Talbot Merton Smith (born September 27, 1933) is an American former professional baseball executive who has served in high baseball operations positions—including general manager and club president—as well as the founder of a firm that advises Major League Baseball teams on salary arbitration cases.

A veteran of 54 years in baseball, he most recently served as president of baseball operations for the Houston Astros from November 22, 1994, through November 27, 2011—completing his 35th season with the Astros over three separate terms; he received a lifetime achievement award in 2005. He is the father of baseball executive Randy Smith.

Early Colt .45s/Astros career
Tal Smith was born in Framingham, Massachusetts. After attending Culver Military Academy and Duke University, serving in the United States Air Force, and a brief time as a sportswriter, he began his baseball career in the front office of the Cincinnati Reds as a protégé of Gabe Paul, their general manager from 1951–1960. He moved with Paul to Houston when the Astros were founded (as the Colt .45s) at the close of the 1960 baseball campaign. While Paul stayed only a few months in Texas before resigning to return to Ohio as front-office boss of the Cleveland Indians, Smith remained with Houston as the team's farm system director, then assistant to the president. He was promoted to vice president, player personnel after the 1965 season.

When Paul surfaced as a member of George Steinbrenner's syndicate, which purchased the New York Yankees early in 1973, he hired Smith away from the Astros as executive vice president and head of the Yankees' baseball operations department. Smith spent  seasons as a key part of the management team that built the Yankees back into a league power. But when the chance came to become the general manager of the Astros on August 7, 1975, Smith accepted it.

Return to Houston as general manager
Houston was in last place in the National League West Division when Smith assumed the reins, but under his leadership, the team rebuilt itself into contenders, winning its first division title in 1980. Along the way, Smith was named team president in 1976 and played a key role in resolving the club's ownership problem when he helped to convince Dr. John McMullen, a limited partner in Steinbrenner's ownership group, to sell his Yankees' shares and become the owner of the Astros.

However, in a move that shocked baseball, McMullen fired Smith only days after the team's successful 1980 season; McMullen went so far as to call Smith a "despicable human being". The move angered fans and partners.  In fact, some of the Astros limited partners threatened a lawsuit and brought about a re-organization with the result that two other directors ended up on equal footing with McMullen. The Astros made the playoffs in 1981 before experiencing a slide that did not end until 1986.

Rather than seeking another front-office job, Smith formed his own consulting firm named Tal Smith Enterprises to advise MLB clubs on how best to handle salary arbitration cases with their players. His firm became extremely successful over the next 15 years.

Third term in Astros' front office
In November 1994, Smith returned to the Astros (under the club's then-owner Drayton McLane, Jr.) as president of business operations. On August 27, 2007, Smith was named acting GM after the firing of Tim Purpura. He re-assumed his previous position upon the appointment of Ed Wade as full-time GM on September 21, 2007.  Both Wade and Smith were dismissed by the team's new owner, Houston businessman Jim Crane, when he assumed control of the Astros late in November 2011. According to news reports at the time, Smith still heads Tal Smith Enterprises.

Smith was a vital aide to McLane in the design of the Astros' ballpark, Minute Maid Park. The ballpark's field dimensions and unique angles were designed with Smith's input and assistance. Until the 2017 season, center field included a 30-degree hill named "Tal's Hill" as a tribute to his creativity and contribution to the Minute Maid Park project. Smith had a similar role in the construction of the Astros' first stadium, the Astrodome, in 1963 when he was assistant to the president of the Houston Sports Association. The Astrodome changed the face of stadiums and the city of Houston. When natural grass failed to thrive under the Astrodome's roof, Smith was responsible for finding an alternative playing surface. This led to the installation of Astroturf, a synthetic turf that became widely used in stadiums throughout the country.

Honors
On January 27, 2022, it was announced that Smith would be elected to the Houston Astros Hall of Fame.

References

External links
Tal Smith at Baseball America Executive Database

1933 births
Living people
Baseball people from Massachusetts
Cincinnati Reds executives
Culver Academies alumni
Duke University alumni
Houston Astros executives
Major League Baseball executives
Major League Baseball farm directors
Major League Baseball general managers
Major League Baseball team presidents
Military personnel from Massachusetts
New York Yankees executives
Sportspeople from Framingham, Massachusetts
Baseball players from Middlesex County, Massachusetts

Tal Smith


The Girl at the Lion d'Or  by Sebastian Faulks, was the author's second novel. Set in the small French fictional town of Janvilliers, Brittany, in 1936. Together with Birdsong and Charlotte Gray, it makes up Faulks' France Trilogy. The character Charles Hartmann is common to all three books.

Plot introduction
An unsigned prologue introduces the reader to 1930s France and sets-up the fiction that the novel tells the true story behind an actual newspaper report of the time. This is imagined as being a passionate adulterous love-affair between the book's two central characters with the nation's unstable political scene as its backdrop. The politics are rendered to us through the characters' every day conversation- they rely on newspapers for information- which means that the history lesson aspect of the book arises organically in the narrative.

Written in the third person using a conventional omniscient narrator, the novel airs the internal motivations and viewpoints of various characters. The narrative tone is at times ironic; the author uses unfussy language to tell the story with economy. The vast majority of the scenes in the novel are set indoors, which gives it a domestic and claustrophobic feel. There are no descriptions of physical violence, but there is trauma and angst. The character of Mattlin is a truly vicious villain, while the mood is down-beat -- in fact, mock-Gothic in the Poe-inspired sub-plot involving the renovation of the Manor House.

The book is shot through with mordant wit, but there are also lighter moments of tenderness and near-slapstick. On its publication, The Girl at the Lion d'Or was lauded in reviews for Faulks' ability to evoke a sense of time and place and for his adroitness in creating engaging characters.

Plot summary
A wet and dark winter night sees young and beautiful Anne Louvert arrive in Janvilliers from Paris to take up a lowly position at the village inn, the Lion d'Or. She gets to know the staff- the formidable Madame Concierge, the drunken Cook, the sex-starved Porter- and to meet the mysterious Patron. Then there are the customers: the evil Mattlin and the sensitive Hartmann most prominent among them.

A generation older than she, the cultured, rich and married Charles Hartmann begins an affair with Anne. She reveals her secrets, her fears and her hopes to him trusting in their mutual love. His wife, Christine, knows him better, and in the end, its no real contest for her to keep her husband and see off her latest rival. Although Faulks writes the love story with commitment, the nature of the novel determines that it can only end badly for Anne. An historical novel in which history is treated seriously, The Girl at the Lion d'Or is tragic drama and its real subject is France herself. A happy fairy-tale ending would be incongruous: it did not happen for the French Third Republic; therefore, it could not happen for Anne.

Anne's childhood has been blighted by the First World War. Her father was shot on a charge of mutiny while serving in the trenches at Verdun, and her mother, harassed and victimised because of his fate, driven to suicide. Anne endured a wandering, hand-to-mouth existence with her uncle Louvert, whose name she adopts.

Louvert, vainglorious and empty dispenser of fine sounding phrases- "Courage is the only thing that counts"-, joined a right wing revolutionary organisation with the aim of "making France great again" but deserted both Anne and France for a new life in America. Anne later invests her emotions in Hartmann and although devastated by his rejection, she does not allow it to destroy her. She intuitively turns away from suicide and the last line of the novel leads us to believe that she will, though there will be dark days ahead, overcome her situation. The battle of Verdun and the French army mutinies a year later were momentous events for the French nation. That the battle and a charge of mutiny played such a major part in Anne's personal history suggests a metaphorical link between her and France. The fact that the prologue to the narrative dedicates the story to Anne, "an unknown girl" rather than the "important public" figures of the time also indicates that the character represents something larger than an individual. The use of the adjective "unknown", in the context of this novel, is loaded with meaning, as it evokes the Unknown Soldier.

By making Anne a homeless, friendless, orphaned young woman, Faulks is pushing the limits of melodrama in his wish to create a character who is the opposite of those in the male-dominated world of political power. She is the victim of political decisions and human spite but does not embrace victimhood. Instead she embodies most of the virtues and a certain defiance. More importantly she is vital: she makes decisions and acts on them. The polemic thrust of the book, backed-up by references to newspaper stories of political crises and scandal at home and mounting threat of war from abroad, is that the period's political leaders were, at best, inert.

The setting of the story is also much removed from the centre of power and influence in the political sense if not geographically. In fact the author is shy of saying where in France the town of Janvilliers is. The descriptions of the seasons in the book and that Hartmann walks on a beach near his house from which "the sea has disappeared" puts it somewhere on the north coast. Imprecise as this is, it rules out the real Janvilliers being the location though its name may have been used because of that town's proximity to Verdun. Geographical imprecision serves the function of making the fictional Janvilliers a French "everytown" where the attitudes and experiences of its inhabitants typify those of towns throughout France of the period. Choosing 'Lion d'Or', a common and therefore typical name for French inns, as the name of the town hotel is meant to strengthen the idea of this representational aspect of Janvilliers. A war monument in the town centre commemorating the dead of the First World War could be found in any town in the country. Similarly, M. Bouin, a woman bereaved of her menfolk by the war and finding solace in religion, would be a familiar character in 1930's France. M. le Patron typifies the defeatist mindset among many of the time while the odious Mattlin is the town's future fifth columnist and collaborator.

Hartmann is the ineffectual liberal. His failure to confront Mattlin, whose slanders are undermining Hartmann's reputation just as surely as the builder hired to renovate his house undermines its foundations, can be read as a metaphor of the centre-left government's failure to confront fascism either at home or abroad.

