Next Steps to Reform the Regulations Governing Offshore Oil and Gas Planning and Leasing

The Department of the Interior manages offshore oil and gas activities in federal waters. While the agency has proposed and/or enacted important improvements to the rules that govern some of those activities, it has not modernized the regulations that govern offshore oil and gas planning, lease sales, or the review and permitting of exploratory drilling. These phases of the process are overseen by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), and, as was shown in our earlier publication on this topic, are ineffective and in need of modernization. In this Article, we argue that fundamental reform is necessary and highlight a series of key themes and topics that must be addressed to improve the regulatory process and promote better, more consistent management outcomes. While the Article draws on examples from frontier areas—in particular the U.S. Arctic Ocean—the recommended changes would apply to and benefit all areas of the OCS

International Contracts in Developing Countries about Oil and Gas: for instance, Kurdistan and Kuwait

International contracts in fields of Oil and Gas management and trade has significant effects on economic and political areas. Developing counties do not have enough experience or financial capability to embark on exploration and technological support. English law will govern Oil and Gas in Kurdistan regional government. Kuwait has one of the smallest land areas of any OPEC country but it is the 10th top oil and gas producing country in the world. Kuwait applies its own laws to govern and manage Oil and gas contracts. Keywords: international contracts, Oil and Gas, Kurdistan and Kuwai

A Comparative Study: Service Animals and Emotional Support Animals under the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act & An Overview of Assistance Animal Laws of Select States, April 18, 2010

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Fair Housing Act (FHA) prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability and govern the use of service or emotional support animals in places where pets may not be permitted. However, courts have been struggling with how to define and treat animals that qualify for protection under each law. This has created confusion as to what rights and duties are owed disabled persons and the animals that live with or accompany them. This essay attempts to clarify these two federal laws with regard to service or emotional support animals and the differing parties‘ rights and interests. It also includes an overview of select state laws that govern assistance animals of all types and our recommendations for enhancing the Iowa Civil Rights Act

Prospects for reform?: the Iranian elections: assessing the candidates: ‘if the majority does not vote, the minority will govern’

On Parkway Square in north Tehran is a large banner sponsored by a political party not supporting Ahmadinejad. It reads, ‘If the majority does not vote, the minority will govern.’ This sentence is part of the Islamic Republic’s campaign to obtain high voter turnout. It also has a subtle meaning aimed at the youth and urban populations which constitute an electoral majority and thus underscores a dynamic of the 2009 presidential elections, considered by many to be the most important election since 1989. A large voter turnout amongst these groups will bring defeat to the current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and ensure victory of one of the reformist-leaning candidates, Mehdi Karrubi or Mir Hossein Mussavi

Wildness and Disobedience : Thoreau’s Walking

In the beginning o f his “Civil Disobedience” Thoreau heartily accepts the Emersonian (“Politics”) motto of that government being best which governs least. Since, ideally, the government which governs least is one which does not govern at all, what we confront is a project of living in a state where there is a government which does not govern, a free state in which the government does not have any right over “my person and property but what I concede to it”. Thoreau came “to this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad”, not to change it but to independently be. The only state in which such a being is thinkable to Thoreau is one in which government is free individual’s neighbour, “which treats the individual with respect as a neighbor” and which would “prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State, which also I have imagined, but not anywhere seen”

Blue supergiant progenitor models of Type II supernovae

In the present paper we show that within all the uncertainties that govern the process of Roche lobe overflow in Case Br type massive binaries, it can not be excluded that a significant fraction of them merge and become single stars. We demonstrate that at least some of them will spend most of their core helium burning phase as hydrogen rich blue stars, populating the massive blue supergiant region and/or the massive Be type star population. The evolutionary simulations let us suspect that these mergers will explode as luminous hydrogen rich stars and it is tempting to link them to at least some super luminous supernovae.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A; accepted versio

Judicial Independence in Excess: Reviving the Judicial Duty of the Supreme Court

Independence from extrinsic influence is, we know, indispensable to public trust in the integrity of professional judges who share the duty to decide cases according to preexisting law. But such independence is less appropriate for those expected to make new law to govern future events. Indeed, in a democratic government those who make new law are expected to be accountable to their constituents, not independent of their interests and unresponsive to their desires. The Supreme Court of the United States has in the last century largely forsaken responsibility for the homely task of deciding cases in accord with preexisting law and has settled into the role of a superlegislature devoted to making new law to govern future events. Citizens who see our judges as primarily engaged in this political role are understandably less tolerant of their claim to independence and are more intent on holding them to account for unwelcome decisions. Such popular dissatisfaction, or even unrest, with our judiciary is a source of prudent concern expressed by Justices, among others. This Article responds to that shared concern with a proposal to restore the Supreme Court to a more purely judicial role by reviving the duty of Justices to decide cases. It would require the Court to decide numerous cases certified by a group of experienced lower federal court judges as the cases most in need of their judicial attention. This proposal is intended not only to strengthen the claim to independence of the Supreme Court, but also that of other courts subject to its leadership

Repair, abort, ignore? Strategies for dealing with UV damage

DNA repair is a prominent member of the nuclear transactions triad (replication, transcription, and repair). Sophisticated mechanisms govern the cellular process of decision-making (to repair or not to repair, to proceed with cell cycle or not and, eventually, to let the cell survive or die) and the temporal and spatial distribution of the DNA repair activities. UV radiation is a very common and virtually unavoidable mutagen whose carcinogenic potential seems to accumulate over time. Various strategies have been developed to avoid or decrease UV damage to cellular DNA, based on prevention of exposure as well as on post-irradiation measures. It is, however, important to acknowledge that the individual capacity for DNA repair varies during the life of the individual and must, therefore, be assessed so as to determine whether the individual is coping with environmental UV damage. Assessment of individual repair capacity might greatly modify the existing therapeutic strategies for common cancers and ought to become a routine part of health prophylaxis