It's Grεεκ To Me

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• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 2018 Posts: 13,818

  Skyfall, Sam Mendes, 2012.

  
  

  Q: Now, looking at Silva's computer, it seems to me he's done a number of slightly unusual things. He's established failsafe protocols to wipe the memory if there's any attempt to access certain files. Only six people in the world could program safeguards like that.
  
  OO7: Of course there are. Can you get past them?
  
  Q: I invented them. Right, then. Let's see what you've got for us, Mr. Silva. We're in.
  
  Q's Assistant: Sir, what do you make of this?
  
  Q: It's his Omega site. Most encrypted level he has. Looks like obfuscated code to conceal its true purpose. Security through obscurity.

  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 2018 edited January 2018 Posts: 13,818

  Licence to Kill, John Glen, 1989.

  http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle.php?id=787522
  

  1983 Van Hool TD 824 Astromega, Double-deck.
  
  Compare to 1965 AEC Routemaster RML.
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 2018 Posts: 13,818

  The World Is Not Enough, Michael Apted, 1999.

  http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle.php?id=197038
  

  1994 Vauxhall Omega Sedan.
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 2018 edited January 2018 Posts: 13,818

  GoldenEye, Martin Campbell, 1995.

  

  Tomorrow Never Dies, Roger Spottiswoode, 1997.

  
  
  
  

  The World Is Not Enough, Michael Apted, 1999.

  
  
  

  Die Another Day, Lee Tamahori, 2002.

  
  
  

  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 2018 Posts: 13,818

  Casino Royale, Martin Campbell, 2006.

  
  
  

  Quantum of Solace, Marc Forster, 2008.

  
  
  
  

  Skyfall, Sam Mendes, 2012.

  
  
  
  

  Spectre, Sam Mendes, 2015.

  
  
  

  Omega Seamaster 300 SPECTRE Limited Edition.
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 2018 Posts: 13,818

  
• CommanderRoss The bottom of a pitch lake in Eastern Trinidad, place called La Brea

  January 2018 edited January 2018 Posts: 8,266

  Hang-glide in there with the Advance Omega!
  
  
  
  note, not the parahawk.
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 2018 Posts: 13,818

  j_w_pepper wrote: »

  Bond is definitely an alpha male, though a new actor is invariably a beta version initially. No gamma rays (Klaus Hergesheimer, checking radiation shields) or delta wings (Avro Vulcan!) can change that.

  Gamma will do.
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 2018 Posts: 13,818

  Gamma / Γ, γ / γάμμα / ˈɡa·mə/ noun
  1. 3rd letter of the Greek alphabet
  2. as a Greek numeral: valued at 3
  3. the “third” type of radiation, actually short X-rays (designated by the lower case γ)
  
  Greek (gámma). Phoenician (gimel, as camel for the character shape).
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 2018 edited January 2018 Posts: 13,818

  Goldfinger, Ian Fleming, 1959.
  Chapter Nineteen – Secret Appendix
  
  Bond stared into Goldfinger's face in fascinated horror. It couldn't be true! He couldn't mean it! He said tensely, What's this GB?'
  
  'GB is the most powerful of the Trilone group of nerve poisons. It was perfected by the Wehrmacht in 1943, but never used for fear of reprisals. In fact, it is a more effective instrument of destruction than the hydrogen bomb. Its disadvantage lies in the difficulty of applying it to the populace. The Russians captured the entire German stocks at Dyhern-furth on the Polish frontier. Friends of mine were able to supply me with the necessary quantities. Introduction through the water supply is an ideal method of applying it to a densely populated area.'
  
  Bond said, 'Goldfinger, you're a lousy bastard.'
  
  'Don't be childish. We have work to do.'
  
  Later, when they had got to the problem of transporting the tons of gold out of the town, Bond had had one last try. He said, 'Goldfinger, you're not going to get this stuff away. Nobody's going to get their hundred tons of gold out of. the place - let alone five hundred. You'll find yourself tearing down the Dixie Highway in a truck with a few gold bars loaded with gamma rays and the American Army on your tail. And you'll have killed sixty thousand people for that? The thing's farcical. Even if you do get a ton or two away, where the hell do you think you're going to hide it?'
  
