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.

I realise I’m probably late to the game, but I’ve recently discovered World of Tanks. I find it therapeutic to log in crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and hear the lamentations of their women.

World of Tanks is essentially a world… of tanks! Every player drives a WW2-era tank and competes with a team of 15-or so other tanks to beat the other team by destroying them all or by capturing their base.

There are different classes of tanks including Light, Medium and Heavy Tanks, Tank Destroyers and Self Propelled Guns, my favourite. There are also different tiers of each of these tanks drawn from German, Soviet, American and Chinese designs. You start the game off with a Tier 1 tank which is essentially a din can on wheels with a BB gun and a Semaphore comms system and you work your way towards larger, faster, better armed and armoured tanks. There’s 15-20 maps to test your strategy and tactics.

I’m currently working my way up the American SPG line and a have an M41 artillery with a 155mm Howitzer. I’ve paid my dues in the M7 Priest, which has a smaller gun. The M7 Priest is a case of being a small fish in a big pond, and more often than not I’d be against monster tanks I had no hope of destroying. For example, when you fire on a tank with 300mm of armour and your gun only has a 50mm maximum penetration, you can’t really hope to do much damage. But I managed to work up to the M41 with a larger gun and I can one-shot most Medium Tanks and give a Heavy Tank a bad headache. Eventually I’d like to get the T92, the biggest gun in the game which can kill anything it hits with one shot. It has a couple disadvantages, the main one being the 40 second reload time so you really have to make each shot count.

I often go back to my trusty M2 Light Tank, as these smaller tier Light Tanks are only matched against other Lights. It’s a sweet spot where the M2 is often the best tank on the map and it’s fun not to have to worry about higher tier Heavy Tanks which can run over you without feeling a bump.

When the game starts you have 30 seconds to chat and work out strategy with your team mates. I’ve found that these lower tier games are joined by noobs, and if I can convince them to follow some basic instructions then our team will more often than not come out with the win. You can usually tell the Rambo noobs, as they’re the first to die.

The game has a reward system based on hits, kills, detection etc, as well as awards and various medals. I have a few “Top Gun” awards, and a handful of “Confederate” medals, meaning I hit at least 6 enemies who were later destroyed by others. I’m quite proud of my “Kamikaze” award, for destroying a higher tier tank by ramming it.

Games go a maximum of 15 minutes, and there’s usually at least 5000 people playing at any one time so there’s no waiting for another game. I’d recommend World of Tanks to anyone interested in short, fast, tactical rewards-based team games.

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.

Moving out of town has had it’s disadvantages, not in the least of which has been phone coverage. I’ve been with Three since they started in 2003, and my phone/data usage has meant that my average spend per month has been under $8. This includes a 100MB per month data pack at $5. Data coverage on Three has been spotty at best in the CBD, and non-exiting in Mandurah where I’m always “roaming”. Even though it’s annoying I’ve lived with it because, hey, I’m a patient man.

But since moving office last week I encountered the straw that broke the camel’s back. I don’t any coverage in our new building on St Georges Terrace in the CBD.

So I’ve changed to Amaysim which is basically an Optus reseller. My monthly spend is going to be higher, but at least I’ll be able to use my phone on a more reliable high speed network. And with 4GB of data, I’m seriously thinking of dropping our Home Internet plan and tethering off the handset. If I put a minimum of effort in, I know I can keep my data under 4GB per month.

So if you’re looking for a good deal on Mobile voice and data, try out Amaysim and tell them I sent you. Your first month will be discounted and I’ll get a kickback for referring you!

A bit anticlimactic really. At least we got to see crappy cell phone footage of Saddam Hussein’s death.

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.

Here’s a collection of AT-AT, or Imperial Walker, wallpapers and HR images for your enjoyment. Hover over each image to find a size right for you. The AT-AT walker was a behemoth of a war machine, standing at a height of 22.5 meters. The quadrupedal walker closely resembled ancient beasts of war, or even a giant legendary beast from the dark side of the Force. Designed for the dual purpose of crushing and demoralizing enemy forces, and also serving as a transport for Imperial troops and light vehicles, the AT-AT was unsurpassed as the most awesome vehicle in the Imperial Army inventory. Its intimidating and powerful presence often earned it the distinction of being the first vehicle into a combat zone.

I liken it to the Soviet Mil Mi-24 helicopter: big, boofy, intimidating, well armed and armoured. It’s a kick-ass gunship, and has room to carry 8 troops for an air assault. If you see either of these things heading towards you, you know you’re going to have a bad day.

Anyhow, back to the AT-ATs. General Veers, prepare your men.

Some interesting hits on my site from Google searches today. Apparently there was a US soldier in Afghanistan with a similar name to mine who was killed by a suicide bomber. Bryan Hoover. Kinda spooky.

At one point I was friends with about 18 people with the same name as me on Facebook. We had quite a good time commenting on each others statuses but it got old pretty quick and I dropped them all. One guy was pretty creepy and was the catalyst which forced me to refine my usage of privacy settings.

Related articles

• Visitation Held For Fallen Soldiers (thepittsburghchannel.com)
• Two Connellsville-based guardsmen died for love of their country (pittsburghlive.com)
• 2 U.S. soldiers killed in attack in Afghanistan (cnn.com)

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.

My favourite rules and pics are #21 and #22. Though #23 has been what I have mostly lived by in real life..