******  Our TV has been broadcasting daily a 13 part documentary series on 13 extraordinary women. But almost as interesting were the times and places they lived in and the struggles of these outstanding women.
******  I find that documentaries especially with a historicl background are all that's worth while watching on TV these days

****** All were particularly active during the 20th century and since I lived through all but the first quarter they were fascinating. Some of them were actually born in the last years of the 18-hundreds.
******  I knew of ALL of these women, to some extent - but not in detail. e.g. I was 11 years old when the whole episode of Wallace Simpson (and King Edward )took place and of course heard about it all - but I knew little about her earlier background.
******  ALL the women were fascinating in themselves - but just as gripping were the historical details of the times & places they lived in - and the struggles they had to overcome and the prejudice & discrimination.
******  We have so far only sen 6 out of the 13 and don't even know the names of most of those remaining.  The documentaries are fairly recent having been made in 2010 & 2011.

Two more extraordinary women:-
******  Their backgrounds could hardly be more different - Coco Chanel was born in France as poor as the proverbial church mouse whereas Grace Kelly was born in USA with the idiomatic silver spoon in her mouth.
******  Chanel went on to be one of the richest women in the worold.
But herBRILLIANT & outstanding 'legacy' has been tainted by her rabid anti-semitism and Nazi collaboration (and spy) during WW-II.
******  Grace was considered to be one of the most beatiful women in the world and became the Princess of Monaco.
But despite that, she did not have a very happy life and got killed at a relatively young age in a car accident !

******   "EXTRAORDINARY" REALLY means just that. Neither  fabulous nor fantastic - simply 'NOT ORDINARY"" Not necessarily particularly wonderful but not especially mediocre.
******  The next lady who came was the extremely beautiful Austrian actress & film star Hedy Lamarr (Changed from her more Jewish name of Keisler).  She left Vienna, Berlin, Paris & London for the USA in 1937/38 and hence escaped the holocaust which was to follow.
******  She became a well known movie star & sex symbol and raised a very great deal of cash for American War Bonds during WW-II.
******  So far nothing particularly extraordinary.
Except maybe that she married & divorced *SIX* times - somewhat more than the 'regular' number for virtually ALL movie stars!
N.B.  IMHO it seems to me that each time she fell in love and married it was to somebody with either plenty of wealth or influence - or both !
******  Still nothing terrifically exceptional !!
******  But then there *WAS* something quite extraordinary about this woman !
She had a VERY sharp brain and invented something which could have had a profound positive effect during WW-II and is the corner stone of mass communication including Wi-Fi and mobile phones today and in fact the whole of the revolution of information technowllogy today - in a way she was the mother of today's information technowlogy *   

******    I only know the very rough details concerning Hedy Lamarr's invention.
  If anybody has further or more accurate details, I would enjoy reading them.
The following is all I know (quite a lot gleaned from Google) !
******    First and foremost the immensely important and far reaching invention was not hers alone. I do not know how much was HER brainchild and how much was that of a neighbour, an avant garde composer named George Antheil  who experimented with automatic control of his musical instruments.  The original patent was taken out jointly in both their names !
******    The basic invention in 1941 was to devise a frequency-hopping-spread-spectrum method very early in WW-II as a secret communication system.
******    One of the most debilitating aspects for the Allies in the second world war was the enormous amount of sinking by German U-Boats of cargoes AND MEN in the Atlantic en route to Britain.  USA shipping aid over the Atlantic to Britain had even Churchill very seriously worried !
******    Radio controlled messages and torpedoes could be intercepted &/or jammed by the Nazis.
The fundamentally simple invention was to use a pair of IDENTICAL IBM-type punch cards one on the transmitter and the SYNCHRONIZED other card on the receiver.  The identical cards controlled a rapid RANDOM change of frequencies of the radio transmission and reception. 
If the enemy was quick or lucky enough to lock-on to any transmitted frequency, after a second or so the frequency was completely and randomly altered.  Due to this the transmission could not be intercepted and utilized in any way !
******    This radio guided system for USA torpedoes was submitted to the American Navy in 1942 fairly early in WW-2 ***AND REJECTED*** !!
******    IMHO, it seems to me in retrospect that someone goofed very badly then, since had it been accepted it MIGHT have saved lives of countless sailors and tons of vital war supplies.  

I am not sure why we have a topic that is posts from just one person about something that has nothing to do with games. Women are interesting we all know that but this seems like a long stretch to put on a game site.

Originally Posted By CrisGer (5 APR 2012 1:28am)

I am not sure why we have a topic that is posts from just one person about something that has nothing to do with games. Women are interesting we all know that but this seems like a long stretch to put on a game site.

A pity you're "not sure" !

Hard l;uck - that's life mate !!