ARTICLE 1

Dark Matter, in astronomy, designation for matter that does not give off or reflect detectable
electromagnetic radiation, the radiant energy that includes visible light, radio waves, infrared
radiation, X rays, and gamma rays. Although dark matter is practically invisible,
astrophysicists have determined its existence by detecting its gravitational interaction with
matter that does give off detectable electromagnetic radiation, such as stars, galaxies, and
clusters of galaxies. Dark matter has become a vital component of modern theories of
cosmology and elementary particle physics. Along with the phenomenon of dark energy, the
puzzle of what dark matter is represents one of the most important questions in physics today.

The existence of dark matter was first suggested in the early 20th century by the Swiss
American astronomer Fritz Zwicky, but convincing and overwhelming evidence of its
existence was gathered by the American astronomer Vera Rubin in the 1970s. In the early
1930s, Zwicky studied the rotational motions of thousands of galaxies clustered together in a
large group of galaxies known as the Coma Cluster. He found that the orbital motion of the
galaxies around their common center of mass could only be explained by the presence of
unseen matter, which astronomers now call dark matter. Zwicky’s suggestion was not taken
very seriously at first because there was not a great amount of evidence to support such a
radical suggestion.

To gain a fuller understanding of our universe, it is vital to determine exactly what dark
matter is made of. Scientists think that dark matter occurs in several different forms.
Moreover, observations and experiments place limits on the quantity and distribution of each
type. There are two broad categories of dark matter: “hot” dark matter, which moves at
speeds comparable to the speed of light (about 299,000 km per second or 186,000 mi per
second), and “cold” dark matter, which moves at speeds well below that of light.
The elementary particle called the neutrino, discovered in 1956, is an example of a hot dark
matter candidate. Various experiments and observations, such as those reported in 1998 by
the Super-Kamiokande experiment in Japan, have shown that the neutrino has mass. Mass is
the quality that causes gravitational attraction. The mass of the neutrino is extremely small,
which is why the particle travels at speeds comparable to that of light. Neutrinos are
extremely abundant in the universe because they are produced in enormous numbers in
nuclear interactions that take place at the core of every star. For example, several trillion
neutrinos pass through each person on Earth each second as a result of the nuclear reactions
that cause the Sun to shine. Because neutrinos are electrically neutral they can pass easily
through ordinary matter, such as through people, and so are able to spread throughout a
region near ordinary matter. Their large numbers could enable them to be a significant
component of dark matter despite the tiny amount of mass in an individual neutrino.
Another candidate for the dark matter is known as baryonic cold dark matter. Baryonic cold
dark matter is made of protons and neutrons, the subatomic particles known as baryons that
make up ordinary matter and combine with electrons to form atoms. Baryonic cold dark
matter could be found in celestial objects that were not massive enough to initiate the fusion
processes that make stars shine. It could also be made of matter that collapsed to form dense
objects such as neutron stars or even black holes (objects so dense that not even light can
escape their gravitational field). Such objects are collectively referred to as “MACHOs,”
which means “massive compact halo objects.”
ARTICLE 2

Apart from their religious significance, the drawings on cave walls suggest that humans of
prehistoric times had some eye for beautifying their surroundings by the addition of color and
natural imagery. Historical accounts of the Mesopotamian and Palestinian cultures show
progressive advancement in planning human habitations, and Egyptian temples, tombs, and
palaces, many of which survive today, evidence close attention to interior spaces. Recent
discoveries of artifacts, utensils, and furnishings from ancient Chinese cultures indicate a
highly sophisticated concept of pleasure in everyday life. From the beginnings of Western
civilization, marked by the achievements of the Greeks, among other ancient cultures, many
examples remain of conscious exploitation of interior space. Ancient Roman culture, which
assimilated and emulated that of Greece, became even more fascinated by the boundless
possibilities for controlling and enhancing the human environment.

