FastFunds Financial Corporation and NET LIFE Financial Complete Preparation for Widespread Launch of Its Revolutionary Financial Instruments

NET LIFE Financial Processing, Inc. ("NET LIFE"), a wholly owned subsidiary of FastFunds Financial Corporation (OTCQB: FFFC), NET LIFE Financial Holdings ("NET LIFE Financial") and its joint partners, One Resource Group ("ORG") and Epic Financial Corporation ("EPIC") announced today that it is completing preparations for a widespread launch of its revolutionary financial instruments and in conjunction with ORG and its insurance carriers, are ramping up their staff accordingly.

NET LIFE Financial reports that this action comes immediately following last week's successful launch to a select group of mortgage brokers and realtors.

The recently installed new server is 2015 compliant and will handle all residential and commercial mortgage applications. The NET LIFE Financial IT department is concluding the on-line residential and commercial mortgage application testing with the new servers that have a capacity to accept 10,000 applications per hour.

A NET LIFE LCMO® (Life Collateralized Mortgage Obligation) is a residential, business or corporate real estate mortgage which is not based on credit history; only on the collateral. All that is required for which to qualify is: (a.) that you are healthy, (b.) that the property maintains and sustains its stated value and (c.) that you have the income to pay your mortgage. All NET LIFE LCMO® mortgages are processed, managed and serviced exactly like a conventional mortgage without all of the red-tape qualification. NET LIFE has only reinvented the "vehicle," not the "wheel" it rides upon.

A NET LIFE LCDO® (Life Collateralized Debt Obligation) is our second revolutionary product which has been formulated specifically for individuals and businesses seeking to raise capital. A NET LIFE LCDO® is an asset-backed lending process which is secured by the underlying collateral. A NET LIFE LCDO® is not based on credit history; only on the collateral. All that is required for which to qualify is: (a.) that you are healthy, (b.) that the asset(s) maintain and sustains its stated value and (c.) that you have the income to pay your loan. All NET LIFE LCDO® loans are processed, managed and serviced exactly like a conventional note or loan without all of the red-tape qualification. NET LIFE has only reinvented the "vehicle," not the "wheel" it rides upon.

ORG and EPIC will market and process the NET LIFE product-line (LCMO and LCDO) including the life insurance portion through their life insurance carriers and agents in all fifty states, including asset management organizations and independent financial advisors. Marketing strategies will include insurance agents, mortgage brokers, realtors and other independent financial advisors throughout the United States.

Standard Life Investments becomes first Worldwide Partner in Ryder Cup history

The 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles will welcome the first designated Worldwide Partner in the event's history following an agreement between Standard Life Investments, Ryder Cup Europe and the PGA of America that will see the global asset management company become a Worldwide Partner to both the 2014 and 2016 Ryder Cups.

Never before has a company partnered with The Ryder Cup on both sides of the Atlantic, with the new ground-breaking agreement enabling Standard Life Investments to promote and market its association with The Ryder Cup on a truly global scale.

With a potential daily TV audience of 500 million people across 183 countries, The Ryder Cup has evolved into one of the sport's most valuable and prestigious global brands, making it the perfect partner for a dynamic company such as Standard Life Investments.

Keith Skeoch, CEO, Standard Life Investments, said: "Standard Life Investments is thrilled to become the first Worldwide Partner of The Ryder Cup. This sponsorship complements our reputation as a leading global asset manager with strong performance and a distinctive team culture. It is an integral part of our long-term brand building strategy and is a perfect match in terms of our heritage, client base and strong team ethos."

Pete Bevacqua, Chief Executive Officer of the PGA of America, said: "We are delighted to welcome Standard Life Investments as a Worldwide Partner to both the 2014 and 2016 Ryder Cups in what is an historical agreement.

"We believe The Ryder Cup is among the most valuable sponsorship investments in sport and are confident that Standard Life Investments will reap tremendous value from their Worldwide Partnership on both sides of the Atlantic.

"This announcement follows the launch of the unified Ryder Cup global brand identity and the stated aim of Ryder Cup Europe and the PGA of America to secure global partnerships going forward."

Richard Hills, Europe's Ryder Cup Director, added: "As a company, with a strong global reach and Scottish heritage, Standard Life Investments share our commitment to teamwork and helping people achieve their full potential.

"We look forward to working closely with the Standard Life Investments team in delivering a world class Ryder Cup at The Gleneagles Hotel; a Ryder Cup that will create a positive and long lasting legacy for the game in the 'Home of Golf'."

Notes on Standard Life Investments / Standard Life
With assets under management of £163.4bn ($263.9bn) Standard Life Investments is one of Europe's major investment houses. Employing over 1,000 people and headquartered in Edinburgh, Standard Life Investments maintains offices in a number of locations around the globe including Boston, Hong Kong, London, Beijing, Montreal, Sydney, Dublin, Paris and Seoul. In January 2012 Standard Life Investments teamed up with John Hancock Mutual Funds to make its award-winning Global Absolute Return Strategies (GARS) Fund available to the United States retail marketplace.

