BESSEMER, Ala.-(Ammoland.com)- The Steyr Scout RFR, a blazingly fast straight-pull rifle that emulates the look and feel of the original Steyr Scout Rifle on a rimfire platform, will make its official debut to the American public in the Steyr Arms booth (#3258) at the NRA Annual Meetings of Members and Exhibits in Atlanta tomorrow.
Based on the proven, biathlon-inspired SPA action built by fellow Austrian firearms manufacturer ISSC, the Steyr Scout RFR was designed from the ground up as an economical, minimal-recoil Scout Rifle trainer. Available in .22 LR, .22 WMR, and .17 HMR, the Scout RFR has an exceptionally smooth straight-pull action fed from its 10-round magazine, allowing for extremely fast cycling that makes training easy and range time enjoyable.
Code-named “Cub Scout” during its development, the Scout RFR features the same stock lines as the original Steyr Scout, as designed by Steyr engineers with the continual input of scout-rifle-concept visionary, Col. Jeff Cooper.
The Scout RFR provides a 30-slot Picatinny rail along its barrel for forward-mounted optics. An integrated 3/8-inch dovetail base also runs the full length of the receiver’s topside, and a set of Weaver bases are also included for conventional scope mounting.
The Scout RFR also features a 20-inch heavy-barrel configuration for maximum accuracy. Both the .17 HMR and .22 LR barrels are 1/2-20 UNF threaded for the users’ choice of attachments, while the .22 WMR barrel is not.
Steyr Arms Rifle Specs Chart
The overall length of the Scout RFR is 35.6 inches, and its base weight is 7.3 pounds. An optional knife tucks away neatly into the stock, and the standard Steyr SBS/Scout buttplate spacers can be swapped in or out to adjust length-of-pull.
The Scout RFR may not be exactly what Col. Cooper envisioned with his center-fire scout-rifle concept, but this rimfire rifle makes the idea as accessible to everyone as easy as it makes taking squirrels in your back yard or gaining a merit badge.
The Steyr Scout RFR includes two Weaver bases; one 10-round, steel-box magazine; and an owner’s manual. The suggested retail of the Scout RFR is $599.
About Steyr Arms:
Steyr Mannlicher, GmbH, is one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious firearms manufacturers. Steyr’s comprehensive lines of premium hunting rifles and precision sporting and tactical firearms are technically mature, and their subtle elegance also communicates the harmony between appearance and substance. Steyr’s legendary SBS actions and cold-hammer-forged barrels are distinctive and unparalleled. Steyr Arms is the subsidiary headquarters of Steyr Mannlicher in the U.S.
For more information, contact Steyr Arms at 2530 Morgan Rd., Bessemer, AL 35022; call (205) 417-8644; or visit their website.
Today, scanning for food contaminants, such as pesticides, can only be done using equipment that is: expensive to buy, expensive to operate, immobile, requires skilled personnel, and does not supply immediate results. The food industry, from farmers, producers, handlers, regulators and retailers to consumers, is in need of a better solution.INSPECTO is an innovative startup company aiming to revolutionize the process by producing an accurate, portable, affordable, quick and automatic device for the detection of chemicals on food produce, both liquid and solid.
If you’re building a SaaS application, you probably already have the notion of tenancy built in your data model. Typically, most information relates to tenants/customers/accounts and your database tables capture this natural relation. With smaller amounts of data, it’s easy to throw more hardware at the problem and scale up your database. As these tables grow, however, you need to think about ways to scale your multi-tenant database across dozens or hundreds of machines. In this talk, Citus Data’s Lukas Fittl and Ozgun Erdogan (CTO) talked about the motivations behind scaling your SaaS (multi-tenant) database and several heuristics they found helpful in deciding when to scale.
They then described three design patterns that are common in scaling SaaS databases:
Create one database per tenant
Create one schema per tenant
Have all tenants share the same table(s).
Next, they highlighted the tradeoffs involved with each design pattern and focused on one pattern that scales to hundreds of thousands of tenants. They also shared an example architecture from the industry that describes this pattern in more detail. Lastly, they talked about key PostgreSQL properties, such as semi-structured data types, that make building multi-tenant applications easy.
After the talk, Lukas and Ozgun were kind enough to speak with me about their session. Check it out below:
The allen wrenches are cranking away at Ikea.
The Swedish mega retailer’s Columbus store at 1900 Ikea Way off Polaris Parkway remains on track for its June 7 opening. I was invited to the site Tuesday to get a peek at the progress.
