In marketing, brand loyalty describes a consumer's positive feelings towards a brand and their dedication to purchasing the brand's products and/or services repeatedly regardless of deficiencies, a competitor's actions, or changes in the environment. It can also be demonstrated with other behaviors such as positive word-of-mouth advocacy. Corporate brand loyalty is where an individual buys products from the same manufacturer repeatedly and without wavering, rather than from other suppliers. Loyalty implies dedication and should not be confused with habit, its less-than-emotional engagement and commitment. Businesses whose financial and ethical values (for example, ESG responsibilities) rest in large part on their brand loyalty are said to use the loyalty business model.

Marketing
Brand loyalty, in marketing, consists of a consumer's commitment to repurchase or continue to use the brand. Consumers can demonstrate brand loyalty by repeatedly buying a product, service, or by other positive behaviors such as by engaging in word of mouth advocacy. This concept of a brand displays imagery and symbolism for a product or range of products. Brands can engage consumers and make them feel emotionally attached. Consumers' beliefs and attitudes make up brand images, and these affect how they will view brands with which they come into contact. Brand experience occurs when consumers shop or search for, and consume products. Holistic experiences such as sense, relation, acting, and feeling occur when one comes into contact with brands. The stronger and more relational these senses are to the individual, the more likely it is that individual will make repeat purchases. After contact has been made, psychological reasoning will occur, followed by a decision to buy or not to buy. This can result in repeat purchase behavior, thus incurring the beginning brand loyalty. Brand loyalty is not limited to repeat purchase behavior, as there is deeper psychological reasoning as to why an individual will continuously re-purchase products from one brand. Brand loyalty can be defined as the "behavioral willingness" to consistently maintain relations with a particular brand. In a survey of nearly 200 senior marketing managers, 68 percent responded that they found the "loyalty" metric very useful.

Brand loyalty occurs when consumers are willing to pay higher prices for a certain brand and go out of their way for the brand, or think highly of it.

Brand loyalty can predict brand performance outcomes. It also highlights the importance of marketing communication when trying to promote a certain product that's not doing as well as other brands. Marketers are able to look at the patterns of brand loyalty and pick out characteristics that make that product thrive.

Examples of brand loyalty promotions include My Coke Rewards, Pepsi Stuff, and Marriott Rewards.

Long-term impact on business
Brand loyalty in marketing consists of a consumer's devotion, bond, and commitment to repurchase and continue to use a brand's product or service over time, regardless of changes with competitors' pricing or changes in the external environment. Brand loyalty reflects a customer's commitment to remain in a relationship for a long period of time with a brand.

A critical factor of building brand loyalty is developing a connection or relationship between the consumer and the brand. When an emotional relationship is created between the consumer and the brand, this leads to a strong bond and a competitive advantage for that particular brand. Loyalty consists of both attitudinal and behavioral components. Attitudinal loyalty relates to the customer's willingness to purchase a product or service from the brand at any reasonable cost. Behavioral loyalty is re-purchasing.  Both behavioral and attitudinal components are important. One example is that a consumer displays behavioral loyalty by buying Coke when there are few alternatives available and attitudinal loyalty when they will not buy an alternative brand when Coke is not available. The attitudinal component is psychological, this leads to the behavioral action of repeat purchase. It is the attitudinal loyalty that drives most loyalty behavior and ensures loyalty over time, not just with one purchase. "Brand loyalty is desired by firms because retention of existing customers is less costly than obtaining new ones. Firms profit from having loyal customers".

Benefits for companies

Brand loyalty profits firms by saving them money. Benefits for companies associated with loyal consumers include:
 Acceptance of product extensions.
 Defense from competitors' cutting of prices.
 Creating barriers to entry for firms looking to enter the market.
 Competitive edge in market.
 Customers willing to pay high prices or accept far-reaching end user agreements
 Existing customers cost much less to serve.
 Potential new customers.

Generally speaking, brand loyalty will increase profit over time as firms do not have to spend as much time and money on maintaining relationships or marketing to existing consumers. Loyal long-term customers spend more money with a firm.

Customer behavior
Brand loyalty leads not only to repurchasing. Customers may repurchase a brand due to situational constraints (such as vendor lock-in), a lack of viable alternatives, or out of convenience.  Such loyalty is referred to as "spurious loyalty".

Previous studies showed that customer loyalty is affected by customer satisfaction, but the association differs based on customer switching costs (procedural, relational, and financial). Real brand loyalty exists when customers have a high relative attitude toward the brand which they then exhibit through repurchase behavior. This type of loyalty can be a great asset to the firm: customers are willing to pay higher prices, they may cost less to serve, and can bring new customers to the firm. For example, if Joe has brand loyalty to Company A, he will purchase Company A's products even if Company B's are cheaper and/or of a higher quality. From the point of view of many marketers, loyalty to the brand — in terms of consumer usage — is a key factor. However, companies often ensure that they are not spending resources to retain loyal but unprofitable customers.

Usage rate

 the 'rate' of usage, to which the Pareto 80-20 Rule applies: Kotler's "heavy users" are  disproportionately important to the brand (typically, 20 percent of users accounting for 80 percent of usage — and of suppliers' profit). As a result, suppliers often segment their customers into "heavy", "medium", and "light" users; as far as they can, they target "heavy users". However, research shows that heavy users of a brand are not always the most profitable for a company.

Loyalty

A second dimension, is whether the customer is committed to the brand. Philip Kotler, again, defines four status of loyalty:
 Hard-core Loyals — who buy the brand all the time.
 Split Loyals — loyal to two or three brands.
 Shifting Loyals — moving from one brand to another.
 Switchers — with no loyalty (possibly "deal prone", constantly looking for bargains or "vanity prone", looking for something different). Again, research shows that customer commitment is a more nuanced a fine-grained construct than what was previously thought. Specifically, customer commitment has five dimensions, and some commitment dimensions (forced commitment may even negatively impact customer loyalty).

Psychological reasoning
A person's psychological disposition affects which brands they are attracted to. Cognitive responses can be matched with brand personalities. Brand personalities are broken down into five categories of traits: sincerity, ruggedness, competence, sophistication and excitement. Consumers are  drawn to a brand because the brand strongly conveys one of these traits, and that trait resonates in the consumer's mind. These traits are matched to the five psychological factors that the consumers are influenced by: perception, learning, motivation, beliefs, and attitudes. In relation to brand loyalty, the most important factors are beliefs and attitudes. A belief can be based on real knowledge, faith, or opinion and has the ability to carry an emotional charge. Consumers use beliefs to form a brand image in their minds, and marketers try to either change or enhance people's beliefs to draw them to their brand. Marketers can advertise messages such as "no added sugar" and then, if this statement resonates in the consumer's mind, the consumer will believe that this brand's beliefs matches theirs. Beliefs that consumers hold against brands can also be false, as word of mouth, false advertising, and so forth can create false impressions. Marketers will try to counteract these negative beliefs so the consumer feels like they hold similar beliefs as the brand. Attitudes can be based on brand salience and accessibility. Consumers make constant evaluations on every aspect of their lives and these make up attitudes. Ones attitude is usually difficult to change, so marketers try to fit their brands and products into categorical attitudes. Each time a consumer makes contact with a brand (through advertising and promotion), they reflect on their attitudes to make judgements and decisions about that particular brand. If a person's attitude coincides with what a brand is trying to convey, the consumer will put the brand into a "liking" category in their mind. The consumer will then be more likely to increase involvement with this brand, and because attitudes are difficult to change, the chances of brand loyalty occurring increase.

Other advertising techniques such as comparative advertising have shown to increase the brand attitudes one might have. When a brand praises a competitor, rather than using a negative comparison, consumers are shown to have more positive brand attitudes, therefore drawing them to the brand. Brands may advertise themselves in ways that have nothing to do with their product, but by using emotional influences that they know the average consumer will engage with. For example, they may use religion, world peace, love, death, children and other symbols that humans can feel sentimental about to attract consumers to their brand. Through advertising, marketers may focus more on implicit emotional messages, rather than the actual content or information about their brand. Consumers take notice of campaigns, and a wave effect can occur, due to the relational sense of the campaign to the common person's emotions. Once a consumer establishes an emotional bond with a brand, the consumer is more likely to be able to recall the brand than consumers who have been subject to a large amount of content information. Because of this increased level of recall, brand loyalty is more likely to occur, as the brand name is resonating in the consumer's mind due to a feeling of emotional attachment. Furthermore, consumers are willing to pay more for a product that has a brand name that resonates with them emotionally.

High- vs. low-involvement consumers

Buying decisions from consumers can be dependent on their level of involvement with the product or brand. Brand loyalty can stem from whether the consumer has a high or low level of involvement with the brand. High-involvement consumers interact with brands and products that are important to them, are risky or expensive and products that people who are important to the consumer have strong opinions on. High-involvement consumers will usually progress through complex buying behavior to decide whether they want to purchase a product whose brand greatly differs from others. Such behavior involves gaining knowledge of the product, specifications and attributes, and furthermore creating attitudes that lead to the buyer's decision. Similarly, dissonance-reducing buying behavior occurs in the same situation, but instead with brands they see little differences between. This process consists of consumers finding purchase convenience, attractive pricing, and shopping around. High-involvement consumers search for more product attributes and engage in more product-related activities, such as searching for more information on a product and researching the brand's background. This engagement makes consumers aware and knowledgeable of the brand's attributes, so this engagement can shape behavioral brand loyalty, as the consumer feels that they know the brand well.

Low-involvement consumers take on habitual buying behavior or variety-seeking behavior. These processes occur when a consumer is purchasing fast-moving goods and requires a low product-involvement level. Habitual behavior occurs when the consumer doesn't see large differences between brands, and therefore doesn't search for information. Consumers usually purchase because advertising or promotion created familiarity. The attitudes formed by being exposed to advertisements and promotions cause brand loyalty to occur. Because consumers do less mental work to assess each brand, they may stick with a brand simply because it takes less work to do so. Low-involvement consumers use short-cut evaluations, so, for example, a known brand name that they haven't thought about deeply enough to find faults in will be an easy buy decision. Habitual buying behavior can result in brand loyalty subconsciously. The consumer isn't actively aware they want to purchase repeatedly from a particular brand, it is just in their habitual nature to do so. Alternatively, low-involvement consumers who are using variety-seeking behavior see differences between brands and tend to do a lot of switching. To attempt to persuade these consumers into habitual buying behavior, marketers will try to dominate shelf space, cut prices, or introduce new products. If a low-involvement consumer continues to use variety-seeking behavior, brand loyalty is unlikely to be established.

