Popular cartoon characters

Cartoon characters are loved by children to adults. Watching the Cartoon Serials has been always entertaining and fun. . We laugh at their antics and misfortune. Many times we miss some of our old cartoon series that got completed, but still we do remember their characters. In this article I will list about the 10 most loved and popular cartoon characters till the date.

1.Mickey mouse

Mickey Mouse is the oldest presentation of Disney and represents Disney in all its forms. But still it is the most popular and loved by everyone. When you watch an episode of Mickey Mouse, you think that how can a cartoon stay alive for so many generations and still is so famous. Mickey’s journey started in black and white during 1928. Mickey Mouse has developed a couple of new forms such as the toddler’s favorite ‘Mickey Mouse Clubhouse’ including characters like Minnie, Pluto, Donald etc. and Mickey Mouse himself.

2.Tom and Jerry

The most familiar and entertaining cartoon serial ever had. All loved to watch the epic chase between the cat Tom and the mouse Jerry. This cartoon was released more than 80 years ago and is still one of the most watched cartoons. In this cartoon Tom (cat) is always trying to catch the little mouse (Jerry) but never succeeds. The cartoon is still being telecasted on cartoon network.

3. Scooby Do and Shaggy

This cartoon featured on a story of a dog called Scooby and his master Shaggy who are inseparable. All the day they go through many surprises like monsters and zombie still remain the best buddy. Along with these two other characters also included as their friends who helped them to fight against the enemies.

4.Power puff girls

This cartoon is still loved by every grown up girl who spent their childhood in watching the story of three Power puff Girls. This cartoon featured on three sisters who have superpowers, Blossoms, Bubbles and Buttercup. They live in Townsville, USA and keep the country safe from evil monsters and so, while trying to handle the pressure of kinder garden. All three sisters have different powers and often fight with each others. This cartoon has almost finished but still yet remembered by everyone.

5.Winnie the Pooh

Winnie the Pooh is the most loved characters whether it is to watch on T.V or to keep the soft toy in the room. Winnie the Pooh was first developed in a children’s story book  and funsouk article many other cartoons. Later Disney bought it and added another character tiger along with Pooh. These characters are famous from the year 1975.

6. Donald Duck

Donald duck has two forms, on the cartoon itself and on Mickey Mouse. The most popular thing about this character is his unique voice and his eye rolling feature and exasperation. His debut was at Walt Disney’s Silly Symphony cartoon segment; The Wise Little Hen, this was the year 1934.

7.Popeye

Imagining Popeye you recognize his arms legs and his spinach. The music of “Popeye the sailor man still sounds melodious. Like other cartoons the journey of Popeye started from comic and educational books. Watching Popeye was amazing, how the thin man gets his muscular power by eating spinach, and afterwards fights against the evil.

8. Doraemon

Doraemon is one of the latest cartoon characters and recently very popular among small children. With all his tricks he has made his place in the list of top 10 most popular cartoon characters of all time. Doraemon is a robot who has come from the 22nd century. It is fun watching the cartoon how Doraemon helps a school kid Nobita with his gadgets.

9. Teletubbies

Teletubbies was originally a British television serial among the primary kids produced between the years 1997 to 2001. Later it became popular among the world. The four characters in the serial were so cute that were loved by every on. Till the date the demand of Teletubbies characters in toy is famous.

10. Spongebob SquarePants

Sponge SquarePants is still on the top 10 from more than 10 years. The serial features on the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the fictional underwater city of Bikini Bottom. The series’ popularity has prompted the release of a media franchise, contributing to its position as Nickelodeon’s highest rated show. In 2004, SpongeBob’s first movie was premiered and another is going to be released in 2014.

Top 10 Largest Funerals in the World

Some people touch us in an amazing way. When they pass away their funeral becomes a public affair where people who have often only seen them on TV perform a public outpouring of emotion. I may be lucky to have two or three people attend my funeral. Some people have had a few more though. Occasionally around the world there are people whose funeral brings millions of people onto the street to mourn. Here are the biggest ones.

