More Than 400 'Life of Pi' Visual Effects Artists Protested The Oscars

"Life of Pi" may have been a big Oscar winner Sunday night, but those responsible for bringing the CGI-filled film to life aren't celebrating.  
During one of the oddest moments of the awards, VFX supervisor Bill Westenhofer was played off the Oscar stage to the "Jaws" theme while accepting his award for "Life of Pi."

The gesture came off overtly rude to critics and VFX artists considering Westenhofer was only 45 seconds into his speech.  

The average speech of the past decade has clocked in at closer to two minutes.  

The "Jaws" music began playing during his mention of Rhythm & Hues VFX studio.  

Rhythm & Hues is the studio responsible for bringing the CGI-filled "Life of Pi" to the big screen. It took 600 of its artists to animate Bengal tiger, Richard Parker, in the film.  

It's also known for its work on "Snow White And The Huntsman" and bringing a pig to life in "Babe." 

Earlier this month, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and laid off more than 200 employees without pay. 

It's not the first VFX company to have trouble in the past few months. 
Digital Domain Media Group (DDMG), the company responsible for helping to bring "Titanic" to life on the big screen, filed for bankruptcy back in September. They were soon bought for $37 million by Beijin's Galloping Horse and  Mumbai-based Reliance Capital. 

Later in the press room, Westenhofer said he was trying to address a bigger issue on stage regarding the importance of VHX in films. 

" It’s ironic that when visual effects are dominating the box office, visual effects are struggling," said Westenhofer. "We’re artists, and if we don’t fix the business model we may lose something.” 

Earlier in the day, while the primary focus during the Oscars was on the red carpet, not far off, more than 400 VFX professionals protested the event. 
Called the "Piece of Pi" protest, plan, protestors held signs with slogans including "End The Subsidies War" and the one below:

VFX artist Todd Vaziri  created two images  showing how the film would look without its special effects. Here's one of them:

The image quickly caught on and began  spreading around the Internet , and has inspired more artists to illustrate visuals conveying a similar message.

Now the band of artists are calling for a possible world wide walk out of VFX professionals on March 14—known as "Life of Pi Day."  

Among the four awards for "Life of Pi" Oscar night, two of them were for Cinematography and Visual Effects.  

Pacific Life Announces a New Solution for De-Risking Pension Plans: Pacific Secured Buy-In

Pacific Life has launched Pacific Secured Buy-In, adding yet another dimension to the company’s already comprehensive portfolio of pension risk-transfer products.

“We’re very excited to announce this complement to our pension de-risking product suite,” says Richard Taube, vice president, Institutional & Structured Products for Pacific Life. “Pacific Secured Buy-In enables plan sponsors to de-risk their pension obligations and stabilize their corporate balance sheets and income statements without affecting plan termination. For plan sponsors who want to de-risk and without recognizing settlement losses, this is the solution they may need.”

Pacific Secured Buy-In also provides plan sponsors with flexibility for the future. The product allows the plan sponsor to convert to a Pacific Transferred Buy-Out℠ contract at any time and at no additional cost. The conversion completely transfers all future benefit obligations from the plan sponsor to Pacific Life.

With the addition of Pacific Secured Buy-In, Pacific Life's suite of risk-transfer products provides solutions for a wide range of pension de-risking scenarios. The product suite includes Pacific Insured LDI℠, a first-of-its-kind guaranteed alternative to best-efforts liability-driven investing strategies. Launched last year, Pacific Insured LDI provides plan sponsors with a unique guaranteed match of plan assets to plan liabilities. It does not require up-front payment like a buy-in or buy-out product, and it does not trigger settlement losses.“With our full suite of pension de-risking products, we have seen an increased interest from plan sponsors, consultants, and brokers,”adds Taube.“Regardless of a plan’s funded status and whether or not the ultimate goal is plan termination, Pacific Life can offer a pension de-risking solution.”

Life Partners Holdings, Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend

Life Partners Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq GS: LPHI), parent company of Life Partners, Inc., announced that it would pay a quarterly dividend of $0.10 per share to be paid on or about March 15, 2013 for shareholders of record as of March 8, 2013.

Life Partners is the world’s oldest and one of the most active companies in the United States engaged in the secondary market for life insurance, commonly called “life settlements.” Since its incorporation in 1991, Life Partners has completed over 147,000 transactions for its worldwide client base of over 29,000 high net worth individuals and institutions in connection with the purchase of over 6,500 policies totaling approximately $3 billion in face value.