Factors influencing brand loyalty

Loyalty includes some degree of predisposition toward a brand. It is determined by several distinct psychological processes, and it entails multivariate measurements. Customer perceived value, brand trust, customer satisfaction, repeat purchase behavior, and commitment  to be the key influencing factors of brand loyalty. Commitment and repeated purchase behavior  as necessary conditions for brand loyalty followed by perceived value, satisfaction, and brand trust.''

Fred Reichheld, one of the most influential writers on brand loyalty, claimed that enhancing customer loyalty could have dramatic effects on profitability. However, new research shows that the association between customer loyalty and financial outcomes such as firm profitability and stock-market outcomes is not so straightforward.

An organization's ability to attract and retain customers is vital to its success. Customer loyalty requires a strong appetite by the customer for a product. Marketing tools such as integrated marketing communications (IMC) and branding can increase perceived attraction between the consumer and the brand. These tools boost emotional response and attachment to the brand, and influence feelings the customer has for a brand; both are important for congruency and a relationship. This in turn leads to the development of brand loyalty. Relationship development and maintenance can also be achieved through the use of loyalty programs or a celebrity endorser. These can help to increase a bond between a brand and a consumer.

IMC is defined as "integrating a variety of convincing messages across various forms to communicate with and develop relationships with customers." IMC can convey the brand image, increase awareness, build brand equity, and achieve shared values between the consumer and the brand.

IMC and brand loyalty

IMC and branding are both marketing tools for increasing the brand loyalty of consumers. The decisions made around communications and branding should be based on solid and factual market research about the consumers. If the brand or the IMC do not seem to be relevant to the target market, consumers will not pay attention. An example of this is that high customization, creativity, and a more direct voice is recommended for messages directed towards Generation Y consumers as Generation Y want to be treated differently from the rest of the market and marketers should acknowledge this.

Loyalty programs reward and encourage customers, which is necessary for customers to want to repurchase. The consumer should feel a connection with the brand to want repeat purchase and to exhibit other brand loyalty behaviors such as positive word of mouth. "A loyalty program is an integrated system of marketing actions that aims to make member customers more loyal to a brand." The main goal of a loyalty program is to create or enhance customer loyalty towards a brand whilst being sustained even after a loyalty program is discontinued.

Marketers use such tactics as a loyalty program to increase likelihood of repeat purchase and to retrieve information about the spending habits of the consumer. Loyalty programs that enhance the consumer's opinion about how much the firm can offer them may be essential for building a relationship. Even though these programs can cost a lot of money, they help to create a relationship between the brand and the consumer. An example of a loyalty program is a point system: Frequent customers earn points which transform into freebies, discounts, rewards, or special treatment of some sort; customers work toward a specific number of points to redeem their benefit.

Celebrity endorsers moderate the relationship between the consumer and the brand by personifying the brand to match the perceptions of the consumer. Using a celebrity endorser can build a relationship between consumers and a brand because endorsers can represent similarities between themselves and the consumer, and themselves and the brand. Celebrities make marketing tactics more convincing and marketing communications more effective.

For example, a celebrity may be influential to a Generation Y consumer because that generation views them as likeable, real, and beautiful. In order for celebrity endorsers to effectively reach the audience, they must connect and identify with the audience. The use of a popular celebrity endorser could personalize the brand for the consumer and create the relationship between the consumer and the brand. To ensure endorsement is successful, the celebrity should match the brand and the consumer. The effect of using a celebrity endorser that consumers look up to and want to emulate can lead to increased congruence between the values of the consumers and the brand, and improve the relationship between the two.

Industrial markets

In industrial markets, organizations regard "heavy users" as "major accounts" to be handled by senior sales personnel and even managers; whereas "light users" may be handled by the general sales force or by a dealer.

Portfolios of brands

Andrew Ehrenberg, then of the London Business School said that consumers buy "portfolios of brands." They switch regularly between brands, often because they simply want a change. Thus, "brand penetration" or "brand share" reflects only a statistical chance that customers will buy that brand next time as part of a portfolio of brands they prefer. It does not guarantee that they will stay loyal.

Influencing the statistical probabilities facing a consumer choosing from a portfolio of preferred brands, which is required in this context, is a very different role for a brand manager; compared with the much simpler one, traditionally described, of recruiting and holding dedicated customers. The concept also emphasizes the need for managing continuity.

Issues
After brands are well established and have a decent flow of consumers, problems may arise such as slips in product quality or in safety of products, or lack of customer care. Such problems can be detrimental to a brand that has become too confident. Many brands continue to get away with scandals, and it does not affect their image in any way. For example, the Coca-Cola brand  scandals including murders in Colombia, crimes in India, and various health dangers; all of which relate back to the company name. Yet the power of the Coca-Cola brand puts it at the top of its field. The reputation of such a massive organization is hard to dent with the powerful distribution rights and funds to create some of the best ad campaigns.

Stability
Many markets exhibit overall stability, or "marketing inertia." In their essential characteristics they change very slowly, over decades or even centuries rather than over months.

This stability has two implications: The first is that those who are brand leaders are especially well placed in relation to their competitors and should want to further the inertia that reinforces the stability of that position. This, however, still demands minor changes to keep up with marginal changes in consumer taste (which may be minor to the theorist but will still be crucial in terms of those consumers' purchasing patterns as markets do not favor the over-complacent). These minor investments are a small price to pay for the long term profits that brand leaders usually enjoy.

The second, and more important, is that someone who wishes to overturn this stability and change the market (or significantly improve their position in it) must expect to make massive investments in order to succeed. Even though stability is the natural state of some markets, sudden changes can still occur.

See also
 Brand architecture
 Brand aversion
 Brand equity
 Brand management
 Brand language
 Brand tribalism
 Customer engagement
 Customer franchise
 Employer branding
 Evangelism marketing
 Visual brand language
 Brand intimacy

References

Sources

 Kotler, P.,  'Marketing Management ' (Prentice-Hall, 7th edn, 1991)

 Jacoby, J. and Chestnut, R.W., 1978, Brand Loyalty: Measurement Management (John Wiley & Sons, New York).

Brand management
Branding terminology

Brand loyalty


A frontispiece is a picture. It is in a book, on one of its front title pages. It is usually a big scene of the book, or a portrait of the writer. In older times, the picture of the writer was more often used. This was because it was less costly, and could be used again for the writer's other books. Frontispieces were often used in scholarly books and Bibles, and many are fine works of art.

Art

Book frontispiece


The Pirelli Calendar is a calendar (publication showing dates for the year) published by Pirelli company's UK subsidiary.

It started in 1964 and is now very famous because only a few calendars are published each year, and these are given to important people (VIPs) and Pirelli customers.  The calendars have photographs of female models including nudes.

After 1974 publication of the calendar was stopped because there was not enough money after the oil crisis.  Ten years later it was started again and has been published regularly ever since.  Many famous models have been photographed for the calendar including: Sienna Miller, Naomi Campbell, Gisele Bündchen, Sonny Freeman Drane, Kate Moss, Cindy Crawford, Selma Blair, Lauren Bush, Elsa Benitez, Laetitia Casta, Rachael Leigh Cook, Milla Jovovich, Doutzen Kroes, Heidi Klum, Sophia Loren, Penélope Cruz, Brittany Murphy,  Amy Smart, Julia Stiles, Karolina Kurkova, Caroline Trentini, Raica Oliveira, Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, Bridget Moynahan, Shannyn Sossamon, Mena Suvari, Monet Mazur, Aurelie Claudel, Fernanda Tavares, Isabeli Fontana, Frankie Rayder, Angela Lindvall, Hilary Swank and Yamila Díaz.

Other websites
Official Pirelli Calendar Site with Image Archives

Calendars

Pirelli calendar


A firing squad is a group of people with guns who shoot and kill a criminal who has been sentenced to death penalty.  The person being shot is often blindfolded.  This method of execution has often been used in the military for crimes such as desertion and cowardice.

Few countries use firing squads anymore.  Many countries have either stopped using the death penalty or switched to using lethal injection.  For example, in the United States, the state of Utah formerly used firing squads, but it now uses lethal injection.  However, some countries, such as Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates, still use firing squads.  As of 2014, 73 countries still use execution by firing squad, and is the sole method of execution in 45 different countries.

Capital punishment

Firing squad


"Sexy Bitch" (renamed "Sexy Chick" whenever censored) is a hit song by David Guetta. Akon sings in it. The single was released during 2009. There are several music videos for this song. It was written by Giorgio Tuinfort, Aliaune Thiam, David Guetta, Jean-Claude Sindres and Sandy Vee.

2009 songs
Pop songs
Akon songs
David Guetta songs

Sexy Bitch


DirectAccess, also known as Unified Remote Access, is a VPN technology that provides intranet connectivity to client computers when they are connected to the Internet. Unlike many traditional VPN connections, which must be initiated and terminated by explicit user action, DirectAccess connections are designed to connect automatically as soon as the computer connects to the Internet. DirectAccess was introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2, providing this service to Windows 7 and Windows 8 "Enterprise" edition clients. In 2010, Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway (UAG) was released, which simplifies the deployment of DirectAccess for Windows 2008 R2, and includes additional components that make it easier to integrate without the need to deploy IPv6 on the network, and with a dedicated user interface for the configuration and monitoring. Some requirements and limitations that were part of the design of DirectAccess with Windows Server 2008 R2 and UAG have been changed (see requirements below). While DirectAccess is based on Microsoft technology, third-party solutions exist for accessing internal UNIX and Linux servers through DirectAccess. With Windows Server 2012, DirectAccess is fully integrated into the operating system, providing a user interface to configure and native IPv6 and IPv4 support.

