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Marking 50 Years Since Alan Turing's Death

Posted by timothy on from the actual-tragedy dept.

erroneous writes "Today is the 50th anniversary of the death of Alan Turing: mathematician, code breaker, and computer pioneer. He was today commemorated in his home city of Manchester, UK." Here are stories at the BBC and at The Register.

6 of 423 comments (clear)

  1. Re:On a side note by gertsenl · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    Is there not ONE story on this site that we can have a modicum of decency in the comments? I was hoping this story might elicit a somber, respectful, pensive set of comments.

    I guess not. Let's see what they're saying about this anniversary on the SomethingAwful forums...

    --
    --Leo
  2. Re: Free Mal_Vu by stanwirth · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Contrary to popular belief, mal_vu didn't really pass a Turing test -- she would have had to fool real people as well as FBI agents.

  3. MODS - PARENT NOT OFFTOPIC by skifreak87 · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    As can be seen by the comment at the top of page now (9:48 EDT), Turing commited suicide by eating a cyanide-laced apple. Re-read the comment and decide again if you think it's offtopic (don't forget offtopic/overrated lower karma while funny doesn't raise it)

  4. bug? by nevertellanybody · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Why is the software icon displayed for a science post? nit? pick!

  5. Behavior and society/biology by Doug+Merritt · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    The reason why some gay men act effeminate is because being gay frees people from the normal constraints of society: they feel they have the freedom to act effeminate. Society and peer pressure constrains straight male behaviour

    Certainly that's part of it for some people, but I've had gay male friends who grew up acting in an effeminate way starting in childhood, and began to wonder if they were gay because of that, and only later discovered a strong sexual preference for the same sex.

    The moral being that there's many kinds of people in the world, and a single explanation rarely accounts for all differences. Including biology -- and also that there seem to be multiple biological reasons for these things.

    --
    Professional Wild-Eyed Visionary
  6. Re:Insightful? Bah. Of course Insightful != Factua by damiam · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I meant it as "yes, it is a coincidence", which is true. But I guess you could see it the other way - "yes, there is a connection". Funny that I get modded to +5 for an ambiguous one-word comment . :-)

    --
    It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.