In larger dwellings, the principal room was the great hall, which served for cooking, dining,
and sleeping. Before the introduction of separate rooms for sleeping—a practice that began
toward the end of the Romanesque period (11th century to 12th century)—all the retainers
slept in the great hall, the women occupying a space enclosed by curtains. The great hall
might be as long as 18 m (as long as 60 ft) and as wide as 6 m (as wide as 20 ft). This large
area was covered with a roof supported by great wooden beams or trusses, which in later
times were carved or painted. The ground floor, which was made of stone, earth, brick, or
tile, was, in northern Europe, covered with rushes, straw, or leaves. During the time of the
Crusades (12th century to 13th century), the use of Asian rugs brought from the Middle East
came into vogue; these were initially used as decorative additions and not as floor coverings.

The houses of affluent people in the Renaissance (14th century to 16th century), contained
large rooms and high ceilings elaborately ornamented with painted decorations and plaster
moldings, usually derived from ancient Greek and Roman styles. Both the decorations and
the furniture of the rooms were calculated to create an effect of richness and magnificence. In
France and Italy, where such famous artists as Benvenuto Cellini and Raphael created
household decorations, a room was judged by the ornamentation on the ceilings and walls.

France set the style of interior decoration for most of Europe from the 17th century to the
19th century. Two decorative styles predominated in 17th-century France, named after the
kings in whose reigns they developed: Louis XIII (Louis Treize) and Louis XIV (Louis
Quatorze). The former style prevailed during approximately the first half of the century; it
was a development of French Renaissance style that still retained some Gothic features, such
as angular or square-shaped furniture. In the second half of the 17th century and the first two
decades of the 18th century the Louis XIV style prevailed; it was characterized by solidity,
dignity, and a profusion of ormolu (gilt bronze) ornamentation. The Château de Versailles is
the most famous specimen of the style. In France the baroque style of Louis XIV was
succeeded in the third decade of the 17th century by the rococo style of Louis XV. Rococo
was characterized principally by elaborate but delicately curved lines. The dwellings of the
noble and rich generally had wall panels of carved wood; unpaneled walls were sometimes
painted in pastel colors, with designs imitated from Chinese art or with stylized
representations of scenes from nature.
ARTICLE 3

Jazz, type of music first developed by African Americans around the first decade of the 20th
century that has an identifiable history and distinct stylistic evolution. Jazz grew up alongside
the blues and popular music, and all these genres overlap in many ways. However, critics
generally agree about whether artists fall squarely in one camp or another.

Since its beginnings jazz has branched out into so many styles that no single description fits
all of them accurately. A few generalizations can be made, however, bearing in mind that for
all of them, exceptions can be cited. Performers of jazz improvise within the conventions of
their chosen style. Typically, the improvisation is accompanied by the repeated chord
progression of a popular song or an original composition. Instrumentalists emulate black
vocal styles, including the use of glissandi (sliding movements that smoothly change the
pitch), nuances of pitch (including blue notes, the “bent” notes that are played or sung
slightly lower than the major scale), and tonal effects such as growls and wails.
In striving to develop a personal sound, or tone color (an idiosyncratic sense of rhythm and
form and an individual style of execution), performers create rhythms characterized by
constant syncopation (the placing of accents in unexpected places, usually on the weaker
beat) and by swing. Swing can be defined as a sensation of momentum in which a melody is
alternately heard together with, then slightly at variance with, the regular beat. Written
scores, if present, are often used merely as guides, providing structure within which
improvisation occurs. The typical instrumentation begins with a rhythm section consisting of
piano, string bass, drums, and optional guitar, to which may be added any number of wind
instruments. In big bands the wind instruments are grouped into three sections: saxophones,
trombones, and trumpets. Although exceptions occur in some styles, most jazz is based on the
principle that an infinite number of melodies can fit the chord progressions of any song. The
musician improvises new melodies that fit the chord progression, which is repeated again and
again as each soloist is featured, for as many choruses as desired. Although pieces with many
different formal patterns are used for jazz improvisation, two formal patterns in particular are
frequently found in songs used for jazz. One is the AABA form of popular-song choruses,
which typically consists of 32 measures in meter, divided into four 8-measure sections:
section A, a repetition of section A, section B (the “bridge” or “release,” often beginning in a
new key), and a repetition of section A. The second form, with roots deep in African
American folk music, is the 12-bar blues form. Unlike the 32-bar AABA form, blues songs
have a fairly standardized chord progression.
ARTICLE 4:

