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Shout Out UK on behalf of a coalition of organisations from the political education and democracy promotion sectors writes an open letter to the Department for Education concerning the censorship of extreme political content in schools.

Download PDF Letter (updated 08.46 06/10/2020)

Dear Mr Williamson,

We write this joint open letter as a coalition of organisations in the political education and democracy promotion sectors to raise our concerns about the Departments guidance on relationships, sex and health education (RSE) issued on Thursday 24th September 2020. We acknowledge that this guidance has been issued to schools in the context of RSE, not the PSHE umbrella it sits within, but we are nonetheless concerned about the precedent this may set for other aspects of the curriculum, and the impact it may have on teachers confidence to cover political topics.

The guidance states that: Schools should not under any circumstances use resources produced by organisations that take extreme political stances on matters, and provides a non-exhaustive list of examples. Our concerns revolve around this point in particular.

As advocates for widening access to education about political issues, we implore the government to consider that this regulation has the potential to censor the already minimal discussion of politics in schools. The guidelines serve to deny students the opportunity to engage with material from extreme sources in a classroom environment, precluding informed debate and discouraging critical thinking. Political education continues to be either inadequate or completely absent for most students in the UK; we want to ensure that any window of opportunity to discuss politics is as wide as possible.

With respect to this guidance, which is non-statutory implementation guidance, we seek urgent clarification on the following points:

Students must be armed with the Political and Media Literacy skills to ensure that they can understand and discuss political issues with a critical mindset. Extreme political organisations will exist whether or not schools are allowed to discuss them in the classroom, but this guidance deprives students of the chance to tackle them head-on. Politics necessitates dialogue and the continual contestation of ideas. Schools should be a safe place for this to happen without fear of recrimination or censorship.

Signed By

The views expressed in this letter represent those of the signatories and not necessarily their organisations or employers

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An open letter to the Department for Education concerning the censorship of extreme political content in schools - Shout Out UK

Popular podcaster Joe Rogan and his relationship with the streaming platform Spotify have made headlines in recent weeks, and he addressed some of the controversies during his recent podcast with comedian Tim Dillon. Rogan and Dillon spoke during episode No. 1544 of the Joe Rogan Experience about Spotify employees potentially wanting to censor and edit his podcast.

Spotify has the exclusive licensing rights to the Joe Rogan Experience, and according to reports from media outlets, some employees have threatened to strike if they do not receive editorial control over Rogans podcast, taking issue with some of the subjects Rogan speaks about as well as what he says.

However, according to the podcaster and UFC commentator, Spotify has not spoken to him about censoring his show or about any internal company dialogue about the situation.

Listen, me on the outside reading these f****** articles, like Oh my God, Spotify is censoring Rogan, Rogan said. Spotify has said nothing. Listen to me, nothing. They havent said anything to my manager, they havent said anything to me. Theyve said nothing. Theyve apparently had meetings. But they have a lot of meetings. They have meetings about all sorts of shows. They have meetings about the music they have.

Its an open-minded company, Rogan continued. They treat their employees very well. They let them have discussions about things. And I dont know what these discussions are like. I dont know what happens, I really dont. But, in terms of them silencing me, zero. Theres been nothing.

Rogans conversation with Dillon about Spotify can be viewed below:

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In July, Rogan recorded a podcast with Abigail Shrier, a journalist, writer and author of the book Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters. During the episode, Rogan and Shrier spoke about transgender people and transitioning. Some criticized the podcast, calling Rogan and Shrier transphobic.

Rogan said to Dillon, Is there somebody at Spotify complaining about the Abigail Shrier episode? Im sure. Im sure theres someone complaining about it. Is it a transphobic episode? Its not. Theyre wrong.

The podcaster defended his stance and the conversation he had with Shrier, saying that people should be able to have an open dialogue about transitioning, especially when it comes to children.

