HAPPY the movie. the movement.
HAPPY takes us on a journey from the swamps of Louisiana to the slums of Kolkata in search of what really makes people happy. Combining real life stories of people from around the world and powerful interviews with the leading scientists in happiness research, HAPPY explores the secrets behind our most valued emotion.
Indefinite detention provisions of NDAA struck down in court, Obama to appeal
Judge Katherine Forrest made the ruling permanent on Wednesday that the indefinite detention provision of the NDAA was unconstitutional. The government argued that it is a normal provision in the law of war, while Judge Forester was of the opinion that the law of war has no place in domestic policy.
She very candidly strikes down all of the government's defense points, sometimes to the point of insult. "That frankly makes no sense, particularly in light of the Government’s inability at the March and August hearings to define certain terms in--or the scope of--§ 1021(b)(2)," she writes in response to a government claim that no future administration would be able to interpret it any differently.
Despite petitions starting immediately to ask Obama not to appeal the decision, by Thursday the appeal had been filed. If he doesn't want that power, as he has claimed, then why is the Obama administration fighting so hard to hold onto it?
The plaintiffs are a group of writers, journalists, and activists including Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges, Pentagon papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg and left-wing scholar Noam Chomsky.
JP MORGAN BEING INVESTIGATED FOR MONEY LAUNDERING
The Comptroller of the Currency has for a long time been the lapdog of the banking industry. They are supposed to be a banking regulator but the head of the OCC (office of the comptroller of currency) is more likely to give banking CEO’s a blowjob than he is to actually hold them accountable for banking violations. And yet – hell hath frozen because the OCC is actually doing its job for the first time in a very long time.
Chase isn’t the only bank potentially doing this. There are already two other major international banks who have been busted for laundering money for blacklisted governments, drug trafficking organizations and terrorist organizations. When banks assist these groups in laundering money (not to mention the very wealthy to avoid paying taxes) they are complicit in these illegal behaviors. They become willing accomplices and that’s a significant thing when you consider how much money the American government (and other governments) spend to combat terrorist organizations, drug traffickers and countries like Iran and North Korea.
And they do it because there is literally hundreds of millions at stake in banking profits. But instead of reaching a deal with these bankers for banking violations … it is time to start sending a message to bankers … we will throw the book at you and you will be punished to the fullest extent of the law. These bankers need to know that jail time is the punishment for such crimes and CEO’s will be held accountable even if we can’t prove they knew about it and shareholders will be held accountable because the punishments will far outweigh the potential for profits.
And to add to this … the Republican party does not believe that we should be investigating these bankers for these types of violations. If the Republican party had its way … there wouldn’t be any probes for these illegal behaviors. For them – less regulation is the best regulation. They would neuter these financial regulators and defund them. They would repeal the Dodd-Frank act which holds these banks accountable. They are the in the pockets of big banks. And the guy they nominated for President … has a long history of using offshore tax havens and tax avoidance schemes that frankly aren’t that different from what these banks are being accused of.
Tristram Stuart: The global food waste scandal
Western countries throw out nearly half of their food, not because it’s inedible -- but because it doesn’t look appealing. Tristram Stuart delves into the shocking data of wasted food, calling for a more responsible use of global resources.
Tristram Stuart sounds the warning bell on global food waste, calling for us to change the systems whereby large quantities of produce and other foods end up in trash heaps.
How offshore wind can power New York and Boston
There is one thing most people probably don't know about offshore wind.
Unlike land-based wind, which tends to blow strongest at night and in the early morning hours — when energy demand is low — offshore wind usually peaks during the day, when demand is highest.
Just one more reason, argue Stanford University scientists in a new paper [PDF], to get to work on reaping the vast bounty of power off the East Coast of the United States.
And we do mean vast.
The Stanford team determined that after taking into account typical transmission losses and inefficiencies common to offshore turbine arrays, "the U.S. East Coast offshore winds were found to produce from 965 to 1,372 terawatt hours of electricity annually, enough to satisfy the demands of one-third of the United States, or all of the East Coast, from Florida to Maine," according to a Stanford release.
The bulk of the East Coast wind resource is found from Virginia north – a good thing, since that portion of the coast is far less likely to face devastating hurricanes. The researchers say that turbines can withstand category 3 hurricanes, and nothing beyond that strength hit the Virginia-to-Maine zone from 1851 to 2006.
So how many turbines would it take to power the East Coast? Oh, just 140,000 5-megawatt turbines, the researchers say.
Considering how daunting it has been to get a single U.S. offshore wind array built – the Cape Wind project has been muddling along for more than a decade, and construction still hasn't begun – this at first blush sounds stupidly unrealistic.
However, unlike with Cape Wind, under the Stanford scenario most of the turbines would be out of sight. "The analysis assumed the use of only one-third of available shallow water locations out to 30 meters depth of water, and two-thirds of remaining sites out to 200 meters depth," according to the university.
That actually might be feasible, given the strides being made toward developing floating turbines that could be placed in waters more than 50 meters deep.
Whether this scenario ever comes anywhere near close to panning out, it does highlight the advantages of offshore wind over land-based wind (even if development costs are two or three times as high). In addition to the wind blowing when we need the energy, this resource also happens to be very close to major population centers.
"This study enables the planning and development of very large wind farms offshore of New York City or Boston. Connecting the power to the grid would be technically as easy as laying a cable in the sand and hooking it directly into the grid without the need to build often controversial transmission lines on the land," said team member Mike Dvorak.
FUTURE PRIMATE 