Characters
 Anne Louvert The 'Girl' in the title of the novel. Indigent. Tragic past.  Traumatised by loss, she equates abandonment with unbearable tragedy. Descends into a psychological hell of her own making....by her blinding love for the wrong man. according to Maggie Galehouse writing in the New York Times, 16 January 2000 – a rather harsh tough love judgement. Honest, brave and humane Anne is allowed to hope at the end of the book.
Charles Hartmann: Jewish veteran of First World War. A successful lawyer who lives at the Manor with wife Christine.  Has affair with Anne. Hopes to Redeem the horrors of her childhood  Puts her up in a flat. Ultimately he Gets entangled in the coils of his own conscience Politically aware, the national situation is reported to us through his conversations with other characters.
Mattlin: A vile and disgusting Uriah Heep-like character with racism added.
Christine Hartmann: Wronged wife.
Mme Bouin: Manager of the Lion d'Or. Initially unsympathetic, her true nature is later revealed. Devoted to 'M. the Patron'.
M. the Patron: Owner of the Lion d'Or. Agoraphobic due to experiences in the war. Pessimistic and angry about future. Caring.
Bruno: Chef at the Lion d. Involved in the novel's overtly comic scenes.
Roland: Porter at Lion d. Bored, idiotic youth. Voyeur.
Antoine: Friend of Hartmann's since the war. Now a senior civil servant whose minister is involved in a scandal. Asks Hartmann to give legal advice.
Louvert: Anne's Guardian after her mother's suicide. Not an active character in the narrative he is reported to us by the narrator and through Anne's memories of him. Considered himself a philosopher. Tells Anne that all emotional suffering is caused by abandonment. He abandons Anne for America when she refused to be his mistress. A member of a Crypto-Nazi French league, he is depicted mockingly in the text.

See also
 Paths of Glory by Humphrey Cobb
 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
 Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
 The Road to Verdun by Ian Ousby

Footnotes

References

 Galehouse, Maggie. All Wars Are Local, review, New York Times, Books Page 1

1989 British novels
Novels by Sebastian Faulks
Fiction set in 1936
Novels set in France
Marne (department)
Hutchinson (publisher) books

The Girl at the Lion d'Or


Resurrection of Eve  is a 1973 American feature-length pornographic film produced by the Mitchell brothers and starring Marilyn Chambers, who had become a star in the Mitchell Brothers' previous picture, Behind the Green Door. Resurrection of Eve was directed and written by Jon Fontana and Artie Mitchell. Though less successful commercially and critically than Behind the Green Door, it is considered one of the films of The Golden Age of Porn. Like Behind the Green Door, it featured interracial sex, including a reprise of Chambers' coupling with her Green Door co-star Johnnie Keyes, but broke new ground in a film targeting a heterosexual audience by included shots of gay fellatio.

Plot
Eve, a victim of childhood sexual abuse, and her lover Frank, a disc jockey, live in the San Francisco Bay Area. They have a fight triggered by Frank's jealous nature. Frank is dismayed that Eve has gone to a boxing match featuring African American pugilist Johnnie Keyes. Eve tries to console Frank with sex, but they fight and he tells her, "Perhaps you need some of that black stuff." Eve leaves the house, gets into her car, and has a terrible accident whilst driving, winding up in the hospital, wrapped in bandages. After the bandages are taken off, she surprisingly is much prettier. This is her first resurrection.

After Eve returns home, Frank suggests they attend a swinger's party, and she reluctantly agrees. At the ensuing orgy, Frank happily enjoys the charms of a friend's wife, but Eve is horrified by the hedonism and they fight afterwards. Frank berates her for harboring sexual inhibitions and blamed for trying to make him feel guilty. The brow-beaten Eve decides to try swinging again.

After attending a couple more swing parties, a  role-reversal begins to take place. Eve becomes an enthusiastic swinger, and Frank's jealousy comes out at a party in a 1950s themed party in which he sees his wife fellating an African American. Frank becomes the reticent partner as Eve becomes unfettered sexuality, and he loses his control over her. At an orgy featuring all manners of sex, gay, straight and interracial, Eve couples with an African American gentleman while the jealous Frank watches. She announces after coitus that she is leaving Frank. The second resurrection of Eve is complete.

Themes
Resurrection of Eve has a more detailed plot than is normal for the era. The film touches on issues of sexual politics and race-based sexual envy. There is less sex than would be expected from the Mitchell Brothers, after viewing Behind the Green Door, a basically plotless sextravaganza.

The Supreme Court's 1973 Miller v. California decision, which was decided on 21 June  1973, adversely affected the mainstream release of porn films, including Behind the Green Door. The Miller decision redefined obscenity from that of "utterly without socially redeeming value" to that that lacks "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value" and substituted contemporary community standards for national standards, as some prior tests required. Miller continued to hold that obscenity was not protected by the First Amendment, which gave leeway to local judges to seize and destroy prints of films adjudged to violate local community standards.

When Behind the Green Door opened in Suffolk County, New York in 1973, it was successfully prosecuted, as it was in New York City along with the 1973 porn film The New Comers. In addition to New York, Behind the Green Door was banned in  California, Colorado, and Georgia. Resurrection of Eve, which was released in the United States on 13 September 1973,

See also
 List of American films of 1973

References

Sources

External links
 Resurrection of Eve info, trivia and photos

 Marilyn Chambers dance scene from Resurrection of Eve(73)

1973 films
1970s pornographic films
1970s English-language films
Films shot in San Francisco
Obscenity controversies in film
Films set in the San Francisco Bay Area
American pornographic films
1970s American films

Resurrection of Eve


An artificial sweetener or sugar substitute is a chemical. It is added to some foods to make them taste sweet. It is made to taste like sugar or corn syrup. Usually it has a much lower energy value than sugar. It can be found in many products which say Light or Diet in their name.

Consumers use artificial sweeteners for one of the following reasons:
Diabetes mellitus - People with diabetes have problems regulating their sugar levels in the blood. Artificial sweeteners are better for them than sugar.
Reactive hypoglycemia - This is a condition similar to diabetes. People who suffer from it therefore often use artificial sweeteners.
Some people think that artificial sweeteners can help them lose weight. A  study at the university showed, however, that those people using artificially sweetened drink are more likely to become obese than those who do not.
Dental hygiene – sugar substitutes are tooth-friendly, as they are not fermented by the microflora of the dental plaque.

Problems

Studies done with animals have shown that artificial sweeteners cause weight gain. A sweet taste causes insulin to be produced. This will store some of the sugar in the blood in tissues, including fat. With artificial sweeteners, the amount of sugar in the blood does not increase. This means that there will be too little sugar in the blood. This is known as hypoglycemia. On the next meal, more food will be eaten to get the blood sugar level back to normal values.
After a while, rats given sweeteners have steadily increased the amount of calories. This increased body weight, and adiposity (fatness). The natural response to eating sugary foods is to eat less at the next meal and to use some of the extra energy to warm the body after the meal. When using artificial sweeteners, this effect is lost gradually.

References

Sweeteners

Artificial sweetener


John Githongo (born 1965) is a former Kenyan journalist who investigated bribery and fraud in his home country (Kenya) and later, under the presidency of Mwai Kibaki, took on an official governmental position to fight corruption. In 2005 he left that position, later accusing top ministers of large-scale fraud. In the Anglo-leasing corruption which he blew the lid over,  fraudulent deliveries of government military and forensic laboratory equipment were allegedly ordered, "delivered" and the payment completed in the current president- Uhuru Kenyatta's tenure. The story of his fight against corruption is told in Michela Wrong's book It's Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower.

His father Joe Githongo owned an accounting firm, President Jomo Kenyatta being one of its clients. John Githongo went to the prestigious St. Mary's School in Nairobi. He studied Economics and Philosophy at the University of Wales before returning to his native Kenya. He briefly worked as a management consultant and researcher before moving into journalism. In this role he wrote extensively for the Nairobi-based EastAfrican and Executive magazine, attacking corruption throughout Kenyan society under the Moi regime. He was also a correspondent for the British journal The Economist and wrote for a range of local and international papers as well. In the 1990s he received the CNN African Journalist of the year award (third prize).

Transparency International
Following in his father's footsteps he joined the Transparency International movement. He founded and served as founder-Executive Director of the Kenyan chapter of Transparency International in 1999 after years of the government refusing it registration. He also served a board member of Transparency International in Berlin.

SAREAT
In 1998, political scientist Mutahi Ngunyi's NGO – Series for Alternative Research in East Africa (SAREAT) funded by the Ford Foundation, engaged Githongo to edit a regional political economy magazine, East African Alternatives. The magazine folded after operating four issues. This was as a result of audit queries made by Price Waterhouse, and subsequent commercial court action brought against Mr. Ngunyi by the Ford Foundation with Mr. Githongo as a witness on behalf of the prosecution having revealed to Ford the initial problems that led to the audit in the first place. A case was instituted against SAREAT trustees by its donors but was apparently later withdrawn after SAREAT agreed to repay the funds under contention.

Anglo Leasing

In January 2003 he was appointed to the position of Permanent Secretary for Governance and Ethics by the incoming president Kibaki, who had been elected on an anti-corruption platform. He resigned from his position on 7 February 2005 without comment, though it was reported that he felt the government lacked commitment to ending corruption and that he had received death threats, a common occurrence in Kenyan public office holding. As a result of his resignation international aid to Kenya was cut. He remains a powerful advocate against corruption.

On 22 January 2006, Githongo named vice-president Moody Awori as one of four top politicians with Kiraitu Murungi, former justice minister and present energy minister; finance minister David Mwiraria and former transport minister Chris Murungaru) as being involved in scams worth $600M – known as the Anglo Leasing Scandal. He also claimed that President Kibaki was complicit in the affair. The scandal centered on the award of a huge contract given to Anglo-Leasing – a company that did not exist. Githongo claimed that the money raised would have funded the government's forthcoming election campaign. These allegations were denied by Awori and Murungaru and an investigation was promised.

Exile
Githongo moved to the UK to live in exile after claiming that there have been threats to his life. In a secret cable by the US ambassador in Kenya to Washington dated the 16/9/09, released by Wikileaks, made clear the extent of these threats. In one section the ambassador wrote –

"Paragraph 5 provides details of statements made by Ringera (former head of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission) to Githongo that Githongo took as direct threats to his life by the Kenyan political elite, to include Ringera. This TD corroborates Githongo's conclusion about Ringera who is identified in a room with leading Kikuyu politicians, including Ministers of government, plotting to kill Githongo in 2009. The conclusion one can draw from this report, combined with Githongo's testimony, is that Ringera is part of those within the Kenyan political elite seeking to suppress information and those with information that could assist in punishing and minimizing corruption in Kenya."

