Reply to: Switzerland plan high speed metro

[Francko]

Don't know about the tidy, but it's certainly clean.

You can tell instantly when you have arrived in Italy, even if the border is the middle of the countryside.

tim

When you finally stop seeing zombies and start seeing normal people, that's a clear sign, yes.

[Francko]

Basel is in the German part, Bellinzona in the Italian, 'nuff said.

Yes so Basel looks like Sheffield and Bellinzona is a beautiful town with beautiful castles and beautiful weather.

[tim123]

...ah

Myth 1 ....Switzerland is building huge underground Railway system.

Myth 2......Every Citizen has access to a nuclear bunker in their back garden.

Myth 3......Switzerland is clean and tidy.

Don't know about the tidy, but it's certainly clean.

You can tell instantly when you have arrived in Italy, even if the border is the middle of the countryside.

tim

[NotAllThere]

Basel is in the German part, Bellinzona in the Italian, 'nuff said.

Only just. And most of the blue collar and shop workers are French or Italian.

Basel is culturally and historically closer to Alsace than to Switzerland. They only joined Switzerland because it was either that or be part of France or Germany.

[Bod]

But Basel gets more sun. Though it does resemble Sheffield.

I got horribly lost in Basel, but in my defence it had been a long day, driving down from Baden-Baden through the forest.

What surprised me was that our car was searched as we crossed the Rhine, the Swiss official was friendly enough though.

[bobhope]

Basel is in the German part, Bellinzona in the Italian, 'nuff said.

[NotAllThere]

Spent a few days in Belinzona/Locarno/Lugano recently, loved it down there. Ticino is beautiful indeed.

But Basel gets more sun. Though it does resemble Sheffield.

[NotAllThere]

Myth 1 ....Switzerland is building huge underground Railway system.

Probably the vote will be defeated.

Myth 2......Every Citizen has access to a nuclear bunker in their back garden.

True. Every resident has access to a nuclear bunker. It's either communal or in their cellar. ( or both). But I've never heard of one in the back garden.

Myth 3......Switzerland is clean and tidy.

It's a lot cleaner than most, if not all, other European countries, in my experience.

Myth 4......The Swiss are hard working and make a point of obeying rules.

The truth is that the Swiss feel guilty about enjoying work, and generally only make a point of obeying pointless rules. For example...

We moved house from one town to another. We had some cardboard in our old house that we put out for recycling on the last day of the month - a Friday. The paper collection was in 5 days time. Some interfering old bag asked us what we were doing. "Leaving the cardboard for collection next Wednesday". "You can't do that, you don't live here". "At this point, we do. We're deregistering in about one hour". And we drove off.

Monday we get a call from the police of our old residency, asking us to come to the station, as they'd received a complaint about littering. I arranged to meet with them after work. They were, quite frankly, embarrassed at having to deal with it - but it was Swiss citizens who'd made the complaint. It turned out our neighbour, after some digging around, had come up with that we'd broken the (civil) law by putting the cardboard on the other side of the street. Never mind that there was already some stuff left out there. Never mind that we'd be partially blocking the road. Second, in that town (though not in others), you're only allowed to leave stuff out after 6pm the night before collection - though everyone does.

I said. Fine. I'll drive there now, put the cardboard into the back of my car. Is there anything to stop me returning tomorrow, and taking it all out again, and leaving it on the correct side of the street. Not at all, said plod, with a huge grin on his face.

So we did. The old biddy looked so smug on Monday evening. And so upset on Tuesday evening.

The icing on the cake is that the local jewellers was broken into on Monday evening. I can only assume that the police were unable to prevent the burglary, as they were busy dealing with a serious littering offence.

[Bod]

Of course with the exception of Ticino, which is still considered not real Switzerland and so will have to wait for 2019. Needless to say that it's the most beautiful part of the whole Switzerland but only people with some sense of beauty could realise that....

Spent a few days in Belinzona/Locarno/Lugano recently, loved it down there. Ticino is beautiful indeed.

[PAH]

Pfft, I fully expect to be able to back my brain up into a computer in 50 years time. That way if anything goes wrong I can just reload the backup and keep on going!!

The future is going to be such fun

Your backup would probably get wiped out as a virus threat though.

Or corrupted into a walking fish by a botched service pack.

[Francko]

Switzerland are soon to vote on building a Maglev system. Basel to Zürich 15 minutes, with a shuttle leaving every 7 minutes.

Apparently it will only cost CHF2'000'000'000.

The idea will be to link up all the cities and regions of Switzerland, and eventually link up with other cities in Europe.

Top/cruising speed - over 300mph.

Of course with the exception of Ticino, which is still considered not real Switzerland and so will have to wait for 2019. Needless to say that it's the most beautiful part of the whole Switzerland but only people with some sense of beauty could realise that....

[PAH]

First of all, considering the recent advance in stem cell research, you won't need bionic legs as they will be able to replace your legs with ones grown specially for you.
Secondly, if something goes wrong with your body then they'll have nothing to reload your brain into unless you have a brainless clone growing somewhere waiting for you to be downloaded into it.

Some think the ideal scenario is the virtual human, where we can exist in cyberspace running in emulation software. Something so advanced we'd not even know it wasn't real life.

What incentive there would be for someone not to pull the plug (seeing as we wouldn't be able to fund it forever once we're in there) is probably the big question. Sponge off our still alive children and their children perhaps?

[AtW]

Are foreigners allowed either of those?

Not sure to be honest, probably not guns, but place in nuclear bunker is reserved for every resident, allegedly.

[KathyWoolfe]

Speak for yourself!!!

When I'm cruising around the world on my bionic legs enjoying the pleasure of my third heart grown specifically to replace the duff ones with my wife on my arm looking 18 again when I'm 173 I may well decide to cross europe using the spiffing Maglev network.

Of course you may be planning to be to poor to take advantage of the advances in medical science, but I don't !!!

Pfft, I fully expect to be able to back my brain up into a computer in 50 years time. That way if anything goes wrong I can just reload the backup and keep on going!!

The future is going to be such fun

First of all, considering the recent advance in stem cell research, you won't need bionic legs as they will be able to replace your legs with ones grown specially for you.
Secondly, if something goes wrong with your body then they'll have nothing to reload your brain into unless you have a brainless clone growing somewhere waiting for you to be downloaded into it.

[Ardesco]

Shame there's little they can do for your brain, except scoop it out and serve it with tatties and cabbage.

Pfft, I fully expect to be able to back my brain up into a computer in 50 years time. That way if anything goes wrong I can just reload the backup and keep on going!!

The future is going to be such fun