I dont know what the actual conversation has been from Spotify talking to these employees, but if these employees are listening, I would tell you emphatically I am not in any way anti-trans, Rogan said. Not in any way. I am 100 percent for people to be able to do whatever they want as long as it doesnt harm other people. If you choose to do anything, whatever you want, whatever your personal choice is, I am happy if youre happy.

Rogan said that he is 100 percent open-minded and he believes that he should be able to have conversations about controversial subjects like children transitioning. His rebuttal can be viewed here.

During his discussion with Dillon, Rogan said that sometimes when hes talking on the podcast, he says things he doesnt even mean as he is talking off the top of (his) head. He also said that if some Spotify employees have an issue with the conversations he has on the podcast, they should be even more concerned with the lyrics of some music on the platform.

Rogan told Hot New Hip Hop:

Im sure theyve had issues with other episodes as well, but like Ive said before: Im talking off the top of my head, and a lot of times, Im saying s*** I dont even mean, because Im saying it because this is a f****** podcast. And if you have a problem with people saying terrible s*** and you work for Spotify, maybe you should listen to some of the lyrics. Ok? Because some of the lyrics in some of the f****** music you guys play over and over and over again makes my s*** pale in comparison. Pale. If youre listening to some rap music right now Im not anti-rap, I love rap music. Im Im f****** saying, go back and listen to NWA. Go back and listen to some of the early s***. Like go back and listen to Ice-T, Cop Killer From the Body Count days. Whew.

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Joe Rogan Responds to Talk of Spotify Censoring His Podcast - Heavy.com

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a lot of peoples interests online, whether thats playing Dungeons & Dragons over Zoom or taking virtual workout classes. But at least one of these interests, online chess, dates back at least 1,000 years. Why is playing chess online so popular?

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Chess is a deceptively simple gameeasy to learn, but hard to master, as one adage goeswhere each player has 16 pieces. These are eight pawns, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and a king and queen. The board has 64 squares, like a checkerboard, and is easy to refer to using a classic grid notation system used in maps and even the game Battleship: A, B, C, ... along one axis and 1, 2, 3, ... along the other.

What this all means is that in order to play a game of chess online, you can work with two players who each have a complete chess set and send moves in word form. Even for the pawns, which are identical, players say knights pawn, bishops pawn, and so forth. That means the earliest online chess players were able to do the same thing: noting moves using grid notation and relative terms for their pieces.

Many of the most masterful chess games require very few moves, compared with how amateurs tend to play. High-level chess players think many steps ahead and can often telescope what their opponents will decide to do. And since each piece has a restriction, like pawns that can only move one square unless its their first move and take other pieces only diagonally, chess is a popular subject for study by game theorists, statisticians, combinatoricians, and more.

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The mathematical nature of the moves has made chess a popular thing to program, and chess-playing artificial intelligence has advanced beyond human players in key ways. A computer first beat a human in 1996, and after a few high-profile incidents, chess tournaments are kept very secure to prevent any kind of computer-aided cheating. Chess engines can run in tandem and give insights as viewers watch major chess matches online.

For a long time, people playing chess online in predecessor systems like bulletin boards could exchange short strings of characters that indicated their moves. You can do this with just lettersK for king, Q for queen, and so forthwith N for knight, since K is already in use.

But online chess players, at least, have had another option since at least 1995, when documentation from Unicode confirms the chess pieces were part of the character set likely from the very first version of Unicode. Like card suits, logic and math notation, and certain map and public safety symbols, the people who designed computer fonts knew users were likely to need these special characters to put into newspaper chess columns, for example, or for the actual printing of maps without separate typesetting.

Today, that means almost any online chess arena can introduce full notation with all pieces represented in their real grid. That means games can be pretty low-techno one needs plug-ins or rendered artwork, and exchanging moves is only a few technical steps past sending them back and forth in emails or even the mail. And when much of online chess takes the form of speed matches played in 3 or even 1 minute (!), the less technical overhead, the better.