Life, love, adventure are home's decor

Life is an adventure for Joanne Good. Take a look around the home she shares with Ted Good, her husband of 62 years. Memories of the life they built together are woven into the fabric of their comfortable home.

Traveling through Europe with their two children in a green Porsche. Summers spent in their Minnesota log cabin. All that Joanne Good has loved in life is evident throughout her home.

Now, as she serves as a 24/7 caregiver for her husband, Good is fortified by the memories that surround her.

"Everything has a memory," said Good, a retired interior designer who lives with her husband in SaddleBrooke, just north of Catalina.

The Goods traveled the globe before Ted suffered a stroke 35 years ago at age 55, and retired from Sears Foundation in Chicago. Joanne Good, who studied theater in college, had raised her children and was returning to theatrical pursuits when Ted fell ill.

"I thought I'd better get a day job," Good recalled. She got a degree in interior design, and launched her new career at age 55. She was a member of the American Society of Interior Designers before the Goods retired to SaddleBrooke 15 years ago.

She loved making the homes of others beautiful. Now she enjoys filling every corner of her home with memories of her many adventures.

"I like things that make you happy when you look at them," she said, as snow fell outside her living room window in large, soft flakes.

Among her favorite pieces are two folding space dividers, one in the family room, one in the master bedroom. Good turned the basic pieces into memories of the family's travels. Using Mod Podge, she covered them with maps, photos, postcards, tickets and other memorabilia from their journeys.

"We brought our children to Europe three times," said this great-grandmother.

"They make me happy when I walk by," she said of the customized dividers. "It brings back a memory."

Good is always working on a project, and there isn't much she cannot do with a little paint and fabric. From his wheelchair, Ted Good watches his wife work.

"Just try it," is Good's motto. "If it doesn't work out, so what. What have you got to lose?"

Fabric is an important feature in each room. Good uses yards of fabric and even tablecloths to create draperies, valances, covered headboards, throw pillows, chair coverings and lampshades.

"I have shown all of my granddaughters how to make curtains," she said.

Good started painting about 20 years ago, and her art fill the home. Her paintings are very personal - a still life of her grandmother's treasured silver coffee service purchased in 1912, angels in a desert sky, a glimpse of her dream bedroom.

In her dining room, Good painted the words "Life is an adventure" in English, Spanish, French, Italian and Norwegian.

Family history is found in every room. Good, who has no fondness for traditional end tables, uses a metal Railway Express Agency delivery truck that was her husband's childhood toy, circa 1930, as an end table. Her mother's toddler chair and her own silver baby cup adorn the room.

A silver box embellished with angels holds treasures on the coffee table, including a handwritten letter from her mother. Photos of loved ones fill a silver bowl.

Down the hallway, a third bedroom opens into a casita that the Goods added on. Some of the plans were drawn up by Joanne Good.

Included in the guest quarters are a living room, full kitchen and private patio with a stunning mountain view.

Good added a whimsical white chandelier with red accents over the kitchen sink, making washing dishes a bit more tolerable. The chandelier is stunning against the red wall and matching red window shade.

Memorabilia from World War II, where Ted Good served as a B-24 pilot, are found in the casita.

Joanne Good finds great joy in her handiwork in the master bedroom. She used fabric and paint to coordinate the retreat, complete with a cozy table and chairs - a perfect spot for an afternoon cup of tea.

Always the practical child of the Depression, Good uses inexpensive items that she personalizes to dress up a room. She created a stand for her television in the bedroom.

Good topped two file cabinets with a wooden board, covered with fabric that drapes to the floor and topped with glass for a pretty place for the television to sit.

She purchased two inexpensive white armoires and projected a floral image that she painted. A white chest at the end of her bed is painted with her father's family crest, as well as a painting of the family's log cabin in Minnesota.

But perhaps most striking in the bedroom is a brightly-colored mural that was painted in 1978 in the Good's Chicago home by muralist Betty Sitbon, before she became well-known.

The mural was painted on wallpaper, and the Goods were able to move it to their home here.

The mural tells the story of their lives. Joanne Good, in only her birthday suit, looks out her boudoir window at a young, debonair Ted. Playing in the distance are their children, Stephen and Susie. Far off in the distance is their Minnesota cabin, and an airplane, representing Ted's love of flying. Included in the mural are family photo albums, passports, favorite books and other cherished items.

