The first Fridays in May, June, July and August at 2 p.m. finds members of the OLLI program at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, taking part in a Summer Lecture Series. Lectures are free to members and $5 for all others. Topics to be covered this summer include:

May – eBay and the US Postal Service – The US Postal Service has teamed up with eBay on a national level to bring the skills to each and every citizen who’s been interested and thought about selling on eBay. Some of the topics covered during the presentation will be registration, listing an item, photography, product line, buying and selling, writing skills, opening bids, buy it now, paypal, and shipping. Each attendees will receive an eBay/Postal DVD called “The Basics,” with step-by-step instructions by the #1 trainer at eBay.

June – Mushrooms Demystified – A color slide-rich presentation of what fungi do and the interdependence so many organisms demonstrate to keep our forests fit. Participants will examine the cycles in the forest, including the roles and associations of mammals, mycophagy, mushrooms and mycorrhizae in sub-arctic environs.

July – Aurora Effects on Humans: Myths and Facts – Participants will review the general physics of aurora phenomenon, then concentrate on the facts and fictions about the aurora’s effects on living beings including human mental and physical health.

August – Spying on Volcanoes from Space – There are approximately 75 historically active volcanoes in Alaska and on the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia. When these volcanoes erupt they can generate lava flows, fountains of fire or giant columns of airborne ash. Few people live in the immediate vicinity of these volcanoes so the greatest danger is from airborne ash that drifts into air traffic routes over the Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska and across Alaska. Satellite imagery is an important source of information to spy on these volcanoes to detect eruptions and to track the movement of the airborne ash. These images are used by scientists to detect hot spots caused by lava flows and fountains of fire, and to detect ash ejected high into the atmosphere. The presentation will show what these volcanoes and eruptions look like from space and how they affect our lives.

Taken from their spring/summer 2006 course catalog.