Technology
DirectAccess establishes IPsec tunnels from the client to the DirectAccess server, and uses IPv6 to reach intranet resources or other DirectAccess clients. This technology encapsulates the IPv6 traffic over IPv4 to be able to reach the intranet over the Internet, which still (mostly) relies on IPv4 traffic. All traffic to the intranet is encrypted using IPsec and encapsulated in IPv4 packets (if a native IPv6 connection cannot be established), which means that in most cases, no configuration of firewalls or proxies should be required. A DirectAccess client can use one of several tunneling technologies, depending on the configuration of the network the client is connected to. The client can use 6to4, Teredo tunneling, or IP-HTTPS, provided the server is configured correctly to be able to use them. For example, a client that is connected to the Internet directly will use 6to4, but if it is inside a NATed network, it will use Teredo instead. In addition, Windows Server 2012 provides two backward compatibility services DNS64 and NAT64, which allows DirectAccess clients to communicate with servers inside the corporate network even if those servers are only capable of IPv4 networking. Due to the globally routable nature of IPv6, computers on the corporate network can also initiate a connection to DirectAccess clients, which allows them to remotely manage (Manage Out) these clients at any time.

Benefits
DirectAccess can be deployed for multiple sites. It allows for a secure encrypted VPN. This is controlled through Group Policies which allows the administrator to maintain a secure network.

Requirements
DirectAccess With Windows Server 2008 R2 or UAG requires:
 One or more DirectAccess servers running Windows Server 2008 R2 with two network adapters: one that is connected directly to the Internet, and a second that is connected to the intranet.
 On the DirectAccess server, at least two consecutive, public IPv4 addresses assigned to the network adapter that is connected to the Internet.
 DirectAccess clients running Windows 7 "Ultimate" or "Enterprise" editions or Windows 8 "Enterprise" edition clients
 At least one domain controller and Domain Name System (DNS) server running Windows Server 2008 SP2 or Windows Server 2008 R2.
 Public key infrastructure (PKI) to issue computer certificates.

DirectAccess With Windows Server 2012 requires:
 One or more DirectAccess servers running Windows Server 2012 with one or more network adapters.
 At least one domain controller and Domain Name System (DNS) server running Windows Server 2008 SP2 or Windows Server 2008 R2.
 DirectAccess clients running Windows 7 "Ultimate" or "Enterprise" editions or Windows 8 "Enterprise" edition clients
 A Public Key Infrastructure is not required for Windows 8 Clients.

Smart card certificates, and health certificates for Network Access Protection may be used along with PKI.

References

External links
 Microsoft's DirectAccess in Windows Server 2012
 Microsoft's DirectAccess in Windows Server 2008 R2
 MS-IPHTTPS on MSDN: includes PDF with specification.
 Blogger's posting on DirectAccess
 Richard Hicks' DirectAccess Blog
 Differences between UAG and native 2008 R2 DirectAccess

Network protocols
Virtual private networks
IPv6

DirectAccess


Sir Ralph Freeman (27 November 1880 – 11 March 1950) was an English structural engineer, responsible for the design of several of the world's most impressive bridges.

Born in London, England, he studied at The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School and the City and Guilds of London Institute, and in 1901 joined Douglas Fox & Partners, a firm of consulting engineers specialising in the design of steel bridges. He rose to become senior partner and in 1938 the firm changed its name to Freeman Fox & Partners.

Sir Ralph is best remembered for his design work on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Birchenough Bridge in the Chipinge area of Zimbabwe.

His son, also called Ralph Freeman, was also an engineer, senior partner at Freeman Fox & Partners, and President of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He had been responsible for the design of the Humber Suspension Bridge. His grandson, Ralph Anthony Freeman, was also an engineer who worked on numerous bridges including The RAMA IX Bridge in Bangkok.

References

1880 births
1950 deaths
Engineers from London
British structural engineers
British bridge engineers
People educated at Haberdashers' Boys' School

Ralph Freeman (civil engineer, born 1880)


Obara (stew) is a Slovene national dish. It is a stew served as an independent meal, which is cooked from various kinds of meat and internal organs. It used to be served at various ceremonies, and it is a part of the traditional Slovenian cuisine. Especially good are obaras served with ajdovi žganci. Today obaras contain more vegetables.

One type of obara is dormouse stew from Inner Carniola in Slovenia. Report was made by Paolo Santonino, Cancellar of the Patriarch of Aquileia in his travel diary (1485-1487). He reports of a lunch stop in an Inner Carniola household, where the farmer's wife quickly prepared a roast dormouse for hungry archbishop. Roast dormice were also used for soups, risottos and goulashes. Dormouse hunting was not appreciated only for meat, but it also supplied the hunters with large amounts of dormouse fur. Dormouse lard was also useful for medicinal purposes. It was used for healing bruised or broken extremities, upset stomach and rheumatism.

References

See also
Slovenian cuisine

Slovenian soups
National dishes

Obara (stew)


The Van Wyck Homestead Museum or Van Wyck-Wharton House (pronounced Van Wike) is an early 18th-century Dutch colonial house in the Town of Fishkill, New York, United States of America. It served as a headquarters to a major military supply depot during the American Revolutionary War and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since April 13, 1972; the adjoining Fishkill Supply Depot Site has been listed on the NRHP since January 21, 1974. It is located on US 9 just south of Interstate 84. Excavations during the construction of a nearby gas station and the Dutchess Mall in the early 1970s unearthed many artifacts at the site, particularly materiel.

Background
The Van Wycks were an aristocratic family originally from Holland who were a prominent part of Dutchess County history. Members of the Van Wyck family served in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, and also held both local and national political positions.

In 1732, Cornelius Van Wyck (1694–1761), a surveyor, built a house with three rooms on 959 acres (approximately 3.88 km2) of land he had purchased from Catheryna Rombout Brett, the daughter of Francis Rombouts, who was one of the grantees of the original patent to the land in the area issues by King James II of England.  Later (before the year 1757) the house was extended and the original structure became the east wing of the enlarged house. Since then, the building has remained a Dutch colonial construction featuring a characteristic central hall with two identical doors.

Revolutionary War and afterward

During the American Revolutionary War, the property was the home of Isaac Van Wyck. However, because of its strategic location with regard to the Hudson River and major roads, the Old Albany Post Road (later US 9) running north–south and the road running east–west (later NY 52 and Interstate 84), it was requisitioned by the Continental Army. The building became the headquarters of the Fishkill Supply Depot, which was created on the orders of George Washington in 1775. The Fishkill Supply Depot was the major logistical center for the Revolutionary War in the north. The depot was a military camp and storage yard which became the main provider of artillery and food for about 4,000 troops stationed in the area to prevent the British forces from passing New York City and capturing the Hudson Valley (the latter a major strategic goal of the British at the beginning of the American Revolutionary War). 70 acres (28 ha) of land surrounding the house were used for a large encampment of over 2,000 soldiers and many facilities such as an artillery park for repairing cannons, a blacksmith shop, barracks, a storehouse, and stables were set up.

Thousands of Continental troops, militia, and their families lived at the Depot complex until April 1783. Its position in the Hudson River Valley prevented enemy advances. The depot complex consisted of barracks for thousands of soldiers, officer housing, hospital, magazine, prison, parade grounds, blacksmith shops, stables and store houses. Established by General George Washington and serving at varying times as a headquarters and nexus point for General Israel Putnam, General Alexander McDougall, General Horatio Gates, Alexander Hamilton and General Lafayette, it played an essential role in the Continental Army's victory over British forces. The Depot provided logistic operations for all of George Washington's operations in the Hudson Valley during the war. According to retired Army colonel James Johnson, a 1969 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and a former West Point military history professor, the food, clothing and armaments the depot provided to Washington's soldiers helped them keep the redcoats from gaining control of the strategic Hudson Highlands.

It served as headquarters to General Israel Putnam and was visited by revolutionary leaders such as George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Alexander McDougall, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay. Inside the house, courts-martial were held in the home's parlor. Although under British surveillance, the Depot was never attacked, hundreds died there of wounds, hypothermia, dysentery, and smallpox. Periods of starvation were also endured by troops during the Depot's seven years of service. It is the largest burial ground of American Revolutionary War soldiers identified in the United States.

A walnut tree, which stood in front of the house until 1898 when it was toppled by a storm, served as a whipping tree for punishing soldiers. An iron claw which was attached to the tree for this purpose was recovered from the tree and is now on display in the house. The mock trial of Enoch Crosby, who had infiltrated a loyalist group and is considered as the first secret agent of the United States, was held in the building. The house is therefore the likely setting for James Fenimore Cooper's novel, "The Spy" which is based on Enoch Crosby's story. The Van Wyck house also served as the Quartermaster Department in charge of clothing the troops. In addition to its military functions, it also housed the printing press for the newspaper "New York Packet", which was relocated to the Van Wyck homestead from British-occupied New York City. Besides the newspaper, orders for the Army were also printed and the newspaper's publisher, Samuel Loudon, was appointed Postmaster for the State of New York with Fishkill becoming the first official New York State Post Office.

After the Revolutionary War, the house was given back to the Van Wyck family and remained the family's home until the suicide of Sidney Van Wyck in 1882. Following the death of Sidney Van Wyck, two more families, the Hustis and the Snook families, owned the property. For a time, a tea room was operated in the house and was frequented by Eleanor Roosevelt when she was on her way to her estate in Hyde Park, New York.

Recent years

With the construction of I-84 and its exit ramps in the immediate vicinity of the homestead, the Snook family donated the house and  to the Fishkill Historical Society, which was founded in 1962 to preserve the house from demolition and has since continued to restore and to operate it as a museum. However, much of the Depot site was developed in the 1970s, causing the loss of many artifacts from the period.

The Van Wyck Homestead is the last remaining structure of the supply depot, which now contains a vast Continental Army Burial Complex. The  to the east and west of the homestead, including the exit ramps from I-84, were added to the National Register of Historic Places as the Fishkill Depot Supply Site on January 21, 1974. In 2007, a team of archaeologists using ground penetrating radar discovered hundreds of graves at the southern end of the property. Friends of the Fishkill Supply Depot and United States Senator Charles Schumer are leading a project to save the site under the Battlefield Protection Act and to create a National Park on the site.

In 2016 developer Domenic Broccoli proposed taking eight acres of land to develop Continental Commons, an "18th century colonial village,".
Lance Ashworth, president of Friends of the Fishkill Supply Depot, asserted that this development would "destroy an authentic historical site for the sake of building a cheap replica." He noted that Broccoli told the town planning board he wants to include an International House of Pancakes location as part of the complex. A spokesperson for Broccoli responded that the IHOP would not be located on actual burial grounds. IHOP said that no plans for a restaurant at that location has been approved.

