We’ve all seen Jaws. We’ve seen how a day at the beach or a boat trip can turn from sunshine and laughter to horror in the blink of an eye. All it takes is to hear that haunting music and see the fin zig-zagging towards us. We know what lurks under the surface and what’s going to happen any… second… now. This father and son had presumably seen the same movie but decided to go out in their boat regardless. The water was a beautiful deep blue and was calm on the surface, but then they spotted something underwater - the thing that day trippers in boats and divers fear the most.
The adult films the great white shark on his cell phone as it circles their small vessel several times, all while his son sounds audibly nervous at the beast that is just feet away from him.
“This guy is not leaving us!” says dad with a note of disbelief in his voice, as the animal won’t swim away and leave them alone, as it keeps patrolling around their boat. Close-up shots of the shark highlight just how big it is. Although there is no way of knowing for sure, a conservative estimate is that it must be at least eight feet long.
The viewer never sees into the shark’s mouth, but we know from the special effects from the Jaws franchise that what’s in there won’t be a pretty sight. It will contain teeth as jagged as broken glass and which could cut through flesh and bone with the greatest of ease.
Thankfully, the shark decided not to attack the duo and neither was hurt. But this amazing film must rank as one of the closest encounters ever captured on film by two amateurs on a day trip.
Despite being a name recognized by few, Hedy Lamarr’s invention during WW2 deserves boundless appreciation and recognition. The actress and inventor’s work laid the foundations for some of the modern world’s most appreciated commodities such as WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth. In an era plagued by gender inequality and sexism, the natural beauty’s intellectual merits were often overlooked.
Born in Austria to an affluent family, she received constant attention as the only child. Her father, a successful banker, was hugely influential in nourishing the girl’s inventive genius. During their walks, the pair would discuss the intricacies of complex machinery such as the printing press and automobiles. Her artistic talents were the result of her mother, a concert pianist with a fondness for the arts.
On account of her attractiveness and outgoing personality, a young Lamarr was soon scouted as a potential actress and undertook acting lessons. Her on-screen career saw her star in popular feature films Samson and Delilah and White Cargo.
Despite it being unsuccessful, her marriage to Austrian munitions manufacturer Fritz Mandl gave her some insight into wartime arms and helped pave the way for her future creations. Meeting the second love interest of her life, businessman and pilot Howard Hughes further helped her hone her inventive spirit. Hughes gave her tours of the airplane manufacturing plants he owned which gave young Lamarr extensive insight into their workings.
In 1940, Lamarr met George Antheil, a fellow inventor who shared her creative disposition. With war almost inevitable as a result of increasingly brazen actions by Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy, much of their talk centered around the looming conflict. The pair eventually masterminded a pioneering new communication system. Their Secret Communication System broadcasted over 88 different channels rather than just one, making it almost impossible to decode without prior knowledge about which channels would be used.