- A Nature paper on hypothalamic programming of systemic aging (IKK-β, NF-κB, GnRH) was shared via paperbot, highlighting interest in brain-driven longevity mechanisms.  
- Discussion of open PCB-design tools: gEDA was mentioned as a schematic “whiteboard,” with one participant specializing in PCB routing algorithms but still hand-building prototypes.  
- Shenzhen “Shanzhai” culture was introduced as small firms that rapidly clone consumer electronics, linked to a Xinhua article and tips on sourcing parts via Taobao.  
- A Kickstarter for “glowing plants” was criticized as hype; participants noted confusion between UV-only luminescence and visible glow, and general over-promotion of DIY bio optics.  
- Survey link circulated to gauge financial support for a new East Bay DIYbio lab space, indicating grassroots efforts to bootstrap a shared bio/citizen-science facility.  
- Keyboard JitterBug covert-channel paper (Usenix ’06) was highlighted: tiny timing variations in keystrokes can exfiltrate passwords even over encrypted links.  
- Amazon EC2 was explored for “easter-egg” data remnants; evidence showed EBS volumes are zeroed on allocation, but public EBS snapshots (e.g., Ensembl genomes) are available.  
- Maker Faire SF (May 18–19) announced Nodecopter/AR-drone hackathon and showcased a 3-D-printed single-piece quadcopter frame from Stanford Robotics.  
- RepRap forum thread shared a DIY hot-plate stirrer that repurposes a stepper-driver board to power solenoids for magnetic stirring.  
- Chemistry “hype malpractice” debate referenced In the Pipeline blog: small-scale synthesis yields are often falsified, and Design-of-Experiments (DoE) is underused in academic optimization.