title: History of technology

text: Papermaking, a 2nd-century Chinese technology, was carried to the Middle East when a group of Chinese papermakers were captured in the 8th century. Papermaking technology was spread to Europe by the Umayyad conquest of Hispania. A paper mill was established in Sicily in the 12th century. In Europe the fiber to make pulp for making paper was obtained from linen and cotton rags. Lynn Townsend White Jr. credited the spinning wheel with increasing the supply of rags, which led to cheap paper, which was a factor in the development of printing.


title: History of technology

text: Before the development of modern engineering, mathematics was used by artisans and craftsmen, such as millwrights, clock makers, instrument makers and surveyors. Aside from these professions, universities were not believed to have had much practical significance to technology.


title: History of technology

text: A standard reference for the state of mechanical arts during the Renaissance is given in the mining engineering treatise "De re metallica" (1556), which also contains sections on geology, mining and chemistry. "De re metallica" was the standard chemistry reference for the next 180 years. Among the water powered mechanical devices in use were ore stamping mills, forge hammers, blast bellows, and suction pumps.


title: History of technology

text: Due to the casting of cannon, the blast furnace came into widespread use in France in the mid 15th century. The blast furnace had been used in China since the 4th century BC.


title: History of technology

text: The invention of the movable cast metal type printing press, whose pressing mechanism was adapted from an olive screw press, (c. 1441) lead to a tremendous increase in the number of books and the number of titles published. Movable ceramic type had been used in China for a few centuries and woodblock printing dated back even further.


title: History of technology

text: The era is marked by such profound technical advancements like linear perceptivity, double shell domes or Bastion fortresses. Note books of the Renaissance artist-engineers such as Taccola and Leonardo da Vinci give a deep insight into the mechanical technology then known and applied. Architects and engineers were inspired by the structures of Ancient Rome, and men like Brunelleschi created the large dome of Florence Cathedral as a result. He was awarded one of the first patents ever issued in order to protect an ingenious crane he designed to raise the large masonry stones to the top of the structure. Military technology developed rapidly with the widespread use of the cross-bow and ever more powerful artillery, as the city-states of Italy were usually in conflict with one another. Powerful families like the Medici were strong patrons of the arts and sciences. Renaissance science spawned the Scientific Revolution; science and technology began a cycle of mutual advancement.


title: History of technology

text: An improved sailing ship, the nau or carrack, enabled the Age of Exploration with the European colonization of the Americas, epitomized by Francis Bacon's "New Atlantis". Pioneers like Vasco da Gama, Cabral, Magellan and Christopher Columbus explored the world in search of new trade routes for their goods and contacts with Africa, India and China to shorten the journey compared with traditional routes overland. They produced new maps and charts which enabled following mariners to explore further with greater confidence. Navigation was generally difficult, however, owing to the problem of longitude and the absence of accurate chronometers. European powers rediscovered the idea of the civil code, lost since the time of the Ancient Greeks.


title: History of technology

text: The stocking frame, which was invented in 1598, increased a knitter's number of knots per minute from 100 to 1000.


title: History of technology

text: Mines were becoming increasingly deep and were expensive to drain with horse powered bucket and chain pumps and wooden piston pumps. Some mines used as many as 500 horses. Horse-powered pumps were replaced by the Savery steam pump (1698) and the Newcomen steam engine (1712).


title: History of technology

text: The revolution was driven by cheap energy in the form of coal, produced in ever-increasing amounts from the abundant resources of Britain. The British Industrial Revolution is characterized by developments in the areas of textile machinery, mining, metallurgy and transport the steam engine and the invention of machine tools.


title: History of technology

text: Before invention of machinery to spin yarn and weave cloth, spinning was done using the spinning wheel and weaving was done on a hand-and-foot-operated loom. It took from three to five spinners to supply one weaver. The invention of the flying shuttle in 1733 doubled the output of a weaver, creating a shortage of spinners. The spinning frame for wool was invented in 1738. The spinning jenny, invented in 1764, was a machine that used multiple spinning wheels; however, it produced low quality thread. The water frame patented by Richard Arkwright in 1767, produced a better quality thread than the spinning jenny. The spinning mule, patented in 1779 by Samuel Crompton, produced a high quality thread. The power loom was invented by Edmund Cartwright in 1787.


title: History of technology

text: In the mid 1750s, the steam engine was applied to the water power-constrained iron, copper and lead industries for powering blast bellows. These industries were located near the mines, some of which were using steam engines for mine pumping. Steam engines were too powerful for leather bellows, so cast iron blowing cylinders were developed in 1768. Steam powered blast furnaces achieved higher temperatures, allowing the use of more lime in iron blast furnace feed. (Lime rich slag was not free-flowing at the previously used temperatures.) With a sufficient lime ratio, sulfur from coal or coke fuel reacts with the slag so that the sulfur does not contaminate the iron. Coal and coke were cheaper and more abundant fuel. As a result, iron production rose significantly during the last decades of the 18th century. Coal converted to coke fueled higher temperature blast furnaces and produced cast iron in much larger amounts than before, allowing the creation of a range of structures such as The Iron Bridge. Cheap coal meant that industry was no longer constrained by water resources driving the mills, although it continued as a valuable source of power.


title: History of technology

text: The steam engine helped drain the mines, so more coal reserves could be accessed, and the output of coal increased. The development of the high-pressure steam engine made locomotives possible, and a transport revolution followed. The steam engine which had existed since the early 18th century, was practically applied to both steamboat and railway transportation. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the first purpose built railway line, opened in 1830, the Rocket locomotive of Robert Stephenson being one of its first working locomotives used.


title: History of technology

text: Manufacture of ships' pulley blocks by all-metal machines at the Portsmouth Block Mills in 1803 instigated the age of sustained mass production. Machine tools used by engineers to manufacture parts began in the first decade of the century, notably by Richard Roberts and Joseph Whitworth. The development of interchangeable parts through what is now called the American system of manufacturing began in the firearms industry at the U.S Federal arsenals in the early 19th century, and became widely used by the end of the century.


title: History of technology

text: The 19th century saw astonishing developments in transportation, construction, manufacturing and communication technologies originating in Europe. After a recession at the end of the 1830s and a general slowdown in major inventions, the Second Industrial Revolution was a period of rapid innovation and industrialization that began in the 1860s or around 1870 and lasted until World War I. It included rapid development of chemical, electrical, petroleum, and steel technologies connected with highly structured technology research.


title: History of technology

text: Telegraphy developed into a practical technology in the 19th century to help run the railways safely. Along with the development of telegraphy was the patenting of the first telephone. March 1876 marks the date that Alexander Graham Bell officially patented his version of an "electric telegraph". Although Bell is noted with the creation of the telephone, it is still debated about who actually developed the first working model.


title: History of technology

text: Building on improvements in vacuum pumps and materials research, incandescent light bulbs became practical for general use in the late 1870s. Edison Electric Illuminating Company, a company founded by Thomas Edison with financial backing from Spencer Trask, built and managed the first electricity network. Electrification was rated the most important technical development of the 20th century as the foundational infrastructure for modern civilization. This invention had a profound effect on the workplace because factories could now have second and third shift workers.


title: History of technology

text: Shoe production was mechanized during the mid 19th century. Mass production of sewing machines and agricultural machinery such as reapers occurred in the mid to late 19th century. Bicycles were mass-produced beginning in the 1880s.


title: History of technology

text: Steam-powered factories became widespread, although the conversion from water power to steam occurred in England earlier than in the U.S. Ironclad warships were found in battle starting in the 1860s, and played a role in the opening of Japan and China to trade with the West.


title: History of technology

text: Mass production brought automobiles and other high-tech goods to masses of consumers. Military research and development sped advances including electronic computing and jet engines. Radio and telephony greatly improved and spread to larger populations of users, though near-universal access would not be possible until mobile phones became affordable to developing world residents in the late 2000s and early 2010s.


title: History of technology

text: Energy and engine technology improvements included nuclear power, developed after the Manhattan project which heralded the new Atomic Age. Rocket development led to long range missiles and the first space age that lasted from the 1950s with the launch of Sputnik to the mid-1980s.


title: History of technology

text: Electrification spread rapidly in the 20th century. At the beginning of the century electric power was for the most part only available to wealthy people in a few major cities. By 2019, an estimated 87 percent of the world's population had access to electricity.


title: History of technology

text: Birth control also became widespread during the 20th century. Electron microscopes were very powerful by the late 1970s and genetic theory and knowledge were expanding, leading to developments in genetic engineering.


title: History of technology

text: The first "test tube baby" Louise Brown was born in 1978, which led to the first successful gestational surrogacy pregnancy in 1985 and the first pregnancy by ICSI in 1991, which is the implanting of a single sperm into an egg. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis was first performed in late 1989 and led to successful births in July 1990. These procedures have become relatively common.


title: History of technology

text: Computers were connected by means of local area, telecom and fiber optic networks, powered by the optical amplifier that ushered in the Information Age. This optical networking technology exploded the capacity of the Internet beginning in 1996 with the launch of the first high-capacity wave division multiplexing (WDM) system by Ciena Corp. WDM, as the common basis for telecom backbone networks, increased transmission capacity by orders of magnitude, thus enabling the mass commercialization and popularization of the Internet and its widespread impact on culture, economics, business, and society.


title: History of technology

text: The commercial availability of the first portable cell phone in 1981 and the first pocket-sized phone in 1985, both developed by Comvik in Sweden, coupled with the first transmission of data over a cellular network by Vodafone (formerly Racal-Millicom) in 1992 were the breakthroughs that led directly to the form and function of smartphones today. By 2014, there were more cell phones in use than people on Earth and The Supreme Court has ruled that a mobile phone was a private part of a person. Providing consumers wireless access to each other and to the Internet, the mobile phone stimulated one of the most important technology revolutions in human history.


