During World War II, the Germans used the Enigma, a cipher machine, to develop seemingly unbreakable codes for sending secret messages. The Enigma’s settings offered 150,000,000,000,000,000,000 (That’s One hundred fifty quadrillion!) possible solutions, and although no one believed it could be done, England’s Alan Turing and his team at Bletchley Park successfully broke it. Some historians believe that the cracking of Enigma was the single most important victory by the Allied powers during WWII, resulting in saving over 2 million lives and shortening World War II by two years. But how did Touring and company solve the unsolvable?!
Join us at 7pm, on Saturday, August 17, when Oakland University’s Frank Cardina, will take back to wartime Bletchley Park, located 60 miles north of London, where 12,000 people, worked in total secrecy, to overcome German Japanese and Italian codes and ciphers. In the process they invented and used some of the first primitive computers. We’ll learn why, despite their impressive intellectual, and life-saving achievements, their accomplishments were largely unknown and almost totally unrecognized, until decades after the war.
Frank Cardimen has been teaching at Oakland University for 44 years in Strategic Planning and International Management. This followed 20+ years in the automotive and chemical industries. Mr. Cardimen has taken groups of students to Europe and China annually since 1999 and has been an historian of WW II for over 60 years. He is also a consultant for Rochester Hills Museum at Van Hoosen Farms helping them develop a long-term strategy for funding that operation into the future.
Please note that this program will be presented live and on Zoom. You can attend the live presentation, for a chance to also mingle with your fellow Mensans and guests, at our usual location:
Northwest Unitarian Universalist Church in Southfield
23925 Northwestern Highway
Southfield, MI 48075
Doors open at 6:30pm (EDT). The program begins at 7:00pm.
Ticket prices for the in-person program are:
Adult members: $5m or buy a strip of 4 tickets for $15. Adult guests: $6, Children 12 & under: $2
Members receive free admission in the month of their birthday.
Following the presentation, please join us for dinner at Buddy’s Pizza, located at 31646 Northwestern Highway, in Farmington Hills, just northeast of Middlebelt Road.
If you can’t join us in person, the Zoom room opens at 6:30pm (EDT) for mingling.
There is no charge for the Zoom presentation, but, due to rising costs, your donation via PayPal is greatly appreciated. Please donate $5! To donate go to paypal.com and click on the “Send Money” tab. Enter the e-mail address treasurer@nullmensadetroit.com and your payment amount. Be sure to include a notation that your donation is for “SEMM Zoom Presentations.”
Please remember that all attendees need to pre-register by clicking on the following link: https://tinyurl.com/SEMM-2024-Gathering .
There is no charge for the Zoom presentation, but, due to rising costs, your donation via PayPal is greatly appreciated. Please donate $5! To donate go to http://www.paypal.com and click on the “Send Money” tab. Enter the e-mail address treasurer@nullmensadetroit.com and your payment amount. Be sure to include a notation that your donation is for “SEMM Zoom Presentations.”
The Zoom room opens at 6:30pm (Eastern) for mingling. The program starts at 7:00pm (Eastern). Please remember that all attendees need to pre-register by clicking on the following link: https://tinyurl.com/SEMM-2024-Gathering