Fifty years ago, two girls, Able and Baker, went to space. After their brief spaceflight on May 28, 1959, the two pioneers were hailed as heroes and made the cover of LIFE, which lauded them as America’s Space Travelers. Able, a seven-pound rhesus monkey, and Baker, a one-pound squirrel monkey, paved the way for the modern astronaut—they were the first primates to survive the trip to space as well as the landing. Today, says Jim David, a curator at the Smithsonian’s Air & Space Museum, their flight is just "one of many long-forgotten space events." This one had special significance because, at the time, so little was known about the effects that space would have on living things. "This was a very important step in determining the biomedical effects of spaceflight," David says. "Step by step, we learned that, absent massive radiation doses, accident, or malfunction, spaceflight doesn’t kill." Full article
APRIL 30—There are probably better ways to avoid jury duty than the approach recently taken by a Montana man. After Erik Slye, 36, received a jury notice earlier this year, he filed a notarized affidavit seeking to be excused from serving on a District Court panel in Gallatin County. Slye’s caustic affidavit, which he prepared with help from his wife Jennifer, can be found below. The document, of course, did not sit well with court officials and led a judge to threaten to jail Slye. But after being summoned to court, Slye apologized for the affidavit and avoided being cited on a criminal failure to appear rap. And he also was excused from serving on a jury. (1 pa
