The Army has appointed its first black female two-star general.

Wisconsin native Marcia Anderson was promoted after a military career that spans more than three decades.

And she says she hopes her achievement inspires young service members to become leaders.

Story on NPR

I recently put out the word to my friends for suggestions for this site, and my buddy nominated his wife Emily who wrote for SNL for almost 10 years… And for good reason, please check out her list of accomplishments below, she is on fire;

• Only the 2nd woman in the history of Saturday Night Live to be a Writing Supervisor/Co-Head Writer(2009/10).
• Only the 2nd woman in the history of SNL (after Tina Fey) to ever ‘run a table’, which means managing revisions on rewrite day.
• 1 of only a handful of high profile women comedy writers who did not attend an Ivy League School, but made it anyway. (The only non Ivy Leaguer on her own writing staff at her new show.)
• Sold her very first attempt at a Pilot through to series on NBC. (Even if it crashes and burns, that’s pretty much unheard of.)

Emily is a comedy writer of the highest order, she obviously rules.

That new show on NBC he was talking about?.. That’s out now, it’s called Up All Night, starring Christina Applegate, Will Arnett, and Maya Rudolph.

I was one of the almost 11 million people to watch the teaser and love it, and I want everyone to watch it every week, okay?.. good

Variety
NBC
IMDB
Wikipedia

Limor Fried is Ladyada of Adafruit Industries.

Limor is a force in the Maker community, she started Adafruit a few years ago and it has grown tremendously. She gets all sorts of press because she is smart, entrepreneurial, and she is blazing new ground for girls everywhere.

She is the driving force behind the Open Kinect project, has been on the cover of Wired Magazine, and has also been called The Most Influential Woman In Technology 2011 from FastCompany

Wikipedia
Ladyada.netWired article from 03/11
Wired article from 08/11
Adafruit Industries

You have to checkout Super Awesome Silvia’s Mini Maker Show, she makes all sorts of cool stuff like model rockets, sidewalk chalk, Arduino electronics, LED toys, and much more.

Super Sylvia IS SUPER AWESOME!

Visit Super Awesome Silvia’s Channel on YouTube and check out the different episodes on the right side. She also has a page here , where there’s even more stuff.

Episode 1 – Drawdio
Episode 4 – Molding & Casting for Toy Duplication
Episode 7 – Build the MiniPOV

If you don’t know what a Maker is, visit Make Online and school thy self. If you dig it, you should subscribe to Make Magazine and start Making some stuff!

Kathleen Annie Pannonica de Koenigswarter was her full name, but Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey & Charlie Parker just called her ‘Nica’. She was the The Jazz Baroness, she supported jazz musicians when nobody else would. In fact Charlie Parker died in her mansion. Those jazz musicians are considered american legends now, and if they didn’t have Nica to help them, they might not have ever been so noticed.

NPR piece (6 min audio)
WNYC piece (25 min audio)
Thelonious Monk – Pannonica
Wikpedia

Emily Bear is a young pianist (born 2001), at 2 years old her grandmother (herself a concert pianist) recognized her talent and has been nurturing it.

She is also an award winning composer, with over 120 works to her credit. She has made multiple appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, played at the White House for President Bush, and played a complete Mozart concerto from memory with the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra.

News story
YouTube
Wikipedia

Margaret Dunning is 101 years old, and she still loves to drive her 1930 Packard roadster. Not only that, she changes the oil and spark plugs herself!

Oh, and she says that Henry Ford was a family friend who used to stop in and have dinner. Which is just kind of jaw-dropping.

NY Times (with video)
MSNBC

Aloha Wanderwell traveled the world from 1922-1930, she was the worlds most widely traveled woman of her day.

"She carried on various travels following her husband’s death that included learning to fly a float plane and participating in a search for the lost Percy Fawcett Expedition in Brazil. During her lifetime expeditions, Aloha Wanderwell was held captive by the Chinese, lived with the natives in Borneo, and camped beside the Sphinx in Egypt."

Aloha Wanderwell
Blog post on Just A Car Guy

That is not a photochop job, that is Ernestine Shepherd!

She started working out when she 60 (!), she runs 80 miles a week, bench-presses 150 pounds, does bicep curls with 20-pound dumbbells, and eats 1,700 calories a day of mostly vegetables and lean protein.

If this isn’t inspiration to stay fit, I don’t know what is.

ABC News
YouTube video