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Zellers

Zellers was a Canadian discount store chain founded by Walter P. Zeller in 1931. It was acquired by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in 1978, and after a series of acquisitions and expansions, peaked with 350 locations in 1999. However, fierce competition and an inability to adapt during the retail apocalypse resulted in Zellers losing significant ground in the 2000s.

In January 2011, HBC announced that it would sell the lease agreements for up to 220 Zellers stores to the US chain Target for $1.825 billion. In turn, Target announced its intention to convert many of them to Canadian locations of Target, and re-sell the remainder to other parties such as Walmart Canada, resulting in their liquidation and eventual closure. While HBC initially retained 64 Zellers locations, it announced on July 26, 2012, that all of them would be liquidated and closed by March 31, 2013, due to their lack of profitability. Ultimately, all but three selected stores were closed later in 2013.

When the chain ceased, HBC converted the three Zellers-branded locations into liquidation outlets for The Bay (since renamed Hudson's Bay), with the last of those stores closing and ending the brand on January 26, 2020. As of 2023 however, the Zellers brand name has been formally reintroduced as a store-within-a-store concept inside Hudson's Bay department stores, complemented by online shopping.

History
On Saturday, August 4, 1928, Zellers Ltd was first established in London, Ontario. Walter P. Zeller, its founder, opened his new store and head office at 176 Dundas Street in London after working for years for Metropolitan Stores, F. W. Woolworth Company and Kresge's. The plan at the start was to have stores opened in London, St. Catharines, Niagara Falls, Fort William (part of modern-day Thunder Bay) and Saint John, New Brunswick as part of an effort to establish a Canada-wide chain of department stores. The London store had a street frontage of 53 ft and a depth of 137 ft. It had a total of 7000 sqft of space on the ground floor with 2000 sqft of counter space spread out around the store. Sixty women were hired for the opening day working in 21 different departments. Within months, Zellers was doing such good business that they were bought out by the American firm Schulte-United Ltd, but within two years, the rebranded stores went bankrupt.

1930s–1960s: Early years, partnership with W.T. Grant
Zeller promptly bought fourteen Canadian locations of the failed Schulte-United chain, all in Southern Ontario, and relaunched Zellers in late 1931 as a store for thrifty Canadians. One of the locations was the original Zellers at 176 Dundas Street in London, which would remain operating until the late 1980s. Almost immediately, Zellers initiated an aggressive expansion strategy. Within 25 years, Zellers operated 60 stores and employed 3,000 people. In 1952, in a move to expand into Atlantic Canada, it acquired the Federal Stores chain of variety stores, adding more than 12 new Zellers locations.

During this period of expansion, Zellers concluded a deal with W.T. Grant, a similar chain of American mass merchandise department stores. This arrangement allowed W.T. Grant to purchase 10 percent of Zellers shares and eventually a 51 percent ownership in 1959. In exchange, the Grant Company made available to Zellers its experience in merchandising, real estate, store development, and general administration. Zellers employees were sent to Grant stores and head office for training and the two companies made common buying trips to east Asia. In the 1950s, the chain again began opening new locations and in 1956, opened its first self-serve location at the Norgate Shopping Centre in Saint-Laurent, Quebec. Stores opened in 1960 employed many new innovations, including the first in-store restaurant, the first automotive centre and the first suburban location.

1970s–1980s: Acquisitions of Field and by HBC
In 1975, Zellers changed its logo to the one it would keep for its remaining 45 years. By 1976, Zellers had grown to a chain of 155 stores, with annual sales of $407 million.

Although Zellers was prospering, W.T. Grant was facing intense competition in the United States and was forced to withdraw entirely from its Canadian operations. In 1976, Fields, a clothing retailer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, offered to purchase a 50.1 percent stake in Zellers for $32,675,000. Zellers' shareholders, unhappy with the idea of Zellers becoming a subsidiary of Fields, reversed the takeover and purchased Fields and its hardware store division, Marshall Wells. This sale added 70 Fields stores and 162 franchised Marshall Wells stores to the company. Fields president and founder, Joseph Segal was appointed as president of Zellers.

In June 1978, Zellers presented a bid to acquire 100 percent ownership of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). HBC management, recognizing Zellers profitability and the potential to enter a new retail segment, decided to purchase Zellers instead. Zellers and Fields, operating in very different retail segments from HBC, were kept intact and established as separate divisions of the company. HBC acquired full ownership of Zellers and Fields in 1981 and Marshall Wells in 1982. By 1985, HBC had sold Marshall Wells for $20 million because it was not relevant to its department store business.

Counterfeit video games for the Atari 2600 console were manufactured in Taiwan and sold by Zellers in the early 1980s, usually under new names and artwork and occasionally with modified graphics. All games were pirated copies of titles created either by Atari itself or by third-party developers, such as Activision. Zellers was eventually forced by Atari to stop selling these games. Zellers released 18 games for the Atari 2600 in the early 1980s.

1990s: Further acquisitions
In 1990, Hudson's Bay Company acquired the 51 stores of the Towers/Bonimart chain from the Oshawa Group, and converted most of them to Zellers outlets, including its flagship location in Toronto. Zellers advertisements at the time featured both the Towers mascot, Sparky, and the Zellers mascot, Zeddy, walking arm in arm. During this period, Zellers used the slogan "Where the lowest price is the law.".

In 1993, Hudson's Bay Company purchased the assets of the bankrupt Woodward's chain, including 21 store locations. These were converted into Zellers and The Bay stores and greatly expanded the company's presence in Western Canada. In 1998, Hudson's Bay Company acquired Kmart's Canadian division, and merged it with the Zellers division to create a larger combined chain under the Zellers name. While some Kmart locations were closed, many sites became full Zellers outlets. Kmart Canada president George Heller remained with HBC, eventually becoming HBC's president and CEO in the mid-2000s.

In 1996, Hudson's Bay Company closed its Zellers head office in Montreal, Quebec and merged it with the Hudson's Bay Company headquarters in downtown Toronto. By 1998, Hudson's Bay Company reestablished its Zellers head office at the former Kmart Canada head office in Brampton, Ontario.

2000s: Decline
In Hudson's Bay Company's last year as a publicly traded company, Zellers had 291 stores and lost $107 million on sales of $4.2 billion. On February 28, 2006, Hudson's Bay Company was taken private by South Carolina businessman Jerry Zucker.

Following Zucker's death in 2008, Hudson's Bay Company and its subsidiaries including Zellers came under the ownership of a New York-based private equity firm, NRDC Equity Partners, which was headed by Richard Baker. NRDC also owned the Lord & Taylor upscale specialty retail department store chain in the United States.

Subsequently, NRDC invested heavily in The Bay and managed a turnaround by repositioning it as an upscale, fashion-forward retailer. However, the Zellers chain was still struggling and was seen as a drag on the parent company and its American owner. Mark Foote was appointed President and CEO of Zellers in 2008, having recently served as president and chief merchandising officer at Loblaw Companies and prior to that was president of Canadian Tire Corp.'s retail division. Foote was credited with stabilizing the chain, though it still continued losing ground against Walmart Canada.

2011–2013: Lease acquisitions by Target, liquidation and closures
On January 13, 2011, it was announced that US. retail chain Target Corporation would purchase the lease agreements of up to 220 Zellers stores for $1.825 billion. Under the agreement, Zellers would sublease the properties and continue to operate them as Zellers locations until January 2012 at the earliest, and at the latest the end of March 2013. At the time of this announcement, Zellers operated 273 stores, well below the 350 stores it had in 1999.

Upon the announcement, it was reported that once the Zellers stores at these locations were closed, Target would renovate 100 to 150 of them to reopen the stores under the Target banner during 2013 and 2014. The remaining acquired sites would be transferred to other retailers. HBC had said that it would continue to operate the remaining Zellers stores as a smaller chain in specific communities.

Of the maximum 220 locations, 105 to be transferred to Target were identified in late May 2011, and another lot of 84 locations in late September 2011, bringing the total number of Zellers stores acquired by Target to 189. Of these 189 stores, 39 were resold to Walmart Canada.

RioCan REIT was significantly affected, as many of its mall properties include Zellers locations. In addition, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union planned to hold demonstrations as many Zellers staffers were to be laid off instead of being retained by Target or Walmart. This was in marked contrast to the takeover of Woolco by Walmart in 1994, where all Woolco employees of the acquired stores were retained.

The President and CEO of Zellers, Mark Foote, had a mandate to liquidate the 273 Zellers stores in preparing it for Target's takeover by October 2011. Foote's strategy was to use a blueprint of a retail liquidation, but without the typical insolvency and desperation that plagued failing chains. Foote focused on raising profits, even if that meant losing market share and reducing store traffic, by ramping up inventory levels of higher margin goods over loss leaders such as apparel over deeply discounted paper towels and detergent, and slashing costs. Foote also replaced the expensive fall television ad campaign with a social media blitz on Facebook. Reportedly, the strategy was paying off as Zellers operating profit was "well ahead of expectations and the retailer had performed very well in 2011.

In March 2012, the first 50 Zellers stores were put in liquidation. This included all 39 Zellers stores slated to become Walmart outlets. By mid-June, the latter locations were closed to the public. On June 25, 2012, 17 more stores in Ontario were put in liquidation.

The Hudson's Bay Company announced on July 26, 2012, that it would close most of the 64 remaining stores that were supposed to continue operating as Zellers outlets. A company spokesperson stated that these stores employ 6,400 people, or approximately 100 per location, range in size from 48,000 to 128,000 square feet and are mostly in small towns. The closings of these stores were to happen at the latest on March 31, 2013 which coincided with the deadline date the HBC had to vacate the sites acquired by Target. The HBC's main reason for closing the 64 remaining stores was due to Zellers lack of profitability. The HBC also remarked that it would not be viable to keep Zellers as an ongoing chain due to the geographical locations of the remaining 64 stores. The HBC did not exclude the possibility of keeping some stores open and converting them as The Bay or Home Outfitters outlets.

After the deal with Target Corporation, HBC still had a burden in half of the $226.4 million of Zellers lease obligations remaining through 2016, with the rent for 2012 alone being almost half of HBC's adjusted profit. With HBC preparing an initial public offering in late 2012, it either terminated these liabilities with landlords at steep discounts or found new tenants to sublet the space.

