title: The Gateway Pundit

text: Following the 2016 mass shooting at the gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, Hoft came out as gay, blamed Barack Obama for the massacre and derided "leftwing gay activists" Sally Kohn and Perez Hilton for blaming the National Rifle Association and Christianity for the attack.


title: The Gateway Pundit

text: On March 4, 2017, Hoft spoke at the Spirit of America Rally in Nashville, Tennessee, and announced that he was starting an event, "The Real News Correspondents' Dinner", to compete with the White House Correspondents' Dinner. The event occurred as planned on April 28, 2017.


title: The Gateway Pundit

text: In February 2018, Hoft was scheduled to participate in a Conservative Political Action Conference panel titled "Social Media Censorship." After CPAC preemptively removed him from the discussion on censorship following Hoft's coverage of the recent Florida mass shooting, he stated that CPAC was in effect engaging in its own form of censorship.


title: The Gateway Pundit

text: Notable writers for "The Gateway Pundit", past and present, include Michael Strickland (2015–2016), Lucian Wintrich (2017–2018), Cassandra Fairbanks (2017–present), and Jacob Wohl (2018).


title: Post-grunge

text: Post-grunge is a derivative of grunge that has a less abrasive or intense tone than traditional grunge. Originally, the term was used almost pejoratively to label mid-1990s rock bands such as Bush, Candlebox and Collective Soul that emulated the original sound of grunge.


title: Post-grunge

text: In the late 1990s, post-grunge morphed into a more clearly defined style that married the sound and aesthetic of grunge with a less intense and abrasive tone, rising to prominence that lasted in the 2000s. Bands such as , Live, Bush, Puddle of Mudd, Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace, Default, Creed, Collective Soul, Shinedown, Candlebox, Seether, and Matchbox Twenty all achieved mainstream success.


title: Post-grunge

text: During the 1990s, a post-grunge sound emerged that emulated the attitudes and music of grunge, particularly its thick, distorted guitars, but with a less intense and less abrasive tone. Unlike a lot of early grunge bands, post-grunge bands often worked through major record labels and incorporated influences from a variety of musical genres including: jangle pop, , ska revival, alternative metal and classic rock. Post-grunge music tends to be in mid-tempo and is noted for having "a polished, radio-ready production". Tim Grierson of About.com wrote that musically, post-grunge bands "split the difference between plaintive ballads and aggressive rockers, resulting in songs that combine the two extremes into a sad-eyed, propulsive middle ground". Post-grunge tends to feature the "...same kind of melody as...bubblegum pop" and pop song structures. Sometimes music features both an electric guitar and an acoustic guitar playing simultaneously. Post-grunge tends to have production quality that is much higher and cleaner than grunge.


title: Post-grunge

text: A "major rift" between grunge and is in the lyrical substance of the music; grunge expressed emotion through loose metaphors or third-person narratives, while post-grunge was known for being direct and blunt. While describing lyrics that are common in , Sasha Geffen of "Consequence of Sound" wrote that "plunged directly into the Geffen wrote that most post-grunge songs that achieved mainstream success "call after a prospective or past companion in the first person". Post-grunge lyrics also tend to be about topics such as relationships, romance and drug addiction. According to Geffen, "grunge's frontmen posed with their addictions; songwriters sought redemption for them". Geffen states that post-grunge songs "fit the mold of songs made for...teenage boys and girls" who were "longing for a distant someone".


title: Post-grunge

text: Originally, post-grunge was a label that was meant to be almost pejorative, suggesting that grunge bands labelled as were simply musically derivative, or a cynical response to an "authentic" rock movement. When grunge became a mainstream genre because of bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam, record labels started signing bands that sounded similar to these bands' sonic identities. Bands labeled as that emerged when grunge was mainstream such as Bush, Candlebox and Collective Soul are all noted for emulating the sound of bands that launched grunge into the mainstream. According to Tim Grierson of About.com, the almost pejorative use of the "post-grunge" label to describe these bands was "suggesting that rather than being a musical movement in their own right, they were just a calculated, cynical response to a legitimate stylistic shift in rock music". During the late 1990s, post-grunge morphed, becoming a derivative of grunge that combined characteristics of grunge with a more commercially accessible tone. During this time, post-grunge bands such as Creed and Nickelback emerged. Grierson wrote: Grierson also wrote, "Post-grunge was a profitable musical style, but bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam were beloved partly because of their perceived integrity in avoiding the mainstream. Post-grunge, by comparison, seemed to exist in order to court that very audience."


title: Post-grunge

text: In the late 2000s and 2010s, the derogatory term "butt rock" gained traction when applied in relation to many post-grunge artists whose popularity peaked simultaneously with that of the genre itself, such as Nickelback, Creed, Puddle of Mudd, and Hinder. While origins of the term are debatable, it usually implies criticism of raspy vocals overuse and, less often, overly clichéd or negative lyrics.


title: Post-grunge

text: Even at the height of their popularity, after the release of "Nevermind" (1991) brought grunge to international attention, Nirvana experienced increasing problems, partly caused by Kurt Cobain's drug addiction and growing dissatisfaction with commercial success. In late 1992, Cobain was photographed in a T-shirt with 'Grunge is Dead' printed on its front at which point the genre's decline started to be widely discussed. Cobain's suicide in 1994, as well as Pearl Jam's touring problems, marked a decline for grunge that year. Problems of addiction for Layne Staley of Alice in Chains led to the band cancelling scheduled dates in 1995. Addiction and legal problems for Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots led to the band having touring problems, causing the band to tour their album "Purple" for only four months, and their follow up album "Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop" for only 6 weeks.


title: Post-grunge

text: When grunge was mainstream, major record labels began signing and promoting bands emulating the genre. In spite of the fact that bands such as Bush and Candlebox have been categorized as grunge, both bands have also been categorized as post-grunge. Even the classic rock band Rush made a contribution to the nascent post-grunge with the 1993 studio album "Counterparts" and the subsequent releases "Test for Echo" (1996) and "Vapor Trails" (2002).


title: Post-grunge

text: Collective Soul and Live are two other bands categorized as post-grunge that emerged along with Bush and Candlebox. Bush, Candlebox, Collective Soul and Live all achieved mainstream success; Candlebox's self-titled album was certified by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and, according to Nielsen SoundScan, sold at least 4,000,000 copies. Its song "Far Behind" peaked at number 18 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. Collective Soul's song "Shine" peaked at number 11 on the same chart and was certified gold by the RIAA in September 1994. Collective Soul's album "Hints Allegations and Things Left Unsaid" was certified 2× platinum by the RIAA, and the band's self-titled album released in 1995 was certified 3× platinum by the RIAA. Bush's debut studio album "Sixteen Stone" was certified by the RIAA and the band's second studio album "Razorblade Suitcase", which peaked at number 1 on the "Billboard" 200, was certified 3× platinum by the RIAA. Carl Williott of Stereogum called Bush's album "Sixteen Stone" "a harbinger of pop dominance". Live's album "Throwing Copper" was certified 8× platinum by the RIAA, and the band's album "Secret Samadhi" was certified 2× platinum by the RIAA. Both "Throwing Copper" and "Secret Samadhi" peaked at number 1 on the "Billboard" 200.


title: Post-grunge

text: In 1995, former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl's newer band Foo Fighters helped to popularize post-grunge and define its parameters, becoming one of the most commercially successful rock bands in the United States, aided by considerable airplay on MTV. Like grunge bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains, the post-grunge band Candlebox was from Seattle, but post-grunge was marked by a broadening of the geographical base of grunge, with bands categorized as post-grunge such as York, Pennsylvania's Live, Atlanta, Georgia's Collective Soul, Australia's Silverchair and England's Bush, who all paved the way for later post-grunge bands. Female solo artist Alanis Morissette's 1995 album "Jagged Little Pill", which is considered a post-grunge album, became a hit and was certified 16× platinum by the RIAA in 1998 having sold at least 15,000,000 copies in the United States. Matchbox Twenty's 1996 debut album, "Yourself or Someone Like You", was a success; it was certified 12× platinum by the RIAA.


title: Post-grunge

text: With the first wave of post-grunge bands losing popularity, post-grunge morphed in the late 1990s and early 2000s, gaining further popularity with bands such as Creed, Three Days Grace, 3 Doors Down, Puddle of Mudd, Staind, Audioslave, Incubus, Hoobastank, Fuel, and Nickelback, abandoning some of the angst and anger of the original movement for more conventional anthems, narratives and romantic songs. They were followed in this vein by newer acts such as Shinedown and Seether. Creed's albums "My Own Prison", released in 1997, and "Weathered", released in 2001, were both certified by the RIAA. "Weathered" sold at least 6,400,000 copies in the United States. Creed's album "Human Clay", released in 1999, was certified diamond by the RIAA and sold at least 11,690,000 copies in the United States. "Human Clay" song "With Arms Wide Open" peaked at number 1 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Post-grunge

text: Nickelback broke into the mainstream in the early 2000s; their song "How You Remind Me" peaked at number 1 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. The Nickelback album that featured the song, "Silver Side Up", was certified 6× platinum by the RIAA and sold at least 5,528,000 copies in the United States. Nickelback's next album, "The Long Road", was certified 3× platinum by the RIAA and sold at least 3,591,000 copies in the United States. The album's song "Someday" peaked at number 7 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and number 1 on both the Canadian Singles Chart and the Adult Top 40 chart. Nickelback's album "All the Right Reasons" was certified 6× platinum by the RIAA fourteen months after being released. Four years after being released, the album was certified 8× platinum by the RIAA. In March 2017, "All the Right Reasons" was certified diamond by the RIAA. Staind's album "Break the Cycle" peaked at number 1 on the "Billboard" 200 and sold at least 716,000 copies in its release week, and, According to Nielsen SoundScan, sold at least 4,240,000 copies in 2001. "Break the Cycle" song "It's Been Awhile" peaked at number 5 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Post-grunge

text: 3 Doors Down's debut studio album "The Better Life" was certified 6× platinum by the RIAA and sold at least 5,653,000 copies in the United States. "The Better Life" song "Kryptonite" peaked at number 3 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and number 1 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart. 3 Doors Down's second studio album "Away from the Sun" was certified by the RIAA and sold at least 3,863,000 copies in the United States. Lifehouse achieved mainstream success in the early 2000s; their song "Hanging by a Moment", which peaked at number 2 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, was the most played song on the radio in 2001. Puddle of Mudd broke into the mainstream in the early 2000s; their album "Come Clean" was certified by the RIAA and the album's songs "Blurry" and "She Hates Me" both reached very high positions on the "Billboard" Hot 100. "Blurry" peaked at number 5 on the "Billboard Hot 100" and "She Hates Me" peaked at number 13 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. "She Hates Me" also peaked at number 7 on the Top 40 Mainstream chart. The band Default became popular with their song "Wasting My Time". It peaked at number 13 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Post-grunge

text: The post-grunge band Cold's song "Stupid Girl" peaked at number 87 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. band Crossfade's song "Cold" peaked at number 81 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, number 23 on the Top 40 Mainstream chart, number 39 on the Pop 100 chart, number 28 on the Pop 100 Airplay chart, and number 57 on the Hot Digital Songs chart. It was certified gold by the RIAA in December 2006. Crossfade's was certified platinum by the RIAA in August 2005. Three Days Grace broke into the mainstream during the 2000s; their song "Just Like You" peaked at number 55 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 on both the Mainstream Rock chart and the Modern Rock Tracks chart.


