title: Bad Teacher

text: On June 20, 2013, Sony announced that it was working on "Bad Teacher 2". The company hired Justin Malen to write the sequel. Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, who wrote the first film, will return as producers. A release from Sony studios said the project is "being developed for Cameron Diaz to star in the film, but no deal is yet set with the actress." Jake Kasdan will again be the director.


title: Bad Teacher

text: On May 23, 2013, CBS announced a TV series based on the movie, with CBS Studios and Sony Pictures Television as production partners. The show premiered on April 24, 2014, in the 9:30pm time slot. Ari Graynor played the Cameron Diaz role, while Sara Gilbert, Ryan Hansen, David Alan Grier, Kristin Davis and Sara Rodier also appeared. On May 10, 2014, CBS canceled "Bad Teacher" after airing only three episodes. "Bad Teacher" last aired during the spring TV season on May 22, 2014. However, in July 2014, CBS burned off the remaining unseen episodes by showing two episodes on Saturday nights.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: Pectus excavatum is a structural deformity of the anterior thoracic wall in which the sternum and rib cage are shaped abnormally. This produces a caved-in or sunken appearance of the chest. It can either be present at birth or develop after puberty.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: People with the condition may experience severe negative psychosocial effects and avoid activities that expose the chest.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: The hallmark of the condition is a sunken appearance of the sternum. The most common form is a cup-shaped concavity, involving the lower end of the sternum; a broader concavity involving the upper costal cartilages is possible. The lower-most ribs may protrude ("flared ribs"). Pectus excavatum defects may be symmetric or asymmetric.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: In mild cases, cardiorespiratory function is normal, although the heart can be displaced and/or rotated. In severe cases, the right atrium may be compressed, mitral valve prolapse may be present, and physical capability may be limited due to base lung capacity being decreased.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: Psychological symptoms manifest with feelings of embarrassment, social anxiety, shame, limited capacity for activities and communication, negativity, intolerance, frustration, and even depression.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: Researchers are unsure of the cause of pectus excavatum. Some researchers take the stance that it is a congenital disorder (birth defect), but not genetic. Others assume that there is some genetic component. A small sample size test found that in at least some cases, 37% of individuals have an affected first degree family member. , a number of genetic markers for pectus excavatum had also been discovered.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: It was believed for decades that pectus excavatum is caused by an overgrowth of costal cartilage, however people with pectus excavatum actually tend to have shorter, not longer, costal cartilage relative to rib length.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: Pectus excavatum can be present in other conditions too, including Noonan syndrome, Marfan syndrome and Loeys–Dietz syndrome as well as other connective tissue disorders such as Ehlers–Danlos syndrome. Many children with spinal muscular atrophy develop pectus excavatum due to their diaphragmatic breathing.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: Physiologically, increased pressure "in utero", rickets and increased traction on the sternum due to abnormalities of the diaphragm have been postulated as specific mechanisms. Because the heart is located behind the sternum, and because individuals with pectus excavatum have been shown to have visible deformities of the heart seen both on radiological imaging and after autopsies, it has been hypothesized that there is impairment of the function of the cardiovascular system in individuals with pectus excavatum. While some studies have demonstrated decreased cardiovascular function, no consensus has been reached based on newer physiological tests such as echocardiography of the presence or degree of impairment in cardiovascular function. However, a 2016 meta-analysis found significant evidence that surgical correction of pectus excavatum improves patient cardiac performance.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: Pectus excavatum is initially suspected from visual examination of the anterior chest. Auscultation of the chest can reveal displaced heart beat and valve prolapse. There can be a heart murmur occurring during systole caused by proximity between the sternum and the pulmonary artery.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: Many scales have been developed to determine the degree of deformity in the chest wall. Most of these are variants on the distance between the sternum and the spine. One such index is the "Backer ratio" which grades severity of deformity based on the ratio between the diameter of the vertebral body nearest to xiphosternal junction and the distance between the xiphosternal junction and the nearest vertebral body. More recently the "Haller index" has been used based on CT scan measurements. An index over 3.25 is often defined as severe. The Haller index is the ratio between the horizontal distance of the inside of the ribcage and the shortest distance between the vertebrae and sternum.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: Chest x-rays are also useful in the diagnosis. The chest x-ray in pectus excavatum can show an opacity in the right lung area that can be mistaken for an infiltrate (such as that seen with pneumonia). Some studies also suggest that the Haller index can be calculated based on chest x-ray as opposed to CT scanning in individuals who have no limitation in their function.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: Pectus excavatum is differentiated from other disorders by a series of elimination of signs and symptoms. Pectus carinatum is excluded by the simple observation of a collapsing of the sternum rather than a protrusion. Kyphoscoliosis is excluded by diagnostic imaging of the spine, wherein pectus excavatum the spine usually appears normal in structure.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: Pectus excavatum requires no corrective procedures in mild cases. Treatment of severe cases can involve either invasive or non-invasive techniques or a combination of both. Before an operation proceeds several tests are usually performed. These include, but are not limited to, a CT scan, pulmonary function tests, and cardiology exams (such as auscultation and ECGs). After a CT scan is taken, the Haller index is measured. The patient's Haller is calculated by obtaining the ratio of the transverse diameter (the horizontal distance of the inside of the ribcage) and the anteroposterior diameter (the shortest distance between the vertebrae and sternum). A Haller Index of greater than 3.25 is generally considered severe, while normal chest has an index of 2.5. The cardiopulmonary tests are used to determine the lung capacity and to check for heart murmurs.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: The chest wall is elastic, gradually stiffening with age. Non-surgical treatments have been developed that aim at gradually alleviating the pectus excavatum condition, making use of the elasticity of the chest wall, including the costal cartilages, in particular in young cases.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: Physical exercise has an important role in conservative pectus excavatum treatment though is not seen as a means to resolve the condition on its own. It is used in order to halt or slow the progression of mild or moderate excavatum conditions and as supplementary treatment to improve a poor posture, to prevent secondary complications, and to prevent relapse after treatment.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: Exercises are aimed at improving posture, strengthening back and chest muscles, and enhancing exercise capacity, ideally also increasing chest expansion. Pectus exercises include deep breathing and breath holding exercises, as well as strength training for the back and chest muscles. Additionally, aerobic exercises to improve cardiopulmonary function are employed.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: An alternative to surgery, the vacuum bell, was described in 2006; the procedure is also referred to as treatment by "cup suction". It consists of a bowl shaped device which fits over the caved-in area; the air is then removed by the use of a hand pump. The vacuum created by this lifts the sternum upwards, lessening the severity of the deformity. It has been proposed as an alternative to surgery in less severe cases. Once the defect visually disappears, two additional years of use of the vacuum bell is required to make what may be a permanent correction. The treatment, in combination with physiotherapy exercises, has been judged by some as "a promising useful alternative" to surgery provided the thorax is flexible; the duration of treatment that is required has been found to be "directly linked to age, severity and the frequency of use". Long-term results are still lacking.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: A single-center study reported in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery found that use of vacuum bell therapy resulted in an excellent correction in twenty percent of patients, but "is not a substitute for the Nuss procedure which can achieve an excellent result in 90% of patients". Variables predictive of an excellent outcome include age ≤ 11 years, chest wall depth ≤ 1.5 cm, chest wall flexibility, and vacuum bell use over 12 consecutive months.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: In an article by "Interactive Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery", the results found that vacuum bell treatment is safe for correcting the deformity non-surgically. The treatment has been shown to have higher success rates in patients who present earlier, have a mild and/or symmetrical deformity, a flexible chest wall and lack of costal flaring.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: Brazilian orthopedist Sydney Haje developed a non-surgical protocol for treating pectus carinatum as well as pectus excavatum. The method involves wearing a compressive orthosis and adhering to an exercise protocol.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: There has been controversy as to the best surgical approach for correction of pectus excavatum. It is important for the surgeon to select the appropriate operative approach based on each individual's characteristics.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: Surgical correction has been shown to repair any functional symptoms that may occur in the condition, such as respiratory problems or heart murmurs, provided that permanent damage has not already arisen from an extremely severe case. Surgical correction of the pectus excavatum has been shown to significantly improve cardiovascular function; there is inconclusive evidence so far as to whether it might also improve pulmonary function. One of the most popular techniques for repair of pectus excavatum today is the minimally invasive operation, also known as MIRPE or Nuss technique.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: The magnetic mini-mover procedure (3MP) is a minimally invasive procedure used to correct pectus excavatum by using two magnets to realign the sternum with the rest of the chest and ribcage. One magnet is inserted 1 cm into the patient's body on the lower end of the sternum, the other is placed externally onto a custom fitted brace. These two magnets generate around 0.04 tesla (T) in order to slowly move the sternum outwards over a number of years. The maximum magnetic field that can be applied to the body safely is around 4 T, making this technique safe from a magnetic viewpoint. The 3MP technique's main advantages are that it is more cost-effective than major surgical approaches such as the Nuss procedure and it is considerably less painful postoperatively.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: Its effectiveness is limited to younger children in early- to mid-puberty because older individuals have less compliant (flexible) chest walls. One potential adverse interaction with other medical devices is possible inactivation of artificial pacemakers if present.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: The Ravitch technique is an invasive surgery that was introduced in 1949 and developed in the 1950s. It involves creating an incision along the chest through which the cartilage is removed and the sternum detached. A small bar is inserted underneath the sternum to hold it up in the desired position. The bar is left implanted until the cartilage grows back, typically about six months. The bar is subsequently removed in a simple outpatient procedure; this technique is thus a two-stage procedure.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: The Ravitch technique is not widely practiced because it is so invasive. It is more often used in older individuals, where the sternum has calcified when the deformity is asymmetrical, or when the less invasive Nuss procedure has proven unsuccessful.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: In 1987, Donald Nuss, based at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk, Virginia, performed the first minimally invasive repair of pectus excavatum (MIRPE) and presented it much later at a conference in 1997.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: His procedure, widely known as the "Nuss procedure", involves slipping in one or more concave steel bars into the chest, underneath the sternum. The bar is flipped to a convex position so as to push outward on the sternum, correcting the deformity. The bar usually stays in the body for about two years, although many surgeons are now moving toward leaving them in for up to five years. When the bones have solidified into place, the bar is removed through outpatient surgery. Although initially designed to be performed in younger children (less than 10 years of age) whose sternum and cartilage is more flexible, there are successful series of Nuss treatment in patients well into their teens and twenties.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: In 1965, Francis Robicsek, based at Charlotte Memorial Hospital, now named Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, developed the Robicsek procedure. Each time the procedure is performed, it is individually tailored based on the extent and location of the deformity in the patient. The operation begins with an incision, no more than 4–6 centimeters, to the sternum. The pectoralis major muscles are then detached from the sternum. Using the upper limit of the sternal depression as a guide, the deformed cartilages are removed one by one, using sharp and blunt dissection. The lower tip of the sternum is then grabbed with a towel-clip and, using blunt dissection, is freed of tissue connections with the pericardium and the pleura. The sternum is then forcefully bent forward into a corrected position. To keep the sternum elevated, a piece of mesh is placed under the mobilized sternum and sutured under moderate tension bilaterally to the stumps of the ribs. The pectoralis muscles are united in front of the sternum and the wound is closed. The Robicsek procedure is a single-stage procedure (one surgery only).


