Talking Baseball
Day/Date: Tuesday, June 13
Time: 3 p.m.
Location: Northside Café, corner of St. Paul and N. 48th Streets
Bill Fagler will be leading the discussion this month. Topics for discussion in June include:
1. June is time for casting your vote for the Major League Baseball All-Star game. Go to mlb.com and check out the ballot. Come to the Baseball meeting and defend your selections. Here's the link:
https://www.mlb.com/all-star/ballot
2. Time to re-cap the Husker baseball season. Everyone felt great when they won the regular season Big 10 title, but then they collapsed in the post-season tournaments. What happened?
3. John Comer is recommending this article by Dave Sheinin in the Washington Post. It talks about the evolution in hitting strategy brought on by the implementation of "Statcast" and the measurement of "launch angles" and "exit velocity." Also, as more teams are increasing their use of shifts in placing their fielders, batters will have to adjust. Here's the link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/classic-apps/these-days-in-baseball-every-batter-is-trying-to-find-an-angle/2017/06/01/9df29eee-3ffa-11e7-9869-bac8b446820a_story.html?utm_term=.19b2af260bc5&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
4. Tom Verducci of "Sports Illustrated" wrote an interesting article titled "Why the Curveball is Taking Over the Game." The success of the Houston Astros is bringing back the curveball. Here's the link:
https://www.si.com/mlb/2017/05/23/curveball-clayton-kershaw-lance-mccullers
5. By Tuesday, the field will be set for the College World Series. Who are you rooting for?
Questions? Contact Marvin Almy, (402) 786-5856, hmalmy@aol.com
Science & Technology
Day/Date Field Trip: Tuesday, June 13
Time: 2-3:30 p.m.
Location: The Diocles Laser, UNL Extreme Light Laboratory at the Behlen Laboratory, 500 Stadium Drive, across the street from the '501' building on T St.
Group size limited to 25
The OLLI Science and Technology Interest Group and Ed Schmidt’s astronomy class from OLLI Term 4 are organizing a field trip to see UNL’s Diocles laser system in the Extreme Light Laboratory. An ultra-high-intensity laser system, Diocles, was built at UNL to study the interactions of light with matter at the highest attainable field strengths.
Diocles is remarkable not only because it is extremely powerful and ultra-fast, but because it is so small. Diocles fits in only 15-by-15 foot square space -- the size of an office -- taking the "big" out of "big science." The laser is small and inexpensive enough for hospitals to potentially use it as a proton source for cutting-edge cancer therapy.
Group size is limited to a maximum of 25. Security requires that you be on the list to participate in this field trip. Contact Stan Riggle to let him know you will be participating.
This interest group has new facilitators. Their contact information is:
John Houseman 402-423-5652, Co-Facilitator, dianeandjohn@windstream.net
Craig Hahn 402-730-7487, Co-Facilitator, craig_hahn@hotmail.com
Stan Riggle, Advisory Facilitator 402-435-0900. archaeogastropoda@hotmail.com
Politics
Day/Date: Thursday, June 15
Time: 3 p.m.
Location: Stauffer’s Café and Pie Shoppe, 5600 S. 48th St.
The OLLI Politics interest group will get a review of the 2017 session of the Nebraska Unicameral from two state senators. Senators Kate Bolz, District 29, and Laura Ebke, District 32, will report on the major accomplishments of the session and answer questions.
All OLLI members are welcome to attend and there is no need to register in advance. Just show up at Stauffer's for some coffee, pie and politics.
Questions: Contact Marvin Almy, (402) 786-5856, hmalmy@aol.com