View allAll Photos Tagged Aggregation
Whirligig Beetles Aggregation at McIver Landing on the Deep River in Gulf NC
Beetles who struggle for safety in the daytime from fish and other predators by massing together. A scare will send them spinning out in circles like a whirligig. But they quickly reform into one group for safety. The ones in the center are mostly well fed females then well fed males, other females, and on the fringe mostly unfed males. In a large group the fish will usually learn to let them be.
video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjMQMWg_X9o&feature=c4-overvi...
for more info
link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF00299362#page-1
Schools of fish circle a fish aggregation device (FAD) floating and continuously attracting fish during a banned FAD fishing season in the Western and Central Pacific ocean in 2009. Around 10% of the catch generated by purse seine FAD fisheries is unwanted bycatch and includes endangered species of sharks and turtles. The catch of large amounts of juvenile bigeye and yellowfin tunas in these fisheries is now threatening the survival of these commercially valuable species. Greenpeace is calling for a total ban on the use of fish aggregation devices in purse seining and the establishment of a global network of marine reserves.
S127-E-007464 (21 July 2009) --- Nine of a total aggregation of 13 astronauts and cosmonauts are pictured at meal time aboard the International Space Station. Seated at the table, clockwise from bottom left, are European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne, astronaut Christopher Cassidy, along with astronauts Mike Barratt and Tim Kopra and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk and astronaut Mark Polansky. From left to right at top are Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata and Russian Federal Space Agency cosmonauts Roman Romanenko and Gennady Padalka. Not pictured are astronauts Tom Marshburn, Dave Wolf and Doug Hurley, plus Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette. Barratt is holding a display version of an Apollo 11 lunar sample that had earlier been taken up by a shuttle mission (STS-119) to be onboard the orbital outpost at the time of the current observance of the first moon landing's 40th anniversary. Seven astronauts left Kennedy Space Center one week ago aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour to join up with the six Expedition 20 crew members on the space station to continue work on it. The space fliers have completed two of five scheduled spacewalks up to this point.
Alternatives to Data-Silos: Tools for democratic aggregation
This panel presents results from a series of Berliner Gazette-workshops that started at the conference “Digital Backyards” (October 2012) and “Digital Backyards Japan” (January 2013) asking about alternatives to Google and Facebook; then continued at the hackathon “bottom-up & open” (May 2013) and recently culminated at the conference “Complicity” (November 2013) once again bringing together Hackers and Journalists.
Date: December 7th, 6 p.m. | Format: Panel
Speakers: Markus “fin” Hametner (Onon.at, Vienna), Magdalena Taube (berlinergazette.de, Berlin), Anwen Roberts (Eclisping Binaries, Berlin). Moderation: Lili Masuhr (leidmedien.de)
Location: mindpirates, Schlesische Straße 38, Berlin-Kreuzberg
Photocredit: Andi Weiland | Berlinergazette.de
Whirligig Beetles Aggregation at McIver Landing on the Deep River in Gulf NC
Beetles who struggle for safety in the daytime from fish and other predators by massing together. A scare will send them spinning out in circles like a whirligig. But they quickly reform into one group for safety. The ones in the center are mostly well fed females then well fed males, other females, and on the fringe mostly unfed males. In a large group the fish will usually learn to let them be.
video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjMQMWg_X9o&feature=c4-overvi...
for more info
link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF00299362#page-1
I made this trip to see the spawning aggregations of Goliath Groupers. The week before I arrived there were torrential rains and strong winds from the southwest which had blown the Gulf Stream far offshore. The water was stirred up, green, full of floc, and with a thermocline around 40-55’. But the Goliaths were still there and really impressive!! Frequently 15-30 or more per wreck; it was hard to count with the limited vis. I will be planning to come back next year hoping for better picture taking conditions.
Alternatives to Data-Silos: Tools for democratic aggregation
This panel presents results from a series of Berliner Gazette-workshops that started at the conference “Digital Backyards” (October 2012) and “Digital Backyards Japan” (January 2013) asking about alternatives to Google and Facebook; then continued at the hackathon “bottom-up & open” (May 2013) and recently culminated at the conference “Complicity” (November 2013) once again bringing together Hackers and Journalists.
Date: December 7th, 6 p.m. | Format: Panel
Speakers: Markus “fin” Hametner (Onon.at, Vienna), Magdalena Taube (berlinergazette.de, Berlin), Anwen Roberts (Eclisping Binaries, Berlin). Moderation: Lili Masuhr (leidmedien.de)
Location: mindpirates, Schlesische Straße 38, Berlin-Kreuzberg
Photocredit: Andi Weiland | Berlinergazette.de
Whirligig Beetles Aggregation at McIver Landing on the Deep River in Gulf NC
Beetles who struggle for safety in the daytime from fish and other predators by massing together. A scare will send them spinning out in circles like a whirligig. But they quickly reform into one group for safety. The ones in the center are mostly well fed females then well fed males, other females, and on the fringe mostly unfed males. In a large group the fish will usually learn to let them be.
video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjMQMWg_X9o&feature=c4-overvi...
for more info
link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF00299362#page-1
Marine and Environmental Sensing Technology Hub (Mestech) researching at the National Centre for Sensor Research (NCSR) Dublin City University. mestech.org/
---------------------------------------
Side views from systems of carbon nanoparticles (C60) and DPPC lipids. This models the pulmonary (lung) surfactant and how carbon nanopartices interact with it and how such nanoparticles may disturb it. This is an important problem since we are continuously exposed to carbon nanoparticles through breathing, and clearance (or lack of it) of those particles is directly related to the health risks due to them.
- For the smallest area of lipid, the nanoparticle aggregation leads to membrane budding.
- For larger areas per lipid, there is no budding. For the two largest areas per lipid, pore formation occurred.
Colors:
- Red: Fullerene
- Blue: DPPC lipids
Labels:
- The area per lipid of the monolayer is indicated on the left
- Top: Fullerene/lipid ratio
Simulation details:
- GROMACS 4.5.4 software
- MARTINI coarse-grained force-field
- Simulations up to 10 microseconds
- Free energy calculations were performed
Reference to our work:
------------------------------------------
- Lipid monolayer disruption caused by aggregated
carbon nanoparticles, Nililla Nisoh, Mikko Karttunen, Luca Monticelli and Jirasak Wong-ekkabut, RSC Adv. 5 11676 (2015).
Alternatives to Data-Silos: Tools for democratic aggregation
This panel presents results from a series of Berliner Gazette-workshops that started at the conference “Digital Backyards” (October 2012) and “Digital Backyards Japan” (January 2013) asking about alternatives to Google and Facebook; then continued at the hackathon “bottom-up & open” (May 2013) and recently culminated at the conference “Complicity” (November 2013) once again bringing together Hackers and Journalists.
