The Pumasphere

Mmm I’m on top again! It is where I like to be, everyone then must look up to me….

DancesWithPumas 01.02.09 at 12:53 pm

Hey are you looking up to me?

HP Boston 01.02.09 at 12:55 pm
DancesWithPumas 01.02.09 at 12:53 pm
Hey are you looking up to me?
————
No, I saw you as I was scrolling down.

argghh!! I messed up the link. In my defence I have a headache today, feels like it could be a cold coming on but anyway lets try it again.

This timeline of female firsts is a great reference* and mentions the following inventions (*although it is incomplete)

1812 – Tabitha Babbit – Invents the circular saw
1882 – Maria Beaseley – Invents the life raft
1887 – Anna Connelly – Invents the fire escape
1893 – Margaret Wilcox – Invents the car heater

Dang. Thanks for the lists of women inventors.

Women invented agriculture…back in the day.

http://inventors.about.com/od/womeninventors/Women_Inventors.htm

This is also an interesting article on the subject

WOMEN IN THE HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY — WOMEN INVENTORS
Susan Davis Herring
Presented to the Society of Women Engineers, Huntsville chapter,
on March 4, 1999, for Women’s History Month.

including amongst many others in this detailed study, this extremely useful invention

Amanda Theodosia Jones developed the vacuum canning process to preserve food. Her process became the standard canning method in this country following its patent grant in 1873

and I found this especially fascinating.

The Civil War was a watershed for women inventors in the United States, with more women receiving patents between 1860 and 1865 (86) than in the previous 70 years (72). In the next four years the number more than doubled (to 184), and has kept growing every since. Sarah Mather patented a submarine telescope in 1864 and Henrietta Vansittart invented and patented an improved screw propeller for ships in 1868. Martha Knight developed a machine to produce flat-bottomed paper bags, which was patented in 1870. She also appears to have been the first woman in the U.S. to fight and win a patent suit. A man who had seen the model of her machine stole the design and filed for a patent on it. She took him to court over her patent right. He claimed she couldn’t possibly have the mechanical knowledge needed to invent such a complex machine, but Knight presented both witnesses and extensive documentation — including drawings, sketches, journal entries, and parts of the first model — which backed up her claim.

DancesWithPumas 01.02.09 at 1:16 pm

http://inventors.about.com/od/womeninventors/Women_Inventors.htm

———————————great link!
Thanks Dances..I look up to you.

From the thread below, someone mentioned a possible prowl on who created the Dolce and Gabbana gang-rape ad.

Apparently, TGW was a year late on this, since the ad was banned in some countries the year before! (2007)

But I think it’s a good idea in general to watchdog such ads and expose the people responsible. It may end up being a particular ad agency…

If you look at some of the links from the TN Guerilla Women’s post I was even more horrified by Chanel’s ad depicting a wife-beater!

And as for the countries which banned the gang rape ad, it looks like Spain and Italy, known for “machismo,” far surpass the U.S. in protecting women. Altho D+G called them “backwards” for banning the ad:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21339711-2,00.html

Last Saturday, 13 Italian senators and Equal Opportunity Minister Barbara Pollastrini demanded in a joint letter to the IAP that the ad be withdrawn from circulation.

D and G already pulled the ad in Spain last month while labelling the country “a bit backward” for the objections raised by the government and a consumer association.

Here’s a link to Chanel’s wife-beating ad:

http://www.ltcconline.net/lukas/gender/violence/violence/pics/violence10.jpg

(warning” it’s shocking….both visually and also as to why on EARTH would Chanel think this is an inducement to buy their product??)

btw, I think we should ask Obama for an “Equal Opportunity Minister” such as Italy has!

Here’s an underreported news item for Murphy to tuck away for a future post:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-ebadi3-2009jan03,0,7406858.story

While police watched, protesters shouted death threats and vandalized the home Nobel Peace prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, a women’s advocate in Iran

hey yall

been out of town…btw murphy i was aching to see your take on this burris scandal and u hit it right on the head…im actually impressed the governor called their bluff with the now infamous race card…thanks That One…these next four years are going to be hysterical…lololol

Dances – I stole a moment to come in here. Leaving for NY tonight for an awful long dreaded time. Send some positive energy my way – I don’t want to go..the economy is a bit scary and we have a brand new collection of stuff and no one has seen it but us,,, so feeling apprehensive and hoping people will fall all over it. Sometimes they do. We’ve had shows that was a riot, people just writing up their own orders because we could not keep up… Alas that was 3 – 4 years ago when things were good.

Anyway, I wanted to say I enjoyed the heck out of your post of women inventors. I am constantly thinking of new products to invent..never have the time to put it to fruition – always end up doubting one self. I wanted to invent a thing to help women since so many are taken, killed and dumped.
Good JOb on the post.

By the way…
Annual Southern CA Puma Get-together some time in March. Will email more info on this in February.

FreddieBrown

Thinking good thoughts for your trip…

Tower cleared.

In November of 1999 Randice-Lisa “Randi” Altschul was issued a series of patents for the world’s first disposable cell phone.

Virgie Ammons was an inventor and women of color who invented a device for dampening fireplaces.

Virginia Apgar was one of Columbia University’s first female M.D.s. She graduated in 1933. She was one of the first American women to specialize in surgery. She became Columbia’s first-ever full Professor of Anesthesiology in 1949. Apgar specialized in anesthesia and childbirth. She invented the Newborn Scoring System, also called the Apgar Score, in 1949 that assessed the health of newborns. In 1959, Apgar was appointed the Director of the March of Dimes.

btw, there is (or at least was!) a lot of money and support out there for women entrepreneurs.

I was too chicken to take it. When one group out there wanted to lend me money to start a particular business, I said, “But what if it fails?” And the man told me, “You’ll have another idea.”

Ideas are the easy part.

But Murphy, and others, if you have an idea, the first place I recommend going to is SCORE…can’t remember what it stands for, something like
Society Corps of Retired Executives.

They mentor people with business ideas. The website (I just peeked) has a section for women entrepreneurs, too.

It’s free, and I know there’s a chapter in Boston where you can make an appointment with a mentor.

Yep….Amelia Earhart helped to found the fledgling commercial airline industry.

Oh Zee – Thanks for your good wishes..