American English has never had a strict spoken standard that is considered “correct,” as most
European languages have. Today the spoken standard in American English is best defined as
the relative absence of characteristics—such as word choice or pronunciation—that might
identify the speaker as coming from a particular region or social group. National newscasters
and other broadcast personalities often adopt this speech type in public, as do many
Americans in formal settings such as schools, courts, and boardrooms.
The spoken standard has become associated with education. In general the more someone has
gone to school, the better the person’s command of American English without regional and
social characteristics. This occurs largely because the written American English taught in
schoolbooks does not include many regional or social features. This association does not
mean that the spoken standard is more correct than speech with regional or social
characteristics. However, standard language is usually more appropriate in formal situations
because people have come to expect it on those occasions.

While regional and social background certainly affects people’s speech, background does not
prevent anyone from learning either the spoken standard or aspects of other regional and
social varieties. When adults move to a new region, they typically do not pick up all the
characteristics of speech in the new area. Young children, however, commonly learn to sound
more like natives. The result is a mixture of speakers with different regional and social
backgrounds in nearly every community. Spoken standard American English is also used in
nearly every community. Some commentators predict the loss of regional and social
characteristics because everyone hears spoken standard speech on radio and television.
However, passive exposure to the media will not outweigh the personal contact that occurs
within neighborhoods and social groups and through regional travel. This contact strongly
shapes regional and social varieties of speech.

African American Vernacular English (sometimes called Ebonics, and formerly called Black
English) is a major social speech type. It refers to the variety of American English most
shaped by African American culture. Historically, African American English has probably
drawn some features from plantation creoles, but has drawn many more characteristics from
the Southern American English associated with plantation culture.
Speakers of African American Vernacular English generally do not pronounce r after vowels,
so that door may sound like doe, or poor like Poe. Words like this and that may be
pronounced dis and dat. Groups of consonants at the ends of words are often reduced to a
single consonant, as for instance in the pronunciation of sold as sole, or walked as walk. It is
common for the linking verb, usually a form of the verb to be, not to appear in such sentences
as He happy or She doctor. The use of be in the sentence He be sick, on the other hand,
means that he has often been sick, or has been sick over a period of time.

Large communities of Hispanic Americans have developed in the Southwest and in many
cities throughout the United States. Spanish and English are both commonly used in these
communities, but often for different purposes or in different settings. People sometimes also
blend Spanish words into English sentences or English words into Spanish sentences, a
process called codeswitching. The English of such communities is enriched by many Spanish
words, but the practice of codeswitching is not the same thing as a social variety of American
English.
ARTICLE 5

The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV),
published by the American Psychiatric Association, describes ten personality disorders.
People with antisocial personality disorder act in a way that disregards the feelings and rights
of other people. Antisocial personalities often break the law, and they may use or exploit
other people for their own gain. They may lie repeatedly, act impulsively, and get into
physical fights. People with borderline personality disorder experience intense emotional
instability, particularly in relationships with others. They may make frantic efforts to avoid
real or imagined abandonment by others. They may experience minor problems as major
crises. They tend to have an unstable self-image or sense of self.
Avoidant personality disorder is social withdrawal due to intense, anxious shyness. They fear
being criticized and rejected. Often they view themselves as socially inept and inferior to
others. Dependent personality disorder involves severe and disabling emotional dependency
on others. People with this disorder have difficulty making decisions without a great deal of
advice and reassurance from others. They urgently seek out another relationship when a close
relationship ends. People with histrionic personality disorder constantly strive to be the
center of attention. They may act overly flirtatious or dress in ways that draw attention. They
may also talk in a dramatic or theatrical style and display exaggerated emotional reactions.
People with narcissistic personality disorder have a grandiose sense of self-importance. They
seek excessive admiration from others and fantasize about unlimited success or power. They
believe they are special, unique, or superior to others. Obsessive-compulsive personality
disorder is characterized by a preoccupation with details, orderliness, perfection, and control.
People with this disorder often devote excessive amounts of time to work and productivity
and fail to take time for leisure activities and friendships. They tend to be rigid, formal,
stubborn, and serious. People with paranoid personality disorder feel constant suspicion and
distrust toward other people. They believe that others are against them and constantly look
for evidence to support their suspicions. Schizoid personality disorder involves social
isolation and a lack of desire for close personal relationships. People with this disorder prefer
to be alone and seem withdrawn and emotionally detached. People with schizotypal
personality disorder engage in odd thinking, speech, and behavior. They may ramble or use
words and phrases in unusual ways, and they may believe they have magical control over
others. Some research suggests this disorder is a less severe form of schizophrenia.

