Pacific Shaving Company Asks Drinkers to Skip Beers, Save a Million Gallons of Water

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Inspired by Budweiser’s “Grow One, Save a Million” campaign, natural and eco-friendly shaving essentials manufacturer Pacific Shaving Company is asking beer drinkers across America to help save water by drinking a couple less cold ones between now and World Environment Day (June 5).

In 2009, the leading global brewer sold more than 10 billion gallons of beer, of which water is a key ingredient. Pacific Shaving’s just-formed Clean Cut, Clean Living initiative encourages consumers to get involved and save roughly 24 ounces of water each week by simply cutting out two beers.

Customers can visit Pacific Shaving’s Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/PacificShaving) to make the pledge and share the program with Facebook friends. For every pledge made between now and June 5th, the company will plant a tree. So let’s each do our part to minimize the approximately 27 million gallons of water used each day in the brewing process by passing on the casual beer between now and World Environment Day.

When it comes to shaving, you can also do your part in conserving water by shaving at the sink and turning the tap off. When it comes to the environment, Pacific Shaving Company is proud its line of natural, safe and eco-friendly shaving essentials which use minimal packaging. The company also works with Trees for the Future to plant a tree for every purchase. (Learn more: http://www.pacificshaving.com).

London Nights: Delicious Cocktails and Tamarai's Half-Price Mojitos

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The weekends now have an unusual twist. Hosting exciting nights out like Vogue-Fridays and Diamond Noir Saturday Nights, Tamarai is living up to its reputation as one of the most happening nightclubs in the city. The elegant, 110-seat restaurant renowned for its Pan Asian cuisine, metamorphoses from a fine dining restaurant to a late night bar and club venue, like the Lotus flower that it is named after. With awards like the ‘Best Late Night Bar in UK’, be sure to sample the best cocktails and an award-winning wine list.

Don’t miss the exciting events that Tamarai hosts and make the most of the latest, irresistible offer – Half-Price Mojitos available from 10.00pm till midnight. And there is also FREE entry for ladies on the guest list before 11.00pm on both nights.

Vogue-Fridays at Tamarai presents “Casablanca”. Based on the 1942 cult film, it is a night of pure romance for couples dressed like their favourite movie stars or otherwise, set against a musical backdrop of commercial, house and RNB by top DJ’s. Add your names to the guest list and enter at £10 from 10.00pm till 11.30pm, and £15 after 11.30pm. £20 without guest list.

Diamond Noir Saturday Nights feature “Cocktail Seduction”, “Miami London”, “Model City Exposure” and “Back to School Party”. Just like the names suggest, every Saturday is going to unlock a new theme, with resident DJ’s playing the finest RNB, garage, oldskool hip hop, funky and club classics. With names on the guest list, ladies can enter free before 11.00pm, £10 thereafter. Gents £10 before 12.00am, £15 thereafter and non guest list is £20.

You can book a drinking table for your party, with minimum drinks spend for a drinking table priced at £40 per person. You and your guests will receive complimentary entry to Tamarai with dedicated waiter service to your table. A combination of dinner and dancing will make for the perfect night, with all diners getting free entry to the club.

For guest list and table booking, email guestlist@tamarai.co.uk or call 020 7831 9399.

Here are some fabulous cocktail recipes.

1. VIOLET MARTIN

GLASS : BUBBLE FRAPEE
METHOD : STIR & DOUBLE STRAIN INTO THE GLASS

INGREDIENTS : 3 DASHES PEYCHAUD BITTERS, 50 ML TANQUERAY 10, 25 ML PARFAIT AMOUR (VIOLETTE LIQUEUR), 25 ML LYCHEE JUICE

GARNISH : EDIBLE FLOWERS IN THE BUBBLE AND LEMON TWIST OVER THE DRINK THEN THROW AWAY.

