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Ruger Introduces New American Gen II Patrol Rifles

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Ruger’s family of American bolt action rifles continues to grow. The latest sub-model is the   Patrol variant. Let’s take a look at what sets these rifles apart from the rest of the range.

Ruger @ TFB:

The Ruger American Gen II Patrol is a precision and tactical-oriented development from the other Gen II models. Rather than the bolder stock and Cerakote patterns applied on other models like the Standard or Predator, the Patrol has a black stock and black Cerakote finish. The barrel is also a heavier contour without flutes. It also omits the brake included on other versions of the gun, given that the Patrol will almost certainly be used with a suppressor. A black Cerakote finish on the barrel and receiver round out the Patrol model.

Ruger also looks to more tactical options for cartridge options. Models available at launch include:

  • 5.56 NATO, feeding from AR mags
  • 6mm ARC, feeding from AR mags
  • 308 Winchester, feeding from AICS mags

All three of those options feature 16-inch threaded barrels. The MSRP for all three is $729. These models are available from distributors now.

Long action models in .300 Win Mag and 7mm PRC are also forthcoming but specs are not yet available. A .338 ARC model will be forthcoming as well.

All images from Ruger

From the manufacturer:

“Generation II Patrol models feature a bull contour, cold hammer-forged barrel that helps to mitigate recoil and a Graphite Black Cerakote barreled action. The black stock is textured with gray splatter for excellent grip and control in the field.”

The Firearm Blog

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Texas AG Ken Paxton sues Roblox over alleged child safety lapses

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Roblox, accusing it of ignoring state and federal safety laws. In his announcement on X, Paxton said the children have been “repeatedly exposed to sexually explicit content, exploitation and grooming” on the online game platform, because it chose to prioritize “pixel pedophiles and corporate profit” over the safety of children. “Thank you,” Schlep posted in the comments of his announcement. Schlep was a popular Roblox user who was known for staging sting operations à la To Catch a Predator on the platform, which had led to multiple arrests. He was controversially banned from Roblox in August, because he violated the company’s new rule that prohibits “vigilante behavior.”

“We share Attorney General Paxton’s commitment to keeping kids and teens safe online," the company said in a statement. "We are disappointed that, rather than working collaboratively with Roblox on this industry-wide challenge and seeking real solutions, the AG has chosen to file a lawsuit based on misrepresentations and sensationalized claims.”

Roblox has implemented several measures meant to protect children over the past few years. It blocked any user under 13 from being able to play, search or discover any unrated experiences on the platform, and it restricted DMs for that segment of users, as well. It also added an age estimation feature that requires a video selfie for a user to be able to prove that they’re 13 or older. The company intends to roll it out to everyone by the end of this year.

Texas isn’t the only state suing Roblox and accusing it of failing to protect children from predators, though: Kentucky and Louisiana had previously filed their own lawsuits against the company. Louisiana argued that the platform contains user-created experiences with troubling themes, such as “Escape to Epstein Island” and “Diddy Party,” despite the majority of its users being under 16. It also pointed out that it was possible to initiate voice chats within Roblox’s experiences, even between users who weren’t friends, until November 2024. In one instance, a man who was arrested for possession of child sexual abuse materials was discovered to have used voice altering software to pretend to be a young girl in order to exploit children on the platform.

“Roblox must do more to protect kids from sick and twisted freaks hiding behind a screen,” Paxton wrote. “Any corporation that enables child abuse will face the full and unrelenting force of the law.” To note, the Texas AG also previously sued TikTok, alleging that it has insufficient parental controls, as well as Meta and Character.AI for potentially misusing data collected from underage users.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/texas-ag-ken-paxton-sues-roblox-over-alleged-child-safety-lapses-131500288.html?src=rssEngadget

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Texas Sues Roblox For Allegedly Failing To Protect Children On Its Platform

