mensa w o r l d

j o u r nal
november 2015 issue #034

new member, Julie Jung-Vasseur p2

m ensa wor ld j our na l

new member profile:
Julie Jung-Vasseur
Julie is 16 years old and
comes from Sarreguemines,
in France.
At the time of writing (September),
she is one of Frances newest members. One of her friends, a Mensan,
suggested she give the test a go and
being successful, she joined just a
couple of weeks ago.
Julie is a final year scientific baccalaureate student and physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics are her
favourite subjects.
Her joint passions are physics and
animals and her aim when she finishes
school at the end of the year is to
study at the veterinary school Maison
Alfort in Paris, whilst at the same time
doing a masters degree in theoretical
physics because physics is my passion
and I would like to learn more about
this subject.

Julie plans to take care of animals

in a reserve in Africa, Australia or in
another country before returning to
France to work in a veterinarian clinic.
Shes particularly interested in prosthetics for animals, a relatively new
field of veterinary science.
Among her hobbies, Julie lists visiting castles because the architecture of
the 17th and 18th centuries are of great
interest to me. Other interests include
dance, chess, and collecting minerals,
seashells, fossils and stuffed animals.
Welcome to Mensa, Julie!

Wondering whats on in the Mensa

world?
Log into the International website at

www.mensa.org for the calendar of

national events. You can also read or download
copies of many national journals and the
Mensa World Journal.
mensa world journal november 2015

from the editor,

Its always uplifting to
hear about a Mensan
who is helping children reach their full
potential and Korean Mensan Zhe
Hyoungbeom is doing just that. US
Mensan Hal Swindall tells us about
his Eden Center on p4.
On page 3, MIL Treasurer Rudi
Challupner reminds us that there are
approximately 139,880,000 people
in the world who would qualify for
Mensa, and asks for our ideas on
how we could attract these potential
members. Rudis e-address is treasurer-mil@mensa.org; hes waiting for
your ideas!
British expat, Ian Mote, a Mensan for close on thirty years, has
written a book, From Chicken Feet
to Crystal Baths about his life and
travels in China. Have a look at the
synopsis and details of how to buy it
on p9.
Other articles that might interest
you this month include Apollo Syndrome: dysfunctional high-IQ Society
leadership on p5; Why the long face?
Horses and humans share facial
expressions... on p6, and, Laughter,
then love: study explores why humour
is important in romantic attraction
on p8.
Our regular science column by
US Mensan John Blinke, Supplementally..., is on pxx, and Thereses
Puzzles are on p12 as usual.
Happy reading!

Kate
mwjeditor@mensa.org
02

m ensa wor ld j our na l

from the executive committee...

Rudi Challupner, Treasurer

139,880,000
What does this number
mean? I will explain a little
later.
Firstly, many thanks for reelecting me for a second term
as Treasurer I am happy to
further improve the financial
development and transparency
by regular reports to you.

tual and social environment for our

members.
For purpose 3) we do a lot
(gatherings, lectures, groups of
regulars, ), for purpose 2) some
things like MERF, but for 1)?

There we have a big opportunity to

become really world-famous. Globally many things dont go as they
should we could offer our brains
and intellectual abilities to work out
and promote better solutions and
Now, just a few numbers for the fisproceedings. In the good old days we
cal year 2014 to show what I mean
had other income (from the use of the
(all amounts in GBP): the budgeted
Mensa name and brand mainly) of up
income from components was 290,000, to 30,000 GBP. This year we had 2,657
the real income was 280,000. In 2014 only. To increase this amount even bewe had the expected very low financial yond the old values for example would
resources of 170,000 only, which repre- help us tremendously to keep membersents just 60% of our annual costs.
ship fees low.
For 2014, the IBD requested an initial But to be successful we would need
increase of 30.000 to 200,000. Due to projects which reach out to the real
some cost savings the final result was an world; it is only then that we can earn
even +40,000, so our financial backreal income in return. We would need
ing is 210,000 GBP now. Well done,
projects to use our intelligence and our
Treasurer, I would say.
abilities to find excellent and sustainBut financial funds are good, only if
they serve the purposes of Mensa. You
all know, we have three main purposes
defined in our constitution:
1) to identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity;
2) to encourage research into the
nature, characteristics and uses of intelligence; and
3) to provide a stimulating intellecmensa world journal november 2015

ably effective solutions for the benefit

of humanity. To offer the capacity of
our brains can bring us a very big step
forward towards concentrated attention
and a high profile in the general public.

