The US Navy announced on July 2 that paid maternity leave for women in the Navy and Marine Corps will be tripled to 18 weeks. The policy, effective immediately, also retroactively applies to women who have given birth since January 1, 2015.
The change may come as part of a larger strategy to recruit more women to the Navy. In the press release, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus stated, “We have incredibly talented women who want to serve, and they also want to be mothers and have the time to fulfill that important role the right way. We can do that for them.”
“Meaningful maternity leave when it matters most is one of the best ways that we can support the women who serve our county.”
Women now make up 17% of Navy forces, with more than 59,000 women currently serving in active duty and 9,000 in reserves. For the men who make up the remaining 83%, however, paid paternity leave will remain at 10 days—a policy that has been unchanged since 2008.
Ok, so we posted a video of an Arduino rotating in front of an American flag with the public domain “America the Beautiful” by United States Navy Band as the music. We immediately received this from YouTube.
So we disputed the claim with the source text from archive.org to see if it’s true and we also emailed Rumblefish directly (and we emailed navyband.public.affairs@navy.mil who is listed as a contact on the navy.mil page for this song.
America the beautiful / Samuel Ward [sound recording], Title: America the beautiful [sound recording] instrumental and vocal, Composer: Ward, Samuel. Arranger(s) Dragon, Carmen. Performing Ensemble: United States Navy Band. Lyricist: Bates, Katharine Lee. Publisher(s): Department of Defense. Form: sound recording.
Note(s): Taken from CD entitled: “Remembering the Navy Hour.” Featuring the Navy Band and Sea Chanters. Recorded by Sheffield Recording, Ltd., Inc. at the George Mason University Center for the Arts Concert Hall.
Credit: Performing Arts Encyclopedia, Library of Congress.
This Composition is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. This applies to the United States, where Works published prior to 1978 were copyright protected for a maximum of 75 years. See Circular 1 “COPYRIGHT BASICS” from the U.S. Copyright Office. Works published before 1923 are now in the public domain.
This composition is also in the public domain in countries that figure copyright from the date of death of the artist (post mortem auctoris) in this case Katharine Lee Bates (words), (August 12, 1859 â March 28, 1929), Samuel Augustus Ward (tune) (28 December 1847 â 28 September 1903), and that most commonly runs for a period of 50 to 70 years from December 31 of that date.
This media file is a work of a U.S. Department of Defense employee, made during the course of the person’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the media file is in the public domain.
Generally speaking, works created by U.S. Government employees are not eligible for copyright protection in the United States. See Circular 1 “COPYRIGHT BASICS” from the U.S. Copyright Office.
Update: 2:24pm 7/3/2015 , YouTube just sent us this email: [Copyright claim] Claim released:
Hi Adafruit Industries,
Good news! Your dispute wasn’t reviewed within 30 days, so the copyright claim on your YouTube video has now been released.
Video title: “Independence Day – Arduino + Adafruit ! (vocals)”
– The YouTube Team
But that’s not true, we disputed it about 3 hours ago, not 30 days ago. We still have not heard back from RumbleFish or the Navy, if we do, we’ll update the post here.
Update 2: 4:07pm 7/3/2015, RumbleFish posted a comment on this post.
YouTube’s Content ID system automatically makes claims on videos when the audio matches a recording we represent. In this case, we work with a label who promotes this music outside of the U.S. Once it was confirmed that this was a legal, patriotic, celebratory U.S. usage, the claim was immediately released. At no point was the video taken down, and neither Rumblefish nor its provider labels collect money from public domain songs here in the States.
Perfect timing to note that America IS beautiful and we wish everyone a happy Independence weekend.
Sincerely, Rumblefish
Are they saying someone outside the USA owns “America the Beautiful” by United States Navy Band? We asked via email and via Twitter and of course they’re not replying, we’ll keep asking. Happy 4th.
After a number of failed attempts to get supplies up to the International Space Station, a Russian Soyuz rocket successfully carried a Progress supply vessel into orbit just after midnight US Eastern time. The Progress vessel was loaded with 2,750kg of food, fuel, and other supplies, which will eliminate any concerns about the ISS' habitability past October.
Shortly after launch, the Progress module reached orbit and successfully deployed its solar panels. For the next two days, it will orbit Earth until its speed relative to the ISS brings it into close proximity. NASA will show Sunday's docking live on NASA TV for anyone who happens to be awake at 3:30am Eastern time.
Citing the growing popularity of e-cigarettes, the Food and Drug Administration is considering adding warning labels on liquid nicotine used in so-called electronic "vaping" devices and is also mulling a requirement for the liquid to be sold in child-resistant packaging.
