Critical Thinking
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Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! Check out critical thinking events happening today here. These are in-person gatherings where you can meet fellow enthusiasts and participate in activities right now.
Discover all the critical thinking events taking place this week here. Plan ahead and join exciting meetups throughout the week.
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Critical Thinking Events Today
Join in-person Critical Thinking events happening right now
Thought Emerges from Neural Dynamics
Join PSW Science® on THURSDAY June 11 at 8 PM as we welcome Earl Miller, Picower Professor of Neuroscience.
During the question and answer period, in-person attendees and live stream viewers may ask the speaker questions, and in-person attendees may also engage with the speaker during the post-lecture reception. Refreshments are served. For more information on this meeting, please visit: https://pswscience.org/meeting/2537
The meeting will be held in the John Wesley Powell Auditorium, adjacent to the Cosmos Club. The Powell Auditorium is located at 2170 Florida Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20008. Use of the Cosmos Club is restricted to the Powell Auditorium, the entryway to the auditorium, and the restrooms immediately outside the auditorium. Please note there is no onsite parking available.
PSW Science, founded in 1871, is one of the oldest scientific societies in Washington D.C. Now, over 150 years later, we celebrate the Society's rich history and contributions to scientific discovery and cross-disciplinary collaboration. For information on how to become a member of PSW Science and membership benefits, please visit https://pswscience.org/join/
Washington DC German Meetup/Stammtisch
Willkommen zum deutschen Stammtisch in Washington DC! Wir treffen uns regelmäßig an verschiedenen Orten, um Deutsch zu sprechen und Spaß zu haben. Egal, ob Anfänger oder Muttersprachler, jeder ist herzlich eingeladen, sich uns anzuschließen!
Welcome to the German Stammtisch in Washington DC! We gather regularly at different locations to speak German and have fun. Whether you're a beginner or native speaker, everyone is welcome to join us!
The Power of the Subconscious Mind
**THE POWER OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS OVER YOU**
You are welcome to arrive 15 minutes early for refreshments!
At the lecture "The Power of the Subconscious", the speaker will clearly and understandably explain topics such as:
What is the exact definition of the Subconscious Mind?
How does it inflict unwanted feelings and anxiety in you?
What determines how much pressure it exerts on a person?
What exactly is the goal of the subconscious?
This is not just a lecture where you sit quietly and listen. It's interactive and LIVE, so you can ask questions at any time.
And the most important topic:
**HOW DO YOU TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR SUBCOUNSCIOUS!**
This group is sponsored by the Dianetics Life Improvement Center.
Read & Reflect: A Social Reading Circle.
Shared Pages, Shared Insights.
📚 Do you love reading, but wish you had a structure and a community to share your insights with?
Join our small circle of curious minds (just 4 members per gathering) as we come together for an hour of focused reading—in the calm setting of a library or the cozy atmosphere of a café.
Here’s how it works:
First part: Quiet reading on your own—bring a book you’re exploring, whether it’s philosophy, history, psychology, literature, or anything meaningful to you.
Second part: We regroup and each person shares key takeaways, insights, or questions sparked by their reading. This sparks a structured yet free-flowing conversation around ideas, perspectives, and personal reflections.
Why join?
Add structure to your reading habit.
Discover new books, authors, and ideas through others’ choices.
Build real connections by sharing and listening deeply.
Socialize around something meaningful instead of small talk.
Friday Night Skate
Bring your lights for the “Friday Night” Skate!
**Join us for the Friday Night Skate!** See the monuments of DC all lit up at night!
We will meet at the National World War I Memorial “Pershing Park” at 7pm. We’ll warm up with a nice easy skate to the Capital and skate along the mall and museums to the National Monument. We will then head to the Lincoln Memorial through the World War II Memorial.
Those interested in just a 5.5 mile skate can backtrack to Pershing Park.
The group will then proceed from the Lincoln to Haynes Point via Ohio Drive with the option to take the 3 mile loop (12 mile total skate) or sit by the water and enjoy the crisp air (8.5 mile total skate.)
There are three options to loop back to the Pershing Park WWI Memorial and our path back will depend on the preferences / skill of the group.
