The Chronicle, September issue

www.mensa.org.za

The Chronicle September 2015 In this issue How was National Gathering 2015 – a member's update International Intelligence day Free Testing sessions in October Events Diary and test dates Pretoria SIG: Charity SIG update From the Cradle of Humankind – a new hominin discovered Rick Hunter, former PTA committee member, involved in discovery of Homo naledi Mensa Helderberg inauguration Speaker evening September 23, 2015 – Prof Ted Williams Supermoon of 28 September 2015

Mensa Contacts and Committee SimonĂŠ Deyzel-O'Brian Amanda Horn Annette Badenhorst Yvonne Steyn Schalkwyk van der Merwe Donna Stephen

National Chairperson PR & Membership National Secretary National Administrator National Treasurer Editor

chairperson@mensa.org.za marketing@mensa.org.za secretary@mensa.org.za admin@mensa.org.za treasurer@mensa.org.za st.donna@gmail.com

Hello Mensans Exciting times! In this issue we are connecting with history in a few very current ways.

A new chapter of Mensa is being inaugurated in the Helderberg region. In the Cradle of humankind, at Maropeng, a new branch of the human family tree has been discovered which could, and probably will, rewrite archaeology textbooks. And there is a Blood moon on September 28th visible from South Africa, the last of a series of 81 eclipses in the Saros series which began in 1564!

We have a short article on former Mensa Pretoria committee member who was involved in the initial discovery of Homo naledi, Rick Hunter. Mensa Helderberg's speaker evening on the 23rd of September by Professor Ted Williams is focused around the role of optical and infrared astronomy in South Africa, which is certain to get you in the mood to watch the early morning skies for the lunar eclipse on 28th September.

I hope you enjoy this read. Please send information and SIG event details to Amanda Horn, and feel free to let me know of anything you think may be important to mention in the Chronicle.

That's it from me, until next issue, Donna Stephen

Errata: Last month's NAG article was incorrectly attributed to Martin Botha. It was written by Amanda Horn, who attended NAG. Martin's article is published in this month's issue as "How was the National Gathering 2015?"

HOW WAS THE MENSA NAG 2015?

by Martin Botha

Well first of all I was looking forward to the NAG a lot. Especially considering it was in Stellenbosch.

A beautiful setting to frame a weekend with smart, fun people.

The best!

We started the weekend on Friday already arriving way too early for check in. So that meant the first “unofficial official” events could take place. Meaning actually just any 2 or more Mensans meeting up and doing anything.

From the first moment Stellenbosch impressed as we found this lovely place in town, Dorp Street Deli, to have a bit of lunch and obviously our first beer for the weekend.

Everything was the best. Good food with wonderful Craft beer (my favourite) alongside great company, Amanda and Johannes. So much fun that the time to check in snuck upon us.

So full with a delightful lunch in our bellies we went to see our accommodation and again we were impressed. Stellenbosch Lodge was situated at the edge of town with a very distinct old Cape Dutch feel to it. Two roaring fireplaces and a swimming pool. Overall a great backdrop to the weekend’s events.

So getting to the Official events we get to our Saturday morning. While our diligent National Committee and Regional Chairmen went into their grueling meeting, there were several of us that went to the Slowmarket at Oude Libertas.

This emporium of food, drinks and curios was fantastic. From so many different variations of cheese to local and international cuisine that attacked your senses with the scrumptious aromas. Your mouth waters just from walking around. Then came the drinks. There are some of the best wines that you can lay your hands on to bubbling champagne, to Craft beer from the region. All sold by the glass (with the branded glasses themselves) to of course the bottle. There are even some non-

alcoholic beverages like fresh lemonade. Of course no market is complete without the mountain of curios that goes with it. Enough to even entice us locals to purchase an item, or two, or three. All of this with the good company of local members and with a steady trickle of members from across the country.

The afternoon we finally relented and released our National Committee and their cohorts from their meeting and allowed them to be spoilt with us by attending a wine tasting at Stellenzicht vineyard. We had a quick tour of the facility and got down to the more important business without further ado, the actual tasting of the nectar of the vines. A fun experience, with all the members sitting together and tasting the wines (Golden Triangle and Hill & Dale). Talking and mingling becoming easier and easier with each vintage we tasted. Even getting to the point where members created their own blends.

