The England striker spent the whole of last season on loan at the East London club, scoring 7 goals in 24 appearances after an injury hit campaign. The player has been sold for 15million but with add-ons that price is expected to go up to 17million.

Carroll was brought for 35million, a record for a British player, in January 2012 from Newcastle United. He scored 11 goals in 58 games for the Reds.

Andy Carroll has been hit by loss of form as well as a number of injury’s to contend with at Liverpool.

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Paddington Bear was created in 1958, after author Michael Bond picked up a teddy bear in a store near Paddington Station on Christmas Eve. Originally intended as a gift for his wife, Bond was captivated by the bear, and within 10 days had written a short story about him.

The story goes that Paddington, an orphaned bear from South America, had travelled to London in a lifeboat, surviving only on marmalade sandwiches. When he finally arrived in England, he was dressed in a blue duffle coat and red hat, with a tattered suitcase and a note attached to his coat reading ‘Please look after this bear’.

Paddington is then adopted by the Brown family, and goes on to have numerous adventures in the familiar streets of Notting Hill and Portobello Road. He is said to be incredibly polite and well-meaning, but when he disapproves of somebody’s behaviour, he gives them a long, hard stare, just as his Aunt Lucy told him to..

Aside from the childish appeal of this bear and his adventures, he has often been seen as an icon for the support of immigration. Painted on a wall in Stokes Croft, the sometimes controversial but artistic quarter of Bristol, is a small piece of graffiti reading ‘Migration is not a crime’, beside a stencil of the bear.

Whether a childhood hero or political emblem, Paddington Brown has been hugely influential to British culture throughout the last 55 years. He has been featured on Royal Mail 1st class stamps, and in 2007 he starred in the Marmite UK adverts, where he decides to try a Marmite and cheese sandwich instead of his usual marmalade favourites. He has even influenced the British fashion scene: Tom Brown’s Satchels recently released a collection of leather satchels under the name ‘London Calling’, which includes a mustard yellow ‘Paddington’ satchel with a wonderful vintage appeal, the colour also being reminiscent of the beloved bear’s golden fur.

This collection was no exception, with Bailey embracing the collection’s theme, “Writers and Painters” close to his Northern English heart. The writer and painter in question were Alan Bennett and David Hockney respectively, both of whom (surprise!) hail from Yorkshire, like Bailey.

The primary coloured palette of the collection conjured images of Hockney’s vivid artwork, whilst the peculiar spectacles he donned were given a futuristic twist in neon plastic. Bennett’s influence can too be seen, as he himself wore outfits characterised by stark colour blocking in muted jade, azure, turquoise and red. This lustrous scheme was offset beautifully in several looks by slouchy outerwear in neutral tones, whilst others were complemented by brighter, more regimented cuts.

The Burberry boy Bailey presented, to me, is an amalgamation of Hockney, Bennett, and the designer himself. He is someone creative, who cannot escape his heritage (Yorkshire’s countryside was ever present in the natural shades of the shirts and knitwear) but wears his artistic soul on his sleeve. Bravo, Mr Bailey.

The opening look was my favourite look of the collection. The sweeping pageboy haircut set it off perfectly.

He is a walking piece of art, and I am so feeling that.

The various shades of blue complemented the tonal grey of the jumper and the chocolate of the shoes.

A vision in gingham.

All photos from style.com.

AMBY: For a start, how would you describe the sound of the music you create to those unfamiliar with your music?

JP: It’s simple music steeped in emotion and fable. Musically I suppose it leans towards the folky side of things, the three part harmonies that run through it keeping  it very rich and 60’s sounding. I like music that makes you feel something.

AMBY: I absolutely love your song “Tangles Never Tire”, so who or what inspires you?

JP: Tangles started out as a self-reflective poem I wrote while I was living in Vancouver a few years back. It was a very grey and wet Canadian winter, I was crashing on my friend’s sofa and trying to find some work but wasn’t having any luck so took to writing. In terms of inspiration I was listening to loads of Iron & Wine, Blind Pilot, Jessica Lea Mayfield and Morning Benders largely thanks to my pal Craig out in BC who turned me on to a load of Pacific West Coast artists at the time.

AMBY: Which artists have you been listening to lately?

