Today is Muhammad Ali’s Birthday. To celebrate here is some excellent images of the legendary boxer from Sonic Editions.
Available in four sizes, all prints can be purchased from www.soniceditions.com
Chill Out On Blue Monday With The Chillbox Greek Frozen Yogurt Giveaway
With this Monday 21st set to be the most depressing day of the year*,Chillbox Greek frozen yogurt is offering Londoners the opportunity to WIN a delicious delivery of treats to their workplace to beat ‘Blue Monday’ with an exclusive twitter competition #chilledbluemonday.
Running from Thursday 17th to Monday 21st January lucky Londonites only need to retweet a competition tweet from @Chillbox_uk to be in with a chance of winning a supply of Chillbox Greek yogurt for their office.
Winners can choose from a selection of either natural or chocolate frozen yogurt with various endorphin-releasing toppings such as; strawberries, bananas and milk chocolate buttons or for a healthier treat opt for blueberries, nuts and honey.
Don’t let the January blues get your office down this Monday and start spreading the Greek Yogurt news for your chance to receive some frozen treats.
Flight Film Review
You may think that Flight is an air disaster movie, but you would be wrong. It is a film about addiction and consequence, but do not let that put you off. This dazzling and adult film from Robert Zemeckis is a punchy, entertaining and thrilling look into the life of Whip Whitaker, a pilot who is introduced to us in the opening scene in a hotel room with empty bottles, cigarette butts, a naked women and cocaine. The cocaine he then snorts because he is working that day and has to go and fly a plane.
The role of Whit Whitaker is played by Denzel Washington, and, boy, does he go for it. Washington really is one of the best actors that we have. He is just excellence personified. As the pilot that can fly better when high and drunk than other pilots can do sober, his charisma makes you like him, even when he is pressing his self destruct button over and over again. His character’s arrogance is beautifully played by Washington, ‘Nobody could’ve landed that plane like I did.’ An investigation is launched into the crash and the people surrounding Whit are trying to get him off, but is he?
John Goodman’s drug dealer is always underscored on entrance to a Rolling Stones tracks and the supporting cast are all first class. Kelly Reilly is also very good as a drug addict who Washington tries to save.
I loved this film. An entertaining, adult look into addiction and people trying to connect with each other. Go see.
HELLBOY & PAN’S LABYRINTH ACTOR DOUG JONES SIGNS UP FOR ‘MONSTER’ ROLE
Production Company Movie Mogul Ltd (PANIC BUTTON), have signed up US actor Doug Jones in their up-coming production of sci-fi action horror WE ARE MONSTERS.
Jones, a former contortionist, who is perhaps best known in the UK for his roles in the Hellboy films and Pan’s Labyrinth, will play the part of the ‘monstrously evil’ Sir Daniel Southall.
Also attached to the film, which goes into pre-production shortly is monster effects specialist Neill Gorton ( FROM HELL); Stunt Co-ordinator Andy Bennett (THE WOMAN IN BLACK) and Storyboard artist Ben Oliver (JUDGE DREDD, X-MEN).
Keen to involve the public, WE ARE MONSTERS producer, director and co-writer John Shackleton, has turned to crowd-funding platform Kickstarter in what is being dubbed the most ambitious UK Kickstarter film project yet. Their campaign runs until Feb 11th and has already reached 30% of their £100k funding goal.
We Are Monsters follows Lorna Thompson, a lonely suburban schoolgirl, joins a mutant gang of teenagers on a quest to discover their true identities. They uncover a global conspiracy, which they must find the strength to fight before civilization is destroyed.
The Benefits of Playing Bingo
Ah, the game of Bingo; we all know someone who plays it regularly, whether it be our mums or our grandmas, and although we all know how to play it ourselves, none of us do. Why? Because, I bet we all believe the stereotype that the game of Bingo is only for the elderly generations, right?
Well, it’s time to quash the stereotype, because playing Bingo isn’t just for the over 65’s. In fact, the game holds many benefits for all, and more and more of the younger generations in Britain are enjoying the game because of them.
Still don’t believe me? Well, here’s a rundown of some of the benefits that playing bingo could bring you:
1. Money, Money, Money!
So, although this benefit may be pretty obvious, it often baffles me that people shun the benefit of being able to win money just because they feel the game’s for the older generation. Whether you choose to play at your local bingo hall, or whether you choose to join an online bingo website, join up fees cost next to nothing, when you consider that you have the chance to win up to thousands of pounds!
