title: Isle of Portland

text: The mild seas which almost surround the tied island produce a temperate climate (Köppen climate classification "Cfb") with a small variation in daily and annual temperatures. The average annual mean temperature from 1991 to 2020 was . The warmest month is August, which has an average temperature range of , and the coolest is February, which has a range of . Mean winter temperatures are amongst the highest in the British Isles, and by far warmer than the United Kingdom average. However, due to the island's proximity to the sea, summers are cooler than the national average, with temperatures rarely climbing to the extremes seen in in-land areas further north. As a result of its coastal extremity and mild winter minimum temperatures, Portland is suitable for plants with the Royal Horticultural Society's hardiness rating H2. Mean sea surface temperatures range from in February to in August; the annual mean is .


title: Isle of Portland

text: The mild seas that surround Portland act to keep night-time temperatures above freezing, making air frost rare: on average 6.3 days per year — this is far below the United Kingdom's average annual total of 55.6 days of frost. Days with snow lying are equally rare: on average zero to five days per year; almost all winters have no more than one day with snow lying. It may snow or sleet in winter, yet it almost never settles on the ground—coastal areas in South West England such as Portland generally experience the mildest winters in the UK. Portland is less affected by the Atlantic storms that Devon and Cornwall experience. The growing season lasts for more than 310 days per year, and the borough is in Hardiness zone 9.


title: Isle of Portland

text: Weymouth and Portland, and the rest of the south coast, has the sunniest climate in the United Kingdom. Portland averaged 1822.6 hours of sunshine annually between 1991 and 2020, which is 42% of the maximum possible, and 36% above the United Kingdom average of 1402.7 hours. December is the cloudiest month (62.2 hours of sunshine), November the wettest ( of rain) and July is the sunniest and driest month (237.4 hours of sunshine, of rain). Sunshine totals in all months are well above the United Kingdom average, and monthly rainfall totals throughout the year are less than the UK average, particularly in summer; this summer minimum of rainfall is not experienced away from the south coast of England. The average annual rainfall of is well below the UK average of .


title: Isle of Portland

text: The population of Portland in 2021 was 13,417; this figure has remained around twelve to thirteen thousand since the 1970s. In 2011 there were 6,312 dwellings in an area of , with a population density of 1112 people per km. The population is almost entirely native to the United Kingdom: 93.9 percent of residents are of white British ethnicity, well above the England and Wales average of 80.5 percent. The average price of a detached house on Portland in 2010 was £194,200; terraced houses are cheaper, at £149,727, and an apartment or maisonette costs £110,500.


title: Isle of Portland

text: Crime rates are below average—there were 5.4 burglaries per 1000 households in 2009 and 2010; which is lower than South West England (7.6 per 1000) and significantly lower than England and Wales (11.6 per 1000). Unemployment levels are very low, at 1.9 percent in July 2011, compared to the United Kingdom average of 7.7 percent. The most common religious identity in Weymouth and Portland is Christianity, at 61.0 percent, which is slightly above the England and Wales average of 59.3 percent. The next-largest sector is those with no religion, at 29.3 percent, also slightly above the average of 25.1 percent.


title: Isle of Portland

text: The A354 road is the only land access to Portland, via Ferry Bridge, connecting to Weymouth and to the wider road network at the A35 trunk road in Dorchester. It runs from Easton, splitting into a northbound section through Chiswell and a southbound section through Fortuneswell, then along Chesil Beach and across a bridge to the mainland in Wyke Regis. Formerly the Portland Branch Railway also crossed to the island. The corridor is now a traffic-free walking and cycle path.


title: Isle of Portland

text: Local buses are run by FirstGroup, with services to Weymouth. Weymouth is the hub for south Dorset bus routes, with services to Dorchester and local villages. Weymouth is connected to towns and villages along the Jurassic Coast by the Jurassic Coast Bus service, which runs for from Exeter to Poole, through Sidford, Beer, Seaton, Lyme Regis, Charmouth, Bridport, Abbotsbury, Weymouth, Wool, and Wareham. Trains run from Weymouth to London, Southampton, Bristol and Gloucester but ferries no longer transport passengers to the French port of St Malo and the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey.


title: Isle of Portland

text: St George's Community Primary School is located in Easton. The only other school on Portland is the Atlantic Academy, an all-through school for pupils aged 3 to 19 based at two different sites. Formerly known as the Isle of Portland Aldridge Community Academy, it formed in 2012 by merging four primary schools and one secondary school.


title: Isle of Portland

text: Some students commute to Weymouth or Dorchester to study A-Levels, or to attend other secondary schools nearby. Weymouth College in Melcombe Regis is the nearest further education college, which has around 7,500 students from south west England and overseas, about 1500 studying A-Level courses.


title: Isle of Portland

text: In 2000, the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy was built in Osprey Quay in Underhill as a centre for sailing in the United Kingdom. Weymouth and Portland's waters were credited by the Royal Yachting Association as the best in Northern Europe. Weymouth and Portland regularly host local, national and international sailing events in their waters; these include the J/24 World Championships in 2005, trials for the 2004 Athens Olympics, the ISAF World Championship 2006, the BUSA Fleet Racing Championships, and the RYA Youth National Championships.


title: Isle of Portland

text: In 2005, the WPNSA was selected to host sailing events at the 2012 Olympic Games—mainly because the academy had recently been built, so no new venue would have to be provided. However, as part of the South West of England Regional Development Agency's plans to redevelop Osprey Quay, a new 600-berth marina and an extension with more on-site facilities were built. Construction was scheduled between October 2007 and the end of 2008, and with its completion and formal opening on 11 June 2009, the venue became the first of the 2012 Olympic Games to be completed.


title: Isle of Portland

text: Weymouth Bay and Portland Harbour are used for other water sports – the reliable wind is favourable for wind and kite-surfing. Chesil Beach and Portland Harbour are used regularly for angling, scuba diving to shipwrecks, snorkelling, canoeing, and swimming. The limestone cliffs and quarries are used for rock climbing; Portland has areas for bouldering and deep water soloing, however sport climbing with bolt protection is the most common style. Since June 2003 the South West Coast Path National Trail has included of coastal walking around the Isle of Portland, including following the A354 Portland Beach Road twice.


title: Isle of Portland

text: Isle of Portland has a Non-League football club Portland United F.C. who play at Grove Corner. They also have a youth set up called Portland United youth football Club.


title: Isle of Portland

text: Rabbits have long been associated with bad luck on Portland. Use of the name is still taboo—the creatures are often referred to as "underground mutton", "long-eared furry things" or just "bunnies". The origin of this superstition is obscure (there is no record of it before the 1920s) but it is believed to derive from quarry workers. They would see rabbits emerging from their burrows immediately before a rock fall and blame them for increasing the risk of dangerous, sometimes deadly, landslides. If a rabbit was seen in a quarry, the workers would go home for the day, until the safety of the area had been assured.


title: Isle of Portland

text: Today older Portland residents are 'offended' (sometimes for the benefit of tourists) by the mention of rabbits; this superstition came to national attention in October 2005 when a special batch of advertisement posters were made for the Wallace and Gromit film, "". Out of respect for local beliefs the adverts omitted the word 'rabbit' and replaced the film's title with the phrase ""Something bunny is going on"".


title: Isle of Portland

text: Thomas Hardy described Portland as "the peninsula carved by Time out of a single stone", and named it the "Isle of Slingers" and "Isle of the Race" in his Wessex novels; it was the main setting of "The Well-Beloved" (1897), and was featured in "The Trumpet-Major" (1880). The cottage that now houses Portland Museum was the inspiration for the heroine's house in "The Well-Beloved". Portlanders were expert stone-throwers in the defence of their land, and Hardy's "Isle of Slingers" is heavily based on Portland; the "Street of Wells" representing Fortuneswell and "The Beal" Portland Bill. Hardy also called Portland the "Gibraltar of the North", with reference to its similarities with Gibraltar; its physical geography, isolation, comparatively mild climate, and Underhill's winding streets.


title: Isle of Portland

text: Hilaire Belloc's book "The Cruise of the ""Nona""" is about sailing near Portland, and the reflections it occasions. He describes Portland Race as "the master terror of our world", and says "... if you were to make a list of all the things which Portland Race has swallowed up, it would rival Orcus".


title: Isle of Portland

text: In "Museums Without Walls", Jonathan Meades declares that "Portland is a bulky chunk of geological, social, topographical and demographic weirdness. It is the obverse of a beauty spot. 'Beauty' in this construction implies the picturesque. Portland is gloriously bereft of this quality. It is awesome. There is nothing pretty about it."


title: Isle of Portland

text: In "The Warlord Chronicles" (1995–97), Bernard Cornwell makes Portland the Isle of the Dead, a place of internal exile, where the causeway was guarded to keep the 'dead' (people suffering insanity) from crossing the Fleet and returning to the mainland. No historical evidence exists to support this idea.


title: Isle of Portland

text: The Portland Chronicles series of four children's books, set on and around Portland and Weymouth and written by local author Carol Hunt, draw on local history to explore a seventeenth century world of smuggling, witchcraft, piracy and local intrigue.


title: Isle of Portland

text: In the Louis L'Amour novel "To the Far Blue Mountains" the novel's main character, Barnabas Sackett, hides in Cave Hole at the Bill of Portland before meeting a sailing ship in an attempt to escape from England.


title: Isle of Portland

text: "Pink Pippos of Portland", a children's storybook about nearby Chesil Beach was written by Portland author Sandra Fretwell.


title: Isle of Portland

text: "Portland screw": fossil mollusc ("Aptyxiella portlandica") with a long screw-like shell or its cast.


title: J. Alexander (model)

text: Alexander Jenkins (born April 12, 1958), known as J. Alexander or Miss J, is an American reality television personality and runway coach best known for his work on "America's Next Top Model". He travels extensively for the fashion and modeling industries. Alexander lives in Paris and New York City.


title: J. Alexander (model)

text: Alexander was born in the South Bronx, New York City to Julius and Mary Jenkins and cites his mother as the first person to introduce him to fashion.