JP: The artist I’ve been listening to constantly for the past two weeks is Edith Piaf having finally gotten around to watching La Vie En Rose and it having a massive impact on me musically and emotionally. Her tragic story really resonated with me and it just lit up the songs with a poignancy I hadn’t heard in them before. Aside from Edith it’s been a steady diet of Low Anthem, Townes Van Zandt & Tom Waits.

AMBY: And what song couldn’t you live without ever hearing again?

JP: New Slang – Shins, no question. It’s been in my heart since I bought Oh! Inverted World on import from HMV in 2003.

AMBY: If you could create a law that everyone would have to follow, what would it be?

JP: Love thy neighbour would be the obvious one. My pet hate is people that don’t listen so maybe that in a close second.

AMBY: If you could invite any three people to dinner, who would you choose?

JP: Richard Pryor, JFK, and my old friend Sean Lyons who sadly isn’t with us anymore but was a constant inspiration to me and is the subject of the lead track from our next EP – ‘Til The Bottle.

AMBY: Outside of music, what do you do for fun?

JP: I love to travel, to wander, to meet new people, see new places, it feeds my soul.  Other than that I’m a massive Nottingham Forest fan, I try and see them as much as possible during the season but I suppose my main passion lies with my friends, that’s when I’m happiest.

AMBY: Which three albums changed your life?

JP: In terms of life changing records I would have to say Nirvana’s Unplugged album because it was the one that changed everything for me as a teenager and set me on my path. Neil Young’s Harvest was massive for me too, it altered my course from heavier rock to the whole Laurel Canyon scene which was an important step. Finally I would say Chutes Too Narrow by the Shins because it consumed me for around two years; no album has had the same impact on me, a truly perfect record.

AMBY: When it comes to gigs, what would be your dream place to play a concert? (It could be anywhere, for example on the moon, in space or under water…)

JP: I’d love to play a show at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland OR in front of some of my peers. If I could round up James Mercer, Israel Nebeker, Robin Pecknold, Josh Tillman, Sam Beam and a few others that would be a pretty special night!

AMBY: What are your plans for the future?

JP: My second EP will be available at the beginning of July, it’s called Wolf! He Cried, released on Spearhavoc Records. Once it’s released the plan is to play some festivals over the summer, get the EP out to as many people as possible and see where it takes me. The main objective in all this is to enjoy the moment and make music which resonates.

AMBY: Lastly, what’s something nobody knows about Jamie Parisio… yet?

JP: When I eat at a restaurant I have to organise everything on the table at right angles else it gives me a headache.

***

Thank you so much for doing this interview Jamie!

You’ve GOT to Hear This // Facebook // Twitter // Website //

Katrin Kugler

Read it HERE (click me!)

Hopefully there are more to come

Stage Door Radio is trying to get on its feet. It’ll be an online radio station that plays musical theatre 24/7 and will be hosted by stars of the West End (Ramin and Hadley Fraser included!)

If it wasn’t for the radio, I wouldn’t have truly discovered Phantom. So jump on board and donate, there are some super cool incentives (I’m eying off both a skype session and to have my music broadcasted)!

Information is here: http://www.stage-door.tv/

Donate Here: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/stage-door?browse_v=new

More tests are being done about my health, with my thyroid potentially causing problems with my voice and overall too. Been missing singing so much over the past few days, really feeling lost without it. But one must try and stay positive!

I will keep you posted!

Peace!

Phanatic19

The 15^th annual Boishakhi Mela (Bengali: বৈশাখীমেলা)took place on Sunday 12^th May 2013. The event is a celebration of the Bengali New Year with music and cultural events. The Bengali New Year falls on 14/15 April. The event always takes place in May, as April tends to have a high risk of rain.  It is the largest open-air Asian festival in Europe. It was previously hosted at Weavers Fields, Brick Lane, London.  After the Notting Hill Carnival, it is the second-largest street festival in the UK attracting over 80,000 visitors from around the country. This year, it was held for the first time in Victoria Park, Tower Hamlets, London to attract a larger audience but the number of visitors failed to match previous years.

The parade kicked off from Weavers Field with dancers, performers featuring local school children and local groups, showcasing vibrant colours, music and culture. Celebrating cultural diversity, the event was shown live on the NTV channel (Sky 852) and was hosted by BBC Asian Network presenter Nadia Ali.

Some of the biggest names in Bengali music took to the stage including Bappi Lahiri, a music director in the Hindi film industry, Liza, S I Tultul and others.  10 finalists of the ‘Boishakhi Star 2013’ also performed live on stage. Lutfur Rahman, Mayor of Tower Hamlets, also made an appearance at the Mela.

