Thanks for the summary, very helpful.

To my knowledge, the words man/woman are not originally a social construct - they’re the biological terms for human males and females (like a bitch is a female canine, and a rooster is a male chicken). However, as science has advanced, it’s become increasingly clear that biology is not as binary as male and female.

On the other hand, we have binary gender roles, which are a social construct. Since external genetalia generally form the basis for assigning gender roles, there is a very close but not exact overlap between gender roles and biological sex. The argument is that since gender roles don’t always match biology, the words man/woman are social constructs. Effectively, they’re trying to adapt the original definitions, but are not unexpectedly meeting with resistance.

Going back to this specific law, my immediate question would be: what determines whether you’re biologically male or female? Is it your current genetalia or the genetalia you were born with, i.e. what about trans people that have transitioned? If it is the genetalia you’re born with, then what about hermaphrodites? If it’s your genetics, then what about intersex people? Etc.

The law wasn’t written to account for all these complex biological possibilities. So it sounds to me as if the scottish courts were trying to simplify by effectively letting a dr. make that decision. I assume as a next step the UK will face court cases challenging the definition of “biological”.

Adding to the complexity, in my opinion, is that this particular case is about equality. This raises difficult questions about privilege, and nature vs nurture. The chess example comes to mind, where trans women have been excluded from the women’s only tournament. The main tournament is open to all genders, so they can still play, just not in the women’s only tournament. The argument is that due to gender roles, cis women are likely to have faced much higher barriers to learning chess as children than trans women. Those disadvantages from enforced gender roles is why the women’s league even exists, as an attempt to encourage more women to participate, and trans women wouldn’t have had to overcome the same barriers.

So, coming back to equality, what is more important, your current gender presentation, or the gender role in which you were raised? The answer to that question depends on so many factors in each situation, that I’m not convinced trying to force people into existing definitions make sense. It feels to me as if we need new legal definitions with more categories, but it is going to be extremely difficult to create definitions that adequately address the issues.

A big issue with Switzerland is that the EU lacks direct democracy i.e. the ability for the people to force a vote.

It’s actually pretty awesome. I mean sometimes they end up forcing a vote on stupid things but generally it’s a safeguard that allows the people to block legal changes. So a situation like the Trump tariffs couldn’t happen in Switzerland if the majority of the population objected.

Personally, I think the EU would be a stronger democracy if they added it, and the odds of Switzerland joining would increase substantially.

The 2nd half of the article also mentions an AI generated song released by China’s state run media.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-04-03/-Liberation-Day-or-a-price-to-pay--1CgrB0bz7by/index.html

Wow. You have issues mate.

Um, you’re taking my comment way too seriously. I replied to a cartoon picture. I literally just made up a silly explanation that would fit the photos. Please take a deep breath and go touch some grass.

Personally I’m betting on Nessie having camouflage skills like an octopus, and instead of squirting ink they can create the equivalent of an underwater dust cloud. That would absolutely explain these photos.

Edit to add: /jk since apparently that wasn’t obvious 🙄

Makes sense, thanks for clarifying.

No argument from me, I understand why anti-DEI proponents oppose it. Their racism, classism and misogyny is clear.

The point to my comment was simply that the original commenter is incorrect in thinking that not having DEI explicit adverts excludes a business from having DEI targets.

Interesting, thanks for sharing.

I understand this to mean that job adverts shouldn’t explicitly target DEI hires. That is not, however, the same as not implementing DEI targets in a company.

The intelligent way to implement DEI has always been to interview and identity the top candidates for a role, and then if you have 2 capable and competent candidates and one is a women / minority, they get the job. This law wouldn’t prevent that.

That doesn’t apply to hiring women though, which is also DEI.

It’s basically subjecting the entire population to 1 hour jetlag twice a year. The problematic switch is to summer time (losing an hour), which causes many people to be tired for most of the week following the change.

Lots of tired people means more accidents on the road and at work. There is also a definite uptick in heart attacks.

Then there is the longer term impact of late evening light on people’s sleep. Whilst it is more social to have more light at night, it’s better for our sleep for darkness to come earlier and to have more light in the mornings. There are tons of studies on the health impacts of insufficient sleep and / or misaligned body circadian rhythms. Summer time is particularly problematic for night owls (which includes all teenagers), who already struggle to fall asleep at a reasonable time.

The economic costs arise from things like loss of productivity due to tiredness, accidents, and higher health costs.

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain, I really appreciate it.

Tissue Resident Macrophages hang out in the area of initial infection, waiting for “that guy” to show up again.

This is specifically the bit I’m struggling with. How will they know it’s “that guy”?

It’s a bit like saying “We know this criminal uses disguises. We’ve given everyone copies of his mugshot, which they’ve used for target practice. Now if he wanders in wearing a disguise, people will recognise him.”

As I understand it, “hidden” is a relative thing.

I guess this is the answer?

Going back to my analogy, you’re saying his disguises are pretty simple. So he might wear glasses or a fake beard, but he isn’t likely to turn up in a full clown outfit, with multi-coloured hair, make up, and a big red nose.

This didn’t answer the question for me.

I get the 1st part: They’ve unhidden a stable spike protein hidden by sugars and used it to create an immune response.

The long-term effectiveness is where I’m getting lost. How will the immune system know when to use these particular anti-bodies in the future? If, say, 5 years after being vaccinated I’m infected, surely the relevant spike proteins are hidden by sugars. So how can my body recognise them as the same protein and make more of the correct anti-bodies?

Oh please.

If the USA hadn’t destroyed Iran’s democracy, the houthis wouldn’t have Iranian funding and would be a non-issue, and that’s just touching the tip of the mess the USA caused in the Middle East. There’s a reason the Houthi slogan says “Death to America” and not “Death to Europe”.

How about taking responsibility for cleaning up your own mess? Also, feel free to contribute to the costs of all the refugees the USA created for Europe.

Stealing this comment from u/Turicus on reddit (r/Switzerland):

I think they knew what they bought. This article is exaggerating.

The hangars at Belp are being upgraded to accommodate the new jet. Until then it flies from Payerne, ZRH or GVA. The first two are reachable in an hour from Bern.

The article is saying that the runway is too short. But that’s true only at full load. At MTOW (maximum take-off weight, meaning with 100% fuel and passengers), the plane is rated for a runway of 1760m at sea level. The runway at Belp is 1730m.

So they can’t fully use the max range of 14-15’000km. The old jet had a range ~8’000km. Even if they take off with a 90% fuel load because of the runway, the new jet will go much farther than the old one. For most destinations, it will avoid a stopover, saving time and money.

By the way, the Bundesrat often flies commercial for cost reasons. Anyway, there’s one jet, so they can’t all use it at once.