Archeological site
Most of the area of the Fishkill Supply Depot was developed for the Dutchess Mall, which opened in 1974. During the construction of the mall and archaeological excavations on the site many artifacts, such as cannonballs, muskets, utensils, and uniform buttons have been unearthed and the Fishkill Historical Society holds about 10,000 pieces. It is also believed, that many soldiers of the Continental Army who died in battle or from smallpox are buried in the area, but the location of the burials remains unknown.

For that reason, the same year the mall opened the National Park Service, which oversees the National Register, separately added the  south of I-84 and bisected by Route 9 to the Register as the Fishkill Supply Depot Site. Much of that land, particularly on the east of the home, remains undeveloped and unexcavated, awaiting future investigation.

See also

List of Registered Historic Places in Dutchess County, New York
Intelligence operations in the American Revolutionary War
Washington's Headquarters State Historic Site
Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben's Headquarters

References
Notes

Sources
 Lee-Adrian, Jenny. "Historian Makes Aid Pitch in DC", Poughkeepsie Journal, July 17, 2009
 Coulter, Kristine. "Schumer Visits Revolutionary War Gravesite", Southern Dutchess News, June 3, 2009
 "25 soldiers in Revolutionary War-era cemetery in Fishkill identified", Daily Freeman, December 16, 2012
 To Preserve Or Pave Over History, by Peter Applebome, New York Times, April 18, 2009
 NY Growth Besieges Revolutionary Patriots' Graves, by Chris Carola, Associated Press, July 3, 2009

External links

Friends of the Fishkill Supply Depot
"vest pocket tour" of Van Wyck Homestead Museum Grounds
"Defending What's Left of a Revolutionary Site" by Fernanda Santos, New York Times (Late Edition - East Coast), New York, N.Y., June 18, 2006, page 14NJ.6
Peter Applebome, "To Preserve or to Pave Over History", New York Times, April 18, 2009

American Revolutionary War sites
Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)
Historic house museums in New York (state)
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)
Fishkill, New York
U.S. Route 9
National Register of Historic Places in Dutchess County, New York
Museums in Dutchess County, New York
American Revolutionary War museums in New York (state)
Houses completed in 1777
Houses in Dutchess County, New York
American Revolution on the National Register of Historic Places
Van Wyck family

Van Wyck Homestead Museum


Mohamed Nazzal al-Armouti (16 July 1924 – 19 August 2015) was a Jordanian civil servant, diplomat and politician. He was governor of several of the Governorates of Jordan between 1955 and 1961. He later served as Interior Minister between 1964 and 1965. Subsequently, he was the Jordanian ambassador to Algeria, Kuwait, Libya and Tunisia.

Career
Al-Armouti was born on 16 July 1924 in Amman. He went to school in Amman and Al-Salt, and he later studied at Damascus University in Syria and the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, obtaining a bachelor of law in 1946. In 1948 al-Armouti became secretary general of the Interior Ministry of Jordan. He held several other functions in the bureaucracy before starting a string of governorships between 1955 and 1961, including Hebron, Irbid, Karak, Ma'an, Nablus and Salt.

In 1961 he became under-secretary at the Interior Ministry. He was Interior Minister between 1964 and 1965. Immediately after his term as minister he became the Jordanian ambassador to the three North African countries Algeria, Libya and Tunisia, in which capacity he served in 1965. Between 1967 and 1971 he was Jordan's ambassador to Kuwait. After a stint as head of the political department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs he subsequently retired in 1971.

He was also Chairman of Jordan Gulf Bank.

Al-Armouti died on 19 August 2015.

References

1924 births
2015 deaths
Ambassadors of Jordan to Algeria
Ambassadors of Jordan to Kuwait
Ambassadors of Jordan to Libya
Ambassadors of Jordan to Tunisia
Jordanian civil servants
Interior ministers of Jordan
People from Amman

Nazzal al-Armouti


Euchrysops cnejus, the gram blue, is a small butterfly that belongs to the lycaenids or blues family. It is found from India to Australia. The species was first described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1798.

Description

Male upperside: pale purplish suffused with a bluish shade, apparent only in certain lights. Forewing: a slender black anteciliary line edged on the inner side narrowly with fuscous dark brown, broader at apex than at the tornal angle. Hindwing: a subterminal black spot in interspace 1 and another similar spot in interspace 2, the two spots subequal in size, edged on the outer side by a white thread and on the inner side with ochraceous, more prominent in the spot in interspace 2; a slender anteciliary black line with an inner narrow margin of diffuse fuscous brown. Cilia of both forewings and hindwings pale; tail at apex of vein 2 of the hindwing black tipped with white.

Underside: silver grey, in some with a pale yellowish, in others with a faint brown tint. Forewings and hindwings: each with the following brown spots edged slenderly on either side with white: a transverse elongate spot on the discocellulars; a transverse discal series of spots straight on the fore, bisinuate on the hindwing, on the latter wing capped near the costa by a prominent while-encircled round black spot; an inner and an outer subterminal transverse series of spots, of which the inner subterminal series on the hindwing is lunular, the outer rounded, the white edging to both series being also lunular; both wings have very slender anteciliary black lines, and the hindwing in addition a transverse curved subbasal series of generally three often four white-encircled spots of which the spot nearest the costa is prominent and block, the others brown. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen dark brown, paler on the last, the shafts of the antennae speckled with white, the thorax with a little purplish pubescence; beneath: the palpi, thorax and abdomen white.

Female upperside: dark brown. Forewing: a posteromedial somewhat triangular area from the base outwards for about two-thirds the length of the wing blue and a slender jet-black anteciliary line. Hindwing: posteriorly from about the level of the middle of the cell slightly suffused with blue from base outwards for about two-thirds the length of the wing; a transverse, postdiscal, incomplete series of sagittate (arrowhead-shaped) white spots pointing inwards, followed by a subterminal transverse series of round spots, the anterior three dark brown encircled with bluish white, the tornal two jet-black, subequal, larger than the others, edged inwardly with bright ochraceous, outwardly by very slender white lines; finally, a jet-black slender anteciliary line. Cilia of both forewings and hindwings conspicuously white. Underside: ground colour and markings as in the male, the tornal two black spots touched outwardly with metallic bluish-green scaling. Antenna, head, thorax and abdomen similar to those of the male, the shafts of the antennae conspicuously ringed with white.

Distribution
The species is spread throughout India except at very high elevations and is widely distributed in the Malayan subregion; extending to Australia and the South Sea Islands.

Larva

"Of the usual Lycaenid shape .... the head small, black, shining, retractile. Colour of body pale green with darker green or reddish dorsal and subdorsal lines, the latter coalesced into a broad band between the eleventh and last segments. The entire surface of the body covered with minute white tubercles, there are also a few scattered white hairs. The segmental constrictions shallow. Spiracles black. Extensile organs on the twelfth segment small. The larva is broader than high in its higher part, increasing in width to fourth segment, from thence to the flattened anal segment of about uniform width. Bred by me in Calcutta on Phaseolus trilobus. Mr. W. O. Taylor reports that the larva feeds in Orissa on Dolichos catjang, Roxb. Dr. A. Forel identifies the ant in Calcutta as Camponotus rubripes subspecies compressus" (de Niceville.)

Pupa
"Very pale green, the abdominal segments somewhat opaque; of the usual Lycaenid shape, no distinctive structure or markings. Head-case square, thorax slightly humped, slightly constricted before the first abdominal segment, a dark dorsal line extending the whole length; spiracles black; entire surface smooth not hairy." (de Niceville.)

Subspecies
Euchrysops cnejus cnejus
Euchrysops cnejus cnidus Waterhouse & Lyell, 1914 (Torres Strait Islands, northern Australia to Southport, New Guinea, Papua New Guinea, Bismarck Archipelago, Solomons)
Euchrysops cnejus vitiensis (Butler, 1883) (Fiji)
Euchrysops cnejus luzonicus (Röber, 1886) (Sangihe, Talaud, Philippines: Palawan, Cebu, Leyte, Luzon, Tawitawi)

See also
List of butterflies of India
List of butterflies of India (Lycaenidae)

References

External links

 Images.

Euchrysops
Butterflies of Asia
Butterflies of Oceania
Butterflies of Indochina
Butterflies of Indonesia
Butterflies of Malaysia
Butterflies of Singapore
Insects of Hawaii
Butterflies described in 1798

Euchrysops cnejus


Émile Zuccarelli (; born 4 August 1940 in Bastia, Upper Corsica) is a French politician from Corsica. He serves as honorary President of the Radical Party of the Left and is a former mayor of Bastia. Before his defeat in the 2007 French legislative election, he was deputy for Upper Corsica.

In the 2004 French regional elections, Zuccarelli led a PRG list in Corsica and came out on top of all of the left-wing's lists. But the lack of dialog between him and another PRG list, led by his rival Paul Giacobbi, prevented him from winning.

Unlike his own political party, Zuccarelli called for a "NO" vote in the 2005 referendum on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.

Political career

Governmental functions

Minister of Public Service, State Reform and Decentralization : 1997–2000.
Minister of Posts and Telecommunications : 1992–1993.

Electoral mandates

National Assembly

Member of the National Assembly of France for Upper Corsica: 1986–1992 (Became minister in 1992) / 1993–1997 (Became minister in 1997) / 2000–2007. Elected in 1986, reelected in 1988, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2002.

Corsican Territorial Collectivity

Member of the Corsican Assembly : 1998–2002 (Resignation) / March–December 2004 (Resignation). Reelected in 2004.

Municipal Council

Mayor of Bastia : 1989–1997 (Resignation) / Since 2000.
Deputy-mayor of Bastia : 1997–2000.
Municipal councillor of Bastia : Since 1989.

Agglomeration community Council

President of the Agglomeration community of Bastia : Since 2002.
Member of the Agglomeration community of Bastia : Since 2002.

Political function

President of the Radical Party of the Left: 1989–1992.

