10. Cloud Buster Dr. Wilhelm Reich was a remarkable man. Earning a doctorate in psychiatry, he was an influential figure in the field before moving to New York to escape the Nazis. He also coined the term “Orgone”, referring to a biological energy.
Soon after this, Reich began building Orgone Accumulators, which could supposedly harness the mighty power of Orgone to improve physical or mental health. But all of this was just a preamble for the Cloudbuster. In 1953 a severe drought swept across the United States for several months, leaving the state of Maine badly affected. So, Reich decided to build a device to use Orgone to bring the rain Oncasinogames Canada. According to the Bangor Daily News, within hours of its use the area had a quarter of an inch of rain, despite no forecast. Eventually though it seemed that his claims about the wonders of Orgone caught up with him. The FDA took him to court to prevent Orgone related products and literature being distributed, as they believed it was “fraud of the first magnitude”. Reich was later convicted of contempt of court and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. His designs were also completely destroyed. Conspiracy theorists have said that the FDA wanted Reich to keep quiet about the potential of the Cloudbuster. SOURCE: Gawker, FDA, Orgone Institute 09. EV1 These days in some of the more hipster areas of the world (looking at you San Francisco) you can’t cross the street without being knocked down by an electric car or hybrids. Yet back in 1996, you’d have been hard pressed to find a single one of them. General Motors changed that with the EV1. It was the first mass-produced electric car ever and GM distributed 800 of them across California and Arizona. But it seems that General Motors wasn’t as into the idea of an electric car as first thought, despite widespread popularity from those that tested them out, including celebrities such as Tom Hanks. According to the 2006 documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” the ad campaigns were lacklustre to the point where GM started being openly critical of the EV1. In 1999 GM discontinued the line, saying there was a lack of demand. But even if that were the case, why did GM make a point of scraping almost every single EV1 out there? Some conspiracy theorists point towards pressure from the oil industry to drop it. Others think GM wanted to remove the greener competition to their small penis compensator, the Hummer. SOURCE: Electrifying Times, Smithsonian, James Woudhuysen 08. Hemp bio-fuel Hemp, a variety of the Cannabis sativa plant, is useful for the production of durable fabric, paper and plastics. But it also has great potential as a viable biofuel. The problem is that biofuel itself has been maligned by everyone, from the Royal Society to the European Commission. Biofuel has so far relied on corn, palm, or sugar, but hemp is more versatile, cleaner and more hardy than any of those crops. So what gives? Well, according to author Jack Herer, the failure to see the modern benefits of hemp stems from the 1930s. At the height of the Great Depression, hemp stripping and pulping technology made it an “available and affordable” alternative to paper. If hemp had taken off, businesses such as paper and plastic conglomerate DuPont stood to lose millions. As a result, a campaign to highlight the dangers of marijuana was ramped up - to make it socially and legally unacceptable to grow hemp. Despite this, bio fuel believers are fighting back. In the US there are a range of websites dedicated to the use of hemp as a fuel for cars and in the UK, companies such as Hemp Global Solutions have been set up with climate change and the reduction of carbon emissions in mind.
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Author Marcus ReidBlogger, teacher, career tutor, surfer, shiba-inu lover and hand letterer. Acting at the intersection of modernism and intellectual purity to craft experiences that go beyond design. My opinions belong to nobody but myself. ArchivesCategories |