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Angle (disambiguation)

Angle (disambiguation)

Also see: Angel (disambiguation) The word angle has a number of meanings. See:
- Angle for a corner in geometry.
- Fishing for the technique of using a bait and hook to catch fish.
- Angles for the Germanic tribe that moved to Britain.
- Angle, Pembrokeshire for the place in Wales.
- Angle for 'angles' in professional wrestling.
- Angle for a right-angle bend in a low stone fence at the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War, the objective of Pickett's Charge
- A slang term, "He knew all the angles", meaning he was streetwise. This usage is heard in the opening scene of Woody Allen's famous movie Manhattan.

Angel (disambiguation)

__NOTOC__ For the geometric concept, see Angle Angel may refer to:
- An angel is a supernatural entity in many religions.
- Some religions speak specifically of an angel of death.
- Such angels are widely depicted in art; see angels in art.
- An Angel (coin) is a gold coin, first used in France in 1340
- The Angel of the North is a sculpture in Gateshead in northern England.
- Engel, which is the German word for angel, is a role-playing game.
- Angel investors, or simply angels are affluent individuals who provide capital for business start-ups.
- Angel is the United States Secret Service codename for Air Force One.
- Angel is the callsign of the Wing Commander computer game character Jeannette Devereaux.

Fiction

- Angel (vampire) is a supporting character from the US TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- Angel (TV series) is a TV-series spin-off from the above
- Archangel (comics) is a Marvel Comics superhero, originally known as The Angel, who is one of the founding members of the X-Men.
- Angel (Golden Age) is a costumed detective character from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics
- "The Angel" is a Hans Christian Andersen short story.
- Angel (Neon Genesis Evangelion) in the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the monsters that attack Tokyo-3.
- Angels (TV) is a British television series set in a hospital.
- Angel is a 1957 novel by the novelist (not the actress) Elizabeth Taylor.
- Angel Interceptor is the name of a type of air/space craft in Captain Scarlet.
- Angel is the name of a female supporting character in the anime series Big O.
- Angel Dumott Schunard is the name of a character in Jonathan Larson's musical Rent.

Music

- Angel (singer) is a Californian singer, formerly of popular teen band No Secrets.
- Angel (band) is a 1970s progressive rock band from New York.
- "Angel (song)" is a song by Madonna from her 1985 album Like A Virgin.
- "Angel (Sarah McLachlan song)" is a hit song by Sarah McLachlan from her 1997 album Surfacing.
- "Angel" is a song by Massive Attack from the band's album Mezzanine.
- "Engel (single)" (the German word for angel) is a single by Rammstein.
- "Angels (single)" is a single by British singer, Robbie Williams; also covered by American singer Jessica Simpson.
- "Angel Interceptor" was the title of a song by Ash.
- Two bands have been known as "The Angels": see The Angels (USA) and The Angels (Australian).
- angels is the name of a group consisting of two Japanese violinists who have provided much of the sounds for the Area 88 (2004) OST.
- Angel (Pharrell Williams) is a single by Pharrell Williams from his 2005 album In My Mind.
- Strange Angels is an album (and a song) by Laurie Anderson.
Natural World

- Members of the mushroom genus Amanita, including the Amanita virosa, are also known as "Destroying Angels".
Places

- The Angel, Islington is an area of north London, also represented in the British edition of the game Monopoly.
- Angel tube station is the London Underground station at The Angel, Islington.
- the original kingdom of the Angles, called Angulus in the Historia Britonum and identified with the district Angel, Schleswig in the German province of Schleswig.
Sports

- The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim is a Major League Baseball team based in Anaheim, California.
- Angel Medina, also known as Spanish Angel, or simply Angel, is a former professional wrestler.
Technology

- Angel (paintball) is an electropneumatic paintball gun manufactured by WDP in the United Kingdom.

Angle

This article is about angles in geometry. For other articles, see Angle (disambiguation) ---- An Angle (from the Lat. angulus, a corner, a diminutive, of which the primitive form, angus, does not occur in Latin; cognate are the Lat. angere, to compress into a bend or to strangle, and the Greek (angulοs) crooked, curved; both connected with the Aryan or Indo-European root ank-, to bend) is the figure formed by two rays sharing a common endpoint, called the vertex of the angle. Angles provide a means of expressing the difference in slope between two rays meeting at a vertex without the need to explicitly define the slopes of the two rays. Angles are studied in geometry and trigonometry. Euclid defines a plane angle as the inclination to each other, in a plane, of two lines which meet each other, and do not lie straight with respect to each other. According to Proclus an angle must be either a quality or a quantity, or a relationship. The first concept was used by Eudemus, who regarded an angle as a deviation from a straight line; the second by Carpus of Antioch, who regarded it as the interval or space between the intersecting lines; Euclid adopted the third concept, although his definitions of right, acute, and obtuse angles are certainly quantitative.

Units of measure for angles

In order to measure an angle, a circle centered at the vertex is drawn. Since the circumference of a circle is always directly proportional to the length of its radius, the measure of the angle is independent of the size of the circle. Note that angles are dimensionless, since they are defined as the ratio of lengths.
- The radian measure of the angle is the length of the arc cut out by the angle, divided by the circle's radius. The SI system of units uses radians as the (derived) unit for angles. Because of the relationship to arc length, radians are a special unit. Sines and cosines whose argument is in radians have particular analytic properties, just as do exponential functions in the base e. (As we've discovered, this is no coincidence).
- The degree measure of the angle is the length of the arc, divided by the circumference of the circle, and multiplied by 360. The symbol for degrees is a small superscript circle, as in 360°. 2π radians is equal to 360° (a full circle), so one radian is about 57° and one degree is π/180 radians. Degrees are further broken down into minutes of arc and seconds of arc, which are 1/60th and 1/3600th of a degree, respectively. Minutes of arc are commonly encountered in discussions of external ballistics, as a minute of arc covers almost exactly 1 inch at 100 yards (1 m at 1200 m). A rifle capable of shooting "1 MOA", one minute of arc, can place all shots within 1 inch at 100 yards, 2 inches at 200 yards, etc. Minutes of arc were also used in navigation, and a nautical mile is roughly defined as one minute of arc of the earth's surface.
- The grad, also called grade, gradian or gon, is an angular measure where the arc is divided by the circumference, and multiplied by 400. It is used mostly in triangulation.
- The point is used in navigation, and is defined as 1/32 of a circle, or exactly 11.25°.
- The full circle or full turns represents the number or fraction of complete full turns. For example, π/2 radians = 90° = 1/4 full circle

Conventions on measurement

A convention universally adopted in mathematical writing is that angles given a sign are positive angles if measured counterclockwise, and negative angles if measured clockwise, from a given line. If no line is specified, it can be assumed to be the x-axis in the Cartesian plane. In navigation, bearings are measured from north, increasing clockwise, so a bearing of 45 is north-east. Negative bearings are not used in navigation, so north-west is 315. In mathematics radians are assumed unless specified otherwise because this removes the arbitrariness of the number 360 in the degree system and because the trigonometric functions can be developed into particularly simple Taylor series if their arguments are specified in radians.

Types of angles

An angle of π/2 radians or 90°, one-quarter of the full circle is called a right angle. Two line segments, rays, or lines (or any combination) which form a right angle are said to be either perpendicular or orthogonal:
- Angles smaller than a right angle are called acute angles
- Angles larger than a right angle are called obtuse angles.
- Angles equal to two right angles are called straight angles.
- Angles larger than two right angles are called reflex angles.
- The difference between an acute angle and a right angle is termed the complement of the angle
- The difference between an angle and two right angles is termed the supplement of the angle.