After HBC decided not to continue Zellers with the remaining 64 stores, these locations started their liquidation sale on December 26, 2012 and the company stopped accepting returns on January 31, 2013. Liquidators sold nearly all of Zellers merchandise, store fixtures and shopping carts at discounted prices.

2013–2020: Liquidator

In January 2013, HBC revised its strategy and decided to keep a total of three stores open under the Zellers banner after March 31, 2013. These locations no longer operated as discount department stores, but instead as liquidation outlets for sister chain The Bay. HBC communications manager Tiffany Bourré described these locations as featuring fashion apparel and a refined home product offering with more from other HBC banners.

Originally, these included the store at Place Bourassa in Montreal North, Quebec, but it closed in early 2014. Replacing it was a previously closed Zellers in Nepean, Ontario, which reopened on April 3, 2014, keeping the number of stores at three. In September 2014, the last Zellers in Western Canada, at Semiahmoo Shopping Centre in Surrey, British Columbia, was closed, leaving only two stores remaining nationwide: at Kipling Queensway Mall in Etobicoke, Ontario, and Bells Corners in Nepean, Ontario. Both locations were closed by January 26, 2020.

2023: Hudson's Bay store-within-a-store relaunch
In September 2021, as a pilot project, HBC relaunched the Zellers brand as a pop-up shop within a Hudson's Bay department store at the Burlington Centre mall in Ontario. Essentially a store-within-a-store concept, it sported hanging Zellers logo banners, the classic red-and-white painted walls colour scheme, and red floor lines to mark off one small section within the Hudsons Bay store. While offering a limited selection of goods, including Canada-branded apparel, bedding, housewares and toys, it mainly was intended to invoke a "fun and nostalgic experience" according to HBC. At the time, HBC stated more Hudson's Bay locations may use the concept in the future.

Subsequent reporting by trade publication Retail Insider indicated the pop-up location may have been prompted by trademark filings by an unrelated group that had opened two stores under the Zellers (as well as Kmart Canada) brands, after HBC allowed a trademark on the Zellers logo to expire in 2020; HBC is suing the group to prevent what it alleges to be unauthorized use of a brand that it still controls. Some retail analysts believe the re-introduction of Zellers is primarily due to HBC's lawsuit over protection of its trademark, using this as a demonstration of ownership of the brand, and doubts any successful expansion or revitalization of the former chain.

In March 2023, HBC formally brought back the Zellers brand as an e-commerce website and physical space within 12 select Hudson's Bay stores in Ontario and Alberta. , there were 25 Hudson's Bay stores across Canada with a Zellers-themed section. After another wave of openings in August, it was announced in September 2023 that the totality of Hudson's Bay locations will have Zellers spaces by the end of the month. The Zellers shops range in size from 1000 to 10000 sqft, with the first 25 locations being typically larger than the ones that opened later in the year.

Stores

Zellers operated stores from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, to Victoria, British Columbia and employed over 35,000 people. The average store size was 94,000 square feet (8,700 m2). Zellers Select stores were designed for smaller markets with populations under 25,000, with stores averaged 45,000 square feet (4,200 m2). Some multi-level stores were equipped with a shopping cart system known as the Cartveyor, designed to transport shopping carts between floors next to a standard escalator, while there were few that were so small, they were also equipped with elevators open to shoppers, such as with the Lawrence Square Shopping Centre (later renamed Lawrence Allen Centre in 2019) location in the North York district of Toronto; this location had two levels.

In July 2010, Zellers unveiled prototype store designs in five Winnipeg locations, with two more originally planned for late 2010 and early 2011. One store opened on the lower floor of the downtown Winnipeg Bay store making it a Bay-Zellers hybrid location.

Restaurant
The Skillet, Zellers in-store restaurant brand, launched in 1960. The restaurants underwent several revisions and were branded as Zellers Family Restaurant before their demise. In spring 2023, the Hudson's Bay Company brought the restaurant back as a food truck at select locations.

Liquidation centres
The Zellers chain had also operated a few liquidation centres for its own merchandise. Those were typically former regular Zellers stores that had been converted as liquidation centres for a limited time before closing down for good. The Zellers Family restaurants continued operating in these liquidation centres.

When the remaining 64 stores of the chain were closed on March 31, 2013, three locations were converted to serve as store liquidator for Hudson's Bay and Home Outfitters.

Products
Products sold at Zellers included clothing, grocery, stationery, toys, electronics, furniture, and home supplies.

Grocery
All Zellers sold basic groceries such as dry snacks and other prepackaged foods. The Neighbourhood Market, formerly available at some locations, was Zellers' expanded section of grocery items, which included frozen and dairy aisles. Prototype stores in Winnipeg featured full grocery departments including fresh produce and baked goods. Such plans were dropped following Target Canada's acquisition of many Zellers leases. Some stores removed their The Neighbourhood Market section.

Exclusive labels
Zellers carried many of its own labels and also had exclusive rights in Canada to some other labels:

• Alfred Sung Home

• Beaumark

• Big Star

• Big Z (pillows)

• Home Studio

• Homestyles

• Hunt Club

• Marketsquare

• Midtown

• Nest by House & Home

• Request (promoted by Ashlee Simpson)

• Sportek (unrelated to Sport Chek)

• Stuff by Hilary Duff

• Truly

• X Games

• Zeddy (baby products)

When Zellers relaunched as a pop-up store in 2023, they announced a new exclusive label, Anko, an Australian company. Its products are available online and at in-person Zellers stores. The Zellers pop-up stores contain mostly products by Anko.

Acquired labels
Some labels exclusive to Target Corporation in the United States were previously exclusive to Zellers in Canada. After Target's acquisition of Zellers leases until its closure, Target Canada became the exclusive store for the following brands:
 * Cherokee
 * Mossimo
 * Wabasso

However, Target Canada closed in 2015, leaving Wabasso, and Mossimo unavailable in Canada since then. Cherokee was then carried by Sears Canada for a short period, until it too closed in January 2018. With the demise of Zellers, Target Canada and Sears Canada, these brands are no longer carried in Canada.

Customer service
On January 6, 2012, CBC Television's Marketplace announced that Zellers received the title of Canada's Worst Customer Service as a department store, based on a survey conducted by CBC with the Léger Marketing research firm in eight metropolitan areas. The retailer refused to be interviewed by Marketplace host Erica Johnson regarding its ranking, providing her with a written statement instead. Zellers also did not offer a refund to the mystery shopper who bought a used coffeemaker that was presented as new, and attempted to return the product after the advertised 30-day return period. Zellers Customer Service did not respond to this customer's Twitter message seeking satisfactory resolution.

Advertising
Zellers ran a Festive Finale advertising campaign in late 2011. Zeddy was also used as a mascot to advertise the retailer's toy selection.

Festive Finale
The Festive Finale campaign was used to advertise Zellers last Christmas and holiday season sale in December 2011. There was a website called Zellers Facebook.ca which allowed customers to vote for their favourite coupon and musical genre. While Zellers recommended that customers have a Facebook account and Like the company, both of these steps were optional. It was also possible to record a radio commercial for Zellers Moonlight Madness sale by using a computer microphone and reading the site's teleprompter. Zellers also had social networking service accounts on Twitter and YouTube. Festive Finale was criticized for its Boxing Week coupon.

Loyalty program
As a Hudson's Bay Company subsidiary, Zellers promoted the Hudson's Bay Rewards program also available at Hudson's Bay and Home Outfitters. It had been known as Club Z and HBC Rewards. The program used a points card, available at no charge but only accepted by Zellers and other partners. A Hudson's Bay MasterCard issued by Capital One is also available, which rewards customers with one point per dollar spent on the card at any retailer. Any Zellers cashier failing to inform a customer about the HBC MasterCard had to give that customer 10,000 HBC points. This is equivalent to 250 Hudson's Bay points, or one eighth of the requirement for a $10 gift card. Hudson's Bay points can still be redeemed for Hudson's Bay gift cards.

Slogans
Numerous slogans were used by Zellers:
 * Early 1980s: The low prices of Zellers are in the news (Zellers low prices are making headlines)
 * 1980s: Only you'll know how little you paid
 * 1980s: Shopping anywhere else is pointless
 * Late 1980s and 1990s: Where the lowest price is the law!, followed by Where the lowest price is the law...everyday! and Because the lowest price is the law.
 * 1990s: Truly Canadian
 * 1997–2000: Better and Better
 * 2000–2013: Everything from A to Z

Zeddy
Zeddy is a teddy bear mascot used by Zellers all over Canada. He was first used in 1986 as an advertising campaign, and then rose to his popularity by the early 1990s. The main purpose of Zeddy was to advertise Toyland, the toy section in Zellers stores. Zellers provided a stuffed Zeddy bear for any child who had a birthday party sponsored by Zellers. There was also a Zellers employee in a giant Zeddy costume hosting the party. Lineup toys of Zeddy were also created. In the final months before the last of the Zellers stores were closed permanently, the company distributed large batches of stuffed Zeddy Bears for sale in stores throughout the network. Many stores feature a Zeddy Wheel ride, which accommodates one young child on a miniature ferris wheel type ride. The ride costs $1 and plays carnival music when in use. When no one is riding the wheel, Zeddy says on a regular basis, "Come ride with me! All aboard the Zeddy Wheel!" in an attempt to attract customers. Despite Zeddy being withdrawn as the official mascot of Zellers in 2005, the Zeddy Wheel remained in operation at stores featuring it unless it is out of service, and the voice track was unchanged over the years. Some wheels removed the big Zeddy sticker in favour of multiple, small generic stickers.

Zeddy remains used as a baby brand for products such as diapers and baby bath products.

During the Festive Finale campaign in 2011, Zeddy was reintroduced in weekly flyers for Zellers Toyland before closing their stores for Target or Walmart. The character was used as a static picture, but no animated television commercials of him were made during this season. However, some employees decided to wear the Zeddy costume to celebrate the return of this teddy bear. Shortly thereafter, in December 2011, Zellers launched a Zeddy Bucks promotion. Those who spent at least $50 before taxes on toys received a pair of red 2012 Summer Olympics mittens, plus a $10 Zeddy Bucks voucher. This voucher could only be used on a later date.

