The journey of a Boeing 757.

I am writing this story about an airplane...And those that read my blog know that besides 2nd Amendment stuff, the idiocy of the Federal government, President Obama and the bottom swilling, communist,Godless heathen Democrats and their antics, I also blog about things that I like since this is my blog, they include cars, and of course .....Airplanes!  I work in the aviation field here in Atlanta and I followed the journey of a particular airplane..Airplanes are just aluminum and wires but we who are around them imbue them with personalities and meaning.  I have a favorite airplane here at Delta and this one is my favorite,a Boeing 757-232.  The breakdown of this is as follows.  the airplane is Boeing 757-200 series and the 32 is the Customer Code that Boeing uses to designate Delta Airlines.  This particular aircraft was purchased and entered service on May 25 1988 and she wore the following colors;

This was ship N638DL as she looked back in 1988 with the traditional livery of Delta Airlines.   Here are some specs on this Boeing 757-232.  She was equipped with PW 2037 and Delta was the launch customer for this type of engine.  She flew with the traditional colors until late 90's when there was the first change in Delta Livery in 30+ years.  She was repainted with this color what Delta called "The Ron Allens"   The pic used is that of a Boeing 767 since I couldn't find one of N638DL in that color.

Ship 638 soldiered on flying routes in the United States, Puerto Rico and many other destinations from coast to coast.  She underwent another livery change to the "flowing" or as we called it the"crap" livery.  There was no "widget" as Delta people call the Delta emblem on the tail.

She flew under this emblem until Delta started "Song" airline...basically fly for a "song" marketing strategy.

Song, LLC was a low-cost airline within an airline brand owned and operated by Delta Air Lines from 2003 to 2006.  Song's fleet consisted of 47 Boeing 757 narrow-body, fitted in a 199 seats, all-economy class, more-legroom configuration and painted in a lime-green livery and one Boeing 757 narrow-body (N610DL) in pink to support the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. After Song was dismantled, this aircraft became the Delta Pink Plane from 2006 until 2010 when it was repainted into standard Delta livery when a new pink Boeing 767-400ER (N845MH) was introduced. Song aircraft were the first in Delta's fleet to carry onboard satellite television equipment for passenger entertainment before being introduced into the mainline fleet, including all Boeing 737-700 and domestic 767-300, and select Boeing 737-800 aircraft.
Song's main focus was on leisure traffic between the northeastern United States and Florida, a market where it competed with JetBlue Airways. It also operated flights between Florida and the West Coast, and from the Northeast to the west coast.
Song's aircraft were fitted with leather seats and free personal entertainment systems at every seat, with audio MP3 programmable selections, trivia games that could be played against other passengers, a flight tracker, and satellite television (provided by the DISH Network). Song offered free beverages, but charged for meals and liquor. Both brand-name snack boxes and healthy organic meals were offered. The flight safety instructions were sung or otherwise artistically interpreted, depending on the cabin crew. In addition to crew uniforms designed by Kate Spade, customized cocktails created by nightlife impresario Rande Gerber and an in-flight exercise program designed by New York City fitness guru David Barton, the airline created its own distinct mark in the industry. The airline operated more than 200 flights a day and carried over ten million passengers.
Song's last flight took off on April 30, 2006. Service shifted to mainline Delta on May 1, 2006.
On January 1, 2008, Delta began repainting the last aircraft bearing the Song livery into mainline Delta Air Lines colors.
     This is where I come into the picture.  I was laid off from Ford Motor Company when they closed the Atlanta Assembly Plant that built the Tauruses and Sables.  I was a car paint sprayer.  We used the Electrostatic paint system to paint the cars.  I basically painted whatever the robots couldn't get.  Well it was on my resume that I had on various websites and Delta airlines were looking for painters and I was hired based on the experience I had at Ford Motor company. I was happy to be hired by a company with a good reputation.  My confidence had taken a beating when Ford shutdown and I was looking everywhere for a job and the constant rejections sucked.  I was delivering Pizza and working at Scotts lawn service as a night auditor part time.  I was worried on how I was going to support my family. 
    Well I had walked into the hanger where I saw the ship 638 for the first time in the spanking new colors.  The Widget was back! and the plane looked awesome. Ship 638 was the first plane painted in the new livery.  She was unveiled the the media and I was there when she was pushed outside for the first time.  The plane represented the restoration of my pride and confidence in myself after the long job search when I was mentally beaten down by the constant " no's that I had received in my job search.   Delta was emerging from Bankruptcy and I was feeling pride for the first time since I was told that Ford was closing the Atlanta Assembly plant in January of 2006 and the plant will be shuttered in October 2006.

