Human Hibernation on the Horizon? 511
Mincemeat.net writes "The BBC is reporting that scientists at University of Washington have successfully induced a state of extreme hibernation in mice. The mice suffered no ill effects. Naturally, testing in larger animals will ensue. Humans wouldn't necessarily appreciate the smell of hydrogen sulfide while being placed into suspended animation. However, the applications are numerous if the usage of similar techniques can be applied to us. Cancer treatment, delaying death from injuries, interplanetary expeditions top the lists of possibilities. While it's not a quick freeze, maybe Fry will be able to meet Bender after all."
Experience is King (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Experience is King (Score:5, Funny)
Wake me when it's over! (Score:5, Interesting)
The cool thing is that since metabolic activity cease, your cells would stop dividing, and therefore the aging process would cease as well. Opportunistic viruses would not multiply since they require cellular mitosis, and most bacteria would also take a nap.
I would, however, worry about anaerobic bacteria, especially the kind that thrive on sulfur gases; they'd literally eat you for lunch while you were out like a light. If even one of those suckers got inside, then when someone opened your chamber six months from now you'd be pretty much a skeleton with a mass of oozing, smelly residues--ewwwww!
I would also wonder about undigested food sitting in your stomach and small intestine for days or months, not to mention feces still in the colon. You want to move that stuff through before you shut down the system. On second thought I think I'll wait before trying this one out.
But then you'll smell like you walk the boulevard (Score:4, Interesting)
The kittens run away from me and hide
Weird things between my toes
And people often think something has died.
I climb a lonely hill
On the Boulevard of Bad Hygiene
I frighten CowboyNeal
But he could learn to love it if he tried.
Something has died? Something has died.
Something has died? Something has...
My B.O.'s the only thing that walks beside me.
My B.O. makes strong men think of suiciding.
My Odor kills the flowers and the pine trees.
Smells like, something has died.
Arrgh ack, Arrgh ack, Arrgh ack, *Cough* *Cough*
Arrgh ack, Arrgh ack, Arrgh ack.
I'm walking down the line
diners flee the buffet so that's fine
so I can take my time
And eat onions, cabbage and... *sniff* something has died.
I can shower, fine.
Or I could on go slashdot tonight.
Closed window, pull the blinds.
But the neighbours think something has died.
Something has died? Something has died.
Something has died? Something has...
My B.O.'s clings to surfaces behind me
My B.O.'s beyond a mortal understanding
Sometimes they wish someone would put me in a... um...
Plastic bag, something has died.
Arrgh ack, Arrgh ack, Arrgh ack, *Cough* *Cough*
Arrgh ack, Arrgh ack, Arrgh ack.
Something has died? Something has...
I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Bad Hygiene
City evacuates
in it's pants and something has died.
My B.O. is worse than a Bush e-con-omy.
My B.O. gets UN weapons inspectors antsy.
My Odor could be casus beli if they could find me.
I think, Something has died.
from amiright.com [amiright.com]
Re:Experience is King (Score:3, Interesting)
The gases used here sound louder.
Re:This is really off topic but ... (Score:3, Informative)
IANAL, but I'm pretty shure deliberately failing to count a deposit when the funds were there (eigther imediately for cash, or as soon as the check clears for checks in most cases, check banking regs and/or a lawyer in the field for exact details) so they can then charge you shure looks like the
Well Water (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Well Water (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Well Water (Score:5, Interesting)
Its corrosive property is particularly nasty. Here's [img224.echo.cx] what happens to a copper seal in a H2S gas line over time. The inner part of the seal has been in contact with H2S and as you can see it's just flaking away. Aluminum, plastic or synthetic rubber seals don't do much better and a leak in a H2S line will definitely ruin your day...
Re:Well Water (Score:5, Funny)
Not to mention your appetite..
Momentarily?? (Score:5, Informative)
It's nasty stuff and all refineries, pipelines, and other oil/gas installations are trained about H2S and it's risks. Where H2S is present in the lines, you will see many of the technicians wearing portable H2S monitors.
