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IIMS NEWS November-December 2004

IIMS NEWSIIMS NEWSIIMS NEWSIIMS NEWS

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Being the newsletter of The Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences

Assembled with care by Freda Anderson with the vital assistance of Merrill Bowers, the contributors and readers

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Contents

From the Head of IIMS ........................................................ 2 News of the people ............................................................... 4 DLT'04 ................................................................................. 5 Tennis: Mr Consistent cruises to a win ............................... 5 Dates in History ................................................................... 5 The Home Computer ............................................................ 7 Research Output at IIMS collected for October .................. 7 A Small World ...................................................................... 8 Perplexing puzzles ............................................................... 9 Laughter lines ...................................................................... 10 Wordles ................................................................................ 11 People puzzle ....................................................................... 12 Christmas/New Year Holiday article ................................... 13 Santa’s follies! ..................................................................... 14

Thank you to the readers and contributors.


From the Head of IIMS Robert McKibbin

Staff News

The Year That Was It has been a busy year, with some special events. However, I have been rather taken aback, upon perusal of this year's issues of IIMS News, to see how many staff comings and goings there have been. It is no wonder that Merrill and I often feel that we have a branch of HR operating here! Needless to say, the incoming has been more than the outgoing, and so we continue to grow.

Staff who arrived during the year: Freda Anderson, Ian Bond, Marie Fitch, Stephen Ford, Mini Ghosh, Mark Harmer, Rezaul Hasan, John Holt, Beatrix Jones, Claire Jordan, Gaven Martin, Hokyoung Ryu, Galkadowite Senaratne, Ratneesh Suri, Danny Walsh.

[To arrive early 2005: Alona Bental, Fakhrul Alam, Richard Evans, Tanya Evans, Napoleon Reyes. IS Chair candidates will visit in February.]

Many thanks to those temporary staff and visitors who helped out with teaching this year: Nicoleen Cloete, Amos Gera, Frederick Lam, Walid Nahab, John Paxton.

Farewelled during the year: Esther Bothma, Denny Meyer, Scott Overmyer, Suhad Shembil, Bruce Mills, Maha Shakir.

This year was one for initiatives. The first set of IIMS Teaching Awards was made, to Shaun Cooper, Tom Moir and Chris Scogings. The School of Engineering and Technology came into being. The first IIMS Postgraduate Conference was a great success – the remarkable upsurge in PG activity is a credit to the IIMS PG Committee. Three PhD graduates from IIMS, Chris Scogings, Maha Shakir and Paul Bracewell, were capped at the May ceremonies. The first MISG conference to be held in NZ was organized by an IIMS group. The international DLT'04 conference was also organized locally. PBRF grades were released, to various reactions of pleasure, relief, astonishment, disappointment or dismay.

The potluck dinners were feasted upon, marathons and triathlons were sweated over, babies were born, staff got sick and recovered, new New Zealanders were ceremonised, …

We have a lot to build on for 2005. Look forward to the excitement!

Hail, Fellow! We are very proud of Graeme Wake's election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of NZ (FRSNZ).

In 1999, Graeme was awarded the Marsden Medal for Science. In that same year, Graeme was made a Fellow of the NZ Mathematical Society. This month, in a further step, the Society awarded Graeme an Honorary Membership, in recognition of his long service to NZ Mathematics and to the Society.

Congratulations, Graeme!

A new Doctor Congratulations to Cynthia Wang, who has successfully defended her PhD thesis. Cynthia is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, working with Dr Lutz Gross (previously of IIMS). We hope to see her back again next April for graduation as Dr Wang!

Some news from recent conferences At the 15th Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS) held in Hobart, Tasmania, last week, Dave Wilton won the inaugural Kit Dampney Prize for the Best IS Paper ["A Tale of Two Projects: Why IT Fail (And Why They Sometimes Actually Succeed)"].

