Panic VS Preparedness We have all seen the effects that the Coronavirus, now called Covid-19, has had on all of us in the world. Everything from food to toilet paper has been snatched up, supplies sold at unreasonable prices by hoarders, and overwhelming panic filling up hospital rooms and homes. We have been of serveral pandemics in the past with nowhere near as many issues as we have had with Covid-19. It is humbling to know that so many people are taking this seriously for the more vulnerable of our species, but it is also shameful how we have all reacted to this event. Consider my words in this post as a suggestion for how we should move forward and need to handle future outbreaks, because, obviously, all the infection movies and TV shows have not been educating enough for the masses. Firstly, let us start off with the most frequent report that has been driving many of us up a wall with absurdity: toilet paper. The coronavirus has absolutely no effect on your bowels. If you are experiencing unusual frequency in bowel movements, or urination, it is something different entirely. Consult your medical physician for those symptoms; do not overstock on toilet paper. As a single resident, I collected approximately 5 bags of toilet paper last year, with about 16 rolls a piece. Considering I go to work regularly and use the bathroom there too, I've only ever used 2 bags in a single year. Surely, if you have a bigger family, it will get used up faster, but if you take the time to consider how often you buy toilet paper in a month, let alone a year, it should be obvious that more than 3-5 bags is way too much for a two week isolation. Now that that awful subject is out if the way, let us discuss a couple benefits to this outbreak fiasco. The waters in Venice, Italy are clearing for the first time in decades, with fish becoming visible and swans returning. Air pollution is at  record low in places like China and Italy, and many other countries are clearing up too! The ecosystems of our planet are healing from our halted efforts, which suggests that maybe days of quarantine might be something to consider in the future. If we were to dedicate one day of the week, or a couple full weeks a year, for the whole planet, for self-isolation or quarantine procedures, could you imagine how the world might change? Think about it this way: if we were to dedicate recurrent isolation periods, it could potentially have an enormous effect one how both humans and nature react and recover in a crisis. Implementing a regular quarantine date would help humanity to learn to prepare their resources for future incoming outbreaks or events that require us to remain in our homes for our safety. It would be less of a weight on businesses, less traumatic for everyone involved, and it would allows to become accustomed proper quarantine policies and procedures. If everybody knew how to isolate themselves as a regular routine, it would leave less room for panic to seep in, and it would educate everybody of better procedures in the even of another quarantine. Controlled isolation days would also reduce the overall carbon emissions our species puts out, the current pandemic proving that air pollution drops when everyone goes through a quarantine phase. Don't forget that for every person and household that self-isolates for any illness they are drastically reducing their rate of transmission to others and further benefitting the global population. Now, let's talk about media portrayal and government actions. Was the media this adamant about self-isolation during flu seasons, SARS, or even H1N1 (more commonly known as Swine Flu)? No, not really. Did the world governments enact any emergency policies or quarantine action for the same viruses? A little, but nowhere near as much as Covid-19. It makes you wonder what Covid-19 has that all the other plagues of the last 50 years didn't have. Aside from that note, there are some important things to note about the coronavirus that makes the media and government attention suspiciously panic-inducing. The number of people contracting disease is considerably low compared to the seasonal flu virus. On top of that, it is only deadly to the more vulnerable people, like those with compromised immune systems and the elderly. The panic of this virus is also filling up hospitals when many are not actually sick with Covid-19, but have to be isolated in the same section where there are actual positive patients. And the most interesting fact about Covid-19 is that more people are recovering than getting sick. None of this is to say that the Coronavirus shouldn't be taken seriously. Oh, no. If anything, all past and future viral outbreaks should be taken with this much seriousness. If people realized that taking all viral outbreaks to these extreme measures was important, we would most likely see many more cures and vaccines being forced into creation. If you think about it, the disease that yells the loudest will get it's cure first. Making every virus a global emergency is one of the most sure-fire ways to force governments to fund researchers and to get it solved right away. Meanwhile, while we're waiting for that cure, call your national health or nursing hotline if you think you are experiencing symptoms of Covid-19. The nurses there will instruct you on what you need to do next. Do NOT go to the Emergeny Room (ER) for Covid-19 symptoms without calling the health and nursing hotline first. In Canada, the number is 811, and calling that hotline first avoids unnecessary time, exposure, and resources from the hospital. The ERs are already reaching full capacity everywhere, so taking the time to call your health or nursing hotline will help to prioritize the most at risk patients. Let us also take a moment to talk about hoarding supplies. As previously discussed above, there is absolutely no need to stock up on as much food and cleaning supplies as we are now. Especially if you're not being quarantined, all the hoarding is doing is causing more panic and despair. Many people who live on month-by-month income, or cannot afford to spend extra from their already tight budgets, are stuggling enough without others cleaning off all the shelves in stores. By the time these financially vulnerable people receive their monetary portions, everything is gone due to panic-crazed hoarders. The monthly grocery shopping trip is made all that much tougher when there is nothing to take home with them to begin with. I'll end this message in a neat little note: wash your hands, don't touch your face. Only you can prevent virus ourbreaks, and don't stock up on toilet paper for a disease that doesn't make you poop.