Wikileaks He took up a post at an Oxford college (Senior Associate Member of St Antony's College). It has also been recently revealed that he taken up an additional position as a Visiting Fellow of the Ottawa-based International Development Research Centre. In an interview with Fergal Keane for the BBC's Newsnight programme on 8 February 2006, Githongo revealed what he claims is taped evidence proving that Kiraitu Murungi attempted to impede his inquiries. Murungi suggested that a 30M Kenyan Shilling loan to his father by a lawyer A.H. Malik had been bought by Anura Pereira, and might be forgiven in exchange for 'going slow' on the Anglo Leasing investigation. He reveals that at the end of his investigations, he came to the inescapable conclusion that the Anglo Leasing scandal went all the way to the top, and as a consequence his life was in danger. Anglo Leasing, and many other similar deals, were rumoured by some people to be back-door financing to pay for NARC's election bid in 2007. While in Britain, Githongo spent two days giving evidence to a delegation of Kenyan MPs who were investigating the scandal. Both parties were positive about the outcomes of the meetings.

Allegations of spying
Throughout the saga allegations about the sophisticated nature of the Githongo recordings and the reason and extent for the involvement of the British Embassy have been subject to rife speculation.

Dr Murungaru, who was also the National Security Minister, maintains that Githongo was and still is a British spy. On 10 February 2006, Murungi issued a statement that was faxed to all Kenyan media houses questioning the intentions and motives of John Githongo, in the form of 36 questions. Minister Murungaru was demoted as a result of Mr. Githongo's allegations and rejected by his own constituents during the 2007 general election. In 2006, Murungaru was banned from all travel to the United Kingdom by the British Home Secretary as a result of his involvement in corruption.

Among the questions asked was why John Githongo was recording his conversations with Government officials and asking how many other conversations he recorded including those with the president. Some who have interviewed Githongo say that in fact the President knew about and had approved of Githongo's recordings as early as February 2004. Speculation was also rife that Githongo's continued exile was directly related to the spying allegations and the fact that he broke various secrecy laws under the Official Secrets Act, that covered government officials. However, Githongo returned to Kenya in August 2008 and the government did not challenge his allegations or attempt to prosecute him under the Official Secrets Act.

Post-Exile
Githongo returned to Kenya in 2008, and founded an organisation called Inuka Kenya Trust, a grassroots advocacy group aimed at creating an informed citizenry. In Jan 2011, Githongo launched a new campaign, Kenya Ni Yetu (Kenya is Ours), aimed at mobilising ordinary people to speak up against corruption, impunity and injustice. Mr. Githongo was selected as one of the world's 100 most influential Africans by the London-based New African Magazine in its June 2011 edition. He is an advisory board member of the International Centre for Transitional Justice, NYC, Protimos, UK and a board member of the Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG), chair of the board, Africa Institute for Governing with Integrity, Freedom House. He is a Commissioner on the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI), UK. He is a board member of Kabissa, an organisation that serves the networking, information sharing and ICT peer learning needs of African Civil Society. Previously he has been awarded the African Annual Visionary Award (2009) by the African Centre for Strategic Studies/National Defence University (Washington DC), an honorary PhD (Doctor of the university), The Open University (UK) (2007) and in 2004, the German Africa Prize.

On 1 October 2015 Githongo was declared a recipient of the 2015 Allard Prize for International Integrity; sharing the CAD$100,000 prize with co-recipient Rafael Marques de Morais.

See also
 Corruption in Kenya
 Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission
 Goldenberg scandal
 Anglo Leasing Scandal
 Mwai Kibaki
 David Mwiraria
 Kiraitu Murungi

References

External links
  A British spy or  whistle-blower
  A fearless Kenyan whistle-blower
 January 2006: John Githongo Joins Kabissa Board of Directors
 New Statesman profile of John Githongo, 2006
 Financial Times profile of John Githongo, 2007
 Kenyan blog the latest on John Githongo
 Audio and transcript of incriminating remarks by David Mwiraria

1965 births
Kenyan journalists
Alumni of the University of Wales
Living people
Alumni of St. Mary's School, Nairobi

John Githongo


Theodore Sedgwick (May 9, 1746January 24, 1813) was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served in elected state government and as a delegate to the Continental Congress, a U.S. representative, and a senator from Massachusetts. He served as President pro tempore of the United States Senate from June to December 1798. He also served as the fourth speaker of the United States House of Representatives. He was appointed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 1802 and served there for the rest of his life.

Early life and education
Born in West Hartford in the Connecticut Colony, Sedgwick was the son of Benjamin Sedgwick (1716–1755). His paternal immigrant ancestor Major General Robert Sedgwick arrived in 1636 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, as part of the Great Migration.

Sedgwick attended Yale College, where he studied theology and law. He did not graduate, but continued in his study of law (to read law) under the attorney Mark Hopkins of Great Barrington. Hopkins was the grandfather of the Mark Hopkins who later became president of Williams College.

Early career
Sedgwick was admitted to the bar in 1766 and commenced practice in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.  Among the prospective attorneys who learned the law in his office was Stephen Jacob, who later served on the Vermont Supreme Court.  He moved to Sheffield. During the American Revolutionary War, he served in the Continental Army as a major, and took part in the expedition to Canada and the Battle of White Plains in 1776.

Freedom suit
As a relatively young lawyer, Sedgwick and Tapping Reeve pleaded the case of Brom and Bett vs. Ashley (1781), an early "freedom suit", in county court for the slaves Elizabeth Freeman (known as Bett) and Brom.  Bett was a black slave who had escaped from her master, Colonel John Ashley of Sheffield, Massachusetts, because of cruel treatment by his wife. Brom joined her in suing for freedom from the Ashleys.  The attorneys challenged their enslavement under the new state constitution of 1780, which held that "all men are born free and equal."  The jury agreed and ruled that Bett and Brom were free. The decision was upheld on appeal by the state Supreme Court.

Bett marked her freedom by taking the name of Elizabeth Freeman, and she chose to work for wages at the Sedgwick household, where she helped rear their several children.  She worked there for much of the rest of her life, buying a separate house for her and her daughter after the Sedgwick children were grown. After Freeman's death, the Sedgwicks buried her at Stockbridge Cemetery in the Sedgwick Pie, the family plot. The family marked Freeman's grave with an inscribed monument, and it is beside that of their fourth child, writer Catharine Maria.

Political career
A Federalist, Sedgwick began his political career in 1780 as a delegate to the Continental Congress.  He was elected as representative to the state house, and then as state senator. He was a charter member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1780.

In 1789 Sedgwick was elected as Representative to Congress from Massachusetts' first congressional district, and over time also represented Massachusetts' second district, serving until 1796.  That year he was elected to the United States Senate, and served until 1799. In 1799 he was re-elected as a Representative, this time from the fourth district, and was elected the fifth Speaker of the House, serving until March 1801.

In 1802, Sedgwick was appointed a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. He held the position until his death.

Political relationship with John Adams
Sedgwick was nine years younger than John Adams, a 1780 delegate to the Second Continental Congress, attorney and state and federal politician. Sedgwick greatly admired Adams and worked for his election to the presidency in 1796. He was present at Adams' swearing-in as President on March 4, 1797, then serving as a U.S. Senator representing Massachusetts. Sedgwick called Adams' inauguration "the most august and sublime" event that he ever attended. However, certain policy disputes arose during Adams' administration, including Adams' efforts to avoid an escalation of war with France that included sending a group of emissaries to Paris in order to negotiate a lasting peace treaty to end the undeclared Quasi-War between the two countries from 1798 to 1800. When Sedgwick learned of the appointment and mission of the emissaries, "he wrote of the 'vain, jealous, and half frantic mind' of John Adams, a man ruled 'by caprice alone.'"

Despite the differences between them, starting on the morning of March 4, 1801, the last day of Adams' term as President and the day after Sedgwick's retirement as Speaker of the U.S. House, Sedgwick and Adams rode together on the carriage trip from Washington, D.C. to Massachusetts.

Marriages and family

Around 1767, Sedgwick married Elizabeth "Eliza" Mason, the daughter of a deacon from Franklin, Connecticut. In 1771, Sedgwick contracted smallpox which he passed on to his wife who was then pregnant with the couple's first child. She died of the disease on April 12, 1771 while eight months pregnant.

Sedgwick married a second time on April 17, 1774 to Pamela Dwight of the New England Dwight family.  She was the daughter of Brigadier General Joseph Dwight of Great Barrington and his second wife, the widow Abigail Williams Sargent. Abigail was the daughter of Colonel Ephraim Williams, and half-sister of Ephraim Williams, Jr., the founder of Williams College.

The Sedgwicks had ten children, three of which died within a year of birth, reflecting the high infant mortality rate of the time. They were:
 Elizabeth Mason Sedgwick (April 30, 1775 – October 15, 1827)
 A child died at birth on March 27, 1777.
 Frances Pamela Sedgwick (May 6, 1778 – June 20, 1842)
 Theodore Sedgwick II (December 9, 1780 – 1839) married children's book author Susan Anne Livingston. Their son, Theodore Sedgwick, was a lawyer and author.
 Catherine Sedgwick (July 11, 1782 – March 3, 1783)
 Henry Dwight Sedgwick (April 18, 1784 – March 1, 1785)
 Henry Dwight Sedgwick (September 22, 1785 – December 23, 1831), his grandson was a lawyer and an author Henry Dwight Sedgwick III.
 Robert Sedgwick (June 6, 1787 – September 2, 1841) was a lawyer who married Elizabeth Dana Ellery, granddaughter of William Ellery, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
 Catharine Maria Sedgwick (December 28, 1789 – July 31, 1876) became one of the first noted female writers in the United States.
 Charles Sedgwick (December 15, 1791 – August 3, 1856), became clerk of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. His grandson was anatomist Charles Sedgwick Minot.

During the marriage, Sedgwick frequently left his wife and children at their home in Stockbridge, Massachusetts while he focused on building his political career. His frequent absences, coupled with the death of three children and the strain of caring for numerous children (albeit with the help of her mother and many servants and slaves), caused Pamela's physical and mental health to decline. After Pamela's mother died in February 1791, she developed depression and began exhibiting signs of hypomania. She was institutionalized for a time in December 1795, but her physical and mental health continued to decline in the years following her release. She committed suicide by consuming poison on September 20, 1807.

Approximately eight months after Pamela's death, Sedgwick announced his intention to marry Penelope Russell. Russell was the eldest of ten children (six of whom died) of Dr. Charles and Elizabeth (née Vassall) Russell. Charles Russell was a Harvard University educated doctor who, in 1771, was appointed as registrar to the Vice-Admiral Court. Elizabeth Vassall's father Henry had been a prominent planter in Jamaica and had left his children a sizable inheritance. The Russells and Vassalls were staunch Loyalists who sought asylum in England and Antigua during the Revolutionary War. Sedgwick and Russell met when he represented her uncle, William Vassall, in an equity case he brought against the state of Massachusetts to win back homes and land the state confiscated during the war.

