The Newsletter of Mid-Hudson Mensa
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Mid-Mensan
The Newsletter of Mid-Hudson Mensa |
May 1999 | |
| Cover: ATM: "Automatically Takes Money"? (27Kb) | |||
| Paws for Reflection | Ron McMurdy, Fabien and Miss Ella |
Greetings Everyone. Since this month's theme is Financial Information, I'd like to keep with the theme and give you an experience I just went through which also serves as an example of what Y2K problems might be like.
At the end of December, I got my credit card bill. I usually pay this in full every month, so I was surprised to find an interest charge on this bill. I went back to my November bill and checked the due date of that payment, to verify that the company had received it on time; they had. I was confused... why was there an interest charge on this bill? I called the company and was told that they had just installed a Y2K update to their computers, and that the erroneous interest charge was the result of a bug in their upgrade. They would credit me the amount of the interest charge, and I should just send them a check for the remaining balance, which I did.
In January, I got the next bill. It showed the credit for the earlier interest charge, some new purchases, and a NEW interest charge! They got another call; I got another credit, and sent them another check. In February, I got the next bill again! It showed NO CREDIT for January's interest charge, a new interest charge, and some new purchases. So I called again! This time I was again promised two interest credits, but I was more insistent and asked to speak to a supervisor to find out how to finally resolve the problem.
The supervisor confirmed that this was a recurring problem, and I was more insistent on finding a permanent solution. He said I had been issued the credits for the interest charges but suggested I send a check for the entire amount of the bill, including the interest. I was skeptical of this, but I was willing and financially able to send the extra few dollars in my next check, so I did.
During the next month, I received copies of some of these old credit card bills, which I assume were generated because the company was looking through these records, hopefully fixing something. At the end of March, my latest credit card bill showed no interest charge, the proper credits were there, and it seems as though things have been fixed.
The lesson to be learned here is: As we approach 2000, keep track of your money, investments and bills. Save your statements and regularly compare them. Be on the outlook for problems like this to show up. This "glitch" would have been more difficult for people who carry a balance on their credit cards from month to month to detect, but it could have been found.
I'll conclude this by saying that I think this is a typical Y2K sort of computer error. It was annoying, but my credit card never stopped working; I was just charged an improper interest charge.
I hope to see a lot of you at the Balloon Festival next month!!
| Snappy Science Snippets | Andi Weiss Bartczak |
In 1865, Gregor Mendel published a paper describing his research on cross-breeding pea strains with different visible properties. He concluded that each property was inherited separately, and that some properties didn't show in one generation but reappeared in the next cross-breeding. Mendel had discovered the units of heredity (genes) and also that there are two copies of each gene in an organism.
A chromosome is only easily visible during cell division. In the early part of our century, research with fruit flies suggested that genes are located on chromosomes, with a gene usually on the same chromosome in all individuals (each pair of chromosomes can be uniquely identified). Genes are lined up along the chromosome, like a necklace of beads. Humans have 46 chromosomes (23 pairs).
Scientists have determined that a chromosome consists of a very long double-stranded
chain of DNA and associated proteins. A gene is defined as a segment of DNA
necessary to produce a protein. This segment includes portions in the beginning
that control when a gene is read, sections at the end and sections interspersed
among the gene that have to be cut out, as well as the sections of the gene that
code for the protein. DNA is organized as a sugar-phosphate-sugar chain with bases
sticking out at right angles to the chain. The chain is twisted so that there is
a complete turn every 10 units (double helix). The two chains of the double helix
are held together by the attraction between complementary bases.
| Pun of the Month | Jim Jelacic |
This one from Emily Gordon of Greater New York Mensa:
Two archaeologists exploring a remote mountain in Tibet come across a huge granite statue which resembles a sitting man. It stands almost 400 feet tall and is anatomically correct right down to the fingernails and teeth. "It looks real enough to talk," says one. "Let’s try," says the other, who turns to the statue and asks it its name. No answer. "How old are you?" No answer. Finally, one archaeologist shouts out, "What is the square root of 64?" The mountain shakes as the giant statue rises to its feet and puts its hand on its chin. Slowly, after what seems like an eternity, the statue answers in a roaring voice, "Eight.""Of course," says one of the archaeologists, "It only stands to reason."
Send your favorite groaner to
PUNS c/o Jim Jelacic.
| Are You Game? | Bill Zigo |
There are money games, and then there’s Monopoly®. How many of you still play and take the game very seriously? Do you own a Monopoly strategy book? Mine is The Monopoly® Book by Maxine Brady. Do you have your own strategies? I’ll list a few here, some my own, some excerpted from the book. In all cases, these tips are based on the official, unadulterated, rules.