Personality disorders result from a complex interaction of inherited traits and life experience,
not from a single cause. For example, some cases of antisocial personality disorder may result
from a combination of a genetic predisposition to impulsiveness and violence, very
inconsistent or erratic parenting, and a harsh environment that discourages feelings of
empathy and warmth but rewards exploitation and aggressiveness.

Therapists use a variety of methods to treat personality disorders, depending on the specific
disorder. For example, cognitive and behavioral techniques, such as role playing and logical
argument, may help alter a person’s irrational perceptions and assumptions about himself or
herself. Certain psychoactive drugs may help control feelings of anxiety, depression, or
severe distortions of thought. Psychotherapy may help people to understand the impact of
experiences and relationships during childhood. Therefore, most mental health professionals
favor removing people with this disorder from their current living situation and placing them
in a residential treatment center.
ARTICLE 6

Food processing encompasses all the steps that food goes through from the time it is
harvested to the time it arrives on supermarket shelves. Food preservation refers specifically
to the processing techniques that are used to keep food from spoiling. Food preservation
techniques also help eliminate the moisture or temperature conditions that are favorable for
the growth of microorganisms. There are several ways to preserve food. In modern times, the
dried foods industry greatly expanded after World War II (1939-1945) but remains restricted
to certain foods, including milk, soup, eggs, fruits, yeast, some meats, and instant coffee, that
are particularly suited to the process. Three basic methods of drying are used today: sun
drying, a traditional method in which foods dry naturally in the sun; hot air drying, in which
foods are exposed to a blast of hot air; and freeze-drying, in which frozen food is placed in a
vacuum chamber to draw out the water. Canning is used to preserve a wide variety of foods,
including soups, sauces, fruits, vegetables, juices, meats, fish, and some dairy products.
Canning preserves food by heating it in airtight, vacuum-sealed containers. The can is filled
with food, and air is pumped out of the space remaining at the top of the can to form a
vacuum. The container is sealed, heated in a cooker called a retort, and then cooled to prevent
overcooking of the food inside. This process removes oxygen, destroys enzymes involved in
food spoilage, and kills most microorganisms that may be present in the food. Food
additives are chemicals that are added to food in small amounts. Direct additives are added
deliberately during processing to make food look and taste better, maintain or improve
nutritive value, maintain freshness, and help in processing or preparation. Some additives
help preserve food by preventing or slowing chemical changes and the growth of
microorganisms in food. Low-temperature storage as a preservation method probably began
when prehistoric humans stored meat and other foods in ice caves.

Regardless of the processing or preservation method used, proper packaging of food is

essential to make sure the food remains wholesome during its journey from processor to
consumer. Packaging contains food and makes it easier to handle, and protects it from
environmental conditions, such as temperature extremes, during transport. It locks out
microorganisms and chemicals that could contaminate the food, and helps prevent physical
and chemical changes and maintain the nutritional qualities of food. For example, milk is
often stored in opaque containers to prevent vitamins from being destroyed by light.

