February 17, 2010

Kreis 5, this old bridge was accidentally bombed by the English during the second world war in 1940. I think I read somewhere that they were heading for Nüremberg in Germany but they missed with a few 100 km.

Theo Frey, a Swiss news photographerthat was active during the 40'ies, took some pictures of the event when it happened. He also produced a large collection of photos from Zürich and Wallis during this time period which is really fascinating to watch. You can find some of the pictures on the web.

More old pictures of Zürich can also be found in the archive of ETHZ.

February 10. 2010

Are we in Moscow or in Zürich? It is honestly hard to tell these days as there seems to be no ending to the snowfall. Luckily most services still work well as for example the garbage collection. In Zürich there is a hard core system for the garbage that needs some time getting used to. All garbage needs to be put in special bags, Züri-Säcke, for which you pay about 2 chf per bag of 35 liters. This can be quite annoying as a start but really encourages people to reduce garbage and recycle as much as possible as this is free of charge. The recycling is indeed free but strict rules must be followed, at least concerning the paper. Old paper needs to be put in perfect piles and be nicely tied up using a special recyclable ribbon. If you fail your piles will be left on the street and exposed to all your curious neighbors who will easily figure out who the pile belongs to and give it back to you. The best way of avoiding embarrassment is to make sure that you always put a copy of the Migros-Magazine (German version of course) on top of your pile to blend in with the Zürcher.

The Winter Olympics in Vancouver are approaching and will start on Friday. As it is an El Niño year this year the temperature in Vancouver is 4 degrees warmer than usual and there is no snow in sight. The solution that the Canadians have found for this is to fly in snow with helicopters from other regions to dump them on the Olympic slopes. This is adding up to all the other ecological disasters that organizing the Olympics imply. At least now Vancouver can be pretty sure that they will warm the planet enough so that they can apply for the summer Olympics as well.

February 3, 2010

View over Zürich from Käferberg where the children are enjoying the melting snow.

The story is repeating itself, over and over again. Once again a list of foreign tax fraudsters, this time it is the Germans and not the French or Americans, has been stolen from Swiss banks and the "thief" has offered Germany to buy the list for 2 million euros. Having their hands on the list they estimate that Germany can collect 100 million euros in hidden tax money. Angela Merkel is seriously considering to buy this list as Switzerland will not provide this information for free. How long time will it take for Switzerland to abandon this absurd bank secrecy and wash away all the dirty money and its filthy reputation? Switzerland is so strong in innovation, technology and biotech, just to name a few areas, that they can afford to bring back some morals into the economy.

The Bundesrat is taking the story with great calm as usual as they always have their priorities straight. Didier Buchalter made a great example when he decided to push his 100 days review by one week because of his wife's birthday.

Avatar, Avatar, Avatar is the name on everybody's lips. After almost two months since the film was released the cinemas are still full every night. People are watching it not only one but two or three times. Is it really such a revolution?