[QUOTE=TheMawn;398349]Turing's story is a bit different because of the fact that he was gay. If it wasn't for that, there wouldn't be a huge need to know what he has done.

Do you know the stories of the big names in Civic Water and Sewer services? I don't.[/QUOTE]

Could not disagree more - history has always had a warm place for the seminal thinkers and creative souls among us. As far as the latter question, I suggest you google "Broad Street Pump" for an example of someone involved in those fields who is also warmly - and deservedly - remembered by history, if not by latter-day illiberally-educated hyperspecialists only interested in their particular field or set of intellectual fetishes.

[QUOTE=TheMawn;398349]Do you know the stories of the big names in Civic Water and Sewer services? I don't.[/QUOTE]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Mulholland[/url]
William Mulholland: famous and notorious.

[QUOTE=chalsall;398352]Ibut can talk at length about what the current celebrities did last week...[/QUOTE]
Celebrity: a person famous for being famous.

Yes, I know, this ought to be in the Devil's Dictionary thread.

[QUOTE=chalsall;398352]I hear what you're saying, and mostly agree. What saddens me is how little many in the "rich world" know about people who have done serious work in the past (even if only in limited domains of their particular interest), but can talk at length about what the current celebrities did last week...

The cynic in me thinks "Keep them scared (e.g. "The War on Terror"), keep them entertained, and they'll continue buying stuff and remain benign.[/QUOTE]

I have to disagree with the assertion that, " If it wasn't for that, there wouldn't be a huge need to know what he has done."

How does his sexuality relate to awareness of his many accomplishments, including, but not limited to some of the early conceptualizing of computer science?

[QUOTE]The cynic in me thinks "Keep them scared (e.g. "The War on Terror"), keep them entertained, and they'll continue buying stuff and remain benign. [/QUOTE]

Bread and Circuses.

[QUOTE=kladner;398364]How does his sexuality relate to awareness of his many accomplishments, including, but not limited to some of the early conceptualizing of computer science?[/QUOTE]

Absolutely nothing.

But... Please keep in mind (as I suspect you already know) this was a brilliant man working at the very highest levels when being gay (happy?) was frowned upon....

[QUOTE=chalsall;398367]Absolutely nothing.

But... Please keep in mind (as I suspect you already know) this was a brilliant man working at the very highest levels when being gay (happy?) was frowned upon....[/QUOTE]

"Frowned upon" is putting it mildly, but I know you know that. Turing was recently posthumously pardoned for being queer, but a great many lesser persons are still criminals. It is a monument to blind stupidity that the UK destroyed this genius.

EDIT: Please don't think that I am snarling at you, Chris. This is just one of those things which get my dander up.

Emmy Noether
 

Her ideas will always live on.
The imagination to create and extend useful mathematics is a difficult art. Those of her contemporaries listed on the google commemoration who described her work attests to the value of what was created. Moreover, anyone who has read and studied her work and those of her peers makes one realize that these are human endeavours requiring courage and tenacity as well as dedication.

[QUOTE=chalsall;398352]What saddens me is how little many in the "rich world" know about people who have done serious work in the past (even if only in limited domains of their particular interest), but can talk at length about what the current celebrities did last week...
[/QUOTE]

Oh certainly. I meant to agree with that bit of what you were saying but I got caught up in the rest of what I wanted to say.


[QUOTE=ewmayer;398355]Could not disagree more - history has always had a warm place for the seminal thinkers and creative souls among us.[/QUOTE]

I might have poorly phrased my point. People like Turing absolutely 100% deserve their place in history and most people like him don't get 100% of the place that they truly deserve.

What I meant was that outside of an interest (professional or otherwise) in computers, a person does not really need to know very much about Alan Turing. How much he suffered because he was gay, on the other hand, is a story everybody should know until homophobia is no longer a thing.


What I was trying to aim at is that most people, in a practical sense, can only know so much history, and that a lot things are more important to know than others.

[QUOTE=kladner;398370]EDIT: Please don't think that I am snarling at you, Chris. This is just one of those things which get my dander up.[/QUOTE]

I like being snarled at. And, IMO, this is a subject worth snarling about.... :smile:

[QUOTE=chalsall;398426]I like being snarled at. And, IMO, this is a subject worth snarling about.... :smile:[/QUOTE]
Thanks. I agree.

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;396716]He was also in Mission Impossible too. Maybe he will show up in their Sunday night airing of that show.[/QUOTE]

Yes, he was in fact a regular in that series, at least for part of its run. Another forumite - forget who - also recommended the ep. of the original [i]The Outer Limits[/i] starring Nimoy. to Anonymous -

Thanks for the suggestion - bought season 1 (used DVD) on Amazon, started watching a few days ago. Season 2 - even used - seems pricy, so added to my Wish List, will check every now and again hoping for the price to drop. The lack of an automated price-tracking-and-alert feature prompted me to send e-mail to Jeff Bezos ... was expecting at best an auto-reply (but one still hopes a human reads the message), but whaddya know - while I didn't get a reply from the Big J himself, my suggestion actually got through and merited a non-boilerplate reply. (I deduce that from the 'ans'-instead-of-'and' typo, which is common in live mails, but not in canned ones) from a real human, or at least a damn good imitation of one. :)
[quote]From: "Amazon.com Executive Customer Relations" <************@amazon.com>
Date: March 13, 2015 7:20:29 AM PDT
To: "ewmayer@aol.com" <ewmayer@aol.com>
Subject: Your E-mail to Jeff Bezos - Re: Price Alert feature for Wish Lists?

Hello Ernst,

I'm Rachel Ross of Amazon.com's Executive Customer Relations. Jeff Bezos received your e-mail and asked that I respond on his behalf. I'll be sure to include Jeff’s office with this correspondence.

We really value your input and are always looking for new ways to improve the services we offer. To ensure your idea is reviewed, I've shared your suggestions with our Wishlist team for their consideration when planning future improvements. I can tell you've put a lot of thought into this ans please know as someone who uses their Wishlist for the same purposes, I think that is indeed a great idea.

Thanks for taking the time to bring this to my attention.

Regards,

Rachel Ross
Executive Customer Relations
Amazon.com
[url]http://www.amazon.com[/url]
There’s a brief survey at the bottom of this message to let us know how we’re doing. We’d appreciate you taking the time to fill it out.

==========================

From: E. Mayer [mailto:ewmayer@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2015 6:01 PM
To: Bezos, Jeff
Subject: Price Alert feature for Wish Lists?

Dear Mr. Bezos:

Like many other Amazon customers, I've long found the Wish List feature to be a great tool for managing "to buy" lists, both for gifts-intended-for-others and items for myself. One aspect I especially value as a bargain-conscious shopper is the built-in price tracking, which displays both the current and "when added" prices for each item. Add a wanted item to my list, if the current price is higher than one wants to spend, wait/hope for it to drop.

The problem is, there is currently no way to do this except to log into one's account once a week or so and manually (well, in the physical-eyeball-scan sense) check the current prices of the various items. It would be wonderful to be able to click a 'set price alert' widget, enter a target price and a selector for new/used condition (if applicable), and then receive e-mail when the target is hit. For folks who also make regular use of the Subscribe & Save service, it would be a bonus if the tracking feature automatically took account of whether the item in question is S&S-eligible in tracking/displaying the price.

The demand for this functionality is reflected in the fact that developers have created third-party apps for it:

[url]http://livingintelligently.blogspot.com/2007/01/amazon-price-alerts.html[/url]

Thanks for listening!
Regards,
Ernst Mayer[/quote]