Janne K. Flisrand

Photo of a very, very steep hillside covered in vineyards, sloping down to a large lake. There is a very tiny road at the bottom of the hill, and if you peer closely you can see dots that are cars.

The cars on the Lake Geneva lakeshore road show the scale of the Lavaux vineyards. They stretch a continuous 30km, all more and less steeply terraced. They've been vineyards since Roman times, terraced for almost 1,000 years.

I don't think so.

I can offer two hypotheses.
1: To make space when the platform is very busy,
2: (as is often seen in Switzerland) to make public spaces playful places.

There's a lot of "because we can" here. Swiss design is often both functional and delightful.

Taking this video put me at risk of missing my transfer - hence the wobbly video.

I love these gracefully weighted chairs on the train platforms in Renens, Switzerland.

Das stimmt!

More train station views. (It was a lake and mountains the other direction.)

A small room with a peach stone floor, walls floor-to-ceilinf full of midnight blue drawers, and an intricately painted ceiling.

Stumbled across a beautiful monastery library in Fischingen, Switzerland, on my way to a brewery tour.

I lived in Zaïre in the 90s. I spent 18 months trying to wrap my head around how "news" worked - because of exactly this.

It was the height of the AIDS epidemic. As a 23-year-old Minnesotan, I knew what people were saying was off, but I could make no sense of why they said or believe it.

Frey's rivals have raised as much $ as he has BUT he has $500K cash-on-hand + his millionaire PACS are ready. 3 rivals have less than $100k; Fateh's at $55K, Hampton at $20K Davis is under $10k. That's why they all need donations now. It's also why they have to work together. #mayorpalooza tomorrow!

Unrelated, those sidewalks are totally disintegrating.

She raised you both right.

Photo of a green meadow with a farmhouse and an aquamarine lake and mountains in the distance through a train window. The window is broken by a frame that is at a very steep angle, contrasting with the horizontal of the lake shore.

Comparing the lakeshore and the window frame show the steep grade of Switzerland's Rigi cog train tracks.

Will Minneapolis’ Somali voters decide the mayoral race between Jacob Frey and Omar Fateh? Jacob Frey and Omar Fateh are competing for the Somali vote in the Minneapolis mayoral election.

kind of stunned that this lengthy @sahanjournal.bsky.social piece examining both Frey's and Fateh's support in the Somali community quotes zero women
sahanjournal.com/democracy-po...

Taxidermied frogs playing dominoes

Taxidermied frogs in a classroom

Taxidermied frogs playing poker and singing around a piano

Taxidermied frogs playing pool and poker

A guy gave his collection of frogs taxidermied 150 years ago to his local museum, they're without context and amazing. bsky.app/profile/jann...

Gravel walking path lined by trees that part to show a foundation built of very large rocks der in mortar. The edge of a river is visible between trees on the right.

The oldest building in #Zürich peeking through next to a very high #Limmat river, letting water out of the lake at high speed presumably due to extreme heavy rains.

Giant Swiss flag torn by the wind at the foot of mountain A giant Swiss flag tore as it was rolled out on a grassy slope at the foot of a mountain ahead of August 1 National Day celebrations.

Imagine living somewhere where this is newsworthy.

(It is the National Day, socially like the 4th of July.)

The flag measures 80 metres by 80 metres and weighs 700 kg.

I love Schanzengraben.

It's in Amtshaus IV, and is especially impressive compared to the model showing the city in 1700 at Neumarkt 4, Haus zum Rech.

A dozen blocks of a wooden city model showing small and large buildings. Even tiny courtyard buildings, roof slopes, after-construction elevator additions, side sheds are shown.

Look at the detail on this wooden city model! The room in Zürich where is located is downtown and open to the public. 2/2

Almost unending wooden scale model of a city, with thousands of buildings down in the frame. The model blurred off the edge of all sides of the photo.

The city of #Zürich has a scale model of the city, showing the topography and every existing building (and planned buildings). It's enormous! 1/2

To me, this is the most important chart in the study. It compares the sale price of housing in these zones before and after redevelopment. For 2-unit projects, the price of the new homes is 80% higher than the original house. This falls as the number of replacement homes rises.

If you're a nerd like I am and are interested in minimum standards for bike lanes widths, we should follow the Dutch recommendations of a minimum of about 7 feet for *one-way* bicycle lanes.

And, it's everywhere!

Looking up at the crowns of several trees, each is pruned to have 6-8 main branches spoking horizontally from the trunk. As a group, they provide a solid sheet of green leaves thick enough to provide dense shade.

Two-dimensionally pruned trees shade patios in #Zürich and across much of Europe.

In the foreground, a table with a beer bottle and a wine glass next to a railing. In the background, several red and white and blue trains. Beyond that, tallish buildings.

Excellent view from this second-story happy hour patio in #Zürich

Ich wünschte, Zürich hätte solche Velofreunde

Ich wünschte, Zürich hätte solche Velofreunde

Bike with a Buddy.
We're looking especially for more parents who can volunteer with us to buddy up with people new to biking with kids.

Also folks, just bike with a buddy this summer -- with your friends, family, neighbors. It's fun! And it's world-changing.