This story takes that formula and adds “totally unnerving” to the mix.

A Swiss nurse has run afoul of investigators after posting photos on Facebook showing her posing next to dead people – presumably people formerly under her care.

In captions posted alongside the photos, the nurse refers to herself as the “soul thief”:

“Guess she is asleep or is she dead? Hint: I’m the soul thief,” read one caption.

“Yeah, your time is over. Send them to hell, where some of them belong. The rest goes into the hole for compost fertilizer, hehehe,” read another. Both are Google Translated from German, but you get the picture.

According to reports, the nurse’s Facebook page was also full of “Satanic” imagery – “devilish images” and such.

Officials in the town of St. Gallen, Switzerland said that they are looking into possible criminal charges. The Swiss nurses federation said that they were “shocked and saddened” by the nurse’s actions.

Facebookers have been known to post photos of their deceased relatives at funerals and such (RIP GRANNY LOVE YOU #YOLO). But posting photos of dead people in your nursing care, well, that’s a whole other animal. Yikes.

[20min via France 24 via Jezebel]

Robohub reports that the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control at ETH Zurich have created Cubli, a robotic cube that can walk, jump and balance on its corners. The most amazing part is that the cube is built out of nothing but off-the-shelf motors, batteries and electronic components.

You can see Cubli below balancing on its corner through the use of spinning flywheels that maintain its balance, even when slightly nudged:

So, what’s next for the Cubli? The researchers are already working on a version of Cubli that can walk on flat surfaces, or jump. It can already do these things, but it was found that some internal components were damaged when it jumps. These flaws have been mostly fixed, and now the team is working on “controlled maneuvers of jumping up, balancing, and falling over to make the Cubli walk across a surface.”

[h/t: Gizmodo]

Meet Roboy, a new humanoid robot in development at the University of Zürich’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. The little guy is being envisioned as the next generation of robotic assistants for the elderly or disabled. The researchers are currently still in the construction phase, but you can check out their progress below:

As a bonus, here’s a Swiss news report that shows off some of the latest developments in robotics, including Roboy.

The researchers need your help to continue development of Roboy though. That’s why they set up a crowdfunding site with a number of awards available for backers. Most of the awards are tickets to the Robots on Tour event in Zürich to see Roboy in action. If you’re find yourself in Europe during the event on March 8, the little guy just might be worth funding. It will provide an opportunity to see firsthand the new face of cute fear. It’s at least better than that crying robot.

[h/t: i-programmer]
[Image]

The Swiss Federal Railways has a very iconic clock. You’ve probably seen it film or pictures. If not, here it is:

Now, Apple has a new clock design in iOS 6 for iPad.

Does anything look familiar? It would seem that the resemblance has not been lost on the owners of the copyright, the Swiss Federal Railways service. They apparently don’t appreciate the resemblance and are weighing their options. According to an article from Tages-Anzeiger, and translated by MacRumors, the Swiss Federal Railways had this to say:

SBB is the sole owner of the trademark and copyright of the railway clock. The railway company will now get in touch with Apple. The aim is a legal, as well as a financial solution. It is not right that one [Apple] simply copies the design.

I may not like Apple’s strong arm legal tactics, but there are limits to how stupid lawsuits can go. Did Apple steal the clock design of the Swiss Federal Railways? Most likely. Is it stupid? Yes, it is. Either way, Apple should change the design and just move on. They have bigger problems to contend with at the moment.

The Swiss Federal Supreme Court ruled that Google could go on with its Street View image collection but that it must respect several privacy provisions. Some of the must-haves from the Supreme Court are already the standard fare with Google Street View, such as the blurring of faces of people captured in the images. Google must also blur out license plates of nearby cars and, curiously, “sensitive facilities.” In the document issued by the Supreme Court, these facilities include the likes of women’s shelters, nursing homes, prisons, schools, courts and hospitals. The court also told Google to stay out of people’s lawns unless that yard is already visible to non-trike toting pedestrians.

Although Google Street View was celebrated at Google Maps’ “Next Dimension” presentation earlier this week, the ground-level geo service hasn’t had the best year as far as public relations go due to all of that spying on unwitting internet users of unsecured wireless networks.

Bumping up against governments concerned about the privacy of its people isn’t anything new for Google. Google Maps has seemingly abandoned any attempt to capture images for Street View in Germany due to that country’s stringent demands in order to ensure the privacy of citizens. Google Street View has also recently run afoul of the authorities in Australia for, again, spying on unsecured wi-fi networks that the company was doing via Street View cars.

Since you never know when God will show up in Switzerland with a couple of his pals, it’s a good thing Google will be around to take their picture again.

[Via EPIC.]

In the United States, the following cities got the update: Albany, GA (outskirts); Atascocita, TX; Clarksville, TN; Columbia, MO; Corpus Christi, TX; Fayetteville, NC; Fort Collins, CO; Fort Smith, AR; Greensboro, NC; Jackson, TN; Lafayette, LA; Plaquemine, LA; Pueblo, CO; Santa Fe, NM; Texarkana, AR; and Tyler, TX.

