Book Reviews

What does a judge do when he decides a case? It would be interesting to collect the answers ranging from those furnished by primitive systems of law in which the judge was supposed to consult the gods to the ultra-modern, rather profane system described to me recently by a retrospective judge: I make up my mind which way the case ought to be decided, and then I see if I can\u27t get some legal ground to make it stick. Perhaps the widespread impression is the curiously erroneous one lampooned by Gnaeus Flavius (Kantorowitz). The judge is supposed to sit at a green baize tablethe German equivalent in suggestion for our red tape-with nothing before him but a copy of the Biirgerliches Gesetzbucl. Personally, he has no equipment but a perfect thinking machine. The facts are presented to him and a mechanically perfect conclusion is automatically reached. Disregarding entirely the unattainability of this ideal degree of the elimination of the personal equation, one may well ask whether the ideal itself is worth striving to approximate

1936: Abilene Christian College Bible Lectures - Full Text

Delivered in the auditorium of Abilene Christian College, Abilene, Texas, February 193

A New, Bright, Short-Period, Emission Line Binary in Ophiuchus

The 11th magnitude star LS IV -08 3 has been classified previously as an OB star in the Luminous Stars survey, or alternatively as a hot subdwarf. It is actually a binary star. We present spectroscopy, spectroscopic orbital elements, and time series photometry, from observations made at the Kitt Peak National Observatory 2.1m, Steward Observatory 2.3m, MDM Observatory 1.3m and 2.4m, Hobby-Eberly 9.2m, and Michigan State University 0.6m telescopes. The star exhibits emission of varying strength in the cores of H and He I absorption lines. Emission is also present at 4686 Angstroms (He II) and near 4640/4650 Angstroms (N III/C III). Time-series spectroscopy collected from 2005 July to 2007 June shows coherent, periodic radial velocity variations of the H-alpha line, which we interpret as orbital motion with a period of 0.1952894(10) days. High-resolution spectra show that there are two emission components, one broad and one narrow, moving in antiphase, as might arise from an accretion disk and the irradiated face of the mass donor star. Less coherent, low-amplitude photometric variability is also present on a timescale similar to the orbital period. Diffuse interstellar bands indicate considerable reddening, which however is consistent with a distance of ~100-200 pc. The star is the likely counterpart of a weak ROSAT X-ray source, whose properties are consistent with accretion in a cataclysmic variable (CV) binary system. We classify LS IV -08 3 as a new member of the UX UMa subclass of CV stars.Comment: To be published in AJ, 16 pages, 6 figures. Uses AAS Late

Microbial life in the deep terrestrial subsurface

The distribution and function of microorganisms is a vital issue in microbial ecology. The US Department of Energy`s Program, ``Microbiology of the Deep Subsurface,`` concentrates on establishing fundamental scientific information about organisms at depth, and the use of these organisms for remediation of contaminants in deep vadose zone and groundwater environments. This investigation effectively extends the Biosphere hundreds of meters into the Geosphere and has implications to a variety of subsurface activities

Roman monogamy

Mating in Rome was polygynous; marriage was monogamous. In the years 18 and 9 the first Roman emperor, Augustus, backed the lex Julia and the lex Papia Poppaea, his "moral" legislation. It rewarded members of the senatorial aristocracy who married and had children; and it punished celibacy and childlessness, which were common. To many historians, that suggests Romans were reluctant to reproduce. To me, it suggests they kept the number of their legitimate children small to keep the number of their illegitimate children large. Marriage in Rome shares these features with marriage in other empires with highly polygynous mating: inheritances were raised by inbreeding; relatedness to heirs was raised by marrying virgins, praising and enforcing chastity in married women, and discouraging widow remarriage; heirs were limited-- and inheritances concentrated--by monogamous marriage, patriliny, and primogeniture; and back-up heirs were got by divorce and remarriage, concubinage, and adoption. The "moral" legislation interfered with each of these. Among other things, it diverted inheritances by making widows remarry; it lowered relatedness to heirs by making adultery subject to public, rather than private, sanctions; and it dispersed estates by making younger sons and daughters take legitimate spouses and make legitimate heirs. Augustus' "moral" legislation, like canon law in Europe later on, was not, as it first appears, an act of reproductive altruism. It was, in fact, a form of reproductive competition.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/29876/1/0000226.pd

Abraham Lincoln in 1854: an Address Delivered before the Illinois State Historical Society at its 9th Annual Meeting at Springfield, Illinois, Jan. 30, 1908

At head of title: Illinois State Historical Society, January 1908https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/fvw-pamphlets/1138/thumbnail.jp