title: Pectus excavatum

text: The purported advantage of this technique is that it is less invasive than the Ravitch technique, but critics have suggested that the relapse rate may be high due to cartilage and bone displaying memory phenomenon.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: In 2016, Carlos Bardají, a Barcelona-based pediatric surgeon, together with Lluís Cassou, a biomedical engineer, published a paper describing an extra-thoracic surgical procedure for the correction of pectus excavatum called taulinoplasty. A specially designed implant and traction hardware were developed specifically for the procedure.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: In taulinoplasty, a small hole is drilled into the sternum at the deepest point of defect, and a double screw is driven into the hole. Then, a stainless steel implant is placed underneath the skin on top of the sternum and ribs, centered over the double screw. Traction tools are then used to lift the sternum up by the double screw using the implant and ribs for traction. Additional screws are then used to secure the implant onto the sternum holding the sternum in the desired position. Optionally, stainless steel wire may be wrapped around the implant and ribs to further secure the implant in place.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: Like the Nuss procedure, taulinoplasty requires follow-up surgery several years later to remove the implanted hardware once the sternum has permanently assumed its new position.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: The implant and related hardware used in taulinoplasty is a proprietary product of Ventura Medical Technologies and is marketed as a surgical kit under the brand name Pectus UP.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: Taulinoplasty was developed to be an alternative to the Nuss procedure that eliminates the risks and drawbacks of entering the thorax. In particular, patients usually have shorter operating and recovery times, and less post-operative pain than with the Nuss procedure.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: The implant allows pectus excavatum to be treated from a purely morphological perspective. Today it is used as a benchmark procedure as it is simple, reliable, and minimally intrusive while offering aesthetically pleasing results. This procedure does not, however, claim to correct existing cardiac and respiratory problems which, in very rare cases, can be triggered by the pectus excavatum condition. For female patients, the potential resulting breast asymmetry can be partially or completely corrected by this procedure.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: The process of creating a plaster-cast model, directly on the skin of the patient's thorax, can be used in the design of the implants. The evolution of medical imaging and CAD (computer-aided design) now allows customised 3D implants to be designed directly from the ribcage, therefore being much more precise, easier to place sub-pectorally and perfectly adapted to the shape of each patient. The implants are made of medical silicon rubber which is age-resistant and unbreakable (different to the silicon gel used in breast implants). They will last for life (apart from the case of adverse reactions) and are not visible externally.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: The surgery is performed under general anesthesia and takes about an hour. The surgeon makes an incision of approximately seven centimetres, prepares the customised space in the chest, inserts the implant deep beneath the muscle, then closes the incision. Post-operative hospitalization is typically around three days.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: The recovery after the surgery typically requires only mild pain relief. Post-operatively, a surgical dressing is required for several days and compression vest for a month following the procedure. A check-up appointment is carried out after a week for puncture of seroma. If the surgery has minimal complications, the patient can resume normal activities quickly, returning to work after 15 days and participating in any sporting activities after three months.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: The "lipofilling" technique consists of sucking fat from the patient using a syringe with a large gauge needle (usually from the abdomen or the outer thighs), then after centrifugation, the fat cells are re-injected beneath the skin into whichever hollow it is needed to fill. This technique is primarily used to correct small defects which may persist after conventional surgical treatment.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: Pectus excavatum occurs in an estimated 1 in 150 to 1 in 1000 births, with male predominance (male-to-female ratio of 3:1). In 35% to 45% of cases family members are affected.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: Pectus excavatum is from Latin meaning "hollowed chest". It is sometimes referred to as sunken chest syndrome, cobbler's chest or funnel chest.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: American Olympic swimmer Cody Miller (born 1992) opted not to have treatment for pectus excavatum, even though it limited his lung capacity. He earned a gold medal in 2016.


title: Pectus excavatum

text: Actor Joel Kinnaman underwent surgery prior to the filming of "Altered Carbon", inserting two metal bars to push the sternum outward in order to correct the deformity. English comedian and presenter Josh Widdicombe and YouTuber/streamer Ludwig Ahgren are known to have this condition. Zachary Woods is another popular American actor that has pectus excavatum, which is noticeable in his shirtless scene in an episode of The Office (Season 8, episode 12). Dutch bodybuilder, actor and Muscle Meats CEO Oliver Richters, "The Dutch Giant", suffered from the condition before undergoing surgical correction


title: Pectus excavatum

text: Pectus excavatum is also known to occur in animals, e.g. the Munchkin breed of cat. Some procedures used to treat the condition in animals have not been used in human treatments, such as the use of a cast with sutures wrapped around the sternum and the use of internal and external splints. These techniques are generally used in immature animals with flexible cartilage.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: Dáil Éireann ( , ; ) is the lower house, and principal chamber, of the Oireachtas (Irish legislature), which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann (the upper house). It consists of 160 members, each known as a (plural , commonly abbreviated as TDs). TDs represent 39 constituencies and are directly elected for terms not exceeding five years, on the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV). Its powers are similar to those of lower houses under many other bicameral parliamentary systems and it is by far the dominant branch of the Oireachtas. Subject to the limits imposed by the Constitution of Ireland, it has power to pass any law it wishes, and to nominate and remove the Taoiseach (head of government). Since 1922, it has met in Leinster House in Dublin.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: The Dáil took its current form when the 1937 Constitution was adopted, but it maintains continuity with the First Dáil established in 1919.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: The Dáil has 160 members. The number is set within the limits of the Constitution of Ireland, which sets a minimum ratio of one member per 20,000 of the population, and a maximum of one per 30,000. Under current legislation, members are directly elected for terms not exceeding five years by the people of Ireland under a system of proportional representation known as the single transferable vote. Membership of the Dáil is open to Irish citizens who are 21 or older. A member of the Dáil is a and is known generally as a TD or Deputy.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: The Dáil electorate consists of Irish and British citizens over 18 years of age who are registered to vote in Ireland. Under the Constitution a general election for Dáil Éireann must occur once in every seven years, an earlier maximum of five years is set by the Electoral Act 1992. The Taoiseach (head of government or prime minister) can, at any time, make a request to the president to dissolve the Dáil, in which case a general election must occur within thirty days. The President may refuse to grant the dissolution to a Taoiseach who has ceased to retain the support of a majority in the Dáil; to date, no request for a dissolution has been refused.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: The STV electoral system broadly produces proportional representation in the Dáil. The small size of the constituencies used, however, usually gives a small advantage to the larger parties and under-represents smaller parties. Since the 1990s the norm in the state has been coalition governments. Prior to 1989, however, one-party government by the Fianna Fáil party was common. The multi-seat constituencies required by STV mean that candidates must often compete for election with others from the same party. This increases voter choice but is accused by some of producing TDs who are excessively parochial. By-elections occur under the alternative vote system. Proposals to amend the constitution to change to the First-past-the-post voting system were rejected in referendums in 1959 and in 1968.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: Currently every constituency elects between three and five TDs. The constitution specifies that no constituency may return fewer than three TDs but does not specify any upper limit to constituency magnitude. However, statute specifies a maximum of five seats per constituency. The constitution requires that constituency boundaries be reviewed at least once in every twelve years, so that boundaries may be redrawn to accommodate changes in population. Boundary changes are currently drafted by an independent commission, and its recommendations are implemented by law. Malapportionment is forbidden by the constitution. Under the Constitution, the commission is required to refer to the most recent Census when considering boundary changes.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: The Constituency Commission which reported in 2017, recommended a total of 160 TDs, which based on the 2016 census gave an average representation of 29,762 of population per member. This report was implemented by the Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Act 2017 and took effect at the 2020 general election. This ratio is in line with that of many other European Union member state national parliaments' ratios, giving Ireland a similar MP-to-citizen ratio to Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden. (At the two extremes of the EU range, Malta has one MP for every 6,000 citizens and Spain one MP for every 130,000 citizens).