Date: December 7th, 6 p.m. | Format: Panel
Speakers: Markus “fin” Hametner (Onon.at, Vienna), Magdalena Taube (berlinergazette.de, Berlin), Anwen Roberts (Eclisping Binaries, Berlin). Moderation: Lili Masuhr (leidmedien.de)
Location: mindpirates, Schlesische Straße 38, Berlin-Kreuzberg
Photocredit: Andi Weiland | Berlinergazette.de
These 3 fellas are much larger than me! They were insistent and would not give up their resting spot. This is at about 102 feet down in the engine room, the exit hatch is just above the stairs.
Awesome encounter.
Arya Risk offers Portfolio Modeling and Data Analyst as services to our US-based partner. With expertise in creating customized trading applications & quantitative research models, Arya now also serves global leaders in the US capital markets engaged in trading in energy, oil, equities, and fixed income. It uses the best technology tools available, including AI and Machine Learning.
Arya has started offering subscription-based trading tools and is launching Alpha Trading tools and technologies product line for various sectors like wealth management, news aggregation, real estate, and twitter news.
How do you feel you are different from your competitors?
We have the unique advantage of having a significant on-ground presence in the world’s financial center, New York. Arya also has multiple technology centers at various strategic locations. We’re the experts in the financial domain. We provide to our clients with customized and unique solutions to build, integrate, and customize software systems in trading technologies.
We provide innovation & excellence using cutting-edge technology tools while integrating AI and ML.
We are one of the first technology companies to create a custom campus curriculum program with our partnerships and with various Indian universities. This program would allow us to hire custom talent that was specialized and trained with specific statistics and programming requirements. This was before Big Data and Data Science were popular terms.
Did you see any transformation happening for startups, over the years in your field?
Startups have played a big part in transforming the industry. In capital markets, startups have a tough time surviving and scaling as there is no room for error and the results are also instantaneous.
In our space, service and product, both have to be perfect with support also being a very key element.
Thus, experience and reliability is of utmost importance for any user.
What kind of clients do you serve any special mentions?
Arya’s elite clientele includes various Trading & Investment Desks, Hedge Funds, Wealth Management Companies & Major Exchanges all over the globe.
How do you ensure the unbreakable faith of clients in your company?
Creating profitable and scalable trading models and creating profitable trading applications has enabled us to win new clients as also have unending relationships with multiple clients.
Smooth processing of development, analysis & execution along with all-round support keeps up this faith.
How do you keep pace with the changing market trends?
Investing in our processes, intelligence & ability to handle pressure with the changing Market Trends is what we focus on.
Arya is aggressive in adopting major emerging trends including AI/ML, Big data and machine-accessible data.
We have a big focus on piloting new technologies and methods to allow incubation of improved or new products and services.
This enables Arya to deliver technical and seamless, profitable models and solutions to our financial services partners.
Arya Risk also has data science capabilities with the ability to analyze large data sets with creating custom tools.
Do you still come back to work with the same zeal, like you did when you started?
Yes! Work is all about passion.
Of course, one has to put in a lot of perspiration also, but finally, it all boils down to what you want to be known for. I would say that passion has only increased with each passing day as we dwell into newer and more path-breaking areas of our business.
Who is your role model in the business/entrepreneurial world and what have you learnt from the person?
I am fortunate to come from a family business background and that has enabled work ethics, strategy, employee and financial management being ingrained into my personality and character.
Being a minority woman in business made me work harder to prove myself.
The challenge to prove of my capabilities of founding and running a Fintech Company without formal technical education has been my biggest driver on Dalal or Wall Street.
How are you giving back to society (CSR, if any)?
We believe that giving back is a part of growth individually and as an organization. It reminds us to be humble, sympathetic and empathetic.
Taking care of our employees and their extended families is a very important part of the value of our organization, along with supporting various Indian political and religious charities in Pune.
We support schools and education facilities by periodically organizing fund-raising programs and events.
I have founded and support many organizations in NY, Pune, and Puerto Rico.
It allows us to connect to the local community and both benefit at large.
Some of the organizations I lead are:
Founder, Fordham India Leadership Council
Founder and President, The Act 20 22 Club of Puerto Rico
Board of Director, Girls Scout of Suffolk, NY
Board of Director, Indian Network of Eastern Long Island, NY
Apart from work, what else do you like to spend your time doing?
I have two wonderful grown-up kids. I very much enjoy spending time with them whenever their schedule permits. That is what I love the most.
As I travel so much I have friends and loved ones in many part of the world who I love to visit. My favorite places to travel are France and Italy.
Besides these, working on new projects with new areas of focus and testing my personal limits and intelligence is something that drives me the most.
What are the achievements and milestones of the company?
In less than a decade, Arya Risk is known in financial sector as a provider of reliable products & services on the trading side. Our quest for constant innovation and groundbreaking services & solutions has gained many accolades and recognition from our clients.
Creating a multi-location organization in such a short period of time and seamlessly integrating all the offices gives me a lot of satisfaction.
I believe we are at the cusp of taking the fruits of the hard work in our initial years to the next level.
I am extremely excited about the launch of our new products. This will allow us to tap into the broader customer base and bring us into a wider spectrum of growth.
What does the future hold for the company?
The company first started with developing software & then simultaneously moved on to various trading solutions. We have been at the forefront of all major market changes.
This experience allows us to respond to market fundamentals and quantitative changes and adapt quickly.
In addition, we are launching our own product line of Alpha Tools & Technologies for various sectors such as Wealth Management, News Aggregation, Real Estate, and Twitter News.
We want to continue to expand our expertise in Currency and other markets. This is the kind of challenge that drives us at the core.
Lastly, what message would you like to give to the readers of the Business Connect magazine?
Business Connect is a very influential magazine in Indian Business Sector. In this day of false & fake news, the readers need to know & trust the sources. Business Connect is one of those & they have made a wise choice.
collapsed generative structures blooming into sparkling flowers.
experiments on density, aggregation of forms and rotational symmetry.
c. 1925
Sepia-toned gelatin silver print
The Evening Independent would write about the Massillon Maroons aggregation as one of the “greatest semi-professional eleven in Ohio” after ending their final season in 1927. Being a below-average sized team—no man bigger than 165 pounds—the Maroons played teams well above their weight class, and still came out in the top spot. The city of Massillon considered the disbanding of this team to be a great loss.