To cap off the Saturday we were shipped back to the hotel for an extremely suitable speaker event in regards to the weekend, forensic scientist Dr David Klatzow, with the title of 'Things that you know, that just ain't so!'. An extremely interesting topic presented with an extremely knowledgeable person, during which a lot of forensic certainties, including fingerprints, was shown to be not as perfect or as infallible as what we believe.

Unfortunately looking around to my fellow Mensans I could see too many cogs and wheels turning. I started to worry about my compatriots.

All and all a well spent day in lovely Stellenbosch.

Sunday…

Sunday morning we got down to the business of the actual reason we were all gathered together. The NAG. It ran through with several interesting suggestions and plans for the coming 2 years making me excited to be a member at present. The National Committee confirmed that they will be communicating these through to everybody.

We then shot through to Franschoek for lunch and the beautiful drive to this little hamlet between the mountains. A very artistic vibe going with a surprising large amount of people. But funnily enough the one thing we will remember especially from our visit to Franschoek came when we were leaving the town. We found a R5 shop which we decided to visit. This little, and dare I say dodgy, place ended up being a treasure trove of renown. It kept us amused to no end with the bric-a-brac that we found in this little gem of a shop.

But of course how can one be in Stellenbosch without visiting at least one local student hangout. Our sights then set on The Mystic Boer for a pool tourney.

Ending our Sunday we had our Murder Mystery evening. This exceeded our expectations on all fronts as being 'fantabulously' fun with some unexpected surprises. The surprise ended up being how a bunch of generally introverted people could take hold and embrace the evening. Not only were the people dressed to the occasion trying to match their characters. From Dolly Dee Seiner the Doll Designer to Una Verz the Astronaut. The masks ranged from standard masquerade masks, funny masks, impractical masks (mine), and character appropriate masks to ridiculously funny masks. Some people even played characters of the opposite sex. By the end of the evening only four of our members could figure out who the murderer was. It surprised many people including the person playing the murderer. Needless to say it was great fun.

On Monday there were goodbyes to everyone and a farewell to some until next year.

So, all in all, the experience of the Mensa NAG was, as I knew it would be, more than worthwhile. I met new people and made new friends, solidified previous friendships going forward. Had loads of fun, but most of all learnt again why there are events like this. To find out and learn how I can contribute something to Mensa that can not only assist the organization, but be rewarding in itself. To know what initiatives are being worked on and to become involved in a fantastic group of people that I enjoy spending time with.

At the end of the day, your experience in Mensa is what you make of it. What you put in, is what you get out.

We ended up closing off the evening with a couple of games of the board game Exploding Kittens. This is an addictive game with hilarious card art and captions. This kept us busy well into the next morning.

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TESTING NEWS

MENSA WILL BE OFFERING FREE TESTING IN

OCTOBER. Spread the word to interested people to book early.

Places are limited!

CONTACT: YVONNE STEYN admin@mensa.org.za

FREE TESTING SESSION SOMERSET WEST SATURDAY 10 OCTOBER.

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SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER EVENTS Wednesday, 2 September 19:30 Mensa Pta: Speaker evening - Theo Kleynhans Saturday, 5 September 09:00 Mensa SA - CAPE TOWN TESTING 09:45 Mensa SA - DURBAN TESTING 10:00 Mensa Pta: 'Spring Thing' 10:00 Mensa SA - JOHANNESBURG TESTING Wednesday, 9 September 19:00 Mensa Jhb: Philosophy SIG Saturday, 12 September 19:00 Mensa Jhb: Social SIG and new members' evening 19:00 Mensa KZN: New members' evening Thursday, 17 September 18:30 Mensa Jhb: Speaker evening Nathalie Mat Wednesday, 23 September 19:15 Mensa Helderberg: Speaker evening Prof Ted Williams Saturday, 26 September 10:00 Mensa SA - PRETORIA TESTING 19:00 Mensa KZN: Book club SIG Wednesday, 30 September 18:30 Mensa Jhb: Board games SIG

Saturday, 3 October 09:45 Mensa SA - DURBAN TESTING 10:00 Mensa SA - EASTERN CAPE TESTING 19:00 Mensa KZN: Speaker evening Andrew Dumbris Wednesday, 7 October 19:00 Mensa Pta: Annual General Meeting Saturday, 10 October 09:30 Mensa SA - HELDERBERG TESTING 19:00 Mensa KZN: New members' evening Thursday, 15 October 18:30 Mensa Jhb: Speaker evening Saturday, 17 October 09:00 Mensa SA - CAPE TOWN TESTING 10:00 Mensa SA - JOHANNESBURG TESTING Saturday, 31 October 10:00 Mensa SA - PRETORIA TESTING 7

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MENSA CHARITY SIG

By Kate Bohnen

"Kindness in words creates confidence.

