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To commemorate the music history of The Strip, the first annual Sunset Strip Music Festival will be held June 26-28, 2008.

All performances will happen inside the world famous Viper Room, Roxy, Whisky, House of Blues, Cat, and Key Clubs on the Notorious Sunset Strip in Hollywood.

The festivities will kick off on Thursday with a special opening night party at the House of Blues, hosted by Mark McGrath, to pay tribute to the Godfathers of the Sunset Strip - Lou Adler, Mario Maglieri, and Elmer Valentine. There will also be a very special musical performance to end the night.

Friday and Saturday night will feature performances at each of the clubs by some of the latest and hottest artists. Check back often for the show list.

Before the final performances on Saturday, there will be an exclusive panel discussion at the brand new London West Hollywood Hotel. CNN's Larry King will interview the Godfathers of the Sunset Strip among an audience of music legends and industry experts.

1 comment:

I will definitely be there. There are several acts that I want to hit up…. Juliette and the Licks, The Tattooed Millionaires, LA Guns, it should be great! Nothing like partying it up on the Strip on a Friday night! I work at Hustler and see the fun all the time, I’m getting pumped up for this!

Like I said, I’m actually an ambassador for Hustler Hollywood, and we’re having a huge sale right now for the entire month of July called the Freedom Sale, all you have to do is bring in a coupon and you’ll get 15 % a big selection of stuff.

Hit me up if you want that coupon, it’d be great if you shared this with your readers, after all everyone loves Hustler, even if they don’t admit it, hahaha.

Hope posting on here didn’t overstep any bounds. Hope to hear from you!


The Expert view: Financial services, digital transformation and the cloud

13 July 2018
| Author: Shane Richmond

Digital transformation is well underway across sectors, with cloud services forming an integral part of that shift. As with other businesses, banks find their customers are more likely to be living digital lives, Justin Nesbitt of Equinix said at the opening of a Business Reporter Breakfast Briefing at The Ritz Hotel in London.

He told attendees – all senior technology experts from across the financial services sector – that the issue is how to remain close to your customers as this trend increases. All types of organisation face challenges in this regard but financial services companies are dealing with a particular set of circumstances.

Cloud drivers and challenges

As with most sectors, attendees said their businesses were embracing the cloud because of a need to cut costs and increase operating speeds, to meet demands from customers and to match offerings from disruptive startups.

One attendee, from the insurance sector, pointed out that the make-up of an IT team will be significantly different before and after a cloud move. The skills required differ considerably, so the business needs to be ready to recruit new staff and train-up the old ones.

The financial services industry, in common with others, is expecting the amount of data it produces and processes to continue increasing. Personalising experiences, leveraging Open Banking, and employing the Internet of Things to create new products and services are all opportunities that will require data capabilities. Attendees said their companies had no desire to be in the data management business.

However, several delegates said they were often constrained by partners, some of whom are not even close to ready for digital transformation but who still need to be supported. Likewise, many customers still rely on old channels, such as cheques. So, as banks open new channels, they still have the overhead of managing the old one.

The shadow of legislation

However, though these issues were acknowledged by attendees, all were considered minor concerns compared to the primary obstacle: regulation. The types of data that a financial services company can put in the cloud, and the type of cloud they can put it in, are frequently constrained by regulation.

Differences in legislation across the world can mean that a bank can, for example, offer smartphone cheque-scanning in the US but not in the UK. It can streamline its back-office functions with cloud applications only to find that they need to be adapted for a handful of countries – something that cloud providers themselves have been slow to support.

Then there is the fact that regulations change rapidly – and therefore so do company processes to meet regulations – but the IT department might find itself in a multi-year contract with a cloud provider that it can’t change. As one attendee said, the regulator is unlikely to be impressed by a promise that you will comply as soon as your cloud contract ends.

Looking towards solutions

Removing obstacles to cloud adoption that result from regulation is not something financial services companies can do by themselves. As things currently stand, an entire ecosystem is necessary to deliver digital transformation but not every part of that ecosystem is equally responsible in the eyes of the regulator.

One attendee suggested the situation would be easier if cloud service providers were subject to the same legislation as financial services companies. Firstly, this would ensure that in the event of a breach the regulator would be able to call on the financial services company and the cloud provider for an explanation. Second, the cloud service is more likely to be compliant with regulations from the outset, avoiding the need for financial services companies to carry out expensive modifications.

Ultimately, attendees agreed this is a problem that can only be solved through dialogue. Most attendees said they already talk to regulators frequently because this helps them to ensure they are complying with regulations before any problems arise. The larger companies also have public policy executives, who talk to legislators about how regulation holds them back.

In future, cloud services providers will play more of a role in these conversations and, some suggested, banks might also need to start talking to each other more and presenting a case, as an industry, for regulation that supports digital transformation. Meanwhile, the industry knows how it wants to put digital transformation in place but remains in a challenging position.


Tuesday, 7 October 2014

On a return-flight to the UK from Nice recently, I was flicking through the Easyjet-owned"Traveller" magazine and clocked a striking question midway through reading. It was asking me what the latest "must-have" accessory was in Europe's luxury hotels... It was so striking in fact, that a blog post was bubbling up within me before I'd even read the true answer to this mysterious question before me. I'm a nervous flyer, having recently renewed my passport after 7 years firmly routed to out beautiful British turf and so this magazine was the perfect nerve-buster as I left the warm French soil behind me. And so, to the question itself... Have you guessed the answer yet? I was considering it to be a technological feature, having recently heard a hospitality webinar discussing the likes of bespoke personal training equipment for hotel guests worldwide and even the worlds' first "Twitter hotel", yet the answer surprised me slightly - pleasantly so! The answer is in fact, dogs. Pups, puppies, canines, our four-legged companions... My own one true love being my 10-year-old collie cross; Eddy. This feature made me smile, focusing on the fact that wo/mans' best friend is the latest hotel room trend - gone are the days of sneaking Fido into your accommodation, places are now welcoming our furry friends into their plush surroundings with open arms. With the abbreviation "PAW" (Pets are Welcome) becoming a common sight in booking a room for the night, dog owners are being offered welcome packs for their pooches. Beds, bowls topped up with luxury munchies (some venues offer gluten-free options for your pampered pooch!) and fresh water, special treats left with your turndown service and even dog-friendly walks, complete with local maps are being provided to serve our four-legged friends. Some hotels are providing luxury welcome packs or services to include pyjamas & cashmere sweaters with four arms, dog spa treatments, special dog rooms with private gardens, dog-sitting services, even shampoo for the love of our life, although I'm not sure personally I would be prepared to share my bubble bath with Eddy, as my own scruffy friend malts more than I do! Hotels such as The Bath Priory, Ace Hotel in London, W Opera in Paris, the Rome Cavaliere and Inn on the Lake in Amsterdam are not only the perfect getaways for us human-folk, but all unique examples of being particularly "canine-friendly" destinations. There is such a thing as a dedicated pet concierge service, where you can find assistance in booking a holiday around your pup. As crazy as it sounds, it's a fast-growing sector within the travel industry, with a growing demand for overseas needs - we are no longer bound to the UK for pet-friendly holidays. James Lohan of Mr & Mrs Smith is quoted within this feature, advising that even they have had a dedicated pet-friendly hotel section throughout their own website for sometime, however recently they're seeing far more interest within this area. He goes on... "A lot of top hotels are realising there's a real market here and they're fast cottoning on. The kind of pampering you get now is pretty insane"! Whilst sunbathing in St Tropez this week, I spotted no end of furries digging in the sand or playing in the sea - small Chihuahuas & (Terriers) through to German Shepherds and even a Rotweiller... dogs of all breeds were sunning it up with their owners on the French Riviera. Needless to say, no matter how dog-friendly my next tropical destination may be, there's an entirely different story to explore when it comes to actually traveling (stress-free!) with my vocal, chicken-legged friend... As loyal and loving as he might be, simply popping to the shops with him is somewhat of a mission! Do you travel with your pets? Have you found a gem of a destination that catered (or didn't!) particularly well? Please do leave a comment below with your ideas, thoughts & recommendations!

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What life is really like for Christians in a North Korean prison

Hea Woo (not her real name) sits across the table in the basement restaurant of a Premier Inn hotel in central London.

It seems a strangely ordinary place to hear a remarkable life story.

A North Korean escapee, Woo was one of as many as 200,000 people held in labour camps across the secretive state. Unlike many others, she survived her sentence and later escaped into South Korea.

After trying to flee North Korea into China – an act Pyongyang considers illegal – Woo was moved between 10 different prisons. She describes the conditions as a 'living hell'. Many others are too traumatised to speak about it at all.

'When people died the guards just broke the dead bodies in to two pieces, put them in a cart and took them outside,' she tells Christian Today in an interview.

'Once in a while we had to take the bodies outside of the camps to cremate the bodies. But the crematorium was so small and there were so many dead bodies that we had to cut the dead bodies into small pieces with an axe,' she adds.