title: Dáil Éireann

text: The Dáil chamber has confrontational benches but the end segment is curved to create a partial hemicycle. The government TDs sit on the left of the Ceann Comhairle, with the main opposition party on their right. The Chamber was adapted for use as a Parliament from its former use as a lecture theatre.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: The First Dáil was established on 21 January 1919 as the single-chamber parliament of the Irish Republic. One of the first actions of the Dáil was to ratify a constitution, commonly known as the Dáil Constitution. As a provisional constitution it made no reference to the length of the term of each Dáil. The first and second Dáil existed under the provisions of this constitution. Neither was recognised by the British government or the governments of other countries as the lawful parliament of Ireland.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: Following the signing of the 1922 Anglo-Irish Treaty, which brought the Irish War of Independence to an end, the single chamber Dáil became the lower house of a new bicameral Oireachtas, the parliament of the newly established Irish Free State. Under the treaty, a new constitution replaced the 1919 Dáil constitution.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: Article 28 of the Constitution of the Irish Free State (1922) set the maximum term for the Dáil at four years. This was amended in 1927 from four years to six years "or such shorter period as may be fixed by legislation". Later that same year, this period was fixed in law as a duration of "five years reckoned from the date of the first meeting of Dáil Éireann after the last previous dissolution".


title: Dáil Éireann

text: On 29 December 1937, the Irish Free State ceased to exist and was replaced by a new state called Ireland, with the coming into force of the new Constitution of Ireland. Article 16.5 of the 1937 constitution states that "Dáil Éireann shall not continue for a longer period than seven years from the date of its first meeting: a shorter period may be fixed by law". The period in law remained at five years. Since the coming info force of the 1937 constitution, no Irish government has proposed changing the maximum term of the Dáil, which still remains five years and was reconfirmed by legislation in 1992, which stated, "The same Dáil shall not continue for a longer period than five years from the date of its first meeting". The acceptance of five years as the maximum term for any single Dáil was reconfirmed by section 33 of the Electoral Act 1992, which states Consequently, the maximum term for the Dáil is five years from the date it first met following the last general election.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: Article 16.3.2º of the Constitution of Ireland (1937) provides that an election for the membership of Dáil Éireann must take place not later than 30 days after a dissolution of the current Dáil. Article 16.4.2º requires that the newly elected Dáil Éireann must convene no later than 30 days after the polling day for the election. As such, the maximum period of time between a dissolution of Dáil Éireann before a general election and the meeting of the new Dáil after a general election is 60 days.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: The procedure and timetable for the dissolution of Dáil Éireann, pursuant to a general election, and the date for the reassembly of the newly elected Dáil, after the election, is set out in the Constitution of Ireland. Article 13.2.1º states that "Dáil Éireann shall be summoned and dissolved by the President on the advice of the Taoiseach". Therefore, the timing of a general election rests with the Taoiseach of the day.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: Once so advised by the Taoiseach, the President issues a proclamation which specifies the date on which the current Dáil is dissolved, and the date on which the newly elected Dáil must first meet.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: The timing for polling day in a general election is decided on by the Taoiseach. However, this is governed within a specified statutory framework. Once the Presidential proclamation is issued, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government sets, by way of a ministerial order, the date and time of polling day in the election.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: For the purposes of the Act an "excluded day" means a day which is a Sunday, Good Friday or a day which is declared to be a public holiday by the Holidays (Employees) Act 1973, or a day which by virtue of a statute or proclamation is a public holiday.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: Therefore, if the Dáil were dissolved on a Tuesday 1 February (in a non-leap year), and the writs for elections issued by the Clerk of the Dáil on that day, then the earliest date for polling day would be Monday 21 February (17 days later, excluding Sundays) and the latest date for polling would be Wednesday 2 March (25 days after, excluding Sundays), with polling stations being open for a minimum 12-hour period between the hours of 8am and 10.30pm on polling day (as set out in the ministerial order). In such a scenario, the latest date by which the newly elected Dáil must assemble would be Wednesday 23 March (for a 21 February polling date), or Friday 1 April (for a 2 March polling date).


title: Dáil Éireann

text: The name is taken from the Irish language but is the official title of the body in both English and Irish, including in both language versions of the Irish constitution. Since the Dáil was first established in 1919, it has also been described variously as a "National Assembly", a "Chamber of Deputies" and a "House of Representatives".


title: Dáil Éireann

text: A means a "meeting, tryst or encounter of any kind". Article 15 of the 1937 Constitution describes the body as "a House of Representatives to be called Dáil Éireann" ("Teach Ionadóirí ar a dtugtar Dáil Éireann").


title: Dáil Éireann

text: The word "Dáil" is accompanied by the definite article, but "Dáil Éireann" is not; one speaks of "the Dáil" but not "the Dáil Éireann". The plural of "Dáil" in the English language is most commonly "Dáils", although the Irish-language plural "Dálaí" is sometimes encountered in English. As there is only ever one Dáil in existence at any one time, the plural is used when referring to the Dáil after different elections; for example, when referring to the First and Second Dáils.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: The chairman, or presiding member, of the Dáil is the Ceann Comhairle. The Ceann Comhairle is chosen from among TDs but is required to observe strict impartiality. Despite this, the government will usually try to select one of its own for the position, if its numbers allow. To protect the neutrality of the chair, an incumbent Ceann Comhairle does not seek re-election as a TD but rather is deemed automatically to have been re-elected by their constituency at a general election, unless they are retiring. The Ceann Comhairle does not vote except in the event of a tie. The current Ceann Comhairle is Fianna Fáil TD Seán Ó Fearghaíl.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: While the Dáil is one of three components of the Oireachtas, the other two being the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann, the powers the constitution grants to the Dáil render it by far the dominant branch, meaning that most bills passed by the Dáil will ultimately become law. The President may refer a bill to the Supreme Court of Ireland to test its constitutionality upon consultation with the Council of State. If the Court finds that the bill is inconsistent with the Constitution, the bill does not become law.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: In addition to its legislative role, it is the Dáil that approves the nomination the Taoiseach for appointment by the President. The Dáil may also pass a motion of no confidence in the Government, in which case the Taoiseach must either seek a parliamentary dissolution or resign. It has happened only once that the loss of confidence of the Dáil did not result in a general election: in 1994 John Bruton of Fine Gael became Taoiseach when the Labour Party left the Fianna Fáil coalition government led by Albert Reynolds.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: The Dáil determines its own standing orders and its members are protected by certain rights arising from parliamentary privilege. In line with other modern parliamentary systems, TDs do not generally vote in accordance with their consciences or the wishes of their constituents, but must follow the instructions of party whips, a practice that originated in the Irish Parliamentary Party. Except in exceptional circumstances, the Dáil meets in public. The Dáil currently has three standing committees and thirteen select committees.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: As of 2019, the Dáil sits on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays when the Oireachtas is sitting. On Tuesdays the Dáil normally sits from 2pm until 11pm, on Wednesdays from 9.12am until around 11.30pm and on Thursdays from 9am until around 8pm.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: A typical day consists of questions to various cabinet ministers, Leaders’ questions whereby opposition Leaders ask the Taoiseach questions and routine debates on Bills. Every Tuesday and Wednesday three hours over the two days are given to the debate of opposition motions. These normally try to embarrass the government and are widely covered in the media. The government and its Majority normally amends these suitably and the amended version is passed by the Government.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: The Ceann Comhairle has ruled that it is disorderly for one deputy to describe another as a brat, buffoon, chancer, communist, corner boy, coward, fascist, gurrier, guttersnipe, hypocrite, rat, scumbag, scurrilous speaker or yahoo; or to insinuate that a TD is lying or drunk; or has violated the secrets of cabinet, or doctored an official report. Also, the reference to "handbagging", particularly with reference to a female member of the House, has been deemed to be unparliamentary.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: The Dáil maintains a document, "Salient Rulings of the Chair" which covers behaviour in and out of the House by TDs; section 428 of this lists unparliamentary speech.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: The Ceann Comhairle (or Leas-Cheann Comhairle) first puts the question in Irish, asking the TDs present to say (Yes) or (No) if they agree or disagree with the question before them. The Ceann Comhairle then gives his opinion as to the outcome of the voice vote. Deputies can challenge the Ceann Comhairle and demand a recorded vote by shouting (Vote!) The Ceann Comhairle then shouts again which starts the voting process. Division bells sound around Leinster House and in some of its adjoining buildings calling deputies to the chamber to vote. The bells ring for six minutes and the doors to the chamber are locked after a further four minutes.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: The Ceann Comhairle then appoints two tellers for each side and deputies are given one minute to vote. The vote is taken by electronic means whereby Deputies press either the Tá or Níl button on their desks to vote for or against a motion. After the voting time has concluded a sheet (Division Paper) containing the result and each TDs vote is signed by the four tellers and given to the Ceann Comhairle who declares the result.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: While electronic voting has become the norm the Dáil votes manually through the lobbies at the back of the chamber on a number of occasions, for example, motions of no confidence. A teller in an electronic vote can call a manual vote if they so wish. This has become an opposition tactic during important votes which are widely covered in the media.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: The first legislature to exist in Ireland was the Parliament of Ireland from 1297 to 1800, and its house of representatives was the House of Commons. However the Parliament of Ireland was abolished under the Act of Union of 1800, with MPs elected for Ireland sitting in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom until 1922. Irish nationalists first convened Dáil Éireann as a revolutionary parliament in 1919 and while it successfully took over most functions of government it was not recognised under United Kingdom law.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: In 1921 the United Kingdom government established a legislature called the Parliament of Southern Ireland in an effort to appease nationalists by granting Ireland limited home rule. However this body was rejected and boycotted by nationalists whose allegiance remained with the Dáil. Nonetheless, because the First Dáil was illegal under the United Kingdom constitution, the lower house of the Parliament of Southern Ireland, the House of Commons of Southern Ireland, is considered in British legal theory as the precursor to the Dáil.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: The current Dáil derives from the 1937 Constitution of Ireland, but maintain continuity from the First Dáil of 1919. This Dáil was an assembly established by Sinn Féin MPs elected to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in the 1918 United Kingdom general election. They had contested the election on a manifesto commitment of "[establishing] a constituent assembly comprising persons chosen by Irish constituencies as the supreme national authority to speak and act in the name of the Irish people". Upon winning 73 of the 105 Irish seats in the election, Sinn Féin MPs refused to recognise the United Kingdom parliament and instead convened as Dáil Éireann (translated as "Assembly of Ireland"): the unicameral legislature of a unilaterally declared Irish Republic, and the first Irish parliament to exist since 1801.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: The Dáil of the Irish Republic, however, was only recognised internationally by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. The first meeting of the Dáil occurred in Dublin on 21 January 1919, in the Mansion House, attended by 27 members. The body was prohibited in the following September, and was forced underground, meeting in several locations.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: The Dáil of the Irish Republic was succeeded on 6 December 1922 by the Dáil of the Irish Free State. The Irish Free State, comprising the twenty-six southern and western counties of Ireland, was established under the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. Dáil Éireann was the house of representatives, described in the new constitution as a "Chamber of Deputies, of a bicameral legislature called the Oireachtas of the Irish Free State. The first Dáil to exist under the Constitution of the Irish Free State succeeded the Second Dáil of the Irish Republic and so was styled the Third Dáil. The Third Dáil, and every subsequent Dáil, has met in Leinster House.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: The Constitution of Ireland, adopted in 1937, established the modern Irish state, referred to today as Ireland. Under the constitution a new legislature retained the title "Oireachtas", and its lower house remained "Dáil Éireann". The first Dáil to meet under the Constitution of Ireland was described as the Ninth Dáil.