title: Post-grunge

text: The Three Days Grace song "I Hate Everything About You" peaked at number 55 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and number 28 on the Pop Songs chart. In 2006, Three Days Grace released their album "One-X", which was certified 3× platinum by the RIAA. The album's song "Pain" peaked at number 44 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, number 47 on the Pop 100 chart and number 35 on the Hot Digital Songs chart. "One-X" song "Never Too Late" peaked at: number 71 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, number 12 on the Top 40 Mainstream chart, number 19 on the Pop 100 chart, number 17 on the Pop 100 Airplay chart, number 30 on the Hot Digital Songs chart, number 18 on the Hot Canadian Digital Singles chart, number 13 on the Adult Top 40 chart and number 1 on the Hot Adult Top 40 Recurrents chart. Daughtry broke into the mainstream in 2006 with the release of their self-titled debut album. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic noted the sound of the album. It sold at least 5,040,000 copies in the United States. The band Flyleaf's song "All Around Me" peaked at: number 40 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, number 12 on the Top 40 Mainstream, number 17 on the Pop 100, number 15 on the Pop 100 Airplay, number 38 on the Hot Digital Songs and number 23 on the Adult Top 40. Flyleaf's self-titled album was certified platinum by the RIAA.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Windows 8.1 is a release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on August 27, 2013, and broadly released for retail sale on October 17, 2013, about a year after the retail release of its predecessor, and succeeded by Windows 10 on July 29, 2015. Windows 8.1 was made available for download via MSDN and Technet and available as a free upgrade for retail copies of Windows 8 and Windows RT users via the Windows Store. A server version, Windows Server 2012 R2, was released on October 18, 2013.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Windows 8.1 aimed to address complaints of Windows 8 users and reviewers on launch. Enhancements include an improved Start screen, additional snap views, additional bundled apps, tighter OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive) integration, Internet Explorer 11 (IE11), a Bing-powered unified search system, restoration of a visible Start button on the taskbar, and the ability to restore the previous behavior of opening the user's desktop on login instead of the Start screen.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Windows 8.1 also added support for then emerging technologies like high-resolution displays, 3D printing, Wi-Fi Direct, and Miracast streaming, as well as the ReFS file system.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Windows 8.1 received more positive reception than Windows 8, with critics praising the expanded functionality available to apps in comparison to Windows 8, its OneDrive integration, its user interface tweaks, and the addition of expanded tutorials for operating the Windows 8 interface. Despite these improvements, Windows 8.1 was still criticized for not addressing all issues of Windows 8 (such as poor integration between Metro-style apps and the desktop interface), and the potential privacy implications of the expanded use of online services.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Official mainstream support for Windows 8.1 ended on January 9, 2018, and extended support will end on January 10, 2023, while the server equivalent, Windows Server 2012 R2, had its mainstream support ended on October 9, 2018, and extended support will end on October 10, 2023, and is eligible for the paid ESU (Extended Security Updates) program (free for Azure Virtual Desktop users). It allows users to purchase security updates for 3 years, in early installments. Security Updates are available for the operating system until October 13, 2026. Unofficial methods can be made to apply these patches to Windows 8.1. Mainstream support for the Embedded Industry edition of Windows 8.1 ended on July 10, 2018 and extended support will end on July 11, 2023.


title: Windows 8.1

text: , 2.45% of traditional PCs running Windows are running Windows 8.1, making it 4th most popular Windows since Windows 11 surpassed it.


title: Windows 8.1

text: In February 2013, ZDNet writer Mary Jo Foley disclosed potential rumors about "Blue", the codename for a wave of planned updates across several Microsoft products and services, including Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Outlook.com, and SkyDrive. In particular, the report detailed that Microsoft was planning to shift to a more "continuous" development model, which would see major revisions to its main software platforms released on a consistent yearly cycle to keep up with market demands. Lending credibility to the reports, Foley noted that a Microsoft staff member had listed experience with "Windows Blue" on his LinkedIn profile, and listed it as a separate operating system from 8.


title: Windows 8.1

text: A post-RTM build of Windows 8, build 9364, was leaked in March 2013. The build, which was believed to be of "Windows Blue", revealed a number of enhancements across Windows 8's interface, including additional size options for tiles, expanded color options on the Start screen, the expansion of PC Settings to include more options that were previously exclusive to the desktop Control Panel, the ability for apps to snap to half of the screen, the ability to take screenshots from the Share charm, additional stock apps, increased SkyDrive integration (such as automatic device backups) and Internet Explorer 11. Shortly afterward on March 26, 2013, corporate vice president of corporate communications Frank X. Shaw officially acknowledged the "Blue" project, stating that continuous development would be "the new normal" at Microsoft, and that "our product groups are also taking a unified planning approach so people get what they want—all of their devices, apps and services working together wherever they are and for whatever they are doing."


title: Windows 8.1

text: In early May, press reports announcing the upcoming version in "Financial Times" and "The Economist" negatively compared Windows 8 to New Coke. The theme was then echoed and debated in the computer press. Shaw rejected this criticism as "extreme", adding that he saw a comparison with Diet Coke as more appropriate.


title: Windows 8.1

text: On May 14, 2013, Microsoft announced that "Blue" was officially unveiled as Windows 8.1. Following a keynote presentation focusing on this version, the public beta of Windows 8.1 was released on June 26, 2013, during Build. Build 9600 of Windows 8.1 was released to OEM hardware partners on August 27, 2013, and became generally available on October 17, 2013. Unlike past releases of Windows and its service packs, volume license customers and subscribers to MSDN Plus and TechNet Plus were unable to obtain the RTM version upon its release; a spokesperson stated that the change in policy was to allow Microsoft to work with OEMs "to ensure a quality experience at general availability." Microsoft stated that Windows 8.1 would be released to the general public on October 17, 2013. However, after criticism, Microsoft reversed its decision and released the RTM build on MSDN and TechNet on September 9, 2013. Microsoft announced that Windows 8.1, along with Windows Server 2012 R2, was released to manufacturing on August 27, 2013. Prior to the release of Windows 8.1, Microsoft premiered a new television commercial in late-September 2013 that focused on its changes as part of the "Windows Everywhere" campaign.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Shortly after its release, Windows RT 8.1 was temporarily recalled by Microsoft following reports that some users had encountered a rare bug which corrupted the operating system's Boot Configuration Data during installation, resulting in an error on startup. On October 21, 2013, Microsoft confirmed that the bug was limited to the original Surface tablet, and only affected 1 in 1000 installations. The company released recovery media and instructions which could be used to repair the device, and restored access to Windows RT 8.1 the next day.


title: Windows 8.1

text: It was also found that changes to screen resolution handling on Windows 8.1 resulted in mouse input lag in certain video games that do not use the DirectInput API's—particularly first-person shooter games, including "", "", and "Metro 2033". Users also found the issues to be more pronounced when using gaming mice with high resolution and/or polling rates. Microsoft released a patch to fix the bug on certain games in November 2013, and acknowledged that it was caused by "changes to mouse-input processing for low-latency interaction scenarios".


title: Windows 8.1

text: On April 8, 2014, Microsoft released the Windows 8.1 Update, which included all past updates plus new features. It was unveiled by Microsoft vice president Joe Belfiore at Mobile World Congress on February 23, 2014, and detailed in full at Microsoft's Build conference on April 2. Belfiore noted that the update would lower the minimum system requirements for Windows, so it can be installed on devices with as little as 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage. Unlike Windows 8.1 itself, this cumulative update is distributed through Windows Update, and must be installed in order to receive any further patches for Windows 8.1.


