James Bonds drömbil såld för 14 miljoner kronor
Saturday, 21 January 2006
Drömt om att köra i James Bonds silverfärgade Aston Martin längs
vindlande vägar och öppet hav? Tyvärr har den möjligheten gått förlorad,
för en tid framåt i vart fall.
Bilen från 1965 såldes i veckan för 1,9
miljoner dollar (14,6 miljoner kronor) vid en bilauktion i Arizona, USA.
Vinnare i budgivningen var en 45-årig man från Schweiz som vill
vara anonym.
Spion han också måhända? Bilen en DB5 kupé, som använts i filmer
som Åskbollen och Goldfinger, har tidigare stått i Smokey Mountains
bilmuseum i Tennessee.
Den ska nu föras till Schweiz där den lycklige ägaren och
bilsamlaren bor.
Classic
Feature: 1965 Aston Martin DB5
Bond Car used in Goldfinger (1964) and Thunderball (1965)
Aston Martin DB5 with British
Plate: BMT 216A
Like Sean Connery, the weaponized Aston Martin
DB5 of "Goldfinger" fame is as handsome as ever.
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Key points
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Ian Fleming sold the film rights for Casino Royale for
$600. The series is reputed to have made over $3 billion.
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In Fleming's novels James Bond attended Fettes in Edinburgh, the
same public school as Tony Blair. Sean Connery was once the
school's milkman.
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When the first Bond novel was published in 1953, 007 smoked 60
cigarettes a day. In 1971, when Sean Connery played Bond in Diamonds
Are Forever, he'd kicked the habit.
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Bond's favourite drink, the martini, contains 130 calories. This
is approximately what he burns during sex.
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Girls and martini
James Bond really needs no introduction. After 40 years in the
cinema with 20 official movies (and two more that enthusiasts
don't count), 007's adventures are known around the world. It's
estimated that over two billion people have watched Bond movies
– that's two fifths of the earth's population.
Since Dr No was released in 1962, Bond has killed over
150 men and slept with 44 women – three quarters of whom have
tried to kill him!
Pussy Galore
Of course, Bond isn't getting any younger. In fact, he's
positively middle-aged - could 007 be getting too old for Pussy
Galore, Plenty O'Toole, and treatment from Dr Goodhead?
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Roger Moore was 56 in his final Bond role, and Pierce Brosnan
is now 51. Men reach their sexual peak around their late teens or
early twenties. At this point they can orgasm three to six times a
day. Later in life they may need 12-24 hours before they've
recharged their batteries.
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Yet Bond's virility is never in doubt. The way he acts towards
women, however, has definitely changed over time.
An intellectual match
Critics used to argue that the James Bond scripts treat female
characters disrespectfully and portray them as sex objects created
for the sole purpose of titillating the viewer. They don't need
big brains, just big hair and bigger chests.
However, it's not only 007's scriptwriters who seem to have
been unimpressed by the female intellect. Scientists have long
linked head size to intelligence. And because men's bodies and,
therefore, their heads and brains tend to be larger, they expected
men to be more intelligent than women.
Only recently have researchers found that the ability to do
well in intelligence tests is linked with the amount of grey
matter in the brain, not the brain size. And since women have
higher proportions of grey matter than men, the total amount of
grey matter in both men's and women's brains is similar.
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With these advances in science and increasing gender equality
in general, 007 had to become more politically correct. Now the
women Bond beds are very much his intellectual match. Even 'M',
Bond’s superior, is now a woman – played by Dame Judi Dench.
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Shaken not stirred
But Bond hasn't stopped womanising and is still knocking back
cocktails. His signature drink is the martini, shaken not stirred,
as if we could forget. But does it make any difference?
A traditional martini is made with gin and dry vermouth, served
with either an olive or a thin slice of lemon peel. It's stirred
with ice in a mixing glass before being poured. Bond drinks vodka
martinis – the same as an ordinary martini with gin substituted
for vodka.
The reason 007 likes his shaken is to improve the taste and
texture of his tipple. The shaking process causes tiny bubbles.
This means that a well-shaken martini is cloudy and therefore less
oily than the stirred version, which in turn has an effect on the
taste of the drink.
Scientists at the University of Western Ontario in Canada also
found that shaking a martini increases the antioxidant activity in
the drink, thereby reducing the risk of cataracts, strokes and
cardiovascular diseases. This, however, doesn't matter to the
actors since all martinis on set are made from pure water.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/hottopics/jamesbond/game.shtml |