title: Dáil Éireann

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessity for social distancing, the Dáil temporarily sat at the Convention Centre Dublin from June 2020 to July 2021. From September 2021, the Dáil returned to sitting in Leinster House.


title: Solar power

text: Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic effect. Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and solar tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight to a hot spot, often to drive a steam turbine.


title: Solar power

text: Photovoltaics were initially solely used as a source of electricity for small and medium-sized applications, from the calculator powered by a single solar cell to remote homes powered by an off-grid rooftop PV system. Commercial concentrated solar power plants were first developed in the 1980s. Since then, as the cost of solar electricity has fallen, grid-connected solar PV systems have grown more or less exponentially. Millions of installations and gigawatt-scale photovoltaic power stations continue to be built, with half of new generation capacity being solar in 2021.


title: Solar power

text: As of 2021, solar generates 4% of the world's electricity, compared to 1% in 2015 when the Paris Agreement to limit climate change was signed. Along with onshore wind, the cheapest levelised cost of electricity is utility-scale solar.


title: Solar power

text: Much more low carbon power, such as solar, is urgently needed to limit climate change, but the International Energy Agency said in 2022 that more effort was needed for grid integration and the mitigation of policy, regulation and financing challenges.


title: Solar power

text: A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is a device that converts light into electric current using the photovoltaic effect. The first solar cell was constructed by Charles Fritts in the 1880s. The German industrialist Ernst Werner von Siemens was among those who recognized the importance of this discovery. In 1931, the German engineer Bruno Lange developed a photo cell using silver selenide in place of copper oxide, although the prototype selenium cells converted less than 1% of incident light into electricity. Following the work of Russell Ohl in the 1940s, researchers Gerald Pearson, Calvin Fuller and Daryl Chapin created the silicon solar cell in 1954. These early solar cells cost US$286/watt and reached efficiencies of 4.5–6%. In 1957, Mohamed M. Atalla developed the process of silicon surface passivation by thermal oxidation at Bell Labs. The surface passivation process has since been critical to solar cell efficiency.


title: Solar power

text: For practical use this usually requires conversion to alternating current (AC), through the use of inverters.


title: Solar power

text: Panels are wired together to form arrays, then tied to an inverter, which produces power at the desired voltage, and for AC, the desired frequency/phase.


title: Solar power

text: Many residential PV systems are connected to the grid wherever available, especially in developed countries with large markets.


title: Solar power

text: In certain applications such as satellites, lighthouses, or in developing countries, batteries or additional power generators are often added as back-ups. Such stand-alone power systems permit operations at night and at other times of limited sunlight.


title: Solar power

text: Concentrated solar power (CSP), also called "concentrated solar thermal", uses lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to concentrate sunlight, then use the resulting heat to generate electricity from conventional steam-driven turbines.


title: Solar power

text: A wide range of concentrating technologies exists: among the best known are the parabolic trough, the compact linear Fresnel reflector, the dish Stirling and the solar power tower. Various techniques are used to track the sun and focus light. In all of these systems a working fluid is heated by the concentrated sunlight, and is then used for power generation or energy storage. Thermal storage efficiently allows overnight electricity generation, thus complementing PV. CSP generates a very small share of solar power and in 2022 the IEA said that CSP should be better paid for its storage.


title: Solar power

text: A hybrid system combines solar with energy storage and/or one or more other forms of generation. Hydro, wind and batteries are commonly combined with solar. The combined generation may enable the system to vary power output with demand, or at least smooth the solar power fluctuation. There is a lot of hydro worldwide, and adding solar panels on or around existing hydro reservoirs is particularly useful, because hydro is usually more flexible than wind and cheaper at scale than batteries, and existing power lines can sometimes be used.


title: Solar power

text: The early development of solar technologies starting in the 1860s was driven by an expectation that coal would soon become scarce, such as experiments by Augustin Mouchot. Charles Fritts installed the world's first rooftop photovoltaic solar array, using 1%-efficient selenium cells, on a New York City roof in 1884. However, development of solar technologies stagnated in the early 20th century in the face of the increasing availability, economy, and utility of coal and petroleum. The first satellite with solar panels was launched in 1957.


title: Solar power

text: By the 1970s, solar power was being used on satellites, but the cost of solar power was considered to be unrealistic for conventional applications. In 1974 it was estimated that only six private homes in all of North America were entirely heated or cooled by functional solar power systems. However, the 1973 oil embargo and 1979 energy crisis caused a reorganization of energy policies around the world and brought renewed attention to developing solar technologies.


title: Solar power

text: Deployment strategies focused on incentive programs such as the Federal Photovoltaic Utilization Program in the US and the Sunshine Program in Japan. Other efforts included the formation of research facilities in the United States (SERI, now NREL), Japan (NEDO), and Germany (Fraunhofer ISE).


title: Solar power

text: Between 1970 and 1983 installations of photovoltaic systems grew rapidly. In the United States, President Jimmy Carter set a target of producing 20% of U.S. energy from solar by the year 2000, but his successor, Ronald Reagan, removed the funding for research into renewables. Falling oil prices in the early 1980s moderated the growth of photovoltaics from 1984 to 1996.


title: Solar power

text: In the mid-1990s development of both, residential and commercial rooftop solar as well as utility-scale photovoltaic power stations began to accelerate again due to supply issues with oil and natural gas, global warming concerns, and the improving economic position of PV relative to other energy technologies. In the early 2000s, the adoption of feed-in tariffs—a policy mechanism, that gives renewables priority on the grid and defines a fixed price for the generated electricity—led to a high level of investment security and to a soaring number of PV deployments in Europe.


title: Solar power

text: For several years, worldwide growth of solar PV was driven by European deployment, but then shifted to Asia, especially China and Japan, and to a growing number of countries and regions all over the world. The largest manufacturers were located in China. Although concentrated solar power grew more than tenfold it remained a tiny proportion of the total, because the cost of utility-scale solar PV fell by 85%, to below CSP cost which fell only 68%.


title: Solar power

text: Despite the rising cost of materials, such as polysilicon, during the 2021–2022 global energy crisis; the cost of some other energy sources, such as natural gas, rose more thus making utility scale solar the cheapest energy source in many countries. 1 TW had been installed by 2022. However growth continued to be hindered by fossil-fuel subsidies.


title: Solar power

text: About half of installed capacity is utility scale. According to the IEA not enough CSP is being built.


title: Solar power

text: Most new renewable capacity between 2022 and 2027 is forecast to be solar, surpassing coal as the largest source of installed power capacity. Utility scale is forecast to become the largest capacity in all regions except sub-Saharan Africa.


title: Solar power

text: According to a 2021 study global electricity generation potential of rooftop solar panels is estimated at 27 PWh per year at cost ranging from $40 (Asia) to $240 per MWh (US, Europe). Its practical realization will however depend on the availability and cost of scalable electricity storage solutions.


title: Solar power

text: Commercial concentrating solar power (CSP) plants, also called "solar thermal power stations", were first developed in the 1980s. The 377  MW Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, located in California's Mojave Desert, is the world's largest solar thermal power plant project. Other large CSP plants include the Solnova Solar Power Station (150 MW), the Andasol solar power station (150 MW), and Extresol Solar Power Station (150 MW), all in Spain. The principal advantage of CSP is the ability to efficiently add thermal storage, allowing the dispatching of electricity over up to a 24-hour period. Since peak electricity demand typically occurs at about 5 pm, many CSP power plants use 3 to 5 hours of thermal storage.


title: Solar power

text: The typical cost factors for solar power include the costs of the modules, the frame to hold them, wiring, inverters, labour cost, any land that might be required, the grid connection, maintenance and the solar insolation that location will receive.


title: Solar power

text: Photovoltaic systems use no fuel, and modules typically last 25 to 40 years. Thus upfront capital and financing costs make up 80 to 90% of the cost of solar power.


title: Solar power

text: Expenses of high power band solar modules has greatly decreased over time. Beginning in 1982, the cost per kW was approximately 27,000 American dollars, and in 2006 the cost dropped to approximately 4,000 American dollars per kW. The PV system in 1992 cost approximately 16,000 American dollars per kW and it dropped to approximately 6,000 American dollars per kW in 2008.


title: Solar power

text: In 2021 in the US, residential solar cost from 2 to 4 dollars/watt (but solar shingles cost much more) and utility solar costs were around $1/watt.


