If a random stranger stopped you on the street and asked to snoop on your phone you’d have a pretty strong answer to give them—that’s what comedian Olivia Lee does in this video to highlight the invasive nature of the UK government’s proposed Investigatory Powers Bill (aka the Snoopers’ Charter).

The video was made by human rights organisation Liberty to draw attention to the privacy-invading powers that British intelligence agencies will have if the bill becomes law, giving them and public bodies full access to your internet and communication history. If you disagree with the bill sign up to Liberty’s No #SnoopersCharter campaign and urge MPs to reject the bill when they vote on it this summer.

“This is one of the most intrusive and least accountable surveillance regimes in the world.” says Liberty. “There is a consensus from service providers, tech experts and three cross-party parliamentary committees that its plans are unclear, unworkable and potentially unlawful.”

For a small business, choosing the right global suppliers and expanding into overseas markets can be daunting to say the least. You need to make sure you’re making smart and safe choices.

To do that you need to trust your supplier and reduce the risk for your business. But how do you do that?

There are a few important steps you can follow to ensure you get the best from your supplier. By using this guide you can make sure your business moves along the path to success.

1/ Look Around Before Settling on a Supplier
Just like your business your supplier wants to turn a profit, so they’re not going to tell you where to get a more competitive rate. It’s up to you to shop around and find the best deal for you. So it’s important that you do your research and find the optimum supplier for your business, one that can supply you with goods and products at a price that’s right for you.

2/ Who To Trust and Choosing the Right Platform
Once you’ve found a competitive rate, the next step is to find out more information on who the supplier is. The best way is to use easily available platforms that hold established relationships with suppliers and can give you information on them as and when you need it. Schemes like global ecommerce platform Alibaba’s ‘Supplier Assessment’ are a great way to do this. They allow you to find out information about your supplier that comes from a trusted, verified, and most importantly, third party source.

“When I see a supplier assessment logo, it definitely does build more trust.” – Anthony Martin (businessman and founder of iCracked Inc.)

3/ Verifying Your Supply Market
In our global economy suppliers are no longer in the same state or even the same country, and it’s not always financially viable or practical to travel to countries to verify where the goods or products are coming from. Make sure that before you go into business, you can see reports or videos produced by an independent third party. These should cover everything from the company’s size and structure, to market experience and R&D capabilities so you’re not just relying on the supplier’s word.

“The verified report is really important for us, because as a small business, we need to [know] that the supplier we’re going to use is trustworthy, and you want as much information about that supplier as possible to build that trust in your brand.” – Tessa Harnett (owns and runs Vurge Jewellery).

4/ Read the Contract
Before you sign away and start a relationship with the supplier, make sure to read the contract carefully to ensure you’re not getting into something that could damage your business, like if the supply chain collapses and you’re not protected. It’s important that you check over the details so you don’t get any unexpected headaches further down the line.

5/ A Good Supplier Isn’t Just About Price
Although price is an important factor, don’t let it be the only thing that guides your judgment. Other things to consider are reliability—it’s no good getting a great price if the supplier keeps letting you down. Location is equally key—although sourcing it from other countries may be cheaper, they could take a longer time to ship you goods at short notice. So make sure you know how long shipment might take and consider this when choosing the right supplier. You might also find that multiple suppliers works for you, depending on what you want.

If you’re still unsure about what to do, watch the video below. In it you can hear testimonies from businessmen and women, talking about their experience with an online platform that provides verified reports and videos demonstrating the effectiveness of the suppliers the platform supports. Having this third party verification is essential as it means you can feel confident in all your transactions.

And it also means you can gain valuable insight before you commit yourself to doing business with a manufacturer, ensuring you have maximum peace of mind—so you can feel comfortable and assured when sourcing supplies for your business to grow, prosper and profit.

More information can be found HERE.

The internet is a scary place, for many reasons, it’s a playground where you decide what happens, who you play with, and who you want to play with you. The possibilities are seemingly endless and that’s where the nightmare of realization rears it’s ugly head – What the HELL would you do if it wasn’t there?

It doesn’t bear thinking about, it’s always gonna be there, right? Getting bigger, better and faster every day, with more wonders to behold….. But what, yes, WHAT the hell would you do if you didn’t have the chance to log-in and tune out?

Ponder for a moment how much of your life and the essential gadgets you use are all plugged into this world-wide-winder? Without you realising it you have, somehow, transferred pretty much your whole life (and dependence) over to this virtual world.

