Martial arts cartoon

You don't have to make some cool cartoon drawing.

Something simple as few lines, some sound
and a drop of red paint can make cool stuff.

Just like this cartoon.



I hope you enjoyed watching this.

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New, "HOT", tourist destination - Tora Bora, hideout of Osama Bin Laden

Osama Bin Laden's secret caves hideout is being converted - into a £5.3 million tourist resort.
Afghan authorities plan to invigorate the country's fledgling tourist industry by developing Osama bin Laden's Tora Bora mountain hideout as a visitor attraction.

Dr Hassamuddin Hamrah, the man in charge, believes that the caves which once housed bin Laden and his fighters, together with the remains of mangled Russian tanks and crashed helicopter gunships from the 1980s, will prove a tourist magnet.

But he said the plan was being undermined by scrap metal merchants from across the border in Pakistan who were taking the wrecked military hardware. "We wished to keep the artillery, tanks, aircraft and also the military posts and front lines. But the Pakistanis have frustrated our plans."




"They were coming and buying the metal scraps so a lot of people took these things to Pakistan. The things we thought existed have been taken away."

It is a popular saying in Logar province, south of Kabul, that the Russian artillery shells were not cold before the high quality steel was being sold across the border to the scrap dealers.

"We have plans to make a tourist site at the Tora Bora caves. Many Americans wish to go there."
"Our main problem is lack of budget so we are approaching the private sector. We request that anybody, any company, who is interested should contact us."

He added that three Japanese tour company bosses had already visited the site, high in the White Mountains near Jalalabad.

The extraordinary complex of caves and bunkers was created during the 1980s as a mountain fastness by the Mujahideen, and expanded at bin Laden's expense in the 1990s. It is reported to include barracks, lavish living quarters and tunnel systems large enough to hide armoured vehicles.

Gul Agha Sherzai

In October 2001, American B-52s pounded Tora Bora with "Daisy-Cutter" liquid fuel bombs to try to winkle out bin Laden and his followers.
Afghan Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry believes that the country's notoriety is a strong pull for adventurous tourists. "We have a lot of historical places but Afghanistan is known all over the world because of the war."

With this is mind the Tourism Ministry also hopes to develop some of the great battlefields of the Soviet occupation as tourist destinations.
Tourism was once a major industry for Afghanistan. In the 1960s and 1970s the country was a key stopping point on the Hippy Trail from Europe to India - famed for its spectacular scenery, ancient ruins and local intoxicants. But the Russian invasion of 1979 placed Afghanistan off limits and, for 25 years, it has remained in tourist limbo.

Location in Afghanistan

Now the first visitors are returning. The latest issue of the Lonely Planet Central Asia guide is the first to include a section on the country.

Previous editions contained a two word entry on Afghanistan: "Don't go!" Since the fall of the Taliban, the Afghan tourist board has hosted 35 tour groups, numbering some 247 people, mainly from Europe and Japan.

Beauties of Tora Bora

Aid community in Kabul was astonished by the appearance in September of a tour party of septuagenarian Californians who arrived on the day of a large car bomb. One of the group, who were napping as their hotel was rocked by the blast, described the experience as "a pretty loud wake up call".

But Dr Hamrah dismissed any scaremongering. "We have sent groups to the farthest parts of the country. They have come back safely and are saying that the people welcomed them warmly."



Tora Bora's complex of caves and bunkers were created as a mountain fortress by the Mujahadeen in the 1980s, and was expanded in the '90s at bin Laden's expense. In addition to barracks and extravagant living quarters, it's reported to have tunnel systems able to conceal armored vehicles.

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Lonely Hearts ads are entertainment

For the last eight years, people looking for love have been writing witty Lonely Hearts ads in the London Review of Books.

New book has now been published collecting some of the most entertaining adverts.




These are all extracts from They Call Me Naughty Lola by David Rose, published by Profile Books.

Some of the best ads :

:: They call me naughty Lola. Run-of-the-mill beardy physicist (M, 46)

:: I like my women the way I like my kebab. Found by surprise after a drunken night out and covered in too much tahini. Before long I'll have discarded you on the pavement of life, but until then you're the perfect complement to a perfect evening. Man, 32, rarely produces winning metaphors.

