We have been arguing against the practice of water chlorination for some time. Though water disinfection is an important tool to promote public health, we do not believe that this is the proper method to do so.
All posts by Mordanicus
A Case for Tele-operation
ScienceDaily reports a study by the Boston University School of Medicine: Take-home’ exposure are a public health hazard. To quote from the article:
Workers in many industries inadvertently bring home toxic contaminants, endangering the health of their families.
Threats to IQ
We have already discussed lead as a cause of diminished general intelligence among the population. However, there are many more substances that have an negative effect on people’s IQ. ScienceDaily has the following report:
Flame retardants and pesticides overtake heavy metals as biggest contributors to IQ loss
Cycling for live
We believe that health policy should be focused on prevention or health promotion. This will, in our humble opinion, lead to lower medical expenses in the long run. Like other public policies health promotion consists of many different elements. ScienceDaily reports on one of this building blocks: Continue reading Cycling for live
Future Food: Ferming
George Manbiot has an interesting opinion piece in The Guardian: Lab-grown food will soon destroy farming – and save the planet. To quote him:
It’s a primordial soup of bacteria, taken from the soil and multiplied in the laboratory, using hydrogen extracted from water as its energy source. When the froth was siphoned through a tangle of pipes and squirted on to heated rollers, it turned into a rich yellow flour. Continue reading Future Food: Ferming
Clean air and mental health
We already discussed the relation between air pollution and dementia. Now scientists believe that childhood exposure to air pollution is also related to schizophrenia. This is just one more reason to push for clean air legislation.
Forward to 2020
Some parts of the world already live in 2020, while others have to wait for another few hours. Anyway, we wish everyone a happy new year!
This will be an import year. In the summer I hope to migrate to a new, non-WordPress site. However, simultaneously I will be busy setting up my own IT Security business. So new content will be sparse the coming months.
Slavery and modern management
The following article in the New York Times, American Capitalism Is Brutal, You Can Trace That To The Plantation, describes in an excellent manner how modern management systems have their roots in slavery and plantation economy. A short summary: an efficient plantation required an elaborate bookkeeping to keep track of each slave’s productivity. Hence a multilayered system of supervision of labor was necessitated. Continue reading Slavery and modern management
Intercropping
Recently we discussed the intercropping of coffee and bananas, though this is far from the only possible combination. Here are a few links to other examples of polyculture:
According to the first link the combination of rubber and lemons were never profitable. This because of the low price of lemons. However, this might (or not) be different if the peels would be used to produce textiles.
The second article states that not only does the combination of coffee and macadamia result in much larger yields but also improves soil fertility.
Laser beam propulsion
Space colonization will only be viable if we are able to launch stuff into outer space at reasonable cost. Currently spaceflight depends on chemical rockets to reach orbit. However, chemical rockets suffer from a severe bottleneck. Continue reading Laser beam propulsion
