Latest news with #It'saWonderfulLife
Miami Herald
6 days ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Big online investing firm collapses, files Chapter 11 bankruptcy
The entire American economy has been built around being able to trust the banking system. You put your money and deposit your paycheck at your local bank (or maybe a national one), trusting that the money will be there when you need it. That's something that was perfectly explained in the classic film "It's a Wonderful Life," where Jimmy Stewart's George Bailey convinces his small town to support his bank even though it can't offer them cash as people fear the bank has become insolvent. Related: Amazon gives employees rude awakening with harsh policy change "No, but thinking of this place all wrong. As if I had the money back in a safe. The money's not here. Your money's in Joe's house...(to one of the men)...right next to yours. And in the Kennedy house, and Mrs. Macklin's house, and a hundred others," he shared. Basically, he argued that if everyone believed in the bank, it would be there. "Why, you're lending them the money to build, and then, they're going to pay it back to you as best they can. Now what are you going to do? Foreclose on them?" he asked. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter In the film, Bailey's personality stopped the run on the bank. Few, if any, banks have the cash on hand if a lot of customers want their money back at the same time, but we do have some more formal protection these days. Even when a specific banks fails, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) steps in. That agency insures deposits up to $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank account. People want to disrupt the traditional banking and investing model, but that has proven hard to do. One holy grail in that area has been allowing regular folks into investing in companies before they go public. Previously, only rich people could do that. Linqto makes big promises on its website. First, it describes itself as "an intuitive platform offering early access to private tech companies, before IPO or liquidity." It also sells itself well. "Most U.S. companies with revenue greater than $100 million are privately held – leaving an untapped opportunity to capture potential growth in innovative and emerging fields. Investing in this broader set of private companies can act as a powerful portfolio diversifier that has been shown to enhance risk-adjusted returns," it added. The problem is that there's a reason only rich people had access to investments like these. Your money isn't in something like your neighbor's house; it's in a startup with a theoretical value. More bankruptcy: Iconic auto repair chain franchise files Chapter 11 bankruptcyPopular beer brand closes down and files Chapter 7 bankruptcyPopular vodka and gin brand files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Those values can become zero as soon as investors stop believing. Until a company makes money, its value comes from the number an investor is willing to accept as the value. That makes it a lot closer to buying Beanie Babies – which at least had scarcity for some models – than investing it in a business. There's a reason we have the current system of banks, private investing, and stock exchanges. It may not be perfect, but it's regulated. Most people understand that a bank account is safer than buying shares of even the bluest of blue chips, but even acquiring those shares is still much safer than investing in your buddy's new startup. Linqto has learned a hard lesson on the road to disruption: Every system flaw (like everyone not having access to pre-market investments) is a design feature, not a bug. Linqto, Inc., along with Linqto Texas LLC, Linqto Liquidshares LLC, and Linqto Liquidshares Manager LLC (collectively, "Linqto") has filed for voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Linqto took this step to protect and maximize stakeholder value through a court-supervised restructuring and expects to continue operating throughout the restructuring process. "Despite reducing expenses, the only way forward is to seek court-supervised protection that will let us restructure the business into a profitable, law-abiding organization while resolving the ongoing regulatory investigations faster," said CEO Dan Siciliano. Had the company not filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, it would have had to close down. Related: Iconic furniture, mattress retailer files Chapter 11 bankruptcy "The company faces potentially insurmountable operating challenges as a result of serious alleged securities law violations and related ongoing investigations by the Division of Enforcement of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as well as other regulatory agencies. In addition, Linqto recently discovered several serious defects in the corporate formation, structure, and operation of the business that raise questions about what customers actually own and which management believes can only be fairly and effectively addressed through restructuring," it added. Linqto has received a commitment for debtor-in-possession financing of up to $60 million from Sandton Capital Partners, LP. Upon court approval, the additional liquidity from the DIP financing, combined with cash on hand, is expected to support critical business needs during these proceedings. The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
