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Hemp for VICTORY!

We NEED hydrogen power.

And algae produces hydrogen.

Elect officials that build mass transit systems.

And have those who can't afford it will be stuck paying for it? While I support mass transit, I like many others will not give up our cars. And I don't drive much, in 2000 I bought a brand new car. When I drove out of the dealership it had 6 miles on it, now almost 9 years later I still haven't driven it 45,000 miles. I drive it less than 5000 miles a year.

Our cities our built with the assumption that people can very cheaply get from one end of it to the other, but they can't anymore.

Those elected officials can help, they can enact mixed use zoning regulations. They can allow people to operate a business from their homes easily. They can also make room, and use it, for designated bike lanes on the roads.

The neo-hippies with their lattes and they horn rimmed glasses are not helping the cause, they're hurting it by buying into a false reality and encouraging others to do so.

Hay, though I drink espresso and don't wear glasses, I'm a hippy. Actually I want hemp, marijuana, made legal again. It's a good source for vegetable oil, and Rudolph Diesel designed his diesel engine to run on vegetable oil. Henry Ford designed and built an auto on his Iron Mountain estate that used hemp in it's construction as well as was fueled by hemp. Hemp can also be used for making Bioplastic. And hemp seeds are nutritious.

Where the fuck do you think gasoline comes from?

Buzz, not all cars use gasoline. Nor does diesel engines run only on petro diesel. The inventor of the diesel engine Rudolph Diesel designed and ran his engine on vegetable oil. He used peanut and hemp oil among others. At the 1900 Paris Expo he used peanut oil. At his Iron Mountain Estate Henry Ford grew hemp he used to construct a vehicle as well as made fuel from it for the car in the 1930s.

I guess they did the impossible, or they didn't do it. However the fact is is Ford And Deisel Never Intended Cars To Use Gasoline".

The crops we use for Biodiesel are not viable alternatives to fossil fuels - we should begin growing hemp - it's much more suited to that kind of application seeing as how you can get 4 crop cycles to every 1 crop cycle of corn. HempCar

Am I a looney who wants them to legalize marijuana? Sure! But there's greater uses than smoking it.

Before you say it, no, we don't need to think of the children. Industrial hemp contains less than 0.3% THC, as opposed to the 20%-30% that is found in unfertilized female plants that are grown for drug use. But God forbid anyone grow hemp: we all know what evils marijuana can cause.

Although biomass fuels may not be able to completely replace fossil fuels as an energy source, they provide a viable, renewable, and cleaner alternative fuel to supplement the energy supply and reduce the use of fossil fuels. Growing crops to produce fuel reduces the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere via photosynthesis, creating a more balanced cycle of C02 emission and absorption.

Brazil's use of ethanol derived from sugar cane has already proven biomass energy to be a viable alternative energy source. Nations with climates favorable to the growth of sugar should apply this lesson to their own economies.

The US should utilize its vast agricultural resources to answer the alternative energy question. Unfortunately, the North American climate is not suitable to grow enough sugar, and the prevailing push towards corn-based ethanol production is not as efficient as sugar-based ethanol production.

However, there is an crop which: is suitable to almost any climate, does not require pesticides, can be harvested 1-3 times per year, and is much more efficient in biomass fuel production than corn. Unfortunately, this magic cash crop is illegal to grow in the US due to the social stigma associated with the psychoactive effects of the flower of the female plant. Yes, I'm talking about hemp for biomass fuel production.

Go ahead, laugh, snicker, make your "Dude, I've got the munchies!" jokes. Hemp is the alternative energy source for North America. Past, present, and future scientific research will prove this time and time again.

Why not hemp? Some info
Proove of concept to be found here
Making your own bio-diesel here

The smog will solve road-rage at the same time (No, it won't)

Follow the antics of crazy biodeisel travelers, won't you?
http://www.hempcar.org/

Hemp is extremely high in cellulose. It grows from the desert to the mountains. Hemp is nature's #1 photosynthesizer producing more per acre, faster than possibly anything.

LOOK IT UP. (USDA Bulletin 404)

As far as the one poster who mentioned "plastics" --you'll find through study that that is EXACTLY (at least partially) how we got into this mess of dependence on such rude resource as oil.

Hemp stems are 80% hurds (pulp byproduct after the hemp fiber is removed from the plant). Hemp hurds are 77% cellulose - a primary chemical feed stock (industrial raw material) used in the production of chemicals, plastics and fibers. Depending on which U.S. agricultural report is correct, an acre of full grown hemp plants can sustainably provide from four to 50 or even 100 times the cellulose found in cornstalks, kenaf, or sugar cane - the planet's next highest annual cellulose plants.