(BTW, I sell H2S detectors for natural gas custody transfer points. Not the portable ones I spoke about but large scale one for pipeline intersections)
Re:Momentarily?? (Score:4, Informative)
another note though on the risks of h2s just for information and grins is that rotting/spoiled food and fish can cause it as well... thats why all freight trucks that carry fish have to put that fish symbol outside the truck, the idea is if the truck has wrecked off the side of the road and sat in the heat long enough that the fish has become rotten its possible for h2s to have been produced and could possibly kill someone coming to help out....
and more directed to the parent, i was wondering if you sell h2s equipment to the freight industry under regulation type stuff, or any other industry besides oil and gas....
Re:Momentarily?? (Score:4, Informative)
I do sell equipment to freight guys but most of what I sell is into gas/oil just due to geography and the businesses here (Okla/TX/KS). Seriously, I'll sell to anyone who can and wants to buy!
Here's another little nerdy fact about H2S. It's very easy to detect. H2S reacts with Lead Acetate to produce a brownish lead sulfide. So, you create a roll of lead acetate tape and then "spot" your samples onto it. If H2S is present, it will create a brownish lead sulfide which is easily visible.
The best part about it is this: H2S is the ONLY substance that reacts with lead acetate in this way. So interference and false signals are a non-issue. Brown = H2S. White = no H2S.
I can't wait for... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I can't wait for... (Score:5, Funny)
I live in Switzerland, you insensitive clod !
1000 people per plane like cargo eh (Score:5, Insightful)
1. put up with idiotic customers
2. serve drinks and food
3. show entertainment
4. have good leg room
Just pack up em like cargo as tight as it can go.
Re:1000 people per plane like cargo eh (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I can't wait for... (Score:3, Interesting)
In other words, they are all like 50 years old now.
This is news? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This is news? (Score:5, Funny)
I think you've got the wrong word there, the one you're looking for is not "hibernation", it's "masturbation".
Re:This is news? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:This is news? (Score:5, Funny)
Very true. Most likely you would be in the emergency room, awaiting a skin graft.
That's nice. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:That's nice. (Score:5, Funny)
The use has quite some side effects, one of them, in my city at least, seems to be a strong preference for car hifi equipment.
Re:That's nice. (Score:3, Interesting)
While this is true for most people, the polyphasic technique works around it. Basically, the only part of that sleep that's neccesary for survival is the REM cycles. When your brain has adjusted to the polyphasic sleep method, you go directly into REM, skipping those other uneccesary deep sleep phases. This has the drawback of losing things like the ability to build new muscle mass, but for
Not necessarily a good thing.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Not necessarily a good thing.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not necessarily a good thing.... (Score:3, Insightful)
yea, whatever :::rolls eyes::: (Score:3, Informative)
As hibernation tech increases you can bet many will pay millions for it, and why not? All we need now is some megacorp to set up a freezing station on the moon to store all those human popsicles and they will be billionaires.
I doubt you would be so quick to con
Re:Not necessarily a good thing.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not necessarily a good thing.... (Score:5, Insightful)
The population is just growing too quickly. We get 75 million new people a year.
Let's start with the easy one -- space colonies. You can start exploring planets all you want, but unless you can figure out a way to ship off more than 75 million people a year, the population is still going to increase on Earth. Think about how many resources and man-hours are required to get seven people into LEO -- we couldn't reduce population by shipping people into space even if the whole world were united behind the project.
Next, let's talk war. Suppose you started a war that lasted a week and killed 1,000,000 people. That's a lot of people in a short amount of time -- it would be horrific. At the end of that week, you'd still have 430,000 more people than you started with! You could drag that war on for ten years, kill half a billion people (more than any war in history), and you'd still be way behind. Sure, you could pull out the nukes, but then you'd be reducing livable space and making a mess for the survivors.
The other thing you have to keep in mind is that many of the people saved by modern medicine are already past child bearing. The sort of people who could afford hiberation treatment would be in wealthy countries where the birth rate is low, anyway.
Everyone dies eventually, so killing a few adults off early doesn't change much in the long term balance sheet. The only practical way to do so is to alter the birth rate.
And one of the best ways to lower birth rates is to raise living standards and give people access to modern medical care (including contraceptives). When the mortality rate drops to some reasonable level and half the family isn't sick from malaria, you don't need to overproduce children just to make sure you'll have enough healthy members in the family.
