Category: starred

via MakeUseOf.com
These Fantastic Printable Halloween Stencils Are Spookily Creative

The newest addition to Easton Town Center is sure to be a good fit.
Legoland Discovery Center, which is scheduled to open in fall 2018, will be a 36,000-square-foot, $10 million indoor play and education center that will fill the void left most recently by KDB across from the Funny Bone.
“This is going to be a regional draw. It’s going to pull people from other states,” Easton CEO Jennifer Peterson told me. “It’s a first-class interactive experience and it’s going to be highly engaging…

via Columbus Business News – Local Columbus News | Business First of Columbus
Legoland Discovery Center coming to Easton Town Center

In 2018, Columbus will become home to the first LEGOLAND Discovery Center in the state of Ohio. Representatives at Easton Town Center announced this morning that construction is expected to begin soon on the new space, which will replace the recently closed KDB entertainment venue within the newly remodeled Easton Station building. “The LEGOLAND Discovery […]
via ColumbusUnderground.com
A 36,000 Square Foot LEGO Playground is Coming to Columbus in 2018

Mike reviews the recently released Smith & Wesson SW22 Victory Pistol with the silencer compatible threaded barrel option.

U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- I have been a fan of Smith & Wesson firearms for as long as I can remember. At last count I have 30 of their revolvers in my safe and 5 of their semiautomatic pistols.

Two of those semiauto pistols (Model 52-2 and a Model 41) are the most accurate semi autos that I own and many of my students who were first-time shooters fired them as they are great confidence builders for new people.

So then I laid eyes on the new Smith & Wesson SW22 Victory Pistol Threaded Barrel model. At first glance it reminded me of the classic 22 pistols of yesteryear. There were hints of the Browning Buck Mark, the lines of the High Standards, Colt Woodsman but the grip was unmistakably Smith & Wesson 22A. Finished in stainless steel, topped with fiber optic sights and crowned with a threaded barrel; this piece had shooter written all over it, but there was more than meets the eye with the S&W Victory 22.

Smith & Wesson SW22 Victory Pistol

Smith & Wesson SW22 Victory Pistol – The Good

The bane of 22 Target pistols is often in their disassembly and reassembly. Smith & Wesson solved that by making the Victory not only easy to tear down and put back together, but to allow the end user to customize it.

Should you move or travel to a state where the threaded barrel turns your favorite 22LR plinker into a death spewing assault pistol? You can change out to a non-threaded barrel. If you need a longer barrel for hunting or competitive use, it’s as easy as turning the Allen wrench. You can remove the rear sight and add a top rail for your favorite red dot if you so desire and the rear of the rail functions as a back up rear sight.

That’s the fun factor you get after opening the box, the real fun starts when you hit the range with the Smith & Wesson SW22 Victory Pistol.

We tried the pistol suppressed and unsuppressed. Using a Gemtech Outback IId with a GM-22 monocore upgrade with Gemtech’s subsonic ammunition we found the pistol to be reliable in both modes. The magazines were flawless and dropped free every time we hit the release. We tested the trigger on an RCBS trigger pull scale and it was a crisp and repeatable 3 pounds. The face of the trigger is serrated.

According to Gemtech, this suppressor will lower noise at the muzzle by 36-39 decibels. That may not make it the quietest on a sound meter test, but the Outback with the monocore upgrade like the GM-22 by Gemtech has a deeper tone that makes it sound more appealing to my ears. This could explain why most people seem to think it is quieter than what the sound meter reads. With the Gemtech ammunition and no can, the pistol metered at an average of 153 Db. With the silencer added is came in at 117 Db on average. This is a similar sound level as a police siren for a microsecond impulse.

Most importantly were the sub MOA groups at 20 to 25 yards that we shot with the Victory 22. The Smith & Wesson SW22 Victory Pistol was so accurate that we plan to purchase one of our own.

At 1/3 the price of a S&W Model 41 we found it to be its equal at close range. Pushing it out to 50 yards, we found the S&W Model 41 to be its superior.

