Any good book that delves into the detail of the code breaking done at Bletchley park?
This is a great book and touches on the subject you mention https://simonsingh.net/books/the-code-book/
Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101
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Re: Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101
#52Somewhat unrelated: I'm hoping to go to Bletchley Park this summer, any recommendations?
The main 'Bletchley Park' exhibition is good, but it focuses on the human experience of the code breakers. Head around the corner from the car park to the National Museum of Computing (also on the Bletchley Park site) to see more technical exhibitions: they give proper demonstrations of the machines invented at Bletchley, as well as the oldest working computer in the world (which was computing prime numbers when I vi…
I wouldn't skip the main exhibition area. In an era where people were called computers, the human experience was at the heart of the Bletchley Park machine. In the main area, you learn about the makeup of this apparatus: the different roles people had, how information flowed within and between the huts, and much more. There's also a little museum with fascinating artifacts and an area dedicated to Turing. Don't miss it.
Re: Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's insane how the largest conflict in human history is just now passing out of living memory. It's also insane how 1 in 4 Americans under 40 believe the holocaust is a fabrication or exaggeration.
the power of disinformation on social media platforms is apparently stronger than classroom teaching. it doesn't help that what is taught in classrooms is just getting worse for $reasons which is only going to get worse now that states are going to do whatever they want with schools now.
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Re: Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101
#54It hurts to see the generation that won WWII pass, not the least bit because we seem to have forgotten the lessons from their struggle.
Indeed, it is very easy to forget the struggle when one has sacrificed nothing to achieve it. At least WWII, unlike those preceding it, has a vast well of literature to draw those lessons from. The trouble, however, is not just getting younger people to sit, read and analyze it, but also to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, with all the propaganda and misinformation to be had these days about the events…
> all the propaganda and misinformation to be had these days about the events of WWII, the Holocaust, Hiroshima/Nagasaki and so many other things
I'm curious as to what sort of propaganda or misinformation you're referring to. I'm in Europe and I haven't seen much of it, but maybe it's different in the US.
Re: Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101
#55[dead]
Re: Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101
#56Any good book that delves into the detail of the code breaking done at Bletchley park?
This is a great book and touches on the subject you mention https://simonsingh.net/books/the-code-book/
Having read this book, I set some codes for my son to break. Each code, once broken, told him the location of the next coded message. And they got progressively harder. It was a fun challenge.
Re: Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101
#57Any good book that delves into the detail of the code breaking done at Bletchley park?
This is a great book and touches on the subject you mention https://simonsingh.net/books/the-code-book/
The author of this book also runs an excellent weekly maths newsletter/quiz for 11-16 year olds, and it's free:
Re: Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101
#58Any good book that delves into the detail of the code breaking done at Bletchley park?
If you would enjoy loosely related fiction, Neal Stephenson Cryptonomicon is an option I would personally recommend. You must have some tolerance for his particular style and content…
Or Enigma by Robert Harris.
Re: Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed, it is very easy to forget the struggle when one has sacrificed nothing to achieve it. At least WWII, unlike those preceding it, has a vast well of literature to draw those lessons from. The trouble, however, is not just getting younger people to sit, read and analyze it, but also to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, with all the propaganda and misinformation to be had these days about the events…
> all the propaganda and misinformation to be had these days about the events of WWII, the Holocaust, Hiroshima/Nagasaki and so many other things I'm curious as to what sort of propaganda or misinformation you're referring to. I'm in Europe and I haven't seen much of it, but maybe it's different in the US.
There are several downvoted comments from butthurt Nazis in this thread.
Re: Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101
#60I really like the four-part documentary series called "Staion X" which was all about Bletchly Park. It has numerous interviews with the folks that worked there -- they were a bunch of excellent oddballs, for sure. It's a really fascinating perspective on WWII and how crap Monty was at being a general; he was reading the Germans' messages and still couldn't defeat Rommel. Only when the Med fleet intercepted and sank a…
>It's a really fascinating perspective on WWII and how crap Monty was at being a general; he was reading the Germans' messages and still couldn't defeat Rommel. He did defeat Rommel though, didn't he?
"They" defeated Rommel. No one can say whether he would have done so without Bletchley. Personally, I doubt he would have done so without the Med fleet utterly destroying all of Rommel's resupply train, but that's just my opinion.