'After the cremation the ashes were scattered in the fields but often they were blown away in the wind. So the inmates had to walk over the ash. I thought; "One day the prisoners will walk over me".'

Already suffering from malnutrition when she arrived, Woo describes how she shared a cell designed for 50 with 200 other inmates.

'We were so cramped if you got up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet you couldn't find any space to squeeze back in to sleep. There wasn't even space to stand properly,' she says.

'In one corner of the cell there was a toilet but to prevent the prisoners from escaping there were no windows in the toilet – only a hole in the floor,' she adds.

'So it was really disgusting and the smell was so horrible. The people suffered headaches because of the smell and often we would get sick. Also there were lots of rats in the toilets.'

Woo's husband died in a similar labour camp after being arrested for his Christian faith.

Open Doors, a Christian persecution charity, ranks North Korea as the worst country in the world to be a Christian.

'Persecution is led by the state which sees Christians as hostile elements that have to be eradicated,' the charity says.

After converting to Christianity herself before being imprisoned, Woo says: 'In that horrid situation God was there too.

'I started to pray for the lost souls there who are dying without knowing Jesus Christ. I prayed to the Lord saying: "I want to be a salt and light in this place for these poor souls".'

She was caught speaking about her faith on four separate occasions and tortured each time. On one particularly brutal occasion she says she was tortured for three days in a row.

'I wasn't scared of the torture but I was scared that I might lose consciousness and in my unconsciousness I might deny Jesus' name. That was what I was scared of.

'But on the fourth day I just collapsed and felt I couldn't stand any more. So again I cried out to the Lord and I was reminded of the verse from Jeremiah 33.3: "Call to me I will answer you and I will show you unimaginable things..."

'So I was able to bear all the sufferings at the time. I was taken back to my cell and heard the really loud, audible voice of the Lord. It said: "My beloved daughter, you walked on water today."

'It was a really loud strong audible voice but no one else heard.

'I realised that the Lord was there when I was tortured. I had to really thank him that he was there with me. After that day I didn't get tortured. The Lord protected me.'

Speaking through a translator, Woo is understated. She describes her treatment at length but without emotion. Until, that is, she comes to her escape, when the tears begin to flow.

After being released from prison she returned again to the Yalu River which separates North Korea from its only ally, China.

'When I stepped into the river the rain changed into snow which veiled the guards,' she says. 'But because it was rainy season there was a very strong current. One moment I just was swept away in that current and lost my consciousness.

'But when I opened my eyes I was on the other side of the river, in China!

'On the bank there was a very high electric fence. So I prayed at that time that "Lord, you have led me this far. If it is time for me to go to you, then just take my life." Then I put my hand into the fence.

'But after a while I thought I was dead but I was able to open my eyes...I realised there was no electricity.'

Starting to cry she goes on: 'The journey from that point up to the border between China and Myanmar was not easy either. We were stopped several times and each time we were taken to the police station. But strangely, amazingly, I wasn't searched or asked to show my ID.

'So all those times I was able to go through the border from China to Myanmar. From Myanmar to Thailand we had to get a boat for about six hours.

'On that boat I suddenly realised nobody would arrest me even if I sang out loud praising the Lord. So for all that six hours I praised the Lord with a strong voice!

'So I really thank the Lord he answered all my prayers, whether it was a prayer in a whisper, or a prayer in a shout. All my prayers have been answered! My confession of faith is in Psalm 119.71 which says: "It is for my good that I have been afflicted so that I can follow his law."

'Now I am the happiest person in the whole world! I have nothing but because of Jesus Christ in me I am so happy!'

To find out more about Open Doors' work in North Korea click here.


The Latin American international investment and insurance marketplace is one of the fastest-growing in the world, with the demand for protection of assets amid volatile political and economic backdrops as necessary in 2020 as it ever was.
Across the Latin American region, the need for both products and advice is on the rise.
The inaugural International Investment Latin America Forum will look at where the industry is heading, the challenges and opportunities for the industry in the region, and how advisers, brokers and product providers are adapting to political and regulatory changes.The event will take place on Tuesday, 6th June , Miami.

The inaugural International Investment London Forum will look at where the industry is heading, the challenges and opportunities for the industry in the region, and how advisers, brokers and product providers are adapting to political and regulatory changes.The event will take place on Thursday, 30th April at the South Place Hotel, London.

The 21st International Investment Awards will take place on 8th October 2020, at One Whitehall Place, London. The II Awards are the longest-running event of their kind and last year saw a record number of categories and entries.

The Vontobel Fund – Sustainable Global Leaders already has around $100m in assets, which it will invest in attractively valued companies across the globe with high scores on return on capital, competitive position, profitability and cash generation.

A key focus for the fund will be environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. The companies it invests in must address these issues in their corporate strategies.

The new fund will be managed by Roger Merz, head of the global equities team. He says: “We believe that leading companies with a competitive advantage can outperform the market given their ability to deliver consistent, above-average return on invested capital.”

He believes that the market tends to underestimate future cash-flow growth – and consequently – future wealth creation of these companies.

ESG has been a growing topic over the past few years. Various large asset managers, such as Axa Investment Managers, place a great deal of emphasis on ESG criteria.

Vontobel AM already has experience in managing funds in a sustainable manner. Recent launches in this field include a fund with an emerging-market focus.

The firm also received the TBLI ESG Leader Awards 2012 as best asset manager in ESG investing.

The Vontobel Group is a globally-oriented Swiss private bank specializing in wealth management for private clients and asset management for institutional investors, as well as in investment banking. Assets at end of June were around CHF140bn.


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Danielle Molinari and her two-year-old Frankie face being put out on the street. So does her 70-year-old neighbour Mary White, along with her adult son (and father of two) Bill. The same goes for the rest of the 93 households on London’s New Era estate. The question is why?

The obvious place to start is with American fund manager Westbrook, which bought an entire community’s homes up from underneath them and plans to jack up rents sky-high, forcing residents into homelessness. Then there’s Richard Benyon, the Tory MP whose multimillion-pound family estate partnered on the deal – until public shaming forced him last week to pull out. Got blame to spare? Then take your pick from an entire deck of weak-chinned politicians, starting with London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, all of whom have done so little to help so late in the day.

But something bigger is playing out in this little redbrick square on the fringes of the City – and it makes what happens next not just lifechanging for the people who live in it, but important for the rest of us, too. Because the real reason why Danielle and her neighbours must now fight like mad just to keep a roof over their heads is because their homes, and homes across the capital, have turned into an international asset class, to be bought and sold by speculators from across the world.

Britons jostling up the housing ladder is a tradition at least as old as the dinner party. Wealthy foreigners from dicey places stowing their cash in safe and stucco-fronted London postcodes: we know all about that. But, as New Era illustrates, much bigger, far more restless, forces are now at work.

Consider the purchaser: Westbrook, headquartered on Madison Avenue, New York. Set up in the mid-90s, the investment firm came of age just as businesses were coming round to the idea that owning their premises was fuddy-duddy and that the future lay in renting.

Westbrook has made millions from that fashion – buying, letting and selling trophy-office development in London and around the world. And it’s not been alone: in 2011 Cambridge academics found that 52% of the City’s offices were now owned by foreign investors, up from 8% in 1980.

That trend is now migrating to London homes. By buying New Era, Westbrook has become a giant absentee landlord. No one from that firm will set foot on the Hoxton estate, of course. Indeed, since the Benyons’ exit, tenants report they have not heard a word from the Americans who now own their homes. Instead, it’s been the council who’s conveyed messages back and forth. This relationship is extreme, but it’s hardly anomalous. Rather, it’s the inevitable result of property developers and estate agents renting out hotel ballrooms in Asia to sell flats off-plan to Singaporean dentists and the like.

Households on London’s New Era estate face being put out on the street. Photograph: Graham Turner/Guardian

Earlier this year a colleague and I spent months visiting a huge private development on the other side of the borough from New Era. Called Woodberry Down, it was a huge overhaul of an old council estate. In the showroom, the saleswoman pointed at the reservoir outside and said: “That water outside: very attractive to Asian buyers.” One of the new private tenants, Paul O’Neill, told us that he’d never met the man to whom he paid his rent, because he lived in Singapore. He added: “All of my neighbours rent from foreign absentee landlords.”

Going through the Land Registry, we traced O’Neill’s invisible landlord. He did indeed live in Singapore – in a public-housing block, in an area carpeted with public housing. That’s hardly unusual for the island state: about 85% of all Singaporeans live in public housing. So O’Neill, who desperately wanted to buy somewhere in London but could barely afford even the remotest suburbs, was paying rent to a landlord who lived in public housing.

Moreover, since 2009, the Singapore government had done everything possible to clamp down on speculation in its own housing market: clamping down on loans, raising taxes and punishing flippers of property. Most notably, it had imposed punitive levies on foreigners buying homes in Singapore.

