‘Top Secret Rosies’ documentary tells story of women computers in WWII

Doris Blumberg Polsky used to be a computer.

She was 18 years old and graduating with her twin sister Shirley from Girls’ High in May 1942. They were both bright and studious and looking for a next step, so naturally their principal suggested they join a secret ballistics research lab then forming at the University of Pennsylvania.

Called ‘human computers,’ the hundreds of women across the country who were tasked with complex ballistics mathematics — at ages as early as 18 — are part of another of the often forgotten stories of women affecting the World War II outcome for the United States. In this case, with math and science and technology in West Philadelphia.

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Google Earth application maps U.S. military deaths, 16 lost from Philadelphia

Nick Zangara was 21-years-old in 2004 when a makeshift bomb exploded near his convoy in Tikrit, 90 miles northwest of Baghdad and a universe from his home in Northeast Philadelphia.

The George Washington High School graduate is one of at least 16 people from Philadelphia who have been killed in Middle Eastern military conflicts this decade, according to a new Google Earth layer called “Map the Fallen.”

“This Memorial Day I would like to share with you a personal project of mine that uses Google Earth to honor the more than 5,700 American and Coalition servicemen and women that have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan,” writes Sean Askay, the layer’s creator. “I have created a map for Google Earth that will connect you with each of their stories, you can see photos, learn about how they died, visit memorial Web sites with comments from friends and families, and explore the places they called home and where they died.”

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Friday Tech Links: Peirce College head is offline, some columnist writes about Facebook again and More

Updated 5/15/09, 9:14 a.m.: Corrected copy errors.

In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun. See others here.

• The Inquirer reports on the retirement of Arthur Lendo, noted for taking tiny Rittenhouse-based Pierce Peirce College from regional “Oh, I didn’t even realize that was real college” to “if I heard of them it was because of their online education program.” Don’t give him too much credit, though. A Google search of “Pierce College” yields a California school first. ..Bah.

We get some Navy IT, the Flyers soar and three other tech stories you should read  including our most trafficked post of the week.

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Lockheed Martin engineers get a chance to play on Space Day

There’s something about Lockheed Martin’s Space Day plans that reminds us of the 1983 geekcult classic WarGames.

Maryland-based Lockheed Martin, which has offices throughout the region, including Cherry Hill, and is usually embroiled in our ongoing coverage of scary regional military tech innovation (yes, we’re considering a regular category), is doing something for the kids.

The company plans to ooh-and-ahh middle-schoolers by showing off human-computer interaction concepts with Nintendo Wii remotes, according to a press release.

The demonstrations will take place on May 1 at Lockheed’s Advanced Technology Laboratories locations in New Jersey and Virginia in celebration of the company’s international Space Day, its effort to scout K-12 geeks globally.

“Shall we play a game?”

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Lockheed Martin launches rocket, trains foreigners

Two regional subsidiaries of Lockheed Martin, Bethesda, Maryland’s friendly neighborhood military logistics multinational corporation, got good news this week.

Yes, it’s another round of scary regional military tech innovation.

Their Newton-based space systems arm was part of the design and construction of a new global-positioning satellite that was rocket-launched into space on Tuesday, according to a company press release.

That came a day after the company’s maritime systems and sensors firm won a $10.7 million contract from the U.S. Navy, according to another presser.

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Unisys, the other scary military agency working around Philly, nabs $7.1 million army contract

Blue-Bell-based information technology company Unisys has won a task order to provide IT support and services to the U.S. Army Logistics Innovation Agency, a military organization that focuses on improving military logistics readiness.

Yeah, Canada is screwed.

The order has a one-year base value of $2.3 million, followed by two one-year options for a total estimated value of $7.1 million. It is a follow-up to a contract Unisys has held since 1999, according to a company press release.

Unisys will handle unclassified networks, which may or may not include e-mail invitations to tea parties, in addition to classified networks, which may or may not include e-mail invitations to secret tea parties.

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