by Jim McFarlandMeeting was called to order by
Norm Levin filling in for
John Bartlett. Flag Salute and Thought of the Day was led by
John Clough. His quote was from Hon. Louis Brandeis, U.S. Supreme Court Justice. “The most important office is that of the private citizen. Its duties cannot be neglected without serious injury to the public.”
Guests: Daniel Gonzalez, guest of
David Hadley; Madelyne Salo, guest of
Rick Farrell; John Hudson, guest of
Paul Rudy,
Tarik Shaer, and
Jeff Serota; Kapil Singh, husband of
Sandesha Singh.
President Cedric showed us his first slide, a photo from 65 years ago of our club in 1960 celebrating 10 years.
President Cedric reminded us to lean into Rotary, showing a slide of the Four Way Test! He has made so many connections through the club and suggested we reach out to others.
Paul Rudy introduced our first guest speaker, Jonas Hudson, co-founder of GFT Rewards, Legend Blockchain and The Chili Coin. What makes things valuable? Scarcity, velocity, and trust. Who do you trust? Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan, “Towering genius of finance, savior of Wall Street, and an irritable dick, or Vitalik Buterin, the programmer who co-founded Ethereum. Eccentric, introverted, a genuinely nice, generous and thoughtful person?” Dimon bad-mouthed block chain and Bitcoin back in 2017.
Jonas showed a slide detailing, as of August 24, 2025, the most valuable assets in the world by market capitalization:
1. Gold - $22.9 trillion
2. NVIDIA - $4.34 trillion
3. Microsoft - $3.77 trillion
4. Apple - $3.38 trillion
5. Bitcoin (BTC) - $2.29 trillion
He went through the evolution of the web.
Web 1.0 - 1991 to 2004: Read only and static. Users consuming information. Flash and Java added features and improved the experience.
Web 2.0 - 2004 to Present: Interactive experiences plus smart devices. Big Tech collecting and selling personal information. Machine learning and algorithms increase user engagement.
Web 3.0 - Will be with us in less than 2 years. Built on blockchain technology. Users own their personal information and content.
Web 4.0 - Built on blockchain technology using Al. A proposed future version of the internet characterized by a highly intelligent, symbiotic relationship between humans and machines.
Christina Pascucci introduced our second speaker, Dr. Michael Everest, founder and CEO of edYOU Technologies,
https://Edyou.com/. It provides test prep with 24/7 conversational AI tutors. The challenge in education is that the test prep market is antiquated and lacking convenient access to real-time feedback from subject matter experts. Personalized test prep is costly, hard to access, and inconvenient for many. He answered questions then gave a real-time demonstration of the site, with a sample algebraic equation, multiple choice answers, and, when a wrong answer was given, a verbal and written correct answer was presented. Would be great for SAT test prep, med school exam prep, etc. Pretty amazing!
President Cedric showed us some Happy Dollar slides.
Lisa Hemmat-
Lupercio hosted South Bay Social at Playa Hermosa. 20-25 MB Rotarians attended as well as 30-40 more than 20 participants.
Debby Arnold in Gdansk, Poland. Taco Tuesday with
Vinny Fazzino and
President Cedric. Priscila Kasha’s birthday in Ensenada, where she caught her first fish ever!!
Norm Levin and
Wade Austin met up at the AT&T store.
Dave and Samantha Barnes at the AVP Open. Another picture of
Dave Barnes minutes after the previous photo was taken. Looks like the pavement came up and bit him in the face. Asphalt 1, Face 0!!
John Acker in Peru. In the news.
Madelyne Salo with her dad, as she opens her new dental office in Manhattan Beach! Slide of
John Clough’s wife Rebecca Zung, who has launched Slay AI. Survivors of Narcissistic Abuse.
Rick Farrell - Why is there a crane in your front yard?
We had July and August birthdays and anniversaries!! Congrats to all celebrating!! The Club sung for both!!
Christina Pascucci was named Rotarian for the Month for August for bringing in excellent speakers and taking part in so many Rotarian activities.
Connection Challenge updates – photos from 8 meet-ups were presented and many more have taken place. The deadline for entering the August Connection Challenge raffle is Sunday, September 14, and winners will be drawn during the weekly meeting on September 15.
For more meeting photos, go to
SmugMug.
