firehose

The kids born during the Obama era won't remember Obama as a hopeful visionary or change agent. They'll see our first black president for what he truly is — a ruthless, calculating winner.

One of our longstanding goals has been for Raspberry Pi to ship with a complete set of common programming languages. Until now, there’s been one glaring omission from this list: Java, which by some estimates is the most popular language of all (duck and cover – flamewar incoming).

It’s therefore fantastic to be able to announce that we’ve added the official hard-float Oracle Java 7 JDK to our repository. Oracle Java offers significant performance advantages over OpenJDK on ARM platforms, and will expand the range of Java applications that run well on the Pi.

All future Raspbian images will ship with Oracle Java by default; existing users can install it by typing:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-jdk

We’d like to thank our friends at Oracle for their hard work in making this possible.

“Is your cat the next Leonardo Da Kitty or Vincent Cat Gogh?”

Kittycasso is a non-toxic painting kit for cats which comes with five colors of paint, paper, paw protectors, a picture frame and a surprise gift for your kitty. The copy reads, “It’s fun, creative, stimulating and a hit at pet parties.” To note: squirrels don’t need a kit, as evidenced by the work of painting squirrel Winkelhimer Smith.

via bookofjoe

Not even a specific allegation of philandering, illicit pregnancy and coverup barred Grover Cleveland from the White House.

One of the season's labor conflagrations has been extinguished.

In a late-night bargaining session ending this morning, a union representing nearly 4,500 employees at Oregon's public universities worked out a deal with administrators, it announced today, averting the possibility of a strike next week.

The Service Employees International Union Local 503 says the Oregon University System (OUS) met its demands part way—largely reinstating worker's yearly step raises and agreeing to cost-of-living increases of 1.5 and 2 percent over the two-year life of the contract. The union had been pushing for 2.5 percent increases.

"We moved everybody forward," said Marc Nisenfeld, a Portland State University development engineer who chairs the union's bargaining team. He had not been to bed since reaching the agreement at around 2:30 am.

The union had threatened to begin a strike on Monday—the first day of fall courses—if the contract wasn't hammered out. That won't happen, but it's likely similar impasses will mark contract negotiations well into the future. This year marked the second consecutive round of negotiations where the SEIU threatened to strike.

One big reason: The state's seven public universities have seen stark disinvestment in recent decades, meaning workers' expectations that they receive annual pay bumps are harder to satisfy. The portion of the state's general fund being kicked to public higher education reached a record low in the 2011-2013 budget. At the same time, the system's serving more students than ever. Enrollment has swelled by around 30,000 per year since 2000, and many of the costs have been passed on in the form of tuition.

The SEIU has long pointed to the salaries of university presidents and other administrators as fat to trim. Presidents pull in anywhere from $195,000 to more than $440,000 in taxpayer dollars each year, with some getting additional money from private university foundations. At the same time, some SEIU members qualify for food stamps. As I've pointed out, the OUS even expressed concerns during this year's negotiations about a union-proposed "wage floor" saying it "may result in loss of other valuable assistance, such as food stamp eligibility, or housing and child care subsidies."

By the way, if you're the type who likes the spectacle of union/employer acrimony, don't fret! Contentious contract negotiations at Portland Public Schools, Trimet, and the Portland Police Bureau are ongoing.

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Exactly 50 years ago, television history was being made — the BBC managed to create an alien time machine inside the cramped confines of Lime Grove studio, for Doctor Who. And now, you can see the floor plans of that challenging set, thanks to director Waris Hussein.

Read more...

WEST CHESTER, PA—Watching him pour over case files Monday morning from his office at Chester County Courthouse, you’d never know that Sam Morris, known affectionately as Sammy by his coworkers and former handlers, has only spent five weeks as ...

I know there are plenty of ladies out there who've gone on exhaustive searches for the perfect 10th Doctor coat for them, whether for a costume or just because long coats are cool, if you'll pardon the phrase. Now, ThinkGeek (of course) has one that's got official approval from the BBC. Start saving your pennies.

