intercom.
"No, damn your eyes! Nobody set foot in here, the entire engine compartment's hot!"
The Captain stared at the intercom box in horror. "Engineer, what's your dosimeter read?"
There followed a long pause which said everything. Finally Sousa spoke one word. "Enough."
Everyone slumped in their acceleration couches as she went on. "Got the leak fixed, though. We should be good."
"Until the next leak, at least," muttered the XO. Then, more loudly, "Sousa, if you get out now we might be able to..."
"No, I took over ten Grays. I've had it. But you need four days, we'll get you four days."
The crew unstrapped themselves, everyone feeling dazed at the knowledge that one of their own was now working under a death sentence.
The next twenty-four hours were horrific. Sousa kept up a brave front and talked a lot of cheery nonsense, but they could also hear her almost continuous vomiting. The next day she felt much better, but neither her nor any of the others were fooled. She'd entered the 'walking ghost' phase of acute radiation poisoning and everybody knew it would only get worse as time went on.
On the third day the pain and nausea returned. Sousa made one final call up to the captain.
"Sorry, boss fella. In a bit I'm gonna be too weak to move. Can't do proper repairs. But I spoke to Sheila, told her no ‘ard feelins. She promised me that she'll get ya home."
Magnussen hadn't so much as looked at a bottle since the disaster, and his vision now swam. It was a little from withdrawal but much more due to tears. "Sousa, we'll make sure you're buried with full honors..."
"Nah, mate. Gotta lot more pain headed my way and I'm not going out like that. Figure I'll go walkabout instead."
The crew watched in silence as the rear airlock cameras showed Sousa entering the chamber. She was dressed only in her uniform. Her red hair was now matted and patchy, with bald spots showing on much of her scalp. But her shoulders remained straight and upright as the outer door opened.
True to the engineer's word, the Lexington's engine didn't quit. They made the four full days of burn, and when they shut down the engine it didn't even so much as sputter in protest. The bacterial samples made it to Earth, they found a cure, and the Olympus Mons quarantine was lifted. They parked the Lexington in a graveyard orbit where it sat for decades while they waited for the radioactive contamination in the engine compartment to decay to safe levels.
__________
This, of course, is where I come in all those decades later. I'd been shipbreaking for a few years by now and I'd heard the tale of the Lexington's final voyage. When that ship popped up in my queue I was concerned. Not because of any superstition, but because the ship had suffered a major radioactive leak. It was going to be a finicky job, but by then I'd acquired a reputation for accomplishing the difficult. First I sent in a drone with a dosimeter just to make sure there weren't any remaining 'hotspots'. I figured I'd start with the easier stuff first and leave the engine compartment for last in case I ran into anything unexpected.
I budgeted it as a three-week job. The first two weeks went about as expected, although I did feel weird for the first couple of days. After all, this was a ship where someone had died on board. But nothing jumped out at me, so after a while I just put my head down and got on with it. I flushed the life support system and dismantled that, then followed up with the electronics and control systems. Those latter bits were decades out of date but still valuable for minor tasks. I stripped off what hull plating I could without interfering with the reactor's systems.
By the third week there was nothing else left to strip, so into the engine compartment I went. Usually, the tricky part in deactivating a fission reactor is draining the main reactor coolant into shielded containers. Even all these years later there were still lots of fun radioisotopes in that stuff, and I didn't want to recontaminate the place.
Of course, even before that I had to check that the core itself was safed properly and had its control rods fully inserted. The problem was, the only way to check that was on the control board gauges. There were no windows into the core itself, so I couldn't visually verify that the rod indicators were correct.
I hate to admit it, but I was also in a hurry to get this ship done and dusted. During the last few days I'd felt...I dunno, watched? I put it down to getting worked up thanks to the ship's history, but I could sense a presence around me, even though I knew I was the only one on board.
What added to the creepy feeling was me finding the hair. All that hair, big clumps of it...still bright red even after decades in hard vacuum. Her hair had drifted all over the place, wedging into the engine compartment's various nooks and crannies. That made Sousa's death more than just a spacefaring tale. I now knew viscerally that she was a real person, one who'd never lived to see her final triumph.
Like I said, I wanted to get this job done and get the hell out of there forever. I checked the control board indicators...the control rods were in, we were good to go! I grabbed the first lead-lined bottle and hooked it into the coolant line's relief valve. The ship was totally deactivated, so there was no pressure in the line. I had to brace myself against one of the coolant pipes and use a hand-pump to force the coolant into the bottle. It was sweaty work, and by the time I was on the third bottle I could feel the moisture pooling against the small of my back, sloshing against my pressure suit.
That's also when I noticed the oncoming disaster. I glanced at the board while hooking up the fourth and final bottle. Thanks to the ship's crapola design the coolant line's relief valve was a good six meters away from the board. But even from that distance I could see the core's temperature climbing like the proverbial rocket. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as I realized that the control rod indicators were broken. The rods weren't fully inserted after all, and I'd just taken out most of the core's coolant. Now the reaction in the core was skyrocketing, and within less than a minute it would melt down. Hell, it might even explode. Either way the drydock and everyone in it, myself included, would get a lethal dose of radiation.
I started screaming into my suit radio, telling everyone to get the hell away from the drydock. There was no time to get the coolant pumped back in; I had only one option left. On the engine control panel there's an emergency shutdown, sometimes called the 'scram' button. It's got a flip-up cover over it to prevent someone from accidentally pressing it, but once pressed it throws all of the control rods into the core and kills any reaction dead.
There was no time to waste, I kicked against the wall behind me...and that was another of my screw-ups. In my defense I was amped up on adrenaline, but it was still a more forceful kick than needed. I flew across the compartment and crashed into the edge of the control panel hard enough to dislocate my shoulder. My legs cartwheeled around and slammed into a stanchion behind the panel.
