text: Although the PFDJ lacks specific political programs covering concrete policies, its overall foundations are embedded in declared priorities including the establishment of a constitutional system which is built on nationalism and democracy. Nationalism is perceived as the safeguarding of national interests, development and the strengthening of the unity of the Eritrean people and preserving Eritrea. That all political institutions should be established on a national basis, free from divisive sub-national sentiments and activities, strengthening and developing nationally coordinated efforts of the Eritrean people. In other words, the political system must have a broad social basis, enabling participation of all the people in both the rural and urban areas. Democracy as an important principle for the political system's establishment is defined in a more general way by invoking the establishment of a people-based institution and public participation in decision making from the grass-roots to the national level.


title: People's Front for Democracy and Justice

text: In this regard, the PFDJ provides a specific approach in-line with historical development and conditions of Eritrean society. The party states that its understanding of democracy is emphasizing its context rather than its external manifestations. In the context of Eritrean society, democracy should not be dependent on the number of political parties and on regular elections, but on the actual participation of people in the decision-making process at community and national level. What is being questioned here is not political parties as a manifestation of political pluralism with rights to organization and free expression and elections. Rather, the PFDJ challenges the concept of democracy in the political arena and as experienced by several African (and other) countries in which the existence of various political parties and organized elections did not lead to a democratic system. Insistence of increased number of political parties and regularity of electoral schedule are therefore perceived by the PFDJ as narrow concepts which limits the meaning of democracy to its form.


text: Second, priority is given to the establishment of an economic system which satisfies the desires of the majority and improves their living conditions, ensures equitable development, operates through a market economy, encourages private investment, initiative and competition and guarantees balanced economic growth. In short, the economic system must enhance social justice for all.


text: Third, the PFDJ introduces socialist elements, defining social justice as the condition which allows: 1) the narrowing of the gap in economic opportunities and wealth between the rich and the poor to ensure equitable distribution of national wealth among all citizens; as well as 2) the narrowing of the development gap as between the rural and urban areas, and as between the center and periphery. Thus ensuring the balanced and fair distribution of economic development in the whole country.


text: Fourth, one of the key elements in nation-building, the PFDJ program sets out priorities, which includes the development and evolution of the Eritrean culture. This builds on the culture developed during the liberation struggle by ensuring the preservation and enhancement of the cultural heritage, with the integration of values drawn internationally.


text: Finally, program priorities also invoke the necessity of fair and proportionate distribution of social services (chiefly healthcare end education), the strong respect of women and other social rights of the Eritrean population as well as guaranteeing national security and defense and establishing regional and international cooperation.


text: The PFDJ was conceived as a broad-based movement with the capacity to embrace all segments of the population. The PFDJ was not to be representative of any particular social class, nor was it to be narrow-based, that is only embracing only those who were politically committed. The PFDJ was to ensure the right to form national political parties at the right time.


text: In its Charter, the PFDJ states that internal democratic life and the cultivation of popular participation are critical not only for the unity of the party, but also to clarify and enhance its policies, and to identify and correct any shortcomings.


text: The PFDJ Charter defines principles of relations between the Government and the party. In this sense it is stated, that even though the PFDJ has to play a major and critical role in the government, it is also to be independent of the government.


text: Although the PFDJ is organized as a broad-based and participatory entity, it does not attempt to be the only form of political organization. On the contrary, it encourages and assists the establishment of public associations with objectives similar to its programs, along social, trade and other non- sectarian lines. Finally, in terms of concrete organizational structure the PFDJ introduces a highly decentralized structure with presence in the majority of rural communities as well as within major urban centers. To do this party charter states that it has adopted a bottom-heavy, grassroots organizational structure instead of top-heavy one.


text: After independence, the PFDJ regime adopted the law of the ousted Ethiopian regime with some amendments in order to maintain law and order and avoiding a legal vacuum. A committee of former senior fighters reviewed the old Ethiopian law regime to adapt the law to the newly formed state and make it compatible with the "values" and "principles of the EPLF. During the reviews, basic principles of human rights and procedures of due process and models of judicial independence were not emphasized".


text: There is some debate as to whether PFDJ is a true political party or whether it is a broad governing association in transition. In regard to this some observers perceive the PFDJ as a fairly amorphous, diffuse, transitional organization, and a nationalist umbrella, out of which spin-off parties could develop when the social and economic development advances to a level in which multiparty system can be established and sustained. The PFDJ subscribes to a pluralist political system and the principle as adopted in the Second Congress of the EPLF – during the liberations struggle – in 1987.


text: The first attempt of the PFDJ to influence the country's norm and value system immediately after the end of the independence war failed because the fighters were a minority. The 1998–2000 border conflicts with Ethiopia brought the PFDJ the second chance to impose its ideology on the society.


text: On 12 November 2021, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control added the PFDJ to its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list for being "a political party that has engaged in, or whose members have engaged in, activities that have contributed to the crisis in northern Ethiopia or have obstructed a ceasefire or peace process to resolve such crisis".


title: Leonard Floyd

text: Leonard Cornilus Floyd (born September 8, 1992) is an American football outside linebacker for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Georgia and was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft.


title: Leonard Floyd

text: Floyd attended Dodge County High School in Eastman, Georgia, where he played football and participated in track. In football, he played defensive end and tight end. Floyd committed to play college football at the University of Georgia in April 2011. After high school, he attended Hargrave Military Academy for a year to take classes that met NCAA requirements.


title: Leonard Floyd

text: In track & field, Floyd competed as a thrower. He won the shot put event at the 2011 Region 3AA Meet, recording a career-best throw of 14.96 meters.


title: Leonard Floyd

text: As a true freshman in 2013, Floyd started eight of 13 games. He finished the season with 55 tackles and a team-leading 6.5 sacks. Floyd played in 11 games during his sophomore season, finishing the year with 55 tackles, six sacks, and a fumble recovery. In a game against the Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium, Floyd recovered running back Jalen Hurd's fumble and ran it back 96 yards for a touchdown. As a junior in 2015, he played in 13 games with 72 combined tackles, 4.5 sacks, three passes defended, and a fumble recovery. After his junior year, he announced his intentions to enter the 2016 NFL Draft.


title: Leonard Floyd

text: Floyd received an invitation to the NFL combine as a top prospect in the upcoming 2016 NFL Draft. He attended the combine and performed the majority of combine drills before injuring his hamstring while running the 40-yard dash. He opted not to perform the bench press and was unable to perform the three-cone drill and short shuttle due to his injury. Coincidentally, teammate and fellow linebacker Jordan Jenkins also injured his hamstring and was unable to do the short shuttle and three-cone drill.


title: Leonard Floyd

text: On March 16, 2016, he opted to participate at Georgia's pro day and ran drills for representatives from all 32 NFL teams, including head coaches Bill Belichick (Patriots), Rex Ryan (Bills), Dan Quinn (Atlanta Falcons), and Todd Bowles (Jets) and general managers Thomas Dimitroff (Falcons) and Jerry Reese (Giants). Floyd added four pounds to his frame prior to his pro day after there were some teams concerns about his thin frame. He performed positional drills, the short shuttle, three-cone drill, and vertical. His vertical (35") was four inches shorter than his jump at the combine and Floyd was also unable to do the bench press due to a pectoral injury. At the conclusion of the pre-draft process, Floyd was a possible top ten pick and a consensus projected first round pick by NFL draft experts and analysts. He was ranked as the second best linebacker/edge rusher in the draft by NFL analyst Mike Mayock, the third best outside linebacker by NFLDraftScout.com, and was ranked the fifth best linebacker in the draft by "Sports Illustrated".


title: Leonard Floyd

text: The Chicago Bears selected Floyd in the first round (ninth overall) of the 2016 NFL Draft. The Bears traded the No. 11 overall pick and a fourth round pick to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in order to move up to No. 9.


title: Leonard Floyd

text: On May 27, 2016, the Chicago Bears signed Floyd to a four-year, $15.78 million contract that includes $15.33 million guaranteed and a signing bonus of $9.67 million.


title: Leonard Floyd

text: He competed with Pernell McPhee, Lamarr Houston, Willie Young, and Sam Acho throughout training camp for a job as the starting outside linebacker. He was named the starting left outside linebacker, opposite Willie Young, to begin the regular season.


title: Leonard Floyd

text: He made his professional regular season debut and first career start in the Bears' season-opener against the Houston Texans and recorded six combined tackles and was credited with a half a sack on Brock Osweiler during their 23–14 loss. In Week 4, he left the Bears' 17–14 victory over the Detroit Lions after suffering a calf injury. The calf injury sidelined him for the next two games (Weeks 5–6). On October 20, 2016, Floyd recorded three combined tackles, sacked Green Bay Packers' quarterback Aaron Rodgers twice, forced the first fumble of his career, and recorded the first defensive touchdown and fumble recovery of his career in the Bears 26–10 loss. During a Week 11 matchup against the New York Giants, he collected two combined tackles, but left the 22–16 loss in the fourth quarter after colliding with teammate Akiem Hicks while attempting to tackle running back Rashad Jennings. During the collision, the crown of his helmet made impact with Hicks and compressed his neck. He was stretchered off the field and taken immediately to the hospital, but was released later that night. Floyd suffered a head/neck injury and a concussion and was unable to play the next week against the Tennessee Titans .


title: Leonard Floyd

text: On December 4, 2016, he earned four solo tackles, earned a two sacks on San Francisco 49ers' quarterbacks Blaine Gabbert and Colin Kaepernick, and recorded the first safety of his career, as the Bears routed them 26–6. On December 24, 2016, Floyd made one solo tackle, but left the Bears' 41–21 loss to the Washington Redskins after suffering a concussion. The concussion kept him from playing in the Bears' regular season finale against the Minnesota Vikings. Floyd claimed it took two months to recover fully from the concussion and for all the symptoms to subside. Floyd finished his rookie season with 7.0 sacks, which placed him third among all rookies. He finished the season with 33 combined tackles (23 solo), seven sacks, a forced fumble, fumble recovery, one touchdown, and one safety in 12 games and 12 starts. He earned an overall grade of 65.1 from Pro Football Focus, which ranked 66th among all qualifying edge rushers in 2016.


