So now we know to put astronauts into suspended animation?

I became a fan of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey when I was still in high school. One plot point there was that the supercomputer of the spaceship on a mission to Jupiter went crazy - it was supposed to be an artificially intelligent machine - and made an effort to kill all the astronauts.

Two of the astronauts were piloting the ship and three other astronauts was in suspended animation. So this computer was successful in killing one of the non-suspended astronauts and killed the suspended astronauts. The surviving astronaut shut the computer down and continued to Jupiter.

I thought about that film when I saw this article. Placing astronauts in suspended animation was science fiction in 1968 when the film was released and it was science fiction back in the 1990s. While there were actually scientists studying this scenario it looks like we've started to figure out how this could be done.

The body would have to be cooled and has been used as part of medical treatment. In fact I wonder if this is akin to placing someone in a medically induced come. I wish I could answer this but you're not reading the blog of a trained medical doctor.

All the same, at one point in my life I always wanted to be an astronaut. It was excited to go on a modern day "Star Trek" even if the voyage was only to orbit on the shuttle or staying in the solar system going to the moon or to Mars. This article does discuss how we can send people to Mars and suspended animation is one way to do it without having to spend money on lots of food or anything else.

So, it seems again the future is here. Hopefully we're developing much more advanced and faster propulsion to send spacecraft to their destination and back to the earth. Which means hopefully there would be no need for suspended animation.

Football

It's been years since I actually followed the football season. Football is without a doubt one of America's most popular sports fans follow not only the NFL but also the colleges as well. Perhaps on a smaller level we may have fans of high school football as well.

Unfortunately for me, I do not consider myself a football fan. Primarily my allegiance is with the Chicago Bears but often they seem to have the tendency to disappoint and over the years that's what they have done. It's hard for me to follow the football season when the Bears aren't playing at the best level possible.

I really don't remember the season where they one the Super Bowl and there are fans who continue to talk about that team as if they won more than one Super Bowl. The last season they made it to the Super Bowl was 2007 and at that it was a surprise as I really didn't follow the Bears' season that year. It was great to know that we got that close.

Another thing about football is that I've decided that it's way too hard to follow. I need to figure out what a pocket is in football is that a defensive or offensive term. The only context I'm familiar with it is in terms of the offense especially with the quarterback. Where did that come from has that term always been in the glossary?

In any case, I've often found America's original popular sport Baseball an easier sport to follow. The rules aren't that difficult or complication and over the years (especially without watching on TV) I've found that you can call how the play would end. In fact, when I went to that Sox game this summer I called a lot of the plays during the course of the game and didn't need the play-by-play.

This season is the first season I really follow what's been going on. If the Bears aren't on, I'll just follow another game. Alas I still don't follow all the transactions like I used to and that as always will prove to be very interesting no matter the sport.

So far the Bears looked good although they're 2 & 2 perhaps when they face the Carolina Panther we'll see more of what they're capable of.