There was great pride at Delta, we were emerging from bankruptcy, and had beaten back several hostile takeover attempts from U.S. Airways, there were a bunch of "keep Delta my Delta" floating around as Delta reorganized during the bankruptcy.      Our CEO at the time was Gerald "Jerry" Grinstein.  
      Grinstein came to the position in 2004, after CEO Leo F. Mullin stepped down amid a controversy over executive retirement and cash bonus plans that were deemed excessive. He is succeeded by Richard Anderson, a former Northwest Airlines executive, although Grinstein expected one of his two deputies for the top job. Grinstein and his wife Carolyn live in Seattle, Washington.
     Grinstein also set about regaining the trust and confidence of Delta's rank and file employees, most of whom still harbored a great deal of resentment over the previous management's actions. He promised open, honest communications and granted himself an annual salary of $450,000 with no bonuses or stock options of any kind, well below the multimillion dollar compensation packages accepted by Mullin and his top executives at a time when Delta was losing billions of dollars. Mr. Grinstein's mix of almost grand-fatherly demeanor and his down-to-earth communication approach enabled him to be singularly able to restore the family atmosphere at Delta despite tremendous external pressures. Grinstein was successful in attracting several highly talented executives to Delta who played critical roles in the company's survival despite the airline's precarious financial position. And Mr. Grinstein actively sought the input of employees by maintaining consistent communication with the Delta Board Council, frontline employees, and the councils and forums assembled to represent them.

    
In November 2006, US Airways launched an unsolicited hostile takeover bid for Delta which Grinstein and his executive team led by Jim Whitehurst and Edward Bastian successfully fended off by supporting the employee-led Keep Delta My Delta campaign. Grinstein retired in the Summer of 2007.
Unlike his predecessor Mullin who collected in excess of $13 million despite Delta's profuse bleeding upon his forced exit from Delta in 2003, Grinstein instead directed the company to use his allotted bankruptcy emergence stock grants to establish a scholarship fund for Delta employees and their children and a hardship fund for Delta families.
     This information I used above came from "Wiki".  I do know that many Delta airline employees considered "Jerry" as the best CEO that Delta could have had during those trying times.   The reason I mention this in association with my airplane article is that this plane was dedicated to "Jerry"
     Here is a pic of my son under this dedication.  I took this pic when I had taken him to the hanger so he can look around because he loves airplanes and "raid" the MD-88's for a drink and munchies. and I saw that she was in for another maintenance check.  I took this pic a year ago.

Because of what this plane signified to us here at Delta I kept my eye on her when ever she flew in for maintenance.

 Well I was working the ramp and I saw this plane on the ramp a few weeks ago at night and stood up on a golf cart and took this picture.   We at Delta are still proud of what Jerry did and how the airline is improved for what he did.

     Well I saw a Boeing 757 on the ramp and her colors were painted out.  That means that the plane is retiring and flying to Victorville in California.  That is where planes go when they have reached their operational life at a U.S. carrier.  I took a picture of the plane from a distance:

   I decided to go closer for a look and see what the ship number was: N638DL

  "My" 757 was retiring....  I had mixed emotions when I saw this.  I know that the 757's and older Airbuses are being phased out in the next 5 years and being replaced with Boeing 737-900ER's.  I was hoping that she would be the last one to go as befitting a good plane.  After 25 years of service, she is retiring.
    I took some more pics of her on the ramp

   Here she is facing me

The dedication is painted out.
  

Her ship number is painted out.
     I took another pic of the airplane in her entirety.

      I took the last pic of her before I had to go back to work;

She is lined up with her bretheren on the line...for the last time.    I know that time marches on and things change and objects become obsolete or "old" and the newer stuff is coming that is more fuel efficient, more comfortable, ete,ete.  I still have a soft spot for certain airplanes and I will miss seeing "my" 757 when she comes roaring into Atlanta.
    

  The pics are compliments of www.airliners.net, and my droid. 

Monday Music "Rock Me Amadeus"

I have been working a lot of overtime and my blogging has slipped due to the work load.   I am working on another posting about .....AIRPLANES....or just one in particular.  I should have it up tomorrow(today) or whatever day it is...It is the bad thing about working at night and working all the time, I forget what day it is.   Anyway this is my most recent installment on my Monday Music( sometimes I do it on Tuesday....but it is still Monday to me....or something like that.)   This song I remember it hitting real big when I was at North Georgia College before  I joined the U.S. Army.   I liked the beat, and the way it mixed in history with a contemporary rock sound.   Sone people deride stuff like this as "Fluff".  Perhaps so, but I don't listen to music to get the deeper meaning of life .  I listen to music to help pass the time and keep me awake;).   Here is Falco in "Rock me Amadeus".  He had a minor hit earlier with "Der Kommisar" and back then the Russians were still the boogiemen to the United States, this was Reagans America and we knew who our enemy was and it wasn't sugarcoated by the media.....They just covered it up instead.   Somethings havn't changed.  I will post the duo "Der Kommisar's" at another time....perhaps NEXT monday Music:)