Pictured from left to right are:
Front: Toots Jones, Red Raffath, Hap North, Ray Brenner, Hunch Crammer, Midge Thomas, Harry Jones.
Middle: Mac McLaughlin, Bierne Giltz, Bob Featheringham, Lewie Siemetz, Walt Featheringham, Chet Baus, Jinnie McCoy, Earnest Burghingham (mascot).
Back: Nat Lester (doctor), Pug Richards, Ted Rosenberg, Dave Murdock, Chet Featheringham, Carl Raumbaud, Roland Millar, Clark Bowman, Chubby Wertz, Lest Burrell (backer).
Gift of the Karl Spuhler Estate (91.7.3943)
Collection of the Massillon Museum
Microscopic photo showing aggregations dilated thick walled vessels in dermis of auricular skin. H & E stain. 10X. Jian-Hua Qiao, MD, FCAP, Los Angeles, CA, USA. (乔建华医学博士， 美国病理学家学院专家会员。美国加州洛杉矶)
Douglas Seifert photographs whale shark (Rhincodon typus) at a feeding aggregation off of Isla Mujeres, Mexico
These two started with a head on meet & greet and then began to swim along side each other... unfortunately they were moving to fast to keep up and get more of the action.
Alternatives to Data-Silos: Tools for democratic aggregation
This panel presents results from a series of Berliner Gazette-workshops that started at the conference “Digital Backyards” (October 2012) and “Digital Backyards Japan” (January 2013) asking about alternatives to Google and Facebook; then continued at the hackathon “bottom-up & open” (May 2013) and recently culminated at the conference “Complicity” (November 2013) once again bringing together Hackers and Journalists.
Date: December 7th, 6 p.m. | Format: Panel
Speakers: Markus “fin” Hametner (Onon.at, Vienna), Magdalena Taube (berlinergazette.de, Berlin), Anwen Roberts (Eclisping Binaries, Berlin). Moderation: Lili Masuhr (leidmedien.de)
Location: mindpirates, Schlesische Straße 38, Berlin-Kreuzberg
Photocredit: Andi Weiland | Berlinergazette.de
I believe some kind of sugary liquid was spilled here to lead to this aggregation.
Asterocampa celtis, Tower Hill State Park, Iowa County Wisconsin, 17 June 2022.
collapsed generative structures blooming into sparkling flowers.
experiments on density, aggregation of forms and rotational symmetry.
collapsed generative structures blooming into sparkling flowers.
experiments on density, aggregation of forms and rotational symmetry.
Goliath and bait everywhere, another awesome dive on Underwater Explorers! Captain Kevin Metz is a Rock Star, perfect drops every time! Thanks Kevin
Lipotriches , Plain Sweat Bee , collected in Australia
This is one of the bees in which the males are known to form sleeping aggregations – small groups to dozens of individuals clustering together on the same twig late in the afternoon and remaining there until after dawn. There may be quite a lot of “jockeying for position” as males alight too close to another individual with low key aggressive interactions. Some clusters might contain more than one species. There has been little research on the reason for this aggregating behavior, although safety in numbers might play a role.
~~~~~~~~~~{{{{{{0}}}}}}~~~~~~~~~~
All photographs are public domain, feel free to download and use as you wish.
Photography Information: Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash in Styrofoam Cooler, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200
Further in Summer than the Birds
Pathetic from the Grass
A minor Nation celebrates
Its unobtrusive Mass.
No Ordinance be seen
So gradual the Grace
A pensive Custom it becomes
Enlarging Loneliness.
Antiquest felt at Noon
When August burning low
Arise this spectral Canticle
Repose to typify
Remit as yet no Grace
No Furrow on the Glow
Yet a Druidic Difference
Enhances Nature now
-- Emily Dickinson
Want some Useful Links to the Techniques We Use? Well now here you go Citizen:
Basic USGSBIML set up:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-_yvIsucOY
USGSBIML Photoshopping Technique: Note that we now have added using the burn tool at 50% opacity set to shadows to clean up the halos that bleed into the black background from "hot" color sections of the picture.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdmx_8zqvN4
PDF of Basic USGSBIML Photography Set Up:
ftp://ftpext.usgs.gov/pub/er/md/laurel/Droege/How%20to%20Take%20MacroPhotographs%20of%20Insects%20BIML%20Lab2.pdf
Google Hangout Demonstration of Techniques:
plus.google.com/events/c5569losvskrv2nu606ltof8odo
or
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c15neFttoU
Excellent Technical Form on Stacking:
Contact information:
Sam Droege
sdroege@usgs.gov
301 497 5840
Halobates Zephyrus.
Family: Gerridae
Order: Hemiptera
This was one of several dozens of Sea Skaters in a breeding aggregation in a saltwater pool at Cullendulla on the New South Wales South Coast, Australia.
Some members of this genus are ocean travellers and five species can be found far out to sea, apparently travelling on ocean currents over long distances.
The Halobates species can neither swim nor fly, and unlike freshwater Gerridae pond striders, they are permanently wingless. They therefore exist in a two-dimensional world on the water surface. They have a very hydrophobic body that helps them survive in this unlikely niche they have carved out for themselves. They can effortlessly run across the water surface at high speed (up to 1 metre per second) without slipping, and can easily leap free of the water at will. No doubt the hydrophobic properties of their cuticle and hairs on the legs is a central part of the mechanism for doing this, but it is not fully understood (Cheng, 1985).
This marine family may be exposed to the sun without shade every day. Their cuticle is highly resistant to UV light and, in one species, has been shown able to block out 99.9998% of the UV radiation at 280nm. The chemical and physical structures that convey this property have not been fully explained. In a possibly related phenomenon, the species in the photo appears to be black in full sunlight but, in shade, the cuticle appears to be blue!
The oceanic species lay their eggs on floating debris such as cuttlebone and feathers. They may be winners in the Anthropocene because they are happy to seize the opportunity to lay eggs on floating plastic. This is now in such abundance, that the sea skater numbers may be benefiting from the additional breeding habitat. It remains to be seen if any explosion in their numbers, because of plastic waste, will have any unforeseen consequences in the marine ecosystem. However an abundance would be a boon to the many birds and fish that feed on the skaters.
References
Cheng, L. (1985). Biology of halobates (heteroptera: Gerridae). Annual review of entomology, 30(1), 111-135.
Cheng, L., & Mishra, H. (2022). Why did only one genus of insects, Halobates, take to the high seas?. PLoS Biology, 20(4), e3001570.
