- BioViva circulated a detailed price list for off-shore gene-therapy “treatments,” quoting $20 k–$750 k for organ-specific, cancer, aesthetic, and muscle-enhancement protocols delivered via AAV vectors in non-US clinics.  
- Participants debated the regulatory status of these offerings, noting that the FDA has only approved three gene therapies to date and that BioViva’s procedures are performed in Africa and the UK to avoid US oversight.  
- A short technical discussion clarified that human skin nucleases are a minor source of DNA/RNA contamination in bench work; gloves are mainly a convenience to reduce debugging rather than an absolute necessity.  
- kanzure highlighted two memory-related genetic findings: an ADRA2B deletion variant that strengthens coupling between emotional encoding and retrieval, and microRNA-138 as a potential regulator of human memory performance.  
- The ethics essay on BioViva’s website was praised as “normal and straightforward,” prompting a call for a canonical pro-enhancement position paper from figures like Bostrom or Sandberg.  
- Links shared included a Newsweek feature on synthetic biology and the ETC Group’s “market-driven eugenics” warning, plus a New Statesman article on how new genetics could transform education.  
- Hardware talk covered the $99 Pinebook (4 GB RAM, RK3288 SoC, Mali GPU) and questions about its openness—whether all drivers and kernel sources are available for custom builds.  
- A side thread explored whether software can auto-detect physical keyboard layouts (AZERTY vs QWERTY); consensus was that standard PCs expose no such metadata and layout must be inferred from user input or OS settings.  
- fenn introduced Plover, the open-source stenography engine, as a practical route to 200 wpm text entry on commodity keyboards.