Friends, chat, correspondence, study, fun, gaming, dating, pr0n, gawd the list goes on and on. But think for a moment about the more ‘essential’ duties that you have given over to this cruel mistress – Your banking & consumer rights.

Yep, and here’s a good example, with Christmas looming be honest with yourself, just how many presents did you buy last year for friends, family, and more importantly, self?

The Christmas season is one of expected joy. And fighting with the masses over that last Buzz Light-Year. Or at least it used to be, but now in the second decade of the 21st century while we may not have flying cars, self-lacing shoes, buildings that can compliment your hair; we do have the vast and expansive tubes of the internet.

Without which you wouldn’t be able to click a mouse button and purchase all the presents you’ll ever need, from auntie’s fake tan to grandma’s plastic sheet to your little bro’s violent video game.

Whether you’re using your iPad, your netbook, or your laptop or Mac Book, having to lug your sorry ass down the shops to barge shoulders with the shopping hordes—as bewildered, stressed, overwhelmed and distraught as Santa must feel on Christmas Eve—would be a terrifying and traumatic experience.

Every shopping day running up to Christmas seems to come and go as quick as your childhood, flying by like the rolling landscapes out the backseat car window on the way to visit relatives—tangibly there but not reachable.

So imagine this if you dare: an internet free Christmas. I know, it’s not something to raise a glass of sherry to, unless it was to drown your despair. And it isn’t even just about having to actually go out and shop for presents, as much of a ball-ache as that would be. No, imagine teenagers having to sit through the day without being able to nip off and IM their mates.

Or you’ve just gone to the trouble of buying a console for your kid and they can’t get online in the holidays to headshoot a stranger in New Zealand.

Or checking emails, even though you’re not due back at work for 2 weeks and you said you’d rather sit through an epic brain-dulling soap opera Christmas special than work in the holidays. And forget sending ecards to people. Hah! Instead your sloth-like, keyboard-limbed self will have to go through the unremitting, physical, hand-numbing horror of first buying, then writing out, then posting—oh the humanity!—all those retched cards.

As if you haven’t got better things to do, like chat on Facebook. But hang on, there won’t be any Facebook. Holy crucified Santa! They’ll be no tweeting or FBing. No social networking. Nada. Not one byte. The only bites you’ll be getting are when Christmas dinner’s served.

Just let that sink in, like a snowman made from cat piss melting onto your living room rug. Ugh. Not too pretty a thought is it.

You won’t be able to open your Twitter feed and scan news headlines to satiate the information-junkie twitching within, or see what festive witticisms are (Brussels?) sprouting from your friends’/celebrities’ feeds.

No FB status updates declaring “Just ate some breast. Lol!” Go on. Imagine it. A webless world.

A world of board games and dozing off in front of TV programmes as entertaining as gout.

Of playing charades with your grandparents like it was 1992. Christ, you might even have to leave the house over the holidays. Even when it’s not snowing, where’s the fun in that? If there’s no internet, then the only way through the suffocating horror of it all is to pick up an extra crate of Johnny Walker and drink yourself into a stupor, stomping about like Scrooge with a hangover.

Just the thought of no internet connection is a horror story best left for another annual holiday: Halloween.

We all love cars, hell, even gay people and evil dictators cannot deny a fondness for a fender and a throbbing engine, it’s in our blood, our mind, and in most cases, the keys are in our pockets.

The best of all are the vehicles from film and TV – These fictional cars ROCK!

But what are the best ones i hear you ask? Don’t fret because an answer is at hand……ENJOY!

1. 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 – Back to the Future….

Even a non-time travelling DeLorean is still pretty sweet, with the sleek-looking design, stainless steel body panels, fibreglass underbody and rear-mounted engine. But the modified car just nails it, with the twin exhaust boxes mounted on the back, bulky piping and the clunky, tactile wiring hanging off the car giving it an industrial chic and sci-fi shtick. It looks the part. You want sci-fi it says? Then take this hunk of steel-car to the face! Or future. Plus it can fly, run on trash and time-travel once it reaches 88mph. Like the Doc says, “if you’re gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?”.

Cool features: gull-wing doors, flux capacitor, time machine.

2. 1959 Cadillac Ambulance (Ecto-1 or Ectomobile) – Ghost Busters

Another iconic film car, it’s forever imprinted on our minds frantically hurtling through the streets of New York City with the sirens flashing and Ray Parker Jr.’s vocals pumping; a cooler ambulance there never was. It’s the ideal geek machine, parapsychologists as previous owners, looks like it was designed by Rube Goldberg and Homer Simpson, with an attachable ladder and abundance of gadgets mounted on top like a spaceship junkyard. And it’s used for hunting ghosts.