title: Windows 8.1

text: At the 2014 Build conference, during April, Microsoft's Terry Myerson unveiled further user interface changes for Windows 8.1, including the ability to run Metro-style apps inside desktop windows, and a revised Start menu, which creates a compromise between the Start menu design used by Windows 7 and the Start screen, by combining the application listing in the first column with a second that can be used to display app tiles, whereas Windows 8.0 used a screen hotspot ("hot corner"). Myerson stated that these changes would occur in a future update, but did not elaborate further. A distinction is the removal of the tooltip with the preview thumbnail of the "Start" screen.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Microsoft also unveiled a concept known as "Universal Windows apps", in which a Windows Runtime app can be ported to Windows Phone 8.1 and Xbox One while sharing a common codebase. While it does not entirely unify Windows' app ecosystem with that of Windows Phone, it will allow developers to synchronize data between versions of their app on each platform, and bundle access to Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox One versions of an app in a single purchase.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Microsoft originally announced that users who did not install the update would not receive any other updates after May 13, 2014. However, meeting this deadline proved challenging: The ability to deploy Windows 8.1 Update through Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) was disabled shortly after its release following the discovery of a bug which affects the ability to use WSUS as a whole in certain server configurations. Microsoft later fixed the issue but users continued to report that the update may fail to install. Microsoft's attempt to fix the problem was ineffective, to the point that Microsoft pushed the support deadline further to June 30, 2014. On 16 May, Microsoft released additional updates to fix a problem of BSOD in the update.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Microsoft markets Windows 8.1 as an "update" for Windows 8, avoiding the term "upgrade." Microsoft's support lifecycle policy treats Windows 8.1 similar to previous service packs of Windows: It is part of Windows 8's support lifecycle, and upgrading to Windows 8.1 is required to maintain access to support and Windows updates after January 12, 2016.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Retail and OEM copies of Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, and Windows RT can be upgraded through Windows Store free of charge. However, volume license customers, TechNet or MSDN subscribers and users of Windows 8 Enterprise must acquire standalone installation media for Windows 8.1 and install through the traditional Windows setup process, either as an in-place upgrade or clean install. This requires a Windows 8.1-specific product key.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Upgrading through Windows Store requires each machine to download an upgrade package as big as 2–3.6 GB. Unlike the traditional Windows service packs, the standalone installer, which could be downloaded once and installed as many times as needed, requires a Windows 8.1-specific product key. On July 1, 2014, acknowledging difficulties users may have had through the Windows Store update method, Microsoft began to phase in an automatic download process for Windows 8.1.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Windows 8 was re-issued at retail as Windows 8.1 alongside the online upgrade for those who did not currently own a Windows 8 license. Retail copies of Windows 8.1 contain "Full" licenses that can be installed on any computer, regardless of their existing operating system, unlike Windows 8 retail copies, which were only available at retail with upgrade licenses. Microsoft stated that the change was in response to customer feedback, and to allow more flexibility for users. Pricing for the retail copies of Windows 8.1 remained the same.


title: Windows 8.1

text: "Windows 8.1 with Bing" is a reduced-cost SKU of Windows 8.1 that was introduced by Microsoft in May 2014 in an effort to further encourage the production of low-cost Windows devices, whilst "driving end-user usage of Microsoft Services such as Bing and OneDrive". It is subsidized by Microsoft's Bing search engine, which is set as the default within Internet Explorer and cannot be changed by OEMs. However, this restriction does not apply to end-users, who can still change the default search engine freely. It is otherwise and functionally identical to the base edition of Windows 8.1.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Many of the changes on Windows 8.1, particularly to the user interface, were made in response to criticisms from early adopters and other critics after the release of Windows 8.


title: Windows 8.1

text: The Start screen received several enhancements on Windows 8.1, including an extended "All Apps" view with sort modes (accessed by clicking a new down arrow button or swiping upward), small and extra-large sizes for tiles, and colored tiles for desktop program shortcuts. Additional customization options were also added, such as expanded color options, new backgrounds (some of which incorporate animated elements), and the ability for the Start screen to use the desktop background instead. Applications were no longer added to the Start screen automatically when installed, and all applications now have colored tiles (desktop programs were previously shown in a single color). The app snapping system was also extended; up to four apps can be snapped onto a single display depending on screen size, apps can be snapped to fill half the screen, and can also be used on any display in a multi-monitor configuration. Apps can also launch other apps in a snapped view to display content; for example, the Mail app can open a photo attachment in a picture viewer snapped to another half of the screen. Improved support is also provided by apps for using devices in a portrait (vertical) orientation. The lock screen offers the ability to use a photo slideshow as its backdrop, and a shortcut to the Camera app by swiping up. The on-screen keyboard has an improved autocomplete mechanism which displays multiple word suggestions, and allows users to select from them by sliding on the spacebar. The autocomplete dictionary is also automatically updated using data from Bing, allowing it to recognize and suggest words relating to current trends and events. Similarly to Windows Phone, certain apps now display a narrow bar with three dots on it to indicate the presence of a pop-up menu accessible by swiping, clicking on the dots, or right-clicking.


title: Windows 8.1

text: To improve the usability of the desktop interface, a visible Start button was restored to the taskbar for opening the Start screen, and the Quick Links menu (accessed by right-clicking the Start button or pressing ) now contains shutdown and sign-out options. Users can also modify certain user interface behaviors, such as disabling the upper hot corners for using the charms and recent apps list, going to the desktop instead of the Start screen on login or after closing all apps on a screen, automatically opening the "All Apps" view on the Start screen when opened, and prioritizing desktop programs on the "Category" sort mode on "All Apps". To assist users in learning the Windows 8 user interface, an interactive tutorial was also offered, along with a new "Help + Tips" app for additional information. In contrast, Windows RT 8.1 downplays the desktop interface further by not displaying the Desktop tile on its default Start screen at all (however, it can still be manually added to the Start screen).


title: Windows 8.1

text: Windows manager Chaitanya Sareen stated that the restoration of the visible Start button was intended to be a "warm blanket" for users who had become confused by the removal of the button on 8; the Start button was originally removed to reflect Windows 8's treatment of the desktop as an "app" rather than the main interface.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Further interface behavior changes are made on the April 2014 "Windows 8.1 Update", which are oriented towards non-touch environments (such as desktop and laptop PCs) that use a keyboard and mouse, and improve integration between Windows Store apps and the desktop. When a mouse is in use, the Desktop is shown on startup by default, the Start screen uses context menus instead of a toolbar across the bottom of the screen for manipulating tiles, an autohiding title bar with minimize and close buttons is displayed within apps at the top of the screen, the taskbar can display and pin apps alongside desktop programs and be accessed from within apps, and visible search and power buttons are added to the Start screen. In non-touch environments, the default image viewer and media player programs were changed back to Windows Photo Viewer and Windows Media Player in lieu of the Xbox Video and Photos apps.


title: Windows 8.1

text: The suite of pre-loaded apps bundled with Windows 8 were changed in Windows 8.1; PC Settings was expanded to include options that were previously exclusive to the desktop Control Panel, Windows Store was updated with an improved interface for browsing apps and automatic updates, the Mail app includes an updated interface and additional features, the Camera app integrates Photosynth for creating panoramas, and additional editing tools were added to the Photos app (while integration with Flickr and Facebook was completely removed). A number of additional stock apps were also added, including Calculator, Food and Drink, Health and Fitness, Sound Recorder, Reading List (which can be used to collect and sync content from apps through OneDrive), Scan, and Help + Tips. For Windows RT users, Windows 8.1 also adds a version of Microsoft Outlook to the included Office 2013 RT suite. However, it does not support data loss protection, Group Policy, Lync integration, or creating emails with information rights management. Windows Store is enabled by default within Windows To Go environments. On January 31, 2020, Microsoft released the new Microsoft Edge web browser for Windows 8.1.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Windows 8.1 adds tighter integration with several Microsoft-owned services. OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive) is integrated at the system level to sync user settings and files. Files are automatically downloaded in the background when they are accessed from the user's OneDrive folder, unless they are marked to be available offline. By default, only file metadata and thumbnails are stored locally, and reparse points are used to give the appearance of a normal directory structure to provide backwards compatibility. The OneDrive app was updated to include a local file manager. OneDrive use on Windows 8.1 requires that a user's Windows account be linked to a Microsoft account; the previous SkyDrive desktop client (which did not have this requirement) is not supported on Windows 8.1.


title: Windows 8.1

text: A Bing-based unified search system was added; it can analyze a user's search habits to return results featuring relevant local and online content. Full-screen "hero" displays aggregate news articles, Wikipedia entries, multimedia, and other content related to a search query; for instance, searching for a music performer would return photos of the performer, a biography, and their available songs and albums on Xbox Music. The messaging app from Windows 8 has been replaced by Skype, which also allows users to accept calls directly from the lock screen. Windows 8.1 also includes Internet Explorer 11, which adds support for SPDY and WebGL, and expanded developer tools. The Metro-style variant of IE11 also adds tab syncing, the ability to open an unlimited number of tabs, and Reading List integration.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Due to Facebook Connect service changes, Facebook support is disabled in all bundled apps effective June 8, 2015.


title: Windows 8.1

text: On compatible hardware, Windows 8.1 also features a transparent "device encryption" system based on BitLocker. Encryption begins as soon as a user begins using the system; the recovery key is stored to either the user's Microsoft account or an Active Directory login, allowing it to be retrieved from any computer. While device encryption is offered on all editions of Windows 8.1 unlike BitLocker (which is exclusive to the Pro and Enterprise editions), device encryption requires that the device meet the Connected Standby specification and have a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 chip. Windows 8.1 also introduces improved fingerprint recognition APIs, which allows user login, User Account Control, Windows Store and Windows Store apps to use enrolled fingerprints as an authentication method. A new kiosk mode known as "Assigned Access" was also added, allowing a device to be configured to use a single app in a restricted environment. Additionally, Windows Defender includes an intrusion detection system which can scan network activity for signs of malware. Windows 8.1 also allows third-party VPN clients to automatically trigger connections.


title: Windows 8.1

text: For enterprise device management, Windows 8.1 adds support for the Workplace Join feature of Windows Server 2012 R2, which allows users to enroll their own device into corporate networks with finer control over access to resources and security requirements. Windows 8.1 also supports the OMA Device Management specifications. Remote Data Control can be used to remotely wipe specific "corporate" data from Windows 8.1 devices.