  'Mr Bond.' Goldfinger's patience was infinite. 'It just happens that a Soviet cruiser of the Sverdlovsk class will be visiting Norfolk, Virginia, on a goodwill cruise at that time. It sails from Norfolk on D+1. Initially by train and then by transport convoy, my gold will arrive on board the cruiser by midnight on D-Day. I shall sail in the cruiser for Kronstadt. Everything has been carefully planned, every possible hitch has been foreseen. I have lived with this operation for five years. Now the time has come for the performance. I have tidied up my activities in England and Europe. Such small debris as remains of my former life can go to the scavengers who will shortly be sniffing on my trail. I shall be gone. I shall have emigrated and, Mr Bond, I shall have taken the golden heart of America with me. Naturally' - Goldfinger was indulgent -'this unique performance will not be immaculate. There has not been enough time for rehearsals. I need these clumsy gangsters with their guns and their men, but I could not bring them into the plan until the last moment. They will make mistakes. Conceivably they will have much trouble getting their own loot away. Some will be caught, others killed. I couldn't care less. These men are amateurs who were needed, so to speak, for the crowd scenes. They are extras, Mr Bond, brought in off the streets. What happens to them after the play is of no interest to me whatsoever. And now, on with the work. I shall need seven copies of all this by nightfall. Where were we...?'

  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 2018 Posts: 13,818

  Thunderball, Terence Young, 1965.
  
  Derval: Be good...at least until I get back. Ciao!

  
  

  Fiona: Nobody saw us. The corridor is empty. Shut that door! He's dead all right. Lippe, you take over. Are the doctor and ambulance outside?
  
  Angelo: Everything, as arranged.
  
  Fiona: Angelo! Your breathing equipment. Isolates you from the oxygen supply. Gamma gas. Instantaneous. Type you just used. And most important...
  
  Angelo: Not enough. $ is not enough.
  
  Fiona: What are you trying to say?
  
  Angelo: I changed my mind. Two years of my life, studying the film, the reports, plastic operations, voice lessons. Make it a quarter of a million or get someone else.
  
  Fiona: There is no-one else!
  
  Angelo: Exactly. I am Derval.
  
  Fiona: Put that away. Angelo is right. I'll inform Number One we made a new arrangement. This is merely a down payment.
  
  Angelo: All right, but against quarter of a million.
  
  Fiona: Agreed. His watch. Identification disc.
  
  Angelo: Au revoir!
  
  Fiona: No, no. He always says "ciao".
  
  Angelo: Ciao!
  
  Fiona: The cap is too far back on your head.
  
  Angelo: The rest of my money, just have it ready.

  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 2018 Posts: 13,818

  The Diamond Smugglers, Ian Fleming, 1957.
  Chapter One - The Million Carat Network
  
  ...
  ‘That’s what’s made the traffic really worth while. I remember Sillitoe
  saying to me that one of the first questions he had asked Sir Ernest
  Oppenheimer was: “How far up do you want me to go?” You see, there are
  fortunes involved for everyone all along the legitimate diamond channels
  right up to the moment when the merchant at the monthly “sights” nods
  his head and signs his cheque. Whatever your salary is, you have to be a
  good man to turn down the chance of picking up twenty thousand pounds or
  even a hundred thousand pounds at one swoop, particularly since you only
  face a small prison sentence if you get caught.’
  
  ‘But surely there must be machinery for stopping that sort of
  thing—security checks of all sorts, X-rays and so forth?’
  
  Blaize smiled sourly. ‘You’d think so,’ he said, ‘but when we started on
  the job we were amazed to find how few white men had to go through
  security. I suppose it was considered undignified to do much about the
  whites. A lot of that’s changed now, but you’d be surprised the snags
  there are even in a check like X-rays.
  
