Cover Photo: Mahesh Vaze The Kumbh Mela is billed as the “world’s largest congregation of religious pilgrims”. Kumbh means ‘pitcher’ and Mela means a ‘fair’. The event is periodically held at four sacred places where drops of the nectar from the mythical churning of the milky ocean fell. Mensan Mahesh Vaze spent a week at the Kumbh Mela this year, where he captured this captivating photograph of a sadhu. Mahesh also attended the Basant Panchami Shahisnan on the 15th of February, 2013.
More pictures from his trip are available at the links below: Warning: Photos may contain male nudity. Viewer discretion is advised. http://bit.ly/11NXcqh http://on.fb.me/ZPZDsf
A Prism of Faith
In this Issue:
In November of 2012, my predecessor, Rukmini Iyer, Mensa India President, Nirav Sanghvi, and I met to discuss the way forward for MInd. Our discussions took off on many interesting tangents (but then all discussions involving Nirav always do) one of which veered to Ang Lee’s adaptation of ‘Life of Pi’. At that point Nirav asked, “For a country as disparate in diversity as India, what do you think is the common thread that binds it together?” And after our feeble efforts, he proffered: “Spirituality!” Suddenly it seemed quite obvious. For a country still grappling with its identity suspended in a ‘cultural past’ and a ‘progressive future’, the Indian notion of ‘a purposeful life’ draws its values at core from spirituality.
The Highway of Spirituality and the Roads of Religion …2 Thus spake the wise …3 What I believe …4 Isaac Asimov: Knowledge …6 Funnies …6 The Yellow Rose …7 MInd rec’mends …7
Submissions:
Around that same time the 3 edition of the Mumbai Litfest at NCPA hosted Roderick Matthews on a panel to discuss his new book Jinnah vs. Gandhi. That session brought up an interesting perspective on the origins of India and Pakistan: Gandhi was a devout Hindu from a modest background while Jinnah was raised in an affluent family with liberal views. For the former, his values were core to his notion of how the socio-political fabric had to be woven and worn. He saw no distinction between his religious beliefs and the pursuit of his idea of India. So intrinsic was Hinduism to his nation-building that he felt no urge to explicitly stamp it into the ideology of India. Jinnah on the other hand, over his years of political experience, had vividly witnessed the marginalization of Muslims on the larger national scene as also his own family’s discrimination within the Muslim community. This led him to believe that an independent India will not be for Muslims. So paradoxically, a man of religious upbringing shaped a secular state while another with liberal views created one on the premise of religion.
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For something that deeply polarizes the world today, religion is an essential foundation for the spiritual pursuits that we engage in. In the wave of Neo-intellectualism we, as a society, can scant afford to treat it lightly as a vestigial remnant of an age past.
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I leave you with Soren Kierkegaard’s words, “The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.”
editor.mensaindia@gmail.com
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 or views expresses.
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Above may be offered. There are byways and spurs leading to places, sometimes ennobling, at others, dark and depressing. Some byways cause emotions of anger, some cause compassion. Some roads close to the highway have symbols and guides pointing towards the up-ramps. These symbols are often misunderstood and people start worshipping them instead of going where they point. As we move away from the roads near the Highway, we encounter more and more ritualistic behavior and pandering to the senses.
The Highway of Spirituality and the Roads of Religions Imagine an enchanted Elevated Highway between birth and death. It is a freeway, with no toll booths. No horns are permitted on this highway. Silence reigns, outer and inner. Traffic marshals are available in the form of Guides, mostly on the ramps going up to this Highway. Once the traveler is on the Highway proper, the Guides watch silently and come and advise at points where such advice is requested. They never intrude or try to impose their own rules.
These are not ordinary roads and the Highway is not an ordinary highway. It hides secrets aplenty. Let me tell you five of these.
Under this Elevated Highway are many service roads. Some of these run parallel to the highway, below it, from the beginning to the end and have branches going out. There are ramps leading on to the Elevated Highway from these and other ramps leading down from the Highway to these. There are traffic lights and road signs aplenty. Rules and regulations abound and are drummed into the travelers. There are colorful digressions on these roads especially tailored to pamper the senses. The further away a branch leads you, the more digressions you encounter. These digressions, with their gaudy lights can be seen from the Highway and many an unfortunate traveler, who has reached the Highway, is attracted enough by them to take the next exit down.
The first secret is this. Regardless of which road you choose to travel, one part of you, that which is beyond sacred, is always on the Highway, urging you to take the next ramp up. Even if you choose not to take the ramp up, IT speaks to you of the need to keep in the lane under the shadow of the Highway which is the quietest and smoothest way forward, without digressions of one sort or the other and with the least interference from those intent on selling the virtues of a particular path. In the nature of things, ITs voice is gentle and often not heard in the loud noises of these roads. Those who do hear and follow can be easily differentiated from those who do not, by their peaceful countenance, by the gentleness of their conduct and by their compassion. They can see and empathize with other people who are in a similar state on other paths parallel to theirs. They do not feel any need to urge others to follow their own path because they have realized that all those similar to them – those who are in touch with their personal guide on the Highway - are moving with them towards a common goal, regardless of the path they follow. They also realize that others who have chosen to ignore this guidance will remain by the wayside, shouting the attractions of their paths, trying to lure the unwary by promising things which merely exist in their own imagination.
