Diamonds Are Forever

Diamonds are Forever is the seventh James Bond film in the franchise. The book was written by Ian Fleming and was published in 1956, the movie was released in 1971. Diamonds are Forever hailed the return of Sean Connery as the British spy, James Bond.

Diamonds are Forever follows Bond's pursuit of the head of S.P.E.C.T.R.E., Blofeld. Huge quantities of South African diamonds are being stolen but have not been sold on the market. Suspecting that the stones are being stockpiled to depress prices, the Government orders Bond to assume the identity of a professional diamond smuggler called Peter Franks to infiltrate the smuggling operation and find out who the stockpilers are. With the help of fellow smuggler Tiffany Case, and amidst the bright lights of Las Vegas, he uncovers a plot by Blofeld to create a laser satellite capable of destroying any target on Earth. He uses this weapon to selectively destroy nuclear installations in America, Russia, and China, holding the world to ransom in an international auction, with nuclear supremacy going to the highest bidder.

A notable part of the plot of the movie involves Blofeld's use of the industrial properties of a recluse Nevada multimillionaire (played by Jimmy Dean) by the name of Willard Whyte, the character being a thinly veiled version of Howard Hughes.

The film features a very unusual couple of henchmen for S.P.E.C.T.R.E.: Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd. There is a strong suggestion that they are involved in more than just a professional relationship. Throughout the film, they use several interesting ways of assassinating their victims, from the use of a scorpion to kill a South African dentist, tying the feet of Plenty O'Toole to a concrete boulder and drowning her in a swimming pool, and attempting to incinerate James Bond alive in a crematorium furnace.

This movie was the second of three Bond movies to have the theme performed by Shirley Bassey. The other two movies were Goldfinger and Moonraker.

The original soundtrack was once again done by John Barry.

Starbucks specials

Starbucks introduces special, Limited Time Offerings every quarter. Based on feedback from customers, these are occasionally added to the permanent menu. The following are some of the popular drinks that have been available:

* Peppermint Mocha Blended Coffee/Peppermint Double Chocolate Chip Blended Crème - This was originally introduced in the coffee flavor only at Christmas and was no longer available by Valentine's Day. Peppermint flavor is added to the Mocha/DCC drinks. After positive customer feedback, Starbucks replaced the Crème de Menthe syrup with the Peppermint flavor so it would be available year round to anyone who requested it.
* Toffee Nut Blended Coffee/Toffee Nut Blended Crème - Starbucks introduced this flavor for a fall promotion with rave reviews by many customers. It consisted of adding toffee nut syrup to the coffee mix or creme mix, with whipped cream and toffee nut sprinkles on top. To the delight of customers, it was brought back the following fall, and the flavor was added to the permanent core offerings.
* Pumpkin Spice Blended Coffee/Pumpkin Spice Blended Crème - This drink was introduced in the fall of 2005. This drink consisted of a pumpkin spice syrup (pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg flavors) added to the coffee mix or creme mix. Even though the demand for such a flavor seemed high, actual sales of the product was said to have been moderately low. The drink continues to be a seasonal beverage returning to some areas each year.
* Cinnamon Dolce Blended Coffee/Blended Crème - This drink was introduced in January 2006. Originally a seasonal syrup, Cinnamon Dolce has been added as a semi-permanent flavor due to high demand during the Winter 2 season. The syrup tastes like sweet cinnamon buns, with an aftertaste reminiscent of butter.
* Maple Blended Coffee/Blended Crème - This drink was introduced in the fall of 2006 and uses a syrup made with real maple syrup and topped with whipped cream and maple drizzle.
* Gingerbread Blended Coffee/Blended Crème - This drink was introduced during the holiday season of 2000 and has a strong gingerbread cookie taste.
* Mint Mocha (Bottled) - This was a bottled version of a Starbucks Frappuccino that had similar consistency to other bottled frappuccinos and had a peppermint flavoring to it. Before it even hit stores in mid-2005, it was announced it would be a limited edition item, but it sold very well. It lived up to the limited edition name, and Starbucks dropped it in January 2006. Starbucks began selling the bottled drink again for the 2006/2007 Holiday season. There is no other bottled frappuccino on the market with this flavor or any similarity to this flavor.
* Dulce De Leche - This new drink was introduced in April 2007. It has a sweet caramel flavor and is often drizzled with caramel on top of the whipped cream. It is also available in latte form.
* Orange Mocha - Last offered in the summer of 2000, this drink was reintroduced for the summer 2007. It is the same as the Mocha just with Orange syrup added and the Orange Zest topping on top.
* Orange Creme - This was introduced in the summer 2007 and consists of orange syrup in the creme base. It is then topped with the Orange Zest topping and tastes like a creamsicle. Sometimes depending on the store location it is not topped with Orange Zest topping. This drink is no longer available in most locations.

