284 replies to this topic

[thecasinoroyale]

The same story, 2 different papers in the UK and BOTH with Bond-style headlines:


A licence to deal: James Bond-style sliding bookcase leads police to hidden cannabis farm and haul of deadly shotguns - The Mail Online

http://www.dailymail...e-bookcase.html



200K Cannabis farm "Like something from a James Bond film" - The Mirror

http://www.mirror.co...15875-23728008/



Looks like Mr Big IS starting to get his wish steadily...!

[Guy Haines]

Anyone out there spotted this item on the BBC news website?


http://www.bbc.co.uk...kshire-16857952


It has strange similarities with an episode in Jeffrey Deaver's Carte Blanche novel.

[thecasinoroyale]

UK "Reality TV"..."star"...Mark Wright from 'The Only Way Is Essex' has taken a recent official 'Skyfall' image as inspiration in a new photo shoot and admits he wants to be the next James Bond.

http://www.dailymail...ticle-2096994/Mark-Wright-admits-make-great-James-Bond-love-tackle-role-future.html


Could he pull of 007 one day?

[Jim]

UK "Reality TV"..."star"...Mark Wright from 'The Only Way Is Essex' has taken a recent official 'Skyfall' image as inspiration in a new photo shoot and admits he wants to be the next James Bond.

http://www.dailymail...ticle-2096994/Mark-Wright-admits-make-great-James-Bond-love-tackle-role-future.html


Could he pull of 007 one day?

Fnarr.

[Captain Tightpants]

Details of "armageddon" virus will remain secret for now while the WHO assesses the risks:

http://www.smh.com.a...0220-1thwy.html

[Guy Haines]

I've watched an interesting episode on the "Yesterday" channel of the documentary series "Secrets Of War". This one concerned the Cold War from 1945 to 1962 - it ended with an account of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

But what really caught my attention was an account by Soviet scientists involved of a plan to create a "doomsday weapon" - a nuclear device so powerful it would have destroyed all life on Earth. The Russians planned to build a gigantic nuclear bomb, store it inside a ship about the size of a supertanker, and have it sail around the Russian part of the Arctic Ocean. In the event of a "change in radioactivity levels" (by which I assumed they meant nuclear missiles or bombers from the West) it would have been activated, and, well, you can guess the rest.

Fortunately the Soviet leader at the time, Nikita Khruschev, was persuaded not to go ahead with this project. One can only imagine what might have happened otherwise, given the knife edge the world found itself upon in October 1962.

[Captain Tightpants]

Fortunately the Soviet leader at the time, Nikita Khruschev, was persuaded not to go ahead with this project. One can only imagine what might have happened otherwise, given the knife edge the world found itself upon in October 1962.

The Soviets might not have built a super-nuke, but that didn't stop them from using the logic behind it in their nuclear strategy. It was called "Hand from Coffin", or, more accurately, "Dead Hand".

American systems have a fail-safe, a system in place to ensure that warheads cannot be launched without the person launching them being absolutely sure. The Soviets, on the other hand, had a fail-deadly, a system in place to ensure that warheads would be launched. In the event of a decaptiationary strike - the launch of a nuclear missile to take out the Soviet high command, the fail-deadly would activate and every Soviet missile that was targeted at something would be fired at once. It may be controlled by UVB-76 a numbers station at Povarovo, forty kilometres north-west of Moscow, but nobody knows for certain. It may also have a connection to Mount Yamantau, believed to be the Russian equivalent of Cheyenne Mountain. The Americans have apparently asked Moscow a dozen times as to what the purpose of Mount Yamantau is, and the Russians have supposedly given a dozen different answers. Yamantau is believed to have a twin at Kosvinsky Kramen, which is very close to the town of Ivdel - the starting point for the ill-fated Dyatlov expedition in 1959.

[Captain Tightpants]

Mystery plot to assassinate Vladimir Putin on the eve of Russian presidential elections:

http://www.theaustra...o-1226283675796

[Captain Tightpants]

Wikileaks has released e-mails claiming Osama bin Laden's body may not have been dumped at sea, but instead flown to the USA for cremation.

It could make for an interesting story - the body of one of MI6's most-wanted goes missing, and Bond has to work out an entire conspiracy behind it.

And I found this one, too: the most wanted hacker in the world ... was working with the FBI when he was arrested.

[Guy Haines]

Tonight on RT TV's "Keiser Report" - a half hour financial programme I very much enjoy watching - a German financial commentator mentioned, amongst other things, the "put" options on airline stock placed around 9/11 which made someone with access to inside information some money come 9/12. Shades of Casino Royale? it gets worse - I had no idea until tonight about similar "puts" made in January 1986 on aerospace technology companies, particularly Morton Thiokol, which made someone some money straight after the "Challenger" space shuttle accident.

