American Reacts QI | Who Cracked Enigma? REACTION

[@AlanCanon2222]

Kentucky here. Visited Bletchley Park in 2003 on my honeymoon, a deeply moving experience, and I understand it's even better now. Go the Bletchley Park Trust!

[@casinodelonge]

I'm sure your Missus was thrilled, hope you managed the Imperial War Museum and RAF Duxford as well!

[@AlanCanon2222]

@@casinodelonge No but we did tour the Museum of Submarine Telegraphy at Porthcurno, also fascinating, as well as Oxford, Cambridge, and the Science Museum, and Wookey Hole Cave near Wells. I'd sure like to come back someday. Lovely country you have there.

[@helenc1693]

@@AlanCanon2222I hope you get to come back 😊

[@AlanCanon2222]

@ I should add that the Missus was indeed thrilled, she later said that it was the most moving of the places we visited (and she's an opera singer and visual artist with little interest in cryptanalysis or computing). But she understood the magnitude of what took place at B. P. during the war. I was permitted to touch the radiator in Hut 8 which warmed Alan: there was a coffee mug still chained to it as he did. We visited Retrobeep (now re-invigorated as the National Museum of Computing) onsite, and talked with the curator and his teenaged son for more than an hour. I tried to get a Teletype working to punch my wife's name in paper tape, by clearing a jam, and the curator walked over to hand me a pair of needlenose pliers and introduce himself. I also volunteered to stand in the parlor of the manor house, as a docent explained that a volunteer from each new group of recruits would stand with a pistol leveled at their heads while the Official Secrets Act was read out. The Colossus rebuild was mechanically complete, but they were still soldering in five miles of wiring. At this point, if I do return, I could probably step in and conduct a tour of the place, I am steeped in its lore, and have read all I can of the place and its history and the mathematics behind it all.

[@AlanCanon2222]

@ I shall take that as an invitation, please come and visit Louisville someday, just not during the first week of May when the Kentucky Derby is run, we're not exactly ourselves that week. It would be like visiting the Edinburgh festival but not setting foot in the town.

[@johnappleton406]

Turing did NOT invent Colossus computer. It was designed & built by Tommy Flowers a post office engineer

[@keirsmale8045]

I'm a Scotsman and can say most people in the UK understand that Churchill was a great wartime leader and was what we needed during ww2 but he also did some very nasty shit pre and post war.

[@julieb737]

Exactley

[@wayneshilcock3027]

Actually, if you dig alot deeper, Churchill was way less of a leader than you think, to the point of being two steps back from Hitler. For example Churchill: Created Concentration Camps(South Africa), Deliberately starved millions of Indians, His military leadership hated him for the incompetence and arrogance of his delusional decision making during the war, Many of his speeches were written by his wife and he committed so many war crimes one of which was the fire bombing of Dresdon, killing thousands of civilians.

[@Shoomer88]

Yeah, he was kind of a dick but he was exactly the guy we needed at the time.

[@stevebinning977]

@@keirsmale8045 He was a tory after all.

[@Andytreblezero]

Responsible for over a million Indian deaths due to partition..

[@finncullen]

Churchill was a BRILLIANT wartime leader, exactly what was needed. He was not somebody you wanted in charge of a non-wartime country where people had to actually live.

[@helenwood8482]

He committed war crimes and he infected a British island with anthrax, meaning it could not be used until very recently.

[@Nickel1147]

​@@helenwood8482war crimes? Are you for real?

[@bignorbert1136]

@@helenwood8482 War crimes? In WWII? Unbelievable!

[@sunseeker9581]

Just a shame he was incredibly racist.

[@sunseeker9581]

​@bignorbert1136 look up what he did to India.

[@willrichardson1809]

My father worked with Alan Turing, he only told us after the Imitation game came out. That was my dad all over he never talked about work as he was not allowed to.

[@princessperdita]

What did he think of the portrayal of Turing in the Imitation Game?