Market stalls complimented the Mela with Asian snacks, drinks, arts, crafts, jewellery and clothing. To celebrate 50 years of Tollyboy rice (one of the bestselling brands of rice in the UK today), visitors were treated with free sample bags of long grain and basmati rice. The demand was high.

Funds were being raised for the Beani Bazar Cancer hospital project in Bangladesh, the first-ever comprehensive cancer hospital in Sylhet. Author, Shahida Rahman, was also signing copies of her historical novel ‘Lascar’.

Wind and rain swept in by the mid-afternoon, but that failed to dampen the party atmosphere. Organisers of the event say, ‘The blend of multicultural performers and activities will ensure integration of people of different ages and ethnicities to come together and improve community cohesion through culture and celebration.’

Anu Sidhu, a student, is a regular attendee of the Mela. ‘I love coming here every year and enjoy the sights, tastes and smells! It is like being in Bangladesh for a short while,’ he said.

Published in ‘Asian World’ newspaper, June 2013

Here are some photographs…

We projected a stock footage video of Antarctica at the entrance of Newhaven Fort

Here are some of our visitors arriving at the Fort.

Here’s a family group arriving at the Romney Hut, for the Screening

The audience start taking to their seats!

…and here’s an ‘audience eye view’ of the film underway! We nearly had a full house, with only a couple of tickets to spare, and a few house seats at the back!

This weekend, on 22 June, there will be a special screening of one of Team Filmspot’s favourite films, A Canterbury Tale in Veules Les Roses, France, to mark their twinning with the picturesque Sussex village, Alfriston. We have helped to organise the film and licencing for this event, which we hope will be a success. Sadly we can’t make it over ourselves, but we look forward to posting about it soon. In the Autumn, we will present a French film, as suggested by the film club in Veules Les Roses – more news about this will appear over the summer.

We’re also looking forward to screening The Great White Silenceat Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum (in honour of Salisbury0born Herbert Ponting, the Director of the film) in October – more details will appear on here and the Filmspot website later in the Summer.

Our next event at Newhaven Fort will be in the Autumn, when there will be all sorts of ghoulish fun for our screening of Ghostbusters on 2 November.

My version, scallop and chorizo pasta

Matthew’s version, scallop and chorizo pasta

Last week, I did some cooking with a fellow Ballymaloe student, Matthew. We made chorizo and scallop pasta and a slightly over-caramelised tarte tatin. Matthew doesn’t believe in measurements or timings, so I made my own version of the pasta on fathers’ day to make up for his inaccuracy! These academics cannot be trusted! Matthew is actually a great cook with a passionate dislike of all things vegetarian (his face during the vegetarian demonstration at Ballymaloe was hysterical.) His recipes invariably include chorizo and wine, often both.

My Recipe for Scallop and Chorizo Pasta, serves 3

Ingredients:
12 large scallops/a pack of smaller scallops like these from Waitrose http://www.waitrose.com/shop/ProductView-10317-10001-33608-Waitrose+Patagonian+roeless+scallops
2/3 of a chorizo ring, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
6 large vine tomatoes
2 red peppers, chopped
170ml of double cream
18.7cl white wine – mini bottle
Small bunch of basil
Spaghetti/Tagliatelle
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 190°C (fan) 170°C (conventional.) Put the peppers and 2 chopped tomatoes in a roasting tray and coat with olive oil. Roast for 30-45 minutes until soft and slightly charred, turning regularly so that they remain coated in the oil. Fry the scallops and then the chorizo and set aside. Use the chorizo fat to fry the onion, then add the rest of the tomatoes and garlic. Cook until soft, mashing the tomatoes to release the liquid. Add the wine and reduce until thick. Matthew used stock with a glug of wine which also worked well. Add the roasted peppers and tomatoes then add the cream and reduce again until the sauce is thick and a rich orange in colour. Meanwhile cook the pasta as per the instructions. Add the scallops and chorizo and heat through for several minutes. Add the cooked and drained pasta to the pan and ensure it is coated in the sauce. Tear the basil over the top and season.

Frying the onions and tomatoes (Matthew’s version)

Add the wine and in Matthew’s case, the chicken stock

Fry the scallops and chorizo, if you’re Matthew pour half a pound of butter over the top!!