2. PUNCH ESSENTIAL

GLASS : COLORED HI-BALL

METHOD : SHAKE & STRAIN OVER CRUSHED ICE

INGREDIENTS : 25 ML PASSION FRUIT PUREE, ½ FRESH PASSION FRUIT, 10 ML PASSION FRUIT SYRUP, 10 ML LIQUEUR 43, 50 ML PERNOD, 50 ML GRAPEFRUIT JUICE

GARNISH: PASSION FRUIT SLICE & MINT SPRIG

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Trailer Officially Unveiled

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You read it here first at Frost Magazine – the trailer for most eagerly anticipated game of the year  – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – has been officially unveiled.

In the first trailer to actually show ‘in-game footage’, we can clearly see pulse-pounding, First-Person action from four of the key areas of conflict – Germany, France, England and America.

The teaser trailer gives an insight into the games plot. Panning shots show a devastated New York City while elsewhere, a solider descends from a helicopter in full view of the mighty Big Ben, only for the scenes to culminate in an epic, explosive race with a tube train. The widely predicted release date for this title is November 8th.

Is Modern Warfare 3 going to be Heaven or Hell on earth?  Let us know what you think of the trailer below.

 

 

 

http://youtu.be/coiTJbr9m04

 

 

 

 

 

Pirates of The Carribean: On Stranger Tides – The Review

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Yes indeed – Jack Is Back…

If you were to ask any man, woman or child ten years ago to name the world’s most famous pirate, you might have heard Captain Hook, Blackbeard or perhaps even Captain Pugwash. But since the release of Pirates of the Caribbean, there can only be one pirate for many – Jack Sparrow.

The creation of acclaimed writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, none could argue that Johnny Depp indeed brings Sparrow to life in ways that many other actors of his generation could not. There simply would be no Pirates of the Caribbean without him.

There is just something about him that gets to you on so many different levels. Whether it’s his colourful swaggering demeanour, his mentality, his over the top actions that land him into trouble – or maybe it is the fact that his true motives usually remain hidden. Whether he ends up being honorable or deceptive largely depends on the situation his is in and what is at stake. Either way, Jack Sparrow is like Marmite. You love him or hate him, or perhaps – just perhaps – hate that you love him.

When the last film ended with duelling pirate ships caught in a mystical vortex, one could only wonder where the franchise would head next. For me, I was left slightly worn out of sub-plots upon sub-plots. I think in the end, I had to simplify things in my mind and group the characters into good guys and bad guys just to make sense of it all.

One thing I do remember, is a certain pirate by the name of Hector Barbossa saying that he was off to find a certain Fountain of Youth. But good old Jack, you should never trust him, let alone leave him alone with a map. Barbossa found out to his horror that Jack had torn the centre out of it. So begins another adventure, and in Stranger Tides it is none other than the Fountain of Youth that they are searching for.

Sadly, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley are absent from this movie, but for some, that will be a good thing as their romantic sub-plots have gone too. In their place is a nice-fitting Penélope Cruz, a deceitful old flame of Jack’s.

I was quite surprised at how well Cruz fits into the role. She’s Spanish, she’s feisty, and what’s more can more than hold her own against Jack both verbally and with a sword. It is her character Angelica that throws Jack into his first real pot of hot water when her crew captures him and forces him aboard The Queen Anne’s Revenge, captained by none other than the infamous Blackbeard (played excellently by Ian McShane).

Blackbeard has a good reason to be hunting the fountain of youth. It was prophesied that he will die at the hands of a one-legged pirate. The only way to escape death is to drink from the fountain and Angelica, his ‘long lost’ daughter, is only too willing to do whatever it takes to find it. Also in the hunt for the fountain is Barbossa (played again brilliantly by Geoffrey Rush), and the entire Spanish navy. Will they find it? Who will reach it first? You’re just going to have to watch the film to find out.

Making a welcome return in this film is Jack’s long-time friend Joshamee Gibbs (played by Kevin McNally) and there is a wonderful scene at the start of the film that really reinstates the bond between them. Cue Jack Sparrow entering a court room as a judge. Absolutely priceless.