title: Leonard Floyd

text: Floyd competed for the starting outside linebacker job throughout training camp against Pernell McPhee, Lamarr Houston, and Willie Young. Head coach John Fox named Floyd the starting right outside linebacker to start the season.


title: Leonard Floyd

text: On September 28, 2017, Floyd recorded three solo tackles and sacked Packers' quarterback Aaron Rodgers in the Bears' 35–14 loss. On October 9, 2017, he collected a season-high six solo tackles, two sacks, and a safety during a 20–17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. The safety came in the first quarter and was on Vikings' quarterback Sam Bradford. On November 19, 2017, he earned five solo tackles before being carted off the field after sustaining a leg injury after he collided with teammate Kyle Fuller in the Bears 27–24 loss to the Lions. On November 23, 2017, the Bears placed him on injured reserve for the remainder of the season after he suffered a sprained MCL and PCL in his right knee. Floyd finished the season with 34 combined tackles (24 solo), 4.5 sacks, two pass deflections, and a safety in ten games and ten starts. Pro Football Focus gave Floyd an overall grade of 74.5, which ranked 62nd among all qualifying edge rushers in 2017.


title: Leonard Floyd

text: On November 4, 2018, Floyd intercepted Buffalo Bills' quarterback Nathan Peterman, returning it for a 19-yard touchdown, his first-career interception and second-career touchdown.


title: Leonard Floyd

text: In week 10 against the Detroit Lions, Floyd made his first sack of the season off quarterback Matthew Stafford in the 34-22 win.


title: Leonard Floyd

text: Floyd finished the season with 49 tackles, four sacks, and a pick six. He received an overall grade of 69.6 from Pro Football Focus in 2018, which ranked as the 42nd highest grade among all qualifying edge rushers, and was named as Pro Bowl alternate.


title: Leonard Floyd

text: In Week 1 against the Green Bay Packers, Floyd recorded four tackles and sacked Aaron Rodgers twice as the Bears lost 10-3.


title: Leonard Floyd

text: In week 9 against the Philadelphia Eagles, Floyd sacked Carson Wentz once in the 22–14 loss. This was Floyd's first sack in two months.


title: Leonard Floyd

text: Floyd made his debut with the Rams in Week 1 against the Dallas Cowboys on "Sunday Night Football". During the game, Floyd recorded his first sack as a Ram on Dak Prescott in the 20–17 win.


title: Leonard Floyd

text: In Week 7 against his former team, the Chicago Bears, on "Monday Night Football", Floyd recorded two sacks on Nick Foles during the 24–10 win.


title: Leonard Floyd

text: In Week 10 against the Seattle Seahawks, Floyd recorded three sacks on Russell Wilson and recovered a fumble lost by Wilson during the 23–16 win, later earning him the NFC Defensive Player of the Week award.


title: Leonard Floyd

text: In Week 17 against the Arizona Cardinals, Floyd recorded a sack on Chris Streveler during the 18–7 win. He finished the regular season with a career-high 10.5 sacks, which earned him a $1.25 million bonus.


title: Leonard Floyd

text: In the Wild Card Round of the playoffs against the Seattle Seahawks, Floyd sacked Russell Wilson two times during the 30–20 win.


title: Leonard Floyd

text: On March 15, 2021, Floyd signed a four-year contract extension with the Rams worth $64 million. In Week 14 Floyd recorded 8 tackles and also intercepted Kyler Murray in a 30-23 win over the Arizona Cardinals.


title: Leonard Floyd

text: Floyd helped the Rams reach Super Bowl LVI where they would defeat the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20. Floyd recorded 5 tackles and 1 sack in the game.


title: Ibibio people

text: The Ibibio people (English: //) are a coastal people in southern Nigeria. They are mostly found in Akwa Ibom and Cross River States. They are related to the Efik people. During the colonial period in Nigeria, the Ibibio Union asked for recognition by the British as a sovereign nation.


title: Ibibio people

text: The Annang, Efik, Ekid, Oron and Ibeno share personal names, culture, and traditions with the Ibibio, and speak closely related varieties (dialects) of Ibibio which are more or less mutually intelligible. The Ekpo and Ekpe societies are a significant part of the Ibibio political system. They use a variety of masks to execute social control. Body art plays a major role in Ibibio art.


title: Ibibio people

text: The Ibibio people are reputed to be the earliest inhabitants of the south southern Nigeria. It is estimated that they arrived at their present home around 7000 B.C. In spite of the historical account, it is not clear when the Ibibio arrived at state.


title: Ibibio people

text: According to some scholars,they might have come from the central Benue valley, particularly, the Jukun influence in the old Calabar at some historical time period. Another pointer is the widespread use of the manila, a popular currency used by the Jukuns. Coupled with this, is the Jukun southern drive to the coast which appears to have been recently compared with the formation of Akwa Ibom settlements in their present location.


title: Ibibio people

text: The most accepted version of Ibibio history described that the Cameroon will offer a more concise explanation of the Ibibio migration story. This was corroborated by oral testimonies by field workers who say that the core Ibibio people were of the Afaha lineage whose original home was Usak Edet in the Cameroons. The Usak Edet (Isanguele) are a subgroup of the Ekoi people (the Ejagham). This was premised on the fact that among the Ibibio people, Usak Edet is popularly known as Edit Afaha (Afaha's Creek) which reflects the fact that Ibibio people originated from Usak Edet.


title: Ibibio people

text: After the first bulk of the people arrived in what later became Nigeria, they settled first at Ibom. It is believed that the Ibibio were the aboriginal people of Ibom settlement, founded by their forefathers, "Ibom", after whom they named the village, Ibom. Now in Arochukwu, where they settled for a very long time and worshiped the God of the Sky called "Abasi Ibom enyon". They also worshiped Ibini Ukpabi (Ibritam). As a result of clashes with the Igbo people who were moving southward, culminating in the Ibibio War which took place about 1630 and 1720 A.D., they left Ibom Kingdom and moved to the present day Ibibioland. Some village settlement had already been established in their current location alongside the Ibom.


title: Ibibio people

text: Following the Aro-Igbo-Ibibio war of 1550 A.D, the Ibibio's moved southward and found a virgin and empty land, their present place. The Ibibio first settled in Ikono from where they migrated or dispersed to further places becoming the aboriginal people of the present Ibibio lands. It is at this juncture that Ikono Ibom moved to Ikot Oku Ikono village now in the Uyo Local Government Area, which is referred to as Ikono Ibom Uyo, a clan carved out of the main Ikono Ibom. Iman Ibom moved to Ekom Iman, now in Etinan Local Government Area and Nsit Ibom moved to Afia Nsit now in Nsit Ibom. The three regards themselves as blood brothers and children of .


title: Ibibio people

text: The three children of "Ibom" upon their final settlement, Etefia who is the principal actor in Ikono Ibom Uyo clan, settled in Ikot Oku Ikono and founded the Ikono Anyaan and Ikot Ekpeyak Ikono are stock and children of Ikono Ibom, they have shared and similar social, traditional and cultural Milieu.


title: Ibibio people

text: Ekom Iman is a place which Iman Ibom settled and planted the Ekom tree (coula edulis) from which the name of the settlement is derived, Ekom (coula edulis) planted by Iman one of the sons of Ibom. Iman had children and some of them migrated to expand the Iman Ibom clan such villages like Ikot Obioinyang, Afagha Effiate and the entire Iman Ibom clan.


title: Ibibio people

text: Upon the death of Iman Ibom, his spirit metamorphose into the Iman Ibom clan deity “The Itina Iman deity” and oyot is the clan deity – totem hence it is a taboo to kill or eat such mythical beast and Ebre is the totem of Ikono Ibom clan, they forbid the killing or maiming of this mythical animal. Nsit Ibom moved to Afia Nsit where there was water and settled there, and his children spread to Mbak Nsit and other places of that clan.


title: Ibibio people

text: The Nsit Ibom totem is Iyak Anyan – the Anyan Nsit deity. They all have shared a similar characteristics of social, traditional as well as cultural Milieu and formed the center of this study. The brothers settled close to each other and formed pact and ally or a affinity with each other and had children and devised a thoroughgoing mechanism for self-rule, maintenance of law and order, and effective political organization: Using some elements of culture and socio-religious organizations such as Ekpo, Ekpe, Ebre, Ibaan Isong, Akata, Nnabo, Ekong, Ikpa—udoh and many others to enforce law and order and to put the masses of the population under control.


title: Ibibio people

text: Efik: Northern Ibibio(Enyong); Eket: Southern Ibibio; Andoni-Ibeno: Ibibio Delta; Annang: Western Ibibio; and Ibibio proper: Eastern Ibibio.


title: Ibibio people

text: The Ibibio people are found predominantly in Akwa Ibom State and are related to the Anaang community, the Ibibio community and the Eket and Oron communities, although other groups usually understand the Ibibio language.


title: Ibibio people

text: Because of the larger population of the Ibibio people, they hold political control over Akwa Ibom State, but the government is shared with the Anaangs, Eket and Oron. The political system follows the traditional method of consensus. Even though elections are held, practically, the political leaders are pre-discussed in a manner that is benefiting to all.


title: Ibibio people

text: The Ibibio people are located in the South South geopolitical zone of Nigeria also known as Coastal Eastern Region, Nigeria. Prior to the existence of Nigeria as a nation, the Ibibio people were self-governed.


title: Ibibio people

text: Ibibio people and their brothers (the Efik, Anaang, Oron and Eket) were part of the enclave called "Bight of Biafra" before the British creation of Eastern Nigeria. The Ibibio people became a part of the Eastern Nigeria of Nigeria under British colonial rule.


title: Ibibio people

text: During the Nigerian Civil War, the Eastern region was split into three states. The then-Southeastern State of Nigeria was where the Ibibio were located, one of the original twelve states of Nigeria after Nigerian independence. The Efik, Anaang, Oron, Eket, and their brothers and sisters of the Ogoja District, were also in the Southeastern State.


title: Ibibio people

text: The "Southeastern State" was later renamed Cross River State. On 23 September 1987, by Military Decree No.24, Akwa Ibom State was carved out of the then Cross Rivers State as a separate state. Cross Rivers State remains as a neighboring and sister state of Akwa Ibom State.


