Related rather tenuously to yesterday’s comments:
A panoramic tour of the International Space Station. I can’t seem to find the sofa. Or the bar.
And because I know you like quizzes,
How long could you survive in the vacuum of space?
Blog Preservation Fund
1 minute 11 seconds. But by then my eyes and tongue would be boiling.
Operation Overlord will demand sacrifice. Now, onto level 2: Could you kill a man – say, a meddlesome British agent – using only a hair grip and sexual magnetism?
lol. Definitely.
1 minute 23 seconds. Wave bye-bye, Anna.
The boiling soft tissue might be more endurable if I could listen to some nice music during my Countdown to Death. Thus Spake Zarathustra is about the right length, but maybe too cliched? I know, “Stardust” sung by Sinatra:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlujPZ64ZvI
Oh wait, that wouldn’t work in a vacuum, would it? No sound. Can’t hum either — no breath. Bugger this, I’m wearing a space suit.
Thanks Dutch Canuck for that lovely offering. But while we’re all whirling off into oblivion with boiling eyeballs it might be as well to hear the composer’s own take on that song. No one could accuse Hoagy Carmichael of having a voice like Sinatra’s but his down-at-heel rendition is cherishable and I love the way he plays cavalier with his own tune, and the whistling solo is lovely…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnCs67ZD9Q0
If memory serves, the drummer on this recording is one Spike Jones.
My current fav tune.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13TBqM0_Apw
More on surviving in space: http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970603.html
“At NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center we had a test subject accidentally exposed to a near vacuum (less than 1 psi) in an incident involving a leaking space suit in a vacuum chamber back in ’65. He remained conscious for about 14 seconds, which is about the time it takes for O2 deprived blood to go from the lungs to the brain. The suit probably did not reach a hard vacuum, and we began repressurizing the chamber within 15 seconds. The subject regained consciousness at around 15,000 feet equivalent altitude. The subject later reported that he could feel and hear the air leaking out, and his last conscious memory was of the water on his tongue beginning to boil.”
Hm. I have to say all this tongue boiling business is a tad off-putting. And if the tour of the ISS is anything to go by, an orbital lair would be a bit too Spartan for my taste. Maybe I need to relocate the Guild of Evil headquarters to a more salubrious location. Under the sea, maybe, or inside a dormant volcano. Either way, I insist on a decent carpet.
David,
Here’s a selection of lairs to choose from. http://www.villainsource.com/lairs.html
Bless you, good woman. I’m leaning towards the private-island-with-volcano package. Though the secluded mountaintop villa’s not to be sniffed at. And I do like the fact that all the construction workers will be “dealt with” after their labouring, to maintain secrecy.