February 2019 | Americanmensa.Org Special Discount For
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
® BULLETIN MENSA The Magazine of American Mensa® February 2019 | americanmensa.org Special Discount for It doesn’t take a genius to see that switching to GEICO is a bright idea. Members of Mensa could save even more with a special member discount. geico.com 800-368-2734 Local Agent Some discounts, coverages, payment plans and features are not available in all states, in all GEICO companies, or in all situations. GEICO contracts with various membership entities and other organizations, but these entities do not underwrite the offered insurance products. Discount amount varies in some states. One group discount applicable per policy. Coverage is individual. In New York a premium reduction may be available. GEICO may not be involved in a formal relationship with each organization; however, you still may qualify for a special discount based on your membership, employment or affi liation with those organizations. GEICO is a registered service mark of Government Employees Insurance Company, Washington, DC 20076; a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. subsidiary. GEICO Gecko image © 1999-2019. © 2019 GEICO CONTENTS In this issue, features on relationships, the unexplained, astrology, contradictory beliefs, and unintelligent artificial intelligence beg readers to look outside themselves and within. FEATURES STAPLES 4 Photography 17 On Language 20 To The Stars Academy Unafraid to Investigate the Unexplained 6 Contributors 18 Book Reviews 7 Chair’s Column 37 Mensa Foundation Rock star-backed org attempts earnest 8 Editor’s Note 38 Mensa News research into UFOs and the paranormal 9 Letters 42 Events 11 Member Deaths 45 Classified Ads 24 Lions and a Tiger and Bears 12 Games 45 Games Answers and Water Buffalo – Oh, My! 14 Science Briefs 46 Personal Essay Couple weds and reweds in different states with animal attendants 28 The Astrologer’s Tale A star-crossed love story in the style of Chaucer 30 Everybody Plays the Fool Man’s greatest trick is on himself – cognitive dissonance Cover: Many members have met their mates in Mensa, 33 Fiction: Jerome Findlay Quidley III as Jonathan Moore’s illustration suggests. It's one of Soon, bootlegging in small-town myriad reasons to renew and find out what events your Alaska will never be the same Local Group has on its calendar. Your move. © iStockphoto/GrandFailure FEBRUARY 2019 3 OPENING SHOTS 44 MENSAMENSA BULLETINBULLETIN OPENING SHOTS Marian Herz trudged nearly a half-mile up the steep steps of Staffa Island to photograph some nesting puffins. Herz and her party had landed early on the island, in the Outer Hebrides off the coast of Scotland, so the small seabirds were still on the water, not yet back at their nests feeding their young. It started raining, and by the time the puffins returned it was coming down hard enough for Herz to pack her camera in a dry bag. But just before she did, two heads popped up close. They looked at her and then started mutual preening, a courting behavior. Herz was able to get a few shots before it really began to pour and the birds retreated. Send your “Opening Shots” digital images, along with a brief description and the photographer’s name, to [email protected]. FEBRUARY 2019 5 CONTRIBUTORSOPENING SHOTS MATT TILLER ZOE M. STEWART TO THE STARS ACADEMY UNAFRAID TO INVESTIGATE THE ASTROLOGER’S TALE UNEXPLAINED Zoe is a junior at the Along with being his Local Group’s Testing Davidson Academy for Coordinator, Matt is an advocate for gifted the profoundly gifted in education and a proud father whose passions Reno, Nev. Her current include theoretical quantum physics, focus is digital art and 28 multicultural studies, and new technology. character animation, His interest in paranormal topics began in but her free time is spent writing stories childhood. Matt credits that same curiosity as and poetry and editing music videos inspiration for learning new languages as well and short films. School officials have 20 as his own personal quest for answers. said they are “certain she is either a time Charlotte Blue Ridge Mensa | Joined 2011 traveler or an ancient being,” and science has yet to prove otherwise. Northern Nevada Mensa | Joined 2014 H. GAY ALLEN JONATHAN MOORE 46 PARTING THOUGHTS: COVER TIM MARTIN MY AI LIFE Jonathan hails from LIONS AND TIGER AND Gay is a retired upstate South Carolina BEARS AND WATER health scientist and has created a BUFFALO – OH, MY! who managed the variety of genre work 24 Tim’s first publishing development of for books, tabletop credit was in the large surveillance gaming, graphic novels, and private second grade. His “BEaST of Health” article and epidemiological data systems for the collectors in the U.S. and abroad. He on big pharma was selected for the Best of Centers for Disease Control. She has also traditionally works in oil, with a small the Bulletin 2001-2002, and his article “That worked as a writer/photographer/editor amount of side projects using digital Smarts!” (a Mensa IQ test based on beastly for