What’s the best color group? It depends on how much cash you have. To make a real investment in a property group, you need at least $500 for the purple group, and several thousand for the more expensive groups. While the dark blue properties are the most expensive, the green properties cost the most [to rent] and are generally considered the best deal in terms of overall cash return.
Location, Location, Location: Statisticians have calculated the most frequently visited squares on the board. Since two dice are used for movement, multiples of seven figure heavily into the calculations. Properties to which you can advance from cards, and properties which are multiples of seven beyond other commonly visited squares (GO, Jail), rank high. The most frequently visited square on the board is Illinois Avenue, followed by GO, B&O Railroad and Free Parking. The most commonly visited color group is the orange group, the only group with all three properties listed in the top ten most frequented.
Return on Investment (ROI): As a rule, the more houses you can add to a property, the better your (ROI) (the one exception here is the green group - the ROI actually diminishes slightly beyond three houses, but the ROI here is so good, so the decrease is worth ignoring). Calculations show that the sharpest increase in ROI comes when you upgrade from two to three houses, so get your monopolies to at least three houses as quickly as possible.
What about Railroads or Utilities? Make railroads a mid-game investment. If you own all four railroads before monopolies get serious, you have a lot of cash flowing in which can be used to build houses and hotels. But once other players have monopolies with several houses or hotels, your return pales in comparison. If you own all four railroads, consider eventually opting to trade Short Line and/or Pennsylvania Railroad for properties which would help you acquire a monopoly, or else mortgage them to finance houses for a monopoly. Utilities are a good early investment. If you purchase one or both utilities, hang on to them long enough to get a few payoffs, then trade or mortgage them to get other useful properties.
Sell your hotels? In the unmodified rules, there’s a fixed number of houses and
hotels, and no more. If you have several hotels, and another player has just come
into a monopoly, consider dropping your hotels back to four houses each, if it
dries up the supply of houses. You decrease your potential return, but you
prevent the other player from a significant revenue increase.
| Tele-Teasers | Bill Zigo |
Decode the phone numbers to determine the clues.
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This month's theme: High School Subjects.
We’ll provide a term or phrase you might hear in each class.
You identify the class.
Answers near the end of this newsletter.
| CryptoGrams | Jim Jelacic |
Easy:
E JEFN TUDA JSHAX UWWHLHAUGZ FSLZ
WUBEGUA EKFGZUX SM YHFG JDEGEKO
UVSHG EG. TUDA LUDP’F LSGNZD
Hard - no punctuation, grouped in 5:
ERVZB TVHJK XHKGC NGQTV MJMNN IEXKJ
KBSQX GNZEJ XVGZH RNYYQ QAKYC SVY
Answers near the end of this newsletter.
| "Your Mission, Should You Choose To Accept It..." TV Trivia | Jim Jelacic |
Inspired by the exploits of James Bond, spy series flashed onto the TV scene like wildfire. Some serious, some tongue-in-cheek and a few ridiculous, they all tempted us to tune in. See if you can name the show and the principal characters and actors.
Answers near the end of this newsletter.
| Trivia, May '99 | Jim Jelacic |
Greetings, Fellow Trivians! There’s one thing I forgot to mention in last month's details of the Trivia Contest: There is a prize!!! The winner will receive a $15 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble. Not bad for mailing me the answers you already were trying to figure out.
Greetings, Fellow Trivians! Here are the answers to March's questions:
Q1: About twice the size of New Jersey, Switzerland is surrounded by five
countries. Germany, Italy and France are three of them. Name the other two.
A1: Austria and Liechtenstein.
Q2: Who was a star in TV’s “Laverne and Shirley” and the director of the movie “A League of Their Own?”
A2: Penny Marshall.
Q3: Who was known as “the angel of the battlefield” and founded the Red Cross in 1881?
A3: Clara Barton.
Q4: Besides the children’s book “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, who wrote about British secret agent James Bond?
A4: Ian Fleming.
Q5: What star is closest to the earth?
A5: The sun.
Q6: True or false: Cancer is the leading cause of death in the United States.
A6: False - Heart disease is first, followed by cancer and stroke.
Q7: In newspaper BOX SCORES, what letter represents a strike?
A7: K (S is sacrifice, KS strike out swinging, KC called strike).
Q8: What does "URL" stand for?
A8: Uniform Resource Location.
Q9: What is the world’s largest country?
A9: Russia.
Q10: What would you be doing if you were using a Whipple shield to protect yourself?
