Fabrication

🌅 This event marks the beginning of something bigger for our local communities. The Great Mid-Atlantic Bitcoin Meetup is the first-ever gathering of builders, organizers, and freedom-minded thinkers from across the region, coming together to strengthen grassroots networks driving Bitcoin forward in the real world. 👉 [RSVP on LUMA](https://luma.com/tql6d40b) 🗺️ From NYC to North Carolina, from the Jersey Shore to the Shenandoah Valley, local groups are doing incredible work to spread Bitcoin adoption. Now, for the first time, we’re gathering everyone in the Nation’s Capital to swap insights, forge connections, and launch new partnerships. 💡 Expect an evening filled with big ideas, real stories, and special guest speakers from across the Mid-Atlantic. They will share what they’ve learned about community building, merchant adoption, education, and the broader freedom tech movement. 🍔 Come grab a drink & smashburger, meet fellow builders, and help kick off what could become the strongest regional Bitcoin network in the country. The event will be livestreamed across PubKey’s channels so that anyone can join the conversation. **Speakers** [Gerald Glickman](https://x.com/GeraldGlickman) \- Bitcoin Policy Institute / Anchorage Digital [Rick Thomas](https://x.com/RickThomasII) \- 80\-IQ Studios Nick - 757btc Community Jack Minnick - Sovreign Derek Ross ([Nostr Valley](https://nostrvalley.com/)) - Soapbox **Agenda** 6pm - Social/Networking Hour 7-830pm - Live Programming 8:30-10pm - More Networking 👉 [RSVP on LUMA](https://luma.com/tql6d40b) 🍻 Before you close your tab, ask to pay with Bitcoin & get 21% off your entire bill! 🧡 This is a Bitcoin-only event. Everyone is welcome to join, but please leave the altcoin talk at the door. ​**About the Bitcoin District Initiative** ​This event was organized by The Bitcoin District Initiative, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to build a grassroots Bitcoin circular economy in Washington, DC through education, business onboarding, and community outreach programs. If you’d like to get involved or support the Initiative, visit [https://bitcoindistrictinitiative.org](https://bitcoindistrictinitiative.org/).

At this event you'll discover how to better understand and control your subconscious mind, helping you overcome doubts and fears. If you have anger issues, depressions and anxieties. this event will show you how to overcome them.

Ready for some Mahjongg fun? Join us at The Spot in Belmont Bay for a laid-back get-together with the American Mahjongg NoVA crew! No pressure—just good vibes, great company, and plenty of tile-flipping action. Whether you’re a seasoned player or just curious to try, everyone’s welcome to join the fun. Come laugh, play, and maybe pick up a new trick or two along the way. Let’s make it a Mahjongg day to remember! Every Wednesday evening 6pm - 8pm. There is a $10 buy in. This includes one non-alcoholic drink :-) Keep an eye open for theme nights!!!!! Mrs Roper MuMu Mahjongg coming up soon!!!!

[Profs and Pints DC](https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc) presents: **“The Folklore of Love Spells,”** on the use of magic to influence romantic destinies, with Cory Thomas Hutcheson, folklorist, lecturer at Middle Tennessee State University, and author of *New World Witchery: A Trove of North American Folk Magic.* [Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at [https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/folklore-of-love-spells](https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/folklore-of-love-spells) .] Looking for a distinct follow-up to Valentine’s Day? Come to the Washington D.C.’s Hill Center for a rich, ribald, and riotous exploration of the use of romantic enchantments in history and folklore. You’ll feel spellbound as you listen to folklorist Cory Thomas Hutcheson, who has earned a big following of loyal fans in giving Profs and Pints talks in Nashville. On his visit to the nation’s capital he’ll discuss a delicious assortment of methods—alluring and occasionally appalling—that people historically have used to find, catch, or hold others to them. Dr. Hutcheson will present talismans, potions, charms, and more from the pages of history, exploring the principles at work in each. You'll hear about how counting stars can lead to dreams of future lovers, why some women in the Ozarks once nailed turkey wishbones above their doors, and how a meal of fish, cheese, or chocolate might lead to seduction—or the hospital. His talk will cover everything from fortune-telling charms designed to predict the future of a relationship to secretive formulae intended to drive a couple apart. Look Cupid in the eye and ask him "Why?" as we explore this raucous mixture of magic, belief, folklore, and story. If nothing else, you’ll end up loving this learning experience. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.) Image from Gratis Graphics (Pixexid / Creative Commons).

