switzerland

Old McDonald had a farm. E-I-E-I-O. And on his farm he had a cow with a wireless intravaginal temperature sensor. E-I-E-I-O.

Swiss farmers are helping to test a new system that sends them alerts when their dairy cows are in heat. Stresses and supplements have led to cows showing fewer visual signs of being in heat. That's where technology is stepping in.

The system from Swiss company Anemon consists of a wireless sensor (installed where the sun don't shine) and a transmitter box that attaches to the cow's collar. An accelerometer in the transmitter collects activity data.

When the cow reaches an optimal temperature (also know as "feeling frisky"), the transmitter text messages the farmer to arrange for a bull rendezvous or artificial insemination. … Read more

It's hard to keep quiet these days.

One suspects that even in the most silent religious orders, the monks and nuns have heard about Twitter and Facebook and wonder how it might change their lives.

Sometimes, though, Facebook and Twitter are the digital parchment for huge amounts of vile bile.

The latest example is that of Swiss right-wing politician, Alexander Mueller. Clearly feeling the need to make his feelings heard, he took to Twitter and declared that there should be a "Kristallnacht...this time for mosques."

Kristallnacht -- often referred to as "The Night of Broken … Read more

GENEVA, Switzerland--If you're the kind of person who understands that watches can be art, you would be wise to make your way to this city of the world in order to check out what has to be one of the best collections of historical timepieces on the planet.

Housed at the Patek Philippe Museum, hundreds of watches spanning nearly 600 years greet visitors to this stately early-20th century mansion. While much of the museum is dedicated to famous watchmaker Patek Philippe's own works, it is the historical archives that truly reward those who take the time to visit. … Read more

ZURICH, Switzerland--There's something about a German sports car that makes even the hairiest road seem like something you want to keep driving.

A few days ago, that feeling was reinforced as I (carefully) wound my way up and over some of the most amazing passes in the Swiss Alps. With barely enough room for one car, let alone two abreast, with drops of thousands of feet just off the side of the cliffs, and guardrails pretty much an afterthought, I knew that I was being tested. But I was driving Audi's terrific RS 5, and I wasn't … Read more

IBACH, Switzerland--If you thought it might be cool to see how Swiss Army knives are made, I'm here to tell you, it's even cooler than you imagined.

Picture, for example, dozens and dozens and dozens of bins full nearly to overflowing with some of the little tools that anyone who has ever had one of the famous knives knows so well: the tweezers, the corkscrew, the toothpick, and even the key ring. Or boxes stacked up with long spindles of Swiss Army knife scissors. Or even better, long rows of the blades that make up half of the … Read more

The Swiss might have been slightly late in giving women the vote (1971 was the year), but they still believe in certain progressive forms of democracy.

One of these seems to be helping a fascinating political party in its quest to have PowerPoint banned from the country.

The party is called the APPP. Yes, the Anti-PowerPoint Party. It's an organization that has, at its core, the firm belief that the Microsoft presentation software is a waste of fine Swiss resources.

Indeed, it believes that PowerPoint costs Switzerland 2.1 billion Swiss Francs (about $2.5 billion) every year. You … Read more

HAMBURG, Germany--Sure, Miniatur Wunderland is the world's largest collection of model trains, but to describe it that way would do it a serious injustice. What it really is is a beyond-belief collection of fantastic dioramas depicting scenes from the Swiss and Austrian Alps, Germany, the United States, and Scandinavia throughout which run 900 trains on the more than eight miles of tracks.

I had planned to come here as part of Road Trip 2011, because I'd read that Miniatur Wunderland had recently added a giant scale model of a working airport. And when I looked into that, I … Read more

SEDRUN, Switzerland--I'm a kilometer inside one of the Alps and nearly 800 meters below the surface, and it's pitch black. And I'm falling at 14 meters a second.

But this isn't a story of fire and brimstone. It's a story of the construction of the world's longest tunnel, a new 57 kilometer all-flat rail line deep under the Swiss Alps that is planned to open in 2017 and which is hoped to double the capacity of cargo along the crucial Zurich to Milan line. It's also Switzerland's largest-ever ecological project.

This is … Read more

After soaring into the skies early this morning, the solar-powered Solar Impulse plane has completed its first international flight, traveling from its home of Switzerland to Brussels in about 13 hours--without the need for fuel and without producing any pollution.

Flown by pilot Andre Borschberg, the plane took off from its home base at Payerne Airfield at 8:40 a.m., a bit later than planned due to foggy weather conditions. Climbing to an altitude of more than 3,800 meters (approximately 12,467 feet, or 2.36 miles), the plane headed toward France and Luxembourg, and landed in Brussels airport at 9:38 p.m. The plane was originally due to land at 9 p.m., but the early-morning delay extended the arrival time.

The first international flight was expected to be especially challenging. Not only does the Solar Impulse rely on the power of the sun to keep it aloft during the day, but the plane was also set to navigate through standard commercial air traffic and possible turbulence as it soared over the different countries.… Read more