References

1940 births
Living people
People from Bastia
Corsican politicians
Radical Party of the Left politicians
Politicians of the French Fifth Republic
French Ministers of Civil Service
French Ministers of Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones
Mayors of Bastia
Deputies of the 12th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic

Émile Zuccarelli


Arthur Rubinstein (January 28, 1887 – December 20, 1982) was a Polish-American pianist. He received praise from around the world for his playing of the music of a selection of composers (many call him the greatest Chopin player of the century).

Rubinstein was born in Łódź, Poland to a family of Jews. He was the youngest child of the family. His father was a rich owner of a factory.

Although his given name is Artur Rubinstein, in English-speaking countries he wanted to be known as Arthur Rubinstein. However, his United States impresario Sol Hurok wanted him to still be billed as Artur, and his recordings were released in the West under both names.

Rubinstein learned the piano at the age of two in Warsaw, before beginning study in Berlin at the age of eight. His debut in Berlin was made in 1898 followed by a debut at Carnegie Hall in the United States in 1906.

Throughout his life, Rubinstein was famous as a solo pianist, a soloist in piano concertos, and even as a chamber musician. He retired from the stage at age eighty-nine, and died in Geneva, Switzerland, on 20 December 1982, at the age of ninety-five, and his body was cremated. On the first anniversary of his death, his ashes were buried in Jerusalem – as specified in his will – in a plot now nicknamed the "Rubinstein Forest" overlooking the Jerusalem Forest.

References

Other websites

1887 births
1982 deaths
American pianists
Jewish American musicians
Polish pianists
People from Łódź

Arthur Rubinstein


Iff card is a contactless smart card introduced in Cardiff in 2010. It allows customers to travel on Cardiff Bus services after having pre-paid.

The name "Iff card" is a play on the word "Cardiff".

Launch
Having been an aspiration of Cardiff Bus for many years beforehand, the card was launched in October 2010 during a publicity event outside Cardiff Central Library. The first 30,000 cards were issued free of charge and pre-loaded with £3 of credit, after which the cards were charged at £5. The cards are now issued free.

The company spent £300,000 on developing the card whose ITSO technology can be shared with other transport providers and public bodies in the future.

More than 25,000 applications for the card were received within the first few weeks of its launch.

Use
An amount of money is electronically loaded onto the card, either upon boarding a bus or at the Cardiff Bus customer service centre. A passenger then chooses a ticket type. The card can also be used as a season ticket. The card should be topped up when the balance is low, but the card allows the customer to acquire a negative balance up to £3, the first operator in the UK to do so.

Those who have registered for an Iff card will be able to be sent service updates via text or e-mail during spells of bad weather.

Restrictions
The card can be topped-up in units of £5, £10 and £20 up to maximum amount of £50. The card may be used by persons aged between 6 and 60. The Iff card cannot be used to pay a partial amount. The card would be cancelled if not used for a continuous period of one year

Future
The Managing Director of Cardiff Bus hopes the online topping up service would be available by 2011. Executive Member for Cardiff Council hopes the card would become integrated with rail companies so it could be used across all transport systems. Deputy First Minister for Wales, Ieuan Wyn Jones hopes to see the smartcard technology rolled out throughout Wales by 2014.

References

External links
Cardiff Bus site – how to use the Iff card (Archive copy)
BBC News: Cardiff Bus smartcards are unveiled

Contactless smart cards
Bus transport in Cardiff
Bus transport in Wales
Transport in Cardiff

Iff card


Ramp could mean:
 Inclined plane, a physical structure that is a simple machine
 Vert ramp, a half-pipe structure used in gravity extreme sports
 Mini ramp, a half-pipe structure used in gravity extreme sports
 Airport ramp, the area around an airport terminal where aircraft are loaded and unloaded
 Slip road, a connector between grade-separated roads in a traffic interchange
 Ramp, a Trash Metal band from Portugal
 Entrance ramp, or "on ramp", on a freeway
 Exit ramp, or "off ramp", on a freeway
 Wild leeks, also called "ramps"
 ramp function, the integral of the unit step function in mathematics
 Mark Ramprakash, an English cricketer nicknamed Ramps
 Ramp strike, an accident involving an airplane and an aircraft carrier
 Electro-Kinetic Road Ramp, a road ramp that generates free electrical energy when traffic passes over it
Ramp, a 1991 album by Giant Sand

Ramp


Warrant Officer Patrick Tower, SMV, CD is a Canadian soldier who was the first recipient of the Star of Military Valour, a Canadian military decoration, in recognition of actions under enemy fire taken in the Pashmul region of Afghanistan. He had prior military service including the Battle of Medak Pocket and three tours in the former Yugoslavia with Canadian peacekeeping forces.

During the Panjwayi fighting in the summer of 2006, Tower was a section commander in 9 Platoon of the 1st Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry but by 3 August 2006, "(c)asualties had elevated (Tower) to second-in-command of the platoon of about thirty soldiers of Charlie Company who had been fighting that day."

The citation for his Star of Military Valour reads:
Sergeant Patrick Tower, S.M.V., C.D.
Edmonton, Alberta, and Victoria, British Columbia
Star of Military Valour

Sergeant Tower is recognized for valiant actions taken on August 3, 2006, in the Pashmul region of Afghanistan. Following an enemy strike against an outlying friendly position that resulted in numerous casualties, Sergeant Tower assembled the platoon medic and a third soldier and led them across 150 metres of open terrain, under heavy enemy fire, to render assistance. On learning that the acting platoon commander had perished, Sergeant Tower assumed command and led the successful extraction of the force under continuous small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire. Sergeant Tower's courage and selfless devotion to duty contributed directly to the survival of the remaining platoon members.

References
 Governor General announces the first-ever awarding of Military Valour Decorations, October 27, 2006
 Star of Military Valour (S.M.V.)
 Canadian Forces Honours and Awards Chart
 Wattie, Chris Contact Charlie: The Canadian Army, The Taliban and the Battle that Saved Afghanistan (Key Porter Books Ltd., Toronto, ON, 2008)

Notes

Towers, Patrick
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Recipients of the Star of Military Valour
Canadian military personnel of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)

Patrick Tower


The Canterbury Tales is a book of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer. It was written in the 14th century. It was one of the first books to be written in Middle English. The book is about a group of pilgrims travelling from London to Canterbury. As they travel along, each person tells a story to pass the time. Chaucer planned to write 120 stories, with each person telling two stories on the way there and two on the way back. However, only 23 were completed, and one was partially finished. Two of the stories are written in prose. The others are written in verse. They were so popular that he was invited to read his stories to the king and royal court.

Background

Canterbury Cathedral

The Canterbury Tales is about a group of people who are pilgrims. They are travelling to an important sacred site. In the Middle Ages, many Christian people went on pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Rome, Santiago de Compostela and Canterbury. Canterbury Cathedral was a famous pilgrimage site because it contained the shrine (a place for remembering) of Saint Thomas Becket.

Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket had been the Archbishop of Canterbury in the 1100s. He had an argument with his old friend, King Henry II, and in 1170 he was murdered by some of the King's knights on order from the King. The King felt very sad and guilty. He had a magnificent tomb built for his old friend.

People began to visit the tomb. Soon, some people said that Thomas Becket was a saint, and that his bones could work miracles. He is regarded as a martyr for the Christian faith and as a saint by both the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. In the late Middle Ages his shrine made Canterbury one of the four most important pilgrimage places in Europe.

Pilgrims
Many pilgrims used to meet together in London. The Canterbury Tales tells of the meeting of a group at an inn in Southwark, which was a village south of the Thames River and now making up part of London. This was a good place to meet because people from the north could cross the Thames River by London Bridge.

Canterbury is in the south-east of England. Pilgrims used to gather in groups because it was dangerous to travel alone. In the days before modern banking, every traveller had to carry a lot of money to pay for food and accommodation (a place to sleep). Robbers often attacked people along the roads.

When pilgrims gathered in a group, the group could be made up of many different kinds of people, both rich and poor, noble and humble. The groups often contained a number of religious people such as priests, monks and nuns. In Chaucer's story, the most noble person is a knight.

The tales
The Canterbury Tales begins with a Prologue (which means "a few words to begin"). In the prologue Chaucer describes the time of year, which is April, when the weather begins to get warmer after winter. He says that it is at this time that people begin to go on pilgrimage. Chaucer tells the reader about the people who are gathered at the inn. He describes the people so clearly that many of them have become famous characters in English Literature, and have often been shown in paintings. Chaucer describes how each person tells a story to entertain the other as they travel along.

The Tales are:
 The General Prologue it introduces each of the Pilgrims
 The Knight's Tale the Knight tells of two friends duel with one another over the love of a woman
 The Miller's Prologue and Tale the drunken Miller tells a vulgar tale of how a foolish Reeve was made a Cuckold by his unfaithful wife and a lodging scholar
 The Reeve's Prologue and Tale the Reeve tells a nasty tale of how a cheating miller was beaten and his arrogant wife humiliated and his daughter seduced by a pair of students he had tried to steal and cheat from
 The Cook's Prologue and Tale the drunken cook tells a vulgar tale of how a lazy apprentice is let go by his master to dance and revel
 The Man of Law's Prologue and Tale the Man of law tells how a virtuous princess goes through many trials
 The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale the Wife of Bath tells of how a Knight must find out what women most desire-or be executed
 The Friar's Prologue and Tale the friar tells a morality tale of how a theving summoner tries to cheat a widow and ends up in Hell
 The Summoner's Prologue and Tale the Summoner tells a vulgar tale of how a greedy friar gets his compupence
 The Clerk's Prologue and Tale the clerk tells how a loving and patient wife endures a series of tests by her suspicious husband
 The Merchant's Prologue and Talethe Merchant tells a vulgar tale of how a foolish merchant was made a Cuckold by his unfaithful wife
 The Squire's Prologue and Tale the Squire tells a tale of romance [unfinished]
 The Franklin's Prologue and Talethe Franklin tells a tale of a wife making a rash promise and the consequences
 The Physician's Tale the physican tells a moral tale of a virtuous daughter
 The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale the greedy and hypocritical Pardoner tells an ironic tale of how three drunken fools try to "kill" death-but end up killing one another
 The Shipman's Tale the Shipman tells a comic tale of a miserly merchant was made a Cuckold by his greed wife
 The Prioress' Prologue and Tale the prioress tells a conventional [although false] tale of a martyr
 Chaucer's Tale of Sir Topas- Chaucer tells a parody of a heroic Knightly Tale it is never finished at the request of the other Pilgrims!
 Chaucer's The Tale of Melibee-Chaucer tells of a man and his wife arguing how best to avenge himself on his enemies
 The Monk's Prologue and Tale-the Monk tells of tragedy-giving 17 examples out of 100!
 The Nun's Priest's Prologue and Tale-the Nun priests tale is a retelling of Chanticleer and the Fox
 The Second Nun's Prologue and Tale-the second Nuns tells a conventional story of Saint Cecilia
 The Canon's Yeoman's Prologue and Tale-the Canon Yeoman [a newcomer to the Pilgrims] warns about how the search for the Philosopher's stone leads to ruin and then tells how a Canon tricks a gullible priest out of his money
 The Manciple's Prologue and Tale the Manciple tells a morality tale against gossip
 The Parson's Prologue and Tale the Parson delivers a prose treatise on penance
 Chaucer's Retraction-Chaucer asks for forgiveness for the vulgar and unworthy parts of this and other past works, and seeks absolution for his sins. Some versions of the tales include:
 The Plowman's Tale an anti-lollard tract added to the tales
 The Tale of Gamelyn a tale Chaucer may have wanted to adapt to the Tales
 Prologue and Tale of Beryn a spurious 15th century additions to Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales-the Pilgrims arrive at Canterbury