   
"Rock Me Amadeus" is a 1985 song by Austrian pop musician Falco from his album Falco 3. It topped the singles charts on both sides of the Atlantic. It was Falco's only number one hit in both the United States and the United Kingdom, despite his popularity in Germany, his native Austria, and much of Europe. The song was written by Falco and Dutch music producers Bolland & Bolland.
  

 

Single by Falco
from the album Falco 3
Released	June 16, 1985 (1985-06-16) (German) Originally recorded in German, the song is about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, his popularity and his debts. A longer version (eight minutes), named the "Salieri Mix", appeared on the initial US release of the album Falco 3. The song was inspired by the movie Amadeus. For the US release, the song was remixed with an English background overlay. There was never a full English version. Voiceover facts March 28, 1986 (Worldwide)
Format	7"
Recorded	1985
Genre	Neue Deutsche Welle[1]
Length	3:11
Label	A&M
Writer(s)	Falco, Rob Bolland, Ferdi Bolland

1756: Salzburg, January 27, Wolfgang Amadeus is born.

1761: At the age of 5 Amadeus begins composing.

1773: He writes his first piano concerto.

1782: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart marries Constanze Weber.

1784: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart becomes a Freemason.

1791: Mozart composes The Magic Flute.

On December 5 that same year, Mozart dies.

1985: Austrian rock singer Falco records "Rock Me Amadeus"

  

With "Rock Me Amadeus", Falco became the first German-speaking artist to be credited with a No. 1 single in all mainstream US pop singles charts: the Billboard Hot 100 and Cashbox Top 100 Singles. The single hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on 29 March 1986. Falco had already had a minor US hit in 1982 with "Der Kommissar" (a hit the following year there for After the Fire), "Sound of Musik" which reached No. 13, and his follow-up single from Falco 3, "Vienna Calling", which reached No. 18 on the Hot 100.
In the United Kingdom, the song hit number one on 10 May 1986, becoming the first single by an Austrian act to achieve this distinction. In the UK, where his "Der Kommissar" failed to make the charts,
In Canada, the song reached No. 1 on 1 February 1986. (There, "Der Kommissar" had reached No. 11 in January 1983, and "Vienna Calling" would hit No. 8 in April 1986.)
"Rock Me Amadeus" would later be ranked No. 87 in VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 80s and No. 44 in VH1's 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders.
    
The song's music video mixes elements of Mozart's time with modern times. Falco is shown in a modern dinner jacket, walking past people in eighteenth-century formal wear. Later, he is shown dressed as Mozart, with wild colored hair, being held on the shoulders of men dressed in modern motorcycle-riding attire. At the end, the two crowds mix.
There is a minute longer much more sexualized version, starting with the refrain 'sugar sweet', with extra footage spliced throughout including of a similar black carriage riding at night with the driver covered in lights, escorted by police motorcycles, scantily clad girls; in black pleather riding outside it, and modernized bright neon fashions inside, resembling the earlier century formal wear. A different crowd in the more classic Mozart formal wear excessively fraternizing at a party. This version also contains red line art of Falco, guitar riff clips, and a long car scene driving away at the end, to a saxophone solo over the added refrain.
    

Lemme get this straight.......?

Today's hypocrisy brought to you by the letters I, R, and S.

The IRS may be tasked with enforcing Obamacare, but its employee union doesn't seem to care for the law. This is no surprise. If you had a nice, cushy insurance plan through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, would you want to be forced into one of the Affordable Care Act's god-awful exchanges? Of course not.

So, the National Treasury Employee Union is suggesting that its 150,000 members (including 100,000 in the IRS) write their Congressmen and let them know that while they may enforce Obamacare, they'd prefer not to be bound by it. They're deeply concerned that pending legislation may force them to get coverage from an exchange, just like the great, unwashed masses over which they rule.

H.R. 1780 was introduced by Republican Dave Camp as a reaction to rumors that, once again, the feds were cutting backroom deals to exempt themselves from Obamacare's provisions.

