GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The thin line between personal freedom in the form of public nudity and public health concerns over such touchy issues as bare bums on restaurant chairs may soon lead to tougher legislation in that city of baring-it-all comfortably, San Francisco. The Los Angeles Times notes that a debate is underway in California over acceptable behaviour since a city official introduced “a measure to put limits on nudity and provide posterior protection for public seating”.
The San Francisco Chronicle sees the new legislation as one more effort to make the city appear “kooky” because it is so limited in scope. “Why? If these guys were opening a trench coat and exposing themselves to bystanders in a supermarket parking lot we’d call them creeps. But if they sit on public chairs and expose themselves to bystanders, they’re defenders of free speech. Here’s some free speech – when moms and dads walk their kids to school, they don’t want to see you naked. This isn’t a civil rights issue, it’s just obnoxious.”
The newspaper points out that even Berkeley and Marin have anti-nudity laws.
ABC7 news report
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva residents heading for San Francisco and who want to opt for the new Swiss airline Airbus A340 flower power plane will be happy to see they’ll pay less than their fellow passengers who board in Zurich.
The company has sent its special offer fares to regular customers and for those flying from Geneva starting 23 August (booking by 30 June) prices start at CHF1,099, but Zurich passengers’ prices start at CHF1,229.
Swiss non-stop, Zurich-San Francisco: flower power plane
The explanation, says spokesperson Jean-Claude Donzel, is that the Geneva flight is priced competitively according to the market for indirect flights from the city, with Air France, BA and Lufthansa all flying to San Francisco. Zurich alone offers a direct flight, and in the airline market, direct flights tend to be more expensive.
Facebook and Twitter played a part in drumming up enthusiasm for the first of the new flights between Zurich and San Francisco on Swiss. The plane, painted to reflect an earlier San Francisco era of flower children, was kept a surprise until it was rolled out onto the tarmac just before its maiden flight Tuesday 1 June.
Swiss has been showing teaser photos of the new plane, on Facebook
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The new Swiss Flower Power plane, a startling change from the normally more discreet Swiss fleet planes, was scheduled to roll onto the tarmac in Zurich late Wednesday afternoon.
The company will offer six flights a week to the California city starting 2 June. It has been teasing fans with snapshots of part of the colourful plane on its Facebook page.
Zurich International Airport, dusk 4 February 2010
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss International Airlines will fly non-stop six times a week between San Francisco and Zurich starting 2 June 2010, the company said Friday 5 February.
Direct flights will leave Zurich at 13:15 every day except Tuesday, when a non-direct flight will operate. The flights arrive in San Francisco at 16:30.
The non-stop flights from San Francisco will leave there at 19:25 every day except Tuesday, arriving in Zurich at 15:40.
Links to other sites: MySwitzerand national tourism office, Swiss airlines
(Video, AP) An extraordinary high-definition video of the world’s deepest submarine volcano shows an underwater eruption sending volcanic lava to the ocean floor and creating an environment that is more acidic than battery acid. The film was presented at a conference in San Francisco Thursday by the US National Science Foundation and the NOAA. The film was made near Samoa when scientists headed for the area where they’d spotted volcanic activity, then sent a submersible named Jason down to 1,300 metres under the surface to film the fireworks.
Links to other sites: AP/Daily Breeze, BBC, NOAA News with the video in QuickTime
AP interview with video in background
BMW Oracle left California 15 December for Valencia, Spain
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Alinghi sailing team is preparing to defend its World Cup title in the chilly winter waters of Valencia, Spain in 2010, following a decision Tuesday 15 December by a panel of New York Supreme Court judges to uphold an earlier decision. A judge ruled 30 October against the choice by Société Nautique de Genève’s of Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates for the next America’s Cup. The four-judge panel also upheld an earlier decision to exclude rudders from the measurement of the load waterline length of the race yacht.
Alinghi will face BMW Oracle in February 2010 in Valencia. The BMW team, based in San Francisco, left California Tuesday for Valencia, to start preparing for the race.