title: J. Alexander (model)

text: As a teenager, he turned to modeling when he met the president of Elite Model Management, Monique Pillard. Pillard was so impressed with his look that she signed him to her agency, and he walked for designer Jean Paul Gaultier in New York City. Alexander is openly gay.


title: J. Alexander (model)

text: Alexander met Tyra Banks backstage at a runway show, and he began to give Banks walking lessons. Banks coined Alexander's title "Queen of the Catwalk".


title: J. Alexander (model)

text: Alexander's career as a runway coach began accidentally; he would coach models backstage and eventually became recognized for his skills as a coach. He has been coaching and casting since 1991. He rose to prominence in this field when he coached supermodel Naomi Campbell and model Kimora Lee Simmons. He has also worked with models Nadja Auermann, Claudia Mason and Julia Stegner.


title: J. Alexander (model)

text: After a modeling stint in Tokyo, he eventually decided to settle in Paris and since 1991, has helped with casting and coaching models for well-known designers such as Hervé Léger, Lars Nilsson, Bill Blass, Valentino, John Galliano, Chanel, Alexander McQueen, and Nina Ricci.


title: J. Alexander (model)

text: Alexander travels globally for charity events and modeling competitions. His expertise is frequently sought after by journalists.


title: J. Alexander (model)

text: Alexander appeared on every cycle of the television program "America's Next Top Model" as the runway coach to the contestants. He was made a judge starting with Cycle 5. As of Cycle 14 of the show, Alexander was replaced as a permanent judge on the panel by "Vogue" editor at large André Leon Talley. Alexander stayed on as the show's runway coach and has appeared in many of the international versions of the show.


title: J. Alexander (model)

text: Alexander's nickname "Miss J" (or "Siss' J" after the word "sister") came from Cycle 1 contestant Robin Manning, who often confused Alexander and Jay Manuel and on several occasions referred to Alexander as "Miss J" by accident because of his flamboyant clothing (Alexander often dresses in drag and usually wears a skirt and high heels during runway walking training) and personality. Accordingly, Jay Manuel is referred to as "Mr. Jay", and "ANTM" contestants often call them "The Jays", "The Two Jays" or "Mr. and Miss. Jay" when they appear together. In 2008, the Jays were cast in "Operation Fabulous", a show to make over "plain Janes" similar to "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy", also produced by Tyra Banks.


title: J. Alexander (model)

text: He has also appeared on international versions of "Top Model", such as "Canada's Next Top Model", "Holland's Next Top Model", "Korea's Next Top Model", "Estonia's Next Top Model" and "Scandinavia's Next Top Model". Alexander appeared on the 4 May 2008 episode of Finland's version of "ANTM" "Suomen huippumalli haussa". In 2009 and the 2011 final, Alexander appeared on "Britain's Next Top Model".


title: J. Alexander (model)

text: On April 20, 2012, Alexander's contract with "America's Next Top Model" expired alongside photographer turned director Nigel Barker and Jay Manuel.


title: J. Alexander (model)

text: In May 2020, Alexander and Manuel began a weekly Instagram Live series, later syndicated to Facebook and YouTube, based on their experiences working on the show.


title: J. Alexander (model)

text: Alexander is also interested in designing and has handmade all his clothes on "America’s Next Top Model" with the exception of the nurse’s outfit: "I did make the hat and the bag." "All the dresses that you see me wear at the challenges, I actually sit down with a needle and thread, not even with a sewing machine, and make them all by hand. I made the ruffles and everything."


title: J. Alexander (model)

text: Alexander has stated on "The Tyra Banks Show" that he has a son named Boris. Both Alexander and his ex-boyfriend donated sperm to a French lesbian who wanted a child, and Alexander's ex is the biological father. Alexander has said that he has a "very active role" in Boris' life. He has even joked that his "fashion genes" must have rubbed off on Boris.


title: J. Alexander (model)

text: In 2010, Alexander wrote "Follow the Model: Miss J's Guide to Unleashing Presence, Poise, and Power", which "shares his story and offers tips on how to be more confident".


title: J. Alexander (model)

text: Alexander was featured in the track "Jay Walk(feat. Miss Jay Alexander)" on Leikeli47's album "Shape Up" (2022).


title: Gong

text: A gong is a percussion instrument originating in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Gongs are a flat, circular metal disc that is typically struck with a mallet. They can be small or large in size, and tuned or can require tuning.


title: Gong

text: The earliest mention of gongs can be found in sixth century Chinese records, which mentioned the instrument to have come from a country between Tibet and Burma. The term "gong" () originated in the Indonesian island of Java. Scientific and archaeological research has established that Burma, China, Java and Annam were the four main gong manufacturing centres of the ancient world. The gong found its way into the Western World in the 18th century, when it was also used in the percussion section of a Western-style symphony orchestra. A form of bronze cauldron gong known as a resting bell was widely used in ancient Greece and Rome: for instance in the famous Oracle of Dodona, where disc gongs were also used.


title: Gong

text: Gongs broadly fall into one of three types: Suspended gongs are more or less flat, circular discs of metal suspended vertically by means of a cord passed through holes near to the top rim. Bossed or nipple gongs have a raised centre boss, or knob, and are often suspended and played horizontally. Bowl gongs are bowl-shaped and rest on cushions. The latter may be considered a member of the bell category. Gongs are made mainly from bronze or brass but there are many other alloys in use.


title: Gong

text: Gongs produce two distinct types of sound. A gong with a substantially flat surface vibrates in multiple modes, giving a "crash" rather than a tuned note. This category of gong is sometimes called a tam-tam to distinguish it from the bossed gongs that give a tuned note. In Indonesian gamelan ensembles, some bossed gongs are deliberately made to generate in addition a beat note in the range from about 1 to 5 Hz. The use of the term "gong" for both these types of instrument is common.


title: Gong

text: Suspended gongs are played with hammers and are of two main types: flat faced discs either with or without a turned edge, and gongs with a raised centre boss. In general, the larger the gong, the larger and softer the hammer. In Western symphonic music, the flat faced gongs are generally referred to as tam-tams to distinguish them from their bossed counterparts. Here, the term "gong" is reserved for the bossed type only. The gong has been a Chinese instrument for millennia. Its first use may have been to signal peasant workers in from the fields, because some gongs are loud enough to be heard from up to away.


title: Gong

text: Large flat gongs may be 'primed' by lightly hitting them before the main stroke, greatly enhancing the sound and causing the instrument to "speak" sooner, with a shorter delay for the sound to "bloom". Keeping this priming stroke inaudible calls for a great deal of skill. The smallest suspended gongs are played with bamboo sticks or even western-style drumsticks. Contemporary and avant-garde music, where different sounds are sought, will often use friction mallets (producing squeals and harmonics), bass bows (producing long tones and high overtones), and various striking implements (wood/plastic/metal) to produce the desired tones.


title: Gong

text: By far the most familiar to most Westerners is the "chau gong" or "bullseye gong". Large chau gongs, called "tam-tams" have become part of the symphony orchestra. Sometimes a chau gong is referred to as a "Chinese gong", but in fact, it is only one of many types of suspended gongs that are associated with China. A chau gong is made of copper-based alloy, bronze, or brass. It is almost flat except for the rim, which is turned up to make a shallow cylinder. On a gong, for example, the rim extends about perpendicular to the surface. The main surface is slightly concave when viewed from the direction to which the rim is turned. The centre spot and rim of a chau gong are left coated on both sides with the black copper oxide that forms during manufacture; the rest is polished to remove this coating. Chau gongs range in size from in diameter.


title: Gong

text: The earliest Chau gong is from a tomb discovered at the Guixian site in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China. It dates from the early Western Han Dynasty. Gongs are depicted in Chinese visual art as of the 6th century CE, and were known for their very intense and spiritual drumming in rituals and tribal meetings. Traditionally, chau gongs were used to clear the way for important officials and processions, much like a police siren today. Sometimes the number of strokes was used to indicate the seniority of the official. In this way, two officials meeting unexpectedly on the road would know before the meeting which of them should bow down before the other.


title: Gong

text: The tam-tam was first introduced as an orchestral instrument by François-Joseph Gossec in 1790, and it was also taken up by Gaspare Spontini and Jean-François Le Sueur. Hector Berlioz deployed the instrument throughout his compositional career, and in his "Treatise on Instrumentation" he recommended its use "for scenes of mourning or for the dramatic depiction of extreme horror." Other composers who adopted the tam-tam in the opera house included Gioachino Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini, and Richard Wagner; Rossini in the final of act 3 of "Armida" (1817), Bellini in "Norma" (1831) and Wagner in "Rienzi" (1842). Within a few decades the tam-tam became an important member of the percussion section of a modern symphony orchestra. It figures prominently in the symphonies of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Gustav Mahler, Dmitri Shostakovich and, to a lesser extent, Sergei Rachmaninov and Sergei Prokofiev. Giacomo Puccini used gongs and tam-tams in his operas. Igor Stravinsky greatly expanded the playing techniques of the tam-tam in his The Rite Of Spring to include short, quickly damped notes, quick crescendos, and a triangle beater scraped across the front of the instrument. Karlheinz Stockhausen used a 60" Paiste tam-tam in his "Momente".


title: Gong

text: A dora is one of the Japanese Percussion instruments and an idiphone. It is made of bronze, brass or iron, and is suspended onto a dora stand. It is widely used in Buddhist memorial services, hayashi performances, kabuki music, and ship departure signals.


title: Gong

text: A nipple gong has a central raised boss or nipple, often made of different metals than other gongs with varying degrees of quality and resonance. They have a tone with less shimmer than other gongs, and two distinct sounds depending on whether they are struck on the boss or next to it. They are most often but not always tuned to various pitches.


title: Gong

text: Nipple gongs range in size from or larger. Sets of smaller, tuned nipple gongs can be used to play a melody.


title: Gong

text: In Indonesian gamelan ensembles, instruments that are organologically gongs come in various sizes with different functions and different names. For example, in the central Javanese gamelan, the largest gong is called "gong ageng", ranges in size up to 1 meter in diameter, has the deepest pitch and is played least often; the next smaller gong is the "gong suwukan" or "siyem", has a slightly higher pitch and replaces the "gong ageng" in pieces where gong strokes are close together; the "kempul" is smaller still, has a higher pitch, and is played more frequently. The "gong ageng" and some "gong suwukan" have a beat note.


