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Trump just met with a classic-rock legend and a missile-defense expert — and it was the same guy
Business Insider ^ | October 10, 2018 | Christopher Woody

Posted on 10/15/2018 11:09:11 AM PDT by billorites

Jeff "Skunk" Baxter has earned eight platinum records in a music career that started in the 1960s, and he has received numerous security clearances and contracting jobs since the 1980s as a self-taught expert on missile-defense and counterterrorism.

Baxter was one of many luminaries at the White House on Thursday to watch President Donald Trump sign the Music Modernization Act, which reforms copyright laws.

Unlike every other musician in the room, including Kid Rock, Baxter has built a successful second career as a defense consultant.

Baxter dropped out of college in Boston in 1969 to join a short-lived psychedelic-rock band. After that, he moved to California and become one of the original six members of Steely Dan, which he left in 1974 to join the Doobie Brothers, which he left in 1979.

Baxter has said he "fell into his second profession almost by accident."

While living in California in the 1970s, Baxter helped a neighbor dig out their house after a mudslide.

"Afterward, he invited me into his study and I saw all these pictures of airplanes and missiles on the wall — it turned out he was one of the guys who had invented the Sidewinder missile," Baxter said in a 2013 interview. "As a gift for helping him clean out his house he gave me a subscription to Aviation Week and to Jane's Defense. It was amazing."

Baxter found the technical aspects of music and of defense, particularly missile defense, coincided.

"Technology is really neutral. It's just a question of application," he told MTV in 2001. "For instance, if TRW came up with a new data compression algorithms for their spy satellites, I could use that same information and apply it for a musical instrument or a hard disc recording unit. So it was just a natural progression."

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: doobiebrothers; jeffskunkbaxter; steelydan
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To: R_Kangel

.... OOps ... Sorry ... Wrong post ....


41 posted on 10/15/2018 12:08:37 PM PDT by R_Kangel ("A nation of sheep will beget a nation ruled by wolves")
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To: RinaseaofDs

Huey Lewis scored an 800 on his Math SAT’s.


42 posted on 10/15/2018 12:12:57 PM PDT by Fair Paul
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To: RatRipper

Mike Nesmeth’s invented Liquid Paper?


43 posted on 10/15/2018 12:15:47 PM PDT by PghBaldy (12/14 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15 - 1030am - Obama's advance team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: billorites

“Baxter found the technical aspects of music and of defense, particularly missile defense, coincided.”
- ain`t nuthin` new

= Music of the Spheres


44 posted on 10/15/2018 12:15:56 PM PDT by bunkerhill7 (h)
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To: biggerten

Also to those that followed: Several sources confirmed White-out and that it was Michael Nesmith’s mother . . . at least I had the Monkee connection right in the deep recesses of my aging brain . . . I’m not a total loss . . . yet. Thanks to all.


45 posted on 10/15/2018 12:20:04 PM PDT by RatRipper (The Democrat Party is the party of liars, swindlers, cheats and unbridled immorality.)
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To: billorites

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_9814796

Took me a minute to find this piece I read on the relationship between musicians and mathematics. Interesting.


46 posted on 10/15/2018 12:29:36 PM PDT by SE Mom (Screaming Eagle mom)
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To: billorites

Cool!


47 posted on 10/15/2018 12:39:40 PM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: billorites

One of the guys who I work with was a famous musician and he too is a genius of unimaginable intellect.

He sleeps for about an hour a night, and is working the rest of the time. One of the most brilliant men I’ve met.


48 posted on 10/15/2018 1:04:55 PM PDT by Celerity
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To: billorites

“Rikki don’t lose that launch code.”


49 posted on 10/15/2018 1:13:53 PM PDT by CrazyIvan (A gentleman arms himself for the protection of others.)
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To: RinaseaofDs
Tom Stoltz of Boston has a Bachelors and Master from MIT in Mechanical Engineering.

And if I'm not mistaken, he also holds a Patent for a part, process or assembly on the Polaroid Instant Developing Camera, from the mid 1970's

50 posted on 10/15/2018 1:40:03 PM PDT by fedupjohn (Future Follows Past ...You have more then you know...Q)
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To: RinaseaofDs

Chief said we needed 6’ of the toughest “hook and loop” I could find. Mil-spec velcro sticks GOOD! Once! Then you have to destroy it to get it apart. It even had the 3M mystery adhesive on the other side. WHAT A MESS !!!


51 posted on 10/15/2018 1:54:20 PM PDT by Delta 21 (.....been here this long you actually expect me to read the article....)
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To: Delta 21

Oh yeah. With the military grade stuff, whatever you mounted was mounted. You could knock it off with a baseball bat, but that was it.


52 posted on 10/15/2018 1:56:05 PM PDT by RinaseaofDs
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To: fedupjohn
...Polaroid Instant Developing Camera...

Bet he's pulling in the hectobucks on that one right now.

53 posted on 10/15/2018 2:19:22 PM PDT by Rinnwald
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To: RatRipper

The other dud’s mother, liquid paper correction fluid.


54 posted on 10/15/2018 2:25:02 PM PDT by Fungi
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To: bankwalker

Frank Zappa became a dental floss tycoon ...
_________________________________________________

Made my day... All the other wranglers will think I’m mighty grand...


55 posted on 10/15/2018 2:29:01 PM PDT by Hogblog
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To: bankwalker

Only after he moved to Montana.......


56 posted on 10/15/2018 2:49:58 PM PDT by 230FMJ (...from my cold,them to be. dead, fingers.)
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To: billorites

Almost up there with Hedy Lamar!


57 posted on 10/15/2018 3:52:00 PM PDT by YogicCowboy ("I am not entirely on anyone's side, because no one is entirely on mine." - J. R. R. Tolkien)
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To: dfwgator

Yep. He taught me to love hearing pedal steel.


58 posted on 10/15/2018 3:52:47 PM PDT by YogicCowboy ("I am not entirely on anyone's side, because no one is entirely on mine." - J. R. R. Tolkien)
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To: billorites

Not a Rocket Scientist, well, depending on how you define the term, but Eddie Van Halen exercised unbelievable intelligence in his management of both guitars and amps.


59 posted on 10/15/2018 4:10:57 PM PDT by nicollo (I said no!)
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To: bubbacluck

Good one.

I have been in the small studio office in Campbell where the Doobie Brothers’ Gold Records from Baxter’s era hang.

My father was not officially part of the Skunk Works, but his immediate boss was, and worked with Kelly Johnson. For that reason, my father happened to be at the first flight (short hop) of the XF-104 on February 28th, 1954, at Burbank (then a Lockheed strip, as I recall). The official maiden flight was March 4th.

This is one tbe few stories he ever told me, since he mostly did classified work:

He and another junior engineer were there testing a related scale model craft testing the T-Tail because of stability problems. The 104 prototype was running up the J-65 nearby. An “air jockey” (my father’s term) sidled up alongside, stared at the new jet, turned to my dad, and asked, “Where’s the rest of the wing?” My father said, “I’m sorry, that’s all there is”; whereupon tbe 104 took off on its first short flight.

My father had his own 15 Minutes later - Today Show, front page - for a solo project, not connected to the Skunk Works.


60 posted on 10/15/2018 4:15:10 PM PDT by YogicCowboy ("I am not entirely on anyone's side, because no one is entirely on mine." - J. R. R. Tolkien)
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