• South Africa’s proposal to sell 200 captive-bred rhinos reopened debate on legalizing farmed ivory and horn trade; participants argued that blanket bans on elephant ivory paradoxically increase poaching pressure by keeping black-market prices high.

• Octopus augmentation concepts ranged from nerve-wired exoskeletons that let juveniles walk on land to multi-generational directed-evolution experiments that select for larger brains by imaging embryos with flashlights.

• A $20 k desktop PCB prototyping machine called Cirqoid was highlighted as an all-in-one alternative to $100 k+ industrial pick-and-place lines, integrating trace milling, drilling, solder-paste dispensing, and SMD placement in a single benchtop unit.

• Ultra-low-cost wireless hardware was catalogued: $2 Arduino Mini clones, $5 ESP8266 Wi-Fi SoCs, $5 Nordic nRF8001 BLE modules, and TI CC2540-based radios—participants noted TI’s complex toolchain pushes developers toward Arduino pairings.

• DexDrip, an open-source project that sniffs 2.4 GHz packets from implanted glucose sensors and rebroadcasts them via Bluetooth, was discussed; hackers considered swapping its Wixel radio for nRF24L01 or nRF8001 chips to simplify hardware.

• A $25 solar-powered environmental-monitoring node was sketched: $5 MCU + BLE/Wi-Fi + $10–15 solar panel & battery + $5 temp/humidity sensor, with the electric-fence line itself proposed as a data carrier under US Patent 5,651,025.

• Continuous-glucose-monitor hacks were detailed: 334.7 kHz signal bandwidth, 25 MHz channel spacing, and multi-frequency transmission to dodge interference, contrasting with the failed GlucoWatch (Cygnus Inc.).

• Hackerspace economics were critiqued: Boston FabLab ≈ $750 k vs TechShop ≈ $2 M tool budgets still yielded perpetually broken, over-booked laser cutters, prompting advice to buy $400–600 Chinese 40 W CO₂ lasers and retrofit with open-source SmoothieBoard controllers for reliability.