Monday, March 31, 2014
Monday, March 17, 2014
Mickey Mouse - The Ageless Icon
Imagineering is what gave birth to arguably the most notable animated character of all time. He maybe 86 years old, but there’s no trace of gray hair on him. He looks almost the same as the Mickey Mouse back in the day when Walt Disney has not yet carved a billion-dollar name for himself. While he may not be seen in the big screen as often as the Marvel superheroes nowadays, Mickey Mouse remains as one of the most recognizable characters in the world.
The indie filmmaker Walt Disney carries mountain of ideas with light cash to produce cartoons back in the day. Little did he know that the birth of Mickey Mouse would put him in the map of superstardom and pop culture forever. He secured a deal with Columbia Pictures following warm audience reception of Mickey.
As Walt Disney kingdom rises to the top, Walt paid tribute to Mickey Mouse and said,
Walt Disney has lived up to his artistic sense and potential. His first cartoon strips in comics and newspapers depicted patriotic scenes of World War 1. He was attempted to join the Army, but was rejected and opted to join Red Cross instead. He was sent to France to drive an ambulance at the age of 16.
Before he died in 1966, he was regarded as business magnate, brilliant animator, director, voice actor and the one that forever changed the landscape of cartoons. During his lifetime, Walt won 22 awards, got 59 nominations and 4 honorary citations from no less than the Academy Awards.
Even after his death, The Walt Disney Company remains to be a profitable organization with that captured $45 billion in annual revenue last 2013.
To calculate Mickey Mouse’ overarching influence to pop culture is just mind-boggling. It was in 1928 when Mickey Mouse was conceived. From then on, the character has lorded and reigned over the entire Walt Disney Co. empire. It is second to none in the success ranking of all fictional characters created and introduced to the market. Even at old age, Mickey Mouse beats contemporary characters such as Spongebob, Pokemon and Spider Man in worldwide sales.
He was first seen in sound cartoon Steamboat Willie. The idea of Mickey Mouse was formed during a train ride from the Big Apple to Los Angeles. While it was Walt Disney who drew and gave birth to the character, Ub Iwerkes refurbished it to the image that people recognize today.
His original name was Mortimer and he was wearing this funny velvet pants. After a few years, Mickey Mouse appeared in more than 80 cartoon shows. Within the 40’s and 50’s period, his fellows including Pluto, Goofy and Donald Duck joined him. It was in 1955 where Mickey started being the host of Disneyland.
Mickey Mouse - The Ageless Icon
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Friday, March 7, 2014
Arabic Alphabet
The Arabic Alphabet is used by hundreds of millions of people all over the world. It is the writing form of one of the widely used languages in both ancient and modern times. Get to know this Arabic form of writing as you read on the 7 Must Know Facts about the Arabic Alphabet below.
The Arabic Alphabet is Thousands of Years Old
The Arabic Alphabet is derived from Nabataean Aramaic almost two thousand years ago. Although some accounts would say that the alphabet is just a little bit over 1000 years old, inscriptions written in Arabic have been found dating back from about 500 years AD, making it clear that the writing system is a lot older than previously thought.
The Arabic Alphabet is Related to the Hebrew Alephbet
Because the Arabic way of writing has Aramaic roots, it is safe to say that it is also related to Hebrew Alphabet from which Aramaic evolved. They all share a common lineage from Phoenician letter forms with the Arabic Alphabet being unique by the addition of dots in its letter forms making it a visually beautiful way of writing.
The Arabic Alphabet Has Two Main Types
As of present day, we have Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. The Modern Standard Arabic is what is used by modern speakers and can be understood by all of the Arabic world. The Classical Arabic is what was used to write the Q’uran. It is more archaic and even though Islamic people can recite the contents of the Q’uran, not everyone can read or understand it in its original written form.
The Arabic Alphabet has 28 Letters
This is interesting because the modern western alphabet has 26, the Hebrew Alphabet has 22. It shows how related the various forms of writing we have today are from each other and how much commonality they have.