So, 139,880,000 ?

At present around 7 billion people live

on the globe. Our potential membership is 2% - which in numbers
equates to140,000,000. We have about

120,000 Mensans currently, so there are

139,880,000 out there we could attract.
Isnt this a worthy direction to aspire
to? Maybe we should strongly think
about improving our structure and
administration. At the moment we
have an International Chairman and
a Treasurer, and Directors of Administration, Development, and Smaller
National Mensas. Maybe an additional
Director of World Projects, capable
of initiating and pulling through some
things would be an option? I would
support this and I strongly believe that
to spend some of our funds towards
this direction is the best investment we
could make.
What is your opinion? Please let me
know. I will appreciate each single idea!
Thank you and kindest regards,

Rudi Challupner
treasurer-mil@mensa.org
03

m ensa wor ld j our na l

A Haven for Koreas Highly Gifted Children:
the Eden Center by Hal Swindall
In Western countries, East Asian
students are characterized as whiz
kids who study incessantly and
achieve top scores on standardized
tests, an image borne out by the
PISA rankings. Those of us who
actually live and teach in this part of
the world know, however, that there
is a dark side to oriental scholastic
achievement, namely a stifling competitive conformity with little room
for individual initiative or creativity. That is why many highly gifted
East Asian children actually suffer in
school, without anyone to recognize
and encourage their specialness.

Amidst this grim scene there
is one beacon of hope, at least in
Korea: the Eden Center in the Seoul
area, founded by Korean Mensan Zhe
Hyoungbeom (pictured above right),
who followed an IT career with
companies like Microsoft Korea and
Hewlett-Packard. In 1999, Hyoungbeom was impressed by an issue of
Newsweek dedicated to giftedness
that led him to the American psychologist James Webb, whose book
he translated into Korean. Ten years
later, he founded the Eden Center
with modest offices in Seongnam, a
city south of Seoul. After five years
of counselling highly gifted children
and their parents, Hyoungbeom
became Director of Administration
for the National Institute of Mathematical Science. Therefore, Eden
presently only exists as a cybercommunity run by volunteers, with
periodic family and parental gatherings on weekends; when he retires

mensa world journal november 2015

from NIMS, however, Hyoungbeom

plans to drive this community to the
maximum in new premises.
Hyoungbeom named his institution after Edison, Da Vinci, Einstein
and Newton, all of whom were highly
unusual. In the ultra-conformist Korean school system, it is precisely the
odd behavioral traits of highly gifted
children that alienate them from
their peers, teachers and even parents.
Among Korean pupils, being
labeled a wangtta, or social outcast,
invites both verbal and physical bullying. Many highly gifted children
are so treated, and Hyoungbeom believes the intelligence gap between
gifted and non-gifted kids is actually
widening, leading to even greater
misunderstanding. He also identifies
teachers with prejudices as making
a bad situation worse by their impatience with constant questions from
highly gifted children, who are bored
by the slow pace of rote learning
that defines the Korean educational
system. Parents, for their part, are
baffled by their highly gifted childrens sensitivity to stimuli such as
noise, as well as their strong personal
preferences; at the biweekly parents
meetings, some mothers weep as they
share their ordeals.
Hyoungbeoms remedy for this
plight is accelerated learning and
creative activities. For example, he
claims he taught some gifted children
how to add and subtract fractions in
half an hour, whereas learning this
skill takes place over several years
in the regular school system. He

also gives children opportunities for

hands-on work making things such
as sword replicas and drums. Hyoungbeom believes that Edens children need satisfactory intelligence
motivation just as much as nutrition,
so that every day the child should be
fed some new knowledge and challenging questions for an individual
intellectual mission.
Edens most popular family activity is its Annual House Concert, in
which the children perform on stage
and participate in a quiz competition; Hyoungbeom plans to hold it
twice yearly in the future. About
200 families attend this event, and
another 500 have joined Eden online,
with more coming every year. Hyoungbeom thus believes his center is
needed by many families, and plans
to expand nationwide after he retires
from NIMS, helped by volunteers from
many professions.
While he cannot singlehandedly
change Korean education, Hyoungbeom is an example of a lone Mensan
trying to make a difference in the lives
of a fortunate few.

