Tag Archives: Catherine Balavage

New Standard For Digital Banking As Citibank Launches iPad App

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Furthering CEO Vikram Pandit’s vision to become the world’s digital bank, Citibank today unveiled its first-ever consumer banking app designed specifically for iPad. Citibank for iPad provides U.S. consumer banking clients with an engaging, visually rich tool to track, analyze and plan their finances.

“Our iPad app is all about listening to our clients and understanding that they need their digital banking experience to be more engaging and dynamic – beyond the standard static tables you find with other iPad apps, ” said Tracey Weber, Head of Internet and Mobile Banking, North America Consumer Banking, Citi. “We’re offering a whole new way of banking, with enhanced visuals and interactive tools. We’re focused on continually offering modern solutions that help put ease into our clients’ financial lives, wherever and whenever.”

Citibank for iPad is the first app from a major U.S. bank to depart from traditional ledger-style banking and offer graphs and visual representations of consumer accounts and transactions. The intuitive user interface makes it easy for customers to check balances, control their cash flow, pay bills, transfer funds, access rewards and find nearby Citibank ATMs and branches, all at the touch of their screen.

Unlike other banking apps for iPad that mirror the PC or mobile phone interface, the Citibank app takes advantage of the unique tablet experience to provide users with a visually revealing, insightful interface along with a host of interactive new features.

More than just an account management tool, the app allows consumers to more deeply engage with their experience, from basic banking to more in-depth financial management. Advanced features allow users to view information and take actions that will make managing their finances easier, including:

* Plan cash outflows with the help of a unique interactive chart of past and future payments and transfers
* Analyze personal spending habits through automatically generated, customizable charts of payee spending
* Compare personal spending habits with general consumer data, filtering by location, age group, income bracket and purchase category

Citibank for iPad also offers access to resources and information that help users manage their financial lives, including direct access to exclusive, continually updated content from Citi Personal Wealth Management and Women & Co., a service of Citibank. Consumers can also use the app to reach customer service directly. Citi is the only major U.S. bank to offer direct access to its Twitter customer support option via its tablet app.

To Download or Learn More:

* Citibank for iPad is available free from the App Store(SM) on iPad or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.
* View a demo of Citibank for iPad on YouTube at: http://citi.us/okRNbo.
* To learn more about Citi, please visit www.citi.com or www.citigroup.com.

Women & Co. is a vehicle from Citibank for insightful women to build their financial knowledge, bolster their confidence and create financial strategies that will help them achieve their goals. Through access to education, resources, and a community of financially minded women, Women & Co. is Where Wisdom, Wealth and Women Meet. Sign up for free at womenandco.com.

Republicans Close In On Obama

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By this time next summer, the Republican candidate to challenge President Obama will be known, but at this point the list of candidates and potential candidates for the nomination is still far from finalised. With the “will-he-or-she-run-questions” still being asked and answered, some of the names with the highest familiarity among the general public are still not even declared candidates.

Obviously, because of her run for Vice President with John McCain, almost nine in ten Americans (86%) are familiar with Sarah Palin and 75% of U.S. adults are familiar with Rudy Giuliani – both of whom are still undeclared, but possible candidates for the nomination. Majorities of Americans are familiar with declared candidates Newt Gingrich (72%), Mitt Romney (67%), and Ron Paul (52%) while half are familiar with Michele Bachmann (50%). All other potential candidates are at 30% or under in terms of familiarity.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,183 adults surveyed online between July 11 and 18.

Even among Republicans, many declared candidates do not have majorities familiar with them. Tim Pawlenty (33%), Rick Santorum (31%), Herman Cain (29%), and Jon Huntsman (15%) all have one-third of Republicans or less familiar with them.

With this in mind, it’s not surprising that among Republicans, over one-quarter (28%) say they are not at all sure who they would vote for if they were voting in the Republican primary. Rudy Giuliani (14%) and Mitt Romney (14%) rise to the top among Republicans followed by Sarah Palin (12%). All the other candidates presented are under 10% including Rick Perry (8%), Michele Bachmann (6%), and Ron Paul (5%). Among Independents, there is a three-way tie for first place between Rudy Giuliani (10%), Mitt Romney (10%) and Ron Paul (10%). But over two in five Independents (42%) say they are not at all sure who they would vote for in the Republican primary election.