These service roads have guides on the way and many shops selling maps - or, where there is but one map, many interpretations to guide the innocent and the not so innocent. Each road has people encouraging others to enter it, touting the greatness of 'their' roads. They promise that their road is the best one to lead the traveler to a promised heaven. The competition to bring more and more travelers on one's road is often intense. Those preaching in favor of their roads are very passionate. Violence against those choosing other roads is not unknown. Each road is noisy and tries to inveigle the senses through its color and vivacity. There are places on these roads where the traveler may go for nourishment. There are places where sacrifices of one sort or the other
The second secret is that on this elevated Highway, there are no rites and rituals. There are no places where sacrifices can be offered. Even
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Above (contd…) God does not exist here. He is only the appointed traffic policeman on the roads below and is not needed on the Highway above.
am still attached to so many things needed to be left behind. Patience and faith are recommended by the Guides. I am waiting patiently with faith in my Guide and, more importantly, in my Self and I am sure these will help propel me up when the time it right.
The third secret is that this Elevated Highway has crossings which confer 'otherworldly' powers on the traveler. However, using these powers for one's own good or ego satisfaction leads the traveler to an Exit Only ramp, which takes him or her out to one of the side-roads far away from the Elevated Highway.
~Kishore Asthana, Mensa Delhi
The fourth secret is that counter-intuitive things can be expected on this Elevated Highway. There is no reverence here, no sense of holiness. There are no men or women, no kin or non-kin. Every traveler is unique and yet universal. This is a place of purity but not a sterile place. It has beauty and bliss and serenity beyond measure. Many conventional emotions such as anger, envy, lust, greed etc. generally fall away as we move up the ramp. What was love for individuals becomes belonging. Joy is there but of an order not encountered below.
About: “Above” is a column that discusses topics dealing with spirituality, faith and religion –three things that overlap or exist in mutual exclusivity with equal ease. This column encourages contributions penned in faith as well as rational skepticism with equanimity. If you would like to send in articles for “Above”, send in your mails to the editor at
And now, the fifth and final secret –the Elevated Highway continues beyond death. The service roads end with Death and, then, begin again with the next birth. The part of our self which is always on the Highway marks the place on the road where we ended our journey this time around and, in the next life, starts the traveler where he or she was at the end of this life.
editor.mensaindia@gmail.com
Thus spake the wise . . . Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind. ~Albert Einstein
It is up to each of us to decide which road to take, whether to climb up the ramp of this Elevated Highway and, if so, when. It is not a decision which is made easily. All baggage – including most conventional relationships and attachments –has to be left on the ramps going up on this Highway and most of us are very attached to what we have achieved, won and loved. We like the noises, sensations and tastes of the roadside and it is difficult to leave these. I know, for I have been waiting halfway up a ramp for some time, reveling in my surroundings, thinking the next step forward. I can sense the wonders that I will encounter on the Highway but
Each one prays to God according to his own light. ~Mahatma Gandhi My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness. ~Dalai Lama It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God –but to create him. ~Arthur C. Clarke
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Above My belief now: I believe that our Universe and other universes are the manifestation of an all pervasive power. I do not call that power God or god –rather, I refer to it as All-That-Is. In the Sanatan Dharm, All-That-Is is called Paramatma. This word comes from Param + Atma, the Ultimate Self or the Ultimate Soul.
What I Believe… What do I tell you about your religion, my children? Or indeed, about my faith that you are the heir to? I can tell you about various gods who are worshipped by a majority of Hindus –about Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh (aka Shiva) –the creator, sustainer and destroyer aspects of Parameshwar, the ultimate God. I can tell you about other gods –Ganesh, the god of wisdom; Saraswati, the goddess of learning; Laxmi, the goddess of wealth; or about their other forms: like Durga, the frightening-looking killer of demons. I can tell you about historical incarnations such as Rama, Krishna and others such as the son of the wind, Hanuman. Or the original goddess, Shri or the vedic god king, Indra.
I believe that the physical manifestation of All-That-Is, is a fine energy –much finer than what our science has discovered till now –which I call the Life Force. In Sanskrit, the ancient language of your forefathers, this is called the Prana Shakti. This life force is present in everything –what we call ‘alive’ as also what we do not consider as living. This power is the fine energy that moves everything, from the elementary particles to the galaxies. However, it does not do so consciously and does not have a ‘guiding’ hand in the scheme of things. The universe has been formed as per certain scientific rules –many of which are beyond our current understanding –and all creation behaves according to these rules automatically. There is no God sitting on a throne somewhere, ordering things to suit His Divine Whim.
There is such a wealth of information and stories concerning the above, that I can keep telling you these and you would be as old as me and yet this recital would go on. However, I have decided not to tell you about any of these. I have decided to tell you what I, myself, believe. You may believe too, if you wish, but this is not why I am say this. I am telling you, so that you can learn to make up your own minds, as I did. I do not want you to grow up in ignorance of the faith of your forefathers. But I also want to tell you that what your forefathers believed may not necessarily be what you too ought to believe. What you should believe should come from your own heart –and, in time, it will. Just do not rush into believing what others tell you about ‘faith’.
Where do we fit in, then? We are sentient beings, with a greater investment of the Life Force in us than, say, that present in a tree or a rock. We have the power to think and act –the discretion to do things. However, whatever we do follows the rules of this Universe –from creating computers to atom bombs, everything will work as per the prescribed natural laws – many discovered and most, as yet, undiscovered.