Cool features: distinctive siren wail, pull-out proton packs rack, tailfins, Ghost Busters logo on sides and rear.

3. Tumbler – Batman Begins/The Dark Knight

Taking its inspiration from the huge tank-like Batmobile in Frank Miller’s graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns, this cubist piece of kit is agile and assertive, happy to both nimbly navigate rooftops and crush cop cars, barriers, henchmen and anything foolish enough to gets in its way. Keep it away from rocket-propelled grenades, however. I don’t know what would be a more terrifying confrontation, this hurtling towards you or an intensely angry Christian Bale who’s just been pushed over the edge by a wayward crew member. F#cking amateur, it ain’t.

Cool features: autocannons, rocket launcher, jet engine, caltrops, stealth mode, Batpod.

4. 1974 Dodge Monaco – Bluesmobile – The Blues Brothers

If you’re being relentlessly hunted on an epic road trip to Chicago by Neo-Nazis, cops and a country and western band, and you need to take out every mofo in your path (but can’t afford a Tumbler), there’s really only one option available to you: the Bluesmobile. Ray Bans and “mission from God” a must.

Cool features: it has cop motor/tires/suspension/shocks. And it can perform gravity defying stunts.

5. Pink Panther’s limo

As a kid I loved this car, and often imagined those doors parting to find me strutting out with Inspector Clouseau by my side into the Chinese Theater. But looking at the car now it looks like a giant cake slice. Anything struck would be gruesomely sliced in two. And it’s being driven by a 10 year old. Irresponsible of the Panther. What sort of message is that?

Cool features: 23ft long, boudoir furnishings, gull-wing doors.

6. 1973 Ford Falcon – “The Last of the V8 Interceptors” – Mad Max

This car’s radiator says “Badmuthaf#cker” on it; it’s a car for when society has crumbled, and murder and vengeance are the only currency left. The world maybe a dust-parched throat of dystopian hell where barbaric motor cycle gangs terrorise residents, but that doesn’t mean you can’t brutally exterminate them with extreme prejudice. And why not do it in a car that is an extension of your hardass self. Ford should seriously consider mass-producing this customized beaut. They could call it the Ford Post-Apocalyptic Doom.

Cool features: protruding supercharger, Concorde front, exhaust side pipes.

7. Dodge Charger – The General Lee – The Dukes of Hazard

Named after the Confederate general Robert E. Lee. Yaaaeeeee-HA! pretty much sums up all there is to say about this car. High-jumps, stunts and Daisy Duke’s bumps.

Cool features: the horn plays a bar from the song “Dixie”, welded-shut doors.

8. 1964 Aston Martin DB5 – Goldfinger

It’s one of the most iconic, and the original, of the cars with gadgets, this silver agent; it was almost better than Bond. And it’s the only car on our list to complete a Top Gear lap time, which it did in 1:46:0 mins. It’s the sort of dashing car that could seduce your wife and steal your children’s affection. But you’d let it, wouldn’t you?

Cool features: bulletproof glass, machine guns, ejector seat, oil slick dispensers

9. 1973 Delta 88 Oldsmobile – Every Sam Raimi movie

It’s taken on a skeletal Deadite army, was owned by Spidey’s uncle, disguised itself as a wagon and was driven by a gypsy-witch. And if it’s good enough for Ash then it’s good enough for us all, goddammit!

Cool features: rotating blades, cowcatcher

10. 1982 Pontiac Firebird – KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand) – Knight Rider

Out of all the cars on this list this has the most gadgets, beating both Bond and Batman. If you remember this beauty then one listen to KITT’s authoritative voice (actor William Daniels) and a quick glance at the red bonnet-mounted scan bar, and you’ll be sent back to a place of high-speed chases, big hair, Devon Miles and a buddy friendship to rival Batman and Robin. The instrumentation on the inside of KITT was like a glowing toyshop of wonder. Just don’t mention the remake, I imagine watching it’s like being run over really slowly by your own mother driving a steam roller.

Cool features: computer AI, molecular bonded shell, turbo boost, voice synthesizer, flame thrower, oil jets, smoke screen, two-wheel ski-drive, tear gas launcher, laser, deflatable and reinflatable tires, seat ejection.