Some of the tales (stories) are serious and others are funny. Some of the funny stories are vulgar (sexually rude). A lot of the tales talk about the Christian faith. Sometimes the theme (main idea) of one story is followed into the next story, as a new story-teller responds (or answers) to a story they have just heard. All of the tales are about the way that people think and behave towards each other.

About The Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales is written in the type of English that most ordinary people used in Chaucer's day. Chaucer was one of the first authors (writers) who wrote stories in English. Before, stories were written in Latin or French. Some other writers of Chaucer's time also wrote in English. Some of these writers were John Gower, William Langland, and the Pearl Poet.

Chaucer planned the stories before he wrote them but he did not finish his plan. He planned that each character would tell four stories: two while going to Canterbury and two while returning to London. If Chaucer had finished, he would have written 120 stories. He only actually wrote 24. Chaucer began to write the stories in the 1380s. He stopped writing them in the 1390s. Some think that he deliberately did not write the total 120 stories.

Chaucer was an important person in the royal court. Some people think that, in the stories, Chaucer was saying things about court politics. Some people think that Chaucer based his characters on people that he really knew and who were at the royal court.

Some people think that Chaucer copied ideas from others peoples' writings because some of the stories in The Canterbury Tales are very similar to them. The characters, however, are very different. The characters have different occupations and personalities. They all tell different types of stories and they tell them in different ways.The big story is about many pilgrims traveling to Canterbury. They are riding horses and the trip takes several days. Chaucer does not say much about the big story and most of the writing is about the stories told by the pilgrims.

The two earliest manuscripts (hand-written copies) of The Canterbury Tales are the Hengwrt manuscript and the Ellesmere manuscript. There are also 84 manuscript and four printed copies of The Canterbury Tales that were made before 1500. There are quite a lot of differences in the different copies. Some experts on Chaucer have started The Canterbury Tales Project. The project is to read all these copies of The Canterbury Tales, find out the differences and write the most accurate copy.

Gallery of the Pilgrims
With the exception of the Innkeeper/host Harry Bailey, the various manuscripts of The Canterbury Tales had various drawings of each of the Pilgrims who told a tale; other Pilgrims mentioned who did not tell a tale or who were illustrated were the knight's yeoman, a haberdasher, a carpenter, a weaver, a dyer, a tapestry weaver; a plowman. The original intenent was that each pilgrim was to tell two tales to Canterbury and two on the way back for a free meal; that would have been an estimated 120 tales-instead of the 23 in the book. Indeed, the only Pilgrim who tells two tales is Chaucer himself: Sir Thopas [unfinished] and Tale of Melibee.

North Reading Room, west wall. Detail of mural by Ezra Winter illustrating the characters in the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. Library of Congress John Adams Building, Washington, D.C

Related pages
 English literature
 William Shakespeare
 Pilgrimage

The Canterbury Tales


Lachesis, also known as the "bushmasters", is a genus of venomous Pit vipers found in forests of Central and South America. The name "Lachesis" is also the name of one of the Three Fates in Greek mythology. There are currently three species found.

Description
Adult bushmasters can grow up to the length of 2 meters (6.5 ft) to 2.5 meters (8.25 ft), but there have been some which have grown up to the length of 3 meters (10 ft). The largest one ever found was 3.65 meters (12 ft) long, making the bushmasters the longest venomous snakes in the Western Hemisphere and the longest vipers in the world. They are not the heaviest vipers in the world, but adults usually weigh up to 3 to 5 kg (6.6 to 11 Ib).

Where they live
Bushmasters are found in forest areas of Central and South America. They are also found on the island Trinidad

Reproduction
Bushmasters are oviparous: they lay eggs. This makes bushmasters different to other pit vipers found in the New World, because other pit vipers are viviparous,  they give live birth instead of laying eggs. A female can lay around a dozen eggs at a time. The female stays with her eggs until they have hatched and may attack any predator that comes near the nest.

Venom
The bushmasters are one of the largest and dangerous snakes in South America, and can inject a large amount of venom into their enemies. Even young bushmaster's bites are harmful, but bushmasters are nocturnal (they are active at night), so not a lot of people have been bitten by them.

Species
 Black-headed bushmaster, L. melanocephala
 South American bushmaster, L. muta
 Central American bushmaster, L. stenophrys

References

Vipers
Snakes of North America
Reptiles of South America

Lachesis (genus)


Augustenborg Municipality - Until 1 January 2007 Augustenborg was a municipality (Danish, kommune) in South Jutland County on the island of Als off the east coast of the Jutland Peninsula in south Denmark. The municipality covered an area of 53 km2, and had a total population of 6,577 (2005). Its latest mayor was Åse Nygaard. The site of its municipal council was the town of Augustenborg.

Augustenborg Municipality ceased to exist due to Kommunalreformen ("The Municipality Reform" of 2007). It was combined with former Broager Municipality, Gråsten Municipality, Nordborg Municipality, Sundeved Municipality, Sydals Municipality, and Sønderborg Municipality to form the new Sønderborg Municipality.  This created a municipality with an area of 499 km2 and a total population of 49,886 (2005).

References
 Municipal statistics: NetBorger Kommunefakta, delivered from KMD aka Kommunedata (Municipal Data)

Former municipalities of Denmark
Augustenborg, Denmark

Augustenborg Municipality


A catchword is a word placed at the foot of a handwritten or printed page that is meant to be bound along with other pages in a book. The word anticipates the first word of the following page. It was meant to help the bookbinder or printer make sure that the leaves were bound in the right order or that the pages were set up in the press in the right order. Catchwords appear in some medieval manuscripts, and appear again in printed books late in the fifteenth century. The practice became widespread in the mid sixteenth century, and prevailed until the arrival of industrial printing techniques late in the eighteenth century.

Theodore Low Devinne's 1901 guide on Correct Composition had this to say:

For more than three centuries printers of books appended at the foot of every page the first word or syllable of the next page. This catchword was supposed to be needed by the reader to make clear the connection between the two pages; but the catchword is now out of use, and it is not missed.

See also
 Reclamans
 Page numbering (A more modern system with a similar function)

Notes

References

 De Hamel, Christopher. Scribes and Illuminators. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992. 41.
 Gaskell, Philip. A New Introduction to Bibliography. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972. 52–53.
 McKerrow, Ronald B. An Introduction to Bibliography for Literary Students. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964. 82.
 Roberts, Matt T., and Don Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of books: A Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology

Printing terminology
Bookbinding
Book terminology

Catchword


The Vulcan Motor and Engineering Company Limited, of Southport, England, made cars from 1902 until 1928 and commercial vehicles from 1914 until 1953.

History

1902-1918
Brothers Thomas and Joseph Hampson had built an experimental car in Bolton in 1899. In 1902 they moved to Southport trading as Vulcan Motor Manufacturing and Trading and built the first Vulcan car which was a 4hp single-cylinder belt-driven type driving the rear wheels through a two speed gearbox and a belt to the back axle. In 1903, this grew to 6.5hp with shaft drive and the chassis was now "armoured ash". Twin-cylinder 1.5 L models followed in 1904 now with steel chassis and in 1905, 2 and then 3 L four-cylinder types appeared and the company moved from Yellow House Lane to Hawesside Street, both in Southport. Things kept growing and a van version of the twin came in 1906 along with large 4.8 L six-cylinder models and a move to even larger premises at Crossens, Southport with a change of company name to Vulcan Motor and Engineering. The six-cylinder model grew to 6 L in 1908. In 1912, a new small car — the 10/12 of 1.8 L with two-cylinder Aster engine — was added, the first use of a bought in engine.

At the outbreak of World War I, the range consisted of the 2.4 L four-cylinder 10/15, the 2.6 L 15.9, the 3 L 15/20 and the last of the old sixes, the 25/30. As a sign of things to come, a  truck was also offered. This model saw use as an ambulance in Britain, India, Belgium, Russia, and Portugal. During the war, the factory concentrated on munitions. In 1916, the Hampson brothers left the company and it was reformed as Vulcan Motor Engineering (1916) under the control of C.B. Wardman. In 1918, the company bought Southport F.C. which was renamed Southport Vulcan — thus becoming the first football club to take a sponsor's name.

1919-1930
In 1919, Harper Bean acquired 75% of the company under a complex cash and shares deal and went into the British Motor Trading Corporation with the intention Vulcan be responsible for commercial vehicles; nevertheless, car production continued. The group also included Swift Motor Company and a number of components manufacturers.