DSC004671
The red-wattled lapwing (Vanellus indicus) is an Asian lapwing or large plover, a wader in the family Charadriidae. Like other lapwings they are ground birds that are incapable of perching. Their characteristic loud alarm calls are indicators of human or animal movements and the sounds have been variously rendered as did he do it or pity to do it[ leading to the colloquial name of did-he-do-it bird. Usually seen in pairs or small groups and usually not far from water they sometimes form large aggregations in the non-breeding season (winter). They nest in a ground scrape laying three to four camouflaged eggs. Adults near the nest fly around, diving at potential predators while calling noisily. The cryptically patterned chicks hatch and immediately follow their parents to feed, hiding by lying low on the ground or in the grass when threatened.
Taxonomy:
Traditionally well-known to native hunters, the red-wattled lapwing was first described in a book by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux in 1781. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle produced uinder the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert used the binomial name Tringa indica in his catalogue of the Planche Enluminées. The type locality is Goa in western India. It was subsequently placed in various other genera such as Sarcogrammus and Lobivanellus before being merged into Vanellus which was erected by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. Vanellus is the Medieval Latin for a "lapwing". It is a diminutive of the Latin vanus meaning "winnowing" or "fan". The specific epithet indicus is the Latin for "India".
Across their wide range there are slight differences in the plumage and there are four recognized subspecies:
V. i. aigneri (Laubmann, 1913) – southeast Turkey to Pakistan
V. i. indicus (Boddaert, 1783) – central Pakistan to Nepal, northeast India and Bangladesh
V. i. lankae (Koelz, 1939) – Sri Lanka
V. i. atronuchalis (Jerdon, 1864) – northeast India to south China, southeast Asia, Malay Peninsula and north Sumatra.
Description:
Red-wattled lapwings are large waders, about 35 cm (14 in) long. The wings and back are light brown with a purple to green sheen, but the head, a bib on the front and back of the neck are black. Prominently white patch runs between these two colours, from belly and tail, flanking the neck to the sides of crown. Short tail is tipped black. A red fleshy wattle in front of each eye, black-tipped red bill, and the long legs are yellow. In flight, prominent white wing bars formed by the white on the secondary coverts..
Race aigneri is slightly paler and larger than the nominate race and is found in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Indus valley. The nominate race is found all over India. The Sri Lankan race lankae is smaller and dark while atronuchalis the race in north-eastern India and eastern Bangladesh has a white cheek surrounded by black.
Males and females are similar in plumage but males have a 5% longer wing and tend to have a longer carpal spur. The length of the birds is 320-350mm, wing of 208-247mm with the nominate averaging 223mm, Sri Lanka 217mm. The Bill is 31-36mm and tarsus of 70-83mm. Tail length is 104-128mm.
It usually keeps in pairs or trios in well-watered open country, ploughed fields, grazing land, and margins and dry beds of tanks and puddles. They occasionally form large flocks, ranging from 26 to 200 birds. It is also found in forest clearings around rain-filled depressions. It runs about in short spurts and dips forward obliquely (with unflexed legs) to pick up food in a typical plover manner. They are said to feed at night being especially active around the full moon. Is uncannily and ceaselessly vigilant, day or night, and is the first to detect intrusions and raise an alarm, and was therefore considered a nuisance by hunters. Flight rather slow, with deliberate flaps, but capable of remarkable agility when defending nest or being hunted by a hawk.
Its striking appearance is supplemented by its noisy nature, with a loud and scolding did-he-do-it call, uttered both in the day and night.
Leucistic abnormal plumages have been noted.
The local names are mainly onomatopoeic in origin and include titeeri (Hindi), tittibha (Kannada), tateehar (Sindhi), titodi (Gujarati), hatatut (Kashmiri), balighora (Assamese), yennappa chitawa (Telugu), aal-kaati (Tamil, meaning "human indicator").
Distribution:
It breeds from West Asia (Iraq, SW Iran, Persian Gulf) eastwards across South Asia (Baluchistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the entire Indian subcontinent up to Kanyakumari and up to 1800m in Kashmir/Nepal), with another sub-species further east in Southeast Asia. May migrate altitudinally in spring and autumn (e.g. in N. Baluchistan or NW Pakistan), and spreads out widely in the monsoons[13] on creation of requisite habitats, but by and large the populations are resident.
This species is declining in its western range, but is abundant in much of South Asia, being seen at almost any wetland habitat in its range.
Behaviour and ecology:
The breeding season is mainly March to August. The courtship involves the male puffing its feathers and pointing its beak upwards. The male then shuffles around the female. Several males may display to females and they may be close together. The eggs are laid in a ground scrape or depression sometimes fringed with pebbles, goat or hare droppings.[19] About 3–4 black-blotched buff eggs shaped a bit like a peg-top (pyriform), 42x30 mm on average. Nests are difficult to find since the eggs are cryptically coloured and usually matches the ground pattern. In residential areas, they sometimes take to nesting on roof-tops. They have been recorded nesting on the stones between the rails of a railway track, the adult leaving the nest when trains passed. Nests that have been threatened by agricultural operations have been manually translocated by gradually shifting the eggs. When nesting they will attempt to dive bomb or distract potential predators. Both the male and female incubate the eggs and divert predators using distraction displays or flash their wings to deter any herbivores that threaten the nest. Males appear to relieve females incubating at the nest particularly towards the hot part of noon. The eggs hatch in 28 to 30 days. The reproductive success is about 40%. Egg mortality is high (~43%) due to predation by mongooses, crows and kites. Chicks had a lower mortality (8.3%) and their survival improved after the first week.
Like other lapwings, they soak their belly feathers to provide water to their chicks as well as to cool the eggs during hot weather.
The chick leaves the nest and follows the parents soon after hatching
They bathe in pools of water when available and will often spend time on preening when leaving the nest or after copulation. They sometimes rest on the ground with the tarsi laid flat on the ground and at other times may rest on one leg.
Healthy adult birds have few predators and are capable of rapid and agile flight when pursued by hawks or falcons.Some endoparasitic tapeworms and trematodes have been described from the species. Mortality caused by respiratory infection by Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale has been recorded in captive birds in Pakistan.
Diet:
The diet of the lapwing includes a range of insects, snails and other invertebrates, mostly picked from the ground. They may also feed on some grains. They feed mainly during the day but they may also feed at night. They may sometimes make use of the legs to disturb insect prey from soft soil.
In culture:
In parts of India, a local belief is that the bird sleeps on its back with the legs upwards and an associated Hindi metaphor Tithiri se asman thama jayega ("can the lapwing support the heavens?") is used to refer to persons undertaking tasks beyond their ability or strength.
