title: Heritability of IQ

text: Asbury and colleagues (2005) studied the effect of environmental risk factors on verbal and non-verbal ability in a nationally representative sample of 4-year-old British twins. There was not any statistically significant interaction for non-verbal ability, but the heritability of verbal ability was found to be "higher" in low-SES and high-risk environments.


title: Heritability of IQ

text: Harden, Turkheimer, and Loehlin (2007) investigated adolescents, most 17 years old, and found that, among higher income families, genetic influences accounted for approximately 55% of the variance in cognitive aptitude and shared environmental influences about 35%. Among lower income families, the proportions were in the reverse direction, 39% genetic and 45% shared environment."


title: Heritability of IQ

text: In the course of a substantial review, Rushton and Jensen (2010) criticized the study of Capron and Duyme, arguing their choice of IQ test and selection of child and adolescent subjects were a poor choice because this gives a relatively less hereditable measure. The argument here rests on a strong form of Spearman's hypothesis, that the hereditability of different kinds of IQ test can vary according to how closely they correlate to the general intelligence factor ("g"); both the empirical data and statistical methodology bearing on this question are matters of active controversy.


title: Heritability of IQ

text: A 2011 study by Tucker-Drob and colleagues reported that at age 2, genes accounted for approximately 50% of the variation in mental ability for children being raised in high socioeconomic status families, but genes accounted for negligible variation in mental ability for children being raised in low socioeconomic status families. This gene–environment interaction was not apparent at age 10 months, suggesting that the effect emerges over the course of early development.


title: Heritability of IQ

text: A 2012 study based on a representative sample of twins from the United Kingdom, with longitudinal data on IQ from age two to age fourteen, did not find evidence for lower heritability in low-SES families. However, the study indicated that the effects of shared family environment on IQ were generally greater in low-SES families than in high-SES families, resulting in greater variance in IQ in low-SES families. The authors noted that previous research had produced inconsistent results on whether or not SES moderates the heritability of IQ. They suggested three explanations for the inconsistency. First, some studies may have lacked statistical power to detect interactions. Second, the age range investigated has varied between studies. Third, the effect of SES may vary in different demographics and different countries.


title: Heritability of IQ

text: A 2017 King's College London study suggests that genes account for nearly 50 per cent of the differences between whether children are socially mobile or not.


title: Heritability of IQ

text: A meta-analysis by Devlin and colleagues (1997) of 212 previous studies evaluated an alternative model for environmental influence and found that it fits the data better than the 'family-environments' model commonly used. The shared maternal (fetal) environment effects, often assumed to be negligible, account for 20% of covariance between twins and 5% between siblings, and the effects of genes are correspondingly reduced, with two measures of heritability being less than 50%. They argue that the shared maternal environment may explain the striking correlation between the IQs of twins, especially those of adult twins that were reared apart. IQ heritability increases during early childhood, but whether it stabilizes thereafter remains unclear. These results have two implications: a new model may be required regarding the influence of genes and environment on cognitive function; and interventions aimed at improving the prenatal environment could lead to a significant boost in the population's IQ.


title: Heritability of IQ

text: Bouchard and McGue reviewed the literature in 2003, arguing that Devlin's conclusions about the magnitude of heritability is not substantially different from previous reports and that their conclusions regarding prenatal effects stands in contradiction to many previous reports. They write that: Chipuer et al. and Loehlin conclude that the postnatal rather than the prenatal environment is most important. The Devlin et al. (1997a) conclusion that the prenatal environment contributes to twin IQ similarity is especially remarkable given the existence of an extensive empirical literature on prenatal effects. Price (1950), in a comprehensive review published over 50 years ago, argued that almost all MZ twin prenatal effects produced differences rather than similarities. As of 1950 the literature on the topic was so large that the entire bibliography was not published. It was finally published in 1978 with an additional 260 references. At that time Price reiterated his earlier conclusion (Price, 1978). Research subsequent to the 1978 review largely reinforces Price's hypothesis (Bryan, 1993; Macdonald et al., 1993; Hall and Lopez-Rangel, 1996; see also Martin et al., 1997, box 2; Machin, 1996).


title: Heritability of IQ

text: Dickens and Flynn (2001) argued that the "heritability" figure includes both a direct effect of the genotype on IQ and also indirect effects where the genotype changes the environment, in turn affecting IQ. That is, those with a higher IQ tend to seek out stimulating environments that further increase IQ. The direct effect can initially have been very small but feedback loops can create large differences in IQ. In their model an environmental stimulus can have a very large effect on IQ, even in adults, but this effect also decays over time unless the stimulus continues. This model could be adapted to include possible factors, like nutrition in early childhood, that may cause permanent effects.


title: Heritability of IQ

text: The Flynn effect is the increase in average intelligence test scores by about 0.3% annually, resulting in the average person today scoring 15 points higher in IQ compared to the generation 50 years ago. This effect can be explained by a generally more stimulating environment for all people. The authors suggest that programs aiming to increase IQ would be most likely to produce long-term IQ gains if they taught children how to replicate outside the program the kinds of cognitively demanding experiences that produce IQ gains while they are in the program and motivate them to persist in that replication long after they have left the program.


title: Heritability of IQ

text: Most of the improvements have allowed for better abstract reasoning, spatial relations, and comprehension. Some scientists have suggested that such enhancements are due to better nutrition, better parenting and schooling, as well as exclusion of the least intelligent people from reproduction. However, Flynn and a group of other scientists share the viewpoint that modern life implies solving many abstract problems which leads to a rise in their IQ scores.


title: Heritability of IQ

text: Recent research has illuminated genetic factors underlying IQ stability and change. Genome-wide association studies have demonstrated that the genes involved in intelligence remain fairly stable over time. Specifically, in terms of IQ stability, "genetic factors mediated phenotypic stability throughout this entire period [age 0 to 16], whereas most age-to-age instability appeared to be due to non-shared environmental influences". These findings have been replicated extensively and observed in the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Netherlands. Additionally, researchers have shown that naturalistic changes in IQ occur in individuals at variable times.


title: Heritability of IQ

text: Kong reports that, "Nurture has a genetic component, i.e. alleles in the parents affect the parents' phenotypes and through that influence the outcomes of the child." These results were obtained through a meta-analysis of educational attainment and polygenic scores of non-transmitted alleles. Although the study deals with educational attainment and not IQ, these two are strongly linked.


title: Heritability of IQ

text: Spatial ability has been shown to be unifactorial (a single score accounts well for all spatial abilities), and is 69% heritable in a sample of 1,367 pairs of twins from the ages 19 through 21. Further only 8% of spatial ability can be accounted for by shared environmental factors like school and family. Of the genetically determined portion of spatial ability, 24% is shared with verbal ability (general intelligence) and 43% was specific to spatial ability alone.


title: Heritability of IQ

text: A 2009 review article identified over 50 genetic polymorphisms that have been reported to be associated with cognitive ability in various studies, but noted that the discovery of small effect sizes and lack of replication have characterized this research so far. Another study attempted to replicate 12 reported associations between specific genetic variants and general cognitive ability in three large datasets, but found that only one of the genotypes was significantly associated with general intelligence in one of the samples, a result expected by chance alone. The authors concluded that most reported genetic associations with general intelligence are probably false positives brought about by inadequate sample sizes. Arguing that common genetic variants explain much of the variation in general intelligence, they suggested that the effects of individual variants are so small that very large samples are required to reliably detect them. Genetic diversity within individuals is heavily correlated with IQ.


title: Heritability of IQ

text: A novel molecular genetic method for estimating heritability calculates the overall genetic similarity (as indexed by the cumulative effects of all genotyped single nucleotide polymorphisms) between all pairs of individuals in a sample of unrelated individuals and then correlates this genetic similarity with phenotypic similarity across all the pairs. A study using this method estimated that the lower bounds for the narrow-sense heritability of crystallized and fluid intelligence are 40% and 51%, respectively. A replication study in an independent sample confirmed these results, reporting a heritability estimate of 47%. These findings are compatible with the view that a large number of genes, each with only a small effect, contribute to differences in intelligence.


title: Heritability of IQ

text: The relative influence of genetics and environment for a trait can be calculated by measuring how strongly traits covary in people of a given genetic (unrelated, siblings, fraternal twins, or identical twins) and environmental (reared in the same family or not) relationship. One method is to consider identical twins reared apart, with any similarities that exist between such twin pairs attributed to genotype. In terms of correlation statistics, this means that theoretically the correlation of tests scores between monozygotic twins would be 1.00 if genetics alone accounted for variation in IQ scores; likewise, siblings and dizygotic twins share on average half alleles and the correlation of their scores would be 0.50 if IQ were affected by genes alone (or greater if there is a positive correlation between the IQs of spouses in the parental generation). Practically, however, the upper bound of these correlations are given by the reliability of the test, which is 0.90 to 0.95 for typical IQ tests


title: Heritability of IQ

text: If there is biological inheritance of IQ, then the relatives of a person with a high IQ should exhibit a comparably high IQ with a much higher probability than the general population. In 1982, Bouchard and McGue reviewed such correlations reported in 111 original studies in the United States. The mean correlation of IQ scores between monozygotic twins was 0.86, between siblings 0.47, between half-siblings 0.31, and between cousins 0.15.


title: Heritability of IQ

text: The 2006 edition of "Assessing adolescent and adult intelligence" by Alan S. Kaufman and Elizabeth O. Lichtenberger reports correlations of 0.86 for identical twins raised together compared to 0.76 for those raised apart and 0.47 for siblings. These numbers are not necessarily static. When comparing pre-1963 to late 1970s data, researches DeFries and Plomin found that the IQ correlation between parent and child living together fell significantly, from 0.50 to 0.35. The opposite occurred for fraternal twins.