Note: Because of the all year-round availability of the toffee nut and peppermint syrups, these drinks can still be made at any Starbucks location on request.

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (also titled Santa Claus Defeats the Aliens) is a 1964 science fiction film that regularly appears on lists of the worst films ever made. It is regularly featured in the "bottom 100" list on the Internet Movie Database, and was also featured in an episode of the 1986 syndicated series, the Canned Film Festival. It was directed by Nicholas Webster, and it stars John Call as Santa Claus. It also includes an 8-year-old Pia Zadora playing the role of one of the Martian children.

The film took on newfound fame in the '90s after being featured on an episode of the comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000. It became a holiday staple on the Comedy Central cable channel in the years following its 1991 premiere, helping it become one of the series' most popular episodes.

The story involves the denizens of the planet Mars, including Momar ("Mom Martian") and Kimar ("King Martian") who are worried that their children Girmar ("Girl Martian") and Bomar ("Boy Martian") are watching too much Earth television, most notably station KID's interview with Santa Claus in his workshop at the North Pole. Consulting the ancient 800-year old Martian sage Chochem, they are advised that the children of Mars are growing distracted due to the society's overly rigid structure; from infancy, all their education is fed into their brains through machines, and they are not allowed individuality or freedom of thought.

Chochem sadly notes that he had seen this coming "for centuries", and states that the only way to help the children is to allow them to have freedom, to be allowed to have fun. To do this, they need a Santa Claus figure, like on Earth. Leaving the sage's dwelling, the Martian leaders decide to kidnap Santa Claus from Earth and bring him to Mars to make toys for the children of their planet. One warmongering Martian, Voldar, is in constant disagreement with this idea and repeatedly tries to kill Santa Claus, as well as two kidnapped Earth children, as he believes that Santa is corrupting the children of Mars and turning them away from the race's original glory. Throughout the movie, Santa Claus makes several jokes to the kidnapped children, Betty and Billy Foster, laughing to himself and met with silence. He then slowly laughs in disappointment each time.

When they arrive on Mars, Santa and the children build a factory to make toys for the Martian children. However, the grumpy Voldar and his assistants, Stobo and Shim, sabotage the factory and change the programming so that it makes the toys incorrectly. Meanwhile, Dropo, a moronic Martian who has been acting silly ever since Santa came to Mars, puts on one of Santa's spare suits and starts talking and acting like Santa Claus. He goes to the toy factory to make toys, but Voldar mistakes him for Santa Claus and kidnaps him.

When Santa and the children come back to the factory to make more toys, they discover that the machine has been tampered with. Voldar and Stobo come back to the factory to make a deal with Kimar, but when they see the real Santa Claus in the factory they realize that their plan has been foiled. Dropo, held hostage in a cave, tricks Shim, who was guarding him, and escapes. Kimar then arrests Voldar, Stobo and Shim. Santa notices that Dropo is acting like him, and says that Dropo would make a good Martian Santa Claus. Kimar agrees to make Dropo a Santa Claus on Mars and sends Santa and the children back to Earth.

The Outer Limits

The Outer Limits sometimes made use of techniques (lighting, camerawork, even makeup) associated with film noir or German Expressionism (see for example, Corpus Earthling), and a number of episodes were noteworthy for their sheer eeriness. Credit for this is often given to cinematographer Conrad Hall, who would go on to win three Academy Awards (and many more nominations) for his work in film. However, it should be noted that Hall worked only on alternate episodes of the show during the first two-thirds of the first season; the show's other cinematographers included John M. Nickolaus and Kenneth Peach.

Special effects

Each show was to have a monster or creature as a critical part of the story line. Stefano believed that this element was necessary to provide fear, suspense, or at least a center for plot development. Many times, the "bear," as it came to be called, was notably frightening to audiences. In some cases, it was nothing more than an unusual force directed by a person or other being. These creatures and props were developed by a loose-knit group organized under the name Project Unlimited. Members of the group included Wah Chang, Gene Warren and Jim Danforth. Makeup was executed by Fred B. Phillips along with John Chambers.

