Spying on Star Wars

Have you seen the new Star Wars film yet?
If so, did you spot 007, Daniel Craig???!!!

It was revealed late last year that Daniel Craig had nabbed a cameo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (true!). But few realised the James Bond actor features in a prominent moment, in which he speaks four lines. The scriptwriters even named his Stormtrooper JB-007, in a nod to his role as super-sleuth Bond.
Daniel appears in a short scene opposite Daisy Ridley's character Rey, who mind-controls Stormtrooper JB-007 before they become involved in a brief humorous exchange.

The next 007...???

This wee part came about simply from being in the right place at the right time. Craig had been filming Spectre at Pinewood studios in Buckinghamshire, when he got talking to Star Wars director J.J. Abrams, who also shot some of his film at the same complex: they concocted the cameo together.
So, if you haven't seen the movie yet, keep your eyes peeled - and may the Force be with you!

Shark-bait Selfie!

We see ourselves here...we see ourselves there...we take our selfies EVERYwhere!
Self-obsession has risen to new heights over the past few years, with folk like the Kardashians posting virtually every part of their lives (and anatomies!).
Your average Joe (and Josephine) Bloggs have followed suit, trying to gain a higher profile and larger ego, by posting more and more 'extreme' selfies! And when THAT doesn't work...well, they fake it 'til they can make it! Check THIS out!

Logic tells us that, if this was a REAL selfie, the guy could never have posted it, as he was about to become a shark sandwich!
But the Believers believed! Even the guy himself claimed (for a while) that he'd escaped by the skin of his boardshorts to tell the tale...
But sooner or later on the 'net, the truth will come out! A cute bit of Photoshopping, that's all!

The Italian Job

Ahhhhh, such are the joys of the internet.
People THINK they know something, post wrong info...and within a short space of time, it becomes solid fact!
Thus an old video clip of a very skillful motorcyle display gets cited with dates ranging all over the known universe! Yet just a tiny bit of

research would have clarified things...
Pathé News was a producer of newsreels and documentaries from 1910-1970 in the UK (older readers will recall its newsreels playing in movie theatres, ahead of the feature flick). The Pathé News archive is known today as British Pathé. Its fully-digitised collection is available online...and is the source of this particular clip.
The short footage (below) is of a motorcycle display in Rome, to mark the 107th anniversary of the Italian police. The force formed in 1848, so that means the film can be no earlier than 1955. And among the officials seated in the grandstand, you'll see Italian President Giovanni Gronchi - who held office from 1955-1962.
Thus - unlike many YouTube posters - I'm confident that the footage can be dated at/soon after 1955. And Pathé News has dated it at 1959 (a few years later than the anniversary year...but a damn sight more accurate than those who said the 1930s!!).
So...now that's cleared up, enjoy some pretty fancy motorcycling!