Some facts

In Euclidean geometry, the inner angles of a triangle add up to π radians or 180°; the inner angles of a quadrilateral add up to 2π radians or 360°. In general, the inner angles of a simple polygon with n sides add up to (n − 2) × π radians or (n − 2) × 180°. If two straight lines intersect, four angles are formed. Each one has an equal measure to the angle across from it; these congruent angles are called vertical angles. If a straight transversal line intersects two parallel lines, corresponding (alternate) angles at the two points of intersection are equal; adjacent angles are supplementary, that is they add to π radians or 180°.

A formal definition

A Euclidean angle is completely determined by the corresponding right triangle. In particular, if

\theta

is a Euclidean angle, it is true that :

\cos \theta = \frac

and :

\sin \theta = \frac

for two numbers

x

and

y

. So an angle can be legitimately given by two numbers

x

and

y

, or by a ratio

\frac

. What's more, to any such ratio there corresponds exactly one angle, since :

\frac = \frac = \frac

(i.e., changing the ratio will necessarily change the sin and cos, which in the geometric range

0 < \theta < 2\pi

are one-to-one - one sin or cos corresponds to one

\theta

Angles in different contexts

In the Euclidean plane, the angle θ between two vectors u and v is related to their dot product and their lengths by the formula :

\mathbf \cdot \mathbf = \cos(\theta)\ \|\mathbf\|\ \|\mathbf\|.

This allows one to define angles in any real inner product space, replacing the Euclidean dot product · by the Hilbert space inner product <·,·>. The angle between a line and a curve (mixed angle) or between two intersecting curves (curvilinear angle) is defined to be the angle between the tangents at the point of intersection. Various names (now rarely, if ever, used) have been given to particular cases:—amphicyrtic (Gr. ἀμφί, on both sides, κυρτόσ, convex) or cissoidal (Gr. κισσόσ, ivy), biconvex; xystroidal or sistroidal (Gr. ξυστρίσ, a tool for scraping), concavo-convex; amphicoelic (Gr. κοίλη, a hollow) or angulus lunularis, biconcave. Two intersecting planes form an angle, called their dihedral angle. It is defined as the angle between two lines normal to the planes. Also a plane and an intersecting line form an angle. This angle is equal to π/2 radians minus the angle between the intersecting line and the line that goes through the point of intersection and is perpendicular to the plane.

Angles in Riemannian geometry

In Riemannian geometry, the metric tensor is used to define the angle between two tangents. Where U and V are tangent vectors and g_ij are the components of the metric tensor G, :

\cos \theta = \frac
.

Angles in astronomy

In astronomy, one can measure the angular separation of two stars by imagining two lines through the Earth, each one intersecting one of the stars. Then the angle between those lines can be measured; this is the angular separation between the two stars. Astronomers also measure the apparent size of objects. For example, the full moon has an angular measurement of approximately 0.5°, when viewed from Earth. One could say, "The Moon subtends an angle of half a degree." The small-angle formula can be used to convert such an angular measurement into a distance/size ratio.

Angles in maritime navigation

The modern format of angle used to indicate longitude or latitude is hemisphere degree minute.decimal, where there are 60 minutes in a degree, for instance N 51 23.438 or E 090 58.928. The obsolete (but still commonly used) format of angle used to indicate longitude or latitude is hemisphere degree minute' second", where there are 60 minutes in a degree and 60 seconds in a minute, for instance N 51 23′26″ or E 090 58′57″

External links

- [http://www.unitconversion.org/unit_converter/angle.html Online Angle Converter - convert between various units of angle, such as degree, radian, grad, gon, minute, second, sign, mil, and so on]
- [http://www.unitconversion.org/unit_converter/angle-v.html Interactive Angle Conversion Table - convert selected unit to all other units of angle]
- [http://www.cut-the-knot.org/triangle/ABisector.shtml Angle Bisectors] at cut-the-knot
- [http://www.cut-the-knot.org/Curriculum/Geometry/PerpBiInQuadri.shtml Angle Bisectors and Perpendiculars in a Quadrilateral] at cut-the-knot
- [http://www.cut-the-knot.org/Curriculum/Geometry/CyQuadri.shtml Angle Bisectors in a Quadrilateral] at cut-the-knot
- [http://www.cut-the-knot.org/triangle/TriangleFromBisectors.shtml Constructing a triangle from its angle bisectors] at cut-the-knot
- [http://calc.skyrocket.de/en/ Online Unit Converter - Conversion of many different units] Category:Elementary geometry Category:Trigonometry
- ko:각도 ja:角度 simple:Angle

Fishing

Fishing is the activity of hunting for fish. By extension, the term fishing is also applied to hunting for other aquatic animals such as various types of shellfish as well as squid, octopus, turtles, frogs and some edible marine invertebrates. The term fishing is usually not applied to the hunting of aquatic mammals such as whales. Fishing is an ancient and worldwide practice with many techniques and traditions, and it has been transformed by modern technological developments.

Fishing in antiquity

Origins

whales Fishing is a very ancient practice that dates back at least to the Mesolithic period which began about 10,000 years ago. We know from archaeological features such as shell middens [http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/arch/middens/index.htm], discarded fish bones and cave paintings that sea foods were important and consumed in significant quantities. During this time, most people lived a hunter-gather life style and were, of necessity, constantly on the move. However, where there are a few early examples of permanent settlements (though not necessarily permanently occupied) such as those at Lepenski Vir, they are almost always associated with fishing as a major source of food. The neolithic culture and technology spread worldwide between about 8,000 and 4,000 years ago. With the new technologies of farming and pottery came the basic forms of most fishing methods known today. Fishing may even pre-date the development of modern humans. There is a controversial theory called the aquatic ape hypothesis which proposes that the ancestors of modern humans went through one or more periods of time living in a semi-aquatic setting and that they gathered most of their food from shallow coastal or other waters before their descendants returned to a more land-based existence.

Ancient archaeology

Ancient representations

aquatic ape hypothesis The ancient river Nile was full of fish; fresh and dried fish were a staple food for much of the population. The Egyptians invented various implements and methods for fishing and these are clearly illustrated in tomb scenes, drawings, and papyrus documents. Simple reed boats served for fishing. Woven nets, weir baskets made from willow branches, harpoons and hook and line (the hooks having a length of between eight millimetres and eighteen centimetres) were all being used. By the 12th dynasty, metal hooks with barbs were being used. As is fairly common today, the fish were clubbed to death after capture. Nile perch, catfish and eels were among the most important fish. Some representations hint at fishing being pursued as a pastime. Fishing scenes are rarely represented in ancient Greek culture, a reflection of the low social status of fishing. There is a wine cup, dating from 510–500 BC, that shows a boy crouched on a rock with a fishing-rod in his right hand and a basket in his left. In the water below, a rounded object of the same material with an opening on the top. This has been identified as a fish-cage used for keeping live fish, or as a fish-trap. It is clearly not a net. This object is currently in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. [http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp?recview=true&id=153702&coll_keywords=fishing&coll_accession=&coll_name=&coll_artist=&coll_place=&coll_medium=&coll_culture=&coll_classification=&coll_credit=&coll_provenance=&coll_location=&coll_has_images=&coll_on_view=&coll_sort=0&coll_sort_order=0&coll_package=0&coll_start=71 Image:Ancient angler] ancient Greek Pictorial evidence of Roman fishing comes from mosaics which show fishing from boats with rod and line as well as nets. Various species such as conger, lobster, sea urchin, octopus and cuttlefish are illustrated. [http://museum.agropolis.fr/english/pages/expos/aliments/poissons/images/mosaique.htm Image of Roman mosaic]. In a parody of fishing, a type of gladiator called retiarius was armed with a trident and a casting-net. He would fight against the murmillo, who carried a short sword and a helmet with the image of a fish on the front. The Greco-Roman sea god Neptune is depicted as wielding a fishing trident.

