Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

I don't have much of an opinion yet about Qatar's donation of a luxuriously appointed decommissioned 747 to the United States to serve as a temporary Air Force One.

The story, as with so many these days, is murky because everybody has an ideological axe to grind and is spinning so furiously that I am getting nauseous from dizziness. When the truth emerges from the fog of rhetoric, I expect I will have an opinion about that and it may or may not be worth commenting on it.

The scandal buried in the Qatar/Air Force One story that is easy to understand is about Boeing, which apparently is unable to deliver on its 2018 contract to deliver two refurbished 747s by 2024. Their current timeline suggests that they MAY be able to deliver them 11 years late in 2035.

2035. The last time Boeing delivered modified 747s under the first Bush administration it took about 3 years from start to finish, not 17 years.

What do they think they are building? A space capsule or something? Come to think of it, Boeing can't do that either.

L3Harris, the same company Boeing has contracted to install the "complicated wiring" in their Air Force One replacements, is going to modify the former Qatari jet sometime this fall, doing in months what Boeing says it can't do in over a decade.

Granted, Boeing's task is somewhat more complicated than L3Harris'. I assume they will be installing more than communications gear into their replacement versions. But modifying two 747s, unless they are replacing the engines with perpetual motion machines, shouldn't take as long as designing and building a modern fighter aircraft from start to finish.

The planes are built, for God's sake. The air force can rebuild a fighter jet from two that CRASHED in less than three years, which seems pretty complicated to me.

ou can't tell me that the Air Force can do that in two and a half years, but that Boeing needs 17 to install wiring and make modest modifications to already built 747s.

I wouldn't want to say that Boeing's inability to do relatively basic things is a bigger scandal than any deal Trump may have made with Qatar, but it surely is more significant when it comes to the health of our nation's economy and defense infrastructure. Boeing is a key player in the American economy and will be building our next generation of fighter jets.

We better hope that they don't treat that contract the same way they have Starliner or Air Force One.

The Scandal Buried in the Air Force One Story

Netanyahu fully drops the mask & gloves...

“We are demolishing more and more houses, they have nowhere to return to ... The only logical outcome would be the desire of the Gazans to emigrate abroad. Our main problem is finding countries willing to receive them,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week while speaking to Israel's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

For the first time, Netanyahu told the committee, while referring to the plan to distribute humanitarian aid in Gaza, that receiving the aid would be contingent on the non-return of Gazans who receive it to the places from which they would arrive at the aid distribution sites. The explanation: In the places from which they came, they are mixed with Hamas members.

No country has yet agreed to accept forcibly displaced Palestinians under this plan, though discussions are reportedly ongoing.

Qatar and Egypt, key mediators in the talks, praised Hamas's decision as a step toward restarting negotiations and addressing the humanitarian crisis. Witkoff has also held indirect talks with Iran in Oman, indicating broader diplomatic engagement is underway.

Hamas to release US-Israeli captive in bid to revive Gaza ceasefire

I didn't have the Greenbrier's golf legend Sam Snead on my Monday Trump Bingo Card.


https://x.com/therecount/status/1921953402499571897


LOL, trigger alert...




Gotta be some kind of world record...


Ukraine violates ceasefire 14,043 times


Name the band...


Cocaine Cowboys, Coke brothers, BACKDOOR BOYS, The Bankers Boys.



Thinking about how they’re building the world’s largest plane in order to fly wind turbine blades around. More lunacy...


Energy company Radia is building WindRunner, the world’s biggest plane


This might be the most accurate daily news broadcast you’ve seen in decades!!




U.S. top 20 for May 12, 1973. A great top 20 because it begins with "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" and ends with "Walk on the Wild Side."




May 12, 1986: TOP GUN premiered in NYC. One of the definitive 1980s action films, and among the most popular of its star, Tom Cruise.

In 1983, California Magazine published an article detailing the life of U.S. Airforce pilots at the Miramar base. Hollywood producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson thought it had the basis for a great movie, and Paramount Pictures agreed to fund the film.


Having been turned down by numerous screenwriters, Bruckheimer and Simpson hired writing team Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. to pen a screenplay. For research, the writers attended several Top Gun classes and flew in an F-14 Tomcat.

To play the lead role of Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, Scott approached Matthew Modine, but he said no. Other young stars were considered, including John Travolta, Patrick Swayze, and Sean Penn. Reportedly, none of them were interested. Having successfully led Risky Business, the producers then turned to Tom Cruise. He wasn’t sure, until he was taken into the air by US Navy flight squad, The Blue Angels. Bruckheimer said as soon as they landed, Cruise said “I’m doing the movie. I love it, this is great.”

Cruise’s salary for the film was a reported $1 million – way more than anything he’d earned to that point. He’d also never ridden a motorbike before the film, and was taught at the House of Motorcycles in California.

In prep, Cruise went up in an F-14 with Lt Cmdr Lloyd ‘Bozo’ Abel. On their first trip, Bozo pulled a move resulting in Cruise reaching for the sick bag. Cruise said, "Didn't you see I wasn't in your mirror?" Bozo replied "Sorry, they don't call me 'Bozo' for nothing."