title: Heritability of IQ

text: Every one of these studies presented next contains estimates of only two of the three factors which are relevant. The three factors are G, E, and GxE. Since there is no possibility of studying equal environments in a manner comparable to using identical twins for equal genetics, the GxE factor can not be isolated. Thus the estimates are actually of G+GxE and E. Although this may seem like nonsense, it is justified by the unstated assumption that GxE=0. It is also the case that the values shown below are r correlations and not r(squared), proportions of variance. Numbers less than one are smaller when squared. The next to last number in the list below refers to less than 5% shared variance between a parent and child living apart.


title: Heritability of IQ

text: In the US, individuals identifying themselves as Asian generally tend to score higher on IQ tests than Caucasians, who tend to score higher than Hispanics, who tend to score higher than African Americans –– despite the fact that greater variation in IQ scores exists within each ethnic group than between them. Yet, although IQ differences between individuals have been shown to have a large hereditary component, it does not follow that between-group differences in average IQ have a genetic basis. The scientific consensus is that genetics does not explain average differences in IQ test performance between racial groups. Growing evidence indicates that environmental factors, not genetic ones, explain the racial IQ gap.


title: Heritability of IQ

text: Arguments in support of a genetic explanation of racial differences in average IQ are sometimes fallacious. For instance, some hereditarians have cited as evidence the failure of known environmental factors to account for such differences, or the high heritability of intelligence within races. Jensen and Rushton, in their formulation of Spearman's Hypothesis, argued that cognitive tasks that have the highest "g"-load are the tasks in which the gap between black and white test takers is greatest, and that this supports their view that racial IQ gaps are in large part genetic. However, in separate reviews, Mackintosh, Nisbett "et al". and Flynn have all concluded that the slight correlation between "g"-loading and the test score gap offers no clue to the cause of the gap. Further reviews of both adoption studies and racial admixture studies have also found no evidence for a genetic component behind group-level IQ differences. Hereditarian arguments for racial differences in IQ have been criticized from a theoretical point of view as well. For example, the geneticist and neuroscientist Kevin Mitchell has argued that "systematic genetic differences in intelligence between large, ancient populations" are "inherently and deeply implausible" because the "constant churn of genetic variation works against any long-term rise or fall in intelligence." As he argues, "To end up with systematic genetic differences in intelligence between large, ancient populations, the selective forces driving those differences would need to have been enormous. What's more, those forces would have to have acted across entire continents, with wildly different environments, and have been persistent over tens of thousands of years of tremendous cultural change."


title: Heritability of IQ

text: In favor of an environmental explanation, on the other hand, numerous studies and reviews have shown promising results. Among these, some focus on the gradual closing of the black–white IQ gap over the last decades of the 20th century, as black test-takers increased their average scores relative to white test-takers. For instance, Vincent reported in 1991 that the black–white IQ gap was decreasing among children, but that it was remaining constant among adults. Similarly, a 2006 study by Dickens and Flynn estimated that the difference between mean scores of black people and white people closed by about 5 or 6 IQ points between 1972 and 2002, a reduction of about one-third. In the same period, the educational achievement disparity also diminished. Reviews by Flynn and Dickens, Mackintosh, and Nisbett "et al." all accept the gradual closing of the gap as a fact. Other recent studies have focused on disparities in nutrition and prenatal care, as well as other health-related environmental disparities, and have found that these disparities may account for significant IQ gaps between population groups. Still other studies have focused on educational disparities, and have found that intensive early childhood education and test preparation can diminish or eliminate the black–white IQ test gap. In light of these and similar findings, a consensus has formed that genetics does not explain differences in average IQ test performance between racial groups.


title: Emma Rigby

text: Emma Catherine Rigby (born 26 September 1989) is an English actress. After rising to prominence for her role as Hannah Ashworth in "Hollyoaks", she later played Gemma Roscoe in the BBC One drama series "Prisoners' Wives" and as the Red Queen in the American fantasy-drama "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland". She also played the lead role of Angie in Movies 24's "A Cinderella Christmas", directed by Tosca Musk.


title: Emma Rigby

text: Rigby was born in St Helens, Merseyside, she attended De La Salle High School, where she gained 10 A* at GCSE. Rigby began working professionally at the age of 14.


title: Emma Rigby

text: Rigby's television debut came in June 2003 as Lisa Gunstone in the BBC's drama series "Born and Bred". She also played Elena Jones, schoolfriend of Anthony Murray (Raymond Quinn), in four episodes of the Channel 4 soap "Brookside" in the same year.


title: Emma Rigby

text: In 2005, at the age of 15, Rigby was cast as Hannah Ashworth in "Hollyoaks". She received praise and recognition for her character's anorexia storyline, in which she was nominated for various awards, including winning the British Soap Award for Best Actress in 2008.


title: Emma Rigby

text: In 2008, Rigby announced she was leaving "Hollyoaks" in November to pursue other projects, and would remain on-screen until June 2009. However, after meetings with soap bosses, Rigby extended her contract for an additional six months and remained on-screen until February 2010. Her final episode was broadcast on 11 February 2010.


title: Emma Rigby

text: In 2010, Rigby made her debut in the West End thriller musical "Wolfboy". She had a non-singing part, playing the role of nurse Cherry. She received positive feedback from critics. Rigby has modelled for over a decade, shooting a campaign with the photographer Rory Lewis in late February 2010. From 2009–2011 she starred in several short films, including the award-winning "Talk".


title: Emma Rigby

text: In 2011, Rigby starred as Brandy Mulligan in online series "Becoming Human". The same year, she appeared in the horror film "Demons Never Die," and in September she had a role in the first episode of the C4 comedy "Fresh Meat" as Rachel.


title: Emma Rigby

text: In 2012 Rigby starred in the six-part drama series "Prisoners' Wives", along with Jonas Armstrong. The show's first episode aired on 31 January 2012. Rigby played Gemma Roscoe, a young pregnant girl whose life falls apart when her husband is arrested for murder. In March 2012, she had a guest role in "Pramface" as Mike's blind date Carrie-Ann. In June 2012, it was announced that she had scored the female lead in "The Physician" alongside Ben Kingsley. The film was released in late 2013. Also in 2013, she made her US film debut with a role in the Ridley Scott film "The Counsellor".


title: Emma Rigby

text: In 2013, Rigby appeared in episode four of "Ripper Street" as Lucy Eames, and in episode one of "The Job Lot." In April 2013 Rigby was cast in a lead role as the Red Queen in the U.S. television series "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland".


title: Emma Rigby

text: In 2014 she starred in the remake of "Endless Love" and also played the female lead in the British crime film "Plastic" which is based on a true story, about a group of English university students running a successful credit card scam.


title: Emma Rigby

text: In 2015, Rigby worked alongside James Franco in the movie adaptation of his book "Actors Anonymous". It was released in 2017.


title: Emma Rigby

text: In 2016 Rigby made a return to British television after a three-year absence, with a guest appearance on "Death in Paradise". Also in 2016 she had a minor role in the US television remake of "Mother, May I Sleep with Danger?" which premiered on Lifetime on 18 June. In the summer of 2016, Rigby signed on for her first female lead in a US film, starring as Angie in romantic comedy "A Cinderella Christmas". It was filmed during that summer and released in December of the same year. She also shot American crime thriller drama "American Violence", playing Olivia Rose, which was released in early 2017.


title: Emma Rigby

text: In 2017, Rigby starred as the female lead in "Hollywood Dirt" which released on Passionflix in September. In May, Rigby appeared in the first episode of the final series of "Inspector George Gently" as Betty Platt. In September, Rigby joined the cast of comedy film "The Festival". She played Smurf Girl and the film was released in 2018.


title: Emma Rigby

text: In 2018, Rigby guest starred in the first two episodes of Sky One's "Bulletproof". In October, Rigby joined the cast of the West End production of Agatha Christie's "Witness for the Prosecution". Rigby played Romaine Vole in the play, and made her first appearance in the role at London's County Hall on 20 November 2018 and her final appearance on 26 May 2019.


title: Emma Rigby

text: Rigby is an ambassador for the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development CAFOD. and for the Douai Foundation.


title: Emma Rigby

text: In 2007, at the age of 17, Rigby was nominated for Best Actress in the British Soap Awards (being one year too old to qualify for Best Dramatic Performance for a Young Actor/Actress), but did not make it to the final four. She was also nominated for Most Popular Actress at the National Television Awards. A year later, she won The British Soap Award for Best Actress and was nominated for Best Dramatic Performance, but lost to Jo Joyner.


title: Emma Rigby

text: Her portrayal of Hannah Ashworth's battle with anorexia attracted praise. She won best storyline for Hannah's eating disorder at the annual "Hollyoaks" awards. She was up against John Paul and Craig's affair, the "Who pushed Clare?" storyline, and Kris and Jess's relationship. At the All About Soap Bubble Awards in April 2008, Rigby won an award for the 'I'm a Survivor' (for the bravest soul in soap) category.


title: Political polarization

text: Political polarization (spelled "polarisation" in British English) is the divergence of political attitudes away from the center, towards ideological extremes.


title: Political polarization

text: Most discussions of polarization in political science consider polarization in the context of political parties and democratic systems of government. In two-party systems, political polarization usually embodies the tension of its binary political ideologies and partisan identities. However, some political scientists assert that contemporary polarization depends less on policy differences on a left and right scale but increasingly on other divisions such as religious against secular, nationalist against globalist, traditional against modern, or rural against urban. Polarization is associated with the process of politicization.


title: Political polarization

text: Scholars distinguish between ideological polarization (differences between the policy positions) and affective polarization (an emotional dislike and distrust of political out-groups).


title: Political polarization

text: Political scientists typically distinguish between two levels of political polarization: elite and mass. "Elite polarization" focuses on the polarization of the political elites, like party organizers and elected officials. "Mass polarization" (or popular polarization) focuses on the polarization of the masses, most often the electorate or general public.