Ancient literature

There are numerous references to fishing in ancient literature; in most cases, however, the descriptions of nets and fishing-gear do not go into detail, and the equipment is described in general terms. An early example from the Bible in Job 41:7: Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears? [http://bible.tmtm.com/wiki/Job_Chapter_41] The Greek historian Polybius ((ca 203 BC-120 BC), in his Histories, describes hunting for swordfish by using a harpoon with a barbed and detachable head. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plb.+34.3] Oppian of Corycus, a Greek author wrote a major treatise on sea fishing, the Halieulica or Halieutika, composed between 177 and 180. This is the ealiest such work to have survived intact to the modern day. Oppian describes various means of fishing including the use of nets cast from boats, scoop nets held open by a hoop, spears and tridents, and various traps “which work while their masters sleep”. Oppian’s description of fishing with a “motionless” net is also very interesting: :The fishers set up very light nets of buoyant flax and wheel in a circle round about while they violently strike the surface of the sea with their oars and make a din with sweeping blow of poles. At the flashing of the swift oars and the noise the fish bound in terror and rush into the bosom of the net which stands at rest, thinking it to be a shelter: foolish fishes which, frightened by a noise, enter the gates of doom. Then the fishers on either side hasten with the ropes to draw the net ashore. From ancient representations and literature it is clear that fishing boats were typically small, lacking a mast or sail, and were only used close to the shore. In traditional Chinese history, history begins with three semi-mystical and legendary individuals who taught the Chinese the arts of civilization around 2800-2600 BC: of these Fu Hsi was reputed to be the inventor of writing, hunting, trapping, and fishing.

Fishing techniques

Hand fishing

It is possible to fish with minimal equipment by using only the hands. In the USA catching catfish in this way is known as noodling. In the British Isles, the practice of catching trout by hand is known as trout tickling; it is an art mentioned several times in the plays of Shakespeare. Trout binning is a method of fishing, possibly fictional, performed with a sledgehammer. [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11267] Divers can catch lobsters by hand. Pearl diving is the practice of hunting for oysters by free-diving to depths of up to 30 m. Hand-line fishing is a technique requiring a fishing line with a weight and one or more lure-like hooks.

Spear and bow fishing

Spear fishing is an ancient method of fishing and may be conducted with an ordinary spear or a specialised variant such as an eel spear ([http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/claremuseum/riches_of_clare/water/eel_spear2.htm Image]) or the trident. A small trident type spear with a long handle is used in the American South and Midwest for "gigging" bullfrogs with a bright light at night, or for gigging carp and other trash fish in the shallows. Traditional spear fishing is restricted to shallow waters, but the development of the speargun has made the method much more efficient. With practice, divers are able to hold their breath for up to four minutes; of course, a diver with underwater breathing equipment can dive for much longer periods. Hunter gatherers may use the bow to kill fish in shallow water.

Fishing nets

bow All fishing nets are meshes usually formed by knotting a relatively thin thread. Modern nets are usually made of artificial polyamides like nylon, although nets of organic polyamides such as wool or silk thread were common until recently and are still used in certain areas. A small hand net held open by a hoop and possibly on the end of a long stiff handle has been known since antiquity and may be used for sweeping up fish near the water surface. Such a net used by an angler to aid in landing a captured fish is known as a landing net. In England, hand netting is the only legal way of catching eels and has been practiced for thousands of years on the River Parrett and River Severn. A casting net is circular with a weighted periphery. Sizes vary up to about 4 m diameter. The net is thrown by hand in such a manner that it speads out on the water and sinks. Fish are caught as the net is hauled back in. [http://www.nccoastalfishing.com/index.htm?casting.htm~main]. River Severn 1972]] Coracle-fishing is performed by two men, each seated in his coracle and with one hand holding the net while, with the other, he plies his paddle. When a fish is caught, each hauls up his end of the net until the two coracles are brought to touch and the fish is then secured. The Chinese fishing nets (Cheena vala) found at Kochi in India are an unusual method of fishing. Huge mechanical contrivances hold out horizontal nets of 20 m or more across. The nets are dipped into the water and raised again, but otherwise cannot be moved. A seine is a large fishing net that hangs vertically in the water by attaching weights along the bottom edge and floats along the top. Trawling is a method of fishing that involves actively pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. A gillnet catches fish which try to pass through it by snagging on the gill covers. Thus trapped, the fish can neither advance trough the net nor retreat. Ghost nets are nets that have been lost at sea. They may continue to be a menace to wildlife for many years.

Dredging

There are types of dredges used for collecting scallops or oysters from the seabed. They tend to have the form of a scoop made of chain mesh and they are towed by a fishing boat. Scallop dredging is very destructive to the seabed, and nowadays is often replaced by mariculture or by scuba diving to collect the scallops.

Fishing lines

Fish are caught with a fishing line by encouraging a fish to bite upon a fish hook or a gorge. A fishing hook will pierce the mouthparts of a fish and may be barbed to make escape less likely. A gorge is buried in the bait such that it would be swallowed end first. The the tightening of the line would fix it cross-wise in the quarry's stomach or gullet and so the capture would be assured. Fishing with a hook and line is called angling. Trolling is a technique in which a fishing lure on a line is drawn through the water. Trolling from a moving boat is a technique of big-game fishing and is used when fishing from boats to catch large open-water species such as tuna and marlin. Trolling is also a freshwater angling technique. Long-line fishing is a commercial fishing technique that uses hundreds or even thousands of baited hooks hanging from a single line.

Kite fishing

Kite fishing was invented in China and was (and is) also known to the people of New Guinea and other Pacific Islands. It is not clear whether kite fishing was communicated or of independent invention. Suitable kites may be of very simple construction. Those of Tobi Island are a large leaf stiffened by the ribs of the fronds of the coconut palm. The fishing line may be made from coconut fibre and the lure made from spiders webs. Kites can provide the boatless fishermen access to waters that would otherwise be available only to boats. Similarly, for boat owners, kites provide a way to fish in areas where it is not safe to navigate such as shallows or coral reefs where fish may be plentiful. Kites can also be used for trolling a lure through the water.

Ice fishing

See main article Ice fishing. Ice fishing is the practice of catching fish with lines and hooks through an opening in the ice on a frozen body of water. It is practiced by hunter-gatherers such as the Inuit and by sportsmen in many cold climates.

Fish traps

Traps are culturally almost universal and seem to have been independently invented many times. There are essentially two types of trap, a permanent or semi-permanent structure placed in a river or tidal area and pot-traps that are baited to attract prey and periodically lifted. Indigenous Australians were, prior to European colonisation, most populous in Australia's better-watered areas such as the Murray-Darling river system of the south-east. Here, where water levels fluctuate seasonally, indigenous people constructed ingenious, stone, fish traps. Unfortunately most have been completely or partially destroyed. The largest and best known were the Brewarrina fish traps on the Barwon River at Brewarrina in New South Wales, which fortunately are at least partly preserved [http://www.deh.gov.au/heritage/national/sites/brewarrina.html]. The Brewarinna fish traps caught huge numbers of migratory native fish as the Barwon River rose in flood and then fell. In southern Victoria, indigenous people created an elaborate systems of canals, some more than 2 km long. The purpose of these canals was the encouragement and catching of eels, a fish of short coastal rivers (as opposed to rivers of the Murray-Darling system). The eels were caught by a variety of traps including stone walls constructed across canals with a net placed across an opening in the wall. Traps at different levels in the marsh came into operation as the water level rose and fell. Somewhat similar stone wall traps were constructed by native American Pit River people in north-eastern California. [http://www.primitiveways.com/ajumawi_fish_traps.html] In medieval Europe, large fishing weir structures were constructed from wood posts and wattle fences. 'V' shaped structures in rivers could be as long as 60 m and worked by directing fish towards fish traps or nets. Such fish traps were evidently controversial in medieval England. The Magna Carta includes a clause requiring that they be removed: :All fish-weirs shall be removed from the Thames, the Medway, and throughout the whole of England, except on the sea coast. [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/magnacarta.html] Basket weir fish traps were widely used in ancient times. They are shown in medieval illustrations and surviving examples have been found. Basket weirs are about 2 m long and comprise two wicker cones, one inside the other — easy to get into and hard to get out. [http://www.le.ac.uk/ulas/annualreports/ar99-00/hemington/hemington.html] Magna Carta The Wagenya people, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, build a huge system of wooden tripod across the river. These tripods are anchored on the holes naturally carved in the rock by the water current. To these tripods are anchored large baskets, which are lowered in the rapids to “sieve” the waters for fish. It is a very selective fishing, as these baskets are quite big and only large size fish are entrapped. Twice a day the adults Wagenya people pull out these baskets to check if there is any fish caught; in which case somebody will dive into the river to fetch it. Pot traps are typically used to catch crustaceans such as crabs, lobsters and crayfish. Pot traps such as the lobster trap may be constructed in various shapes, each is a mesh box designed with a convoluted entrance that makes entry much easier than exit. The pots are baited and lowered into the water and checked daily. Similar traps are used in many areas to capture bait fish.