However, aside from also helping you to make money, playing bingo can also help you to save money – particularly if you choose to play online. Many bingo sites offer promotional incentives, either in the form of voucher discounts for all your favourite stores, or even the chance to earn points which can be accumulated over time to be spent or exchanged at some of the nation’s biggest stores.
2. Play From The Comfort of Your Own Home
As I’ve mentioned, bingo can be played online – there are thousands of sites, such as this online bingo voted best site, designed specifically to let you do so. So, if you’re desperate to play and start winning but are a little conscious of popping down to your local hall on your own, then you can play from the comfort of your own home!
The huge benefit of this is that the traditional game of bingo can be played in a much more contemporary way. And, this is one of the main reasons that the game has seen as huge rise in popularity in recent years amongst the younger generations.
Signing up to an online bingo site is quick and easy and you can be on your way to playing bingo against thousands of others up and down the country in a matter of minutes. And, what’s more, the thrill and excitement of getting a full house is just as fun if you were to play it in a bingo hall.
3. Social Aspect
Bingo, whether played virtually or for real, is a great social game. Traditionally, it was the thrill of playing in a packed, buzzing bingo hall that lured in players, but now, with online chat facilities and forums, you can meet and play other bingo fanatics over the web. So, whether you’re looking to grab some new bingo tips from someone who’s been playing a lot longer, or whether you just want to have a good old natter with a regular you play against often, then online bingo is the perfect way to do so
Karaoke Box Smithfield Review
Having been asked to review the recently re-launched Karaoke Box Smithfield for Frost Magazine, I duly rounded up a posse and proceeded to check it out on Friday night. After a couple of last-minute cancellations, our group consisted of three musical theatre professionals, two old hands at karaoke, and one “virgin” who had no intention of singing.
The first thing that struck me on arrival was the staff who were friendly, welcoming and helpful, particularly bar manager Paolo Espinosa, who set everything up in the room and showed me how it all works, and Lois Roberts on reception. The second was the venue itself: the bar area was airy and very tastefully decorated, as were the booths which also had interesting lighting systems. On a more prosaic note, the toilets were lovely and clean.
All of our troupe enjoyed the privacy of the booth setting, feeling “quite relaxed as opposed to standing up and singing in a bar,” and our non-singer had lost her virginity within 20 minutes (to Suzi Quatro’s “Can the Can”), saying “as a virgin singer I felt very safe to sing (there).” Another guest loved that the booths allowed separate parties to enjoy themselves without risk of intrusion and the ability to talk and be heard.
The playlist also came in for praise: with over 9,000 songs, everybody found something they knew. The background videos caused some hilarity in our party, with the suicidal goat being the highlight of one person’s night!
The only complaints were about the system itself: a few of the songs were quite badly out of sync; and there seemed to be quite a long wait between songs, even when they were queued up. A key change facility would also be nice, as I believe people who take their karaoke seriously often look for this facility. However, the mikes worked very well; it was very easy to adjust the mix between backing and vocals; and the screen was a very good size.
We were in Room 3, which according to the website is a 14 person room, although I think that would be rather crowded and I wouldn’t personally recommend more than 10 people for comfort. This room costs £70 per hour before 9pm and £98 per hour afterwards. While this seems quite expensive, it doesn’t actually work out to much more per head than people pay for children’s birthday parties or a visit to the cinema.
The bar at Karaoke Box is well stocked, and cocktails and pizzas are both on sale (although we didn’t sample either).
I would recommend Karaoke Box to anyone who seriously enjoys karaoke, as it is much more pleasant that waiting for hours in a crowded bar just to get to sing once or twice. It’s also ideal for birthdays, hen parties, office parties or for anyone who enjoys an activity-based night out. Rooms vary in capacity from 2 to 30 people, and in price from £20 to £210 (for the VIP room) per hour. For more information, visit http://karaokebox.co.uk/smithfield/ or telephone their friendly staff on 020 7329 9991.
All of Your Digital Life in One Secure Place: LifeKeep Review
This post brought to you by BuzzParadise. All opinions are 100% mine.
As our life's are becoming more and more virtual it seems like there will be no aspect of ourselves that technology does not touch. While we may not have flying cars or hoover boards, technology has evolved so much and added so much to our lives.
As our digital lives become more important to us, so does the technology to keep it all in check, but users do not yet trust the cloud. Their digital lives are scattered all over the internet and they are worries about security, people stealing their data and advertisers tracking them. There seems to be no such thing as privacy anymore. And that is where Lifekeep comes in. As Lifekeep says, "LifeKeep is a digital vault, a personal and secure Cloud account, a comprehensive and respectful solution that capitalizes on 4G and the latest encryption technologies to bring you what you always longed for"
So Frost Magazine decided to try out a free LifeKeep account. 