Standard Life Investments was launched as an investment management company in 1998. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Standard Life Investments (Holdings) Limited, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Standard Life plc. With a reputation for innovation in pursuit of client investment objectives Standard Life Investments' capabilities span equities, bonds, real estate, private equity, multi-asset solutions, fund-of-funds and absolute return strategies.

Established in 1825, Standard Life is a leading provider of long term savings and investments to around 6 million customers worldwide. Headquartered in Edinburgh, Standard Life has around 9,000 employees internationally.

The Standard Life group includes savings and investments businesses, which operate across its UK, Canadian and European markets; corporate pensions and benefits businesses in the UK and Canada; and its Chinese and Indian Joint Venture businesses. The Group has total assets under administration of over £211bn ($342bn).

Standard Life plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange and has approximately 1.5 million individual shareholders in over 50 countries around the world. It is also listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, ranking it among the top 10% of sustainable companies in the world. All figures at 30 September 2012

Standard Life Investments becomes first Worldwide Partner in Ryder Cup history

The 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles will welcome the first designated Worldwide Partner in the event's history following an agreement between Standard Life Investments, Ryder Cup Europe and the PGA of America that will see the global asset management company become a Worldwide Partner to both the 2014 and 2016 Ryder Cups.

Never before has a company partnered with The Ryder Cup on both sides of the Atlantic, with the new ground-breaking agreement enabling Standard Life Investments to promote and market its association with The Ryder Cup on a truly global scale.

With a potential daily TV audience of 500 million people across 183 countries, The Ryder Cup has evolved into one of the sport's most valuable and prestigious global brands, making it the perfect partner for a dynamic company such as Standard Life Investments.

Keith Skeoch, CEO, Standard Life Investments, said: "Standard Life Investments is thrilled to become the first Worldwide Partner of The Ryder Cup. This sponsorship complements our reputation as a leading global asset manager with strong performance and a distinctive team culture. It is an integral part of our long-term brand building strategy and is a perfect match in terms of our heritage, client base and strong team ethos."

Pete Bevacqua, Chief Executive Officer of the PGA of America, said: "We are delighted to welcome Standard Life Investments as a Worldwide Partner to both the 2014 and 2016 Ryder Cups in what is an historical agreement.

"We believe The Ryder Cup is among the most valuable sponsorship investments in sport and are confident that Standard Life Investments will reap tremendous value from their Worldwide Partnership on both sides of the Atlantic.

"This announcement follows the launch of the unified Ryder Cup global brand identity and the stated aim of Ryder Cup Europe and the PGA of America to secure global partnerships going forward."

Richard Hills, Europe's Ryder Cup Director, added: "As a company, with a strong global reach and Scottish heritage, Standard Life Investments share our commitment to teamwork and helping people achieve their full potential.

"We look forward to working closely with the Standard Life Investments team in delivering a world class Ryder Cup at The Gleneagles Hotel; a Ryder Cup that will create a positive and long lasting legacy for the game in the 'Home of Golf'."

Notes on Standard Life Investments / Standard Life

With assets under management of £163.4bn ($263.9bn) Standard Life Investments is one of Europe's major investment houses. Employing over 1,000 people and headquartered in Edinburgh, Standard Life Investments maintains offices in a number of locations around the globe including Boston, Hong Kong, London, Beijing, Montreal, Sydney, Dublin, Paris and Seoul. In January 2012 Standard Life Investments teamed up with John Hancock Mutual Funds to make its award-winning Global Absolute Return Strategies (GARS) Fund available to the United States retail marketplace.

Standard Life Investments was launched as an investment management company in 1998. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Standard Life Investments (Holdings) Limited, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Standard Life plc. With a reputation for innovation in pursuit of client investment objectives Standard Life Investments' capabilities span equities, bonds, real estate, private equity, multi-asset solutions, fund-of-funds and absolute return strategies.

Established in 1825, Standard Life is a leading provider of long term savings and investments to around 6 million customers worldwide. Headquartered in Edinburgh, Standard Life has around 9,000 employees internationally.

The Standard Life group includes savings and investments businesses, which operate across its UK, Canadian and European markets; corporate pensions and benefits businesses in the UK and Canada; and its Chinese and Indian Joint Venture businesses. The Group has total assets under administration of over £211bn ($342bn).

Standard Life plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange and has approximately 1.5 million individual shareholders in over 50 countries around the world. It is also listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, ranking it among the top 10% of sustainable companies in the world. All figures at 30 September 2012

Could Life Have Evolved on Mars Before Earth?

