Fabrication

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/

Visit an area of Rock Creek Park frequented by President Theodore Roosevelt 100 years ago. This 3.1 - mile loop hike travels through the forest and along the creek, following the route identified by pink tape wrapped around wooden posts and along the trail. It's rated as moderate due to narrow dirt trails, gentle ascents and rolling hills. There are obstructions such as rocks and tree roots along the path, and if it's rained recently, it could be slippery. Trail Map: https://www.nps.gov/thingstodo/boulder-bridge-hike.htm Meeting Point: Rock Creek Park, Picnic Grove #1, Washington, DC Meeting Time: 10:00 am Distance: 3.1 Miles Difficulty: Moderate Pace: Moderate (2.5 miles/hr) Elevation gain: 337 ft Duration: 2 hours Type of trail: Dirt, stones, rocks, tree roots TRANSPORTATION By Metro, option #1: Take the Red line to Van Ness/UDC. Exit the station and head three blocks south along Connecticut Avenue, making a left on Tilden Street, NW. Walk down the hill until you see Peirce Mill on your left and Shoemaker Street on your right. Turn onto Shoemaker street and walk to the picnic area parking lot. It’s about a 20 minute walk from the Metro. By Metro, option #2: Take the Red line to the Cleveland Park station. Exit the station on the east side, and follow Connecticut Avenue north, past Porter Street, NW. Just after the Wilshire Park Condominium (on your right), turn right onto the Melvin C Hazen Trail. Follow this trail about half a mile, with several easy stream crossings through natural wooded terrain. Turn left at Western Ridge Trail, and follow the parking lot to the picnic grove. It's about a 17 minute walk from the Metro. By Car: The Rock Creek Park Picnic Grove #1 parking lot is off Tilden Street, NW, across from Peirce Mill. Dog friendly?: Yes. Please keep your dog leashed at all times. Bathroom Facilities: Located at the Rock Creek Grove 1 parking lot, and mid-hike at the Rock Creek Park Nature Center. Food/Water: Bring your own vegan snack and (non-alcoholic) beverage to enjoy after the hike at the picnic area near Peirce Mill and the parking lot. Please carry plenty of water! Weather: Be prepared! We will hike rain or shine, but if conditions pose a danger, we’ll cancel the hike and post a notice in the “comments” section. We suggest that hikers wear comfortable footwear and suitable clothing made from quick-dry, synthetic fabrics, as cotton can lead to uncomfortable blisters and life-threatening hypothermia in case of inclement weather. *For important updates regularly monitor the "comments" section below.* *Don't be a no show! If your plans change, update your RSVP.* *Please also view the Rules listed at the end of this description* \*Please read The 10 Essentials of Hiking: https://americanhiking.org/resources/10essentials/ \* RULES Pets: When hikes are organized in dog-friendly areas, hikers are invited to bring their pet(s). However, dogs are the sole responsibility of the owner(s) who brought them; should be up-to-date on their vaccinations & in possession of the relevant tags; and should be under the control of their owner(s) at all times. Dogs that demonstrate consistently aggressive or otherwise out-of-control behavior will be banned from future hikes. Owners should come prepared to dispose of their dogs’ waste in appropriate receptacles. Alcohol/Smoking/Intoxicants: Use of intoxicants such as alcohol, cigarettes and/or illegal substances is banned during the hikes. --- **VSDC: More Than A Meetup** We are delighted to have you as part of The Veg Society of DC Vegan Meetup group, and we look forward to seeing you at our events. Did you know that [VSDC](https://vsdc.org/%20) is a nonprofit organization with membership benefits? With VSDC membership, you will save money at area restaurants and businesses, attend VSDC member-only events, and, most importantly, support us as a clear and consistent voice for improving the lives of all beings through community building and education centered on the benefits of a vegan diet and lifestyle. The membership fee is minimal, but the impact is significant! [Join today](https://vsdc.org/membership/)! **Ways to Stay In Touch with Us** Thank you for being part of our Meetup presence and bringing like-minded people together. We invite you to: * Become a [VSDC member](https://vsdc.org/membership/) to save money at area restaurants and support us in being a clear and consistent voice for improving the lives of all beings through community building and education centered on the benefits of a vegan diet and lifestyle. * Sign up for our[ monthly e-newsletter](https://vsdc.org/about/newsletter/) to hear more about our activities. * Follow us on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/vegsocietydc/) or [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/vegsocietydc/) to engage with us. **Interested in Volunteering with VSDC?** VSDC offers many events each month, thanks to the dedication of our event planning team. Would you consider volunteering? To learn more and get started, [please visit our website](https://vsdc.org/volunteer/). **Only Vegan Food, Please** While VSDC welcomes people wherever they are on the path to an all-plant, vegan diet and lifestyle, it is our policy that only vegan food be served and consumed at our events. If you would like to [explore a vegan diet or get support in making lifestyle changes, consider these resources](https://vsdc.org/exploringvegan/). **Liability Waiver and Code of Conduct** When you sign up to attend, you automatically acknowledge [VSDC's Liability Waiver](https://vsdc.org/activity-waiver/) and commit to follow the code of conduct found at [Policies - VSDC - Veg Society of DC](https://vsdc.org/policies/). **VSDC. Creating communities. For your health, the animals, and the planet.**

