Public urination is generally considered as a bad thing, in particular in built-up areas. An effective method to reduce public urination is through opening public toilets. Though these are a public service, public toilets are usually for-pay services. Continue reading Pecunia non olet
All posts by Mordanicus
Spacers and robots #2
At Geek.com there is an interesting article about a robot developed by Japanese scientists that could replace construction workers. As pointed out in the article the main motivation behind this HRP-5P is to deal with the country’s aging and declining population.
There are several reasons why this kind of robots are of great importance for space settlements. Building space habitats, mining of resources and so on, will require a lot of work. Through the use of robots more labor will be available and this will allow for much faster space development – especially if such robots can be assembled in space, which will further reduce launch costs.
Also, according to another article on Geek.com, a long-term exposure to cosmic radiation could lead to digestive problems. Robots do not suffer from radiation the same way as humans do, hence they could start building free space habitats while science works to devise methods to protect humans against cosmic rays.
Boiled eggs
Apparently there is a new method to boil eggs, called egglettes, which is shown in the video below:
Food safety stars
A couple of years ago there had been some controversy in the Netherlands about the fact that the country’s food safety board (NVWA) did not disclose the results of its inspection of food vendors such as restaurants. Business who did violate food safety regulation did get fined but this fact was not made public. Since then the law has been changed to allow disclosure of inspection reports. Continue reading Food safety stars
Automated waste collection and separation
Waste management is an important issue for any community and space settlements will not be different. For several reasons, such are pollution and traffic congestion, running garbage trucks through the streets is a bad idea. So space habitat designers should consider alternatives. One interesting concept is illustrated in the video below:
Cargo transport
A common issue in modern cities is traffic congestion and air pollution caused by big trucks to deliver supplies to shops and other businesses. For orbital space settlements we propose to replace this “traditional” method of cargo delivery with something else. Continue reading Cargo transport
Waste water: update
Recently we discussed how a sewer system could be run without charging citizens a special sewer fee, just through the sale of recovered minerals like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. A new scientific study confirms that recycling nutrients from human wastewater is an economically viable venture.
Automated farming
Around the world scientists are developing robots for agriculture.
This Australian robot is suitable for open field farming:
Diet and ADHD
Just a few interesting articles on the relation between diet and ADHD.
Dietary change might help some children with ADHD – Unfortunately not for everyone and more research is necessary.
Unhealthy diet during pregnancy could be linked to ADHD – to be more specific consumption of high level of fat and sugar could be cause ADHD in one’s offspring.
Food Additives Linked To Hyperactivity In Kids, Study Shows – important for regulators to decide whether to allow or not certain additives.
Zinc Supplements Could Help Treat ADHD – interesting as this would be a rather inexpensive intervention.
Western diet link to ADHD, Australian study shows – again more research is necessary.
Omega-3 reduces ADHD symptoms in rats – though humans are not rats, this study confirms that fetal development is essential in later behaviour.
Exercise at work
As pointed out earlier too many people spend to less time on physical exercise and this seriously affect public health. A serious challenge for many people is to schedule regular work outs in their time tables. The DeskCycle is a tool that allows people to exercise while simultaneously doing something else, such as work.