The union is supplying workers with a form letter so they can alert their representatives and Senators.  It reads:

I am a federal employee and one of your constituents. I am very concerned about legislation that has been introduced by Congressman Dave Camp to push federal employees out of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) and into the insurance exchanges established under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  

H.R. 1780 would put federal employees in a special class where they would be prohibited from receiving health insurance through their employer. It would treat federal employees differently from state and local government employees and most employees of large private sector companies who receive health insurance benefits through their employer. The primary purpose of the Affordable Care Act was to provide a marketplace for the sale and purchase of health insurance for those who do not have such coverage – not to take coverage away from employees who already receive it through their employers. 

I work hard and am proud of the services that I provide to your constituents every day.  One of the main benefits I receive as a federal employee is the ability to purchase health insurance coverage through the FEHBP with an employer contribution towards those benefits. Please let me know your views on this legislation. I look forward to hearing back from you.

Obamacare may make it too costly for your employer to continue coverage, and you might be forced to work part-time so that your employer can force you into the exchanges, but that's your problem.  These people work for the government.  They're buoyed by a supposedly bottomless pit of cash that they confiscate from the American people.

They're proud of the work they do. These vital services include facilitating wealth redistribution, holding extravagant training conventions, and making bad Star Trek movies. Why, if they weren't doing their jobs, who'd harass conservatives via the tax code?  

These workers are heroes, and they've earned their perks. It's simply unconscionable that they might someday face a scenario where they'll be treated like one of their subjects.

"What DRIVES me nuts....."

     I got the idea of this posting from what Old NFO ranted about on a drive that he had in Virginia if memory serves.  Well I figured that I would do the same thing kind of thing.   I have a few pet peeves that I see on a regular basis on my drive to work.  I shamelessly clipped the pic from Wirecutters place.   To back up my driving experience, I have been driving since I was 15, I am in my late 40's now.  I have been driving in many places in the world including 5+ years on the autobahn with my 1986 Mustang:).  I learned how to drive properly in Germany.  In Germany they have a very strict program for people to get their license...no Drivers ED there.  The people would have to go to an actual driving school and learn how to properly drive.

    

     I saw several different things on my way to work tonight.  As soon as I hit the main drag from my house I saw the ever popular Chevy truck running with their high beams on.

     I then had the plug in the traffic flow caused by some person that would drive 15 miles BELOW the speed limit and you cannot pass this clueless idiot due to oncoming traffic and the Chevy Trucks with their high beams on.

     I am continually amazed by the total number of mal-functioning turn signals in new cars.  I guess people use them to hang their purse on since they ain't used for nothing else.

     Then when I drove to merge on the interstate, the person 2 cars in front would drive 45 miles an hour to merge on an interstate that has a 70MPH limit on it.  Merge to my old fashioned dictionary means to speed up to facilitate a seamless transition to the speed on the right lane....not force the tractor trailer to slam its brakes  on to keep from plowing into your stupid butt when you jump in front of him at 30 miles an hour slower.  Tractor trailers DO not stop on a dime...there is a thing called inertia....and their brakes are good...but not THAT good.

     Then I had the popular left lane bandit that insisted on going 10 mph slower than the max and on a 70 MPH interstate the speed are usually 80+.  I always told myself that if I was ever a police officer, they would be my favorite target since I consider left lane bandits the ultimate kind of douchebags.  People don't realize that if a person has to get out of the lane of travel to go around your slow ass, they increase the possibility of an accident because lane change is the top 3 or 4 for root cause.

     Also I had the car running with their high beams on and they usually are the slower ones and people speed up to get away from these people.

     I had the people who will run in the left lane then head immediately for the off ramp and cross 4 lanes of traffic and they get angry if the car they are trying to cut in front of don't let them in.

     Another one is  if the person that is in the fast lane and creeps past the other car in the slower lane and you are waiting for 5 minutes to get enough of a gap so you can pass on the right to get around grandma moses.

     I also see when there is bad weather, there is the car doing 25 MPH with their 4 way flashers and their wipers on warp drive.  I always mutter " If you are so scared, don't go or find a bridge and hide under it until the rain stops.

     There is a special hell for those that are able bodied and park their lazy butt in the handicap spots.  My first Step-mom was dying of cancer and my dad had a hard time finding parking because of all the able-bodied people that parked their BMW's and Maxima's in the handicap spots.  With him being a Police officer, he would enjoy writing those $400 tickets.

     There are many more, but I figured I would scratch the surface with this.

    

    

     

More surprises from the Asiana Boeing 777 Crash

   I am ripping this off of Aviation week magazine, it is one of the things I read to keep up in the world of Aviation.  Since for me, that is where the money is.  I have worked on 777 and they are a very complicated and very well built airplane.  the beating that this one took and most of the people survived is a testiment to the engineering and skills of Boeing Commercial Aircraft.

