Ontology

​Join **Orchestra**, **Tracer** and **Lightdash** for an in-person evening with London’s data engineering community. ​This event is built for **data engineers, analytics engineers, and platform teams** who enjoy going deep on real technical topics — from modern data stack architecture to reliability, observability, orchestration, and the practical lessons learned from running pipelines in production. ​Expect a relaxed atmosphere, good people, and plenty of time for conversation (with free 🍕 & 🍻). IMPORTANT: MEETUP IS TRYING TO BLEED US ALL DRY SO PLEASE [SIGNUP ON LUMA](https://luma.com/ml500u2m) AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE CALENDAR THERE. IF YOU DONT SIGN UP WE CANT GUARANTEE YOUR SPOT! [https://luma.com/ml500u2m](https://luma.com/ml500u2m) ​**Agenda** ​**6:00 – 6:30pm:** Arrivals, drinks, networking **6:30 – 7:30pm:** Technical talks + Q&A **7:30pm onwards:** Networking **Technical Speakers** * ​Data @ The Economist - **[Luca de Michele](https://www.linkedin.com/in/luca-de-michele-232432148)** * Data @ Lawhive - **[Pablo Fernandez](https://www.linkedin.com/in/pablofergui/) (Head of Data)** * ​**TBA** ​**Who should attend** * ​Data Engineers & Analytics Engineers * ​Platform Infrastructure Data Ops teams * ​Anyone building, scaling, or maintaining production data pipelines

Join the Corinthians Badminton Club for a fun and social evening of badminton! This event is perfect for anyone at **Intermediate level** looking to improve their skills, meet new people, and have a great time on the court. We will have friendly matches and plenty of opportunities to socialize with fellow badminton enthusiasts. Feel free to share the event with a friend so they too can come along and enjoy a night of sports and recreation in a welcoming and inclusive environment. We play with feather shuttlecocks and unfortunately cannot accommodate beginners. This is to ensure games are fair and enjoyable for everyone. We currently have 15 regular members and are opening up 8-10 guest slots using MeetUp. Guest fees are £10 per session, please arrange payment 24 hours before session starts otherwise we would have to release your place. We are unable to offer refunds at this point. Bank Transfer Details: Account: Corinthians BC Account No: 22788263 Sort Code: 60-19-01 Reference: Your Full Name Venue: Emerson Park Academy Wych Elm Road Wingletye Lane Hornchurch Essex RM11 3AD

We are delighted to announce an evening of demos and a roundtable discussion on what you want to see from the meetups. There is also still time to feedback with the link below [Umbraco London Meetup Questionnaire](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfISk1q_ZEoN82_vhiBeWwuVG3fUUB4uqkK-PqWtArajUErJw/viewform) We are welcome from 18:30, we shall look to get started around 18:45. We'll finish by 21:00 when we take the conversations to a local pub. \-\-\-\-\- **Experiments in V17** *by Matt Bliss - Technical Director* Matt will guide us through some of his experimentation in V17 and his learnings. **AI: Am I Too old for this \*\*\*\* (stuff)** *by Andy Hawken* Andy asks the big questions and he's going to talk about his experiences with Claude AI in January and a bit of February too. **Meetup feedback rountable** *by Richard Thompson and the meetup team* Richard will run us through the results of the feedback survey on the meetup and we'll have a discussion on what people want to see from the meetups. \-\-\-\-\-\- This is Embrace will be kindly providing some refreshments. Space is a bit limited so if you realise you can't make it please be sure to change your RSVP to No in case there are people on the waiting list. \-\-\-\-\- If you would like to contribute to our meetups please in touch by email ([hello@umblondon.co.uk](hello@umblondon.co.uk)) - we are always looking for people to give talks, or London-based Umbraco agencies to host us for the evening. Please read the [Code of Conduct](https://bit.ly/UmbLondonCodeOfConduct) for all our events.