[@willrichardson1809]

@@princessperdita he never actually watched it, he only mentioned this when my sister was talking about the film

[@willrichardson1809]

see my father rarely spoke about his life, especially work as most of it was classified. However he would drop an unexpected gem like this, he also doppred one day that when he can down to Manchester formm the Norht East, he was in digs with Duncan Edwards. If you don't know who Duncan was, he arguably had the potential to be the greatest fooballer in the world at that time, but his life was cut short by the Munich air disaster, leaving a 17 year old Pele to take that crown.

[@johngault22]

@@willrichardson1809 I suspect that my late great aunt by marriage was more than just a typist at Bletchley Park during the War. As she had a good mind even when I knew her from the late 1990s until she passed in the 2010s.

[@annicecooper8105]

They'd all signed the Official Secrets Act and took that very seriously and diligently. Commendable behaviour and values from all of them. 🫡

[@JEFF-ft6qm]

Shout out to Tommy Flowers. Deserves more credit in my opinion.

[@WIDGI]

Yarp

[@nigelmcconnell1909]

Yes! Leant about that soft spoken man watching "The Secret War" series produced in the 1970's

[@HarryR1]

And Bill Tutte who was instrumental in breaking the Lorenz cipher. Along with Tommy Flowers’ work on Colossuss , they were the unsung heroes of the code breaking story.

[@yogibarista2818]

If I recall correctly, Colossus was kept secret because the Russians had been scooping up encryption machines as they swept towards Germany, and were unaware of the Bletchley Park work, so thought they were safe to use. The UK and USA (once given the secret) were able to decrypt intercepted Russian transmissions for years until they finally worked out the game being played.

[@sellma111]

We even gave some to our allies without telling them that we had cracked the code. lol

[@johnbarnes888]

QI is pretty close to the pinnacle of what the BBC does best. Entertain and inform.

[@Davie1875]

True that, but not enough for me to start paying a license fee 😁

[@sunseeker9581]

​@Davie1875 each to their own but there's a lot of good live telly you miss out on.

[@heatherfruin5050]

​@@Davie1875We don't have a TV licence fee in Australia thank goodness.😊

[@martindunstan8043]

DID best,that particular trait has disappeared with entertain and inform replaced with gaslight and cover up,unfortunately.

[@martindunstan8043]

​@sunseeker9581 not really,simply start watching a live that's being recorded with a 5 minute lag time,you will always be watching a download,as what you're watching has happened,therefore not live. Any conceived hassle has to be better than paying for biased reporting,neo-liberal ideological clap trap and paedos,but if you agree with all that,like you say each to their own.

[@w0033944]

I see you've encountered Jo Brand.

[@PedroConejo1939]

I've always enjoyed Jo's contributions. She's disliked by many, but personally, I find her very funny.

[@sunseeker9581]

​some people don't like feminists for political reasons I think

[@000dr0g]

Over many years of reading about history, I've slowly realised that trying to assess historical figures like Churchill in terms of "good" or "bad", or determining who is "best" and who is "worse", is a distraction from the important task of learning what they actually did, and what difference they made. Once you know more about what happened, you can begin to explore the why behind what they did, and whether you agree or not. It is our decisions that define who we are.

[@sunseeker9581]

Indeed what he did to India was not one of his best moments

[@DrCookie6996p]

@@sunseeker9581 Agreed, and why the Indians consider him their hitler.

[@TheNightBadger]

@@sunseeker9581 What did he 'do' to India?

[@lukebarton5075]

@night You don’t really want to know do you? If you did, you wouldn’t be asking on a yt comment section.

[@TheNightBadger]

@ I'm asking from them what they believe he did. I could hardly get that information anywhere else.

[@geoffbuss3699]

A lot of the work at Bletchley Park was done by an extraordinary group of women. Worth looking into. I think they are well celebrated today, but went unsung for a long long time.

[@annicecooper8105]

As did most people that worked there - most never told their own families what they had been up to during the war. They'd signed the Official Secrets Act and took that very seriously. It only became known after their death.

