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The scene is set in Snip hairdressers, Somewhere in the Cheshire Blue Rinse belt

A Customer arrives at the reception desk and smiles at the receptionist ...

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The National Park in South Wales known as the Brecon Beacons has a new name. The switch - to Bannau Brycheiniog National Park - took effect on Monday 17 April 2023, its 66th anniversary. The Welsh name means "the peaks of Brychan's kingdom" and is pronounced ban-aye bruch-ein-iog, with the ch making the same sound as in loch. However, perhaps inevitably, the new name has also given rise to a political storm in a beacon. 

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Twitter has seen substantial changes under the new ownership of Elon Musk. But some tweeters have retained their sense of humour, and often offered flashes of wisdom. Here are some twelve selected from the early weeks of April.

Thanks to

@deelomas (2 nominations)
@ModigThe
@MachTownclock
@sturgess_steve
@ArtCrunchy
@MarieAnnUK 
@SydesJokes
@kercle
@CosmopolitanUK
@stephenfarrow
@EvLenz

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This week, the BBC has been reporting extensively on an interview with Elon Musk. In it, the new owner of Twitter declared his total commitment to accurate news reporting, and that they would be relabelling the BBC from a State Broadcaster to a Public Service Organisation.

The interview had all the hallmarks of a whacky piece of show business. It had been triggered by a BBC reporter in California contacting Musk over the embarrassing description of the BBC, a term usually reserved for the politically controlled broadcasts  from the leaders of totalitarian regimes.

Musk responded personally, as he sometimes does. The Twitter exchange led to the interview, which turned into a long and rambling interaction between the World’s richest man, and a local BBC reporter ...

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'In Bumble, Women are White'.

I Came across this cryptic remark in an account reported in in the rather serious online forum Quora.

To even to start to understand what seems like a provocative racially loaded statement you need to know that Bumble is an online dating site. Profiles of potential matches are displayed to users, who can "swipe left" to reject a candidate or "swipe right" to indicate interest.

The author was discussing how chess players have a way of looking at life that differs from non chess-players. This is how the discussion was reported:

I was talking to a friend. He's in his mid 30s at the time of this story.

He was describing the online dating scene. He mentioned Tinder, which I had heard of, and Bumble, which I had not. I asked what Bumble was. “It's Tinder, except the women are white.” He said.

This took me by surprise. I didn't consider him to be racist or even racially sensitive. His last girlfriend wasn't white. (I figured maybe he was looking for a change…)

It finally hit me after that my friend is a strong chess player, and has virtually dedicated his entire adult life to chess. In chess the player with the White pieces makes the first move.

So, when he said that on the dating site  “the women are white” he means that women make the first move; i. e., they initiate contact with the men.

I laughed when I realized this. I’ve  pointed out to him that his phrasing might have been misunderstood. He seemed to think it was perfectly clear what he meant.

But another way of looking at it is considering the assimilation of chess into poetry, books, and films ...

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The latest gun massacres in America has led to the predictable fruitless outcomes.
President Biden expresses outrage, compassion for the victims, but with little sign of any effective initiative. Republicans continue to reject efforts to legislate to restrict access to high powered weapons like the ones used in the recent  killings at a school in Nashville last week.

Outside the United States, there is continued bemusement at the self-inflicted wounds repeated so often, and the delusionary justification of the way the Constitutional right to bear arms is being exercised.

The problem was illustrated this week in the Tennessee state House of Representatives.

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An interesting aspect of sporting excellence is the impact of being part of a sporting family. I decided to take advantage of a family visit recently to investigate how sport inspires them, and why each family member  eventually settled on their favourite sport or sports.

Parents:
Paul and Teresa Rickards

Offspring
Morgan, Freddy and Evan Rickards

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How to estimate your chess grade using Lichess

Lesson 1 Getting started

This lesson is for chess players who have never been given a chess grade. Your grade is an indication of your strength.
You can use the podcast with halt and restarts to support your efforts

So, step one. 

Get acquainted with Lichess

The first step. Log into 
https://lichess.org/

Don’t be deterred by the complexity of the site. It’s user friendly. For real beginners, the section learn gives you confidence about making moves on the Lichess screen before seeking a game

The next big step is getting registered with your Lichess handle you provide for yourself. 

Create a Lichess.org Account and your chosen Lichess identifier (‘handle)

When on the www.lichess.org website
Click “SIGN IN” on the top right of the main page
Type in either your e-mail and your secure password in the appropriate fields
Click “SIGN IN” at the bottom
You are now logged in and are at the main playing area of lichess.org. Now register while on the site using your self-chosen Lichess handle. This is the unique name you will have for all your Lichess games. Pick one you can remember.

You are now ready to seek a game. 

Select Chose a game 

Choose standard. 
This is Casual or Rated
Casual does not count towards your rating. It’s OK to practice with Casual, but you need Rated to learn your actual strength and lose that question mark. So when you have tried with Casual Choose Rated

You then chose the time limit. I suggest for practical reasons practice with 15 minutes which applies to both players.
Choose 15 min

You then chose time increment, this is the extra time added after every move. I suggest 10 seconds
Choose 10 seconds

You will now be given a provisional grade accompanied by a question mark.  As you play a few games, the grade will change and settle down. 
Your first grade is set at 1500? which is likely to be high for someone starting out in competitive chess.

You must chose opponent’s strength. I suggest 300 points higher and lower than your grade (remember, the 1500? starting grade).
Choose 300 higher and 300 lower

When you have completed these requests you will be provided with an opponent of roughly your strength. 

Play the game

Don’t worry if you lose.  If so, I suggest you then STOP,  as that is enough for your lesson. You have made your step into an invaluable way not only of learning about your chess skills but of improving them.
This is equivalent to the first time you stepped into a car and learned what a steering wheel is for.

How to resign

One important point of Lychessiquette, is how to resign. As you play, there are click buttons for you to: 
resign
abort the game before it starts
Or offer a draw. 

All are useful, but resigning is vital.

The resign button is a little flag
Abort is an x
Offering a draw is 1/2

What next?

There are many wonderful ways you can learn from Lychess, such as how good was every move you made in every game. . But that is for our next lesson…

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Finnish conservative leader Petteri Orpo has won a close three-way election race, defeating the centre left coalition led by Prime Minister Sanna Marin. 

Marin had became a rockstar politician, with a rise and fall in her popularity similar to that of New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern.

Sanna Marin remains popular and has an impressive political record moving Finland towards entry into Nato.  Like Ardern, she has been praised for her leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic.

So why the departure from power?

Her profile was, to say the least, controversial. A young, in-your-face politician, elected aged 34 in 2019 was the youngest female political leader of a country. Her supporters saw in her a liberated woman unfettered by conventions of her status demonstrated through highly visible party-going, and attention by the global press.

Her style contributed to her celebrity status. Such non-political publicity created devoted followers as well loathing among her detractors. 

Now Finland has opted for the conventional ‘safe pair of hands’. As the Political website puts it.

Finns have played it safe with a post-pandemic recession looming and their giant eastern neighbor Russia waging a brutal war in Ukraine. 
In center-right leader Petteri Orpo, the Finnish electorate has backed someone with a trusted track record in party politics that stretches back decades. 
Orpo convinced voters that the Finnish economy was in trouble and that he — rather than his free-spirited and freer-spending rival Sanna Marin — was the steady hand Finland needs. 

Interestingly, the international news of the week is Finland’s president accepting his country’s entry into NATO. However, this significant policy is widely accepted by people and politicians alike, and seems unlikely to present an internal political problem for the new Prime Minister.

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