February 20, 2018 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"Earth’s Magnetic Flip | Earthquakes & Volcanoes"--Suspicious Observers (5-1/2 min.)

• A new Woodpile Report is up.
• BREAKING: Optics Planet complying with the magazine restrictions of the County in which it is located. Stories from The Firearm Blog and The Truth About Guns. Apparently someone just noticed that Optics Planet doesn't sell magazines of greater than 10 rounds and started hyperventilating about it on the Internet, falsely suggesting it was because of the recent school shooting in Florida.
• "224 Valkyrie: Breaking Down the Numbers"--Range 365. The author provides charts and numbers outlining the external ballistics of a 95 grain exemplar. Short story: Compared to the .223, "[t]he 224 Valkyrie will allow you to shoot more accurately at longer distances. Not only is the trajectory flatter, but the bullet is also less affected by wind so you’ll have an easier time accounting for that." Also, "[t]he Valkyrie delivers similar results to larger cartridges like the 6.5mm Creedmoor but with smaller size, ability to use a standard AR-15 lower receiver, and with a lot less recoil."
• "10mm Auto vs. 357 Magnum Ammunition : Ballistic Gel Test Results"--Ammo Land. Article and video at the link. The author tried to eliminate variables as best he could by shooting similar loads out of weapons with similar barrel lengths. The ammunition he used was Hornady Custom line with a 158 grain XTP bullet for the 357 Magnum and a 155 grain XTP for the 10mm. He notes that 155 grain is on the light side for 10 mm. Shots were into ballistic gelatin blocks and through 4 layers of denim per FBI protocol. The 10 mm penetrated 16-inches and expanded to 0.70 inches. The .357 penetrated to 22 inches and expanded to 0.54 inches. One thing I would note, however, is that the test is against the clear gelatin rather than the 10% ballistics gelatin. I've seen articles discussing that there can be some variance in performance between ordnance gel and the clear gel (see here and here, for example), but it generally is pretty close. 
• A review of the Ruger “Officer” Size SR1911 9mm at The Tactical Wire. This is a compact 1911 style pistol using an aluminum frame and 7-round magazine. Weight is 27 ounces. 
• Oops. "São Paulo Military Police Glock G22 Gen5 initial test setback"--The Firearm Blog. An initial shipment of handguns had accessory rails that were out of specification.
• "Pat McNamara: Why Mobility Is Essential in a Real-Life Gunfight"--Tactical Life. One of the key points he makes is: "Tactical shooting is more than target discrimination and proper bullet placement. It’s about eliminating predictability, surviving through mobility and being lethal." He adds:

        Two things not practiced enough, or at all, on the range are proprioception and kinesthetic sense. Proprioception is the sense of the relative position of neighboring parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement, and kinesthetic sense helps us detect weight, body position and the relationship between movements in our body parts such as joints, muscles and tendons. In short, it is the muscle sense. It lets us know whether the body moves with effort and where the body parts are located in relation to other parts of the body.

        Kinesthetic sense is closely related to muscle memory, which is the memory that we possess due to constant repetition of a motor task, like signing your name or walking. Hand-eye coordination is also largely related to the sense of kinesthesia. This sense becomes automatic because of constant training.

        Guys with little or no athletic background sometimes suck at this. They move like they’ve got a broomstick shoved up their asses. Movement should be smooth and martial-art like. When we are in motion, we tend to be more confident. Confidence and performance work hand-in-hand. Additionally, cognitive performance is increased when we are in motion.

He also recommends stepping to one side when you draw a firearm. Read the whole thing.

• So the couple with whom Nikolas Cruz was staying at the time of his shooting indicated that he had a "handful" of firearms. Turns out it was 10 firearms, of which 3 were obtained illegally. 
• Hmm. "EXPOSED: School Shooting Survivor Turned Activist David Hogg’s Father in FBI, Appears To Have Been Coached On Anti-Trump Lines"--Gateway Pundit. The headline needs some translation. So, one of the students of Stoneman Douglas High calling for gun control is David Hogg, whose father is ex-FBI. More interestingly, video of one of Hogg's interviews suggests that Hogg was reciting rehearsed lines rather than speaking extemporaneously.  (H/t Woodpile Report).
• "Did the Progressive 'Broward County Solution' Cost 17 Student Lives?"--American Thinker. From the article:

         ... Broward County used to lead the state of Florida in sending students to the state's juvenile justice system.  County leaders responded with a perfectly progressive solution: "lower arrests by not making arrests."

         Authorities agreed to treat twelve different misdemeanor offenses as school-related issues, not criminal ones.  The results impressed the people who initiated the program.  Arrests dropped from more than a thousand in 2011-2012 to less than four hundred just four years later.

       One particular motivation behind programs like Broward County's was the pressure from multiple sources to reduce the statistical disparity between black and Hispanic student arrests on one hand and white and Asian student arrests on the other.  ...

       By virtue of his name alone, Nikolas de Jesús Cruz, the adopted son of Lynda and Roger Cruz, became a statistical Hispanic.  As such, authorities at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland had every reason not to report his troubling and likely criminal behavior to the police.

         According to a source who spoke to the Miami Herald, Cruz had been suspended from Stoneman Douglas High for fighting and also for being caught with bullets in his backpack.  This was apparently at least one of the reasons why administrators reportedly emailed a warning to teachers against allowing Cruz on the campus with a backpack.  He was later expelled for reasons that have not been disclosed, but he was apparently not arrested.

• "School shootings are not the new normal, despite statistics that stretch the truth"--USA Today. From the article:

       Since 1990, there have been 22 shootings at elementary and secondary schools in which two or more people were killed, not counting those perpetrators who committed suicide.

       Whereas five of these incidents have occurred over the past five-plus years since 2013, claiming the lives of 27 victims (17 at Parkland), the latter half of the 1990s witnessed seven multiple-fatality shootings with a total of 33 killed (13 at Columbine). 

• Another piece of Progressive history found to be untrue: "Tribe found by Columbus didn't go extinct after all: Genes from 'handsome' Taino Native Americans are found in modern-day Puerto Ricans"--Daily Mail.
• "Sacred Mayan relics are found alongside ancient human remains and Ice Age animal bones in an underwater cave described as the world's ‘most important submerged archaeological site’"--Daily Mail. The article is about the Sac Actun cave system in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. According to the article, it is "the largest flooded cave system in the world with 248 underwater pools connected by 215 miles (347 km) of tunnels." As water levels have fluctuated, people and animals have entered the cave system, some to never return. The article also indicates that "[w]ater levels in the region rose 330 feet (100m) at the end of the Ice Age, flooding the cave system and leading to 'ideal conditions for the preservation of the remains of extinct megafauna from the Pleistocene,' he says." By comparison, if sea levels rise as much as the global warming fanatics say, we would be looking at a rise of 18 to 59 cm. (1.5 ft to 2 ft) by 2100.