mikeyank
Long time forumite
This is a video that all of us should watch, young and old alike. This is our history, this is who we are.
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- Thread starter tampa24
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With all that we have going on in the world, It's just nice to see reminders of wholesome and pure moments of joy and happiness. We just need a break (or to take a break) from reminders of all that we feel we are missing out on right now. (And to take us back to some of the basics of joyful moments in the world.) Some examples of jewels in time. Like watching someone being moved by the beauty of music. Almost to the point of tears.
This video popped up on my radar and I thought I would share. A few years ago now (it seems like a long time) I discovered and posted Zach's original video where he talked about coming out in high school. I posted it in here somewhere. I'm not sure which thread. But anyways some of us longer term members of the site in particular got a lot of enjoyment out of following this couple over the years as they posted updates on their lives on YouTube. Our friend Louis in particular enjoyed keeping us up to date on them whenever he saw that they had a substantive new video update. And he would post it and share it with us on another social media app.
But anyway I saw this recent update from the guys and I thought it was really cute and heartwarming. And "cute" and "heartwarming" pretty well describes their energy and relationship. As I say, some of us have followed their life story for years and are fairly caught up with their backstories. But even if you are just being introduced to them here for the first time, I think you'll really enjoy them. If any of you want to catch up on their backstories, their YT channel still has many (if not all) of their past videos. Normally listed as "The Adventures of Zach and B".
A word of notice in advance here is that they do have sponsors for their video channel. So in this one they do their own commercial for a mattress company sponsor. However it is not one you are forced to watch, or wait for 30 seconds to skip, as you can fast forward through all of it if it annoys you.
So without further ado we find our beautiful officer and his gentleman ( Alastair and Zach) are living in quarantine, in an atypically cold Texas, with snow on the ground outside. Oh! And they're just loving life. haha They also both have Covid.
They're so adorable and loveable that you feel like you're checking in on old friends.
But anyway I saw this recent update from the guys and I thought it was really cute and heartwarming. And "cute" and "heartwarming" pretty well describes their energy and relationship. As I say, some of us have followed their life story for years and are fairly caught up with their backstories. But even if you are just being introduced to them here for the first time, I think you'll really enjoy them. If any of you want to catch up on their backstories, their YT channel still has many (if not all) of their past videos. Normally listed as "The Adventures of Zach and B".
A word of notice in advance here is that they do have sponsors for their video channel. So in this one they do their own commercial for a mattress company sponsor. However it is not one you are forced to watch, or wait for 30 seconds to skip, as you can fast forward through all of it if it annoys you.
So without further ado we find our beautiful officer and his gentleman ( Alastair and Zach) are living in quarantine, in an atypically cold Texas, with snow on the ground outside. Oh! And they're just loving life. haha They also both have Covid.
They're so adorable and loveable that you feel like you're checking in on old friends.
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juanjo
BSB Addict
This video popped up on my radar and I thought I would share. A few years ago now (it seems like a long time) I discovered and posted Zach's original video where he talked about coming out in high school. I posted it in here somewhere. I'm not sure which thread. But anyways some of us longer term members of the site in particular got a lot of enjoyment out of following this couple over the years as they posted updates on their lives on YouTube. Our friend Louis in particular enjoyed keeping us up to date on them whenever he saw that they had a substantive new video update. And he would post it and share it with us on another social media app.
But anyway I saw this recent update from the guys and I thought it was really cute and heartwarming. And "cute" and "heartwarming" pretty well describes their energy and relationship. As I say, some of us have followed their life story for years and are fairly caught up with their backstories. But even if you are just being introduced to them here for the first time, I think you'll really enjoy them. If any of you want to catch up on their backstories, their YT channel still has many (if not all) of their past videos. Normally listed as "The Adventures of Zach and B".
A word of notice in advance here is that they do have sponsors for their video channel. So in this one they do their own commercial for a mattress company sponsor. However it is not one you are forced to watch, or wait for 30 seconds to skip, as you can fast forward through all of it if it annoys you.
So without further ado we find our beautiful officer and his gentleman ( Alastair and Zach) are living in quarantine, in an atypically cold Texas, with snow on the ground outside. Oh! And they're just loving life. haha They also both have Covid.
They're so adorable and loveable that you feel like you're checking in on old friends.
Like you, I have been following them for some time now after stumbling across Alex's coming-out story video. They are a sweet couple and so wholesome it is almost enough to put one into a diabetic coma. That said, Alastair, in addition to being a serving officer in the Army, is fluent in Spanish having been raised for a portion of his youth in Mexico City and still having family there. He is also a hardcore science fiction and fantasy guy who does discussions on books on his own channel. While he leans more heavily towards fantasy than I do, we overlap quite a bit, especially on the subject of The Expanse. Zach is the classic Texas boy right down to the hat, belt buckle, and voice. He is also a talented guy when it comes to making and editing videos and that comes across in his efforts on their blog. He has a huge heart which comes out in his discussions of the various events that have happened in his life. They seem very much in love and dedicated to each other. In many ways, they are the positive result of what so many of us, alive or dead, struggled to achieve for many decades, to see gay folks able to live open, productive, and happy lives in the US.
