James Bond at 50

Sean Connery as James Bond in "Dr. No"

We’ve all been thrilled by the swashbuckling and daring stunts, the beautiful ladies, the fantastic cars, beautiful international locations, flashy espionage gadgets, and the cool and handsome persona. The covert spy, the dashing and debonair Englishman, the ultimate secret of M16, the one and only Bond, James Bond. And it’s been 50 years since Dr. No, the first Bond film to grace the big screen, came out in 1962. Sean Connery was the first James Bond in the franchise, based on the novel of Ian Fleming. Connery was only 32 at that time.

The thrilling espionage movies caught almost everyone’s fancy. Men and women, young and old, got mesmerized by the charisma of the leading men who portrayed James Bond through the years. The series is a worldwide hit. The hit Bond movies have been translated into 11 languages including Spanish, German, French, Italian and Russian. The latest Bond film, Skyfall, will also be translated into Kazakh.

Daniel Craig From The Skyfall's cast and crew arrive on location in Istanbul.

Through the early years of the movie franchise, there were some criticisms that the movies strayed from the books by Ian Fleming. However, once James Bond has settled in as a stand-alone character free from his literary roots, the only thing that remained were the titles and the Bond girls which were either from the books or related to Ian Fleming in some way. The books have also gone on to have a life of their own. Ian Fleming's last book, Octopussy and The Living Daylights, a compilation of short stories, was published two years after his death, in 1966. Since then there have been 40 James Bond books written by a series of authors.

The Titanic Lives On (Lessons the Titanic Taught Us)

This April 15, we mark the centennial anniversary of the sinking of the unsinkable ship, the RMS Titanic.

Titanic at the docks of Southampton

Back in 1912, the Titanic was the grandest ship of its kind. No one could stop talking about the massive size of the ship. The ship was made in Belfast, Ireland, where today, travelers can see the historic city where one of the world’s greatest ships was built. Of course, the world remembers the Titanic today for very different reasons. The ill-fated ship met with disaster on its maiden voyage when it hit an iceberg in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and eventually sank to the bottom of the sea in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912.

The Oscars, A Truly Global Event

The Oscars, A Truly Global Event

Lights! Cameras! Oscars! Sunday night's Oscars, more formally known as the 84th Annual Academy Awards, was, as usual, a night of glitz, glamor, triumph and loss. More than a billion people spent over three hours watching the events of the night unfold. Viewers, whether in the Hollywood and Highland Center (formally referred to as The Kodak Theater) or in front of television screens, were waiting with excitement to find out who would bag golden statuettes this year. People were also interested to see if Billy Crystal, who has hosted the Oscars for 8 years prior to last Sunday's telecast, still had the comedic chops to ensure that the whole night would not turn into a snooze fest. Although, the night had its shares of highs and lows, Crystal proved to the world that he was still the host to reckon with, at least for this generation of moviegoers. Of course, Bob Hope will always be the best.