After food is processed and packaged, it enters an extensive distribution network that brings
food products from the manufacturer to various retail outlets across the country and even
around the world. Modern, high-speed methods of transportation—trucks, trains, and
planes—and reliable methods of environmental control—especially refrigeration—enable
even perishable food to be transported great distances. Distribution networks help satisfy
consumer demand for variety, making available, even in remote areas, foods that are not
locally grown or processed. In fact, although food distribution is all but invisible to the
average consumer, it plays a vital role in ensuring the availability of even the most basic
foodstuffs. The now-famous bread lines and bare supermarket shelves shown in images of the
former Soviet Union were brought about not so much by inadequate food production as by
the lack of an efficient distribution network to bring the food to the consumer.
ARTICLE 7

People have culture primarily because they can communicate with and understand symbols.
Symbols allow people to develop complex thoughts and to exchange those thoughts with
others. Language and other forms of symbolic communication, such as art, enable people to
create, explain, and record new ideas and information. A symbol has either an indirect
connection or no connection at all with the object, idea, feeling, or behavior to which it refers.
For instance, most people in the United States find some meaning in the combination of the
colors red, white, and blue. But those colors themselves have nothing to do with, for instance,
the land that people call the United States, the concept of patriotism, or the U.S. national
anthem, The Star Spangled Banner.

People living together in a society share culture. For example, almost all people living in the
United States share the English language, dress in similar styles, eat many of the same foods,
and celebrate many of the same holidays.All the people of a society collectively create and
maintain culture. Societies preserve culture for much longer than the life of any one person.
They preserve it in the form of knowledge, such as scientific discoveries; objects, such as
works of art; and traditions, such as the observance of holidays.

People are not born with culture; they have to learn it. For instance, people must learn to
speak and understand a language and to abide by the rules of a society. In many societies, all
people must learn to produce and prepare food and to construct shelters. In other societies,
people must learn a skill to earn money, which they then use to provide for themselves. In all
human societies, children learn culture from adults. Anthropologists call this process
enculturation, or cultural transmission.Enculturation is a long process. Just learning the
intricacies of a human language, a major part of enculturation, takes many years. Families
commonly protect and enculturate children in the households of their birth for 15 years or
more. Only at this point can children leave and establish their own households. People also
continue to learn throughout their lifetimes. Thus, most societies respect their elders, who
have learned for an entire lifetime.

Culture helps human societies survive in changing natural environments. For example, the
end of the last Ice Age, beginning about 15,000 years ago, posed an enormous challenge to
which humans had to adapt. Cultural adaptation has made humans one of the most successful
species on the planet. Through history, major developments in technology, medicine, and
nutrition have allowed people to reproduce and survive in ever-increasing numbers. The
global population has risen from 8 million during the Ice Age to almost 6 billion today (see
Population: World Population Growth and Distribution). However, the successes of culture
can also create problems in the long run. Over the last 200 years, people have begun to use
large quantities of natural resources and energy and to produce a great amount of material
and chemical wastes. The global population now consumes some crucial natural
resources—such as petroleum, timber, and mineral ores—faster than nature can produce
them. Many scientists believe that in the process of burning fuels and producing wastes,
people may be altering the global climate in unpredictable and possibly harmful ways. Thus,
the adaptive success of the present-day global culture of production and commerce may be
temporary.
ARTICLE 8

Animal Communication, interaction between animals in which information transmitted from

one animal or group of animals affects the behavior of other animals. Animals typically
exchange information using a signal, such as facial expression, sound, or touch.
Communication between animals helps them coordinate the vital functions of their
lives—namely, gathering food and hunting, staking out territory, mating, caring for young,
and defending themselves.

Visual displays include a rich array of facial expressions, body movements, coloration, and
physical shapes, such as the male peacock’s fanned tail. Visual communication is easy to
produce, instantaneous, and can be modified to carry various types of information. For
example, a dog may raise its hackles (long, erectile hairs on the back of its neck) in warning
when a potential enemy approaches and then lower them if the approaching animal or human
appears friendly.

