XBOX 360, VoIP and Hemp
What do these have in common?
All three are new technologies, all are offering a way of expanding your mind and all three can be expensive.

Wait a minute. Hemp??? A new technology? Well yes and no. Hemp has been around as long or longer than farming and there is a bit of cloth made from hemp that is 8000 years old, so there is nothing new there. What is new is our ability to grow enough hempseed to get enough oil to be made into gasoline and alcohol made from the rest of the plant to replace fossil(dirty oil) fuel.

Climate changes, asthma, endangered wildlife, urban sprawl,soil depletion, ozone depletion,diabetes,obese children,obese adults,heart attacks and a whole host of other ills can be traced back to using cheap fossil fuel to run cars. More cars means more roads, more roads mean wider spacing of people, wider spacing of people means more cars. The loop is closed. The entire loop is run on cheap, but dirty oil. Now that we know it will not last forever we are panicking ( just look at the latest spike in gas prices). Our survival depends on breaking the loop and making it more accountable and sustainable. We can continue to drive vehicles, but if I had my way , they would all be radically changed.
First off, the fuel would be renewable and not quite as cheap, the vehicles would be smaller, light-weight and made from hemp. They would be strong and impact resistant and safe. Next I would incorporate fuel and solar hybrid motors to run them and they would be closer to enclosed motorcycles than the cars we have today If they ran out of gas the could be pedaled to next station. Think of an enclosed 4 wheeled bike with a gas/alcohol/solar motor assist and the body made out of fibregrass instead of fibreglass. The wheels would have to be made stronger than a regular bike to handle the highway and still be durable enough to carry 4 adults and luggage as well as the body and motor and still not weigh alot. Hitch-hiking would be encouraged because laws would be beefed up to allow only vehicles with 2 or more people on the highway. In-city travel could be allowed only for electric vehicles, hence the need for a multi-fuel motor. That would encourage walking, mass transit and cycling (in all it forms)in the large urban centres.
The result would be cleaner air and healthier people (not to mention quieter cities).

Here is the list of things need to pull this off.
1)Laws changed to allow for unlimited hemp production.
2)Laws changed for cities and highway users.
3)A good working vehicle as described and the facilities to produce it.
4)Facilities to process the hemp.
5)Most importantly- the political will to do it.

It is no longer a matter of can we do it, but, will we do it.

Michael J. Kaer, President of Kaer Enterprises (.com) and www.mikesworms.com