  ‘You see, you can’t go on X-raying men, even if they’re black, again and
  again. They get loaded with gamma rays. For instance, in places like
  Kimberley, where most of the European miners go back to their homes
  every day, if you X-rayed them every time they left the mine they’d die
  like flies. All you can do is to have an occasional spot check and make
  the men think you’re X-raying them when sometimes you’re not.
  
  ‘We had a couple of bright ideas. First we suggested to the Medical
  Department of De Beers that an X-ray might be developed powerful enough
  to show up hidden diamonds but without transmitting too much gamma rays.
  The company’s top doctors, Van Blommestein and Birt, went to America and
  Holland and found that a machine could be built which would allow a man
  to be examined for diamonds up to twice a week. They’re going ahead with
  that.
  
  ‘Then I went to an old friend on the Security Staff at Harwell and asked
  him if one could radio-activate diamonds and trace them with a Geiger
  counter. He talked to the atom scientists, but they said you couldn’t
  radio-activate diamonds because they were made of pure carbon. Luckily,
  the Diamond Research lab in Jo’burg had been working along the same
  lines, and they’d invented a way of “labelling” diamonds by painting
  them with an invisible radio-activated element. This made it possible to
  plant “labelled” diamonds underground or in the recovery plant to test
  the honesty of the men. If the labelled diamonds turn up in the day’s
  production at the sort-house, well and good. But if someone picks one up
  and tries to smuggle it through the turnstiles, a sort of Geiger counter
  sets off an alarm bell.

  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 2018 Posts: 13,818

  Thrilling Cities, Ian Fleming, 1963.
  Chapter X - Vienna
  
  ...
  To give one rather dramatic example, there is a matter on hand at the
  moment (1959) in the Agency described as the 'Vinca Dosimetry Project'.
  On October 15th, 1958, there was a brief uncontrolled run of the Vinca
  Zero power reactor in Yugoslavia which exposed a number of operators to
  considerable radiation. The exposed men were flown immediately to the
  Curie hospital in Paris and there treated by new methods of
  counteracting radiation injury which apparently aroused keen attention
  in the scientific and medical worlds. Meanwhile, in the following
  April, the Yugoslav reactor 'went critical', as they say, again, and
  unknown elements in the control of such emergencies were revealed. As
  a result, the Agency in Vienna decided that a full-scale reconstruction
  of these dangerous circumstances should be undertaken whereby the
  precise doses and distribution of neutron and gamma rays to the
  originally injured men could be established in the interests of
  radiation safety.
  
  Yugoslavia has agreed to this project and many nations are
  participating, including the United Kingdom, who loaned the heavy water
  needed to restart the reactor, and the United States, who provided,
  from Oak Ridge, four plastic phantoms filled with a salt solution
  which, in the experiment, will suffer various dosages of radiation.
  
  Dr Seligman confirmed what the Foreign Minister adumbrated--that the
  Atomic Energy Control Commission, for so long a subject of debate at
  Geneva, would, if and when East and West can agree to its creation,
  also have its headquarters in Vienna. It is odd to think that such a
  pretty, frivolous city is becoming the headquarters for such solemn and
  ultra-modern undertakings.
  
  Musing on these incongruities, I left the city of romantic dreams and
  took off for the Semmering Pass and the beautiful road through the
  Alps, for Salzburg, Innsbruck and points west.

  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 2018 edited January 2018 Posts: 13,818

  Honorable mention.
  
  Gama 1964 Aston Martin DB5.
  https://auction.catawiki.com/kavels/9986435-gama-western-germany-length-24-cm-plastic-aston-martin-db5-james-bond-007-action-car-with-clockwork-motor-1960s
  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 2018 Posts: 13,818

  Close but no cigar.
  
  Gruppo Gamma watches recalling the classic Panerai, Italian Navy timepieces of the 50s.
  Seagull movements (!), $200-$300.
  http://www.watchik.com/2014/04/gruppo-gamma-watches-another-panerai.html
  
  Gruppo Gamma.
  
  Compare.
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 2018 Posts: 13,818

  These also don’t count.
  
