free with every Great Machine

Currently the only memorial to Alan Turing in Cambridge is a black and white photograph in a basement. Turing’s hugely important work in computer science has gone largely under-recognised. He also had a crucial role in winning the war for the Allies, which lent his subsequent arrest and persecution for homosexuality, (which led to suicide) a very bitter irony.

If you haven’t joined the facebook group, do it now for updates and information about the progress we’ve made so far: here

There is currently a campaign for Turing to be pardoned. Our campaign (unaffiliated with that) would be to challenge the university to match funding pledged by students to put up a small bust of Turing with a plaque commemorating his life and achievements.

Scene: MI6 headquarters. There’s an impressive glass-projection computer screen, but it’s showing a DOS error message and the display is rotated 90 degrees. M is on the phone.

Bond: (via mobile): “Can you get me anything on Dominic Green?”
M: “Hang on a second, 007 – just checking the social services database now… Sorry, it’s not accepting my password again. Ah. There are 7,000 Dominic Greens – anything more specific?”
Bond: “He’s plotting to overthrow several governments.”
M: “Unemployed then. Right – think this must be him – sending picture now.”
Bond: “…Sorry, can’t view it on this phone you’ve issued me with – can you send it as a jpeg?”
M: “No.”
Bond: “Oh well. Anything else on the social services database?”
M: “Sorry 007, that part of the database was in a CD-Rom we sent over to the Treasury by courier.”
Bond: “The one that turned up on ebay two weeks later?”
M: (sighs) “Who’d have thought dr_no_mwahaha1 would have bid so high?”
Bond: “How about the NHS record system?”
M: “System’s still down. The contractor’s gone bust again and we can’t get through to the helpdesk.”
Bond: “Criminal Record Bureau?”
M: “Fill in the form and send it in – they’ll get back to you in about three months.”
Female Virgin Mobile voice: “You have 30 seconds and 15 texts remaining.”
Bond: “I need answers. Now.”
M: “OK – I’ve got his online tax returns but that’s about all. Shall I put it on an unencrypted flash drive and leave it on the Circle Line for you to pick up as usual?”
Bond: (hangs up)

Human Touch by Lewis and Joshua Westbury is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License

The game as it should have been…

Goodbye galaxy, with Commander Bean. Poignant.

hadrons

“An experiment was conducted to find out if miniature black holes will suck in the universe. Or not.”

(click for bigger)