วันศุกร์ที่ 7 พฤศจิกายน พ.ศ. 2551

James Bond and Math- Two of a Kind



Anyone who has watched any of the classic James Bond movies, particularly the earlier ones like Diamonds are Forever with Sean Connery, and Live and Let Die with Roger Moore, knows that the man with the plan, namely Agent 007, was beyond cool. He could woo the beauties like no other, defend himself in any of a dozen ways, get out of the tightest spots imaginable, and adapt comfortably to any situation, whether this find him trapped in a sewer with rats, or cavorting in a tuxedo while attending the latest royal function. With all his debonair mannerisms and sophisticated abilities, do you really think James Bond was a pushover in math? I highly doubt it.
Ian Flemming’s memorable character was the coolest of cool. Bond could dazzle you in a number of foreign languages, wow you with a swagger of martial arts moves, and amuse you with a sense of humor during life threatening circumstances. He was up on the latest technology, knew the ins and outs of the most intricate gadgetry, and could speak glibly on any of a number of subjects, regardless of how arcane they might be. As fictionalized as the Bond character is, the inescapable conclusion we draw from this personification is that knowledge is cool, and knowledge is power. Bond drew on his ramified knowledge and abilities to save both himself and others and to reap immensely gratifying rewards. What could be bad with this?
Bond, for sure, knew his math, and could dazzle with his mathematical prowess. This inference is easy to make from his characterization and from the entangled plots we find him in. Bond used his sharp wit to outwit the villain every time; moreover, Bond used his calculating mind to figure out the optimal way out of a jam and the best way to save his skin. It is obvious from the storylines that Bond was the coolest of mathematicians.
So what do we draw from these observations? We may not all be able to be cool like Bond. Indeed, Bond represents, I venture to say, the quintessence of cool. However, we see that being cool means being good at things like math. This is the message we need to get across to our kids. So maybe instead of letting them watch the Harry Potter movies, you should get them into some Bond films. After all, this character was a big influence on my early development, and I became an A student in math. What a coincidence!
See more at Cool Math Ebooks and Cool Math Site
Joe is a prolific writer of self-help and educational material and an award-winning former teacher of both college and high school mathematics. Under the penname, JC Page, Joe authored Arithmetic Magic, the little classic on the ABC’s of arithmetic. Joe is also author of the charming self-help ebook, Making a Good Impression Every Time: The Secret to Instant Popularity; the original collection of poetry, Poems for the Mathematically Insecure, and the short but highly effective fraction troubleshooter Fractions for the Faint of Heart. The diverse genre of his writings (novel, short story, essay, script, and poetry)—particularly in regard to its educational flavor— continues to captivate readers and to earn him recognition.
Joe propagates his teaching philosophy through his articles and books and is dedicated to helping educate children living in impoverished countries. Toward this end, he donates a portion of the proceeds from the sale of every ebook. For more information go to http://www.mathbyjoe.com/ .
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joe_Pagano

James Bond Girls - What Defines a Bond Girl?