title: Gong

text: An essential part of the orchestra for Chinese opera is a pair of gongs, the larger with a descending tone, the smaller with a rising tone. The larger gong is used to announce the entrance of major players or men and to identify points of drama and consequence. The smaller gong is used to announce the entry of lesser players or women and to identify points of humour.


title: Gong

text: A Pasi gong is a medium-size gong in size, with a crashing sound. It is used traditionally to announce the start of a performance, play or magic. Construction varies, some having nipples and some not, so this type is named more for its function than for its structure or even its sound.


title: Gong

text: A tiger gong is a slightly descending or less commonly ascending gong, larger than an opera gong and with a less pronounced pitch shift. Most commonly but available down to .


title: Gong

text: Wind gongs (also known as Feng or Lion Gongs) are flat bronze discs, with little fundamental pitch, heavy tuned overtones, and long sustain. They are most commonly made of B20 bronze, but can also be made of M63 brass or NS12 nickel-silver. Traditionally, a wind gong is played with a large soft mallet, which gives it a roaring crash to match their namesake. They are lathed on both sides and are medium to large in size, typically but sizes from are available. The size is most popular due to its portability and large sound.


title: Gong

text: They are commonly used by drummers in rock music. Played with a nylon tip drumstick they sound rather like the coil chimes in a mantle clock. Some have holes in the centre, but they are mounted like all suspended gongs by other holes near the rim. The smaller sizes, , have a more bell-like tone due to their thickness and small diameter.


title: Gong

text: Sculptural gongs (also known as Gong Sculptures) are gongs which serve the dual purpose of being a musical instrument and a work of visual art. They are generally not disc shaped, but instead take more complex, even abstract forms. Sculptural gongs were pioneered in the early 1990s by Welsh percussionist and metal crafter, Steve Hubback, who was partially inspired by the work of the French Sound Sculptors, Francois and Bernard Baschet.


title: Gong

text: Hubback's works have been used by many musicians including solo percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie and rock drummer Carl Palmer.


title: Gong

text: English gong and cymbal maker, Matt Nolan, partially inspired by the work of Hubback, also creates sculptural gongs of his own design or to private commission.


title: Gong

text: In older Javanese usage and in modern Balinese usage, gong is used to identify an ensemble of instruments. In contemporary central Javanese usage, the term gamelan is preferred and the term gong is reserved for the gong ageng, the largest instrument of the type, or for surrogate instruments such as the "gong komodong" or "gong bumbung" (blown gong) which fill the same musical function in ensembles lacking the large gong. In Balinese usage, gong refers to Gamelan Gong Kebyar.


title: Gong

text: Besides many traditional and centuries old manufacturers all around China, including Tibet, as well as Burma, Java and Annam gongs have also been made in Europe and America since the 20th century.


title: Gong

text: Paiste is the largest non-Asian manufacturer of gongs. This Swiss company of Estonian lineage makes gongs at their German factory. Also in Germany, Meinl have gongs made for them by former Paiste employee, Broder Oetken, who also has his own branded range of gongs. Italian company UFIP make a range of gongs at their factory in Pistoia. Michael Paiste, outside of the larger family business, makes gongs independently in Lucerne, Switzerland. Other independent gong manufacturers in Europe include Welshman Steve Hubback, currently based in the Netherlands; Matt Nolan and Michal Milas in the UK; Barry Mason in the UK; and Joao Pais-Filipe in Portugal.


title: Gong

text: In North America, Sabian make a small number of gongs and Zildjian sell Zildjian-branded gongs which have in the past been made by Zildjian, but current production looks to be Chinese in origin. Ryan Shelledy is an independent gong maker based in the Midwestern United States.


title: Gong

text: Some of the smaller Turkish cymbal companies have also been seen to dabble in gongs but very much as a sideline to their core business of hand-hammered cymbals.


title: Gong

text: Gongs vary in diameter from about . They are made of a bronze alloy composed of a maximum of 22 parts tin to 78 parts copper, but in many cases the proportion of tin is considerably less. This alloy is excessively brittle when cast and allowed to cool slowly, but it can be tempered and annealed in a peculiar manner to alleviate this. When suddenly cooled from red heat, the alloy becomes so soft that it can be hammered and worked on the lathe then hardened by reheating. Afterwards, the gong has all of the qualities and timbre of the Chinese instruments. The composition of the alloy of bronze used for making gongs is stated to be as follows: 76.52% Cu, 22.43% Sn, 0.26% Pb, 0.23% Zn, 0.81% Fe. In Turkish Cymbal making there is also sulfur and silicon in the alloy.


title: Gong

text: Turkish Cymbals and Gamelan Gongs share beta phase bronze as a metallurgical roots. Tin and copper mix phase transition graphs show a very narrow up-down triangle at 21–24% tin content and symbolized by β. This is the secret of all past bronze instrument making. When bronze is mixed and heated, it glows orange-red which indicates it has been heated to the beta phase borders where the metal needs to be submerged in cold water to lock the alloy in the beta phase for cymbal making. The gong is then beaten with a round, hard, leather-covered pad that is fitted on a short stick or handle. It emits a peculiarly sonorous sound which can be varied by particular ways of striking the disk. Its complex vibrations burst into a wave-like succession of tones that can be either shrill or deep. In China and Japan gongs are used in religious ceremonies, state processions, marriages and other festivals.


title: Gong

text: The gong has been used in the orchestra to intensify the impression of fear and horror in melodramatic scenes. The tam-tam was first introduced into a western orchestra by François-Joseph Gossec in the funeral march composed at the death of Mirabeau in 1791. Gaspare Spontini used the tam-tam in "La Vestale's" (1807) Act II finale. Berlioz called for 4 tam-tams in his Requiem of 1837. The tam-tam was also used in the funeral music played when the remains of Napoleon were brought back to France in 1840. Meyerbeer made use of the instrument in the scene of the resurrection of the three nuns in "Robert le diable." Four tam-tams are used at Bayreuth in "Parsifal" to reinforce the bell instruments although there is no indication given in the score. In more modern music, the tam-tam has been used by composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen in "Mikrophonie I" (1964–65) and by George Crumb. in "Makrokosmos III: Music For A Summer Evening" (1974), Crumb expanded the timbral range of the tam-tam by giving performance directions such as using a "well-rosined contrabass bow" to bow the tam-tam. This produced an eerie harmonic sound. Stockhausen created more interesting sounds using hand-held microphones and a wide range of scraping, tapping, rubbing, and beating techniques with unconventional implements such as plastic dishes, egg timers, and cardboard tubes. Gongs can also be immersed into a tub of water after being struck. This is called "water gong" and is called for in several orchestral pieces.


title: Gong

text: Tuned gongs have also been used with the symphony orchestra, e.g. sets of differently tuned gongs used by Messiaen in pieces such as "Des canyons aux étoiles" and "Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum".


title: Gong

text: A bowl-shaped, center mounted, electrically controlled gong is standard equipment in a boxing ring. Commonly referred to as "the gong", it is struck with a hammer to signal the start and end of each round.


title: Gong

text: During the Victorian and Edwardian eras, it was often the custom in hotels, on ships and in large, upper-class houses to sound a "dinner gong" to announce a meal was about to be served.


title: Gong

text: A railroad crossing with a flashing traffic signal or wigwag will also typically have a warning bell. Mechanical bells, known in some places as a gong, are struck by an electric-powered hammer to audibly warn motorists and pedestrians of an oncoming train. Many railroad crossing gongs are now being replaced by electronic devices with no moving parts.


title: Gong

text: Gongs are present on rail vehicles, such as trams, streetcars, trains, cable cars or light rail trains, in the form of a bowl-shaped signal bell typically mounted on the front of the leading car. It was designed to be sounded to act as a warning in areas where whistles and horns are prohibited, and the ""clang" of the trolley" refers to this sound. Traditionally, the gong was operated by a foot pedal, but is nowadays controlled by a button mounted on the driving panel. Early trams had a smaller gong with a bell pull mounted by the rear door of these railcars. This was operated by the conductor to notify the driver that it is safe to proceed.


title: Gong

text: A vessel over in length must carry a gong in addition to a bell and whistle, the volume of which is defined in the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea. A vessel at anchor or aground sounds the gong in the stern immediately after ringing a bell in her bows so as to indicate her length.


title: Gong

text: Electromechanical, electromagnetic or electronic devices producing the sound of gongs have been installed in theatres (particularly those in the Czech Republic) to gather the audience from the lounge to the auditorium before the show begins or proceeds after interlude.


title: Gong

text: In the Commonwealth, emergency vehicles were fitted with electric, manual, or vacuum operated Winkworth bell gongs in the time before Martin's horns became available or rotary sirens came into use


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León (; born 27 December 1951) is a Mexican economist and politician. He was 61st president of Mexico from 1 December 1994 to 30 November 2000, as the last of the uninterrupted 71-year line of Mexican presidents from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: During his presidency, he faced one of the worst economic crises in Mexico's history, which started only weeks after taking office. While he distanced himself from his predecessor Carlos Salinas de Gortari, blaming his administration for the crisis, and overseeing the arrest of his brother Raúl Salinas de Gortari, he continued the neoliberal policies of his two predecessors. His administration was also marked by renewed clashes with the EZLN and the Popular Revolutionary Army; the controversial implementation of Fobaproa to rescue the national banking system; a political reform which allowed residents of the Federal District (Mexico City) to elect their own mayor; the privatization of national railways and its subsequent suspension of the passenger rail service; and the Aguas Blancas and Acteal massacres perpetrated by State forces.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: Although Zedillo's policies eventually led to a relative economic recovery, popular discontent with seven decades of PRI rule led to the party losing, for the first time, its legislative majority in the 1997 midterm elections, and in the 2000 general election the right-wing opposition National Action Party's candidate Vicente Fox won the Presidency of the Republic, putting an end to 71 years of uninterrupted PRI rule. Zedillo's admission of the PRI's defeat and his peaceful handing of power to his successor improved his image in the final months of his administration, and he left office with an approval rating of 60%.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: After the ending of his term as president, Zedillo has been a leading voice on globalization, especially its impact on relations between developed and developing nations. He is currently Director of the Center for the Study of Globalization at Yale University and is on the board of directors at the Inter-American Dialogue and Citigroup.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: Ernesto Zedillo was born on 27 December 1951 in Mexico City. His parents were Rodolfo Zedillo Castillo, a mechanic, and Martha Alicia Ponce de León. Seeking better job and education opportunities for their children, his parents moved to Mexicali, Baja California.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: In 1965, at the age of 14, he returned to Mexico City. In 1969 he entered the National Polytechnic Institute, financing his studies by working in the National Army and Navy Bank (later known as "Banjército"). He graduated as an economist in 1972 and began lecturing. It was among his first group of students that he met his wife, Nilda Patricia Velasco, with whom he has five children: Ernesto, Emiliano, Carlos (formerly married to conductor Alondra de la Parra), Nilda Patricia and Rodrigo.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: In 1974, he pursued his master's and PhD studies at Yale University. His doctoral thesis was titled "Mexico's Public External Debt: Recent History and Future Growth Related to Oil".


