Possible Graphene Alternative Made From Hemp Waste 212
MTorrice writes "A low-cost chemical process can turn hemp fiber into carbon nanomaterials. Researchers used the materials to make devices called supercapacitors that provide quick bursts of electrical energy. Supercapacitors made with the hemp nanosheets put out more power than commercial devices can."
According to one of the authors, "Hemp bast is a nanocomposite made up of layers of lignin, hemicellulose, and crystalline cellulose ... If you process it the right way, it separates into nanosheets similar to graphene." Perhaps the process could be applied to related plants (hops?) too.
Pot solves everything (Score:2, Insightful)
If only pot were legal, and free, we could all just sit around getting high all the time and the world would be a better place. Government will provide what we need by taking it from evil rich people.
Yay, free pot!
Re:Pot solves everything (Score:5, Interesting)
Pot. Is there anything it can't do? /might be a little high right now actually
Re:Pot solves everything (Score:5, Funny)
Pot. Is there anything it can't do? /might be a little high right now actually
It can't call the kettle black.
Re:Pot solves everything (Score:4, Funny)
Tech epicenter moves from Santa Clara to Humboldt county.
"Dude! Where's the check for our startup money. The guy from ImpossibleVentures was here, and I KNOW I put the cheque SOMEWHERE!"
Re:Pot solves everything (Score:4, Interesting)
LOL True. It can't do that.
Anyhow... I'm THAT guy. The guy that smokes and doesn't actually think that legalizing it will solve all the world's problems. I'm in favor of legalization and think that it would help solve *some* problems however. It is legal for me to smoke and grow now but I still think it should be legalized and subject to reasonable taxation.
In case you're curious, I got my card because I have issues sleeping. I still have plenty of trouble sleeping but now I get to smoke weed legally. It hasn't helped though it does ease the paranoia to imbibe legally.
I figure it would help lower budgets and stop us from incarcerating people for that particular victimless crime.
Re:Pot solves everything (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Pot solves everything (Score:4, Funny)
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You laugh, but marijuana in larger doses is said to induce "paranoia" and "hallucinations". However, these are just the codewords the government use to hide the fact that your pineal gland is being stimulated and re-activated. Anyone that has seen the documentary From Beyond, can imagine what will happen if this drug reached a critical mass of use and lowered The Veil that that separates THEM from us.
Great! (Score:5, Funny)
My ashtray is full of carbon nanomaterials stemming from hemp products.
Am I rich now?
Re:Great! (Score:5, Funny)
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Depends on how much of the raw material for your carbonized hemp nanomaterials you can produce and distribute. Folks who manage to efficiently ramp production of such materials up to industrial scales with proper distribution networks do indeed get quite rich --- but just having a lab prototype rarely makes researchers much money.
Re:Great! (Score:5, Funny)
No, your tech is all vaporware.
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Took me a second to see you already beat me to the punchline and even executed it much better. All carbon is burned up.
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"Took me a second to see you already beat me to the punchline and even executed it much better. All carbon is burned up."
Yes, it happily combined with oxygen and they're lying together in my ashtray.
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Carbon dioxide that is warmer than ambient air will float away. Unless you happen to keep your thermostat below -80 degrees Celsius.
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Ashes white-colored because the carbon has combined with oxygen and flown away. You have no carbon materials of any kind there.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
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It should also be noted that super capacitors already have better power density than chemical batteries by a wide margin, and are more than sufficient to replace I.C. engines and gasoline in that respect.
On the other hand they don't provide yet another excuse to incorporate hemp into yet another product or process. I consider hemp to be a sort of "wonder" material, as in, "I wonder what they'll try to put hemp in next just because they can.*" Oh, look! Another item with hemp in it! Surely US hemp policy must be changed now! No doubt it is a useful material, but it is easy to get the impression that hemp advocates are trying just a little too hard. It's also funny how the hemp advocacy often seems to r
Re:interesting stuff, but misleading (Score:4, Informative)
The thing about hemp is it is bloody robust, you don't need GMO plants, you don't need nasty chemicals to make them grow - Earth, water and some sun and you are good to go.
Making stuff out of hemp is a very eco friendly thing to do. (And you don't need to use the smoke-able hemp)
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Say, that's really great. Now could you show me the list of Hollywood stars out promoting that we put soy in everything? Corn in everything? Where is the parallel to the whole hemp advocacy culture in broader society for anything else? Feel free to get back to me on that.
