Playlist for December 29, 2010

This playlist does not reflect the news, features, PSA's and other announcements made during the show.
The show started a half hour early, time for more features...

William Tell, comic strip hero

Swissinfo has an interview with graphic artist and comic book creator David Boller here
The audio interview is on Eurobureau of December 29, 2010, and you can hear it on the Swissinfo site.

David Boller's website Zampano

Happy Turkey Day

If you don't want to eat meat but would like to have a rosted turkey on your thanksgiving table then the inflatable turkey is for you. Doesn't it look delicious? Eurobureau co-host JJ Crashbang brought this to the show on 11/24/2010 and it certainly brought a festive atmosphere to the studio. It smelled wonderfully aromatic like vinyl, too.

Caganer figures from Catalan

caganer.com

Sziget.hu - Festival 2010

Huge music festival this week in Budapest held on the "Old-Buda Island" on the Danube. Sziget.hu - Festival 2010. Nina Hagen's performing? Wow, wish I could be there.

Swiss hemp farmer on hunger strike. Force feed him?

A man who has been on a hunger strike since his imprisonment for growing and trading in cannabis continues to confuse the authorities about how they should react.

Bernard Rappaz is now in Bern’s Insel hospital and doctors have been told by Esther Waeber-Kalbermatten, a member of the Valais government who is responsible for the dossier, to force-feed him to keep him alive.

Concern over cannabis cultivator's hunger strike. - swissinfo

Worlds slowest sports car

Is it a Porsche? It's the Ferdinand GT3 RS

It's so light because it does not have an engine. It's quiet. It has lots of cargo room. It's slow. It's beautiful. If you can, watch the video. It's amazingly funny.

Champs Elysées becomes a farm

This past weekend, the Champs Elysées in Paris has become a farm. Here are some images from BBC.

World Press Photo Winners 2010

Just follow this link

Miss Platinum - Marry me (featuring Peter Foxx)

Miss Platinum - Give me the food

Roche and RBC named “most unscrupulous” firms

The Basel-based pharmaceutical giant Roche and the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) are this year’s recipients of the Public Eye Award in Davos.

Presented on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in the Swiss resort, the annual awards are intended to remind big global players that socially and environmentally destructive business practices have consequences – in this case for the image of the company.

In the words of the organisers, the Berne Declaration and Greenpeace Switzerland, “we present shame-on-you awards to the nastiest corporate players of the year”.

The RBC, described by the organisers as “the world’s filthiest ATM”, won this year’s Global Award for “facilitating the extraction of oil from tar sands in Alberta like no other financial institution”.

Roche picked up this year’s Swiss Award in addition to the People’s Award for its involvement in organ transplantation drugs in China. The Public Eye says some 10,000 organ transplants take place a year in China, with the vast majority of organs coming from executed prisoners.

Roche were not immediately available for comment.

For the first time a “Greenwash” prize was given to firms that use a “social-environmental fig leaf” to make it look greener than it is.

According to the Public Eye judges, companies such as Nestlé, Coca-Cola and Dow Chemical claim to work with the United Nations and aid organisations to combat the water crisis, but in fact further their policy of water privatisation without regard for existing environmental or social standards – only with a UN stamp.

swissinfo.ch and agencies

Calculating your Christmas feast carbon footprint

Christmas feast, and calculating your carbon footprint

Czech photographer: hippos devour a crocodile

“It’s the kind of photograph you get to take once in a lifetime – if you get lucky” that’s how Czech photographer Václav Šilha describes the photo that millions of people admired on the web within hours of it being posted. On a three-day trip around Serengeti National Park in Tanzania Šilha captured a herd of hippos devouring a crocodile. The photographer says that this is something that rarely happens – usually hippos and crocodiles respect each other and seek their prey elsewhere but in this case the crocodile came too close to a mother with young and in the skirmish that ensued climbed onto a hippo’s back. He was immediately attacked and killed by the herd. There are few photos on which the feared crocodile is seen as the prey - Šilha says some of his colleague photographers had seen such a thing happen but had never been lucky enough to snap it.

Link to a photo series

Music competition for European minority languages

Leeuwarden, Netherlands (CNN) — “This is the outfit our parents wore when they used to go out to dance. It’s a traditional outfit,” jokes Riemelmeester Malde.

Malde is addressing a theater audience in Friesland in the northern Netherlands where he and his bandmates are about to perform in their native Low German dialect at Liet International, a song contest for European minority languages.

But Malde’s band is a rap trio rather than a folk troupe and their outfits are anything but traditional: boiler suits adorned with yellow and black hazard tape and garish hip hop baseball caps. Their instruments are laptops, microphones and loudhailers and, as their name suggests, De fofftig Penns owe more to 50 Cent than their Lower Saxony origins.

“We try not to have anything too middle of the road. Our contest is about new songs. The variety and originality are important,” Liet coordinator Onno Falkena told CNN ahead of Saturday night’s final in Leeuwarden, the Frisian capital.

read more at liet.nl

Swiss to vote on constitutional ban on building minarets

Are soaring towers on mosques a threat to Swiss culture or a sign of tolerance and democracy? Currently there are only four minarets in the whole country.

This election poster has been banned in several cities because it was deemed to be racist.

On November 29, the Swiss will decide on whether to ban the construction of minarets. As the debate heats up, swissinfo.ch explores the issues behind the vote.

Kim Kelly and Kim Nelson are modeling the handknit scarves from Switzerland. Eurobureau host Simon received the scarves from his cousins who knit and knit and knit some more. Last year it was socks for the pledge drive, this year it's two scarves. They're over 6 feet long and about 10 inches wide, and were knit during the first part of 2009.

A sustaining membership of $120 or more will make one of these scarves yours. Call (707) 923-3911 if you're interested.

Merci!

Schnitzer, a band from Zuerich

I'm excited to present you with the new album by Schnitzer. Very catchy, cool guitar work. There's only one song I can't play on the radio due to some f-words. Check 'em out on their Myspace page.

Solar Impulse has been unveiled

Bertrand Piccard's latest venture, a solar plane to circle the globe with, has been unveiled.

Find out much more on the website solarimpulse.com

Phenomden music video

A simple, cool video by Swiss reggae artist Phenomden: