The FBI has taken down a huge botnet, it’s being called the biggest cybercriminal takedown in history. Four million computers involved. Basically a botnet from Estonia (which may have the dubious distinction of being the first country attacked in cyberwarfare a few years back) was highjacking the DNS settings of victim computers so it could control where victim computers would be sent to. DNS, aka: Domain Name System, is what tells your computer where Internet and network resources are. You type in www.google.com and through DNS, your computer finds out the IP address that is used by www.google.com. So if you control what location information is sent to computers then you can direct them where you actually want them to go e.g. porn sites, sites selling malicious software posing as security applications, phishing websites, etc.
If you’ve ever found yourself wanting to build miniature spy equipment out of everyday household items, then Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction 2: Build a Secret Agent Arsenal by John Austin is a good place to start. Inside you’ll find step-by-step instructions for constructing 30 different tools, including a toothpaste periscope and cotton swab .38 special, made from simple items you can find at home or in the office supply closet. The book also details a number of useful hiding places for your new arsenal, and comes included with several practice targets, like a shark with a laser beam and a giant octopus. While not everything in the book is ‘real’ (the guns, for example, use things like tic tacs for ammo) at the very least its good practice for any MacGyvering you may have to do in the future.
The month of May is named for the Greek goddess Maia, and goddess may be apropos here once you read and see the Tac Girl for May. May is unique; no other month begins on the same day of the week as May. Christina is a unique sort of beauty. She is hot of course (duh) but she’s also a shooting black belt with a BA degree and a penchant both for triathlons and pageants. Join us in appreciating this particularly compelling page of the calender!
INTREP, CHRISTINA G, MAY TAC-GIRL (1 EA)
Bust: Ample Waist: 26 Hips: 32
Height: 5’2”
Christina G: a 32DD beauty with a black belt and a BA degree who likes the .45. What’s not to love?
Tactics: dynamic entry or deliberate search?Dynamic entry
Rough it in the field or Creature Comforts and Snivel Kit?Lifting weights, followed by crossfit
Boy shorts, Thong, Cheeky or Go Commando?Not tellin’
Long-Term Professional Goal?To be #1 😀
Hunting, fishing, hiking, camping or hell no I’m staying indoors?I love anything outdoors
Favorite sport/team?Does couple skating and dancing count? J
Favorite military or action movie?Braveheart
Military or Police in your family?Military
What do you think is the best pogie bait? Original skittles J
Favorite camouflage?“Snow colored” J
Justice League, Avengers, X-Men, other or hell no I’m not a dork?Avengers
Fixed Blade or Folder? Fixed blade
One of the guys from Frontline or History Channel with a cool voice is talking about you in a bio. What does he say?
Our beloved Miss May loves the outdoors: anything from horseriding to hiking, to camping. She has a BA degree and works in the fitness industry as a personal trainer and a group fitness instructor. She enjoys teaching everything from Zumba, yoga, pilates to Kickboxing. She is very active and loves life. She completed her first Sprint Triathlon last fall, is working on her 3rd degree black belt for next year along with doing some more modeling.
When you go to buy your calendar, enter code TGC-MJ-12 to get your discount!
You wouldn’t think this would go well…but it actually came out of there and went to shootin’. Long story, one maybe we’ll share someday. Thanks to the rifle-shootin’-est Texans we know, the crew at Legion Firearms, for letting us use their picture.
Note: we do not recommend or endorse this particular cleaning procedure, nor do we think many NCOs would be terribly appreciative of it were they to catch you trying it. That being said, if you do then send us a picture. Meantime, go check Legion out on Facebook. Remember in ‘Back to the Future’ when he said, “You built a time machine out of a Delorean?” It’s kind of like that, except they build high end burners that are at the top of the food chain when it comes to laying some hate on armed assailants, tawl-ee-bawn, goat-loving insurgents and hippies.
Hornady makes Zombie ammunition. Ka-Bar makes a series of Zombie blades. Now, Taurus has joined in on all the undead fun with the Zombie Responder. Like the revolver it’s based on, the Taurus Raging Judge, the Zombie Responder is chambered for .454 Casull, .45 Colt, and .410 shotshell. The Zombie Responder also features its name in stylized letters on the cylinder, once for every chamber, and a green and red grip with a claw mark/blood streak design. Its a shame that Hornady doesn’t produce Zombie ammo in the compatible calibers, because Zombie ammo used with a Zombie gun is too good a combination to pass up.
http://www.taurususa.com/
The production model Gilboa APR (Assault Pistol Rifle, whatever that means) is out and about. Great new PDW or not…unsure, though the Israelis certainly have some good stuff. Anyway, the original article is over on BOLO Report. The picture below is courtesy of Doubletapper.
