I realise this isn’t exactly news about gaming or other geekery, but I feel this worthy of a news posting because without this man, we simply would not be here today. And in case you did not know who this man was (WTF!?), he is essentially the father of computer science and was crucial in helping the UK and its allies to defeat Nazi Germany by cracking their secret codes.

As many of you know, Alan Turing was convicted of homosexuality in 1952 (a criminal offense in the UK back then) and was forced to take female hormonal drugs in order to ‘cure’ him as an alternative to spending time in prison. He later died in 1954 from cyanide poison though some debate remains whether he took his own life or it was accidental.

In any case, he has now been given a posthumous royal pardon overturning this conviction. Previously the UK Government, though accepting that it was wrong, refused to do this citing that at the time of his conviction, it was against the law to be a gay man. At last though this unjust conviction has been quashed. Its just a shame that we had to wait almost 60 years for it.

For now though, Mr Turing I salute you.