I think you have watched the show ” Big Ideas” ? I used to watch it all the time until the politics got in the way. You just have to keep going, keep believing and keep learning but being realistic and protecting your ideas is very important too. I know some people who invented the little petals that you put on high heels so your foot doesn’t slide down and the gal who invented a purse organiser…only one item and she was in Oprah and the container store, etc.. She does all the shows herself.. a middle aged, proper and chic looking woman from Tennessee.

I need to invent something in the fashion world – I feel so un-imaginative.

Ingemar Henry Lundquist invented the over the wire balloon catheter that is used in the majority of angioplasty procedures in the world.

Silver Screen superstar Hedy Lamarr (born Hedwig Kiesler Markey) with the help of composer George Antheil invented a secret communication system in an effort to help the allies defeat the Germans in World War II. The invention, patented in 1941, manipulated radio frequencies between transmission and reception to develop an unbreakable code so that top-secret messages could not be intercepted. The technology called spread spectrum, now takes on many forms. However, all the spread spectrum that we use today directly or indirectly, flows from the invention created by Hedy Lamarr.

Wanted to say “hi”. Hope all is well. Haven’t been reading all the posts or blogging much. I am trying to stop smoking and have a strong association with taking my laptop outside and smoking. Will touch base when I have something to offer to the political conversation.

Amanda Jones re-invented American food production by inventing vacuum packed canning.

#35 zee: the image in the link is not “graphic” in a traditional sense, but I wanted to warn anyone in case they are triggered by images where violence is being mimed.

This is a good idea for displaying these images. I dislike censorship, but there is also a time and a place (like NSFW)–I like the idea of displaying these images with some sort of editorial comment. Are lynchings ever displayed on their own without some warning?

Cinie 01.02.09 at 2:11 pm Wonderful. So THAT”S why the dance clubs are so full of drunk, sex-crazed men and women.
Is it even possible to eliminate sexism wthout eliminating sex? Go to any dance club between Midnight and closing and…..see how very far we have to go.

If you want to give art awards, I nominate Bqueen’s Sistine Chapel rework of Hillary pointing and laughing at Favreau’s naughty bits.

BTW, I used to see this displayed around the Pumasphere. But when Bqueen said something about wanting to be credited, people took it down. There is now a version with a credit to Bqueen in the corner, why can’t this version be spread around? I don’t think Bqueen would mind.

I have also noticed some hotlinking going around, which is considered bad cyber manners. If someone wants to display an image, they should use their own bandwidth (right click on the image to save to their own computer, then upload it to their own website) That way they also have control of the image and no one can substitute an image with political content they don’t intend.

In 1954, Erna Schneider Hoover started work as a researcher at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, where she created a computerized telephone switching system. The switching system used a computer to monitor incoming calls and then automatically adjusted the call’s acceptance rate. This helped eliminate overloading problems. The principles of Erna Schneider Hoover’s design are still used today.

Has anybody mentioned the women who not only snuck into the civil war pretending to be men, but also the ones who were VERY successful secret agents on both sides for that war?
**************
This is very interesting:
Obama And That Other Ponzi Scheme
“DECEMBER 31–As if being linked to one high-profile criminal case weren’t enough, President-elect Barack Obama’s name may soon pop up in another federal prosecution, this one involving a massive Ponzi scheme (no, the other massive Ponzi scheme). In addition to the Rod Blagojevich pay-for-play probe, Obama could figure in the upcoming fraud trial of Norman Hsu, the disgraced Democratic fundraiser who was charged last year with operating a $60 million pyramid scheme. According to investigators, Hsu, a major Hillary Clinton fundraiser, pressured investors to donate money to political candidates with whom he was aligned. In a letter last week to U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero, Hsu’s lawyer, Martin Cohen, requested a 60-day delay in the start of Hsu’s trial, scheduled to open January 12 (Cohen cited the “extraordinary level of negative publicity” generated by the recent arrest of alleged Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff). In his December 22 letter, a copy of which you’ll find below, Cohen also noted that Hsu was already “notorious for his political activities” and that it was “inevitable” that his client’s “connections” to Bill and Hillary Clinton “and other democratic notables–including perhaps the president-elect–will be introduced at trial.”
…more on this at http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/1231082hsu1.html

Nijma 01.02.09 at 2:37 pm
“I have also noticed some hotlinking going around, which is considered bad cyber manners.” What is “hotlinking”?
Everyday I come here….and learn more about the things I don’t know.

Antifish~~thanks for all the contributions about the achievements of women. It’s like each one opens the crack in the door a little bit more.

“It is an accepted convention that the Civil War was a man’s fight. Images of women during that conflict center on self-sacrificing nurses, romantic spies, or brave ladies maintaining the home front in the absence of their men. The men, of course, marched off to war, lived in germ-ridden camps, engaged in heinous battle, languished in appalling prison camps, and died horribly, yet heroically. This conventional picture of gender roles during the Civil War does not tell the entire story. Men were not the only ones to fight that war. Women bore arms and charged into battle, too. Like the men, there were women who lived in camp, suffered in prisons, and died for their respective causes.

Both the Union and Confederate armies forbade the enlistment of women. Women soldiers of the Civil War therefore assumed masculine names, disguised themselves as men, and hid the fact they were female. Because they passed as men, it is impossible to know with any certainty how many women soldiers served in the Civil War. Estimates place as many as 250 women in the ranks of the Confederate army.(1) Writing in 1888, Mary Livermore of the U.S. Sanitary Commission remembered that:

Some one has stated the number of women soldiers known to the service as little less than four hundred. I cannot vouch for the correctness of this estimate, but I am convinced that a larger number of women disguised themselves and enlisted in the service, for one cause or other, than was dreamed of. Entrenched in secrecy, and regarded as men, they were sometimes revealed as women, by accident or casualty. Some startling histories of these military women were current in the gossip of army life.(2)
Livermore and the soldiers in the Union army were not the only ones who knew of soldier-women. Ordinary citizens heard of them, too. Mary Owens, discovered to be a woman after she was wounded in the arm, returned to her Pennsylvania home to a warm reception and press coverage. She had served for eighteen months under the alias John Evans.(3)

In the post – Civil War era, the topic of women soldiers continued to arise in both literature and the press. Frank Moore’s Women of the War , published in 1866, devoted an entire chapter to the military heroines of the North. A year later, L. P. Brockett and Mary Vaughan mentioned ladies “who from whatever cause . . . donned the male attire and concealed their sex . . . [who] did not seek to be known as women, but preferred to pass for men.”(4) Loreta Velazquez published her memoirs in 1876. She served the Confederacy as Lt. Harry Buford, a self-financed soldier not officially attached to any regiment.

