Star (heraldry)
In heraldry, the term star may refer to any star-shaped charge with any number of rays, which may appear straight or wavy, may or may not be pierced. While there has been much confusion between the two due to their similar shape, a star with straight-sided rays is called a mullet while one with wavy rays is called an estoile. While a mullet may have any number of points, it is presumed to have five unless otherwise specified in the blazon, pierced mullets are common. In Scottish heraldry, an estoile is the same as in English heraldry, but it has been said that mullet refers only to a mullet pierced, while one, not pierced is called a star; the use of the word star in blazons, how that charge appears in coat armory, varies from one jurisdiction to another. In Scots heraldry, both star and mullet interchangeably mean a star with five straight rays. In Canadian heraldry the usual term is mullet, but there is the occasional six-pointed star, what others would blazon as a six-pointed mullet; the United States Army Institute of Heraldry, the official heraldic authority in the United States, uses the term mullet in its blazons, but elsewhere, as in US government documents describing the flag of the United States and the Great Seal of the United States, the term star is used, these nearly always appear with five straight-sided points.
The term mullet or molet refers to a star with straight sides having five or six points, but may have any number of points specified in the blazon. If the number of points is not specified, five points are presumed in Gallo-British heraldry, six points are presumed in German-Nordic heraldry. Unlike estoiles, mullets have straight rays and may have represented the rowel of a spur, rather than a celestial star; the term is said to be derived from French molette, a spur-rowel, although it was in use in heraldry before rowel spurs. The term estoile refers to wavy-sided stars of six points, though they may be blazoned with a different number of points eight, many variants feature alternating straight and wavy rays; the term derives from Old French estoile'star', in reference to a celestial star, from Latin stella'star'. Stars are comparatively rare in European heraldry during the medieval period. An early reference of dubious historicity is reported by Johannes Letzner, who cites Conradus Fontanus to the effect that one Curtis von Meinbrechthausen, a knight of Saxony, in 1169 after committing a murder lost his rank and arms, described as an eight-pointed star beneath a chevron.
Examples of stars in a late medieval heraldry of the Holy Roman Empire include those of Wentz von Niederlanstein, Geyer von Osterberg, Enolff Ritter von Leyen. Under the system of cadency in use in England and Ireland since the late 15th century, a third son bears a mullet as a difference. Stars become much more popular as heraldic charges in the early modern era in then-recent family coats of arms of burghers and patricians, as well as in coats of arms of cities; the coat of arms of Valais originates in the 16th century, when seven stars representing its Seven Tithings were added to the party per pale coat of arms of the Bishop of Sion. Of the higher nobility in Siebmachers Wappenbuch, the landgrave of Hessen and the counts of Waldeck and Erbach have stars in their coats of arms, as do several Swiss knights. Stars are nearly ubiquitous in United States heraldry and vexillology and nearly always appear unpierced with five straight-sided points. In the flag of the United States, each star represents one state.
The flag adopted in 1777 is the attributed origin of the thirteen stars, representing the thirteen United States, appearing on the Great Seal since 1780. A mullet "barbed to chief" appears in the arms of the 240th Signal Battalion of the 40th Infantry Division of the California Army National Guard United States Army. In the design of modern flags, stars when standing alone represent concepts like "unity" or "independence", in the case of the communist star of the flag of the Soviet Union and other communist states the unity of the Communist Party; when arranged in groups, they enumerate provinces or other components of the nation. In the flags of Nauru and the Marshall Islands, this enumeration is done by the points of a single star rather than by a number of stars; some flags of countries on the southern hemisphere show a depiction of the Southern Cross consisting of four or five stars. The star and crescent symbol is found in flags of states succeeding the Ottoman Empire, which used flags with this symbol during 1793-1923.