[Binyamin]

The "put" options on airline stock placed around 9/11 which made someone with access to inside information some money come 9/12. Shades of Casino Royale?

Uhhh.... Casino Royale was five years after 9/11, and M specifically mentions this Sept. 11 fact in the movie dialog, in the Bahamas:

"When they analyzed the stock market after 9/11, the CIA discovered a massive shorting of airline stocks. When the stocks hit bottom on 9/12, somebody made a fortune. The same thing happened this morning with Skyfleet stock... Or was supposed to..."

Edited by Binyamin, 25 March 2012 - 02:52 AM.

[Guy Haines]

The "put" options on airline stock placed around 9/11 which made someone with access to inside information some money come 9/12. Shades of Casino Royale?

Uhhh.... Casino Royale was five years after 9/11, and M specifically mentions this Sept. 11 fact in the movie dialog, in the Bahamas:

"When they analyzed the stock market after 9/11, the CIA discovered a massive shorting of airline stocks. When the stocks hit bottom on 9/12, somebody made a fortune. The same thing happened this morning with Skyfleet stock... Or was supposed to..."

Obviously I am aware of that quote and the timeline - I could have quoted it back myself ;-) What I meant was that it confirmed, from a source other than the CR script, that something dodgy was happening with airline stocks around 9/11-9/12. To say nothing of the claim in the Keiser programme that something similar happened around late January 1986 with the Challenger accident (Which, if you think about it would have been even more likely to have happened - terrorists don't advertise their plans and it's down to intelligence services to pick up information about them, whereas anyone looking at the weather conditions at Cape Canaveral at that time, and thinking through what might happen if the shuttle launched in them, could use this to financial advantage. Sick, but there you are.)

It is, of course, not the first occasion in Bond that a villain has used inside information of an impending disaster to make a fortune - remember that bit in the book "Moonraker" when M informs Bond that the sterling was being massively sold off, and it was happening through Drax Metals Ltd?

[Binyamin]

Ah. I thought the 9/11 stock tinkering was fairly common knowledge even before Casino Royale, but I could be mistaken.

[Guy Haines]

Ah. I thought the 9/11 stock tinkering was fairly common knowledge even before Casino Royale, but I could be mistaken.

That line from CR sounded convincing, and I'd be surprised if some "in the know" people didn't take advantage of 9/11, but the programme I watched last night clinched it for me. On the other hand, the claim that a similar "put" was around in 1986 pre "Challanger" accident was a bit of a shocker, but perhaps shouldn't have been.

[Binyamin]

It was Hugo Drax.

[Guy Haines]

It was Hugo Drax.

From one step beyond a giant leap for mankind, presumably?

[thecasinoroyale]

From BBC News...

Licence To Kill? What are spies really like?


Most people have watched a spy film, but few have ever met someone from the intelligence community. So how close are real spies to the Bournes and the Bonds? Peter Taylor looks at the world of the modern day secret agent. From James Bond to Spooks, from Jason Bourne to Tinker Tailor, spying is big box office business. Its vocabulary has become familiar to us all, from "stings" and "moles" to "dead letter drops" and "honey traps".

The fact is that the image of such operations as depicted on the big and small screens - and in airport blockbusters too - is firmly rooted in reality. The "tradecraft" is common to both the fictional and real world of spying. But those who actually carry out these covert and potentially dangerous operations could not be further removed from their imaginary counterparts, as I found out when I interviewed serving officers from MI5 (the domestic Security Service) and MI6 (the overseas Secret Intelligence Service).

Recruiting and running agents is the most dangerous and demanding part of being a modern spy. That's what Michael does for MI6. He works in al-Qaeda's heartlands - the precise locations of which are confidential for security reasons.

"Our ability to get inside these terrorist networks is critical to give us advance warning of the threats that we face", he says.

So how does he go about it?

"We'll start with a targeting process. Our objective is to get as close to the top as we can. We'll look to map out what we can about that terrorist network, understand who the key figures are, the connections between them to try and get a real sense of who the individuals are in this particular network.

"Could we get alongside them? Are they accessible? Would they have access to information that would be useful to the government? Do we think that they might be motivated to work with SIS (MI6) as a covert source?"



And how does Michael go about the actual process of recruiting?

"It's the job of our officers to think: 'Under what guise could I approach this individual? What's the best means of developing a relationship with them?'. Each approach will be tailored to the particular agent, or prospective agent and over time persuade them to work with SIS."