title: Political polarization

text: Elite polarization refers to polarization between the party-in-government and the party-in-opposition. Polarized political parties are internally cohesive, unified, programmatic, and ideologically distinct; they are typically found in a parliamentary system of democratic governance.


title: Political polarization

text: In a two-party system, a polarized legislature has two important characteristics: first, there is little-to-no ideological overlap between members of the two parties; and second, almost all conflict over legislation and policies is split across a broad ideological divide. This leads to a conflation of political parties and ideologies (i.e., Democrat and Republican become nearly perfect synonyms for liberal and conservative) and the collapse of an ideological center. However, using a cross-national design that covers 25 European countries, a recent study shows that it is not the number of parties itself, but the way a party interreacts with another that influences the magnitude and nature of affective polarization.


title: Political polarization

text: The vast majority of studies on elite polarization focus on legislative and deliberative bodies. For many years, political scientists measured polarization in the US by examining the ratings of party members published by interest groups, but now, most analyze roll-call voting patterns to investigate trends in party-line voting and party unity. Gentzkow, Shapiro, and Taddy used the text of the Congressional Record to document differences in speech patterns between Republicans and Democrats as a measure of polarization, finding a dramatic increase in polarized speech patterns starting in 1994.


title: Political polarization

text: Mass polarization, or popular polarization, occurs when an electorate's attitudes towards political issues, policies, celebrated figures, or other citizens are neatly divided along party lines. At the extreme, each camp questions the moral legitimacy of the other, viewing the opposing camp and its policies as an existential threat to their way of life or the nation as a whole.


title: Political polarization

text: There are multiple types or measures of mass polarization. "Ideological polarization" refers to the extent to which the electorate has divergent beliefs on ideological issues (e.g., abortion or affirmative action) or beliefs that are consistently conservative or liberal across a range of issues (e.g., having a conservative position on both abortion and affirmative action even if those positions are not "extreme"). "Partisan sorting" refers to the extent to which the electorate "sorts" or identifies with a party based on their ideological, racial, religious, gender, or other demographic characteristics. "Affective polarization" refers to the extent to which the electorate "dislikes" or "distrusts" those from other parties.


title: Political polarization

text: Political scientists who study mass polarization generally rely on data from opinion polls and election surveys. They look for trends in respondents' opinions on a given issue, their voting history, and their political ideology (conservative, liberal, moderate, etc.), and they try to relate those trends to respondents' party identification and other potentially polarizing factors (like geographic location or income bracket). Political scientists typically limit their inquiry to issues and questions that have been constant over time, in order to compare the present day to what the political climate has historically been.Some of recent studies also use decision-making games to measure the extent to which ingroup members discriminate outgroup members relative to their group members.


title: Political polarization

text: Recent academic work shows how intolerance affects polarization. Having systematically less tolerance at the ideological extremes can lead to polarization with opinions more polarized than identities. In contrast, intolerance among moderates helps cohesion.


title: Political polarization

text: Some political scientists argue that polarization requires divergence on a broad range of issues, while others argue that only a few issues are required.


title: Political polarization

text: There are various causes of political polarization and these include political parties, redistricting, the public's political ideology, and the mass media.


title: Political polarization

text: Some scholars argue that diverging parties has been one of the major driving forces of polarization as policy platforms have become more distant. This theory is based on recent trends in the United States Congress, where the majority party prioritizes the positions that are most aligned with its party platform and political ideology. The adoption of more ideologically distinct positions by political parties can cause polarization among both elites and the electorate. For example, after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, the number of conservative Democrats in Congress decreased, while the number of conservative Republicans increased. Within the electorate during the 1970s, Southern Democrats shifted toward the Republican Party, showing polarization among both the elites and the electorate of both main parties. In this sense, political polarization could be a top-down process, in which elite polarization leads to—or at least precedes—popular polarization. However, polarization among elites does not necessarily produce polarization within the electorate, and polarized electoral choices can often reflect elite polarization rather than voters' preferences.


title: Political polarization

text: Political scientists have shown politicians have an incentive to advance and support polarized positions. These argue that during the early 1990s, the Republican Party used polarizing tactics to become the majority party in the United States House of Representatives—which political scientists Thomas E. Mann and Norman Ornstein refer to as Newt Gingrich's "guerrilla war." What political scientists have found is that moderates are less likely to run than are candidates who are in line with party doctrine, otherwise known as "party fit." Other theories state politicians who cater to more extreme groups within their party tend to be more successful, helping them stay in office while simultaneously pulling their constituency toward a polar extreme. A study by Nicholson (2012) found voters are more polarized by contentious statements from leaders of the opposing party than from the leaders of their own party. As a result, political leaders may be more likely to take polarized stances.


title: Political polarization

text: With regards to multiparty systems, Giovanni Sartori (1966, 1976) claims the splitting of ideologies in the public constituency causes further divides within the political parties of the countries. He theorizes that the extremism of public ideological movement is the basis for the creation of highly polarized multiparty systems. Sartori named this polarizing phenomenon polarized pluralism and claimed it would lead to further polarization in many opposing directions (as opposed to in simply two directions, as in a polarized two-party system) over policy issues. Polarization in multiparty systems can also be defined along two ideological extremes, like in the case of India in the 1970s. Ideological splits within a number of India's major parties resulted in two polarized coalitions on the right and left, each consisting of multiple political parties.


title: Political polarization

text: Political fund-raisers and donors can also exert significant influence and control over legislators. Party leaders are expected to be productive fund-raisers, in order to support the party's campaigns. After "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission", special interests in the U.S. were able to greatly impact elections through increased undisclosed spending, notably through Super political action committees. Some, such as "Washington Post" opinion writer Robert Kaiser, argued this allowed wealthy people, corporations, unions, and other groups to push the parties' policy platforms toward ideological extremes, resulting in a state of greater polarization. Other scholars, such as Raymond J. La Raja and David L. Wiltse, note that this does not necessarily hold true for mass donors to political campaigns. These scholars argue a single donor who is polarized and contributes large sums to a campaign does not seem to usually drive a politician toward political extremes.


title: Political polarization

text: In democracies and other representative governments, citizens vote for the political actors who will represent them. Some scholars argue that political polarization reflects the public's ideology and voting preferences. Dixit and Weibull (2007) claim that political polarization is a natural and regular phenomenon. Party loyalism is a strong element of voters' thinking. Individuals who have higher political knowledge will not be influenced by anything a politician says. The polarization is merely a reflection of the party that the voter belongs to, and whichever direction it moves in. They argue that there is a link between public differences in ideology and the polarization of representatives, but that an increase in preference differences is usually temporary and ultimately results in compromise. Fernbach, Rogers, Fox and Sloman (2013) argue that it is a result of people having an exaggerated faith in their understanding of complex issues. Asking people to explain their policy preferences in detail typically resulted in more moderate views. Simply asking them to list the reasons for their preferences did not result in any such moderation.


title: Political polarization

text: Studies undertaken in the U.S. (2019) and the UK (2022) have found that political polarisation is generally less acute among the public than is portrayed in the media.


title: Political polarization

text: Morris P. Fiorina (2006, 2008) posits the hypothesis that polarization is a phenomenon which does not hold for the public, and instead is formulated by commentators to draw further division in government. Other studies indicate that cultural differences focusing on ideological movements and geographical polarization within the United States constituency is correlated with rises in overall political polarization between 1972 and 2004.


title: Political polarization

text: Religious, ethnic, and other cultural divides within the public have often influenced the emergence of polarization. According to Layman et al. (2005), the ideological split between U.S. Republicans and Democrats also crosses into the religious cultural divide. They claim that Democrats have generally become more moderate in religious views whereas Republicans have become more traditionalist. For example, political scientists have shown that in the United States, voters who identify as Republican are more likely to vote for a strongly evangelical candidate than Democratic voters. This correlates with the rise in polarization in the United States. Another theory contends that religion does not contribute to full-group polarization, but rather, coalition and party activist polarization causes party shifts toward a political extreme.


title: Political polarization

text: In some post-colonial countries, the public may be polarized along ethnic divides that remain from the colonial regime. In South Africa in the late 1980s, members of the conservative, pro-apartheid National Party were no longer supportive of apartheid, and, therefore, no longer ideologically aligned with their party. Dutch Afrikaners, white English, and native Africans split based on racial divisions, causing polarization along ethnic lines.


title: Political polarization

text: Economic inequality can also motivate the polarization of the public. For example, in post-World War I Germany, the Communist Workers Party, and the National Socialists, a fascist party, emerged as the dominant political ideologies and proposed to address Germany's economic problems in drastically different ways. In Venezuela, in the late 20th century, presidential candidate Hugo Chávez used economic inequality in the country to polarize voters, employing a popular and aggresive tone to gain popularity.


title: Political polarization

text: The impact of redistricting—potentially through gerrymandering or the manipulation of electoral borders to favor a political party—on political polarization in the United States has been found to be minimal in research by leading political scientists. The logic for this minimal effect is twofold: first, gerrymandering is typically accomplished by packing opposition voters into a minority of congressional districts in a region, while distributing the preferred party's voters over a majority of districts by a slimmer majority than otherwise would have existed. The result of this is that the number of competitive congressional districts would be expected to increase, and in competitive districts representatives have to compete with the other party for the median voter, who tends to be more ideologically moderate. Second, political polarization has also occurred in the Senate, which does not experience redistricting because Senators represent fixed geographical units, i.e. states. The argument that redistricting, through gerrymandering, would contribute to political polarization is based on the idea that new non-competitive districts created would lead to the election of extremist candidates representing the supermajority party, with no accountability to the voice of the minority. One difficulty in testing this hypothesis is to disentangle gerrymandering effects from natural geographical sorting through individuals moving to congressional districts with a similar ideological makeup to their own. Carson et al. (2007), has found that redistricting has contributed to the greater level of polarization in the House of Representatives than in the Senate, however that this effect has been "relatively modest". Politically motivated redistricting has been associated with the rise in partisanship in the U.S. House of Representatives between 1992 and 1994.