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: Zedillo began working in the Bank of Mexico (Mexico's central bank) as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, where he supported the adoption of macroeconomic policies for the country's improvement. By 1987, he was named deputy-secretary of Planning and Budget Control in the Secretariat of Budget and Planning. In 1988, at the age of 36, he headed that secretariat. During his term as Secretary, Zedillo launched a Science and Technology reform.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: In 1992, he was appointed Secretary of Education by president Carlos Salinas. During his tenure in this post, he was in charge of the revision the Mexican public school textbooks. The changes, which took a softer line on foreign investment and the Porfiriato, among other topics, were highly controversial and the textbooks were withdrawn. A year later he resigned to run the electoral campaign of Luis Donaldo Colosio, the PRI's presidential candidate.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: In 1994, after Colosio's assassination, Zedillo became one of the few PRI members eligible under Mexican law to take his place, since he had not occupied public office for some time.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: The opposition blamed Colosio's murder on Salinas. Although the PRI's presidential candidates were always chosen by the current president, and thus Colosio had originally been Salinas' candidate, their political relationship had been affected by a famous speech during the campaign in which Colosio said that Mexico had many problems. It is also notable that the assassination took place after Colosio visited the members of the Zapatista movement in Chiapas and promised to open dialogue, something the PRI opposed.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: After Colosio's murder, this speech was seen as the main cause of his break with the president. The choice of Zedillo was interpreted as Salinas' way of bypassing the strong Mexican political tradition of non-reelection and retaining real power, since Zedillo was not really a politician, but an economist (like Salinas), who clearly lacked the president's political talent and influence. It is unclear if Salinas had attempted to control Colosio, who was generally considered at that time to be a far better candidate.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: Zedillo ran against Diego Fernández de Cevallos of the National Action Party and second-timer Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas of the Party of the Democratic Revolution. He won with 48.69% of popular vote, and became the last president to distinguish the 70-year PRI dynasty in México during the 20th century.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: At age 43, Zedillo assumed the presidency on 1 December 1994 at the Legislative Palace of San Lázaro, taking oath before the Congress of the Union presided by the deputy president Carlota Vargas Garza. Zedillo's electoral victory was perceived as clean, but he came to office as an accidental candidate with no political base of his own and no experience. During the first part of his presidency, he took inconsistent policy positions and there were rumors that he would resign or that there would be a coup d'état against him, which caused turmoil in financial markets.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: Zedillo's cabinet needed to have members who could deal with crises. Over the course of his presidency, he had four as Minister of the Interior, Esteban Moctezuma, who dealt with the Zapatistas; Emilio Chuayffet, who resigned following the Acteal massacre; Francisco Labastida, who won the primary to determine the 2000 PRI presidential candidate; and Diódoro Carrasco Altamirano, who dealt with the strike at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: A few days after taking office, one of the biggest economic crises in Mexican history hit the country. Although it was outgoing President Salinas who was mainly blamed for the crisis, Salinas claimed that President Zedillo made a mistake by changing the economic policies held by his administration. Zedillo devalued the peso by 15%, which prompted the near-collapse of the financial system. The crisis ended after a series of reforms and actions led by Zedillo. US president Bill Clinton granted a US$20 billion loan to Mexico, which helped in one of Zedillo's initiatives to rescue the banking system.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: Zedillo had been an accidental presidential candidate who was vaulted to prominence with the assassination of Colosio. The conflict between Zedillo and Salinas marked the early part of Zedillo's presidency. As with De la Madrid and Salinas, Zedillo had never been elected to office and had no experience in politics. His performance as a candidate was lackluster, but the outbreak of violence in Chiapas and the shock of the Colosio assassination swayed voters to support the PRI candidate in the 1994 election. In office, Zedillo was perceived as a puppet-president with Salinas following the model of Plutarco Elías Calles in the wake of the 1928 assassination of president-elect Alvaro Obregón. In order to consolidate his own power in the presidency, Zedillo had to assert his independence from Salinas. On 28 February 1995 Zedillo ordered the arrest of the ex-president's older brother Raúl Salinas for the September 1994 murder of PRI General Secretary José Francisco Ruiz Massieu. This action marked a decisive break between Zedillo and Salinas.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: Mexico had been in turmoil since January 1994, with the initial Zapatista rebellion and two political assassinations. The presidential candidate Colosio of the PRI was assassinated in March 1994, and his campaign manager Ernesto Zedillo then became the candidate a few days later. The other high-profile assassination, that of PRI Secretary General José Francisco Ruiz Massieu, brother-in-law of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari in September 1994, laid bare political rivalries within the PRI. In order to give credibility to the investigations of those political crimes and grant "a healthy distance", president Zedillo appointed Antonio Lozano Gracia a member of the opposition Political Party PAN as Attorney General of Mexico. Zedillo inherited the rebellion in Chiapas, but it was up to his administration to handle it.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: On 5 January 1995, the Secretary of Interior Esteban Moctezuma started a secret meeting process with Marcos called "Steps Toward Peace" Chiapas. Talks seemed promising for an agreement, but Zedillo backed away, apparently because the military was not in accord with the government's apparent "acceptance of the Zapatistas' control over much of Chiapas territory." In February 1995, the Mexican government identified the masked Subcomandante Marcos as Rafael Sebastián Guillén, a former professor at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in Mexico City. Metaphorically unmasking Marcos and identifying him as a non-indigenous urban intellectual turned-terrorist of was the government's attempt to demystify and delegitimize the Zapatistas in public opinion. The army was prepared to move against Zapatista strongholds and capture Marcos. The government decided to reopen negotiations with the Zapatistas. On 10 March 1995 President Zedillo and Secretary of the Interior Moctezuma signed the Presidential Decree for the Dialog, the Reconciliation and a peace with dignity in Chiapas law, which was discussed and approved by the Mexican Congress. In April 1995, the government and the Zapatistas began secret talks to find an end to the conflict. In February 1996, the San Andrés Accords were signed by the government and the Zapatistas. In May 1996, Zapatistas imprisoned for terrorism were released. In December 1997, indigenous peasants were murdered in an incident known as the Acteal massacre. Survivors of the massacre sued Zedillo in U.S., but the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the suit on the basis of his immunity as a head of state.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: Salinas had gained support of the Roman Catholic Church in the 1988 elections and had pushed through a series of constitutional changes that significantly changed church-state relations. However, on 11 February 1995, Zedillo ignited a crisis with the Roman Catholic Church, hurting, recently restored Mexico–Holy See diplomatic relations. Relations had already been damaged because of the 24 May 1993 political assassination of the Guadalajara Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo and lack of government progress on solving the murder by the Attorney General of Mexico. PGR pressured the bishop of Chiapas, Samuel Ruiz García for supposedly concealing the Zapatistas guerrilla activity. Ruiz's involvement had been strategic and an important instrument to keep the peace after the EZLN uprising.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: Zedillo's presidential motto was "Bienestar para tu familia" ("Well-being for your family"). He created the poverty alleviation program "Progresa", which subsidized the poorest families in Mexico, provided that their children went to school. It replaced the Salinas administration's PRONASOL, deemed too politicized. It was later renamed "Oportunidades" ("Opportunities") by president Vicente Fox. The parastatal organization , which was designed to supply food and provide food security to the poor was phased out in 1999, resulting in higher food prices.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: Carlos Salinas had negotiated Mexico's place in NAFTA, which took effect in January 1994, so Zedillo was the first president to oversee it for his entire term. The Mexican economy suffered following the December 1994 peso crisis, when currency was devalued by 15% and the U.S. intervened to prop up the economy with a multi-billion dollar loan, so that NAFTA under the Zedillo administration got off to a rocky start. The Mexican GDP was -7% and there were hopes that NAFTA would lift that miserable performance statistic.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: In the run-up to implementation of NAFTA, Salinas had privatized hundreds of companies. During the Zedillo administration, he privatized the state railway company, . This led to the suspension of passenger service in 1997.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: Zedillo saw electoral reform as a key issue for his administration. In January 1995, Zedillo initiated multiparty talks about electoral reform, which resulted in an agreement on how to frame political reform. In July 1996, those talks resulted in the agreement of Mexico's four major parties on a reform package, which was ratified unanimously in legislature. It created autonomous organizations to oversee elections, made the post of Head of Government of Mexico City, previously an appointed position, into an elective one, as of July 1997, and created closer oversight of campaign spending. "Perhaps most crucially, it represents a first step toward consensus among the parties on a set of mutually accepted democratic rules of the game." The reforms lowered the influence of the PRI and opened opportunities for other parties. In the 1997 elections, for the first time the PRI did not win the majority in Congress. Zedillo was also a strong advocate of federalism as a counterbalance to a centralized system.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: Zedillo sought to forge new ties overseas, including ones with China. He made a rhetorical gesture to Africa, but without real effect.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: He successfully concluded negotiations with the European Union for a Free Trade Agreement, which entered into force in July 2000