Remember, it is called faith for a reason. It is a belief and not fact. Beliefs must be well thought out, for there are no scientific proofs that you can rely upon. Wrong beliefs based on popular preaching may result in a wasted life.
I believe that we have just scratched the surface as far as knowledge of these laws is concerned. There are many ‘higher order’ laws which are governed by, and which govern the behavior or the Life Force. We are completely ignorant of these. However, Yogis experience the results of these in ways which skeptical scientists find strange. Such experiences, however, are well evidenced and well-documented.
The faith of your forefathers is called the Sanatan Dharm –the Eternal Duty or Eternal Religion. The word ‘Dharm’ is interchangeably used for both duty and religion. “This is our Dharm” can mean both that this is our duty and this is our religion.
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Above (contd…)
way and regress rather than progress.
As I mentioned earlier, there is a larger proportion of Life Force inside us. This animates us and keeps us alive. Imagine a body of water with ice cubes. It is still but it has a number of icecubes floating in it. The ice cubes are collections of water separate from the main body and yet a part of it. Now, consider the Life Force pervading the Universe as this water. In the context of ourselves we call these entities, which are a part of the Universal Life Force and yet temporarily separate from it, as our Souls.
I believe that we collect all the good and the not-so-good deeds we do and extract our learning from these. The net sum of our deeds at the end of our lives is carried on to the next life. Our ancient books call it our Prarabdha. I believe that our objective is to reduce the Prarabdha till none is left. This is done through evolving births. However, there is a short-cut, too which happens when we realize our true Selves while we are alive. I believe that this is experienced by people who are already evolved enough to be almost there. In view of our objective, everything in the faith points to the Self.
I do not have any belief about why or how our Souls separated from the Universal Life Force. However, I believe that the objective of Souls is to evolve till eventually they lose their identity and become one with Param Atma, the Ultimate Self. In this quest, there is a hierarchy of Souls –the position of each soul being determined by how evolved it has become.
Where do the various god-images figure in my belief system? These images are symbolic. These are like signposts, which point to the Self. I believe that we should learn to go where these images point –towards our Self. Instead, when we start worshipping these images, we become akin to travelers who start worshipping signposts on the road. They seldom reach anywhere. I believe that bribing our god-images for personal wellbeing is wrong and counter-productive. “I will do this if you do this for me” has become the hallmark of our religion. Such offers make us petty and our gods pettier.
I believe that our Souls are large beyond imagination. They are multidimensional too, existing in dimensions of which we have no knowledge of. These souls have various ways of evolving into higher dimensions, closer to AllThat-Is. One of these ways is taking birth as a human being. I believe that the Soul decides the areas in which it needs to develop, and designs the kind of life which would help it do so. For example, if the Soul wishes to learn about humility it may decide to take birth as a poor person and so on. There can be complicated variations of this simple example. I believe that these life-dramas are planned out in advance with a number of other Souls taking part in each. Some such souls take birth together and some others may guide us subconsciously. Our thoughts cause clutter and the stiller our mind is the better we can 'hear' them. Once we take birth, a part of our Souls energises us. Thus, our Souls are not in us, we are in our Souls.
I believe that self-inflicted personal pain has nothing to do with our spiritual well-being. Standing on one foot for years, distorting our bodies, starving ourselves etc. in the hope of spiritual enlightenment may have started as ways to focus our minds but have deteriorated into theatrics. Those practicing these mindlessly seldom become mind-less. I believe that reading the words of realized seers can have a transformational effect. However, too much reading without practice is like continuing to pore over maps without travelling.
At birth, our life-plan is with us. It is a loose plan, with the end in sight. However, our human will takes over. Sometimes we adhere to the life plan, at other times we act in quite the contrary
Silence, coupled with introspection, is the essence of my faith. Meditation is the most direct
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Above (contd…) way of getting there. Of all my beliefs I have mentioned, this is the only one I would like to recommend. The faith that a still mind will help transform your spiritual outlook; and patience for your meditation to do its work are the two critical factors in the success of this.
your own perspective and follow those which you think suit your aptitude. You are free –nay, welcome –to ignore those you are not comfortable with.
These, then are some of my core beliefs. You should analyse all these beliefs from
~Kishore Asthana, Mensa Delhi
My best wishes will always be with you.
Isaac Asimov: Knowledge My answer to him was, “when people thought the Earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the Earth was spherical they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the Earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the Earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together.”
The young specialist in English Lit, lectured me severely on the fact that in every century people have thought they understood the Universe at last, and in every century they were proved to be wrong. It follows that the one thing we can say about our modern 'knowledge' is that it is wrong.
Funnies A religious man is drowning and he piously prays to God asking to save him. A fisherman rows up to him and starts pulling him up when the man shrugs him off saying, “God will help me.” A little later a ship comes by and throws him a life jacket. He pushes it away saying, “God will help me.” He eventually drowns and goes to heaven. There he asks God, “Why did you not save me?” To which God replies, “But I sent you a boat and a ship!”
A Christian, a Jew, and an atheist are standing in line to be executed during the French Revolution. The Christian is first. He lies down on the guillotine. Before the executioner pulls the lever he shouts, “My god will save me!” The lever is pulled, and the blade swooshes down, stopping just short of his neck. The executioner, believing a miracle has occurred, figures he can’t kill this man. So sets him free. The Jew lies down on the guillotine. Like the Christian, he shouts, “My god will save me!” The lever is pulled, the blade falls, and once again it stops just short of his neck. The executioner, again, believes God is on this man’s side, and lets him go.