title: Political polarization

text: The mass media has grown as an institution over the past half-century. Political scientists argue that this has particularly affected the voting public in the last three decades, as previously less partisan viewers are given more polarized news media choices. The mass media's current, fragmented, high-choice environment has induced a movement of the audience from more even-toned political programming to more antagonistic and one-sided broadcasts and articles. These programs tend to appeal to partisan viewers who watch the polarized programming as a self-confirming source for their ideologies.


title: Political polarization

text: Countries with less diversified but emerging media markets, such as China and South Korea, have become more polarized due to the diversification of political media. In addition, most search engines and social networks (e.g., Google, Facebook) now utilize computer algorithms as filters, which personalize web content based on a user's search history, location, and previous clicking patterns, creating more polarized access to information. This method of personalizing web content results in "filter bubbles", a term coined by digital activist Eli Pariser that refers to the polarized ideological bubbles that are created by computer algorithms filtering out unrelated information and opposing views.


title: Political polarization

text: A 2011 study found ideological segregation of online news consumption is lower than the segregation of most offline news consumption and lower than the segregation of face-to-face interactions. This suggests that the filter bubbles effects of online media consumption are exaggerated. Other research also shows that online media does not contribute to the increased polarization of opinions. Solomon Messing and Sean J. Westwood state that individuals do not necessarily become polarized through media because they choose their own exposure, which tends to already align with their views. For instance, in an experiment where people could choose the content they wanted, people did not start to dislike their political opponents more after selecting between pro or anti immigration content. People did, however, start to counterargue the content.


title: Political polarization

text: Academic studies found that providing people with impartial, objective information has the potential to reduce political polarization, but the effect of information on polarization is highly sensitive to contextual factors. Specifically, polarization over government spending was reduced when people were provided with a "Taxpayer Receipt," but not when they were also asked how they wanted the money to be spent. This suggests that subtle factors like the mood and tone of partisan news sources may have a large effect on how the same information is interpreted. This is confirmed by another study that shows that different emotions of messages can lead to polarization or convergence: joy is prevalent in emotional polarization, while sadness and fear play significant roles in emotional convergence. These findings can help to design more socially responsible algorithms by starting to focus on the emotional content of algorithmic recommendations.


title: Political polarization

text: Research has primarily focused on the United States, a country with high polarization that has also increased over time. In Sweden, on the other hand, there is a stable ideological polarization over time. Experiments and surveys from Sweden also give limited support to the idea of increased ideological or affective polarization due to media use.


title: Political polarization

text: Some of recent studies emphasize the role of electoral context and the way parties interact with each other. For example, coalition partnership can moderate the extent of affective polarization over parties. Also, electoral context, such as electoral salience, involvement in elections, elite polarisation, and the strength of Eurosceptic parties, can intensify the divide.


title: Political polarization

text: The implications of political polarization "are not entirely clear and may include some benefits as well as detrimental consequences." Polarization can be benign, natural, and democratizing, or it can be pernicious, having long term malignant effects on society and congesting essential democratic functions. Where voters see the parties as less divergent, they are less likely to be satisfied with how their democracy works. While its exact effects are disputed, it clearly alters the political process and the political composition of the general public.


title: Political polarization

text: In political science, pernicious polarization occurs when a single political cleavage overrides other divides and commonalities to the point it has boiled into a single divide which becomes entrenched and self-reinforcing. Unlike most types of polarization, pernicious polarization does not need to be ideological. Rather, pernicious polarization operates on a single political cleavage, which can be partisan identity, religious vs secular, globalist vs nationalist, urban vs rural, etc. This political divide creates an explosion of mutual group distrust which hardens between the two political parties (or coalitions) and spreads beyond the political sphere into societal relations. People begin to perceive politics as "us" vs "them."


title: Political polarization

text: According to Carothers & O'Donohue (2019), pernicious polarization is a process most often driven by a single political cleavage dominating an otherwise pluralistic political life, overriding other cleavages. On the other hand, Slater & Arugay (2019) have argued that it's not the depth of a single social cleavage, but the political elite's process for removing a leader which best explains whether or not polarization truly becomes pernicious. Lebas & Munemo (2019) have argued pernicious polarization is marked by both deeper societal penetration and segregation than other forms of political polarization, making it less amenable to resolution. It is agreed, however, that pernicious polarization reinforces and entrenches itself, dragging the country into a downward spiral of anger and division for which there are no easy remedies.


title: Political polarization

text: Pernicious polarization makes compromise, consensus, interaction, and tolerance increasingly costly and tenuous for individuals and political actors on both sides of the divide. Pernicious polarization routinely weakens respect for democratic norms, corrodes basic legislative processes, undermines the nonpartisan nature of the judiciary and fuels public disaffection with political parties. It exacerbates intolerance and discrimination, diminishes societal trust, and increases violence throughout the society. As well as potentially leading to democratic backsliding. In country-by-country instances of pernicious polarization, it is common to see the winner exclude the loser from positions of power or using means to prevent the loser from becoming a threat in the future. In these situations, the loser typically questions the legitimacy of the institutions allowing the winner to create a hegemony, which causes citizens to grow cynical towards politics. In these countries, politics is often seen as a self-referential power game that has nothing to do with people.


title: Political polarization

text: Perniciously polarized societies often witness public controversies over factually provable questions. During this process, facts and moral truths increasingly lose their weight, as more people conform to the messages of their own bloc. Social and political actors such as journalists, academics, and politicians either become engaged in partisan storytelling or else incur growing social, political, and economic costs. Electorates lose confidence in public institutions. Support for norms and democracy decline. It becomes increasingly difficult for people to act in a morally principled fashion by appealing to the truth or acting in line with one's values when it conflicts with one's party interests. Once pernicious polarization takes hold, it takes on a life of its own, regardless of earlier intentions.


title: Political polarization

text: Several political scientists have argued that most types of political polarization are beneficial to democracy, as well as a natural feature. The simplifying features of polarization can help democratization. Strategies which depend on opposition and exclusion are present in all forms of observed politics. Political polarization can help transform or disrupt the status quo, sometimes addressing injustices or imbalances in a popular vs. oligarchic struggle.


title: Political polarization

text: Political polarization can serve to unify, invigorate, or mobilize potential allies at the elite and mass levels. It can also help to divide, weaken, or pacify competitors. Even the most celebrated social movements can be described as a "group of people involved in a conflict with clearly defined opponents having a conflictual orientation toward an opponent and a common identity."


title: Political polarization

text: Political polarization can also provide voting heuristics to help voters choose among candidates, enabling political parties to mobilize supporters and provide programmatic choices. Polarizing politics can also help to overcome internal differences and frame a common identity, based in part on a common opposition to those resisting reforms. Still, polarization can be a risky political tool even when intended as an instrument of democratization, as it risks turning pernicious and self-propagating.


title: Political polarization

text: Outside of the U.S., there are plenty of modern-day examples of polarization in politics. A bulk of the research into global polarization comes from Europe. One example includes Pasokification in Greece. This is the trend from a shift from the center-left to a more far-left stance. Pasokification was caused by the Greek populous growing dissatisfied with the country's centrist more left-wing party and how they handled the Great Recession and the austerity measures the European Union put in place during recovery. Although the shift further to the left was a massive benefits to the liberal population in Greece, the results in Greece, as well as other nations like Germany, Sweden, and Italy, have not been able to sustain themselves. Parties who have made the shift left have recently shown a decline in the voting booths, evidence their supporters are uneasy of the future.


title: Political polarization

text: In the 2010s, the shift in Greece to the far left is similar to the shift in countries like Poland, France, and the UK to more far-right conservative positions. Much of the polarization in these nations leads to either a more socialist left-wing party, or more nationalist right-wing party. These more polarized parties grow from the discontent of more moderate parties inability to provide progressive changes in either direction. In Poland, France, and the UK, there is heavy anti-Islam sentiment and the rise of populist commentary. The general population of the right in these countries tends to hold onto these more aggressive stances and pulls the parties further to the right. These stances include populist messages with Islamophobic, isolationist, and anti-LGBTQ language.


title: Kristin Lehman

text: Kristin Lehman (born May 3, 1972) is a Canadian actress and dancer known for her roles in the television series "", "Judging Amy", and "The Killing". From 2013 to 2016, she starred as Detective Angie Flynn in the CTV series "Motive". In 2018, Lehman played Miriam Bancroft, wife of Laurens Bancroft, in Season 1 of Netflix's "Altered Carbon".


title: Kristin Lehman

text: Lehman was born in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada, grew up in Vancouver, and studied classical ballet at Canada's Royal Academy of Dance for eight years. She has acted professionally since 1995. In the 1990s, she appeared in Canadian programs such as "Forever Knight", "Due South" and "", before moving to Los Angeles.


title: Kristin Lehman

text: Lehman was a regular cast member in the Showtime horror series "" (1998–99). She later starred in the short-lived ABC medical drama "Strange World" (1999). She also was a regular cast member in the short-lived dramas "Century City", "Tilt", "Killer Instinct" and "Drive". Lehman also appeared in recurring roles in "Felicity" and "Judging Amy", and played guest roles on many shows, including "The Outer Limits", "The Twilight Zone", "Andromeda", "Kevin Hill", "Prison Break", and "Castle".


title: Kristin Lehman

text: Lehman's film credits include "Alaska" (1996), "Bleeders" (1997), "Dog Park" (1998), "The Way of the Gun" (2000), "Lie with Me" (2005), "The Sentinel" (2006), "The Loft" (2013), and television movies "Playing House", "Rapid Fire" and "The Gathering".


