All stories about "Hunter Walker"

Remember the story about the pilgrim colony where the settlers all disappeared? The whole town vanished with no trace except a bunch of empty houses and a creepy message on a tree that no one understood. This post is going to be kind of like that tree message. I can't tell you anything about what's going to happen next here at Gridskipper or how I'm going to keep paying for the salmon roe, espresso, and fine Dutchmaster brand cigars that I need to keep me alive. What I can tell you is that I've learned so much while working for this crazy little web site. In fact, my time here has taught me so much that, as a parting gift to you, my dear readers, I wanted to share this list of the Top Five Life Lessons I've Learned From the Blogosphere.

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Beaches in Spain and the Mediterranean are bracing for an "assault" of jelllyfish that's expected to hit the region this summer. The Economist says the massive jellyfish bloom in Southern Europe is just the latest evidence of a steep rise in the number of the stinging creatures caused by overfishing. [via]

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There have been several high-profile Somalian pirate attacks in the past month, raising global awareness to the lawless conditions in the waters around the horn of Africa. CNN has aprofile of the pirates, who they say are armed with GPS and rocket launchers, make up to $40,000 a year, and have a 75% success rate. International law enforcement agencies are seeking new laws that would allow them to pursue the pirates past coastal waters. [CNN]

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Does your idea of a fun Sunday afternoon involve crying babies? Then Tokyo's the place for you! Yesterday, the good people at Sensoji temple held an annual event at which sumo wrestlers scare the shit out of babies and the tot who cries loudest "wins." The religious types all think this exercise somehow promotes health and growth for the children. Reuters has a photo gallery of the event that's priceless. [Reuters]

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Thomas Kohnstamm, the travel guide writer who made headlines recently after an Australian newspaper reported that he "plagiarised and made up large sections of his books," may not be the liar that many in the media (including yours truly) have made him out to be. I emailed with Kohnstamm this week to get his side of the story and he says he wasn't as dishonest as the press firestorm makes it seem. He claims the interview that sparked so much controversy took his statements out of context. Since Kohnstamm still does admit to cutting some corners in his work for guidebook publisher Lonely Planet, I'd take his claims with a grain of salt, but in the interests of fairness, I'm repeating them here.

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I'm feeling a little out of sorts today, so I've decided to just post whatever I'm in the mood to blog about. Obviously, I've used this as an excuse to write up odes to some of the finest women in the world. No day of posting international hottie photos would be complete without acknowledging the Princess of Monaco, Charlotte Casiraghi. No less an authority on pretty women than Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld (who, regardless of his personal preferences, is constantly surrounded by gorgeous models) once likened Princess Charlotte to the famous French sex kitten Brigitte Bardot. Her movie star looks are to be expected, since Charlotte's grandmother is none other than Grace Kelly. In addition to her royal pedigree, killer tan, and piercing grey eyes, the 21-year-old Princess is also in possession of her own island off the Sardinian coast, which is a good thing because she looks damn good in a bikini.

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There's a graffiti war going on in the bathroom at the Tenth Street branch of the Park Slope Tea Lounge. The bathroom at the popular cafe is filled with several heated exchanges that reveal the ongoing turf wars in the neighborhood. One prominent note on the wall reads: "To the Tea Lounge Nazis, do us the favor and f*** off." Below that lovely missive, someone scrawled an angry retort: "Then stay out of the Slope." Nearby, a seemingly innocuous message saying "music is the weapon of the future" provoked this reply: "disagree it's baby strollers." This graffitti is like a hate crime against the stroller yuppies in their holy inner sanctum. Can't we all just get along?