[@phaasch]

An aunt of mine worked on Japanese naval ciphers there (I forget the hut number). When the cover of Ultra was first blown in the 1970s, she, and many others who worked there, were absolutely livid. But by then, unknown to almost all, it was already ancient history. Completely unrelated, for a while I worked for the company who were responsible for manufacturing Turing's "Bombes" at Letchworth, although this was still unspoken of at the time, but many of the old hands at that factory would have known, and still been bound by, the Official Secrets Act.

[@tobytaylor2154]

Admin, tea and sandwiches

[@sirderam1]

​@@phaasch Not Turing's Bombes, Polish Bombes. The Polish method of breaking the cypher, the Bombe, was used until Colossus was developed.

[@danieloleksik772]

When Stephen is speaking about being at Los Alamos is from Stephen Fry in America, you really need to check it out.

[@priceduncan9]

The last instalment for the UK's lend lease loan was paid off in December 2006.

[@MichaelJWake95]

Churchill is still beloved here mostly, mainly because schools only teach the good things he did and not the bad things. But of course without him we probably wouldn’t all be here.

[@dee2251]

What bad things?

[@MichaelJWake95]

@@dee2251 as a starter look up Bengal famine.

[@WreckItRolfe]

@@jaid2383 A Google search says he sold the country out to his Jewish creditors

[@Eelis0]

"But of course without him we probably wouldn’t all be here." -- The Red Army destroyed 80% of the German Wehrmacht, on the Eastern front. D-Day was in Summer 1944, near the end of the war. By then, all that remained was a mop-up operation of weaker leftover forces. The British contribution to the war was historically relatively insignificant.

[@stevesoutar3405]

@@Eelis0 Without Churchill, the British government would probably have agreed to a peace deal with Hitler in 1940 - leaving Germany free to dominate europe, and turn all their energy against the soviet union

[@MetaalMeerkat]

If you enjoy David Mitchell's rants, you have to react to the clip of him called "David Mitchell on Tax Avoidance from The Last Leg"

[@stevesoutar3405]

Alan Turing is also credited with a lot of early work on the mathematics of what we now know as chaos theory In the 1950s, no-one would have known what any of the scientists or others at Bletchley Park worked on - The existence of the codebreaking centre was only revealed to the public in the 1970's

[@LeonardLeoneFilms]

Darn tootin it should be becoming your favourite show. Watch more, especially with Stephen as host. We love it!

[@gosccc]

You must watch the BBC series "Ludwig", which stars the brilliant David Mitchell

[@heatherfruin5050]

It starts next week on Australia's national broadcaster, the ABC, next week. I'm looking forward to seeing it. One British show that didn't take off here was Only Fools and Horses.😊

[@ericwolff6059]

A good series, just hoping the next series isn't too far from starting. Finished here in New Zealand a couple of weeks ago.

[@livb6945]

I really Love Stephen but David Mitchell has a special place in my heart. I would choose David !!

[@stuartcollins82]

I used to go to bletchley park a lot, IBM used to host a lot of events and meetings there, and would go to those. It was very intimidating. You would walk in and there would be plaques on the wall with all the top boffins names there and the stuff they'd personally invented. Like a little temple to nerds.

[@PompeyDave-w6m]

Always avoid the obvious with QI. Most contestants end up with a minus score - which no one cares about anyway - but it's always entertaining and educational.

[@pokerphil1st]

Churchill is the greatest British person of all time. I'm British.

[@SpeccyMan]

No. He most certainly is not! I'm also British.

[@TheNightBadger]

@@SpeccyMan Which people would you nominate for the title?

[@MosquitoCreative]

The US has been in debt slightly longer than 20 years. This year marks 250 years of US debt, with the first treasury bonds being issued in 1775, to pay for the revolutionary war.

[@andrewmckechnie4431]

If you want more David Mitchell in a rant/knowledge capacity then check out 'Who Was The Best English Monarch? David Mitchell Rates The Royals!' with Dan Snow (Historian), it's fascinating and very amusing. David Mitchell at his best I think

[@vaudevillian7]

Seconded

[@OzzieDeWitt]

The thing about QI as a programme is that it strategically uses human curiosity, humour and comment/ debate to achieve its goal. If schools and teachers used these same methods they would achieve outstanding exam results across the board. Learning should be fun and exciting and although there are teachers and educators out there that can and do find that " sweet spot", more of the same are needed. The amount of people who watch QI and say: "Well, that was interesting. I feel I learnt something there" is phenomenal which is exactly what the programme makers are trying to achieve. It also stimulates conversations after the programme that also helps in increasing knowledge. All done by tapping into curiosity, combining it with humour. So simple. So clever.😊

[@SpeccyMan]

QI is a television programme and not a computer program!

