- Direct-to-consumer whole-genome sequencing pricing drops: $695 for an 80× exome and $5,495 for 30× full-genome sequencing are now offered, signaling renewed competition in the consumer genomics market.  
- Stanford’s “cooling glove” research (news.stanford.edu/2012/august/cooling-glove-research-082912.html) was shared as a potential performance-enhancement technology for athletes and military applications.  
- Amazon warehouse photos (imgur.com/a/q1WIO) sparked discussion on human-centric vs. automated logistics, with participants noting wasted vertical space and the inefficiency of human “schlumping” through aisles.  
- EC2 cost complaints from an academic user highlighted the gap between cloud convenience and graduate-student budgets; AWS quarterly research grants (next deadline 11 Jan 2013) were mentioned as a possible workaround.  
- Open Source Ecology’s new “Open Source Hardware Modularity Pattern Language” and “Open Source Technology Pattern Language” wikis, plus the Alchematter sharing platform, were linked but criticized for possible NIH syndrome and lack of collaboration with existing open-hardware communities.  
- A widely circulated “DIY antidepressant yogurt” video was denounced as dangerous pseudoscience; participants urged public debunking and joked about equally lethal “egalitarian biohacking” recipes.