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Palm-Mensa
Palm Beach County Mensa Newsletter
December, 2003
Contents
From History's Trickiest Questions
To Ponder...
When the three wise men were sent to Bethlehem by King Herod they followed the star in the east until it stood where the young child was with Mary, His mother. And they fell to the ground and worshiped Him and presented Him with gold and frankincense and myrrh. But they dreamed not to return to Herod and they departed into their own country another way. What is the one incorrect bit of data in this summation of a New Testament passage? Email Elissa elissa12@bellsouth.net with your guess.
Last month's question had to do with an area of New York City that the Dutch called "Krom Moerasje." Today it is better known as Gramercy Park. Bob Abbott posed a guess but didn't hit the mark. Thanks anyway, Bob!
Notes From The Underground
By: Barry Karas
Googlewhacking - This is an offbeat pursuit of bored Web surfers. It is increasing in popularity and spawning its own legion of enthusiasts. The game starts by typing two unrelated words, such as colonoscopy and cockatiel, into Google's search bar, with the goal of obtaining a single result. The challenge is to find two words so disparate that only one match will occur among Google's 3 billion indexed Web pages.
Aggravation - I had some computer problems the other day. Being
somewhat of an expert
The next day there were still some problems - and the air in my living room was bluer.
National Testing Day - Over 1300 people took the qualifying examination on Oct. 18th. 117 people looking to qualify for the Naples area chapter took the exam. I realize that we do not have the population of the Naples area, but we could get a proportional number of applicants. We have to get more publicity. Perhaps if we have someone from the Post and/or the Sun-Sentinel attend a dinner we can be mentioned?
One oft overlooked fact, is that many people already qualify for Mensa. Take me for example. I qualified for Mensa because I exceeded the minimum SAT requirement - when I took the SATs prior to going to undergraduate college. The scores of SATs and many other examinations that many people have taken in the past may already qualify potential members.
Membership - Our latest count puts us as having 347 members.
Barry Karas, LocSec
bkaras@mindspring.com
Region 10
By Elissa Rudolph
As of this writing, proxies are coming in through the Mensa Web site slowly but surely. Central Florida Mensa forged ahead early because editor of the newsletter, The Flame, Stephen Murray, managed to email the word out to members quickly. And CFMs took up the challenge, contacted http://www.us.mensa.org/, clicked on "ProxyQuest" (the official name of our current mission), and tendered their proxies. Those of you who haven't "clicked" yet, please do so, and soon. The sooner you respond, the fewer dollars will be spent to get your proxy. If you aren't quite sure what this is all about, please contact me.
On National Testing Day, more than 1,300 people took the challenge. Southwest by South Mensa in the Naples area were surprised with 117 potential Ms waiting to take the tests. They originally planned for 46. Nice challenge to have! Media coverage was extraordinary nationwide.
Miami Mensa's Mini-G in the Florida Keys was a laid-back success. Despite a bit of overcast skies and intermittent rain, some of us think we saw the "green flash" during Friday night's sunset. And the lunar eclipse on Saturday night was incredible through a telescope. Company and food were excellent!
See you soon at a another Florida gathering?
Coming Soon… great Mensa Gathering events!!
January 30, 31, February 1, Smarti Gras 2004, hosted by Central Florida Mensa, at the Holiday Inn Select, Orlando; registration fee: $60 til 10/31/2003, includes meals except Sat. night; 24- hour hospitality; King cake, hurricanes & touffee, Olympic-sized hot tub, armchair treasure hunt, & more. Registrar: Eddie Truelove (407-855-9078), etruelove@cfl.rr.com.
February 13-15, ValenTime, hosted by Northwest Florida Mensa at the Holiday Inn of Destin; registration fee $35 til Jan. 31; white sand beaches, lavish hospitality overlooking those Gulf of Mexico beaches, chocolate, games, speakers, & more. Registrar: John Mochan (850-863-3599), jmochan@cox.net.
Elissa Rudolph
RVC10@us.mensa.org
5054 Lakefront Blvd., Apt. D
Delray Beach, FL 33484
561-496-0124
Scholarships Available
Mensans and non-Mensans who will be enrolled in a degree program in an accredited college next year may be eligible to apply for a Mensa Education and Research Scholarship.Awards will be made on the basis of an essay which describes the applicant's goal.To receive an official entry form, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Scholarships, P.O. Box 77, Palm City, FL 34991 or visit
http://merf.us.mensa.org/scholarships/zipfinder.php
Can you help us get the word out? If you have contacts in the local high schools or colleges, please contact the Scholarship Chair (see contact page). Entrants compete for scholarships worth up to $1,000; at least one $300 scholarship will be awarded to a student in our geographic region.
