Category Archives: Past Events

How to play both sides like an expert

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Joan Pujol Garcia

Joan Pujol Garcia

Meet Joan Pujol Garcia. He was a WW2 spy. Actually, he was a double agent during the Second World War. The British knew him by his codename of Garbo; the Germans knew him as Arabel. As Arabel, he was paid $340,000 to support his network of agents, which at one point totaled 27 fabricated characters supplying complete misinformation to the Germans. For his efforts in aid of the Allies Garbo received an MBE from the British. In an ironic twist of fate, following the war he ended up encountering one of his German handlers, who gave him the Iron Cross for his contribution to the German war effort, an award normally reserved for front-line fighting men; the Nazis never realised that Garbo had fooled them, and thus he earned the distinction of being one of the few people during World War II to receive decorations from both sides.

 

How do you explain Sep 11 to young kids?

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Promos for shows from different networks marking the 10 year anniversary of the Sep-11 attacks have started appearing on TV recently. This has led to my kids, who are under ten, asking questions.

What happened on Sep 11? Well, a bunch of bad guys hijacked some planes and crashed them into some buildings in America to try and kill as many people as they could.

This was ten years ago? Where were you? Yep, it was 10 years ago, a bit before you were born. Me and mum were getting ready to go to bed while it was actually happening. See, while it was early morning in the Eastern US, it was close to bedtime here. I remember seeing a news ticker on the bottom of the TV screen about a plane crash, but we shut the TV off to get an early night. This was when me and mum both worked at the same place. We didn’t see any of it until we woke up the next day. The clock radio went off at the appointed time, and they were talking about a plane crash. “Must have been the news from last night”, we thought. “Let’s turn on the news after breakfast before we go to work”. When we turned on the TV, it seemed every channel was carrying the same story. Two planes had crashed into the tallest buildings in New York called the World Trade Centre, and another into the Pentagon. And the World Trade Centre buildings had actually fallen down! Later we learned there was a fourth plane crash too.

Why did they try and kill those people? (OK, here we go…) You’ll soon start hearing a lot of people talking about this, and about related events that have happened in the 10 years following Sep 11. The short truth of the matter is that there are two reasons.

  1. They wanted American soldiers out of their Holy Lands, particularly military bases near Mecca and Medina which are Holy Cities.
  2. They wanted the American government to stop giving military support to Israel.
But why didn’t they just ask? I’m sure they did ask, and a number of times.They decided they only way that the Americans would listen was to do something like this; very spectacular and large.

When you say “they”, you mean Muslims? Well, yes. The guys who organised it and the guys who did it were all from a religion called Islam. People who follow Islam are called Muslims.

So, do Muslims try and kill people all the time? No, not at all. Most of the world’s billion or so Muslims are regular people like you and me trying to live the best life they can. But some decided to do something really evil and kill a bunch of people. They aren’t the Muslim leaders, and they don’t represent the rest of the Muslims.

Why did they choose those buildings? The name of the guy who organised the attacks was Osama bin Laden. Osama had tried to destroy the World Trade Centre before, by getting a guy to drive a truck loaded with explosives into the basement underneath one of the buildings. The hope was that the bomb would go off, and push one tower into the other and bring them both down. That didn’t work, but he really wanted to bring those buildings down because they were a symbol of American economic power. Two towers took two planes.  A third plane was crashed into the Pentagon, which is a military base and symbol of American military power. Remember the fourth plane I mentioned? It was likely that this was supposed to crash into the White House which is where the President lives, and is a symbol of American politics and America itself. The fourth plane didn’t make it because the passengers fought back against the bad guys and the plane crashed into an empty field. They saved a lot of lives.

Then what happened? Well over the last ten years America has started wars with Afghanistan and Iraq as well as a bunch of other countries. Don’t ask me to explain all that right now. Maybe another time. I spent a few months in America the next year, just before you were born and because they used planes to crash into buildings and kill people it meant more security and longer lines waiting to get onto flights. My dad took a flight on Sep 11 2002 and was the only passenger on the plane! In May, they guy who organised the attacks was tracked down and killed in a town in Pakistan.

So it’s all over, right? They can stop the wars? Oh, I wish you were world leaders.

How have you explained Sep 11 to your young families? Leave a comment!

The Earth is blue. How wonderful. It is amazing.

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Today marks the 50th anniversary of of the first manned space flight by Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, Soviet pilot, cosmonaut and hero.

This article is a good biography on Gagarin, giving some insight into his childhood, his upbringing and his motivations.

During the course of training, Gagarin had shown that he was the most flexible and adaptable to command — and to surrounding circumstances. He knew how to fit in – yet stand out. He had a chameleon-like ability to adapt physically and mentally to every situation – and to maintain lines of communication with the parallel structures. He was quick on the uptake, capable of improvising the proper response and meeting people’s expectations.

Throw him in the Hole

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I’ve been to San Francisco a few times, but have never managed to do a lot of sightseeing I’ve wanted to do. This time around I finally took a little trip out to Alcatraz!