Background, GenevaLunch
Links to other sites: Alinghi, BMW Oracle
Zurich to San Francisco non-stop, from June 2010
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss International Airlines will fly non-stop six days a week from Zurich to San Francisco starting in June 2010, the airline announced 1 December. San Francisco is already the USA’s third biggest air travel market, and the regional headquarters of several major Swiss corporations.
Swiss says that it will use existing airplane capacity to cover the new routes. It is also increasing the frequency of flights to India, Brazil and Canada.
Timetable details:
Zurich – San Francisco LX 38 dep 13:15 arr 16:30
San Francisco – Zurich LX 39 dep 19:25 arr 15:40 + the following day
Alinghi 5, warming up to the America's Cup 2010, in Genoa, Italy 17 August 2009 (© 2009 Carlo Borlenghi/Alinghi)
Geneva, Switzerland/New York, USA (GenevaLunch) - The details of the boat BMW will be sailing in the 2010 America’s Cup race do not have to be divulged until two weeks before the race, a judge in New York has said.
The New York Supreme Court announced a verdict 22 September that went against the Société Nautique de Genève, home to the Alinghi team, and holder of the America’s Cup sailing trophy. It rejected Alinghi’s claim to disqualify the Oracle team from the 2010 America’s Cup race because, Alinghi told the court, the Golden Gate Yacht Club, represented by Oracle, had not provided, by the deadline, the required technical details concerning Oracle’s boat. The court agreed with Oracle, which had argued that a boat undergoes constant technical modifications until the moment it begins to compete.
In her ruling, Supreme Court Judge Shirley Kornreich nevertheless scolded the Oracle team for “unsportsmanlike behaviour” which “resulted in substantially reducing SNG’s (Société Nautique de Genève) advantage as originally contemplated by the Deed of Gift.”
BMW Oracle 90 foot trimaran, sea trials in Washington, USA, 13 August 2009. Photographer: Gilles Martan-Raget
Both teams remain committed to begin the race in February 2010.
The judge’s decision comes on the heels publication of a previously confidential agreement between SNG and the International Sailing Federation (ISAF).
Apple CEO Steve Jobs returned to the limelight 8 September at the annual Apple conference in San Francisco after almost a year’s absence due to medical leave to have a liver transplant. He thanked his anonymous donor, a “mid-twenties year-old” car crash victim, for his generosity and urged everyone to become an organ donor. Looking thin and frail, Jobs reported that Apple had sold 30 million iPhones in little over two years. He also announced software improvements to the iPod Nano, new features at iTunes, and price cuts in the products. Jobs received a standing ovation. Apple shares reached a 52 week high of $172.93 the same day, but dropped back one percent at closing. Businessweek, CNET, MSNBC, Reuters
Jaycee Duggard was 11 years old when she was snatched off the street by two people in a car near her home in South Lake Tahoe in full view of her step-father in 1991. She had been kept in backyard sheds at the house of her kidnappers for 18 years and is the mother of two girls, 15 and 11, fathered by Philipp Garrido, a convicted and listed sex-offender, who kidnapped her with his wife. The man was on the UC Berkeley campus near San Francisco with the two young girls 25 August when his behavioiur with the two girls aroused suspicion. Police made a background check and took him into custody. Duggard, now 29, has been reunited with her mother. BBC, CNN
Violent crime, including murder, rape, and armed robbery, is down sharply in most major US cities, the BBC reports. New York and Los Angeles are set to report crime rates later this year that were last seen in the 1960s. A combination of better police work, greater cooperation between law enforcement agencies, and improved technology has made cities like Washington DC, Boston and San Francisco safer, according to the British broadcast media. But some cities are still plagued by crime. Detroit, Michigan, once a major manufacturing centre, its population grown poorer over the years, was named most dangerous to live in by Forbes magazine. Other cities whose crime rates appear to be increasing, such as Stockton, California, may be on shipment routes for drugs from Mexico.