"All of those things make me happy to look at," Good said.

Another mural moved from Chicago is a scene from a family expedition through Europe in a green Porsche.

The memories embedded in the home serve as a bit of diversion as Good provides full-time care for her husband.

Life Technologies to Present at Barclays Global Healthcare Conference

 Life Technologies Corporation (LIFE) today announced it will present at Barclays Global Healthcare Conference on March 13 at 11:15 a.m. ET. Ron A. Andrews, Life Technologies' President of Medical Sciences, will present on behalf of the company. The company will webcast the presentation, which will be available for three weeks following the conference, on the Life.

Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: LIFE) is a global biotechnology company with customers in more than 160 countries using its innovative solutions to solve some of today's most difficult scientific challenges. Quality and innovation are accessible to every lab with its reliable and easy-to-use solutions spanning the biological spectrum, with more than 50,000 products for agricultural biotechnology, translational research, molecular medicine and diagnostics, stem cell-based therapies, forensics, food safety and animal health. Its systems, reagents and consumables represent some of the most cited brands in scientific research including: Ion Torrent™, Applied Biosystems®, Invitrogen™, Gibco®, Ambion®, Molecular Probes® and Novex®. Life Technologies employs approximately 10,400 people and upholds its ongoing commitment to innovation with more than 4,000 patents and exclusive licenses. LIFE had sales of $3.8 billion in 2012.

Canada's Great-West Lifeco buys Irish Life for $1.7 billion

Canadian life insurer Great-West Lifeco bought state-rescued insurer Irish Life for 1.3 billion euros ($1.7 billion) on Tuesday in a deal that increases its presence in Ireland and lightens the Irish government's debts.

Ireland last year paid the same amount to take over Irish Life, formerly the insurance arm of bailed-out Irish Life & Permanent, after the euro zone debt crisis forced the suspension of its sale in late 2011.

Great-West Lifeco, which was the lead candidate to buy the group before pulling out of the original sale process, said it would merge Irish Life, the country's largest life and pensions company, with its own Irish unit, Canada Life.

"It allows us to achieve - with a single transaction - the leading position in life insurance, pensions and investment management," Great-West Lifeco chief executive Allen Loney said in a statement.
The Winnipeg-based company, which will fund the deal via an issuance of around $1.25 billion subscription receipts, said it would add approximately C$215 million ($212.90 million) or 10 percent to its consensus forecast earnings in 2014.

The sale, expected to close in July, will also help push the Irish government's debt to just below 120 percent of GDP this year from an estimate in December that it would peak above 121 percent, the country's finance ministry said.

It follows a 1 billion euro sale of debt in part-owned Bank of Ireland last month as the government begins to cut its exposure to the financial sector that it bailed out with 64 billion euros when a property crash ravaged the economy.

The deal provides Irish taxpayers with a full return on their investment in Irish Life, Finance Minister Michael Noonan said, adding that an additional dividend of 40 million euros would be paid to the state prior to completion.
"Today's investment by a company of their stature is a significant vote of confidence in the Irish economy and I am sure that this will lead to further investment," he said.

New group accident insurance plan from Colonial Life helps provide financial protection from the unexpected

Colonial Life has introduced a new group accident insurance plan that helps provide financial protection to working Americans who have an accidental injury. The new product, available to employers with 10 or more eligible employees, features optional coverage that pays for 24 health screening tests for employees or pays benefits if employees are hospitalized.

Accident insurance can help offset today’s rising deductibles and out-of-pocket medical costs.

Every 10 minutes, more than 700 Americans suffer an injury severe enough to seek medical help.1 And medical help comes with an expensive price tag.
Today’s employee bears a greater financial responsibility for medical costs with increased deductibles, bigger copayments and shrinking coverage. In fact, the number of employees with a $1,000 or greater annual deductible in their health plans has tripled in the past six years.2

Accident insurance provides lump-sum and daily benefits for covered accidents that can help pay nonmedical expenses and medical costs not covered by major medical insurance, such as lost income from not being able to work, rehabilitation, caregiver fees, travel costs, deductibles and coinsurance. Accident plans typically cover services such as doctor’s office visits, hospital admissions, emergency treatment, fractures, dislocations, surgery, rehabilitation, occupational therapy, X-rays and medical imaging.3 Benefits are paid directly to individual policyholders unless they specify otherwise, regardless of any other insurance they may have.