title: Windows 8.1

text: The 64-bit variants of Windows 8.1 no longer support processors which do not implement the double-width compare and exchange (CMPXCHG16B) CPU instruction (which the installer reports as a lack of support for "CompareExchange128"). A Microsoft spokesperson noted that the change primarily affects systems with older AMD 64-bit processors, and that "the number of affected processors are extremely small since this instruction has been supported for greater than 10 years." It mostly concerns Socket 754 and Socket 939 Athlon 64 from 2004 and 2005; the Socket AM2 CPUs should all have the instruction. Brad Chacos of "PC World" also reported a case in which Windows 8.1 rejected Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 and a Q9550S despite their support for this instruction, because the associated Intel DP35DP motherboard did not. These changes do not affect the 32-bit variants of Windows 8.1.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Windows 8.1 adds support for 3D printing, pairing with printers using NFC tags, Wi-Fi Direct, Miracast media streaming, tethering, and NVMe. In response to the increasing pixel density in displays, Windows 8.1 can scale text and GUI elements up to 200% (whereas Windows 8 supported only 150%) and set scaling settings independently on each display in multi-monitor configurations.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Backup and Restore, the backup component of Windows that had been deprecated but was available in Windows 8 through a Control Panel applet called "Windows 7 File Recovery", was removed.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Windows 8.1 also removes the graphical user interface for the Windows System Assessment Tool, meaning that the Windows Experience Index is no longer displayed. The command line variant of the tool remains available on the system. Microsoft reportedly removed the graphical Windows Experience Index in order to promote the idea that all kinds of hardware run Windows 8 equally well.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Windows 8.1 removed the ability of several Universal Windows Platform apps to act as "hubs" connecting similar services within a single interface:


title: Windows 8.1

text: Since October 2016, all future patches are cumulative as with Windows 10; individual patches can no longer be downloaded.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Windows 8.1 received more positive reviews than Windows 8. Tom Warren of "The Verge" still considered the platform to be a "work in progress" due to the number of apps available, the impaired level of capabilities that apps have in comparison to desktop programs, and because he felt that mouse and keyboard navigation was still "awkward". However, he touted many of the major changes on Windows 8.1, such as the expanded snapping functionality, increased Start screen customization, SkyDrive and Bing integration, improvements to stock apps, and particularly he considered the Mail app to be "lightyears ahead" of the original version from 8. He concluded that "Microsoft has achieved a lot within 12 months, even a lot of the additions feel like they should have been there from the very start with Windows 8."


title: Windows 8.1

text: Joel Hruska of "ExtremeTech" criticized continuing integration problems between the Desktop and apps on Windows 8.1, pointing out examples such as the Photos app, which "still refuses to acknowledge that users might have previous photo directories", and that the Mail app "still can’t talk to the desktop—if you try to send an email from the Desktop without another mail client installed, Windows will tell you there’s no mail client capable of performing that action." However, he praised the improvements to other apps, such as People and News (pointing out UI improvements, and the News app using proper links when sharing stories, rather than non-standard links that can only be recognized by the app). Although praising the more flexible snapping system, he still pointed out flaws, such as an inability to maintain snap configurations in certain situations. Windows 8.1's search functionality was met with mixed reviews; while noting the Bing integration and updated design, the system was panned for arbitrarily leaving out secondary storage devices from the "Everything" mode.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Peter Bright of "Ars Technica" praised many of the improvements on Windows 8.1, such as its more "complete" touch interface, the "reasonable" tutorial content, the new autocomplete tools on the on-screen keyboard, software improvements, and the deep SkyDrive integration. However, he felt that the transition between the desktop and apps "still tends to feel a bit disjointed and disconnected" (even though the option to use the desktop wallpaper on the Start screen made it feel more integrated with the desktop interface rather than dissimilar), and that the restoration of the Start button made the two interfaces feel even more inconsistent because of how different it operates between the desktop and apps.


title: Windows 8.1

text: Certain aspects of Windows 8.1 were also cause for concern because of their privacy implications. In his review of Windows 8.1, Joel Hruska noted that Microsoft had deliberately made it harder for users to create a "Local" account that is not tied to a Microsoft account for syncing, as it "[makes] clear that the company really, really, wants you to share everything you do with it, and that’s not something an increasing number of people and businesses are comfortable doing." Woody Leonhard of "InfoWorld" noted that by default Windows 8.1's "Smart Search" system sends search queries and other information to Microsoft, which could be used for targeted advertising. Leonhard considered this to be ironic, given that Microsoft had criticized Google's use of similar tactics with its "Scroogled" advertising campaign.


title: Windows 8.1

text: According to Net Applications, the adoption rate in March 2015 for Windows 8.1 was at 10.55%, three times that of the original Windows 8 at 3.52%. Windows 8.1 reached a peak adoption rate of 13.12% in June 2015 compared with Windows 8 peak adoption rate of 8.02% in September 2013.


title: Gesine Bullock-Prado

text: Gesine Bullock-Prado (born March 6, 1970) is an American pastry chef, TV personality, author, attorney, and former film executive.


title: Gesine Bullock-Prado

text: Bullock-Prado was born in Washington, D.C. Her father, John Wilson Bullock (1925–2018), was a United States Army employee and voice coach; her German mother, Helga Mathilde Meyer (1942–2000), was an opera singer who sang at the Staatstheater Nürnberg and the Salzburg Festival and taught voice at the Mary Washington College. Bullock attended the University of Virginia and Southwestern Law School, and became a licensed attorney in 1997.


title: Gesine Bullock-Prado

text: She joined the production company Fortis Films in 1995 with her sister, actress Sandra Bullock. As the company's lawyer and president, Bullock-Prado co-produced the films "Gun Shy" and "", and helped develop dozens of others, including "Practical Magic", "Miss Congeniality", and the series "The George Lopez Show".


title: Gesine Bullock-Prado

text: She left the film industry in 2004 and relocated to Vermont. From 2005 to 2008, she owned a bakery, Gesine Confectionary, in Montpelier; she is now a pastry instructor at her own baking school in Hartford, Vermont, Sugar Glider Kitchen, and at King Arthur Flour Company.


title: Gesine Bullock-Prado

text: She is the host of Food Network's "Baked in Vermont" and appears as a judge on "Beat Bobby Flay", "Christmas Cookie Challenge", and "Worst Cooks".


title: Gesine Bullock-Prado

text: She is the author of books, including the memoirs "Confections of a Closet Master Baker" (2009) aka "My Life from Scratch" (2010) – dedicated to her mother, and the cookbooks "Sugar Baby" (2011), "Pie It Forward" (2012), "Bake It Like You Mean It" (2013), "Let Them Eat Cake" (2016), and "Fantastical Cakes" (2018).