Trained animals

bait fish In China and Japan, the practice of cormorant fishing is thought to date back some 1300 years. Fishermen use the natural fish-hunting instincts of the cormorants to catch fish, but a metal ring placed round the bird's neck prevents large, valuable fish being swallowed. The fish are instead collected by the fisherman. [http://www.city.gifu.gifu.jp/kankou/08_eng_01.html] The practice of tethering a remora, a sucking fish, to a fishing line and using the remora to capture sea turtles probably originated in the Indian Ocean. The earliest surviving records of the practice are Peter Martyr d'Anghera's 1511 accounts of the second voyage of Columbus to the New World (1494)[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12425/12425-h/12425-h.htm]. However, these accounts are probably apocryphal, and based on earlier accounts no longer extant. Dating from the 1500s in Portugal, Portuguese Water Dogs were used by fishermen to send messages between boats, to retrieve fish and articles from the water, and to guard the fishing boats.

Toxins

Many hunter gatherer cultures use poisonous plants to stun fish so that they become easy to collect by hand. Some of these poisons paralyze the fish, others are thought to work by removing oxygen from the water. [http://tk.agron.ntu.edu.tw/Segawa1/fishing_poison.htm] Cyanides are used to capture live fish near coral reefs for the aquarium and seafood market. This illegal fishing occurs mainly in or near the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Caribbean to supply the 2 million marine aquarium owners in the world. Many fish caught in this fashion die either immediately or in shipping. Those that survive often die from shock or from massive digestive damage. The high concentrations of cyanide on reefs so harvested damages the coral polyps and has also resulted in cases of cyanide poisoning among local fishermen and their families.

Explosives

Dynamite or blast fishing, is done easily and cheaply with dynamite or homemade bombs made from locally available materials. Fish are killed by the shock from the blast and are then skimmed from the surface or collected from the bottom. The explosions indiscriminately kill large numbers of fish and other marine organisms in the vicinity and can damage or destroy the physical environment. Explosions are particularly harmful to coral reefs[http://stigmes.gr/br/brpages/articles/dinambr.htm]. Blast fishing is also illegal in many waterways around the world.

Modern fishing

Recreational fishing

homemade bombs Main article Angling Recreational fishing and the closely related (nearly synonymous) sport fishing describe fishing for pleasure or competition. Recreational fishing has conventions, rules, licensing restrictions and laws that limit the way in which fish may be caught. Typically, these prohibit the use of nets and the catching of fish with hooks not in the mouth. The most common form of recreational fishing is done with a rod, line and hooks attached to any of a wide range of lures or baits. This practice is known as angling. One method of growing popularity is kayak fishing. Kayak fisherman fish from sea kayaks in an attempt to level the playing field with fish and to further challenge their abilities. Kayaks are extremely stealthy and can allow anglers to reach areas unfishable from land or by conventional boat. In angling, it is sometimes expected or required that fish all be returned to the water (catch and release). The practice, however, is viewed by some with disapproval as they consider it unethical to inflict pain on a fish for fun or sport and not for reasons of capturing food. Anglers deny this charge, pointing out that fish commonly feed on hard and spiky prey items, and as such can be expected to have tough mouths, and also that some fish will re-take a lure they have just been hooked on, a behaviour that is unlikely if being hooked was painful. In a real sense, the suitability of catch and release is an ethical consideration and, as such, a science-based conclusion on the issue is unavailable. However, a variety of scientific studies have recorded very high survival rates (in excess of 90%) for caught and released fish, especially if the fish are carefully handled and barbless hooks and artificial lures are used. Proponents of catch and release also contend that the practice is increasingly necessary in order to conserve fish stocks in the face of burgeoning human populations, mounting fishing pressure and worsening habitat degradation. Opponents would prefer to ban or to severely restricting angling, a suggestion most anglers find unpalatable. Recreational fishermen can have profound deleterious effects on fish stocks, particularly those of large, slow growing species. The only way for growing numbers of recreational fishermen to continue fishing is to reduce their impact on fish populations. Catch and release, in combination with techniques such as strong tackle (to get fish in quickly, for release in good condition), careful handling of fish and barbless hooks (to reduce physical damage), may be useful tools in this endeavour. A recent phenomenon of recreational fishing are fishing competitions (tournaments) where fishermen compete for prizes based on the total weight of a given species of fish caught within a predetermined time. This sport evolved from local fishing contests into large competitive circuits, especially in North America. Competitors are most often professional fishermen who are supported by commercial endorsements. Big-game fishing describes fishing from boats to catch large open-water species such as tuna, sharks and marlin. Noodling and Trout tickling may be pursued as a recreation. Laws made to control recreational fishing laws frequently also attempt to control the harvest of other aquatic species, such as frogs and turtles.

Commercial fishing

turtle, north-west Scotland.]] Main article Fishing industry Commercial fishing provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who pursue it as an industry must often pursue fish far into the ocean under adverse conditions. Commercial fishermen harvest almost all aquatic species, from tuna, cod and salmon to shrimp, krill, lobster, clams, squid and crab. Commercial fishing methods have become very efficient using large nets and sea-going processing factories. Many new restrictions are often integrated with varieties of fishing allocation schemes (quotas), and international treaties that have sought to limit the fishing effort and, sometimes, capture efficiency. Fishing methods vary according to the region, the species being fished for, and the technology available to the fishermen. A commercial fishing enterprise may vary from one man with a small boat with hand-casting nets or a few pot traps, to a huge fleet of trawlers processing tons of fish every day. Some common commercial techniques today are trawling, seining, driftnetting, handlining, longlining, gillnetting, and diving. Also see Krill fishery.

Preservation

Image:Fish Packed in Ice.jpg|Fish packed in ice. Image:Canned fish 2.JPG|Canned fish. Image:Hjell-oversikt.arj.jpeg|A fish-drying rack. Hovden in Norway. image:Kipper.JPG|Kipper: salted and smoked herring. Image:Klippfiskproduksjon.jpg|Salting of fish in factory. Ancient methods of preserving fish included drying , salting, pickling and smoking. All of these techniques are still used today but the more modern techniques of freezing and canning have taken on a large importance. See:
- Haddock: Arbroath Smokie (lightly smoked).
- Herring: kipper (salted and smoked), surströmming (fermented), rollmops (pickled), soused (salted).
- Salmon: smoked salmon, cured salmon, and gravlax (fermented).
- Cod: stockfish (air dried), lutefisk (soaked in lye). In the past, fishing vessels were restricted in range by the simple consideration that the catch must be returned to port before it spoils and becomes worthless. The development of refrigeration and freezing technologies transformed the commercial fishing industry: fishing vessels could be larger, spending more time away from port and therefore accessing fish stocks at a much greater distance. Refrigeration and freezing also allow the catch to be distributed to markets further inland, reaching customers who previously would have had access only to dried or salted sea fish. Canning, developed during the 19th century has also had a significant impact on fishing by allowing seasonal catches of fish that are possibly far from large centres of population to be exploited. For example: sardines.

