Cern operations group leader Mike Lamont (foreground) and LHC engineer in charge Alick Macpherson in the Cern control centre 19 March
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two 3.5 TeV proton beams successfully circulated in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at Cern for the first time Friday morning 19 March, shortly after 05:20, a key step in ramping up the LHC for 7 TeV collisions, whose data will be fed to a series of physics research projects around the world.
Cern (European Organization for Nuclear Research) says this is the highest energy yet achieved in a particle accelerator.
EPFL joins the fight against tuberculosis
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Testing new therapies in the fight to eradicate tuberculosis is high on the list of work that will be done at a new laboratory in Lausanne that specializes in air-borne pathogens. EPFL, the Swiss federal polytechnic institute in Lausanne, inaugurated the laboratory Wednesday 17 March. It is financed by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the Swiss government and is open to researchers from EPFL and nearby universities.
The laboratory will study in vivo strains of Bacillus anthracis, the air-borne pathogen that causes tuberculosis, a disease that has thousands of new victims a year, including 500 new cases annually in Switzerland alone. The teams will be led by EPFL professors Stewart Cole, who is head of the EPFL Global Health Institute, and John McKinney.
Cole points out that the problem is not, as people often believe, limited to developing countries. “In Département 93 in France and in certain neighbourhoods in London the rate of tuberculosis disease is as high as in sub-Saharan Africa.And it is in Eastern Europe where the most virulent and antibiotic-resistant strains are found. Seventy percent of the patients do not survive if they don’t receive effective treatment, he says.
The researchers will work on strains used around the world, which are less aggressive than those found in nature, or even in hospitals, according to Cole.
Wine and beer now allowed on radio, TV
More ads, different spots - and a drop of wine on Swiss TV, radio
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Ofcom, the Swiss federal communications supervisor, will issue directives during the summer of 2010 for more advertising space and time on radio and television. The new regulations will bring Switzerland into line with European neighbours, who have more advertising time, in order not to create a disadvantage, in particular for Swiss public TV and radio.
Rhythm of life to change at Cern (photo: Cern team watching low energy first collisions 16 December 2009 at 04:00)
Update 22:50 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The annual shutdown of accelerators at Cern, long a part of the rhythm of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, are coming to an end, with the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) gearing up. The organization will instead continue to operate the LHC for 18-24 months, then close for a longer period, possibly a year, to accommodate the LHC’s needs at a higher energy, Cern said 10 March, confirming information it provided in February, that the LHC would shut down in 2011.
The LHC is a particle accelerator used by physicists to study the smallest known particles: the fundamental building blocks of all things.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Journalists will be spared but 100 of their colleagues in support services at SSR, Swiss Public Broadcasting Corporation, will lose their jobs between now and 2014. Support services, with 735 employees, include: computer services, real estate, logistics, human resources, training, communications, marketing, and accounting.
SSR owns TSR television, RSR radio and WRS English radio, in the French-speaking part of Switzerland.
Solar Impulse during its "flea hop" tests in December 2009 - solar panels are at the back
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss federal government has approved a new flying ordinance that will allow pioneering solar plane Solar Impulse to take to the skies at night around Payerne, in canton Vaud. Flights are normally banned between 06:00 and 22:00 in Switzerland, but the new ordinance, which applies only to Solar Impulse, will allow the plane to make up to 20 flights a year for the duration of the test period, starting 1 April 2010 and ending 31 December 2013.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss households like their Internet access to be fixed and high-speed, with 71 percent of households having access and 89 percent of those connected using high-speed cable or telephone lines. The figures are part of the results of a survey of 1,147 homes in September 2009, carried out by the Swiss federal communications office (Ofcom). Swiss private use of the Internet is high, with 75 percent of users going on the Internet virtually daily and 20 percent at least once a week: only 11 percent use it less than an hour a week, with 30 percent going online for at least 10 hours a week.
Click on image to view larger (© Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.)
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss media companies’ revenues from advertising nosedived by 20.4 percent in 2009, falling to CHF1,585.7 million. Worst hit was the financial and economic press, down 30.1 percent and Sunday newspapers, with a 29.4 percent fall in ad sales. Dailies were close behind, with revenue down 21.6 percent. In December 2009 alone the daily papers saw their advertising income fall by 4.4 percent.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – “Inside Switzerland”, which was started in 2007 as a glossy Swiss-wide magazine providing news and features in English, has ceased publication of both the quarterly print magazine and its online newsletter. The magazine was published by Schweizer and Davies Media in Zurich, which was founded by Jennifer Davies and Sabine Schweizer.
Davies is an arts presenter on World Radio Switzerland.
Editor-in-chief Schweizer notes in her letter to readers that the publication “has not been able to withstand current financial pressures.”
The quarterly print publication sold for CHF35 for four issues before it folded.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – World Radio Switzerland (WRS), the English-language public radio station, has offered listeners in Lausanne an explanation for poorer reception by some listeners on its new frequency, compared to the old: 101.7FM has some interference from neighbouring stations 101.5FM and 101.9FM. The move was mandated by the federal communications office in order to give the old location, 88.4FM, to Lausanne FM radio as part of its new license to broadcast in the Geneva area. The allocation of that slot required other stations to move. WRS notes that the best way to pick up the station is with DAB + (digital) radio.
