- Participants explored DIY neuromodulation, noting that at least one member had already built a tDCS device and that superkuh had experimented with magnetic stimulation; ultrasound stimulation was highlighted as a promising alternative offering ~2 mm targeting resolution, with a curated paper collection at http://diyhpl.us/~bryan/papers2/neuro/ultrasound/.  
- A debate on open-access scientific literature centered on the absence of a single, freely downloadable index of all journal articles, with participants attributing the gap to Elsevier, OCLC, and Bowker claiming compilation copyrights on metadata.  
- A distributed scraping architecture was proposed to let contributors upload PDFs plus machine-readable BibTeX/YAML metadata, using SHA-256 hashes and web-of-trust reviews to detect tampered or watermarked files.  
- kanzure initiated plans to create an independent, continuously updated mirror of the NCBI genomes repository, arguing that existing university mirrors are often stale or vulnerable to takedown.  
- Concerns over open access to pathogen genomes arose when Yersinia pestis DNA sequences were noted to be publicly available; kanzure countered that “obscurity is not security” and emphasized developing biological countermeasures such as improved vaccines.  
- A large, disorganized trove of biomedical protocol books (e.g., “Gene Targeting Protocols,” “Protein Purification Protocols”) was discovered at bib.tiera.ru, prompting discussion of a standardized metadata scheme combining BibTeX with file hashes to verify completeness and enable indexing.  
- DIY chemistry safety was discussed, concluding that an inexpensive box-plus-fan fume hood is usually adequate for home organic-chemistry work unless extremely toxic reagents are involved, and noting the need to monitor explosive vapor concentrations.  
- Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton provided a step-by-step build recipe for the legacy Python-Hulahop browser-embedding library, including the source tarball http://lkcl.net/hulahop/sugar-hulahop-0.8.1.success.tgz and exact Debian packaging commands to compile and install it.  
- Steel_ announced plans to run finite-element simulations later this year to model how implanted magnets behave inside living tissue, aiming to understand their mechanical and biological interactions.