Big guns meet in Davos

If the world’s media are to be believed, the masters of the universe are meeting in the (ugly) Swiss resort of Davos for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. The usual suspects have turned up for drinks , a chinwag and perhaps the odd business deal. Given the cost of joining the [...]

Sausage hits a snag

Swiss butchers are in a lather over the fate of one of Switzerland’s favourite sausages: the cervelat. The government apparently hasn’t had the guts to take on the European Union over an import ban on one of its main ingredients – zebu intestines from Brazil. There are still enough of these natural casings to keep [...]

Hot Rod

It’s bird, it’s a plane… no, it’s a German engineer’s idea of the car of tomorrow. Swiss-based Peter Maskus has designed the Acabion GTBO, a cross between a Formula One racecar and a fighter jet that looks like nothing out of Detroit, with a price tag to match: SFr3 million ($2.66 million). For that, the [...]

What am I looking at?

Remember those strange pictures that a doctor would ask you to look at and say what you saw? I don’t know if NASA still uses them (at least that’s what they say in the movies), but despite these tests having no valid scientific basis, they are still part of the collective consciousness. Hermann Rorschach, the [...]

Edelweiss going commercial

The edelweiss, one of the symbols of Switzerland, could soon be heading down from the alpine slopes into florists’ shops. Scientists say that they have managed to grow the bloom at ground level and with stems long enough for bouquets. The whitish star-shaped edelweiss normally grows at between 2,000 and 3,000 metres in altitude. It [...]

Swiss government gets friendly

Internet users can get virtually, albeit unofficially, closer to Switzerland’s cabinet thanks to the social networking website Facebook. An economics student from Neuchâtel in the western part of the country set up the seven ministers’ profiles on the site, a move that has yet to draw a reaction from the government. Bertil Suter says that [...]