I nearly went tumbling away from the panel, but still managed to grab one edge. Of course my luck remained shit, because the scram button was on the other end of the panel from me. I flailed at the button with my injured arm, but my hand was still a good six inches away. I got ready to crawl up onto the panel and try again when...it happened.
For a long time after I went back and forth about it. I tried to tell myself that it was a hallucination caused by stress, or some optical trick caused by my suit's headlamp. But eventually I had to call bullshit on all that. I was staring right at the damn button with all my might and I know what I saw and...and what I heard.
I saw the scram button's cover flip open all on its own. I saw the button sink in as if pushed by an invisible finger. I saw the temperature gauges drop like a rock and I knew I was going to live after all.
And then, amid the hiss of static from my radio, I swear I heard a faint voice.
A woman, speaking with a strange accent.
Time for us to go walkabout, Sheila.
__________
Jason was almost done with his second mug of not-cider but even so he felt more sober than before. "There's not much to tell after that. They gave me a commendation for bravery and quick thinking, even though I'd done nothing. There was no way I was gonna tell 'em that some...ghost lady had saved us. That was a sure ticket to get sent back down the nearest elevator and permanently grounded. After my shoulder healed, I went and reapplied to the placement program. Now I had years of experience in space, not to mention my shiny new commendation, so this time I made it through."
He stared into the fire. "So here I am."
Karl was the first to speak. "[Friend [Jason], please forgive me if I offend you with this question. You see, sometimes when relating a parable or religious lesson [Karnakians] will put themselves into the story. It isn't intended as a deception, but more as a way of making the lesson more relatable..."
Jason laughed. "You want to know if I made it up? Or maybe put myself in a ghost story I heard?"
The big raptor's arm-feathers fluffed out as he made an apologetic shrug.
"No worries, bud. It's a fair question. That's partly why I never told anyone about it. But you guys are my friends…and I don't bullshit my friends."
"[Thank you for your trust,]" said Henry. He sprawled out in something kind of like an infinity symbol as he tried to maximize his heat absorption from the fire. "[For what it's worth, I want it to be true.]"
"[Really?]" asked Gertie. "[Hmm, I suppose I see your point. The thought of someone doing their duty and helping their packmates even after their death...yes, it's an appealing idea.]"
"[The story is still unsettling, though.]" added Karl. "[Why did that poor woman's spirit remain in the ship? Why wasn't her spirit at rest?]"
"Because Sheila was still intact."
The three aliens looked at Jason as if he'd sprouted an extra head. "[[Sheila]...you mean...the engine?]" asked Henry, his hood set in the Jornissian version of a raised eyebrow.
"That's what I tell myself, at least. Like Sousa said, she and the engine were mates through and through. As long as it was there, so was she. Right until the very end."
Karl's throat worked as if he'd just tried to swallow a rhinoceros whole. "[But that was an engine. It had no soul!]"
Jason waggled his mug playfully at the Karnakian. "Remember the punchline of your story? Maybe there's 'souls' in inanimate objects. Or maybe we imbue ourselves into them and give them life, of a sort. I dunno. In either case, I've had way too much to drink and I should get some sleep."
"[Yes...sleep. Sleep is good,]" said Gertie, in a tone which indicated she was not getting any sleep for the forseeable future.
__________
"[?Error#%#@(possible excrement term)?!yerfiddnonmuhfeff!]"
Kn'na''nan blinked his eyes as he awoke, then realized with something akin to fright that while he slept he'd unconsciously started roosting on his little-needs-protecting shipmate. Gngnra's white-furred body pressed against the two of them while Hn'narnatnss coiled up on the other side of the cuddle-pile.
"Sorry, friend [Jason]!" He shifted away to allow the little-needs-protecting to breathe.
[Jason] spat out a few bits of Kn'na''nan’s underfluff. "[That's okay, it just got kinda hard to breathe there all of a sudden.]"
The four of them untangled themselves and began packing up for the next leg of their hike. Daylight streamed down through among the giant spear-like growths which passed for trees on this planet, and to Kn'na''nan the fact that he could see almost to the horizon was a cause for joy. It was almost as if the unsettling stories of the night before had never occurred.
What did not cause the Karnakian joy was the sight of [Jason] hoisting his pack onto his shoulders. [Jason] kept insisting that it was a reasonable weight, but to Kn'na''nan it looked like the little-needs-protecting was always on the verge of toppling over.
"[Going to make it all the way this time, [Jason]?" asked Gngnra with a cheeky waggle of her ears.
"[Oh har dee har har. Not my fault y'all got such long legs.]"
"[I don't have legs,]" said Hn'narnatnss with a touch of smugness.
"[Are you kidding? You're just one big leg!]"
Kn'na''nan would never say it aloud, but he hoped that [Jason] would indeed tire during the day's travels. Two days before, the Karnakian had gotten the chance to let the little-needs-protecting ride on his back and as far as he was concerned that had been the best day of his life.
But for the moment [Jason] looked fully rested as he wobbled off down the trail, the top of his pack sticking far up above his head. Hn'narnatnss slithered after him, keeping his pace to the slower norm set by [Jason].
Gngnra paused before she set off after them. "[How'd you sleep?]" she asked Kn'na''nan.
The Karnakian held up one hand and rocked it from side-to-side in the universal sign for 'not so great'. "How about you?"
"[I had troubled dreams. For the first time in a long time.]"
"Me as well. [Hn'narnatnss] also looked tired. But [Jason] seems fine."
"[Why am I not surprised?]" Gngnra shook her head. "[Scary stories at night. What a silly [human] ritual.]"
Kn'na''nan stared at the retreating figure of his small crewmate. "No. Not silly. We must make sure to make friends with the little-needs-protectings."
Gngnra cocked her head. "[But we're already friends.]"
"Not yet. Yes, we've made friends with individuals like [Jason]. But to the vast majority of them we're more like…allies. We must be more than that, for our own sake. We need to know that the little-needs-protectings have our back, as they say."
The pair set off down the trail after their comrades while Gngnra pondered. Finally she asked. "[Why do you think so?]"
Kn'na''nan waved a claw at the vast blue sky overhead. "The universe is vast beyond our understanding. We might encounter horrors out there that would cause you or I or even Hn'narnatnss to curl up and pray for death. But [Jason]? He'll just laugh in what passes for that horror's face and declare that he's heard scarier stuff while drinking with friends by a campfire.]"