title: History of technology

text: The Human Genome Project sequenced and identified all three billion chemical units in human DNA with a goal of finding the genetic roots of disease and developing treatments. The project became feasible due to two technical advances made during the late 1970s: gene mapping by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers and DNA sequencing. Sequencing was invented by Frederick Sanger and, separately, by Dr. Walter Gilbert. Gilbert also conceived of the Human Genome Project on May 27, 1985, and first publicly advocated it in August 1985 at the first International Conference on Genes and Computers in August 1985. The U.S. Federal Government sponsored Human Genome Project began October 1, 1990, and was declared complete in 2003.


title: History of technology

text: The massive data analysis resources necessary for running transatlantic research programs such as the Human Genome Project and the Large Electron–Positron Collider led to a necessity for distributed communications, causing Internet protocols to be more widely adopted by researchers and also creating a justification for Tim Berners-Lee to create the World Wide Web.


title: History of technology

text: Vaccination spread rapidly to the developing world from the 1980s onward due to many successful humanitarian initiatives, greatly reducing childhood mortality in many poor countries with limited medical resources.


title: History of technology

text: The US National Academy of Engineering, by expert vote, established the following ranking of the most important technological developments of the 20th century:


title: History of technology

text: In the early 21st century, research is ongoing into quantum computers, gene therapy (introduced 1990), 3D printing (introduced 1981), nanotechnology (introduced 1985), bioengineering/biotechnology, nuclear technology, advanced materials (e.g., graphene), the scramjet and drones (along with railguns and high-energy laser beams for military uses), superconductivity, the memristor, and green technologies such as alternative fuels (e.g., fuel cells, self-driving electric and plug-in hybrid cars), augmented reality devices and wearable electronics, artificial intelligence, and more efficient and powerful LEDs, solar cells, integrated circuits, wireless power devices, engines, and batteries.


title: History of technology

text: Large Hadron Collider, the largest single machine ever built, was constructed between 1998 and 2008. The understanding of particle physics is expected to expand with better instruments including larger particle accelerators such as the LHC and better neutrino detectors. Dark matter is sought via underground detectors and observatories like LIGO have started to detect gravitational waves.


title: History of technology

text: Genetic engineering technology continues to improve, and the importance of epigenetics on development and inheritance has also become increasingly recognized.


title: History of technology

text: New spaceflight technology and spacecraft are also being developed, like the Boeing's Orion and SpaceX's Dragon 2. New, more capable space telescopes, such as the James Webb Space Telescope which was launched to orbit in December, 2021, and the Colossus Telescope, have been designed. The International Space Station was completed in the 2000s, and NASA and ESA plan a human mission to Mars in the 2030s. The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) is an electro-magnetic thruster for spacecraft propulsion and is expected to be tested in 2015.


title: History of technology

text: Breakthrough Initiatives, together with famed physicist Stephen Hawking, plan to send the first ever spacecraft to visit another star, which will consist of numerous super-light chips driven by Electric propulsion in the 2030s, and receive images of the Proxima Centauri system, along with, possibly, the potentially habitable planet Proxima Centauri b, by midcentury.


title: History of technology

text: 2004 saw the first crewed commercial spaceflight when Mike Melvill crossed the boundary of space on June 21, 2004.


title: Clenbuterol

text: Clenbuterol is a sympathomimetic amine used by sufferers of breathing disorders as a decongestant and bronchodilator. People with chronic breathing disorders such as asthma use this as a bronchodilator to make breathing easier. It is most commonly available as the hydrochloride salt, clenbuterol hydrochloride.


title: Clenbuterol

text: Clenbuterol is a β agonist with some structural and pharmacological similarities to epinephrine and salbutamol, but its effects are more potent and longer-lasting as a stimulant and thermogenic drug. It is commonly used for smooth muscle-relaxant properties as a bronchodilator and tocolytic.


title: Clenbuterol

text: Clenbuterol is prescribed for treatment of respiratory diseases for horses, and as an obstetrical aid in cattle. It is illegal in some countries to use in livestock used for food.


title: Clenbuterol

text: Use over the recommended dose of about 120 μg can cause muscle tremors, headache, dizziness, and gastric irritation. Persons self-administering the drug for weight loss or to improve athletic performance have experienced nausea, vomiting, diaphoresis, palpitations, tachycardia, and myocardial infarction. Use of the drug may be confirmed by detecting its presence in semen or urine.


title: Clenbuterol

text: Clenbuterol is not an ingredient of any therapeutic drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and is now banned for IOC-tested athletes. In the US, administration of clenbuterol to any animal that could be used as food for human consumption is banned by the FDA.


title: Clenbuterol

text: Although often used by bodybuilders during their "cutting" cycles, the drug has been more recently known to the mainstream, particularly through publicized stories of use by celebrities such as Victoria Beckham, Britney Spears, and Lindsay Lohan,


title: Clenbuterol

text: In 2021, a Mexican fitness influencer Odalis Santos Mena died after suffering a cardiac arrest while being anesthetized for a procedure of miraDry, a treatment that uses thermal energy to eliminate underarm sweat glands. The coroner reported that Mena’s death was attributed to a combination of Clenbuterol and anesthesia.


title: Clenbuterol

text: A common misconception about Clenbuterol is that it has anabolic properties, and can increase muscle mass when used in higher dosages. This claim has never been substantiated, and likely originated from equine research. A beta-2 agonist, Clenbuterol has been found to increase short-term work rate and cardiovascular output, and consequently, its anabolic effects in horses can be attributed to exercise output and increased caloric intake. Given its ability to increase basal metabolic rate, maximum heart rate, and exercise output, Clenbuterol has ergogenic properties more closely related to ephedrine or amphetamine.


title: Clenbuterol

text: The notion that Clenbuterol is an anabolic agent likely originated from author and renowned authority on performance-enhancement Dan Duchaine. Duchaine popularized the drug in the bodybuilding community, and was the first to suggest the drug had muscle-building properties. Likewise, Duchaine erred in promoting the drug Gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) as an anabolic agent, and served time for the unlawful possession and distribution of the drug in the mid-1990s.


title: Clenbuterol

text: As of 2011, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) listed Clenbuterol as an anabolic agent, despite the fact there is no evidence to suggest this is the case.


title: Clenbuterol

text: A three-year suspension for taking clenbuterol kept sprinter Katrin Krabbe from competing in the 1992 Summer Olympics, and effectively ended her athletic career.


title: Clenbuterol

text: In 2006, San Francisco Giants pitcher Guillermo Mota, while a member of the New York Mets, received a 50-game suspension after testing positive for clenbuterol. In 2012, MLB officials announced they were again suspending Mota for 100 games due a positive test for clenbuterol.


title: Clenbuterol

text: American swimmer Jessica Hardy tested positive at the US trials in 2008. She was subject to a one-year suspension, having claimed she unknowingly took the drug in a contaminated food supplement. Former New York Mets clubhouse employee Kirk Radomski admitted in his plea deal to distributing clenbuterol to dozens of current and former Major League Baseball players and associates. After finishing fourth in the K-2 1000-m event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Polish sprint canoer Adam Seroczyński was disqualified for taking this drug, and Chinese cyclist Li Fuyu tested positive for it at the Dwars door Vlaanderen race in Belgium on March 24, 2010.


title: Clenbuterol

text: In 2010, St. Louis Cardinals minor-league shortstop Lainer Bueno received a 50-game suspension for the 2011 season as a result of testing positive for clenbuterol.


title: Clenbuterol

text: Cyclist Alberto Contador of Spain was banned for two years from professional cycling after testing positive for the drug at the 2010 Tour de France. He was later stripped of the 2010 title of the Tour de France and the 2011 title of the Giro d'Italia. CAS found that Contador probably tested positive due to a contaminated food supplement. In 2013, Contador's teammate on the Team Saxo Bank squad, Michael Rogers, tested positive for clenbuterol at the Japan Cup bike race. In April 2014, the Union Cycliste Internationale announced that it accepted Rogers' explanation that the substance had been ingested by him after consuming contaminated meat whilst competing at the 2013 Tour of Beijing, upholding Rogers' disqualification from the Japan Cup, but declining to impose any further sanctions on him.


title: Clenbuterol

text: In 2011, players of the Mexico national football team were found with clenbuterol in their bloodstreams, but were acquitted by WADA after they claimed the clenbuterol came from contaminated food. FIFA has also claimed 109 players from multiple countries


title: Clenbuterol

text: who were participating in the Under-17 World Cup in Mexico tested positive for this drug. However, FIFA and the World Anti-Doping Agency declined to prosecute any cases because the weight of evidence pointed to contamination from Mexican meat.


title: Clenbuterol

text: In 2013, Mexican boxer Erik Morales was suspended for two years after testing positive for clenbuterol.


title: Clenbuterol

text: In 2014, Toronto Maple Leafs Forward Carter Ashton was suspended from the NHL for 20 games without pay for violating the NHL/NHL Players' Association Performance Enhancing Substances Program after it was determined that he had ingested clenbuterol. Carter claimed he used an unprescribed asthma inhaler.


title: Clenbuterol

text: In 2014, South Korean swimmer Kim Ji-heun has tested positive for clenbuterol at an out-of-competition test on May 13, 2014. After completion of proceedings by the Korea Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel, Kim received a two-year suspension, back-dated to the day of his positive test.


title: Clenbuterol

text: In 2014, Czech body builder Petr Soukup received a lifetime ban after a positive test for clenbuterol along with methenolone, mesterolone, methamphetamine, oxandrolone, stanozolol, nandrolone, fluoxymesterone, CDMT ("Oral Turinabol"), and metandienone.


title: Clenbuterol

text: In 2015, Yankees minor-league pitching prospect Moises Cedeno tested positive for clenbuterol and was suspended for 72 games.


title: Clenbuterol

text: In 2015, two players from the Collingwood Football Club in Australia were delisted from the club and accepted two-year bans from all sport in Australia after testing positive to the substance, which they believe may have been in a contaminated illicit drug they consumed.


title: Clenbuterol

text: In 2016, Raul A. Mondesi tested positive for clenbuterol and was suspended 50 games from the Northwest Arkansas Naturals. MLB and the MLBPA agreed to reduce the suspension from 80 games to 50 games after Mondesi claimed it was found in cold medicine.


title: Clenbuterol

text: In 2016, the California State Athletic Commission decided to issue Francisco Vargas a temporary boxing license on a probationary basis after he tested positive for clenbuterol.