Poland: Cracow, Gdansk, Poznan, Warsaw, and Wroclaw.

Spain: Lugo and Ourense.

Switzerland: Bern and Zurich.

Ireland: Dublin.

Below is the Fraumünster Cathedral in Zurich, Switzerland. The church’s spire is easily recognizable due to its sea foam blue color that practically glows even in front of a cloudless sky. The cathedral, founded in 853 AD, overlooks Münsterhof Square and is home to some stunning glasswork by Augusto Giacometti and Marc Chagall.

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Another city that got an update is Poznań, Poland, where you can take a gander at the Archcathedral Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul. One of the oldest churches in Poland, the edifice was established in the 10th century although but has suffered an array of damages due to a raid here or a fire there, leading the cathedral to be built and re-built in a variety of different styles.

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Finally, for all of you Monkees fans, you can now take a more detailed tour of Clarksville, Tennessee. While you probably won’t be able to find any last train-goers with this new imagery, it does offer up a view of one of the more creatively designed public schools you’re bound to see, Montgomery Central High School. The school was built on a man-made lake and, as you can see, are shaped like gray Alien-esque pods. Also, check out the weird crop circle-ish things in the football field to the east of the school.

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That represents a potential problem for Google.  The company’s automated blurring software catches most – but not all – faces and license plates.  Achieving 100 percent effectiveness could force Google to spend lots more money on the program.

Then one other potential sticking point includes an order to make people near sensitive establishments (such as schools and women’s shelters) completely unrecognizable, and the Swiss court wanted Google to advertise when and where Street View pictures will be taken, as well.

On the whole, that might be enough to convince Google to discontinue its Street View coverage of Switzerland.  The program remains more of a lark than a moneymaker, after all, leaving Google few good reasons to comply with the Swiss court’s demands.

Or, although no one’s committed to anything yet, there’s also a possibility that Google will try to appeal the case and bring it before the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland.

For the record, Google stated, “We are very disappointed because Street View has proved to be very useful to millions of people as well as businesses and tourist organizations.  More than one in four of the Swiss population has used it since the service launched in Switzerland.  We’ll now take some time to consider what this means for Street View in Switzerland and our appeal options.”

A big hat tip goes to GenevaLunch’s Ellen Wallace.

Street View was introduced in Switzerland about three months ago.  Roughly one week later, Thür











complained that certain faces and license plates weren’t indistinct enough.  He met with Peter Fleischer, Google’s Global Privacy Counsel, Google agreed to make portions of its photos blurrier, and the problem was resolved.  Or so we thought.

It turns out that Thür















also objected to the height from which images had been taken, arguing that a normal person wouldn’t have the same vantage point.  He felt that people in more rural areas could be identified even if their faces weren’t visible, too.

So, as announced in a formal statement, Thür



















"has decided to take the matter further and to take legal action before the Federal Administrative Court."  According to the BBC, Thür























wants a tribunal to make Google immediately take down all Swiss Street View images, as well (since the case won’t start or end soon).

This situation could have a big impact on how other countries respond to Street View in the future.

Related Articles:

> Google Street View Hits Hawaii, Mexico

> Street View Coverage Of Two More Countries Goes Live

> Street View: Soon With More Blurriness

To start, Google’s going to do a more thorough job of blurring the license plates visible in its photos of Switzerland.  It’s also due to take another shot at blurring Swiss citizens’ faces.  This should satisfy Commissioner Hanspeter Thür, since he and Peter Fleischer, Google’s Global Privacy Counsel, met to discuss the situation.

Then here’s a key point: Google’s going to revisit older Street View images and make the faces in them less distinct, too.  So the next time you research a route to any spot, whether it’s in the Alps or the middle of America, what you see may be markedly different.

This could cause Street View to be a bit less interesting, but it could also make a lot of objections to the program disappear.  That would be quite important, since Google must be tired of running into fresh complaints every time it releases new photos, and software tweaks tend to cost less than lawsuits.

The changes should start becoming visible over the next month or so.

In May of 2008, Google introduced face-blurring technology to Street View in an attempt to satisfy privacy groups.  The software does its best to make license plates illegible, too.  The problem is that it’s not entirely accurate, and Commissioner Hanspeter Thür happened upon some omissions on both fronts.

This isn’t necessarily the end of the line for Street View in Switzerland.  In fact, images of Switzerland are still available for everyone to see right now.

Going forward, the key thing is that Thür is supposed to meet with representatives of Google sometime this week in an attempt to sort something out.  It’s also important to note that Google is still pulling down specific images upon request, and Thür is aware of this fact.

Google can’t be thrilled that Street View has hit another speed bump, though.  International complaints seem to be adding up, with stories tied to Germany, Greece, and Japan all making headlines just within the past few months.