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: CVS Pharmacy, Inc. is an American retail corporation. A subsidiary of CVS Health, it is headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. It was also known as, and originally named, the Consumer Value Store and was founded in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1963.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: The chain was owned by its original holding company Melville Corporation from its inception until its current parent company (CVS Health) was spun off into its own company in 1996. CVS Pharmacy is currently the largest pharmacy chain in the United States by number of locations (over 9,600 as of 2016) and total prescription revenue. Its parent company ranks as the fifth largest U.S. corporation by FY2020 revenues in the "Fortune" 500. The parent company of CVS Pharmacy's leading competitor (Walgreens) ranked 19th for the same time period. CVS sells prescription drugs and a wide assortment of general merchandise, including over-the-counter drugs, beauty products and cosmetics, film and photo finishing services, seasonal merchandise, greeting cards, and convenience foods through their CVS Pharmacy and Longs Drugs retail stores and online through CVS.com. It also provides healthcare services through its more than 1,100 MinuteClinic medical clinics as well as their Diabetes Care Centers. Most of these clinics are located within or outside CVS stores.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: CVS Pharmacy used to be a subsidiary of Melville Corporation, where its full name was initially Consumer Value Stores. Melville changed its name to CVS Corporation in 1996 after Melville sold off many of its nonpharmacy stores. The last of its nondrugstore operations were sold in 1997.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: During the company's days as a regional chain in the Northeast, many CVS stores did not include pharmacies. Today, the company seldom builds new stores without pharmacies and outside of New England is gradually phasing out any such shops. Any new non-pharmacy store is usually built in a more urban setting where another CVS with a pharmacy exists within walking distance such as downtown Boston, Massachusetts or Providence, Rhode Island. These stores usually lack a pharmacy and a photo center but carry most of the general merchandise items that a normal CVS Pharmacy carries such as health and beauty items, sundries, and food items.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: The name "CVS" was used for the first time in 1964. That year, they had 17 retail locations, and 40 stores five years later.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: In 1967, CVS began operation of its first stores with pharmacy departments, opening locations in Warwick and Cumberland, Rhode Island. CVS was acquired by the now-defunct Melville Corporation in 1969, boosting its growth.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: In early 1972, CVS introduced America's first refillable plastic bottle with its CVS private-label shampoo. Customers paid 79¢ for a bottle of CVS private-label shampoo and when they returned the empty bottle and cap, could buy another bottle of the same shampoo for 69¢ (a 10¢ saving). This practice created a cause-related repeat-purchase cycle, wherein the customer saved 10¢ as they bought another bottle of CVS shampoo and avoided using (and CVS producing) a new plastic bottle. Each initial PVC bottle, flip-top cap and label cost CVS 11.5¢, so the process paid for itself and reduced plastic bottle pollution.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: In 1972, CVS acquired 84 Clinton Drug and Discount Stores, which introduced CVS to Indiana and the Midwest. By 1974, CVS had 232 stores and sales of $100million. In 1977, CVS acquired the 36-store New Jersey-based Mack Drug chain.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: The chain had more than 400 stores by 1981. Sales reached $1billion in 1985, partly due to the pharmacies being added to many of CVS's older stores.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: In 1980, CVS became the 15th largest pharmacy chain in the U.S., with 408 stores and $414million in sales. In 1988 CVS celebrated its 25th anniversary, finishing the year with nearly 750 stores and sales of about $1.6billion.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: In 1990 CVS acquired the 490-store Peoples Drug chain from Imasco, which established the company in new mid-Atlantic markets including Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. In 1994 CVS started PharmaCare Management Services. The parent company decided to focus on CVS in 1995, selling off Marshalls and This End Up. The following year, they let go of Footaction/Footstar, Meldisco, Linens 'n Things, and KB Toys. The company, then decided to change its name from Melville Corporation to CVS Corporation. In 1997, Bob's Stores were also sold, and CVS nearly tripled its 1,400 stores after purchasing the 2,500-store Revco chain. CVS bought 200 Arbor Drugs locations in 1998, opened approximately 180 new stores, closed about 160 stores, and relocated nearly 200 existing stores from strip malls to freestanding locations. In 1999 CVS acquired Soma.com, the first online pharmacy, and renamed it CVS.com. The same year, CVS launched their CVS ProCare Pharmacy for complex drug therapies.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: In 1990 CVS bought the 23-store Rix Dunnington chain. In 1993, CVS withdrew from the southern California market. Formerly traded as MVL on the New York Stock Exchange, the company now trades as CVS.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: CVS bought Stadtlander Pharmacy of Pittsburgh from Bergen Brunswig/AmerisourceBergen in 2000. As of December 2009, CVS Caremark had over 7,000 locations.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: In 2004 CVS purchased 1,268 Eckerd drug stores and Eckerd Health Services, a PBM/mail-order pharmacy business, from J. C. Penney. Most of the former Eckerd stores, which were converted to CVS stores by June, are located in Florida, Texas, and other southern states. Because JCPenney credit cards were accepted at Eckerd locations, CVS continued to accept them until July 2014.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: On January 23, 2006, CVS announced that it had agreed to acquire the freestanding drug store operations of supermarket chain Albertsons. The deal included the acquisition of 700 drug stores trading under the Osco Drug and Sav-On Drugs banners, mostly in the midwestern and southwestern United States (with a concentration of stores in southern California and the Chicago area), and was formally completed on June 2, 2006.<ref name="CVS-Caremark-Aug-2006-8-K/A"></ref> Transition of Sav-On and Osco stores to the CVS brand was completed by December 2006. CVS now dominates the southern California market. Also included were Albertsons Health'n'Home (now CVS Home Health) durable medical equipment stores. Approximately 28 CVS Home Health locations are present in Arizona, California, and the Kansas City area, representing CVS's first venture into the specialized DME market.CVS had previously operated stores in southern California but completely withdrew from the market in 1993. CVS sold virtually all of the locations to Sav-On's then owner American Stores, who operated them under the name American Drug Stores. Many of the stores CVS gained in January 2006 had been the stores it owned prior to 1993. Before their re-acquisition, these stores were operated under the name Sav-On Express (the Express name was used to help customers identify these stores that did not carry all the lines of merchandise as compared to the larger, traditional Sav-On Drugs locations). CVS now operates over 6,200 stores in 43 states and the District of Columbia. In some locations, CVS has two stores less than two blocks apart.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: On July 13, 2006, CVS announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Minneapolis-based MinuteClinic, the pioneer and largest provider of retail-based health clinics in the U.S. MinuteClinic operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of CVS Corporation. MinuteClinic health care centers are staffed by board-certified nurse practitioners and physician assistants who are trained to diagnose and treat common family illnesses such as throat, ear, eye, sinus, bladder, and bronchial infections, and provide prescriptions when clinically appropriate. MinuteClinic also offers common vaccinations, such as flu shots, tetanus, and Hepatitis A & B. The clinics are supported by physicians who collaborate with the staff. There are over 550 locations across the United States, most of which are within CVS Pharmacy locations.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: On November 1, 2006, CVS announced that it was entering into a purchase agreement with Nashville-based Caremark Rx Inc., a pharmacy benefits manager. The new company is called "CVS Caremark Corporation" and the corporate headquarters remains in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. The new pharmacy services business, including the combined pharmacy benefits management (PBM), specialty pharmacy, and disease management businesses, is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. The new CVS Caremark Corporation is expected to achieve about $75billion in yearly revenue for 2007. The merger was formally completed on March 22, 2007. Tom Ryan, CVS's Chairman and CEO, remains president and CEO of the combined company, while Caremark's president and CEO, Mac Crawford, is chairman of the board.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: On November 7, 2007, Mac Crawford stepped down as chairman of the board for CVS Caremark. He was replaced by president and CEO of CVS Caremark, Tom Ryan.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: On August 12, 2008, CVS Pharmacy announced that it would acquire Longs Drugs for $2.9billion. Walgreens made a counteroffer but dropped it. The deal closed October 30, 2008. Longs Drugs stores outside Hawaii were rebranded to CVS Pharmacy by the summer of 2009.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: On July 14, 2014, it was announced that CVS Caremark would acquire the Miami-based Navarro Discount Pharmacies when the deal closes, the 33 stores will remain untouched and will stay under the Navarro name.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: On September 3, 2014, CVS Caremark changed its name to CVS Health and announced that it would stop selling tobacco products.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: On October 25, 2014, CVS Health disabled near field communication NFC payments, disallowing customers from using Apple Pay or Google Wallet payment methods. A reason was not immediately given. Analysts suggested that it was a way to favor the MCX system, which was still under development, and of which CVS was a founding member. They eventually re-enabled NFC on their registers after the MCX system failed to take off.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: On May 21, 2015, it was announced that CVS Health would acquire Omnicare, Inc. the leading provider of pharmacy services to long-term care facilities, for $98.00 per share in cash, for a total enterprise value of approximately $12.7billion, which includes approximately $2.3billion in debt. The transaction was expected to close near the end of 2015.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: On June 15, 2015, CVS Health announced its agreement to acquire Target Corporation's pharmacy and retail clinic businesses. The deal expanded CVS to new markets in Seattle, Denver, Portland and Salt Lake City. The acquisition includes more than 1,660 pharmacies in 47 states. CVS will operate them through a store-within-a-store format. Target's nearly 80 clinic locations will be rebranded as MinuteClinic, and CVS plans to open up to 20 new clinics in their stores within three years. CVS started rebranding the pharmacies within the Target stores on February 3, 2016.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: In December 2017 CVS Health announced a deal to acquire Aetna. On October 10, 2018, CVS Health received approval from the United States Department of Justice to acquire Aetna, for $69billion.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: CVS announced it would close 46 "underperforming stores" in 2019, and a further 22 in 2020, without disclosing their locations.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: In May 2020 CVS Health announced a partnership with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to more than 60 CVS pharmacies that will conduct 50 or more COVID-19 tests per day. The New York partnership comes within days of CVS's disclosure that it was going to dramatically ramp up COVID-19 testing by processing up to 1.5 million tests every month.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: In November 2021, CVS announced it would be closing approximately 900 stores over the next 3 years due to declining sales in underperforming and failing stores.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: The domain "CVS.com" attracted at least 26million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com survey.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: CVS no longer owns the soma.com domain name, which it acquired with the purchase of online drugstore pioneer Soma; that domain now resides with the lingerie brand of the same name owned by clothing retailer Chico's.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: In 2015 CVS Pharmacy launched an alternative version of their CVS Pharmacy stores called CVS Pharmacy y más specifically aimed at attracting Hispanic shoppers. The first stores were launched in Florida and have since expanded to California, Puerto Rico, Texas, and New Jersey.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: In 2005 CVS participated in a program to reduce the pollution of Maine's waterways. CVS agreed to accept drugs for disposal so that people would not dispose of them in ways that reach rivers and other bodies of waters.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: In 2013 CVS agreed to pay Connecticut $800,000 due to alleged mismanagement of hazardous waste. The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection agency found that CVS had improperly identified, managed, and disposed of hazardous materials.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: Following the "Dobbs" case that overturned "Roe v. Wade", CVS instructed its pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for many routine drugs, which could be potentially used to cause an abortion, unless the patient could affirmatively prove that they were not using the drug for an abortion, even if the prescription was long-standing. Patient advocates for those with autoimmune disorders, such as Crohn's disease, noted that this rule could result in many patients being denied access to medicines to treat their diseases.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: CVS was required to pay the United States government $2.25million in 2009 for violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found that CVS did not appropriately dispose of sensitive patient information or provide the necessary training on disposal to their employees.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: Former CVS executives John R. Kramer and Carlos Ortiz were charged with bribery, conspiracy, and fraud (including mail fraud) by a federal grand jury for allegedly paying State Senator John A. Celona (D-RI) to act as a "consultant" for the company. Between February 2000 and September 2003, CVS paid Celona $1,000 a month, and he received tickets to golf outings and sporting events and compensation for travel to Florida and California. In August 2005, he pleaded guilty to mail fraud charges, and in January 2007, he was fined a record $130,000 by the Rhode Island Ethics Committee. The investigation was led by the FBI and the Rhode Island State Police, and the case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gerard B. Sullivan and Dulce Donovan. Kramer and Ortiz were acquitted after a jury trial, in May 2008.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: During 2005 a rash of prescription mistakes came to light in some of CVS Corporation's Boston-area stores. An investigation confirmed 62 errors or quality problems going back to 2002. In February 2006 the state Board of Pharmacy announced that the non-profit Institute of Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) would monitor all Massachusetts stores for the next two years. Later, a 2007 segment on "ABC News 20/20" accused CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid among other pharmacies, of making various prescription dispensing errors. This segment aired in March 2007, and included an undercover investigation. CVS responded by claiming they had designed and invested millions of dollars in a comprehensive quality assurance program.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott sued CVS in April 2007, for illegally dumping records containing confidential patient information and sensitive financial information including credit card numbers when closing an acquired Eckerd store in Liberty, Texas. CVS was accused of breaking the state's 2005 Identity Theft Enforcement and Protection Act. It was reported that this was the fourth time action had been taken against CVS for violating the 2005 law and that there were also other possible violations under the Texas Business and Commerce Code. CVS settled by paying $315,000 to the state and agreeing to overhaul its information security system.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: As was common practice among U.S. pharmacies, CVS originally stocked cigarettes for sale to the public. This met with criticism from public health advocates of the removal of tobacco from pharmacies due to the harmful effects on health associated with smoking, who pointed to the apparent contradiction implicit in selling cigarettes while offering smoking cessation products and medications to treat ailments such as asthma that are caused or aggravated by smoking. CVS and other pharmacies that continued to sell tobacco products were subject to criticism, and attempts were made to introduce regional bans on the practice, notably by the City and County of San Francisco.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: In 2007 CEO Thomas Ryan stated that the company was considering halting the sale of cigarettes within its pharmacies, acknowledging that the issue was problematic for the company. He said the company would continue selling cigarettes, citing internal market research that concluded that ceasing cigarette sales would not change the consumer practice of purchasing them.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: In February 2014, CVS announced that it would stop selling cigarettes and other tobacco products at its stores and that it was challenging other retailers to do the same. The decision meant the company would forego about $1.5billion a year in tobacco revenue. In a videotaped message, CEO Larry J. Merlo said ending tobacco sales "is the right thing to do". On September 3, 2014, CVS officially stopped selling cigarettes in its stores. A "Forbes" magazine article cited the move to remove tobacco products as coinciding with CVS's decision to change its corporate name from CVS Caremark to CVS Health and said this reflected a "broader health care commitment" and desire to change the future health of Americans.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: In February 2008 CVS settled a large civil lawsuit for deceptive business practices. The Kaiser Family Foundation reported:


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: CVS Caremark has agreed to a $38.5 million settlement in a multi-state civil deceptive-practices lawsuit against pharmacy benefit manager Caremark filed by 28 attorneys general, the "Chicago Tribune" reports. The attorneys general, led by Lisa Madigan (D) of Illinois and Douglas Ganslar (D) of Maryland, allege that Caremark "engaged in deceptive business practices" by informing physicians that patients or health plans could save money if patients were switched to certain brand-name prescription drugs (Miller, "Chicago Tribune", 2/14).