title: Solar power

text: The productivity of solar power in a region depends on solar irradiance, which varies through the day and year and is influenced by latitude and climate. PV system output power also depends on ambient temperature, wind speed, solar spectrum, the local soiling conditions, and other factors.


title: Solar power

text: Onshore wind power tends to be the cheapest source of electricity in Northern Eurasia, Canada, some parts of the United States, and Patagonia in Argentina: whereas in other parts of the world mostly solar power (or less often a combination of wind, solar and other low carbon energy) is thought to be best.


title: Solar power

text: The locations with highest annual solar irradiance lie in the arid tropics and subtropics. Deserts lying in low latitudes usually have few clouds, and can receive sunshine for more than ten hours a day. These hot deserts form the "Global Sun Belt" circling the world. This belt consists of extensive swathes of land in Northern Africa, Southern Africa, Southwest Asia, Middle East, and Australia, as well as the much smaller deserts of North and South America.


title: Solar power

text: So solar is (or is predicted to become) the cheapest source of energy in all of Central America, Africa, the Middle East, India, South-east Asia, Australia, and several other places.


title: Solar power

text: Different measurements of solar irradiance (direct normal irradiance, global horizontal irradiance) are mapped below :


title: Solar power

text: In cases of self-consumption of solar energy, the payback time is calculated based on how much electricity is not purchased from the grid. However, in many cases, the patterns of generation and consumption do not coincide, and some or all of the energy is fed back into the grid. The electricity is sold, and at other times when energy is taken from the grid, electricity is bought. The relative costs and prices obtained affect the economics. In many markets, the price paid for sold PV electricity is significantly lower than the price of bought electricity, which incentivizes self consumption. Moreover, separate self consumption incentives have been used in e.g. Germany and Italy. Grid interaction regulation has also included limitations of grid feed-in in some regions in Germany with high amounts of installed PV capacity. By increasing self consumption, the grid feed-in can be limited without curtailment, which wastes electricity.


title: Solar power

text: A good match between generation and consumption is key for high self-consumption. The match can be improved with batteries or controllable electricity consumption. However, batteries are expensive and profitability may require the provision of other services from them besides self consumption increase. Hot water storage tanks with electric heating with heat pumps or resistance heaters can provide low-cost storage for self consumption of solar power. Shiftable loads, such as dishwashers, tumble dryers and washing machines, can provide controllable consumption with only a limited effect on the users, but their effect on self-consumption of solar power may be limited.


title: Solar power

text: The original political purpose of incentive policies for PV was to facilitate an initial small-scale deployment to begin to grow the industry, even where the cost of PV was significantly above grid parity, to allow the industry to achieve the economies of scale necessary to reach grid parity. Since reaching grid parity some policies are implemented to promote national energy independence, high tech job creation and reduction of CO emissions.


title: Solar power

text: Three incentive mechanisms are often used in combination as investment subsidies: the authorities refund part of the cost of installation of the system, the electricity utility buys PV electricity from the producer under a multiyear contract at a guaranteed rate, and Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SRECs).


title: Solar power

text: Financial incentives for photovoltaics differ across countries, including Australia, China, Germany, India, Japan, and the United States and even across states within the US.


title: Solar power

text: In net metering the price of the electricity produced is the same as the price supplied to the consumer, and the consumer is billed on the difference between production and consumption. Net metering can usually be done with no changes to standard electricity meters, which accurately measure power in both directions and automatically report the difference, and because it allows homeowners and businesses to generate electricity at a different time from consumption, effectively using the grid as a giant storage battery. With net metering, deficits are billed each month while surpluses are rolled over to the following month. Best practices call for perpetual roll over of kWh credits. Excess credits upon termination of service are either lost or paid for at a rate ranging from wholesale to retail rate or above, as can be excess annual credits.


title: Solar power

text: The overwhelming majority of electricity produced worldwide is used immediately because traditional generators can adapt to demand and storage is usually more expensive. Both solar power and wind power are sources of variable renewable power, meaning that all available output must be used locally, carried on transmission lines elsewhere to be used, or stored (e.g. in a battery). Since solar energy is not available at night, storing its energy is potentially an important issue particularly in off-grid and for future 100% renewable energy scenarios to have continuous electricity availability.


title: Solar power

text: Solar electricity is inherently variable but somewhat predictable by time of day, location, and seasons. Solar is intermittent due to day/night cycles and unpredictable weather. How much of a special challenge solar power is in any given electric utility varies significantly. In places with hot summers and mild winters, solar is well matched to daytime cooling demands.


title: Solar power

text: Conventional hydroelectric dams work very well in conjunction with solar power; water can be held back or released from a reservoir as required. Where suitable geography is not available, pumped-storage hydroelectricity can use solar power to pump water to a high reservoir on sunny days, then the energy is recovered at night and in bad weather by releasing water via a hydroelectric plant to a low reservoir where the cycle can begin again.


title: Solar power

text: Concentrated solar power plants may use thermal storage to store solar energy, such as in high-temperature molten salts. These salts are an effective storage medium because they are low-cost, have a high specific heat capacity, and can deliver heat at temperatures compatible with conventional power systems. This method of energy storage is used, for example, by the Solar Two power station, allowing it to store 1.44 TJ in its 68 m storage tank, enough to provide full output for close to 39 hours, with an efficiency of about 99%.


title: Solar power

text: In stand alone PV systems batteries are traditionally used to store excess electricity. With grid-connected photovoltaic power system, excess electricity can be sent to the electrical grid. Net metering and feed-in tariff programs give these systems a credit for the electricity they produce. This credit offsets electricity provided from the grid when the system cannot meet demand, effectively trading with the grid instead of storing excess electricity.


title: Solar power

text: When wind and solar are a small fraction of the grid power, other generation techniques can adjust their output appropriately, but as these forms of variable power grow, additional balance on the grid is needed. As prices are rapidly declining, PV systems increasingly use rechargeable batteries to store a surplus to be later used at night. Batteries used for grid-storage can stabilize the electrical grid by leveling out peak loads for a few hours. In the future, less expensive batteries could play an important role on the electrical grid, as they can charge during periods when generation exceeds demand and feed their stored energy into the grid when demand is higher than generation.


title: Solar power

text: Common battery technologies used in today's home PV systems include nickel-cadmium, lead-acid, nickel metal hydride, and lithium-ion.Lithium-ion batteries have the potential to replace lead-acid batteries in the near future, as they are being intensively developed and lower prices are expected due to economies of scale provided by large production facilities such as the Gigafactory 1. In addition, the Li-ion batteries of plug-in electric cars may serve as future storage devices in a vehicle-to-grid system. Since most vehicles are parked an average of 95% of the time, their batteries could be used to let electricity flow from the car to the power lines and back. Other rechargeable batteries used for distributed PV systems include, sodium–sulfur and vanadium redox batteries, two prominent types of a molten salt and a flow battery, respectively.


title: Solar power

text: In an electricity system without grid energy storage, generation from stored fuels (coal, biomass, natural gas, nuclear) must go up and down in reaction to the rise and fall of solar electricity (see load following power plant). While hydroelectric and natural gas plants can quickly respond to changes in load, coal, biomass and nuclear plants usually take considerable time to respond to load and can only be scheduled to follow the predictable variation. Depending on local circumstances, beyond about 20–40% of total generation, grid-connected intermittent sources like solar tend to require investment in some combination of grid interconnections, energy storage or demand side management. In countries with high solar generation, such as Australia and Germany, electricity prices have been known to go negative in the middle of the day when solar is generating a lot of power, thus incentivizing new battery storage.


title: Solar power

text: The combination of wind and solar PV has the advantage that the two sources complement each other because the peak operating times for each system occur at different times of the day and year. The power generation of such solar hybrid power systems is therefore more constant and fluctuates less than each of the two component subsystems. Solar power is seasonal, particularly in northern/southern climates, away from the equator, suggesting a need for long term seasonal storage in a medium such as hydrogen or pumped hydroelectric.


title: Solar power

text: A very small proportion of solar power is concentrated solar power. Concentrated solar power may use much more water than gas-fired power. This can be a problem, as this type of solar power needs strong sunlight so is often built in deserts.


title: Solar power

text: Solar power is cleaner than electricity from fossil fuels: solar power does not lead to any harmful emissions during operation, but the production of the panels leads to some amount of pollution. A 2021 study estimated the carbon footprint of manufacturing monocrystalline panels at 515 g CO2/kWp in the US and 740 g CO2/kWp in China, but this is expected to fall as manufacturers use more clean electricity and recycled materials. Solar power carries an upfront cost to the environment via production with a carbon payback time of a few years , but offers clean energy for the rest of its 30 year lifetime.


title: Solar power

text: The life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions of solar farms are less than 50 gram (g) per kilowatt-hour (kWh), but with battery storage could be up to 150 g/kWh. In contrast, a combined cycle gas-fired power plant without carbon capture and storage emits around 500 g/kWh, and a coal-fired power plant about 1000 g/kWh. Similar to all energy sources where their total life cycle emissions are mostly from construction, the switch to low carbon power in the manufacturing and transportation of solar devices would further reduce carbon emissions.


title: Solar power

text: Life-cycle surface power density of solar power varies a lot but averages about 7 W/m2, compared to about 240 for nuclear power and 480 for gas. However when the land required for gas extraction and processing is accounted for gas power is estimated to have not much higher power density than solar. PV requires much larger amounts of land surface to produce the same nominal amount of energy as sources with higher surface power density and capacity factor. According to a 2021 study, obtaining 25 to 80% of electricity from solar farms in their own territory by 2050 would require the panels to cover land ranging from 0.5 to 2.8% of the European Union, 0.3 to 1.4% in India, and 1.2 to 5.2% in Japan and South Korea. Occupation of such large areas for PV farms could drive residential opposition as well as lead to deforestation, removal of vegetation and conversion of farm land. However some countries, such as South Korea and Japan, use land for agriculture under PV, or floating solar. Worldwide land use has minimal ecological impact. Land use can be reduced to the level of gas power by installing on buildings and other built up areas.