All of these options and more have been urged on politicians in Britain. None of them have been taken up. The opposite: we’ve had a £1bn build to rent scheme alongside other housing guarantees, the encouragement of banks and building societies to lend. And the result of all these schemes in a national economy as lopsided as has been to further encourage hot money to flow into just one corner of a small country.

The cliche is that Britain has a housing crisis. It doesn’t: rather it has a whole series of different housing crises. In Northern Ireland huge swaths of homeowners remain in negative equity after the credit crunch. In Liverpool the problem isn’t of expensive housing, but of residents in Anfield and Granby fighting to maintain some say in what happens to their neighbourhoods. And in London the problem is that it is now almost impossible for anyone coming to the city to buy here, or increasingly to rent somewhere decent, either.

Contrast that with the founding ethos of New Era: built by a charitable trust in the 1930s in order to offer working-class residents affordable private rented accommodation. Even when the blocks were sold this spring, residents say they were assured that the old tenets would apply. Within weeks, new owners told them that rents would rise to market values: spiralling from £600 a month for a two-bed flat to something closer to £2,400. That was meant to happen by summer 2016. After Benyon’s firm pulled out of the deal last week, residents were told that Westbrook would accelerate the process.

Westbrook has form in rough treatment of those people who pay it rent. Earlier this year the New York attorney general ordered it and a business partner to make up for thousands of building violations and to pay $1m to tenants, to make up for illegal fees and overcharging. Foreign money has long flowed into and out of London in volumes – but it’s no longer going into business or other investments up and down the country; it’s been diverted into the Shard, countless private high-rises (somehow so much better than the council equivalents) and all the other new developments turning the capital into a new and unaffordable zone off-limits to the people who’ve lived there for decades.

Academics call this process financialisation: the sudden creation of new financial markets and instruments. Molinari and the other residents of New Era used to have homes: now they merely live in financial instruments.

I can think of one other aspect of everyday life where this has happened recently: food. Over the past 10 years, wheat and other staples have become a financial asset class, to be speculated in by Goldman Sachs and Barclays. The result has been misery and even starvation for the poor of the Third World. For the poor of London, the financialisation of property spells homelessness.


Lady Thatcher’s death could propel The Wizard Of Oz track "Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead to the top of the charts.

Those who saw her death as a cause for celebration have prompted a download surge for the track.

Within 48 hours of the former Prime Minister’s death, the song has entered the official UK chart at number 10.

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It is expected to climb higher as a result of a Facebook campaign being set up to encourage sales.

The Facebook group, encouraging people to download the "Witch" song to get it to number one, already had 664 members and was originally set up back in July 2007.

The BBC said it would decide whether to play Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead during Radio 1's top 40 countdown when places are finalised this weekend.

In a statement it said: "The Official Chart Show on Sunday is a historical and factual account of what the British public has been buying and we will make a decision about playing it when the final chart positions are clear."

The song was written by EY Harburg and composed by Harold Arlen and featured in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.

A song specifically written to attack Lady Thatcher, "Tramp The Dirt Down" by Elvis Costello, also rose to 79 on the iTunes chart.

Respect MP George Galloway tweeted the title of the 1988 song, which includes the lyrics: “When they finally put you in the ground, they’ll stand there laughing and tramp the dirt down.”

Entrepreneurial fashion outlets were quick to cash in on the death. One boutique in Shoreditch, east London, placed T-shirts featuring Warhol-style portraits of Lady Thatcher in its window.

The Redbubble online clothing store was selling black and white T-shirts featuring a stark portrait of the politician with the word “DEAD” below, for £15.

However there appears to be a limit to the public appetite for all things Thatcher-related. A peak-time BBC1 90-minute obituary, narrated by Andrew Marr and broadcast on Monday night, attracted fewer than 3 million viewers. News bulletins providing blanket coverage of the death failed to record a viewing rise.

Britain’s first female Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died at the Ritz hotel in London on Monday following a stroke. She was 87.


London 2012 – Visitor Information for Olympic and Paralympic Games

This summer, London will host the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. American visitors will join millions of others from around the world, descending on London in a celebration of sport. The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will bring together athletes from 205 countries competing in 26 different sports.

Summer 2012 will be a very busy time in London with not only the Olympic Games (July 27 – August 12) and Paralympics Games (August 29 – September 9), but also the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee (June 2-5), Wimbledon Tennis Championships (June 25 –July 8), and many other special and seasonal events. Flights are filling up quickly and fares are likely to increase as the summer approaches. To avoid disappointment, make your flight arrangements as soon as possible.

Use the information and resources below to have a safe and enjoyable Olympics experience.

Before you go…

Ensure you have a valid U.S. Passport. If it’s due to expire before or during your trip, get it renewed now. Also, don’t forget to sign your passport and complete the emergency information page.

Visit the UK Border Agency’s website for full details on entry and customs requirements for the UK. In most cases, U.S. passport holders going to the UK for less than 6 months for tourism do not need a visa.

Check your overseas medical insurance coverage – ensuring you’re covered abroad could be one of the best investments you’ll ever make. Further information can be found on our website.

Enroll with the U.S. Embassy’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). This will enable the Embassy to keep you up to date with important safety and security announcements. It will also help your friends and family get in touch with you in an emergency. You can enroll online easily. Also, iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users can access STEP and much more by downloading the SMART Traveler app.

Visit the State Department’s Country Specific Information on travel to the United Kingdom.

Stay up-to-date on the latest Olympic travel information by bookmarking the Olympic information page maintained by the U.S. Embassy in London.

Notify your credit card company of your overseas travel prior to your departure from the United States. Check out the helpful information on the U.S. Citizen Services page of the U.S. Embassy’s website for more about using your credit card in the United Kingdom.

Hotel accommodations during the Olympics

Due to the number of major events taking place in London and surrounding areas this summer, hotel rooms are in high demand, and some hotels already have either no availability or expensive minimum stay requirements. Visitors should book confirmed reservations as early as possible.

To search for accommodations in London, check out Visit London. For accommodations elsewhere in the UK (for venues outside London), see Visit Britain. Be aware of the potential for scams. It is safer to use a reputable travel agent or accommodations website when making arrangements as opposed to online classified notices.

Note: The Olympic Village and nine of the Olympic venues are located in East London. There are 13 other London venues hosting various sporting events. In addition, there are 10 venues outside of London. Visit the London 2012 website for full venue details.

CoSport is the official ticket reseller for the London 2012 Olympics for U.S. residents. To purchase individual tickets or hospitality packages, visit their website or call 1-877-457-4647. Please note that tickets are very hard to get right now. However, more tickets may become available in the spring, so we suggest checking back as we get closer to the Games.

If you are not able to secure tickets, you can still watch all the action for free (sporting events and medal ceremonies) from the large screens at one of the several London Live sites. For more details on the London Live sites, visit London Live.

USA in UK Blog/Twitter:http://www.usembassy.org.uk/london2012The official Olympics blog of the U.S. Embassy in London, featuring information about preparation for the Olympics & Paralympics, the Games “experience,” and helpful tips to make sure you can enjoy a safe and fun trip to London.The USA in UK blog also has a Twitter feed that you can follow to stay updated.

U.S. Embassy London’s Facebook page & YouTube Channel:http://www.facebook.com/uk.usembassy“Like” U.S. Embassy London on Facebook to see the latest updates, photos, and comments or search for us on YouTube.

Transport for London:http://www.tfl.gov.ukLondon’s official transportation website complete with journey planners for London Underground, railways and bus service. TfL’s website will also show any delays, station closures or service interruptions.

Get Ahead of the Games:http://www.getaheadofthegames.com/A transportation website sponsored by the Mayor of London with information on special Games-specific transportation options and up-to-date information on closures or interruptions to service.


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The Lido des Champs Elysees Clearly inspired by the growing status of the Lido in Venice as a fashionable haunt of high society,the Lido on the Champs Elysees, Paris, opened its doors on 18th February 1928 and was a novelty being a unique combination of a swimming pool, cabaret and restaurant and was described as […]

Cafe de Paris, London The Cafe de Paris was one of the most fashionable dining haunts in London in 1920s. Intimate and elegant it was described by Vogue magazine as ‘delightfully comfortable’ and by Dancing Times as ‘the smartest dance restaurant in London…’

Excelsior Hotel, Lido The Hotel Excelsior has always been the focal point of social life on the Venice Lido and is one of the most luxurious and famous hotels in the world. It was made famous during the mid 1920s when it became one of the most fashionable spots in Europe with its very own […]

The Kit Cat Club The fashionable Kit Cat Club in the Haymarket, which to many people today still epitomises the gay carefree days of the 1920s, was opened in the summer of 1925 and immediately became one of the most famous nocturnal haunts in London. Decked out with the last word in restaurant and dance […]

The Frolics in Paris An interesting venue that glittered brilliantly for a few years in the early 1920s and then promptly disappeared was regarded at the time as the rendezvous of smart international society in Paris.