"Did you hear about the dyslexic, agnostic insomniac who stays up all night wondering if there really is a Dog?"
Finally, the atheist lies down on the guillotine. He examines the guillotine, finds a rock in the gears, and says to the executioner, “Well here’s your problem…”
Atheism: A non-prophet organization
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Wordsmith
The Yellow Rose
About:
He entered. Immediately his eyes settled upon the yellow rose flower. He gazed at it lovingly. Its stem curved in a self assured poise. The rose itself was soft, tender and he wanted to protect it. It was attractive, appealing. But it wasn’t beautiful. If only it were red. For a yellow rose is pretty but only a red one, beautiful.
“Wordsmith” is a column that invites poems, stories, essays and anything else that weaves with words, paints with prose or evokes vivid scenes, smells and sounds through artistic assembly of letters.
He observed its tender, flavescent whorls that curled up secretively. He studied its full, promiscuous lips that pouted at him. He admired its graceful, tapering base that ran to its stem. Such beauty but for a singular fault –if only it were red. The yellow rose symbolizes warmth and cheer. It is of the sun. It is an allegory for friendship –but there it draws the line. Red: it stands for a deeper emotion. It bears its roots in the primeval, raw meaning of life! It is a metaphor for the colour of the heart and hence of true love. A yellow rose is lovely, but not beautiful. That is a status reserved for the red.
If you would like to send in articles for “Wordsmith”, send in your mails to editor.mensaindia@gmail.com
MInd rec’mends: The Invention of Lying (2009)
He let his disappointed eyes wander from the flower to the expanse of the room. He looked at the walls and the drawn curtains; ran his eyes over the rug; then the table; then the vase that held the rose. The spartan design of the layout too would have lent itself to embellish the delicate, fragile beauty of its floral occupant, but for one singular fault. The entire room was yellow too! The walls were yellow. The drapes were yellow. The rug, the table, the vase were yellow. And the rose was yellow. The girl asked him if she may wipe his glasses for him. He obliged. Then he saw that the walls were blue. The drapes were pink. The rug was maroon. The table was brown. The vase was silver. She offered him his glasses back. He turned and declined. He did not need them to see. He turned back to his rose. ~N V Krishnamoorthy, Mensa Mumbai
The following pages are from the Mensa World Journal
In a world where everyone can only tell the truth… …he's just invented the lie! Starring Ricky Gervais, The Invention of Lying is the story of a down-on-his-luck writer who lives in a world where everyone only tells the truth. But one day, he accidently tells a lie (mind you, there is no ‘word’ for it in their world) which changes his world. The movie is a satirical take on the evolution of myths and stories that give rise to religion.
(Formerly called the Mensa International Journal)
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men sa wor l d j o u rn al february, 2013 issue 002
from the executive committee... canvassing opinions from both current and past members as well as from people who had qualified and chosen not to join. Over 11,000 responses were received within a week and will be used to inform future recruitment and renewal efforts. Perhaps unsurprising is the finding that the satisfaction and value derived by members is directly Development Much of the benefit of these meetings related to their level of participation. Mensa India described their tribal comes from the opportunities they Mensa nurturing programme, aimed provide to meet members from some at identifying and nurturing gifted30 national Mensa groups, exchangness in rural areas of the country, and ing ideas and experiences and seeing the different perspectives from a broad designed to help children, who might not otherwise benefit from education, range of cultures. to maximise their potential. Over 500 We were encouraged by an array children have been assisted through of great initiatives by different national groups, for instance, the “logical this education programme, organised Olympic Games” for schools organised by Mensa India and funded by contributions from several companies by Mensa Czech Republic - which and organisations. We learnt of some attracted 32,000 participants, with a of the success stories from this profinal round held in Prague Castle in gramme, with examples of youngsters November. We heard of the success of getting access to opportunities they the Asian Mensa gathering (AMAG) could otherwise only have dreamed of. hosted by Mensa Indonesia and are British Mensa presented details of looking forward to next year’s AMAG both their successful ‘Shadow Board’ in Singapore, and also of the ongoing development of LEAP (MIL’s Leader- initiative (designed to develop the involvement and leadership skills of its ship Exchange & Ambassador Programme), details of which can be found younger members), and GTVoice - a national network for the support and on www.AnimusM.com. nurture of gifted and talented young Mensa Germany reported results people - that they helped found (see from an external survey they had carwww.gtvoice.org.uk for details). ried out to find out what the general public thought on a number of IQ Finance related topics, conducted by a leading The current adverse financial climate market research firm but using marhas had an effect on many Mensa ket research professional volunteers groups. MIL has been no exception from within Mensa Germany itself. here, seeing increased costs and a American Mensa detailed its survey As MIL Director of Administration Sylvia Herbert reported last month, the agenda of the 2012 International Board of Directors (IBD) meeting focussed on finance, communication and development. Some of the highlights for me were as follows.
mensa world journal february 2013
reduction in its reserves last year so, not unexpectedly, questions over finance featured strongly in the IBD discussions. I have been pleased to see an increasing level of detailed information made available to IBD members, both before and during the IBD meeting, making it easier to see the impact of e.g. different approaches to multi-year membership on MIL’s financial reserves. Differing views on the way we should address the challenges of the current climate led to vigorous debate on what to set the component (the percentage of subscriptions that national Mensas give to support Mensa International) to, with the eventual decision being 6%, an increase of 2% on the previous year. A balance has to be struck between increased funding for MIL, to enable it to grow and develop the services offered at an international level, and the retention of funds within national Mensa groups, many of whom are having to curb their expenditure, for use in supporting local growth and development. Communication This covered a broad spectrum including communication within IBD, between national Mensa groups, and among the individual members of Mensa.