The existence of soldier-women was no secret during or after the Civil War. The reading public, at least, was well aware that these women rejected Victorian social constraints confining them to the domestic sphere. Their motives were open to speculation, perhaps, but not their actions, as numerous newspaper stories and obituaries of women soldiers testified.

Most of the articles provided few specific details about the individual woman’s army career. For example, the obituary of Satronia Smith Hunt merely stated she enlisted in an Iowa regiment with her first husband. He died of battle wounds, but she apparently emerged from the war unscathed.(5) An 1896 story about Mary Stevens Jenkins, who died in 1881, tells an equally brief tale. She enlisted in a Pennsylvania regiment when still a schoolgirl, remained in the army two years, received several wounds, and was discharged without anyone ever realizing she was female.(6) The press seemed unconcerned about the women’s actual military exploits. Rather, the fascination lay in the simple fact that they had been in the army.”
This taken from this page, and there is more there:
http://americancivilwar.com/women/index.html

mountainsong,

With each woman’s contribution that I researched, I became more and more outraged that her achievements were swept into the dustbin of obscurity by predominantly male historians. This is just blatant institutionalized subjugation of women.

Zee –

Non disclosure contracts is one way to go. So is not giving away the farm by divulging ideas to “interested” parties but I am sure you know.

I’ve had lots of artwork and products copied and had to resort to copyrighting them but now I just move on after I give them hell. You hold a copyright when you finish creating it – don’t even have to do it formally. In our early years we’ve had people stand at our show, sketching, photographing with cell phone, asking for samples, studying our products, you name it. We’ve had to escort a few folks out the door and a guy was making so much money off our designs (more than us since he was around much longer than us), I forced him to pay us commission for every sale, every quarter but he kept wanting to be “my friend”. I don’t play nice when it is not right. Last August, a dapper looking guy from a hugely successful brand Vera Bradley came checking out our products – one of our customers brought him to check it out. I was away but my well trained husband told him to get lost. Husband was extremely green behind the ears until he saw our designs in other folks booth. Imitation may be flattery but I prefer not to be flattered and it dilutes your brand and design when other people see it coming and going elsewhere.

Oh, by the way, we won the trademark rights after being contended by the NBA team Utah Jazzd… cool huh ? When I heard that they were fighting us for the rights to the name, I almost gave up. Who has money to fight an NBA team, right ? Well, my Obama loving attorney and I kept at it. Didn’t cost more than $5,000 to keep our trademark which I was quite pleased. Which goes to show you, little victories are still victories.

Don’t know what I’d do without all the excitement in the Pumasphere!

This is where I get my news. It is what’s keeping me sane nowadays….

I want to join an action team. Right now I have a personal e-mail and a g mail for my Puma activities. Do I have to get another e-mail account for the action team?

murphy 01.02.09 at 3:02 pm

hi there gay gal,

what’s up?
**************

Hey there, Murphy. Trying to stop smoking…strong association with laptop/habit. Breakin’ those chains bind.

Murphy: And here is something even better. Susan Casey has a website of her own

http://www.susancaseybooks.com

This website has as well a list of other good books for young girls..check out this website!

Murphy: Sorry..here is a more specific link to the page for Susan Casey and lists of other books by other people as well as some other resources…
http://www.susancaseybooks.com/women_invent.html

Nijma #58

Thanks for the “nomination”! Tshirts & cards coming soon….I’d be happy if people would post the image that has the name in the corner WITH a credit! After all, art is made for audiences! And it’s especially fun to work for a PUMA audience!

turndownobama #61:

Are you worried about a virus? I’m on a virus-free mac. If you’re nervous tho, a work-around might be to download it onto a usb stick or other external drive and upload it from there.

On another subject:

I posted a link to BJ’s post in Murph’s last post. Here it is again – this time Scarlet & I added contact info in the comments in case anyone wants to complain to Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel, Nikon, etc about their misogynist ads:

Cinie 01.02.09 at 3:26 pm
==========

I may get totally flamed for this, but I feel like living dangersously at the moment.

A simple key to the traditional role differences, whether social or inbred, would be ‘lactation is destiny’. (So the big revolution would be the breast pump, yay Sarah!) In theory a young woman could take a few weeks or months off for childbirth but go hunt mastodons the rest of the time, leaving the old people or the children to take care of the baby. But where food is scarce and the young really need breastfeeding, then the mother has to stick to situations where the nursing young are safe with her. And along with that comes the rest of the young children, requiring multi-tasking, etc.

I don’t have a reference, but iirc one anthropoligist studied many tribes and found the male/female tasks were alloted differently. But the style and pace of the tasks changed depending on whether men or women did them. For example, where the men built the houses, a group of men would set aside a day or two to all get together and build it in a big hurry high pressure mode; like our ‘barn-raising.’ Where women built the houses, they were built over time, with one or two women working at a time, maybe an hour or two a day, and always able to leave something safely unfinished till next session.

This sort of pace difference, women’s need for multitasking, is part of the mammalian condition — much older than differentation of skin color etc.

It also puts the women in charge of many aspects of learning: eg which mushrooms are safe if cooked just right. This is something you have to learn from an elder. You can’t just pick it up or invent it for yourself as can be done with hunting or trapping techniques, or muddle through, because your first bad mushroom may be your last.

Of course all this is tribe wandering in the wilderness situations, pioneer situations, where underpopulation is the danger. In cities of the plains situations where overpopulation is the danger, priorities are different….

Rant over, running away now….

#61 TDO
I don’t know of any way to upload an image directly from either an email or a URL. You’re going to have to save it somewhere first. Do you have a thumb drive you can save it to? (You can get one in the $10-20 range now). Or a floppy if you are using old technology? There are people who use their work computers for, ahem, non work related activities. I suppose they leave a record of which site they visit in the computer’s browser history. Those people, and people like me who just plain like Firefox, might enjoy having the portable Firefox on their thumb drives:

http://camelsnose.wordpress.com/2008/12/18/portable-firefox/
To save an image, right click on the image and choose the “save as” option. Then you can select the device and file where you want to save the image.