By the way, I wasn't aware that one post constituted "harping." Maybe that post just seemed like it lasted a really long time to you . . . for some reason?
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many hollywood stars like to push their vegan or vegie beliefs on americans. hell some of them even want to ban cow milk and make everyone drink breast milk!. I mean plain and simple there is nothing wrong with pushing something you believe in. now you can decide if you want to think that any and all hemp proponents are also stoners (I am, wont hide it) but the truth is that hemp is a hugely valuable resource and we a
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They did in fact create a system that puts out more instantaneous energy per unit weight, but that is not the improvement that super capacitors need. They have improved gravimetric power density. The two measures that need improvement to make super capacitors more useful are gravimetric energy density (how much energy can it store in a given weight), and volumetric energy density. How much energy can it store in a given volume. Without significant improvements in those two areas, super capacitors cannot make significant inroads against batteries.
It should also be noted that super capacitors already have better power density than chemical batteries by a wide margin, and are more than sufficient to replace I.C. engines and gasoline in that respect.
Yes but do they have the correct price to manufacture to beat internal combustion; and is it scalable; how much will it cost to shove out a 100 million super capacitor powered cars; do we currently have the supply of materials needed to supply the automotive industry; How much will the patent licensing cost? The patents of internal combustion have expired decades ago. Then you have the cost of building a power distribution infrastructure, charging stations, power transportation (improvement to the power gri
And a use for kudzu, too! (Score:4, Interesting)
The wiki link to "bast" refers to a dozen species that produce basts, including flax, wisteria, mulberry, and kudzu.
Is there a reason to go for hemp in particular, aside from the usual hemp-will-solve-everything? Flax is also produced in industrial quantities. TFA doesn't mention why they chose hemp bast.
Look, I'm all for legalized weed and hate the propaganda that makes it out as a devil drug, but I'm not any bigger fan of exaggerations about the wonders of hemp. At least on this web site, it would be nice to look at actual data, rather than who can out-propagandize everybody else.
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Yes there are other plants, but they're boring and do not serve as a backdoor totally-innocent-don't-look-at-me-like-that way to get marijuana legal. Every time there's a known stoner advocating for hemp it sets back the movement.
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Just because something is used as propaganda, it does not magically become false.
Well that's just, like, your opinon, man.
True, though. But this is still just about stoners looking for another avenue. A familiar refrain from the crowd that thinks they'd be better off with a tires, a spouse, underwear, and air craft carriers all made out of hemp.
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"Ideal" is an overstatement --- it's a good fiber for some applications, but not magically universally optimal. Consider the pattern of hemp use versus alternate fibers in plenty of (historical and present) societies where marijuana prohibition is/was not a determining factor: while hemp was prized for certain applications (such as nautical ropes and cables, due to good strength and weather/wear resistance), those societies *also* produced a wide variety of alternate fibers (cotton, linen, silk, wool, etc.)
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Ugh, potheads (Score:3, Insightful)
For all I know this is valid scientific research. But I can't even be bothered to find out because potheads have stigmatized hemp. "Dude, do you know hemp is 85% more efficient biomass than bacon?" "You know that hemp fibers can be turned into inferior yet expensive paper, right?" "Hemp-o-lene, it's either hemp biofuel or something you jump on." Which all are quite obviously thin excuses to grow more "medicinal"* hemp.
And hemp is a pretty great material, but every time I see an article that talks about a new industrial use I can't help thinking it comes from the same people who giggle when they hear "420" and snerk when they mention how they're into 'hydroponics'.
Seriously folks, if you want me to take you (hemp or pot smokers) seriously you need to clean up your game. Don't smoke a bowl on April 20th, instead bring to my attention how we really don't know the medical properties of cannabis because of government overregulation (or whatever, anything that has real promise to someone who has no interest in smoking pot.)
*Medicine is sold at drug stores, not in shadowy places with a bouncer at the door and punny names like "Grass Roots Clinic" or "Foggy Daze Dispensary".
Re:Ugh, potheads (Score:5, Informative)
The 1% wants to keep you down, man! (Score:5, Insightful)
So since William Randolph Hearst demonized Hemp and forever tied to to Pot, it's been illegal to grow in the USA. You do realize that in most of the free world, you can walk into a grocery store and still buy products made from Coca leaf?