Fish products

Food

Image:Fried Fish and French Fries.jpg|Fried fish & French fries (fish & chips). Image:Kräftskiva-2.jpg|Crayfish and prawns. Image:Korea style raw fish.jpg|Korean style raw fish. Image:Cooked mussels DSC09244.JPG|Cooked mussels. The flesh of many fish are primarily valued as a source of food; there are many edible species of fish as well as other sea food. Shellfish include shelled molluscs and crustaceans used as food. Shelled molluscs include the clam, mussel, oyster, winkle and scallop; some crustaceans are the shrimp, lobster, crayfish, and crab. Eggs, called roe, of various species may be eaten; roe comes from fish and certain marine invertebrates, such as sea urchins and shrimp. In some cultures, roe is considered a delicacy, for example caviar from the sturgeon. Squid and octopus are valued as food. Sea cucumber is considered a delicacy in Chinese cooking and is often served at New Year’s feasts, usually in soups. [http://www.asiafood.org/glossary_2.cfm] In some cultures, for example China, Japan, and Vietnam, certain species of jellyfish are consumed. [http://www.asiafood.org/glossary_1.cfm?alpha=J&wordid=2696&startno=1&endno=25] Fish oil is valued as a dietary supplement.

Live fish

Live fish are collected for the international live food fish trade. Some seafood restaurants keep live fish in aquaria for display or for cultural beliefs. The majority of live fish kept at seafood restaurants, however, are desired for the freshness of the seafood, being killed only immediately before being cooked. Suiting customer preference, this practice makes the seafood higher in quality and better in taste. The prevalence of cultural beliefs and consumer standards helps to drive the demand for the live food fish trade. Hong Kong, for example, is estimated to have imported in excess of 15,000 tonnes of live food fish in 2000. This brought the value of their live food fish trade industry to US$400 million as reported by the [http://marine.wri.org/pubs_content_text.cfm?ContentID=645 World Resources Institute]. Fish can also be collected in ways that do not injure them such as in a seine net or by placing an electric current into the water. Such techniques are used most often by researchers for observation and study but are also used by those who collect fish for the aquarium trade. There are several organizations devoted to improving the methods of collecting, handling, transporting, exporting and farming of wild and domesticated live food fish, as well as freshwater and marine tropical fish destined for aquaria.

Other products

Pearls and mother-of-pearl are valued for their lustre. Traditional methods of pearl hunting are now virtually extinct. Sharkskin and rayskin which are covered with, in effect, tiny teeth (dermal denticles) were used for the purposes that sandpaper currently is. These skins are also used to make leather. Sharkskin leather is used in the manufacture of hilts of traditional Japanesse swords. Sea horse, star fish, sea urchin and sea cucumber are used in traditional Chinese medicine. Tyrian purple is a pigment made from marine snails Murex brandaris and Murex trunculus. Sepia is a pigment made from the inky secretions of cuttlefish. Fish glue is made by boiling the skin, bones and swim bladders of fish. Fish glue has long been valued for its use in all manner of products from illuminated manuscripts to the Mongolian war bow. Isinglass is a substance obtained from the swim bladders of fish (especially sturgeon), it is used for the clarification of wine and beer. Fish emulsion is a fertilizer emulsion that is produced from the fluid remains of fish processed for fish oil and fish meal industrially.

Cultural references

Fishing is a widely used as a metaphor though as such it is possibly ambiguous. On the one hand, fishing with a net has nuances of gathering by honest effort. For example, in the New Testament, Jesus is reported to have said to his disciples: Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible,_English,_King_James,_Matthew#Chapter_4 Matthew 4:19]. On the other hand, fishing with bait or lure sometimes has nuances of catching by deception, possibly with an implication of greed on the part of the victim. For example, the expression "fishing expedition" (usually used to describe a line of questioning), describes a case where the questioner implies that he knows more than he actually does in order to trick the target into divulging more information than he wishes to reveal. Other examples of fishing terms that carry a negative connotation are: "fishing for compliments", "to be fooled hook, line and sinker" (to be fooled beyond merely "taking the bait"), and the internet scam of Phishing.

External links

Fishing hook

A fishing hook is a hook used to catch fish. It may be barbed or barbless. It is usually attached to a fishing line. In general the hook is concealed within the bait or trailed closely behind or within the lure. Modern fishing hooks are usually barbed and may be black, red or pink with pink being the favored color. Fishing with a hook, line and rod is called angling. Long-line fishing is a commercial fishing technique that uses hundreds or even thousands of baited hooks hanging from a single line. There is at least one known species of fish which will bite a bare colored hook, Sockeye salmon. For Sockeye fishing, usually a flasher or dodger is rigged in front of a 12-18 inch (30-45 cm ) leader with the hook attached. The flasher giving the hook a side to side motion through the water when trolled. Also Piranhas and Gar Pikes (needle fish) will bite a bare hook, probably being attracted by the flashing of the hook's metal thus functioning in a manner similar to that of the spoon lure. Category:Fishing equipment ja:釣り針 simple:Fishing hook

Angles

Angles (German: Angeln, Old English: Englas, Latin: singular Anglus, plural Anglii) were Germanic people, from Angeln in Schleswig, who settled in East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria in the 5th century. Southern and eastern Britain was later called Engla-lond (in Old English, "Land of the Angles"), thus England.

Early history

Possibly the first instance of the Angles in recorded history is in Tacitus' Germania, chapter 40, in which the Anglii are mentioned in passing in a list of Germanic tribes. He gives no precise indication of their geographical position, but states that, together with six other tribes, including the Varini (the Warni of later times), they worshipped a goddess named Nerthus, whose sanctuary was situated on "an island in the Ocean." Ptolemy in his Geography (ii. 11. § 15), half a century later, locates them with more precision between the Rhine, or rather perhaps the Ems, and the Elbe, and speaks of them as one of the chief tribes of the interior. Unfortunately, however, it is clear from a comparison of his map with the evidence furnished by Tacitus and other Roman writers that the indications which he gives cannot be correct. Owing to the uncertainty of these passages there has been much speculation regarding the original home of the Angli. One theory, which however has little to recommend it, is that they dwelt in the basin of the Saale (in the neighbourhood of the canton Engilin), from which region the Lex Angliorum et Werinorum hoc est Thuringorum is believed by many to have come. At the present time the majority of scholars believe that the Angli had lived from the beginning on the coasts of the Baltic, probably in the southern part of the Jutish peninsula. The evidence for this view is derived partly from English and Danish traditions dealing with persons and events of the 4th century (see below), and partly from the fact that striking affinities to the cult of Nerthus as described by Tacitus are to be found in Scandinavian, especially Swedish and Danish, religion. Investigations in this subject have rendered it very probable that the island of Nerthus was Sjælland (Zealand), and it is further to be observed that the kings of Wessex traced their ancestry ultimately to a certain Scyld, who is clearly to be identified with Skiöldr, the mythical founder of the Danish royal family (Skiöldungar). In English tradition this person is connected with "Scedeland" (pl.), i.e. Scandinavia, while in Scandinavian tradition he is specially associated with the ancient royal residence at Leire in Sjælland. There is a theory that the name of the Angles came from Germanic words for "narrow" (compare German eng = "narrow"), and meant "the people who live beside the Narrow [Water]", i.e. beside the Schlei estuary. Bede states that the Angli before they came to Britain dwelt in a land called Angulus, and similar evidence is given by the Historia Brittonum. King Alfred the Great and the chronicler Æthelweard identified this place with the district which is now called Angel in the province of Schleswig (Slesvig), though it may then have been of greater extent, and this identification agrees very well with the indications given by Bede. Full confirmation is afforded by English and Danish traditions relating to two kings named Wermund and Offa, from whom the Mercian royal family were descended, and whose exploits are connected with Angel, Schleswig and Rendsburg. Danish tradition has preserved record of two governors of Schleswig, father and son, in their service, Frowinus (Freawine) and Wigo (Wig), from whom the royal family of Wessex claimed descent. During the 5th century the Angli invaded Britain, after which time their name does not recur on the continent except in the title of the code mentioned above. The province of Schleswig has proved exceptionally rich in prehistoric antiquities which date apparently from the 4th and 5th centuries. Among the places where these have been found, special mention should be made of the large cremation cemetery at Borgstedterfeld, between Rendsburg and Eckernförde, which has yielded many urns and brooches closely resembling those found in heathen graves in England. Of still greater importance are the great deposits at Thorsbjaerg (in Angel) and Nydam, which contained large quantities of arms, ornaments, articles of clothing, agricultural implements, &c., and in the latter case even ships. By the help of these discoveries we are able to reconstruct a fairly detailed picture of Angle civilization in the age preceding the invasion of Britain.