Hotel Cecil, London The Hotel Cecil was one of the largest and grandest hotels in the world when it opened in 1886 situated between the Embankment and the Strand and not far from the Savoy Hotel. It was one of the most popular places to visit in London with excellent cuisine, perfect ambiance, luxurious surroundings […]

The London Casino The Prince Edward Theatre on Old Compton Street, named after Edward Prince of Wales, opened on the 3rd April 1930 on the site of a drapers business called The Emporium. The area was soon to be known as London’s Quarter Latin now simply Soho. The exterior was in the style of an […]

The French Casino In December 1934, the refurbished Earl Carroll Theatre located on the south-east corner of 7th Ave and 50th Street, New York City, opened as the French Casino. This glittering supper club was described by Fortune magazine as ‘a vast scarlet and silver restaurant which, in terraced rows of tables, seats fifteen hundred […]

Grand Casino of the Villa des Fleurs at Aix-Le-Bains. The Villa des Fleurs was a stunning entertainment complex set in beautiful gardens that made it one of the most fashionable places in Europe during the 1920s.

The Parisian Institution of Maxim’s Restaurant One of the most important additions to the Parisian landscape in the late Nineteenth Century was the legendary Maxim’s restaurant. It has continued to shine as a beacon of excellence for over a century and has become a symbol of Parisian elegance and chic.

Murray’s River Club: A Rendezvous of Ragtime and Romance The American Jack May was instrumental in developing the nightclub scene in London shortly before the First World War and famously opened the legendary Murray’s Club in Beak Street in 1913. At about the same time, or shortly afterward. he opened a summer resort at Maidenhead […]

The Magnificent Murray’s Roman Gardens, New York The eight-storey edifice that was Murray’s Roman Gardens in New York created by John L. Murray, could be described as the first themed restaurant and certainly it became one of the city’s most famous eateries.

Floral Frascati Restaurant, London Frascati restaurant at 32 Oxford Street, London was celebrated for its cosmopolitanism, luxury and excellent cuisine and was a sumptuous and elegant venue that was highly regarded for its international cuisine.

The Classy Ciro’s Restaurant Chain Among European high society Ciro’s became an institution and perhaps the first classy restaurant chain in Europe with main branches in Monte Carlo, Paris, London and Biarritz. Each venue was regarded as far more than a restaurant but the very centre of fashionable life.

Prunier Restaurant, Paris The premier seafood restaurant in Paris was the wonderfully fashionable Prunier’s at 9 Rue Duphot near the Madeleine. It was proud of the fact that every conceivable dish possible that has shellfish as a basis could be served to its eager clientele.


Summer Olympics attracts musicians from around the world

The forthcoming London Olympic Games are succeeding in attracting some of the world’s most accomplished musicians.

Molly Townsend is set to travel from South Carolina alongside 59 other musicians from Clemson University after being invited to play a key role in the leading sporting event, reports Poway Patch.

A saxophonist and flautist, Ms Townsend is currently studying bioengineering at the university but is looking forward to playing at a number of venues across London this summer.

"Getting to go to an Olympic event is part of it. Getting to see London with a really big group is going to be fantastic as well," explained the musician.

She added: "This is probably an once-in-a-lifetime thing. This is kind of my last hurrah of my undergrad."

Mark Spede, the university's director of bands, explained that it would provide a great chance for students to experience a new culture and they are already planning tours of some of London’s key tourist attractions such as Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.

Tourists staying in central London hotels will be able to experience a wealth of musical events in the run-up to and during the London 2012 Games as the city hosts a number of special concerts featuring top artists. Brit band Blur recently confirmed that they will headline the special Hype Park Live event on Sunday August 12th to mark the closing ceremony for the Games. Other acts on the bill include The Specials and New Order.

Visitors to the city will also be able to enjoy the free BT River of Music event which will feature performances from a number of musicians along the River Thames. Taking place a week before the opening of London 2012, artists involved include the Scissor Sisters, Naturally 7, Baaba Maal, Angelique Kidjo, Zakir Hussain and Andy Sheppard.

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Top models take huge pay cut for Big Brother entrance

WHOPPING: Two models will earn just £30 a day after signing up for Big Brother on Channel 5

They will earn just £30 a day in expenses on the Channel 5 show which runs until the end of July. But if they had held out for Celebrity Big Brother later this summer they could have bagged £50,000 each.

A source said: “It might be Big Brother but it’s ‘small change’ for what these girls could have got.”

It's back! Big Brother 2016

Take a look around the new and vibrant house for Big Brother 2016. Emma Willis and Rylan Clark are back to present the summer series

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Laura Carter and Celia Kay are among the gang entering the new house tomorrow.

Lusty Laura was picked up by pop hunk Justin Bieber in a nightclub last year and whisked off to a hotel in London for a threesome.

She said: “It was amazing.”

American bikini babe Celia caused a stir when she took a snap of married Arsenal soccer hunk Olivier Giroud in his pants in a hotel room before a footie match two years ago.

At first he denied the encounter but he then sheepishly admitted to it and apologised to his wife.

Both girls have signed to appear on the regular series of Big Brother starting tomorrow on C5 at 9pm.

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THREESOME: Laura Carter had a threesome with Justin Bieber and said it was 'amazing'

PH

LOST CHANCE: Laura Carter and Celia Kay could have bagged £50,000 each with Celebrity BB

PLANET PHOTOS

999: Rhian Sugden posted pics of herself on Twitter looking great after last week’s 999 drama

A source said: “Although they are not huge celebrities, they have made the headlines.“

On Celebrity Big Brother they all get good money so these girls may have missed a trick.”

Meanwhile former CBB star and Vernon Kay sext scandal beauty Rhian Sugden posted pictures of herself on Twitter looking in the best of health after last week’s 999 drama.


Living a life as a touring musician, it is certainly a frequent occurrence to wake up and wonder exactly where you are. Sometimes it takes just a few moments to realise, as you recall your movements of the previous day. On other occasions a blandly corporate hotel room (while offering predictability and consistency) gives little indication of whether you are in London, Paris, Vancouver or Sydney. Even

On Wednesday 1st July 2015, I finished teaching for the day and I noticed a missed call on my iPhone. It was from my former teacher Michael Laird. I called him back as I walked to the railway station and he told me, now that he had turned 75, he would be retiring from trumpet playing entirely. He explained that he had played since he was 15 years old and now, 60 years on, it was time to stop playing

Aside from a few rail trips that have passed through, I have seen little of Berlin outside of the Hauptbahnhof. I felt that it was a shame not to stop to see more on those visits, and I resolved to do just that on this occasion. Travelling to the Island of Usedom for the Usedomer Musikfest involved flights in and out of Berlin Tegel, so it seemed logical to extend my trip slightly (at no additional

20th - 22nd June saw another visit to the charming city of Wrocław in Poland. I was joined by Matthew Manchester, as he happened to be back in Britain from Australia at the perfect time to be able to fit this little tour into his schedule. It was great to be able to play with him again, as the last time was in Australia doing a tour of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo in 2012.We played two concerts in Poland


BBC in hot seat as anti-Thatcher song climbs chart

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LONDON (AP) — Opponents of the late Margaret Thatcher are taking a kind of musical revenge on the former prime minister, pushing the song "Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead" up the British charts in a posthumous protest over her polarizing policies.

By Friday the online campaign had propelled the "Wizard of Oz" song to No. 1 on British iTunes and into the top five of the music chart used by the BBC to compile its weekly radio countdown.

David Karpf, who studies online campaigns, said the chart battle was an example of a new kind of protest enabled by social media — "A way for people to signal protest en masse without shouting from the rooftops."

"It's a form of symbolic protest," he said.

The unusual campaign has caused a headache for the BBC. With the ditty near the top of the charts, the broadcaster faced the prospect of airing the words "The Wicked Witch is Dead!" on its Sunday countdown show, just days before Thatcher's funeral, scheduled for Wednesday.

Some lawmakers from Thatcher's Conservative Party had called for the publicly funded broadcaster to drop the song, while others warned that such a move would mean censoring a form of dissent.

The BBC, caught between allegations of censorship and complaints about poor taste, split the difference, saying it would broadcast only part of the tune — along with a news item explaining why it was there.

BBC director-general Tony Hall said that while the broadcaster found the campaign "distasteful and inappropriate," he and other executives had decided the song should not be banned — but should not be broadcast in full, either.

"We have agreed that we won't be playing the song in full, rather treating it as a news story and playing a short extract to put it in context," he said in a statement.

Ben Cooper, controller of Radio 1 — which broadcasts the chart show — said the clip would be "four or five" seconds long, though he did not say what part of the song would be aired.

The controversy — which made the front pages of many national newspapers — serves as a strange musical coda to Thatcher's time in office. The woman known to many as the Iron Lady was in power for 11 years, during which she wrenched Britain from the economic doldrums and successfully retook the Falkland Islands after Argentina's 1982 invasion.