All I know about Alcatraz is from movies like Escape From Alcatraz, The Rock and Birdman of Alcatraz. In reality, I didn’t expect it to be anything like these movies, but what really impressed me was how accurately it had been modelled in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 on PS2.

I must admit, though, that the solitary confinement cells look particularly effective. Perhaps I should threaten my kids with something like this when they’re being particularly trying.

How many maths nerds does it take to defeat the German Tank corps?

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Interesting story on How Allied Forces Used Tank Serial Numbers To Defeat The Germans at Jalopnik.com

Allied intelligence noticed each captured German tank contained a serial number unique to the tank. With careful observation, the Allies were able to determine that the serial numbers had a pattern denoting the order of tank production.

Using this data, the Allies were able to create a mathematical model to determine the rate of German tank production, and estimated that, during the same summer 1940 to fall 1942 time period, the Germans produced 255 tanks per month — a fraction of the 1,400 estimate.

And it turns out, the serial number methodology was spot on: after the War, internal German data put der Fuhrer’s production numbers at 256 tanks per month — one more than the estimate.

The answer to the question in the post title? A division, obviously.

Sputnik to ISS: you’ve come a long way, baby

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Today is the 53rd Anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1. It was a spherical satellite of modest size and weight, yet the seemingly innocent beeping it emitted was enough to invoke mass hysteria in the West.

Let’s compare Sputnik to the current state of the art in Space Exploration, the International Space Station.

Sputnik 1

ISS
Built by: Soviet Union Involved partners: USA, Russia, Canada, Japan and 11 participating ESA Countries
Mass: 84 kg Current mass: almost 400 tons
Dimensions: 39cm radius sphere with four 2.5m antennae Current dimesions: 50m x 110m x 20m
Total orbits: 1440 Current orbits completed: more than 68000
Crew members: 0 As of October 4, 2010, 195 individuals have visited ISS, including the three current Expedition 25 crew members. NASA astronaut Frederick W. Sturckow has visited four times while 15 people have visited three times, and 66 people have visited twice.
Total cost: nobody really knows, since it was a military mission. Estimated cost: ranges between 35 and 160 Billion dollars, making it the most expensive object ever created
Payload:instruments capable of measuring the thickness and temperature of the high upper atmosphere and the composition of the ionosphere. Also, a radio transmitter than went “beep, beep, beep” Facilities for research and experimentation in Human Research, Biology, Biotechnology, Physical and Materials Sciences, Earth and Environmental Science, Education

In between these two marvels, we’ve seen craft carry dogs, monkeys, and men into orbit. We’ve seen them land on the moon, Mars, and Venus. They’ve intercepted asteroids and comets, and have scurried through Lunar and Martian dust. Telescopes like Hubble and Chandra have gazed into the far reaches of the universe. Next year, a Russian/Chinese mission will be launched to return samples from Phobos. It’s inspiring and breathtaking living is these times of discovery and wonder.

ANZAC Day Dawn Service, Mandurah

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Here’s a couple photos from the Dawn Service we attended this morning. We woke up at about 4:45, got the bleary eyed kids ready and drove into the Mandurah to the Mandurah War Memorial. Kids enjoyed it, but they said there weren’t as many speeches from people as the service they’d had at school last Friday. It was all very quiet and reverent.

Aleksei Leonov is the MAN

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45 years ago on 18-Mar-1965, Aleksei Leonov became the first space walker. Most people should know the name, if not the date.  He had quite the career, but it’s his 12 minutes outside his Vostok spaceship which I most admire.

See, while he was outside his spaceship his protective space suit expanded because of the vacuum; inside his space suit there was air for him to breathe, but outside there was no air at all so his suit expanded like a balloon. This expansion made it impossible for him to reenter his ship because the suit was too stiff to flex. Gene Cernan, in his book “Last Man on the Moon”, described this phenomenon. During Gemini 9, he was to venture outside and do some simple tasks outside the spaceship like use tools to loosen and tighten nuts. After only a few minutes of this kind of activity he was almost exhausted because he was fighting against the suit the whole time.

So Leonov is outside is spaceship and has found that he can’t maneuver himself back into the airlock. What to do? Was he to die alone, far from help and any hope of rescue? No, not this cosmonaut! He did what seems suicidal and foolish to most people: he let the life-giving air out of his suit! This allowed the suit to deflate enough for him to squeeze himself back into his spaceship and turn the air back on. Saved! Seriously, you need to have solid brass balls to even consider doing this.

While he was being groomed by the Soviets to be the first man on the moon, he dodged a few other bullets: he was to have commanded Soyuz 11, the first crew to visit the world’s first Space Station Salyut 1, but was dropped when one of the crew came down with suspected tuberculosis. The Soyuz 11 mission went fine, but the replacement crew of three perished when reentering the earth’s atmosphere.

Sadly, Leonov never did make it to the moon. Leonov went on to command another significant mission: the Apollo Soyuz Test Project, a joint mission between the Soviets and Americans. This mission served to ease tensions in the space race.

Leonov is an artist, a pilot and warrior, an author, and twice Hero of the Soviet Union. And someone I wish I could hang around to soak up some of his awesomeness.