Combat Studies Group

I try to avoid being a "news" type blog, as there plenty of them out there already...but I had to post up this excellent video by the always astute Bill Whittle. Enjoy....

DanMorgan76 and Mosby had an excellent post up recently regarding One Time Pad encryption.  DM76-OTP I wanted to add to that discussion by presenting another OTP method and a practical exercise for everyone to complete.....consider it a challenge. Dan explained the use of an alphabetic OTP (similar to a Vigenere square). I would like to present another method to consider in case you are struggling with the concept... In this method, you first make a key of sufficient length for your messages (receiving party needs to have a copy of the same key) using a true random number generator, or some ten-sided dice. Next we are going to convert the text of our message into numbers. The common way to achieve this is with the use of a checkerboard template. There are many to choose from if you don't want to create your own....and I should point out that the strength of our encryption does not rely upon the use of one checkerboard over another, so don't feel squeamish about usin...

Just an FYI for everyone regarding Intel Corporation's newer CPU's with built in hardware backdoor. Go to this link... INTEL , and look for your CPU on the list. If you find it, you have one of the "backdoor-ed" models. They claim you can disable the feature in the BIOS under the Intel ME feature.........my advice - get rid of it and go with something older or with an AMD cpu. News release here..... CPU Spying ** To find out your CPU version: - Windows = Control Panel -> System -> General  , or install CPU-Z - Linux = open a terminal, type -  cat /proc/cpuinfo , or install CPU-G - Mac = open a terminal, type - sysctl -a machdep.cpu.brand_string

"Before a revolution can take place, the population must lose faith in both the police and the courts. High taxation is important and so is inflation of the currency and the ratio of the productive to those on the public payroll. But that's old hat; everybody knows that a country is on the skids when its income and outgo get out of balance and stay that way - even though there are always endless attempts to wish it away by legislation. But I started looking for little signs and what some call silly-season symptoms. I want to mention one of the obvious symptoms: Violence. Muggings. Sniping. Arson. Bombing. Terrorism of any sort. Riots of course - but I suspect that little incidents of violence, pecking way at people day after day, damage a culture even more than riots that flare up and then die down. Oh, conscription and slavery and arbitrary compulsion of all sorts and imprisonment without bail and without speedy trial - but those things are obvious; all the historie...

Arctic Pilgrim has an ongoing review of Wilder Tactical's IWB holster. Check it out here.. Review Josh has been doing some great work with OWB holsters and grip texturing as well. (Full disclosure - Josh is a personal friend...but don't hold it against him)   (His new "Swiss Cheese" holster) Wilder Tactical

Interesting debate over at WRSA in the comments following "Living off the land delusions..." westernrifleshooters-living-off-the-land-delusions-and-misconceptions-about-hunting-and-gathering Wanted to add to that topic since I have some experience on the subject. Specifically, I want to address - - Stated requirement of 3000 calories a day - Switching from a modern diet to a more agrarian/paleo diet - Real-world calorie deprivation effects on performance As opinions on the subject are plentiful and often not based on reality I will limit my commentary to what I have experienced firsthand. I spent a ~90 day rotation in an operational setting living on a very carefully measured 1200 calories a day. I slept 7-8 hours a night, worked out ~3 hours a day, conducted range/tactical training everyday and conducted my assigned duties as well. This was in a very high altitude mountain environment. I began at a fit 210 pounds. The first two weeks were a bit difficult to adjust ...