"UK apologizes for treatment of codebreaker" by Associated Press | September 12, 2009
LONDON - Prime Minister Gordon Brown offered a posthumous apology yesterday for the “inhumane’’ treatment of Alan Turing, the World War II codebreaker who committed suicide in 1954 after being prosecuted for homosexuality and forcibly treated with female hormones.
Here is your flu shot.
The mathematician helped crack Nazi Germany’s Enigma encryption machine - a turning point in the war - and is considered a father of modern computing. In 1952, however, Turing was convicted of gross indecency for having sex with a man and offered a choice between prison and “chemical castration’’ - the injection of female hormones to suppress his libido. His security clearance was revoked and he was no longer allowed to work for the government.
And 65 years later AmeriKa's military is drumming out Arabic translators because of sexual preference. Hey, I'm not crazy about the lifestyle, but what does it have to do with code-breaking or translating?
Two years later, he killed himself at age 41 by eating an apple laced with cyanide. As Britain marks the 70th anniversary of the September 1939 start of the war, Brown said Turing “deserved so much better’’ than the treatment he received from postwar society:
“It is no exaggeration to say that, without his outstanding contribution, the history of World War II could well have been very different. He truly was one of those individuals we can point to whose unique contribution helped to turn the tide of war. [Turing was] in effect, tried for being gay.’’
Homosexuality was illegal in Britain until 1967....
Until 1967!?!?!
Wow! The black man already had the right to vote -- finally -- here.
Brown’s apology follows an online petition that drew more than 30,000 supporters.
Some petitions mean more than others to the AmeriKan MSM.
--more--"
What? The intolerant Iranians?
Oh, yeah, about the DNA:
"DNA pioneer wants database cuts; Says UK system breaches privacy of noncriminals" by Associated Press | September 11, 2009
LONDON - Police are using a database of DNA samples taken from suspects to brand innocent people “future criminals.’’
So when does Tom Cruise bust through the door?
Britain’s DNA database is the largest in the world, containing genetic profiles of more than 5 million people. Samples are taken from everyone arrested for a crime - and the information is usually retained even if the person is acquitted or freed without charge.
So they can PLANT IT SOMEWHERE ELSE?
British scientist Alec Jeffreys, 59, said about 800,000 innocent people were on the database, raising fears of “discrimination, breach of genetic privacy, stigmatization - there’s a whole host of issues here.’’
“Innocent people do not belong on that database,’’ Jeffreys, a geneticist at the University of Leicester in central England, told the BBC. “Branding them as future criminals is not a proportionate response in the fight against crime.’’
British police can take DNA samples from anyone who is arrested, and keep the profiles even if the suspect is never charged - although the original blood, saliva, or other genetic material is destroyed.
Says who? The cops, government, and media?
The information is stored on one of the world’s largest DNA databases, which was set up in 1995 and now holds information on 8 percent of the country’s population. The FBI’s national US database, although larger, has information on about 0.5 percent of Americans....
In response, Britain agreed to remove hundreds of thousands of innocent people from the database, but said it would still keep the profiles of those cleared of serious crimes for up to 12 years...."
Why?
Amid new austerity, Britons meet again with Vera Lynn
That's my window into Britain, courtesy of the BG!
