Some real history on display.. 100s of hours cleaning and polishing these aircraft

I won't spoil the boys thunder so here it is from them.

Quote:New rocket fuel compound packs 150% more energy

Date: September 30, 2025 Source: University at Albany, SUNY Summary: A new boron-rich compound, manganese diboride, delivers much higher energy density than current solid-rocket materials while remaining stable until intentionally ignited. Its power comes from an unusual, strained atomic structure formed during ultra-hot synthesis, with promising uses beyond propulsion.

Quote: The Yeung Lab's arc melter synthesizing manganese diboride. Credit: Brian Busher

University at Albany chemists have created a new high-energy compound that could revolutionize rocket fuel and make space flights more efficient. Upon ignition, the compound releases more energy relative to its weight and volume compared to current fuels. In a rocket, this would mean less fuel required to power the same flight duration or payload and more room for mission-critical supplies. Their study was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
"In rocket ships, space is at a premium," said Assistant Professor of Chemistry Michael Yeung, whose lab led the work. "Every inch must be packed efficiently, and everything onboard needs to be as light as possible. Creating more efficient fuel using our new compound would mean less space is needed for fuel storage, freeing up room for equipment, including instruments used for research. On the return voyage, this could mean more space is available to bring samples home."
The newly synthesized compound, manganese diboride (MnB2), is over 20% more energetic by weight and about 150% more energetic by volume compared to the aluminum currently used in solid rocket boosters. Despite being highly energetic, it is also very safe and will only combust when it meets an ignition agent like kerosene.
The underlying boron-based structure is also versatile; related research in the Yeung lab has demonstrated its potential to help build more durable catalytic converters for cars and serve as a catalyst for breaking down plastics.
It Takes Heat to Make Heat
Manganese diboride belongs to a class of chemical compounds thought to have unusual properties, yet exploring what exactly these properties entail has been limited by an inability to actually produce the compound.
"Diborides first started getting attention in the 1960s," said UAlbany PhD student Joseph Doane, who works with Yeung. "Since these initial looks, new technologies are allowing us to actually synthesize chemical compounds that were once only hypothesized to exist.

"Knowing what we do about the elements on the periodic table, we suspected that manganese diboride would be structurally asymmetrical and unstable -- factors which together would make it highly energetic -- but until recently, we couldn't test it because it couldn't be made. Successfully synthesizing pure manganese diboride is an exciting achievement in and of itself. And now, we can test it experimentally and discover new ways to put it to use."
Synthesizing manganese diboride requires extreme heat generated using a tool called an "arc melter." The first step involves pressing manganese and boron powders together into a pellet, which is placed in a small, reinforced glass chamber. The arc melter trains a narrow electrical current on the pellet, heating it to a scorching 3,000°C (over 5,000°F). The molten material is then rapidly cooled to lock the structure in place. At the atomic level, this process forces a central manganese atom to bond to too many other atoms, making for an overly crowded structure packed tight like a coiled spring.
3...2...1... Deformation!
When exploring new chemical compounds, being able to physically produce the compound is critical. You also need to be able to define its molecular structure, in order to better understand why it behaves the way it does.
UAlbany PhD student Gregory John, who works with computational chemist Alan Chen, built computer models to visualize manganese diboride's molecular structure. These models revealed something critical: a subtle skew, known as "deformation," which gives the compound its high potential energy.
"Our model of the manganese diboride compound looks like a cross section of an ice cream sandwich, where the outer cookies are made of a lattice structure comprised of interlocking hexagons," said John. "When you look closely, you can see that the hexagons aren't perfectly symmetrical; they're all a little skewed. This is what we call 'deformation.' By measuring the degree of deformation, we can use that measure as a proxy to determine the amount of energy stored in the material. That skew is where the energy is stored."
Here's another way to picture it.

"Imagine a flat trampoline; there's no energy there when it's flat," said Yeung. "If I put a gigantic weight in the center of the trampoline, it will stretch. That stretch represents energy being stored by the trampoline, which it will release when the object is removed. When our compound ignites, it's like removing the weight from the trampoline and the energy is released."
New Materials Need New Compounds
"There's this consensus among chemists that boron-based compounds should have unusual properties that make them behave unlike any other existing compounds," said Associate Professor of Chemistry Alan Chen. "There's an ongoing quest to figure out what those properties and behaviors are. This sort of pursuit is at the heart of materials chemistry, where creating harder, stronger more extreme materials requires forging brand-new chemicals. This is what the Yeung lab is doing -- with findings that could improve rocket fuel, catalytic converters and even processes for recycling plastics.
"This study is also a great example of the scientific process, where researchers pursue interesting chemical properties even when they're not certain what specific applications might emerge. Sometimes, present case included, the results are serendipitous."
Yeung's interest in boron compounds started when he was a grad student at the University of California, Los Angeles. His project was aiming to discover compounds harder than diamond.
"I distinctly remember the first time I made a compound related to manganese diboride," Yeung said. "There I was, holding this new material that was supposed to be super hard. Instead, it started to get hot and changed into a pretty orange color. I thought, 'Why is it orange? Why is it glowing? It shouldn't be glowing!' That's when I realized how energetic boron compounds can be. I put a pin in it to explore in the future, and that's exactly what we are working on now."

