Simon Griffin

Simon Griffin

I love these courses - I have more time to study now that I've retired from work. Marvellous!

Location Cheshire

Achievements

Activity

  • Simon Griffin made a comment
    Create a message using a transposition cipher

    Rail Fence Cipher

    I hope the X nulls help!

    WUDRXEAAWXEEAYIRDSLESLBTLGO?XXRIENX

    Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1469303/Did-British-intelligence-send-its-own-spies-to-their-deaths.html

  • Simon Griffin made a comment
    Read screenplays

    I've got the script of 'Bridge of Spies' in front of me, and as a complete opposite, the screenplay of 'Deadpool'. I hope I've chosen wisely...

  • Simon Griffin made a comment
    Create your own secret message

    BEGINNER: Caesar Cipher; key value=5

    ENCRYPTED MESSAGE: XRFWY IJANHJX FY MTRJ HFS GJ MFHPJI

  • Simon Griffin made a comment
    Introduce yourself

    Hello everyone, Simon here. My favourite movie, by far is 'Last of the Mohicans', which I watch every time I need a bit of a lift. The screenplay was by Michael Mann, who also produced and directed the movie, and I think the screenplay is all the more remarkable because the original 1826 book is so turgid (in my humble opinion). There are so many scenes that...

  • Simon Griffin replied to Ian Cooper
    What is intelligence?

    I think a word missing from the 'Analysis and Production' step in the Intelligence Cycle is 'interpretation'. Satellite images were interpreted by the US intelligence services as proof that Saddam had WMDs - which wasn't the case. Whether this misinterpretation of this information was manipulated or not I guess we'll never know...

  • Simon Griffin made a comment
    What is a spy?

    We're all attracted to fictional spies, like George Smiley and James Bond, but what is a spy? I guess it's anyone whose profession involves them gathering private or secret information about a person or a thing (like a country or an organisation) without the owners knowledge or permission. If so, spies could come in all shapes and sizes and might perform the...

  • Simon Griffin made a comment
    Why are you here?

    Hi, my son and I are doing this course together. I love writing and am very interested in how a book or script gets transferred to film or TV. Harrison (my son) wants to work in the film industry when he's finished studying, and sees himself behind a camera or even as a Director! This should be fun! One of my favourite films is Pulp Fiction which I think is...

  • Simon Griffin made a comment
    Introduction to the course

    Hello everyone. I'm doing this course with my son, who wants to work in the film or TV industry when he has grown up (he's 13 1/2 now and just choosing his options at school). So we'll sit down together two or three nights each week and do the course together.

  • Simon Griffin made a comment
    Summary of Week 3

    I am quite amused by the fact that we orbit a typical sun, which is in a typical galaxy. Typical!

  • Simon Griffin made a comment
    More about star types

    I chose Zeta in the constellation Taurus because the constellation is prominent at this time of year and it's directly above Orion, so I should be able to find it easily. It turns out that Zeta might be a binary system - two stars so close to each other that it's difficult to tell them apart, but the primary star is a blue giant about 438 light years from...

  • Simon Griffin made a comment
    Introduce yourself

    Most people know the story of how WW1 started, but not many people know how it ended. This is what I want to understand - how the victors wanted to build an inclusive new world order but failed so spectacularly!

  • Simon Griffin replied to Anthony Soames
    Next week's topic

    I like the idea that nationalism might be primarily a tool of politicians, if true it would go some way towards explaining why some people have willingly given their lives for their nation, when the reality is that the nation, as they comprehend it, didn't exist a decade or a century ago and might have only came into existance because of old empires drawing...

  • Simon Griffin made a comment
    Ask the educators

    I love it when I learn a new word - Irredentism. To quote from the this week's key terms, this is when a state advokates annexation of territories administered by another state on the grouds of common ethnicity or prior historical possession. This seems to decribe what Russia is doing in Crimea very well, and my question to the educators is whether we should...

  • Simon Griffin made a comment
    Introduction

    Super introduction to what promises to be a very imformative and enlightening course. Can't wait to get stuck in!