With the last Zellers stores set to close in 2013, the Hudson's Bay Company announced in September 2012 that it was looking for a charity organization to adopt Zeddy so that the mascot could live on after Zellers. In a social media ad campaign, Zellers Everything Must GO Including Zeddy, Zeddy was featured in an online video where the mascot was abandoned in the woods by a Zellers executive telling Zeddy that Zellers was liquidating, and everything must go, including him. Organizations were invited to submit on Zellers Facebook page what their plans for Zeddy were. There were over 30,000 votes, and the final three contenders were Autism Ontario, Camp Trillium and Cystic Fibrosis Canada. Voters selected Camp Trillium as the winner and chosen adopter. There are several notable Zeddy iterations including most famously, bush pilot Zeddy.

title: Zellers


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Bicycle rack

The ambiguous term bicycle rack or bike rack may refer to:
 * Bicycle carrier, a device attached to a vehicle (e.g., to a car or bus) to which bicycles can be mounted for transport
 * Bicycle parking rack, a stationary fixture to which a bicycle can be securely attached (typically using a bicycle lock) to prevent theft
 * Luggage carrier, a device attached to a bicycle to facilitate carrying loads

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Bicycle rack


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Shoppers Drug Mart

Shoppers Drug Mart Inc., commonly known as Shoppers (named Pharmaprix in Quebec) is a Canadian retail pharmacy chain based in Toronto, Ontario. It has more than 1,300 stores in ten provinces and two territories.

The company was founded by pharmacist Murray Koffler in 1962; the Koffler family still retains ownership of the Super-Pharm pharmacy, which has locations in Israel, Poland, and formerly in China (as Ensure from 2005 to 2011). Super-Pharm's logo is similar to that of Shoppers Drug Mart, which was created by the artist Sylvain Liu. It also uses some of the same private-label brands, such as Life Brand and Quo.

In 2014, Brampton-based Loblaw Companies acquired Shoppers Drug Mart for $12.4 billion in cash and stock. By early 2016, Shoppers had over 1,300 locations in Canada.

Overview
In addition to its retail formats, the company owns and operates several specialty services. This includes 56 Shoppers Home Health Care stores (renamed to "Wellwise by Shoppers Drug Mart"), which sell and service assisted-living devices, home-care products, and mobility and medical equipment; Shoppers Drug Mart Specialty Health Network, a provider of specialty drug distribution, pharmacy and comprehensive patient support services; and MediSystem Technologies Inc., a provider of pharmaceutical products and clinical services to long-term care facilities and retirement communities.

A new store concept, Wellwise, launched in fall 2017 as a single Toronto location; it sells healthy living products for seniors. In February 2018, wellwise.ca launched, making it Shoppers Drug Mart's second e-commerce site, in addition to beautyboutique.ca. Many locations offer prescription delivery free of charge, employing a fleet of corporate-owned vehicles. Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Loblaw Companies Limited.

It is a participant in the voluntary Scanner Price Accuracy Code managed by the Retail Council of Canada.

History
At the age of twenty, Murray Koffler inherited two Koffler's Drugs pharmacies from his father, Leon Koffler, the original at 376 College Street and a second store on Bathurst Street north of St. Clair Avenue West. Koffler also opened a suburban location at Don Mills Centre on the advice of E.P. Taylor. By 1962, Koffler's had grown to a chain of 17 pharmacies, which he renamed "Shoppers Drug Mart" in the 1970s. The first store named "Shoppers Drug Mart" was at Shoppers World Danforth from which it derived the name.

Koffler revamped the concept of the 20th century drug store in Canada by removing the soda fountain and emphasizing the dispensary, requiring his pharmacists to wear starched white coats as a symbol of their professionalism. In the mid-1950s, he began acquiring other drug stores and organized them around a then-novel franchising concept: pharmacist associates would own and operate their own stores within the system and share in the profits. In 1968, Shoppers Drug Mart grew to 52 stores in Ontario by merging with 33 Plaza Drugstores. In 1971, Shoppers Drug Mart purchased 87 Cunningham Drug Stores in British Columbia and Alberta. In 1972, Koffler and the Steinberg grocery chain together launched the Pharmaprix pharmacy chain in Quebec. Koffler later bought out Steinberg's 50% stake in 1979, to take full control of Pharmaprix. In 1974, Lord's Supervalue Pharmacies 26 stores in Atlantic Canada joined the Shoppers Drug Mart family. In 1986 Shoppers Drug Mart bought Super X Drugstores, an Ontario-area chain of 72 stores. In 1986, Shoppers Drug Mart also purchased the J.W. Crooks Pharmacy stores in Thunder Bay Ontario (Mayor James White Crooks). In 1992, the company bought up the Western Canadian chain Pinder's Drugs, and followed this in 1995, with a chain of 24 Bi-Rite Drug Stores based in western Canada. Also in 1995, Shoppers Drug Mart acquired 135 Big V Drugstores. In 1996, the first Shoppers Home Health Care store opened.

When Koffler retired in 1986, he sold the chain to Imasco. That same year, David Bloom, a former Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacist, was appointed chief executive officer of the company. Bloom would lead the organization until retiring in 2001, having devoted a total of 35 years of service to the company. During David Bloom's tenure, Shoppers doubled its number of stores, quadrupled its sales and increased profit ten-fold. David Bloom also launched the Shoppers Optimum loyalty program in 2000.

In 2000, after Imasco Limited had been taken over by BAT Industries (formerly British American Tobacco), Shoppers was sold to a consortium of institutional investors including KKR, Bain Capital, DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, Charlesbank Capital Partners, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, CIBC Capital Partners and Shoppers Drug Mart's senior management and pharmacist/owners.

In 2001, Glenn Murphy was appointed chairman and chief executive officer of the company. In November of that same year, Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation was publicly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

In 2002, Shoppers Drug Mart introduced its first large format stores, with more space and a stronger focus on cosmetic products. Typically the cosmetics section faces the entrance, with the pharmacy counter at the back and a convenience food section, called Food Essentials, near the front cash. In most suburban areas, this new format takes the form of new or relocated store, typically stand-alone big-box locations as opposed to smaller mall or strip-mall locations.

On April 26, 2007, the 1000th Shoppers Drug Mart store opened in Toronto, Ontario.

In recent years, the chain has been moving to decrease its reliance on pharmaceutical sales and increase sales on food and cosmetics. The store claims that in 2012, it increased its market share in food and that 51% of purchases now come from non-pharmaceutical items. In Summer 2018, Shoppers Drug Mart opened its flagship Toronto, Ontario location at Yonge-Dundas Square in the space formerly occupied by Hard Rock Cafe.

In September 2018, Health Canada approved the chain as a licensed medical marijuana producer. The company does not intend to actually produce the product but had signed supply arrangements with companies such as Aurora Cannabis, Aphria, Inc., MedReleaf Corp. (owned by Aurora) and Tilray Inc., pending approval of its application for a license. On 17 October 2018, cannabis became legal for recreational use across Canada, but Shoppers has not given any indication that it has an interest in recreational sales. Its parent company, Loblaw Companies Ltd., had applied to (and won the right to) sell the product for such use in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Acquisition by Loblaw Companies
On July 15, 2013, Loblaw Companies announced that it would acquire Shoppers Drug Mart for $12.4 billion, pending shareholder and regulatory approval. The deal was approved by the Competition Bureau on March 21, 2014, and completed on March 28, 2014.

As a result of the merger, the chain began to develop synergies with Loblaw's grocery stores. Most prominently, Shoppers Drug Mart locations began to stock products from Loblaw's President's Choice & No Name brands; likewise, Loblaw's grocery stores could now stock Shoppers' "Life" brand products.

Rewards program
Customers can earn points through the PC Optimum program, formerly Shoppers Optimum. Members collect points that may be redeemed on purchases within the store. Shoppers Optimum members receive 15 points for every dollar spent at the store, excluding the purchase of lottery, tobacco products, transit tickets and passes, prescription items, any products containing codeine, Canada Post products, and gift cards that are not for the chain itself. Events for bonus point collecting and redemption (e.g., 20× the points, bonus redemption) are regularly held.

On November 8, 2017, Shoppers Drug Mart's parent company, Loblaw, merged the program with Loblaw supermarket's PC Plus reward program into PC Optimum effective February 1, 2018. Similarly to Optimum, customers receive 15 points per dollar spent at Shoppers Drug Mart locations (adjusted up to account for differences in point scale between Shoppers Optimum and PC Plus).

10,000 points are worth $10 and can only be redeemed in multiples of 10,000.

Advertising and promotion

 * "You're Gonna Be Happy"—early to mid 1980s
 * "Everything you Want in a Drugstore"—1980s and the early 1990s, featuring Bea Arthur as spokeswoman
 * "Take Care of Yourself"—2000 to 2002
 * "Your Life Store"—2002 to present (French variant: Vive la vie!, i.e. "Long live life!"), to go with its own featured "Life" brand
 * "Gifts Made Easy"—holiday campaign, 2006 to present

Controversies
In 2024, Shoppers Drug Mart was criticized for enacting sales quotas on pharmacists for MedsCheck, a government sponsored program in Ontario. MedsCheck reimburses healthcare providers for medication reviews, allowing for a maximum billing of $75 per patient, which led to the profitability of enacting sales targets. CBC News reported that approximately 1.4 million dollars was billed to the province for a week in February 2024. A class action lawsuit was filed against the company in regards to these quotas.

title: Shoppers Drug Mart


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Evelyn Glennie

Dame Evelyn Elizabeth Annie Glennie, (born 19 July 1965) is a Scottish percussionist. She was selected as one of the two laureates for the Polar Music Prize of 2015.

Early life
Glennie was born in Methlick, Aberdeenshire in Scotland. The indigenous musical traditions of northeast Scotland were important in her development as a musician. Her first instruments were the piano and the clarinet. Other influences were Glenn Gould, Jacqueline du Pré and Trilok Gurtu. She studied at Ellon Academy, Aberdeenshire and the Royal Academy of Music, London.

She was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and the Cults Percussion Ensemble which was formed in 1976 by her school percussion peripatetic teacher Ron Forbes. They toured and recorded one album, which was re-released on Trunk Records in 2012.