James Bond girls are envied by women and adored by men. Their sophisticated beauty, scantily-clad bodies, and uncanny intelligence have made them as iconic as the man who swept them off their feet, James Bond.
In a spectrum of James Bond films, we have seen good Bond girls, evil Bond vixens and sadistic henchwomen, all of whom pushing the boundaries of fashion and bending gender roles. And in every film, we see James Bond become enmeshed between two beautiful ladies who would either end up as his lovers or as his enemies. In fact, nearly all Fleming's Bond novels and short stories would include two or more James Bond girls depicted as catalysts to reinforce the plot.
It is also remarkable how these James Bond girls change the definition of beauty that transcends race, color and identity. All Bond women are considered beautiful in their own fashion. Always confident and smart, the girls in Bond's life are no newbie when it comes to sexuality. In films, they proudly flaunt their stunning figures in gowns or in most cases, in their underwear and bikini. One of the most remembered James Bond girl scene would probably be Giancinta Johnson's first encounter with our favorite secret agent. Clad in a stunning orange bikini, the first black Bond girl instantly had James Bond 'loving the view of the sea'.
Bond girls are almost always defined by names with sexual innuendos---Pussy Galore, Kissy Suzuki, Sukie Tempesta and (how could we forget?) Xenia Onatopp. The reason behind this is not really explained, but it sure is enough to make audience remember these girls' names if not their roles in Bond's conquest to save the world. Likewise, these girls are not innocent when it comes to sexual ventures in any way. More often than not, they are actually as experienced in terms of that turf as 007 is.
Although James Bond only seem to hook up with these femme fatales for the thrill of a night, two of them actually managed to win his heart and even drove him to complete revenge mode. In the movie, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond married Contessa Teresa, who was unfortunately killed at the end of the film. Then, there's Versper Lynd from Casino Royale who is supposedly the first woman the Bond has loved. However, their fiery love also fizzled out as Vesper killed herself in the end.
From the Tatiana Romanova to Vesper Lynd, these James Bond girls are never to be undermined. Behind the sultry eyes, big hair and perfect bodies, there's an independent spirit in every one of these girls. Their roles in the agent's might range from good to the most psychotic, but without them, Bond films will never be quite the same.
There is no question about it. Women whom James Bond comes across with are monolithic personification of female empowerment. They can adapt to any environment they are dealing with. Often tough and cunning, James Bond girls present the looks to die for and the guts to be lethal.
Dangerously beautiful---This is what defines a James Bond Girl.
A Computer Engineering student and loves to travel. Reading current news in the internet is one of his past times. Taking pictures of the things around him fully satisfies him. He loves to play badminton and his favorite pets are cats.
For more information and queries, you may visit James Bond Girls
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joel_Owens

Bond Fans Not Happy With Craig



In the upcoming James Bond film, “Casino Royale,” British actor Daniel Craig will play the lead role of James Bond. This, however, does not sit well with a group of James Bond fans.
A statement on the site said that “EON Productions angered fans around the world when they fired Pierce Brosnan at the height of his popularity as Bond. To add insult to injury, EON cast a short, blond, odd-looking Daniel Craig in the role of Bond.”
The site goes on to ask, “How can a short, blond actor with the rough face of a professional boxer and a penchant for playing killers, cranks, cads, and gigolos pull off the role of a tall, dark, handsome and suave secret agent?”
The angry group of Bond fans have threatened to boycott “Casino Royale” and any other Bond films that Craig will star in.
Though Craig may have a wounded pride from all of these happenings, he does have a big supporter in his predecessor, Pierce Brosnan.
“I think Daniel is a very fine actor. These are rocky waters, and they’re going to get him one way or another, but I think he will have the last laugh at the end of it,” Brosnan said.
Craig has had roles in “Munich” and “The Jacket.” He accepted the role of Bond last October, and filming for the movie began last month in Prague. Last week the producers of the film cast French actress Eva Green as Bond girl Vesper Lynd and Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen as the villain le Chiffre.
http://www.topcelebritynews.com/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jason_Hahn