Add the cream and the roasted peppers (in my case the tomatoes too)

Heat the scallops and chorizo through

Hard at work

Chef Adams

Tarte Tatin recipe, from Darina Allen’s Ballymaloe Cookery Course:

Ingredients:

1.24kg (2 3/4lb) approx. Golden Delicious, Cox’s Orange Pippin or Bramley Seedling cooking apples
170g (6oz) puff pastry or rich sweet shortcrust pastry or sour cream pastry – we used leftover puff pastry
110g (4oz/1 stick) unsalted butter
225g (8oz/1 cup) castor sugar
A heavy 20.5cm (8inch) tatin mould or copper or stainless steel sauté pan with low sides

Preheat the oven to 220ºC/425ºF/regulo 7 for puff pastry. For shortcrust – 180ºC/350ºF/regulo 4.
First, roll out the pastry into a round slightly larger than the saucepan. Prick it all over with a fork and chill until needed.
Peel, halve and core the apples. Melt the butter in the saucepan, add the sugar and cook over a medium heat until it turns golden – fudge colour. Put the apple halves in upright, packing them in very tightly side by side. Replace the pan on a low heat and cook until the sugar and juice are a dark caramel colour. Hold your nerve otherwise it will be too pale. Put into a hot oven for approx. 15 minutes.
(We followed Raymond Blanc’s method instead, whereby the sugar is caramelised before putting the apples in. However, it is very important to take it off the heat before it reaches the desired colour as it carries on cooking. Ours went over by just a bit, but was still delicious.)
Cover the apples with the pastry and tuck in the edges. Put the saucepan into the fully preheated oven until the pastry is cooked and the apples are soft-25-30 minutes approx. For puff pastry reduce the temperature to 200°C/400°F/gas 6 after 10 minutes.
Take out of the oven and rest for 5-10 minutes or longer if you like. Put a plate over
the top of the saucepan and flip the tart on to a serving plate. (Watch out – this is a rather tricky operation because the hot caramel and juice can ooze out). Matthew as usual ignored by advice and didn’t wait!! Reshape the tart if necessary and serve warm with softly whipped cream.

Tarte Tatin pre flip stage

Slightly over-caramelised tarte tatin.

Salget går live på 10:30 i dag – skal du ikke fremmer før dette tidspunkt.

As many of you know, I have taken a new job back in the smoke and – so far, so good. I have already had a great bonding dinner with the other girls in my team – lots of wine and cocktails somewhere in the Kings Road, a missed last train home and some rumours of a 4AM finish for some of them? My lips are sealed……

I am slowly working out the company dynamics and trying to blend in while still being at the “haven’t a clue” stage of company knowledge. I have also broken two secure password thingamajiggas that has confounded the IT chappy, spilt coffee down a colleague’s shirt just before his lunch with a client and tripped over my own heel exclaiming  “Sh*t!” in front of the Chief Exec and his guest. So, all good.

The downside to it all is the hours. There are many of them. All spent at my desk in London. All spent away from the family. Many more hours than in my previous job. Such is life – I’m happy to be in work and, to be fair, the hours have all been necessary and not just pfaffing about. I cannot complain.

Last night I managed to give myself a break from late night commuting and booked into the newly refurbished Café Royal Hotel which re-opened its doors in Summer 2012. Just off Regent Street, the hotel couldn’t be more convenient and – all credit to them – they have done a spectacular job of it. The lobbies, staircases and quirky Art Deco lifts take you back to a bygone age in the Café’s heyday. It was like entering an episode of Poirot for the evening, watching the needle pointer curve over the halfway mark as the ancient-looking elevator ascended through the floors.  Polite and penguin-like staff are EVERYWHERE. You cannot move without someone wishing you a good evening or safe travels. Eh? I just walked here from down the road. No matter. If they start to gather in the hallways in groups just punch them gently out of the way. It’s the hospitality industry, they’re used to it.

Once inside the rooms, however, all thoughts of penguin-punching vanish. The world and its demands fades away as you take in your sumptuous surroundings. There is apparently a selection of more “blokey” style rooms – Mansard they call them – all wood panelling and musky scented but I didn’t get to see those on my short tour. No matter as I am, in fact, a girl. Yes, its true and not a cross-dressing version of me. So I had booked into a Portland room – beautifully furnished with every modern convenience, according to the brochure and with walls cloaked in smooth stone. Sounds odd but it really works and you feel…..safe, sort of cocooned for some odd reason.