Career
Glennie tours all over the world performing as a soloist with a wide variety of orchestras and electric musicians. She conducts master classes, consultations and engages in motivational speaking. She is a leading commissioner of new works for solo percussion.

Glennie also plays the Great Highland Bagpipes and has her own registered tartan known as "The Rhythms of Evelyn Glennie".

Glennie performed at the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games in London 2012, leading a thousand drummers in the opening piece of music And I Will Kiss, and also playing the Glennie Concert Aluphone in Caliban's Dream during the ceremony for lighting the Olympic cauldron.

Glennie is a patron of the music charity Sound World.

On 7 April 2021, Glennie was named as Chancellor of Robert Gordon University, succeeding Sir Ian Wood in July 2021.

Deafness
Glennie has been profoundly deaf since childhood, having started to lose her hearing at the age of 8. This does not inhibit her ability to perform. She regularly plays barefoot during live performances and studio recordings to feel the music.

Glennie contends that deafness is largely misunderstood by the public. She explains that her teacher Ron Forbes taught her to hear with parts of her body other than her ears. Ron Forbes helped her in feeling the music other way from her body parts. She felt the upper drum from the Waist up and the lower drum from waist down. On her website Glennie published "Hearing Essay" in which she discusses her condition. Glennie also discusses how she feels music in different parts of her body in her TED talk "How To Truly Listen", published in 2003, and a collection of her speeches and writings are published in her book Listen World!.

Collaborations
Glennie was featured on Icelandic singer Björk's album Telegram, performing the duet "My Spine". She also co-composed "Oxygen". She has collaborated with many other musicians including former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett, Bela Fleck, Bobby McFerrin, Fred Frith, Mark Knopfler, The King's Singers and Kodō.

In 2012, she collaborated with Underworld and Danny Boyle on the soundtrack to the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games performing live in the stadium.

In 2018, Glennie worked with Gregory Doran and the Royal Shakespeare Company composing the music for a production of Troilus and Cressida. In the same year she began a collaboration with experimental jazz musicians Trio HLK, touring with them and appearing on their debut album Standard Time.

In 2020, Glennie collaborated with the music charity Sound World, composing a new piece "The Grace of Silence" for their Coronavirus Fund for Freelance Musicians. It was recorded by members of the Bristol Ensemble and released by Sound World in January 2021. It is the opening track on the album Reflections. Glennie also composed some of the music for the film Sound of Metal directed by Darius Marder. She is a prolific composer for the library music company Audio Network. Her works are published by Faber Music.

On 21 November 2007, the UK government announced an infusion of £332 million for music education. This resulted from successful lobbying spearheaded by Glennie, Sir James Galway, Julian Lloyd Webber, and the late Michael Kamen who (in 2002–03) together formed the Music in Education Consortium.

Awards
Glennie's awards include:
 * Royal Philharmonic Society's Best Soloist of the Year 1991
 * Best Chamber Music Performance in the Grammy Awards of 1989
 * Scot of the Year 1982
 * Queen's Commendation prize for all round excellence, 1985
 * Leonardo da Vinci International Art Award, 1987
 * Scotswoman of the Decade, 1990
 * Best Studio and Live Percussionist from Rhythm Magazine 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003 & 2004
 * Walpole Medal of Excellence, 2002
 * Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Music, 2002
 * Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University, 2002
 * Honorary Fellowship from Homerton College, Cambridge, 2016
 * Musical America Instrumentalist of the Year, 2003
 * Sabian Lifetime Achievement Award, 2006
 * Percussive Arts Society: Hall of Fame – November 2008
 * Polar Music Prize, 2015
 * Best Classical Instrumental Solo in the Grammy Awards of 2014
 * Léonie Sonning Music Prize, 2023

She has been awarded 29 honorary doctorates from universities in the United Kingdom, most recently in 2023, Doctor of Music (DMus) from the University of St Andrews, the Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1993 and was promoted to Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2007 New Year Honours. She was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 2017 New Year Honours. She owns in excess of 3500 percussion instruments from all over the world and is continually adding to her collection. Glennie is an Ambassador of Sistema Scotland and is President of Help Musicians. She was appointed Music Rights Champion by the International Music Council in October 2016.

Discography

 * Bartók: Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion / Brahms: Haydn Variations for Two Pianos (Sony Classical, 1988)
 * Rhythm Song (RCA Victor, 1990)
 * Light in Darkness (RCA Victor, 1991)
 * Evelyn Glennie | Dancin (RCA Victor, 1991)
 * Rebounds: Concertos for Percussion (RCA Victor, 1992)
 * James Macmillan: Veni, Veni, Emmanuel (Catalyst, 1993)
 * Last Night of the Proms: The 100th Season (Teldec 1994)
 * Wind in the Bamboo Grove (Catalyst, 1995)
 * Drumming (Catalyst, 1996)
 * The Music of Joseph Schwantner (RCA Victor, 1997)
 * Evelyn Glennie: Her Greatest Hits (RCA Victor, 1998)
 * Street Songs (RCA Victor, Red Seal, 1998)
 * Reflected in Brass: Evelyn Glennie Meets the Black Dyke Band (RCA Victor, Red Seal, 1998)
 * Shadow Behind the Iron Sun (Catalyst, 2000)
 * Dave Heath: Africa Sunrise/Manhattan Rave (Black Box, 2001)
 * Béla Fleck: Perpetual Motion (Sony Classical, 2001)
 * UFO: The Music of Michael Daugherty (Klavier, 2001)
 * Mark-Anthony Turnage: Fractured Lines (Chandos, 2002)
 * Oriental Landscapes (BIS, 2002)
 * Christopher Rouse: Der gerettete Alberich / Rapture / Violin Concerto (Ondine, 2004)
 * Michael Daugherty: Philadelphia Stories / UFO (Naxos, 2004)
 * Philip Glass: The Concerto Project Vol. I (Orange Mountain Music, 2004)
 * Margaret Brouwer: Aurolucent Circles / Mandala / Sizzle (Naxos, 2006)
 * Touch the Sound (Normal, 2006) – soundtrack of the film of the same name
 * Erkki-Sven Tüür: Magma (Virgin Classics, 2007)
 * The Sugar Factory (Tzadik, 2007)
 * Thea Musgrave: Turbulent Landscapes / Songs for a Winter's Evening / Two's Company (NMC, 2009)
 * Experimental Percussion (Audio Network, 2009)
 * Steven Stucky: Pinturas de Tamayo (BIS, 2010)
 * Winter Wonderland (KPM Music, 2011)
 * Ecstatic Drumbeat (BIS, 2012)
 * Isles of Wonder (UMC, 2012)
 * Cults Percussion Ensemble (Trunk, 2012)
 * John Corigliano: Conjurer / Vocalise (Naxos, 2013)
 * Altamira (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (Virgin EMI, 2016) – soundtrack of the film of the same name
 * LOVE, POLITICS, WAR | Yolanda Brown (Black Grape Records, 2017)
 * THE SHAMAN | ARCTIC SYMPHONY: Orchestral Music by Vincent Ho (Centrediscs, 2017)
 * Mirage? Concertos for Percussion (MCO Records, 2017)
 * The Core-tet Project: Improvisations by Evelyn Glennie, Jon Hemmersam, Szilárd Mezei and Michael Jefry Stevens (Naxos, 2018)
 * Dreamachine – Michael Daugherty (Naxos, 2018)
 * Standard Time – Trio HLK (Ubuntu, 2018)
 * Out of the Silence – Orchestral Music by John McLeod (Delphian, 2018)
 * RSC Troilus and Cressida: Music and Speeches CD (RSC Recordings, 2018)
 * Double Crossings (Audionetwork, 2018)
 * One Day Band 17 with Roly Porter (Trestle Records, 2019)
 * Reflections: one track – The Grace of Silence – (Sound World, 2021)

Films

 * Touch the Sound (2004). Directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer, featuring a collaboration with Fred Frith. The farm where she grew up burned down during the production of the film, but her brother and the animals were unhurt.

Autobiography

 * Good Vibrations: My Autobiography
 * Listen World!

Children's Book

 * ''Listen: How Evelyn Glennie, a Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion ' '

Television appearances
Performed a scene with Sesame Street regular Linda Bove.
 * ZingZillas (2010). Appeared in episode 19 ("Hide and Seek") playing tubular bells on the BBC channel CBeebies. and in episode 50 ("Where's the Bug?") playing the waterphone.
 * Sesame Street (2001). Appeared playing percussion with Oscar the Grouch's Grouchketeer Trash Band.
 * 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony (27 July 2012), leading a 1,000-drummer ensemble performing And I Will Kiss.

title: Evelyn Glennie


text:
Bard College

Bard College is a private liberal arts college in the hamlet of Annandale-on-Hudson, in the town of Red Hook, in New York State. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District—a National Historic Landmark.

Founded in 1860, the institution consists of a liberal arts college and a conservatory, as well as eight graduate programs offering over 20 graduate degrees in the arts and sciences. The college has a network of over 35 affiliated programs, institutes, and centers, spanning twelve cities, five states, seven countries, and four continents.

Origins and early years
During much of the nineteenth century, the land since owned by Bard was mainly composed of several country estates. These estates were called Blithewood, Bartlett, Sands, Cruger's Island, and Ward Manor/Almont.

In 1853, John Bard and Margaret Bard purchased a part of the Blithewood estate and renamed it Annandale. John Bard was the grandson of Samuel Bard, a prominent doctor, a founder of Columbia University's medical school, and physician to George Washington. John Bard was also the nephew of the Rev. John McVickar, a professor at Columbia University. The family had strong connections with the Episcopal Church and Columbia.

The following year, in 1854, John and Margaret established a parish school on their estate in order to educate the area's children. A wood-frame cottage, known today as Bard Hall, served as a school on weekdays and a chapel on weekends. In 1857, the Bards expanded the parish by building the Chapel of the Holy Innocents next to Bard Hall. During this time, John Bard remained in close contact with the New York leaders of the Episcopal Church. The Church suggested that he found a theological college.