Interior walls that set the consumer path through the showroom are up and work is underway on all of the departments and rooms shoppers will amble through in a few short weeks.
Check out the slideshow to see how the store is coming along.
It isn’t just display…
Everyone observing politics seems to agree on two things about a president’s first 100 days in office:
1. 100 days is a meaningless, arbitrary marker for a president’s performance that is likely to be more misleading than useful.
and…
2. Let’s treat it like it is important! Reeeeeeee!
The thing that fascinates me the most about this situation is that the so-called “pro-science” people are giving Trump low grades for his first 100 days.
Allow me to connect some dots.
In science, you don’t have much of an experiment unless you have a control case for comparison. For example, you can’t know if a drug helped with a particular disease unless you study the people who didn’t take the drug at the same time as those who did.
But the pro-science people forget this concept when thinking about politics. Where is the control case for Trump’s first 100 days?
Is it George Washington’s first 100 days?
Is it Jimmy Carter’s first 100 days?
And which prior president came to office in 2017 with identical problems and the most polarized political environment in history?
And just how long is it supposed to take to revise Obamacare? Do we compare it to the time Abe Lincoln repealed and replaced Obamacare? Or how about the time those other presidents repealed and replaced Obamacare in the year 2017?
I saw an article in Politico that is too dumb to link to, saying it is objectively true that Trump has had a bad first 100 days. This is a perfect example of what I call the “two movies on one screen effect.” I’m almost certain that many Trump supporters would say these facts are objectively true too:
Economic confidence is up.
Trump signed a bunch of executive orders. You might not like them, but that’s more about you, not about his job performance.
China is putting the screws on North Korea (finally)
Trump erased the “puppet of Putin” charge by prudent application of Tomahawk missiles. That’s an accomplishment, even if you don’t like it.
Trump erased the “Trump is Hitler” hallucination that the Clinton side spray-painted onto him during the election. (That’s a big deal.)
Trump got a qualified Supreme Court judge, albeit the hard way.
Healthcare is moving along briskly from the first plan that was terrible to something that is approaching feasible. That’s progress, not failure.
Tax reform will probably be slower than we want, but most observers expect something good to come of it.
International relations look fine. The only awkward relationship is with Putin, and that’s the awkward relationship Trump’s detractors want.
Illegal immigration is way down because of Trump’s persuasion.
Now let’s look at the things President Trump did wrong in his first 100 days:
You can criticize Trump’s actions against women’s reproductive rights, both on the topic of Planned Parenthood funding and his Supreme Court pick. But calling those things failures or successes depends on your political views, not on Trump’s job performance.
I think you could make an objective case against Trump for putting economics above the environment. But you’d have to ignore the fact that a stronger economy almost always puts you in a better position to keep the environment clean. (Trump says that.) You don’t see clean air and water in poor countries.
President Trump reversed a bunch of campaign statements from impractical positions to more practical ones. Is that failure?
President Trump said a bunch of things that did not pass the fact-checking, surprising literally no one. And as usual, none of it mattered in any way except that it made us focus on whatever topic he wanted us to focus on.
President Trump’s staff and advisors are reportedly doing a lot of in-fighting for influence. But that sounds more like a healthy situation than a Trump-is-dictator situation. It would be worse if there were no differences of opinion in the group.
President Trump has been slow to fill lots of government positions. But has any of that mattered to your life? I haven’t noticed, personally. Was the Secretary of Whatever supposed to come over and mow my lawn?
President Trump did not release his tax returns, so we imagine there are problems there.
President Trump incorrectly claimed that his staff had been “wiretapped.” It turns out that they were only legally surveilled in an indirect way. Which only sounds different to his critics.
Generally speaking, the criticisms of President Trump’s first 100 days (and in general) are based on imaginary stuff:
Imagined problems on his tax returns.
Imagined blackmail by Russia.
Imagined poor performance based on imagining a control case of another imaginary president doing the same job at the same time, but doing it faster.
Imaginary belief that doing things you prefer he not do is similar to not being competent.
Imagined staff problems that are bigger than they are.
Imagined nuclear holocaust that happens because of Trump’s imaginary insanity.
Imagined problems caused by his ignoring of facts that don’t matter.
Imagined future climate calamity. (They could be right, but for now it is imaginary because complex models have a bad track record.)
—
You might enjoy reading my book because it performed better than all the imaginary books I am comparing it to.
Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)- An American Muslim who open and concealed carries weapons got into trouble for a facebook live video.
He filmed and posted the video outside of a Christian event that some called “anti-Muslim”. The event occurred on April 9th, 2017.