    

July 15, 2013
Credit: Justin Sullivan

While NTSB investigators look closely into the actions of the flight crew for potential causes behind the July 6 Asiana Airlines Boeing 777-200ER accident, safety experts working on the other side of the cockpit door are already learning valuable new design lessons for crash survivability.
Although all but two of the 307 passengers and crew survived the ordeal, more than 180 were injured, several of them critically. Therefore, while looking into why the crash occurred in the first place, the investigation is focusing just as closely on why these injuries and deaths were sustained, and it has already unearthed troubling concerns about the functionality of the aircraft's main exit escape slides.
Video and eyewitness accounts testify to the violence of the aircraft's brief passage along San Francisco International Airport's Runway 28L before coming to an abrupt halt to the south side of the strip, adjacent to the touchdown zone markers some 1,500 ft. from the threshold. Although the aircraft did not cartwheel in the same devastating way as in the 1989 DC-10 crash in Sioux City, Iowa, it was massively damaged by an initial impact with the seawall and the displaced runway threshold, during which parts of the main landing gear and the entire empennage were ripped away. Traveling at over 100 mph, the aircraft departed the runway at the touchdown markers where it became partially airborne again, pirouetting in a complete 360-deg. circle around its nose section.
     During this high-speed ground loop, the aft end of the tailless fuselage momentarily pitched up at around 40 deg., causing passengers and crew in the back section of the cabin to fall vertically as much as 100 ft. when the aircraft came to a rest with its nose pointed back toward the runway. Despite this pummeling, the fuselage structure remained substantially intact with the extensively damaged wings appearing to have borne the brunt of the impact loads. Although the forward two-thirds of the fuselage was gutted by the post-crash fire, the overall structural integrity of the cabin section was not immediately compromised by the impact itself, with significant buckling only evident in two zones: forward of the wing root and aft by Section 47/48 where the empennage was broken off.
     The NTSB says the fire was caused by oil leaking from a ruptured tank onto the damaged remains of the No.2 (starboard) Pratt & Whitney PW4090 engine, which was ripped from its wing mountings and lay beside the fuselage. The left engine was detached during the initial ground roll and came to rest on the north side of the runway, just under 2,000 ft. from the threshold. While the fire makes it more difficult for investigators to assess the post-crash condition of the forward and mid-cabin sections, the intact aft cabin is yielding information about the survivability design aspects of seats, interior paneling, overhead bin structures, seat tracks, cabin floors, exits and escape slides.
      Images released by the NTSB of the aft cabin, close to the buckled section by Doors L4 and R4, show how the seating, cabin floor and ceiling in some areas, were significantly damaged and dislodged. Already weakened by the initial impact and loss of belly skin and structure below Section 47/48, the bulk of the aft cargo hold and lower lobe structure beneath the floor of the aft cabin appears to have been either ripped away by the slide along the runway or crushed by the vertical impact that ended the ground loop.
Nevertheless, despite massive damage, investigators say the surprisingly small number of fatalities and relatively intact interior present a very survivable picture, with much of the internal trim, ceiling panels and sidewalls still in place. This is partly thought to be due to Boeing's internal design concept, in which the tie rods supporting the arch of the secondary support structure (which holds the interior of the cabin ceiling panels and overhead bins to the fuselage monocoque) transfer loads above 46,000 lb. and withstand loads of up to 9g. Tie rods were built to absorb up and down loads, while truss-type sway bracing structure support the ceiling laterally. The seats are designed to meet the 16g crash load certification standard, while the seat tracks were originally designed to cope with stresses of 9g.
  

    
However, San Francisco hospitals that dealt with the injured report an unusually high number of spinal injuries, the worst of which include crushed vertebrae and torn ligaments, testifying to the excessive lateral and vertical loads sustained during the accident. Although safety experts say assuming the crash position would have limited jolting to the spine, passengers appear to have received little or no warning of the impact. According to Randy Scarlett, board director of the California Brain Injury Association, “there were significant spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries with the first wave of patients. More subtle concussions and spinal cord injuries were in the second wave of those patients coming to San Francisco General [Hospital].” Scarlett expects that while 80% will fully recover, “20% will be affected for a significant time in their lives.”
Commenting on the safety implications, former NTSB Chairman Jim Hall questions the adequacy of the current 16g dynamic seat standard. “I believe that it is time to update aviation seat standards to take a stronger G force, especially in light of the many recent spinal and head injuries,” he says. The regulation requiring all newly developed transport aircraft to use 16g-capable seats was issued by the FAA in 1988, superseding rules at the time which mandated a static 9g standard with no occupant injury criteria.
From a systems perspective, investigators are focusing on the performance of the safety systems, door operation and emergency inflatable slide deployment. “We're taking a very close look at survival factor issues, including emergency doors and exits, and to see if there were any malfunctions,” says NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman. The most serious of these occurred during the evacuation, when two cabin crew were “pinned” against the cabin side by escape slides that inflated inside the aircraft at Doors 1R and 2R. At least one flight attendant had to be rescued by the relief first officer who helped deflate the device. “We need to understand why that happened, and if it happened inadvertently,” says Hersman.