With the promise of outside financial support, John Bard donated the unfinished Chapel, and the surrounding 18 acre, to the diocese in November 1858. In March 1860, St. Stephen's College was founded. In 1861, construction began on the first St. Stephen's College building, a stone collegiate gothic dormitory called Aspinwall. During its initial years, the college relied on wealthy benefactors, like trustee Cornelius Vanderbilt, for funding.

The college began taking shape within four decades. In 1866, Ludlow Hall, an administrative building, was erected. Preston Hall was built in 1873 and used as a refectory. A set of four dormitories, collectively known as Stone Row, were completed in 1891. And in 1895, the Greek revival Hoffman Memorial Library was built. The school officially changed its name to Bard College in 1934 in honor of its founder.

Growth and secularization
In the 20th century, social and cultural changes amongst New York's high society would bring about the demise of the great estates. In 1914, Louis Hamersley purchased the fire-damaged Ward Manor/Almont estate and erected a Tudor style mansion and gatehouse, or what is today known as Ward Manor. Hamersley expanded his estate in 1926 by acquiring the abandoned Cruger's Island estate. That same year, after Hamersley's combined estate was purchased by William Ward, it was donated to charity and served as a retirement home for almost four decades.

By the mid-1900s, Bard's campus significantly expanded. The Blithewood estate was donated to the college in 1951, and in 1963, Bard purchased 90 acre of the Ward Manor estate, including the main manor house. The rest of the Ward Manor estate became the 900 acre Tivoli Bays nature preserve.

In 1919, Fr. Bernard Iddings Bell became Bard's youngest president at the age of 34. His adherence to classical education, decorum, and dress eventually clashed with the school's push towards Deweyism and secularization, and he resigned in 1933.

In 1928, Bard merged with Columbia University, serving as an undergraduate school similar to Barnard College. Under the agreement, Bard remained affiliated with the Episcopal Church and retained control of its finances. The merger raised Bard's prestige; however, it failed to provide financial support to the college during the Great Depression. So dire was Bard's financial situation that in 1932, then-Governor of New York and College trustee Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a telegram to the likes of John D. Rockefeller Jr., George Eastman and Frederick William Vanderbilt requesting donations for the college.

On May 26, 1933, Dr. Donald Tewksbury, a Columbia professor, was appointed dean of the college. Although dean for only four years, Tewksbury had a lasting impact on the school. Tewksbury, an educational philosopher, had extensive ideas regarding higher education. While he was dean, Tewksbury steered the college into a more secular direction and changed its name from St. Stephen's to Bard. He also placed a heavy academic emphasis on the arts, something atypical of colleges at the time, and set the foundations for Bard's Moderation and Senior Project requirement. While Tewksbury never characterized Bard's curriculum as "progressive," the school would later be considered an early adopter of progressive education. In his 1943 study of early progressive colleges, titled General Education in the Progressive College, Louis T. Benezet used Bard as one of his three case studies.

During the 1940s, Bard provided a haven for intellectual refugees fleeing Europe. These included Hannah Arendt, the political theorist, Stefan Hirsch, the precisionist painter; Felix Hirsch, the political editor of the Berliner Tageblatt; the violinist Emil Hauser; the linguist Hans Marchand; the noted psychologist Werner Wolff; and the philosopher Heinrich Blücher. Arendt is buried at Bard, alongside her husband Heinrich Blücher, as is eminent novelist Philip Roth.

In 1944, as a result of World War II, enrollment significantly dropped putting financial stress on the college. In order to increase enrollment, the college became co-educational, thereby severing all ties with Columbia. The college became an independent, secular, institution in 1944. Thus enrollment more than doubled, from 137 students in 1944, to 293 in 1947. In the 1950s, with the addition of the Blithewood estate and Tewksbury Hall, the college would increase its enrollment by 150 students.

Late twentieth and early twenty-first century
Donald Fagen and Walter Becker's experiences at Bard prompted them to write the 1973 song "My Old School" for their rock group, Steely Dan. The song was motivated by the 1969 drug bust at Bard in which the college administration colluded. The DA involved was G. Gordon Liddy of Watergate notoriety. Fagen wrote another Steely Dan song, "Rikki Don't Lose That Number", about novelist, artist and former Bard faculty spouse Rikki Ducornet.

In 2020, Bard College, along with Central European University, became the founding members of the Open Society University Network, a collaborative global education initiative endowed with US$1 billion. As part of this new initiative, the college received a US$100 million gift from the Open Society Foundations which ranks among the largest financial contributions to a U.S. institution in recent history. In 2021, philanthropist George Soros made a $500 million endowment pledge to Bard College. It is one of the largest pledges of money ever made to higher education in the United States.

In June 2021, Bard College was declared an "undesirable institution" in Russia, becoming the first international higher education organization to be branded with this designation. Bard president Botstein hypothesized that this tag was due their association with and funding from the Open Society Foundations which was also classified as undesirable in Russia and related conspiracy theories about George Soros.

College leaders
At various times, the leaders of the college have been titled president, warden or dean. They are listed below:

 * 1) George Franklin Seymour (1860–1861)
 * 2) Thomas Richey (1861–1863)
 * 3) Robert Brinckerhoff Fairbairn (1863–1898)
 * 4) Lawrence T. Cole (1899–1903)
 * 5) Thomas R. Harris (1904–1907)
 * 6) William Cunningham Rodgers (1909–1919)
 * 7) Bernard Iddings Bell (1919–1933)
 * 8) Donald George Tewksbury (1933–1937)
 * 9) Harold Mestre (1938–1939)
 * 10) Charles Harold Gray (1940–1946)
 * 11) Edward C. Fuller (1946–1950)
 * 12) James Herbert Case Jr. (1950–1960)
 * 13) Reamer Kline (1960–1974)
 * 14) Leon Botstein (1975–Present)

Campus
The campus of Bard College is in Annandale-on-Hudson, a hamlet in Dutchess County, New York, United States, in the town of Red Hook. It contains more than 70 buildings with a total gross building space of 1,167,090 sqft and was listed as a census-designated place in 2020. Campus buildings represent varied architectural styles, but the campus remains heavily influenced by the Collegiate Gothic and Postmodern styles.

Bard's historic buildings are associated with the early development of the college and the history of the Hudson River estates (see Bard College History). During a late twentieth-century building boom, the college embraced a trend of building signature buildings designed by prominent architects like Venturi, Gehry, and Viñoly.

In January 2016, Bard purchased Montgomery Place, a 380 acre estate adjacent to the Bard campus, with significant historic and cultural assets. The estate consists of a historic mansion, a farm, and some 20 smaller buildings. The college purchased the property from Historic Hudson Valley, the historical preservation organization that had owned Montgomery Place since the late 1980s. The addition of this property brings Bard's total campus size to nearly 1,000 acre along the Hudson River in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.

In late 2023, Bard purchased 260 acres of land adjacent to the Montgomery Place campus in Barrytown, which used to be the campus of the Unification Theological Seminary. Bard intends to use the space to provide new studios for the Center for Human Rights and the Arts and administrative offices for the Open Society University Network (OSUN), of which Bard is a founding member. The purchase of the property brings Bard's total acreage to 1260 acres (510 ha).

The area around the campus first appeared as a census-designated place (CDP) in the 2020 Census, with a population of 358.

The college has an amount of housing for faculty members. School-age dependents in this faculty housing are in the Red Hook Central School District (the CDP is within this school district).

Rankings and awards
In its 2022-2023 edition of college rankings, U.S. News & World Report ranked Bard 60th overall, 5th in "Most Innovative Schools", tied at 38th for "Best Undergraduate Teaching", tied at #70 in "Top Performers on Social Mobility", tied at #19 in "First-Year Experiences", and 19th for "Best Value" out of 210 "National Liberal Arts Colleges" in the United States.

Bard's Master of Fine Arts program was ranked one of ten most influential Master of Fine Arts programs in the world by Artspace Magazine in 2023.

Bard has been named a top producer of U.S. Fulbright Scholars. Many Bard alumni have also been named Watson Fellows, Critical Language Scholarship recipients, Davis Projects for Peace winners, Rhodes Scholars, Marshall Scholars, and Peace Corps fellows, among other postgraduate awards.

Undergraduate programs
In the undergraduate college, Bard offers Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees. There are 23 academic departments that offer over 40 major programs, as well as 12 interdisciplinary concentrations. The college was the first in the nation to offer a human rights major. Its most popular undergraduate majors, based on 2021 graduates, were:
 * Social Sciences (140)
 * Fine/Studio Arts (106)
 * English Language and Literature/Letters (81)
 * Biological and Physical Sciences (80)

In the three weeks preceding their first semester, first-year students attend the Language and Thinking (L&T) program, an intensive, writing-centered introduction to the liberal arts. The interdisciplinary program, established in 1981, aims to "cultivate habits of thoughtful reading and discussion, clear articulation, accurate self-critique, and productive collaboration." The program covers philosophy, history, science, poetry, fiction, and religion. In 2011, the core readings included works by Hannah Arendt, Franz Kafka, Frans de Waal, Stephen Jay Gould, Clifford Geertz, M. NourbeSe Philip, and Sophocles.

The capstone of the Bard undergraduate experience is the Senior Project, commonly referred to as SPROJ amongst its students. As with moderation, this project takes different forms in different departments. Many students write a paper of around eighty pages, which is then, as with work for moderation, critiqued by a board of three professors. Arts students must organize a series of concerts, recitals, or shows, or produce substantial creative work; math and science students, as well as some social science students, undertake research projects.

Undergraduate admissions
For the academic year 2022-2023, Bard's acceptance rate stands at 46%. Out of the total 6,482 students who applied, 2,982 were admitted to the school. For the 2022-2023 academic year 447 students enrolled representing a yield rate of 15%. Admission trends note a 25% increase in applications in the 2022-2023 academic year. Bard does not require applicants to submit SAT or ACT test scores in order to apply. As an alternative, applicants may take an examination composed of 19 essay questions in four categories: Social Studies; Languages and Literature; Arts; and Science, Mathematics, and Computing, with applicants required to complete three 2,500-word essays covering three of the four categories. For admitted students who submitted test scores, 50% had an SAT score between 1296 and 1468 or an ACT score between 28 and 33, with a reported average GPA of 3.79. Admissions officials consider a student's GPA a very important academic factor. Honors, AP, and IB classes are important, an applicant's high school class rank is considered, and letters of recommendation are considered very important for admissions officials at Bard.