A group wants a statue to be taken down because of boobs. The ACLU writes a response, including a picture of said work of art. They post the response to Facebook, and Facebook takes it down. Because, again, boobs. Oh no! Boobs! Run for the hills!

It’s official. Temporary food workers at the Oregon Zoo now belong to a union.

Yesterday, the Oregon Employment Relations Board (ERB) approved membership in Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 483 for the zoo’s temporary kitchen, service workers, and caterers.

The ERB decision was the final piece of paperwork certifying a union election that occurred earlier this month in which zoo temps voted overwhelming to join Local 483. Metro, which runs the zoo, had until September 23 to challenge the election results. According to ERB Elections Coordinator Linda Gregg, Metro didn’t file any challenges. Without a challenge, ERB took the next step and rubber-stamped the new union membership.

As we reported, zoo food temps voted 61-4 in favor of joining the union. While this probably wasn’t the turnout Local 483 organizers had hoped for—142 workers were eligible to vote—it’s still a big win for the union.

The added food temps are expected to grow the union’s Metro membership from 207 employees to about 350 employees. The food temps will now be included with the rest of these workers as part of a single bargaining unit. The Metro contract for this unit is up for negotiation next June, but Local 483 representative Megan Hise told the Mercury that bargaining could be begin as early as next month, saying Metro was, “amenable to starting early.”

This Saturday, the new union members will get a crash course in bargaining at Local 483’s “bargaining school,” a training session in, that’s right, union contract bargaining.

Demands the new members will bring up could include unfreezing the workers’ wages (they’ve been frozen for about the past two years), a possible meal allowance (zoo temps currently receive just a 25 percent discount on zoo food), and uncapping the number of hours the temps are allowed to work (that cap is now set at 1,040 hours in a calendar year).

Hise says talks could tackle another bargaining issue: moving workers from temporary positions to fulltime employment—zoo temps who spoke with the Mercury say the possibility of fulltime employment is often used by management as an incentive to get them to work harder but that fulltime employment hardly ever materializes. This is one reason Hise says the bargaining is starting earlier rather than later.

“To create a path to fulltime employment, that is not going to happen over night,” she says.

Hise was also able to confirm that the zoo temps will probably be seeking paid sick days as part of their new contract with Metro. As we reported in July, Metro workers are currently excluded from protections under the city of Portland’s paid sick leave ordinance.

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Before you take to the skies in Hayao Miyazaki’s final voyage in The Wind Rises, Viz Media is inviting you to take a return trip to an old favorite in a way you’ve never seen before: the world of Totoro. To commemorate the 25th anniversary of Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro, Viz is publishing two new [...]

popular shared this story from The Art of Manliness.

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That’s good advice. You’ll find it in several articles right here on the Art of Manliness.

But if you’re really going to get any benefit out of having your suits adjusted, you need to know a little bit about tailors and the kinds of adjustments they can (and can’t) make.

You also need to know what a “good” fit actually looks like.

Tailors vary in skill and in how they communicate the work they’re doing, so getting a suit adjusted is only going to deliver a good return if you can make your exact needs clear.

Below, we give you an easy-to-follow rundown on how your suit should fit.

What a “Good Fit” Looks Like

When you try on a suit, you’re looking for a good fit in what’s called your “natural stance.”

That means standing up straight, preferably in the kind of dress shoes you’ll be wearing with your suits, with your arms relaxed at your side.

It’s not actually a very natural posture for a lot of us, but it is the base from which most of our movement flows. If the suit doesn’t fit well in this stance, it’s not going to move comfortably with your body either.

Practice standing in that relaxed, upright pose, and then start trying on suits in that posture. Look for a good fit in the following areas when you’re in your natural stance:

The Shoulder

A well-fitted shoulder lies flat. The seam on top of the shoulder should be the same length as the bone under it, and should meet the sleeve of the suit right where your arm meets your shoulder.

If the seam that connects the sleeve to the jacket is hiked up along your shoulder bone, or dangling down on your upper bicep, the jacket is never going to sit properly. In these instances, you’ll see “ripple effects” that create lumps or wrinkles on the sleeve and the top of the jacket.

