Daily Archives: January 12, 2013

Business

AAA welcomes Report Predicting Impact investment Growth

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AAA has welcomed a new report from JP Morgan and the Global Impact Investing Network, which claims that impact investing will grow by 12.5 per cent in 2013.

Boston, MA, January 12, 2013 – Alternative Asset Analysis (AAA) has welcomed a new report from JP Morgan and the Global Impact Investing Network, which claims that impact investing will grow by 12.5 per cent in 2013.

AAA said that news that impact investing will be increasingly popular, with total investments reaching as much as $9 billion this year, is great news for alternative investors everywhere. It added that social enterprises, small businesses, community projects and environmentally-responsible projects all over the globe are set to benefit from this extra interest in impact investing.

The report that outlined these predictions for the growth of impact investing was called the Perspectives and Progress report. It is based on the responses of 99 impact investors, responsible for some $10 million in capital. The experts said that although impact investment and ethical investing in general is gaining popularity, there is still a lack of high quality investment opportunities for those interested.

AAA supports alternative investments of all kinds, but focuses on endorsing responsible investments into asset classes, such as sustainable forestry and social enterprises. “We believe that responsible investing and generating a return are not mutually exclusive,” explained AAA’s analysis partner, Anthony Johnson.

He added, “Investing in green projects, through firms like Greenwood Management, is easier than ever and we believe more responsible and sustainable opportunities will become available in the year to come.”

The Rockefeller Foundation and the UN Global Compact stated back in June 2012 that larger corporations and institutional investors were beginning to take impact investing more seriously. “We are all seeing an increasing number of wealthy individuals and corporations turning to philanthropy as a way to demonstrate their ethical stance following the economic crisis,” added Mr Johnson, who has years of fund management experience and has also written a wealth of online blogs advocating alternative investments as a way to diversify investment portfolios.

Contact:
Anthony Johnson
Alternative Asset Analysis
71 Commercial St
Boston, MA 02109-1320
617-939-9596
info@alternativeassetanalysis.com
http://www.alternativeassetanalysis.com

Business

FRA welcome Opening of New teak furniture store in Texas

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A new store in Texas has opened specialising in teak wood furniture and attracting endorsements from FRA, who explained that the teak used would otherwise go to waste.

Bainbridge Island, WA, January 12, 2013 – A new store in Texas has opened specialising in teak wood furniture and attracting endorsements from Forestry Research Associates (FRA), who explained that the teak used would otherwise go to waste.

Exotic Teak has recently opened its doors to discerning homeowners who want to bring a piece of beautiful furniture made from teak into their lives. The pieces designed and sold at the store are one-of-a- kind and use the stump and the roots of the teak tree, which would otherwise go to waste.

The teak wood furnishings are an eco-friendly concept as they use up the part of the teak tree that has no other use, allowing people to enjoy beautiful and unique pieces of furniture that have been made from sustainable Java teak timber.

Teak is grown sustainably in plantations all over the world, but some of the most suitable conditions are in tropical or subtropical climates, such as Brazil. Firms like Greenwood Management are taking teak growing to a sustainable new level with the plantations they manage in Brazil. Teak grows quickly and can be managed on a cyclical basis, which means there are always new trees growing to replace those chopped down and sold for lumber.

FRA claims that investing in such plantations can be a great way to diversify your investment portfolio, while doing something that can help reduce the pressure on the Amazon rain forests to produce timber and charcoal.

“The growing steel industry in Brazil needs charcoal to survive, but this charcoal is best coming from alternative and sustainable sources, than from the local indigenous forests,” claims FRA’s analysis partner, Peter Collins. “Plantations such as those run by firms like Greenwood Management are a great solution and can also generate great results for investors form all over the world who are looking for am ethical option,” he added.

Contact:
Peter Collins
Forestry Research Associates
620 Vineyard Lane
Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
(206) 316 8394
info@forestry-research.com
http://www.forestry-research.com

Shopping

beatrix privé Owner, Fashion Expert Provides Tips to Help Real Women Feel Beautiful on Valentine’s Day

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Valentine’s Day should be a time for women to celebrate their beauty, regardless of their age or size, says Jenny Davis, a fashion stylist and the owner of beatrix privé, which specializes in luxury, plus-sized underwear.