At the NZ Mathematics Colloquium held at the University of Otago, Dunedin, this month, Jo Mann won the Aitken Prize for the best student presentation ["To vaccinate or not to vaccinate"] and Heung Yeung (Frederick) Lam ["Sums of two squares and a conjecture for sums of 8t squares"] received one of two honourable mentions. Not bad, since IIMS had only 2 students giving talks!

Meanwhile, the NZ Mathematics Society has excellent IIMS representation on its Council. Mick Roberts continues as President for another year, Gaven Martin will be Incoming President and Winston Sweatman will be Secretary. As if that is not enough, the NZ Branch of ANZIAM has a new Chairperson, Carlo Laing.


Elena Calude and her organising crew have been long preparing for the DLT'04 Conference held here at Albany 6–10 December. A lot of hard work has been done by many IIMS people. The reward has been the presence of a stellar international cast of theoretical computer scientists on the campus for the last week.

Discipline Leaders 2005 Computer Science Prof Ken Hawick

Computer Engineering Dr Tom Moir

Information Systems Dr David Parsons

Mathematics Prof Robert McKibbin

Statistics Prof Jeff Hunter

Postgraduate study I am grateful to Associate Professor Dennis Viehland for agreeing to take over as IIMS Postgraduate Coordinator. This important role was held by Denny Meyer who has now headed off to Oz. Dennis has previously held the position, so is familiar with the processes.

IIMS Postgraduate Coordinator:

Associate Professor Dennis Viehland

Postgraduate Subject Advisors:

Computer Science Prof Ken Hawick

Computer Systems Eng. Dr Tom Moir

Inf. and Comms Eng. Dr Mohammad A. Rashid

Information Systems Assoc Prof Dennis Viehland


Software Engineering Dr Peter Kay

Statistics Prof Jeff Hunter

Undergraduate study Information Sciences Academic Programme Director: Dr Howard Edwards

Undergraduate Subject Contacts:

Computer Science Dr Peter Kay

Decision Science Prof Jeff Hunter

Information Systems Dr Dave Parsons


Statistics Dr Howard Edwards Software Engineering Dr Peter Kay Engineering Major Coordinators: Computer Systems Eng. Dr Tom Moir Inf. and Comms Eng. Dr Mohammad A Rashid

Centre Directors Data Mining: Dr Claire Jordan

Parallel Computing: Dr Chris Messom

Mathematical Modelling: Professor Robert McKibbin

Mathematics in Industry: Professor Robert McKibbin

The Point of Credits At Academic Board on 17th November the document "Conversion of the Points System" was approved for action. The idea is that a full year of study will attract 120 credits, rather than the current 100 points. The typical paper will be worth 15 credits. Please note that this conversion from 100 points to 120 credits will probably take place in a year or so. A project group is being convened by the office of the AVC (Academic) to work through the issues, starting with developing terms of reference and a timeline.

Physics transfers As from 1 January, the Physics group will transfer to the Institute of Fundamental Sciences. There will be no physical (!) change to places of work - the group will continue to reside at Oteha Rohe. On behalf of IIMS, I thank Scott Whineray, Geoff Dingley, Joe Wang and Fred Kennedy for their contributions to the Institute activities, and know that the teaching and research activities will bloom even further under the guidance if the IFS team.

Best wishes I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy time over the New Year holidays. Travel safely, and look after yourself, your family and your friends. I look forward to us all gathering again in 2005.

Robert McKibbin


News of the people by Merrill Bowers

Merrill Bowers collates this material on general news relating to IIMS people.

Congratulations... ...Robert McKibbin has become a granddad in time for Christmas; his daughter Emily has a lovely baby girl, born on 14 December, with the name of Maia Rose.

...Marie Fitch’s daughter, Miriam, was married on Saturday 18 December. Statistically, they knew they were not in for good weather but all went well with the transition from Service to Reception better than expected, weather-wise.

...Candles, pizzas and chips. A romantic story of engagement on the week-end before Christmas, between Claire Jordan and her now fiancé, Enda.