Angle influence in Britain

According to sources such as the Venerable Bede, after the invasion of Britain the Angles split up and founded the kingdoms of the Nord Angelnen (Northumbria), Ost Angelnen (East Anglia), and the Mittlere Angelnen (Mercia). Thanks to the major influence of the Saxons, the tribes were collectively called Anglo-Saxons by the Normans. A region of the United Kingdom is still known by the name East Anglia. The center of the Angle homeland in the north-eastern portion of the modern German bundesland of Schleswig-Holstein, itself on the Jutland Peninsula, is where the rest of that people stayed, a small peninsular form still called Angeln today and is formed as a triangle drawn roughly from modern Flensburg on the Flensburger Fjord to the City of Schleswig and then to Maasholm on the Schlei inlet. In any case, this small and relatively easterly geographic localisation of the original Angeln tribal group has led to one of the Anglo-Saxon Invasion's enduring mysteries: how it is possible that the Angelns were so frequently mentioned as colonisers of ancient Britain in all the ancient and medieval written sources, while evidence of the neighbouring and much more powerful Frisians' concurrent colonising activities in Britain has been so limited to discoveries in archeological science, and more often to logical deductions and inferences alone? Of course, ethnic Frisians are known to have inhabited the land directly in the path of any migration route from Angeln to Great Britain (except for the long and difficult route by sea around the northern tip of Denmark), and, in fact, they also inhabited lands between the ancient Saxon domain and Britain; yet they are rarely mentioned as having taken part in the vast migration.

St. Gregory

The Angles are the subject of a legend about Pope Gregory I. As an abbreviated version of the story goes, Gregory happened to see a group of Angle children from Deira for sale as slaves in the Roman market. Struck by the beauty of their fair-skinned complexions and bright blue eyes, Gregory inquired about their background. When told they were Angles, he replied with a Latin pun that translates well into English: "Not Angles, but angels". Supposedly, he thereafter resolved to convert their pagan homeland to Christianity.

References

- Chadwick, Hector Munro. Angli. 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica

External link

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2076470.stm English and Welsh are races apart]; BBC; 30 June, 2002. Angli Category:Ancient Germanic peoples Category:Anglo-Saxon England Category:History of the Germanic peoples Category:History of Northumberland Category:Ethnic groups of Europe

Britain

:This article deals with the history of the word Britain. For clarification of terminology and an overview of articles about Britain and Ireland see British Isles (terminology). The word Britain is an informal term used to refer to
- the island of Great Britain which consists of the nations of England, Scotland and Wales.
- the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or UK,
- sometimes the Roman province called "Britain" or "Britannia" The word British generally means belonging to or associated with Britain in one of the first two senses above (i.e. the United Kingdom or the island of Great Britain). However, the term has a range of related usages, as described in this article. Etymologically, these words are closely related to Brittany, the name of the western French peninsula, and its adjective Breton.

Earliest attested references

- Pretaniké; Pretanikai nesoi (Pretanic isles) - 325 BC
- Britannia - 55 BC (Julius Caesar, Roman invasion of Britain)
- Breten - 855 (Old English Chronicle, introduction)
- Brittisc - 855 (OED)
- Grate Briteigne - 1548 (OED)
- British isles - 1550 (in Latin; map of Sebastian Munster cited in British Isles article)

Etymology

The etymology of the name Britain is thought to derive from a Celtic word, Pritani, "painted people/men", a reference to the inhabitants of the islands' use of body-paint and tattoos. If this is true, there is an interesting parallel with the name Pict, connected with a Latin word of the same meaning. The modern Welsh name for Britain is Prydain. The Q-Celtic form was Cruithin, showing that the Common Celtic singular form was qr[ui]tanos. The root is presumably that of the modern Gaelic/Irish word cruth 'shape, form'. It has also been postulated that Britain may derive from the Celtic goddess Brigid; the form of the word, however, is against this postulation. In 325 BC the Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia visited a group of islands which he called Pretaniké, the principal ones being Albionon (Albion) and Ierne (Erin). The records of this visit date from much more recent times, so there is room for these details to be disputed, but it does seem to attest pre-Roman use of the name by Celtic-speaking inhabitants of the islands - or the names used by the Phoenecians Pytheas went with. The Roman geographer Ptolemy called the larger island Megale Brettania (Great Britain), and the smaller island Micra Bretannia (Little Britain).

Britain and Brittany

The original reference seems to have been to the territory in which the Brythonic languages were spoken, which more or less coincided with the Roman province of Britannia, an area equivalent to modern England, Wales and southern Scotland. In the Early Middle Ages speakers of a Brythonic language which later evolved into Breton migrated from Cornwall to Armorica, Western France, possibly because of pressure from Saxon invasions. This is why different forms of the same name apply to insular Britain and continental Brittany. In French the similarity is even more obvious: Bretagne and Grande Bretagne. Geoffrey of Monmouth used the names Britannia minor to refer to the Armorican region and Britannia major for the island. The element great in the term Great Britain thus simply means large, to make the distinction from Brittany.

Historical evolution of the term Britain

The kingdoms established on the island of Great Britain were perceived to be dominant over the whole archipelago, which thus came to be known as the British Isles. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England, the queen's astrologer and alchemist, John Dee, wrote mystical volumes predicting a British Empire and using the terms Great Britain and Britannia. After Elizabeth's death in 1603 the kingdoms shared one King, James VI of Scotland and I of England. On 20 October 1604 he proclaimed himself "King of Great Brittaine" (thus including Wales and also avoiding the cumbersome title "King of England and Scotland"). This title was eventually adopted formally in 1707 when the Kingdom of Great Britain was formed. Politically, then, British has been used to described someone or something from the United Kingdom, in its various forms, since 1707. Briton or Brit are also used colloquially in this form, though the use of Briton here is incorrect. Since its formation, the kingdom was enlarged in 1801 by the addition of the island of Ireland - already ruled by the British monarchy - to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and was then reduced in 1922 by the independence of the Irish Free State, now the Republic of Ireland. The name of the kingdom changed accordingly, in 1927 becoming The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. British was also used to describe members of nations that formed part of the British Empire. This use now, however, could be seen as justifying the colonial era, even if only applied historically.