Texas is suing Roblox, alleging the company misled parents about safety, ignored online-protection laws, and allowed an environment where predators could target children. Texas AG Ken Paxton said the online game platform is "putting pixel pedophiles and profits over the safety of Texas children," alleging that it is "flagrantly ignoring state and federal online safety laws while deceiving parents about the dangers of its platform." The Verge reports: The lawsuit’s examples focus on instances of children who have been abused by predators they met via Roblox, and the activities of groups like 764 which have used online platforms to identify and blackmail victims into sexually explicit acts or self harm. According to the suit, Roblox’s parental controls push only began after a number of lawsuits, and a report released last fall by the short seller Hindenburg that said its "in-game research revealed an X-rated pedophile hellscape, exposing children to grooming, pornography, violent content and extremely abusive speech." Eric Porterfield, Senior Director of Policy Communications at Roblox, said in a statement: "We are disappointed that, rather than working collaboratively with Roblox on this industry-wide challenge and seeking real solutions, the AG has chosen to file a lawsuit based on misrepresentations and sensationalized claims." He added, "We have introduced over 145 safety measures on the platform this year alone."


Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Slashdot

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42 Free University Books (PDF/HTML)

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💡 About this free book collection. Below are some of the highest-quality university textbooks that you can legally read and download for free. Each entry lists the title (in bold), the author(s) in italics, and the available formats with notes on whether a sign-up is required. Links point directly to the free books – I have manually checked the link quality (by hand).

  1. Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs – Harold Abelson & Gerald Jay Sussman (HTML, no sign-up) – the classic MIT programming text is released as an open-access web edition under a Creative Commons license
  1. The Feynman Lectures on Physics – Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton & Matthew Sands (HTML, no sign-up) – Caltech’s website hosts the complete three-volume lecture series free of charge.
  2. Deep Learning – Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio & Aaron Courville (HTML, no sign-up) – the authors and MIT Press offer a complete online version that will remain freely accessible.
  3. Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces – Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau & Andrea C. Arpaci-Dusseau (PDF, no sign-up) – a comprehensive OS text that the authors explicitly intend to remain freely available.
  4. Category Theory for Scientists – David I. Spivak (PDF, no sign-up) – MIT’s open-courseware site links to this freely downloadable textbook.
  1. Algebraic Topology – Allen Hatcher (PDF, no sign-up) – the author and publisher allow free download of this standard graduate-level text.
  2. Linear Algebra – Jim Hefferon (PDF & HTML, no sign-up) – Hefferon’s textbook is free to download and is licensed for redistribution.
  3. Introduction to Real Analysis – William F. Trench (PDF, no sign-up) – a free, Creative Commons–licensed edition of this undergraduate text.
  4. Abstract Algebra: Theory and Applications – Thomas W. Judson (PDF, no sign-up) – an open textbook published under the GNU Free Documentation License.
  5. Introduction to Probability – Charles M. Grinstead & J. Laurie Snell (HTML & PDF, no sign-up) – the authors distribute this complete text under a free documentation license.
  1. The Elements of Statistical Learning – Trevor Hastie, Robert Tibshirani & Jerome Friedman (PDF, no sign-up) – a highly regarded machine-learning reference with a free PDF.
  2. Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction – Richard S. Sutton & Andrew G. Barto (HTML & PDF, no sign-up) – the authors provide free HTML and PDF downloads under a Creative Commons license.
  3. Convex Optimization – Stephen Boyd & Lieven Vandenberghe (PDF, no sign-up) – Cambridge University Press permits the authors to host the PDF for free.
  4. Open Data Structures – Pat Morin (HTML & PDF, no sign-up) – the book and source code are free (libre and gratis) under a Creative Commons license.
  5. Algorithms – Jeff Erickson (PDF, no sign-up) – this self-published textbook remains free; anyone may download, copy and redistribute it under a Creative Commons license.
  1. Think Python – Allen B. Downey (HTML & PDF, no sign-up) – a beginner-friendly Python book released under a Creative Commons license and explicitly described as a free book.
  2. Think Stats – Allen B. Downey (HTML & PDF, no sign-up) – the author’s site hosts a free, online version and encourages readers to share it under a Creative Commons license.
  3. Eloquent JavaScript – Marijn Haverbeke (HTML & PDF, no sign-up) – the fourth edition is available online under a Creative Commons Attribution–Noncommercial license.
  4. Dive Into Deep Learning – Aston Zhang, Zachary C. Lipton, Mu Li & Alex J. Smola (HTML & PDF, no sign-up) – this open-source interactive book offers free online and PDF versions.
  1. APEX Calculus – Gregory Hartman et al. (PDF, no sign-up) – an open-source calculus textbook; anyone can download and print the PDF version for free.
  2. OpenIntro Statistics – David M. Diez, Christopher D. Barr & Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel (PDF, no sign-up) – the OpenIntro collection notes that all its textbooks have free PDF versions.
  3. Introduction to Modern Statistics – Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel & Johanna Hardin (PDF, no sign-up) – an OpenIntro statistics text; the series offers free PDF downloads.
  4. Introductory Statistics for the Life and Biomedical Sciences – Nathaniel Horton & Benjamin S. Baumer (PDF, no sign-up) – another OpenIntro textbook with a freely downloadable PDF.
  5. Advanced High School Statistics – David M. Diez & Christopher D. Barr (PDF, no sign-up) – OpenIntro’s AP/advanced-high-school statistics book; the PDF is free.
  6. Introductory Statistics with Randomization & Simulation – David M. Diez, Christopher D. Barr & Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel (PDF, no sign-up) – part of OpenIntro’s free-PDF series.

