Problem: Grace Brewster Murray Hopper (nee Murray; December 9, 1906 - January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral. One of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, she was a pioneer of computer programming who invented one of the first compiler related tools. She popularized the idea of machine-independent programming languages, which led to the development of COBOL, an early high-level programming language still in use today. Hopper had attempted to enlist in the Navy during World War II, but she was rejected by the military because she was 34 years of age and thus too old to enlist.

Throughout much of her later career, Hopper was much in demand as a speaker at various computer-related events. She was well known for her lively and irreverent speaking style, as well as a rich treasury of early war stories. She also received the nickname "Grandma COBOL".  While she was working on a Mark II Computer at a US Navy research lab in Dahlgren, Virginia in 1947, her associates discovered a moth that was stuck in a relay; the moth impeded the operation of the relay. While neither Hopper nor her crew mentioned the phrase "debugging" in their logs, the case was held as an instance of literal "debugging." For many years, the term bug had been in use in engineering. The remains of the moth can be found in the group's log book at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.  Grace Hopper is famous for her nanoseconds visual aid. People (such as generals and admirals) used to ask her why satellite communication took so long. She started handing out pieces of wire that were just under one foot long (11.80 inches = 300 millimeters)--the distance that light travels in one nanosecond. She gave these pieces of wire the metonym "nanoseconds." She was careful to tell her audience that the length of her nanoseconds was actually the maximum speed the signals would travel in a vacuum, and that signals would travel more slowly through the actual wires that were her teaching aids. Later she used the same pieces of wire to illustrate why computers had to be small to be fast. At many of her talks and visits, she handed out "nanoseconds" to everyone in the audience, contrasting them with a coil of wire 984 feet long, representing a microsecond. Later, while giving these lectures while working for DEC, she passed out packets of pepper, calling the individual grains of ground pepper picoseconds.  Jay Elliot described Grace Hopper as appearing to be "'all Navy', but when you reach inside, you find a 'Pirate' dying to be released".

What was she trying to convey to people?

Answer with quotes: Later she used the same pieces of wire to illustrate why computers had to be small to be fast.


Problem: Dr. Victor Von Doom (commonly known as Doctor Doom, or simply Doom) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The son of a Romani witch, Von Doom has been depicted as a supervillain, the archenemy of the Fantastic Four, and the leader of the fictional nation called Latveria. While his chief opponents have been the Fantastic Four, he has also come into conflict with Spider-Man, Iron Man, Black Panther, and multiple others. Von Doom has also been depicted as a superhero, being the third character to take up the mantle of Iron Man and joining the Avengers.

Rapper MF DOOM bases his persona on Victor von Doom.  In the book Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre, Peter Coogan writes that Doom's original appearance was representative of a change in the portrayal of "mad scientists" to full-fledged villains, often with upgraded powers. These supervillains are genre-crossing villains who exist in adventures "in a world in which the ordinary laws of nature are slightly suspended"; characters such as Professor Moriarty, Count Dracula, Auric Goldfinger, Hannibal Lecter, Joker, Lex Luthor, and Darth Vader, also fit this description. Sanderson also found traces of William Shakespeare's characters Richard III and Iago in Doom; all of them "are descended from the 'vice' figure of medieval drama", who address the audience in monologues detailing their thoughts and ambitions.  Described as "iconic", Doom is one of the most well-received characters of the Marvel Universe, as well as one of the most recurring; in his constant battles with other heroes and other villains, Doctor Doom has appeared more times than any other character. The comics site Panels of Awesome ranked Doctor Doom as the number one villain in their listing of the top ten villains in comics; Wizard Magazine went a step further by declaring Doctor Doom the fourth greatest villain of all time.  Comic Book Resources ranks Victor von Doom as their fourth favorite Marvel character. Journalist Brent Ecenbarger cited him being able to "stand up against entities like Mephisto, the Beyonder, and Galactus and often comes out on top", as well as the tragedy of any "other number of circumstances could have led to Doctor Doom being a savior, but as it is, instead he remains Marvel's greatest villain.", a fact that later led to the character's redemption. Fellow journalist Jason Stanhope called his "master[ing] of sorcery and technology an unusual combination", and also felt "his inner sense of nobility sets him apart from lesser villains, in a similar manner to Magneto." Von Doom has also been favorably regarded by those who wrote for the character; Stan Lee declared Doom his favorite villain, saying that Doom "could come to the United States and he could do almost anything, and we could not arrest him because he has diplomatic immunity. Also, he wants to rule the world and if you think about it, wanting to rule the world is not a crime.", that Doom technically isn't a villain. Mark Waid echoed Lee's assessment of the character, stating that Doom "[has] got a great look, a great visual design [and] a dynamite origin."  A ride called Doctor Doom's Fearfall is located at Islands of Adventure in the Universal Orlando Resort.

What did others say or think about him?

Answer with quotes:
Wizard Magazine went a step further by declaring Doctor Doom the fourth greatest villain of all time.