Artist Felice Varini has made an art project out of the town of Vercorin in the Swiss Alps. A wee bit of background, and the artist's own behind the scenes. (via)
posted by yiftach on Oct 29, 2009 - 8 comments

First-person base jumping in Switzerland. Stick with it, as the horizontal movement across the rock face using the gliding bodysuit will blow your mind.
posted by lazaruslong on Oct 18, 2009 - 76 comments

Film director Roman Polanski, who won numerous awards for films like Chinatown and The Pianist, has been detained for extradition to the US, whilst travelling to Switzerland to collect a lifetime achievement award at the Zürich Film Festival. [more inside]
posted by acb on Sep 27, 2009 - 581 comments

Swiss private bank Wegelin says goodbye and good riddance to America. Swiss private bank Wegelin announced two weeks ago that it is to stop doing business in the United States. The St Gallen-based bank, Switzerland's oldest, said the decision had been taken in response to stricter measures introduced in the US against tax dodgers and planned changes to estate tax, which would make some non-US citizens liable to tax if they inherited US securities. In a letter to investors it said Swiss banks were likely to find themselves in an untenable position, as they would be expected to know which clients were liable to pay US tax – "an impossible undertaking", given the lack of clear definitions in the matter.
posted by DreamerFi on Sep 2, 2009 - 88 comments

Episode 4 - Problems "Okay, sometimes I almost want to give up everything." A fascinating insight into the Large Hadron Collider (loving the soundtracks too). YTL
posted by tellurian on Apr 25, 2009 - 22 comments

What's the risk of deflation? No one knows for sure, but it cannot be ruled out--as first Japan, and now Switzerland are finding out. While Japan's troubles may sound familiar, Switzerland's situation is somewhat unique: beyond the question of its currency, the issue of tax havens has put its banks in a delicate position.
posted by ornate insect on Apr 5, 2009 - 15 comments

"Schengen means" there will be "no systematic control of the borders anymore". Switzerland officially cracks open its borders to Europe. [more inside]
posted by mannequito on Dec 12, 2008 - 40 comments

What flies and creeps, what strives and hovers What swims and flows, yes all that ever lives Flees from death, yet there's no place On earth, where death would not be.
posted by 445supermag on Oct 28, 2008 - 11 comments

book (design) stories: modernist book design in germany and switzerland 1925–1965 (and beyond)
posted by carsonb on Aug 5, 2008 - 5 comments

"This watch costs to-day in Switzerland Frs. 250 – but you must not even think of settlement during the war." Rolex's remarkable offer to British P.O.W.s in Nazi camps during WWII. [more inside]
posted by ikkyu2 on Aug 1, 2008 - 34 comments

For the 2nd year in a row Tina is crowned la Reine des Reines (link & video in french). Le Combat des Reines is an annual event in the Swiss canton of Valais dating back to 1922. [more inside]
posted by jontyjago on May 13, 2008 - 21 comments

A trio of thieves have made off with over $150 Million in art from E.G. Buehrle Museum in Zurich, Switzerland. The four stolen paintings are Cézanne's The Boy in Red Waistcoat, Degas's Viscount Ludovic Lepic and His Daughter, Monet's Poppy Field Near Vetheuil and Van Gogh's Blooming Chestnut Branches. This comes only two weeks after 2 Picasso pieces were stolen in Pfaeffikon, Switzerland. No one has been caught in either thefts. [more inside]
posted by dogbusonline on Feb 11, 2008 - 30 comments

Train tracker.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Jan 21, 2008 - 27 comments

The nationalist Swiss People's Party (who garnered 26% of the vote in the last elections) is proposing a deportation policy reminiscent of Nazi-era practices. Under the plan, entire families would be expelled if their children are convicted of a violent crime, drug offense or benefits fraud. And get a load of their black sheep poster campaign, or their 2004 poster, with the dreaded black hand reaching for (gasp!) a Swiss passport. Yodel-odel-ay-eeeeeee-who?
posted by flapjax at midnite on Sep 2, 2007 - 75 comments

The Sphinx Observatory atop the Jungfraujoch in the Swiss alps is one of the most amazing man-made objects I've ever seen. A UNESCO world-heritage site, it holds the distinction of being the highest (in altitude) structure in all of Europe. Approachable by a train that runs inside the mountain (via a tunnel dug between 1896 & 1926 at the cost of a small fortune, not to mention many lives), the Observatory rests atop a glacier which has been hollowed out to feature a year round gallery of never-melting ice scultptures (glacial ice is spectacularly pretty), and an elevator up to the research station.
posted by jonson on Jul 24, 2007 - 30 comments