BTW, it never ceases to amuse me that Zach who is so classic a Texas Mexican-American cannot speak Spanish and is just a bit red-neck sometimes while Alastair who looks like the classic white boy next door, grew up in Mexico City, is fluent in Spanish, and has Mexican cousins, not to mention gushes like a fan-boy over Buffy the Vampire Slayer. They are very much like family in so many ways to people who follow them.
I'm so glad you're a fan Juanjo! That's cool to know.
Yes indeed. Sometimes they can come across as so nearly perfect, so loving and respectful of each other, so kind and generous, so gracious to their fans, and so endearingly sweet...that sometimes you feel like maybe you'd better keep a syringe of insulin handy on stand-by, just in case, for the ends of their videos. hahaha
And yes. They do get to feel like extended family of sorts. The kind of family you would love to have if you could actually choose your family. I'd be so proud if I was to find out I was related to either one of them. For those who follow them I would say that they often feel like they are cousins of sorts and a part of your heart.
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mikeyank
Long time forumite
Thanks Jay. Same to you and all forumites.
My love to all of you as well.Many of us in here have talked at length in the past about Alan Turing's contributions to the 20th century (and beyond) and most especially his enormous contribution to the Allied victory in World War II. He developed something once called "Turing Machines". He was none other than the father of the modern computer.
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UK unveils £50 banknote in honour of gay computing pioneer
Thu, March 25, 2021, 7:17 AM
The Bank of England on Thursday unveiled a new design for Britain's top-value banknote featuring gay World War II code-breaker Alan Turing, celebrating diversity even as cash falls out of favour.
The more durable and forgery-secure £50 polymer note (worth about $70 or 60 euros) will enter circulation on June 23, Turing's birthday, the UK's central bank said.
Turing was a mathematician and is considered the father of modern computing. He spearheaded a team at Britain's Bletchley Park that cracked the Nazis' Enigma code in 1941.
"He was also gay, and was treated appallingly as a result," Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey said in a statement.
"By placing him on our new polymer £50 banknote, we are celebrating his achievements, and the values he symbolises."
The Cambridge University educated mathematician also developed the "Turing test", which looks at what criteria are needed to judge whether a machine can think like a human -- the foundation for artificial intelligence.
But he was prosecuted in 1952 for "gross indecency" and was forced to undergo chemical castration as an alternative to jail. He killed himself two years later, shortly before his 42nd birthday.
In 1967, Britain decriminalised homosexuality between men aged over 21.
Turing's life story was turned into a 2014 movie called "The Imitation Game", starring Oscar-nominated British actor Benedict Cumberbatch.
Turing was given a posthumous pardon in 2013, and his name also lives on in a new student exchange programme launched by the government following Britain's departure from the European Union.
The new £50 note will replace a paper bill that bears Industrial Revolution engineer James Watt and his financial backer, Matthew Boulton.
Britain's other banknotes feature wartime prime minister Winston Churchill (£5), novelist Jane Austen (£10) and the artist JMW Turner (£20). They are all polymer, which lasts longer than paper and is harder to forge.
However, cash is in long-term decline and the higher-value notes are little-used for daily payments, except anecdotally by drug dealers and other criminals.
In 2017, debit cards overtook cash as Britain's most frequently used payment method, according to the Bank of England, and the trend has accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic with customers preferring contactless cards.
But the central bank, while conceding that bitcoin and other virtual currencies are also making inroads, insists that cash will remain a key part of the economy for years to come.
jit/phz/wai
Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/uk-unveils-50-banknote-honour-111749593.html
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Here's some pics to celebrate the occasion:
The rainbow flag flies above the Bank of England to celebrate the unveiling of the new fifty pound note in London, Thursday, March 25, 2021. The new £50 banknote features the scientist Alan Turing. Following its public unveil today, the polymer £50 will be issued for the first time on June 23, 2021, which coincides with Alan Turing's birthday. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
"As part of the new note's design — which includes a metallic hologram that changes between the words “Fifty’ and ”Pounds" when the note is tilted and an image of a microchip — the bank collaborated with U.K. intelligence and security agency GCHQ to create The Turing Challenge, a set of 12 puzzles
GCHQ said the full challenge could take an experienced puzzler seven hours to complete and may have even left Turing “scratching his head, although we very much doubt it."
Turing’s great-nephew James Turing, who runs the Turing Trust that refurbishes U.K. computers for use in African schools, told BBC radio that the puzzle is “a wonderful recognition, and a bit reminiscent of the famous crossword that they used for recruiting at Bletchley Park back in the day."