Taxi trauma... a saga (Merrill’s own) At the end of November we were headed to the Gold Coast for our annual bit of sunshine. This time, Vanessa and Michael and Sebastian were coming with Errol and me for the first week. We always take the early flight to Brisbane, arriving at 8am. So as we have to leave home around 4.30am, we always book a taxi to take us to the airport. This time we phoned around for a taxi who had a car seat for Sebastian, and after making many phone calls, we finally found someone who had one.

We phoned to confirm the booking twice during the week and again the evening before we were picked up.

Yes, they had the address and the car seat, and the time was correct. So I thought that I was just worrying for nothing.

The morning of our departure arrived. We were all up and waiting at 4.30am. By 4.45am still no taxi, and I knew we had a definite problem. I phoned the taxi service and they said “Yes, they have the booking, but no they don’t know where the taxi driver was, and no, I couldn’t speak to him”.

I phoned back twice in the space of 5 minutes – by now my voice had risen a few decibels, and I told the operator to get the driver on the

radio immediately. I heard the operator talking to him saying, “I’ve got the lady on the phone, and she’s VERY angry”. Eventually the driver phoned me. “Where are you?”, I say. “I’m at your gate, but the gate is closed!”, he says. “WHAT GATE you fool – we have no gate?!” I shouted in a very unladylike manner.

He says, “I’m in Paremoremo”! By then I knew that my temper was not going to take much more, so I handed the telephone to Errol, who then had to explain to the taxi driver where we were. After a few minutes of going backwards and forwards trying to explain where we were, Errol said that he would meet the taxi driver at the Shell Garage in Albany.

Errol then jumped in the car and reversed out of the garage.

The three of us were sitting in the lounge listening to a funny sound coming from the garage, thinking that Errol had reversed into the garage door. After a few attempts of ‘vroom vroom vroom’ we went outside to see what was going on. Errol was trying to drive over Michael and Vanessa’s bag (with the camera in, I have to add) and the vroom vroom was him trying to get over the luggage hump and wondering what was stopping him.

After we moved the ‘stuffed’ luggage out from under the car wheel, he sped off to meet the driver. Not 30 seconds later the taxi driver phoned back to say that he was at Stevens – where or who is Stevens, I don’t know! I told him to get back to the Shell Garage where Errol was meeting him. By then, we had a contingency plan, and were getting ready to all pile into the car and just leave it at the airport (it would have been less stressful, I can assure you).

Somehow they arrived back, and true to their word, the company had provided the car seat as we had requested, but they had not bothered to install it. So we had to physically hold the seat down as we sped along.

When we got to the airport (late of course) the poor apologetic taxi driver gave us his card with his name and number – just so that next time we travel, we could call him first.

I DON’T THINK SO!

Merrill


DLT'04 submitted by Elena Calude

DLT'04 is the 8th edition of the international conference on "Developments in Language Theory". The first DLT conference was organized in 1993 in Turku. Since then, the DLT conferences were held in Magdeburg (1995), Thessaloniki (1997), Aachen (1999) and Vienna (2001).

Since 2001, a DLT conference is organized in every odd year in Europe and in every even year outside Europe. The last two DLT conferences were organized in Kyoto, Japan in 2002 and Szeged, Hungary in 2003. This year’s conference ran under the auspices of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS), with support from the New Zealand Royal Society, Massey University at Albany and the Centre for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science of the University of Auckland.

The conference is accompanied by two thematic workshops, the "International Workshop on Automata, Structures and Logic" and the "International Workshop on Tilings and Cellular Automata", all including about 100 participants from 21 countries from Australasia, Europe, North-America and Africa. DLT'04 has attracted a record number of students: 8 students from 5 countries have contributed with accepted papers.