Looking ahead to November, it seems there are three possible candidates who could give President Obama a difficult time. President Obama would lose his re-election if Rudy Giuliani (53% to 47%) or Mitt Romney (51% to 49%) was the Republican nominee. Each candidate would receive 50% of the vote if the President was running against Ron Paul. Right now, President Obama would win re-election against the 10 other candidates presented.

The Republican are yet to figure out who they are and begin the process of coalescing around one candidate. In the study of politics, there is always a debate regarding electability and this election may show that clearly. Should Republicans nominate a candidate who stands for certain values or policies important to a sub-section of the party, even though that candidate may not be electable in the general election? This is a question the Republican party needs to answer if they want to win next November.

Stella McCartney Expands Online Empire Across Europe

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Stella McCartney has announced the expansion of her ecommerce business to 28 additional European countries.

Already well established in the US and UK, the designer will now aim to attract computer-savvy customers in fashion-conscious France and Italy, along with Ireland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal. She also has Scandinavia firmly in her sights, targeting Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, while Greece, Cyprus and Malta will allow the designer to show off her outfits for warmer climes. Meanwhile, moving east, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary will also welcome her.

The website on http://www.stellamccartney.com is now previewing the new Winter 2011 Stella McCartney ad campaign shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott featuring Natalia Vodianova. Also available to download is the second issue of the Stella McCartney iPad App on iTunes.

The online shop, which recently re-launched in the US and the UK last Autumn, aims to enhance the digital retail experience with improved customer interaction and special retail functions such as “Reserve in store,” which enables the user to reserve an item online and pick up at a store location of their choice. All online orders are beautifully gift packaged for the shopper’s convenience, and free standard shipping and returns are offered to all customers. Additionally, the in-store “Private Wardrobing” service, a personalised concierge style in store service, is available to book online.

The new App features an edition of Stella’s World where customers can browse through news, photos and videos about the brand, along with a gallery of images from the recently launched “Linda McCartney, a life in Photographs” book by Taschen personally selected by Stella. The app also offers a behind the scenes documentary of British Olympiads from the latest Team GB ad campaign shot by Jacob Sutton, a first glimpse backstage at the Winter 2011 show in Paris, a sneak preview of the Spring 2012 collection presented in New York this summer, a making of video of this year’s MET Gala dresses and new playful interactive functions.

Shopping on http://www.stellamcartney.com is now available in 30 countries worldwide. The browsing experience of the website will be compatible on the iPad App and for the first time shoppable in September.

Stella McCartney launched her eponymous fashion label in 2001 in a joint venture with Gucci Group. A lifelong vegetarian, Stella McCartney does not use any leather or fur in her designs. The brand’s luxury women’s ready-to-wear, accessories, lingerie, beauty and performance range with adidas are available through 15 freestanding stores including London, NY, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Paris, Milan and the soon to open location in Rome, as well around 600 wholesale accounts in key cities worldwide.

The Rockefeller Foundation Launches Annual 'Innovation Forum'

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The Rockefeller Foundation Launches Annual ‘Innovation Forum’ to Explore Challenges Facing the World’s Poor and Vulnerable

Program to Honor Global Innovators and Commit Resources to Problem Solving

The Rockefeller Foundation today announced the launch of its annual Innovation Forum, an unprecedented new program aimed at identifying the root causes of problems impacting the world’s poor and vulnerable and putting resources in place to research and implement the appropriate solutions to these challenges.

The Innovation Forum convenes some of the most creative and inventive minds from the worlds of business, government, the non-profit sector and journalism to bring innovation to bear on urgent challenges facing poor and vulnerable people around the world. Through a series of interactions, panel discussions and breakout sessions, participants will analyze compelling scenarios of crises in water security, urban economic security and food security. They will be asked to identify the primary causes of these pressing global challenges that must be solved for the benefit of future generations. In exchange for their contributions, the Rockefeller Foundation will commit to leveraging its deep expertise, expansive network and thoughtful grant making process to further explore and address ideas that surface over the coming year as a result of the Forum. The results will then be reviewed at each annual Innovation Forum.