01. Princess Diana

Princess Diana was known as the Princess of the People. The world was shocked by her sudden death and in the UK she turned overnight from an oft ridiculed Princess, into a national heroine. The funeral of Diana was held in London on September 6th 1997. The procession drew an estimated three million mourners, who lined the streets of London to pay homage to their Princess.

 02. Ayrton Senna

 Ayrton Senna was a racing driver who is regarded as the greatest by many of his peers. He was much more than that as his death showed. Senna’s death was considered a national tragedy by his many Brazilian fans. In fact, after his death the country had three official days of mourning. It is estimated 3,000,000 people crowded onto the roads of Sao Paulo to pay their respects. He was a true hero to the people of Brazil.

03. Michael Jackson

We have had a Princess and a sports star. Another category of people idolized in the modern world is pop stars. None have ever been bigger than Michael Jackson. His funeral was private and attended by the family. However, the service was broadcast live around the world. The roads in LA were closed as his body travelled to the Staples Center to be laid to rest. Nearly a million fans congregated outside the center to pay their respects.

04. C.N. Annadurai (Anna)

Indian people can be among the most fanatic in the world. In 1969, it is estimated that between 10-15 million people came onto the streets to watch the funeral of C. N. Annadurai – a similar amount to which live in greater New York. I can believe the only time it may be beaten is when cricket legend Sachin Tendaulker dies. This leader and revolutionary is more commonly known as Anna (which means elder brother in the Tamil language).

05. Pope John Paul II

 Religious followers are very devout. The pope is considered the manifestation of God on earth and so their passing away is considered cause for pilgrimage. Between 2-4 million people are estimated to have attended Pope John Paul II’s funeral in Rome on April 7th 2005. That is more people than you will usually find cars on the roads of Italy’s capital city. It was a great showing of the power that religion still shows in the world nowadays.

06. Kim Jong-il II

Sometimes you have no choice but to attend a funeral. In the winter of 2011, aged 69, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il died of a heart attack. He was given a three hour funeral procession led by a limousine bearing a massive painting of Kim Jong Il beaming away. Millions of North Koreans crowded onto the streets to mourn. His coffin was covered in a red flag and beautiful white flowers – as it passed by soldiers struggled to keep mourners from pouring out onto the road. Or perhaps they were in fact poking them to make them cry for the cameras.

07. Umm Kulthum

 A true idol of the Arab world passed away on February 5th 1975. A crowd reported to be in excess of 4 million people came out to watch the funeral procession of Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum in Cairo. She was an Egyptian songwriter, singer and actress who had touched hearts. In fact, more than 30 years after her death, many still regard her as the most elegant and famous of Egyptian singers in the 20th century. Her memory still holds a large place in most Egyptian people’s hearts.

08. President Nasser

The Egyptians certainly like to celebrate a death it can be said. The crowd which came to Cairo for the funeral of Egyptian President Nasser on October 1st 1970 was also estimated at an amazing 4 million people. President Nasser had led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, removing the reigning King and bringing about a new era of industrialization in Egypt. As leader of this revolution, he was a hero to many in Egypt and they turned out in force to mourn his death.

09. Victor Hugo

Perhaps the most beautiful example of a big funeral belongs to that of Victor Hugo. Not a celebrity as we know in the modern world, he did however touch many people’s hearts with the beautiful words that he wrote. Between 2 and 3 million people gathered to attend the funeral of Victor Hugo in Paris. Victor Hugo was a poet, author and more – he was a celebrity of the 19th century. A multi talented man, his best known works are the novels Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) and the now long lasting musical, Les Miserables.

10. M.K Gandhi

Many people remember him as the “Great Soul”. In January 1948, another multi million person funeral was held when over 2 million people gathered to attend the funeral of Gandhi. We know Gandhi as the leading political and spiritual leader of his time and he was also thought of as India’s Father of Independence. His passion was what inspired movements for freedom and civil rights across the world and has made him an unforgettable historical figure.