The twelve stars on the Flag of Europe symbolize unity. The green five-pointed star on the Esperanto flag symbolizes the five inhabited continents; the 50 stars of the US flag is the largest number on any national flag. The second-largest number of stars on a current national flag is 27, on the flag of Brazil; the current national flags featuring stars include: Not bearing heraldic stars as such, the 1915 Flag of Morocco and the 1996 flag of Ethiopia h
Mullet (fish)
The mullets or grey mullets are a family of ray-finned fish found worldwide in coastal temperate and tropical waters, some species in fresh water. Mullets have served as an important source of food in Mediterranean Europe since Roman times; the family includes about 78 species in 20 genera. Mullets are distinguished by the presence of two separate dorsal fins, small triangular mouths, the absence of a lateral line organ, they feed on detritus, most species have unusually muscular stomachs and a complex pharynx to help in digestion. A common noticeable behavior in mullet is the tendency to leap out of the water. There are two distinguishable types of leaps: a straight, clean slice out of the water to escape predators and a slower, lower jump while turning to its side that results in a larger, more distinguishable, splash; the reasons for this lower jump are disputed, but have been hypothesized to be in order to gain oxygen rich air for gas exchange in a small organ above the pharynx. Taxonomically, the family is treated as the sole member of the order Mugiliformes, but as Nelson says, "there has been much disagreement concerning the relationships" of this family.
The presence of fin spines indicates membership in the superorder Acanthopterygii, in the 1960s, they were classed as primitive perciforms, while others have grouped them in Atheriniformes. They are classified as an order, within the subseries Ovalentaria of the clade Percomorpha in the 5th Edition of Fishes of the World. In North America, "mullet" by itself refers to Mugilidae. In Europe, the word "mullet" is qualified, the "grey mullets" being Mugilidae and the "red mullets" or "surmullets" being Mullidae, notably members of the genus Mullus, the red mullets. Outside Europe, the Mullidae are called "goatfish". Fish with common names including the word "mullet" may be a member of one family or the other, or unrelated such as the freshwater white sucker; the following genera were accepted as making up the Mugilidae: However, recent taxonomic work has reorganised the family and the following genera as make up the Mugilidae: Mulletfish portal J. S. Nelson, Fishes of the World. ISBN 978-0-471-25031-9.
Froese and Daniel Pauly, eds.. "Mugilidae" in FishBase. June 2012 version. Sepkoski, Jack. "A compendium of fossil marine animal genera". Bulletins of American Paleontology. 364: 560. Retrieved 2011-05-19. SPECIES BY FAMILY/SUBFAMILY IN THE CATALOG OF FISHES Video: Mullet Dursey Sound May 2010, West Cork, Ireland
Broadhaven Bay
Broadhaven Bay is a natural bay of the Atlantic Ocean situated on the northwestern coast of County Mayo, Ireland. The opening of the bay faces northward, stretching 8.6 km between Erris Head in the west and Kid Island/Oileán Mionnán in the east. It borders the parishes of Kilcommon and Kilmore Erris in the Barony of Erris. Landscape consists of Atlantic blanket bog interspersed with some areas of machair and white sandy beaches. Population is low concentrated around inlets along the coastline. Broadhaven Bay was designated by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, as a candidate Special Area of Conservation in 2000; this designation concerns: The presence of four key marine/coastal habitat types that are listed in Annex I of the EU Council Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Fauna and Flora, including Atlantic salt marsh, tidal mudflats and large shallow bays. Furthermore, the inner parts of Broadhaven Bay known as Sruwaddacon Bay is designated as a Special Protection Area and, together with the nearby Glenamoy Bog complex SAC important for wintering wildfowl species, in particular for brent geese, Annex II listed under the EU Birds directive.
During the Spanish Armada era in the 16th century, several of the Armada ships floundered in the waters of North Mayo. The Santiago went down in the bay and many ships through the years have met their end in these waters. There are many tales of fortunes of gold and valuables being stashed away by local pirates after looting unfortunate ships which tried to take shelter from rough seas. See Brian Rua U'Cearbhain In 1715 Sir Arthur Shaen, an English landlord in Erris, began building a small town on a wet and marshy area near ‘The Mullet’ peninsula. To drain this marshy area and to form a passageway from Blacksod Bay into Broadhaven Bay, Shaen had a canal excavated which would allow small boats to pass from one bay to the other. Development of the town to be Belmullet, proved to be a slow process, the canal was blocked and unusable by the mid-18th century. In 1845 the Government sanctioned a grant of £5,000 to match the total of £4,000 raised locally to re-open the canal which would unite Broadhaven and Blacksod Bays.
