Issue number one hundred and forty-eight (April 2013) from the WorldU3A Service, sent on the first of every month to U3A members anywhere in the world.

Feel free to copy any or all of this information in your newsletters.
 Please send items of possible interest to the editor, Tom Holloway.


From Alla Khalimova, member of the Board of University of Third Age in city of Lviv, Ukraine. Here you see our amateur performance group, called 'Retro-Vernisagz'. We have lessons about caring of human sight, meetings with literature authors, celebrities, etc. We arrange dancing parties for elder people, make excursions to Carpathian mountains, other places, visit other countries with aim of experience exchange. Our University of Third Age would like to continue correspondence with you and cordially invite you to visit Ukraine, especially our ancient city Lviv.

Film Groups: Watch Decades of Best Picture Oscar Winners in 4 Minutes and see how many can you get right.

From the black and white beauty of Casablanca to the heart-stopping Russian roulette scene in The Deer Hunter, one short retrospective compiles defining moments from winners over the years.


Executive Meeting of U3A India 17th March, New Delhi: More than 30, dignatories and executive members from all regions were present.
Dr R N Kapoor, founder president was in the chair, specially flown from Houston, USA .
Dr J G Patil spoke on the various aspects of activities so far conducted by U3A chairman's office and in pune and gave brief information on international conference to be held in Melbourne, Australia, on 14th and 15th October 2013. About 150 delegates from India are expected to attend. Dr Patil has already worked out the Itinerary for 8 days visit to Singapore, Melbourne and Sydney with the famous travel agent KESARI travels Ltd, who are famous in arranging the tours for senior citizens.
Dr R N Kapoor gave green signal for establishment of International University on U3A for continuous learning for elderly people,in city of Pune ,India. Accordingly Dr J G Patil, Executive chairperson, took the project in hand and promised the members to take the lead immediately.
Mr J R Gupta, vice chairman north zone hosted the meeting and took excellent care of the members coming from all over the India.
Dr Vinod Shah, Dr Dak,Mr K S Mogra, Mr A K Malhotra,mr Monmal Kunal,Mr G K Khare,mr Anil Kaskhadikar ,were prominent, among the present dignatories.
Community Action: The evidence is mounting that elderly people who are socially isolated or lonely tend to die earlier than those who are more highly networked. According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, both social isolation and loneliness are associated with earlier death, but social isolation can predict death even when loneliness does not, indicating that the emotional effects of being alone are only part of the problem. How isolation leads to death is still unclear. For more detail click here>>>


All Groups: U3A Barset, tired of failing to get volunteers to serve on their Executive Committee, decided it was time to get some fresh ideas; so they recruited some new officers from Barchester Sixth Form College. You can see their website here >>

More than a third of British over 65s could be concerned by loneliness. A study reveals, indeed, that 32% of grandparents only see their grandchildren once a month or less. The charities YouthNet and Age UK worked together in order to fight loneliness and isolation by proposing a new digital service.

The associations will take advantage of the Virgin London Marathon this April to raise money and launch an initiative to help old people surf the Internet. This way, younger volunteers will be able to explain lonely people the world of web, helping them develop their skills while sharing an intergenerational experience.

Caring for Dementia: The objective of this pilot study was to gather preliminary evidence on suicidal thoughts in family carers of people with dementia.

Methods: An online, cross-sectional survey was conducted with 120 family carers, the majority of whom were located in Australia and USA.

Results: Twenty-six percent of carers had contemplated suicide more than once in the previous year. Only half of these had ever told someone they might commit suicide and almost 30% said they were likely to attempt suicide in the future.

Conclusions: A significant number of people might contemplate suicide while caring for a family member with dementia. Although more research is required to confirm this finding, there are clear implications for policy and clinical practice in terms of identifying and supporting carers who are already contemplating suicide. Copyright # 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Aldona Reksniene of U3A Vilnius reports: In Lithuania our group took part in a campaign to fight age discrimination.

To make sure our voice would be heard, everybody who came to the opening of the new academic year, brought a balloon and a bell (no matter how big or small). Labels stating "Age is a state of mind" were attached and we all rang our bells as the balloons were released up the sunny skies. We also planted oak trees to start Senior Oak Alley. You can learn more about the growth of the U3A movement in Lithuania here >>
Book Groups (and Quilting Groups): Another website about books, but this one is strangely seductive. Who can resist learning more about a book by Carl Quiltman called 'Quilt of Revenge'?, with a blurb that starts "Winning first place at the Boehm Cultural Center's art quilt competition was a coveted honor. Sharon had won it two years in a row. Sharon believed first place would always belong to her, and anyone that thought differently was crazy. When she caught wind of how good Anne's quilt entry was, a spark of madness grew in Sharon's mind. Sharon invited evil to make a home in her soul..."
Sci/Tech Groups: Phys.org is a leading web-based science, research and technology news service which covers a full range of topics. These include physics, earth science, medicine, nanotechnology, electronics, space, biology, chemistry, computer sciences, engineering, mathematics and other sciences and technologies. Launched in 2004, Phys.org’s readership has grown steadily to include 1.75 million scientists, researchers, and engineers every month.

From Karen Torben-Nielsen, Third Age Online: How to stimulate the participation of older people in online communities (e.g. Facebook, Seniorweb or Wikipedia)? That is what we have been researching for the last two years. Now we have gathered our recommendations in an online “Handbook” –available to everyone.

Want to know more about these hands-on recommendations? Click on the newest TAO-blog post: “TAO Handbook: Full Version Online!”
http://www.thirdageonline.eu/the-tao-handbook-full-version-online/


U3A Online: A complete GEMs Archive - Rick Swindell's newsletter - pdf printouts of all prior editions can be found at www.u3aonline.org.au

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