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: However, the switch often saved patients and health plans only small amounts or increased their costs, while increasing Caremark's profits, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D) said (Levick, "Hartford Courant", 2/15). Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett (R) said the PBM kept discounts and rebates that should have been passed on to employers and patients (Levy, "AP/San Francisco Chronicle", 2/14). In addition, Caremark did not "adequately inform doctors" of the full financial effect of the switch and did not disclose that the switch would increase Caremark's profits, the lawsuit alleges ("Chicago Tribune", 2/14).


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: ...The settlement prohibits Caremark from requesting prescription drug switches in certain cases, such as when the cost to the patient would be higher with the new prescription drug; when the original prescription drug's patent will expire within six months; and when patients were switched from a similar prescription drug within the previous two years ("Hartford Courant", 2/15). Patients also have the ability to decline a switch from the prescribed treatment to the prescription offered by the pharmacy under the settlement, Madigan said ("Bloomberg News/The Philadelphia Inquirer", 2/15).


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: On October 14, 2010, CVS was ordered to pay $77.6million in fines and returned profits stemming from a lawsuit alleging improper control in the sale of pseudoephedrine, a drug that can be used to make methamphetamine.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: In 2011 the U.S. Department of Justice charged that CVS pharmacies in Sanford, Florida, ordered enough painkillers to supply a population eight times its size. Sanford has a population of 53,000 but the supply would support 400,000. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), in 2010 a single CVS pharmacy in Sanford ordered 1.8million oxycodone pills, an average of 137,994 pills a month. Other pharmacy customers in Florida averaged 5,364 oxycodone pills a month. DEA investigators serving a warrant to a CVS pharmacy in Sanford on October 18, 2011, noted that "approximately every third car that came through the drive-thru lane had prescriptions for oxycodone or hydrocodone". According to the DEA, a pharmacist at that location stated to investigators that "her customers often requested certain brands of oxycodone using "street slang", an indicator that the drugs were being diverted and not used for legitimate pain management. In response, CVS, in a statement issued February 17, 2012, in response to opioid trafficking questions from "USA Today", said the company was committed to working with the DEA and had taken "significant actions to ensure appropriate dispensing of painkillers in Florida".


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: In 2013 a Korean customer, Hyun Lee, was identified as "Ching Chong Lee" on her receipt from a CVS in New Jersey. Lee contacted CVS and received an email response saying that the employee would be "counseled and trained". Lee's attorney said "[The employee] should have been terminated immediately. She never got an apology. She never got anything further after she complained." On April 16, 2013, Lee filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against CVS and sought $1million. She settled for an undisclosed sum.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: In 2013 CVS introduced a program that rewarded customers up to $50 per year in ExtraCare Bucks in exchange for filling their prescriptions. In order to enroll in the program, customers had to sign a HIPAA waiver acknowledging, "my health information may potentially be re-disclosed and thus is no longer protected by the federal Privacy Rule." Stores had to fulfill a quota of a number of customers in the program each week. Walgreens and Rite Aid also offer rewards for filling prescriptions, although they do not require a signed HIPAA waiver.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: On April 1, 2011, the James Randi Educational Foundation awarded CVS Pharmacy the tongue-in-cheek Pigasus Award for selling homeopathic remedies alongside medicines recognized by science.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: In July 2018 the Center for Inquiry (CfI) filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia against CVS for consumer fraud over its sale of homeopathic medicines. In July, 2019, CFI announced that the Stiefel Freethought Foundation was contributing an additional $150,000 to the previously committed $100,000 to support the CVS and Walmart lawsuits. The case was dismissed.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: On July 17, 2015, CVS shut down its online photo processing services, blaming a third-party vendor, believed to be PNI Digital Media. According to reporters, CVS was unwilling to confirm or deny questions about whether hackers had stolen customer photographs as well as data. The site was updated on September 11, 2015, with more details of the attack. By the end of November 2015 the CVS photo website was restored, and customers may order photo services online again.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: In July 2018 a transgender woman in Arizona posted an allegation on the ACLU of Arizona website. She said she had attempted to fill prescriptions for hormone therapy at the CVS store in Fountain Hills, Arizona, and that the pharmacist had refused to fill the prescriptions and instead subjected her to loud questioning in front of other customers and pharmacy staff demanding her to explain why she had been prescribed the medications. She said the pharmacist also refused to return the prescription notes to her or to transfer the prescription to another pharmacy. She said she filed a complaint with CVS and received no acknowledgement of her complaint until she went public with the allegation three months later. In an email to "The Arizona Republic" on the day they published an article about the story, CVS apologized to her, stating that the pharmacist had violated company policies and was no longer employed by CVS and that the incident "does not reflect our values or our commitment to inclusion, nondiscrimination and the delivery of outstanding patient care." The newspaper also said that the pharmacist's alleged actions may have violated the laws governing pharmacy practices.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: CVS has drawn ire for the length of its receipts, specifically receipts given to people who have signed up for their ExtraCare rewards program. Due to CVS's practice of placing numerous targeted coupons on the front, these receipts can be up to in length. CVS CEO Larry Merlo responded by saying that they were working on ways to reduce the length of the receipts by 25% and mentioned that customers can get their receipts and coupons digitally through CVS's mobile app, which requires the customer to sign up for digital coupons and receipts. However, despite this, Merlo admitted that CVS still could do a better job of making the instructions to opt out of paper receipts more clear.


title: CVS Pharmacy

text: In 2020, Massachusetts CVS stores lost controlled substances at a rate several times higher than other pharmacy chains. CVS was fined $5 million by the federal government in 2017 for controlled substance losses and other violations in California pharmacies, and $1.5 million in 2018 for failing to report losses from New York pharmacies.


title: Remington Model 870

text: The Remington Model 870 is a pump-action shotgun manufactured by Remington Arms Company, LLC. It is widely used by the public for shooting sports, hunting and self-defense, as well as by law enforcement and military organizations worldwide.


title: Remington Model 870

text: The Remington 870 was the fourth major design in a series of Remington pump shotguns. John Pedersen designed the fragile Remington Model 10 (and later the improved Remington Model 29). John Browning designed the Remington Model 17 (which was later adapted by Ithaca into the Ithaca 37), which served as the basis for the Remington 31. The Model 31 was marketed as the “ball-bearing repeater” and was well-received, but its many machined and handfitted parts made the gun expensive to manufacture. Consequently, it struggled in sales compared to the Winchester Model 12. To achieve better sales, Remington produced the Model 870 in 1950, which was more modern and reliable in its construction, easy to take apart and maintain, and relatively inexpensive.


title: Remington Model 870

text: The 870 was a commercial success. Remington sold two million guns by 1973 (ten times the number of Model 31 shotguns it replaced). As of 1983, the 870 held the record for the best-selling shotgun in history, with three million sold. By 1996, spurred by sales of the basic "Express" models, which were added as a lower-cost alternative to the original Wingmaster line, sales topped seven million guns. On April 13, 2009, the ten millionth Model 870 was produced.


title: Remington Model 870

text: The 870 features a bottom-loading, side ejecting receiver and a tubular magazine under the barrel. The gun comes with a plug for migratory bird hunting which reduces the magazine's capacity to two rounds. It has dual action bars, internal hammer, and a bolt which locks into an extension in the barrel. The action, receiver, fire control group, safety catch and slide release catch of the Remington Model 870 shotgun are similar to those used on the Remington Model 7600 series pump-action centerfire rifles and carbines. The basic fire control group design was first used in the automatic 11–48.<ref name="Remington Model 870 (M870) Combat / Game Pump Action Shotgun August 7, 2014"></ref> Twelve gauge stocks will also interchange on the older 12-gauge-sized 20-gauge receivers, although modification is needed to fit the smaller sized 20-gauge receivers employed since the late 1970s. Several parts of the 870, such as buttstocks and magazine tubes, will interchange with the semi-automatic Remington 1100 and 11–87.


title: Remington Model 870

text: The original 870 models were offered with fixed chokes. In 1986 Remington introduced the new Remington "Rem Choke" system of screw-in chokes (also fitted to Remington model 1100 auto-loading shotguns at the same time). Initially, the Rem Chokes were offered only in 12 gauge in barrel lengths of 21", 26", and 28". The following year the availability was expanded to the 20 gauge and included other barrel lengths.


title: Remington Model 870

text: The 870's production for over 30 years had a design whereby a user could fail to press a shell all the way into the magazine when loading - so that the shell latch did not engage the shell - which could result in tying up the gun. This was caused by the shell slipping out of the magazine under the bolt in the receiver to bind the action, requiring rough treatment of the action or even disassembly. The potential issue was resolved with the introduction of the "Flexi Tab" carrier. Guns with this modification can be identified by the "U"-shaped cut-out on the carrier, visible from below the gun. The cut-out, combined with a modified machining on the underside of the slide assembly, allows the action to be opened with a shell on the carrier.


title: Remington Model 870

text: There are hundreds of variations of the Remington 870 in 12, 16, 20, 28 gauges and .410 bore. In 1969 Remington introduced 28 gauge and .410 bore models on a new scaled-down receiver size, and in 1972 a 20 gauge Lightweight ("LW") version was introduced on the same sized receiver, and all of the smaller gauges today are produced on that size receiver. From the original fifteen models offered, Remington currently produces dozens of models for civilian, law enforcement, and military sales. 870 variants can be grouped into:


title: Remington Model 870

text: Chinese arms company Norinco has made unlicensed copies of the Remington 870, as the design is no longer under patent protection. The most common of these designs are the Norinco HP9-1 and M-98, the difference being that the HP9-1 has either a 12.5" or 14" barrel, whereas the M-98 has an 18.5" barrel. In the United States, where most Norinco products are specifically non-importable, this shotgun was imported and sold under the names Norinco Hawk 982 and Interstate Hawk 982.


