In 2020, Starcraft 2 production director Tim Morten left Blizzard to start Frost Giant Studios. At Summer Game Fest, he finally showed off what he and his team have been working on for the past two years. We got our first look at Stormgate, a new free-to-play real-time strategy game that runs on Unreal Engine 5. Morten didn’t share too many details on the project but said the game would feature two races at launch.
Frost Giant features some serious talent. In addition to Morten, former Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne campaign designer Tim Campbell is part of the team working on Stormgate. Frost Giant plans to begin beta testing the game next year.
As much as the environmentalist crowd and proponents of "green" renewable energy enjoy touting the newest technological innovations as something of a godsend, many Americans remain skeptical of the advances. Even the seemingly unstoppable climb in gas prices fails to move many who simply don’t believe their neighbor’s Prius is the solution to their fiscal woes. Perhaps it’s just intransigence. Maybe Americans simply aren’t prepared to adopt the new technology simply because we’re stuck in our ways–who doesn’t enjoy hearing the purr of a finely tuned vehicle or the roar as you stomp the gas at a light that has only just turned green.
But it may also be that people have weighed to pros and cons, looked into the capabilities, and made an educated choice based on all the relevant factors. If they haven’t, or if they are still thinking about making the move to an electric vehicle, the story of one journalist’s nightmare road trip might be the final bit of information they need to make a decision.
Writing for the Wall Street Journal, Rachel Wolfe prepared and planned for a recent trip with all the glee of a child counting down the days to Christmas the year before finding out Santa doesn’t actually exist. She is hopeful to the point of giddiness, unaware that the fantasy she’s been told is all about to come crashing down, in due time.
She’s responsible about the planning, outlining the entire itinerary, and planning every stop to charge her rented Kia EV6. She’s so sure about her plan that she invites along her friend who has a hard time to meet–a shift at work at the end of the trip.
What Wolfe and her friend Mack find out, however, is the truth.
The reality of the electric vehicle infrastructure immediately slaps the duo in the face. Not only are chargers apparently divided into quick chargers and, well, not, but among those chargers there exists an extremely and ultimately disconcerting caveat to the moniker "quick charger." This categorization is given to those machines capable of supplying from 24-350kW, a range that proves troublesome as it translates into far longer charge times when the machine you’ve stopped at is on the lower end of that spectrum and even worse when it can’t even meet the minimum standard, like the machine Wolfe came across in the first leg of her trip.
From there, it only spirals. Suffice it to say, deficiencies in the charging infrastructure as well as flaws in the vehicle itself, which especially suffers through inclement weather, repeatedly deal blow after blow, heartache after headache all the way to the end. What’s more, it would seem the universe was attempting to warn the two women about their decision, as person after person along the way voiced apprehension, skepticism, and regret regarding the purchase of electric vehicles.
At one point, to conserve energy, Wolfe and her friend frantically work to cut power consumption to prevent a breakdown on the road in the middle of a storm. "To save power, we turn off the car’s cooling system and the radio, unplug our phones and lower the windshield wipers to the lowest possible setting while still being able to see. Three miles away from the station, we have one mile of estimated range."
Don’t worry. This isn’t about to turn into a horror movie where they break down in the middle of the night or something. They make it to the next charging station but only right in the nick of time.
"At zero miles, we fly screeching into a gas-station parking lot. A trash can goes flying and lands with a clatter to greet us."
They also manage to make it back to Chicago in just enough time for an emotionally drained and physically exhausted Mack to walk into a shift at work, at least she didn’t miss it.
In the end, even Wolfe was forced to come to terms with the reality of the present state of EVs and their support, obviously coming to the conclusion that they aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.
"The following week, I fill up my Jetta at a local Shell station. Gas is up to $4.08 a gallon. I inhale deeply. Fumes never smelled so sweet."