The Proceedings of DLT'04 have been published by the prestigious "Lecture Notes in Computer Science" Series of Springer-Verlag, the most cited collection of papers in computer science. The tremendous work and dedication of the Organizing Committee consisting of Merrill Bowers, Sharleen Harper, Vanessa Harris, Heath James, Peter Kay, Nikki Luke, Tony Meyer, Lorri O'Brien, David Parson, Hossein Sarrafzadeh, Chris and Ursula Scogings, Indu Sofa, Dennis Viehland, Yow-Tzong Yeh from IIMS, Massey University Albany is grateful acknowledged.

Special thanks are due to Prof. John Raine and Prof. Robert McKibbin who from the very beginning were very supportive and helped all the way with the organization of the

Conference. Elena Calude, Chair of the Organizing Committee.

Ludwig Staiger, Elena Calude, John Raine

…Also noticed in the NZ Herald and sent in by Elena Calude…

Tennis: Mr Consistent cruises to a win NZ Herald 15.12.04 By DAVE WORSLEY The Mr Consistent of Auckland tennis, Teo Susnjak, captured the men's title at the Auckland championships last night with a controlled display against Canterbury's Dan King-Turner, winning 7-5, 6-4.

Susnjak, 27, once ranked as high as 362 in the world, now plays for fun while studying Computer Science at Massey University.

More at:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=4&ObjectID=9003284

Teo was also part of the Massey University, Albany student-team taking part in the ACM programming competitions 2003 and 2004, Auckland.

Dates in History submitted by Chris Scogings

12th December 1942 Operation Winter Tempest On the 23rd November 1942, Soviet troops attacking from both north and south of Stalingrad linked up and formed a ring of steel around the German troops now trapped in a pocket around


the city with the nearest friendly troops 60km away to the west. With hindsight it is easy for us to see that the troops of the German 6th army had only one chance of survival and that was to immediately abandon Stalingrad and attack with as much force as possible westwards to break through the cordon around them. Every day they delayed meant more Soviet reinforcements poured into the gap between them and the front line and also that their stock of ammunition, fuel and food dropped lower.

But Hitler was in personal charge of the battle for Stalingrad and he was not interested in abandoning the city he had almost captured. In December 1941 a German force had also been trapped in a pocket at Demyansk (south of Leningrad) and had survived thanks to supply drops from the air. Hitler ordered that the 6th Army should stand fast in Stalingrad and that air supply missions should commence. However, there were two crucial changes since December 1941. First, the force trapped at Demyansk had been considerably smaller than the 6th Army and thus needed fewer supplies and, second, the Red Army and Red Airforce were considerably better organised and equipped. The troops at Stalingrad required over 200 flights per day to remain supplied but the airlift was a disaster from the start. Lack of suitable planes, severe winter weather and Soviet fighter attacks all took their toll. On November 29th, for example, 38 Junkers, 52 transport planes took off but only 12 landed at Stalingrad. On many days, all flights were cancelled because of the fog. Hundreds of transport planes were destroyed by artillery fire when on the ground and the airfields became pockmarked with shell craters. Taking off and landing became a hazardous task of avoiding the craters and the wrecks littering the runways. Wounded German troops lay all day on stretchers in the snow hoping for a lift out and medical services had no anaesthetics other than artificially induced frostbite.

The Soviet attack had been so complete that the German front lines west of Stalingrad had disintegrated. Every day the Red Army advanced further westwards and newly arrived German reinforcements were fed into the battle to stop the tide. Gradually a new front line was formed and a small panzer force was created to take part in Operation Winter Tempest – the planned rescue of the 6th Army. On 12th December 1942, this force began to advance towards Stalingrad, now nearly

130km away. For a few days, it swept forward in the familiar blitzkrieg style but then Soviet reinforcements (and a blizzard) stopped it just 50km from the besieged German garrison. Frantic radio calls urged the 200,000 men of the 6th Army to break out towards the relief force, but by then an attack had become impossible for an army of starving men with no fuel for the tanks and very little ammunition. On 16th December, the Red Army launched yet another attack on the remains of the Italian Army still holding the German flank. The Italian survivors began a long and bitter Napoleonic winter retreat and Soviet forces started to advance around the rear of the Operation Winter Tempest troops. On 23rd December, the relief force was recalled leaving the men in Stalingrad to their fate.