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: In terms of its approval ratings, the Zedillo administration was a very unusual one in Mexican politics in that, while normally Presidents are highly popular upon taking office and don't experience serious downturns in their approval rate during their first year in office, Zedillo dealt with very low approval ratings merely weeks after taking office due to his decision to devaluate the Peso on 20 December 1994, giving way to the Mexican peso crisis that severely hit the national economy.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: Hitting a bottom low 24% approval on 3 January 1995, Zedillo continued to experience low approval ratings throughout 1995, with the effects of the economic crisis, the continuing conflict with the EZNL in Chiapas and the Aguas Blancas massacre in June preventing his popularity from recovering. Although not as troublesome as 1995, his approval ratings remained unsteady during 1996.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: Zedillo's approval ratings, however, experienced a steady growth beginning in January 1997, and for the rest of his administration his disapproval rate was never higher than his approval rate. Helped in no doubt by the relative economic recovery and the peaceful transfer of power to Vicente Fox (who won the 2000 presidential elections, being the first opposition candidate in 71 years to defeat the ruling PRI), Zedillo left office with an approval rate of 64% and a disapproval rate of 25.4%.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: On average, Zedillo's administration had an approval rating of 55.3% and a disapproval rating of 34.3%.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: An interesting occurrence is that of the aforementioned 3 January 1995 poll: at the same time that Zedillo recorded his lowest-ever approval rate and a disapproval rate of 30%, 46.1% of those polled either stated that they didn't have an opinion on his administration or didn't answer, making it the only case ever recorded in Mexican modern history in which a plurality expressed no opinion on a sitting President.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: The presidential election of 2 July 2000 was a watershed in Mexican history for several reasons. The PRI presidential candidate, Francisco Labastida was not designated by the sitting president (as all former presidential nominees from the PRI had been until that point), but by an open internal primary of the party. Changes in the electoral rules meant that the government did not control voting as it had previously in the Ministry of the Interior. Elections were now the jurisdiction of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), with Mexicans having faith that elections would be free and fair. IFE implemented new procedures regarding campaigns and balloting, with rules for finance, guarantee of the secret ballot, and unbiased counting of votes. Also important were some 10,000 Mexican poll watchers and over 850 foreign observers, including ex-president of the U.S., Jimmy Carter. Zapatista leader Subcomandante Marcos declared that the election was a "dignified and respectable battleground." The results of the election were even more historic. For the first time since the founding of Zedillo's party in 1929, an opposition candidate won, a peaceful change from an authoritarian government. Zedillo went on national television when the polls closed, declaring that Vicente Fox had won. In Fox's autobiography he writes, "There are still those old-guard "priistas" who consider Ernesto Zedillo a traitor to his class for his actions on the night of 2 July 2000, as the party boss who betrayed the machine. But in that moment President Zedillo became a true democrat ... In minutes he preempted any possibility of violent resistance from hard-line "priistas". It was an act of electoral integrity that will forever mark the mild-mannered economist as a historic figure of Mexico's peaceful transition to democracy."


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: Since leaving office, Zedillo has held many jobs as an economic consultant in many international companies and organizations. He currently is on the faculty at Yale University, where he teaches economics and heads the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. In 2008, a conference on global climate change was convened at Yale, resulting in a published volume edited by Zedillo.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: In 2009, Zedillo headed an external review of the World Bank Group's governance. Since 2019, he has been serving on the High-Level Council on Leadership & Management for Development of the Aspen Management Partnership for Health (AMP Health). In 2020, he joined the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPR), an independent group examining how the WHO and countries handled the COVID-19 pandemic, co-chaired by Helen Clark and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: In 2016, Zedillo co-signed a letter calling for an end to the War on Drugs, along with people like Mary J. Blige, Jesse Jackson and George Soros.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: According to a 2012 "Economist" article, a group of ten anonymous Tzotzil people claiming to be survivors of the Acteal massacre have taken an opportunity to sue former President Zedillo in a civil court in Connecticut, "seeking about $50 million and a declaration of guilt against Mr Zedillo." The victims of the massacre were members of an indigenous-rights group known as Las Abejas; however, the current president of that organization, Porfirio Arias, claims that the alleged victims were in fact not residents of Acteal at all. This has led commentators to allege the trial to be politically motivated, perhaps by a member of his own political party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, angry about Zedillo's reforms that led to the party losing power in the 2000 Mexican presidential election, after 71 years of continuous political rule.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: The United States Department of State recommended that President Zedillo be granted immunity from prosecution due to the actions occurring as part of his official capacity as head of state. This motion is not binding in the US court system, but judges "generally side with the State Department."


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: The plaintiffs, who are being represented by Rafferty, Kobert, Tenenholtz, Bounds & Hess may appeal the ruling of U.S. District Judge Michael Shea to sidestep the immunity Zedillo has been granted.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: In 2014, the US Supreme Court refused to hear a case against Zedillo on grounds of "sovereign immunity" as a former head of state by survivors of the Acteal massacre.


title: Ernesto Zedillo

text: In a national survey conducted in 2012 by BGC-Excélsior regarding former Presidents, 39% of the respondents considered that the Zedillo administration was "very good" or "good", 27% responded that it was an "average" administration, and 31% responded that it was a "very bad" or "bad" administration.


title: Criminal Minds (season 9)

text: "Criminal Minds" was officially renewed for a ninth season on May 9, 2013 and premiered on CBS and CTV, on September 25, 2013. The season consists of 24 episodes with the 200th episode being episode 14 of the season, and the finale on 14 May. This new season is said to reveal more on the past of Agent Jennifer "JJ" Jareau. "We're going to use the serendipitous gift of Season 6 to explain with flashbacks what happened when she was working for the Pentagon and why she came back as a much tougher character. I've never had a chance to flex my acting muscles like this on the show!" said A. J. Cook. The season also featured the return of Paget Brewster and Jayne Atkinson for the 200th episode, which aired on February 5, 2014.


title: Criminal Minds (season 9)

text: On May 14, 2014, it was revealed at the end of the season finale that Alex Blake (Jeanne Tripplehorn) would be leaving the show.


title: Criminal Minds (season 9)

text: The entire main cast returned for the ninth season; however, Esai Morales replaced Jayne Atkinson as the new Section Chief for the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU).


title: Electroweak interaction

text: In particle physics, the electroweak interaction or electroweak force is the unified description of two of the four known fundamental interactions of nature: electromagnetism and the weak interaction. Although these two forces appear very different at everyday low energies, the theory models them as two different aspects of the same force. Above the unification energy, on the order of 246 GeV, they would merge into a single force. Thus, if the temperature is high enough – approximately 10 K – then the electromagnetic force and weak force merge into a combined electroweak force. During the quark epoch (shortly after the Big Bang), the electroweak force split into the electromagnetic and weak force. It is thought that the required temperature of 10 K has not been seen widely throughout the universe since before the quark epoch, and currently the highest man-made temperature in thermal equilibrium is around 5.5x10 K (from the Large Hadron Collider).


title: Electroweak interaction

text: Sheldon Glashow, Abdus Salam, and Steven Weinberg were awarded the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics for their contributions to the unification of the weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, known as the Weinberg–Salam theory. The existence of the electroweak interactions was experimentally established in two stages, the first being the discovery of neutral currents in neutrino scattering by the Gargamelle collaboration in 1973, and the second in 1983 by the UA1 and the UA2 collaborations that involved the discovery of the W and Z gauge bosons in proton–antiproton collisions at the converted Super Proton Synchrotron. In 1999, Gerardus 't Hooft and Martinus Veltman were awarded the Nobel prize for showing that the electroweak theory is renormalizable.


title: Electroweak interaction

text: After the Wu experiment in 1956 discovered parity violation in the weak interaction, a search began for a way to relate the weak and electromagnetic interactions. Extending his doctoral advisor Julian Schwinger's work, Sheldon Glashow first experimented with introducing two different symmetries, one chiral and one achiral, and combined them such that their overall symmetry was unbroken. This did not yield a renormalizable theory, and its gauge symmetry had to be broken by hand as no spontaneous mechanism was known, but it predicted a new particle, the Z boson. This received little notice, as it matched no experimental finding.


title: Electroweak interaction

text: In 1964, Salam and Ward had the same idea, but predicted a massless photon and three massive gauge bosons with a manually broken symmetry. Later around 1967, while investigating spontaneous symmetry breaking, Weinberg found a set of symmetries predicting a massless, neutral gauge boson. Initially rejecting such a particle as useless, he later realized his symmetries produced the electroweak force, and he proceeded to predict rough masses for the W and Z bosons. Significantly, he suggested this new theory was renormalizable. In 1971, Gerard 't Hooft proved that spontaneously broken gauge symmetries are renormalizable even with massive gauge bosons.


title: Electroweak interaction

text: Mathematically, electromagnetism is unified with the weak interactions as a Yang–Mills field with an SU(2) × U(1) gauge group, which describes the formal operations that can be applied to the electroweak gauge fields without changing the dynamics of the system. These fields are the weak isospin fields , , and , and the weak hypercharge field .


title: Electroweak interaction

text: The generators of SU(2) and U(1) are given the name weak isospin (labeled ) and weak hypercharge (labeled ) respectively. These then give rise to the gauge bosons which mediate the electroweak interactions – the three bosons of weak isospin (, , and ), and the boson of weak hypercharge, respectively, all of which are "initially" massless. These are not physical fields yet, before spontaneous symmetry breaking and the associated Higgs mechanism.


title: Electroweak interaction

text: In the Standard Model, the and bosons, and the photon, are produced through the spontaneous symmetry breaking of the electroweak symmetry SU(2) × U(1) to U(1), effected by the Higgs mechanism (see also Higgs boson), an elaborate quantum field theoretic phenomenon that "spontaneously" alters the realization of the symmetry and rearranges degrees of freedom.


title: Electroweak interaction

text: The electric charge arises as the particular linear combination (nontrivial) of (weak hypercharge) and the component of weak isospin formula_1 that does "not" couple to the Higgs boson. That is to say: The Higgs and the electromagnetic field have no effect on each other, at the level of the fundamental forces ("tree level"), while any "other" combination of the hypercharge and the weak isospin must interact with the Higgs. This causes an apparent separation between the weak force, which interacts with the Higgs, and electromagnetism, which does not. Mathematically, the electric charge is a specific combination of the hypercharge and outlined in the figure.


