In an interesting opinion piece in The Guardian Felicity Hannah discusses the role of vasectomies in heterosexual couples as a feminist method of birth control. Her rationale is that with most other forms of family planning, most of the costs disproportionately fall upon women. Continue reading On vasectomies
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Update
I have just updated our Space Settlements 101 page. Over the next months I will further update this page.
Space settlements and capital cities
The government of Indonesia announced that it will move its capital city away from the current one, Jakarta. This would not be the first time a country moved its capital, Brazil did the same in the 1960s. This raises the question of the capital of a space based nation consisting of multiple habitats*. Continue reading Space settlements and capital cities
Clean air – follow up
The Guardian reports that one in six deaths due to lung cancer are non-smokers. Researchers quoted in the article do link this to air pollution – both indoor and outdoor. So this yet another remainder why strict air quality regulations are necessary, both on Earth and in Space Settlements.
Clean air and public health
ScienceDaily reports of an EU wide study to the effects of particulate matter:
Particulate matter takes away 125,000 years of healthy life from Europe’s child population
Bloody Sunday
We have learned with great sadness and astonishment of the brutal terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka earlier today. The number of victims are exceeding that of many other attacks.
We want to express our sincere and deep condolences with the victims and those close to them.
We reject any kind of violence as a means to further one’s ends and we believe that any person should be able to express his or her personal believes freely and without fear.
Organs on demand
Researchers at Tel Aviv university have managed to print a fully functional human heart. Though currently the size of a rabbit’s heart, 3D printing of (human) organs seems to be feasible in the near future. Continue reading Organs on demand
More on lead
Previously we have discussed the effect of lead exposure on cognitive development as well its association with crime. ScienceDaily reports a new study that further confirms the negative effect of lead on neural development:
Higher lead in topsoil boosts the probability of cognitive difficulties in 5-year-old boys
Bottom line: any concentration of lead in the environment has a negative impact on the cognitive abilities of children. Since this damage is permanent, lead poisoning is a major social problem as reduced mental capacities will negatively affect performance at school and in later life.
Hence our position remains that the authorities in future space settlements should implement a zero tolerance policy when it comes to lead – any lead containing product should be banned from daily life.
Science round up
Here some scientific news we believe might be relevant for a future space-based society. Continue reading Science round up
Waste water – again
As regular readers of this site might already know, we believe that sewage and waste water treatment should be funded through the reclamation of valuable substances. For whom is not already convinced of this, we would recommend an article on GreenBiz by Yalin Li: Waste water is an asset.
Reclaiming nutrients and other valuables from waste water would constitute a durable source of non-tax revenue for governments and will hence structurally reduce the need to impose taxes on the people.
