Does E = mc² or mc³? The Science in Bond Films Thread

RichardTheBruce

Dudley Maurice Newitt – Chemical
engineering meets James Bond

See the complete article here:

https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/features/cewctw-dudley-maurice-newitt-chemical-engineering-meets-james-bond/

Chemical Engineers Who Changed the World | 17th November 2017
Article by Claudia Flavell-While

Claudia Flavell-While goes on the
trail of Dudley Maurice Newitt

IT is a fanciful notion indeed. On the one hand you have the world of James Bond – secret agents, daring missions, the most amazing array of gadgets ever conceived, not to mention escorting the Queen on an Olympic skydive – and on the other hand there is, well, chemical engineering. Could there be a link?

Enter Dudley Maurice Newitt. Professor of chemical engineering at Imperial College London, former president of IChemE, and, during World War II, director of scientific research at the UK’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) – the legendary ‘Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’ charged with developing devices that would give British agents an edge in a secret war. (There are several theories as to who or what inspired James Bond author Ian Fleming to create the chief gadget-maker Q, but all of them were part of the SOE.)

As director of scientific research, Newitt was responsible for all of the SOE’s physical-chemical, engineering, operational and camouflage research, and led the teams responsible for developing some of the SOE’s most infamous devices.

Born in 1894 in London as one of seven children, chemistry and engineering loomed large in Newitt’s family from the start: his father was a largely self-taught ballistics engineer, while his elder brother was a chemist specialising in explosives, among other things.

As director of scientific research,
Newitt was responsible for all of
the SOE’s physical-chemical,
engineering, operational and
camouflage research, and led the
teams responsible for developing
some of the SOE’s most infamous
devices

From Ardeer to Mesopotamia
After completing secondary school in London, Newitt in 1910 joined his brother at Nobel Explosives’ plant at Ardeer, Scotland, as assistant chemist. Determined to be a scientist but unable to pay to attend university full time, he attended evening classes at the Royal Technical College in Glasgow.

Like many, the arrival of World War I prompted him to join up, but instead of Flanders his journey took him to Mesopotamia – a region in the Middle East comprising Iraq plus parts of Syria, Turkey, and Iran. He made a name for himself in the capture of Samaria (the northern part of the West Bank in Israel), got promoted to the rank of Major and received the Military Cross. He also claimed to have caught a record 110 lb fish in the Tigris (and to have held up an advance of the expeditionary force by 45 minutes while he landed it!).

After the end of the war, Newitt returned to his study and in 1921 completed his chemistry degree at the Royal College of Science, excelling in practical chemistry.

The birth of IChemE
Writing Newitt’s memoirs, AR Ubbelohde comments: “Newitt had long been keenly taken up with the development of chemical engineering as a science in Britain. Under the leadership of professor Hinchley he was a member of the founding committee in 1922 of the British Institution of Chemical Engineers, and had done much towards the proper characterisation of its activities.”

Determined to standardise the pressure measurement of steam, Newitt became somewhat an expert in the physical-chemical measurement of substances at high pressure, which led to him being offered a readership at Imperial College in high-pressure technology. Interest in this research is credited with fuelling the rapid expansion of Imperial’s chemical engineering department. With the outbreak of World War II, this expertise proved to be in demand, and Newitt soon became involved in a project to liquefy methane for potential use as a petrol substitute.

The Baker Street Irregulars
In 1941, Newitt was quietly appointed to the SOE, nicknamed the ‘Baker Street Irregulars’ for their initial base in Baker Street. As director of scientific research, his job was to supervise the development, manufacture and supply of technologies and devices that would give British spies a crucial advantage in the war.

Newitt and his team soon moved out of Baker Street and into the rather more welcoming surroundings at The Frythe, a former hotel at Welwyn just to the north of London, where they operated as “Station IX” (since then, The Frythe has maintained its links with the chemical industry, and the site in turn housed research and associated facilities for ICI, Unilever, Smith, Kline & French and today GlaxoSmithKline).

Operating in utmost secrecy, Station IX brought together hand-picked experts from across the Armed Forces, together with a clutch of professors, other scientists and craftsmen. The details of their work were only revealed many years later, for obvious reasons, but they’ve since become the focus of much interest and fascination – indeed many of SOE’s best-known devices were at Station IX under Newitt’s lead.

Clockwise from top left: Welbike and BSA Polish paras 1943; ‘Sleeping Beauty’ underwater;
Welman trialled at Queen Mary reservoir, Staines; Welman submarine

The Welbike
The Welbike (all devices developed at Station IX were named with the Wel-prefix, because of the station’s location at Welwyn) was an extremely light folding motorbike that could be stowed in a parachute container ready for use by paratroopers being dropped off behind enemy lines. It had been developed by motorbike enthusiast Harry Lester, based on an idea by Station IX’s commanding officer, John Dolphin.

Parachute containers were not big, measuring a mere 130 cm by 38 cm by 30 cm, which placed severe restrictions on the size of the bike. To save space, the Welbike had no suspension, no lights and no front brake. Even so, it could be assembled in a mere 11 seconds, had a maximum speed of 30 mph and a range of 90 miles. Weighing in at just 32 kg, the 98 cc bike was the smallest motorbike ever to be used by the British, and over 3,600 units were issued.

After the war, Dolphin set up the Corgi Motorcycle Co to produce sturdier civilian versions of the Welbike.

The Welman
The Welman submarine was a midget submarine designed for a single person to deliver a massive explosive charge below an enemy ship. Barely over 6 m long, the 910 kg submarine could carry another Station IX project: magnetic mines, also known as limpet mines. These mines, first successfully used by Italian frogmen during World War I, use magnets to attach an explosive payload to the hull of a ship; the Welman could carry 193 kg worth of Torpex explosives.

The submarine however did not have a periscope, and the only way to see was through small armoured glass segments, resulting in poor visibility. Unlike other similar submarines, the Welman was not able to cut its way out of anti-submarine nets. This was to be the undoing of the only Welman ever to be used in action, in a 1943 raid by the Norwegian army, as the submarine was forced to surface after running into an anti-submarine net, at which point it was spotted by the Germans.

Its slightly larger cousin, the two-man Welfreighter, was not much more successful, and only became available in late 1944 – too late to have much of an impact on the war.

The Welgun and Welrod
The Welgun was a prototype submachine gun with a folding stock for easy concealment. However the gun never went beyond the prototype stage.

Its smaller cousin, the Welrod, did. Also designed at Station IX, the Welrod was a bolt-action pistol designed for those wanting to eliminate a person with utmost discretion. Dubbed the ‘Assassin’s Pistol’, the Welrod’s main attribute was its quietness – it only produced 73 dB of noise when fired. Given its intended use in covert ops the Welrod did not have any marks to identify country of origin or manufacturer, and the 2,800 units produced have reportedly seen action well beyond World War II, reaching to the Falklands War, and Operation Desert Storm in Iraq.

The Sleeping Beauty
The Sleeping Beauty – formally known as the Motorised Submersible Canoe (MSC) – was a battery-powered aluminium submersible for clandestine attacks on harboured enemy ships. The idea was for a heavy bomber to drop the craft (and the frogman who would pilot it) near the harbour. The 3.8 m long vessel could travel up to 74 km with a top speed of 4.4 knots (8 km/h) while submerged at up to 50 ft (15 m), though it would have to resurface periodically for the pilot to check his bearings. The pilot would need to breathe through a rebreather, as the canoe was not enclosed.

The Sleeping Beauty could carry nine limpet mines weighing up to 1.6 kg which could be either planted directly or the pilot could leave the craft and swim to the target.

The craft showed promise in tests but was unlucky in active operations – several were due to be part of the ill-fated Operation Rimau, a strike on Japanese ships in Singapore in 1944 that was disturbed by a patrol. The vessels had to be scuttled, and the men involved in the operation were either killed during the fight or captured and executed. Two other Sleeping Beauties are thought to have fallen into German hands. Nevertheless Sleeping Beauties were one of the early forebears of the Swimmer Delivery Vehicle used by naval special forces today.

The pencil detonator known as ‘Switch No.10 delay’

The Time Pencil
The ‘Time Pencil’ was a delayed-ignition device, about the size and shape of a pencil, that could be used to set off a detonator. It was a popular item: some 12m units were produced at Station IX over the years.

A brass or aluminium tube, it had a copper end with a glass vial containing cupric chloride (CuCl2) and a spring-loaded striker held taut by a metal wire. The timer was set by crushing the copper section and the glass vial, releasing the cupric chloride. This would in turn corrode the wire holding the spring in place which, once released, would release the striker to hit the percussion cap at the other end of the detonator tube (see above).

The detonators could be designed with a broad range of delays, ranging from ten minutes to 24 hours, though the delay was strongly affected by the ambient temperature

A cutaway drawing of an ‘exploding rat’ showing the fuse, primer and plastic explosive (P.E.)

Exploding rats and wire cutters
It is less clear whether Newitt was directly involved with some of the more esoteric gadgets produced by the SOE because many of the most Bond-esque devices were not produced at Station IX in Welwyn but at Station XV in nearby Borehamwood. Specialising in camouflage and booby traps, the most infamous ‘product’ of Station XV was the rat bomb – quite literally a dead rat stuffed with explosives. The idea was to place these rats with the coal piles on the railway system and wait for the operator to find and dispose of them by throwing them in the furnace. Unfortunately, German forces intercepted a container of ready-prepared rats, so they were never used. However the discovery quite possibly caused even more disruption, as increasingly paranoid Germans searched through thousands of coal piles looking for more rats.

Similar logic underpinned Station XV’s explosive coal, while other gadgets to emerge included itching powder made from extract of the macuna plant, fake logs, wine bottles, cigarettes (to smuggle maps, explosives or whatever else may be required), as well as gadgets to burst car tyres, cut telephone wires and many more tools of the trade of the professional agent.

Specialising in camouflage and
booby traps, the most infamous
‘product’ of Station XV was the rat
bomb – quite literally a dead rat
stuffed with explosives

Undercover
All of this work, naturally, had to be conducted in utmost secrecy. The staff working at the secret SOE stations had to be very careful not to tell anyone what they were doing, nor could they give people in the area any clues as to their covert activities. If anyone got injured during their work, they had to come up with a suitably-convincing cover story for the hospital; if they needed to obtain any raw materials or equipment they had to have a plausible excuse. For example, the vendor supplying the rats for the rat bombs was under the impression his ‘student’ customers were conducting medical experiments.

Details of the work of the SOE – and Newitt’s involvement in it – remained a closely-guarded secret until recently, with detailed accounts only emerging since 1999. Indeed Newitt’s entry in the book Presidents of the Institution of Chemical Engineers merely mentions that working for the “Inter-Services Research Bureau” – a front given to the SOE – he’d “rendered national service of a high order known only to few”; and his 1981 entry in the Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society only contains the briefest mention of his non-academic work.

Not that his contribution to academia was trivial – following his return to Imperial College in 1945 as Courtaulds chair of chemical engineering, he authored many scientific papers, particularly in the field of high-pressure engineering; he sat on numerous government committees; spent many years on IChemE’s Council, publications committee and education committee, not to forget his two years as president in 1949 and 1950.

But it is his role with the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare that stands out, not just for Newitt’s contribution in harnessing the determination and inventiveness of a nation but for contributing to the creation of a legend which, through Ian Fleming’s writing, has transcended the generations.

Originally published in September 2012

Article by Claudia Flavell-While
Director, Policy and Publications at IChemE

RichardTheBruce

'Bond’ Producer Urged to Help Monkeys
Named After Iconic Film Characters

See the complete article here:

https://www.peta.org.uk/media/news-releases/bond-producer-urged-to-help-monkeys-named-after-iconic-film-characters/

18 June 2020

Contact: Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 222; [email protected]

‘Bond’ Producer Urged to Help Monkeys Named After Iconic Film Characters

PETA Pleads on Behalf of ‘Goldfinger’ and Others Whose Brains Are Cut Up in NIH Laboratories

London – PETA is calling on James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli to condemn the US National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) “psychology experiments” on monkeys, in which animals named after Goldfinger, Oddjob, Jaws, Le Chiffre, and other Bond villains are mutilated, tormented, and killed.

In its letter to Broccoli, PETA explains that experimenters – purportedly studying human psychiatric disorders – [graphic content]

saw open the skulls of these monkeys, suck out bits of their brains or inject toxins into them, and place them alone inside a small metal cage and deliberately frighten them with rubber snakes and spiders. Eventually, they’re killed.

These experiments have received more than US$36 million in taxpayer funding over the past 13 years alone, even though they’ve never led to the development of a single treatment for humans.

“We doubt that Barbara Broccoli would want James Bond implicated in NIH’s monkey-torment tests,” says PETA US Senior Vice President Lisa Lange. “NIH tortures monkeys and tarnishes the film franchise, and we urge her to call on the agency to stop acting like a Bond villain where these monkeys are concerned.”

Bill Maher and Anjelica Huston previously teamed up with PETA US to speak out against the “monkey fright experiments”, and many other stars – including Kevin Nealon, Casey Affleck, James Cromwell, and Edie Falco – have joined the group and its affiliates to speak out against animal testing.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on” – opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview.

The letter is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or click here.

Thunderfinger

Let these people experiment on themselves instead.

RichardTheBruce

Sea vessels
Watch: The Navy Missile System Starring
In New Bond Film 'No Time To Die'

See the complete article here:

https://www.forces.net/news/hms-dragon-makes-hollywood-debut-new-bond-film-no-time-die

The latest movie shows Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon firing vertical missiles from her Sea Viper weapons system.
Roxan McCrae | 1st October 2021 at 10:35am

[Video]

Military enthusiasts will be able to spot more than just human stars in the long-anticipated Bond movie 'No Time To Die'.

As reported by Forces News at the beginning of the month, the Royal Navy's HMS Dragon plays her own starring role in Daniel Craig's fifth and final appearance as the famous spy.

The warship, from the Daring-class of Type 45 destroyers, appears on the big screen with her red dragon emblem on her hull, cutting through the waves.

HMS Dragon returning to Portsmouth in 2020 (Picture: MOD).

In the US version of the trailer and in the film itself, HMS Dragon is seen firing missiles while manoeuvring in warm climates, something the UK version of the film advert did not depict.

