Knowledge Corner
COMICS & CARTOONS
Comics & cartoons- both are graphical media of entertainment created to represent the things that can be done by men in dreams but not in real life. That's why all the superheroes, unreal creatures, talking animals made their first appearances in the strips of comics or on the screen in a cartoon film.
Trajan's Column of Rome (113 AD) emphasizing sequential depictions can be regarded as the earliest example of comic strips. “Ally Sloper's Half Holiday” from England was the first ever weekly comic published in 1884. USA started its endless journey in comic industry with the publication of “Funnies on Parade” in 1933.
Marvel Publishing Inc of USA captured the international comic industry soon enough with their very own superheroes including Spiderman, Captain America, Fantastic Four, X-men & many more. Europe has also been a very fertile land of comics. “The Adventures of Tintin” by Herge, “Asterix” by Rene Goscinny are two very bright examples of European comic revolution. Chacha Chowdhury, Nonte-Fonte, Pinki, Billu etc comic books took the hearts of people of all ages living in this subcontinent.
Science geek Dexter, playboy Johnny Bravo, Popeye the sailor man, always afraid ghost-hunter Scooby Doo, dogfighters Swat Kats, Casper the friendly ghost & many more fictional cartoon characters have nourished our childhood.
The art of comics and cartoons are not confined in the West. They have crossed the boundary and become an influential part in the East, especially in Japan. Japan developed a new genre in the realm of comics which are called manga. Manga also possesses subgenres like shonen manga and shojo manga. The shonen manga is appropriate for boys and shojo for girls. Similarly cartoons have taken different look in Japan and they are called anime. Actually anime are not influenced by cartoons from the West, they are mainly influenced by manga.
Walt Disney is the most successful name in the cartoon world that has seen so far. He is the father of 'Mickey Mouse', 'Bugs Bunny', 'Donald Duck' and many other world famous cartoon characters. The first animated film of the earth 'Snow White & Seven Dwarfs' was also his production. Walt Disney has been nominated highest 59 times in the Academy Awards & won 26 times including 4 honorary Oscars. Unbelievable, huh?
WORLD'S PHYSICAL FACTS
Every place on the earth's surface has features that distinguish it from other places on earth. Geographers divide theses features into either physical or human feature. Physical features include landforms, bodies of water, climate, natural vegetation and soil.
The Earth's terrain varies greatly from place to place. About 70.8% of the surface is covered by water, with much of the continental shelf below sea level. The submerged surface has mountainous features, including a globe-spanning mid-ocean ridge system, as well as undersea volcanoes, oceanic trenches, submarine canyons, oceanic plateaus and abyssal plains. The remaining 29.2% not covered by water consists of mountains, deserts, plains, plateaus, and other geomorphologies.
The elevation of the land surface of the Earth varies from the low point of -418 m at the Dead Sea, to a maximum altitude of 8,848 m at the top of Mount Everest. The mean height of land above sea level is 840 m.
Though generally described as several 'separate' oceans, these waters comprise one global, interconnected body of salt water sometimes referred to as the World Ocean or global ocean. This concept of a continuous body of water with relatively free interchange among its parts is of fundamental importance to oceanography.
The major oceanic divisions are defined in part by the continents, various archipelagos, and other criteria. These divisions are, Pacific Ocean- which separates Asia and Australia from the Americas, Atlantic Ocean- which separates the Americas from Eurasia and Africa, Indian Ocean- which washes upon southern Asia and separates Africa and Australia, Southern Ocean- sometimes considered an extension of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, which encircles Antarctica, Arctic Ocean- sometimes considered a sea of the Atlantic, which covers much of the Arctic and washes upon northern North America and Eurasia.
A mature river is fed by many tributaries and has more discharge than a youthful river. Its channels erode wider rather than deeper. Examples include the Mississippi, Saint Lawrence, Danube, Ohio, Thames and Paraná rivers, a river with a low gradient and low erosive energy. Old rivers are characterized by flood plains. Examples include the Yellow, Ganges, Tigris, Euphrates, Indus and Nile rivers.
The highest mountain on Earth based from sea level is Mount Everest (8,848 m (29,029 ft)) in the Himalayas of Asia. The highest known mountain in the Solar System is Olympus Mons on the planet Mars at 21,171 m (69,459 ft).
Classified by the geological processes that shape them, there are five major types of mountains namely: Fold Mountains, Fault-Block Mountains, Volcanic Mountains, Dome Mountains and Plateau mountains.
The major mountain ranges of the world are Andes, Rocky Mountains, Himalayas and Mid-ocean ridge.
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