Footballthoughts has posted a brief review of creationist arguments regarding radioisotope dating. He thinks that our rejection of their arguments is because we simply haven't read them.
Strangely, it's the exact opposite problem: Football hasn't read the papers these claims are citing. If he had, he might figure out that a few of these articles are just bullshit, as it is simply creationist researchers misapplying scientific principles to get the outcomes they want. The only thing they prove in the end is that they don't understand the science. Or simply don't want to, because it won't tell them what they want.
Let's go strip the articles of their examples:
From radioactive-dating-anomalies:

That lava is known to be relatively young, possibly erupted within historical times,4 yet a rubidium-strontium straight-line isochron gave an age of 773 million years. Does this worry these scientists? No.

The lava isn't a valid candidate for this type of dating:

• The system must have remained closed to Rb and Sr diffusion from the time at which the rock formed or fell below the closure temperature (generally considered to be 650 °C);
• The minerals which are taken from a rock to construct an isochron must have formed in chemical equilibrium with one another or in the case of sediments, be deposited at the same time;
• The rock must not have undergone any metasomatism which could have disturbed the Rb-Sr system either thermally or chemically

I don't believe the sample passes any of these criteria, making it an absolutely inappropriate sample for dating. Presenting it as accurate is intellectual fraud.
From his own post on C14 in diamonds:

yadda yadda yadda C14 in diamonds

Honestly, we've all read this one before and know all the problems.

1. Carbon dating is for biological materials which have engaged in exchange with atmospheric C14 content. Diamonds being minerals deep underground do not participate in this cycle and thus cannot be dated by the same methodology.
2. There is still neutron flux underground where C14 can be generated in carbon. Uranium and coal often occur together, which could lead to enrichment of C14 content.
3. He's literally citing a paper about machine background error, and the diamonds were very likely depleted.

So, when he says:

Hopefully this can help educate them, as well as provide a good list of resources for Creationists who want them.

It just makes me laugh. Educate us? We've had to educate your kind multiple times in the past year. There must be a gasleak in there, because they keep repeating themselves, over and over again.