It's also a lot more efficient for people to have a few healthy children than it is for them to spend resources raising a lot children only to have some large portion of them struck down by one of the four horsemen.
Re:Not necessarily a good thing.... (Score:4, Funny)
They drive motorcycles nowadays, and Plague has been replaced by Pollution.
Re:Not necessarily a good thing.... (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree, although for different reasons. Concraception is not the reason that most postindustrial countries have low birth rates. For the most part, it is just more economically efficent to have many children in poor countries and less efficent to have children at all in wealthy countries.
If you live on a subsistence level, every child is another pair or hands to work the farm, or help out however. In the US, Europe, etc, a child is a drain on your resources for 18+ years. So you have fewer.
We do need to give access to concraceptives to deal with overpoplation, but if we just raise the standard of living, contraceptives, and economical pressure to use them, will follow.
Re:Not necessarily a good thing.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Having studied birthrates and the third world I can tell you what some studies have said.
First of all most Women is poor countries DON'T HAVE FARMS. These isn't little house of the prairie where a bunch of little helpers go out and milk the cows. They live in poverty with very little to provide sustenance. These women have children by the bushels for numerous reasons, but one of the most striking is a concept called numeracy. They don't have it. It is the concept of how many children one has, e.g. only child, 2, 3 then stopping. When you ask a woman is sub-saharran Africa how many children she wants she will reply with something like - "as many as god gives me" or "I don't know what you mean, as many as will come".
What most studies find about lowering birthrates in the thirdworld is an insanely simple answer: empower women. When women become empowered they begin to feel they can control their environment and by extension their reproduction.
Re:Not necessarily a good thing.... (Score:3, Insightful)
That can probably be attributed to two factors: a bombardment of advertising encouraging private motor vehicles as status objects and the government deciding top-down that car manufacture and sales will be part of the new economy
However, the general point is correct, the increase of standard of living must come wit
Re:Not necessarily a good thing.... (Score:3, Interesting)
...and you think that's an aberration, that with "higher standards of living" come "advertising bombardments" for products we don't really need? Funny, I thought having more products you don't need is what most people meant when they said "higher standard of living".
Energy and Starvation (Score:3, Interesting)
It's a moot point unless an alternative to our dependance on fossil fuels is found. Starvation will quickly solve the popluation problem in short order.
It's all about energy. If you have energy, nothing is a problem - period. If you don't have energy, EVERYTHING is a problem. We're past the point where a retreat to an agrarian life is possible without bloody revolution.
The only answer is new energy technologies - efficient fusion, improved fission, better solar, clean burning coal extr
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not necessarily a good thing.... (Score:3)
Were I less well-caffeinated, I'd probably create an instance of Godwin's Law right now. As it is, I'll just point and laugh.
*points and laughs*
Re:Not necessarily a good thing.... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Not necessarily a good thing.... (Score:3, Insightful)
What if we inadvertently cull someone we would have needed later?
Take Stephen Hawking for example. Ameliotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (the diseas he has) is caused by a genetic defect.
I'd rather have a large gene pool with lots of genetic variation and a lot of bad genes than a tiny one with no bad genes.
Say a new virus comes along, there's a good chance SOMEONE will be immune/resistant to it given a large very diverse gene pool.
Re:Not necessarily a good thing.... (Score:5, Informative)
Aren't we already saving too many people who should be dead and thereby contributing greatly to world problems like overcrowding and world hunger and fun stuff?
No, the problems of world overcrowding and hunger are not problems of supply, they're problems of distribution. The world's food supply is perfectly adequate to feed everyone, and global food production has kept up with population growth. As for overcrowding, the entire population of the world could be housed in an area the size of Texas. This would give every family (or group) of four 5000 square feet of living space.
The problems of world hunger and overcrowding are not problems inherent with having too many people.
Re:Not necessarily a good thing.... (Score:5, Informative)
Size of Texas: [netstate.com] 261,914 sq miles (land) = 7.30174326 × 10^12 square feet [google.com]
Population of the world: [ibiblio.org] 6,515,511,450 people
Area / people [google.com] = 1120.67077 sq ft/person
Family/group of 4 = 4482.7 sq ft
Incredible, isn't it?
