August 30, 2018 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"Max Talk 036: Buddy Pair Fire & Movement: Assault"--Max Velocity Tactical (11 min.)

Discussion and demonstration.

• Grant Cunningham's Hump Day Reading List. He has links to articles on treating severe allergic reactions, female criminals, getting your kids prepared and more.
• "Terminal Ballistics as Viewed in a Morgue"--This is a 2006 archive of a forum discussion originally on the Smith & Wesson forum. I don't know the dates of the original forum discussion. Anyway, it has some people that have performed or assisted with autopsies discussing their observations of wounds left by different calibers of firearms. It is a long read, but interesting.
• "Beyond Bullets: Two Experts Give Us Their Input on Best Practices for Concealed Carry Medicine"--Recoil Magazine. Key point:

As stated above, the very bare minimum equipment I would carry would be a tourniquet and pair of nitrile gloves. If I could add to that, I would add a small pressure bandage and a hemostatic agent (QuikClot Combat Gauze or ChitoGauze) and a pair of compact chest seals. The difference in wounding patterns in civilian mass casualty/active shooter situations is different from military scenarios in that the wounding patterns in civilian settings are typically thoracic and cranial injuries. Those areas are typically protected with military personnel; thus, their injuries tend to be mainly dealing with the exposed extremities. However, our main emphasis remains on stopping the hemorrhage first and extremity injuries do still occur in the civilian populace, so our treatment algorithm remains unchanged.

Greg Reynolds at Instapundit has listed some of the items he is putting in a trauma kit, including links to the products on Amazon. Well worth checking out.

• When you have thousands of dollars to spend on a good revolver: "Gun Review: Korth Mongoose .357 Magnum"--Range365. MSRP is $3,499 for the base model which was tested, but it was extremely accurate, and "the Mongoose averaged just 2 pounds of trigger pull [in single action], while the double-action pull measured in at an average of 6 pounds, 5 ounces."
• "How safe is your area? A simple visual indicator of crime levels"--All Outdoor. A photo essay of the various uses of spikes fences and barbed wire in Europe to prevent crimes, versus the typical openness of an American home. The author also notes:

Back when I lived in the USSR, people who were burglarized were generally happy that the break-in happened in their absence. The well-founded fear was that a break-in of an occupied dwelling would turn into a beating, rape and, possibly, murder of the residents. In the US, a typical lament of those who do get burglarized is: “I wish we were home that evening!” Perhaps the lesser frequency of home invasions in the US relative to burglaries is because criminals try to avoid defensive gunfire delivered by residents. Surveys of prisoners confirm that theory.

• "Beretta Px4 Compact Carry Review"--Lucky Gunner. The author switched to using this DA/SA firearm as his EDC. He writes:

      This variant is the brainchild of shooting instructor and Beretta consultant Ernest Langdon. Based on his recommendations, the Px4 Compact Carry takes advantage of some of the existing parts from Beretta’s catalog to improve the gun’s overall ergonomics and concealability. The wide ambidextrous slide-mounted safety levers have been replaced with low-profile “stealth” decock-only levers that sit nearly flush with the slide. Instead of a large ambi slide catch lever, it has a narrower left-side only lever. And in addition to the small magazine release found on the original Px4 Compact, the Compact Carry also comes with a medium and a large mag release, which can be installed for right or left-handed use. Inside the gun, you’ll find the Beretta competition trigger group installed, which reduces the weight of the single action trigger from about 5 pounds to 4 pounds.

      The only non-Beretta parts on this variant are the Ameriglo sights which include a bright orange front sight with a tritium insert and plain black rear sight. In the box with the pistol, you also get a set of Talon grip decals which you can apply to improve the gun’s grip texture. To distinguish the Compact Carry from the original, the slide has a Cerakote Sniper Grey finish, and in case you had any doubts about the overall value of this package, Beretta includes a third 15-round magazine.

• "Why it’s time to ditch small of back carry"--Guns.com. The article notes three primary reasons why small of the back carry is inadvisable: (1) it is slower and more awkward to draw from the middle of the back, (2) reholstering the weapon is similarly more difficult, and (3) any bending over will cause the weapon to print. Having tried this method of carry, I think that the authors have actually missed two of the biggest disadvantages: (a) if you have to sit for any length of time, it is extremely uncomfortable, and (b) if you get knocked over onto your back, or slip and fall onto your back, it increases the risk of a serious back injury. That aside, there are a couple of positive points to concealed carry. First, it allows you to carry a fairly large handgun that, with the right type of cover garment, can be very effectively concealed. I had a friend that worked as a clerk that was able to conceal a .44 Magnum revolver this way without any issues, under the long, untucked shirt that he wore. And that brings me to its second advantage: for someone that has to stand for a long time (such as the clerk at a convenience store or similar), it may be easier on the spine than carrying a gun one one side or the other of your body. I think that for a very narrow group of people--those standing for a workshift with little or no bending--may find this to be an effective method of carry. Otherwise, I would avoid it like the plague.

"Chinese Military Training for US Airstrikes"--China Uncensored (7 min.)