Back in May we featured a video that showed a female shooter deploying a concealed pistol from a holster carried in her bra.
Remember the Flashbang Bra Holster? Well, Natalie of Girls Guide to Guns wrote a very nice, very candid review of said holster, hitting about every point we could think of that might count against it (being serious here, not making obligatory boob jokes yet). If you are a female shooter that carries concealed, you might very well want to look into this. We like this girl. She has a great sense of humor and obviously knows what she’s talking about.
To get this out of the way: no, you will not see any delightfully jiggly naughty bits if a girl goes to drag iron on you. Frankly, it that happens you may have something else entirely to worry about.
Here’s an excerpt:
“Another concern I had was whether the Flashbang would work with tight shirts. Before using the holster I thought the expectation that I could hide a gun between the bazooms was completely unrealistic. There would have to be some give away, right? So I tested it. Boldly. After receiving a total of zero awkward comments from friends about that thing hiding in my rack, I concluded that I was in the clear. Boyfriend later confirmed that fact when I asked him specifically if he had noticed anything odd in the aforementioned location…Now that I had the visibility question answered, it was time for the trickiest of the concealed tests. I wanted to know if the gun would reveal it’s placement when I hugged someone. After eating lunch one day with my friend, Scott, I decided it was time to find out. As we said goodbye I intentionally gave him a big old full-frontal hug. “Did you feel it?” I asked. “Feel what?” he responded. Question answered. Thanks, Scott. Bless his heart, he’s probably still scratching his head about that one.
Some of our readers have inquired as to how these things work for my sidearm sisters who are a bit smaller chested than myself. I wanted to be sure that my A and B cup friends don’t feel left out so I asked a B cup friend of mine to try it on and see what she thought. She had on a pretty fitted top and we were both impressed by the fact that the Flashbang was just as discreet on her as it is on me. Incidentally, who ever thought a firearms product test would include staring at eachother’s boobs? I can’t help but think that somewhere out there Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are finding this hilarious…”
Some of our military friends have let us know that the American Mustache Institute wants to honor mustached US veterans this Friday. Yes, it sounds a little silly (and it is) but it’s funny too. They have a sense of humor that will resonate with military personnel and a reasonable lack of propriety. Anyway, they’d like to run a picture of the hairy-lipped veteran along with a vignette. That can be a personal recollection by the veteran himself (hopefully not herself) of it can be a 3RD person tribute to a friend, NCO, commander, spouse, brother, whatever. Needs to have a picture featuring that mustache!
“We want to take advantage of any opportunity we have to honor our military personnel and feature them on our site,” says Aaron Perlut of the American Mustache Institute. “Friend, coworkers, comrades in arms, spouse. Just have them e-mail me at info@americanmustacheinstitute.org.”
Please get submissions in by this Thursday, 1900 EST.
(Pictures: Col. Lewis Millet, retired, who earned the Silver Star in WWII and the Medal of Honor in Korea. A valorous man. Doubtful anyone could get away with such a mustache these days.)
So we’re going to introduce a recurring feature here on TFB. Not sure how often if will actually appear, but if it happens once in a while it’s still recurring right? Anyway, here’s the first installment of Songs of War. If you have any suggestion for future topics, put ’em in the topics section or shoot us an e-mail.
We’re not sure if it’s just the song and the eerie music, the singer’s voice or the movie and real-world events it calls to mind, but we love it. (If you haven’t heard Rachid Taha, his voice—live or in the studio—is a strangely compelling thing reminiscent of too many cigarettes, an old school NCO, the haunting yells of leather-faced men in dusty souks just as evening sets in or perhaps mostly just a motivated grunt five minutes after last call and two hours after seizing control of the karaoke machine.)
If you’ve been living in a box or have recently decided to leave your Amish roots behind, Rachid Taha is an Algerian who gained a lot of notice here in the U.S. when one of his songs was included on the Blackhawk Down album. Here’s the video, and below it are the lyrics as best we can tell (not being any more conversant with Arabic than Imshi, Kef!, Isteslem and the like).
Hope you enjoy it as much as we do. When we do the Mad Duo movie Rachid Taha will be on the soundtrack fo’ sho’.