Roaring Machines: James Bond Vehicles by Joe Owens


James Bond may have the looks and the moves, but let's admit it. He'll never be as suave as he is without those James Bond vehicles he's sporting. See Bond's cars emit tear gas, run faster than a cheetah and disappear before your eyes. I'm telling you, a weapon of mass destruction hides behind those sleek and amazing machines he's driving.
We've seen a wide foray of James Bond vehicles with which to foil his enemies throughout the series. Just like his watches and cunning gadgets, his cars function more than just a vehicle to get from point A to B. These vehicles are equipped with modifications like weapon system, alternate transportation modes, and even the ability to go invisible! With seamless technology in his vehicles, it is no wonder that James Bond is able to survive the harshest explosives, dodge the fastest bullets, and still look like he's up for another martini.
To quench your growing curiosity about these four-wheeled beauties, here is a list of some of the James Bond vehicles that made our jaws drop.
Aston Martin DBS V12 (Featured in Casino Royale, 2006)
This is the personification of classic and beauty in four wheels mode. The Aston Martin DBS V12 might not have the hoots and whistles like an adaptive camouflage or anything as fancy as that, but its features are just enough to stop the villain from hoarding more money and eventually causing more worldly troubles. Aston comes with items such as a defibrillator and anti-poison/chemical combi-pens. These add-ons truly made Bond's life easier in his conquest to save the world.
Aston Martin V12 Vanquish (featured in Die Another Day)
This car doesn't only bridge the gap between the road and tracks. Staying true to its signature innovativeness and sleek design, this Aston plays tricks on your eyes with its awesome additional option, Adaptive Camouflage (the what?). In simpler and less complicated English, it just means that this beauty can literally disappear before your very eyes. Without magic or frills, the Aston Martin V12 Vanquish uses "tiny cameras on all sides to project the image they see onto a light emitting polymer skin on the opposite side". Once again, in plain and less complicated English, the technology of the car makes it invisible to the naked eye.
It's beautiful and dandy, but the car also has deadly tricks behind its front-grille. Armed with a bevy of other cool gadgets, the Aston Martin V12 Vanquish also boasts of missiles, machine guns, spiked tires, and target-seeking shotguns. When all these are not enough to send to destroy the enemies, James Bond could always use the car's customary ejector seat. Real sleek, isn't it?
BMW 75Oil (featured in Tomorrow Never Dies)
BMW is the car of the elites, but through the magic and genius of Branch Q, this baby has been transformed from luxurious to deadly. It contains a surprising number of modifications including bullet-proof windows and body, tear gas features emitted from the sides of the car, mini-missiles coming out of its sunroof, metal spike dispensers in the rear, re-inflatable tires, and lethal grenades (whew). Being a true James Bond vehicle, the BMW 75Oil can be accessed only by Bond himself through his high-end mobile phone. If anyone else dares to lay a finger on its door handles, this BMW can deliver strong electric shocks enough to make anyone pass out. This is one touchy car.
BMW Z8
We first caught sight of this pimped James Bond vehicle in The World is Not Enough. This remote-controlled car is equipped with missiles and a set of weaponry that become really handy when James Bond had to destroy one of the helicopters in the film. The BMW Z8 is absolutely a mammoth of a vehicle.
We've seen Bond steer, ride and strut these high tech vehicles. With the release of his next flick, Quantum of Solace, more James Bond vehicles are sure to grace the screen. After all, a James Bond film is not complete without some roaring machines.
For more information and queries, you may visit James Bond Vehicles


About the Author
A Computer Engineering student and loves to travel. Reading current news in the internet is one of his past times. Taking pictures of the things around him fully satisfies him. He loves to play badminton and his favorite pets are cats.

Evolution of the James Bond films by Mark Hazard


Casino Royale was a welcome return to a harder edged Bond that had been absent for years, and although the casting of Daniel Craig in the starring role initially brought with it a huge amount of venomous criticism, his portrayal of 007 was almost universally lauded and the film received an unexpectedly positive response from film critics worldwide.
Part of the problem with James Bond movies for years is that they have been unrealistic and using comedy elements that detract from the tension created by the action and dramatic aspects of the screenplay. It wasn't always so, because Seain Connery's Bond was played seriously, although he had a good stock of one-liners.
Gradually however, this was replaced by out and out comedy, most noteably in Diamonds Are Forever, although creeping in two films earlier in You Only Live Twice.
By the time Roger Moore was cast in the role the plots had discarded any elements of Ian Fleming's stories and replaced them with fantasy. But what was most unforgivable was turning James Bond into a clown. Despite assurances from the producers that Bond would become more serious, many comedy elements remained.
Timothy Dalton was widely considered to be the closest actor to Fleming's Bond, but even in his two films the comedy remained. And when Pierce Brosnan took over things continued - big action pieces, but far to many moments that were simply stupid and there to get a cheap laugh.
With Casino Royale the producers must have realised that they needed to change a tired formula. While the temptation to continue must have been strong - after all, the Bond films always make money - they eventually decided not to continue with Brosnan and follow a new path, going back to Bond's roots in Casino Royale and pick an actor who was a long way from many people's first choice.
They didn't merely get away with it though. The film is widely considered to be among the best James Bond films and achieved a level of critical success that was unheard of for a Bond movie.