An MOD spokesperson, however, told Forces News that "no weapons were fired during the filming", suggesting that Dragon's firing scenes were created using CGI special effects.

In reality, missiles fired from Dragon's Sea Viper weapon system used on board these warships can blow a moving target out of the sky from more than 70 miles away.

The Sea Viper being fired (Picture: MOD).

The ship has 48 vertical launch cells which house two types of Aster missiles.

Control has the ability to guide 16 missiles at the same time, firing at a rate of eight every 10 seconds – they detonate on impact or within close range of a target.

Missile Specs:

• The Aster 15 is a short to medium-range missile, which travels at a speed of MACH 3 and can hit targets that are more than 18 miles away.
• The Aster 30 is a short to long-range missile with a speed of MACH 4.5, which can reach distances of more than 70 miles.
• An upgrade to the destroyers missile system is expected in 2026.
• The MOD says the new system will boost the destroyers' missile capacity to 72.

As well as HMS Dragon, the Royal Air Force also granted film-makers access to key assets and personnel.

RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire was used as a backdrop in the film, standing in for a NATO airbase in Noway.

Meanwhile, the Army supplied troops from the Household Cavalry.

Amazing! HMS Dragon has established itself as no 1 in the world in defeating air and missile attacks


HMS Dragon fires a Sea Viper missile

DoctorKaufmann

RichardTheBruce

Revealed: James Bond 'Skyhook' was a
real device used by CIA to pluck
agents from behind enemy lines (and
here's the instruction manual to prove
it)

See the complete article here:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2218540/The-real-life-James-Bond-rescues-Flying-Skyhook-wasnt-just-007-helped-recover-CIA-agents-enemy-lines.html

By Daily Mail Reporter
Published: 10:17 EDT, 16 October 2012

Fans of the James Bond classic Thunderball will recall how Sean Connery and his trusty Bond girl are rescued at the end of the movie by being snatched from an inflatable dinghy by a flying aircraft.

Now the CIA has revealed that this type of rescue without landing wasn’t just something from the fantasy world of 007, but was actually used to retrieve secret agents in real-life.

In the 1950s, the CIA decided they needed a means of removing officers from hostile situations without setting foot (or wheels) on the ground. They turned to inventor Robert Fulton who developed the aerial retrieval system known as Skyhook.

Scroll down for video

Lifted: Skyhook technology, which used steel cable and a balloon to lift people to safety,
was used at the end of the film Thunderball

Hooked: The plane has a contraption on the front to catch the cable

Thunderball: James Bond and Dominique 'Domino' Derval are rescued by a
sky hook-equipped U.S. Navy plane in the 1965 movie

Fresh details about the real-life existence of Skyhook have just emerged and the CIA's online museum has added an instruction card to its collection, which helpfully explains to officers how the Skyhook system worked.

In the air it required an airplane equipped with steel wire-catching horns, an electric-powered winch - a mechanical device used to pull in or let out cables -and a 50-foot steel cable.

Meanwhile on the ground a separate package of gear would be delivered by air-drop to allow officers on the ground to 'catch' the Skyhook.

Skyhook: An instruction card explaining how a CIA officer can
use the Skyhook system has just emerged

The instruction card was designed to show CIA agents how the process worked:

• From the air-dropped package, the officer on the ground used a helium balloon to lift a 500-foot cable into the air.
• Then he would strap himself to a harness connected to the other end of the cable, and sit with the wind to his back and arms crossed.
• A low-flying, slow-moving plane (although still likely to be as fast as 125MPH), such as a B-17, would snag the cable with the Skyhook device on its nose, sweeping the person off the ground.
• The plane’s crew then pulled the officer aboard the aircraft within a matter of minutes.

The instruction card urges users to 'act carefully rather than quickly' because their safety depended on it - the CIA has released any info about if the system ever led to any fatalities.

The instruction card urges users to 'act carefully rather than quickly'
because their safety depended on it

The first operational use of Skyhook happened in May 1962, when it proved critical in extracting CIA officers and materials from an abandoned Soviet ice station that was suspected to have monitored American submarines. That mission, known as Operation Coldfeet, helped gather valuable intelligence on the USSR’s Arctic activities.

In the 1965 Bond movie Thunderball, 007 and Dominique 'Domino' Derval (played by Claudine Auger) escape the clutches of baddie Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi) and are rescued by a sky hook-equipped U.S. Navy plane.

Author Ian Fleming based the character of James Bond on his experiences working in British Naval Intelligence during Second World War. Thunderball was first published as a book in 1961.

The CIA turned to inventor Robert Fulton to develop the aerial retrieval system known as Skyhook

Real-life spies: An inflatable Skyhook balloon aboard the icebreaker USS Staten Island

The Skyhook system provided an important asset for all manner of intelligence operations for a number of years, but its utility as a long-range pickup system was superseded during the 1960s by the development of an aerial refueling capability for helicopters.

Still, it appears likely that Fulton's Skyhook did find employment in a number of specialized clandestine operations following Coldfeet, although its subsequent use by CIA and the military services remains shrouded in secrecy.

Video: Watch the Skyhook in action in Thunderball


Read more:
Skyhook: Ground to Plane Rescue in Minutes
https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2012-featured-story-archive/skyhook.html

Fishing from Airplanes for Soviet Secrets: What was Skyhook - Operation Coldfeet?

RichardTheBruce

What James Bond Can
Teach Us About Watches

See the complete article here:

https://www.europastar.com/news/1004088021-what-james-bond-can-teach-us-about-watches.html

May 2015

Watch enthusiasts generally see quartz movements in a negative light. But James Bond can teach us a thing or two about the coolness of the quartz, and the social roots of the quartz movement.

In the world of mechanical luxury watches, the “Quartz Revolution” - or “Quartz Crisis” depending on your tastes for the dramatic - is something that is talked about in a negative light.

For the purists, it was a “crisis” because a quartz watch doesn’t have the soul of a mechanical watch. This is similar to how car enthusiasts feel about electric cars compared to the classic internal combustion motors. During the 1970s and 1980s, many of the mechanical watch brands simply couldn’t compete with the quartz. They were either bought up by the bigger fish, or they simply went out of business.

But the pragmatists might say that it was a “revolution” and not a crisis, because it made watches more affordable and more accurate. This started with high volume production by Seiko in 1969 and followed shortly after by the Swiss in 1970. From that perspective, it wasn’t all bad, as more people could wear watches around their wrists more often, and they didn’t have to rely on others for constant servicing.

According to watch expert and enthusiast Dell Deaton:

“The Quartz Revolution was nothing more than about making watches cheaper. The most important outcome of the Quartz Revolution was that it delivered a vast leap in one’s personal, mobile ability to control his own timekeeping. It was the culmination of a centuries-old pursuit, and it was delivered at exactly the period in history when consumers were ready for it and demanding it.”

In that sense, the quartz brought on more of a revolution from the people than a crisis from the companies. As Deaton continues:

“The Quartz Revolution is essentially a consumer-driven story. That’s something too easily missed when you exclusively focus on the watch companies, betting on winners and losers who anted up for the battles as they played out in the 1970s, ’80s, and then finally settling down in the 1990s."

As quartz watches became more popular, they also democratized the industry from a consumer perspective, allowing more people to appreciate timepieces at an affordable price. But if something becomes commonly available, it suddenly loses its cool factor, doesn’t it?

Well, it’s hard to say that quartz watches were not cool, when they were worn by the cool and suave James Bond.

Known for his futuristic gadgets, James Bond’s quartz watches also fit in perfectly with the futuristic trends of that era. Take, for instance, the world’s first electronic digital watch - introduced by Hamilton on 6 May 1970 - which was worn by James bond in the film “Live and Let Die”.

The Hamilton Pulsar from “Live and Let Die”

To commemorate the importance of quartz watches in society, there is a new exhibit called “James Bond Wore the Quartz Revolution”, curated by none other than James Bond expert Dell Deaton. Explaining the importance of Bond for the watch world, Deaton said:

“This exhibit seeks to explain why this revolution happened when it happened and shows how it continues to remain invaluable to contemporary society—at the very least, to reopen the discussion and move beyond cliché. By focusing on the fictional ’James Bond’ character, we create a proxy for the consumer that can stand as a brand on equal footing with those of watchmakers.”

The Omega Seamaster from “GoldenEye”

This exhibit is based on all 12 examples of quartz wristwatches James Bond has worn, from 1973 through 1995. So now you can see what James Bond wore on his wrists when fighting the bad guys, and at the same time track the evolution of the quartz watches over two decades. Of course, now it seems that Mr. Bond’s tastes have changed, and he’s gone back to mechanical movements. I wonder if a sponsorship deal had something to do with that…

The James Bond Wore the Quartz Revolution exhibit opens June 3, 2015, at the National Watch & Clock Museum in Columbia, PA, USA. And to see James Bond’s evolving watch tastes, beyond his quartz phase, check out the infographic below. (VJ)

The evolution of James Bond’s wrist

James Bond Wore the Quartz Revolution on Fox43 News

James Bond Wore the Quartz Revolution

See the complete article here:

https://vimeo.com/channels/bondquartz

Created by Dell Deaton PRO

Original videos related to the "James Bond" themed wristwatch exhibit, designed to objectively explain the "Quartz Revolution." This is a dedicated gallery, exclusive to the National Watch & Clock Museum, located in Columbia, Pennsylvania.

[7 Videos]

RichardTheBruce

You only live once: why James Bond’s
attitude to travel health leaves us shaken
and stirred

See the complete article here:

https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/expert-opinion/you-only-live-once-why-james-bonds-attitude-travel-health-leaves-us

And here for the complete PDF:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1477893921002167/pdfft?md5=c1230c89bb0d6c178dda9db202e4a01a&pid=1-s2.0-S1477893921002167-main.pdf

By: William Stone, Wouter Graumans and Teun Bousema
Wednesday 13 October 2021

International travel is scaling back up, and academic researchers and the general public are advised to be aware of the risks posed by infectious diseases. This can involve serious preparation, at the very least checking your vaccinations.

As regular travellers to countries with substantial burdens of infectious disease, we began to wonder why James Bond is never pictured wandering his pharmacy looking for mosquito repellent. We thus undertook to covertly examine whether Bond adhered to any current travel advice, scrutinizing over 3000 minutes of film at evenings and weekends – all in the name of academic rigor.

In viewings of the most recent film, we were of course the only members of the audience who brought notebooks.

The short answer is that Bond’s adherence to travel advice was at best erratic and at worst totally contrary to what is recommended for healthy travel. Given how inopportune a bout of diarrhoea would be in the midst of world-saving action, it is striking that Bond is seen washing his hands on only two occasions, despite numerous exposures to foodborne pathogens.

We uncovered above-average sexual activity, often without sufficient time for an exchange of sexual history. That this was not without risk seems supported by the remarkably high mortality among Bond's sexual partners: more than a quarter of his partners do not survive, although there are no clear indications that sexually transmitted infections play a role in any of their deaths.

Bond has a volatile relationship with vector-borne diseases, sometimes wilfully ignoring the risk of pathogen transmission from insect vectors, other times contributing to the destruction of local breeding-sites. His excessive alcohol consumption may be both a blessing and a curse in this regard.

Alcohol consumption has been shown to increase attractiveness to malaria-transmitting mosquitoes; on the other hand, alcohol consumption may inhibit parasites at levels attainable with (albeit excessive) human consumption. No doubt Bond will continue striving to balance these opposing forces.

We hypothesize that his foolhardy courage, sometimes purposefully eliciting life-threatening situations, might even be a consequence of Toxoplasmosis (a parasitic infection that in mice, leads to a loss of fear of predators – a clever adaptation that increases the chances of them being eaten, allowing them to continue their life cycle inside cats).

Unfortunately, Bond’s attitude towards travel health is quite similar to many ordinary travellers. Exotic locations are on many bucket lists, but often we fail to realize that there is a risk of contracting potentially fatal diseases. For work-related travel, it is a responsibility of the employers to ensure its employees are aware of such risks, and properly prepared.

Given the importance of agents like James Bond for international counterterrorism, we're pleased that in real life MI6 takes its responsibility seriously. We only live once.

Publication
Wouter Graumans. William J.R.Stone. Teun Bousema. No time to die: An in-depth analysis of James Bond’s exposure to infectious agents. Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease. DOI:10.1016/j.tmaid.2021.102175

Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1477893921002167

CommanderRoss

IS that a virologists' way of saying they liked the latest film?

RichardTheBruce

The World Is Not Enough and the
“Believability” of Dr. Christmas
Jones

See the complete article here:

https://medium.com/@leiladaisyj/the-world-is-not-enough-and-the-believability-of-dr-christmas-jones-c8524993c0d1

Lee Jutton | Aug 1, 2016·8 min read

This piece was originally published by Bitch Flicks on July 29, 2016 as part of its theme week on Women Scientists.

The character of the Bond girl is nearly as iconic as that of James Bond himself. After all, one of MI6 Agent 007’s defining features — and indeed, one of his biggest weaknesses, one that his enemies exploit time and time again — is his love of the opposite sex. Over the course of 24 films spanning 54 years, Bond has met his match — whether it be intellectually, sexually or a combination of both — in numerous women. While some seem to exist only as a pretty face and body for the audience to ogle as Bond utters some his infamous double entendres, many others stand on their own as vibrant, complicated characters. These are women with their own inner lives, their own professions, their own reasons for being beyond just being eye candy. However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t still conventionally attractive; the more modern version of the Bond girl often has brains, but you better bet she still has beauty, too.

The World Is Not Enough is a perfectly acceptable James Bond adventure directed by Michael Apted and starring Pierce Brosnan as 007. Story-wise, it doesn’t reach the heights of From Russia With Love or GoldenEye. But it’s an exciting, action-packed romp featuring a great Bond girl performance by Sophie Marceau as Elektra King, the daughter of an oil tycoon who is not what she seems. The film’s other female lead is a nuclear scientist with the unfortunate moniker of Dr. Christmas Jones, played by a 28-year-old Denise Richards. Previous Bond girls have included fellow agents (both allies and enemies), assassins, thieves, and heiresses (like Elektra King), not to mention the occasional pilot or fortune-teller; adding a nuclear scientist to their ranks could be viewed as a step forward into a more feminist future for the franchise. When asked about the role, Richards told BBC News that she felt the “brainy and athletic” Dr. Jones had more substance than Bond Girls of the past:

“The female roles now have a lot more depth — it’s more than just running around on Bond’s arm. Christmas is strong, intelligent and sassy and there’s an infectious one-upmanship and clever banter between her and James Bond.”