title: Kristin Lehman

text: Lehman starred in AMC's drama series "The Killing" from 2011 to 2012, and she played the lead role in the Canadian series "Motive" for four seasons.


title: Hillary Step

text: The Hillary Step was a nearly vertical rock face with a height of around located near the summit of Mount Everest, about above sea level. Located on the southeast ridge, halfway between the "South Summit" and the true summit, the Hillary Step was the most technically difficult part of the typical Nepal-side Everest climb and the last real challenge before reaching the top of the mountain. The rock face was destroyed by an earthquake that struck the region in 2015.


title: Hillary Step

text: Climbing the Hillary Step had the danger of a drop on the right (when going up) and an drop on the left. An unaided climb was rated as a Class 4 rock climb—but in the death zone. One expedition noted that climbing the Hillary Step was "strenuous" but did offer some protection from the elements.


title: Hillary Step

text: In some climbing seasons after heavy snowfall, the rock face could be bypassed with snow/ice climbing.


title: Hillary Step

text: Anatoli Boukreev found a body hanging from ropes at the base of the step in 1996, according to his book "The Climb".


title: Hillary Step

text: The step was named after Sir Edmund Hillary, who was the first known person, along with Tenzing Norgay, to scale it on the way to the summit during the 1953 British Mount Everest Expedition. Hillary and Tenzing first climbed the Hillary Step on 29 May 1953 by climbing the crack between the snow and the rock. Hillary reported that the snow on the step was harder than at lower elevation. Hillary wrote in 1953:


title: Hillary Step

text: The reference to being hauled up like a fish rankled with Tenzing, and the "fish" simile disappeared from later accounts.


title: Hillary Step

text: In 1953, the step was seen by the first assault party of Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans when they reached the South Summit on 26 May at 13:00, too late to attempt the summit. Seated on the snow dome, they could look closely at the last ascent to the summit. It was not the gentle snow ridge they had hoped for, but a thin crest of snow and ice on rock, steep on the left, overhanging as a cornice on the right. It was interrupted by a formidable-looking rock step two-thirds of the way up.


title: Hillary Step

text: In more recent years, the ascent and descent over the Step were generally made with the assistance of fixed ropes, usually placed there by the first ascending team of the season. In a good climbing situation, it was about a two-hour climb from the South Summit to the Hillary Step, one to two hours to climb the cliff, and then another 20 minutes from the top of the Hillary Step to the summit of Mount Everest. Only one climber at a time could traverse it. With increasing numbers of people climbing the mountain, the Step frequently became a bottleneck, with climbers forced to wait for their turn on the ropes and thereby slowing the flow of people up and down the mountain.


title: Hillary Step

text: It was suspected in 2016 that the April 2015 Nepal earthquake had altered the Hillary Step, but there was so much snow it was not clear whether it had truly changed. Kenton Cool wrote that the Hillary Step "is only 12 to 15 feet [3.7 to 4.6 m] high." In May 2017, Tim Mosedale and other climbers reported that "the Hillary Step is no more", although the full extent and interpretation of the changes were still nascent. Another climber who thought the Step changed by 2016 was six-time Everest summiter David Liaño Gonzalez, who summited in 2013 and 2016, when the relevant changes are reported to have occurred. However, some important Nepalese climbers, including Ang Tshering Sherpa, chairman of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, reported that the Step was still intact but covered in more snow than before. Later in the year, after seeing a large exhibition of photos from 2006 to 2016, he did agree that at least the upper portion of the step had indeed changed.


title: Hillary Step

text: Peter Hillary, Edmund Hillary's son, was asked his opinion about the Step based on photos. He agreed it was there in part, but seemed to think it had undergone some sort of a change, noting especially what looked like a fresh broken rock. By early June 2017, more reports and photographic evidence came in, with Garrett Madison reporting that the step had conclusively changed. Dave Hahn, who has climbed Everest 15 times, was shown photos and agreed that it was changed. A special kind of mourning hit the community with realization of missing rocks and freshly hewn scars of new coloured rock at this landmark feature. Hahn noted how it was a great tribute to Hillary and Tenzing and he thought of them whenever he scrambled over it.


title: Hillary Step

text: Later in 2017, mountaineering guide Lhakpa Rangdu mounted a photo exhibition at the Nepal Tourism Board showing how the Hillary Step area had changed. Rangdu has climbed Everest multiple times since 2005, including before and after the big Nepal earthquake, and he is a trained photographer. The combination of these skills—high-altitude photography and mountaineering—allowed him to provide a photographic history of the Hillary Step, and he has said that it is indeed gone.


title: Dilemma (song)

text: "Dilemma" is a song by American rapper Nelly, featuring singer Kelly Rowland. It was released on June 25, 2002, as the second single from Nelly's second studio album, "Nellyville" (2002), and as the first single from Rowland's debut solo studio album, "Simply Deep" (2002). A pop and R&B ballad, the song consists of a high-pitched intonation and call and response, and contains a sample of Patti LaBelle's 1983 song "Love, Need and Want You". The lyrics describe a man infatuated with a woman committed in an existing relationship. "Dilemma" was written by Nelly, Antoine "Bam" Macon and Ryan Bowser, alongside the "Love, Need and Want You" writers, Kenneth Gamble and Bunny Sigler.


title: Dilemma (song)

text: "Dilemma" received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who praised the duet's emotional balance. It peaked at number one on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 for 10 non-consecutive weeks, after it replaced Nelly's previous single "Hot in Herre" on the chart. The song also topped the charts in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, and Germany. "Dilemma" won an award for Best Rap/Sung Performance and was nominated for Record of the Year at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards. An accompanying music video was directed by Benny Boom and released in September 2002. It was filmed on Colonial Street with appearances by Larry Hughes and Patti LaBelle, and depicts Nelly attracted towards his new neighbor Rowland despite the latter being in a relationship.


title: Dilemma (song)

text: American producer Ryan Bowser created an instrumental which sampled and contained elements from Patti LaBelle's 1983 song "Love, Need and Want You", written by Kenneth Gamble and Bunny Sigler. Upon hearing the beat given to him by St. Louis producer Antoine "Bam" Macon, Nelly began writing lyrics for the track. He decided to include "Dilemma" as a last-minute addition on his second studio album "Nellyville" (2002), which was completed prior to Bam giving him the track. Once Nelly returned to the studio to record "Dilemma", he changed his vision to include a female vocalist. Nelly instantly thought of Destiny's Child member Kelly Rowland, whom he met during the "Total Request Live" ("TRL") tour in 2001, and was encouraged by his sister to include her on the song. He called Rowland on the phone, who agreed to record the track. After a few days of recording, during which she re-recorded her part many times to achieve it "just right", "Dilemma" was completed.


title: Dilemma (song)

text: Once "Nellyville" was released in June 2002, radio disc jockeys in the United States started playing "Dilemma". In July 2002, the track reached number eight of the "Billboard" Hot 100, after it charted at number 27 the previous week. This prompted Nelly to release the song as the album's second single although it was not the original plan. The decision affected the timetable for each Destiny's Child member since they were on hiatus and were expected to release a solo studio album. As part of their strategy, each of them were to be staggered, with member Beyoncé releasing one in October 2002, and Rowland's album expected in early 2003. Their management rescheduled the dates: Rowland released her debut solo album "Simply Deep" on October 28, 2002, which caused Beyoncé to delay her eventual album "Dangerously in Love" to June 2003.


title: Dilemma (song)

text: Musically, "Dilemma" is a pop and R&B ballad. The "high-pitched intonation" used in the introduction prior to Rowland's vocals about "loving and needing Nelly" was initially rumored to be created on the Roland M-DC1 in 1995 as "Aaaah! (169)", which is used in over 135 songs. Bowser denied using the sample, insisting that he created the sound while experimenting with different vocal techniques. During the song's progression, the sound mellows as the production is "fleshed-out". Nelly raps during each verse while Rowland performs a "twinkling nursery-rhyme chorus". "Dilemma" is centered on Rowland's hook, "No matter what I do / All I think about is you / Even when I'm with my boo / Boy, you know I'm crazy over you", as Nelly responds with the line, "Check it, check it, check it, uh". The lyrics describe the love a man has for a woman committed in an existing relationship, the latter who is conflicted about abandoning. James Hannaham of "The Village Voice" additionally wrote that it is "an infidelity ballad" which combines mack daddy content with "TRL".


title: Dilemma (song)

text: AllMusic reviewer Jason Birchmeier noted that "Dilemma" is one of "three well-calculated, standout" tracks in the album. "Vice" writer Ryan Bassil opined that the song is "the best R&B duet of the modern age" in comparison to Jay-Z's 2002 song "'03 Bonnie & Clyde", stating that it had soul, passion, and feeling. In her review for "Simply Deep", Caroline Sullivan of "The Guardian" wrote that it "practically peeled off its clothes on the spot", and Nathan Rabin of "The A.V. Club" commented that it "navigates the fine line separating sweet from saccharine". "Spin" staff member Andrew Unterberger called "Dilemma" a "puppy-love duet", while "Blender" staff described the song as a "capable ballad". However, Soren Baker of the "Chicago Tribune" stated that the "pseudo-ballad" lacked spunk and was "hardly worth the bother". Writing for "The Washington Post", Arion Berger critiqued that the "neo-R&B" song was a "requisite lull" in his review of "Nellyville".


title: Dilemma (song)

text: "Dilemma" won a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Performance at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards on February 23, 2003.