Smith & Wesson SW22 Victory Pistol – The bad

Although the pistol appears to be very modular there are very few parts and accessories available from Smith & Wesson apart from what you can attach to the included top rail in the form of optics.

Volquartsen makes several barrels including one made from carbon fiber and several others with compensators. It’s a fairly new pistol so we hope to see the line expand in the future. TANDEMKROS makes a few SW22 accessories as well.

Some shooters have reported issues with Smith & Wesson making the hex nuts for takedown too tight or going too heavy on the red Loctite. If you cannot budge it, throw some heat on it. When you replace it have some blue Loctite handy.

Smith & Wesson SW22 Victory Pistol – The Reality

Having owned a S&W Model 41 for years, we often overlooked the less expensive 22 pistols from Smith & Wesson, particularly when we saw no barrel threads and our Model 41 was threaded by Accurate Ordnance a few years back.  The accuracy is nothing short of amazing and while some may not care for stainless steel firearms, we feel this one has a nice finished and clean look.

Our only question was why Smith & Wesson brought back the name “Victory” for a stainless steel target pistol. Years ago the Victory Model was a 38 caliber wheel gun that Smith & Wesson made for the War effort in the 1940s for our troops and our allies in Great Britain and New Zealand. Each revolver’s serial number was preceded by a “V” for “Victory”.

Perhaps this model is named the Victory for all the potential rimfire matches wherein it could emerge as the winner.

Smith & Wesson SW22 Victory Pistol Specs

• Caliber: 22 LR
• Capacity: 10 Rounds
• Action: Single Action
• Barrel Length: 5.5”
• Weight: 36 oz.
• Overall Length: 9.2”
• Overall Width: 1.1”
• Overall Height: 5.6”
• Frame Material: Stainless Steel
• Bolt Material: Stainless Steel
• Barrel Material: Stainless Steel
• Finish: Satin Stainless
• MSRP: $429

22plinkster: Smith & Wesson Victory Review

About Mike Searson

Mike Searson’s career as a shooter began as a Marine Rifleman at age 17. He has worked in the firearms industry his entire adult life as a Gunsmith, Ballistician, Consultant, Salesman, Author and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1989.

Mike has written over 2000 articles for a number of magazines, websites and newsletters including Blade, RECOIL, OFF-GRID, Tactical Officer, SWAT, Tactical World, Gun Digest, Examiner.com and the US Concealed Carry Association as well as AmmoLand Shooting Sports News.

• Homepage: www.mikesearson.com
• FB: http://ift.tt/1GF5yXV
• TWITTER: http://www.twitter.com/mikesearson

This post Smith & Wesson SW22 Victory Pistol with Threaded Barrel – VIDEO & REVIEW appeared first on AmmoLand.com Shooting Sports News .

via AmmoLand.com Shooting Sports News
Smith & Wesson SW22 Victory Pistol with Threaded Barrel – VIDEO & REVIEW

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Breathe. Just… breathe. The second trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi is finally here.

It’s been six months since the first trailer for the highly-anticipated Star Wars sequel appeared, but now the wait for its follow-up is over.

If you’re like me you may have just screamed. Teared up. And just froze in shock out of all of the stuff we just saw.

Porgs! Finn vs. Phasma! Kylo and Leia! SNOKE!!! SNOKE AND REY! KYLO AND REY! AHHH. I need to watch this again and again. And then again and again.

Now that the trailer’s here, movie theaters have begun begin selling advanced tickets to the film; opening night is Thursday, December 14, and there are all kinds of special events and giveaways.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi, written and directed by Rian Johnson, stars Daisy Ridley, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Carrie Fisher, John Boyega, Kelly Marie Tran, Oscar Isaac, Laura Dern, Benicio del Toro, Gwendoline Christie, and Andy Serkis.

We’ll have a frame by frame breakdown in the morning.