And yet in the "land of the free" almost everything is banned. Except guns. And you need those in case the government "takes away your rights". I hope you see the tremendous irony there.
No. (Score:2)
I need my guns in case some stoners try to steal my hemp crop.
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Re:Marijuana? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Marijuana? (Score:5, Interesting)
Indeed, it's the same plant in the same way that a Yorkshire Terrier is the same animal as a Golden Retriever. Only through selective breeding did they reduce the THC concentrations low enough that the plants couldn't be practically used for psychoactive contents.
Re:Marijuana? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Marijuana? (Score:4, Funny)
And when you make them into hot dogs, they all taste relatively the same.
Yeah, people get the munchies when they are stoned.
Don't look at your dog that way when you get high.
Dogs can sense when someone is thinking about eating them.
Re:Marijuana? (Score:4, Informative)
And since all this process requires are the stalks, then for all intents and purposes, yes. It is the same plant.
The buds, which have recreational and medicinal uses aren't being used. The key word there is lignin. They're using the long, fiberous material not the buds.
Re:Marijuana? (Score:4, Informative)
And just like those two Canis Lupus Familiaris any two Cannabis Sativa plants will breed and are thus one species.
Actually hemp production focused far more on producing good fiber than reducing THC content. At least until very recently. The THC reduction was just a side effect no one cared about, not until we started having modern drug laws anyway.
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Ropes are made from the stalks of the plant. Even the most potent plant would have totally worthless stalks.
Only the flowers are really useful for that, leaves could be a really poor substitute I guess.
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More as in golden retriever vs labrador retriever .. cannabis sativa and cannabis indica.
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So which do you smoke to get high, the Yorkie? I assume there's a lower TCH concentration in the Golden Retriever.
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Labrador, man. It's gotta be Labrador. [youtu.be]
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but those plants are much smaller than industrial hemp. If your concern is to make clothing and other fiber products, you don't have much use for MJ as a feed stock
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Only when they grow it indoors.
It is the exact same plant, cannabis sativa.
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Those are not generally used for hemp. The last one is way too short.
The common cannabis used for both medical/recreational use and hemp was what I was speaking about.
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Sympathies. Hopefully the Indica will be arriving in your neighborhood soon.
Granting the best in the world is pure Sativa (Thai Haze). It's also outdoor only (18 month growing season).
I'm looking forward to pot being fully legal, so we can get the good stuff (Thai, Panama Red etc) and stop having to smoke indoor compromise weed.
Re:Marijuana? (Score:5, Informative)
They're the same plant. Hemp (both industrial and medicinal strains) were banned because:
a) there was hysteria over growing opium addiction, and the confusion about hashish (which was, at the time, a foreign and relatively unknown substance) lead some people to believe it was a form of opium
b) it threatened the massive paper and fibre industries
c) the 'top' media entrepreneurs at the time had investments in (b) and used their media empires to stoke the fear surrounding (a) to see hemp banned in the US alongside opium; then other countries followed because of the pressure put upon them by the US government
A classic story of capital triumphing over Good Things.
Re:Marijuana? (Score:5, Informative)
This is the big reason it was banned. Now they also used the "black will rape white women" and "lazy mexicans smoke pot" as an excuse in the media (re: reefer madness for a good laugh. It is a funny movie minus the fact that they actually believed it to be true when made)
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On the contrary, the real reason marijuana is illegal is due to the huge benefits of hemp and relative cheapness/ease of growth. Corporate lobbying strikes again (or struck, back in the 1930's). Do some research if you're completely lost on what I'm referring to here (I'm sure the majority are).
Re: Marijuana? (Score:2)
Re:Marijuana? (Score:5, Insightful)
Entire? Not quite. It's been discussed here plenty for you to already know that there are states that have enacted legalization.
Colorado even just recently approved the regulatory structure for stores selling pot products [denverpost.com].
You may certainly continue to believe what you want to believe, it's just fictional.
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Also, here is a good article from a local magazine discussing the hemp industry here in Colorado. Westword [westword.com]
Amendment 64 also doesn't require a federal permit to grow industrial hemp (as other states have done), so as it stands right now, go right ahead and grow it knowing that yours may be the landmark case that allows others to cultivate in the future.
Re:Marijuana? (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, but if you get such a store, you'll lose your KFC.
It's an unfair trade.