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Since we're blogging about whatever strikes our fancy today, I thought I'd take this time discuss one of my all-time favorite topics-- beautiful women! Some of my favorite sources for sexy lady eye candy are the international editions of Playboy Magazine. Hugh Hefner's porno empire has spread throughout the world, and presently there are at least 25 international versions of the magazine. Each of these global remixes of Playboy has their charms. The Russian edition features hardcore chicks with tattoos and rippling muscles who look like they could survive a stint in a bleak Stalinist factory or kick the shit out of you in a bread line. Brazilian Playboy features naturally curvy, implant-free cuties. The best part of Brazilian Playboy is something called "Coelhinhas," which seems to involve regular girls sending in naked pictures of themselves to the magazine. To be quite honest, I'm not exactly sure what "Coelhinhas" are, I just know that whatever it is, I like it a lot. Anyways, I digress. All of the international Playboys are pretty great, but today I want to talk about the best one of them all: Playboy Germany.

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I'm blogging live today from the Park Slope Tea Lounge. There is a surprising lack of stroller mommies here at the moment, but I do see some hardcore homeschoolin' going down at one of the desks. There was also this one great hipster guy in a pinkish flannel shirt having a serious nose picking session on the couches in front. I'm seated in the back near the bathroom and it's a bit awkard since I'm working on something that involves naked ladies and the people heading to the toilets keep catching glimpses of nipples on my screen. I've been experiencing some intensely disapproving glances from my fellow coffee house loafers. Bloggers clashing with chai drinkers! Only in Park Slope people, only in Park Slope.

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Hey there friends! Today is a special day at Gridskipper! We have all been feeling a little . . . adrift since last Monday. Today, it occurred to us that it might be as good a time as any to make this site a little more homey, a little less like a job and a little more like the hobby it's been feeling recently. So in between giving you the travel news you come to us for, we'll also be journaling, Tumbling, Twittering, or whatever it is the kids are calling it these days until someone decides to tell us to run another stripper map.

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City streets are getting more clogged and smog-choked than ever. To keep up with urban style mavens and fight back against future gridlock, car makers have recently released some ambitious concepts for city driving. We caught up with Jalopnik editor Ray Wert to take a look at some of the designs that may shape the traffic jams of the next century. After the jump, check out photos and specs for some of the latest urban concept cars.

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Hey! What are you still doing here? In fact, what am I still doing here? I'm not really sure, but it's Friday and we're having ourselves one heck of a dream vacation contest.

Want to enter? Too bad friend, it's too late for that, but you can still vote to your heart's content. Just follow the link to the profile page for the entry you think kicks the most ass, and click the plus sign that says "follow this commenter." Don't write a message on the page though, well actually feel free to, but it's not a vote. Definitely don't write us an email though. That just pisses us off and it's not even close to a vote. (We kid, we will definitely help.)

Confused? Of course you are. Just try to relax. To help chill you out, I've run this post alongside the best nearly naked picture of Scarlett Johansson and her incredible breasts in a cheerleader outfit to ever grace the internet. Alright, to be honest, I actually ran that photo of ScarJo because it gave me an excuse to say "pictures," "breasts," "naked," "cheerleader," and "Scarlett Johansson" in the same post. That guarantees that this here post will get mad pageviews. Oh that reminds me-- Boobs. Yeah, I needed to get that one in there too. Don't believe me? Check back in a month, this thing will have more views than a Julia Allison sex tape. See that? There I go, I just did it again. God, I'm good.

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Monkeys on Gibraltar are being treated to lethal injections since they've become a huge nuisance to tourists visiting the island's famous rock. Twenty-five of the macaques are slated to be shot full of poisonous chemicals following widespread incidences of people receiving monkey bites and having their homes vandalized by the troublesome apes. [Reuters]

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Oh Japan. Words cannot express how much I love you. You always give us the best sex links. First, there were bar bunnies, and now there's this video of Tokyo cafes where dudes in French-maid outfits draw pretty ketchup pictures on omelettes. Perhaps weirdest of all, these cross dressing "maid cafes" are only open on holidays because all of the drag queens have day jobs. The miniskirted male maids also seem to insist that their behavior has nothing to do with homosexuality. Sure thing, fellas. The Reuters reporters who got the clip link this phenomenon to Japanese otaku or "nerd" culture. One of the best things about Japan is the way the freakiest sex subcultures are linked to the most mundane sectors of society. You've got the massage parlor and hostess-bar-happy salarymen and the geeks who love pornographic cartoons and kinky cosplay. If only things were more like this in New York, Silicon Alley would look like a fetish club and Midtown would be, well, still pretty much the same old Midtown. Check out the full footage of the Japanese drag cafe-maid madness after the jump.

