L5 colony

[Johnny L.A.]

Lots of space talk on the boards recently, so I thought I'd ask about L5. The idea is to build a space station at the Lagrangian Point L[sub]5[/b] and populate it with thousands of colonists. IIRC there was some sort of scheme to provide power via solar-collection satellites, and the power would also be 'beamed' to Earth.

Other than establishing a large-scale presence in space and the possibility of manufacturing things in zero-g, of what use would L5 be?

And a follow-up question: It has been shown that low gravity is detrimental to the human body. Why have NASA and the Russian Space Federation and others decided to build the zero-g ISS instead of an Arthur C. Clarke-style torus-shaped space station whose rotation could provide one g at its outer edge?