04

m ensa wor ld j our na l

Apollo Syndrome: dysfunctional high-IQ Society leadership

by Bryan Lundgren
Holy smokes, does this ever explain
a lot, I muttered aloud at the presentation on the Apollo Syndrome at
the July 2015 Mensa Canada Annual Gathering. Vicki Herd, the
newly-elected President, was giving
an animated talk about how high-IQ
leadership can be so muddled and
frustrating. A knowing glance and
a nod was given to me from one seat
away. By using copious amounts of
humour, Vicki entertained the audience and did not insult the Mensa
Board.
The Apollo Syndrome
The Apollo Syndrome study by Dr.
Meredith Belbin admirably captures
how teams composed of all high-IQ
individuals tend to fail miserably.1.
The syndrome is named after the
powerful Greek god of knowledge,
who is a bit too smart for his own
good. Today, we could say that
Apollo experiences negative social
consequences driven by the destructive influences of his cruel super-ego2
In these experiments, all-genius
teams routinely came in last of eight
different group designs. Groups
with a balanced diversity of skills
and abilities fared the best. Vicki
Herds talk featured the bumbling
Brains team on the popular TV show,
Survivor. In this season (Feb May,
2014) a genius Brains group was pitted against Beauty and Brawn teams.
The Brains argued flagrantly and
failed so miserably that they became
the comic relief, until they were the
first team to be voted off the island.
mensa world journal november 2015

Apollo Team Flaws

Flaw #1 Excessive,
abortive, and destructive
debate wastes time and
drains emotional energy
and thus destroys group
cohesion.
Flaw #2 Difficulty making
decisions and lack of coherence when done makes
performance marginal.
Late decisions and planning omissions are routine.
Flaw #3 Self-absorbed team members refuse to coordinate and cooperate. They lack focus and synergy and
therefore accomplish less.
Flaw #4 Sometimes a team avoids
all confrontation in an attempt to
get along. These groups make fewer,
smaller and safer choices.
Flaw #5 A team member who feels
disrespected may actively attempt to
sabotage others3.
Keep Calm and Muddle On
In genius teams, a willingness to look
for points of agreement rather than
seek disagreement helps improve
quality and productivity. A strong
leader who sets task parameters but
backs away from managing individuals is also shown to help a group
perform better.4
It can be entertaining to see how
the Apollo Syndrome explains various high IQ society dramas, snafus
and misfortunes. Maybe that is simply schadenfreude; taking pleasure in
the misfortune of others. However,
an awareness of pitfalls of Apollo

Teams may help them avoid some of

the five flaws.
There is no avoiding some overintellectualized leadership. Still, our
high IQ societies muddle along and
provide satisfactory experiences and
friendship opportunities for many
members. The final advice, Keep
Calm and Muddle On, is not so
strange or exotic at all.
1 Belbin, Management Teams - Why They Succeed
or Fail, 1981
2 Wikipedia, Apollo
3 Andersson, Tit for Tat? The Spiraling Effect of
Incivility in the Workplace,
www.jstor.org/stable/259136?seq=1#page_scan_
tab_contents
4 Goffee and Jones, Clever: Leading Your Smartest,
Most Creative People, Harvard Business Review,
Aug 2009

Bryan holds a Doctor of Education degree in leadership, a Masters

of Communications and a MBA in
management. His claim to fame is
attending 61 Mensa Gatherings in the
last five years. Bryan applauds leaders
who, in good spirit, manage the high
IQ society business.

