• The foc.us consumer tDCS headset for gamers sparked a safety-and-efficacy debate: advocates cited peer-reviewed gains in learning, memory and motor skills, while skeptics argued that transcranial ultrasound gives clearer on/off feedback and that millimetre-scale targeting is impossible without individual conductivity maps.

• A 2011 paper on an “array-type tDCS system for accurate focusing” was circulated (http://diyhpl.us/~bryan/papers2/neuro/tdcs/…2011.pdf) and critiqued for treating the brain as an isotropic conductor; participants listed timing, wave-shape (tACS vs. tDCS), duration and multi-site patterns as dimensions that explode the experimental search space.

• The NIPS 2012 Lake Tahoe video archive (videolectures.net/nips2012_laketahoe) was shared as a resource for state-of-the-art neural-network and AI research.

• Open-access tactics were demonstrated: paperbot liberated Springer oncology protocols, a Reddit Scholar thread and a LibGen link delivered a fasting-vs-dietary-restriction cancer paper, and a half-serious “Starving for Synthesis” Kickstarter was floated to crowdfund DNA-synthesis research via hunger strike.

• A new modular paper-scraping system, “papermonk,” is being written in modern JavaScript (CommonJS/npm modules) to replace the undocumented, Firefox-bound Zotero translators; the current paperbot pipeline tries Zotero, then custom Python scrapers, then Sci-Hub.

• Practical maker notes included Monoprice ABS/PLA filament for low-cost 3-D printing, Lego pneumatic cylinders vs. syringes for a hexapod build, and Comsol modeling of turbulent airflow in S-shaped exhaust downpipes.