various national and international media. He juggles his artwork with his brains) led off the 2005 “Animals: The Other publications, including for IBM and as a daily duties as dad to his young daughters People” issue of the Bulletin. He’s a blessed stringer for USA Today. An artist at heart, and son. You can see his work and process husband, animal lover, soon-to-be-25-gallon she has created, exhibited, published, and/ on instagram.com/jonathanmoorestudio. blood donor, chronic seeker of input, and or sold thousands of photos, poems, pieces Piedmont Area Mensa | Joined 2013 perpetual honeymooner, and his proudest of pottery, paintings, fused glass art pieces, accomplishment is his ever-renewing marriage to his forever bride Jackie. collages, and other artworks. Left brain paid LEONARD GASTON the bills so that the right brain can explore the Orange County | Mensa Joined 1983 EVERYBODY PLAYS THE FOOL thrills! See hgayallen.com. Leonard earned a STEVEN LEVI Mensa in Georgia | Joined 1989 30 bachelor’s in engineering JEROME FINDLAY QUIDLEY III 33 from Texas Tech and Steven is a freelance writer 33 an MBA and Ph.D. from The Ohio State in Alaska. He has more University. He had a 32-year career as than 80 books available on an industrial engineer and operations Amazon and specializes research analyst and a second career in impossible crimes. An in academia, retiring as a tenured full impossible crime is one professor. He believes our decisions can where the detectives have to solve how be improved if we are aware of an innate the crime was committed before they can tendency to resist admitting we are wrong go after the perpetrators. In The Matter of – admitting an initial decision might be the Vanishing Greyhound, a Greyhound bus incorrect. The more important the decision disappears off the Golden Gate Bridge. (lives, careers), the stronger the resistance. Visit stevelevibooks.com. Cincinnati Area Mensa | Joined 2010 Mensa Alaska | Joined 1986 MICHAEL MCKENZIE JEROME FINDLAY QUIDLEY III MARIAN HERZ Michael has been creating art for more than 4 OPENING SHOTS 25 years, studying a variety of disciplines. His Marian is a retired product management and development professional artwork has adorned halls of barracks in basic who now spends most of her time traveling the world taking photographs. training while he was a tanker in the Army, on She started taking pictures when she was 6 and has won international a variety of unconventional canvasses during photographic competitions, including three best-in-the-world nature print his deployment for Operation Iraqi Freedom, awards in the Kodak International Salon and a 2016 Ocean Conservancy and at a hydroelectric dam powerhouse for contest award. Her images have also been published in National Wildlife, the Lower Colorado River Authority. You can National Gardening, Florida Wildlife, and on the World Wildlife Fund see more of his art at fineartamerica.com/ website. When home, she gives presentations about the places she has visited and the profiles/michael+mckenzie.html. environmental changes captured in her photography. Visit marianherz.zenfolio.com. St. Louis Area Mensa | Joined 2013 Southern Idaho Mensa | Joined 1978 6 MENSA BULLETIN SIGNS OF INTELLIGENCE MENSA®|BULLETIN Finding LaRae EDITORIAL STAFF Issue 622 By LaRae Bakerink, Chair | [email protected] Editor: Chip Taulbee, [email protected] Art Director: Hilary Moore, [email protected] LOOKING THROUGH MY CALENDAR, it Director of Marketing and Communications: Charles Brown feels like I’m about to dive into a Where’s Associate Marketing Director: Scott Snider Marketing Specialist: Laurel Gregory Waldo? book where I’m the one searched for. Copy Editor: Ronnie Rittenberry I’ve been making a point of attending Advertising: Julie Martinez, [email protected] Mensa events I have not yet attended as Bulletin for the Blind: [email protected] well as adding in some of my annual favor- Questions? Comments? Call 817-607-0060 ites. This month I’ll attend for the first AMERICAN MENSA time Greater Los Angeles’s Regional Gathering, StaRGaz- Chair: LaRae Bakerink, [email protected] ers, chaired by the amazing Madeline Pinsky Walker. It will First Vice Chair: Lori Norris, [email protected] be nice to visit with old friends and make some new ones Second Vice Chair: Billie Lee, [email protected] Secretary: Greg Kontz, [email protected] along the way. Treasurer: Deb Stone, [email protected] In March, on the opposite coast, I’ll attend Central New Ombudsman: Bud Klueck, [email protected] Jersey’s RG, Snowball, chaired by Erin Risch and Josh Fish- Advocate: Elissa Rudolph, [email protected] kind. This is the second-largest and longest-running RG. Executive Director: Trevor Mitchell, MBA, CAE, [email protected] Cooler weather, wonderful friends, and perhaps it will live Communications Officer:Tommy Ryan, [email protected] up to its name and I will get to see some of the powdery MENSA INTERNATIONAL white stuff! Chair: Bibiana Balanyi, [email protected] April brings one of my favorite annual events, Mind Director of Administration: Dan Burg, [email protected] Games.