Work on the canal began in 1845, but due to the Irish Famine which devastated the area, it was not completed until 1851. A report in 1851 states that the canal was being used extensively, states that the canal could be crossed by a swivel bridge. In the north western mouth of Broadhaven Bay stands Broadhaven Lighthouse which guides boats through the bay in more recent times; the lifeboat for the area is stationed at Ballyglass pier. There are many wonderful white sandy beaches all around the bay at Carrowteige/Rinroe and Inver. Cetaceans are afforded protection within the 200-mile Exclusive Fishery Zone limit of the Irish State under the 1976 Wildlife Act and a 1982 amendment to the Whale Fisheries Act. Marine mammal legislation protects all cetaceans as Annex IV species under the European Habitats directive. Within this directive, there are five marine mammal species that are known to frequent Irish waters which are further listed as Annex II species, namely; the Stags of Broadhaven are a group of jagged rocky islands a short distance from the high cliffs of Benwee Head in Kilcommon parish.
They rise out of the sea rising steeply to over 100 metres above sea level. One of the rocks is bisected by a long narrow cave from one side to the other and they are a popular site for visiting divers, sub aqua teams and adventurers. Broadhaven Bay is an important habitat for many marine mammals and other marine life as it incorporates several different coastal habitats ranging from exposed bedrock at the foot of the Benwee Head cliffs due to constant wave action to sheltered mud sediments at the upper end of the estuary of Sruth Fada Conn Bay. Encompassed within an area, small, Broadhaven Bay and its inlet, Sruth Fada Conn Bay represent the only known area in Ireland with all five Annex II species present on a regular basis; the bay is species rich with 72 species counted. In exposed areas of the bay exposed to wave action the anemone Phellia gausapata is found in shallow waters A cave in deeper water supports colonies of the rare anemone Parazoanthus anguicomus and soft coral Alcyonium glomeratum.
In the outer bay zone beds of kelp thrive with foliose brown algaes and several varieties of the axinellid sponge species have colonised the reefs. Other communities tolerant of vertical or steeply sloped. A rare crab Pirimela denticulata and hydroid Tamarisca tamarisca both live in the bay. In the sublittoral zones of the bay lives the burrowing urchin Echinocardium cordatum whose hairy shells turn up on the shores, seagrass Zostera marina and oysters Ostrea edulis. Broadhaven Bay is of high conservation importance owing to the presence of several habitats that are listed on Annex 1 of the EU Habitats Directive. Large shallow bays, intertidal sand flats, marine caves, salt marshes are of ornithological importance for breeding and overwintering bird species. In the inner bay of Sruth Fada Conn and other Broadhave
Promontory
A promontory is a raised mass of land that projects into a lowland or a body of water. Most promontories either are formed from a hard ridge of rock that has resisted the erosive forces that have removed the softer rock to the sides of it, or are the high ground that remains between two river valleys where they form a confluence. Throughout history many forts and castles have been built on promontories because of their inherent defensibility; the promontory forts in Ireland are examples of this. The ancient town of Ras Bar Balla in southern Somalia, which in the Middle Ages was part of the Ajuran Sultanate's domain, was built on a small promontory. River confluences provide an added defensive advantage to promontories, acting as a reliable natural moat for the enemy to overcome; the Citadel of Namur, a prime fortified location from the 10th century to this day, lies on the promontory at the confluence of the Meuse and Sambre rivers in the Walloon capital city of Namur, Belgium. Another good example of a confluence promontory fort is Fort Pitt, an English fort during the American Revolution that had belonged to the French as Fort Duquesne during the French and Indian War.
The surrounding location is known as the city of Pennsylvania. Headlands and bays Promontory fort Law Promontory Promontory, Utah Monte Argentario Promontory Point, Utah Rabbit's Back Wilsons Promontory Bol, Croatia The dictionary definition of promontory at Wiktionary
Megalith
A megalith is a large stone, used to construct a structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. The word megalithic describes structures made of such large stones without the use of mortar or concrete, representing periods of prehistory characterised by such constructions. For periods, the word monolith, with an overlapping meaning, is more to be used; the word megalith comes from the Ancient Greek μέγας and λίθος. Megalith denotes one or more rocks hewn in definite shapes for special purposes, it has been used to describe buildings built by people from many parts of the world living in many different periods. The term was first used in reference to Stonehenge by Algernon Herbert in 1849. A variety of large stones are seen as megaliths, with the most known megaliths not being tombs; the construction of these structures took place in the Neolithic period and continued into the Chalcolithic period and the Bronze Age. At a number of sites in eastern Turkey, large ceremonial complexes from the 9th millennium BC have been discovered.