Join us for an engaging session focused on mastering the art of referral marketing within the Dupont Business Link community. Whether you are a seasoned network marketer or new to the world of professional networking, this event will provide valuable insights and strategies to help you grow your business through referrals. Our expert speakers will share their tips and tricks for building a strong referral network, maximizing business networking opportunities, and effectively utilizing business referral networking for success. Connect with like-minded professionals in a hybrid chapter setting, combining the benefits of in-person and online interactions. Don't miss this chance to boost your referral marketing skills and take your business to the next level with Dupont Business Link.

At this event you'll discover how to better understand and control your subconscious mind, helping you overcome doubts and fears. If you have anger issues, depressions and anxieties. this event will show you how to overcome them.

Join PSW Science® on February 20 at 8 PM as we welcome Karen Lloyd, Wrigley Chair in Environmental Studies Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Southern California. 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/2531/ 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/

[Profs and Pints Northern Virginia](https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc) presents: **“The Everyday Supernatural,”** a discussion of how folklorists and anthropologists view our belief in uneasily explained beings, forces, and experiences, with Benjamin Gatling, folklorist, scholar of belief and everyday religion, and associate professor of English at George Mason University. [Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at [https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/nv-everyday-supernatural](https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/nv-everyday-supernatural) .] Profs and Pints debuts at [Highline RxR](https://www.highlinerxr.com/) bar in Arlington’s Crystal City with a talk that will both teach you and leave you thinking about your relationship with the unknown. Have you ever wondered why people believe in the supernatural? Or where do such beliefs come from and what purposes do they serve? On hand to offer answers will be Benjamin Gatling, who teaches a course on folklore and the supernatural, studies various cultures’ oral traditions, and serves as editor of *Folklorica: the Journal of the Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Folklore Association.* You’ll gain an understanding of how the supernatural isn’t something strange or extraordinary. It’s part of the everyday lives of most people around the world, and it’s fundamental to virtually all cultural traditions. Here in the United States, three out of four people believe in some aspect of the supernatural such as astrology, telepathy, clairvoyance, or communication with the dead. About half attest to having personally had a mystical experience. In discussing the nature of supernatural beliefs, Dr. Gatling will talk about how our experiences are inexact and ambiguous and how we operate on incomplete information. In many ways belief in the supernatural represents an affirmation that human understanding extends beyond empirical observation and that we live in an imprecise, infinite, irrational, and mysterious world. The goal of folklorists and anthropologists studying such beliefs is not to prove or disprove them, but rather to understand various peoples’ lived experiences and gain insight on how individuals make sense of the uncanny around them. Dr. Gatling will talk about such researchers’ findings in terms of how such beliefs are expressed in dream interpretation or the stories people tell about encounters with ghosts or their relationship with the dead. He’ll talk about visits to haunted places and touch upon subjects such as UFO sightings, encounters with the divine, and magic in our everyday lives. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.) Image: A deck of 22 Tarot cards. (Photo by Roberto Viesi / Wikimedia Commons.)