[@OzzieDeWitt]

​@@SpeccyManyour point being ?????

[@lukebarton5075]

@oz Many teachers do employ the method you suggest with regards to humour and curiosity.

[@Will-nn6ux]

David Mitchell. I'm sure I'd treasure the memory of our awkward conversations and uncomfortable silences for the rest of my life. :D But yes, David is awesome.

[@nadeansimmons226]

I couldn't decide. I adore them both and they both do great things.

[@joegillam1497]

KB - There is a collection of David Mitchell's rants on WILTY somewhere on KZbin. Marvellous stuff. 😂

[@MrBorn2ski]

Churchill is consistently voted the greatest Brit ever. Even by generations born decades after his death. However recently it is rightly acknowledged his appalling treatment of the people in the British colonies of the time. The reality is his leadership and resolve during WW2 and staggeringly inspirational speeches does indeed make him our greatest

[@Otacatapetl]

Benedict Cucumber Patch, one of our best actors.

[@gordonstark6538]

I think Stephen Fry came up with an alternative play on Benedict Cumberbatch's name- Cumberdick Bendybatch! LOL thought you might like this.

[@Badgersj]

Brilliant!

[@dolfin9879]

I thought it was Cumberbatch Bendydick

[@sam-rh6mn]

Oh, are you talking about Bubbagump Candlesnatch?

[@andrewcrook6444]

Polands bomba decipher worked for 7 years but eventually reached a dead end as the enigma improved. Turing designed his own called bombe for the updated enigma. Also enigma wasn’t the only machine Germany used there were other that had to be cracked

[@misolgit69]

if you've watched the Bond movie 'From Russia with love' the Lecter coding machine is a visual replica (ish) of the Enigma

[@eKko0]

you have no idea how it warmed my heart to hear an american say the word twat right boomer, 10/10 video

[@mikemoore4033]

Sticking to the wartime years only, in the Second War he was a great figurehead and a brilliant orator and a generally good negotiator with Stalin and Roosevelt , especially from the point of distinct inferiority as to the military power Britain had compared to the other “Big Two”. His military ideas however were almost universally bad to catastrophic. Gallipoli, the intervention in Norway, the transfer of troops from North Africa to Greece and above all the idea that invading Italy would be striking at the “soft underbelly” of Nasty-occupied Europe. A veritable glance at the map of Italy, with its mountains and numerous East-West flowing rivers should tell anyone with even a basic level of military-tactical knowledge that the terrain strongly favours the defence.

[@DeadDragon-tg7re]

Stephen Fry, the depth of his knowledge and view of the world is immense, he will go down in history as one of the modern day greats, alongside Hitchens.

[@jamesdignanmusic2765]

The "Feisty woman" is Jo Brand. Comedian and comic actor, and a regular on both QI and WILTY. And David Mitchell's ranting is scarily like one part of my personality, so I understand it perfectly! Churchill was the man Britain needed at their most desperate moment, but there are a lot of bad things about his history too. And don't mention him in Australia - he's hated there because of Gallipoli.

[@lilymarinovic1644]

And in WW2 he tried (IIRC) to divert some Australian naval forces overseas at a time when Australia desperately needed them closer to home. Fortunately our PM at the time, John Curtin, stood up to him.

[@PUNKinDRUBLIC72]

David Mitchell does the best rants and I COULDN'T care less!🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[@bigbobrossa8524]

Thanks for the Vid King Boomer!

[@heatherfruin5050]

I love QI and Would I Lie to You which are both shown on Australian free to air TV. 😊

[@bernmahan1162]

I was going to start a "STOP THE HOP" campaign but looks like you already did. Phew!

