nErD aLeRt!

Now a spectacular new project is underway in Switzerland that immediately drew my attention: a skyscraper in the middle of the mountains. The location is the village of Vals, in the canton of Graubünden. Even in multilingual Switzerland, Graubünden is remarkable: with native speakers of Swiss German, Italian, and Romansh, it is the country’s only trilingual canton. This spot in a beautiful arm of the Anterior Rhine valley is home to about 1,000 people. Approximately the same number of sheep are said to live there as well, but perhaps that’s just a rumor. The planned building will be 80 stories tall and soar 1,250 feet into the sky. That’s 23 feet higher than the Federation Tower in Moscow – which currently qualifies as Europe’s tallest building – and exactly as tall as the Empire State Building minus the antenna. (via)

why not? well, a million reasons actually...

thx lube!

europe is just a bunch of lines on a map

via watch the border change over the course of history. it never has quite settled down over there.

our blessed mother TINA TURNER is getting gay married to her boyfriend

congrats tina.

we wish you all the happiness in the world. sitting on a pile of money in switzerland.

this is what it would be like to have a house inside a swiss olympic bobsled stadium

In Residence: Rolf Sachs on Nowness.com.

check it out

important tina turner citizenship news!!

Those famous legs will soon no longer be the famous legs of an American: Tina Turner is handing in her U.S. passport and becoming a Swiss citizen. It's not quite as nefarious as Gerard Depardieu's exodus from France — though inevitably comparisons will be made, Fox News — since, according to the AFP, the Tennessee-born singer has lived in Switzerland since 1995, when she moved along with her partner, Erwin Bach, a German record executive. (via)

verlaustan halbstark - new style icons in my book

“The innocent young Swiss had a way of getting their Americana slightly wrong, which is quite hilarious, and touching. They use all sorts of stuff as jewelry — old bullets become a belt, a big padlock is hung low like a chastity belt — and the skull and crossbones pirate symbol shows up everywhere, a symbol of their aspiration to be badasses.” via

east tennessee : the switzerland of america!

the famously racist region of the state gets an entire DISUNION post dedicated to how un-racist it used to be.

East Tennessee, wrote a pamphleteer shortly after the end of the Civil War, had long been considered the Switzerland of America. “Its towering mountains locking up deep, rich and verdant valleys and coves, its succession of ridges and valleys, its magnificent forests, its roaring streams, the general fertility of the soil, the glory of the climate, the salubrity of the atmosphere, the sublimity, beauty and picturesqueness of the scenery, the freshness and voluptuous abundance of the country, all conspire to make it one of the most desirable spots in America.”

The two regions had more in common than just natural beauty. East Tennessee was fiercely independent and often contrarian in its political currents, especially during the Civil War. When Middle and West Tennessee citizens voted on June 8, 1861 to join the Confederacy, most East Tennessee voters rejected the call. It would remain a thorn in the eyes of the Confederate republic, and an enticing and romantic rallying cry for the Union—even though its complex views on race and the government would vex both contemporaries and historians for decades to come. (via)