February 2019, Volume–47, Issue–2 Kansas Sunflower Mensa Officers for 2019
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February 2019, Volume–47, Issue–2 Kansas Sunflower Mensa Officers for 2019: President: Larry Paarmann, 316-209-3752, [email protected] Vice President: Bill Barnett, 316-214-3330, [email protected] Although the shortest month of the year, February Treasurer: Diane Powell, 316-617-8423, often feels like one of the longest. A serene scene at cdkpowell@hotmail .com the South end of McPherson State Fishing Lake. Program Chair: Bill Barnett, 316-214-3330, Sunflower Seeds ©2019, Wichita, Kansas Sunflower Mensa, [email protected] is distributed to chapter members and select individuals. Mensa is a non-profit international society whose sole Publications: Gordon Bakken, 316-687-9402, requirement for qualification for membership is a score at or [email protected] above the 98th percentile on any accepted standard tests, or by submission of properly certified prior evidence. Editor, Seeds: Klaus Trenary, 316-682-5206, [email protected] All unsigned material in the Sunflower Seeds is either by the editorial staff or obtained from public domain. Items may be Recruit & Test: Dan Gollub, 316-322-3087, reprinted (if not individually copyrighted) if you’re another Mensa publication. Be sure to provide proper credit to the [email protected] author and Sunflower Seeds. No other reprinting is permitted without prior written permission of the Publication’s Editor. Associate Proctor: Position OPEN - Contributions may be submitted at any time, but for Member at Large: Ronnie Lee Ingle, publication in the next issue, it must be received by the 20th of (316) 631-3514, [email protected] the preceding month. All contributions must be signed but may be published anonymously or under a pseudonym. The Ombudsman: Mike Dickson, 316-651-4707, Editors have total discretion to reject or edit submissions and advertisements according to style, taste and space [email protected] requirements. Decisions of the Editors may be capricious and are always final. Region – 7 VC: Rich Olcott, 720-390-7889, [email protected] Paid advertising is accepted on a space-available basis at $40 per full page, $25 per 1⁄2 page, $15 per 1⁄4 page, free four- American Mensa Ltd.: color layout for members. Rates are double for non-members. All ads must be renewed each month. Classified ads are free to 1-888-294-8035 members. Chapter’s Official Web Sites: Sunflower Seeds is the Official Publication of the Wichita Kansas Sunflower Mensa #670, published twelve times a year. https://www.kansassunflower.us.mensa.org The subscription fee of $5.00 is included in annual dues paid to Wichita Sunflower Mensa and American Mensa, Ltd.; other https://www.facebook.com/groups/77358794935 subscriptions are $18.00 per year. 5460/ Editor: Klaus Trenary, [email protected] 2 February Upcoming Events: LocSec Korner By: Larry D. Paarmann As you can see from the ExCom Meeting notes elsewhere in this issue of SEEDS, there are quite a few 2nd 12:45pm - Monthly PIG OUT El Agave Restaurant activities that need people to volunteer to oversee. We 3540 N Maize RD have most everything covered, except for the ongoing (316) 636-7084 need for a Proctor, and Recruitment and Testing Chair. But as you can see, some of us have multiple 9th 2:00pm - Guest Speaker and Stated Meeting responsibilities. We would like to spread it around WATERMARK BOOKS, BASEMENT some. So, if you are so inclined to volunteer for a 4701 E DOUGLAS position, please let me know. HTTP://WATERMARKBOOKS.COM ExCom Meeting 16th 11:00am - Food for Thought WATERMARK BOOKS, BASEMENT The Executive Committee met on Saturday, January 4701 E DOUGLAS 12th, right after the Program Meeting was over. A HTTP://WATERMARKBOOKS.COM number of appointments were made: (1) Bill Barnett 23rd 7:00pm - Banter and Books will continue as Program Chair, (2) Dan Gollub will BARNES & NOBELS, EATING AREA continue as Recruitment and Testing Chair until we can 1920 N ROCK RD find a replacement (he has moved to Manhattan), HTTP://STORES.BARNESANDNOBLES.COM/STORE/2319 Gordon Bakken will continue as Publications Officer, Klaus Trenary will continue as Newsletter Editor, Dan Gollub will continue as Testing Coordinator, and January Pig Out Proctor, the position of Associate Proctor is open, but Gordon Bakken is considering it, Larry Paarmann will Our Pig Out location for continue as Local Scholarship Chair, and he will also January was Hangar continue as Web Contact, Gordon Bakken will continue One Steakhouse, 5925 as alternative Web Contact. W. Kellogg Dr., Wichita. A discussion was held as to what documents we should The restaurant post on our web site. Larry Paarmann will contact Rich specializes, of course, in Olcott to discuss this. Another discussion was held steaks, but has other about maintaining civility