Toboggan Run For Margarethen Park; Don't Call The Police, Siren Test Underway!; Archeologists Unearth Marktplatz Mansions

News For 5 February, 2019

The busy beavers managing Basel's ice rink at St. Jakob's have built a sledge run at Margarethenpark using the ice shaved from the rink surface.  Normally, the ice shavings dumped out of the Zambonis are simply piled up and allowed to melt in the sun, but with the cold weather, the parks system had a better idea.  By Friday, eight truckloads of the stuff were delivered to Margarethen where they were formed used to pave the run down the hilly approach to the Margarethenpark.  There are no plans to upgrade or maintain the new attraction, and will remain in place until warmer weather melts it.

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Tomorrow, Switzerland will carry out its annual testing of the national siren public warning system that would be used in the case of a national emergency, such as major flooding, or an immediate threat to or breakdown of a nuclear power plant. There are two types of warning sirens. The first, indicating general disaster, is a continuous siren lasting around a minute per interval. The second siren, which is used to warn people who live near dams or at the point of a water-related disaster, is a series of 12 bursts of 20 seconds each at ten-second intervals. These sirens are tested on the first Wednesday in February every year from 13:30 to 14:00, if necessary. Although the testing of the sirens is widely publicized on television and radio prior to the day, it can still be a bit of a shock to newcomers to the country. Just remember that it's only an exercise and carry on with your day. 

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On February 27, 1377, 12 houses fell victim to a terrible fire near the present-day Marktplatz. At the time, the ruling committee had no desire to rebuild so they extended the plaza instead. 642 years later archeologists unearthed the perfectly preserved remnants of the houses that were burned down to the ground in the terrible inferno. The debris indicates that the houses were in fact mansions. Incidentally, this was not the final expansion of the plaza as another expansion was made in the 19th century by flattening an entire quarter of the adjacent neighborhood.