The station was formerly WRG, a private station, but in 2007 it became part of RSR, French-speaking Switzerland’s public radio. RSR director Gerard Tschopp told GenevaLunch at the time that one goal was to build listeners throughout Switzerland with DAB. Digital radio, unlike FM is not geographically limited.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Jean-Jacques Roth, who has just resigned as editor in chief of Le Temps newspaper, has been named to head the joint television-radio news team at the recently created Radio Television Suisse Romande (RTSR). The new entity is the result of the merger of public radio and television stations RSR and TSR, which join forces in January 2010. The two are already part of SSR, the Swiss public broadcasting company.
Roth is the only outsider of the eight person senior management team named Monday 21 December. The news teams will be coordinated, but remain separate, with Bernard Rappaz heading television news and Patrick Nussbaum heading the radio team.
The complete management group:
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Google and the Swiss data protection boss, Hanspeter Thuer, Thursday 17 December reached a temporary agreement on Google Street View while a Swiss government lawsuit is pending against the company. Google will refrain from activating Google Street View, under the terms of the agreement, as well as any other Street Views in Switzerland taken for other Google products. Google has also agreed to accept as binding a court decision on the matter “and is ready to implement it with regard to images recorded for Street View in Switzerland, if and to the extent that the award requests so”, according to the official Swiss government announcement on the agreement.
Google nevertheless retains the right to use its cameras, at its own risk, while the court case is underway, but it cannot use the image on the Internet. The company has also agreed to move from monthly to weekly alerts to communities and neighbourhoods about its plans to film in their areas.
Swiss trains in real time
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Every CFF passenger train moving along its scheduled path on a mashed-up Google map is now accessible to see via the internet thanks to the inventiveness of a Dutch programmer who lives near Lausanne. Swisstrains.ch combines the Swiss national railways’ timetable and a Google map to bring a realistic and informative virtual ride on the trains. It only works because of the well-deserved punctuality of Swiss trains.
Hover the cursor over one of the red dots that represents a train floating along a red railway line, and the train’s number, its point of departure and departure time, as well as its destination, destination time and average speed comes up. A pop-up dialogue box provides information on each train currently going to or from a determined station. Click on the “follow” button and the train whips you along its path in satellite view in real-time.
WRS news conference
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - World Radio Switzerland (WRS), public radio in English, moves to 101.7 on the FM band 8 December, in the Geneva region, the station announced 3 December. Change your settings before next Tuesday! The move does not affect listeners who pick up WRS via online streaming, satellite, cable or DAB.
WorldRadio Switzerland, 101.7FM
The move is the result of musical chairs, or in this case FM slots, ordered by Ofcom, the federal telecommunications regulatory body. Radio Lausanne FM was awarded a license to start broadcasting in the Geneva area, but since it currently broadcasts on 88.4 in Lausanne a new slot had to be found for it: 88.4FM in Geneva, which WRS currently uses. WRS moves up as a result, to 101.7FM, currently used by Espace 2, also a member of the RSR public radio group in the region.
The changes for the three stations, in the Geneva area, will not occur at the same time:
- Thursday 3 December, Espace 2 stops using 101.7 and moves to 100.7FM
- Tuesday 8 December at midnight, WRS stops using 88.4 and moves to 101.7FM
- Tuesday 15 December, Lausanne FM starts broadcasting in the Geneva area on 88.4FM
WorldRadio Switzerland provides a mix of locally-produced news, information, entertainment and music to people who live in Switzerland. The BBC is its partner for international news and some additional programming.
Links to stations’ sites: Espace 2, Lausanne FM, WRS
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A late night accident on the lake road near Geneva, a young driver with too much alcohol in his system, the driver of the other car in serious condition: accidents of this sort happen often enough that they rarely make the front page of Swiss newspapers.
Add in a Lamborghini, other flashy cars, rich children of Russian commercial celebrities and a story with international headlines surfaces. Stir in local political squabbles plus what looks to some people like rich foreigners fleeing the country in the face of Swiss justice, and a continuing headliner of wealth, incompetence and scandal is born.
Geneva media, police, lawyers exchange barbs
An accident which took place 19 November in Genthod, between Geneva and Versoix, has not only made headlines, it is putting Geneva police, authorities and Swiss media in the hot seat. Wednesday 25 November Geneva’s public prosecutor, Daniel Zappelli, said he had received a police file on the case, nearly a week after the accident and the day after he complained that he had received nothing. He has now officially opened a criminal investigation.
The media say police and officials reacted too slowly but the lawyer for the accused, a Geneva police spokesperson who talked to GenevaLunch and officials have expressed dismay at local media for hyping an event without facts. Jacques Barrillon, who represents the 22-year-old driver of the Lamborghini, told Russian journalists that “The story is being inflated in every possible way, just because it features nice, expensive cars, millionaire parents and foreign passports.”