Influence on Star Trek

A few of the monsters reappeared in Gene Roddenberry's 1960s Star Trek show. A feathered creature was modified to appear as a zoo animal in the background of the first pilot of Star Trek; a prop head from "Fun and Games" was used to make a Talosian appear as a vicious creature. The moving carpet beast in "The Probe" later was used as the "Horta", and operated by the same actor (Janos Prohaska). The process used to make pointed ears for David McCallum in "The Sixth Finger" was reused in Star Trek as well. Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock) appeared in two episodes, "The Production And Decay Of Strange Particles" and "I Robot", William Shatner (James T. Kirk) appeared in the starring role in the episode "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" as an astronaut working on a project ironically called Project Vulcan, James Doohan (Montgomery Scott) appeared in a supporting role as a policeman in "Expanding Human", Grace Lee Whitney (Janice Rand) appeared in the episode "Controlled Experiment" and other actors established in the genre by the first series appeared in Trek episodes.

In fact Gene Roddenberry paid a lot of attention to what The Outer Limits team was doing at the time, and he was often present in their studios. Later he hired several Outer Limits alumni, among them Robert Justman and Wah Chang for the production of Star Trek.

Viewmaster

The ViewMaster system was invented by William Gruber, an organ maker and avid photographer who lived in Portland, Oregon. He had the idea of updating the old-fashioned stereoscope by using the new Kodachrome color film that had recently become available. While a View-Master reel holds 14 film slides, there are really only seven stereoscopic images; two film slides are viewed simultaneously - one for each eye - thus simulating binocular depth perception.

When on vacation with his wife in 1938, Gruber met Harold Graves, the president of Sawyer's, Inc., a company specializing in picture postcards, and the two men struck up a conversation about Mr. Gruber’s invention that lasted well into the night. Shortly thereafter, Gruber and Graves formed a partnership in 1939 which led to the retail sales of View-Master viewers and reels. Within a very short time, the View-Master quickly took over the postcard business at Sawyer's.

Later that year, View-Master was first introduced at the New York World's Fair. It was intended as an alternative to the scenic postcard, and was originally sold at photography shops, stationery stores and scenic attraction gift shops. The main subjects of View-Master reels were Carlsbad Caverns and the Grand Canyon. In the 1940s, the U.S. military recognized the potential for using View-Master products for personnel training, purchasing 100,000 viewers and nearly six million reels between 1942 and the end of World War II in 1945.

In 1951 Sawyer's purchased Tru-Vue, the main competitor of View-Master. In addition to eliminating their main rival, the takeover also gave Sawyer's Tru-Vue's licensing rights to Walt Disney Studios. Sawyer's capitalized on the opportunity and produced numerous reels featuring Disney characters and the newly opened Disneyland.

In 1952 Sawyer's began its View-Master Personal line, which included a 35mm camera for its users to make their own View-Master reels. Although at first highly successful, within ten years the line would be discontinued. Despite an untimely death, many of these ruggedly well-made cameras are still being used today. This line also spawned the Model 'D' viewer (available until the early seventies it was View-Master's highest quality viewer) and View-Master's only 3D projector.

The View-Master had originally been constructed from Kodak Tenite plastic and then bakelite, a hard, sturdy, somewhat heavy plastic. Beginning in 1959, the material of choice became the much lighter-weight thermoplastic.

In 1966 Sawyer's was acquired by the General Aniline & Film (GAF) Corporation, and became a wholly owned subsidiary. Under GAF's ownership View-Master reels started to feature fewer scenic and more child-friendly subjects, such as toys and cartoons. Several now-classic TV series were also featured on View-Master reels, such as Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Star Trek, The Man From UNCLE, Here's Lucy, and The Beverly Hillbillies. Actor Henry Fonda appeared in a series of TV commercials for the GAF View-Master.

In 1976, a red and white View-Master with a blue handle was released to commemorate the United States Bicentennial.

GAF sold View-Master to a group headed by Arnold Thaler in 1981 for $24 million. Six years later, a thriving View-Master International purchased Ideal Toy Company and became known as View-Master Ideal (VMI).

In the mid-1980s, the toy eventually had a home video label, notable for producing Kidsongs.

In August of 1989, the ViewMaster product line was sold for the third time to Tyco Toys, Inc. of Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, upon its purchase of View-Master Ideal. The View-Master line remained part of Tyco until Tyco’s merger with Mattel, Inc. in 1997.

Shortly after the merger with Mattel, Inc., the View-Master category shifted to Fisher-Price in East Aurora, New York.

View-Master is now part of the National Toy Hall of Fame of the USA.