Shoulders are one of the hardest parts of a jacket to adjust after construction, so don’t buy a piece with an ill-fitted shoulder. Odds are you’ll never be able to get it quite right with post-purchase alterations.

The Seat

The back of your trousers should be a smooth drape over the shape of your rear end — whatever that happens to be.

A good fit in the seat will lie loosely against your underwear, without pulling tight against your butt or draping loosely down your thighs.

You can spot a bad fit in the seat when there are horizontal wrinkles just under the buttocks (caused by too tight of a fit), or by loose, U-shaped sags on the backs of the thighs (caused by too loose of a fit).

A tailor can “take in” a seat to make it tighter in the back without too much difficulty, but there’s a limit to how far he can go. If the seat was way too loose to begin with, it’s not possible to adjust it to fit without pulling the pockets out of place.

Unless the pants have an unusual amount of spare cloth on the inside, seats can’t be “let out” very far to make the fit looser. Err on the side of too loose rather than too tight when buying.

Trouser Break

The “break” is the small wrinkle caused when the top of your shoe stops your trouser cuff from falling to its full length.

This should be a small, subtle feature. One horizontal dimple or crease is usually ideal. The cuff should indeed rest on the top of your shoe — there needs to be contact — but it shouldn’t do much more than that. The trouser can fall a touch longer in the back than in front, so long as it’s still above the heel of the shoe (the actual heel, not just the back of the shoe).

This is one of the easiest adjustments to make, so you can rely on making some changes here if you need to. In fact, dress pants are often sold unhemmed, with the assumption that the purchaser will take the trousers to a tailor (or make use of the store’s tailor if there is one) to have the cuffs fitted.

The Jacket Closure

When you are wearing a suit and standing, you should have the jacket buttoned (you know the jacket buttoning rules, right? Click here to learn!).

This means that part of the trying-on process is checking how the front of the jacket closes over your body.

Close a single-breasted jacket with only one button when you’re testing the fit, even if it’s a three-button jacket. You’re looking to see if the two sides meet neatly without the lapels hanging forward off your body (too loose) or the lower edges of the jacket flaring out like a skirt (too tight).

The button should close without strain, and there should be no wrinkles radiating out from the closure. A little bit of an opening at the bottom of the suit is fine, but the two halves beneath the button shouldn’t pull apart so far that you can see a large triangle of shirt above your trousers. (Ideally, you shouldn’t see any, though a bit is socially acceptable, especially when you move.)

Taking in or letting out the waist to help the jacket close more comfortably is not a difficult adjustment, but it’s one with limits. Don’t expect a tailor to be able to make huge changes here. If the jacket closure looks really bad unaltered, it’s probably due to problems beyond the waist measurement, and you should be looking for a different jacket rather than planning on getting that one altered.

Jacket Sleeve Length

“A half-inch of linen” is a good, old-fashioned guideline for the relationship between a suit jacket and the shirt worn under it — about half an inch of the shirt cuff should be visible beyond the jacket cuff.

That said, it’s a general guideline, and you don’t need to get too obsessive. What you do need to be sure of is that the suit sleeve doesn’t rise above the cuff entirely — the seam where the shirt cuff joins the shirt sleeve should never be visible.

Similarly, the jacket sleeve should never hide the shirt sleeve entirely. At least a small band of shirt cuff should always be visible.

For most men, that ends up being a jacket sleeve that terminates just above the large bone in the wrist. But everyone’s arms are slightly different, and sleeve length is a very easy adjustment for a tailor to make, so get the best sleeve length you can (erring on the side of too long if possible) and then have it adjusted to fit.

Jacket Length

Not enough time or writing gets devoted to the overall length of men’s jackets. It’s more important than most people think!

A good suit or sports jacket should fall past the waist and drape over the top of the curve formed by the buttocks. An ideal fit will cover a man down to the point where his butt starts to curve back inward, and stop there (but anywhere in that general region is okay).