title: Solar power

text: Harmful materials are used in the production of solar panels, but in generally in small amounts. the environmental impact of perovskite is hard to estimate, but there is some concern that lead may become a problem. A 2021 International Energy Agency study projects the demand for copper will double by 2040. The study cautions that supply needs to increase rapidly to match demand from large-scale deployment of solar and required grid upgrades. More tellurium and indium may also be needed and recycling may help.


title: Solar power

text: As solar panels are sometimes replaced with more efficient panels, the second-hand panels are sometimes reused in developing countries, for example in Africa. Several countries have specific regulations for the recycling of solar panels. Although maintenance cost is already low compared to other energy sources, some academics have called for solar power systems to be designed to be more repairable.


title: Solar power

text: over 40% of global polysilicon manufacturing capacity is in Xinjiang in China, which raises concerns about human rights violations (Xinjang internment camps) as well as supply chain dependency. However solar cannot be cut off, unlike oil and gas, so can contribute to energy security.


title: October

text: October is the tenth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and the sixth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. The eighth month in the old calendar of Romulus , October retained its name (from Latin and Greek "ôctō" meaning "eight") after January and February were inserted into the calendar that had originally been created by the Romans. In Ancient Rome, one of three Mundus patet would take place on October 5, Meditrinalia October 11, Augustalia on October 12, October Horse on October 15, and Armilustrium on October 19. These dates do not correspond to the modern Gregorian calendar. Among the Anglo-Saxons, it was known as Winterfylleth (Ƿinterfylleþ), because at this full moon, winter was supposed to begin.


title: October

text: October is commonly associated with the season of spring in parts of the Southern Hemisphere, and autumn in parts of the Northern Hemisphere, where it is the seasonal equivalent to April in the Southern Hemisphere and vice versa.


title: October

text: The last two to three weeks in October (and, occasionally, the first week of November) are normally the only time of the year during which all of the "Big Four" major professional sports leagues in the U.S. and Canada schedule games; the National Basketball Association begins its preseason and about two weeks later starts the regular season, the National Hockey League is about one month into its regular season, the National Football League is about halfway through its regular season, and Major League Baseball is in its postseason with the League Championship Series and World Series. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which necessitated changes to the sporting calendar and led to the four leagues' schedules coinciding earlier and more frequently than normal, there were 19 occasions in which all four leagues played games on the same day (an occurrence popularly termed a sports equinox), with the most recent of these taking place on October 27, 2019. Additionally, the Canadian Football League is typically nearing the end of its regular season during this period, while Major League Soccer is beginning the MLS Cup Playoffs.


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: Farouk I (; "Fārūq al-Awwal"; 11 February 1920 – 18 March 1965) was the tenth ruler of Egypt from the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the penultimate King of Egypt and the Sudan, succeeding his father, Fuad I, in 1936.


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: His full title was "His Majesty Farouk I, by the grace of God, King of Egypt and the Sudan". As king, Farouk was known for his extravagant playboy lifestyle. While initially popular, his reputation eroded due to the corruption and incompetence of his government. He was overthrown in the 1952 coup d'etat, and forced to abdicate in favour of his infant son, Ahmed Fuad, who succeeded him as Fuad II. Farouk died in exile in Italy in 1965.


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: His sister, Princess Fawzia Fuad, was the first wife and consort of the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: He was born as "His Sultanic Highness" Farouk bin Fuad, Hereditary Prince of Egypt and Sudan, on 11 February 1920 (Jumada al-Awwal 21, 1338 A.H.) at Abdeen Palace, Cairo, the eldest child of Sultan Fuad I (later King Fuad I) and his second wife, Nazli Sabri. He had Albanian, Circassian, Turkish, French, and Egyptian and Greek ancestry. Farouk was always proud of his Albanian heritage and as king, he was protected by 30 Albanian bodyguards, as he regarded Albanians as the only people he could trust with his life. Despite the Albanian origin of his house, Farouk in common with the other members of Egypt's Ottoman elite had more Circassian blood in him as Mohammad Ali the Great and his successors were fond of their Circassian slave girls, which were one of the most prized possessions of an Ottoman official. As a child, Farouk met his grandmother, a woman with one arm. Farouk's first languages were Egyptian Arabic, Turkish and French (the languages of the Egyptian elite), and he always thought of himself as an Egyptian rather than as an Arab, having no interest in Arab nationalism except as a way of increasing Egypt's power in the Middle East. Egypt at that time was quite rich but its wealth was so maldistributed. The pashas, representing less than .5% of all landowners, owned a third of all cultivated land in the country.


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: In addition to his sisters, Fawzia, Faiza, Faika and Fathia, he had one half-sister from his father's previous marriage to Princess Shivakiar Khanum Effendi, Princess Fawkia. Fuad gave all of his children names starting with F after an Indian fortune-teller told him names starting with F would bring him good luck. King Fuad kept tight control over his only son when he was growing up and Farouk was only allowed to see his mother once every day for an hour. The prince grew up in the very closeted world of the royal palaces, and he never visited the Great Pyramids at Giza until he became king, despite the fact that only separated the Abdeen Palace from the Pyramids. Farouk had a very spoiled upbringing with the Sudanese servants when meeting him always getting down on their knees to first kiss the ground and then his hand. Aside from his sisters, Farouk had no friends when growing up as Fuad would not allow any outsiders to meet him.


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: Fuad, who did not speak Arabic, insisted that the crown prince learn Arabic so he could talk to his subjects. Farouk became fluent in classical Arabic, the language of the Koran, and he always gave his speeches in classical Arabic. As a child, Farouk showed a facility for languages, learning Arabic, English, French and Italian, which were the only subjects he excelled in. The more honest of Farouk's tutors often wrote comments on his childhood essays such as "Improve your bad handwriting and pay attention to the cleanliness of your notebook" and "It is regrettable that you do not know the history of your ancestors". The more sycophantic of his tutors wrote comments like "Excellent. A brilliant future awaits you in the world of literature" on an essay that began with the sentence "My father had a lot of ministers and I have a cat". Farouk was known for his love of practical jokes, a trait that continued as an adult. For instance, he liked to free the quail that the game keepers had captured on the grounds of the Montaza Palace, and he once used an air gun to shoot out the windows at the Koubbeh Palace. When Queen Marie of Romania visited the Koubbeh Palace to see Queen Nazli, Farouk asked her if she wanted to see his two horses; when she answered in the positive, Farouk had the horses brought into the royal harem, which greatly displeased the two queens as the animals defecated all over the floor. Farouk's Swedish au pair, Gerda Sjöberg, wrote in her diary: "The truth doesn't exist in Egypt. Breaking promises is normal. Farouk is already perfect at this. He loves to lie. But it's amazing Farouk is as good as he, given his mother." Knowing of his family's genetic predisposition to obesity, King Fuad kept Farouk on a strict diet, warning him that the male descendants of Mohammad Ali the Great tended to get obese very easily.


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: Farouk's closest friend when growing up and later as an adult was the Italian electrician at the Abdeen Palace, Antonio Pulli, who became one of Egypt's most powerful men during his reign. An attempt to enrol Farouk at Eton was thwarted when he failed the entrance exams. Before his father's death, he was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, England. The Italophile Fuad wanted to have Farouk educated at the Turin Military Academy, but the British High Commissioner Sir Miles Lampson vetoed this choice as growing Italian claims for the entire Mediterranean to be "Mare Nostrum" ("Our Sea") made it unacceptable for the Crown Prince to be educated in Italy.


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: In October 1935, Farouk left Egypt to settle at Kenry House in the countryside of Surrey to attend the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich as an extramural student. Farouk attended classes occasionally at "the Shop", as the academy was known, to prepare himself for the entrance exam. Farouk stayed at Kenry House and twice a week was driven in a Rolls-Royce to the Royal Military Academy to attend classes, but still failed the entrance exam. One of Farouk's tutors, General Aziz Ali al-Misri, complained to King Fuad that the principal problem with Farouk as a student was he never studied and expected the answers to be given to him when he wrote his exam. Instead of studying, Farouk spent his time in London where he went shopping, attended football matches with the Prince of Wales, and visited restaurants and brothels. Farouk's other tutor, the famous desert explorer, Olympic athlete and poet Ahmed Hassanein reported to King Fuad that Farouk was studying hard, but the inability of the crown prince to pass entrance exams supports General al-Misri's reports. When King George V died in January 1936, Farouk represented Egypt at his funeral in Westminster Abbey.


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: On 28 April 1936, King Fuad died of a heart attack and Farouk left England to return to Egypt as king. Farouk's first act as king was to visit Buckingham Palace to accept the condolences of King Edward VIII, one of the few Englishmen whom Farouk liked, and then he went to Victoria Station to take a train to Dover and was seen off by the Foreign Secretary, Sir Anthony Eden. At Dover, Farouk boarded a French ship, the "Côte d'Azur", which took him to Calais. After a stop in Paris to shop and visit the Elysee Palace, Farouk took the train to Marseilles, where he boarded an ocean liner, the "Viceroy of India" to take him to Alexandria, where he landed on 6 May 1936. Upon landing in Alexandria, Farouk was greeted by huge crowds who shouted "Long live the king of the Nile!" and "Long live the king of Egypt and the Sudan!". In 1936, Farouk was known by his subjects as "al malik al mahbub" ("the beloved king"). Besides inheriting the throne, Farouk also received all of the land that his father had acquired, which amounted to one seventh of all the arable land in Egypt. As the Nile river valley has some of the most fertile and productive farmland in the entire world, this was a considerable asset. Fuad left Farouk a fortune worth about USD $100 million (a sum worth USD $1,862,130,434 in 2020 dollars when adjusted for inflation) plus of land in the Nile river valley, five palaces, 200 cars and 2 yachts. Farouk's biographer, William Stadiem, wrote:no pharaoh, no Mameluke, no khedive ever began a reign with such unquestionable, enthusiastic goodwill as King Farouk. And none was as unprepared to rule. Here was a completely sheltered, virtually uneducated sixteen-year old, expected to fill the spats of his wily, politically astute father in a loaded tug-of-war between nationalism, imperialism, constitutionalism, and monarchy.