Sedgwick's children were horrified and hurt that their father planned to marry so quickly after the death of their mother, Pamela. They also did not approve of "Miss Russell" whom they considered a spendthrift who was only interested in the Sedgwick fortune. Against his children's wishes, Sedgwick married Russell on November 7, 1808 at King's Chapel in Boston. None of Sedgwick's children were informed of the wedding and did not attend.
Theodore Sedgwick and Penelope Russell remained married until Sedgwick's death in January 1813.

Slave ownership
According to research conducted by The Washington Post in 2022 and the Massachusetts Historical Society, Sedgwick owned at least one slave. A July 1, 1777 bill of sale shows General John Fellows sold a woman by the name of Ton to the 30-year old Sedgwick.

Death
While on his death bed, Sedgwick converted to Unitarianism with his daughter Catharine Maria and William Ellery Channing in attendance. On January 24, 1813, Sedgwick died in Boston, Massachusetts at the age of 66. He was buried in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. His grave is at the center of the "Sedgwick Pie".

Contributing descendants  to recent and present eras
Theodore Sedgwick was the great-grandfather of Ellery Sedgwick, owner and publisher of the Atlantic Monthly 1908–1938;  third great-grandfather of Edie Sedgwick, 1965 superstar in Andy Warhol's celebrity world;  is the same to present author John Sedgwick;  and is fourth great-grandfather to Kyra Sedgwick and Robert Sedgwick, actors.

See also
 Agrippa Hull
 Liberty's Kids, episode 37

References

Notes

External links

 Theodore Sedgwick II / Susan Anne Livingston RIDLEY

1746 births
1813 deaths
American people of English descent
Continental Army officers from Massachusetts
Continental Congressmen from Massachusetts
Converts to Unitarianism
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Massachusetts state senators
Justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
People from Stockbridge, Massachusetts
People from West Hartford, Connecticut
Presidents pro tempore of the United States Senate
Sedgwick family
Speakers of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
Speakers of the United States House of Representatives
Freedom suits in the United States
United States senators from Massachusetts
United States slavery law
Federalist Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts
Yale University alumni
Yale College alumni
People of colonial Connecticut
18th-century American politicians
18th-century American lawyers
19th-century American judges
United States senators who owned slaves

Theodore Sedgwick


Federal Hall was the first capitol building of the United States, and was the site where George Washington was inaugurated as America's first president in 1789.  In 1700, it was built on Wall Street and named New York City Hall.  It was renamed to Federal Hall when it became the capitol under the new United States Constitution.

In 1812, the building was demolished.  A new customs house replaced it in 1842.  In 1882, a bronze statue of President Washington was made and put in front of the steps.  The new building officially became a landmark according to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on 21 December 1965.

History of the United States
Buildings and structures in Manhattan
New York City Designated Landmarks
1700s establishments in the Thirteen Colonies
1812 disestablishments
1810s disestablishments in the United States
18th-century establishments in New York (state)
Disestablishments in New York (state)
1700 establishments
18th-century buildings and structures

Federal Hall


Edward Vaughan Bevan (3 November 1907 – 22 February 1988) was a British doctor and rower who won a gold medal at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam.

Biography and career
Bevan was born at Chesterton, Cambridgeshire. He was educated at Bedford School where he was in the rugby XV and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he rowed with the First Trinity Boat Club. First Trinity represented Great Britain rowing at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, where, at the age of 20, Bevan won an Olympic gold medal in the coxless four with John Lander, Michael Warriner and Richard Beesly. They recorded a time of 6:36.0 in the final to beat the U.S. crew by 1 second.

After university, Bevan was a doctor in Cambridge, and shared his practice with Rex Wood, who competed in the shot put at the 1924 and 1928 Olympics. He maintained his link with rowing - on the wall of his consulting room was a blue oar. He was also senior treasurer of the Cambridge University Boat Club for many years, and was actively involved in coaching the crew, as well as being President of Rob Roy Boat Club from 1946 until 1980. He was a frequent correspondent to the British Medical Journal.

Bevan was doctor to the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein whilst he was in Cambridge. After Bevan diagnosed Wittgenstein with prostate cancer, Wittgenstein moved in with Bevan in Storey's Way, Cambridge in February 1951, where he stayed until his death on 29 April 1951. In Cambridge Bevan shared a medical practice with Rex Woods, the Olympic shot putter.

Bevan died at the age of 80. His elder brother Llewelyn Bevan rowed for Cambridge in the Boat Race, but Edward himself did not.

References

1907 births
1988 deaths
People educated at Bedford School
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
English male rowers
English people of Welsh descent
British male rowers
Olympic rowers for Great Britain
Rowers at the 1928 Summer Olympics
Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain
English Olympic medallists
Olympic medalists in rowing
20th-century English medical doctors
Medalists at the 1928 Summer Olympics
Sportspeople from Cambridge
People from Chesterton, Cambridge

Edward Vaughan Bevan


The Acks o the Apostles (aften cried Acks, juist) is the fift beuk in The New Testament o the Christian Bible. It tells o the history o the first thritty or sae year o the Kirk efter the daith an raisin up o Jesus.

(Aw Biblical quotes in this airticle haes been taen frae W.L Lorimer's translate.)

Componin

Scriever
Early kirk tradeetion threapit that baith Acks an The Gospel o Luke wis scrieved bi the same chiel, a doctor cried Luke. Atweel the stylistic, linguistic an theological seemilarities atween the twa leids the feck o modren scholars grees that they wis baith wrate bi the same body - tho whither or no he is the Luke o tradeetion isna certain.

Date an steid o componin
Maist scholars hauds that Luke scrieved baith o his volumms atween 80 an 90 AD, tho it canna be tauld exackly whan. Acks maun hae been wrate efter Festus becam procurator aboot 59 AD (see Acks 24 an 27) an aiblins efter the faw o Jerusalem in 70 an aw. Christian scrievers wis quotin frae an alludin tae Acks bi the meedle o the seicont century AD, sae it maun hae been duin afore then.

There is awmaist naething in Acks tae gie an answer tae the quaisten o whaur it wis componed. Suggeestions that haes been pitten forrit haes includit Achaia, Macedonia, Antioch, Ephesus, Caesarea an Rome.

Luke's soorces
Like as no, Luke drew frae baith written an oral soorces whan he componed Acks. It is implee'd that he vaiged wi Paul due tae his uiss o the wird "we" whan descrivin some pairts o Paul's vaiges, but this coud be a leeterar device, raither nor an actual threap that he wis there. In aither case, he haes aseemilate the styles o whitiver his soorces wis intil his ain disteenctive style that gars it near impossible tae e'en jalouse whit they wis.

Style
Luke scrieves in guid, eddicate Greek that he varies lippenin on context. Fer exemplar, in the first twa chaipters, he scrieves anent the Kirk in a Jewish contex; Luke uises a style o Greek that resemmles that o The Septuagint (the pre-Christian Greek translate o The Auld Testament. Housome'er whan he descrives Paul's speech tae the Athenians, he taks on a mair pheelosophical style, referin tae relevant pheelosophical trends o the day.

Ootline
Acks haes three main pairts tae it that tells o the history o the Kirk as it grew ootward frae Jerusalem in its first thirty year or sae, culminatin in the arrival o Paul in Rome.

The oreegins o the Kirk in Jerusalem
Efter a cutty prologue tae somebody cried Theophilus (ane that luves God - this coud be Luke's patron or a code name for the Kirk), Luke tells o some kythins o Jesus til his follaers efter his raisin up frae the deid, an then o his gangin up tae the lift. Afore he gangs he hechts til thaim that the Haly Speerit will come tae aid thaim in their darg:

"...the Hailie Spírit will come on ye an gíe ye pouer, an ye will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem an in aa Judea an Samâria an tae the faurest bound o the yird." (Acks 1:8)

The Apostles gangs back til Jerusalem an draws cavels for tae wale Matthias as the replacement for Judas Iscariot, wha wis deid. Whan the Jewish feast o Pentecost cam, the Speerit daes atweel kythe amang the Apostles that spaeks in mony leids, an Peter addresses a fell thrang o fowk. This day is aften seen as merkin the foondation o the Kirk, an it frae this day that the darg o the Apostles stairts. The first twal chaipters o Acks centres on the Kirk in Jerusalem, wi Peter as the heidmaist feegur. Maugre o the opposeetion o the Jewish heidmen, seen in sic pairts o the beuk as the killin o Stephen, the first Christian mairtyr; the Kirk is seen tae growe.

The transeetion tae Gentile meesion
The Kirk begoud as a Jewish muivement, but pairt o Jesus's meenistry haed been amang the Gentiles (nane-Jews), an syne it cam tae pass that the muivement leukit tae rax furth o its Jewish base. Acks records this happenin in chaiper aicht, whan Philip tells the Gospel message tae an Ethiopian offeecial, an bapteezes him in a river.
The transeetion conteenas in chaipter ten, whan Peter is gien a veesion o God tellin him tae eat fuid that unner Jewish law, is unclean. Peter repones:
"Na, na, Lord: ne'er in aa my born days hae I eatit ocht profaun or onclean!"
Than the voive spak til him a saicond time: "What God hes made clean, caana ye profaun!"This incident acks as a catalyst for the mission tae the Gentiles - syne God wis nou jaloused tae hae includit nane-Jews amang his fowk.

 The meesionary vaiges o Paul
Efter the conversion o Paul, he becam the heidmaist warker in the meesion tae the Gentiles, an ane o the heidmaist leaders o the Kirk. The lave o the beuk is taen up wi upcasts o Paul's three meesionar vaiges. In thir, he aye gaes tae the Jewish community in ilka toun an clachan he veesits, for tae gie thaim the Gospel, an efter gangs til the Gentiles. He seems tae hae haed mair success amang the Gentiles, tho some Jews becam Christians an aw. Maugre o opposeetion frae Jewish an Gentile offeecials, he helps tae stairt an upbig the Kirk in mony airts furth o Jerusalem, an owersees the makkin o a netwark o sorts atween thaim.
Paul retours tae Jerusalem efter his third vaige, an efter a stoushie there wis taen intil custody. See here for mair anent his reest an daith - Acks'' records anerly until his arrivin in Rome, but it is jaloused that he wis execute there.