With peace the first new launch was the 16 with 2.6 L Dorman engine. The cars now had a flat radiator replacing the pre-war "bullnose" type. There was also a nominal 12 model which became the main product from 1920 to 1927, which was available with a range of engines from Dorman (1.8 L), Meadows (1.5 L), and British Anzani (1.5 L). The model was also sold as the Lea-Francis Kirkstone as from 1922 the companies shared some manufacturing and a dealer network. The 20 available from 1920 to 1922 with 3.3 L Vulcan engine and from 1923 to 1925 with 3.7 L shared mechanical components with the 1½ and 2 ton trucks. The final car was the 14/40 (1927–28) and 16/60 (1928–29) with their own design twin camshaft six of 1.7 and 2 L. Production capacity was nearly 5000 per annum, a potential never reached as the orders did not materialize. Nonetheless, over 6000 Vulcans of all kinds were sold from the armistice until 1923, which proved to be a high watermark for the company. The 1½ and 2 ton models were the mainstay of truck production until the 1926 introduction of heavier four ton units, with four-cylinder engines and also a six-cylinder Dorman bus chassis. Commercial vehicles began to supplant automobiles as Vulcan's main product around this time, with buses and light (¾ ton) military vehicles alongside the trucks.

Financial problems came in 1928 and C. B. Wardman resigned and officially no more Vulcan cars came from Southport but some badged as Lea-Francis were made up to 1930.

1930-1953

From 1930, production was solely of trucks and buses which had been made seriously since 1922. Many of the trucks were aimed at the municipal market and road sweepers and dustbin lorries sold well. New lighter commercials of American inspired designs depredated Vulcan's sales, however, and the Great Depression made things more dire yet. By 1931 the company was in compulsory liquidation, although they continued trading in their more profitable fields for several years, building small volumes.

Amongst the buses, twenty-seater buses were sold from 1922 on the two-ton chassis. A 6.6 L Vulcan-engined 32-seat Brisbane came in 1928 and the Emperor double decker in 1930.

Brockhouse Engineering took over Vulcan in the mid-thirties and managed to keep production going until 1938, when the remains of the company was sold to Tilling-Stevens, a bus manufacturer of Maidstone, Kent. Vulcan (petrol) or Gardner (diesel) engined trucks re-entered production, alongside a new five ton, Perkins-engined lorry. Six ton Vulcans were produced in large numbers during World War II, also with electric power. After the war, six tonners and heavier articulated trucks were built in large numbers, around 1000 per year, and a new seven tonner appeared at that 1950's Commercial Motor Show in London. A few buses & coaches were built on Vulcan chassis  one CCF777 a 6PF chassis was built with a Dutfield C29F body for Goldsmith Coaches of Sicklesmere in 1950. The range was successful enough that Tilling-Stevens ended up being taken over by the Rootes Group in 1951. Rootes, however, had their own established commercial makers in Commer and Karrier and as those brands introduced their own heavier trucks both Vulcan and Tilling-Stevens were squeezed out. The two brands vanished finally in 1953.

Factory buildings
The original factory premises at 13 Yellowhouse Lane were finally demolished on 25 March 2010 as a result of the British government policy to levy business taxes on the owners of empty buildings.

The second factory which was built in 1907 in Rufford Road, Crossens, Southport has also been demolished in early 2020 to make way for housing.

See also
 Hick, Hargreaves & Co
 List of car manufacturers of the United Kingdom

References

External links

Defunct bus manufacturers of the United Kingdom
Defunct truck manufacturers of the United Kingdom
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of England
Southport
Companies based in Sefton
1902 establishments in England

Vulcan (motor vehicles)


The city of Moscow, Russia hosts a large population of free-ranging dogs. Many operate in packs and have become accustomed to seeking food from passersby. Some of them who frequent or inhabit the subway have attracted international attention for learning how to use the trains to commute between various locations. The most famous Muscovite street dog is Laika (Russian: Лайка) who ended up being the first one of the first animals in space and the first to orbit the Earth.

Background
The issue of Moscow's stray dogs was first mentioned by Russian writers such as journalist Vladimir Gilyarovsky in the late 19th century. Their sad lot was dramatised by Anton Chekhov in the famous short story Kashtanka, by Mikhail Bulgakov in the novella Heart of a Dog, and by Gavriil Troyepolsky in the novel White Bim Black Ear. As of March 2010, there were an estimated 35,000 free-ranging dogs living within Moscow's city limits, or approximately one dog for every 300 people, and about 32 per square km (84 per square mile).

According to Andrei Poyarkov of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, a biologist and wolf expert who has studied Moscow's dogs for over 30 years, the quantity of food available to them keeps the total population of homeless dogs steady at between 35,000 and 50,000. Most pups don't reach adulthood, and those that do essentially replace adults who have died. A life of more than 10 years is considered rare. Many, if not most, street dogs share certain physical similarities: medium-sized with thick fur, wedge-shaped heads and almond eyes, with long tails and erect ears.

Most dogs are born homeless; others arrive on the streets as rejected or abandoned house pets. Poyarkov estimates that fewer than 3 percent of abandoned pet dogs live long enough to breed.

Over the years that Poyarkov observed the dogs, he noticed that the population has lost such features as spotted coats, wagging tails, and friendliness, characteristics known to distinguish dogs from wolves.

When the number of street dogs massively increased in the nineties and they began to bite humans, the dogs were hunted and killed. In recent years the attitude and strategy towards street dogs has changed. The dogs are caught and neutered, and are given enough to eat. The dogs keep the city free of food leftovers and rats. Stray dogs in Moscow have adapted their behavior to the traffic and life of Moscow. The dogs ride the Metro and understand the rules of traffic lights. The stray dogs of Moscow are often called Moscow's Metro dogs.

Types of street dogs
Poyarkov classified their evolving social structures into four groups:
 Wild dogs (feral and nocturnal, avoiding humans and viewing them as a threat)
 Foragers (semi-feral)
 Beggars (the most socialized to people, but not affectionate or personally attached)
 Guard dogs (who view certain humans as their leaders. Commonly met at mills or construction yards, may be fed on regular basis yet have no official owner).

Beggars' techniques
The urbanized beggars in particular are unfazed by high levels of activity going on around them, even managing to sleep in the midst of busy areas. They also have the most specialized behaviors, which differentiate them from both domesticated dogs and wolves. Beggars may live in packs, but a pack's leader will interact with other packs. The leaders are not necessarily the strongest or most dominant dog, but rather the most intelligent, and are acknowledged as such by the other dogs in the pack who depend on them for survival.

One technique some dogs have for getting food is to sneak up behind a person who is holding some. The dog will then bark, which sometimes startles the human enough to drop the food.

The dogs have learned to cross the street with pedestrians and have been observed obeying traffic lights. Since dogs have dichromatic vision, researchers theorize that the dogs recognize other cues, such as the shapes or positions of the changing signals.

The dogs have become adept at intuiting the psychology of individual humans in order to determine which techniques will work best on whom.
Dogs who locate themselves in high traffic areas realize that, in such places, they often won't need to make any effort to procure food, as pedestrians will simply toss it as they pass by. Malnourished-looking dogs are uncommon. Food is often easy to come by, allowing dogs the luxury of being selective.

The reduced need to compete for food has contributed to stable social behavior, although incidents in which humans were harmed by packs of dogs have been known to occur, particularly in less urban areas.

According to Alexei Vereshchagin, a graduate student of Poyarkov's who has studied them, the dogs generally go out of their way to avoid conflict with humans, and rarely defecate in busy areas or onto pavements.
Among the general human population, the dogs are simultaneously viewed affectionately and as a problem, but moreover they are generally tolerated. Many people choose to feed them and some people will even build basic shelters for them in the winter. They have come to be considered by many a component of the city's character.
Sterilization efforts have had little effect on curtailing the population.

Subway-dwelling dogs
The Moscow Metro is the second most heavily used in the world by daily ridership, behind the Beijing Subway. On average, about 500 dogs live in its stations, especially during colder months. Of these dogs, about 20 are believed to have learned how to use the system as a means of commuting. Theories to explain how they are able to correctly determine their routes include a combination of:
 an ability to judge the length of time spent on the train in between stations (time intervals)
 recognition of the place names announced over their train's loudspeaker
 the scents of particular stations.

Author Eugene Linden, a specialist in the subject of animal intelligence, believes the dogs' behavior exhibits "flexible open-ended reasoning and conscious thought". There are also instances when these metro dogs gave birth to pups during their commuting time.

Malchik

In 2001, a woman mortally stabbed a dog named Malchik, a black feral dog who had made Mendeleyevskaya station his home, guarding it against other dogs and drunks, because he had barked at her dog. The incident, which occurred in front of rush-hour commuters, provoked outrage among celebrities and the general public. The woman was arrested, tried and underwent a year of psychiatric treatment. Funds were raised to erect a bronze statue of Malchik in memoriam, which now sits at the station's entrance.

Dog attack rates
One effect of the large feral population is a high and rising level of dog attacks on humans. In 2007 official statistics suggest that 20,000 attacks took place, of which 8,000 were sufficiently serious to require police or medical intervention and at least one being fatal. In part, the problem is traced to status dogs that are abandoned when they become troublesome, and in part due to those dogs living in forested areas that are poorly socialized and more prone to aggressive territorialism.

See also
 Animals taking public transportation
 Bob the Railway Dog, a train riding dog in Australia
 Ivan Mishukov, notable for being a feral child who lived with dogs for about two years
 Soviet space dogs

References

External links
 Alexander Bratersky On the Trail of City Funds Spent on Strays The Moscow Times, 30 July 2010
Interactive website dedicated to the Moscow Metro's canine commuters and inhabitants (in Russian)

Moscow
Culture in Moscow
Moscow Metro

Street dogs in Moscow


Sadabahar is a small plant with dark green oval leaves and flat petalled pink flowers. It is the source of vinca alkaloids, used in chemotherapy (as vinblastine, vincristine, etc.) for leukaemia and other cancers. Has been used as a herbal remedy for diabetes. Its investigation as a treatment for arthritis led to the discovery of its cytotoxic properties. It the Provincial flower of the Punjab in Pakistan.

Plants of Pakistan
Apocynaceae

Catharanthus roseus


Come Fly Away is a 2010 compilation album by Frank Sinatra. These 16 songs have been chosen to be in the album that were taken from the Broadway musical Come Fly Away.

