General Dunwoody, err, Ma'am?

I salute all these women! Woohoo!! I would join the military if I could.

Dunwoody becomes first female four-star general

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer Robert Burns, Ap Military Writer – Fri Nov 14, 5:53 pm ET

Dunwoody becomes first female four-star general Play Video AP – Dunwoody becomes first female four-star general

* First Female Four-Star General Slideshow: First Female Four-Star General
* Dunwoody becomes first female four-star general Play Video Video: Dunwoody becomes first female four-star general AP

Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody gives a thumbs up to recognize her father, retired Brig. AP – Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody gives a thumbs up to recognize her father, retired Brig. General Harold H. Dunwoody, …

WASHINGTON – Call it breaking the brass ceiling. Ann E. Dunwoody, after 33 years in the Army, ascended Friday to a peak never before reached by a woman in the U.S. military: four-star general. At an emotional promotion ceremony, Dunwoody looked back on her years in uniform and said it was a credit to the Army — and a great surprise to her — that she would make history in a male-dominated military.

"Thirty-three years after I took the oath as a second lieutenant, I have to tell you this is not exactly how I envisioned my life unfolding," she told a standing-room-only auditorium crowd. "Even as a young kid, all I ever wanted to do was teach physical education and raise a family.

"It was clear to me that my Army experience was just going to be a two-year detour en route to my fitness profession," she added. "So when asked, `Ann, did you ever think you were going to be a general officer, to say nothing about a four-star?' I say, `Not in my wildest dreams.'

"There is no one more surprised than I — except, of course, my husband. You know what they say, `Behind every successful woman there is an astonished man.' "

In an Associated Press interview after the ceremony, Gen. George Casey, the Army's chief of staff, said that if there is one thing that distinguishes Dunwoody it is her lifetime commitment to excelling in uniform.

"If you talk to leaders around the Army and say, `What do you think about Ann Dunwoody?' almost unanimously you get: `She's a soldier,'" Casey said, adding that he admires the fact that, "she's a soldier first."

Dunwoody, 55, hails from a family of military men dating back to the 1800s. Her father, 89-year-old Hal Dunwoody — a decorated veteran of World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam — was in the audience, along with the service chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, plus the Joint Chiefs chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen.

Dunwoody, whose husband, Craig Brotchie, served for 26 years in the Air Force, choked up at times during a speech in which she said she only recently realized how much her accomplishment means to others.

"This promotion has taken me back in time like no other event in my entire life," she said. "And I didn't appreciate the enormity of the events until tidal waves of cards, letters, and e-mails started coming my way.

"And I've heard from men and women, from every branch of service, from every region of our country, and every corner of the world. I've heard from moms and dads who see this promotion as a beacon of home for their own daughters and after affirmation that anything is possible through hard work and commitment.

"And I've heard from women veterans of all wars, many who just wanted to say congratulations; some who just wanted to say thanks; and still others who just wanted to say they were so happy this day had finally come."

In remarks opening Dunwoody's Pentagon ceremony, Defense Secretary Robert Gates underscored the tradition of military service in Dunwoody's family, spanning five generations, beginning with her great-grandfather, Brig. Gen. Henry Harrison Chase Dunwoody, who graduated from West Point in 1866 and was the chief signal officer in Cuba from 1898 to 1901.

"As she's been known to say, olive drab runs in her veins," Gates said.

Later Friday, at Fort Belvoir, Va. — her birthplace — Dunwoody was sworn in as commander of the Army Materiel Command, responsible for equipping, outfitting and arming all U.S. soldiers across the globe. Just five months ago, she became the first female deputy commander there.

Dunwoody was nominated by President George W. Bush in June for promotion to four-star rank, and she was confirmed by the Senate in July.

There are 21 female general officers in the Army — all but four at the one-star rank of brigadier. It was not until 1970 that the Army had its first one-star: Anna Mae Hays, chief of the Army Nurse Corps.

Women now make up about 14 percent of the active-duty Army and are allowed to serve in a wide variety of assignments. They are still excluded from units designed primarily to engage in direct combat, such as infantry and tank units, but their opportunities have expanded over the past two decades.