title: Clenbuterol

text: In March 2018, champion boxer Canelo Alvarez tested positive for clenbuterol on two consecutive urine tests in February 2018. This violation led to the cancellation of a heavily anticipated rematch between Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin, which was to be held on May 5, 2018.


title: Clenbuterol

text: Clenbuterol is occasionally referred to as "bute" and this risks confusion with phenylbutazone, also called "bute". Phenylbutazone, which is a drug also used with horses, was tested for in the 2013 European meat adulteration scandal.


title: Clenbuterol

text: Intended to result in leaner meat with a higher muscle-to-fat ratio, the use of clenbuterol has been banned in meat since 1991 in the US and since 1996 in the European Union. The drug is banned due to health concerns about symptoms noted in consumers. These include increased heart rate, muscular tremors, headaches, nausea, fever, and chills. In several cases in Europe, these adverse symptoms have been temporary.


title: Clenbuterol

text: Clenbuterol is a growth-promoting drug in the β agonist class of compounds. It is not licensed for use in China, the United States, or the EU for food-producing animals, but some countries have approved it for animals not used for food, and a few countries have approved it for therapeutic uses in food-producing animals.


title: Clenbuterol

text: Not just athletes are affected by contamination. In Portugal, 50 people were reported as affected by clenbuterol in liver and pork between 1998 and 2002, while in 1990, veal liver was suspected of causing clenbuterol poisoning in 22 people in France and 135 people in Spain.


title: Clenbuterol

text: In September 2006, some 330 people in Shanghai suffered from food poisoning after eating clenbuterol-contaminated pork.


title: Clenbuterol

text: In February 2009, at least 70 people in one Chinese province (Guangdong) suffered food poisoning after eating pig organs believed to contain clenbuterol residue. The victims complained of stomach aches and diarrhea after eating pig organs bought in local markets.


title: Clenbuterol

text: In March 2011, China's Ministry of Agriculture said the government would launch a one-year crackdown on illegal additives in pig feed, after a subsidiary of Shuanghui Group, China's largest meat producer, was exposed for using clenbuterol-contaminated pork in its meat products. A total of 72 people in central Henan Province, where Shuanghui is based, were taken into police custody for allegedly producing, selling, or using clenbuterol. The situation has dramatically improved in China since September 2011, when a ban of clenbuterol was announced by China's Ministry of Agriculture.


title: Clenbuterol

text: Authorities around the world appear to be issuing stricter food safety requirements, such as the Food Safety Modernization Act in the United States, Canada's revision of their import regulations, China's new food laws published since 2009, South Africa's new food law, and many more global changes and restrictions.


title: Clenbuterol

text: Clenbuterol is administered as an aerosol for the treatment of allergic respiratory disease in horses as a bronchodilator, and intravenously in cattle to relax the uterus in cows at the time of parturition, specifically to facilitate exteriorisation of the uterus during Caesarian section surgery. It is licensed for obstetrical use in cattle as Planipart Solution for Injection.


title: Josie and the Pussycats (film)

text: Josie and the Pussycats is a 2001 satirical musical comedy film co-produced by Universal Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Directed and co-written by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan, the film is based on the Archie Comics series and the Hanna-Barbera cartoon of the same name. Filmed entirely in Vancouver, Canada, the film features Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid, and Rosario Dawson as the Pussycats, with Alan Cumming, Parker Posey, Gabriel Mann, Paulo Costanzo, and Missi Pyle in supporting roles. The film received mixed reviews and was a commercial failure upon its initial release, but has enjoyed later success as a cult film.


title: Josie and the Pussycats (film)

text: Wyatt Frame, an executive with the pop music record label MegaRecords, is confronted on a private jet by successful boy band DuJour over a strange backing track they have discovered on their recent single. Wyatt and the plane's pilot parachute out of the jet, leaving it to crash with the band still on board, ensuring their deaths.


title: Josie and the Pussycats (film)

text: Landing outside of the town of Riverdale, Wyatt begins searching for a replacement band for DuJour, eventually discovering struggling local rock band The Pussycats: lead vocalist and guitarist Josie McCoy, drummer Melody Valentine, and bassist Valerie Brown. The group accepts Wyatt's immediate offer of a major record deal despite its seeming implausibility, and they are flown to New York City with their manager Alexander, his sister Alexandra, and Josie's friend Alan M. Wyatt renames the band "Josie and the Pussycats" without their permission. Meanwhile, MegaRecords CEO Fiona, in a meeting with world government representatives, details how the United States government has conspired with the music industry to hide subliminal messages in pop music to brainwash teenagers into buying consumer products. Musicians who discover the hidden messages in their music are made to disappear via staged plane crashes, drug overdoses and similar disasters.


title: Josie and the Pussycats (film)

text: The band's first single is released and, due to subliminal messaging, instantly becomes successful. Valerie begins to resent the attention the label gives Josie, while Melody's uncanny behavioral perception makes her suspicious of Fiona. Fiona orders Wyatt to kill the pair before they uncover the conspiracy; they are sent to a fake appearance on "Total Request Live" where two fake Carson Dalys attempt to kill them, though the band survives due to their incompetence. Wyatt gives Josie a copy of the group's latest single, which contains a subliminal message track designed to brainwash her into desiring a solo career. After arguing with her bandmates, Josie realizes that the single caused the fight. Her suspicions are confirmed when she uses a mixing board to make the subliminal track audible. However, Fiona catches her unawares.


title: Josie and the Pussycats (film)

text: MegaRecords have organized a giant pay-per-view concert that will be streamed online, wherein they plan to unleash a major subliminal message via themed cat ears headsets that viewers must buy to hear the audio. Fiona and Wyatt plan for Josie to perform solo, but when the band insists on performing together, the pair threaten to kill Melody and Valerie in a staged car explosion if they do not comply. However, the badly injured members of DuJour arrive and thwart the pair's plan, having survived the plane crash by landing the plane in the middle of a Metallica concert, where they were assaulted by fans.


title: Josie and the Pussycats (film)

text: Josie, Valerie and Melody fight Fiona, Wyatt and their security guards. During the tussle, Fiona accidentally destroys the machine used to generate the messages, revealing the new subliminal message to be one that would make Fiona universally popular. Fiona reveals that her lisp made her a social outcast in high school, while Wyatt reveals that his appearance is a disguise—he went to the same high school as Fiona, but was a persecuted and unpopular albino; the two immediately bond. The government agents colluding with Fiona arrive, but with the conspiracy exposed, they arrest the pair as scapegoats to cover up their involvement in the scheme. They abandon the idea of spreading subliminal messages via music, deciding that movies are more effective.


title: Josie and the Pussycats (film)

text: Josie, Valerie, and Melody perform the concert together. Alan M arrives and confesses his love for Josie, who returns his feelings. The concert audience removes their headsets at Josie's suggestion and, able to judge the band on its own merits for the first time, roar their approval.


title: Josie and the Pussycats (film)

text: Johnny Depp, Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears and Matt Damon appear as cardboard cut-outs during the TRL scene.


title: Josie and the Pussycats (film)

text: Beyoncé, Aaliyah and Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes auditioned for the role of Valerie Brown. Elfont said that they wanted someone who knew how to do comedy, Lopes read for the part twice, she really wanted the role, Beyoncé was "quiet and shy" and Aaliyah was "serious and thoughtful".


title: Josie and the Pussycats (film)

text: In line with its theme of subliminal advertising, the inordinate degree of product placement in the film constitutes a running gag. Almost every scene features a mention or appearance of one or more famous brands, including Sega and the Dreamcast (Sega's mascot Sonic the Hedgehog also appears in Archie Comics), Motorola, Starbucks, Gatorade, Snapple, Evian, Target, Aquafina, America Online, Pizza Hut, Cartoon Network (which has aired the cartoon series on many occasions), Revlon, Kodak, Puma, Advil, Bounce, and more. None of the advertising was paid promotion by the represented brands; it was inserted voluntarily by the filmmakers.


title: Josie and the Pussycats (film)

text: Cook later expressed surprise as her casting: "somehow, they gave one of the title roles to me, and I cannot sing at all. I don't play guitar. I have no idea." Cook said the producers considered her for the titular lead in "Josie" having remembered Cook from her audition for the lead role in "Can't Hardly Wait" (both films were co-written and directed by Kaplan and Elfont).


title: Josie and the Pussycats (film)

text: "Josie and the Pussycats" was released on VHS and DVD by Universal Studios Home Video on August 21, 2001. The film's theatrical PG-13 rating from the MPAA in the United States caused some contention with licenser Archie Comics, and a "Family-Friendly" PG-rated version was released alongside the theatrical version on home media in Full Screen (1.33:1) format. This version omitted a great deal of profanity and sexual references. The theatrical version was presented in the Widescreen (1.85:1) format.


title: Josie and the Pussycats (film)

text: The movie was released on home media internationally by MGM Home Entertainment (through 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) on December 17, 2001.


title: Josie and the Pussycats (film)

text: To coincide with the film's 20th Anniversary, the Blu-ray version was released for the first time through Mill Creek Entertainment on September 21, 2021 with most of the extras from the DVD release carried over.


title: Josie and the Pussycats (film)

text: Released by Sony Music Soundtrax and Playtone Records on March 27, 2001, "Music from the Motion Picture Josie and the Pussycats" was well-received, certifying a gold album with 500,000 copies despite the film's critical and commercial failure. Cook's singing voice was provided by Kay Hanley of the band Letters to Cleo, while backing vocals were provided by Cook, Reid, Dawson, and Bif Naked.


title: Josie and the Pussycats (film)

text: The film grossed $14,866,015 at the U.S. box office, less than its production budget, an estimated $22–39 million, resulting in a domestic box office bomb.


title: Josie and the Pussycats (film)

text: The film received mixed reviews. Based on the Hanna-Barbera series of the 70s, critics felt it (and other movies like it based on cartoons) did not work on screen. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 53% based on reviews from 123 critics. The site's consensus states: "This live-action update of "Josie and the Pussycats" offers up bubbly, fluffy fun, but the constant appearance of product placements seems rather hypocritical." On Metacritic, the film scores a 47 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B on scale of A to F.