05

m ensa wor ld j our na l

Why the long face? Horses and humans
share facial expressions...
Horses share some surprisingly
similar facial expressions to
humans and chimps, according to new University of Sussex
research. Mammal communication researchers have shown
that, like humans, horses use
muscles underlying various
facial features - including their
nostrils, lips and eyes - to alter
their facial expressions in a
variety of social situations.
The findings, published in PLOS
ONE today (05 August 2015), suggest evolutionary parallels in different
species in how the face is used for
communication.
The study builds on previous
research showing that cues from the
face are important for horses to communicate, by developing an objective
coding system to identify different
individual facial expressions on the
basis of underlying muscle movement.
The Equine Facial Action Coding System (EquiFACS), as devised
by the Sussex team in collaboration
with researchers at the University of
Portsmouth and Duquesne University, identified 17 action units
(discrete facial movements) in horses.
This compares with 27 in humans, 13
in chimps and 16 in dogs.
The studys co-lead author, doctoral researcher Jennifer Wathan, said:
Horses are predominantly visual
animals, with eyesight thats better
than domestic cats and dogs, yet their
mensa world journal november 2015

use of facial expressions has been

largely overlooked.
What surprised us
was the rich repertoire of complex
facial movements
in horses, and how
many of them are
similar to humans.
Despite the
differences in face
structure between
horses and humans, we were able to
identify some similar expressions in
relation to movements of the lips and
eyes.
What well now be looking at
is how these expressions relate to
emotional states.
The researchers analysed video
footage of a wide range of naturally occurring horse behaviours to
identify all the different movements
it is possible for horses to make with
their face. They also carried out an
anatomical investigation of the facial
muscles that underpin these movements. Each individual facial movement that was identified was given a
code.
Co-lead author Professor Karen
McComb said: It was previously
thought that, in terms of other species, the further away an animal was
from humans, the more rudimentary
their use of facial expressions would
be.
Through the development of
EquiFACS, however, its apparent

that horses, with their complex and

fluid social systems, also have an
extensive range of facial movements
and share many of these with humans
and other animals. This contributes
to a growing body of evidence suggesting that social factors have had a
significant influence on the evolution
of facial expression.
She added that a systematic way
of recording facial expressions would
have a wide range of uses. With
EquiFACS we can now document
the facial movements associated with
different social and emotional contexts and thus gain insights into how
horses are actually experiencing their
social world. As well as enhancing
our understanding of social cognition and comparative psychology, the
findings should ultimately provide
important information for veterinary
and animal welfare practices.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150805144820.htm#.VcNpJxAKOBI.
mailto

06

m ensa wor ld j our na l

the human body: four
stages of evolution
Research into 430,000-year-old
fossils collected in northern Spain
found that the evolution of the
human bodys size and shape has
gone through four main stages,
according to a paper published
this week.
A large international research team
including Binghamton University
anthropologist Rolf Quam studied
the body size and shape in the human fossil collection from the site of
the Sima de los Huesos in the Sierra
de Atapuerca in northern Spain.
Dated to around 430,000 years ago,
this site preserves the largest collection of human fossils found to date
anywhere in the world. The researchers found that the Atapuerca individuals were relatively tall, with wide,
muscular bodies and less brain mass
relative to body mass compared to
Neanderthals. The Atapuerca humans
shared many anatomical features with
the later Neanderthals not present
in modern humans, and analysis of
their postcranial skeletons (the bones
of the body other than the skull)
indicated that they are closely related
evolutionarily to Neanderthals.
This is really interesting since it
suggests that the evolutionary process
in our genus is largely characterized
by stasis (i.e. little to no evolutionary
change) in body form for most of our
evolutionary history, wrote Quam.
mensa world journal november 2015