• "The Problem With China's Powerful Air Force"--Real Clear Defense. The author indicates that China hasn't been able to buy or steal the technology--including manufacturing acumen--to produce powerful and efficient jet engines. It isn't enough to copy the design, but there are significant metallurgical and manufacturing hurdles to overcome with producing some of the components, such as the turbines. Of course, if the Bushes and Clintons hadn't allowed the exported of our manufacturing base to China, the Chinese probably would be having problems with even simpler components.
• "Multidecadally resolved polarity oscillations during a geomagnetic excursion"--PNAS. The gist of this paper is that a magnetic pole reversal could occur over a period as short as between 100 to 200 years. Based on magnetic field strength and the movement of the magnetic pole, we are a bit over 100 years into the current reversal.
• "Targeting a brain mechanism could treat aggression"--Medical Xpress. From the article:

       "Deficits in fear learning are typically found in individuals with psychopathy and aggressive individuals showing different psychopathologies," Carmen Sandi points out. "These deficits have been hypothesized to promote antisocial behaviors, as they preclude individuals from learning from punishment and from following a normative socialization."

        Further examination of mice's brains showed that these behavioral alterations are due to problems with the neurons of the amygdala, the brain's center of emotional processing and emotional behavior. Specifically, the scientists found that the neurons of the amygdala in the knockout mice were largely unable to form new connections and showed impairments with glutamate neurotransmission, which transmits signals related to the processing of fear.

       With further molecular studies, the team was able to identify a deficiency of a neuron receptor in the amygdala as a key element for developing aggression. The receptor is called NMDA (this particular one is called GluN2B-containing NMDA) and is involved in the connectivity of neurons as well as the proper formation of fear memories.

       Armed with this discovery, the researchers proceeded to activate the NMDA receptor of the aggressive mice with a drug (D-cycloserine). The treatment was found to effectively reduce aggressive behavior as well as the associated low fear of the animals. Though a proof-of-concept at this stage, the finding opens up a potentially effective pharmaceutical target and treatment of aggression backed up by solid biological evidence.

Those of you that ascribe to r/K evolutionary psychology theory will immediately grasp the significance of this toward understanding the greater individual violence associated with the r-selected population.

• I wrote recently about how two refugees in Germany had stabbed one German to death and injured two others. So, what are the German police worried about? "Germany probes leak of arrest warrant after Chemnitz stabbing"--Reuters. Yes, the authorities are most concerned that details concerning the attackers--i.e., that they were Muslim refugees--were released to the public. Meanwhile, police in Chemnizt--the town where the stabbings occurred--are expecting more anti-immigration protests.
• "Britain’s Failed Weapons-Control Laws Show Why the Second Amendment Matters"--National Review. Most of the article describes the UK's current problems with knife crimes and its ineffectual attempts to outlaw knives or other items that could be used as weapons. The author concludes:

Today, there are no conditions under which English subjects may possess a suitable defensive arm in public. The English government prioritizes the safety of criminals over the safety of their victims. As England shows, the slippery slope of gun control doesn’t end with the confiscation of handguns, but with destruction of the right to self-defense itself.

• The color of crime: "Japanese north–south gradient in IQ predicts differences in stature, skin color, income, and homicide rate"--Science Direct. From the abstract:

Regional differences in IQ are estimated for 47 prefectures of Japan. IQ scores obtained from official achievement tests show a gradient from north to south. Latitudes correlate with height, IQ, and skin color at r = 0.70, 0.44, 0.47, respectively. IQ also correlates with height (0.52), skin color (0.42), income (0.51) after correction, less homicide rate (− 0.60), and less divorce (− 0.69) but not with fertility infant mortali'ty. The lower IQ in southern Japanese islands could be attributable to warmer climates with less cognitive demand for more than fifteen hundred years.

• And another: "Do pigmentation and the melanocortin system modulate aggression and sexuality in humans as they do in other animals?"--Science Direct. From the abstract:

We review animal studies that have found darker pigmented individuals average higher amounts of aggression and sexual activity than lighter pigmented individuals. We hypothesize that similar relationships between pigmentation, aggression, and sexuality occur in humans. We first review the literature on non-human animals and then review some of the correlates of melanin in people, including aggression and sexual activity. Both within human populations (e.g., siblings), and between populations (e.g., races, nations, states), studies find that darker pigmented people average higher levels of aggression and sexual activity (and also lower IQ). We conceptualize skin color as a multigenerational adaptation to differences in climate over the last 70,000 years as a result of “cold winters theory” and the “Out-of-Africa” model of human origins. 

• "America's hottest export? Sperm"--The Guardian. According to the article, the U.S. and the Netherlands are the big exporters of sperm. The article explains that the reason is that the U.S. and Netherlands have less regulation over sperm banks than other Northern European countries or Canada or Australia. But the author never seems to want to touch on the fact that the demand, even from other parts of the world, is for sperm from white donors. 
• "Pope Benedict confirms he disciplined McCarrick, sources claim"--Life News. The implication of this is that Pope Francis knew about McCarrick's crimes.