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Wouldn’t attainable speeds increase quite a bit after escaping the Sun’s gravitational pull?

Not with current technology. Most space missions get their initial boost at the beginning via launch and orbital escape burns. They may pick up a little speed via slingshot around planets, stealing a bit of momentum. However, while five probes (to date) have gone fast enough that they will never "fall back" into the sun, the sun's gravity still reduces their speed over time.

At least until the probe crosses into the region where the target star's gravity dominates. Then it will accelerate as it approaches the star. Same thing happened with the Apollo missions. The spacecraft gradually slowed down until it passed the Earth-Moon equilibrium point, and then started to speed up again.

Now technically a plutonium-powered ion engine could produce a near-continuous thrust for quite a while that would keep accelerating the spacecraft. However, there hasn't yet been enough development to keep such an engine active long enough to shave significant time off the trip.

I am the weirdo who has added chocolate syrup to my cola beverages since the early 90s. Vanilla is OK, too, but there is just something about the interaction of the chocolate with the cola flavor.

To be fair, Greg Maddux once pitched a 76-pitch complete game, so if anyone could do it, he was the guy.

I remember being home from college in ‘95 or ‘96 or so over Christmas break, not too long after ESPN expanded to ESPN2. Prime time (8 PM Eastern or so) one night they were showing Camel boxing. They were so desperate for programming they were showing Camel boxing. Of course, that was before they had rights to NFL, all of the bowl games, etc.

I paid my own room and board. And I didn’t have money for a meal plan.

Same here, at least my last two years of college (95-97). I had a small refrigerator and either drove or took the bus (depending on schedule and whether or not I could afford gas) to the local grocery store. I saved hundreds of dollars that semester over the cost of the meal plan, and costs are only worse now. Then again, my "Expected Parental Contribution" for a year of my son's college is higher than the total cost of two years' of my college, and my son has multiple scholarships (including National Merit). I don't doubt some students are lazy, but the cost of college is a real problem.

Read the Book THE YEAR BABE RUTH HIT 104 HOME RUNS

I second this recommendation. Excellent book, well written and researched, with plenty of diagrams, pictures, charts, and explanatory text. The Babe would beat Barry Bonds's record by the All-Star break with today's parks, let alone modern training, scheduling, and travel comforts.

I heard Rush make this comment today, and here is a little context. Bexar County had a Republican DA for 16 years until last election, when Nico LaHood won a surprise victory after his campaign was bankrolled by multimillionaire attorney Thomas J. Henry. Henry gave $1.2 to 1.5 million to LaHood’s campaign in 2014 (accounts vary as to the amount), roughly four-to-five times the amount of money spent by incumbent Susan Reed on the campaign. Henry is a trial lawyer and defense attorney, and there have been calls of conflict of interest when his clients have faced indictment in Bexar County since LaHood’s election. LaHood, on the other hand, is vulnerable in a primary campaign aside from his ties to Henry due to his 1994 Ecstasy conviction and his public anti-vaccine stances. More information can be found at https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/District-attorney-race-already-promises-to-be-a-12378689.php and https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/us/wealthy-donor-helps-turn-a-campaign-into-a-race.html.

In other words, I don’t think this race makes the best case for a Democrat surge. If anything, pitting two high-dollar donors against each other in the primaries can only drain the coffers for the general election in November.

Exactly — I am surprised that no one has mentioned that the intro to “Strawberry Fields Forever” was played on a mellotron. The mellotron is also used to play the “Spanish guitar” intro to “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill” off the White Album.

So it will grow back, then?

Hibernation for New Horizons means the science instruments are turned off, the high gain antenna is pointed toward Earth, the spacecraft computer system is put in a low power mode, and the thrusters are fired to put the spacecraft into a gentle spin. The instruments are turned off to save wear and tear on the electronics. The spin helps the spacecraft maintain course.

MD, who worked on the Alice instrument on New Horizons

My thoughts exactly. Olive Garden is the McDonald’s of Italian restaurants. In all seriousness, there is a Cheddar’s a few miles from my house, but I rarely go because it is always packed. Not to mention there are more “casual dining” restaurants than you can shake a stick at within a few miles of the house, and these days even “casual dining” is a treat.

I was born and raised in NC, and my parents and remaining family are still there. My bits of advice are stay out of the big cities, as they are all liberal, and get on the BobLeeSays and/or AgentPierce mailing lists.

Otherwise, the whole state is beautiful, you can be either in the mountains or at the beach in 4 hours from wherever you are, and most of the state (especially the Coastal Plain areas) really appreciates the military. I’d live there now if I could find a job in my field.

It looks like they only count screens classified as televisions, not computer monitors, tablet screens, etc. that can also be used to watch programming. Why be tied to one location when you can take your screen with you?

Then again, I’m one of those weirdos with only one TV dating back to 2003.

One of our six does that, and you can hear her across the living room and dining room. We say she’s talking smack to the birds.

That’s exactly what New Horizons did, flying by Jupiter in February 2007 to pick up speed. Otherwise, the journey would have been even longer.

Thanks, we are. ;)

You laugh, but tradition dictates that the PI keeps the lens cap (or, in this case, red-tag cover) in his back pocket during launch.

The building is on a rail that can slide in and out of place to protect against inclement weather. You can see the rail at the bottom left of the picture. They probably had the building open because it was a warm August day and too warm to work inside (probably little AC in August 1961). White Sands has a similar building that can slide back, and then the payload raises up vertical on the launch rail.

The amazing thing to me is none of the workers are wearing ground straps. Maybe because the booster is liquid-fueled they weren’t as worried about accidental ignition?

My apologies for the thread-zombie, but note that “Mary Mary” was written by Michael Nesmith, making an appearance here a month before “The Monkees” TV show premiered and five months before its release on “More of the Monkees.”

Dan Issel and Artis Gilmore for the old-school ABA Kentucky Colonels. The latter is also an ex-Spur, making him easier for me to recognize. ;)