While I’ve editorialized quite a bit and condensed her story down to just a few snippets, you can rest assured the entire story is there. And for those of us who have honestly kept an eye on the burgeoning electric vehicle industry, absolutely none of this comes as a shock. The tech is getting there, and I will even concede that it may well become something great and reliable in the future, but that future is not yet upon us. So, while politicians and celebrities laugh at Americans still driving around in gasoline-powered vehicles, pointing at the skyrocketing gas prices and laughing at those forced to pay them, the truth is that even those financially capable of making the change to an EV will find themselves wrestling with the same issues encountered by Wolfe during her brief trip.
Now, I just moved. The drive was about 350 miles one way, and I did it on a single tank of gas. And while even my trip suffered from a few spats of rainy weather, I never had to stop or sacrifice my AC or unplug my phone, turn off the radio, or worry about if my windshield wipers were going to suck up the last bit of fuel in the tank. And if I had run low on fuel, I knew that any gas station could fill me up. And the high prices notwithstanding, that’s a level of peace of mind no EV driver can say to have. Or rather, not if they want to pull out of the station in under an hour.
Perhaps what is necessary is not to force Americans to make the transition to EVs; this would only serve to stress an already weak infrastructure. What we need is more responsible policies to lower gasoline prices, make driving more affordable, and provide the requisite amount of time to build that infrastructure if and or when that transition occurs naturally.
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Kamala DODGES Question On The Idiotic ‘Green New Deal’ | Louder With Crowder
These days, the only pre-installed game you’ll find on Mac is an exciting, strategy-based war simulator pitting royal factions against one another. And by that, I mean Chess. But now you can get unique, fun, classic games like Bugdom, Nanosaur, and Cro-Mag Rally. I thought these titles were lost for good, but as it turns out, you can still play them.
I grew up with the iMac G3. To the outside world it certainly wasn’t a gaming machine, but to me it was a premiere PC. I was able to play the games I wanted to play, which were usually the Mac’s two Harry Potter ports (those soundtracks, though), but my favorite part of the G3 was the pre-installed titles: I didn’t have an N64, PlayStation, or GameCube, but I had Bugdom, Nanosaur, and Cro-Mag Rally. And that was alright with me.
What happened to Bugdom, Nanosaur, and Cro-Mag Rally?
In case you don’t have the fond memories of these titles, here’s a quick summary: Bugdom has you playing as a pill bug traversing 10 levels to save your world from an invasion of enemy ants. (It’s great, I promise.) In Nanosaur, you’re a dinosaur armed to the teeth, outrunning other dinosaurs in an effort to steal their eggs. (Again, it’s great.) And Cro-Mag Rally is a kart racer game that’s set in the ancient world, complete with “time-appropriate” karts and weapons.
These games wouldn’t be a sell in 2022, but they did push some boundaries for Mac gaming and 3D development back in the day.
It doesn’t end there, though: The iMac G5 also shipped with two unique titles: Nanosaur 2, a sequel to the original dino shooter (this time starring a murderous pterodactyl), and Marble Blast Gold, in which you controlled a marble through a series of progressively challenging race tracks to the finish line. To give credit where credit’s due, Pangea Software developed most of these games, plus plenty of other games you could purchase separately, while Marble Blast Gold was developed by GarageGames.
The problem with these old games is they were written for Mac hardware (PowerPC) that is no longer supported. The original game files exist, but if you download them to your Mac today, you won’t be able to open them. With the exception of mobile ports (which I’ll cover below), I thought most of these games were essentially lost forever. Luckily, there’s a way to replay them on your current hardware, through both mobile ports, as well as total rewrites of the games’ original code.
How to download classic Mac games, or play online
The two titles available as Mac downloads right now are Bugdom and Nanosaur. These games have been rewritten by developer Jorio for macOS, Windows, and Linux, which allows you to play the original games as they were on your current machine. To install these games on your computer, follow the links above, then choose your particular OS from the list of download links. It’s a nostalgia trip, for sure. Do I miss playing these things on that classic CRT display with the matching keyboard and hockey puck mouse? Sure. But after years of not being able to play Bugdom outside of my own memories, I’ll take it.