title: Dilemma (song)

text: "Dilemma" debuted on several "Billboard" charts on the week of July 6, 2002, at numbers 66 and 63 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay charts respectively. The next week, it debuted at number 51 on the Radio Songs chart, as well as at number 53 on the Hot 100 during the same week. After four weeks, on the issue dated August 17, 2002, "Dilemma" peaked at number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100, where it stayed there for 10 weeks and remained on the chart for 29 weeks. With this song, Nelly replaced himself from the top of the chart, as his previous single "Hot In Herre" dropped to number two while "Dilemma" ascended from number two to number one. This surprised Nelly's record label, as they did not expect the song to instantly become popular and did not film a music video during its release. "Dilemma" topped the Mainstream Top 40 chart on the week of September 21, 2002. The song was ranked at number 11 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 decade-end list from 2000 to 2009, and placed at the number 75 position on the listicle of all-time songs to chart on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Dilemma (song)

text: On the UK Singles Chart dated October 26, 2002, "Dilemma" topped the chart, where it remained at the position for two weeks, before charting for 24 total weeks. The song sold 208,000 copies in the first week and 129,000 copies the following week, which prevented Justin Timberlake's 2002 debut solo single "Like I Love You" from the number one position. It was the fourth-best selling single in the United Kingdom in 2002, and was the 23rd highest-selling single in the country from 2000 to 2009. As of October 2016, "Dilemma" is the most successful song in both Nelly and Rowland's discographies. As of February 2021, the song has sold over 7 million copies worldwide.


title: Dilemma (song)

text: An accompanying music video for "Dilemma" was planned in July 2002, prior to its release as the second single from "Nellyville". Nelly wanted the video to be "smooth" in contrast to his previous music videos, in order to emphasize on the storyline. It was directed by Benny Boom and filmed from August 19 to 21, 2002. The film set was located on Colonial Street, which was one of the backlot street sets located at Universal Studios Hollywood in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles County, California. Then-Washington Wizards player Larry Hughes appeared in the video as Rowland's boyfriend, while Patti LaBelle was cast as her mother. The music video premiered at the end of MTV's "Making the Video" episode aired in September 2002.


title: Dilemma (song)

text: Rowland described the plot, stating that she was "the new girl in the neighborhood" who became infatuated with Nelly living across the street despite having a partner and children, which resulted in a "dilemma". At one point in the video, Rowland is seen attempting to text Nelly on a spreadsheet application using her Nokia 9210 Communicator. Nelly defended the use of the application in an interview with Australian talk show "The Project" in November 2016, explaining that it was used during the time despite eventually becoming outdated. In subsequent interviews, Rowland admitted to not knowing what Microsoft Excel was, which elicited a response from the application's official Twitter account.


title: Dilemma (song)

text: The music video introduces the fictional neighborhood of Nellyville, as the eponymous song is briefly heard. "Dilemma" begins as Nelly and Rowland sit on the front porch of their respective houses. Rowland and LaBelle portray a mother-daughter pair who have recently moved into the house opposite the street from Nelly, with the latter sporting a 4XL t-shirt and headband. They both greet each other as the moving van drives into Rowland's house. However, Rowland's boyfriend arrives and confronts her for communicating with Nelly, and they proceed to drive away. The next scene shows Nelly and Rowland encountering each other in a record shop. Rowland quickly exits upon noticing him while simultaneously appearing conflicted.


title: Dilemma (song)

text: Rowland messages Nelly on her phone from inside her bedroom in another scene, as sequences of both musicians flirting together in front of a car are sporadically intercut. Rowland and her boyfriend queue inside a movie theater when Nelly walks opposite them with his girlfriend. They exchange glances while walking away from each other with their respective partners. In the final scene, LaBelle opens the front door of her house and repeatedly demands for her daughter to return inside, while the couple continue dancing outside throughout the night.


title: Dilemma (song)

text: In a retrospective review, Ashley Perkins of "Vibe" acknowledged how the music video contained "just the right amount of dramatization to allow a glimpse into how much of a dilemma Nelly and Kelly's situationship was". She further explained that the narrative was explained "in a light other than from the perspective of the frustrated and faithful counterpart or the creeping side piece", which would later be replicated in songs such as "Situationships" by Fabolous, and "Distraction" by Kehlani. Bassil opined that the visuals contained "sartorial [color] coordination" and commented that Nelly's "dickhead"-styled clothing allowed him to dance alongside Rowland through the night.


title: Dilemma (song)

text: On July 12, 2021, the music video reached one billion views on YouTube, which was Nelly and Rowland's first video to accomplish the feat. The achievement was the third hip hop music video released before the platform's existence to record one billion views, after "In da Club" by 50 Cent and "Without Me" by Eminem.


title: Dilemma (song)

text: The official remix for "Dilemma" was produced by Jermaine Dupri, and features Rowland and Ali of the St. Lunatics. It was included on Nelly's remix album titled "" (2003). Writing in a review for the album for RapReviews.com, Steve Juon criticized the bass guitar in the remix and stated that the song "should have been left alone", while Katharina Lobeck of BBC opined that the original song "worked better" and is "more coherent" than the remix.


title: Dilemma (song)

text: On December 16, 2009, Nelly recorded a new song titled "Gone" with Rowland, which he initially dubbed as "Dilemma Part 2". Nelly eventually retracted the statement, insisting that he did not want to replicate or diminish the original song but wanted to extend on the story and rekindle the chemistry he had with Rowland. "Gone" was written by Nelly, Rico Love, Earl Hood, Eric Goody II, and the producer Jim Jonsin. It was included on Nelly's sixth studio album "5.0" (2010), and distributed to urban contemporary radio stations as its third single on January 4, 2011.


title: Dilemma (song)

text: Japanese singer-songwriter Riri performed a cover of "Dilemma", which was included on her third extended play "Summertime" (2019). It featured Japanese rapper JP the Wavy, and was produced by DJ Chari and DJ Tatsuki, with the beat created by Zot on the Wave & Lil' Yukich. The song debuted at number one on the Japanese iTunes hip-hop chart. Both artists were familiar with the original song in their youth and decided to create a reinterpretation of it.


title: Dilemma (song)

text: On the episode of "Lip Sync Battle" dated January 14, 2016, American actress Olivia Munn performed a lip sync of "Dilemma" while competing against actor Kevin Hart. Munn initially imitated Nelly's appearance by wearing a hat, bandana, and band-aid, but removed the accessories in order to portray Rowland. During season 21 of "The Voice" in the episode aired on October 12, 2021, two contestants on coach Ariana Grande's team competed in a cover performance of the song during the Battles round, which was positively received by the four coaches.


title: Dilemma (song)

text: "Dilemma" was covered in Spanish by Dominican merengue artist Papi Sánchez, under the title "Dilema". It was released as the second single from his studio album "Yeah Baby !!" in 2004. "Dilema" peaked at number eight on the Belgium (Wallonia) chart dated May 28, 2005, where it remained for 14 weeks. The song charted at number 16 on the Belgium (Flanders) chart, and at number 20 on the French Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP).


title: Dilemma (song)

text: A remix of "Dilemma" was recorded by British production duo Sigma and released through 3 Beat Records on streaming and digital download formats on July 12, 2019. It contains tropical drum and bass beats, with a hi-NRG sound implemented in the chorus. An accompanying music video was released on August 2, 2019.


title: Roundabout (song)

text: "Roundabout" is a song by the English progressive rock band Yes from their fourth studio album "Fragile", released in November 1971. It was written by singer Jon Anderson and guitarist Steve Howe and produced by the band and Eddy Offord. The song originated when the band were on tour and travelled from Aberdeen to Glasgow, and went through many roundabouts on the way.


title: Roundabout (song)

text: The song was released as an edited single in the US in January 1972 with "Long Distance Runaround", another track from "Fragile", as the B-side. It peaked at number 13 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and number 10 on the "Cash Box" Top 100 singles charts. In 1973, Anderson and Howe won a BMI Award for writing the song.


title: Roundabout (song)

text: Fragile contains four group-performed songs with five solo tracks written and arranged by each member; "Roundabout" is one such collaborative track.


title: Roundabout (song)

text: The song originated in March 1971 when the band were on tour promoting "The Yes Album" (1971), travelling from Aberdeen to Glasgow after a gig in Aviemore, Scotland. They encountered many roundabouts on the way; Anderson claimed "maybe 40 or so", which inspired Anderson and Howe to write a song about the journey as they sat in the back of the band's transit van, and include the roundabouts and the surrounding mountains into the lyrics. Anderson had smoked cannabis during the trip, "so everything was vivid and mystical". Anderson added: "It was a cloudy day, we couldn't see the top of the mountains. We could only see the clouds because it was sheer straight up ... I remember saying, "Oh, the mountains–look! They're coming out of the sky!", and began to write the song's lyrics in his notebook in a free-form style with minimal edits. "I just loved how words sounded when I put them together". Within 24 hours, the band had arrived back home in London where Anderson reunited with his then wife Jennifer, which inspired the song's lyric "Twenty-four before my love, you'll see, I'll be there with you". A loch they passed as they neared Glasgow became the idea behind the line "In and around the lake". Upon their arrival at their hotel in Glasgow, Anderson and Howe began to put down song ideas on their recorder.


title: Roundabout (song)

text: In August 1971, Yes regrouped in London to prepare material for their fourth album, "Fragile". Early into the sessions, keyboardist Tony Kaye was fired from the group over his lack of interest in learning more keyboards to expand the band's sound, and was replaced by Rick Wakeman. The group then moved to Advision Studios in September 1971 to record "Fragile" with audio engineer Eddy Offord as their co-producer, using a 16-track recording machine to layer their ideas at which point, Howe later said, "The song became pure magic". The rhythm tracks were recorded first, in separate sections. "Fragile" contains four group-performed songs with five solo tracks written and arranged by each member; "Roundabout" is one of such collaborative tracks.


title: Roundabout (song)

text: Howe recalled the track was originally "a guitar instrumental suite" and had a basic outline worked out when he first developed it. "All the ingredients are there—all that's missing is the song. "Roundabout" was a bit like that; there was a structure, a melody and a few lines." In 1994, former Yes guitarist Peter Banks whom Howe replaced in 1970, claimed he had come up with the song's main riff several years prior to the band recording it. The song was recorded in sections in a series of tape edits, a method of recording that was still relatively new to the group. They had played it through in rehearsal several times, but Squire recalled the group would make sure to "get the first two verses really good" and record from there.