Comparison of the Atapuerca fossils

with the rest of the human fossil
record suggests that the evolution of
the human body has gone through
four main stages, depending on
the degree of arboreality (living in
the trees) and bipedalism (walking
on two legs). The Atapuerca fossils represent the third stage, with
tall, wide and robust bodies and an
exclusively terrestrial bipedalism,
with no evidence of arboreal behaviors. This same body form was likely
shared with earlier members of our
genus, such as Homo erectus, as well
as some later members, including the
Neanderthals. Thus, this body form
seems to have been present in the
genus Homo for over a million years.
It was not until the appearance
of our own species, Homo sapiens,
when a new, taller, lighter and narrower body form emerged. Thus, the
authors suggest that the Atapuerca
humans offer the best look at the
general human body shape and size
during the last million years before
the advent of modern humans.
The study, titled Postcranial morphology of the middle Pleistocene humans
from Sima de los Huesos, Spain, was
published in Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-08/
bu-srh083115.phpsupple

Tapping to a beat and remembering rhythms may not

be related skills...
This may have implications for
language ability, according to a
study published September 16,
2015 in the open-access journal
PLOS ONE by Adam Tierney and
Nina Kraus from Northwestern
University.

Rhythms, or patterns of sound and silence in time,may play a vital role in both
speech and music. However, not knowing
how rhythm skills relate to each other has
limited researchers understanding of how
language relies on rhythm processing. In
particular, it is unknown whether all
rhythm skills are linked together, forming a single broad rhythmic competence,
or whether there are multiple separate
rhythm skills. Using a battery of twobeat tapping and two-rhythm memory
tests, the authors of this study recruited
over 60 teenage participants to investigate whether beat tapping and rhythm
memory/sequencing form two separate
clusters of rhythm skills.
The researchers found that tapping to
a metronome and the ability to adjust
to a changing tempo while tapping to a
metronome seem to be related skills. The
ability to remember rhythms and to drum
along to repeating rhythmic sequences
may also be related. However, the authors
found no relationship between beat tapping skills and rhythm memory skills, and
they suggest that these may actually be
separate skills. The authors also hope that
this discovery will inform future research
disambiguating how distinct rhythm
competencies track with specific language
functions.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/

07

m ensa wor ld j our na l

Laughter, then love: study explores why humour
is important in romantic attraction
Men might want to ditch the
pickup lines and polish their
punchlines in their quest to attract women, new research at the
University of Kansas suggests.
Jeffrey Hall, associate professor of
communication studies, found
that when two strangers meet,
the more times a man tries
to be funny and the more a
woman laughs at those attempts, the more likely it is
for the woman to be interested in dating. However,
an even better indicator of
romantic connection is if
the two are spotted laughing
together.
Those findings were among
the discoveries Hall made in
his search for a link between humour
and intelligence. For the past decade,
research has debated whether women
appreciate mens humour, which is
often cited as one of the most valued
traits in a partner, because it allows them to suss out the smarts of
potential mates. But Hall said finding
someone who appreciates your sense
of humour is valuable in its own
right.
The idea that humour is a signal
of intelligence doesnt give humour
its due credit, Hall said. If you meet
someone who you can laugh with,
it might mean your future relationship is going to be fun and filled with
mensa world journal november 2015

good cheer.
In the article Sexual Selection
and Humour in Courtship: A Case
for Warmth and Extroversion, which
was published online last month in
the journal Evolutionary Psychology,
Hall discusses three studies he per-

GPA and ACT scores, the study

found that there was no connection
between how smart the person was
and how funny he or she claimed to
be. But it did find a relationship with
humour and extroversion. The study
also didnt find a difference in how
men and women
comprehended
or appreciated
humour.
To find out
how humour use
by men and humour appreciated
by women played
a role in romantic attraction,
the final study
brought together
51 pairs of single,
formed that didnt find a connection heterosexual college students who
between humour and intelligence.
didnt know each other. The pairs sat
In the first study, 35 participants
alone in a room and talked for about
studied the Facebook profile pages of 10 minutes. Afterward they filled out
100 strangers to gauge their person- a survey.
alities. Their evaluations were comThe results didnt indicate that one
pared with a survey completed by the sex tried to be funnier than the other.
Facebook users. Hall found humorHowever, it did suggest the more
ous people were much more likely to times a man tried to be funny and
be extroverted than intelligent and
the more times a woman laughed at
were seen by strangers that way, too.
his jokes, the more likely she was roThe data also suggested that men and mantically interested. The reverse was
women posted similar amounts of
not true for women who attempted
humorous content to their pages.
humour.
In the second study, nearly 300
It also showed that when the pair
students filled out a survey on
continued on p9
humour in courtship. Looking at