Badminton Wednesday is a fun, friendly weekly session for badminton enthusiasts who are looking for regular competitive sessions. Our sessions are for players who can compete at intermediate to advanced level. We provide hybrid feather shuttles and games are organised to maximise competition and allow players to rotate partners. We have access to 4 courts and attendees must wear the appropriate footwear and clothing. **Venue:** School 21 Pitchford Street London E15 4RZ **General Play:** Costs for general play is £10 for a 2 hour session from 8pm - 10pm. **Racquet hire:** If you wish to hire a racquet, hire cost is £5 + £20 returnable deposit when the racquet is returned to us in it's original condition. We operate a pay and play policy so we ask that all members make payment either in advance or when you arrive for your session - see payments details below. Payable by cash or bank transfer to Christopher Butcher Monzo Bank Account Number : 73518191 Sort code :04-00-04 Please include your name and session day as reference eg Julie220223 **Disclaimer:** Shuttlers and School 21 do not accept any responsibility for any breakage, loss or injury during the session. The venue is based in Stratford, East London and offers male and female changing rooms, shower facilities and onsite parking. **Please do not attend this session if you have not joined the event on the Meetup group as demand is high and games cannot be guaranteed if you turn up without joining the event.** **If you RSVP to join an event and cannot attend the session, we kindly request that you amend your RSVP as soon as possible so that the spot is made available to other members on the waitlist.** We at Shuttlers look forward to welcoming you to the group. Members can contact Chris on 07565 790725 or Julie on 07956 957696 if you require further information.

Elixir London Meetup; February 2026 edition. All are welcome. **Session 1: Bryan Hunt - Faria Data Platform: Building a data platform in Elixir** How to build an ETL pipeline using Amazon Athena, and Elixir: techniques, tools, UX, lessons learned. **Session 2: Christoph Beck** **\- Structured Generation and Logits Processing with Elixir** Ever tried to get a poem from an LLM doesn't contain the letter \`e\`? Large Language Models are kind of amazing and surprisingly unreliable at the same time. Using Elixir's Bumblebee and open source LLMs, you can get much better control over the generation. We introduce you to logits processing, and how it can be used to achieve what ChatGPT can not accomplish. *The event is kindly sponsored by* [Verna](https://verna.earth). **Time** Doors open at 18, start at 18.30. **Venue** Geovation F4, Sutton Yard, 65 Goswell Rd., London EC1V 7EN **Refreshments** Food and drinks will be provisioned on the day. **IMPORTANT**: **If you wish to take photos and post online during the event, please notify organisers first, so that attendees can opt-out from being in photos.**

**Note: The cost is increasing for 2025 to cover increased court and shuttle costs** Central Badminton Club is a long-established, sociable group who enjoy badminton at an intermediate level. A reasonable standard of play is expected: guests should be regular players with a few years’ experience – no beginners, please. Join us for two hours of friendly, competitive badminton with like-minded enthusiasts. We use four courts, but even so we need to limit numbers so that everybody gets a fair number of games. We play from 8 to 10pm, with optional drinks and socialising in the pub afterwards. The cost of £12 per two-hour session includes feather shuttles. You can pay in cash at the session, or via bank transfer: * Account name: Central Badminton Club * Account number: 25977568 * Sort code: 30 98 97 Our commitment is to ensure that you have an enjoyable evening. However, since we are a non- profit club with tight finances, we expect that once you RSVP you commit yourself to play. You may cancel up to 24 hours before the the session to avoid any attendance charge and to allow other people on the wait list to play. If you do not show without notice we reserve the right to charge a full non-attendance fee if you come again and persistent offenders may be blocked from our club. So please be thoughtful and let us know in good time if you cannot attend.