Carl and Donna sat outside in the lounge chairs, gazing skyward.

One could see it with the naked eye.

What had once been awkwardly titled "3I/Atlas" had suddenly maneuvered, apparently on its own power, and was now on a bee-line for ... earth.

And it had not slowed down.  33 BILLION TONS of ... something ... was on a collision course with humanity's home.

Scientists and the media were beating the drums, suggesting that perhaps the object would finally slow down and enter an orbit about earth.  The Happy Horse-S*** propaganda was in high gear.

But people, deep down, had lost hope.  This was it.  The hubris of elites had electromagnetically advertised earth's emergence as a civilization ... and someone had noticed.

Carl blinked, and looked harder.  "Christ", he thought, "its getting larger by the second -- it must be close".

With that thought, the wind suddenly picked up and began to blow hard ... very hard.

He grabbed Donna by the hand, "Let's go Baby!"

And with that, they, along with their Jack Russell terrier, descended into the tornado shelter.

The shelter was roomy and well stocked, but who knew if it could withstand what was to come.  Carl had read enough to know the last time a large object had struck earth, it almost ended ALL life on the planet.  Whatever happened, it would be an incredibly powerful shock wave when it hit.

Pulling the hatch closed on the shelter, Carl secured it from the inside.  He glanced around.  They had rations, water, firearms, and plentiful ammunition.  He suspected they would need every bit of their stores in the days to come.

Donna's gaze was intense.  "Why us?"

Carl's reply was so light hearted it surprised him.  "Its a bug world".

Donna: "What ?"

Carl regarded her with a sad smile.  "Didn't you read your Heinlein ?"

--------------------

B---O---O---M

https://lists.theepochtimes.com/links/7b...FmXERIp9jm

Quote:We are on the edge of an enormous revolution in warfare.
It will not be an incremental evolution from what we are already doing. It will be a profound, disruptive transformation. We will have to rethink all of our plans, doctrines, organizational structures, and training systems.
Genuinely disruptive technological capabilities are relatively rare historically. The transition from arrows to gunpowder was one such revolution. It ended the era of large castles. Powerful cannons could simply knock them down.
The combination of the internal combustion engine and the radio similarly revolutionized warfare. It evolved into controlling ships at sea, replacing sails with steam, developing air power, creating tanks, and then enabling large tank formations to be directed by radio. That evolution from 1870 to 1980 was dominant. Countries which did not adapt were rapidly and decisively defeated.
The emergence of theater wide—and in some cases worldwide—real-time communications created another revolution in the 1980s. In June 1982, an Israeli version of the airborne warning and control system (AWAC) airplane monitored the Syrian Air Force—even before planes left the runway. The plane directed Israeli fighters into a series of ambushes—in which 101 Syrian fighters were shot down at the cost of one Israeli plane.

