palm trees decoration
U3A ohariu - The University of the Third Age decoration decoration
decoration

Links

Material from lectures
U3A Websites
New Zealand U3A Websites
Signposts
General interest
Special interest
Useful computer stuff
Adobe Acrobat Reader

The links on this page were all working on 14 June 2009. Links that were broken or did not respond have been removed.

Material from lectures

From time to time speakers provide material relevant to their lectures that is available on the web or can be posted on our web site. Links to such material will be placed here.

Note: Links marked (pdf) require Adobe Acrobat Reader or Foxit Reader to be installed on your computer.

Mattew Trundle: History & Archaeology of Ancient Egypt (13, 20, 27/5/08)

Lecture notes (pdf)
Slides for lecture 1 (pdf) - Broadband recommended
Slides for lecture 2 (pdf)
Slides for lecture 3 (pdf)

Malcolm Clark: Deepwater Discoveries in the Antarctic - The Tangaroa Voyage to the Ross Sea in 2008 (19/9/08)

Slide show for Antarctic lecture (pdf)

Neil Plimmer: Wellington Sculpture Trust (21/8/09)

Slides for Sculpture Trust lecture (pdf)

Geoff Chambers: The Four Horsemen of the New Enlightenment (30/4/10)

Slides for Horsemen lecture (pdf)
Four Horsemen article (pdf) NB: This article is made available on the understanding that it is for private use and study only.

Robert McLean & Alison Dangerfield: Revitalising a City - The Challenges of Economics and Heritage (1/6/10)

Slides for lecture (pdf) - Broadband recommended

Jonathan Boston: Cooking the Planet - The Politics & Economics of Climate Change (23/7/10)

Slides for lecture (pdf)

Because of the interest aroused by this talk a suggested reading list and web links relevant to climate change are listed below:

RealClimate is a website operated by climate scientists for the general public and for journalists. It aims to present the science at the lay-person level, and the discussion is sometimes quite 'robust'.
The NIWA website discusses likely consequences for New Zealand of climate change.

Some books on climate change for the interested lay-person:

Poles Apart by Gareth Morgan and John McCrystal; Random House 2009; ISBN 978 1 86979 045 5

Hot Topic by Gareth Renowden; AUT Media 2007;
ISBN 978 0 9582829 0 1

Requiem for a Species by Clive Hamilton; Allen & Unwin 2010; ISBN 978 1 74237 201 5

Storms of My Grandchildren by James Hansen; Bloomsbury 2009; ISBN 978 1 4088 0745 3

The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change by Andrew E. Dessler and Edward A. Parson; Cambridge University Press 2007; ISBN 978 0 521 53941 8

The Long Thaw by David Archer; Princeton University Press 2009; ISBN 978 0 691 13654 7

__________________________________________________

 

U3A Web sites

U3A - The Third Age Trust: UK U3A National Website
http://www.u3a.org.uk
This is the biggest and the best U3A site, with interesting information about the origins of the U3A movement and its philosophy of 'self-help' lifelong learning.

U3A Online
U3A Online is a 'virtual' University of the Third Age delivering online learning via the Internet. Courses are open to people anywhere in the world. They are especially suited to older members of the community who are isolated either geographically, or through physical or social circumstances (including carers).

This site is also the major 'portal' website for Australian U3As. It has been developed by Griffith University and is kept up to date to provide Australian and New Zealand U3As with valuable links, contacts and resources.
http://www3.griffith.edu.au/03/u3a/

Please welcome U3A Nigeria to our WorldU3A family of
   organisations. http://worldu3a.org/nigeria/

Are you keen to keep up to date on Climate Change and willing to help others to do so too? Members of Henley U3A have started doing this on http://www.3as.org.uk/climate

The Virtual U3A of the United Kingdom is now available at
   http://vu3a.org/ 

_______________________________________________

[Top of page]

Other New Zealand U3A websites

Below are links to all NZ U3A websites that I have been able to locate. Several U3As are listed on the 'Grownups' website (www.grownups.co.nz) , requiring you to register before you can access the U3A details. Registration is free and should be perfectly safe, and will grant access to the whole 'Grownups' site.