They belong to the incipient phases of animal husbandry. Large circular structures involving carved. Although these structures are the most ancient megalithic structures known so far, it is not clear that any of the European megalithic traditions are derived from them. At Göbekli Tepe, four stone circles have been excavated from an estimated 20; some measure up to 30 metres across. As well as human figures, the stones carry a variety of carved reliefs depicting boars, lions, birds and scorpions. Dolmens and standing stones have been found in large areas of the Middle East starting at the Turkish border in the north of Syria close to Aleppo, southwards down to Yemen, they can be encountered in Lebanon, Iran, Israel and Saudi Arabia. The largest concentration can be found in southern Syria and along the Jordan Rift Valley, however they are being threatened with destruction, they date from the late Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age. Megaliths have been found on Kharg Island and pirazmian in Iran, at Barda Balka in Iraq.
A semicircular arrangement of megaliths was found in Israel at Atlit Yam, a site, now under the sea. It is a early example, dating from the 7th millennium BC; the most concentrated occurrence of dolmens in particular is in a large area on both sides of the Jordan Rift Valley, with greater predominance on the eastern side. They occur first and foremost on the Golan Heights, the Hauran, in Jordan, which has the largest concentration of dolmen in the Middle East. In Saudi Arabia, only few dolmen have been identified so far in the Hejaz, they seem, however, to re-emerge in Yemen in small numbers, thus could indicate a continuous tradition related to those of Somalia and Ethiopia. The standing stone has a ancient tradition in the Middle East, dating back from Mesopotamian times. Although not always'megalithic' in the true sense, they occur throughout the Orient, can reach 5 metres or more in some cases; this phenomenon can be traced through many passages from the Old Testament, such as those related to Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, who poured oil over a stone that he erected after his famous dream in which angels climbed to heaven.
Jacob is described as putting up stones at other occasions, whereas Moses erected twelve pillars symbolizing the tribes of Israel. The tradition of venerating stones continued in Nabatean times and is reflected in, e.g. the Islamic rituals surrounding the Kaaba and nearby pillars. Related phenomena, such as cupholes, rock-cut tombs and circles occur in the Middle East; the most common type of megalithic construction in Europe is the portal tomb – a chamber consisting of upright stones with one or more large flat capstones forming a roof. Many of these, though by no means all, contain human remains, but it is debatable whether use as burial sites was their primary function; the megalithic structures in the northwest of France are believed to be the oldest in Europe based on radiocarbon dating. Though known as dolmens, the term most accepted by archaeologists is portal tomb; however many local names exist, such as anta in Galicia and Portugal, stazzone in Sardinia, hunebed in the Netherlands, Hünengrab in Germany, dysse in Denmark, cromlech in Wales.
It is assumed that most portal tombs were covered by earthen mounds. The second-most-common tomb type is the passage grave, it consists of a square, circular, or cruciform chamber with a slabbed or corbelled roof, accessed by a long, straight passageway, with the whole structure covered by a circular mound of earth. Sometimes it is surrounded by an external stone kerb. Prominent examples include the sites of Brú na Bóinne and Carrowmore in Ireland, Maes Howe in Orkney, Gavrinis in France; the third tomb type is a diverse group known as gallery graves. These are axially arranged chambers placed under elongated mounds; the Irish court tombs, British long barrows, German Steinkisten belong to this group. Another type of megalithic monument, the single standing stone, or menhir as it is known in France, is common throughout Europe, where some 50,000 examples have been noted; some of these are thought to have an astronomical function as a foresight. In some areas and complex alignments of such stones exist, the largest known example being located at Carnac in Brittany, France.
In parts of Britain and Ireland a common type of megalithic construct
Eryngium maritimum
Eryngium maritimum, the sea holly or seaside eryngo, is a species of Eryngium in the plant family Apiaceae and native to most European coastlines. It resembles a plume thistle in that its flower is burr-shaped, but the flowers are metallic blue rather than mauve. Protected from winds this dune plant grows to a height of 20 to 60 cm. Although widespread, it is considered endangered in many areas, such as Germany where its occurrence has been reduced throughout and has become locally extinct in several districts. In Elizabethan times in England, these plants were believed to be a strong aphrodisiac, they are named in a speech by Falstaff: Sea holly was nominated the 2002 County flower for the city of Liverpool. Asteroid 199194 Calcatreppola was named after this plant; the official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 25 September 2018. This article is based on a translation of an article from the German Wikipedia Plants for a Future—PFAF Plant Database: Eryngium maritimum Schutzstation-wattenmeer.de: Further information and images— Linnaeus.nrm.se.