Conditions in Stalingrad steadily became more horrific. On Christmas Day alone, 1280 men died of frostbite, dysentery, typhus and starvation. 400 draft horses were slaughtered for food and when they were gone the daily ration was one slice of bread and a bowl of soup. Men lived in icy trenches and lice-infested ruined buildings and temperatures were around 20 degrees below zero. And all the time the Red Army increased the pressure and the perimeter steadily shrank. On 14th January 1943 the last planes lifted off the shell-cratered runways, loaded with stretchers and one or two desperate men clinging to the undercarriage. Shortly after their departure, Soviet tanks overran the airfields. A German colonel wrote, “the cover of the tomb is closing upon us”. Hitler sent the last radio message: “The 6th Army will hold their positions to the last man and the last round”.

The German 6th Army surrendered on 31st January 1943 and the greatest battle of World War II ended. The cost to both sides had been fearful. The entire city of Stalingrad lay in ruins. The Germans had lost 500 aircraft trying to supply the garrison and about six months production from German war factories had been wasted. 300,000 Germans had died, in and around Stalingrad, along with 450,000 of their allies (Romanian, Hungarian and Italian). The Soviet Union had lost over 750,000 including many civilians. 108,000 Germans were taken prisoner and sent to labour camps in Siberia. About 5,000 returned to Germany long after the war had ended.

………………..


Also sent in by Chris Scogings…

The Home Computer

Caption: ‘Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model to illustrate how a “home computer” could look like in the year 2004. However the needed technology will not be economically feasible for the average home. Also the scientists readily admit that the computer will require not yet invented technology to actually work, but 50 years from now scientific progress is expected to solve these problems. With teletype interface and the Fortran language, the computer will be easy to use.’

The picture originally appeared in the 1954 Popular Mechanics Magazine and was passed on to me by Christie James in Facilities Management.

Research Output at IIMS collected for October

Seasons Greetings from Jeff Hunter; he will be back with his Research News column in the New Year.

Firstly a correction… to two research items from the September 2004 research in the October issue of IIMS Newsletter. The authors have now been correctly mentioned. Apologies to those concerned.

James, H. A., Hawick, K. A., & James, C. J. (2005, January 31-February 3). Teaching students how to be Computer Scientists through student projects. Paper presented at the Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE2005), Newcastle, NSW. Cat 5. Accepted.

James, H. A., Scogings, C. J., & Hawick, H.A. (2004, November 4). Parallel synchronisation issues in simulating artificial life. Paper presented at the Parallel and Distributed Computing Systems, Boston, MA. Cat 5. Accepted.

Research Collected for October 2004 Accepted Category 1

Ghosh, M., Chandra, P., Sinha, P., & Shukla, J. B. (2005). Modelling the spread of bacterial disease: effect of service providers from an environmentally degraded region. Applied Mathematics and Computation, 160(3), 615-647. Online version: http://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S0096300303011846

Rose, E., le Heron, J., & Sofat, I. (2005). Student understandings of information systems design, learning and teaching: A phenomenography approach. Journal of Information Systems Education, 16(2).

Published Category 1

Huang, X., Troy, W. C., Schiff, S. J., Yang, Q., Ma, H., Laing C. R., and Wu, J.-Y. (2004). Spiral waves in disinhibited mammalian neocortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 24(44), 9897-9902.

Calude, C. S., Calude, E., & Marcus, S., (2004). Passages of Proof. Bulletin of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science, 84,167-188,

http://www.eatcs.org/publications/bulletin.html.