In 1957, Swiss typographer Max Miedinger invented "the official typeface of the 20th century" -- Helvetica [previously discussed here, via Arts and Letters Daily].
posted by digaman on Apr 21, 2007 - 44 comments

The Swiss accidentally invaded Liechtenstein last night but no retaliation is expected. Oops! Guess it's time to make these standard military issue. The last time something like this happened, the Spanish ignored an accidental British invasion. Previously on MeFi: More about Liechtenstein than anyone ever cared to ask.
posted by zarq on Mar 2, 2007 - 53 comments

zoom over the ice planet hoth in your x wing
posted by vronsky on Mar 1, 2007 - 39 comments

Bobby Fischer vs. the Union Bank of Switzerland: Chess master doesn't like his Swiss bank unilaterally closing his account. Letters go back and forth, lawyers get involved. Fischer posts all letters sent and received on his website. [Link goes to coral cache, original site is hosted at Geocities Japan. via namics weblog]
posted by slater on Nov 12, 2006 - 43 comments

Melting glaciers - Once this site stops messing with your windows, there are some views of glaciers. The before and afters are supposed to be (in some cases) 100 years apart - maybe, maybe not - summer v. winter [who knows?] it's pretty harrowing what we're presented with in terms of glacier reduction - if that's what we're looking at here.
posted by tellurian on Sep 6, 2006 - 33 comments

Some folks really like it sweet. Some will start a six-year campaign to get it. Some blame Canada and France for not getting it, when it was perhaps better to blame the Swiss. Some want it healthy while others want the romance back. Some make it part of higher education, while others just want to get higher. Even vegans want in on the gooey action.
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Aug 30, 2006 - 20 comments

Schaulager, Basel, Switzerland. "If art is not seen it is dead. If art is not conserved, it decays. Schaulager - a new type of space for art." Originating from the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation, whose collection is stored at Schaulager under optimal conservation conditions, Schaulager is an institution dedicated to contemporary art – its conservation, research and dissemination. Building designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron.
posted by booksprite on Jul 12, 2006 - 5 comments

Arounder has an ongoing collection of high-quality full screen Quicktime VR panoramas of European cities, focusing on famous artistic and cultural landmarks (in Rome, Florence, Köln, Barcelona, Cyprus), with interactive maps and travel information. A collaboration with national tourist offices by Swiss company Vrway Communication, which also publishes Vrmag, a bi-monthly review of panorama photography, and the FullscreenQTVR directory in collaboration with the well-known panoramas.dk (previously mentioned on metafilter: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
posted by funambulist on Mar 6, 2006 - 5 comments

Looking for a flat in Switzerland? Yes, yet more ajax-y, web2.0 stuff, with satellite maps. This site crawls a number of swiss realty sites, and displays the available flats on a dynamic, zoomable map, according to your search criteria.
posted by slater on Dec 19, 2005 - 6 comments

Switzerland Votes for Closer EU Integration What with all the play that the narrow French rejection of the proposed EU Constitution enjoyed, I doubt that Switzerland's successful referendum accepting endorsement of closer EU integration (specifically, enacting the Dublin Convention on shared security and policing) and gay marriage recognition will get much coverage. It just doesn't easily fit into the narrative of an unravelling Europe, one which Swiss voters seem to have rejected despite strong internal debate.
posted by meehawl on Jun 5, 2005 - 13 comments

The Jura's made of karst limestone and, in many places, riddled with holes. Luckily, hidden holes that surprise hikers are tucked away in the dark forests -- on the open pastures, where cows of economic value wander all about, there are far fewer holes, and those holes that remain are curtained all about with barbed wire and, sometimes, stone walls.
posted by breezeway on Apr 19, 2005 - 23 comments

Dynamic map of Switzerland. Google Maps isn't the only mapping service using Ajax: map.search.ch, which does the same thing for Switzerland, launched last October.
posted by mcwetboy on Feb 23, 2005 - 19 comments

The Blur Building. Now you can spend your day in a literal fog.
posted by srboisvert on Sep 28, 2003 - 5 comments