I came across a blog recently that a friend had made to write down their visionary dreams, detailing their visits from beyond and how God had come forward with messages of mourning for the human species. The experiences are described in both whimsical and traumatic detail, digging into questions of existence and purpose in life. The dreamer in these stories even goes as far as asking God why he left humans alone, and why he decided to come back at this time. Although in love with his creation, it appears that he had begun to feel hopeless with humanity's unbearably constant behaviour of selfishness and cruelty throughout history, stating, "I gave you free will, nay, you swallowed the serpent I gave to teach you." Interestingly, he uses the motif of the serpent to also describe ourselves and our nervous system bound within bodies of flesh, possibly clearing up the parable of The Garden of Eden as a fault of our own self-awareness and sudden enlightenment as the cause of our worldly problems, instead of an evil force like the Devil. With all the subjects of philosopy, psychology, and humanity all bundled into one, the blog is certainly a thoughtful piece to follow, whether you're religious or not. It is rare to see modern visions from a god declared by someone without it being torn apart by hatred and disbelief. Whether you believe or don't believe, there are some meaningful messages in the story telling within. To see the lastest postings, you can see the blog's link on Tumblr below: https://phuegosaid.tumblr.com/

The key to evolution lies in the best traits in a genetic line being passed down with each new generation. It makes sense that there is a common desire to make a perfect human through our natural breeding processes. However, nobody can decide on what "perfect" is. Why is that? Ideally, our distant ancestors would have mated with whomever they saw as fit for reproduction, desiring childbearing figures and strong muscles to protect and attack with. Even with the power of primitive hormones, our basest instincts seek out the best possible mates for a stronger and healthier progeny. The most baffling thing about it all is the fact that we've developed such drastically different views of what who these mates would be. Not everyone agrees that health is important, and many people even get turned on by the appeal of their partners looking malnourished or bony. Some people find muscle or strength to be a turn off too, which should be our most desirable trait in all of us. According to most of our understanding of selective breeding, we should really all be seeking out muscle-thick partners with plentiful fat storage deposits. Yet, we don't. We move away from the ideal apex humanoid with every generation. How did humans become so diverse physically? Why are there so many carnal tastes amongst our species? Just how did early humans decide that intelligence and emotional capacity were better traits than the more brutish survival instincts? How do those without reproductive urges play into it all? Why would we as a species produce asexual progeny at all? These are the kinds of questions that should make us consider why nature made us all so different from each other to begin with.

When Prometheus brought the gift of fire to man, Zeus chained him to a cliff and had his liver eaten out of his live body by eagles (harpies) every day for eternity. We can see today why the gods feared the power of the flame in the wrong hands. It's all consuming pyre devours everything and anything indiscriminately. It is predicted that millions of animals are feared to be dead within the Australian blaze, and mamy human lives unaccounted for too. Thoughts and prayers are no longer effective treatments to solve our world crises. Evil does not care about faith, and nature cannot be tamed with intentions. We, as a species, as a planet, are at a turning point in our existence. We can no longer live by a "somebody else will do it" mentality. There is no "somebody else" anymore. It is either do something, or perish. No exceptions. With entire continents literally on fire, there is no turning back to the blissfully unaware shell of a human species we once were. Drastic action is needed to save our planet, and ourselves. There is no Earth 2. This is the only planet that we can live on at all. What can we do to heal the 3rd degree burns on mother nature? Is it too early to start making drastic, planet-saving decisions? Is it too late?

Alas, a new year starts with a new fight between mismanaged children in big kid stockings. We find ourselves on the brink of collapse, swung around like a yoyo as yet another war is being engaged over petty reasons with even pettier leaders. It was often seen in humanity's past to be an act of courage and power when a leader stood on the front line with their people in arms, but that is not the case anymore. Our battles are no longer fought for people, but with people. At what point is it considered mass murder to send people to war? At what point do leaders become war criminals? Then again, what is a genuinely good reason for war?