:: Your buying me dinner doesn't mean I'll have sex with you. I probably will have sex with you, though. Honesty not an issue with opportunistic male, 38.

:: Not everyone appearing in this column is a deranged cross-dressing sociopath. Let me know if you find one and I'll strangle him with my bra. Man, 56.

:: Are you Kate Bush? Write to obsessive man (36). Note, people who aren't Kate Bush need not respond.

:: Stroganoff. Boysenberry. Frangipani. Words with their origins in people's names. If your name has produced its own entry in the OED then I'll make love to you. If it hasn't, I probably will anyway, but I'll only want you for your body. Man of too few distractions, 32.

:: Ploughing the loneliest furrow. Nineteen personal ads and counting. Only one reply. It was my mother telling me not to forget the bread on my way home from B&Q. Man, 51.

:: Mature gentleman, 62, aged well, noble grey looks, fit and active, sound mind and unfazed by the fickle demands of modern society seeks...damn it, I have to pee again.

:: Slut in the kitchen, chef in the bedroom. Woman with mixed priorities (37) seeks man who can toss a good salad.

:: Bald, short, fat and ugly male, 53, seeks short-sighted woman with tremendous sexual appetite.

:: Romance is dead. So is my mother. Man, 42, inherited wealth.

:: I've divorced better men than you. And worn more expensive shoes than these. So don't think placing this ad is the biggest comedown I've ever had to make. Sensitive F, 34.

:: Employed in publishing? Me too. Stay the hell away. Man on the inside seeks woman on the outside who likes milling around hospitals guessing the illnesses of out-patients. 30-35. Leeds.

:: List your ten favourite albums... I just want to know if there's anything worth keeping when we finally break up. Practical, forward thinking man, 35

:: My ideal woman is a man. Sorry, mother

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Massive girl fight in Sofia

Police were called in Bulgaria after a mass fight broke out between 23 teenage girls over a handsome male student.

Girls, aged between 15 and 18, used brass knuckles, chains and beer bottles to fight over the lad whose name was not revealed.













Gorublyane

Girls, from the Bulgarian capital Sofia, agreed to fight it out and skipped school to meet up in a local playground in the Gorublyane district of the city.

Several girls suffered minor injuries and dozens of passers-by reportedly witnessed the incident.

But the alarm wasn't raised until after the fight when a father of one of the injured girls called the police.

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Top 10 earners in afterlife

Kurt Cobain is showbusiness's top earning celebrity in afterlife - surpassing Elvis Presley.

The Nirvana frontman raked in a staggering $50 million last year, putting Presley's $42 million in the shade, according to US business website Forbes.com.
Forbes.com bases its dollar amounts on licensing deals for using the passed away celebrities' work or image in advertising or elsewhere.

This was Cobain's first time on the list in its six years of publication. Presley has ruled the roost since its inception, said forbes.com staff writer Lacey Rose.
It is the first time Cobain has appeared on the list.

His presence on the top spot is due partly to widow Courtney Love selling a 25% stake in in his song catalogue last year.
Cobain shot himself in the head 12 years ago, aged 27.

But songs like Smells Like Teen Spirit and the album Nevermind ensured Cobain would retain a special place in rock history.
Elvis has held the number one spot for the past four years but between 2005-2006 he made only $45 million.

Third in the list is Charles Schulz, creator of the Peanuts cartoon strip, $35 million.
John Lennon is fourth $24 million, followed by new entry Albert Einstein $20 million.
Einstein's estate profits from such licensing deals as the popular Baby Einstein educational videos.
Andy Warhol is sixth, ahead of Theodor 'Dr Seuss' Geisel and singer Ray Charles.
Marilyn Monroe and country legend Johnny Cash make up the top 10.

Author JRR Tolkien, Beatle George Harrison and reggae star Bob Marley are just outside the top 10.
Past top earners include songwriter Irving Berlin and actor Marlon Brando.
Forbes said: "A nail in the casket is hardly the end for some stars. Instead, their work, as well as their iconic images, continues to appeal to fans who remember them, and to those born long after they passed away."