title: Ibibio people

text: Southwestern Cameroon was a part of the present Cross River State and Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria. During the then Eastern Region of Nigeria, parts were partitioned united with Cameroon in a 1961 plebiscite. This resulted in the Ibibio, Efik, and Annang being divided between Nigeria and Cameroon.


title: Ibibio people

text: However, the leadership of the Northern Region of Nigeria was able to keep the "Northwestern section" during the plebiscite that is now today's Nigerian Adamawa and Taraba States.


title: Ibibio people

text: Traditionally Ibibio society consists of communities that are made up of large families with blood affinity each ruled by their constitutional and religious head, known as the . The Obong Ikpaisong ruled with the ('head of the families'), which together with the heads of the cults and societies constitute the or ('traditional council, shrine, or court'). The decisions of the Obong Ikpaisong were enforced by members of the Ekpo or Obon society who act as messengers of the spirits and the military and police of the community. The chief will send masked individuals to confront a rule-breaker if the need arises.


title: Ibibio people

text: Ekpo members Ekpo Masquerades are always masked when performing their policing duties. Although their identities are almost always known, fear of retribution from the ancestors prevents most people from accusing those members who overstep their social boundaries, effectively committing police brutality. Membership is open to all Ibibio males, but one must have access to wealth to move into the politically influential grades. The main purpose of Ekpo is to protect its people and act as a defense against potential attackers. They are concerned with issues and emergencies that pertain to the safety of the town as a whole. In addition, it serves as an outlet for men to productively use energy to benefit everyone.


title: Ibibio people

text: In the months of June through December, the Ekpo society plays a large role in the community's life. Many activities such as farming, shopping, and obtaining food and water are prohibited on days in which the masks are out and being performed. Crimes also carry heavier consequences during this time period. While the punishments are lighter today, a person caught stealing during the days of the Ekpo season in the 1940s would be killed by members of the Ekpo. It is known as a secret society despite the fact that the purpose and activities are widely known by the village. This is due to the fact that everyone must abide by certain laws during Ekpo season. The most important secrets are a series of code words and dance steps taught to initiates and used by members. Knowing these secrets allows members to travel freely during the season, and being caught traveling without knowing the secret terms and dance will result in being arrested.


title: Ibibio people

text: The Obon society, with its strong enticing traditional musical prowess and popular acceptability, openly executes its mandates with musical procession and popular participation by members which comprises children, youth, adults and brave elderly women.


title: Ibibio people

text: Ibibio religion (Inam) was of two dimensions, which centered on the pouring of libation, sacrifice, worship, consultation, communication and invocation of the God of Heaven (Abasi Enyong), God of the Earth (Abasi Isong) and the Supreme Being (Abasi Ibom) by the Constitutional and Religious King/Head of a particular Ibibio Community who was known from the ancient times as the Obong-Ikpaisong (the word 'Obong Ikpaisong' directly interpreted means "King of the Principalities of the Earth' or 'King of the Earth and the Principalities' or Traditional Ruler").


title: Ibibio people

text: The second dimension of Ibibio Religion centered on the worship, consultation, invocation, sacrifice, appeasement, etc. of the God of the Heaven (Abasi Enyong) and the God of the Earth (Abasi Isong) through various invisible or spiritual entities (me Ndem) of the various Ibibio Division such as Atakpo Ndem Uruan Inyang, Afia Anwan, Ekpo or Ekpe Onyong, Etefia Ikono, Awa Itam, etc. The Priests of these Deities (me Ndem) were the Temple Chief Priests/Priestesses of the various Ibibio Divisions. A particular Ibibio Division could consist of many interrelated autonomous communities or kingdoms ruled by an autonomous Priest-King called Obong-Ikpaisong, assisted by heads of the various large families (Mbong Ekpuk) which make up the Community.


title: Ibibio people

text: These have been the ancient political and religious system of Ibibio people from time immemorial. Tradition, interpreted in Ibibio Language, is 'Ikpaisong'. Tradition (Ikpaisong) in Ibibio Custom embodies the Religious and Political System. The word 'Obong' in Ibibio language means 'Ruler, King, Lord, Chief, Head' and is applied depending on the Office concern. In reference to the Obong-Ikpaisong, the word 'Obong' means 'King'. In reference to the Village Head, the word means 'Chief'. In reference to the Head of the Families (Obong Ekpuk), the word means 'Head' In reference to God, the word means 'Lord'. In reference to the Head of the various societies - e.g. 'Obong Obon', the word means 'Head or Leader'.


title: Ibibio people

text: Scattered through out each village were sacred lands, akai (forest). They were called akai because no one was permitted to clear them for cultivation. All burial grounds, shrines for the village deities and spots for secret societies such as Ekpo Onyoho, Ekpe, Ekoong, Idiong, Ekong, and Obon, were sacred. Everything in these places were equally sacred. Non-members of the secret societies were not permitted to enter the spots set aside for such secret societies, even for the collection of firewood, sticks, fruits (like mkpook), vegetables (like afang and odusa) or snails, or to hunt the animals which abounded in the forests. The explanation is simple. If non-members were allowed to enter any secret society akai they might in due course discover the secrets of their time-honoured society, and wicked people might even desecrate the graves of their ancestors hence the ban.


title: Ibibio people

text: Like many Ibibio words, ('soul') has four meanings. First, ethereal body, secondly, soul, thirdly, spirit, and fourthly, over-soul; the last always lives in the house of Abasi Ibom and it is quite separate from the individuality which between incarnations stays in the country of the dead. Though over-soul and spirit are combined, much of the Spirit is contained in that portion of the ego which is incarnated.


title: Ibibio people

text: According to Talbot, it is the soul proper that spends part of its time as a were-animal or in a bush-beast in the forest or water and is called Ukpong Ikot, or bush-soul. The shadow is not thought to be connected with the ethereal body but to be an emanation of the soul and therefore to be directly affected by any action on it. The majority of the Ibibio believe that a person's soul can be invoked into his shadow, which is made to appear in a basin of water. The shadow is then speared, his blood is seen in the water in the basin and the man dies.


title: Ibibio people

text: The Ibibio believe that after death the same kind of existence is led as during life on earth; for example, farmers, blacksmiths, hunters, and fishermen will continue with their former occupations while social intercourse and amusements will also proceed as before. The scenery, houses, crops and animals of the next world have the same appearance as in this world but only those beasts, plants and foodstuffs which have been sacrificed in honour of the dead are transported there. The land of the dead, like that of the living, is believed to be divided into various countries, towns, villages and lineages where different communities of people live as on earth. At death every man goes to the particular part inhabited by his people.


title: Ibibio people

text: The Ibibio believe in , that is, the individual creation of persons by God. If someone is wild, they say he was created that way; if he is kind, again that is how he was created by God to be; if he is poor or rich, that was his lot, and so on; effectively, there was nothing anyone could do to alter his lot, for he was moulded that way.


title: Ibibio people

text: The Ibibio also believe in the same way in destiny, or . For instance, if a person died accidentally, this was how he had died in his previous incarnation and therefore he had to die that way. If he was rich, he was so in his previous incarnation and must be so now; if he was brilliant, that was how he was destined to be, etc. He could, however, reverse the situation if he consulted the Mbia Idiong, who alone could tell him what to do. The diviners could help him pin-point what it was he had done in his previous incarnation which was affecting his present life. They could then prescribe to him what to do to remedy the worsening situation. If the instructions were strictly followed, the position could be reversed, they believed. For instance, if a person had no issue a diviner might tell him that he had killed innocent children in his previous incarnation, and that the parents of the deceased and the general public had cursed him, saying that he would not have any issue and would continue to kill innocent children throughout his incarnations unless he gave certain things as sacrificial offerings. When the Mbia Idiong told him what the things were and he had offered them as sacrifices to Mother Earth, the Ibibio believed the situation would be reversed; otherwise, he would remain childless.


title: Ibibio people

text: The Ibibio were introduced to Christianity through the work of early missionaries in the nineteenth century. Samuel Bill started his work at Ibeno. He established the Qua Iboe Church which later spread places in the middle belt of Nigeria. Later, other churches were also introduced e.g. The Apostolic church. Independent churches such as Deeper Life Bible Church, came into the area in the second part of the twentieth century. Today Ibibio people are predominantly Christian.


title: Ibibio people

text: History was made on the 27th day of August 2020 that the first-ever Ibibio Bible translation was presented at Ibom Hall in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom. Published by the 200-year-old, American based International Bible Society (Biblica), the publishers of the NIV Version.


title: Ibibio people

text: The Ibibio Bible was translated by Ibibio professors, including Professors Margaret Mary Okon, Bassey Okon, Eno-Abasi Urua, Inimbom Akpan, Udo Etuk, as well as Dr. Paulinus Noah, Dr. Effiong Ekpenyong and Rev. Fr. Dr. Donatus Udoette, a theologian who is well versed in Greek.


title: Ibibio people

text: The masks and accoutrements of the Ekpo society make up the greatest works of art in Ibibio society. Ibibio often purposefully play with proportions in their masks to distort the face. A component that appears often in Ibibio masks is an articulated lower jaw. Ibibio people have an overarching theme of contrasting male and female masks by using dark and light colors respectively. These masks are not always performed together, but there is a general understanding of their opposing relationship. Feminine masks are decorated with light colors such as white. Their features are delicate to emphasize their femininity. On the other hand, masculine masks use dark colors to represent the mystic forces of the forest. These masks often have large features and are created to be intentionally ugly. They achieve this by distorting the features in unnatural manners such as having bulging eyes or misplaced mouths. Many deformities present in the masks come from naturally occurring human diseases and illnesses. One that is often depicted is , a part of yaws. Signs of baldness and walking sticks also show up often in order to portray symbols of karma and old age. Men's costumes incorporate natural materials from the wilderness such as raffia, and seed pod rattles. Women's costumes use materials such as light colored cloth to represent the order of living in the village.