Details Location: Crimson Whiskey Bar (Downstairs Bar, Not Rooftop) The purpose of Thinkers and Drinkers is to facilitate casual but meaningful and interesting conversations with other people in a face-to-face setting. The topics cover a wide variety of issues and are different for every meeting. While conversations may get heated at times, we ask that all members be respectful of each other and refrain from personal insults. Topic: Trust in Institutions Across much of the world, trust in major institutions, including government, media, corporations, courts, universities, and science, appears to be shifting. Surveys often show declining confidence in public institutions, while at the same time people continue to rely on them for stability, information, and coordination. Recent years have included disputed elections, misinformation concerns, public health crises, economic disruptions, and rapid technological change. These events have raised difficult questions about credibility, legitimacy, and accountability. Some argue that skepticism toward institutions is healthy in a democracy, encouraging transparency and reform. Others worry that widespread distrust can weaken social cohesion and make collective problem solving nearly impossible. Major surveys and studies on institutional trust include: • Pew Research Center, Public Trust in Government: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/04/30/public-trust-in-government-1958-2024/ • Edelman Trust Barometer (annual global survey): https://www.edelman.com/trust/trust-barometer • Gallup, Confidence in Institutions: https://news.gallup.com/poll/1597/confidence-institutions.aspx • World Values Survey, Trust indicators across countries: https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org Historically, periods of low institutional trust have sometimes preceded major reforms or political realignments, while in other cases they have contributed to instability or authoritarian backlash. Understanding when distrust is justified, and when it becomes dangerous, remains an open question. Questions to Consider • What factors most strongly shape trust in institutions, performance, transparency, shared identity, or something else? • Is declining trust primarily a problem, or can it be a healthy corrective? • Are some institutions, such as courts, science, or local government, more deserving of baseline trust than others? • How should societies respond when large portions of the public lose faith in elections, media, or public health guidance? • Can trust be rebuilt once it is lost, and if so, how? • Does technology, especially social media and AI, strengthen or weaken institutional legitimacy?

**Life** Blaise Pascal was born in 1623 in the Auvergne region of France. His father was an expert mathematician and member of the *noblesse de robe* (a designation for high-level bureaucrats). His mother died when Pascal was only three. Under his father’s anti-scholastic and modern approach, Pascal read widely but idiosyncratically in law, the Bible, Church Fathers, science, and, eventually, mathematics—but relatively little in literature. By his teens, his father had introduced Pascal to the group of intellectuals associated with Père Marin Mersenne. He suffered medical issues from a young age and throughout his life and was for some time under the care of one of his sisters. He was, for example, too ill personally to conduct his famous experiment on Puy-de-Dôme that provided evidence that air pressure differs at different elevations. He had a deeply mystical or religious experience (“Night of Fire”) on the evening of November 23, 1654, after which he renounced his mathematical and scientific pursuits in favor of religious pursuits. He had notes from the Night of Fire sown into his jacket. He died at only 39 in 1662. **Themes** While Pascal did not invent the triangle named for him (it had been known not only to Chinese, Indian, and Islamic scholars but also European ones), he studied it and showed some of its properties. In physics, he did experiments with mercury demonstrating that air pressure varied with elevation and studied hydraulics, giving us what is now called Pascal’s law. He was one of the first to devise a working calculating machine, several of which still exist, creating three versions for different uses. As might be expected from someone of such evident skill in math and science, he did not care much for Aristotelian approaches, such as essences, form, and matter. Pascal as philosopher presents some problems. In the first place, his non-scientific writings had the avowed purpose of promoting Christianity and, at times, Jansenism. His most famous work, *Pensées*, was not published in his lifetime but rather arranged by family and associates after his death based on written notes supposedly but not definitively intended for a work of Christian apologetics. But the psychological insights of the Pensées, and its clear and sharp style, have perhaps against his own wishes established Pascal as some sort of philosopher, if not a proto-(Christian) Existentialist. His attacks on the power and utility of reason are ironically almost coeval with the start of the European Enlightenment. Among his more famous ideas is that the heart has its reasons that the mind knows not of and discussing belief in God in terms of a wager. Is Pascal’s Wager a joke, taking to humorous extremes techniques of probability he had had a hand in developing? Or is he serious, aiming to show that reason fails when it comes to life’s most consequential decisions? Or is the Wager meant to offer reasoned support for a prior, non-rational embrace of God? We’ll discuss these and other questions to try to understand Pascal’s contributions to philosophy and what insights he can offer today. **Reading** Our readings for this month are *Pensées* and selections from *Discussion with Monsieur de Sacy*, the *Art of Persuasion,* and *Writings on Grace*. These can all be found in an edition from [Oxford University Press](https://global.oup.com/academic/product/penses-and-other-writings-9780199540365?cc=us&lang=en&). **Optional** * [Blasie Pascal, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy](https://iep.utm.edu/pascal-b/) * [Pascal's Wager, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pascal-wager/) * [Lettres Provinciales, Wikisource](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lettres_Provinciales) * [Prayer, to Ask of God the Proper Use of Sickness, Wikisource](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal/Prayer,_to_Ask_of_God_the_Proper_Use_of_Sickness) **References for Pascal's Contributions to Math and Science** * [Pascal's Triangle: What It Is and How to Use It, Science Notes](https://sciencenotes.org/pascals-triangle/) * [Pascaline (Calculator), Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascaline) * [Pascal's Law, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_law) * [Pascal's Theorem (Geometry), Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_theorem)