At a Pentagon news conference following her promotion ceremony, Dunwoody was asked whether she believed women should be allowed to serve in the infantry and whether women's role in the Army should otherwise be expanded.

"I don't have a personal view on it," she replied. "I think we have a law that precludes that (serving in the infantry) right now, and we are in compliance with that law. If that law needs to be revisited, I think we have a deliberate process to do that."

Dunwoody received her Army commission after graduating from the State University of New York in 1975.

Her first assignment was to Fort Sill, as supply platoon leader in June 1976, and she remained at Sill in various positions until she was sent to quartermaster officer school at Fort Lee, Va., in July 1980.

She later served in Germany and Saudi Arabia.

After graduating from the Command and General Staff College in 1987, she was assigned to Fort Bragg, N.C., where she became the 82nd Airborne Division's first female battalion commander.

She has numerous decorations, including the Distinguished Service Medal and Defense Superior Service Medal.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects year of great-grandfather's West Point graduation in 13th graf to 1866 sted 1966. AP Video.)

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Doggy luvz

I'm not feeling all too good yet. Still soggy brained, but bit better.
Here's some shitz to laugh over

CrossFit: The Fast, Furious Workout Craze
Can CrossFit whip you into shape in just 15 minutes a session—safely?
By Sally Wadyka for MSN Health & Fitness
Fitness for All // CrossFit (C) Ben Kerns

If your gym suddenly looks like a cross between a gymnastics studio and a Marine Corps boot camp, chances are it's offering CrossFit classes. This fitness craze that's swept the nation in recent years was developed by a former gymnast in Santa Cruz, California, named Greg Glassman. The grassroots movement started with Glassman's rudimentary Web site on which he posted a daily workout routine (officially known as the "workout of the day" or simply the "WOD"). A dedicated following of police officers, firefighters and military types soon discovered the workouts, and from there, the wave just kept growing. Now, CrossFitters (as devotees are called) number in the thousands, and gyms across the country are offering this intense workout program.

"The workouts include elements of Olympic weightlifting, gymnastics, and track and field done in combinations that increase core strength and conditioning," explains Jake Platt, owner of Northwest CrossFit in Seattle. There are about 50 basic exercises that are mixed and matched to create the "WOD," and every day is different. "Routine is the enemy," says Platt, an N.A.S.M. Certified Personal Trainer. "We want to keep your body guessing and make sure that no adaption is happening that will lead you to plateau and stop seeing progress."

That variety is one of the biggest selling points of the program. "I had been going to the gym for about six months, and I was just bored with it," says Roger Parks, a software engineer in Seattle who discovered CrossFit four months ago. He has now traded his hour of treadmill time for a high-intensity CrossFit session four to five days a week. "Now I crank through my workout in 20 minutes and then I'm done for the day," says Parks. He also supplements his workouts with biking and running, and has seen his flag football and soccer playing improve thanks to the strength and stamina he's gained doing CrossFit.

Efficiency, intensity—and safety concerns

CrossFit workouts are modeled on full-body functional movements—like lifting, pulling, twisting, running, crawling and pushing. And because every move is designed to incorporate the entire body, a full workout can be accomplished in an efficient 15- to 20-minute session. The other trademark of the sessions is their intensity. "We're looking to get people to move as quickly as they possibly can through the entire workout," says Platt.

Critics of the workouts (and even some CrossFitters themselves) worry about the high intensity of the moves. "You're doing things fast with a bunch a weight, and I can see how that could be dangerous if it's done wrong," admits Parks. To avoid any potential risk, Parks started slowly. At the CrossFit gym he attends, the "WOD" comes in two versions—the prescribed routine and a modified version of it. Trainer Jake Platt agrees that there could be potential for injury if the moves aren't done perfectly. "Safety is our number-one concern, so in the beginning we work on very basic exercises and make sure people are learning perfect form and movement," he says. That's especially important considering the weights that are used in the exercises (for example, a 20-pound "wall ball" for men and a 12-pound one for women, or a 75-pound Olympic bar for men and 50-pound one for women).

