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Issue number one hundred and fiftyone (July 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.
Sci/Tech Groups: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - ResearchGate is a social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. The site has been described as a mash-up of “Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn” that includes “profile pages, comments, groups, job listings, and ‘like’ and ‘follow’ buttons”. Members are encouraged to share raw data and failed experiment results as well as successes, in order to avoid repeating their peers’ scientific research mistakes. (Thank you Dr. P Vyasamoorthy).

Congratulations to the Aughton and Ormskirk U3A Musical Theatre Group. It has grown from strength to strength since its inception and now has over forty members. In addition to the musicals it also presents 'Showtime' cabaret evenings showcasing the many and various talents of its members.

After writing three musicals in three years - each containing up to eighteen totally original songs and dances - writer/producer Tony Crimlisk is having a short rest, but has plans for a brand new Christmas musical for the end of 2014. "My biggest problem", he says, "is finding suitable story lines and especially lyrics, so if there are any would-be story and especially lyric writers reading this who would be interested in collaborating on future shows please get in touch with me at: tonycrimlisk@mac.com".

A selection of music from all three musicals can be found by following the link in his website at: www.crimlisk.com and more information about our group can also be found by visiting: http://www.aughton-ormskirk-u3a.co.uk/


A selection of this month's entries for GEMS, from U3A Online

Google glass is no longer a futuristic prospect, it will be arriving to retail shops soon. What might you be able to do with this new technology? (ty Phil McBride, Australia)

How should I erase my hard drive before I give it away? (Thanks Ask Leo)

Some simple explanations of the basics of what goes on when you connect your PC to the rest of the world eg what is meant by terms like protocol, IP or port (Thanks Gizmos Best Freeware)

'I am so confused about backups. Do I need to back up everything on my hard drive, or just certain user files? Backup software is complicated and I don't understand all the tech terms that are tossed around...’ Bob Rankin and reader comments (scroll down) will clarify.

You've probably seen those ads, offering popular electronic gadgets for insanely low prices. These so-called 'http://askbobrankin.com/penny_auctions_scam_or_legit.html on the dollar. Penny Auctions: Scam or Legit? A very informative Bob Rankin article for online shoppers.

Inexpensive versatile tablets set to overtake laptops and pcs. (ty LifeChoices)

Music Groups: Here are two blogs of interest to serious music lovers. Norman Lebrecht (author/commentator) usually has the latest about musical events, including the gossip. His blog at http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/ says "Taking the spin out of the classical record industry, and more".

For a more reflective view of the classical music scene, Elaine Fine's 'Musical assumptions' blog is recommended reading. She says "I am active as a composer, a violist, a violinist, a recorder player, a CD reviewer, and as a teacher. I began my professional musical life as a flutist, and spent a lot of quality time as a baroque flutist, but both of those instruments spend their time tucked away in a drawer, while my violin, viola, and my viola d'amore are often tucked under my chin".

Current Affairs Groups: The World Values Survey is a worldwide investigation of sociocultural and political change. It is conducted by a network of social scientist at leading universities all around world.

Interviews have been carried out with nationally representative samples of the publics of almost hundred societies on all six inhabited continents. The first wave of the values survey was collected in 1981. This was mainly a European endeavor (se EVS). From the second wave the global representation rose dramatically making it possible to carry out reliable global cross-cultural analyses and analysis of changes over time. The World Values Survey has produced evidence of gradual but pervasive changes in what people want out of life. Moreover, the survey shows that the basic direction of these changes is, to some extent, predictable.

This project is being carried out by an international network of social scientists, with local funding for each survey (though in some cases, it has been possible to raise supplementary funds from outside sources). In exchange for providing the data from interviews with a representative national sample of at least 1,000 people in their own society, each participating group gets immediate access to the data from all of the other participating societies. Thus, they are able to compare the basic values and beliefs of the people of their own society with those of more than 60 other societies. In addition, they are invited to international meetings at which they can compare findings and interpretations with other members of the WVS network.
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