in all of our meetings. Diane things on the menu as Powell will draft a statement about this with the idea of well, such as burgers, putting it in a future issue of the SEEDS. fish, etc. As you might guess, the décor focuses on airplanes, and is an entertaining place to be. And, of January’s Speaker: course, good conversation was aplenty. Janine Wollenberg, Gifted Education Teacher spoke on the current state of gifted education in Kansas. I did not realize, or maybe I chose to ignore the fact, that our educational system is heavily biased against “gifted children”. It seems that for every dollar spent on exceptional children, four dollars are spent on “special needs”, or severely underachieving children. Simple logic would dictate that this is a serious misallocation of scarce resources. 3 This Month’s Featured Speaker: Sunflower Mensa Financial Report: Olivia Malanchuk, Senior at Mulvane High School and 4th Quarter [Oct. 1, 2018 – Dec. 31, 2018] competitive speaker will talk on reusable women's health products. She is interested in being a public Diane Powell, Treasurer Sunflower Mensa speaker and politics. Balance October 1, 2018 $3, 841.14 Total Seeds Expenses -$166.28 [October-Nov-December] NOTE; [ADV = $15.00 + $40.00 = $55.00] Speaker [1] -$40.00 Screen/Projectors [2] -$43.00 Christmas Party - $120.62 National Funding + $325.50 Blue Moon Gathering Balance December 31, 2018 $3,796.74 Every month when there is a fifth Saturday we meet at Coming Next Month: the Muse Café in the Wichita Art Museum. Meet A Mensan The food there is Three or four time a year, the Seeds will feature the life excellent, and of a chapter member. We intend to explore who “the reasonably priced. average” Mensan is, why they became a member and Admission to the how they feel Mensa can help change the World. Every Wichita Art Museum is member has a story to tell or some sort of expertise free on Saturdays. that they would be willing to share with like-minded Even though the Blue others. Moon SIG met most- Super Genius Award recently on December 29, 2018 (too late for Be the first to answer the trivia this little article to appear in the January, 2019, issue of question and have your picture SEEDS), right between Christmas and New Year’s, we posted as the chapters monthly had a good turn-out, with conversation going until past super-genius. the Muse’s closing time of 2:00 PM. What commonly available Consider joining us next time, which will be March 30th. psychotropic drug when administered to rats induced the Chapter Field Trip following reaction: “… crazed rats were seen to bite themselves and chew off their feet; some continued this The chapter is planning on beginning a new activity of frenetic self-mutilation until they died of hemorrhagic regular field trips to interesting and educational shock?” Its use has also been linked to severe destinations. The first place to be visited will be the withdrawal symptoms, and psychological problems Kansas Oil Museum in El Dorado. Exact date and time to including panic attacks in humans. Answer next month. be determined. Transportation provided. 4 Never Mind Killer Robots Dave heroically managed to get to HAL’s memory banks, and HAL states as he is in the process of being shut down: “Good afternoon . gentlemen. I am a HAL 9000 . computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois . on the 12th of January 1992. My instructor was Mr. Langley . and he taught me to sing a song. If you’d like to hear it I can sing it for you.” All during this process HAL’s voice is getting slower and deeper as he loses his memory. Then he sings Bicycle Built for Two: Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do . This song, Bicycle Built for Two, as sung by HAL, is actually the first truly synthetically generated (not By Larry D. Paarmann recorded digitally but generated by software) song sung by a computer. It was programmed in an IBM 704 In the January 15th Mensa Weekly Brainwave, the top computer by Max Mathews at Bell Labs at Murray Hill, story had a link to an article in the MIT Technology NJ in 1961. Review titled “Never Mind Killer Robots” ‒ Here are Six Real AI Dangers to Watch out for in 2019,” January 7, Concerns over AI taking over the world is also expressed 2019, by Will Knight and Karen Hao. The first sentence in the Terminator movie series by the computer of the article is as follows: “Last year a string of network Skynet. Malevolent AI machines are also in controversies revealed a darker (and dumber) side to Westworld, I-Robot, etc. artificial intelligence.”. Here is the link to the paper: But this MIT article is concerned much more with what https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612689/never- is happening now, rather than somewhere off in some mind-killer-robotshere-are-six-real-ai-dangers-to-watch- unforeseeable future.