Here’s the live version:
Barra Barra
(Outside outside)
Sadness, hate and the reign of arbitrary
Outside Outside
Destruction, jealousy ; there is no trust left
Outside Outside
Thirst and people are unlucky
Outside Outside
No honor, but oppression and slavery
Outside Outside
Rivers were dried up and seas have ruined everything
Outside Outside
Stars are switched off and the sun went down
Outside Outside
There are no trees left and the birds stopped singing
Outside Outside
There are neither days, nor nights left, darkness only
Outside Outside
Hell; there is no beauty left
Outside Outside
Outside Outside
Time has increased, there is no honor left
Outside Outside
Ruin and war and the blood is flowing
Outside Outside
There are only walls left, walls standing up
Outside Outside
Fear and people remain silent
Outside Outside
Sadness, hate and the reign of arbitrary
Outside Outside
Destruction and jealousy ; there is no trust left
Outside Outside
Rivers were dried up and seas have ruined everything
Outside Outside
stars are switched off and the sun went down
Outside Outside
Outside Outside
There is neither good, nor happiness, nor luck anymore
Outside Outside
There are no trees left; the birds stopped singing
Outside Outside
There are neither nights, nor days left; darkness only
Outside Outside
Desolation, hell, there is no beauty left
Outside Outside
(Silence)
Outside Outside
Time has increased, there is no honor left
Outside Outside
Ruin and war and the blood is flowing
Outside Outside
There are only walls left, walls standing up
Outside Outside
Sadness, hate and the reign of arbitrary
Outside Outside
Destruction and jealousy ; there is no trust left.
Stars are switched off, and the sun went down
Outside Outside
There is neither good, nor happiness, nor luck left
Outside Outside
There are no trees left ; birds stopped singing
Outside Outside
There are no neither nights nor days left; darkness only
Outside Outside
Desolation, hell, there is no beauty left
Outside Outside
Time has increased, there is no honor left
Grinch, Truck, Frost and Sandman. According to Dalton Fury (who should know), the beepers have gone off again. Modern Warfare 3’s Delta Assaulters this time around are Metal Team. Stand by for further as it becomes available. (If you haven’t checked out the new Black Site book by DF, you prob’ly oughta.)
The 0’Clock Watches are Italian-made time pieces with a simplified design: the clock face features no numbers and has a Woodland camo design. What they lack in detail they make up in customization. The time piece is easily removed from its silicon band and can be placed in similar bands of varying colors and sizes. Each 0’Clock watch also comes in a sealed can with a pop-top lid, an amusing feature that mimics opening a can of food. 0’Clock Camo Watches can be purchased from Tactical Distributors.
Love this bumper sticker. Of course, you’d be far better off sporting it here CONUS that you would on the back of one of the ubiquitous little white pickups or checkered taxis in Iraq. It’d be really cool on a jingle truck, but it wouldn’t be as funny because of the language. Guess it might look okay on the back of a jundi gun truck if they really had a sense of humor.
Dr. Danger either had brass balls or was just colossally stupid. He also doesn’t know the difference between a Ma Deuce and a submachine gun, though we won’t quibble. Have you seen the Dr. Danger series yet from MOJO? It’s crazy.
“You don’t want to rent a car [at Bali Doogle]. You want to rent an army.”
One of our friends in the Italian military sent us this striking of two Italian military personnel, apparently from the “unofficial” TF 45, showing two men helping their wounded comrade (apparently to CASEVAC). Our understanding was the picture was taken somewhere in the region of Shahr-E-Herat, Afghanistan. There’s no way to be sure and it wouldn’t be appropriate to go into too many details anyway. (We wouldn’t even be posting the picture itself if it wasn’t already circulating on Facebook.) They may by Gruppo Intervento Speciale of the Carbinieri. We’re not sure and there’s no way to know for sure. Here’s one thing that’s certain: we appreciate their help in the Coalition and we hope the WIA in the center recovers fully.
This has got to resonate with some salty dawgs out there. Whether you’re an NCO or maybe a crusty old member of the tac team…this is going to make you sniff, touch your cheek and think…I remember those snot-nosed little fellers…they turned out all right. Likin’ the actors too.
Maybe you’ve read his book, maybe not (if not, you should fix that). The former Delta commander, OIC of the first efforts to track down UBL right after 9/11, frequently posts updates about his upcoming work of fiction on his Facebook page, and once in a while he releases his “Leadership Secrets”. They’re worth reading, and by and large can apply to the civilian world as well as that of the military. Here’s the most recent one:
DF Leadership Secret #10: You Can’t Determine Your Own Success.