The skate is mostly flat on good pavement with a small slope coming down from the Washington Monument and a 40 yard small slop from the Lincoln to Ohio Drive. If skaters are more advanced we will cross the 14th St bridge, enjoy a few up and down hills and finish with a downhill through the 12th St. tunnel.
Please feel free to jazz it up with lights, I wear a helmet bike light, a fun set of lights and lighted wheels! Wear your lights so you have fun, can see and be seen!
In case of bad weather, I will cancel the skate by 6pm on this post.
**Of course, all skating is at your own risk.**
Find the Source of Irrational Fears, Anxieties and Self Doubt
Your negative emotions can significantly impact your life and your relationships. Sometimes couples and friendships break apart simply because people couldn't manage their own negative emotions, such as anger, worries, anxiety, or depression.
In this meeting, you will learn where these negative emotions come from, for you, and what you can do to start healing from them.
YOU CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
And you can do it without medications, without suppressing these emotions inside yourself. You don't need to leave your loved ones.
Come to this meeting and learn the answers. Our doors are open.
**Refreshments will be served.**
This group is created by the Dianetics & Scientology life improvement information center in Washington, DC.
Critical Thinking Events This Week
Discover what is happening in the next few days
Freedom of Speech Meetup Group
Monthly meeting: Second Saturday of the month
International House of Pancakes (IHOP)
775 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852
7:00 PM – 10 PM. Late arrivals always welcome.
Look for the table with someone wearing a red hat.
Questions, please call 1-240-644-5230
Agenda:
What are more things we can do to wake people up?
What can we do to get more people involved?
Other things people would like to talk about.
This will be a joint meeting with:
DC 9/11 Truth
[https://dc911truth.org/](https://dc911truth.org/)
dc911truth Facebook page
[https://www.facebook.com/groups/dc911truth/](https://www.facebook.com/groups/dc911truth/)
911 Meetup Group
[https://www.meetup.com/meetup-group-kyegaoqu/](https://www.meetup.com/meetup-group-kyegaoqu/)
Central Bank Digital Currencies CBDC Meetup Group
[https://www.meetup.com/central-bank-digital-currencies-cbdc/](https://www.meetup.com/central-bank-digital-currencies-cbdc/)
Freedom of Speech Meetup Group
[https://www.meetup.com/silver-spring-freedom-of-speech-meetup-group/](https://www.meetup.com/silver-spring-freedom-of-speech-meetup-group/)
If you think things are bad now, just wait till technology enables them to censor your emails before you hit "send", censor your text messages as you type, and censor your phone calls while you talk.
....................................................................
If you follow the ratings of the dinosaur media, you will notice their ratings have been going down for years. Tucker Carlson has ratings that are high (several times higher than CNN).
This interview is about an hour long. People often listen to these long interviews while driving.
Everything You Need to Know about the Government’s Mass Censorship Campaign
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRYSKaS-XtQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRYSKaS-XtQ)
In this interview some things we have been noticing for years are talked about with some explanations given.
……………………………………………………………………………
coming to a neighborhood near you
The Dangers of Posting on Social Media \| Konstantin Kisin
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIl-HO9Ng3I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIl-HO9Ng3I)
……………………………………………………………………………
Censorship is a hallmark of totalitarianism.
……………………………………………………………………………
.
Washington DC Global Socializing
Greetings from the capital!
Every Saturday at 7:30 PM, people from all walks of life — students, diplomats, travelers, locals — gather to unwind and connect.
[[Click this whatsapp groupchat link to join](https://chat.whatsapp.com/JFESzopY1OgJ5z4r3RINfL)]
Our age range is mostly 20s to 30s. If you enjoy discussing culture, politics, travel, or just want to practice a new language, this group is for you.
A perfect blend of diversity and dialogue, right in the heart of D.C.
Sunday Skate with The Washington Area Roadskaters!
Join us as The Washington Area Roadskaters lead you on a different adventure every week, skating through and around our Nation's Capital!
Skate description will be placed here as the route is published.
For up to the minute details, check Facebook and Instagram.
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/WashingtonAreaRoadskaters/events
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/weareskatedc/
We hope to see you Sunday!
