The Mensa Mentor

Hello, my fellow Mensans!

SPEAKER EVENING:  TAEKWONDO – THE ORIGINS AND INTERACTIVE DEMONSTRATION

On the 6^th of November, Mensa Pretoria got physical with a breathtaking display of skill, power and grace, by members of the Acestes Taekwondo Club (ATC).

We were treated to some synchronised katas and a very useful interactive self-defence session where everyone could learn a bit of Taekwon-Do mastery. A nice change from our usual seated discussions, this was a really fun way to get up close and personal with the topic of the evening... and a perfect way to unwind after a hard day at the office...

 

 
SPEAKER EVENING:  ARMAGEDDON, THE WORLD'S OLDEST CAVE

What a wonderful Speaker Evening we had on the 4^th of December! Our very own Rick Hunter took us on an amazing trip through his caving adventures with wonderful video clips and photographs throughout.

 

 

As usual, it was a very interactive Q-and-A session where our members posed questions to Rick, as well as to some of his caving colleagues, who also attended the Speaker Evening. What amazed us most was the sheer size of some of these underground caverns. 

The presentation included a wonderful display of "painting with light" on underground formations (for those who aren't into Photography, painting with light is when you leave your camera shutter open in low light conditions to expose your “film” to light for long periods of time. This allows you to "grab" light over that extended period of time by shining coloured lights or torches on the surface you want to capture. This can lead to colourful and fairytale-like images).
 

Rick will be sharing his videos, pictures and further caving news with us soon – so keep an eye out for our jam-packed 2013 final Newsletter/Blog that will come out shortly. 

 

 

COMING UP IN OUR NEXT ISSUE:

We are doing a feature article on one of our members who recently took part in the Toshiba Tablet Competition, and who will be telling us about his experiences in the Question & Answer Section.

Our Mentor Blog-site will see a bit of a revamp in the New Year, to make space for individual areas for:

• Recommended articles of interest
• Articles written by members, posted by members on Facebook or submitted directly to the Blog-site
• Articles about events, SiGs and newsworthy happenings in your area
• Puzzles

We will soon be launching a quarterly competition with some great Mensa-prizes up for grabs. Our Puzzle Section will have both graphical and worded logic problems, ranging from Mediocre Medium, to Darnright Difficult to Diabolically Difficult problems.

The sections will also feature “print me” options to allow you to either print out the articles or puzzles for easier completion.

JOIN US AT OUR PLANNED EVENTS:

Once again we encourage all members to try to attend all the events we have planned. We had a really great turnout for the caving talk and it made the evening a lot of fun. Our Year Kick-Off Function Will be held on Sunday, the 26th of January 2014.  The details thereof are listed in the e-mail invitation.  This is another opportunity for you to get up, dress up and show up - and just enjoy the company of your fellow mad Mensans.

FINAL WORDS:

For those of us who are winding down towards year-end, take some time to smell the roses instead of the coffee and make some time to contribute to the content we share.

Mensa membership will always be what you make of it!