The weather is warmer and with it a lightness of spirit.
Today, in the email, I received links to two stories the senders knew I’d be interested in. The first was to the story about Frances Allen being the first woman to win the prestigious Turing Award:
Allen spent her entire career at IBM, winning several of the company’s top awards. In 1968, she won an corporate award for her research. The prize: a pair of cufflinks and a tie clip.
“No woman had ever won that award before,” Allen said Tuesday, chuckling, from her home in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.
Two decades later, when she was named the first female IBM Fellow, her award certificate recognized the recipient for “his accomplishments.”
“These anecdotes are funny, but they do represent having to break through a lot of walls that still exist today,” Allen said. “I believe we’re moving into a whole new era for women in our field.”
We can hope so. Of course, this story didn’t rate a ripple on techmeme and the other online tech rags. Regardless of the field and it’s lack of women, or appreciation of women, Ms. Allen deserved this award and all the recognition she’s gotten through the years.
The second story was, of course, about the big squid caught today!
This is a really exciting story for cephalopodophiles everywhere. This baby weighed in at 990 pounds, and 33 feet long! Think of it: long as a three story building. And what a wonderfully beautiful, massive body.
This is the colossal squid, not my favorite architheuthis dux or giant squid. The colossal is a relatively new discovery (1925), lives only in the waters off the Antarctic and points south, and is heavier, possibly longer, and seemingly more aggressive than the giant.
The story about Ms. Allen is more important to me as a woman in technology, but gosh, I jumped up and down when I read about the squid.
Two stories that delighted me–and not even my family would have thought to call and let me know about them. No, that’s a mark–a good mark–of this odd little online world.
Thanks so very much to Allan, Alan, and Michael. You made my day.