Top 10 list :

1. Kurt Cobain

2. Elvis Presley

3. Charles Schultz

4. John Lennon

5. Albert Einstein

6. Andy Warhol

7. Theodore Geisel

8. Ray Charles

9. Marilyn Monroe

10. Johnny Cash

Just under top 10 line :

Irving Berlin

Bob Marley

JRR Tolkien

Marlon Brando

George Harrison

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Famous persons throughout history have new quotations

Showman P.T. Barnum never said "There's a sucker born every minute" although he wished he had. And Civil War Admiral David Farragut probably never said "Damn the Torpedoes! Full Speed Ahead", words that have inspired generations of fighting men.

To make things even more complicated, it is doubtful that Paul Revere warned that "The British are coming" when he would have at the time of the American Revolution thought himself British, although a revolting one. He probably would have said "The Redcoats are coming."

Admiral David Farragut

New, meticulously researched book of quotations attempts to set the record straight on those beloved phrases that have crept into everyday use as signs of wisdom and wit, including Sigmund Freud's sage advice that "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." He didn't quite say that, although his biographer thinks he would have approved of the idea.

"The Yale Book of Quotations" has a simple thesis: famous quotes are often misquoted and misattributed. Sometimes they are never said at all but are, instead, little fictions that have forged their way into public consciousness.

Take, for example, "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead," a rallying cry supposedly uttered by Farragut during the American Civil War battle of Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864.

P.T. Barnum - The people like to be humbugged

According to Fred R. Shapiro, a Yale librarian and editor of "The Yale Book of Quotations," it was a comment either never said or at least never heard on the day of battle. The first appearance of a partial version of the phrase came in a book published in 1878 but reports from the day of the battle never mention the phrase.

Paul Revere - The Redcoats are coming

It can get "curiouser and curiouser," to quote something Lewis Carroll actually did write. Gen. William T. Sherman did not quite say "War is hell" but those were words uttered by Napoleon Bonaparte.

Sherman's version was a wee bit longer: "There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but boys it is all hell." Close, but no cigar, as Groucho Marx might have said on his quiz show when someone failed to guess the colour of an orange correctly.

Showman Barnum admitted during his lifetime that he never said "There's a sucker born every minute," although he thought he may have said, "The people like to be humbugged," a less than ringing phrase.

According to research by Shapiro, the "sucker" phrase was probably uttered by a notorious con man named "Paper Collar Joe" and attributed to Barnum by a rival showman, who wanted to make him look bad.

William T. Sherman - There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but boys it is all hell
Napoleon Bonaparte - War is hell

To find out who said what and when they did it, Shapiro spent six years poring over hundreds and hundreds of databases, using advanced Internet searches as well as using the more old-fashioned methods of going through microfilms, dusty bookshelves and reading the 1,000 or so other quotation books that are out there to find out the truth.

For example, he went through all of Mae West's pre-1967 movies to find out when she delivered one of her great sexual double entendres -- "Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me." He said the line was not in any of her movies, including the one her fans swear it was in, "She Done Him Wrong."

Instead, according to Shapiro, West used it to greet a policeman assigned to escort her. As she once said of herself,

"I used to be Snow White, but I drifted."

The result, after six years of research, is a 1,067-page quotations book with footnotes that are as fascinating to read as the quotes themselves.

Shapiro said he also had another goal: to represent popular culture in a quotations book, including advertising jingles and lines from popular songs and movies.

As a result, he is able to get in print a couple of famous quotes from Marion Barry, the former mayor of Washington D.C.: "outside of the killing Washington, D.C. has one of the lowest crime rates in the country" and "Bitch set me up," a comment he made when police arrested him for smoking crack cocaine.

Not quite the lofty Shakespeare-style of previous quotations books. But the Bard is in the Yale book as well with 455 citations, the most of any author.

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New must-have procedure in plastic surgery - Eyelash Transplant

For those who love to go under knife, so they can be beautiful, here is something brand new.
Eyelash transplant surgery.
Look more closely. Eyelash transplant surgery wants to become the new must-have procedure for women -- and the occasional man -- convinced that beauty is not so much in the eye of the beholder as in front of the eye itself.
Using procedures pioneered by the hair loss industry for balding men, surgeons are using "plug and sew" techniques to give women long, sweeping lashes once achieved only by glued on extensions and thick lashings of mascara.