OpenStax textbooks (free PDF & web view, no registration)

OpenStax, a nonprofit initiative at Rice University, publishes a wide range of peer-reviewed textbooks. Their policy explicitly states that the books are free to read online or download in PDF with no passwords or registration required. The following OpenStax titles are excellent resources:

  1. Calculus Volume 1 – Gilbert Strang et al. (PDF & Web, no sign-up) – first-semester calculus with interactive examples and problem sets.
  1. Calculus Volume 2 – Gilbert Strang et al. (PDF & Web, no sign-up) – covers sequences, series, and multivariable calculus.
  2. Calculus Volume 3 – Gilbert Strang et al. (PDF & Web, no sign-up) – advanced topics such as vector calculus and partial differential equations.
  3. University Physics Volume 1 – Samuel J. Ling, William Moebs & Jeff Sanny (PDF & Web, no sign-up) – covers mechanics and thermodynamics.
  4. University Physics Volume 2 – Samuel J. Ling, William Moebs & Jeff Sanny (PDF & Web, no sign-up) – electromagnetism and optics.
  5. University Physics Volume 3 – Samuel J. Ling, William Moebs & Jeff Sanny (PDF & Web, no sign-up) – modern physics and waves.
  6. Chemistry 2e – Paul Flowers et al. (PDF & Web, no sign-up) – a full general-chemistry text.
  7. Biology 2e – Mary Ann Clark et al. (PDF & Web, no sign-up) – comprehensive introductory biology.
  1. Microbiology – OpenStax (PDF & Web, no sign-up) – covers microbial structure, physiology and genetics.
  2. College Algebra – Jay Abramson (PDF & Web, no sign-up) – functions, polynomials and graphs for precalculus preparation.
  3. Linear Algebra – Jim Hefferon (PDF & Web, no sign-up) – a modern introduction to linear algebra and matrix theory.
  4. Differential Equations – William F. Trench (PDF & Web, no sign-up) – an OpenStax adaptation of Trench’s classic book.
  5. Principles of Macroeconomics 2e – OpenStax (PDF & Web, no sign-up) – macroeconomics with current policy examples.
  6. Principles of Microeconomics 2e – OpenStax (PDF & Web, no sign-up) – microeconomic theory and applications.
  7. Psychology 2e – OpenStax (PDF & Web, no sign-up) – foundational topics in psychology.
  8. Introduction to Sociology 3e – OpenStax (PDF & Web, no sign-up) – explores social institutions, culture, and modern issues.
  9. Biology for AP Courses – OpenStax (PDF & Web, no sign-up) – designed for advanced high-school or introductory university biology.

These books span mathematics, computer science, physics, statistics, economics and the life sciences. Because they carry open licenses and are distributed via trusted publishers such as MIT Press, Caltech, OpenIntro and OpenStax, they are excellent resources for self-learners and educators alike.

You may also be interested in my collection on free Artificial Intelligence books!

👉 42 Free AI Books (PDF/HTML)

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