Un-flipping-believably, I was upgraded. No bog-standard Port-a-potty room for me. Oh no. I was to be the jammy-bugger one-night owner of a fabulous junior suite! The place was bigger than my house. Ri-di-cu-lous. With its own sitting room, kitchenette with coffee machine and a bathroom big enough to hold the cast of Les Mis, it wasn’t half bad I can tell you. I could have moved the family and a couple of stray dogs into it, no trouble.

I struggled a bit with all the electronics – I am challenged in the techy department as we know. Having stupidly stripped off my dress first, I tried to shut the drapes by button and instead managed to open the sheer curtains and give the offices opposite a wonderful view of me in my bra and knicks at the naked window. Sorry peeps. Not intentional.

Having ducked down behind a pink leather chair, I fumbled my way to the perfect curtain state and then tackled the lighting. This is all at midnight, dear friends, several rums up and with thumbs that would not respond to direct instruction. The lights, I finally discovered, worked by simply stroking them. *As do I – note to Man-Hog.* How marvellous. But best of all was the B&O TV which, if you get your thumbs to behave on the controls, turns to face you wherever you are in the room and booms its little movie-playing heart out through fab surround-sound speakers.

Having tried out all the nice smelly bottles of goodies in the bathroom and resisted raiding the mini-bar, I finally decided to hit the hay. In a bed the size of Africa. It was H-UUUUUUU-GE. I felt like a hobbit in a B&B. Supremely comfortable and with Frette linens – aaaahhhhh. You fellow textile fetishists will understand. It was an absolute pleasure to starfish inelegantly and still have room to roll over three times and not fall off. I’m getting me one of those beds. And a punchable penguin to say good morning to me on demand.

Considering its central location, you honestly couldn’t hear anything from the streets outside or from the hallways. It was actually a shock when the alarm woke me up this morning. After a dip in the marble bath which was more like swimming than washing, I got myself dressed and regretfully left this oasis of calm and opulence. Back to reality tonight alongside the Man-Hog,  snorting, wheezing and gurning his way through the night altogether far too close to me and in a bed nothing like the one at the Café. Ah well. Marriage is a blessing.

If you get a chance and you’re up on a theatre/shopping trip sometime, try the hotel. There is a restaurant and bar, and a soon-to-be-ready spa and gym. For one night of crazy, over-the-top pampering and quirkiness, it’s well worth the price tag. Don’t ask the price first, it has no truck with economic decline and will only spoil it for you! Enjoy!

Café Royal Hotel

68 Regent Street

London W1B 5EL

Ph:                         +44 20 7406 3322

Website:              www.hotelcaferoyal.com

Photo Credits: All my own

You really have to be better about updating after traveling! I mean, I know it’s been a while since you last travelled, but you know how this goes. You travel; you update once; you update again; you do it within two weeks.

Oops.

Obviously being back in America got in the way of fun travel blogging.

Pomp and circumstance can always be found near Buckingham Palace.

I left off on Sunday, so I’ve got Monday and Tuesday to catch everyone up on. The following day we decided to go to Hyde Park via Green Park tube stop. When we got up, we decided to walk past Buckingham Palace, a roundabout way to get to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, but it turned out to be worth it.

Recall that I didn’t really care for the pomp and circumstance of the changing of the guards in 2010. We timed it to be mid-morning, so I didn’t expect for any pomp or circumstance. We somehow got both, but this was way cooler than the changing of the guard. The two events were taking place simultaneously: 41 cannon fires for the anniversary of the Queen’s coronation and the changing of the guard. Green Park was full of people out sunbathing, guards on horses, and cannons firing. It was very cool and totally perfect, accidental timing.

From there we wandered through Hyde Park to Harrod’s where I bought myself a book. The Children’s section remains my favorite. The last time I was there, the theme was Peter Pan, but this time it was Gatsby themed. Shocking, I know.

Willa and I caught up with an old friend at Harrod’s.

We then went to the Victoria & Albert Museum to see the fashion exhibit and a small exhibit on architecture. I was glad to finally go to the V&A, as I didn’t have time when I was there in 2010. Next time I’d like to see even more of it. We also had lunch at the café there. Shockingly, I had pain au chocolat for lunch. That’s a meal, right?