Betty & Barney Hill

The evening of September 19, 1961, Betty and Barney Hill were driving back to Portsmouth from a vacation in upstate New York and Quebec. Since it was late at night, and because the summer tourist season was over, there were few other cars on the road as they traveled south. South of Groverton, New Hampshire, they are said to have observed a bright point of light in the sky. Initially, they thought that they were observing a shooting star, only it fell upward and stopped near the gibbous moon. While Barney navigated U.S. Route 3, Betty reasoned that she was observing a communication satellite and urged Barney to stop the car for a closer look and to walk their dog, Delsey. Worried about the presence of bears, Barney removed a pistol that he had hidden away in the trunk of the car.

Betty, whose sister had confided to her about having a flying saucer sighting several years earlier, observed the object through binoculars as it moved across the face of the moon flashing multicolored lights. Barney, who had not observed the craft, thought the light was a conventional aircraft. Betty was perplexed by the unconventional appearance of the object.

The Hills reported that they continued driving on the isolated, mostly abandoned road, moving very slowly so they could observe the object as it came even closer. Though the object was sporadically obscured by the mountain peaks, it seemed to be moving in unison with the topography. It also dipped in front of the peaks and descended slowly in their direction. At one point the object appeared to land on top of Cannon Mountain, but quickly began moving again. At times, it seemed to resemble the flight pattern of a ball and paddle game, rapidly approaching the Hills' vehicle, then receding.

Approximately one mile south of Indian Head, the craft rapidly descended toward the Hills' vehicle causing Barney to stop directly in the middle of the highway. Opening the car door for a closer look, he pocketed his pistol and grabbed his binoculars. The craft descended to approximately 80-100 feet above the Hills' 1957 Chevrolet and filled the entire field of the windshield through which Betty was observing. Barney stepped away from the vehicle and moved closer to the object, which shifted like a pendulum from the west side of the car, east above the adjacent field. Using the binoculars, Barney claimed to have seen about 8 to 11 humanoid figures who were peering out of the craft's windows, seeming to look at him. Suddenly, with military precision, all but one of the figures moved to what appeared to be an instrument panel as though they were about to perform an important task. The one remaining figure continued to look at Barney and communicated a message to him to "stay where you are and keep looking." At that instant red lights on what appeared to be bat-wing fins began to telescope out of the sides of the craft and a long structure descended from the bottom of the craft. The silent craft approached to what Barney estimated was within 50-80 feet overhead and 50-100 feet away from him.

Suddenly overwhelmed with fear, Barney tore the binoculars away from his eyes and ran back to his car, saying, "They're going to capture us!" Prior to entering the car, he observed the object again shift its location to directly above the vehicle. He drove away at high speed, telling Betty to look for the object. She rolled down the window and looked up, but saw only darkness above them. Barney was afraid that the object was hovering directly over the car and blocking Betty's view of the stars....

Aegis

US Navy interest in anti-ballistic missiles operations dates back to 1965 when the RIM-2 Terrier and RIM-24 Tartar anti-aircraft missiles were test fired against Corporal and Redstone missiles. While some of those tests were successful, the capability was not exploited.

The current effort to deploy Aegis ballistic missile defense (ABMD) was kindled in the mid 1980s as part of President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). The SDI plan initially called for a space based rail gun system. However, due to technological constraints, the system was transformed into a surface based system know as the Lightweight Exo-atmospheric Projectile (LEAP). The original testing of the LEAP took place as part of the Army LEAP program. Later SDIO worked with the Navy to test the LEAP on the Terrier missile. The TERRIER LEAP demonstration program lasted from the 1991 through 1993 and consisted of five flight tests. Two of these were intercept tests.

In the late 1990s the US Navy was tasked to provide a weapon system for exploratory testing of LEAP. This phase was designated the Aegis LEAP Intercept (ALI) program. The program called for 2 successful intercepts in 5 attempts. On June 13, 2002 the second successful ALI intercept occurred during the FM-3 flight test mission. Initial Aegis BMD success may have contributed to President George W. Bush's decision to deploy an emergency ballistic missile capability by late 2004.

Upon the completion of the ALI program, Aegis BMD was transitioned to the production phase. The first Block I production SM-3 was delivered in October 2004 and the Aegis 3.0 update was delivered in 2005.

Current Aegis BMD hardware includes the SM-3 Block-1a missile and other improvements to the Aegis Weapons System.

Future development of the Aegis BMD system includes Launch on Remote capability, upgraded SM-3 avionics and hardware and an upgraded Aegis Weapon System.