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Over the weekend, travel guide publisher Lonely Planet was rocked by revelations that one of their writers lied, plagiarized, and dealt drugs while working for the company. The writer, a 32 year-old named Thomas Kohnstamm, gave an interview to Australia's Daily Telegraph newspaper, in which he admitted to making up large sections of Lonely Planet guides to Latin America and the Caribbean. Kohnstamm claims that, in one case, he didn't even travel to the country he was assigned to write about. He says he wrote the Lonely Planet guidebook for Colombia while in San Francisco, where he got information about the country "from a chick I was dating" who worked at the Consulate.

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The original "Public Enemy Number One," mob kingpin Al Capone, may be the most famous criminal of all time. Capone is best known as a Chicago crime boss, but he spent his formative years in Brooklyn before moving on to terrorize the midwest. This map includes all of the most important locations from Capone's childhood and early years as a small time New York gangster. It's a great guide for anyone whose idea of a fun sightseeing trip involves remembering the days when the Brooklyn waterfront was filled with brothels, and complimenting the wrong woman's physical assets in Coney Island could get you slashed. (photo)

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Web design zine, Openers Gallery, has a preview of photographer Yabuta Osami's project "Tokyo Bunny Girls." For the series, Osami took black-and-white pictures of bar hostesses in Downtown Tokyo. The artist says his photos are "erotic/sexy but elegant." The racy shots show tired-looking waifish women writhing around in lingerie and their trademark bunny ears. Osami cites magazine photography as a major influence, and his bunny girl photos have a documentary quality. I see these images as portraits of a hard profession-- they're far more sad than they are sexy. Some of the photos show the bar bunnies out on the streets, while others seem to capture the hostesses in their places of employment. More Tokyo bar bunny shots after the jump. [via]

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Prostitution is "flourishing" in Indonesia, so the local leaders in one state have made a rule
requiring masseuses to wear chastity belts. The devices mandated by the government in Batu, an area that's popular with tourists, are "padlocks" that a massage parlor staffer must wear "on the waist band of her trousers." Sexy! [Reuters]

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Back in October we published my first New York Strip Club Safari. There are far too many fine gentlemen's clubs in this city for just one post, so once again I braved the wilds of the city's nudie bar scene to bring you a list of even more strip clubs. This time I even found a place where women can go to ogle shaking booty. Since there is obviously such high demand in this fair city for drowning oneself in booze and silicone, this probably won't be our last strip joint roundup. I will not rest until I've chronicled each and every place in this town where people pay for proximity to naked bodies. What can I say? I love helping people. [Photo]

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Gawker emeritus Choire Sicha investigates the city's roach problem for this week's Observer. Turns out that rich white people don't have cockroaches in their apartments, but many of the rest of us do. Some of these rich white folks include perky morning host Kelly Ripa and my boss, Nick Denton. They both live at 76 Crosby Street in Soho, where staff ensure the little buggers stay away through such measures as "yell[ing] at people who let their dogs pee in front of the building" and "spray[ing] the block with dog repellent." There's a homeless guy on my block who smells like pee and he also yells at dogwalkers, but I don't think that's the same thing at all. [via]

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This week, Stuart Emmrich, the travel editor at The New York Times, is fielding questions from readers for the paper's popular "Talk to the Newsroom" feature. My favorite part of the interview is when two readers call the Travel section out for being completely focused on high-end crap that no normal person can afford. Another highlight is when Cole Couture, a questioner who claims to work in the airline industry, takes Mr. Emmrich to task for the frequent errors in the flight information at the end of destination articles. Mr. Emmrich is forced to admit that his section is rife with "recurring mistakes" of this sort. Ouch. But Emmrich's interview really didn't address any of the issues that I have with the Times travel section, so I've written him a letter of my own and posted it here.