Source of quote: https://www.yahoo.com/news/wwii-codebreaker-alan-turing-honored-094607297.html
**********************************************************************************
UK unveils £50 banknote in honour of gay computing pioneer
Thu, March 25, 2021, 7:17 AM
The Bank of England on Thursday unveiled a new design for Britain's top-value banknote featuring gay World War II code-breaker Alan Turing, celebrating diversity even as cash falls out of favour.
The more durable and forgery-secure £50 polymer note (worth about $70 or 60 euros) will enter circulation on June 23, Turing's birthday, the UK's central bank said.
Turing was a mathematician and is considered the father of modern computing. He spearheaded a team at Britain's Bletchley Park that cracked the Nazis' Enigma code in 1941.
"He was also gay, and was treated appallingly as a result," Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey said in a statement.
"By placing him on our new polymer £50 banknote, we are celebrating his achievements, and the values he symbolises."
The Cambridge University educated mathematician also developed the "Turing test", which looks at what criteria are needed to judge whether a machine can think like a human -- the foundation for artificial intelligence.
But he was prosecuted in 1952 for "gross indecency" and was forced to undergo chemical castration as an alternative to jail. He killed himself two years later, shortly before his 42nd birthday.
In 1967, Britain decriminalised homosexuality between men aged over 21.
Turing's life story was turned into a 2014 movie called "The Imitation Game", starring Oscar-nominated British actor Benedict Cumberbatch.
Turing was given a posthumous pardon in 2013, and his name also lives on in a new student exchange programme launched by the government following Britain's departure from the European Union.
The new £50 note will replace a paper bill that bears Industrial Revolution engineer James Watt and his financial backer, Matthew Boulton.
Britain's other banknotes feature wartime prime minister Winston Churchill (£5), novelist Jane Austen (£10) and the artist JMW Turner (£20). They are all polymer, which lasts longer than paper and is harder to forge.
However, cash is in long-term decline and the higher-value notes are little-used for daily payments, except anecdotally by drug dealers and other criminals.
In 2017, debit cards overtook cash as Britain's most frequently used payment method, according to the Bank of England, and the trend has accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic with customers preferring contactless cards.
But the central bank, while conceding that bitcoin and other virtual currencies are also making inroads, insists that cash will remain a key part of the economy for years to come.
jit/phz/wai
Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/uk-unveils-50-banknote-honour-111749593.html
*********************************************************************
Here's some pics to celebrate the occasion:
The rainbow flag flies above the Bank of England to celebrate the unveiling of the new fifty pound note in London, Thursday, March 25, 2021. The new £50 banknote features the scientist Alan Turing. Following its public unveil today, the polymer £50 will be issued for the first time on June 23, 2021, which coincides with Alan Turing's birthday. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
"As part of the new note's design — which includes a metallic hologram that changes between the words “Fifty’ and ”Pounds" when the note is tilted and an image of a microchip — the bank collaborated with U.K. intelligence and security agency GCHQ to create The Turing Challenge, a set of 12 puzzles
GCHQ said the full challenge could take an experienced puzzler seven hours to complete and may have even left Turing “scratching his head, although we very much doubt it."
Turing’s great-nephew James Turing, who runs the Turing Trust that refurbishes U.K. computers for use in African schools, told BBC radio that the puzzle is “a wonderful recognition, and a bit reminiscent of the famous crossword that they used for recruiting at Bletchley Park back in the day."
Source of quote: https://www.yahoo.com/news/wwii-codebreaker-alan-turing-honored-094607297.html
juanjo
BSB Addict
Quite right. Turing is one of the major reasons the Allies won WWII and did so as quickly as they did. He saved countless lives. He laid the theoretical groundwork for the computer age we now experience. Despite those contributions he was treated horribly by his government, causing his death at far too young an age. I am delighted that they have taken at least this step to honor someone who was punished for nothing he did wrong and not honored in his life for extraordinary good he did.
So true Juanjo. For those who are unfamiliar with Turing and his work, nobody goes so far as to say that the war would have been lost to the Nazis without him. But... Historians estimate that Turing's and his team's contributions to the Allied victory were so great, that at minimum he helped shorten the war by 14 months...and even by as much as two years. That's two more years (even still with an eventual Axis defeat) that not only would people have been dying on the front lines, but also several million more Jews and other prisoners of war being killed in the Nazi concentration camps.
Oh. And Turing also just happened to be a gay man.
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I got my second dose of the Covid vaccine today. And I'm thrilled. Oh happy days! Another 2 weeks and maybe I can consider going back to a somewhat normal life again. Still will have mask. But will travel. haha
kgmets
BSB God
I received my second dose on March 16th and my full vaccination immunity kicks in next Tuesday. It's a great feeling, and the sooner we get lots more Americans to share that feeling, the better off all of us will be.