title: Josie and the Pussycats (film)

text: Roger Ebert gave the film one-half of a star out of a possible four, commenting that ""Josie and the Pussycats" are not dumber than the Spice Girls, but they're as dumb as the Spice Girls, which is dumb enough", in an obvious comparison with the British girl group's 1997 feature film, "Spice World", which was met with negative reviews, and to which Ebert had given the same score.


title: Josie and the Pussycats (film)

text: In the years subsequent to its initial release, "Josie and the Pussycats" has been reappraised by critics, and has found success as a cult film. The film has been praised for its satirical take on American pop culture, and for its prescience in satirizing product placement and the corporatization of the music industry. Evaluating the film for "The A.V. Club" in 2009, Nathan Rabin writes that it is "funny, sly and sweet" and "a sly, sustained spoof of consumerism". He rates the film as a "secret success". The "Los Angeles Times" wrote in 2017 that the film's "sharply satirical vision of the hyper-commercial record industry feels only more relevant."


title: Josie and the Pussycats (film)

text: To commemorate the vinyl reissue of the soundtrack in 2017, "Josie and the Pussycats" was screened by Alamo Drafthouse at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles, with a performance by Hanley and a panel with Cook, Reid, and Dawson, and received an oral history feature in "The Fader".


title: Josie and the Pussycats (film)

text: A month before this film was released, DiC Entertainment, an animation studio with extensive ties to Archie Comics, announced it had bought the rights to create a cartoon featuring the characters, and was planning to release it in the wake of this film. However, these plans were scrapped. Likewise, not much about what this cartoon would had been is known.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: The Bank of Montreal (BMO; ) is a Canadian multinational investment bank and financial services company.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: The bank was founded in Montreal, Quebec, in 1817 as Montreal Bank; while its head office remains in Montreal, the operational headquarters and executive offices have been located in Toronto, Ontario since 1977. One of the Big Five banks in Canada, it is the fourth-largest bank in Canada by market capitalization and assets, and one of the eight largest banks in North America and the top 50 in the world. It is commonly known by its ticker symbol BMO (pronounced ), on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. In October 2021, it had CA$634 billion in assets under administration (AUA). The Bank of Montreal swift code is BOFMCAM2 and the institution number is 001.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: On 23 June 1817, John Richardson and eight merchants signed the Articles of Association to establish the Montreal Bank in a rented house in Montreal, Quebec. The bank officially began conducting business on 3 November 1817, making it Canada's oldest bank. It underwent a name change to its current in 1822. BMO's Institution Number (or bank number) is 001. In Canada, the bank operates as BMO Bank of Montreal and has more than 800 branches, serving over seven million customers. In the United States, it does business as BMO Financial Group, where it has substantial operations in the Chicago area and elsewhere in the country, where it operates "BMO Harris Bank". BMO Capital Markets is BMO's investment and corporate banking division, while the wealth management division is branded as BMO Nesbitt Burns. The company is ranked at number 131 on the Forbes Global 2000 list.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: The company has not missed a dividend payment since 1829, paying dividends consistently through major world crises such as World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, and the 2008 financial crisis; this makes the Bank of Montreal's dividend payment history one of the longest in the world.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: On December 12, 2021 Bank of Montreal announced the strategic acquisition of Bank of the West from BNP Paribas for US$16.3 billion.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: The bank was established on 23 June 1817, when a group of merchants signed the Articles of Association, formally creating the "Montreal Bank". The signors of the document include Robert Armour, John C. Bush, Austin Cuvillier, George Garden, Horatio Gates, James Leslie, George Moffatt, John Richardson, and Thomas A. Turner. The bank was first located in rooms rented on Rue Saint-Paul, Montreal, before moving to its permanent building on Rue Saint-Paul in 1818. In the same year, the bank opened its first branch in Quebec City; and several offices in Upper Canada, including Amherstburg, Kingston, Perth, and York (present day Toronto). The bank also opened its first foreign permanent office in 1818, opening an office in Willam Street in New York City.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: By 1822, the bank converted from the status it had held since its founding as a private company owned by a small group of people into a public company owned by 144. At this time, it became officially known by its current name.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: Expansion into Upper Canada was halted in 1824, after legislation from the Parliament of Upper Canada forbade bank branches whose head offices were not based in Upper Canada from operating. In 1838, the bank reentered the Upper Canadian market with the purchase of the Bank of the People, a bank based in Toronto. BMO was permitted to open its own branches in the area, after Upper Canada and Lower Canada were united to create the Province of Canada in 1841. Shortly after the two colonies merged, the bank opened branches into Cobourg, Belleville, Brockville, and Ottawa.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: Expansion into the Maritimes and Western Canada was facilitated following Canadian Confederation. In 1877, the bank opened its first branch into Western Canada, with the opening of a branch in Winnipeg. New branches were also opened in the Maritimes, in Halifax, Moncton, and Saint John completed shortly after Confederation. The Bank of Montreal established branches in Newfoundland Colony on 31 January 1895, at the behest of the colonial government. The colonial government of Newfoundland made the request to the Bank of Montreal four days after the collapse of the Commercial Bank and Union Bank of Newfoundland on 10 December 1894.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: By 1907, the bank had branches in every province of Atlantic Canada, with the opening of a branch in Charlottetown. Expansion into the Maritimes was further facilitated with the acquisition of the Exchange Bank of Yarmouth in 1903, the People’s Bank of Halifax in 1905, and the People's Bank of New Brunswick in 1906.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: The early 20th century also saw the bank acquire several financial institutions that helped increase its presence in Newfoundland, and areas west of Quebec, including the Ontario Bank in 1906, the Bank of British North America in 1918, and the Merchants Bank of Canada in 1921. During this period, the bank also acquired the Montreal-based Molson Bank in 1925.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: In 1942, the bank ended production of its own bank notes, which were in circulation in Canada since 1871. By 1944, the central bank of the country, the Bank of Canada became the sole issuer of currency in Canada, and notes from private banks were withdrawn.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: In 1960, the Bank of Montreal moved its operational headquarters to a seventeen-storey structure next to its historic head office. The building served as the bank's operational headquarters until 1977, when it was moved to First Canadian Place on Bay Street in Toronto in 1977. The structure's was named after the slogan of the bank, the "First Canadian Bank", a slogan that was introduced in 1969. The bank's present "M-Bar" logo was also introduced during this time, in 1967. However, the bank's legal headquarters remains at the historic Montreal head office, with First Canadian Place formally listed as the "executive office" of the bank.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: In 1984, the bank acquired Chicago-based Harris Bank (through its parent, Harris Bankcorp), later rebranded as BMO Harris Bank. In 1987, the bank acquired stock brokerage Nesbitt, Thomson and Company. Several years later, the bank assumed control of two retail branches formerly belonging to the Standard Chartered Bank of Canada.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: In 1994, the Bank of Montreal became the first Canadian bank to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1995, the bank opened its first branch in Guangzhou, formally receiving a license to operate the branch on 20 November 1996. In doing so the bank became the first Canadian bank to receive a license to operate in China. During the 1990s, BMO acquired a number of other banks in the Chicago area, merging them under the Harris Bank name, including Suburban Bancorp in 1994; and Household Bank in 1999.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: In 1998, the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Bank of Canada announced they had agreed to a merger pending approval from the government. Government regulators later blocked the proposed merger, along with a similar proposal by the Toronto-Dominion Bank to merge with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Although the banks did not merge, in 2000, the Bank of Montreal, together with the Royal Bank of Canada, merged their merchant payment processor businesses to form Moneris Solutions.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: In 2006, BMO bought BCPBank, a Schedule C financial institution that was the Canadian division of Banco Comercial Português, with eight branches in the Toronto-West area. In 2008, a Bank of Montreal trader pleaded guilty to intentionally mismarking his trading book in order to increase his bonus from the bank.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: In 2009, BMO purchased AIG's Canadian life insurance business, AIG Life Insurance Company of Canada, for approximately CA$330 million. The transaction, including 400,000 customers and 300 employees, made BMO the second-biggest life insurer among Canadian banks. The new component was renamed BMO Life Assurance Company. In the same year, the Bank of Montreal acquired the Diners Club International's North American franchise from Citibank. The transaction gave BMO exclusive rights to issue Diners cards in the US and Canada.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: In October 2010, the bank became the first Canadian bank to incorporate in China, with branches in China operating as BMO ChinaCo. In December 2010, BMO announced the purchase of Milwaukee-based Marshall & Ilsley, and was later amalgamated with its Harris Bank operations. When the transaction completed, M&I Bank, along with current Harris Bank branches were rebranded BMO Harris Bank. In 2014, the bank acquired London-based Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust, later re-branding it as BMO Commercial Property Trust in 2019. In September 2015, BMO agreed to acquire General Electric Co. subsidiary GE Capital's transportation-finance unit. The business acquired has US$8.7 billion (CA$11.5 billion) of assets, 600 employees and 15 offices in the US and Canada. Exact terms were not disclosed but the final price would be based on the value of the assets at closing plus a premium according to the parties.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: BMO and Simplii Financial (a subsidiary of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce) were the targets of hackers in May 2018, who claimed to have compromised the systems of both banks and stolen information on a combined 90,000 customers (50,000 from BMO). An email sent from a Russian address and attributed to the hackers demanded a ransom of 1 million from each company paid via Ripple by 11:59 pm on 28 May 2018 or the information would be released on "fraud forum and fraud community".