In parts of Rajasthan it is believed that the laying of eggs by the lapwing on high ground was an indication of good rains to come. The eggs are known to be collected by practitioners of folk medicine.
Greenpeace divers hold up a banner that reads "No fish No future" next to a fish aggregation device (FAD). Around 10% of the catch generated by purse seine FAD fisheries is unwanted bycatch and includes endangered species of sharks and turtles. The catch of large amounts of juvenile bigeye and yellowfin tunas in these fisheries is now threatening the survival of these commercially valuable species. Greenpeace is calling for a total ban on the use of fish aggregation devices in purse seining and the establishment of a global network of marine reserves.
Alternatives to Data-Silos: Tools for democratic aggregation
This panel presents results from a series of Berliner Gazette-workshops that started at the conference “Digital Backyards” (October 2012) and “Digital Backyards Japan” (January 2013) asking about alternatives to Google and Facebook; then continued at the hackathon “bottom-up & open” (May 2013) and recently culminated at the conference “Complicity” (November 2013) once again bringing together Hackers and Journalists.
Date: December 7th, 6 p.m. | Format: Panel
Speakers: Markus “fin” Hametner (Onon.at, Vienna), Magdalena Taube (berlinergazette.de, Berlin), Anwen Roberts (Eclisping Binaries, Berlin). Moderation: Lili Masuhr (leidmedien.de)
Location: mindpirates, Schlesische Straße 38, Berlin-Kreuzberg
Photocredit: Andi Weiland | Berlinergazette.de
The parish church of Saints Peter and Paul is a religious building located in Astano , in the Canton of Ticino .
Historical documents mention a chapel built on this site in 1444 , subsequently demolished to make room for the church: built starting in 1636 , it was completed in 1706 .
The church has a single nave plan , topped by a barrel vault with lunettes . On the sides of the nave, 4 side chapels were built , in one of which there is the baptismal font .
Astano is a Swiss municipality of 305 inhabitants in the Canton of Ticino , in the district of Lugano .
The municipality is located in the southwestern terraced region of the middle Malcantone and develops on the flat area at the foot of Mount Rogoria , on the Italian-Swiss border , about 17 km from Lugano , 13 km from Luino , 35 km from Varese .
The old nucleus has numerous buildings of notable architectural value, such as the Ca' da Roma . The monks of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro of Pavia owned property in Astano, while there is news of a monastery of the order of the humiliated in the 13th century ; the assets of the convent, abandoned in the mid- fifteenth century , were registered in the name of the nuns of Santa Caterina di Lugano . Astano became an autonomous parish in 1612 ; the parish church, dedicated to Saint Peter , was built in 1654 on the site of an ancient chapel . The emigration of construction workers brought to light notable figures: the members of the De Marchi and Donati families are well known , but above all the architect Domenico Trezzini . The traditional agricultural activity also included the exploitation of the Alpe di Monte , on the slopes of Mount Rogoria . From the beginning of the 19th century until after the Second World War, the gold deposits of Mount Sceree were exploited .
On 17 August 2004 the merger project for the new municipality of Medio Malcantone was rejected in order to unite Astano, Bedigliora , Curio , Miglieglia and Novaggio . The aggregation was abandoned due to the negative result of the vote of the population of the municipalities concerned on 8 February 2004.
On 26 November 2023, with a consultative popular vote, the proposal for aggregation with the neighboring municipalities of Bedigliora , Curio , Miglieglia and Novaggio to form the new municipality of Lema was approved , thus re-proposing the idea rejected 20 years earlier.
Monuments and places of interest
The parish church of Saints Peter and Paul
Parish Church of Saints Peter and Paul , built in 1654;
Oratory of Sant'Agata , erected in 1665.
Each family originating from the area is part of the so-called patrician municipality and is responsible for the maintenance of every property within the boundaries of the municipality.
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is geographically divided among the Swiss Plateau, the Alps and the Jura; the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, whereas most of the country's population of 9 million are concentrated on the plateau, which hosts its largest cities and economic centres, including Zürich, Geneva and Basel.
Switzerland originates from the Old Swiss Confederacy established in the Late Middle Ages, following a series of military successes against Austria and Burgundy; the Federal Charter of 1291 is considered the country's founding document. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognised in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Switzerland has maintained a policy of armed neutrality since the 16th century and has not fought an international war since 1815. It joined the United Nations only in 2002 but pursues an active foreign policy that includes frequent involvement in peace building.
Switzerland is the birthplace of the Red Cross and hosts the headquarters or offices of most major international institutions, including the WTO, the WHO, the ILO, FIFA, and the United Nations. It is a founding member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), but not part of the European Union (EU), the European Economic Area, or the eurozone; however, it participates in the European single market and the Schengen Area. Switzerland is a federal republic composed of 26 cantons, with federal authorities based in Bern.
Switzerland is one of the world's most developed countries, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Switzerland ranks first in the Human Development Index since 2021 and performs highly also on several international metrics, including economic competitiveness and democratic governance. Cities such as Zürich, Geneva and Basel rank among the highest in terms of quality of life, albeit with some of the highest costs of living.
It has four main linguistic and cultural regions: German, French, Italian and Romansh. Although most Swiss are German-speaking, national identity is fairly cohesive, being rooted in a common historical background, shared values such as federalism and direct democracy, and Alpine symbolism. Swiss identity transcends language, ethnicity, and religion, leading to Switzerland being described as a Willensnation ("nation of volition") rather than a nation state.
Since 1848 the Swiss Confederation has been a federal republic of relatively autonomous cantons, some of which have a history of federation that goes back more than 700 years, putting them among the world's oldest surviving republics.
The early history of the region is tied to that of Alpine culture. Switzerland was inhabited by the Helvetii, and it came under Roman rule in the 1st century BC. The Gallo-Roman culture was amalgamated with Germanic influence during Late Antiquity, with the eastern part of Switzerland becoming Alemannic territory. The area of Switzerland was incorporated into the Frankish Empire in the 6th century. In the High Middle Ages, the eastern part became part of the Duchy of Swabia within the Holy Roman Empire, while the western part was part of Burgundy.
The Old Swiss Confederacy in the Late Middle Ages (the Eight Cantons) established its independence from the House of Habsburg and the Duchy of Burgundy, and in the Italian Wars gained territory south of the Alps from the Duchy of Milan. The Swiss Reformation divided the Confederacy and resulted in a drawn-out history of internal strife between the Thirteen Cantons in the Early Modern period. In the wake of the French Revolution, Switzerland fell to a French invasion in 1798 and was reformed into the Helvetic Republic, a French client state. Napoleon's Act of Mediation in 1803 restored the status of Switzerland as a Confederation, and after the end of the Napoleonic period, the Swiss Confederation underwent a period of turmoil culminating in a brief civil war in 1847 and the creation of a federal constitution in 1848.
