• A DIYbio book list was shared at http://diyhpl.us/wiki/diybio/faq/books and http://diyhpl.us/wiki/diybio/faq, recommended as the best starting point for self-learners even before “Bio 101” texts; kanzure advised supplementing with Wikipedia rather than using overly simplified introductory books.

• Discussion of the Printrbot Kickstarter campaign noted that its $830 k raise triggered an immediate IRS demand for ~$330 k, interpreted as likely personal-income tax because the project had not yet incorporated; deferred-income strategies were mentioned as a possible remedy.

• A provocative claim circulated that planting a mole inside the US Patent Office is cheaper than engaging in full patent litigation, prompting half-serious speculation about systemic corruption (“moles all the way down”).

• hyper-imo asked for canonical university-level biology textbooks comparable to Stewart (calculus) or Trench (real analysis); the channel consensus was to skip generic “intro” books and jump directly to the curated DIYbio list plus Wikipedia.

• Casual banter about bandwidth throttling and intelligence-agency surveillance served as a reminder of operational-security concerns when conducting open-source biology work from home labs.