Dallas, TX (USA), January 11, 2013 — Valentine’s Day should be a time for women to celebrate their beauty, regardless of their age or size, says Jenny Davis, a fashion stylist and the owner of beatrix privé [ http://beatrixprive.com ], which specializes in luxury, plus-sized underwear. “Every woman deserves to feel beautiful, and Valentine’s Day is the perfect time for that,” notes Davis. “Between the demands of daily life – kids and car lines, bosses and briefings, and supporting spouses, friends and family — women barely have a moment to themselves, never mind society’s impossible standards of beauty, which surround us every day.”

Davis suggests three simple, inexpensive tips for feeling beautiful, culled from her years of experience in fashion, styling both professional models for the camera and real women like an opera singer and a champion female weightlifter.

• Make an announcement. Look in the mirror and say to yourself: “I am beautiful.” It seems so simple, but Davis insists it’s transformative: “It’s surprising how powerful you feel, because you’re not only speaking these words out loud, you’re hearing them, too.”

• Control the setting. Whether you’re snuggling with your sweetie or eating sweets alone in a Snuggie, make sure you’re bathed in the most flattering light. Switch out harsh, overhead lighting for lamps with low-watt bulbs or even a collection of candles – a perfect choice for Valentine’s Day.

• Firm up your foundation. A well-fitting bra is the secret to looking thinner and more fabulous in clothes, but Davis cautions women to pay attention to the bottom half, too. Take a few minutes to try on your favorite outfits– especially that Valentine’s Day dress – to ensure your curves are smooth and your derriere is free of visible panty lines.

Davis also has a suggestion for men: “If you want to help your wife or girlfriend to feel beautiful this Valentine’s Day, spending time is more important that spending money,” Davis says. “Do the dishes, vacuum the carpet or do an odd job that she’s been putting off – and if you can do it in your underwear, bonus points for you!”

beatrix privé underwear is hand-made in the United States from high quality fabrics in bold, assertive colors and prints. beatrix privé features a signature line of one-size-fits-most thongs in sizes 16-20. The underwear is made from stretch silk charmeuse – an elegant, lightweight satin – in both silk and poly. Each pair is trimmed with a wide, stretch-lace waistband that can be adjusted to rest across the hip or midsection, which allows the garment to gently hug curves without visible panty lines.

beatrix privé is available in select boutiques and on the beatrix privé website. MSRP is $26-$32. For more information, visit http://beatrixprive.com.

Press & Media Contact:
Krista Simmons
TrizCom
Dallas, TX – USA
(O): 817-492-9143
(C): 682-225-9135
Krista@trizcom.com
http://beatrixprive.com

Technology

QASymphony Recruits 300 Beta Sites for qTest QA Management Application

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Cloud-based software testing lets users spend less time on administration and more time finding defects.

Dublin, CA (USA), January 11, 2013 — QASymphony ( http://www.qasymphony.com ), a leading developer of Quality Management solutions, today announced it has recruited more than 300 U.S., European and Asian companies for its beta release of qTest, a cloud-based QA and software testing management application that organizes and streamlines the testing process.

qTest can be set up quickly and provides a collaborative work environment for small to growing agile teams looking for an easier way to manage requirements, design test cases, plan test execution, track defects, and generate quality-metrics reports. Moreover, qTest has tools that make the importing of test assets from other test management solutions or Excel a quick and easy process.

“Although we are thrilled with the huge interest in our beta program, we hope to encourage more testers to try out the free qTest beta so that they too can test smarter and faster,” said Vu Lam, CEO of QASymphony. “Core to the application is the belief that testers should spend more of their valuable time finding defects, and far less of their time on creating documentation and reports of those defects.”

The qTest application is ideal for growing QA teams that need to quickly organize their testing activities and document. The application can also scale up to meet the needs of larger sophisticated test teams looking to add more structure and analytics to their testing processes.

Users engaged with qTest have the option to focus on simplifying testing administration, making such activities as project set-up and test case importing, practically effortless so that testers spend less time on administration and more time finding defects.

Additionally, qTest integrates with VersionOne, Fogbugz, Jira, and Bugzilla defect trackers. qTest also integrates seamlessly with the qTrace screenshot capture and defect capture tool, which can submit bug reports directly into qTest to increase the testing team’s productivity.

qTest is projected to complete Beta testing and become available as a commercial product at the end of February 2013.