Although I’ve not seen the TV series before, I’m pretty sure I’ve got the measure of the A-Team. A kitsch, cartoon-esque rendering of a band of rebellious soldiers who are both misunderstood and haplessly effective at aiding those in need.

Despite having not seen the 80s version, my judgement on the 2010 film was clear.

It is not a good one, and it’s plan does NOT ‘come together’.

The most overriding aspect of this misjudged and badly put together feature length re-make is the script and delivery. Almost every line was uttered with the knowing anticipation of a group of actors painfully aware that they’re participating in a potentially important re-hash of an old classic. One-liners hung in the air like overly rehearsed advert punch lines.

I get it, I know it’s not meant to be serious or sincere, but it’s surely not meant to be self-aware tripe that must fail to appease both nostalgia hunting fans who saw the A-Team in the 80s, and 24 year old action comedy seekers out on a first date in an ill-advised relationship that’ll last approximately 19 days. It lands somewhere between The Fast and the Furious and American Pie. Terrible yet clearly expensive action sequences, reluctantly broken up by dialogue that seems to have been penned more as an annoying necessity rather than an integral, illuminating spine.

It seems to have been done as part of that contrived quest for nostalgia our society loves so much – where it’s fashionable to discuss how culture and its icons aren’t as good or as poignant anymore. Much better to look back on the things you once watched, or the stuff your parents told you to indulge in.

In a bid to keep the franchise fresh, the makers have updated the context and storyline – the result of years of planning and mulling things over. Iraq and 100 dollar printing plates is the setting of the team’s bravery this time. However, instead of creating something interesting or unique, a bog standard action film with crowbarred comedy is the result.

They couldn’t even get the most important bit right. Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson is an MMA fighter and actor in befitting roles, so, you might think, he’d be perfect for the iconically large and monosyllabic B.A Baracus. Think again. With such a momentous yet simple act to follow, he manages to fail – delivering his lines as if he was auditioning for a parody Mr T doll audio job.

The elite army team is imprisoned for a crime they did not commit and they escape to set out to clear their name. The only thing they clear is any association with fond nostalgia and quality, inimitable television.

Verdict: 2/5

As far as the depiction of family life goes, the film market is saturated with this topic of interest.

The Hollywood representation of suburban family decline in American Beauty, for example, could be seen as a definitive example of many films like it – excellent as it is.

Film makers have long wanted to pull back the veil on the flimsy facade of something with which we are all familiar. However, few directors manage the subtlety, beauty and sadness that the Martini brothers achieve with Lymelife.

Set in Long Island, the dreary look at the interaction and problems of two neighbouring families not only utterly convinces with its acting, but captures a realism and poignancy that demands special attention.

Scott, played by Rory Culkin, is a confused 15 year old, isolated by his youth, battling with his love for the next door girl, and his opinions of his work-aholic father. We follow Scott whilst he attempts to come to terms with the flux of life and the realisation that his parents are not the invincible pillars of goodness they once appeared. As he develops as a character, the cracks in American suburbia begin to widen.

His performance is especially worthy of note. The dynamic with his brother (Kieran Culkin), for example, is shockingly convincing. “Hang on”, I hear you cry, “but they ARE brothers”. This real-life connection, remember, did not stop good ‘ol Ben Affleck and J-Lo from destroying the bond of a natural relationship when they received ‘Worst screen couple’ for their art imitating life portrayal in Gigli.
Scott’s neighbour has Lyme’s disease, which provides a distinct metaphor that runs throughout the film. A physical disease at the heart of much paranoia sits side by side the crumbling mirage of family life and morals. The notion of a sweep-things-under-the-carpet stiff upper lip attitude to family problems is explored unflinchingly.

Some of the awkward teenage moments in Lymelife hark to the low-budget indie films embodied by the likes of Juno. But the former is different. Instead of self-aware, nervous, knowingly ‘geeky’ exchanges, we get interaction that you will genuinely remember from your youth. Scotty and Adrianna’s virginal sex scene, for example, will have you wincing as you recall your own nervous forays into the world of adulthood.

Indeed, the acting is something that helps make the plot so compelling and certainly backs up this utterly airtight, cohesive film. The castings of the Culkin brothers, Cynthia Nixon as the disillusioned wife of the Lyme’s sufferer, and Alec Baldwin as hunter gatherer Mickey all compliment the slick, nicely shot scenes.