The discovery that ancient Mars could have supported microbes raises the tantalizing possibility that life may have evolved on the Red Planet before it took root on Earth.

New observations by NASA's Curiosity rover suggest that microbial life could have survived on Mars in the distant past, when the Red Planet was a warmer and wetter place, scientists announced Tuesday (March 12).

It's unclear exactly how long ago Mars' habitability window opened up, researchers said. But the timing may be comparable to that of Earth, where life first appeared around 3.8 billion years ago.

"We're talking about older than 3 billion years ago, and we're probably looking at a situation where, plus or minus a couple hundred million years, it's about the time that we start seeing the first record of life preserved on Earth," Curiosity chief scientist John Grotzinger, of Caltech in Pasadena, said during a press conference Tuesday.

The Curiosity team's conclusions are based on the rover's study of material collected from the interior of a Martian rock. Last month, Curiosity used its hammering drill to bore 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) into part of a Red Planet outcrop dubbed "John Klein" — deeper than any Mars robot had ever gone before.

Curiosity's analyses show that the John Klein area was once a benign aqueous environment, such as a neutral-pH lake, researchers said. Further, the rover's instruments detected many of the chemical ingredients necessary for life as we know it, including sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon.

Mission scientists aren't claiming that life has ever existed on the Red Planet. They have found no signs of Martian microbes, which is no surprise since the car-size Curiosity rover carries no life-detection instruments among its scientific gear.

But the advanced age of the John Klein deposits does open the door to some interesting speculation. If life ever flourished on Mars — a very big if — did it predate life on Earth? And if so, could Earth life trace its lineage back to Mars?

Some microbes are incredibly hardy, after all, and may be able to survive an interplanetary journey after being blasted off their home world by an asteroid impact. And orbital dynamics show that it's much easier for rocks to travel from Mars to Earth than the other way around.

These are questions scientists and laypeople alike will undoubtedly ask if a future mission ever does find conclusive evidence of life on Mars. But for now, Curiosity will continue rolling through its Gale Crater landing site, helping scientists learn more about the Red Planet and its history.

"Mars has written its autobiography in the rocks of Gale Crater, and we've just started deciphering that story," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program at the agency's headquarters in Washington.

Valerie Harper: 'I'm Living A Normal Life' Following Brain Cancer Diagnosis

Valerie Harper is continuing to live her life to the fullest after going public with her diagnosis of terminal brain cancer.

The TV icon visited Access Hollywood Live on Tuesday, where she chatted with Billy Bush and Kit Hoover about her fight to continue living.

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"I'm feeling good and I wanted people to see that and to know that... and telling people, 'Don't go to the funeral before the day of the funeral. Live each day, each moment even,'" Valerie, 73, said.
The Emmy-winning actress was diagnosed with leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, a rare form of cancer that affects the fluid-filled membrane surrounding the brain, in January.

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"I have great doctors and I have a wonderful, wonderful husband, who has been there just incredibly," she continued, referring to her spouse, husband Tony Cacciotti. "I thought I need to share this now - and it's in the brain area - and I didn't want to start having problems with speech or anything else."

The actress is using her illness as an opportunity to help others facing medical scares.

"I want [the public] to know that I'm there and I'm fighting this thing and that death is a part of life and it's almost a privilege or advantage to know because a lot of us push death away, don't look at it, don't want to think about it... You shouldn't spend time morosely looking at it, but you do have to face it," she explained. "None of us are getting out of this alive, we are all terminal. It just depends when."

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Valerie has been busy tying up the loose ends in her life, while still enjoying her time with her loved ones.
"I'm cleaning out closets, I'm getting rid of junk. I took the Emmys out of the garage and brought them into the house to make sure I know where they were. I'm going to the movies, I'm cooking dinner, I'm running, I'm lifting weights, I'm doing everything I did because of [my] wonderful team [of doctors]," she continued.
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"I'm living a normal life and the new era of cancer is not, 'Kill the cells! Kill the cells!' and you ruin the person, it's new. It's managing the cancer... You can die with cancer, but not of it, that's really true," Valerie said.

The actress and author of "I, Rohda" is even eyeing job offers.
"I've been asked to do some jobs, which is wonderful and I would be pleased to do it," she said.
Despite her extremely positive outlook, Valerie admitted that she's still facing her fears daily.

"I get terrified at night sometimes... and if I feel like crying, I do. If I feel like walking around the house taking deep breaths, I do," she said. "It's not crazy to be afraid of death, no one wants to embrace it, I'm just saying, don't let your fear of death rob your living now. That's your real key, stay in the moment the best you can."

One of her greatest fears is leaving behind husband Tony, whom she has been married to since 1987.
"He is the love of my life and I don't want to leave him, but I have to face what may be ahead," she told Billy and Kit. "He's my beloved, beloved heart, he's just my heart."

