Visualizing tweeting journalists in Switzerland
Geoinformation specialist Ralph Straumann (@ralphstraumann) has used a 300-strong crowdsourced list of tweeting journalists in Switzerland to create an interesting visual representation of their influence and relationships.
You can read his full post here. If you don’t speak German, the first graphic essentially shows the various networks of journalists as represented by their connections among each other. The size of the name is determined by the number of other journalists in the network who follow them. Straumann has used different colors to represent different clusters of journalists who are more closely linked to each other than to the rest of the list. He suggests that the dark blue group on the right are likely to be journalists from Germany, as they are slightly apart from the main network.
The second graphic shows the journalists’ influence among the general public. This is measured by the number of followers in general, not just the number of followers also on the list. Here the prominence is slightly different, boosting Straumann’s claim that the dark blue group are likely to be German because they have a larger number of general followers – Germany providing a bigger pool of potential followers than Switzerland.
What I find interesting is that most of the foreign newswire journalists (e.g. @katharinabart, @ethomasson, myself) are clustered together in the top right of the graphic, in the yellow group. I would be curious to know what the yellow group represents (focus national political and economic news about Switzerland?) and why we’re not well connected with any of the other groups. Any ideas?
Tram to FIFA
The other day I was trying to figure out how to get from Zurich’s main station to FIFA by public transport. I knew there was a tram, but I didn’t know which one. FIFA’s stop isn’t separately marked. Turns out, you need to take the number 6 tram to ‘Zoo’, and get out at the last stop. Yes, the zoo is FIFA.
Having a ball: Swiss robot rolls on single sphere, could someday serve as cocktail waitress
N.B.: Some stories don’t pass the careful muster of editors, and the below article on a robot called Rezero is one of them. Having failed to get it published on the wire, I offer it to readers here instead.
Whirring gently in the cavernous courtyard of a Swiss university stands a three-foot tall machine doing its best to defy the law of gravity.
Passing students smile and point as the robot succeeds in balancing its 30-pound frame on a sphere the size of a basketball.
Then, with a gentle push, it begins to glide across the stone floor using small electric motors to roll the ball. All the while sophisticated sensors measure the robot’s position 160 times a second to ensure it doesn’t topple and smash to the ground.
What appears at first to be no more than a circus act is in fact a revolution in robotics that experts say could finally make robots a commonplace feature in homes and public spaces from toys to little helpers.
By using a single ball the robot can move in any direction and turn on the spot. And unlike droids with two legs or wheels, the device is stable even when it speeds around corners carrying heavy loads.
Two students at Zurich's Federal Institute of Technology put together the robot they dubbed 'Rezero' for a demonstration
“I’d like to compare it with an ice dancer” says Simon Doessegger, patting the robot as it purrs obediently by his side during a recent interview.
Doessegger is part of a 13-strong team at Zurich’s Federal Institute of Technology that spent eight months building the robot as an undergraduate project partly funded by The Walt Disney Co.
The Los Angeles-based entertainment giant says the research grant “is just one example of Disney’s support of education programs around the world.” Asked about possible uses in Disney’s movies and theme parks spokesman Michael Griffin said it was “too early to speculate how the great work of these creative students might be used.”
The same applies to a project the company is sponsoring at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where the first ballbot was created four years ago, he said.
Doesegger likewise plays down any talk of commercial applications in the near future, despite the fact that Rezero drew large crowds at the world’s largest robotics fair in Munich, Germany, earlier this year.
Children in particular delighted in the robot’s near-human reactions when it was programmed to follow them around, keep a set distance or respond to a playful prod.
Carnegie Mellon engineering professor Ralph Hollis, whose work along with that of Masaaki Kumagai at Japan’s Tohoku Gakuin University provided the inspiration for the Swiss project, said it was precisely that kind of docile, compliant behavior which most surprised him when he first built a ballbot in 2006.
“You can push it around with just a single finger,” Hollis said, adding that CMU plans to equip their robot with arms and test it in crowd situations soon to see whether it can handle the grace and dexterity required of, say, a cocktail waitress.
In the long term they might also be used as household helpers, carrying things around and preparing simple meals for their owners, said Hollis.
One problem all ballbots still face is that when their power is shut off, they fall over. And climbing stairs is one hurdle they’ll likely never take.
But on flat surfaces, Hollis, Kumagai and Doessegger agree, ballbots are better placed to move around human environments than either bipedal or large, wheeled robots.
The Swiss team has already created a smooth fabric shell for its robot that makes it look a bit like a large bowling pin. Computer mock-ups show alternative casings, including as mobile displays, tourist guides and even outlandish vehicles large enough for a single person to scoot around on piggy-back style.
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Online:
Rezero project: http://www.rezero.ethz.ch/project_en.html
Carnie Mellon ballbot project: http://www.msl.ri.cmu.edu/projects/ballbot/
Video: Swiss lawmakers react after vote rejecting UBS tax evasion deal
Source: bundeshausTV.ch
Swiss corporate bonuses
Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung has published a list of the managers who received the highest bonus payments for 2009. Here is the top 10:
- Daniel Vasella, Chairman of Novartis, CHF 42 million
- Franz Humer, Chairman of Roche, CHF 16.4 million
- Severin Schwan, CEO of Roche, CHF 12.1 million
- James Schiro, former CEO of Zurich Financial, CHF 11.8 million
- Paul Bulcke, CEO of Nestle, CHF 10 million
- Johannes de Gier, CEO of GAM Holding, CHF 7.8 million
- Peter Brabeck, Chairman of Nestle, CHF 7.5 million
- Alfred Schindler, Chairman of Schindler, CHF 7.4 million
- Hansjoerg Wyss, Chairman of Synthes, CHF 6.7 million
- Patrick de Maeseneire, former CEO of Barry Callebaut, CHF 6.2 million
Sunday Avalanche
France vs. Romandie
Some expressions in French, and their equivalents in the French-speaking Swiss region known as the ‘Romandie’
bonjour = adieu
hésiter = être sur le ballant
être enceinte = avoir le ballon
faire une bise = donner un bec
heurte quelqu’un = biller dans quelqu’un
tout va vien = rien que de bon
il y a un incendie = il brûle
le père Noël = le père Chalande
en désordre = en cheni
moi-même = mé-col
de toute façon = comme que comme
sur le derrière = cul-plat
poser une question = demander une question
en plein midi = en plein dian
nom de Dieu = nom de d’zou
c’est incroyable = c’est épuvantable
excusez-moi = faites-excuse
c’est drôle = c’est parce
en France = sur France
une goutte d’alcool = une giclée d’alcool
peut-être = par hasard
le soleil = le Jean Rosset
sortir = aller loin
faire du tapage = mener le diable
abattu = tout moindre
deux fois plus = la moitié plus
dormir = faire nô-nô
une baguette = un pain parisien
comme = quoi pour
manger seul = faire le Suisse
ça va = ca veut
(thanks to Jean, who taught me a little bit of Swiss French)
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About
Musings of a wire reporter in Berlin. Feel free to contact me with your questions about journalism, Germany, or anything else I write about on this blog.