**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)

Title: An Easy Intro to Feynman's Quantum ElectroDynamics (QED) Summary: One of the most delightful and informative physics books ever written is Richard Feynman’s QED. In this short book, Feynman undertook the daunting task of explaining his Nobel-Prize-winning theory, Quantum ElectroDynamics, without any math except in a few elaborating footnotes. Remarkably, he succeeds! In this talk, Terry replicates many of his arguments to show how you, too, can understand one of the most fundamental mechanisms of physical reality by using not much more than lots of tiny one-hand clock dials moving through space. Speaker: Terry Bollinger is a computer scientist Speaker: Terry Bollinger is a computer scientist with BS, MS and Professional degrees from the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Danceintime runs Cuban Salsa Classes & Social Dancing Every Saturday, all year-long. Come at 1:15 pm to sign in. Stay till 4 pm. Some of us go out for coffee or a bite to eat afterwards and everyone is welcome! $15/person. Cash, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, or Card accepted. Chevy Chase Baptist Church; 5671 Western Ave. NW; Washington DC 20015. NOTE: Enter through back corner door of the church. Danceintime classes are great fun. The dance moves are beautiful, fun, and our class creates a bonded community... Check it out! Class will be held every Saturday in December....celebrate the holidays with dance! For more info: danceintime.com/classes Questions? Contact Barbbernsteintalks@gmail.com

Mimic the great skaters who gracefully carve an ephemeral numeral “8” in the ice—but instead of skates, use the steel wheels of the Metro system! We’ll start at Metro Center, make our way to Ft. Totten on the Red line, transfer (in a very cool way) to the Yellow or Green lines; then go down to L’Enfant Plaza, where we’ll switch to the Blue, Orange or Silver lines to take us home to Metro Center and complete our ”8”. Then off to Potbelly Sandwich Shop for lunch and reflection on our feat!

As always, the goal is fun. Beginners are welcome. We play until 5 or 6. Parking (Free): Plenty of free street parking available on Sunday afternoons near the playing area. Contact Organizer for exact address and other helpful details Metro: Foggy Bottom Metro Station is an 8 minute walk

**This talk has completely sold out in advance and no door tickets will be available.** [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.)

Come practice all the languages of the world - all are welcome! Join us from 4-7pm on Sunday the 22nd. STAY HOME IF YOU ARE SICK. We ask attendees to exercise their best judgment and do not attend if they feel unwell. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to come to an organizer. Fostering an open minded, safe community is our utmost priority.

