Project Khepri: Asteroid Mining Project. Final Policy Report

Much like outer space, our legal system consists of many unknowns. This is especially true for new developments in emerging technologies, particularly those related to the exploration, exploitation, and utilization of space resources. The recently developed technical feasibility of space mining has advanced ahead of existing international space treaties. While certain articles of the major UN treaties can be interpreted to adapt to the utilization of space resources, most of these provisions were not originally designed to be applied to a space mining regime. Keeping in mind this context, this paper sets out the current international law landscape, including the areas which require further development, and provides guidance and recommendations for governments, international communities, and private actors interested in space resources. To this end, the existing international legal framework is summarized by detailing the significance of the United Nations Space Treaties, the role of customary international law, relevant principles, environmental law, the role of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and previous attempts to govern areas known as res communis. Next, Canadian and United States national law is outlined, including relevant aspects of Canadian national mining law. The paper continues on to analyze various approaches to developing a legal framework for space resource extraction and provides recommendations for industry, national and international actors. Given the widespread support at UN discussions, and years of private actors’ development and involvement in related projects, the necessary societal desire for space mining regulation is present. To work towards enabling space mining, it is suggested that industry set aside a portion of profits to later be used for the ‘benefit of all’ and work with the Canadian government. At a national level, it is recommended that Canada consider passing national legislation similar to that passed by the United States, Luxembourg, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan. Finally, it is recommended that Canada continue to cooperate through international fora to develop non-legally binding principles, otherwise known as ‘soft law’ to contribute to a bottom-up approach

The Effectiveness of Embedded Values Analysis Modules in Computer Science Education: An Empirical Study

Embedding ethics modules within computer science courses has become a popular response to the growing recognition that CS programs need to better equip their students to navigate the ethical dimensions of computing technologies like AI, machine learning, and big data analytics. However, the popularity of this approach has outpaced the evidence of its positive outcomes. To help close that gap, this empirical study reports positive results from Northeastern's program that embeds values analysis modules into CS courses. The resulting data suggest that such modules have a positive effect on students' moral attitudes and that students leave the modules believing they are more prepared to navigate the ethical dimensions they will likely face in their eventual careers. Importantly, these gains were accomplished at an institution without a philosophy doctoral program, suggesting this strategy can be effectively employed by a wider range of institutions than many have thought

Project Khepri: Mining Asteroid Bennu for Water

Deep space asteroid mining presents the opportunity for the collection of critical resources required to establish a cis-lunar infrastructure. In specific, the Project Khepri team has focused on the collection of water from asteroid Bennu. This water has the potential to provide a source of clean-energy propellant as well as an essential consumable for humans or agriculture on crewed trips to the Moon or Mars. This would avoid the high costs of launching from Earth - making it a highly desirable element for the future of cis-lunar infrastructure. The OSIRIS-REx mission provided a complete survey of asteroid Bennu and is set to return regolith samples to Earth in 2023. This makes asteroid Bennu a well-understood and low-risk target that is estimated to be around 6.26% water by mass. The Khepri Project comprises a team of international students, academics, and industry subject matter experts working on the technical design, business case, and political aspects of a mission to mine asteroid Bennu for water. The research output explores the multi-year mission that the Khepri team has proposed

Playful Labors: Narrative, Work and Digital Games

202 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2004.This dissertation applies a critical cultural studies approach to digital gaming. Specifically, I examine the strategic simulation genre, often called "god games," such as SimCity, Civilization , and The Sims. Two ideas guide the various readings and analyses of digital games. First, despite being seen by many as the unserious objects of youthful play, games must be understood in terms of economic labor: the work involved in their play, the ways in which the labor of players is translated into different forms of value, and the economic impact of games on the cultural landscape. Second, I argue that god games possess elements of what Frederic Jameson calls "an aesthetic of cognitive mapping." Such an aesthetic seeks to meaningfully locate and orient individuals within the increasingly disorienting spaces of the postmodern late capitalism. I argue that the widespread success of god games can be read as symptom of the utopian desire for forms of collective and totalizing thought to resist the fragmenting effects of late capitalist consumer culture.Ope

Financing Electric and Hybrid-Electric Buses: 10 Questions City Decision-Makers Should Ask

As electric and hybrid-electric buses gradually become a reality worldwide, achieving a better understanding of the mechanisms supporting investments in these new technologies as well as their assets is more important than ever. The global electric bus fleet grew about 32 percent in 2018, and it represents the fastest-growing part of the electric vehicle market. Nevertheless, capital costs for fully electric buses may be double or triple that of conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) buses, and batteries may need to be replaced after six to eight years, highlighting the importance of finding sustainable financial plans and business models. This paper seeks to build on guidance provided by existing literature and dive deeper into some of the financial issues cities face, such as decisions about the different technologies, plans, operations, procurement strategies, regulations, and financing opportunities. The questions have been selected by the authors based on literature reviews, extensive desktop research into specific case studies, and interviews with stakeholders and global experts in the field. Thus, the responses are not meant to be prescriptive but instead represent the findings of the research

Backfire effects after correcting misinformation are strongly associated with reliability

The backfire effect is when a correction increases belief in the very misconception it is attempting to correct, and it is often used as a reason not to correct misinformation. The current study aimed to test whether correcting misinformation increases belief more than a no-correction control. Furthermore, we aimed to examine whether item-level differences in backfire rates were associated with test-retest reliability or theoretically meaningful factors. These factors included worldview-related attributes, namely perceived importance and strength of pre-correction belief, and familiarity-related attributes, namely perceived novelty and the illusory truth effect. In two nearly identical experiments, we conducted a longitudinal pre/post design with N = 388 and 532 participants. Participants rated 21 misinformation items and were assigned to a correction condition or test-retest control. We found that no items backfired more in the correction condition compared to test-retest control or initial belief ratings. Item backfire rates were strongly negatively correlated with item reliability (⍴ = -.61 / -.73) and did not correlate with worldview-related attributes. Familiarity-related attributes were significantly correlated with backfire rate, though they did not consistently account for unique variance beyond reliability. While there have been previous papers highlighting the non-replicable nature of backfire effects, the current findings provide a potential mechanism for this poor replicability. It is crucial for future research into backfire effects to use reliable measures, report the reliability of their measures, and take reliability into account in analyses. Furthermore, fact-checkers and communicators should not avoid giving corrective information due to backfire concerns

10 Questions to Ask About Planning, Financing and Implementing Transit Oriented Development Strategies

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) strategies can improve connectivity between housing and employment centers, green spaces, and community facilities by supporting both local environmental sustainability objectives, through more efficient use of land, and “complete” streets, by creating safer infrastructure for pedestrians and bicyclists, leading to potential modal shifts. Enabling conditions for TOD may include changes in land-use regulation and other statutory provisions to create an integrated regulatory framework. TOD requires robust stakeholder engagement and institutional coordination during planning and implementation. Financing mechanisms cities have used to fund TOD include Land Value Capture, a strategy based on expected increases in land values due to infrastructure investments. These mechanisms have been used to generate revenues such as Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and a wide range of taxes and fees. Cities should be aware of the potential negative impacts of TOD, such as displacement and gentrification. Effective and inclusive TOD strategies should be accompanied by land management strategies that mitigate these impacts, including having policies in place to ensure the preservation and expansion of affordable housing. There is typically a lag of at least 5 to 10 years before the economic and financial impacts of TOD investments are fully realized, thus requiring the need for patient capital, well-structured deals and financial instruments, and proper governance