Crime statistics for the US are gathered annually by the FBI and published in the autumn, but the numbers as well as their use by private companies that rate cities is contentious. In June 2009 the FBI reported that preliminary crime figures for 2008 show a 2.5 percent drop in violent crimes nationwide compared to 2007 and a 1.6 percent drop in property crimes. in The US Conference of Mayors in 2007 began to work with the FBI and the US Justice Department to improve reporting and use of the statistics.
Apple Inc surprised most analysts’ forecasts by posting net profits of $1.3 billion for the quarter ending in June 2009, 13 percent higher than the same period a year ago. The San Francisco-based electronics firm sold 2.6 million Mac computers and 5.2 million iPhones, in part by lowering prices on some items and upgrading other products. The company introduced the improved iPhone 3GS during this period and lowered the basic price of its older version iPhone to $99. NYT, Reuters
Alinghi celebrates its America's Cup win, July 2007
New York, NY, USA (GenevaLunch) – A court in New York will ask the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), home to Alinghi, to show cause why it should not be held in contempt of court, at the request of The Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) of San Francisco, California, the GGYC announced 14 July. The GGYC also accused the Swiss sailing club, in its press release, of entering “into a secret agreement with the International Sailing Federation, the organization which will have a central role in selecting match officials and sailing jury.”
This is the fourth time since the last America’s Cup race, in July 2007, that the GGYC is taking the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), notes Alinghi. The SNG, in its reply press release, limits itself to accusing the other club of fighting in the courts rather than on water and saying it continues to wait for the other club to supply the court with required documents. Both groups claim to have court decisions on their side.
Alinghi into the water, Lausanne April 2009 (image, Carlo Borlenghi)
New York, NY, USA (GenevaLunch) - Conflicting reports are surfacing about what exactly a New York Supreme Court judge ordered 14 May, in the legal case linked to sailing’s America’s Cup , but it appears that Justice Shirley Kornreich upheld an earlier decision that Alinghi and BMW Oracle must race against each other by February 2010 at the latest. AFP wire service reports that Kornreich insists the two must have what will amount to a rare battle between two boats in the America’s Cup, but the story sheds little light on where this race fits into the planned Cup races that include several other teams.
- Alinghi iD35 shakedown sail, Cup Julius Baer, Nyon 4 May 2009 (image, Carlo Borlenghi, Alinghi)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – There is a new wrinkle in the latest round of the legal battle between Geneva-based Alinghi, holder of sailing’s America’s Cup, and San Francisco-based Oracle, which has been fighting hard in the courts to change the date and rules for the next race. Alinghi is reported by Sailing World News to have filed charges with the New York Supreme Court against BMW Oracle for hiring a spy.
The papers allegedly refer to a police report where a man named Jean Antoine Bonnaveau states that he took photos for Oracle in the hills above Villeaneuve. The story is reported by Bloomberg in New York, which says that the alleged spying “continues a tradition of subterfuge in the event.”
The two teams are scheduled to appear in court tomorrow 14 May in New York, with Alinghi facing a motion from Oracle for contempt of court, charges to which it filed an opposition 11 May.
Alinghi relaunch, 2008
San Francisco, California, USA and Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Your average non-sailor might be forgiven for thinking America’s Cup is a game of ping-pong rather than arguably the world’s most famous sailing race. The legal battle between the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), home to Alinghi, and US-based Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), home to Oracle, continues, with the GGYC asking a court in New York for a new hearing, set for 15 May. Alinghi is the holder of the America’s Cup and Oracle is the official Challenger. Last week, 24 April, the Tribune de Geneve carried the cheerful headline that Alinghi had agreed to Oracle’s demand for a multi-hull race in 2010. For about an hour it appeared that the bickering might be over and a race could be run.
Updated 01 December 16:55 An exhibit of many items belonging to Harvey Milk, including the suit in which he was assassinated in November 1978, will be exhibited in connection with a new film starring Sean Penn. Reuters reports that Penn’s performance is getting top reviews, but the casting of a straight man for a major gay character on screen underscores both the progress and lack of it made by gay rights in recent years. Milk was the first openly gay person to be elected to a major political office in the US: San Francisco city supervisor. Los Angeles Times