Edinburgh-based Standard Life profits' surge prompts payout

Shareholders will benefit from a £302m windfall after the Edinburgh-based business reported £286m in UK pre-tax operating profits, up from £156m.

Overall, the group made an operating profit of £900m, up from £544, the previous year.

It also announced it will pay a special dividend of 12.8p per share, on top of a regular payout of 14.7p.

The profits' surge follows a year in which the firm shed more than 100 jobs as part of a restructuring process.

The move was in response to regulatory changes such as pensions reform and the retail distribution review (RDR).

Increased profitability
Despite Standard Life's strong performance in the UK in 2011, the operating profit before tax for the rest of Europe was down at £37m, compared with £46m the previous year.

In the UK we are ready to benefit from the significant changes to the market and the increased customer need for savings products”

Chief executive David Nish said: "Standard Life has delivered a substantial increase in profitability and has a strong capital position supporting increased dividends for our shareholders.

"We have been building strong positions in our core markets. In the UK we are ready to benefit from the significant changes to the market and the increased customer need for savings products.

"In Standard Life Investments we have one of the world's leading asset managers whose reach and scale is increasingly global."

The 65% increase in profits came despite a significant fall in UK company pension net inflows from £2bn to £1.2bn a year, as firms put off decisions ahead of the launch of a scheme to automatically place workers in company pensions.

Pensions boost
It said employers were delaying changes to their pension plans due to the phased launch of auto-enrolment, which began on 1 October 2012 and will see up to 10 million people placed in workplace pensions, starting with the largest firms and gradually applying to other firms over the next six years.

Standard Life said it expected a significant boost from the scheme over the years ahead, forecasting a potential 400,000 extra savers.

Mr Nish said: "We've got 35,000 corporate clients, we're transitioning 300 during this year, so from our view point auto-enrolment is a very positive driver of our business."

From baseball dreams to bloody coups: The dramatic life of Hugo Chávez

Hugo Chávez’s life—and now his death—was a story straight out of Hollywood.
Chávez could not depart quietly from the presidency of Venezuela and slip into an easy retirement like most leaders. That would have been too mundane.
No, he had to have a dramatic exit, battling cancer for nearly two years, shuttling from Caracas to Havana for treatment, virtually disappearing from public view in the last weeks of his life.

It was the final chapter of what even his enemies must admit was an extraordinary life, from organizing a clandestine cell in the military for a decade to running for president against a former Miss Universe to calling George W. Bush “the devil” at the United Nations.

Chávez was literally born in a mud hut in the Great Plains of Venezuela. He was so poor as a child that the grandmother who raised him made him sell sweets at school.

As a boy, he dreamed of becoming a major league baseball player in the United States. He gained entrance to a prestigious military academy—mainly because he thought he’d have a better chance of getting discovered by scouts in Caracas than in rural Venezuela.

But at the academy he discovered Simon Bolivar, the “Liberator” and Venezuelan native son who freed six South American countries from Spanish rule and became Chávez’s inspiration for creating a more just Venezuela and Latin America.

Venezuela sat atop some of the world’s largest oil reserves, yet most of the population was mired in poverty. A tiny elite monopolized the oil money.
Incensed, Chávez formed a secret organization inside the military of like-minded soldiers. By day he was a soldier, by night he was a conspirator.
The turning point came in 1989 when the government massacred hundreds if not several thousand people after riots broke out over an International Monetary Fund, neo-liberal “shock package.” Chávez and his cohorts decided to strike back.

On Feb. 4, 1992, they launched a coup against the government of Carlos Andres Perez. The putsch failed, but Chávez became an instant hero to millions of poor people.

He went to jail for two years, got pardoned and spent a couple of years criss-crossing the country. By 1997, he was running for president. His main opponent at first was former Miss Universe Irene Saez. The campaign was dubbed “the beauty and the beast.”

In December 1998, Chávez easily won the presidency.
His presidency was equally dramatic, a series of life-and-death roller coaster rides. In April 2002, he was the object of a coup attempt himself. After bloody street confrontations by clashing demonstrations, he was essentially kidnapped by military coup leaders and disappeared from public view for two days. The president was missing—his countrymen did not know where he was.
But loyalists launched a counter-coup, snatched Chávez from a Caribbean island where he was being held, and flew him back to Caracas on a helicopter in the middle of the night.

As the chopper’s lights broke through the mist in the sky at close to 3 am, thousands of his supporters who had surrounded the presidential palace for two days waiting and hoping for his return broke into cheers and then became delirious.

They had feared Chávez was going to be executed during the coup, and by his account he nearly was. Now, on the third day, it was as if he had risen from the dead.

To his supporters, it was like a miracle. This time around, in his battle against cancer, Chávez could not produce another one.