Here’s something about hotlinking, some people are more sensitive about it than others. Maybe it depends on how much you have to pay for extra bandwidth. If you’re out of bandwidth and want to store your images elsewhere, you can get a free blog with huge amounts of image space at WordPress.

http://www.webweaver.nu/html-tips/hotlinking.shtml

Lotte Reiniger, German filmmaker, director, animator: first ever silhouette animator and possibly the first ever female director,/animator she began working in 1916. Married to a jewish man, her cameraman Carl Koch (who btw supported her work his entire life), Reiniger left Germany for England in 1930 where she continued working as a silhouette animator.

http://www.awn.com/mag/issue1.3/articles/moritz1.3.html

Leni Riefenstahl, German filmmaker: notorious due to her Nazi production Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will) and her documentary of Berlin’s 1936 Olympics, Riefenstahl may have been the first female director to wear pants while directing in public. Marlene Dietrich appeared in slacks with flared bottoms in her United States debut film Morocco in 1930 – Riefenstahl was making her own films a year later.

Love or hate her, Riefenstahl was ahead of her time in terms of aesthetic sophistication and a dress code that ultimately helped pave the way for a lot of women, including our very own Hillary!

Alice Rodham Puma 01.02.09 at 4:15 pm
I think I have decided which team to join, but I won’t make the final decision till tomorrow.
—————–
send email to actioncenter@pumapac.org
sunject line: team(s) you want to join, your blog name.
Also, use an address you want to share with team members for correspondence, etc.

You could consider joining one team, and if the work load allows joining another team… join another. Of course you might be behind on the direction and devlopment. Up to you.

turndownobama: your wish is my command…

Is this what you’re looking for?

http://pumapac.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/hillarys-last-laugh.jpg

ps – murphy switched the image out for the credited one…

Nijma 01.02.09 at 4:00 pm

#78 gay gal
Good luck, it can be done. Here is what I learned when I quit:
http://camelsnose.wordpress.com/2008/07/06/got-a-touch-of-copd-how-to-quit-smoking/

Thanks, Nijma, very realistic assessment. I so know what you mean about the “dumb downed” down stuff out there. I’m going for it and I’m hyped! I bookmarked your article!!!

Taggles, I hope that you remembered that you gave me your email address. And I so hope you know most of that was an analogy. The “thank you” was beyond sincere. Pumas, have a good one.

Alice Rodham Puma 01.02.09 at 4:38 pm

turndownobama

You can get a free photobucket account http://www.photobucket.com and send the images directly there without downloading them. That is also useful for collecting images together as well. This way you can also link them to your blog. Just a little tip. I think there are other image hosting sites as well.

===================

Thank you very much I’ll do that!

tdo the squeaking guinea pig on the squeaking wheel getting lots of grease

Hey, try this quiz. It just takes a few minutes, it doesn’t score the questions and gives you a chance to try again if you get one wrong, which I got two questions thanks to a few I knew and a couple of lucky guesses!

It is a learning quiz, about Women Inventors:

Mothers of Invention

Take our quiz and test your knowledge about mothers of invention.

http://inventors.about.com/library/quiz/blwomen1q.htm

oops I love this site but I do wish there was a preview post or edit button, because I am always rushing to post and should really proof read before I click send. Thought I stopped it in time but obviously not!

You didn’t fall for the trick question antifish. I am ashamed to say I did because I didn’t read the question properly!

I agree, Murphy. This was a very inspirational thread. I enjoyed it so much! Thanks back atcha!!

co-contibutors and in many cases, leaders. I hope these women inspire other women and girls. They sure do inspire me.

ah, I got that one antifish, I am quite a geek though I am not ashamed to admit that. (But I really need to learn to read questions properly!)

Dances – are you having email or internet reception problems ?

101 tdo the squeaking guinea pig

Thanks it looks great there!

(squeaking???)

Murphy – can you please tell me if you can get into my website ? It is on my email address… I am freaking out… leaving for NY tonight and cannot get into my own website or email but can blog. Don’t know what is going on.

Antifish, check by your phone book- I’m sure he gave you a phone book with all the blank ballots so you can “fill in the blanks” with people in your area….

antifish 01.02.09 at 6:20 pm Is that what those were? Came in a roll, so I just put it next to my toilet.

OK you poopers, I’ll just print up another roll or two….

antifish, do you live in Atlanta?

freddiebrown 01.02.09 at 6:00 pm
Dances – are you having email or internet reception problems ?
——————-
No, ma’am.

FEC COMMENTS DUE MONDAY!

http://www.fec.gov/law/policy/enforcement/publichearing011409.shtml

They need to hear from us.

mountainsong,

Yes, I live in the Atlanta suburbs.

alice,

I didn’t cry either.

Frodo, get me a tissue.

I was just looking and trying to find the photos in the site… particularly the ones where freddiebrown was standing in the middle of the highway with her anti-obama signs… where are the pictures in here?

mountainsong 01.02.09 at 6:49 pm
DancesWithPumas Must be 2 Murph’s~~~~one that crys and one that doesn’t. That’s how we can tell em apart.
————–
lol. Good question! I’d go with the first part of her “cry” statement and fuggedaboud the second half.

bqueen 01.02.09 at 4:42 pm
turndownobama: your wish is my command…
Is this what you’re looking for?
http://pumapac.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/hillarys-last-laugh.jpg
———————
That jpeg is also in our Comic Relief section. Copyright is on it.

mountainsong,

Oh, I don’t know, I like Tampa. I’ll be going there for a week to visit some friends soon. It’s really nice this time of year. Wish I owned a home in both places. I’d spend the summer and fall in Atlanta and the winter and spring in Tampa. The humidity there is a killer during the summer and I couldn’t possibly miss the turning of the leaves here. Breathtakingly beautiful!

ok, this is not a PUMA video, but just the song, then someone else should put a song on the jukebox.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=NjQXMZe2ouk

Thanks DWP… found it!

I got 100% correct on the test!! That’s because of what I learned on today’s blog, and three lucky guesses.

Take the test!
http://inventors.about.com/library/quiz/blwomen1q.htm

Murphy and Dances – thanks for checking the website.