Princesses, sports stars, pop stars, political stars, poets, revolutionists, dictators. Anyone can get a big funeral. All you need to do is make a country fall in love with you. Failing that, just make sure that those around you have reason to love you and you can be sure that you will have your own special sending away. The only thing you leave behind is the impact you make. While you are living decide what you would like people to say about you at your funeral and live it

Top 10 Countries That Disappeared In The 20th Century

New nations seem to pop up with alarming regularity. At the start of the 20th century, there were only a few dozen independent sovereign states on the planet; today, there are nearly 200! Once a nation is established, they tend to stick around for awhile, so a nation disappearing is quite uncommon. It’s only occurred a handful of times in the last century. But when they do, they completely vanish off the face of the globe: government, flag, and all. Here then, in no particular order, are the top ten countries that had their moment in the sun but are, alas, no more.

10. East Germany, 1949-1990

Created from the Soviet controlled sector of Germany after the Second World War, East Germany was probably best known for its Wall and its tendency to shoot people who attempted to cross over it. Now, it’s one (over-reactionary) thing to shoot foreigners who are trying to enter your country illegally, but these were its own people!

Basically little more than a Soviet satellite state, the collapse of the notorious Wall and, with it, the demise of the old Soviet Union brought an end to this failed experiment in Communism, and it was integrated back into the rest of Germany in 1990. Because East Germany was so far behind the rest of Germany economically, however, its reintegration with the west almost bankrupted Germany. Today, however, things are swimming along nicely, thank you.

09. Czechoslovakia, 1918-1992

Forged from the remnants of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, during its brief existence it was one of the few bright spots in Europe, managing to maintain one of the continent’s few working democracies prior to the Second World War. Betrayed by England and France in 1938 at Munich, by March of 1939 it had been completely occupied by Germany, and vanished off the map. Later it was occupied by the Soviets, who turned it into another vassal state of the old Soviet Union until that nation’s collapse in 1991. At that time, it finally reestablished itself as a vibrant democracy.

That should have been the end of the story, and probably would have been, had not the ethnic Slavs in the eastern half of the country demanded their own independent state, breaking Czechoslovakia in two in 1992. Today, it exists as the Czech Republic in the west, and the nation of Slovakia in the east, making Czechoslovakia no more. Though considering that the Czech Republic maintains one of the more vibrant economies in Europe, the far-less-well-off Slovakia maybe should have reconsidered.

08. Yugoslavia, 1918-1992

Like Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia was a by-product of the breakup of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire in the aftermath of WWI. Basically made up of parts of Hungary and the original state of Serbia, it unfortunately did not follow Czechoslovakia’s more enlightened example. Instead, it maintained a somewhat-autocratic monarchy until the Nazis invaded the country in 1941, after which it became a German possession. With the collapse of the Nazis in 1945, Yugoslavia somehow managed to avoid Soviet occupation but not Communism, coming under the socialist dictatorship of Marshal Josip Tito, the leader of the partisan Army during WWII. It remained a nonaligned authoritarian socialist republic until 1992, when internal tensions and rival nationalism resulted in civil war. The country then split into six smaller nations (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, and Montenegro,) making it a textbook example of what happens when cultural, ethnic, and religious assimilation fails.

07. Austro-Hungary, 1867-1918

While all of the countries that found themselves on the losing side after the First World War suffered economically, and geographically to some degree, none lost more than the once-powerful Austro-Hungarian Empire, which found itself carved up like a Thanksgiving Day turkey in a homeless shelter. Out of the dissolution of the once-massive empire came the modern countries of Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia, with parts of it going to Italy, Poland, and Romania.

