Science 2 – October Zoom Meeting

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This month Christine Vincent introduced us to the life of African American Charles Richard Drew who was a surgeon and medical researcher. He researched in the field of blood transfusions, developing improved techniques for blood storage, and applied his expert knowledge to developing large-scale blood banks early in World War II. This allowed medics to save thousands of lives of the Allied forces. Thank you Christine.

My presentation was about energy and energy changes, for instance, chemical energy is converted to kinetic energy when a firework explodes and our chemical energy from food is converted to heat and kinetic energy when we move about.

The law of conservation of energy is a physical law that states energy cannot be created or destroyed but may be changed from one form to another.

We were joined via Zoom by two guests Chris and Ann, from Port Macquarie in Australia, which is about 390 km north of Sydney. Chris is a native of Hucknall and his sister Cynthia is a Hucknall u3a member. Chris had sent me a short video which demonstrates energy changes made as part of a school science task by his grandson James who is 14. I was given consent to show it so thank you James. It demonstrates how the energy of an object can be transferred to another with the process doing some useful work at the end. Basically an intricate domino effect involving a moving car, falling books, weights and an electrical lamp.

Before we finished we heard about how Australia had been dealing with Covid-19.

Next (Zoom) Meeting: Friday November 20th, 10am to 11am.
John Tedstone will be talking about another aspect of energy and I will be posing the question ‘What is Rocket Science’?

David Rose

Short Walk Group

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Fourteen members took part in our walk this month. The route was researched and led by Greg Umney who was well prepared with his anti viral spray gun and jumbo sized bottle of hand sanitiser.

The walk was an undulating 4 miles from Blidworth on footpaths heading towards Ravenshead from where we turned into the woods down to Friar Tuck’s Well before making a loop back to our starting point. The route included lots of kissing gates which received a liberal dose of spray from Greg’s gun before we went through them. En route we also met a large number of friendly horses who made a bee line for Roy Brown who was generously offering to feed them mints.

November
Now the bad news: the whole of Nottinghamshire is now in Tier 3. Unfortunately the limitations this imposes mean, that for now, the walks are suspended. We have future walks planned and they will restart as soon as we can.

Scams – 2020

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A local door to door scam
Reported to me this week by U3A members who were caught out by a caller at the door. They live on Vaughan estate and nearby is the new Sherwood Gate development. The smartly dressed, well spoken man at the door claimed to be from the development and they had been asked to clear some furniture from the show house. He was in a van with the wording ‘Better Homes’ on the side.
In short they bought something, paying too much for a fake product. They have no connection to Bellway Homes at Sherwood Gate so please be aware as they may be coming your way.

Premium Rate Phone Scam
This scam tries to snare people searching online for phone numbers of government advice services, by creating ads which contain premium-rate telephone numbers. It works by displaying an advert for the phone number of the relevant government advice line. All well and good, you might say.
But the sting is that you’ll be charged a premium for using this advertised telephone number – in some cases, as much as £20 or £30 a call.

You will be put through to the right advice line, but will be paying a very high and unnecessary connection fee. In comparison, calling the advice line directly by using the correct phone number is usually free or relatively low cost.

Beware 090 Numbers
Searches for car tax discs, renewing your driving licence, passport and completing your tax return are some of the areas currently prone to these premium-rate number scams. To avoid being ripped off in this way, you should firstly never use numbers beginning with 084, 087, 090, 091 or 098 when calling government advice lines.

No official government service would ever use an 084, 087, 090, 091 or 098 number to deliver a legitimate government service. Use the government website to search directly for legitimate government telephone advice line numbers. This way you’ll always be able to find the right number to call directly for the service you want.
Care: they do not always come first on a Google search.

David Rose

Crisp Collection

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As many of you are aware Rumble Tums in Kimberley is both a community café and a supported training project for young people with a learning disability, some of whom may also have an additional physical disability.

Part of their income comes from recycling crisp packets. Thanks to your generous support we were collecting large quantities at our monthly meetings. For a time the recycling was suspended however it has now resumed and in the absence of the monthly meeting three of our members have kindly volunteered to act as collection points:

John and Sue Gibson at:
1 Gardeners Close, Hucknall, NG15 7GT (just off the Wood Lane end of Sandy Lane)
And Christine Vincent at:
20 Devitt Drive, Hucknall, NG15 8BL (Vaughan Estate)

Please pack the empty packets flat if possible and drop off at the cafe or as shown above.
http://rumbletums.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/crisp-packet-thingy-or-something.mp4?_=1

Thanks for your support.

Walking Cricket Challenge

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Looking Ahead: Walking Cricket Challenge

Whilst on furlough from his honorary ‘Fire Chief’ position Albert has been busy. He has been in touch with Barnsley u3a who have a trophy winning Walking Cricket interest group.

Albert writes: I have challenged Barnsley u3a Walking Cricket Team to a match, then realised we had not yet got a team!

They agreed and proceeded to tell me the ground rules:
You must use a lightweight bat, not your Gunn and Moore, or Kookaburra for example.
No backing up from the bowlers end.
Teams of 8 should contain 3 ladies whenever possible.
LBW will operate during every game.

Hucknall Walking Cricket Team has a fearsome reputation of hard hitting and demon fast/slow bowling. Hucknall u3a will follow their example and show them how it’s done!
And finally NO BITING, KICKING, SLEDGING or CHEATING.

Anyone Interested? Once we can, we will take on the mighty Barnsley.

Albert Briggs