The inaugural Innovation Forum, which will be held on July 27, 2011 in New York, will also honor a number of individuals and organizations whose innovative work exemplifies the mission and vision of the Rockefeller Foundation. This year’s award recipients include:

* President Bill Clinton , founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation and 42nd President of the United States, who will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for innovation in philanthropy.
* Sania Nishtar, founder and president of the NGO think tank Heartfile and renowned leader in health policy in Pakistan, who will receive an innovation award for her work in the region.
* Jane Weru , executive director of The Akiba Mashinani Trust, a non-profit organization working on developing innovative community-led solutions to housing and land tenure problems for the urban poor in Kenya, who will receive an innovation award for her work in the region.
* Kiva in the Classroom—represented by students from Wickman Elementary School in Chino Hills, California—will receive a Young Innovators award for using micro-lending as an educational tool and for the program’s sustained effort to fight global poverty.

“Identifying, exploring and supporting new and innovative approaches to meeting the needs of the poor and vulnerable has been the heart of the Rockefeller Foundation’s mission since our inception, and we are proud to host this unique opportunity to channel insights from a broad range of perspectives,” said Dr. Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation. “We expect the Innovation Forum program to identify new global and regional problems for our Foundation — as well as other institutions — to explore, and in the end lead to groundbreaking initiatives and positive outcomes to help those in need around the world.”

“The issues that will be addressed at this meeting are key to our success and sustainability in the 21st Century,” said President Clinton, founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation and 42nd President of the United States. “I am proud that my Foundation works to tackle these challenges across the globe and I look forward to the Rockefeller Foundation’s continued involvement in this important work.”

The 2011 Innovation Forum will place a particular focus on identifying major challenges facing the poor and vulnerable in the areas of food security, global water security and urban economic security in American cities. The program also aims to pinpoint potential new approaches to solving some of these most pressing issues.

Participants in the 2011 Innovation Forum will include noted global thought leaders such as Andrea Mitchell, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent at NBC News; Dr. Paul Farmer, Kolokotrones University Professor at Harvard University; Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize recipient; the Honorable Mary Robinson, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; Mati Kochavi, CEO and Chairman of AGT International and Wim Elfrink, Chief Globalization Officer at Cisco.

The Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation’s mission to promote the well-being of people throughout the world has remained unchanged since its founding in 1913. Today, that mission is applied to an era of rapid globalization. Our vision is that this century will be one in which globalization’s benefits are more widely shared and its challenges are more easily weathered. To realize this vision, the Foundation seeks to achieve two fundamental goals in our work. First, we seek to build resilience that enhances individual, community and institutional capacity to survive, adapt, and grow in the face of acute crises and chronic stresses. Second, we seek to promote growth with equity in which the poor and vulnerable have more access to opportunities that improve their lives. In order to achieve these goals, the Foundation constructs its work into time-bound initiatives that have defined objectives and strategies for impact. These initiatives address challenges that lie either within or at the intersections of five issue areas: basic survival safeguards, global health, environment and climate change, urbanization, and social and economic security. For more information, please visit http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org.

NASA's iPad App Beams Science Straight to Users

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Software and media specialists at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., today released a new iPad app — the NASA Visualization Explorer — that allows users to easily interact with extraordinary images, video, and information about NASA’s latest Earth science research.

Cutting-edge visualization has long been a staple of NASA Earth science and in particular the Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) at Goddard Space Flight Center. The iPad presented NASA a new and easily accessible way to put stunning and beautiful Earth science visualizations directly in people’s hands.

The app’s science features will include high-resolution movies and stills and short written stories to put all the pieces in context. Most of the movies are simply real satellite data, visualized. Other features will include interviews with scientists or imagery from supercomputer modeling efforts. The app includes social networking interfaces, including links to Facebook and Twitter, for easy sharing of stories.

The application is free to the public and available from the App Store via iTunes.

The app editorial team plans to develop two new science features per week. After publishing an initial batch of six features with the launch, new features will publish to the app on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In the future the app could include occasional stories about the Sun, the other planets in our Solar System, and exotic objects far out in the cosmos.

The Goddard team designed the application essentially as a mobile multimedia magazine. “Its one-of-a-kind content is geared to the general public, students, educators — “anyone interested in the natural world,” said Michael Starobin, a senior producer at Goddard Space Flight Center who spearheaded the app’s editorial direction. “The app will explore stories of climate change, Earth’s dynamic systems, plant life on land and in the oceans — all of the small and large stories captured in data by NASA satellites and then visualized.”