A10: Orbiting the earth. A Whipple shield is used to protect a space vehicle from impact by orbiting space debris.
The winner is Frank Wolfe with 10 correct answers. Dave Cardall, Elizabeth McAllister, Ed Quinn, Tom Rankin, and Cathy Romanowski each had 9, Les Herring had 8, and Kathie Vanleer had 7 correct answers. Bill Zigo, ineligible this year, also had a perfect score of 10 correct answers. Best Off-the-Wall answer was from Elizabeth: “A Whipple shield would protect you when you were in the grocery store and Mr. Whipple caught you squeezing the Charmin.”
And now, this month's questions:
Q20: Which state is known as “the Badger State?”
Q21: Who wrote and performed “Honky Cat” and “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word?”
Q22: Who organized the peace conference in Portsmouth, NH ending the Russo-Japanese War and eventually won a Nobel Peace Prize for it?
Q23: Who won the Pulitzer in Drama in 1996 for the play “Rent?”
Q24: London has the FT-SE, Frankfort has DAX and Japan has NIKKIE. What does New York have?
Q25: According to the “New York State Department of Motor Vehicles Driver’s Manual,” there are two situations when you can pass a car on the right: one is when the car ahead is making a left turn. What is the other?
Q26: Identify the worlds longest suspension bridge. (Submitted by Dave Cardall)
Q27: Where were the 1900 Olympics held? (Submitted by Dave Cardall)
Q28: How much did it cost to mail a 1-ounce letter first class in 1899? (Submitted by Bill Zigo)
Send your answers and questions (with answers and references) to
TRIVIA CONTEST c/o Jim Jelacic
by May 31.
| Insults To Our Intelligence |
I heard a quote from a female DJ on a morning radio program on a station
somewhere in the Hudson Valley (though it could have been a nationally
syndicated program). The quote was something like this:
“You know those traffic lights which are timed to be all green when you drive 30
miles an hour? It also works at 60 miles an hour.”
First of all, this is not true. Instead of going through green lights twice as fast,
you’ll simply hit an upcoming light red before it’s turned green. Second, these
lights are timed to be consistent with the speed limit, and suggesting that they
work at a speed twice that fast is guaranteed to tempt somebody to try it.
| What's Up? Current Topics in Astronomy |
Tom Rankin Mid-Hudson Astronomy Assoc. |
Last time, I mentioned a very young moon and a Meteor shower. Did anyone see anything? I mentioned Astronomy Day, but that has been changed to 6/26 at Barnes & Noble. Stay tuned!
May events: At the beginning of the month, Jupiter and Mercury are close together in the morning. Venus is still easily visible in the evening, but now Saturn is behind the sun. Near the end of the month, Saturn may be visible in the morning. Mars will rise before sunset and be visible much of the night.
Other Events:
05/05 Venus is near Ceres in the evening.
05/13 Mercury is near Saturn in the morning.
05/15 A 12 hour old moon at sunset. If you see this one with the naked eye it'll be a world record!
05/21 Regulus is very close to the Moon; it may be occulted after midnight!
Astro News:
Data gathered by NASA's Lunar Prospector has shown that the Moon has a small core, supporting the theory that most of the Moon was blasted away from the Earth billions of years ago by a collision with an object the size of Mars.
ISO, a satellite launched by the ESA, has found that the normal matter in the universe is not enough to cause a “Big Crunch,” implying the universe will expand forever.
An object about 50 meters across has been found circling the Sun in an orbit similar to the Earth's. The object, discovered on February 10th by an asteroid-hunting telescope called Linear, is probably a chunk from the Moon.
Upcoming MHAA Events (for Southeastern New York State):
05/07 - 8:30 PM Outdoor meeting at Wilcox Park (Venus and Mars)
05/15 - 8:30 PM Outdoor meeting at Sam's Point (near Ellenville)
05/18 - 7:30 PM Indoor meeting at SUNY New Paltz, Lecture Center 112
Call (914) 485-5669 for the MHAA Hotline: Information, Astronomy News, etc. Would you like to borrow a telescope from the Club for a month? Let me know. We've got several “loaner” scopes that are very easy to use. We have lots of other Astro stuff to lend as well.
Next Time: We will be having 'Astronomy Day'! I hope!
MHAA Home Page: http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/5679
Puzzle answers follow, a page or so onward...
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Easy:
I wish Karl would accumulate some capital instead of just writing about it.
Karl Marx’s mother
Hard:
I had plastic surgery last week. I cut up my credit cards.
Henny Youngman