When I was briefed on this engagement at the Air University in the 80s, I immediately realized it marked the end of the Soviet Union. A dictatorship that thought Xerox machines were state secrets could not possibly compete with a real-time, theater wide information system. In effect, the entire, heavily armored World War II Soviet military was being made obsolete by the information revolution. Furthermore, the survival requirements of a totalitarian state were going to make it virtually impossible to adapt to the new reality.
Now we are in the early stages of a new profound revolution in war fighting.
Ukraine will build 4 million drones this year, including autonomous vehicles capable of hitting targets 1,900 miles away.
Space X has already lowered the price of satellite launches by 90 percent with its reusable rockets. The Starship will reduce the cost even further—and will launch the equivalent of a C-17 aircraft into space. (That’s 100 tons to 150 tons of cargo or 100 people per launch.) Seven passenger launches by Starship would equal every person put into space by every country in the last six decades. In 2017, Elon Musk proposed a point-to-point use of Starship which would carry more than 100 passengers in airline style seating from New York to Tokyo in 37 minutes. The military potential that creates for rapid intervention is worth pondering.
Anduril is building an autonomous submarine called the Ghost Shark for the Australian Navy. This submarine does not need space for people. It is the size of a school bus and can carry a lot of torpedoes. As Chris Brose told me on an upcoming episode of my Newt’s World podcast, a Virginia Class submarine costs $4 billion, and there are few of them. The standard Mark 48 torpedo costs $5 million, and there are relatively few of them. For the same price you could have hundreds of Ghost Sharks carrying thousands of inexpensive torpedoes. If the Navy focused its most sophisticated systems on the most complex threats, it could then focus Ghost Sharks on all the easier targets. In a place like the Taiwan Straits, this would make a Communist Chinese invasion virtually impossible.
The new technologies are going to rapidly evolve, and we must have fast, adaptable manufacturing to produce enough quantity to meet the demands of the modern battlefield. One example of the revolution in manufacturing is Divergent 3D. This factory combines artificial intelligence, 3D printing, robotics, and specialized chemistry to create the most adaptable and rapid manufacturing system in the world.
The scale of change is captured in a project at the LeMay Center at the Air University. The Center is looking at five different areas of dramatic breakthroughs: artificial intelligence and autonomy; advanced materials and production; biotech and neuroscience; quantum science; and robotics and miniaturization. Of course, these five also require a sixth zone of study which is how you build synergistic systems that integrate all five.
In a time of revolutionary change, it takes an enormous amount of experimentation and entrepreneurial leadership to fully develop an applied version of the new developments. Often it is the integration of several breakthroughs that suddenly lead to enormous increases in capability.
The German adoption of the radio for every tank created a speed of command and control in 1940 which allowed them to decisively outperform a significantly larger number of French tanks in just a matter of weeks.
The original flight of the Wright brothers on Dec. 17, 1903 was a shorter distance than the wingspan of a Boeing 747. It was slow enough that one brother could run alongside the plane to make sure it did not flip over. Within 15 years, dramatically more powerful aircraft evolved into the fighters, bombers, transport planes, and other aircraft of World War I—out of which the modern Air Force emerged.
The earliest aircraft carriers at the end of World War II were small. The aircraft were so underpowered that it was not clear they would ever be a threat to ships. Within 20 years, dramatically more powerful improvements in aircraft engines—and the development of large aircraft carriers—had decisively changed the nature of war at sea. The battleship admirals of the time did not believe it, until their precious ships started to be sunk by airplanes.
When you are entering a period of revolutionary change, the present is merely a Polaroid snapshot. You must imagine the change as a continuously evolving and expanding motion picture. You must imagine the future by looking far beyond the present.
This revolution in warfare is going to be an enormous challenge for the Pentagon. But it must be embraced and developed if we are to remain the most effective military in the world.
From Gingrich360

Bird Watching https://youtube.com/shorts/47GCr64zN5s?s...eNoHR7DDRI

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It's WWII and you play as "Hobo Guy" on a mission to rescue your pet dog from the Nazis , Darkenstein 3D is a homage to Doom and Castle Wolfenstein taking players back to 90s era FPS games where skill and fun were the priority not DEI or messaging , so if you've played those games this may be right up your street , there's a free demo on Steam ahead of the game's free to play release on October 21, 2025.

Quote:The story of Darkenstein 3D centers on the "Hobo Guy," a furious American drifter who, after his loyal dog, Gunther, is snatched by Nazis during a raid, embarks on a bloody, retro-FPS revenge mission. Battling through Nazi-controlled bunkers, castles, and diverse landscapes, the Hobo Guy uncovers hidden alien secrets and bizarre, powerful abilities on his quest to retrieve his companion. 

There is a full-blown radiological contamination incident in Indonesia apparently caused by scrap metal smelting that volatilized cesium-137 from a radiation source that should not have been there, contaminating shipments of frozen shrimp and cloves.

Michigan Swamp Buck's earlier thread: https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=3018




How long had that cesium-137 been floating around? When they tell you not to panic, that is when you should panic!



Meeting of the 'minds' for urgent damage control cover.



Cikande's Recovery from Cs-137 Radiation Could Take Months

Reminds me of those horror stories out of Ukraine and Brazil.

Zika: Brazil/Ukraine - Microcephaly - but was it Cesium-137?


Elevated congenital anomaly rates and incorporated cesium-137 in the Polissia region of Ukraine


On September 18, 1987, cesium-137 is removed from an abandoned cancer-therapy machine in Brazil. Hundreds of people were eventually poisoned by radiation from the substance, highlighting the danger that even relatively small amounts of radiation can pose.

Starting around May 2015 to 2016 there was a massive rash of reported Microcephaly newborn cases in Brazil, but blamed on the Zika virus. Remember?

