James Bond stories (and movies) have always fascinated me. What made the stories more plausible for me was that our family lived in the Asian Pacific for a bunch of years. It's fun to see a Bond movie scene in Japan or Hong Kong or Thailand and immediately recognize the street or location. On Guam, we saw submarines--up close--and we rode on a submarine in Hawaii (I want a submersible Lotus like the one Bond drove in "The Spy Who Loved Me"). With the recent news about the Russian spy ring in the U.S. -- there seems to be a lot more *meat* for some good Bond-style stories.

My favorite Bond was Sean Connery. And the gadgets "Q" cooked up for him were always interesting. With all the new technologies coming out--everything from nanotechnology to super-stealth aircraft to WiFi to mini-laser-light-emitting-diodes (LEDs) to retinal-scan devices to 3D/holographic projects (some of which were sort of predicted and simulated in earlier Bond movies) are now here for real.

I'll always be a fan of James Bond--the books and movies inspired me to cook up my own "tribute" for those stories: http://www.squidoo.com/Bond_James-Bond