U3A Warkworth
U3A Bay of Islands
U3A Havelock North
U3A Tauranga
U3A Golden Bay
U3A Browns Bay
U3A Franklin
U3A Hastings
U3A Hawera
U3A Manawatu
U3A Manurewa
U3A Meadowbank
U3A Motueka
U3A Taradale
U3A Wairarapa
U3A Godley
Canterbury U3As

######################################################

GEMS (Formerly known as Signposts)

GEMs for Enquiring Minds; a U3A Online email newsletter sent monthly to people in any country who like to keep their minds active.
 * Please send snippets of possible interest to the editor.
 * Feel free to copy any of this information for your own newsletters.
 * Back-issues http://www.u3aonline.org.au 

GEMs is edited and issued by Rick Swindell in Brisbane, Australia on behalf of U3A Online.  Please note that this is an announcement list (contact Rick to subscribe). If you know of others who would like to be on this worldwide list, please ask them to email ricks1912@gmail.com  and they will be added.

To subscribe or contribute to GEMs note the editor's new address  ricks1912@gmail.com   Please expunge all other addresses for Rick.

May 2010

RESEARCH GEMS

FUN GEMS

TECHNICAL GEMS

June 2010

RESEARCH GEMS

FUN GEMS

TECHNICAL GEMS

July 2010

RESEARCH GEMS

FUN GEMS

TECHNICAL GEMS

#################################################

General Interest

Here is short document (pdf file) sent by Dr Rick Swindell on the topic of heart attacks in women. It does happen, and it is important to recognise the signs.

For an alternative view on current affairs.
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/

Elderhostel: Adventures in lifelong learning.
The U3A movement has not yet flourished in the USA; this is its nearest equivalent. It has a strong focus on educational travel, but offers a range of other activities including online study groups.
http://www.elderhostel.org

Victoria Continuing Education
Victoria University's Continuing Education provides a wide range of seminars, courses and study tours of interest to U3A members. U3A members are entitled to a 10% discount on fee-bearing seminars and courses. Some activities are developed in partnership with U3A Wellington City.
http://www.victoria.ac.nz/ceed/personal

On Line Opinion is Australia’s free internet journal of social and political opinion
www.onlineopinion.com.au

Bookworms amongst us can catalogue their libraries on line and, if they wish, interact with other readers with the same taste. Definitely worth a look – click on http://www.librarything.com/ and then on the ‘take the tour’ link.

Grownups.co: Here is an interesting website aimed at the 50+ generation in New Zealand.
www.grownups.co.nz

A recent research finding contradicts the belief that the happiest days of our life are over. Old age sounds great:  http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2006/happiness.htm

Web links provides students, staff, and users of the Sheffield College website with links to 5,898 relevant websites. It is searchable and organised under a number of broad curriculum headings, each subdivided further. Click on or go to http://www.sheffcol.ac.uk/links/

Spiked – describes itself as “an independent online phenomenon dedicated to raising the horizons of humanity by waging a culture war of words against misanthropy, priggishness, prejudice, luddism, illiberalism and irrationalism in all their ancient and modern forms.
http://www.spiked-online.com/

Arts and Letters Daily was created by Dennis Dutton (Otago University) and gives access to current reviews, articles and essays on the arts, science, literature, philosophy and politics, as well as to major world newspapers and periodicals. Always fascinating reading, addictive and highly recommended.
http://www.aldaily.com/

Mentally stimulating activities like completing puzzles, traveling, learning a new language, playing a musical instrument, doing crossword puzzles may help to preserve thinking and memory. Maintaining strong social ties and exercising into old age may also help to protect the brain, studies show.  http://www.alzinfo.org/newsarticle/templates/newstemplate.asp?articleid=283&zoneid=10 [Sounds like U3A to me  :-)  ]

_______________________________________________________

[Top of page]

Special Interest

Science and Technology There are excellent talks by many eminent scientists on the Royal Society website. The section on climate change is especially recommended and is suitable for general meetings.
http://www.royalsoc.co.uk/page.asp?id=4607

