Dragon has these things called (airquote) "lay-zers" ...

[major_clanger]

You know the jokes about how SpaceX boss and former PayPal supremo Elon Musk is only a fluffy cat away from being a Bond villain? On the basis of this segment from a press conference about yesterday's Dragon spacecraft docking and the laser ranging glitch that caused a slight delay, I think he's buying into it (see 24:15 onwards):

(alt: http://youtu.be/YjuvIlskUf4)

Compare the original:

(alt: http://youtu.be/nw3dWOssOhs)

Incidentally, it says something about my musical tastes that I was the only person in the cinema to burst out laughing at the line about 'the Alan Parsons Project'. Nothing wrong with liking prog rock...

Comments

[zotz]

The Alan Parson Project were so uncool that my music teacher had us study Pyramid.

They could never have survived that ignominy.

[quercus.livejournal.com]

I always thought it was a weird joke to include. Did they subtitle it for the US teen cinema audience? Or just rename it, like Harry Potter and the Cup O'Hot Stuff?

[zotz]

According the Thee Ackurssed Witchipedia, they were more popular outside the UK.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Musk was obviously enjoying himself enormously there, and I really can't blame him.

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

Not so much a joke as an actual conversation I had with him a few years back, around the time of the first Falcon launch.

A remarkably nice guy, with several big visions.