title: Roundabout (song)

text: In its original form, the song began with the acoustic guitar, which Howe played on a 1953 Martin 00-18, but the group soon thought a more dramatic opening was needed. This led to Wakeman playing an Em chord, alternating with a C chord on the piano that were recorded and played backwards, creating an effect that Howe described "as if it's rushing towards you". Offord recalled a considerable amount of time was spent to get it right in the studio because it involved a lengthy process of picking the right voicings to use, and editing them correctly. Howe thought the piano added a sense of drama, intensity, and colour to the song. An early idea had the song start with what Anderson described as "something of a Scottish jig" on Howe's acoustic guitar, which he had played to Anderson in their Glasgow hotel room.


title: Roundabout (song)

text: Squire played his bass guitar parts with an overdub that was one octave higher using Howe's Gibson ES-150 electric guitar and mixed with his bass track. To complement Squire's playing, Wakeman played arpeggios on his Hammond C3 organ on his right hand while playing Squire's bass parts with his left. For the song's slower section, he plays a Minimoog synthesiser and flute sounds on a Mellotron which he said gave the section a "Strawberry Fields mood". Apart from his acoustic guitar, Howe plays a 1961 electric Gibson ES-5 Switchmaster throughout the song. Anderson noted the music has a "Scottish feel" to it and described the solo part as like a reel, a traditional Scottish country dance. Wakeman's Hammond organ solo was recorded in one take.


title: Roundabout (song)

text: Once the instrumental tracks had been put down, Anderson entered the studio early one morning and recorded his lead vocals. When the rest of the group arrived, they recorded the vocal harmonies. At the end of the song Anderson, Squire and Howe perform three-part harmonies that is repeated eight times, during which they also sing a second harmony part that Anderson said resembles the main melody to the nursery rhyme "Three Blind Mice". He later revealed Wakeman is singing the notes to the rhyme which was placed "against the grain of what we were doing" to make it sound more intriguing. To close, Howe repeated his acoustic guitar introduction but ended on an E major chord.


title: Roundabout (song)

text: "Roundabout" was first released as the opening track on "Fragile", in November 1971 on Atlantic Records. In preparation for its release as a single in the US, the song was cut to 3:27 to make it more suitable for radio airplay. Some changes include an abridged instrumental intro, which forgoes the 40 second nylon string passage played by Howe and skips the second hearing of the bass riff. It was released, with "Long Distance Runaround" on the B-side, another group written track on "Fragile", on 4 January 1972. The song peaked at number 13 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 singles chart, the band's highest charting single on the chart until 1983 with "Owner of a Lonely Heart". Elsewhere, "Roundabout" went to number 23 on the Dutch Top 40 chart. "Billboard" ranked it at number 91 on its Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1972. The full-length, album version was used as a B-side in 1973 and a live version was released as a bonus single in copies of "Classic Yes" in 1981.


title: Roundabout (song)

text: In June 1973, Anderson and Howe won a BMI Award for the top songwriting and publishing awards held by Broadcast Music, Inc. for 1972.


title: Roundabout (song)

text: "Roundabout" has become one of the best-known Yes songs; it has been performed at nearly every concert since its release. It was used as the theme music for the BBC concert programme "Sounds for Saturday". "Roundabout" was used in "Outside Providence" (1999). In the 2003 film "School of Rock", Dewey Finn recommends the song and its keyboard solo to one of his students, saying that "it will blow the classical music out your butt". In the DVD commentary for the film, Jack Black says that the keyboard solo is his favorite in any song. "Roundabout" is a playable track in the music game "Rock Band 3", but has an extra harmonic at the beginning of the song. The song is referenced in the Season 4 episode of "The Venture Bros." "Perchance to Dean", in which a similar melody is played like the ending to the actual track.


title: Roundabout (song)

text: In 2012, "Roundabout" was used as the ending theme song for the first season of the "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" anime series. According to the director, "Roundabout" was one of many songs "JoJo" creator Hirohiko Araki listened to when he wrote the original manga.


title: Roundabout (song)

text: The usage of "Roundabout" within "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" has additionally led to both it and the series' "To Be Continued" insert becoming a collective internet meme, in which videos, most notably of events that happen in real life, feature the song's introductory acoustic guitar riff before coinciding with the "To Be Continued" insert, typically freeze-framing at a point where an accident, injury or death seems imminent. The meme was referenced at the ending of the "Family Guy" Season 20 episode, "Brief Encounter" where Stewie Griffin asks Brian Griffin if he wants to close the episode with the meme in a fourth wall break. Where Stewie shoots Brian with a bazooka and kills him at the start of the meme closing the episode.


title: Roundabout (song)

text: "Roundabout" was featured on the re-released version of "Grand Theft Auto V"s Los Santos Rock Radio radio station.


title: Roundabout (song)

text: "Roundabout" was played during Yes' induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. The song was performed by keyboardist Rick Wakeman, vocalist Jon Anderson, guitarists Steve Howe and Trevor Rabin, and drummer Alan White with Rush bassist Geddy Lee filling in for Chris Squire, who died in 2015.


title: Nile Delta

text: The Nile Delta (, or simply , ) is the delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers of Mediterranean coastline and is a rich agricultural region. From north to south the delta is approximately in length. The Delta begins slightly down-river from Cairo.


title: Nile Delta

text: From north to south, the delta is approximately in length. From west to east, it covers some of coastline. The delta is sometimes divided into sections, with the Nile dividing into two main distributaries, the Damietta and the Rosetta, flowing into the Mediterranean at port cities with the same name. In the past, the delta had several distributaries, but these have been lost due to flood control, silting and changing relief. One such defunct distributary is Wadi Tumilat.


title: Nile Delta

text: The Suez Canal is east of the delta and enters the coastal Lake Manzala in the north-east of the delta. To the north-west are three other coastal lakes or lagoons: Lake Burullus, Lake Idku and Lake Mariout.


title: Nile Delta

text: The Nile is considered to be an "arcuate" delta (arc-shaped), as it resembles a triangle or flower when seen from above. Some scholars such as Aristotle have written that the delta was constructed for agricultural purposes due to the drying of the region of Egypt.


title: Nile Delta

text: In modern day, the outer edges of the delta are eroding, and some coastal lagoons have seen increasing salinity levels as their connection to the Mediterranean Sea increases. Since the delta no longer receives an annual supply of nutrients and sediments from upstream due to the construction of the Aswan Dam, the soils of the floodplains have become poorer, and large amounts of fertilizers are now used. Topsoil in the delta can be as much as in depth.


title: Nile Delta

text: People have lived in the Nile Delta region for thousands of years, and it has been intensively farmed for at least the last five thousand years. The delta was a major constituent of Lower Egypt, and there are many archaeological sites in and around the delta. Artifacts belonging to ancient sites have been found on the delta's coast. The Rosetta Stone was found in the delta in 1799 in the port city of Rosetta (an anglicized version of the name Rashid). In July 2019 a small Greek temple, ancient granite columns, treasure-carrying ships, and bronze coins from the reign of Ptolemy II, dating back to the third and fourth centuries BC, were found at the sunken city of Heracleion, colloquially known as Egypt's Atlantis. The investigations were conducted by Egyptian and European divers led by the underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio. They also uncovered a devastated historic temple (the city's main temple) underwater off Egypt's north coast.


title: Nile Delta

text: In January 2019 archaeologists led by Mostafa Waziri working in the Kom Al-Khelgan area of the Nile Delta discovered tombs from the Second Intermediate Period and burials from the Naqada II era. The burial site contained the remains of animals, amulets and scarabs carved from faience, round and oval pots with handles, flint knives, broken and burned pottery. All burials included skulls and skeletons in the bending position and were not very well-preserved.


title: Nile Delta

text: Records from ancient times (such as by Ptolemy) show that the delta had seven distributaries or branches, (from east to west):


title: Nile Delta

text: There are now only two main branches, due to flood control, silting and changing relief: the Damietta (corresponding to the Phatnitic) to the east, and the Rosetta (corresponding to the Bolbitine) in the western part of the Delta. The Delta used to flood annually, but this ended with the construction of the Aswan Dam.


title: Nile Delta

text: About 39 million people live in the Delta region. Outside of major cities, population density in the delta averages or more. Alexandria is the largest city in the delta with an estimated population of more than 4.5 million. Other large cities in the delta include Shubra El Kheima, Port Said, El Mahalla El Kubra, Mansura, Tanta, and Zagazig.


title: Nile Delta

text: During autumn, parts of the Nile River are red with lotus flowers. The Lower Nile (North) and the Upper Nile (South) have plants that grow in abundance. The Upper Nile plant is the Egyptian lotus, and the Lower Nile plant is the Papyrus Sedge ("Cyperus papyrus"), although it is not nearly as plentiful as it once was, and is becoming quite rare.


title: Nile Delta

text: Several hundred thousand water birds winter in the delta, including the world's largest concentrations of little gulls and whiskered terns. Other birds making their homes in the delta include grey herons, Kentish plovers, shovelers, cormorants, egrets and ibises.


title: Nile Delta

text: Other animals found in the delta include frogs, turtles, tortoises, mongooses, and the Nile monitor. Nile crocodiles and hippopotamus, two animals which were widespread in the delta during antiquity, are no longer found there. Fish found in the delta include the flathead grey mullet and soles.


title: Nile Delta

text: The Delta has a hot desert climate (Köppen: "BWh") as the rest of Egypt, but its northernmost part, as is the case with the rest of the northern coast of Egypt which is the wettest region in the country, has relatively moderate temperatures, with highs usually not surpassing in the summer. Only of rain falls on the delta area during an average year, and most of this falls in the winter months. The delta experiences its hottest temperatures in July and August, with a maximum average of . Winter temperatures are normally in the range of at nights to in the daytime. With cooler temperatures and some rain, the Nile Delta region becomes quite humid during the winter months.