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Most subway performers in New York City are completely sucktastic. The guy in this video might not be the greatest musician, but he's comedy gold. This may very well be the funniest (intentionally) funny underground performance I've ever seen. It involves Kool-Aid, a hilarious remix of Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On," and a request for free weed. The sound quality isn't the best, but if you have trouble following along, the enterprising Youtuber who posted this clip also provided a full transcript. The clip's after the jump, because just as subway singers needs your spare change and extra drugs, I need your pageviews (or extra drugs). kthnxbai.

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Swedish liquormaker Absolut Vodka has pulled an ad showing a map of North America from before the US stole nearly half of Mexico's land during the Mexican-American War and the Annexation of Texas. The ad only ran South of the border, but it managed to draw the ire of conservatives who watch Mexico's every move because they are scared of brown people. Thank god Absolut didn't dare to make an ad wishing anyone "Happy Holidays," then the right-wing culture warriors really would have been pissed. There's no word on whether or not Bill O'Reilly or Lou Dobbs is trying to start a movement to build a fence between the US and Scandinavia yet, but I'd recommend stocking up on lutefisk and cheap modish furniture just in case. [Yahoo News]

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The 2008 Beijing Olympics are still four months away, but they've already started with a bang. Activists who oppose China's occupation of Tibet have been holding huge protests as the Olympic torch makes its customary pre-games lap around the globe. In the past week, the torch toured Paris and London with an entourage of local policemen and Chinese security personnel. In spite of all the guards, protesters forced the torch to be extinguished for the first time in modern Olympic history. If you want to get in on all of the "Free Tibet" fun, the Olympic torch will be stopping in fourteen more cities between tomorrow and April 29th. The good people at Google have made a map showing all of the remaining cities along the torch's route. The tour includes such exciting destinations as San Francisco, Buenos Aires, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, and the hometown of everyone's favorite despot -- Pyongyang!

There's still plenty of time to plan a trip to go protest the torch in any one of these great urban oases. Protesters get to meet other cute politically involved types and rub elbows with the world-class athletes who carry the torch, all while enjoying the fun of screaming and flinging yourself at angry law enforcement personnel. So why not fly around the world following the Olympic torch and going apeshit? It's all for a good cause. It's kind of like the civil rights movement, with sightseeing instead of big dogs and high-powered hoses.

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BMW has installed a billboard in Moscow that's covered in life-size cars. Advertisers have been sticking large size objects on billboards for a while now, but what's crazy about this sign is its size. The billboard holds an entire fleet of cars and is said to be over 65,000 square feet. [via]

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CNN reports that "male geishas" are the newest trend in Tokyo. These enterprising gentlemen work as "hosts" in clubs where women reportedly pay between "$1,000 to $50,000 a night for male companionship." As with traditional geisha girls, it's unclear whether the majority of these women are simply paying for conversation and entertainment, or for sex. Unlike traditional geisha girls, these guys don't wear elaborate makeup. But they do dye and blow dry their hair daily to "look prettier." [CNN]

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Weed is the greatest drug ever. It's all natural, it won't make you strung out, you can't OD on it, and it allows you to enjoy the happy feeling of dying brain cells. Best of all, smoking pot makes eating food awesome. Snacking while high is one of the greatest pleasures this world has to offer. It's hard out there for New York stoners. This city doesn't have medical marijuana clubs, and the NYPD actively pursues drug dealers and folks who smoke herb outdoors. But what New York does have are some damn fine munchie foods. Since outing purveyors of fine plant online is not cool at all, you're on your own when it comes to finding stuff to smoke, but once you do, this map will tell you everything else you need to know about getting high and pigging out in the Big Apple. [Photo]

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