About the Author
Eva Green played Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale, and wore an Algerian Love Knot necklace throughout. You can learn more at http://www.algerianloveknotnecklace.com/

Licence To Drive: The Cars Of James Bond by Daniel Collins


The personification of suave and sophisticated, James Bond is perhaps as well known for his love of cars as he is for his love of women. In fact, many of his cars live on in the memory of fans long after those of the Bond girls have faded away. The cars most associated with James Bond have never been your average family run around; after all it would be hard to imagine the super-spy driving a Ford Escort equipped with machine guns and rocket launchers! However, while James Bond did make use of more mundane vehicles when the need arose throughout his adventures, he is perhaps better known though for his use of those gadget-laden cars which featured heavily in the movies. Nevertheless, the first of the James Bond cars was an altogether more modest vehicle - a mustard coloured Sunbeam Alpine, which featured in the first James Bond film, 'Dr. No' and sadly was not equipped with machine guns or oil sprays. It was also a far cry from Bond's preferred choice of vehicle, the British-made Bentley. The cars in 'From Russia With Love' were slightly more upmarket, although Bond drove neither. Instead he was chauffeured around in a Rolls Royce Silver Wraith and a Ford Fairlane station wagon. Again, there were no gadgets; in 'Goldfinger', however, they appeared with a vengeance and ignited the imagination of car enthusiasts everywhere. In 'Goldfinger', Bond drove a quintessential British car - the Aston Martin DB5, which featured machine guns, revolving number plates, rocket launchers and even an ejector seat! The same style of car also appeared briefly in 'Thunderball'. For the next film, 'You Only Live Twice', Bond went Japanese with his choice of car with a Toyota 2000GT. At the time, the 2000GT was an extremely rare and expensive car, even in Japan. Bond's version had none of the gadgets seen in 'Goldfinger' save for a TV monitor built into the dashboard. Bond's other method of transport in the film - a gyrocopter named 'Little Nellie' - more than made up for the lack of gadgets, however, with machine guns, rocket launchers, flamethrower and even air-mines attached to parachutes! A new Bond signalled a new car, and George Lazenby's portrayal of James Bond featured a return to British-made vehicles and a new Aston Martin; this time the DBS car, although glimpses of the car were confined mainly to the early sequences of the film, with Bond often being seen in cars of other characters, rather than his own. One of the greatest car chases in modern cinema history also features one of Bond's best known cars - the Mustang Mach 1. Mustangs appeared frequently in the Bond movies, and in the chase sequence in which Bond is pursued through the streets of Las Vegas by the police, also features one of the most well-known movie gaffes; when Bond's car enters an alley on one pair of wheels to elude the police, the car emerges on the opposite side on the opposite set of wheels! Impressive, even by James Bond's standards! Perhaps the favourite of schoolboys everywhere, the image of the white Lotus Esprit emerging from the sea onto a crowded beach in 'The Spy Who Loved Me' is many people's idea of the definitive Bond car. Equipped with gadgets aplenty, the Lotus Esprit wasn't just a car but a submarine. A similar version appeared in 'For Your Eyes Only' but this time around the supercar had to play second fiddle to a souped-up Citroen 2CV! The Aston Martin returned yet again, with the Aston Martin V8 taking centre stage in 'The Living Daylights' and featuring rocket launchers, spiked tyres and laser tyre-shredders among other gadgets, which even included a pair of skis! However, with another James Bond on the horizon, another change of car was inevitable and this time BMW provided the wheels: the BMW Z3 appeared in 'Goldeneye', even though it hadn't yet been released, while the Z8 model appeared in 'The World Is Not Enough'. 'Die Another Day' saw another return to Aston Martin with the V12 Vanquish being the car of choice and was once again replete with gadgets while Bond drove the DBS V12 version in 'Casino Royale' and will do so again in the upcoming 'Quantum Of Solace' movie. But how do Bond's employers, MI6, manage to keep up with the replacement costs of vehicles for James Bond, given his knack of wrecking them!? After all, they're unlikely to require BMW car finance or a bank loan to finance their latest Aston Martin purchase, while most insurance companies would be unlikely to quote for a vehicle equipped with machine guns and which runs a very high risk of being destroyed! It's perhaps just as well for the super-spy then that his licence to drive hasn't yet been revoked, while if he had to foot the bill for replacing the vehicles himself, he might be more careful!? Otherwise he could be forced into driving that Ford Escort!