Motivations might include disillusionment with al-Qaeda's violent ideology, a desire to live in the UK, or money. He admits the initial approach made to a potential agent is a heart-in-mouth moment.

"When you're in some dusty outpost in semi-governed space, about to meet for the first time a contact within a terrorist organisation you've brokered, that is nerve wracking. There are risks involved in everything we do. I don't think we'd get very far if we were risk averse. We have to do what we can to mitigate them."

There is a myth that to be a modern spy you have to come from the dreaming spires of Oxbridge. But it is patently untrue. Shami, an MI5 surveillance officer, thought he never had a chance of being recruited. He'd never been to university.

"My understanding was that you had to be upper class, academically bright and white male generally. I just felt I had nothing to offer."

Nevertheless he applied online via the MI5 website and to his amazement, after rigorous assessment, was offered a job. After his final interview, his recruiters shook his hand and said "congratulations".

Although Shami hadn't recognised it, he was exactly the kind of person MI5 was looking for to carry out the surveillance that is invariably the starting point for investigating any suspected terrorist cell. Shami is streetwise, smart and can easily blend in to any community. Surveillance, both human and technical, was the bedrock of the covert operations that led to the conviction of the Islamist cells that were planning to make fertiliser bombs to attack London and the South East of England, and liquid explosives to bring down aircraft over the Atlantic.



Anonymity is the key to the way in which Shami operates. "You're constantly analysing your own behaviour as well as the behaviour of others. The clothes you're wearing, how you're walking and how you're talking, are all factors that you constantly have to be thinking about.

"You've got to blend in. You have to be 'Mr Grey' - a nobody, a person you might pass on the street but you'd forget in a second."

He admits he gets a "buzz" from it and says his greatest fear is "missing a vital bit of information that will go on to cause loss of life". His greatest satisfaction is "the arrest of the individuals we're up against".

Emma is an intelligence officer who works at MI5's headquarters with people like Shami who are out on the ground. Like Shami, her preconception of MI5 was wide of the mark.

"I thought it would be largely male, and women would usually be a PA or Miss Moneypenny from James Bond."

She works on an al-Qaeda-related investigations team and her job is to analyse intelligence coming in from a variety of different technical and human sources - and from partner agencies.




"It's really like piecing together a jigsaw."

Like Shami, the London bombings of 7 July 2005 were a powerful motivating factor in Emma's wish to join MI5. "For me, 7/7 was a wake up call about how serious the Islamist extremist problem actually was."

Emma's mother was worried when her daughter told her the news that she was going to join MI5.

"She was rather horrified. She'd watched Spooks and her initial reaction was, 'Oh my goodness, you're going to end up with your head in a fat fryer!'" - a reaction to an early episode in which a young woman MI5 officer is tortured and has her head thrust into a pan of boiling fat.

Emma knows that a vital piece in putting the "jigsaw" together comes from human sources or agents recruited from within suspected terrorist organisations - a standard plot line of Hollywood movies.

"They're often one of the ways in which we can ask the most intelligent and nuanced questions."

But recruiting and running agents can pose potentially life-threatening questions, in case the source being handled turns out to be a double agent. Channel 4's current Homeland series is based on that intriguing question. In reality too, such possibilities are always there and every precaution is taken to check out that the agent is genuine and not a plant.

Michael sees 007 as pure fantasy.

"The key elements of the James Bond myth is that we're some kind of paramilitary organisation - that's not the case."

And the idea of having a licence to kill?

"No we don't!"

Anna, his MI6 colleague in London confirms this.

"If James Bond actually worked in MI6 today, he'd spent a large amount of time behind a desk doing paperwork and making sure everything was properly cleared and authorised.

"He certainly wouldn't be the lone wolf of the films."


http://www.bbc.co.uk...gazine-17560253

[S K Y F A L L]

Great read.
One of my favorite films is "Sparta" from 2004 starting Val Kilmer as a Force Recon Master Gunnery Sergeant. Kilmer says on the audio commentary they had a Sergeant on set and that they don't have names. Clearly to protect their identity however they also don't share there names with others in the service. Perhaps encase anything were to happen, know one could trace it back to the agency.
I'm just saying, I love that film.

[thecasinoroyale]

Nice! I've yet to watch that film.


Hmm...maybe James Bond is a code name after all....?? Ooh the theories we could divulge!

[thecasinoroyale]

One here from UK's Daily Mail.