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: Upon his coronation, the 16-year-old King Farouk made a public radio address to the nation, the first time a sovereign of Egypt had ever spoken directly to his people in such a way:


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: As Farouk was extremely popular with the Egyptian people, it was decided by the Prime Minister, Aly Maher, that Farouk should not return to Britain as that would be unpopular, though one of the regents, Prince Mohammad Ali, had wanted Farouk to keep trying to be admitted on a full-time basis to the Royal Military Academy as a means of getting him out of the country. Since under Egyptian law women could not inherit the throne, Farouk's cousin Prince Mohammad Ali was next in line to the throne. Prince Mohammad Ali was to spend the next 16 years scheming to depose Farouk so he could become king. Egypt was in the process of negotiating a treaty that would reduce some of the British privileges in Egypt and make the country more independent in exchange for keeping Egypt in the British sphere of influence. The ambitions of Benito Mussolini to dominate the Mediterranean led the Wafd—traditionally the anti-British party—to want to keep the British presence in Egypt, at least as long as Mussolini kept calling the Mediterranean "Mare Nostrum". For both the Wafd and the British, it was convenient to keep Farouk in Egypt so that when he signed the new Anglo-Egyptian treaty, it would not be seen as under duress as it would be if Farouk was living in Britain. Sir Miles Lampson believed he together with assorted other British officials like the king's tutor, Edward Ford, could mould Farouk into an Anglophile. Lampson's plans were derailed when it emerged that Farouk was more interested in duck-hunting than Ford's lectures and that the king had "bragged" he would "have the hell" with the British, saying they had humiliated him for long enough.


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: The fact that Farouk had dismissed all of the British servants employed by his father, while keeping the Italian servants, suggested he had inherited Fuad's Italophilia. Farouk especially resented Lampson's attempts to set himself up as a surrogate father, finding him impossibly patronising and rude, complaining that at one moment Lampson would address him as a king and the next moment would call him to his face a "naughty boy". Lampson was 55 when Farouk acceded to the throne and he never learned how to treat the teenage Farouk as an equal. The official was charmed by Egypt, which he regarded as a wondrous exotic land, but as his Arabic was not particularly good, his contacts with ordinary Egyptians were only on a superficial level. Lampson was fluent in French and his social contracts were almost entirely with the Egyptian elite. Lampson wrote in his diary about the death of King Fuad: "Slippery customer though he was, he was an immense factor in the situation here and ... we could always in the last resort get him to act in any particular line that we wished". About Farouk, Lampson wrote he did not expect to have "a young immature King on our hands. I frankly don't know quite how that problem is going to be handled".


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: Farouk was enamored of the glamorous royal lifestyle. Although he already had thousands of acres of land, dozens of palaces and hundreds of cars, the youthful king often traveled to Europe for grand shopping sprees, earning the ire of many of his subjects. It is said that he ate 600 oysters a week. His personal vehicle was a red 1947 Bentley Mark VI, with coachwork by Figoni et Falaschi; he dictated that, other than the military jeeps which made up the rest of his entourage, no other cars were to be painted red. In 1951, he bought the pear-shaped 94-carat Star of the East diamond and a fancy-coloured oval-cut diamond from jeweller Harry Winston.


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: He was most popular in his early years, and the nobility largely celebrated him. For example, during the accession of the young King Farouk, "the Abaza family had solicited palace authorities to permit the royal train to stop briefly in their village so that the king could partake of refreshments offered in a large, magnificently ornamented tent the family had erected in the train station." The Chief Accountant to Farouk was Yadidya Israel, who was secretly working with the Free Officers movement that removed the King in 1952, as was the Abaza family's own Wagih Abaza, who later became governor of six governorates in post-Farouk Egypt.


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: Farouk's accession initially was encouraging for the populace and nobility, due to his youth and Egyptian roots through his mother Nazli Sabri. Standing 6'0 tall and extremely handsome in his teenage years, Farouk was viewed as a sex symbol in his early years, making the cover of "Time" magazine as a leader to watch while "Life" magazine in article on him called the Abdeen Palace "possibly the most magnificent royal place in the world" and Farouk "the very model of a young Muslim gentleman". However, the situation was not the same with some Egyptian politicians and elected government officials, with whom Farouk quarreled frequently, despite their loyalty in principle to his throne. There was also the issue of the British influence in the Egyptian government, which Farouk viewed with disdain. Farouk's accession had changed the dynamic of Egyptian politics from being a struggle of an unpopular king vs. the popular Wafd party as it was under his father to that of a popular Wafd vs. an even more popular king. The Wafd Party, led by Nahas Pasha, had been the most popular party in Egypt since it had been founded in 1919, and the Wafd leaders felt threatened by Farouk's popularity with ordinary Egyptians. Right from the start of Farouk's reign, the Wafd—who claimed to speak alone for Egypt's masses—saw Farouk as a threat and Nahas Pasha worked constantly to clip the king's power, confirming the prejudices that Farouk had inherited from his father against the Wafd. When Nahas and the other Wafd leaders traveled to London to sign the Anglo-Egyptian treaty in August 1936, they stopped over in Switzerland to hold discussions with former Khedive Abbas II about how best to depose Farouk and put Abbas back on the throne.


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: The dominant figure in the Wafd was Makram Ebeid, the man widely considered to be the most intelligent Egyptian politician of the interwar era. Ebeid was a Coptic Christian, which made it unacceptable for him to be prime minister of Muslim majority Egypt, and so he exercised power via his protege Nahas, who was the official party leader. Leaders in the Wafd like Ali Maher, opposed to Ebeid and Nahas, looked to Farouk as a rival source of patronage and power. Both Ebeid and Nahas disliked Maher, regarding him as an intriguer and an opportunist, and found a further reason to dislike him even more when Maher became Farouk's favorite political adviser. The nationalistic Wafd Party was the most powerful political machine in Egypt, and when the Wafd was in power, it tended to be very corrupt and nepotistic. Those excluded from opportunities for corruption, like Maher Pasha, made much of the corruption, in particular the baleful influence of Nahas Pasha's dominating wife (who insisted on giving high government jobs to members of her family, no matter how unqualified they were). Through the Wafd Party had been founded in 1919 as the anti-British party, the fact that Nahas Pasha championed the 1936 treaty as the best way of keeping Mussolini from conquering Egypt as he had done Ethiopia, paradoxically led Lampson to favor Nahas and the Wafd as the most pro-British party, in turn leading opponents of the Wafd to attack them for "selling out" by signing a treaty which allowed the British to keep their garrisons in Egypt. As Farouk could not stand the overbearing Lampson, and saw the Wafd as his enemies, the king naturally aligned himself with the anti-Wafd factions and those who saw the treaty as a "sell out". Lampson personally favored deposing Farouk and putting his cousin Prince Mohammad Ali on the throne in order to keep the Wafd in power, but feared that a coup would destroy the popular legitimacy of Nahas.


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: Despite the regency council, Farouk was determined to exercise his royal prerogatives. When Farouk asked for a new railroad station to be built outside of the Montazah palace, the council refused under the grounds that station was only used twice a year by the royal family, when they arrived at the Montazah palace to escape the summer heat in Cairo and when they returned to Cairo in the fall. Unwilling to take no for an answer, Farouk called out his servants and led them to demolish the station, forcing the regency council to approve building a new station. To counterbalance the Wafd, Farouk from the time he arrived back in Egypt started to use Islam as a political weapon, always attending the Friday prayers at the local mosques, donating to Islamic charities, and courting the Muslim Brotherhood, the only group capable of rivaling the Wafd in terms of the ability to mobilize the masses. Farouk was known in his early years as the "pious king" as unlike his predecessors he went out of his way to be seen as a devout Muslim. The Egyptian historian Laila Morsy wrote that Nahas never really tried to reach an understanding with the Palace, and treated Farouk as an enemy from the start, seeing him as a threat to the Wafd. The Wafd ran a powerful patronage machine in rural Egypt and the enthusiastic response of the "fellaheen" to the king as he threw gold coins at them during his tours of the countryside was viewed by Nahas as a major threat. Nahas sought to prevent the king from "parading" himself before the masses, claiming that the king's royal tours cost the government too much money, and as the Wafd was a secularist party, charged that Farouk's overt religiosity violated the constitution. However, the attacks by the secularist Wafd on Farouk for being too pious a Muslim estranged conservative Muslim opinion who rallied in defense of the "pious king". As the Coptic Christian minority tended to vote as a bloc for the Wafd and many prominent Wafd leaders like Ebeid were Copts, the Wafd was widely seen as the "Coptic party". The aggressive defense by Nahas of secularism as a core principle of Egyptian life and his attacks against the king as a danger for being a devout Muslim led to a backlash and the charge that secularism was merely a device for allowing the Coptic Christian minority to dominate Egypt at the expense of the Muslim Arab majority.


