January 2005 - Tampa Bay Mensa

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January 2005 19 January - 15th - Saturday - 7:00 PM - potluck Games Night (to the tune of "Let It Snow!") Oh, our Mensans are quite insightful, And the games are so delightful. Come on, bring your friend or beau. Let us go, let us go, let us go! Bring a potluck snack to share, please. There are cats (be warned, if you'll sneeze), And don't smoke in the "chateau". Let us go, let us go, let us go! Sylvia Zadorozny - 813-855-4939 - sylviachocolate@juno.com 651 Timber Bay Circle West - Oldsmar 22 Tampa Bay Sounding January – 23rd - Sunday - 2:00 PM – Free FSM Chris Clement will be our host this month, as we prepare the Tampa Bay Sounding for mailing. Directions: From Tampa, take Hillsborough Avenue heading west. This becomes Tampa Road in north Pinellas. Go west until Tampa Road ends at Orange Street in Ozona. Turn right and go past a 4-way stop at Pennsylvania Avenue. Then look for the 3rd house on the right Chris Clement - 727-784-0186 - chris@micrometer.com 612 Orange St. N. - Ozona/Palm Harbor January – 22nd - Saturday - 8:30 PM NTN Trivia Location: Buffalo Wild Wings, Gulf View Square Mall, 9409 US Hwy. 19 N., Port Richey, FL 34668 Come and play! It's NTN Satellite Trivia at a big ol' wonderful NON-smoking and not-terribly-noisy and friendly sports bar called BUFFALO WILD WINGS! A lonely gigundasize computer somewhere in the USA sends mysterious signals to a satellite, seeking answers to trivia questions! Multiple Choice! With CLUES!! THOUSANDS of people around the world play at the same time! Most of them are drunk, so your odds of beating 'em are high! C'mon for the challenge--the callipygousness of the servers--the camaraderie! And the manager just might give PRIZES!!! Look for me--the guy wearing the Aussie hat--and if I find Owlbert the Life-Sized Plastic Owl, I'll being him TOO! Call or email for more information (note that there is no 'g' in the email address: RipRoarinFunToday@yahoo.com) January - 28th - Friday - 6:00 PM TGIF You don't have to be an Anglophile to enjoy the Horse & Jockey British Pub, but you do have to be prepared to celebrate TGIF! The Horse & Jockey is located at 1155 Pasadena Avenue South, South Pasadena. State law does not permit smoking in restaurants. Brigitte Walker - 727-346-0656 George Zadorozny - 727-847-9960
January 2005 23 Deciding History by Dan Chesnut I learned as a boy the first heavier-than-air flight took place on December 17, 1903. I have always loved aeronautics and when I learned that this great event occurred on my birthday, it made me feel special. As an adult, I read historical materials of a more intellectual nature and at some point I learned to my slight dismay that the Wright brothers already had flown their aircraft on December 14th! I wondered: Why was this not the day that marked the beginning of modern aviation I read further into the matter. According to the standards of the time, flight had to involve sustained flying without the use of gliding and make a safe landing. Ever see those old film clips that include ridiculous flying contraptions that whirled and flapped up and down Many of them became airborne, but then the machine would collapse in a heap of wreckage, so the pilot could not claim to have flown. Of course, the pilot's inability to make such a claim was further underscored when the pilot himself was part of the heap of wreckage. The Wrights were keenly aware of the need for a perfect flight, particularly in light of Samuel Langley’s aircraft, which only weeks earlier had actually flown fairly well – briefly – but then crashed into the Potomac and which some people were claiming was the first flight of an airplane. In fact, Langley had earlier built a powered – but unmanned – model in 1896 that flew much further and for longer duration than any of the Wright’s 1903 flights, and the Smithsonian Institute recognized Langley – not the Wrights – as the first in flight until 1944. Of course, now the Wright Flyer is on display in the Smithsonian. History is sometimes like putty. Orville and Wilbur had made previous expeditions to Kitty Hawk and had perfected flying very large glider kites as well as a glider big enough for one person. As a result of these 24 Tampa Bay Sounding experiences, they understood the need for strong winds and sloping land - in this case, sand dunes - to help create lift for that method of flight. What they did not know, being the pioneers they were, was that heavier-than-air flight worked better in calm winds because windy days also are gusty and unstable. They flipped a coin, Wilbur won, and made a very nice, very short flight on December 14, 1903, which unfortunately endured a gust upon landing which canted the craft and broke key spars. In any reasonable view of the event, Wilbur demonstrated that they had successfully made a machine fly, but it could not – by their standards – be brought forth as proof of flight, so after three more days the damage was repaired, it was Orville’s turn and he managed the famous four, incredibly short flights that we now mark as the beginning of aviation. I have been to Kitty Hawk and stood on that spot and seen the distance he flew that day. I could have thrown a rock farther than the first flight. All the flights were simply straight lines that landed at a point directly in front of the take off point. As a modern day pilot myself, I have some notions about flight. I noticed that their craft did not have landing gear, but required a track for take off. As awkward and incredibly brief as these flights were, could even all four be enough to prove flight One could suppose they would have to at least fly around and return to the take off spot to prove flight. Or could it be argued that, since the same machine flew on December 17th as the one on the 14th, and made many more flights back in the Dayton, Ohio area, should not the December 14th was the first flight, being the first time it was used I am hardly the first person to question just when the first true flight occurred, and in my readings this was not the last event to which history books have simplistically and tidily assigned a specific date. The following examples in this article reflect
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January 2005 - Tampa Bay Mensa

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