Many still resent Thatcher for her uncompromising stance against the country's labor unions and what they saw as her inhumanity toward the working class. The campaign to send "Ding Dong!" to the top of the charts began soon after she died Monday of a stroke at London's Ritz Hotel.

Fans of Margaret Thatcher fought back by dusting off a 1980 punk song called "I'm in Love with Margaret Thatcher," in a tongue-in-cheek bid to compete.

This is not the first time activists have harnessed the Internet to mete out musical punishment. In 2009, a Facebook-driven campaign ensured the anti-establishment group Rage Against the Machine beat a Simon Cowell-backed pop singer to the coveted Christmas No. 1 slot in Britain.

Karpf said the pro- and anti-Thatcher song race was a new variant on what he called a "buycott" — where competing groups use mass purchases to stake out political or cultural positions.

Thatcher supporters were split on whether the song should be played. Some attacked it as gratuitously disrespectful, while others said the right to protest had to be protected.

Louise Mensch, a former Conservative lawmaker and prominent Conservative voice on Twitter, said in a message posted to the site that the Iron Lady would have wanted the song played.

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André (artist)

André Saraiva ( Monsieur André and Monsieur A) born 2 July 1971. Known mononymously as André, is a Swedish-French artist best known for his work in graffiti. Amongst his creations is Mr. A which he has painted across all six inhabited continents. His work has been featured in museums such as the MoCA as in feature films such as Exit Through the Gift Shop. As an entrepreneur, he owns restaurants, nightclubs such as Le Baron, and hotel chains such as Hotel Amour.

Early life
André Saraiva was born on 2 July  1971 in Uppsala, Sweden, where his Portuguese parents had fled the military regime of Salazar. His mother was a translator and his father was a painter. André moved to Paris at the age of 10, and started graffiti art at the age of thirteen.

Career

Artist

In 1989, André started tagging a top-hatted, stick figure character by the name of Mr. A on the streets of Paris, which earned him a reputation as a renowned graffiti artist. According to André, he has drawn approximately 300,000 Mr. A characters since the inception of his career.

André has been globally recognized for his work with graffiti. In 1989, André Saraiva won a competition organized by the French magazine L'Express. His graffiti spanned  of spray paint and stencils, which was selected among 25 other projects. He was featured on the cover of No. 2001 issue of L'Express. In 1997, he sold his paintings in a shop in Paris, from which he was spotted by Japanese patrons that brought him to the art scene of Tokyo.

André's work has been exhibited in galleries and museums. In 2002, he opened the concept store "BlackBlock" in Paris at Palais de Tokyo; a creation around which he organized concerts, parades and other performances, and whose profits were reinvested in new projects art. In 2010, André appeared in Banksy's documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop. In 2011, he participated in MoCA Los Angeles' Art in the Streets exhibition. The same year, his work was also displayed at the Grand Palais, Paris and the 54th Venice Biennale. In 2014, a solo retrospective dedicated to his work was held at the Museu do Design e da Moda in Lisbon.

Entrepreneur
He has been commissioned to design luxury consumer goods, including goods made by Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Bally Shoe, Tiffany & Co, Sonia Rykiel, Levi's, Nike and Converse. His likeness has been featured in global marketing campaigns.

Besides being a graffiti artist, André has served as the creative director and owner of clubs, hotels and restaurants in Paris, Tokyo, London, Los Angeles, New York City, Shanghai and St. Tropez.

From 2011 to 2015 he was the creative director for L'Officiel, a French fashion magazine.

Controversy
On April 1, 2015, André was fined for vandalizing a boulder in Joshua Tree National Park, California. André posted photos of the graffiti on Instagram, and the website Modern Hiker and its readers aided the National Park Service in tracking down and identifying André's defacing of the boulder. Before the conviction, André attempted to silence the reporting with legal threats.

Personal life
André was formerly married to French/American electro musician Uffie between 2008 and 2009.

Filmography
Cazals "Somebody Somewhere (Official Music Video), (2008) directed by André, starring Lou Doillon
The Shoe (2011), directed by André
Deadliest Catch (2012) directed by André
New York La La La (2013) directed by André and Aaron Rose, for L'Officiel Hommes
TV Baby "Wild Joy" (Official Music Video), (2013) directed by André
Last Night at the Chelsea Hotel (2013), directed by André
Rendez-Vous au Club Swan (2015), directed by André Saraiva, featuring Benjamin Millepied and Derek Blasberg

André is also an actor, known for For Lovers Only (2011) and Hora Sagrada (2007).

Further reading

Street Logos, Tristan Manco, Thames & Hudson, 2004,
GQ 10 essential

References

External links
lovegraffiti.com
The Hole Gallery
Ekosystem Gallery

Category:1971 births
Category:Living people
Category:French graffiti artists


John Wick said he has no regrets, but feared the consequences The man who arranged for leaked MPs' expenses details to be given to the Daily Telegraph has been named. Former SAS man John Wick acted as a broker, passing the details from an anonymous source to the newspaper. Mr Wick said the version of the expenses which the Commons was due to release had lots of details removed and he felt the public had a right to know. Mr Wick said he had no regrets, but that his main concern was how serious and unknown the consequences might be. In a video interview, he told Telegraph.co.uk: "The biggest problem was knowing you had to do something but not knowing how violent the writhing of the snake was going to be. "We were going to hold on to something at the end and not know how long it was and how sharp its fangs were. But sometimes you've just got to step out." Mr Wick added that he felt there was an injustice in how much information the government wanted to have about the public, while they wanted to keep their own affairs secret. He said: "We've all had - you as the media, we as the public - have had concerns about the expenses and how they've managed it, purely because of how they've handled our request for information. This was not information which was to be sold to the highest bidder

John Wick

Tory MP claims £5,000 for gates MacKay to stand for reselection "We've reached the stage in society where they want to know everything about us, I think we're entitled to know about them." He said claims records he had seen suggested that had the information been released through official channels, and not by a newspaper, much of the incriminating detail would have been censored. Mr Wick said: "There was an un-redacted version and two redacted versions. And the briefing I was given is the fees office had sent them back twice for MPs to cover and take things out. "[It was] not going to come out as you have been publishing it, because you'd get the third redacted version. "The stuff that comes out... it would have been highly sensitised." 'Wet paper bag' Mr Wick did not comment on whether the Telegraph paid for the information, but did say that one tabloid had offered money for the details of certain individuals. "This was not information which was to be sold to the highest bidder and was probably best suited to a serious newspaper," he said. He insisted the data was not stolen, but was "an unregistered copy" obtained "as a result of lax and unprofessional security procedures used in the House of Commons". "The protective classification given to this project was described to me... as offering the same protection as a wet paper bag," he said. The latest series of expenses allegations published in Saturday's Telegraph include: Shadow business secretary Jonathan Djanogly's £5,000 claim for a set of automatic gates to his home

Labour MP Khalid Mahmood's claim for £1,350 to stay in a five-star west London hotel with his girlfriend

Northern Ireland Minister Paul Goggins, allows a university friend to live rent-free in a home paid for by the taxpayer

Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin's use of £50,000 in expenses to pay his sister-in-law rent The BBC's Reeta Chakrabarti said Mr Wick says he is a supporter of the Conservatives but he was not motivated by party political concerns. She said he was not the actual source of the leak, but was contacted by a man inside Parliament who at first gave him five names in order to test the authenticity of the information. She added that the Metropolitan Police and the Crown Prosecution Service had said Mr Wick would not face any charges as the information is not a threat to public safety and is in the public interest. Mr Wick, who served in the SAS during the 1970s, now works with a City of London firm that advises insurance companies on how to manage their risk.

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Sunny Edwards

Sunny Edwards (born 1 January 1996) is a British professional boxer who has held the British super-flyweight title since 2019. He is the younger brother of boxer Charlie Edwards.

Amateur career
As an amateur he fought out of Repton ABC and later Steel City ABC, winning multiple national championships; the ABA Juniors in 2013; ABA Youth in 2014; and the ABA Elite in 2015. He also won silver medals in the GB Junior, and ABA Elite Championships in 2012 and 2016 respectively.

Professional career

Edwards made his professional debut on 24 September 2016 at the Recinto Ferial in Estepona, Spain, scoring a four-round points decision (PTS) victory over Sergey Tasimov.