title: Nile Delta

text: Egypt's Mediterranean coastline experiences significant loss of land to the sea, in some places amounting to a year. The low-lying Nile Delta area in particular is vulnerable to sea level rise associated with global warming. This effect is exacerbated by the lack of sediments being deposited since the construction of the Aswan Dam. If the polar ice caps were to melt, much of the northern delta, including the ancient port city of Alexandria, could disappear under the Mediterranean. A rise in sea level could affect about 6.6% of the total land cover area in the Nile Delta region. At sea level rise, an estimated 887 thousand people could be at risk of flooding and displacement and about of vegetation, wetland, cropland, and of urban area land could be destroyed, flooding approximately . Some areas of the Nile Delta's agricultural land have been rendered saline as a result of sea level rise; farming has been abandoned in some places, while in others sand has been brought in from elsewhere to reduce the effect. In addition to agriculture, the delta's ecosystems and tourist industry could be negatively affected by global warming. Food shortages resulting from climate change could lead to seven million "climate refugees" by the end of the 21st century. Nevertheless, environmental damage to the delta is not currently one of Egypt's priorities.


title: Nile Delta

text: The delta's coastline has also undergone significant changes in geomorphology as a result of the reclamation of coastal dunes and lagoons to form new agricultural land and fish farms as well as the expansion of coastal urban areas.


title: Muhammad in Medina

text: The Islamic prophet Muhammad came to the city of Medina following the migration of his followers in what is known as the "Hijrah" (migration to Medina) in 622. He had been invited to Medina by city leaders to adjudicate disputes between clans from which the city suffered. He left Medina to return to and conquer Mecca in December 629.


title: Muhammad in Medina

text: A delegation from Medina, consisting of the representatives of the twelve important clans of Medina, invited Muhammad as a neutral outsider to serve as the chief arbitrator for the entire community. There was fighting in Yathrib (Medina) mainly involving its Arab and Jewish inhabitants for around a hundred years before 620. The recurring slaughters and disagreements over the resulting claims, especially after the battle of Bu'ath in which all the clans were involved, made it obvious to them that the tribal conceptions of blood-feud and an eye for an eye were no longer workable unless there was one man with authority to adjudicate in disputed cases. The delegation from Medina pledged themselves and their fellow-citizens to accept Muhammad into their community and physically protect him as one of themselves.


title: Muhammad in Medina

text: Muhammad instructed his followers to emigrate to Medina until virtually all of his followers had left Mecca. Being alarmed at the departure of Muslims, according to the tradition, the Meccans plotted to assassinate him. He instructed his cousin and future son-in-law Ali to sleep in his bed to trick the assassins that he had stayed (and to fight them off in his stead) and secretly slipped away from the town. By 622, Muhammad had emigrated to Medina, then known as Yathrib, a large agricultural oasis. Following the emigration, the Meccans seized the properties of the Muslim emigrants in Mecca.


title: Muhammad in Medina

text: Among the things Muhammad did in order to settle the longstanding grievances among the tribes of Medina was drafting a document known as the Constitution of Medina (date debated), establishing a kind of brotherhood among the eight Medinan tribes and Muslim emigrants from Mecca, which specified the rights and duties of all citizens and the relationship of the different communities in Medina (including that of the Muslim community to other communities specifically the Jews and other "Peoples of the Book"). The community defined in the Constitution of Medina, "umma", had a religious outlook but was also shaped by the practical considerations and substantially preserved the legal forms of the old Arab tribes. Muhammad's adoption of facing north towards Jerusalem when performing the daily prayers ("qibla") however need not to necessarily be a borrowing from the Jews as the reports about the direction of prayer before migration to Medina are contradictory and further this direction of prayer was also practiced among other groups in Arabia.


title: Muhammad in Medina

text: The first group of pagan converts to Islam in Medina were the clans who had not produced great leaders for themselves but had suffered from warlike leaders from other clans. This was followed by the general acceptance of Islam by the pagan population of Medina, apart from some exceptions. This was, according to Ibn Ishaq, influenced by the conversion to Islam of Sa'd ibn Mua'dh, one of the prominent leaders in Medina.


title: Muhammad in Medina

text: In the course of Muhammad proselytizing in Mecca, he viewed Christians and Jews (both of whom he referred to as "People of the Book") as natural allies, part of the Abrahamic religions, sharing the core principles of his teachings, and anticipated their acceptance and support. Muslims, like Jews, were at that time praying towards Jerusalem. In the Constitution of Medina, Muhammad demanded the Jews' political loyalty in return for religious and cultural autonomy in many treaties.


title: Muhammad in Medina

text: The Jewish clans however did not obey these treaties because of a feud with the Muslims though in the course of time there were a few converts from them. After his migration to Medina, Muhammad's attitude towards Christians and Jews changed "because of experience of treachery". Norman Stillman states:


title: Muhammad in Medina

text: Economically uprooted by their Meccan persecutors, the Muslim migrants turned to raiding Meccan caravans to respond to their persecution and to provide sustenance for their Muslim families, thus initiating armed conflict between the Muslims and the pagan Quraysh of Mecca. Muhammad delivered Qur'anic verses permitting the Muslims, ""those who have been expelled from their homes"", to fight the Meccans in opposition to persecution (see Qur'an Sura 22 (Al-Hajj) Ayat 39-40). These attacks provoked and pressured Mecca by interfering with trade, and allowed the Muslims to acquire wealth, power and prestige while working toward their ultimate goal of inducing Mecca's submission to the new faith.


title: Muhammad in Medina

text: In March 624, Muhammad led some three hundred warriors in a raid on a Meccan merchant caravan. The Muslims set an ambush for the Meccans at Badr. Aware of the plan, the Meccan caravan eluded the Muslims. Meanwhile, a force from Mecca was sent to protect the caravan. The force did not return home upon hearing that the caravan was safe. The battle of Badr began in March 624. Though outnumbered more than three to one, the Muslims won the battle, killing at least forty-five Meccans and taking seventy prisoners for ransom; only fourteen Muslims died. They had also succeeded in killing many of the Meccan leaders, including Abu Jahl. Muhammad himself did not fight, directing the battle from a nearby hut alongside Abu Bakr. In the weeks following the battle, Meccans visited Medina in order to ransom captives from Badr. Many of these had belonged to wealthy families, and were likely ransomed for a considerable sum. Those captives who were not sufficiently influential or wealthy were usually freed without ransom. Muhammad's decision was that those prisoners who refused to end their persecution of Muslims and were wealthy but did not ransom themselves should be killed. Muhammad ordered the immediate execution of two Quraysh men without entertaining offers for their release. Both men, which included Uqba ibn Abu Mu'ayt, had personally attempted to kill Muhammad in Mecca. The raiders had won a lot of treasure, and the battle helped to stabilize the Medinan community. Muhammad and his followers saw in the victory a confirmation of their faith and a prime importance in the affairs of Medina. Those remaining pagans in Medina were very bitter about the advance of Islam. In particular Asma bint Marwan and Abu 'Afak had composed verses insulting some of the Muslims and thereby violated the Constitution of Medina to which they belonged. These two were assassinated and Muhammad did not disapprove of it. No one dared to take vengeance on them, and some of the members of the clan of Asma bint Marwan who had previously converted to Islam in secret, now professed openly. This marked an end to the overt opposition to Muhammad among the pagans in Medina.


title: Muhammad in Medina

text: Muhammad expelled from Medina the Banu Qaynuqa, one of the three main Jewish tribes. Jewish opposition "may well have been for political as well as religious reasons". On religious grounds, the Jews were skeptical of the possibility of a non-Jewish prophet, and also had concerns about possible incompatibilities between the Qur'an and their own scriptures. The Qur'an's response regarding the possibility of a non-Jew being a prophet was that Abraham was not a Jew. The Qur'an also stated that it was "restoring the pure monotheism of Abraham which had been corrupted in various, clearly specified, ways by Jews and Christians". According to Francis Edward Peters, "The Jews also began secretly to connive with Muhammad's enemies in Mecca to overthrow him."


title: Muhammad in Medina

text: Following the battle of Badr, Muhammad also made mutual-aid alliances with a number of Bedouin tribes to protect his community from attacks from the northern part of Hejaz.


title: Muhammad in Medina

text: The attack at Badr committed Muhammad to total war with Meccans, who were now eager to avenge their defeat. To maintain their economic prosperity, the Meccans needed to restore their prestige, which had been lost at Badr. The Meccans sent out a small party for a raid on Medina to restore confidence and reconnoitre. The party retreated immediately after a surprise and speedy attack but with minor damages; there was no combat. In the ensuing months, Muhammad led expeditions on tribes allied with Mecca and sent out a raid on a Meccan caravan. Abu Sufyan ibn Harb subsequently gathered an army of three thousand men and set out for an attack on Medina. They were accompanied by some prominent women of Mecca, such as Hind bint Utbah, Abu Sufyan's wife, who had lost family members at Badr. These women provided encouragement in keeping with Bedouin custom, calling out the names of the dead at Badr.


title: Muhammad in Medina

text: A scout alerted Muhammad of the Meccan army's presence and numbers a day later. The next morning, at the Muslim conference of war, there was dispute over how best to repel the Meccans. Muhammad and many of the senior figures suggested that it would be safer to fight within Medina and take advantage of its heavily fortified strongholds. Younger Muslims argued that the Meccans were destroying their crops, and that huddling in the strongholds would destroy Muslim prestige. Muhammad eventually conceded to the wishes of the latter, and readied the Muslim force for battle. Thus, Muhammad led his force outside to the mountain of Uhud (where the Meccans had camped) and fought the Battle of Uhud on March 23.