Buzz Feed
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
17 Jaw-Dropping Facts About Classic Film Production
Over the years, and especially back in the day, Hollywood has put the cast and crew of movies in some truly wild and dangerous situations. Here are some infamous examples of the extremes people have gone to just to get the right shot: As a minor, Judy Garland was forced to work 72-hour shifts, and given both amphetamines and sleeping pills in order to control her energy levels for such a gruelling schedule. The Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz was originally played by Buddy Ebsen, who got aluminium poisoning from the pure aluminium makeup and was hospitalized. Jack Haley replaced him and is the Tin Man we see in the movie — aluminium paste was used for his makeup, which gave him an eye infection. Meanwhile, Margaret Hamilton, who played the Wicked Witch of the West, had significant burns from the smoke and fire effects in the film, and her stunt double, Betty Danko, was so badly injured when the asbestos-coated "broomstick" she was riding exploded that she had to have a hysterectomy. The Wizard of Oz also used asbestos as fake snow, and it was far from the only movie to do so — it was a common prop in iconic movies like Citizen Kane and It's a Wonderful Life. It's a Wonderful Life was actually shot during summer, and production had to shut down at one point so the cast and crew could recover from heat exhaustion. Tippi Hedren spent five days having live birds thrown at her and finally tied to her costume to film the climactic attack scene in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. In her memoir, she described the experience as "brutal and ugly and relentless". Both Linda Blair and Ellen Burstyn permanently injured their spines in two separate incidents while filming difficult stunts for The Exorcist. Malcolm McDowell described filming A Clockwork Orange as "torture" — he cracked several ribs during a violent scene, and also went temporarily blind when his corneas were scratched during the filming of the infamous eye clamping scene. The fight scene between Sonny Corleone and Carlo Rizzi in The Godfather got too real when actor Gianni Russo broke two ribs and cracked his elbow. In a fight scene, Bruce Lee kicked his Enter the Dragon co-star Robert Wall so hard that one of the extras behind him who tried to catch Wall actually broke his arm. For Grease, the dance scene was shot in a gym with no windows, leading several cast and crew to suffer from heatstroke. Sylvester Stallone ended up in intensive care for eight days while filming Rocky IV because he wanted the fight scenes to feel "real," leading to him receiving such a hard blow to his chest that his heart was injured. Burt Reynolds insisted on doing a stunt that involved jumping into a waterfall himself for Deliverance, which led to him falling unconscious and cracking his tailbone. Bo Derek was attacked by a lion while filming Tarzan, the Ape Man, slicing open her shoulder. Arnold Schwarzenegger was actually chased by German Shepherds for the wolf scene in Conan the Barbarian, and was injured when one caught up to him. Michael J. Fox actually passed out and could have died while filming the hanging scene in Back to the Future Part III. And finally, for Police Story, Jackie Chan performed a stunt where he slid down a multi-story pole, tearing through strings of lights, and smashing into a glass pane below. Chan did it in one take, and ended up with second-degree burns on his hands. Which of these facts shocked you the most? Do you have your own stories about Old Hollywood to share? Drop them in the comments!
Winnipeg Free Press
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Opinion: Jaws leaves cinematic legacy in its bloodied-water wake
Opinion Jaws celebrates its 50th anniversary this week. I didn't see Steven Spielberg's carefully constructed, unexpectedly understated creature feature when it came out in theatres in 1975. My parents considered it too scary for kids. Later in life, I made up for that lost opportunity, and now I watch it every summer. It's a seasonal film for me, marking the time of sun and swimming and beaches the way It's a Wonderful Life marks Christmas. This image released by Peacock shows cinematographer Bill Butler, standing, and director Steven Spielberg during the filming of 'Jaws.' (Peacock/Universal Pictures via AP) Jaws is often cited as the first summer blockbuster, its unprecedented success — it became the highest-grossing movie ever at that time — bringing in big changes in the way studios made, marketed and distributed movies. It changed the cinematic landscape so dramatically that it's hard now to remember the before times — when summertime was the slow period for theatres, when marketing was a minor line-item in a movie's budget, when studios preferred to slow-roll their releases over a period of weeks. We now take massive, much-hyped, multiplex-blanketing event movies for granted. But we should never take Jaws for granted. Beyond being a business model for Hollywood's summer hits, beyond being an important, influential and endlessly quoted pop-culture phenomenon ('You're gonna need a