After winning his first five fights, one by stoppage, he faced undefeated prospect Ross Murray (6–0 1 KO) on 27 November 2017 at Grange St. Paul's Hotel in London, with the vacant WBO European super-flyweight title on the line. Edwards won the fight via fourth-round technical knockout (TKO). Following two more wins, he successfully defended his WBO European title on 26 October 2018 with a ten round unanimous decision (UD) victory over Ryan Farrag at the York Hall, London. Two judges scored the bout 100–90 while the third scored it 99–91. His next fight came on 15 December against Junior Granados at the Brentwood Centre, Essex, for the vacant WBO International super-flyweight title. Edwards overcame a second-round knockdown to add the WBO International to his WBO European title by UD, with the judges' scorecards reading 99–91, 98–91, 97–92. Following the win over Granados, he made a second defence of his WBO European title against Pedro Matos on 27 April 2019, at Wembley Arena, London. Edwards retained his title via eighth-round TKO. His next fight came on 13 July against Hiram Gallardo at The O2 Arena, London, with the vacant IBF International super-flyweight title in the line. Edwards won by UD, adding the IBF International to his WBO titles. All three judges scored the bout 99–90.

Edwards dropped down to flyweight for his next fight, stating: "We dropped down to flyweight because it's looking like I’m more likely to get a world title shot, but it is what it is". On 14 September 2019, he fought Rosendo Guarneros at the York Hall for the vacant IBF International and vacant WBO Inter-Continental flyweight titles. Edwards won by UD, with two judges scoring the bout 99–91 and the third scoring it 100–90.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

Category:Living people
Category:1996 births
Category:Boxers from Greater London
Category:English male boxers
Category:Super-flyweight boxers


He arrived laughing and joking. Just over two hours later Armin Meiwes, the self-confessed German cannibal who killed and ate another man, left a stunned courtroom scarcely able to believe his luck.

After a unique two-month trial that has gripped both Germany and the wider world with its gory details, a judge yesterday sentenced Meiwes to a mere eight and a half years in jail after ruling that he was guilty of manslaughter and not murder.

The prosecution had demanded a 15-year-term. But Judge Volker Mütze said he accepted the cannibal's argument that the man he met through the internet and later fried in garlic - 43-year-old computer engineer Bernd Jürgen Brandes - had wanted to die.

"The famous lust for murder was not there. The killing was very unpleasant for Meiwes," the judge said. "There were no base motives." He added: "These were two psychologically sick people who found each other. A door has been opened into a world which we immediately want to shut, a grey zone where people gather on the internet to live out their fantasies."

German prosecutors yesterday said they were considering whether to appeal against the verdict. "We believe this was murder," prosecutor Andreas Köhler said.

The cannibal's lawyer, Harald Ermel, said his client was "satisfied" with the result, and was now considering numerous offers from film companies and publishers. With good behaviour, Meiwes was likely to be free in four and a half years, Mr Ermel pointed out. He would probably write his memoirs.

There was no reason why he should not eventually return home to the timbered farmhouse in Rotenburg, central Germany, where he cut up and refrigerated bits of Brandes, burying his skull in the garden, the lawyer said. "He isn't a murderer," he added. "He has to live."

Justifying his verdict, Judge Mütze yesterday described how 42-year-old Meiwes had experienced cannibal feelings as a young boy, after his father and two brothers walked out on the family home. He had also fantasised about eating Sandy, the blond boy hero of the Sixties TV series Flipper.

These feelings got stronger after the death of his "domineering" mother in 1999 and eventually led him to place an advert on the internet seeking someone to "slaughter and eat", the court heard. He got a reply, from Bernd Brandes, an outwardly successful manager with Siemens in Berlin with secret masochistic fantasies.

"The victim offered up his body because he wanted to get the kick of his life," the judge told the court in Kassel, as Meiwes sitting next to his lawyer listened avidly. It was, the judge said, "to be the final act, the high point of his life".

In an email read to the court yesterday Brandes told the cannibal: "I hope you are serious because I really want it. My nipples look forward to your stomach ..."

In March 2001 Brandes took the day off work, wiped all evidence of his masochistic fantasies from his computer and travelled to Rotenburg by train. He met Meiwes and went to the isolated farmhouse where he lived alone. Meiwes then showed Brandes the "slaughter room" he had constructed upstairs.

Later that evening Meiwes cut off Brandes' penis and both men tried - and failed - to eat it. Meiwes then ran a bath for Brandes, the judge said, who by this stage had knocked back 20 sleeping tablets and a bottle of Vick's cold cure. Meiwes waited for his victim to pass out by reading a Star Trek novel. At 3.30am Meiwes laid his unconscious victim on the slaughter table and stabbed him to death. He then hung him on a hook, cut out some of his organs, and went to bed.

The court in Kassel was told that the cannibal videoed the entire episode, and had told the dying Brandes: "I can't do anything else." The next afternoon he set about cutting off parts of Brandes, which he stored in his freezer.

By the time detectives finally knocked on the door of his farmhouse in December 2002, he had eaten "about 20kg" of his victim, the judge said.

In an interview with Stern magazine shortly before his trial, the cannibal admitted to cooking parts of Brandes with olive oil, garlic, pepper and nutmeg, and eating him with sprouts, potatoes and a bottle of South African red wine on a festively decorated table.

Brandes also told the magazine he had used one of his victim's feet as a table ornament and had tried to make flour by grating an arm bone after first baking it in the oven. He buried Brandes' bones, skin and innards in the garden while reciting the 23rd psalm: "The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want ..."

The magazine also revealed that Meiwes believed that after eating Brandes, who spoke good English, his own English had improved.

Yesterday Judge Mütze admitted that the cannibal's behaviour clearly breached what he called "civilisational norms". He also accepted the testimony of expert witnesses who had earlier told the court Meiwes was mentally capable of standing trial.

But there was little evidence to support the prosecution's main contention that this was a sexual murder, carried out for the purposes of gratification, he ruled. After the killing, Meiwes had watched his homemade video "two or three times" while sitting in his armchair, the judge said, but it was not clear whether he was sexually aroused. "There was an agreement between them. This was the killing of a person without murder," he concluded.

Last night legal experts described the case and its extraordinary denouement as unprecedented. "This will make legal history," Professor Arthur Kreuzer of the Institute for Criminology at Giessen University said. "The killer sought out his victim and the victim sought out his killer."

Police revealed during the trial that there were at least 800 participants in cannibal forums on the internet and two suspected cases of other cannibal killings. Detectives said Meiwes had been questioned as part of investigations in Frankfurt and in Austria. He has not been charged with these murders.

After dismembering Brandes, Miewes returned to the internet and placed adverts asking for further volunteers for slaughter. He met five other people, including a German hotel manager working in London, but did not kill any of them after they failed to give him their consent.

Several of the witnesses gave anonymous evidence in court which appeared to back Meiwes' assertion that he was only interested in willing victims. One of them - a German cook - turned up wearing ski goggles to avoid being identified.

The cannibal's defence team had claimed that he was guily of "killing on demand" - a lesser charge with a maximum five-year sentence.

Last night Meiwes' lawyer said it was unlikely his client would eat anyone else. "He certainly won't repeat it," he said. Miewes had been in jail for a year. He was now a polite, popular prisoner who helped others and wrote their letters, he added.


UPCOMING EVENTS

BloomReach has made a good business out of tracking customers’ intent without using cookies, surveys, or broad demographic brushstrokes. Its technology helps to give customers a web experience that feels ‘just for them’ by determining their interests, understanding their behavior, and interpreting the products they’re interested in buying.

Now the company is opening a new office in the United Kingdom and debuting a fresh product, Compass, it announced today.

I sat down with BloomReach CEO, Raj De Datta, in a London hotel to get the full story. We started our chat with the reasons for opening an office in the UK.

“Apart from the obvious market opportunity here and throughout Europe, which was enough reason to come to London, our decision has been recently underlined by a study that we commissioned from Redshift Research,” De Datta said. “It showed a clear and distinct technology gap between Amazon and almost everyone else in the e-commerce landscape, which we believe we can help close.”

The BloomReach Consumer and Marketer Personalisation Study, which took in responses from 1,000 UK consumers and 122 UK online retailers, found that 82 percent of UK consumers said Amazon offers better web-personalization than any other company.
“Look at it from a retailer perspective first. Interestingly for us, only two percent of UK retailers told Redshift that personalized shopping experiences were important to them when building their online retail spaces,” De Datta said. “There is a big disconnect here, because 31 percent of UK consumers said they would be more likely to buy if the experience were more personal.”

The report shows that brand reputation is not as important as the brands might think. Simply put, big brands can’t afford to rest on their laurels.

“That was a real eye-opener for us,” De Datta said. “85 percent of UK consumers said that they didn’t care about brand reputation when buying online.”

The study also shows that online e-commerce and retail platforms are of real importance.

97 percent of consumers research products online before purchasing, with desktop representing the primary method of access (79 percent). Frequency is also high as an average, with 79 percent of consumers making an online purchase at least once a month.

BloomReach are working with UK e-commerce sites such as Wayfair, StubHub, Boden, Forever 21, and Lakeland.

However, the new London office wasn’t the only thing De Datta had to share with me over a cup of green tea in Soho.

“We’re also launching Compass to help e-commerce platforms understand how to manage their content better,” De Datta said. He showed me how it works in a real-life situation, via his laptop.

