007

Ex-Nsa Operatives Reveal How They Helped Spy on Targets for the Arab Monarchy — Dissidents, Rival Leaders and Journalists →

February 4, 2019 · 15:52

Christopher Bing and Joel Schectman, reporting for Reuters:

“I am working for a foreign intelligence agency who is targeting U.S. persons,” she told Reuters. “I am officially the bad kind of spy.”

The story of Project Raven reveals how former U.S. government hackers have employed state-of-the-art cyber-espionage tools on behalf of a foreign intelligence service that spies on human rights activists, journalists and political rivals […]

The operatives utilized an arsenal of cyber tools, including a cutting-edge espionage platform known as Karma, in which Raven operatives say they hacked into the iPhones of hundreds of activists, political leaders and suspected terrorists […]

Karma allowed Raven to obtain emails, location, text messages and photographs from iPhones simply by uploading lists of numbers into a preconfigured system, five former project employees said.

Fascinating read. And even more inspiration for a new James Bond movie.

Second China-Bound Apple Car Worker Charged With Data Theft →

January 31, 2019 · 09:03

Kartikay Mehrotra and Mark Gurman, for Bloomberg:

An Apple Inc. hardware engineer was charged by the U.S. with stealing the iPhone maker’s driverless car secrets for a China-based company, the second such case since July […]

Jizhong Chen was seen by a fellow Apple employee taking photographs Jan. 11 with a wide-angle lens inside a secure work space that houses the company’s autonomous car project, about six months after he signed a strict confidentiality oath when he was hired, according to a criminal complaint in federal court in San Jose, California.

Prosecutors said Chen admitted to taking the photos and backing up some 2,000 files to his personal hard drive, including manuals and schematics for the project, but didn’t tell Apple he had applied for a job with a China-based autonomous vehicle company.

Will the James Bonds of the world adapt to this new reality, in which stealing code for autonomous cars is more important than trying to steal nuclear launch codes?

Danny Boyle Quit Bond in Dispute Over Casting Tomasz Kot as the Lead Villain →

August 23, 2018 · 13:34

Harry Farley, writing for The Telegraph:

Rumours that the film’s script was the source of the disagreement have been reported, with producers alleged to be unhappy with the decision to focus on contemporary political tensions with Russia and a “modern-day Cold War”.

However one industry source told the Telegraph the split was due to a fall out over whether to cast Tomasz Kot as the lead villain. The 41-year-old Polish actor stars in Cold War, a love story set in 1950s Europe, and was described as a “left-field” decision for a Bond enemy.

I have had the pleasure of meeting Tomasz Kot a few years ago and watched him perform in movies and theatres many times over the years. To see him star in a James Bond film would be completely surreal.

Former Apple Employee Charged With Theft of Trade Secrets Related to Autonomous Car Project →

July 11, 2018 · 11:17

Juli Clover, for Macrumors:

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation this week charged former Apple employee Xiaolang Zhang with theft of trade secrets, according to documents filed with the Northern District Court of California.

Zhang was hired at Apple in December of 2015 to work on Project Titan, developing software and hardware for use in autonomous vehicles. Zhang specifically worked on Apple’s Compute Team, designing and testing circuit boards to analyze sensor data […]

Zhang was interviewed by the FBI in late June, where he admitted to stealing the information, and he was later arrested attempting to leave to China on July 7.

Add a martini — shaken, not stirred — a few guns, and perhaps a new Aston Martin DBS Superleggera, and you’ve got yourself a Bond movie.

How to Make the Perfect Martini — Roger Moore →

May 26, 2017 · 13:48

Roger Moore:

The sad fact is that I know exactly how to make a dry martini but I can’t drink them because, two years ago, I discovered I was diabetic. I prefer one with gin, but James Bond liked a vodka martini, “shaken not stirred” – which I never said, by the way. That was Sean Connery, remember him?

The worst martini I’ve ever had was in a club in New Zealand, where the barman poured juice from a bottle of olives into the vodka. That’s called a dirty martini and it is a dirty, filthy, rotten martini, and should not be drunk by anybody except condemned prisoners.

My dry martinis taste amazing and the day they tell me I’ve got 24 hours to live I am going to have six. Here’s how I make them […]

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Daniel Craig Offered $150 Million for Two More James Bond Films →

September 6, 2016 · 18:04

Radar Staff:

RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned that Sony is offering James Bond star Daniel Craig a whopping $150 million to reprise his role as 007 for two more of the popular franchise’s films.

“The studio is desperate to secure the actor’s services while they phase in a younger long-term successor,” a source told Radar.

Daniel Craig is my favourite James Bond, with Sean Connery coming in second. I have no sensible reasoning behind this — I just like to watch him play the part. If he takes the money, I do expect him to put his heart into it.

Spectre Sets Guinness World Record for Largest Film Stunt Explosion →

November 24, 2015 · 12:26

Rachel Swatman:

Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli commented: “It is absolutely tremendous that the Guinness World Records have recognised Chris Corbould’s incredible work in ‘Sprectre’ in which he created the largest explosion ever in film history.”

Taking place in Erfoud, Morocco, the blast had a total yield of 68.47 tonnes of TNT equivalent and was the result of detonating 8,418 litres of kerosene with 33 kg of powder explosives – and it lasted for over 7.5 seconds.

I remember that scene distinctly—I’ve already seen the movie twice—and while it was extremely impressive, the thought that this was the biggest explosion in cinema never crossed my mind.