- Sci-Hub’s .cc domain was down due to registrar-level censorship; the .bz domain and direct IP 80.82.77.83 remained accessible, prompting discussion of building an alternative naming layer and mnemonic IP-encoding schemes to bypass DNS-level blocking.  
- A DIYbio “10 k-gene” open-vector library is being planned: the synthesis provider will print entire plasmids on demand, and the community is collecting feature requests (Agrobacterium, brewing-yeast shuttles, etc.) via biobricks@juul.io before a public launch.  
- MIRI’s 2017 fundraiser was criticized for prioritizing opaque “risk mitigation” over open construction; participants contrasted it with Ben Goertzel’s “robotic toddler” approach and debated whether mammalian-brain simulations would spontaneously develop—and allow excision of—moral reasoning.  
- An experimental blog post (https://improvingautonomy.wordpress.com/2017/12/07/first-experiment) introduced a decentralized, market-based resource-allocation mechanism, inviting wider testing and feedback.  
- Mentor Graphics’ fan-out wafer-level packaging overview (https://blogs.mentor.com/calibre/blog/2016/07/12/not-yet-a-fan-of-fan-out-why-you-should-be/) and related slides (http://slideplayer.com/slide/6149012/) were shared as key resources for advanced semiconductor packaging techniques.  
- Google released Kubeflow, a Kubernetes-native toolkit for reproducible machine-learning workflows, noted as a valuable open-source addition to the ML stack.  
- Addgene’s plasmid repository was analyzed: most popular constructs remain encumbered by UBMTA agreements and murky GFP-related patents (only expired January 2017); plans were sketched to create an open-source pKLAC2 shuttle vector and an automated patent-clearance pipeline using Lens.org’s PatSeq plus Mechanical Turk legal review.