title: Bank of Montreal

text: In 2018, BMO went into the marijuana sector with a $175 million deal for a stake in a producer. It was the first investment in the sector by a "Big Five Canadian bank". In January 2018, the bank was accused in a lawsuit along with five other Canadian banks for "conspiring to rig a Canadian rate benchmark to improve profits from derivatives trading". Setting a similar goal to competitors, in October 2018, the company had stated it wanted to attract 1 million new customers to its personal banking division over the following five years. BMO was the bank with the second-most deposits in Chicago by June 2018, with 11.5% market share. Also that month, its BMO Harris division was operating in eight states in the US. The Bank of Montreal had Can$743.6 billion of assets, and ranked among the top 10 North American banks in that status. In September 2018, the bank's CEO stated to the press the bank would have around $1 billion in earnings from their US operations that year.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: After resigning from the Canadian Liberal cabinet, Scott Brison was hired by the bank as its vice-chair of investment and corporate banking in February 2019. In February 2019, it became reported that its US retail profits had surged. The bank moved its New York City headquarters in April 2019, to a former Conde Nast building. That month, the bank's Irish subsidiary was fined several million for a license breach. To settle charges by the SEC that it hid conflicts of interest from clients in 2016, in September 2019 the Bank of Montreal's two units in Chicago paid $38 million. In December 2019, the bank cut 2,300 jobs, after a drop in quarterly earnings, effecting around five percent of the workforce.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: The company had plans to "double indigenous lending" in September 2019. There was controversy and protests in January 2020 after a Vancouver branch of the bank handcuffed a 12-year-old First Nations girl and her grandfather for an identification discrepancy. The Vancouver mayor criticized the bank for what he termed giving false information to the police. The police were afterwards investigated.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: In January 2020, BMO launched an Indigenous Advisory Council with Indigenous members from a number of provinces.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: The CEO of the bank argued against fossil fuel divestment in March 2020, after it "acquired $3 billion of energy loans from Deutsche Bank DBKGn.DE in 2018". In April 2020, the company stated it would temporarily cut credit card interest rates to ease the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on clients. The company described accelerating its automation in August 2020.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: In 2021, BMO affirmed the need to reach global net-zero climate targets as well as net-zero financed emissions in their lending by 2050. A climate institute committed to understanding and managing the financial risks and opportunities related to a low-carbon transition was created and the bank signed the UN Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB).


title: Bank of Montreal

text: In December 2021, BMO agreed to acquire Bank of the West from BNP Paribas. BMO then intends to merge Bank of the West with BMO Harris Bank, which would at least double BMO's total presence in the United States.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: In July 2022, BMO announced it would buy Calgary-based Radicle Group Inc., a prominent adviser to companies on sustainability and measuring carbon emissions, as the bank tries to meet surging demand from its clients for advice about how to navigate a global energy transition.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: BMO is divided into three "client groups" which serve different markets. Each of the client groups operates under multiple brand names.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: In October 2008, Mediacorp Canada Inc. named BMO Financial Group one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers. Notable Employees of the Month include Penche Scurtis.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: Current members of the board of directors of BMO are: Jan Babiak, Sophie Brochu, Craig Broderick, George Cope, Christine A. Edwards, Martin S. Eichenbaum, Ronald H. Farmer, David Harquail, Linda S. Huber, Eric R. La Flèche, Lorraine Mitchelmore and Darryl White.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: "President" was the highest-ranking position at the bank from its founding until the middle of the twentieth century, however this was superseded by "chief executive officer" in 1959, beginning with G. Arnold Hart. Several of his successors as President were CEO as well, however Matthew W. Barrett was the first top executive not to be styled president.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: Since the middle of the twentieth century, the senior officer of Bank of Montreal has been styled "President and chief executive officer" beginning with G. Arnold Hart. That officer often also held the title "chairman of the board", until 2003 when a non-executive chairman was appointed.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: The title of the second-ranking executive has changed several times and has often been left vacant. As deputy to Matthew Barrett, F. Anthony Comper was President and "chief operating officer" from 1990 to 1999, after which he became chairman and CEO while retaining the title of President. During most of Anthony Comper's tenure as CEO, while there was no official "number two" executive, the CEO of BMO Capital Markets (the investment banking division) was largely considered the second-most powerful officer. Bill Downe ascended from CEO of BMO Capital to "chief operating officer" of the BMO group, but held the title only for one-year until he succeeded Comper as President and CEO in 2007. Darryl White succeeded Downe in 2017.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: Rating agency Moody's Investors Service began to review the long-term ratings of the Bank of Montreal and other Canadian banks because of concerns about consumer debt levels, housing prices, and a sizable exposure to capital markets in October 2012. In January 2013, the service announced downgrades for Bank of Montreal and five others.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: A number of buildings in which Bank of Montreal presently operates branches have been designated by municipal, provincial, and/or federal levels of government as being of historic importance. These include:


title: Bank of Montreal

text: A number of late-19th century Bank of Montreal branches were also built by British architect, Andrew Taylor. Taylor designed a three-storey structure for the Bank of Montreal on Saint Jacques Street in Montreal. The building was modelled after a Georgian townhouse with a small portico of Corinthian columns supporting a classical pediment and remains the bank's legal headquarters.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: Buildings that formerly housed a branch of the bank have also seen later notable use. A branch in Montreal has been designated as a National Historic Site of Canada in 1990. The building was completed in 1894, and was designated as a historic site as a good example of Queen Anne Revival architecture. Another former Bank of Montreal branch on Front and Yonge Streets in Toronto has housed the Hockey Hall of Fame since 1993. The 1885 Beaux-Arts styled building designed by the Toronto firm of Darling & Curry.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: Completed in 1847, the Bank of Montreal Head Office is formally located in Montreal, on Saint Jacques Street. However in 1960, the operational headquarters was moved to a 17-storey tower adjacent the historic head office building. In 1977, the bank's operational headquarters or "executive office", was moved to First Canadian Place in Toronto, with the chairman, president, and some senior executives working from First Canadian Place. The structure's was named after a historic slogan of the bank, the "First Canadian Bank", a slogan introduced in 1969.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: The Bank of Montreal has been a sponsor for different events and institutions. The bank is a founder and major sponsor of the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre, an annual award of $100,000 granted to a Canadian director, playwright, or designer.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: The bank is a sponsor of sports teams. The bank has been a sponsor of the Toronto FC of Major League Soccer since 2007 and of its home stadium named "BMO Field" at Exhibition Place. In 2010, BMO extended its agreement with the Toronto FC through the 2016 season. The bank is also a sponsor of the CF Montréal, announcing a five-year agreement to become lead sponsor and jersey sponsor on 14 June 2011.


title: Bank of Montreal

text: From at least 2007 through 2011, BMO was formerly the sponsor for the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors. In July 2008, BMO announced a one-year sponsorship of IndyCar team Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing to appear on the No. 06 car of Graham Rahal in the first-ever IRL-sanctioned Canadian IndyCar race at Edmonton. The Bank of Montreal is also a sponsor for a number of sports events and programs. Since 1997, Bank of Montreal has been a major sponsor of Skate Canada, and is the title sponsor of the BMO Financial Group Canadian Championships, BMO Financial Group Skate Canada Junior Nationals, BMO Financial Group Skate Canada Challenges, BMO Financial Group Skate Canada Sectionals, and BMO Financial Group Skate Canada Synchronized Championships. It is also the presenting sponsor of the CanSkate Learn-to-Skate Program. In 2005, BMO Bank of Montreal became the title sponsor for the annual May marathon race staged by the Vancouver International Marathon Society. The current name is "BMO Bank of Montreal Vancouver Marathon".


title: Bank of Montreal

text: BMO is a member of the Canadian Bankers Association and registered member with the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation, a federal agency insuring deposits at all of Canada's chartered banks. It is also a member of:


title: Bank of Montreal

text: BMO Harris Bank (BMO's US operations) is a member of the Federal Reserve System and a registered member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. It is also a member of:


title: Robert Z'Dar

text: Robert James Zdarsky (June 3, 1950 – March 30, 2015), better known by his stage name Robert Z'Dar, was an American character actor and film producer, best known for his role as officer Matt Cordell in the cult horror film "Maniac Cop" and its two sequels.


title: Robert Z'Dar

text: Z'Dar worked mainly in low-budget B-movies and direct-to-video features, but occasionally in mainstream Hollywood films and television. Due to his cherubism, a medical condition resulting in an enlarged jawline, Z'dar had a unique and easily recognizable look with a slightly sinister appearance, which aided his career as he usually portrayed villains.


title: Robert Z'Dar

text: Born in Chicago, Illinois, Z'Dar was of Lithuanian descent. He first started acting while attending Proviso West High School in Hillside, Illinois. After high school, Z'Dar attended Arizona State University where he received a BFA and played on the university football team. After graduation, Z'Dar returned to Chicago where he was employed as a Chicago police officer, member of the band Nova Express, commercial jingle writer and Chippendales dancer.


title: Robert Z'Dar

text: Eventually Z'Dar moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting. His first feature film appearance was in the women in prison film "Hellhole" (1985).


title: Robert Z'Dar

text: Z'Dar appeared in several films, including "Hot Chili" (1985), "The Night Stalker" (1987), "Cherry 2000" (1987), "The Killing Game" (1988), and "Grotesque" (1988). Z'Dar's name became recognizable when he played Matt Cordell in 1988's "Maniac Cop", a film about a back from the dead hero NYPD cop turned evil avenger who brutally murders people. Z'Dar reprised his role in the 1990 sequel and "" (1993).


title: Robert Z'Dar

text: It was perhaps Z'Dar's performance in "Maniac Cop" that landed him the role of "Face" in 1989's "Tango & Cash", alongside action stars Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell. He went on to appear in films such as "The Final Sanction" (1990), "A Gnome Named Gnorm" (1990), "Killing American Style" (1990), "" (1991), "Mobsters" (1991), "Samurai Cop" (1991), "Return to Frogtown" (1993), "Marching Out of Time" (1993), "Death from Above" (2011), "Meltdown" (2009) and "Easter Sunday" (2014). It was Z'Dar's performance and unique appearance in "Tango and Cash" that inspired Sean Pertwee's facial technique and makeup in the film "Dog Soldiers". Sean was quoted as being inspired by Z'Dar because, "[...] like me, he has unusual features that are almost designed to portray grimacing death with profound accuracy and very little effort".


title: Robert Z'Dar

text: Robert Z'Dar appeared in more than 121 films and television episodes, with at least one film appearance per year in 27 of the last 29 years of his career (missing only 1986 and 2001). He continued making at least one film every year despite a serious back injury he suffered in 2002 on a movie set. Two of Z'Dar's films, "Soultaker" (1992) and "Future War" (1997) appeared in season 10 of "Mystery Science Theater 3000", increasing his renown somewhat.