The history of Switzerland since 1848 has been largely one of success and prosperity. Industrialisation transformed the traditional agricultural economy, and Swiss neutrality during the World Wars and the success of the banking industry furthered the ascent of Switzerland to its status as one of the world's most stable economies.
Switzerland signed a free-trade agreement with the European Economic Community in 1972 and has participated in the process of European integration by way of bilateral treaties, but it has notably resisted full accession to the European Union (EU) even though its territory almost completely (except for the microstate Liechtenstein) has been surrounded by EU member states since 1995. In 2002, Switzerland joined the United Nations.
Archeological evidence suggests that hunter-gatherers were already settled in the lowlands north of the Alps in the Middle Paleolithic period 150,000 years ago. Agriculture in Switzerland began around 5500 BC. By the Neolithic period, the area was relatively densely populated. Remains of Bronze Age pile dwellings from as early as 3800 BC have been found in the shallow areas of many lakes. Around 1500 BC, Celtic tribes settled in the area. The Raetians lived in the eastern regions, while the west was occupied by the Helvetii.
A female who died in about 200 B.C. was found buried in a carved tree trunk during a construction project at the Kern school complex in March 2017 in Aussersihl. Archaeologists revealed that she was approximately 40 years old when she died and likely carried out little physical labor when she was alive. A sheepskin coat, a belt chain, a fancy wool dress, a scarf and a pendant made of glass, and amber beads were also discovered with the woman.
In 58 BC, the Helvetii tried to evade migratory pressure from Germanic tribes by moving into Gaul, but were defeated by Julius Caesar's armies and then sent back. The alpine region became integrated into the Roman Empire and was extensively romanized in the course of the following centuries. The center of Roman administration was at Aventicum (Avenches). In 259, Alamanni tribes overran the Limes, putting the settlements on Swiss territory on the frontier of the Roman Empire.
With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Germanic tribes entered the area. Burgundians settled in the west; while in the north, Alamanni settlers slowly forced the earlier Celto-Roman population to retreat into the mountains. Burgundy became a part of the kingdom of the Franks in 534; two years later, the dukedom of the Alamans followed suit. In the Alaman-controlled region, only isolated Christian communities continued to exist and Irish monks re-introduced the Christian faith in the early 7th century.
Under the Carolingian kings, the feudal system proliferated, and monasteries and bishoprics were important bases for maintaining the rule. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 assigned Upper Burgundy (the western part of what is today Switzerland) to Lotharingia, and Alemannia (the eastern part) to the eastern kingdom of Louis the German which would become part of the Holy Roman Empire.
In the 10th century, as the rule of the Carolingians waned, Magyars destroyed Basel in 917 and St. Gallen in 926. Only after the victory of King Otto I over the Magyars in 955 in the Battle of Lechfeld, were the Swiss territories reintegrated into the empire.
In the 12th century, the dukes of Zähringen were given authority over part of the Burgundy territories which covered the western part of modern Switzerland. They founded many cities, including Fribourg in 1157, and Bern in 1191. The Zähringer dynasty ended with the death of Berchtold V in 1218, and their cities subsequently became reichsfrei (essentially a city-state within the Holy Roman Empire), while the dukes of Kyburg competed with the house of Habsburg over control of the rural regions of the former Zähringer territory.
Under the Hohenstaufen rule, the alpine passes in Raetia and the St Gotthard Pass gained importance. The latter especially became an important direct route through the mountains. Uri (in 1231) and Schwyz (in 1240) were accorded the Reichsfreiheit to grant the empire direct control over the mountain pass. Most of the territory of Unterwalden at this time belonged to monasteries that had previously become reichsfrei.
The extinction of the Kyburg dynasty paved the way for the Habsburg dynasty to bring much of the territory south of the Rhine under their control, aiding their rise to power. Rudolph of Habsburg, who became King of Germany in 1273, effectively revoked the status of Reichsfreiheit granted to the "Forest Cantons" of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden. The Forest Cantons thus lost their independent status and were governed by reeves.
By 1353, the three original cantons had been joined by the cantons of Glarus and Zug and the city-states of Lucerne, Zürich, and Bern, forming the "Old Federation" of eight states that persisted during much of the 15th century. The Holy Roman Empire built roads and bridges to connect the industrial region of north Italy with the Rhine (linked with the other industrial area of Middle Age Europe, the Burgundian Netherlands), making the peasants and bankers on the road rich, allowing them to buy specialized Italian armor and to stop paying the road collecting taxes to the Empire who built the road. At the Battle of Sempach in 1386, the Swiss defeated the Habsburgs, gaining increased autonomy within the Holy Roman Empire.
Zürich was expelled from the Confederation from 1440 to 1450 due to a conflict over the territory of Toggenburg (the Old Zürich War). The Confederation's power and wealth increased significantly, with victories over Charles the Bold of Burgundy during the Burgundian Wars (1474–1477), greatly due to the success of the Swiss mercenaries, a powerful infantry force constituted by professional soldiers originally from the cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy. They were notable for their service in foreign armies, especially among the military forces of the Kings of France, throughout the Early Modern period of European history, from the Late Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Their service as mercenaries was at its peak during the Renaissance when their proven battlefield capabilities made them sought-after mercenary troops. The traditional listing order of the cantons of Switzerland reflects this state, listing the eight "Old Cantons" first, with the city-states preceding the founding cantons, followed by cantons that joined the Confederation after 1481, in historical order.
The Swiss defeated the Swabian League in 1499 and gained greater collective autonomy within the Holy Roman Empire, including exemption from the Imperial reforms of 1495 and immunity from most Imperial courts. In 1506, Pope Julius II engaged the Swiss Guard, which continues to serve the papacy to the present day. The expansion of the Confederation and the reputation of invincibility acquired during the earlier wars suffered its first setback in 1515 with the Swiss defeat in the Battle of Marignano and Battle of Bicocca.
The Reformation in Switzerland began in 1523, led by Huldrych Zwingli, priest of the Great Minster church in Zürich since 1518. Zürich adopted the Protestant religion, joined by Berne, Basel, and Schaffhausen, while Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Nidwalden, Zug, Fribourg, and Solothurn remained Catholic. Glarus and Appenzell were split. This led to multiple inter-cantonal religious wars (Kappeler Kriege) in 1529 and 1531, as each canton usually made the opposing religion illegal, and to the formation of two diets, the Protestant one meeting in Aarau and the Catholic one in Lucerne (as well as the formal full diet still meeting usually in Baden), despite this the Confederation survived.