## Details Welcome to the DevSecOps London Gathering February Event on Wednesday 19 Feb in collaboration with London DevOps! We bring you two amazing talks, as well as the usual conversations, pizza and beer! 📍 **Hosted at Autogen AI, Pentonville Road, London** 📅 **Wednesday, 19 February** 🕕 **6:00–8:00 PM** ## Talk 1 **Abstract:** Concrete CMS, a popular open-source content management system, contains a critical flaw in its file upload functionality that can be exploited in two distinct ways. This talk demonstrates how a single upload can lead to a Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF), allowing access to internal cloud resources, and a double race condition that enables Remote Code Execution (RCE) via a malicious backdoor. We’ll walk through the exploitation process, show how existing protections can be bypassed, and highlight practical steps to secure file upload mechanisms in real-world applications. ## Talk 2 **Abstract** Treat authentication as a production-critical system with its own failure modes and operational risks. In this talk, I break down real-world auth incidents involving JWKS rotation errors, refresh token storms, clock drift, and session store outages. I show how to define SLIs and SLOs that measure user impact and how to build monitoring and alerting that expose real reliability problems. I demonstrate practical guardrails such as token caching, exponential backoff with jitter, circuit breakers, and feature-flagged degraded modes. Finally, I walk through an incident runbook that helps teams diagnose, mitigate, and recover from authentication failures safely and quickly.

**Important:** Register on the [event website](https://www.aicamp.ai/event/eventdetails/W2026021910)[ ](https://www.aicamp.ai/event/eventdetails/W2025110510)is required for admission. We are excited to partner with Coder for a special edition of our AI Meetup in February, focusing on AI governance and compliance for developers. AI is already part of how developers work: Coding assistants. Autonomous agents. Background tasks. PR reviews. But in most companies, AI usage is either completely ungoverned or quietly blocked. This meetup is for developers who want to understand what AI governance actually means in practice, without turning their workflow into a compliance nightmare. We’ll focus on how teams are introducing guardrails that protect source code, credentials, and infrastructure while still letting developers move fast. No policy decks. No buzzwords. Just real examples of how AI agents are being used safely inside modern dev environments. **You’ll walk away with:** * \- A clear understanding of what AI governance actually means for developers\, not just security teams * \- Insight into why AI agents need different permissions than humans and where most teams get this wrong * \- Practical examples of how guardrails can speed teams up instead of slowing them down * \- A simple mental model you can apply whether you’re experimenting with AI locally or rolling it out across a team **Who this is for:** \- Beginner → intermediate software developers \- Platform engineers and DevOps folks supporting dev teams \- Anyone using \(or wanting to use\) AI tools beyond simple autocomplete **Agenda:** \* 6:00pm\~6:30pm: Checkin, Food and Networking \* 6:30pm\~6:45pm: Welcome/community update \* 6:45pm\~8:30pm: Tech talks and Q&A \* 8:30pm\~9:30pm: Open discussion & Mixer **Tech Talk: AI Governance for Developers** **Speaker:** Eric Paulsen, Field CTO, Coder **Abstract:** In this session, we will deep dive into AI governance for developers. We will explores the often-unseen risks developers face when using AI tools—from unintended data exposure to tool lock-in—and how teams can implement lightweight, developer-friendly governance. Learn how to build secure, standardized AI workflows that provide guardrails without slowing innovation, so you can ship with confidence. **Speakers/Topics:** Check the [event website](https://www.aicamp.ai/event/eventdetails/W2026021910) for speakers and topics. If you have a keen interest in speaking to our community, we invite you to submit topics for consideration: [Submit Topics](https://forms.gle/JkMt91CZRtoJBSFUA) **Sponsors:** We are actively seeking sponsors to support AI developers community. Whether it is by offering venue spaces, providing food, or cash sponsorship. Sponsors will not only speak at the meetups, receive prominent recognition, but also gain exposure to our extensive membership base of 20,000+ AI developers in London and 500K+ worldwide.

