• OpenAI Gym was announced (https://gym.openai.com/) as a new open-source toolkit for developing and comparing reinforcement-learning algorithms, providing standardized environments and benchmarks.

• Discussion of DIY transmission-grating spectroscopy: participants shared practical tips for placing a camera behind a grating without a lens to avoid optical interference, and referenced the PLOTS project and Simon Field’s CD-spectroscope guides (http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/light/cd_spectroscope/spectroscope.html, http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/light/spectrograph/spectrograph.html).

• A suggestion was floated to improve spectrograph resolution by adding a second grating rotated 90° around the beam axis to separate overlapping diffraction orders, possibly starting with a point source instead of a slit.

• Critique of an iGEM team’s approach: nmz787_i argued that instead of merely creating receptor antagonists, the team should engineer a virus that agonizes the receptor to disrupt cartels more effectively.

• Links to additional resources were provided, including the Diffraction Grating Handbook (Loewen, 2005) and Ibsen’s spectrometer-design guide (http://ibsen.com/technology/spectrometer-design-guide/) for calculating grating angles and system geometry.

• A brief exchange identified active transhumanists in the San Diego area, naming Joseph Jackson, Jonathan Cline, and (if Los Angeles is included) Cory Tobin and his group.

• kanzure shared a Bitcoin Magazine article (https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/mit-panel-democracy-is-antithetical-to-what-bitcoin-represents-1461771081) covering an MIT panel that claimed democracy is antithetical to Bitcoin’s core principles.