Unfortunately, not many people agreed with her. Upon The World is Not Enough’s release in 1999, a sizable portion of the criticism was leveled at Dr. Jones — much of it bemoaning the curve-hugging wardrobe she sported throughout the film and insisting that Richards just wasn’t believable as a nuclear scientist. Richards ended up being the recipient of the Bond franchise’s first-ever Razzie Award, while a 2006 Entertainment Weekly list of the 10 worst Bond girls ranked her #1: “Let’s review: Denise Richards played Dr. Christmas Jones, a nuclear physicist who wore a tank top and hot pants. Bloody hell, even Q didn’t have a gadget to help Bond escape from that disaster.” Yet such skin-deep criticism of this character is unfair, and barely skims the surface as to why Dr. Jones went from being a promising step forward for Bond girls to one of the more maligned female characters of the franchise.

Dr. Jones is introduced about halfway through The World is Not Enough, when she emerges from a protective jumpsuit at a Russian intercontinental ballistic missile base in the middle of the Kazakhstan desert. Bond is posing as a Russian nuclear scientist to figure out what notorious terrorist Renard (Robert Carlyle) is doing at the base when he is introduced to Dr. Jones, an American nuclear physicist who has been recruited by the International Decommissioning Agency to help reduce Russia’s stockpile of nuclear weapons by dismantling its nuclear warheads. A tough job, to be sure, and Dr. Jones’ frosty reception of Bond at the base immediately establishes her as someone who has had to be very tough to get where she is in life. Despite being the head of the project, she is clearly not used to being taken seriously, and so overcompensates by being extra imperious towards the men around her to ensure that they keep in line. As Bond ogles her long, tanned limbs as she emerges from her jumpsuit clad in, yes, a tank top and shorts, his guide describes her as the base’s bit of “glimmer” and glumly notes, “Not interested in men. Take my word for it.” Naturally, Dr. Jones overhears, and immediately assumes that Bond’s intentions towards her are along the same lines:

Dr. Jones: Are you here for a reason, or are you just hoping for a glimmer?
Bond: Mikhail Arkov, Russian atomic energy department. And you are, miss?
Dr. Jones: Doctor Jones. Christmas Jones, and don’t tell me any jokes, I’ve heard them all.
Bond, innocently: I don’t know any doctor jokes.

It’s ironic that the character of a beautiful young scientist who is bitter about being dismissed by the men around her as just a bit of “glimmer” was then just as easily dismissed as such by audiences. One can argue that Dr. Jones’ costume caters to the male gaze and that yes, she might have been taken more seriously if she had worn a less-revealing wardrobe, rather than one reminiscent of another sexy scientist: archaeologist Lara Croft in Tomb Raider. Yet the notion that beautiful women should have to diminish their appearances in order to be taken seriously — especially when working in a traditionally male-dominated field — is just as outdated as anything in the Bond films of the 1960s. In 2006, Casino Royale addressed this issue in regards to Bond girl Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), an accountant from HM Treasury with a brusque manner of speech and a stylish but severe black suit that she wears like a suit of armor. Lynd is smart, tough and, because she’s a Bond girl, also incredibly beautiful. After a conversation about the art of reading one’s opponents during poker, Lynd then asks Bond to read her:

Lynd: What else can you surmise, Mr. Bond?
Bond: About you, Miss Lynd? Well, your beauty’s a problem. You worry you won’t be taken seriously.
Lynd: Which one can say of any attractive woman with half a brain.
Bond: True. But this one overcompensates by wearing slightly masculine clothing. Being more aggressive than her female colleagues. Which gives her a somewhat prickly demeanor, and ironically enough, makes it less likely for her to be accepted and promoted by her male superiors, who mistake her insecurities for arrogance.

Bond could also have been talking about Dr. Jones, who shares Lynd’s “prickly demeanor” and is viewed as arrogant by the men around her, who can’t believe that she isn’t interested in them. But, she never got the memo about the wardrobe, and one wonders that if Dr. Jones just bothered to put on a pair of slacks, perception of the character would have been different. Indeed, once one is able to suspend any disbelief that they might have over a nuclear scientist being capable of looking good in short-shorts, one realizes that Dr. Jones isn’t a terrible character — like many Bond girls from the series’ earlier era, she’s just a mediocre one.

Soon after Bond and Dr. Jones are introduced, they team up to track down Renard, who has run off with a stolen bomb. When they find the bomb hidden in an oil pipeline, they rocket in on an inspection car so that Dr. Jones can dismantle it, only to find out that half of the device’s plutonium is missing. Even though she doesn’t exactly enjoy spending substantial amounts of time running around with a man who only “speaks spy,” Dr. Jones is determined to help Bond track down the plutonium, noting, “The world’s greatest terrorist running around with six kilos of weapons-grade plutonium can’t be good. I gotta get it back, or someone’s gonna have my ass.” Bond, ever the gentleman, responds, “First things first.”

Now, Richards’ performance is not one that will go down in the history books as a landmark of great acting. But, it doesn’t deserve to be remembered as one of the worst, either. She does her best with the dialogue that is given to her — some of which is, as Richards mentioned when discussing the role, surprisingly sassy and snarky, reflecting her dismissive attitude towards Bond’s heavy-handed, uber-masculine tactics. The problem is, screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade just don’t give her enough, and when they do, it is too often bland statements of the obvious. It’s not that she isn’t believable as a nuclear scientist; it’s that after awhile, we just forget that she is one. Dr. Jones wastes more breath bluntly stating what is happening than she does explaining why; she’s the smartest person in the room for most of the movie, but is rarely given the chance to show it. I refer to this phenomenon as the Legolas Effect, named for the handsome elf archer played by Orlando Bloom in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Legolas rarely shows the wisdom of elves, and instead periodically utters pointless lines like “A diversion!” to remind the audience that he’s more than just a pretty piece of scenery placed in the background of Aragorn’s epic speeches. The same goes for Dr. Jones, who at one point screams, “It’s flooding!” while tons of water gushes into the submarine where she and Bond are waging war with Renard. Moments like this demolish any credibility that Dr. Jones built up while dismantling nuclear bombs and just make her look silly.

Speaking of silly: The World is Not Enough culminates in the stereotypical closing-credits sex scene with Bond that is chock full of the terrible Christmas jokes that Dr. Jones was so firmly against when she was introduced earlier in the movie, including what is the most cringe-worthy closing line in the entire franchise: “I thought Christmas only comes once a year.” And this is what is the most disappointing thing about Dr. Jones. She’s a tough-talking woman whose best moments in the film come when she grows impatient with Bond’s testosterone-driven idiocy and counters his quips with her own formidable sarcasm, yet in the end, she’s just like any of those earlier Bond girls that Richards dismissed as lacking depth: she helplessly collapses into the arms of Bond and allows him to turn her into a punchline after all.

Watching The World is Not Enough seventeen years later, one can’t help but feel that both Dr. Jones and the woman who portrayed her were treated somewhat harshly. The role is unfortunately underwritten, and Richards’ performance in the film pales in comparison to that of the fiery Marceau (to see the two women side by side is to automatically see Richards in a less complimentary light), but to only describe the character’s failings in terms of her appearance says more about the audience than it does about the character. At this point, it should go without saying that scientists come in all shapes, sizes, colors and genders. Instead, our perceptions and prejudices have colored our negative impressions of Dr. Jones. While she isn’t one of the best Bond girls, she doesn’t deserve all of the worst-ever criticism that have been bestowed upon her — nor does Richards deserve the majority of the blame for why the character just doesn’t quite work.

CommanderRoss

RichardTheBruce wrote: »

The World Is Not Enough and the
“Believability” of Dr. Christmas
Jones

See the complete article here:

https://medium.com/@leiladaisyj/the-world-is-not-enough-and-the-believability-of-dr-christmas-jones-c8524993c0d1

Lee Jutton | Aug 1, 2016·8 min read

This piece was originally published by Bitch Flicks on July 29, 2016 as part of its theme week on Women Scientists.

The character of the Bond girl is nearly as iconic as that of James Bond himself. After all, one of MI6 Agent 007’s defining features — and indeed, one of his biggest weaknesses, one that his enemies exploit time and time again — is his love of the opposite sex. Over the course of 24 films spanning 54 years, Bond has met his match — whether it be intellectually, sexually or a combination of both — in numerous women. While some seem to exist only as a pretty face and body for the audience to ogle as Bond utters some his infamous double entendres, many others stand on their own as vibrant, complicated characters. These are women with their own inner lives, their own professions, their own reasons for being beyond just being eye candy. However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t still conventionally attractive; the more modern version of the Bond girl often has brains, but you better bet she still has beauty, too.

The World Is Not Enough is a perfectly acceptable James Bond adventure directed by Michael Apted and starring Pierce Brosnan as 007. Story-wise, it doesn’t reach the heights of From Russia With Love or GoldenEye. But it’s an exciting, action-packed romp featuring a great Bond girl performance by Sophie Marceau as Elektra King, the daughter of an oil tycoon who is not what she seems. The film’s other female lead is a nuclear scientist with the unfortunate moniker of Dr. Christmas Jones, played by a 28-year-old Denise Richards. Previous Bond girls have included fellow agents (both allies and enemies), assassins, thieves, and heiresses (like Elektra King), not to mention the occasional pilot or fortune-teller; adding a nuclear scientist to their ranks could be viewed as a step forward into a more feminist future for the franchise. When asked about the role, Richards told BBC News that she felt the “brainy and athletic” Dr. Jones had more substance than Bond Girls of the past:

“The female roles now have a lot more depth — it’s more than just running around on Bond’s arm. Christmas is strong, intelligent and sassy and there’s an infectious one-upmanship and clever banter between her and James Bond.”

Unfortunately, not many people agreed with her. Upon The World is Not Enough’s release in 1999, a sizable portion of the criticism was leveled at Dr. Jones — much of it bemoaning the curve-hugging wardrobe she sported throughout the film and insisting that Richards just wasn’t believable as a nuclear scientist. Richards ended up being the recipient of the Bond franchise’s first-ever Razzie Award, while a 2006 Entertainment Weekly list of the 10 worst Bond girls ranked her #1: “Let’s review: Denise Richards played Dr. Christmas Jones, a nuclear physicist who wore a tank top and hot pants. Bloody hell, even Q didn’t have a gadget to help Bond escape from that disaster.” Yet such skin-deep criticism of this character is unfair, and barely skims the surface as to why Dr. Jones went from being a promising step forward for Bond girls to one of the more maligned female characters of the franchise.

Dr. Jones is introduced about halfway through The World is Not Enough, when she emerges from a protective jumpsuit at a Russian intercontinental ballistic missile base in the middle of the Kazakhstan desert. Bond is posing as a Russian nuclear scientist to figure out what notorious terrorist Renard (Robert Carlyle) is doing at the base when he is introduced to Dr. Jones, an American nuclear physicist who has been recruited by the International Decommissioning Agency to help reduce Russia’s stockpile of nuclear weapons by dismantling its nuclear warheads. A tough job, to be sure, and Dr. Jones’ frosty reception of Bond at the base immediately establishes her as someone who has had to be very tough to get where she is in life. Despite being the head of the project, she is clearly not used to being taken seriously, and so overcompensates by being extra imperious towards the men around her to ensure that they keep in line. As Bond ogles her long, tanned limbs as she emerges from her jumpsuit clad in, yes, a tank top and shorts, his guide describes her as the base’s bit of “glimmer” and glumly notes, “Not interested in men. Take my word for it.” Naturally, Dr. Jones overhears, and immediately assumes that Bond’s intentions towards her are along the same lines:

Dr. Jones: Are you here for a reason, or are you just hoping for a glimmer?
Bond: Mikhail Arkov, Russian atomic energy department. And you are, miss?
Dr. Jones: Doctor Jones. Christmas Jones, and don’t tell me any jokes, I’ve heard them all.
Bond, innocently: I don’t know any doctor jokes.

It’s ironic that the character of a beautiful young scientist who is bitter about being dismissed by the men around her as just a bit of “glimmer” was then just as easily dismissed as such by audiences. One can argue that Dr. Jones’ costume caters to the male gaze and that yes, she might have been taken more seriously if she had worn a less-revealing wardrobe, rather than one reminiscent of another sexy scientist: archaeologist Lara Croft in Tomb Raider. Yet the notion that beautiful women should have to diminish their appearances in order to be taken seriously — especially when working in a traditionally male-dominated field — is just as outdated as anything in the Bond films of the 1960s. In 2006, Casino Royale addressed this issue in regards to Bond girl Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), an accountant from HM Treasury with a brusque manner of speech and a stylish but severe black suit that she wears like a suit of armor. Lynd is smart, tough and, because she’s a Bond girl, also incredibly beautiful. After a conversation about the art of reading one’s opponents during poker, Lynd then asks Bond to read her:

Lynd: What else can you surmise, Mr. Bond?
Bond: About you, Miss Lynd? Well, your beauty’s a problem. You worry you won’t be taken seriously.
Lynd: Which one can say of any attractive woman with half a brain.
Bond: True. But this one overcompensates by wearing slightly masculine clothing. Being more aggressive than her female colleagues. Which gives her a somewhat prickly demeanor, and ironically enough, makes it less likely for her to be accepted and promoted by her male superiors, who mistake her insecurities for arrogance.

Bond could also have been talking about Dr. Jones, who shares Lynd’s “prickly demeanor” and is viewed as arrogant by the men around her, who can’t believe that she isn’t interested in them. But, she never got the memo about the wardrobe, and one wonders that if Dr. Jones just bothered to put on a pair of slacks, perception of the character would have been different. Indeed, once one is able to suspend any disbelief that they might have over a nuclear scientist being capable of looking good in short-shorts, one realizes that Dr. Jones isn’t a terrible character — like many Bond girls from the series’ earlier era, she’s just a mediocre one.