“Science should be accessible to everyone, and visualization reveals the meaning and value of the often intangible, but essential, data delivered by NASA’s research efforts,” Starobin said. “Data visualization makes information immediately visual and understandable when it otherwise might go unnoticed, and the app makes it easy to explore in an engaging, easy-to-consume, thoroughly modern style.”

“The NASA visualization app is the latest step in a rich tradition of content production and application development,” added Project Manager Helen-Nicole Kostis. “With its release, I’m inviting everyone on a journey of scientific knowledge and visual wonder.”

Work began on the NASA Visualization Explorer shortly after Apple released its electronic tablet in April 2010. “We just knew immediately that the iPad provided the perfect platform to showcase NASA science,” said Christopher Smith, the principal designer of the application’s user interface.

Administrators of Goddard’s Inclusive Innovation Program agreed. The pilot program, which Goddard management rolled out last year to support ideas that would advance non-science and non-engineering functions and services, awarded seed funding to the team to develop the concept. “Our evaluation process was rigorous,” said Goddard Chief Technologist Peter Hughes, who administered the program for the center. “This proposal stood out for its immediate utility and potential impact.”

With the one-year funding in hand, the three principal creators assembled a multidisciplinary team of experts from the center’s SVS, one of the nation’s premiere data visualization labs, and the center’s Television and Multimedia Department, which has earned a reputation as one of the federal government’s best media-production departments. “Through our team’s unique talents, I believe we’ve created an application that is worthy of the NASA badge,” Starobin said.

“The heart of NASA data visualization beats at SVS,” Kostis added. “This is where science, data, and storytelling come together.”

To download the app, go to:

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/nasaviz/index.html

Donkeys Are Drying Up Around Texas

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Donkeys Are Drying Up Around Texas

Donkeys, the worst hit by the drought, rescued by the Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue

MILES, Texas, Over 300 donkeys have been rescued so far this year in Texas as a direct result of the drought. The current drought, the worst in recorded Texas history, has resulted in hay shortages and low water tables. Ranchers are selling off their livestock but have no resources to get rid of their donkeys.

Donkeys, especially in Texas, are overpopulated and hold no financial value. The vast majority of livestock auctions will not allow them to be unloaded and even offered for sale. With no feed and no options, donkeys are being abandoned in record numbers across the state.

Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue (PVDR) gives all law enforcement agencies priority in the submission of rescue work. Many counties do not have the financial ability to deal with the vast number of donkeys being dumped in their jurisdictions. Most donkeys currently being rescued in Texas are suffering from malnutrition and overgrown hooves.

As a state, Texas accounts for 90% of PVDR’s national rescue resources but contributes less than 5% of PVDR’s donation income.

All donkeys rescued by PVDR are quarantined, vaccinated, de-wormed and microchipped. During the cooler months, all jacks are castrated with the assistance of Texas A&M Veterinary School Students and Faculty.

Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue was established as a non-profit organization in the year 2000 in Acton, CA by founders Mark and Amy Meyers. The Meyers, along with their staff, have since rescued thousands of donkeys from abuse, neglect, abandonment as well as captured hundreds of wild burros throughout the Western States that were under threat of destruction. The Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue has rescue and adoption facilities across the United States.

www.donkeyrescue.org

New Film 'Bubbles' Paves Way For Women In Film

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Following on from Bridesmaids, a new film written and directed by women, lead role is a women and a high proportion of women on the crew. The shape of things to come? Let’s hope.

Here is all you need to know about Bubbles.

The Director

Leyla Pope comes from a professional background in communications working for Medecins Sans Frontiers, but her passion for filmmaking led her to the decision to make a career shift and follow her dream to work as a writer/director. Her short film Bubbles is a huge milestone for a female (also juggling the roles of wife and mother) in an industry which is still very much a male-dominated work environment.

The Film

The film’s central character, Lily, is a strong, intelligent woman struggling with suppressed desires and tense family dynamics. Following the death of her mother, Lily steels herself to organise her father’s move out of the family home. She has little support from her husband who is deeply absorbed in his latest composition and unable to relate to Lily’s tense presence. In the midst of this turmoil, a former lover appears and Lily finds her ordered life thrown out of balance. Buried feelings emerge and Lily begins to question her life’s choices. Will she live life as her mother did, putting expectation above desire? Or will she confront her feelings at the risk of unravelling the life she has built for herself? As Lily’s inner turmoil surfaces her young teenage daughter begins her own journey of sexual awakening.