Modern use of the term 'British'

The modern use of the term 'British' is as an adjective to describe someone or something from the United Kingdom. It is officially used as the term to describe the nationality of a citizen of the United Kingdom. Irish Nationalists may reject this term as offensive, as it is used to describe Irish people in Northern Ireland. Many people from England, Scotland and Wales also dislike the term, preferring to define themselves as natives of their own particular country. It is also frequently used to describe residents of the United Kingdom's current colonies. This may still offend some people, though since the British Overseas Territories Act 2002 all residents of the United Kingdom's remaining colonies have been eligible for British citizenship, making the term more apt. British occurs in the legal term British Islands . This was coined to describe all of the islands of the British Isles, exlcuding those that form part of the Republic of Ireland, when they act together as a political whole. Geographically, the term can be used in various ways:
- To describe someone from the island of Great Britain
- In the term British Isles, the traditional term for the entire archipelago of islands that lie off the north west coast of France, of which Great Britain and Ireland are the two biggest. Note that this is not intended to imply that all of these islands are part of the United Kingdom, for many of them are part of the Republic of Ireland. However, confusion caused by this term can lead to offense.
- The term has historically been used to describe someone or something from the British Isles. Due to the above mentioned potential for offense, this rarely happens today. For example the British Lions a rugby team which draws players from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland has been renamed to the British and Irish Lions.
- Sometimes British applies to an area or territory currently or formerly governed by or a dependent territory of the United Kingdom, for example the British Virgin Islands, the British Indian Ocean Territory, or British Columbia which is now a province of Canada.

Brutus of Troy

In keeping with the mediaeval penchant for etymologising country names in terms of eponomous heroes, English historians of the late mediaeval and early modern periods charted the history of the nation from Brutus of Troy, supposedly a hero of the Trojan war who founded Britain just as Aeneaus' descendant Romulus founded Rome, Frankus France, and so forth. The life of Brutus, anglicised as Brute, was recorded in the literary tradition of the Prose Brute. This was long accepted as the etymology of Britain.

Sources and further reading

- A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World, 3000 BC - 1603 AD by Simon Schama, BBC/Miramax, 2000 ISBN 0786866756
- A History of Britain, Volume 2: The Wars of the British 1603-1776 by Simon Schama, BBC/Miramax, 2001 ISBN 0786866756
- A History of Britain - The Complete Collection on DVD by Simon Schama, BBC 2002
- The Isles, A History by Norman Davies, Oxford University Press, 1999, ISBN 0195134427
- Shortened History of England by G. M. Trevelyan Penguin Books ISBN 0140233237
- Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English by Eric Partridge, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1966

External links

- [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/ British History Online] Category:British Isles Category:History of Britain Category:Europe simple:Britain

Wales

:For alternate meanings, see Wales (disambiguation) :For an explanation of often confusing terms like (Great) Britain, United Kingdom and England see British Isles (terminology) . Wales (Welsh: Cymru; pronounced IPA: , approximately "CUM-ree") is a principality and one of the four constituent parts of the United Kingdom (along with England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland). Wales is located in the south-west of Great Britain, and is bordered by England to the east, the Bristol Channel to the south, St George's Channel in the west, and the Irish Sea to the north. The term Principality of Wales, in Welsh, Tywysogaeth Cymru, is often used, although the Prince of Wales has no role in the governance of Wales and this term is unpopular among some. Wales has not been politically independent since 1282, when it was conquered by King Edward I of England. The capital of Wales since 1955 has been Cardiff, although Caernarfon is the location where the Prince of Wales is invested, and Machynlleth was the home of a parliament called by Owain Glyndwr during his revolt at the start of the fifteenth century. In 1999, the National Assembly for Wales was formed, which has limited domestic powers and cannot make law.

History

Main article: History of Wales The Romans established a string of forts across what is now southern Wales, as far west as Carmarthen (Maridunum), and mined gold at Dolaucothi in Carmarthenshire. There is evidence that they progressed even further west. They also built the legionary fortress at Caerleon (Isca), whose magnificent amphitheatre is the best preserved in Britain. The Romans were also busy in northern Wales, and an old legend claims that Magnus Maximus, one of the last emperors, married Elen or Helen, the daughter of a Welsh chieftain from Segontium, near present-day Caernarfon. Wales was never conquered by the Anglo-Saxons, due to the fierce resistance of its people and its mountainous terrain. An Anglo-Saxon king, Offa of Mercia, is credited with having constructed a great earth wall, or dyke, along the border with his kingdom, to mark off a large part of Powys which he had conquered. Parts of Offa's Dyke can still be seen today. Wales remained a Celtic region, and its people kept speaking the Welsh language, even as the Celtic elements of England and Scotland gradually disappeared. The name Wales is evidence of this, as it comes from a Germanic root word meaning stranger or foreigner, and as such is related to the names of several other European regions where Germanic peoples came into contact with non-Germanic cultures including Wallonia in Belgium and Wallachia in Romania, as well as the "-wall" of Cornwall. Part of the word "Cymru" is evident in the "Cum-" of Cumberland and Cumbria. Wales continued to be Christian (see 1904–1905 Welsh Revival and Welsh Methodist revival) when England was overrun by pagan German and Scandinavian tribes, though many older beliefs and customs survived among its people. Thus, Saint David (Dewi Sant) went on a pilgrimage to Rome during the 6th century, and was serving as a bishop in Wales well before Augustine arrived to convert the king of Kent and found the diocese of Canterbury. Although the Druidic religion is alleged to have had its stronghold in Wales until the Roman invasion, many of the so-called traditions, such as the gorsedd, or assembly of bards, were the invention of eighteenth-century "historians." The traditional women's Welsh costume, incorporating a tall black hat, was devised in the nineteenth century by Lady Llanover, herself a prominent patron of the Welsh language and culture. The conquest of Wales by England did not take place in 1066, when England was conquered by the Normans, but was gradual, not being complete until 1282, when King Edward I of England defeated Llywelyn the Last, Wales's last independent prince, in battle. Edward constructed a series of great stone castles in order to keep the Welsh under control. The best known are at Caernarfon, Conwy, and Harlech. Wales was legally annexed by the Laws in Wales Act 1535, in the reign of Henry VIII of England. The Wales and Berwick Act 1746 provided that all laws that applied to England would automatically apply to Wales (and Berwick, a town located on the Anglo-Scottish border) unless the law explicitly stated otherwise. This act, with regard to Wales, was repealed in 1967. See: Annales Cambriae

Politics

Main article: Politics of Wales; see also Politics of the United Kingdom Wales has been a principality since the 13th century, initially under the Welsh prince Llywelyn the Great, and later under his grandson, Llywelyn the Last, who took the title Prince of Wales around 1258, and was recognised by the English Crown in 1277 by the Treaty of Aberconwy. Following his defeat by Edward I, however, Welsh independence in the 14th century was limited to a number of minor revolts. The greatest such revolt was that of Owain Glyndwr, who gained popular support in 1400, and defeated an English force at Pumlumon in 1401. In response, the English parliament passed repressive measures denying the Welsh the right of assembly. Glyndwr was proclaimed Prince of Wales, and sought assistance from the French, but by 1409 his forces were scattered under the attacks of King Henry IV of England and further measures imposed against the Welsh. The Laws in Wales Act 1535 abolished the remaining Marcher Lordships, leaving Wales with thirteen counties: Anglesey, Brecon, Caernarfon, Cardigan, Carmarthen, Denbigh, Flint, Glamorgan, Merioneth, Monmouth, Montgomery, Pembroke, and Radnor, and applied the Law of England to both England and Wales, requiring the English language for official purposes. This excluded most native Welsh from any formal office. Wales continues to share a legal identity with England to a large degree as the joint entity of England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland retain separate legal systems. Wales was for centuries dwarfed by its larger neighbour, England. Indeed, one well-known British encyclopedia was said — perhaps apocryphally — to have had an entry reading "WALES. See under ENGLAND". In 1955 steps were taken to re-establish a sense of national identity for Wales when Cardiff was established as its capital. Before this, legislation passed by the UK parliament had simply referred to England, rather than England and Wales. Since 1993 and the passing of the Welsh Language Act it has been law for all documents produced by public bodies to be in both English and Welsh. Many private companies have followed suit, producing literature with similar bilingual qualities. The National Assembly for Wales, sitting in Cardiff, first elected in 1999, is elected by the Welsh people and has its powers defined by the Government of Wales Act 1998. The title of Prince of Wales is still given by the reigning British monarch to his or her eldest son, but in modern times the Prince does not live in Wales and has no direct involvement with administration or government. The Prince is, however, still symbolically linked to the principality; the investiture of Charles, Prince of Wales took place at Caernarfon Castle in North Wales, a place traditionally associated with the creation of the title in the 13th century. The investiture was considered an insult by some Welsh people, and Welsh folk singer Dafydd Iwan released mocking singles called Croeso Chwedeg Nain (Welcome 69, although a literal translation would be Welcome Granny's 60th (birthday)) and Carlo (Charlie). Two members of "Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru" – MAC (Welsh Defence Movement) – George Taylor and Alwyn Jones, the "Abergele Martyrs", were killed by a home made bomb at Abergele the day before the investiture ceremony.