Fourmilab Switzerland is a large and diverse site created and maintained by John Walker, co-creator of AutoCAD and founder of Autodesk, Inc. A few sub-sites have been mentioned here over the years, but there is plenty to explore -- ranging from free computing utilities, science tools, a diet plan, original fiction and educational texts, to a page on RetroPsychoKinesis: influencing the past with your mind.
posted by ewagoner on Aug 8, 2003 - 4 comments

So you think you can BBQ? But could you be a contender? How good is your powerkraut?
posted by biffa on May 16, 2003 - 8 comments

The America's Cup which became New Zealand's Cup in 1995 today became Switzerland's Cup. The land-locked Swiss have yet to decide where or when the next cup will be held, but it will be in Europe for the first time in the cup's history.
posted by sycophant on Mar 2, 2003 - 13 comments

The bombing of Switzerland. This morning, CBC Radio 1's "The Current" covered the last year's friendly fire incident in Afghanistan. In the course of the programme one of the interviewees mentioned a part of the history of WW2 that I'd never heard of before - the repeated bombing of Swiss towns and cities by the USAF, which escalated to the point where the Swiss shot down a US bomber and forced down more. Will the USAF ever be able to eliminate the problem of friendly fire, and is it a uniquely American one?
posted by pascal on Jan 22, 2003 - 19 comments

Switzerland will just keep that military look. Swiss voters reject proposal to do away with their Army. Interesting that the defense budget is almost 20% of the total federal budget. They are, of course, officially neutral. That's neutral, not pacifist.
posted by MAYORBOB on Dec 2, 2001 - 23 comments

Swiss Holocaust Cash Revealed To Be Myth. "The tribunal said that it had processed about 10,000 claims in response to the list of dormant account names published by the Swiss Bankers’ Association five years ago. Only 200 accounts — containing £6.9 million — could be traced to Holocaust victims."
posted by tpoh.org on Oct 14, 2001 - 2 comments

CNN reports to map error. I received an e-mail today from CNN in response to the Switzerland has moved thread specifically asking me to post this reply to the thread. Since it has been a while I chose to post to the main page.
posted by vowe on Oct 9, 2001 - 31 comments

Underwater rugby? "An air-filled ball is not suitable for underwater games, since they are bouyant and always return to the surface. For this reason, Bersuda filled the ball with salt-water. Since the density of the ball was now greater than that of normal water, it no longer floated to the surface, but slowly sank to the bottom. The sink rate could, within certain limits, be controlled by the concentration of the salt solution. The first underwater ball was invented." Apparently, it's big in Switzerland (located east or south of Germany). Anyone else know anything about it?
posted by tippiedog on Oct 5, 2001 - 5 comments

Switzerland has moved. At least according to the folks at CNN. May be regarded as offensive ... Received this picture by e-mail, so I have no better link than to my own site.
posted by vowe on Oct 5, 2001 - 58 comments

Swedish toddler, home alone, dies of malnutrition and dehydration while druggie Mom is in police custody. Two thousand turn out for the funeral, and Switzerland engages in an orgy of national anguish. Anybody think this incident would cause the same kind of soul-searching in the U.S.? Or would Americans shrug it off?
posted by luser on Jun 21, 2001 - 23 comments

Shooting sperm with a condomgun is how the Swiss are attempting to educate people about aids prevention. Just shoot the oncoming sperm with your condomgun, and you can help prevent pregnancy, the spread of viruses and AIDS. At least this is more entertaining than an IRS site geared to children...
posted by Spanktacular on Apr 17, 2001 - 8 comments

"If a Chinese cannot understand why Swiss people get so upset that they are eating St. Bernards, I would ask that same question: If Swiss people eat China's panda, how would Chinese feel?"

I expect they'd ask for a bite of the penis.
posted by dfowler on Mar 28, 2001 - 16 comments

Hey Teen Activists! Want to protest the evil capitalist confab at the World Economic Forum in Davos, but you just don't have the time? Well, now you can! Thanks to revolutionary (no pun intended) Swiss technology, hellomrpresident.com will allow you to send messages that will then be projected via laser onto the side of a mountain overlooking Davos! Starts today at 1700, though it doesn't say whether that's UTC or local time. Five hours a day for five days. Let us know what you get projected! (They have a webcam up, so you may be able to grab a jpeg of your thought.)
posted by aaron on Jan 24, 2001 - 9 comments

Ronald MacDonald may have just stepped over his boundaries. A 4 star hotel in Switzerland you say...? That seems just like one hamburger too much too swallow...
posted by noom on Nov 28, 2000 - 9 comments