Upon skimming through Netflix series, I come across a French series called 'Ad Vitam", which comes to mean, approximately, "To live" in Latin. It is a series that follows a cop's case regarding the mass suicides of minors in the area. In this universe, immortality has been achieved, the oldest living human being 167 years old and appearing to be no older than 30. This is due to the miraculous "Regeneration" therapy that can be done daily to keep the body young and healthy. Because of all this, the legal age of adulthood is raised to 30 years old. Additionally, the basis for this law is because the cells of anyone under 30 years old is deemed to be "too active", thus the chances of complications was too high to allow young adults to regenerate. On top of it all, not all people are compatible with regeneration, and some find the experience to be unnatural anyway. The story is during a time of bliss for the elderly, and turmoil for the youth. A 119 year old police captain is given the case of his career: under-30 minors are showing up dead from suicidal causes. There are two theories: one is that these minors are part of a cult from ten years previous in this series' timeline, the second theory being that these are the hopeless youth who see no future in a world of immortals. During this time, a bill is being pushed into law, stating that procreation would be deemed illegal, except in special circumstances. According to this future, there is no longer a need for children when everyone can live for eternity. "Ad Vitam" touches at a crucial ethical dilemma surrounding humanity and our progeny. With real science coming close to the cure for death, we are more actively faced with a future where we will no longer need to sustain our species with babies. Overpopulation is a theme that is talked about in this series, which we all can see becoming a growing debate every day in our world. There will come a time where we will be asked whether or not we should continue to reproduce. And when that time comes, how would we decide when to stop having children, if at all? And to the youth that are expected to be nobodies until they are old enough to know if they can be immortal too, what would we do to those that are not compatible with regeneration? How do we encourage our youth to continue on in a future where youth is no longer a question of age? Can an immortal human species exist without children?

More and more these days, the rumours of an end to death continue to populate scientific studies and news media. It is normal to be afraid of death, especially when we don't really know what happens after we die, but that has not stopped us from working towards immortality in humans. It is a fascinating subject that all of us dream about now and then. Even much of our fictional literature tries to understand and elaborate on the positives and negatives regarding the ability to live forever. However, it is a point of ethical quandary for some professionals and commoners alike. Living indefinitely means that we would never have to rush our lives to become successes. Some argue that it could reduce the amount of stress we experience from the weight of mortality, creating more relaxing and fulfilling experiences. On the otherside of the debate, some view death as a necessary naturality of life. Closure is a desire for many, especially if one has had a full and exciting life already. Some people simply don't like the idea of overstaying their welcome here on this world. Of course, there are always negative side effects to everything we experience or do. The problem with living forever is the irreparable harm it does to our physical bodies. No matter how much science goes into living eternally, our bodies are just not designed to live that long. We would eventually suffer from organ failures and potential dementia despite our best efforts to keep ourselves in one piece. It's not our fault, it's our biology. It's possible we could find out ways to design immortal bodies too, but would we still be human then? What about our brains? It can only hold so much information before it begins to malfunction, like anything else. What kind of modifications would we need to make to our brains so they could last as long as our new bodies? By then, would we even be ourselves anymore? If given the opportunity would you become an immortal? How far would you go to keep up with your newfound immortality? At what point are we no longer defined as "human"?

Everybody talks about settling in space these days, enjoying the comforts of home in orbit or on another planet. We all expect there to be at least a bedroom and kitchen in these space stations, but what else would we need to remember to build for our new homes away from home? Outer space is a nasty vacuum of cosmic radiation and weightless asteroids pummeling everything in their wake, so our early effort for colonization will likely be focused on safety over comfort. However, we all know of a few amenities that we absolutely cannot live without if we were to move into a new home and neighbourhood. A private bathroom would be a firm demand of most people, along with either toilet paper or a bidet. Many people have difficulty handling antigravity situations, so the demand for artificial gravity would be high. However, gravity is not considered a necessity in early space travel. So, how do we define which needs are more important than others when it comes to colonization in space? Aside from food, safety, and waste disposal, hygiene might be up there as most important. Since water is difficult to manage in antigravity, many of us would need to rely on wet-wipes or moist towelettes to stay clean. There may possibly be the odd contained section of a space station where one might be allowed to shower, but overall, free-floating liquids are highly dangerous to sensitive electrical equipment. As for planetary or lunar colonies, using water may be more acceptable to use for cleaning one's self due to the little gravity there is on these surfaces. Still, water would be scarcely available. Waste recycling units may be the next most important necessity on any space mission. Being able to recycle our own bodily fluids would greatly reduce the demand for water for drinking purposes, as well as potential fertilizer for space-grown plants. It may not spund too pleasant today, but it may become life or death to us in space. Things like entertainment, community venues, hyper-sleep units, and junk food will likely not be on the list of necessities in the early colonization efforts, however, it would still be considered with enough demand, depending on the circumstances that arrive. What do you believe is a necessary addition to early colonization facilities? What needs would be different depending on if it were in-orbit facilities versus planetary/lunar colonies? What can you absolutely not live without in space?

