Word: jura
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...That the European market is, well, turning the clock back, is further illustrated by a training school high in the Swiss Jura. Between 1970 and 1987 the Swiss watch industry, devastated by digital timekeeping, shed two-thirds of its workforce. But at this school, students spend two years learning what made the Swiss famous: mechanical watchmaking. "By the end they will have mastered the history of watchmaking from the 15th century to the present day," says one of the teachers. "Why try to compete with the Japanese when our specialty is high-quality mechanical watchmaking?" If further proof...
...what highly marketable skill are these Swiss youngsters acquiring? Computerized 3-D animation? Some slick new graphics software? Think again. Like generations before them in the high mountain valleys of the Swiss Jura, Sandra and Bastien are discovering the intricacies of mechanical watchmaking. "Forty years ago, people were learning exactly the same thing," says their teacher Yves Antoniotti. "Some of the technology has evolved, but the basic techniques remain unchanged." Techniques like hand-polishing screw-heads until they gleam like mirrors, or grinding axle-ends down to a 10th of a millimeter using miniature lathes. And the young apprentices...
...still exists mostly in the minds of several dozen young engineers in jeans and sweatshirts who have spent three years working around the clock inside a secret garage in the Jura Mountain town of Biel. If the team realizes its vision, the Swatchmobile will combine the crash resistance of a Mercedes with the spunkiness of the famous wristwatch. Plans call for the Swatchmobile to be 20% smaller than a typical subcompact, able to wheel into a parking space sideways, cost about $10,000 and reach 90 miles an hour. The car's designers hope it will travel at least...
...soldiers to help remove the snow from Paris streets. The government ordered two Paris Metro stations to stay open all night to help shelter an estimated 15,000 homeless men and women. The weather was even more severe in other regions. The town of Mouthe, in the eastern Jura mountain area, was caught in a record -27 degrees, while the winegrowing Burgundy region in the southwest posted -7 degrees. The Mediterranean port of Marseilles was hit with heavy snow and winds of up to 60 m.p.h. In some areas heating oil ran out when delivery trucks were unable...
Geneva's international role derives from its location, in a gap between the Alps and the Jura Mountains. Here Lake Leman, Western Europe's largest, narrows into the foaming torrents of the Rhone River. Wandering tribesmen settled at the lake's edge as early as the Bronze Age. The Romans conquered the place in 120 B.C., and Julius Caesar came to fortify it for his Gallic Wars. In what is now the Place du Bourg-de-Four, where a stone fountain gently splashes through the seasons, the Roman road from Italy once crossed the road to southern France...