AIUTA president Prof. Francois Vellas participated with Prof. Carlos Santos Portugal and Prof. Livio Zerbini Italy to the 2nd annual session of the International Institute of Research for U3A in Shanghai on 18th May, Saturday. The Director of the Institute and the Vice President of CAUA spoke about the annual program of the Institute of Research of Shanghai. (See banner above).

Prof. Zerbini did a presentation on new technology and long life learning education. Prof. Carlos Santos made a presentation on the methodology on questionnaire for Senior Study Tour. The official ceremony took place in the Shangai Scientific museum with a lot of participants from Chinese provinces.

Prof Francois Vellas received in Toulouse a visit from delegation from Shandong Province to AIUTA headquarters and to the Vice mayor of Toulouse. This visit will enhance education for all the life exchange between U3As and local administrations.

May 2019 will be an AIUTA important month in China with Shanghai Research Institute working group meeting 19th may, Wuhan AIUTA GB 20th may, CAUA AIUTA International Conference 21 May, Yantai Second WSTC 24th 25th May 2019. For information email aiutasecretariat@gmail.com

Cutting through all the razz-matazz and gee-whiz surrounding rocket launches, the Fraser Cain website at https://www.universetoday.com/ provides clear and detailed information about the technology of space exploration, plus thoughtful articles on the world or worlds our grand-children's grand-children might live with.

The recent launch of the first wave of 12,000 Spacex communication satellites, with an estimated 3,000 more from Amazon due to follow, is giving rise to worried pronouncements by the Union of Concerned Scientists. This issue will be explored in the 2nd of June U3A FORUM videoconference, details of which can be found here>>>

We are witnessing the next great space race. But this time, it's not the US vs. USSR. This race is between Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

Now in 2019, on the brink of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, the competition that will rocket humanity into the cosmos is between these two passionate and brilliant multi-billionaires. To learn what return they might expect to get from it watch this short video from Singularity University>>>.

Pollen Nation features articles on anything and everything related to flowers. In addition to a wide expertise on all things floral, they also offer ideas for lots of different occasions throughout the year.

For a truly exotic lesson (Japanese/Russian subtitles) this video of a National Ikebana Master is strangely uplifting. She never worked before the age of 30, until the Kobe earthquake in 1998, when she met the teacher, Okada Okada, then her life changed greatly, living as a hermit. "I worked in the Ginkaku Temple for ten years. Every day, I planted flowers for the Buddhas in the main hall, and lived the life of the hidden people".

Keep active, keep learning to Age Gracefully: David Oludare Mark, founder of U3A Project Lagos Centre, that has generate three chapters since launching in 2018, was a guest speaker at the 2nd Command Lagos Alumni Worldwide Convention in Maryland from 24-26 May on the Challenges of Ageing Gracefully. The convention's overall theme was Global Marketing; Emerging New Frontiers.

He spoke about the growing number of seniors throughout the world and said seniors had much experience and knowledge to contribute. A key to ageing gracefully was to keep active and keep learning.