The easiest one to play, though, is Marble Blast Gold. The game and its sequel were ported by developer Vanilagy as web apps, meaning you can play right in your browser. Head to this site, then click the marble in the top left to choose Marble Blast Gold. You’ll find all levels already unlocked, plus over 2,000 custom levels designed by other players.
Cro-Mag Rally and Nanosaur 2 haven’t been rewritten for modern Macs, unfortunately, but you can play the games’ ports on iOS and iPadOS as a $1.99 download (there’s also a free version of Nanosaur 2 with ads). Nanosaur 2 is mostly how I remember it, but I’m a bit disappointed with the Cro-Mag Rally situation. Don’t get me wrong—I’m thrilled this game is ready to play in 2022 in any form, but this version isn’t the one I really want. Cro-Mag Rally on Mac OS X came with additional game modes, plus a settings pane that let you adjust the physics of the game. I’d love to experience those parts of Cro-Mag Rally again, but it doesn’t look like that’s happening anytime soon.
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U.S.—Chick-Fil-A has finally come around to celebrating pride month this year. The fast-food company has announced that throughout June, all waffle fries will be covered in salt from Lot’s wife.
“Other companies go in for rainbow flags and squeezing in PRIDE everywhere they can, but we wanted our celebration of pride month to be a bit more…biblical,” said Dan Cathy at a recent press release. “Now with every delicious, perfectly seasoned bite of waffle fry customers will be reminded how God celebrates Pride.”
“Wow! That IS salty. Man, I needed this reminder to flee from sexual sin,” said Chick-fil-a patron Brenda Lovelace. “I don’t want to end up as a pillar of salt just like Lot’s wife!”
Much to Chick-fil-a’s surprise, this move to faithfully honor pride month has been met with intense backlash from the LGBT community. “WHAT?! You’re supposed to celebrate by changing all your bags to rainbow flags and putting Drag Queens in the playplace ball pit!” said queer-activist Brandley Xenus. “This doesn’t count!”
At publishing time, Dan Cathy also announced that if you tell any employee the secret phrase “I take kids to Drag shows,” they will celebrate by placing a millstone to your neck and tossing you into the ocean.
Are you a woman? It’s hard to tell these days. Watch our well-researched video to find out whether you are indeed a woman.
Man, it’s been almost two years now, and ammo prices still suck. A lot of us have chewed through our stash and are faced with paying higher prices or seeking training alternatives.
If only we had all this…
I mean, no one expects us to just stop shooting, right? Well, maybe we can turn to the old classic, .22 LR. While the price of .22 LR has risen, it hasn’t reached the crazy levels of 9mm and 5.56.
With that in mind, I’ve started searching out some of the better options for .22 LR trainers. These guns can replicate the feel and handling of a larger caliber firearm and offer you some training value without emptying your wallet.
The FN 502 hit the ground running and is part of FN’s 500 series pistols. It shrinks things down to rimfire size and goes from a striker-fired gun to a hammer-fired gun.
FN 502 Tactical – Various Ammo
The hammer-fired action is single action only, so it’s roughly similar to a striker-fired trigger. And it fits most of the FN 509 holsters and matches the look and feel of the FN 509. However, it replicates the feel of most striker-fired modern pistols.
There isn’t much difference between models, and I believe the FN 502 could stand in for the Glock, S&W, Walther, etc.
FN 502 in action
One of the more interesting features is the weapon’s optics compatibility. Toss on whatever optic you want, and now you can effectively replicate a modern MRDS-equipped handgun.
The sights are suppressor height sights, and the barrel is also threaded.
All in all, it’s one of the best rimfire handguns on the market. It comes with a flush 10-round magazine and an extended 15-round magazine.
This is perfect for training for defensive handgun use. It also works well when it comes to some competition training.
Set up a cardboard Steel Challenge course, and you can work your way through it with ease. The FN 502 allows you to work on your red dot presentation, your draw, and trigger control.
Every little boy and girl needs a .22 LR revolver. Seriously, the S&W 317 Kit gun might be the best to double as both a training .22 LR and a practical gun. It’s also just a ton of fun.
This revolver is a double-action model with an exposed hammer, and it sits on a rather compact frame.