Hi everyone! Booking is now open for our next badminton session, 11am-1pm on Sunday at Ark All Saints Camberwell 140 Wyndham Road SE5 0UB. The cost is only £10 per person plus £1.62 Meetup booking fee, paid in advance before the start of the session. Bring your racket or lease one for the session for a nominal £2.00, shuttlecocks is provided. The lease rackets are available at the venue, so just make your way down. Please note we don't have enough for everybody just a few. If you damage your racket during the session you get one to use for free. So if you wish to play and don’t yet have a racket make your way down, try and have a couple of nuggets (£2.00) handy because the racket lease fee is not included with the session booking fee. Payment is by PayPal, Debit card, Credit card, Bank transfer, and Cash. Contact the host if you encounter any problem with making payment or wish to pay by other method (Payment by Bank transfer & Cash is £10.00) Direction: The badminton hall is situated at the rear of the school, read on for direction on how to locate the hall. The main entrance to the school is located on Wyndham road, on Wyndham road look for Toulon Street it is on the same side as the school. If you stand facing the school Toulon Street should be to your right. Toulon street lead on to Pitman Street which is where the entrance is located. Use the pedestrian gate to let yourself in, if it is locked use the intercom and somebody should let you in. Immediately inside the school premises the entrance to the badminton venue is the building to your immediate right. For more info, contact the host Look forward to seeing you! Many thanks Afam

🏎️ **If you’re not automating yet… you probably are.** Be honest: how much of your job are you already secretly automating, and how much of it is just automation in disguise? In this session, **[Ellis Pratt](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellispratt/)**, director of **[Cherryleaf](https://www.cherryleaf.com/)**, will take a clear, no-hype look at automation in technical communication. He’ll rewind to where things stood just over a year ago, then discuss what’s changed since. We’ll explore how automation shows up across the technical writing lifecycle, and common pitfalls that come with it. Finally, we’ll look ahead. What does increasing automation really mean for our careers as technical writers and documentarians? Join us for an honest, practical conversation about what to automate, what not to, and how to stay relevant as the tools keep changing. **📣 This event is aimed at technical writers and those working in closely related roles. The discussion will focus on automation and AI specifically in the context of technical documentation and technical content workflows.** **When:** Thursday 19 February, from 6.30pm **Where:** The Yellow Room @ Remark! 18 Leather Lane, EC1N 7SU **What:** 18.30 - 19.00 Arrival 19.00 - 19.45 Presentation 19.45 - 20.00 Short break 20.00 - 20.45 Presentation 20.45 - 21.30 Networking *All times are approximate.* **Photos:** Note that the organizers will take some photos for the WTD group.