During the Thirty Years' War, Switzerland was a relative "oasis of peace and prosperity" (Grimmelshausen) in war-torn Europe, mostly because all major powers in Europe depended on Swiss mercenaries, and would not let Switzerland fall into the hands of one of their rivals. Politically, they all tried to take influence, by way of mercenary commanders such as Jörg Jenatsch or Johann Rudolf Wettstein. The Drei Bünde of Grisons, at that point not yet a member of the Confederacy, were involved in the war from 1620, which led to their loss of the Valtellina in 1623.
At the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, Switzerland attained legal independence from the Holy Roman Empire. The Valtellina became a dependency of the Drei Bünde again after the Treaty and remained so until the founding of the Cisalpine Republic by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1797.
In 1653, peasants of territories subject to Lucerne, Bern, Solothurn, and Basel revolted because of currency devaluation. Although the authorities prevailed in this Swiss peasant war, they did pass some tax reforms and the incident in the long term prevented an absolutist development as would occur at some other courts of Europe. The confessional tensions remained, however, and erupted again in the First War of Villmergen, in 1656, and the Toggenburg War (or Second War of Villmergen), in 1712.
During the French Revolutionary Wars, the French army invaded Switzerland and turned it into an ally known as the "Helvetic Republic" (1798–1803). It had a central government with little role for cantons. The interference with localism and traditional liberties was deeply resented, although some modernizing reforms took place.
Resistance was strongest in the more traditional Catholic bastions, with armed uprisings breaking out in spring 1798 in the central part of Switzerland. The French Army suppressed the uprisings but support for revolutionary ideas steadily declined. The reform element was weak, and most Swiss resented their loss of local democracy, centralization, new taxes, warfare, and hostility to religion.
Major steps taken to emancipate the Jews included the repeal of special taxes and oaths in 1798. However, many such reforms were turned back in 1815, and not until 1879 were the Jews granted equal rights with the Christians.
In 1803, Napoleon's Act of Mediation partially restored the sovereignty of the cantons, and the former tributary and allied territories of Aargau, Thurgau, Grisons, St. Gallen, Vaud, and Ticino became cantons with equal rights. Napoleon and his enemies fought numerous campaigns in Switzerland that ruined many localities.
The Congress of Vienna of 1814–15 fully re-established Swiss independence and the European powers agreed to recognize permanent Swiss neutrality. At this time, Valais, Neuchâtel, and Geneva also joined Switzerland as new cantons, thereby extending Swiss territory to its current boundaries.
The long-term impact of the French Revolution has been assessed (by William Martin):
It proclaimed the equality of citizens before the law, equality of languages, and freedom of thought and faith; it created Swiss citizenship, the basis of our modern nationality, and the separation of powers, of which the old regime had no conception; it suppressed internal tariffs and other economic restraints; it unified weights and measures, reformed civil and penal law, authorized mixed marriages (between Catholics and Protestants), suppressed torture and improved justice; it developed education and public works.
On 6 April 1814, the so-called "Long Diet" (delegates from all the nineteen cantons) met at Zürich to replace the constitution.
Cantonal constitutions were worked out independently from 1814, in general restoring the late feudal conditions of the 17th and 18th centuries. The Tagsatzung was reorganized by the Federal Treaty (Bundesvertrag) of 7 August 1815.
The liberal Free Democratic Party of Switzerland was strong in the largely Protestant cantons and obtained the majority in the Federal Diet in the early 1840s. It proposed a new Constitution for the Swiss Confederation which would draw the several cantons into a closer relationship. In addition to the centralization of the Swiss government, the new Constitution also included protections for trade and other progressive reform measures. The Federal Diet, with the approval of a majority of cantons, had taken measures against the Catholic Church such as the closure of monasteries and convents in Aargau in 1841, and the seizure of their properties. Catholic Lucerne, in retaliation,1844 recalled the Jesuits to head its education. That succeeded and seven Catholic cantons formed the "Sonderbund." This caused a liberal-radical move in the Protestant cantons to take control of the national Diet in 1847. The Diet ordered the Sonderbund dissolved, igniting a small-scale civil war against rural cantons that were strongholds of pro-Catholic ultramontanism.
The Radical-liberal-Protestant element charged that the Sonderbund violated the Federal Treaty of 1815, § 6 of which expressly forbade such separate alliances. Forming a majority in the Tagsatzung they decided to dissolve the Sonderbund on October 21, 1847. The odds were against the Catholics, who were heavily outnumbered in population; they were outnumbered in soldiers by 79,000 to 99,000 and lacked enough well-trained soldiers, officers, and generals. When the Sonderbund refused to disband, the national army attacked in a brief civil war between the Catholic and the Protestant cantons, known as the Sonderbundskrieg ("Sonderbund War".) The national army was composed of soldiers from all the other cantons except Neuchâtel and Appenzell Innerrhoden (which remained neutral). The Sonderbund was easily defeated in less than a month; there were about 130 killed. Apart from small riots, this was the last armed conflict on Swiss territory. Many Sonderbund leaders fled to Italy, but the victors were generous. They invited the defeated cantons to join them in a program of federal reform, and a new constitution was drafted along American lines. National issues were to be under the control of the national parliament, and the Jesuits were expelled. The Swiss voted heavily in favor of the new constitution by 2 million against 300,000. Switzerland became calm. However, conservatives around Europe became frightened and prepared their forces to meet possible challenges, which indeed soon exploded the Revolutions of 1848. In those violent revolutions, outside Switzerland, the conservatives were always successful.
As a consequence of the civil war, Switzerland adopted a federal constitution in 1848, amending it extensively in 1874 and establishing federal responsibility for defense, trade, and legal matters, leaving all other matters to the cantonal governments. From then, and over much of the 20th century, continuous political, economic, and social improvement has characterized Swiss history.
While Switzerland was primarily rural, the cities experienced an industrial revolution in the late 19th century, focused especially on textiles. In Basel, for example, textiles, including silk, were the leading industry. In 1888 women made up 44% of the wage earners. Nearly half the women worked in the textile mills, with household servants as the second largest job category. The share of women in the workforce was higher between 1890 and 1910 than it was in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Swiss Universities in the late 19th century are notable for the number of female students receiving medical education.
The major powers respected Switzerland's neutrality during World War I. In the Grimm–Hoffmann Affair, the Allies denounced a proposal by one politician to negotiate peace on the Eastern Front; they wanted the war there to continue to tie Germany down.