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men sa wor l d j o u rn al I am particularly interested in one initiative set in train at the IBD: the institution of an ICT task force. The intention is to gather all online or virtual communication under one group of volunteers who have the expertise, desire, and experience to maintain the current web presence while seeking more creative and innovative ways to provide additional services to national Mensas and their members, working on
prioritised goals. There is always an interesting tradeoff for an organisation such as Mensa between outsourcing to develop and maintain (24/7) key elements of infrastructure, such as the MIL website, and pulling in skilled volunteers to do so. Both approaches have strong pros and cons. I will be following with great fascination how the ICT task force works out, and whether it changes our
current balance between external suppliers and internal volunteers. And finally, last but by no means least, thanks to the volunteers in Mensa Croatia for an excellently organised, smooth-running, and very friendly IBD meeting. Well done.
Chris Leek Proxy for British Chairman
Proposed Constitutional Amendments This year is an election year. As advertised in the November IJ and on the Mensa website (www.mensa.org), all members worldwide have the opportunity to vote on the candidates for Chair, Treasurer, Director of Development and Director of Administration. On the ballot there will also be a set of proposed Constitutional amendments, all of a housekeeping nature. Three of these amendments would have been proposed with the 2011 elections, but since all candidates were unchallenged, no elections were held and the International Board of Directors (IBD) decided to postpone the then proposed Constitutional amendments to 2013, thereby saving a considerable amount of money. The proposed Constitutional amendments are: a) In article X.B., which concerns the election of the Director of Smaller National Mensas, a statement that when there is only one valid nomination, that person be considered elected and no voting take place, will be included; b) that the members of the Executive Committee (ExComm) be ineligible to vote on the position of Director Smaller National Mensas (DSNM) - that only the chairs of the national Mensas represented by the DSNM will be eligible to vote; c) that the number of petition signatures for candidacy of one of the four offices mentioned above be reduced from 200 to 100; d) that a consistent and unambiguous use of the terms national Mensa and Full National Mensa be implemented; e) that the members of a Provisional National Mensa (PNM) are recognised as members of that PNM only and no longer also Direct International Members (DIMs). That change will clarify the position of these members and will clarify the governance structure of the PNMs; f ) that the terms “Constitution” and “national constitution” be used consistently through all the governing docu- ments and no longer use a mix of terms (among others, “bylaws”), and, g) that a candidate can only run for one post in the International elections. All members worldwide will be given the opportunity to express their views on these proposals and can already do so on the forum on the website of Mensa International (www.mensa.org/forum). All proposed amendments, including an explanatory section and a pro and con statement, will be included with the election material.
Willem Bouwens, Chairman mensa world journal february 2013
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men sa wor l d j o u rn al member snapshot Dmitry is one of three Russian members, a Direct International Mensan. This year, for the first time, he attended the International Board of Directors meeting in Dubrovnik. He writes,
I have never worked in this field, but instead started working for a local newspaper in 1992, and for 20 years I’ve been working in media and media development. I’ve been married for almost 20 years, and have a daughter, There aren’t a lot of special things about 19, and a son, 13. me. I’m 44, originally from Astrakhan, It was a while ago a city in Southern Russia, near the when I first heard Caspian Sea. My family is a sort of about Mensa - in a medical dynasty (my mother, father, story on the Internet. stepfather, aunt, sister and her husI was curious, tried to band are doctors), so I also received an pass tests published online and found honours degree in medicine. However, out that I might score well. But since
Dmitry Merezhko there isn’t Mensa in Russia, I applied for direct international membership in late 2009. I think that I’m good at understanding how things are interconnected, how one event can lead to another good cause thus and effect chains - which help the development of stories but which can then lead to misunderstanding from most people around. So the reason is to meet people to be on the same page with was perhaps the main reason for my joining KN Mensa.