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: Sir Edward Ford, who served as the king's tutor, described him as a relaxed, gregarious and easy-going teenager whose first act upon meeting him in Alexandria was to take him swimming in the Mediterranean. However, Ford also described Farouk as incapable of learning and "totally incapable of concentration". Whenever Ford began a lesson, Farouk would immediately find a way to end it by insisting that he take Ford out for a drive to see the Egyptian countryside. In an interview in 1990, Ford described Farouk as: "He was half a private schoolboy of nine or ten and half a sophisticated young man of twenty-three, able to sit next to a great man like Lord Rutherford and impress him a great deal, usually by bluffing. He did have a very good eye, a royal eye. In England, he was able to spot the most valuable rare book in the Trinity College library in Cambridge. It may have been pure luck. But it impressed everyone. And he spoke wonderful English and Arabic". In turn, Farouk explained to Ford why upper-class Egyptian men were still using the titles left over from the Ottoman Empire such as pasha, bey and effendi, which Ford learned that a pasha was equivalent to being an aristocrat, a bey was equivalent to a title of knighthood and an effendi to being an esquire. Ford wrote in his notebook: "A pasha may perhaps be defined as a person who looks important, a bey thinks himself important, an effendi hopes to be important". When Farouk went on his tour of Upper Egypt in January 1937, going down the Nile on the royal yacht "Kassed el Kheir", Ford complained that Farouk never asked for a single lesson, as he was more interested in watching the latest films from Hollywood. Despite the fact that Upper Egypt was the poorest region in Egypt, various "mudirs" (governors) and sheikhs held camel races, gymnastic events, stick boxing matches, banquets and concerts in honor of the king, which led Ford to write of a "record of unrivaled stardom, of which Greta Garbo might well be envious".


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: On 29 June 1937, Farouk turned 17 under the Islamic lunar calendar, and since in the Islamic world a baby is considered to be one year old at the time of birth, by Muslim standards he was celebrating his 18th birthday. As he was considered 18, he thus attained his majority, and the Regency Council, which had irked Farouk so much, was dissolved. Farouk's coronation, held in Cairo, on 20 July 1937, outdid the coronation of George VI, which had just taken place that May, as Farouk held larger parades and fireworks displays than had taken place in London. For his coronation, Farouk reduced the fares on the Nile steamers and at least two million "fellaheen" (Egyptian peasants) took advantage of the price cut to attend his coronation in Cairo. Farouk's coronation speech implicitly criticized the land-owning Turco-Circassian elite that he himself was a part of, as Farouk declared: "The poor are not responsible for their poverty but rather the wealthy. Give to the poor what they merit without their asking. A king is a good king when the poor of the land have the right to live, when the sick have the right to be healed, when the timid have the right to be tranquil and when the ignorant have the right to learn". Farouk's coronation speech, which was unexpectedly poetic, was written by his tutor, the poet Ahmed Hassanein, who felt that the king should present himself as the friend of the "fellaheen" to undercut the populist Wafd Party. Further cementing Farouk's popularity was the announcement made on 24 August 1937, that he was engaged to Safinaz Zulficar, the daughter of an Alexandria judge. Farouk's decision to marry a commoner instead of a member of the Turco-Circassian aristocracy increased his popularity with the Egyptian people.


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: The marriage of the king and a commoner was presented to the world as matter of romantic love, but in fact the marriage had been arranged by Queen Nazli, who herself was a commoner and did not want her son to marry a princess from the Turco-Circassian elite who would outrank her. Queen Nazli had chosen Zulficar as her daughter-in-law because she was 15 years old and thus presumably could be molded, and came from an upper-middle-class family like herself (Zulficar's mother was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Nazli) and was fluent in French, the language of Egypt's elite. Zulficar's father refused to give permission for the marriage under the grounds that his daughter was 15 and too young to be married, and decided to take a vacation in Beirut. Unwilling to take no for an answer, Farouk phoned the police chief of Alexandria, who arrested Judge Zulficar as he was boarding the ship for Beirut, and the judge was taken to the Montaza Palace. At the Montaza palace, Farouk was waiting and bribed Judge Zulficar into granting permission for the marriage by making him into a pasha. At Salfinaz Zulficar's 16th birthday party, Farouk arrived in his Alfa Romeo automobile to propose marriage, and at the same time renamed her Farida because he believed names that started with F were lucky. (Safinaz is Persian for "pure rose" while Farida is Arabic for "the only one"; Farouk's decision to give his bride an Arabic name appealed to the masses). Farouk gave Farida a cheque for a sum in Egyptian pounds equivalent to $50,000 US dollars as a wedding dowry and a diamond ring worth just as much for the engagement. Outside of the Ras El Tin Palace, when the wedding was announced, 22 people were crushed to death and 140 badly injured when the crowd rushed forward to hear the news.


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: In the fall of 1937, Farouk dismissed the Wafd government headed by Prime Minister Mostafa El-Nahas and replaced him as Prime Minister with Mohamed Mahmoud Pasha. The immediate issue were Nahas's attempts to dismiss Farouk's "chef de cabinet" Ali Maher together with Farouk's Italian servants, but the more general issue was who would rule Egypt: the Crown or Parliament? As a number of ministers in the new government were pro-Italian at the same time that Mussolini was increasing the number of Italian troops in Libya, Farouk's move was seen as pro-Italian and anti-British. Lampson delivered what he called a "little lecture" to Farouk, reporting to London: "It will be fatal if the boy [Farouk] comes to think he is invincible and can play any trick he likes. Personally I have always liked him and he certainly has a most remarkable intelligence and courage—one begins to fear almost too much of the latter". At a meeting at the Abdeen Palace in December 1937, where Lampson declared that London was opposed to the Mahmoud government, Lampson reported: "I found him rather baffling to deal with—in extraordinary good humour and apparently taking the whole thing rather flippantly whist at times relapsing into a very 'kingly' attitude". Farouk told Lampson that he didn't care if the Wafd had a majority in Parliament, as he was the king and he wanted a prime minister who would obey him, not Parliament. Lampson ended the meeting by saying "Quos deus vult perdere prius demntat" ("Those God wishes to destroy, he first makes mad").


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: On 20 January 1938, Farouk married Farida in a sumptuous public event with Cairo lit up by floodlights and colored lights on the public buildings while boats on the Nile had likewise had colored lights, making the river seem a ribbon of light at night. Farida wore a wedding dress that Farouk had brought her, which was handmade in Paris and cost about $30,000 US dollars. The royal wedding made Farouk even more popular with the Egyptian people, and he dissolved parliament for elections in April 1938 with the full prestige and wealth of the Crown being used to support parties opposed to the Wafd. The prime minister, Nahas Pasha, used the familiar Wafd slogan "The king reigns; he does not rule", but the Wafd suffered a massive defeat in the election. In 1938, Farouk was approached by the Iranian ambassador with a message from Reza Khan, the Shah of Iran, asking that his sister be married to Mohammad Reza, the Crown Prince of Iran. When a group of Iranian emissaries arrived in Cairo bearing gifts from Reza Khan such as a "diamond necklace, diamond brooch, diamond earrings", Farouk was not impressed, taking the Iranian delegation on a tour of his five palaces to show them proper royal splendor and asked if there was anything comparable in Iran. Nonetheless, Farouk agreed in a joint press communique issued with Reza Khan on 26 May 1938, that Princess Fawzia would marry Crown Prince Mohammad Reza, who first learned that he was now engaged to Fawzia when he read the press release.


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: Farouk broke with Muslim tradition by taking Queen Farida everywhere with him, and letting her go unveiled. On 17 November 1938, Farouk became a father when Farida gave birth to Princess Farial, a considerable disappointment as Farouk wanted a son, all the more because he knew his cousin, Prince Mohammad Ali, was scheming to take the throne. In March 1939, Farouk sent the royal yacht "Mahroussa" to Iran to pick up the Crown Prince. On 15 March 1939, Mohammad Reza married Fawzia in Cairo and afterwards Farouk took his brother-in-law on a tour of Egypt, showing him his five palaces, the Pyramids, Al-Azhar University and other sites in Egypt. In April 1939, the German propaganda minister, Dr. Josef Goebbels, visited Cairo and received a warm welcome from the king. The Danzig crisis which led to World War II later that year had already begun when Farouk met Goebbels, and the meeting caused Lampson much alarm, as he suspected the king was an Axis sympathizer. In August 1939, Farouk appointed his favorite politician, Maher Pasha, prime minister.


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: Egypt remained neutral in World War II, but under heavy pressure from Lampson, Farouk broke diplomatic relations with Germany in September 1939. On 7 April 1940, Queen Farida gave birth to a second daughter, Princess Fawzia, which greatly upset Farouk. After Fawzia's birth, Farouk's marriage started to become strained as he wanted a son. In Egypt, a son was much more valued than daughters for the kingdom's legacy, according to Egyptian law at the time a daughter couldn't inherit nor ascend to the throne, and Farouk was becoming widely viewed as lacking in masculinity due to the absence of a son. Farouk consulted various doctors, who advised him to eat foods that were felt to increase sex drive, and Farouk became something of a bulimic, eating excessively and later becoming overweight. Suspicions that Queen Farida was having an affair with aristocrat Wahid Yussri imposed strains on the marriage.


title: Farouk of Egypt

text: Under the 1936 treaty, Britain had the right to defend Egypt from an invasion, which turned the Western Desert of Egypt into a battlefield when Italy declared war on Britain on 10 June 1940, and invaded Egypt. Under the 1936 treaty, the Egyptians were obligated to assist the British with logistical services, but Maher frustrated this by appointing corrupt bureaucrats to positions such as presidency of the Egyptian state railroad who demanded "baksheesh" (bribe) in exchange for co-operating. Owing to the strategic importance of Egypt, ultimately 2 million soldiers from Britain, Australia, India and New Zealand arrived in Egypt. Lampson was against Egypt declaring war on the Axis powers despite the Italian invasion of Egypt as having Egypt as a belligerent would mean Egypt would have the right to attend the peace conference once the Allies had won the war, and as Lampson put it, the Egyptians would make demands that would be "embarrassing" for the British at such a peace conference.