Inside North Korea’s missile bunker: The nerve centre straight out of 1970s Bond film that will launch long-range rocket as world holds its breath for launch 'within 48 hours'


An extensive read...so here's the link. Very 'Moonraker'-ish!

http://www.dailymail...ge-missile.html

[Guy Haines]

One here from UK's Daily Mail.


Inside North Korea’s missile bunker: The nerve centre straight out of 1970s Bond film that will launch long-range rocket as world holds its breath for launch 'within 48 hours'


An extensive read...so here's the link. Very 'Moonraker'-ish!

http://www.dailymail...ge-missile.html

Have I Got News For You. The rocket has been launched! No word yet as to whether Hugo Drax or Gustav Graves were involved.

http://uk.news.yahoo...-020157679.html

[glidrose]

UK "Reality TV"..."star"...Mark Wright from 'The Only Way Is Essex' has taken a recent official 'Skyfall' image as inspiration in a new photo shoot and admits he wants to be the next James Bond.

http://www.dailymail...ticle-2096994/Mark-Wright-admits-make-great-James-Bond-love-tackle-role-future.html


Could he pull of 007 one day?

Fnarr.

Bond only fancies the ladies, so no chance of that.

Double fnarr.

[Guy Haines]

News update from North Korea - the rocket failed. Reports that a dark haired British citizen with a vaguely transatlantic accent and an American woman nicknamed "Jinx" were somehow responsible for this have been dismissed by the UK & US governments as wild, baseless rumours, although a spokesman did remind the world's media that today is Friday the 13th! ;-)

[Aris007]

http://www.bbc.co.uk...-asia-17698438#

And here is how Bond would have reacted.

http://www.youtube.c...pODgtnboK8#t=5s

[S K Y F A L L]

I love how Bond is Al Bundy. Perhaps it went down do to radio jamming.

[Aris007]

I love how Bond is Al Bundy. Perhaps it went down do to radio jamming.

Can you imagine the news over there?

"Outer space has now been conquered by the mighty North Korea!"

[S K Y F A L L]

I love how Bond is Al Bundy. Perhaps it went down do to radio jamming.

Can you imagine the news over there? "Outer space has now been conquered by the mighty North Korea!"

They wont stop until they conquer the moon, it will be like Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

[thecasinoroyale]

Today, from The Dail Mail, I hear the whispers of the Carver Media Group in this one...

For sale, ship that inspired 007 film:

The £115million US navy stealth vessel that could be yours for just £60,000 (but you won't be allowed to sail off on any undercover missions as its being sold for scrap)


It was the world’s first stealth boat, a top secret experimental vessel built for the US Navy in the 1980s at a cost of $190million.
Now the Sea Shadow, which was the inspiration for the villain’s boat in the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, could be yours for a fraction of that price after being put up for sale on an eBay-style website.

But don’t expect to sail off on any undercover missions – the 563-ton vessel is being sold for scrap.


Cloak: The Sea Shadow's angular shape makes it invisible to radar



Budget: It was built at a cost of $190,000 but is available online for a fraction of the cost

Bidding for the Sea Shadow from salvage dealers had reached $100,420 (£61,000) yesterday, and the auction closes this coming Thursday.
Production on the vessel was completed in 1985, but the public weren’t aware of its existence until 1993.

Measuring 164ft by 70ft and capable of cruising at a maximum of 14 knots, it was developed for the US Navy by an agency of the US Defense Department and Lockheed Martin.
But the Navy never commissioned the ship and it was later used to evaluate new technologies in a realistic at-sea environment before languishing in dry dock in California.
The authorities hoped to find a museum to house it, but it is now for sale on the GSA Auctions website for military products.



Cut price: Bidding on the eBay-style website has stalled at £61,000

Anyone who wants to join the sale must also lay down a hefty £6,000 deposit. Production on the groundbreaking vessel began in 1982 and was completed three years later - but the general public weren't aware of its existence until 1993. It was taken out of service in September 2006.

Weight: 563 tons
Length: 164 feet (50 metres)
Width: 68 feet (21 metres)
Hull: 15 feet (4.6 metres)

The groundbreaking boat measures 164ft by 70ft, weighs 563 tons and was capable of cruising the seas at a maximum of 14 knots.
It was which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Navy and Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space Company.

Sea Shadow has a Swath Water Plane Area Twin Hull (SWATH) design, where the vessel's angled sides extend below the waterline to torpedo-shaped hulls which gave it exceptional stability in bad weather. Once veiled in secrecy, the vessel later came into the open and was used as a tool for testing and evaluating new technologies in a realistic at-sea environment.