“Let’s say you’re a category manager at a retail store and you want to understand what products are being shown for the searches that are trending on your site,” De Datta said.

I looked on as he checked the trending searches using the new BloomReach Compass tool. From that results view, he was able to look at the page being served to the consumer for that search, and I could immediately see the problem.

The term that consumers were searching for — in this case ‘swim shoes’ — was not delivering the right type of apparel at the top of the page. As a result, a term that should be performing well and generating a lot of sales thanks to the sheer volume of consumers searching for them was doing terribly because the wrong products were being highlighted.

“If I were a category manager, I could spend just a few minutes per day with Compass analyzing the trending and top performing searches on my product range, looking at the results and then optimizing the experience,” De Datta said. “It could be the difference between instant sales or consumers leaving the site in droves to shop elsewhere.”

Compass doesn’t just help you analyze search trends, site activity, and get views of the consumer experience. It has a Playbooks feature that presents brands with the highest potential opportunities across their site in a single click.

The Explore tab lets you type in your searches and ask questions using free text, and access dashboards for products, brands, promotions, categories, and queries.

Finally, the Activity area lets you track the results of changing your site in order to determine the results of the change so that you can measure and demonstrate impact.

“Content is the root of all marketing,” De Datta said. “For me, I believe there is still too little science in the production and management of that content. Some of the smartest people work in e-commerce, and they just need good applications that understand how to put big data to work so they can make better, more scientific decisions.”

Compass, which has been in closed beta with 4 of BloomReach’s customers, is now available publicly, and today marks the official launch of its UK presence.


Beurs van Berlage

The Tasting Menu in Amsterdam

Amsterdam Conference Centre

Beurs van Berlage

Do you want to organize a congress or event that will be remembered for a long time? In that case, the Beurs van Berlage is the perfect place! Because of our long-time experience with events and congresses, we know how to achieve the highest quality. Time after time and in the middle of the characteristic historical centre of Amsterdam. Would you like to see what the rooms look like, or rather have some to-the-point information about the capacity of the rooms? Click below to discover de Beurs van Berlage.

Think of a twelve-course meal that includes an astonishing fish soup. And a salad of asparagus and barley, with “lacquered” lobster. And Dutch beef with crispy wine leaf. And, and, and, and, and. The whole experience topped off by a tiny chocolate-covered caramel-and-sea-salt bonbon, compliments of the chef.

This is one version of a tasting menu. But, like the eternal chicken dish served at a wedding, the tasting menu can take many forms.

In fact, the modern tasting menus has been around since the 1980s. But boy, are they hip right now—especially in Amsterdam. That’s what we learned by talking with our friend, food professional Rex Enderman, a graduate of the Food Academy Amsterdam and Chef de partie at a local restaurant called Meneer Nieges (Westerdoksdijk 40H). On a recent afternoon, Rex told us there are tons of restaurants and cafés with tasting menus opening in Amsterdam now—and plenty that have been around for a while.

The Dutch version of the tasting menu includes “four to infinity dishes,” according to Rex. And before you order yours, here’s a key word you’ll need to know: “amuse”—a French word (pronounced ah- MOOZE), short for amuse bouche (ah-mooze BO-O-OSH), meaning a bite-sized appetizer. These days, it’s trendy to serve an amuse bouche—say, a shot-glass filled with a delicate cucumber foam that tastes exactly like the sea—and not charge you for it. Two amuses—one to start the meal and one as a coda—is in vogue right now. Rex adds, “Those two amuses add a couple of courses—and a flavour explosion!”

Where can you find a tasting menu in and around Amsterdam, beside at Meneer Nieges? Consider the restaurant called Sinne (Ceintuurbaan 342), where the stellar food quality has earned the place a Michelin star. And then there’s Aan de Poel, the two-star Michelin establishment in neighboring Amstelveen. This month, they’re serving yellowfin tuna and an oyster with miso, watermelon and a spicy vinaigrette….

So, what’s stopping you from indulging in this fancy fare? If you’re worried it’s too pricey for you, consider this: while a Michelin-starred chef’s dinner can fetch sky-high prices, an equally elaborate lunch costs far less. Creative chefs want you to try their tasting menus: it’s an opportunity to show you the magic they can do.

You can also explore restaurants before they earn their stars. Who knows which eateries are destined to be worthy? We asked Anne Zoutendijk, the Head of Catering at the historic Beurs van Berlage Conference Centre. Anne earned her chops at the Amsterdam Hotel School (now the ROC), and at the Cordon Bleu in London, where she specialized in pastry. Her pick for one of the best restaurants for tasting menus in the city: restaurant Envy (Prinsengracht 381-IV). Anne loves the way a menu with imagination can make her feel “inspired, motivated, surprised.” And Restaurant Envy was her top choice for achieving that altered state while eating.

Not everyone is inclined to order an expansive range of dishes, though. Another foodie friend of ours, Ann Cassano, confessed to us that tasting menus aren’t even on her radar, despite having a restauranteur for a father. Ann told us, “I’m not a risk-taker,” referring to her distaste for the surprise element of the tasting experience. When pressed, however, Ann told us she’d had a wonderful dinner during Amsterdam’s Restaurant Week at The French Connection (Singel 460). Turns out she and her husband ordered the four-course option. “Did you by any chance have the Codfish in Onion Broth with Vadouvan [a blend of French spices—super-trendy now] and Celeriac?” we asked her. “I did,” she said, amazed we knew. “And the cheese plate?” we asked. She’d had that, too, and it included not one, not two, but five adventurous cheeses. Which just goes to show that even if you order “just” the four-course meal, you’re likely to be rewarded for your risk-taking.


Central banks are trialing blockchain, with 57% of surveyed central banks experimenting with the Ethereum codebase, finds study at the Cambridge… More

Two-thirds of FTSE companies admit they have been hit by a cyber breach or attack in the past year

Monday, 09 May 2016

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport have released research that shows that two-thirds of large UK businesses are hit by cyber security attacks. If you are planning on covering this news, please see below for commentary from security experts.

Simon Crosby, CTO and co-founder, Bromium
“The findings confirm that the cyber security landscape in the UK is similar to other advanced nations: We are experiencing sustained targeted attacks that legacy detection technologies cannot see or stop. Organisations need to urgently adopt a new posture that protects endpoint systems by design using virtualization based security. It is unrealistic to expect that OS vendors or application vendors can stay ahead. A radical change is urgently needed.”

Rohyt Belani, CEO and co-founder, PhishMe
"The fact that nearly seven out of ten attacks on all firms involved viruses, spyware or malware doesn't surprise us as it’s what we hear from customers and see in our own research. The problem for many is that these infections are often spread via phishing campaigns, and nearly all will be successful as they bait users to open tainted emails that often bypass stringent technology layers to reach the user’s inbox. Employees can be too busy, distracted or trusting to give much thought to the possible risks.

While any Government backed initiative does help raise awareness of the cyber security risks and rewards, it is not going to magically protect organisations from those threats.

Organisations need to accept that technology and frameworks alone are not enough. It’s essential that companies condition and empower their employees to not only recognise and avoid a phish when they encounter one, but to report malicious emails internally – sourcing a bevy of rich human intelligence essential for improving incident response times and thwarting phishing attacks before they become successful. Since attacks often target groups of people across an enterprise, employees quickly become the last line of defence and should be properly prepared. For every suspicious email reported, it helps prevent the rest of the staff by being caught in a malware trap because security operations is aware of what the phishing email looks like and can respond appropriately."

3 October - Guoman Tower Hotel, Central London

CCRInteractive, in association with Marston Holdings, is the largest and leading one-day conference from the publishers of CCRMagazine – a truly national and international event for the credit industry.

This landmark event allows delegates to: Learn best practice of how to increase profitable sales in today’s economy. Understand the key compliance issues and how they will impact upon you. Discuss the legislative and regulatory framework and how it will effect you. Consider the potential effects of Brexit on your business. Discover the latest innovations in the market to improve your collections. Motivate your staff to achieve ever improved results.


Hotels case victory for Barclay brothers

A PROPERTY developer has lost a High Court battle with two of the UK’s best-known businessmen.

Patrick McKillen, who comes from Belfast but is based in Dublin, was fighting Sir David Barclay and his twin Sir Frederick over control of a £1bn company which owns three of London’s most famous hotels.

A judge in London ruled against Mr McKillen yesterday, following a trial spanning more than two months.

All three men were investors in Coroin – the company which owns and manages Claridge’s, the Connaught and the Berkeley hotels.

Mr McKillen claimed that “company affairs” were conducted in a “manner unfairly prejudicial to his interests”.

The Barclay brothers disputed Mr McKillen’s claims and said his allegations were designed to “tarnish” their reputations and “embarrass” them.

In a lengthy written ruling, Mr Justice David Richards announced that two sets of proceedings brought by Mr McKillen “fail and will be dismissed”.