Some trained COUNT volunteers work together once a month at RMH (http://www.rmhc-centralohio.org/volunteer.php) as Housewarmers (usually on the 1st Sunday from 1 – 5 PM). Some schedule other shifts at their convenience. You may try this out with less fuss by following a "Fast track" or go through the normal process. Fast track • Arrange a time to shadow a COUNT volunteer. Call Dave Nohle at 614-268-9558 (cell). • Show up and try it out. • Complete application, etc. later. Normal process • Complete an online application (http://rmhc-centralohio.org/volunteer/). • Attend orientation in advance. • At orientation you will complete forms agreeing to keep family/patient info private and allowing a background check and tour the facility. • Complete one training shift. Daily shifts are: morning 9 AM - 1 PM, afternoon 1 - 5 PM and evening 5 - 9 PM. • Schedule shifts online using the on the RMH scheduling system (http://www.volgistics.com/ex/portal.dll/?FROM=32895). The Ronald McDonald House (RMH) provides housing and meals for families with sick children. The Columbus RMH is the largest in the world with 137 rooms. COUNT has been volunteering there since May 2014. Housewarmers work with RMH guests to provide a home-like environment - greet, assist with family needs, answer phones, give tours, assist with checkin/checkout, prepare guest rooms after checkout, clean facility, laundry, restock supplies and staff the front desk. RMH Housewarmers volunteer at least one four-hour shift a month. All Housewarmers must complete an application and agree to a background check before they can be full fledged volunteers.

**\*\*\* We've Moved! Bold Penguin - 6555 Longshore St, Dublin, OH 43017 \*\*\*** TBD **AGENDA:** * See updates to parking below * Doors open at 5:30, feel free to come and hang out before! * Official start of the meeting is at 6:30pm * After the meeting is done, we will go hang out at a nearby space in Bridge Park! If you can, please sign up via meetup by noon the day of the meeting so we can have an estimate headcount for food :) We always order extra, so feel free to join us even if you don't get signed up! Thank you to Bold Penguin for providing the food and location! **Parking & Arrival:** **Parking:** Parking in Bridge Park is free. The closest lots are the Mooney Garage and the Hotel/Endres Garage. **Entry:** The doors to the office are to the right of PINS. The street level door and elevators lock at 6pm. If you arrive after that, someone should be there to let you in, else call the number posted. Take the elevator to the 2nd floor. Once you exit the elevator, turn right. \*\*\* We are a bunch of professionals, students, and geeks who are excited about Ruby programming language ([http://ruby-lang.org/](http://ruby-lang.org/)) and Rails framework ([http://rubyonrails.com/](http://rubyonrails.com/)) and the joy they have brought back to web development. Our main goal is to share the love of the Ruby and Rails ecosystems with anyone that is interested. We cater to everyone, whether a non-programmer through advanced Rubyists. * We give lectures on programming topics * We freely provide decades worth of experience * For full details of this month's meeting please visit [http://columbusrb.com](http://columbusrb.com)

This meeting will be an open discussion about the book "an Immense World" by Ed Yong

Private Group. Closed to the Public Knowing ourselves and understanding our abilities is the first step toward wielding our gifts with control and accuracy. In subsequent classes we will verify and hone our talents with activities and discussion. These are hands-on workshops and participation is expected. The goal of our series will be to develop expertise in areas of particular interest such as mediumship, channeling, divination, healing and, etc.. Our ultimate directions will be determined by class members as we evolve. I look forward to sharing and discovering with you. - Cynthia