Members who are interested in reading and scoring the essays should contact the Scholarship Chair.Judges will meet in Palm City in late January or early February to do this.
F.Y.I.
As of the end of October Palm Beach County Mensa had 347 members-- 15 entered the group as new, reinstated or moving in members and 1 member moved out. Welcome or welcome back to Kimon Andreou, Royal Palm Beach; Samuel Beckett, West Palm Beach; Charles Hagan Freeman, Boca Raton; John Hotchkiss, Tequesta; Katherine Knox Hughes, North Palm Beach; Stephen Jennewein, Palm Beach Gardens; Elliot Linsky, Boynton Beach; Richard Manno, Boynton Beach; Michael Montgomery, Boca Raton; Shawn Nigam, Palm City; Adam Semer, Boynton Beach; Keely Thomas, Tequesta; Jim Wharton, Port St. Lucie; and Thomas Zarate, Boca Raton. Come out to an event and let us meet you or organize one in your area and meet other Mensans!
Dusty Reviews
by Miss Dustinea Jacquette,
retired, spinsterish librarian
At the heart of "Eye of the Albatross" by Carl Safina is a chronology of the travels of Amelia, a hardworking parent albatross wearing a state of the art satellite-tracking transmitter. Surrounding the amazing descriptions of Amelia's flights to find food for herself and her chick are lessons in ecology, philosophy, and biology, told in beautifully readable language. Albatrosses are huge birds with 8 and 9 foot wingspans; they spend 95 percent of their time at sea, flying most of the time. Safina mentions that since the birds are long-lived, a 50- year-old albatross has probably flown 3.7 million miles, at a minimum. Just think about that.
Amelia, named for you know who, is a Laysan albatross who with her mate is raising a chick on Tern Island, located northwest of the Hawaiian Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. Several of the adults nesting on this island have been outfitted with transmitters to track their travels. In the book are plotted maps of many of Amelia's forays as the chick is growing. While Amelia is gone, father albatross will feed the chick, but at times there will be no parent bird around. One of Amelia's food finding expeditions has her gone from her chick for two weeks, logging 5,600 miles, the farthest point being near the Aleutian Islands. Look at a map to get a feeling for that fact. In the months it takes for Amelia and her mate to raise their chick, the mother albatross's transmitter shows that she has traveled more than 25,000 miles, the circumference of the globe at the equator. Another thing to think about.
Throughout the book Safina encourages readers to understand the beauty and formidable life force of the albatross, once hunted so unrelentingly that certain species of albatross are gone forever. Other species' numbers will never attain their former numbers. Safina also pays attention to other types of seabirds, such as Sooty Terns, Boobies, and Frigatebirds. Whales, porpoises, squid, jellyfish and other fishes find their way into "Eye," which makes this book a must-read for anyone interested in the natural world. And shouldn't we all be interested, since we are part of it too?
Safina writes from Tern Island where he is documenting the albatross study: "We're not here to invade their privacy; we want to better appreciate them. And knowing about these albatrosses will also help us understand their exposure to human-made hazards, which may help us aid their survival. A third reason we want to know them better is to put the shimmering diversity of the living world in slightly clearer context . . ." (p. 41).
And Safina's awe at the mysterious world of these great birds, " . . this atoll, this wildlife, these remarkable albatrosses, all provide a visceral sense of continuity from deep, deep time. Here you can feel that our intertwined stories began far into the distant past, and that-as Coleridge's ancient Mariner implied-we are kin" (p.37).
Trivia Question
Trivia question sent in by Bob Abbott after he attended the 2003 AG in St. Paul, Minnesota:
What was St. Paul's original name?
(a) Saul
(b) Pig's Eye
(c) All of the above
(d) None of the above
The answer is (c).
(The saint was called Saul before his conversion, and the city was first called Pig's Eye.)
Event Review
Dinner at 8 was full of good conversation and good food. Bill and Grace Carducci of Boca Raton and Adam Gellis of West Palm Beach were newbies. Dan Tobias, Joan Zieff and Kathy Hickok were the old timers.
Note: The opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and DO NOT reflect opinions of Palm Beach County Mensa, its officers, or of American Mensa, Ltd., which holds NO opinions.
© 2000-2007 Palm Beach County Mensa. The Mensa logo is a registered trademark of Mensa International Limited and American Mensa Limited, all rights reserved. Mensa does not hold any opinion or have, or express, any political or religious views.