title: Ibibio people

text: The masks of the Ekpo and Ekpe societies were used to elicit fear and execute social control. The most common type of mask is one made for the face with waist-length raffia attached. The effect of the masks and their intimidating quality is part of what gives them their power, in addition to the long history of the Ekpo. To put on an Ekpo mask is to surrender earthly identity and assume an ancestral one. Masks used may be ones owned by deceased ancestors, ones made to look like ancestors, or ones made to resemble to village heroes. Many are carved from lightweight wood called "ukot" (palm wine tree). This makes them easier to wear and move around in. For additional support, the mask is secured to the wearer's head with a rope, and a horizontal piece of wood may be inserted into the mask in order to bite into. In addition to the raffia on the mask itself, performers also wear a knee-length raffia skirt. The lower legs, arms, and hands are painted with charcoal. New raffia is added to the mask each season, and is displayed in the off-season in a family or village shrine.


title: Ibibio people

text: The Ibibio are known for their woodcarvings, raffia-weavings, and pottery making. Ikot Ekpene is a town in Nigeria known for its marketplace in which crafts are sold to both tourists and middle-class Nigerians. While the Ibibio are not known for metalworking, there is a significant number of craftspeople making this type of art to be sold.


title: Ibibio people

text: Most metalwork objects produced have a practical purpose rather than a decorative one. Despite this, Ibibio coffins tend to be highly decorative. They feature ornamental painted metal motifs, colorful plastic sheets, and glass panels on the sides.


title: Ibibio people

text: Both temporary and permanent body modifications are used. Rhythm and nature are both considerable motifs at play in the designs. Hairdressing, body painting, and body modification are the main focus of body art performed by the Ibibio. Intentional fattening of young women is another culturally important aspect of the Ibibio.


title: Ibibio people

text: In painting, the goal is to emphasize rather than obscure the wearer's face or other parts of the body. The symbol of the dot plays a key role in the understanding of beauty. Okon Umetuk in his article "Body Art in Ibibio Culture", states thatA 'dot' is regarded as the only perfect mark to indicate and summarize beauty in Ibibio culture.Evidence of this is found in the abundance of dots that appear on the faces and bodies of decorated individuals. An 'X' symbol may be applied to the forehead, wrists, and ankles as a way to mark mediation. When worn by a diviner, it may mark a connection with himself and the gods as well as his people. Members of a ritual may wear it to symbolize peace, humility, as well as acceptance.


title: Ibibio people

text: "Odung" is a type of body painting that is used for events such as marriage, childbirth, coming-of-age, and death. It may also be used to show a man's status in the Ekpo society. This process is commonly used among women. It is often done after the birth of a child. The stains that are left afterwards can stay on the skin for up to three months. Professionals are typically the ones who paint others, and the process may take from five to eight hours to complete.


title: Ibibio people

text: "Iduot" is another form of body painting which symbolizes fertility. The pigment is taken from crushed camwood and then added to water which produces a red substance. People's palms, feet, legs, and faces are decorated with the pigment. The Ibibio use it partially for its bleaching effect. After continuous usage, it produces a smooth and light skin complexion.


title: Ibibio people

text: Modern versions of face and body decoration such as eye shadow, lipstick, and eyeliner are used by contemporary Ibibio people. Body decoration has a long history in the Ibibio and these products help their cultural expression in a convenient way, but are not a new form of expression. Substances such as the were used for eyelid decoration long before modern eye shadow. As in many other cultures around the world, Ibibio women generally put heavy emphasis on the eye when it comes to make-up.


title: Ibibio people

text: The fattening of young women in preparation for marriage is an old custom which is dying out. The purpose of this is to enhance the beauty of an unmarried women and prepare her for married life. Once a girl has undergone this ritual, she is considered an . This term refers to the process of fattening a girl as well as the girl herself. A key aspect of this is the teaching of future brides the details of childcare, motherhood, how to keep a home, and how she is expected to behave. The financial situation of a girl's parents determines how long she will stay in the fattening house. This can range anywhere from three months to seven years, but most stay for an average of three years. During their stay, the girls are fed well and not expected to do any labor. This is due to the fact that historically, being overweight was a sign of wealth and good health to the Ibibio.


title: Ibibio people

text: Nursing mothers also undergo a fattening ritual which usually occurs for only their first child. Both the husband and the mother-in-law are expected to pay for the ritual. The Ibibio consider it natural for a mother to rest following the birth of a child, and therefore the mother performs no strenuous tasks.


title: Ibibio people

text: Hair styles are another way for the Ibibio to symbolically mark certain occasions. Styles of hair in Ibibioland include both elaborate braiding with and without the use of thread. Some styles are symbolic of stories or events that have occurred in the wearer's life. If a married woman has unkempt hair, this indicates that someone she is close to, typically her husband, a child, or another relative, has died. Other styles may be indicative of age, marital status, or social standing. There also exists hairstyles without any meaning that are simply worn for fashion purposes.


title: Ibibio people

text: The Ibibio are divided into six subcultural groups: Eastern Ibibio or Ibibio Proper; Western Ibibio or Annang; Northern Ibibio or Enyong; Southern Ibibio or Eket; Delta Ibibio or Andoni-Ibeno; and Riverine Ibibio or Efik/Oron.


title: Egg substitutes

text: Egg substitutes are food products which can be used to replace eggs in cooking and baking. Common reasons a cook may choose to use an egg substitute instead of egg(s) include having an egg allergy, adhering to a vegan diet or a vegetarian diet of a type that omits eggs, or having concerns about the level of animal welfare or environmental burden associated with egg farming. There is a growing movement to address some of these concerns via third-party certifications, but because many labels in the industry remain confusing or intentionally misleading, some consumers distrust them and may use egg substitutes instead.


title: Egg substitutes

text: There are many commercial substitutes on the market today for people who wish to avoid eggs. Most of these products are devoid of all animal products, and thus are vegan and contain no cholesterol.


title: Egg substitutes

text: The product called Egg Beaters is a substitute for whole/fresh eggs (from the shell) but is not an egg substitute; it consists mainly of egg whites.


title: Egg substitutes

text: Simple homemade egg substitutes can be made using many different ingredients, depending on which aspect(s) of an egg must be replicated. Some commonly used substitutes are tofu, various fruit purées, potato starch, mashed potato, baking powder, ground seeds (especially flax and chia), agar powder, chickpea flour, and plant milk.


title: Egg substitutes

text: You also might notice that almost every substitute is in a 1/4 cup increment. That's because 1 large egg (the size almost every recipe uses) equals 1/4 cup when whisked.


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: The Communist Refoundation Party (, PRC) is a communist political party in Italy that emerged from a split of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1991. The party's secretary is Maurizio Acerbo, who replaced Paolo Ferrero in 2017. Armando Cossutta was the party's founder, while Fausto Bertinotti its longest-serving leader (1994–2008). The latter transformed the PRC from a traditional communist party into a collection of radical social movements.


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: The PRC is a member of the Party of the European Left (PEL), of which Bertinotti was the inaugural president in 2004. The PRC has not been represented in the Italian Parliament since 2008, but had a member of the European Parliament, Eleonora Forenza, who sat with the European United Left–Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) group in 2014–2019.


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: In February 1991, when the Italian Communist Party (PCI) was transformed into the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS) under the leadership of Achille Occhetto, left-wing dissidents led by Armando Cossutta launched the Movement for Communist Refoundation. Hardliners in PCI were not happy of the changes made inside the party after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Later that year, Proletarian Democracy (DP), a far-left outfit, dissolved itself so that its members could join the PCI dissidents and form a united front of all Italian communists. In December, the PRC was officially founded and Sergio Garavini was elected secretary. In the 1992 general election, the party obtained 5.6% of the vote.


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: Garavini resigned from secretary in June 1993 and was replaced by Fausto Bertinotti, a trade unionist of the Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL) who had left the PDS only a few months before, in January 1994. In the 1994 general election, the PRC was part of the PDS-led Alliance of Progressives and obtained 6.1% of the vote. In June 1995, a group of splinters led by Lucio Magri and Famiano Crucianelli formed the Movement of Unitarian Communists (MCU), which would eventually merge with the PDS, being one of the founding members of the Democrats of the Left (DS) in February 1998.


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: The leadership of Bertinotti was a turning point for the party, which jumped to 8.6% of vote in the 1996 general election, fought by the party in a loose alliance with The Olive Tree, the major centre-left coalition whose dominant partner was the PDS. After the election, the PRC decided to externally support the first cabinet led by Romano Prodi.


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: Tensions soon arose within the coalition and the party. In October 1998 the PRC was divided between those who wanted to stop supporting Prodi's government, led by Bertinotti; and those who wanted to continue the alliance, led by Cossutta, the party's president. The central committee endorsed Bertinotti's line, but Cossutta and his followers decided to ignore this line and to support Prodi. The votes of the "cossuttiani" were not enough and the government lost a confidence vote in Parliament.


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: The dissidents, who controlled the majority of deputies and senators, split and formed a rival communist party, the Party of Italian Communists (PdCI), which would soon join the first cabinet led by Massimo D'Alema, the leader of the DS, who replaced Prodi and became the first post-communist to hold the job of Prime Minister of Italy.


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: Deprived of most of its parliamentary representation, the PRC fought for its existence and voters supported it rather than the PdCI, both in the 1999 European Parliament election (4.3% to 2.0%) and the 2001 general election (5.0% to 1.7%).


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: Despite competition from the PdCI, the PRC confirmed its status as Italy's largest communist party. Having been left by most traditional communists, it also started to enlarge its scope aiming at becoming a collector of radical social movements and, foremost, the main representative of the anti-globalization movement in Italy. The PRC also forged new alliances at the European level and was instrumental in the foundation of the Party of the European Left in May 2004.


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: In October 2004, the PRC re-joined the centre-left coalition, once again led by Prodi. In April 2005, Nichi Vendola, an openly gay politician and one of the emerging leaders of the party, won a primary election and was elected president of traditionally conservative southern region of Apulia, becoming the only regional president ever belonging to the PRC.


