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ouinon1

Obviously, if you saw the above sculpture on top of a pole in downtown Geneva, you probably wouldn't have even stopped to admire it. It just looks like a bunch of distorted oversized wires. But suddenly, as you walk this way or that, the juxtaposition of these wires start to play with each other. They start to mean something. As you try not to trip over the curb, you don’t want to take your eyes off it, for fear of missing a millisecond of the new shape emerging! Amazingly, on one extreme you can make out the word OUI in French. On the other side of the square, you make out the word NON. It is quite amazing and brings to mind other works that the artist has worked on in the past.

The artist, Markus Raetz, entitled this work simply OUI/NON. It was finished in 2000 and erected in 2001 on the Rue du Rhône (at Place de la Fusterie) in downtown Geneva. Markus Raetz works on the real and unreal of the negative/positive and the perception and the deformation on shapes in a mirror or facing each other. He invites the viewer to interact, because many works by the artist reveal themselves only by the movement of the viewer in front of the sculpture. Markus Raetz was born in the canton of Bern in 1941. He is one of the most renowned contemporary Swiss artists.

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Composting at home is one of the many ways people can focus on other activities while at home. If you have ever considered recycling food waste at home, this is a great time to start.

One product that is now available in Switzerland is Hotbin. Do you face the challenge of food waste disposal? HOTBIN is a solution to significantly reduce this waste and make a positive impact along the way – creating healthy soil for the gardens, promoting community recycling and gardening, taking steps individually and collectively for our environment.

“The first summer using the Hotbin has been great! It has helped us greatly reduce the amount of grass clippings that we take to the communal composting. We are also composting 100% of kitchen scraps in it as well. Best of all, it will provide us with a steady supply of nutrient rich, organic compost with which we will fertilize our vegetable garden and flower beds. We are happy that the Hotbin is saving us money and reducing the number of trips to the store to pick up garden fertilizer.” Don, Bern

holedupathome

Coronavirus has impacted us all in one way or another. Hopefully, you are keeping safe and well. If you have to keep keep yourself holed up at home, then you might as well make the most of it. There are certainly a number of projects you have had on your to-do list and with the economic slowdown due to COVID-19, people, shops, and companies have had to become creative!

If you are signed up for company newsletters then you will see just about every subject line mentioning this outbreak in some way, shape, or form. From cancellations to free delivery, you will certainly have enough reading material!

We will keep up with the news for you and post free-of-charge in our newsletter on a weekly basis. If your company is offering something special, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. us.

From help getting errands to how to keep yourself or your kids busy, from working at home to talking to someone about your anxiety, here are some picks of the week:

Swiss Dog Team 17

Do you suspect that bed bugs have invaded your home or your office? Do you think you might have brought bed bugs in your suitcase as a souvenir from your vacation? There is nothing worse than waging war on these horrible bugs, but canine detection allows targeted interventions, hence minimizing the use of insecticide. Swiss Dog Team offers fast, accurate, cost-efficient and ecological beg bug canine detection throughout Switzerland and in neighboring France. We asked M. Augsburger to tell us more about his company.

How did you get involved in Canine Detection?
I’ve always had an excellent contact with animals since my childhood and my aunt had several dogs I was taking care of during my childhood summers. As a teenager I dreamed of opening a pet store, but somehow I never did. In 2012 my little sister returned back from Barcelona and brought bed bugs in her suitcase. She started to be bitten during the night while asleep and that was the beginning of the nightmare. She tried several treatments to get rid of the bed bugs in her bedroom but nothing seemed to work, because no one could really locate where they were exactly hiding.

18 months after the initial infestation, my sister had the idea to contact a canine detection company. The dog and the handler located rapidly the bed bugs and so the treatment could be adapted precisely into the right places to eliminate them. Since that day, the bedbugs are an ancient story in my sister’s life. I was amazed by the dog’s capacity.

A dog’s nose has over 220 million olfactory receptors and its sense of smell is over 1200 times superior to that of a human. I loved the whole idea of working with an animal. For me having a dog colleague and working in tandem particularly in its (his/her) area of​competence was immediately an idea that made me want to create this company.

megots

Cigarette butts represent a large part of the waste found on the ground in the City of Geneva. They pollute our natural environment and are expensive to collect from the community. That is why the City wants to change the behavior of smokers by encouraging them to throw their cigarette butts in designated areas.

Municipal police officers sanction this offence and can fine it. Other actions are also in place to combat this pollution to our environment.

The impact of discarded butts into the streets is not yet fully known, but it is not negligible, as these bits of cigarettes are loaded with toxic substances and made of plastics. And it takes them at least 25 years to degrade.

Caught red-handed, an offender can be fined up to 100 francs!

Many people caught throwing their cigarette butts onto the public domain, admitted having a bad habit. "It's an offense, so we have to punish it in a preventive and repressive way," explains Alexandre, an officer with the Geneva municipal police.

Caught red-handed, the offender faces a fine of 100 francs, or a simple reminder to order with sometimes a distribution of pocket ashtrays. Last year, the municipal police issued nearly 300 fines.