Kindness in thinking creates profoundness.

Kindness in giving creates love."

- Lao Tzu

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We all know what kindness looks like. For some of us, we're more familiar with speaking kindness. Some of us are more accustomed to thinking kind thoughts, while others may naturally excel at giving kindness.

Mensa Pretoria has chosen to invest in giving kindness with the recent establishment of a Charity SIG. They are still very new as a group and decided the best way forward would be to partner with already established organizations to get a feel for how a charity organization works.

They have helped Round Table Southern Africa with a few soup kitchens and food drop offs, and look forward to partnering with them for the rest of the year's events.

If you would like to be involved with Mensa Pretoria's Charity SIG, please email Kate at

lady.ladybug2@gmail.com

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The most important thing for this group of individuals is to give where there is integrity, and to have fun doing so.

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It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.�

- Mother Theresa

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CRADLE OF HUMANKIND - NEW HOMINID SPECIES FOUND AT MAROPENG, SOUTH AFRICA

Homo naledi Image: University of the Witwatersrand, Mark Thiessen/National Geographic Society, South African National Research Foundation

A new species of hominin has been discovered at Maropeng in the Cradle of Humankind near Johannesburg.

The history-changing find, in archaeopaleontological circles, has revealed itself to be a new branch of the human family tree, related to other hominid species, and may be one of our oldest ancestors.

An excerpt from an article by Shamin Chibba on SouthAfrica.info sums up the unveiling:

The homo naledi was unveiled in front of the world's media – including National Geographic, which helped with the research – as well as scientists, the team of excavators and government officials.

Professor Lee Berger, the American archaeologist who led the excavation, called the Rising Star expedition, said fossils of 15 individuals of various ages were found 12 metres into the Dinaledi Chamber.

Berger and a team of excavators had worked on unearthing the pristine bones at the cave since 2013. What the scientists found incredible was that no other animal remains 12

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were found except for the homo naledi. Just as curious was that the bones showed no traces of their being in fights with carnivores or other hominins.

"The mysteries that remain before us in trying to interpret the anatomies are scientific problems that will engage us for decades to come."

This suggested that the cave was where the homo naledi disposed of their dead, a sort of burial site. This is an indication of their sophistication and what Berger said was a recognition of their own mortality. "It is what separated us from the animal kingdom."

"This find of approximately 1550 fossil elements emphasizes South Africa’s position as a global leader in the field of paleoanthropology," said Brand South Africa's CEO Kingsley Makhubela, "The discovery has been described as one which will force us to rethink the origins of humankind as whole. While we cannot claim to have created what lies in our soil, we can celebrate this as a part of our heritage and as part of South Africa's legacy to the world."

Speaking at the event, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa reminded us that we were not a unique species to this planet. "By unearthing our past we gain knowledge about our present. We're not exceptional; we're not the only ones who buried our dead."

The age of the fossils has not yet been determined.

The entrance to the cave was so small excavators of small stature were needed.

Berger said that the team entered the cave with the intention of finding one fossil but later found other remains. Eventually, they found the largest assemblage of fossilized human relatives ever discovered in Africa's history.

Professor John Hawkins explained the anatomy of the species. At about 1.5 metres tall and weighing around 45 kilograms, the homo naledi was relatively petite. He said it had a similar brain size to early hominids found previously, which is about the size of an orange. "It looks like a creature of hominin that we have never found before at any other site. It connects our family tree to somewhere among the earliest members of our genus.

Read more: http://www.southafrica.info/about/history/hom o-naledi100915.htm#.VfXWqhGqqko#ixzz3leXWcUk2

Fiona Macdonald from Science alert.com summarizes the find…

"Here's what we know so far:  



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The species walked upright at a height of around 150 centimetres.

Despite their height, they also had a tiny brain only slightly larger than a chimpanzee's, with a volume of around 450 to 550 cubic centimetres.

The skeletons suggest that H. naledi wasn't carrying much body weight, with researchers estimating an average weight of around 45 kg. Their bodies also appear to have been built to walk long distances.

H. naledi had small, modernlooking teeth and feet similar to 13

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





humans, but more primitive fingers.

