Current Affairs discussion group: Open Forum

🗓️ Start: Thu 21 May 2026 10:30 am
⏳ End: Thu 21 May 2026 11:30 am

With so much going on at the moment, both domestically and around the world, it’s time once again to open the floor to all of you – our members – to share your thoughts on any topic you wish. Whether it’s making the headlines right now, or it’s been squeezed out by everything else, why not come along and give it an airing!

If you haven’t yet done so, there’s still time to join our mailing list, which will ensure that you receive those all-important Zoom log-in details… just click here: Subscribe to the Current Affairs group

https://u3acommunities.org/event/current-affairs-discussion-group-open-forum-2/

Good News Stories from 2024

🗓️ Start: Thu 19 Dec 2024 10:30 am
⏳ End: Thu 19 Dec 2024 11:30 am

As another year draws to a close, and the nights draw in, it can sometimes feel like the most significant events of the last twelve months were all doom and gloom. So instead, as the festive season beckons, let’s raise our spirits by taking a look back at some of the good news stories of 2024. Whether they’re of global, national, or even just local interest where you live, this is your opportunity to share them with the rest of us, so why not join us for an hour of uplifting conversation!

If you haven’t yet done so, there’s still time to join our mailing list, which will ensure that you receive those all-important Zoom log-in details… just click here: Subscribe to the Current Affairs group

https://u3acommunities.org/event/good-news-stories-from-2024/

The Middle East Crisis: Stepping Back from the Brink

🗓️ Start: Thu 21 Nov 2024 10:30 am
⏳ End: Thu 21 Nov 2024 11:30 am

A year on from the brutal Hamas incursion into southern Israel, the bloody chain of events it triggered has left tens of thousands dead across the region, and has brought Israel and its arch-enemy Iran to the brink of war. Diplomacy has failed, peace talks have stalled, and now the impending return of Donald Trump to the White House has added even more uncertainty to this seemingly intractable crisis. So is there any hope of avoiding what some are already calling a new Armageddon. What do you think? Why not join us for an hour of lively discussion about this most divisive of issues.

If you haven’t yet done so, there’s still time to join our mailing list, which will ensure that you receive those all-important Zoom log-in details… just click here: Subscribe to the Current Affairs group

https://u3acommunities.org/event/next-current-affairs-group-meeting-thursday-21st-november/

Assisted Dying: The End of Unnecessary Suffering, or a Slippery Slope Towards Execution of the Unwanted?

🗓️ Start: Thu 17 Oct 2024 10:30 am
⏳ End: Thu 17 Oct 2024 11:30 am

Our subject for this month’s meeting could hardly be more topical, coinciding as it does with the introduction, in the House of Commons, of Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s Private Member’s Bill to legalise assisted dying for the terminally-ill in England & Wales. While all previous attempts, most recently in 2015, have always been decisively voted down, public opinion in favour of a change in the law has only hardened, and especially so since Esther Rantzen joined the campaign. So the outcome this time is expected to be much closer. But what do you think? Why not join us for an hour of lively debate on this most contentious of issues!

If you haven’t yet done so, there’s still time to join our mailing list, which will ensure that you receive those all-important Zoom log-in details… just click here: Subscribe to the Current Affairs group

https://u3acommunities.org/event/next-current-affairs-group-meeting-thursday-17th-october/

America at the Crossroads: The Battle for the White House, and Why it Matters so Much More This Time Around

🗓️ Start: Thu 19 Sep 2024 10:30 am
⏳ End: Thu 19 Sep 2024 11:30 am

By popular demand, the Current Affairs Discussion Group is up and running again, so we’re looking forward to welcoming back some of our old friends, and hopefully many new ones as well. And for this, our first meeting, the topic could hardly be more momentous. In barely two months time, Americans will cast their votes for one of two candidates whose sharply divergent opinions on how the country should be run, and its role in the wider world, are dividing the electorate perhaps more than at any other time in modern US history. Who will win is anybody’s guess, but of one thing we can be certain – whichever way it goes, the consequences for America, and the rest us, will be far-reaching. So why not join us as we look ahead – nervously! – to the outcome.

If you haven’t yet done so, there’s still time to join our mailing list, which will ensure that you receive those all-important Zoom log-in details… just click here: “Subscribe to the Current Affairs group”

https://u3acommunities.org/event/current-affairs-discussion-group-grand-re-launch-meeting/

Agentic Artificial Intelligence

🗓️ Start: Tue 19 May 2026 3:00 pm
⏳ End: Tue 19 May 2026 5:00 pm

19th May @ 3:00pm – 5:00pm

This month we’ll look at agentic artificial intelligence … large language models are now no-longer contrained to just “chat”, they can now interface to the outside world to perform tasks.  We’ll take a look at a couple of tools (opencode and openclaw), how they work and risks involved.

As always, plenty of time is reserved for discussions.

Joining details will be emailed to subscribers.  If you aren’t a member, it’s free to join here https://u3acommunities.org/subscribe-to-computing-forum/.

https://u3acommunities.org/event/agenic-artificial-intelligence/

Daniel Defoe… The ignored classical author

🗓️ Start: Tue 28 Apr 2026 7:00 pm
⏳ End: Tue 28 Apr 2026 8:00 pm

Sadly, the man who wrote tales like Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders is an ignored author in the current rush to reread the Classics. Why? Is he marred by some of his other more erotic and non-mainstream titles? Let’s discuss

https://u3acommunities.org/event/daniel-defoe-the-ignored-classical-author/

FrontPage 2000 site map

#RetroTech #90sComputing #DigitalNostalgia #OldSchoolTech #TechThrowback #1990sTech #FrontPage #2000sTech

Rosalind Franklin: The Triumph and the Tragedy

🗓️ Start: Wed 13 May 2026 10:30 am
⏳ End: Wed 13 May 2026 12:00 pm

In 1953, the scientific world was abuzz with the discovery of the structure of DNA by James Watson & Francis Crick, but back then, few were aware that it was only made possible by the painstaking work of another, equally brilliant scientist who, as a woman in what was still largely a man’s world, had long struggled to be taken seriously. She would go on to make ground-breaking discoveries in the study of viruses, until, in 1958, she was tragically cut down in her prime by cancer. She was just 37. Had she lived, who knows what else she might have accomplished, but her moving story – told here by Barry Zussman (Torridge u3a) – would become her greatest legacy, and an inspiration for women in science everywhere.

To view the recording, click here… ‘Rosalind Franklin: The Triumph & The Tragedy’
(recordings are for personal/private use only – please do not share this link)

To contact us about the Science & Technology group, click here… Get in touch

https://u3acommunities.org/event/rosalind-franklin-the-triumph-and-the-tragedy/