Fremmit airtins
 The beuk o Acks
 Catholic Encyclopaedia page anent the Acks
 Twa-three airticles anent the beuk

New Testament beuks
1st-century Christianity
1st-century beuks

Acts o the Apostles


Antonio Gisbert Pérez (19 December 1834 – 27 November 1901) was a Spanish artist situated on the cusp between the realist and romantic movements in art.  He was known for painting pictures of important events in a country's history in a realistic style, yet clearly with a political aim as well; his variance in styles puts him in the Spanish eclectic school of painters.  He generally tried to promote liberal causes in his politics and paintings.

Career
Gisbert was born in Alcoy on December 19, 1834.  He began his artistic studies at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid in 1846, working under José de Madrazo.

Gisbert became the Director of the Museo del Prado in Madrid in 1868.  He stayed in that position until 1873, when he resigned because of opposition to the new First Spanish Republic. He moved permanently to Paris and died there on November 27, 1901.

Works
 El fusilamiento de Torrijos y sus compañeros en la playa de Málaga ("The Execution of Torrijos and his companions at Málaga Beach"), his best-known work. It was made in 1888, and resides in the Museo del Prado.
 Los Comuneros de Castilla ("The Comuneros of Castile", variously translated otherwise as "The Execution of the Comuneros of Castile" or "Comuneros on the Scaffold"), an oil-on-canvas work which he debuted at the Exposición Nacional of 1860 where it won first prize.
 María de Molina presenta a su hijo Fernando IV en las Cortes de Valladolid de 1295 (1863).
 Retrato de Salustiano Olózaga (1867)
 El rey Amadeo I ante el cadáver del general Prim (Amadeo I in front of the coffin of General Prim)
 Retrato del rey Amadeo I de España (Portrait of King Amadeo I of Spain)
 Partida de Cristóbal Colón (Departure of Christopher Columbus)

Gallery

External links

 Art Encyclopedia

1834 births
1901 deaths
People from Alcoy
Painters from the Valencian Community
Spanish male painters
Directors of the Museo del Prado
19th-century Spanish painters
19th-century Spanish male artists

Antonio Gisbert


Adam Schoenfeld is an American professional poker player and former columnist for Card Player magazine. Schoenfeld decided to quit his job as the vice president of an Internet analysis firm, Jupiter Communications, in order to play poker full-time.

In the 2004 World Series of Poker (WSOP), Schoenfeld played in ten events but did not make any money. That same year, he made the top 15 in World Poker Tour events three times, making one final table.

Though featured on ESPN's coverage of the 2006 Main Event, he did not cash. For the 2007 WSOP, Schoenfeld again played in select tournaments, but once again failed to cash. He co-hosted a series of shows entitled The Scoop for Card Players online television network during the 2007 events. As of 2010, his total live tournament winnings exceed $430,000.

Schoenfeld is the ex-boyfriend of Evelyn Ng. She mentions him as one of the poker players she respects most.

Notes

American poker players
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)

Adam Schoenfeld


In finance, assets under management (AUM), sometimes called fund under management, measures the total market value of all the financial assets which an individual or financial institution—such as a mutual fund, venture capital firm, or depository institution—or a decentralized network protocol controls, typically on behalf of a client. Funds may be managed for clients, platform users, or solely for themselves, such as in the case of a financial institution which has mutual funds or holds its own venture capital. The definition and formula for calculating AUM may differ from one entity to another.

Overview
Assets under management is a popular metric used within the traditional investment industry as well as for decentralized finance, such as cryptocurrency, to measure the size and success of an investment management entity. AUM represents the market value of all of the securities that a financial entity owns and manages, or simply manages.

The AUM of an entity is often compared with historical data to express the amount (or lack) of growth. It is also often compared with the AUM of competitors, with an increase in AUM evidence of positive performance (growth). However, investment strategies may be capacity-constrained. This means that the strategy's investment performance is adversely affected if it manages too much capital. Namely, its performance is adversely affected if its AUM exceeds the strategy's capacity. As a result, these funds may be closed to new investors and oversubscribed. For such funds, AUM may not be an accurate metric of success. For example, the SPDR S&P 500 index fund manages nearly 400 billion in assets. It is not capacity-constrained, and it is still open to new investors. In contrast, Renaissance Technologies' Medallion Fund has significantly outperformed the S&P 500 index since its inception. However, it manages fewer assets (reportedly about 34.8 billion) than the SPDR S&P 500 index fund because it is oversubscribed and closed to new investors.

Methods of calculating AUM can vary between firms or decentralized protocols. Investment management companies generally charge their clients fees as a proportion of AUM, so assets under management, combined with the firm's average fee rate, are the key factors indicating an investment management company's top-line revenue. The fee structure may depend on contracted arrangements between each client and the firm or fund. Decentralized protocols also use a variety of ways to incentivize the growth of AUM, typically in the form of offering a return to those who serve the role of providing liquidity on the protocol.

Assets under management rise and fall. They may increase when investment performance is positive, or when new customers and new assets are brought into the firm. Rising AUM normally increases the fees which the firm generates. Conversely, AUM are reduced by negative investment performance as well as redemptions or withdrawals, including fund closures, client defections and other generally adverse events. Lower AUM tend to result in lower fees generated.

Content
The precise definition of AUM varies by institution, as some firms may include certain assets as being "under management", while others may not. Some include bank deposits, mutual funds, and cash in their computation, while others only consider the discretionary funds that investors have given an advisor to trade on their behalf.

While different firms may include assets that others do not in their AUM computation, Assets Under Management typically include:
 Capital raised from investors;
 Capital belonging to the principals of the fund management firm.

For example, if fund managers contribute  of their own capital to the fund and raise additional $10B from investors, their AUM is .

Net Asset Value vs. Assets Under Management
Net asset value (NAV) is the total value of assets minus all its liabilities of a fund, such as a mutual fund or ETF, often shown on a per-share basis. NAV shows what price shares in a fund can be bought and sold at.

AUM by contrast refers to the value of assets managed by an individual or firm, not a fund. Unlike NAV, AUM is in reference to the total value of assets being managed rather than expressed on a per-share basis.

Assets under advisement
A related concept in the investment industry to assets under management is assets under advisement (AUA). This measures the total market value of all the financial assets that are advised by a financial institution, which is typically an investment consultant or intermediary. The advisory firm generally does not have discretion to manage the assets, but rather provides advice as to how those assets may be managed. For example, consider an investment consultant that is hired by a  pension fund to advise the fund on portfolio construction, asset allocation, fund manager selection, etc. The consultant would include the  in their firm's AUA. The consultant does not have discretion to manage the assets and thus would not include the assets in their firm's AUM. Global investment consultants with the largest AUA include Mercer ( in AUA), Aon ( in AUA), Russell Investments ( in AUA), and Cambridge Associates ( in AUA).

Assets under custody and/or administration
Another related concept in the investment industry to assets under management is assets under custody and/or administration. This measures the total market value of all the financial assets held by a financial institution acting as a custodian or fund administrator, which is typically an intermediary. The intermediary generally does not have discretion to manage the assets, but rather provides a service whereby they act as an independent third-party between fund managers and investors to verify and distribute assets tied to investments. The largest custodians and fund administrators include BNY Mellon ($41.7 trillion in assets under custody), State Street ($38.8 trillion in assets under custody), and JPMorgan Chase ($28.6 trillion in assets under custody).

See also

 List of asset management firms

References

External links
Fund Management Activities Survey 2005
Sovereign Wealth Fund Assets Under Management

Investment management

Assets under management


A windbreaker, or a windcheater, is a thin fabric jacket designed to resist wind chill and light rain, making it a lighter version of the jacket. It is usually of lightweight construction and characteristically made of a synthetic material. A windbreaker often uses elastic waistbands, and/or armbands, and a zipper to allow adjustments for the current
weather conditions.

Regular jackets, coats, etc. may include a type of windbreaker as an interlining that can be removed when desired. Windbreakers sometimes include a hood that may be removable and/or stowable.  Many windbreakers may also include large pockets on the inside or the outside which allows belongings to be covered from weather such as light wind or rain as mentioned above. Windbreakers may offer light to moderate insulating protection, more so than a sweater, but less than an overcoat.

Windbreakers are primarily worn during the warmer seasons when wind or rain are expected, or as part of a layering strategy during colder seasons. Brightly colored windbreakers may also be worn by runners as protection from the weather, and as a reflective garment used for safety. A 2012 study demonstrated that adding windbreaker pants and jackets offer a lightweight but effective means of delaying hypothermia if the user is outside walking and encounters unexpected low temperatures.

Windbreaker

The term was first used by the John Rissman company of Chicago for its gabardine jackets.

Windbreaker is used in the United Kingdom and certain Commonwealth countries, including Australia and India. It can also refer to any glossy synthetic material used to make clothing. Windcheater tops are also commonly known as cagoules or windbreakers in the United Kingdom.

Windcheater
Windbreakers can also be called "windcheaters". The term predates the term windbreaker and was originally used to describe a sort of garment that was more akin to a pullover anorak than a modern zippered windbreaker.

Windcheater is also used to describe a retail item used on the beach and camping to prevent wind from disturbing social enjoyment. Normally made from cotton, nylon, canvas and recycled sails, these windbreaks tend to have three or more panels held in place with poles that slide into pockets sewn into the panel (like many tents).The poles are then hammered into the ground and a windbreak is formed.

See also
 Raincoat
 Hoodie
Parka or anorak
Cagoule
Poncho or rain poncho
 Eisenhower jacket
Windpants

References

Brands that became generic
History of fashion
Jackets

fr:K-way

Windbreaker


In Cheenese meethologie, Long Mu () or Mither o Driagons wis a Cheenese wumman who wis deifeed as a goddess efter raisin five infant draigons. Long Mu an her draigons developit a strang bond for ilk ither, an hae thus acome an example o filial devotion an parental luve, an important virtue in Cheenese cultur.

The legend
The historic name o Long Mu wis Wen Shi (溫氏). She wis born in 290 BC (durin the Qin Dynasty) in Guangdong province, near the Xi River (西江). Her faimily's ancestral hame wis in Teng Coonty (藤縣) in Guangxi province. She wis the seicont o three dochters o Wen Tianrui (溫天瑞) an Liang Shi (梁氏).

