- A participant asked whether a “Top500”-style ranking exists for DNA-sequencing machines, prompting discussion about whether the metric should be raw sequencing throughput or identification accuracy; kanzure noted that someone had previously plotted sequencing models against “the Carlson curves.”

- kanzure shared a neuroscience paper on the activation of opposing muscle groups in the crayfish claw (http://www.biol.sc.edu/~vogt/courses/neuro/notes/crawfish-claw-todd1.pdf) as a potential model for bio-robotic actuation.

- David Nunez’s studio announced a paid project to create an iPad interface for a DIY microscope, interpreted by the channel as “outsourcing Mac’s roboscope.”

- Gary Wolf’s TED talk on the Quantified Self (http://www.ted.com/talks/gary_wolf_the_quantified_self.html) was circulated, sourced from the Hebrew life-extension community.

- Google Maps’ inclusion of drone imagery (Slashdot story) and the new Humanity+ website redesign sparked criticism over branding, font sizes, and the use of Gundam artwork.

- Ben Goertzel reportedly called “transhumanism dangerous garbage” during a Humanity+ board call that kanzure was quietly monitoring.

- The Humanity+ board meeting was described as unfocused—proposing a crowdsourced wiki “to be like Wikipedia” while spending ~$3 k/month on blog hosting—prompting debate on what a transhumanist organization should actually build or fund.

- genehacker reported working on robot arms, SAE racecars, and an exoskeleton powered by a “compact fusion reactor obtained through dubious means,” and requested data on elemental abundances (C, H, Cl, F) in metallic asteroids for in-space metallurgy.

- QuantumG provided a Vatican Observatory PDF of asteroid densities (http://homepage.mac.com/brother_guy/.Public/Asteroid%20Densities.pdf) and noted that Hayabusa’s sample-return dust may yield compositional data in the next year or two.

- kanzure lamented the lack of any deep analysis of “the role of invention in transhumanism,” contrasting Kurzweil’s “hands-off” stance with the need for open-source hardware and actionable projects rather than promotional websites.