2021 Mensa Pretoria Speaker Evenings and Social Interactions ~ December

Jacqui Uys - Spheres of Government and Citizen Involvement 

Jacqui is a member of Mensa and involved in local politics, she sparked our thought processes by talking about democracy in South Africa and the structures surrounding it.

Being the November speaker evening only two days after the NAG - a lot of tales were shared !!

 

 

Grant du Plessis - Randomness

 

In October Grant showed us how the rules of probability and randomness dictate our lives without us even realizing it.

He also explained us why the human mind can never fully understand randomness, and what makes this so interesting.

Grant is one of our own, he studies Applied Mathematics at the University of Pretoria and is the Youth Advisor for Mensa Pretoria.

 

Cornia Hugo - Cycads

 

In September Cornia presented a talk on the history, status, legislation and even smuggling of cycads before introducing us to her excellent book: Identification of Indigenous cycads.Wow I learned a lot, Cornia sure  knows cycads !

Cornia Hugo works for the Department Agriculture and Rural Development. She has 28 years’ experience of cycad inspection and court cases. She is currently the Deputy Director of General Investigations North; the unit is responsible for all the permit inspections related to plant and animals.

Cornia has published two books: Identification of Indigenous cycads of SA and Using cones to Identify Indigenous cycads of SA.

She was also involved in the development of SA first cycad stamps which were printed in France during 2019, a total of only 1200 stamps were printed.

 

 

David Toma - Aircraft Design

 

 

For the month of August we took to the skies, or at least went through the rigorous mental process of planning the design of a special 1/1 aircraft! 

 

 

 

David Toma obtained his BEng Mechanical at the University of Pretoria and majored in aeronautics. He holds a Commercial Pilot License and a Multi-Engine Instructor’s Rating with +2550 flight hours and more than forty aircraft types on his license.

He is a Project certification engineer on Falcon 400 series aircraft and he indulges in aircraft flight testing and design in his own time.

 

 

Cassie Nienaber - Internal Ballistics

We just can not get enough of things going BOOM!! In July we were treated to a talk by Cassie who explained that Internal ballistics refers to the process happening inside a barrel during the firing of a weapon, from the time the propellant is ignited until the subsequent gas pressure sends the projectile out the muzzle.

The study of internal ballistics involves the properties of the weapon and components, the pressures created by the burning propellant, the influence of these on bullet acceleration and the resultant muzzle velocity of the projectile.

Cassie has a master’s diploma in Civil Engineering from the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) and worked at the CSIR, consulting engineers and in the construction industry until a few years ago. Shooting and hunting have been a part of his life since primary school.

He has published several articles in the SA Jagter/Hunter magazine.

The biggest part of his time is spent on developing custom reloaded ammunition, tailor-made for the client’s rifle and components. He also reloads ammunition for some.