I truly challenge anyone to not be effected by Lymelife, as I am still reeling from the bizarre feeling of joy, sadness and irretrievable hollow emptiness I encountered after the emphatic and unforgiving ending completes the film.

Verdict: 4/5

I spend a lot of time smurfing the net, sometimes too much time and in the past it has become a bit of a problem, not just for me, but for those close enough to call me ‘friend’.

I’ve been around the block enough times to recognise that at times i am surfing just a little bit too close to what some psychotherapists might term ‘addiction’, and if i wanted to choose to believe them, then i would probably think they were right?

But i’m still here and i think it’s getting easier now to pull back a bit because the web is just getting too damn big for me to be in ‘control’ of (when i say control, i mean the simple act of believing i know what is going on, who said what & when they said it, what content is brand new, what’s hot, what’s not, basically pretty much anything that gives me the impression that i am ‘plugged-in’).

Whenever i watch Neo decide what pill he’s gonna swallow i get a painful reminder that it felt a bit like that for me when i knew that the planet needed to make more sense to me and the only way of reaching a zen-like state of knowing was to swallow the red pill and plug myself into something that was going to change my life forever, because life didn’t seem right without it – but that seems like a long time ago and just like Matrix Revolutions, i seem to have lost the plot a bit along the way.

It wasn’t always like that back in the early days either, i can still remember when the internet was just a new toy to play with when i had nothing else better to do and Kontraband was just an idea that came to visit me in my dreams. There were a LOT fewer places to smurf and hang out as well back then. My daily (?) road trip would usually be something like Hotbot.com, Chatropolis (god i miss the dungeon rooms) and looking at anything new that i had read about off-line. Streaming videos and cool game-play were still a long way off in the future as 14k’s worth of internet connection didn’t get you very much in return and email was pretty useless as none of my friends even had internet, so it was easy, life seemed pretty simple and the future looked rosy.

Then along came ISDN and T1 connections and thats about when i decided to take the red pill. Suddenly out of nowhere everyone was talking about ‘The Internet’, media, TV, newspapers and most of all, my friends, and the number of new sites appearing daily must have resembled prospectors turning up in Alaska during the Klondike gold rush in the 1890’s.

I can still remember stumbling on Ebaumsworld for the first time and it making me believe that the stupid idea for an entertainment website called Kontraband might not be so silly after all (but thats another story i will tell in time). During those years it was fun to be riding the crest of a new technology wave, you kinda knew what was gonna happen before it did and i was not alone. A lot of early adopters got stupid-rich during those times and the Kontraband business genre that i was heading into fast was getting very exciting, as long as you were young (you were old if you weren’t still in your teens). And i think thats what it was about those times that made me so pumped up with internet steroids, it was a young person’s world and grown up’s just didn’t get it (but that would all change later), so those of us lucky enough to be allowed into this new digital playground were kings of the new wild internet frontier – it was fun!

I still remember the sites i used to visit, like a good Catholic going to mass every day, and although time has passed i still pop my head in from time to time to say hello, but that feels like the golden times to me, i knew what was cool, i was there, i knew everyone…And then it all changed.

Suddenly there were 10 new sites a day instead of just 1 and the next month there would be 20 new sites a day – i just couldn’t keep up and part of me wanted to. I knew this new world and i knew who lived here and now there were more people turning up every day than i could keep track of and to ‘try’ and stay ahead of what was going on would mean making my life unmanageable because i would have to be on the internet 24/7 and that still would not be enough. I can remember getting angry that MY playground was getting too overcrowded and frustrated that it couldn’t go back to how it was – i guess i needed to go through that purile pain to come out the other side and just let go.

If you have been in certain institutions you learn that you are powerless over something like this and you are taught to follow a 12 step program to help you let go and pass it onto a higher power so you can get back to leading a normal life – i kinda get where they are coming from from that point of view if i apply it to certain parts of my internet career and i know that i have finally reached step 12 and am learning to ‘give it back’.

The internet is like that (at least for me), it doesn’t actually exist, but it can wield such a strong hold over you, if you let it, that it pays to check every now and again if you have slept in the last 24 hours, or that you are supposed to have a job somewhere, or school, that you are meant to attend. I’m one of the lucky (?) ones though – people actually pay me money to indulge in my adiction, it’s a pleasure & pain experience that i feel i have finally learnt to control.

My only advice to anyone who might connect with the garbage that has just spilled out of my head is that ‘The internet is as big as you want it to be’ – Remember that and you will always be in control.

I only take the blue pill nowadays and am learning to have fun again!