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Today there is increasing support for the idea that governments should aim at greater happiness for a greater number of citizens. Is this a mission impossible? The following questions arise in this context: 1) Is greater happiness in a nation feasible? 2) If so, can governments do much about it? 3) If so, what can governments do to raise happiness in their country? 4) How does the pursuit of happiness fit with other political aims? In this paper I take stock of the available research findings on happiness that bear answers to these questions. To do this, I use a large collection of research findings gathered in the World Database of Happiness. These data show that greater happiness is possible and indicate some ways to achieve this goal. The pursuit of public happiness fits well with several other policy aims

On a global scale demand for the products of the extractive industries is ever increasing. Extraction of the targeted resource results in the concurrent production of a significant volume of waste material, including tailings, which are mixtures of crushed rock and processing fluids from mills, washeries or concentrators that remain after the extraction of economic metals, minerals, mineral fuels or coal. The volume of tailings is normally far in excess of the liberated resource, and the tailings often contain potentially hazardous contaminants. A priority for a reasonable and responsible mining organization must be to proactively isolate the tailings so as to forestall them from entering groundwaters, rivers, lakes and the wind. There is ample evidence that, should such tailings enter these environments they may contaminate food chains and drinking water. Furthermore, the tailings undergo physical and chemical change after they have been deposited. The chemical changes are most often a function of exposure to atmospheric oxidation and tends to make previously, perhaps safely held contaminants mobile and available. If the tailings are stored under water, contact with the atmosphere is substantially reduced, thereby forestalling oxygen-mediated chemical change. It is therefore accepted practice for tailings to be stored in isolated impoundments under water and behind dams. However, these dams frequently fail, releasing enormous quantities of tailings into river catchments. These accidents pose a serious threat to animal and human health and are of concern for extractive industries and the wider community. It is therefore of importance to understand the nature of the material held within these dams, what best safety practice is for these structures and, should the worst happen, what adverse effects such accidents might have on the wider environment and how these might be mitigated. This paper reviews these factors, covering the characteristics, types and magnitudes, e

We have compared the distribution of vesicles in amphibian motor nerve terminals determined by electron microscopy and by functional labeling with the styryl dye, FM2-10. Our aim was to resolve apparent discrepancies in the literature on the distribution of vesicles determined by the two procedures. Electron photomicrographs of non-serial cross sections of terminal branches were analyzed by stereological procedures to obtain indices of the terminal and vesicle areas. Terminal cross sectional area varied 3-fold on average along terminal branches and was largest particularly when active zone was present in the section. The vesicle area index (a measure of vesicle abundance) was highly correlated with the terminal area index, suggesting that the average density of vesicles is constant throughout the branches. When the data were separated according to whether active zone was present or not in a section, we found a small (26%) but significant increase in the average density of vesicles in active zone compared with non-active zone regions in the terminal. The distribution of spots along terminal branches following vesicle staining with FM2-10, as well as with antibodies to vesicle proteins, suggested that vesicles were distributed in highly concentrated clusters. However, the degree of variation between spot and inter-spot staining intensities found with the FM-dye was similar in magnitude to that for terminal cross sectional area determined from the electron microscopy. We conclude that the spotty pattern of stained vesicles seen with the optical microscope results primarily from vesicle accumulations associated with terminal varicosities.

The Platreef is a mafic-ultramafic, tabular body at the base of the northern limb of the 2050 Ma Bushveld Complex. It transgresses sedimentary footwall rocks of the 2600-2200 Ma Transvaal Supergroup and the Archaean granite basement, while the hangingwall rocks are PGE-free Main Zone gabbronorites of the Rustenburg Layered Suite. At the Sandsloot open-pit mine the Platreef consists of coarse to pegmatoidal pyroxenites and gabbros with accessory phlogopite, base-metal sulphides and oxides. Thermal metamorphism of siliceous footwall dolomites has produced a variety of skarn assemblages subjected to later hydrothermal alteration and serpentinisation that also affected parts of the Platreef. Extensive alteration zones with high concentrations of PGE and Te-, Sb-, Bi- and Ge-bearing platinum-group minerals suggests syn- to post-magmatic crystallisation or redistribution of PGE by hydrothermal fluids, indicating that this is a complex deposit subjected to numerous processes during its development., The Platreef is a mafic-ultramafic, tabular body at the base of the northern limb of the 2050 Ma Bushveld Complex. It transgresses sedimentary footwall rocks of the 2600-2200 Ma Transvaal Supergroup and the Archaean granite basement, while the hangingwall rocks are PGE-free Main Zone gabbronorites of the Rustenburg Layered Suite. At the Sandsloot open-pit mine the Platreef consists of coarse to pegmatoidal pyroxenites and gabbros with accessory phlogopite, base-metal sulphides and oxides. Thermal metamorphism of siliceous footwall dolomites has produced a variety of skarn assemblages subjected to later hydrothermal alteration and serpentinisation that also affected parts of the Platreef. Extensive alteration zones with high concentrations of PGE and Te-, Sb-, Bi- and Ge-bearing platinum-group minerals suggests syn- to post-magmatic crystallisation or redistribution of PGE by hydrothermal fluids, indicating that this is a complex deposit subjected to numerous processes during its development.