Empathy is the piece of the human puzzle that helps us to connect with others and understand why certain situations make some people feel one emotion and other people feel different emotions. It is not only useful for understanding why a friend is upset when their partner breaks up with them, but it can also tell us why some people do bad things. Empathy gives us the "why" we all crave when somebody starts to make seemingly irrational choices or behaviours: like, how your coworker might burst into a fit of rage after having their daily efforts called a waste of time. You would likely understand that their rage stems from that negative feedback, so you might be less likely to get mad at them for venting to you unexpectedly. But, why do some people think certain behaviours are acceptable when they only cause inconvenience and distress to others? Imagine you're working at your job and you find a box of half-eaten food thrown onto the floor haphazardly, the garbage can sitting exactly 10 centimetres next to it. It's a mess that wastes someone else's time to clean up, and has an obvious look of not caring. The person who threw the food on the floor could have made one small pivot and put the mess in the garbage can, but they decided not to, for whatever reason it may be. Why do people do things like that? What is the benefit of making life more stressful? There is being petty, and then there is purposely being a detriment to quality of life. Why do you think people decide to act out? Would you still be mad at someone for making your day more difficult, even if you were given all the reasons in the world as to why that person made that choice?

Believe it or not, the words we choose make a huge impact on how others interpret our intentions. Words hold a power to create tension in otherwise relaxing conversations. They have a way of making us laugh when we mess them up, and make us cry when the wrong words are said. Words are empowering and hurtful, but do they really make that much of a difference when it comes to communicating with several different people? Let's try it out. We all know about Asgardia's citizenship fee. It makes us feel like there is an obstacle placed in front of us, and that the usage of these fees is unknown. Now, what if I told you that it isn't a fee? What if I told you that it is a citizenship tax? If we word it this way, it sounds like there is a logical system in place to use these funds in a beneficial and clearly defined way. Changing the word "fee" to "tax" makes a huge difference in how we view a statement, especially big announcements. Here's another one to consider. The word "chemical" is thrown around a lot lately as a scary list of items that are supposedly dangerous for you. Sure, chemical mixtures like barbituates and methamphetamemes are actually lethal, but that doesn't mean all chemicals are bad. You are made up of chemicals right now. That sodium chloride you see on the label? That's salt. Ascorbic Acid? Vitamin C. Hydrogen Dioxide? Water. This can make you think about how words can be used to scare people. It might make you choose your word more wisely in the future. Time to think now. Should words be taken literally in official documents or decrees? Or should the words in similar situations be purposely vague and open to interpretation? Does wording make a difference to you? What is your favourite power word?

Historians tell the beginning, the middle, and the current state of a time or place in our world. They gather every detail and organize it into near little files so we can look up these facts at a later time for reference. Without historians, we would have no clues as to where we came from as a species. Now, we have an important duty as a new nation to create and record our history in an intelligent and legible way. Are you an Asgardian Historian? How would you collect and organize our nation's history and events for future generations to read? How would you take all that data and organize it for the people today? Should there be an Archives position made available in our new society to protect this priceless history? Where would these Archives be stored? Should everyone have access to these archives, no matter how dangerous the details may be? Is there such thing as too much information? How do you choose which history should be deleted?

Crowdfunding is a multimillion dollar idea in itself; asking friends and strangers to donate money to your cause, project, or campaign is not unheard of. Heck, thousands of people offered up cash to help bailout Greece when its economy collapsed multiple times between 2010-2018. Is there something to crowdfunding that Asgardia has not quite gotten yet? Should Asgardia consider crowdfunding through companies like GoFundMe and IndieGoGo to achieve its early financial goals? Could crowdfunding help to supply Asgardia the jobs and products its people so desperately demand? Can crowdfunding efforts achieve more than just financial stability in Asgardia? Should third-party businesses be more active in the creation of Asgardia's economy?

It is clearly stated in the Constitution of Asgardia that all Humans are equal in rights and freedoms. But what about non-humans? Should Asgardia have laws describing the rights and freedoms of animals on Earth? Should all animals have rights, or only some of them? Which ones? What if we are visited by cosmonauts? Should there be amendments made in the Constitution for extraterrestrial life? What defines "Life"?

One of the biggest problems facing Asgardia is financial stability. We don't have a basic economy to work with, no valuable assets, and no land to our claim. Some argue that there is no room for people who do not want to be politicians or scientists. There are people out there that want to work for Asgardia, but do not know how. How would design a business model to help support Asgardia, as well as hold paid employees? What kind of jobs should be introduced into our public sector? Should Asgardia fund new businesses in exchange for a return in taxes? And what kind of taxes could be suggested for these businesses without destroying them?

Let's get together and discuss solutions in this new community: Brainstorm. https://asgardia.space/en/social/communities/318 We need solutions, so let's make some ideas and work on an answer together.

Greetings, Let us begin with a firm hello. And now, onto the subjects of debate. What issues do you believe need to be focused on in Asgardia? Do you have any suggestions to fix any issues out there? What does it mean to be an Asgardian, to you?