Preparation of a scalp for transplant

Using procedures pioneered by the hair loss industry for balding men, surgeons are using "plug and sew" techniques to give women long, sweeping lashes once achieved only by glued on extensions and thick lashings of mascara.

And just like human hair -- for that is the origin -- these lashes just keep on growing.
"Longer, thicker lashes are an ubiquitous sign of beauty. Eyelash transplantation does for the eyes what breast augmentation does for the figure," said Dr Alan Bauman, a leading proponent of eyelash transplants.



"This is a brand new procedure for the general public (and) it is going to explode," Bauman told Reuters during what was billed as the world's first live eyelash surgery workshop for about 40 surgeons from around the world.

Under the procedure, a small incision is made at the back of the scalp to remove 30 or 40 hair follicles which are carefully sewn one by one onto the patient's eyelids. Only light sedation and local anesthetics are used and the cost is around $3,000 an eye.

Technique was first confined to patients who had suffered burns or congenital malformations of the eye. But word spread and about 80 percent are now done for cosmetic reasons.

Doctor sews eyelash transplants

For many women, eyelash surgery is simply an extra item on the vast nip tuck menu that has lost its old taboos.

More than 10 million cosmetic procedures, from tummy tucks to botox, were performed in the United States in 2005, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. The figure represents a 38 percent increase over the year 2000.
Erica Lynn, 27, a Florida model with long auburn hair, breast implants and a nose job, had eyelash transplants three years ago because she was fed up with wearing extensions on her sandy-colored lashes.

"When I found out about it, I just had to have it done. Everyone I mention it to wants it. I think eyelashes are awesome. You can never have enough of them."

Patient after operation

Bauman, who practices in Florida, does about three or four a month. Dr. Sara Wasserbauer, a Northern California hair restoration surgeon, says she has been inundated by requests.

"I have been getting a ton of eyelash inquiries ... If I had $10 dollars for every consultation, I'd be a rich woman."

Surgery is not for everyone. The transplanted eyelashes grow just like head hair and need to be trimmed regularly and sometimes curled. Very curly head hair makes for eyelashes with too much kink.

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New branch in Dutch army, Ladies of the Night

Dutch mayor backed the idea of sending prostitutes to accompany Dutch troops on foreign missions.
"The army must consider ways its soldiers can let off steam," said Annemarie Jorritsma, mayor of the town of Almere in central Netherlands and a member of the ruling VVD liberals.
"There was once the suggestion that a few Ladies should accompany troops on missions. I think that is something we should talk about," she said, adding that the Ladies would keep soldiers from turning to local women.


Red Light District among army tents

Her comments have drawn a mixed response in the Netherlands, renowned for its liberal prostitution laws.
"I don't think my wife would find it a good idea," Wim van den Burg, a spokesman for the military service trade union told Dutch newspaper Volkskrant on Monday.

Would they wear these uniforms or something new?

Andre van Dorst of adult industry organisation VER told the same paper: "I can see something in this, though it's a very strange idea."

The Netherlands has more than 2,000 soldiers serving abroad, most of them in Afghanistan as part of a NATO peacekeeping force, and in Bosnia.

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Queen is not popular among artists

Couple of months ago, Queen was giving Nazi salute in a play. Now she is portrayed as a Cabbage Patch doll in a controversial new portrait being shown at Tate Modern. But she kept her dignity.
At least the monarch was spared from New York artist George Condo's original idea - he wanted to paint her as a nude in the style of Spanish master Diego Velazquez.
Long gone are the deferential days in the 1950s when Pietro Annigoni painted the monarch as a stately young woman in flowing robes.

Condo's painting

"This painting looks like a Cabbage Patch doll," Condo said of his portrait that was commissioned by the Wrong Gallery for displaying in Tate Modern.

"They do have similar characteristics. Cabbage Patch dolls are something every child loves."