bigger boat'), Jaws is just a damn fine movie. Five decades later, it remains brilliantly better than most of the blockbusters that have followed in its chum-strewn wake. Unfortunately, and perhaps predictably, the industry has too often picked up the film's formula without taking in the finer points of Spielberg's approach. Adapted from Peter Benchley's 1974 novel, Jaws takes us to a coastal community that relies on summer tourist dollars to stay afloat. When a killer shark appears off its shores in the leadup to the July 4th weekend, craven town mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) and concerned police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) clash over how to handle the situation. Ultimately, the reluctant, ocean-fearing Brody, with smart-assed shark biologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and salty, hands-on shark hunter Quint (Robert Shaw), head out to open water for a classic humans-versus-nature showdown. This basic template has since been applied to alligators, anacondas, aliens and tornadoes, but the imitators rarely achieve Jaws' beautiful balance of B-movie pleasure and Moby Dick heft. Surprisingly, for a movie that has had such an outsized effect, a lot of its virtues are modest. Spielberg is a consummate craftsperson, and in Jaws his style is effective, economical and (mostly) unshowy. This image released by Peacock shows Roy Scheider in a scene from "Jaws." (Peacock/Universal Pictures via AP) Yes, there's that famous dolly zoom that film kids love to talk about — the moment Brody realizes his children and the shark are in the same water and Spielberg uses his camera to replicate that sudden, disorienting lurch of terror. But a lot of the film's power comes out slowly and cumulatively, as Spielberg makes the dozens of small, subtle decisions that go into good visual storytelling. There are the deep-focus crowd scenes that ground us in the chaos and conflicts of this small community. There's the tight framing and careful blocking of the three main actors — Scheider, Dreyfuss and Shaw — on that cramped boat, which gradually build up a picture not just of the individual characters but of their shifting power dynamics and changing sympathies. There's the unlikely sunlit horror of the beach scenes and the sea-level camera angles that take us — uncomfortably — right into the action. There's the precise pacing, which builds suspense with a quiet, relentless momentum that matches the 'du-dum, du-dum' of John Williams' famous score. This restraint makes the sparingly used jump scares that much more effective. No shot is wasted, no sequence is extended longer than necessary, and that less-is-more approach extends — crucially — to the shark. In this pre-CGI era, Spielberg was using practical effects, and the three formats of rubber-and-steel mechanical shark — all called Bruce by the crew — broke down constantly. Faced with a ballooning budget and a shoot going 10 weeks over schedule, Spielberg ended up using the physical presence of the shark sparingly. Wednesdays Columnist Jen Zoratti looks at what's next in arts, life and pop culture. This was a necessity that became a cinematic gift, as clever editing — and viewers' minds — conjured up a horror that went far beyond what Bruce, even at his toothiest and thrashiest, could provide. Keeping the monster mostly offscreen, Spielberg essentially created a shark that was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. And while the monster remains mysterious, the people and the places are specific, in ways that are unusual in most blockbusters today. The current tendency in summer action movies is to go bigger and bigger, so sometimes the whole world, or even the entire universe is under threat. Once again, Jaws goes smaller. Grounded in a human scale, the story deals with a handful of deaths and comes down to one shark and three men on a boat. Yet somehow these stakes feel larger. Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss are shown in a scene from 'Jaws.' (Peacock/Universal Pictures) Again, less is more with this classic film, a big blockbuster made great by myriad small details. (One darker final note: Jaws kicked off the sharksploitation genre, which has demonized these animals as monsters that attack with malign, targeted intent, and these anti-shark tropes have had disastrous real-world effects on shark populations. When watching the movie, it's important to keep in mind that, statistically speaking, you're more likely to be killed by a falling vending machine or a charging cow than a Great White.) Alison GillmorWriter Studying at the University of Winnipeg and later Toronto's York University, Alison Gillmor planned to become an art historian. She ended up catching the journalism bug when she started as visual arts reviewer at the Winnipeg Free Press in 1992. Read full biography Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Buzz Feed
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
16 Things I Forgot Happened In Season 2 Of One Tree Hill
