WILMINGTON, Del., May 15, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ –
Short-term lending resource Personal Cash Advance recently converted the entire site to a secure domain that offers consumers a higher level of security and confidentiality.

The site, now located at
https://secure.personalcashadvance.com , has employed Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology on every page of the site which encrypts user data and browsing information. Previously, this technology was put in place exclusively for the application form and confirmation. The new safeguard will offer increased protection to all customers and visitors to the site according to company spokeswoman Melissa Waters.

“We believe that Personal Cash Advance has become the first company in the online payday industry to use SSL for the entire website,” Waters said in a recent interview. “We have protected our customer information from day one. We simply expanded this high level of security to every page of the site to reduce confusion.”

The site specializes in pairing consumers with reputable online lenders while also including relevant information about short-term financial planning and budgeting. From the site:

Personal Cash Advance is the fastest way to obtain secure, online cash advances and payday loans. Signing up and qualifying for a payday loan is quick and easy, and in many cases there are no documents to fax depending on the lender that accepts your loan request.

Waters believes consumers will appreciate the higher level of encryption offered throughout the entire site, without any interruption.

“Instead of moving back and forth between secure browsing sessions during the application process and regular sessions when learning more about short-term loans, every interaction on our new site is protected using the latest technology,” Waters said. “This extra layer of protection will give consumers extra peace of mind when using our service from start to finish.”

For more information or to connect with Personal Cash Advance, Visit
http://www.facebook.com/pcaCares or follow @PcaCares on Twitter. The company can also be reached toll free at 866-249-2295.

Melissa WatersPersonal Cash Advancemwaters@personalcashadvance.com

SOURCE Personal Cash Advance

Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

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Smuin Ballet brings spring program to Lesher center

Smuin Ballets spring program, the West Coast premiere of Swipe by Val Caniparoli, plays Walnut Creeks Lesher Center for the Arts May 18-19.

A highly-technical piece for four men and three women, Swipe is set to a remix of String Quartet No. 2 by London composer Gabriel Prokofiev, grandson of Sergei Prokofiev. A classically-trained composer known for electro club and hip-hop music, Prokofievs music compliments the pulsing energy of Caniparolis choreography as well as the choreographers penchant for mixing classical and contemporary styles.

Costumes are designed by Sandra Woodall, who has costumed for companies all over the world, including the Stuttgart Ballet, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and the San Francisco Ballet.

Smuin audiences will also be treated to the world premiere of Through by Ma Cong, an uplifting work set to music by Academy Award-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. The bill will also include Michael Smuins elegant Symphony of Psalms, a breathtaking classical piece set to Stravinskys score.

Single tickets, from $25 to $62, are on sale now at www.smuinballet.org

Smuins spring program will also play at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts May 23-27.

Youth Theatre Company takes on Seussical Jr.

]]> http://www.pandaloveltd.com/2012/05/20/arts-notes-walnut-creek-journal-and-lamorinda-sun-2/feed/ 0 http://www.pandaloveltd.com/2012/05/19/activision-electronic-arts-settle-modern-warfare-claims/ http://www.pandaloveltd.com/2012/05/19/activision-electronic-arts-settle-modern-warfare-claims/#comments Sat, 19 May 2012 17:43:35 +0000 Admin http://www.pandaloveltd.com/?p=1546 Continue reading →]]> Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) reached a
settlement of its $400 million claim against rival video-game
publisher Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) that was part of a lawsuit
scheduled for trial May 29 with the developers of “Call of
Duty: Modern Warfare 2.”

“Activision and Electronic Arts have decided to put this
matter behind them,” Activision lawyer Beth Wilkinson said
yesterday after a hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The settlement removes Electronic Arts from a trial that
pits Activision against the former heads of its Infinity Ward
studio who created the billion-dollar “Call of Duty”
franchise. Activision fired the developers, Jason West and Vince
Zampella, in 2010, alleging they plotted with Electronic Arts to
leave Activision and set up a new independent studio.

Activision had accused Electronic Arts of disrupting
Infinity Ward by trying to lure away the two developers while
they still had two years left on their contract. West and
Zampella sued Activision after they were fired and seek more
than $1 billion in damages.

