Quiet Wednesday here - less quiet elsewhere. A hidden genius. And some writing on a wall.

It’s Wednesday again - another quiet cycle ride to the market in Uppermill. I fully expected rain but it has held off so far. We’ve even had a little sunshine. 

It’s quiet around here but the madness seems to be continuing around the country. A young friend reported being sent home from work early yesterday as their office was closing and they were sending everyone home to avoid possible riots in Manchester. And in various places immigration rights lawyers have had to  board up their offices in case of violent attack. 

And out in the wider world, there are still people calmly talking about the possibility of using nuclear weapons! 

We live in desperate times!

Scrolling my way through various media posts Hedy Lamarr was not just a pretty face. She also had a good, investigative, scientific mind. She also had good deal of luck. Being “discovered” as an actress led her to Hollywood. Her clever scientific mind could have been totally ignored but she dated Howard Hughes who set her up with a laboratory on set. Then she met George Antheil and together they worked on an electronic communications system to guide  torpedos to their target. She knew stuff about munitions as she had been married to an armaments manufacturer. She knew about engines and aircraft construction through Howard Hughes. Her work with Antheil on communications led to the Internet. 

So she’s to blame for it all! Well, partly! But the world at large knew her only as a film star beauty! While she continued to accumulate credits in films until 1958, her inventive genius was yet to be recognized by the public. It wasn’t until Lamarr’s later years that she received any awards for her invention. The Electronic Frontier Foundation jointly awarded Lamarr and Antheil with their Pioneer Award in 1997. Lamarr also became the first woman to receive the Invention Convention’s Bulbie Gnass Spirit of Achievement Award. Although she died in 2000, Lamarr was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for the development of her frequency hopping technology in 2014. Such achievement has led Lamarr to be dubbed “the mother of Wi-Fi” and other wireless communications like GPS and Bluetooth.

There you go. Don’t judge a book by looking at its cover.

And here is a poem by Lem Sissay:

Said the sun to the moon 

Said the head to the heart 

'We have more in common 

Than sets us apart' 

And here it is on a wall in Old Trafford:

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!