News and coming events

• New Zealand Science Festival 30 June to 9th July

Call For Volunteers

Friends of the Medical School

U3A Members are exactly the right group to help the trainee doctors in their studies. “Friends” help students with interviewing and sharing experiences about coping with situations - of which we all have much know-how by this time in our lives. If you are not already a “Friend” (my wife and I have been “Friends” (of the Med School!)) for several years, please collect a brochure from the registration desk at U3A courses or click on the 'Register' link below and see what you can do to keep Otago’s reputation at the top of the country’s rankings.

• Register Here

Volunteers Wanted for Research Projects at University

Please click the links to read the participant information sheet

• Stroke Research
• The effect of new brain stimulation techniques on cognitive functioning
• A way to self-train brain activity for pain relief
• Bladder and Bowel Problems
• Manuka Honey for Digestive Health
• Daily consumption of cow, goat or sheep milk

Volunteers Wanted for the Hospice

• Further information here

Supporting People in times of Stress and Crisis

• How to Cope following a Natural Disaster
• Tips for supporting family friends and colleagues
• Supporting Children after a Natural Disaster
• Building Resilience
• Coping with Anxiety
• Dealing with Grief
• Shakespeare by Numbers

Concerts

• May Musical Concerts at First Church

Help from National Library for Dealing with Damp Items

• From the National Preservation Office
• Caring for Collections
• From Australian Librarians - including taking photographs and documenting for insurance purposes

Sage Travel

Their email is reservations@sagetravel.com.au and their NZ phone number is +61 3 9654 4836

Lectures via Podcast or Video

• Why AI is Incredibly Smart—and Shockingly Stupid
• Shakespeare by Numbers
• Dealing with Chatbots

• North Korea, The Triad Connection
• Discussion on the War in Ukraine
• Otago Medical School - Lectures Past
• Towards Net Zero - Excellent BBC Series
• Collapse of Globalisation? Peter Zeihan in conversation with Jesse Mulligan
• James Webb Super Space Telescope pictures released
• Lecture on Remarkable History of Afghanistan - Part 1
• Lecture on Remarkable History of Afghanistan - Part 2
• Beethoven’s Ninth: Symphony for the World (be sure to turn captions off)
• The power of New Zealand’s Alpine Fault
• Acast - Wide range of podcasts
• The Economist - Wide range of podcasts
• Intelligence Squared - a wide range of topics on video
• BBC Reith Lectures - podcast
• BBC - In Our Time - Melvyn Bragg - podcast
• BBC Reel - wide range of short film clips
• Pandemics - Origin of the Black Death
• AI for Speech Improvemnt
• Three things to know about Long Covid
• Is our science being contaminated by commercial interests?
• Experiment with Macaw - a high-performance question-answering (QA) model