Science/technology groups: have a look at these teaching resources on nanotechnology. They are aimed at school students but their content   is generalisable to discussions about the future. Other topics also.    http://www.accessnano.org/teaching-modules

The Way We Speak is a BBC website with a wealth of sound recordings of local words and accents. It also offers a Language Lab you can download and a Word Map of local language at http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/

Libraries Australia lets you discover:  http://librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au/apps/kss

Bonzer for writers and readers:
http://www.bonzer.org.au/

For genealogy groups or individuals:
http://askbobrankin.com/genealogy_research.html

This 12 lesson course in Latin suitable for people who learned at school and since forgotten it:
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/latin/beginners

Over 90 science programmes and free educational resources for teachers, students and the general public:
http://www.vega.org.uk

The excellent BBC website has an 8-module free course, How to be a Gardener.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/htbg/

...and another which helps you to brush up your basic English and maths skills
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/

We have been advised by the Customer Specialist at the Wellington City Libraries of the following website address which may be of interest to you: www.wcl.govt.nz/popular/senior.html

Geology groups can test their knowledge of earthquakes with a quiz and lots of written materials and links to other sites at http://www.crustal.ucsb.edu/ics/understanding/.

The Modern Antiquarian is a massive resource for news, information, images, folklore & weblinks on many ancient sites across the UK & Ireland.
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com

Information, fun and games from Oz for those of us old enough to know better.
http://www.aboutseniors.com.au

Music groups: The complete recordings of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas,  all 32 of them, free and without any copyrights. Plus many others.   Free sheet music also available http://www.musopen.com/

History Groups: The Old Bailey Online project is complete.
200,000 trials from 1674 to 1913 fully searchable can be found
at  http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/

Collectors of porcelain and those interested in the subject will find http://www.porcelainmarksandmore.com/0pages/list-a.php   to be a useful resource.

SCI/TECH: NASA is well known, but equally, if not more   important, is its sister organisation NOAA (National  Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Their website  at http://www.education.noaa.gov/ has some excellent free education resources.

_______________________________________________________

Useful computer stuff

Want to learn more about Seniornet? Visit their web site at http://seniornetwgtn.blogspot.com

Here is a wonderful site that gives free computer tutorials for computer beginners
http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk.

Bootlog claims to be a major new resource for users looking for technical support. It is certainly worth a browse.
http://www.bootlog.co.uk

Windows Genuine Advantage may not be what it sounds. See http://windowssecrets.com/comp/060629/

When buying goods online you can tell if a site is secure by looking at the browser’s status bar and checking whether it contains an image of a closed padlock. Here's a tutorial on how to recognize when you're communicating over a secure connection  http://security.getnetwise.org/tips/secure-web.php  

Visiting grandchildren? Pages from http://www.papertoys.com/ might keep them off your computer.

Tutorials based on pictures, not words. They're the easiest way to learn computer subjects. There's no complicated multimedia, just pictures that show exactly what to do.  Microsoft Office 2003 and 2007, Access, Excel,  PowerPoint, Publisher, Word   http://inpics.net/

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC.

____________________________________________________

Adobe Acrobat Reader & Foxit Reader

To download and read pdf files (Portable Document Format) you need to have suitable software installed on your computer. Two common examples are Adobe Acrobat Reader and Foxit Reader.

Many computers will have Adobe Acrobat Reader already installed, but if it is an old version you may still have difficulty reading the pdf files available from the U3A website.

You can download and install an up-to-date copy by clicking on the button below. Note: The Adobe Acrobat Reader is a large file (over 20 megabytes), and is not really suitable for dial-up modem connections.

The download is free, and you need do it only once.

Get Adobe Reader

Note: Adobe Acrobat Reader is the only software that you need to download. You do not need to download the extra software that is offered to you on the Adobe download page.

Foxit Reader

If you have a dial-up modem connection, an alternative to Adobe Acrobat Reader is the Foxit Reader which is only 2 megabytes and will happily read the pdf files. Download Foxit Reader by clicking on this link.

You need to install the reader by double-clicking on the downloaded file.

 

 


^ Top of page

decoration