08

m ensa wor ld j our na l

An Englishmans journey
through China
Ian Mote, a Mensan for close
on thirty years, is originally from
London. He has been an avid traveller since the time he
accompanied his parents
on around-the-world
trips as a baby.
At age 18, he lived in
America for six months,
experiencing a life in rural Kansas he had only
seen in movies and on
television. He went to
Hong Kong for the first
time in 1990 and again
in 1995, when he tentatively took his first steps
on Chinas mainland
soil. In 2002 he moved
to Hong Kong permanently and lived
there for four years, during which
time he made many trips into China.
In 2006 he moved to Dubai, United
Arab Emirates, and returned to Asia
in 2008 to live in Shanghai, where he
now resides.
Ian has written a new memoir of
travel and expatriate life in China,
From Chicken Feet to Crystal Baths,
which describes his journey from
London to Shanghai.
Filled with stories from his world
travels, this new travelogue published
by AuthorHouse, gives travel-lovers
an inside view of the sights, sounds,
and flavours from every province in
China.

mensa world journal november 2015

He details some of his most memorable moments in China, including

stays at first-class establishments in
Shanghai, drunken banquets with
miners in Inner
Mongolia, wanderings in the
Gobi Desert and
the hardships of
reaching Everest
Base Camp in
a bus.
Although it
acts as a memoir
of Ians travels
through Asia,
From Chicken
Feet to Crystal
Baths also serves to exemplify how a
Western expatriate like Ian adjusted
to life in China, with the highs and
lows along the way. He describes the
many cultural nuances of life in the
Eastern world, and how they differ
from those of the West.
Ian hopes to share the stories
from his travels so that he can inspire
others to travel and explore the world
as he did.
From Chicken Feet to Crystal Baths
Hardcover | 6 x 9 in | 472 pages | ISBN
9781504903950
Softcover | 6 x 9 in | 472 pages | ISBN
9781504903943
E-Book | 472 pages | ISBN 9781504903967
Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

continued from p8

laughed together, they were more

interested in each other.
Finding no link between humour
and intelligence, Hall offers four
explanations for why humour is so
important in finding partners:
- Humour points to having a
sociable and agreeable personality.
Part of what it means to be social is
the ability to joke along with people,
Hall said.
- Men use humour to gauge if
women are interested in them. Men
are trying to get women to show
their cards, Hall said. For some men
it is a conscious strategy.
- When men make jokes and women
laugh, they may be performing a
script in courtship. Men acting like
jokers and women laughing along
may be part of it, too. The script
is powerful and it is enduring, and
it dictates everything from asking
someone out to picking up the tab,
Hall said.
- Humor is valuable for humors sake.
Shared laughter might be a pathway
toward developing a more long-lasting relationship, Hall said.

Science Daily

European Mensa
Annual Gathering
(EMAG) 2016 will be
held in
Krakw, Poland, from
10 - 14 August
Time to start planning...

09

m ensa wor ld j our na l

New species of human relative
discovered
An international research
team, which includes NYU
anthropologists Scott Williams and Myra Laird, has
discovered a new species of
a human relative. Homo
naledi, uncovered in a
cave outside
of Johannesburg, South
Africa, sheds
light on the
diversity of
our genus
and possibly its origin.