Sound signals are communicated by vibrational waves produced by one animal, or group of
animals, and received by others. Unlike visual signals, sound signals travel easily through
darkness, dense vegetation, fog, and even water. Sound signals can also travel significantly
farther than visual ones. Elephants often make low-frequency rumblings that resonate over
long distances and can be heard by other elephants up to 3 km (2 mi) away.
In addition to the complex vocalizations of primates, including humans, sound signals are
used most notably by birds, insects, and marine mammals. One bird, the African honey guide,
produces loud calls to persuade nearby humans to follow it to bee trees containing beeswax,
its favorite food. Once the humans have gathered the honey, the honey guide can easily reach
the remaining wax.

Communication that is tactile, or transmitted by touch, is especially important in social

animals, including insects. Members of an ant colony, for example, almost constantly lick
and nuzzle each other; these activities strengthen the ants’ social bonds.
Tactile communication in bees has particularly interested researchers because of its surprising
complexity. When a foraging bee discovers a new food source, it returns to the hive and
performs a detailed dance, a phenomenon first interpreted by Austrian zoologist Karl von
Frisch. Information is communicated primarily by physical contact as hive mates follow and
touch the dancing bee. The orientation and speed of the dance, as well as the size of the area
covered by the dancer, tell the other bees precisely the distance to and location of the food.

Chemical signals sent and received by individuals of the same species are called pheromones.
Pheromones are quite powerful: a few pheromone molecules released into the air or water
through urine, sweat, or other bodily secretions are enough to influence another animal's
behavior. Unlike visual, sound, or tactile signals, pheromones can persist in the environment
for a long time. This is important for many cat species, for instance, because females often
release pheromones signaling fertility without knowing when the males will receive them.
Chemical communication is a powerful tool, particularly for ensuring reproduction, marking
territory, and alerting prey against predators. A male giraffe, for instance, determines the best
time to mate by nudging the female until she urinates and then checking the odor to
determine if she is fertile. Many land mammals—from wolves to domesticated cats—use
pheromones released by specialized glands to claim an area as their own. Other uses of
pheromone signals include trail marking by ants, which enables other colony members to find
food.

ARTICLE 9

Artificial Intelligence (AI), the study and engineering of intelligent machines capable of
performing the same kinds of functions that characterize human thought.
In 1956 American social scientist and Nobel laureate Herbert Simon and American physicist
and computer scientist Allan Newell at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania devised
a program called Logic Theorist that simulated human thinking on computers. The first AI
conference occurred at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire in 1956. This conference
inspired researchers to undertake projects that emulated human behavior in the areas of
reasoning, language comprehension, and communications. The search for AI has taken two
major directions: psychological and physiological research into the nature of human thought,
and the technological development of increasingly sophisticated computing systems. Some
AI developers are primarily interested in learning more about the workings of the human
brain and thus attempt to mimic its methods and processes. Other developers are more
interested in making computers perform a specific task, which may involve computing
methods well beyond the capabilities of the human brain.

AI programs have a broad array of applications. They are used by financial institutions,
scientists, psychologists, medical practitioners, design engineers, planning authorities, and
security services, to name just a few. AI techniques are also applied in systems used to
browse the Internet. They can play games, predict stock values, interpret photographs,
diagnose diseases, plan travel itineraries, translate languages, take dictation, draw analogies,
help design complex machinery, teach logic, make jokes, compose music, create drawings,
and learn to do tasks better. Some of the most widely used AI applications involve
information processing and pattern recognition. For example, one AI method now widely
used is “data mining,” which can find interesting patterns in extremely large databases. Data
mining is an application of machine learning, in which specialized algorithms enable
computers to “learn.” Other applications include information filtering systems that discover
user interests in an online environment. AI programs can make medical diagnoses as well as,
or better than, most human doctors. AI programs have been developed that analyze the
disease symptoms, medical history, and laboratory test results of a patient, and then suggest a
diagnosis to the physician. The diagnostic program is an example of expert systems, which
are programs designed to perform tasks in specialized areas as a human would.