[@owenoneill5955]

Now... Sir Stephen Fry

[@andrewcrook6444]

Bletchley Park was also the HQ of Royal Mail

[@seanmcmichael2551]

Dinner table buddy choice .... Yes, Stephen Fry ... national treasure Happy to have David Mitchell there too.

[@alecbowman2548]

It was Bill Tutte, not Turing who was responsible for cracking the Lorenz code. Tommy Flowers designed the Colossus machine.

[@andyh7777]

Turing didn't actually commit suicide. His family and people close to him said he was notoriously clumsy when working with chemicals and believe it was not suicide

[@ComaDave]

Churchill was not fondly remembered down here in the Colonies. 🇦🇺 The Gallipoli Campaign in WW1 and his refusal during WW2 to release the Australian 9th Army Division from North Africa to return home to fight the Japanese. Nowadays, most younger Aussies wouldn't even know who he was.

[@tullochgorum6323]

Modern biographers don't believe that Turing committed suicide. His friends said that he was in good spirits at the time. On the other hand, he **was** conducting experiments with highly toxic chemicals in an unventilated home lab...

[@87leeb]

Churchill is a HERO. I think the the US Navy names a ship after him and it was the first time one was named after a non US person, not 100% on that buy there was definitely a US Navy ship named after him

[@gbarkie969]

No there were others before john paul jones who was Scottish and founder of the US navy has had two destroyers named after him one in the 50s and another in the 90s. There are other ships named after non US citizens as well. Actually Churchill was a US citizen his mother was American.

[@rach15ish]

Love Churchill ❤. None of us would be having these discussions without him

[@HazyDayz123]

Im from the UK was Winston Churchill a perfect human being obviously not but without his leadership during WW2 the odds would of been increased that the comment im writing right now would be in German...

[@Nomicakes]

"Benedict Pumpernickel" Bumpercar Crumplezone

[@ZondaFRoadster]

Benadryl Camouflage

[@sam-rh6mn]

bendadik cuminhersnatch

[@jimb9063]

Ah, thought it was just me that calls hin Butterscotch Cummerbund or Bandersnatch Cockatrice.

[@mrdog4529]

@@sam-rh6mn Slenderdick Gummedhersnatch

[@spacelab777]

There were very distict periods of Churchill's life. He started off as a liberal then a Conservative. He was essentially an imperialist and always wanted to enforce empire and in doing so implicated in atrocities. He was thought the right person at the right time when it came to WW2. He was steadfast in opposing nazism and as a figurehead rousing the nation in war he was made for it. At the 1945 General Election immedaiatly after the war he lost by a landside to Labour who had promised to reform the system and birthed the Welfare State and National Health Service that lifted many out of poverty. People even at that time could separate his war hero status and his less charming and seen as outdated peace time policies.

[@georgefoster8133]

Spot on

[@animesis]

Although the NHS was created by Labour, it was dreamt up, and many plans made to create it, by the prior Conservative government

[@Nickel1147]

Which atrocity was he implicated in? Where did you get that information from? Twitter?

[@Nickel1147]

​@@georgefoster8133which atrocity was he involved in that you regard as 'spot on'

[@georgefoster8133]

@@Nickel1147 The Bengal famine although it is more complicated than him. The country had been through 2 wars in 30 years and the feeling was that things needed to change. Bizarrely the Blitz meant they had to improve and build more social housing and improve universal healthcare. Thanks Hermann.

[@christopherbarnett6098]

Stephen Fry. Everytime. To be able to talk to someone almost as intelligent as me would be a real treat. Lol. Peace out.

[@dave_h_8742]

Joe Brand Psychiatric nurse, seen it all, became a stand up Comedian.

[@tyrantbalrog5769]

We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. That sums Churchill up.

[@rlawrence9838]

There's a new trend of hating anyone from the past, it's got nothing to do with reality.

[@AlphaGamer1981]

David Mitchell AND Karl Pilkington. Could you imagine?