About the Author
Daniel Collins writes on a number of topics on behalf of a digital marketing agency and a variety of clients. As such, this article is to be considered a professional piece with business interests in mind.

Casino Royale: The Algerian Love Knot Of Vesper Lynd by Lance Lycett




Ian Fleming's first James Bond book was Casino Royale, and in it not only did he introduce us to his world of spycraft and high living, but also the very first Bond girl, Vesper Lynd. Bond has been sent on assignment to Royale-les-Eaux in Northern France, where his mission is to simply bankrupt a Russian backed trade union leader named Le Chiffre by beating him in the Casino; the game is baccarat, and the stakes are high.
Vesper is introduced to Bond by his contact in France, Rene Mathis, although Bond thinks she's been sent "to do a man's job" and resents her being there. However, he also finds something enigmatic about her too and despite not wanting to work with her, he does start to make plans for once the job is finished, despite the fact she seems cold toward him.
However, the mission doesn't quite go as planned and ends up with Bond being strapped to a chair and his genitals whipped with a carpet beater. After some time in a French hospital he makes a recovery and while recuperating on the coast he seduces her.
Although many elements of the novel were retained for the movie in 2006 starring Daniel Craig as 007, the relationship between the two was slightly different; rather than acting coldly toward Bond, Vesper was rather aggressive instead. However, the part was excellently played by Eva Green, in one of the best Bond girl roles in the entire series.
And while the book Bond finds that Vesper has had an affair with a Polish pilot who was being imprisoned by the Russians, in the movie it turns the story into an affair with an Algerian; she always wears an Algerian love knot necklace given to her by him until towards the end of the film.
One of the big hits from the movie was the necklace worn by Bond Girl Vesper Lynd, played in the movie by Eva Green. The necklace was an Algerian love knot designed by Sophie Harley for the movie, supposedly given to the character by her Algerian lover before she succumbs to the charms of James Bond.
The Algerian love knot necklace is undoubtedly a lovely item of jewelry, and while it can be made for you on commission, the cost is prohibitively expensive. The price is currently £1,400 - some $2,800 at today's exchange rate - which puts it out of reach of most people, but luckily Emitations was motivated to design an Algerian love knot inspired by the Sophie Harley design.
The Emitations Algerian love knot necklace is made from sterling silver and consists of four interlinked bands that have been elaborately decorated and presented on a triple chain. It makes a classy addition for day or night and would be the pride of place in any would be Bond girl's jewelry box.
The necklace has proved so successful that Emitations has recently added matching Algerian love knot earrings and feedback from customers is uniformly high, praising its construction, finish and value for money, many claiming that the photographs do not do justice to the piece.
The Algerian love knot necklace makes an ideal present for the girlfriend or wife of a James Bond fan and although Emitations is based in the United States, they ship their products worldwide for a flat fee of $25.
About the Author
Did you find this article on James Bond interesting? If so you may like to read more, including an article on Vesper's Algerian love knot, at http://www.thejamesbonddossier.com/