title: Varangian Guard

text: The Varangian Guard (, "Tágma tōn Varángōn") was an elite unit of the Byzantine Army from the tenth to the fourteenth century who served as personal bodyguards to the Byzantine emperors. The Varangian Guard was known for being primarily composed of recruits from northern Europe, including mainly Norsemen from Scandinavia but also Anglo-Saxons from England. The recruitment of distant foreigners from outside Byzantium to serve as the emperor's personal guard was pursued as a deliberate policy, as they lacked local political loyalties and could be counted upon to suppress revolts by disloyal Byzantine factions.


title: Varangian Guard

text: The Rus' provided the earliest members of the Varangian Guard. They were in Byzantine service from as early as 874. The Guard was first formally constituted under Emperor Basil II in 988, following the Christianization of Kievan Rus' by Vladimir I of Kiev. Vladimir, who had recently usurped power in Kiev with an army of Varangian warriors, sent 6,000 men to Basil as part of a military assistance agreement. Basil's distrust of the native Byzantine guardsmen, whose loyalties often shifted with fatal consequences, as well as the proven loyalty of the Varangians, many of whom had previously served in Byzantium, led the Emperor to employ them as his personal guardsmen.


title: Varangian Guard

text: Immigrants from Scandinavia (predominantly immigrants from Sweden, but also elements from Denmark and Norway) kept an almost entirely Norse cast to the organization until the late 11th century. According to the late Swedish historian Alf Henrikson in his book "Svensk Historia" ("History of Sweden"), the Norse Varangian guardsmen were recognized by long hair, a red ruby set in the left ear and ornamented dragons sewn on their chainmail shirts. During these years, Swedish men left to enlist in the Byzantine Varangian Guard in such numbers that a medieval Swedish law, Västgötalagen, from Västergötland declared no one could inherit while staying in "Greece"—the then Scandinavian term for the Byzantine Empire—to stop the emigration, especially as two other European courts simultaneously also recruited Scandinavians: Kievan Rus' c. 980–1060 and London 1013–1051 (the Þingalið).


title: Varangian Guard

text: Composed primarily of Norsemen and Rus for the first 100 years, the Guard began to see increased numbers of Anglo-Saxons after the Norman conquest of England. By the time of the Emperor Alexios Komnenos in the late 11th century, the Varangian Guard was largely recruited from Anglo-Saxons and "others who had suffered at the hands of the Vikings and their cousins the Normans". The Anglo-Saxons and other Germanic peoples shared with the Vikings a tradition of faithful (to death if necessary) oath-bound service, and the Norman invasion of England resulted in many fighting men who had lost their lands and former masters and were looking for positions elsewhere.


title: Varangian Guard

text: The Varangian Guard not only provided security for the Byzantine emperors, but also participated in many wars, often playing a decisive role, since they were usually deployed at critical moments of a battle. By the late 13th century, Varangians were mostly ethnically assimilated by the Byzantine Greeks, though the Guard remained in existence until at least mid-14th century. In 1400, there were still some people identifying themselves as "Varangians" in Constantinople.


title: Varangian Guard

text: The earliest members of the Varangian guard came from Kievan Rus'. A treaty between Rus' and the Byzantine empire under Basil I was agreed in 874 after a period of hostilities. A clause in the treaty obliged Rus' to provide men for Byzantine service. Renewed hostilities between 907 and 911 ended with a new treaty under which any Rus' who chose could serve Byzantium as a right.


title: Varangian Guard

text: The scholarly consensus is that the Rus' people originated in what is currently coastal eastern Sweden around the eighth century and that their name has the same origin as Roslagen in Sweden (with the older name being "Roden"). According to the prevalent theory, the name "Rus", like the Proto-Finnic name for Sweden ("*Ruotsi"), is derived from an Old Norse term for "the men who row" ("rods-") as rowing was the main method of navigating the rivers of Eastern Europe, and that it could be linked to the Swedish coastal area of Roslagen ("Rus-law") or "Roden", as it was known in earlier times. The name "Rus" would then have the same origin as the Finnish and Estonian names for Sweden: "Ruotsi" and "Rootsi".


title: Varangian Guard

text: As early as 911, Varangians are mentioned as fighting as mercenaries for the Byzantines. About 700 Varangians served along with Dalmatians as marines in Byzantine naval expeditions against the Emirate of Crete in 902 and a force of 629 returned to Crete under Constantine Porphyrogenitus in 949. A unit of 415 Varangians was involved in the Italian expedition of 936. It is also recorded that there were Varangian contingents among the forces that fought the Arabs in Syria in 955. During this period, the Varangian mercenaries were included in the "Great Companions" (Gk. ).


title: Varangian Guard

text: In 988, Basil II requested military assistance from Vladimir I of Kiev to help defend his throne. In compliance with the treaty made by his father after the Siege of Dorostolon (971), Vladimir sent 6,000 men to Basil. Vladimir took the opportunity to rid himself of his most unruly warriors which in any case he was unable to pay. This is the presumptive date for the formal, permanent institution of an elite guard. In exchange for the warriors, Vladimir was given Basil's sister, Anna, in marriage. Vladimir also agreed to convert to Christianity and to bring his people into the Christian faith.


title: Varangian Guard

text: In 989, these Varangians, led by Basil II himself, landed at Chrysopolis to defeat the rebel general Bardas Phokas. On the field of battle, Phokas died of a stroke in full view of his opponent; upon the death of their leader, Phokas' troops turned and fled. The brutality of the Varangians was noted when they pursued the fleeing army and "cheerfully hacked them to pieces".


title: Varangian Guard

text: These men formed the nucleus of the Varangian Guard, which saw extensive service in southern Italy in the eleventh century, as the Normans and Lombards worked to extinguish Byzantine authority there. In 1018, Basil II received a request from his catepan of Italy, Basil Boioannes, for reinforcements to put down the Lombard revolt of Melus of Bari. A detachment of the Varangian Guard was sent and in the Battle of Cannae, the Byzantines achieved a decisive victory.


title: Varangian Guard

text: The Varangians also participated in the partial reconquest of Sicily from the Arabs under George Maniakes in 1038. Here, they fought alongside Normans recently arrived in Italy seeking adventure and Lombards from Byzantine-held Apulia. A prominent member of the Guard at this time was Harald Hardrada, later King of Norway as Harald III (1046–1066). However, when Maniakes ostracised the Lombards by publicly humiliating their leader, Arduin, the Lombards deserted and the Normans and Varangians followed them.


title: Varangian Guard

text: Not long after, the catepan Michael Doukeianos had a force of Varangians stationed at Bari. On 16 March 1041, they were called up to fight the Normans near Venosa; many drowned in the subsequent retreat across the Ofanto. In September, Exaugustus Boioannes was sent to Italy with only a small contingent of Varangians to replace the disgraced Doukeianos. On 3 September 1041, they were defeated in battle by the Normans.


title: Varangian Guard

text: Many of the last catepans were sent from Constantinople with Varangian units. In 1047, John Raphael was sent to Bari with a contingent of Varangians, but the Bariots refused to receive his troops and he spent his term at Otranto. Twenty years later, in 1067, the last Byzantine catepan in southern Italy, Mabrica, arrived with Varangian auxiliaries and took Brindisi and Taranto. At the disastrous Battle of Manzikert in 1071, virtually all the Emperor's Guards fell around him.


title: Varangian Guard

text: Composed primarily of Scandinavians for the first 100 years, the guard began to see increasing numbers of Anglo-Saxons after the successful invasion of England by the Normans. In 1088, a large number of Anglo-Saxons and Danes emigrated to the Byzantine Empire by way of the Mediterranean. One source has more than 5,000 of them arriving in 235 ships. Those who did not enter imperial service settled on the Black Sea coast, building and garrisoning the town of Civetot for Alexios I. Those who did became so vital to the Varangians that the Guard was commonly called the (Anglo-Varangians) from that point. In this capacity, they fought in Sicily against the Normans under Robert Guiscard, who unsuccessfully sought to invade the lower Balkans as well.


title: Varangian Guard

text: Writing about the unit as it was in 1080, the chronicler and princess Anna Komnene refers to these "axe-bearing barbarians" as being "from Thule", likely a reference to the British Isles or Scandinavia. Likewise, the Byzantine civil-servant, soldier and historian John Kinnamos calls these "axe-bearers" that guarded the Emperor "the British nation, which has been in service to the Romans' Emperors from a long time back". Kinnamos was writing in the later 12th century, indicating perhaps that the more Dane and Saxon composition of the guard continued to the point of the Fourth Crusade.


title: Varangian Guard

text: After the end of the Crusade led by the Norwegian King Sigurd I Magnusson, the guard had an influx of Norwegian Warriors. The Norwegian King sold his ships in Constantinople and returned to Norway with only a 100 men, out of an original army of around 6,000.


title: Varangian Guard

text: The Varangians relied on the broad-bladed Dane axe as their main weapon, although they were often also skilled swordsmen or archers. In some sources, such as Anna Komnene's "The Alexiad", they are described as mounted; both Vikings and elite Anglo-Saxon warriors routinely used horses for strategic mobility even though they normally fought on foot. The guard was stationed primarily around Constantinople, and may have been barracked in the Bucoleon palace complex. The guard also accompanied armies into the field, and Byzantine chroniclers (as well as several notable Western European and Arab chroniclers) often note their battlefield prowess, especially in comparison to the local barbarian peoples. They were vital to the Byzantine victory under the emperor John II Komnenos at the Battle of Beroia in 1122. The Varangians hacked their way through the enemy's circle of Pecheneg wagons, collapsing the Pecheneg position and causing a general rout in their camp.