Karen WI – you’re not going to do any juju’s to my pic, are you ?

freddiebrown, I was just checking… and my memory served me right for once…. your face was hidden in all the photos, LOL.

DancesWithPumas 01.02.09 at 7:25 pm I love that video!
Usually, I find acceptance of the things that really bother me and move on. For some reason I’m stuck on, “Barack Obama as our POTUS is just Fvkking WRONG!!!

POTUS – Purple-lips of The United States. Kissy, kissy!

Yes, most of the politicians I’d respected and admired for so many years turned out to be either spineless, corrupt, self-serving or sexist. I was a serious reality check.

It, not I.

Admin is very funny tonight…. I don’t want to go to NY ..wah..!

ok so no ones putting another dime in the jukebox, baby?

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=2KcxQ9UdioM

All that You Have Is Your Soul – Tracy Chapman.

That’s what I figured, Murphy….. Freddie, how many near accidents did you have to witness because of all the guys gawking at the gorgeous brunette standing there? Probably dozens….

Yeah, taggles, I guess it does.

DancesWithPumas ~~~If there is one Action Team that needs hlp more than the others, let me know. I had thought about getting involved with the ERA, but there are so many already it seem anything I could possible do would only be redundant.I tried to arouse some interest when I was here 8 years ago, at the Crisis Service. Three colleges in this town~~~you’d think there would have been a groundswell of support for reviving a local chapter of NOW. Alot of people said they were interested, but……(everyone knows that story)

Dances & Mountainsong:

“The unDemocratic primary election process was a travesty beyond description. It so profoundly wounded me that I cant even begin to fathom it.”

I finally have some time to breath and was looking at some old youtube vids…like Hillary releasing her delegates (hadn’t seen it when it happened). I agree Dances, but what I can’t fathom is how Hillary dealt/deals with it. I would really love to talk to her about that.

And it’s so bizarre how there REALLY ARE so clearly “bad guys” and “good guys” in this whole thing. Geez – if there ever was a walking talking Cruella de Vil it has to be Pelosi.

#9 DWP

expanding a bit on Grace Hopper

-
She is sometimes referred to as “Amazing Grace” because of her work in early computing. She invented the first compiler – essentially a computer program that translates human-friendly commands into computer-understandable instructions. That’s a Really Really Big Deal, and the compiler is what made computers into business & people tools.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper

bqueen 01.02.09 at 8:14 pm

I think it’s prolly been around forever. But never so “right up in your face” as if they don’t believe there is anything we can do to stop them, even if we had the will to do so. “They” are wrong!

On the local news tonight: Another example of your woman lynching Murphy.

Guy and his girlfriend driving in his truck down the highway.
They get in an argument. Stopped at redlight, he throws her out truck on main highway. She walks around front of truck and he runs over her. He will be charged with vehicular manslaughter or vehicular homicide. How long does it take to tell that story on tv and how long does it take to read this here? How long is she dead?

DancesWithPumas 01.02.09 at 7:38 pm
mountainsong
The unDemocratic primary election process was a travesty beyond description. It so profoundly wounded me that I cant even begin to fathom it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dances, I was thinking about this very thing earlier, and I realized I need to articulate somehow, someway, and put on my blog.

I remember feeling really down, knowing why, and not believing it was the media, and the Democrats and the bloggers causing all of this sick sick feeling I started having as early as January. Democrats I know who told me Hillary was not electable, and then in their next sentence “and I was raised by feminists in a house full of feminists”… By April I was sickened to my core and turned the TV and NY Times off, except the Book Review.

Now, I am back to watching CNN besides just Lou Dobbs, and I feel like someone in an abusive relationship going back to an abuser. But Fox is not my cup of tea really… I am watching local news instead mostly, well, I lie, I am a news junkie… gone back to the abuser the 0CNN

DeadGirls: While you are with the abuser CNN, see how often the language used by their reporters skews the Israeli Gaza stroy against Israel? At least then you will be maintining your skills of discernment, necessary for Jan 21 and beyond..Hope you have a great 2009..

#201 Alice Rodham Puma 01.02.09 at 8:34 pm

COBOL is still in use and most modern assembly languages (that is almost all of them) evolved from it in their various forms.

-

confession: I have programmed in COBOL and also (eeek) in Assembler. I don’t look quite as old as Amazing Grace in her Admiral’s uniform. Yet.

http://www.inventions.org/culture/female/mothers.html

Another list (some duplication likely but also some new ones to this great thread)

Female Inventors
Mothers of Invention
Though Unsung and Ignored, Women Have Pushed Technology’s Frontiers

People who remember Hedy Lamarr probably recall her as a sexy movie star of the 1930s and 1940s. Hardly anybody recalls that she invented a remote-controlled, jam-proof radio communications system for the U.S. military that was patented during World War II.

Lamarr’s situation is not unique. Many other female inventors throughout history have been forgotten completely, concealed or ignored even though products and technologies they devised are used every day.

Take Bette Nesmith Graham. Few recognize her name, but many have made corrections to typewritten or printed pages using her invention, Liquid Paper, the first “correction fluid.”

And most people have heard of Scotchgard but not of Patsy Sherman, a 3M Company chemist who created the fabric protector by accident.

Windshield wipers, curling irons, the bra, the automatic dishwasher, luggage carriers, cancer-fighting drugs, pain relievers, home security systems—all of these creations and hundreds of other technologies either were originated or improved upon by women.

Many were not allowed to claim formal credit because, until the mid-19th century, anything a woman owned or invented was legally her husband’s possession. Even after passage of the Married Women’s Property Acts in England and the United States, women often were wary of seeming too intellectual or calling attention to themselves, attributes considered rude and unladylike, says Mary Ruthsdotter, projects director for the National Women’s History Project, based in Windsor, California.

As a result, many women were not properly acknowledged for their inventions. Some did not apply for a patent and let their ideas be claimed by another person. Others allowed their work to be patented under a man’s name.

Women who did take credit for inventions often were not considered as “real” inventors if their creation was a household item, such as a clothes wringer or refrigerator. Unfortunately, this bias persists.

But as Stephanie Kwolek, a DuPont Co. chemist and patent holder, stated in a 1990 speech on women inventors:

“Invention is invention. When the U.S. Patent Office issues a patent, it says officially, this is both original and practical. An industrial invention, though it might be more complicated, doesn’t necessarily show any more real ingenuity than a non-industrial one.”