So why did it break apart when its neighbor, Germany did not? Because it lacked a common identity and language, and was instead home to various ethnic and religious groups, most of whom had little to do with each other…to put it mildly. In effect, it suffered a large-scale version of what Yugoslavia suffered, when it saw itself similarly torn apart by nationalistic fervor. The difference was that Austro-Hungary was carved up by the victors in WWI, whereas Yugoslavia’s dissolution was internal and spontaneous.

06. Tibet, 1913-1951

While the land known as Tibet has been around for over a thousand years, it wasn’t until 1913 that it managed become an independent country. Under the peaceful tutelage of a chain of Dalai Lamas, it finally ran afoul of Communist China in 1951 and was occupied by Mao’s forces, thus ending its brief foray as a sovereign nation. China occupied an increasingly-tense Tibet throughout the ’50s until the country finally rebelled in 1959, which resulted in China’s annexation of the region and the dissolution of the Tibetan government. This finished the nation for good and turned it into a “region,” rather than a country. Today it remains a big tourist attraction for the Chinese government, though it still has issues with Beijing, by insisting it be granted its independence once again.

05. South Vietnam, 1955-1975

Created from the forceful expulsion of the French from Indo-China in 1954, someone decided it would be a good idea to split Vietnam in two, roughly at the 17th parallel, leaving a Communist north and a pseudo-democratic south. As with Korea before, it didn’t work any better in Vietnam, resulting in intermittent warfare between the two halves that ultimately dragged the United States into a conflict (again with the Korea comparisons,) that was to result in one of the most draining and costly wars in American history. Finally hounded out of the country by dissent at home, America left South Vietnam to fend for itself in 1973, which it did for only two more years, before the Soviet-backed North finally rolled over the country, bringing an end to South Vietnam and renaming Saigon—its capitol—Ho Chi Minh City. It’s been a socialist utopia ever since.

04. United Arab Republic, 1958-1971

In yet another ill-fated attempt to bring unity to the Arab world, Egypt’s fiery socialist president, Gamel Abdel Nasser, thought it would be a splendid idea to unite with his distant neighbor, Syria, in an alliance that would effectively surround their sworn enemy, Israel, and make them a regional superpower. Thus was created the short-lived U.A.R., an experiment that was doomed to failure almost from the start. Being several hundred miles apart made creating a central government almost impossible, while Syria and Egypt never could quite agree on what constituted national priorities.

The problem might have been rectified had Syria and Egypt managed to link their halves together by destroying Israel, but that nasty Six Days War came along in 1967, dashing their plans for a common border, and handing both halves of the U.A.R. a defeat of biblical proportions. After that the merger’s days were numbered, and finally came to an anti-climactic end with the death of Nasser in 1970. Without the charismatic Egyptian President around to hold the fragile alliance together, the U.A.R. quickly dissolved, restoring the nations of Egypt and Syria once again.

03. Ottoman Empire, 1299-1922

One of the great empires in history, the Ottoman Empire finally came to an end in November of 1922, after a pretty respectable run of over six hundred years. Once extending from Morocco to the Persian Gulf, and from Sudan to as far north as Hungary, its demise was a slow process of dissolution over many centuries until, by the dawn of the 20th century, it was but a shadow of its former self.

But even then, it was still the main power broker in the Middle East and North Africa, and might still be that way today had it not chosen to ally itself with the losing side in World War I. It saw itself dismantled in the aftermath, with the biggest chunk of it (Egypt, Sudan, and Palestine) going to England. By 1922 it had outlived its usefulness, and finally died when the Turks won their war of independence in 1922 and abolished the Sultanate, creating the modern-day nation of Turkey in the process. Still, you’ve got to give it credit for making such an impressive run before giving up the ghost.

02. Sikkim, 8th century CE-1975

What? You’ve never heard of the place? What rock have you been hiding under? Seriously, it’s not likely you would have heard of tiny, land-locked Sikkim, nestled securely in the Himalayan Mountains between India and Tibet…er, China. About the size of a hot dog stand, it was basically one of those little-known, and largely forgotten, little monarchies that managed to hold on into the twentieth century before it finally realized it had no particularly good reason for being independent, and decided to merge with modern India in 1975.