On plastics: look up what Henry Ford did for the war effort when the military needed all the steel --Hemp produced automobile panels are lighter and 10x the strength. Search Popular Mechanics magazine archives.

Look up the HempCar, or better yet read about in full Hemp here.

Read what Hugh Downs said before America's desert brinksmanship.

So remember the challenge:
Prove us wrong! Prove us wrong! Prove us wrong!
We hereby extend our $100,000 challenge to prove us wrong!

If all fossil fuels and their derivatives, as well as trees for paper and construction, were banned in order to save the planet, reverse the greenhouse effect and stop deforestation; then there is only one known annually renewable natural resource that is capable of providing the overall majority of the world's paper and textiles; meet all of the world's transportation, industrial and home energy needs, while simultaneously reducing pollution, rebuilding the soil and cleaning the atmosphere all at the same time... and that substance is the same one that has done it before . . . CANNABIS/HEMP/MARIJUANA!

GO BIO!

(Those laughing are probably the same ones laughing before 9 American states approved medical use.)

Yeah typical,

"oh lets invent something because the free nature stuff cannot be patented and sold for profits"

Any one can clone natures best, cloning plants is trivial.

So - http://www.hempcar.org/

So if the damn politicans and christian nut cases would just die of cancers overnight, we could have some real prople with brains running the show to everyones benefit not just the corporate elites nutjobs.

Marijuana hasn't been decriminalised in any state. Some states have passed a "medical marijuana" bill, which would allow a doctor to prescribe it. That doesn't matter, though, it's still against federal law.

Marijuana hasn't been legal in the US since the seventies (briefly, after Timothy Leary successfully challenged the Marijuana Tax Act in the US Supreme Court, who found it unconstitutional.) and before that it was first prohibited in 1932. After Leary's challenge Marijuana was classified as a proscribed (not prescribed) medicine. The US officially allows a very small amount of prescriptions to be written so they can justify it's classification as a medecine, not a recreational drug like alcohol (which then couldn't be prohibited because of a constitional amendment)

After all, if we could grow our own fuel we wouldn't need to invade foriegn countries. What would we do for fun then?

It's time for drastic measures

One thing you forget to mention, is the other advantage of using Bio-Fuel... the GREENING effect. More land would be reserved for crop/fuel production.

The combination of less greenhouse gas pollutants, and an increased level of atomospheric cleaning, and we'd be in a much better off situation. Imagine all those countries currently wasting away their forests (rain, and other) changing their tactic, and instead planting high-yield crops, such as hemp.

Yes, hemp. Corn is only used because so much of it is stockpiled and then wasted as it rots in silos in the US. Indeed, it has become a subsidy program. By switching to hemp, there'd be a much higher yeild, faster growing, more hardy species of plant from which to extract the ethanol/biomass product.

Personally, I'd prefer a solar/wind powered solution, with future improvements in small scale generation and battery life/storage capacity.

But in the mean time, I think Biomass is the way to go. Shell has hooked up with various companies over the past several years, as have others - in an effort to wean their reliance on oil and on to future technologies.

I'm not so sure Hydrogen is the answer for our cars, since it's clearly not good for us in our food either :-)

There is a group making Biodiesel from hempseed oil. They have a lot of good info on their site: http://www.hempcar.org/ http://hempcar.org/petvshemp.shtml for a petrol vs hemp bio-diesel comparison.

There is a group making Biodiesel from hempseed oil. They have a lot of good info on their site: http://www.hempcar.org/ http://hempcar.org/petvshemp.shtml for a petrol vs hemp bio-diesel comparison.

Bah! HempCar did it first.

Or we could switch immediately to hemp which also eats up CO2, require ZERO modification to current engines, and support farmers in the U.S. http://www.artistictreasure.com/learnmorecleanair. html Hemp Car Hemp For Fuel Norml

"I have been wondering how difficult it will be to get by without all the cheap plastics that we have today."

Hemp can be used for plastic. In fact hemp can be used for pretty much everything oil can be, including a cleaner burning, renewable fuel source. It's also great for paper, fabrics, and thousands of other uses. Popular Mechanics estimated 25,000 product uses for it back in 1938.

Banning hemp because of marijuana is as stupid as banning barley and oats during prohibition would've been. It's precisely because hemp is so useful (and threatens the profits of powerful people.. like oil and timber barons) that it was unfairly demonized and outlawed (with precisely zero medical or scientific basis) in the 30's, right after a means to mass-process it was developed. The resource barons killed the hemp industry in its infancy. Thankfully, it appears to coming back in some places, although certain powerful people whose family is in bed with oil interests don't want it to...

Well then, how about hemp? www.hempcar.org

The problem is the Drug War won't allow it .

