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Timmy says he thinks this could be a good idea. Every so often I shall post here someone's picture. There will be three characteristics of these people: they are dead, they were gay and they made an impressive contribution to the benefit of humanity. The idea is to identify the person and then to describe their achievements. It is surely a good thing to get to know and take a pride in the achievements of such people. So, if you can, please identify the person and in a very few words describe what you know about them. Don't write a whole essay! Most people get turned off by very long messages, and the longer the message the less opportunity there will be for others to contribute to the thread. After identification try to let the thread run a little. Maybe this way, over a period of time, we can create a collection of information about gays the world should be proud of.
So here is the first picture:
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Attachment: at.jpg
(Size: 2.14KB, Downloaded 358 times)
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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Is it Christopher Isherwood?
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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But you've got the approximate time frame right. Good try. But this time we are not in the sphere of literature.
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
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Could it be British mathematician Alan Turing. Said to be the main person behind the breaking of the enigma code at Benchlypark WWII ?
People will tell you where they've gone
They'll tell you where to go
But till you get there yourself you never really know
Where some have found their paradise
Other's just come to harm
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Ummmm that was Bletchley Park sorry
People will tell you where they've gone
They'll tell you where to go
But till you get there yourself you never really know
Where some have found their paradise
Other's just come to harm
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OK! We've got the man. But he did much more than break Nazi codes. What else do we know about Alan Turing? (Now it should be easy: that's what the 'information highway' is for, isn't it?)
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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Apple says (or once said) that their logo is a tribute to Turing.
He coated an apple with poison and took a bite out of it, dying that way. He was prosecuted under the UK's arcane laws for having sex with another man. They made him agree to take massive doses of hormiones to "control his desires" as a part of his mandatory treatment regime.
Apple have never commented on the rainbow colours of their logo.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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I never knew this. I hope it's an urban legend, but I fear it might not be. But let's try and develop the connection with Apple... the Steve Jobs Apple, not the Beatles.
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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Alan Turing was arrested and came to trial on 31 March 1952, after the police learned of his sexual relationship with a young Manchester man. He made no serious denial or defence, instead telling everyone that he saw no wrong with his actions. He was particularly concerned to be open about his sexuality even in the hard and unsympathetic atmosphere of Manchester engineering. Rather than go to prison he accepted, for the period of a year, injections of oestrogen intended to neutralise his libido.
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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He was found by his cleaner when she came in on 8 June 1954. He had died the day before of cyanide poisoning, a half-eaten apple beside his bed. His mother believed he had accidentally ingested cyanide from his fingers after an amateur chemistry experiment, but it is more credible that he had successfully contrived his death to allow her alone to believe this. The coroner's verdict was suicide.
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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He had been attracted to Scandinavia on hearing rumours of its dances 'for men only'.
On 23 June 1948 a modern gay organisation, F-48, had been founded in Denmark and it had since branched into Norway and Sweden. There had been pictures in the press of dances in Copenhagen.
Alan Turing must have thought the future had already arrived: he was wrong. (In 1955 the authorities stamped on F-48 with arrests and show trials.)
The Apple Macinstosh logo did NOT originate with the story of Alan Turing's death. According to Apple Inc., whose name was chosen in 1976, the logo was designed in 1977 to allude to Newton but also to 'the symbol of lust and knowledge, the colors of the rainbow in the wrong order.. hope and anarchy.' It should be remembered that in 1977 Alan Turing's story was very little known. Even if it had been known, suicide would hardly have been a happy allusion for the young Apple company image.
And yet, it's one of those extraordinary things which seem to make Alan Turing's life resonate far beyond his death.
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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There's an interesting Wikipedia article here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing
for anyone who is interested.
Alan Turing is much admired and respected among geeks, but he is depressingly under-known among the general population. And the tragedy of his life is even less known.
And people claim that post-war Britain was a "civilised" country...
David
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Perhaps the most enduring memorial to Alan Turing is the fact that you are reading this message. Alan Turing was, in many senses, the begetting genius of the computer.
I found out that there is a statue to him now in Manchester. It was unveiled on June 23, 2001. The statue is in Sackville Park, which is almost exactly halfway between the Computer Sciences building of Manchester University on Whitworth Street and the Canal Street gay village (scene of the original British version of QAF). What a marvellously appropriate site for the statue.
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
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