Next up was wandering Kensington Gardens. My favorite thing to do. I think I could spend hours there just sitting and watching people and puppies. I hit all my favorite spots and spent some time just sitting in the grass.

Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens are easily the most beautiful places in London.

Last minute, we ended up buying tickets to see Once, so we then wandered to Leicester Square, then Covent Garden. I was able to get my dad two more sketches from the same woman he bought from when he came to visit me. I got him Stonehenge and The London Eye to complete his collection of St. Paul’s, Big Ben, and the Tower Bridge. Once was wonderful. We were in the second row, which normally is killer because you have to look up and get spit on, but this was awesome. Before the show even started, some people got drinks at the bar on the stage while the cast played some traditional Irish music. They must have been warned about some cue to get down, because as the show started they all left the stage.

The cast was incredibly impressive. Being so close to a show that had all the instruments on stage and just one set was perfect. It felt as intimate as I think it was supposed to. The only thing I didn’t like was the end, but I won’t spoil it. I have every intention of watching the movie now, but I haven’t had time quite yet.

Tuesday was our last day, and we finally went to the museum that Willa’s parents wanted to go to. It was  Sir John Soane’s Museum, which is this guy’s old house that is FULL of stuff. Willa and I think he was crazy. When we first walked in, we went into a small room full of artwork. The woman closed the door behind us, and we were done with the art, but she said she would open the door in the minute. Little did we know that she meant the doors in the walls that open up to more art… and then more art. And then you close those and open the other side of the wall to get to more art… and then a separate room. It was insane, to say the least.

We then wandered the rest of the house. There was a running joke about the death of his dog. I jokingly said to Willa that the dog’s ashes were somewhere in the building. That joke turned out to be real. This guy had a sense of humor, or was insane, because his downstairs was meant to feel like a catacomb (success) and there was a room that looked out to the garden where, you guessed it, the dog is buried.

This tunnel had graffiti from end to end.

We walked back to the apartment after that, but not before we found the tunnel where Banksy and his street-art friends go once a year to bomb it. It’s a tunnel that is meant for street art, so walking through it we saw spray paint cans scattered and it smelled like fresh paint. The art was so cool, but it was obvious that the big names were quickly covered by lesser-known street artists and even those just messing around.

Tuesday was our last day, so we went to the airport to catch our flight, then hung out for three extra hours when there was a delay. Instead of getting home at 9:30 and going to bed early, we arrived at 12:30 and I was very, very tired for a few days. At least I got one last meal of fish and chips before leaving.

Nabeel has developed a business-crime related practice dealing with all aspects of litigation, be it commercial, civil or criminal, where there is an underlying element of fraud.  Nabeel’s areas of expertise include, but are not limited to, VAT/MTIC fraud; general tax fraud; money laundering; extradition and mutual legal assistance; pharmaceutical fraud; confiscation orders; restraint orders; freezing orders; boiler room frauds; banking fraud; financial services fraud; mortgage fraud; directors’ disqualification; insolvency/ bankruptcy as a result of fraud; bribery and corruption; professional discipline and regulatory.   Nabeel commonly defends those investigated by the highest level UK Government bodies/agencies and, in recent times, in international sanctions related work.

Nabeel has developed a niche client base dealing with non-UK nationals with much work referred through personal recommendation by individuals with significant wealth and/or political standing. He frequently acts in cases involving a high level of political sensitivity and is noted for his ability to act with the utmost diligence, efficiency and discretion.

Nabeel has substantial experience in all manner of proceedings where there are cross-jurisdictional issues in play. His current and previous work involves a numerous assortment of high profile cases, and there are simply too many to list.

Nabeel has been ranked as a Leading individual in Chambers UK for two successive years.  The 2011 edition states”… ‘He knows when to be pragmatic,’ say sources…”, who also consider him ”… ‘an extremely good negotiator.’…”.   Quoting from the current edition”… Nabeel Sheikh is commended for being ‘very sharp’ and ‘paying special attention to clients.’…”.

He has also been profiled as an expert in white collar crime in the ‘Legal Experts’ directory since 2002 in annual succession demonstrating his long-standing experience and recognition within this field.

Further recent recognition includes a Business Crime category award in Lawyer Monthly’s Leading Lawyer 100 roster and a citation for Neumans LLP as Business Crime Law Firm of the Year UK in the same publication.