Wen Shi frequently went tae the Xi River tae fish an wash claes for her faimily. On ane sic errand, she foond a lairge smooth white stane alang the banks o the river. She teuk the bonnie stane hame, but later discovered that the stane wis actually an egg, frae which hatched five baby snakes (an alternate version says ane). Wen Shi's faimily wis poor, but Wen Shi savit the best fuid she haed for her baby snakes an fed them bi haund. As the snakes grew, thay helpit Wen Shi catch fish at the Xi River. The snakes wur naitural swimmers an became vera guid at catchin fish.

The snakes eventually matured intae five pouerful draigons. In Cheenese cultur, draigons are considered spirits o watter, an hae the pouer tae control the wather; durin a drocht, tharefore, Wen Shi asked her draigon childer tae summon the rain for her veelage. When rain came an endit the drocht, the grateful veelagers gae Wen Shi the name "Mither o Draigons" (龍母) or "Divine Human" (神人).

Qin Shihuang, the Emperor o the Qin Dynasty, receivit wird o Wen Shi an her draigons. The Emperor sent her gifts o gowd an jade an requestit her presence at Xianyang, the imperial caipital ceety near the Yellae River, far tae the north. Bi this time, Wen Shi wis an elderly weemen in frail halth. Her adult draigons feared for her safety an did no want her tae traivel sae far frae her veelage. Wen Shi buirdit a boat tae comply wi the Emperor's commandment, but her draigons hid unner the boat an draggit the boat backwaird sae that the boat coud niver pass Guilin. Eventually, the frustratit imperial offeecials relentit an alloued Wen Shi tae remain home.

Efter Wen Shi dee'd, the draigons wur owerwhelmit bi sadness an teuk human form, becomin kent as the Five Scholars (五秀才), who buriet her on the northren side o Zhu Muntain (珠山).

Legacy
Iveryane who heard the story o Long Mu wis touched bi the filial devotion o the draigons. Durin the early Han Dynasty, the Xiaotong Temple (孝通廟), later kent as the Longmu Ancestral Temple (龍母祖廟), wis biggit in her honour. The temple is in Yuecheng in Deqing Coonty (德慶縣悅城鎮) o Guangdong province. It featurs calligraphy dedicatit tae the goddess written bi the Emperor Hong Wu o the Ming Dynasty. The temple remains vera popular an haes been renovatit 13 times ower the centuries, maist recently in 1905-1912 an 1985.

Anither temple dedicatit tae Long Mu is the Baisha Temple in Zhaoqing, sooth o the Xi River in the Ruizhou Detrict, in Guangdong an aw. The temple wis biggit in 1587, but it is no as well preservit as the Xiaotong Temple. The ceety declared the temple a cultural steid in 1982.

Long Mu's festival is in the first week o the fift month o the Cheenese Lunar Calendar. She is a patron goddess o parents an childer, an remains a popular deity throuoot Cheenae.

Notes

Cheenese meethologie
Mither goddesses
Cheenese goddesses
Cheenese draigons

Longmu


Aboriginal land rights in Australia are the special set of rights given to Indigenous Australians to own land. There are many different types of land rights laws. They all allow the government to grant land to indigenous (native) Australians under many different conditions (terms). Land rights schemes are in place in the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, and Victoria. Under these laws, the title to the land is normally given to a community or ethnic group, not an individual. Usually, land that has been granted in a land rights claim can not be sold, traded, or mortgaged. Grants will be normally require that the land be passed down to future generations through inheritance.

Background
The passing of Aboriginal land rights laws in Australia was caused by many important Aboriginal protests. It was not until the 1970s, though, that there came an organised movement for the recognition of Aboriginal land rights.

Pilbara strike
On 1 May 1946, more than 800 Aboriginal stockmen in the Pilbara region of Western Australia went on strike. They demanded wages for their work. They were joined by other Aboriginal workers from the towns of Port Hedland and Marble Bar. The strike ended in 1949.

Yolngu bark petition
In 1963, the government turned part of the Yolngu people's traditional lands (in Arnhem Land) into a bauxite mine. The Yolngu started a petition (now called the Yirrkala bark petitions) to demand the rights to these lands. The petition was turned into a legal case. Mining went ahead anyway, and the legal case went on for 41 years. The Yolngu were finally made a part of the agreement between the government and the mining company in 2011.

Freedom Ride
In 1964 and 1965, students from the University of Sydney formed a group called the Student Action for Aboriginals. They travelled into New South Wales country towns to research segregation between native and non-native people. They led protests to get people to know about the issue of Aboriginal civil rights. It became known as the Freedom Ride movement. At the time, Aboriginal people were not counted in the census and their civil rights were different to white citizens. This changed in 1967, when a referendum gave Aborigines the same rights as white Australians.

Wave Hill walkoff
The Wave Hill walk-off was in August 1966. A total of 200 Gurindji stockmen and servants at Wave Hill cattle station went on strike to demand wages and the return of some of their traditional lands. The strike went for nine years. The demand was not met, but the Gurindji stayed camped on their traditional country. They chose to break the state's law but obey their own. It raised popular support for Aboriginal land rights. Supporters in the cities rallied for the Gurindji and eventually they won title to part of their land.

State and territory laws

Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976
In 1973, an Aboriginal Land Rights Commission was created in the Northern Territory. This royal commission said that the government should recognise Aboringal Land Rights, and gave advice for passing laws on it. Prime Minister Gough Whitlam took the advice and brought a Land Rights Bill to parliament. It was changed by the next prime minister, Malcolm Fraser, and passed by the Governor-General on 16 December 1976.

In 1976, the Territory government passed the first Aboriginal land rights law in the country. It allowed Aboriginal people in the Territory to claim rights to land that their ancestors had lived on before the arrival of white people. Groups that made claims had to show proof of their traditional (historical) association with the land. This ended up giving almost 50% of land in the Northern Territory (around ) to native groups. Before this act, there had been many "indigenous reserves" in the Northern Territory. This land was owned by the government and set aside for Aboriginal people to live on until they were assimilated into white society. When the act was put into effect, the old "reserves" were given to the Aboriginal groups living on them without them having to make a claim.

References

Indigenous Australian politics
Indigenous land rights

Indigenous land rights in Australia


William Alexander Gerhardie OBE FRSL (21 November 1895 – 15 July 1977) was an Anglo-Russian novelist and playwright. His first novel, Futility (1922), drew on his experiences of fighting the Bolsheviks in pre-revolutionary Russia.

Life and career
Gerhardie (or Gerhardi – he added the "e" in later years) was born at St Petersburg, Russia, the fifth of six children of Charles Alfred Gerhardi (1864–1925), a British expatriate industrialist, and his wife Clara Annie (1869–1948), daughter of John Wadsworth. He was educated at the Sankt Annenschule and Deutsche Reformierte Kirchenschule in St Petersburg, before completing his education in England at Worcester College, Oxford.

In 1915, during the First World War he enlisted in the Royal Scots Greys and trained in England while applying for a commission as an officer. After commissioning in 1916 he was posted to the staff of the British Military Attaché at Petrograd (as his birth city was then renamed) until 1918. During that period he witnessed the development of the 1917 Revolution which ruined his father who escaped Russia to exile in England having been allowed out through being identified with the (already dead) British socialist Keir Hardie.

During the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War following the revolution he was attached to the 3rd Battalion of the Scots Guards and served on the British Military Mission to the White Russian forces in Siberia. He was demobilised with the rank of captain in 1920, having been mentioned in despatches, appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), and awarded the Imperial Russian Order of St Stanislaus and the Czechoslovak War Cross.

Gerhardie was one of the most critically acclaimed English novelists of the 1920s (Evelyn Waugh told him, "I have talent, but you have genius.") H. G. Wells also championed his work. His first novel, Futility, was written while he was at Oxford University and drew on his experiences in Russia fighting (or attempting to fight) the Bolsheviks, along with his childhood experiences visiting pre-revolutionary Russia. Some say that it was the first work in English to explore fully the theme of "waiting", later made famous by Samuel Beckett in Waiting for Godot, but it is probably more apt to recognize a common comic nihilism between those two figures. His next novel, The Polyglots, is probably his masterpiece (although some argue for Doom). Again it deals with Russia (Gerhardie was strongly influenced by the tragi-comic style of Russian writers such as Anton Chekhov, about whom he wrote a study while in college).

He collaborated with Hugh Kingsmill on the biography The Casanova Fable, his friendship with Kingsmill being both a source of conflict over women and a great intellectual stimulus.

In the Second World War, Gerhardie served in the Officers Emergency Reserve and from 1942 to 1945 he worked with the BBC in its European Division, where he was first editor of the "English by Radio" language programme.

After that war Gerhardie's star waned, and he became unfashionable. Although he continued to write, he published no new work after 1939. After a period of poverty-stricken oblivion, he lived to see two "definitive collected works" published by Macdonald in 1947–49, revised in 1970–74 with prefaces by Michael Holroyd who consistently championed his work. He was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1975. After his death, an idiosyncratic study of world history between 1890 and 1940 was discovered among his papers, which was edited by Holroyd and Robert Skidelsky and published as God's Fifth Column. More recently, both Prion and New Directions Press have been reissuing his works.

Gerhardie lived the last 37 years of his life in the West End of London in increasing seclusion. He died at the Middlesex Hospital in June 1977 aged 81. After cremation his ashes were scattered in Regent's Park, at a gathering that included the writers Olivia Manning and J. G. Farrell.

Asked how to say his name, he told the Literary Digest it was "pronounced jer (as Ger in Gerald) hardy, with the accent on the a: jer-har'dy. This is the way I and my relatives pronounce it, though I am told it is incorrect. Philologists are of the opinion that it should be pronounced with the g as in Gertrude. I believe they are right. I, however, cling to the family habit of mispronouncing it. But I do so without obstinacy. If the world made it worth my while I would side with the multitude."

The contemporary British novelist William Boyd has identified Gerhardie, along with Cyril Connolly, as key inspirations for the central character (the writer Logan Mountstuart) in his 2002 novel Any Human Heart. A television adaptation was released in the UK in 2010, and in the US in 2011.