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Another road travelled

I'm still quite tired today, but much better than last night. Ah it's freezing!
Autumn is just around the corner.. it's hard to believe it's been a year since I went to China. Here's a blog with a picture of the funny clothes the Chinese have their babies wear: . Winter was just a week or two away from starting when I went there yesterday and there were these Chinese kids who were all bundled up and etc and their little buns were hanging out in the cold! :O

OMg. I'm going to die of cuteness.



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Ordinary day

I'm tired...
been driving a lot these past few days..finally back home.. zzz

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Surfing net alters the way brain works

Surfing net alters the way brain works
CANBERRA: The internet is not just changing the way people live but altering the way our brains work with a neuroscientist arguing that this is an
evolutionary change which will put the tech-savvy at the top of the new social order.

Gary Small, a neuroscientist at UCLA in California who specializes in brain function, has found through studies that Internet searching and text messaging has made brains more adept at filtering information and making snap decisions.

But while technology can accelerate learning and boost creativity it can have drawbacks as it can create internet addicts whose only friends are virtual and has sparked a dramatic rise in Attention Deficit Disorder diagnoses.

Small, however, argues that the people who will come out on top in the next generation will be those with a mixture of technological and social skills.

"We're seeing an evolutionary change. The people in the next generation who are really going to have the edge are the ones who master the technological skills and also face-to-face skills," Small said in a telephone interview.

"They will know when the best response to an email or instant message is to talk rather than sit and continue to email."

In his newly released fourth book 'iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind', Small looks at how technology has altered the way young minds develop, function and interpret information.

Small, the director of the Memory & Aging Research Center at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior and the Center on Aging at UCLA, said the brain was very sensitive to the changes in the environment such as those brought by technology.

He said a study of 24 adults as they used the web found that experienced internet users showed double the activity in areas of the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning as internet beginners.

"The brain is very specialized in its circuitry and if you repeat mental tasks over and over it will strengthen certain neural circuits and ignore others," said Small.

"We are changing the environment. The average young person now spends nine hours a day exposing their brain to technology. Evolution is an advancement from moment to moment and what we are seeing is technology affecting our evolution."

Small said this multi-tasking could cause problems.

He said the tech-savvy generation, whom he calls "digital natives", are always scanning for the next bit of new information which can create stress and even damage neural networks.

"There is also the big problem of neglecting human contact skills and losing the ability to read emotional expressions and body language," he said.

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Angie's Twins

Angelina: Twins' Personalities Are Starting to 'Shine'

By Sara Hammel

Originally posted Sunday November 09, 2008 07:00 PM EST
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's twins may be only four months old, but they're already characters of their own.

"They're great. They're still so little, but they do [have their own personalities]," Jolie told reporters at the DVD launch for Kung Fu Panda and the premiere of its companion adventure story, Secrets of the Furious Five in Hollywood on Sunday.

Knox and Vivienne are "starting to get very smiley," their proud mom said. "They're at that [stage] where their personality really starts to shine."

As for the rest of the brood, they share a love of their mom's work. "I think it's a great film, and it's brought a lot of joy to children – and to my children, absolutely," Jolie told PEOPLE at the event. "My kids love it. They're very very proud, they've got mom [Tigress] dolls."

While Jolie – looking slim in a long-sleeved black dress and beige pumps with spiked heels – didn't let on whether she'd be attending any of President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural balls in January, she did say she was happy with the election last Tuesday.

"I was pleased to see how excited so many people were," she told PEOPLE.

At the premiere, held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, furry Panda characters wandered around and danced while costars Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman chatted with fans and press. Jolie and the rest of the cast were on hand also as DreamWorks' Jeffrey Katzenberg presented a check for $1 million to the Conservation International in support of their efforts for the preservation of pandas in their natural habitat.

Jolie told PEOPLE shortly before the presentation, "We are so privileged in everything we get to do in this business, and the amount of money this film has made. To be able to share that and do some good always feels good."

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A rainy day

Boohoo. I don't feel too good. I've been drinking ginseng, gargling hot salt water and tea. I hate getting sick, and I'm not about to allow myself to get sick. I'm exhausted and I can hardly tell why!


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