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It's still illegal federally. Possession of any amount is a federal misdemeanor punishable by up to 1 year in PMITA prison. Now the feds don't have the resources to widely enforce that, but they can pick and choose. It's technically still illegal across the entire country, just not regularly enforced.
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Amendment 64 also doesn't require Colorado farmers to seek federal approval before growing hemp. But that doesn't mean the feds couldn't crack down if they wanted to.
This is no different than those growing for medical and recreational purposes. Yes, the DEA can crack down if they want to, but it's not going to do any good in the long run.
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I'm pretty sure there is plenty of demand considering anyone producing hemp products domestically (shirts, shoes, twine, etc) has to import their hemp from Canada, UK, etc.
Which makes me wonder, if hemp is a class 1 controlled substance and is therefore illegal to grow, how is it that some hippy in the hills is able to import it from other countries?
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United States
Colorado [79], Vermont, and North Dakota have passed laws enabling hemp licensure. Both states are waiting for permission to grow hemp from the DEA. Currently,[when?] North Dakota representatives are pursuing legal measures to force DEA approval.[80] Oregon has licensed industrial hemp as of August 2009.[81] Hemp is not legal to grow in the U.S. under Federal law because of its relation to marijuana, and any imported hemp products must meet a zero tolerance level. It is considered a controlled
undoing mod (Score:3)
N/T
Fuck touchscreen, fuck autospell.
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If you had included "The King" you would've fully channeled The Hound.
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Colorado [79], Vermont, and North Dakota have passed laws enabling hemp licensure. Both states are waiting...
So three states equals 2? Is that some kind of bong math?
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nope they will require a prescriptioin and be sold by big pharma for pile o profits
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The totally hilarious segue to your post is that Marinol, delta-9-THC, one the primary active ingredients in Marijuana, is a DEA Class III drug. Like Vicodan. Subject to modest regulation, but totally legal.
So the natural stuff is Class I - Heroin type dangerous. The concentrated, pure stuff is Class III - not so bad.
Gotta love those smart people at the DEA.
(Yes, I know, real marijuana is more than just THC and Marinol doesn't do as well as the real thing in getting you high. I've prescribed it so patie
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Done. Well, two crops --- corn and soy, to cover sugar, fat, and protein. And we don't even have to wait for government mandates --- private industry has taken the lead in pushing the entire food supply towards a processed corn/soy goop monoculture.
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1. It is not a subspecies. It is the same plant, just different strains. Just like different kinds of tomatoes.
2. You cannot hide high THC plants in a hemp field. The hemp plants will fertilize and thus ruin the high THC plants. This is why male plants are culled early in illicit grow operations. Growing hemp outdoors on an industrial scale would probably make most illicit outdoor growth impossible for just that reason.
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you could hide them in properly designed tanks in a building that was also used for industrial hemp research.
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You could hide them in a closet too. Your idea is no better than that. There will not be very many places growing hemp indoors for research, nor would it be practical for much illicit production to be done there.
You could make meth in a college chemistry lab, does not mean it is very common nor going to supply many users.
Your coworkers/students would soon notice what you are doing.
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you forget we're talking of the reasonings of a third party, not about what would actually work or be logical
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Yes, a third party who wants to commit a crime and get away with it.
Illicit drug production is big business. These folks are not interested in growing 1 plant in the middle of a lab. If they wanted to do that they would just tinfoil a closet.
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Illicit drug production is big business.
I provide care for those who are terminally ill, you insensitive clod!
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Then I assume your production is legal in your state, but sadly not in your country.
I hope that this becomes legal medically as well as recreationally.
Right now most of the production/trafficking is big business for various groups. At least those in your care can be certain you are not spraying only FSM knows what for mites. If you are doing that, stop.
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need I remind you the federal government of the united states is one of the biggest dope dealing organizations on planet earth?
"illicit".....very funny
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No need to remind. That does not change its legal status though.
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biology is divided on the "subspecies" vs. varieties issue, see wikipedia for Cannabis
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It ruins it from a sales perspective.
Other than high schoolers no one is buying this product with seeds in it. At least they did not when I was in college.
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Actually, there are often seeds when you buy from a dispensary here in Colorado. I'm not sure if this is because the plant actually produced those seeds, or if it is because they are simply including them as a free gift with purchase.
Don't matter much to me, they will still grow when watered.