Keith Richards also makes a welcome return cameo as Jack Sparrow’s father, imparting some good old words of wisdom that will no doubt come in handy in this quest. Newcomers to this adventure include a clergyman, played by Sam Claflin, Richard Griffiths as a decidedly autonomous George II, and Astrid Berges-Frisbey as the vulnerable mermaid Syrena.

One of the highlights of the film are the mermaid scenes. I won’t spoil things, but this film will reinvent the way you think of mermaids – perhaps forever. Not to mention give young kids nightmares. The scenes are shot and executed very well and bring some much needed seriousness to the light-hearted proceedings.

But the main focus of Pirates of the Caribbean has always been action. Trust me, in this instalment you get it in spades. In this respect, it is just as wearisome as the last film. Every single thing, no matter how simple or trivial, just seems like an adventure. No sooner has one set piece come to an end, then we’re thrown into another.

This is even truer for the fact that it is shot on RED 3D cameras, which provides the kind of vista almost befitting 3D gaming in that everything is in 3D –  even walls, candles, and swords. All of which makes it a little more unnerving when things come at you. Yes indeed, 3D has come a long way in the film industry.

Luckily, there are some brief moments of calm between set pieces of action where you can catch your breath, and are party to some lovely comedy. And I am pleased to say that the dialogue is totally up to scratch with some lovely camaraderie between the characters on screen.

Some reviews of On Stranger Tides have been less than promising and it almost had me sitting forward in my seat expecting to be disappointed. The truth is that I wasn’t. Yes, the film was marginally too long, yes, even the largest box of popcorn will be done by the time you reach the halfway point. But yes too, while it is true that you can have too much of a good thing, I think I will still be going back for a second helping.

 

Definitely a piece of 8

 

 

Bird of the week: Common Whitethroat (Sylvia communis)

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Today I’d like to introduce you to the wonderful family of ‘Old World warblers’.
I love all warblers but the whitethroat is a particular favourite of mine so I’ll start with this species.

Whitethroat saying hello

Whitethroat saying hello

Like most British warblers the whitethroat spends the winter in Africa. This means it has only just returned to Britain and I am happy to report that this year record numbers have made it back to their breeding grounds! Great to hear something positive about bird population numbers for a change!
Whitethroats can be found in open country and shrub/bramble where they feed (on insects and berries in autumn) and nest.

So if you go for a walk in the countryside (and you really should, there is so much to see!) you are very likely to encounter a whitethroat – in all likelihood a male. He will probably be perched on top of a bush (or possibly be skulking in a clump of bramble) and sing, sing, sing!

 

Or you might witness one of his display flights that he performs while singing. The one thing he won’t do is sit still for you. Whitethroats are completely hyper, always in action, never bored!

Male whitethroat in full song

Male whitethroat in full song

 

 

Whitethroats are also very inquisitive little birds – you can be sure they have been watching you long before you know they’re around.

Inquisitive whitethroat

Inquisitive whitethroat

 

 

They do like to announce their presence though by scolding you with their grumpy-sounding alarm call. Always makes me smile!
Check out the whitethroat’s scratchy but lovely song and alarm call here:

 


As you can tell, I love whitethroats. They’re full of character and although they might not be colourful, they’re both beautiful and SO cute!
Male whitethroat

Male whitethroat

Female whitethroat

Female whitethroat - she lacks the male's grey head and pinkish chest

Male whitethroat gathering nesting material

Male whitethroat gathering nesting material

Juvenile whitethroat in late summer

Juvenile whitethroat in late summer

Whitethroat fledgling

Whitethroat fledgling

 

For more whitethroat photos please have a look here: http://www.finepetportraits.co.uk/whitethroat-bird-photos.html

 

You will meet more warblers here  over the course of the summer!

 

Who are you?

Next IMF Head – Brown vs Lagarde: Why We Should Stop Feeling Sorry For Brown

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As I came home on the train today, I found the Evening Standard filled with articles questioning why Gordon Brown hasn’t been put forward by Britain to be head of the IMF. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23952636-we-have-muffed-our-chance-to-lead-the-world.do

George Osborne has now backed the French favourite to secure the job, Christine Lagarde.