Soon after Bond and Dr. Jones are introduced, they team up to track down Renard, who has run off with a stolen bomb. When they find the bomb hidden in an oil pipeline, they rocket in on an inspection car so that Dr. Jones can dismantle it, only to find out that half of the device’s plutonium is missing. Even though she doesn’t exactly enjoy spending substantial amounts of time running around with a man who only “speaks spy,” Dr. Jones is determined to help Bond track down the plutonium, noting, “The world’s greatest terrorist running around with six kilos of weapons-grade plutonium can’t be good. I gotta get it back, or someone’s gonna have my ass.” Bond, ever the gentleman, responds, “First things first.”

Now, Richards’ performance is not one that will go down in the history books as a landmark of great acting. But, it doesn’t deserve to be remembered as one of the worst, either. She does her best with the dialogue that is given to her — some of which is, as Richards mentioned when discussing the role, surprisingly sassy and snarky, reflecting her dismissive attitude towards Bond’s heavy-handed, uber-masculine tactics. The problem is, screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade just don’t give her enough, and when they do, it is too often bland statements of the obvious. It’s not that she isn’t believable as a nuclear scientist; it’s that after awhile, we just forget that she is one. Dr. Jones wastes more breath bluntly stating what is happening than she does explaining why; she’s the smartest person in the room for most of the movie, but is rarely given the chance to show it. I refer to this phenomenon as the Legolas Effect, named for the handsome elf archer played by Orlando Bloom in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Legolas rarely shows the wisdom of elves, and instead periodically utters pointless lines like “A diversion!” to remind the audience that he’s more than just a pretty piece of scenery placed in the background of Aragorn’s epic speeches. The same goes for Dr. Jones, who at one point screams, “It’s flooding!” while tons of water gushes into the submarine where she and Bond are waging war with Renard. Moments like this demolish any credibility that Dr. Jones built up while dismantling nuclear bombs and just make her look silly.

Speaking of silly: The World is Not Enough culminates in the stereotypical closing-credits sex scene with Bond that is chock full of the terrible Christmas jokes that Dr. Jones was so firmly against when she was introduced earlier in the movie, including what is the most cringe-worthy closing line in the entire franchise: “I thought Christmas only comes once a year.” And this is what is the most disappointing thing about Dr. Jones. She’s a tough-talking woman whose best moments in the film come when she grows impatient with Bond’s testosterone-driven idiocy and counters his quips with her own formidable sarcasm, yet in the end, she’s just like any of those earlier Bond girls that Richards dismissed as lacking depth: she helplessly collapses into the arms of Bond and allows him to turn her into a punchline after all.

Watching The World is Not Enough seventeen years later, one can’t help but feel that both Dr. Jones and the woman who portrayed her were treated somewhat harshly. The role is unfortunately underwritten, and Richards’ performance in the film pales in comparison to that of the fiery Marceau (to see the two women side by side is to automatically see Richards in a less complimentary light), but to only describe the character’s failings in terms of her appearance says more about the audience than it does about the character. At this point, it should go without saying that scientists come in all shapes, sizes, colors and genders. Instead, our perceptions and prejudices have colored our negative impressions of Dr. Jones. While she isn’t one of the best Bond girls, she doesn’t deserve all of the worst-ever criticism that have been bestowed upon her — nor does Richards deserve the majority of the blame for why the character just doesn’t quite work.

Finally a fair assessment of an interesting character. And yes, purvis and wade are notoriously bad at dialogue.

Risico007

I know a few scientists doctors and nurses who could easily be maxim cover girls yet they choose science over beauty which is somehow more noble

RichardTheBruce

Taking an idea from @Thunderfinger on the The Science - Science Fiction thread.

The Fractal Casino Royale

See the complete article here:

Casino Royale: a new Bond and a new title sequence. Gone are the silhouettes of naked women of all the previous films. After all it would hardly be appropriate. Bond falls in love. But what replaces them? A poker theme for the gambling addicted modern day? Well yes: it is a film about a card game after all. Look more closely though and you will see it's computer science that's replaced the women: fractal imagery.

Look carefully at the clubs as they expand. Each leaf buds off a new smaller club, which then does the same again, creating an ever more intricate pattern. It is a fractal image: an image that is self-similar on smaller and smaller scales. It turns out that natural processes such as the way trees and ferns grow can be modelled mathematically in the same way - break off the frond of a fern and it looks very much like the original only smaller. That means that fractals are a very good way to quickly create realistic computer-generated images of plants. Fractals have also been suggested as a rival to jpeg for compressing images, though it never really took off. Known as fractal compression, the idea was to look for fractal self-similarity in images and then store the rules for creating the fractals rather than all the detail of the original image.

Fractal images are very easy to generate using a process called recursion. It's a way of problem solving (and programming) where a problem is broken into smaller versions of the same problem. These smaller but similar problems can then be solved in the same way. Eventually the problem is broken into a problem so small and trivial the answer is obvious.

Fractal club from 10 recursive calls

The self-similar nature of the ever smaller problems is the same as the self-similar nature of the ever smaller fractal images. That means the rules to generate fractal images are very similar to the computer programs that solve problems using recursion.

Interested in generating your own fractal images? You can do it using GeomLab. It's a free, just for fun, package that allows you to draw pictures using recursive programming - so fractals are quite easy to do once you have mastered the basics. Here is a quick GeomLab recursive drawing similar to the one in bond intro
http://www.cs4fn.org/graphics/clubfractal.php

What Is A Fractal (and what are they good for)?
Fractals are complex, never-ending patterns created by repeating mathematical equations. Yuliya, a undergrad in Math at MIT, delves into their mysterious properties and how they can be found in technology and nature.

Casino Royale - Opening Titles

UPDATE - Added from the Science and Science Fiction discussion.

Thunderfinger wrote: »

More about fractals.

Thunderfinger

Very interesting subject. I always like that aspect of the CR title sequence.

RichardTheBruce

James Bond technology
deployed to save ELEPHANTS
and rhinos from poachers

See the complete article here:

https://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/1025218/elephant-news-rhinos-poachers-born-free

ONE of James Bond’s most famous gadgets is to become the secret weapon in the battle to save elephants and rhinos. High-flying autogyros – as flown by 007 in You Only Live Twice – are to be deployed against poachers in the African bush.
By Stuart Winter
16:36, Mon, Oct 1, 2018

James Bond machine fighting wildlife crime (Image: MGM)

Agile, stealthy and capable at flying a low speed, the new generation of autogyros – known as Dragons – will give rangers a vital lift in tackling the desperate gangs killing 55 elephants every day.

British-based charity Born Free has launched an appeal to give frontline wildlife protectors aerial advantage in the war to stop the iconic creatures being driven towards extinction.

It costs £50,000 to buy a Dragon GBT 1170 autogyro and train a pilot to fly over tracts of unforgiving African landscape, gathering vital intelligence in minutes that would take weeks for ground patrols weeks to cover.

With London hosting the Illegal Wildlife Trade summit next week, there is a growing global imperative to thwart the estimated £15.5billion a year criminal enterprises pushing endangered wildlife progressively towards oblivion.

Protecting creatures in the bush and forests is becoming increasingly fraught, with more than 890 rangers killed on duty over the last decade.

Born Free hopes to give rangers vital air superiority in key wildlife zones across Africa by deploying the Dragon autogyros fitted with live-tracking technology, infra-red optics and secure video/voice communications to liaise with on-the-ground rangers.

The Dragons can take off in areas the size of a small garden, fly quietly and safely at low speeds, and also carry an observer along with the pilot.

Autogyros grabbed the public’s attention more than 50 years ago when Sean Connery took to the skies in a heavily-armed one dubbed Little Nellie provided by MI6 quartermaster Q for one of Bond’s most daring secret missions.

Since then, special forces around the world have used the light aircraft in covert operations while they have also provided a boon for law enforcers. Three years ago, a pilot achieved the highest altitude for an autogyro, reaching more than 26,000ft.

James Bond secret weapon | Dragon GBT 1170 autogyro (Image: Born Free)

Born Free is teaming up with Staffordshire-based Chimera Aviation to launch its first “dragons of the sky” in South Africa.

The charity’s chief executive Howard Jones explained: “Sometimes the campaign against poaching and other illegal activity, has felt like a debilitating, endless battle. Rhino are systematically targeted by poachers for their horns. Fewer than 29,000 remain, and between 2008 and 2017, more than 7,000 were killed by poachers in South Africa alone. And, as our Born Free ‘Elephants in Crisis’ campaign earlier this year highlighted, an average of 55 African elephants are killed by poachers every day for their tusks. That’s about one every 25 minutes.

“Despite the fact that men and women around the world are putting their lives on the line to tackle the dreadful crimes of illegal wildlife trade and poaching, it just isn’t possible to deter and protect, all day, all night and every day.

55 elephants a day slaughtered for the ivory in Africa (Image: Born Free)

“To cover these vast and challenging areas, to then fight through thick vegetation in time to reach poachers, or to prevent their presence in the first place, has seemed almost impossible. Deploying the Dragon will transform our capability and help turn the current balance on its head. This will allow our rangers to protect extensive areas safely, economically and efficiently, with much-enhanced surveillance capacity and flexibility, when compared to other aircraft.”

The charity will launch the first Dragons at the Shamwari Private Game Reserve in South Africa, which is home to two of its big cat sanctuaries as well as providing a haven for wildlife across a 100 square miles of rough country, which is patrolled by some of the most advanced anti-poaching units. Garamba in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has witnessed horrific numbers of elephants being slaughtered in recent years, is also in line for the aircraft.

“We are hoping that with public backing we can prove this method of poaching reduction is effective, and roll out the Dragon initiative in 10 other key areas of Africa, including Kenya, Ethiopia and Zambia within the next 12 months, and provide training for all local pilots and rangers,” added Mr Jones.

For more details, see: https://www.bornfree.org.uk/dragon

CommanderRoss

That is the lamest tie-in connection I've seen in a long, long time. But I guess it works, they got their publicity. Autogyros have been around since before the birth of the helicopter...

RichardTheBruce

"Shaken, Not Stirred!" James Bond in the Spotlight of Physics

See the complete article here:

https://www.dwih-newyork.org/en/event/shaken-not-stirred/

Premiere and Live Q&A
Have you ever wondered why James Bond prefers his vodka martini shaken rather than stirred? Could an AMC Hornet perform a spiral jump over the river as in The Man with the Golden Gun? Discover the physics behind this and more in the UA Ruhr and DWIH NY’s very own James Bond Event.

In his book Shaken, Not Stirred! James Bond in the Spotlight of Physics, Metin Tolan, Professor of Physics at TU Dortmund University, provides scientific and entertaining explanations for the technology represented in the 007 films. Now a lecture of the theories expounded in the book have been turned into a 60-minute video available in English. Catch the official YouTube premiere of the film and join us for a live discussion and Q&A with Professor Tolan, moderated by Hannah Kaufman from Springer Nature Books, for a deep dive into the scientific world of James Bond.

Schedule
January 29, 2021 (10 AM EST) | Premiere of Metin Tolan’s lecture on YouTube

Tune in to the premiere to view the video and live chat Professor Tolan with your questions and reactions. Can’t make it? No worries! The video will be available for on-demand viewing after the premiere and you can watch it below.

February 1, 2021 (6 PM EST) | LIVE virtual Q&A and Making-of Discussion with Metin Tolan

Professor Tolan will provide context about the writing of his book and the making of the film. Join this interactive discussion to ask Professor Tolan questions about his work and how he incorporates popular culture into science higher education.

The Q&A will be held online on Webex Meetings. Registration for the Q&A is required and a special access link to the meeting will be sent out the day of the event.

Speaker
Prof. Dr. Metin Tolan
Department of Physics, Experimental Physics
TU Dortmund University
Moderator
Hannah Kaufman
Associate Editor
Springer Nature Books
Co-organizer/b]
University Aillance Ruhr

Shaken, Not Stirred. James Bond in the Spotlight of Physics (1:17:23)

RichardTheBruce

Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease
Volume 44, November–December 2021, 102175
No time to die: An in-depth analysis of James
Bond's exposure to infectious agents

See the complete article here:

https://europepmc.org/article/med/34662727

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1477893921002167?via=ihub

Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease

Author links open overlay panelWouterGraumansaWilliam J.R.StonebTeunBousemaab
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2021.102175
Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
Open access

Abstract
Global travelers, whether tourists or secret agents, are exposed to a smörgåsbord of infectious agents. We hypothesized that agents pre-occupied with espionage and counterterrorism may, at their peril, fail to correctly prioritize travel medicine. To examine our hypothesis, we examined adherence to international travel advice during the 86 international journeys that James Bond was observed to undertake in feature films spanning 1962–2021. Scrutinizing these missions involved ∼3113 min of evening hours per author that could easily have been spent on more pressing societal issues. We uncovered above-average sexual activity, often without sufficient time for an exchange of sexual history, with a remarkably high mortality among Bond's sexual partners (27.1; 95% confidence interval 16.4–40.3). Given how inopportune a bout of diarrhea would be in the midst of world-saving action, it is striking that Bond is seen washing his hands on only two occasions, despite numerous exposures to foodborne pathogens. We hypothesize that his foolhardy courage, sometimes purposefully eliciting life-threatening situations, might even be a consequence of Toxoplasmosis. Bond's approach to vector-borne diseases and neglected tropical diseases is erratic, sometimes following travel advice to the letter, but more often dwelling on the side of complete ignorance. Given the limited time Bond receives to prepare for missions, we urgently ask his employer MI6 to take its responsibility seriously. We only live once.

Life as infectious disease researcher is indisputably exciting. Daily encounters with life-threatening microorganisms, academic competitors, hostile reviewing committees, and extensive international travel can make for a thrilling career. International espionage is possibly the only profession that overshadows our branch of academia in these respects. While researchers tend to be well informed of the risks they could encounter while traveling, the same cannot be said for some secret agents. James Bond is an exemplar of reckless disregard for occupational health but serves as a useful tool for drawing attention to the important issue of infectious disease risk while working and traveling. With this in mind (and despite a string of emails – no funding from EON productions) we have undertaken to comprehensively review Bond's exposure to infectious diseases. This retrospective analysis involved all missions captured in the 25 Eon-produced films released between 1962 and 2021 (∼3113 min of evening hours per author that were not-spent on more pressing societal issues or forms of relaxation that are more acceptable in academic circles). Current travel recommendations for destinations were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website and interpreted in the context of historic disease occurrence. A total of 86 international journeys were examined, involving trips to 47 geographically identifiable countries; a single journey to outer space [1] was excluded from the analysis because travel advice for this region is currently unavailable.