Monday Music " The Real Slim Shady"

I decided to change things up and go with the late 90's early 2000's.  This song is actually for Momma Fargo that talked about when she used to patrol in "da hood" rollin dirty and playing some Eminem or some other gansta rap.  I would get a mental picture of this Police Crown Vic rolling through the hood and it would have the hydraulics to accentuate the beat from the system that was blaring some rap. 
     When Rap first came out, before the gansta rap became vogue I would listen to it because it was edgy and it took talent to rhyme it and make it sound good.  But when gansta rap took over and it talked about killing cops and other things I didn't care for it at all. so I tuned it out. and Vanilla Ice became a mockery of all white people that tried to sing what is predominately a "black" music.  then here comes Eminem and he sang it well and it was crude but I liked the beat, so I tuned into it.  he did other songs after this one but I don't know if they were as popular.  Eminum also did a movie about a kid from Detroit trying to get into the music scene and it was called "8 mile".  

"The Real Slim Shady" is a hip hop song written by Eminem, Dr. Dre and Tommy Coster for Eminem's third studio album The Marshall Mathers LP (2000). It was released as the lead single a week before the album's release. The song was later released in 2005 on Eminem's greatest hits album Curtain Call: The Hits.
"The Real Slim Shady" was Eminem's first song to reach number one in the United Kingdom and it also peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100, giving him his biggest hit up to that point. The song was the 11th best selling of 2000 in the United Kingdom. It won multiple awards, including MTV Video Music Awards for Best Video and Best Male Video, as well as a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance. In October 2011, NME placed it at number 80 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".^[2] The song was featured in 21 Jump Street during the opening of the film.

"The Real Slim Shady" was not included on the original copy of The Marshall Mathers LP before its release. Interscope Records's Jimmy Iovine wanted Eminem to have a song to introduce the album, similar to the way "My Name Is" was the first single on The Slim Shady LP. Eminem, Dr. Dre and Tommy Coster wrote "The Real Slim Shady" just hours before the final copy of the album was due. The first single was intended to be "Who Knew."^[3]
The song is a critique of manufactured pop songs that were being churned out at the time. It was a hit single, becoming Eminem's first chart topper in some countries, and garnering much attention for insulting various celebrities, including:

• Actress Pamela Anderson's alleged abuse at the hands of her ex-husband, rocker Tommy Lee (Jaws all on the floor, like Pam, like Tommy just burst in the door, and started whoopin' her ass worse than before, they first were divorced, throwin' her over furniture)
• Eminem claims in one line to have murdered Dr. Dre, and that he's locked him in his basement. This was a spin on one of his previous songs, "My Name Is", where Eminem says, "And Dr. Dre said..." then Dre comes on and says, "Slim Shady, you're a basehead." (And Dr. Dre said—nothing, you idiots/Dr. Dre's dead, he's locked in my basement.)
• Comedian Tom Green's humping of a deceased moose on TV, and his song "Lonely Swedish". (Sometimes, I wanna get on TV and just let loose, but can't/but it's cool for Tom Green to hump a dead moose.)
• Rapper Will Smith's brand of commercialized and clean rap music and his VMA acceptance speech where he boasted that he didn't need to curse or kill anybody on his records (Will Smith don't gotta cuss in his raps to sell records/well, I do. So fuck him, and fuck you too.) Eminem first dissed Smith in the music video in Dr. Dre's Forgot About Dre when a news reporter asked him questions about the fire he and Dre started and he responded, "Well I was just upstairs listening to my Will Smith CD" in replacement to the middle of Eminem's verse due to the explicit lyrics.
• Eminem also criticized Britney Spears, (You think I give a damn about a Grammy?/Half of you critics can't even stomach me, let alone stand me/"But Slim, what if you win, wouldn't it be weird?"/Why? So you guys could just lie to get me here?/So you can sit me here, next to Britney Spears?)
• Christina Aguilera was angered by his claim that she performed oral sex on Carson Daly, an MTV VJ, and Fred Durst, of the band Limp Bizkit. (Shit, Christina Aguilera, better switch me chairs/so I can sit next to Carson Daly and Fred Durst/and hear 'em argue over who she gave head to first.)^[4]
• He also makes fun of the boy band 'N Sync, when he appears to dance in the video, with the "group". (I'm sick of you, little girl and boy groups, all you do is annoy me/so I have been sent here to destroy you.)