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: In the 2006 general election, the PRC was part of The Union, which won narrowly over the centre-right House of Freedoms coalition and the party obtained 5.8%. After the election, Bertinotti was elected President of the Chamber of Deputies and replaced by Franco Giordano as secretary. Additionally, for the first time it entered a government by joining the Prodi II Cabinet, with Paolo Ferrero Minister of Social Solidarity and seven undersecretaries. The decision to participate in the coalition government and vote to refinance the Italian military presence in Afghanistan and send troops to Lebanon attracted criticism from sectors of the European far-left and provoked the splits of several groups from the ranks of his own party, notably including the Workers' Communist Party, the Communist Alternative Party and Critical Left. Prodi, whose majority was weak and fragmented, resigned in January 2008.


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: For the 2008 general election, the PRC formed a joint list named Rainbow Left (SA) with the PdCI, the Federation of the Greens and the Democratic Left under Bertinotti's leadership. SA obtained a mere 3.1% (compared to 10.2% won by the constituent parties individually two years before) and no seats. Consequently, Bertinotti quit politics and Giordano resigned and after that some "bertinottiani", led by Ferrero and Giovanni Russo Spena (both former Proletarian Democracy members), had forged an alliance with former "cossuttiani".


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: At the July 2008 congress, the PRC was highly divided around ideological and regional lines with Vendola, the "bertinottiani"'s standard-bearer, accusing northern delegates of having absorbed "leghismo" and stating that it was the end of the party as he knew it. The internal left-wing (which wanted to return to PRC's original communist project) finally prevailed over the bulk of "bertinottiani" (who insisted on the creation of a broader left-wing party) and Ferrero was elected secretary by the central committee with 50.5%.


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: In January 2009, the faction around Vendola and Giordano, silently supported by Bertinotti, left the PRC and launched the Movement for the Left (MpS), aimed at forming a broader left-wing party, which would eventually be Left Ecology Freedom (SEL).


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: In the 2009 European Parliament election the PRC ran with the PdCI and minor groups within the Anticapitalist and Communist List, obtaining 3.4% of the vote and no MEPs. In April 2009 the list was transformed into the Federation of the Left, which would be disbanded by the end of 2012 and officially dissolved in 2015.


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: In the 2013 general election the PRC ran within Civil Revolution along with the PdCI, the Greens, Italy of Values and minor groups, obtaining 2.2% and no seats.


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: In the 2014 European Parliament election the PRC was part of The Other Europe, which obtained 4.0% of the vote and three MEPs, including PRC's Eleonora Forenza.


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: In April 2017 Ferrero was replaced as secretary by Maurizio Acerbo, a former member of the Chamber of Deputies.


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: In the 2018 general election the PRC was part of the Power to the People (PaP) electoral list, which obtained 1.1% of the vote and no seats. In 2020–2021 the party was briefly represented in the Senate by Paola Nugnes, a splinter from the Five Star Movement who later joined Italian Left (SI).


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: In the 2019 European Parliament election the PRC was part of The Left electoral list, which obtained 1.8% and no seats.


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: In February 2022 the party formed a joint sub-group with PaP in the Chamber of Deputies' Mixed Group. In June 2022 the same happened in the Senate, and senator Nugnes returned to the party. In the run-up of the 2022 general election the PRC was a founding member of the People's Union (UP), a left-wing electoral list led by Luigi de Magistris.


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: The majority of the party following the October 2004 congress was led by Fausto Bertinotti (59.2%) and viewed the PRC as the representative of the anti-globalization movement in Italy. Other factions strongly opposed Bertinotti's innovations. These included the hard-line traditionalist Being Communists (26.2%) which was composed of former followers of Armando Cossutta as well as the Trotskyists of Critical Left, Communist Project and HammerSickle (14.6% together). Communist Project, which opposed the party's participation in the Prodi II Cabinet, unfolded shortly after the 2006 general election. A group led by Francesco Ricci established the Communist Alternative Party, others, led by the Trotskyite Marco Ferrando, formed the Workers' Communist Party, while a tiny minority chose to stay in the party and launched Countercurrent.


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: In February 2007, senator Franco Turigliatto of Critical Left, led by Salvatore Cannavò, voted twice against the government's foreign policy, leading Romano Prodi to temporarily resign from Prime Minister. In April, Turigliatto was expelled from the party and Critical Left was suspended from it, leading to its final split and establishment as a party in December. Turigliatto's ejection was supported also by Claudio Grassi (leader of Being Communists) and this caused a break-up of the faction. A group led by Fosco Giannini launched an alternative faction named The Ernesto (from the eponymous communist publication), but it would suffer the 2008 split of Communist Left, which would splinter in 2011 into Communist Left and Communists Together/The Future City.


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: Following the severe defeat of the party in the 2008 general election, a group of "bertinottiani" composed mainly of former members of Proletarian Democracy and led by Paolo Ferrero and Giovanni Russo Spena allied with the other minority factions, notably including Being Communists, to force Franco Giordano's resignation from secretary. Subsequently, in the July congress Ferrero's and Grassi's Refoundation in Movement motion (40.1%) faced the bulk of "bertinottiani", who organized themselves around a motion named "Manifesto for the Refoundation" (47.6%) with Nichi Vendola as standard-bearer. Giannini's The Ernesto and Countercurrent (7.7%), Claudio Bellotti's HammerSickle (3.2%) and a minor group of former "bertinottiani" called "Disarm, Renew, Refound" (1.5%) joined forces with the Ferrero-Grassi group. Vendola, defeated by Ferrero, announced the creation of a new minority faction, Refoundation for the Left (RpS).


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: RpS finally left the party in 2009 to form the Movement for the Left (MpS), but some of its members, led by Augusto Rocchi, decided to stay in the PRC and launched To the Left with Refoundation. However, the alliance between Ferrero and the traditionalists did not last. The Ernesto joined the PdCI in 2011 while Being Communists divided in two groups, both eventually quitting the party. One group joined SEL in 2014 and was later merged into the Democratic and Progressive Movement (MDP) in 2016; a second, larger group (including Grassi) participated in the foundation of SEL's successor, Italian Left (SI).


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: In the 2017 congress, two motions were presented by Ferrero and Eleonora Forenza, respectively. The coalition of factions led by Ferrero prevailed with the vote of 71.5% of party members. Consequently, Maurizio Acerbo, supported by Ferrero, was elected secretary by the central committee.


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: The electoral results of the PRC in general (Chamber of Deputies) elections and European Parliament elections since 1994 are shown in the chart below. The 2008 result refers to that of The Left – The Rainbow, a joint list comprising the Party of Italian Communists, Democratic Left and the Federation of the Greens. After that, the party formed joint lists with the Party of Italian Communists. The 2014 result refers to that of The Other Europe, a joint list led by Left Ecology Freedom.