The number of patents awarded to women is rising, according to the National Women’s History Project. In 1888, women accounted for only 1 percent of U.S. patents issued. Recently, the proportion has increased to 6 percent.

Although most inventors today are scientists or engineers, neither profession is a prerequisite. Actresses, housewives, beauticians—even an English noble—have made outstanding innovations. Although hundreds of important women could be mentioned, here is a brief look at a few ingenious women and the stories behind their inventions.
Hypatia (370-415 A.D.)
Mathematician and natural philosopher

Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Hypatia is among the first women known to have participated in the male-dominated scientific and academic world. Her father was a mathematician and director of the great University of Alexandria, and she eventually became one of the university’s most popular teachers, lecturing on Platonic philosophy, mathematics and astronomy.

She is thought to have written commentaries on Diophantus’s Arithmetica and the Conics of Appollonius, texts on mathematics and grammar, respectively, and assisted her father in revising Euclid’s Elements, the oldest surviving Greek mathematical work. Hypatia’s edition of the Elements is used today.

Letters from Hypatia’s students indicate that she designed scientific instruments including an astrolabe to determine the position of stars, planets and the sun, and developed an apparatus for distilling water, an instrument for determining water levels and a hydrometer, which measured “specific gravity” of liquids. Today, such devices are used to check a car battery’s charge by testing the acid.

Hypatia ran afoul of Christian zealots, who believed science and mathematics were enemies of their religion. In 415, according to historians, a group including monks from the Church of St. Cyril dragged Hypatia into a church and murdered her.

Scholars say the murder signified the end of Platonic teaching in Alexandria and the Roman Empire. Interest in mysticism and astrology soon replaced scientific research and reasoning that Plato, and neo-Platonists such as Hypatia, had espoused.
Sybilla Masters (died 1720)
Corn processing

In 1715, the British government acknowledged that Masters, an American colonist, had created a new way “for cleaning and curing the Indian corn growing in several colonies in America.” Even King George I praised her invention as having played an important role in developing the Pennsylvania economy.

But, in a classic demonstration of the bias against women inventors, the crown issued the patent in the name of her husband, Thomas. It would be almost a century before an American woman would be recognized as an inventor in her own right.
Mary Dixon Kies (early 19th century)
Straw and silk weaving

The first patent granted to a woman by the U.S. Patent Office was given in 1809 to Kies, of Connecticut, for a method of weaving straw with silk. The patent was destroyed in a 1836 Patent Office fire, so it is unclear whether her invention was for a machine or a process.

Straw weaving was an economically vital industry in America during the 1800s. Most women then wore bonnets, especially for work in the fields.

According to scholar Autumn Stanley, who wrote Mothers and Daughters of Invention: Notes for a Revised History of Technology in 1993, straw bonnets manufactured in Massachusetts alone in 1810 had an estimated value of more than $500,000. That amounts to $4.7 million in today’s money.

Ruthsdotter says the success of the New England hat business kept the area’s economy strong through an economic crisis aggravated by the war of 1812. Kies’s invention made these hats more cost-effective to produce.
Lady Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852)
Computer programmer

Ada Lovelace is considered the world’s first computer programmer. She originated the concept of using binary numbers, a practice used in all modern computers.

At age 14, the only child of English poet Lord Byron was tutored by famous mathematician Augustus De Morgan, who once wrote that Ada had “a man’s strength” in solving mathematical problems. When Ada was 17, De Morgan and his wife took her to parties at the home of Charles Babbage, a fellow mathematician and inventor.

Two years later, Ada married William, Lord Lovelace, and after the birth of their third child, began working as Babbage’s assistant. The two sought to develop his “analytical engine.” It was a mechanical computer, using gears and ratchets to perform large mathematical calculations and was controlled by two series of punched cards.

Babbage had tried initially to make the engine use the standard decimal system of numbers, but Lovelace suggested the much simpler binary number system in which all ordinary numbers are represented as a series of zeroes and ones. Her main contribution was creating the programming code that ran Babbage’s machine. These programs indicate that Lovelace understood many modern-day programming concepts such as looping and indexing.

Although the extent of Lovelace’s contributions has been debated, the computer world honored her in the 1970s when a programming language adopted by the Defense Department was named Ada.
Ellen Eglin (late 19th century)
Clothes wringer

Not surprisingly, women have been quite innovative in the clothes washing field, creating new and improved powders, wringers and machines.

Eglin, a black resident of the District, invented a highly successful clothes wringer in the 1880s but did not patent it. In 1888, she sold her wringer to an agent for a mere $18. Asked why she sold so cheaply, she reportedly said:

“You know I am black and if it was known that a Negro woman patented the invention, white ladies would not buy the wringer. I was afraid to be known because of my color in having it introduced into the market. That is the only reason.”

But the historical encyclopedia Black Women in America says five African-American women did overcome these obstacles and received patents between 1885 and 1898. They ranged from Sara E. Goode, a Chicago furniture store owner who created a “folding cabinet bed” much like a modern day sofa bed, to Miriam E. Benjamin, who invented a “gong and signal chair” for hotels. The U.S. House of Representatives later used one of Benjamin’s devices to signal its pages.
Margaret Knight (1838-1914)
Paper bag production

A cotton mill worker from age 9 through her late teens, Knight designed a machine that folded and glued paper to form the brown paper bags familiar today.

She built a wooden model of the device, but needed a working iron model to apply for a patent. However, a man working in the machine shop where Knight’s iron model was being built stole her design and patented the invention.

Knight filed a successful patent interference lawsuit and was issued the patent in 1870. With a Massachusetts businessman, she established the Eastern Paper Bag Co. and received royalties totaling $25,000 ($278,000 in today’s money), plus company stock and quarterly dividends. With few financial concerns, Knight entered other fields, receiving patents for several industrial machines, including a rotary engine.
Mary Walton (late 19th century)
Anti-pollution devices

Pollution was a byproduct of the Industrial Revolution, and this New York City resident was a trailblazer in the fight against air and noise pollutants.

In 1879, Walton developed a system that bubbled factory smoke emissions through water tanks that retained the chemicals, thenflushed them into the city’s sewage system.