Profs & Pints Northern Virginia: Lafayette’s Long Fight for Liberty
[Profs and Pints Northern Virginia](https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc) presents: **“Lafayette’s Long Fight for Liberty,”** a look at the life, struggles, and legacy of America’s favorite fighting Frenchman, with Richard Bell, professor of history at the University of Maryland and author of *The American Revolution and the Fate of the World.*
[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at [https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/nv-lafayette](https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/nv-lafayette) .]
When the Marquis de Lafayette returned to the United States in 1824, Americans greeted him with a frenzy of affection unmatched by anything the nation had ever shown a single individual. Crowds filled streets, towns held ceremonies in his honor, Congress showered him with gifts, and parents named children for the French aristocrat who had helped win the American Revolution.
Explore the extraordinary life behind that adulation with historian Richard Bell, whose excellent past talks have earned him a big following among Profs and Pints fans.
Professor Bell will take Lafayette far beyond his familiar role as George Washington’s young protégé and the hero of Yorktown.
You’ll learn how Lafayette became one of the Atlantic world’s most persistent champions of liberty—fighting for constitutional government, religious freedom, prison reform, press freedom, antislavery, and independence movements from Greece to Poland.
You’ll also hear how Lafayette’s ideals repeatedly put him in danger, making him a target of kings, radicals, imperial powers, and revolutionaries who regarded him as “the most dangerous man of all.”
Professor Bell will show how Lafayette’s life was full of contradictions: a nobleman who challenged aristocratic privilege, a centrist caught between monarchy and mob rule, an antislavery advocate whose efforts fell short, and a dreamer whose causes often failed in his lifetime. Yet Lafayette never stopped trying to make liberty universal.
Come learn why Lafayette’s name still graces hundreds of American towns, parks, counties, schools, rivers, and lakes—and why his most important monument might be not any statue or place name, but the freedoms he helped generations of people imagine, demand, and defend. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: From an 1834 portrait of Lieutenant General Lafayette painted by Joseph-Désiré Court (Palace of Versailles / Wikimedia).
Meaningful Conversation and Coffee - Northside Social Falls Church
**Join us in Falls Church for conversations that go beyond small talk.**
Higher Grounds – Falls Church is where this growing network of gatherings began: a space for thoughtful, authentic dialogue about what matters most. Whether we’re exploring the nature of happiness, the challenges and possibilities of midlife, spirituality, culture, capitalism, parenting, or the role of art and travel in a meaningful life, every conversation is shaped by the people in the room.
There’s no set leader or rigid agenda—just a shared commitment to listen as much as we speak. We start with brief introductions focused on what makes you *you* (not your LinkedIn bio), then dive straight into whatever is on people’s minds. The direction of each meetup emerges organically, making every event unique.
MANDATORY: PLEASE REVIEW OUR COMMUNITY GUIDELINES IN THE GROUP DESCRIPTION. Everyone is expected to engage in respectful conversations and listen deeply as well as share. We have a zero tolerance policy of sexual harassment and hate speech.
Come ready to share, reflect, and connect with others in Falls Church who are also seeking deeper conversations.