Ghosh, M., & Pugliese, A. (2004). Seasonal population dynamics of ticks, and its influence on infection transmission: a semi-discrete approach. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology. 66(6), 1659-1684

Online version:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WC7-4CKNR2W-1&_user=572227&_handle=B-WA-A-W-WV-MsSAYWA-UUW-AAUVVBYEDB-AAUWUAEDDB-DYUWEEDDU-WV-U&_fmt=summary&_coverDate=11%2F30%2F2004&_rdoc=9&_orig=browse&_srch=%23toc%236731%232004%23999339993%23526213!&_cdi=6731&view=c&_acct=C000029098&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=572227&md5=56c568b21b1b3da56bf808f2d30697d9&errMsg=1


Category 5

Rose, E., & Claxton, G. (2004). Challenges and opportunities: An experience with combining grounded theory and case study to explore end-user database development. In A. de Bruin & N. Palakshappa (Eds.), Qualitative Research in Business Symposium 2004, December 3, Massey University, Auckland, NZ, Massey University. URL: http://qrib.massey.ac.nz/program.asp

Category 14

Laing, C. (2004). Spiral waves in nonlocal equations. Wellington/Manawatu Applied Maths Day, October 20, Palmerston North.

Roberts, M. (2004). Modelling strategies for minimising the impact of an imported infection - SARS and smallpox. Mathematics Department, University of Auckland, October 5, Auckland, NZ. Roberts, M. (2004). Invasion of exotic infections and identification of reservoirs of infection. Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, October 19, Oberwolfach, Germany.

Category 14 (To be submitted to Conference Proceedings)

Rose, E. (2004). An empirical examination of the concern for information privacy construct in the New Zealand context, 30th International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology (IASSIST). May 25-28 2004, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA. URL: http://www.iassistdata.org/conferences/2004/presentations/

A Small World by Carlo Laing

In the last issue Tom Moir wrote about his Cree ancestry, and ended by mentioning "Glasgow museum researcher, Alison Brown." I wondered if this was the same Alison Brown I had been friends with at Cambridge, and who I knew to be working at the Glasgow Museum. A quick chat with Tom confirmed that it was. It's a small world.

I started my Ph.D. at Darwin College, Cambridge, in 1994. The same year Alison started an M.Phil. in Social Anthropology. We quickly became friends, and helped organise the 1995 college May Ball (which, of course, was in June). I was delegated the responsibility of procuring bands for the occasion, as I had some experience playing in them (although not organising them).

We lived in the same college house in our second year and shared a different house with three other friends in our third year. She has an interest in artefacts collected by early explorers in Canada, and we met up again in 1999 in Regina, while she was studying there and I was working at the University of Pittsburgh. The photo shows us in the Darwin College grounds, prior to attending the Trinity College May Ball. Proof that Carlo once wore a suit, even if he still can't tie a tie!


Perplexing puzzles by Robert McKibbin

Two puzzles answered and one new one.

…………

An "odd-ball" puzzle

You are given 12 ball-bearings (metal spheres) that all look and feel exactly the same. However, one is very slightly heavier or lighter than the others, which all weigh exactly the same. You are given a balance, and must find the "odd ball out", and whether it is lighter or heavier than the others, in no more than 3 "weighings". How do you do it?

Note: A balance (like an old chemical balance) allows you to only qualitatively compare weights, not to measure weights.

Three solutions were received, from David Munroe, Mini Ghosh and Thiwanka Senaratne (Sena's son). David gets the "Odd-Ball Award", for being first with a solution (written in excellent algorithmic form)! The solution written below is supposed to be in plain language that I hope you can all follow.

One possible solution

The problem is to find the Odd Ball Out (OBO). Number the balls 1 - 12. Label the "weighings" W1, W2, W3.

W1: place 4 balls on each side of the balance (Balls 1 - 4 on one side and Balls 5 - 8 on the other). There are two possible outcomes:

A. they balance;

B. they do not balance.

A. If the balls balance, then the OBO is in the remaining 4 balls (Balls 9 - 12) not yet used. Each of Balls 1 - 8 is a Standard Ball (SB).

W2: weigh 3 of the remaining balls (Balls 9 - 11) against 3 SB's from the original 8 balls (use Balls 1 - 3, although any three of 1 - 8 will do).

