Ernst Stavro Julian
James Lileks ·
Dec 10, 2010 at 11:19am
These photos of the Wikileaks HQ are described as fit for a Bond villain, and not without reason: it seems the designer was actually influenced by the great Lairs of Yore. Who wouldn’t want a Ken Adam-designed office?
Bonus points to the first Ricochetian who can identify the object on the table in this photo. Made me smile.
- Comment (18)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (2)
Comments :
Jun '10
Re: Ernst Stavro Julian
An Estes rocket.
May '10
Re: Ernst Stavro Julian
It looks like the one Tintin rode to the moon.
Aug '10
Re: Ernst Stavro Julian
These guys have waaaaay too much money to waste.
Re: Ernst Stavro Julian
Trace FTW; that's the rocket, all right. The pride of Slydavia. Of all the Tintin books, "Destination Moon" was the most visually interesting. The cleanliness of the lines, the details - it was wonderful stuff for a kid, and prescient, too.
Nov '10
Re: Ernst Stavro Julian
It's a piece of Tintin memorabilia. You see them at comic book conventions once in a while.
When I was ten, I really wanted my room to look like the Bat Cave. I flatter myself that I've matured a little since then, but it looks like these guys never grew out of it.
Nov '10
Re: Ernst Stavro Julian
Dammit, missed it by a minute. And I see someone else spotted it as Tintin. You gotta be sharp around here.
Jul '10
Re: Ernst Stavro Julian
Where are all the pneumatic Scandinavian ninja chicks in skin-tight silver-rubber cat suits?
By the way, it's not just a Tintin rocket. It's also a handy condom dispenser.
Sep '10
Re: Ernst Stavro Julian
This is just some Swedish internet service provider's data center, though that company indeed modeled it after command centers seen in Bond movies. WikiLeaks only rents the minimal computer storage space needed to house their -- or, better, our -- data from that company
Edited on Dec 10, 2010 at 12:20pmNov '10
Re: Ernst Stavro Julian
I read the sequel, Explorers on the Moon, in the sixth grade. It was my first taste of European comics.
As for being "prescient," has anyone (besides Mark Steyn) noticed that Ian Fleming was extremely prescient? Back in the 50s and 60s, the concept of the international supervillian was considered farfetched, to say the least. Now the world seems to be full of SPECTRE-worthy figures like Marc Rich, George Soros, Julian Assange and Osama bin Laden.
Where are the real-life 007s?
Dec '10
Re: Ernst Stavro Julian
The only rocket I care about is the one with the bunker buster on top that we drop onto this glorified nerd basement.
May '10
Re: Ernst Stavro Julian
The whole suspended-glass-room thing seems to echo the secure rooms at NSA -- we wouldn't want any leaks to emerge from WikiLeaks, would we?
Sep '10
Re: Ernst Stavro Julian
Wikileaks neither owns nor rents the office space down there. It only rents tiny amounts of server space from the company that does own the place and that keeps its storage devices down there.
Wikileaks is like a bank customer who rents a small safe in the bank's vault, only that in this case the bank is a digital storage provider, and the safe is secured space on a digital storage device.
Edited on Dec 10, 2010 at 1:00pmMay '10
Re: Ernst Stavro Julian
That's perfect. Tintin was a man-boy and so is Julian Assange.
May '10
Re: Ernst Stavro Julian
That's it. I'm opening a Paypal account. Send donations in lieu of "likes".
May '10
Re: Ernst Stavro Julian
Check out the REAL "Destination: Moon" sometime, the pioneering 1950 science fiction film. Based on a Robert Heinlein story, it's full of interesting images and ideas, the most brazenly libertarian movie ever to come out of postwar Hollywood. That George Pal single-stage rocket ship, with an odd overlay of a test V-2's paint job, is your Tintin spacecraft. Re: those D:M rolling opening credits: yes, that's an image that George Lucas would put to use. Yes, the dialog is often dreadful. But you have to remember how early this is, and how much had to be explained ("There's no air out there")
Nov '10
Re: Ernst Stavro Julian
Too right!
"We need this built, quickly. We need you, the captains of industry, to build it for us. American industry is the only thing that can build a thing like this." And remember why they needed to take off in such a hurry? Because some weenie from a government agency was trying to shut them down for some trivial bureaucratic reason.
That movie was worth it for the Woody Woodpecker cartoon alone.
May '10
Re: Ernst Stavro Julian
Somewhere on an oil rig in Baja California, the words "3 Minutes to launch and counting" are being said.
But where is the piranha pool?
Edited on Dec 11, 2010 at 6:12amAug '10
Re: Ernst Stavro Julian
They're at their lawyer's office, at the moment.