Graduate programs
Bard College offers a range of postgraduate degree programs, including the Bard MFA, Bard Graduate Center, Center for Curatorial Studies, Center for Human Rights and the Arts, Center for Environmental Policy, Bard MBA in Sustainability, Levy Economics Institute, and the Master of Arts in Teaching.

Bard MFA
Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts is a nontraditional graduate school for interdisciplinary study in the visual and creative arts. The program takes place over two years and two months, with students residing on campus during three consecutive summers, and two winter sessions of independent study completed off campus. Notable artists and writers that have been affiliated with the Bard MFA as faculty and visiting artists include Marina Abramovic, Eileen Myles, Paul Chan, Robert Kelly, Tony Conrad, Okkyung Lee, Yto Barrada, Carolee Schneemann, Lynne Tillman, and Ben Lerner.

Bard Graduate Center
The Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture is a graduate research institute and gallery located in New York City. Established in 1993, the institute offers a two-year MA program and a PhD program that began in 1998. The institute's facilities include a gallery space at 18 West 86th Street and an academic building with a library at 38 West 86th Street.

Center for Curatorial Studies
The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) established in 1990, is a museum and research center dedicated to the study of contemporary art and exhibition practices from the 1960s to the present. In 1994, CCS Bard launched its (MA) Master of Arts in Curatorial Studies program. The center also hosts public events throughout the year including lectures and panel discussions on topics in contemporary art.

The museum, spanning an area of 55,000 square feet, offers a variety of exhibitions accessible to the general public throughout the year. It houses two distinct collections, the CCS Bard Collection and the Marieluise Hessel collection, which has been loaned to CCS Bard on a permanent basis. Artists such as Keith Haring, Julian Schnabel, Wolfgang Tillmans, Stephen Shore, and Cindy Sherman, among numerous others, are featured within these collections.

The CCS Bard Library is a research collection for contemporary art with a focus on post-1960s contemporary art, curatorial practice, exhibition histories, theory, and criticism. in 2023 historian Robert Storr donated over 25,000 volumes to the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, nearly doubling the total collection size to 63,000 volumes. Other noteworthy contributors include Louise Bourgeois, Yto Barrada, Leon Golub, Jenny Holzer, Gerhard Richter, and Rachel Whiteread.

In 2022 CCS Bard received $50 million from a $25 million donation from the Gochman Family Foundation to form a Center for American and Indigenous Studies at CCS Bard and a matching donation of $25 million from George Soros. This followed two 2021 gifts of $25 million, one from Marieluise Hessel and a matching donation from Soros.

Center for Human Rights & the Arts
The Center for Human Rights & the Arts at Bard College is an interdisciplinary research institution dedicated to exploring the intersection of art and human rights. The center is affiliated with the Open Society University Network (OSUN). The center's flagship initiative is the Master of Arts program in Human Rights & the Arts. The center includes initiatives such as resident research fellowships, research grants, artist commissions, public talks, accessible publications, and a biennial arts festival organized in partnership with the Fisher Center at Bard and other OSUN institutions and art venues worldwide.

Center for Environmental Policy
The Center for Environmental Policy (CEP) at Bard College is a research institution offering a range of graduate degree programs focused on environmental policy, climate science, and environmental education. The CEP offers a series of graduate degrees including the Master of Science in Environmental Policy and Master of Education. In addition to these individual degree programs, CEP offers dual-degree options that allow students to combine their environmental studies with programs in law or business.

Levy Economics Institute
Levy Economics Institute is a public policy think tank focused on generating public policy responses to economic problems. Through research, analysis, and informed debate, the institute aims to enable scholars and leaders from business, labor, and government to collaborate on common interest issues. The institute's findings are disseminated globally through various channels, including publications, conferences, seminars, congressional testimony, and partnerships with other nonprofits. Its research encompasses a wide range of topics, including stock-flow consistent macro modeling, fiscal policy, monetary policy and financial structure, financial instability, income and wealth distribution, financial regulation and governance, gender equality and time poverty, and immigration/ethnicity and social structure. The Levy Economics Institute is particularly known for its research in heterodox economics, with a focus on Post-Keynesian and Marxian economics. It is additionally recognized as the leading research center for the study of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). Notable individuals that have been affiliated with the Levy Economics Institute as professors, directors, and economists include Joseph Stiglitz, Hyman Minsky, William Julius Wilson, L. Randall Wray, Jan Kregel, Bruce C. Greenwald, Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Lakshman Achuthan, Warren Mosler, Stephanie Kelton, Bill Mitchell, and Pavlina R. Tcherneva.

Endowment
Bard has access to multiple, distinct endowments. Bard, along with Central European University, is a founding member of the Open Society University Network, endowed with $1 billion from philanthropist George Soros, which is a network of universities to operate throughout the world to better prepare students for current and future global challenges through integrated teaching and research. Bard maintains its own endowment of approximately $412 million. In July 2020, Bard received a gift of $100 million from the Open Society Foundations, which will dispense $10 million yearly over a period of ten years. In April 2021, Bard received a $500 million endowment challenge grant from George Soros. Once matched, on a five-year timeline, Bard will have an endowment of more than $1 billion.

Programs, centers, and associated institutes
Bard has developed several innovative graduate programs and research institutes, including the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, the Levy Economics Institute which began offering a Masters of Science in Economic Theory and Policy in 2014, the Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture, the Bard Center for Environmental Policy, the Bard College Conservatory of Music, the ICP-Bard Program in Advanced Photographic Studies in Manhattan, the Master of Arts in Teaching Program (MAT), the Bard College Clemente Program, and the Bard Graduate Center in Manhattan.

In 1990, Bard College acquired, on permanent loan, art collector Marieluise Hessel's substantial collection of important contemporary artwork. In 2006, Hessel contributed another $8 million (USD) for the construction of a 17,000-square-foot addition to Bard's Center for Curatorial Studies building, in which the collection is exhibited.

The Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) provides a liberal arts degree to incarcerated individuals (prison education) in five prisons in New York State, and enrolls nearly 200 students. Since federal funding for prison education programs was eliminated in 1994, BPI is one of only a small number of programs of its kind in the country.

Bard awards the Bard Fiction Prize annually to "a promising emerging writer who is an American citizen aged 39 years or younger at the time of application". The prize is $30,000 and an appointment as writer-in-residence at the college.

The Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities is located at Bard College. The center hosts an annual public conference, offers courses, runs various related academic programs, and houses research fellows, and is directed by Dr. Roger Berkowitz, a legal scholar and an associate professor of politics, philosophy, and human rights.

In February 2009, Bard announced the first dual degree program between a Palestinian university and an American institution of higher education. The college entered into a collaboration with Al-Quds University involving an honors college, a master's program in teaching and a model high school.

In accordance with AlQuds-Bard requirements, students are not allowed to decide their major during the first year of their studies; instead, as a liberal arts college, students are advised to diverge in different classes that would allow them to decide what program they would like to take interest in as in the following year. Students are encouraged to look upon different classes to help them decide the subject they would mostly enjoy studying. Bard gives students the opportunity to dissect different programs before committing to a specific major. As a policy, throughout a student's undergraduate years, they must distribute their credits among different courses so that they can liberally experience the different courses Bard has to offer.

In June 2011, Bard officially acquired the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in November 2011, Bard took ownership of the European College of Liberal Arts in Berlin, Germany, to become Bard College Berlin.

In 2013, Bard entered into a comprehensive agreement with Soochow University in Suzhou, China, that will include a joint program between the Soochow University School of Music and the Bard College Conservatory of Music, exploration leading to the establishment of The Bard College Liberal Arts Academy at Soochow University, and student exchange.

In 2020, Bard announced that through the new Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Advanced Achievement Scholars program the college will offer admission to high school juniors within 120 miles from the college based on an essay process based on the popular Bard Entrance Exam, first launched in 2013.

Student life
Over 120 student clubs are financed through Bard's Convocation Fund, which is distributed once a semester by an elected student body and ratified during a public forum. Bard College has one print newspaper, the Bard Free Press, which was awarded a Best in Show title by the Associated Collegiate Press in 2013. In 2003, the Bard Free Press won Best Campus Publication in SPIN Magazine's first annual Campus Awards. Student-run literary magazines include the semiannual Lux, The Moderator, and Sui Generis, a journal of translations and of original poetry in languages other than English. The Draft, a human rights journal, the Bard Journal of the Social Sciences, Bard Science Journal, and Qualia, a philosophy journal, are also student-published. Bard Papers is a privately funded literary magazine operated jointly between faculty and students.

Other prominent student groups include: the International Students Organization (ISO), Afropulse, Latin American Student Organization (LASO), Caribbean Student Association (CSA), Asian Student Organization (ASO), Bard Musical Theatre Company (BMTC), Black Student Organization (BSO), Anti-Capitalism Feminist Coalition, Body Image Discussion Group, Self-Injury Support and Discussion, Bard Film Committee, Queer Student Association, Trans Life Collective, The Scale Project, Student Labor Dialogue, Bard Debate Union, Bard Model UN, Surrealist Training Circus, Bard Bike Co-Op, Bard Bars, Bard POC Theater Ensemble, and college radio station WXBC. WXBC was founded in 1947. In 2006, WXBC was nominated for "Station of the Year" and "Biggest Improvement" in the CMJ College Radio Awards.

Bard has a strong independent music scene considering its isolation and size. The college's Old Gym was once a popular location for concerts and parties in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. In 2004, the Old Gym was shut down and in spring 2006 transformed into a student-run theater by students Brel Froebe, Julie Rossman, and Kell Condon. Many activities that once took place there, occur in the smaller SMOG building. SMOG is primarily used as a music venue featuring student-run bands.

Athletics
Bard College teams participate as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division III. The Raptors are a member of the Liberty League. Prior conference affiliations include the Skyline Conference and the former Hudson Valley Athletic Conference. Women's sports include basketball, cross country, lacrosse, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, volleyball and squash. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, soccer, squash, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field and volleyball.

One of the more popular club sports on campus is rugby. Bard College Rugby Football Club fields men's and women's teams that compete in the Tristate Conference, affiliated with National Collegiate Rugby. Additional club sports include: ultimate frisbee, fencing, and equestrian.