It's believed the bodies of these individuals were buried in the chamber intentionally, possibly as some type of burial ritual. No evidence of that kind of behaviour has been seen in such a primitive human ancestor before.

The fossils were discovered inside the Rising Star cave system, 48 km northwest of Johannesburg.

They were named after the Dinaledi chamber where they were found.

Currently the researchers believe that H. naledi may sit between Homo habilis and Homo erectus on the family tree."

To place this in context, here is some background on hominid species, from the Wikipedia article, Human Evolution:

"The earliest documented representative of the genus Homo is Homo habilis, which evolved around 2.8 million years ago,[4] and is arguably the earliest species for which there is positive evidence of the use of stone tools.

The brains of these early hominins were about the same size as that of a chimpanzee, although it has been suggested that this was the time in which the human SRGAP2gene doubled, producing a more rapid wiring of the frontal cortex.

During the next million years a process of rapid encephalization occurred, and with the arrival of Homo erectus and Homo ergaster in

the fossil record, cranial capacity had doubled to 850 cm3.[5](Such an increase in human brain size is equivalent to each generation having 125,000 more neurons than their parents.) It is believed that Homo erectus and Homo ergaster were the first to use fire and complex tools, and were the first of the hominin line to leave Africa, spreading throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe between 1.3 to 1.8 million years ago.

According to the recent African origin of modern humans theory, modern humans evolved in Africa possibly from Homo heidelbergensis, Homo rhodesiensis or Homo antecessor and migrated out of the continent some 50,000 to 100,000 years ago, gradually replacing local populations of Homo erectus, Denisova hominins, Homo floresiensis and Homo neanderthalensis.[6][7][8][9][10] Archaic Homo sapiens, the forerunner of anatomically modern humans, evolved between 400,000 and 250,000 years ago.[11][12] Recent DNA evidence suggests that several haplotypes of Neanderthal origin are present among all non-African populations, and Neanderthals and other hominins, such as Denisovans, may have contributed up to 6% of their genome to present-day humans, suggestive of a limited inter-breeding between these species.[13][14][15] Anatomically modern humans evolved from archaic Homo sapiens in the Middle Paleolithic, about 200,000 years ago.[16] Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evoluti on

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RICK HUNTER INVOLVED IN THE DISCOVERY OF HOMO NALEDI

By Amanda Horn

We would like to congratulate Rick Hunter caver, explorer and previous Mensa PTA committee member on his remarkable find!

On 13 September 2013 Rick Hunter & fellow caver, Steven Tucker, were out in the Maropeng area exploring caves. They entered an 18cm wide crevice which they called 'Superman's crawl' which lead to a larger cave from where they climbed what was called ‘Dragon’s back’ which in turn opened up into a larger section which they have not explored before.

It was in this cave (which was later named the Dinaledi Chamber) where they first saw the bones.

At first they did not know what it was that they have discovered but deemed it important enough to go back and take photos. They were aware of the fact that if they did find bones that they would need to inform Professor Lee Burger, a paleoanthropologist who was researching hominid ancestors.

Here are some YouTube links to some interesting footage on the topic: YouTube videos: Caver Rick Hunter squeezing through the Rising Star cave – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFn-FgfChGQ First Look Inside the Fossil Cave (Expedition Update) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9mXu1BWI 6A Going through The Postbox @ Rising Star Expedition – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvqO77mA6 hg

Additional reading: Seven signs the Rising Star Cave is a fossil burial site https://www.enca.com/south-africa/seven-signsrising-star-cave-fossil-burial-site

They took the photos to the professor and soon after, the exploration was in full force.

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This Face Changes the Human Story. But How? http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150 910-human-evolution-change/

Event: And for those hopeless romantics out there…

“Rick Hunter didn’t only discover a remarkable new species of human relative by accident while exploring caves in the Cradle of Humankind. He also discovered the love of his life.”

‘Caveman’ Rick stumbled on love of his life – http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/science/discovery/cav eman-rick-stumbled-on-love-of-his-life1.1915480#.VfkoabeKDcc

Rick Hunter is trying to help us arrange a last minute event for this weekend (Saturday 19 / Sunday 20 September).

It would be a tour of Maropeng where the bones are on display. We might also have an opportunity to meet some of the scientists involved and hopefully get to chat to Rick too.

As soon as we have more details, we’ll post it.

So if you don’t have plans yet, we hope to see you there and if you do, it might be worth changing them.