Ready to think clearer, reason better, and express with clarity? Join us for a practical wholesome philosophy practice where we learn essential thinking skills through hands-on group practice. Leave academics and theory at the door— this is a skills-building adventure for everyday life! 🧠✨ This event's focus: **Develop Thinking Habits** 🎯 a part of the Wholesome Philosophy series — that help you build a complete thinking toolkit. **See below** 👇🏽 **Why should you sign up?** ✅ Practical toolkit you can use immediately ✅ Small group practice ✅ Private, quiet venue for focus ✅ Standalone session - Previous parts help, but not required **What is Wholesome Philosophy?** Practical philosophy for everyday life - helping you build useful skills for thinking clearer and communicating better in work, relationships, and daily conversations. You'll learn through pair work, and group practice. 💬 spread across **different sessions:** * **Clear Thinking & Better Arguments** — How to reason * **Develop Thinking Habits** — Spotting biases and fallacies * **The Art of Dialogue** — Having productive disagreements * **Constructing Your Position** — Building solid viewpoints * **Decision-Making Frameworks** — Choosing wisely under uncertainty * **Self-Examination & Growth** — Questioning your own beliefs Each session works standalone — attend one, some, or all. ***Want to join all?*** Speak to the facilitator about discounted pricing for the full (6 parts) series ✅ **Who is it for?** * You want to think clearer and communicate better * You feel frustrated when your point doesn't land * You want to spot weak reasoning (including your own) * You enjoy learning through practice, not just theory * You crave thoughtful conversation with curious people * You want practical tools you can use tomorrow No philosophy background needed — just show up ready to practice. 🎉 **What's in it for you?** * Make your points stick (without fighting) 💡 * Think more clearly about any topic even complex ones 🧠 * Have disagreements that don't turn into arguments 🤝 * Understand the world better 🌍 * Connect with curious, thoughtful people ✨ * Gain confidence in your reasoning abilities 💪 **How does it work?** * Facilitated practice session (2 hours) with structured exercises ⏱ * Small group discussions (4-6 people) 💬 * Pair work for hands-on practice 🤝 * Individual reflection moments 🧘 * Whole group sharing (optional, not required) 🌟 Everything is timed and guided — you'll know exactly what to do at each stage 📝 **What to expect** Collaborative discovery, without competitive learning. Practicing together, without performing for each other. What happens in the room stays in the room. 🔒 * **Depth**: Beyond small talk, but it's not therapy — we're developing thinking skills 🧠 * **Safety**: Wholesome Agreement principles apply — respect, curiosity, no judgment 🤝 * **Practical**: You'll leave with tools, not just concepts — things you can actually use the next day 🛠️ * **Participation**: These are practice sessions — your active participation creates the learning environment 💬 **Ready to upgrade your thinking skills?** 🌊 Join us for a Wholesome Philosophy practice session and walk away with various thinking tools — it's for anyone who wants to navigate life with a sharper, kinder mind. 🌟 We really hope to see you there! 👋 **About Deeper Connections** We have a mission at Deeper Connections to improve the quality of people's lives through conversation. All our events are centred around the concept of connecting deeply, because we believe we all deserve to be seen, felt and understood for who we really are. To have the 'deeper conversation' approach when relating with others can change our lives and can change the world. **Our Values** * **Respect:** Treat everyone with kindness and consideration. ❤️ * **Open-mindedness:** Be open to different perspectives and ideas. 🧠💡 * **Active Participation:** Share your thoughts and engage in meaningful discussions. 🗣️💬 **Staying in touch** Interested in finding out about all the events sooner than on Meetup or staying in touch beyond the events, you can join our WhatsApp channel and community using 👉🏽 [Deeper Connections WhatsApp Channel](https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb6CBAdIN9ijrEYdv33z) 👉🏽 [Deeper Connections WhatsApp Community](https://chat.whatsapp.com/EqGsmF3021RKTwBpGcuR80)

A **smaller, quieter, and less rushed** edition of THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS IN PUBS. At TEiP DEEP, we have the chance to spend a whole hour and a half on **one thought experiment**, exploring different perspectives, coming up with new questions, listening and learning from one another. **How it works:** \- We split into small groups for each chapter of the thought experiment \(3\-4\)\. \- We shuffle every 25 mins to meet new people and change things up\. \- And at the end we'll have a brief group reflection\, sharing ideas and insights \- this will be lightly facilitated to ensure that everyone has a chance to speak if they want to \(no pressure\)\. Some simple ground rules to keep our conversation the best it can be: * respect for one another’s perspectives, beliefs, time (etc.) * confidentiality of personal stories * own your perspective * you don’t have to talk if you don’t want to. Our aim is the same as our bigger Thought Experiments in Pubs meetups: **a chance to meet and talk at about meaningful, thought provoking things**. Although we’ll be going a bit ‘deeper’, we’ll keep the intention to have an enjoyable evening, with good humour and fun. Places are limited to 15-20 people and tickets are £5. Please update your RSVP if you can no longer attend so that someone else can have your place. **Who should come:** Everyone! We believe that the more perspectives, the richer the conversation. This group is not about being experts in Philosophy, it is about *doing* philosophy. That is, bringing our various life experiences and lenses on the world to group discussions about the human experience, the nature of reality...etc. etc.... **Where we'll meet:** The Fitzroy Tavern in Fitzrovia. The nearest Tube stations are Goodge Street and Tottenham Court Road. Looking forward to meeting & talking with you :-) **[WHATSAPP GROUP](https://chat.whatsapp.com/D13LHw5BV3rEtUtO3ORklC)** \- stay in the loop **[INSTAGRAM](https://www.instagram.com/thoughtexperimentsinpubs/)** \- see what we look like **[FACEBOOK](www.facebook.com/thoughtexperimentsinpub)** \- ditto **[WEBSITE](www.alltogether.one)** \- sign up to the newsletter\, support\, & feed back #philosophyinpubs #inclusivity #openmindedness #deepdive #TEiPdeep