According to newspapers.com::
2015: 319 total uses of "zika" (majority are as a surname)
2016: 45,112 total uses of "zika"

NY Times went ballistic covering this story as did Dr. Robert Malone.

In 2016, Dr. Malone started a new company: Atheric Pharmaceutical, LLC. A biopharmaceutical company focused on the rapid development and commercialization of repurposed drugs as Countermeasures to prevent and treat Zika and other Orthoflavivirus diseases.

Judge it for yourselves ... lol.

Surprised / not surprised ... up to you, but very very interesting.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcxN1FaSo_g[/video]

Enjoy

P

(10-04-2025, 05:32 AM)p358 Wrote: Judge it for yourselves ... lol.

Surprised / not surprised ... up to you, but very very interesting.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcxN1FaSo_g[/video]

Enjoy

P

Ken Budd spent years searching for his brother Robert, a Marine who was killed in Guadalcanal during WWII. A month after Ken’s death in 2021, Robert’s remains were found — and now he’s finally coming home to rest beside his brother. However, this story has an interesting twist as you'll soon learn...



This is the best story you will read today!...

Quote:(Tribune News Service) — Kathy Kinane of Camillus said her dad, Ken Budd, and her uncle, Robert Joseph Budd, had a “wonderfully close” brotherly connection.

Though he was ten years younger, Ken idolized his older brother.

“My uncle would take him places and cover for him,” Kinane remembered. “They were always pals.”

World War II was the only force that could have separated them.

But not even that, nor Robert’s death in the Pacific Theater in 1942, could break their brotherly bonds.

Kinane tells a story from 1987 when Robert visited Ken in a dream.

“Hi,” he told Ken. “Got to go now. But I’ll get back to you on September 26.”

Ken did not think anything of the dream, nor the oddly specific date.

Later that year, he was leading a fishing tour on the Oswego River when the water level was suddenly lowered by Niagara Mohawk after someone had a medical emergency upstream. When the water was allowed to rise, Ken’s boat was caught in a whirlpool and capsized.

“Budd suffered a fractured vertebrae, cuts, bruises, and trauma, according to legal documents,” the Herald American reported on Jan. 24, 1988.

Three times Ken tried moving while lying on the bottom of the river but could not move.

Suddenly, there was “a commanding voice.”

“Put your arms out,” it said. “Try one more time.”

Ken rose to the surface of the river and grabbed hold of another boat. The date was September 26.

“I get goose bumps thinking about it,” Kinane said.

The brothers were inseparable, even in death.

By 1987, Ken had already made two trips to Guadalcanal, the site of the fearsome battle where his brother lost his life on August 27, 1942, to find Robert’s remains.

Now, after years of toil, this war hero from Syracuse N.Y., is finally coming home to be buried beside his brother and buddy.

On January 9, 1942, Syracuse experienced its largest single day of Marine recruitment since war was declared following Pearl Harbor.

Robert, 20, of Nedrow, N.Y., was among the 45 men sworn in that day.

He had attended Onondaga Academy and was a steelworker at Globe Forge Incorporated. His father, Seeley, worked for the Western Union office inside the Herald-Journal newspaper.

Budd was assigned to Charlie Company, First Battalion, 5th Marines as an automatic rifleman. Newspaper reports described him as a sharpshooter and “an expert with an automatic rifle and machine gun.”

On April 13, 1942, the Herald-Journal reported that Budd returned to the Marines at North River, North Carolina after “a short leave passed at the home of his parents.”

It was probably the last time the brothers saw each other.

Four months later, on August 7, U.S. Marines began “Operation Watchtower,” the first American offensive of the war, by landing on Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands.

Budd’s 5th Marines landed 20 days later along the northern coast. The fighting was intense.

“We all jumped for cover, but several of the men were hit,” said Captain William Hawkins. “You couldn’t see the (Japanese), so we began firing in the direction from which their fire had come.”

With his best friend in the service by his side, Private Thomas Phillips, Budd tried to get into a good position to fire.

Budd was shot in the chest and fell to the ground. Phillips tried to help but he too was shot through the body. They died together.

The next morning, the friends were buried side by side in a coconut grove. A burial party noted a broken-down fence as a nearby landmark and made sure that both were buried with dog tags. However, neither grave was located by post-war search parties.

News of his death arrived at his parents’ doorstep a month later. Budd’s death notice in the Herald-Journal said that “information as to where he met his death could not be disclosed at this time.”

“I can still hear my mother’s screams,” brother Ken wrote in a letter to the newspaper in 1991.