The paper’s tone suggests we should be being more patriotic. ‘The French know how to look after their own,” it says, referring to Lagarde. I’m disappointed with the paper’s view and the justification for it. Trying to raise nationalist feelings is a low blow, particularly in this time of crisis.

The Eurozone debt crisis is once again rearing its ugly head. We can’t afford such petty nationalist feelings. It is in fact very much in the UK’s interest that a European candidate takes the top job.

Lagarde is now the overwhelming favourite precisely because Europe has united behind her, putting common interest first. Other economic regions have failed to unite behind one candidate.

As the Standard itself even highlights, Brown has a host of failings.

Brown was heavily responsible for the recession (despite his continued efforts to blame world markets). It was he who oversaw the nation’s finances for over a decade as a chancellor. He who oversaw the colossal rise in government spending and it was he who failed to properly regulate the banking industry.

You can blame the global markets all you want, but countries such as Germany, Australia and Canada have coped perfectly well with the crisis. There’s no doubt Britain was not alone in its mistakes and many other countries have suffered as well, but in my mind that does not excuse Brown, who, we should also remember, inherited a budget surplus when he came to power.

When it was convenient, Brown ditched his famous, ‘golden rules’. Why? Because Brown was always a politician. He did it for political reasons. People forget his role in helping take the UK into the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. Is he partly responsible for the previous recession as well?

It’s simple really. Brown would never get the post even if Britain did back him because he has a record of failure. We should take the best and only viable European candidate we have and support her all we can.

 

Money Shot: The Beginning Of The End For Cash?

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According to the comics of the last 50 years, the future would be one long time of leisure. By now, we’d have moonbases, flying cars and robots to attend to our every need.

Instead, the moon is a forgotten, lifeless dusty shell, cars clog up our roads and if you can find a robot capable of more than a few token gestures before it falls flat on its face, you’re doing pretty well. But as we face up to our brave same old, same old world, there is one prediction that is, if not knocking on the door, is at least approaching from the bus stop down the street.

The cashless society.

Umpteen pulp stories, or sci-fi novels boast about how money has long been discarded by the gentle, enlightened society. But, cynic that I am, I was still less then impressed by the mailshot I received from Barclays today.

The bank has joined forces with Orange to launch the Samsung Tocco Quick Tap Phone.

In short, according to the blurb: “It lets you pay for things £15 and under – like coffee, sandwiches and magazines – quickly and easily. So no more fumbling for change at the till. Just tap to pay, and go.”

Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t tend to get frustrated at having to dip into my pocket for a handful of change. And I’m willing to bet it scores fairly low on anyone’s scale of irritants, certainly behind screaming children in restaurants, queue-jumpers in pubs and, oh, pretty much everyone on reality TV.

Considering mobile phone theft is now scaling new heights, what an added bonus it may be to pinch someone’s phone that also carries a little spending power.  In fairness, Barclays and Orange have anticipated this and the user has the option to set up the phone with a PIN number, while Barclays also insist the phone will carry the same fraud protection as a card.

However, how the snappily-named Tocco Quick Tap compares to the iPhone in terms of other functions remains to be seen, but somehow I can’t quite see Apple shaking in their boots. It may just be the phone really is as safe as houses because it’ll be considered too uncool to steal.

It’s difficult to say if we’re standing on the edge of a brand new world. Personally, in this format, I can’t see it catching on in any big way, but I’m sure someone said that about the internet. Or it may be that someone else will pick up the ball and run with it using bigger, better technology. If that’s the case, pick up your Tocco Quick Tap soon, before it goes the way of Betamax and the Sinclair C5.

www.orange.co.uk/newmovement

Picture courtesy of Petr Kratochvil – http://www.publicdomainpictures.net

 

 

 

 

The Greatest Hits and Misses of the Mortal Kombat Franchise

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It is great that the new Mortal Kombat is back, and looking fresher than ever, but like it or not there have been some right crazy ideas along the way, events that you have probably locked out of your mind because they were so much of a nightmare that they were best left forgotten. To help you reach those all too endearing memories here is my run down of the greatest hits and misses of the Mortal Kombat series

The Greatest Hits…

Having great game designers: Ed Boon and John Tobias.