[@mackindle12345]

most rational people in the UK accept that Churchill was the kind of leader that we needed at that particular point in history; he was one of the great public speakers and galvanised the morale of the nation at a truly desperate time - very few leaders in history could have done what he was able to do at that point in time. but we can simultaneously acknowledge that to be true, and also accept that he was a truly repugnant human being, deeply racist in his own right and either complicit in or either the architect of large scale homicides both before and after WW2.

[@dave_h_8742]

Churchill quote; All you have to do is make less mistakes than your enermy. And another was Never stop your enermy when they are going to make a mistake (something like that) example being the massive V1 & 2 sites they built using rare steel and concrete and then when almost finished hitting them with Tall boy or Grand slam earthquake bombs.

[@HarryR1]

David Mitchell and his wife, Victoria Coren-Mitchell would be an intellectually intimidating couple to chat to I think.

[@gwaptiva]

Tommy Flowers built the Colossus and then took what he learnt and after the war built a computer for an industrial bakery. He could've started something to compete with IBM, but instead, he was a proper gent and kept his mouth shut.

[@R3ED3R]

Trying to touch type on that keyboard would be a nightmare today... half the letters have moved.

[@InaMacallan]

The enigma machine used the German typewriter layout, which is why it looks odd to English writers. Different countries still have different keyboard layouts set on computers.

[@adylevene4318]

Maybe because Churchill was half yank, regardless right man at the right time, as for his detractors remember he was a Victorian.

[@ilesalmo7724]

His pre-war career included some pretty horrible atrocities

[@phaasch]

Its like so many other examples - we (the Brits) will invent it, but will absolutely refuse to comprehend how important it is, passing it on, usually, to the US, who will take it and develop it for the commercial world. Perfect synergy, but we have been unbelievably naive for at least a century.

[@basher50]

The wife and I had the privilege to have a private viewing of colossus while it was being reconstructed when we were on a day out at Bletchley. Amazing.

[@sarahbowen7721]

For those of you denigrating and critical of Churchill, yes, he was a man of his time (Edwardian) but he did so much more than lead Britain during WWII …. a very quick search on history produces several policies that are of enduring relevance to us even yet, which he either was responsible for or actively supported…. 1. The Beveridge Report (1942) Churchill’s coalition government supported this landmark report, which laid the foundation for the welfare state, including universal healthcare, social insurance, and support for the unemployed and elderly. 2. Factory Acts (1901-1911) As a young MP, Churchill advocated for labour reforms, including limits on working hours, improved workplace safety, and protections for child workers, ensuring fairer conditions for industrial workers. 3. National Insurance Act (1911) As a Liberal politician, Churchill championed this act, introducing unemployment benefits and health insurance for workers, a precursor to modern social security. 4. Education Act (1944) Supported during his wartime premiership, this act restructured the UK’s education system, introducing free secondary education and expanding access to schooling for all children.

[@AgentOccam]

I'd say a beer with both would be ideal - that would be a great night out. But in the spirit of your question, I'd agree: David Mitchell if I had to choose. New hypothetical: If you could choose any *three* British-based celebrities (like Mitchell, Fry, Lee Mack, Alan Davies, Aisling Bea, Cariad Lloyd etc) to have a few beers with, who would you pick? I think I'd settle on Mitchell, Bea and Bob Mortimer.

[@TimDallimore]

Hmm good question a toughie! Stephen so knowledgeable but David is hilarious so David. Benedict Pumpkin patch 😂

[@JoeThornhill]

I didn't know there was so much hate against Churchill. But, then I think I heard recently that he wasn't PM very shortly after the war. Which I wondered about because hey, this guy save our country, why not keep him another 4 years or more to rebuild it.

[@tonisiret5557]

Churchill, was a man of his time & that hasn't aged well. But, we probably wouldn't have won the war without him. Half-American too..