Ehad Abdulmutta Jaber bought tickets for the event and was wearing the T-shirt pictured above. The Shirt says:
I am an American
I am a Muslim
I open carry
I concealed carry
I am only dangerous
If you are stupid.
Ehad entered the event wearing the shirt and openly carrying a holstered pistol. He was concealed carrying another pistol in an ankle holster. One account said he was filming the event, but he was only there for a few minutes.
Ehad was approached by a security guard and asked to leave, as firearms were prohibited at the venue. By all accounts, Ehad was asked to leave politely, and he politely left. It was after he left the venue and was inside his van in the parking lot, that he made a serious error.
He posted a live facebook video of himself, speaking of the event. Here are links to the video. I found the dailymail link easier to view, it is not a reverse image.
Ehad has First and Second Amendment rights. He says that he is an American citizen who has lived in Sioux Falls for 25 years. The T-Shirt is clearly a political statement.
The video may have been a bridge too far.
In the video, Ehad says that he was at the event. He is upset, and uses considerable profanity.
He says “And now if you really want to be scared, be scared,” he then briefly displays four semi-auto pistols, an AR-15 type rifle, and an AK type firearm that might be either a pistol or a rifle. He shows that he has ammunition. He says “be terrified”. Up to this point, the video may be taken as sarcasm.
A Police officer said that Jaber was not arrested at the rally. The officer is quoted as saying that there was no direct threat.
“He had a lot of guns with him, but he wasn’t breaking any laws. He didn’t threaten anybody directly, he didn’t threaten any groups of people anything like that and it’s not illegal to carry guns or have guns with you,” says Officer Sam Clemens of the Sioux Falls Police Department.
Police say Jaber does have open carry and concealed carry permits. They also spoke with him, so did the FBI. Police say the information was sent to the Lincoln County State’s Attorney’s Office and no charges will be made.
“You have to have some type of specific threat or manner, just having a gun just because it alarms people doesn’t constitute a threat. That doesn’t mean you are going to harm people,” says Clemens.
But Jaber’s last statement on the video may make a significant difference. His last sentence was “F*ck all ya all.”
I have written, read, and participated in open carry and Second Amendment events over considerable parts of the country. I have some sympathy for Ehad Jaber. Posting a video in the parking lot of an event that you are protesting, showing a number of legal weapons, while telling people to be scared, to be terrified, is extremely unusual and provocative.
Then to say “F*ck all ya all.” is over the line. I have never seen anyone at any of the events I attended or wrote about, or read about, tell people to be scared and terrified, as they handled weapons, or to make the F-bomb threat. Those are dozens of events over the years.
I could follow the sarcasm up to the last F-bomb. Then it became ambiguous.
After a little study, the Lincoln County AG made the decision to arrest Jaber and charge him with one count of a terrorist threat. From argusleader.com:
A man who authorities say brought weapons to an anti-Islam event earlier this month has been arrested on charges that he made a terrorist threat, according to a release from the South Dakota Attorney General.
When Jaber was arrested, a search was made of his residence. Law enforcement reports that they found methamphetamine.
A SWAT team was dispatched along with local police, Forster said, but once they arrived, Jaber was taken into custody in a “standard operation.”
During a search of Jaber’s residence, the release said, law enforcement seized firearms as well as methamphetamine.
The methamphetamine find seems fortuitous for law enforcement; but it might explain the rant and poor choice of words in the facebook video.
To look at this objectively, consider if the religions were reversed. Suppose a Christian had worn the shirt with “Christian” instead of “Muslim” to a Muslim event. Suppose a Christian had made the facebook video. My experience is that the Christian would quickly have been arrested.
That is why you do not see such activity at other open carry events. There are many open carry events that you can see on the Internet. The participants are polite to the police, as was Ehab. They do not go to a van in the parking lot of an event they are protesting, and then post a video that can easily be taken as threatening.
I wish Ehad well, but fear he has made a mistake that will haunt him for the rest of his life. When you are politically active for both the First and Second Amendments, there is no room for foolish bravado.
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
The Sussex Declaration. (Image: West Sussex Record Office Add Mss 8981)
Harvard researchers have discovered a parchment manuscript of the Declaration of Independence at a small archive office in the United Kingdom. Only the second parchment copy known to exist, it contains several features that mark it as distinct from the original.