Behind anything great lie special people with ingenious ideas. In this case Ed Boon and John Tobias, both with special and some would say gory ideas on where fighting games should go. Having completed work on Smash TV, Boon turned his attention to a game which was originally going to be based on the popular actor martial artist Jean-Claude Van Damme. The idea fell through and Mortal Kombat was born. Hard to believe that Mortal Kombat started development in 1991 with just four people; Ed Boon, John Tobias, John Vogel, and Dan Forden. It is a little known fact that Mr Boon provided both voice acting and motion capture for the early games. And if that fails to surprise you, how about this: he provides the voice of Scorpion in all of the games, as well as both feature films. And I bet you didn’t know he provides a Cameo appearance in Ep 3 of Mortal Kombat Legacy? Hmm…bet you are going to tell your fiends about that one…

Having great characters and a great story.

If there is anything that has to be said is that Mortal Kombat has a huge list of characters. By the release of Mortal Kombat Armageddon there were 63 playable characters to choose from, giving it the fourth largest character roster in fighting game history, surpassing Marvel vs Capcom 2’s character roster of 56 but failing to surpass Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series (which holds 161 if you are interested). But all of those characters wouldn’t count for anything if they were just run of the mill bog standard and boring. Think for a moment about Street Fighter and then ask yourself what set it apart from King of the Fighters or Samurai Showdown. I guarantee it will be the characters and the storyline. You have ninja’s, warriors and just plain ‘insane in the brain’ nutcases that will stop at nothing. As for the story, yes it is that age old battle of good against evil but it is delivered with finesse. Thinking back to when I first saw the first arcade machine years ago I had to admit there was something very, very dark and serious about Mortal Kombat that I don’t think has been repeated since.

Breaking new ground.

Mortal Kombat is fondly remembered for many things, most notably its high levels of blood, guts and gore, including its graphic Fatalities – finishing moves, requiring a sequence of buttons pressed in order to perform an ultra realistic (and ultra bloody) execution to your opponent. This in part, led to the creation of the ESRB and highlighted the need for censoring violence in video games bringing with it the new ‘age rating’ for gaming titles. The use of digitized sprites was also a feature of the game’s creation, which at the time was completely different to the hand-drawn cartoon style of approach which was the norm for the time (a game called Pit-Fighter tried the digitized style but it was very chunky and frankly didn’t work well at all). The control system also broke new ground, with six buttons that were high punch, low punch, high kick, low kick, block, and run (run was added in “Mortal Kombat 3”). Block and run buttons were never used in fighting games previously and have never been used since; yet we know they work and elevate the fight because they work in this game. Later games also introduced the ‘change stance’ button which surfaced in other games such as Tekken.

There is a reboot on the way

Not the ultra gritty Re-birth and web-series Legacy; no we are talking a fully fledged reboot; a re-vamp that is said to be much like the first movie but how they wanted to do it originally which is very dark. Not much else is known about it but we know it was defiantly going ahead because Threshold Entertainment filed a new breach of contract lawsuit to prevent it from moving forward. Hopefully it will all work out because the release date is penned for 2013. I am really hoping it comes to fruition because although I quite like the idea of Mortal Kombat legacy I don’t like the ‘Smallville’ way the are messing around with the mythology; as the saying goes ‘if it ain’t broke don’t try and fix it.’ hey if it works for Batman and Spiderman with all their years running the same story then trust me it ain’t broke.

Having a great movie: Mortal Kombat.