Bubbles is an intelligent and evocative drama. Just as the novels of Jane Austen dissected and explored the choices for women in marriage and love, so Bubbles throws light on how these same choices are played out within a contemporary, upper class family. With a visually rich, Merchant-Ivory feel, Bubbles is a potent blend of classic storytelling and contemporary British drama.

The locations

From the outset it was clear that no ordinary location would do justice to the themes of Bubbles, so we secured the use of the stunning, rambling Grade II listed manor house “Plas Dinam” in Mid Wales as the setting for the majority of the shoot. This afforded not only the authentic interior of an historic family home, but also panoramic external shots.

The crew

The crew needed to be extremely skilled and experienced. Key to the final result were Bafta-winning cinematographer Huw Walters and top industry professional John Richards (Little Black Book, Girls’ Night, Band of Brothers) as Executive Producer.

The cast

With castings taking place individually in both Wales and London, it is testament to Leyla’s instinct and her rigorous casting process that she brought together a talented and balanced cast, including Welsh acting legend Howell Evans, to bring reality and depth to the characters in the script. Across the cast there is a vast amount of experience in TV and film.

The music

Music is not just a finishing touch for Bubbles, it is an integral part in the story. In the early stages of the film we see the building tension within Lily’s relationship to her husband Robin, a once-successful classical composer. Robin is no longer able to connect with Lily. His mounting frustrations with his wife’s attitude towards him are reflected in his struggles to express himself through his compositions.

Bubbles needed an original score that would help the audience to feel the changing emotional dynamics of each character, particularly in the final montage section of the film which has no dialogue.

Composer Jack Westmore was the perfect choice for this crucial element of the film. He possesses an incredible sensitivity to story dynamic and emotion. Jack wrote a score integrating solo cello into themes which are haunting and lyrical and perfectly express the contained but shifting restlessness of the film.

Soloist Rosie Biss is lead cellist with The Welsh National Opera. We were absolutely delighted when she agreed to play the solo cello parts. Her masterful interpretation of Jack’s score fully brings to life the complex emotions which are written into the music.

The continuing journey

Bubbles has finished post production but is only just beginning the journey to reach a national and international audience. We are now actively pursuing development of the short into a full-length feature or episodic TV series, including the American market.
There is an upcoming private London screening in late September for anyone interested in investing in or sponsoring the future development of Bubbles.

With a combination of visual beauty and strong plot and an emphasis on celebrating “Britishness” we see Bubbles very much as a showcase for the very best in British creativity. Opportunities to collaborate with British fashion designers, songwriters and musicians, perfumiers, luxury car brands, interior design etc abound. We see Bubbles as a canvas on which to paint a highly marketable picture of the best of British creativity on many levels.

For more information on investing in, supporting or sponsoring Bubbles, or for any other information you may require about the film or Bottlegreen Productions please email FAO Sophie Walcott at: bottlegreenproductions@gmail.com

Website: www.shortfilmbubbles.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Bubbles-Short-Film/173451646048497

Twitter: @bubblesfilm
Tumblr: http://bubblesshortfilm.tumblr?.com/

Play Bliss lottery and help tiny babies

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Bliss, the special care baby charity is launching the Bliss lottery scheme which will help continue Bliss’ vital work caring for premature and sick babies and their families throughout the UK. It’s a chance to win up to £25,000 while helping to give babies a fighting chance.

You simply make a contribution of £1 each week, half of which comes straight to Bliss and half of which buys you a weekly chance of winning up to £25,000 in the Unity Lottery, the nation’s charity lottery.

This means you could win a substantial amount for your own family while helping Bliss to provide support to premature and sick babies and their families at a critical time in their lives.

How it works

£1 buys you one six-digit Unity Lottery number, which is sent to you in the post. Your number will be independently generated and you can buy up to 20 entries.

50p in every £1 comes directly to Bliss and the rest is used towards prize money and the cost of administration.

How you win

You’ll win a cash prize whenever you match 3,4,5 or all 6 digits of the winning number in the right place in the sequence.

How to enter

You can sign up to raise vital funds for Bliss and get more information by visiting the Bliss website

Please note you must be 16 or over to enter.