NOTE: This meetup is more technical than our normal subjects! Everyone is welcome to join but the content will be designed for developers and engineering leaders. Shaping our future with AI. Creating opportunity through AI fluency, connection and community. No jargon. No hype. No confusing terminology. **Join us for our next in-person meetup in London on Thursday February 19th.** Our theme for this meetup is **AI Coding the right way.** We'll be joined by Daniel Jones (AI Consultant, re:cinq) who has taught over 100 developers how to get the most of AI tools. Then we welcome a panel of engineering leaders to discuss the lessons they have learned on getting the best from their teams with new tools! **Where and When?** * Thursday, February 19th * Doors open at 18:00 * Talks start at 19:00 * Tessl HQ, 210 Pentonville Rd, London N1 9JY, UK **Talk: Agentic Coding For 100 Developers** (Daniel Jones) How has a $3b Stockholm SaaS company transitioned 100 developers to AI-native development over a few weeks? Deejay shares how he helped Odevo with exactly this, but the answer might be more than you expect - it involves just as much discovery and psychology and it does training. Learn about the social and business pre-requisites for such a transformation, the syllabus that enables developers to use multi-agent workflows, and how 'one-and-done' training is insufficient for this type of behavioural change. **About Deejay:** Deejay is an AI Consultant at re:cinq, and has over a decade of experience in assisting organisations with tech transformation. He's been a developer, manager, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, father, bassist, martial arts instructor, games developer, and wearer of a rather silly moustache. **Expert Panel: Leading Dev Teams Through AI Adoptions** There are no right answers but there is certainly a lot of talk about when it comes to adopting AI coding tools in the right way. This expert panel will share the lessons they've learnt so far and what's working for their teams. * Norberto Lopes, VP Engineering, Incident.io * Corey Leigh Latislaw, Head of Engineering at JustEat Takeaway * Daniel Jones, AI Consultant, re:cinq **About Norberto** Norberto is focussed on the intersection of building technology and how humans behave and work together. Currently VP Engineering at Incident.io, Norberto has enjoyed a varied career from startups to large companies. Growing teams across IT, product delivery, security, data infrastructure, and infrastructure. Read Norberto's excellent blog here: [nlopes.dev](https://nlopes.dev/) **About Corey** Corey Leigh Latislaw is Head of Groceries and New Verticals at JustEat Takeaway and previously led AI adoption alongside her day job at Trainline and Kin + Carta. She believes the human capacity for creativity is key to thriving in the age of AI. **Code of Conduct** This event has a code of conduct that you can [review here.](https://aifortherestofus.live/code-of-conduct) **Providing Your Name and Email** To register for this event you'll be asked to provide your full name and email address. This is a requirement for building security so please provide your real name and email address. After the event you will be automatically subscribed to event updates from AI for the rest of us and AI Native Dev. You can unsubscribe at any time.