The men and women you lead determine this for you. If they are successful, then you are successful. Your stake holders will recognize it; your commanding officer will recognize it.
Just prior to taking command of an infantry rifle company a former battalion commander of mine sent me a personal note – “Now is the time to pay back all the people that got you where you are now, by ensuring their success”. I kept the note under the glass on my desk at work and read it literally every day.
Years later I was in a musky safe house with a couple other special operators in a bombed-out Balkan slum when I received a message to call my boss. I reached him on the satellite phone within the hour and he passed on that I had been selected for promotion below-the-zone, essentially ahead of 95% of my peers, to the next rank. I was shocked, totally humbled, and quite embarrassed actually. I hung up the phone and tried to play it off with the guys around me, but they didn’t fool easily.
So, there I was, a fairly new Delta officer, the boss of a classified real-world mission, with the unenvious task of having to tell my men – who I barely knew at the time – that I was some hot-shot officer that some Department of the Army board decided needed to be promoted earlier than most of the other guys.
At that moment, with an early 90s era life-size poster of teeny-bopper Brittany Spears hanging on the wall, the only thing I could do was laugh at the absurdity of the situation, admit that the board members must have made a big mistake, and try to refocus the conversation back to the mission. But inside, I intuitively knew that my former battalion commander had been spot on. I mentally checked off the countless soldiers and sergeants, peer officers, and the talented and caring superiors I was so fortunate enough to have served with, to have learned from, and to have ultimately benefited from. Incidentally, I don’t recall any of those earlier influences and great Americans being former Tier I operators…which says a ton about the modern day American soldier.
The model weapons that can be built with legos never cease to impress me. This time, it’s the SRS99 Anti-Matériel rifle as seen in Halo: Reach, built by one Nick Jensen. It features a removable magazine, sliding bolt, and functioning trigger, however it doesn’t fire any projectiles. This doesn’t detract from the awesomeness of the model, however as it’s still extremely impressive as is.
Today is the 60th anniversary of the first Marine Corps confirmed kill of a MiG during the Korean War. On 04 November, 1951, flying with the 336TH FIS, under the Fifth Air Force, Capt. William F. Guss USMC became the first Gyrene to shoot down a Russian built MiG-15. He was flying an F-86 Sabre. This was during a time when jet vs. jet combat was a relatively new thing. Close Air Support and other missions were still be flown by Marines in Corsairs and Skyraiders, a “night fighter” such as the Tigercat was a brand new idea and casualties were often flown out in TBM Avengers.
Major General Al Flowers retires today after forty-six years in the military. The longest tenured active-duty service member in the Air Force and the longest-serving active duty black American in the Defense Department’s entire sixty year history. He started out working in a warehouse, collected the bodies of KIAs in Vietnam and is now the Air Force Budget Director….for just a few more hours.
God speed, General, thank you for your service. Enjoy your retirement, you’ve earned it.
The EDC Kit by Kaufmann Mercantile is a collection of multi-use tools that are designed to fit in with the ‘everyday carry’ mentality. The tools are constructed from high-grade steel, are extremely durable, weigh only 2 ounces combined, and are small enough to fit on a keychain. Included with the kit are a pry bar, precision tweezers, Phillips and Flat head screwdriver keys, and a waterproof lighter that is convertible to a pill carrier. All of the parts can also be purchased separately should you not need every tool in the kit.
The 2011 New York Custom Knife Show is fast approaching (18, 19 and 20 November). If you’re close enough to get by there, you should check it out. There’ll be a few dozen of the best knifemakers around. It’s going to be at the Westin-Jersey City Newport (479 Washington Blvd.Jersey City, NJ 07310). It’ll run Friday from 1300 to 1800, Saturday from 1000 to 1800 and Sunday from 0900 to 1500. There are a number of prizes scheduled to be given away. Full information on the 2011 NYCKS website.
There will be a lot of really talented knifemakers there, including three of our favorites:
Winter is rapidly approaching, and with Winter comes snowball fights (well, in most places anyway). So get the drop on any potential enemies with the Crossbow Snow Launcher. By loading a snowball in the front and pulling back the lever, this launcher can deliver snowballs up to 60 feet. It comes with a snowball press to form perfectly spherical projectiles and a target, presumably so you have something to practice your aim with. The target’s a nice gesture, but neighborhood children make for much better practice, since you’d also gain the benefit of learning how to hit moving targets.
