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Quote:The Bank of England on Wednesday unveiled their new £50 note featuring gay mathematician, cryptographer, and biologist Alan Turing. Turing was selected by public nomination in 2019 when the Bank sought to honor a British scientist on the note. Despite his instrumental contributions breaking Nazi Germany’s famed Enigma code during World War II, the heroic cryptopgrapher was later chemically castrated following his 1952 arrest for having a sexual relationship with another man.
“Turing is best known for his codebreaking work at Bletchley Park, which helped end the Second World War,” Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said in a statement. “However in addition he was a leading mathematician, developmental biologist, and a pioneer in the field of computer science. He was also gay, and was treated appallingly as a result. By placing him on our new polymer £50 banknote, we are celebrating his achievements, and the values he symbolizes.”
“Turing was embraced for his brilliance and persecuted for being gay,” echoed GCHG Director, Jeremy Fleming. “His legacy is a reminder of the value of embracing all aspects of diversity, but also the work we still need to do to become truly inclusive.”
The new £50 polymer note features Turing’s likeness on the back along with other symbolic imagery representing his many achievements. These include images and technical drawings of his early attempt at computers along with a key component of his codebreaking machine, ticker tape depicting his birthdate in binary code, as well as a quote he gave to The Times in 1949 where he said “This is only a foretaste of what is to come, and only the shadow of what is going to be.”
Read further:
The Bank of England released a video on YouTube which featured gay author and actor Stephen Fry, who noted Turing “was among the thousands of men who were harried and harangued by the authorities” during the post-war United Kingdom, and that he was filled with delight both with the honoring of Turing but also the manner in which he was selected.
“The choice of Alan Turing and the manner in which it was arrived at by public nomination marks another step in our nation’s long overdue recognition of this very great man,” Fry said in the video.
Turing was a key visionary and pioneer in the fields of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. He was instrumental in his efforts at famed Bletchley Park just outside London where he and his team broke Nazi Germany’s Enigma code, which was thought to be unbreakable. Much of his work was covered by the Official Secrets Act at the time, and so he was never fully recognized for his contributions.
He was arrested in 1952 for homosexual activity with a consenting 19-year-old man. Given the choice between prison or chemical castration, he chose the latter. As a result of his conviction, the authorities took away his security clearance and barred him from further cryptography work for the British signals intelligence agency. He died in 1954 at the age of 41, having consumed cyanide. Turing’s life and story were famously portrayed in the 2014 film The Imitation Game staring Benedict Cumberbatch.
Fleming said he sees Turing’s appearance on the note as a “landmark moment” in his country’s history and a cause for both celebration and reflection.
“Not only is it a celebration of his scientific genius which helped to shorten the war and influence the technology we still use today, it also confirms his status as one of the most iconic LGBT+ figures in the world.,” Fleming said.
Quote:The Bank of England on Wednesday unveiled their new £50 note featuring gay mathematician, cryptographer, and biologist Alan Turing. Turing was selected by public nomination in 2019 when the Bank sought to honor a British scientist on the note. Despite his instrumental contributions breaking Nazi Germany’s famed Enigma code during World War II, the heroic cryptopgrapher was later chemically castrated following his 1952 arrest for having a sexual relationship with another man.
“Turing is best known for his codebreaking work at Bletchley Park, which helped end the Second World War,” Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said in a statement. “However in addition he was a leading mathematician, developmental biologist, and a pioneer in the field of computer science. He was also gay, and was treated appallingly as a result. By placing him on our new polymer £50 banknote, we are celebrating his achievements, and the values he symbolizes.”
“Turing was embraced for his brilliance and persecuted for being gay,” echoed GCHG Director, Jeremy Fleming. “His legacy is a reminder of the value of embracing all aspects of diversity, but also the work we still need to do to become truly inclusive.”
The new £50 polymer note features Turing’s likeness on the back along with other symbolic imagery representing his many achievements. These include images and technical drawings of his early attempt at computers along with a key component of his codebreaking machine, ticker tape depicting his birthdate in binary code, as well as a quote he gave to The Times in 1949 where he said “This is only a foretaste of what is to come, and only the shadow of what is going to be.”
Read further:
The Bank of England released a video on YouTube which featured gay author and actor Stephen Fry, who noted Turing “was among the thousands of men who were harried and harangued by the authorities” during the post-war United Kingdom, and that he was filled with delight both with the honoring of Turing but also the manner in which he was selected.
“The choice of Alan Turing and the manner in which it was arrived at by public nomination marks another step in our nation’s long overdue recognition of this very great man,” Fry said in the video.
Turing was a key visionary and pioneer in the fields of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. He was instrumental in his efforts at famed Bletchley Park just outside London where he and his team broke Nazi Germany’s Enigma code, which was thought to be unbreakable. Much of his work was covered by the Official Secrets Act at the time, and so he was never fully recognized for his contributions.
He was arrested in 1952 for homosexual activity with a consenting 19-year-old man. Given the choice between prison or chemical castration, he chose the latter. As a result of his conviction, the authorities took away his security clearance and barred him from further cryptography work for the British signals intelligence agency. He died in 1954 at the age of 41, having consumed cyanide. Turing’s life and story were famously portrayed in the 2014 film The Imitation Game staring Benedict Cumberbatch.
Fleming said he sees Turing’s appearance on the note as a “landmark moment” in his country’s history and a cause for both celebration and reflection.
“Not only is it a celebration of his scientific genius which helped to shorten the war and influence the technology we still use today, it also confirms his status as one of the most iconic LGBT+ figures in the world.,” Fleming said.
About time
"Change was inevitable"
Nemo sicut deus debet esse!
“No matter what men think, abortion is a fact of life. Women have always had them; they always have and they always will. Are they going to have good ones or bad ones? Will the good ones be reserved for the rich, while the poor women go to quacks?” –SHIRLEY CHISHOLM
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
It turns out this film is available free (and legal) on YouTube:
I had a coworker like Megan, and while she never came out as gay (or the more likely bisexuality), she did have this strange relationship with her sexual orientation. She regularly went to titty bars, flirted with other girls (sometimes in very creepy ways), and even got engaged to the one other girl in the scene shop who swung that way, but she still insisted she was straight. The most coherent explanation she gave was that she believed that, as long as she still had a boyfriend, anything she did with other girls didn’t count. And somehow, she never seemed to figure out the bloody obvious. Admittedly, in her case, she acted very childlike (sometimes even acting like her girlfriend was her mommy), and this may have contributed to this obliviousness.
Comparing the Universal Oneness of All Life to Yo Mama since 2010.
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.
Quote:1. Mysterious monoliths
2. Wearing face masks
3. Ordering dessert
4. Eating breakfast
5. Using facial products and/or having good hygiene
6. Recycling
7. Leaning
8. Eating crab legs
9. Watching the sunset
10. Sitting cross-legged
11. Napping
12. Wiping and cleaning your derriere
13. Talking to your significant other
14. Liking flowers
15. Drinking water with lemon in it
16. Strong women
17. Having sex with women
18. Tweeting
19. Ordering a milkshake
If you want an expanded explanation as to why straight people find any of the above gay, then visit the link and read what they have to say about it.
When your religion prevents you from giving people medical care, then it's a wrong religion, and it's time you abandon it.
Quote:Arkansas Governor signed into law legislation allowing doctors to refuse to treat someone because of religious or moral objections
Opponents of the law, including the Human Rights Campaign and the American Civil Liberties Union, have said it will allow doctors to refuse to offer a host of services for LGBTQ patients. The state Chamber of Commerce also opposed the measure, saying it sends the wrong message about the state.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"