- A “Citizen Science Quarterly” print magazine was floated as an ambitious open-science publishing project, prompting discussion about the viability of launching a new periodical for DIY researchers.  
- dbolser set up a SOCKS proxy on bifx.org that tunnels through the Max-Planck Institute (markov.molgen.mpg.de) to give channel members free, institution-level access to Elsevier, Nature, Science, IEEE Xplore, and other pay-walled journals; detailed ssh -D and ssh -L recipes were shared.  
- fenn requested bulk downloads of IEEE titles covering image processing, computer graphics, robotics, sensors, signal processing, and computer vision; dbolser noted that wget scripting against the proxy is possible but tedious, and suggested Perl automation instead.  
- kanzure accidentally symlinked “/” into /var/www on the bio.cc server years ago, causing a recent outage; the incident was rediscovered when the admin emailed, prompting apologies and discussion of server hygiene.  
- kanzure highlighted a $30 children’s “DNA Lab” toy sold by Toys-R-Us that includes real TBE buffer, enzymes, pipettes, and a small centrifuge, noting the blurring line between educational kits and entry-level biohacking gear.  
- fenn reported ordering a 23andMe kit after family members declined, sparking tongue-in-cheek commentary about “Sudden Death Syndrome” SNPs and the psychological barriers to personal genomics.  
- Technical side-chatter covered using a spare WRT54G as a Linux gateway, the quirks of HTTP vs SOCKS proxies, and the utility of tools like FoxyProxy, curl --socks5, and runsocks for tunneling traffic.