The companies will ask the court to dismiss the claims,
Wilkinson said, declining to comment further on any settlement
terms. Richard Kendall, a lawyer for Electronic Arts, also
declined to comment.

Activision, based in Santa Monica, California, the biggest
US publisher of video games, had added Electronic Arts in its
counterclaims to a lawsuit brought by West and Zampella.

False Promises

Zampella and West in their complaint allege that Activision
strung them along with false promises of royalties and creative
control so that they would complete “Modern Warfare 2,” the
game that helped Activision leapfrog Electronic Arts as the
biggest video-game publisher.

Activision said in a May 9 regulatory filing that the
developers’ damages claim has increased to more than $1 billion,
from the $36 million the two sought in unpaid royalties when
they first sued two years ago.

In its counterclaims, Activision sought to hold Redwood
City, California-based Electronic Arts and the two developers
liable for $400 million in damages from delays and disruptions
at Infinity Ward.

‘Wretched Conduct’

“Activision dragged EA into the case hoping to distract
from Activision’s wretched conduct towards West and Zampella,”
Robert Schwartz, a lawyer for the two developers, said yesterday
in an e-mailed statement. “In dismissing EA today, Activision
admits that it was never going to convince anyone that EA
conspired with West and Zampella to breach their contracts or
did anything else improper.”

Wilkinson said at a May 15 hearing that Activision had paid
$42 million in launch bonuses owed for “Modern Warfare 2″ to
former Infinity Ward employees who left after West and Zampella
were fired and who filed their own lawsuit that was combined for
trial with West and Zampella’s.

The former employees, who seek $350 million in damages for
unpaid royalties and bonuses, will be part of the trial on their
other claims.

Wilkinson, who was hired May 10 by Activision as its new
lead lawyer, asked California Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle
at a May 15 hearing to postpone trial for 30 days so she can get
up to speed. Berle yesterday denied that request.

The case is West v. Activision, SC107041, California
Superior Court (Los Angeles County).

To contact the reporter on this story:
Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at
epettersson@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net.

The duo plan to demo the addressable advertising system, based on SeaChanges Infusion advanced-ad platform, next week at the 2012 Cable Show in Boston. The new Tellabs technology enables ad-placement decisions based on users interest categories, as extrapolated from the websites theyve visited, although the companies emphasized that the data is completely anonymized.

People are watching TV but also browsing the Internet, and what we wanted to do is leverage that and deliver some targeted ads to those devices, SeaChange CEO Raghu Rau said in an interview. We can capture the browsing history of the person, then the ad-decision server searches for the category… to target an ad well-suited to the person watching it in the household.

Rau said there arent any privacy issues because the data used for targeting is not personally identifiable, in the same way Google targets ads based on user behaviors.

SeaChanges Infusion advertising system can handle up to 150,000 insertable channels and millions of ad assets. The platform is compatible with SCTE 130 and IAB VAST specifications, allowing operators to use different external ad-servicing systems, such as This Technologys placement opportunity information service, for dynamic placement decisions.

SeaChange is aggressively pursuing new modes of multi-screen monetization, especially addressability, so that our video service provider customers can enhance the business of television on every device, SeaChange general manager of advertising Aseem Bakshi said in a statement. Our open Infusion platform is providing the flexibility to do this very rapidly and do it first, as our demonstration with a mobile segment leader like Tellabs shows.

WASHINGTON, May 17, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ –
Fox Audience Strategy, the department that identifies programming and operational opportunities that reflect diverse perspectives across all of The Fox Group’s entertainment platforms, announced today a new, two-year media sponsorship of the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Awards (NAHYP), the nation’s highest honor for excellence in after-school youth programs. The NAHYP awards are held annually by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH), a nonpartisan, cultural advisory committee dedicated to promoting and celebrating the arts and humanities. As the official media sponsor of the 2012 and 2013 NAYHP awards, Fox Audience Strategy will work with the PCAH to showcase the ground-breaking work of individuals and community-based organizations across the country that are harnessing the power of the arts and humanities to engage and educate young people.