1. Nightfall: sexual health

One of Bond's more obvious risk factors for infectious disease exposure during work travel is his rate of sexual encounters. We found evidence for a total of 59 liaisons (mean of 2.4 per film); and observed no association between popularity of the film (internet movie database (IMDB) rating ranging from 6.1 to 8.0) and the number of encounters (range 1–4, correlation = −0.13, p = 0.54), suggesting no obvious role for pressure from the audience in advocating amorous audacity. On only three occasions (5.1% of all sexual partners) was there evidence for a longer-term relationship, evidenced either by marriage [2] or a relationship in two consecutive movies 3], [4], [5], [6. More often, the relationship was brief with little time for a healthy exchange of sexual history: the presence of a clock in the background allowed us to estimate the time-lag between first acquaintance and sexual intercourse at 20 min on one occasion [7]; this interval was presumably even shorter when Bond accidently landed with his parachute on the back deck of a luxury yacht [8]. Importantly, we found irrefutable evidence that preventive measures were not used (or not used adequately) during at least one sexual encounter [6], disproving a recent academic claim that testicular trauma [9] obviated the need for contraceptive measures [10]. Bond clearly belongs to the 20–34% of international travelers who engage in casual sex and of whom approximately half do not use a condom [11]. Somewhat in his defense, Bond has nearly all known risk factors associated with higher frequency of unprotected sex abroad (male, single, younger age, traveling without partner, alcohol and tobacco use etc.). That casual sex is not without risk appears supported by the high mortality rate (27.1%; 95% CI 16.4–40.3) among Bond's sexual partners, although sexually transmitted infections played no obvious role in any of their deaths.

2. The man with the golden gut: food safety and infections

With diarrhea the most common cause of travel-associated morbidity 12], [13], [14], [15 one would expect Bond to take precautions to prevent food-borne infections. On this front, however, Bond is woefully uneducated. On only two occasions is he seen to wash his hands, once after a meal [4] and once after killing an opponent in a mud bath [16]. Sometimes there are mitigating circumstances for his lack of basic hygiene. In the Louisiana bayou, Bond is forced to choose between being eaten alive by hungry crocodiles and alligators or handling raw chicken to distract them. In a possibly short-sighted move, he chooses the latter and fails to wash his hands, neglecting both the risk of bacterial infection (Campylobacter, Salmonella or Clostridium) and the lack of toilet facilities during the ensuing boat chase [17]. On other occasions, Bond's frequent proximity to Ernst Stavro Blofeld, and by extension, Blofeld's Persian cat (who together imperil world peace on no less than seven occasions [2,4,5,7,16,18,19]) further underlines the importance of hand-hygiene; in this instance to prevent infection with Toxoplasma gondii via contact with cat faeces. In mice, toxoplasmosis has been linked with a loss of fear of cats [20]; a clever manipulation by the parasite to increase the probability of transmission by ingestion. Although speculative, toxoplasmosis might explain Bond's often foolhardy courage in the face of life-threatening danger.

Food safety also appears to take a backseat to Bond's appetites. He regularly eats unwashed fruit 7], [21],[7], [21 despite bacteria thriving on fruit skins, and repeatedly risks vibriosis, norovirus and hepatitis infection by eating uncooked oysters [18], [19]. In Japan, Bond abandons his oysters when his female companion indicates that she is uninterested in sexual intercourse [18]. His appreciation of shellfish is clearly linked with the conception that oysters are an aphrodisiac; an idea that has received some support from rodent studies, but one which overlooks the less-than-arousing side-effects of acute diarrhea [22]. It should also be noted that champagne is highly unlikely to inactivate vibrio bacteria [19,23].

While Bonds lifestyle can be considered unhealthy when it comes to his level of alcohol consumption 24], [25],[24], [25 occasionally his dependence on alcohol may bring other risks. In Turkey, he tries to disinfect a colleague's wound with local Raki [4]. While 70% ethanol is regularly used as disinfectant, there are no studies to our knowledge demonstrating the efficacy of grape-based distillates for cleaning wounds [26]. After applying the bottle to the wound, Bond takes a healthy glug. While ingestion of blood plays a negligible role in the transmission of bloodborne diseases like hepatitis B, hepatitis C, humane T-lymphotropic virus and HIV, Bond may want to err on the side of caution, given the association between excessive alcohol use and the presence of oral mucosal lesions that may facilitate pathogen transmission [27].

3. A flu to a kill: air and droplet borne diseases

While Bond was traveling to Japan (1967) shortly after the H2N2 pandemic (1957–1958), his actions were at odds with knowledge on the different modes of respiratory virus transmission. Bond regularly joined crowds without social distancing [1,2,[4], [5], [6], [7],9,21,[28], [29], [30], [31], [32], [33], [34], [35]] including on public transport [4,5,34]. More worryingly, in an attempt at disguise Bond covered his face and mouth with a facemask used recently by another person [18]. Given that the SARS-CoV2 virus can be detected on surgical masks for a week after exposure [36], there is every reason to believe that also other respiratory viruses can survive on the fabric. To his credit, Bond wears apparently clean masks on other occasions: industrial safety masks will have provided some level of protection from pathogen transmission on three occasions [1,8,32], once from an international group of visitors at a cocaine laboratory [32]. These industrial masks are better suited to personal protection than the Dias de los Muertos mask with unknown particle filtering capacity that Bond wore on the crowded streets of Mexico City [5].

A de novo synthesized virus, intended as efficient biological weapon, illustrated both the importance and frailty of hand hygiene in preventing pathogen transmission. Despite the infected person refusing to shake hands, resulting in the uncomfortable estrangement also experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic [37], an unnoteworthy touch nevertheless results in pathogen transmission with fatal consequences [6].

4. The fly who loved me: arthropod-borne diseases

Despite ongoing transmission of malaria, dengue and chikungunya in several of Bond's destinations, respectively e.g. in Bahamas [7], Jamaica [3], and India [35], he fails to take even the most basic precautions against insect bites and is sometimes misled by local wisdom. In Jamaica, a recent acquaintance recommends the use of salt water to fend off day-biting mosquitoes (presumably Aedes – vector of the recent pandemic outbreak of dengue, causing a local epidemic in 1960) [3]. Whilst persuasive on other fronts, his companion has no obvious credentials in the field of medical entomology and the use of an insecticide with proven efficacy, for example a protective dose of diethyltoluamide (DEET) [38], would have been recommended. On a later mission in Japan, where Japanese Encephalitis (genus Flavivirus) is prevalent, Bond not only sleeps with open windows but also ignores the buzz of a questing mosquito during an inspection of an aeronautically more interesting single-seat helicopter [18].

After a close shave with an industrial laser at the hands of Auric Goldfinger, Bond knows far too well that such a device can have deadly utility [31]. No doubt he and Q-branch would be interested to learn that laser technology was recently piloted against flying mosquitoes. Until Bond's watch is fitted out with similar insect targeting tech, malaria prophylaxis is probably recommended during his frequent trips to malarious areas (11 across his career to date) [1,5,8,9,21,30,35,39,40]. Bonds drinking habits may be a double-edged sword in his efforts to avoid vector borne disease. Alcohol consumption has been shown to increase the concentration of volatiles attractive to female Anopheles mosquitoes [41], thereby increasing his likelihood of infection; on the other hand, alcohol consumption may inhibit Plasmodium growth rates at levels attainable with (albeit excessive) human consumption [42]. No doubt Bond will continue striving to balance these opposing forces.

On several occasions, Bond displays uncharacteristic altruism by exploding potential mosquito breeding sites in at least five areas with important vector-borne disease transmission [1,3,17,18,33]. Whilst flammable substances such as kerosene, petrol and engine oils were once widely deployed to target breeding mosquitoes, they were deployed to starve insect populations of oxygen, not to be lit on fire. In this regard, while Bond should be applauded for his public health efforts, his actions were a little over enthusiastic.

On other missions, Bond's actions appear risk averse. On a long hike in Japan through tall grasslands where ticks (transmitting various pathogens including tick-borne encephalitis virus) and chigger mites (Trombiculidae; transmitting Orientia tsutsugamushi bacteria) may be abundant, he adheres to the recommendations for avoiding bites by wearing long-trousers [18]. Though we doubt it was intentional, Bond is also likely to have benefitted from his partners relative lack of clothing; in a choice between hosts, a bathing suit provides far greater opportunities for successful blood-feeding.

5. Dr nope: other vector borne diseases and neglected tropical diseases

Of course, not all infectious disease vectors are arthropods. In Istanbul, Turkey, Bond is accompanied by a swarm of rats during a short boat trip though the Basilica Cistern [4]. CDC travel advice strongly recommends that contact with water contaminated by rat urine be avoided to prevent potential Leptospira infection [43], while Bond is seen handling wet boats rope. In India, Bond is attacked by a leech, known carriers of Aeromonas veronii that can sporadically causes bacteremia and sepsis [44]. He removes the blood-feeding animal with his lighter, inadvertently increasing the likelihood of it regurgitating its gut contents into his bloodstream.

Bond also honors the name of Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) when walking barefoot on Caribbean beaches [37], thereby risking the parasitic skin disease cutaneous larva migrans caused by hookworm larvae and tungiasis by penetrating sand fleas, and ignoring an aggressive and potentially rabid stray dog while joining a colleague in an improvised shower in urban Vietnam [39] where rabies is highly endemic [45] and a substantial risk for travellers [46]. In 2017, snakebite envenoming returned to the list of NTDs and each year leads to clinical illness in 1.8–2.7 million people of whom 81,000–138,000 die from complications. CDC advice is to back away slowly from snakes and avoid contact. This advice seems ingrained in Bond's mind. In India [35], Bond effectively ignores a snake crawling over his leg. His calmness probably saves him there but on another occasion it brings danger to a large crowd of bystanders when Bond starts a cheerful conversation with a snake charmer while releasing a cobra (Naja naja) onto a busy street market [35]. Some of the more dangerous-looking snake encounters are in fact misleading. In the Caribbean [17], Bond encounters several dangerous looking snakes (Emerald tree boas or Corallus caninus and Speckled Kingsnake Lampropeltis getula holbrooki) that are neither venomous nor endemic to the Caribbean islands. The Speckled Kingsnake that meets its end by a deadly combination of a cigar and flammable shaving foam spray is actually a common household pet.

6. Tomorrow in the skies: the problem of poor travel preparation

This is the first study to comprehensively review James Bond's occupational exposure to infectious disease. While our findings indicate that standard occupational health risks (correctly adjusted computer screen, decent lumbar support, etc.) are not his major concern, we report on a worrying level of exposure to infectious diseases while traveling (Fig. 1). Importantly, these risks come on top of those related to Bonds extreme lifestyle or substance abuse (e.g. smoking [47] and excessive drinking [24,25] that have been reviewed elsewhere). Some of these travel-associated health risks deserve mention. Bond is often observed to go diving, for instance, but pays little heed to technical advice for avoiding the potentially lethal side-effects. Decompression sickness can be prevented by a slow ascent from deep waters; this is unlikely to be compatible with being ejected from a submarine from a torpedo chamber [18,29]. An often-overlooked health concern for Bond is his level of hydration. Alcoholic beverages, shaken or stirred, do not prevent dehydration, which is a major concern given the extremes of physical activity he goes to, often in warm climates. On only three occasions was Bond observed drinking non-alcoholic drinks: orange juice [4], coffee [3], and salt water [9], of which the latter is particularly unhelpful in maintaining fluid balance. Heat and sun-stroke will only compound these risks, and Bond's dressing habits are often inappropriate for warm weather [3,4,9] and can be extremely erratic: on a mission in Egypt he wears a full Arabic thobe on one occasion only to withstand the blazing sun in black tie on the next [28]. Needless to say, Bond is never observed applying sunscreen, though he does wear sunglasses on 18 occasions [4,5,7,9,21,29,30,33,34,48].

Fig. 1

Fig. 1. James Bond's exposure to infectious diseases and other relevant travel-associated risks. Depicted are travel related health threats experienced by James Bond during 86 international journeys involving 47 geographically identifiable countries. Health risks are presented in frequency of total observations in the following categories: Food safety (dark green), Air and droplet borne viruses (yellow), Vector borne & Neglected tropical diseases (brown), Health and safety (purple), Sexual health (blue), Exposure to animals (red), and Diseases (light green). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)

Overall, we found Bond poorly prepared for travel-associated health risks and particularly naïve to the threat of infectious disease. Despite the increased availability of online travel advice, Bond's risk of acquiring infectious diseases unfortunately did not decline in recent missions [6]. This may be associated with a perceived low risk of infection while traveling [49]; to more forgiving readers, the abundance of other threats may often classify as mitigating circumstances. His lack of preparation is not helped by frequent short notice travel. On one occasion he was notified 3 h and 22 min prior to a flight to the Caribbean [3], which is too short for proper health advice. Providing appropriate pre-travel advice is a clear responsibility of the employer. Given the central role that agents with the double 0 status have in international counter-terrorism activities, we sincerely hope that MI6 will take its responsibility seriously. We only live once.


Funding
There was no specific funding for this project. Given the futility of its academic value, this is deemed entirely appropriate by all authors.

CRediT authorship contribution statement
Wouter Graumans and Teun Bousema conceived the idea; together with Will J.R. Stone they wasted their evening hours examining the films. All three authors analyzed data and wrote the initial draft; Will J.R. Stone designed the graphic. All listed authors meet authorship criteria, agree that there is no intellectual content whatsoever and endorsed the final version of the manuscript.
Declaration of competing interest

All authors declare no conflict of interest.

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CommanderRoss

Well done!

RichardTheBruce

Emerging Tech
The Tamagotchi Effect: How digital
pets shaped the tech habits of a
generation

See the complete article here:

https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/how-tamagotchi-shaped-tech/

Luke Dormehl | May 29, 2019

Xavier Rossi/Getty Images

Tamagotchis, the virtual pets that were the obsession of kids and the scourge of many parents and teachers in the late 1990s, are back. This July, a new generation of devices, priced at $59.99, will make their debut: desperately trying to carve out a corner of a gadget market infinitely more crowded than the one of 20-something years ago.

