 By Michael
Coyne, OLLI Webmaster and Publications Committee vice
chair
REMEMBER THE 1997 SCIENCE-FICTION MOVIE, CONTACT? In one scene, Ellie, an
astronomer on her first job at the huge Arecibo radio telescope in
Puerto Rico, had her SETI project canceled. Ellie’s boss tells her that
the project is a joke among scientists. Will they say that about OLLI’s
contribution?
SETI is the Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence, done primarily by analyzing radio signals from outer
space. Ever since NASA’s ambitious SETI program (1979-1993) was wiped
out by budget cuts, the SETI effort has been sponsored primarily by
private organizations. In 1996, one of these organizations, the
Planetary Society, came up with the idea of farming out its first-look
computing requirements to home computers—which would process SETI data
only when idle.
BY NOW YOU HAVE GUESSED...
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OLLI has joined the search!
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 Already some five million homes
throughout the
world have
joined in this search by processing data from that same Arecibo radio
telescope featured in Contact.
By now you have guessed: OLLI has joined the search! One of OLLI’s
computers is set up as a Web server so anyone who wishes can view our
13-minute “OLLI Story” movie at any time. Despite widespread
interest in the movie, the Web server sits idle most of the time. So
OLLI joined SETI@home.
Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory created the
SETI@home project to coordinate all the work of these millions of home
computers. SETI@home now sends chunks of data regularly to the OLLI Web
server. Each work unit contains 107 seconds
of radio frequencies, which takes OLLI’s computer six to
eight hours to process. Calculation results are sent back to Berkeley,
where any unusual signals are identified.
Has anything been found yet? The short answer
is no. But SETI@home has picked the best 200 possibilities out of
millions, and is scheduling time at Arecibo to listen to those
locations again. You can see statistics for OLLI at the SETI@home
Website: under Community, click Teams and search for a “team” whose
name begins with Osher. Who knows? Maybe OLLI will find E.T.! Back
to top.
 By Elizabeth Crawford, OLLI E-News staff
writer
Aquatics &
Fitness Center
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ALMOST TWO THOUSAND YEARS AGO, Juvenal spoke of a "sound mind in a
sound body." Sometimes we may feel as if we were there when he said it.
Fortunately, OLLI provides an answer for those who occasionally creak
or groan when arising from their chairs after a 90-minute class.
With a GMU ID card,
available by applying in the Tallwood office, OLLI members
may join the GMU Aquatics & Fitness Center for the employee rate of
$175.00/year. As the Fairfax County recreation centers are gradually
limiting senior discounts, this offer becomes quite
attractive.
In the area of aquatics, GMU offers
two pools, a whirlpool, and sauna. The recreation pool (see photo
below) is handicapped accessible and available for lane swimming
or water walking. The competition pool is closed at times during the
week for student activities but is open at other times for swimming
lessons and water aerobics classes.
THE
POOLS & MACHINES ARE INCLUDED.
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Parking is free.
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The Fitness Center also contains a wide array of machines
and free weights, along
with an instructor who helps members to set up an individualized
fitness routine. Formal fitness programs include Kundalini and Yoga
to increase strength and flexibility, martial-arts classes, and
StepSculpt,
Cardio-Kickboxing, and Pilates to improve general fitness.
Use of the pools and machines
is included with membership. A schedule of classes and fees
is available on the Fitness Center's Website during the fall and spring semesters or by
calling 703-993-3939.
Parking is free, but members must pick up a parking
permit at the Customer Service Desk at the Fitness Center.
Look for a future edition of OLLI E-News for information on how
to enter the Mr. Senior Universe and Ms. Senior America contests.
Editor's
Note.
The author is just kidding about that future edition of OLLI E-News, but for
anyone seriously interested in weight training, your editor
can recommend the informative Website of a real
Mr. America and Mr. Universe who used to train with Arnold and who
remains in great shape at age 63. Back
to top.
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 By Kathryn
Russell, Program Review Committee chair
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED HOW the outstanding classes at OLLI come to be?
It isn’t magic, really. Many of the courses are created through the
collective thinking of OLLI’s Resource Groups. These groups,
representing several
subject areas, meet twice a year to share ideas for new courses and
then
work toward developing those ideas.
WE INVITE YOU to join one of these groups to share
your own ideas. You may have a special interest in Timbuktu, Katmandu,
World War II, or current issues in trade policy and politics. Or your
passion
may be in the arts, music, or literature. We also offer a group that
will
focus on philosophy and religion classes.
Regardless of your special interest, we invite you to participate
and help in brainstorming and developing ideas for topics, classes and
instructors for the winter
and spring terms, 2006.
ESCAPE
THE SUMMER DOLDRUMS!
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Come on out and help.
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You’ll enjoy stimulating conversation and the
camaraderie of many creative people who are enthusiastically working to
produce a superior program. Below you will find a list of upcoming
Resource Groups, as well as people to contact.
Escape the summer doldrums! Come on out and
contribute to OLLI’s superior program. Your ideas at the meeting (or in
advance by
email, in the event you cannot attend) will be appreciated and will
help
to determine the focus of the OLLI program in the coming year.
HISTORY AND
CURRENT EVENTS
RESOURCE GROUP
Contacts: Bob
Bohall and Ben Gold
Location and time: Tallwood, Thursday, August 25, at 10:30 a.m.
ECONOMICS AND
FINANCE RESOURCE
GROUP
Contacts: Bob Bohall
and Leo
Brennan
Locatin and time: Tallwood, Tuesday, August 30, 10:00 a.m.
ART AND MUSIC
RESOURCE GROUP
Contacts: Margaret
Andino and Eileen
Duggan
Location and time: Tallwood, Tuesday, August 30, at 10:30 a.m.
[Please note
that Drama has been
moved from this group to the Literature/Language Group below.]
RELIGION,
PHILOSOPHY, AND ETHICS
RESOURCE GROUP
Contacts: Caroline
Wilson and Bruce
Reinhart
Location and time: Tallwood, Tuesday, August 30, at 10:00 a.m.
LITERATURE,
LANGUAGE, AND DRAMA
RESOURCE GROUP
Contacts: Kathryn
Russell and Mike McNamara
Location and time: Tallwood, Tuesday, September 6, at 10:00 a.m. Back
to top.
Rod
Zumbro
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OLLI E-NEWS
Editor
Proofreader
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About
OLLI E-News. Between class terms, OLLI E-News is distributed via
email whenever sufficient content is available. We encourage OLLI
members and staff employees to submit news items and write articles (submit any material
to OLLI E-News editor Rod
Zumbro). Comments, suggestions or complaints? Please contact the editor or the
Publications Committee chair, Gordon
Canyock.
Note
about HTML graphics.
If you
do not see photos and clickable links in this message, you might want
to change your email settings. To read html-formatted messages like
this in three popular email systems:
- Outlook
Express.
Click Tools; select Options; in the Read tab, uncheck "Read all
messages in plain text."
- Yahoo
Mail.
Click Mail Options/General
Preferences; under Security, uncheck "Block HTML graphics
in email messages from being downloaded" (or, at the bottom of the
message, click "Show HTML graphics").
- AOL.
Upgrade,
if possible, to an AOL version above 5.0. Back
to top.
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