Scientists analyse millions of news articles
A study led by academics at the University of Bristol’s Intelligent Systems Laboratory and the School of Journalism at Cardiff University have used Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms to analyse 2.5 million articles from 498 different English-language online news outlets over ten months. The researchers found that: • As expected, readability measures show that online tabloid newspapers are more readable than broadsheets and use more sentimental language. Among fifteen US and UK newspapers, the Sun is the easiest to read, comparable to the BBC’s children’s news programme, mensa world journal february 2013
Newsround, while the Guardian is the most difficult to read. ‘Sport’ and ‘Arts’ were the most readable topics while ‘Politics’ and ‘Environment’ were the least readable. • The Sun is also the most likely to use adjectives with sentiment, while the Wall Street Journal uses the fewest emotional adjectives. • The study found that men dominated the content of newspapers during the period analysed. The ranking of topics based on the gender bias of the articles
found ‘Sport’ and ‘Financial’ articles were the most male-biased, with sports news mentioning men eight times more often than women. ‘Fashion’ and ‘Arts’ were the least biased, with ‘Fash-
ion’ articles being one the few topics featuring equal proportions of men and women. • The most appealing topics to online readers were ‘Disasters’, ‘Crime’, and the ‘Environment’ while the least appealing topics were ‘Fashion’, ‘Markets’ and ‘Prices’. The researchers also found that the popular articles tend to be more readable and more linguistically subjective. Nello Cristianini, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Bristol University, speaking about the research said: (continued on p08)
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men sa wor l d j o u rn al Strategic Planning for Local Groups
“An organised response to the environment, based on a particular set of goals, that seeks optimal benefits to the organisation’s members and clients by building on strengths and/or building up weaknesses in order to pursue the greatest possible advantage of opportunities and to distinguish the organisation from others” (Tecker and O’Neal, March 1986) I was fortunate to attend a Strategic Planning workshop at the 2012 American Mensa Annual Gathering in Reno, presented by John Recht, the American Mensa Second Vice Chair and Chair of the AMC Planning and Leadership Development Committees, and Ken Silver, Regional Vice Chairman and member of the AMC Planning and Leadership Development Committees. The following is a brief encapsulation of that presentation.
success, help the Board or committee understand and address major issues, and assure continuity in decisionmaking from one Board-term to the next. A format for a Strategic Plan for the use of Mensa Boards and Committees can be obtained from John Recht at the address below.
A FRAMEWORK for DIALOGUE AND DELIBERATION - Identify the Big Issue - Prepare background information - Discuss the issue and options - Evaluate the above WHY PLAN? Strategic Planning forces the organisa- - Determine areas of consensus and areas lacking pertinent information tion to look into the future, and - Identify actions, intent and accountprovides an opportunity to influence ability it, or to be proactive. It provides - Craft a motion better awareness of the needs, issues - Deliberate on the motion. and environment. It helps to clarify the overall mission and focuses on KNOWLEDGE-BASED its objectives. It is the key to helping DECISION-MAKING us collectively and cooperatively This is at the heart of Strategic Plangain control of the future and destiny ning.There are four key questions for of Mensa. No matter how small or knowledge-based decision-making. large your group is, strategic planning Question One: What do we know is still vital. To this end, each group’s about our members’ needs, wants and strategic plan would set goals and preferences? The fundamental issues identify the measurements for mensa world journal february 2013
here are: - What information do we need? - What are the sources? - How will we collect it? - What decisions do we want to make? - How will we tabulate the data? - How will we analyse and interpret the information? - How will we report the findings? Question Two: What do we know about the current realities and evolving dynamics of our environment that is relevant to this decision? Current conditions? Trends? Assumptions about the future? Question Three: What do know about the capacity and strategic position of our organisation that is relevant to this decision. Finances? Core competencies, Human resources? Intellectual assets? Question Four: What are the ethical implications of this issue? HOW WILL THIS HELP YOUR LOCAL GROUP? Strategic Planning is a process that will help Boards of every size gain more control over the issues they face. Knowledge-based decision-making is at the heart of SP. Local Group boards will benefit by learning about the tools and methods that are available to help them, and then putting them to use. The presenters noted the need to be flexible and to persist in trying new things. This blueprint/roadmap for Strategic Planning will enable local groups to build on the work of predecessors. For more information on this topic, contact John Recht at secondvicechair@us.mensa.org
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men sa wor l d j o u rn al books... The Death Experience: What It Is Like When You Die by Alan Ross Hugenot (Dog Ear Publishing). And now for something deadly serious. Discovering (and/or proving) what lies on the ‘other side’ can take many forms – ghost hunting, past life regression, astral travel, or – in this case – near-death experiences. According toAlan, he has died and lived to tell the tale, correlating his personal experience with such texts as the Egyptian and Tibetan Books of the Dead, with research by the International Association for Near Death, and in line with Dr. Ian Stevenson’s Children Who Remember Past Lives studies at the University of Arizona. A physicist by trade, Alan reviews the current science on conscious-
with its individual autonomy, but finds it equally unsatisfying and returns home to discover he’s trapped and the price of a ‘perfect life’ is too high. It’s the old freedom-vs.-security conundrum – so Life Sketches by A. Ramsay what’s the solution, and have you found it? McNeill (CreateSpace). Two hundred and fifty Other Mensan-authored books received years after a cataclysm include: Comfort Food for the Heart by revolution, Simon WakeLyle and Nancy Branchflower; Reboot: field is living in a perfect world – a risk-free society A Novel of Bipolar Disorder by Jane Thompson; Spanish American Heritage called the Urban Complex and ruled by Joan Kikel Danylak; In by the Advocacy, with the Shadow of the Wonder each citizen’s life being Wheel by Carren Strock; rigidly scripted by the Starmarked by Brian life-sketchers he manLabore; Marriage Made in ages. But the flaws he’s Heaven by Nina Barrett, beginning to notice are and, Weird Republic by upsetting – terminal Thomas Clough. illness, unwanted pregnancy, muggings, etc. He escapes and tries life Tom Elliott, outside the Complex, tme01@verizon.net ness and survival in terms of quantum mathematics, dark energy, and alternative dimensions.