An editorial on Sept. 25, 1942 said the following about Private Robert Budd:

“We know how poignant is the grief of the parents at this hour. But they have the right to cherish a deep and everlasting pride in the character of their son and the brave, fine record he made. At the same time, we wish to emphasize that there was a glory in this young man’s devotion and sacrifice which shall shine through the years, warming the hearts of those who grieve today.”

In a letter to the editor, Seeley Budd wrote this about his son:

“Our love of Bob was unbounded and our pride in the knowledge that he went out fighting in defense of those he loved is just as great. We offer this thought as a source of some consolation to others whose loved ones have passed on down the same bright trail to rest.”

On Memorial Day weekend 1946, Elmwood Presbyterian dedicated blue spruce trees in memory of the 11 of the 278 service members from the congregation who had died during World War II.

Robert was among them.

For decades, it was the only memorial to him locally.

“Uncle Bob was not just a black-and-white photo growing up,” Kathy Kinane remembered. “He was a huge part of the family.”

Her father Ken would not let his brother be forgotten.

“We always knew him,” she said. “We thought, ‘What an awesome uncle he would have been.’”

Ken Budd followed in his brother’s footsteps and joined the Marines during the Korean War.

“He never saw a battle,” Kinane said, “and he was angry about that.”

After being honorably discharged, he got married and had four children and settled in Syracuse’s Valley section. He retired as a District Chief with the Syracuse Fire Department. He later became a charter boat captain on Lake Ontario and Oswego and Salmon Rivers.

“My father was a remarkable guy,” Kinane said. “He was smart. And an expert on anything he put his mind to.”

Quite often he thought about his older brother and how to bring him home.

“It became dad’s life mission,” Kinane said.

Ken Budd started researching his brother’s unit and movements at Guadalcanal. He got Robert’s records from the National Personnel Record Center and visited the National Museum of the Marine Corps. He tried tracking down the comrades in his brother’s unit.

Ken made “hundreds and hundreds of phone calls, letters and personal visits with ex- Marines and others who might possibly help him,” a 1989 Post-Standard article said.

Divine guidance once again played a role.

Ken was visited by Robert in a dream.

“Get a hold of Charlie Wolff,” Ken was told. Then he was given an address and phone number.

Ghosts are not always perfect. The phone number and address were wrong. But Charlie Wolff was Robert’s squad leader, still living in Virginia.

With information provided by Wolff, Ken was able to retrace his brother’s final steps at Guadalcanal in 1985. However, he could not find his burial spot.

Ken asked a local priest if he could have a plaque dedicated to his brother at a church which faced towards the direction where Robert had fallen.

A year later, in 1986, he returned with the plaque which read:

“Resting in peace on these sacred grounds are Robert J. Budd and Thomas Phillips, American Marines, who died valiantly for their country. The Budd Family.”

Ken returned to the site in 1989, again in 1993, and for the last time in 2008.

“He became an expert,” Kinane said of her dad. “He studied aerial maps and made friends.”

His brother’s former Japanese adversaries even helped in the search.

But he never found Robert.

Ken Budd’s health began declining. He wanted to return to Guadalcanal one last time, but his family stopped him.

“I promise you,” his daughter promised him. “If they find him, we will get him home.”

Ken Budd died on Feb. 22, 2021.

Incredibly, almost beautifully, one month later to the day, a construction crew laying water pipes outside The Ofis restaurant at Guadalcanal requested an explosive ordnance expert to their work site after human remains and American military equipment were found.

Half a world away, Kinane was left a message on her answering machine.

Robert was found.

“I was freaking out, crying,” she said. “I told my brothers. I told my kids…”

In 2022, Robert and Tommy Phillips were pulled from their graves and an entire process involving anthropologists, scientists, and morticians started. His remains, including his dog tags, a bit of his helmet and some buttons, were brought to Pearl Harbor for identification.

Ken Budd had hoped that his brother would be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, possibly alongside Phillips.

His children, though, had different ideas.

Robert and Ken, the kid brother who went to such extraordinary lengths to bring him home, should be reunited at Nedrow’s Valley Cemetery.

Home, finally together.

“That was more important,” Kinane thought.

On Monday, October 6, Robert returns to New York State.

His remains are due to land at Rochester and will then be given a Marine escort back to Syracuse, returning to his hometown after 83 years away.

There will be a memorial service at Buranich Funeral Home, 5431 West Genesee Street, Camillus, at 11 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 10.

He will be buried with full military honors at Valley Cemetery, 2500 Valley Drive, Nedrow.

“Dad, he’s home,” Kinane said. “We did it! Robert’s finally home!”