Despite considerable successes AI programs still have many limitations, which are especially
obvious when it comes to language and speech recognition. Their translations are imperfect,
although good enough to be understood, and their dictation is reliable only if the vocabulary
is predictable and the speech unusually clear. Developing natural-language capabilities in AI
systems is an important focus of AI research.

Building intelligent systems—and ultimately, automating intelligence—remains a daunting

task, and one that may take decades to fully realize. AI research is currently focused on
addressing existing shortcomings, such as the ability of AI systems to converse in natural
language and to perceive and respond to their environment. However, the search for AI has
grown into a field with far-reaching applications, many of which are considered
indispensable and are already taken for granted. Nearly all industrial, governmental, and
consumer applications are likely to utilize AI capabilities in the future.
ARTICLE 10

Cartoon, in the fine arts, a drawing made on paper in preparation for and in the same size as a
painting, tapestry, mosaic, or piece of stained glass. Since the 1840s the term has come to
also mean any humorous, satirical, or opinionated drawing, typically one printed in a
newspaper or magazine, with or without a short text. Rather than the drawing, the text—cast
within the cartoon as speech or set as a caption—may be the bearer of the joke or the
witticism.

During the Renaissance (14th century to 17th century) in Italy, the custom of decorating wall
surfaces with frescoes (large murals), which required teams of artists to work together, gave
rise to the use of full-size preparatory drawings on stout paper as guidelines for the artists.
These sketches were known as cartoni, from the Italian word for the paper on which they
were drawn. When used as guides for frescoes, the drawings were transferred to a wall in one
of two ways: either by pricking through the lines on the paper and then dusting black chalk or
charcoal through the prick holes, or by laying the cartoon onto the fresh, soft plaster on the
wall and pressing a stylus along the lines of the cartoon. Either method created an outline that
served as a guide to the painters. Since the cartoon tended to be destroyed in the process or
was subsequently discarded as serving no further purpose, few old cartoons have survived.
Among those which have been preserved, the best known are by Italian painter Raphael,
drawn about 1516 as designs for wall tapestries for the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, Rome;
and The Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Anne (1499, National
Gallery, London), by Italian painter Leonardo da Vinci.

Depending on their purpose, most cartoons fall into one of several different categories.
Editorial cartoons, also referred to as political cartoons, serve as a visual commentary on
current events. Usually satirical rather than merely humorous in nature, they may
communicate the political viewpoint of the cartoonist. Editorial cartoons often use caricature,
a deliberate distortion or exaggeration of a person's features, to make fun of well-known
figures (often politicians). In Gag cartoons—which consist of a single panel and are often
accompanied by a caption, usually placed outside the panel—characters appear only once,
rather than recurring as in other types of cartoons. Gag cartoons usually make fun of groups
of people rather than lampooning individuals. They are often found in magazines, such as the
New Yorker, and on greeting cards. Illustrative cartoons are used in conjunction with
advertising or learning materials. They illuminate important points, highlight special aspects
of a new product, or give visual representations of processes to reinforce an advertisement or
educational text. Sometimes, existing cartoon characters are used in advertising.
A comic strip, or comic, is a sequence of cartoons that tells a story. Dialogue is usually
present in balloons, as encircled words issuing from a character's mouth within the panels of
the cartoon. Comic books, which either present one long story line or consist of a collection
of separate comic strips (usually previously published), are popular worldwide. Well-known
examples include American superhero series, such as “Batman” (1939- ), “Superman” (1938-
), and “The Amazing Spider-Man” (1962- ); the humorous historical series “Asterix” (1959-
1980) from France; or the children's comedy classic “Doraemon” (1974- ) and the science-
fiction series “Akira” (1982- ) from Japan. Animation is the process of recording a series of
incremental drawings and then playing it back to create the illusion of continuous motion.
Animation toys, such as flipbooks, have been used for centuries, while film animation was
introduced as a cartoon genre at the beginning of the 20th century, with the invention of
motion pictures.