In 1891, she received another patent for an apparatus that reduced noise from elevated train tracks by surrounding the rails with a wood frame that was cotton-lined, painted with tar and filled with sand. These materials absorbed noisy vibrations of passing trains.
Beulah Louise Henry (born 1887)
“Lady Edison”

Henry, who received her first patent at age 25 for an ice cream freezer with a vacuum seal was such a prolific inventor that the media and the Patent Office dubbed her “Lady Edison.” Experts disagree on how many patents Henry held, but she is thought to have created hundreds of items, some of which were were not patented or were sold to corporations, most notably toy and doll manufacturers.

Henry received the nickname not only because of the large number of inventions but also for her wide spectrum of ideas such as a hair curler, a football inflating device and a bobbin-less sewing machine. Several of her inventions dealt with typewriters. One, for example, was the Protograph, an attachment that allowed a typewriter to make an orginal and four copies of a document without carbon paper.

She also made numerous contributions to the toy industry with patents for dolls and other movable toys that could kick, blink, eat and even talk.

By age 37, Henry was president of two corporations—one to manage her prolific invention business and the other a manufacturer of the popular umbrella she invented. It had detachable, snap-on covers in colors that could be interchanged.
Katherine Blodgett (1898-1979)
Nonreflecting Glass

In 1917, Blodgett was the first female scientist hired at General Electric’s research lab, initially assisting Nobel Prize-winner Irving Langmuir in his work with monomolecular coatings. These were oily chemical compounds only one molecule thick and covering a surface of water, metal or glass.

Over the years, Blodgett developed a practical application of Langmuir’s theories, resulting in “invisible” glass. She found a way to add layers of these compounds to glass to cut reflected glare. This invention allowed images to pass through eyeglasses, telescopes, cameras, periscopes and microscopes without distortion or loss of light.

Since Blodgett’s patent was issued in 1938, her discovery has been used in many ways: enhancing the showing of “Gone With the Wind,” accelerating de-icing of aircraft wings, artificial rainmaking and increasing effectiveness of smoke screens.
Marjorie Joyner (1896-1994)
Permanent wave machine

In 1928, Joyner was granted a patent for a machine that would “wave the hair of both white and colored people.” Despite its strange appearance, her invention was extremely popular. The machine was electrically powered and had wires, cords and clamps that attached to the hair from an overhead, suspended dome.

When Joyner received her patent, she was working for Sarah Breedlove McWilliams Walker, better known as Madame C.J. Walker, who invented a hot comb that straightened black hair and who built a million-dollar business selling beauty and hair care products to African-Americans. Because Joyner’s patent legally belonged to Walker’s company, she never received profits from her invention.
Hedy Lamarr (born 1913)
Radio communications system

The Viennese-born femme fatale of 1930s and 1940s films is a lot more than just a pretty face.

The actress, whose real name is Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, immigrated to the United States during the early years of World War II. She is best known for sultry roles in such movies as “Ecstasy” and “Samson and Delilah,” but she also coinvented a remote-controlled, anti-jamming communications system, a major contribution to U.S. defense technology.

According to Bethesda resident Anne Macdonald, author of a book about American women inventors and a patent-holder herself for a knitting machine, Lamarr learned about designs for military technologies while married to a wealthy Austrian arms dealer for three years. Soon after Nazi Germany invaded Austria in 1938, she left her husband and went to London, where Louis B. Mayer of MGM Studios changed her name and signed her up as his company’s newest screen sensation.

In 1942, Lamarr and composer George Antheil received a patent for the communications system, which employed a feature known as frequency hopping. A radio signal, such as those used to direct torpedoes, would “hop” from one broadcast frequency to another at certain intervals. Therefore, if a receiver was not synchronized to receive the entire signal, the signal could not be “jammed” nor deciphered.

Lamarr’s invention did not fit MGM’s image of her as a glamorous movie star, and her creative side was a well-kept secret in Hollywood. Still, Lamarr was so passionate about helping the war effort that she seriously considered abandoning acting to join the National Inventors Council full-time.

Lamarr’s system was never used during World War II, but long after her patent expired, the Sylvania Corp. adopted and further developed the idea.
Ruth Handler (born 1917)
Barbie doll and breast prosthesis

As cofounder of Mattel Toy Corp., Handler created Barbie, the world’s most famous doll and an American icon. Handler developed Barbie into one of history’s most successful toys. In 1995, the Barbie brand earned Mattel $1.4 billion in worldwide sales.

But when Handler lost a breast to cancer in 1970, she turned her business acumen toward helping other women who had had mastectomies. After a difficult experience trying to find a suitable prosthesis, Handler had an artifical breast designed and custom-made for her. She then founded Ruthon Corp. with the designer and developed the “Nearly Me” prosthesis, which is more realistic than prev ious models.
Gertrude Belle Elion (born 1918)
Cancer drugs and kidney transplants

The first woman inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Elion is named on 45 patents, most notably for discoveries of medicines that fight leukemia, gout and herpes and a drug that suppresses the immune system, helping the body to accept transplanted tissue.

She won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1988 for her work with collegue George Hitchings and researcher Sir James Black.
Elizabeth Lee Hazen (1885-1975) and Rachel Fuller Brown (1898-1980)
Antifungal antibiotic

Both worked for the New York State Department of Health—Hazen in New York City and Brown in Albany—when they received a patent in 1957 for Nystatin, the first fungus-fighting drug. Hundreds of miles apart, Hazen and Brown collaborated by mailing tests and samples to each other.

Not only does Nystatin cure fungal infections of the skin and digestive system, but it also has been used to treat Dutch elm disease and in restoring artwork damaged by mold.

Hazen and Brown donated all royalties from Nystatin, totaling $13 million when their patent expired, to academic science. They were installed in the hall of fame in 1994.
Edith M. Flanigen (born 1929)
Petroleum research

Flanigen has received 102 patents in petroleum research and product development. Her major contribution has been work on “molecular sieves” used to filter microscopic particles from complex mixtures and on catalysts, special molecules that speed chemical reactions. Her discoveries have been used to convert crude oil to gasoline, in water purification and in environmental cleanup.
Erna Schneider Hoover (born 1926)
Telephone switching system

In 1954, Hoover became a researcher at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, where she created a computerized telephone switching system. Her device, which used a computer to monitor incoming calls and then adjusted the call acceptance rate, eliminated overloading problems. The principles of Hoover’s system are used by communications companies today.
Mary Spaeth (born 1940)
Laser technology

Spaeth, who holds a master’s degree in physics, has produced several inventions dealing with laser technology. While working at Hughes Aircraft, for example, she invented the tunable dye laser, which can be manipulated to produce light of different wavelengths and, hence, different colors. The ability to vary the color means that a single laser can be used for a variety of applications.

