Lack of high-speed internet access remains a problem in the United States, particularly in rural areas, Tribal lands, and the U.S. territories. High-speed internet should be considered a basic right because it connects people to social media, the new public sphere. Critics worry about the politically polarizing effects of online social media, but its ability to unify, connect, and shape policy decisions should also be taken into account. Engaging with Jürgen Habermas’s early work on the public sphere, I argue that (...) the technical and cultural extension of access to social media can realize Kant’s vision of the public sphere as a bridge between morality and politics. (shrink)

In the course of his chemical investigation of crude platina ore, William Hyde Wollaston in 1802 isolated and characterized the metal palladium. In early 1803, he chose to make known his discovery by offering small samples of the metal for sale through a small shop in London. In the notice advertising the properties of the new metal, no information was given as to its source nor to its discoverer. The unique properties of the metal, and the secrecy surrounding its (...) discovery, led the Irish chemist Richard Chenevix to question the elemental nature of the new metal. His hasty but extensive investigation of the chemical properties of palladium convinced him that it was no more than an alloy of platinum and mercury, and he denounced the discovery as fraudulent. The president of the Royal Society, Joseph Banks, was drawn into the resulting furore, and correspondence between him and Chenevix reveals involved plans to obtain the identity of the palladium discoverer. The controversy is viewed as a significant episode in the continuing debate in the chemical community over the operational definition of a chemical element, and although Chenevix's concern over the growth in the number of new elements was justified, his choice of palladium as a test case was an unfortunate one, for his claim that the metal was an alloy was found to be erroneous. Motives for the actions of both Chenevix and Wollaston are sought, and the judgement that their careers were damaged by the incident is questioned. (shrink)

The Supreme Court against the Criminal Jury critiques the Supreme Court’s decisions to allow reduced jury sizes and less than unanimous jury verdicts to determine guilt. John A. Murley and Sean D. Sutton challenges the Court’s decisions by examining its incomplete understanding of the purpose of trial by jury and evaluating its use of inaccurate and unreliable studies as support for its decisions.

The six platinum group metals (pgms: ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium and platinum) posed a number of problems for 19th-century chemists, including Mendeleev, for their Periodic classification. This account discusses the discovery of the pgms, the determination of their atomic weights and their classification.

Variable particle masses have sometimes been invoked to explain observed anomalies in low energy nuclear reactions (LENR). Such behavior has never been observed directly, and is not considered possible in theoretical nuclear physics. Nevertheless, there are covariant off-mass-shell theories of relativistic particle dynamics, based on works by Fock, Stueckelberg, Feynman, Greenberger, Horwitz, and others. We review some of these and we also consider virtual particles that arise in conventional Feynman diagrams in relativistic field theories. Effective Lagrangian models incorporating variable mass (...) particle theories might be useful in describing anomalous nuclear reactions by combining mass shifts together with resonant tunneling and other effects. A detailed model for resonant fusion in a deuterium molecule with off-shell deuterons and electrons is presented as an example. Experimental means of observing such off-shell behavior directly, if it exists, is proposed and described. Brief explanations for elemental transmutation and formation of micro-craters are also given, and an alternative mechanism for the mass shift in the Widom–Larsen theory is presented. If variable mass theories were to find experimental support from LENR, then they would undoubtedly have important implications for the foundations of quantum mechanics, and practical applications may arise. (shrink)

The Domentijan's Life of Saint Sava the Serbian from 1253/1254 is the oldest known source for the cults of Athonite miracle-working icons of the Virgin. In that text we have the mentions of five famous icons of the Virgin from Mount Athos: Virgin of Vatopedi, Kariotissa, Portaïtissa, Oikonomissa and Virgin of Hilandar monastery. Three of those exist today, in Vatopedi , Iviron and mosaic icon from Hilandar monastery ; 'Axion estin' is the copy from the late thirteenth century of the (...) former icon in Protaton, and in Great Lavra there is the mixture of two cults, of old Oikonomissa and the present day monastery 'Palladium', Koukouzelissa. (shrink)

The Periodic Table has the column of the noble gas atoms (He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, Rn) as one of its main pillars. Indeed the inert chemical nature of their closed shell structure is so striking that it is sometimes extended to all such structures. Is it true however that any closed shell, say a closed d-subshell will denote a lack of chemical activity? Take the noble metals for instance, so renowned for their catalytic capacity. Platinum has 10 electrons in (...) its valence shell which makes one of its excited states to be a closed 5d10–6s0 state. Surely this state would not be expected to be crucial to the catalytic activity of platinum, or would it? Or take palladium whose ground state is precisely the 4d10–5s0 state, should we expect that an isolated Pd atom at near zero-point temperature would attack a closed-shell hydrogen molecule efficiently? We shall here show that this is precisely the case; the closed-shell excited states of nickel and platinum are indeed crucial, through symmetry avoided crossings, for their reactivity. Other valuable catalysts as ruthenium depend on their excited states with maximal d-shell occupancy for their activity. The most notable confirmation of this new finding; that closed d-shells are vital to the catalytic activity of noble metals however, is the case of palladium whose closed-shell ground state is indeed capable of attacking hydrogen and hydrocarbon molecules even at temperatures well below 10 K as was predicted theoretically and immediately confirmed experimentally. (shrink)

Should a prosecutor throw a case to avoid keeping men he thinks are innocent in prison? The startling case of justice gone awry in the Palladium nightclub murder raises new questions about the role that conscience should play in lawyers ethics, when conscience presses one way but professional rules press the other.

Name der Zeitschrift: Klio Jahrgang: 96 Heft: 1 Seiten: 49-66.

This paper deals with the political implications of the dedication of a temple to Minerva in Rome by Pompey the Great after his Eastern campaign (61 BC). Among the hypotheses on the reasons for the choice of this goddess by the general, Palmer’s - that this Minerva has to be put in connection with the Athena of Troy - is here considered as the most likely, and is thus analysed in depth. Pompey’s dedication arguably derives its meaning from earlier relationships (...) between the Near East and Rome, and possibly more recent Mithridatic anti-Roman propaganda, and might symbolise the ecumenical character of Pompey’s conquests. (shrink)