S&W AirLite Model 317 (Photo: Major Pandemic)
Shooters get a nice 3-inch barrel and the 317 packs eight rounds of the little .22 LR. It’s a handy little gun that uses the J-frame, but don’t mistake it for a snub nose.
At 11.7 ounces, it’s not tough for younger shooters to handle.
The single-action hammer makes it a sweet shooter, especially when you factor in the Hi-Viz front sight and adjustable rear sight.
S&W Model 317 Hi Viz front sight (Photo: Smith & Wesson)
The Kit gun is perfect for learning how to use a modern revolver. Its trigger design allows you to train for both a standard exposed hammer and an enclosed hammer. And the gun uses a modern swing-out cylinder.
Heck, they even make speed loaders for it.
The 317 Kit gun gives you a handy little gun for hunting, fishing, and other tasks where you might want a portable pest remover. This gun is plenty robust and perfect for general purpose outdoorsy, plus it’s a lot of fun.
The Tikka T1x brings the training rimfire rifle to a bolt-action design. Like all Tikka firearms, the 1X is a fantastic example of what a bolt gun should be.
Shooters get a well-built rifle with a medium contour barrel, a 10-round magazine, and a very smooth bolt-action system.
The modular stock allows you to swap pistol grips at various angles, and you can attach a wider forend at the front of the gun for a better grip.
Tikka T1x Build for NRL22 Base Class
Tikka utilizes a crossover-style barrel system that mixes the stability and accuracy of a heavy barrel without being unbalanced and heavy.
For making those accurate shots, the barrel is cold hammer-forged and threaded, and ready for a suppressor.
The Tikka T1x provides a rimfire stand-in for the already awesome Tikka T3x rifles. Tikka uses the same bedding surfaces and inlay footprint as the centerfire T3x.
Besides being a stand-in for the T3x, it’s also just a great stand-in for any bolt action rifle.
Tikka T1x in MDT ACC Chassis
Bolt-action rifles are known for their accuracy, and the Tikka T1x is plenty accurate. It might not provide the range of a centerfire rifle; however, with a reduced-sized target and some good glass, you can work your accuracy skills well.
Beyond that, the Tikka T1x is just a great general-purpose training tool for new shooters.
As a bolt-action, shooters aren’t tempted to rapid-fire. New shooters can safely and easily learn accuracy fundamentals and gun safety.
Lots of .22 LR AR rifles exist, but it’s tough to find a better, more affordable option that matches the look, feel, and controls of a real AR-15 than the M&P 15-22 at a great price point.
Smith & Wesson M&P 15-22 Sport in Khaki
S&W also makes various models with handguard options including quad rails and M-LOK rails. The magazines are as close as you get to the real thing and hold up to 25 rounds.
The S&W M&P 15-22 keeps the price point low by using hefty amounts of polymer in their design. It’s clearly not as heavy as an actual AR-15 but tries its best to match the real thing.
The gun uses a blowback action, which you come to expect from .22 LR rifles.
It’s like this but in .22 LR
The presence of a last-round bolt hold open makes reloads accurate, and it’s a great feature to have for training purposes.
You can toss on a cheaper red dot and even light to replicate your actual gun at a lower price. An S&W M&P 15-22 makes your AR-15 training efficient and cheap.
On top of that, the S&W M&P 15-22 can be used at indoor ranges, which often prohibit the use of rifle rounds, but allow the humble .22 LR. Plus, it’s also a lot of fun to shoot and perfect for plinking cans and squirrel hunting.
The Taurus TX22 might be my favorite .22 LR pistol on the market.
This striker-fired, polymer frame wonder 9 is the generic of generic pistols, and the Taurus TX22 replicates that generic pistol well enough to be a training pistol for nearly anything.
A shooter with a TX22 can easily replicate their Glock, their FN, their SIG, or beyond with the TX22.
Its simple controls make using the TX22 in place of any other gun easy. The TX22 did find a way to implement 16 rounds in a flush fighting magazine, which again brings the capacity up to a realistic count.
