Phallus Plant Blooms Prematurely at the Botanical Garden; KantonFusion goes Kaput; Wacky Weed gets Whacked; New Bar for Basel Football Fans; Bikers Break Road Rules

Known unofficially as the corpse flower because of its stench or the Phallus plant because of the shape of its flower, the plant at the Basel Botanical Garden is in bloom again.  As the plant blooms irregularly, sometimes with intervals between blooms of as long as 10 years, they are eagerly anticipated by flowering plant aficionados.  The last time Basel's specimen bloomed was only two years ago, premature by the flowers standards, and has already reached a height of nearly 270cm, just short of the world record for a cultivated specimen.  The greenhouse is open to the public, but the bloom is expected to last only a short period, perhaps another day.  Visit the Basel Botanical Garden's website for viewing schedule.   ****************************************************************************************   The tallying of Sunday's referendum vote is now over - and for the time being, Switzerland will remain a country of 26 cantons instead of 25, the referendum having averted a fusion of Basel Land and Basel Stadt.  Of the 86 municipalities which comprise the canton of Basel Land all of them voted against a proposal to merge with the city.  The suburban district of Arlesheim had the distinction of having the highest pro-merger vote with a meager 38.71% where Waldenburg had a no vote of 83.38%.  Even Basel-Stadt seemed to question the wisdom of merger at this time, where only 54.9% of voters approved the proposal to merge.  A majority of Yes votes would have been necessary in both cantons to initiate the fusion process.   ***************************************************************************************  

A motorist in Rheinfelden has been caught transporting 100 marijuana seedlings in his car. The 33 year old driver was stopped early Tuesday morning in a random vehicle control point, where he admitted his intention to grow the plants in his home. Aargau Canton police arrested the man on suspicion of narcotics trafficking.

 

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A new bar has opened in Basel that celebrates all things football. The “Bar Didi Offensive” on Erasmus Place plans to become a meeting point for football fans of all persuasions, where they can catch matches from the Swiss, German and English leagues as well as the ongoing Champions League. On top of that, Bar Didi will also feature exhibitions celebrating items of interest from throughout the footballing world.

 

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A prominent Swiss traffic psychologist is calling for tougher penalties against vigilante cyclists. Urs Gerhard claims to see cyclists flouting road rules on a daily basis, and suggests that because cyclists do the right thing by the environment, they seem to have a sense of entitlement on the road.  The theory enjoys support among certain politicians, who claim that the only way to limit cycling infringements is to apply the same rules to riders as are applied to motorists.