Mandy Kovacs | WardsAuto

 
Auto-components researchers are developing the use of grasses such as hemp or flax to make tough but lightweight bioplastics that also help reduce a vehicle’s carbon footprint by using a renewable resource.
A key innovator is Bruce Dietzen, president of Renew Design, a Florida-based company that produces custom-ordered cars whose body parts are made from processing the outer stalk of hemp plants through combining it with a synthetic resin and placed in a mold.
 
Full Article: 
http://wardsauto.com/technology/hemp-flax-growing-auto-plastics-building-blocks?page=1

 
The University of Louisville is planting hemp.
A 40 x 40 plot is being planted Tuesday near The Phoenix House on the Belknap Campus.
It’s part of the research being done by the J.B. Speed School and Conn Center.
 
Full Article: 
http://www.wdrb.com/story/32823479/hemp-plot-being-planted-on-u-of-ls-campus

By: Mitchell Colbert
 

 
Hemp has been reported to have some of the most diverse uses out of any plant currently known. One new use for hemp is as a raw material for biofuels, namely as cellulosic ethanol, which unlike other methods of making biofuels, uses a plant’s cellulose instead of the oil or sugar it contains to produce a fuel. While corn-based ethanol has been shown to be no better for the environment than burning fossil fuels, cellulosic ethanol is much closer to being carbon-neutral. Cellulose is what forms the structure of green plants, everything from grass to trees. Professor George Huber, at the University of Wisconsin, has found a way to convert the cellulose from the non-usable parts of plants, such as yard waste, compost scraps, or wood debris into ethanol and other bio-oils. “The goal of the Huber research group is to develop the clean technology that will allow us to economically use our biomass and other sustainable resources for the production of cheap renewable gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, and chemicals.”
 
Full Article: 
http://theleafonline.com/c/business/2016/08/three-revolutionary-new-hemp-technologies-better-environment/

 
Tequila, weed, cash, and a Ford car could be the elements for a hell of a road trip, but they’re also part of the automaker’s efforts to be more sustainable. At a Ford-sponsored panel discussion August 16 in San Francisco, senior technical leader Debbie Mielewski showed how the company was working with famed tequila maker José Cuervo to use less plastic in its car parts.
 
Full Article: 
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3109700/consumer-electronics/how-tequila-and-weed-could-make-ford-cars-sustainable.html

 
Toilet paper, made from the industrial hemp plant, has been marketed in other countries for some time now. It is now being advocated by environmentalists and its consideration noted by several toilet paper manufacturers. Perhaps now is the time to take another bold step in revisiting the role of toilet paper. Hemp pulp is more resilient, breaks down easily, and keeps our forests intact. Take the toilet paper challenge and decide if hemp is the way to go. You can find many suppliers by searching for hemp toilet paper on the Internet.
 
Full Article: 
https://www.marijuanatimes.org/why-hemp-makes-better-toilet-paper/

By The Associated Press

 
People flocked to Oregon’s first-ever marijuana growers’ fair on Saturday where a competition for best cannabis plants was being held, with the winners to be displayed at the Oregon State Fair.
The inaugural two-day Oregon Cannabis Growers’ Fair underscores how the once-illicit marijuana industry is starting to go mainstream in Oregon, one of four states to have legalized recreational cannabis use, along with Washington, D.C.
 
Full Article: 
https://www.leafly.com/news/headlines/first-ever-cannabis-growers-fair-opens-in-oregon

 

Smoking weed and jogging have more in common than you think. For starters, they both get you high, and they can both make you very hungry.

Biologically, the runner’s high and the cannabis high look much alike. The foundation of both lies in the body’s endocannabinoid system: a group of “endogenous,” or inherently occurring, receptors, lipids, and enzymes throughout the body. These “endocannabinoids” regulate a range of physiological functions, including appetite, pain, metabolism, mood, energy, sleep, and stress responses. They’re also the same receptors that cannabinoids, or chemicals in marijuana, act upon when you medicate or get high.
But is it also possible that the two highs may also enhance each other? According to Colorado-based ultrarunner Avery Collins, the answer is yes.
 
Full Article: 
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/can-weed-help-you-run-200-miles

BY JOEL WARNER

 
The first time Stewart Martin tried knockoff weed he was 15 and on probation for marijuana possession. Martin and his friends would buy the stuff legally from local head shops and bodegas in Virginia, smoking brands like “Space Cadet,” “Scooby Snacks,” and “Bizarro”.
“You never knew whether the results were going to be calm and mild or whether you were going to throw up or fight people or run into traffic,” said Martin, who’s now 21. It was worse when Martin was sent to prison for a different drug charge—a place where, according to him, “It was Spice that ruled all.”
The cheap and easy-to-hide man-made drugs, commonly known as Spice or K2, are synthetic cannabinoids, a group of active chemical compounds found in the cannabis plant. In countries where they haven’t been outlawed, brands of synthetic cannabinoids* are marketed as having effects that are similar to that of natural cannabis, only we know that’s not the case. Smoking the blends led prisoners to freak out, attack guards, even one time chew on electrical wires, Martin explained.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time, the only reason folks would have anything to do with it was because they couldn’t smoke regular marijuana while they were on probation,” Martin said.
 
Full Article: 
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/legal-marijuana-vs-spice-k2-synthetic-weed

By Lisa Rough

 
Louis Armstrong: just the name evokes the image of a dark, smoky dance hall filled with classic jazzy trumpeting tunes tinged with nostalgia. Known fondly as “Satchmo” and “Pops,” Louis Armstrong is instantly recognizable for his unmistakable gravelly voice and unique trumpet-playing. He rose to prominence in the 1920’s, one of the first African-American musicians to cross the line into popularity and influence not only jazz music, but popular culture in general.
On August 4th we celebrate the birth of one of the most influential figures in jazz. But did you know that Pops loved his pot?
 
Full Article: 
https://www.leafly.com/news/lifestyle/louis-armstrong-and-cannabis

By Lena Grossman

 
Women who suffer from painful menstrual cramps sympathize with the debilitating discomfort that arrives monthly like clockwork. Motrin, Midol and Advil can take a back seat, however, because there’s apparently a new remedy for cramps: Cannabis tampons.
The company Foria, makers of marijuana-infused personal lubricant, created “relief suppositories” made out of cannabis. According to Foria’s site, these suppositories “maximize the muscle relaxing and pain relieving properties of cannabis without inducing a psychotropic ‘high.’”
 
Full Article: 
http://motto.time.com/4435078/cannabis-tampons-cramps-relief/