**Important time note:** Please plan on arriving between 5:30 and 6:00 as the elevators lock after 6 and you'll need to message us and we'll need to come get you. The building address is 4450 Bridge Park The entrance is 6620 Mooney St, Suite 400 You will need to scan your ID at the door to get a visitor badge. **Abstract** *Spec-Driven Development with GitHub Spec-Kit: From Intent to Implementation* Spec-driven development flips the traditional workflow on its head: instead of code being the source of truth, the specification becomes the backbone of design, collaboration, and delivery. In this session, we’ll explore how GitHub Spec-Kit enables teams to treat specifications as first-class artifacts—living documents that drive architecture, implementation, and verification. You’ll learn how Spec-Kit helps teams clearly express intent using structured, version-controlled specs that live alongside code. We’ll walk through a practical workflow that starts with defining system behavior and constraints, then progressively refines those specs into testable, automatable outcomes. Along the way, we’ll show how specs can reduce ambiguity, improve cross-functional collaboration, and make design decisions explicit before a single line of production code is written. This talk will cover: --What spec-driven development is (and what it isn’t) --How GitHub Spec-Kit fits into modern developer workflows --Using specs to align product, engineering, and AI-assisted development --Real-world examples of turning specs into implementations with confidence Whether you’re building greenfield systems, integrating AI into your stack, or trying to reduce costly rework, spec-driven development offers a scalable way to move faster without sacrificing clarity. Attendees will leave with concrete patterns and a clear mental model for adopting GitHub Spec-Kit in their own projects. **YouTube Link** TBA

# **Band: Old Possum's Menagerie; Caller: Richard Ades** Beginner lesson at 1:30, regular dancing begins at 2:00 pm NOTE THAT WE ARE TEMPORARILY DANCING IN THE AFTERNOON INSTEAD OF EVENING. Dance with us in the afternoon then you can still go out in the evening! **Sponsor: All Soles Contra and Square Dancing, First Unitarian Universalist Church, 93 W. Weisheimer Rd., Columbus OH 43214** WHAT IS CONTRA DANCING? Picture the Grand Ball scenes like you’ve seen in period films such as “Pride and Prejudice”, where the dancers are lined up in long lines, across from each other. That’s English Country Dancing, the predecessor of contra dancing. Now, add moves like “swing your partner” and “do-si-do,” like you’ve seen in square dancing. Set it to fabulous, high energy, live music with fiddles, guitars, percussion and more, alá “Riverdance.” Finally, set the whole scene down in the middle of Woodstock, with a hip, groovy atmosphere, a bit of tie-dye, and hints of counter-culture attitude. THAT’s Contra Dancing! Wear cool and comfortable clothes (you will get warm) and clean shoes that won't mark up our nice wood floor. Be sure to come for the beginner's lesson from 1:30 - 2:00, followed by dancing 2:00 - 430. All dances are taught; we will help you learn! Beginners always welcome, no need to bring a partner. Cost is $10.00 adults, $5.00 ages 12-26. Under 12 free. Free parking in church lot. Please bring your own refillable water bottle.

Join the Columbus AI community for our quarterly gathering — a casual, community-focused evening where everyone has a chance to share, learn, and connect. These open mic–style events give anyone in the community up to **5 minutes** to present a project, share a tool, pose a question, or offer a perspective on the evolving AI space. No slides required — just a welcoming space to exchange ideas and keep the local AI conversation moving. If you’d like to take the stage, message **Chris (the organizer)** with a **title and short description** of what you’d like to share. Whether you’re deep in the field or just getting curious, come connect with others building and exploring AI in Columbus. Sponsored by [Transform Labs](https://www.transformlabs.com/services)

It’s time to take control of your mental health. How do you get rid of stress, anxiety and uncertainty? These emotions are buried deep in your reactive mind. Find out what the reactive mind is, and in the process find yourself. Have you ever suffered from a traumatic experience, a deep loss or been through a painful breakup? Has your ability to communicate suffered as a result? And after that, even though you "moved on" did you find that things were never quite the same? Have you ever looked at childhood photos, or reminisced your early life and wondered where that happiness and spark went? Are your emotions out of your own control? Have you ever felt, even if you aren’t aware of it, that possibly you are getting in your own way of your happiness and success? How does this affect your self-confidence? Find out what is at the root of all stress, anxiety, depression and self-doubt. Find out how and why you hold yourself back from achieving your goals and having the life you have dreamed of. As soon as you learn what is at the root of these unwanted conditions, you’ll see it is something you can DO something about. You will not be labeled or categorized at this MeetUp.

