Riley B. King, known to most as B.B. King, has passed away at 89. The American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist was a regular at the Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland. The son of sharecroppers Albert and Nora Ella King he was born on September 16, 1925 near the town of Itta Bena, Mississippi but […]
Push “The Button” now! Society and your status depend on it.
Reddit has a truly bizarre, totally fascinating and absorbing new subreddit called “The Button” that started on 1 April 2015. Comprising a timer counting down from 60 seconds and a button – It allegedly serves no purpose. All users see the same button and every time someone pushes it, it resets to 60 seconds. Your […]
If you walk around texting this shocking video might stop you
Published on 5 May 2015 by the Lausanne Police in Switzerland, this video is designed to shock. In 2013 in Switzerland, 1,100 people were seriously injured or killed because they weren’t paying attention. Distraction was the cause of 25% of serious accidents. Many of those hurt or killed were pedestrians, often distracted by their smartphones, […]
Le Corbusier – should he still be on Swiss 10 franc note?
Born in 1887 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, naturalized in France in 1930 and considered by many to be the father of modern architecture, Le Corbusier (a nickname used from 1920) has been presented as a fascist anti Semite in two recent books. One by Xavier de Jarcy entitled: Le Corbusier, a French fascism (Le Corbusier, […]
Swiss happiness – more than just money?
Switzerland, which came out top the recent 2015 World Happiness Report, has a habit of doing well in surveys that look beyond wealth to compare levels of human wellbeing – Switzerland also ranked third in the recent 2015 Social Progress Ranking. Why is this? Some cynics conclude that it all boils down to dollars and […]
Hans Erni Switzerland’s Picasso dies
Hans Erni, considered by some to be Switzerland’s Picasso, passed away on Saturday at the age of 106. Born in Lucerne in 1909, the sculptor and painter never stopped working. He completed the fresco at the entrance of the Palais des Nations, which contains the office of the United Nations in Geneva in 2009. The […]
Everest in the Alps – Toby’s story
Toby is battling with a brain tumour and suffered terribly before it was diagnosed. Now he is battling through his first 18 months of chemotherapy. His father Rob explains what’s happening. (See Everest in the Alps Challenge.) My son, Toby, has a brain stem tumour. His tumour was diagnosed when he was five following a very […]
Countdown to world-first Everest challenge in Verbier, Switzerland
Everest in the Alps is a highly imaginative initiative to raise money for the Brain Tumour Charity while at the same time roping in both mountain skills and the outdoors for a worthy cause. The effort is the world’s first ski-touring challenge to take place in this manner, notably at the Swiss ski resort of […]
Anne Frank’s cousin Buddy Elias dies
The humanist and actor Buddy Elias passed away on 16 March 2015 just before his 90th birthday. He was president of the Anne Frank Fonds in Basel, Switzerland and the last living relative of Anne Frank. He was also a friend of Le New’s editor Edward Girardet who visited him late last year. The following […]
Swiss are not the world’s biggest cheese eaters
In 2014 the average Swiss resident ate 21.37 kilograms of cheese according to recent calculations done by the Swiss Farmers Union. A 1.6% increase on 2013 consumption, this is equivalent to two portions of fondue a week, and weighs more than the heaviest suitcase many airlines will check in for free. Around half of Swiss milk is turned […]