With a rock-solid price point, the TX22 provides a great training pistol that not only replicates your basic 9mm handgun but makes generalized training easy.
The Taurus TX22 is a decent little starter pistol in .22 LR.
The TX22 is well suited for new shooters learning the art of the handgun without the recoil of a 9mm. It’s much cheaper to train with, and the TX22 has proven itself to be reliable and frustration-free.
Taurus’ latest model incorporates a red dot, but it’s a little less traditional. However, you can still train that valuable red dot presentation and learn to effectively use a red dot.
What do you think of the Taurus TX22? Rate it below!
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6. Henry Classic .22 LR Lever Gun
If you are a fan of the classics and use a lever gun, you know the ammo is expensive. Lever guns don’t come in 9mm-friendly price points. .44 Mag, .45 Colt, .357 Mag, and more cost a pretty penny.
If you shoot SASS, then you are familiar with the high cost of ammunition. The Henry Classic Lever-Action .22 LR brings you all the fun of a lever gun without the cost.
We love lever guns…but the ammo…well that can get pricey.
It’s perfect for learning to run the lever gun fast and hard. Working that smooth action and sending a pile of .22 LR downrange is both a ton of fun and a big challenge. Pair it with a shot timer, and you will both effectively train and have the time of your life.
The Classic lever gun doesn’t implement some crazy manual safeties or other features that detract from the classic lever gun.
The only downside is that it’s tube-loaded, and it doesn’t utilize a side gate. Side gates are tough with .22 LR because the projectiles don’t take pressure well without bending, which will cause feeding issues.
Luckily, even with this slight issue, the Henry Classic lever gun gives you all the feeling and joy of a standard lever gun without the high price of lever gun ammo.
The CZ Kadet kits are not firearms. Instead, they are conversion kits for CZ series pistols.
Five exist, and they allow you to outfit your CZ 75, your P09, your P07, your SP01, and your CZ Shadow with a new complete slide and .22 LR magazines.
These kits vary in price but offer an affordable way to convert the gun you already have to a .22 LR pistol.
The Kadet kits are drop-in designs and make the conversion absolutely painless. Heck, it’s easy enough to swap at the range and warm up with .22 LR and start training with 9mm.
CZ Shadow 2…just toss on one of the kits and you can run .22 LR
If you’ve already joined the CZ master race, why not turn your 9mm into a .22 LR for training purposes? CZ firearms are well represented in the fields of defensive use and competition, both of which require a ton of practice to be sufficient.
Tossing a Kadet Kit on your favorite CZ allows you to use the same trigger, controls, and everything else, but with a different slide and maybe different sights.
Hammer-fired CZs are a natural and easy conversion to .22 LR. The kits will pay for themselves quite quickly.
The CMMG .22 LR AR Conversion Kit is exactly what it sounds like. This drop-in bolt conversion kit allows you to take any 5.56 caliber AR-15 and chamber it in .22 LR.
It’s one of the most affordable ways to train with rimfire in your AR 15 rifle.
It’s a drop-in kit that utilizes an integral everything, including a buffer. The magazines are proprietary, 25-round magazines that work almost flawlessly. They tend to prefer jacketed ammunition over bare lead.
Built in the early 1970s, the 900+ room Carolando Motor Inn was, for a time, the largest hotel near Disney World. It was part of a larger development that never came to fruition, and after a successful run as a Hyatt, and a failed reopening, it saw its final guests in 2012. Bright Sun Films takes us on a tour of its water-logged ruins.
This fascinating video from GWIN TECH shows how a factory quickly cranks out lightweight plastic boats. The blow molding process involves filling a plastic bladder with hot air and then stamping them together with giant dies while the plastic is still pliable.
The price history of .22lr when adjusted for inflation and unskilled laborer earning potential is fascinating. IMG Jim Grant
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)-— The author has been interested in the historical costs of .22 rimfire cartridges since childhood. Starting in early adolescence, and continuing for many years, the value of things and time was measured in .22 cartridges. It was a simple calculation, an easy comparison. From that era, 1964 to the present, .22 Long Rifle cartridge list prices, converted to constant unskilled labor dollars, have been fairly stable.