We’ll keep you posted!

I thanked Rick for thinking of us (Mensa) when considering arranging this event, to which he humbly replied: “Mensa is the only reason I ended up on this path. I always hold that close.”

We congratulate you Rick, not only for your remarkable discovery but also on your baby that is on the way 

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Since more than ten percent of Mensa Cape’s members are resident in the Helderberg Basin and in Stellenbosch, together with a similar number of lapsed members, we’re going to attempt to establish a separate chapter in the area.

It’s envisaged that the chapter will be run along the same lines as other Mensa chapters, with monthly speaker evenings, socials and SIGs.

Our inaugural meeting is scheduled for Wednesday 23 September in Somerset West, at 19h15 for 19h30, and all Cape members, not only those resident in the area, are invited.

Our guest speaker is Professor Ted Williams, the Director of the South African Astronomical Observatory, who will delve into the fascinating field of optical and infrared astronomy in South Africa, and also give an overview of the facilities at Sutherland, including the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) and their plans for the future.

Prof Williams has been the Director of the SAAO since 2013; he is an honorary professor at UCT, and at Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA. He was actively involved in the development of the SALT and is the scientist responsible for the design, manufacture and testing of the Fabry-Perot mode of the Robert Stobie Spectrograph, which is one of the telescope’s main instruments.

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We’d appreciate it if you would RSVP if you are going to attend - since this is a ‘first time event’, we’d like to know how many people to

expect. Reply to admin@mensa.org.za, or SMS/WhatsApp 0834629585.

Speaker: Professor Ted Williams, Director of the South African Astronomical Observatory Date: Wednesday 23 September Topic: Optical and infrared astronomy in South Africa Venue: Somerset Lodge, 200 Main Road, Somerset West GPS co-ords: -34.0751846, 18.8438526.

Tea and coffee will be served, and a cash bar will be available.

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SEPTEMBER'S 'SUPERMOON' TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE

QUICK FACTS ABOUT SEPTEMBER'S SUPERMOON There is a total eclipse of the moon on the night of September 27-28, 2015. It's called a supermoon because of the proximity of the moon to earth - it is the closest the moon will be to the earth for all of 2015. The next closest conjunction will occur in November 2016.

It’s the Southern Hemisphere’s first full moon of spring, just days after the spring equinox on September 21. This one is also a Blood moon. It will be visible in Southern Africa from 2:00 am to approximately 7:30 am.

Why is it called a Blood moon?

This September full moon is also called a Blood Moon, because it presents the fourth and final eclipse of four straight total eclipses of the moon, called a lunar tetrad. The previous three were of the tetrad took place on April 15, 2014, October 8, 2014 and on April 4, 2015.

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IT IS PART OF LUNAR SAROS SERIES 137

Lunar and Solar eclipses occur in 18 year cycles, referred to as Saros cycles. Saros cycles share similar characteristics, specifically the proximity of earth to the moon, and which times of years they are clustered together. A Saros series is a series of eclipses separated by a Saros cycle.

The September 27/ 28, 2015 Lunar Eclipse belongs to Saros Series 137. It is the 28th and last total lunar eclipse in a series of 81 lunar eclipses.

This Saros series began with a penumbral eclipse on December 17, 1564 and will end with another penumbral lunar eclipse on April 20, 2953.

SIGHTING THE ECLIPSE IN SOUTH AFRICA

Begins: Mon, 28 Sep 2015, 02:11 Maximum: Mon, 28 Sep 2015, 04:47 Ends: Mon, 28 Sep 2015, 07:22

Duration: 5 hours, 11 minutes

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ITS' TIME FOR SILVENSA MENSA INTERNATIONAL'S NEW YEAR'S EVE EVENT If you are attending please register at www.silvensa.org

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The events will run from December 29th to January 1st in Vienna.

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Mensa has reserved a Hostel at the northern edge of the city centre for members.

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Lots of interesting events are planned.

It starts with a Bratislava Day, organized by the team of the EMAG 2013 there. And then there follows the UNO City, Augustinerkeller, House of Music, Lasertag, Latin Dance Bootcamp, Schloss Schönbrunn, Vienna's famous giant wheel, Poker and so much more …

There is a link to the timetable here: http://www.balik.at/MENSA/Zeitplan-Silvensa-Events-S.pdf There are already about 160 registrations, and getting closer to the 275 that attended the Warsaw event last year.

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