Notable faculty
Notable alumni of Bard include fraternal songwriters Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, comedian and actor Chevy Chase (1967); Walter Becker and Donald Fagen of Steely Dan (1969); actors Blythe Danner (1965), Adrian Grenier, Gaby Hoffmann, Larry Hagman; filmmakers Gia Coppola, Todd Haynes (MFA), Sadie Bennings (MFA), Lana Wachowski (dropped out); Herb Ritts, photographer; Christopher Guest, actor/director (This is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show); songwriters Billy Steinberg (Madonna's "Like A Virgin," Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors," The Bangles "Eternal Flame"); Anne Bogart, theater director; Howard E. Koch, screenwriter (Casablanca, Letter from an Unknown Woman); David Cote, writer; Adam Conover, comedian and creator of Adam Ruins Everything; Raphael Bob-Waksberg, comedian and creator of Bojack Horseman; classical composer Bruce Wolosoff; Ronan Farrow, journalist who exposed the Harvey Weinstein scandal; writer and social theorist Albert Jay Nock; Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys; and artists Freya Powell and Tschabalala Self.

Among the college's most well-known former faculty are Hannah Arendt, Toni Morrison, Heinrich Blücher, Roy Lichtenstein, Mary McCarthy, Arthur Penn, John Ashbery, Richard Teitelbaum, Mary Lee Settle and Chinua Achebe. Current faculty who are well-known include Stephen Shore, An-My Lê, Neil Gaiman, Bill T. Jones, Daniel Mendelsohn, Joan Tower, Masha Gessen, Kelly Reichardt, Francine Prose, Ann Lauterbach, Charles Burnett, Valeria Luiselli, Tan Dun, Tschabalala Self, and Sky Hopinka.

title: Bard College


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Eternal life

Eternal life or life eternal may refer to:

 * Immortality, the ability to live forever
 * Eternal life (Christianity), a Christian belief
 * "Eternal Life" (song), a 1995 song by Jeff Buckley
 * Life Eternal (album), a 2009 album by Mayhem
 * Life Eternal (film), a 2015 Austrian-German black comedy crime film
 * "Life Eternal" (song), a 2018 song by Ghost
 * Eternal Life, a 2018 novel by Dara Horn

title: Eternal life


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Talk:Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein

Use of and
And has been removed. Schleswig and Holstein were hyphenated in short, official used. It was generally treated as singular territory. Charles 20:17, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Old stuff
I am scratching my head, trying to grasp Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (names and titles) and the convention itself. Duke Frederick was acknoledged and supported by virtually all Germans (except Bismarck), and quite a few international powers too, so I suppose it might be correct to name the article Frederick VIII of... although his reign wasn't stabilized before the Prussian-Austrian occupation; and he turned down Bismarck's "offer" to remain ruler in a Prussia-dominated Schleswig-Holstein.

A second issue is the disposition of the first sentences, which we probably will have reason to return to.

Thirdly, I wonder if the long line of castles would gain from being linked or not:
 * Duke Frederick VIII (July 6, 1829 - January 14, 1880) (in German: Friedrich Herzog von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg), father-in-law of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.

-- Ruhrjung 08:39 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Prussia recognized the Duke as a mediatized prince. we genberally allow them their ordinals. After all, as recognized ones, semi-rulers accepyed by the annexing country, they were not just pretenders. rather, they must be regard as equivalents of vassal princes. Shilkanni 22:28, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

This article is in need of cleanup
The section describing that Danes "for one reason or another" preferred Prince Christian of Glücksburg over Frederick is not accurate and the intricacies referring two which of the two cadet branches that was more closer related to the royal family is somewhat irrelevant. Danes perceived both Friedrich of Augustenburg and Christian of Glücksburg as Germans. However, Christian of Glücksburg grew up in Copenhagen, was a Danish officer, spoke Danish, and was assumed to be pro-Danish. The Augustenburgers were seen as pro-German and anti-Danish, and I've never seen any Danish book refer to them as speakers of Danish. To little surprise for most Danes - all potential claimants to the Danish throne - save Christian of Glücksburg - broke their allegiance to Denmark at the outbreak of the First Schleswig War and fought for the rebel Schleswig-Holsteinish side. Christian chose to remain loyal to Denmark, and this is why he was allowed to remain in the Danish line of succession. Upon the death of Frederick VII of Denmark, "Friedrich VIII" returned to his former demands from the time of the first war, and stated that the Salic law should be invoked regarding the succession to the thrones of Schleswig and Holstein. He had by then realized he would never be able to claim the Danish throne as such, and his claim was of course a violation of the London Protocol of 1851, specifying that Christian of Glücksburg would inherit all three thrones upon the death of Frederick VII of Denmark. The Danish POV is that if this family hadn't held so strongly pro-German sympathies they might actually have ended up on the Danish throne.

In Denmark, the name "Friedrich der Achte" ("Friedrich VIII") was for decades referred to in Denmark the same way Americans refer to Benedict Arnold: the archetype of a national traitor, and it was not an accident that Augustenborg Palace was converted to a lunatic asylum following the region's return to Danish sovereignty in 1920. An illustration often found in Danish books shows a chamberpot featuring the portraits of Friedrich VIII and his son. Some descriptions of the father and son nuance the picture a bit more by stating that Friedrich VIII wasn't the most pro-German in the family, rather it was his son, the so-called Prince of Nör. So it is possible that the son is partly responsible for messing up his father's plans to take over the Danish throne.

This article describes them as overwhelmingly Danish and this counters any description of them I've ever seen in Danish books. All in all, this article needs to be factually checked, properly sourced, and to take both the German and Danish view on this person into account. I've consequently added an "accuracy" tag to it. Valentinian T / C 16:17, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 16:55, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Why VIII ?
There is only one Frederick duke of S.H.S.Augustenburg before him, so this is the 2nd duke. Why VIII? If the enumeration is refered to all members of the House of Oldenburg, what are the 7 Frederiks before him? There is also one else Frederick VIII king of Denmark & duke of S.H. It's quite confusing. M.Markek in genealogy.euweb.cz mentions him simply as Frederick. Is VIII an invention here? Aris de Methymna (talk) 13:41, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

 * According to List of rulers of Schleswig-Holstein, there was in fact up to a Frederick X in the line of dukes of Schleswig-Holstein before him (with repeated changes of territories and titles), who was also Frederick VII, but as King of Denmark. It does not seem that he claimed the Danish throne as well. de:Liste der Herzöge von Schleswig suggests that Danish kings used the Danish regnal number in Schleswig-Holstein as well, which would explain why this one went with VIII after VII. 93.19.248.151 (talk) 08:47, 1 August 2022 (UTC)


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Talk:Realm (disambiguation)

I wonder, mostly out of pure curiousity, and not neccessarily in a wish to make wikipedia into a dictionary... I wonder, if realm can be said to rather have the meaning "the lands and people of a kingdom" rather than the governal and judicial aspects? -- Ruhrjung 08:55 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Shouldn't definations of words be in wikitionary? Falcon 16:41, Mar 21, 2004 (UTC)

Maybe you're right. Let's put on it! --Ruhrjung 15:31, 22 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Doesn't this rather look like a disambiguation page? --Johan Magnus 17:18, 14 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I agree i don't think its suitable for moving as it is - user:max rspct 01.42 2nd Jan 2004 (UTC)

give it time
just give the article some time so it can develop. actually, where do you put the line between wikipedia articles and wiktionary articles? someone added the information about the java thing on the realm article - i don't think that this would be in place in the wiktionary - thus leave the article as it is. --Abdull 10:41, 30 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Contorted opening sentence
Realm is an old term still used as an alternative word for kingdom, the current opening sentence, with kingdom pipe-tricked to Monarchy, is very contorted. And the pipe-trick isnt very satisfactory in other articles either (eg Englis). While Kingdom is a disambig page, as now, there is a need, it seems to me, for an article called Kingdom (realm). (Realm could then be merged into the new article.) Laurel Bush 12:45, 12 December 2005 (UTC).

Disambiguation
I've added the computer hacker definition -- is it time now for a disambiguation on this page? Grimhim 00:33, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Realm (disambiguation)


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Talk:Prince Consort

Moved to Prince consort for sake of uniformity with Queen consort. -- Ruhrjung 09:01 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)

title: Talk:Prince Consort


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Rosa laevigata

Rosa laevigata, the Cherokee rose, is a white, fragrant rose native to southern China and Taiwan south to Laos and Vietnam, and invasive in the United States.

Description
It is an evergreen climbing shrub, scrambling over other shrubs and small trees to heights of up to 5 - 10 m. The leaves are 3 - 10 cm long, with usually three leaflets, sometimes five leaflets, bright glossy green and glabrous. The flowers are 6 - 10 cm diameter, fragrant, with pure white petals and yellow stamens, and are followed by bright red and bristly hips 2 - 4 cm diameter. The flower stem is also very bristly.

Cultivation
The species was introduced to the southeastern United States in about 1780, where it soon became naturalized, and was then given its English common name.

Cultural references
The flower has no association to Cherokee culture. It is a non-indigenous invasive species that climbs over and smothers existing vegetation.

Though it has no connection to the Cherokee Nation, it is occasionally used as a symbol of Cherokee resistance following their eviction from the southern United States via the Trail of Tears.

title: Rosa laevigata


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Skywave

In radio communication, skywave or skip refers to the propagation of radio waves reflected or refracted back toward Earth from the ionosphere, an electrically charged layer of the upper atmosphere. Since it is not limited by the curvature of the Earth, skywave propagation can be used to communicate beyond the horizon, at intercontinental distances. It is mostly used in the shortwave frequency bands.

As a result of skywave propagation, a signal from a distant AM broadcasting station, a shortwave station, or – during sporadic E propagation conditions (principally during the summer months in both hemispheres) – a distant VHF FM or TV station can sometimes be received as clearly as local stations. Most long-distance shortwave (high frequency) radio communication – between 3 and 30 MHz – is a result of skywave propagation. Since the early 1920s amateur radio operators (or "hams"), limited to lower transmitter power than broadcast stations, have taken advantage of skywave for long-distance (or "DX") communication.

