The cultivar was created as a crossbred graft from the Republican cherry in 1875 by Oregon horticulturist Seth Lewelling and his Manchurian Chinese foreman Ah Bing, for whom the cultivar is named.
Ah Bing was reportedly born in China and immigrated to the U.S. in about 1855. He worked as a foreman in the Lewelling family fruit orchards in Milwaukie for about 35 years, supervising other workers and caring for trees. He went back to China in 1889 for a visit. Due to the restrictions of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 he never returned to the United States. Some say Ah Bing developed the cultivar, others that it was developed by Lewelling and named in Bing's honour due to his long service as orchard foreman.
Bing cherries are used almost exclusively for fresh market. Bings are large, dark and firm cherries that ship well, but will crack open if exposed to rain near harvest. A wet climate is required for the harvest of the bing cherry.
Bing cherries are high in anti-oxidants. A study by the United States Department of Agriculture has shown that fresh Bing cherries may help sufferers of arthritis and gout. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns that these are yet unproven claims.
Isle of Man Government
The Isle of Man Government () is the government of the Isle of Man. The formal head of the Isle of Man Government is the Lieutenant Governor, representing HM Queen Elizabeth II, Lord of Mann. The executive head is the Chief Minister.
Douglas, the largest town on the Isle of Man is its capital and seat of government, where the Government offices and the parliament chambers () are located.
The Civil Service has more than 2000 employees and the total number of public sector employees including the Civil Service, teachers, nurses, police, etc. is about 9000 people. This is somewhat more than 10% of the population of the Island, and a full 23% of the working population. This does not include any military forces, as defence is the responsibility of the United Kingdom.
The Government consists of nine departments, ten statutory boards and three offices all reporting to the Council of Ministers. The departments all report directly to the Council of Ministers.
Statutory boards and offices are listed below the Department to which they report.
Before modern times the government of the Isle of Man was in the hands of the Governor (or Lieutenant Governor), who representated the Lord of Man, assisted by his Council, consisting of the other permanent officials (the Bishop, Archdeacon, Deemsters, Attorney General, etc.). The Council became the Legislative Council, the upper chamber of Tynwald, the parliament of the Isle of Man.
After the Revestment (when the rights of the Lord of Man were "placed in" or "vested" in the King of Great Britain) in 1765, the Lieutenant Governor and his officials were the agents of the British Government, and not democratically responsible to the Manx people. Conflict between the House of Keys (popularly elected after 1866) and the Lieutenant Governor came to a head when Lord Raglan was Lieutenant Governor between 1902 and 1918.
After World War I the Lieutenant Governor gradually gave up control to Tynwald, a process guided by the reports of commissions and other bodies in 1911, 1959 and 1969. An Executive Council, chaired by him and including members of Tynwald, was established in 1949, and gradually thereafter became the effective government of the Island. Finance and the police came under local control between 1958 and 1976. The Lieutenant Governor stopped chairing the Executive Council in 1980, and was replaced by a chairman elected by Tynwald, and the Council was reconstituted in 1985 to include the chairmen of the eight principal Boards; in 1986 they were given the title 'Minister' and the chairman was styled 'Chief Minister'. In 1990 the Council was renamed the 'Council of Ministers'.
During the 19th century several bodies, which came to be known as 'Boards of Tynwald', were created to exercise functions under democratic control. These included the Board of Education (1872), Highway Board (1874), Asylums Board (1888), Government Property Trustees (1891) and Local Government Board (1894). However, although direct taxation was levied by Tynwald, the Boards' freedom of action before the 1960s was limited by the Lieutenant Governor's control of the Island's budget and his power to appoint certain of their members.
The structure of the Boards of Tynwald, along with other bodies variously called 'Statutory Boards' and 'Commercial Boards', became increasingly unwieldy after the 1950s, and was eventually reformed in the 1980s, when a system of 'ministerial government' was set up.
Until 1 April 2010 the Departments were as follows. Created in 1985-87, they were the successors of the former Boards of Tynwald.
The structure and functions of the Departments were re-organised with effect from 1 April 2010. The existing Departments, except the Treasury and the Departments of Education and Home Affairs, were dissolved, and the Department of Education was renamed "the Department of Education and Children". The Departments and their functions are now as follows:
As noted above, a number of 'Statutory Boards' and 'Commercial Boards' were created at various times. Some were taken over by the Departments in 1985-1987, but others continued as separate Statutory Boards after 1987:
Member of the House of Keys
Member of the House of Keys, or MHK is the title given to a person who has been elected into the House of Keys, the lower house of Tynwald, the parliament of the Isle of Man. There are twenty-four Members of the House of Keys. Elections are held every five years; the last election took place in November 2006. The leader of the House is the Speaker of the House of Keys, currently The Hon. Stephen Charles Rodan SHK.
The House of Keys is situated in Douglas, the capital of the Isle of Man. The Old House of Keys, their former chamber, is located in Castletown, the former capital. It is now a museum.
Evolutionary developmental biology
Evolutionary developmental biology interprets development in the light of evolution and modern genetics. It is called for short 'evo-devo'.
In "On the Origin of Species" (1859), Charles Darwin proposed evolution through natural selection, a theory central to modern biology. Darwin recognised the importance of embryonic development in the understanding of evolution:
Ernst Haeckel (1866) proposed that "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny", that is, the development of the embryo of every species (ontogeny) repeats the evolutionary development of that species (phylogeny). Haeckel's concept explained, for example, why humans, and indeed all vertebrates, have gill slits and tails early in embryonic development. His theory has since been largely discredited.
A renewed interest in the evolution of development came after the modern evolutionary synthesis (roughly 1936 to 1947). The conventional view had been that evo-devo had little influence on the evolutionary synthesis, but the following suggests otherwise.
In "Embryos and evolution" (1930) Gavin de Beer stressed the importance of heterochrony, and especially paedomorphosis in evolution.
According to his theories, paedomorphosis (the retention of juvenile features in the adult form) is important in evolution because juvenile tissues are relatively undifferentiated and capable of further evolution, whereas highly specialised tissues are less able to change.
He also conceived the idea of "clandestine evolution", which helped to explain the sudden changes in the fossil record which were apparently at odds with Darwin's gradualist theory of evolution.