[@Marwolaeth01]

Back in 2009 I went to America and did a little road trip from New York, down through the southern states and ended up at Los Angeles. It was then a trip back across the pond from LAX, and as I was sitting there in the airport I remember seeing someone who I thought looked like Stephen Fry, but I dismissed it and went back to drinking my coffee. When I was met at Heathrow by my parents, they said you'll never guess who just walked through... Turns out it had been Stephen Fry, he was on the same plane as me and the fact I didn't expect to see him, meant I'd dismissed the reality of seeing him. It's a true shame, I would have loved to have been able to ask him what such a phenomenon was called, but alas not to be. TBH though, I'm painfully awkward around people so I probably wouldn't have had the nerve to speak to him anyway, so probably for the best.

[@davsav]

4.12 I call him Benedict Cucumber-patch.

[@WinstonSmith19847]

Ditto.

[@SengirIndustries]

Bumblesnoot Crinklethatch

[@animesis]

I have a very similar name for him! Less PG thought Benedict Cucumber snatch

[@markscott4420]

The thing about Churchill was that he learned from his mistakes. The only problem with that is, that he made so many mistakes in the first place.

[@garethbrown9191]

That's Sir Stephen Fry now! Dinner and drinks with David Mitchell & his wife Victoria Coren Mitchell.

[@georgefoster8133]

They had a Poll to find the Greatest Britain around 2000. As soon as it was announced I said Churchill would win...and he did.

[@sunseeker9581]

If germany won germans would say the same about Hitler

[@PSBFAN1991]

For more David Mitchell, try to get ahold of his Radio 4 show The Unbelievable Truth. It’s fabulous and a lot of classic David rants.

[@mlee6050]

What I heard is he didn't delete himself but he was working on chemicals as research but in an enclosed space and we know now that should be in a well vented space

[@rebeccachoice]

Total US national debt has been positive since the late 1800s. It is currently $29T.

[@Nite-owl]

For a beer conversation, I'd enjoy any of Fry, Mitchell or Bob Mortimer.

[@Maisiewuppp]

Churchill did what he had to do which many would balk at nowadays. The weight of a nation at war must have been crushing.

[@alanhogg9939]

I lived in Bletchley and Wavenden, which is now part of the 'new town' Milton Keynes (city), working for amazon in Bedford many years ago. You like stories from people, so there's one. Amazon employee number 51, from Slough. Not any more. And I've got that Yellowstone tee shirt in my amazon basket because I like the colours. I'll get it when I get my benefits (social) :-D Jo is a pedriactric nurse, become comedian.

[@SteCatherall]

For Me I could listen to Sir David Attenborough all Day 😊

[@joesteel7837]

"Who would you rather go for a pint with?" TBH, they both rank highly, but if you want good banter and anecdotes, Sandi Toksvig is probably a way better companion.

[@petermicklethwaite6281]

That's Jo Brand for you. She once walked into a toilet which was still being cleaned. Jo walked in smoking a cigarette. The cleaner said no smoking cant you read jo said yes I can, that's why I'm not cleaning toilets.

[@sunseeker9581]

Ha very harsh

[@Soggyoldsock]

Imagine having a beer and chat with Brian blessed.

[@Mike-Hughes-Timmins]

I agree, David would be fun to spend an evening with but if he brought his wife Victoria it would be more than twice as good as they are both really smart and well read people.

[@chrisBrown58]

On Churchill, The thing people tend to forget is the 3D person will be necessarily different from the War Leader image the media has refined. He was a Victorian upperclass gentleman, with all their faults around colonialism and racist, and its certainly true he made some brutal decisions. I don't think that detracts from his successes as a war leader, it may explain some, but it's more about putting meat on the bones of the stripped down media image than finding skeletons in cupboards: you could really say that's simply confronting the Truth that no-one is perfect. Criticisms of his cowing to the USA are really the product of rose-tinted views of a half understood history. The UK was on it's arse, and hard, pragmatic decisions had to be made to stay in the fight. You could probably make a case that that situation, and the earlier failures in the war could be blame on the arrogant complacency of the British colonial establishment in the inter war years.

[@fossy4321]

One of the reasons it took so long to pay off our debts was that as soon as the war between Britain and Germany started the US doubled the price of armaments to the UK. Thanks a lot US.

[@ashscott6068]

Not everything called Churchill is named after Winston Churchill. Sometimes, there's just a church...on a hill.