Updated 24 November 08:00 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The LHC (Large Hadron Collider) began to run over the weekend after a year-long delay, but Monday was the real day of excitement at its home at Cern (European Organization for Nuclear Research). The LHC is designed to study the world’s smallest known particles, the building blocks of the universe. Two beams have been circulating in opposite directions since the 20 November startup, alternating, but today they began to circulate at the same time, crossing at two points.
Control room for the LHC at Cern, Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The LHC (Large Hadron Collider) was put back into action Friday 20 November at 22:00, slightly ahead of schedule, announced Cern. The machine started up, but was quickly shut down after a problem a year ago. “The LHC is a far better understood machine than it was a year ago,” said Cern’s director for accelerators, Steve Myers. “We’ve learned from our experience, and engineered the technology that allows us to move on. That’s how progress is made.” The LHC, the world’s most expensive machine, smashes atoms into each other at very high energies in order to recreate the conditions at the very beginning of the universe.
Background story, 20 November 2009
Hydroptere © Gilles Martin-Raget
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The world speed record for a sailboat was claimed by Hydroptère in Hyères, on the the Mediterranean coast, 12 November. The boat, a hydrofoiled trimaran reached 50.17 knots over a nautical mile, 8 November. At one point it reached 55.5 knots (102.78km/h). The boat will be tested on Lake Geneva in 2010, as part of trials for the Hydroptère Maxi, the boat that will attempt to go round the world in 80 days.
Links to other sites: Hydoptere.com
Background: “Hydroptere lab boat moves to shipyards: 2010 for flying boat on Lake Geneva“, 18 April 2009, GenevaLunch
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs says it was the target of a professional attack by hackers late last week. It sealed off its site to the internet as a precaution, it said 26 October. IT engineers detected a virus within the system that was very difficult to detect. They have no idea yet what damage has been done and whether any information was leaked.
Sorry, can't talk now. We're all chilling at Cern. © Copyright CERN
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The European Centre for Nuclear Research (Cern) straddles the border between Geneva and the neighbouring France department of Ain. It has just launched a site of aimed at the local communities on both sides of the border.
The site recognizes Cern’s importance to the communities it is a neighbour of, and wishes to provide a useful forum shorn of the many technical details. As such, the site is in French only for now.
Nigeria Day participant (photo: © 2009 ITU/V Martin)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – World Telecom 2009 runs from 4-9 October in Geneva, hosted by ITU, the United Nations telecommunications agency.
A few news highlights from the conference this week inlcude:
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Le Temps, the main serious newspaper in French-speaking Switzerland, is making several changes to cope with a sharp drop in advertising revenue, cutting 7.5 percent of its editorial staff (10 jobs). It says the subscription price will be raised for 2010. The newspaper says that the advertising revenue decline, which has hit the entire industry, is the worst in 60 years and requires dramatic action. GenevaLunch spoke with another newspaper editor from the region Monday, who said more cuts can be expected at other newspapers in the region in the next two months. Le Temps notes that it was able to keep the job cuts at this level because of offers by several staff to reduce the number of hours they work.
Le Temps editor Jean Jacques Roth explains in a lengthy editorial that subscriptions and newsstand sales rarely cover more than one-third of a newspaper’s revenues but in the past few years costs have risen due to competition from free newspapers’, readers’ rising expectations for coverage, development of web sites, and in the case of Le Temps, good growth in readership.
Light bounces off a translucent mirror to generate random numbers. © 2009 id Quantique SA
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva’s citizens voted in favour of every one of the issues on the ballot yesterday 27 September, and 60,000 of them voted over the internet. That includes about 10,000 Swiss citizens abroad who were able to vote electronically for the first time. The security of voting over the internet is of great concern to election officials everywhere, and they try to make sure that the vote is tamper-proof.
The Geneva cantonal information technology department worked with local firm id Quantique to produce the random numbers that found their way onto the electronic voting-enabled voting cards, in the form of a Pin number.
id Quantique has invented and marketed a quantum random number generator (QRNG), a machine that works on the quantum level to generate random numbers. Truly random numbers are impossible to duplicate. And computers are not good at generating random numbers because computers are very good at executing instructions.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Cablecom will offer video on demand throughout Switzerland in 2010, after a three-month trial in the Zurich area, the company told Swiss-German Sonntag newspaper. Hollywood films but also erotic content will be offered, with erotic movies counting for more than half of the films watched during the trial. Swisscom has been offering video on demand for three years, but it does not offer erotic content.
Related: Rapid TV News
And now, a brief interruption for . . .
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - European TV and radio without borders will soon change listening and viewing habits in Switzerland as well, with the federal government proposing changes to advertising regulations to bring Switzerland in line with neighbouring countries. The new rules would allow advertising once every 90 minutes for news and political programmes and once every 30-45 minutes for other types of programmes, with a daily limit of 15 percent of all programming time for public broadcasting.
Sports and other events will be able to have advertising interruptions similar to those in the rest of Europe.