Re:Not necessarily a good thing.... (Score:3, Informative)
Check out this [rollins.edu] page about 'ghost acres'. It calculated that roughly 9.1 acres is needed to sustain one person.
1 acre is 42560 sqft... so each person needs 396396 sqft. Round it to 0.4 million sqft / person.
With 6,515,511,450 people, you will need roughly 2.6 billion million sqft for the world's population!!! A less confusing number: 2,600,000 billion.
The earth has roughly 57,500,000 sq miles of land surface... with 27,878,400 sq feet per sq miles, we have:
1,603,008,000,000,
Re:Not necessarily a good thing.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Fair enough: drop dead.
You do not want to? Hm, funny. Neither do I.
Re:Not necessarily a good thing.... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Not necessarily a good thing.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course, there are many smart poor people, and there are many who are dumb but had the luck of being born in a higher social class. What I mean is, there is a significant correlation between intelligence+education and the social stratum.
And, the amount of offspring is inversely proportional to the social level.
The truly mentally retarded are often in medicalised or institutionalised situations an
Original Science Article (Score:4, Informative)
Or (Score:2)
Wait, would they have gone back in time if Fry hadn't been frozen in the first place? What if Fry dug Bender up today and moved to Roswell (avoiding hibernation). [brain explodes].
Please put me in hibernation (Score:5, Funny)
why? (Score:5, Funny)
Olson Twins (Score:5, Funny)
Wait, nevermind...
Quite the interesting point (Score:5, Insightful)
Injectable Hybernation. I'm sure this can't be abused in any way whatsoever.
Re:Quite the interesting point (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, as a parent I can think of a few times where a few hours of peace could be a really good thing. Now the question is do I administer it to me or the child...
Re:Quite the interesting point (Score:4, Insightful)
Your child will only be a child for a short time. I know it is hard when the kid is crying in your face and won't shut up, but take the time to enjoy it. In just a few years the kid will be crying about something else, and a few years latter wrecking your car (unless you teach safe driving by example now, and even then good luck). Then suddenly he is gone and you will realize how much you miss the kid crying in your face.
It is hard to keep proper perspective, but when you are in that situation remind yourself of it.
Re:Quite the interesting point (Score:3, Funny)
Most definitely the kids. I'd love summer vacations. We could just put the kids in storage for the summer and it would just be me and my wife until August when we'd have to wake them and send them to school again.
Maybe it would be easier if we developed year round public boarding schools.
Re:Quite the interesting point (Score:3, Insightful)
If anyone wants to kill/silence/ect you, he could just inject some air to kill you or some normal sedative and than do whatever he wants in as much time as he wants.
So why does the facts that the hibernation can be started by injection make it in any way abusable? Wouldnt airborne starting much worse?
What I expect... (Score:5, Funny)
"Yeah...about that...we all kinda went in after you...so science and technology is about at the same point you left off."
"So I still have cancer?"
"Technically, yes. But hey, at least that asteroid never hit...right?"
You wouldn't smell it for long (Score:5, Informative)
One of the effects of hydrogen sulphide exposure is that is "paralyses" the sense of smell before a fatal dose is reached. This is normally very dangerous as people can think they have left the contaminated area while continuing in fact to breathe in more of the toxic gas.
So chances are you wouldn't have to put up with the smell too long, before you either stop smelling, die horribly or maybe just go into suspended animation.
Re:You wouldn't smell it for long (Score:3, Funny)
I doubt the mice do, either.
How about (Score:2, Insightful)
Seems a bit better then the death penalty, would also actually make those 600 year jail sentences mean something =)
One day you go to jail, 5 years later you wake up anew.
Remind anyone of Demolition Man? Good because it should!
Re:How about (Score:2, Insightful)
"Wanna see what it's like in the future? Kill someone today!"
Re:How about (Score:3, Funny)
"Each count carries a statutory penalty of eight years penal servitude. In the light of your hologrammatic status, these sentences are to be served consecutively, making a total sentence of nine thousand, three hundred and twenty-eight years."