About QASymphony:
Founded in June 2011 with offices in Dublin, Calif. and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, QASymphony is a software company built to revolutionize how software is tested, adopted, and supported. We are an early stage, self-funded, software-loving team, united by a common belief that software could be better, and better tested. For more information, visit (qasymphony.com).

Website: http://www.qasymphony.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/qasymphony
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/qasymphony

Press & Media Contact:
Victor Cruz, Principal
MediaPR.net Inc
Dublin, CA – USA
+1 978-594-4134
vcruz@mediapr.net
http://www.qasymphony.com

Technology

Guardtime Partners with Communications Agency of Thailand and CloudSec to Deliver Document Integrity Solutions in Thailand

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CAT Buzz has partnered with Guardtime and CloudSec Asia to develop solutions for the Thai market to validate the integrity of electronic documents.

Bangkok | Palo Alto, CA (USA) – January 11, 2013 — CAT Buzz, a wholly owned subsidiary of CAT Telecom Public Company Limited, a government owned telecom in Thailand, has partnered with Guardtime and CloudSec Asia to develop solutions for the Thai market to validate the integrity of electronic documents.

“With the majority of today’s document exchange being electronic, it is important to have the ability to track the document’s origin as well as to ensure that the document’s contents are in its original form,” says Mr. Nuththinun Suksomphong, CEO of CAT Buzz.

“Guardtime’s solution enables our customers to have an independently verifiable tamper-evident audit trail for all the electronic documents we create, transmit and archive.”

Guardtime CEO Mike Gault added: “Dematerialization is a requirement of the day and explosion in customer interest in our electronic document solutions from all parts of the world is a testimony of that. We’re thrilled to be working together with our partners in the Thai market to enable trust for electronic documents.”

The Guardtime solution for securing electronic documents takes advantage of Keyless Signature technology to facilitate independent verification of the signatures and to ensure that the proof of integrity never expires. The solution is rapidly deployable on its own and incorporates KSI Desktop Signer for end-users and can complement existing document management systems to provide a completely transparent user experience for electronic document protection.

Most recently, Guardtime announced a partnership with the Philippine government to validate physical document integrity and with China Telecom, the largest fixed line telecommunications service provider in the People’s Republic of China, establishing China Telecom as a Keyless Signature service provider via its Tianyi 3G platform.

About CAT Buzz:
CAT Buzz is a subsidiary of CAT Telecom Public Company Limited that was established in 2007 to become the leader in the Cloud Computing business in Thailand.

CAT Telecom is the state-owned company that runs Thailand’s international telecommunications infrastructure, including its international gateways, satellite, and submarine cable networks connections. CAT Telecom Public Company Limited was formerly known as Communication Authority of Thailand and changed its name to CAT Telecom Public Company Limited in August 2003. The company was founded in 1977 and is based in Bangkok, Thailand and is fully owned by the ministry of finance of Thailand.

About CloudSecAsia:
CloudSec Asia is an international information security firm with offices in Jakarta and Bangkok. We are a research driven information Security Company that helps government and commercial organizations assess their vulnerability to a broad spectrum of technological and organizational risks, and develop customized solutions to contain and control them. Our approach is to replace traditional, manual processes and disparate point solutions to implement innovative security programs, best practices, and cutting edge information technology systems to provide holistic security solutions. Through these solutions, our customers manage emerging and evolving security risks and overcome compliance challenges.

About Guardtime:
Guardtime was founded with the goal of solving one of the biggest problems in computing: how to be sure electronic data is authentic. Guardtime’s Keyless Signatures provide proof of origin and that not a single bit has changed since a specific point in time. The verification of the signature can be done offline without reliance on keys, secrets, or the existence of a trusted third party. Guardtime’s mission is to change the world to one in which Keyless Signatures are ubiquitous and a natural part of the everyday data lifecycle, whether on disk, in transit, or in the Cloud.

Visit http://www.guardtime.com for more information about using Keyless Signatures for signing your data.

Press & Media Contact:
Victor Cruz, Principal
MediaPR.net Inc
Palo Alto, CA – USA
+1 978-594-4134
vcruz@mediapr.net
http://www.guardtime.com