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

**Caller: Frank Buschelmann** **Band: The Rosenthorns** **Big Scioty Contra Dance** **temporarily returning to our long ago location for Jan-March - First Congregational Church, 444 E. Broad St., Columbus 43215** WHAT IS CONTRA DANCING? Picture the Grand Ball scenes like you’ve seen in period films such as “Pride and Prejudice”, where the dancers are lined up in long lines, across from each other. That’s English Country Dancing, the predecessor of contra dancing. Now, add moves like “swing your partner” and “do-si-do,” like you’ve seen in square dancing. Set it to fabulous, high energy, live music with fiddles, guitars, percussion and more, alá “Riverdance.” Finally, set the whole scene down in the middle of Woodstock, with a hip, groovy atmosphere, a bit of tie-dye, and hints of counter-culture attitude. THAT’s Contra Dancing! Wear cool and comfortable clothes (you will get warm) and clean shoes that won't mark up our nice wood floor. Be sure to come for the beginner's lesson from 7:30 - 8:00, followed by dancing 8:00 - 10:30. All dances are taught; we will help you learn! Beginners always welcome, no need to bring a partner. Cost is $10.00 adults, $5.00 ages 12-26. Under 12 free. Free parking in church lot. For more information contact me or check out our website: [www.bigscioty.com](http://www.bigscioty.com/) Please bring your own refillable water bottle. Snacks to share are always welcome!

As you may or may not know--I didn't until late last year--Aristotle wrote extensively on "friendship" in the Nicomachean Ethics. After 69 years the concept of friendship still creates questions and uncertainty. I had close friends in high school and for a few years after high school but our interests diverged and people moved all over the country so it was hard to maintain connections. * So if I/you haven't talked with a friend for several years, are you still friends? Are we friends who meet at Drunken Philosophy or Omnipresent Atheists? * Can you be friends with someone with whom you have virulently divergent political views? Sartre and Camus could not. * Aristotle regarded friendship as essential to a good life, not merely an added "bonus." Do you agree? * In the Nicomachean Ethics (Books VIII and IX), he claims that wealth and power are meaningless without friends. Trump has wealth and power but seems to have no real friends, but wealth and power seem meaningful to him in perverted ways. Can you have meaning in your life without friends? * Do men and women view and maintain friendships in different ways? * Aristotle categorizes friendship into three types, based on what forms the bond: * **Utility**: Based on mutual benefit, but this type is fragile and ends when the usefulness ceases. * **Pleasure**: Based on shared enjoyment (e.g., humor, hobbies). Common among youth but fades as interests change. * **Virtue (The "Complete" Friendship)**: Based on mutual respect for each other's character and goodness. You wish good for the other for their sake, not yours. * **Key Principles of "True" (Virtuous) Friendship:** * **Permanence**: Virtuous friendships last a lifetime whereas those based on utility and pleasure are fleeting. * **Reciprocity**: Requires mutual goodwill; secret or unreciprocated affection does not qualify. * **The "Second Self"**: A true friend is "another self"—their virtue helps you understand and improve yourself. * **Time and Intimacy**: Deep ("complete") friendships are few, built on time and shared experiences. * **Self-Love and Friendship:** * Good friendship starts with being a friend to yourself. * They distinguish shallow egoism (chasing honors) from real self-love (pursuing virtue). * A virtuous person’s pleasant self-company allows them to be a stable, good friend to others. * Aristotle argues that one's social circle ultimately reflects one's character—a view with striking relevance today. Well--the Drunken Philosophy social circle certainly reflects good character!