[YouTube]

via Gizmodo
The Second Trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi Is Finally Here 

Amazon’s Alexa is already helpful for broadcasting sports scores upon request. For the upcoming NBA season though, the virtual assistant will serve up more detailed information on every team in the league. All 30 teams will have their own Alexa Skills, which means you can ask for things like the date of the next home game, who your teams plays on a specific date, if they’re winning, stats leaders, standings and the latest team news.

"Alexa, ask the Charlotte Hornets…" is the phrasing you’ll need to speak to initiate the request. And of course, saying "Alexa, enable (insert team name here)" will activate the skill for that particular team on your compatible device.

The NBA says its the first pro sports league to make every team available through Alexa. What’s more, the NBA regular season starts next week, so you’ve got plenty of time to enable the skill for your favorite team(s) before the action begins.

via Engadget
All 30 NBA teams will have their own Alexa skill this season

We’ve got two months, and the wait from now until the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi will be nothing but anxious anticipation. While we’re waiting for Rey to receive her Force training, it’s a good time to revisit one of the best training sequences in the franchise.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, what with Rey’s training featuring so heavily in Episode VIII’s promo material. After that integral sequence between Luke and Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back, one character training another in the ways of the Force and the Jedi has become a recurring theme in the universe and its stories. Like so many moments in the original trilogy, it’s become a trope, or a motif, a recurring event and idea that serves to tie disparate parts of the world’s storytelling together.

And I love them. All of them. I’m a glutton for training sequences in fiction. I just like learning things, and a chance to combine that with character growth in a dynamic, dramatically necessary way is thrilling. They work for me, even if they’re bad. But Star Wars, even excluding Empire, has some great ones. And my favorite might be one that doesn’t even really involve the Force at all. 

It’s a recent one, too, from the last season of Star Wars Rebels, when Kanan trains Sabine how to use the Darksaber. It’s intriguing because it’s, to my knowledge, the first time we see a Force user train a non-Force user in how to use a lightsaber. It gives Kanan some time to invest in Jedi mysticism, letting him muse about the life and energy of the kyber crystals that power lightsabers while spending most of the scene’s time on the practicalities of the technique and the character’s conflicts.

This scene ticks all the boxes for me. It showcases the flaws of both Kanan and Sabine. Kanan, as a Jedi who was only ever half trained, and who tends to be hot-headed and impatient even when he’s doing the right thing. Sabine, as a reluctant leader who holds herself responsible for evil forced on her by the Empire. In this training fight, they both nearly kill each other, Kanan knowing exactly what buttons to push and Sabine very nearly losing her cool entirely learning an essential lesson.

Every moment is taut and crackling, with as much cinematic flourish as Rebels knows how to deliver. The camera hanging high above the pair when the training begins, the off-kilter closeups as Sabine goes on the offensive and finally opens up. Even the moody lighting is above the show’s average here.

I’ve shared a snippet of it from the Disney XD YouTube channel above, and you can catch the whole thing in “Trials of the Darksaber,” the fifteenth episode of Rebels’ third season. I highly recommend watching. It gives me little shivers every time.

via Gizmodo
While Waiting for The Last Jedi, Revisit the Best Non-Empire Training Sequence in Star Wars

Restrictive employment agreements such as non-compete and non-solicitation agreements are generally disfavored.
As recent developments in Nevada, Florida and North Carolina illustrate, employers must ensure that such agreements are reasonable in scope and supported by consideration in order to be enforceable.
Florida finds that certain referral sources are legitimate business interests
By statute, Florida law generally prohibits non-compete and non-solicitation agreements unless they protect “legitimate…

via Columbus Business News – Local Columbus News | Business First of Columbus
Employers’ non-compete agreements must be reasonable to be enforceable

via TechCrunch
Spiro raises $3M to build CRM tools for businesses that don’t like CRM

I’m pro-gun, but mostly for selfish reasons. Some people (such as celebrities) are probably safer with defensive weapons nearby. But I acknowledge the reality that guns make people less safe in other situations. No two situations are alike. That’s partly why the issue can never be fully resolved. Both sides pretend they are arguing on principle, but neither side is. Both sides are arguing from their personal risk profiles, and those are simply different. Our risk profiles will never be the same across the entire population, so we will never agree on gun control.