Book your FREE ticket today:

http://www.iybeinspired3.eventbrite.co.uk

Starting ballet classes as a child looking to get out of trouble, Cuba’s brightest male dance star has wooed audiences across the globe with classical roles that have earned him comparisons with legends such as Rudolf Nureyev. Now returning to the London stage, Acosta and the Royal Ballet celebrate his 40th birthday with popular (neo)classics at ENO (30/7/13-4/8/13).

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Artist Name: CELESTIAL TRAX

Label: Self-Released

Location: London, UK

Release Date: 06 July 2013

Tags: beats, dance, electronic, garage, hip hop, instrumental

Sounds:

Links: Website / Bandcamp / Facebook / Myspace / SoundCloud / Tumblr / Twitter

When it comes to online security, often times the greatest vulnerabilities aren’t technical, but human. Unfortunately, social engineering can be the hardest type of attack to prevent. It was the method behind the catastrophic hacking of Wired reporter Mat Honan, the exploits of the Syrian Electronic Army, and the cyber-espionage by China’s People’s Liberation Army.

Three year old startup Pindrop Security has developed solutions to a specific class of these attacks, specifically phone fraud. The company uses proprietary acoustic fingerprinting technology to assist corporations and call centers in authenticating the caller on the other end of the line, and in turn limiting the chance of phone-based social engineering.

Today, the Atlanta-based company announced $11 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz and Citi Ventures, with participation from new investors Redpoint Ventures and Felicis Ventures, as well as Pinpoint’s Seed round lead Webb Investment Network. The round brings the company’s total funding to $12 million. Andreessen Horowitz partner Scott Weiss, who was previously a director at Silver Tail Systems and an executive at Ironport, will join the company’s board of directors.

“The anti-fraud category is always attractive because it gets purchase orders,” Weiss says. “Whatever amount of fraud you can prevent goes straight to a company’s bottom line, so it’s easy for them to justify the expense. And once you get in, it’s very difficult to displace you.”

Pindrop is the result of PhD research by co-founders Vijay Balasubramaniyan and Paul Judge who spent their time at Georgia Tech investigating how easy it spoof a call’s provenance. According to the FTC, 29 percent of fraud victims are first contacted by phone. The company uses patent-pending “Phone Fingerprint” technology to analyze 137 signals within a phone call’s audio data to identify the caller’s network, geographic location – down to a region the size of France – and her device type. This information is then translated into a unique fingerprint which can then be matched against past and future calls and which is largely immune to standard masking techniques such as call rerouting. At the same time, these fingerprints can be used to quickly identify legitimate callers.

For obvious reasons, Pindrop has been a big hit in the financial services sector, which Balasubramaniyan called the company’s beachhead. Additional natural industries include healthcare, law enforcement, ecommerce, and other industries in which identity verification is a necessity. One thing that many of these industries have in common, beyond sensitivity of information, is high transaction volumes, which make it far more likely that an intruder can beat a company’s defenses.

Weiss shared that the company has already helped banks identify long-operating but previously undetected fraud rings. Importantly, although Pindrop gets better over time and with more data, the company’s technology works from the word go, detecting over 80 percent of attackers on the first call, according to its CEO. This is a claim that no other competing technology can make.

Pindrop’s’s strategy is to cast its net far and wide across the global enterprise market. According to its CEO, the company will use the latest funding to expand into Canada and Europe and will sell both to corporations and to their call center vendors. The company has grown to nearly 20 people between Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Boston and has plans to expand significantly in the sales and client support areas. New offices are also planned in San Francisco and London.

Fraud protection is a worthy goal, but the use of this technology is sure to raise some eyebrows. At a time when countless leading tech companies are accused of conspiring with the the NSA, FBI, and other governmental bodies, the idea that a company can instantly identify the source of every call gives cause for pause. The good news is that the company is not pinning location down to a specific address or set of longitude and latitude coordinates. But nonetheless, it’s a lot of power for one company to hold.

Despite these concerns, Pindrop is likely to be met with open arms in the financial services and similar industries. There is simply too much money and private data at stake not to use every tool available to combat attackers. Pindrop seems to be a technology at the bleeding edge of phone fraud protection, and has the IP protection to keep it there for some time. At the end of the day, it’s cyber-criminals, not technology competitors, that are likely to give the company’s technology the biggest run for its money. It will be Balasubramaniyan and Judge’s task to stay one step ahead.