While the industrial sector began to grow in the mid-19th century, Switzerland's emergence as one of the most prosperous nations in Europe—the "Swiss miracle"—was a development of the short 20th century, among other things tied to the role of Switzerland during the World Wars.
Germany considered invading Switzerland during World War II but never attacked. Under General Henri Guisan, the Swiss army prepared for the mass mobilization of militia forces against invasion and prepared strong, well-stockpiled positions high in the Alps known as the Réduit. Switzerland remained independent and neutral through a combination of military deterrence, economic concessions to Germany, and good fortune as larger events during the war delayed an invasion.
Attempts by Switzerland's small Nazi party to cause an Anschluss with Germany failed miserably, largely due to Switzerland's multicultural heritage, a strong sense of national identity, and long tradition of direct democracy and civil liberties. The Swiss press vigorously criticized the Third Reich, often infuriating German leaders. Switzerland was an important base for espionage by both sides in the conflict and often mediated communications between the Axis and Allied powers.
Switzerland's trade was blockaded by both the Allies and the Axis. Both sides openly exerted pressure on Switzerland not to trade with the other. Economic cooperation and extension of credit to the Third Reich varied according to the perceived likelihood of invasion, and the availability of other trading partners. Concessions reached their zenith after a crucial rail link through Vichy France was severed in 1942, leaving Switzerland surrounded by the Axis. Switzerland relied on trade for half of its food and essentially all of its fuel, but controlled vital trans-alpine rail tunnels between Germany and Italy.
Switzerland's most important exports during the war were precision machine tools, watches, jewel bearings (used in bombsights), electricity, and dairy products. During World War Two, the Swiss franc was the only remaining major freely convertible currency in the world, and both the Allies and the Germans sold large amounts of gold to the Swiss National Bank. Between 1940 and 1945, the German Reichsbank sold 1.3 billion francs worth of gold to Swiss Banks in exchange for Swiss francs and other foreign currency.
Hundreds of millions of francs worth of this gold was monetary gold plundered from the central banks of occupied countries. 581,000 francs of "Melmer" gold taken from Holocaust victims in eastern Europe was sold to Swiss banks. In total, trade between Germany and Switzerland contributed about 0.5% to the German war effort but did not significantly lengthen the war.
Over the course of the war, Switzerland interned 300,000 refugees. 104,000 of these were foreign troops interned according to the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers outlined in the Hague Conventions. The rest were foreign civilians and were either interned or granted tolerance or residence permits by the cantonal authorities. Refugees were not allowed to hold jobs. 60,000 of the refugees were civilians escaping persecution by the Nazis. Of these, 26,000 to 27,000 were Jews. Between 10,000 and 25,000 civilian refugees were refused entry. At the beginning of the war, Switzerland had a Jewish population of between 18,000 and 28,000 and a total population of about 4 million.
Within Switzerland at the time of the conflict, there was moderate polarization. Some were pacifists. Some took sides according to international capitalism or international communism. Others leaned more towards their language group, with some in French-speaking areas more pro-Allied, and some in Swiss-German areas more pro-Axis. The government attempted to thwart the activities of any individual, party, or faction in Switzerland that acted with extremism or attempted to break the unity of the nation. The Swiss-German speaking areas moved linguistically further away from the standard (high) German spoken in Germany, with more emphasis on local Swiss dialects.
In the 1960s, significant controversy arose among historians regarding the nation's relations with Nazi Germany.
By the 1990s the controversies included a class-action lawsuit brought in New York over Jewish assets in Holocaust-era bank accounts. The government commissioned an authoritative study of Switzerland's interaction with the Nazi regime. The final report by this independent panel of international scholars, known as the Bergier Commission, was issued in 2002.
During the Cold War, Swiss authorities considered the construction of a Swiss nuclear bomb. Leading nuclear physicists at the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich such as Paul Scherrer made this a realistic possibility. However, financial problems with the defense budget prevented substantial funds from being allocated, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968 was seen as a valid alternative. All remaining plans for building nuclear weapons were dropped by 1988.
From 1959, the Federal Council, elected by the parliament, is composed of members of the four major parties, the Protestant Free Democrats, the Catholic Christian Democrats, the left-wing Social Democrats, and the right-wing People's Party, essentially creating a system without a sizeable parliamentary opposition (see concordance system), reflecting the powerful position of an opposition in a direct democracy.
In 1963, Switzerland joined the Council of Europe. In 1979, parts of the canton of Bern attained independence, forming the new canton of Jura.
Switzerland's role in many United Nations and international organizations helped to mitigate the country's concern for neutrality. In 2002, Switzerland voters gave 55% of their vote in favour of the UN and joined the United Nations. This followed decades of debate and its previous rejection of membership in 1986 by a 3-1 popular vote.
Swiss women gained the right to vote in national-level elections in 1971, and an equal rights amendment was ratified in 1981, however it was not until 1990 that the courts established full nationwide voting rights for women in all elections.
Switzerland is not a member state of the EU but has been (together with Liechtenstein) surrounded by EU territory since the joining of Austria in 1995. In 2005, Switzerland agreed to join the Schengen treaty and Dublin Convention by popular vote. In February 2014, Swiss voters approved a referendum to reinstitute quotas on immigration to Switzerland, setting off a period of finding an implementation that would not violate the EU's freedom of movement accords that Switzerland adopted.
Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Switzerland decided to adopt all EU sanctions against Russia. According to the Swiss President Ignazio Cassis, the measures were "unprecedented but consistent with Swiss neutrality". The administration also confirmed that Switzerland would continue to offer its services to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. Switzerland only participates in humanitarian missions and provides relief supplies to the Ukrainian population and neighbouring countries.
Little Haldon, Devon
Small aggregation of these wasps nesting in a exposed bank by a metal gate. They were seen coming and going with a variety of different fly species.
Alternatives to Data-Silos: Tools for democratic aggregation
This panel presents results from a series of Berliner Gazette-workshops that started at the conference “Digital Backyards” (October 2012) and “Digital Backyards Japan” (January 2013) asking about alternatives to Google and Facebook; then continued at the hackathon “bottom-up & open” (May 2013) and recently culminated at the conference “Complicity” (November 2013) once again bringing together Hackers and Journalists.
Date: December 7th, 6 p.m. | Format: Panel
Speakers: Markus “fin” Hametner (Onon.at, Vienna), Magdalena Taube (berlinergazette.de, Berlin), Anwen Roberts (Eclisping Binaries, Berlin). Moderation: Lili Masuhr (leidmedien.de)
Location: mindpirates, Schlesische Straße 38, Berlin-Kreuzberg
Photocredit: Andi Weiland | Berlinergazette.de