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Perhaps those who carp on about the badness of the Bard should be reminded that he was no stranger to offence. Dont you know I am Richard? hissed Elizabeth I after watching Richard II and finding the Plantagenet kings deposition too close to her own experience with the Essex rebellion. One should also point out that sometimes Shakespeare issued his own trigger warnings through his Prologue (the start of Romeo and Juliet with its talk of death-markd love is the ultimate spoiler), as if he knew that controversies were important as long as you didnt offend too much.

But it is not just universities which are proving to be a barrier to Shakespeare. The insular, sometimes toxic world of the theatre Twitterati has become a breeding ground for those who shout the loudest to effectively cancel him. The result is that it sometimes feels as if the default status is to tackle him as if he is a bad thing. Take the Globe, set up by the great Sam Wanamaker, to increase our understanding and enjoyment of Shakespeare. The Globe (when fully functioning) should be a joyous celebration of his work, but there is a danger that it is very much becoming a place where the craft of production is playing second fiddle to ideology; where a recent production of Richard II became a statement about post-Empire attitudes as we left the European Union.

If Shakespeare is, professionally speaking, put in the hands of ideologues, where that will leave some of the greatest theatre practitioners of our age? Robert Ickes Hamlet (first staged at the Almeida in 2017) was one of the best I have ever seen. It was a modern production, with some bold directorial innovations which werent to everyones taste, but it was also expert in highlighting the universality of the plays themes, of action, revenge, honour and death.

Continued here:
Shakespeare is under threat from campus censors and Twitter mobs - Telegraph.co.uk

Compared to the necessity of creators to have access to expensive physical infrastructure, not to mention publishing power structures needed to negotiate to get their product out on TV or radio its clear where the core strength and appeal of podcasting lies.

Its the last, but a pretty solid mass medium standing democratic in the way its available to everyone, cheap to produce and consume, and discoverable with minimum effort and investment in terms of equipment and service fees.

If you have an internet connection and basic recording equipment, can cover bandwidth costs, and know how to use RSS as a content distribution tool that is pretty much all you need to be podcasting to everyone.

Nevertheless, to be able to reach a wider audience, its necessary to be discoverable in podcasting and/or streaming apps, that allow their users to search podcasts listed by dedicated directories.

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Using a free and open source podcasting app will provide you with several diverse podcast directories to choose from: the overpowering and omnipresent one maintained by Apple, and then some David(s) to this Goliath, like open source gPodder and Fyyd.

Three choices, particularly with one obviously disproportionately dominant as far as normal users and podcasters are concerned, doesnt seem like much; but its still better than just one, controlled by an entity beholden to nothing but itself like Apple, or others very similar to it like Google and Spotify.

So whats wrong with that? Dont Apple and its giant co-conspirator tech brethren already index everything published on the planet anyway? Well, the reliability and future viability of this model is now doubted and challenged by podfather Adam Curry and developer Dave Jones, who are throwing their weight behind a new open directory thats available to developers who wish to include it in their podcast apps.

Its called simply, Podcast Index. The goal is to provide an alternative to Apples dominant index that Curry suspects is now being tinkered with as opposed to the goal of Podcast Index to uphold some podcast pioneer standards of universal availability, for free, and for any use.

The main concern around Apple is that its a very centralized private entity () controlling pretty much what everybody considers the default yellow pages for podcasting while the solution is to offer an alternative as an open project to preserve podcasting as a platform for free speech.

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The move to keep podcasting free of censorship - Reclaim The Net

It's reported today in Hong Kong that more RSS apps are disappearing from Apples App Store in China in a new crackdown on feed readers. Apple removed two additional apps that pull content from RSS feeds, allowing Chinese users to access articles that might normally be blocked by the countrys Great Firewall.

Fiery Feeds and Reeder both acknowledged on Twitter that their iOS apps had been removed in the country. They cited a 2017 tweet by Inoreader, another popular RSS service, which posted a letter from Apple saying its app was removed in China because it included content that is illegal in the country. Inoreader said the entire service was blocked in April this year.

Apple has been repeatedly criticized for capitulating to the Chinese government by complying with censorship requests. The company has removed VPN apps, which let users bypass the Great Firewall, and news apps that include The New York Times and Quartz . Apple also removed a map app in Hong Kong that tracked protest activities. For more on this read Hong Kong's Abacus report.

However, Apple's CEO is on record stating that Apple will comply with the law of the land where they do business. This was repeated again in a February 2020 report which stated "Apple said in its statement that free expression 'is central to our company and its success' but that it is obliged to 'comply with local laws and to protect the safety of our customers and employees'", including by removing apps.

Removing apps and complying with governments is the cost of doing business in certain countries. In context, President Trump is now beginning a tech war with China, and while the ban of WeChat and TikTok apps is still in the courts, more than likely the ban will eventually go into action with Apple and Google removing the apps from their respective app stores.

Where it gets trickier is when a country like Russia demanded that Apple change their Maps app, like in the case of Crimea in 2019 where Apple complied. There are 114 UN members that don't support Russia's position on Crimea including the United States.

Choosing to support Russia's position on their Maps App as simply a cost of doing business in Russia, to many, crosses the line and shouldn't be a part of Apple's so-called "values."

Additionally, the group called "+SumOfUs.org" pressed Apple at this year's shareholder meeting. Their issue is not knowing what Apple's position is on the slave labor situation in China regarding Uighur people. If it's the law of the land for Apple to close their eyes to Apple's Chinese manufacturers using Uighur slave labor, will Apple look the other way and allow it to happen as a cost of doing business? That's when compliance with the "laws of the land" would dangerously cross the line. Unfortunately, trying to prove this situation is close to impossible being that the U.S. press is severely suppressed in China.

