Vox Meditantis

Women In STEM

Evelyn Berezin: How a Physics Student Became Computing’s Invisible Architect

Published by

Bob Lynn

on

14/12/2025

| Reading time:

62–93 minutes

Evelyn Berezin designed the first computerised airline reservation system and invented the word processor – then vanished from history. In this rare conversation, the 93-year-old engineer reflects on building invisible infrastructure, founding a tech company as a woman in 1969, and why her most important work became too commonplace to…
Continue reading →: Evelyn Berezin: How a Physics Student Became Computing’s Invisible Architect
Daily Prompt

Reading the Wind

Published by

Bob Lynn

on

14/12/2025

| Reading time:

6–9 minutes

Eleven days clean. The steam opens the throat, the wind tells its stories, and they still come asking about peace. I’m not here to promise you the future – just to keep breathing when the air burns.
Continue reading →: Reading the Wind
Poetry

Warnings We Ignore

Published by

Bob Lynn

on

14/12/2025

| Reading time:

1–2 minutes

They told me time was quicksand. I nodded politely, invincible at eighteen. Now I count Sundays like currency, understanding too late: some truths can only be learnt through their loss.
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Women In STEM

Frances Elizabeth Allen: The Woman Who Made Code Run Fast – And Was Forgotten Because It Worked

Published by

Bob Lynn

on

13/12/2025

| Reading time:

70–105 minutes

Frances Allen sits down to discuss how compiler optimisation became computing’s invisible foundation. From farm girl to Turing Award winner, she reveals why the most profound technical achievements are those nobody thinks about – and what it costs to build infrastructure the world depends on.
Continue reading →: Frances Elizabeth Allen: The Woman Who Made Code Run Fast – And Was Forgotten Because It Worked
Daily Prompt

The Letter Beneath the Stone

Published by

Bob Lynn

on

13/12/2025

| Reading time:

18–27 minutes

They call me mad for keeping what others cast aside. But when a dying woman pressed a sealed letter into my hands, I learnt the difference between hoarding rubbish and guarding secrets that could destroy lives.
Continue reading →: The Letter Beneath the Stone
Poetry

Strange Counsel

Published by

Bob Lynn

on

13/12/2025

| Reading time:

1–2 minutes

Sometimes the strangest wisdom comes from weathered hands and midnight gardens. What if failure isn’t something to forget, but to bury deliberately – three inches deep – and let the empty spaces teach you how to breathe again?
Continue reading →: Strange Counsel
New Corinth

Publishing What Cannot Be Unsaid

Published by

Bob Lynn

on

12/12/2025

| Reading time:

10–15 minutes

For three decades, Catherine has held the frame whilst others tell their stories. Now Maggie’s recorder is running, and the questions are hers to answer. In the Historical Society’s archive room, the psychiatrist trades her professional cover for something riskier: presence without supervision.
Continue reading →: Publishing What Cannot Be Unsaid
Women In STEM

Ada Lovelace: The Woman Who Saw the Future of Computing a Century Early

Published by

Bob Lynn

on

12/12/2025

| Reading time:

104–156 minutes

A visionary mathematician meets her future. In 1843, Ada Lovelace encoded the first algorithm for a machine that didn’t exist. Now, across two centuries, she reflects on how her insights into logic and symbol-manipulation anticipated artificial intelligence, software engineering, and the questions that define computing today.
Continue reading →: Ada Lovelace: The Woman Who Saw the Future of Computing a Century Early
Daily Prompt

The Craftsman’s Last Performance

Published by

Bob Lynn

on

12/12/2025

| Reading time:

5–7 minutes

They call this justice – I call it theatre. The bell tolls, the galleries watch, and I stand upon my final stage. Ask me if I have performed before! But I shall tell you nothing of my art, nothing of my craft. Only this: perfection has its price.
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Poetry

The Over-Apologiser

Published by

Bob Lynn

on

12/12/2025

| Reading time:

1–2 minutes

I apologise to lamp posts and closed doors, to rain and strangers who bump into me. Some mistakes are load-bearing walls – remove them and the whole architecture of who you are comes tumbling down. I am repeatedly, persistently, unapologetically sorry.
Continue reading →: The Over-Apologiser