Some well-known young actresses were considered for Maverick’s love interest, Charlie Blackwood, including Ally Sheedy, Brooke Shields and Debra Winger. Instead, after being impressed by her performance in Witness, the filmmakers hired Kelly McGillis. At 5’10”, McGillis was three inches taller than Cruise. As such, he was asked to wear lifts in his shoes in the scenes where they had to stand close to one another. The final scene in the bar was reportedly filmed with McGillis standing in a trench.

Val Kilmer reportedly didn’t want to play Iceman. In his words, he "felt the script was silly and disliked warmongering films." However, he was under contract with the studio so legally bound to accept the part. Kilmer did later say "It was a blast and an education", though he and Cruise didn’t get on during filming. Kilmer later said he would play up Maverick and Iceman’s on-screen friction on the set, which rubbed Cruise up the wrong way. They later became friends, though.

The first person considered to play Top Gun CO Viper was Jon Voight, before Tom Skerritt was cast. And Michael Ironside (Jester) said he was so convincing in the role that real navy sailors would salute him on the deck.

Originally, Maverick’s first name was Evan. It was changed to Pete as an homage to US fighter pilot Pete Pettigrew. Pettigrew worked on the film as a consultant, and appears in the bar scene early on as Charlie's male date.

Charlie is largely based on Christine Fox, a civilian flight instructor the producers met when researching the film. Fox was tall, blonde, wore heels, and had the callsign ‘Legs’. She retired as Deputy Secretary of Defense, the highest post ever held by a woman at the time.

The Pentagon charged Paramount a reported $1.8m to use their planes and aircraft carriers. And the DOD insisted on some script changes, including changing the manner of Goose’s death from a midair collision, as they wanted the film to work as a recruitment tool. Also, Charlie was changed from being a service member to a civilian because Navy regulations prohibit officers and enlisted personnel from having sexual relationships, as Charlie and Maverick do.

The score was written by German composer Harold Faltermeyer - the first to be recorded on the Synclavier digital synthesizer. An official release of Faltermeyer's score for the film has never been done. The soundtrack is mostly known for its pop songs, mainly Take My Breath Away. Giorgio Moroder wrote most of the music, and Tom Whitlock wrote most of the lyrics. Whitlock reportedly became involved as he was Moroder’s mechanic. Moroder had written Danger Zone for Jefferson Starship, but they were unavailable. Toto and REO Speedwagon were both considered, before Kenny Loggins was hired to perform it.

There was tragedy during production when stunt pilot Art Scholl was killed, aged 54. He died when his camera plane failed to recover from a spin and plunged into the Pacific. The film is dedicated to him.

For the opening, Scott wanted to shoot aircraft taking off from carrier, back-lit by the sun. The captain had changed course though, and the cost of turning the ship was $25k. Scott wrote the captain a $25k to get the shot and, according to Scott, the check bounced.

The scene where Goose sings Great Balls Of Fire wasn’t in the script, Scott had been listening to Jerry Lee Lewis that morning and added it in. It was shot in a San Diego restaurant called Kansas City BBQ which still houses the piano and one of Maverick’s helmets.

Paramount paid Grunman, the makers of the F-14, to install special camera mounts on the planes. And it cost the studio $10,000 per hour every time they went up to film an F-14.

The F-14 pilot who performed the inverted stunt was Captain Scott Douglas "Scooter" Altman. He performed all of Maverick’s stunt flying for the film, and went on to become a NASA astronaut flying on four missions. The MiG pilot was Admiral Robert Willard, the flight choreographer for the film.

A relationship Maverick had with an Admiral’s daughter is mentioned several times in the film. The character is called Penny Benjamin and, though we never see her in the film, she was a main character in Top Gun: Maverick, played by Jennifer Connelly.

The Navy authorized two actual missile shots to be filmed. They were both filmed from several different angles so they could be re-used again and again. So every time we see a missile launched in a dogfight, it is one of those two moments. The climactic dogfight features the Top Gun cadets up against a group of unspecified MiGs. The original script stated they were North Korean, but this was removed from the final film.

The ‘buzzing the tower’ moment was filmed for real. The stunt pilots drew straws as they all wanted to do it, and it was won by Bozo Abel. Michael Ironside (Jester) was there when it was filmed and said it was one of the most spectacular things he ever saw.

At the time the film was released, tapes were priced at $100 and sold to video stores. Top Gun was priced to own immediately. This was made possible by Pepsi buying ad space at the beginning of the tape. After that, this was common practice.

The film was a smash hit. On a budget of $15m, it grossed $357.3m worldwide, making it the highest grossing film of 1986. The soundtrack was huge too – it went to number 1 and, within a year had gone four times platinum.

The U.S. Navy’s plan for the film to work as a recruitment tool worked like a charm. They set up recruiting booths in major cinemas to catch some of the audience leaving the screenings, resulting in a 500% increase in their application numbers!!

Finally... the real training program at Miramar was called TOPGUN and, for years afterwards, “I feel the need, the need for speed” became a favourite phrase of pilots. So much so that any time a cadet quoted the movie, they were fined $5.

Danger Zone enhanced audio




"The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be."
— Douglas Adams