In a statement issued on their behalf, the Barclays welcomed the ruling.

Richard Faber, speaking on behalf of the Barclay interests, said: “We are delighted that today’s judgment has completely vindicated the Barclay interests’ position and brought to an end this unnecessary and distracting dispute.

“After 30 days in court the judge has looked in detail at every aspect of Mr McKillen’s case, and has found it to be without any merit.

“It should never have been necessary for the Barclay interests to defend these baseless proceedings, which we always believed were an attempt by Mr McKillen to tarnish the Barclay interests’ reputation in the misconceived hope that they would then sell out to him.

“The High Court has now confirmed what we always knew to be the case: that the Barclay family and its interests have always behaved entirely lawfully and properly in their business dealings.”

A statement issued later on behalf of Mr McKillen said he “firmly believes in his claim and is obviously considering an appeal”.


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Loic Remy snubbed the chance to see what Newcastle United had to offer – in favour of a lie-in.

The 26-year-old France international, who completed his move to Queens Park Rangers yesterday, had been offered a full-works tour of St James’ Park and the city as well as a look around the training facilities at the club’s Benton base on Tuesday.

But, rather than take a flight to Tyneside, the Chronicle understands he opted to stay in bed until lunchtime before taking in the sights of the capital.

Sources close to the deal, which football agent Willie McKay was working on along with Remy’s representative Frederic Guerra, indicate that the player did meet Alan Pardew and managing director Derek Llambias in London for initial talks on Sunday.

The source told the Chronicle: “The original plan was for Loic to head to Newcastle on Tuesday after some courtesy talks. But he didn’t take up the flight and stayed in London at a hotel instead.”

His scheduled trip to Tyneside was abandoned once he agreed to meet both Harry Redknapp and QPR chief Tony Fernandes, who put together a huge financial package to persuade him to sign for the Londoners.

It is also understood that Remy’s wife preferred the move to the capital rather than living on Tyneside.

Remy though did speak to his fellow countrymen about a move to Newcastle over the phone, and asked close pal Olivier Bernard last summer about life at Newcastle.

The striker was handed number 18 at QPR but tried to play down talk he had made the switch for money.

The forward was offered almost double the wages at QPR and had a minimum fee release clause inserted into his contract, regardless of whether Harry Redknapp’s team are relegated.

Remy said: “I want to develop my game here. This season the objective is to stay up but beyond that we have greater objectives.

“After seven years in France, this is the right time for me to pursue a new challenge in the Premier League – the best League in the world.

“I am confident I can adapt to the Premier League. My main characteristics have taken me to the level I am at today but I am keen to keep improving.”

However, despite putting in plenty of work to try to secure Remy’s services – with two visits to France this month for talks with his representatives – United have had no choice but to move on from the snub.

This week has been spent assessing their options with a fortnight left of the transfer window.

As reported in the Chronicle last night, talks to persuade Fabricio Coloccini until at least the end of the season have now been delayed until next Monday.

But hopes of securing a centre-back and a striker will hinge on talks with two clubs this week.

United have been offered West Ham United’s James Tomkins but don’t see the England Under-21 player as the right fit at St James’ Park, despite having had a “slight interest” in the defender in recent times.


20 May 2009

Check Into the Parliament Hotel

Gluttons for punishment can check out the Guardian's special page on the furore over parliamentary profligacy in the UK. There's everything from toilet seats to televisions.

Others, recognizing the utility of parliamentary democracy as long as it does not go the way of the Roman Senate, might want to check into the "Parliament Hotel," my suggestion for reigning in costs and giving elected representatives a better sense of being on the job, not on the take.

(Image thanks to the real Parliament Hotel in Cape Town South Africa, where Pretoria and Cape Town share in hosting the seat of government - the cabinet has to shuttle back and forth when Parliament is in session, perhaps not the best example of efficiency, but it does spread the wealth.)

So here is my proposal for Parliaments from London to Luanda, by way of Capitol Hill: find a decent hotel near your national assembly, buy it with stimulus funds, renovate it into adequate but Spartan suites, and make your congresspeople, MPs, senators, or deputies stay there when parliament is in session. Presumably they are representing constituents from a home district, so that's where they should have their home. But when they are in _______ (fill in the name of the capital city), they stay in their parliamentary hotel suite.

I'm not talking about a fold-down bed in the office (in this season of European Parliament elections, French TV showed an MEP in his minuscule office, pulling down what I swear was a couchette-sized "bed" for those late-night sessions). No, Hotel Parliament would provide a spacious suite where the elected official could relax, even set up a kids' room for when they come to see the big city, and grab a snack at the in-house cafeteria when she doesn't feel like cooking).

Unfortunately for the Mother of Parliaments, all the attention on the expenses row has somehow created the impression that UK MPs are the worst offenders. The BBC provides a nice, if limited, comparison of parliamentary perks in a number of European countries, where Italy comes out - again - as the most generous (they are already the highest paid MEPs) to its deputies:

Political journalists Gian Antonio Stella and Sergio Rizzo have exposed
the excesses of the political class in a new book, The Caste: How
Italian Politicians Have Become Untouchable.

How about the US House of Representatives and the US Senate, collectively known as Congress? Ouch. When you have to have detailed sets of rules about "Officially-connected travel paid by a private source" and "Travel unrelated to official duties and paid for by a private source," you know that you're entering ambiguous territory. That terrain is called lobbying, and I daresay that the current imbroglio in Britain over reimbursement for moat-cleaning would pale in comparison to a full disclosure by Americans in Congress.

"Many Members travel home more than 40 times a year," says the helpful Congressional Management Foundation, which provides an eye-opening budget guide for the freshman Congressperson. Try doing that - plus hiring staff for Washington and home district offices - on the average $1.3 million (2005 figures) in public money allotted and you'll understand just one of the reasons that American politicians look for help from lobbyists. We know, of course, that such assistance does not come for free.

So, while "Hotel Parliament" would not solve all the dilemmas of parliamentary expenses, it would at least remove one excuse for all these contraventions of arcane rules. Make sure the hotel security people keep lobbyists out of the lobby.

Comments

Gluttons for punishment can check out the Guardian's special page on the furore over parliamentary profligacy in the UK. There's everything from toilet seats to televisions.

Others, recognizing the utility of parliamentary democracy as long as it does not go the way of the Roman Senate, might want to check into the "Parliament Hotel," my suggestion for reigning in costs and giving elected representatives a better sense of being on the job, not on the take.

(Image thanks to the real Parliament Hotel in Cape Town South Africa, where Pretoria and Cape Town share in hosting the seat of government - the cabinet has to shuttle back and forth when Parliament is in session, perhaps not the best example of efficiency, but it does spread the wealth.)

So here is my proposal for Parliaments from London to Luanda, by way of Capitol Hill: find a decent hotel near your national assembly, buy it with stimulus funds, renovate it into adequate but Spartan suites, and make your congresspeople, MPs, senators, or deputies stay there when parliament is in session. Presumably they are representing constituents from a home district, so that's where they should have their home. But when they are in _______ (fill in the name of the capital city), they stay in their parliamentary hotel suite.

I'm not talking about a fold-down bed in the office (in this season of European Parliament elections, French TV showed an MEP in his minuscule office, pulling down what I swear was a couchette-sized "bed" for those late-night sessions). No, Hotel Parliament would provide a spacious suite where the elected official could relax, even set up a kids' room for when they come to see the big city, and grab a snack at the in-house cafeteria when she doesn't feel like cooking).

Unfortunately for the Mother of Parliaments, all the attention on the expenses row has somehow created the impression that UK MPs are the worst offenders. The BBC provides a nice, if limited, comparison of parliamentary perks in a number of European countries, where Italy comes out - again - as the most generous (they are already the highest paid MEPs) to its deputies:

Political journalists Gian Antonio Stella and Sergio Rizzo have exposed
the excesses of the political class in a new book, The Caste: How
Italian Politicians Have Become Untouchable.

How about the US House of Representatives and the US Senate, collectively known as Congress? Ouch. When you have to have detailed sets of rules about "Officially-connected travel paid by a private source" and "Travel unrelated to official duties and paid for by a private source," you know that you're entering ambiguous territory. That terrain is called lobbying, and I daresay that the current imbroglio in Britain over reimbursement for moat-cleaning would pale in comparison to a full disclosure by Americans in Congress.

"Many Members travel home more than 40 times a year," says the helpful Congressional Management Foundation, which provides an eye-opening budget guide for the freshman Congressperson. Try doing that - plus hiring staff for Washington and home district offices - on the average $1.3 million (2005 figures) in public money allotted and you'll understand just one of the reasons that American politicians look for help from lobbyists. We know, of course, that such assistance does not come for free.

So, while "Hotel Parliament" would not solve all the dilemmas of parliamentary expenses, it would at least remove one excuse for all these contraventions of arcane rules. Make sure the hotel security people keep lobbyists out of the lobby.