The chorus is about the sudden fashion changes caused by Eminem's success: "I'm Slim Shady, yes I'm the real Shady/All you other Slim Shadys are just imitating/So won't the real Slim Shady please stand up, please stand up, please stand up?" The chorus imitates the catchphrase of the quiz show To Tell the Truth: "Will the real ______ please stand up?".

Music video[edit]

The music video features Eminem performing the song in a psychiatric ward, a local Detroit neighborhood nearside a park, a fast-food joint, the Grammy Awards, and even in a factory where multiple clones of the rapper are produced. The video also features cameo appearances by Dr. Dre, D12, a lookalike of Kid Rock, Fred Durst, a lookalike of Carson Daly, Kathy Griffin, lookalikes of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, and even a stuffed Bill the Cat doll can also be seen being held in possession by one of the mental patients in the hospital scenes.
Actress and comedian Kathy Griffin, who is also known for insulting celebrities in her act,^[5] appears in the video as an attending nurse in a psychiatric ward. Griffin said during a July 21, 2005, interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that Eminem selected her for the video because fellow rapper Snoop Dogg told him she was "really funny."^[6]
The video also features Eminem dressed in the same superhero costume used by Tom Green in the Lonely Swedish video chasing a boy band, taking one of its members down to the ground and putting 'his bum on the man's lips.' The costume can be seen later in the "Without Me" music video following the release of The Eminem Show.
There are also more scenes showing one or more of the following (when the lyrics roll along with the video):

• 2 young boys watching the Discovery Channel on television with two rhinoceroses mating, then looking at each other in awe. (Of course, they're gonna know what intercourse is by the time they hit fourth grade/They got the Discovery Channel, don't they?)
• Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee chasing each other around a couch and Anderson screaming in front of the camera. (...I smell cinnamon rolls!)
• An obese man in underwear being enslaved by a dominatrix with a paddle. (Yeah, I probably got a couple of screws up in my head loose, but no worse than what's goin' on in your parents' bedrooms.)
• A gay marriage is shown and Eminem breaks up the two men about to kiss each other (as a rejection to homosexuality) and showing disgust. (But if we can hump dead animals and antelopes/then there's no reason that a man and another man can't elope)
• Eminem performing in a private room with all his clones produced from the factory with their heads bobbing to the music. (the chorus: 'Cause I'm Slim Shady, yes, I'm the real Shady/all you other Slim Shadys are just imitating/So won't the real Slim Shady please stand up?/Please stand up?/Please stand up?)
• Eminem at the Grammy Awards dressing as Britney Spears, along with Fred Durst and Carson Daly pulling a blow-up doll of Christina Aguilera between their seats towards each other angrily until it flies out of the chair. (Christina Aguilera better switch me chairs so I can sit next to Carson Daly and Fred Durst, an' hear 'em argue over who she gave head to first.)
• A clip from a cartoon of a frog tap-dancing on a turtle (from the 'Flip the Frog' film, Fiddlesticks) can be seen on a TV in the hospital and the viewer laughs at it.
• Eminem working in a fictional fast-food restaurant with an 'Ask Me' patch giving an obese woman her order and rejecting it because of the onion rings being forgotten, however he gets the onion rings and he spits in them, and gives the onion rings to the woman to complete her order, which she begins eating as she walks away. The same scene also shows Eminem driving recklessly around in circles in a parking lot in a blue AMC Pacer. (He could be workin at Burger King, spitting on your onion rings/or in the parking lot, circling, screaming: "I don't give a fuck!"/With his windows down and his system up)

In the explicit version of the music video, the fat man in underwear wears a ball gag; in the censored version, he does not. The edited version also does not show Eminem putting his middle fingers up, instead pointing to the camera.