Its coolest claim to fame? Though just a little bigger than Rhode Island, it has no fewer than eleven official languages, which must play havoc with traffic signs—assuming, that is, that they have any roads.

01. Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (Soviet Union), 1922-1991

What would the 20th century have been without the good ‘ol USSR to stir things up? One of the truly scary counties on the planet until its anticlimactic collapse in 1991, for seven decades it stood as the bulwark of Marxist Stalinism, with all the misfortune that brought with it. It was created in the chaotic aftermath of the breakup of Imperial Russia after WWI, and both survived and thrived despite inept economic policies and brutal leadership. The USSR actually managed to beat the Nazis when no one thought that Hitler could be stopped, enslaved eastern Europe for over forty years, instigated the Korean War in 1950, and very nearly got into a shooting war with the United States over Cuba in 1962, making its tenor on the world stage nothing if not eventful.

Finally coming apart in the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, and the subsequent collapse of Communism in eastern Europe, it broke into no fewer than fifteen sovereign countries, creating the largest new block of countries since the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. What followed was the pseudo-democratic Republic of Russia, though it still retains much of the autocratic air it has always been famous for.

Jeff Danelek is a Denver, Colorado author who writes on many subjects having to do with history, politics, the paranormal, spirituality and religion

10 Amazing Water Towns & Villages

Water villages are settlements that are usually built on the water. Houses often float on the water or are located on stilts and rarely on small islands. This is a list of water villages, which are becoming increasingly popular tourist destinations.

01. Ko Panyi, Thailand

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Ko Panyi is a fishing village in Phang Nga Province, Thailand notable for being built on stilts by Indonesian fishermen. The population consists of roughly 200 families or between 1,500 and 2,000 people descended from 2 seafaring Muslim families from Java.

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The village has a Muslim school which is attended by both males and females in the mornings. Despite the recent rise in tourism, life in Ko Panyi is still primarily based around the fishing industry as tourists only visit in significant numbers during the dry season. The village includes a floating soccer field. Inspired by the 1986 FIFA World Cup, children built the pitch from old scraps of wood and fishing rafts. Google map.

02. Halong Bay Floating Village, Vietnam

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A village of about 600 inhabitants built on the water can be found in Halong Bay. It is a magically calm place, an escape from the hustle of Vietnam streets. The village is a true waterworld, rising and falling with the tides, sheltered amidst limestone towers.

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Locals live mainly from the sea. Most of the rock islands in the area are too poor to be cultivated. Halong Bay is very rich in fish and sea food. In this picture you can see some floating houses. Locals live in these houses and every morning they go fishing. They sell their catches to bigger boats, that bring the fresh fish to markets in the continent. Google map.

03. Giethoorn, Netherland

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Giethoorn is a village in the Dutch province of Overijssel. This village is called the Venice of the Netherlands for about 7.5 km (4.5 mi) of canals run through the little village. It was founded around 1230 when fugitives coming from the Mediterranian regions settled there.

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All traffic has to go over the water, and it is done in so-called "punters", they are 'whisper-boats' for they are driven by an electric motor, so they practically do not disturb the peace and quiet in this scenic little village. Many houses have been built on islands and they can only be reached by the wooden bridges. Some 50 little wooden bridges span the canals, which are only 1 meter (3 ft) deep. Giethoorn has 2620 inhabitants. Google map. 

04. Uros Floating Village, Peru

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The Uros are a pre-Incan people who live on forty-two self-fashioned floating islands in Lake Titicaca, Peru. These islands are hand-made from a native species of reed (totora) that abounds in the shallows of the lake. Uros people build temporary houses that float atop the water surface. The tide washes over their houses at times, so new layers of reed need to be laid every 2 weeks for better resistance.

