The Hourglass

Marc Newson's latest creation for Ikepod sees the Australian designer interpret the most iconic timepiece of all: The Hourglass. Director Philip Andelman traveled to Basel, Switzerland, to document the designer's modern take of the classic hourglass inside the Glaskeller factory. Each hand made hourglass comprises highly durable borosilicate glass and millions of stainless steel nanoballs, and is available in a 10 or 60 minute timer. LINK

Speedflying in Wengen 2010

Speedriding, speedflying and wingsuitflying in the area of Wengen, Switzerland. LINK: Youtube

Camero the Swiss Beatbox Master

Camero the human voice beatboxer master from Schaffhausen, Switzerland gave an exclusive Beatbox Battle TV interview in the swiss Alps in St.Gallen. He talked about his music experience and gave us some samples of his professional show skills. Camero won the titel Best Show on the Swiss Beatbox Battle and grows over the years into a serious musician on stage. LINK: Youtube

Wingsuit proximity flying in Switzerland and Norway

Music by Ladyhawke. Basejumping in Lauterbrunnen, The Eiger, Jungfrau, Kjerag and Bispen. All filmed with GoPro HD. LINK: Youtube

Wingsuit proximity flying in Switzerland and Norway

Music by Ladyhawke. Basejumping in Lauterbrunnen, The Eiger, Jungfrau, Kjerag and Bispen. LINK: Youtube

The Original Human PAC-MAN Performance by Guillaume Reymond

http://www.notsonoisy.com
PAC-MAN was played by real human-beings sitting in a cinema: it's the 5th video performance of the GAME OVER Project from the French-Swiss artist Guillaume Reymond. This stop-motion video was shot and played for the new ProHelvetia's programme GameCulture http://www.gameculture.ch at the Trafo cinema (Baden, Switzerland) on August 28th 2010. This giant game was played by 111 human pixels that has moved from seat to seat during more than 4 hours... Via: Youtube

NEAT EXCAVATOR DEMONSTRATION

Menzi Muck A81 Demonstration at the Factory in Widnau SG, Switzerland. LINK, Via: Youtube

Toaster looks and acts like a printer

Here's a neat kitchen gadget — a toaster that "prints out" toast. It allows you to feed multiple slices at once from the feeder at top, and spits out finished products from the bottom. It's a concept by Othmar Muehlebach, and it won second place at a design contest in Switzerland last month.

Artist's main page, Via: Designboom, Via: Boingboing

Underground Hill House

A home built underground that still has a breathtaking view! This is green living presented in totally inovative way. You’ll find this home in Vals, Switzerland, a design of SeArch and Christian Müller Architects.

Link – Via: planetoddity, Via: Neatorama

(image credit: Iwan Baan)

Solar Aircraft Flies

The first successful flight of an aircraft powered by the sun was completed in Switzerland yesterday as the Solar Impulse HB-SIA took off and landed safely. Solar Impulse founder Bertrand Piccard had dreamed of the day his plane would take flight for a decade.

With a good weather window on Thursday, test pilot Markus Scherdel was given the go ahead to take the spindly aircraft to up to take-off speed shortly after one o’clock local time. With the airplane lined up on the runway, Scherdel powered up the four motors using the on-board batteries and HB-SIA gained speed until he was able to lift off the pavement.

In a flight very reminiscent of the Wright Brothers first flight in 1903, Scherdel flew 350 meters down the runway at an altitude of only one meter in a flight lasting 28 seconds.

The team hopes to achieve a 36-hour flight by next summer. Link to story. Link to website. -Via: the Presurfer Via: Neatorama

World Record BASE Jump

National Geographic’s Adventure Magazine named ten people as Adventurers of the Year, and invite you to rate each of them to help them determine the readers’ choice top adventurer. One of the profiles features 37-year-old Dean S. Potter, rock climber, tightrope walker, and BASE jumper. Potter set a world record in 2009 by jumping off a high face of Switzerland’s Eiger in a wingsuit and sailing for almost three minutes! LINK: Neatorama



The trip was 9,000 feet vertically and four miles horizontally. Links to all adventurers. Link to voting. LINK to video.

If You Suffer Acrophobia, Don't Look at This

Photoshop whiners of the world: Stop saying words! This is not a photomontage. These two doors and the stair are very real, suspended many feet up on the concrete walls of the Congress Hall in Biel, Switzerland.

Of course, those doors and the stairs weren't in the original plans. The original architects weren't as crazy as Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann, the artists who built this vertigo inducing piece. [Dark Roasted Blend]. LINK: Gizmodo

Scientists find trawl of 32 new planets

European astronomers announced they had found 32 new planets orbiting stars outside our solar system and said on Monday they believe their find means that 40 percent or more of Sun-like stars have such planets.

The planets range in size from about five times the size of Earth to about five times the size of Jupiter, they said. More have been discovered, too, they said, promising more announcements later this year.

The latest discoveries bring the total of known exoplanets to about 400, said Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland. LINK

The biggest CRYSTAL ever found

This is the biggest CRYSTAL ever found. 16 million years old, 661 pounds and located in Switzerland. Copyright Roland Walliser. LINK: Youtube

Baby White-faced Saki Monkey Peeks Out

Like many New World monkeys, baby White-faced Saki monkeys spend their first few weeks buried deep within their mother's fur. That doesn't mean they aren't curious so they poke their tiny heads out to learn about the world around them. This little fellow was born in May at Zoo Basel in Switzerland. LINK

Camero the Swiss Beatbox Master

Camero the human voice beatboxer master from Schaffhausen, Switzerland gave an exclusive Beatbox Battle TV interview in the swiss Alps in St.Gallen. He talked about his music experience and gave us some samples of his professional show skills. Camero won the titel Best Show on the Swiss Beatbox Battle and grows over the years into a serious musician on stage. LINK: Youtube

Kapell Bridge - Lucerne Switzerland

Five good reasons to visit Lucerne: its unique setting on the lake surrounded by mountains the medieval old town with its picturesque squares and towers, the Kapell bridge and the lion monument the many excursions to nearby sites such as the Pilatus, the Rigi and the Stanserhorn mountains. LINK