If these balance, the OBO is Ball 12. W3: weigh Ball 12 against any other ball to determine whether it is lighter or heavier.

If Balls 1 -3 and Balls 9 - 11 do not balance, the OBO is one of Balls 9, 10 or 11. Note whether Balls 9 - 11 are heavier or lighter

than Balls 1 - 3. This tells you whether the OBO is heavier or lighter respectively. W3: weigh Ball 9 against Ball 10. If equal, the OBO is Ball 11 and you already know whether it is lighter or heavier. If Balls 9 and 10 are unequal, the OBO is one of those. Since you already know whether the OBO is lighter or heavier than a SB, choose accordingly.

B. If Balls 1 - 4 and Balls 5 - 8 do not balance, the OBO is one of those and Balls 9 - 12 are SBs. Make a note of which group is heavier or lighter.

W2: move Balls 1 - 3 to the other side to replace Balls 5 - 7 and replace Balls 1 - 3 with Balls 9 - 11 (SBs). There are three possible outcomes:

a: the balance dips the same way as before;

b: the balance is now level;

c: the balance now dips the other way.

a: If the balance dips the same way as before, Balls 1 - 3 and 5 - 7 are SBs and the OBO is either Ball 4 or Ball 8, and you know which is heavier. W3: weigh Ball 4 against any SB. If equal, Ball 8 is OBO; if unequal Ball 4 is OBO and you know whether it is heavier or lighter than a SB.

b: If the balance is now level, the OBO is one of Balls 5 - 7 which have been removed. You know from W2 whether the OBO is heavier or lighter.

W3: weigh Ball 5 against Ball 6. If equal, the OBO is Ball 7 and you already know whether it is lighter or heavier. If Balls 5 and 6 are unequal, the OBO is one of those. Since you already know whether the OBO is lighter or heavier than a SB, choose accordingly.

c: If the balance now dips the other way, the OBO is one of Balls 1 - 3 which have been moved. You know from W2 whether the OBO is heavier or lighter.

W3: weigh Ball 1 against Ball 2. If equal, the OBO is Ball 3 and you already know whether it is lighter or heavier. If Balls 1 and 2 are unequal, the OBO is one of those. Since you already know whether the OBO is lighter or heavier than a SB, choose accordingly.

…………

A chicken-and-egg problem

The first and only correct answer was given by Mini Ghosh.


If a hen and a half laid an egg and a half in a day and a half, how many eggs would one hen lay in a week?

The answer to the chicken-and egg puzzle is 4 2/3. (One hen lays one egg in a day and a half. So the number of eggs it lays in one week is given by how many "day-and-a-half"s there are in 7 days: 7/(3/2) = 7 x 2/3 = 14/3 = 4 2/3.)

…………

New puzzle

Cheque this out! A man received a cheque. The dollars had been transposed for cents and vice versa. He went out and spent $5.42 but discovered that he now had exactly six times the value of the correct cheque. What amount should he have received?

Laughter lines submitted by

David Wilton

A Kiwi night before Christmas 'Twas the night before Christmas, and all round the bach Not a possum was stirring; not one could we catch. We'd left on the table a meat pie and beer, In hopes that Santa Claus would soon be here. We children were snuggled up in our bunk beds, While dreams of Pavlova danced in our heads; and Mum in her nightie and Dad in his shorts, Had just settled down to watch TV Sports, When outside the Bach such a hoo-ha arose, I woke up at once from my wonderful doze. I ran straight to the sliding door, looking about, Jumped out on the deck, and let out a shout! The fairy lights Dad had strung up round the door Let me see everything, down to the shore. And what did I see, when I took a peep? But a miniature tractor and 8 tiny sheep, With a little old driver, his dog on his knee. I knew at once who this joker might be. He patted the dog, and in a voice not unkind,