The hands are also a good marker here, and this is why it’s important to have your arms relaxed in your natural stance. The hem of the jacket should hit right around the middle of your hand — at or just past where the fingers meet the palm.

If the hem of the jacket is sitting on top of the butt, with a small little flare in the back, it’s too short. If it falls past the bottom entirely, longer than the arms, it’s too long. The hem can be adjusted upward without too much trouble, but if you go too far the front pockets start to look out of proportion, so don’t count on more than an inch or two of adjustment here.

Jacket Collar

It’s easy to tell a well-fitted collar from a poorly-fitted one, although identifying the cause of the bad fit can be challenging.

Your jacket collar should rest against your shirt collar, which in turn should rest against the back of your neck. All of these should touch lightly, without significant gaps in between.

If the collar is too loose, it’s very easy to spot — there will be a gap where it’s flopping back off your neck.

A tight collar is a little harder to spot on a jacket, since (unlike a shirt collar) it’s almost all in the back. Turn from side to side as needed and check it out in a mirror. A tight collar will create bunching and folds just beneath it, and often wrinkles the shirt collar underneath it as well.

Bad collar fit could just mean the neck size is wrong for you, but it’s often caused by a larger fit issue: bad shoulder sizing, a back panel that’s too small for you, or even a jacket that’s constructed with more of a forward or backward tilt than your neutral stance.

Since these adjustments cost time and money to fix, you want to get as good of a fit in the original jacket as possible at the collar.

Four Automatic “Bad Fit” Warnings

There are a couple of easy to spot problems that are major warning signs. A suit with these “bad fit” signs is one that you probably won’t ever be able to adjust to a really good fit.

Unfortunately, most of them are caused by the core structure of the suit — and that means that your body just isn’t a good match for the way that particular brand makes its pieces.

Be patient, try on lots of brands, and don’t compromise (unless you know it can be fixed!).

If you can’t afford bespoke (made to order), an adjusted off-the-rack suit can work — but you have to start with a pretty good fit in the first place, or it’s never going to get the results you want.

Unless you want to pay for alterations, be careful buying any jacket that’s showing these serious warning signs:

The Dreaded X-Shaped Button Strain

If you can see wrinkled lines radiating outward from your jacket button when you close the jacket, it’s too tight and will need adjustment.

The Dreaded X, as my friend Barron over at Effortless Gent likes to call it — is not a look you seek in a well-fitted jacket.

Front button strain is indicative of a bad fit in the torso, and it can go beyond just the waist size — you’re probably straining at the shoulders or in the back, too. On a more basic note, it also means the button is going to be prone to popping off.

Don’t buy a jacket that shows strain lines radiating outward from the button. If you’ve got an old jacket that used to fit but has started showing them, it’s possible that you’ve either gained weight or accidentally shrunk the jacket in a wash — in that case (assuming the fit was good before), you may be able to have the waist let out a little and keep the jacket in use.

Shoulder Divots & Upper Arm Wrinkles

If the sleeve of the jacket seems to dip in slightly just under the shoulder, and then flare back out again, the shoulders are too big. What you’re seeing is the shoulder padding protruding beyond your arm, and the cloth of the sleeve tucking back in underneath it.

You can also get those wrinkles if you’ve got a somewhat slouched stance and the jacket is stiffly-constructed for a more upright posture. In either case you’ll need to get a smaller size, so that the seam where the shoulder meets the sleeve matches up with your body’s shoulder, or give up and try a different brand.

Shoulder Wrinkles — Top Rumpling

If you’re getting noticeable bunching on top of your shoulder, rather than on the upper sleeve, the jacket is too large in the shoulders.

This could be a simple length problem, but more likely it’s that the interior space is simply too large — your shoulders aren’t broad enough, front to back, to fill out the jacket.

Try a slimmer fit, if the manufacturer offers multiple styles, or a smaller size. If you’re still seeing wrinkles on the tops of your shoulders, the brand probably isn’t going to work for you.

Twisted Sleeves — Bad Sleeve Pitch

Faint spiraling wrinkles on the outside of the sleeve occur when the angle of your arm in its natural stance doesn’t match the angle that the sleeve was constructed with. The result is a sleeve that looks slightly twisted even when your arms are hanging still at your sides.

