Gadling

Wanted in North Manchester, England: Serial bottom-pincher. A surveillance camera caught the man in action, loitering in the Tib Street area between 7 and 8 a.m. Police have asked that if anyone should recognize the suspect to please get in touch. No word on whether or not he is after a specific type of bottom.

A Turkish or Greek-looking man has grabbed the behinds of at least 19 girls and women between the ages of 13 and 43 over the past 12 months in the town's center. The suspect, in his late 20s or early 30s, usually approaches his victims from behind and tries to sexually assault them by grabbing their bottoms. While the incidents have not increased in severity, the man has put his victims in extremely uncomfortable situations, police said.

Here is a message for you, serial bottom pincher: Move your operation to New York City. There are plenty of women there who would kill to get their butts pinched occasionally. (Don't tell anyone I told you to do it.)

[via APP]

My home address (in New York, not in Prague) scored 92 on the Walk Score site: A walker's paradise.

I am not surprised. When I'm there, I walk everywhere: I walk to get my coffee, I walk to get my groceries, I walk to the post office and to the library. I don't have a car, so I am not even tempted to drive. I am pretty sure I would suffocate in a place where you have to drive everywhere. I have tried it before and I quickly realized it was not for me. As much as I love a good road trip, "commuting" doesn't really do it for me.

Americans don't score well when it comes to walking. According to this Market Watch article, fewer than 6% of all trips are by foot. Fewer than 13% of students travel by foot. Some three-fourths of all short trips Americans take -- less than a mile -- are made by car. One-fourth of all car trips made are less than a mile. That is a frightening statistic if you ask me.

How walkable is your neighborhood? Plug in your address here and the walkability of your hood will be revealed.

It could have been the longest cigar ever rolled, but it probably won't be.

Cuba's stogie-rolling king Jose Castelar, 64, teamed up with five assistants, using nearly 93 pounds (42 kilograms) of top-quality tobacco to assemble a 98-foot (30-meter) cigar, AP reports. Castelar set Guinness Records for the world's longest cigars in 2001, 2003 and April 2005, when he completed a stogie measuring 20.41 meters, just shy of 67 feet.

But Castelar, who learned the art of cigar-making from an uncle at age 5, is likely to fall short this time: Guinness says Puerto Rican cigar-maker Patricio Pena crafted a 41.2-meter (135-foot) stogie last year. Competition from cigar rollers in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico is "stiff but friendly," driving Castelar to keep rolling.

Honestly, what makes Cuban cigars "so much better" than Puerto Rican or Dominican cigars? Is it the forbidden fruit factor?

[via contracostatimes.com]

God help us! Prague has unveiled its latest desperate attempt to find a new identity and market it to tourists. I hope you are ready. The punchline, in essence, is: Come here because we have beautiful women. (And architecture, but really, who cares. Too many syllables in that word.)

As you can see from this video ad, the Czech supermodel Petra Nemcova and last year's Miss World, Tatana Kucharova, with a kitschy backdrop of the Prague Castle, are trying to tell you that you should come to Prague because--quite frankly--everyone here looks like this and lives like this.

Before you buy your ticket, let me warn you:

Politics aside, this is actually pretty spectacular. Chinese mountaineering team, including a woman from Tibet, took the Olympic flame to the top of the world today, AP reports.

The team used torches designed by rocket scientists to take the flame to the peak of Mount Everest. Fueled by propane, the flame burned brightly in the frigid, windy, oxygen-thin Himalayan air thanks to technology that keeps rocket motors burning in the upper reaches of the atmosphere. The flame was carried most of the way in a special metal canister. As the team neared the summit, they used a wand to pass the flame to the torch.

Wow. All this effort just to say "we did it."

The Mount Everest climbers were struggling for breath in a live television broadcast as five torchbearers each shuffled a few feet before passing on the flame to the next person. The final torchbearer, a Tibetan woman named Cering Wangmo, stood silently on the peak with her torch while other team members unfurled small Chinese and Olympic flags. They then clustered together, cheering "We made it," and "Beijing welcomes you."

One would almost think that China and Tibet are best friends. Almost.

Now there is a progressive plan coming out of London.

London's brand new mayor, Boris "the Eccentric" Johnson, unveiled the timeline for bringing in the new alcohol ban. The ban, starting on June 1, on the Tube (subway), buses, trams and Docklands Light Railway is one of his election pledges. According to the BBC, the ban is part of Mr Johnson's wider strategy to tackle "anti-social behavior" and he also believes driving out so-called minor crime will be the first step before getting a "firm grip on more serious crime".

But the Rail Maritime and Transport Union said the policy appeared "not to have been thought through very well" and could make matters worse.

Worse? As in people will drink more just for the excitement of doing something illegal?

Traveling with food allergies must be hard.

Even in many countries in Europe, menus simply don't list all the ingredients used in meals. My Canadian friend went into an allergic shock in Prague because of his nuts allergy. He figured eating a sandwich would be safe. Of course, they didn't mention the sandwich had pesto in it. And pesto contains pine nuts...

And that's Prague, which is now fairly Westernized. Imagine what it must be like to travel in Asia, where not only do they use peanuts a lot more but it is much harder to read the menus and find people who speak English well enough.

This ABC article talks about traveling with allergies. It is about the challenges of a traveler with serious food allergies, who presents a card to the waiter noting his allergies to peanuts and peas, written in the native tongue. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. Some waiters even say that they have "never heard of such allergies."

I found it really interesting to read, although I don't have any allergies. How do you deal with food allergies when traveling?

This is an interesting development. It appears that the Chinese government has mysteriously stopped issuing multiple-entry visas. The new rule has hit those traveling to and from Hong Kong especially hard because businessmen travel back and forth all the time. Based on this Time Magazine article, Beijing's security concerns over the Olympics are probably behind the new measures.

Applicants are being forced to proffer both return tickets and hotel vouchers, a new requirement that makes planning for contingencies or traveling on the fly virtually impossible. Hong Kong's many foreign Chambers of Commerce have lodged complaints with the Chinese Foreign Ministry office in the city, but no clear explanation has yet to be given for the restrictions, or any word on how long they might last.

When I went to China, I entered mainland through Kong Kong and it was a piece of cake. No hassle whatsoever. It's a shame they are making it harder.

Meet me at the corner of Spiritualist and Mediumship. This address pretty much describes the state of mind of everyone I know.

I'd love to meet the person, who makes up the street names in Cassadaga, Florida. He/she really seems to take the job to the next level. How is the real estate market down there? What about the house on Mothership St and Atheist way?

Great find by Willy Volk.

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Can you imagine knowing how much all your friends, neighbors and coworkers make?

Italy's IRS created a grand snooping opportunity Wednesday when it posted on its Web site the taxable income of just about every Italian citizen - for a few hours. There was a huge outcry, and the tax collector had to take the information down, NPR reports. Listen to the piece here.

According to BBC, the release of the information was one of the last acts of the outgoing center-left government and has shocked many tax-shy Italians. But it was also hugely popular, and within hours the site was overwhelmed and impossible to access.

According to an Italian government report from 2007, the amount of unpaid tax in the country is equivalent to 7% of gross domestic product. The finance ministry described the move as a "bid to improve transparency".

I don't think this kind of "transparency" generally goes over well.