title: Communist Refoundation Party

text: The electoral results of the PRC in the ten most populated regions of Italy are shown in the table below.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Dana Sue Gray (born December 6, 1957) is an American serial killer who murdered three elderly women in 1994. She was caught after a fourth intended victim survived and identified her. Gray says she committed the murders to support her spending habits. She is serving her sentence in the California Women's Prison in Chowchilla.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Dana Sue Gray was born Dana Sue Armbrust on December 6, 1957, in southern California to Beverly (born Beverly Joyce Hetzel; 1929-1975) and Russell Armbrust. Russell worked as a hair dresser and had three previous marriages before marrying Beverly, a former beauty queen who had been an MGM starlet. They had several miscarriages before Dana was born. Beverly was described as an aggressive, vain woman.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: They divorced when her husband found her grappling with an older woman who had angered her. Dana Sue was two years old at the time and afterwards rarely saw her father; she began acting out to get attention. Whenever Beverly would discipline her, Dana would retaliate by stealing money to buy candy and would occasionally fly into fits of violence. In school, she did not get along well with other students and did poorly in all her classes. She was suspended from school many times for forging notes to get out of class.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: When Dana was 14, her mother developed breast cancer; Gray decided to become a nurse after watching hospital nurses treat her mother. After her mother's death in 1975, Gray moved in with her father but was forced to leave after her stepmother found drugs in her room. A few years later, she became involved with a skydiving instructor, who got her pregnant twice; he convinced her to terminate both pregnancies, something she resented. She later suffered several miscarriages, which led her into depression and psychotropic medications. She was fired from her nursing job after she was caught stealing drugs.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Dana graduated from Newport Harbor High School in 1976. She lived with her sky-diving instructor, Rob, for the next several years and he helped her with nursing school. She became an expert skydiver. In 1981 she graduated from nursing school, and for the next few years had an on-again, off-again relationship with Chris Dodson, a windsurfer. Dana excelled in windsurfing and golf, and they took trips to Hawaii to participate in these activities.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: In October 1987, Dana married a man named Tom Gray at an upscale winery in the Temecula area. He was a fellow sports enthusiast who had known and admired her since high school. Not long after their marriage, Dana incurred a large amount of debt. At this time, she did not have much contact with her family due to a dispute over an aunt's will.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: She was a labor and delivery nurse at Inland Valley Regional Medical Center. They lived in the gated community of Canyon Lake where they had several business ventures under the name Graymatter. Gray left her husband in early 1993 and moved in with their friend and her lover, Jim Wilkins, and his young son Jason. In June, 1993, she filed for divorce from Gray, though this was not finalized until after Dana had been in jail for quite some time.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: In September 1993, she and Gray filed for bankruptcy to stave off foreclosure on their Canyon Lake house. Although the value of the house had greatly increased since they purchased it, they owed much more on the house than it was worth. On November 24, 1993, she was fired from the hospital where she worked for misappropriating Demerol and other opiate painkillers.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: On February 14, 1994, Dana sent word through Gray's parents (Gray kept his phone number and address hidden from her) that she wanted to meet with her estranged husband. Gray initially agreed but did not show up. Later that day, Dana murdered Norma Davis, an elderly lady whose home Dana had shared for a time. Gray later found out that Dana had taken out an insurance policy on him. The policy would have paid off the Canyon Lake house in the event of Gray's death.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Norma Davis, 86, is thought to be Gray's first victim. Because of the lack of evidence Gray was never convicted of killing her. Davis was the mother-in-law of the woman (Jeri Davis) who married Gray's father, Russell Armbrust, in 1988. Jeri Davis' first husband, Bill Davis, was Norma Davis' son. Davis died in the early 1980s, and his widow eventually married Armbrust.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Jeri Davis continued to care for her elderly mother-in-law, even after she remarried. Gray knew Norma Davis very well. On February 16, 1994, Davis had been dead for two days when she was found by her neighbor, Alice Williams. Davis had a wood handled utility knife sticking out of her neck, and a fillet knife sticking out of her chest. Other than a broken fingernail, she had no other marks. A bloodied afghan lay at her feet. Detectives learned that there was no forced entry into the house.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Detectives were informed that she always kept her door locked unless she was expecting a visitor. Williams stated she could not remember Davis mentioning she was expecting company. Detectives found a Nike shoe print pointed toward the kitchen. They also found Davis' $148 Social Security check. On the first floor of Davis' condo, a smear of blood was found on an armchair. A ripped out phone cord was also found.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: June Roberts, 66, was killed on February 28, 1994. Roberts, like Norma Davis, lived in the gated community of Canyon Lake. Gray had visited Roberts one day claiming she wanted to borrow a book about controlling a drinking problem. Roberts let Gray into her house. While Roberts searched for the book, Gray unplugged Roberts' phone, both the straight cord and the curly cord. She then used the curly cord to strangle Roberts. When Roberts was dead, Gray rifled through her credit cards, stealing two. An hour later, Gray went on a massive shopping spree at an upscale shopping center in Temecula.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: On March 16, 1994, Gray killed Dora Beebe, 87. A few minutes after Beebe came home from a doctor's appointment, Gray pulled up in front of Beebe's house. Gray knocked on Beebe's door and asked Beebe for directions. Beebe invited Gray inside to look at a map. Once inside Gray attacked and killed Beebe. Beebe was found later that day by her boyfriend of eight years, Louis Dormand. An hour later, Gray used Beebe's credit card to go on a shopping spree.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Gray attacked Hawkins on March 10, 1994 at her job at an antique store. Hawkins had been working alone that day. Gray came in to buy a picture frame for a photo of her deceased mother. Gray strangled Hawkins with a telephone cord. Gray took $5 from Hawkins' purse and $20 from the cash register. An hour later, Gray went on another shopping spree using Roberts' credit card. Hawkins had survived the assault, however, and was able to give detectives a description of Gray. The next day, the story was in the newspaper.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Many of the residents of Canyon Lake were terrified. Some moved in with loved ones until the murders were solved. A group of elderly widows began sleeping in big groups at designated houses. They believed there was safety in numbers. A few residents theorised the murders were committed by a cult who engaged in ritual sacrifice.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Detectives had problems finding suspects early on. At one point, it was so hard to find a lead that the supervisor in charge recommended using a psychic. Before Dana Gray became the lead suspect, detectives had few other suspects.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: In the case of Norma Davis, detectives initially suspected Jeri Armbrust might be the killer. From talking to Armbrust, detectives learned she used to be married to Davis' son. After Norma Davis' son died, Jeri continued to care for her former mother-in-law. When Jeri remarried, it was to Russell Armbrust, Dana Gray's father. Hence, Dana's connection to Norma Davis. Davis was in very poor health and was still recovering from triple bypass surgery. Detectives also speculated that Jeri Armbrust had been in Davis' house the Sunday prior to the murder.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Jeri Armbrust claimed she only stopped by Davis' house to drop off groceries and heard Davis' TV on upstairs, but did not go up to say hello; she just left, and went home. Detectives found it unusual for Jeri Armbrust to take care of someone who was not a blood relative, and she was wearing Nikes, and they also wondered why she would not have said hello to Davis.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: After weeks of talking with Armbrust and building a rapport, Detective Joseph Greco, a lead investigator, realized she was not the person they were looking for. Greco and Jeri Armbrust became friends and began helping each other during the investigation. It was this relationship and trust which would be pivotal in solving this case.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Detective Joseph Greco, of the Perris Police Department, led the investigations into the murders of Norma Davis and June Roberts. He graduated from the Riverside County Sheriff's Academy as a pre-service student and ranked among the top ten (#7) of his graduating class. He was hired out of the academy by the Perris Police Department in 1988. Greco was highly decorated for his tenacity in the field and received numerous awards to include the Medal of Valor for running into a plane to save victims of an accident at Perris Valley Airport on April 22, 1992.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Greco was promoted to the rank of Corporal in 1992 and assigned as an investigator working all major crimes against persons. The first victim, 87-year-old Norma Davis case, in 1994, was only Greco's second homicide investigation. Because of the seriousness of the crimes and his lack of experience, Greco initially questioned his ability to do an adequate investigation, but would eventually solve the case.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Greco suspected that the Roberts and Davis case were connected due to evidence collected in the case and ultimately discovered it was the work of one female serial killer. He identified Dana Sue Gray as a potential suspect and wrote a search warrant for her residence in Lake Elsinore, California; Ironically, on the day she was out killing her last victim, Dora Beebe, Greco arrested Dana Sue Gray at her front porch and took her into custody for the murder of June Roberts.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: The search of Gray's home revealed vital information belonging not only to Roberts, but also to Beebe and a surprise third victim, Dorinda Hawkins (1936-2003), the only woman who was not attacked at home, which may explain why she survived her attack, and who later positively identified Gray through a photo line-up.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Faced with a mountain of strong circumstantial evidence in the case against her, along with the threat of the death penalty, Gray would eventually plead to life without the possibility of parole and waived all of her appellate rights. She made one condition, that the State not prosecute her for the murder of Norma Davis.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Greco worked for the Riverside County's Sheriff's Department's Lake Elsinore Station specializing in elder abuse, sexual assault and child abuse cases from 1998 to 2010. He was later promoted to the rank of Sergeant in March 2010.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Television documentaries involving Detective Greco include: The "Discovery Channel" for the following shows: "The New Detectives", Season 7, Episode 1, (New Dominion Pictures 2000), "Deadly Women" (Beyond Productions 2009)", Unusual Suspects" (LMNO Productions 2009) and "Forensic Factor 2" (Exploration Productions 2009).


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Detective Chris Antoniadas was the lead detective on the Dora Beebe case. Antoniadas interviewed Gray after Detective Greco finished interviewing her.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Antoniadas had a knack for getting criminals to confess to their crimes during interrogation. He knew how to relate to people in order to gain their trust and have the person open up to him. Antoniadas also knew how to play someone's religion or insecurities against them. While interrogating Gray, Antoniadas had no clue how to approach her. Gray seemed cold and was unresponsive to any of Antoniadas's approaches.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Antoniadas finally decided he needed to take some of Dana's control away from her. He then interrogated her roughly, yelling at her to confess but was unsuccessful.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Seeing that did not work, Antoniadas charged her with the murder of Dora Bebee based upon the discovery of Beebe's credit cards found in Gray's sock drawer during Detective Greco's search warrant.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Gray was finally caught because her description was obtained from various merchants in the Temecula, California area, where she used June Roberts' credit cards to go on a shopping spree. Dana had been spending so much money that the credit card company called June Roberts' family to alert them of the massive spending. The detectives then went to all the stores where Gray used the credit cards and interviewed the cashiers, getting a physical description of Gray. They also learned the killer had dyed her hair recently and had a little boy named Jason.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Detective Greco kept in touch with Jeri Armbrust. He began providing the description of the killer to her on a visit to her home. Jeri would reveal to Greco the next day that she believed the suspect to be her stepdaughter. Dana had just dyed her hair and had a son with her boyfriend named Jason. Detective Greco wrote a search warrant for Gray's home and enlisted the help of ARCNET (Allied Riverside County Narcotics Enforcement Team) to stake out Gray's home in Lake Elsinore.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Unbeknownst to the team, Gray was murdering Dora Beebe just hours before they began following her, trying to collect evidence. After seeing Dana go to the bank with Beebe's card and then go shopping, the detectives had enough information for nexus involving Dora Beebe's murder. Later that day (17 March 1994) Greco arrested Dana while she was cooking dinner for her family. Detective Greco took Dana into custody while assisting officers took her boyfriend and his son down to the station for questioning.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: During questioning, Dana claimed she never took the credit cards. After detectives said they had evidence of her using them, Dana claimed she found both Roberts' and Beebe's cards. She stuck with this story for hours. She claimed the reason she kept the cards was she had an overwhelming need to shop. She also seemed to have no sympathy for the victims.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Detective Antoniadas attempted to obtain a confession after Detective Greco's interview but was unsuccessful. Detective Greco eventually booked Gray on charges of murder. At a hearing on July 23, Deputy DA Richard Bentley requested the death penalty. Gray pleaded insanity on all counts. After a witness claimed to have seen Gray at Roberts' house the day of her death, on 9 September 1998 Gray changed her plea to guilty of robbing and murdering two women and attempting to murder another. By pleading guilty Gray avoided the death penalty. On October 16, 1998, Dana Sue Gray was sentenced to life without parole and was incarcerated in the California Women's Prison in Chowchilla.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: Gray's murder spree was also featured in a 2017 episode of "It Takes A Killer" on the television channel Escape.


title: Dana Sue Gray

text: The case was also featured in Discovery Channel's series "The New Detectives" season 7 episode 1 which aired May 5, 2001. The case was also featured on Discovery Channel's series "Forensic Factor" episode 43 which aired on July 23, 2010.


title: Facial Action Coding System

text: The Facial Action Coding System (FACS) is a system to taxonomize human facial movements by their appearance on the face, based on a system originally developed by a Swedish anatomist named Carl-Herman Hjortsjö. It was later adopted by Paul Ekman and Wallace V. Friesen, and published in 1978. Ekman, Friesen, and Joseph C. Hager published a significant update to FACS in 2002. Movements of individual facial muscles are encoded by the FACS from slight different instant changes in facial appearance. It is a common standard to systematically categorize the physical expression of emotions, and it has proven useful to psychologists and to animators. Due to subjectivity and time consumption issues, the FACS has been established as a computed automated system that detects faces in videos, extracts the geometrical features of the faces, and then produces temporal profiles of each facial movement.


