The news can be viewed as a conversation, filled with questions and answers. There is a talent in asking the right questions, and a different talent in answering them.
So far, the Newslettr is doing better at the “asking questions” part of the news business.
This tisatsar, we are doubling down on our strengths. Questions only1 this time in the Tisatsar’s News.
but first, a clerical note: the Newslettr is adopting “sections”. the Tisatsar’s News is its own section, and you are all subscribed to it. The “Esoterica” section is also a default subsciption, and discusses magick, theology, and timetravel. The third new section: “Hot Takes”. Nobody is subscribed to that one. Caveat lector.
Why hasn’t the United Nations recognized the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan? The situation on the ground is clear. One year after the collapse of the Ghani regime, the Taliban remain as the government of Afghanistan. However, for a variety of reasons, most of the world’s powers remain politically opposed to it.
Nevertheless, it is indisputed that the Taliban are the current government. Would the United Nations admit their representative? Will the Taliban send one?
Who are the candidates for President of Kenya? An election was recently held in Kenya. According to al-Jazeera, William Ruto has been declared the winner over Raila Odinga. Odinga is supposedly challenging the results, as he did in the previous election, and the election before that.
Wikipedia, while detailing several “scandals” involving Ruto, says approximately nothing about his political views. Neither does it discuss those of his political party, the United Democratic Alliance. What are those views? (remember folks, questions only today)
What is the fuel situation in Sri Lanka? News coverage of shortages and long queues appears to have stopped. Does this mean that the shortages have stopped? Or, more modestly, that the rationing system is successfully mitigating the crisis?
As far as protests are concerned, it seems they have mostly died out as well. There is now a name and a face to associate with the protestors: a recently-arrested (and released) Teacher’s Union bureaucrat named Joseph Stalin2.
Meanwhile, will the situation get worse as a result of energy demands in Europe?
Why don’t they turn the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant off? There continues to be discussion about the risks of an accident3 at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. According to American state media, only two of the six reactors were operating as-of mid July. But if we want to make sure there isn’t a nuclear disaster, shouldn’t all of the reactors be disabled?
Does the Rushdie attack make Iran a “state sponsor of terrorism”? Over 30 years after the infamous fatwa was issued against author Salman Rushdie by the Ayatollah Khomenei, he was attacked on-stage at an event in upstate New York.4
Was the attack "terrorism"? And would the current government of Iran thus be considered a sponsor of terrorism? Or, is this a sui generis historical incident that doesn’t reflect on current or future behavior?
Is “an eye for an eye” appropriate punishment? While Rushdie will survive, initial reports suggested he might lose an eye from the attack. If he did, would it be reasonable to gouge out one of his attacker’s eyes?
Of course, this will not happen; it would violate both the “ex post facto” and the “cruel and unusual punishment” clauses of the Constitution to gouge one of the attacker’s eyes5 out. But, in a different legal regime, would it be appropriate?
Should bad policy be illegal? In Washington DC, the political discourse continues to consider the topic of “excessive education requirements for employment”.
Apparently, the court applied a “rational basis” test to dismiss the suit. What is the difference between “is this good policy” and “is this a policy that can be legally made”? And does the “rational basis” test attempt to determine one of them?
Is the Prime Minister of Finland taking party drugs6? According to the BBC, after a leaked7 video showed Ms. Marin partying, questions are being raised, and the opposition has requesed she take a drug test. Would it be a privacy violation to require her to take a drug test?
How well does DALL-E 2 work? DALL-E 2 is a computer system that generates images from text prompts.
We are currently on the waitlist. We note also a competitor, Stability AI, which TechCrunch describes as having a “lack of safeguards compared to systems like DALL-E 2 [that] poses tricky ethical questions”. We are also on their waitlist.
What is happening with Birdwatch? Our coverage of Birdwatch continues.
(( the planned DALL-E prompt: A condor, sailing majestically across the Pacific Ocean. The condor is alone. The condor has a dream, represented as a thought bubble. The thought bubble shows all the bird-brains back at corporate. ))
One flaw in Birdwatch is becoming apparent. People will view Twitter as the authority8 for whatever Birdwatch says.
It is unclear how succesfully people can distinguish between "proposed Birdwatch comments" and "approved Birdwatch comments".
It is also unclear how Twitter can expect "volunteer labor" to be able to power the feature.
There are also still “quality issues”:
The “additional context” here isn’t quite gibberish, but it misses the point: month-over-month inflation was 0% but the year-over-year inflation9 is stil high.
Regardless: Twitter is not going to be able to launch this feature without assuming some level of editorial control over it.
Surely some other news outlets will have the answers to all these questions.
Apparently Joseph Stalin is his birth name.
In this case, a nuclear disaster would be an “accident” only in the sense that everyone involved would blame someone else.
Chautauqua, in the far-western part of the state. Not to be confused with Chappaqua, home of the Clintons, in the northern New York City suburbs.
the Newslettr: not afraid to discuss gouging people’s eyes out when the news cycle calls for it. No wonder our circulation is so low.
If Ms. Marin were taking (mental performance)-enhancing drugs, that would {probably|dubiously|perilously} be a good thing.
If you are a high-profile elected official, and you know you’re being filmed at a private event, you should expect it to be “leaked”.
If people say “Twitter is biased” when they dislike a Birdwatch comment, they are still setting Twitter as the authority.
I expect that a lot of people on Twitter do not understand this distinction.