title: Robert Z'Dar

text: In 2012, he was inducted to International Indie Filmmakers Hall of Fame at The Indie Gathering film festival.


title: Robert Z'Dar

text: While appearing at Pensacon in Pensacola, Florida, Z'Dar was hospitalized for chest pains. He seemed to recover, but subsequently went into cardiac arrest and died on March 30, 2015, one month after his hospitalization.


title: Saw V

text: Saw V is a 2008 horror film directed by David Hackl (in his feature directorial debut) from a screenplay by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan. It is the fifth installment in the "Saw" film series. The film stars Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Scott Patterson, Betsy Russell, Mark Rolston, Julie Benz, Carlo Rota, and Meagan Good. The plot follows FBI agent Peter Strahm as he pursues Detective Mark Hoffman after discovering his identity as one of the Jigsaw Killer's apprentices. Meanwhile, with John Kramer's threat that he will not go untested looming over him, Hoffman seeks to continue John's work and frame Strahm to keep his identity secret. The film also explores Hoffman's backstory and explains how he became Jigsaw's apprentice, while continuing several story lines started in "Saw IV".


title: Saw V

text: David Hackl served as the production designer of "Saw II", "Saw III", and "Saw IV" and second-unit director for "Saw III" and "Saw IV" before making his directorial debut with "Saw V". Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, the writers of the previous film, returned to write the film. Charlie Clouser, who provided the score for all previous "Saw" films, also returned to compose the score for the film. "Saw" creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell served as executive producers.


title: Saw V

text: "Saw V" was released by Lionsgate Films in the United States on October 24, 2008, and received generally negative reviews from critics. Despite this, the film was a box office success, grossing $113.9 million worldwide. A sequel, "Saw VI", was released in 2009.


title: Saw V

text: Convicted murderer Seth Baxter wakes up chained to a table beneath a pendulum blade. He is told that he can release himself by crushing his hands between two presses. He does so, but the blade still bisects him as someone watches discreetly.


title: Saw V

text: FBI agent Peter Strahm escapes from the room he was locked in by Detective Mark Hoffman. He is then attacked by a figure in a pig mask and wakes up with his head sealed in a box being quickly filled with water. Outside, Hoffman delivers Corbett, the kidnapped daughter of Jeff Denlon, to the police and claims they are the only survivors. Strahm, having survived the trap by performing a tracheotomy with his pen, is brought out alive as well, much to Hoffman's shock.


title: Saw V

text: Hoffman is promoted and credited with closing the Jigsaw case. Hoffman later finds a note in his office reading "I know who you are," and learns of Agent Lindsey Perez's death while taking Strahm's cell phone from the police evidence room. At the hospital, Strahm tells Hoffman that Perez's last words were "Detective Hoffman" and questions how he escaped the plant. After being put on medical leave by his boss, Agent Dan Erickson, Strahm, suspicious of Hoffman, decides to uncover his involvement with Jigsaw and takes case files of past Jigsaw victims to research them.


title: Saw V

text: In an underground sewer, Ashley, Brit, Charles, Luba and Mallick awaken with collars locked around their necks, connected by cables to a set of blades mounted on the wall behind them. The keys to the collars are in individual glass boxes across the room. A videotape informs them that they are all connected and that they must "do the opposite" of their instincts if they are all to survive the tests ahead of them. Ashley fails to retrieve the key and gets decapitated. In the second room, which is filled with explosives on a timer, Charles first attacks Mallick and then Luba, but she, Brit and Mallick each to retrieve keys to bomb shelters set in the walls. Charles is left to die when the timer expires and the explosives detonate. In the third room, Brit kills Luba and she and Mallick connect her corpse to five cables to complete an electric circuit that unlocks the next door. In the final room, Mallick and Brit find a machine fitted with five saws and a beaker requiring ten pints of blood to open the final door. They realize that all prior tests could have been completed without casualties if they had worked together, and figure out their connection: they were all involved in a building fire that killed eight people. Mallick and Brit concede a truce and each slice an arm in the saws to provide the blood needed to open the final door.


title: Saw V

text: Strahm learns that Hoffman killed Seth Baxter, who had killed Hoffman's sister, years prior. John Kramer abducted Hoffman after the fact, and blackmailed him into helping him set up his future "games." Strahm concludes that everyone was meant to die at the plant except for Corbett and Hoffman. John's ex-wife Jill Tuck claims Strahm is stalking her. After Hoffman tells Erickson about Strahm's theory of a second Jigsaw accomplice, Erickson tries to call him. Hoffman answers on Strahm's phone and hangs up. Erickson has one of his agents track the phone's signal.


title: Saw V

text: Following the signal to the sewer observation room, Erickson finds the phone and his own personnel file, both planted by Hoffman. He also finds the still-living Brit and Mallick and calls for medical attention, before putting an all-points bulletin on Strahm, convinced that he is Jigsaw's successor. Meanwhile, Strahm follows Hoffman to the renovated nerve gas house and finds a tape. In the tape, Hoffman urges Strahm to enter the box, but he stops it short and ambushes Hoffman, whom he seals in the box. Strahm believes he has finally caught Hoffman, but the door to the room suddenly shuts itself and the walls begin to close in as the box is lowered beneath the floor. Strahm finishes playing the tape, which warns him that if he does not enter the box, he will die and be framed as Jigsaw's apprentice. Safe inside the box, Hoffman watches as Strahm unsuccessfully tries to escape the room and is ultimately crushed to death.


title: Saw V

text: "Saw V" was written by "Saw IV" writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, though Darren Lynn Bousman, who had directed all "Saw" films since "Saw II", affirmed in July 2007 that he would not direct another sequel. The film went into production after Christmas 2007. Principal photography took place from March 17 to April 28, 2008 in Toronto. By mid-July 2008, there had been three photos released of David Hackl at the set of "Saw V". The first trailer, depicting Agent Strahm's box trap, was released at Comic-Con 08 as a short clip and the trailer was also shown before "".


title: Saw V

text: The soundtrack was released on October 21, 2008 by Artists' Addiction Records. Spence D. from IGN.com gave the soundtrack a score of 7.9 out of 10, saying, "From start to finish the "Saw V" soundtrack flows with a sense of purpose and cohesion, the tracks having a unifying dark undercurrent that makes for an electric shocked jolting mixtape with dark intent."


title: Saw V

text: The film was released in Australia on October 23, 2008, in North America and the United Kingdom on October 24, 2008, and in New Zealand on October 30, 2008.


title: Saw V

text: In its opening weekend, "Saw V" grossed $30,053,954 in 3,060 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking number two at the box office behind "". It grossed $56,746,769 in the United States and Canada, and an additional $57,117,290 in other markets, for a worldwide total of $113,864,059. This was the second film in the series to not be number one at the box office, the first was the first film. It is Lionsgate Films's tenth-highest-grossing film in the United States and Canada.


title: Saw V

text: The film received generally negative reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 13% based on 76 reviews, with a weighted average of 2.92/10. The site's consensus states "If its plot were as interesting as its torture devices, or its violence less painful than its performances, perhaps "Saw V" might not feel like it was running on fumes." Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 20 out of 100, based on 13 reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Saw V

text: Elizabeth Weizman of the "New York Daily News" believed that the lack of Tobin Bell's Jigsaw character hurt the film: "Bell's deliciously twisted madman was the lifeline of this series and, without him, we're left watching a routine horror flick that might as well have gone straight to DVD. The series began with two major assets that set it apart: the concept of a brilliantly righteous executioner, and the actor who played him. Now, aside from Bell's brief, intermittent cameos, it has neither. So where the original "Saw" was diabolical fun, this fifth installment is as bloodless as the most unfortunate of Jigsaw's victims." Sam Adams of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote that "The virtues of the individual films are almost beside the point, since it's hard to imagine why anyone would want to pick up the thread at this late date, but "Saw V" is a particularly dull and discombobulated affair, shot and acted with all the flair of a basic-cable procedural".


title: Saw V

text: Some reviews were positive, however. The British website Digital Spy rated it 3/5 stars and commended the film for its "solid acting, slick direction and suitably filthy cinematography too", while also stating it will "make far more sense to those familiar with the previous installments". IGN awarded the film with 3 out of 5 stars stating that the film ties up most of the loose ends of the previous 4 installments while also having a more straightforward and less complicated storyline. They also praised the traps for being the most inventive and best that the "Saw" franchise has had to offer.


title: Saw V

text: During an interview at the 2008 Scream Awards, Hackl claimed that his director's cut of "Saw V" (released on DVD January 20, 2009), would run approximately 14 minutes longer than the theatrical cut. Hackl also stated that a number of scenes in the film would be re-ordered and arranged differently than in the theatrical cut. However, only a few changes were made and the extra footage was never released, running only four minutes longer than the theatrical version.


title: Saw V

text: An Unrated Collector's Edition is available with exclusive packaging. It features sound effects, a collector's booklet, and a spinning "saw blade". The features on the DVD itself are the same as the standard Unrated Director's Cut.


title: Rebecca Rittenhouse

text: Rebecca Rittenhouse (born November 30, 1988) is an American actress. She has played Cody LeFever in the ABC prime time soap opera "Blood & Oil", Dr. Anna Ziev in the Hulu romantic comedy series "The Mindy Project", and Maggie in the "Into the Dark" television film episode "The Body". Rittenhouse recently starred as the titular character in the Hulu comedy series "Maggie".


title: Rebecca Rittenhouse

text: Rittenhouse was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Pasadena. One of her first roles was in lower school, when she was cast as the Balloon Girl in her all-girls academy's production of the musical "Gypsy". She continued performing in high school, but never thought of it as a career. Rittenhouse attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied Romance languages. Afterwards, she decided to study acting at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York City. She considered a career in medicine while trying to get roles.