Re:How about (Score:2, Insightful)
Being sent to prison is not just a way to keep criminals from harming society (again), it's also (primarily?) a punishment..
Re:How about (Score:5, Interesting)
Our penal system is based on the "Penetentiary" concept developed by the Quakers. Basically, sitting in a room, unable to leave, and deprived of your senses gives you time to think about your crimes. It also turned out to be a reasonably heinous form of psychological torture.
So around the 1960s they watered down the Penetentiary concept, and we got what is more or less the modern "Convict Warehouse". Fitting as many bodies as possible into a confined space without them killing each other.
Re:How about (Score:5, Interesting)
The trouble is, not all criminals care about what they've done. Some of them just don't feel pity or remorse.
CS Lewis argued against a purely penetentiary model of justice on the grounds that it would lead to disproportionate punishment. If we discount punishment as a motive for putting people in jail, then the only reason to send people to jail is to reform them and protect the public. This means that instead of sending people to jail for a fixed time that matches how much punishment the criminal deserves, it is more logical to imprison people until they see the error of their ways and are deemed safe to release. But in some cases this could take a very long time, and there are some criminals who will never be reformed.
Are we really willing to put people in jail indefinitely? It was proposed here in the UK that "psycopathic" criminals who were judged a permanent danger could be subject to open-ended detention. This met widespread opposition from people who, I assume, feel that jail sentences should fit the crime (ie, they believe in just and proportionate punishment, rather than simply the necessary evil of reformative incarceration).
As another Slashdotter once put it, imagine if someone was in jail for sharing MP3s online. Should they stay there until they can convince the parole board that they're sorry and won't do it again, even if that takes years? I would say that the punishment for copyright infringement should be proportionate to the harm it causes. Those who make illegal copies should only be punished as much as their crime deserves to be punished. Under a purely penetentiary regime, the whole question of punishment and how much a person deserves to be punished is irrelevant.
Reforming criminals is a vital part of the justice system, but I wouldn't like a society where it was the only part. I don't believe in insanely heavy penalties for file sharing. Likewise I would be angered if a murderer got off with a light sentence on the grounds that he was unlikely to do it again.
Re:How about (Score:3, Insightful)
Alternative to freezing ? (Score:2)
Maybe they'll pay somebody to put them into hibernation when they're 75 years old and tired of life, and have instructions to wake them up when we finally have flying cars.
Brains in jars (Score:5, Insightful)
Hybernation offers a third technology. Instead of lopping off my head at the first sign of cancer, you could put my body into hybernation and keep my brain active with regular stimulation. Hopefully you could do it by jacking me into a video game. I could handle living in MxO, as long as it was on a non-hostile server. Maybe I could even earn a living as a member of the Live Events team.
Re:Brains in jars (Score:3, Interesting)
Welcome to the World of Tomorrow! (Score:5, Funny)
Hey, I was frozen, I know what guy wants to hear first: the bathroom's that way.
</end of obligatory Futurama quote>
We develop Medical Software (Score:5, Interesting)
-chitlenz
Good sf fodder (Score:2)
Hibernation is going to come before any kind of cold sleep or freezing. Kind of silly for science fiction to skip it, even if it is easier on the writer.
Re:Good sf fodder (Score:2)
In his novels, Hibernation was induced by a variety of things including an enzyme discovered in bears, to the "Dreamless sleep" used by explorers in 2001.
Great! (Score:2)
Now I'm just waiting for someone to finally find a new energy source.
Sweet! (Score:4, Funny)
Enclosed in this envelope is my account information. Please wake me up when I can afford a decent spaceship.
Thank you
PS. ZZZZZzzzzzzzz
Re:Sweet! (Score:5, Funny)
Fixed your list, no need to thank me
Research abstract and paper link from Science (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyways, here's the research abstract from Science:
H2S Induces a Suspended Animation-Like State in Mice [sciencemag.org]
Eric Blackstone, Mike Morrison, Mark B. Roth
Mammals normally maintain their core body temperature (CBT) despite changes in environmental temperature. Exceptions to this norm include suspended animation-like states such as hibernation, torpor, and estivation. These states are all characterized by marked decreases in metabolic rate, followed by a loss of homeothermic control in which the animal's CBT approaches that of the environment. We report that hydrogen sulfide can induce a suspended animation-like state in a nonhibernating species, the house mouse (Mus musculus). This state is readily reversible and does not appear to harm the animal. This suggests the possibility of inducing suspended animation-like states for medical applications.