Apollo 11 engines located off Florida

This NASA file photo shows the first stage of the mighty Saturn V rocket used to launch the historic Apollo 11 moon landing mission in 1969 as the booster was being built. The five huge F-1 rocket engines were discarded into the Atlantic Ocean after the July 16, 1969 launch. Credit: NASA View full size image

When NASA's mighty Saturn V rocket launched the historic Apollo 11 mission to land the first men on the moon in 1969, the five powerful engines that powered the booster's first stage dropped into the Atlantic Ocean and were lost forever.
Lost, that is, until now.
A private expedition financed by Amazon.com founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos has discovered the five F-1 rocket engines used to launch Apollo 11 into space on July 16, 1969 and is drawing up plans to retrieve one or more so they can be publicly displayed.
- See more at: http://www.space.com/15075-apollo-11-moon-rocket-engines-discovered.html#sthash.QnqecjjH.dpuf

This NASA file photo shows the first stage of the mighty Saturn V rocket used to launch the historic Apollo 11 moon landing mission in 1969 as the booster was being built. The five huge F-1 rocket engines were discarded into the Atlantic Ocean after the July 16, 1969 launch. Credit: NASA View full size image

When NASA's mighty Saturn V rocket launched the historic Apollo 11 mission to land the first men on the moon in 1969, the five powerful engines that powered the booster's first stage dropped into the Atlantic Ocean and were lost forever.
Lost, that is, until now.
A private expedition financed by Amazon.com founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos has discovered the five F-1 rocket engines used to launch Apollo 11 into space on July 16, 1969 and is drawing up plans to retrieve one or more so they can be publicly displayed.
- See more at: http://www.space.com/15075-apollo-11-moon-rocket-engines-discovered.html#sthash.QnqecjjH.dpuf

Sorry for the lack of Postings, I am working a lot of overtime$$$ and pushing airplanes out is more important than blogging.   I like blogging, but fixing airplanes is what pays the bills and my kid likes to eat and wear clothing.  I am expecting overtime to last until labor day when the summer push slows down.  All the airlines have as many planes in the air as possible to handle the summer demand, we in the maintenance field just enjoy the overtime and the long hours until it slows down.   

   I being a space nut saw this in the news a couple of days ago and was very excited.  I consider the Apollo program the Zenith of the American space program.   I do like the shuttles but the Apollo program put us on another planet.  I vaguely remember the Apollo program( what can I say...I was young)  I did have an Apollo/Saturn plastic model that was my favorite toy.  I liked being able to take it apart and pretend that I traveled to another planet.  Apollo was back when we as a nation could believe that we could do anything that we set our mind to.  After Apollo we were supposed to start planning trips to mars and even further out.  Unfortunately Space program took a backseat to the "Guns vs butter" debate.  Many people criticized the cost saying that we could feed the world for what it cost for us to do "space".  They forgot the point of Space travel, to feed and nurture the spirit and the mind and the quest of knowledge.  Instead we ushered in the malaise of the 70's when big brother 1.0 started with the government interference in industry, regulations and other intrusions and the socialist started the inroads into our education systems.  I hope to one day see us in space again...in American Spaceships....not Russian or Chinese for that matter.

A conservator has confirmed that one of the F-1 rocket engines that Amazon magnate Jeff Bezos's salvage team recovered from the ocean floor is in fact from Apollo 11, the first manned mission to the Moon.

Beneath all the muck, the serial number reveals the rocket's historic heritage

Bezos – who is funding the salvage effort privately – announced in March that his crew had pulled up enough turbines, heat exchangers, fuel manifolds, and other rocket parts to build two complete engines, five of which powered each Saturn V rocket used in the Apollo program.
Confirming just which Apollo mission the parts had come from, however, was another matter. Having spent the last 44 years some 14,000 feet under the sea, the wreckage was understandably somewhat worse for wear, and heavy corrosion of the metal made looking for serial numbers or other identifying marks a difficult task.
But on Friday, Bezos blogged that one of the conservators at the Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Center in Hutchinson, Kansas had made a breakthrough. By scanning one of the recovered thrust chambers with an ultraviolet light and a special lens filter, the researcher was able to make out the number "2044" stenciled in black paint on the side of the object.
Encouraged, the conservator set about removing corrosion from the base of the thrust chamber and was eventually able to uncover the same number stamped into the metal itself. That information was all the team needed to confirm the object's source.

Black light to reveal black paint: the fateful serial number uncovered

According to Bezos, 2044 is the Rocketdyne serial number that corresponds to the NASA serial number for F-1 Engine #5 from the very Saturn V rocket that hurled Apollo 11 into space on July 16, 1969.
"44 years ago tomorrow Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, and now we have recovered a critical technological marvel that made it all possible," Bezos wrote.
Of course, lots more work needs to be done to restore the engines to a condition where they can be viewed by the public, and their ultimate fate remains unknown. The wreckage is still technically the property of NASA, so the space agency gets the final say on what to do with the restored engines.
Bezos says he expects NASA will want one to be put on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. Since his team was able to recover two engines, however, he says he has asked if the second one can be displayed at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, near Amazon's headquarters. ®

The crew of Apollo 11:     Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.

 Showing the Saturn flying through a condensation ring.....Very nice Pic