That said, I want to call out the worst arguments I have seen on the issue of banning bump stocks. If you are new to the conversation, a bump stock is a $99 add-on to an AR rifle that turns it into an automatic-like weapon for greater kill power. The Vegas gunman used bump stocks. They are legal, whereas a fully automatic rifle is not.

Many pro-gun people in the debate seem to be confused about the purpose of laws in general. Laws are not designed to eliminate crime. Laws are designed to reduce crime. The most motivated criminals will always find a way, and law-abiding citizens will avoid causing trouble in the first place. Laws are only for the people in the middle who might – under certain situations – commit a crime. Any friction you introduce to that crowd has a statistical chance of making a difference. 

Humans are lazy and stupid, on average. If you make something 20% harder to do, a lot of humans will pass. It doesn’t matter what topic you are discussing; if you introduce friction, fewer people do it. With that in mind, let’s look at the least-rational gun control arguments I am seeing lately.

Chicago Example

Gun advocates like to point out that Chicago has strict gun control laws yet high murder rates. This is an irrational argument. The only valid comparison would be Chicago with gun laws in 2017 versus Chicago without gun laws in 2017. Any comparison to other cities, or to other time frames, is pure nonsense. Nothing is a rational comparison to Chicago. There is only one Chicago. And because Chicagoans can easily buy guns from nearby places, the gun ban is probably useless in that case.

Gun opponents use a similarly irrational argument. For example, anti-gun folks might point out that London bans guns and has fewer gun crimes. That’s as irrational as the Chicago argument. There is only one London in 2017. You can’t compare it to anything.

In general, any argument that says, “Look at that one city” is irrational, anecdotal thinking. It has no place in policy decisions.

Criminals Will Break Gun Laws Anyway

As I explained up front, laws are not designed to stop the most motivated criminals. We’ve never seen a law in any realm that stopped all crime. At best, laws discourage the people on the margin. Gun control is no different. The objective is to add some friction and reduce the risk that someone angry enough to pick up an AR doesn’t also have a bump stock in the house.

The Vegas gunman had over 40 guns yet he used bump stocks on his weapons instead of buying illegal fully-automatic weapons in the first place. He also did not purchase grenade launchers, which would have been ideal for his purposes. The reason in both cases is that there was more friction for acquiring the illegal weapons. It wasn’t impossible. It was just harder.

You can Make a Bump Stock on a 3D Printer

No, I can’t. I don’t own a 3D printer. Neither do most criminals. What you mean is that the few people who own 3D printers and have the skill to use them can print bump stocks. Chances are, you’re not one of those people. Again, laws are not designed to stop the most motivated super-criminals. They have lots of ways to get weapons. A 3D printer might be an ideal solution for a few super-criminals. But it won’t have much impact for a number of years on the average person who flips out and wants to start shooting today.

Rubber Bands and other Bump Stock Workarounds

Yes, I know you saw on Youtube a video in which someone rigged an AR with a rubber band on the trigger, or some other clever device that increased the firing speed. I’m no weapons engineer, but I’m fairly certain the rubber band method is less reliable than the bump stock method. And the other workarounds have either more friction (it takes some talent and tools to make anything of that nature) or they are less reliable. I remind you that the goal is not to stop all crime; we’re just trying to add friction to discourage the lazy and less-resourceful types, of which there are many. And perhaps we can add some unreliability to their choice of weapons.

Yes, clever people can create bump stock workarounds that function well enough for making a Youtube video. But most people are not clever, and not terribly resourceful, and they probably haven’t personally tested the rubber band trick. Even a dumb mass murderer wants more reliability than a rubber band suggests. Personally, if I flipped out and decided to kill everyone in my workplace, and I had never tested the rubber band trick, I wouldn’t even consider using it for a real crime, no matter how cool it looked on Youtube.