Felix and Anna are main characters. The most forgettable, boring, pointless characters grace the screen this season. Anna was kind, and her friendship with Lucas was cute, but Felix was the WORST. Peyton does drugs. The opening of TRIC causes Peyton to be faced with the reality of the music industry: there are drugs. The strangest part of this whole plot is the grown man insisting that this 17-year-old do cocaine RIGHT NOW or she'll never make it in the industry. Bro, why? Andy confesses to nearly killing someone. Karen thinks Andy is cheating on her but really he's just taking care of a woman he injured in an accident years ago. Can you say "random forced conflict"? Mouth breaks Brooke's windshield. All because she didn't like him back. Loser behavior. Brooke is Lucas's date to Keith's wedding. Take 1.5 of their relationship. Karen is the one to confront Jules about lying to Keith. Causing Dan to suggest that the end of Keith and Jules' relationship is all her fault. I don't know about that, buddy. Nathan hangs out with Taylor at a random bar. After visiting Haley on tour, Nathan ends up visiting her sister Taylor at the bar she works and there's a lot of weird stuff that happens. Auto fast-forward. Brooke is elected class president. Could've sworn this happened in season 3 but nope! B. Davis wins her presidential race in season two! Cooper makes his first appearance. Known more famously for having a (problematic) relationship with Rachel in season three, Deb's brother Cooper shows up to Tree Hill to help Nathan (and Lucas) unwind. The alternate reality episode. And believe it or not, this isn't the only alternate reality episode in the show's history. When it's Lucas's turn to be in a (second) coma in season four, he has his own It's a Wonderful Life adventure led by Ghost Keith. Lucas and Andy uncover financial secrets about Dan that never get brought up again. Dan admits of the (fraudulent?) activity, but insists he's saving money for Lucas to go to college. The audience is led to believe this is a lie, because Dan is a known liar. However, Lucas takes him at his word and that's that. Jake goes to jail. Dude goes through the ringer in the first two seasons. Brooke almost moves to California. Of course she actually doesn't, but her parents do! She ends up visiting them for the summer, allowing Lucas and Peyton to grow closer in her absence. Ellie lies to Peyton about being her birth mother. A woman named Ellie shows up to Tree Hill under the guise of being a journalist covering Peyton's involvement in TRIC. However, she quickly reveals her true identity: Peyton's birth mom. Peyton starts getting creepy messages. You heard that right. The creepy messages that end up being from her not-brother Derek? They begin in season TWO. She first believes that they're Ellie, but when Ellie says it isn't her, Peyton drops it, leading it to also be dropped by the writers until early season four. The dealership catches fire. For some reason, you could tell me this happens in season one, two, or three and I'd believe you. Haley also comes back at the end of the season, the night of the fire, making her a suspect!
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CVS Health Corporation (CVS): Jim Cramer Says You Don't Want Them Buying The Wrong Robots
We recently published a list of . In this article, we are going to take a look at where CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discusses. CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) is one of the largest pharmaceutical retailers in America. The firm's shares have gained 44% year-to-date due to weakness at the firm's primary rival Walgreens. Cramer's previous remarks about CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) have praised the firm's CEO and his turnaround efforts. The shares gained 4% in May after the firm raised its 2025 profit forecast to a midpoint of $6.10 per share from an earlier $5.87 per share. CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS)'s turnaround efforts which have seen the firm appoint a new CEO and exit its Obamacare direct sales business have contributed to the strong 2025 share price performance. In his recent comments about CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS), Cramer wondered what would happen if the firm automated its pharmacies through robots: 'I mean one of the things that is really meant to be changing here is healthcare. And you don't want, uh, CVS, for instance, if they were to buy a robot, you don't want them saying, do remember that scene, It's a Wonderful Life, where the pharmacist gave them the wrong prescription? You don't want that. You don't want It's a Wonderful Life, to be your life.' In his previous comments, the CNBC host praised the firm's management. Here's what he said: 'Now we've got some healthcare, some issues to talk about on Thursday, that's right, and these are anything but common steady healthcare companies…. There's CVS, which is under new management, put up some really good numbers, and it's just, that's in health insurance, but also it's core drugstore business, which they've closed, all the under performers… As for CVS, the health insurers have taken it on the chin of late. UnitedHealth and Centene both missed expectations. I bet Aetna sticks it.' A row of shelves in a retail pharmacy, demonstrating the variety of drugs and over-the-counter products. Overall, CVS ranks 11th on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discusses. While we acknowledge the potential of CVS as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: and . Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at .
