2/16/15 2:52 PM

This started 120 years ago.

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/02/when-presidents-day-was-bicycle-day/385526/

2/16/15 3:03 PM

I thought April 19 was Bicycle Day, commemorating Albert Hoffman's famous trip.

2/16/15 3:24 PM

HAPPY BICYCLE DAY!

2/16/15 5:17 PM

Just got back from a 60+ degrees ride. Albeit windy.

As Chet Atkins would say "windy and warm" well almost warm.

I actually hooked a U turn on a hill and went a different route. I was on a 1/2 mile 5-6% grade and came over the top to the next roller, more of the same, and a steady 20+ MPH head wind. I wimped out and did a 180^.

But in my defense, I had just did this:



To get this [the Prize]:

St Helens left, Mt Rainier, right [about 3 miles from the house]. A lot clearer to the eye than my cheap lens.

<img src="http://coupekiss.host-ed.me/images/S5033204crop2.jpg" width=584>

2/16/15 8:50 PM

Most years, President's Day is usually a ski day for me.

But today, it's in the teens out my door, and single digit up in the mountains if I were to go. So when a biking buddy (or should that be "non-biking buddy" in the winter time?) called to see a movie, I gladly accepted.

Excellent movie (Imitation Game)

2/17/15 9:00 AM

...but it takes considerable liberties with the story. It's based on the book in much the same way Wile E. Coyote is based in mid-air, before he realizes it.

Still, Cumberbatch is entertaining, and it *is* a ripping good yarn.

2/17/15 9:17 AM

We had sub zero nights this weekend and last night was 1 degree with about 1-1/2" of new snow on top of what was already there. It's up to 8 degrees now with a projected high of 19 this afternoon and the same or worse is predicted for the rest of the week.

My biking is all going to be indoors for the foreseeable future.

2/17/15 12:09 PM

quote:

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but it takes considerable liberties with the story

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2/17/15 12:38 PM

We could start at the beginning of Touring's involvement at Bletchley Park and take it through to the end of the war...

I read the book the film is purportedly based on about 30 years ago, and my impression was that while Turing was critical to the ultimate success of Beltchley, he was far from the only one making breakthroughs there. Almost the entire story of the Bombes is omitted, and what there is is depicted as being entirely Turing's work.

As I said, it's been a while since I read the book, but so much is left out; it's as if the entire story of Bletchley was Turing; while he was important, there was far more going on. It's rather as if one told the story of Los Alamos as an homage to Oppenheimer.

For some other points, see, e.g.,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Imitation_Game#Accuracy

Ah, well, they say history is (re)written by the victors.

2/17/15 8:20 PM

But, but, but... this isn't a movie about Bletchley Park. It's a movie about Alan Touring!

So the focus is and should be about his contribution to the entire field of programmable machine and artificial intelligent.

Sure, the movie, which isn't a documentary, took some artistic freedom on the detail. But I didn't get the same impression you have that he's the ONLY ONE making critical contribution on the project.

Still, he's THE one who laid the foundation of the Ultra machine that broke the enigma code. The movie simply dramatized that fact with some funny incidences.

I mean, what kind of movie would it turn out to be if it also try to highlight the contribution of Bombes and others? It would be a really boring story about a collection of nerds. Worse, it would be a fiction that tried to be a documentary, which never works! More over, the movie would be called "Bletchley Park" instead!

2/18/15 12:02 PM

I haven't seen the movie, but I'm enjoying the debate, April and Andy.

But it's TURING, not "Touring."

2/18/15 12:26 PM

You pass the "test'!

2/18/15 12:32 PM

I guess this is really a matter of opinion, not anything the outcome of which can be "proved."

My opinion, then, for both pennies it's worth, is that films (or books, or...) that use real names, places, and dates should be extremely cautious about altering the facts of the stories they're telling, because they can easily be mistaken for histories/biographies.

And once that happens, it's hard to put the genie back into the bottle.

2/18/15 3:35 PM

Andy, that horse left the barn (to mix some metaphors) decades, or rather centuries ago. Biopics, plays, historical novels, operas. All preceeded by
Shakespeare's "history" plays, and earlier works. Fictions based on real people and events. It's how literature is made, much of the time.

Heck, now that I think of it, Homer and the Trojan War fit the description. And it's probably older than that.

2/18/15 4:04 PM

I guess that's true, but having known quite a bit about Turing for decades, the movie left me unsatisfied. At some point in the future, I am sure that I will tell a Turing story only to have people who have only seen the film try to correct me.

Malvina Reynolds once observed (at a Bread & Roses concert) that she would write songs, then Pete Seeger would perform them and do "that little something" to them and then, when she would play them later, people would say to her "that's not the way it goes."

2/18/15 4:45 PM

I just saw a, I believe, made for TV or PBS or similar movie on Netflix called "Codebreaker". It's uses a bit of dramatization with actors portraying Turing and his psychiatrist but the others are all real people including the psychiatrist's daughters, a couple of survivors who worked at Bletchley Park, a nephew of Turing (his brother's son), etc. are all interviewed. A better study of Turing than the movie.

2/18/15 8:29 PM

quote:

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I am sure that I will tell a Turing story only to have people who have only seen the film try to correct me.

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2/19/15 4:05 AM

That's how people learn things, for the most part. Do you have any idea what the quantitative relationship alone is likely to be between movie watchers and history readers? What, 100:1 or greater?

Once that happens, which version of the story do you think becomes "history"?

2/19/15 10:22 AM

History always has bias, even the "real" or serious history.

oone should always keep that in mind.

We do pretty well regarding ancient history which we only have the fictional version of the record. So I'm not as disturbed as you are about the influence of such popular version of the history.