Just An Old Fashioned Girl?
I must admit, I’ve always seen myself as an old fashioned woman, and in many senses, I am, in the sense that I avoid the idea of owning a mobile phone, of any kind, like the plague. Fine, I have got a very cheap, very basic US one, but thats it, and I plan for it to stay that way.
However, as might be gathered from the fact I’m typing this here, I make one allowance to modernity, my laptop. Well, my current laptop is barely modern, probably on its last feet at present, and even its replacement wont be a new one, but fine, unless you believe the time travel stuff, its more modern than anything Clara Johnson would have known lol! And fine, I use a microwave, and a cable TV system, but…
I didnt buy my first computer in the initial rush of purchases, it would have been about 2001 before I bought my first one. Paid over £800 for a computer that probably had less function than a modern smart phone! And yes, that computer was bulky! Somewhere along the line I decided that I preferred the convenience of a laptop (probably because of all the travel I do, as you can take that with you), and swapped to one of those.
I did, briefly, try using an I-pad, and hated it. I eventually passed it on to someone who did like them, whose old one had packed up, and never again! As for getting a Smart Phone, no way! Besides anything else, those small screens, with my arthritic fingers, no chance!
So fine, I admit it, last night I got home to the news we had no internet, and hated that piece of news. Please, 20 years ago, you’d said that to me, I would have thought so what! But now…? Yes, as you might have gathered, we’re back on now, got back on about lunchtime. But fine, being without it was like being without a close friend! So me, an old fashioned girl? Well, I’d still like to think so, just that I’m one that likes a few modern luxuries, thats all.
Hey, I’m sure that Hollywood actresses had the best stuff in their days, even the chorus line dancers, I’m certain didnt starve! So do I still qualify as an old fashioned girl at heart? Please…?
Fine, video time. The recording is nearly 30 years old, the song over 60! Considering that Eartha Kitt was in her 60’s at the time, its a fantastically sexy performance. And yes, I could do with an old fashioned millionaire myself!
Who to thank for your mobile phones, and your internet? An actress!
101 years ago today, in Vienna, a baby girl was born. Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, in fact, a good Jewish baby. Well, I assume she was good, at least. You’re right, thats not the name she made herself famous with, as an actress, that was Hedy Lamarr. I’m not going to bore you with all the details of her movie career, and past history, if you want to read that, Wikipedia can guide you at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr
But during WW2, she patented something relating to frequency-hopping spread-spectrum, which helped the Allies to win the war. What wasnt known at the time, or indeed for about 40 years after, was the importance of this. Then companies started developing something called mobile phones, and guess what system they had to use to develop these devices? Yes, you’ve guessed it, frequency-hopping spread-spectrum! It was only when they tried to patent it, they discovered that they had been beaten to it, by over 40 years!
So they had to track down Hedy Lamarr, pay her off to gain the rights, and the rest is history. And yes, you guessed it, some of her other scientific work is how the internet developed. So the next time you ponder the scientific genius that allows you to make phone calls, or trawl the internet, just consider this. A movie actress helped to make all this possible!
See, not all actresses were just pretty faces!
stevielounicks 
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