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's oceans, with an area of about 106,460,000 square kilometers. It covers 20 percent of the Earth's surface and about 29 percent of its water surface area, it separates the "Old World" from the "New World". The Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Europe and Africa to the east, the Americas to the west; as one component of the interconnected global ocean, it is connected in the north to the Arctic Ocean, to the Pacific Ocean in the southwest, the Indian Ocean in the southeast, the Southern Ocean in the south. The Equatorial Counter Current subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean and the South Atlantic Ocean at about 8°N. Scientific explorations of the Atlantic include the Challenger expedition, the German Meteor expedition, Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the United States Navy Hydrographic Office; the oldest known mentions of an "Atlantic" sea come from Stesichorus around mid-sixth century BC: Atlantikoi pelágei and in The Histories of Herodotus around 450 BC: Atlantis thalassa where the name refers to "the sea beyond the pillars of Heracles", said to be part of the sea that surrounds all land.
Thus, on one hand, the name refers to Atlas, the Titan in Greek mythology, who supported the heavens and who appeared as a frontispiece in Medieval maps and lent his name to modern atlases. On the other hand, to early Greek sailors and in Ancient Greek mythological literature such as the Iliad and the Odyssey, this all-encompassing ocean was instead known as Oceanus, the gigantic river that encircled the world. In contrast, the term "Atlantic" referred to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and the sea off the Strait of Gibraltar and the North African coast; the Greek word thalassa has been reused by scientists for the huge Panthalassa ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea hundreds of millions of years ago. The term "Aethiopian Ocean", derived from Ancient Ethiopia, was applied to the Southern Atlantic as late as the mid-19th century. During the Age of Discovery, the Atlantic was known to English cartographers as the Great Western Ocean; the term The Pond is used by British and American speakers in context to the Atlantic Ocean, as a form of meiosis, or sarcastic understatement.
The term dates to as early as 1640, first appearing in print in pamphlet released during the reign of Charles I, reproduced in 1869 in Nehemiah Wallington's Historical Notices of Events Occurring Chiefly in The Reign of Charles I, where "great Pond" is used in reference to the Atlantic Ocean by Francis Windebank, Charles I's Secretary of State. The International Hydrographic Organization defined the limits of the oceans and seas in 1953, but some of these definitions have been revised since and some are not used by various authorities and countries, see for example the CIA World Factbook. Correspondingly, the extent and number of oceans and seas varies; the Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea. To the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe: the Strait of Africa. In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean; the 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica defines its border.
In the 1953 definition it extends south to Antarctica, while in maps it is bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean. The Atlantic has irregular coasts indented by numerous bays and seas; these include the Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Caribbean Sea, Davis Strait, Denmark Strait, part of the Drake Passage, Gulf of Mexico, Labrador Sea, Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, Norwegian Sea all of the Scotia Sea, other tributary water bodies. Including these marginal seas the coast line of the Atlantic measures 111,866 km compared to 135,663 km for the Pacific. Including its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers an area of 106,460,000 km2 or 23.5% of the global ocean and has a volume of 310,410,900 km3 or 23.3% of the total volume of the earth's oceans. Excluding its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers 81,760,000 km2 and has a volume of 305,811,900 km3; the North Atlantic covers 41,490,000 km2 and the South Atlantic 40,270,000 km2. The average depth is 3,646 m and the maximum depth, the Milwaukee Deep in the Puerto Rico Trench, is 8,486 m.
The bathymetry of the Atlantic is dominated by a submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It runs from 87°N or 300 km south of the North Pole to the subantarctic Bouvet Island at 42°S; the MAR divides the Atlantic longitudinally into two halves, in each of which a series of basins are delimited by secondary, transverse ridges. The MAR reaches above 2,000 m along most of its length, but is interrupted by larger transform faults at two places: the Romanche Trench near the Equator and the Gibbs Fracture Zone at 53°N; the MAR is a barrier for bottom water, but at these two transform faults deep water currents can pass from one side to the othe