“The arts, humanities and creativity are at the core of what we do every day at Fox’s entertainment businesses – it drives our executives and content,” said Nicole Bernard, Senior Vice President of Fox Audience Strategy. “We are excited about the opportunity to showcase these organizations that so positively impact youth and to further raise awareness of the transformative power of creative education through art, music, storytelling and mentoring programs.”

The media sponsorship of the NAHYP marks the first major initiative of the Fox Audience Strategy community engagement platform, which seeks to help drive creative education and strengthen the connection between Fox’s content and key audiences. Under the partnership, Fox Audience Strategy will leverage its vast creative resources and multiple distribution platforms to produce a PSA highlighting the work of PCAH, provide NAHYP winners with tailored media training, create a “Teacher for a Day” program, and provide local affiliates with access to the finalists and awardees to amplify the stories of their transformative work in local arts and humanities programs.

“The National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Awards is a signature initiative of the President’s Committee,” said PCAH Co-Chairman George Stevens, Jr. “We are so pleased that Fox Audience Strategy group shares our commitment to celebrating these outstanding organizations and the work they do to help young people across the country build bridges to success in school and in life.”

“NAHYP’s award-winning programs offer high-quality instruction on weekends, afternoons, and vacations, providing safe and creative havens for young people in the hours when they are often the most vulnerable,” said actress and PCAH member Kerry Washington, who hosts the Awards reception preceding the White House ceremony. “Witnessing the impact on students, year after year, is one of my favorite things about the program, and we’re so grateful that this partnership will help expand that message to wider audiences.”

About The Fox Audience Strategy Group Fox Audience Strategy is a recently formed department at The Fox Group designed to identify programming and operational opportunities that reflect diverse perspectives and therefore drive ratings and revenue.

About PCAH Created in 1982 under President Reagan, the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) is an advisory committee to the White House on cultural issues. The PCAH works directly with the three primary cultural agencies–the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services–as well as other federal partners and the private sector, to address policy questions in the arts and humanities, to initiate and support key programs in those disciplines and to recognize excellence in the field. Its core areas of focus are arts and humanities education, cultural exchange and creative economy.

About NAHYP The National Arts and Humanities Youth Program recognizes and supports excellence in programs that open new pathways to learning, self-discovery and achievement. Each year, the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Awards recognize 12 outstanding programs in the United States, from a wide range of urban and rural settings.

The National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award is a signature initiative of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services to showcase cultural excellence and enhance the availability of out-of-school arts and humanities programs to children and young people.

Contact: Su-Lin Nichols, Brunswick Group (202) 393-7337 snichols@brunswickgroup.com

Jody Arlington, President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities (202) 316-4316 jodyarlington@mac.com

SOURCE Fox Audience Strategy

Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

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In Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts will be offering an exciting mix of new exhibitions featuring American and European artists as well as summer-themed musical activities in its courtyard.

Alex Katz Prints (through July 29) offers more than 90 works by an iconic artist known for his bold colors. Smaller shows running through the summer include Silver, Salt and Sunlight: Early Photography in Britain and France, Manet in Black and Seeking Shambala about a legendary Buddhist kingdom in the Himalayas.

Running Wednesday evenings July 11 through Aug. 29, the MFAs Courtyard Summer Series will bring an eclectic mix local musical favorites like Patty Larkin (Aug. 2) to bands with international roots such as Oliver Mtukudzi an the Black Spirits (July 25). Tickets are $24 for members, seniors and students and $30 for non-members. For information, visit www.mfa.org

For his first US show, British sculptor Gary Webb will be exhibiting two works outside the entrance plaza of the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum and a survey inside the Lincoln museum. Curator Nick Capasso predicted visitors would be excited by the sheer joy and bizarre fun of Webbs sculptures which are characterized by his use of numerous unusual materials.

For the third year, the deCordova will host outdoor yoga classes on its spacious grounds with sessions offered on the second Sundays of June, July, August and September. Starting at 10 am, half-hour classes will be offered for children from 3 to 12 years old and classes for adults in Vinyasa Flow Yoga will start at 11 am Classes cost $5 for children and $15 for adults.