Say what you will about the Mortal Kombat movie; it still was a lot better than the other rubbish game to movie conversions that came before it. Surrounded by the Tomb Raiders and Resident Evil films it is easy to forget that not too long ago converting a game to a movie was a sure-fire way to create disaster. Who could forget the ‘so bad it stunk’ Street Fighter movie, the ‘so awful it was boycotted’ Double Dragon, or the where the f#@8 did they get the idea from ‘Super Mario Brother’s movie’. Mortal Kombat at least had characters that looked like their on screen counterpart, a plot that came from the game and who could forget that ‘bangin theme tune’. No wonder it still stands today; obviously the less that is said about it’s sequel the better.
The Misses

Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub Zero

Sub-Zero -the most enigmatic character from Mortal Kombat had his own spin-off in 1997, in the first of was originally intended to be a series of mythologies chronicling each characters back history. Sounded good on paper but in reality most games players will admit that even if the first stages were interesting it quickly became a mess of poorly digitised actors, poorly rendered cut scenes, disastrous costume and level design and that’s not mentioning game-play so frustrating, unforgiving and just plain downright annoying that it left many players with bite marks in their controllers. No wonder it quickly found itself relegated to the trade-in bin mere days after it was released.

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation

Most people hold the first Mortal Kombat movie in fairly high regard, especially when compared to the likes of the Street-Fighter movie, so with all fairness it did not fair too badly at the box office. So hey, what better way to spoil a franchise then by bringing in the big cash cow film studios to ruin things. The script and any other resemblances to the game was thrown out of the window, along with the entire cast only to be replaced with a bunch of Z-listers who if you met them you would probably just ignore, and then, just when you think it could not get any worse; in a crazy effort to mimic the game’s ‘Animalities’ it decided to bring in ridiculous CG monsters with made-for-TV quality special effects in a fight sequence you can barely make out. Three words: Bad, Very Bad.

Sweat, Sweat and More Sweat – Mortal Kombat SNES Version

Although almost comical by today’s standards, Mortal Kombat perhaps holds the title for being one of the most violent games of the 90’s. When news came out that Mortal Kombat was going to be developed for home consoles there was outrage at the level of violence and gore it contained. Parents began going ga-ga with nightmares of their children pulling their faces off and giving them ‘toasties’, giving them solid uppercuts or freezing them and ripping their hearts from fresh from their cadavers. Cue the quick formation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) to monitor violence in games and a rapid toning down of violence. At the time of the game’s Super Nintendo release, Nintendo of America had a strict “Family Friendly” policy firmly in place. This required the removal of graphic violence, religious imagery, and mentions of death from all game content. This meant that the Nintendo version had characters that sweated upon injury instead of bleeding. Given how bloody the original game was, this meant that it had more sweat than an R-Kelly and Usher music video combined and left Kano desperately needing some Lynx anti-persperant…probably.
Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm

Mortal Kombat is a violent game isn’t it? So it is kind of hard to imagine it translating well into a Saturday morning cartoon show. However the early 90’s saw just that; an animated series based on the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. With a storyline that served as a sequel to the first Mortal Kombat film what we have here is a mess of ideas. As the show was designed for young kids the ‘sensible’ choice was made to have no violence at all. But how can Mortal Kombat exist without violence; the very idea is absurd and some would even say offensive. Which begs the question of why Defenders of the Realm even made it past the planning stage? In a nutshell it was terrible; actually it was worse than that and thankfully was destined for a rapid game over.

Mortal Kombat: Conquest

Not content with destroying The Mortal Kombat mythology to pieces Mortal Kombat: Conquest dived to new depths by bringing changing the format of the movie into a television series which curiously followed the storyline of razor-hat-wearing monk Kung Lao rather than Liu Kang. On the plus side I was surprised to see Kristanna Loken (star of Terminator 3) as a main character – Taja. If you look closely you can even spot Eva Mendez in an episode. Ultimately though even with their ever so alluring smiles the series was a smoking pile of crap. Viewing figures sunk deeper than the titanic and when the producers panicked they brought out the big guns: Scorpion, Sub-zero, Goro and Smoke. In theory that should have worked except that Goro and Smoke were both badly computer generated characters and this only served to put the final nail in the coffin, bringing the series an abrupt end at season’s one finale.