In a parallel world where everyone has an innate “frequency,” those with high frequencies are gifted, popular, and – most importantly – lucky. People in lower ranges have correspondingly less of these traits but more emotional depth. When someone with extremely high frequency is in close proximity to someone especially low, chaos ensues. A boy and girl at opposite extremes of the scale meet in elementary school and encounter each other repeatedly over many years. While the story seems at first to be a *Romeo and Juliet* variation in search of a happy ending, their universe has some secrets that will make the action weirder and more entertaining than anyone could expect. ■ Title — *Frequencies* ■ A.K.A. — *OXV: The Manual* ■ Director — Darren Paul Fisher ■ Cast — Daniel Fraser, Eleanor Wyld, Owen Pugh ■ Unrated, suitable for teens and adults ■ ©2013 \| 1h 49m \| Mystery\, Romance\, Sci\-Fi ■ Distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films ■ Licensed for showing in Alexandria libraries by Swank Motion Pictures

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

**PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING IMPORTANT NOTES:** 1. The dates for this series are simply placeholders at the moment. We are working on our 2026 schedule, and adjustments are forthcoming. 2. Each class in this series has an attendance fee. 3. Each class from BOTH a sign-up and fee perspective is a separate entity. **Introduction:** Our Page Building with Bricks web development class provides detailed instruction for using Bricks Builder, a visual site builder for WordPress, to create and manage websites. Widely considered by many of the world's leading web developers to be the most complete page builder on the market today, Bricks Builder offers a wide range of features and comprehensive tools. Our Bricks Builder web development class provides detailed instructions on utilizing the toolset. The series of courses covers the core features of Bricks Builder, enabling users to design and develop responsive, visually appealing websites. Moreover, the courses are oriented to reinforce a focus on professional, scalable web development. Throughout the series, we focus our page-building instruction on the semantic and structural integrity of the pages in a responsive world. By the end of the 10-class series, participants will have a fundamental understanding of proper web page and website development. **The breakdown of the 10-class series is as follows:** * Class 01 - Survey of Page Builders / What Bricksbuilder Does For You * Class 02 - Boxes, Boxes, Boxes / Sections / Containers * Class 03 - Static Units / Relative Units / Responsive Development And Math Functions * Class 04 - CSS Variables And DRY Development / Classes And Global Styling * Class 05 - CSS Grid And CSS Flexbox * Class 06 - Responsive Development / Breakpoints And Media Queries * Class 07 - Effective Use Of Color / Effective Use Of Images * Class 08 - Beginning To Think Dynamically / Using Templates And Components * Class 09 - Dynamic Styling / Data Attributes And Attribute Selectors * Class 10 - Pseudo Elements / Programmatically Styling With Pseudo Classes Throughout the class sessions listed above, we cover the following key areas of web development with Bricks Builder: * **Introduction to Bricks Builder Interface:** * Familiarization with the builder's layout, including the toolbar, panel, and canvas, and understanding how to navigate and interact with its various components. * **Visual Site Building:** * Techniques for creating layouts using Bricks' drag-and-drop interface, incorporating sections, rows, columns, and elements to build page structures. * **Styling and Design:** * Utilizing Bricks' styling options to customize elements, apply global CSS classes for consistent design, and leverage features like Flexbox and CSS Grid for responsive layouts. * **Dynamic Content and Custom Fields:** * Integrating dynamic content from custom post types and custom field plugins (like ACF, Meta Box) to build data-driven websites. * **Template Building:** * Creating and managing reusable templates for headers, footers, post type layouts, and other site-wide elements. * **Performance Optimization:** * Understanding how Bricks Builder contributes to fast-loading websites and implementing performance best practices. * **Advanced Features:** * Depending on the class level, it might delve into advanced topics such as conditional logic, interactions, and custom code integration to enable more complex functionality. The series aims to equip participants with the skills to efficiently build, customize, and maintain WordPress websites using Bricks Builder, catering to both beginners and experienced web developers.

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