Selected works
Futility (1922, 2012) Cobden Sanderson
The Polyglots (1925, 2013) Cobden Sanderson
Doom (1928) Duckworth. Also published as Jazz and Jasper, Eva's Apples, My Sinful Earth
Memoirs of a Polyglot: The Autobiography of William Gerhardie (1931)
The Memoirs of Satan (1932) with Brian Lunn
Resurrection (1934) Cassell
Of Mortal Love (1936), Revised and Republished by Macdonald & Co. (1970)
My Wife's the Least of It (1938) Faber
God's Fifth Column: A Biography of the Age 1890–1940 (1981) Simon and Schuster

References

Further reading
Dido Davies. (1991) William Gerhardie: A Biography (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press)

External links
William Gerhardie Collection at the Harry Ransom Center
Article from the Social Affairs Unit blog on Gerhardie

1895 births
1977 deaths
Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford
British male dramatists and playwrights
English male novelists
20th-century English novelists
20th-century British dramatists and playwrights
20th-century English male writers
Recipients of the Czechoslovak War Cross
Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United Kingdom

William Gerhardie


Reply 1997 (Hangul:응답하라 1997) is a Korean television series about two childhood friends, their friends, and family. The story moves back and forth between their past high school lives in 1997 as 18-year-olds, and their present high school reunion in 2012. It was aired on cable channel tvN from July 24 to September 18, 2012.

This cable drama depicts the place and time of the story in detail. The background of the television serial is Busan, so most of the conversations between the characters are spoken in Busan dialect. It recreates the lives of Koreans in the late 1990s. Shi-won, the main character, is a huge fan of H.O.T, one of the first generation idol groups. She represents the fan culture of those days. Also, the latest styles and electronic appliances (which are old-fashioned in the eyes of modern-day audiences) of the times are shown to add the sense of reality. Moreover, most pieces of the background music used in the scenes are the popular songs of the 1990s. As a result, viewers got nostalgic feelings and a sense of humor. Reply 1997 was influential in the rise of retro trend across the whole society.

The sensational attention to the cable drama resulted in average ratings of 7.55% in the last episode. The success led to the production of its spin-off Reply 1994, which was broadcast from October 18, 2013 on tvN.

Cast

 Jung Eun-ji - as Sung Shi-won
 Seo In-guk - as Yoon Yoon-jae
 Hoya - as Kang Joon-hee
 Shin So-yul - as Mo Yoo-jung
 Eun Ji-won - as Do Hak-chan
 Lee Shi Un - as Bang Sung-jae

South Korean television series
2012 television series debuts
2010s establishments in South Korea

Reply 1997


Eys (;  ) is a village in the municipality of Gulpen-Wittem, Limburg, the Netherlands. The town is located 3 km. from Gulpen and 17 km. from provincial capital Maastricht. Furthermore, it is characterised by its location in the hilly landscape of South Limburg. The village was first mentioned in 1193 in a document of the Sint-Pauluskapittel of Liège, Belgium, and was named after the river Eyserbeek.

The Eyserbosweg (the road ('weg') that leads from the village to the forest ('bos')) is one of the hills to be climbed in the yearly professional cycle race Amstel Gold Race, first held in 1966. The organiser is not sure when the Eyserbosweg was first involved in the race.

It was also the hill that featured in the Open Dutch Championship Bag Carrying ('zakkendragen'), a race against the clock in which people had to carry a bag with sand up the one kilometer long hill. The weight of the bag was 25 kg (women), 50 kg, 75 kg or 100 kg (men). That championship had its roots in a bet made by a farmer who claimed in 1956 that his farm help would be able to carry a 100 kg bag to the top.

Gallery

References

Populated places in Limburg (Netherlands)
Gulpen-Wittem

Eys


Augustin de Macarty (sometimes anglicized, as McCarty or McCarthy) was the mayor of New Orleans from September 7, 1815, to May 1, 1820. He was a member of an influential Creole family that was allied by marriage to Esteban Rodríguez Miró, one of the last Spanish Governors of Louisiana. He was brought to the mayoralty following the resignation of the previous mayor, Nicolas Girod, but subsequently served two full terms, to which he was elected by landslide majorities; after which he declined further terms.

His tenure was chiefly marked by the first officially recorded outbreak of yellow fever, and the subsequent creation of the city's first Board of Health in 1817. It initiated systematic garbage removal and the institution of a port quarantine. In 1816, a comprehensive ordinance regulated theaters. In 1817, house numbering was instituted. In 1818, the city limits were expanded to include what is now the Eighth Ward. In 1819, the city's first public waterworks system was begun; its execution was entrusted to Benjamin Henry Latrobe, who succumbed to yellow fever there himself, the following year.

During Macarty's tenure, the population of New Orleans grew from 33,000 to 41,000; and commerce, measured by Mississippi boat traffic and receipts, doubled. The expansion of New Orleans into the "American Quarter" took place under Macarty's tenure and that of the next mayor, Roffignac.

Macarty was a cousin of Delphine LaLaurie, née Macarty, alleged to be a killer of slaves and a serial killer.

External links
Macarty and Roffignac (Kendall's History of New Orleans, Chapter 7)

Mayors of New Orleans
1774 births
1844 deaths
Louisiana Creole people
People in 19th-century Louisiana

Augustin de Macarty


South Pointe Park, known locally as South Pointe, is a  county urban park in metropolitan Miami, in the South Beach neighborhood of Miami Beach, Florida.

History
The Federal Government donated the land to Miami Beach in 1979, which used it as a home to police horse stables, a police intelligence unit and the Port of Miami's harbor pilots until all buildings remaining at the site were razed in 1984 to begin conversion a park. The federal government paid half the construction cost.

Opening on October 25, 1985, it became the nineteenth public park in Miami Beach, built at a cost of $3.6 million (1984). Initial features included an amphitheater, two wooden observation towers, picnic pavilions, fitness courses and a  wooden boardwalk over Miami Beach's last natural sand dune. During planning phases, city officials worried it would become a home to vagrants, and to discourage that they planned the park to be a home to frequent festivals and other events. The park became part of a larger plan in the 1980s to renovate the city's run down South Pointe area.

Renovation plans were first drawn up in the city's 1995 master plan, but it wasn't until 2008 that the park underwent a major renovation program. The Hargreaves Associates, of New York City, were hired to redesign the park. The renovation was completed 20 months later around March 2009, at a cost of $22.5 million. Features added in the renovation included -wide walkways lined with Florida limestone and an ocean-themed children's playground.

Amenities
The park offers various features, including a restaurant, frozen yogurt concession, kids area, a dog park, and outdoor showers. South Pointe is the southernmost point of South Beach, bordering Government Cut to the south and the Port of Miami east-northeast. The area offers panoramic views of Biscayne Bay, Fisher Island, Downtown Miami, and the Atlantic Ocean.

See also
South Beach
Miami Beach
Lummus Park

References

External links

 Official homepage
 South Pointe Beach on Florida Like a Pro

Geography of Miami
Parks in Miami-Dade County, Florida
Urban public parks
Tourist attractions in Miami

South Pointe Park


A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples of berries in the culinary sense are strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, red currants, white currants and blackcurrants. In Britain, soft fruit is a horticultural term for such fruits.

The common usage of the term "berry" is different from the scientific or botanical definition of a berry, which refers to a fruit produced from the ovary of a single flower where the outer layer of the ovary wall develops into an edible fleshy portion (pericarp). The botanical definition includes many fruits that are not commonly known or referred to as berries, such as grapes, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, bananas, and chili peppers. Fruits commonly considered berries but excluded by the botanical definition include strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, which are aggregate fruits, and mulberries, which are multiple fruits. Watermelons and pumpkins are giant berries that fall into the category "pepos". A plant bearing berries is said to be bacciferous or baccate.

Berries are eaten worldwide and often used in jams, preserves, cakes, or pies. Some berries are commercially important. The berry industry varies from country to country as do types of berries cultivated or growing in the wild. Some berries such as raspberries and strawberries have been bred for hundreds of years and are distinct from their wild counterparts, while other berries, such as lingonberries and cloudberries, grow almost exclusively in the wild.

While many berries are edible, some are poisonous to humans, such as deadly nightshade and pokeweed. Others, such as the white mulberry, red mulberry, and elderberry, are poisonous when unripe, but are edible when ripe.

History

Berries have been valuable as a food source for humans since before the start of agriculture, and remain among the primary food sources of other primates. They were a seasonal staple for early hunter-gatherers for thousands of years, and wild berry gathering remains a popular activity in Europe and North America today. In time, humans learned to store berries so that they could be used in the winter. They may be made into fruit preserves, and among Native Americans, mixed with meat and fats as pemmican.

Berries also began to be cultivated in Europe and other countries. Some species of blackberries and raspberries of the genus Rubus have been cultivated since the 17th century, while smooth-skinned blueberries and cranberries of the genus Vaccinium have been cultivated in the United States for over a century. In Japan, between the 10th and 18th centuries, the terms  and  referred to many berry crops. The most widely cultivated berry of modern times, however, is the strawberry, which is produced globally at twice the amount of all other berry crops combined.

The strawberry was mentioned by ancient Romans, who thought it had medicinal properties, but it was then not a staple of agriculture. Woodland strawberries began to be grown in French gardens in the 14th century. The musk strawberry (F. moschata), also known as the hautbois strawberry, began to be grown in European gardens in the late 16th century. Later, the Virginia strawberry was grown in Europe and the United States. The most commonly consumed strawberry, the garden strawberry (F. ananassa), is an accidental hybrid of the Virginia strawberry and a Chilean variety Fragaria chiloensis. It was first noted by a French gardener around the mid 18th century that, when F. moschata and F. virginiana were planted in between rows of F. chiloensis, the Chilean strawberry would bear abundant and unusually large fruits. Soon after, Antoine Nicolas Duchesne began to study the breeding of strawberries and made several discoveries crucial to the science of plant breeding, such as the sexual reproduction of strawberry. Later, in the early 1800s, English breeders of strawberry made varieties of F. ananassa which were important in strawberry breeding in Europe, and hundreds of cultivars have since been produced through the breeding of strawberries.

Etymology
The Old English word berie ("berry, grape,") comes from Proto-Germanic *basjom (source also of Old Norse ber, Middle Dutch bere, German Beere "berry;" Old Saxon winberi, Gothic weinabasi "grape"), which is of unknown origin. This and apple are the only native fruit names.