You don't need oil to make plastics. Henry Ford made a plastic shell for a car back in the 1940's.

Oh by the way you can also make Bio-Diesel from Hemp. So what is the real reson this plant is illegal? You can't smoke hemp. At one time hemp was the nations number 1 cash crop, even bigger than King Cotton. I find it interesting that hemp is illegal just because it resembles a marijuana plant.

Biodiesel will work in modern diesel engines with NO modifications. The technology does exist to shift away from petroleum.

www.biodiesel.org
www.hempcar.org

"scientists predict heart disease in the U.S. will fall by 25% as a side effect of this new transportation method.

Hmmm... I wonder what the side of effects of this would be.

--TRR

I don't know about you, but I think Barstool racing is lame. I hate American beer, sports culture. They are a bunch of idiots who know what every score is, but talk about foriegn policy and they draw a blank. This kind of crap (barstool racing) doesn't even compare to go-carts! 1st, from a geek perspective, it is top heavy and unsafe. I would rather read a story about someone who builds a motor from hemp oil or is working on alternative energy.

speaking of . . .

http://www.hempcar.org

Peace, Sam

Here is your link.

[R]eligious competition was in Jeruselam way before the U.S. was even a country.

True indeed, however . . .

The US and UK did not start anything that was not there already.

There were several hundred thousand Jews and a similar number of Arabs living in Palestine (though there was no country by that name -- just a region). They certainly weren't best buddies, but they had an integrated political and economic society. For the most part, they were living peacably together due to the small population density.

Then, WW2 exploded, and the US/UK closed their borders to Jews that wanted to flee the terror. This was a very cold, calculated move, sadly. Instead, millions of Jews were sent to the Middle East and told that their new homeland -- Greater Israel -- would be created from Palestine, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. This was the thanks the Arabs received for helping against Germany.

But we're not arguing. :) My point was not that we created the tool of religious competition but merely that we have used it by fanning the flames for control of oil. Either way, it's pretty disgusting.

I wish we would find an alternative to oil.

Ah, but we already have! Unfortunately, hemp is kept illegal by the very same oil interests. The last thing they want is an alternative to oil. Hemp is not psychoactive. Hemp has been cultivated across the globe for 5,000 years. Not only can it be made into biodiesel but many other petroleum-based products as well.

More importantly, we won't run out of hemp in 20, 50, or 100 years (pick one), and it doesn't increase CO2 in the atmosphere since the plant takes CO2 out while it grows.

Hempcar.org

Save the forests and expiring natural resources. http://www.hempcar.org

To learn a little bit more about Biodiesel try HempCar.org, the hemp car (as the title may suggest) is a car developed to run on hemp as a Biodiesel. They are currently driving it across Canada. Sure, not a commercial solution and probably not legal in the US. but it gives you an example of one Biodiesel solution.

Hemp too. In fact, hemp can product 10 times more ethanol than corn, and has lots of other uses too (fabric mainly).
I still don't understand why the government isn't looking into this (and corn) as a means to produce energy, it would be in everyone's best interest, and losing our reliance on middle east countries for oil seems like a pretty good idea now, considering all the crap going on over there lately.

Well they're both renewable, I never said otherwise. Hemp paper production would be far more efficient though, and you can grow it anywhere. The more important renewable aspect of it is as a fuel... you can run a low emissions car off of hemp oil.

That's part of the NRA's argument which I've never understood. They make the following statements:

• If you ban guns, you should ban baseball bats because you can just as easily kill someone with one of them.
• We need guns to protect ourselves because nothing else will do.

I'm sorry, but you can't have it both ways. Like any bunch of loonies, their arguments make no sense when you look at them closely.

Now, imagine your grandma with a baseball bat. Will she even have the reaction time necessary to connect even once with the bat? If she gets that lucky, will she have the strength to stop the criminal's attack? Could she use the bat from 30 feet away when he doesn't honor her commands to back off? Not to mention the logistics of carrying a baseball bat in her purse all the time due to not having the luxury of knowing when said attack would take place.

Now, imagine your grandma with a .38 shooting the criminal at close range in the chest. The criminal can likely imagine that, too. So, odds are if she has the chance to make the gun visible rather than shooting it through her purse, he'll run off.

See the point here? The same can apply to your 115lb wife or girlfriend against a rapist.

Here are a couple quotes from studies:

From http://www.ncpa.org/bothside/krt/krt050301a.html

Using data from all 3,054 U.S. counties Lott found that right-to-carry laws reduce murder by 8.5 percent, rape by 5 percent and severe assault by 7 percent. Had right-to-carry prevailed throughout the country, there would have been 1,600 fewer murders, 4,200 fewer rapes and 60,000 fewer severe assaults.

