Swiss village Obermutten has more Facebook fans than residents

by McLean Robbins on



A tiny Swiss mountain village is taking social media to a new level. Obermutten in Graubuenden has promised anyone who “likes” the town on Facebook that they will put his/her photo onto the Commune’s official notice board. By doing this, they say, anybody anywhere in the world can “become Swiss”. After only three days, the village already has fifteen times more fans than residents, and this number is growing by the day.

The identity pictures are printed out by a councillor and pinned up on the noticeboard and the fans thus become part of the village community. So far, the fan list has grown so fast that they’ve filled the town’s message board and resorted to using a barn side to post pictures. The eighty inhabitants – many still without an internet connection – like to get to know their fans in this way.

The Commune, located in the Graubuenden holiday region, seems excited by their newfound fame.

“Obermutten is developing a personal relationship with its guests. Here it’s not a question of the total volume, but of each individual one. Why shouldn’t this be the same for us in the internet?” said Martin Wyss, Mutten’s village president.

The village president communicates with his fans in short video YouTube messages like the one seen above.

Wow, this is really taking “social” to a new level.

Animate up your travels with .gifs

by Jen Pollack Bianco on

Not much into shooting video to capture your trip abroad? Do Ken Burns slideshows bore you to tears? Lucky for you, animated .gifs (short for “graphic interchange format”) are all the rage among on the social media circuit, and can be a fun way to document (and share) some of your travel action. Instead of sending a plane Jane video of that insane Hula Dancer you saw in Waikiki, why not remind your friends and family that you are ahead of the curve by sharing it as a fun animation?

The app for the job is .Gif Shop. It lets you create and share looping animation goodness directly from your iPhone and it couldn’t be simpler. To start, you shoot a series of still images from within the app and then, after making a few critical decisions (like selecting the opacity as well as the resolution), your frames are ready to be stitched together into a fun animated package and shared on Tumblr, Twitter or via good old-fashioned email.

For a few animated examples, read on.

Perhaps you already have a series of photos that are just begging to be turned into .gifs? The Giffer! App is an after-the-fact animation factory that uses an easy interface to combine a series of still photos and animate them. This app allows you to adjust the frame delay and animation yo-yo, tweaks that could elevate your animated clips to superstar Viral status. Be aware that quicker animations mean larger files – something to consider when creating in your iDevice or sharing with friends.

.Gifs are a fun new way to share the magical times of your vacation, Which is appropriate since they are kind of like the moving photographs in the Harry Potter series. Only this time, you don’t need a degree from Hogwarts, just a few apps to turn your smartphone into a magic wand.

Video of the Day – Juneau’s Receding Glaciers

by Stephen Greenwood on

Alaska’s major glaciers are reported to be losing nearly 24 cubic miles every year, resulting in a landscape that’s continually evolving and slowly melting away.

Filmmaker, ice climber, and Juneau native Alan Gordon decided to document these changes and capture places that may not exist for much longer in a film titled Blue Obsession. The clips in this trailer feature the Juneau Icefield; a 1,500 sq mi area which contains glaciers that range from 790ft to 4,600ft deep and ranks as the fifth-largest ice field in the Western Hemisphere.

The film recently won the “People’s Choice” and the “Best of the South” awards in Alaska’s Never Sets Film Festival, so hopefully the film will find its way down to the other 48 in the coming year.

Do you know of a great film that fellow travelers should see? Send it our way by leaving a comment below and it could be our next Video of the Day.

Video: Eating live octopus in Korea (Warning: Graphic)

by Stephen Greenwood on

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The team here at Gadling has seen our fair share of shocking internet videos, and some of us have worked up the courage to eat some pretty questionable fare during our travels, but this clip from Fuel TV’s Strangers in Danger might just be the most revolting thing we’ve ever seen.

Eating live octopus, or san nachi is widely practiced in South Korea, but the octopi being served are typically small enough to be wrapped around chopsticks and eaten in one bite. In this graphic clip, BMX pros “Catfish” Yankush and Mike “Rooftop” Escamilla decided to take it to a new extreme by choking down some unusually large cephalopods – with mixed results.

If you’re hungry for more, check out what the guys decide to do at Korea’s DMZ after the break; or catch the full episode tonight at 10:30PM E/P on Fuel TV and tune in every Tuesday as these two athletes travel through 13 different countries to take on the best, worst, & wildest challenges in each culture.

Video from inside the Washington Monument during the earthquake

by Kraig Becker on

Yesterday, the National Park Service released video from inside of the Washington Monument showing just how much the structure shook during that 5.8-magnitude earthquake that hit the East Coast last month. Startled visitors and park rangers appear uncertain of what to do at first, then begin to calmly and orderly move down the building, with one ranger in the lead and another staying behind to ensure that everyone gets out safely. As the video continues, debris begins to fall, obscuring the view to a degree, and giving an indication of the amount of a damage suffered to the interior.

The Park Service says that the monument is structurally sound, although it is unclear at this time when it will reopen. A team of engineers will begin a comprehensive inspection of the obelisk today by repelling down the side of the structure. That will take about five days to complete, but the overall assessment won’t be finished until sometime later in October. From there, renovations will get underway, while the building also undergoes its annual preparation for winter as well.