title: Varangian Guard

text: The Varangians were described by 11th-century Byzantine historian Michael Psellus as thus: "The whole group carry shields and brandish on their shoulders a certain single-edged, heavy-iron weapon", which is understood to have been the Dane axe (many Byzantine writers referred to them as "axe-bearing barbarians", , rather than as Varangians). However, a mistranslation of the Greek text has led some to refer to the weapon as a , which most likely occurred as a product of Atticism in Byzantine literature.


title: Varangian Guard

text: They were prominent in the defence of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. Of the role of the guard, it is said that "the fighting was very violent and there was hand to hand fight with axes and swords, the assailants mounted the walls and prisoners were taken on both sides". The latest mention of the Varangian guard is in the Greek version of the "Chronicle of the Morea", which states that this unit escorted the Prince of Achaia away to prison after the Battle of Pelagonia in 1259; historian D. J. Geanakoplos suggests they were reconstituted by Theodore I Laskaris to strengthen his claim as the rightful Emperor. People identified as Varangians were to be found in Constantinople around 1400.


title: Varangian Guard

text: The duties and purpose of the Varangian Guard were similar—if not identical—to the services provided by the Kievan "druzhina", the Swedish/Norwegian "hird", and the Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon "housecarls". The Varangians served as the personal bodyguard of the emperor, swearing an oath of loyalty to him; they had ceremonial duties as retainers and acclaimers and performed some police duties, especially in cases of treason and conspiracy. They were headed by a separate officer, the "akolouthos", who was usually a native Byzantine.


title: Varangian Guard

text: The Varangian Guard was only used in battle during critical moments, or where the battle was most fierce. Contemporary Byzantine chroniclers note with a mix of terror and fascination that the "Scandinavians were frightening both in appearance and in equipment, they attacked with reckless rage and neither cared about losing blood nor their wounds". The description probably refers to berserkers, since this state of trance is said to have given them superhuman strength and no sense of pain from their wounds. When the Byzantine Emperor died, the Varangians had the unique right of running to the imperial treasury and taking as much gold and as many gems as they could carry, a procedure known in Old Norse as "polutasvarf" ("palace pillaging"). This privilege enabled many Varangians to return home as wealthy men, which encouraged even more Scandinavians to enlist in the Guard in "Miklagarðr" (Swedish = Miklagård = 'The Great City', i.e. Constantinople).


title: Varangian Guard

text: The loyalty of the Varangians became a trope of Byzantine writers. Writing about her father Alexius's seizing of the Imperial throne in 1081, Anna Komnene notes that he was advised not to attack the Varangians who still guarded the Emperor Nikephoros for the Varangians "regard loyalty to the emperors and the protection of their persons as a family tradition, a kind of sacred trust". This allegiance, she noted, "they preserve inviolate, and will never brook the slighted hint of betrayal". Unlike the native Byzantine guards so mistrusted by Basil II, the Varangian guards' loyalties lay with the position of Emperor, not the man who sat on the throne. This was made clear in 969 when the guards failed to avenge the death by assassination of Emperor Nikephoros II. A servant had managed to call for the guards while the Emperor was being attacked, but when they arrived he was dead. They immediately knelt before John Tzimiskes, Nikephoros' murderer and hailed him as Emperor. "Alive they would have defended him to the last breath: dead there was no point in avenging him. They had a new master now."


title: Varangian Guard

text: This reputation exceeds the truth in at least two recorded instances. In 1071, after Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes was defeated by Sultan Alp Arslan, a palace coup was staged before he could return to Constantinople. Caesar John Doukas used the Varangian guard to depose the absent emperor, arrest Empress Eudoxia, and proclaim his nephew, stepson of Diogenes Michael VII, as emperor. Thus, instead of defending their absent emperor, the Varangians were used by the usurpers—proving their loyalty to the throne, if not always the current occupier of that throne. In a more sinister episode, the historian Joannes Zonaras reports the guard revolting against Nikephoros III Botaneiates after the blinding of the general Nikephoros Bryennios in 1078, "planning to kill him" but being suppressed by loyal troops. They subsequently asked for and received a pardon.


title: Varangian Guard

text: There are a number of raised stone memorials called runestones throughout Scandinavia. The runestones are unevenly distributed in Scandinavia: Denmark has 250 runestones, Norway has 50 while Iceland has none. Sweden has as many as between 1,700 and 2,500 depending on definition. The Swedish district of Uppland has the highest concentration with as many as 1,196 inscriptions in stone, whereas Södermanland is second with 391. Many date to the Viking Age, and there are many associated with the Varangian Guards.


title: Varangian Guard

text: These Varangian runestones commemorate various fallen warriors through carved runes, and mention voyages to the East ("Austr") or the Eastern route ("Austrvegr"), or to more specific eastern locations such as Garðaríki (what is today Russia and Ukraine). The losses that the Varangian Guard suffered are reflected by the largest group of runestones that talk of foreign voyages, such as those termed the Greece Runestones. These were raised by former members of the Varangian Guard, or in their memory. A smaller group consists of the four Italy Runestones which were raised in memory of members of the Varangian Guard who died in southern Italy.


title: Varangian Guard

text: The oldest of the Greece runestones are six stones in the style RAK, a style which is dated to the period before 1015 AD. The group consists of Skepptuna runestone U 358, Västra Ledinge runestone U 518, Nälberga runestone Sö 170 and Eriksstad runestone Sm 46.


title: Varangian Guard

text: One of the more notable of the later runestones in the style Pr4 is Ed runestone U 112, a large boulder at the western shore of the lake of Ed. It tells that Ragnvaldr, the captain of the Varangian Guard, had returned home where he had the inscriptions made in memory of his dead mother.


title: Varangian Guard

text: The youngest runestones, in the style Pr5, such as Ed runestone U 104 (presently in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford), are dated to the period 1080–1130, after which runestones became unfashionable.


title: Varangian Guard

text: The Varangians did not return home without being imprinted by Byzantine culture in one way or another, as exemplified by the Byzantine cross carved on the early eleventh century Risbyle runestone U 161, and which today is the coat-of-arms of Täby, a trimunicipal locality and the seat of Täby Municipality in Stockholm County, Sweden. The runes were made by the Viking Ulf of Borresta, see Orkesta runestone U 344, in memory of another Ulf, in Skålhamra, and at the request of the latter's father.


title: Varangian Guard

text: According to the sagas, the West Norse entered the service of the Guard considerably later than the East Norse. The Laxdœla saga, informs that the Icelander Bolli Bollason, born c. 1006, was the first known Icelander in the Varangian Guard. Travelling to Constantinople via Denmark, he spent many years in the Varangian Guard; "and was thought to be the most valiant in all deeds that try a man, and always went next to those in the forefront." The saga also records the finery his followers received from the Emperor, and the influence he held after his return to Iceland:


title: Varangian Guard

text: The Varangian Guard is mentioned also in "Njal's Saga" in reference to Kolskegg—an Icelander said to have come first to Holmgard (Novgorod) and then on to Miklagard (Constantinople), where he entered the Emperor's service. "The last that was heard of him was, that he had wedded a wife there, and was captain over the Varangians, and stayed there till his death day."


title: Varangian Guard

text: One of the members of the Varangian Guard was the future king Harald Sigurdsson III of Norway, known as Harald Hardråde ("Hard-ruler"). Having fled his homeland, Harald went first to Gardariki and then on to Constantinople, where he arrived in 1035. He participated in eighteen battles and during his service fought against Arabs in Anatolia and Sicily under General George Maniakes, as well as in southern Italy and Bulgaria. An extensive account of Harald Sigurdsson's journeys is found in Harald Sigurdsson's Saga.


title: Varangian Guard

text: During his time in the Varangian Guard Harald earned the titles of "manglavites" and "spatharokandidatos". But his service ended with his imprisonment for misappropriation of imperial plunder taken during his command. He was released upon the dethronement of the Emperor Michael V, and saga sources suggest he was the one sent to blind the Emperor when he and his uncle fled to the church of Studion Monastery and clung to the altar.


title: Varangian Guard

text: Harald then sought to leave his post, but was denied this. He eventually escaped and returned home in 1043, becoming King of Norway before eventually dying at the Battle of Stamford Bridge while invading England in 1066.


title: Varangian Guard

text: The Varangian Guard regained some of its old Scandinavian flavour when Harald Hardråde's grandson, Sigurd I of Norway, went on the Norwegian Crusade to the Holy land. After fighting battles against the Muslims, King Sigurd in 1110 let the rest of his force, who originally numbered 6,000 men, join the Varangian Guard. King Sigurd returned home with fewer than a hundred of his personal Guard.


title: Varangian Guard

text: Most of the Old Norse narratives which deals with Norwegians or Icelanders in the Varangian Guard are from the 13th century, and bear witness to a continued interest and generally positive views towards Byzantium within the West Norse cultural area.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Stamford () is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut, outside of Manhattan. It is Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2020 census. It is in the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk-Danbury metropolitan statistical area, which is part of the New York City metropolitan area (specifically, the New York–Newark, NY–NJ–CT–PA Combined Statistical Area).


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: As of 2019, Stamford is home to nine Fortune 500 companies and numerous divisions of large corporations. This gives it the largest financial district in the New York metropolitan region outside New York City and one of the nation's largest concentrations of corporations. Dominant sectors of Stamford's economy include financial services, tourism, information technology, healthcare, telecommunications, transportation, and retail. Its metropolitan division is home to colleges and universities including UConn Stamford and Norwalk Community College.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Stamford was known as Rippowam by the Siwanoy Native American inhabitants of the region, and the very first European settlers in the area also called it that. The present name is after the town of Stamford, Lincolnshire, England. The deed to Stamford was signed on July 1, 1640, between Captain Turner of the New Haven Colony and Chief Ponus. By the 18th century, one of the town's primary industries was merchandising by water, which was possible due to Stamford's proximity to New York.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: In 1692, Stamford was home to a less famous witch trial than the well-known Salem witch trials, which also occurred in 1692. The accusations were less fanatical and on a smaller scale, but they also grew to prominence through gossip and hysterics.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: New Canaan officially separated from Stamford when it incorporated as a town in 1801, followed by Darien in 1820.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Starting in the late 19th century, New York residents built summer homes on the shoreline, and some moved to Stamford permanently and started commuting to Manhattan by train. Stamford incorporated as a city in 1893.