From http://www.dartreview.com/issues/2.26.01/editorial .html

In attempt to combat an upward trend in rape cases, for example, Orlando, Florida police launched an initiative to train 2,500 women in gun use in 1966. Consequently, Orlando was the only major American city to experience a reduction in rape in 1967; incidents of rape fell by 88 percent.

Not that having data to back up the overall effect of gun ownership should have any bearing on the fundamental human right to self-defense.

The sad thing is, in the US people scream if anyone tries to take away their guns. If anyone tries to take away their information or their right to privacy, only a few /.ers complain.

People scream either way, really. Not all people, of course, but some people. Remember when all the websites got black backgrounds and blue ribbon banners back in 1996 in response to the CDA? I don't think the problem is which abstract issue gets more attention, but that people in general aren't very interested in politics.

Of course, that changes some during wartime and when energy prices fluctuate. Usually not to any consequence. Interestingly, the possibility of using domestically-grown fuels such as hemp oil, rather than petroleum never seems to enter the debate. Meanwhile, that alone could stop enriching our often unfriendly trade partners for petroleum and drastically reduce pollution and deforestation. For a proof of concept on applying this to automobiles, see http://www.hempcar.org/

Anyway, Australia appears to have a very statist position on both speech and self-defense. i.e., that the nice men from the government should create a padded-cell world for you. Meanwhile, grannies have been cast to the mercy of criminals and the prior-restraint flavored net censorship (according to the article) would prevent mainstream political news, historic discussion from happening in an open manner:

According to the [OFLC] classification guidelines 'Adult themes may include verbal references to and depictions associated with issues such as suicide, crime, corruption, marital problems, emotional trauma, drug and alcohol dependency, death and serious illness, racism, religious issues'."

Of course, everyone knows it would only be used to root out vile filth! </sarcasm> Enter yet another law that lets the powers that be selectively shut down anyone they don't like.

The hempcar runs on transesterized seed oil. Particulate emissions are about 1/10th of those produced using conventional diesel fuel in the same engine. The exhaust smells like a deepfryer. Sulfer content is about 1/4th of petro derived diesel fuel. (As biomass is concentrated to petroleum in geologic processes, less of the sulfur is outgassed than the hydrogen)

Last spring, soy oil prices were below those of pretax deisel fuel for the first time since 1920. Price of vegetable oils is closely related not just to production cost of seeds, but also to the market for the high-protien seed cake from which it is pressed, so while vegetable oil will not replace ALL petroleum in automotive use without driving prices thru the roof, it is a viable replacement for a significant part of the market.

For fuel, hemp as an oilseed is about equal to sunflower. More relevant to the fuel cell topic, hemp stalk is the champion plant feedstock for methanol production in continental climates (for N America roughly above the Mason-Dixon line.)

... what about HempCar?

If that's the case, let's plant hemp on Mars. Supply enough fuel to unleash a legion of HempCars!

I agree with you though that we seem to be, once again, taking an Americentric view of this. We are not the Undisputed Lords of Earth, folks. What might China or Zimbabwe like to do with our solar system? Never thought to ask them, huh?

"Smear'd with gumms of glutenous heat, I touch..." - Comus, John Milton

Check out the hemp car, a Mercedes Benz touring the U.S.A using hemp-based biodiesel. Hemp is such a great plant, it's a shame the D.E.A won't let us grow it!

Biodiesel could be the next great thing, outside of the US of course. Plus it helps out the farmers of this country that have been struggling to make ends meet.

It's time for the USA to take the lead in adopting new transportation technologies, and time to ditch the gasoline engine. Unfortunately, with the ExxonMobil Bush/Cheney team in command, it's gonna get worse before it gets any better.

I bet it will take a long time. They'll have to stop to get potato chips and Oreos every couple of blocks.

"Hey, man, can we, like, stop for some munchies again?"

I'd take that over the hemp powered car. Not only would I save money, but I could turn over any hemp to friends since I don't smoke

Is Blogger secure?

IIRC, it takes more energy than you'd think to fertilize, irrigate and harvest crops.

A quote from Henry Ford:

"There's enough alcohol in one year's yeild of an acre of potatoes to drive the machinery necessary to cultivate the fields for one hundred years."

If this were true in Ford's time, it'll certainly be true now with the increased efficiency of internal combustion engines...

...about the HempCar, and that hemp is another great biodiesel. These kinds of fuels, because they are infinitely renewable, are what the petroleum industry does not want to see in use until they can find a way to make money off of it.

Fighting the War on the War on Drugs.

This is the real deal, sweetie: http://hempcar.org/

(Shameless plug for my dear Reverend Al.)


"I'm not a bitch, I just play one on /."