title: Electroweak interaction

text: The above spontaneous symmetry breaking makes the and bosons coalesce into two different physical bosons with different masses – the boson, and the photon (),


title: Electroweak interaction

text: where is the "weak mixing angle". The axes representing the particles have essentially just been rotated, in the (, ) plane, by the angle . This also introduces a mismatch between the mass of the and the mass of the particles (denoted as and , respectively),


title: Electroweak interaction

text: The Lagrangian for the electroweak interactions is divided into four parts before electroweak symmetry breaking becomes manifest,


title: Electroweak interaction

text: where formula_8 (formula_9) and formula_10 are the field strength tensors for the weak isospin and weak hypercharge gauge fields.


title: Electroweak interaction

text: formula_11 is the kinetic term for the Standard Model fermions. The interaction of the gauge bosons and the fermions are through the gauge covariant derivative,


title: Electroweak interaction

text: where the subscript sums over the three generations of fermions; , , and are the left-handed doublet, right-handed singlet up, and right handed singlet down quark fields; and and are the left-handed doublet and right-handed singlet electron fields.


title: Electroweak interaction

text: The Feynman slash formula_13 means the contraction of the 4-gradient with the Dirac matrices, defined as


title: Electroweak interaction

text: and the covariant derivative (excluding the gluon gauge field for the strong interaction) is defined as


title: Electroweak interaction

text: The formula_18 term describes the Higgs field formula_19 and its interactions with itself and the gauge bosons,


title: Electroweak interaction

text: and generates their masses, manifest when the Higgs field acquires a nonzero vacuum expectation value, discussed next. The formula_24 are matrices of Yukawa couplings.


title: Electroweak interaction

text: The Lagrangian reorganizes itself as the Higgs boson acquires a non-vanishing vacuum expectation value dictated by the potential of the previous section. As a result of this rewriting, the symmetry breaking becomes manifest. In the history of the universe, this is believed to have happened shortly after the hot big bang, when the universe was at a temperature 159.5±1.5 GeV (assuming the Standard Model of particle physics).


title: Electroweak interaction

text: Due to its complexity, this Lagrangian is best described by breaking it up into several parts as follows.


title: Electroweak interaction

text: The kinetic term formula_26 contains all the quadratic terms of the Lagrangian, which include the dynamic terms (the partial derivatives) and the mass terms (conspicuously absent from the Lagrangian before symmetry breaking)


title: Electroweak interaction

text: where the sum runs over all the fermions of the theory (quarks and leptons), and the fields formula_28, formula_29, formula_30, and formula_31 are given as


title: Electroweak interaction

text: with 'formula_33' to be replaced by the relevant field (formula_34, formula_35, formula_36), and by the structure constants of the appropriate gauge group.


title: Electroweak interaction

text: The neutral current formula_37 and charged current formula_38 components of the Lagrangian contain the interactions between the fermions and gauge bosons,


title: Electroweak interaction

text: where formula_48 is the right-handed singlet neutrino field, and the CKM matrix formula_49 determines the mixing between mass and weak eigenstates of the quarks.


title: Arab nationalism

text: Arab nationalism () is a nationalist ideology that asserts the Arabs are a nation and promotes the unity of Arab people, celebrating the glories of Arab civilization, the language and literature of the Arabs, and calling for rejuvenation and political union in the Arab world. Its central premise is that the people of the Arab world, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean, constitute one nation bound together by common ethnicity, language, culture, history, identity, geography and politics. One of the primary goals of Arab nationalism is the end of Western influence in the Arab world, seen as a "nemesis" of Arab strength, and the removal of those Arab governments considered to be dependent upon Western power. It rose to prominence with the weakening and defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century and declined after the defeat of the Arab armies in the Six-Day War.


title: Arab nationalism

text: Personalities and groups associated with Arab nationalism include King Faisal I of Iraq, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Arab Nationalist Movement, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party which came to power in Iraq for some years and is still the ruling party in Syria, and its founder Michel Aflaq. Pan-Arabism is a related concept, in as much as it calls for supranational communalism among the Arab states.


title: Arab nationalism

text: Arab nationalists believe that the Arab nation existed as a historical entity prior to the rise of nationalism in the 19th–20th century. The Arab nation was formed through the gradual establishment of Arabic as the language of communication and with the advent of Islam as a religion and culture in the region. Both Arabic and Islam served as the pillars of the nation. According to writer Youssef M. Choueiri, Arab nationalism represents the "Arabs' consciousness of their specific characteristics as well as their endeavor to build a modern state capable of representing the common will of the nation and all its constituent parts."


title: Arab nationalism

text: Within the Arab nationalist movement are three main ideas: that of the Arab nation; Arab nationalism; and pan-Arab unity. The 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine led to the foundation of the Arab nationalist Ba'ath Party, which asserts that the Arab nation is the group of people who speak Arabic, inhabit the Arab world, and who feel they belong to the same nation. Arab nationalism is the "sum total" of the characteristics and qualities exclusive to the Arab nation, whereas pan-Arab unity is the modern idea that stipulates that the separate Arab countries must unify to form a single state under one political system.


title: Arab nationalism

text: Local patriotism centered on individual Arab countries was incorporated into the framework of Arab nationalism starting in the 1920s. This was done by positioning the Arabian Peninsula as the homeland of the Semitic peoples (the Canaanites and Arameans of the Levant and the Assyrians and Babylonians of Mesopotamia) who migrated throughout the Near East in ancient times or by associating the other pre-Islamic cultures, such as those of Egypt and North Africa and Horn of Africa, into an evolving Arab identity.


title: Arab nationalism

text: The modern Arabic language actually has two distinct words which can be translated into English as "nationalism": "qawmiyya" قومية, derived from the word "qawm" (meaning "tribe, ethnic nationality"), and "wataniyya" وطنية, derived from the word "watan" (meaning "homeland, native country"). The term "qawmiyya" means attachment to the Arab nation, while "wataniyya" means loyalty to a single Arab state. "Wataniyya" is sometimes disparaged as "regionalism" by those who consider pan-Arabism the only legitimate variant of Arab nationalism.


title: Arab nationalism

text: In the post-World War years, the concept of "qawmiyya" "gradually assumed a leftist coloration, calling for ... the creation of revolutionary Arab unity." Groups who subscribed to this point of view advocated opposition, violent and non-violent, against Israel and against Arabs who did not subscribe to this point of view. The person most identified with "qawmiyya" was Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, who used both military and political power to spread his version of pan-Arab ideology throughout the Arab world. While "qawmiyya" still remains a potent political force today, the death of Nasser and the Arab defeat in the Six-Day War has weakened faith in this ideal. The current dominant ideology among Arab policy makers has shifted to "wataniyya".


title: Arab nationalism

text: Throughout the late 19th century, beginning in the 1860s, a sense of loyalty to the "Fatherland" developed in intellectual circles based in the Levant and Egypt, but not necessarily an "Arab Fatherland". It developed from observance of the technological successes of Western Europe which they attributed to the prevailing of patriotism in those countries. During this period, a heavy influx of Christian missionaries and educators from Western countries provided what was termed the "Arab political revival", resulting in the establishment of secret societies within the empire.


title: Arab nationalism

text: In the 1860s, literature produced in the Mashriq (the Levant and Mesopotamia) which was under Ottoman control at the time, contained emotional intensity and strongly condemned the Ottoman Turks for "betraying Islam" and the Fatherland to the Christian West. In the view of Arab patriots, Islam had not always been in a "sorry state" and attributed the military triumphs and cultural glories of the Arabs to the advent of the religion, insisting that European modernism itself was of Islamic origin. The Ottomans, on the other hand, had deviated from true Islam and thus suffered decline. The reforming Ottoman and Egyptian governments were blamed for the situation because they attempted to borrow Western practices from the Europeans that were seen as unnatural and corrupt. The Arab patriots' view was that the Islamic governments should revive true Islam that would in turn, pave way for the establishment of constitutional representative government and freedom which, though Islamic in origin, was manifested in the West at the time.


title: Arab nationalism

text: Arabism and regional patriotism (such as in Egypt or in the Levant) mixed and gained predominance over Ottomanism among some Arabs in Syria and Lebanon. Ibrahim al-Yaziji, a Lebanese Christian philosopher, called for the Arabs to "recover their lost ancient vitality and throw off the yoke of the Turks" in 1868. A secret society promoting this goal was formed in the late 1870s, with al-Yazigi as a member. The group placed placards in Beirut calling for a rebellion against the Ottomans. Meanwhile, other Lebanese and Damascus-based notables, mostly Muslims, formed similar secret movements, although they differed as Christian groups who disfavoured Arabism called for a completely independent Lebanon while the Muslim Arab societies generally promoted an autonomous Greater Syria still under Ottoman rule.


title: Arab nationalism

text: As early as 1870, Syrian Christian writer Francis Marrash distinguished the notion of fatherland from that of nation; when applying the latter to Greater Syria, he pointed to the role played by language, besides customs and belief in common interests, in defining national identity. This distinction between fatherland and nation was also made by Hasan al-Marsafi in 1881. By the beginning of the 20th century, groups of Muslim Arabs embraced an Arab nationalist "self-view" that would provide as the basis of the Arab nationalist ideology of the 20th century. This new version of Arab patriotism was directly influenced by the Islamic modernism and revivalism of Muhammad Abduh, the Egyptian Muslim scholar. Abduh believed the Arabs' Muslim ancestors bestowed "rationality on mankind and created the essentials of modernity," borrowed by the West. Thus, while Europe advanced from adopting the modernist ideals of true Islam, the Muslims failed, corrupting and abandoning true Islam. Abduh influenced modern Arab nationalism in particular, because the revival of true Islam's ancestors (who were Arabs) would also become the revival of Arab culture and the restoration of the Arab position as the leaders of the Islamic world. One of Abduh's followers, Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi, openly declared that the Ottoman Empire should be both Turkish and Arab, with the latter exercising religious and cultural leadership.