A tailor can theoretically remove the sleeves and reattach them at a slightly different angle, but it’s not a simple or a cheap fix. Generally speaking, you can consider this one a deal-breaker. Keep trying until you find a jacket where the sleeves fall smooth and straight when your arms are resting in their natural stance.

Watch a Video Summary of This Post

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Written By:
Antonio Centeno
Founder of Real Men Real Style
Creator of The Style System – a college-level course that teaches the foundations of professional dressing so you control the message your image sends.

United States of Shame

This is a visual comparison of all sci-fi spaceships known to man. Compiled by Dirk Loechel, based on work by others. Updated 2013.

I'll be moderating and appearing on several panels at next week's Escapist Expo. The Expo had its inaugural event last year and was by all accounts a stunning success.

Durham and the surrounding Triangle community have the largest group of gamers I've ever seen, but they're usually dispersed into smaller enclaves near their local game stores or home groups. The Escapist Expo offers a central hub for all the area gamers to play in one place. Video games, RPGs, tabletop, Humans vs. Zombies, all sorts of games. It's awesome.

Here are the panels I'll be on this year.


It's a Hit! Now What? Dealing With Unexpected Success
You've made something and people like it and want more. Or your preorder went well - much better than you expected - and you find yourself facing a bigger print run and a bigger shipping effort than you'd planned for. Success can be a tricky thing - the bigger you succeed, the harder you have to work, and sometimes there are pitfalls. Join us and talk about the "now what?" phase.

Participants: Fred Hicks, Rob Donoghue, Steve Segedy, Daniel Solis
Location: DCC Meeting Room 2
Date: Sat, Oct 5, 2013 9:00 AM


Hosting a Weekly Game Night
We love games, and we want to play them on a regular basis. But for adult geeks with families, careers, and other obligations, the basic logistics of sustaining a weekly game session can be quite challenging. Join a panel of game night veterans to discuss how to manage locations and game collections, schedules and conflicts, pets, children, and other lovable distractions, and even personalities. Our game nights have been going strong for over five years, and yours is about to get started.

Participants: Natania Barron, Michael Harrison, Jim Van Verth, Daniel Solis, Chris Kirkman, Dave Kirby
Location: DCC Meeting Room 2
Date: Sat, Oct 5, 2013 1:30 PM


How to Run a Small Gaming Business
Have you ever wondered what results when gaming and business meet? Panelists Jennifer Bedell (Atomic Empire), Fred Hicks and Rob Donoghue (Evil Hat Games), Chris Kirkman (Dice Hate Me Games), Steve Segedy (Bully Pulpit) share the trials and joys of running a small game company. Moderator Daniel Solis (Smart Play Games) guides a broad discussion covering everything from funding, to production, to retail and beyond.

Participants: Jennifer Bedell, Fred Hicks, Rob Donoghue, Chris Kirkman, Steve Segedy, Daniel Solis
Location: DCC Meeting Rooms 3-4
Date: Sat, Oct 5, 2013 4:30 PM


My Dearest Failure: Games That Didn't Work and Why
In the immortal words of Jake the Dog, "Sucking at something is the first step to becoming sorta good at something". The path to design success will be littered with the corpses of bad ideas, bad implementations, and unidentifiable smells that you'd rather not talk about. Today we're going to shine a light on those failures and talk about how embracing them will help you make the game you want.