That’s friction.

Hardly Anyone Has Ever Been Killed by Bump Stock Guns

True. Even if you include the Vegas tragedy, the total percentage of people killed by bump stock-modified guns is tiny. But many people apparently don’t realize that laws are not designed to change the past. Laws are forward-looking devices. And after the Vegas tragedy, 100% of adults have been trained by news organizations on how to procure and use a bump stock. We even know we need multiple rifles because they jam. Compared to last week, the friction for modifying a semi-automatic to an automatic just went from “some” to non-existent. The idea of passing a law banning bump stocks is to add friction to reduce future crimes, not to change the past.

Keep in mind that North Korea might nuke us in the future even though they have no record of nuking us in the past. Policies and laws are not designed to address past risks, only future risks. And our future risk from bump stocks just went through the roof because they are now universally known and also top of mind.

And before you say you already knew how to get a bump stock, just imagine me laughing at you for saying it. I know you already knew how to do that. You are not representative of the entire population of potential killers. No one is suggesting passing laws directed at you personally.

A Guy in Japan Once Killed 30 People With a Knife

The argument here is that motivated killers will find a way to do damage with or without a gun. But does anyone think the guy in Japan killed more people with a knife than he could have with an armory of automatic weapons? And I remind you (again and again) that laws are not designed to stop the most motivated criminals, such as the Japanese stabber. Laws are designed to add friction to the less-clever and less-motivated.

A week ago, a potential killer with low skills and motivation might not figure out how to turn an AR into an automatic rifle. Today – thanks to the news – almost every adult knows how to do it. The existing friction disappeared. You would need to make bump stocks illegal to reintroduce some friction.

Slippery Slope

Gun owners sometimes say banning any weapon leads to banning all of them. In general, the slippery slope argument is nonsense no matter what topic you are discussing. Things do lead to other things, but every decision stands on its own, and should. Banning personal use of grenade launchers did not lead to confiscation of hunting knives, and probably never will. The slippery slope idea inspires fear in gun lovers – because creeping regulations feel like a risk – but in the real world, each decision stands alone. The slippery slope is an irrational fear, not a reasonable factor in policy-making.

The President Can’t Ban Gun Stocks by Executive Order

Sure he can, but it might not be legal. Does that matter?

You think it matters, but it doesn’t. When the Commander-in-Chief makes a thoughtful military decision, and the decision is clearly in the interest of temporarily plugging a security hole during a time of war (with ISIS), that’s defensible no matter what the Constitution says. And you want it that way.

The Constitution grants the Commander-in-Chief a lot of power to make quick decisions on homeland security because speed often matters in such things. As time allows, Congress can do its work. Banning bump stocks until Congress can look into it would be pure Commander-in-Chiefing. It would be public and temporary. Would the Supreme Court overturn the illegal ban? Maybe, but not right away. Remember that the Constitution gives real power to We the People. As long as We the People see our Commander-in-Chief acting responsibly, we’re going to give him a pass, especially for something temporary until Congress gets going.

I acknowledge that the President has no legal authority to ban the sale of legal items. But he could do it anyway. And We the People would largely back him on it so long as it was temporary and clearly intended to give Congress time to address the question.

That’s how Thomas Jefferson would have played it. But he might have looked for a technical way to make his executive order seem legal. I’m sure such an argument exists because lawyers.

Update: The Vegas Killer Would Have Been MORE Deadly Without Bump Stocks

The argument here is that bump stocks make the weapon harder to aim, therefore less lethal. That probably makes sense in some instances, such as a sniper situation. It does not make sense when spraying a dense crowd from above, at long distance. In that case, speed beats accuracy every time. 

In summary, I have genuine respect for both sides of the gun control debate. But the arguments I listed above should not be part of the conversation if we are trying to be rational about it.

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I usually plug a product here. It doesn’t feel right today.

via Scott Adams’ Blog
The Worst Gun Control Arguments