Spaeth’s resonant reflector, originally created for the Army, may have more significance for the average consumer. It’s an integral part of laser devices used to scan bar codes at cash registers.
Stephanie Louise Kwolek (born 1923)
Polymers and fibers

While a chemist at E.I. duPont de Nemours & Co., Kwolek experimented with a variety of strong fibers and discovered liquid crystalline polymers in 1965.

The most famous product resulting from this is Kevlar, whose fibers are stronger than steel. Kevlar is used to make bulletproof vests, fiber-optic cables, outdoor clothing, radial tires and airplane fuselages.

The fiber generates hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue worldwide, and many police officers owe their lives to Kwolek and her findings. She is the most recent inductee into the hall of fame.

Information Source: By Heather Salerno, Washington Post Staff Writer, March 12 1997;The Washington Post, p. H01.

omg. I didn’t realise that post was so long… with that, goodnight PUMAs

THANK YOU!

Dead Girls inventions:

I have a few, but one that I will share in simple terms… is for streets to be designed so that the traffic rolling over them generates electricity to charge batteries that light the streets, and the traffic lights. Also, all of the equipment in health clubs also designed to charge batteries to light the place and they can sell any surplus to the local power companies…

Dead Girl,
What? Are you watching Campbell Brown too?? All those so-called journalists that hate the Clintons? I’ve forgotten their names on purpose. Conservatives aren’t my cup of tea because I disagree with them and FOX is silly sometimes but they DO report the ACTUAL news. I’m not going back!

@ #9
Dances says:
“Mary Anderson
Mary Anderson invented the windshield wiper. Anderson was issued a patent for the wipers in 1905.”

What? I just put a movie on netflix about the man who made the windshield wiper. Movie “Flash of Genius”–story of Robert Kearns…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_of_Genius_(film)

Mary Anderson:
“Mary Anderson (1866- 1953[1]) was a real-estate developer, rancher, viticulturist and inventor of the windshield wiper blade. Anderson was granted her first patent[2] for an automatic car window cleaning device controlled inside the car, called the windshield wiper in November 1903.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anderson_(inventor)

(I don’t know what’s going on, maybe some technical difference in invention.) Can’t be possible that a woman isn’t getting credit for this…nahhh.

(I don’t know what’s going on, maybe some technical difference in invention.) Can’t be possible that a woman isn’t getting credit for this…nahhh.
——————
heh. Sorta like bqueen’s puma youtube video being ripped off in its first week of distribution (term?) by some smarmy little twirp who took credit for it!!

I think I’m going to formalize our little gang (mine and bqueen’s) call ourselves the Visual Artists Gang (“VAG” short for …), either VAG or “The Stars” (my club in first grade).

192
mountainsong 01.02.09 at 8:02 pm

I had thought about getting involved with the ERA, but there are so many already it seem anything I could possible do would only be redundant.
*****************************

Mountainsong, I would really like it if you joined our ERA Now Team, the whole idea of the ERA not be ratified as of yet, is redundant. It should be a done deal already!
They want to pay homage to Alice Paul this year and it would be a great idea to make women aware that they are not protected under the constitution.
So, this is an open invitation to you and to any other Puma thinking about joining, the more input the better the creative ideas will flow…

Well, sh*t!! What address do I email my email addy to to sign up for those?

I am going to watch movie…want to see if Mary Anderson is talked about in it. hmm.

Ah, ma chanson du cœur ~~~ comment agréable il se sent pour vous voir de nouveau. Baisers et étreinte..

mountainsong 01.02.09 at 9:24 pm
Well, sh*t!! What address do I email my email addy to to sign up for those?
—————–
actioncenter@pumapac.org
After that you will receive an email from teh Team Lead along with your secret decoder ring.

kat in your hat 01.02.09 at 9:22 pm
@ #218
Is this a conspiracy…lol?? I am serious. jebus.
—————-
No. It’s the patriarchy. How esle do you think they stay in power, uh, in power-over?

It was Mary Anderson and Charlotte Bridgwood, not freakin’ Robert Kearns…?

1903 and 1917–the women made it first.

not 1964 Kearns crap. Big award winning movie on Kearns.

whatever, I need to see movie. Better show him looking up their old patents, etc.

TerryDo 01.02.09 at 9:21 pm Hi, hey~~~did you read Dance’s post? She suggested I do the Committee on Sexism in Media, and also as a sub-com with ERA. Which I’m happy to do.
But it’s a extremely daunting challenge. Everyone ( I think) like (loves) SEX!!! Changing attitudes about sex that allow for respect of women and still be a good thing isn’t gonna happen overnight.
Anyway, I’ll help however I can.

1964??????? I owned a 1949 Dodge (original paint, butterfly doors, fantastic upholstery… “hydromatic”…)
and IT had windshield wipers!!!

mountainsong
since the AlicePaul thing and ERA coincide, maybe it’s best to place energy there, and afterwards sway the tea to the “sexism” project?

I hear the sewing machine was invented by a women but a man applied for the patent because women weren’t allowed.

And you remember when the Seneca Falls convention was convened, they got a guy in the crowd, a husband of one of the activists, to speak at the podium and open the session, because they had never seen a woman do such a thing.

Mountainsong, sex and sexism aren’t the same thing. Owning your own sexuality and using for yourself is way different from having someone else use your sexuality as a commodity. Or denying your rights because of an accident of birth.

Nijma 01.02.09 at 9:47 pm You are right…sex and sexism aren’t the same thing. But , somehow the interdependency needs to be broken.
BTW, my body is a temple, a vessel for my soul. No one uses my sexuality as a commodity. And, since I was 19, no one has used my body as such an object, either. I either give it, or stay home.

#238

Oh, big crummy deal: Kearns made “intermittent” windshield wipers. (pfft) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kearns

*still* watching movie to see if original women inventors of windshield wipers are mentioned.