supplementally... Ram Power
Archaeology, Special edition on The Classical World. Pp. 54-59. “The Weapon that Changed History.” It is not too hard to find the locations of land battles: there are landmarks and frequently relics all around. But naval battles are tough to localize. Any remains are usually hidden under many fathoms of water. So, when archaeologists said they knew the location of the Battle of the Egadi Islands, which ended the First Punic War between Rome mensa world journal february 2013
and Carthage in 242 BC, there might have been some skepticism. They only gained confidence from the fact that fishermen had trawled up one or two bronze naval rams. Now, with the help of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), scientists have recovered a total of five rams and a number of classical military helmets. They are now certain they have found the place where a newly built, but typically determined, Roman navy defeated the heavily laden Carthagin-
ian relief fleet that would have saved Hamilcar’s besieged troops on Sicily. By sailing into hazardous stormy seas with a bare minimum of provisions, the Romans had the advantages of surprise and maneuverability over the Carthaginian supply fleet. With the location now firmly established, scientists will search for additional remains.
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men sa wor l d j o u rn al The Sphinx How old is the Great Sphinx at Giza? Some want to believe it is 10,000 years old, based on water erosion of its carved limestone enclosure. This would make it more ancient than the earliest hunter gatherer remains ever found in the Nile Valley. Supposedly, the water damage occurred at a time when Egypt received frequent heavy rains. But how does one quantify the time needed for limestone erosion? The Sphinx was carved from a limestone hill. It was not assembled from blocks, though protective brick work was added at several times during the Sphinx’s existence. It is made of three distinct layers of bedrock. The top layer is the hardest and is able to retain the facial features pretty well. Most of the body is made of softer rock that cannot stand up to wind or water very well. The Sphinx enclosure is also made of this softer rock. Even the infrequent rains in modern Egypt are enough to cause damage over time. The Sphinx is in a low part of the Giza plateau, so its enclosure is a drain for whatever amount of rain there is. And, modern acidic air pollution is able to damage limestone very quickly. Marble buildings in other places suffer from this as well. Ground water seepage is especially damaging as it causes the surface of the rock to peel away like dry onion skin. mensa world journal february 2013
Archaeologists think the Sphinx is the same age as the pyramid of Khafre. For one thing, the architectural style of the Sphinx temple matches that of Khafre’s valley temple. Both buildings were made from rock quarried from the Sphinx enclosure. The causeway leading from Khafre’s mortuary temple to his valley temple encroaches on the sphinx enclosure, causing it to be unsymmetrical. The Sphinx would have had the usual rectangular enclosure if it had been carved before the pyramid. The Sphinx temple stands on the same stone plaza as Khafre’s valley temple, showing that both were built at the same time. If you have an iPad, consider getting the 3D Pyramids app created by Zahi Hawass. It lets you fly above digitized pyramids and other structures on the Giza plateau, and JB even go inside them. Virtual Immortality New Scientist, 10 November 2012, pp. 22 - 23. “A Digital Ark, Come Fire or Flood.” Antiquities deteriorate despite our best efforts to save them. Sometimes, they are destroyed by greed or by deliberate criminal actions. All we can do is to keep the most accurate records possible to preserve their memory. To this end, a non-profit firm called CyArk has been laser scanning historic treasures that are especially at risk. On the list are Easter Island, Mount Rushmore, Monte Verde, and the ancient city of Nineveh, among many others. CyArk isn’t the only outfit doing this. The Scottish Ten, a government-supported group in the UK, is also scanning important sites around the world.
You Can Tune a Fish Quirks and Quarks podcast 24 November 2012. “Fish Swims with the Current.” http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/ The glass knifefish (below) uses an alternating electric field to sense its surroundings. When several of the sociable fish get together, there is a potential for them to interfere with each other’s signals like radio stations that are too close together. So, the fish
retune their signals. Scientists at Johns Hopkins University have made recordings of the tuning process - it sounds a bit like a high school band warming up for a concert. You can hear a beat note between the different signals, and it gets faster, showing the divergence of individual fish signals as they are retuned to frequencies farther away from each other. Parrot Talk Living.msn.com, 15 November 2012. “Parrots appear to name their young.” Contributed by Bruce Watson. Parrots can talk. But what do they say to each other? Well, they name their kids. Parent parrots squawk at their nestlings, and the little birds seem to react to certain cheeps and squawks as if they are their names. Maybe little birds don’t have much else to think about. Johnb44221@cs.com
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men sa wor l d j o u rn al looking and learning Researchers at the University of Iowa have documented an activity by infants that begins nearly from birth: they learn by taking inventory of the things they see. In a new paper, the psychologists contend that infants create knowledge by looking at and learning about their surroundings. The activities should be viewed as intertwined, rather than considered separately, to fully appreciate how infants gain knowledge and how that knowledge is seared into memory. “The link between looking and learning is much more intricate than what people have assumed,” says John Spencer, a psychology professor at the UI and a co-author on the paper published in the journal Cognitive Science. The researchers created a mathematical model that mimics, in real time and through months of child development, how infants use looking to understand their environment. Such a model is important because it validates the importance of looking to learning and to forming memories. It also can be adapted by child development specialists to help special-needs children and infants born prematurely to combine looking and learning more effectively. “The model can look, like infants, at a world that includes dynamic, stimulating events that influence where it looks. We contend the model provides a critical link to studying how social partners influence how infants distribute their looking, learning, and developing,” the authors write. The model examines the lookinglearning behavior of infants as young mensa world journal february 2013
