• Ray Kurzweil’s new “Singularity University” is announced (FT article); participants note the $25 k price tag and the conspicuous absence of manufacturing or open-hardware curricula, reinforcing the “nanotech-or-bust” bias they see in Kurzweil’s roadmap.  
• Mackenzie Cowell and Hugh Reinhoff appear on NHPR to discuss DIYbio; Reinhoff’s on-air reply to security questions is cut short, prompting channel members to propose drafting “media kits” and FAQ documents so future interviewees can deflect “what if terrorists use this?” attacks.  
• A live bench report from wrldpc describes a new plexiglass gel-electrophoresis box running lithium-borate buffer; good band separation is observed, but power-supply hiccups and sample-concentration issues are flagged for the next iteration.  
• Discussion of ultra-low-cost DNA visualization methods: 260 nm UV LEDs (used in backpack water sterilizers), crossed-polarizer “circular-dichroism” rigs, and printable Fresnel Zernike phase-contrast plates are all floated as garage-lab alternatives to expensive lab gear.  
• kanzure posts the 1928 Raman-spectroscopy paper and a DNA-absorption spectrum paper to the DIYbio list within minutes of a member’s request, illustrating the channel’s rapid literature-sharing culture; fenn notes the Raman paper is too sparse for practical replication.  
• Gordon Novak (SKDB / F-OSS competition judge) emails feedback: entries need (1) a demonstrable user base and (2) clear code-ownership records; kanzure concedes the repo currently shows fenn did “everything” and that mock packages are still placeholders.  
• A spontaneous job-market critique emerges: participants lament that résumé sites do not openly trade “job units” like commodities, and that Google has not yet indexed human talent with the same rigor it indexes web pages.  
• Seasteading Institute contacts kanzure—context unclear but noted as a new institutional touch-point for transhumanist projects.  
• kanzure is appointed “Pink Army Admiral,” hinting at upcoming paid R&D retainers (< 1 year) once legal paperwork concludes; channel jokes about hijacking Pink Army infrastructure for general open-transhumanist ends.  
• gene suggests adapting DMD chips or simple transparency masks with reducing optics to photochemically mill sub-millimeter precision metal parts, extending earlier links on chemical-etch fabrication services.