284 replies to this topic

[thecasinoroyale]

<sub>Watch out, Mr Bond: Russian billionaire's £300m yacht 'lair' that comes with a mini version of itself

His first journey on it was to take delivery of three Claude Monet paintings from Norway.
Now four years on, Russian oligarch Andrey Melnichenko is still clearly enjoying the high life on his £300million superyacht after being spotted near the millionaire's playground of Monaco yesterday. The 400ft-long vessel is said to have its own discotheque featuring a glass roof which is situated directly under the swimming pool.






There is a large 'owners' suite' as well as six luxury cabins for up to 14 guests and enough room for a staggering 42 crew members.
It is also rumoured to have a helicopter hangar, as well as a 30ft speed boat kept in the hull. Mr Melnichenko, who is worth an estimated $10.8billion (£6.7bn), fuelled something of a 'space race' of the seas when he unveiled the stealth ship in 2008.


Futuristic: Mr Melnichenko's vessel has many features of a bond villain's water-bound lair



In honour of his other half: The billionaire businessman simply named the yacht 'A' after his wife Aleksandra


Mini me: The yacht comes with a similarly styled speed boat for getting to and from the shore



Living it up: The yacht has six luxury cabins for up to 14 guests and enough room for a staggering 42 crew members





The yacht is registered in Bermuda, weighs a whopping 5,900 tons and can travel at speeds of up to 27mph.



Mega-rich: Mr Melnichenko comes ashore from his yacht in Formentera, Spain (left) and with his wife Aleksandra (right) at a fundraising dinner at Hampton Court Palace in London The 40-year-old, currently 81st in the Forbes World’s billionaires list, named the spectacular yacht after his model wife Aleksandra, 35. He was a founder of worldwide MDM Bank and went on to become its president from 1997 to 2001.

The billionaire has also invested in a number of Russian industrial businesses including Siberian coal company SUEK and mineral company Eurochem. His futuristic vessel is registered in Bermuda, weighs a whopping 5,900 tons and can travel at speeds of up to 27 miles per hour.


Eclipsed: Mr Abramovich has since outdone his fellow Russian after buying this 557ft yacht for an incredible £1billion


Read more: http://www.dailymail...l#ixzz1ugEisNc4</sub>

[Guy Haines]

Just spotted this in the online Daily Telegraph

http://www.telegraph...-deterrent.html

It set me thinking, of course. In a future "Thunderball" remake, would SPECTRE have to pull off a hijack to acquire control of nuclear weapons? Or just control a private company that has been given a government contract to "look after" them? :-)

[Vauxhall]

Swedish spy agency under scrutiny over Bond party

http://uk.reuters.co...E87S0MW20120829

[Guy Haines]

Not strictly "news", but I came across this quote from a book called "The Secret History Of The American Empire" by economist and businessman John Perkins. It comes from a chapter about Bolivia, and the pressure put on its government to sell the water system of its third largest city to one company - "Water's the future gold and oil combined. We need to own as much of it as possible. That'll give us leverage, power."

Sometimes the plots from the Bond films seem very far fetched, but in QoS it was too close to reality for comfort, as I now realise. The italics above I've included. The words are almost identical to those of Dominic Greene.

[The Dove]

I see Vauxhall already beat me to posting the news about the Swedish Secret Service Bond-esque party, but here's a rather amusing video with some more details:

http://screen.yahoo....34-70e58b73187a

[Guy Haines]

Came across this in today's online edition of The Independent newspaper


http://www.independe...=internalSearch


I understand our new bleach blonde villain Raoul Silva is supposedly a "world class computer hacker". I wonder if the screenwriters considered having him hack into defuct space satellites to cause them to crash into active ones, as this article suggests could happen. Probably not. But it certainly seems like something out of a future Bond film to me. Except, of course, that something vaguely similar was planned by another blonde haired baddie in Pierce Brosnan's first film.

Art imitating life imitating art? :-)

[Dustin]

Reminds me of an idea I recently had, about how careless it is to have all these deadly drones flying around with basically nothing but Microsoft to keep people from hacking into the system and hijacking the weapon. A few days - days, not weeks - later some college kids DID hack into a drone system...

[Guy Haines]

The man who I always thought TLD's Brad Whitaker was loosely based upon has died.

http://www.independe...ng-8200980.html

I read the Peter Maas book about Edwin P. Wilson, "Manhunt" and another "The Death Merchant" after TLD had been released in 1987. He didn't collect toy soldiers or militaria, but he was based in North Africa and he did supply arms to terrorists. And at least one film reviewer for "Time" magazine told its US readers that Whitaker might remind audiences of Wilson, who was also associated with some of the people involved in the "Irangate" scandal of the 1980s.

[Guy Haines]

Spotted yesterday in "The Guardian", a piece by Carl Bernstein of "All President's Men" fame:-

 

http://www.guardian....eaus-presidency

 

TND and The Manchurian Candidate in one story? But would the plot have worked, given what was recently revealed about the General's private life?

[Guy Haines]

A sneak preview of 007's next adventure? Courtesy of Andrew Rawnsley of "The Observer"

 

http://www.guardian....christmas-spoof

[Guy Haines]

James Bond now mentioned in the UK courts - the "007 standard" of police inflitration of protest groups.

 

http://www.guardian....ce-break-hearts

[Guy Haines]

In my newsagents today, I spotted the lead story of The Sunday Times - all to do with a deterioration of relations between the UK and China, with the Chinese allegedly mounting an agressive campaign of cyber-hacking against the UK.

 

And my first thought was - "this sounds like a job for M's favourite agent....... Tiago Rodriguez! Or Raoul Silva, or...whatever"

 

Can't be done, unfortunately. Something to do with the Hong Kong handover back in 1997, a computer genius working for MI6 handed over to the Chinese - why he didn't "turn" is beyond me - and a betrayed man who was unable to attempt his revenge in anything shorter than a full blown Bond movie!

[Guy Haines]

Spotted on Sky News today:-

 

http://uk.news.yahoo...71.html#0GJRtJq

 

Sounds familiar? Has the real "Le Chiffre" been caught?

[Guy Haines]

Not often that Bond makes the UK parliamentary sketch writer's column in The Guardian, but.....

 

http://www.guardian....iam-hague-spies

[Guy Haines]

Amid all the understandable excitement on our site about Bond 24, in the real world the Russians have put up into space a "satellite catcher" - allegedly - designed to "chase down", inspect and even capture enemy spacecraft. This following the US unmanned spaceplane which was up in orbit for almost two years until recently, and it would seem that "You Only Live Twice" was some years ahead of its time in predicting spacecraft designed to intercept other spacecraft.

 

For further "information", such as it is, about this Russian craft, look up Kosmos 2499, Object 2014-28E or NORAD 39765.