Targeting a new generation of digital natives sometimes referred to as “iGen,” it remains to be seen whether these new Tamagotchis can become close to the cultural phenomenon they were before. However, for older users, the return of so-called “Tamas” is a welcome dose of technological nostalgia.

For a lot of people reading this, Tamagotchis helped shape their views on technology; potentially covering everything from social media to smart devices. Who knew these strange egg-shaped devices were so influential?

Getty Images

The aliveness of a Tamagotchi
“Is my Tamagotchi alive?” Some variation of this question lit up grade school playgrounds everywhere in 1997; the year Bill Clinton was sworn in for his second term as President, the first Harry Potter book was published, and an oddball handheld digital pet went on sale in the United States and ended up selling, at its peak, a reported 15 units every minute in the U.S. and Canada.

A Tamagotchi was, by design, supposed to simulate aliveness
— complete with the messy realities that come with owning a
pet

Tamagotchis (a mash-up of the Japanese words for “egg” and “watch”) were not, kids realized, really alive in the same way as a parent, sibling, or even a family pet. But, like some kind of digital life remix of Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment, they also weren’t not alive. On a spectrum of aliveness, a Tamagotchi seemed less alive than a flesh-and-blood creature but more alive than, say, a family computer or even a beloved games console. It was “alive enough.”

In being so classified, Tamagotchis represented an important development in tech history. Researchers had been noticing since the 1980s that a large number of people attributed some level of mind to a personal computer. However, this was in a more abstract sense, such as our amazement that a programmed opponent in a computer game might beat us.

A Tamagotchi was, by design, supposed to simulate aliveness — complete with the messy realities of pooping, exercising, eating and other biological requirements that no self-respecting PC ever thrust upon its owners. It was helpless without its users and, in return for our raising it, an emotional bond was formed.

Parents might have scoffed at the idea, but many subconsciously bought into it, too. Case in point: Some of my friends were given Tamagotchis as “training wheels” to prove they were responsible enough to look after a real animal.

The tricky subject of death
The question of the aliveness of a Tamagotchi was never more painfully articulated than when, by any metric, your Tama was no longer among the living. For a generation, Tamagotchis were among their first experiences of death: something which could, and did, result in a protracted mourning period among users. Alan Turing, one of the fathers of artificial intelligence, suggested that we judge the intelligence of a computer by whether it can trick a human into thinking they are conversing with another person. Should we, then, attribute a level of aliveness to a comparatively rudimentary program that is nonetheless able to provoke real tears and sadness in a human?

“I left him in my room and when I came back he was dead.”

The death of a Tamagotchi was made all the more painful by the knowledge that you, the user, had likely played a part in their death. While older Tamas could die of natural causes, far more likely was the fact that you had not properly cared for them.

Unlike even your family pet, which your parents looked after, Tamagotchi owners were made to shoulder the guilty burden of knowing that they alone had been responsible for the death of their pet by not being there to feed them or clean them when they needed it the most.

Even today there remains — in the flickering GIF candlelight of forgotten internet websites, where the piped-in funeral music comes in MIDI form — several Tamagotchi “cemeteries” where bereft owners can share their sorry tales with a sympathetic audience.

A cemetery for Tamagotchis. Getty Images

“Here lie proud and honored Tamagotch’s [sic],” reads one such website. “Please keep noise to a minimum and respect their rest. If u are and unfortunate owner [sic] and have lost your beloved Tamagotchi please make your way to our undertaker who will attend to all your needs.” (The “undertaker” in question is an online form, allowing bereft vpet owners to tell the world the name, age, and cause of death of their beloved Tama. They also have space to write a brief obituary and, if desired, can email over a photo. Sadly, the email address no longer appears to be active.)

Such things may seem odd in the cold light of 2019, when the owners of Jimmy (cause of death: “[dropped] it and it made a weird beep sound”) and Toe-Tam (“I left him in my room and when I came back he was dead”) are presumably grown-up soccer moms, accountants, and corporate lawyers. But it shouldn’t do. Tamagotchis raised some big questions about artificial life. We didn’t realize it at the time, but our little plastic egg-shaped devices were giving us a crash course in A.I. ethics.
How did Tamagotchis change the world?

A little over 20 years after Tamagotchis made their debut, their influence remains widespread. In Japan, there are stories of young men, known as Otaku, who conduct text message-based romantic relationships with virtual girlfriends on handheld devices.

Is it a coincidence that kids growing up obseessed with
Tamagotchis graduated to obsessing over social media?

As the cultural theorist Dominic Pettman writes in his essay “Love in the Time of Tamagotchi,” Otaku are fully aware that the object of their affections is not, strictly speaking, real. “But this does not diminish the erotic charge and psychological impact of the text- messages they receive in response to their SMS courtship,” Pettman observes.

To these users, the demands for a virtual relationship has graduated from the caring paternal or maternal relationship enjoyed with a Tamagotchi to a more adult relationship built around other desires (and hopefully with less cleaning up of poop.)

Most of us, of course, haven’t gone down this route — but the Otaku are not distinct from us; they just take things one step further. The attachments that users formed with their Tamas may have laid the groundwork for our willingness to go out in droves and invest in cute Roomba vacuum cleaners and robot pets, in addition to smart “always listening” speakers like Google Home and the Apple HomePod. Tamagotchis helped to lay the groundwork for artificial beings which are viewed as pets — or even friends.

Aibo, the robot dog. Dan Baker/Digital Trends

Some companies have run with this idea. For example, Microsoft’s Xiaoice is a massively popular A.I. assistant with a personality modeled on that of a teenage girl, which communicates predominantly through text messages. In addition to answering queries, Xiaoice can tell jokes, compose poems and songs, tell stories, play games, and more. Not only did Tamas introduce us to the antecedent of such tools, it taught us to accept digital entities which didn’t necessarily look like anything recognizably living. Unlike cuddly Furbies, which enjoyed an explosion of popularity at much the same time as Tamagotchis, there was nothing inherently cute about the hard plastic form factor of a Tama.

Tamagotchis might have helped prepare us for the world of social media, too. Is it causation or simply correlation that the kids who grew up obsessing over Tamagotchis graduated to obsessing over social media? Is there really all that much of a difference between rushing to tend to the attention-grabbing beeps and instructive icons of a virtual pet and tending to the similar demands of social media users, many of whom we may not even know in real life? Both Tamas and social media require frequent tokenistic interactions (feeding, watering, “liking” holiday and baby pictures) to keep the relationship going if it is to continue living. Tamagotchis were among the first to capitalize on these strange biological quirks of the brain, rewarding dopamine-driven feedback loops of regular reward.

“Being able to marry your character with your friend’s
[Tamagotchi character] without a cable really blew me away at
the time.”

Finally, they acclimated us to a world in which carrying around devices wherever we go is the norm. Most devices are designed to fit into our existing lives, which used to mean waiting until we wanted to use them. Tamagotchis disrupted this natural order. Mealtimes were broken and classes interrupted. At the height of Tamagotchi fever, there were reports of Japanese businessmen cancelling meetings so as to be able to feed their Tamas at the right time. An airline passenger allegedly disembarked her flight and vowed never to fly with that airline again, after being told that she must turn off her Tamagotchi: something that would have had the result of resetting it.

Today, the kids who were pre-teens when Tamagotchis made their debut are in their late twenties or into their thirties. They are almost all smartphone owners, and many likely contribute to the 73% of adults who report experiencing anxiety if they are temporarily separated from their phones. They most likely do not question a world in which our availability at all times is almost assumed. The distracting beeps of Tamas have been replaced by the vibrating of a smartphone in the pocket.

Don’t call it a comeback
All of which brings about the (potentially) billion dollar question: Will the next generation of Tamagotchi succeed? This isn’t the first time that such a comeback has been staged. In the mid-2000s, Tamagotchis returned with the “Tamagotchi Connection” series of devices. These upped the level of pseudo-aliveness, and further blurred the line between the real and digital worlds, by adding more interactions, such as the ability to interact with your friend’s Tamas in a way that simply wasn’t possible the first time around.
A 10-year old shows off his Tamagotchi Connection

In the mid-2000s, Bandai released the
Tamagotchi Connection, which introduced
new features like infrared technology that
could connect two Tamagotchi pets,
allowing them to play games, exchange
presents, and give birth to offspring.
Paul Irish/Getty Images

“My intro to Tamagotchi was through my older sibling,” Crystal Koziol, one of the hosts of Tama Tea, a Tamagotchi-themed podcast, told Digital Trends. “I later got my own V2 and became obsessed with ‘connection culture.’ Being able to marry your character with your friend’s without a cable really blew me away at the time.”

But Koziol doesn’t necessarily hold out too much hope for the return — at least not in terms of attracting new users. “Simply put: no,” she said. “I think a comeback for the brand is possible, but I think the time for a huge vpet resurgence, as influential as the original, may have passed. Western children play with toys less these days, and with a price point so high parents may opt for cheaper ‘higher entertainment value’ items at the same price, like a video game. A Tamagotchi comeback of any sort is probably most wanted, and would be supported by, nostalgia-fueled adults.”

Koziol’s co-host, Destiny Carroll, agrees to some extent. “I don’t think Tamagotchis will ever have the same craze that they did in the 90s, considering the new technology that kids play with today,” she said. “Tamagotchi fit into that society so well back then — but I definitely think there’s a smaller place for them now as well, with people who grew up with them or smaller children.”

Regardless of how the comeback goes, however, Tamagotchis have had a lasting impact that helped shape our use of technology. In the coming years, that influence may only become more apparent.

Even if, as Koziol predicts, the 2019 Tama comeback amounts to little more than a chance for thirty-somethings to atone for that time they left their digital pets to starve to death, back when they were in grade school.

Tamagotchi Commercial

RichardTheBruce

INNOVATION
Keeping Tamagotchi Alive

See the complete article here:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/keeping-tamagotchi-alive-180979264/

The virtual pet that turned ‘90s kids into round-the-clock caretakers turned 25 this year
Michelle Delgado | | Contributing Writer | December 22, 2021

In 2017, the original Tamagotchi was relaunched on the 20th anniversary of its original U.S. release.
Chesnot/Getty Images

Dani Bunda vividly remembers when she and her older sister bought their Tamagotchis at the mall. “We sat in the dressing room and pretended we were alien catchers—and we’d just found these eggs,” Bunda, now 27, recalls.

In the weeks that followed, Bunda says her mother became the “ultimate Tamagotchi grandparent,” tending the needy, beeping virtual pets during tennis lessons and school days. With proper feeding, attention and discipline, Tamagotchis grow through unique life cycles, developing personalities that reflect the care they receive.

The palm-sized, egg-shaped toys, with black and white pixelated screens and a handy keychain, were a self-contained universe—one that included happy moments and melancholy ones alike.“I remember, very clearly, standing in the kitchen when my sister found out that her Tamagotchi died, and just how traumatic that was for her,” Bunda says. Players quickly learned to modify their games, extending their virtual pets’ lives by removing the toy’s batteries or using pencil graphite to trigger a debugging signal.

Tamagotchi in its original package from the 1990s Arterra/Getty Images

When Tamagotchi—which turned 25 this November—first launched in the U.S., Wired dismissed the toy, claiming it “borrowed all the gimmickry of 1970s' Pet Rock kitsch and gave it a digital facelift.” Yet within a year of its release, the toy became a billion-dollar global sensation. At the peak of the Tamagotchi craze, stores sold out in hours and scammers preyed on shoppers’ desperation, charging marked-up prices for coupons that could never be redeemed.

Today, many of the ‘90s kids who were once scolded for surreptitiously tending their Tamagotchi during class are rediscovering their nostalgia for the toy’s unique gameplay and endlessly collectible variations. To date, Japanese toy company Bandai has released more than 60 additional Tamagotchi toys, games and apps, including collaborations with franchises such as Pac-Man, Pokémon and Godzilla. In 2017, the original Tamagotchi was relaunched on the 20th anniversary of its original U.S. release. And 2021 has seen multiple new Tamagotchi drops, including a Tamagotchi smartwatch that launched in Japan in June and the Tamagotchi Pix, a camera-equipped handheld device with a color screen that arrived in North America in July.

Dani Bunda is an active member of Tamagotchi Facebook groups, where she helps fellow fans price their collections and spot scams. Courtesy of Dani Bunda

Most toys experience ebbs and flows of popularity, and Tamagotchi is no different. But online, a dedicated fan base has remained steadily devoted. Bunda is an active member of Tamagotchi Facebook groups, where she helps fellow fans price their collections and spot scams. Sometimes, players start “group hatches,” meaning they start a new Tamagotchi at the same time and share updates of their progress. “It’s so fun,” she says. She also regularly posts videos to her YouTube channel, where she helps thousands of subscribers translate Japanese Tamagotchis.

The Birth of Tamagotchi
The story of Tamagotchi began in the Toshima City ward of northwest Tokyo, when toy executive Akihiro Yokoi was struck by inspiration. As Yokoi explained to the New York Times, the jolt came from an advertisement in which a boy wasn’t allowed to bring his pet turtle on vacation. An owner of “a dog, three cats, two parrots, and several beetles and other insects,” Yokoi identified with the boy’s longing. If it wasn’t always possible to take living pets along, he reasoned, why not bring a virtual one?

The origin story has an apocryphal quality. Was the advertisement selling turtles? Vacations? Did it exist at all? “No matter where I look I cannot find what the TV commercial was about or even if there was such [a] commercial in the first place,” one Redditor complained just a year ago.

Different models of Tamagotchi in 1997 Xavier ROSSI / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Regardless, Yokoi was president of Wiz Co., Ltd., a creative firm where 42 employees, most in their early 20s, designed and pitched toy concepts to larger companies. Handheld games had been around since Mattel launched single-game consoles in 1977—but early portable consoles were too expensive for most players, says cultural historian Carly Kocurek, who specializes in new media technologies and video gaming at the Illinois Institute of Technology. “It had gotten a lot more affordable to make inexpensive, small electronics,” Kocurek explains.