Botanical definition

In botanical terminology, a berry is a simple fruit with seeds and pulp produced from the ovary of a single flower. It is fleshy throughout, except for the seeds. It does not have a special "line of weakness" along which it splits to release the seeds when ripe (i.e. it is indehiscent). A berry may develop from an ovary with one or more carpels (the female reproductive structures of a flower). The seeds are usually embedded in the fleshy interior of the ovary, but there are some non-fleshy examples such as peppers, with air rather than pulp around their seeds. The differences between the everyday and botanical uses of "berry" results in three categories: those fruits that are berries under both definitions; those fruits that are botanical berries but not commonly known as berries; and those parts of plants commonly known as berries that are not botanical berries, and may not even be fruits.

Berries under both definitions include blueberries, cranberries, lingonberries, and the fruits of many other members of the heather family, as well as gooseberries, goji berries and elderberries. The fruits of some "currants" (Ribes species), such as blackcurrants, red currants and white currants, are botanical berries, and are treated as horticultural berries (or as soft fruit in the UK), even though their most commonly used names do not include the word "berry".

Botanical berries not commonly known as berries include bananas, tomatoes, grapes, eggplants (aubergines), persimmons, watermelons, and pumpkins.

There are several different kinds of fruits which are commonly called berries, but are not botanical berries. Blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries are kinds of aggregate fruit; they contain seeds from different ovaries of a single flower. In aggregate fruits like blackberries, the individual "fruitlets" making up the fruit can be clearly seen. The fruits of blackthorn may be called "sloe berries", but botanically are small stone fruits or drupes, like plums or apricots. Junipers and yews are commonly said to have berries, but these differ from botanical berries and are instead highly modified seed-bearing cones. In juniper berries, used to flavour gin, the cone scales, which are hard and woody in most conifers, are instead soft and fleshy when ripe. The bright red berries of yews consist of a fleshy outgrowth (aril) almost enclosing the poisonous seed.

Cultivation

Strawberries have been grown in gardens in Europe since the 14th century. Blueberries were domesticated starting in 1911, with the first commercial crop in 1916. Huckleberries of all varieties are not fully domesticated, but domestication was attempted from 1994 to 2010 for the economically significant western huckleberry. Many other varieties of Vaccinium are likewise not domesticated, with some being of commercial importance.

Agricultural methods

Like most other food crops, berries are commercially grown, with both conventional pest management and integrated pest management (IPM) practices. Organically certified berries are becoming more widely available.:5

Many soft fruit berries require a period of temperatures between  for breaking dormancy. In general, strawberries require 200–300 hours, blueberries 650–850 hours, blackberries 700 hours, raspberries 800–1700 hours, currants and gooseberries 800–1500 hours, and cranberries 2000 hours. However, too low a temperature will kill the crops: blueberries do not tolerate temperatures below , raspberries, depending on variety, may tolerate as low as , and blackberries are injured below . Spring frosts are, however, much more damaging to berry crops than low winter temperatures. Sites with moderate slopes (3–5%), facing north or east, in the northern hemisphere, near large bodies of water, which regulate spring temperature, are considered ideal in preventing spring frost injury to the new leaves and flowers. All berry crops have shallow root systems. Many land-grant university extension offices suggest that strawberries should not be planted more than five years on the same site, due to the danger of black root rot (though many other illnesses go by the same name), which in the past has been controlled in major commercial production by annual methyl bromide fumigation but is largely prohibited now. Besides the number of years in production, soil compaction, the frequency of fumigation, and herbicide usages increase the appearance of black root rot in strawberries. Raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and many other berries are susceptible to verticillium wilt. Blueberries and cranberries grow poorly if the clay or silt content of the soil is more than 20%, while most other berries tolerate a wide range of soil types. For most berry crops, the ideal soil is well drained sandy loam, with a pH of 6.2–6.8 and a moderate to high organic content; however, blueberries have an ideal pH of 4.2–4.8 and can be grown on muck soils, while blueberries and cranberries prefer poorer soils with lower cation exchange, lower calcium, and lower levels of phosphorus.

Growing most berries organically requires the use of proper crop rotation, the right mix of cover crops, and the cultivation of the correct beneficial microorganisms in the soil. As blueberries and cranberries thrive in soils that are not hospitable to most other plants, and conventional fertilizers are toxic to them, the primary concern when growing them organically is bird management.

Postharvest small fruit berries are generally stored at 90–95% relative humidity and . Cranberries, however, are frost sensitive, and should be stored at . Blueberries are the only berries that respond to ethylene, but flavor does not improve after harvest, so they require the same treatment as other berries. Removal of ethylene may reduce disease and spoilage in all berries. Precooling within one to two hours post-harvest to storage temperature, generally , via forced air cooling increases the storage life of berries by about a third. Under optimum storage conditions, raspberries and blackberries last for two to five days, strawberries 7–10 days, blueberries two to four weeks, and cranberries two to four months. Berries can be shipped under high carbon dioxide or modified atmosphere of 10–15% carbon dioxide for high carbon dioxide or 15–20% carbon dioxide and 5–10% oxygen for a modified atmosphere container to increase shelf life and prevent grey mold rot.

Breeding

Several discoveries in the science of breeding berries were made in the 18th century by Antoine Nicolas Duchesne in his work on strawberries. In the traditional technique of plant breeding, berries with specific desirable characteristics were chosen and allowed to sexually reproduce with other berries, and offspring with improved traits could then be selected and used for further crossing. Plants may be hybridized with different species within the same genus; hybridization between different genus may also be possible, but more difficult. Breeding may seek to increase the size and yield of the fruit, improve the flavor and quality of its nutrient content, such as antioxidants, expand the harvest season, and produce cultivars with resistance to diseases, tolerance of hot or cold conditions, and other desirable traits. Advancements in molecular biology and genetic engineering allow for a more efficient and better targeted approach in the selection for a desirable genotype, via marker-assisted selection, for example. Genetic modification techniques can also be used for breeding berries.

Horticultural soft fruit berries
Some fruit not commonly referred to as berries and not always botanically berries are included by land-grant university extension offices in their guides for berry cultivation, or in guides for identifying local wild edible and non-edible berries. Examples include beach plums, American persimmons, pawpaws, Pacific crabapples, and prickly pears.

Commercial production

In the year 2005, there were  of land worldwide cultivating berries, with  produced.:4

Economics

In certain regions, berrypicking can be a large part of the economy, and it is becoming increasingly common for western European countries such as Sweden and Finland to import cheap labor from Thailand or Bulgaria to do the berry picking. This practice has come under scrutiny in the past years because of the low wages and poor living standard for the "berry-pickers", as well as the lack of worker safety.

In the late 2010s in the US, reduced migration from Mexico and increased minimum wage standards have made finding "stoop-work" labourers to pick the strawberry crop difficult and costly.

Phytochemicals and color

Once ripened, berries have a contrasting color to their background (often of green leaves), making them visible and attractive to frugivorous animals and birds. This assists the wide dispersal of the plants' seeds.

Berry colors are due to natural phytochemicals, including plant pigments, such as anthocyanins, together with other flavonoids localized mainly in berry skins, seeds and leaves. Although berry pigments have antioxidant properties in vitro, there is no physiological evidence established to date that berry pigments have actual antioxidant or any other functions within the human body. Consequently, it is not permitted to claim that foods containing polyphenols have antioxidant health value on product labels in the United States or Europe.

Culinary significance

Use in baked goods

Berries are commonly used in pies or tarts, such as blueberry pie, blackberry pie, and strawberry pie.

Berries are often used in baking, such as blueberry muffins, blackberry muffins, berry cobblers, berry crisps, berry cakes, berry buckles, berry crumb cakes, berry tea cakes, and berry cookies. Berries are commonly incorporated whole into the batter for baking, and care is often taken so as to not burst the berries. Frozen or dried berries may be preferable for some baked berry products. Fresh berries are also often incorporated into baked berry desserts, sometimes with cream, either as a filling to the dessert or as a topping.

Beverages
Berries are often added to water and/or juiced, as in cranberry juice, which accounts for 95% of cranberry crop usage, blueberry juice, raspberry juice, goji berry juice, acai juice, aronia berry juice, and strawberry juice. Wine is the principal fermented beverage made from berries (grapes). Fruit wines are commonly made out of other berries. In most cases, sugars must be added to the berry juices in the process of Chaptalization to increase the alcohol content of the wine. Examples of fruit wines made from berries include: elderberry wine, strawberry wine, blueberry wine, blackberry wine, redcurrant wine, huckleberry wine, goji wine and cranberry wine. Berries are used in some styles of beer, particularly framboise (made with raspberry) and other fruit lambics.

Dried

Currants, raisins and sultanas are examples of dried grape berries, and many other commercially important berries are available in dried form.

Fruit preserves

Berries are perishable fruits with a short shelf life, and are often preserved by drying, freezing, pickling or making fruit preserves. Berries such as blackberry, blueberry, boysenberry, lingonberry, loganberry, raspberry, and strawberry are often used in jams and jellies. In the United States, Native Americans were "the first to make preserves from blueberries".

Other usages
Chefs have created quick pickled soft fruit, such as blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries. Strawberries can be battered and quickly fried in a deep fryer. Sauces made from berries, such as cranberry sauce, can be frozen until hard, battered, and deep fried. Cranberry sauce is a traditional food item for Thanksgiving, and similar sauces can be made from many other berries such as blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and huckleberries.

Cultural significance

Dyeing
Berries have been used in some cultures for dyeing. Many berries contain juices that can easily stain, affording use as a natural dye. For example, blackberries are useful for making dyes, especially when ripe berries can easily release juice to produce a colorfast effect. Rubus berries, such as blackberry, raspberry, black raspberry, dewberry, loganberry, and thimbleberry all produce dye colors. These were once used by Native Americans. In Hawaii, the native raspberry called 'akala' was used to dye tapa cloth with lavender and pink hues, whereas berries from the dianella lily were used for blue coloration, and berries from the black nightshade were used to produce green coloration.

Research

Berry consumption is under preliminary research for the potential to improve nutrition and affect chronic diseases. A 2016 review found that berry consumption can significantly lower body mass index, low density lipoprotein (LDL) and systolic blood pressure.

See also

 List of berries
 List of inedible fruits

References

Further reading
 Bowling, B.L. (2005). The Berry Grower's Companion. Timber Press.

External links

  of the National Berry Crops Initiative (United States)

Fruit morphology
Non-timber forest products

Berry