Skywave propagation is distinct from line-of-sight propagation, in which radio waves travel in a straight line, and from non-line-of-sight propagation.

Local and distant skywave propagation
Skywave transmissions can be used for long-distance communications (DX) by waves directed at a low angle as well as relatively local communications via nearly vertically directed waves (near vertical incidence skywaves – NVIS).

Low-angle skywaves

The ionosphere is a region of the upper atmosphere, from about 80 km (50 miles) to 1000 km (600 miles) in altitude, where neutral air is ionized by solar photons, solar particles, and cosmic rays. When high-frequency signals enter the ionosphere at a low angle they are bent back towards the Earth by the ionized layer. If the peak ionization is strong enough for the chosen frequency, a wave will exit the bottom of the layer earthwards – as if obliquely reflected from a mirror. Earth's surface (ground or water) then reflects the descending wave back up again towards the ionosphere.

When operating at frequencies just below the maximum usable frequency, losses can be quite small, so the radio signal may effectively "bounce" or "skip" between the Earth and ionosphere two or more times (multi-hop propagation), even following the curvature of the Earth. Consequently, even signals of only a few Watts can sometimes be received many thousands of miles away. This is what enables shortwave broadcasts to travel all over the world. If the ionization is not great enough, the wave only curves slightly downwards, and subsequently upwards as the ionization peak is passed so that it exits the top of the layer only slightly displaced. The wave is then lost in space. To prevent this, a lower frequency must be chosen. With a single "hop", path distances up to 3500 km (2200 miles) may be reached. Longer transmissions can occur with two or more hops.

Near-vertical skywaves
Skywaves directed almost vertically are referred to as near-vertical-incidence skywaves (NVIS). At some frequencies, generally in the lower shortwave region, the high angle skywaves will be reflected directly back towards the ground. When the wave returns to ground it is spread out over a wide area, allowing communications within several hundred miles of the transmitting antenna. NVIS enables local plus regional communications, even from low-lying valleys, to a large area, for example, an entire state or small country. Coverage of a similar area via a line-of-sight VHF transmitter would require a very high mountaintop location. NVIS is thus useful for statewide networks, such as those needed for emergency communications. In short wave broadcasting, NVIS is very useful for regional broadcasts that are targeted to an area that extends out from the transmitter location to a few hundred miles, such as would be the case in a country or language group to be reached from within the borders of that country. This will be much more economical than using multiple FM (VHF) or AM broadcast transmitters. Suitable antennas are designed to produce a strong lobe at high angles. When short range skywave is undesirable, as when an AM broadcaster wishes to avoid interference between the ground wave and sky wave, anti-fading antennas are used to suppress the waves being propagated at the higher angles.

Intermediate distance coverage
For every distance, from local to maximum distance transmission, (DX), there is an optimum "take off" angle for the antenna, as shown here. For example, using the F layer during the night, to best reach a receiver 500 miles away, an antenna should be chosen that has a strong lobe at 40 degrees elevation. One can also see that for the longest distances, a lobe at low angles (below 10 degrees) is best. For NVIS, angles above 45 degrees are optimum. Suitable antennas for long distance would be a high Yagi or a rhombic; for NVIS, a dipole or array of dipoles about .2 wavelengths above ground; and for intermediate distances, a dipole or Yagi at about .5 wavelengths above ground. Vertical patterns for each type of antenna are used to select the proper antenna.

Fading
At any distance sky waves will fade. The layer of ionospheric plasma with sufficient ionization (the reflective surface) is not fixed, but undulates like the surface of the ocean. Varying reflection efficiency from this changing surface can cause the reflected signal strength to change, causing "fading" in shortwave broadcasts. Even more serious fading can occur when signals arrive via two or more paths, for example when both single-hop and double-hop waves interfere with other, or when a skywave signal and a ground-wave signal arrive at about the same strength. This is the most common source of fading with nighttime AM broadcast signals. Fading is always present with sky wave signals, and except for digital signals such as Digital Radio Mondiale seriously limit the fidelity of shortwave broadcasts.

Other considerations
VHF signals with frequencies above about 30 MHz usually penetrate the ionosphere and are not returned to the Earth's surface. E-skip is a notable exception, where VHF signals including FM broadcast and VHF TV signals are frequently reflected to the Earth during late spring and early summer. E-skip rarely affects UHF frequencies, except for very rare occurrences below 500 MHz.

Frequencies below approximately 10 MHz (wavelengths longer than 30 meters), including broadcasts in the mediumwave and shortwave bands (and to some extent longwave), propagate most efficiently by skywave at night. Frequencies above 10 MHz (wavelengths shorter than 30 meters) typically propagate most efficiently during the day. Frequencies lower than 3 kHz have a wavelength longer than the distance between the Earth and the ionosphere. The maximum usable frequency for skywave propagation is strongly influenced by sunspot number.

Skywave propagation is usually degraded – sometimes seriously – during geomagnetic storms. Skywave propagation on the sunlit side of the Earth can be entirely disrupted during sudden ionospheric disturbances.

Because the lower-altitude layers (the E-layer in particular) of the ionosphere largely disappear at night, the refractive layer of the ionosphere is much higher above the surface of the Earth at night. This leads to an increase in the "skip" or "hop" distance of the skywave at night.

History of discovery
Amateur radio operators are credited with the discovery of skywave propagation on the shortwave bands. Early long-distance services used ground wave propagation at very low frequencies, which are attenuated along the path. Longer distances and higher frequencies using this method meant more signal attenuation. This, and the difficulties of generating and detecting higher frequencies, made discovery of shortwave propagation difficult for commercial services.

Radio amateurs conducted the first successful transatlantic tests using waves shorter than those used by commercial services in December 1921, operating in the 200 meter mediumwave band (1500 kHz)—the shortest wavelength then available to amateurs. In 1922 hundreds of North American amateurs were heard in Europe at 200 meters and at least 30 North American amateurs heard amateur signals from Europe. The first two-way communications between North American and Hawaiian amateurs began in 1922 at 200 meters.

Extreme interference at the upper edge of the 150-200 meter band—the official wavelengths allocated to amateurs by the Second National Radio Conference in 1923—forced amateurs to shift to shorter and shorter wavelengths; however, amateurs were limited by regulation to wavelengths longer than 150 meters (2 MHz). A few fortunate amateurs who obtained special permission for experimental communications below 150 meters completed hundreds of long-distance two-way contacts on 100 meters (3 MHz) in 1923 including the first transatlantic two-way contacts in November 1923, on 110 meters (2.72 MHz)

By 1924 many additional specially licensed amateurs were routinely making transoceanic contacts at distances of 6000 miles (~9600 km) and more. On 21 September several amateurs in California completed two way contacts with an amateur in New Zealand. On 19 October amateurs in New Zealand and England completed a 90-minute two-way contact nearly halfway around the world. On October 10, the Third National Radio Conference made three shortwave bands available to U.S. amateurs at 80 meters (3.75 MHz), 40 meters (7 MHz) and 20 meters (14 MHz). These were allocated worldwide, while the 10-meter band (28 MHz) was created by the Washington International Radiotelegraph Conference on 25 November 1927. The 15-meter band (21 MHz) was opened to amateurs in the United States on 1 May 1952.

Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi was the first to show that radios could communicate beyond line-of-sight, using the reflective properties of the ionosphere. On December 12, 1901, he sent a message around 2200 mi from his transmission station in Cornwall, England, to St. John's, Newfoundland (now part of Canada). However, Marconi believed the radio waves were following the curvature of the Earth – the reflective properties of the ionosphere that enables 'sky waves' were not yet understood. Skepticism from the scientific community and his wired telegraph competitors drove Marconi to continue experimenting with wireless transmissions and associated business ventures over the next few decades.

In June and July 1923, Guglielmo Marconi's land-to-ship transmissions were completed during nights on 97 meters from Poldhu Wireless Station, Cornwall, to his yacht Ellette in the Cape Verde Islands. In September 1924, Marconi transmitted during daytime and nighttime on 32 meters from Poldhu to his yacht in Beirut. Marconi, in July 1924, entered into contracts with the British General Post Office (GPO) to install high speed shortwave telegraphy circuits from London to Australia, India, South Africa and Canada as the main element of the Imperial Wireless Chain. The UK-to-Canada shortwave "Beam Wireless Service" went into commercial operation on 25 October 1926. Beam Wireless Services from the UK to Australia, South Africa and India went into service in 1927.

Far more spectrum is available for long-distance communication in the shortwave bands than in the long wave bands; and shortwave transmitters, receivers and antennas were orders of magnitude less expensive than the multi-hundred kilowatt transmitters and monstrous antennas needed for long wave.

Shortwave communications began to grow rapidly in the 1920s, similar to the internet in the late 20th century. By 1928, more than half of long-distance communications had moved from transoceanic cables and long-wave wireless services to shortwave "skip" transmission, and the overall volume of transoceanic shortwave communications had vastly increased. Shortwave also ended the need for multimillion-dollar investments in new transoceanic telegraph cables and massive long-wave wireless stations, although some existing transoceanic telegraph cables and commercial long-wave communications stations remained in use until the 1960s.

The cable companies began to lose large sums of money in 1927, and a serious financial crisis threatened the viability of cable companies that were vital to strategic British interests. The British government convened the Imperial Wireless and Cable Conference in 1928 "to examine the situation that had arisen as a result of the competition of Beam Wireless with the Cable Services". It recommended and received Government approval for all overseas cable and wireless resources of the Empire to be merged into one system controlled by a newly formed company in 1929, Imperial and International Communications Ltd. The name of the company was changed to Cable and Wireless Ltd. in 1934.

title: Skywave


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Talk:Royal and Noble

Does this article contain anything of value? It looks like a poor translation of something suggesting nobility are registered like pedigree animals. While there are the Almanach de Gotha and Burke's Peerage and so on, this is hardly what makes the hereditary systems of royalty or nobility. What does this article convey that isn't much better said at the other references at the bottom? Delete it? Gritchka 09:51 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)
 * List it on Votes for deletion --Jiang 10:08 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)

title: Talk:Royal and Noble


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User talk:Raahulsingh

 Digitized at :  http://www.cjhosting.com/member/raahulsingh

title: User talk:Raahulsingh