In 1977, the Atari 2600 was a major purchase at $199.99—the equivalent of $917.21 today. By 1989, Nintendo’s Game Boy retailed for $89.99, or $201.71 when adjusted for inflation. A major element of Tamagotchis’ popularity was the fact that at $15 to $17 apiece practically anyone could afford to purchase one. Coupled with the success of the single-player Petz video games in 1995, Tamagotchi’s simple technology—a black and white LCD screen, a tiny battery and a few rudimentary buttons—was designed for mass production, laying the groundwork for what would become a golden age of virtual pets.

Yokoi contacted Aki Maita, who worked on marketing at Bandai, next. Though it was well-established as Japan’s leading toy company, Bandai had struggled to gain a foothold in American toy stores until 1993, when its Mighty Morphin Power Rangers became a surprise hit at the North American International Toy Fair, a major trade show held annually in New York since 1903. Working with Maita and Wiz Co.’s staff, Yokoi initially envisioned the toy as a wearable wristwatch and dubbed it Tamagotchi—a mash-up of tamago (egg) and uotchi (watch)—but later switched to a keychain design. During one memorable meeting, a designer quickly sketched a blobby character, and it stuck.

Then came the gameplay. Tamagotchi was programmed to evolve in response to the player’s caretaking decisions. The device would beep at real-time intervals, demanding that the player feed, clean up and even discipline the pet. Proper parenting would result in a well-mannered adult Tamagotchi, while inattention would result in a delinquent. And just like a real animal, if ignored, a Tamagotchi would die—triggering a tombstone in Japanese versions of the game, or a euphemism about returning to its home planet for Americans.

Within weeks of Tamagotchi’s U.S. release—enough time for players to experience the game’s love and loss—some parents became unsettled by their children’s hysterical tears or sudden depression upon their virtual pets’ deaths. "The toy creates a real sense of loss and a mourning process," Andrew Cohen, a psychologist at the Dalton School in Manhattan, told the New York Times in 1997. "Kids want to nurture and take care of pets—it gives them a feeling of empowerment and self-importance—but here the consequences are too high. It's out of control."

But to Kocurek, there’s no reason that play can’t include elements of grief, loss or other complicated emotions. “Children experience a huge range of human emotions,” Kocurek points out. “I think sometimes we forget that they're people, and they're not just simple and happy all the time. They actually have complex emotional lives, just like everyone else.”

Maita championed the toy to Bandai’s skeptical salespeople. “Their reaction was dull, like, 'What's so fun about this?'” Maita later told the New York Times. “In fact, we had difficulty marketing it to toy shops. Not all of them placed orders with us.” But in focus groups, Japanese teen girls—“the marketing pulse of the nation”—loved it.

The girls’ taste proved right. In less than six months, Bandai sold 5 million Tamagotchi in Japan. The toy sold out so quickly that Japanese shoppers began camping outside toy stores or shelling out hundreds on the resale market. In March 1997, Bandai announced that it would gift a Tamagotchi to anyone who owned 1,000 shares of its stock—and the price leapt by 60 yen the next day.

Tamagotchi was released on May 1, 1997. San Francisco’s F.A.O. Schwartz sold its entire stock of 3,000 by 3:00 p.m. By noon the next day, the department store’s New York flagship had sold its initial 10,000 Tamagotchi, too. Rick Maiman/Getty Images

In the U.S., Tamagotchi was an instant hit. On the first day of sales, May 1, 1997, San Francisco’s F.A.O. Schwartz sold its entire stock of 3,000 by 3:00 p.m. By noon the next day, the department store’s New York flagship had sold its initial 10,000 Tamagotchi, too. Tamagotchi quickly became a hot toy around the globe, with sales increasing to more than 70 million by September across Japan, China, Europe and the United States. Yokoi and Maita were awarded the satirical Ig Nobel Prize that year, “for turning millions of work hours into lost time taking care of virtual pets.”

Tamagotchi’s universal popularity occurred in spite of the way the toy was marketed to consumers. “When Tamagotchi was first released, it was marketed to girls—really aggressively,” Kocurek says. “There’s all kinds of assumptions about who wants to do caretaking play that aren’t necessarily born out.” Though children of all genders clamored for Tamagotchi, these same stereotypes persist today. Kocurek cites Diner Dash as a classic example of a game that, like Tamagotchi, focused on intense time and resource management—and was primarily marketed to women.

Beyond its marketing, Tamagotchi was also relentlessly present, building a fear of missing out directly into the gameplay. “Tamagotchi is premised on you being available in an ongoing way—which is really different from a lot of other types of games and play,” Kocurek says.

Today, Collectors Keep Tamagotchi Alive
The average lifespan of a well-cared for Tamagotchi is about 12 days—and like the virtual pet itself, the Tamagotchi was a relatively short-lived fad among American shoppers. Furbies, the fuzzy bird-like robot toys supposedly capable of learning human speech, overtook Tamagotchi by the following holiday season.

Though the toy industry continued to churn out other trends, some players never stopped paying attention to Tamagotchi. To outsiders, caring for a virtual pet might seem like a lonely endeavor—but for collectors and fans, it’s easy to find community online. On TamaTalk, for example, approximately 96,000 members gather online to trade gameplay tips and commemorate past pets through obituaries.

Jordan, who streams on Twitch under the handle Rozoken and asked to go by first name only, has been following Tamagotchi’s new releases since 1997. “I started collecting a lot more as an adult, because I got involved in the community and I would learn about all of the special Japanese releases,” he says. Today, his collection has grown to include more than 200 Tamagotchis, including rarities that were never released in the U.S. He’s even tracked down Japanese wall-mounted store models that once dispensed exclusive digital downloads. “Usually, those wouldn't end up in the public's hands, but quite a few times, they do,” he says. “Those are really cool collection pieces.”

On eBay, vintage Tamagotchi prices vary wildly, from $1.50 for an original Tamagotchi to a $5,000 Mobile Kaitsu! Tamagotchi Plus that ships from Tokyo. But Bunda says the barrier to entry is surprisingly low for collectors—especially among collectors in Facebook communities. “Genuine Tamagotchi are usually $20 to maybe upwards of $150, depending on the shell,” she says. “Some people might pay more, if it's new in the box.”

That may change as Bandai continues to cash in on ‘90s nostalgia. Bunda has noticed new members joining her Facebook groups in droves, and Jordan says he’s seen a spike in interest, too. “It was pretty shocking, actually,” he says. He had recently completed a major milestone of his collection—owning one of every specific version of Tamagotchi, in Japanese and English—when “everything at least doubled in price.”

The pandemic may be behind some of this, as people seek comfort in nostalgia and find ways to occupy themselves at home. But Bunda and Jordan also point out that Tamagotchi’s steady drip of new releases and relaunches renews its popularity. Though vintage Tamagotchis grow scarcer each year, it’s still easy to walk into any box store with a toy aisle and discover a brand-new Tamagotchi for around $20. In this way, Tamagotchi has achieved the kind of immortality awarded to toys that transcend their one big moment.

“Life isn't as magical as it was when I was a kid,” Bunda says. “But playing Tamagotchi—and buying more Tamagotchi—brings that magic into my life.”

Michelle Delgado is a D.C.-based freelance journalist whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, CityLab, Literary Hub, and other national and local outlets.
Electronics Inventions Toys

CommanderRoss

Yes, I remember that. I distinctly remember the pointlessness of these toys. The Facebook of its day.

Thunderfinger

CommanderRoss wrote: »

Yes, I remember that. I distinctly remember the pointlessness of these toys. The Facebook of its day.

Or "the news".

RichardTheBruce

Adding broccoli powder to coffee—A new taste sensibility

See the complete article here:

https://improbable.com/2018/12/11/adding-broccoli-powder-to-coffee-a-new-taste-sensibility/

December 11, 2018 Marc Abrahams

“Green, nutrient-rich coffees may be on the horizon after researchers have developed a powder made from imperfect-looking broccoli that would have previously been wasted,” says a press release sent out earlier this year by CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency. Mary Ann Augustin is the lead researcher on the experiment.

https://www.csiro.au/en/News/News-releases/2018/Broccoli-lattes-could-be-a-thing

Ashitha Nagesh wrote an essay about this for BBC3, with the headline: “Broccoli coffee: the new health trend nobody asked for—Please don’t make us drink this.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/989382d2-8f51-40af-9756-b057a76dde53
(Thanks to Vaughn Tan for bringing this to our attention.)

Broccoli and coffee may be an unusual combination, but so was the combination some decades ago of Broccoli and James Bond, which turned out to be appetizing and lucrative for many people.

BONUS: For an even more full-bodied experience, consult the 1990 University of Copenhagen study “Cytochrome P450 IA2 activity in man measured by caffeine metabolism: effect of smoking, broccoli and exercise.”
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4684-5877-0_55

RichardTheBruce

Failed hitman uses James Bond-style machine gun hidden behind
license plate

See the complete article here:

By Daniel Beekman and LEE MORAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
Jul 26, 2013 at 1:52 PM

Radovan Krejcir shrugged off the attack.
"All my life is like James Bond stuff. This is how I live my life," he said.
(Eyewitness News via YouTube)

James Bond, eat your heart out. This real-life car had a license plate to kill.

Remote-control guns rigged behind the license plate of a parked car opened fire on the bullet-proof Mercedes-Benz of a reputed mobster in an assassination attempt this week.

Then the gadget-equipped murder-mobile burst into flames.

The astounding attack, carried out Wednesday in treacherous Johannesburg, South Africa was tailor-made for the silver screen.

In the James Bond movie "Goldfinger," 007 drives a slick Aston Martin DB5 with gun barrels behind its front indicator lights.

But the possible attempt to kill Radovan Krejcir, a Czech fugitive linked to underworld figures in South Africa, was very, very real.

The fusillade from the Bond-like car, a stolen Volkswagen Polo, riddled Krejcir's black Mercedes coupe with impact marks.

“Somebody had a remote control, and when he saw me somewhere from a close distance and
I was walking out, he just pressed the remote control and the bullets went out," Krejcir said.
(Eyewitness News via YouTube)

The European outlaw — who moved to South Africa from the Seychelles in 2007 on a false passport stamped with the name Egbert Jules Savy — had just parked and was walking away when the shots rang out, local reports said.

It was an accurate attack, had Krejcir been in the car: about 10 bullets hit the driver's window.

Krejcir said he heard a loud noise, like firecrackers or a bomb.

"I was talking on the phone and looking what happened, but I thought it was firecrackers," the chunky Czech told local media outlet EyeWitness News on video in heavily-accented English.

When authorities took a look at the Volkswagen, they found a dozen shotgun barrels, some melted by the shooting, attached to the chassis of the burnt-out chassis.

Police are now investigating the incident, with eyes on Johannesburg turf wars and potential plotters from the Czech Republic.

Police think the attack might be linked to a turf war in the city's criminal underworld
or figures from Krejcir's homeland.
(Eyewitness News via YouTube)

No arrests have yet been made.

Perhaps Krecjir set up the attack himself, wanting the world to believe it was an attempt on his life, a South Africa-based security consultant said in a radio report.

His lawyer said Krecjir is shaken. "He's in shock. He's had a close shave," Classen told The Independent, a British newspaper.

But the shadowy figure at the heart of the outlandish episode, whom the Czechs convicted of tax fraud and sentenced last year to 11 years in prison, appeared amazingly unfazed afterward.

Krecjir shrugged and chuckled while speaking to a video reporter in the parking lot of his gold and diamond exchange business, where the attack occurred.

He is fighting his extradition to the Czech Republic and requesting asylum in South Africa on grounds of political persecution.

The red car sprayed Krejcir’s Mercedes-Benz before exploding.
(Eyewitness News via YouTube)

"What I suspect was that somebody had the remote control and when he saw me somewhere ... and I was walking out he just pressed the remote control and the bullets went out," Krecjir said, noting that he always parks his Mercedes in the same spot.

His lawyer said Krecjir has never been a slay target before and marveled that the attack was something "from a spy novel."

Krecjir, who has been linked to various South African criminal characters, including a strip club owner who was murdered in 2010, seemed less impressed.

He returned to work Thursday, a day after the attack.

"All my life is like James Bond stuff," he told EyeWitness News.

"So it's usual stuff for me ... It's just how I live my life."

RichardTheBruce

Are No Time to Die's designer diseases possible in
real life? The science behind Bond

See the complete article here:

https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/no-time-die-james-bond-nanobot-disease-genetic-real-science

October 20, 2021 | By Cassidy Ward

No Time To Die James Bond Still
Credit: NO TIME TO DIE | Final US Trailer / James Bond 007 YouTube

No Time to Die may have been Daniel Craig's final appearance as James Bond, but it introduced new characters and a terrifying new type of warfare — a weapon that could find its way to the real world with insidious implications.

**Spoilers ahead for No Time to Die**

No Time to Die presents James Bond with a weapon he can't outsmart. Safin (Rami Malek) has obtained access to a novel biological weapon, nanobots which act like a virus, spreading from person to person. They don't kill or even make ill everyone they infect. Instead, they spread until they reach their target, having been programmed to the DNA of a specific person or persons.

It's a wicked type of weapon in the way it makes unwitting accomplices of ordinary people as they carry the disease and pass it along. Nanobots are a favorite of genre fiction for the way they can seemingly do just about anything from making new kinds of form-fitting armor to dismantling people or objects at an atomic level. To date, nanobots don't have anywhere near that sort of functionality. This type of targeted bioweapon, however, might be much more possible as a virus.

BIOWEAPONS
Bioweapons are nothing new. They've been around just about as long as warfare has existed, which is to say a long time. Methods of the past lacked the sort of evil elegance which is possible today, but they weren't any less effective.

Nearly a thousand years ago, Emperor Barbarossa poisoned well water with human corpses. A couple of centuries later, Mongols catapulted plague-infected bodies over the walls and into the Black Sea port in modern-day Ukraine. It's possible ships from that port returned to Italy with the pathogen, jumpstarting the Black Death in Europe, killing millions. European colonists infected indigenous peoples with smallpox through contaminated blankets. Poisons have been used to assassinate individuals since the beginning of recorded history.

The use of biological agents as weapons is so ubiquitous there are animals, like poison dart frogs, who derive their names from the way we've co-opted them as weapons. However, biological warfare is, sadly, not a thing of the past.

The development and use of biological weapons continued through the world wars and the cold war until the enforcement of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) treaty in 1975. Even still, the Soviet Union continued developing biological weapons until its fracturing in 1991.