title: Arab nationalism

text: In 1911, Muslim intellectuals and politicians from throughout the Levant formed al-Fatat ("the Young Arab Society"), a small Arab nationalist club, in Paris. Its stated aim was "raising the level of the Arab nation to the level of modern nations." In the first few years of its existence, al-Fatat called for greater autonomy within a unified Ottoman state rather than Arab independence from the empire. Al-Fatat hosted the Arab Congress of 1913 in Paris, the purpose of which was to discuss desired reforms with other dissenting individuals from the Arab world. They also requested that Arab conscripts to the Ottoman army not be required to serve in non-Arab regions except in time of war. However, as the Ottoman authorities cracked down on the organization's activities and members, al-Fatat went underground and demanded the complete independence and unity of the Arab provinces.


title: Arab nationalism

text: Nationalist individuals became more prominent during the waning years of Ottoman authority, but the idea of Arab nationalism had virtually no impact on the majority of Arabs as they considered themselves loyal subjects of the Ottoman Empire. The British, for their part, incited the Sharif of Mecca to launch the Arab Revolt during the First World War. The Ottomans were defeated and the rebel forces, loyal to the Sharif's son Faysal ibn al-Husayn entered Damascus in 1918. By now, Faysal along with many Iraqi intellectuals and military officers had joined al-Fatat which would form the backbone of the newly created Arab state that consisted of much of the Levant and the Hejaz.


title: Arab nationalism

text: Damascus became the coordinating center of the Arab nationalist movement as it was seen as the birthplace of the ideology, the seat of Faysal—the first Arab "sovereign" after nearly 400 years of Turkish suzerainty—and because the nationalists of the entire Mashreq region were familiar with it. Nonetheless, Jerusalem, Beirut, and Baghdad remained significant bases of support. Following the creation of Faysal's state, a serious tension within the Arab nationalist movement became visible; the conflict between the ideology's highest ideal of forming a single independent unit comprising all countries that shared the Arabic language and heritage, and the tendency to give precedence to local ambitions.


title: Arab nationalism

text: To further tensions, a rift formed between the older nationalist members of various Syrian urban-class families and the generally younger nationalists who became close to Faysal—his Hejazi troops, Iraqi and Syrian military officers, and Palestinian and Syrian intellectuals. The older guard was mainly represented by Rida Pasha al-Rikabi, who served as Faysal's prime minister, while the younger guard did not have one particular leader. However, the youth within al-Fatat founded the Arab Independence Party ("al-Istiqlal") in February 1919. Its goal was to achieve unity and complete Arab independence. Prominent members included Izzat Darwaza and Shukri al-Quwatli. Centered in Damascus with branches in various cities throughout the Levant, al-Istiqlal received political and financial support from Faysal, but relied on the inner circle of al-Fatat to survive.


title: Arab nationalism

text: During the war, Britain had been a major sponsor of Arab nationalist thought and ideology, primarily as a weapon to use against the power of the Ottoman Empire. Although the Arab forces were promised a state that included much of the Arabian Peninsula and the Fertile Crescent the secret Sykes–Picot Agreement between Britain and France provided for the territorial division of much of that region between the two imperial powers. During the inter-war years and the British Mandate period, when Arab lands were under French and British control, Arab nationalism became an important anti-imperial opposition movement against European rule.


title: Arab nationalism

text: A number of Arab revolts against the European powers took place following the establishment of the British and French mandates. Resentment of British rule culminated in the Iraqi revolt of 1920. The uprising which was carried out by the urban population as well as the rural tribes of Iraq ended in 1921. The British drastically changed their policy in Iraq afterwards. Although the mandate was still in place officially, the British role was virtually reduced to an advisory one. In 1925, the Druze of southern Syria under the leadership of Sultan al-Atrash revolted against French rule. The revolt subsequently spread throughout Syria, particularly in Damascus where an uprising by the citizens took place. The French responded by systematically bombarding the city, resulting in thousands of deaths. The revolt was put down by the end of the year, but it is credited with forcing the French to take more steps to ensure Syrian independence. In Egypt, resentment of British hegemony led to wide-scale revolts across the country in 1919. As a result of three-year negotiations following the uprising, the British agreed to allow Egypt's official independence in 1922, but their military still held great influence in the country. The political leaders of the Egyptian revolution espoused Egyptian nationalism, rather than an Arab nationalist alternative.


title: Arab nationalism

text: The relative independence of Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and North Yemen encouraged Arab nationalists to put forward programs of action against colonial powers in the region. According to historian Youssef Choueiri, the "first public glimmerings" of a pan-Arab approach occurred in 1931, during the convention of a pan-Islamic conference in Jerusalem which highlighted Muslim fears of the increasing growth of Zionism in Palestine. Arab delegates held a separate conference and for the first time delegates from North Africa, Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula and the Fertile Crescent convened together to discuss Arab matters. A pan-Arabist covenant was proclaimed centering on three main articles:


title: Arab nationalism

text: Plans for a near-future conference were made, but never came into play due to Faysal's death in 1933 (delegates chose Faysal of Iraq to be their patron and he agreed to provide moral and material support for the movement) and fierce British opposition. However, the Arab Independence Party was formed by Palestinian and Iraqi activists from al-Fatat as a direct result of the Jerusalem conference on 13 August 1932. Most of the AIP's activities were centered in the Palestinian political field, but the party also worked towards achieving Arab unity and solidarity as a means to strengthen Arab resistance against the British Mandate in Palestine and increased Jewish settlement occurring there. In August 1933, the League of Nationalist Action (LNA) was founded in Lebanon by Western-educated professional civil service groups with the aims of creating a common Arab market and industrial base as well as the abolishment of customs barriers between the Arab countries. By proposing agrarian reforms to limit the power of landowners, abolishing what they considered "feudalism" and promoting the growth of an industry, the LNA sought to undermine the absentee landlords in the Levant who tended to encourage local nationalism and were open to working with European authorities or Jewish land purchasers. The LNA enjoyed a level of popularity throughout the 1930s, but did not survive into the 1940s.


title: Arab nationalism

text: Following the killing of the Syrian Arab guerrilla leader Izz ad-Din al-Qassam by British forces in Ya'bad, Arab-Jewish tensions in Palestine reached a climax. Anti-Zionist sentiments reached a boiling point on 15 April 1936, when an armed group of Arabs killed a Jewish civilian after intercepting his car near the village of Bal'a. After Jews retaliated by killing two Arab farmers near Jaffa, this sparked an Arab revolt in Palestine. The AIP along with Palestinian notables selected popular leader and Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini to lead the uprising. The Arab Higher Committee (AHC), a national committee bringing together Arab factions in Palestine, was established to coordinate the uprising. To protest increased Jewish immigration, a general strike was declared and a political, economic, and social boycott of Jews soon ensued.


title: Arab nationalism

text: The events in Palestine followed similar anti-colonial activities in Egypt and Syria which helped inspire the uprising. In Egypt, week-long anti-British demonstrations had eventually resulted in the restoration of the Egyptian constitution while in Syria, a general strike held in January–February 1936 led to major negotiations for an independence deal with the French government. The British took a firm stance against the nationalist revolt in Palestine, dissolving the AHC forcing al-Husayni into exile in Lebanon in 1937. Al-Husayni, who leaned more towards Palestinian nationalism, was instrumental in organizing the pan-Arab Bloudan Conference on 9 September 1937 in Syria which gathered 524 delegates from across the Arab world, although al-Husayni himself was not in attendance. According to author Adeeb Dawisha, although the uprising had been quelled by 1939, it greatly "contributed to the growth of Arab nationalist sentiment" and began the development of "solidarity" between Arab governments.


title: Arab nationalism

text: Meanwhile, a clandestine Arab nationalist society was formed in Iraq in 1938 which came to be known as Arab Nationalist Party (ANP). The ANP typically confined itself to influencing events and leaders in Iraq rather than taking the lead of a mass nationalist movement. King Ghazi of Iraq was one such leader. Ghazi intended to build a strong Iraqi army and actively sought to annex Kuwait. Many Arab nationalist politicians from Kuwait, who favored independence particularly after the discovery of oil there in 1938, were provided safe haven in Iraq after being repressed by the quasi-rulers of the sheikhdom, the al-Sabah family (Kuwait was still a British territory at the time.) Ghazi died in a car accident in 1939, prompting a number of his army officers to allege the king was assassinated by British forces. That same year, al-Husayni arrived in Baghdad after escaping from Lebanon, giving a morale boost to the pan-Arab dimension in Iraqi politics. The prime minister at the time, Nuri al-Said and the regent king 'Abd al-Ilah, did not harbor the pan-Arabist sympathies Ghazi espoused.


title: Arab nationalism

text: Rashid Ali al-Gaylani succeeded al-Said as Prime Minister in March 1940 and took a neutral position regarding World War II, opening dialogue with the German government which was at war with Britain. Under great pressure from the latter, al-Gaylani resigned on 31 January 1941 and al-Said took his place. The perceived British interjection in Iraq's internal affairs angered Arab nationalist officers in the army, leading a group of them to overthrow the government in April and install al-Gaylani as Prime Minister. To counter a British military response to the coup, al-Gaylani enlisted the support of Germany, but the German military did not arrive to aid the Arab nationalist government. With pro-German Vichy France having taken control of neighboring Syria, Britain reoccupied Iraq in May to prevent it from joining the Axis powers. By 1 June, al-Gaylani and al-Husayni fled to the country for Germany, while the army officers who carried out the coup were captured and executed.


title: Arab nationalism

text: Al-Husayni became increasingly acquainted with Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader of Germany, and other Nazi officials and attempted to coordinate Nazi and Arab policies to solve what he believed was the "Jewish problem" in Palestine. In one of the mufti's speeches he asked Arabs to unite and "kill the Jews wherever you find them." Throughout World War II, the Nazi government, seeking to take advantage of widespread anti-imperialist feelings in the Middle East, had broadcast anti-Semitic messages tailored to Arabic-speaking Muslims in the Middle East via radio.