• j_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'

  January 2018 Posts: 9,041

  Verily...isn't the left one Jemima?
• j_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'

  January 2018 Posts: 9,041

  Lest we forget all about Odysseus/Ulysses:
  
• Agent_99 enjoys a spirited ride as much as the next girl

  January 2018 Posts: 3,176

  @j_w_pepper, that's a huge favourite of mine.
• j_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'

  January 2018 Posts: 9,041

  We must be roughly the same age...at least of mind, that is.
• Agent_99 enjoys a spirited ride as much as the next girl

  January 2018 Posts: 3,176

  They say if you can remember the Sixties, you weren't really there. I can't remember the Sixties, so maybe I was there...
• j_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'

  January 2018 Posts: 9,041

  I think I remember much of the Sixties, but in spite of considering the Beatles' "Yesterday" (and "Act Naturally") single of 1965 to be the first record I bought and desired to have (when I wasn't even 9), much of the 60s' vintage only became known to me until the decade after...or even later. Just like I quit being interested in popular music in the 80s and only caught up with the desirable parts in the new millennium.
  
  But nevertheless I do think I'm pretty much stuck in the 60s and 70s.
• CommanderRoss The bottom of a pitch lake in Eastern Trinidad, place called La Brea

  January 2018 edited January 2018 Posts: 8,266

  All I can say @j_w_pepper is, that skipping that period in time considering music wasn't a bad thing, except for Guns 'n Roses. ;-)
  
  Iwth Gamma I don't get further then the Bristol Siddeley Gamma rocket engines.
  
  But there's a shop where you can buy enough material to build your own aircraft I suppose...
  
  
  
  
  
  @RichardTheBruce Gemma Arterton always counts!!!
  
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 2018 Posts: 13,818

  Correction accepted, @CommanderRoss.
  
  In my defense, you see I could not include Ms. Arterton out.
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 2018 Posts: 13,818

  j_w_pepper wrote: »

  Bond is definitely an alpha male...
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 2018 Posts: 13,818

  Alpha / Α α / ˈal·fə / noun
  1. 1st letter of the Greek alphabet
  2. the dominant (human or animal) in a group
  3. the dominant individual in an environment/sphere
  4. 1st of a series or categories series of items or categories
  5. 1st (usu. brightest) star in a constellation
  6. a Greek give name
  7. phonetic code for the the letter A
  
  Greek (ἄλφα, alpha). Latin (alpha). Hebrew/Phoenician (aleph).
  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 2018 Posts: 13,818

  Goldfinger, Ian Fleming, 1959.
  
  ...
  Bond turned and made himself comfortable. He said, 'Now then, Goldfinger. First of all, what's going on, how did you get this plane, where are we heading?'
  
  Goldfinger crossed one leg over the other. He gazed away from Bond, up the aisle. He said in a relaxed, conversational tone, 'I took three trucks and drove across country to the vicinity of Cape Hatteras. One of the trucks contained my personal hoard of gold bullion. The other two contained my drivers, spare personnel and those gangsters. I required none of them except Miss Galore. I kept a nucleus of the staff I would need, paid off the others with huge sums and dispersed them gradually along the route. At the coast I held a meeting with the four gang leaders in a deserted place, having left Miss Galore under some pretext with the trucks. I shot the four men in my usual fashion - one bullet for each. I went back to the trucks and explained that the four men had chosen money and independent action. I was now left with six men, the girl and the bullion. I hired a plane and flew to Newark, New Jersey, the crates of gold being passed off as lead for X-ray plates. From there I proceeded alone to a certain address in New York from which I talked with Moscow by radio and explained the mishap to Operation Grand Slam. In the course of the talk I mentioned your name. My friends, whom I believe you know,' Goldfinger looked hard at Bond, 'pass under the generic name of SMERSH. They recognized the name of Bond and told me who you were. I at once understood a great deal of what had previously been hidden from me. SMERSH said they would greatly like to interview you. I pondered the matter. In due course I conceived the plan which you now see in operation. Posing as a friend of yours, I had no difficulty in finding out the flight on which you were booked. Three of my men were formerly of the Luftwaffe. They assured me there would be no difficulty in flying this plane. The rest was mere detail. By cool bluffing, impersonation and the use of a certain amount of force, all the BOAC personnel at Idlewild, the crew of this plane and the passengers were given the necessary injections from which they will now be recovering. We changed clothes with the unconscious crew, the bullion was loaded on the plane, you were dealt with and carried out on a stretcher and in due course the new BOAC crew, with their stewardess, boarded the plane and we took to the air.'
  