At the end of the day, while we hope that +SumOfUs.org will continue to press Apple on this and other related human right issues the news of removing a few RSS feed apps from the App Store isn't seen as a major issue.

The rest is here:
Apple complies with Censors in China and removes two RSS Feeds from their iOS App Store - Patently Apple

For avid gamers, competitive players, and content creators, having a display that can keep up with your high demands is crucial, but picking the right monitor can be a sea of confusion. Thankfully, LGs new 27GN950 solves the problem by ticking all the boxes for a regular gamer to a full-time content creator.

Normally, picking a monitor would be a process of deciding what is most important for you; high-resolution vs high-refresh rate, accurate colors vs fast response time. These are all regular head-scratchers when choosing a display.

But, the ambitious 27GN950 attempts to eradicate this one-or-the-other choice, and, as some of the influencers who have tried it attest, is successful.

The headline specs are impressive even on paper: An IPS panel, which ensures better viewing angles and color accuracy, 4K resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, 10bit color, Hardware Calibration, and 1ms GtG response time. This is all music to the ears of a gamer, as well as a content creator or editor.

Its also NVIDIA G-Sync compatible and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro compatible, meaning you should never see any screen-tearing. Pair the LG 27GN950 with a 20-series NVIDIA GPU or one of the latest AMD cards, and youll be able to take advantage of Display Stream Compression (DSC), allowing 4K at 144Hz.

If you play games, particularly FPS games, and hope to be at least somewhat competitive, hopefully youve already switched from a regular TV to a gaming monitor. If you have, youll know that going back simply isnt an option. The reduced input delay, thanks to instant 1ms response time, and the faster refresh rates that a monitor provides, are literal game-changers, that can give you a genuine advantage in games.

Of course, the LG 27GN950 meets these standards for what to expect from a top-performing gaming monitor, but what makes it unique is its versatility. You dont need to sacrifice one feature, say, high refresh rate, for another, like accurate color.

If you play games competitively, the monitor is probably the second-most important part of your setup, after your rig itself. Ensuring snappy response times, high refresh rate, minimal ghosting or screen-tear, can be a life-or-death difference in-game.

As this new monitor from LG hits the market, some of the most knowledgable influencers in gaming tech have been reviewing the model, and testing if it meets its ambitious goals.

Linus Tech Tips is one of the largest tech channels on all of YouTube, with a particular focus on gaming hardware. They pitted the LG 27GN950 against some of its rivals.

So, yes, the 27GN950 is great for gaming, but this monitor is 4K it probably makes the most sense for gamers who also, are creators, LTT said. And it delivers there too out of the box, the color accuracy on our unit was squarely in professional territory.

Their verdict for this all-encompassing monitor: If youre a gamer who also dabbles, or even works in, photo editing or video editing, or if you have a multi-monitor setup, or if you just really like 4K displays, then this is a fantastic monitor that almost does it all.

TimTheTatman is not only an avid gamer, but also one of the leading content creators on Twitch and YouTube. His aim and reaction time might also be a better representation of the rest of us mortals, rather than the elite pro players. He too is a big fan of LG monitors, and with his move to Florida now complete, hes setup with the 27GN950.

Of course, while he admires the technical specs, Tim is also a visual person, and highlights his love for the new Ultragear emblem, which features prominently on the backside. As a streamer, this monitor is perfect for Tims needs as an all-rounder, perfect for gaming and content creation.

For content creation specifically, the IPS 10-bit color display gives much more accurate and deep colors, so you know that what youre editing is an accurate representation. This is vital for both photo and video editing. Hardware calibration is also vital in this respect, and is also supported on the 27GN950. This allows for the monitors color settings to be tuned perfectly with built-in settings, and goes hand-in-hand with the 10-bit display.

For gamers, even more valuable than the words of experts or content creators, is the opinion of professional and elite players. Twitch streamer Brandon aceu Winn is known for his time as a competitive player in games including CS:GO, Apex Legends, and most recently, Valorant, praised for his almost inhuman aim.

To be a crisp aimer on FPS games, aceu obviously needs a snappy, responsive display and a crystal clear picture of his targets, which the GN750 provides. Unboxing the new monitor on stream, he explained we have gotten a beautiful piece of hardware to absolutely frag out in-game.

The visual design of this monitor is perhaps an understated aspect though. Gone is the regular placement of the logo on the front bezel, which allows for an even slimmer design around the display itself. Instead, the powerful new logo is emblazoned on the back, and matches the black/deep red color scheme which also follows on the stand.

The LG 27GN950 then, is a monitor capable of meeting all the needs of even the most demanding gamers, content creators and editors, while also fitting in perfectly with a sleek and modern setup. With the experts at LTT, and the streamers Aceu and TimTheTatman giving it their seal of approval, this monitor manages to pass its ambitious test with flying (and very accurate) colors.

To celebrate the launch of the 27GN950, LG are pitting the worlds top streamers against each other in the LG UltraGear face off. The tournament will take place on Riot Games new FPS, Valorant, and will determine which FPS background is best for dominating in the new game. Because Valorant mixes hero-shooters like Overwatch and Apex Legends, with tactical shooters like CS:GO and Call of Duty, the battle will decide which FPS player is the best at Valorant.

Four teams will be captained by streamers with different backgrounds:

The tournament will start on October 3, at 4pm ET. During the matches, drops will be available on the streamers channels. You can watch the official steam on LGs official Twitch and YouTube channels.

Read more:
Joe Rogan responds to claims that Spotify is censoring him - Dexerto

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