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In August 2015, Emily Sneff, a researcher with the Declaration Resources Project, was parsing through a database of every known example of the Declaration of Independence when an item appeared bearing the description: “Manuscript copy, on parchment, of the Declaration in Congress of the thirteen United States of America.” Sneff didn’t think much about it at the time, figuring it was probably a cataloguing error and that it was likely one of many copies made of the Declaration during the 19th Century. Nonetheless, she contacted the West Sussex Record office in the UK, where the manuscript was kept, just to make sure. When she received a disc with photos of the document, Sneff realized it was no ordinary copy, so she recruited her colleague Danielle Allen to take a closer look.
Nearly two years later, the team has concluded that the document—now known as the Sussex Declaration—is an authentic copy of the Declaration of Independence handwritten on parchment at some point during the 1780s. The only other parchment version is the Matlack Declaration, which is kept at the National Archives. Other handwritten copies of the Declaration exist, but in those versions the text was written out on letter-sized paper for private circulation. These findings are set to appear in an upcoming edition of Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America.
Detail of the List of Signers on the Sussex Declaration. (Image: West Sussex Record Office Add Mss 8981.)
The newly discovered manuscript is the same size as the original, 24" x 30", but it’s oriented horizontally rather than vertically. The list of signatories is in an alternate order—the name John Hancock isn’t listed first. Weirdly, several names are misspelled. There’s also a blotch at the top that looks like some kind erasure. The text contains very little punctuation, and the handwriting style isn’t one the researchers have seen before. Other interesting features include marginal ruling, decorative penwork around the titling, evidence of nail holes, and justified, round hand script.
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Sneff and Allen say the document was likely commissioned by James Wilson of Pennsylvania, a signatory of the Declaration and a contributor to the US Constitution. Evidence also suggests the parchment was owned by Charles Lennox, the 3rd Duke of Richmond. Known as the “Radical Duke,” Lennox was an avid anti-colonist and support of American Independence. The manuscript was likely produced in either New York City or Philadelphia, and then sent across the Atlantic to the Duke.
Like the 1776 Matlack Declaration, the Sussex manuscript was written in an exaggerated size, known as an “engrossed” manuscript in the parlance of the time. As the New York Historical Society explains, “it denotes a document written in a clear, formal hand, meant to be the authoritative copy.” The document was produced in the 1780s, after the original version and the American Revolution. It was also written during a time of financial and political uncertainty, and it was meant to send a message. Accordingly, Sneff and Allen believe the ordering of the signatures was adjusted for a very good reason.
On most documents of the era, Allen said, the protocol was for members of each state delegation to sign together, with signatures typically running either down the page or from left to right, with the names of the states labeling each group. An exception was made for a small number of particularly important documents — including the Declaration, which was signed from right to left, and which omitted the names of the states, though the names were still grouped by state.
“But the Sussex Declaration scrambles the names so they are no longer grouped by state,” Allen said. “It is the only version of the Declaration that does that, with the exception of an engraving from 1836 that derives from it. This is really a symbolic way of saying we are all one people, or ‘one community,’ to quote James Wilson.”
In other words, this version of the Declaration was an expression of American unity and cohesion.
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Looking ahead, Sneff and Allen would like to learn more about Charles Lennox and how he came to possess of the document. They’re also planning to work with a spectral imaging team to see if they can read some of the text that was scraped away at the top of the document.
I’ve seen a whole lot of Star Wars fan films over the years, but too many of them seem to focus on big battles, or trying to show off someone’s visual effects skills. Frankly, I think that’s kind of silly, as no indie filmmaker will ever live up to the 9-figure production budgets that Disney spends on their theatrical releases. That’s why I especially enjoyed watching The Force and The Fury.
Writer/director Jason Satterlund’s short is focused on developing interesting characters that you want to know more about. It features excellent performances from Aris Judson and Deborah Smith, great cinematography by Federico Verardi, and a cinematic score by Geoff Koch, who managed to create music that’s original, but fits right into the universe created by John Williams.
The story’s premise is simple, but well executed: a Jedi finds himself on a barren planet after his ship is shot down, and not only has to deal with the struggles of being injured and shipwrecked, but quickly finds out that he’s being pursued by a very angry Sith. I won’t give away anything else, as I think it’s well worth 7 minutes of your time to watch the whole film.
Jason Satterlund’s short film is one of the better Star Wars fan films we’ve seen. Focused more on character and emotion than effects, it follows the story of a Jedi who crash-lands on a desolate planet, and finds himself at the mercy of a Sith who has a vendetta against him.
Wondering how to build an AR-15 Lower? In this episode of TFB TV, Patrick was doing some spring cleaning and came across enough spare parts to build a complete AR-15 lower receiver. Patrick walks you through how he builds his own AR-15 lowers. Next week we will build an AR-15 upper receiver for future use […]