title: Facial Action Coding System

text: Using the FACS human coders can manually code nearly any anatomically possible facial expression, deconstructing it into the specific "action units" (AU) and their temporal segments that produced the expression. As AUs are independent of any interpretation, they can be used for any higher order decision making process including recognition of basic emotions, or pre-programmed commands for an ambient intelligent environment. The FACS manual is over 500 pages in length and provides the AUs, as well as Ekman's interpretation of their meanings.


title: Facial Action Coding System

text: The FACS defines AUs, as contractions or relaxations of one or more muscles. It also defines a number of "action descriptors", which differ from AUs in that the authors of the FACS have not specified the muscular basis for the action and have not distinguished specific behaviors as precisely as they have for the AUs.


title: Facial Action Coding System

text: Although the labeling of expressions currently requires trained experts, researchers have had some success in using computers to automatically identify the FACS codes.


title: Facial Action Coding System

text: Computer graphical face models, such as Artnatomy, allow expressions to be artificially posed by setting the desired action units.


title: Facial Action Coding System

text: The use of the FACS has been proposed for use in the analysis of depression, and the measurement of pain in patients unable to express themselves verbally.


title: Facial Action Coding System

text: The FACS is designed to be self-instructional. People can learn the technique from a number of sources including manuals and workshops, and obtain certification through testing. The original FACS has been modified to analyze facial movements in several non-human primates, namely chimpanzees, rhesus macaques, gibbons and siamangs, and orangutans. More recently, it was developed also for domestic species, including dogs, horses and cats. Similarly to the human FACS, the animal FACS has manuals available online for each species with the respective certification tests.


title: Facial Action Coding System

text: Thus, the FACS can be used to compare facial repertoires across species due to its anatomical basis. A study conducted by Vick and others (2006) suggests that the FACS can be modified by taking differences in underlying morphology into account. Such considerations enable a comparison of the homologous facial movements present in humans and chimpanzees, to show that the facial expressions of both species result from extremely notable appearance changes. The development of FACS tools for different species allows the objective and anatomical study of facial expressions in communicative and emotional contexts. Furthermore, a cross-species analysis of facial expressions can help to answer interesting questions, such as which emotions are uniquely human.


title: Facial Action Coding System

text: The Emotional Facial Action Coding System (EMFACS) and the Facial Action Coding System Affect Interpretation Dictionary (FACSAID) consider only emotion-related facial actions. Examples of these are:


title: Facial Action Coding System

text: For clarification, the FACS is an index of facial expressions, but does not actually provide any bio-mechanical information about the degree of muscle activation. Though muscle activation is not part of the FACS, the main muscles involved in the facial expression have been added here.


title: Facial Action Coding System

text: "Action descriptors" (ADs) are unitary movements that may involve the actions of several muscle groups (e.g., a forward‐thrusting movement of the jaw). The muscular basis for these actions has not been specified and specific behaviors have not been distinguished as precisely as for the AUs.


title: Facial Action Coding System

text: For the most accurate annotation, the FACS suggests agreement from at least two independent certified FACS encoders.


title: Facial Action Coding System

text: Intensities of the FACS are annotated by appending letters A–E (for minimal-maximal intensity) to the action unit number (e.g. AU 1A is the weakest trace of AU 1 and AU 1E is the maximum intensity possible for the individual person).


title: Facial Action Coding System

text: There are other modifiers present in FACS codes for emotional expressions, such as "R" which represents an action that occurs on the right side of the face and "L" for actions which occur on the left. An action which is unilateral (occurs on only one side of the face) but has no specific side is indicated with a "U" and an action which is bilateral but has a stronger side is indicated with an "A" for asymmetric.


title: Facial Action Coding System

text: These codes are reserved for recording information about gross behaviors that may be relevant to the facial actions that are scored.


title: Jejuri

text: Jejuri (Marathi pronunciation: ]) is a city and a municipal council in the Pune district of Maharashtra, India. The town has an important mandir to the Hindu Lord Khandoba, the Khandoba Mandir, which is one of the most visited tirtha (holy places) in Maharashtra.


title: Jejuri

text: Khandoba is a clan god for many Maharashtrian castes and communities, beloved as a god who grants wishes. His wives Mhalsa and Banai represent their caste groups, the Lingayat Vanya of Karnataka and the nomadic shepherds, the Dhangar tribe.


title: Jejuri

text: In 1739 Chimaji Appa, a general of the Maratha Empire and brother of Peshwa Bajirao, defeated the Portuguese in the Battle of Vasai. After the war, Chimaji Appa and his Maratha soldiers took 38 church bells from there as memorabilia and installed them in 34 Hindu mandirs of Maharashtra. They installed one of these bells in Khandoba's mandir, where it remains to this day.


title: Jejuri

text: The Koli brothers Naik Hari Makati and Naik Tatya Makaji were revolutionaries from Maharashtra who revolted against the British Hukumat. With Naik Rama Krishna of Kalambai, they raised an army of Ramoshis from Satara and revolted. In 1879, their Ramoshi army raided Poona fifteen times, then Satara many times after that. In February 1879, Naik Hari Makaji attacked a portion of Bhimthadi in Baramati. On the eighth raid into Baramati, Naik Hari Makaji was attacked by British police, but escaped, fighting hand to hand with two British policemen. He wounded them, but two Ramoshis were captured. At the beginning of March, Hari Makaji again rose, revolted and raided Indapur and raided, but was captured in Solapur in mid-March. Tatya Makaji led his revolution until the end of the year, raiding villages on the Purandar and Sinhagad ranges.


title: Jejuri

text: On 17 October, Koli Naik Tatya Makaji and some of his followers killed a Ramoshi who was an informer for British Major Wise. After that, Tatya Makaji Naik was brought to justice.


title: Jejuri

text: Jejuri has lime deposits. The historic Shaniwar Wada fort, the central seat of Maratha Empire at Pune was completed in 1732 by the famed Peshwa Bajirao I, at a total cost of 16,110, With lime mined from the lime-belts of Jejuri.


title: Jejuri

text: India census, Jejuri had a population of 14,515. Males constitute 51% of the population and females 49%. Jejuri has an average literacy rate of 73%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 79%, and female literacy is 67%. In Jejuri, 14% of the population is under 6 years of age.


title: Jejuri

text: The Khandoba temple is located in Jejuri, which lies to the southeast of the Pune city of Maharashtra. The town is known for one of the most revered temples in the state, the Khandobachi Jejuri. The temple is dedicated to Khandoba, also known as Mhalsakant or Malhari Martand or Mylaralinga. Khandoba is regarded as the 'God of Jejuri' and is held in great reverence by the Dhangars. The temple was the site of a historic treaty between Tarabai and Balaji Bajirao on 14 September 1752.


title: Jejuri

text: Every Somavati Amavasya (new moon that falls on a Monday), devotees of Khandoba gather at the magnificent Jejuri temple with tonnes of turmeric, smearing it on each other and throwing it all around amid energetic singing and dancing. The temple-town earned the ‘Sonyachi Jejuri’ (golden Jejuri) tag, thanks to this colourful celebration.


title: Jejuri

text: Jejuri Khandoba Temple can be easily divided into two separate sections - the Mandap and Garbhagriha.


title: Rachel Elnaugh

text: Rachel Elnaugh (born 12 December 1964) is a British entrepreneur who founded the UK gift company Red Letter Days. She was one of the investors participating in the first two series of BBC Two's TV show "Dragons' Den".


title: Rachel Elnaugh

text: When she was younger she lived above her father's electrical shop, 'Elnaugh and Son' in Chelmsford. Rachel attended Chelmsford County High School for Girls, a Grammar School in Essex. She originally wanted to take art history, but she was rejected by five universities, and she climbed the corporate ladder from being an office junior in a local firm of accountants to become a qualified tax consultant with Arthur Andersen.


title: Rachel Elnaugh

text: In 1989, Elnaugh founded Red Letter Days, one of the first UK companies to sell experiential gifts, such as motor racing days, hot air ballooning and health spa days. The idea to set up Red Letter Days came from purchasing tickets to a cricket match for her father as a gift.


title: Rachel Elnaugh

text: The company grew to an £18 million annual turnover and led to Elnaugh being a 2001/2 finalist in the Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year.


title: Rachel Elnaugh

text: After an attempt to expand the business into the retail sector, Red Letter Days went into administration on 1 August 2005. Elnaugh, who had become a dragon on the TV series "Dragons' Den", sold the remaining assets and goods of Red Letter Days to fellow dragons Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis.


title: Rachel Elnaugh

text: ITV1's "Tonight" programme criticized the business model of Red Letter Days, which included unpaid suppliers and disappointed purchasers. The programme suggested that the company failed to escrow or earmark supplier payment equity, instead of using it for working capital. However, Elnaugh blamed Red Letter Days' bankers.


title: Rachel Elnaugh

text: In the mid 2000s, Elnaugh joined the BBC's television series "Dragons' Den". She was one of the five investors ("Dragons") in the first two series of the show, making five agreed investment offers – in Grails, Le Beanock, Snowbone, Elizabeth Galton and Bedlam Puzzles.


title: Rachel Elnaugh

text: Her book "Business Nightmares" about the fine line between business success and failure was published by Crimson in May 2008. After this, Elnaugh was a business mentor for other entrepreneurs and founded the digital publishing and marketing platform Source TV in 2013. Her book "PROSPERITY" was published on 23 April 2016.


title: Assamese alphabet

text: The Assamese alphabet (, "Oxomiya bornomala") is a writing system of the Assamese language and is a part of the Bengali-Assamese script. This script was also used in Assam and nearby regions for Sanskrit as well as other languages such as Bodo (now Devanagari), Khasi (now Roman), Mising (now Roman), Jaintia (now Roman) etc. It evolved from Kamarupi script. The current form of the script has seen continuous development from the 5th-century Umachal/Nagajari-Khanikargaon rock inscriptions written in an eastern variety of the Gupta script, adopting significant traits from the Siddhaṃ script in the 7th century. By the 17th century three styles of Assamese alphabets could be identified ("baminiya", "kaitheli" and "garhgaya") that converged to the standard script following typesetting required for printing. The present standard is identical to the Bengali alphabet except for two letters, (ro) and (vo); and the letter (khya) has evolved into an individual consonant by itself with its own phonetic quality whereas in the Bengali alphabet it is a conjunct of two letters.