The unskilled labor number is based on the time it takes for an unskilled laborer to earn the same purchasing power for a particular year. It took about 146 hours (about two weeks, 12 hours a day, six days a week), for an unskilled laborer in 1911, to earn the same purchasing power as 1 hour of unskilled labor in 2022. The chart shows the value of unskilled labor increased rapidly from 1911 to present, with some glitches. The most obvious is the depression, in 1932, post-WWII in 1950, most of the 1980s, and after the election of President Obama, 2008 onward.
The .22 caliber rimfire cartridges are the most successful cartridges in history. Billions are produced annually. They are the most used cartridges of all time. The .22 Long Rifle is the most common. For a considerable time, the .22 Short gave it significant competition. The .22 Long, while sold in considerable quantities, was never as popular as either the Long Rifle or the Short.
.22 rimfire cartridges have been used to kill the biggest land animals on the planet, from elephants (according to Peter Hathaway Capstick, in Safari, the Last Adventure, p.114 to 116) to grizzly bears.
The chart shows the prices, in the value of unskilled labor, of a .22 Long Rifle cartridge, in 2022 dollars, from 1911 to 2022.
The .22 Winchester Rimfire (WRF) and the .22 WRF magnum deserve mention, but their use and production pale in significance to the Long Rifle and the Short.
The .22 rimfire has always been the least expensive cartridge to purchase. For most of history, the .22 Short has been less expensive than the Long Rifle. That changed in the 1980s. The Long Rifle has always been more versatile.
This correspondent has obtained manufacturer price list information for .22 Long Rifle ammunition from 1911 to 2022. The information covers 111 ears of pricing history. Of the 111 years, this correspondent obtained data for 70 years. There are enough data points to catch most variations lasting a couple of years or more.
For consistency, the prices are those of smokeless, 40-grain high-velocity Long Rifle cartridges. The prices are all from one highly successful manufacturer. The cost of obtaining the prices was confidentiality.
Material costs seem to have relatively little effect on overall cartridge costs. Looking at a 2003 Gun Digest, variations of 50 rounds of .25 Auto and 50 rounds of .44 magnum were both priced at $17.
The incredible increase in productivity brought about by the petroleum age and increasing technological prowess reduced the relative costs of cartridges enormously. In 1911, the petroleum age was just starting. Automobiles were in their infancy. So were airplanes. The ability to fix nitrogen from the air for fertilizer and explosives had been discovered by German scientists in 1909, in the Haber-Bosch process.
In 1911, the relative cost of a thousand rounds of .22 Long Rifle, in dollars earned by unskilled labor, was $1,095, or about $1.10 per cartridge in 2022 valuation. The nominal cost in 1911 was 3/4 of a cent per round. To give perspective, butter was 20 cents a pound; fresh eggs were 20 cents a dozen. A day of unskilled labor was paid about $1.
After WWI and the vast increase in technological knowledge and skill, the cost fell to about 28 cents per round in the value of unskilled labor in 2022. WWII sparked more increases in technological prowess and knowledge. The price gradually fell to about 20 cents per round in 2022 unskilled labor dollars. The lowest prices, per round of .22 long rifle, in unskilled labor, were reached from 1993 to 2006, at about 4.5 cents per round.
From the Obama years onward, the price has gone up and down to about 8 cents per round currently. If we maintain a republic, this correspondent expects .22 Long Rifle cartridges to move back down in the neighborhood of 4 cents a cartridge in constant dollars.
Diligent shoppers will find cartridges on sale, going out of business, discontinued, or other bargains. Estates of shooters often sell ammunition at bargain-basement prices. Gun stores often refuse to resell ammunition, even in unopened boxes.
Ammunition, if stored in reasonable conditions, will last many decades, probably over a hundred years. 65-year-old .22 rimfire ammunition has been tested by this correspondent. There was no measurable degradation in performance.
—
About Dean Weingarten:
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 retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
