- Proxima Centauri now hosts at least three confirmed planets, with two—Proxima b and the newly announced Proxima d—lying in or near the star’s habitable zone, prompting discussion about tidal locking, flare-driven chemistry, and the survivability of atmospheres under intense X-ray bombardment.  
- Participants debated whether life could persist in tidally locked “twilight” regions or in subsurface oceans shielded from stellar radiation, noting that high-energy flares might even supply chemical gradients usable by exotic metabolisms.  
- The possibility that water could be photodissociated and lost as hydrogen was highlighted as a major obstacle, yet the group cautioned against assuming water is strictly necessary for life.  
- Jay_Dugger showcased the LinnStrument, a multitouch expressive MIDI controller whose open-source driver (https://github.com/gbevin/linnstrument-control) allows it to function as a novel keyboard/mouse replacement, sparking a brief critique of patenting multitouch hardware.  
- Bryan Bishop released a series of transcripts from the Austin “Bitcoin Takeover” event covering censorship resistance, permissionless finance, grid stability via mining, and the use of stranded energy—forming a concise open archive at diyhpl.us/diyhpluswiki/transcripts/bitcoin-takeover-austin/.  
- A Twitter query circulated asking for exemplary neuroscience papers praised for clarity of writing and figure design, aiming to set a stylistic benchmark for future research communication.