The deCordova opens a new show, Second Nature, that features abstract photographs by more than 30 20^th century photographers. May 26 April 2013. www.decordova.org

Where else but the New England Aquarium will visitors be greeted by African penguins or get the chance to feel the smooth wings of cownose rays and 2-foot-long Indonesian bonnet head sharks in the largest Open Touch Tank in the East Coast. Or, come and see Sierra and Zoe, the Aquariums mischievous new 2-year-old sea lions in the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center.

Need to escape Bostons summer heat? Check out To the Arctic, a spectacular new 3-D film narrated by Oscar winner Meryl Streep, in the NEAs Simons IMAX Theater, about the struggles of a mother bear and her two cubs to survive a changing environment. For information, visit www.neaq.org

By Anna Oakes (anna.oakes@mountaintimes.com)

When did you open Alameda Arts? This January.

What motivated you to start a business together? Kate: About 8 or 9 years ago, we moved in across from each other. Our kids are about one year apart in age. Way before we even came up the idea for Alameda Arts, we would be outside playing with chalk and bubbles and such. Both of us worked odd hours in the restaurant industry. We started talking about what changes we wanted to make in order to be more available to our kids. I was working really long hours and only seeing my kids for a short amount of time and that wasn’t good. We asked ourselves, what needs are out there and what are our skill sets?

At a PTA meeting, there were complaints from some parents about how they couldn’t put their kids in AEF [Alameda Education Foundation] classes because there wasn’t any after-care. Also, there was no place for kindergartners to go. I approached Katherine Barr, the principal of Paden Elementary School, and said, “Here’s what we want to do” and she said, “Great!” Then I went to the district office and talked to [Director of Student Services] Kirsten Zazo and she said, “Great!”

What classes do you offer? Kate: This year, we are offering three courses through AEF. Monday through Friday, we have a kindergarten class, which meets right after kindergarten dismissal. It goes until the older kids get out. Our class for first through fifth graders runs from 3 to 5 pm, then the third class runs from 5 to 6 pm

Hazel: There’s always a project of the day. K-5 is a big age range so the kids always have the option to do something else — work on a mural, for example — so they have a lot of flexibility. We give them the materials and try not to tell them what to do. The things that they come up with are just amazing!

Please share about some recent projects your artists have worked on. Kate: Recently, we made rain sticks. I was out on a walk when I found these really great cardboard tubes in the dumpster. A friend of mine cut them up with his table saw. I hammered in the nails and let the kids put in a couple of handfuls of dried beans, tape on the ends and decorate them.

Hazel: We made musical instruments from spindle cones, PVC pipe and rubber gloves. The kids had so much fun with them!

Kate: We made masks out of empty gallon milk jugs. We cut them in half, then the kids covered them with tape and decorated them with feathers and other objects. Now I’m obsessed! Every time we finish a gallon of milk, I have to bring the empty bottle in here.

Kate: We will present an artist’s work. I’ll do a PowerPoint presentation. Then we will give the kids the materials and they decide what to do with them. Just the other day, we looked at some Mark Rothko paintings, which are big blocks of color. Then they all painted whatever they wanted. The kids get so excited and want us to display their work. Another time, we looked at Jackson Pollock.

Where do you get your art supplies and materials? Hazel: We had no start-up money so we went through our own closets! We think it’s really cool that we recycle things. We do not charge for materials.

Do you take donations? Hazel: We take whatever you’ll give us! If you look over there, you’ll see we took the boxes from Girl Scout cookies and the kids made a big, giant house out of them.

Do you have summer programs too? Kate: Yes, we are offering classes in partnership with Alternatives in Action [which operates the Bay Area School of Enterprise, or BASE]. We have four interns for the summer. (In order to graduate from BASE, kids have to do a 50-hour internship.) Classes will be held at Woodstock.

Hazel: We are very excited about celebrating National Mud Day on June 29 and also being in the Alameda Fourth of July Parade.