"The continuing rise in popularity of electronic nicotine devices (ENDS), such as e-cigarettes, which often use liquid nicotine and nicotine-containing e-liquids, has coincided with an increase in calls to poison control centers and visits to emergency rooms related to liquid nicotine poisoning and other nicotine exposure risks," the agency announced Tuesday.
The agency published its formal proposal in the Federal Register on Wednesday and provided the public 60 days to comment.
Raspberry Pi Plantbot robot greenhouse Vine. via Rachel Rayns
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!
Eric Escobar has a very neat Pi-powered solution to the problem of night-time chicken imprisonment, which is safer than some others we’ve seen, which use linear actuators. This door’s lowered using gravity, so there will be no very, very, very slow and eventually deadly crushing of any chickens or small children with Eric’s setup. The door is programmed to be lowered at a certain time of day, once it’s dark enough for all the chickens to have moved indoors.
Nothing says “There’s something valuable here!” than the sight of a lock. But what if the lock was invisible and the unlocking key could be transmitted through solid matter? No one would even know there was a lock, much less how to pick it.
That’s what the Secret Knock Activated Drawer Lock does. It hides all of the lock mechanism away and can only be unlocked by something you know: a secret pattern of knocks.
A solenoid locks secures the drawer while a piezo buzzer listens for knocks. A Trinket compares the knock pattern to the stored secret knock and if they match the solenoid latch retracts and the drawer can be opened. Setting your own custom knock is as simple as holding down a button and tapping the new rhythm.
The project is relatively straight forward and you should be able to complete it in an afternoon.
Bubba Watson is ensuring he's not stuck on the wrong side of history. The owner of the original "General Lee" from The Dukes of Hazzard is going to modify the car.
All men ARE created equal, I believe that so I will be painting the American flag over the roof of the General Lee #USA
Watson purchased the 1969 Dodge Charger in 2012, where he paid $110,000 for "LEE1." The production of toy replicas was stopped because of the flag on the roof.
★★★
SB Nation presents:The USWNT is gonna kick Japan's ass
Hammon will become the first woman to be head coach of a summer league team.
Becky Hammon will coach the Spurs' Las Vegas summer league team, according to Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News. Hammon will become the first woman to serve as a head coach of a summer league team.
Hammon joined the Spurs in the 2014-15 season as an assistant coach, becoming the first full-time female assistant in the history of the league. Now she will make history by being the head coach of the Spurs' summer league team, a year after Natalie Nakase served as assistant coach for the Clippers' summer league entry.
Hammon is one of four assistant coaches on San Antonio's bench, along with Ettore Messina, James Borrego and Ime Udoka. Messina is an accomplished coach that recently joined the Spurs after an illustrious career in Europe, while Borrego was hired this season after coaching with the Orlando Magic last season. The Spurs like giving their least experienced assistants a chance to cut their teeth in summer league. Udoka coached in Vegas last season, so it's not surprising Hammon is getting a shot this year. Video coordinator Will Hardy will coach the Spurs' Utah summer league team.
The move further proves that the Spurs hired Hammon solely because of her basketball acumen and knowledge, and not in any way as a publicity stunt. We might still be a few years away from the first female NBA head coach but Hammon is blazing the trail with the full support of the progressive Spurs organization.
Serena Williams was on the ropes at Wimbledon before avoiding a shocking third-round upset at the hands of Heather Watson. Serena got a not-so-warm reaction when she became frustrated late in the game.
Watson is from Britain, so naturally the crowd was behind her. But this is when you learn that in England, don't tread on the Queen.
When you're as talented as Stephen Curry, you gotta keep challenging yourself, right?
So it's especially great to see when he's not chilling and riding a pony, Curry is spending his offseason working on his 3-pointers. Or perhaps he's simply having a hell of a time on a PhunkeeDuck (it's a new type of scooter).
Maaay get called for a slight travel, though. Just be careful not to do an Adrian Peterson!
In an interview with Essence Magazine today, Selma director Ava DuVernay noted that she decided to pass on directing Marvel’s Black Panther adaptation. The movie, which will star Chadwick Boseman (42) as the titular character, is set to be released on July 6, 2018.
For a long time, we’ve heard about that time that Nicholas Cage was tapped to play Superman in Superman Lives back in the 1990s. Meredith Woerner, formerly of io9 and now writing for the LA Times, has some footage of what Cage looked like in costume. Watch here.
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!
Super Opinionated.