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I have not had any interest in it since college, but you basically could not sell that on the campus I went too. People just would not purchase anything with seeds. It was used at some parties to roll 1/8 blunts, but other than for pranks like that it was considered too low grade to consider useful.
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Well, that's just incorrect these days. Yes, a lot of the pot from the 90's and 00's was considered "not good" if it had seeds. Nowadays, most pot is pretty damn good. If there are a few seeds because the plant hermaphrodized, then not a big deal.
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Colorado is a few years behind California.
You can't sell weed with seeds for any price. Perfection gets you $2K/lb. Average good indoor/outdoor $1K/lb.
$100/oz street price.
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My kid brother lives in CO. You're still way behind and have a stupidly restrictive set of laws. In CA the feds have shut down most of the 'clubs', after all they were all registered and licensed so where very easy to close. Good thing the California law doesn't require us to register etc.
Indoor is fading as the economics of outdoor takes over in CA. 5 years ago everybody and their brother were setting up indoor grows. I was shutting mine down as their just wasn't enough money left in it.
Now you can bu
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You're right. The correct thing to do is openly advocate for legal recreational Cannabis. There are absolutely no sensible arguments against it, which is why the government won't even discuss the issue.
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victimless crimes help keep the prison system large and growing, it's big business. Big business keeps lawmakers in their pockets and contributes to campaigns. They discuss the "War on Drugs" all the time
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Notice how in the two cases where Cannabis is legal, it was legalized by referendum and not an act of the legislature. IOW, it was legalized by the people, not by the government. So my statement stands.
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anytime an application needing plant fiber comes along, there's always a group that starts extolling the virtues of hemp for the purpose,
If you just need biomass for something, there's lots of agricultural waste around. Find a use for straw, or corn husks and cobs, or bagasse (the leftover part of sugar cane). There are other long bast fibers available commercially - jute (used to make burlap), flax (used to make linen), and kenaf (sometimes used to make paper). For even longer fibers, there are plants from the banana family, such as abaca (once called "manila hemp", but it's unrelated) and sisal, which make good rope.
There's a lot of ce
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I wonder if the Manila hemp lead to the myth that one could get high smoking banana peels?
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Yeah, I'm sure that the potheads would rather go through all sorts of rigamarole to get legal hemp when they can just live in Colorado or Washington and have as much actual pot as they'd like without worrying about it. They're well on their way to making pot legal throughout the country. There's also absolutely no evidence that potheads have any serious difficulty in acquiring pot. That makes the "well, it's industrial hemp really" argument completely pointless.
And hemp does appear to be useful for a lot of
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Funny, I have read most of the Bible and I never came across any commandment saying "thou shall not toke it up at 4:20"
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there are verses saying to be sober though
if you want a boring life you could obey them
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There are also verses about partying down with plenty of booze --- after all, a certain Nazarene carpenter's son's first biblical miracle was making sure a wedding party wouldn't run out of wine *after the guests were already pretty soused*. The overall message one might take away from the scriptures is "there are times to be sober, and times to not."
Re:always amusing (Score:5, Interesting)
Agreed.
As a Christian I am constantly appalled by idiots who cherry-pick verses out of context to support their prejudices. I don't think having a good time at a party (or at the wedding you referred to) is equivalent to being a drunkard. People who take verses to support their own biases, ignoring the context and what is actually being said make all Christians look bad.
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As a former Catholic and current Humanist minister, I applaud and thank you for not being one of those hypocritical d-bags.
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I'm not positive if they do now but they did, at one time, run their mail servers on *NIX. I'm actually willing to hazard a guess that they're using it all over the place over there. However they're not selling it for consumers because they don't see it as best suited for their customers. We can quantify what is best scientifically for things that hemp might be useful for. OSes are subjective mostly with huge weighty lists of pros and cons. I think the term is false equivalency.
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it's actually MORE water consuming.
More than what, a Yucca plant? Than what is needed to product polyester?
Greeley, Colorado, an agricultural locale that would likely be a good place to grow hemp, receives a little over 14 inches of rain per year, while the water requirements for hemp are shown to be right in that range (12-14 inches/year). It's really not all that different from corn.
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If you favorite plant was so good, then why doesn't industry use it?
... There is no conspiracy with industry. It's just ignorant politicians listening to ignorant people
I do so love it when people answer their own questions.
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Depends on how long the material is pulled and the girth of the feedstock.