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The larger and most visited islands appear to many travellers as floating souvenirs, and to some extent these indeed are tourist-traps, their inhabitants having succeed in living off tourism. However, most of the smaller islands remain isolated from visitors and still practice a traditional way of life that includes old-technique fishing, bird-trapping, and relying on totora for housing and transportation. Google map.

05. Wuzhen, China

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Wuzhen is one of China’s ancient water towns, where waterways thread their way through the flagstone streets and alleys. Covering an area of 71.19 square kilometres (27.49 sq mi), Wuzhen has a total population is 60,000 of which 12,000 are permanent residents.

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Wuzhen displays its two-thousand-year history in its ancient stone bridges floating on mild water, its stone pathways between the mottled walls and its delicate wood carvings. Also, setting it apart from other towns, it gives a unique experience through its profound cultural background. Google map.

06. Kampong Ayer, Brunei

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Kampong Ayer  is an area of Brunei's capital city Bandar Seri Begawan that is situated after the Brunei Bay. 39,000 people live in the Water Village. This represents roughly ten percent of the nation's total population. All of the Water Village buildings are constructed on stilts above the Brunei River.

Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque at night (the mosque is built in an artificial lagoon on the banks of the Brunei River at Kampong Ayer)

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Built on stilts and linked by bridges the water village is also served by water taxis and has its own schools, hospitals, restaurants, shops, mosques and petrol station. From a distance, although many of the dwellings look neglected and run-down, they actually have all the modern amenities including air conditioning, satellite television, Internet access, plumbing, and electricity. People have lived in this village for over 1300 years and some of them keep potted plants and chickens. Google map.

07. Zhouzhuang, China

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Zhouzhuang, one of the most famous water townships in China, is situated only 30 kilometers southeast of Suzhou City. It is a enchanting place. This village features crisscrossing water lanes, ancient bridges and buildings built on and over the rivers. In an area of half a square kilometer, 60 percent of the Zhouzhuang's structures were built during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

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It is noted for its profound cultural background, the well preserved ancient residential houses, the elegant watery views and the strong local colored traditions and customs. Zhouzhuang has been called the "Venice of the East". Google map.

08. Ganvie, Benin

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Ganvie, also known as the Venice of Africa, is a lake village in Benin, lying in Lake Nokoué, near Cotonou. With a population of around 20,000 people, it is probably the largest lake village in Africa and as such is very popular with tourists.

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The village of Ganvie was established in the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries by the Tofinu people, when Dahomeyan warriors raided their countryside for captives to sell to the European slave traders. Originally based on farming, the village's main industries other than tourism are now fishing and fish farming. Google map.

10. Kay Lar Ywa, Myanmar

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Kay Lar Ywa is water village located on Inle lake. Residents of this village are Intha people, which are members of a Tibet-Burman ethnic group. They support themselves through the tending of vegetable farms on floating gardens. Also, the Intha are known for their leg-rowing techniques.

A floating tomato garden on Inle Lake

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The lake weed of Inle is collected by the Intha people to create floating gardens, which are anchored to the lake bed with bamboo poles. These floating gardens, called kyun-hmaw,which are built-up from strips of water hyacinth and mud, dredged from the lake bed, which breaks down into a rich humus; it take 50 years to produce a layer 1 m thick. The floating allotments are anchored to the bottom with bamboo poles. Land is also reclaimed in this way, and parts of the lake have been reduced to a maze of canals around these plots. Most of the produce grown on the lake gardens is vegetables - mainly tomatoes and beans. Google map.

10. Tongli, China

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Tongli, alternately Tong-Li, is a town in Wujiang county, on the outskirts of Suzhou. It is known for a system of canals. Tongli is half an hour away from Suzhou city. The place retains many of the features of an ancient Chinese town.

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Tongli enjoys fame across China for its beautiful canals, historic bridges and opulent court yard homes. Tongli has 49 stone bridges and many gardens, temples. Because of the landscape, almost all of the buildings are constructed along the waterfront. The water also creates reflections of the town's arched roofs, lofty gables and stone bridges while green willows also line the banks can. Google map.