Bacterial overgrowth?? (Score:5, Interesting)
Mice are also much smaller than humans (yes a statement of the obvious) and so their thermal mass is much slower - i.e. they cool down MUCH faster due to their increased surface area to mass ratio. I'll try to not become too enthusiastic until I see some larger animal studies - preferrably on cats (not dogs please - I like them) or also on a few of the weird looking guys who hang out at the gas station by my house.
Re:Bacterial overgrowth?? (Score:3, Interesting)
Been done (Score:3, Funny)
At last an explanation of the shortage of chemists (Score:2)
The amazing thing, given the amount of the stuff you use in basic inorganic analysis, is that any of us got any work done at all.
How do you keep microorganisms... (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually there's probably already a couple of billion of them on your skin and completely sterilizing a human being (alive) is long from possible. Six hours of hibernation is one thing, but I wouldn't want to try this for more than a day.
Re:How do you keep microorganisms... (Score:5, Informative)
As for sterilizing a human, even if it was possible, it would be a very bad idea. Your normal flora are adapted to live peacefully side by side with. They protect you by outcompeting invasive foreign species. They manufacture vitamins in your intestines. It would not be a good idea to get rid of them.
Sterile people can be made in theory. It's been done with mice. Scientists aseptically cut them out of the uterous and raised them in sterile environments. They lived twice as long as ordinary mice, but they were weak and sickly the entire time and died of strange nasty diseases. Some of these sterile mice were exposed to a normal environment. They died soon after of horrible nasty diseases.
In summary. Long term refridgeration will cause your little buddies to turn on you and sterilization will lead to a bubble life.
Re:How do you keep microorganisms... (Score:3, Interesting)
"During hibernation, the bat's body functions slow down, and its body temperature drops to that of its hibernation site"
http://www.tlgrant.r9esd.k12.or.us/english1/von
Re:How do you keep microorganisms... (Score:5, Interesting)
Why don't their commensal bacteria infect and kill them? That's worth finding out.
Good or bad? (Score:2)
Anyway, judging from the research into the life-prolonging effects of calorie restriction this might make people live longer (at least in real, if not in subjective, time)
hydrogen sulphide works only on house mice (Score:3, Funny)
life-extensions for the wise? (Score:3, Interesting)
every x years, a 'class is awoken', it is shown an explination of the last y years developments by the previous class (the previous class is then put into hibernation for a spell).
each class digests and reflects on humanities progress, problems etc. and issues reports, runs for offices, give grants etc etc etc.
right now, our insect-like-lifespans cause chaos. there is no incentive to plan long term, there is no incentive to build real solutions to real long-present problems.
maybe if we all lived longer (or my flight-of-fancy "Cult of the Wise") we would stop thinking about our personal pleasure more and start to think about how to gaurantee pleasure for all... and taking reward in eliminating war, famine, global-pollution etc etc.
or, we could fly off to other planets - hell i dont know.
Re:life-extensions for the wise? (Score:4, Insightful)
Any advance in longevity technologies will have to be accompanied by advances in assassin tech.
Re:life-extensions for the wise? (Score:3, Funny)
I wonder though... (Score:4, Interesting)
synthesize it (Score:3, Informative)
Bring on the hibernation! Jupiter, here we come.
Re:I don't understand the Fry comment? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I don't understand the Fry comment? (Score:5, Funny)
Bender: "I don't need to drink! I can quit any time I want!"
It's not as funny without the voices..
i understand... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Im gonna get frozen (Score:2)
Geeks will have moved on to something else, like artificial organisms.
Re:What about aging? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Sulphur Dioxide (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The all new Honda Accord EXR-H+ (Score:3, Funny)
*Not good*
*EXR-H+ initaiates auto-extingush system, puts the flames out.*
*EXR-H+ releases Auto-Fix-It Unit SSE-3 which repairs the damage*
*EXR-H+ drives you to the nearest Holiday Inn Express*