  Goldfinger paused. He lifted a hand resignedly. 'Of course there were small hitches. We were told to "follow taxiway Alpha to runway four", and it was only by following a KLM plane that we were successful. The Idlewild routine was not easy to master and we must have seemed somewhat clumsy and inexperienced, but, Mr Bond, with assurance, strong nerves and a gruff, intimidating manner it is never difficult to override the Civil Service mentality of what, after all, are minor employees. I understand from the wireless operator that a search for this plane is under way. They were already questioning us before we were out of VHP range at Nan-tucket. Then the Distant Early Warning system queried us on high frequency. That did not disturb me. We have enough fuel. We have already had clearance from Moscow for East Berlin, Kiev or Murmansk. We shall take whichever route the weather dictates. There should be no trouble. If there is, I shall talk my way out of it on the radio. No one is going to shoot down a valuable BOAC plane. The mystery and confusion will protect us until we are well within Soviet territory and then, of course, we shall have disappeared without trace.'
  
  To Bond there had been nothing fantastic, nothing impossible about Goldfinger since he had heard the details of Operation Grand Slam. The theft of a Stratocruiser, as Goldfinger had explained it, was preposterous, but no more so than his methods of smuggling gold, his purchase of an atomic warhead. When one examined these things, while they had a touch of magic, of genius even, they were logical exercises. They were bizarre only in their magnitude. Even the tiny manoeuvre of cheating Mr Du Pont had been quite brilliantly contrived. There was no doubt about it, Gold-finger was an artist - a scientist in crime as great in his field as Cellini or Einstein in theirs.
  
  'And now, Mr Bond of the British Secret Service, we made a bargain. What have you to tell me? Who put you on to me? What did they suspect? How did you manage to interfere with my plans?' Goldfinger sat back, placed his hands across his stomach and looked at the ceiling.

  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 2018 Posts: 13,818

  The Living Daylights, John Glen, 1989.
  North American-Rockwell OV-10B Bronco & Dassault-Dornier Alpha Jet E(H).
  http://www.impdb.org/index.php?title=The_Living_Daylights#North_American-Rockwell_OV-10B_Bronco_.26_Dassault-Dornier_Alpha_Jet_E.28H.29

  
  OV-10 in the middle with the Alpha Jet on the left and Fouga Magister on the right while a C-130 is landing in the background.

  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 2018 Posts: 13,818

  GoldenEye, Martin Campbell, 1995.

  
  

  
  OO6: You know, James? I was always better.
  
  ...
  OO6: Alpha One to Gunship. Alpha One to Gunship. Speak to me.
  
  ...
  OO6: For England, James?
  
  OO7: No…For me.

  
• RichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.

  January 2018 edited January 2018 Posts: 13,818

  
  
  Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A., car manufacturer. Originally founded (by Alexandre Darracq)
  as A.L.F.A. or Società Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili, Milan, Italy, 1910.
  Sports cars. Racing automobiles.
  
  Previously Società Anonima Italiana Darracq (SAID). Associated 1932-1986 and since 2007 with Fiat.
  
  The name combines the original "A.L.F.A." and the name of entrepreneur (Nicola) Romeo, who ran the company from 1915.
  
  The logo recalls its origins in Milan: there is a heraldic red cross (emblem of Milan); and the biscione--a crowned viper swallows a Moor (emblem of the House of Visconti, 14th century rulers).
  
  Connection of "Alfa" and "Alpha": phonetically identical.