title: Rebecca Rittenhouse

text: Rittenhouse made her Off-Broadway debut in "Commons of Pensacola" written by at the Manhattan Theatre Club during the 2013–14 television season. In 2014, she made her television debut, appearing in the pilot episode of Showtime drama series, "The Affair". Later in that year, Rittenhouse was cast in the series regular role as Brittany Dobler in the Fox comedy-drama, "Red Band Society". The series was canceled after one season. Rittenhouse was originally considered for the female lead role in the superhero film "Deadpool", but lost the part to Morena Baccarin.


title: Rebecca Rittenhouse

text: In 2015, Rittenhouse was cast as the female lead Cody LeFever in the ABC prime time soap opera, "Blood & Oil". In late 2017, she was cast as Keri Allen in the season seven finale of the legal drama series "Suits", which served as a backdoor pilot for a potential spin-off, "Pearson". However, the role was recast with Bethany Joy Lenz for the series.


title: Rebecca Rittenhouse

text: Rittenhouse recently starred as interior decorator Ainsley Howard in the Hulu miniseries "Four Weddings and a Funeral", a modern update on the 1994 British film of the same name, created by Mindy Kaling and Matt Warburton. She previously worked with Kaling and Warburton on The Mindy Project.


title: Rebecca Rittenhouse

text: Rittenhouse is currently starring in Hulu’s television series adaptation of the 2019 film short "Maggie", which has no relation to her role in the 2018 "Into the Dark" television film "The Body", in which she played another character named Maggie. In the Hulu comedy series, Rittenhouse stars as the titular role, a psychic who can predict the future of everyone around her. The show was originally scheduled to debut on ABC, but was moved to Hulu.


title: Staples Inc.

text: Staples Inc. is an American retail company headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts, that offers products and services designed to support working and learning.


title: Staples Inc.

text: The company opened its first store in Brighton, Massachusetts on May 1, 1986. By 1996, it had reached the Fortune 500, and it later acquired the office supplies company Quill Corporation. In 2014, in the wake of increasing competition from e-commerce market, Staples began to close some of its locations. In 2015, Staples announced its intent to acquire Office Depot and OfficeMax. However, the purchase was blocked under antitrust grounds due to the consolidation that would result.


title: Staples Inc.

text: After the failed acquisition, Staples began to refocus its operations to downplay its brick-and-mortar outlets, and place more prominence on its B2B supply business. In 2017, after its sale to Sycamore Partners, the company was effectively split into three "independently managed and capitalized" entities sharing the Staples name, separating its U.S. retail operations, and Canadian retail operations, from the B2B business.


title: Staples Inc.

text: Staples was founded by Leo Kahn and Thomas G. Stemberg, who were former rivals in the New England retail supermarket industry, and Myra Hart.


title: Staples Inc.

text: The idea for Staples originated in 1985, while Stemberg was working on a proposal for a different business. He needed a ribbon for his printer, but was unable to obtain one because his local dealer was closed for the Independence Day holiday. A frustration with the reliance on small stores for critical supplies combined with Stemberg's background in the grocery business led to a vision for an office supply superstore.


title: Staples Inc.

text: The first store was opened in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston in 1986. Staples started with backing from private equity firms including Bain Capital; Bain co-founder Mitt Romney served on the company's board of directors for the next 15 years, helping shape their business model.


title: Staples Inc.

text: In 1991, Staples founded its Canadian subsidiary, The Business Depot, and began opening stores under that name, though over a decade later, all stores were renamed as "Staples". The first store opened in Vaughan, Ontario, north of Toronto. The following year, Staples began expanding into Europe, and opened its first British store in Swansea.


title: Staples Inc.

text: During its tenth anniversary in 1996, Staples became a member of the Fortune 500 companies as sales surpassed $3 billion. On September 4, 1996, Staples and Office Depot announced plans to merge. The Federal Trade Commission decided that the merged company would unfairly increase office supply prices despite competition from OfficeMax, because OfficeMax did not have stores in many of the local markets that the merger would affect. Staples argued that chains such as Walmart and Circuit City represented significant competition, but this argument did little to sway the FTC. Following the denial of the merger by the FTC, a rivalry formed between the two companies.


title: Staples Inc.

text: Staples acquired the naming rights for the Staples Center in Los Angeles shortly before construction began in 1998. Staples also acquired Quill Corporation, an online and catalog retailer of office supplies, for about $685 million in cash and stock. Between 1999 and 2001, unsuccessful attempts to enter the telecommunications business were made as Staples created Staples Communications after the purchase of Canada-based company, Claricom, from an investment group. The company was later sold to Platinum Equities and renamed NextiraOne.


title: Staples Inc.

text: In 2002, Staples acquired Medical Arts Press, which became a subsidiary of Quill. By 2004, Staples expanded to Austria and Denmark and in 2007, Staples opened its first store in India.


title: Staples Inc.

text: In March 2005, Staples and Ahold announced a plan to include a Staples branded store-within-store section in all Stop & Shop Supermarkets and Giant Food stores throughout the Northeast. In August 2006, Ahold announced the addition of the Staples section to all Tops Friendly Markets locations as well.


title: Staples Inc.

text: In 2008, Staples acquired Dutch office supplies company Corporate Express, one of the largest office supply wholesalers in the world. Staples also launched 11 concept stores in the New England area featuring a large focus on small business and technology related services.


title: Staples Inc.

text: On March 6, 2014, Staples announced it would close up to 225 stores in North America by the end of 2015, in order to cut $500 million in costs annually, and focus more on e-commerce.


title: Staples Inc.

text: On February 4, 2015, Staples announced a plan to once again acquire Office Depot, which itself had recently acquired OfficeMax in a bid to compete against Staples. CEO Ron Sargent stated that this purchase would "[enable] Staples to provide more value to customers, and more effectively compete in a rapidly evolving competitive environment", and would result in at least $1 billion in "cost synergies" within three years.


title: Staples Inc.

text: It was reported that the deal could face antitrust scrutiny for its monopolization of the office supply market, unless growing competition against online retailers is considered a factor as well. In December, the FTC filed a lawsuit to halt the merger, arguing that it would harm competition in the commercial office supply market. and as of January 2016, the FTC has not changed its stance.


title: Staples Inc.

text: At the end of January 2016, it was announced to employees that Staples would be laying off hundreds of workers at their headquarters location. The layoffs were seen by some analysts as a preemptive tactic in case the merger did not receive regulatory approval from the Federal Trade Commission. On May 10, 2016, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted the FTC a preliminary injunction against the merger. As a result, the sale was called off, and Staples was required to pay a $250 million breakup fee.


title: Staples Inc.

text: In November 2016, it was announced that Staples had sold its 106 British stores to Hilco Capital for a "nominal" amount, as part of an effort to streamline its international operations following the failed merger. Hilco stated that it would discontinue the Staples brand in the region; the stores were rebranded as "Office Outlet", a new brand retaining the Staples chain's red and white color scheme. In August 2018, the chain closed some of its stores under a company voluntary arrangement, and underwent a management buyout the following month. In March 2019, Office Outlet went into administration, citing that it had "recently experienced a reduction in credit from key suppliers, given the economic outlook which has severely impacted the financial position of the company."


title: Staples Inc.

text: In 2022, Staples launched same-day passport photo services in over 1,000 stores and TSA PreCheck enrollment at select locations.


title: Staples Inc.

text: Following the aborted acquisition, Staples began to reposition its operations by promoting itself as a "solutions partner" for the business market, and placing a stronger focus on its B2B-oriented delivery and e-commerce businesses. In May 2017, the chain began a new advertising campaign with the slogan "It's Pro Time", which largely downplayed its retail operations.


title: Staples Inc.

text: In 2017, Sycamore Partners acquired Staples for $6.9 billion, of which $1.6 billion was funded as equity, with the remaining deal value raised as debt. As part of the purchase, Sycamore implemented a major restructuring of the company, under which the chain's B2B business (Staples North American Delivery, also known as simply "Staples"), retail locations (Staples U.S. Retail), and Staples Canada would be split into three "independently managed and capitalized" entities under Sycamore.


title: Staples Inc.

text: On April 9, 2019, Sycamore Partners conducted a dividend recapitalization, refinancing $5.4 billion in debt against its ownership of Staples, producing a $1 billion one-time dividend for the private equity firm. A Bloomberg report on this refinancing noted that the deal allowed Sycamore to recover roughly 80% of its equity investment in Staples in less than two years, compared to the typical profit-taking exit timeframe of five to eight years for most private equity buyouts. That month, Staples also unveiled a new logo, which features an icon representing both an unused staple and an office desk. The company also announced that it would introduce a new line of store brands, including Tru Red, Coastwide Professional (facility supplies), NXT Technologies (technology accessories), Perk (office break room supplies), and Union & Scale (furniture), as well as a new catalog known as "The Loop". With the rebranding, CEO Sandy Douglas (who joined the company in 2018) stated that Staples was now being marketed as a "worklife fulfillment" company, which he explained was "about helping businesses of all sizes as they create the most dynamic and productive work environments for their teams."


title: Staples Inc.

text: The following month, CEO Mike Motz (who joined the company in 2019 to head Staples U.S. Retail) unveiled a new store concept known as "Staples Connect": it is aligned with a similar store concept being trialed by Staples Canada, featuring "Staples Studio" co-working areas and an auditorium-style "Spotlight" theater (which can be rented for sessions and events). The new concept will be trialed in the Boston area, while elements of the concept will be implemented chain-wide. As part of a partnership with radio broadcaster iHeartMedia, Staples also added recording studios intended for podcasting to six of these stores, with access to recording engineers and a partnership with Spreaker to offer discounted hosting and distribution services to its customers.


title: Staples Inc.

text: Throughout most of the company's history, Staples employed, in its American commercials and advertising promotions, the slogan "Yeah, we've got that.", signifying their wide selection of products. This slogan was retired in 2003, to be replaced with "That was easy". Expanding on that theme, 2005 adverts featured a large red push-button marked "easy". In the United Kingdom, Staples had used the slogan "You want it. We've got it"; this changed to "That was Easy".


title: Staples Inc.

