- A participant mused about the “endless geometric values” (sines and cosines) that can be extracted from analyzing circular orbits on slices of the unit sphere, hinting at a possible connection to the “Brian/Bryan connect,” though the idea was left unexplained and the speaker admitted confusion.  
- The 2009 iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine) competition was announced to be coming to Bloomington on January 22, marking an important date for open-source synthetic-biology efforts.  
- A brief complaint about being overwhelmed by Freecycle e-mail traffic illustrated the practical friction of coordinating hardware reuse within the DIY-bio and maker communities.