Research Lab
Credit: Aitor Diago / Getty Images

Today, officially, there are no ongoing biological weapons programs in any of the 190 countries that are signatories to the BWC, but that's difficult if not impossible to validate. There are no verification procedures in place and the nature of biological weapons development is such that it can be done relatively easily, inexpensively, and in secret with materials present in labs all over the world.

As our understanding of pathogens evolved, so too did our ability to develop biological weapons. Now, with the advent of genetics and technologies like CRISPR and other gene-modifying tools, a whole new class of biological weapons is possible.

GENE-SPECIFIC WEAPONS
One of the biggest barriers to crafting bioweapons is access to dangerous pathogens. Pathogens like smallpox are wisely well-protected and exceedingly difficult for researchers to get their hands on. The ubiquity of genetic technologies could overcome those barriers.

In a July 2002 paper published in the journal Science, researchers were able to synthesize the Polio virus from scratch following the known genetic recipe as guidance. This opens up the possibility of reconstituting extinct or uncommon pathogens for use as weapons, or altering existing pathogens to make them more deadly, more transmissible, or resistant to existing treatments. This too was completed by the Soviet Union when they modified anthrax making it resistant to vaccines.

So far as we know, no bioweapons have been developed to target specific genetic markers but the possibility has caused worry enough to spark conversation among government officials, at least as far back as 1997. A Department of Defense news briefing from April of that year includes the following conversation: “There are some reports, for example, that some countries have been trying to construct something like an Ebola Virus, and that would be a very dangerous phenomenon, to say the least. Alvin Toffler has written about this in terms of some scientists in their laboratories trying to devise certain types of pathogens that would be ethnic specific so that they could just eliminate certain ethnic groups and races.”

DNA sequencing gel
Credit: Peter Dazeley / Getty Images

Thousands of viruses have been sequenced, with many of their genomes available to the public online. As sequencing and technology advance and become more affordable, one can imagine how a pathogen might be devised by taking an existing disease and reconfiguring it to favor infection of individuals with specific genetic markers. And there is some research to suggest that could be possible relatively soon.

If it's happened already, no one is publishing papers about it. Such a pathogen would be devastating in its ability to preferentially impact individuals across ethnic lines. The same technology could potentially be taken to an extreme, targeting not ethnic markers but unique individual ones.

A fictional article from The Atlantic outlined a process by which a disease might be constructed, using gene therapy and crowdsourcing, to target a political leader. The larger question perhaps, is why bother? Existing weapons, whether biological, kinetic, or otherwise, are effective enough as they exist today. Crafting a designer disease seems like an awful lot of work for a single individual, especially when other methods exist. Of course, humanity might be best served by getting out of the business of killing one another altogether. Barring that, we should probably quit inventing new ways to do it. Viruses do enough damage without our help.

CommanderRoss

Well the whole idea is to kill as many of the 'others' without losing 'ours'. And that's something we keep on doing as long as we lay power in the hands of single individuals. So even for targeting a single (well protected) target it would certainly be worth it.

RichardTheBruce

BOND: No Time To Die
Clients: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Eon Productions | Category: Design & VFX - Film & Broadcast

See the complete article here:

https://territorystudio.com/project/bond-no-time-to-die/

ACCESS THE VIDEO AT TOP OF PAGE

No Time to Die is the 25th entry in the iconic James Bond franchise, this time 007 must save a kidnapped scientist from a mysterious villain who is in possession of deadly technology.

Territory came onboard very early in the production process, working closely with Director Cary Joji Fukanaga, Production Designer Mark Tildesly and the Art Department during the incredibly tight shooting schedule all the way through to delivering assets for post.

Playing to Territory’s expertise in World-building, we were tasked to envisage complex next-gen technologies all intrinsically linked to the plot and then to conceptualise, design and produce a number of screen graphics and CG elements to support and enhance the narrative through visual story-telling.

Science and Technology
Technology has always had an important role to play in the Bond franchise. Whereas early Bond films championed the use of mechanical weapons technology and digital technology appeared in later Bond films, No Time to Die’s gadgetry and innovation comes from the world of bio and nano tech. For this iteration of the Bond franchise, there were many opportunities to dive into future advances and next-gen technology. These were key to the plot and Cary Fukanaga’s ambition for the technology and science in this film were huge. We were challenged to inform and bring those ambitions to life. Research into nanotechnology, molecular biology, toxin behaviours, AI reconstruction, sonic lidar mapping and XR screen surfaces saw us bolstering our visual approach to the various laboratories and systems we were required to demonstrate.

Heracles (Nanobots Toxin)
One of the biggest challenges was the design of No Time to Die’s ultimate weapon, the Heracles Nanobot. It’s a very specific weapon that plays a critical role in the film’s plot, so this required working closely with Cary to ensure his vision for this genius, but deadly technology was just right.

The team created designs that were informed by research into nanotechnology and molecular building blocks, as well as the ways in which DNA could be organically tagged and detected. As well as creating a view of the virus’s behaviour under microscope view, DNA and toxin research screens were designed for the many laboratories that feature throughout this film.

[MANY MORE IMAGES THROUGH THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE]

C Minus 2
The first of many laboratories we see throughout this film, C Minus 2 is the home to DNA and toxin research and the place where we first meet the nefarious scientist Valdo Obruchev.

Screens throughout this lab consist of security protocols through to otherworldly toxin monitoring – pushing the technology of the screens from flat display surfaces into volumetric containers with a ‘digital skin’. This included an extremely complex story-telling sequence where Obruchev decrypts, downloads and steals the Heracles weapon.

[MANY MORE IMAGES THROUGH THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE]

MI6
Outside of biotech and laboratories, Territory Studio also created screen graphics that featured in the MI6 building and technology used by M and Q. Whilst set in modern-day, there are technologies featured in the Bond franchise that is not only cutting edge, but they’re also near-future premonitions of how technology and UI will develop. Therefore the team researched heavily into AI Image processing, facial recognition mapping and surveillance techniques.

The two main sets in MI6 were the Bullpen which acts as the central nervous system of MI6 and M’s Office which featured heavily in the third act as M monitors Bond’s final mission through communication with Q on the C17.

[MANY MORE IMAGES THROUGH THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE]

Q Tech
Q as the Quartermaster of M16 can essentially see anything and do anything. As such his tech has a little more of a hacker-like aesthetic compared to the rest of MI6. There are three main sets that saw us building Q’s world on screen, his lab in MI6, his home apartment and his mobile lab in the C17 aircraft.

Q's Lab
Q’s Lab has monitors and screens everywhere – designing gliders, testing aerodynamics of cars, developing watches, weapons and more – we glimpse all of what you’d hope to see in this iconic laboratory and more.

[MANY MORE IMAGES THROUGH THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE]

Q's Mobile Lab / C17
The QDAR was one of the key story-telling elements for us to nail in the final action-packed sequence. Once deployed the QDAR maps the interior of Safin’s lair which creates a full visual of the entire facility that Q could then use to guide Bond.

[MANY MORE IMAGES THROUGH THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE]

Q's Apartment
Q’s personal space in which he’s caught off guard by Bond and Moneypenny who urgently need data decrypting and Q’s the only one that can help. We see revelations on the extent of Safin’s weapon and plans played out across military hardware and ultrawide screens.

[MANY MORE IMAGES THROUGH THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE]

Poison Island
In classic Bond villain style, Safin has his own lair, aptly named ‘Poison Island’, on which the final act takes place. Bond and Nomi infiltrate the Island in order to take out Obruchev’s Laboratory. Which is of course situated underground beneath a heavily fortified missile silo where Nanobot technology is being manufactured at a huge scale ready for a global roll out.

Screens seen throughout the lab are monitoring the Nanotechnology and controlling the flow of enzymes and combination processes to produce a stockpile of bots, ready for DNA tagging.

One of the screens in this lab runs simulations on the effect and spread of the weapon and we see the penny drop for Bond and Nomi as to the extent of the weapon’s power.

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This was such an unbelievable opportunity for Territory to take on arguably the best-known franchise in film. Bond is iconic, timeless and unique and these are some of the qualities that we really wanted to bring to our work. It was probably one of the closest working relationships we’ve ever had with a director since the work was so integral to the story, which made it all the more important and challenging.

Andrew Popplestone, Creative Director at Territory Studio

Research and Development
Asked by the director, Cary Joji Fukunaga to develop a wide range of concepts that would help to inform the technology throughout the film and help to tell crucial plot points, the team embarked on a huge research and development process. Cary really wanted to push the notion of ‘next-gen’ technology yet still keep it rooted in real-world believability. This led our research to focus on current cutting edge technologies and then imagining how we might be able to push them further, but of course always with the focus on clarity of story-telling.

MI6 - AI Facial Recognition & Surveillance
Looking at the different real-world processes of how AI sorts, reconstructs, and invents imagery, a clear aesthetic begins to appear that seems universal. A constantly shifting, morphing, artificial and slightly eerie style that we would look to incorporate into our on-screen graphics.

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Organic UI & Digital Skin
One of the ideas we discussed a lot was the notion of ‘liquid ink’ or ‘digital skin’ which is already used in tablets today.

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Toxins & DNA Tagging
Cary loved the sense of ominous depth the ‘digital skin’ aesthetic allowed, particularly when used in the C-Minus 2 lab creating a shadowy unnatural feel for the toxin experiments.

This could then be applied to a translucent “skin” style of screen for the DNA sequences / Toxin UI. So that all UI has an organic/fluid/sinister aesthetic and style of animation. Hinting at an impression of poison running through an organic material within the UI itself.

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Nanobot Development
The task of getting the design of the Nanobot right was quite an epic journey that required huge amounts of research and development but was a lot of fun designing these creepy critters.

Stage 01

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Stage 02

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Stage 03

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RichardTheBruce

‘The World's First True Flying Car' Is in Town

See the complete article here:

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/the-scene/the-worlds-first-true-flying-car-is-in-town/2857894/

The AeroMobil is on view at the Petersen Automotive Museum through the end of March.
By Alysia Gray Painter • Published March 29, 2022 • Updated on March 29, 2022 at 12:07 pm

Petersen Automotive Museum

What to Know

1. The AeroMobil is on view at the Petersen Automotive Museum on the Miracle Mile
2. On view through March 31; included with museum admission
3. The road-to-sky wonder can move from asphalt to the air in under three minutes

When an auto-awesome exhibit rolls into a world-class museum, and it happens to include several iconic vehicles seen in a number of James Bond films, you can count on 007 fans to be both stirred and shaken.

Because when author Ian Fleming's famous fictional spy is nearby, or at least some of the dream machines he's driven? Over-the-top action, super-cool devices, and "can-that-be-real" inventions seem to naturally follow.

Look to the most recent wonder that just pulled into the Petersen Automotive Museum, and when we say "pulled into" we also simultaneously mean "could have actually landed, too."

Meet the eye-popping, straight-out-of-a-movie AeroMobil, billed as "The World's First True Flying Car."

And while the real-world plane car doesn't hail from a James Bond film, you could be forgiven for thinking it has, especially since a large display of Bond-driven vehicles is currently snazzing-up a sizable swath of the mid-city museum.

And the AeroMobil certainly seems like it could have easily emerged from that fantastical, device-saturated cinematic universe, with its sleek wings, dynamic lines, and ultra-plush, gadget-laden interior.

The plane-car, or perhaps car-plane is more apt, is on view through March 31, and your admission to the Miracle Mile auto institution? It gets you into the area where the super-bespoke vehicle, a machine at ease in both the air and on the asphalt, is on display.

Petersen Automotive Museum

But like a machine made for being on the go, the AeroMobil's Los Angeles engagement will be on the quicker side, so act with haste, lovers of innovative ideas.

"An automotive and aviation creation ten years in the making, the AeroMobil’s research and development team includes leading automakers BMW, Aston Martin, McLaren, Mercedes Benz F-1 and Ferrari F-1, and aerospace leaders Lockheed Martin, Rolls Royce, Airbus, and Diamond Aircraft," shares the Petersen.

"It has been engineered and tested in accordance to CS 23 aerospace certification standard."

The numbers only up this wonder's inherent "wowza" factor. The 30-foot wingspan is a jaw-dropper, but so is the fact that the AeroMobil can go from an on-the-road car to an up-in-the-sky plane "in less than three minutes."

Does this exhibit provide an early and enticing peek at a future that so many sci-fi films and speculative novels dreamt about?

The chance to soar above the crowds, into the clouds, when gridlock gets too gridlocky and the vast sky beckons?

For more information on viewing the AeroMobil, the Bond cars, the Ecto-1 from "Ghostbusters," and the "Lowriders and Custom Vault Display," spread your wings and fly over to the Petersen Automotive Museum.

The flying car completes first ever inter-city flight (Official Video)

RichardTheBruce

THE FRAME'S BOND Inventor builds James Bond car with flame
throwers and guns for £7,000

See the complete article here:

https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/14555179/top-gear-james-bond-car/

Sun Reporter | 6 Apr 2021

INVENTOR Colin Furze has built a Bond car with flame throwers at the front and guns at the rear.

Colin, 41, famed for his YouTube shows, created the 007 motor for BBC’s Top Gear, with a budget of £7,000, in five weeks.

Inventor Colin Furze has built a Bond car for BBC’s Top Gear, with a budget of £7,000, in five weeks | Credit: Bav Media

Colin, from Stamford, Lincs, bought a BMW Z3 for £4,000, and added his own modifications.

It also has a gear stick button to fire a biscuit out of the stereo and a hidden fifth wheel so it can pivot on front wheels.

“The fifth wheel makes it very handy for parallel parking and helps to aim the guns," said Colin.
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"It’s great fun to drive and the front flame throwers work really well.

“All the switches are on the dashboard or hidden in the glove compartment.

"Despite the modifications, it would still pass its MOT so it’s still road legal, but we’ve only driven it on airfields of course.”

The car has flame throwers at the front and guns at the rear | Credit: Bav Media

Colin, from Stamford, Lincs, bought a BMW Z3 for £4,000, and added his own modifications

Colin said: 'Despite the modifications, it would still pass its MOT so it’s still road legal' | Credit: Bav Media

EPIC HOMEMADE James Bond Car (7:24)