The discovery also indicates that H.

naledi intentionally deposited bodies
of its dead in a remote cave chamber--behaviors previously thought
limited to humans.
Lee Berger, a research professor
in the Evolutionary Studies Institute
at the University of the Witwatersrand and
a National
Geographic
Explorer-inResidence,
led the expeditions that
recovered
the fossils more than
1,500 bones belonging to at least 15
individuals.
The endeavor, the Rising Star
expedition, involved an international
This discovery is unprecedented in the
team of scientists, including the six
sheer number of hominins collected
underground astronauts who excafrom such a small area in the virtual
vated and retrieved the fossils shortly
absence of other animal remains, says
after their discovery in late 2013.
Williams, an assistant professor in
Williams worked at the excavaNYUs Department of Anthropology.
tion identifying and processing the
That makes this site unique. Moreover,
material as it came out of the cave.
the announcement describes only the
In addition, both Williams and
tip of the iceberg of analyses that will
Laird attended a 2014 workshop,
come, and we hope that is also true of
in which scholars from around the
the cave itself and the material that it
world traveled to Johannesburg to
still holds.
carry out studies on the fossils. At
The teams findings, which are
the gathering, Williams led the
published in two papers in the journal
study of the axial skeleton, which ineLife, were announced by South Afcluded the vertebrae and ribs, while
ricas University of the Witwatersrand,
Laird, a doctoral candidate, worked
the National Geographic Society, and
on the skulls.
the South African National Research
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/nyu-nso091015.php
Foundation.
mensa world journal november 2015

supplementally
Great Pyramid

AERAgram, Spring 2015, pp. 8 11. What was the Original Size of
the Great Pyramids Footprint?
How big is the base of the great
pyramid of Giza? Thats a silly question, right? You can get the answer
by reeling out a long tape measure
along each side. To do that, you have
to find the original edge on each
side. This is not an easy task because
most of the original facing stones
have been stolen or are eroded. You
would need to measure where the
edge of the facing stones met the
plaza surrounding the pyramid.
Mark Lehner of the Ancient Egypt
Research Associates (AERA) was
able to find places where 168 feet of
casing stone touch the platform on
the north side. He found none at all
on the south side. Out of an estimated original periphery of 920 meters, only 17% was in good enough
shape to measure. Lehners survey is
still in progress at this time.
More Zombie Ants
Science News Kindle Edition,
September 5, 2015. Caterpillar
Treats and Tricks Insects. (Current
Biology)
The Narathura japonica caterpillar
exudes a sweet substance that ants
love. In fact, they seem to become
caterpillar goo junkies. If anything
threatens the caterpillar, the ants go
nuts defending it. The habituated
ants rarely go home again. Chemical
evidence suggests that the sweet goo
suppresses dopamine production in
ant brains. So they need a continuous supply of goo to be happy.

10

m ensa wor ld j our na l

Looking ahead...
RAM 2015 in Sevilla, Spain

Annual Gathering of Mensa Spain | 05 December 2015 - 09 December 2015

Young Mensa Weekend in Reeuwijk, Netherlands

Netherlands, The | 11 December 2015 - 13 December 2015

Silvensa 2015 in Vienna

Austria | 29 December 2015 - 01 January 2016 Celebrate New Years Eve 2015 with Mensa in Vienna,

MinD-Jahrestreffen 2016 in Bonn, Germany

Germany | 20 April 2016 - 24 April 2016

Swedish Annual Gathering 2016 in Gteborg

Sweden | 04 May 2016 - 08 May 2016

Danish Annual Gathering 2016 (MIK)

Denmark | 14 May 2016 - 16 May 2016

officer directory
Chair: Ms Bibiana Balanyi chairman-mil@mensa.org
Director Admin: Ms Therese Moodie-Bloom, 17/23 Waiwera St, Lavender Bay 2060 Australia. admin-mil@mensa.org
Director Development: Mr Bjrn Liljeqvist, Knektvgen 1, 196 30 Kungsngen Sweden. development-mil@mensa.org
Treasurer: Mr Rudy Challupner treasurer-mil@mensa.org
Dir. Smaller National Mensas: Mr Tomas Blumenstein, dsnm-mil@mensa.org
Hon. President: Dr Abbie Salny, 407 Breckenridge, Wayne NJ 07470 USA Tel: +1 973 305 0055
SIGHTCoordinator: Mr Pierpaolo Vittorio SIGHT@mensa.org
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Tel/Fax+44(0)1400272 675 mensainternational@mensa.org
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Editor: Ms Kate Nacard, 407/23 Corunna Rd, Stanmore NSW 2048 Australia mwjeditor@mensa.org T: +61 2 9516 1024
Science: Mr John Blinke Johnb44221@cs.com
Books: Position Vacant
The Mensa World Journal (MWJ) is produced under the auspices of the Mensa International Board of Directors. Mandatory content as identified by the MWJ editor must be published in every national Mensa magazine. Publication of other content is recommended but optional. Opinions expressed in the MWJ are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of
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mensa world journal november 2015