Participants: Fred Hicks, Rob Donoghue, Steve Segedy, Daniel Solis
Location: DCC Meeting Room 2
Date: Sun, Oct 6, 2013 12:00 PM


In addition, my wife and I will have a booth at the Expo all weekend where we'll be selling meeple accessories, Writer's Dice, and a the few copies of Koi Pond I have in stock. Also, I have one print copy of Happy Birthday, Robot! in stock that I'll sell to whoever comes first. So swing by, say hi, and let's game at the Escapist Expo!

tastefullyoffensive:

[truthgoliath]

(laughter) Sneaky.

mystikkman writes "In what is a serious bug, GMail Chat/GTalk/Google Hangouts is sending messages to unintended recipients. ZDNet has confirmed first-hand that the glitch is present within Google Apps for Business accounts, including those that have not yet switched over to Google's new Hangouts platform. Messages appear to be visible on the mobile version of Hangouts. There are multiple reports of this issue."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

cartechboy writes "You knew the day was coming when they started selling diapers. Amazon is now dipping its toe into car sales by selling a single car: the 2014 Nissan Versa Note. Amazon users hit a real live Versa Note product page, but instead of "Add to cart" you provide your ZIP code so Amazon can connect you with a nearby Nissan dealer. The first 100 Versa Note customers whose car purchases are initiated through Amazon receive $1,000 Amazon gift cards. Best part: Customers who end up actually buying the Note *will* receive them via boxed home delivery. Now, that's a big box." (The linked article says that "some" customers will get their Versa boxed; maybe this is only if you specify gift wrapping.)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

BOSTON—Upon reviewing his public profile on the dating website OKCupid, local man Malcolm Lighty, 34, told reporters Thursday that he had decided to omit the fact that he has profound and irresolvable psychological and emotional problems.

I have children—a whole bunch of them. And I can more than sympathize when parents have to deal with them as they cry, scream, and have to go to the bathroom. That being said, the Apple Store is not a toilet, so don't let you kids tinkle on the showroom floor.

onto-borrowed-time:

Part 1: “Welcome to the city of Atlantis.”

One of the most beautifully done Disney movies. Different from usual works in story and style. Terribly underrated little gem.

Jimmy Fallon, muppets from Sesame Street, and The Roots joined together to play the classic Sesame Street theme song on classroom instruments like a wood block, a banana shaker and a kazoo.

video via Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

It’s actually more of a Alex Maleev story.  we were at a New York comic book show, not the one that is coming up, and Alex, oeming, David Mack and myself were all in a row signing our little hearts away. it was actually one of my very first big big signings where more people showed up than I was used to in my independent days.

 behind us was a white curtain and on the other side of the curtain were a bunch of media guests including Richard Hatch from Battle Star Galactica and right behind me was Lou Ferrigno.  I don’t know this man but I had witnessed him being a bit of a cranky pants at other shows.

 what I didn’t know was that every time Lou was about to take a picture with a fan Alex would photo bomb the picture by sticking his head through my part of the curtain. so Alex’s Bulgarian floating head was showing up in every one of these pictures.

 I don’t know how long this was going on for but eventually lou violently ripped open the curtain and barked at the back of my head: STOP IT!!

 I wasn’t facing him so all I saw was 100 or so people facing me stumble backwards in complete horror . I turned around and the Incredible Hulk is standing over me fuming.

Alex with an almost cat like quality crawled under his table as he lit a cigarette and took off.

 Lou saw that it wasn’t me who he was angry at and after a moment closed the curtain with some frustration.

 that was one…

 one time I was in Chicago and Matt Wagner and I got on an elevator that Lou happened to step on as well.  as the elevator doors were about to close an old lady got on the elevator. she was unaware that she was standing too close to be the elevator doors and they wouldn’t close. because lou is somewhat deaf he sometimes talks louder than he might mean to.  frustratingly he barks: GET AWAY FROM THE DOOR!!

 the old lady jumps out of her skin and stumbles out of the elevator and the doors close. Matt and I are standing across each other with a quietly fuming Lou. it’s hard to describe the tension in the elevator as both of us are trying not to laugh at the weird situation. because for some reason Lou still looked like he wanted to beat up somebody

 but all of that comes to a magical moment where my then nine-month-old daughter Olivia is in her baby carriage at the Toronto show as we are checking in. lou sees our adorable baby and comes up to her and tries to tickle her and she for the first time ever in her entire life SLAPS his hand as hard as she can.

my daughter slapped the hulk.

 I’m sure he’s a lovely man. but every time I have had any interaction with them he has been very testy or annoyed by one of my friends or being slapped by my child.