as six weeks through one year of age, through 4,800 simulations at various points in development involving multiple stimuli and tasks. As would be expected, most infants introduced to new objects tend to look at them to gather information about them; once they do, they are “biased” to look away from them in search of something new. In other words, an infant will linger on something that’s being shown to it for the first time as it learns about it, and that the “total looking time” will decrease as the infant becomes more familiar with it. But the researchers found that infants who don’t spend a sufficient amount of time studying a new object in effect, failing to learn about it and to catalogue that knowledge into memory - don’t catch on as well, which can affect their learning later on. “Infants need to dwell on things for a while to learn about them,” says Sammy Perone, a post-doctoral researcher in psychology at the UI and co-author on the paper. To examine why infants need to dwell on objects to learn about them, the researchers created two different models. One model learned in a “responsive” world: every time the model looked away from a new object, the object was jiggled to get the model to look at it again. The other model learned in a “non-responsive” world: when this model looked at a new object, objects elsewhere were jiggled to distract it. The results showed that the responsive models “learned about new objects more robustly, more quickly, and are better learners in the end,” says Perone, who earned his doctorate at the
UI in 2010. The model captures infant looking and learning as young as six weeks. Even at that age, the UI researchers were able to document that infants can familiarize themselves with new objects, and store them into memory well enough that when shown them again, they quickly recognized them. “To our knowledge, these are the first quantitative simulations of looking data from infants this young,” the authors write. The results underscore the notion that looking is a critical entry point into the cognitive processes in the brain that begin in children nearly from birth. And, “if that’s the case, we can manipulate and change what the brain is doing” to aid infants born prematurely or who have special needs, Perone adds. “The promise of a model that implements looking as an active behavior is that it might explain and predict how specific manipulations of looking over time will impact subsequent learning,” the researchers write. (www. http://now.uiowa.edu/2012/11/ infants-learn-look-and-look-learn)
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tural Studies at Cardiff, added: “Even “The automation of many tasks in some of the more predictable findings news content analysis will not replace give us pause for thought. The extent to the human judgement needed for fine- which news is male-dominated shows how far we are from gender equity grained, qualitative forms of analysis, but it allows researchers to focus their across most areas of public life. The fact that articles about politics are the least attention on a scale far beyond the readable might also explain widespread sample sizes of traditional forms of public disengagement.” content analysis.” Professor Justin Lewis, Head of the http://mediapatterns.enm.bris.ac.uk/AnalySchool of Journalism, Media and Cul- sisOfMillionsOfArticles
Mensa Canada Annual Gathering Niagara Falls May 3-5, 2013 Registration and information at www.mensacanadaag2013@ wildapricot.org
Check the Mensa website for all national events open to members internationally www.mensa.org officer directory
Chair: Mr Willem Bouwens Trompenburgstraat 6-G, 1079 TX Amsterdam The Netherlands chairman-mil@mensa.org Tel: +31 (0)20 661 2718 Director Admin: Ms Sylvia Herbert 16 Farley St, St John’s, Worcester, Worcestershire WR2 6JD England admin-mil@mensa.org Tel: +44(0)1905 422231 Director Development: Ms Bibiana Balanyi Mensa HungarIQa, H-1426 Budapest 72, Postafiok 99 Hungary development-mil@mensa.org Tel: +36 209 135175 Treasurer: Cyndi Kuyper 2606 Henderson St, West Lafayette, IN 47906-1537 Tel: +1 765 463 1393 Cell Phone: +1 765 714 2272 treasurer-mil@mensa.org Dir. Smaller National Mensas: Mr Björn Liljeqvist Knektvägen 1, 196 30 Kungsängen, Sweden +46 (0) 730 394199 skype: bjorn.liljeqvist dsnm-mil@mensa.org Hon. President: Dr Abbie Salny 407 Breckenridge, Wayne NJ 07470 USA Tel: +1 973 305 0055 SIGHTCoordinator: Mr Steve Mai, SIGHT@mensa.org Int. SIG Coordinator: Ms Barbara Kryvko, sigs@mensa.org Ombudsman:Mr Martyn Davies ombudsman@mensa.org Executive Director: Mr Michael Feenan, Slate Barn, Church Lane, Caythorpe, Lincolnshire NG32 3EL, UK Tel/Fax+44(0)1400272 675 mensainternational@mensa.org Editorial Staff Editor: Ms Kate Nacard 407/23 Corunna Rd, Stanmore 2048 Australia mwjeditor@mensa.org Tel: +61 2 9516 1024 Science: Mr John Blinke, Johnb44221@cs.com Books: Mr Tom Elliott, tme01@verizon.net Feature Articles: Mr Thomas Hally, tjh@thomas-hally.com 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 any other individual or any official Mensa body. Submission Guidelines: Language: English only. Text: MS Word (Windows), .rtf (Word/Mac), plain text, PageMaker (Windows), InDesign Length: 500 word limit. Send by e-mail, fax, snail mail to the Editor. The Editor reserves the right to include or edit submissions for space and content considerations. All unoriginal submissions must be accompanied by written permission for publication from the original author. Permission is granted for MWJ articles to be reprinted in any Mensa publication provided that the author, MWJ and MWJ’s editor are acknowledged. Permission must be sought from the MWJ editor for reprinting of any part of the MWJ in non-Mensa publications.
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