11

H20

GAS

SIS

ON

LA

Now read down the centre boxes to find what you

do when you agree to do something.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------5. Which word meaning ROUGH, or STRONGFEATURED can have its letters rearranged to form a
CHIP that one carries on the shoulder?

GOER

BACK

IN

HOUSE

-BEAUT

BA

-------------------------------------------------------------------------4. Find a word for each pair of words below, which can
be added to the end of the first word, and also to the
beginning of the second word, to make two new words.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------3. Which single word can mean all of the following?

curved
candid
serving
routine
visit
vigorous

BLOOD

-------------------------------------------------------------------------2. Which well-known saying is represented in the box?

ISCAT

1. What is the ten-letter word denoting a branch of

mathematics which uses just these five letters:

23

28

57

-------------------------------------------------------------------------9. Which word meaning QUARRY can be

spelled differently (yet sound the same) to mean
BESEECH?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------8. The number on each stone represents the

difference between the numbers in the two stones
on which it sits. Can you work out the five two-digit
numbers on the bottom stones? Each of the digits
0-9 is used once only in the bottom row.

e) OPENING MEASURE

d) FLAT BOARD

c) TRACK TEST

b) FIBBERS DENS

a) CLOAK STEP

-------------------------------------------------------------------------7. If HALT MAIL = STOP POST and EVENING

OBJECT = NIGHT THING, which pairs of anagrams
are synonyms for:

912 825
792 141 242 732
69 372 249

72

6. Which of these does not belong in the group?

Consonants

12

10

20

]
]
]
]
]
]
]
Therese Moodie-Bloom 2008

The letters you find will spell out an occupation.

Last off!

[
Leading initiative [
Last door
[
Second best
[
Headmaster
[
First Avenue
[
First name
[

-------------------------------------------------------------------------13. If BOTTLE-OPENER represents the letter B, and

THIRD-CLASS represents the letter A, which letters
do the following represent?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------12. What comes next?

Consecutive letters

Consecutive letters
of the alphabet

Roman Numerals

Vowels

-------------------------------------------------------------------------11. Each colour represents a different letter. Use the

clues below to fill in the blanks to form a wordsquare.
The square will have four proper words reading
across and the same four words down.

10. If three days before the day after yesterday is

shorter than the day a week before four days after
the day after tomorrow, are the days getting shorter
or longer?

to make five new words?

F
A

J
S

-------------------------------------------------------------------------15. All of the letters of the alphabet are in the grid

below, except for Q. Can you find an 8-letter word
by moving from square to touching square, either
up, down, sideways or diagonally? Each square may
be entered once only.

WEED

TAIL

FISH

EON

BOAT

If you would like to discuss answers directly with MENSA, you can email Therese at therese@mensa.org.au 14. Which animal can precede each of the following

12 14 Genius material
9 11 Excellent lateral
thinker
68
Very good
46
Good
04
Bad hair day

YOUR SCORE

SCORECARD: SCORE 1 POINT

FOR EACH CORRECT ANSWER

1. Statistics. 2. Blood is thicker than water 3. Round 4. You

come to the party 5. Rugged (grudge). 6. 242. Others are
all divisible by 3. 7. a) Cape Pace b) Liars Lairs c) Trail Trial
d) Plane Panel e) Door Rood 8. 14 90 23 57 86 9. Prey
(Pray) 10. Longer 11. Sten, Time, Emit, Nets 12. 18 (The
pattern is x2, -2) 13. Fireman 14. Pig 15. Symbolic (8 letters)

MENSA MINI IQ CHALLENGE

Thereses Brain Teasers

copyright Therese Moodie-Bloom