text: Originally, the "Easy Button" was only intended to be a fictitious button with 'magical' properties, featured in their television advertisement campaign. However, when the adverts appeared, customers began contacting the company to inquire how they could buy one. The company responded by making the "Easy Button" a real product (available in English "easy", French "simple", Spanish "fácil" and German "einfach easy").


title: Staples Inc.

text: These buttons were shipped to stores in the United States, Canada and Germany starting in the fall of 2005. Sales of the buttons reached 1.5 million by the end of 2006. The button has been referred to as a "Marketer's Dream", effectively turning millions of Staples customers into advertisers, resulting in greatly increased brand recognition.


title: Staples Inc.

text: The Staples Sno-Bot was an advertising character that appeared in the United States, in television and print advertising during the Christmas seasons from 1995 until 2001.


title: Staples Inc.

text: The Sno-Bot was a robot shaped like a snowman who refuses to let go of the inkjet printer he has fallen in love with. After the printer is wrestled from his grasp, the robot utters a monotone "Weeping. Weeping." He is consoled by a Staples employee who offers him a surge protector or a computer mouse (depending on the ad) instead.


title: Staples Inc.

text: The robot's "Weeping. Weeping." catchphrase briefly became a popular meme on the Internet, and the ad itself was parodied in a 2002 Christmas advertisement for Dell Computers, in which a robot hassles a shopper (including striking him with a candy cane) when he attempts to purchase a PC at an unnamed office supplies retailer.


title: Staples Inc.

text: Another advertisement style is used during its annual back-to-school campaign, in which the Christmas song "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" is played while a father joyously shops for school supplies for his sullen-faced children, used for several years from 1995 until 2005.


title: Staples Inc.

text: Later, Alice Cooper appeared in a back-to-school campaign from August 2004. Within the ad, a hand is seen selecting various supplies while a girl looks on unhappily. She finally says, "I thought you said, 'School's out forever.'" Alice is shown behind the cart, saying, "The song goes 'School's out for summer'. Nice try, though." The hit song then plays as supplies are shown. The tagline, "That was easy", is heard playing over the company logo, formed to resemble a stapler.


title: Staples Inc.

text: During the 2008 holiday season, Staples advertising for the first time engaged Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media platforms. The company created a character named "Coach Tom" to promote its "Gift it for Free" sweepstakes, in which 10,000 Staples customers won up to $5,000 in merchandise.


title: Staples Inc.

text: In August 2002, the company started the Staples Foundation for Learning, which supports youth groups and education. It also is a partner of Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Ashoka, Earth Force, Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, Hispanic Heritage Foundation and through Staples, ReadBoston.


title: Staples Inc.

text: In August 2005, Staples introduced the "Easy Button", a novelty item for offices which is advertised as a fun way of relieving stress. The button does nothing other than say "That was easy" when pressed. The first US$1 million of profits each year from the Easy Button are donated to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. As of December 2006, it was sold for US$4.99 to $6.99 in all US and Canadian stores (where profits go to Special Olympics in Canada) and on the company's website. Donations also went to the Children's Fund. Staples has reportedly sold more than $7.5 million worth of Easy Buttons.


title: Staples Inc.

text: Staples is ranked in the top 25 of EPA's Green Power Partner list. In 2006, Staples offered more than 2,900 different office products incorporating recycled content.


title: Staples Inc.

text: Staples is currently trying to pursue developing Staples brand products with green raw materials. In response to a two-year campaign targeting the company, Staples adopted an environmentally friendly paper policy, in hopes of increasing the amount of post-consumer recycled paper made available for sale, phasing out products originating from endangered forests.


title: Staples Inc.

text: The Hanover, Maryland fulfillment center is powered by a 1.01 megawatt solar installation covering nearly of roof space. Its Savi Ranch store in Yorba Linda, California also has a sizeable rooftop solar installation. Staples has also recently implemented power reduction strategies in all of their Copy & Print Centers, where the copiers enter sleep mode in as little as 15 minutes after use.


title: Staples Inc.

text: This technique will save Staples nearly $1 million a year in reduced energy costs and prevent over 11 million pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere. In November 2014, Staples partnered with EnergySage to give Staples giftcards to homeowners and businesses that installed solar panels.


title: Staples Inc.

text: Staples accepts all used ink and toner cartridges for recycling. Prior to 2008, the only cartridge brands that could be recycled were HP, Kodak, and Dell, and customers were given a $3 coupon for the store, with the maximum number of coupons to be given, or redeemed, at any one time being 25. Since 2009, ink recycling has been a part of the Staples Rewards program.


title: Staples Inc.

text: Staples now gives back two dollars (Staples.com) on all ink cartridges and toners as of July 2010. Ink recycling credit comes to Rewards members as a separate coupon, monthly, instead of the normal quarterly rewards check. Most customers are able to trade in ten per month for credit, whilst Staples Plus and Premier Rewards members are able to trade in twenty per month.


title: Staples Inc.

text: As of February 28, 2013, Staples announced that in order to receive $2 per ink cartridge recycled, customers would be required to spend at least $30 at Staples in ink purchases within 180 days of recycling.


title: Staples Inc.

text: A 2012 study by the "Wall Street Journal" found that Staples displayed different prices to customers in different locations (distinct from shipping prices), based on proximity to competitors like OfficeMax and Office Depot. This generally resulted in higher prices for customers in more rural areas, who were on average less wealthy than customers seeing lower prices.


title: Staples Inc.

text: KrebsOnSecurity reported a suspected breach at Staples, On October 20, 2014, after hearing multiple banks had identified a pattern of card fraud (suggesting that several Staples office supply locations in the Northeastern United States were dealing with a data breach). At the time, Staples would say only that it was investigating "a potential issue" and had contacted law enforcement.


title: Staples Inc.

text: On December 19, 2014, Staples reported that criminals had deployed malware to point-of-sale systems at 115 of their retail stores in the United States. At 113 stores, the malware may have allowed access to this data for purchases made from August 10, 2014, through September 16, 2014. At two stores, the malware may have allowed access to data from purchases made from July 20, 2014, through September 16, 2014. Overall, the company believed that approximately 1.16 million payment cards may have been affected.


title: Staples Inc.

text: On July 14, 2015, Numerous news outlets started to report a suspected data breach at retailers served by online photo software from PNI – Staples' recent acquisition. The first reported victim was Walmart Canada, followed by CVS, Rite-Aid, Costco US, Costco Canada and Tesco UK.


title: Staples Inc.

text: During the period July 13 to 28, 2015, Staples Inc share price fell from $15.59 to $13.97, a 10% fall which reflected a reduction in Staples market value of almost $1bn.


title: Staples Inc.

text: In addition to selling office supplies, business machines, and tech services, Staples also offers a copy and print center for photocopies, digital printing, faxing, custom business cards, custom rubber stamps, promotional products, binding, lamination, folding, cutting and engraved products. While many products can be produced in-store, larger, more complex jobs, or jobs requiring special materials such as PVC signs are routed to production facilities in various locations through the country.


title: Staples Inc.

text: Most locations have a limited service UPS shipping center offering air and ground services, DHL in the United Kingdom stores, and three providers (Canada Post, FedEx, and Purolator) in Canadian stores, which is open during store hours. Canada and the UK offer international shipping, whereas in US stores, this service is limited to Canada and Mexico. UPS services in US-based stores are not capable of handling AT&T or Dish Network returns with a label, or QR codes from Amazon returns.


title: Staples Inc.

text: In Canada, most web submission jobs and larger orders, including business cards, posters and books are produced in central production facility in each region. The production facilities operate on a 24-hour basis and orders are shipped to most of the stores within its regions within a day. The regions in Canada are BC/Yukon, Alberta/NWT, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, and Maritime. The Copy & Print Center was also the first Print Center to offer custom business cards printed in store. Known as 'Instant Business Cards' customers are able to have custom business cards in a matter of hours. Staples also operates stand-alone Print & Marketing Stores (currently there are four New York City locations, and one in Salem, Massachusetts) where Print & Marketing Services is a brand of Staples.


title: Staples Inc.

text: Some stores also feature Staples Tech Services (formerly EasyTech) an in-store and on-site service for PC repair, PC upgrades, home and office networking setup, and PC tutorials.


title: Staples Inc.

text: Starting in November 2005, Staples began a test called "Heavy Up" primarily using stores in New York state to experiment with the expansion of the offerings by the Staples Tech Center. A subsequent test known as "Double Up" was planned for an unspecified test market and was scheduled to begin the first half of 2006. The tests ran to promote competition with Best Buy's Geek Squad and Circuit City's Fire dog.


title: Staples Inc.

text: Beginning in early 2006, Staples also launched the "Easy Resident Tech" program, employing one to two resident computer repair technicians to do in-store repair during normal business hours.


title: Staples Inc.

text: On January 30, 2007, Staples launched Staples EasyTech. The launch rebranded the "Easy Mobile Tech" name with plans to install an 11' x 17' kiosk in every store. The kiosk may vary from store to store depending on its size and volume. Most kiosks take up part of the Customer Service desk. Within the kiosk, Easy Resident Techs offered repair service as well as sold products. These technicians wore gray "Easy Tech" polo shirts to distinguish them from regular Staples workers. While there was typically one tech per store, a second tech may have been employed for high-volume stores.


title: Staples Inc.

text: Beginning in July 2008, Staples launched a new program labeling all technology workers as "EasyTechs". Under the new guidelines all technology workers are required to have the skills necessary to perform basic services such as memory installation and PC configuration. In addition, all technology workers wear black polo shirts with green "EasyTech" emblems to set them apart from other store workers. The change was due to the company's new focus on services, allowing more customers to be assisted in less time. Most stores will still have a main "EasyTech" who performs most of the more complex tasks.


title: Staples Inc.

text: Beginning in November 2008, eleven concept stores featuring a broader array of small business technology services were launched, which are known within the company as Best Tech stores. EasyTechs and sales workers were now referred to as "Tech Advisors" and "Solutions Advisors". The concept stores carry many more technology related products such as digital signage, small business servers, NAS (Network Attached Storage), and business networking. Staples also partnered with an on demand IT service provider, with such services as network monitoring, advanced network configurations, and server setup.