cried, "Good on ya, boy! Now GIT IN BEHIND!" " Now Flossy! now Fluffy! now, Shaun and Shane! On Bossy! on, Buffy! on, Jason and Wayne! Up that red tree to the top of that bach! But mind you don't trample that vegetable patch." So up to the roof those sheep quickly flew, With the tractor of toys, Santa and his dog too. As my sister awoke and I turned around, In through the window he came with a bound. He wore a black singlet and little white shorts, And stuck on his feet were gumboots, of course; A sackful of toys he had flung on his back, And he looked like a postie just opening his pack. His eyes - bright as paua shell - oh, how they twinkled! Like an old Tuatara, his skin was all wrinkled! He had a wide face and a round, fat tummy, that looked like he'd eaten lots that were yummy! He spoke not a word, but got down on one knee, and placed a cricket set under the tree, A present for Sis, one for Dad, one for Mum, Then he turned and he winked and he held up his thumb; He jumped on his tractor, to his dog gave a whistle, and away they all flew, as fast as a missile. I called out "Thanks," as he flew past the gate. He called back: " Kia ora to all, and good on ya, mate!"

Joke Time

WIFE FROM HELL A police officer pulls over a speeding car. The officer says, I clocked you at 80 miles per hour, sir." The driver says, "Gee, officer I had it on cruise control at 60, perhaps your radar gun needs calibrating."

Not looking up from her knitting the wife says: "Now don't be silly dear, you know that this car doesn't have cruise control."

As the officer writes out the ticket, the driver looks over at his wife and growls, "Can't you please keep your mouth shut for once?" The wife smiles demurely and says, "You should be thankful your radar detector went off when it did."


As the officer makes out the second ticket for the illegal radar detector unit, the man glowers at his wife and says through clenched teeth, "Darnit, woman, can't you keep your mouth shut?"

The officer frowns and says, "And I notice that you're not wearing your seat belt, sir. That's an automatic $75 fine." The driver says, "Yeah, well, you see officer, I had it on, but took it off when you pulled me over so that I could get my license out of my back pocket." The wife says, "Now, dear, you know very well that you didn't have your seat belt on. You never wear your seat belt when you're driving."

And as the police officer is writing out the third ticket the driver turns to his wife and barks, "WHY DON'T YOU PLEASE SHUT UP??" The officer looks over at the woman and asks, "Does your husband always talk to you this way, Ma'am?"

Wait for it - this is the good bit....

"Only when he's been drinking."

Wordles submitted by

Freda Anderson

Firstly the answers (in brackets) for the October IIMS newsletter

YOU / JUST / ME (Just between you and me)

BAN ANA (Banana split)

TIMEA

ONCE (Once upon a time)

NOON LAZY (Lazy afternoon)

DEAL (Big deal)

2UM (Forum)

+2UM

WHEATHER (A bad spell of weather)

TIMING TIM ING (Split second timing)

...more Wordles...

The next one devised by our very own HoI

(Tee hee – didn’t he do well!)

1. WEAR

FRILLY

2. COLOWME

3. Weekkkkkk

4. Copi Coppy Copy

5. S

B

M

U

H

T

6. HIJKLMNO

7. ECNALG

8. DICE

DICE

9. 0_

MD

PhD

LLD

10. C

O

N


People puzzle submitted by someone ??

Last Month

The Graeme Wake look-alike was of course, Sam Neill.

An honourable mention to Mini Ghosh who guessed that our

delightful couple – celebrating their 40th Wedding Anniversary

were

Hazel and Jeff Hunter

and...

the cute youngster riding his bike was

Carlo Laing

This Month No. 1

What a smiley person – still is! Who is she?

No. 2

Check out the grin – it hasn’t changed! Who is he?

The first correct answer emailed to [email protected] gets an honourable mention in next month’s newsletter.


Christmas/New Year Holiday article A free-page for you to write your article for the next issue of

IIMS Newsletter (January/February 2005)!

Most of all have a safe and happy holiday time.


Santa’s follies! Sent in by Dave Wilton

Sent in by Tom Moir

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