- A real-time Markov-model-driven application switcher was proposed to predict and pre-load the next app a user is likely to open, eliminating the need for repeated alt-tabbing.  
- QuantumG circulated a 2001 survey paper that consolidates key Sonter studies on asteroid-mining economics, providing a single reference for cost-benefit analyses.  
- Participants shared a Science paper describing “plastic antibodies”—molecularly-imprinted polymer nanoparticles that neutralize target peptides in mice—suggesting a path to injectable synthetic immune systems.  
- The channel debated the legal mismatch between open-source hardware licenses (e.g., TAPR’s Open Hardware License) and U.S. patent law, concluding that permissive copyright on design files cannot override patent-based exclusion rights.  
- Links to longevity-genetics research from the New England Centenarian Study and optogenetic experiments that rewired fruit-fly larvae to perceive blue light as the smell of bananas were distributed.  
- A public OkCupid match-data scraper (http://designfiles.org/~bryan/okcupid/match.data) was released after its author refused to pay for personality-trait filtering, and Chris Phoenix of the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology was spotted on the platform.  
- LiveNomadic (http://www.livenomadic.com/), a “Zipcar-for-apartments” service, was introduced, prompting discussion on algorithmic occupancy routing and how it differs from CouchSurfing.  
- TED released a Google-Spreadsheet index of all its talks, and MetaOptimize Q&A was recommended as a Stack-Overflow-style forum for machine-learning practitioners.