[@dazymac7619]

love him or hate him nobody can deny the uk would have ceased to exist without him, when everyone else in government called for peace talks with hitler it was churchill who stood firm with the line "you cannot negociate with a tiger when your head is in its mouth".

[@johankaewberg8162]

Turing: Every day the code was cracked again, using Bombe semi-computers. His end is such a shame.

[@lornainlondon4527]

My home town, Coventry was blitzed by the Germans, Churchill knew it was to happen -but because of the Enigma was under cover, it went ahead & bombed a lovely olde worlde town

[@MrBrianholding]

It has become fashionable among some circles (in academia chiefly, but also in anti colonialism activists) to denigrate Churchill. Often this is based on highly skewed or outright false accusations. He was far from perfect and he certainly held views that , while widely held at the time, couldn't be supported today. He was still the person we needed at the time and the world owes him a lot. Still deserves to be on the £5 note.

[@Nickel1147]

The trouble is that people believe every ridiculous slur about Churchill. Ignorance is the probĺem.

[@MrPhil1503]

The funny thing is, Churchill was half American. Not many people are aware of that...

[@stevebinning977]

Yes, his mum (or mom) was an American.

[@IanDarley]

Churchill was the best man of those available for the job at the time. Nobody is perfect.

[@janwilson9485]

Totally agree. He was the best choice possible for a war time leader. Unfortunatly he was from the English upper class and outside of war appeared to hate the working classes and the poor, despite being unable to manage his own massive finances appropriately.

[@sunseeker9581]

He was far from perfect. I preferred Clement Atlee. Churchill was better at speeches though.

[@DrCookie6996p]

@@janwilson9485 his crimes weren't committed against UK citizens/there are very good reason's why the Indian's consider him their hitler.

[@abarratt8869]

Churchill in WW2 was exceptionally far-sighted. He knew far in advance that the coming war would be "The Wizards' War". He *knew* that there'd have to be an explosion in technology in the coming war, and that he was completely right. Bletchley Park is just one strand of that. Tube Alloys - the British nuclear bomb effort that merged with the US's Manhattan project was another. WRT to that - it's hard these days to envisage just how wild and wacky the proposal for an atomic weapon must have been to a non-physicist. If one looks at the advances in technology in Britain / USA during the war, it was actually quite well managed. In the UK we knew there'd be all sorts of Citizen Submissions, that a lot of them would be crazy, but a few might be important. So they set up a small committee, and it was to them that all submissions had to be sent (the branches of the armed forces were not permitted to take forward ideas themselves). This filtered out the dross, and actually found some really important and significant contributions. Whereas in Germany, crack-pot inventors were free to hawk their idea around the different parts of the German military. So that's why they ended up pursuing ideas like a tornado generator to knock Allied bombers out of the sky. Someone somewhere would say "yes" and allocate funds and material.

[@anthonyholroyd5359]

After watching this video . . . With David Mitchell . . . You have to keep watching the 'Numberwang' sketches from Mitchell & Webb

[@johngault22]

David Mitchell only if he brings his wife or Stephen Fry on his tod.

[@stevebinning977]

Yes, Victoria Coren Mitchell is very smart and funny. I would think that some of their conversations would be fascinating. She is the daughter of the humourist, Alan Coren.

[@johngault22]

I know also she is a good poker player.

[@wulfgold]

The lady here - Jo Brand is pretty good as a comedian, used to be a nurse + great "leftie". I think there might have been a Brit lady/mathematician highly instrumental in cracking The Enigma + helping Turing hide himself. Turing's orientation, many great LGBTQ+ folk are owed a huge debt by this country and we've generally treated them terribly. Stephen Fry, David Mitchell and Johnny Vegas for beers - I'm way too old for Fry ;) Dude, pausing is good - plenty youtubers in your vein are slowly shifting to longer form videos. Churchill - politically, not my politics, but he was the man we needed for WWII and he deserves huge respect for that. Post WWII "not so good".

[@wulfgold]

Who cracks AI and/or Quantum computing is the winner of WWIII.