Geography

Abergele Main article: Geography of Wales Wales is located on a peninsula in central-west Great Britain. The entire area of Wales is about 20,779 km² (8,023 square miles). It is about 274 km (170 miles) long and 97 km (60 miles) wide. Wales borders by England to the east and by sea in the other three directions: the Bristol Channel to the south, St George's Channel to the west, and the Irish Sea to the north. Together, Wales has over 965 km (600 miles) of coastline. There are several islands off the Welsh mainland, the largest being Anglesey in the northwest. The main population and industrial areas are in South Wales, consisting of the cities of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport and surrounding areas. Much of Wales's diverse landscape is mountainous, particularly in the north and central regions. The mountains were shaped during the last ice age, the Devensian glaciation. The highest mountains in Wales are in Snowdonia, and include Snowdon, which, at 1085 m (3,560 feet) is the highest peak in England and Wales. The 14 (or possibly 15) Welsh mountains over 3000 feet high are known collectively as the Welsh 3000s. The Brecon Beacons are in the south and are joined by the Cambrian Mountains in mid-Wales, the latter being given to the earliest geological period of the Paleozoic (Cambrian). Consequently, the next two periods, Ordovician and Silurian were named after Welsh/Celtic tribes from this area. The modern border between Wales and England is highly arbitrary; it was largely defined in the 16th century, based on medieval feudal boundaries. It has apparently never been confirmed by referendum or reviewed by any Boundary Commission (except to confirm Monmouthshire as part of Wales in 1968). The boundary line follows Offa's Dyke only approximately. It separates Knighton from its railway station, virtually cuts off Church Stoke from the rest of Wales, and slices straight through the village of Llanymynech (where a pub actually straddles the line). The Seven Wonders of Wales is a traditional list of seven geographic and cultural landmarks in Wales: Snowdon (the highest mountain), the Gresford bells (the peal of bells in the medieval church of All Saints at Gresford), the Llangollen bridge (built in 1347 over the River Dee), St Winefride's Well (a pilgrimage site at Holywell in Flintshire) the Wrexham steeple (16th century tower of St. Giles Church in Wrexham), the Overton yew trees (ancient yew trees in the churchyard of St Mary's at Overton-on-Dee) and Pistyll Rhaeadr (Wales's tallest waterfall, at 240 feet or 75 m). The wonders are part of the traditional rhyme: :Pistyll Rhaeadr and Wrexham steeple, :Snowdon's mountain without its people, :Overton yew trees, St Winefride wells, :Llangollen bridge and Gresford bells. Highest maximum temperature: 35.2°C (95.4°F) at Hawarden Bridge, Flintshire on 2 August 1990. Lowest minimum temperature: -23.3°C (-10°F) at Rhayader, Radnorshire on 21 January 1940. [http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/location/wales/#temperature] See also: List of towns in Wales

Divisions

For administrative purposes, Wales has been divided since 1996 into 22 unitary authorities:
- 9 counties
- 10 county boroughs
- 3 cities^{1^{- Cardiff, Swansea and Newport.

For more details and recent history of the political divisions of Wales, see Subdivisions of Wales.

1: There are five cities in total in Wales — in addition to the three unitary authorities listed above, the communities of Bangor & St. David's also have the status of a city.

Economy

Parts of Wales have been heavily industrialised since the eighteenth century. Coal, copper, iron, lead, and gold have been mined in Wales, and slate has been quarried. Ironworks and tinplate works, along with the coal mines, attracted large numbers of immigrants during the nineteenth century, particularly to the valleys north of Cardiff. Due to the poor quality soil, much of Wales is unsuitable for crop-growing, and livestock farming has traditionally been the focus of agriculture. The Welsh landscape, protected by three National Parks, and the unique Welsh culture bring in tourism, which is especially vital for rural areas.

Light engineering is still an important activity in the main population areas of the South and extreme North-East, but the economy, as elsewhere in the UK, is now focused on the service sector.

Food

About 80% of the land surface of Wales is given over to agricultural use. Very little of this is arable land though as the vast majority consists of permanent grass or rough grazing for herd animals. Although both beef and dairy cattle are raised widely, especially in Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, Wales is more well-known for its sheep farming, and thus lamb is the meat traditionally associated with Welsh cooking.

Welsh food is usually made from local ingredients. Some traditional dishes include laverbread (made from seaweed), bara brith (fruit cake), cawl cennin (leek stew), Welsh cakes, Welsh rarebit, and Welsh lamb. A type of shellfish, cockles, is often served with breakfast.

Demographics
Demographics of Wales as at the 2001 Census:

- Population: 2,903,085, Male: 1,403,782 Female: 1,499,303

- Percentage of the population born in:

- England: 20.32%

- Wales: 75.39%

- Scotland: 0.84%

- Northern Ireland: 0.27%

- Republic of Ireland: 0.44%

- Ethnic groups:

- White: British: 95.99%

- White: Irish: 0.61%

- White: other: 1.28%

- Mixed: white and black: 0.29%

- Mixed: white and Asian: 0.17%

- Mixed: other: 0.15%

- Asian:

- Indian/British Indian: 0.28%

- Pakistani/British Pakistani: 0.29%

- Bangladeshi/British Bangladeshi: 0.19%

- Other Asian: 0.12%

- Black: 0.25%

- Chinese: 0.40%

- Percentage of the British population self-identifying as Welsh: 14.39% (controversially, there was no question on the Census form asking this — people had to write this in).

- Religion:

- Christian: 71.9%

- Buddhist: 0.19%

- Hindu: 0.19%

- Jewish: 0.08%

- Muslim: 0.75%

- Sikh: 0.07%

- Other religion: 0.24%

- No religion: 18.53%

- Not disclosed: 8.07%

- The largest single denomination of Wales is Calvinist Methodism, which by far is the largest single denomination, followed by the Roman Catholic Church (Eglwys Catholig Rufeinig) and the Episcopalian (Anglican) Church in Wales (Eglwys yng Nghymru) with 3% of the population each, and the Congregationalist Union of Welsh Independents (Undeb yr Annibynwyr Cymraeg) and the Presbyterian Church of Wales (Eglwys Bresbyteraidd Cymru) with 1% of the population each.

- Age structure of the population:

- 0-4: 167,903

- 5-7: 108,149

- 8-9: 77,176

- 10-14: 195,976

- 15: 37,951

- 16-17: 75,234

- 18-19: 71,519

- 20-24: 169,493

- 25-29: 166,348

- 30-44: 605,962

- 45-59: 569,676

- 60-64: 152,924

- 65-74: 264,191

- 75-84: 182,202

- 85-89: 38,977

- 90+: 19,404

- Knowledge of the Welsh language:

- Percentage of the population aged 3 or more knowing spoken Welsh only: 4.93%

- Percentage of the population aged 3 or more speaki}}

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