**Suggested Questions: Life Stages & Transitions**
1. What did you think you'd have figured out by now that you're still completely winging?
2. When did you realize your parents' advice was for a world that no longer exists?
3. What are you finally old enough to stop pretending to care about?
**Suggested Questions: Identity After the Roles**
1. Who are you when nobody needs anything from you?
2. What dream keeps resurfacing even though the "practical" time has passed?
3. How do you handle having the freedom you always said you wanted?
**Suggested Questions: AI & Being Human**
1. What human experiences will AI never truly understand?
2. If machines handled all your have-to's, what would you actually do?
3. What becomes more precious as everything becomes automated?
**Suggested Questions: Belief & Meaning**
1. What certainties have you given up, and what rushed in to fill that space?
2. How has knowing someone who died changed how you live?
3. What do you believe now that would shock your younger self?
**Suggested Questions: The Modern Psyche**
1. What anxiety do you carry that previous generations didn't have?
2. Which of your survival strategies are you ready to retire?
3. What uncomfortable truth about happiness did it take you years to accept?
**Suggested Questions: Work & Purpose**
1. When did you stop believing that your job would complete you?
2. What would you do for work if money and status weren't factors?
3. How has your definition of "making it" changed over the years?
**Suggested Questions: Relationships & Connection**
1. What relationship dynamic do you keep recreating, and why?
2. When did you realize your parents were just people trying their best?
3. What kind of loneliness doesn't go away even when you're with others?
**Suggested Questions: Time & Mortality**
1. What are you running out of time to say or do?
2. How differently do you spend your time knowing it's finite?
3. What will you regret not trying, even if you fail?
**Suggested Questions: Society & Culture**
1. What social convention do you follow even though it makes no sense?
2. Which generation do you understand least, and what might you be missing?
3. What aspect of how we live now will seem insane in 20 years?
**Suggested Questions: Personal Philosophy**
1. What rule for life did you create after learning something the hard way?
2. When did you stop believing that everyone else had it figured out
3. What paradox about life have you learned to live with?
Critical Thinking Events Near You
Connect with your local Critical Thinking community
Sunday Brunch
Sleep in on Sundays. When you've had your fill of pajama-time, roll out and have some tasty brunch with your fellow Humanists!
Smart Search + AI: An Outcome-Driven Journey from IDP to a Suite of AI
Over a billion documents processed. Millions of Veterans impacted. Hundreds of thousands of employee hours saved. Faster decisions. Greater accuracy. More benefits in the hands of our disabled Veterans.
We created Smart Search, the world’s largest consumer of Amazon Textract, right when GenAI began reshaping what’s possible. Since then, we’ve built a suite of AI‑driven solutions that transform this data into real, measurable outcomes—accelerating benefits decisions for our Nation’s Veterans.
Join us for a focused conversation on how an outcome‑driven approach to AI is helping us boost accuracy, streamline workflows, and deliver faster results for those who have served.
This is a follow up to the AWS re:Invent 2023 "Intelligent Document Processing with Gen AI for Public Sector" presentation.
About Speaker: Cameron Williams is a Senior Technical Project Manager and cross-functional technical leader at Booz Allen Hamilton with 15+ years of experience architecting and evolving scalable, cloud-native systems, from greenfield development to complex enterprise modernization. https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronw711/
**THANK YOU** *Franklin University* for hosting our meetup! To learn more about *Franklin University*, please visit their website: https://www.franklin.edu/
**DIRECTIONS**
Franklin University
Fisher Hall
300 E. Main St, Columbus, OH 43215
Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/jxjBA2hUmS5qrvhq8
Parking is FREE! Please park in Lot C in front of Fisher Hall. See attached map.
NOTE: Map the address only. When mapping with Google Maps it may use the Fisher Hall at OSU, which is NOT correct.
**Want to sponsor the pizza and/or bar tab?**
Please contact me if you would like to sponsor this meetup's pizza and/or bar tab: angelo@mandato.com
Investing & Personal Finance Meeting
If you are interested in selecting investment choices for your 401(k) or other workplace savings plan, minimizing your income tax liability, or identifying the most effective investments for your brokerage account, we are the group for you.
We are a local chapter of Bogleheads, whose investment strategy can be found here:
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Bogleheads%C2%AE_investment_philosophy
Or you can peruse the Boglehead forum here:
https://www.bogleheads.org/index.php
I look forward to seeing you there.
Mark Vonder Haar
Columbus Women's Investing & Personal Finance Meeting
**Welcome to the Women’s Columbus Bogleheads® Sub-Group**
This sub-group is for **women who want to learn and discuss finances in a safe, supportive space**. For those interested in moving towards financial independence and retirement by learning investment basics, choosing your 401(k) investments, minimizing taxes, and more. We’re a local chapter of **Bogleheads®**, following a long-term, practical investment philosophy:
[Investment Philosophy](https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Bogleheads%C2%AE_investment_philosophy):
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Bogleheads%C2%AE_investment_philosophy
[Bogleheads Forum](https://www.bogleheads.org/index.php):
https://www.bogleheads.org/index.php
No question is too small, and no experience is too simple. Share, ask, and learn — at your own pace, without judgment, in a group of like-minded women. Let’s build confidence and knowledge **together**!


























