- Stratospheric aerosol geoengineering was criticized for its Matrix-movie “blot-out-the-sun” imagery and for overlapping with chemtrail conspiracy culture, which researchers noted is experienced by adherents as a quasi-religious conversion.  
- Carboncopies.org has quietly expanded its team, prompting discussion of whole-brain emulation roadmaps and Anders Sandberg’s influence on newcomers.  
- Brain-xell.com offers “on-demand neural tissue cultures,” while multiple papers explored in-vitro neural circuits: quasi-1-D hippocampal cultures that act as reliable transmission lines, AND gates, and neuronal “diodes”; microridge scaffolds for rationally engineered circuits; and experimental tests of the free-energy principle with living networks.  
- FinalSpark is producing thousands of 1 mm³ neurosphere organoids on micro-electrode arrays for biological reservoir-computing experiments; fluorescent calcium imaging plus optogenetic input is proposed as a scalable alternative to electrode arrays.  
- Recent Cell paper claiming cultured neurons “learn and exhibit sentience” by playing Pong was dismissed as incremental, given 2004 rat-neuron flight-control experiments by the DeMarse lab.  
- Organoid intelligence and spoken-digit classifiers built from living cultures were highlighted as emerging ML substrates, with links to plug-and-play hydrogel connectoids for in-brain transplantation.  
- LyGenesis is moving to clinical use of lymph nodes as bioreactors: endoscopic injection of hepatocytes grows miniature ectopic livers, and murine studies show brain tissue can also mature ectopically in lymph nodes.  
- Pet and livestock cloning is scaling commercially: Tianjin’s 1-million-clone-cow-per-year facility, ViaGen Pets, Sooam, and embryll.com’s “young-cell rejuvenation” for aging pets; debate centered on why cloned pets appear healthier than early Dolly-era mammals.  
- Gallant markets stem-cell banking for pets (as seen on Shark Tank), while The Odin sells DIY CRISPR kits and Matter.farm offers a computer-generated molecule library for open drug discovery.  
- Jed McCaleb’s new venture Vast is funding a space-habitat startup; discussion reminisced about his earlier projects (MtGox, Ripple/Stellar, eDonkey2000) and the merits of eDonkey’s distributed index versus modern IPFS.