However, for the last few years it has been holed up in a dry dock in California with authorities hoping to find a museum which could rehome it. After exhausting all channels it is now resigned for the scrapheap and is offered for sale on the GS Auctions website - an eBay-style website for military products. The auction closes on May 4.




On screen: Jonathan Pryce's character Elliot Carver had his own 'stealth boat' in 1997 Bond Movie Tomorrow Never Dies





Read more: http://www.dailymail...l#ixzz1tVoJu13L

[thecasinoroyale]

From the UK's Daily Mail...

Come into my lair: Inside the space-age California home where Bond took a beating from the girls in Diamonds are Forever

In the campest of James Bond fight scenes, violence has never looked so good. Sean Connery's super spy sneaks into a sprawling circular lair only to find himself distracted by sultry bodyguards Bambi and Thumper, brilliantly overplayed by Lola Larson and Trina Parks. A few double entendres, later the pair duly dish out an acrobatic kicking - but for all 007's quips and the Bond girls' frankly unnecessary gymnastics, it is the setting that really steals the show.


Look familiar? Elrod House was used as the impressive lair for Willard Whyte, the villain in Diamonds Are Forever

In shooting Diamonds Are Forever - centred around a deranged villain hoarding diamonds to build a giant space laser - producer Albert R Broccoli and his team needed an equally outlandish location. What better than the space-age chic of Elrod House, perched on a hillside over the desert city of Palm Springs, California?

Built in 1968, today the house is held as a seminal piece of Cold War-era architecture. The five-bedroom home was originally the residence of interior designer Arthur Elrod and, boasting almost 9,000sq ft of living space, it was recently valued at $13.9million (£8.57million). More than 40 years after the film that made it famous, many of the features immortalised on screen - not to mention in a number of Playboy shoots - have been faithfully preserved.


Panoramic views: Two 25ft glass walls retract to reveal the nearby desert city of Palm Springs, California


Femmes Fatale: Lola Larson and Trina Parks close in on Sean Connery in a scene from 1971's Diamonds Are Forever, shot in the enormous living room of Elrod House



Adventurous design: When builders unearthed these huge boulders on the site, architect John Lautner simply incorporated them into this unique home

At the heart of John Lautner's design is a sunburst-shaped concrete canopy, suspended over the 60ft-wide living room in which Sir Sean's Bond takes a beating. The desert sun pours in through wedge-shaped skylights cut into the domed ceiling, which was intended to protect the house from the punishing heat. For fans of the series, this striking central feature will bring back memories of Bond looking only mildly displeased as Bambi dangles from the ceiling, choking him between her bare thighs.

Beneath the canopy, 50ft of curved glass curtain walls slides away at the touch of a button to reveal the Californian landscape - not to mention the curved swimming pool and outdoor dining area with stunning mountain views.


Valley vista: Elrod House is perched among the mountains overlooking the desert city of Palm Springs


Sprawling: Viewed from the terrace, the 60ft-wide living room was able to accommodate the high kicks and backflips of an acrobatic fight scene





Luxurious: The original owner spared no expense in furnishing his home in a style worthy of its unusual design


Cutting edge: Many modern architects consider the famous Elrod House to be a prime example of space-age design

Instead the designer told his men to dig deeper still, working the rocks into his blueprints, bringing the outdoors inside and adding yet another of the distinctive plus points that would one day draw in Broccoli's location scouts.

The 1971 scene opens with a bikini-clad Thumper sprawled across one of these boulders as 007 creeps in, before she slinks to the floor, purrs at the spy - and promptly knees him in the groin. In the high-kicking action that follows, the duo certainly make the most of the Elrod House's generous dimensions. Bambi backflips across the cream rug - goat hair, naturally - while Thumper cartwheels around the angular furniture, giving viewers a chance to take in what would have been considered the cutting edge of late-60s interiors.

As the fight nears its climax and a woozy Bond grapples with his attackers, Bambi and Thumper exchange a devilish glance and launch him out of the retractable windows.

Not to call Sir Sean's stage-fighting into question, Bond seems to do little to resist being hurled into Lautner's D-shaped pool. But with such a spectacular spot for a dunk, who could blame him?


Height of fashion: This was once the home of respected interior designer Arthur Elrod


Outlandish: John Lautner's boulder, left, was meant to create a contrast of outdoors and indoors within the 9,000sq ft property

http://i.dailymail.c...206_634x389.jpg
Al fresco: The outdoor dining area on the terrace that once provided backdrops for Playboy photo shoots

[Chief of SIS]

I didn't know where else to put this but it wasn't worthy of a new topic:


Bond and bullets



http://gizmodo.com/5...ictional-career


...And that's films only