First of all we signed up for a free Lifekeep account and also downloaded the free LifeKeep app.
So what exactly does Lifekeep do? It stores, manages and retrieves multi-media files. From Lifekeep you can post pictures to Facebook and share things with your friends. It also backs up your entire digital life. It also does file conversions to new format in the future. 
One of my favourite things about Lifekeep is being able to access all of my data and files without any of the information having to be on my iPad or iPhone. This way, if anything gets stolen my personal data is secure. I can manage and retrieve everything through Lifekeep onto my iPad, from documents to pictures.
As well as retrieving things yourself you can also securely share files. Lifekeep has a secure network through which you can even chat and blog with friends. It is better than dropbox and safer than Facebook.
Lifekeep also lets you handle your digital life after you have passed away. It allows you to safely pass on the keys to your digital life.
The security of Lifekeep is impressive. Lifekeep has, "The AES-256 encryption technology, which the U.S. Committee on National Security Systems called worthy of securing “top secret” classified documents, is widely considered to be the Highest mathematical security encryption standard today. It has been adopted by the U.S. government and is now used worldwide. Someone trying to hack into your account would have to use as many computations as there are hydrogen atoms in the observable universe."
All in all we are very impressed with Lifekeep. We give it full marks and will definitely be using it in the future.
Secret Service Files – Protecting The President.
This documentary about the Secret Service is riveting and informative. Broken down into four different events in which a President was in danger. It has access to the Presidents themselves and good archive footage.
Agent Robert Rodriguez and President Clinton talk us through King Hassan’s funeral. Dozens of world leaders were in Morocco for the funeral. Which the secret service agents refer to as a ‘sea of humanity’. There was a two mile walk during the funeral that left the President open to attack. The Secret Service advised him not to do the walk but he Insisted on it. Their were two leaders who were not popular in that part of the world, Presidents Clinton and Bush.
The Secret Service were on high alert as the death of a leader and religious figure is a recipe for disaster.
Agent Staropoli, who was in the counter assault team, otherwise known as CAT, was there to back up their Secret Service colleagues if anything went wrong as they have enhanced weapons that the rest of the team don’t have.
Bill Clinton says of the Secret Service when he was President, “they were good at trying to be flexible because they knew I liked to be with people.”
The feeling you really get from this documentary is of bravery and courage. Of men risking their lives for their country and the man who runs it. As Agent Rodriguez says, “I would rather be dead than labelled a coward… I have never heard of an agent who had doubts about taking a bullet for the president.”
In another scenario with President George Bush Snr The president had to be evacuated. The agents say that, ‘the welfare of the president is always more important that pomp and circumstance.’
Joseph Funk said this event was the first time the CAT team had a full employment. There were tear gas, gunshots and unruly crowd. The Secret Service work by ‘cover and evacuate’. They do 360 degree coverage of the President. Above, below and around and they also create a stable shooting platform.
When President Clinton went into Pakistan in March 2000 for a television address the Secret Service were against it. Clinton himself says that he, “knew I was in greater danger after going after Bin Laden”.
The agent says that AK47 are popular and easy to get in that region and that they went in against their better judgement.
They had a decoy airplane and made use of the element of surprise. Intelligence revealed that Pakistani secret police had been infiltrated and had people with Taliban sympathies.
They had six armed cars with the presidential seal so any assassins had a one in six chance of getting the president. Clinton’s speech was only 15 minutes. The Secret Service can never relax or put their guard down. That is what normal people do. “We don’t think it is a job well done until we arrive back at the White House.” they say. They do an impressive job.
When President Bush went into Georgia a loner with violent tendencies, Vladimir Arutyunian, threw a grenade at him which bounced of a little girl’s head and miraculously did not go off. One brave Georgian policeman took the live grenade and ran away from the crowds with it, knowing it could go off at any moment. The Georgian people love the United States and they wanted to show appreciation to President Bush because of the destruction of the Soviet Union. They even named the highway leading to the main airport after him
Bryan Paarmann, Special agent FBI. said they had metal detectors, which were very important but because of overcrowding the Georgian security team switched off the metal defectors. So they had an unscreened crowd of up to 100,000 people.
The Secret Service say that their greatest fear is an isolated loner prone to violence and that they have to be on their game 100% of the time. There is no room for error.
Secret Service Files – Protecting The President shows on the National Geographic Channel.