If you want to wade into online chess, check out Chess.com for both games and a ton of lessons and help as you get started. The Free Internet Chess Server dates back decades, with browser games and an option to download their app. And Lichess, which is "just" 10 years old, is an open-source chess platform that hosts a million games a day.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

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Chess Online: How to Play and Win Chess | Chess Tips & Strategies - Popular Mechanics

In a recent meeting at the St. Louis Chess Club, a key question was asked: When can we return to over-the-board tournaments? Chess players, always eager to test their mettle in competition, have made do with online play, but there is nothing quite like planning your attack while sitting across from your opponent.

Following CDC guidelines and state and local requirements is a must. Nothing is more important than the health and safety of all members of our community. With that in mind, we decided to test the waters, as long as our tournaments have no more than eight competitors and the event concludes in under two hours. The club recruited its first field of eight participants for the Secret Action Quads, the online edition of the longstanding Friday Action Quads.

For the first time since March, the clocks began to run at the St. Louis Chess Club. As the name would imply, quads are tournaments in which players are divided into groups of four. To keep the pace lively, players had a little over 20 minutes to finish each round. Our eight players were ready for battle.

In a contentious fight in the first quad, Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo and his opponent, Michael Pugachev, each had five seconds left. Orlando, with just a bishop and knight on the board, was helplessly trying to deliver the toughest checkmate in chess. Pugachev was keeping his king out of the corner and doing his best to force a draw but unfortunately ran out of time and lost the game. He quickly quipped, Do you even know how to checkmate with a bishop and knight? Orlando just smiled and said, "Guess we'll never know, but I'll gladly take the win on time. Orlando went on to sweep the competition and take first place that evening.

In the second quad, STLCC staff member Tracee Stewart dominated the competition. Tracee has been a regular host of weekly free chess lessons available on the STLChessClub Twitch and STLChessClubYouTube Channel during the pandemic. She gave a warm welcome to the visitor Bruce Brodly with an astounding checkmate. Tracee essayed an opening novelty on Ben Simon, the clubs videographer and producer, and capped off the wonderful night by defeating Michael Pugachevs mother, Lucy, who was making her tournament debut. Tracee also won $36 and a slew of rating points.

While it was a little tough to gauge your opponent through a mask and a Plexiglas barrier, it was refreshing to play a human eye-to-eye instead of across the internet void. Win or lose, everyone went home happy and enjoyed the camaraderie that live chess brings to the table.

For more information about upcoming programs and events (both in person and online) at the St. Louis Chess Club, please visit - saintlouischessclub.org/events.

Mike Kummer is an International Arbiter and assistant manager at the St. Louis Chess Club. He has worked at the Chess Club since its grand opening in 2008.

Read more:
On Chess: Returning To Over The Board Chess Tournaments - St. Louis Public Radio

Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) is hosting its annual fall chess tournament in person at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 24 at Thomas Stone High School. This years fall tournament is limited to chess players in Grades 4-12, as parents and family members will not be permitted to remain on-site during the event. This is a precautionary measure to limit the number of people inside the playing area. Parents will be invited to watch the tournament virtually through Zoom with a limited panoramic view. Individual matches will not be highlighted.

Players must register in advance to participate. The registration form is posted on the CCPS website at https://www.ccboe.com/index.php/gifted-education-services#Events. The deadline to register is Oct. 21. The registration window closes after Oct. 21. Walk-in registrations are not accepted.

The tournament features a four-round Swiss-style format. Sign-in for players begins at 8:15 a.m. with the first round of play starting at 9 a.m. Students must check in by 8:45 a.m. in order to be matched for play in the first round.

An awards ceremony will follow the matches. Players will receive a trophy, medal and/or certificate for participation. Participation is free and open to all Charles County students in Grades 4-12.

The following COVID-19 safety precautions will be in place.

Questions can be directed to Alicia Briscoe at abriscoe@ccboe.com or 301-934-7369 or Ann Taylor at ataylor@ccboe.com or 301-934-7378.

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CCPS hosting in-person chess tournament, limited to students in Grades 4-12 - The Southern Maryland Chronicle