Where will you be expanding next year? Hazel: We are doing the after-school program at Washington Elementary School next year. Washington is going to be an arts magnet school. I will be the director at Washington and Kate will be here at Paden.

We are also going to pilot a Breakfast Buddies program at Washington. Just imagine if you’re a busy mom and you need to get your child dressed and out the door. Wouldn’t it be great to know that your child is going to learn to cook, learn some table manners, have fun and start school in a good mood?

For a schedule of current Alameda Arts classes, click here. To enroll in summer camps, click here.

Ashington is in line for a new s20m, multi-purpose leisure and community centre which will replace its existing sports centre and also bring together a library and other public services under one roof.

The preferred location for the state-of-the-art facility is the former Asda supermarket site in Lintonville, just off the town centre, which was favoured by most local people during a consultation exercise.

Now Arch, the arms-length development company set up by the county council, and which is overseeing the Ashington project, has appointed global engineering consultants Parsons Brinckerhoff to produce design plans.

It will draw up detailed plans for the centrepiece community which is intended to include a swimming pool, sports hall, gym, studio space, public library, a council information and advice point, registrars office, caf and meeting space.

The consultants will also produce a wider master plan for the area, with proposals for how the s20m facility will link to the nearby town centre and have the maximum economic impact on Ashington.

Parsons Brinckerhoffs design proposals will be made available for public consultation in due course so that local people and organisations can have their say. It is expected that building work on the new centre will start in spring next year, and that it will be open to the public in 2014.

The Federal Trade Commissions chief technology officer Ed Felten dropped the news this morning during Mozillas Opting in to Do Not Track event in New York. Shortly after Feltens mention, Twitter confirmed its support in, what else, a tweet.

The Federal Trade Commissions CTO, Ed Felten, just mentioned Twitter now supports Do Not Track. We applaud the FTCs leadership on DNT, the company wrote. Twitter spokeswoman Carolyn Penner confirmed the news in an emailed statement to Adweek.

Penner issued the same statement to The New York Times earlier on Thursday after Felten broke the news.

During the Mozilla event, Feltenwho made clear he was not speaking as a representative for the FTCfocused on the role of third parties in online tracking. Do Not Track is a consumer-choice mechanism to be used to create a dialogue between users and online services about the value each entity derives from tracking, he said, but when you have a service such as a third party, which is perhaps even invisible to the user, then its more difficult for that conversation to happen.

Felten talked hypothetically about a world with an effective Do Not Track mechanism. In that world consumers could decide what companies are able to track them and the companies would be able to determine how to respond if a consumer doesnt want to be tracked, such as not letting the consumer use a service unless he or she opts in to be tracked.

In the best case third-party trackers will step up and offer users a choice. Theyll explain their practices; many of them will say, lsquo;We think you ought to allow us to track you because we think youll like our practices and heres the value you get on the other side of the equation, Felten said. Third parties would also be pressured by first-party publishers to comply with consumers choices to not be tracked, he said, but additionally they would risk the ire of government enforcement agencies.

In a world with effective Do Not Track, companies that promise to comply, if they choose voluntarily to make that promise, that promise would be legally enforceable, he said, adding that breaking that privacy promise is likely a violation of the FTC Act and would likely get attention from the FTC.

Before Felten took the stage, Brad Burnham, a partner with venture capital fund Union Square Ventures, said hed like to see a system in place that would let users see what assumptions are being made about them through online tracking and modify those behavioral profiles. For example, a consumer who visits a lot of automotive sites may be pegged as an in-market car buyer, but once they purchase a car, they could go into an online dashboard and edit themselves out of the in-market car buyer attribution.

It staves off the need for what will inevitably be some politicized, slightly clumsy regulation, and it moves us in a direction of this broader dialogue, which could include really creative ways of empowering users that dont impact innovation, Burnham said.

Burnhams dashboard idea is a scaled-up version of Googles Ads Preferences Managerwhich the company highlighted in a consumer-facing ad campaign earlier this yearbut would let consumers apply the behavioral profile changes across all services that track and apply that browsing data or only for a select number and have those changes applied in real time.