title: Assamese alphabet

text: The "Buranjis" were written during the Ahom dynasty in the Assamese language using the Assamese alphabet. In the 14th century Madhava Kandali used Assamese alphabets to compose the famous "Saptakanda Ramayana", which is the Assamese translation of Valmiki's Sanskrit "Ramayana". Later, Sankardev used it in the 15th and 16th centuries to compose his oeuvre in Assamese and Brajavali dialect, the literary language of the bhakti poems (borgeets) and dramas.


title: Assamese alphabet

text: The Ahom king Supangmung (1663–1670) was the first ruler who started issuing Assamese coins for his kingdom. Some similar scripts with minor differences are used to write Maithili, Bengali, Meithei and Sylheti.


title: Assamese alphabet

text: The Umachal rock inscription of the 5th century evidences the first use of a script in the region. The script was very similar to the one used in Samudragupta's Allahabad Pillar inscription. Rock and copper plate inscriptions from then onwards, and "Xaansi" bark manuscripts right up to the 18th–19th centuries show a steady development of the Assamese alphabet. The script could be said to develop proto-Assamese shapes by the 13th century. In the 18th and 19th century, the Assamese script could be divided into three varieties: "Kaitheli" (also called "Lakhari" in Kamrup region, used by non-Brahmins), "Bamuniya" (used by Brahmins, for Sanskrit) and "Garhgaya" (used by state officials of the Ahom kingdom)—among which the "Kaitheli" style was the most popular, with medieval books (like the "Hastir-vidyrnava") and sattras using this style. In the early part of the 19th century, Atmaram Sarmah designed the first Assamese script for printing in Serampore, and the Bengali and Assamese lithography converged to the present standard that is used today.


title: Assamese alphabet

text: The script presently has a total of 11 vowel letters, used to represent the eight main vowel sounds of Assamese, along with a number of vowel diphthongs. All of these are used in both Assamese and Bengali, the two main languages using the script. In addition to the vowel system in the Bengali alphabet the Assamese alphabet has an additional ""matra"" (ʼ) that is used to represent the phonemes and . Some of the vowel letters have different sounds depending on the word, and a number of vowel distinctions preserved in the writing system are not pronounced as such in modern spoken Assamese or Bengali. For example, the Assamese script has two symbols for the vowel sound and two symbols for the vowel sound . This redundancy stems from the time when this script was used to write Sanskrit, a language that had a short and a long , and a short and a long . These letters are preserved in the Assamese script with their traditional names of "hôrswô i" (lit. 'short i') and "dirghô i" (lit. 'long i'), etc., despite the fact that they are no longer pronounced differently in ordinary speech.


title: Assamese alphabet

text: Vowel signs can be used in conjunction with consonants to modify the pronunciation of the consonant (here exemplified by , kô). When no vowel is written, the vowel (ô or o) is often assumed. To specifically denote the absence of a vowel, () may be written underneath the consonant.


title: Assamese alphabet

text: The names of the consonant letters in Assamese are typically just the consonant's main pronunciation plus the inherent vowel "ô". Since the inherent vowel is assumed and not written, most letters' names look identical to the letter itself (e.g. the name of the letter is itself "ghô"). Some letters that have lost their distinctive pronunciation in Modern Assamese are called by a more elaborate name. For example, since the consonant phoneme /n/ can be written , , or (depending on the spelling of the particular word), these letters are not simply called "no"; instead, they are called "dontiya no" ("dental n"), "murdhoinno no" ("retroflex n"), and "nio". Similarly, the phoneme can be written as "taloibbo xo" ("palatal x"), "murdhoinno xo" ("retroflex x"), or "dontia xo" ("dental x"), the phoneme can be written using "prothom sô" ("first s") or "ditio so" ("second s"), and the phoneme can be written using "borgia zo" ("row z" = "the z included in the five rows of stop consonants") or "ontostho zo" ("z situated between" = "the z that comes between the five rows of stop consonants and the row of sibilants"), depending on the standard spelling of the particular word.


title: Assamese alphabet

text: Assamese or Asamiya consonants include thirty three pure consonant letters in Assamese alphabet and each letter represents a single sound with an inherent vowel, the short vowel /a /.


title: Assamese alphabet

text: The first twenty-five consonants letters are called sporxo borno. These "sporxo bornos" are again divided into five "borgos". Therefore, these twenty-five letters are also called borgio borno.


title: Assamese alphabet

text: The Assamese consonants are typically just the consonant's main pronunciation plus the inherent vowel o. The inherent vowel is assumed and not written, thus, names of most letters look identical to the letter itself (e.g. the name of the letter ঘ is itself ঘ gho).


title: Assamese alphabet

text: Some letters have lost their distinctive pronunciation in modern Assamese are called by a more elaborate name. For example, since the consonant phoneme /n/ can be written ন, ণ, or ঞ (depending on the spelling of the particular word), these letters are not simply called no; instead, they are called ন dointo no ("dental n"), ণ murdhoinno no ("cerebral n"), and ঞ nio.


title: Assamese alphabet

text: Similarly, the phoneme /x/ can be written as শ taloibbo xo ("palatal x"), ষ murdh9inno xo ("cerebral x"), or স dointo xo ("dental x"), the phoneme /s/ can be written using চ prothom so ("first s") or ছ ditio so ("second s"), and the phoneme /z/ can be written using জ borgio zo ("row z" = "the z included in the five rows of stop consonants") or য ontostho zo ("z situated between" = "the z that comes between the five rows of stop consonants and the row of sibilants"), depending on the standard spelling of the particular word.


title: Assamese alphabet

text: To write a consonant without the inherent vowel the halant sign is used below the base glyph. In Assamese this sign is called haxanta. (্)


title: Assamese alphabet

text: In Assamese, the combination of three consonants is possible without their intervening vowels. There are about 122 conjunct letters. A few conjunct letters are given below:


title: Assamese alphabet

text: Anuxôr ( ং ) indicates a nasal consonant sound (velar). When an anuxar comes before a consonant belonging to any of the 5 bargas, it represents the nasal consonant belonging to that barga.


title: Assamese alphabet

text: According to Dr. G. C. Goswami the number of two-phoneme clusters is 143 symbolised by 174 conjunct letters. Three phoneme clusters are 21 in number, which are written by 27 conjunct clusters. A few of them are given hereafter as examples:


title: Assamese alphabet

text: The "Indian languages TRANSliteration" (ITRANS) the ASCII transliteration scheme for Indic scripts here, Assamese; the characterisations are given below:


title: Assamese alphabet

text: The following is a sample text in Assamese of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:


title: Assamese alphabet

text: The Bengali–Assamese script was added to the Unicode Standard in October 1991 with the release of version 1.0.


title: Yamabushi

text: Their origins can be traced back to the solitary Yama-bito and some (saints or holy persons) of the eighth and ninth centuries.


title: Green roof

text: A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems. Container gardens on roofs, where plants are maintained in pots, are not generally considered to be true green roofs, although this is debated. Rooftop ponds are another form of green roofs which are used to treat greywater. Vegetation, soil, drainage layer, roof barrier and irrigation system constitute green roof.


title: Green roof

text: Green roofs serve several purposes for a building, such as absorbing rainwater, providing insulation, creating a habitat for wildlife, increasing benevolence and decreasing stress of the people around the roof by providing a more aesthetically pleasing landscape, and helping to lower urban air temperatures and mitigate the heat island effect. Green roofs are suitable for retrofit or redevelopment projects as well as new buildings and can be installed on small garages or larger industrial, commercial and municipal buildings. They effectively use the natural functions of plants to filter water and treat air in urban and suburban landscapes. There are two types of green roof: intensive roofs, which are thicker, with a minimum depth of , and can support a wider variety of plants but are heavier and require more maintenance, and extensive roofs, which are shallow, ranging in depth from to , lighter than intensive green roofs, and require minimal maintenance.


title: Green roof

text: The term "green roof" may also be used to indicate roofs that use some form of green technology, such as a cool roof, a roof with solar thermal collectors or photovoltaic panels. Green roofs are also referred to as "eco-roofs", "oikosteges", "vegetated roofs", "living roofs", "greenroofs" and "VCP (Horizontal Vegetated Complex Partitions)"


title: Green roof

text: Green roofs improve and reduce energy consumption. They can reduce heating by adding mass and thermal resistance value, also can reduce the heat island by increasing evapotranspiration. A 2005 study by Brad Bass of the University of Toronto showed that green roofs can also reduce heat loss and energy consumption in winter conditions. A modeling study found that adding green roofs to 50 percent of the available surfaces in downtown Toronto would cool the entire city by .


title: Green roof

text: A green roof reduces cooling (by evaporative cooling) loads on a building by fifty to ninety percent, especially if it is glassed-in so as to act as a terrarium and passive solar heat reservoir.


title: Green roof

text: A concentration of green roofs in an urban area can even reduce the city's average temperatures during the summer, combating the urban heat island effect. Traditional building materials soak up the sun's radiation and re-emit it as heat, making cities at least hotter than surrounding areas. On Chicago's City Hall, by contrast, which features a green roof, roof temperatures on a hot day are typically cooler than they are on traditionally roofed buildings nearby. Green roofs are becoming common in Chicago, as well as in Atlanta, Portland, and other United States cities, where their use is encouraged by regulations to combat the urban heat-island effect. Green roofs are a type of low impact development. In the case of Chicago, the city has passed codes offering incentives to builders who put green roofs on their buildings. The Chicago City Hall green roof is one of the earliest and most well-known examples of green roofs in the United States; it was planted as an experiment to determine the effects a green roof would have on the microclimate of the roof. Following this and other studies, it has now been estimated that if all the roofs in a major city were greened, urban temperatures could be reduced by as much as .


title: Green roof

text: Green roofs can reduce stormwater runoff via water-wise gardening techniques. Green roofs play a significant role in retrofitting the Low Impact Development (LID) practices in urban areas. A study presented at the Green Roofs for Healthy Cities Conference in June 2004, cited by the EPA, found water runoff was reduced by over 75% during rainstorms. Water is stored by the roof's substrate and then taken up by the plants, from which it is returned to the atmosphere through transpiration and evaporation.