The Arabic Alphabet May Have Over 30 Modern Variations
Because modern Arabic has over 30 colloquial varieties, it just follows that the way it is written may have slight variations as well. Being spoken by over 220 million individuals, it is easy to see how the writing forms may evolve more as the years go by, with various regions making both the Arabic language and its writing form adapted to their culture and location.
The Arabic Alphabet is Written from Right To Left
The western way of writing is from left to the right of the page, the eastern languages is usually from the top of the page to the bottom or horizontal, but the Arabic way of writing is from the right side to the left side of the page. Although it is not the only writing form that uses this method, it does add a uniqueness to the Arabic Alphabet that is fun to know even though you may not be a language or writing expert.
The Arabic Alphabet is Written in a Cursive Form
Once of the most ornate and beautiful forms of writing, writing in Arabic is inherently beautiful because of the quality of its letter forms to change shape as the letters are joined together to form words. The combination of this and the dots in the letters make for an almost embroidery like form of writing which can be appreciated even by those unfamiliar with Arabic Alphabet.
Arabic Alphabet
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Hebrew Alphabet - A brief introduction
Being one of the oldest writing systems, the Hebrew Alphabet is one of the types of writing systems that has traversed the ravages of time and is still in use today. Dig in and know more about the Hebrew Writing System by reading below:
Hebrew Alphabet Is in Use by Around 5 Million People Today
More than 5 million people speak and write in Hebrew as of present time, and of course, they do read and write using the Hebrew Alphabet; making it one of the oldest languages and writing systems to be successfully revived from ancient times. Around 500 BC, Hebrew was replaced by Aramaic as the common language of the Israelites and so the writing system and the language both suffered in popularity. It is only about 100 years ago that people begun having an interest in relearning the language and to use it in everyday life as opposed to it being used only in religious and scholarly texts.
Hebrew Alphabet Has Divine Origins
According from spoken history by Hebrews, the writing system was taught by God himself to a man named Adam ha-rishon who taught it to his male offsprings who taught it to their offsprings until it became widely used thousands of years ago.
Hebrew Alphabet is Called Alephbet, not Alphabet
The term ‘alphabet’ was coined by the Greeks to represent the first two letters of their alphabet. The Hebrews, on the other hand calls their letter forms ‘alephbet’ which is also derived from the first two letters of their writing system, Aleph and Bet.
Hebrew Alphabet Has 22 Letter Forms
Actually, those 22 Letter Forms only represents the consonants. Later on, vowel sounds have been added and improved the Hebrew Alephbet to its present form today.
Hebrew Alphabet is Related to Phoenician And Greek Scripts
Around 3000 years ago, several languages and forms of writing developed, and one of those is the Hebrew Alephbet or alphabet. Scholars and researches have studied its origins and have stated that it is either derived from Phoenician Alphabet or it at least developed alongside with. This means that it is indeed one of the oldest forms of writing still in use today.
Hebrew Alphabet Letters have Several Pronunciations
Because it is used to write several variations of Hebrew and Jewish languages, such as Yiddish, Paleo Hebrew, Ladino, and Judeo-Arabic, it just follows that pronunciation may differ. To date, the letters in the Hebrew Alephbet can be pronounced in Modern Hebrew phonology, Biblical Hebrew phonology, and Yiddish phonology.
Hebrew Alphabet is Also used as a Number System, the Hebrew Numeral
Much like the use of the Greek Alphabet in Roman Numerals, the Hebrew Alephbet or alphabet is also used to denote number values and is used as a number system up to this day. Usually, it is used as such in the Hebrew Calendar and in religious and mystic context.
Be it an interest in old scripts or perhaps an interest in reading the Bible’s Old Testament in its original text, understanding, knowing and learning the Hebrew Alphabet is a fun adventure to an ancient and modern world all woven together with the use of a common language. We hope that this article has given you some insights and some fun facts about the Hebrew Alphabet.
Hebrew Alphabet - A brief introduction
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