Facebook cartoon profile picture campaign fights violence against children

Facebook is being invaded by cartoon pictures, have you noticed it? If you haven’t noticed the invasion then let me ask you this question: where were you in the last few days? The present cartoon pictures invasion happening to Facebook is a proof of how easy it is to get things go viral in social networks like Facebook; just a paragraph of well-crafted words posted on a wall is sure to get people into something. We’ve seen in the past few months some campaigns on Facebook like the ‘I Like It On’ sexy status updates and the ‘color of the day’ status update go viral and we can expect more of this kind of campaigns get into FB in the coming months.


Facebook cartoon profile pics have taken over Facebook the past few days. Millions of Facebook users are changing their profile pics to pictures of cartoon characters, and many people are asking, “Why is everyone’s Facebook picture a cartoon?” Facebook cartoon profile pictures are everywhere in the news.


The origin of this campaign is not known but there are a couple of Facebook fan pages that pushes this campaign. There are also those who do not believe in the campaign, they see it as something silly, as silly as the ‘I like it On’ campaign. Others think that many cartoon characters depict violence on children so the campaign is not fitting for the cause.


Although the campaign was reported to have started in November in n Greece and Cyprus, the "game" has changed and the current Facebook campaign is to set Facebook profile pictures to cartoon images. Here's the message being spread on walls everywhere: "Change your Facebook profile picture to a cartoon character from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same. Until Monday, Dec 6th of 2010, there should be no human faces on Facebook, but an invasion of memories! This is for a campaign against violence on children."


Which theory do you believe about the Facebook cartoon profile pic frenzy? Or maybe there's a new campaign coming through next day? 

Facebook Profile Trends: Cartoons from the '90s on the Rise

The need for television entertainment is strong; however, a blast to the past can sometimes be stronger. With the marriage of television and the Internet, the union has created a new way to portray oneself. For example, many people who use Facebook will use an avatar instead of a real photo of themselves. The same is true of many other social networking websites as well. However, on Nov. 16, an unofficial "Facebook Cartoon Profile Picture Week" began. The trend apparently started in Cyprus and Greece and hoped to erase "human photos" for that time.

Why Cartoons from the '90s?

Cartoons from the '90s were some of the greatest cartoons ever made and most of those same shows are still going strong today in 2010. In fact, of the 20 most popular '90s cartoons of which include "Pinky and the Brain" (1995 to 1999), "King of the Hill" (1997 to 2009), "SpongebBob Squarepants" (1999 to present), "Family Guy" (1999 to 2002 and 2005 to present), "Futurama" (1999 to 2003), and "Beavis and Butt-Head" (1993 to 1997), 19 of them still run at least once a day on any given cable channel. While most of these popular cartoons were aimed towards the "older generation" of the time, many were cross overs geared towards teens and young adults. Some, such as "Animaniacs" (1993 to 1998) and "Bobby's World" (1990 to 1998), were aimed at elementary school children and typically had a moralistic purpose.

The original '90s cartoon

The original '90s cartoon, though it did not start in the '90s, is The Simpsons; the longest running cartoon in prime time network television history. This cartoon started Dec. 17, 1989, and set the bar for all cartoons to come. This popularity created the "need" for people to become "Simpsonized," or a way to make a cartoon rendering of themselves using Simpsonize Me as a base for the resulting avatar. Another popular cartoon,South Park (1997 to present), also has its own cartoon conversion website called "South Park Studio." Using the same concept as the Simpsonize Me website, users can create South Park characters of themselves using various features of the cartoon characters married with their own features.

Since these two websites popped up in the late '90s, other sites began to offer the same services, and software people can download and use on their computers, although most are not based on specific cartoon characters. For instance, AvatarGenerator.org is a website anyone can go to and pick a cartoon avatar and then edit it based on personal preferences. With the availability of most services free, it is easy to pretend to be someone, even if only online. The freedom to be someone else for a time is liberating and another of the reasons the Facebook '90s cartoon avatar trend is on the rise, not to mention that most of Facebook's users now were the targeted audiences of '90s cartoons.

NASA scientists find Arsenic-Based Bacteria

Arsenic and deep space? NASA scientists Thursday served up a poison-munching microbe as a model for life on alien worlds.Researchers report in the journal Science the discovery of a bacteria in a mud sample from California's salty Mono Lake that is the first-known organism to use arsenic in its basic metabolism and genes.

The finding would add deadly arsenic to the six basic elements believed needed for life — carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur and phosphorus. The six elements are such a fundamental tenet of biochemistry that finding a critter living on arsenic was a big surprise.

Researchers in Mono Lake, California, have discovered a microorganism (pictured) that uses aresnic instead of phosphorous to thrive and reproduce. The latter, as far as terrestrial life is concerned, is a buildng block of life along with carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur, all integral to our DNA and RNA. Arsenic, meanwhile, is generally considered poisonous -- but "chemically it behaves similarly to phosphate," apparently making for a good substitution. In other words, NASA's proven that life can be made with components different than our current assumptions, both locally and beyond the stars. Seems entirely logical, if you ask us.