Asked what he was trying to portray in his depiction of one of the most famous faces in the world, Condo said: "It is a nightmare picture of herself in her own head. It is an improvisation of her own nightmare."
"Has the latest royal painter taken artistic licence a tad too far?" The Daily Mail asked on Monday as the tabloid reviewed what artists from Lucien Freud to Rolf Harris had done in past regal portrayals.

But the outrage would certainly have been much louder if Condo had stuck with Plan A.

George Condo

"What I had originally intended to do was a stunning nude that would be in the style of the Velazquez Rokeby Venus. That was my original idea."

"It is very difficult to do something new."

"At first it was the most petrifying thought - to paint something of the Queen. I would absolutely love it if she would sit for me."

Imagine Queen in this position

Condo ended up doing nine surreal portraits in all, including one of the monarch with a carrot sticking out of each ear. Another had her shaped like a chess piece.

Tate Modern has stoutly defended displaying the painting but Brendan Kelly of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters described it as "embarrassingly bad".

Buckingham Palace would not say whether the queen was amused or not by the Cabbage Patch portrait.

"We are not commenting on it. This is very much a matter for the artist," said spokesman of Queen.

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Blind man caught speeding. BLIND MAN?!?!

Deaf and blind man who doesn't drive has received a £60 speeding ticket.

Police say a speed camera clocked Martyn Styles doing 36mph in a 30mph zone in Hull, reports the Mirror.
"They say they've got evidence against me. Well, let's see the picture of me with my white stick and my guide dog driving that car."

Blind man with a cane


Drove this, hmmmm?


And was caught on this piece of hi-tech, speeding


Maybe he had this bumper sticker

Martyn lives with his wife Dawn and son Chris who are also both deaf.

Dawn sometimes drives their Renault Scenic Privilege, which is registered in Martyn's name, short distances from home in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

But on the day of the offence, the couple were 180 miles away having lunch at Chris's school.

Dawn said: "We can't believe it. My husband can't drive. Only I drive. It was the same kind of car as ours and the same registration number but it wasn't our car. It couldn't have been.

"There's no way we were in Hull - we don't even know where Humberside is."

Couple fear their number plate has been cloned. The police are now investigating further after the couple complained.

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One toast, some Marmite, and we have a portrait

Artist has created portraits of famous faces using toast and Marmite.

Dermot Flynn's work will be displayed at a gallery in London alongside art created by the public using the spread.

Famous faces on the toast include Simon Cowell, Baroness Thatcher, Pete Doherty, Victoria Beckham, Gordon Ramsay, Charlotte Church and James Blunt.



According to the BBC, Mr Flynn chose ten celebritiies for his work entitled, 'Marmart'.
Flyn says he chose celebrities such as Simon Cowell and Big Brother's Nikki Grahame who polarise opinion.

Artist Lennie Payne's giant toast portraits of famous people using a blowtorch and loaves of bread have been fetching £2,000 each with collectors.



Political figures which were captured in the yeast extract spread include former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher and current Conservative leader David Cameron.

Musician Pete Doherty, Victoria Beckham, TV chef Gordon Ramsay and singer Charlotte Church complete the line-up of 10 celebrities Mr Flynn chose to create "Marmart" portraits of.

Jude Law

Marmite are using the exhibition to promote the launch of a new squeezable container for the product, whose advertising slogan in recent years has been "you either love it or you hate it".

TV adverts from 2005 which featured a giant blob of Marmite drew complaints from parents who said their children had been "terrified" and suffered nightmares.

The Marmite art exhibition is at London's Air Gallery until 28 October.

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In UK adults are afraid of teen population

Britain is in danger of becoming a nation fearful of its young people, according to a new study.





Research by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), to be published next month, shows that British adults are less likely than those in other European countries to intervene to stop teenagers committing anti-social behaviour.



200-page report says 65% of Germans, 52% of Spanish and 50% of Italians would be willing to intervene if they saw a group of 14-year-old boys vandalising a bus shelter, compared to just 34% of Britons.



Reasons Britons feared getting involved included being physically attacked, fear of reprisals and being verbally abused.

Run, teens are coming

IPPR director Nick Pearce said: "These days, adults tend to turn a blind eye or cross over on the other side of the road rather than intervene in the discipline of another person's child, often because they fear they might be attacked."

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