Track listing
"Moonlight Becomes You" (Johnny Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen)
"I've Got the World on a String" (Harold Arlen, Ted Koehler)
"Let's Fall in Love" (Arlen, Koehler)
"Yes Sir, That's My Baby" (Walter Donaldson, Gus Kahn)
"Witchcraft" (Cy Coleman, Carolyn Leigh)
"Lean Baby" (Roy Alfred, Billy May)
"Nice 'n' Easy" (Lew Spence, Alan and Marilyn Bergman)
"Just Friends" (John Klenner, Sam M. Lewis)
"Pick Yourself Up" (Jerome Kern, Dorothy Fields)
"Wave" (Antônio Carlos Jobim)
"Let's Face the Music and Dance" (Irving Berlin)
"Summer Wind" (Heinz Meier, Hans Bradtke, Johnny Mercer)
"Body and Soul" (Frank Eyton, Johnny Green, Edward Heyman, Robert Sour)
"The September of My Years" (Sammy Cahn, Van Heusen)
"My Way" (Paul Anka, Claude François, Jacques Revaux, Gilles Thibaut)
"Theme from New York, New York" (Fred Ebb, John Kander)

2010 compilation albums
Frank Sinatra compilation albums

Come Fly Away (album)


The Maya death gods (also Ah Puch, Ah Cimih, Ah Cizin, Hun Ahau, Kimi, or Yum Kimil) known by a variety of names, are two basic types of death gods who are respectively represented by the 16th-century Yucatec deities Hunhau and Uacmitun Ahau mentioned by Spanish Bishop Landa. Hunhau is the lord of the Underworld. Iconographically, Hunhau and Uacmitun Ahau correspond to the Gods A and A' ("A prime").
In recent narratives, particularly in the oral tradition of the Lacandon people, there is only one death god (called "Kisin" in Lacandon), who acts as the antipode of the Upper God in the creation of the world and of the human body and soul. This death god inhabits an Underworld that is also the world of the dead. As a ruler over the world of the dead (Metnal or Xibalba), the principal death god corresponds to the Aztec deity Mictlāntēcutli. The Popol Vuh has two leading death gods, but these two are really one: Both are called "Death," but while one is known as "One Death," the other is called "Seven Death." They were vanquished by the Hero Twins.

The two principal death gods count among the many were-animals and spooks (wayob) inhabiting the Underworld, with the God A way in particular manifesting himself as a head hunter and a deer hunter. Ah Puch was banished after he broke his promise with the Maya king and was sent to the storm that would bring him to earth forever.

Post-Classic names
Kisin is the name of the death god among the Lacandons as well as the early colonial Choles, kis being a root with meanings like "flatulence" and "stench." Landa uses another name and calls the lord of the Underworld and "prince of the devils" Hunhau, a name that, recurring in early Yucatec dictionaries as Humhau and Cumhau, is not to be confused with Hun-Ahau; hau, or haw, means 'to end' and 'to lay on its back (mouth up)'. Other names include Yum Kimil, "Lord of Death" in Yucatán and (Ah) Pukuh in Chiapas. The name Hun Ahau ("One Lord") appears frequently in the Ritual of the Bacabs, but is never specified as a death god.
Ah Puch, though often mentioned in books about the Mayas, does not appear to be an authentic Maya name for the death god. (An Ah Puch is mentioned in the opening of the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel in passing as a ruler of the North, and one of the Xibalba attendants in the Popol Vuh is called Ahal Puh.)

Mythology

K'iche'
In the Popol Vuh, the Hero Twins descend to the "Place of Fright" (Xibalba), where a pair of Death Gods, Hun-Came ("One-Death") and Vucub-Came ("Seven-Death"), rule over a series of disease-bringing deities. They defeat the Death Gods and put restrictions on their cult.

Yucatec
According to one of the earliest sources on Maya religion (Francisco Hernández 1545), Eopuco (i.e., Ah Pukuh) mistreated and killed the Bacab, who was resurrected three days later.

Lacandon
The skeletal death god Kisin plays a prominent role in Lacandon mythology, chiefly in the following tales:
(i) The creation of the underworld by the upper god, involving the upper god's death at the hands of Kisin, his resurrection, and Kisin's confinement to the underworld; in his anger, Kisin sometimes kicks the pillars of the earth, thus causing earthquakes;
(ii) A failed attempt at the creation of human beings in emulation of the upper god, leading to the creation of the "totemic" animals of certain kin groups (onen);
(iii) The descent of the ancestor Nuxi' into the underworld to woo Kisin's daughter;
(iv) The description of the destiny of the souls in the underworld, where Kisin (a) burns the souls of evildoers, (b) transforms the souls of certain evildoers into his "domestic animals," (c) hunts for the spider monkey doubles of men destined to die.

Classic Period: God A
During the Classic period, his abdomen is sometimes replaced with out-pouring swirls of blood or rotting matter. He is usually accompanied by spiders, centipedes, scorpions, a vulture, an owl, and a bat. He is pictured with jewelry usually on his wrists and ankles. On his lower extremity, he has around "molo" sign that putrid smells of death. Over his head is a floating object shaped like an "S" probably an insect carrying a torch. On his forehead like other deities of the underworld he wears an "aqabal" also known as an emblem of "darkness." His head in Mayan culture was used to represent the number 10, the lower jawbone meant the numeral ten that was inscribed within all other head variants of the numbers thirteen to nineteen. He was often pictured as dancing and holding a smoking cigarette. On his neck is a death collar which consists of embodied eyes hanging by their nerve cords. The black spots on his body represent the decay of the flesh. Since he is a rotting corpse in some images he is shown with a bloated stomach.

Ritual
Both God A and God A' figure prominently in the New Year rites depicted in the Dresden Codex. God A' probably corresponds to the death god Uacmitun Ahau in Landa's description of the New year rites. He presides over a year of great mortality. To ward off evil during this year, men would walk over a bed of glowing embers that possibly represented the fires of the Underworld. Temple priests would get in costumes of God A' and performed rites of bloodletting and human sacrifice. Those who impersonated this deity would dance out the steps of ritual sacrifice, putting terror in the soul of ritual participants and the spectators who witnessed these sacred events.

Man Hunt and Deer hunt
With varying hieroglyphic names and attributes, God A figures in processions and random arrays of were-animals and spooks (wayob). In connection with these apparitions, he tends to be depicted either as a headhunter or as deer hunter (see figure). On the grandiose Tonina stucco wall, the severed head is that of an enemy king. The death god's deer hunt has two sides. On the one hand, this deer hunt may metaphorically refer to a hunt for human victims. On the other hand, there also seems to be a connection with certain wayob shaped like deer but with the tail of a spider monkey. On the famous peccary skull from Copan, for example, such a deer way appears to be welcoming the death god returning from a hunt.

Jaguar baby transformation
Together with the Rain Deity Chaac, God A is present at the jaguar transformation of a man (possibly a hero) who is usually shown as a baby, and who seems to disappear into the underworld.--

Apart from these contexts, on a Copan bench, the earth-carrying Bacabs are paired off with death gods A. This may relate to the fact that in Yucatán, one of the four Bacabs was called "White Death" (Zaccimi).

Classic Period: God A'
The other codical death god is God A' ("A prime"), corresponding to Landa's Uac Mitun Ahau, and characterized by a black stripe over the eyes and a "darkness" infix in the forehead. Just like death god A, he figures among the Classic wayob. Instead of being a head hunter, however, God A' is a demonic apparition repeatedly shown in the illusionistic act of self-decapitation. He is presented with very pale flesh similar to a corpse. Over his eyes are black bands. Like all deities in the underworld, he wears the "aq'ab'al" which is the sign of underworld darkness and divination. The god is shown wearing a large headdress with a femur bone going through the center of it. In most images, he is shown holding either a stave, pipe, or orb. Like most deities in the Mayan religion, he wears jewelry around the neck, wrist, and ankles. He wears a gown or cloth that covers his pelvis area in the front and his backside. His iconography shows considerable overlap with that of an anthropomorphic way (labeled Mokochih) and of a demonic flying insect sometimes carrying a torch (possibly a blowfly, firefly, or wasp). In spite of the above, it has been suggested that the hieroglyphic name of God A' should be read as Akan, a name otherwise only known as that of a 16th-century deity of alcoholic beverages.

Calendrical and astrological functions
A text from the early colonial songbook of Dzitbalche states the Underworld (Miitnal) to be opened and Kisin (Cizin) to be liberated during the concluding twenty days of the year (Uayah-yaab). In the Classic period, the head of the skeletal God A serves as (i) the hieroglyph for the day Kimi, "Death," corresponding to Kame''' in Quiché, also the name of the paired rulers of Xibalba in the Popol Vuh; (ii) the hieroglyph for the number ten (lajun), perhaps because the verbal stem laj- means "to end;" (iii) a variable element in glyph C of the Lunar Series, registering one to six completed lunations, probably for the prediction of lunar eclipses. Apparently connected to this, God A can be depicted with the attribute of a crescent that seems to mark him as a lunar patron deity. A vignette of God A (or perhaps his female counterpart) illustrates the lunar eclipse tables of the Dresden Codex (see figure).

See also
Mictlantecuhtli

References

Bibliography
Alfredo Barrera Vázquez, El libro de los cantares de Dzitbalche. INAH, Mexico 1965.
Didier Boremanse, Contes et mythologie des Indiens Lacandons. L'Harmattan, Paris 1986. (Cuentos y mitología de los lacandones. Tradición oral maya. Editorial: Academia de Geografia e Historia de Guatemala.)
Michael D. Coe, 'Death and the Ancient Maya', in E.P. Benson ed., Death and the Afterlife in Pre-Columbian America. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington 1975.
Nikolai Grube and Werner Nahm, A Census of Xibalba. The Maya Vase Book Vol. 4, New York 1994: Justin Kerr.
Nikolai Grube, 'Akan – the God of Drinking, Disease, and Death', in Graña Behrens et al., Continuity and Change: Maya Religious Practices in Temporal Perspective (Acta Mesoamericana Vol. 14, 2004).
Stone, Andrea, and Marc Zender, Reading Maya Art: A Hieroglyphic Guide to Ancient Maya Painting and Sculpture. Thames and Hudson 2011.
Karl Taube, The Major Gods of Ancient Yucatán. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington 1992.

J. Eric S. Thompson, Maya History and Religion. Civilization of the American Indian Series, No. 99. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. . OCLC 177832. 1970
Alfred M. Tozzer, Landa's Relación de las cosas de Yucatán. A Translation''. Peabody Museum, Cambridge MA 1941.

death gods
Maya deities
Death gods
Underworld gods

Maya death gods