title: Arab nationalism

text: The conflict in Iraq provoked anger and frustration throughout the Arab world and the British acknowledged the rapid growth of Arab nationalist feeling among the Arab population, large segments of which saw the events in Iraq as a valiant struggle against imperialism. British Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, officially stated Britain's support of strong pan-Arab ties in a bid to ease anti-British sentiments in the region. The events of the region influenced the creation of the Arab Union Club in Egypt in 1942 which called for developing stronger ties between Egypt and the Arab world. Branches were subsequently opened in Baghdad, Beirut, Jaffa and Damascus, and Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa El-Nahas adopted its platform, pledging to help protect "the interests and rights" of the "sister Arab nations" and explore the "question of Arab unity."


title: Arab nationalism

text: Rivalry for the leadership of the Arab world developed mostly between the political establishments of Iraq and Egypt in the period following the failure of Rashid Ali coup. Eden's stated support for increased Arab ties encouraged Nuri al-Said of Iraq to propose his own plan for Arab unity in January 1943, dubbed the "Fertile Crescent Union." The plan recognized the linguistic, cultural and economic ties between the states of the Fertile Crescent region as well as the differences between their inhabitants. It sought to unify those states in a stage-based process whereby the initial stage would see Syria, Transjordan, Palestine and Lebanon unite with limited autonomy given to the Jews in Palestine and special rights for the Christians in Lebanon. Afterward the Levantine state and Iraq would form an "Arab League," to which other Arab states could join, that would oversee matters of defense, foreign policy, customs, currency and the safeguarding of minorities. The proposal reflected a combination of factors, namely the expansionist ambitions of the Hashemites, the attempt by Iraq's political establishment to secure the mantle of Arab leadership in their rivalry with Egypt and a genuine embrace of Arab identity by Iraq's leaders.


title: Arab nationalism

text: The Egyptian government of Nahas Pasha launched a rival initiative for establishing closer inter-Arab relations, and sent delegations to several Arab states. Influential Arab nationalist figures in the country sought to emphasize Egypt's Arab character, the most of prominent of them, Abdul Rahman al-Azzam, even writing "Egypt was an Arab country before Christ." The apparent Egyptian embrace of Arabism was met with general Arab excitement at the popular level and Pasha's efforts gained more traction among the various Arab governments than al-Said's Fertile Crescent proposal. Reasons for this ranged from the antipathy of the Saudi royal family and the Damascus political establishment to the leadership ambitions of the rival Hashemite family to the belief by Lebanon's Maronite Christian community that Egypt's plan would not require conceding future independence. Between 25 September-8 October 1944, the leaders of Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Transjordan, Yemen and the Palestinian Arab community convened in Alexandria, Egypt in a meeting hosted by the Egyptian government which ended with an agreement known as the "Alexandria Protocol."


title: Arab nationalism

text: After the Second World War, Gamal Abdel Nasser, the leader of Egypt, was a significant player in the rise of Arab nationalism. Opposed to the British control of the Suez Canal Zone and concerned at Egypt becoming a Cold War battleground Nasser pushed for a collective Arab security pact within the framework of the Arab League. A key aspect of this was the need for economic aid that was not dependent on peace with Israel and the establishment of U.S. or British military bases within Arab countries. Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal and directly challenged the dominance of the Western powers in the region. At the same time he opened Egypt up as a Cold War zone by receiving aid and arms shipments from the Soviet bloc countries that were not dependent on treaties, bases and peace accords. However, because of the connotations for Cold War dominance of the region, Egypt also received aid from the US, who sought to promote the emerging Arab nationalism as a barrier to communism.


title: Arab nationalism

text: The question of Palestine and opposition to Zionism became a rallying point for Arab nationalism from both a religious perspective and a military perspective. The fact that the Zionists were Jewish promoted a religious flavor to the xenophobic rhetoric and strengthened Islam as a defining feature of Arab nationalism. The humiliating defeat in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War strengthened the Arabs' resolve to unite in favor of a pan-Arab nationalist ideal. With the advent of Palestinian nationalism, a debate circled between those who believed that pan-Arab unity would bring about destruction of Israel (the view advocated by the Arab Nationalist Movement) or whether the destruction of Israel would bring about pan-Arab unity (the view advocated by Fatah).


title: Arab nationalism

text: Pan-Arabism was initially a secular movement. Arab nationalists generally rejected religion as a main element in political identity, and promoted the unity of Arabs regardless of sectarian identity. However, the fact that most Arabs were Muslims was used by some as an important building block in creating a new Arab national identity. An example of this was Michel Aflaq, founder along with Salah al-Din al-Bitar and Zaki al-Arsuzi of the Ba'ath Party in Syria in the 1940s. Aflaq, though himself a Christian, viewed Islam as a testament to the "Arab genius", and once said "Muhammed was the epitome of all the Arabs. So let all the Arabs today be Muhammed." Since the Arabs had reached their greatest glories through the expansion of Islam, Islam was seen as a universal message as well as an expression of secular genius on the part of the Arab peoples. Islam had given the Arabs a "glorious past", which was very different from the "shameful present". In effect, the troubles of the Arab presence were because the Arabs had diverged from their "eternal and perfect symbol", Islam. The Arabs needed to have a "resurrection" ("ba'ath" in Arabic). After the Ba'athist military coups in Iraq and Syria in the 1960s, the Ba'athists "contributed very little to the development of all-Arab nationalism, which was its original "raison d'etre"."


title: Arab nationalism

text: Meanwhile, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia sought to counter the influences of Arab nationalism and communism in the region by promoting pan-Islamism as an alternative. He called for the establishment of the Muslim World League, visiting several Muslim countries to advocate the idea. He also engaged in a propaganda and media war with Nasser.


title: Arab nationalism

text: After the defeat of the Arab coalition by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War—which the reigning Arab nationalist leader Nasser had dubbed "al-Ma‘raka al-Masiriya", (the battle of destiny)—the Arab nationalist movement is said to have suffered an "irreversible" slide towards "political marginality".


title: Arab nationalism

text: From the mid-1960s onward, the movement was further weakened by factional splits and ideological infighting. The formerly pro-Nasser Arab Nationalist Movement, publicly abandoned Nasserism in favor of Marxism–Leninism and fell apart soon after. In 1966, the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party split into rival factions based in Baghdad and Damascus, respectively.


title: Arab nationalism

text: In the 1940s, rulers such as Abdullah I of Jordan and Nuri al-Said of Iraq sought to create an expanded Arab empire constructed out of the smaller nation-states that had been created in the mandate period. Abdullah's dream was to be king of a Greater Syria while as-Said's dream was for a Fertile Crescent Federation. These aspirations, however, were unpopular and met with suspicion in the countries they sought to conquer. The creation of the Arab League and its insistence on the territorial integrity and respect for sovereignty of each member state, the assassination of Abdullah, and the 14 July Revolution weakened the political feasibility of these ideas.


title: Arab nationalism

text: During much of the 20th century, the rivalry between Syria and Nasser in Egypt for who would lead the union undermined the effort of forming a united Arab state. In 1958, Egypt and Syria temporarily joined to create the United Arab Republic. It was accompanied by attempts to include Iraq and North Yemen in the union. This very exercise, while fostering Egypt's position at the centre of Arab politics, led to the weakening of Syria.


title: Arab nationalism

text: With the 14 July Revolution taking place in Iraq the same year, Western powers feared the fallouts of a powerful Arab nationalism in the region. Foreign powers were not only concerned about the possible spread of such revolutionary movements in other Arab states, but also worried about losing the control and monopoly over the region's natural oil resources. However, due to discontent over the hegemony of Egypt and after a coup in Syria that introduced a more radical government to power, the United Arab Republic collapsed in 1961. The term "United Arab Republic" continued to be used in Egypt until 1971, after the death of Nasser.


title: Arab nationalism

text: Another unsuccessful attempt at union occurred in 1963. That year the Arab nationalist Ba'ath Party came to power in Syria and Iraq and talks were held on uniting the two countries with Egypt. On 17 April an agreement to unite the countries was signed, but Ba'ath leaders complained of what they considered Egyptian president Nasser's "patronizing, bullying tone" and his insistence on a single centralized party structure under his leadership. In Syria, pro-Nasserists were purged from the Syrian military and cabinet. In response, large pro-Nasser riots erupted in Damascus and Aleppo but were crushed with 50 rioters killed. A pro-Nasser coup attempt on 18 July 1963 in Syria also ended unsuccessfully. Hundreds of people killed or wounded in an attempt to take over the Damascus radio station and army headquarters, and 27 rebel officers were summarily executed. Nasser then formally withdrew from the union agreement, denouncing the Syrian Ba'athists as "fascists and murderers".


title: Arab nationalism

text: In 1964, Egypt, Iraq and North Yemen formed a Unified Political Command in order to prepare the gradual merger in a new "United Arab Republic", however, both projects failed in 1966 and 1967. In 1971 and 1972 Muammar Gaddafi attempted to unite Libya, Egypt, Sudan and Syria to form the Federation of Arab Republics. This loose union lasted until 1977 when it split due to political and territorial disputes between the republics' leadership. In 1974, Muammar Gaddafi and Habib Bourguiba attempted their two nations of Libya and Tunisia to form the Arab Islamic Republic. The plan was rejected by Bourgiba due to his realization of unity of the Maghreb states. This would later become the Arab Maghreb Union.


title: Arab nationalism

text: In October 1978, Iraqi President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr began working closely with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad to foil the Camp David Accords. They signed a charter in Baghdad for Joint National Action which provided for the "closest form of unity ties" including "complete military unity" as well as "economic, political and cultural unification". An agreement to unify the two states was to come into effect in July 1979. However, Iraqi Vice President Saddam Hussein was fearful of losing his power to Assad (who was supposed to become the deputy leader in the new union) and forced al-Bakr into retirement under threat of violence. Although unity talks did continue between Assad and Saddam after July 1979, but Assad rejected Iraqi demands for a full merger between the two states and for the immediate deployment of Iraqi troops into Syria. Instead Assad, perhaps fearful of Iraqi domination and a new war with Israel, advocated a step-by-step approach. The unity talks were eventually suspended indefinitely after an alleged discovery of a Syrian plot to overthrow Saddam Hussein in November 1979.


title: Rakshita

text: Shweta, known by her stage name Rakshita, is an Indian television personality, film producer and former actress known for her work in Kannada cinema.